Imposing Another Final Solution
Posted: 11 Apr 2010 10:55 PM PDT BY SULTAN
This Sunday, April 11th is the 67th Yom HaShoah, a Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust, the National Socialist attempt at imposing a solution on the Jewish problem. But the idea that there was a Jewish problem that needs a solution predated the Nazis. Pharaoh had the same notion that there was a Jewish problem that needed solving. And countless nations and ideologies followed in his footsteps. Today the socialists of the Democratic Party and the EU again want to impose a solution on that pesky Jewish problem.
The interconnection of the Jewish calendar is such that it is difficult to forget all this history. Two weeks after we are done celebrating Passover, our remembrance of divine salvation from Pharaoh's final solution, comes Yom HaShoah, when we remember the final solution that came in our own time. And in between these, Obama is moving to impose his own final solution, after a meeting with six national security advisors who like the missing participants at the Wannsee Conference all agreed that solving the Jewish problem was key to solving all other problems.
Of course it is impolitic outside the Middle East to call it the Jewish problem. Instead it's usually described as the problem caused by Israel, which unlike Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and the rest of the otherwise peaceful region, is governed by an intractable people who are responsible for all the region's and all the world's problems.
The same columnists and reporters who gasped breathlessly each time Obama glanced at his teleprompter, have already explained to us that all the problems in the Middle East can be boiled down to that awful Mr. Netanyahu and his pack of fanatical Jews building their fanatical houses in Jerusalem. Never mind the legions of suicide bombers, Shiites slaughtering Sunnis, Yemen's civil war, genocide in the Sudan, street riots in Iran, ethnic cleansing threats in Turkey and all the other lovely byproducts of the Religion of Peace... the problem is Jews ruling themselves in a tiny strip of land, that used to be ruled by Muslims.
This version of the final solution places all of that Muslim violence at Israel's doorstep... arguing that Muslims are only violent because of Jewish provocation.
The logic here is not terribly original. When the blueprints for the last Final Solution were being unrolled on polished conference tables, there were no shortage of fine minds willing to explain why it was the Jewish provocations that were responsible. And even when the Jews fled Germany, the Nazis had no choice but to follow them on a campaign of conquest all across Europe. Similarly Muslims have no choice but to expand their killing spree beyond Israel, bombing synagogues in New York and Buenos Aires, beating Jewish students in Paris and Toronto, and murdering a Rabbi and his wife in Mumbai.
And so the great minds of the day, who have almost as many doctorates among them, as the Wannsee Conference planners, have once again explained how all the violence and all the problems can be boiled down to Jews, living. Of course they avoid the term Jews, though they do slip up some times. And they avoid admitting that what they mean is that Jews living anywhere under their own rule in the State of Israel is provocation enough.
No, they insist that there are places in Israel where Jews living is a provocation and other places where it's less so. Jews living in territory that Israel lost in its 1948 War of Independence and then reclaimed 19 years later in the Six Day War, is very provocative. Those territories are officially labeled Settlements, even when such "Settlements" include homes in Jerusalem where Jews lived for generations, until the Arab armies drove them out in 1948. But supposedly Jews living on land that Israel held onto in 1948, doesn't enrage or provoke Muslims nearly as much.
Looking at all this anger over people from a different ethnic group living places, might lead a psychiatrist to suggest that the Muslims of the region need anger management and and a dose of tolerance, not another peace plan... but the people who know better insist that Muslims will stop being angry when Israel gives them enough land. It's not clear what exactly enough land is.
Israel is already 1/4th the size of the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. It is a little more than 10 percent the size of Syria. It is not even 4 percent the size of Iraq, Morocco or Yemen. It is not even 2.5 percent the size of Turkey or Pakistan. It is 2 percent the size of Egypt, which Israel nevertheless defeated in 3 wars. It is hardly 1 percent of Libya or Iran. And it is not even 1 percent of the territory of Saudi Arabia, whose royals and their paid stooges in the United States have their greasy hands all over the "peace plan" to carve up more of Israel in order to appease the sensitive nerves of Muslims.
Two decades ago we were being told that it was Israeli troops in the Judea, Samaria and Gaza that were enraging Muslims. A decade we were being told that it was Jews just living in those places in their fanatical houses that was enraging Muslims. Today we are being told that it is Jews living in Jerusalem that is enraging Muslims. Tomorrow if we withdraw from Jerusalem, as we did from Gaza, and huddle in the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station instead, it will be discovered soon that the only thing that will appease Muslim wrath is the handover of the Central Bus Station.
4 years after signing the Oslo Accords and promising to make peace with Israel in exchange for autonomous territory within its borders, Nobel prize winning terrorist chief Yasser Arafat expressed his idea for a solution to the Jewish problem simply and clearly enough. "You understand that we plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian State....I have no use for Jews; they are and remain Jews." And when that old murderer died, his funeral was attended by the foreign ministers of every major European country, as well as the man who would serve as Obama's interim Secretary of State before Hillary Clinton.
And so we are back to imposing a solution of the Jewish problem. George Soros, who helped his Nazi custodian loot the belongings of Holocaust victims, while describing it as the most exciting time in his life, has paid for a new US government. He's also paid for numerous front groups all interested in finding nicer ways to say, "Destroy Israel". This includes the likes of J Street, where the J stands for Judenraat, the Nazi collaborating councils of Jews that were used to run the ghettos until their populations could be sent along the next leg of the Final Solution.
Then there's disgraced former Congressman Stephen Solarz, best known as the first US official to come calling on North Korea and its grim butcher in chief. After being dislodged by several scandals, Solarz serves as Vice Chairman of the International Crisis Group, another little Soros project. One day before Yom HaShoah, Solarz, along with the Mullah's Best Friend, Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-authored a Washington Post op-ed, which explains that all of the problems in the Middle East are the fault of that nasty Mr. Netanyahu and Israel, and calls on Obama to impose a peace plan on them.
And so it goes. The Holocaust was not a burst of temporary insanity. It was the project of men in government service with numerous decrees who sat around conference tables explaining in great detail why a solution to the Jewish problem must be imposed. It required an international community that might have thought the Nazis were going too far, but shrugged its shoulders, because it thought they might have a point. It required Jewish collaborators who would help the Nazis do their work, who would herd the sheep, police the ghettos and hunt down refugees. But then Pharaoh had his Jewish taskmasters to beat the Jewish slaves who didn't work fast enough, and Obama has profited by their example.
And so the candles are lit, the siren sounds and everyone stands at attention, hearing the shriek of millions of voices torn from their bodies. And in Washington, a new Solution moves forward to be imposed at the political convenience of the man on top. But Yom HaShoah is only part of the full name of the day. Its full name is Yom HaZikaron LeShoah VeLaGevurah, A Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and Heroism. For it is as important to remember the dead, as it is important to remember that they resisted. That despite the Judenrats in Europe and the established Jewish organizations in the United States who chose to let six million die rather than stand up to their liberal icon, FDR, there was resistance to the solution.
The Great Solvers of the Jewish problem do not like resistance. Not even the little resistance that has come from Netanyahu. They want compliance. They want people who will march to their own deaths without even voicing a protest, and who will tell their followers to do the same. They want the defensive wall and the checkpoints torn down. The Israeli army disarmed. They want international troops to oversee the dismantlement and destruction of Israel. And they want it replaced by a proudly Arab-Muslim Jihadist state. Because you see that is the solution. The Final Solution.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
JIHADISTAN: WHY THIS KIND OF CENSORSHIP?
Maybe the Muslims should do some censoring of their co-religionists?
http://www.pjtv.com/v/3351
http://www.pjtv.com/v/3351
Important Petition on Health Insurance
MAYBE OUR PETITION WILL FORCE THE CORRECTION OF THIS VERY FLAWED LEGISLATION.
A friend of mine sent this to me. Her son works for this congressman. Please consider going to his website and filling out the petition. It's very simple.
FORWARD THIS AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!!!!!!!!
Finally, some good news to act on!!.
Forward this as fast as you can!
On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a two-page amendment that would require all Members and their staffs to enroll in any new government-run health plan.. It took me less than a minute to sign up to require our congressmen and senators to drink at the same trough! Three cheers for Congressman John Fleming of Louisiana ! Congressman John Fleming ( Louisiana physician) has proposed an amendment that would require congressmen and senators to take the same healthcare plan they force on us (under proposed legislation they are curiously exempt).
Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go on his Website and Sign his petition (very simple - just email) at
http://fleming.house.gov/
Please urge as many people as you can to do the same!
If Congress forces this on the American people, the Congress should have to accept the same level of health care for themselves and their families.
To do otherwise is the height of hypocrisy! Please pass this on!!.
A friend of mine sent this to me. Her son works for this congressman. Please consider going to his website and filling out the petition. It's very simple.
FORWARD THIS AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!!!!!!!!
Finally, some good news to act on!!.
Forward this as fast as you can!
On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a two-page amendment that would require all Members and their staffs to enroll in any new government-run health plan.. It took me less than a minute to sign up to require our congressmen and senators to drink at the same trough! Three cheers for Congressman John Fleming of Louisiana ! Congressman John Fleming ( Louisiana physician) has proposed an amendment that would require congressmen and senators to take the same healthcare plan they force on us (under proposed legislation they are curiously exempt).
Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go on his Website and Sign his petition (very simple - just email) at
http://fleming.house.gov/
Please urge as many people as you can to do the same!
If Congress forces this on the American people, the Congress should have to accept the same level of health care for themselves and their families.
To do otherwise is the height of hypocrisy! Please pass this on!!.
PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR: Zbigniew Brzezinski
http://www.polishforums.com/news-politics-4/whom-zbigniew-brzezinski-sold-slavic-poland-37139/
Freeman---November 11, 1965: OUR HERO
Claim: Article describes coverage of the death of Medal of Honor recipient Ed Freeman.
SNOPES: MIXTURE OF TRUE AND FALSE INFORMATION
Example: [Collected via e-mail, February 2009]
Ed Freeman
You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is half-way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job , but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.
And, he kept coming back.... 13 more times..... And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.
Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID ......May God rest his soul.....
I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we sure were told a whole bunch about some Hip-Hop Coward beating the crap out of his "girlfriend."
Medal of Honor Winner Ed Freeman!
Shame on the American Media.
Variations: In July 2009, a reference to the recent death of Michael Jackson was added to the article quoted above ("Michael Jackson dies and it's 24/7 news coverage. A real American hero dies and not a mention of it in the news. The media has no honor and God is watching"), and Ed Freeman's date of death was altered to 25 June 2009.
Origins: In March 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution designating the U.S. Postal Service facility located at 103 West Main Street in McLain, Mississippi, as the 'Major Ed W. Freeman Post Office'. McLain was the hometown of Ed Freeman, a veteran of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War who passed away in August 2008 :
"It is extremely fitting that we should name a federal building after Major Ed Freeman," Congressman Mike Simpson said. "It is an honor to have known him, and all Americans should be honored that he served our country and defend her in the manner in which he did."
The bill to designate the post office in Freeman's honor passed the U.S. House unanimously with a final vote of 384-0.
Freeman was a Mississippi native, and the Post Office that was renamed is located in his hometown.
At that time, the original version of the e-mail quoted above began circulating, a version that lamented the media attention given to "some Hip-Hop coward beating the crap out of his 'girlfriend'" (a reference to rapper Chris Brown's having been arrested in February 2009 on charges of battery against his girlfriend, Rihanna) while Ed Freeman's death received much less coverage. (These events were not simultaneous, as Ed Freeman had passed away in August 2008, several months before Chris Brown's arrest.)
In July 2009, shortly after the death of singer Michael Jackson, the piece was altered to reference him rather than Chris Brown, and to change the date of Ed Freeman's death to 25 June 2009 in order to create the mistaken impression that Freeman had passed away on the same day as Jackson and that his death was therefore ignored by the media in the crush of Michael Jackson coverage. (As noted in the previous paragraph, Ed Freeman actually passed away in August 2008, nearly a year before the death of Michael Jackson.)
All of this posturing should not be allowed to obscure the accomplishments of the very real Ed Freeman, who at a White House ceremony in July 2001 was presented with the Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush. President Bush said of Freeman on that occasion:
By all rights, another president from Texas should have had the honor of conferring this medal. It was in the second year of Lyndon Johnson's presidency that Army Captain Ed Freeman did something that the men of the 7th Calvary have never forgotten. Years passed, even decades, but the memory of what happened on November 14, 1965 has always stayed with them.
For his actions that day, Captain Freeman was awarded the distinguished Flying Cross, but the men who were there, including the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Crandall, felt a still higher honor was called for. Through the unremitting efforts of Lieutenant Colonel Crandall and many others and the persuasive
weight from Senator John McCain, the story now comes to its rightful conclusion.
That story began with a battalion surrounded by the enemy in one of Vietnam's fiercest battles. The survivors remember the desperate fear of almost certain death. They remember gunfire that one witness described as the most intense he had ever seen, and they remember the sight of an unarmed helicopter coming to their aid. The man with the controls flew through the gunfire not once, not 10 times, but at least 21 times. That single helicopter brought the water, ammunition and supplies that saved many lives on the ground, and the same pilot flew more than 70 wounded soldiers to safety.
General Eisenhower once observed that when you hear a Medal of Honor citation, you practically assume that the man in question didn't make it out alive. In fact, about 1 in 6 never did, and the other five, men just like you all here, probably didn't expect to.
Citations are also written in the most simple of language, needing no embellishment or techniques of rhetoric. They record places and names and events that describe themselves. The medal itself bears only one word and needs only one, valor.
As a boy of 13, Ed Freeman saw thousands of men on maneuvers pass by his home in Mississippi. He decided then and there that he would be a soldier. A lifetime later the Congress has now decided that he's even more than a soldier because he did more than his duty. He served his country and his comrades to the fullest, rising above and beyond anything the Army or the nation could have ever asked.
It's been some years now, since he left the service and was last saluted.
But from this day, wherever he goes, by military tradition, Ed Freeman will merit a salute from any enlisted personnel or officer of rank. Commander Seevers, I'll now ask you to read this citation of the newest member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, and it'll be my honor to give him his first salute.
Ed Freeman's Medal of Honor citation reads as follows:
Captain Ed W. Freeman, United States Army, distinguished himself by numerous acts of conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary intrepidity on 14 November 1965 while serving with Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). As a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged American infantry battalion at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley, Republic of Vietnam. The unit was almost out of ammunition after taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, fighting off a relentless attack from a highly motivated, heavily armed enemy force. When the infantry commander closed the helicopter landing zone due to intense direct enemy fire, Captain Freeman risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire time after time, delivering critically needed ammunition, water and medical supplies to the besieged battalion. His flights had a direct impact on the battle's outcome by providing the engaged units with timely supplies of ammunition critical to their survival, without which they would almost surely have gone down, with much greater loss of life. After medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly into the area due to intense enemy fire, Captain Freeman flew 14 separate rescue missions, providing life-saving evacuation of an estimated 30 seriously wounded soldiers — some of whom would not have survived had he not acted. All flights were made into a small emergency landing zone within 100 to 200 meters of the defensive perimeter where heavily committed units were perilously holding off the attacking elements. Captain Freeman's selfless acts of great valor, extraordinary perseverance and intrepidity were far above and beyond the call of duty or mission and set a superb example of leadership and courage for all of his peers. Captain Freeman's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.
Last updated: 14 July 2009
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/freeman.asp
Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2010 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson.
This material may not be reproduced without permission.
snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.
Ed Freeman
You're a 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley.
November 11, 1965.
LZ X-ray , Vietnam .
Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own battaIion Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out.
Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.
As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.
You look up to see an unarmed Huey. But ... it doesn't seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you.
He's not Medi-Vac so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.
Even after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses.
And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!!
He took about 30 of you and your buddies out who would never have gotten out.
Medal of Honor Recipient,
Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , Idaho .
May God Rest His Soul.
I bet you didn't hear about this hero's
passing, but we've sure seen a whole bunch
about Michael Jackson.
22babf.jpg
Medal of Honor Winner
Ed Freeman
Shame on the American media !!!
Now ... YOU pass this along on YOUR mailing list.
Please.
SNOPES: MIXTURE OF TRUE AND FALSE INFORMATION
Example: [Collected via e-mail, February 2009]
Ed Freeman
You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is half-way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job , but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.
And, he kept coming back.... 13 more times..... And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.
Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID ......May God rest his soul.....
I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we sure were told a whole bunch about some Hip-Hop Coward beating the crap out of his "girlfriend."
Medal of Honor Winner Ed Freeman!
Shame on the American Media.
Variations: In July 2009, a reference to the recent death of Michael Jackson was added to the article quoted above ("Michael Jackson dies and it's 24/7 news coverage. A real American hero dies and not a mention of it in the news. The media has no honor and God is watching"), and Ed Freeman's date of death was altered to 25 June 2009.
Origins: In March 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution designating the U.S. Postal Service facility located at 103 West Main Street in McLain, Mississippi, as the 'Major Ed W. Freeman Post Office'. McLain was the hometown of Ed Freeman, a veteran of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War who passed away in August 2008 :
"It is extremely fitting that we should name a federal building after Major Ed Freeman," Congressman Mike Simpson said. "It is an honor to have known him, and all Americans should be honored that he served our country and defend her in the manner in which he did."
The bill to designate the post office in Freeman's honor passed the U.S. House unanimously with a final vote of 384-0.
Freeman was a Mississippi native, and the Post Office that was renamed is located in his hometown.
At that time, the original version of the e-mail quoted above began circulating, a version that lamented the media attention given to "some Hip-Hop coward beating the crap out of his 'girlfriend'" (a reference to rapper Chris Brown's having been arrested in February 2009 on charges of battery against his girlfriend, Rihanna) while Ed Freeman's death received much less coverage. (These events were not simultaneous, as Ed Freeman had passed away in August 2008, several months before Chris Brown's arrest.)
In July 2009, shortly after the death of singer Michael Jackson, the piece was altered to reference him rather than Chris Brown, and to change the date of Ed Freeman's death to 25 June 2009 in order to create the mistaken impression that Freeman had passed away on the same day as Jackson and that his death was therefore ignored by the media in the crush of Michael Jackson coverage. (As noted in the previous paragraph, Ed Freeman actually passed away in August 2008, nearly a year before the death of Michael Jackson.)
All of this posturing should not be allowed to obscure the accomplishments of the very real Ed Freeman, who at a White House ceremony in July 2001 was presented with the Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush. President Bush said of Freeman on that occasion:
By all rights, another president from Texas should have had the honor of conferring this medal. It was in the second year of Lyndon Johnson's presidency that Army Captain Ed Freeman did something that the men of the 7th Calvary have never forgotten. Years passed, even decades, but the memory of what happened on November 14, 1965 has always stayed with them.
For his actions that day, Captain Freeman was awarded the distinguished Flying Cross, but the men who were there, including the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Crandall, felt a still higher honor was called for. Through the unremitting efforts of Lieutenant Colonel Crandall and many others and the persuasive
weight from Senator John McCain, the story now comes to its rightful conclusion.
That story began with a battalion surrounded by the enemy in one of Vietnam's fiercest battles. The survivors remember the desperate fear of almost certain death. They remember gunfire that one witness described as the most intense he had ever seen, and they remember the sight of an unarmed helicopter coming to their aid. The man with the controls flew through the gunfire not once, not 10 times, but at least 21 times. That single helicopter brought the water, ammunition and supplies that saved many lives on the ground, and the same pilot flew more than 70 wounded soldiers to safety.
General Eisenhower once observed that when you hear a Medal of Honor citation, you practically assume that the man in question didn't make it out alive. In fact, about 1 in 6 never did, and the other five, men just like you all here, probably didn't expect to.
Citations are also written in the most simple of language, needing no embellishment or techniques of rhetoric. They record places and names and events that describe themselves. The medal itself bears only one word and needs only one, valor.
As a boy of 13, Ed Freeman saw thousands of men on maneuvers pass by his home in Mississippi. He decided then and there that he would be a soldier. A lifetime later the Congress has now decided that he's even more than a soldier because he did more than his duty. He served his country and his comrades to the fullest, rising above and beyond anything the Army or the nation could have ever asked.
It's been some years now, since he left the service and was last saluted.
But from this day, wherever he goes, by military tradition, Ed Freeman will merit a salute from any enlisted personnel or officer of rank. Commander Seevers, I'll now ask you to read this citation of the newest member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, and it'll be my honor to give him his first salute.
Ed Freeman's Medal of Honor citation reads as follows:
Captain Ed W. Freeman, United States Army, distinguished himself by numerous acts of conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary intrepidity on 14 November 1965 while serving with Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). As a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged American infantry battalion at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley, Republic of Vietnam. The unit was almost out of ammunition after taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, fighting off a relentless attack from a highly motivated, heavily armed enemy force. When the infantry commander closed the helicopter landing zone due to intense direct enemy fire, Captain Freeman risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire time after time, delivering critically needed ammunition, water and medical supplies to the besieged battalion. His flights had a direct impact on the battle's outcome by providing the engaged units with timely supplies of ammunition critical to their survival, without which they would almost surely have gone down, with much greater loss of life. After medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly into the area due to intense enemy fire, Captain Freeman flew 14 separate rescue missions, providing life-saving evacuation of an estimated 30 seriously wounded soldiers — some of whom would not have survived had he not acted. All flights were made into a small emergency landing zone within 100 to 200 meters of the defensive perimeter where heavily committed units were perilously holding off the attacking elements. Captain Freeman's selfless acts of great valor, extraordinary perseverance and intrepidity were far above and beyond the call of duty or mission and set a superb example of leadership and courage for all of his peers. Captain Freeman's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.
Last updated: 14 July 2009
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/freeman.asp
Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2010 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson.
This material may not be reproduced without permission.
snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.
Ed Freeman
You're a 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley.
November 11, 1965.
LZ X-ray , Vietnam .
Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own battaIion Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out.
Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.
As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.
You look up to see an unarmed Huey. But ... it doesn't seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you.
He's not Medi-Vac so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.
Even after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses.
And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!!
He took about 30 of you and your buddies out who would never have gotten out.
Medal of Honor Recipient,
Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , Idaho .
May God Rest His Soul.
I bet you didn't hear about this hero's
passing, but we've sure seen a whole bunch
about Michael Jackson.
22babf.jpg
Medal of Honor Winner
Ed Freeman
Shame on the American media !!!
Now ... YOU pass this along on YOUR mailing list.
Please.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
HOW TO CONTACT WASHINGTON POLITICOS
http://actforamerica.org/index.php/contact-congress
IF EACH OF US DOES JUST A LITTLE, TOGETHER WE CAN
ACCOMPLISH A LOT!
JERUSALEM ISSUE BRIEF: USA TRASHING THE OSLO ACCORDS
Dore Gold
*
As a result of the June 1967 Six-Day War , Israel entered the eastern parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank in a war of self-defense. It is very important to recall that Israel entered these areas after it was attacked, and after it requested that the Jordanians not join the Egyptian war effort. There were Jordanian artillery attacks throughout Jerusalem and all of Israel , as well as movement of Jordanian ground forces into areas that were previously no-man's land.
*
*
There is presently a marked shift underway in U.S. policy on Jerusalem . True, no U.S. administration accepted Israel 's annexation of Jerusalem in July 1967. Nonetheless, in the past we saw the U.S. and Israel coming to a modus vivendi with respect to Israeli policy in Jerusalem , when Israel built various neighborhoods in the eastern parts of the city, from Ramat Eshkol to Gilo to Ramot.
*
*
A neighborhood called Har Homa in southeastern Jerusalem was established in 1997 during the Clinton administration to ease the considerable shortage of housing in the Jewish sector. On two occasions, the Arab bloc initiated a draft resolution in the UN Security Council to condemn Israel for constructing Har Homa. On both occasions, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Bill Richardson, vetoed those resolutions under instructions from the Clinton administration.
*
*
The Oslo Agreements in 1993 do not require a freeze on construction in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem . Furthermore, under the Oslo Agreements, Jerusalem was treated as having a completely different status than the West Bank and the city was kept under Israeli control, while seen as an issue for permanent status negotiations in the future.
*
*
It is possible to discern a growing view, which has been reported in the Washington Post, that the Obama administration intends to put on the table its own plan for Middle East peace, based on a nearly full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines, that most Israeli planners view as militarily indefensible. As the Palestinians see this scenario unfold, their incentive to re-enter negotiations will decline as they look forward to the prospect that an American peace plan will be imposed. If indeed there is such a plan being prepared, then the recent U.S.-Israel tensions over construction in east Jerusalem may only be Act I in a much longer drama that the two countries are about to face.
We are in a period in which the U.S.-Israel relationship appears to be in flux, but it is hard for many observers to establish whether the policies of the Obama administration represent a sharp break in U.S. policy toward Israel or a continuation of past U.S. policies. Will military ties between the two countries be affected? According to a charge that has been associated with officers in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Israel’s disagreements with the Palestinians, or Israel’s construction efforts, have a negative effect on the U.S. military posture in the Middle East, with some reports even going so far as to suggest that they risk the lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, on the basis of past experience, is it likely that the U.S. and Israel will ultimately resolve their differences, or are the present gaps between the two countries so wide that their long-term relationship will change?
The Neighborhoods of Eastern Jerusalem Were Captured in a War of Self-Defense
The present tensions in U.S.-Israel relations appeared to erupt in response to an Israeli building project in the Jewish neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo in Jerusalem, where 1,600 new apartments were approved by a local zoning board. Ramat Shlomo is one of several Jerusalem neighborhoods that were established in Jerusalem in territories that were captured by Israel as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel formally extended Israeli law to these parts of its newly united capital.
Formally the U.S. did not recognize the annexation by Israel of the eastern parts of Jerusalem in July 1967. And while past administrations did not support Israeli construction of new neighborhoods, they did not let this issue disrupt the overall U.S.-Israel relationship. Much of the present discord in the relationship is partly attributable to the fact that the background of how Israel entered the eastern parts of Jerusalem has been forgotten. It is important to remember that Israel entered the eastern parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank in what it saw as a war of self-defense.
We are in a period in which the U.S.-Israel relationship appears to be in flux, but it is hard for many observers to establish whether the policies of the Obama administration represent a sharp break in U.S. policy toward Israel or a continuation of past U.S. policies. Will military ties between the two countries be affected? According to a charge that has been associated with officers in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Israel’s disagreements with the Palestinians, or Israel’s construction efforts, have a negative effect on the U.S. military posture in the Middle East, with some reports even going so far as to suggest that they risk the lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, on the basis of past experience, is it likely that the U.S. and Israel will ultimately resolve their differences, or are the present gaps between the two countries so wide that their long-term relationship will change?
The Neighborhoods of Eastern Jerusalem Were Captured in a War of Self-Defense
The present tensions in U.S.-Israel relations appeared to erupt in response to an Israeli building project in the Jewish neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo in Jerusalem, where 1,600 new apartments were approved by a local zoning board. Ramat Shlomo is one of several Jerusalem neighborhoods that were established in Jerusalem in territories that were captured by Israel as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel formally extended Israeli law to these parts of its newly united capital.
Formally the U.S. did not recognize the annexation by Israel of the eastern parts of Jerusalem in July 1967. And while past administrations did not support Israeli construction of new neighborhoods, they did not let this issue disrupt the overall U.S.-Israel relationship. Much of the present discord in the relationship is partly attributable to the fact that the background of how Israel entered the eastern parts of Jerusalem has been forgotten. It is important to remember that Israel entered the eastern parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank in what it saw as a war of self-defense.
Factually, Israel only entered these areas after it was attacked, and after it requested that the Jordanians not join the Egyptian war effort. That didn’t happen. There were Jordanian artillery attacks throughout Jerusalem and all of Israel. There was movement of Jordanian ground forces into areas that were previously no-man’s land, and Israel responded and captured the eastern parts of Jerusalem.
The Soviet Union, which was an adversary of the State of Israel back in 1967, tried to have Israel branded as the aggressor in that war. The Soviets first went to the Security Council and failed. Then they went to the General Assembly, which is not exactly Israel’s home territory, and also failed. The new situation produced a particular dilemma for U.S. policy about how to treat the issue of Jerusalem. On the one hand, Israel had now moved into territories which were previously not in its possession. But on the other hand, there were fundamental problems with the status quo ante. Jerusalem had originally been slated to be internationalized for ten years as a corpus separatum under Resolution 181, that the UN failed to implement, and the city was invaded in 1948 by an Arab war coalition that included the Arab Legion. The UN secretary general in 1948 called that invasion a war of aggression. And as a result of that war, the Jews were ethnically cleansed from the areas that came under Jordanian control, and were denied access to Jewish holy sites.
To call for a restoration of the status quo ante would mean that the U.S. backed the return of an illegal situation that was imposed in 1948, which also denied religious freedom. Ultimately, the international community decided not to restore the status quo ante that existed prior to the war, and sought some other kind of outcome, which was reflected in the resolutions and decisions taken with respect to Jerusalem. Following the war, UN Security Council Resolution 242 was adopted in November 1967, and did not call for Israel to return to the pre-1967 lines. It called for a withdrawal from territories but not from all the territories, which is what the Soviet Union was insisting upon. Resolution 242 did not mention Jerusalem. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at the time, Arthur Goldberg, wrote to the New York Times in 1980 that the Johnson administration kept Jerusalem out of 242 intentionally.
Shifting U.S. Policies on Jerusalem
U.S. policy on Jerusalem went through different shifts. Back in 1948, the U.S. was originally committed to the failed internationalization proposals in UN General Assembly Resolution 181. This original position was quickly replaced in the 1950s by acceptance of the 1949 armistice agreements.
When President Richard Nixon came to the White House in 1969, there was a definite hardening of the U.S. position on the issue of Jerusalem. For the first time, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Charles Yost, described Jerusalem as “occupied territory,” terminology that had not been used by Ambassador Arthur Goldberg, who served under President Johnson. Under Nixon,
4
the United States did not veto or even abstain from resolutions that disagreed with Israeli policy on Jerusalem in 1969, 1970, and 1971. In successive administrations, we see that the U.S. did not want the issue of Jerusalem addressed by the UN Security Council, and we see a movement of U.S. policy much closer to the Israeli position. No U.S. administration formally recognized Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem in July 1967. Nonetheless, in the past we saw the U.S. and Israel coming to a modus vivendi with respect to Israeli policy in Jerusalem, when Israel built various neighborhoods in the eastern parts of the city.
For example, Gilo, in southern Jerusalem, with nearly 30,000 residents, was founded in 1971 at the time of the Nixon administration. Though Israel had differences with the U.S., those differences did not lead to a crisis in relations between the two countries. In 1973 the Neve Yaakov neighborhood was reestablished. It was originally established in 1924, but was overrun by the Arab Legion in 1948. The Ramat Eshkol neighborhood was established in 1969 at the very beginning of the Nixon administration. The Ramot neighborhood, established in 1974, has over 40,000 people living there today.
A neighborhood called Har Homa in southeastern Jerusalem, next to Gilo, was established in 1997 during the Clinton administration. Israel had just completed negotiations with the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat over the Hebron agreement. At that time, the Israeli government informed the Clinton administration that after completing the deal on Hebron, it would be taking some initiatives in Jerusalem that were necessary because of the considerable shortage of housing in both the Jewish sector and even to some extent in the Arab sector. The Clinton administration was informed when Israel decided to approve the Har Homa project, which the Israeli government saw as compensation for the big initiative it took in signing the Hebron agreement. Now the Clinton administration did not say it welcomed this initiative, but it basically accepted that Israel was going to go ahead and build Har Homa.
On two occasions in 1997, the Arab bloc, together with some other countries, initiated a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would have condemned Israel for constructing Har Homa. And on those two occasions the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Bill Richardson, vetoed those resolutions under instructions from the Clinton administration. So even though we didn’t always agree on the details of the legal status of the territory, we were able to cooperate, we were able to work together, and again a modus vivendi was worked out.
Ramat Shlomo, the current Jerusalem neighborhood being discussed, was originally begun in 1995 during the period when President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin were in office. So again, in the past, the U.S. did not actively oppose Israeli efforts to construct housing for both the Jewish sector and the Arab sector in the eastern parts of Jerusalem.
The policies of the Obama administration definitely represent a shift in U.S. policy towards Israel and Jerusalem because of the efforts to have Israel freeze all construction in the eastern parts of the city. The original Oslo Agreements in 1993 do not require a freeze of any kind on construction in Jerusalem. Furthermore, under the Oslo Agreements, Jerusalem was treated as having a completely different status than the West Bank and the city was kept under Israeli control, while seen as an issue for permanent status negotiations in the future. Israel kept building for its residents, just as Palestinian Arabs built for their needs in the areas under their control and elsewhere.
The relationship between the United States and Israel is not confined to their governments. It involves the people of the United States, who overwhelmingly support the State of Israel, and it also involves the U.S. Congress which reflects the will of the people. While U.S. administrations have not formally recognized Israel’s unification of Jerusalem, back in 1995 the U.S. Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Act by a massive bipartisan majority. It called for the movement of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Equally important, it also acknowledged that Jerusalem must remain united under Israeli sovereignty.
Does Construction in Jerusalem Affect the U.S. Military Posture?
Israel is not within the area of responsibility of CENTCOM, the U.S. Central Command. U.S. military planners kept Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey within the responsibility of EUCOM, the U.S. European command, while in 1983, Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf States were put under the responsibility of CENTCOM. The statement by CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on March 10, 2010, says the whole issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict fits into a category called “Cross-Cutting Challenges to Security and Stability.” It doesn’t fit into the more severe category of “Significant Threats.” General Petraeus’ written statement says that the enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to the U.S. ability to advance its interests. But he did not specifically make this point in his oral remarks, and in neither his oral or written remarks did he suggest that Israel had become a strategic burden because its policies threatened U.S. soldiers, as some have tried to suggest.
All of this ignores the posture statements and other testimony given by EUCOM commanders, which actually give Israel a lot of praise. Israel appears as an asset. General Bantz Craddock was the EUCOM commander in 2007 and spoke extensively about Israel in his appearance that year before the House Armed Services Committee. He specifically described Israel as the closest ally of the United States in the Middle East. Moreover, the U.S. ambassador to Israel at the time, Richard Jones, spoke about Israeli research and development on countermeasures against IEDs, those highly lethal roadside bombs used by insurgents that had become the single largest cause of U.S. casualties. Jones disclosed that Israel was helping the United States Army in Iraq in this area. In short, Israeli efforts were saving American lives, and not putting them at risk, as some irresponsible pundits contended.
Will the Relationship Recover?
Is it possible for the U.S.-Israel relationship to recover from the recent tensions? If history is any guide, we have had such problems at different times in the past and we have recovered each time. At the very beginning of the Reagan administration, in 1981, Prime Minister Menachem Begin decided that it was necessary for the future of Israel to destroy Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear reactor in Baghdad. Israel took upon itself to do that and U.S.-Israel relations went into a period of extreme tension. Yet by 1983, the United States and Israel reached the first of a series of strategic cooperation agreements that brought their military relationship to unprecedented heights. So there was a crisis for about two years, which basically ended as the U.S. and Israel pulled together because they had paramount strategic interests and reasons to cooperate. Ultimately, the strategic challenges that both countries faced and saw in a similar light trumped the differences that existed in the background of the destruction of the Iraqi reactor.
The period of 1989 to 1990 was another one of unusual tension in the U.S.-Israel relationship, when President Bush and his Secretary of State, James Baker, got into direct conflict with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir over the question of settlement construction. We remember Secretary Baker saying to Israel: “When you’re serious about peace, here’s the White House phone number.” Then in 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the Middle East changed entirely, and in the First Gulf War the military cooperation between the U.S. and Israel reached new heights. Strategic circumstances led both countries to realize their mutual interests and overcome their differences.
The United States and Israel have been tied by mutual strategic interests for many years, and those interests will eventually trump the differences that we’re seeing today. The major strategic interest that both countries share is the threat of Iran. The Iranian nuclear program is advancing steadily towards a point where it will cross the nuclear threshold in a military sense. Therefore, the restoration of U.S.-Israel cooperation and understanding is probably a greater imperative today than it ever was in the past. It is extremely important for both countries to bury their differences because the only ones who are smiling during this entire episode are the leadership in Iran, who are continuing to move toward a military nuclear program.
There is one caveat to the idea that U.S.-Israel relations will get back on track in the near future. It is possible to discern a growing view, which has been reported in the Washington Post, that the Obama administration intends to put on the table its own plan for Middle East peace, based on a nearly full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines, that most Israeli planners view as militarily indefensible. As the Palestinians see this scenario unfold, their incentive to re-enter negotiations will decline as they look forward to the prospect that an American peace plan will be imposed. An Obama plan for a complete Israeli retreat of this sort would not only deny the Jewish state “defensible borders,” but would also divide Jerusalem, placing the Old City and its holy sites within Palestinian jurisdiction.
If indeed there is such a plan being prepared, then the recent U.S.-Israel tensions over construction in east Jerusalem may only be Act I in a much longer drama that the two countries are about to face. Undoubtedly there are sober voices in the U.S. government today that would advise against the President taking such a course of action. But should he indeed advance a new division of Jerusalem, then in the months ahead the U.S. and Israel will be facing a serious crisis in their relationship, just as the military threats from Iran can be expected to worsen.
* * *
Ambassador Dore Gold, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, was the eleventh Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations (1997-1999). Dr. Gold served as foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his first government and has advised Israeli governments since that time on U.S.-Israel relations. He is the author of the best-selling books: The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City (Regnery, 2007), and The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West (Regnery, 2009). In 1993 he wrote a book on the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) for the Israel Ministry of Defense publishing house. This Jerusalem Issue Brief is based on his presentation to the Institute for Contemporary Affairs in Jerusalem on March 25, 2010.
This Jerusalem Issue Brief is available online at:
http://www.jcpa.org
*
As a result of the June 1967 Six-Day War , Israel entered the eastern parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank in a war of self-defense. It is very important to recall that Israel entered these areas after it was attacked, and after it requested that the Jordanians not join the Egyptian war effort. There were Jordanian artillery attacks throughout Jerusalem and all of Israel , as well as movement of Jordanian ground forces into areas that were previously no-man's land.
*
*
There is presently a marked shift underway in U.S. policy on Jerusalem . True, no U.S. administration accepted Israel 's annexation of Jerusalem in July 1967. Nonetheless, in the past we saw the U.S. and Israel coming to a modus vivendi with respect to Israeli policy in Jerusalem , when Israel built various neighborhoods in the eastern parts of the city, from Ramat Eshkol to Gilo to Ramot.
*
*
A neighborhood called Har Homa in southeastern Jerusalem was established in 1997 during the Clinton administration to ease the considerable shortage of housing in the Jewish sector. On two occasions, the Arab bloc initiated a draft resolution in the UN Security Council to condemn Israel for constructing Har Homa. On both occasions, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Bill Richardson, vetoed those resolutions under instructions from the Clinton administration.
*
*
The Oslo Agreements in 1993 do not require a freeze on construction in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem . Furthermore, under the Oslo Agreements, Jerusalem was treated as having a completely different status than the West Bank and the city was kept under Israeli control, while seen as an issue for permanent status negotiations in the future.
*
*
It is possible to discern a growing view, which has been reported in the Washington Post, that the Obama administration intends to put on the table its own plan for Middle East peace, based on a nearly full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines, that most Israeli planners view as militarily indefensible. As the Palestinians see this scenario unfold, their incentive to re-enter negotiations will decline as they look forward to the prospect that an American peace plan will be imposed. If indeed there is such a plan being prepared, then the recent U.S.-Israel tensions over construction in east Jerusalem may only be Act I in a much longer drama that the two countries are about to face.
We are in a period in which the U.S.-Israel relationship appears to be in flux, but it is hard for many observers to establish whether the policies of the Obama administration represent a sharp break in U.S. policy toward Israel or a continuation of past U.S. policies. Will military ties between the two countries be affected? According to a charge that has been associated with officers in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Israel’s disagreements with the Palestinians, or Israel’s construction efforts, have a negative effect on the U.S. military posture in the Middle East, with some reports even going so far as to suggest that they risk the lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, on the basis of past experience, is it likely that the U.S. and Israel will ultimately resolve their differences, or are the present gaps between the two countries so wide that their long-term relationship will change?
The Neighborhoods of Eastern Jerusalem Were Captured in a War of Self-Defense
The present tensions in U.S.-Israel relations appeared to erupt in response to an Israeli building project in the Jewish neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo in Jerusalem, where 1,600 new apartments were approved by a local zoning board. Ramat Shlomo is one of several Jerusalem neighborhoods that were established in Jerusalem in territories that were captured by Israel as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel formally extended Israeli law to these parts of its newly united capital.
Formally the U.S. did not recognize the annexation by Israel of the eastern parts of Jerusalem in July 1967. And while past administrations did not support Israeli construction of new neighborhoods, they did not let this issue disrupt the overall U.S.-Israel relationship. Much of the present discord in the relationship is partly attributable to the fact that the background of how Israel entered the eastern parts of Jerusalem has been forgotten. It is important to remember that Israel entered the eastern parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank in what it saw as a war of self-defense.
We are in a period in which the U.S.-Israel relationship appears to be in flux, but it is hard for many observers to establish whether the policies of the Obama administration represent a sharp break in U.S. policy toward Israel or a continuation of past U.S. policies. Will military ties between the two countries be affected? According to a charge that has been associated with officers in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Israel’s disagreements with the Palestinians, or Israel’s construction efforts, have a negative effect on the U.S. military posture in the Middle East, with some reports even going so far as to suggest that they risk the lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, on the basis of past experience, is it likely that the U.S. and Israel will ultimately resolve their differences, or are the present gaps between the two countries so wide that their long-term relationship will change?
The Neighborhoods of Eastern Jerusalem Were Captured in a War of Self-Defense
The present tensions in U.S.-Israel relations appeared to erupt in response to an Israeli building project in the Jewish neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo in Jerusalem, where 1,600 new apartments were approved by a local zoning board. Ramat Shlomo is one of several Jerusalem neighborhoods that were established in Jerusalem in territories that were captured by Israel as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel formally extended Israeli law to these parts of its newly united capital.
Formally the U.S. did not recognize the annexation by Israel of the eastern parts of Jerusalem in July 1967. And while past administrations did not support Israeli construction of new neighborhoods, they did not let this issue disrupt the overall U.S.-Israel relationship. Much of the present discord in the relationship is partly attributable to the fact that the background of how Israel entered the eastern parts of Jerusalem has been forgotten. It is important to remember that Israel entered the eastern parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank in what it saw as a war of self-defense.
Factually, Israel only entered these areas after it was attacked, and after it requested that the Jordanians not join the Egyptian war effort. That didn’t happen. There were Jordanian artillery attacks throughout Jerusalem and all of Israel. There was movement of Jordanian ground forces into areas that were previously no-man’s land, and Israel responded and captured the eastern parts of Jerusalem.
The Soviet Union, which was an adversary of the State of Israel back in 1967, tried to have Israel branded as the aggressor in that war. The Soviets first went to the Security Council and failed. Then they went to the General Assembly, which is not exactly Israel’s home territory, and also failed. The new situation produced a particular dilemma for U.S. policy about how to treat the issue of Jerusalem. On the one hand, Israel had now moved into territories which were previously not in its possession. But on the other hand, there were fundamental problems with the status quo ante. Jerusalem had originally been slated to be internationalized for ten years as a corpus separatum under Resolution 181, that the UN failed to implement, and the city was invaded in 1948 by an Arab war coalition that included the Arab Legion. The UN secretary general in 1948 called that invasion a war of aggression. And as a result of that war, the Jews were ethnically cleansed from the areas that came under Jordanian control, and were denied access to Jewish holy sites.
To call for a restoration of the status quo ante would mean that the U.S. backed the return of an illegal situation that was imposed in 1948, which also denied religious freedom. Ultimately, the international community decided not to restore the status quo ante that existed prior to the war, and sought some other kind of outcome, which was reflected in the resolutions and decisions taken with respect to Jerusalem. Following the war, UN Security Council Resolution 242 was adopted in November 1967, and did not call for Israel to return to the pre-1967 lines. It called for a withdrawal from territories but not from all the territories, which is what the Soviet Union was insisting upon. Resolution 242 did not mention Jerusalem. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at the time, Arthur Goldberg, wrote to the New York Times in 1980 that the Johnson administration kept Jerusalem out of 242 intentionally.
Shifting U.S. Policies on Jerusalem
U.S. policy on Jerusalem went through different shifts. Back in 1948, the U.S. was originally committed to the failed internationalization proposals in UN General Assembly Resolution 181. This original position was quickly replaced in the 1950s by acceptance of the 1949 armistice agreements.
When President Richard Nixon came to the White House in 1969, there was a definite hardening of the U.S. position on the issue of Jerusalem. For the first time, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Charles Yost, described Jerusalem as “occupied territory,” terminology that had not been used by Ambassador Arthur Goldberg, who served under President Johnson. Under Nixon,
4
the United States did not veto or even abstain from resolutions that disagreed with Israeli policy on Jerusalem in 1969, 1970, and 1971. In successive administrations, we see that the U.S. did not want the issue of Jerusalem addressed by the UN Security Council, and we see a movement of U.S. policy much closer to the Israeli position. No U.S. administration formally recognized Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem in July 1967. Nonetheless, in the past we saw the U.S. and Israel coming to a modus vivendi with respect to Israeli policy in Jerusalem, when Israel built various neighborhoods in the eastern parts of the city.
For example, Gilo, in southern Jerusalem, with nearly 30,000 residents, was founded in 1971 at the time of the Nixon administration. Though Israel had differences with the U.S., those differences did not lead to a crisis in relations between the two countries. In 1973 the Neve Yaakov neighborhood was reestablished. It was originally established in 1924, but was overrun by the Arab Legion in 1948. The Ramat Eshkol neighborhood was established in 1969 at the very beginning of the Nixon administration. The Ramot neighborhood, established in 1974, has over 40,000 people living there today.
A neighborhood called Har Homa in southeastern Jerusalem, next to Gilo, was established in 1997 during the Clinton administration. Israel had just completed negotiations with the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat over the Hebron agreement. At that time, the Israeli government informed the Clinton administration that after completing the deal on Hebron, it would be taking some initiatives in Jerusalem that were necessary because of the considerable shortage of housing in both the Jewish sector and even to some extent in the Arab sector. The Clinton administration was informed when Israel decided to approve the Har Homa project, which the Israeli government saw as compensation for the big initiative it took in signing the Hebron agreement. Now the Clinton administration did not say it welcomed this initiative, but it basically accepted that Israel was going to go ahead and build Har Homa.
On two occasions in 1997, the Arab bloc, together with some other countries, initiated a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would have condemned Israel for constructing Har Homa. And on those two occasions the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Bill Richardson, vetoed those resolutions under instructions from the Clinton administration. So even though we didn’t always agree on the details of the legal status of the territory, we were able to cooperate, we were able to work together, and again a modus vivendi was worked out.
Ramat Shlomo, the current Jerusalem neighborhood being discussed, was originally begun in 1995 during the period when President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin were in office. So again, in the past, the U.S. did not actively oppose Israeli efforts to construct housing for both the Jewish sector and the Arab sector in the eastern parts of Jerusalem.
The policies of the Obama administration definitely represent a shift in U.S. policy towards Israel and Jerusalem because of the efforts to have Israel freeze all construction in the eastern parts of the city. The original Oslo Agreements in 1993 do not require a freeze of any kind on construction in Jerusalem. Furthermore, under the Oslo Agreements, Jerusalem was treated as having a completely different status than the West Bank and the city was kept under Israeli control, while seen as an issue for permanent status negotiations in the future. Israel kept building for its residents, just as Palestinian Arabs built for their needs in the areas under their control and elsewhere.
The relationship between the United States and Israel is not confined to their governments. It involves the people of the United States, who overwhelmingly support the State of Israel, and it also involves the U.S. Congress which reflects the will of the people. While U.S. administrations have not formally recognized Israel’s unification of Jerusalem, back in 1995 the U.S. Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Act by a massive bipartisan majority. It called for the movement of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Equally important, it also acknowledged that Jerusalem must remain united under Israeli sovereignty.
Does Construction in Jerusalem Affect the U.S. Military Posture?
Israel is not within the area of responsibility of CENTCOM, the U.S. Central Command. U.S. military planners kept Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey within the responsibility of EUCOM, the U.S. European command, while in 1983, Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf States were put under the responsibility of CENTCOM. The statement by CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on March 10, 2010, says the whole issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict fits into a category called “Cross-Cutting Challenges to Security and Stability.” It doesn’t fit into the more severe category of “Significant Threats.” General Petraeus’ written statement says that the enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to the U.S. ability to advance its interests. But he did not specifically make this point in his oral remarks, and in neither his oral or written remarks did he suggest that Israel had become a strategic burden because its policies threatened U.S. soldiers, as some have tried to suggest.
All of this ignores the posture statements and other testimony given by EUCOM commanders, which actually give Israel a lot of praise. Israel appears as an asset. General Bantz Craddock was the EUCOM commander in 2007 and spoke extensively about Israel in his appearance that year before the House Armed Services Committee. He specifically described Israel as the closest ally of the United States in the Middle East. Moreover, the U.S. ambassador to Israel at the time, Richard Jones, spoke about Israeli research and development on countermeasures against IEDs, those highly lethal roadside bombs used by insurgents that had become the single largest cause of U.S. casualties. Jones disclosed that Israel was helping the United States Army in Iraq in this area. In short, Israeli efforts were saving American lives, and not putting them at risk, as some irresponsible pundits contended.
Will the Relationship Recover?
Is it possible for the U.S.-Israel relationship to recover from the recent tensions? If history is any guide, we have had such problems at different times in the past and we have recovered each time. At the very beginning of the Reagan administration, in 1981, Prime Minister Menachem Begin decided that it was necessary for the future of Israel to destroy Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear reactor in Baghdad. Israel took upon itself to do that and U.S.-Israel relations went into a period of extreme tension. Yet by 1983, the United States and Israel reached the first of a series of strategic cooperation agreements that brought their military relationship to unprecedented heights. So there was a crisis for about two years, which basically ended as the U.S. and Israel pulled together because they had paramount strategic interests and reasons to cooperate. Ultimately, the strategic challenges that both countries faced and saw in a similar light trumped the differences that existed in the background of the destruction of the Iraqi reactor.
The period of 1989 to 1990 was another one of unusual tension in the U.S.-Israel relationship, when President Bush and his Secretary of State, James Baker, got into direct conflict with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir over the question of settlement construction. We remember Secretary Baker saying to Israel: “When you’re serious about peace, here’s the White House phone number.” Then in 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the Middle East changed entirely, and in the First Gulf War the military cooperation between the U.S. and Israel reached new heights. Strategic circumstances led both countries to realize their mutual interests and overcome their differences.
The United States and Israel have been tied by mutual strategic interests for many years, and those interests will eventually trump the differences that we’re seeing today. The major strategic interest that both countries share is the threat of Iran. The Iranian nuclear program is advancing steadily towards a point where it will cross the nuclear threshold in a military sense. Therefore, the restoration of U.S.-Israel cooperation and understanding is probably a greater imperative today than it ever was in the past. It is extremely important for both countries to bury their differences because the only ones who are smiling during this entire episode are the leadership in Iran, who are continuing to move toward a military nuclear program.
There is one caveat to the idea that U.S.-Israel relations will get back on track in the near future. It is possible to discern a growing view, which has been reported in the Washington Post, that the Obama administration intends to put on the table its own plan for Middle East peace, based on a nearly full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines, that most Israeli planners view as militarily indefensible. As the Palestinians see this scenario unfold, their incentive to re-enter negotiations will decline as they look forward to the prospect that an American peace plan will be imposed. An Obama plan for a complete Israeli retreat of this sort would not only deny the Jewish state “defensible borders,” but would also divide Jerusalem, placing the Old City and its holy sites within Palestinian jurisdiction.
If indeed there is such a plan being prepared, then the recent U.S.-Israel tensions over construction in east Jerusalem may only be Act I in a much longer drama that the two countries are about to face. Undoubtedly there are sober voices in the U.S. government today that would advise against the President taking such a course of action. But should he indeed advance a new division of Jerusalem, then in the months ahead the U.S. and Israel will be facing a serious crisis in their relationship, just as the military threats from Iran can be expected to worsen.
* * *
Ambassador Dore Gold, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, was the eleventh Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations (1997-1999). Dr. Gold served as foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his first government and has advised Israeli governments since that time on U.S.-Israel relations. He is the author of the best-selling books: The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City (Regnery, 2007), and The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West (Regnery, 2009). In 1993 he wrote a book on the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) for the Israel Ministry of Defense publishing house. This Jerusalem Issue Brief is based on his presentation to the Institute for Contemporary Affairs in Jerusalem on March 25, 2010.
This Jerusalem Issue Brief is available online at:
http://www.jcpa.org
YOUR HEALTH BILL
Taxes
April 1, 2010
THE RICH CAN'T PAY FOR OBAMACARE
President Barack Obama's new health care legislation aims to raise $20 billion over 10 years to pay for the extensive new entitlements. How? By slapping a 3.8 percent "Medicare tax" on interest and rental income, dividends and capital gains of couples earning more than $250,000, or singles with more than $200,000, along with raising the top two individual income tax rates and other measures.
But it won't work, says Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute:
* The maximum tax rate fell to 28 percent in 1988-1990 from 50 percent in 1986, yet individual income tax receipts rose to 8.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1989 from 7.9 percent in 1986.
* The top tax rate rose to 31 percent in 1991 and revenue fell to 7.6 percent of GDP in 1992.
* The top tax rate was increased to 39.6 percent in 1993, along with numerous other major revenue enhancers, yet individual tax revenues were only 7.8 percent of GDP in 1993, 8.1 percent in 1994 and did not get back to the 1989 level until 1995.
According to Reynolds, a few of the ways that taxpayers will react to the Obama administration's tax plans include:
* Professionals and companies who currently file under the individual income tax as partnerships, LLCs or Subchapter S corporations will form C-corporations to shelter income.
* Investors who jumped into dividend-paying stocks after 2003 when the tax rate fell to 15 percent will dump many of those shares in favor of tax-free municipal bonds if the dividend tax goes up to 23.8 percent as planned.
* Faced with a 23.8 percent capital gains tax, high-income investors will avoid realizing gains in taxable accounts unless they have offsetting losses.
In short, when marginal tax rates go up, the amount of reported income goes down. The belief that higher tax rates on the rich could eventually raise significant sums over the next decade is a dangerous delusion, because it means the already horrific estimates of long-term deficits are seriously understated, says Reynolds.
Source: Alan Reynolds, "The Rich Can't Pay for ObamaCare," Wall Street Journal, March 30, 2010.
For text:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304370304575151682845921038.html
Ungated version available at:
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11631
For more on Taxes:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=20
//////////////////////////
"Jeanette Nordstrom"
There's not an economist in the whole world who believes a government should raise taxes during a deep recession. Unfortunately, that's exactly what the White House is doing. ObamaCare is only one week old and already it is slamming employers and retirees. Numerous S&P 500 businesses announced this week that health care legislation was forcing them to declare $4.5 billion in lost earnings. At the stroke of President Obama's pen, AT&T experienced a $1 billion tax hike, John Deere was hit with $150 million and Caterpillar recorded $100 million.
////////////////////////////
Daily Policy Digest
Taxes
March 31, 2010
OBAMA'S $3,000,000,000,000 TAX HIKE
When he released his new budget proposal on February 1, President Barack Obama asserted that the government "simply cannot continue to spend as if deficits don't have consequences; as if waste doesn't matter; as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money; as if we can ignore this challenge for another generation."
Yet the President's new budget does exactly that, according to Brian Riedl, the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation:
* The budget would permanently expand the federal government by 3 percent of gross domestic product over 2007 prerecession levels.
* Taxes would be raised on all Americans by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade.
* It would raise taxes for 3.2 million small businesses and upper-income taxpayers by an average of $300,000 over the next decade.
* For every dollar spent in 2010, 42 cents would be borrowed.
In addition, the budget:
* Would run a $1.6 trillion deficit in 2010 -- $143 billion higher than the recession-driven 2009 deficit.
* Would leave permanent deficits that top $1 trillion as late as 2020.
* Would dump an additional $74,000 per household of debt into the laps of our children and grandchildren.
* Would double the publicly held national debt to over $18 trillion.
According to Riedl, President Obama has offered a budget that does nothing to address the nation's serious short-term and long-term fiscal problems -- and indeed makes them worse.
Source: Brian Riedl, "Obama's $3,000,000,000,000 Tax Hike," Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2010.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703976804575114151637806636.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTSecondBucket
For more on Taxes:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=20
April 1, 2010
THE RICH CAN'T PAY FOR OBAMACARE
President Barack Obama's new health care legislation aims to raise $20 billion over 10 years to pay for the extensive new entitlements. How? By slapping a 3.8 percent "Medicare tax" on interest and rental income, dividends and capital gains of couples earning more than $250,000, or singles with more than $200,000, along with raising the top two individual income tax rates and other measures.
But it won't work, says Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute:
* The maximum tax rate fell to 28 percent in 1988-1990 from 50 percent in 1986, yet individual income tax receipts rose to 8.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1989 from 7.9 percent in 1986.
* The top tax rate rose to 31 percent in 1991 and revenue fell to 7.6 percent of GDP in 1992.
* The top tax rate was increased to 39.6 percent in 1993, along with numerous other major revenue enhancers, yet individual tax revenues were only 7.8 percent of GDP in 1993, 8.1 percent in 1994 and did not get back to the 1989 level until 1995.
According to Reynolds, a few of the ways that taxpayers will react to the Obama administration's tax plans include:
* Professionals and companies who currently file under the individual income tax as partnerships, LLCs or Subchapter S corporations will form C-corporations to shelter income.
* Investors who jumped into dividend-paying stocks after 2003 when the tax rate fell to 15 percent will dump many of those shares in favor of tax-free municipal bonds if the dividend tax goes up to 23.8 percent as planned.
* Faced with a 23.8 percent capital gains tax, high-income investors will avoid realizing gains in taxable accounts unless they have offsetting losses.
In short, when marginal tax rates go up, the amount of reported income goes down. The belief that higher tax rates on the rich could eventually raise significant sums over the next decade is a dangerous delusion, because it means the already horrific estimates of long-term deficits are seriously understated, says Reynolds.
Source: Alan Reynolds, "The Rich Can't Pay for ObamaCare," Wall Street Journal, March 30, 2010.
For text:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304370304575151682845921038.html
Ungated version available at:
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11631
For more on Taxes:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=20
//////////////////////////
"Jeanette Nordstrom"
There's not an economist in the whole world who believes a government should raise taxes during a deep recession. Unfortunately, that's exactly what the White House is doing. ObamaCare is only one week old and already it is slamming employers and retirees. Numerous S&P 500 businesses announced this week that health care legislation was forcing them to declare $4.5 billion in lost earnings. At the stroke of President Obama's pen, AT&T experienced a $1 billion tax hike, John Deere was hit with $150 million and Caterpillar recorded $100 million.
////////////////////////////
Daily Policy Digest
Taxes
March 31, 2010
OBAMA'S $3,000,000,000,000 TAX HIKE
When he released his new budget proposal on February 1, President Barack Obama asserted that the government "simply cannot continue to spend as if deficits don't have consequences; as if waste doesn't matter; as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money; as if we can ignore this challenge for another generation."
Yet the President's new budget does exactly that, according to Brian Riedl, the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation:
* The budget would permanently expand the federal government by 3 percent of gross domestic product over 2007 prerecession levels.
* Taxes would be raised on all Americans by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade.
* It would raise taxes for 3.2 million small businesses and upper-income taxpayers by an average of $300,000 over the next decade.
* For every dollar spent in 2010, 42 cents would be borrowed.
In addition, the budget:
* Would run a $1.6 trillion deficit in 2010 -- $143 billion higher than the recession-driven 2009 deficit.
* Would leave permanent deficits that top $1 trillion as late as 2020.
* Would dump an additional $74,000 per household of debt into the laps of our children and grandchildren.
* Would double the publicly held national debt to over $18 trillion.
According to Riedl, President Obama has offered a budget that does nothing to address the nation's serious short-term and long-term fiscal problems -- and indeed makes them worse.
Source: Brian Riedl, "Obama's $3,000,000,000,000 Tax Hike," Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2010.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703976804575114151637806636.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTSecondBucket
For more on Taxes:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=20
Gen. David Petraeus: TOWING THE PARTY LINE
'I didn’t say Israel intransigent'
By YAAKOV KATZ
25/03/2010 17:19
Petraeus phones IDF chief to reassure him comments spun out of context [video].
Talkbacks (46)
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the US Military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), telephoned IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi on Wednesday night to reassure Israel that comments attributed to him regarding supposed Israeli intransigence were spun out of context.
Last week, Petraeus testified before the Senate’s Armed Services Committee. A 56-page report that CENTCOM had submitted alongside Petraeus’s oral testimony caused a storm by claiming that Israeli intransigence was a problem for the US military and was fomenting conflict in the Middle East.
“The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests,” the CENTCOM report read. “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in the [Middle East] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world.”
The above words, which appeared in the report but were not uttered by Petraeus in his oral testimony, were pounced upon by critics of Israel as confirmation of what many of them have said for years – that Israel is the source of instability in the region.
On Wednesday, though, Petraeus poured cold water on the written testimony. In an appearance at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire, he told reporters that his testimony had been spun by bloggers.
“There’s a 56-page document that we submitted that has a statement in it that describes various factors that influence the strategic context in which we operate, and among those we listed the Mideast peace process,” he said, according to a transcript of the press conference that appeared on the Web site of The American Spectator monthly. “We noted in there that there was a perception at times that America sides with Israel and so forth. And I mean, that is a perception. It is there. I don’t think that’s disputable. But I think people inferred from what that said and then repeated it a couple of times and bloggers picked it up and spun it. And I think that has been unhelpful, frankly.”
The report, he continued, included additional “perceptions” in the Middle East, which falls within CENTCOM’s area of responsibility, including the fact that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies both the Holocaust and Israel’s right to exist.
“So we have all the factors in there, but this is just one, and it was pulled out of this 56-page document, which was not what I read to the Senate at all,” he said.
During the brief press conference and following a question by American Spectator reporter Philip Klein, Petraeus revealed that he had called the IDF chief of General Staff, whom he referred to as “Gabi,” and reassured him that the reports were inaccurate.
The IDF Spokesman’s Office confirmed that the two men had spoken and officials said that the fact that Petraeus referred to Ashkenazi as “Gabi” was likely a sign of the close ties between the generals.
Following the reports that emerged last week, Israeli defense official expressed grave concern regarding the remarks attributed to Petraeus, warning that they could presage a downturn in Israeli-US military ties. Officials said on Thursday that it was possible that the remarks, attributed to Petraeus, who has been touted as a Republican candidate in the 2012 presidential election, were purposely blown out of context by the Obama administration.
While backing away from the idea that Israel was the source of instability, Petraeus did stand by the CENTCOM report’s assertion that there were leaders in the region who held this view.
“If you go to the moderate leaders in the Arab world, they will tell you that the lack of progress in the Mideast peace process causes them problems,” he said. “Their concern is that those who promote violence in Gaza and the West Bank will claim that because there is no progress diplomatically, the only way to get progress is through violence, and that is their concern and that is what we were really trying to convey.”
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that Israeli-Palestinian tensions are affecting US national security interests in the region.
“The lack of progress toward Middle East peace is clearly an issue that’s exploited by our adversaries in the region” and “does affect US national security interests in the region,” Gates said at a press conference in Washington, AFP reported.
Defense officials said that the defense establishment was not concerned by the possibility that the diplomatic crisis with Washington would impair defense ties. Proof, the officials said, was that an IAF and Defense Ministry delegation signed a deal this week to buy three giant Hercules military transport aircraft.
The deal, which had been in the works for a year, was scheduled months ago to be signed in March, and its finalization was not connected to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US, officials said.
“The ties are extremely strong between the defense establishments, and traditionally – even when there have been ups and downs on the political level – the commitment to Israeli security has remained steadfast,” one senior Defense Ministry official said.
///////////////////////////
WHO IS CORRECT? OBAMA AND HIS GENERAL OR THIS GUY?
Three-quarters of Congress signs letter calling to ease tensions with Israel
Israel Helps Save Lives of US Soldiers, Says Dore Gold
Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu - IsraelNN.com, April 6th, 2010
Contradicting media-fed rumors that Israel’s policies endanger the lives of American soldiers, Dore Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, said that Israel is a strategic ally and has helped saved the lives of American citizens and soldiers.
In a recent column in the Washington Examiner, Gold pointed out that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu highlighted the Israeli-American alliance at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention last month. Prime Netanyahu told his audience, “Israel shares with America everything” it knows about their common enemies, especially intelligence.
Gold wrote that the Obama administration “has a special responsibility to contain its tensions with Israel” in order that the diplomatic disagreement not ruin the strategic relationship.
He refuted allegations that Israel’s construction of homes for Jews in all of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, as well as its general approach to demands of the Palestinian Authority, endanger American soldiers fighting terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The theory was incorrectly reported as being expressed by U.S. General Petraeus, head of the American Central Command, who later denied having made any such comments.
Gold (pictured) pointed out that on the contrary, Israel actually has saved American lives. He noted that as recently as three years ago, “the commander of EUCOM, Gen. Bantz Craddock, told the House Armed Services Committee that ‘in the Middle East, Israel is the U.S.’s closest ally that consistently and directly supports our interests.’”
The former ambassador also said that American forces in Iraq used Israeli technology to protect U.S. soldiers “from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that were responsible for most U.S. casualties in the Iraq War.”
Previous examples of Israeli help include supplying the American army with Soviet weapons system. Gold added, “Gen. George Keegan, the former head of U.S. Air Force Intelligence, was quoted …in 1986 as saying that the intelligence the United States received from Israel could not have been obtained if the U.S. had ‘five CIAs.'”
Critics of Israel have noted that the American government gives Israeli billions of dollars in military aid, but they invariably neglect to mention that the American military-industrial complex needs Israel almost equally. The assistance to Israel is conditioned on Israel's buying approximately three-quarters of the materials and technology in the United States.
3 in 4 U.S. mosques preach anti-West extremism
The WorldNetDaily story below is a MUST-READ, for two reasons. First, the study reported in the story confirms what a Freedom House study of a few years ago found – that a high percentage of mosques in the United States are promoting hatred, violence, jihad, and the goal of sharia law to replace American constitutional law.
Second, that there is no, we repeat, no systematic U.S. government effort to investigate these mosques. Stunning!
BY ACT
HOMELAND INSECURITY
Study: 3 in 4 U.S. mosques preach anti-West extremism
Secret survey exposes widespread radicalism
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
An undercover survey of more than 100 mosques and Islamic schools in America has exposed widespread radicalism, including the alarming finding that 3 in 4 Islamic centers are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism, WND has learned [emphasis added].
The Mapping Sharia in America Project, sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, has trained former counterintelligence and counterterrorism agents from the FBI, CIA and U.S. military, who are skilled in Arabic and Urdu, to conduct undercover reconnaissance at some 2,300 mosques and Islamic centers and schools across the country.
"So far of 100 mapped, 75 should be on a watchlist," an official familiar with the project said [emphasis added].
Many of the Islamic centers are operating under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian government and U.S. front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt.
Frank Gaffney, a former Pentagon official who runs the Center for Security Policy, says the results of the survey have not yet been published. But he confirmed that "the vast majority" are inciting insurrection and jihad through sermons by Saudi-trained imams and anti-Western literature, videos and textbooks.
The project, headed by David Yerushalmi, a lawyer and expert on sharia law, has finished collecting data from the first cohort of 102 mosques and schools. Preliminary findings indicate that almost 80 percent of the group exhibit a high level of sharia-compliance and jihadi threat, including:
*
Ultra-orthodox worship in which women are separated from men in the prayer hall and must enter the mosque from a separate, usually back, entrance; and are required to wear hijabs.
*
Sermons that preach women are inferior to men and can be beaten for disobedience; that non-Muslims, particularly Jews, are infidels and inferior to Muslims; that jihad or support of jihad is not only a Muslim's duty but the noblest way, and suicide bombers and other so-called "martyrs" are worthy of the highest praise; and that an Islamic caliphate should one day encompass the U.S. [emphasis added].
*
Solicitation of financial support for jihad [emphasis added].
*
Bookstores that sell books, CDs and DVDs promoting jihad and glorifying martyrdom.
Though not all mosques in America are radicalized, many have tended to serve as safe havens and meeting points for Islamic terrorist groups. Experts say there are at least 40 episodes of extremists and terrorists being connected to mosques in the past decade alone.
Some of the 9/11 hijackers, in fact, received aid and counsel from one of the largest mosques in the Washington, D.C., area. Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center is one of the mosques identified by undercover investigators as a hive of terrorist activity and other extremism.
It was founded and is currently run by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Imams there preach what is called "jihad qital," which means physical jihad, and incite violence and hatred against the U.S.
Dar al-Hijrah's ultimate goal, investigators say, is to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state governed by sharia law [emphasis added].
Another D.C.-area mosque, the ADAMS Center, was founded and financed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has been one of the top distributors of Wahhabist anti-Semitic and anti-Christian dogma.
Even with such radical mosques operating in its backyard, the U.S. government has not undertaken its own systematic investigation of U.S. mosques [emphasis added].
In contrast, European Union security officials are analyzing member-state mosques, examining the training and funding sources of imams, in a large-scale project.
Some U.S. lawmakers want the U.S. to conduct its own investigation.
"We have too many mosques in this country," said Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y. "There are too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully."
Second, that there is no, we repeat, no systematic U.S. government effort to investigate these mosques. Stunning!
BY ACT
HOMELAND INSECURITY
Study: 3 in 4 U.S. mosques preach anti-West extremism
Secret survey exposes widespread radicalism
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
An undercover survey of more than 100 mosques and Islamic schools in America has exposed widespread radicalism, including the alarming finding that 3 in 4 Islamic centers are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism, WND has learned [emphasis added].
The Mapping Sharia in America Project, sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, has trained former counterintelligence and counterterrorism agents from the FBI, CIA and U.S. military, who are skilled in Arabic and Urdu, to conduct undercover reconnaissance at some 2,300 mosques and Islamic centers and schools across the country.
"So far of 100 mapped, 75 should be on a watchlist," an official familiar with the project said [emphasis added].
Many of the Islamic centers are operating under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian government and U.S. front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt.
Frank Gaffney, a former Pentagon official who runs the Center for Security Policy, says the results of the survey have not yet been published. But he confirmed that "the vast majority" are inciting insurrection and jihad through sermons by Saudi-trained imams and anti-Western literature, videos and textbooks.
The project, headed by David Yerushalmi, a lawyer and expert on sharia law, has finished collecting data from the first cohort of 102 mosques and schools. Preliminary findings indicate that almost 80 percent of the group exhibit a high level of sharia-compliance and jihadi threat, including:
*
Ultra-orthodox worship in which women are separated from men in the prayer hall and must enter the mosque from a separate, usually back, entrance; and are required to wear hijabs.
*
Sermons that preach women are inferior to men and can be beaten for disobedience; that non-Muslims, particularly Jews, are infidels and inferior to Muslims; that jihad or support of jihad is not only a Muslim's duty but the noblest way, and suicide bombers and other so-called "martyrs" are worthy of the highest praise; and that an Islamic caliphate should one day encompass the U.S. [emphasis added].
*
Solicitation of financial support for jihad [emphasis added].
*
Bookstores that sell books, CDs and DVDs promoting jihad and glorifying martyrdom.
Though not all mosques in America are radicalized, many have tended to serve as safe havens and meeting points for Islamic terrorist groups. Experts say there are at least 40 episodes of extremists and terrorists being connected to mosques in the past decade alone.
Some of the 9/11 hijackers, in fact, received aid and counsel from one of the largest mosques in the Washington, D.C., area. Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center is one of the mosques identified by undercover investigators as a hive of terrorist activity and other extremism.
It was founded and is currently run by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Imams there preach what is called "jihad qital," which means physical jihad, and incite violence and hatred against the U.S.
Dar al-Hijrah's ultimate goal, investigators say, is to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state governed by sharia law [emphasis added].
Another D.C.-area mosque, the ADAMS Center, was founded and financed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has been one of the top distributors of Wahhabist anti-Semitic and anti-Christian dogma.
Even with such radical mosques operating in its backyard, the U.S. government has not undertaken its own systematic investigation of U.S. mosques [emphasis added].
In contrast, European Union security officials are analyzing member-state mosques, examining the training and funding sources of imams, in a large-scale project.
Some U.S. lawmakers want the U.S. to conduct its own investigation.
"We have too many mosques in this country," said Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y. "There are too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully."
ERIC HOFFER ON JEWS
This is reprint of May 1968
THIS WAS WRITTEN IN 1968 41 years ago - Astonishing!
You probably don't remember the name Eric Hoffer.
He was a longshoreman who turned into a philosopher, wrote columns for newspapers and some books.
He was a non-Jewish American social philosopher.
He was born in 1902 and died in 1983, after writing nine books and winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
His first book, The True Believer, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a classic.
Eric Hoffer was one of the most influential American philosophers and free thinkers of the 20th Century. His books are still widely read and quoted today. Acclaimed for his thoughts on mass movements and fanaticism, Hoffer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983. Hopewell Publications awards the best in independent publishing across a wide range of categories, singling out the most thought provoking titles in books and short prose, on a yearly basis in honor of Eric Hoffer.
Here is one of his columns from 1968 -- 41 years ago! Some things never change.
ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION
By Eric Hoffer (LA Times 5/26/68)
The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it. Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese--and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.
Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.
Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June, he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.
The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts and Jewish resources.
Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general. I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel, so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us.
http://www.nycat.org/
THIS WAS WRITTEN IN 1968 41 years ago - Astonishing!
You probably don't remember the name Eric Hoffer.
He was a longshoreman who turned into a philosopher, wrote columns for newspapers and some books.
He was a non-Jewish American social philosopher.
He was born in 1902 and died in 1983, after writing nine books and winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
His first book, The True Believer, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a classic.
Eric Hoffer was one of the most influential American philosophers and free thinkers of the 20th Century. His books are still widely read and quoted today. Acclaimed for his thoughts on mass movements and fanaticism, Hoffer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983. Hopewell Publications awards the best in independent publishing across a wide range of categories, singling out the most thought provoking titles in books and short prose, on a yearly basis in honor of Eric Hoffer.
Here is one of his columns from 1968 -- 41 years ago! Some things never change.
ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION
By Eric Hoffer (LA Times 5/26/68)
The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it. Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese--and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.
Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.
Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June, he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.
The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts and Jewish resources.
Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general. I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel, so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us.
http://www.nycat.org/
Grassfire Nation: SHOULD THEY BE HEARD?
From the Desk of:
Steve Elliott, Grassfire Nation
Since passage of ObamaCare and the takeover
of one-sixth of our nation's economy, I'm seeing
tangible signs of a massive grassroots counter-offensive...
Right here at Grassfire Nation, our statement of protest
initiative has far exceeded my expectations. Over the last
several days, we've been awash, hand-delivering more than
375,000 individual letters of outrage to lawmakers who
supported ObamaCare.
In each of those 375,000 letters to lawmakers, the personal
outrage jumps off the page-opposing lawmakers actions,
supporting lawsuits challenging the constitutionality
of ObamaCare and making it clear to all who voted for
the takeover that there will be no rest until they are
voted from office!
This is not what President Obama envisioned when he proudly,
and arrogantly stood before the American people after
passage of his plan that "this is what change looks like."
He's counting on you and I to fall in line - to follow like
lost sheep even as our nation is co-opted before our eyes!
And art, he and his socialist cohorts are
banking on you having a short memory come November...
+ + Half-a-million Statements of Protest!
I just received a message that we have "countless" more
letters of protest waiting to be printed and delivered...
With your help, I want to have delivered 500,000 CITIZEN
PROTESTS by the Tax Day Tea Party Events in D.C. on
April 15
art, I'm so appreciative that you took a leadership
role in this important initiative, but to reach our goal
of 500,000 citizen protests, I need you to stand with me
and our team just a bit longer.
Have them click below to take action:
http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?u=26880&PID=24022680
Again, let them know that there is NO CHARGE for delivering
their statements of protest to their two Wisconsin
Senators and Representative - Grassfire Nation is absorbing
the cost as a way of saying "Thanks" for standing with us
during this critical time.
We are not sheep who blindly follow. We will not be bullied
into silence - not now, not with so much at stake. And most
importantly, WE WILL NOT FORGET!
Please schedule your statement of protest right now, and
alert your friends to take action with you.
Steve Elliott
Steve Elliott
Grassfire Nation
P.S. I've just finished an exclusive "Grassfire Report" for
members of our team that I'd love for you to hear. Please
click below to listen to this special audio report featuring
the growing protest about ObamaCare and how Grassfire Nation
is responding:
http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?u=26880&PID=24022680
///////////////////////
America's tea-party movement is set to explode in less than one week with taxpayer rallies in an estimated 800 U.S. cities and a massive march on the White House.
The movement is now putting President Obama himself on notice with a Tax Day tea party.
Plus!
A sixth state – Arizona – now has declared that guns made and kept inside its borders essentially are free from federal application, registration and ownership regulations in a surging movement among states that one supporter describes as a direct challenge to "a government monopoly on the supply of firearms."
Steve Elliott, Grassfire Nation
Since passage of ObamaCare and the takeover
of one-sixth of our nation's economy, I'm seeing
tangible signs of a massive grassroots counter-offensive...
Right here at Grassfire Nation, our statement of protest
initiative has far exceeded my expectations. Over the last
several days, we've been awash, hand-delivering more than
375,000 individual letters of outrage to lawmakers who
supported ObamaCare.
In each of those 375,000 letters to lawmakers, the personal
outrage jumps off the page-opposing lawmakers actions,
supporting lawsuits challenging the constitutionality
of ObamaCare and making it clear to all who voted for
the takeover that there will be no rest until they are
voted from office!
This is not what President Obama envisioned when he proudly,
and arrogantly stood before the American people after
passage of his plan that "this is what change looks like."
He's counting on you and I to fall in line - to follow like
lost sheep even as our nation is co-opted before our eyes!
And art, he and his socialist cohorts are
banking on you having a short memory come November...
+ + Half-a-million Statements of Protest!
I just received a message that we have "countless" more
letters of protest waiting to be printed and delivered...
With your help, I want to have delivered 500,000 CITIZEN
PROTESTS by the Tax Day Tea Party Events in D.C. on
April 15
art, I'm so appreciative that you took a leadership
role in this important initiative, but to reach our goal
of 500,000 citizen protests, I need you to stand with me
and our team just a bit longer.
Have them click below to take action:
http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?u=26880&PID=24022680
Again, let them know that there is NO CHARGE for delivering
their statements of protest to their two Wisconsin
Senators and Representative - Grassfire Nation is absorbing
the cost as a way of saying "Thanks" for standing with us
during this critical time.
We are not sheep who blindly follow. We will not be bullied
into silence - not now, not with so much at stake. And most
importantly, WE WILL NOT FORGET!
Please schedule your statement of protest right now, and
alert your friends to take action with you.
Steve Elliott
Steve Elliott
Grassfire Nation
P.S. I've just finished an exclusive "Grassfire Report" for
members of our team that I'd love for you to hear. Please
click below to listen to this special audio report featuring
the growing protest about ObamaCare and how Grassfire Nation
is responding:
http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?u=26880&PID=24022680
///////////////////////
America's tea-party movement is set to explode in less than one week with taxpayer rallies in an estimated 800 U.S. cities and a massive march on the White House.
The movement is now putting President Obama himself on notice with a Tax Day tea party.
Plus!
A sixth state – Arizona – now has declared that guns made and kept inside its borders essentially are free from federal application, registration and ownership regulations in a surging movement among states that one supporter describes as a direct challenge to "a government monopoly on the supply of firearms."
WHAT LOYAL JEW IS IN FAVOR OF ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION?
U.S. Demands Upon Israel
UNDER THESE CONDITIONS ISRAEL NEED ONLY ACCEDE TO THESE DEMANDS IN ORDER TO ACCEDE TO THE NEXT SET OF DEMANDS TO ACHIEVE ITS OWN DESTRUCTION. THE ARABS HAVE YET TO IMPLEMENT THE OSLO ACCORDS MUCH LESS MAKING ANY SACRIFICE WHATSOEVER FOR PEACE!
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
With this action we are asking your permission to add the name of your
organization to a letter thanking the Members of Congress who recently signed
powerful letters to Secretary Clinton supporting Israel.
The U.S. Administration continues to pressure Israel to accommodate
Palestinian demands upon Israel including:
1. Cease all construction in Jerusalem.
2. Cease expansion of existing homes in so-called "settlements" like Ariel, Maaleh
Adumim, Efrat, Gush Zion, legally the home of Jews for centuries.
3. Release of still more Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails
4. Accommodation of millions of Palestinian "refugees right of return" into
Israel proper.
5. Written commitment that Israel will take to "allow" meaningful peace
negotiations.
6. An easing of the Gaza blockade (there is none - Israel shipped in 750,000
tons of humanitarian supplies last year alone).
7. Further reductions in the number of Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank
needed to protect against terrorist attacks.
8. A two-year deadline to peace negotiations
9. Renew peace talks with a Syria actively engaged in rearming Hezbollah!
Israel is facing increasing danger to its existence should the Administration
succeed in forcing Israel to submit to these demands, which for Israel are self destructive.
This confrontation with America has created a crisis in the US-Israel
relationship.
UNDER THESE CONDITIONS ISRAEL NEED ONLY ACCEDE TO THESE DEMANDS IN ORDER TO ACCEDE TO THE NEXT SET OF DEMANDS TO ACHIEVE ITS OWN DESTRUCTION. THE ARABS HAVE YET TO IMPLEMENT THE OSLO ACCORDS MUCH LESS MAKING ANY SACRIFICE WHATSOEVER FOR PEACE!
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
With this action we are asking your permission to add the name of your
organization to a letter thanking the Members of Congress who recently signed
powerful letters to Secretary Clinton supporting Israel.
The U.S. Administration continues to pressure Israel to accommodate
Palestinian demands upon Israel including:
1. Cease all construction in Jerusalem.
2. Cease expansion of existing homes in so-called "settlements" like Ariel, Maaleh
Adumim, Efrat, Gush Zion, legally the home of Jews for centuries.
3. Release of still more Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails
4. Accommodation of millions of Palestinian "refugees right of return" into
Israel proper.
5. Written commitment that Israel will take to "allow" meaningful peace
negotiations.
6. An easing of the Gaza blockade (there is none - Israel shipped in 750,000
tons of humanitarian supplies last year alone).
7. Further reductions in the number of Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank
needed to protect against terrorist attacks.
8. A two-year deadline to peace negotiations
9. Renew peace talks with a Syria actively engaged in rearming Hezbollah!
Israel is facing increasing danger to its existence should the Administration
succeed in forcing Israel to submit to these demands, which for Israel are self destructive.
This confrontation with America has created a crisis in the US-Israel
relationship.
NOW WE GIVE AWAY Kyrgyzstan -WHO IS NEXT?
Posted: 10 Apr 2010 07:21 PM PDT BY SULTAN
Our allies hate him. Our enemies are laughing at him. Nearly two years after Obama's World Tour in which he did his best to convince voters that he understood global challenges with a high profile tour of a lot of foreign countries (a approach that if it worked should convincingly make every internationally famous rock star a foreign policy expert), his biggest global accomplishment is still his ability to travel around the world to high profile destinations on the taxpayer's shrinking dime.
His attempts at diplomacy consisted of delivering vicious slaps across the faces of longtime allies, from England to Israel, and pathetic love notes to tyrants in Iran, Russia and Venezuela, who responded by openly mocking him.
Last week, in a scene almost worthy of the Godfather, Russia decided to stage a coup in Kyrgyzstan at the same time that Obama was signing a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia's Medvedev. While Obama was exchanging good wishes with the titular head of the regime backing Iran's destabilization of Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia was recognizing their own coup's takeover, with their newly installed puppet leader, Roza Otunbayeva, a Moscow educated Soviet diplomat and top ranking former member of the Kyrgyz Communist Party.
A few hours later, the second secretary of the Lenin regional council, thanked Russia for its "significant support" in the takeover.
Kyrgyzstan's self-proclaimed interim leader thanked Russia on Thursday for its "significant support" in exposing what she said was the nepotistic and criminal regime of President Kurbanbek Bakiyev. Separately, a senior Russian official said Bakiyev had not fulfilled a promise to close a U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan and Moscow would advise the new government there should be only one military base in the former Soviet state, a Russian one.
Which of course is exactly how it will be. And though Kyrgyzstan may be nothing more than a series of odd letters to Obama, it's home to one of the US bases that serves as part of the shrinking supply line for the Surge in Afghanistan. And Putin has just drawn a knife over one more artery feeding supplies to Allied soldiers on the front lines, while Obama preened and posed for the cameras with Medvedev.
The same Administration which threw a global tantrum over the menace of Israeli houses, had nothing to say of course. Just as it had nothing to say when after that, Hillary Clinton was humiliated by the Russians by being subjected to extensive public tirade. It is of course just one of those things that the media can't be bothered to report when faced with truly important stories, like what Michelle Obama wore on her latest foreign trip.
But while most Americans may be deprived of the chance to see Obama's latest screw up in action, just as Russians are treated to stories about radioactive elks or the latest nefarious plots of the Georgians, when something goes wrong on Putin's watch, the rest of the world doesn't live inside that same protective media bubble.
Hardly any American newspaper may be prepared to cover the UK's growing anger at the Obama Administration on the news page, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Not when the one thing that Labor and the Tories can agree on is their frustration and disappointment over the Falklands situation, a crisis that Americans safely enclosed in a bubble of Obamatape also hardly know even exists. Most Russians, before the fall of the USSR, had no idea that their country was bankrupt, losing badly in Afghanistan and was being slapped around by Ronald Reagan. But their ignorance didn't change reality. So too the liberal media's calculated cone of silence on areas that Obama is not prepared to have them explore, does not mean they don't exist and aren't major factors.
The media acts as if it can hardly be expected to notice Prime Minister Gordon Brown joining Israeli PM Netanyahu in ducking Obama's Nuclearapalooza. The growing anger in both countries is just a minor detail. The fact that whoever will be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom next will view Obama as more foe than friend, that too is negligible.
But Obama's diplomacy has cravenly made enemies of friends, and yet failed to make friends of enemies. But then unlike even the Clinton Administration, the Obama Administration is not operating from the position of national interest. They will exploit the rhetoric of national interest, but their grounding is purely ideological. Obama and his minions don't care what America's national interests are, they'll follow their ideological course and America and all her friends can be damned for it.
Obama and his people don't see courting Chavez or alienating Brown as a question of what is good for America, but what a proper liberal should do. How this will hurt or benefit America does not enter into the picture, no more so than it enters into the picture when imposing ObamaCare or Cap and Trade does. Because they are not loyal to any country, only to their political ideology which lets them view themselves as citizens of the world. By taking power in America, they do not actually feel any loyalty toward America. They are simply, "Thinking Globally and Acting Locally." The "Locality" in question just happens to be the United States of America.
While Putin is thinking of Russia, Obama is busy thinking globally. And that in the lingo of the left means sabotaging working countries and hugging a tyrant every day. Imagine a corporation being taken over by people who hate corporations and decide that instead of making widgets, the corporation should instead confiscate its shareholder's assets and turn itself into a non-profit entity that will give away widgets to the Third World, while convincing its rivals that they must do the same thing. That's the situation we're in now.
Obama isn't practicing diplomacy, because he doesn't even understand what that is. Meanwhile our allies are baffled and angered by an America that seems to be behaving completely irrationally from the perspective of a national government. But makes perfect sense for people who are not representing a country, but an ideology. And the result is an alchemy of enmity in which our enemies now both hate and despise us, while our friends are afraid of what we're becoming.
Obama is playing Community Organizer at a global level, without understanding that at the global level, organizing is done along national lines. Like Carter before him, he is pathetically eager to sell out America to some global community that exists only as a progressive myth. And like Carter before him, he has already become a global failure.
Our allies hate him. Our enemies are laughing at him. Nearly two years after Obama's World Tour in which he did his best to convince voters that he understood global challenges with a high profile tour of a lot of foreign countries (a approach that if it worked should convincingly make every internationally famous rock star a foreign policy expert), his biggest global accomplishment is still his ability to travel around the world to high profile destinations on the taxpayer's shrinking dime.
His attempts at diplomacy consisted of delivering vicious slaps across the faces of longtime allies, from England to Israel, and pathetic love notes to tyrants in Iran, Russia and Venezuela, who responded by openly mocking him.
Last week, in a scene almost worthy of the Godfather, Russia decided to stage a coup in Kyrgyzstan at the same time that Obama was signing a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia's Medvedev. While Obama was exchanging good wishes with the titular head of the regime backing Iran's destabilization of Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia was recognizing their own coup's takeover, with their newly installed puppet leader, Roza Otunbayeva, a Moscow educated Soviet diplomat and top ranking former member of the Kyrgyz Communist Party.
A few hours later, the second secretary of the Lenin regional council, thanked Russia for its "significant support" in the takeover.
Kyrgyzstan's self-proclaimed interim leader thanked Russia on Thursday for its "significant support" in exposing what she said was the nepotistic and criminal regime of President Kurbanbek Bakiyev. Separately, a senior Russian official said Bakiyev had not fulfilled a promise to close a U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan and Moscow would advise the new government there should be only one military base in the former Soviet state, a Russian one.
Which of course is exactly how it will be. And though Kyrgyzstan may be nothing more than a series of odd letters to Obama, it's home to one of the US bases that serves as part of the shrinking supply line for the Surge in Afghanistan. And Putin has just drawn a knife over one more artery feeding supplies to Allied soldiers on the front lines, while Obama preened and posed for the cameras with Medvedev.
The same Administration which threw a global tantrum over the menace of Israeli houses, had nothing to say of course. Just as it had nothing to say when after that, Hillary Clinton was humiliated by the Russians by being subjected to extensive public tirade. It is of course just one of those things that the media can't be bothered to report when faced with truly important stories, like what Michelle Obama wore on her latest foreign trip.
But while most Americans may be deprived of the chance to see Obama's latest screw up in action, just as Russians are treated to stories about radioactive elks or the latest nefarious plots of the Georgians, when something goes wrong on Putin's watch, the rest of the world doesn't live inside that same protective media bubble.
Hardly any American newspaper may be prepared to cover the UK's growing anger at the Obama Administration on the news page, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Not when the one thing that Labor and the Tories can agree on is their frustration and disappointment over the Falklands situation, a crisis that Americans safely enclosed in a bubble of Obamatape also hardly know even exists. Most Russians, before the fall of the USSR, had no idea that their country was bankrupt, losing badly in Afghanistan and was being slapped around by Ronald Reagan. But their ignorance didn't change reality. So too the liberal media's calculated cone of silence on areas that Obama is not prepared to have them explore, does not mean they don't exist and aren't major factors.
The media acts as if it can hardly be expected to notice Prime Minister Gordon Brown joining Israeli PM Netanyahu in ducking Obama's Nuclearapalooza. The growing anger in both countries is just a minor detail. The fact that whoever will be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom next will view Obama as more foe than friend, that too is negligible.
But Obama's diplomacy has cravenly made enemies of friends, and yet failed to make friends of enemies. But then unlike even the Clinton Administration, the Obama Administration is not operating from the position of national interest. They will exploit the rhetoric of national interest, but their grounding is purely ideological. Obama and his minions don't care what America's national interests are, they'll follow their ideological course and America and all her friends can be damned for it.
Obama and his people don't see courting Chavez or alienating Brown as a question of what is good for America, but what a proper liberal should do. How this will hurt or benefit America does not enter into the picture, no more so than it enters into the picture when imposing ObamaCare or Cap and Trade does. Because they are not loyal to any country, only to their political ideology which lets them view themselves as citizens of the world. By taking power in America, they do not actually feel any loyalty toward America. They are simply, "Thinking Globally and Acting Locally." The "Locality" in question just happens to be the United States of America.
While Putin is thinking of Russia, Obama is busy thinking globally. And that in the lingo of the left means sabotaging working countries and hugging a tyrant every day. Imagine a corporation being taken over by people who hate corporations and decide that instead of making widgets, the corporation should instead confiscate its shareholder's assets and turn itself into a non-profit entity that will give away widgets to the Third World, while convincing its rivals that they must do the same thing. That's the situation we're in now.
Obama isn't practicing diplomacy, because he doesn't even understand what that is. Meanwhile our allies are baffled and angered by an America that seems to be behaving completely irrationally from the perspective of a national government. But makes perfect sense for people who are not representing a country, but an ideology. And the result is an alchemy of enmity in which our enemies now both hate and despise us, while our friends are afraid of what we're becoming.
Obama is playing Community Organizer at a global level, without understanding that at the global level, organizing is done along national lines. Like Carter before him, he is pathetically eager to sell out America to some global community that exists only as a progressive myth. And like Carter before him, he has already become a global failure.
SHOAH:Today marks the start of the National Days of Remembrance
Date: Sunday, April 11, 2010, 11:11 AM
From: US Holocaust Memorial Museum
DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE
Today, Sunday April 11, marks the beginning of the National Days of Remembrance.
Join us, 65 years after the end of World War II, as we pay tribute to the U.S. soldiers who helped defeat Nazi Germany and liberate Holocaust survivors from years of suffering. 120 liberators and soldiers who encountered the Nazi concentration camps from all around the country will be participating in our commemoration.
LIVE WEBCAST
Watch the LIVE webcast of the national Days of Remembrance ceremony from the U.S. Capitol Rotunda at 11:30 a.m. EST on April 15, 2010. General David Petraeus who led the 101st Airborne Division, a liberating division, will be the featured speaker.
View Why We Remember the Holocaust Video
"As we pay tribute to those who sacrificed to defeat Nazism, we are reminded of the obligation each of us has to work to preserve human freedom by confronting hatred wherever it occurs."
– Fred Zeidman, Museum Chairman
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to promote human dignity, confront hatred, and prevent genocide. Federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanent place on the National Mall, and its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors.
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024
202.488.0400
ushmm.org
From: US Holocaust Memorial Museum
DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE
Today, Sunday April 11, marks the beginning of the National Days of Remembrance.
Join us, 65 years after the end of World War II, as we pay tribute to the U.S. soldiers who helped defeat Nazi Germany and liberate Holocaust survivors from years of suffering. 120 liberators and soldiers who encountered the Nazi concentration camps from all around the country will be participating in our commemoration.
LIVE WEBCAST
Watch the LIVE webcast of the national Days of Remembrance ceremony from the U.S. Capitol Rotunda at 11:30 a.m. EST on April 15, 2010. General David Petraeus who led the 101st Airborne Division, a liberating division, will be the featured speaker.
View Why We Remember the Holocaust Video
"As we pay tribute to those who sacrificed to defeat Nazism, we are reminded of the obligation each of us has to work to preserve human freedom by confronting hatred wherever it occurs."
– Fred Zeidman, Museum Chairman
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to promote human dignity, confront hatred, and prevent genocide. Federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanent place on the National Mall, and its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors.
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024
202.488.0400
ushmm.org
DANGER: U.S. ACTION AGAINST ISRAELI SCIENTISTS
Translation of Maariv article 4/7/2010 on Dimona nuclear scientists
NRG/Maariv reports today that workers at the Dimona reactor who submitted
VISA requests to visit the United States for ongoing University education in
Physics, Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering — have all been rejected,
specifically because of their association with the Dimona reactor. This is a
new policy decision of the Obama administration, since there never used to
be an issue with the reactor’s workers from study in the USA, and till
recently, they received VISAs and studied in the USA.
Israeli Defense Officials have stated that these reactor researches have no
criminal background in Israel or in the USA, and yet they are being singled
out purely because of their place of employment at the reactor.
Professor Zeev Alfasi, the head of Nuclear Engineering at Ben-Gurion
University in the Negev stated that “the United States doesn’t sell anything
nuclear-related to the Dimona reactor, and that means absolutely nothing.
Radiation detectors, for example have to be purchased now in France because
the USA refuses to sell these to Israel.”
Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor’s employees have told Israel’s Maariv daily
that they have been having problems recently getting visas to the United
States where they have for years attended seminars in Chemistry, Physics and
Nuclear Engineering (link in Hebrew, Hat Tip: BA Wilson). They also complain
of being treated in an ‘insulting manner’ by President Obama’s people. Until
recently, employees of the Nuclear Research Center routinely traveled to the
United States for seminars and courses.
But reactor employees also complain of an American refusal to sell them
reactor components that have routinely been sold to them by the United
States. Instead, the components are being purchased from… France. This is
from a Google translation that I’ve tried to fix up a little bit.
Professor Zeev Alfasi, the Chairman of the Nuclear Engineering Department
at Ben – Gurion University, who is aware of what is going on, describes the
deterioration of the American attitude regarding the nuclear reactor. “Some
of our people did not receive visas to the United States because they are
employees of Nuclear Research Center,” explained Professor Alfasi, “The
United States does not sell anything nuclear to the Nuclear Research Center,
and this includes everything. For example, the Nuclear Research Center in
Dimona is buying radiation detectors in France, because the Americans are
not selling to the Nuclear Research Center’s employees. ”
Prof. Alfasi added that “the Americans want to know for what each item of
equipment is used. They sell to universities, but they refuse to sell these
same items of equipment to the Nuclear Research Center. I do not whether
they will sell the same items that they refuse to sell us to Iran.” The
Nuclear Research Center refused to comment on the claims.
NRG/Maariv reports today that workers at the Dimona reactor who submitted
VISA requests to visit the United States for ongoing University education in
Physics, Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering — have all been rejected,
specifically because of their association with the Dimona reactor. This is a
new policy decision of the Obama administration, since there never used to
be an issue with the reactor’s workers from study in the USA, and till
recently, they received VISAs and studied in the USA.
Israeli Defense Officials have stated that these reactor researches have no
criminal background in Israel or in the USA, and yet they are being singled
out purely because of their place of employment at the reactor.
Professor Zeev Alfasi, the head of Nuclear Engineering at Ben-Gurion
University in the Negev stated that “the United States doesn’t sell anything
nuclear-related to the Dimona reactor, and that means absolutely nothing.
Radiation detectors, for example have to be purchased now in France because
the USA refuses to sell these to Israel.”
Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor’s employees have told Israel’s Maariv daily
that they have been having problems recently getting visas to the United
States where they have for years attended seminars in Chemistry, Physics and
Nuclear Engineering (link in Hebrew, Hat Tip: BA Wilson). They also complain
of being treated in an ‘insulting manner’ by President Obama’s people. Until
recently, employees of the Nuclear Research Center routinely traveled to the
United States for seminars and courses.
But reactor employees also complain of an American refusal to sell them
reactor components that have routinely been sold to them by the United
States. Instead, the components are being purchased from… France. This is
from a Google translation that I’ve tried to fix up a little bit.
Professor Zeev Alfasi, the Chairman of the Nuclear Engineering Department
at Ben – Gurion University, who is aware of what is going on, describes the
deterioration of the American attitude regarding the nuclear reactor. “Some
of our people did not receive visas to the United States because they are
employees of Nuclear Research Center,” explained Professor Alfasi, “The
United States does not sell anything nuclear to the Nuclear Research Center,
and this includes everything. For example, the Nuclear Research Center in
Dimona is buying radiation detectors in France, because the Americans are
not selling to the Nuclear Research Center’s employees. ”
Prof. Alfasi added that “the Americans want to know for what each item of
equipment is used. They sell to universities, but they refuse to sell these
same items of equipment to the Nuclear Research Center. I do not whether
they will sell the same items that they refuse to sell us to Iran.” The
Nuclear Research Center refused to comment on the claims.
Monday, April 5, 2010
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE USA PRESIDENT
March 27, 2010
Avi Ifergan, Rehovot, Israel
Dear Mr. President,
Earlier this month, your Secretary of State told a forum of Jewish leaders that ‘sometimes friends need to tell each other the hard truth’. Well Mr. President, allow me, on behalf of my people, to return the courtesy. You have always been rhetorically supportive of Israel, but the incongruence of your actions in the first year of your presidency have left us Israelis, and Jews worldwide, scratching their heads in bewilderment. Mr. President, here’s the hard truth from an Israeli father of 3 daughters, under the age of 6.
No we can’t take any chances when it comes to the physical security of our land, our people or my girls. There exists no room for error. Security is the primary priority.
You see, we learn from our history, and it teaches us a simple truth: No we can’t count on the promises or protection of other nations when our people face an existential threat. The world watched, immovable, as we were slaughtered by the Nazis; In every decade of Israel ’s existence, its neighbors, or the Palestinians waged war on us, and the world watched in relative silence. In the years after the so-called Oslo Peace Treaty, the world remained silent as Israelis faced hundreds of Palestinian suicide bombings, stabbings, drive-by shootings, and kidnappings. The world did however feel free to openly criticize us when we set up check posts and built a security fence to protect ourselves.
No we can’t understand how, in 2006, when over 4,000 Hezbollah missiles rained down on a third of the Israeli population, the leaders of the world found it important to criticize Israel’s military reaction. Similarly we read their criticisms that were splashed across the headlines of the global media during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008. They remained silent during the preceding 6 years that the Kassam rockets from Gaza forced Israel ’s Southern population to sleep in bomb shelters, and did not commend Israel ’s military restraint. Of course, that changed as the Israeli military went into Gaza to locate and destroy the Hamas rocket launchers.
No we can’t believe that you would expect your governments to react any differently, if you and your children were faced with the similar threats.
No we can’t stomach the thought of a holocaust-denying, Hezbollah- and Hamas-funding Iranian President, who in the same breath openly states that his intentions are for Iran to achieve nuclear capabilities, and for the destruction of the ‘Zionist entity’.
No we can’t imagine you doing anything more than proposing more painful sanctions on Iran – and what do you call it – ‘containment’? This is where he ends up getting the nuclear weapons he seeks, right?
No we can’t accept a divided Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel , and of the Jewish people. It is not ‘the third holiest city’, as it is for the Moslems. It is the only holy city of the Jewish people. It has been so for over 2,000 years. Since coming under Israeli sovereignty all religions have been able to visit and practice openly and freely. Oh – and you should know that the ‘Waqf’, those Palestinians who control the Temple Mount in Jerusalem , do not allow any other religions, Jew or Christian, to pray there. I even hear that swaying or the silent moving of the lips is forbidden.
So, no we can’t have friends dictating to us where in Jerusalem we can or cannot build – or feeling insulted when we do as we please in our own land.
No we can’t believe that giving the Palestinian people a land of their own is such a high priority on your foreign policy agenda. Considering their civil rights and terrorist track-record, and the growing influence of Hamas as the likely ruling party. Mr. President, did you know that when the Palestinian Authority came to power in 1994, the first piece of legislation that it passed was the death penalty for any Palestinian who sells land to Jews. Over 100 Palestinians have died, under sentence or extra-judicially, for such sales in the last 15 years. Is this the ‘two-state solution’ that you imagine?
No we can’t comprehend why you would spend the first year of your presidency hugging, bowing and warming to those shining leaders of freedom and democracy Venezuela’s Chavez, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, or Mubarak of Egypt. I know you’re aware of the brutality and lack of freedoms in such non-democracies – the beheadings, the inability of a woman to bear witness in court, or to simply drive, the lack of tolerance when it comes to people who are different – be it culture, religion, or sexual orientation.
And No we can’t understand why, in Israel, where the opposite is true, where Arabs enjoy more freedoms than in any Arab country in the world – freedoms of speech and expression, the press, religion, tolerance to the gay and lesbian community, gender equality, you choose to make a big deal about Jews building in their holiest city - Jerusalem ? We’re an easy target, we know, but please, how about finding something more substantial to make an issue of – and about a non-democracy.
No we can’t fathom why on earth you don’t get us Israelis yet. We Israelis and our governments have repeatedly demonstrated an unwavering commitment to peace, and a willingness to pay a high price for it. In 1947, we accepted the UN’s ‘two-state’ resolution on the partition of Palestine, despite the fact that we would not have had any control of Jerusalem or the surrounding neighborhoods; The Arabs rejected it, and instead 6 Arab nations declared war on our fledgling state. In 1979 we gave up a piece of land greater than the size of the state of Israel , the Sinai, for peace with Egyptians. In 1999, we unilaterally withdrew from South Lebanon , allowing Hezbollah to set up its bases in our stead. A year later, Israeli PM Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians ‘the deal of the century’ – 97% of the West Bank, 100% of the Gaza strip, the dismantling of 63 settlements and agreeing that the East Jerusalem neighborhoods would become the capital of their new state. This too, was rejected by the Palestinians. In 2005, Israeli PM Sharon, without negotiations or demanding of concessions, unilaterally pushed through his disengagement plan that led to the dismantling of 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and 4 in the West Bank .
No we can’t trust you….yet. Trust is earned. You see, Mr. President, I teach my girls to pay little attention to words and close attention to deeds. My people have demonstrated by deed that we are willing to pay a high price for peace and security. On more than one occasion you have said that you are committed to the Israel ’s security and will not tolerate a nuclear-capable Iran . Now it’s your turn to match your words with deeds. A two-state solution with the Palestinian people is of little relevance if Iran achieves its nuclear goals.
Avi Ifergan, Rehovot, Israel
Dear Mr. President,
Earlier this month, your Secretary of State told a forum of Jewish leaders that ‘sometimes friends need to tell each other the hard truth’. Well Mr. President, allow me, on behalf of my people, to return the courtesy. You have always been rhetorically supportive of Israel, but the incongruence of your actions in the first year of your presidency have left us Israelis, and Jews worldwide, scratching their heads in bewilderment. Mr. President, here’s the hard truth from an Israeli father of 3 daughters, under the age of 6.
No we can’t take any chances when it comes to the physical security of our land, our people or my girls. There exists no room for error. Security is the primary priority.
You see, we learn from our history, and it teaches us a simple truth: No we can’t count on the promises or protection of other nations when our people face an existential threat. The world watched, immovable, as we were slaughtered by the Nazis; In every decade of Israel ’s existence, its neighbors, or the Palestinians waged war on us, and the world watched in relative silence. In the years after the so-called Oslo Peace Treaty, the world remained silent as Israelis faced hundreds of Palestinian suicide bombings, stabbings, drive-by shootings, and kidnappings. The world did however feel free to openly criticize us when we set up check posts and built a security fence to protect ourselves.
No we can’t understand how, in 2006, when over 4,000 Hezbollah missiles rained down on a third of the Israeli population, the leaders of the world found it important to criticize Israel’s military reaction. Similarly we read their criticisms that were splashed across the headlines of the global media during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008. They remained silent during the preceding 6 years that the Kassam rockets from Gaza forced Israel ’s Southern population to sleep in bomb shelters, and did not commend Israel ’s military restraint. Of course, that changed as the Israeli military went into Gaza to locate and destroy the Hamas rocket launchers.
No we can’t believe that you would expect your governments to react any differently, if you and your children were faced with the similar threats.
No we can’t stomach the thought of a holocaust-denying, Hezbollah- and Hamas-funding Iranian President, who in the same breath openly states that his intentions are for Iran to achieve nuclear capabilities, and for the destruction of the ‘Zionist entity’.
No we can’t imagine you doing anything more than proposing more painful sanctions on Iran – and what do you call it – ‘containment’? This is where he ends up getting the nuclear weapons he seeks, right?
No we can’t accept a divided Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel , and of the Jewish people. It is not ‘the third holiest city’, as it is for the Moslems. It is the only holy city of the Jewish people. It has been so for over 2,000 years. Since coming under Israeli sovereignty all religions have been able to visit and practice openly and freely. Oh – and you should know that the ‘Waqf’, those Palestinians who control the Temple Mount in Jerusalem , do not allow any other religions, Jew or Christian, to pray there. I even hear that swaying or the silent moving of the lips is forbidden.
So, no we can’t have friends dictating to us where in Jerusalem we can or cannot build – or feeling insulted when we do as we please in our own land.
No we can’t believe that giving the Palestinian people a land of their own is such a high priority on your foreign policy agenda. Considering their civil rights and terrorist track-record, and the growing influence of Hamas as the likely ruling party. Mr. President, did you know that when the Palestinian Authority came to power in 1994, the first piece of legislation that it passed was the death penalty for any Palestinian who sells land to Jews. Over 100 Palestinians have died, under sentence or extra-judicially, for such sales in the last 15 years. Is this the ‘two-state solution’ that you imagine?
No we can’t comprehend why you would spend the first year of your presidency hugging, bowing and warming to those shining leaders of freedom and democracy Venezuela’s Chavez, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, or Mubarak of Egypt. I know you’re aware of the brutality and lack of freedoms in such non-democracies – the beheadings, the inability of a woman to bear witness in court, or to simply drive, the lack of tolerance when it comes to people who are different – be it culture, religion, or sexual orientation.
And No we can’t understand why, in Israel, where the opposite is true, where Arabs enjoy more freedoms than in any Arab country in the world – freedoms of speech and expression, the press, religion, tolerance to the gay and lesbian community, gender equality, you choose to make a big deal about Jews building in their holiest city - Jerusalem ? We’re an easy target, we know, but please, how about finding something more substantial to make an issue of – and about a non-democracy.
No we can’t fathom why on earth you don’t get us Israelis yet. We Israelis and our governments have repeatedly demonstrated an unwavering commitment to peace, and a willingness to pay a high price for it. In 1947, we accepted the UN’s ‘two-state’ resolution on the partition of Palestine, despite the fact that we would not have had any control of Jerusalem or the surrounding neighborhoods; The Arabs rejected it, and instead 6 Arab nations declared war on our fledgling state. In 1979 we gave up a piece of land greater than the size of the state of Israel , the Sinai, for peace with Egyptians. In 1999, we unilaterally withdrew from South Lebanon , allowing Hezbollah to set up its bases in our stead. A year later, Israeli PM Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians ‘the deal of the century’ – 97% of the West Bank, 100% of the Gaza strip, the dismantling of 63 settlements and agreeing that the East Jerusalem neighborhoods would become the capital of their new state. This too, was rejected by the Palestinians. In 2005, Israeli PM Sharon, without negotiations or demanding of concessions, unilaterally pushed through his disengagement plan that led to the dismantling of 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and 4 in the West Bank .
No we can’t trust you….yet. Trust is earned. You see, Mr. President, I teach my girls to pay little attention to words and close attention to deeds. My people have demonstrated by deed that we are willing to pay a high price for peace and security. On more than one occasion you have said that you are committed to the Israel ’s security and will not tolerate a nuclear-capable Iran . Now it’s your turn to match your words with deeds. A two-state solution with the Palestinian people is of little relevance if Iran achieves its nuclear goals.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Who's destroying, and who's rebuilding?
Naomi Ragen
Unknown – 2010-03-17
The rebuilding and rededication of the Hurva ('ruined') Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem few days ago was a moment of true joy for every Israeli, and every Jew. Some background. Construction of the synagogue began under Rabbi Judah the Hassid in 1700. The rabbi was a member of one of the first groups of Ashkenazi Jews to immigrate to Jerusalem, a few hundred from Poland. It was thought that a synagogue had existed on the spot since the Second Century B.C.E.
The Hurva Synagogue was rebuilt under Ibrahim Pasha in 1836 and finally completed in 1856. Designed in a grand Neo-Byzantine style, it was one of the largest buildings in the Old City.
In 1948, members of the Jordanian Arab Legion, led by the same regime which outlawed Jewish access to all Jewish holy places in Jerusalem and Hebron, including the Western Wall and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, blew up the beautiful synagogue – to see photos go to: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hurva_Synagogue_between_1934-1939.jpg
Jordanians also used the Jewish headstones from the Mount of Olives Cemetery to pave roads. Altogether, the Arab Legion destroyed 29 synagogues during the War of Independence. When Arabs were in charge of Jewish holy sites, they destroyed them. Now, not only are the Palestinians guilty of having blown up this synagogue, but have the unmitigated gall to protest its rebuilding! The Gaza-based head of al-Quds International Institution warned against the reopening of the Hurva synagogue as part of an Israeli plan to erect a Jewish temple on al-Aqsa ruins(!!!)And Hilary Clinton wants Israel to prove its dedication to peace?!!!
In the meantime, anti-Semitic nut job websites , like VNN and Goyfire (“Hammering out the Jew one Broadcast at a time”)wrote that: “Israeli officials have reportedly called on Israelis to march into the al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday, highly revered as the third holiest site in the Muslim world.”
Funny, no one told me.
The current American Administration, by siding with Israel's enemies, have emboldened them and every other anti-Semite in the world to spread this preposterous poison. Thanks Barack, Hillary. They couldn't do it without you! And if you think we are going to let these bloody terrorists take over an inch of Jerusalem, you are deluded, no matter how much pressure you exert. We will wait until the good folks in America come to their senses and vote you into oblivion. Maybe then the Saudis can offer you a job? After all that scraping and bowing to them, it's the least they can do, no?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Israel Topics . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
6 Responses to “Who's destroying, and who's rebuilding?”
1.
Hava Dishon says:
March 17, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Good article ,Naomi! I read that the Jordanians destroyed 50 synagogues and paved their latrines with Jewish headstones. I even saw pictures of them.
We have to thank, our “great friends”: Obama, Biden , Hillary and Mitchell, for the current riots in Jerusalem, they clearly gave them green light to attach Jews. I hope that Jews who voted 78% for Obama learn their lesson. But I doubt it. There is no limit to the stupidity and lack of Jewish pride, by American Jewry.
One little tidbit you ought to know is that Chelsea Clinton is going to marry a Jew, is he totally ignorant into what kind of family is he marrying into!? Or is he a self hating Jew?!
Also I found out why Obama loves the Moslems so much, Saudis paid for his education in Harvard. He owes them a lot. So Israelis cannot expect any help from him. He humiliated every proud Jew by scolding us about building in Jerusalem.
Hava Dishon
2.
Art Mensch says:
March 17, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Israel should have destroyed the El Aksa Mosque in 1967 when the Old City was liberated from the Jordanians! They should answer kind with kind as stated in the Torah. Eyin tachat eyin, shain tachet shain. The Arabs only respect force and power. If you are nice to them they think you are weak and they take advantge of you.
3.
Yerachmiel Loebel says:
March 17, 2010 at 11:56 pm
Right on. Beautifuly said.
Yerachmiel
4.
bernard ross says:
March 18, 2010 at 1:28 am
Israel should stop trying to satisfy everyone elses anti semitism and double standards. Why not consider a new paradigm: a strong military that operates in Israel’s interests. for one thing what about seizing saudi oil fields as reparation for the years of terror funding. Everyone will moan but oil can continue flowing to friendly countries, terrorism would lose a great portion of its funding and israel could ditch the US. the fields are run by foreigners and no one but those already at war with Israel would attack. Osama bin laden says the world favours a strong horse.
*
Jackie says:
March 18, 2010 at 11:13 am
I really like your solution. WEveryone, including our president who does it literally, bows down to the Saudis because of their oil and the money it generates. hey use it to fund antisemitism in universities throughout the world. And of course people like Jimmy Carter benefit from it very much.
5.
Unknown – 2010-03-17
The rebuilding and rededication of the Hurva ('ruined') Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem few days ago was a moment of true joy for every Israeli, and every Jew. Some background. Construction of the synagogue began under Rabbi Judah the Hassid in 1700. The rabbi was a member of one of the first groups of Ashkenazi Jews to immigrate to Jerusalem, a few hundred from Poland. It was thought that a synagogue had existed on the spot since the Second Century B.C.E.
The Hurva Synagogue was rebuilt under Ibrahim Pasha in 1836 and finally completed in 1856. Designed in a grand Neo-Byzantine style, it was one of the largest buildings in the Old City.
In 1948, members of the Jordanian Arab Legion, led by the same regime which outlawed Jewish access to all Jewish holy places in Jerusalem and Hebron, including the Western Wall and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, blew up the beautiful synagogue – to see photos go to: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hurva_Synagogue_between_1934-1939.jpg
Jordanians also used the Jewish headstones from the Mount of Olives Cemetery to pave roads. Altogether, the Arab Legion destroyed 29 synagogues during the War of Independence. When Arabs were in charge of Jewish holy sites, they destroyed them. Now, not only are the Palestinians guilty of having blown up this synagogue, but have the unmitigated gall to protest its rebuilding! The Gaza-based head of al-Quds International Institution warned against the reopening of the Hurva synagogue as part of an Israeli plan to erect a Jewish temple on al-Aqsa ruins(!!!)And Hilary Clinton wants Israel to prove its dedication to peace?!!!
In the meantime, anti-Semitic nut job websites , like VNN and Goyfire (“Hammering out the Jew one Broadcast at a time”)wrote that: “Israeli officials have reportedly called on Israelis to march into the al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday, highly revered as the third holiest site in the Muslim world.”
Funny, no one told me.
The current American Administration, by siding with Israel's enemies, have emboldened them and every other anti-Semite in the world to spread this preposterous poison. Thanks Barack, Hillary. They couldn't do it without you! And if you think we are going to let these bloody terrorists take over an inch of Jerusalem, you are deluded, no matter how much pressure you exert. We will wait until the good folks in America come to their senses and vote you into oblivion. Maybe then the Saudis can offer you a job? After all that scraping and bowing to them, it's the least they can do, no?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Israel Topics . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
6 Responses to “Who's destroying, and who's rebuilding?”
1.
Hava Dishon says:
March 17, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Good article ,Naomi! I read that the Jordanians destroyed 50 synagogues and paved their latrines with Jewish headstones. I even saw pictures of them.
We have to thank, our “great friends”: Obama, Biden , Hillary and Mitchell, for the current riots in Jerusalem, they clearly gave them green light to attach Jews. I hope that Jews who voted 78% for Obama learn their lesson. But I doubt it. There is no limit to the stupidity and lack of Jewish pride, by American Jewry.
One little tidbit you ought to know is that Chelsea Clinton is going to marry a Jew, is he totally ignorant into what kind of family is he marrying into!? Or is he a self hating Jew?!
Also I found out why Obama loves the Moslems so much, Saudis paid for his education in Harvard. He owes them a lot. So Israelis cannot expect any help from him. He humiliated every proud Jew by scolding us about building in Jerusalem.
Hava Dishon
2.
Art Mensch says:
March 17, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Israel should have destroyed the El Aksa Mosque in 1967 when the Old City was liberated from the Jordanians! They should answer kind with kind as stated in the Torah. Eyin tachat eyin, shain tachet shain. The Arabs only respect force and power. If you are nice to them they think you are weak and they take advantge of you.
3.
Yerachmiel Loebel says:
March 17, 2010 at 11:56 pm
Right on. Beautifuly said.
Yerachmiel
4.
bernard ross says:
March 18, 2010 at 1:28 am
Israel should stop trying to satisfy everyone elses anti semitism and double standards. Why not consider a new paradigm: a strong military that operates in Israel’s interests. for one thing what about seizing saudi oil fields as reparation for the years of terror funding. Everyone will moan but oil can continue flowing to friendly countries, terrorism would lose a great portion of its funding and israel could ditch the US. the fields are run by foreigners and no one but those already at war with Israel would attack. Osama bin laden says the world favours a strong horse.
*
Jackie says:
March 18, 2010 at 11:13 am
I really like your solution. WEveryone, including our president who does it literally, bows down to the Saudis because of their oil and the money it generates. hey use it to fund antisemitism in universities throughout the world. And of course people like Jimmy Carter benefit from it very much.
5.
Save Ezekiel’s Shrine!
THIS SITE HAS ALWAYS BEEN HOLY TO JEWS. TO CONVERT YET ANOTHER SITE AS MUSLIM WILL MAKE IT EVEN MORE DIFFICULT FOR NON-MUSLIMS AS MUSLIMS HAVE ALWAYS LIMITED ACCESS TO THE TREASURES OF OTHER RELIGIONS. FURTHER, THE DESECRATION OF THE SITE BY MUSLIMS DEMONSTRATES WHO ARE NOT APPROPRIATE GUARDIANS.
///////////////////////////////////
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveezekielstomb/
The Shia Wakf (a religious Islamic endowment, typically devoting a building or plot of land for Muslim religious purposes) overseeing the renovation of the shrine of the Biblical prophet Ezekiel, at Kifl, near Baghdad, has denied that the site belongs to Jews (Hebrew inscriptions and decoration have already been removed or covered), raising fears that the site is to be converted into a mosque. At Passover and at Shavuot, some 5,000 Jews would visit the shrine until their forced departure in 1950 – 51. Please sign this petition to Save Ezekiel’s Shrine, and circulate it to your friends and relatives.
In just 50 years, almost a million Jews, whose communities stretch back up to 3,000 years, have been 'ethnically cleansed' from Arab countries. These refugees outnumber the Palestinian refugees two to one, but their narrative has all but been ignored. Unlike Palestinian refugees, they fled not war, but systematic
persecution. Seen in this light, Israel, which absorbed most of these Jewish refugees, is the legitimate expression of the self-determination of an oppressed indigenous, Middle Eastern people.
This website is dedicated to preserving the memory of the near-extinct Jewish communities, which can never return to what they once were. It will attempt to pass on the stories of the Jewish refugees and their current struggle for recognition and restitution. Awareness of the injustice done to these Jews can only advance the cause of peace and reconciliation.
(Iran: once an ally of Israel, Iran is now an implacable enemy and numbers of Iranian Jews have fallen drastically from 80,000 to 20,000 since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
SEE MORE AT: http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2010/01/ezekiels-shrine-has-suffered.html
///////////////////////////////////
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveezekielstomb/
The Shia Wakf (a religious Islamic endowment, typically devoting a building or plot of land for Muslim religious purposes) overseeing the renovation of the shrine of the Biblical prophet Ezekiel, at Kifl, near Baghdad, has denied that the site belongs to Jews (Hebrew inscriptions and decoration have already been removed or covered), raising fears that the site is to be converted into a mosque. At Passover and at Shavuot, some 5,000 Jews would visit the shrine until their forced departure in 1950 – 51. Please sign this petition to Save Ezekiel’s Shrine, and circulate it to your friends and relatives.
In just 50 years, almost a million Jews, whose communities stretch back up to 3,000 years, have been 'ethnically cleansed' from Arab countries. These refugees outnumber the Palestinian refugees two to one, but their narrative has all but been ignored. Unlike Palestinian refugees, they fled not war, but systematic
persecution. Seen in this light, Israel, which absorbed most of these Jewish refugees, is the legitimate expression of the self-determination of an oppressed indigenous, Middle Eastern people.
This website is dedicated to preserving the memory of the near-extinct Jewish communities, which can never return to what they once were. It will attempt to pass on the stories of the Jewish refugees and their current struggle for recognition and restitution. Awareness of the injustice done to these Jews can only advance the cause of peace and reconciliation.
(Iran: once an ally of Israel, Iran is now an implacable enemy and numbers of Iranian Jews have fallen drastically from 80,000 to 20,000 since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
SEE MORE AT: http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2010/01/ezekiels-shrine-has-suffered.html
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