Recently, Sean Penn was on the CNN news magazine program, AC360. Penn was on television to raise awareness for a cholera outbreak that has rapidly been spreading across earthquake-torn Haiti. To date, over 250 Haitians have been killed and 3,100 people have been sickened by the disease.
It is worth noting, that at this time the outbreak is still approximately 60 miles north of the capital of Port-Au-Prince – an extremely densely populated city with very poor water filtration. When cholera shows up there, the numbers of dead will skyrocket. It is also worth noting, that this kind of nightmare happens on a daily basis with little to no reaction from people who refer to themselves as "liberals" or progressives. So this kind of apathy is less than surprising.
But in Haiti we have a developing situation is nothing short of a humanitarian crisis – and it has all the makings of a humanitarian disaster.
Furthermore, as of this month, not even one cent of the United-States-pledged $1.15 billion that was supposed to help rebuild Haitian infrastructure (like water treatment plants that would prevent cholera contamination for example) has been spent.
But you probably didn’t even know this was a problem, did you? Foreign aid news seems to be dominated by speculation on when the next Gaza flotilla is going to try to force an unnecessary provocation with the Israeli Navy. Doubtless you have heard how there is a terrible “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza that needs to be solved with another dramatic confrontation with Israeli naval commandos.
However, if you type in disease outbreak gaza into a google search – the first response* talks about Haiti. Type in died of hunger gaza into a google search and the second response (the first hit is a link to the tragic death of two zebras in a Gaza zoo) is a link to the following quote from June 5, 2010 - less than a week after the initial flotilla incident:
"There is no starvation in Gaza," said Khalil Hamada, a senior official at Hamas's ministry of justice. "No-one has died of hunger."
The esteemed Mr. Hamada’s statements are indeed grounded in fact.
With a population of 1.5 million people, Gaza receives approximately 16,000 tons of food aid per month. This means that if every individual living in territory received an equal share of the food aid allocation, they would receive about 16 pounds of free food every month.
Every single day, dozens of trucks that are full of foreign aid (including aid that is donated by Israelis) stream across the Gaza border crossings with the full assistance of the Israeli military.
This in itself should negate the mythical need for these needlessly provocative flotillas – but let’s take a look if these numbers even make sense.
Gaza is among the top 10 recipients of foreign food aid. Its closest neighbors in food benefits are Zimbabwe (17,000 tons of food), Somalia (19,000) and Afghanistan (19,000). On the surface this would appear to make sense since all of these places have rather serious poverty issues, right? Or worse, Gaza aid is even lagging behind! Hurry up and send another flotilla? Not so fast...
Here are some particularly relevant population statistics on those other countries:
Zimbabwe: 11.4 million people, Somalia: 9.8 million, Afghanistan: 28.4 million.
This means that the average person living in Zimbabwe has access to less than three pounds of food per month, the average Somalian gets less than four pounds and the average Afghani must find some way to get by on a staggering 1.33 pounds of food. PER MONTH. Or to put it another way...
The average Gazan receives over 12,000% more food aid than the average Afghani.
Is this fair? Is this justice? And when you think of the scope of the tragedies that take place in these countries, the injustice of the situation becomes even clearer. Lest you think that these are just arbitrary numbers that have no correlation to the actual reality on the ground, check out the average life expectancy for these countries:
Zimbabwe: 45.8 years, Somalia: 49.6 years, Afghanistan: 44.4 years.
What is Gaza’s life expectancy? 73.4 years. For even more contrast, the life expectancy in Haiti (even prior to the disastrous earthquake) is only 60.8 years.
Want more contrasts? Check out some of the other countries whose life expectancies are WORSE than Gaza's:
Thailand Brazil The Philippines India Russia Fiji The Bahamas
That's right, the life expectancy in the tourist paradise of the Bahamas is 69.9 - a full three and a half years WORSE than in the "besieged" Gaza Strip.
Free the Bahamas! Save Atlantis! Oh wait, it might be a little late for that...
And how about little irony thrown into the mix? The chief antagonist against Israel and organizer of these flotillas has been the NATO-member and recent EU-reject - Turkey. Guess where they rank in the life expectancy game? 71.9 years.
Well, luckily for Turkey they are better off than the hopelessly oppressed people of the Bahamas but still BELOW the elite fatcats of Gaza. Maybe the Turks should put the fire out in their own backyard before looking to start fires elsewhere?
Or at least they could look to help people that are worse off than them, like the Haitians - who as we've already established are about to deal with an imminent health catastrophe.
To make it crystal clear: HAITI is in a state of EMERGENCY - GAZA is NOT.
Furthermore Haiti is not currently governed by Hamas, a group that is an internationally recognized terrorist organization. Nor does the Haitian government make a habit of hijacking foreign aid shipments, selling them on the black market and then using the money to buy weapons that will be fired indiscriminately into civilian population centers, used to infringe on the rights of women and conduct violent purges of political enemies – as Hamas has a proven track record of doing.
So perhaps another flotilla IS in order...
However, the destination should not be Gaza where at best it will only be used for political purposes and at worst will actually be used to further oppress the very people it claims to want to help. Instead, let's send a flotilla to the perpetually tragic population of Haiti (or Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, etc) where the situation is truly dire and the people have been neglected for decades.
To focus our attention on Hamas propaganda at their expense and continue dumping aid to people whose own "leaders" say don't need it, would be an injustice of the highest order. And we will have no one but ourselves to blame for the results.
For information on donating to Haitian relief efforts (and others) click here.
*UPDATE: As of now this blog entry is actually the first response on google.
Build it wherever you want. Build it as high as you want. Call it the Cordoba House. Call it Park 51. Call it Area 51 for all I care.
In fact, why don't you just build it 110 stories high, put a giant green crescent on top instead of an antenna and call it the World Trade Center Islamic Super Destroyer Victory (but our intentions are actually peaceful, we swear) Mosque. You think that's ridiculous? You think I'm out of line? Do you know what Cordoba is?
It's the name of a city in Spain that was overrun by the Islamic invaders in 716 AD. As is customary during Islamic invasions (google the Hagia Sophia, Ka'aba, Al Aqsa Mosque, Cave of the Patriarchs, Qutub Minar or The Great Synagogue of Oran for a few more examples), the main non-Islamic religious center of the city was converted into a mosque once it was captured. Lest you think that this is just ancient history, here's an entry from a 2005 edition of al-Fateh, the delightful Hamas children's magazine:
In the year 97 of the Muslim calendar, the ruler of Andalus (the Arabic word for Spain), Ayoub bin Habib al-Lahimi moved the Capital to my sister city, Cordoba… in the year 646 of the Muslim calendar, Ferdinand III besieged me and conquered me after a siege which lasted one year and five months, and that was due to the strength of my fortifications and my walls. This is when the Golden Age of the Muslims ended, and Asbilia (Seville) was lost by the Muslims.
The fantasy continues...
I yearn that you, my beloved, will call me to return, together with the rest of the lost cities of the lost orchard [Andalus] to the hands of the Muslims so that joy and happiness will fill my land, and you will visit me because I am the bride of the country of Andalus.
Interesting that the Imam of the congregation that will be praying at this site has refused to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization. Very interesting. Ponderous even.
So when you want to build an "Islamic cultural center" within spitting distance of two buildings that were destroyed by Muslim invaders...and then choose to name it after another "successful" Islamic invasion...if that's REALLY what you want to do...well, what's there really to say?
And yet, I'm supposed to pretend that I don't get the reference or else I'M the ignorant one? I'm the hateful one? Whatever you say guys. I mean honestly, what does it matter what anyone says anyway?
At the end of the day, you're going to do whatever it is you want to do anyway because I can't stop you...no one can.
Because you see, in OUR country, we tolerate people even when they abuse us, even when their intentions are so obviously incendiary, even when they surround themselves with 9/11 truther scumbags, even when they support terrorists. Even then, in this country, these people have their rights.
So build the mosque. Build it tall, build it wide, build it as a the shrine to Muhammad and Allah that you feel they deserve, that you feel they want.
Because in the end, it's all about what Allah wants isn't it? It doesn't matter who you upset. It doesn't matter who you hurt. It's all about the glory of Allah and what Allah wants...
And this is what Allah wants, right Imam Rauf and mosque supporters?
Allah wants you to offend 70% of the residents of the country you reside in.
Allah wants to radicalize both sides so the only voices heard are those of screaming extremists.
Allah wants you to be the subject of every stupid editorial that suggests we're all Islamophobic, every braindead talking head on television, every extremist rant, "liberal" sob-fest and nightly talk show snooze-fest.
Allah wants to be in everyone's face, everywhere, all the time.
Right?
So go ahead. Build the mosque. It's what Allah wants and the will of Allah surely supercedes the will of some secular, weak, directionless, motionless, powder puff, marshmellow society that doesn't even realize is on the verge of disaster.
Show the world exactly who you are and what you want. Expose us all for the weaklings we are. Show everyone that your religion is SO rigid, SO fanatic, SO ridiculous that even an allegedly "moderate" leader would rather build a shrine than have some common decency for the community he purports to be a part of.
And no, Imam Rauf, no...don't renounce Hamas. Don't renounce a group that bans women from smoking and receiving their inheritance, that destroys water parks because it is the will of Allah that men and women don't go swimming together. Because in the end, that's all that matters. The will of Allah.
Outrage in Gaza after group confiscates files, equipment.
Hamas’s security forces on Monday and Tuesday raided the offices of several non-governmental organizations in the Gaza Strip and confiscated equipment and furniture, drawing sharp condemnations from human rights groups.
The sources said the raids were carried out by agents belonging to Hamas’s Internal Security apparatus without court permission.
The NGOs raid on Monday were: Sharik Youth Institution, Bonat Al-Mustaqbal (Future Builders) Society, the South Society for Women’s Health, and the Women and Children Society.
They confiscated most of the equipment and other items, including computers, faxes, cameras, documents and reports, in addition to the keys to their doors. Thesecurity agents informed the directors that their organizations were closed. They did not provide any reasons behind this decision.
Wow. You know there's an old saying in Israel that the Arabs "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" - even when they have the whole stupid world behind them, screaming at Israel. It's just amazing how Hamas just can't control themselves for 10 minutes in order to capitalize on their renewed sympathy. Like a pack of rabid dogs they just have to stealstealsteal and killkillkill.
And who do they steal from? The very IDIOTS who donate to their cause in the first place. How can anyone, even if you think the Israelis are the biggest scum in the world, actually trust these Hamas sewer rats with their money? Or with anything for that matter?!
After enjoying our bus bombing simulation come join us for an exclusive investment opportunity - we hear the Florida real estate market is about to EXPLODE! Hardy har har!
This of course comes after Hamas spit in their naive faces earlier in the day by REFUSING THE AID that Israel had delivered to them from the ships.
“Hamas has refused to allow those trucks to go in,” the official said, “and if the aid is so urgent, my question is, why are they not allowing it into Gaza?”
The official added that “we have conducted talks with the Red Cross [to try and get the aid in], but Hamas is still refusing. In the meantime, the rest of truckloads will wait in Israel until further notice.”
The Hamas government’s social welfare minister, Ahmed Kurd, said the group “refuse[s] to receive the humanitarian aid until all those who were detained aboard the ships are released. We also insist that the equipment be delivered in its entirety.”
Well yeah, who needs a bunch of wheelchairs when what Hamas was REALLY after were some hot new laptops and iPads to run their "Qassam Launcher" app. And where better to get them than from some idiot NGO's that for some reason are still shocked when a criminal organization of murderers and terrorists seizes things from them by force. Are they actually living in dreamland? Or do they enjoy being abused by the very people they're trying to help? Is that what it's really about here? Maybe I've been wrong all these years...it's not that these guys hate Israel...maybe they just hate themselves so much that they need terrorists to beat them up and take their lunch money.
Truly, I've never seen a bigger bunch of idiots than these "peace activists" who hold rallies and sit-ins and protests in support of people who STEAL from them. Hell a whole shipload of these buffoons just risked their lives to break a naval blockade for these gangsters. What's next, "Peace Flotilla for the Crips" ? "Freedom Ships for the Latin Kings" ? Oh don't worry...it's no big deal that they're robbing us the day after we get shot at for helping them or that they regularly use us as human shields, it's all about the apartheid wall that the Israelis built to keep these hoodlums out of their own cities.
Hey thanks so much for the free sandwich, what do you say you give me your wallet too? Or I'll kill you. Who would tolerate such treatment?
Keep supporting them guys. Really, you're doing lots of good here.
For those of you unaware of who Gilad Shalit is, he is an Israeli soldier who was kidnapped from Israeli soil by Hamas terrorists FOUR years ago. To this day he is still in captivity where he has been subjected to starvation, torture and God knows what else. Hamas refuses to let him go home unless Israel releases approximately 1,000 of their terrorists, many with innocent blood on their hands and who have vowed to kill again, in exchange for him. Hamas will not let the Red Cross examine him and generally refuses to give any information on him to his parents Noam and Aviva Shalit.
The capture of Gilad is hailed as a tremendous victory in Gaza, where murals depict him in jail as if kidnapping a human being were something to be proud of.
The following video was released by Hamas about 6 months ago to prove that he was still alive at the time. In order for the video to be released Israel was forced to hand over 20 of its prisoners. FOR A VIDEO.
Not much to editorialize there...the man's pained voice and face speaks for itself. Note the difference between the picture of Gilad before his abduction to the man in the video.
The Gilad Shalit saga has been a very painful one for Israel and Israelis. His parents have become semi-celebrities after all their appearances on Israeli television begging for the government to do something to get their son released. Demonstrations calling for his release happen often. This past Passover in Israel and around the world, Jews left an empty chair at their holiday feasts as a quiet reminder that Gilad had yet another Passover in hell.
And still the time goes by...and still Gilad Shalit waits. And waits. And suffers. And waits.
Hamas, not content with simply shooting rockets into Israel, starving and killing their own people and sitting on this prisoner for FOUR YEARS recently put out this video, essentially mocking the captive's father by throwing it in his face that he'll most likely never see his son alive again.
The video is clearly designed to get an emotional reaction out of him and other Israelis in order to get them to pressure the government into caving into appeasing Hamas. Ironically in the video, even though Noam is still wandering the streets of Israel for 30, 40 years or so waiting for his son, the signs and advertisments are still in Hebrew, the newspapers are the same as today, the prime ministers are still Israelis - the country is clearly still ruled by Jews! Even the Erez crossing into Gaza is still intact and maintained by Israeli soldiers.
I think that it's EXTREMELY telling that even in this Hamas fantasy they're STILL not ruling over Israel (which is their stated purpose for existing). It really speaks to the fact that deep down they know they're never actually going to win, nor do they particularly want to...but I digress...
Noam Shalit, in response to this video has this to say:
Hamas leaders would do better if instead of producing films and performances, they would worry about the real interests of the Palestinian prisoners and the ordinary citizens of Gaza who have been held hostage by their leaders for a long time.
Right on Noam.
So wherever you are tomorrow, I urge you all to wear white in solidarity with Gilad and his family - and if anyone asks you why you're dressed in white make sure you tell them...
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... --A Tale of Two Cities 3/18: 2, 3/19: 1, 3/20: 4, 3/21: 2, 3/22: 2, 3/23: 1, 3/26: 1, 3/27: 2, 4/1: 1, 4/2:1, 4/3:1, 4/5:1, 4/6:6 --number of rockets fired into Israel by day from Gaza in the past two weeks
My town:
It's beautiful, quiet Spring morning in the Northeast. The rivers are receding after the recent Old Testament-style floods. The recent cold snap has ended, the sun is shining and the skies are blue. As I lay in bed with the sun streaming in through the windows and hear the Easter weekend traffic motoring along slowly, it's easy to be almost hypnotized at how peaceful it is. What should I do today? Whatever it is, it has to be outside and on a day like today it seems as though anything is possible...
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Your town:
It's beautiful, quiet Spring morning in Sderot. The heavy rains of the winter and desert flooding are fading into distant memory, the sun is shining and the skies are blue. As I lay in bed with the sun streaming in through the windows and hear the Passover weekend traffic motoring along slowly I think to myself how lucky I am to wake up in such a beautiful town. What should I do today? Whatever it is, it has to be outside and on a day like today it seems as though anything is possible...
***********
My town:
...something occurs to me as I get up to pour myself a bowl of cereal, something in the back of my mind...but I push it away...I don't want anything to disturb my quiet haze...what should I do? Walk to the park? Hike along the river? But something keeps nagging me and I can't ignore it...something I forgot...but I really don't want to think about it I'd much rather think about how to spend this beautiful day...
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Your town:
...something occurs to me as I get up to go make myself a cup of coffee...something in the back of my mind...no I don't want to think about that...I won't on a day like today...so what SHOULD I do today, anyway? Go to beach? Ugh, with all the holiday travelers it's going to be packed. Was that what was bothering me? No that's not it...and I'm not going to think about it anymore today...I'm not going to let it disturb this beautiful, peaceful day...Still it's nagging me, but in my just-woken-up haze I can barely remember what it is...
***********
My town:
Taxes! TAXES! That's what it was! I forgot to do my taxes and they're due in just a few days! Well no matter I'll just do them later tonight - no way I'm wasting a day like THIS to look at some boring forms! Thank God I remembered though, it could have been a disaster if I had forgotten!
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Your town: CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED CODE RED AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN AIR RAID SIREN
Oh that's what it was, I almost forgot...I haven't had a quiet, peaceful day like I was imagining in OVER EIGHT YEARS. Why should today be any different? Back into the bomb shelter for another game of "dodge-rocket" with my family.
***********
Welcome to Sderot, Israel, population approximately 20,000. The scene you just read is one that has been repeated basically on a daily basis since March, 2002. Not-so-surprisingly, up to 94% of the children who live in Sderot suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). But in addition to holding the dubious title of "most bombed city on earth", Sderot has been an incredible musical and cultural center for all of Israel. An incredible amount of singers and songwriters hails from this hard-scrabble town, including Kobi Oz of the band Teapacks. You may have heard of them during the "Push the Button" controversy at the 2007 Eurovision contest.
But Sderot isn't just a thumbtack on a google map showing the latest rocket strike in the perpetual hell of Middle East reality. It's a real city with real people that I had the privilege of visiting this past January. Palestinians fired four mortars at us while I was there. Luckily their aim was off and the mortars all landed in their own territory - no code red for me.
The tension while walking in the street however, was palpable and I couldn't help subconsciously looking around for somewhere within 15 seconds to take shelter if the alarm did go off. Most of the bus stops in the area have been converted into bomb shelters and many buildings have them built-in but there were several stretches when it was clear I would not be able to get anywhere indoors within 15 seconds.
Knowing that thousands upon thousands of rockets and mortars have crashed into the very streets I was now walking made me think about the people who stood on the same ground I was now on. Someone, probably several people, had been standing where I was now during a Code Red and had to hope to God or whatever higher power they believed in that they would be spared. This was a sobering thought indeed.
Eventually I arrived at the Sderot Media Center where I met several residents of the town and spoke to them about life in the shadow of Gaza. Without realizing it, the tension I felt when I was in the street left me the whole time I was in their presence. Despite the unbelievable living conditions these people are forced to endure, I was mesmerized by the charm and overall quiet of the city.
The people I spoke to, while obviously upset about the situation, didn't act like they were jumpy or nervous or miserable...the whole place just seemed so NORMAL. Being there reminded me of the sleepy New Jersey town I grew up in...which made it all the more frustrating to know that this quiet calm had just been shattered the day before by a rocket attack and unbeknownst to me at the time had almost been shattered four times while I was there.
If you follow Israeli news you read a lot about traumatized residents of Sderot with PTSD or children that have developed panic attacks as a result of incessant Code Red alerts...but in a way, seeing how relatable the people were, affected me more than reading about victims of attacks. These people aren't superheroes, they're just regular human beings like you and me who want nothing more complicated than to be able to get out of bed in the morning WITHOUT BEING SHOT AT BY A BUNCH OF IRANIAN-FUNDED, OVERSIZED BAZOOKAS.
They have jobs, they drink tea, they send their children to school, they go out drinking (a local pub was selected by Haaretz as serving the "best cocktail" in Israel), they even produce the Bissli snacks - popular with so many American Jews - at the Osem plant right outside town. In short, this could be quiet rural town in South Jersey or Pennsylvania or Michigan or Kansas or Oklahoma or wherever. You could have had the luck of being born here instead of wherever you grew up.
The only difference is that if you had been born here, this what would be falling on your head on a nearly daily basis for the past eight straight years. This is what would have been raining down on you 20, 30, 50, A HUNDRED times per DAY before your government finally decided to act against the perpetrators. This is what the rest of the world would expect you to endure falling on you as you drove to work or waited with your child for the bus or lay in bed considering what to do with your holiday weekend.
By the way, these rockets don't just fall from the sky, they EXPLODE on impact and send shrapnel (in addition to ball bearings, nails, screws and other potential projectiles that our Palestinian friends pack into these explosives) flying in every direction. These rockets, "crude" as they may be described in Palestinian mythology, are specifically designed to injure or end as many human lives as possible. That they don't kill more people is a testament to the preparedness of the townspeople to react to these attacks.
For example, take this playground that I saw while I was there...
This is the "Heritage Legacy Park of Good Wishes" - built with money that was donated by Americans. It sure looks like a fun place for kids to play, with colorful caterpillars and castles and everything else an imaginative child could want. In the setting sun it all seemed so peaceful...so normal...until it was pointed out to me by my friend that these caterpillars and castles were actually built as BOMB shelters. This project was part of a $9 million campaign to create bomb-proof places for children to play. Park of "good wishes" indeed...
And this is really a perfect illustration of what's wrong with the attitudes of pretty much everyone who doesn't actually live in Sderot. Everyone I talked to was (understandably) at the point of infuriation that even well-meaning people who are trying to help are actually perpetuating the problem.
After all, rockets rain down on an innocent civilian population and the answer is...to build prettier bomb shelters? Better early warning systems? Teaching people how to manage their lives more effectively as they live under bombardment?? This isn't an earthquake or hurricane zone or an area that's somehow prone to regularly occurring meteor showers! This isn't some natural disaster that people need to learn how to live with better! Just STOP THE ROCKETS.
Imagine if your home was repeatedly the target of armed robberies. You call the police to tell them that your home is being invaded on a daily basis and instead of them coming to arrest the perpetrators they tell you get a stronger safe to keep your jewelry in, so as to discourage the bandits from coming back. Would you tolerate that? Of course not! It's INSANE to expect people to live like this.
No more bomb shelters. No more early warning systems. No more Code Reds. No more fake condemnations by the outside world. No more SILENCE from the Obama administration.
And the announcement of the settlements the very day that the vice president was there was insulting. --Hillary Clinton
Oh my mistake, maybe we're better off when you don't say anything. Do you know what's really insulting though? All this controversy from the entire world that is directed at Israel over...building an apartment building...but while Biden and Hillary were STILL in the process of scolding the Israelis over their evil real estate plans there was yet another rocket attack into non-settlement, Israel-proper.
But hey, no one got killed so no harm, no foul right? ISRAEL on the other hand...how DARE they exercise their sovereignty over territory that they annexed over 40 years ago. And as world leaders raced each other to condemn Israeli architecture in ever more flowery and grandiose language, poor Manee Singmueangphon had the misfortune of working in a greenhouse that a random Qassam crashed into, killing him and injuring dozens other Thai workers.
Singmueangphon had children back in Thailand that he was working in Israel to support
Really though, what other country in the world is expected to endure daily attacks on its own citizens...yet a new housing project becomes an INTERNATIONAL incident? Oh and God forbid if Israel actually eliminates a terrorist mastermind...nevermind rocket attacks, the Mossad stands accused of the high crime of PASSPORT FORGERY. What a joke!
In other news, over 300 people were slaughtered in the Congo over a span of 3 days in December and you didn't even know about it. Oh and 700 children died there today (and yesterday and the day before that...) of starvation due to the fighting. But ISRAEL is on the front pages of every newspaper because they stopped a murderer from killing more people and built an apartment building in their capital! It's complete insanity and yet we all are complicit in it by our silence.
Thankfully the residents of Sderot are imaginative, creative and resourceful enough to take care of themselves. My friends at the Sderot Media Center told me about the innovative programs they have to help the Sderot residents who suffer from PTSD. There are theater, movie, music and poetry programs that encourage children and adults to express their feelings through art. It's not much of a surprise that a city with such a rich musical and cultural history would produce such beautiful art about a decidedly un-beautiful situation. There's also a documentary called Sderot: Rock in the Red Zone about how the Sderot youth are finding ways to express their pain and suffering to the rest of the world.
But why should this be? Why do we need awareness concerts and social media therapy and playground bomb shelters? Why does this situation even need to exist? How can we abandon these human beings...these mothers, fathers, sons, daughters...and allow them to be victimized like this?
We, all of us, need to stand up and make it clear that we will not play by the rules our "friends" try to impose on us as long as these people are subjected to this daily hell. What are we arguing about here, honestly? Apartment complexes? Passport forgeries? These people have been subjected to a DAILY state of terror for over EIGHT YEARS. This is ridiculous already!
You want Israel to sit down at the table and talk with murderers like Hamas? Get them to stop the rockets. You want less restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank? Stop the rockets. You want settlement freezes and "confidence-building" measures? STOP THE ROCKETS. Oh and how about releasing Gilad Shalit (after his 4th Passover in captivity) too?
No progress should be made, no concessions offered, no goodwill gestures, nothing done until they STOP THE ROCKETS. No one should be able to guilt-trip you into feeling bad for the (self-imposed) terrible situation the Palestinians are living under in Gaza either. Even the frequently Israel-bashing Human Rights Watch places the blame for the rockets SQUARELY on Hamas "leadership's" shoulders. I'm sorry that innocent Palestinians suffer in Gaza on a daily basis but you know what? It's not my problem. THEIR government which THEY elected and therefore represents THEM allows this situation to continue.
But if they just STOPPED THE ROCKETS - none of this would happen. Action/reaction, cause/effect, behavior/consequence. Enough with the complaining, the apologies, the demands and the excuses...just STOP
THE
ROCKETS.
And to the people of Sderot...keep making your movies and your music and know that even though we're very far away, WE DO HEAR YOU.
This post is the second part of a multi-part series on the stubborn habit of Jews to perpetuate situations where they are the victims of their own actions. If you haven't read the introduction yet, I encourage you to check out Part I before continuing. If you're pressed for time, while highly recommended, it isn't required to go back in order to understand what we're talking about in this post.
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They are willing to bear nothing. You are willing to bear anything. They keep evading responsibility. You keep assuming it. --Francisco D'Anconia
If it is now believed that my fellow men may sacrifice me in any manner they please for the sake of whatever they deem to be their own good, if they believe that they may seize my property simply because they need it—well, so does any burglar. There is only this difference: the burglar does not ask me to sanction his act. --Hank Rearden
We will return to Jaffa, to Acre, to Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem, to Ramle. We'll play soccer, Saraa. I'll be happy when we go back there. --Hamas puppet "Nassour" to young girl host of children’s program
Until victory, always. --Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
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PART TWO: SANCTION
Picking up where we left off last time with that ridiculous picture that encompasses much of what is wrong with the state of the American Jewish community...for a long time I thought that simple ignorance of reality was what drove these people to embrace the paradox of their own demise, but it goes much deeper than that.
Because you see, the Jewish lesbian who supports Hamas (who if they had their way would execute her, which eliminates her support for them - hence the paradox) in all her absurd irony, answers the immortal question posed by Francisco D'Anconia to Hank Rearden about midway through Ayn Rand's epic, Atlas Shrugged:
If the things I said are true, who is the guiltiest man in this room tonight?
While it is hard to boil down a 1,000+ page book into a single sentence - for the purpose of this post - the Francisco/Hank exchanges say it all. If you haven't read the book yet, go now and read it. I'll wait right here, patiently until you return.
While Atlas Shrugged is host to many themes, messages and subplots, the storyline that I always most identified with was that of Henry "Hank" Rearden. Rearden, a self-made, multi-multi-millionaire is a ruthlessly confident businessman and consummate professional with only one major weakness...he (like the entirety of the American society presented in the book) has been taught his entire life that it is his responsibility to support everyone who does not support themselves. His wife, family and the general public deride him as a greedy, selfish bully whose only concern is the bottom line - all the while living off the fruits of his labor even as they abuse him at every opportunity. Rearden's personal life is a truly miserable one as he is bound by a morality whereby he feels that by suffering at the hands of his tormentors and appeasing them, he is somehow a more virtuous person.
Even as society and the economy is decaying around him as the "looters" and "moochers" seize more and more of his wealth, property and freedom, Rearden continues to suffer and work harder because he loves his work and is driven by a desire to produce and progress - even though by the end he is producing almost exclusively for the thieves and murderers that make up the government in the book. The irony of course is that the people condemning him as being greedy and selfish NEED him to continue to produce because THEY themselves are incapable of it and without him they would be lost. Since everyone around Hank lives off of his production, if he refuses to produce, refuses to be "greedy" and behaves in the way his enemies pretend to want him to behave, they would ALL starve to death.
His willing subscription to their morality, his tolerance of their evil, his continuing to play their game with their rules is the only way they can destroy him. His enemies cannot succeed without the sanction of their victim. And it is thus the same with our enemies.
Since the first halutzim (pioneers) began working the fields and improving living conditions in what would become the modern state of Israel, Arabs against the Jewish state have demanded they vacate the land and "return" it to them.
Really? Where were these claims when Israel was a barren, backwater desert administered by the Ottomans for half a millennium? All of the sudden the Jews bring irrigation, highways and Tel Aviv to Israel and Arab residents who for 1500 years of foreign Muslim domination never even knew how to spell "nationalism" become the world's greatest political refugee problem. You don't think the Jewish presence in Ottoman and British Palestine significantly improved conditions for the native Arab population? How else would you explain 64,790 Arab immigrants to areas that became part of 1948 Israel? From that link:
The Arab Palestinian populations within those sub-districts that eventually became Israel increased from 321,866 in 1922 to 463,288 in 1931 or by 141,422. Applying the 2.5 per annum natural rate of population growth to the 1922 Arab Palestinian population generates an expected population size for 1931 of 398,498 or 64,790 less than the actual population recorded in the British census. By imputation, this unaccounted population increase must have been either illegal immigration not accounted for in the British census...
That means that 14% of the ENTIRE ARAB POPULATION of British Mandate Palestine was made up of IMMIGRANTS from just the nine years between 1922-1931! If the Zionists were so bad for the natives, why move to be CLOSER to them? End the occupation? And do what? Turn the entirety of the West Bank into Gaza City? Or into the pre-Israel swamp and desert that the Gallilee and Negev were, respectively?
And lest you think that these migration patterns ceased in the 20's and 30's...every single day anywhere between 68,000 to 115,000 Palestinians cross either legally or illegally into Israel for work or work for the very West Bank settlers who they claim to seek to displace. Apparently Zionist occupiers and Jewish settlers pay much better than Arab "freedom fighters". Just to put this into perspective, that works out to approximately 10% to 20% of the ENTIRE West Bank labor force is employed by Jews or Israelis.
What happens when Palestinians work in Israel or for Israelis/Jews? They pay taxes on that income to the Israeli government...which then hands the money right back to the Palestinian government. When the 2nd Intifada broke out and when Hamas came to power Israel caused an international uproar by withholding the estimated $50-$60 million a month that they transfer to Fatah and Hamas. For those mathematicians not named Hugo Chavez, that works out to between $600 and $720 million per year.
If you clicked the link that had to do with the Palestinian labor force, you would have read on the CIA Factbook that the ENTIRE PALESTINIAN REVENUE COLLECTION for 2006 was $1.63 billion. That means that nearly HALF of the TOTAL Palestinian intake (which is then used to purchase guns, print schoolbooks that talk about eliminating Israel and fund TV programs that brainwash children into thinking that they should throw rocks at Israeli tanks) is funded by the VERY PEOPLE they seek to destroy. And oh, by the way, in 2009 an additional $900 million was pledged to them by the US and A State Department.
How about the case of route 443, a road that links central Israel to Jerusalem? Or any of the "Jewish-only" roads that I'm sure you've heard the people crying crocodile tears about for that matter. Since the 2nd Intifada, several roads through the West Bank have been closed to Palestinian traffic due to DAILY shooting attacks on Israeli civilian vehicles left many innocent civilians dead or injured. My own cousin's car was firebombed while he was driving home from Jerusalem with his wife and baby girl.
Since the closure, this has for the most part ceased to be an issue. Now the Palestinians are demanding that this road be open to their traffic and in fact, the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled in their favor. In a few months, the new rule will go into effect and many Israelis will be avoiding this road out of fear that their families will be targets again. The road (like the rest of the infrastructure in Israel) by the way, was built by Israelis.
Want more? Because we have it. Along with the "end the occupation!" refrain which we seem to have had since time immemorial, the newer, hipper catchphrase of the late 00's was the "end the seige!" mantra - referring of course to Israel's closure of Gaza in response to daily rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. From the Sderot Media Center:
Most English dictionaries define siege as an “act or process of surrounding and attacking a fortified place in such a way as to isolate it from help and supplies...”
Indeed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website has reported that in the year 2009 alone, Israel allowed for 703, 224 tons of humanitarian aid and 105,600,128 liters of fuel to be delivered into the Gaza Strip following Operation Cast Lead.
“The IDF invested major resources to enable the flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip” stated Col. Moshe Levi, the head of the IDF’s Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration, in November 2009. According to Levi, humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip increased by 900 percent compared to the previous year. Over 22, 893 humanitarian aid trucks entered into Gaza throughout 2009.
Aid trucks ready to enter the Gaza Strip in the background. (Photo: Jacob Shrybman/Sderot Media Center)
Let's for now grant that "humanitarian aid" is just that (ignoring the propensity of Hamas to seize medical supplies in order to sell them and use the money for guns and rockets that kill civilians) and just think about those 100+ million liters of fuel.
What basic thing do all militaries need in order to succeed? The ability to move. What enables a military unit to move quickly, set up a rocket and then flee the scene before the return fire lays waste to it? An automotive of some kind, be it a car, truck, van, motorcycle, rocket sled whatever. What do all of these things need to operate? FUEL. Who gets first dibs on all the fuel that comes into Gaza (as well as everything else)? HAMAS. What does Hamas do with their fuel? KILL ISRAELIS. Who provides Hamas with fuel? ISRAELIS. Who provides the vast majority of electricity and water for the population that put Hamas into power? ISRAELIS. What do 68% of Palestinians think is a legitimate way to defend Islam? SUICIDE BOMBINGS AGAINST CIVILIANS. What people do 77% of Palestinians have an unfavorable rating of? AMERICANS. Who are the loudest supporters of Palestinians? AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS.
Who suffers for all of this? Israelis. Americans. Jews. Who allows it to happen? Israelis. Americans. Jews. Who, often FUNDS and ENCOURAGES their own suffering? Israelis. Americans. Jews.
Sanction of the victim.
Is it starting to click yet? In the end, it's not about Palestinian radicalism, Palestinian corruption, or ineffective Palestinian "leadership". The guiltiest man in the room isn't Hasan Nasrallah, Ismail Haniyeh, Mahmoud Abbas or even Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
It's you. It's me. Like Hank Rearden WE are the ones that perpetuate this situation. WE are the ones that allow it to happen. And it is our fault because we should KNOW BETTER. And it isn't even that Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton's or Ehud Olmert's misguided policies allow the other side to succeed. Who put these in power? WE DID.
And by we I mean Jews who overwhelmingly swept Obama into power by giving him 77% of their vote and continue to defend their decision STILL TODAY, even as Iran continues to move towards nuclear weaponization and Israel's future hangs in the balance. This isn't to say of course that everyone who voted for Obama doesn't like Israel, but it's hard to claim you are a pro-Israel activist if you don't do the most basic thing you can do in a democracy if you care about something.
That is to VOTE for the people who will support it as opposed to people who will throw it under a bus.
This should be so obvious to us and yet still we pretend that it somehow makes us more virtuous to work (or at least vote) against our own best interests even as our actions directly or indirectly aid our would-be murderers.
This HAS to change. The clock is ticking.
____________________________________________
In the next installment: PERPETUATION, we will explore the roots of this desire to suffer and learn why this phenomenon is found in both the left and right wings of the international Jewish community.
Christmas has come and gone and soon New Years will come and go as well...taking with it the 2000's and all the misery they contained. I recently came across an article in Time Magazine entitled The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell, which I shared with my Twitter followers. What follows here were my stream-of-conscience thoughts on the article that I posted after reading it. I would definitely recommend reading the article before continuing.
Aside from the fact that I assumed people reading my twitter updates had read it when I posted them, I found it to be pretty eye-opening. It also confirmed much of what I had been saying about the 2000's for a long time. Specifically that such a constant, nightmare string of calamities could not have been created just within the span of 10 years. Nor were these calamities restricted to war and terrorism. This decade was the manifestation of a bill finally coming due for a previous 50 years of over-borrowing/spending.
Please excuse any typos or spelling mistakes as this was all written out in real-time and has not been edited except to add relevant links to past posts.
Here's to next year, next decade and hopefully some real changes, not just hollow political nonsense...
Go ahead and ponder that, as you're drinking yourselves into oblivion next week and making resolutions that you'll abandon by February. I know I will...
Here's hoping the 10's will be remembered as the "Decade of self-responsibility" where we undo these mistakes and finally start acting like grown-ups.
Speaking of which, what were you doing on your 23rd birthday? Or your 22nd? Or your 21st? Well I don't want to talk about my 21st and you probably don't either because like me you probably can't remember too much of it. Lots of fun these early-20's birthdays. Before you realize you're closer to 30 than 20. Or more than halfway to 50. Yikes.
It's a scary time in your life to be 23, you know?
If you're an American (or even an Israeli) in all likelihood you're either recently done with college or about to be done.
Scary, really.
It's time to start thinking about your future, your career. What you want out of life. Maybe you've been in a relationship for a couple of years and now it's time to start talking about whether or not your plans are in line. After all, if you're all about Medical School and she's all about looking to start a family (or vice versa) - it may be time to go your separate ways. At 21 or 22 it may not have been a big deal, but by 23...well it's getting to be decision time my friends. Lots of big decisions to be made at 23.
Big, scary decisions.
But none of that really matters if every day you wake up in the basement of some nearly-collapsing house surrounded by people who want to nothing more than to see you suffer in the name of their insanity.
Nope, no scary decisions necessary here. If they give you food today, you eat it. If they give you water today you drink it. If they beat you today you nurse your wounds. If they don't, you wonder what they're planning tomorrow.
Everyday you wish it were over. But everyday it continues, same as the day before. Same as it ever was. How many days has it even been anyway? Is it your birthday today? If it was your birthday today, how old would you be? Does it matter? What should you do today in between dealing with your captors? Should you count how many bricks are in the wall again? Should you try to sleep? Will they let you sleep? Do you even remember what normal sleep feels like?
No, not much to decide here. Not much sense in obsessing over the future when you're Gilad Shalit...and it's been more than three years since you had to make a scary decision. No worries about the future or what to do with your life or if you should go out with that girl from last night again...when your entire life consists of just getting to the next hour without having your arm broken or face punched or your body violated. No scary decisions about the future, when the future is just your next breath. Or the next burst of pain. Or the next time you'll be able to chew your food.
Man it sure ain't easy being 23.
For some though, it's easier than others.
Today on Twitter, in honor of his upcoming birthday there was a concerted effort to make #giladshalit a top trending topic.
Despite the demise of Ted Kennedy dominating the headlines, this effort was a success, indicating just how much support there is for this 23-year-old. Hopefully enough people on Twitter clicked on this topic, learned about this travesty of justice and will try to do something about it.
I'll close with a small selection of what people were saying about Gilad today on Twitter.
375 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see them
ashleyscorpio @JIDF I am praying too! In the words of Rabbi Chaim "Let's bombard heaven with prayers!" #GiladShalit less than 20 seconds ago from web
Dogmum21 @JIDF RT @ashleyscorpio: Wish there as more I could do for Gilad than just tweet about his plight. #GiladShalit // PRAY! #GiladShalit
Esty_Gluck RT @superimma #GiladShalit has been in captivity for over 1100 days and is allowed no contact with .. http://bit.ly/2nG8mY #GiladShalit
603 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see them.
scarpetablog thinking about #GiladShalit half a minute ago from TweetDeck
JoesaidTweeter FREE #GiladShalit NOW! Free #giladshalit NOW! #tweetforshalit #gilad #shalit #tweet4shalit half a minute ago from web
JewishAgency First, I want to again says thanks to all the awesome tweeple who shouted out our #GiladShalit petition: http://ow.ly/lsyY #FSUBlog less than a minute ago from HootSuite
RoytelM #in10years Criss Angel and Drake will go on Top Chef sponsored by AT&T cooking Snow Leopard for Candace Parker. Goodnight #GiladShalit Jay-z less than a minute ago from web
GiladRS RT @GiladRS #Giladshalit #Giladshalit #Giladshalit #Giladshalit #Giladshalit #Giladshalit #Giladshalit #Giladshalit #Giladshalit 1 minute ago from TweetDeck
bethanyshondark The Hebrew nation and all the world have #GiladShalit in our hearts and minds. May he find freedom well before his next birthday.
JBCarver Who is #GiladShalit you wonder & why is he a trending topic? Read about him here http://bit.ly/mobSC #FreeGilad #prisoner 1 minute ago from Seesmic Desktop
watchful1 Vancouver, Canada it's 9:04pm let's trend #GiladShalit to #1! 2 minutes ago from TwitterFon
benny428 @JIDF ROCK ON MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO YOUR SHOW!!!! BOOYAKASHA #GiladShalit!!!!! 2 minutes ago from HootSuite
txrepublican Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem Ps 122:6 Pray for #GiladShalit #Tweet4Shalit #iamthemob #TCOT #RS #Israel 2 minutes ago from twhirl
629 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see them.
rachelcravit MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH GILAD SHALIT 4 YRS. IN TERRORIST CAPTIVITY MAY HE SOON BE REUNITED WITH HIS FAMILY #GiladShalit 1 minute ago from API
jacquelinewl FREE #GIladShalit #GIladShalit #GIladShalit #GIladShalit #GIladShalit #GIladShalit #GIladShalit Bring Him Home to His Family 1 minute ago from web
JewishGayDads Hundreds gather at Western Wall to mark Gilad Shalit's 23rd birthday, his fourth one in captivity. http://short.to/o22u #GiladShalit 1 minute ago from API
Justice_For_All RT @prosam 20 Quick Tips For Aspiring Freelancers http://ff.im/-7duB9 // #GiladShalit 3 minutes ago from web
JoesaidTweeter FREE #GiladShalit NOW! Free #giladshalit NOW! #tweetforshalit #gilad #shalit #tweet4shalit 3 minutes ago from web
1419 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see them.
pinkylsb @jidf Can we keep campaign 4 #GiladShalit going beyond 2day? #prayer #america #israel #jewish #mia #pow #idf #soldier #peace 1 minute ago from mobile web
benny428 #GiladShalit!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YO MAN!!!!! KEEP HANGIN!!! WE LUV YOU!!!!!!!!!! 1 minute ago from HootSuite
arashad Free the terrorist #GiladShalit from his crimes, execute him after a fair trial along side his superiors .. please half a minute ago from web
(Editor's note: wow what a jerk ^^)
GleaningHarvest RT: @JIDF: Plz RT! Support #GiladShalit today using the #GiladShalit hashtag all day! Help raise awareness! #Tweet4Shalit half a minute ago from TwitterFox
Katelyn_Thee is listening to David's radiocast thing .... still tweeting4shalit #GiladShalit half a minute ago from web
LeniPenny @JewishAgency Just signed the petition G_d Bless all you are doing and everyone taking a stand for this young man. #GiladShalit #FSUBlog less than a minute ago from TweetDeck
moliwo #GiladShalit is in need of freedom. One that he deserves. less than a minute ago from txt
Ain't that the truth.
Here's hoping that by birthday number 24 he's back to making "scary decisions" like the rest of us.
Radical Muslim cleric among 21 killed in Gaza clashes
GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) -- A radical Muslim sheikh's call for the creation of an Islamic emirate in Gaza sparked clashes with Hamas forces that left 21 people dead and injured at least 121 others.
Hamas forces blew up the home of Sheikh Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi, leader of the radical group Jund Ansar Allah, or Soldiers of the Partisans of God, Hamas sources said.
"Give us a homeland! End the evil Israeli occupation! The IDF is worse than the SS!"
The group posted a statement on the Web site announcing the establishment of the Islamic emirate in Gaza and proclaiming al-Maqdessi "the commander of the faithful."
"We only want peace! We only want to live normal lives like the rest of you!"
The statement declared that armed forces in Gaza should unite under him. It urged Muslims everywhere to support the "young emirate" by providing money, weapons and men because "this is the hope of the Muslim nation in raising the banner of monotheism in Palestine and to liberate all the lands and purify Al-Aqsa mosque from the filth of the damned Jews."
The group accused Hamas of not being Islamic enough, saying they care more about pleasing "tyrants" than "obeying God."
"Tear down the wall! Grant us right of return to our ancient villages that we just remembered were built where Tel Aviv is today! We promise we'll be good and treat you with respect!"
This is what's ahead for Israel and "Palestine" if we give into the world's demands. You see it's not just about violence against Jews (although it's mostly about that) - it's violence against each other. Fatah fights Hamas which fights itself which fights Fatah which also fights itself and they all fight the Jews. The Arab and Persian world watches as their Palestinian puppets keep Israel occupied while destroying themselves. Europe, the UN and the Americans cry crocodile tears and dump billions of dollars of aid money into "helping" these poor people blow themselves up, destroy mosques and generally do all the things (and much worse) they condemn Israel for doing.
And all across the world, college students, peace activists, professors and people who call themselves liberals line up to protest in support of this insanity.
You want Palestinian statehood? You think you're going to have a pluralistic society where children grow up happy and kicking soccer balls around and eating giant shawarmas and falafels?
You are wrong. You're either misguided because you've bought into the other side's propaganda or you ARE the other side.
This is what happens, this is the end result. So when you say you want an "independent Palestine" - inevitably what you are really saying is...
You want reduced rights for women, honor killings and sharia law.
You want an Islamic caliphate.
You want chaos, upheaval, death, destruction and violence...not for Jews but for PALESTINIANS. It's important to remember that in the one Palestinian-controlled place that is cleared of settlers there is regularly Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence...MUCH more so than in the West Bank or Israel proper. It's not just about the rights of Jews and a Jewish civil society, it's about the rights of the Palestinians and a civil society for all. These kinds of things just don't happen in Israel or the West Bank. But they do happen, with regularity in the Gaza strip.
This is the future guys, this is what's coming, take a good look at it, and love it because you've created it.
set⋅tle⋅ment /ˈsɛtlmənt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [set-l-muhnt] Show IPA –noun 1. the act or state of settling or the state of being settled. 2. an arrangement or adjustment, as of business affairs or a disagreement. 3. an agreement signed after labor negotiations between union and management. 4. the settling of persons in a new country or place. 5. a colony, esp. in its early stages. 6. a small community, village, or group of houses in a thinly populated area.
Netanyahu and Obama!
No-holds-barred, no disqualifications, in a STEEL cage ONLY on PAY-PER-VIEW!!!!
Or at least that's how it seemed like last week's meeting between the two leaders was billed in the media. It was the "fateful encounter of two world leaders since Kennedy met Khrushchev" according to noted Israel-basher Professor Juan Cole (Guess who is Khrushchev in this analogy).
Jerusalem Post columnist David Horovitz, noted in his analysis of the meeting that:
Don King himself would have been hard-pressed to outdo the pugilistic hype...ahead of Monday's first White House meeting between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu. Viewers and readers would have been forgiven for anticipating anything up to and including fisticuffs in the Oval Office...
Even our insane conspiracy theorist friends from last month got into the fun. So after a week that saw our friend the president declare his undying love for the Jewish people, who did Obama pin the blame on for the continuing never-ending violence in the Middle East? Was it:
Undaunted by past failures, Obama is reportedly setting up a hugely ambitious sequence - Israel freezes settlement building, the Arab world begins normalizing relations with Israel, and Israel and the Palestinians then enter substantive talks.
Number 1 on the agenda? Why those evil, dirty, sneaky Jew settlers of course!
Not to be outdone, Hilary Clinton (another recipient of undying affection from "liberal" Jews) echoed her former hated rival's instructions for Netanyahu:
"We want to see a stop to settlement construction, additions, natural growth - any kind of settlement activity"
Right. Of course. Stop the settlements and everything starts to work out! No settlers in the West Bank = peace. So sayeth the administration of hope and change.
Oh and another thing Benjy my man...about that city you thought was your capital...you know where two Jewish Temples stood almost a thousand years before Muhammad was even born...yeah that place...you know, Jerusalem:
"Jerusalem is a final status issue. Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to resolve its status during negotiations. We will support their efforts to reach agreements on all final status issues," a State Department spokesman said when asked to respond to Netanyahu's proclamation that Jerusalem would always remain under Israeli sovereignty.
But then, it's not like anything readers of this blog haven't known since December of 2007. Obama blames the Jews.
Or is it just the settlers? This goes back to the anti-Zionist/anti-Jewish debate that was the very basis for this blog's formation. Can you be pro-Israel and anti-settler? Well, in theory you can be but first we need to establish that the settlers cause Israel more harm than they do good. The most common example of this is that, like Obama (and Hillary) says...remove the settlements and you remove the barrier to peace. Less settlements = less war (and therefore less dead Israelis). More settlements = more war (and therefore more dead Israelis).
Well let's look at some history.
Before 1967 there were no settlers at all. The Jewish population of Gaza, Judea and Samaria was zero between 1948 and 1967. Israel fought three wars with its Arab neighbors. And before that, Jews had been hunted across the world for millennia. There were Holocausts and Crusades and pogroms and Inquisitions and riots.
Then the evil settlers came.
Israel has not fought a war against its neighbor states since 1973. The Jewish state has not been faced with a true existential war since that time. IDF military operations have consisted mostly of defensive incursions and riot control instead of full-scale military operations against states. Israel has seen a dramatic increase in American Jewish immigration as well as immigration from other Western countries. Oh and those evil settlers? They (along with other Orthodox Israelis) are the ones primarily responsible for staving off the "demographic time bomb" that was supposed to end Israeli democracy or end Israel within a few generations.
Now let's look at historical examples of post-settlement reality.
Well, Israel evacuated the Sinai settlement of Yamit after the 1978 Camp David Accords and returned the land to Egypt. Technically, the two states are now at peace so that's nice. Still no Palestinian state though.
The other case is Gaza. Before there were any Jewish settlers in the Gaza strip Palestinian fedayeen forces regularly used the territory to conduct attacks on sovereign Israeli soil. After 1967 (and subsequent settlement establishment in Gaza) these attacks became a thing of the past. I don't think I need to remind you what happened after the Gaza settler evacuation in 2005. In case you don't feel like reliving the past few years - here's a chart showing the documented cases of rocket attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip:
You see those gigantic spikes from 2006 and on? What do you think they coincide with? Ariel Sharon visiting the Temple Mount? New Gaza settlement construction? Another Muhammad cartoon hitting the press?
Well, in August/2005 Israel committed the awful crime against humanity of daring to give the Palestinians what they wanted...
The Gaza settlements along with several West Bank settlements were evacuated.
Families were ripped out of their homes in a show of good faith to the Palestinians despite their continuing terror campaign against Israeli women and children.
And so what happened the following year?
A 30% INCREASE in rocket attacks over the previous FIVE YEARS COMBINED. If (as Obama says) the obstacle to peace is the settler movement...but then the settlers are removed in tear-jerking, heart-wrenching fashion and the result is not only war but exponentially MORE war then before...
Well then the settlers are NOT the problem.
The SETTLEMENTS are.
The Oslo settlement. (1993)
The Wye River settlement. (1998)
The Camp David settlement. (2000)
The Taba settlement. (2001)
The "Road Map" settlement. (2003)
And finally the "End of the Gaza settlers" settlement. (2005)
Every time without fail the blame falls on the settlers. The blame falls on Israel. The blame falls on the Jews. And we offer more concessions to placate the Obamas of the world because that's what we do.
But what has it brought us exactly? Nothing but rockets, according to peace-process-believing, former Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
Tired of being asked for concessions, Peres told his guests that the side making concessions was Israel, which was not getting anything in return from the Palestinians other than the rockets and mortar shells being fired from Gaza.
It's not the settlers. It's the concessions. It's the retreats. It's the surrenders. It's the settlements.
At the same time, the most popular leader in the Arab world is ruthless dictator Bashar-al-Asad. In third place is notorious terrorist Hassan Nasrallah. Two men who are essentially glorified mass-murderers of both Arabs and Jews. Oh and our friends the Egyptians who received their permanent settlement back in 1978? Well they're stripping the citizenships of any Egyptians who dare to marry an Israeli citizen. Even ARAB Israeli citizens. How enlightened. How peace-loving.
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