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The Costs of Giving Up Jerusalem

Israeli hysteric and Palestinian mouthpiece Akiva Eldar uses the editorial page of Ha'aretz to pass on the whines of intransigent Palestinians:

[Abu Mazen] will not utter pearls of wisdom such as "one million shaheeds [Islamic martyrs] in Jerusalem." However, a unification one day of East Jerusalem and the West Bank will not satisfy even one-eighth of the appetite of the Palestinian leadership that will be elected on January 9, no matter how pragmatic this leadership may be. A Palestinian leader who surrenders Palestinian interests in Jerusalem will not last long, which is unfortunate, politically speaking.

Ignore the usual absurdity, that Israelis have to appease the peaceful Palestinians, otherwise said peaceful Palestinians will unleash waves of violence. That comes up in all the other contexts.
Jerusalem is unique in the context of Israeli-Arab relations - the holiest Jewish city, the millenial center of the religion, and a place that, when Arab-controlled, was closed to Jews and systematically destroyed. Giving it up would devestate Israeli morale, and for what - so that we can try and fail to appease those final, hardline Palestinians who will never give up on their dream of destroying all of Israel anyway.
The arguments that she makes are not nonsensical, but they are so confused that they appear to be either poorly thought out or intentionally obfuscatory:

(1) Occupation: Sharon's diagnosis regarding the residents of Gaza and the northern West Bank, who are living under foreign occupation that cannot continue forever, is also true of the residents of East Jerusalem.

First of all, that's not Sharon's argument. He doesn't believe that Israeli control of Palestinian lands is unsustainable as such, only that demographics make democratic control of Gaza and parts of the West Bank unsustainable. Second, it's patently false - and it's hard to believe that Eldar doesn't know it. Polls consistently show that East Jerusalem Arabs actually prefer Israeli stability to Palestinian chaos.

(2) Security: Imposing the artificial separation from the Palestinian state-in- the-making, including centers of social services, education and culture, is liable to increase the motivation of young East Jerusalemites to harm Israel.

They can be as motivated as they want. They won't really be able to acomplish anything, because they won't have the infrastructure necessary to do so. And this argument relies on East Jerusalem Palestinians wanting to be part of a Palestinian state anyway, which is dubious.

(3) Demography: According to the forecast of Jerusalem demographer Prof. Sergio Della Pergola, in 2020 the number of Arabs in Jerusalem will reach 358,000, and the percentage of the Israeli population in the city will decline to 62 percent (as compared to 84 percent in the peak year - 1972).

This is a red-herring. The demographic argument for disengagement applies to the ratio of Jews to Muslims throughout all of Israel, not in specific areas. The Palestinians already control 20% of the Knesset, and while that's inconvienent, nobody reasonable considers it a harbinger of disintegration. Also, 62% isn't exactly am Israeli minority.

(4) Economy: In order to change the term "united Jerusalem" from a slogan into reality, it will be necessary to distance the poverty line in East Jerusalem from the level in Gaza, and to bring it closer to the poverty line in Israel, at the least. The budgets required for that will lead to a lengthening of the lines at the soup kitchens on the western side of the poorest city in Israel.

A cost of continued unification, to be sure. But it hardly justifies giving up the Golden City, destroying Israeli cohesion, and obliterating the status of the country as a protector of Jews. Maybe these arguments would matter if we were discussing an outlying area around Ariel. But this is the heart of Israel that Eldar is wirint about, and her arguments are barely coherent. One can't help but wonder whether she fully realizes the pyschological and social costs that would be incurred by giving up Israel's eternal capital - and if, rather than discounting them, she hopes to create and utilize them. Not that I'd want to call her a traitor or a self-hater, but she definitly has a very particular vision of what Israel should be, and like a good academic Leftist she wants the nation-state defanged, demoralized, and thus unable and unwilling to resist massive international pressure. Forcing Israel to reverse the triumph of regaining the Holy City would go a long way toward actualizing that vision.
Omri | |

Safeguards in International Law - Yeah, We Were Just Kidding About That

Under the Barak government, Clinton pushed Israel to within an inch of signing away its soverignty to the International Criminal Court before both countries backed out. Ostensibly, the reason that Israel could feel safe in the ICC was because, as long as their own courts were functioning, the ICC had no jurisdiction over anything that happened in Israeli territory - this was the critical safeguard that was supposed to ensure that Israel did not suffer from politicized prosecutions. Israel was told that the Court would want to protect its own legitimacy, and so would avoid politically contentious issues. And besides, promised the European advocates of international law, even if Israel does get railroaded - the US can always veto any binding decision.
Opponents of the Court insisted that even attempts at politicized prosecutions would create their own international momentum, providing a forum for anti-Israel mobilization. The drama that played out at the Hague regarding the Seperation Fence is evidence that those opponents actually underestimated the mendacity of the international legal regime. The Hague willfully disregarded it's lack of jurisdiction and issued an ostensibly "nonbinding" opinion against Israel. So the first safeguard - the promise that even politicized judges would obey the norms of international law and issue opinions only within their jurisdiction - proved to be an empty promise when it came to Israel.
The second safeguard, that Israel would be protected from binding decisions, has proven in the face of the Hague fiasco to be a similar mirage, as Israel has been denied funding on the basis of that supposedly non-binding decision:

Most of the donor countries are also committed to the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague concerning the separation fence. That source said that most of the donor countries are carefully examining the projects they finance to make sure the projects do not inadvertently sustain the fence or the settlements, as the international court ruled.

Safeguards are important in juridical situations, where all of the players are committed to playing by the rules. The problem is that the worst-kept open secret in international diplomacy is that international institutions have become hollow, nothing more than staging areas for anti-Israel bashing (consider that the United Nations actually condemned Israel for the fence violating international law before the Court ruled - the phrase you're looking for is "foregone conclusion). Palestinians and Arab countries routinely violate international law, with nary a peep from the United Nations, let alone the Hague. People continue to play the game as if these institutions have some sort of genuine credibility - but the entire edifice relies on everyone squinting and pretending that jokes like the Hague do indeed decide cases fairly. All of the arguments presented for why the ICC would be fair to Israel would have applied to a genuine court interested in its credibility as a court - but that is not what international institutions are interested in when it comes to Israel. As long as Israel continues pretending that these institutions are genuine, it will continue to be railroaded. Outright rejecting the Hague's jurisdiction in the Seperation Fence case was a good start, but it needs to be expanded across the board to all the international circuses that pretend to be vested with the mantle of fair and equitable law.
Omri | |

We're All Going to Have to Make Sacrifices

The essence of a peace accord is that each side has to give up on some of what it wants. So for instance, if there's ever going to be peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the Palestinians are going to have to give up on demonizing Jews. But it's going to be really hard:

PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) met recently with the head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Authority and asked him to check all programs aired on state television to prevent the broadcast of inciting material... However, they stopped short of an order to stop incitement in the Palestinian media... with Palestinians and Israelis differing over what constitutes incitement.

I guess it is really hard to draw a bright line as to what constitutes incitement. For instance, if you look at this one way it could be incitement, but looked at another way it could just be education:

The Friday sermon of March 12, 2004 in the Sheikh 'Ijlin Mosque in Gaza was delivered by Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris , an employee of the Awqaf (Religious Affairs) ministry of the Palestinian Authority. The following are excerpts from the sermon:
The Prophet received an instruction from the Lord of heaven and earth, Who knows the nature of the Jews, who forever live off the fire of civil strife and disseminating their venom among the brothers, Muslims, and friends. Allah ordered him to forge his plan to take care of the Jewish existence in Al-Madina.
The Prophet had three stages in taking care of the Jewish existence... We have tolerated you for a long time - you offspring of apes and pigs! We have tolerated you for a long time... We must first teach the Qaynuq'a tribe [who was destroyed a lesson that will deter those behind them... Thus, there was no choice but to begin with the strongest among the Jews so they will serve as a lesson to those who follow them.

So really, it depends on how you look at it. And even if the Holocaust denier really does try to clamp down on calls for out-right violence against Jews, what he leaves behind won't be much better:

Itamar Marcus... said Monday that the only shift he has detected in the Palestinian media since Yasser Arafat's death two weeks ago was from incitement to violence to incitement to hatred.
He noted that the incitement to hatred now being broadcast, along with the glorification of Arafat as a super-shahid, was similar to that which existed before the outbreak of the intifada four years ago, which, he said, was no less dangerous than incitement to violence.

The problem is not this television program or that sermon. The problem is the overwhelming resentment on the Arab street, cultivated for generations as a potent vehicle for mobilizing hatred against Jews. It is evident in the refugee camps cynically maintained by Arab kleptocrats and tyrants. It is evident in Palestinian schoolbooks. And it ends up in the discourse of what passes for Palestinian political deliberation. Jews are blamed for literally every ill in Palestinian society, including the death of a sick old man. Until the Palestinians stop blaming Jews for the problems in their society, there will always be some symptom of their bitterness and loathing. It will appear either as an undercurrent in their culture or explicitly in their political dialogue. But it will demand some outlet, and insincere declaration will certainly not help anything.
Omri | |

Israel Among the Nations

How schtizophrenic is the average Israeli when it comes to desperately seeking international acceptance? This much:

Nearly 49% of Israelis believe there is no Palestinian partner for negotiations even after the death of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, a new poll conducted by the Geneva Accords headquarters reveals.
According to the survey, 69% support reaching a permanent status agreement with the Palestinians, while 50% call for the resumption of negotiations. The poll was conducted two weeks ago among 600 Israelis who represent a statistical sample of the nation.

Follow the logic here very closely: half of Israelis know that there's no Palestinian with whom they can negotiate, but 70% want to reach a settlement with said non-existant Palestinian anyway. In fact, less than one-fifth of them are ready to completly give up on negotiating with the Palestinians completely. This comes dangerously close to the Wizard-of-Oz like world that European diplomats live in, where if you act like you have a heart than all you need is a clock (the Israelis aren't quite as bad, because there's at least an argument that negotiations can show the good faith to create a partner, even if that argument is specious - in the European case, it's a all-out fetishization of process as a substitute for the sentiments that are supposed to lead to that process in the first place).
Nonetheless, polls like this are enduring evidence of the Israeli desire for peace, harmony, and acceptance. And the political washouts who put together the Geneva Initative are always ready to play up on that desperate desire:

Marking one year since the Geneva launching of the initiative, 13 Israeli and Palestinian former and present government officials who support the initiative will this week begin appearing on TV, cinema, and Internet ads, which will be broadcast in both the Israeli and Arab markets in an effort to convince the public that there is a partner for peace... The Swiss government and EU-funded Geneva Initiative has received international praise.

People have railed against the specifics of the Geneva Initiatives ad nauseum, but suffice to say that any political solution that trusts an ideological nutcase like the Wakf to safegaurd other religion's holy places is a recipe for disaster. You want to see an actual relgious war? Let the Palestinians continue their deliberate and wanton destruction of the Western Wall and the Temple of Solomon and then see if the Israeli government can stand up to public pressure to storm the Dome.
But the really irksome aspect of the Geneva Initiative is the absolute lack of respect or esteem that it provides to Israeli sensibilities. Europe is very open about the ways in which it is not particularly inclined to care about diplomatic nicities when it comes to Israelis, but the Geneva Initiatives represent an entirely different level of interference - active electoral manipulation openly funded by European governments. Europe regularly humiliates Sharon and Israel both domestically and in international forums:

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom Sunday accused the European Union of bias in favor of the Palestinians... "It can't be that they adopt in advance 100 percent of the demands of the Palestinian side if they want to become a mediator or facilitator between us and them," he said.
EU officials' response to that frequent accusation is that Israel wants to expand its lucrative trade with the expanding EU bloc of around 450 million consumers without giving the Europeans more of a voice in Mideast peacemaking...
Talks on the EU's "Neighborhood Policy," seeking to draw nonmember neighbors closer to the union, have come up against Israeli objections to references in the draft agreement to the internationally backed "road map" peace plan, which calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, because it ignores Israeli objections, the officials said.
The Israelis are also balking at references to the role of the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers, including Europe and Russia, and to clauses on human rights and weapons of mass destruction.

Suffice to say that no diplomat would dream of demanding political abnegation in return for a trade deal from a country that he or she considered even marginally legitimate. That Europe displays such open contempt for Israel cannot simply be driven by diplomatic considerations, precisely because there's nothing diplomatic (in any sense) in their behavior. There's something else driving their loathing, and I don't think it's all that difficult to guess what it is. And yet nonetheless:

Despite his criticisms, Shalom said Israel is eager to thaw its often chilly relationship with Europe. "We are investing great efforts to promote out political and economic ties with the EU," he said Sunday. "Close relations with Europe are in our interest as well as theirs."
Omri | |

Israeli Political Roundup - Sharon Plays Angry Father to Lapid's Spoiled Rotton Brat

If you're at all interested in Israeli politics, don't don't don't you dare miss the must-read Ha'aretz synopsis of threats to the Sharon government. Everyone gets great quotes in, and Tommy Lapid is pissed:

"There's no money for the police, no money for the prosecutors, no money for bodyguards," remarked Shinui's leader, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid. "But there's 420 million shekels to spare for knaidelach [matzoh balls] for the rabbis."

The knives are out on the editorial pages, where everyone is absolutely, positively, without a doubt convinced that this time Sharon is really done:

However you look at it, Sharon's second government is in its final death throes. Even if Sharon maneuvers out of this crisis, the next few months will not be smooth sailing.

This from the people who brought you breathtaking news over and over again that Sharon was about to be forced into resignation last March. It's not so much that Israeli editorial writers regularly engage in wishing away the Sharon government. It's not that they're so bad at it. It's that they don't even seem to read their own papers:

The prevailing view on Monday was that Sharon could go back to the central committee and say that that if they don't approve a Labor and UTJ coalition, the only alternative is elections. That could be good for Sharon, because many of the new Likud MKs who are also counted among the rebels could get cold feet about challenging the new coalition, fearing they might not be reelected.

And on a more entertaining note, when did Yossi Sarid become religious? Watch him go all Biblical:

"Woe is Sharon and his government if he escapes no-confidence motions because of his most determined rivals, who never sat with him in the same coalition and never will," said MK Yossei Sarid, the former chairman of the party.

Not that it matters: make sure you read Gil Hoffman's article in the Jerusalem Post explaining in precisely how many different ways Lapid can take his newly-minted principles and in how many different places he can shove them. Ma'ariv covers Shinui's perspective here: it apparently has something to do with Israeli haredi not being people, but I didnt't really follow the arguments all that closely (and let me be clear: I'm not a particular fan of the money that Israel sinks into isolated settlements and religious schools, but surely NIS290 million isn't too much to pay for disengagement).
Long story short - Sharon will as usual get what he wants:

Minister without Portfolio Tzachi Hanegbi, the newly elected chairman of the powerful Likud central committee, said Monday he believed the committee would allow Labor into the coalition government, together with the religious parties.
Omri | |

November 29, 1947 - November 29, 2004

This BlogBurst piece is cross-posted by participating websites, to commemorate a milestone in Israel's history. The list of the participating sites is appended at the end of this post.

November 29, 2004:
Anniversary of the UN vote on Resolution 181


Today is the anniversary of the UN vote on resolution 181, which approved the partition of the western part British-mandate Palestine into a predominately Jewish state and a predominately Arab state. (The UN partition plan, of course, included in their calculations the fact that mush of the British mandate was being ripped away from what had been allocated in 1921 for a Jewish National Home into Emir Abdullah's Jordan).
The partition plan was approved by 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions.
The 33 countries that cast the "Yes" vote were: Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Byelorussia, Canada, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, Liberia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, Union of South Africa, USSR, USA, Uruguay, Venezuela. (Among other countries, the list includes the US, the three British Dominions, all the European countries except for Greece and the UK, and all of the Soviet-block countries.)
The 13 countries that voted "No" were: Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen. (Ten of these are Moslem countries; Greece has the special distinction of being the only European country to have joined the Hall of Shame.)
The ten countries that abstained were: Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia.
On November 30, 1947, the day following the vote, the armies of 5 Arab nations launched a war against the Jews of Palestine. This war was to be a genocidal war, as the armies of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, and Egypt invaded with the promise of "throw all the Jews into the sea". Meanwhile, on the ground, Palestinian Arabs murdered six Jews in a bus making its way to Jerusalem. They murdered another Jew in the Tel-Aviv - Jaffa area. In large and small battles, the War of Independence would claim 6,000 Jews - 1% of the total Jewish population in 1948 Israel. Per capita, this loss is equivalent to the 3,000,000 American deaths or 300,000 Canadian deaths.
Throughout the territories of the Arab countries, Jews found themselves persecuted. The murders in Syria's Aleppo are the best known, but all told 600,000 Jews were expelled from their homes - about the same number of Arabs that claim to have been expelled from their homes in Palestine (a claim that is dubious at best - many of those Palestinians left so they didn't get in the way of the genocidal armies that were invading - armies that they openly supported). Nonetheless, despite the injustice that had been done to them, the new Jewish state took in the Jewish refugees as they fled their homes throughout the Muslim world. This act of compassion, of course, is far more than has been done by the Arab countries for their brethren, whom they have kept in squalid refugee camps for generations so as to put pressure on Israel.
Although the Arab aggression was marked by brashness, the Arab countries that invaded lost much of the territory that had been allocated to them under peaceful means. Bruised and bleeding, Israel prevailed nonetheless and remains till today the only democracy in the Middle East.
This is a list of participating sites, in alphabetical order of site name:

Anti Idiotarian Rottweiler
Arkansas Bushwacker
Armies Of Liberation
Bama Pachyderm
Biurchametz
Blimpish
Blithered
Blog Willy
Blue Rev
Canadian Comment

Cao's Blog
Catholic Friends of Israel
Christian Patriot
Christian Action for Israel
Clarity and Resolve
Crusader War College
Cuanas
Danegerus
Daniel Davis
Flig

God Pigeon
Harald Tribune
Hatshepsut
Heretics Almanac
Hidden Nook
History Nerd
IceVikings
I Love America
Instant Knowledge News
IsraPundit

Israel Commentary
JPundit
Jersusalem Posts
Leaning Right News
Letter from Israel
Lindasog
MCNS
Martinipundit
Mere Rhetoric
Motnews

Mugged By Reality
Mystery Achievement
Mystical Paths
Naebunny
NetWMD
Nice Jewish Boy
Peaktalk
Protect Our Heritage
Reaganesque
Red Tigress

Riteturnonly
Shimshon9
Solomonia
Spitball Defense
Supernatural
Tampa Bay Primer
Techie Vampire
Texasbug
Tex The Pontificator
The Autism homepage

The Conservative
The Homeland
The Seal Club
Wackingday
Who's Your Rabbi
Voxfelisi
Yoan Hermida
Weblog of a Wondering Jew
Omri | |

Sure You Do

Look who Baby Assad is allowing to talk out loud this week:

Senior diplomatic officials, who met with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud over the weekend, quoted the Lebanese president as saying, “We want peace with Israel and we object to the firings of Katuyah rockets (from Lebanon) to its territory”.

Yeah, sure you do. Well, as soon as the government Lebanon starts to matter, I'm sure Israel will be very excited to talk to them.
Omri | |

How To Deal With a Holocaust Deniar

Mahmoud Abbas: "We Can't Wait"
Ariel Sharon: "You'll Wait Till We're Good and Ready"
Omri | |

Canadian Higher Education

Before, the official Canadian policy was that it was only OK to kill some Jews. But now some in the country are getting more ambitious:

Montreal's exclusive Lower Canada College is again in an embarrassing spot after two graduating students placed coded messages calling for death to all Jews in the school's yearbook as a joke.

Want to know just how dense the Canadians are when it comes to anti-Semitism? This was the headmaster's defense of the two boys:

Mr. Bennett said that it does not reflect the views of the school's 745 students, and that the authors have Jewish friends and are not anti-Semitic.

I'm told that the boys also promised to achieve peace in our time. Thankfully, Israeli intelligence is so damn good that they can protect Canadians too, since the Canadian authorities seem utterly unwilling to do so.
Omri | |

Hey Gals, Check This Out

Compare:

Smadar Gross became the first woman to head a religious council in Israel when she was elected as chair of the Kfar Sava council on Thursday.

Contrast:

Young girls born in Europe to immigrant families from Africa are being subjected to ritual genital mutilation, and authorities are doing little to discourage it... Somalia-born supermodel and best-selling author Waris Dirie, who has campaigned to end the disfiguring practice... said she estimates one in every three African families living in Europe is secretly carrying out the ritual on their daughters.
The procedure... is especially prevalent in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as in Austria... Islamic religious leaders are telling Europe's Muslim Africans that the prophets recommend the ancient ritual, which involves the removal of the clitoris, often with a dull blade and no anesthesia, Dirie said.

Of course, Europeans delight in telling us that Israel is an anti-democratic theocracy, where anti-secularism is present at all cultural levels. The difference between Israel and Europe today is that while in Israel there's no seperation of church and state but most of the country is secular, in Europe they're closing their eyes and desperately trying to pretent that their written laws will protect them from surging theocratic horrors. This is another example where Europe's incessant fetishization of process - where a legalistic regime substitutes for the beliefs and assurances that would normally lead up to it - is blinding them to reality (see also: Iraq, Iran, Sudan, UN, etc).
Omri | |

That's Too Bad

In the close race between the Holocaust denier and the murderer, it's the Holocaust denier by a length:

Imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti has decided Friday night not to run in the election for the chairmanship of the Palestinian Authority... Barghouti's decision is seen as a major victory for Abbas and the old guard of Fatah politicians who returned from exile in 1994.

Now we're going to have to spend a year listening to European leaders sanctimoniously preaching about the new, more moderate Palestinian regime. Meanwhile, the rest of the Arab world lets us know what they really think of Jews.
Omri | |

Just Don't Say They're Unambitious

Some day very soon, Iran and Israel will find themselves in an all-out war. Iran has never been bashful about its intention to wipe out Israel. And Israeli military officials have gotten the message:

Officially, Israel does not see Iran as an enemy, but rather as an existential threat. With no common border, Iran's military does not pose a serious conventional threat. The extremist and hostile mullahs have opted for going straight to a plan to annihilate the Jewish state. To do this they are developing rockets that can hit the country one day with nuclear warheads... Iran is the only country that openly calls for wiping the Jewish state "off the face of the earth."

And while I know that this game is getting tired, this is the point at which I make a sarcastic reference to the Europeans being on the case:

Iran and European negotiators were close to compromise on a deal committing Teheran to freezing all parts of a program that can make nuclear-weapons grade uranium but the government in Teheran still must approve it, diplomats said Friday.

Except not:

Iran had continued to demand that it be allowed to operate 20 centrifuges - although the EU says the Nov. 7 deal mandates a suspension of all activities related to enrichment, including running the centrifuges, which spin gas into fuel-level or weapons-grade uranium.

And not:

an Iranian security source revealed in an interview with the Arab newspaper A-Shark al-Awast that Teheran has recently accelerated its missile project, which is attempting to develop missiles that can be fitted with nuclear, chemical and biological warheads.

And not:

Teheran's efforts have been designed to gain time. They are excellent at playing the West for apparent concessions. Israeli intelligence has confirmed that Iran is actually running a double nuclear program, one that is open to inspections and access by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the other a secret one run by the military to make nukes.

And lets not forget this:

"Iran doesn't care about a Palestinian state. It wants the destruction of Israel," says Litvak. "Iran sees itself as the last ideological standard bearer in the conflict against Israel. This is the last remaining ideological banner that the Iranian regime has left. It has furled away all the other banners." Iran can allow itself to keep this banner because it doesn't pay any price for it - not economically, not politically and not militarily.

The reason that they don't pay any price is because, again, the Europeans just don't care about Jewish lives or Jewish sensibilities. Any piss-ant ethnic group anywhere in the world can file a grievance and immediately have two or three UN NGOs at their beck and call. But a theocratic regime openly threatens genocide against Jews, and they end up feted all over European capitals. The Europeans are bouyed by their firm belief that no one would be crazy enough to actually try to undertake mass murder of Jews.
Omri | |

No He Wasn't

Can the French get any more transparently anti-Israel:

Israel's ambassador to France has criticized the French government for issuing a death certificate for deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat stating his place of birth as Jerusalem. "I cannot understand how the French government agreed to issue a death certificate based on false information."

Maybe they watched too many of those Hizbullah television shows that their Interior Ministry is so proud of broadcasting. It's so outrageous it's almost surreal - they just really don't care when people openly celebrate the murder of Jews. It just doesn't faze them in the least.
Omri | |

Another Reason They Hate Us

As per Meryl's orders, I went ahead and read the whole thing. You should too:

It didn’t take a genius to see that the more Jews stood up for themselves, the less the world liked it, whereas other races were cheered on and drooled over as “freedom fighters”, no matter how bloody their hands got, I reflected. Could it be that anti-Semitism in England in particular was based on the fact that we had gone in the opposite direction to the Jews — from powerful to powerless — and felt great resentment about this fact? After all, they’d had a good deal more than loss of empire to deal with in the 20th century — the loss of one third of world Jewry, for instance...
Anti-semitism can be as in-your-face as smashing up synagogues. But it can also be sly, sneaky, subtle and sometimes surreal. It must, in my opinion, go some way to explaining why Israeli human rights issues are so obsessively concentrated on, while many Arab and African countries are allowed to treat their citizens with as much subhuman sadism as they wish — the pregnant, raped women so frequently sentenced to death by stoning under Islamic regimes come immediately to mind, but the list is never-ending...
The Jews are seen to be the one ethnic group who “pass” as white; their insistence on making their state a democracy is also seen as a sign of their stubborn refusal to act the savage to Whitey’s civilising influence. In short, the Lord forbid that any ethnic group should ignore the all-important world dominance hierarchy and dare to turn from victim into victor — and that is Israel’s ultimate crime.
Omri | |

Syrian Peace Process Attracts Fools, Vultures

Has Moshe Katzav lost lost what's left of his mind:

President Moshe Katzav calls on the government to say 'yes' to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s proposal to resume peace negotiations between the two countries... "If the Palestinians cease the path of terrorism, Israel should stop building the security fence"

Remember when all the crazies in the Knesset destroyed what slight decorum or propriety they might have had by resentfully denying Shimon Peres the Presidency (because it would have made no sense to put Israel's most ceremonial politician in Israel's most ceremonial role)? They did it because they insisted that he would choose inappropriate times to push for unnecessary peace deals. A little later, Peres would take the lead in convincing all of Israel to build the security fence. So they did real good job calling that putt.
Unfortunately, it looks like Katzav may be convincing slightly more important people:

After an initial dismissal of Syria’s offer to resume talks without conditions, a senior source said, "We must not reject Assad’s proposals again and again".

Well, I don't see why not.
Omri | |

Not So Much With the Science for You

I swear, the Arab world can't do anything right. Water management: nope. Pest control: not a clue. Sustainable irrigation was mastered by pre-historic proto-villagers some time around 5000 BC. The use of pesticides is a little more recent - people have only had about 100 years to figure out how to use them.
Omri | |

How Adorable

Lots of buzz about whether the next "legitimately elected leader of the Palestinian people" will be the Holocaust denier or the Jew-killing murderer. Not that it matters - Europe loves both of them. But a Jerusalem post article about the issue had this hidden gem:

Abbas's candidacy has received a boost from the armed wing of Fatah, Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which has renamed itself as the Brigades of Martyr Yasser Arafat. The group's Jenin commander, Zakariya Zubeidi, said he and his colleagues would honor Fatah's choice of Abbas.

I'm sure the Arafat would have been touched by the gesture of a terrorist group naming itself in his honor. Yep, it would have touched him like a bodyguard [how much longer are you going to be running the Arafat-was-gay jokes? - ed till the Arab world gets over its murderous, and now undeniably hypocritical, hatred of homosexuals... So you're thinking "never"? pretty much.]
Omri | |

Facts, Real Life Ruin Feel-Good Anti-Israel Bashing

Petulant self-importance gets the better of one small Massachusettes community:

Somerville, a community abutting both Boston and Cambridge, could become the first US city to divest from Israel. According to those who track the issue, the city has already distinguished itself as the first place to formally consider a divestment resolution.

This story is illustrative of much of what's wrong with the (academic and cultural) Left's approach to Israel. Nobody researched anything. Nobody read anything. All that people cared about was "making a statement" and "standing in solidarity" and blah blah blah. And look what happened:

"It was a mistake to get involved in the first place," Alderman Bruce Desmond, a cosponsor of the resolution who has since decided to vote against it, told The Jerusalem Post. "My intentions were just to make a statement about human rights, and unfortunately I hadn't taken into consideration what kind of division it would cause in the city, and the arguments in the rest of the community that were quite strong."...
"I guess I thought it was a simple comment [against] violating human rights," explained Taylor, who hasn't decided how he will vote, despite sponsoring the resolution. "I guess as I read it further, [it seemed] that it's targeting one country and that's not fair."

Since many of our readers don't have the kind of day-to-day experience with the cultural and academic Left that your humble blogger does, I'll go ahead and translate.
"I guess as I read further": "Hey, lets pass a legally binding resolution based on this shady organization's assurance that we're taking a stand for human rights. Wait, what's this fine print?"
"My intentions were just to make a statement about human rights": "My wash out Boston-area high school teachers always said that the most important thing is to fight for something I believe in. And I like the idea of people thinking I believe in human rights"
"It was a mistake to get involved in the first place... unfortunately I hadn't taken into consideration what kind of division it would cause in the city": "In fairness to me, I couldn't have known that anyone would care about Jewish self-defense."
And then there's this self-righteous, undoubtedly dour-faced, probably slightly pudgy hag trying to gain through moral exhibitionism the public validation that she apparently couldn't get as a daughter, wife or mother:

While Caplan said her organization is still "hopeful" that its motion will prevail, she added, "We're realistic that when anyone, no matter how courageous, is confronted with a certain level of feeling intimidated and doesn't know what the ramifications – political ramifications – of taking a position might be, it remains hard to take a position."
She also charged that, "The retribution is so intense for anyone who takes a position that is supportive of the protection of Palestinians. The retribution is swift and intense."

Bushitler and the "neocons" have apparently taken a personal interest in what the Somerville City Council does with its money. Swift and intense retribution are on the way. It can't be that she's just wrong - because she can't be wrong, because she's fighting for human rights. And everyone she knows has told her how brave she is for fighting for what she believes in. So it must be dark, sinister intimidation.
Omri | |

What A Jackass

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has dedicated the next year of his life to "finding a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This will require creativity and delicacy in order to gain the trust of both sides. He's off to a really good start:

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah on Thursday, initiating a new diplomatic rite certain to vex many Israelis...
"When you lay a wreath at someone's grave, you are identifying with what the person believed in," a senior Israeli diplomatic official said. "It is infuriating that foreign leaders will now want to identify with Arafat's legacy."

This is going to go well. But the British are nothing if not polite:

A British Embassy official said the gesture was discussed beforehand, and the embassy was aware there would be negative Israeli reaction.

You think so?!?! Of course, Israeli sensibilities aren't really a concern for world leaders. They're used to the game whereby Israeli leaders talk tough but buckle under the slightest international pressure - the Clinton years had, if nothing else, acclimated them to this situation. That's why there was such shock - not to mention confusion - in the early days of the Sharon government when he swore that Israel would not make concessions under fire. The Europeans had originally thought that this was more of the same tough talk, which helps to explain the burst of hatred that erupted when it began to emerge that Sharon was actually serious. Now it looks like we're back in the same old situation where the Palestinians are treated with kid gloves while the Israelis are expected to tolerate humiliation "for the sake of peace":

But, he said, the feeling was that if it was not done, "the Palestinians would have taken it as a deliberate snub." He said it is likely that all foreign dignitaries who visit Ramallah in the next few months – and quite a number are lined up to do so – will visit Arafat's tomb.
The official said thought was given to Israeli reaction and sensibilities, but "we thought the government would understand this is a formality. We are not paying homage to Arafat, but showing that we understand this is something very important for the Palestinians."

If the Palestinians are going to refuse an Israeli peace deal and land swap because their tender little feelings have been hurt by European leaders refusing to celebrate terrorism, then maybe this isn't such a great deal for Israel in the first place.
Omri | |

How Hate Starts On College Campuses

When I was involved in the University of Pittsburgh's Hillel, it was always made very clear that we were to comport ourselves professionally. Prominent religious organizations on college campuses represent more than their signed-up members: they represent the students of that religion to the school and to the community. So the way that a religious organization handles itself tells you a lot about the sentiments and sensibilities of their students - to the extent that you know that they're trying to act in a way that they percieve to be professional, you can get a good idea of what they consider to be appropriate and inappropriate. This, then, is the full text of an email that the USC Muslim Student Association sent to its members earlier this week:

Salam, There will be an MSU board meeting on Monday (tomorrow) after maghrib insha’Allah (~5pm). If you are interested in attending and may not be on the board, you are more than welcome to attend. We’ll be going over MSA West, Last Week’s Event, Next Semester, and MSU Board Structure insha’Allah. If you’re interested in helping out with stuff next semester, being on the board next year, or just interested in the inner-workings of MSU, please do come.
What: MSU Board Meeting
Time: 5:15pm sharp
Location: Parkside Lounge
Wassalam,
[name suppressed]
--
On a side note, here’s a funny joke..
This may be insensitive (to Israelis at least), and if you are easily offended, do not read it. But it sure is funny:
If an Insect Falls in Your Cup of Coffee, what would you do?
Here is one analysis:
1. The Englishman: Throws the cup away and walks out of the cafe.
2. The American: Takes the insect out and drinks the coffee.
3. The Chinese: Eats the insect and throws the coffee away.
4. The Besieged Palestinian: Drinks the coffee and eats the
insect.
5. The Israeli: Sells the coffee to the American and the insect to the Chinese. Screams that his security is in peril.
- Accuses the Palestinians of throwing the insect in his coffee.
- Alleges that Hezbollah, the Syrians and the Iranians advocate attacks with weapons of mass insects.
- Relates this vicious attack to Islamic Terrorism, Attacks on Human Rights, Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, the Diaspora, the Discrimination against Noah's Ark.
- Commands Arafat to immediately stop insects from flying in the air or landing in coffee cups.
- Re-occupies the West Bank and Gaza, raids houses, cuts off water and electricity, humiliates and terrorizes civilians, kills or maims anyone in his way.
- Imposes more military aid on the Americans.
- Demands a 100-year, billion-dollar, loan from America to buy another cup of coffee.
- Claims life-time free coffee from the cafe as compensation.

There are obviously some problems with this joke - I don't think the word "impose" means what he thinks it means, for instance. Also, it's not really all that funny (then again, maybe I'm just "too Israeli" to appreciate humor). But that's not the point.
Imagine yourself in an official capacity. Now imagine that you think it's OK to send out a joke mocking the Holocaust, making two seperate references to how Israelis extort money from the United States, and finally implying that Jews are cheap. I'm not even sure that any of these jokes really cross the line (although the over-arching focus on selling and money flirts with open impropriety).
The point is that leaders of the Muslim Student Association apparently believe that part of their official job is to mock Israelis and Jews. Keep in mind that this is a University funded organizations. Keep in mind that the University isn't exactly doing its best to distance itself from anti-Semitism. Seemingly innocent jokes are the first step toward creating a culture of desensitization and degradation, which ultimately culminates in open attacks on students. Of course, no one ever thinks that's how things'll end up - that's how they start in the first place.
I'm not saying that jokes are off-limits: quite the opposite, I think that (funny) potentially offensive jokes can help people cross lines and form friendships by showing that those people don't take religious or gender differences seriously. But there is a difference between the emails of those charged with speaking in an official capacity and the exchanges that happen between individuals. When organizations give up on propriety, it's a dangerous sign that underneath their true sentiments are trully ugly.
Of course, the real problem is that joke is neither particularly clever nor at all funny. "The Israeli complains about the hummus and builds a wall to protect himself from future flies" might have been funnier, but I think the fundamental problem is that it's really hard to extract funny out of a "fly in coffee cup" setup.
Omri | |

What National Interest?

Radicals in the Likud succeed in keeping more smart people out of power:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Shimon Peres on Tuesday the words the opposition leader least wanted to hear: It is impossible to bring Labor into the government now... "I can't pass a unity government in the Knesset," Sharon told Peres. "Right now I just don't have a majority. But I will keep talking to Likud MKs and try to raise support."

Israel doesn't really need Peres right now. I mean, it's not like he knows anything about diplomacy. Or has a lot of important friends. Or has won international recognition. Or has doors open to him that are closeed to other Israelis. But I'm not bitter.
Omri | |

Sure It's Economics, But Is It Art?

The WTO folks might be really good at counting things, but they're pretty lousy when it comes to logic:

Nearly half of the Palestinian population is living below the poverty line on barely $2 a day or less, a World Bank report stated... Titled "Four Years – Intifada, Closures, and Palestinian Economic Crisis," the report blames the dire state of the PA economy on Israel and its policy of imposing closures and restrictions on PA areas. The World Bank report says unemployment has risen to 27%.

Wouldn't you want to blame the Intifada on, say, the terrorist who started it? Or on the 59% of Palestinians who would continue fighting it even if Israel gave them a state? But I mean, why blame the Intifada on the people responsible for it when you can blame Jews?
Omri | |

Nobody's Home. Please Leave a Message.

Seriously, who cares:

Syrian President Bashar Assad is continuing to send messages and emissaries to Israel in an attempt to renew peace negotiations between the two countries, details that reached Maariv reveal... IDF intelligence also estimated that Assad’s intentions appeared to be serious.

Of course he's serious! He's an isolated, pitiable dictator lording over an unimportant, Third World hovel. Bush might wake up tommorrow and decide that he wants to invade Syria, and 2 weeks later Basher would be sitting in a cell somewhere. Sharon sometimes get grumpy and takes pot-shots at Damascus just for fun. No kidding he's serious!
I'm reminded of an article published by the far right Freeman Center in 2000 opposing giving up the Golan:

2. Assad is a terrorist, drug smuggler, Nazi loving anti-Semite and mass murderer who has killed tens of thousands of people.
* The Freeman Center has no ties with Nazis, terrorists, drugs and has never killed anyone.
-----------------
3. Syria plans to attack Israel from its new improved strategic position on the Golan, overlooking Israel.
* The Freeman Center plans to set up a hang gliding tourist site with the Golan as the launching pad.

There's absolutely no reason why Syria, the country that instigated the Six Day War and then tried to destroy Israel again in 1973, the country that is still pushing a dwindling guerrilla campaign against Israel, the country that tortured and mutilated Israeli POWs, the country that provides royal treatment to the murderers, and the sponsers of the murderers, of Israeli babies... there's no reason that Syria deserves the Golan back. Let them sit in their increasingly filthy corner and think about what they've done.
Omri | |

More Friendly Faces Drop In

I love it when the goys show up to help out:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom rejected Tuesday a proposal by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Israel dismantle West Bank outposts and release "political prisoners" as a goodwill gesture to the new Palestinian leadership... UK's Straw to hold talks on British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was due in the region Wednesday.

The Russians are trying to explain to Sharon that he needs to encourage the new Palestinian leadership, who've all turned over a new leaf:

Yasser Arafat's three top successors vowed on Tuesday to follow in his footsteps by refusing to compromise on the right of return for all refugees and insisting on the establishment of a Palestinian state on the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital... "We will follow in the path of the late leader Yasser Arafat, and we will work toward fulfilling his dream," Abbas told the council.

Arafat's dream, of course, was something other than a peaceful Israel and Palestine living side-by-side.
Omri | |

How Stupid Can They Be?

Can Isreali politicians get more selfish and self-destructive? It could happen today:

The Knesset will vote Monday on two no-confidence motions attacking the government's social and economic policies and, for the first time, more than 60 lawmakers may vote against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's minority government... If every Knesset member from the nine opposition parties back the motions, the government will be outvoted by at least 65 to 55.

For those of you at home just joining us, here's the situation: Israel's most significant enemy of the last 30 years has died lonely and disgraced. Inside of the country, the IDF is in a public relations crisis, the budget is in disarry, and the terrorists are regrouping. Outside of the country, an alliance of Islamofacists and washed-out former Marxists have spent the last 4 years obliterating Israel's reputation, Iran is developing nuclear weapons, and Europe and Russia are preparing to bring to bear unprecedented pressure and demands for concessions. And this mob of corrupt power-grubbers has chosen now to try to bring down the man who has guided Israel who knows how many wars, including the most recent one.
Omri | |

Look Who's Back

Lame-duck Secretary of State Colin Powell has returned to Israel to help out:

"This is a moment of opportunity ... The big step ahead of us now is to assist the Palestinian people getting ready for the (Jan. 9) election," outgoing US Secretary of State he told reporters aboard his plane en route to Israel Sunday, Reuters reported.

See, and here I was thinking that the big step ahead of us now was to convince the Palestinian people that they should stop trying to kill Jews:

Since the beginning of September the Shin Bet and security forces have thwarted 33 terror attacks that were on the verge of penetration into Israel, a Shin Bet report released on Sunday revealed. So far this month, seven attacks were thwarted.

But maybe the Palestinians aren't really ready for such a big step yet. Besides, Powell has more important diplomatic priorities to attend to.
Omri | |

Evangelical Support for Israel - It's Not Because They Hate Jews

Ma'ariv has a half-decent article on an important political point: there's an ugly element of effrontery in the conciet displayed by the secular Left in opposing an evangelical/Jewish political alliance because it might harm religious Jews:

The truth is, however, that there is nothing odd about it at all. Certainly no more than the strange and the common goal of the atheist left wing and radical Islam to establish a Palestinian state. When Zionist-religious leaders such as Benny Eilon do not reject the hand offered to them from the US, and even shake it warmly, they do not disobey their faith, but rather realize an ancient biblical vision of a future reconciliation between Jews and the rest of the world...
Why is it so bad for us to have such a strong core of support across America? So what if the leader of the free world has emerged from that camp? Throughout the years, the left wing has called for an Israeli involvement in global processes. But when it suddenly relates to Israeli interests, they rise to express their disgust only because it stems from religious motives that could obstruct the left wing’s withdrawal entrepreneurs.
It is ridiculous to hear well-known secular figures warn about alleged missionary schemes of the Christian evangelicals in the US. Nearly every article in Hebrew about the US right wing’s support of Israel contains a more than obvious hint that the reason behind this support is the desire to Christianize the people of Zion.

You should read the whole thing. The Left's petulant "Christians only support Israel because they want Jesus to come and kill all the Jews" fable just won't die - someone just forwarded a typically stupid example to one of my graduate listservs a couple of days ago. Apparently, the new 6-7% of American Jews who made the hard choice to vote on security are all idiots: what we didn't realize is that the War on Terror and the Islamist desire to wipe out Israel don't matter because some Christians have a history of anti-Semitism (but always remember - Europe is "progressive").
There are two problems with the political play that this anti-Bush canard gets. First, it doesn't matter: who cares why evangelical Christians are pouring vital millions into Israel precisely when that money is most needed. Israel took German blood money - I'm pretty sure they can stomach American donations to terror victims. Second, it's flat false:

Q: People say that because the state of Israel was established, that proves the end-times are coming and that is why keeping the Abrahamic covenant, keeping Israel strong, is so important—because it’s a sign of the end-times.
A: I think it is a sign of the end-times. But that’s not the reason to bless Israel. The reason to do it is because God commanded it….Yes, we’re one step closer to the end-times than we were before Israel came back into the land, because my understanding of biblical prophecy is that Israel is established in the land at the time that the events of the Second Coming take place. But the Bible tells us no man knows the hour or the day of his coming.

In addition to all of the other gaps that seperate the two Americans, there's also a belief gap - David Brooks has written extensively about the dose of irony that Blue Staters need with their daily espresso shots. There's a sense in which anyone who really believes - really believes enough to let it affect their actions - is uncouth. As if giving voice to a genuine, heart-felt belief is almost vulgar: a violation of decorum. So when evangelicals insist that they really do support Israel for as simple a reason as a command from God, they're met with a disdain given life by suspicion. Rather than accept such a "primitive" explanation on face, the academic and cultural Left infantalizes evangelicals, ascribing what is grounded in religious devotion to pulp fiction.
Listen, of course the Left is going to misunderstand and thus scorn evangelicals. But while Leftists are busy apologizing for their complicity in past anti-Jewish atrocities, evangelical Christians are doing their best to prevent future ones. It's not a particularly sophisticated position, but it's one that Jews should not be afraid to embrace.

UPDATE: It really is easier to apologize for anti-Semitism than to actually do anything about it.
Omri | |

Hey, Good Luck With That

We've all gotta have dreams:

Ghassan Barham, a Christian lawyer from the Jenin area, believes that his chances of succeeding Yasser Arafat as chairman of the Palestinian Authority are "very good."... Although he never spent a day in an Israeli prison, Barham holds radical views concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His platform... calls for eliminating widespread corruption in the PA, excluding the US from the peace process, and signing a deal with Israel based on the 1947 United Nations partition plan... Barham... described himself as unaffiliated to any political group... Asked about suicide bombings, Barham said he is opposed to calling them terrorist attacks. "These attacks are carried out in revenge for Israeli aggression," he said.

Let's see. A non-Muslim (read: enemy of Hamas) is running for the Palestinian chairmanship in order to root out corruption (read: enemy of Fatah). He is actually proud that he has no support from any existing Palestinian faction. He's calling for a peace plan that not even the far Israeli left could support, and he's actively trying to alienate the United States. Now, you might be inclined to believe that since he has something that pisses everyone off, he also has something that will make everyone happy (the Israelis will like that he's not an Islamic fanatic, the secular Palestinians will like that he's calling for a return to the 1948 borders, and Hamas will like that he supports terrorism).
But that's not the way things work in the Middle East. Israel has plenty of Christian Palestinians to talk to. The secular Palestinians have plenty of hardnosed negotiators. And Hamas has plenty of candidates who love terrorism. And let's not forget that Barham is very clear that no one will be particularly upset if he was to go missing. So I believe that the sad conclusion is that he's just not a very promising candidate.
This is like when porn stars and midgets ran for governor of California. Except without the whole "Hamas might murder them" thing.
Omri | |

Likud to House Republicans: You Wanna See Some Real Corruption?

While Democrats on this side of the pond go all self-righteous that an elected official would keep serving while he's under investigation, the Likud decides to show them how it's done:

Minister Without Portfolio Tzachi Hanegbi was chosen Sunday night to chair the Likud Central Committee, in a close race against the leader of the Likud "rebels," former minister Uzi Landau.

Upside: Sharon finally won a big one against the Likud rebels. A third loss here would have been a torpedo in the side of the disengagement plan. Downside: there's now a criminal running the Central Committee. Still, all in all a good night:

Speculation was immediately raised in the Likud that the election of the less hard-line Hanegbi would give Sharon the political leeway to widen the government... Landau supporters handed out propaganda warning voters that a vote for Hanegbi is a vote for having Shimon Peres.

Doesn't sound like such a bad deal.
Omri | |

Hey Egypt, Shove It

Egypt to Israel: pick better soldiers
Israel to Egypt: less preaching, more not violating your treaty obligations
(alternative answer: keep it up and we'll dump Gaza on you)
Omri | |

Rats Leave Hole, Die

The foul murderers who have been hiding behind Arafat's skirts for the last couple of years [you're making cross-dressing jokes now? -- ed it's a metaphor... I don't think tigers wear skirts] are finding that sunlight can be uncomfortable:

A senior Fatah member who until recently was among scores of fugitives hiding out in Yasser Arafat's Mukata compound was among four armed men killed in the West Bank and Gaza on Sunday. Muhammad Ghassan Sheikh was killed, along with two of his aides, by an elite police unit while in a car in Beituniya, west of Ramallah, on Sunday evening... During the two years that he was holed up in the Mukata, Sheikh planned suicide bombings and maintained contact with terror cells in the West Bank... Sheikh was also involved in a shooting on a road between Na'ame and Talmon on June 13 in which a man was killed and two others were wounded. In 2002, Sheikh helped plan a suicide bombing in Jerusalem and recruited his cousin to lead the suicide bomber from Samaria to Jerusalem.

Saint Augustine of Hippo, watching the decadent life-style of the late Empire, penned a famous prayer: "Give me chastity and continence; but not too soon." Similarly, Arafat's death has thrust the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into uncharted terrain. It's certainly well past time for the war that he incited to end. Some time after that, the long process of healing can begin. But not too soon: there are still some things that need to be cleaned up. Israeli police and army forces have a long memory. I fervently hope that they also have a very detailed list.
Omri | |

I Think I'm Going to Die of Not Surprise

This barely qualifies as a news story:

A respected Palestinian editor revealed over the weekend that Yasser Arafat told him in 1994 that he agreed to sign the Oslo Accords because he was hoping the agreements would force thousands of Jews to flee Israel... "The day will come when you will see thousands of Jews fleeing Palestine. I will not live to see this, but you will definitely see it in your lifetime. The Oslo Accords will help bring this about.'"

But it's as good time a time as any to revisit our flaming hypocrites vault:

Members of the Norwegian committee that awards the annual Nobel Peace Prize have launched an unprecedented verbal assault on Israeli Foreign Minister and Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres... In an interview with a Norwegian newspaper, committee members said they regretted that Mr Peres' prize could not be recalled because, as a member of the Israeli cabinet, he had not acted to prevent Israel's re-occupation of Palestinian territory.

This was the kind of story that just kept on giving:

One member said Mr Peres had not lived up to the ideals he expressed when he accepted the prize.

The Nobel Committee, of course, has continued to strongly support their decision to award the Peace Prize to Arafat - because he demonstrated through his thoughts, actions, and private conversations that he was dedicated to Jews and Palestinians living together peacefully.
Omri | |

Mystery Pollster to Democratic Bloggers: Stop Going to Coffee-Shop Poetry Readings and Take a Stats Class

Mystery Pollster Mark Blumenthal has a very extensive post on exit polling. You should read the whole thing if you want game on all the conspiracy theories, but the money graf comes at the end:

Absent further data from NEP, you can choose to believe that an existing problem with exit polls got worse this year in the face of declining response rates and rising distrust of big media, that a slightly higher number of Bush voters than Kerry voters declined to be interviewed. Or, you can believe that a massive secret conspiracy somehow shifted roughly 2% of the vote from Kerry to Bush in every battleground state, a conspiracy that fooled everyone but the exit pollsters - and then only for a few hours - after which they deliberately suppressed evidence of the fraud and damaged their own reputations by blaming the discrepancies on weaknesses in their data.
Omri | |

And They Say Gratitude Is Dead

1944: UK Forces Help Liberate France from German Occupation
2004: Chirac values UK as much as Germany
Omri | |

Maybe They Should Just Attack and Get It Over With

I'm sick to death of this story:

Outrage over an Israeli mistake that left three Egyptian border policemen dead dominated the headlines in Egypt Friday, as the Israeli army chief promised an investigation... Ezzat Ramadan, a friend of Amer's, was quoted as demanding the trials of those responsible and saying: "All our village rejects the Israeli apology."

This is like when the city council in Berkeley has the conciet to pass international resolutions - as if anyone outside of their self-important, drug-addled little commune thinks they matter. Hint: if you have to describe you and your friends as "our village," you probably don't matter in the grand scheme of things. That said, maybe the Egyptians should spend a little less time demonizing Israel and a little more time shutting down their arms-smuggling tunnels:

The Knesset’s top committee chairman added, "Egypt forces Israel to carry out a very extensive volume of activity in a 100-meter wide strip because it is negligent in safeguarding a 300-km security zone from the Suez Canal to the international borderline".
"The IDF is quick to act only because Egypt does nothing to prevent the smuggling. There were cases in which we blew up tunnels and noticed smoke was coming out on the Egyptian side, from within Egyptian army positions", he added.

Or maybe just spend a little less time killing Israelis. But I suppose neither option is as satisfying as blaming Jews for trying to defend themselves.
Omri | |

Although They're Close in the Alphabet, Iran is Not Iraq

As the Bush administration tries to come up with a solution to the monumental disaster that is Iran, the utopians, appeasers, and Europeans are already running the line that Bush's so-called lies about Iraq disqualify him from pressuring Iran. This line is as predictable as it is disingenuous:
(1) The relationship between WMD and preemption is fundamentally different when it comes to Iran than it was with Iraq. The justification in the case of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein already had (or more to the point, continued to have) WMDs, thus placing him in explicit violation of the UNSC resolutions that had guaranteed his regime's continued existence. But in the case of Iran, there is general agreement that the West must act before Iran acquires nuclear capability - no one seriously suggests that we should allow a suicidal, Islamofacist regime go nuclear before we impose international sanctions. To the extent that merely Iran's intent to have nuclear weapons is enough to justify preemption, the analogy with Iraq cuts the other way, since Hussein's intent to acquire WMD is well-documented.
(2) The alternative to preemption in Iraq was continued sanctions (at least it was when the Democrats were pretending to support anything but letting Hussein do whatever he wanted). But sanctions are already too late - Iran already has everything they need to go nuclear. And when they do, they'll blackmail the rest of the world into lifting whatever weak sanctions the nuclear peddlers in Russia would allow in the first place.
(3) Opposition to preempting Iraq consistently emphasized that we should give inspectors more time because there was no pressing concern of actual war - no one was under any immediate threat. However, the story with Iran is quite different. Years ago, Louis Rene Beres ran the old India/Pakistan war-game scenarios for Israel/Iran and came to some very uncomfortable conclusions: if Israel thought that Iran was about to go nuclear, they might preempt; but Iran, knowing that Israel might preempt, would have an incentive to preempt first; Israel, knowing that Iran wouldn't believe that they were really going to sit idly by while the Islamofacists went nuclear, might believe that they had to attack first. And indeed, that's exactly what's happening:

Admiral Shamkhani made his comments in an interview on Al Jazeera television... "We will not sit to wait for what others will do to us," he said... A commander of Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guards warned this week that Iran would strike Israel's reactor at Dimona if Israel attacked Iran's nuclear sites. "If Israel fires one missile at Bushehr atomic power plant, it should permanently forget about the Dimona nuclear center, where it produces and keeps its nuclear weapons," said the commander, Gen. Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr.

What the article doesn't mention is that Israel would quite rightly treat an attack on an operating nuclear plant as an unconventional attack, the equivalent of Iran actually deploying nuclear weapons against the Jewish state. Israel has been crystal clear in the past that they, not their enemies, will be the ones to control the ladder of escalation - their response would be nuclear, and it would be massive. And with Iran getting increasingly nervous, and Israel getting increasingly nervous about Iran's nervousness, we may not have time to wait.
Omri | |

I Guess That's Their Perogative

New dictator, same idiocy:

The Palestinian Authority on Friday rejected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new and seemingly softer terms for restarting peace talks, saying he should drop all conditions for dialogue.

Again, it looks like the Palestinians are holding out for a better deal. Perhaps they're hoping that Britain and France will make up with each other by focusing on something they can agree on: undermining Israel (wont work). Maybe they're hoping that Bush will step up the pressure on Israel (won't work). They might be counting on coalition math to push Sharon to the Left (won't work).
Or they might just be really committed to proving Abba Eban's famous observation that they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Omri | |

Canadian Mendacity Watch

Next time that the Canadians complain that they're being locked out of the peace process, somebody should bring this up:

A Canadian university professor who is also president of the country's Islamic Congress won't be disciplined for saying that all Israelis over the age of 18 are legitimate targets of suicide bombers, the University of Waterloo announced Wednesday.
Omri | |

Probably Just a Coincidence

The world is a mysterious and confusing place for some people:

A spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said the motive was unclear. "We do not exclude any motive, but so far there are no indications that the motive was racist or extremist," said Dominique Reniers.

Maybe it has something to do with this:

There have been a series of incidents involving physical attacks and intimidation of Jews in the city this year, often blamed on youths from the large Arab immigrant community. In June, a 16-year-old Jewish student nearly died after being stabbed, apparently by Arab youths, outside his Jewish school in an Antwerp suburb. Days later, a 43-year-old Jewish man was beaten unconscious.

Antwerp, of course, is one of the oldest and most respected Jewish communities left in Europe. If anti-Semitism has escalated into open violence there, imagine what they're not reporting from France or Britain.
This story, by the way, has not even made it on the Google newsmap. They had to make room for three different groupings about Arafat's death.
Omri | |

They Never Learn

How many times is this going to have to happen before the Egyptians finally get the hint?

A swarm of pink-bodied locusts descended on Egypt's capital Wednesday, sending residents scurrying for cover as the swarms banged against windows and dropped onto cars. The swarms first arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, from Libya after devouring crops in the countrysides of several West African nations.

Next up: Darkness.
Omri | |

Hey, You Think They Might Be Up To Something?

More terrifying and utterly unsurprising news from Iran:

The United States has intelligence indicating Iran is trying to fit missiles to carry nuclear weapons, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

It's cool though - the Europeans have it totally under control. My question is this: do the Europeans really believe that their fetishistic insistence on process and diplomatic nicities works, or do they want the Iranians to get the bomb and are just cooperating in stalling for time?
Omri | |

Palestinian Darwin Award Nominee

Tragic tunnel-digging accident:

Three Palestinians were killed Thursday in the collapse of a tunnel they were digging on the border between Rafah in southern Gaza and Egypt.

And what cost these young men, these heros of the Palestinian cause, their lives?

Palestinian security officials said the three smugglers didn't realize that it was raining heavily.

Cause the wet stuff falling out of the sky and making the ground muddy wasn't enough of a tip-off.

UPDATE: Apparently, there's a precedent for this sort of thing (hat tip: Jeremy).
Omri | |

Lunatics

At what point does this just begin to get silly?
France is embarrassed that their plan to violate international law isn't going so well? It's the Jews.
Arafat dies of AIDS? Jews.
Sactions hating, aid dispensing Western woman murdered by savages? Probably a dark conspiracy running the Americna war in Iraq from the shadows. And we know what that means.
Omri | |

Who's In Charge Here?

This just isn't credible:

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office expressed regret last night at the resignation of Colin Powell as U.S. secretary of state... "We are aware of the image created that Powell was less favorably disposed to us than other administration officials but this is not necessarily correct and stems from the fact that traditionally the secretary of state... has to express a position that is somewhat different of that of the White House," the official added.

This official's perception of the office of the Secretary of State differs somewhat from the understanding held by, say, the office of the Secretary of State: the duty of the Secretary of State is to "implement the President's foreign policy". That Powell might have failed to serve the President faithfully in no way mitigates his responsibility to have done so.
Omri | |

Opps

Everyone