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The Silent City

Beautifully expressed truth about a very ugly subject:

I think it fundamentally wrong to think that love and admiration for totalitarianism died in the Fuherbunker with Adolph Hitler. It almost immediately shifted its affections East to Uncle Joe. For him, no sacrifice was too great. Did America have atomic secrets? The highest duty of the most enlightened was to share them with Joseph Stalin in the interests of world peace.

Nothing can disguise the fact that six million Jews died, not in the Middle East, but in ovens which burned in the very heart of Europe. In countries that prided themselves in culture; that listened to Mozart; read books and vaunted their universities. When Golda Meir said with relief, on the occasion of the foundation of Israel that "For two thousand years we have waited for our deliverance. Now that it is here it is so great and wonderful that it surpasses human words" she was speaking of escape from a darkness within the very center of Western civilization.

Yet nothing great or wonderful is safe forever, and that darkness, that love for savagery, that admiration for the brutal, that was believed to have died beneath the ground in 1945 is on the march again. It is crawling out of books, lofty towers, places of culture in precisely the manner Camus warned us against. He said that the evil may be beaten, but it is rarely beaten forever; "that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good; that it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen-chests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city."

But we may not speak of it. And therefore it begins.

Read the whole thing.

The History of Modern Israel

In the late 1940s, before the establishment of Israel as a modern state, Jewish leaders once dreamed of a "Jewish-Arab alliance." Over the years, we've traveled very far from that dream, to the point where it seems almost inconceivable. It is a crying shame that it is the Israelis who are condemned for its loss and for the Palestinian refugee problem by the international community.  This should not be.  Media bias, lies and propaganda have turned Israel's plight into a sorry travesty of justice. It is made that much more grievous by the thought that so many of the victims of hitler and their descendents suffer yet another iteration of antisemitism hiding in a new costume - - anti-Zionism.

Efraim Karsh documents the history of the establishment of the modern state of Israel based upon recently declassified documents from the period of 1920-1948. They have brought forth some new facts which shed light on how the conflict actually developed:

Sixty years after its establishment by an internationally recognized act of self-determination, Israel remains the only state in the world that is subjected to a constant outpouring of the most outlandish conspiracy theories and blood libels; whose policies and actions are obsessively condemned by the international community; and whose right to exist is constantly debated and challenged not only by its Arab enemies but by segments of advanced opinion in the West.

During the past decade or so, the actual elimination of the Jewish state has become a cause célèbre among many of these educated Westerners. The “one-state solution,” as it is called, is a euphemistic formula proposing the replacement of Israel by a state, theoretically comprising the whole of historic Palestine, in which Jews will be reduced to the status of a permanent minority. Only this, it is said, can expiate the “original sin” of Israel’s founding, an act built (in the words of one critic) “on the ruins of Arab Palestine” and achieved through the deliberate and aggressive dispossession of its native population.

This claim of premeditated dispossession and the consequent creation of the longstanding Palestinian “refugee problem” forms, indeed, the central plank in the bill of particulars pressed by Israel’s alleged victims and their Western supporters. It is a charge that has hardly gone undisputed. As early as the mid-1950’s, the eminent American historian J.C. Hurewitz undertook a systematic refutation,[1] and his findings were abundantly confirmed by later generations of scholars and writers. Even Benny Morris, the most influential of Israel’s revisionist “new historians,” and one who went out of his way to establish the case for Israel’s “original sin,” grudgingly stipulated that there was no “design” to displace the Palestinian Arabs.[2]

The recent declassification of millions of documents from the period of the British Mandate (1920-1948) and Israel’s early days, documents untapped by earlier generations of writers and ignored or distorted by the “new historians,” paint a much more definitive picture of the historical record. They reveal that the claim of dispossession is not only completely unfounded but the inverse of the truth. What follows is based on fresh research into these documents, which contain many facts and data hitherto unreported.

_____________

Far from being the hapless objects of a predatory Zionist assault, it was Palestinian Arab leaders who from the early 1920’s onward, and very much against the wishes of their own constituents, launched a relentless campaign to obliterate the Jewish national revival. This campaign culminated in the violent attempt to abort the UN resolution of November 29, 1947, which called for the establishment of two states in Palestine. Had these leaders, and their counterparts in the neighboring Arab states, accepted the UN resolution, there would have been no war and no dislocation in the first place.

The simple fact is that the Zionist movement had always been amenable to the existence in the future Jewish state of a substantial Arab minority that would participate on an equal footing “throughout all sectors of the country’s public life.”[3] The words are those of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founding father of the branch of Zionism that was the forebear of today’s Likud party. In a famous 1923 article, Jabotinsky voiced his readiness “to take an oath binding ourselves and our descendants that we shall never do anything contrary to the principle of equal rights, and that we shall never try to eject anyone.”[4]

Eleven years later, Jabotinsky presided over the drafting of a constitution for Jewish Palestine. According to its provisions, Arabs and Jews were to share both the prerogatives and the duties of statehood, including most notably military and civil service. Hebrew and Arabic were to enjoy the same legal standing, and “in every cabinet where the prime minister is a Jew, the vice-premiership shall be offered to an Arab and vice-versa.”[5]

If this was the position of the more “militant” faction of the Jewish national movement, mainstream Zionism not only took for granted the full equality of the Arab minority in the future Jewish state but went out of its way to foster Arab-Jewish coexistence. In January 1919, Chaim Weizmann, then the upcoming leader of the Zionist movement, reached a peace-and-cooperation agreement with the Hashemite emir Faisal ibn Hussein, the effective leader of the nascent pan-Arab movement. From then until the proclamation of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948, Zionist spokesmen held hundreds of meetings with Arab leaders at all levels. These included Abdullah ibn Hussein, Faisal’s elder brother and founder of the emirate of Transjordan (later the kingdom of Jordan), incumbent and former prime ministers in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq, senior advisers of King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud (founder of Saudi Arabia), and Palestinian Arab elites of all hues.

As late as September 15, 1947, two months before the passing of the UN partition resolution, two senior Zionist envoys were still seeking to convince Abdel Rahman Azzam, the Arab League’s secretary-general, that the Palestine conflict “was uselessly absorbing the best energies of the Arab League,” and that both Arabs and Jews would greatly benefit “from active policies of cooperation and development.”6 Behind this proposition lay an age-old Zionist hope: that the material progress resulting from Jewish settlement of Palestine would ease the path for the local Arab populace to become permanently reconciled, if not positively well disposed, to the project of Jewish national self-determination. As David Ben-Gurion, soon to become Israel’s first prime minister, argued in December 1947:

If the Arab citizen will feel at home in our state, . . . if the state will help him in a truthful and dedicated way to reach the economic, social, and cultural level of the Jewish community, then Arab distrust will accordingly subside and a bridge will be built to a Semitic, Jewish-Arab alliance.[7]

On the face of it, Ben-Gurion’s hope rested on reasonable grounds. An inflow of Jewish immigrants and capital after World War I had revived Palestine’s hitherto static condition and raised the standard of living of its Arab inhabitants well above that in the neighboring Arab states. The expansion of Arab industry and agriculture, especially in the field of citrus growing, was largely financed by the capital thus obtained, and Jewish know-how did much to improve Arab cultivation. In the two decades between the world wars, Arab-owned citrus plantations grew sixfold, as did vegetable-growing lands, while the number of olive groves quadrupled.[8]

No less remarkable were the advances in social welfare. Perhaps most significantly, mortality rates in the Muslim population dropped sharply and life expectancy rose from 37.5 years in 1926-27 to 50 in 1942-44 (compared with 33 in Egypt). The rate of natural increase leapt upward by a third.[9]

That nothing remotely akin to this was taking place in the neighboring British-ruled Arab countries, not to mention India, can be explained only by the decisive Jewish contribution to Mandate Palestine’s socioeconomic well-being. The British authorities acknowledged as much in a 1937 report by a commission of inquiry headed by Lord Peel:

The general beneficent effect of Jewish immigration on Arab welfare is illustrated by the fact that the increase in the Arab population is most marked in urban areas affected by Jewish development. A comparison of the census returns in 1922 and 1931 shows that, six years ago, the increase percent in Haifa was 86, in Jaffa 62, in Jerusalem 37, while in purely Arab towns such as Nablus and Hebron it was only 7, and at Gaza there was a decrease of 2 percent.[10]

Had the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs been left to their own devices, they would most probably have been content to take advantage of the opportunities afforded them. This is evidenced by the fact that, throughout the Mandate era, periods of peaceful coexistence far exceeded those of violent eruptions, and the latter were the work of only a small fraction of Palestinian Arabs.[11] Unfortunately for both Arabs and Jews, however, the hopes and wishes of ordinary people were not taken into account, as they rarely are in authoritarian communities hostile to the notions of civil society or liberal democracy. In the modern world, moreover, it has not been the poor and the oppressed who have led the great revolutions or carried out the worst deeds of violence, but rather militant vanguards from among the better educated and more moneyed classes of society.

So it was with the Palestinians.

Read the rest.

McCain vs Obama on Israel

Jennifer Rubin writes that despite what Obama may be saying on the subject, there are definitive differences between his Israel policy and McCain's:

Part of Barack Obama’s expressed amazement over his difficulty in attracting Jewish support is his claim to adhere to positions identical to John McCain’s on Israel and Hamas. His willingness to hold direct talks with Hamas’s sponsor Iran without preconditions–and without insisting it renounce its policy of obliterating Israel–is one big difference. But it is not the only one.

Others have noted that Daniel Kurtzer, former ambassador to Israel and advisor to Obama, has stated that it “will be impossible to make progress on serious peace talks without putting the future of Jerusalem on the table.” In response to my asking whether this approach is “identical” to McCain’s, I received this response from McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann:

It is revealing that Senator Obama’s Middle East adviser is talking about the need for Israeli concessions on Jerusalem to be ‘on the table’ while making no reference to the need for Palestinians to meet basic roadmap obligations on countering terror and providing security. Senator McCain is not going to pressure Israel into making concessions that undermine its security.

It seems there are indeed major differences between the two. Might that have something to do with the level of support Obama is receiving from American Jews?

"What You Create is Yours"

Israel's Right to a State - Jeff Jacoby (Boston Globe)

• It is not unheard-of for a nation to vanish from the map and later reappear. Poland, for example, was partitioned out of existence in 1795 and regained its independence in 1918. But the restoration of Israel was unlike anything the world had ever seen.
• Through all the generations of dispersion that followed, the Jews never lost their self-awareness as a nation or their connection to the Land of Israel. By the 1860s, a majority of Jerusalem's population was Jewish once more. Zionism - an organized movement to renew Jewish independence in the Jewish homeland - was formally launched in 1897. Five decades later, against steep odds and every historical precedent, Israel was reborn.
• Under siege since the day it was born, Israel has never known a day of true peace. It is the only nation in the world whose legitimacy is routinely called into question. It still has enemies who want it wiped off the map. Uniquely, the Jewish state came into being with the imprimatur of both the League of Nations and the United Nations. Few nations can present a birth certificate as storied as Israel's.
• Ultimately, the right of statehood accrues only to those who can fashion and sustain a nation. "Why does the United States belong to Americans?" Yale's David Gelernter wrote in 2002. "Because we built it. We conceived the idea and put it into practice bit by bit."
• For the same reason, the Land of Israel belongs to Israelis: "Because Israelis conceived and built it - and what you create is yours. If you want a homeland, you must create one. You drain swamps, lay out farms, build houses, schools, roads, hospitals." "That's how America got its homeland. And that is why Israel belongs to the Israelis."

Israel at 60

A video from the American Jewish Committee, with original footage of the 1947 UN partition vote:

From Front Page Magazine, a comparison of earlier Israel to the Israel of today:

Growing up in the Israel of the 1960’s meant experiencing a bonding intimacy of idealism grounded in the soil of this newly liberated Jewish homeland. The Holocaust was put behind us, and was perhaps even a taboo for discussion. But the lessons of the Holocaust remained fresh and real to young Israelis.

Self-reliance and sacrifice were the demands of the day. Israel in the early 1960’s was an idealistic society and nobody needed to be lectured on Zionism. Israelis resented anyone’s fulminations on idealistic Zionism, since it was practiced rather than discussed.

In today’s Israel, the leftist post-Zionists no longer see Zionism beyond a topic for discussion. Does it indicate the death of Zionism and an end to the idealism that made several generations of pioneers toil the soil and shed their blood to make the dream of a Jewish State a living reality? Not really!

The State of Israel is a reality cemented in established institutions, rooted in a strong and flourishing civil society that enjoys a free press, the rule of law, and a democratic government. Like all modern states, Israel is no longer a “developing country,” but part of the developed world with an average per capita income of $30,000. Its GNP is larger than that of all its Arab neighbors combined and it exports to other western countries some of the most sophisticated computer technology, optics, electronics, military hardware and software, and the best medical devices that high–tech can produce. While the lives of many of those living in the greater Tel Aviv and Haifa areas may resemble those of western Europeans and Americans, the pioneering spirit can still be found in the communities of Judea, Samaria, Golan, the Negev and Galilee and even in a few Jerusalem neighborhoods.

The intimacy of a small-beleaguered nation of the 1960’s has, in 2008, given way to great material expectations. The streets of Tel Aviv are a testament to such material changes. In the 1960’s, only two out of ten Israelis owned a motor vehicle. Today, it is about 9 out of 10. Israelis own the latest and the best gadgets, and the fashion leaders in New York, LA, Paris, or London can be assured that what’s “hip” in Soho is “cool” in Tel Aviv too.

Veteran Israelis who put their lives on the line in successive wars have sought more comfortable lives for their children. They have reasoned that if their sons and daughters must still depend on arms to preserve their country from attack, at least let them enjoy the luxuries of life. Israelis travel abroad more than virtually any other people per capita. Israelis can be found trekking the far corners of the earth in what has become a rite-of-passage following completion of their compulsory military service.

Link

Six decades of Israeli history as seen in photographs from private albums.

The European Jewish Press discusses commemoration plans:

Israel was founded on May 14, 1948, when its first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared statehood as Britain's UN mandate over historic Palestine was expiring.

Holidays in Israel, however, are marked according to the Hebrew calender, so the celebrations are to begin on May 7, the eve of what in Israel is known as Independence Day.

As part of dozens of additional projects, children have begun collecting 1.5 million marbles, symbolizing the 1.5 Jewish children who died in the Nazi Holocaust. Artists plan to use these marbles to construct a memorial to them.

A highlight of the celebrations is a three-day international conference hosted by President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem.

Many of the world's leaders  are to attend the festivities, including US President George Bush, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, former Soviet president Michael Gorbachev and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Like Bush, some of the other dozen presidents on the list have been to Israel before, but this will be a first visit for Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, among others.

Other presidents to attend the conference include Victor Yushchenko of Ukraine, resident Lech Kaczynski of Poland, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Michael Saakashvili of Georgia, Stjepan Mesic of Croatia, Bamir Topi of Albania, Blaise Campoare of Burkina Faso, Danilo Türk of Slovenia and Valdis Zatlers of Latvia.

As a Nobel Prize winner, Peres invited other Nobel Prize laureates, at least seven of whom will be coming to Israel to share their views of the future.

Prominent figures from the private sector who will attend include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

The agenda for the conference covers a myriad of topics, including the future of the world economy, the content and meaning of a Jewish state, the extent to which Jewish tradition is relevant in tomorrow's world, whether a green Israel is possible, the tipping point of the geopolitical arena, Israel's ability to continue to be a leading contender in the world of science and cultivating future leaders of Israel and the Jewish people.

Link

Columnist David Brumer asks why Israel is cast as the obstacle to peace in the region when it has "said yes to virtually every partition plan put forth in modern times while the Palestinians have said no" :

For more than 3,000 years, Jews have been spiritually as well as corporeally bonded to the land of Israel. In 1921, Winston Churchill proclaimed, "It is manifestly right that the Jews, who are scattered all over the world, should have a national center and a national home. And where else could that be but in this land of Palestine, with which for more than 3,000 years they have been intimately and profoundly associated?" For French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the recreation of a sovereign Jewish state "is the most significant event of the 20th century." He described Israel's re-establishment as "the 20th century's miracle" and noted that "defending its existence is an international duty."

So why, 60 years later, or 3,060 years, if you will, is Israel living under such a barrage of existential threats? Why does Israel still have to prove itself worthy of being included in the family of nations? Why indeed is Israel singled out as the one nation on Earth whose very existence is questioned? Cynthia Ozick bristles at the "the scandal of calling into question a living nation's existence ... The Big Lie that demonizes Israel and contaminates the viler estuaries of what is nowadays dubbed 'the international community' ... ."

Yet among "progressive" intellectuals, especially in Europe, it is axiomatic that Israel is not merely "not doing enough to for peace in the Middle East," but is responsible for Islamist "outrage" against the West; that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains at the core of the Arab world's grievances, and, if only this conflict could be solved, peace would ensue. Leaving aside the illogical nature of this proposition (al-Qaida and other radical Islamists have as much a gripe against Christian nations whom they see as usurping their place in history), it is hard to find a country that has striven more for peaceful co-existence with its neighbors than Israel. No nation has taken more demonstrable risks for peace. Israel proved its intention to live in harmony with its neighbors when it enacted peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Israel has shown its willingness to make painful sacrifices in the name of peace, withdrawing from all of Gaza in 2005 while evacuating more than 8,000 Israeli citizens from their homes.

Israel has said yes to virtually every partition plan put forth in modern times while the Palestinians have said no, starting with the Peel Commission in 1937, which would have given the Palestinians nearly 80 percent of the land between the "River and the Sea." In 1947, the Palestinians again rejected statehood on 45 percent of the land, while Israel agreed to the remaining 55 percent divided into three cantons (60 percent of which is desert). Finally, in 2000 Israel offered the Palestinians more than 96 percent of contiguous West Bank land and all of Gaza in the hopes that the century-old conflict could end. The Palestinian response to that offer was the Second Intifada, more aptly understood by Israelis as a Terror War unleashed against the Jewish State.

Yet Israel continues to be viewed as the obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

Link

Why we should support Israel:

The last living witness to the birth of Israel, at 93, recalls what it was like:

Arieh Handler participated in Israel's birth on two separate occasions. The lesser event, in his view, was on May 14, 1948, when he was among some 200 persons invited to the Tel Aviv hall where David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the state. Handler, 93 this month, is believed to be the only one of those present still alive.

"...The Arabs were quite strong and the British didn't like us," said Handler. "We didn't know whether we could oppose the British empire."

Some delegates favored accepting the American proposal for very different reasons; they believed that if the partition proposal were scrapped the Jewish state could expand beyond the territory allocated to it in the UN resolution.

The debate was stormy, Handler remembers, and lasted close to six hours. "It seemed at times that people might come to blows."

In the end, it was Ben-Gurion who decided the issue with a passionate speech. Despite the fact that neighboring Arab states had 40 times the population of the Yishuv, he said, and despite the abundance of weapons in the hands of the Arabs and the assistance they were receiving from the British, no Jewish settlement had yet been captured or abandoned. (This would change shortly.) The most difficult test still lay ahead, with the incursion of the Arab armies, he said, but the Yishuv would prevail if it summoned up the powers inherent in it.

When the issue was put to a vote, Ben-Gurion won a clear victory. "We have decided," said the concluding resolution, "relying on the authority of the Zionist movement and the support of the entire Jewish people, that upon the termination of the mandatory regime there shall be an end to foreign rule in Palestine and the governing body of the Jewish state shall come into being."

Says Handler: "This event was more important than the actual signing of the Declaration of Independence. We felt at the time very clearly that the meeting was decisive."

Long article - read the whole thing.

From the Jewish Chronicle (London), some Haiku:

Haiku Mania

By Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah

To mark Israel’s upcoming 60th anniversary, we challenged JC readers to write a haiku —the traditional Japanese verse form — to sum up what the country means to you.

This obviously struck a chord, with over 100 readers taking on the tricky three-line, 17-syllable structure of the haiku to express views about Israel, from the poetic to the political.

A variety of themes emerged, with many entrants extolling Israel for providing oppressed Jews with a homeland, this example by Ruth Landsman being fairly typical:

Israel means to me
A safe haven for all Jews,
A place to call home

A sizeable number of readers chose to lament the enduring conflict with the Palestinians. Witness this entry from Hannah Hutchinson:

Jew and Muslim, sons
Each of Abraham — long-term
Sibling rivalry

Some opted for the humorous approach (which we said might win extra points), and found a rich source of amusement in the restrictions of the haiku form itself. This from Barry Hyman:

Eretz at sixty?
How can you do it justice
In just five syllab…?

Food, naturally enough, figured large, particularly falafel, as this example by 10-year-old Jasmine Sadlik demonstrates:

Feeding the people
Falafel in pitta bread
Ever so tasty!

Falafel was one attraction that inspired Adam Mizler to express his enthusiasm for Israel. There was another:

Beautiful women,
And the best fresh falafels…
Man, I love Israel!

Some, like Rose Abrahamson, simply strived to conjure up a memorable image:

The train was chugging
Through sweet-scented orange groves
To Jerusalem

A few more:

She-ma Yis-ra-el,
A-do-nai E-lo-hei-nu,
A-do-nai E-chad

Moshe Rabbennu

(sent in by
Jonathan Samuel)

Children of Israel;
Wandered for thousands of years.
Where were the adults?

Adam Grossman

Sixty years have passed
It’s about time we had peace
In the Middle East

Joseph Adams

Shalom Aleichem
Two brothers in God’s own house
Salaam Aleikum

David Ury

Sixty years ago
Israel became our homeland
But we’re still fighting

Laura Gold

Tattoos on bodies
Dent on cars. Cellphone clubbers
In non-kosher bars

Monty Goldin

I'm not reprinting them, but also included were some anti-Israel haikus.  The author of the article deplores them and so do I.

Some of you might be familiar with the fact that Israel has a long history.  There's an Ancient Book called, "The Bible" that tells the story. Jews read it in its original Hebrew, one section at a time, in temple throughout the year.

American Thinker has some of the background:

The nation of Israel is about to commemorate its 60th birthday. That's the official, politically correct, line. But to be truly accurate, a cake celebrating the milestone should have more candles than 60 -- thousands more.

While it is most certainly true that David Ben-Gurion stood in Tel Aviv in front of a portrait of Zionist Patriarch Theodor Herzl and proclaimed Israel's independence from Britain on May 14, 1948, (immediately after which the armies of five Arab nations attacked the Jewish state), this year's celebration would more accurately be "Israel 3,200" or perhaps even "Israel 3,400."

In other words, the popularly promoted notion that Israel was "founded", "created", or "established" just in 1948 to give the Jews a piece of land by the Western powers out of guilt over the Holocaust is not accurate. Israel's detractors use this claim to try to delegitimize the Middle East's only true democracy.

After all, Israel has really been in existence since at least 1200 BCE and some experts place the establishment of Israel as the home of the Jewish people as early as 1406 BCE.

It is dutifully recorded in Scripture (Book of Joshua, ArtScroll Edition) that after the Children of Israel had gathered on the eastern bank of the Jordan River, as instructed to do so by G-d, that "When the bearers of the Ark [of the Covenant] arrived at the Jordan and the feet of the Kohanim, the bearers of the Ark, were immersed in the edge of the water - and the Jordan was overflowing its banks all the days of the harvest season - the waters descending from upstream stood still and they rose up in one column ... and was cut off; and the people crossed opposite Jericho. ... [A]ll Israel crossing on dry land until the entire nation finished crossing the Jordan." Joshua 3:14-17

Next, G-d commanded Joshua to select 12 men - one from each Israelite tribe -- to each gather one stone from amidst the river bed, bring it into the land of Israel and erect a memorial "and these stones shall remain a remembrance for the children of Israel forever." Joshua 4:7.

Scripture chronicles the date of this miracle: "The people ascended from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month, and encamped at Gilgal at the eastern end of Jericho." Joshua 4:19.

Nisan is the first month of the Jewish calendar, and this year the 10^th of Nisan coincides with April 15 in the Gregorian calendar. [Note: Though Nisan is the first month, the Jewish New Year is marked in a different month.]

The Children of Israel -- better known today as the Jewish People -- has inhabited the land of Israel continuously ever since, despite a string of wars, conquests and expulsions.

Read the rest.

The Original Source.

Egypt: Sudden Believer in Walls

Egypt Builds a Wall and Changes Its Tune on Israel's Barrier - David Schenker
In January 2008, Hamas demolished the Gaza-Egypt border fence, allowing an estimated 700,000 Palestinians - nearly half of Gaza's population - to stream into the Sinai desert. Then reality set in. The prospect of Hamas hooking up with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood terrifies the government of Egypt. With tensions along the border increasing, Egypt has softened its position on Israel's West Bank barrier.  In March, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said, "Whoever wishes to build a security fence on his land is free to do that." Subsequently, it was announced that Egypt, with $23 million in U.S. assistance, would build its own fence along the border with Gaza. At the end of the day, the Gaza border is a matter of Egyptian national security. So despite the comparisons that will be drawn between the Israeli and Egyptian barriers, Cairo had few alternatives other than to move ahead with a wall of its own. The writer is senior fellow and director of the program in Arab politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. (Weekly Standard)

Al Qaeda Wants Credit For 9/11

And they would appreciate it if Iran would stop blaming the Jews.

Lovely. Just Lovely.

Abbas Honors Palestinians Who Helped Kill Israeli Civilians (Jerusalem Post)
    The Al Kuds Mark of Honor, the PLO's highest medal, will be given to two female terrorists who helped kill Israelis, Israel Radio reported Wednesday. Mahmoud Abbas has the final say when choosing the Palestinians to be honored with the medal.
    They include Ahlam Tamimi, who drove the suicide bomber that exploded in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem, killing 15 people, and Amra Muna, who seduced Ophir Rahum over the Internet and then lured him to Ramallah where he was murdered.
    See also Sbarro Terrorist Driver "Not Sorry" - Raanan Ben-Zur (Ynet News)

And in the meantime, Jimmy Carter is hugging members of Hamas:

Former President Carter angered Israel's government Tuesday by embracing a Hamas politician during a visit to the West Bank, ignoring Israeli and U.S. designation of the Islamic militants as a terror group. Israel accused Carter, the broker of the first Arab-Israeli peace accord, of "dignifying" extremists. But Carter vowed to meet Hamas' supreme leader this week in Syria.

Carter, a Nobel Peace laureate, also laid a wreath at Yasser Arafat's grave, another break with U.S. policy during a private peace mission to the Middle East that includes stops in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria - where the virulently anti-Israel Hamas movement has its headquarters. Carter returns to Israel on Monday.

Carter has been shunned by Israel this week, and the White House has criticized him for his willingness to meet with Hamas leaders.

Carter is also urging talks with Syria:

"Since Syria and Hamas will have to be involved in a final peace agreement, they have to be involved in discussions that lead to final peace," Carter said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

While Syria helps to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon:

Israel Says Syria Arming Hizbullah Despite UN Resolution
Syria is supplying Lebanon's Hizbullah militia with rockets in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak charged on Tuesday. The resolution called for the disarming of all militias - an allusion to Hizbullah as well as to Palestinian militant groups - and the prevention of illegal arms sales and smuggling operations in Lebanon. (AFP)

Iran. Must. Not. Obtain. Nuclear. Weapons.

In reaction to Charles Krauthammer's latest column, Noah Pollak writes:

This is the question of whether Iran, upon acquiring a nuclear weapon, would need to actually launch an ICBM at Israel to destroy the country, or whether it could attempt to pick it apart through a relentless campaign of terror wars launched by its “non-state actor” proxies. Please pardon me for quoting something on this subject that I wrote previously:

The Jewish state already has a problem in the number of its citizens who tire of the warfare, terrorism, and Arab hatred that are regular features of life in Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live abroad, many permanently, because they seek a “normal life,” and many Jews will never immigrate to Israel exactly because of the absence of such a life. All of this is only in the face of Palestinian and Hezbollah terrorists who kill with crude weapons. Now imagine those groups with the support of a nuclear patron. Imagine daily life in Israel conducted under the constant threat — the Iranians would surely take every opportunity to remind Israelis — of nuclear annihilation.

The Iranians are probably smart enough to know that if they’re patient, nothing so dramatic as nuclear war will be necessary. Simply by possessing a nuclear capability and regularly threatening to use it or supply it to its proxies, Iran will accomplish the psychological and economic attrition of Israel. This goal will be achieved without firing a shot — or at least without full-scale war.

Krauthammer’s column is intended as an attempt at envisioning a U.S. security strategy that would protect Israel in an Iranian nuclear era. Its failure to present a plausible scenario for doing so should underscore the importance of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons in the first place.

Click link to see the following being discussed in comments - - >  If Iran nuked Israel, would the US take the survivors?

God forbid it should ever come to that. 

American Thoughts Regarding Israel

Poll: U.S. Voters Support Israel (JTA)
    Americans likely to vote in November strongly believe the U.S. should take Israel's side in its conflict with the Palestinians, according to a poll of 800 likely voters conducted on March 18-20 and released Monday.
    "The militant actions by Hamas and disarray among the Palestinians have moved Americans to side with Israel even more strongly than in the past," said Stanley Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.
    93% agree Palestinians must stop their missile attacks before a two-state solution can bring peace to the region.
    84% of Americans agree Israel should remain a Jewish state and a homeland for the Jewish people. Only 20% believe that Jerusalem should be divided.

Not sure how accurate this is.  800 is a pretty small sampling. The fact that only 84% think Israel should be a Jewish state - - wonder what percentage believe that France should be a French state?

Sigh. Those Were the Days

When anti-semites used to like Israel.

The New Guardians of Israel

Carolyn Glick writes:

Moshav Tzipori, in the Lower Galilee, is a microcosm of the history of the Land of Israel. A regional capital under King Herod, Tzipori was the seat of Jewish learning and the preservation of the Torah through some of the most tumultuous periods of Jewish history.

After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, refugees from Jerusalem fled to the Galilean town. Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, who presided over the writing of the Mishna, or oral law, moved to Tzipori from Beit Shearim, and it was there that he codified the six books of the Mishna and died.

The Jews of Tzipori revolted against the Roman Emperor Constantine, refusing to accept Christianity and the city was destroyed. The Jews later returned during the Islamic period. On and off, for the next millennia, Jews settled, were forcibly removed and resettled the city several times under various conquerors of Israel.

During the 1948 War of Independence, the ancient city was the site of a major battle between the new Israel Defense Force and the neighboring Arab villages assisted by invading forces from Syria and Lebanon. The Arabs were routed. In 1949, Moshav Tzipori was founded.

LAST FRIDAY afternoon, the struggle for Jewish control of Tzipori, the Galilee and the Land of Israel as a whole continued on the ancient ground. On that quiet afternoon of Purim, under the blistering sun, three horses stood happily grazing in a field of shrubs and grasses. The only problem with the otherwise pastoral scene was that the horses belong to Arab squatters from the Kablawi clan. In recent years, the Kablawis have built themselves an illegal village of some 20 houses masquerading as storage containers on stolen Jewish National Fund land adjacent to Tzipori's fields. The horses, who entered through a hole cut into the field's fence, pranced about and ate, destroying the field that was painstakingly cultivated for the moshav's cattle herds.

The farmers and ranchers of the Galilee, like their counterparts in the Negev are at wits' end. Fearing Arab riots or political condemnation by the Israeli Left, Arab leaders, the Islamic Movement and their allies abroad, the police and the state prosecutors have simply stopped enforcing the laws against the Galilee and Negev Arabs. Surrounded by increasingly hostile and lawless Arab and Beduin villages, local Jews' livestock and crops are continuously plundered.

They are faced with three equally unacceptable options for contending with this state of affairs. They can do nothing and let their livelihood and lives' work be destroyed. They can pay protection money to Arab criminal gangs, who in exchange agree not to rob them. Or they can try to sell off their lands and abandon agriculture altogether.

The obvious recourse - filing a complaint with the police - is an exercise in futility. Thousands of complaints are filed each year. Almost none of them end in indictments or trials. Most of the files are closed by the police due to "lack of public interest."

ON FRIDAY, the field in question belonged to a cattle rancher named Haim Z. Over the past few years, Haim has filed more than 250 complaints against local Arabs from the Kablawi family and from neighboring Arab villages like the Islamist stronghold Mashad with the police. None have ever gone anywhere. Last year, a helpful police officer recommended that Haim simply start paying protection money.

Last year Haim told his son that he had had it. The son of the moshav's founding generation, Haim said that he just couldn't go on anymore. The state's refusal to protect Jewish property rights had forced him to devote all of his energies to playing cat and mouse games with Arab poachers. He couldn't invest in his herd. He couldn't develop his land. All he could do was sit by and watch as year in and year out, his lands were plundered, his cattle stolen and the work of his life and his father's life was destroyed.

HIS SON, a 23 year old soldier in one of the IDF's elite commando units decided that it was up to him not only to save his father's farm, but to stem the tide of Arab infringement on Jewish land and property rights. Due to his position in the IDF, his name is classified. We'll call him J - for Jew.

In response to his father's desperation, J. took a storage container to a hilltop that overlooks Tzipori's fields, the surrounding Arab villages and the access routes to the moshav's fields. He placed a sofa, a bookshelf full of Jewish history books, religious texts and philosophy classics, and canned food inside and moved in during his furloughs from the army. Rather than hang out with his friends, he began standing guard. He confronted every Arab he caught infiltrating the moshav's fields, and both filed complaints with the police and chased them away.

Given his impossible schedule, J. enlisted his friends to help out.

Is Obama Hiding Anti-Israel Views?

For Arutz Sheva, Gil Ronen writes:

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama is currently hiding his anti-Israel views in order to get elected, according to a well-known anti-Israel activist. The activist, Ali Abunimah, claimed to know Obama well and to have met him on numerous occasions at pro-Palestinian events in Chicago.

Read the whole thing.

Sooner or Later: WW3 (or 4 depending on who's counting)

A big war is coming. Why?  Because we've tried everything and have not been able to rid ourselves of the extremism and terrorism that threaten us.

How Do You Kill the Philosophy of Death?

Hamas MP: We Used Women and Children as Human Shields (MEMRI-TV)
    Hamas MP Fathi Hammad said on Al-Aqsa TV (Feb. 29, 2008): "The Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel."
    "They have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: 'We desire death like you desire life.'"

Terror's Victims

This video brought me to tears.

Then to read this:

Thousands in Gaza Celebrate Jerusalem Terror Attack, Palestinians Distribute Sweets - Ali Waked
Gaza's streets filled with joyous crowds of thousands on Thursday evening following the terror attack at a Jerusalem school in which eight people were killed. In mosques in Gaza City, many residents went to perform the prayers of thanksgiving. Armed men fired in the air in celebration and others passed out sweets to passersby. Hamas issued a statement saying it "blesses the (Jerusalem) operation." (Ynet News)

So barbaric and uncivilized.

Israelis do not celebrate Arab deaths nor do they target unarmed civilians.

Yet they are condemned by the media and treated as moral equals to this culture of terrorism, head chopping, and death worship.

A "joke" describing Israel's relationship with the media.

The death of bacteria?

Statement by Israeli Ambassador to UN Human Rights Council - Amb. Itzhak Levanon
I cannot compete with the exaggerations, distortions and inaccuracies I have heard here. The truth is that the Hamas terrorists took over Gaza by force and established an irredentist entity. They have smuggled lethal weapons into this territory with the sole purpose to kill Israelis. Since the beginning of this year, in only two months, they have fired 671 missiles at civilians, women and children. They received these missiles from countries in the Middle East, such as the Iranian-made 122mm Grad missile. Hamas is committing war crimes and collectively punishing a population of a quarter of a million citizens living in Ashkelon, Sderot, the Negev, and Netivot. They call for the physical destruction of my country and translate these words into deeds. They brought al-Qaeda to Gaza, a fact confirmed by Mahmoud Abbas.
    The truth is that in the 12 resolutions regarding the Palestinian-Israeli situation that have been passed by this Council, not one has made even passing mention of the relentless aggression against Israel. Not one of them has called explicitly to halt the deluge of Kassam rockets and Grad missiles. Not one of them attempted to recognize that Palestinians do not have a monopoly on suffering; not one of them acknowledged that the children of Israel have the same right to safety as Palestinian children. Not one of them attempted to empathize with the cries of an Israeli mother protecting her children, or the fear and trauma experienced while running to a bomb shelter, know that only 30 seconds separates you from death. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

******

The Way of Terror and the Response - Alan Baker (Toronto Star)

• Day after day we are treated to footage on our TV screens of what we are told is a "cycle of violence." The equation, so glibly presented through the media, between pure, deliberate terror on the one hand, and the attempts to prevent it on the other, is misguided, misleading, and creates an utterly false and unfair equivalence.
• Hamas and the other terror organizations functioning under its control and supervision in Gaza are involved in directing the daily rocket firings, which willfully and deliberately target Israeli homes, schools, hospitals, religious seminaries, and kindergartens for the singular purpose of terrorizing and killing as many Israelis as they can.
• Death is their only motive. That is the way of terror. They fire 40 or 50 rockets every day in the hope that all will kill. It is deliberate and indiscriminate, and it is directed to terrorize a civilian population. It is not merely illegal and immoral, but it is a violation of the most basic norms and principles of international law. As such it is a war crime of the first dimension, going against all accepted norms of civilization.
• Israel does not willfully and deliberately target civilians, schools, homes and hospitals. Israel has no reason to harm any Palestinian wishing to live peacefully. Israel is obliged - through a very basic need for survival - to defend its citizens against the very terrorists who are actively engaged in firing the rockets and operating the suicide bombers, and only them.
• If there were no daily, deliberate rocket-fire against Israeli towns and villages; if the industry of importing missiles, weapons and ammunition from Egypt were to be stopped; if the ongoing and prevalent industry of terror-planning, rocket-building, ammunition-manufacturing, and jihadist religious incitement and glorification were to give way to normal industries and economic growth; if the psyche of hatred and terror that prevails over Gaza were to give way to a psyche of peaceful coexistence, then Israel would have neither justification nor need to respond to terror and to defend its citizens.

  The writer is the Israeli ambassador to Canada.

If the Palestinians laid down their weapons, there would be peace.  If the Israelis laid down their weapons, they would be dead. 

The Terrorist Attack in Israel

Those targeted see Biblical implications:

While defense establishment officials sitting in the Kiriya military headquarters in Tel-Aviv ponder the diplomatic-security implications of last night's attack, a totally different analysis will be taking place this weekend around Shabbat dinner tables across Jerusalem and most West Bank settlements.

The people directly affected by the deadly terrorist attack on the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva are not just the students, their relatives and friends, but the much wider larger segment of the religious Zionist public. This segment of the population, already seething with anger, which started with the Disengagement in 2005, the Amona pullout, the government promises to America remove illegal outposts, the continued diplomatic process launched at Annapolis and its emphasis to talk about all topics, including Jerusalem, is going to be extremely unhappy about this attack. Together with the grief and sorrow, there is going to be a lot of angry talk about good and evil, about a religious war over the Holy Land.

This attack was aimed specifically for the religious Zionist and settler population, and the terrorists knew that by speaking in this language, to these people, their message could only be interpreted in one way. This will be seen in terms of Ishmael and Isaac.

Being messianic religious people, the religious Zionists are going to see this attack through the prism of messianic prophecy. Already I am hearing on religious Zionist radio stations people talking about the attack in prophetic terms, such as Isaiah 59 verse 20: And a redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.

Settler radio talk- show hosts are interpreting this prophecy by saying that if the Jews don't stop Hamas, the Palestinians, Hizbullah and any other Islamic fundamentalists God will force the Jews to do it. The talk-show hosts blame Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and President Shimon Peres, and several callers into the broadcasts are unanimous in their condemnation of the Israeli government and calling on its removal.

The fact that the Foreign Ministry has already come out with a formal statement saying the attack won't derail the talks with the Palestinian Authority will only fuel the anger of the settler population this weekend. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the Knesset from Sunday and the implications on the coalition. Shas will come under immense pressure to bolt the government.

At the funeral procession speeches Friday at the Yeshiva, Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar began his comments with the Psalm for Assaf: "They have spilled blood like water around Jerusalem."

...The fact that the attack was carried out in the way it was - live fire, chasing down the students and shooting them at point blank range, as well as confirming the kills - and not by a suicide bombing, will add to the sense of brutality, of the narrative of good versus evil.

Link

The significance of the target choice:

Rarely have terrorists chosen their target with so much malicious care as in Thursday night's attack on Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva.

In striking the flagship institution of the religious Zionist movement, a Jerusalem landmark whose history is linked with the founding and fulfillment of the Jewish national home in the Land of Israel, the gunman aimed his weapon at the heart of the Zionist enterprise.

If the goal was to outrage the general public and to inflame that particular segment of it most skeptical of the possibility of Israel one day coming to terms with its most immediate Arab neighbors, then the bullets struck home with deadly and accurate force.

Beyond that, as the first terrorist attack on this scale in nearly two years - since a Tel Aviv suicide bomber killed nine in April 2006 - the impact of this incident will be profound.

This will be a sharp blow for those Israelis, especially Jerusalemites, who have allowed themselves to let their psychological guard down since the second intifada petered out. That the gunman was able to carry out this operation in the heart of a crowded Jerusalem neighborhood, some distance away from the Arab neighborhoods of the capital, will raise serious questions about assumptions made since the construction of the West Bank security barrier.

The Olmert government, which until now has been able to contain political fallout from the rocket fire on Sderot and Ashkelon in part because of the absence of major attacks elsewhere in the country, will now find its margin of error - and survival - dramatically narrowed.

The efforts by both Jerusalem and Washington to renew the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, interrupted by the fighting in Gaza, will now be officially put on hold, and picking up the pieces in the wake of this outrage will not be easy.

The grief and fury in particular of the religious-Zionist sector will be beyond measure at this violent desecration of the cradle of their movement. The current efforts by the government to reach an accommodation with the settler leadership on the removal of outposts will have been in vain for the time being, as any spirit of compromise will be buried with the victims of this atrocity.

Link

Grief:

Thousands were at Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem Friday morning to eulogize the eight victims of the terror attack the night before. Family members gathered in the square at the entrance to the yeshiva and the bodies were laid on benches in front of them.

The head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira was the first to speak. Chocking back tears, he said: "This massacre is the continuation of the 1929 massacre [in Hebron] and the blood of the prophet is still boiling. The heads of the nation also understand that the heart of the nation is torah. It is time for all of us to understand that this is the truth. We all believe that the time has come for a dramatic spiritual change; for us to have strong, good and reliable leadership."

"We are all in need of mercy, the entire country," Shapira cried. "Pray for all of us and give good counsel to the families, to the anguished friends."

Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar was weeping as well. "We have paid with our best boys, who were sitting by their talmuds … torah was their entire world, they are the roses that have been picked … and God will have mercy on us for their merit.

Turning to the families, he said: "You should know, dear families, that this is a mourning of the entire house of Israel, as one person and one heart crying as one for the dreadful calamity that has befallen us. We will not be cruel at this hour when we are faced with such a wide crisis, and we will rise up to cast away strife; to further increase torah study."

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski also addressed the crowd: "Lord, nations have invaded your land, desecrated your holy hall, eight of our sweet loved ones, may God avenge their blood, who only yesterday were living amongst us, are no longer with us. Their lives were severed by lowly murderers … but the murderer did not wish to target them alone, but rather each and every one of us, each and every resident of the holy city of Jerusalem.

For many years our enemies have been trying to ruin our lives, to harm us as much as they can. Jerusalem has paid heavily in blood, and the long long list was joined last night by our eight sons."

Many key figures in Religious Zionism were on attendance, including Rabbi Mordechai Elon, and MKs Nissan Slomianski and Zevulun Orlev (NU/NRP).

The crowd then split up to attend the funerals of the victims, which were scheduled to begin immediately after the eulogies.

Yohai Lifshitz, 18, from Jerusalem, was to be buried at Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem. Neria Cohen, 15, from Jerusalem, and Segev Peniel Avihail, 15, were scheduled to be laid to rest at the Mount of Olives. Avraham David Moses, 16, was to be buried in Kfar Etzion.

The funerals of Yonatan Yitzhak Eldar, 16, from Shilo, Yonadav Haim Hirschfeld, 19, from Kohav Hashahar, Roee Roth, 18, from Elkana and Doron Meherete, 26, from Ashdod, were being held in their respective hometowns.

Link

What a Horror

500-600 bullets fired into a crowd of Israeli yeshiva students by a Palestinian terrorist:

A Palestinian terrorist opened fire at a central Jerusalem yeshiva late Thursday night, killing eight students and wounding 11 others, police and rescue officials said.

The 8:45 p.m. shooting at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood broke a two-year lull in terror in the capital and sent students scurrying for cover from a hail of gunfire - a reported 500-600 bullets - that lasted for several minutes.

"There were horrendous screams of 'Help us! Help us!'" recounted Avrahami Sheinberger of the ZAKA emergency rescue service, one of the first to respond to the scene. "There were bodies strewn all over the floor, at the entrance to the yeshiva, in various rooms and in the library."

As security forces raced to the scene, the gunman fired round after round of ammunition into the library at the seminary, religious Zionism's flagship institution. About 80 students had gathered in the library to celebrate the Hebrew month of Adar II, which begins on Friday evening.

...

Jerusalem police chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco said the terrorist was killed by an IDF officer who lives near the yeshiva and raced to the scene.

Rescue workers recounted a grisly picture of students hiding under desks and locking themselves in classrooms to avoid being caught in the hail of bullets.

Yerach Toker, a paramedic for United Hatzola of Israel, said he saw several dead yeshiva students on the library's floor. "Some of them were still holding sacred Jewish books smeared with blood from which they were learning before they were murdered," he said.

...In Gaza City, residents went out into the streets and fired rifles in the air in celebration after hearing news of the attack on the yeshiva.

Something tells me they won't be celebrating for long.

Those evil SOBs.

Asymmetrical Warfare

When editorialists decry Israel's "disproportionate" response to Palestinian rockets, other facets of asymmetry are always completely ignored.  First, Israel follows a moral code and tries to spare civilians, whereas the Palestinians deliberately target innocents.  Then, Palestinians use Western media openness against the Israelis, while they themselves answer to no one.  Additionally, Israelis care about world opinion and doing the right thing, while their opponents care only about winning. These differences form the basis of a psychological imbalance that all the military might in the universe cannot remedy.

From the Middle East Quarterly:

Most analysts acknowledge that Israel enjoys military superiority over its Arab neighbors,[2] a status preserved in part by the U.S. commitment to Israel's qualitative military edge relative to the Arab states.[3] Many Arab commentators and academics use this asymmetry for propaganda. Pro-Palestinian polemicist Edward Said juxtaposed "Israeli power" and "Palestinian powerlessness."[4] Nabil Ramlawi, the permanent observer for Palestine to the United Nations in Geneva wrote in 2002 of an alleged massacre in which Israel used "tanks and armoured vehicles, under a barrage of heavy gunfire from Apache gunships," and further committed a "long list of massacres" and "war crimes, State-sponsored terrorism and systematic human rights violations against the Palestinian people."[5] But Israel's technological edge does not mean that it enjoys every advantage in its battles with terror groups: While Israel subscribes to traditional restrictions on its battlefield conduct, its Islamist and jihadi adversaries, who eschew international humanitarian law, enjoy an asymmetric advantage born of psychological impunity.
The Israeli military faces a serious dilemma because it adheres to a specific moral code. Despite Arab propaganda to the contrary, Israeli military planners respect human life.[6] Tel Aviv University philosophy professor Asa Kasher and current Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intelligence chief Amos Yadlin write that, even when dealing with terrorists, Israeli soldiers conduct operations "in a manner that strictly protects human life and dignity by minimizing all collateral damage to individuals not directly involved in acts or activities of terror."[7] When trying to oust terrorists from Jenin in April 2002, for example, Israeli commanders decided to pursue a house-to-house ground strategy rather than employ the kind of airpower that would keep Israeli soldiers out of danger but would heighten the risk of collateral civilian casualties.[8] This decision cost the lives, in one incident, of thirteen IDF soldiers in an ambush in the Hawashin district on April 9.[9]
The Israeli judiciary also provides a check on the military. Israeli courts regularly impose restrictions on military tactics, despite the "price paid by the limitations put on the army's actions."[10] Arab petitioners have a voice. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz wrote that Israel's courts represent an "independent judiciary willing to stand up to its own government."[11] In 2004, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled for petitioner Fatma al-Aju against the Israeli military in a case that called for the IDF to take into consideration obligations towards civilians, such as allowing medical teams to enter combat areas, and other humanitarian needs when planning military operations.[12] The court also sided with Palestinian Arabs regarding the routing of Israel's security barrier.[13] Arab states have no such judicial independence nor are their leaderships subject to the rule of law.
Comparative prisoner treatment also highlights the discrepancy: The Israeli government provides access to and information about captured terrorists, opening itself to criticism of their treatment,[14] whereas neither Hamas nor Hezbollah even acknowledge whether captured Israelis are alive, let alone allow international monitors access to them.
The result is an asymmetry in which Israel restricts itself in accordance with international law from indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets while groups such as Fatah, Hamas, and Hezbollah intentionally target Israeli civilians and employ their own civilians as human shields to deter an Israeli response. Avi Dichter, Israel's public security minister, spoke to this predicament in the context of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war: "You can [conduct military operations] in a short time; you can flood southern Lebanon with ground troops, and you can bomb villages without warning anyone, and it will be faster. But you'll kill a lot more innocent people and suffer a lot more casualties, and we don't intend to do either."[15] Maj.-Gen. Giora Eiland, Israel's national security advisor from 2005 to 2006, explained the Israeli decision-making process: "We are forced to kill someone only when four conditions are met: Number one, there is no way to arrest someone. Number two, the target is important enough. Number three, we do it when we believe that we can guarantee very few civilian casualties. And number four, we do it when we believe that there is no way that we can delay or postpone this operation, something that we consider as a ticking bomb."[16]
Israel is further harmed by the invocation of international law to implicate the legitimacy of its fight against its adversaries. International law is routinely misconstrued by the media commentators and non-specialists who cite it. Some journalists, for example, describe Israeli treatment of Palestinian terrorists as a contravention of international law. This is misleading. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, among others, fail to meet the criteria required for full protection under the Geneva conventions.[17] More broadly, human rights groups selectively quote international law but fail to note that "protected persons" (i.e., citizens under occupation) may not participate in violent activities against the occupying power.[18] Despite rhetoric to the contrary, there is no "right of resistance" under international law to either civilians under occupation or irregular forces that purport to challenge an occupier.[19]
Conventional war between armies may favor Israel, but the fact that Islamists do not differentiate between civilians and legitimate combatants creates an asymmetry in favor of those who are eager to use any method available to advance their cause.

There's a lot more. Good article.

Addendum: 

A few minutes after posting this, I came across a BBC article that completely misses the boat as described above.  It is even titled, "The Middle East's Asymmetric Warfare." They discuss the frustration of the Israeli military in dealing with the Palestinians, unable to answer their puny rockets.

Completely ignoring the reasons why.

The BBC article states:

What is going on between the Palestinian rocket squads in Gaza and the Israeli army is a classic fight between the strong and the weak - which is known these days as asymmetric warfare.

The thing about it is that the weaker side can exert leverage far beyond the power of its weapons.

That accounts for some of the rage and frustration in Israel's defence establishment.

They are big, they are strong, and they have some of the most sophisticated weapons systems in the world. And they are struggling to stop rockets that are the lowest of low tech.

It is not because they can't stop the rockets.

It is because they choose not to, in order to spare civilians.

Why does the BBC draw a moral equivalence between the two sides?  They can't be that stupid. There's an agenda involved.

Obama and Israel - UPDATE#3

Received in email from the Republican Jewish Coalition:

Nader Calls Out Obama's "Pro-Palestinian" Past

Washington, D.C. (February 25, 2008) -- After remarks made by Ralph Nader yesterday on "Meet the Press," Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks said, "Ralph Nader added to the debate on Senator Obama's views on Israel and the Middle East and raised serious doubts and questions about the true leanings of Senator Obama on these important issues." During his interview on "Meet the Press," Nader said that Sen. Obama had reversed his positions on Israel. Nader said Sen. Obama's "better instincts and his knowledge have been censored by himself" and that Sen. Obama was "pro-Palestinian when he was in Illinois before he ran for the state Senate" and "during the state Senate."

Sen. Obama has caught criticism for pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel statements and sentiments before. In March 2007, Sen. Obama was criticized for saying that "Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinians." Obama has also been criticized for stocking his campaign with several controversial advisors including Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robert Malley, Samantha Power and Susan Rice.

"People should be very skeptical of Barack Obama's shaky Middle East policies. When a long-time political activist like Ralph Nader, with a well-documented, anti-Israel bias, claims that Senator Obama shares this anti-Israel bias, that is alarming," said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks. "If Senator Obama supports Ralph Nader's policies, which consistently condemn Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism, and if Sen. Obama has only reversed his positions to run for president, it once again raises serious questions about his grasp of the geo-political realities of the Middle East and puts into doubt his commitment to the safety and security of Israel. These are important questions we in the Jewish community will be asking."

UPDATE:

Jennifer Rubin of Commentary addresses this issue as well, and notes that Obama has tried to distance himself from the likes of Brzezinski and state his support for Israel.

Rubin goes on to note that he's an unknown. 

As a friend of Israel who sees it as being all too vulnerable, I feel that I have to report all the potential negatives I see about Obama. I am not out to get him.  But he just seems to me to be too much of a question mark. The fact that he leans so far left, and that so many on the left are pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel, the fact of his advisors being who they are, his church pastor, the enthusiastic support of Louis Farrakhan...all the little things add up to concern on my part.

Update #2:

Some words that I found very appropriate with regard to blogging about the election from the National Jewish Democratic Council on being careful about what we say:

There is nothing wrong with rhetoric that holds public figures accountable. Indeed, accountability is a bedrock principle of our democracy. If someone takes issue with Senator Barack Obama’s stand on the Iraq War or Senator John McCain’s support of the troop surge, that’s acceptable— loud and spirited criticism is not only legitimate, it is the American way.

Yet loud and spirited criticism on the issues and facts must not be confused with smears and baseless hatred. Lies and slander have no place in Jewish public discourse and it is against classical Jewish values to knowingly lie or distort the truth about an individual, in order to publicly shame him or her.

I agree wholeheartedly.  I know that in the heat of the moment I have crossed the line of over zealously criticizing those with whom I disagree.  In the past when I've felt that I've crossed that line, I have apologized. Being far from perfect, I am as prone as anyone to subjectivity and emotion, but my overarching goal is to be honest.  It is sometimes very hard to determine the truth of what one reads, which is why I always provide links and sources so that people may investigate the truth for themselves. I encourage anyone who reads this blog to please be kind enough to let me know when my sources or reasoning are faulty. You do me a favor if and when you do.

There's an interesting article in the NY Sun that discusses the pros and cons of Obama's developing "brain trust" of advisors.  There are both negative and positives, and the following quote should not be taken as proof positive in any direction, but I found it to be an interesting comment on ALL the recent American presidents with regard to Israel policy:

Mr. Obama has not pledged to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem as soon as he takes office, a promise made by every major candidate for president since Ronald Reagan in 1980, and a promise broken by every president since the Reagan administration.

(hat tip: Soccerdad)

Update#3:

Ok, now this rings all my alarm bells:  An anti-war leftist site interprets Obama's Israel policy.

Yet another view: Could he really believe the most vicious people on the planet can be thwarted that easily?

Obama is a chameleon, everything to everyone, taking on a different form depending on the filter through which he is being viewed.

I don't know who he is. 

Sderot Children Wounded in Kassam Attack on Israel

Two children and a woman who were wounded in a Kassam rocket barrage on Israel - targeting the western Negev city of Sderot - were rushed to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon early Monday afternoon.

A 10-year-old boy was seriously injured after being hit by shrapnel in his shoulder when a rocket hit the underground bomb shelter where he took cover. Two other Kassams exploded in the city; one hit a house and the other exploded next to a school. A one-year-old baby was lightly wounded, as was the child's mother. At least four adults were treated for emotional shock.

The Salah a-Din Brigades terrorist gang, a splinter group of the Popular Resistance Committees terror umbrella organization, claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Two other rockets slammed into fields in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported. 

A Lovely Day in the Neighborhood

Iranian rhetoric, always so peaceful and contructive:

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Monday predicted Hezbollah would destroy Israel, in a new verbal onslaught against the Jewish state after the murder of a top commander of Lebanon's Shiite militant group.

"In the near future, we will witness the destruction of Israel, the aggressor, this cancerous microbe Israel, at the able hands of the soldiers of the community of Hezbollah," the ideological force's commander, Mohammad Ali Jafari, was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying.

...

"With the martyrdom of this true Muslim, the intentions of all revolutionary and combatant Muslims, especially the comrades of this dear martyr, will without doubt become firmer against the Zionist regime," Jafari said.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already blamed Israel for killing Mughnieh, hailing him as a "great" man whose his death would serve to increase resistance against the Jewish state.

...

Israel, while welcoming the death of Mughnieh, has denied any link to his murder. Meanwhile, the US intelligence chief has publicly suggested that internal elements in Syria or even Hezbollah could be to blame.

"There's some evidence that it may have been internal Hezbollah. It may have been Syria. We don't know yet, and we're trying to sort that out," Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told Fox News.

The Syrian pro-government Al-Watan newspaper reported on Sunday that the authorities have detained Arab suspects for questioning in connection with the murder.

The events come amid grow