Philip's posts with tag: livni
April 9, '08 Israel Facing Severe Leadership Crisis by Sarah Morrison  (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."
| The Jewish Leadership Weekly Newsletter
6 Adar II, 5768 (March 13, 2008) Issue 6824 | | Remember History: By Moshe Feiglin | |
30 Adar I, 5768
March 7, ‘08
 This Shabbat, Jews throughout the world will read the Torah portion, Zachor, in which we are commanded to remember Amalek and his evil schemes to obliterate the Nation of Israel. But currently, Israel is in the throes of a desperate attempt to erase its history. In doing so, it has lost its internal reference point, leaving it completely dependant on its enemies. Without Judaism, we have no right to be here. We are nothing more than foreigners occupying the land of the Hamas, who are simply fighting a war of independence.
Those who had mistakenly assumed that Israel’s leadership was beginning to understand reality received a chilling wake-up call last week from Israel’s president. “Why do we need to learn history?” Shimon Peres stumped for Education Minister Yuli Tamir’s educational methodology. “Everything is in the computer, anyway.”
I do not think that there is another leader in the world who would dare make such a foolish and dangerous remark. No nation, no matter how young and remote, would demonstrate such blatant scorn for the history of the world and its own, national history. But the king of the Jews - the president of the country that claims to represent the most ancient nation in the world - wants to stop our children from learning history. After all, everything is in the computer and can be easily accessed with the press of a button.
Technically, Peres is correct. The problem is that if history - the foundation on which our culture, heritage and justification for existing in the land rests - is in the computer and not in our heads and hearts, we will have no idea what we are doing here, why we should stay here and suffer, and certainly not why we should fight for this land.
“I hate history,” Peres explains, completely negating the Divine directive to remember history. Everything is in the computer. “And anyway,” he continues, “we live in a world in which territory has no significance.”
The entire post-modern ideology in which everything is virtual is personified by the president of the State of the Jews. Nothing is real anymore. The Land is virtual, the Kassams are nothing more than “Shmasams” as Peres called them and Israel’s policy is nothing more than a spin. In other words, reality is the amount of time that a given item stays in the headlines. Nothing else has any significance. Even pain is no longer real. Luckily for Israel’s leaders, the two soldiers who unnecessarily died in the IDF’s meaningless venture in Gaza last week were killed and not captured. Otherwise, we would have been forced to remember them. Now that they have died, they are nothing more than their mothers’ problem.
Shimon Peres and the rest of the Oslo priests have enslaved us in a language and mentality that have made our reality meaningless. How can we stop the missiles from being fired on Israel when so many of its streets and structures are named after Rabin - the person who, more than anyone, symbolizes the process that has brought this catastrophe upon us?
Israel must free itself of the Oslo mentality. The key is to keep the memories in our heads and hearts - not in our computers.
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 | Who Should be Sent to Fight in Gaza? | |
 Another round of goal-less fighting has drawn to an end in Gaza. The government had to do something to give Israel's citizens the feeling that it is 'doing something' for their security. But as the mother of the soldier killed in the fighting said at her son's funeral, "If I would know that my son's death had stopped the Kassams, I would be able to deal with it. But it did not."
Who should Israel send to fight in Gaza? First of all, Omri Sharon and all the Knesset members who voted in favor of the 'Disengagement.' They should of course be joined by all the media pundits and academia experts who bulldozed the sensitive but determined pogrom forward against all logic. From an ethical standpoint, those people who handed Gaza over to the enemy should now face the music and fight in Gaza to undo the damage that they have done. But we have not seen any of those responsible for this catastrophe lining up to help solve the problem. That being the case, every Israeli soldier would be wise to sit himself down and ask himself if he plans on sacrificing his life to "conquer Gaza, shatter the military power of the Hamas and then to transfer Gaza to Abu Mazen's trained forces," the "only realistic scenario" as proposed in the Ha'aretz newspaper. There should be no doubt in anybody's mind. Sooner or later, our soldiers will be sent to be sitting ducks in Gaza. Their lives will be worth much less than the lives of the enemy civilians (who are 'innocent,' of course). Their lives will be sacrificed so that Israel can transfer Gaza from one terrorist to another - who will also fire missiles at Ashkelon. When the war trumpets sound, the standing army and reserve soldiers will feel awkward letting their friends go to battle without them. Everyone will run to fight and many will return in boxes. Their mothers will feel the same way that this week's bereaved mother felt. It would be wise for everyone to think this through with a clear head - while it is still possible. | | Requiem for Rabin |
There were lots of signs as we drove to Ashkelon on Tuesday. Highway 6 in memory of Rabin, the Ashkelon Power Plant in memory of Rabin, Rabin Hospital, Rabin Road and Rabin Boulevard; half the country seems to be named after Rabin. I began to wonder how it would be possible to stop the missiles being shot at the nation that worships Rabin - the very man who brought the missiles upon us. No, this is not just small-minded tit-for-tat with one of the people most guilty for our crisis today. From the time that Rabin shook Arafat's hand on the White House lawn, the State of Israel has been captive to the leftist mantra that we cannot fight and thus cannot win. Rabin used to scornfully mock those who would warn that his policies would result in missiles in Ashkelon.  How can we reverse the Rabin mindset that has brought us the missiles? Maybe the first step is to find new names for all these neighborhoods, highways and buildings. Photo: Kassam in the Rabin neighborhood of Sderot, after it caused major damage there on the anniversary of Rabin's death. (Ynet)
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Israel to trust in princes By Stan Goodenough
February 24, 2008 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. Read the full article here
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. Keep up to date with our latest articles and audio updates
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| It really is time to wake up by David Wilder
February 20, 2008
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. It really is time to wake up. Web: www.hebron.com Ma'arat HaMachpela: www.machpela.com
Gift shop:www.hebrongifts.com | |
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The Jewish Leadership Weekly Newsletter Feb. 7, 2008 Issue 6819 | No Price Tag for 'Responsibility' | |  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.' |
February 6, '08 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."
 Please Folks 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 ----- Original Message ----- Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 2:38 AM Subject: Help Prevent a Second Holocaust 1 Please follow these simple steps to help save Israel: 1.) Open a second email window 2.) Copy and paste the following email addresses to the address line:
eyishay@knesset.gov.il, aatias@knesset.gov.il, eamsalem@knesset.gov.il, amncohen@knesset.gov.il, izchakec@knesset.gov.il, dazulay@knesset.gov.il, slomob@knesset.gov.il, ymargi@knesset.gov.il, amichaeli@knesset.gov.il, mnahari@knesset.gov.il, yvaknin@knesset.gov.il, nzeev@knesset.gov.il,
vegibud@gmail.com 3.) Copy and paste the following to the Subject line:
Prevent a Second Holocaust – Leave the Government Now! 4.) Type your name, city and state (in the U.S.) or name, city & country in the text of the message. Then send it. 5.) Forward this email to everyone on your list, and urge them to do the same. THANK YOU! Buddy Macy 973-785-0057 
January 16, '08
‘Bush Aware of Jewish Refugees’
(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.
| After meeting with Israeli, Egyptian and PA leaders for the past four days, U.S. Sec'y of State Rice hinted the Mideast summit will be postponed. 18 October 07 |  | | |
US Sec'y of State and PA
Chairman in Ramallah | (IsraelNN.com) Four days of shuttle diplomacy between Jerusalem, Ramallah and Cairo has apparently convinced U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that it would be wise to postpone the much publicized upcoming Mideast summit, originally scheduled to be held November 26 in Annapolis. | | | Rice told reporters after meeting Wednesday with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that she would “continue to say that the summit will be held in the fall,” but that “there are two months in the fall, November and December.” No new date was given for the conference. The Secretary of State acknowledged that the obstacles to reaching any form of agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are daunting, a fact echoed by every leader in the region. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told Rice at their meeting Tuesday in Cairo that he was willing to back the event. Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit warned in a statement a day earlier, however: “Rushing into holding the meeting without an agreement over a substantive and positive document may damage opportunities to achieve a just peace.” U.S. State Department officials expressed equally pessimistic predictions Monday after Rice had met separately with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas said bluntly in a news conference Wednesday that the summit would be a waste of time that would be “in no one’s interests” if Israel came unprepared to agree to hand over Judea, Samaria, Gaza and half of Jerusalem, to be established as the capital of a new PA state. He added that he and other PA officials “are not interested in participating in a conference that will not bear fruit.” Most of the region’s leaders have informed the Bush administration that little is likely to be accomplished at the summit other than more posturing, seeing as the Israeli and PA positions are still poles apart on most issues. Prime Minister Olmert has made numerous concessions and "goodwill gestures" to the PA in order to prop up Abbas’s government in the past few months, with little to show for it. Hundreds of thousands of shekels in tax monies collected on behalf of the PA, withheld after the Hamas terrorist organization took control of the government in 2006, were transferred to the Abbas government months ago as an initial gesture. Despite promises that none of the funds would be used to pay Hamas, money nonetheless found its way to Hamas employees’ pockets. Relaxation of security measures at IDF checkpoints around the country were met with claims of “not good enough.” The release of hundreds of PA terrorists being held in Israeli jails was met with similar contempt. Amnesty for hundreds more terrorists who were still at large, on condition they signed a document promising not to take up arms and return to their violent ways was also minimized. Many of those who were pardoned did not bother to fulfill their end of the deal and skipped the signatures and the commitment. Several of those have since been caught planning and attempting to carry out more terrorist attacks. Promises by Abbas to crack down on terrorism emanating from PA-controlled areas were only partially kept: while Abbas’s security forces allegedly did make an effort to reduce terrorism from Fatah-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria, they had lukewarm success But the commitments made by Abbas were broken repeatedly by Fatah-sponsored terrorists from the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades organization who were caught attempting to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians. The lack of Abbas’s ability or willingness to match Israel’s largesse in security risks taken in the hopes of making progress in talks has slowed down the Olmert government’s race toward the negotiation table, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the U.S. and others. “I want to stress that the summit is the first point in an ongoing process,” Rice told reporters. “There will be an international conference…but there [also] has to be a day after.” Public Security Minister Avi Dichter was equally skeptical about what could be accomplished at the summit, saying he had a problem with demands by the U.S. that Israel “show some creativity” in finding a way to reach an agreement with the PA. Speaking at Tel Aviv University, Dichter asked, “What does that mean? How many Palestinians were murdered because we didn’t vacate outposts, as opposed to how many Israelis were killed because the Palestinians didn’t fulfill their end of the agreements?” "Before Annapolis, if we go to Annapolis, it is important to give the Authority a boost and doff our hats for the efforts they will make, but we should take care to take off the hat without the head," he said. | | | PA Talk of Two States, TV Shows Only One 18 October 07 (IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority (PA) television this week showed its viewers a flag depicting the map of Israel with a visual display of the PA flag covering the entire country, according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas recently stated that a proposed new Arab state would include Judea, Samaria and Gaza, leaving Israel with its 1949 Armistice Line as borders.
The PA also has promised for more than two years to end incitement against Israel, but a recent Fatah faction editorial shows a Muslim kneeling in prayer with an American bomber in the background. He prays, "Allah, scatter them. And turn their wives into widows. And turn their children into orphans." | | | October 15, '07 Fatah Threatens to Reunite With Hamas
(IsraelNN.com) Senior Fatah terrorists said Monday that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas could decide to create another unity PA with Hamas. Abbas does not want to join forces with Hamas, they said, but is forced to do so due to his political weakness. The Fatah leaders blamed Israel for the situation, accusing Israel of weakening Abbas. While Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has released hundreds of terrorist prisoners, pardoned hundreds more, and agreed to allow thousands of foreign Arabs into Judea and Samaria under a “family reunification” program in order to strengthen Abbas, sources in Fatah said the “gestures” were insufficient. They called on Israel to stop requisitioning land around Jerusalem for state use and to halt IDF anti-terrorist operations in Judea and Samaria. | |
 Column One: Don't worry, be happy!
Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 5, 2007 Any doubt that Hamas is an Iranian proxy was dispelled this week by a snippet on the Middle East Media Research Institute's blog. MEMRI reported: "An article in the Iranian weekly Sobh-e Sadeq, circulated among the Revolutionary Guards, states that Fatah documents captured by Hamas have revealed that Egypt played a role in instigating the clashes which led to the Hamas takeover of Gaza. The article added that this is the second time Egypt has betrayed the Palestinians, the first being [the slain Egyptian president Anwar] Sadat's betrayal at the Camp David summit." So Hamas is sharing the treasure trove of intelligence it captured during its takeover of Gaza with Iran. In the greatest intelligence victory ever accomplished by a jihadist organization, Hamas (and Iran) now possess the files of all of the Palestinian security apparatuses, and the personal papers of Fatah leaders such as Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and Muhammad Dahlan. Hamas sources claim that Fatah's abject surrender of the information should come as a surprise to no one. They brag that in the months leading up to their putsch, Fatah operatives were happy to sell them all the weapons and intelligence information they asked for. Iran's use of the Fatah files against Egypt demonstrates that the emergence of Hamastan in Gaza endangers not only Israel, but regional security as a whole. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, the US and Israel can all expect reports to surface that will, in the best case, cause them deep embarrassment. Their governments may be destabilized and their security operations may be compromised. No doubt this state of affairs was central in causing the Egyptians, Saudis and Jordanians to all tell Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah chief Abbas not to clash with Hamas but to try to forge a new accord with it. And so Hamas's position improves by the day. On Sunday, just after Israel made its first payment of $120 million to Salaam Fayad's Fatah government, Fayad announced that the money will go to pay salaries of PA employees in Gaza. This tells us two things. First, it shatters the illusion of two distinct PAs - one that is bad and one that is good. By paying PA employees in Gaza, Fayad showed that from Fatah's perspective, there is only one PA, not two. Second, his move exposes as a lie Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's claim that the money was going only to Fatah. Indeed, it showed that Israel is funding Hamas. After all, if Fayad weren't using Israeli money to pay the Gazans, Hamas would have to pay them out of its own pocket. BBC reporter Alan Johnston's release on Wednesday was another win for Hamas. After Johnston's release, Britain's new Foreign Secretary David Miliband - whose mother, a Holocaust survivor, is a member of the radical anti-Zionist organization "Jews for Justice for Palestinians" and whose late father was a Communist - gushed over Hamas. Miliband said that Hamas leaders "denounced the hostage-takers and demanded Alan's release. I fully acknowledge the crucial role they have played in securing this happy outcome." In comments to Parliament, Miliband left the door wide open to the possibility of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government recognizing the Hamas government. Rather than chide the British for their embrace of a movement driven by barbaric hatred for Jews and bent on Islamic global domination, the Israeli government lavished praise on the British for successfully negotiating Johnston's release and tried to make nice with Hamas. Olmert coyly suggested, "As is known, Hamas members holding [IDF soldier Gilad Schalit] are - in effect - preventing the release of Palestinian prisoners as has been agreed upon." By thus framing the issue of Schalit's release, Olmert signaled to Hamas that Israel is interested in cutting a deal and has already accepted the Iranian-proxy's control over the outskirts of Ashkelon and Ashdod. Hamas has other new friends - al-Qaida for instance. While just last March al-Qaida was condemning its fellow Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization for signing the Mecca agreement with Fatah, in the al-Qaida video disseminated this week, the group's deputy commander, Ayman al-Zawahiri, praised Hamas and called for Muslims to join the terror group. In his words, "We tell our brothers, the Hamas mujahadin, that we and the entire Muslim nation stand alongside you, but you must redress your [political] path. Muslims must join Hamas ranks and we will back them by facilitating the passage of weapons and supplies from neighboring countries." The Olmert government's refusal to take the Hamas-Iranian threat in Gaza seriously fits well with its overall refusal to forge any coherent policies for dealing with any of the mounting threats that Israel faces. Last week, the Syrians celebrated the 33rd anniversary of the "liberation" of Quneitra on the Golan Heights, which Israel ceded to Syria in the cease-fire agreement that ended the Yom Kippur War. In government ceremonies, ministers in Bashar Assad's government emphasized the dictator's commitment to "liberating" the Golan. It was also reported that in honor of the anniversary, the Syrians opened the Damascus-Quneitra road to civilian traffic for the first time since 1967. If true, it would appear that the Syrians are setting the stage for terrorist infiltration of the Golan Heights. Radio Damascus reported Wednesday that the Syrian regime views IDF exercises in the North as a threat. This announcement can only be seen as a Syrian bid to develop a pretext for starting a war against Israel. And what sort of war awaits us? A missile war. While the Olmert government argues over the relative merits of overhauling and upgrading the National Security Council, and bolsters our national security by appointing Ruhama Avraham - the woman of many hair colors and stylish outfits - to the cabinet, the main lesson of the Second Lebanon War is being systematically ignored. THE WAR showed that Israel's enemies' primary target is the home front. This understanding was supposed to propel the government to secure civilian population centers nationwide, since Syrian missiles are capable of hitting every square centimeter of the country. But one year later, not even Sderot has been reinforced and the bomb shelters in the North remain neglected. It took the Finance Ministry 11 months to release funds to purchase gas masks for the public even though it is well known that Syria has chemical weapons. Although Olmert said that for him the last war is but "a distant memory," in Lebanon it is living history. Hizbullah is rearming so massively that even the UN has taken notice. Last week, UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon reported to the Security Council that the Syrian-Lebanese border has been completely breached and that shipments of Iranian and Syrian arms transit the country without the slightest difficulty. On Monday, outgoing Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh effectively told Israel Radio that the government is neglecting the security needs of Israel by starving the IDF of the funds necessary to adequately equip its forces and secure the home front ahead of a possible war with Hizbullah, Syria and Hamas. He also accused the government of mishandling the Iranian nuclear threat. Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz all lull the public into complacency by claiming that the UN Security Council sanctions against Iran are effective, and that Israel and the US are closely coordinating their policies on dealing with the Iranian nuclear weapons program. In his interview, Sneh called their bluff. Sneh argued that the sanctions have not prevented Iran from advancing its nuclear program and stated outright that "there is no coordination on the operational level between the Israeli and US militaries on Iran." Sneh added that the governmental underfunding has left the military bereft of good options for attacking Iran's nuclear installations on its own. On the other side, Teheran is mobilizing all of its resources for a war against the US and Israel. Risking its own destabilization, the regime instituted gasoline rationing last week. And this week President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran will soon begin rationing electricity. Intent on ignoring the dangers, Israel's government has opted to attack those who warn of them. Case in point is its treatment of former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton. Last week Bolton told The Jerusalem Post that the Bush administration's Iran policy has failed. In his words, "The current approach of the Europeans and Americans is not just doomed to failure, but dangerous. Diplomacy and sanctions have failed... So we have to look at: 1, overthrowing the regime and getting in a new one that won't pursue nuclear weapons; 2, a last-resort use of force." Bolton added that there might not be enough time to bring down the regime before the Iranians acquire nuclear weapons. Israeli officials, snug in their bubble, reacted to the interview by attacking Bolton. One official dismissed Bolton by calling him America's "Avigdor Lieberman." Another patronized, "It is possible that his comments were meant to expedite the process. We would all like to see more aggressive diplomacy." But as Sneh made clear, not only were Bolton's remarks accurate, but also, thanks to the Olmert government, Israel lacks the means to independently address the threat of its own annihilation, and has no military coordination on the matter with the US. To their credit, the ministers responsible for dealing with Iran are very busy with pressing concerns. Last week, Lieberman took a trip to Europe, where he tried to advance his idea of bringing Israel into the anti-Israel EU. And in light of UNIFIL's stunning accomplishments in preventing Hizbullah from rearming, Israel's "Strategic Affairs" minister also used his time to push his idea of deploying NATO forces to Gaza. On Wednesday, Livni met with her Moroccan counterpart. Livni praised Morocco for its participation in the Saudi Peace Plan that has been disavowed by the Saudis. Olmert the peacemaker concluded a peace accord this week between his cronies Ronnie Bar-On and Haim Ramon. He also negotiated a temporary cease-fire with his political rival Meir Sheetrit. Most critically, Olmert ensured Israel's long-term security by appointing Ruhama Avraham a minister-without-portfolio in his Lilliputian government. The local media organs, all of which moronically ignore the emerging threats, keep promising the public that the Olmert government will fall as soon as the Winograd Committee issues its final report on the Second Lebanon War, sometime in the next few months. But there is no guarantee that this is true. In the best case scenario, the report will merely tell us what has been clear for the past year: With or without a restructured National Security Council, our political leaders are incompetent boobs whose only concern is their personal political survival, regardless of the consequences for the nation's security. But really, why worry? After all, Shas is happy. Lieberman is satisfied. Olmert is rock solid. And Ruhama is moved to tears. Perhaps we should be crying, too.
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