And Hashem said to him, “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying 'I will give it to your offspring,' I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross over to there.”

So Moses, servant to Hashem, died there, in the land of Moab, by the mouth of Hashem. He buried him in the depression, in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, and no one knows his burial place to this day. Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye had not dimmed, and his vigor had not diminished. The children of Israel bewailed Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days; then the days of tearful mourning for Moses ended.

Jewish mourners carry the body of yeshiva student
Segev Paniel Avihail, 15, during his funeral at Mount Olives cemetery
overlooking Jerusalem's Old City, Friday, March 7, 2008.
(AP Photo/Dan Balilty)

Jewish mourners carry the body of yeshiva student Segev Paniel Avihail, 15, during his funeral at Mount of Olives cemetery. (Sebastian Scheiner / Associated Press)

A poster listing the names of the eight
Mercaz HaRav yeshiva students murdered by
an Arab terrorist. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

Jewish mourners gather around the bodies
of the eight yeshiva students, murdered in a terrorist
attack, during their funeral at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva
in Jerusalem, Friday, March 7, 2008.
(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Bullet-riddled glass door from Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav.
(Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Mourners attending the funeral of the eight Jewish students.
(AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

Who Will Comfort My People
(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Mourners attending the funeral of the eight
Mercaz Harav Yeshiva Students.
(AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

Thousands gather for the funeral of the eight righteous yeshiva
students butchered by an Arab terrorist. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

“Before Him the grave is naked, the consuming depths have no cover.”
Job: 26—6 (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, head of the Merkaz high school, spoke next, in a voice breaking with emotion and tears: "G-d is just, and His ways are just. We have questions; but the questions are so difficult, so difficult. How is it possible to eulogize one Torah scholar on Rosh Chodesh Adar? But two? and three, and four, and five? Your ways are so hidden, Master of the Universe! In Adar, we increase joy. Look how much joy You gathered to Heaven! They were in the midst of studying Torah, such joy, such purity. We have been left with such a hole. I just want to tell You, Master of the Universe, what great people You took: Yehonadav — he gave [nadav, in Hebrew] so much; what purity and simplicity. You took Yochai from us — he lives [chai] in G-d, what Torah study he did; even while they were setting up for the Purim party, he came to learn Torah. You took Segev Pniel of the Avichayil family — what a family, and what valour [chayil] in Torah! You took Yehonatan [meaning "G-d gave"] — what prayer, what Torah, what beauty. You took our dear Avraham David. Just two days ago I had a long talk with him in his room — what knowledge he had, what integrity, what music he gave us with his Torah reading. And the youngest, Neriah — the candle of G-d, his light will be missing from us..."

To read the complete story, please click here.

Baruch Dyan Ha-Emet

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:23 AM | Comments (8)

March 06, 2008

The Names

Kvittel, prayer-notes, in the Kotel, the Western Wall

The names of the victims have been released:

* Yochai Lipschitz, 18, of Jerusalem
* Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, 16, of Shiloh
* Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar
* Neriah Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem
* Roey Roth, 18, of Elkana
* Segev Pniel Avihayil, 15, of Neveh Daniel
* Avraham David Moses, 16, of Efrat
* Maharata Trunoch, 26, of Ashdod.

May Their Memory Be a Blessing.

Via: Israellycool

Seven of the ten wounded students remain hospitalized. The public is asked to pray for the recovery of: Naftali ben [son of] Gila from Sderot, Yonatan ben Avital, Shimon ben Tirza, Nadav ben Hadas, Reuven ben Naomi and Elchanan ben Zehava.

The funerals began at near the main entrance to the capital, at Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva, considered to be the heart of the national religious movement. Rabbi Benny Eisner, a veteran Merkaz HaRav student and teacher in the high school, led the mourners in the recital of Psalms. At the conclusion of the eulogies and prayers, separate funeral processions will set out for the various communities where the boys are to be buried.

National Union MK Effie Eitam noted Friday morning that “whoever chose the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva as a terrorist target knew it was the heart of national Zionism.” Virtually every religious-Zionist yeshiva in the country was founded and/or staffed by former students of the yeshiva.

Eitam, who learned at the yeshiva 30 years ago after living in the secular Ein Gev kibbutz, called the institution “the mother of all Zionist yeshivas” whose graduates serve in the IDF and have been at the forefront of development in Judea and Samaria. “The victims were murdered,” he declared, “but their hope and faith cannot be killed.”

Among the thousands of mourners at the funeral could be seen rabbis from around the country, as well as MK Ruby Rivlin, MK Zevulun Orlev, and former MK Ehud Yatom. Benches were set up at the entrance to the yeshiva for the families of the victims, surrounded by the large crowd of mourners.

Via: Arutz Sheva

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:17 PM | Comments (3)

Baruch Dayan Ha-Emet

Blood-stained sefer from the Beis Midrash of Mercaz Harav

Comforting a wounded friend

Unable to bear the images before his eyes

Israeli police secure the site

Baruch Dayan Ha-Emet, G-d is the Righteous Judge

And thousands celebrate in Gaza:

Sweets are handed out celebrating the Jerusalem massacre

Gazans thank Allah for the slaughter of innocent Jewish children

That's right, keep sending humanitarian aid to this genocidal state, keep supplying them with power and fuel so they can continue to wage war on Israel, Jews and the West.

Makes perfect sense.

The latest update about the massacre: Eight young men have been murdered, eleven wounded. Reports are that the terrorist carried a blue Israeli identity card and came from east Jerusalem.

And of course the U.N. is rushing to condemn this massacre.

You believed me?

Elder of Ziyon gathers together Arab reaction to the Jerusalem massacre. The slaughtered students—all 15 and 16-years old—are labeled “settlers” or “soldiers.”

The Arabs understand that it's acceptable to murder “settlers.” These brave Jewish pioneers have been so demonized by the liberal press in Israel, Europe and America that they they are blamed for their own murders because, y'know, they brought it on themselves by being too right wing, too Zionistic, too religious, too intent on living in Israel. And of course, the expulsion of the 9,000 Jewish “settlers” from Gaza in 2006 by the Israeli government made it official: it's open season on “settlers.”

But the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza does not make the Jews in Tel Aviv, Haifa, London, Paris or Los Angeles any safer from the jihadist threat. It only adds every city with a Jewish population to the list of zip codes to be rendered Judenrein. Because the Arabs have set a chilling precedent: they have succeeded in turning portions of the Jewish people into a cold, self-justifying Judenrat.

If you have the stomach to read the nauseating Arab press it's actually quite educational, and makes you realize that the Arab-Muslim world is a swamp of barbarism and proudly genocidal Jew-hatred.

Oh wait, I forgot, that's their culture, and we have to be sensitive to their “cultural discourse.” Because, y'know, all cultures are the same, and all cultures are equal. At least that's what your children are learning in college.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:32 PM | Comments (12)

March 04, 2008

Sound & Fury Signifying Incompetence

Caroline Glick comments on Operation Hot Winter; its lack of strategic and tactical coherence, the consequences for Israel and all democracies who are fighting Islamofascism. For the war against Israel is not a regional war over land and boundaries—those are just convenient fig-leafs for media savvy terrorists—but part of a transnational jihad being waged by Islamic radicals to bring about a Caliphite and a world without Jews, Christians, all non Muslims.

In one form or another, Olmert, Livni and Barak all said that the goal of Operation Hot Winter was to end the Palestinians' missile and rocket campaign against the Western Negev generally and against Ashkelon in particular. They intimated as well that the strategic objective of the campaign was to overthrow the Hamas regime in Gaza, and reinstall a Fatah government. Beyond that they said that they sought to kill or capture Hamas's leadership.

But the Olmert-Livni-Barak government gave the IDF insufficient tools to achieve these grandiose plans. They only allowed the IDF to deploy one infantry brigade and two partial tank battalions. They refused to expand the operation to a divisional sized force, which would still have been too small to achieve any significant or long-lasting results. The limited geographical scope of the IDF operation - in a 2-3 kilometer zone in northern Gaza - had no impact of Hamas's ability to continue to shoot off rockets and missiles whose ranges run from 5-25 kilometers. In short, the Olmert-Livni-Barak government enunciated operational and strategic objectives that it clearly had no intention of achieving.

Today the Gaza Strip is a terror state run by an Iranian proxy. Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in September 2005, Hamas and its terror partners in Fatah and Islamic Jihad have built terror armies along the model of Hizbullah. Hamas forces have received training in Iran, Syria and Lebanon. They have built up formidable arsenals of Katyusha and Kassam rockets as well as anti-tank missiles. And, according to Fatah and other sources, they have been augmented not only by Iranian, Syrian and Hizbullah operatives. Al-Qaida has also built up a presence in the area.

This combined force successfully overwhelmed Egyptian forces along Gaza's border with Egypt in January. Its current capacity has rendered extensive portions of southern Israel exposed to missile and mortar attacks. And unless it is routed militarily, its capabilities will only grow.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Joel Weisz

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:19 AM | Comments (6)

February 28, 2008

Two Fighting Generals

General John J. Pershing

The Hamas covenant gleefully borrows from the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion and states that Jews were behind World War I, World War II, international Communism, capitalism and, sigh, Zionism, hence, concludes the official charter of the Palestinian people, the State of Israel must be destroyed and replaced by an Islamic State to be ruled by Sharia. The covenant calls for the death of all Jews, not just in Israel, but everywhere.

The Palestinian people voted overwhelmingly for this genocidal platform. The State of Israel, in effect, ratified this program by expelling every single Jew from Gaza, thereby making yet another—count 'em 23—Arab-Muslim state Judenrein.

Some push the notion of negotiating with Hamas, but guess what, the Hamas covenant clearly says that all negotiations are simply a tactic of jihad whose real goal is the annihilation of the Jewish State.

Okay, not a lot of wiggle room with genociders.

So: let's move on to basic warfare.

How would America respond to terrorists on its own borders?

Bret Stephens has the answer in his fine Wall Street Journal piece: The S'derot Calculus:

On March 9, 1916, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa attacked the border town of Columbus, N.M., killing 18 Americans. President Woodrow Wilson ordered Gen. John J. Pershing and 10,000 soldiers into Mexico for nearly a year to hunt Villa down, in what was explicitly called a “punitive expedition.” Pershing never found Villa, making the effort something of a failure. Then again, Villa’s raid would be the last significant foreign attack on continental U.S. soil for 85 years, six months and two days.

The citizens of Gaza attack Israel through various proxie armies and then claim to be innocent bystanders.

This can no longer be tolerated.

General Effie Eitam

General Effie Eitam, an Israeli hero, former commander of the IDF in South Lebanon, is the leader of the National Union-National Religious Party.

During the expulsion of 9,000 Jews from their homes in Gaza, Eitam defied the Israeli government and brought his wife and children into Gush Katif to witness and share the unbearable burden of Jews being expelled from their homes by fellow Jews.

Let's hear what this special man has to say about Gaza:

"The Hamas regime in Gaza can boast of one significant achievement—it managed to unite leftists and rightists in Israel. Both myself and Kadima's Haim Ramon understand that we need to act decisively and firmly in order to topple Hamas.

If the past we heard calls in the center of the political map urging talks with Hamas, its brutal attacks on Sderot residents led almost everyone to adopt the same view, and I also hope that it would lead to united deeds that have two aims: Military acts against Qassam launchers and their masters, and making it clear to the Gaza civilian population that electing a terror group to represent them is the main punishment they must bear.

The State of Israel left Gaza and provided its residents with a historic opportunity to elect their leadership — and they elected a radical, belligerent terror group that is Israel's most bitter enemy. And now, as was the case with many peoples throughout history, they are paying the price of their decision. It is immoral and impossible to task us with bearing even some of the price for their mistake.

Never before in history have we seen an entity that enjoyed impunity in the face of self-defense actions of the side under attack. Hamas declared a war on its neighbor with no discrimination between military and civilian targets, and with no provocation on our part. Yet we do not punish Gaza's residents; we merely realize our right for self-defense while facing a situation that is as clear, simple, and just as it gets.

The question of whether residents of Dresden had to bear the price for electing Hitler to lead them, or whether the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had to bear the results of the Japanese government's policies in World War II is controversial to this day. Yet as opposed to other nations who simply turned whole cities and hundreds of thousands of civilians into direct victims—we have utilized the right for self-defense in a phased manner that does not result in direct casualties.

Therefore, Israel has the right to cut off the electricity that it supplies to Qassam workshops, the fuel it provides, which is used by launching vehicles, and the cement used to build tunnels and posts that will be used to fire at IDF soldiers one of these days. Israel's right to cut off the supply of these goods cannot face any legal or moral controversy; it also cannot clash with common sense, which demands that we ensure that our enemies would not "enjoy" Israel's economic and strategic power while attacking it.

The price paid by the Gaza population will benefit Israel. This is a legitimate and moral price, and claims regarding a humanitarian disaster are unfounded. We are no longer in Gaza, we made sure not to leave behind anything, and we withdrew to the last inch. Now Gaza is an enemy state. As such, we must address its indiscriminate hostility when it attacks civilians in contradiction of all international conventions and basic morals.

A situation whereby Israel, which is under attack, is asked to maintain the Hamas regime firing at our citizens is unthinkable. The demands for the prevention of a humanitarian disaster should be directed to international aid organizations. We most certainly need to also call on Egypt, Gaza's good neighbor, to do something that is called for and natural for a neighbor that is not in war with Gaza like we are—allow humanitarian aid to go through.

Yet instead of this, we see growing international pressure on Israel to do something completely unreasonable and continue supporting its enemies.

Therefore, before we send our sons to fight in Gaza's alleyways, reinforced with cement that we have transferred to Gaza through crossing points, and before we expose them to the fire of weapons smuggled into the Strip from Egypt - we must try to topple the Hamas regime, and certainly to weaken it through sanctions, while hermetically sealing off the border between the two warring parties.

The impossible situation whereby the Palestinians continue to fire Qassams, while receiving electricity for their Qassam workshops and fuel used by vehicles that fire Qassams, is deluxe terrorism that fits well with the dictum: "The master of the house has gone mad."

In this case, we are the master of the house, and the price we are paying is the security of Sderot and Gaza-region residents, and the stability of the entire State of Israel."

I'd like to know why General Eitam isn't the Prime Minister of Israel?

Original article on Y-net.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:58 PM | Comments (23)

February 27, 2008

Lethal Quassam Attack, Plus A Seraphic Suggestion

“Let's head to Gaza, there's a war to fight, jihadists to slice and dice.”

The first responsibility of a national government is to protect all its citizens. Not just some of its citizens.

Nor should a country, Israel, supply a proudly genocidal entity, Gaza, with the electrical power and fuel with which to kill the citizens of her country.

In fact, some would call this madness, or more accurately: national suicide.

But this is precisely what the current Israeli government is doing in regard to the terrorist state of Gaza.

Let's review:

1. The Arabs in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria overwhelmingly voted in favor of genocidal Hamas over genocidal Fatah.
2. Hama's covenant calls for the destruction of the Jewish State, it also labels all negotiations a tactic for jihad. Hamas plans to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic state to be ruled by sharia.
3. Naturally, this happy go-lucky-Arab state, not Palestinian, mind you, just Arab, thank you very much, will be, Judenrein. What a shock.
4. So: we understand that the Europeans—appeasers to the core—don't get it. Who cares? Their countries will be swallowed by Jihadists in about 25 years anyway, unless a few good folks pick up arms and start fighting and killing the Islamofascists and their fellow travelers. Good luck, buddies, we're with you.
5. But gee willikers, when did the Jews in Israel turn into leftist Eurotrash?
6. At what point did Israel surrender her self-defense to, ahem, international (as in Rwanda?) peace-keepers.
7. We really, really, really want to know.
8. Because we see little difference between Ehud Olmert and Neville Chamberlain.
9. And Tzipi Livni. Good grief! You're like this one woman cheering squad for shtupping foreign mercenaries on Israel's borders. Yeah, what could possibly go wrong with glorious French troops?
10. Hey, I have an idea: flatten Gaza.

FADE TO BLACK:

Shortly after a student at Sapir College in Sderot was killed and one other person was wounded by shrapnel in a Kassam rocket attack, a barrage of four Grad missiles struck the Ashkelon area. According to Channel 1, one person was wounded by shrapnel.

The Sapir College casualty has been identified as Roni Yihieh, 47, of Moshav Bit'ha near Ofakim. Yehieh, a father of four, was critically wounded when a rocket hit a parking lot on the western Negev campus, and died shortly after being evacuated to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

At least five other people were reported in shock after the attack. Army Radio reported that everyone present on the college campus was being shepherded into sheltered areas. College officials have decided to hold classes as scheduled on Thursday, despite earlier reports that studies might be put on hold.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:54 PM | Comments (28)

February 25, 2008

To Die in Jerusalem

The aftermath of a homicide bombing in Jerusalem

We have often pointed out that every film, in one way or another, is a rich moral landscape. Some films are pure propaganda. The work of Leni Riefenstahl in service to the Third Reich, propped up and glorified that genocidal regime. At the same time, Hollywood fought back with a series of movies that helped the allied war effort, movies that were inspirational to our troops and the folks at home.

Currently, we are awash in movies that serve to excuse and enable Islamic jihadists. These movies come from Hollywood in the guise of patriotic self-criticism—much akin to wife-beating in order to build a healthy marriage.

With the rise of cheap and highly mobile video cameras and editing consoles, full-length documentaries are produced and distributed on shoe-string budgets. And of course, because moral equivalence is all the rage among liberals, and hatred of Israel—a fig-leaf for Jew-hatred—is rampant among the chattering classes, we are witness to a deluge of films that enable Islamic jihadists and make light of Jewish victims.

One such film is To Die in Jerusalem, whose ostensible subject matter is this homicide bombing in Kiryat Yovel, 2002.

Gila of My Shrapnel, who survived the Machane Yehuda homicide bombing, writes articulately, eloquently, and with no shortage of wit about the cold, moral collapse at the core of this film.

The director's notes to the film reveal her thought process as a moral swamp, a film student drunk with mindless, Oprah chatter designed to disguise the true intent of the film: the elevation of moral equivalence between killer and victim, a cinematic, hence ethical point-of-view that leads to the glorification of Jew-killing.

If you care about movies, about the power of movies, this is essential reading.

If you care about Israel, about the war on terror, this is essential reading.

Because Israel and the Jews are the canary in the coal mine of civilization.

To Die in Jerusalem, Part I.

To Die in Jerusalem, Part II.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:27 AM | Comments (22)

February 22, 2008

Captain Joe is Going to Shoot You Tonight

From Seraphic Friend Jameel at The Muqata a story about a Jew who refuses to be intimidated by Arab terrorists, a Jew who strikes fear into the hearts of those who fling rocks and Molotov cocktails at cars traveling 55 mph. Ladies and gentlemen: Captain Joe.

Soccer Dad shows why The New York Times is no more reliable when it writes about Israel than when it smears John McCain.

Nice way to go into Shabbos: Solidarity with S'derot. H/T Gregg

Another lie brought to you by the mainstream media, enabled by incompetent Israeli press officers. American hating Marxist radical Rachel Corrie did not die while protecting an Arab home. She was protecting a tunnel used by Arab terrorists to smuggle in arms and explosives to kill Jews. Israel Matzav has the copy and video that tells the entire sordid story. Needless to say Rachel Corrie was no peace loving martyr, she was just another in a long line of leftist, terrorist-enabling Jew-haters.

The Oscars. Karen and I DVR the endless proceedings, then rip through the evening, mostly paying attention to what's really important: gowns, hair, jewelery and footwear. The only part of the evening that gets to my core is the Death Montage, when all the actors, writers, directors and other great artists who have died in the past years flash before my eyes. I bawl like a baby. But listen, for you hard-core fans, my friend Dirty Harry at Libertas will be Live Blogging the Oscars, and his conservative and very witty commentary will, I guarantee, be more entertaining than the show. Though Dirty Harry probably doesn't look all that good in a Alexander McQueen gown. Oh well, can't have everything.

When Jihad Came to America, by Andrew C. McCarthy. Essential Reading.

Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:43 AM | Comments (10)

February 17, 2008

Olmert's Gaza Incursion Plan is Folly

The planned incursion into Gaza is not to achieve victory, but to bring in a multi-national force after a cease-fire. And we all know how incredibly effective those multi-national troops have been in the past. Just look at what a great job the UNIFIL troops are doing on the Lebanese border where Hizbullah have rebuilt their bunkers and their rocket capacity to an even greater strength than ever before. And let's not forget the magnificent job the multi-national troops did in Rwanda when they stood by and watched, yes, watched, as close to a million souls were butchered.

But sure, by all means, bring in multi-nationals because as we all know they are just straining at the leash to help out the Jews.

What could possibly go wrong?

Olmert and Livni must go.

This government is a national disgrace, a danger to the existence of the State of Israel and to the future of the Jewish people.

Israel is considering a large-scale incursion into the Gaza Strip during which it would present an ultimatum to the international community for the deployment of a multinational force as the only condition under which it would withdraw, defense officials have told The Jerusalem Post.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Chaver, Kishke

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:05 PM | Comments (7)

Gaza: Ground Invasion High Alert

Seraphic Secret believes that a ground invasion of Gaza is unwise and unnecessary. Israel can accomplish more by cutting power and fuel to Gaza and then mounting an air campaign against this terrorist entity.

We fear that a ground offensive will result in far too many IDF casualties, and that no matter how hard the Jewish State tries to minimize civilian Arab casualties, this humanitarian gesture will inevitably boomerang into typical Jew-hating propaganda.

Just as America wisely chose not to invade the Japanese mainland in the closing months of World War II, knowing that the human cost would be too high, and thus ended the war with two bombs, Israel should make the same determination with the genocidal entity of Gaza.

Israel'smilitary has drafted plans for a large-scale ground invasion of Gaza to topple Hamas and destroy its military infrastructure.

As Israeli forces go on high alert after the killing of Hezbollah's senior guerrilla commander Imad Mughniyah last week, prime minister Ehud Olmert and defence minister Ehud Barak are coming under pressure to act to stop rocket attacks from the Islamic militants on southern Israel.

Fears of giving away too much detail have led to Barak warning media outlets not to publish specifics, but sources close to the government confirmed that if the go-ahead was given for a large-scale operation to take place, it would involve "a highly significant number of ground troops".

Sources told Scotland on Sunday: "The military leadership is telling the political leadership: 'If you send us to war, let us fight'."

"There would be no pussy-footing this time around," one source said. "There's much debate as Olmert doesn't want a large-scale military operation, but since he also doesn't want to negotiate directly with Hamas, there will come a time when he will need to give the go-ahead."

Hat Tip: Weasel Zippers. To read the entire story, please click here.

Today's Links:

Denmark Stands up to Iran And so do their newspapers, which is a lot more than we can say for the gutless MSM in America.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2008

The Decline and Fall of the State of Israel

Prime Minister Olmert and Foreign Mnister Tzipi Livni seem intent—if the reports on current negotiations to divide Jerusalem are true—on dismantling the State of Israel.

The endless and suicidal negotiations with Fatah have only emboldened this terrorist gang who openly boast in their media that their long range goal is the elimination of the Jewish State.

Further, Fatah and its Holocaust denying President Mahmoud Abbas, are incorrectly perceived and treated by Olmert, Livni and the Western powers as moderates, in contrast to Hamas who are, ahem, militants.

G-d forbid Hamas should be labeled terrorists, they might actually get angry and turn to, y'know, terrorism.

In truth, as Seraphic Secret has repeatedly emphasized, only tactics separate the two terrorist groups. Fatah favor slow, incremental steps: terrorist, diplomatic, and propaganda, leading to Israel's destruction. Hamas, certainly more up-front and confrontational, initiate terrorist attacks on every imaginable front. Both advocate for an Islamic state ruled by Sharia.

In the 2006 Palestinian elections, certified by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Hamas was the overwhelming winner, not just in Gaza, but in Judea and Samaria.

In response to the terrorist attacks on the Jewish residents of Gaza and elsewhere, Prime Minister Olmert ordered the expulsion of 9,000 Jews by Jews thus rendering another patch of land Judenrein.

This was an enormous victory for terrorism and it was recognized as such by jihadists everywhere.

It doesn't take a screenwriter's imagination to get into the minds of the terrorists: If Jews are willing to expel other Jews, in short, do the dirty work for the terrorists, well, what else can we get the Jews to do for us?

The fruits of the Gaza expulsions are clear.

Olmert and Livni are negotiating the division of Jerusalem with a terrorist entity, Fatah, that would be gobbled up by Hamas if not for the support of the Europeans, America, and yes the IDF in Judea and Samaria.

Hamas does not recognize the State of Israel, its covenant calls for the elimination of the Jewish State, and for jihad against the West.

Hamas launches missiles into Israel every single day. Yesterday, two brothers were horribly wounded, one child's leg was amputated. As in the Second Lebanon War, the Olmert government is paralyzed with no tactical nor strategic response to this declaration of war by Gaza.

In fact the State of Israel feeds this terrorist entity with the power and fuel to perpetuate their war machine. And the world demands that Israel continue supplying this terrorist state with power and fuel, as if the citizens of Gaza have absolutely no connection to the government they enthusiastically support and elected.

This disgraceful colonial mind-set absolves the Gazans of any responsibility for their own choices and actions.

Needless to say, this is a grave disservice to citizens of the State of Israel.

Israel's cautious military strikes announces to the citizens of Gaza that their terrorist regime is quasi-acceptable and has permission to act on their genocidal platform. As for the citizens who elected this notorious gang, well, somehow, they are immune from any and all personal liability.

The results for Israel is the end of deterrence.

Further, national security—the state's primary obligation—becomes something of a selective matter. Seraphic Secret is inclined to think that if Qassam rockets were raining on Tel-Aviv the military response would be rather robust.

For Gazans the message is clear: there are no consequences for their nihilistic political choices. No wonder they enthusiastically embrace Hamas and all the other terrorist gangs who pour into Gaza from Egypt c/o Iran and Syria. Thus, Gazan culture continues to devolve into brute, medieval Jew-hatred and Islamic death cults—which will only result in generations of steely-eyed jihadists.

Appeasement is not a foreign policy. It is suicide. No state can survive such leaky stewardship.

Let us be clear: The current Israeli government enables two terrorist entities, Fatah and Hamas.

Piece by piece, Israel is rendered Judenrein.

Piece by piece, Israel is made illegitimate in the eyes of the world.

Piece by piece, the jihadists move to eliminate the core of the Jewish experience by dividing Jerusalem, chewing away at the heart of Judaism. Does anyone really think that the Arabs will stop at East Jerusalem? They will demand another street, another neighborhood, and before you know it they will demand all of Jerusalem. All of Israel.

Make no mistake about it, the jihadists have a plan.

The chattering classes repeat the tired and intellectually bankrupt trope: “Let's have dialog with those who disagree with us.” Ignoring the simple fact that entering into civilized dialog with genocidal enemies legitimizes their final solutions.

The Jews are on the defensive.

Ask any soldier: offense wins, defense loses.

Every time.

Especially when defeatists and appeasers are leading the defense.

A divided Jerusalem will bring war to the heart of the Jewish State. Fatah and Hamas will battle for a short time, then inevitably merge into an even greater Jew-killing machine, and then every street and brick in Jerusalem will become a battleground.

If Jerusalem can be divided and handed over to an implacable enemy, then The Jewish State will inevitably fall.

FADE TO BLACK.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:23 AM | Comments (22)

February 05, 2008

Moderate Terrorists

When homicide bombers target a mall in Dimona, Israel, they target all malls in Israel. When homicide bombers kill one Jew they threaten all Jews from Israel to Great Britain.

Some may fool themselves that by expelling Jews from their homes they will appease Islamic terrorists, and bring peace to the the Middle East. This is pure fantasy. Sooner or later these same jihadists will demand that Jews give up their homes in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Paris, Sydney, and New York. The template is set with all 22 Arab Muslim countries Judenrein—excuse me 23, Gaza is the Palestinian State and it is, of course, free of Jews. Naturally, the Arabs demand that Judea and Samaria also be cleansed of Jews. It is unthinkable that any Arab tolerate Jewish citizens.

And the international community finds this ethnic cleansing perfectly acceptable.

It comes as no surprise that one of the homicide bombers in Dimona was a member of Fatah, the terror gang led by Mahmoud Abbas, now in so-called peace negotiations with Prime Minister Olmert.

Just last week, Aaron Klein reported in The Jewish Press:

The stated Palestinian goal of a Palestinian State is just a temporary ruse until “all of Palestine” can be “liberated,” declared Saleh Raafat, a member of the executive committee of Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organization in an interview on Fatah's official television network.

Raafat said the Palestinians would accept “22 percent of Palestine” as a temporary and not permanent” state until “all of Palestine” can be liberated.

When Raafat says all of Palestine, he means the State of Israel.

Fatah and Hamas are quite clear on their goals about eliminating the State of Israel. The two terror groups only differ on tactics.

Those who counsel endless negotiations with jihadists who seek the destruction of the Jewish State do not understand that these negotiations only favor the Arabs. The terror gangs grow stronger, their morale improves, and the resolve in Israel among the chattering classes crumbles at an astonishing rate. Many Israelis turn their scorn and hatred towards the Haredim instead of towards those who truly seek their destruction—a sad case of Stockholm Syndrome, and classic self-hatred.

Interpolation:

I had lunch the other day with my good friend Omri Ceren, of Mere Rhetoric. Omri is a secular Israeli, and his Ferrari of a mind works at about 120 mph. We discussed the Haredi, secular divide. Omri was, Baruch HaShem, eloquent: “Robert, okay, so they don't serve in the army, but since there is only one Jewish State in the world I'd like to err on the side of safety and just leave it alone. If not for people like the Haredim, Torah would not survive and thus the Jewish people would not survive.”

And as our son Ariel ZT'L once said to me: “HaShem made different Jews to serve Eretz Yisroel in different ways.”

End Interpolation:

Finally: Seraphic Secret receives a fair amount of mail from people who accuse us of being:

1. War mongers.
2. Racists.
3. Alarmists.
4. Meanies.
5. Not interested in seeking a just and peaceful solution to the Mideast conflict.

To which we respond:

1. War solves more problems than peace conferences. Remember: Munich.
2. For a true taste of racism, in the form of Jew-hatred, please read the Hamas charter. Or any Arab newspaper.
3. You bet. People should be alarmed. If you're not alarmed, you're a moron.
4.
5. Just and peaceful solution is code for: the end of the Jewish State.

Today's Links:

Here's a thought provoking blog that asks: Am I a Frum Feminist?

Michael Yon: Men of Valor Part VIII

Internet Problems in the Muslim World: The Jooz Did It!

Please support our Seraphic Friends: Muslims Against Sharia.

Rampant Islamic Jew-hatred in Europe.

Radical Muslims for Obama.

On the Present Danger Facing Israel and All Jews by Rachel Neuwirth, an outstanding article.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:52 AM | Comments (17)

February 01, 2008

Why the Olmert Gang Must Go

Time to hear from Caroline Glick, the woman who should be Israel's Prime Minister.

Unable to decide what sort of war it was waging, for 34 days the government moved from tactic to tactic, strategy to strategy, never following through with anything, never realizing that there were consequences for what it was doing. And today, it follows the same model of incompetence in Gaza.

For the past two and a half years Israel has taken no effective action to end the rocket and mortar offensive against the Western Negev from Gaza. And rocket and mortar attacks have quadrupled over this period.

When Hamas seized power in Gaza in June, Israel failed to develop a strategy for dealing with the fact that an Iranian armed, trained and commanded terror group was perched on its border with Gaza and threatened to destabilize its largely undefended border with Egypt.

Still led by Olmert and Livni, who are now joined by Defense Minister Ehud Barak — the engineer of the unilateral withdrawal strategy of ceding land to terrorist groups — Israel cannot figure out what it is supposed to be doing. It has no strategic goal and so it can formulate no coherent plan.

To read Caroline Glick's complete article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Joel Weisz

Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat.

Today's Links:

The Jewish Press in New York, picks its candidates for Super Tuesday. Seraphic Secret has a great deal of respect for this fine weekly. It's one of the few Jewish newspapers in America that does not shill for the far left or the Democrats. It's also one of the few Jewish newspapers in America that's truly Jewish and not just some dopey, whatever makes you feel good at the moment pathetic excuse for Judaism that infects most American Jewish journalism.

Please sign this petition.

Here's a fine essay by screenwriter Andrew Klavan The Lost Art of War, about Hollywood's shameful spurt of anti-war, money-losing films. Via our friends at Libertas.

The New York Times will soon join Pravda in the graveyard of Jew-hating newspapers.

Jihadists Attacks Israeli Embassy in Mauritania.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:23 AM | Comments (3)

January 31, 2008

The War Over the War

The final chapter of The Winograd Report makes no difference whatsoever.

Olmert will not resign. Livni will not resign.

Resignation from office would imply honor, dignity—and conscience. It would also admit to shouldering responsibility for grievous errors before, during and after the Second Lebanon War.

Olmert and Company are unable to take responsibility for any failures. When Olmert launched the Second Lebanon War—with overwhelming support from the Israeli public—he announced his goals:

1. To secure the release of the Jewish soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah.
2. To destroy Hizbullah and their rocket capabilities in Southern Lebanon.

By the end of the war neither goal was achieved. In fact, over half a million Israeli citizens were driven from their homes or were living in bomb shelters. The terror rockets continue to rain on Israeli soil, and of course, the Jewish soldiers are still in cruel captivity.

There should have been a ground invasion in the first week of the war, that's basic military doctrine, but Olmert allowed a military campaign to be fought on the cheap, from the air.

Livni's naivete in dealing with the U.S. State Department regarding a cease-fire, is simply mind boggling. And when she boasted that the UNIFIL troops on the Lebanese border was a victory for Israel, one was forced to ponder whether the woman was either a liar or bi-polar, for no Israeli politician could possibly be so clumsy with national security; no Israeli politician could possibly be so stupid as to surrender a volatile border crawling with murderous transnationational terrorists to U.N troops led by, get this, French soldiers.

Lebanon has since devolved into a Syrian shooting gallery, with one anti-Syrian figure after another being murdered. Hizbullah, backed by Syria and Iran, will hollow out Lebanon and take control within the next few months. Thus Israel will be cornered by two jihadist entities: Gaza and Lebanon.

This too is part of Olmert and Livin's shameful legacy.

But no, they will not resign.

Rockets pour into Israel from Gaza—but they will not resign.

Nor will they deal forcefully with Gaza, for they are not serious about national security. Like all appeasers, they speak not of victory, but of making concessions.

In fact, Olmert plans on talking with the Arabs about dividing Jerusalem because, well, obviously what can go wrong? Missiles launched from East Jerusalem? Snipers? Homicide bombers? The Western Wall coming under daily attack?

Unthinkable, right?

There has been enough talk with the enemy. Talking with those who plan the destruction of the Jewish State and the Jewish people is the first step in legitimizing genocide. It's time to stop negotiating our own final solution. It's time to tell the enemy that there is nothing to talk about.

You know what will happen?

They will kvetch and scream and the U.N will debate, and the apologists for terror in the N.Y. Times will write some angry articles—and then everyone will get bored and move on. Maybe to Kenya, or Congo, where genocide and ethnic cleansing are taking place, and where real refugees are suffering and dying of starvation, typhoid, and exposure.

But Olmert and Livini and their delusional enablers continue to talk and talk and with each word and sentence they give away a chunk of Israel, of the Jewish people, of Jewish history, until one day we will all wake up and the only words left will be the words of the Kaddish.

But Olmert and Livni will never resign because this is a country committing suicide at 24 frames per second. That's not slow motion.

Today's Links:

The Hillel at Tufts University welcomes a radical jihadist for "interfaith dialog." Higher education at work.

Teenage Arab Girl Strangled to Death by Her Brother in "Honor Killing." But, hey, that's their culture. And liberals want to know why we can't get along with our Arab neighbors? I'll tell you why: because a culture that accepts and condones such barbarism has nothing in common with my value system. G-d help us if we did get along with such a debased society. And of course, so-called honor killings have nothing to do with Islam. Uh-huh.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:46 AM | Comments (14)

January 26, 2008

Kibbutz Love Story

Okay, it's definitely time for some good news, and hey, how about a real life love story from Israel.

It was a case of East meets West in the Middle East Thursday night when Shoshana Rebecca Li, a descendant of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, married Ami Emmanuel, a new immigrant from Florida, at Jerusalem's Great Synagogue.

"For me, to have a proper religious Jewish wedding in Israel, it is a dream come true. I am very excited," Li, 29, said prior to the ceremony.

Emmanuel, 25, said he never believed he'd marry an Asian woman until he met Li at Kibbutz Sde Eliahu's Hebrew ulpan in May.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:21 PM | Comments (3)

January 20, 2008

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 150

Haveil Havalim #150 is up.

The Post of the week is Helpless, in which My Shrapnel recalls the homicide attack in which she was injured. Essential reading.

We thank Soccer Dad for including Seraphic Secret's Barely Awake on the Radio in this week's round-up.

Today's Links

You know how Seraphic Secret has been agitating for the Olmert government to shut off the power to Gaza. Well, guess who finally took our wise advice? H/T Seraphic Chaver, Kishke, and Judd Magilnick.

Update from Naomi Ragen:

Picture this: the electric plant which supplies 70% of electricity to the Palestinians in Gaza is in Ashkelon. The Palestinians in Gaza have been shooting kassam rockets at the plant ever since the "disengagement" i.e. the abandonment of Gush Katif. Now, Palestinians are crying that they don't have enough electricity. They are complaining about Israeli sanctions against them. They are going to the U.N.

The truth is, Israel has not stopped supplying electricity to Gaza. Not only that, but Israeli electric company employees are risking their lives to do so.

Mickey Tsarfati, head of the union of electrical workers, was quoted in YNet: "It is unbelievable chutzpah for them to complain. We have not stopped supplying them with electricity for a minute. And they have not stopped logging bombs at us for a minute." Many of the workers who fix the lines to Gaza daily are residents of Sderot. It has happened more than once that bombs fell next to their homes as they were fixing the lines to supply electricity to the bombers.

Now the U.N. and the Quartet, and the Arab League are all getting demands to stop Israeli "sanctions" against the Gazans....

You tell me what other country would be supplying electricity to people who are bombing their children on a daily basis, and risking their lives to do so.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:59 AM | Comments (11)

January 19, 2008

Israel's Fifth Column

Peace Now, which has nothing to do with peace, is an organization dedicated to handing victory to the jihadist enemies of the Jewish State.

They are lavishly funded by foreign governments. And they are suspected of setting up a financial scam to mask the source of their European funding.

Well, of course they did.

The Jew-hating Europeans would not look good on the Peace Now stationary. Even these Jew-hating Jews have the minimal smarts to comprehend this little PR faux pas.

The Knesset has passed a law requiring the publication on the internet of all contributions from foreign countries to Israeli associations.

The bill, proposed by MK Uri Ariel (National Union), stipulates that the foreign donations must be announced not only to the Non-Profit Associations Registrar, as has been the case until now, but also to the public at large, via the internet.

The bill's final Knesset readings were approved on Wednesday.

The bill is designed chiefly to fight Peace Now, a far-left Israel-based organization promoting Israeli retreat to pre-1967 borders and the end of all Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria. Peace Now is largely funded by foreign governments in the European Union.

Now, these vital paragraphs:

The biggest donors were Great Britain and Norway, which are opposed to the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria - thus that the money they give Peace Now essentially serves those governments' foreign policy interests. Given Peace Now's surveillance activities over Israeli communities and IDF military installations in Judea and Samaria, the organization is thus "in effect spying on Israel for foreign governments," Bedein reported.

The Knesset Interior Committee confirmed in 2004 that Peace Now had received 50,000 Euros from the government of Finland to conduct intelligence activities in Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, the Golan, Gaza and Jerusalem. The Israel Penal Code for Espionage defines “photography of sensitive areas of Israel for any foreign power” as an act of espionage, punishable by ten years imprisonment.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Why aren't these people under arrest as foreign agents, as spies for hostile governments? They bring aid and comfort to the enemy in every action and deed. They are collaborators; enemies of the Jewish State, enemies of the Jewish people.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:42 PM | Comments (4)

January 18, 2008

Living Under Terror's Shadow

If you read the mainstream media, you rarely hear about those who live under constant attack by Gaza's terrorist jihadist gangs. In fact, the MSM is unnaturally focused on the, ahem, innocent civilians in Gaza; never mind that the Gazans overwhelmingly voted Hamas into power, thus discarding any pretense of innocence.

The true innocent civilians are the Israelis who are under constant bombardment, constant terrorist incursions—and the Olmert government's refusal to treat Gaza as the hostile entity it has declared itself to be.

Here is a fine story about a small Moshav that borders Gaza. It should serve as a cautionary tale for the criminal inaction of the Olmert government, and what the enemy have in store for the entire Jewish state if more concessions are made in Judea and Samaria or, G-d forbid, if Jerusalem were to be divided.

Early this week Netiv Ha’asara was in the news again—just barely, a passing mention—when a mortar shell fired from Gaza lightly damaged a house there. Netiv Ha’asara, a moshav (cooperative farming community) of 550 people, is the closest Israeli community to Gaza, a scant 100 meters from the northern border of the Strip. It was formerly one of the Sinai settlements and was reestablished at its current location in 1982 after those were torn down at the behest of Israel’s then peace partner, Egypt.

Netiv Ha’asara also flickered briefly into the news on January 4 when it was hit by eight mortars from Gaza that caused no injuries or damage. If any of the Israeli Gaza-belt communities has a substantial news presence it’s the much larger Sderot, the battered town of twenty thousand to Netiv Ha’asara’s south and west.

Netiv Ha’asara, though, is a microcosm of a nightmarish reality and an almost incomprehensible story of perseverance.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Lance Fogel

Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat.

Today's Links

Steel Rain Hits Israel This is known as war. But Olmert and his enablers proceed on the road of appeasement. They are not a government, but a band of criminals. A government's first responsibilty is national security, to protect and defend the citizens and the borders of its country. The Olmert government is failing miserably at this duty. In fact, this dark coalition seems more interested in protecting the jihadists in Gaza, those who have vowed to eliminate Israel and the Jewish people from the face of the earth, than in protecting the Jewish State or the Jewish people. Not since King Ahab has the Jewish people been led by such an odious figure. But Ahab, according to the Talmud, at least kept a kosher kitchen. Olmert has no such distinction. He is but one of Jewish history's ugly mistakes.

From Jameel at The Muqata: Olmert Targets the Blogosphere.

Treppenwitz points out that the recent wave of arrests have been targeting those who object to Olmert's policies. Will the left, presumably passionate believers in free speech, protest these outrageous police actions? But When They Came For Me It Was Too Late.

There is nothing worse than for a parent to lose a child. Seraphic Friend Alan Busch has written a loving tribute to his late son. Here's a wonderful review of Snapshots: In Memory of Ben. To order the book click here.

From our good friends at Libertas: The Writers Guild of America Sells out to the NAACP.

Victor Davis Hanson explains why Ghandi is an idiot. H/T Judd Magilnick

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:12 AM | Comments (7)

January 15, 2008

Israel: Not an American Colony

Listen to this interview with former UN Ambassador Dorey Gold. The other day in my radio interview with Shalom USA, I said that the Israeli government is responsible for the recent rush to appeasement, not President Bush. Soccer Dad, who was sharing a microphone with me, told me later that he doubted the wisdom of my statement. But now, listening to Dorey Gold, Soccer Dad has come round to see that yes, it is primarily the Olmert government who is pushing for all the concessions to the Arabs, not the Americans. Seraphic Secret thanks Soccer Dad for bringing this important interview to our attention.

Too often Israelis and American Jews view Israel as a colony of America. Psychologically, this absolves Israel's leaders from their stupid and murderous decisions and safely shifts the blame to the big bad Americans.

This is a denial of responsibility, a ghetto mentality, the sign of a people who are afraid to take responsibility for their own fate—a people too timid to exercise national power.

Mere Rhetoric comments on the Dore Gold interview.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:55 PM | Comments (3)

Settlements are Legal

Seraphic Secret's position on the so-called settlements is simple: Jews have the right to live anywhere in the world—especially in Israel. Currently there are 22 Arab/Muslim countries that are more or less Judenrein. For some reason the international community finds this ethnic cleansing perfectly acceptable.

Wait, make that 23 Arab/Muslim countries, let's not forget Gaza, which was cleansed of Jews by Jews, and is now the Palestinian State, a front-line for every transnational Jew-hating jihadist gang bent on Israel's annihilation.

When Muslims claim that the presence of Jews is intolerable to their political, religious or national sensibilities, the reaction should not be appeasement, but to send in more Jewish citizens and let the jihadists know that Jews do not live at the sufferance of anyone.

It always amuses Seraphic Secret that those who become outraged at the idea of expelling Arab fifth columnists from Israel are usually the first to advocate the expulsion of Jews from, well, anywhere the Arabs have threatened violence.

We wonder what the chattering classes will advocate when the Jihadists set their sights on Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Brooklyn, Stockholm, Paris, London, Brussels, when the jihadists voice their intolerance at the Jewish presence in those cities. For after they expel the Jews, they will come for the Christians, and then the other non-Muslim minorities.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are legal both under international law and the agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. Claims to the contrary are mere attempts to distort the law for political purposes. Yet whatever the status of the settlements, their existence should never be used to justify terrorism.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Aunt Pearlie

Today's Links:

Let's turn from the grim political news to Seraphic Friend Jameel at the Muqata for a truly joyous story: Miracle Girl, The Wedding of Rachel Sharansky.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:58 PM | Comments (11)

Slow Motion Suicide, Part II

The one and only Caroline Glick wonders how Ehud Olmert continues to defy gravity. Ms. Glick also reveals some startling and unsavory facts about the leftist media elite in Israel—not so different from their bretheren in America who would yawn in boredom if Israel were to, G-d forbid, go up in flames. Caroline Glick, who should be the Jewish State's Prime Minister, also warns about Olmert's use, well, misuse of police powers to crack down on his political opposition and stifle dissent. Pay close attention to Israel's Tom Paine.

Monday Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni opened negotiations with her Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qurei regarding the partition of Jerusalem; the destruction of hundreds of Israeli communities in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem; the expulsion of between a hundred thousand and half a million Israelis from their homes; the borders of Israel; and the right of immigration of millions of foreign, hostile Arabs to Israel.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Lance Fogel

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:32 AM | Comments (3)

January 14, 2008

Israel: Slow Motion Suicide

Seraphic Secret believes that the concessions being offered by the Olmert government to the Arabs are not just foolish and a grave security risk for the State of Israel—especially after the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Gaza—but a direct existential threat to the Jewish State. Olmert and those who remain in this odious, self-serving coalition, are in the same appeasement mind-set that Neville Chamberlain embraced when he negotiated with Hitler and declared "Peace in our time."

You do not make deals with your enemies. You defeat them in battle. Utterly. And then perhaps there will be a chance for peace. All else is delusional fantasy.

Former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon is also sounding the alarm.

Yaalon, currently a fellow at the Shalem Center's Institute for Strategic Studies, explains that the problems in the Middle East are not caused by the Arab-Israeli conflict, as is the common misconception, but rather something much bigger which started even before Israel existed.

At the recent Annapolis summit, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni presented a policy to divide the Land of Israel and establish a state for Israel's Arab enemies in the hopes of achieving reconciliation.

...Moshe Yaalon, former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, demonstrates how past Israeli concessions to the Arabs were rejected by the Arabs and actually increased violence. In this address to the WZO's World Conference of Orthodox Rabbis and Community Leaders, he notes that even the so-called "moderate" Fatah party refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

To view the video, please click here.

Today's Links

Bookworm brings us some fine excerpts from Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism. You can order the book here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:52 PM | Comments (25)

January 13, 2008

Barely Awake on the Radio

I'm awake now.

Really, if you heard the radio show I was barely conscious. Here's what happened. Last night I said to Karen: “Set the alarm so I can be sure to be up by 6:15.”

But I'm so nervous I wake up at 3 am and just, y'know lay there and wait, and work through the various problems of my latest screenplay.

Screenwriting is all about structure.

And Act Two is always the killer.

Also, you should know that I