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And now the Disengagement of Judea and Samaria is on. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will be abandoning 40 villages, leaving in its place, rent-a-cops. And ten villages won't even get private guards. They are on their own. Don't ask why the residents pay taxes for protection. It's gone. And for this we can thank the Pipes Plan of '05. Why use the army to pull the Jews out of Gaza when all the army has to do is leave?
Should the [Israeli] government go ahead with the forcible removal of Jewish residents of Gaza, intra-Israeli violence appears to be a distinct possibility. Which in turn makes me wonder why the Israeli authorities do not take quite a different track and merely stop providing security for them.
Faced with the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces, Israeli residents of Gaza can make up their own minds about what to do. Presumably, they will peacefully leave theirhouses. This should be done with much advance notice: "On some date in 2005, the IDF will be withdrawn from Gaza. Make your decisions accordingly."
The author of the ghastly plan is Daniel Pipes, a neo-con member of the Council On Foreign Relations, who got his money and influence not through any talent, he has little enough of that, but because his daddy Richard was head of the CIA's Soviet Office.
In the latest in a series of decisions making Jewish life in Judea and Samaria more difficult, the army is leaving 40 towns.
The IDF is transferring the responsibility for protecting 40 Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) to private firms, and withdrawing protection altogether from ten others. The Yesha Council's Security Officer, Shlomo Vaknin, says, "The government is privatizing our security."
Recent decisions affecting the personal and communal safety in Yesha towns include the following:
Cancellation of Mivtzar program, in which a local emergency response team is trained by the army, to be utilized in case of a terrorist infiltration or other such crisis. "Mivtzar was the ideal response to the threat on our towns," Vaknin explains. "The fighters know the area, are well-trained, and their presence here was permanent and binding. The towns near Gaza and in the north want to copy this program - yet here the army is cancelling it..."
Collection of weapons from the communities. The army explains that weapons had been stolen from residents, and that any trained resident who wishes to obtain a gun can do so.
Cancellation of subsidies for enforcing private cars' windows from rock attacks.
Withdrawal of National Service girls from security headquarters in the towns.
Cancellation of budgeted funding for protecting school buses for special-education and handicapped children against shooting attacks. "We will not be able to open the school year next year if a solution is not found," Vaknin warns.
Cancellation of budgeted funding for running security vehicles. "Some towns simply cannot use their security vehicles anymore," Vaknin says.
Of the neo-con agenda, Israelis were given a one evening course of their deranged thinking by one John Loftus in '03. Loftus was a member of the board of the Root And Branch Association, I add, my favorite lecturing ground in Jerusalem. And when he was scheduled to speak, chairman Arye Gallin invited me to watch his speech and present Loftus with my books. I did this but I wouldn't sign the books. I used to be a top drawer, getting up to 100 for my speeches. One DVD I sell, The Vatican's New Campaign For Jerusalem, was recorded at Root And Branch. But for Loftus, the crowds were around the block outside the building. Close to 300 were there for him. And did he disappoint! He began well, giving an overview of the oil cabal he described in the book co-written with Mark Aarons, The Secret War Against The Jews. The villains were the likes of J.D. Rockefeller, Prescott Bush, the Dulles brothers, John Foster and Allen, etc. When I asked him why he just didn't say that ALL his secret warriors were initial members of the CFR, he turned flush with anger and said, "Anyone who associates the CFR with the oil cartel is nuts. The President is his own man and takes no advice from his father." And then he added, "The Oslo Accord was good for you and you should not retaliate for attacks against it." Finally, the audience awoke. "Not retaliate?" one asked. "We've suffered 2,000 casualties since Oslo." I add, it's past 10,000 now. "Don't worry," he added. "WE have everything in control. Saddam Hussein snuck out his weapons of mass destruction at night by truck when our satellites couldn't see them, into the Bekaa Valley of Syria. After Iraq, we'll take them from Syria." Stunned crowd! Sitting next to me is Gemma Blech, the photographer of my book Bye Bye Gaza. She observes, "He's giving away the New World Order plan." And then, continued Loftus, "We'll sweep into Iran and polish them off." Loftus returned to America and to his commentator job at Fox-News. Twelve of the audience met at a Kosher Italian restaurant down the street to digest the insanity we had heard. We agreed, this was the Bush, neo-con battle plan. And whatever you may think of the Iraqi resistance, without out it, the Pipes-Loftus-Cheney-Rumsfield et al gang would have had their way with ease. But back in Israel today, the water will be a trickle by late July and the IDF is taking Pipes at his word.
I read Barry Chamish's latest newsletter, titled, "FROM YOM KIPUR 1973 TO PASSOVER 2008" late last night. It cost me a lot of sleep, especially when I linked it to a report earlier the evening about 6,000 Druze in the north of Israel demonstrating about their land being dispossessed for a gas pipeline. It reminded me of a conspiracy some years before to get Israel off the Golan so that an oil pipeline could be built over it from Iraq. Here is the info about that: Why The Golan Squeeze? By Barry Chamish
(IsraelNN.com) Former Director General in the Prime Minister’s Office under then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir, Yossi Ben Aharon, recently discussed current leadership in Israel with IsraelNationaRadio's Yishai Fleischer. Ben Aharon, who has served in almost every Israeli government, believes that Israel is facing a "very severe crisis of leadership."
"It is for the simple reason that previous leaders have failed time and time again [at peace]," Ben Aharon said. "Current leaders fail to understand the lessons derived from failures in the past. They don't study the reasons for the failure. Therefore, they fail to adopt the policy that will take Israel into a new reality that has hope and some kind of prospect for a better life for our people."
Ben Aharon is not looking for a Messianic type of peace, but a peace that won't allow things such as the Sderot crisis to happen. "A major township is being attacked day in and day out," Ben Aharon said. "We have the power to put an end to this shameful situation, but the leadership has pretexts. They look into defensive measures of strengthening the roofs of buildings... it's an utter inability and a bankruptcy."
Ben Aharon believes that the challenge for Israelis today is to truly understand the political issues of the day and avoid the strong media angles that influence their decisions. He stated that the media needs to present the hard facts and let the listener reach his or her own conclusion.
"I have faith in our people," Ben Aharon said. "So many times, the people are wiser than the leadership... We have, unfortunately, a media that is failing in its mission... but apparently [Israelis] are marching in the same direction. There is a kind of paralysis. They're all under the same kind of influence. They believe constantly that this leadership and the previous leadership is the only one that is capable of providing solutions that are vital for our existence."
Ben Aharon also said that the media and the leadership "go hand in hand." He said that they provide intellectual support for each other, and "they are all sitting in musical chairs. They all change their opinions. They think everyone is listening to them and that they're providing counsel to the people, but they don't realize that they are only providing it to each other."
Ben Aharon attributes the public’s disappointment in failed peace treaties to a "false diet of peace" that Israelis are fed to trick them into believing that peace is just around the corner. "The people of Israel look to the leadership. They thought that they were capable of bringing this about. They thought Prime Ministers would bring peace, and they were disappointed. However, they refused to believe that their leadership failed. They were brainwashed. They were made to believe that peace was obtainable. These politicians came one after the other and promised that they could provide. I think we have reached the end of the tether to this approach. Hopefully, the current leadership will step down and will be placed in a corner of history that will be completely marginal."
(IsraelNN.com) The Jabotinsky Heritage House in Tel Aviv recently completed a study on the psychological training given to IDF soldiers before the 2005 “Disengagement” and its effect on subsequent IDF operations. The psychological training given to soldiers had a serious impact on soldiers’ performance in later conflicts, researchers found.
Dr. Gadi Eshel said the research team managed to collect a vast amount of material on the mental preparation for the eviction and the eviction itself. The material showed that the army put a great deal of effort into creating terms that would help soldiers to feel that they were doing the right thing, said researcher Ruthie Isakovich. Isakovich labeled the training given to soldiers to mentally prepare them to evict Jews “brainwashing.”
For its survival Israel turns, not to God, but to Europe.
This was the thrust of the top story in The Jerusalem Post Sunday: that Israel’s Foreign Ministry has taken a strategic decision to establish strong relations with the European Union and thereby develop a “third pillar” to help ensure the survival of the Jewish state.
Where secular Israelis have traditionally seen their country’s security supported by the twin pillars of a strong IDF and an unbreakable diplomatic relationship with the United States, the thinking is now that, with the fast-growing EU intent on contending with America for the position of superpower #1, it is important to plug Israel into the Continent too.
In exchange, Israel is allowing Europe to play a greater role in Israeli diplomatic and economic processes.
Historically, and to the present day, European countries have been almost exclusively pro-Arab and anti-Israel. After centuries of saturating antisemitism the soil of Europe is still permeated with prejudice - undiluted by either the pre-Holocaust Enlightenment or the post-Holocaust and post-communist transition to a more modern, politically-”corrected” society.
Still, secular-humanist politicians in Israel have grasped at the straws offered by “friendly” heads of European states like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Jewish Leadership Weekly Newsletter 15 Adar I, 5768 (Feb.21) Issue 6821
The Finger in the Gaza Dike: By Moshe Feiglin
Feb. '08
Translated from Moshe Feiglin's article on the Ma'ariv NRG website.
The children of Sderot are the finger in the Gaza dike. They are there to save us all from the great flood. The difference between them and the Dutch Hans Brinker is that they did not volunteer for the job. We have forcibly stuck their fingers in the dike, and returned to our own affairs.
After one (Italian) bomb, the children of pre-State Haifa were evacuated to Hadera. Haifa's residents were no less patriotic than today's Israelis. Winston Churchill evacuated London's children during the Blitz. Chruchill was certainly no less a patriot than Olmert.
So after seven years of missile bombardment, why hasn't Israel evacuated the children of Sderot? Are we braver than the War of Independence generation?
The answer is simple. If we evacuate the children of Sderot, their parents will follow, and they won't come back. They won't come back because the State of Israel is not capable of winning a war that it does not understand - a war that it denies. Unlike the War of Independence or London in World War II, we know that we will not win. That is why the children of Sderot will not return and that is why their parents will follow suit. If we evacuate the children of Sderot, the same scenario will quickly take place in Ashkelon and Ashdod - until everything collapses. We have stuck the children of Sderot in the Gaza dike to maintain Peres' 'peace legacy' - and then we changed the channel.
At one point or another, Olmert's prime ministerial chair will begin to quake, and he will have to send the IDF into Gaza. Even if we momentarily ignore the outrageous lack of moral standing of those responsible for the Expulsion, it is still clear that it is absolute folly to send the IDF back into Gaza. A military incursion into Gaza that is not for the purpose of conquering it, solving its overpopulation problem in other places in the world, declaring full Israeli sovereignty there and making the entire area flourish with one hundred Gush Katifs - will achieve nothing but the pointless deaths of our soldiers.
Our sons will run through the alleys of Jebalyah, being sure not to harm 'innocent civilians.' And with maximum consideration and concern for our foes, our sons will be murdered as they fight from house to house, until they complete their mission with supreme heroism. (Assuming that the Four Mothers don't mix in too early.) And then the Prime Minister (no matter who he is) will ceremoniously give Gaza to the Fatah - the good terrorists. Simply put, we are about to sacrifice our sons so that we can transfer the Gaza Strip from arch-murderer A to arch-murderer B.
Since Oslo, Israel's political strategy has been compelled exclusively by the Oslo option. Rabin brought Arafat to Israel so that he would fight the Hamas. Now terrorist B is launching missiles at us. So we will conquer Gaza, this time for terrorist C. Or even worse and more absurd, we will send our sons to be killed to conquer Gaza and return it to terrorist A. After all, Yossi Beilin is sure to sternly warn that if we do not take advantage of the 'window of opportunity' and get killed for terrorist A, we will get terrorist D or who knows? Maybe even terrorist E. And we will continue to transfer Gaza from one terrorist to the next. And each and every one of them will continue to fire missiles at Sderot.
Do we really think that the world will allow us to rebuild Gush Katif? Of course not. So let's be serious. Maybe we should just cut off their electricity and water. But if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that the world will not allow us to do that either. And rightfully so! Because if Gaza is not part of our land, Sderot is not part of our land either. And of course, if we gave the Temple Mount to the Moslems, there is also no justification for the Jews to settle in Tel Aviv. The fact that the world claims that every potentially effective action that Israel takes in Gaza is illegitimate does not stem from a sudden outbreak of uncontrollable world-wide humanism. In the eyes of the world, it is illegitimate for Israel to defend Sderot because the world is convinced that the Hamas is right.
Just imagine if, in the beginning of World War II, Churchill would have announced that London actually does belong to Hitler. Or even worse, just imagine what would have happened if Churchill himself had destroyed the border towns of England and then ceremoniously bestowed them on the Nazi murderer. Would he have enjoyed world support after that for bombing Dresden?
But we have already left Gaza? Very true. And by fleeing Gaza, we have also proven that Sderot is not ours, either. The entire world has seen how Israel has driven the Jews who believe in the Jewish claim on the Land of Israel from their homes. Everyone saw how Israel destroyed their towns and abandoned their synagogues to the Arab hordes. In full view of the gleeful world media, the State of Israel performed the most amazing moral hara-kiri of all times - obliterating any measure of justification for Jewish sovereignty over even one grain of the Holy Land in the process.
The Hamas terrorists may not be nice, but in the eyes of the world, they are just. They bomb civilians? So what? The British and Americans also bombed civilians. The world is with them because they are convinced that they are right. Israel has already made that clear.
So now what do we do about Sderot? The solution is to re-build one hundred Gush Katifs. That is impossible to accomplish under our present circumstances? Then we must evacuate the children.
But the children of Sderot are the finger in the dike!
We have only two choices. Either we create leadership that will fight, liberate the Temple Mount and Gaza and restore the justice that we lost in Gush Katif, or we will continue to live in Oslodian denial - at the expense of the blood of Sderot's children.
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Have you ever wondered why, when you have an infection, it hurts. For example, if you have a tooth that's rotted, or you've cut yourself badly, but in a place where you don't necessarily see the wound, what would happen if it didn't cause you pain?
The answer is quite straightforward. The infection spreads, or if you're bleeding, you keep bleeding, and eventually you die. It's as simple as that. In other words, even though we go to great pains to avoid pain, such aches can save our lives.
Israel is hurting, but for some reason we don't feel the pain. Or perhaps we're ignoring it. How long have we been hurting for? I suppose I could go back hundreds and thousands of years. There's original sin, but back then there still weren't Jews. Perhaps though, as far as Jews are concerned, there's a second version of original sin: bowing down to the Golden Calf or the rejection by ten spies of Eretz Yisrael. Today, thousands of years later, we are still suffering from the identical afflictions.
Let's not go back so far. Let's start with the 'first intifada,' in the late 1980s and going into the early 1990s. There were numerous terror attacks which left many too many Jews dead and wounded. But that war is primarily remembered for 'rock-throwing,' which was not considered to be a very serious crime.
Aside from the fact that rocks can, do, and have killed people, the significance of that period was twofold. First, our enemy organized himself to rebel against the state of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants, with the set goal of eventually wiping Israel off the map.
True, rocks doesn’t seem that dangerous, but look at where they’ve led! That can be examined though point number two: That is, they attacked, they declared war, and we, collectively, the state of Israel, the prime minister, the defense minister, the cabinet, the armed forces, ignored them. In their eyes it was not a war, rather it was an 'uprising,' which could be quelled. However I remember quite vividly Defense Minister Moshe Arens, who then had the power and authority to do whatever was necessary, saying that 'it would take time.' Look how much time has passed and where we are today.
The infection had taken hold and was starting to spread. But where was the pain?
Then came Rabin-Peres-Oslo-Hebron-Wye. The disease had made its mark. Rather than fighting the infection with a good strong antibiotic to kill the illness, Israel's so-called leaders decided upon radical surgery: Amputation. Cut off a limb or two to save the rest. But sometimes the disease spreads faster than originally thought and local amputation isn't enough.
Israel kept hurting, the infection kept spreading. The pain continued but we insisted that it really didn't hurt. We offered to amputate more – Camp David II, version Barak, included a lobotomy. To no avail.
Intifada II. Major warfare. Hundreds and thousands of civilians and IDF personnel murdered in cold blood. Yet again our 'leadership' refused to accept the reality of the situation and continued to deny the throbbing of open, festering infections, swiftly spreading through the body of our country, our land, our people. Again they attempted major amputation. Gush Katif and the northern Shomron. Some ten thousand people expelled from their homes and their land, our land, abandoned to the cancer eating away at our souls.
But that too wasn't enough to eradicate the infection, the disease. Despite the tears of so many thousands of people, the pain of expulsion and destruction, the rest of the country was insensitive to their misery.
Where are we today? Rockets, falling by the hundreds and thousands on Sderot, fired from the same land we abandoned, shouldn't surprise anyone. Neither should the total disregard of the Israeli government shock anyone. After all, why shouldn't the terrorists shoot at us? When was the last time Israel reacted to attacks on its people? Mortars fell on Gush Katif for years and years, yet no one saw them, heard them, or felt the trauma and physical injury they caused. Gunfire was directed at Hebron and other communities throughout Judea and Samaria for two years, the source of which, again, was land that Israel GAVE to the enemy. For two years the Israeli government totally overlooked the suffering of its own people. Ditto Kiryat Shmona and other northern cities, who lived with Katusha fire from Southern Lebanon for years, yet had to watch as Israel fled, only to leave them again at the mercy of terrorists who utilized the vacuum to prepare and then shoot hundreds of missiles into Israel.
One more brief current example fresh out of Hebron. The Supreme Court recently ruled that, despite the continued rocket attacks on Israel, we must provide the 'civilian population' in Gaza with 'humanitarian aid.' Yet here in Hebron, twenty families in Beit HaShalom, legally purchased property, were not allowed to install windows or electric lines or tar the roof, despite the freezing winter weather. The windows have arrived but electricity still runs through a generator and apartments are full of puddles from water draining through the roof and walls to the floor.
Where do we stand today? The foreign minister, (an extremely apt title, because she is foreign to everything Israel ever really stood for) declares that we must continue to chop up our country for the sake of peace, even though the other side is incapable of keeping their side of the deal. We have a Prime Minister, (reminiscent of Chamberlain, holding an umbrella over the head of Abu Mazen), who insists that "Jerusalem is not on the table," or will only be discussed 'last.' But his counterpart denies this and proclaims, 'everything is being discussed.' Simultaneously, political parties such as Shas, continue to contradict reality, remaining in a government on the verge of amputation, stage III – this time the head and heart go.
Where are the people? Does anyone remember that only a few weeks ago a member of an official national committee of inquiry admitted that their conclusions were based, not on the virtues of a specific event, in this instance, the behavior of Olmert during the Second Lebanese War, rather on political factors: if he can bring 'peace' that must be a major consideration before any conclusions are reached.
Let's go back to our toothache. Such a small piece of bone, yet it can cause such excruciating pain. Sometimes, as first aid, the doctor or dentist will fill the area with some kind of temporary painkiller, to numb the pain.
It seems that this is what Israel has done to itself. I'm not sure if we have injected ourselves with some kind of Novocain which has totally dulled our senses, or have swallowed a large dose of sleeping medicine. But one way or the other, these 'medications' have seemingly killed all pain, thereby allowing the infection invading our body to run rampant, totally uncontrolled, bring us to an extremely dangerous threshold. Unfortunately there are times when the doctor, referring to a gangrenous limb, says, 'either the limb or the life.'
Many years ago, Rabbi Meir Kahane hy"d suggested transfer of Israel's Arab population from the State. He was called a racist, imprisoned and forbidden from running for Knesset. Another Jew, Rehavam Ze'evi, (Gandhi) hy"d, also suggested 'transfer' as a solution to the Arab-Israel conflict. He too was called a racist. The Arabs took both men seriously. Both were assassinated.
Presently Israelis, including ministers and MKs are offering payoffs to Jews, as incentive to transfer (expel) them from their homes in Judea and Samaria, in the name of peace. They are not called racists. They are called 'lovers of peace.'
The Jews in Judea and Samaria are, at present, the only people keeping Israel alive. They are the only ones who have not succumbed to the Novacaine-Sleeping Pill cocktail ingested by the rest of the country. But it is very difficult for a small number of people (percentage wise) to swim against the current of the rest of the population. We haven't been able to stop or prevent past catastrophes and I'm not sure that we'll be able to this time either. By ourselves. It is time for the rest of the Jewish world, in Israel and around the globe to stop the medicine, to arise, to feel the pain – no not the personal aches of individuals, but the pain of Am Yisrael over the ages, the pain of Eretz Yisrael, who seeing her children come home is now witnessing a process of self-destruction.
I highly suggest, as a way to start coming out of the stupor, that every single person reading this article find or purchase a DVD called 'Farewell Israel,' written and directed by Joel Gilbert. It can be ordered at www.farewellisrael.com. This is one of the most important, and also one of the scariest documentaries I've ever seen. I cannot recommend it enough. And after viewing it a few times, internalize it and pass it on to a friend. If this, together with present current events in Israel doesn’t stir you, I'm not sure if anything ever will.
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu was spotted at MIT in 1973 and the grooming began there when he was in his early twenties. After graduating, he received a high paying job at Boston Consulting. His boss was Ira Magaziner (CFR). But he quit the job in 1979, returned to Israel, staring selling furniture at the Rim company, then organized an anti-terror convention. Inexplicably, the CFR sent a team of their biggest guns including George Bush Sr., Richard Perle and George Shultz to this unknown 27 year old's get-together. Once the convention was over, Netanyahu returned to work selling home furniture for three years until 1982, when Washington Ambassador Moshe Arens invited him to be his deputy. He claimed the choice was indirectly made by those who came to his convention and "were impressed with his performance." That means Bush and Shultz pressed Arens to bring Bibi to Washington. From there, they pushed his career higher. In 1985, Shultz chaired another anti-terror convention in Washington supposedly organized by Netanyahu. By the time Bibi was UN Ambassador Schultz visited him every time he was in New York, and that was often.
Having groomed and financed Netanyahu into office, the CFR made certain his tenure as head of the opposition did not endanger the Oslo process. Though Netanyahu had the goods and scandals to fell Labor, he was a remarkably restrained opposition leader.
In September 1995, PM Rabin told what he thought was a funny story on Israel Television One. It seems his CFR handler, Henry Kissinger phoned him to relate that Netanyahu called to ask him to declare that American troops would not be placed on the Golan Heights as part of a peace deal with Syria. Who Kissinger was supposed to make this declaration to was not revealed. Kissinger, according to Rabin, laughed at Bibi and told him to quit bothering him. The next day Netanyahu confirmed his phone call but denied Rabin's mocking version of it.
The moral of the story is that both the leader of the government and opposition got their commands from their CFR officer.
How can Ehud Olmert get away with proclaiming that "the responsibility for what happened (in the Lebanon War fiasco) is all mine" and not resigning?
Something strange has happened to the concept of responsibility in Israel. In Israel, when a leader says he is accountable for a failure, he expects to be lauded as a 'responsible' leader without paying the price for his blunder.
The roots of the strange immunity enjoyed by some of Israel's leaders can be traced to the security ethos that has developed in Israel, starting from the pre-State Palmach days. The new, pre-State Israelis attempted to develop a culture based on the future -- while negating the past.
The Second Aliyah Jews who came to settle the Land of Israel expected their children -- the first generation of sabras -- to be free of any trace of the Jewishness that they associated with the European Diaspora. They practically worshipped the new generation. Every young kibbutznik who bravely attacked and defeated his enemy was proof that the experiment had worked. The Second Aliyah had successfully created a new strain of humanity -- formed on the ruins of the Jewish nation -- the New Israeli.
Israel's security culture has created a failing and atrophied security establishment. The main reason for its colossal failure is its ethos. Capability is not relevant. The only thing that really matters is that the person in question serves the ethos. If you happen to be a brigade commander with sunglasses who seems to be in control of the situation, then you add substance to the theory of the New Israeli and all your failures will be forgiven. It makes no difference what you have actually done in the army. What really counts is what rank you have achieved and in which elite unit you have served.
Being a kibbutznik has traditionally been a ticket into the elite Matkal commando unit. Fighters in the Matkal unit are card-carrying New Israelis who are revered by Israeli society. These are the people who naturally assume leadership of the country. It is o.k. if they fail time and again. It is fine for them to flee the battlefield and evade fire contact with the enemy, just like Yitzchak Rabin. And like Ehud Barak, they may disappear with an entire battalion during the Yom Kippur War, evade responsibility for the battle of Sultan Yaakob in the First Lebanon War, ignore the dying soldier Madhat Yousouf in Joseph's Tomb, abandon the soldiers of the Southern Lebanese Army, bring Hadera into range of the Hizbollah rockets and flee Tze'ilim -- and all will be forgiven. As long as they come from the right place, served in the right unit and perpetuate the right ethos. Even Winograd will not dare to ask who exactly it was that brought much of northern Israel into missile range or why it is that Israel had to (unsuccessfully) re-capture the Lebanese towns that it had fled.
What does all of this have to do with Olmert's responsibility?
The 'New Israeli" ethos is upheld by Israel's security ethos. The security ethos has created a distorted culture that measures people by the positions that they have achieved -- and not by their accomplishments. The person most responsible for bringing this warped culture from the defense establishment into the political field is Yitzchak Rabin. In an attempt to ram Oslo down the public's throat, Prime Minister ("I am responsible!") Rabin insisted on assuming the position of Defense Minister. From that position, he enlisted the security ethos to help him actualize the Oslo values collapse.
At first, the army high command refused to give Rabin the backing that he needed to perpetrate his hallucinatory scheme. But the officer from the right family, the right kibbutz and the right commando unit was finally found. When he joined Israel's Oslo negotiating team, he propelled Israel's betrayal of the Land of Israel and Zionist values straight into the warm embrace of the security ethos. His name was Uzi Dayan. (Dayan is just an archetype. We have not forgotten Amnon Lipkin Shahak, Oren Shachor and others).
Since then, Oslo has never stopped. It explodes in our faces time and again, but we don't understand how it is that nobody has taken responsibility. After all, we warned them! Even worse, those responsible for Oslo continually progress in the system. They become prime minister, president, media stars, respected academicians and fellows in all sorts of strange institutes for democracy and centers for peace.
Responsibility is an impossible concept in the Kafka-esque reality that has evolved here. Just imagine what would happen if Olmert would tell the real truth: "I wanted to assure my place in the pantheon of the New Israelis. To do that, I had to get rid of Biblical Israel and the settlers who insist on living their vibrant, connected-to-history Judaism at the expense of the New Israeli myth. So I went to war to create momentum for the Convergence plan. But it turns out that the entire New Israeli theory has exploded in our faces. So I am taking responsibility and resigning." A statement like that from Olmert would signal the complete collapse of the hundred-years-old house of cards that the New Israelis have built here. It is not an option. So the entire Left and the media join forces to preserve Olmert. And the Winograd Committee follows suit, asking only how the debacle occurred -- never why.
Now that everything is clear, Olmert can sink back into his padded chair -- and 'take responsibility.'
Winograd Member Admits: PM Spared Due to 'Peace Process'
by Ezra HaLevi
(IsraelNN.com) Winograd Committee member Prof. Yechezkel Dror explained what motivated the committee to refrain from calling for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s resignation: the preservation of the "peace process" and fear of Opposition head Binyamin Netanyahu winning the resulting elections.
“Listen, if we think the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, will advance the peace process, that is a very honorable consideration,” Prof. Dror told Maariv newspaper, which headlined that comment on its front page Wednesday. “What do you prefer?" Dror asked rhetorically, "an Olmert-Barak government or new elections where Netanyahu will rise to power?”
The comments registered shock and condemnation from MKs, who said that it was clear that the Winograd Commission did not adhere to its mandate of examining the Second Lebanon War, but saw itself as fit to choose Israel’s political leadership. MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party), who heads the Knesset Control Committee, has called an emergency session to which Prof. Dror will be asked to explain himself.
Prof. Dror explained to Maariv that in his view advancing the diplomatic process with the Palestinian Authority will save more lives, and it is therefore justified to take a prime minister’s willingness to engage in negotiations into account when issuing a report like the Winograd Committee published last week. “The peace process, if successful, will save so many lives that it should be given great weight,” Dror said. “It is not right to only look at one aspect.”
Asked if the bereaved parents of the Second Lebanon War are not a consideration, Prof. Dror responded: “I am thinking about the bereaved parents in a future war. If the peace process will prevent a war in the future, so think about those parents, who won’t undergo the greatest pain there is.”
Summing up his viewpoint, Dror said: “The needs of the future must balance the need for justice in the present.”
Opposition Comments "Today it has been revealed that the Winograd Committee was corrupt and influenced by foreign consideration," said Likud MK Gilad Erdan. "It is now clear why the report made no recommendations [regarding termination of office of government officials] and why the first meeting of the committee took place in the Prime Minister's Office. It is now clear that the proper place for this report is in the trash can." Erdan called on Shas and Labor to withdraw from the government and "restore the faith of the nation by bringing down the government and going to early elections."
MK Silvan Shalom (Likud) went further, demanding an official State Committee of Investigation, as was demanded initially. “It was clear from the beginning that those handpicked by PM Olmert were picked for a reason and now we see what it is,” Shalom said. “It does not matter how long it takes, we need a committee that will really truly examine what happened and name who is at fault.” Shalom explained that at a time when the public already has such little trust of its elected officials, it is critical that such an investigation be carried out in a sincere manner.
Prof. Dror told Army Radio's Razi Barkai Wednesday morning that he had spoken "as a private citizen and not as a member of the Winograd Committee." He also said that since his statement on a Netanyahu government was phrased as a question, it did not constitute taking a position on the matter.
"But you are a member of the committee," Barkai said. Prof. Dror ended the coversation, saying he will take no further questions.
Mordechai Chaimovitch, the Maariv author, said he stands by the interview and has it all on tape. "Prof. Dror knows the rules of the game and knows what it means to be interviewed," Abramovitch said.
The other four members of the Winograd Committee are reportedly furious with Prof. Dror for his statements.
MK Limor Livnat (Likud) called on former Supreme Court Justice Eliyahu Winograd himself to issue an explanation or repudiation of his fellow committee member’s words.
The Etrog Phenomenon Once More Leading journalist and commentator Amnon Abramovitch expressed a similar sentiment to Prof. Dror's on behalf of Israel's media at a pre-Disengagement conference at Jerusalem's Van Leer Institute. "I think that we need to protect [then Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon like an Etrog [a citron fruit delicately handled on the Jewish festival of Sukkot]." He later elaborated in Maariv (April 26, 2005) that due to Sharon's willingness to destroy Jewish communities in Gaza "we need to protect him not only from political obstacles but also from legal obstacles as well."
The Winograd Report turned out to have simply been an official whitewash to keep this destructive Olmert government in power.
In view of the fact that the Lord has obviously started bringing down these whitewashers of the whitewashed wall, viz. the vegetable-lization of Sharon, the resignation of his CoS Halutz, etc., I feel it's justified to try to help with the process. Will you please send this e-mail below to the various Olmert coalition partners. Let's help to bring Olmert down at this high point of his arrogance!
Shabbat Shalom.
Philip
Ezekiel 13:14 I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the LORD. 15 So I will spend my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, "The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it, 16 those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign LORD." ' NIV
(IsraelNN.com) A “senior diplomatic source” quoted in the Jerusalem Post said Tuesday that United States President George Bush is “very conscious” of the history of Jewish refugees who fled Arab persecution beginning in the 1940s. The official said the Jewish refugees situation was “parallel” to that of Arabs who fled Israeli during the 1947-1948 war, and that the solution to the Arabs’ problem was to become citizens in a state called “Palestine,” to be established by the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli officials said the diplomat’s statements showed that Israel’s efforts to raise awareness of the Jewish refugees from Arab lands were paying off. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni have both mentioned the Jewish refugee issue with foreign diplomats, they said.
A couple of days ago a few young people were arrested for pasting posters of Bush, Peres and Olmert wearing Kafiyas, in Jerusalem. Today, three others were arrested for distributing information about our 'moderate piece partner,' Fatah, to foreign journalists. (It should be remembered that moderate Fatah security forces were responsible for the murder to Achikam Amichai and David Rubin two weeks ago.)
Israeli democracy at its best.
This is, of course, nothing compared to the police brutality used against demonstrators against Oslo during the dark days of the Rabin-Peres regime. But fear not, the present opposition has just begun, and too, the rallying forces of those bent on quashing any and all opposition Olmert's follies.
This is not the only example of Israeli despotism. In a week and a half the Supreme court is scheduled to again meet concerning Beit HaShalom in Hebron. The justice heading the supreme court panel of three judges is the court's president, Dorit Beinish. Beinish was reported to have met with the American ambassador to Israel a few weeks ago. The subject of their discussion: Judea and Samaria. This is a judge? This is a justice on the supreme court? This is the equivalent of the Chief justice of the supreme court? No, no, and no. Beinish is a politician, of the worst kind, who is utilizing her position on the high court of justice to espouse and implement her own political ideologies, without any hint of law or justice.
However, the problem is not only on the Israeli side. Our prestigious visitor's country has it's problems too.
U.S. presidents are experts in involving themselves in Israeli political activity. George W's daddy can be held responsible for knocking Yitzhak Shamir out of office. George Sr. refused to allow Israel to hit back when we were being bombed by Saddam, during the first Gulf war. He realized that Shamir's 'inaction' wouldn't play well in Israel. He rewarded Shamir's patience by intentionally refusing to grant Israel (Shamir) necessary load guarantees, which played up by the media, led to Shamir's defeat and Rabin's victory in 1992. We are still eating the fruits of Shamir's defeat today.
During the 1996 election between Peres and Netanyahu, then President Clinton came to Israel for a special 'conference' during which he addressed the Israeli public, saying, 'you have to choose between peace and the alternative.' The American president was, for all intents and purposes, campaigning for Peres. So much for foreigners not getting involved in internal Israeli politics.
And so it is today. It is quite customary that a foreign leader, when visiting Israel (or other countries for that matter), meet the premier, the president, the defense and foreign minister, and usually also the leader of the opposition. George W, however, refuses to meet opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu and hear his objections to the Annapolis process, which includes dividing Jerusalem, expulsion of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes, and creation of another terror state in the Middle East.
Bush's short conversation with Shas leader Eli Yishai has already made headlines. Would Shas really pull out of the government as a result of negotiations? "Meet the chairman of Shas," said Olmert to the American president, who shook Yishai's hand warmly. Bush had done his homework. Bush said he understood he needed to talk to Yishai the next day to convince him to stay in the government, and Olmert translated. Yishai smiled. "We will definitely talk about it," Yishai said.[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/943324.html]
I have no doubt that Bush will attempt to 'lean on' Yishai, and who knows, maybe even pay a surprise visit to Rav Ovadiah Yosef, who determines Shas policy. Yishai isn't the only politician in Bush's sights. Avigdor Lieberman can't be far behind. He is also threatening to walk out of the Olmert circus should 'core issues' Jerusalem, borders and refugees be discussed. And these are the exact topics Bush is pressuring Israel to negotiate away.
Bush is pushing. He is determined to be the father of the state of Palestine prior to the conclusion of his presidency. Olmert is feeling the heat – lots of heat. He knows that in three weeks, with the release of Winograd, his position in Kadima and as prime minister is in jeopardy. The only way he can save himself is to prove that he, and only he, can be the savior of Israel, palestine and the piece process. This being the case, both will know no limits; whatever it takes to achieve the goal is legitimate. The ends justify the means.
Jerusalem police detained several activists and confiscated public relations materials Wednesday night. Police: "Booklet is 'seditious material.'"
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Three people were taken into custody and their literature confiscated as they were handing it out to foreign journalists outside the Dan Panorama Hotel in Jerusalem Wednesday night. The Dan Panorama is where most of the journalists who are covering the Bush visit are lodging.
The literature in question is a booklet authored by Arlene Kushner entitled, "Fatah as 'Moderate': A Hard Look Post-Annapolis, published by the Center for Near East Policy Research at the Beit Agron International Press Center in Jerusalem.
The booklet may be viewed in its entirety by clicking here.
Israeli and foreign journalists at Bush welcoming ceremony Flash 90
Plans to distribute the material to foreign journalists were put into place last week as a joint project of the Center and the National Council of Young Israel, a Jewish American organization with chapters in every state. "A number of activists with several organizations were working on assisting the Center to distribute this crucial information to the foreign media," said activist Suzy Dym.
"One policeman said we can't stand in front of the hotel, that we should go to the corner, so that's what I did," related Jeff Daube, another volunteer at the site. "I was standing around, waiting to see if any reporters would come around, when a police officer tapped me on the shoulder, said 'Come with me,' and took my material and Israeli identity card.
Daube said that he and his two companions were bundled into a police car and taken to the Russian Compound. Dym was arrested after pointing out that she could not be detained unless she gave her consent – which she would not do. Daube and the third volunteer were detained because they didn't realize the law was on their side. "If you don't consent, then they arrest you, or let you go," explained Dym.
"I told them that I cannot agree to be detained because I need to talk to these foreign reporters, that that's what I came to Jerusalem for," she added.
"Then you are arrested," responded the police officer, "for distributing seditious (treasonous) material."
Dym said Police Superintendent Chaim Moshe told her if she didn't "come along quietly to be arrested" that they would use "considerable violence" against her.
In less than two hours, however, all three were released, their personal belongings were returned -- minus the booklets -- and the charge against Dym was dropped. "They haven't really charged us yet, but they still could," she emphasized. "We like to hope that in a democracy that doesn't happen, but we know it does."
The real concern, said Dym, is the lack of information reaching public figures in American Jewish organizations about Fatah's continued involvement with terrorism against Israel.
"Our real hope is that public figures and organizations will take this very seriously," she said. "We pray we won't be abandoned by the American Jewish community on this issue."
Two Kiryat Arba men killed by terrorists outside Hebron December 29, 2007 From: hebron@hebron.org.il
Shortly after 12:00 this afternoon Arab terrorists, shooting from a jeep, shot and killed to young Israel men, both in their twenties, between the communities of Telem and Adura. The two men, both serving in the IDF, were hiking with a young woman. At the time of the shooting she managed to hide, thereby saving her life.
The exact site of the attack is a wadi, leading to a spring, near Telem. Telem is a small community located adjacent to the transJudea highway, about 10 kilometers west of Hebron.
The identities of the two men have not yet been made public. The funerals will be at Har Hertzel at 9:00 PM Saturday night.
Details of the attack: Two men from Kiryat Arba, soldiers serving in an elite unit, on vacation, were hiking near a stream near Telem. A vehicle, with four terrorists, began shooting at them. The soldiers fired back, killing one terrorist at the scene and critically wounding another. The other two were slightly wounded and managed to escape. Both men were killed and their weapons stolen. The critically wounded terrorist died in a Hebron hospital. Their blood-stained terrorist's car was found, but the other two terrorists have not yet been found. A woman with the two men who hid during the attack made contact with the authorities, who then began searching for them. She was taken to hospital in shock.
A Hebron spokesman issued the following statement: It's started again. Israeli concessions lead down only one road: Killing. Only a few weeks ago Ido Zoldan was shoot down near Kedumim. Now two young men, both serving their country in an elite army unit, are dead, having been betrayed by their country, by their leaders, by the Prime Minister and Defense Minister. The concessions Israel is making, the refusal to build in Judea and Samaria, the willingness to abandon more of our sacred Land, the determination to expel more Jews from their homes, the willingness of the Prime Minister to 'make difficult sacrifies for 'peace'' is the perfect recipe for Arab terrorists: we will get whatever we want, so let's kill some more Jews - what difference does it make. Olmert won't allow Jewish blood to stand in the way of 'peace.' After all, Israel has all but decided to release terrorists with 'blood on their hands' as a 'gesture' to Abu Mazan and his 'moderate' colleagues. So again, why not kill Jews? What have they got to lose?
The injustices facing Jews, such as the determination to again expel Jews from a building legally purchased in Hebron, is a clear message to the terrorists: Israel is willing to go the whole way, giving whatever the terrorists demand in return for... more dead Jews.
The Olmert government must go. Olmert, Barak, and Livni are leading Israel down a path of bloodbath, a path of communal suicide, a path of injustice, a path leading to grief, a path leading to extended war. The time has come to replace these traitors with leaders of faith, leaders who believe in G-d, who believe in our right to our land, in our right to live in true peace, without continued concessions to evil.
Palestinian Authority Information Minister Riad Malki denied late Friday reports circulated by an Israeli sources that Palestinian negotiators had agreed in a meeting with Israeli representatives ahead of the planned Annapolis peace parley to disarm and disband all terror groups operating in the PA.
. Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades members on a rooftop outside the headquarters of the Palestinian security forces in Jenin. Photo: AP [file] , AP
According to Israel Radio, Malki spoke in an interview to the American Arabic-language Radio Sawa.
Israeli sources reported Thursday that Palestinian negotiators accepted Israeli security demands. These assert that progress following the conference will depend on the Palestinians fulfilling obligations set down in the first stage of the road map peace plan - namely the disarming and disbanding of all terror groups.
The breakthrough was reportedly achieved during a late-night meeting between chief Israeli and Palestinian negotiators Tzipi Livni and Ahmed Qurei.
In response to the reports of progress in the talks, a member of the Palestinian negotiating team who claimed he had attended the said meeting between Qurei and Livni, told Israel radio that the "breakthrough" was being trumpeted for more than it was worth.
"I did not sense that there was any progress in the talks with the Israeli side," the negotiator said. He then laughed and further retorted, "What's new about the principle stating that the implementation of commitments depends upon [the Palestinians] fighting terror? Indeed, it appears in the road map, and we of course agreed to the road map."
Jer 8:11 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace. 12 Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the LORD.
November 5, '07
Sderot: ‘Whoever Put These Stops Up is a Murderer’
(IsraelNN.com) Residents of Sderot expressed anger on Sunday after learning that dozens of special bus stops that were to provide protection from rockets are vulnerable to rocket attacks, and in fact could create an additional danger, as the material used in the bus stops could shatter during a rocket strike and create dangerous shrapnel. Parents Forum head Sasson Sarah said, “Whoever put these stops up is a criminal and a murderer, because young children could have hidden in them expecting security and been killed.”
Sderot Task Force head Alon Davidi said, “It’s not enough that the government fails to fulfill its function and does not order the IDF to begin ground operations in Gaza—now we feel they’ve turned their backs on us in this matter as well.”
Other residents of the city said they were unsurprised that the bus stops would not provide protection from rockets. A rocket had entered a supposedly reinforced community center, they said, and the Homefront Command spent millions of shekels to reinforce a school building, only to discover that the reinforced building was still vulnerable to rocket strikes.
Report: ‘Safe’ Bus Stops Vulnerable to Attack
(IsraelNN.com) According to a report done by Channel 10 News, 51 specially protected bus stops that have been stationed throughout the city of Sderot are vulnerable to rocket attacks.
The bus stops, which are meant to protect residents against terrorist rockets from Gaza, were built with 20-centimeter thick walls, as opposed to the 40-centimeter walls required by the Homefront Command. In addition, experts quoted by the news station said the material used in the bus stops could shatter in case of a direct rocket strike, endangering bystanders.
Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal responded to the report by halting the installment of the special bus stops, saying he could not approve the use of bus stops that do not protect residents against rocket strikes. Moyal said he would hold an urgent meeting on Monday with officials from the Homefront Command, the company that built the bus stops, and other relevant parties.
A few days ago one of Hebron's least best friends, MK Yossi Beilin, introduced a bill into the Knesset calling for the expulsion of all Jews from Hebron. One of Hebron's best f
"It is for the simple reason that previous leaders have failed time and time again [at peace]," Ben Aharon said. "Current leaders fail to understand the lessons derived from failures in the past. They don't study the reasons for the failure. Therefore, they fail to adopt the policy that will take Israel into a new reality that has hope and some kind of prospect for a better life for our people." 
"I have faith in our people," Ben Aharon said. "So many times, the people are wiser than the leadership... We have, unfortunately, a media that is failing in its mission... but apparently [Israelis] are marching in the same direction. There is a kind of paralysis. They're all under the same kind of influence. They believe constantly that this leadership and the previous leadership is the only one that is capable of providing solutions that are vital for our existence."
The children of Sderot are the finger in the Gaza dike. They are there to save us all from the great flood. The difference between them and the Dutch Hans Brinker is that they did not volunteer for the job. We have forcibly stuck their fingers in the dike, and returned to our own affairs.
How can Ehud Olmert get away with proclaiming that "the responsibility for what happened (in the Lebanon War fiasco) is all mine" and not resigning? 
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