Seraphic Secret: August 2006 Archives

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August 31, 2006

Fully English

A 12-year-old Jewish girl who was beaten unconscious and robbed by anti-Semitic yobs on a bus has spoken out at her disgust that no-one came to her aid.

The girl, who does not want to be identified, was stamped on several times in a racist attack lasting around five minutes while on board a 303 Metroline bus in Mill Hill, north London.

At 6.30pm on August 11, she and a friend were sitting at the back of the bus when a group of around four girls got on at the Concourse, Grahame Park estate, and asked them if they were English or Jewish.

They both replied they were "fully English".

To read the complete story, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:24 PM | Comments (8)

Amnesty Interbullah

All during the so-called Intifada, we sat back and read in
disbelief the pronouncements of scandolously named "human rights
advocates" as they ignored blatant crimes against humanity in
the form of homocide bombers that murdered hundreds of
Israeli civilians, choosing instead to focus on fictional human rights
"abuses" of Israeli soldiers trying to protect its country's
civilians.

These organizations haven't gotten better -- only
more blatant.

Left-wing gangs masquerade as "objective observers."
These organizations are, in truth, apologists for jihadist terrorism.

Further, they are enablers of world-wide Jew hatred and the genocidal plans
that Islamic/Arab groups such as Hamas, Hizbullah and the State of Iran
have gleefuly proclaimed.

The liberal media gives these radical, Anti Israel groups a great deal of
column inches, none of it critical, and as Seraphic Friend David Paulin,
a fine journalist who knows the MSM inside out pointed out to me,
this journalistic coverage gives groups such as Amnesty International
a "bully pulpit from which to set forth their radical left wing views."

The war in Lebanon has allowed Amnesty Intl. to lose whatever
credibility still clings to it. Professor Alan Dershowitz
takes them on -- and demolishes them.

God protect us from human rights advocates.

**********

"The idea that a country at war can't attack the enemy's
resupply routes (at least until it has direct evidence that
there is a particular military shipment arriving) has
nothing to do with human rights or war crimes, and a lot to
do with a pacifist attitude that seeks to make war,
regardless of the justification for it or the restraint in
prosecuting it [at least if it's a Western country doing
it], an international "crime."

"In other words, if attacking the civilian infrastructure is
a war crime, then modern warfare is entirely impermissible,
and terrorists have a free hand in attacking democracies and
hiding from retaliation among civilians. Terrorists become
de facto immune from any consequences for their atrocities.

"The more troubling aspect of Amnesty's report is their
inattention to Hizbullah. If Israel is guilty of war crimes
for targeting civilian infrastructure, imagine how much
greater is Hizbullah's moral responsibility for targeting
civilians!

"But Amnesty shows little interest in condemning
the terrorist organization that started the conflict,
indiscriminately killed both Israeli civilians (directly)
and Lebanese civilians (by using them as human shields), and
has announced its intention to kill Jews worldwide (already
having started by blowing up the Jewish Community Center in
Argentina.)

"Apparently Amnesty has no qualms about Hizbullah
six-year war of attrition against Israel following Israel's
complete withdrawal from Southern Lebanon.

"As has been widely reported, even al-Jazeera expressed
surprise at the imbalance in the Amnesty report:"

To read Alan Dershowitz's entire article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Naomi Regan

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:10 AM | Comments (2)

Gen. Yaalon Blogger Conference Call

Yesterday, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon gave an excellent update on the current situation in Israel.

The General made the following powerful points:

1. The war in Lebanon was mismanaged by the political and senior military leadership of Israel, and was perceived as a victory for Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria.

2. The committee set up by Olmert is moot, as it is clear to that the war was mishandled by Israel's top leadership. Those responsible should resign and avoid a long political process.

3. A two-state solution is irrelevant at this time. No territorial compromise will settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in this generation, and probably not in the foreseeable 50 to 100 years. In the meantime, Israel needs to maintain its security operations and keep control of the West Bank, as it currently does.

4. Disengagement was created by "a culture of spin." The Israeli public was manipulated and deceived into believing that since they had no "partner," they needed to act unilaterally. In the last decade, the Israeli public was confused, deceived and manipulated by the media and political leadership. The public needs to gain clarity to understand the challenges they are facing.

5. During the Lebanon war, Israel foiled NINE major attempted attacks from the West Bank. All were encouraged by Hizbullah.

6. Yesterday, the head of the Shabak (Israel's Internal Security Service) briefed members of Knesset and warned them that Palestinians are smuggling large amounts of weapons into Gaza, and that the current situation is bound to lead to another Lebanon. The only way to avoid this course is for Israel to intensify its Gaza operations, and take control of the Philadelphia corridor.

7. Regarding the IDF - "I commanded the IDF until 15 moths ago... it is the army that stopped Palestinian terrorists, was ready to deal with all charges regarding conventional forces like Syria and the Iranian threat. It didn't suffer from a logistical problem... more soldiers were called up for Disengagement than the Lebanon war. The war didn't even use 10% of the IDF. Again, mismanagement of political and senior military leadership... Politicians will try to blame the military but this was a case of mis-management, not capabilities."

8. On Syria - "I didn't understand the declarations telling Assad not to be afraid. He should have been scared!" Again, mismanagement...

9. On Corruption within Israel's Leadership - "I worry about this phenomenon more than the Iranian threat, and we have to deal with it. Disengagement was because of corruption... the PM (Sharon) saved himself from investigations and unfortunately this still exists and is the most important challenge to deal with. Mismanagement...and incompetence of leadership is an outcome of corruption.

10. On personal plans - "My plan is to live in Israel, to be a part of the Shalem Center, to come out with clear ideas about what should be done... to save the State... in security, strategy, education... So far I am not going to join any political party. I am going to do what is needed for the State in the future, like I did in the past, and like I am doing today.

To go to One Jerusalem and the audio link, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:31 AM | Comments (3)

The Iranian Nuclear Front

Seraphic Friend John, over at the invaluable Military blog Op For, gives us a brief but tantalizing view into Israeli preparations for the Iranian nuclear front. John is no arm-chair general. He grew up in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, and attended Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Virginia. In 1999, John matriculated to the Virginia Military Institute as a member of the Class of 2003. While at VMI, John majored in History and International Studies and served as the managing editor of VMI's student newspaper, THE CADET. He studied counter-terrorism at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel and commissioned out of VMI's Air Force ROTC program. John has been published in The Washington Post and Richmond Times-Dispatch, and was a contributor to the Encylopedia of World War I and World War II.

*****

"The Israelis are being understandably tight lipped on their plans. But their appointment of an Air Force commander indicates that airpower will be a primary actor in any Iranian theater.

"Expect 5-6 primary targets, with roughly 5 major aimpoints per targets. Iran has certain "must-hit facilities," which will be defended by Iran's newly acquired, state of the art Russian surface to air missiles and the Iranian Air Force.

"One small comfort, however. Iran demonstrated during their war with Iraq that they lacked an understanding of their own technology. Their tactics, which are based on old Soviet doctrinal "mass of force" principles, are obsolete. And the one strategy that has paid off for the Iranians -- asymmetric, low intensity conflict -- is useless against an air assault."

To read the rest of the article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:12 AM | Comments (9)

August 30, 2006

Suicide of the West

"Since Muslims whose minds are already bent by the propaganda of lies and hatred against America, Israel and the Jews pouring out of the Muslim world are further subjected by the BBC and other media outlets to daily — even hourly — diatribes about the evil of America, the evil of Israel and the fact that Britain is a patsy of evil America and evil Israel, who can possibly be surprised that untold numbers of impressionable young Muslims sign up to rid the planet of this apparent scourge?

"The BBC, whose global influence is equalled only by its culpability, powerfully incites hatred by persistently misrepresenting Israel’s self-defence as unwarranted aggression, and giving air-time to an endless procession of Islamic jihadists, propagandists, anti-Western activists and bigots with rarely even a hint of a challenge.

"The British political and security establishment, meanwhile, still fails to understand that it is not enough to thwart terrorist plots and disrupt terrorist cells but it must also combat the ideology of lies, hatred and paranoia driving certain Muslims to these terrible acts. Not only do they fail to do so, but they have even recruited jihadists into the very heart of government as advisers.

"The mantra justifying this appeasement of extremism is that the vast majority of Britain’s Muslims are “moderate.” True, the vast majority oppose terrorism. But Britain has now effectively defined as a moderate someone who does not support mass murder — and even then, only in Britain."

Melanie Phillips is a brilliant and articulate British journalist. She, perhaps more than anybody else I'm aware of, insists on exposing the self-destructive policies of appeasement and surrender that are on the ascent on the European continent. Her book, Londonistan, should be read by every person concerned about the jihadist threat.

To read the entire essay, vital and filled with crucial information, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:36 PM | Comments (6)

Plame Out

"But now we have the final word on who did disclose the name and occupation of Valerie Plame, and it turns out to be someone whose opposition to the Bush policy in Iraq has—like Robert Novak's—long been a byword in Washington. It is particularly satisfying that this admission comes from two of the journalists—Michael Isikoff and David Corn—who did the most to get the story wrong in the first place and the most to keep it going long beyond the span of its natural life."

At last, the facts of the absurd Valerie Plame/Joseph Wilson scandal. Revealed are the lies and distortions relentlessly advanced by the Democrats, and supported by the liberal media. In the end, one must conclude that these players are the painfully familiar left-of-center ideologues motivated by a hatred for President Bush and his policies so zealous that it overshadows what should be the self evident search for truth.

To read the entire article by liberal columnist Christopher Hitchens, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:51 PM | Comments (0)

NY Times: Victimizing the Innocent

Imagine you are the world's most powerful newspaper and you have invested your credibility in yet another story line that is falling apart, crumbling as inexorably as Jayson Blair's fabrications and the flawed reporting on Saddam Hussein's supposed WMD. What to do?

If you're the New York Times and the story is the alleged gang rape of a black woman by three white Duke lacrosse players—a claim shown by mounting evidence to be almost certainly fraudulent—you tone down your rhetoric while doing your utmost to prop up a case that's been almost wholly driven by prosecutorial and police misconduct.

And by bad journalism. Worse, perhaps, than the other recent Times embarrassments. The Times still seems bent on advancing its race-sex-class ideological agenda, even at the cost of ruining the lives of three young men who it has reason to know are very probably innocent. This at a time when many other true believers in the rape charge, such as feminist law professor Susan Estrich, have at last seen through the prosecution's fog of lies and distortions.

To read the rest of this devastating article by Stuart Taylor Jr. please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

Jewish Heroism

by Hillel Fendel for Debka

A collection of incidents of Israeli bravery and heroism during the recent war in Lebanon.

Offensive Defense

A unit of the Harel Division was charged with taking over the outskirts of a southern Lebanese village from which Katyusha rockets were fired at the Galilee. During the morning hours, the enemy saw that the soldiers had taken over a house, and the terrorists prepared to attack. However, the division's elite Sayeret unit deployed such that each house would be protected from two angles.

The attack began, with the Israelis coming under heavy fire from anti-tank missiles and light weapons, and the terrorists consequently approaching the house. At that moment, the surrounding Israeli forces opened fire from their two directions, killing all the terrorists who were near the house and scattering the others. Our forces suffered a number of wounded, but they were able to hold on without medical treatment until the evening hours, when they were evacuated by helicopter.

The Famous Bint Jbeil Battle

During the early morning hours of July 26, our forces approached the hostile village of Bint Jbeil, just a few kilometers from the Israeli border. They tried to circle around and enter one of the houses, which was apparently near an important Hizbullah headquarters. But the terrorists were heavily deployed in the area, and they surprised the Israelis with heavy fire from atop a high terrace.

A number of soldiers were hit in the first burst of fire, and other soldiers quickly arranged themselves to rescue their comrades - dead or alive - and hit back at the enemy. The ambushing terrorists, however, had the advantage of height, and all who entered their field of fire were vulnerable. Despite this, the soldiers bravely continued the battle, fearing that the terrorists would try to abduct bodies or live soldiers, and stormed the area at great risk to themselves.

The battle was led by commanders, many of whom were hit. In the end, the battle was completed by the lower-ranking soldiers, who killed the terrorists, rescued their friends, and reported by radio that the battle was under control and that they were treating the wounded. Despite the heavy losses - eight soldiers killed - some 25 dead terrorists were counted, and the IDF forces displayed great heroism and determination.

Another Natan Elbaz

At one point during the above battle, Maj. Ro'i Klein - 31, father of two young sons, a resident of Eli in the Shomron - found himself and several of his soldiers cornered in a dead-end alley by Hizbullah terrorists, who threw a grenade at them. Klein made a quick decision, called out "Shma Yisrael" - "Hear O Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is One" and jumped on the grenade, sacrificing his life in order to save the lives of of his soldiers. His widow said later she prays that her sons will grow up to be like their father.

Klein's act of self-sacrifice was reminiscent of that of Natan Elbaz, a Moroccan Jew who immigrated to Israel without his family in the early 1950's. While serving in the IDF in February 1954, he and a fellow soldier were disarming grenades when the safety cap of one was released. With four seconds left before the grenade would explode and cause a catastrophic explosion in the munitions-filled tent, Natan ran out with the grenade held close to his chest, jumped into a ditch - and, with his death, saved the lives of many others.

Maroun a-Ras

In capturing houses used by the terrorists, the IDF forces found much valuable weaponry, equipment and information. In particular, one home that had been quickly abandoned by Hizbullah turned up advanced observatory equipment, an editing room, maps of both IDF and Hizbullah forces, communications devices and more. Most important of all were anti-tank missiles that had hit Israeli tanks, as well as a Syrian bill of lading for equipment it had sent to Hizbullah. The last item, of course, is critical for Israel's intelligence and foreign relations efforts.

Nearby, an IDF force entered one of the nearby houses - and encountered a Hizbullah cell that had not run away. In the battle that ensued, one or two terrorists were killed, while others hid in inner rooms. A battalion officer - an immigrant from Ethiopia - led the way, and at one point he threw a grenade which bounced off a wall, set off an explosion, caused a door to slam shut - and the officer found himself , wounded, locked inside a room alone against the enemy. However, he continued fighting, and killed another terrorist. Finally, another force of the same battalion blew up an outer wall of the house, killed the other terrorists, and rescued the officer.

The Battle of Andoriya

One of the last battles before the ceasefire went into effect took place in Andoriya, a village from where many Katyushas were fired at Kiryat Shmonah, ten kilometers to the east. A large force of some 600 men, mostly of the Nachal Brigade, descended upon the village after a night-long trek while carrying heavy loads of equipment. They opened fire, but were greeted by a much heavier burst of enemy fire from several directions. One soldier was killed and 12 were wounded, but the force continued with determination, going house to house and yard to yard.

Dozens of rockets and shells were fired at them, by joint Hizbullah and Iranian forces, killing another soldier and wounding 8 more. Nevertheless, the Israelis continued to advance, led by their commanders, until they reached their target, recently abandoned by the terrorists. Hizbullah, well-entrenched in the area, had left rockets, launchers, shoulder-held missiles, and more.

Some of the soldiers ended the battle in a state of dehydration, brought on by a lack of water, difficult conditions before the battle, and the duration of the battle. None of this prevented them from advancing unyieldingly towards their target. The wounded were evacuated under heavy fire. In one case, a medic was wounded while treating a soldier, yet continued treating him until he himself fainted at the door of the helicopter that came to evacuate his patient.

Based on incidents collected by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner

Hat Tip: Seraphic Brother-in-Law, David Singer

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:31 PM | Comments (15)

The Axis of Jihadism

Because for 11 years years, the American public wasn’t informed about the threat that lead to September 11 and because the classrooms and newsrooms of the United States were not educated enough about the global threat of “Jihadism,” we feel it is incumbent on individual citizens to educate themselves about this danger and mobilize to prevent a Future Jihad looming around the world and at home. It is important that American citizens understand who the “Jihadists” are, what they want to achieve, and how they are proceeding. Without this knowledge, the American public will be unable to be part of the political debate about national security and the War on Terror. And if deprived from the support of an informed public, the US Government, now and in the future, cannot sustain difficult decisions pertaining to the defeat of the Terrorist enemy.

To read the rest of this short but very important article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:38 AM | Comments (2)

On the Border

With all that is happening in southern Lebanon, it was silly of me to wait so long to post this story.

August 2003. I was in Israel, studying at the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies, located on the University of Tel Aviv campus. After a few days of lecture, we hit the road, traveling to various IDF bases, the Gaza border, law enforcement units, and one very cool trip to shoot firearms with the Jerusalem undercover police.

Several days into the trip, we found ourselves at an IDF outpost on the Israel-Lebanon border. We mulled around the mountain base, chatting with the Israel soldiers, and snapping photographs.

I found myself in a conversation with an Israeli soldier, an American Jew who had grown up in Brooklyn, about the small Israeli unit's mission.

"We keep an eye on Hezbollah," he said. "Two eyes, actually. They're busy up here." I was curious, "what do you mean?"

To read the rest of this wonderful blog entry by Seraphic Friend John at Op For, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)

Not the Hole Truth

Ambulances for Terror

What kind of cold-blooded thugs use ambulances as killing aids or propaganda tools? Islamic terrorists, of course, have an unsurpassed history of using emergency vehicles as tools of their murderous trade. International charities and media dupes have gone along for the ride.

In March 2002, Israeli Defense Forces discovered a bomb in a Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulance near Jerusalem. The bomb, packed in a suicide belt, was hidden under a gurney carrying a Palestinian child. The driver confessed that it was not the first time ambulances had been used to ferry explosives.

Female suicide bomber Wafa Idris, who blew herself up in a January 2002 attack in Jerusalem, was a medical secretary for the PRCS. Her recruiter was an ambulance driver for the same organization, which receives support from governments worldwide and the American and International Red Cross.

To read the rest of the mighty Michelle Malkin's article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:20 AM | Comments (4)

Dear Moslem Association...

Dear Moslem Association:

As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at Michigan State University I intend to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.

This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceeded with your infantile "protests." If you do not like the values of the West — see the 1st Amendment — you are free to leave.

I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option.

Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.

Cordially,

I. S. Wichman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering

For the full story and the inevitable PC fallout, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Mordechai Schiller

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:52 AM | Comments (2)

Pan-Muslim Fiction

Consider, for example, the pan-Arab invasion of the newly proclaimed state of Israel in 1948.This, on its face, was a shining demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinian people. But the invasion had far less to do with winning independence for the indigenous population than with the desire of the Arab regimes for territorial aggrandizement. Transjordan's King Abdullah wanted to incorporate substantial parts of mandatory Palestine into the greater Syrian empire he coveted; Egypt wanted to prevent that eventuality by laying its hands on southern Palestine. Syria and Lebanon sought to annex the Galilee, while Iraq viewed the 1948 war as a stepping stone in its long-standing ambition to bring the entire Fertile Crescent under its rule. Had the Jewish state lost the war, its territory would not have fallen to the Palestinians but would have been divided among the invading Arab forces.

During the decades following the 1948 war, the Arab states manipulated the Palestinian national cause to their own ends. Neither Egypt nor Jordan allowed Palestinian self-determination in the parts of Palestine they had occupied during the 1948 war (respectively, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip). Palestinian refugees were kept in squalid camps for decades as a means of whipping Israel and stirring pan-Arab sentiments. "The Palestinians are useful to the Arab states as they are," Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser candidly responded to an inquiring Western reporter in 1956. "We will always see that they do not become too powerful." As late as 1974, Syria's Hafez al-Assad referred to Palestine as being "not only a part of the Arab homeland but a basic part of southern Syria."

If the Arab states have shown little empathy for the plight of ordinary Palestinians, the Islamic connection to the Palestinian problem is even more tenuous. It is not out of concern for a Palestinian right to national self-determination but as part of a holy war to prevent the loss of a part of the "House of Islam" that Islamists inveigh against the Jewish state of Israel. In the words of the covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, better known by its Arabic acronym Hamas: "The land of Palestine has been an Islamic trust (waqf) throughout the generations and until the day of resurrection.... When our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims."

In this respect, there is no difference between Palestine and other parts of the world conquered by the forces of Islam throughout history. To this very day, for example, Arabs and many Muslims unabashedly pine for the restoration of Spain, and look upon their expulsion from that country in 1492 as a grave historical injustice, as if they were Spain's rightful owners and not former colonial occupiers of a remote foreign land, thousands of miles from their ancestral homeland. Edward Said applauded Andalusia's colonialist legacy as "the ideal that should be moving our efforts now," while Osama bin Laden noted "the tragedy of Andalusia" after the 9/11 attacks, and the perpetrators of the March 2004 Madrid bombings, in which hundreds of people were murdered, mentioned revenge for the loss of Spain as one of the atrocity's "root causes." Within this grand scheme, the struggle between Israel and the Palestinians is but a single element, and one whose supposed centrality looms far greater in Western than in Islamic eyes.

This is not to deny that resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a pressing issue. But the regional ramifications of any settlement will be far narrower than is widely assumed. Quite to the contrary, the best hope of peace between Arabs and Israelis lies in the rejection of the spurious "link" between this dispute and other regional and global problems.

The pretense of pan-Arab or pan-Islamic solidarity has long served as a dangerous elixir in Palestinian political circles, stirring unrealistic hopes and expectations and, at key junctures, inciting widespread and horrifically destructive violence. Self-serving interventionism under these false pretenses had the effect of transforming the bilateral Palestinian-Israeli dispute into a multilateral Arab-Israeli conflict, thereby prolonging its duration, increasing its intensity, and making its resolution far more complex and tortuous. Only when the local political elites reconcile themselves to the reality of state nationalism and forswear the false notions of pan-Arab and pan-Muslim solidarity, let alone the imperialist chimera of a unified "Arab nation" or a worldwide Islamic umma, will the long overdue regional stability will be finally attained and the Arab-Israeli conflict resolved. Not the other way round.

To read Professor Efraim Karsh's entire essay, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:42 AM | Comments (0)

We, Fighters and Commanders

Friends,

The grassroots movement to remove Ehud Olmert where he can
do no more harm, is growing steadily despite the downplaying
of the rising number of protestors by a hostile, leftist
Israeli media, who still back the Kadima government.

Polls published in Yediot Acharonot say fully 63% of the public want Olmert to
resign. According to YNET, in an article published on August
29, 2006, bereaved families and a few other protesters, including
members of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel,
gathered in Jerusalem to commemorate the 23 year anniversary
of former PM Menachem Begin's resignation, following fiascos
in the first Lebanon war.

According to the bereaved families, who lost their soldier sons in the war, Olmert
refuses to meet with them, despite the heavy price that they
paid for the war in Lebanon. They asked that Olmert "act
like Begin and Golda Meir did" and take responsibility for
the war's failures. (Aviram Zino)

Protest petition by IDF reservists back from the war
By Haaretz Service 21 August 2006 (Thanks to IMRA)
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/753032.html

The following is the text of a petition signed by IDF
reservists who served in the Spearhead Brigade in Lebanon,
in protest at the handling of the war by the government and
senior military officials:

We, fighters and commanders at the Spearhead [Hod Hachanit]
Brigade, were called up to enlist under an emergency
mobilization order [Tzav 8] on July 30, 2006. Our attendance
was complete in all battalions.

As we were signing on the battle equipment and weapons, we
knew that we were signing for much more. We left behind
wives and children, girlfriends and families. We put aside
our jobs and livelihoods; we were prepared to carry out our
mission under the most difficult of conditions, in heat,
thirst or hunger.

At the back of his mind, each and every one of us knew, that
for the just cause of protecting the citizens of Israel, we
would even put our lives on the line.

But there was one thing we were not and would not be willing
to accept: We were unwilling to accept indecisiveness. The
war's aim, which was not defined clearly, was even changed
in the course of the fighting.

The indecisiveness manifested itself in inaction, in not
carrying out operational plans, and in canceling all the
missions we were given during the fighting. This led to
prolonged stays in hostile territory, without an operational
purpose and out of unprofessional considerations, without
seeking to engage in combat with the enemy.

The "cold feet" of the decision-makers were evident
everywhere. To us the indecisiveness expressed deep
disrespect for our willingness to join the ranks and fight
and made us feel as though we had been spat on, since it
contradicts the principles and values of warfare upon which
we were trained at the Israel Defense Forces.

The heavy feeling that in the echelons above us there is
nothing but under-preparation, insincerity, lack of
foresight and inability to make rational decisions, leads to
the question - were we called up for nothing?

We are now on the day after, and it seems that the
immorality and the absence of any shame are the fig-leaves
to be used in order to cover up for the blunders. The
blunders of the past six years and the under-preparation of
the army have been carried on our backs - the backs of the
fighters. In order to face the next battle prepared - and
this may happen soon - a thorough and fundamental change
must take place.

The crisis of confidence between us as fighters and the
higher echelons will not be resolved without a thorough and
worthy investigative commission under the auspices of the
state. When the commission completes its task, conclusions
must be drawn both on the level of strategic planning and
national security, and on the personal level of the parties
involved.

We paid a heavy price in order to fight and come out of the
battle victorious, and we feel this has been denied of us.
We will all attend calls to enlist in the future for any
mission we will be required to complete, but we would like
to know that these missions will be part of a clear
objective and will be carried out by striving to engage in
combat.

As soldiers and citizens we expect a response at your
earliest convenience,

We the undersigned

Fighters and officers of the Spearhead Brigade

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Naomi Regan

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:27 AM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2006

Medic in Battle

This letter from Noam, an Israeli Medic with a reserve paratroop unit, is being published exclusively by Seraphic Secret. Noam is originally from California. Karen and I are friends with his family. We heard of this vivid, powerful letter, asked to see it, and then requested permission to make it available to our readership. All operational details have already been published by the IDF. We thank Noam and his family for their cooperation.

**********

Dear Family and Friends,

Most of you know that for the past three and a half weeks I have been called to active duty in my military unit as part of a large call up of reservists. I thought that I would share some of my experiences and thoughts from these weeks with you.

I thought that I escaped unscathed, but last night I found out that a friend was killed late Friday night in a commando operation deep in northern Lebanon. Emanuel [Morano], a high-ranking officer in his unit was what many of us strive to be - a humble, quiet, able, strong willed leader husband and father. He is an example of the Israeli “Sabra” that we all wanted to emulate.

There are many differences that I see between fighting in Israel as opposed to that of the American’s in Iraq. The most important, one that all of you who have been to the country can understand, is that we have an all too vivid understanding that directly behind our backs are the homes of our families. We are defending our land. Ours both geo-politically as well as religiously.

Lying in a foxhole covered by bushes 12 kilometers in, we could hear the air-raid sirens echoing from Zarit (a small settlement situated on the border) as the high-pitched cry crept north through the valleys. We heard the constant pounding of our settlements and cities with Katusha rockets during the days (fortunately the nighttime capabilities of Hezzbola are still limited).

I was called up Friday afternoon 28th of July, about a week after the initial fighting began. The first thoughts were that the regular army would be able to handle the problem, however the Hezzbola had been preparing for six years since the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. (No question that they were waiting for this to happen, finding a trigger, when they were ready.) The roads were heavily mined, deep bunkers dug into valley walls, under houses in the towns, stores of munitions spread throughout all the towns of southern and central Lebanon.

The first Shabbat was a call only of the officers. We began planning, reviewing maps, intelligence information, new aerial photos of the villages we were assigned to take. Ours is an airborne unit used for infiltration behind enemy lines. We were to land to the north of the fighting and work our way south. This meant that we had to carry everything on our backs – ammunition, food, and water for more than 48 hours.

On Sunday the soldiers were called up and storage buildings were opened up for the first time in a number of years. We found that the army, who had been working on the premise that there would not be a war in the next few years had not filled stores, updated gear, and in fact, had leant a large part of our gear to some of the units who were already fighting. Gear we could clearly not get back in time.

Each of us, in his own realm, began applying pressure, making calls, trying to find sources for the gear. The medical gear I was to use was all past expiration. Calls to the brigade and up--finally we at least got the medications, IV bags, chest drains we needed. Still missing many backpacks to carry the gear (I remind you this was all going in on our backs…no personnel carriers).

People in the unit started making calls out to get money donated to buy bags, as we understood that we could not rely on the army to get them to us in time, and we had 24 hours before we were supposed to go into battle. Within less than 12 hours, over $25,000 was donated to the unit and much of the gear that we needed was bought. (I did not have time to deal with this side of things, so none of you received any calls. I was busy doing refresher courses to the medics, making evacuation plans, and taking meds that I couldn’t get from the army—out of my hospital). The generous help of everyone outside made it possible for us to be ready on time.

Seeing that in a time of national need everyone helped in whatever way they could has brought back a type of pride that has been hiding away under the cloak of “the government must take care of us.” This was true for the soldiers, but also for the thousands of families who were taken in by complete strangers in central Israel to allow them to escape the danger zone in the North where rockets were dropping daily.

On Monday night we were ready on buses to leave towards the helicopter pads, but we got word that the cabinet had canceled our operation and given us a new one. We had 48 hours to learn our new task – new maps, photos, gear.

This time we got on the buses heading north.

The two hour drive for me was one of the most intense times I have had. A mental preparation for battle. I had been on ambushes in Lebanon, raids on homes in during the Intifada, but this was different. The lack of control over the situation in battle is orders of magnitude greater.

I entered the bus rather frightened, I got off the bus two hours later in solitude prepared for what I needed to do, praying that I would be given the ability to do so properly if put in such a situation, knowing that each soldier in the unit trusted that I had this ability.

The helicopters landed and as we marched towards them, they flew off—the cabinet had once again canceled our mission.

The next night we were sent up in buses to the border - - we were to complete the same mission, only without the helicopters for my unit. We would be hiking in by foot over two nights to prepare the area. New plans, new maps…little sleep.

We crossed the border at the same place where the two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and the tank destroyed a week and a half earlier, its burned skeleton still sitting at the side of the road. Because of the mining, we could not walk on roads – all movement was through the terraces and boulders. Each of us was carrying 17-35kg (37-80 lbs) on his back. And I remind you that these are reservists, our oldest 49 years old, not twenty year old top shaped men in their prime.

After a few hours we reached the village of Kawze which had been captured by another brigade the previous night (I later found out that David, Shlomit’s husband was in the same town the night before). We settled into a few houses at sun-up in order to remain hidden.

During the day the village was mortared. Our sister unit in the village across the valley was shot at with an antitank missile which hit a house they were in. 9 soldiers were killed, another 30 injured. They were too far for me to be of any help. We watched as the air force and artillery bombed the surrounding areas in order to allow them time to evacuate the wounded. Their hit halted our advance for another day, as we needed them to take the village they were in so that we wouldn’t have a bare flank on our next march.

That night we spent in a different house that we hoped was less open to anti-tank missiles. Here I got into an argument with some of the soldiers who took a bag of tobacco from the house. I explained that WE do not take spoils of war, and that the moral character of our army, Tzahal, is what has kept us strong and allowed us to win wars even in the times that all odds were in favor of our demise. In the end they understood. Nothing was taken.

The villages in the south were heavily bombed. The destruction is clear. At first I couldn’t understand the necessity of such damage. Then searching began both in Kowze and in the surrounding villages. In the homes – rifles, missile stores, command centers – all in the homes of “innocent” villagers. These were rooms set aside specifically for these needs – not something set up in the past few weeks. Not something people did not know about. I am sure that most just want to live in peace quietly; the minority ruining it for the others.

On Friday night (a week and a half ago) the religious soldiers davened in the house we were in, we put on our gear and continued our march. This was the tough one. We began at 9:30 hiking across the hills and around the village of Beit-Lief, and then down into a deep valley and up the steep walls on the other side of Shakif A’tzalahani (the ascent was of more than 800 vertical feet). At this point the weight on my back became clear and I could feel the straps begin to dig into my shoulders and waist.

As we went down the valley we could hear helicopters bringing in more of our unit. We saw shoulder missiles being fired at the choppers and missing. We were not detected as we went up the mountain and made it safely to our target point.

Each of us quickly hollowed out a bush, set our camouflage nets and settled in for the day, my Shabbat prayers were said lying in my position – we couldn’t stand during the day. We got word that the chopper carrying our water and food did not take off and we would have to make do.

Water was rationed, as was food.

One of my soldiers had either sprained or broken his ankle on the way up – I could not tell which, and I could not take off his shoe because I needed him to be able to walk. He got a good dose of morphine, we cut off the toe area of his shoes so that I could see if blood flow was OK, and the ankle was splinted using sticks.

That night more units were to be flown in, the soldier was to be evacuated, and water…water was to be brought in so that we could begin the job we had been sent to do…clear the mountain and villages in the area from Katusha launchers.

As the sun dipped into the bush and one could no longer make out clear shapes, the area was scanned by unmanned drones over our heads (like a 24hr/day mosquito flying over your head zzzz zzzz zzzz) we pulled out of our bushes and started towards the area where the helicopters were supposed to land, the soldier with the bad ankle on a stretcher. Ten choppers landed with soldiers coming out of each.

As #11 was about 200 yards off the ground a missile was shot from the village below. In five seconds the chopper had been hit. Like a giant bird hit by a pellet, the pilots tried to straighten her out but then she slowly leaned over to the right and crashed to the ground in a huge fireball that brought daylight for a few minutes.

The following chopper (the one carrying our water) flew over and scanned the wreckage as he was trained, radioed that there is no sense in sending in the doctors and then turned and flew away as quickly as possible. We all lay in the rocks in shock.

The village was down the mountain; we could not even go after the shooters. The helicopter with the medical crew for my soldier belongs to the air force. In these situations, as our soldier was only lightly wounded – they flew to the wreckage where they pulled 4 of 5 bodies of the crew. We went back to our bushes.

We had about a cup and a half of water left per soldier and no water holes in the area (we had carried in chlorination tablets…but to use these you needed a water source) To capture a few houses in the next village – Ya’atar (which was one of the hornets’ nests of southern Lebanon) was an option that we hoped we wouldn’t have to take with dehydrated soldiers.

The air force sent in a plane to airdrop supplies. We had two hours to find the package before daylight. Half the unit went to quickly find the food and water…but could not find it. They returned empty handed. The pilot had missed his mark and the supplies landed in the valley below.

Now it was over 90 degrees and each soldier had about two cups of water for 24 hrs (good thing we practice our fasts). So held down by logistical problems, we stayed hidden in our bushes, not completely useless – our anti-tank unit destroyed a 24cannon Katusha Launcher that we sighted as well as two munition trucks and we guided the air force to a number of additional targets.

After sun down we had two hours to get the wounded soldier to a chopper landing. I understood that we would not make it in time if he was on a stretcher (the territory is boulders, terraces, and uneven fields). I loaded him up on morphine and explained to him that he had to march with us by foot. Aharon marched bravely through his pain. In addition we were evacuating a dehydrated soldier that did not respond fast enough to several units of IV fluids that I gave him (weight off my back).

We made it to the helicopter just in time and loaded the wounded along with the 4 bodies of the pilots found the previous night. The chopper unloaded a special forces unit who were brought in to look for the fifth body in the wreckage and to destroy the leftovers.

We were given 12 bottles of water by the pilots – this was sucked down by the soldiers faster than I had ever seen water drunk. We headed back to the rest of the unit just as we heard another plane over our heads. This time the airdrop was on target and we got our food and water. After everyone had drunk and fed we prepared to head off for our mission but were called back as word came in over secure radio that a ceasefire was to go into effect at 7:00 am the next morning and the cabinet did not want any major operations done that far in from the border (most units were working between 0-2 miles in from the border we were in 6-8 miles).

So after another night in the bushes with katusha’s flying in one direction, artillery, air force and mortars in the other direction we each slept our allotted time, and awoke to the strange sound of silence at 7:00 when the firing ended. In the bush above my head for the first time in two weeks I heard a bird chirping.

We were kept in the area until nightfall, and then marched the whole way back in a 9hr. march to the border. Crossing the border with many smiles, I just walked over to a pile of water bottles and drank about two liters of water, sat on the bus and fell asleep.

And so, for me, it would seem that I walked by this war. I crossed the border, was almost shot at a few times by friendly fire, happily had only a few minor injuries in my unit (shrapnel, sprains, dehydration), quite an experience, but I can’t say that we did any real fighting and that is fine with me. I just hope that the fighting that was done, the lives that were lost will, in the short or long run be for the greater security of our people.

This came out a bit long, and I am not sure if the narrative captures the feelings, the hyperalertness mixed with constant fatigue. The sounds of the night, the comradery, the whistle of bombs as they fall or the groundshaking awe-inspiring power of the strike of air force bombs a few hundred yards away.

I don’t know if you can understand the frustration of being 2 km away from Katusha’s being fired into Israel, knowing that your unit has the capability, but being unable to go and do anything about it because of logistical problems. I guess these are all part of “war” including the confusion and all.

This war like the ones before it has its heroes and its tragedies. The settlement in which Yonatan lives lost four young men in the battles.

Many questions have been raised as to the military preparedness of Israel. Our logistical problems were similar to those of other units from the onset and the need to find donors to purchase goods to the supply problems. Part stems from poor preparation, some from the fact that the last war was fought in 1980 and today’s generals were not yet in command positions back then…these will all be investigated, as will we investigate ourselves in our “microunit” environment to see what we can do better next time around.

I hope that none of us are in the position to need to test our abilities again, though now, after having done it once, I know that I can trust the men who went in with me – their ability, their motivation and their comradery.

May the end of this year, which is quickly coming to a close, and the new one which follows be productive and peaceful to all of the House of Israel.

Shalom,

Noam

Noam is a graduate of Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles , made aliyah when he was 17, and joined the Israeli Defense Force/paratroopers for his army service. He attended medical school at the Hebrew University. He is a physician at Schneider Hospital in Petach Tikvah.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:24 AM | Comments (2)

Sounding Retreat

American voters are badly served by leaders who suggest that national security can be achieved on the cheap, especially in time of war. The reality is that abandoning Iraq will not save either lives or dollars in the long-run. Such a course will intensify the danger posed to our country and way of life from Islamofascists, their sponsors and friends.

The public must be told the truth. This war is not just about Iraq and will not be over if we retreat from the conflict there. It will likely get worse before it gets better. It will require greater sacrifice – indeed, a national mobilization – if we are to prevail. Those who suggest that the alternative is less painful and costly are at best disingenuous.

In fact, history tells us that confronting foes like ours later, rather than now, under circumstances of their choosing rather than ours, will entail a far higher price in lives and national treasure. Informed voters, given the choice, will reject the lemming-leap of defeatism and its inevitable high toll.

To read the rest of Frank Gaffney, Jr.'s article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:42 AM | Comments (7)

The Trouble with Democrats

Recently, the hotter Democratic activists have fastened onto a new issue, which they hope may have more traction with the average American voter. It is a demand that America pull out of Iraq. Sometimes it is presented delicately, as a proposal to "redeploy" our forces there to some other, unstated destination by a certain date. Sometimes it is put forward more baldly, as the only way to force the Iraqis to defend themselves.

Lots of Americans have their doubts about our presence in Iraq. But I doubt whether becoming known as "the bug-out party" is what the Democrats really need to add to their current reputation with the American people.

To read William Rusher's entire article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)

Who & Why We Are Fighting

In other words, every country that calls itself "Islamic" is morally inferior to just about every country in North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, almost every Asian country and many African countries.

No Muslim country treats non-Muslims and their religions anywhere nearly as decently as any Western non-Muslim country (including Israel) treats Muslims. That is why tens of millions of Muslims immigrate to non-Muslim societies and virtually no non-Muslim immigrates to any Muslim society. In every Muslim country, non-Muslims are either systematically persecuted at worst or treated as inferiors at best.

Individual examples (in just the last five months):

To read the rest of Dennis Prager's article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)

Terrorist Theater Tricks

By - Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 28, 2006

What are we seeing when we watch events from the Middle East
on our television screens? Is it news or is it terrorist
theater?

Let us observe two media events which occurred on Sunday in
Gaza. Sunday afternoon released hostages and Fox News
journalists Steven Centanni and Olaf Wiig spoke before the
cameras. The fact of their release and their statements were
reported by more than 1,000 news organizations throughout
the world.

At the press conference, Centanni and Wiig, who were forced
by their Palestinian captors to convert to Islam, praised
the Palestinians. Centanni said, "I just hope this never
scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover
this story because the Palestinian people are a very
beautiful, kind-hearted and caring people that the world
need[s] to know more about." Wiig similarly praised the
Palestinians.

While their remarks were covered extensively, no one seemed
to think that the fact that their first post-release
statements were made at a Palestinian Authority sponsored
media extravaganza in Gaza was significant. No one noted
that the men were flanked by Palestinian "security forces,"
and stood next to Hamas terrorist leader and Palestinian
Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. No mention was made
of the fact that the two were initially kidnapped by just
such PA "security officials," or that Haniyeh is one of the
leaders of one of the most fanatical jihadist organizations
in the world, an organization that the majority of the
"beautiful, kind-hearted and caring" Palestinians voted into
office last January.

That is, no mention was made of the fact that until the two
men left Gaza, they remained unfree. No one asked whether
they had been given the option of not giving a press
conference in Gaza. And now that they have spoken, there can
be little doubt that a second press conference by the two
men, in Israel or the US where no one will force them to
convert to Judaism or Christianity or threaten to kill them,
will draw far less media interest. After their press
conference, the two men became yesterday's news.

Conveniently, the same day the PA released the men who its
own forces had kidnapped, Reuters reported that the IDF had
shot a missile at its press vehicle and wounded two
cameramen - one from Reuters and one from Iranian World TV
network - while they were en route to a battle taking place
between IDF forces and Palestinian terrorists. Reuters,
which is demanding an independent investigation into the
attack, is portraying its cameraman Fadel Shada as an
embattled hero who would do anything to bring the truth to
the world.

Yet it is unclear why anyone should believe either Shana or
Reuters. Shana told Reuters that as he was driving to the
battle scene, "I suddenly saw fire and the doors of the jeep
flew open." He claims to have been wounded by shrapnel in
his hand and leg. These are minor injuries for someone whose
vehicle was just hit by a missile.

But then, the photographs taken of his vehicle after the
purported missile attack give no indication that the car was
hit by anything. There is a gash on the roof. The hood is
bent out of shape. But nothing seems to have been burned.
Cars hit by missiles do not look like they have just been in
a nasty accident. Cars hit by missiles are destroyed. Yet
the glass on the windshield and the windows of Shana's
vehicle isn't even shattered. In the photographs taken of
Shana on the way to the hospital in Gaza, he lies on a
stretcher, eyes closed, arm extended in full pieta mode. He
is not visibly bleeding although there are some blood stains
on his shirt, but then his undershirt is completely white.

I did not see these pictures in the media coverage of the
purported IDF attack on the Reuters and Iranian cameramen. I
saw them on Powerlineblog Web site. I did not see any
questions raised from either the Israeli or the
international media on the veracity of Shana's tale, which
of course, provides a nice balance to the Centanni-Wiig
hostage story.

As is the case with the Palestinian war against Israel, one
of the most notable aspects of Hizbullah's latest campaign
against Israel has been the active collaboration of news
organizations and international NGO's in Hizbullah's
information war against Israel. Like their rogue state
sponsors, subversive sub-national groups like Hizbullah,
Fatah and Hamas, see information operations as an integral
part of their war for the annihilation of Israel and defeat
of the West. And their information operations are more
advanced than any the world has seen. As becomes more
evident with each passing day, they have successfully
corrupted both the world media and the community of NGOs
that purportedly operate in a neutral manner in war zones.

It is not a coincidence that I saw the pictures of the
Reuters' vehicle on Powerline and not in the media coverage
of the purported attack. Both the global media and the
international NGO community abjectly refuse to investigate
themselves. As democratic governments and their militaries
have proven incapable of dealing with the phenomenon (in
part because they seek to curry favor with the media and the
international NGO community), the blogosphere has taken upon
itself the role of media watchdog.

Bloggers have become a critical component of the free
world's defense in the current war. During the Hizbullah
campaign in Lebanon, bloggers scrutinized coverage of the
war in a way that has never been done before. Their work has
exposed the dirty secret of the Middle East that the media
has hidden for so many years: The global media and the
international NGO community, which profess to be neutral
observers, are in fact colluding with terrorist
organizations.

The blogosphere, and particularly Little Green Footballs,
Powerline, Zombietime, Michelle Malkin, and EU Referendum,
have relentlessly exposed the systematic staging of news
events, fabrication of attacks against relief workers, and
doctoring of photographic images by Hizbullah with the
active assistance of international organizations and the
global media.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, with its
internationally mandated status as a protected organization,
is particularly culpable. The blogoshere - and specifically
EU Referendum and Zombietime Web sites - have shown that Red
Cross employees in Tyre and Kana fabricated from whole cloth
a tale of an Israeli airstrike against Red Cross ambulances
in Kana on July 23. In an exhaustively documented report,
"How the Media Legitimized an Anti-Israel Hoax and Changed
the Course of a War," Zombietime showed how Red Cross
employees took an old, rusty ambulance and alleged that the
IAF had attacked it with a missile that blew a hole straight
through the middle of the red cross on the ambulance's roof.

The Red Cross allegation was reported as fact by such
"credible" news organizations as Associated Press, Time
magazine, the BBC, ITV, The New York Times, The Guardian,
The Age, MSNBC, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both published
accounts of the attack as evidence of Israeli "war crimes"
in Lebanon.

Zombietime clearly proved from simple scrutiny of the
photographs taken of the ambulance, that the hole in the
cross was not the result of a missile attack but the work of
the ambulance manufacturer. It was the hole for an air vent.
The pock marks on the roof were the result of age and decay.
There had been no fire in the ambulance. There was no
attack. It was a complete fabrication, concocted by Red
Cross employees who enjoy their protected status because
their organization has pledged its neutral status in this
and all wars.

One weel later, as EU Referendum reports in a similarly
detailed investigation of the much condemned IAF bombing of
Kana on July 30, (which actually happened a mile north of
Kana at Khuraybah village), Red Cross relief workers
actively participated in the staging of a perverted media
extravaganza where the bodies of dead children were paraded
about before the waiting camera crews for hours and hours.

Rather than demand that the ICRC account for the clear
breach of its binding commitment to neutrality, and rather
than attack the Lebanese Red Cross for its active
collaboration with Hizbullah, the international media has
attacked the bloggers. They are brushed off as "Israel
supporters," and "right-wing extremists." The aim of these
brush-offs is to convince "right thinking" citizens that
they oughtn't have anything to do with these champions of
truth and human decency.

As each day passes, the governments, formal and informal
legal apparatuses, and media of free societies show
themselves to be less and less capable of contending with
the information operations conducted against their societies
by subversive forces seeking their destruction. As each day
passes it becomes clear that the responsibility of
protecting our nations and societies from internal
disintegration has passed to the hands of individuals, often
working alone, who refuse to accept the degradation of their
societies and so fight with the innovative tools of liberty
to protect our way of life. The vigilance of just a handful
of bloggers brought us the knowledge of the corruption of
our media and the network of global NGOs that we have come
to rely on to tell us the "objective" truth.

It is up to all citizens of the free world, who value our
freedom to recognize this corruption, applaud the bloggers
and join them in refusing to allow these corrupt
institutions to cloud our commitment to freedom.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:16 AM | Comments (5)

August 28, 2006

To Stand Alone

"Menachem Begin, by this account, listened quietly for two and a half hours, arms folded, watching every move. Finally, he put his hand up — an almost comic move in the circumstance. Slowly, the table’s attention slid toward him and there was silence. “Excuse me,” he asked, “but are there any Jews in this room?” There several beats of surprised, even confused, silence. The discomfort level was rising. Finally, he added, “Because if so, they should realize that if we wait for allies, we would best spend our time digging a mass grave for that will be the only serious task left.”

To read the rest of screenwriter Lionel Chetwynd's fine article, click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Enetrtainment Lawyer, Bob G.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)

Necessary Accounting

By Caroline Glick

Today two groups of protesters are gathered outside the
Prime Minister's Office. The Movement for Quality Government
is demanding the establishment of an official commission of
inquiry, headed by a Supreme Court justice to investigate
the handling of the war in Lebanon. Down the road, IDF
reservists are demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
Defense Minister Amir Peretz and IDF Chief of General Staff
Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz resign.

The critical question arising from the separate protests is
whether or not the country's current political and military
leadership are capable of drawing the proper lessons from
the war. If Israel's national and military leaders are
incapable of drawing the appropriate lessons, then there is
an urgent need to embrace the reservists' demand that both
the political and military leaders of the country resign.

Currently, the Israeli public is referring to the latest war
as the Second Lebanon War. Yet this is untrue. The latest
war was fought on two fronts - Lebanon and Gaza. It was
precipitated by Palestinian aggression against Israel from
Gaza. By referring to the war as the Lebanon War, the
regional nature of the war is ignored. The name does more to
confuse than to clarify what just befell us.

In many respects, the ability of the Olmert government and
the IDF to learn from their experience can be assessed by
how they are reacting to events in the Palestinian Authority
as they have unfolded against the backdrop of Hizbullah's
perceived victory in Lebanon. Specifically, their refusal to
acknowledge the role Fatah and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas are
playing in the current situation is a cause for alarm. This
refusal manifests itself in Israel's reaction to both the
abduction of Fox News journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf
Wiig a week and a half ago in Gaza and the continued
captivity of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

Centanni and Wiig were kidnapped by PA security forces
associated with Fatah. When their demand that Abbas pay them
money in exchange for Centanni and Wiig was refused, the
kidnappers sold their hostages to a Fatah terror cell that
currently holds them. That is, Abbas's security forces and
his Fatah movement rather than Hamas are responsible for the
two men's fate.

Moreover, knowledgeable Palestinian sources state with
certainty that Shalit has been held since his abduction in
June in Khan Yunis by Fatah and Hamas terrorists. Khan Yunis
is controlled by forces loyal to Fatah strongman Muhammad
Dahlan.

If Abbas were interested in seeing Shalit released, his
forces would be able to free Shalit at any time. But Abbas
is not interested in releasing Shalit. Rather, he is
demanding that the Hamas government order Shalit be
transferred to his control to enable him to negotiate his
exchange for hundreds of terrorists imprisoned in Israel.
Abbas's dispute with Hamas is over who will get the credit
for springing Palestinian terrorists from prison. Hamas is
unwilling to give up the glory, and so is Abbas. So Shalit
remains in captivity.

Abbas's handling of both hostage situations leads to one
conclusion: He is part of the problem. If the government
wanted to bring about Shalit's release, it would be placing
all the responsibility for his capture and captivity on
Abbas. It would have isolated Abbas in the infamous Mukata
in Ramallah, just as it isolated Yasser Arafat there during
Operation Defensive Shield in 2002. But the government is
doing none of these things.

The government is not acting against Abbas and Fatah because
it is ideologically unable to define Abbas or Fatah or the
Palestinian Authority as Israel's enemy. Olmert and his
colleagues require the fiction of Abbas as a moderate leader
and the fiction of Fatah as a moderate counterweight to
Hamas to justify their planned policy of retreating from
Judea and Samaria and their current policy of continuing
construction of the security fence and removing scattered
outpost communities. Both these policies involve Israeli
relinquishment of control over the territorial expanse of
Judea and Samaria.

The stretegic logic that stands at the core of the
government's policies is that territory is a liability, that
static defenses like the security fence, augmented by the
air force and commando units, will be able to defend
Israel's cities and towns from attack.

Unfortunately, the IDF shares this strategic logic. This
fact was made clear Monday by Division Commander Brig.-Gen.
Guy Tzur in remarks before reserve officers about the
results of the war in Lebanon. According to officers who
participated in the closed meeting, Tzur told them that
Israel was better off for not achieving its strategic
objective of dismantling Hizbullah in Lebanon.

We won the war in 1967 and since then we have been paying
the price of that victory, he said. We won the war in 1982
and for 18 years we were forced to remain in the Lebanese
quagmire, he continued. That is - according to Tzur, who
claimed that he was repeating a statement made by OC Central
Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh - it is not in Israel's
interest to conquer and control territory used by its
enemies to attack it. Victory, which requires us to hold
territory, is by this reasoning, not in Israel's interest.

This was the strategic logic that directed both the
government and the IDF in the war in Lebanon. This was the
logic that brought the General Staff, Olmert and Peretz to
believe that it was possible to win the war with air power
and special forces alone. This was the logic that informed
the IDF's decision to concentrate the belated ground
offensive in the condensed territory of the villages along
the northern border and not order the forces to take over
the territorial expanses around the villages, which
controlled the villages, while quickly advancing to the
Litani River. This was the logic that caused the IDF to
fight against Hizbullah as if it were fighting terror cells
in Jenin.

The IDF reservists who have set up camp across from the
Prime Minister's Office and demand the resignation of
Israel's top political and military leaders are united in
their deep sense of frustration. They share the view that
their fighting methods in Lebanon were unsuited to the enemy
they faced in battle. They are correct.

The IDF's campaign did not permanently diminish Hizbullah's
abilities as a fighting force. It did not stop the missile
attacks on northern Israel. It did not bring IDF hostages
Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev home. The campaign failed to
achieve its stated objectives because it lacked a guiding
strategy regarding the control of territory. Olmert, Peretz
and Halutz based the war effort on a view that Israel must
not control territory. And so they adopted the notion that
it would be possible to destroy Hizbullah from the air. When
that concept was proven false, it was replaced with the idea
that special forces augmented by small numbers of regular
combat forces could clean out the villages along the border
and so deal a heavy blow to Hizbullah. When that concept
proved false in Maroun Aras and Bint Jbail, it was replaced
first by paralysis and then by an intellectual breakdown.

This breakdown led to the belated decision to send in three
divisions. This was the right decision, but rather than let
the troops advance as a massed force and so overrun
Hizbullah positions and take control over the heights
surrounding the villages before being sent in to clear out
the bunkers, the massive forces were deployed as if they
were a small force.

The men were concentrated in condensed areas of the villages
and not fanned out along the surrounding heights. Their high
concentration turned them into easy targets for Hizbullah's
anti-tank missiles. The way the troops were deployed suited
all of Hizbullah's comparative advantages while bringing
neither the IDF's advantage of mass nor its advantage of
firepower to bear.

As became clear after the first several days of engagements,
Hizbullah fought neither an offensive nor a defensive war.
It did not attack IDF formations nor did it defend its
battle stations. Its doctrine is simple: bleed Israeli
civilians and IDF units to break Israel's will and humiliate
it.

Its success in achieving its aim was manifested by the
government's decision to sue for a cease-fire. UN Security
Council Resolution 1701 not only cancelled out any tactical
advantage the IDF had managed to gain, it paved the way for
Hizbullah's rearmament and for the deployment of the UNIFIL
force that will act not to dismantle Hizbullah but to
prevent Israel from taking any further action to win the war
decisively. Yet, still clinging to the view that territory
is bad, neither the General Staff, which insists that Israel
won, nor the government, which is begging anti-Israel
governments in Europe to send their forces to Lebanon, is
capable of understanding what just happened.

This brings us back to the demand for the formation of a
judicial commission of inquiry. There is no doubt that it is
necessary to conduct a serious review of the war in Lebanon
and Gaza. But there is no way that such a review can be
accomplished by a Supreme Court justice. There are two
principal reasons for this. First, an official commission is
a legal body and its proceedings are legal proceedings. But
the issue of why Israel failed to achieve any of its
objectives in the war is not an issue of law. It is an issue
of policy and military operations. Judges are no more
qualified than the average citizen to investigate these
issues.

Secondly, and more importantly, for the past decade and a
half, the Supreme Court has been leading the offensive
against the notion that Israel should either identify its
enemies or defeat them. For the past 15 years the Supreme
Court has been constricting the tactical freedom of the IDF
in Lebanon, Judea, Samaria and Gaza. It has inserted itself
into military planning and political initiatives in a manner
that has undermined the IDF's ability to adequately protect
Israeli citizens and territory from assault by outlawing
tactics that contradict the liberal justices' multicultural
and post-nationalist sensibilities. Indeed, it is just these
sensibilities, and the fear of Supreme Court intervention,
that has tied the hands of successive governments and
General Staffs in attempting to confront the growing
unconventional threats to Israel emanating from Hizbullah
and Palestinian terrorist groups.

From all this it becomes self-evident that both the demand
for Olmert, Peretz and Halutz to resign and the demand that
an accounting be made of the mistakes that led Israel to its
strategic defeat in Lebanon are necessary. It is also clear
that the only way that the proper lessons can be drawn is
for the current military and political leadership to be
replaced by alternative leaders capable of understanding the
nature of the threats that surround us. For both objectives
to be achieved, the only commission of inquiry that should
be established is the inquiry of the citizens of the state
that takes place in general elections.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:21 AM | Comments (6)

August 25, 2006

Scenes from a Wedding

"Is that your bag Ma'am?"
"Yes, yes it is."
The Character Actor plunges through the crush of bodies, grabs Karen's suitcase, and like the characters he always plays, yanks the heavy bag up from the airport luggage carousel, and sets it down right at Karen's feet as if it weighs no more than a feather.
"Anymore I can help you with?"
"No, thank you so much."

The Character Actor smiles and even gives Karen a little bow of the head. I think he did the same little gesture in Goodfellas right before he, actually his character, blew another character to kingdom come. That's the thing about actors: most of them have no lives of their own, they are empty vessels. Even when they are not working, they pull scenes to help them get through real life.

Karen and I exit the terminal.
"That man who just helped you, great character actor."
Karen looks over her shoulder.
"Really, how do you recognize him?"
I shrug. Mr. Modesty. It's what I do.
Karen says, "I never would recognize him, ever."

But I know what Karen is thinking, and it goes something like this: "How is it that Robert can recognize some obscure Hollywood character actor, can remember scenes and full patches of dialogue from films he has not seen in over 20 years, and yet when it comes to relatives, he has no idea who is who in the family?"

It is a mystery.

Karen and I have just returned from a wedding back east. There, as usual, I am confronted with cousins, uncles and aunts, great uncles and great aunts and countless children of first, second and third cousins. And not only do I have no idea how most of these people are related to me--I'm lucky if I can even remember their names.

It's nothing personal. It's just a, er, kinship disability.

Scene One:
Someone comes over to me at the wedding and tells me how much they like Seraphic Secret, how much they enjoyed The Hebrew Kid and the Apache Maiden, and we fall into easy conversation.

Hey, listen, I'm a writer, compliment my work and I turn into a slobbering puppy dog.

Being polite I say: "By the way, what's your name?"
He looks at me, wide-eyed.
"I'm Yossie, Karen's first cousin, Uncle Moshe's son from St. Louis."

Ouch.

Now, I'm pretty sure Yossie hates me. He's thinking I'm some Hollywood snob.

So Karen takes me aside and gives me a complete rundown on that branch of the family, who's married to whom, who the children are. I'm really afraid she's going to start outlining the European roots of the family and then there's going to be a test. She's like Margaret Mead giving a power-point presentation. She's using her most patient kindergarten teacher tone of voice with me, but it's hopeless. I'll never remember all these relatives.

My mind wanders. I'm thinking about the wedding scene in The Godfather. What a great film. What a great way to start a movie. I ponder what little dramas are being played out here, at this Orthodox Jewish wedding.

My imagination kicks into overdrive: That tall woman in the nose-bleed heels over there is sneaking out for a secret tryst with --

"Robert?"
"Yes?"
"You're not taking any of this in are you?"
"Not really."

Scene Two:
Someone, a relative, no idea how he's related or what his name is, comes over to me and tells me that he really likes my blog, and wants to know how I know so much about war and military thought.

"I have seen every great Hollywood war movie ever made, plus I've seen Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai countless times."
"You're kidding?"
"I read a lot too," I add weakly. "The complete works of Sir Charles Oman."
"But... but your blog, Seraphic Secret, you seem so... knowledgable."
"Sorry."

I should have told him that I'm really an instructor at West Point specializing in Fourth Generation Warfare, screenwriting is just a part-time gig.

Disappointed, he walks away shaking his head. Another relative, another enemy. Gosh, if I keep this up, the family may well expel me.

Scene Three:
Another relative approaches, wants to know what I think about the war and Hizbullah and Olmert.
I'm drained. I'm finished. I throw up the white flag.
"I'm just a dumb Hollywood screenwriter, what difference does it make what I think?"
"You did win an Emmy, right?"
"Um, yeah, but that was for a screenplay. Listen, I just write a blog. I'm just an ordinary guy like you."
He smiles. Raises his glass in a L'chaim.

Naturally, I have no idea who he is. But at least he doesn't hate me.

Karen and I wish you all a lovely and meaningful Shabbos.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:32 AM | Comments (23)

Failure to Communicate

Unless there is some element of fear, or at least the suggestion of consequences to come for recalcitrance, why should an Iraqi cease his easy support of Hezbollah, his anti-Semitism, or his cheap support for Islamist terrorists around the block? It would be as if we expected to end slavery outright in the Confederacy around 1862, or rid Germany of Nazis around 1943, or persuade the Japanese fascists to vote in 1944 — before such ideologies have been utterly defeated and the steep price for those who tolerated them paid in full.

So what Mr. Bush is faced with is this nearly impossible paradox of half war/half peace: at a time when most are getting fed up with abhorrent Middle Eastern jihadists who blow up, hijack, and behead in the name of their religion, he is attempting to convince the same American public and the Western world at large to spend their blood and treasure to help Muslim Afghans, Iraqis, and now Lebanese, who heretofore — whether out of shared anti-Americanism or psychological satisfaction in seeing the overdog take a hit — have not been much eager to separate themselves from the rhetoric of radical Islam.

To read the rest of Victor Davis Hanson's fine essay, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Elliot Ganz

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)

Hizbullah Did Not Win

The way much of the Western media tells the story, Hezbollah won a great victory against Israel and the U.S., healed the Sunni-Shiite rift, and boosted the Iranian mullahs' claim to leadership of the Muslim world. Portraits of Hassan Nasrallah, the junior mullah who leads the Lebanese branch of this pan-Shiite movement, have adorned magazine covers in the West, hammering in the message that this child of the Khomeinist revolution is the new hero of the mythical "Arab Street."

Probably because he watches a lot of CNN, Iran's "Supreme Guide," Ali Khamenei, also believes in "a divine victory." Last week he asked 205 members of his Islamic Majlis to send Mr. Nasrallah a message, congratulating him for his "wise and far-sighted leadership of the Ummah that produced the great victory in Lebanon."

By controlling the flow of information from Lebanon throughout the conflict, and help from all those who disagree with U.S. policies for different reasons, Hezbollah may have won the information war in the West. In Lebanon, the Middle East and the broader Muslim space, however, the picture is rather different.

To read the rest of Amir Taheri's essay, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Elliot Ganz

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:45 AM | Comments (1)

Red Cross Fraud

On the night of July 23, 2006, an Israeli aircraft intentionally fired missiles at and struck two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances performing rescue operations, causing huge explosions that injured everyone inside the vehicles. Or so says the global media, including Time magazine, the BBC, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and thousands of other outlets around the world. If true, the incident would have been an egregious and indefensible violation of the Geneva Convention, and would constitute a war crime committed by the state of Israel.

But there's one problem: It never happened.

For a complete analysis of this hoax by Lebanese Red Cross workers, and then disseminated by a willfully stupid Western press, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jayne.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2006

Emanuel Morano's legacy

By Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST

At around 4 a.m. Saturday, Lt. Col. Emanuel Morano, a senior
commander in the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret
Matkal), was killed in a fierce battle with Hizbullah
fighters near Baalbek in the Bekaa valley not far from the
Lebanese-Syrian border.

From the details of the commando raid that have filtered
into the media, we learned that Morano and his men were
airdropped into the area by helicopter along with their two
Hummer vehicles, with the mission of attacking a Hizbullah
base in the nearby village of Bodei used by the
Iranian-sponsored guerrilla fighters for weapons smuggling.

Iran is now working steadily to replenish Hizbullah's
surface to surface and anti-tank missile stocks and augment
them with anti-aircraft missiles.

Israel's continued sea and air blockade of Lebanon, which
Kofi Annan is pushing the Olmert government to lift, forces
Iran to resupply Hizbullah by land through Syria and into
the Bekaa valley.

Morano and his men were discovered by Hizbullah fighters
around the heavily guarded enclave and a pitched battle
ensued. Morano was killed, another officer was seriously
wounded and a third was wounded lightly. At least three
Hizbullah fighters were killed and two were reportedly taken
prisoner.

Close air support from helicopters and fighter planes
prevented Hizbullah reinforcements from participating in the
battle or encircling the IDF commandos who were extracted -
with their casualties and prisoners - after a prolonged
firefight.

Morano, 35, was a hero. He was admired and respected by his
soldiers and officers. Those who knew him well agree that
his most outstanding features were his humility and his
Zionism. Morano lived modestly with his wife Maya and three
young children in Moshav Tlamim by Sderot. He never wore his
uniform in his community - he wasn't interested in people
knowing how senior an officer he was. He was in the IDF to
serve his country and his people, not for the glory. He was
a loyal son of Jerusalem.

Exactly a year before his death, Morano's humility and
dedication to serving his country brought him to perform a
different sort of nocturnal mission.

Every night last August - until precisely 52 weeks before
his death - he snuck into Gush Katif to bring food to his
brother David and his family who were besieged along with
the rest of the residents of Gush Katif by a force of some
50,000 IDF and police forces. These forces, who outnumbered
the forces sent into Lebanon to fight Hizbullah a year later
by 20,000, were under orders not to fight Israel's enemies,
but to expel loyal, patriotic Israeli citizens from their
homes and communities, destroy their homes and communities
and abandon their land to Hamas and Fatah control.

David Morano is a major in reserves in another elite IDF
unit. Last year in Neve Dekalim he challenged the IDF to
find one soldier who would be capable of throwing him and
his family out of their home. Taking David's point and
seeking to avoid embarrassment, the senior brass of the IDF
beat a steady path to his door, attempting to convince him
that he must leave.

Sitting in a modestly furnished, book-lined living room,
David repeatedly demanded to be told the strategic rationale
of the expulsions. Why were these senior commanders
following orders to surrender land to terrorists? Why were
they turning 8,500 Jews into refugees in the Land of Israel
in order to carry out a mission conceived by a prime
minister desperate to avoid a felony indictment on
corruption charges from the radical leftist state
prosecution? David kept repeating over and over again that
this was not the reason he and his four brothers served as
combat officers in the IDF. He warned over and over again
that expelling the Israelis from Gaza would strengthen
Israel's enemies and lead directly to another war.

None of the officers who spoke to David could provide him
with answers. The most they could do was lend a sympathetic
ear as they suggested he start packing his bags. They could
not convince him to leave.

In the end, the events had their own momentum. By Friday
afternoon, David and his family were more or less the only
family left on their street.

Everyone else had been expelled Thursday. Over the Sabbath,
the remaining Jews of Neve Dekalim darted around in the
shadows avoiding arrests by soldiers and police. When they
gathered in the synagogue, they were momentarily heartened
to see that a couple hundred were still on hand.

But their spirits were broken. By the end of the next week,
they were all refugees, their homes and communities laid to
waste by IDF bulldozers. Their abandoned synagogues awaited
destruction at the hands of Palestinian mobs which came
three weeks later.

Some of the most charged moments at David's home last summer
came when he expressed his indignation over the way that IDF
Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz and his generals
daily insulted the religious Zionist community. Halutz
threatened to bar the youths who protested the expulsions
from serving in the military. Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, who as
then OC Southern Command commanded the expulsions, talked
about "a lost generation," and demanded an accounting by the
heads of the religious Zionist public for their children who
refused to accept the legitimacy of the expulsions. Maj.
Gen. Benny Ganz, who then served as OC Northern Command,
claimed that the youth who protested the expulsions were a
greater danger to Israel than Hizbullah.

And yet, over the past year, after in many cases having to
submit to humiliating interrogations by the Shin Bet, and
repeated rejections by draft boards due to their
"ideological fervor," thousands of the youths who protested
last summer's expulsions were drafted into the army. Like
Emmanuel and David Morano and their three older brothers,
these soldiers make up the backbone of the IDF's regular
combat and Special Forces units. Like Emmanuel Morano, a
disproportionate number of religious Zionist soldiers have
died in the past month of war.

Last week, Vice Premier Shimon Peres tried to silence the
growing calls for the government and the members of the
General Staff to resign by saying that this is no time for a
war between the Jews. His statement is an insult to the
intelligence.

Demanding accountability from incompetent political and
military leaders who led us into defeat against an enemy we
could and should have beaten is not opening a civil war. It
is the proper response from a responsible public that
understands our leaders are incapable of defending the
country.

Indeed, if Peres is concerned about the possibility of a war
between the Jews, then he should be the first one calling
for the government to resign.

The Olmert government was elected with a platform explicitly
committed to carrying out a war against the Jews through the
conduct of mass expulsions of up to 100,000 Israelis from
their homes and communities in Judea and Samaria.

In the midst of this month's Lebanon war, as it became
increasingly clear that he lacked the will to prosecute the
war to victory, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert attempted to buck
up his support in Europe and among the radical Israeli Left
(of which his children and wife are proud members), by
saying that the war in Lebanon would pave the way for the
mass expulsion of Israelis from Judea and Samaria.

Saturday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni appointed a senior
diplomat Yaacov Dayan as her point man for future
negotiations with Syria. Her decision to appoint an envoy
for talks on surrendering the Golan Heights to Syrian
dictator and Iranian toady Bashar Assad came just days after
Assad announced that he hates Israel, wants nothing to do
with peace and is committed to Israel's destruction.

In light of Assad's statements, there are two logical
explanations for Livni's move. First, like her colleagues in
the Olmert government who also are pushing peace talks with
Assad, Livni may be stupid.

Second, Livni may have appointed Dayan in the hopes of
stirring up internal fissures over the issue of land for
peace. Already the radical leftists who run Israel's media
are engaging in surrealistic debates about the possibility
of making peace with Assad the warmonger. These debates
immediately place religious Zionists on the hot seat for
their stubborn insistence on settling the land which makes
giving it to Israel's sworn enemies all the more difficult
for people like Livni and her friends.

Last summer in Gush Katif, there was no war between the
Jews. Last summer, under orders from Ariel Sharon and
Olmert, the IDF and the police fought a war against the
Jews. David and Emmanuel Morano didn't fight against Israel.
They didn't fight against the IDF.

The Moranos fought against insane policies that victimized
8,500 patriots for no reason other than Leftist
anti-religious prejudice, and that caused Gaza to become a
new base for global jihad. And then, when war came from our
emboldened enemies, as they warned it would, the Moranos
loyally served beside their brothers and countrymen in
defense of Israel.

When the outraged Israeli public sends this incompetent
government and General Staff home, it will not be starting a
war between the Jews. It will be preventing another war
against the Jews.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)

Our Side

I am a normal Israeli teenager. I live in the center of our country, and was therefore spared from the recent bombings which occurred both in the south by Palestine and the north by the Hezbollah. I worried about my fellow Israelis just like everyone else, but what could I do about it?

The night after the ceasefire, my father was looking at online news websites, and he noticed something unsettling. Every single news site showed pictures of the destruction in Lebanon, but made no mention of the destruction in Israel. Not one picture.

So my dad decided to take a trip up to the north of Israel, see for himself the damage that was done there, and document it. He invited me to come along, and I did so. My younger brother joined us as well, and we borrowed my older brother's digital camera.

To read Tamir's entire post, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Faye B.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)

Israeli Left Takes a Hard Right

I've quoted William Lloyd Garrison before, and I'm going to do it again:

"With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plea; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost."

A while back I wrote about a group of Israeli peace activists whom the recent war in Lebanon has changed into hardliners convinced that Israel is now in an existential war against an implacable enemy dedicated to its destruction.

Well, it's not just an isolated peace activist here and there; it seems to be a trend. Allison Kaplan Sommer offers a piece that appeared in the British Daily Express by Michael Diamond, telling of the shift to the right on the part of a great many Israelis who had previously considered themselves members of the "sane left."

Diamond speaks for many who once considered the Palestinian position to be a case of a reasonable grievance against an injustice. Believing that "with reasonable men I shall reason," these Israelis therefore advocated the return of the territories and the 2000 pullback from southern Lebanon, strategies they predicted would be met with a softening on the part of Israel's enemies.

But it didn't work out that way, although it seemed to the left as though it should have. Instead, the pullout from Lebanon six years ago, and the more recent withdrawal from Gaza, led to a moment of clarity that crystallized as the Katushas rained down on Israel and the press of the world mourned the plight of the Lebanese and ignored the context of what was actually happening there.

The intent of the enemy was exposed, and it turns out it was not the end of the "occupation;" it was the end of Israel...

To read the rest of neo-neocon's fine article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:29 AM | Comments (1)

Israel's New Hope?

“We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies, we want that we will be able to live in an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies. We want them to be our friends, our partners, our good neighbors, and I believe that this is not impossible.”

“The best defense is a good offense, not a fence. The best way to deal with terrorists is to arrest them or kill them in their beds. . . . what we are doing is leaving a legacy for the next generation that will [have to] deal with Palestinians who believe that terrorism pays, that Israel cuts and runs under pressure. . . . we must stop getting used to these constant missile attacks as if they are rain. . . . I do not see any prospect for peace and reconciliation on the Palestinian side. I needed no sophisticated intelligence to reach this conclusion; I only had to look at their textbooks, posters and so on.”

The first quotation is, of course, from a speech by Ehud Olmert, now Israeli prime minister, to New York’s Israel Policy Forum on June 9, 2005. The second quotation is from a speech by former IDF chief of staff Moshe Yaalon to Manhattan’s Lincoln Square Synagogue on May 8, 2006.

To read the rest of P. David Hornik's FrontPage.com article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Lance

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2006

Cease-Fire Updates Wed, Aug 23

The War of Tammuz is not over.

This cease-fire is fragile, punctuated with killings, and as we all know only serves to allow Iran to rearm Hizbullah through Syria.

And for Israel to clean house politically, and then get down to some serious retraining and then -- a bloodier round two.

After the Yom Kippur War, Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan had the decency, the good graces to offer to resign. They realized that they had blundered badly, that young men had died because of their mistakes -- and so they acted honorably.

Olmert, Perez and Livni are cut from an entirely different cloth, a shabby bolt to be sure.

There is not a hint of honor, not a shred of decency, not a sign that this gang of incompetents are willing to shoulder responsibilty for their actions.

Such mendacity in the Jewish state makes me furious beyond words.

I am relieved to see that reservists are now vigorously protesting, demanding that Olmert and Co. resign.

As always, we turn to Seraphic Friend Jameel for his updates. Karen and I would also like to wish Jameel and Mrs. Jameel a belated happy anniversary.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:41 PM | Comments (2)

Amnesty International Unmasked

In the comments section to my post: Jews, Darfur, and the Death of Language, Seraphic Friend Sara claims that the victims of the Darfur genocide "are overwhelmingly Muslim."

As a source, Sara brings forth Amnesty International.

Well, we know that Sara is mistaken. Profoundly mistaken. In fact, in Darfur, there have been over two million murdered over the past three decades. The victims are Christians and Animists. The killers are the Muslim Janjaweed gunmen acting on behalf of the Sudanese government. Sudan is, by the way, an Islamic state.

Amnesty Internationional is certainly not an authoratative source, nor is it an objective organization.

Below is Sigmund, Carl & Alfred's wise and revealing essay on Amnesty International.

**********

The US and Israel are routinely subjected to the most vile of critique, for what are no more than at best, political agendas and at worst, unrestrained bigotry.

The same voices that excoriate the US and Israel don’t give a damn about Darfur, for example. I suppose 400,000 to 800,000 dead aren’t enough yet -- or, perhaps the fact that the victims are black plays a role.

While the GIA was raping children in Algeria, these voices where nowhere to be heard. FGM continues unabated. There are estimates that up to 100 million women have been mutilated.

That begs the question: What makes the US and Israel so special?

Of course, I could go on and on.

We live in a smaller world today. We know that in Mauritania, tens of thousands are murdered or are enslaved every year.

We know that the Copts in Egypt are still being persecuted, as are the Bahai in Iran. In Rwanda, Canadian General Romeo D’allaire almost went off the deep end because nobody gave a damn as he watched hundreds of thousands die, because the UN didn’t want him to ‘get involved.’ And where was Amnesty International? Focusing on Israel, of course and the big bad US.

Let’s be clear -- In five years of the Intifadah (called for by the Palestinians themselves), 3,000 Palestinians have been killed. In Rwanda, the number of dead tally to over 1,000,000.

To read the remainder of this fine essay, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:27 PM | Comments (9)

Politics Cannot Hide the Truth

America and Israel are not the problem in the Islamic world, despite the nightly newscasts and the Stalinesque 'useful idiots' that insist that is the case.

Iraq and Iran fought a war that resulted in the death of over a million people, many of them children, used as fodder by the Iranians.

What is happening in Darfur, the massacre of Christians and Animists by Muslim militia, was not brought on by America or Israel. It has been going for years and and over 2 million have been butchered.

In Algeria, the GIA did not rape and dismember thousands of children because of America or Israel.

Saddam did not invade Kuwait, or threaten Saudi Arabia because of America or Israel.

Churches and Mosques in Pakistan are not set afire with worshippers inside because of America or Israel.

Poison gas was used in Yemen, in the 1960's. The perpetrator? Our friends, the Egyptians.

Universal laws no longer exist in the Arab world.

To read the rest of Sigmund, Carl & Alfred's important essay, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:05 PM | Comments (0)

InHuman Watch

Like most leftist organizations, Human Rights Watch professes to be impartial, but in truth is rabidly anti-Israel. It's no surprise that their Executive Director, Kenneth Roth, is presumably, Jewish. It is a gloomy fact of American Jewish life that those who work hardest for the demise of the Jewish State have been born Jews.

For these Jews however, their true religion is Secularism, Universalism, Marxism, Socialism, Global Warmism, Anti-Wal-Martism -- the new ism on the block. Indeed, for these ideologues of the left, any tyrannical ideology that is allied against America, against Israel, against Judaism and Christianity, against western civilization will do, and as we see from their latest reports, Jihadism bothers them very little.

Yes, Roth and his vulgar gang are just another in a long line of Jewish non-Jews.

They are sickeningly familiar. I have just finished reading Solomon Zeitlin's magisterial Rise and Fall of the Judaean State, and I have seen the Hellenized Roth and his ilk over and over again from 332 B.C.E, when Judaea became a part of the Hellenistic empire, until 135 C.E. when the revolt of Bar Kokhba collapsed. I take great comfort in knowing that men like Roth always end defeated and marked by history as perfidious traitors.

**********

The executive director of Human Rights Watch seems to think that even if hundreds of rockets are being fired from a Lebanese town at Israeli cities on the days before and after an Israeli attack, the Lebanese town should be immune from attack so long as no rockets were fired in the hours immediately preceding the attack. That standard is unrealistic for Israel, which has to plan its military operations in advance and is trying to defend itself from a terrorist group trying to kill Israeli civilians. The alternative to air strikes is ground operations in which Israeli soldiers risk being ambushed. How many Israeli ground troops does Mr. Roth think should die to satisfy his qualms about the timing of Israeli air raids?

To read the rest of this fine article, please click here.

Alan Dershowitz weighs in and slams InHuman Rights Watch for the liars they are. Click here for the truth.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friends, David Paulin and Lance

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:53 AM | Comments (4)

Target: Syria

History suggests that only force, or the threat of force, can win substantial concessions from Syria. In 1998, Turkey threatened military action unless Syria stopped supporting Kurdish terrorists. Damascus promptly complied. Israel may have no choice but to follow the Turkish example.

Indeed, Shlomo Avineri, a former director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry, argues that his country fought the wrong war: Instead of targeting Lebanon, it should have gone after Syria. The Syrian armed forces are less motivated than Hezbollah, and they offer many more targets for Israeli airpower.

It is, of course, hard for a liberal democracy such as Israel to contemplate war if it hasn't been attacked directly — and Syria has been careful to avoid direct attacks on Israel. (It prefers to fight to the last Lebanese.) Israelis naturally prefer peace. But the choice they face isn't between war and peace. It is between war sooner and on their own terms, or war later and on the enemy's terms.

Max Boot is a wise and knowledgeable military analyst. To read the rest of this fine article, click here.

I also strongly recommend this book by Boot. I started it on a Sunday morning, took breaks for lunch and dinner, finished it by midnight. Essential reading.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Lance

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2006

Jews, Darfur, and the Death of Language

At this very moment, state sponsored Muslim terrorists, the Sudanese Janjaweed, have murdered more than 200,000 non-Muslims in Darfur.

For those of you who may be somewhat confused, this is genocide.

There are those who might be confused because they rely on the mainstream media for their news; here they see Lebanese Arabs, Hizbullah propagandists, Al Jazeerites and their western enablers accusing Israel of: war crimes, crimes against humanity, and, naturally accusing Israel of committing genocide in Lebanon, and natch, in "Palestine." Next week look for Jewish genocide on Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue.

Don't laugh. It's coming.

Anyhow.

It has become increasingly comprehensible why some people, say youngsters between the ages of 6 and 12-years old, and elite university students whose heads have been stuffed like kishke with moral relatavism -- yes, one can see how these two groups would be easily puzzled by such a complicated word and concept as... genocide.

You see, not only is the Muslim/Arab world responsible for unleashing Jihad, and homicide bombers on a near-hourly basis somewhere in the world, but the Uma is also increasingly responsible for the death of language.

You see genocide no longer means the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.

In the Muslim/Arab world and of course for their western enablers, genocide is the charge that Israel has the unmitigated gall to fight for her existence.

Thus: the death of language.

The Janjaweed Muslim terrorists have also raped thousands of these

Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech, a Jewish screenwriter, tries to cope with the death of his beloved son Ariel by blogging his way to... What?

August 31, 2006

Fully English

Amnesty Interbullah

Gen. Yaalon Blogger Conference Call

The Iranian Nuclear Front

August 30, 2006

Suicide of the West

Plame Out

NY Times: Victimizing the Innocent

Jewish Heroism

The Axis of Jihadism

On the Border

Not the Hole Truth

Ambulances for Terror

Dear Moslem Association...

Pan-Muslim Fiction

We, Fighters and Commanders

August 29, 2006

Medic in Battle

Sounding Retreat

The Trouble with Democrats

Who & Why We Are Fighting

Terrorist Theater Tricks

August 28, 2006

To Stand Alone

Necessary Accounting

August 25, 2006

Scenes from a Wedding

Failure to Communicate

Hizbullah Did Not Win

Red Cross Fraud

August 24, 2006

Emanuel Morano's legacy

Our Side

Israeli Left Takes a Hard Right

Israel's New Hope?

August 23, 2006

Cease-Fire Updates Wed, Aug 23

Amnesty International Unmasked

Politics Cannot Hide the Truth

InHuman Watch

Target: Syria

August 22, 2006

Jews, Darfur, and the Death of Language