Bush, Carter, and Intelligent Design

Yishai, Shalom,

I enjoyed your explanation of George W. Bush visiting Massada, not to identify with the Jews, but with the Romans.
Also, you referred to the Philistines as Bush's proxy warriors. That's exactly the point, without American financial and political backing for the Philistines, there would be no terrorism.

That's why I disagree with pundits who talk about our enemies as the Islamofascists. I agree that the Ishmaelites enjoy terrorizing Jews, but they quickly lose motivation and money, and start fighting among themselves. Thus, I see the Philistines more as Edom's dobermans. They don't want to do the avodah shechora, let the Arabs do that for them. That means, the American gov't is Israel's enemy ! American Jews, you are accomplices to the crime. Come home to Israel....

As for Carter's visit to the Hamas leader, I think it's supposed to change the scale. Did you ever make a graph in Excel. Let's say you're making a graph of appeasement of terrorists by different leaders. Olmert would get a 40%, Livni would get a 45%, then comes Carter and gets a 100%. He completely changes the scale. Olmert's and Livni's bars are dwarfed by that of Carter and now take up only half of the screen. Now they can condemn Carter for appeasing terrorists and pretend to be Hawks, while they continue to sell out Israel. Now Condy Rice can supply a whole shipload of weapons to the "moderate" Abu Mazen. Thanks, Jimmy.

As for Tibi, have you ever seen Gypsies in Europe ? Here's how they work, a couple of gypsies put on a show and sing or juggle, whatever, and the third gypsy goes around the crowd and picks people's pockets. Tibi is a diversion. He makes a lot of noise and Eli Yishai and Avigdor Lieberman can pretend to be right wing by condemning him and pass laws making it a crime for Arab MK's to betray the state -- these laws have no meaning because the judicial system will ignore them -- and then while everyone is staring at Tibi's antics, Olmert and Livni "pick our pockets" and give away the land of Israel.

*************************

Intelligent Design:
I'm reading "Not by Chance" by Dr. Lee Spetner, an Oleh to Israel. He demolishes all of Richard Dawkin's arguments in the Blind Watchmaker. I read that book by Dawkins years ago and was convinced that evolution could work. I was conned ! Dawkins makes a lot of unsupported assumptions. Spetner shows mathematically that it can't work.

And you know what, "they" know it doesn't work. That's why Stephen Jay Gould suddenly came up with a theory about 20 years ago that evolution must have happened in rapid surges every million years or so, but that doesn't work either. They know it doesn't work and they keep on teaching it, just like they keep on teaching Biblical criticism even though Prof. Cassuto disproved it in the 30's. They can't let people believe that Hashem created the world or that Hashem wrote the Torah.

One example: they tell us that bacteria evolve when they become resistant to antibiotics. The bacteria do evolve, but they LOSE information. The antibiotic used to fit into the bacteria, like a key into a lock, so there arose a mutation which damaged the receptor (the lock) so the key won't fit in. But the bacteria needs that receptor for something else, so it get messed up a little, it will not work as well, and lost genetic information.

You can't evolve from a cell to a human being by losing information, just like you can't get rich by losing money and making it up on volume. Humans are more complex than cells so you have to gain information.

kol tuv,
Dan

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Why Do Palestinians Get Much More Attention than Tibetans?

By Dennis Prager

The long-suffering Tibetans have been in the news. This happens perhaps once or twice a decade. In a more moral world, however, public opinion would be far more preoccupied with Tibetans than with Palestinians, would be as harsh on China as it is on Israel, and would be as fawning on Israel as it now is on China.

But, alas, the world is, as it has always been, a largely mean-spirited and morally insensitive place, where might is far more highly regarded than right.

Consider the facts: Tibet, at least 1,400 years old, is one of the world's oldest nations, has its own language, its own religion and even its own ethnicity. Over 1 million of its people have been killed by the Chinese, its culture has been systematically obliterated, 6,000 of its 6,200 monasteries have been looted and destroyed, and most of its monks have been tortured, murdered or exiled.

Palestinians have none of these characteristics. There has never been a Palestinian country, never been a Palestinian language, never been a Palestinian ethnicity, never been a Palestinian religion in any way distinct from Islam elsewhere. Indeed, "Palestinian" had always meant any individual living in the geographic area called Palestine. For most of the first half of the 20th century, "Palestinian" and "Palestine" almost always referred to the Jews of Palestine. The United Jewish Appeal, the worldwide Jewish charity that provided the nascent Jewish state with much of its money, was actually known as the United Palestine Appeal. Compared to Tibetans, few Palestinians have been killed, its culture has not been destroyed nor its mosques looted or plundered, and Palestinians have received billions of dollars from the international community. Unlike the dying Tibetan nation, there are far more Palestinians today than when Israel was created.

None of this means that a distinct Palestinian national identity does not now exist. Since Israel's creation such an identity has arisen and does indeed exist. Nor does any of this deny that many Palestinians suffered as a result of the creation of the third Jewish state in the area, known -- since the Romans renamed Judea -- as "Palestine."

But it does mean that of all the causes the world could have adopted, the Palestinians' deserved to be near the bottom and the Tibetans' near the top. This is especially so since the Palestinians could have had a state of their own from 1947 on, and they have caused great suffering in the world, while the far more persecuted Tibetans have been characterized by a morally rigorous doctrine of nonviolence.

So, the question is, why? Why have the Palestinians received such undeserved attention and support, and the far more aggrieved and persecuted and moral Tibetans given virtually no support or attention?

The first reason is terror. Some time ago, the Palestinian leadership decided, with the overwhelming support of the Palestinian people, that murdering as many innocent people -- first Jews, and then anyone else -- was the fastest way to garner world attention. They were right. On the other hand, as The Economist notes in its March 28, 2008 issue, "Tibetan nationalists have hardly ever resorted to terrorist tactics..." It is interesting to speculate how the world would have reacted had Tibetans hijacked international flights, slaughtered Chinese citizens in Chinese restaurants and temples, on Chinese buses and trains, and massacred Chinese schoolchildren.

The second reason is oil and support from powerful fellow Arabs. The Palestinians have rich friends who control the world's most needed commodity, oil. The Palestinians have the unqualified support of all Middle Eastern oil-producing nations and the support of the Muslim world beyond the Middle East. The Tibetans are poor and have the support of no nations, let alone oil-producing ones.

The third reason is Israel. To deny that pro-Palestinian activism in the world is sometimes related to hostility toward Jews is to deny the obvious. It is not possible that the unearned preoccupation with the Palestinians is unrelated to the fact that their enemy is the one Jewish state in the world. Israel's Jewishness is a major part of the Muslim world's hatred of Israel. It is also part of Europe's hostility toward Israel: Portraying Israel as oppressors assuages some of Europe's guilt about the Holocaust -- "see, the Jews act no better than we did." Hence the ubiquitous comparisons of Israel to Nazis.

A fourth reason is China. If Tibet had been crushed by a white European nation, the Tibetans would have elicited far more sympathy. But, alas, their near-genocidal oppressor is not white. And the world does not take mass murder committed by non-whites nearly as seriously as it takes anything done by Westerners against non-Westerners. Furthermore, China is far more powerful and frightening than Israel. Israel has a great army and nuclear weapons, but it is pro-West, it is a free and democratic society, and it has seven million people in a piece of land as small as Belize. China has nuclear weapons, has a trillion U.S. dollars, an increasingly mighty army and navy, is neither free nor democratic, is anti-Western, and has 1.2 billion people in a country that dominates the Asian continent.

A fifth reason is the world's Left. As a general rule, the Left demonizes Israel and has loved China since it became Communist in 1948. And given the power of the Left in the world's media, in the political life of so many nations, and in the universities and the arts, it is no wonder vicious China has been idolized and humane Israel demonized.

The sixth reason is the United Nations, where Israel has been condemned in more General Assembly and Security Council resolutions than any other country in the world. At the same time, the UN has voted China onto its Security Council and has never condemned it. China's sponsoring of Sudan and its genocidal acts against its non-Arab black population, as in Darfur, goes largely unremarked on at the UN, let alone condemned, just as is the case with its cultural genocide, ethnic cleansing and military occupation of Tibet.

The seventh reason is television news, the primary source of news for much of mankind. Aside from its leftist tilt, television news reports only what it can video. And almost no country is televised as much as Israel, while video reports in Tibet are forbidden, as they are almost anywhere in China except where strictly monitored by the Chinese authorities. No video, no TV news. And no TV, no concern. So while grieving Palestinians and the accidental killings of Palestinians during morally necessary Israeli retaliations against terrorists are routinely televised, the slaughter of over a million Tibetans and the extinguishing of Tibetan Buddhism and culture are non-events as far as television news is concerned.

The world is unfair, unjust and morally twisted. And rarely more so than in its support for the Palestinians -- no matter how many innocents they target for murder and no matter how much Nazi-like anti-Semitism permeates their media -- and its neglect of the cruelly treated, humane Tibetans.

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Horrific And Depressing Photos Of The Attack (Graphic)

I did not take the following photos. They are a collection of various media photos and government press office photos which I found posted on a messageboard. I debated if there is any purpose in posting these here. I concluded that they are important for the sole purpose of gaining an understanding of the situation - to see it with our own eyes. To see it and to feel more connected with our holy brothers so that we could daven with the proper kavanah for a speedy redemption and an end once an for all to these atrocities. Tonight our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and indeed all of kal yisrael - since we are all the very same family.

Be warned the photos below are rather graphic and do contain blood. If you do not want to see them - don't scroll down.
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Israeli police deployed inside the 'yeshiva,' or Jewish seminary, in Jerusalem on 06 March 2008 after two Palestinians dressed as ultra-Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students entered and shot and killed at least eight Jewish students, wounding another 15, according to Israeli police. The two Palestinians were killed and one was wearing a suicide bomber's belt, which did not explode. [Later reports said 7 students were murdered, and fewer were wounded - two seriously and that there was only one terrorist. Later reports also said the belt turned out to be for more ammo.-P]

Israeli police detain a suspect as he is led down stairs with a sweatshirt pulled over his head inside the 'yeshiva,' or Jewish seminary, in Jerusalem on 06 March 2008 [I do not know who this "suspect" is or was since later reports said there was only one terrorist who was killed. -P]


Israeli medics rush a seriously wounded young Israeli to an ambulance outside The Wohl Torah Center, a 'yeshiva,' or Jewish seminary, in Jerusalem on 06 March 2008 [Please say tehillim for the wounded. As soon as we have a list of names we will post it. -P]





A handout photograph supplied by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) showsIsraeli medics hold up a prayer shawl soaked in blood that has a bullet hole as they clean up inside the 'yeshiva,' or Jewish seminary, in Jerusalem on 06 March 2008

A handout photograph supplied by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) shows bullet holes and blood stains inside and what appears to be the body of one of the two Palestinian gunmen inside the 'yeshiva,' or Jewish seminary, in Jerusalem on 06 March 2008

More Photos Here...

UPDATE2: Please say Tehillim for Naftali ben Gila from Sderot, Yonatan ben Avital, Shimon ben Tirza, Nadav ben Hadas, Reuven ben Naomi and Elchanan ben Zehava

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Shoah Won’t Repeat Itself

From Noah Klieger in YNET (My comments after the article)

We must teach our youngsters that Israel will not allow another Holocaust

Some of the findings of a recent poll about the Holocaust truly stunned me. In the framework of the survey, about 400 students and soldiers were asked, among other things, whether the Holocaust can happen again, what is the best Shoah studies method in their view (classes at school, documentaries, or visits to death camps in Poland,) and what is their attitude to Holocaust survivors.

As it turned out, 82% of respondents said that another Holocaust is a possible scenario.

This figure is worrisome, and should be addressed today of all days, on the date declared by the United Nations as International Holocaust Day. If 63 years after the end of World War II, which brought to an end the mass murder of European Jewry, and 60 years after the establishment of the State of Israel, which was built on the ruins of that Jewry, almost all young respondents think that a Shoah can happen again – we are facing a big problem.

In that respect, our education system totally failed, as did parents in the past two generations. If for six decades we were unable to explain that the Jewish people learned in the cruelest and most terrible way that the State of Israel is the absolute guarantee to the Jewish people’s safety, we must immediately change our approach, our curriculum, and all our explanations.

The poll revealed that 54% of high school students believe that the best way to form an impression about the Holocaust is through tours in Poland, so this means we need a new approach in planning and conducting these tours. The committee members and historians who prepare the students before they embark on their trip to Poland must change their approach. They must emphasize time and again that the Holocaust was a phenomenon that will not be repeated.

At the end of the tours they must also emphasize, along with history teachers, that the Jewish people and the State of Israel no longer face such danger, certainly not from a European country or any other enlightened nation. We are certainly facing dangers, but not from the same direction.

Youngsters must not live under grim shadow

Everyone must repeat this time and again, and the education system must increase the amount of time dedicated to the subject and recruit people who are well familiar with it – rather than tasking teachers who are not experts or instructors who finished one course with this mission.

The Shoah, as I have been emphasizing for dozens of years, was not “just another genocide,” like the ones we have seen before and still see today. It was a calculated, thoroughly planned mass murder that was methodically implemented by hundreds of thousands if not millions of Germans and their helpers from various nations; step by step, with determination, based on a master plan.

Therefore, the Holocaust cannot repeat; because Israel, the Jewish people’s state, will be able to contend with such new evil plan, if it indeed emerges.

This is what we should be teaching our youngsters; we must not allow them to live under the grim shadow of the terrible tragedy that befell European Jewry during Hitler’s reign in Germany.

[Instead of asking whether kids have a a good reason to think that the Shoa could happen again, the author of this article thinks that kids should be brainwashed into having full and utter confidence in the mighty State of Israel. No matter that Kassams keep decimating Sderot, or that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and closing the noose around us with Hizballa and Hamas as their proxies, the author of the article thinks that kids are totally mislead when they think that a Holocaust could happen again. How does he propose we stem the tide of fear? Brainwashing. Change the curriculum, don't take them to Poland, retrain the teachers.

How about showing kids that the state of Israel can really route the enemy instead of talking about it? How about actually dealing with threats of the moder Holocaust-makers? What the author of the article did not concieve of is this simple formula: Beating back the enemies of Israel will do a whole lot more for kids confidence then retelling the tale of Israeli invincibility in a time where our defenses are breached daily.

The lesson of the Holocaust IS NOT that the State of Israel can defend Jews from existential threats. The lesson of the Holocaust is that Jews are in constant danger, and without due vigilance the Shoa can certainly happen again. The State of Israel is a machine, a mechanism for governance. It can function well, or it can function poorly. In terms of defense, today's Israel is functioning poorly. The fault probably lies in ideological misconceptions and in corrupt politics and not in military lacks. That being said, the bottom line result is that clear-eyed kids, not yet blinded by ideology and demagoguery, foresee a danger to the Jewish people and to Israel - and that is not a bad thing! It is a good thing because it can bring to action that can be filed under the heading: NEVER AGAIN! The other option is to change the curriculum and lull everyone to sleep with the mantra: "Everything will be fine, there are no problems, keep sleeping children, there is no danger." YF]

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State of the Union

Fom the State of the Union Address January 28, 2008

"We're also standing against the forces of extremism in the Holy Land, where we have new cause for hope. Palestinians have elected a president who recognizes that confronting terror is essential to achieving a state where his people can live in dignity and at peace with Israel. Israelis have leaders who recognize that a peaceful, democratic Palestinian state will be a source of lasting security. This month in Ramallah and Jerusalem, I assured leaders from both sides that America will do, and I will do, everything we can to help them achieve a peace agreement that defines a Palestinian state by the end of this year. The time has come for a Holy Land where a democratic Israel and a democratic Palestine live side-by-side in peace. (Applause.)"

Good stuff, eh? Listen to this talk and you'll think peace is about break out everywhere. But the truth is that we are much closer to war then peace. The Palestinian president is an arch-terrorist. 3 of 4 most recently murdered Jews were murdered by his 'police'. The Palestinians also elected Hamas with a platform to destroy the Jewish State. A "Holy Land where a democratic Israel and a democratic Palestine live side-by-side" is myth and a lie designed to destroy us. See how Gaza has turned into a haven for terrorists who are decimating Sderot with their rockets.

Here is what this week's Torah portion (Exodus 23) recommends:

23. "For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them.
24. "You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars in pieces.
25. "But you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst.
26. "There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.
27. "I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
28. "I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you.
29. "I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
30. "I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.
31. "I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
32. "You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.
33. "They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."

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Leave Olmert Alone

The Israeli right has achieved very little in the 14 years that have passed since the Oslo disaster. Therefore, its ideologues and motivators must comport themselves with a little more modesty, and a lot more originality, than they currently seem to. Yet the opinion columns and the conference podium microphones all seem to be broadcasting the same tired old messages to us: don't give up this or that territory, don't give up this or that principle, let the IDF win, take back Gaza, bomb it from the air, don't give them guns, give them homes, free the girls, Olmert is a traitor.

As a consumer of messages, I find this fare dull and unsatisfying. And after 14 years of this menu, I would like something new please, waiter.

Here is what I find myself thinking lately: of course Olmert has no right to discuss giving up Jerusalem. Of course Israel is losing its last shreds of self-respect and deterrence in the way it is dealing with the Gazan bombardment of Sderot. Of course throwing money at Abbas and his "moderate" murderers is no solution to anything.

But maybe there is a reason for this loss of direction, and maybe just saying the current leaders have lost touch with Judaism and are an "erev rav" does them a certain degree of injustice.

Let's say we bomb Gaza into oblivion (a move I support, by the way. It is certainly better than sending our boys in there to get killed by the barbarian hordes). What then? Well, here is what happens then: the US administration disowns us, in a series of speeches by the President in which Israel is branded "a state overcome by fanaticism" and its government a "rogue leadership." The UN adopts a series of resolutions condemning Israel's genocide and the Hague court demands Israel extradite war criminals Olmert, Barak and Ashkenazi, for starters. No Israeli officer can expect to step on British, French, Russian or American soil any more, or anywhere else for that matter, without being arrested immediately. NATO begins training for bombing Tel Aviv. Iran develops and tests its bomb unimpeded.

What will Israel do then? Oh, I know – we will publish dozens and dozens of opinion columns in which our finest minds say "they are an erev rav!"… and at the same time, our hilltop youth will build another ramshackle hut somewhere and declare victory, even as the boots of the Border Guards are climbing the hill to tear everything back down.

Okay.

Now that everyone hates me, let me say this: I have the greatest respect for our heroes and heroines. I admit that do not have in me an ounce of the courage they seem to pack in tons in each of their Jewish hearts. I am no good at facing the police, I am no good at climbing the mountains, I do not have in me one percent of the bravery of the little girls who refused to identify themselves in court, not to mention the bravery of those who face the enemy every day as they drive about the roads of our beloved heartland, laughing in the face of the monsters of Ramallah, Shechem, Kalkilya, Jenin and Hevron. I was not even a very tough soldier in my army days (although I do have a green tank driver's license somewhere in my files).

Really, I have nothing in me that can compare to these people's courage and spirit.

But practically speaking (governments are, first and foremost, in charge of practical solutions) what do we want from the government? Think about it: a Yitzchak Shamir is not enough here. It is not enough to be able to stand fast and give up nothing. We can stand fast and give up nothing, but the Kassams will keep humiliating us. And the only way we can stop them is by creating mass carnage on the Arab side. Targeting the Hamas leadership won't do the job. They will just go underground. Besides, they grow heads back faster than skinks grow back tails, and the new ones are always just as ugly as the previous ones. I will say it again: practically speaking, only by creating mass carnage on the other side can we stop the Kassams for good.

Benny Elon's plan for voluntary Arab evacuation and compensation is nice for parlor talk. Hamas will only understand a "plan" like the one wreaked upon the Arabs by the combined forces of Haganah, Palmach, Etzel and Lechi in 1948. We all know this in our heart of hearts. So do we do to Gaza – and possibly Hevron, Ramallah and Shechem, what we did to Tzfat and Lod three score years ago? Yes or no?

Right.

This is the stage at which people say – "okay, smart-aleck, we get what you are saying. But what do YOU suggest?".

I will not fall into that trap. Not just yet. Let's see how this article goes down before we proceed to Stage Two. What do you think about this, dear readers? Practically speaking, how does Israel deal with the aftermath of a Gaza operation that costs thousands of Arab lives, half of them women and children? Please use the talkback function to express yourselves.

Speak, and spell out a long term practical policy, please – or leave Olmert (or "mert", or "Olmerde," as he is affectionately known in these parts) alone, because you don't have a better idea of what to do than he does.

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Two Years Have Passed...

Wednesday, 8 Elul 5767 / August 22 marks two years since the completion of the destruction of Gush Katif. Rabbanim have called for a day of fasting, Teshuva and prayer, to remember the uprooted communities and families, and mourn the destruction of the shuls and Batei Midrash destroyed on this day.

Please continue reading for more details:

Wednesday will be marked by a special Mincha service at the Kotel, w/ Selichot & reading of "VaYichal Moshe" @ 6pm. Those joining the fast (which is considered a "Ta'anit Yachid") should indicate their intended participation during Tuesday's mincha (at the end of the Amidah).



For more details, please see: www.Komemiut.org or call 02-9974424

Never Forget!
A list of videos, articles and media resources about Gush Katif HERE

Ynet: 8 Days in August

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Neo-Zionist Vidyas - Anarchists, Confirmed Kills and London, Oh My!

Three things for Kumite viewing:






(And you have to click "Full Post n' Comments" to see the third - way better than our old "continue" - Thanks Pinchas!)



Click here for an added bonus!

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Memorial A Year Later

On this date 1 year ago, 3 Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hizbullah ambush. 1 of the 3 soldiers was an American whose dream was to serve in the IDF, and even cut short a family vacation back in his old home in Pennsylvania to join the army in last summer's war. Here are a few articles about Michael: JPost, YNet, a friend's memorial page, etc. I attended a memorial service at Har Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem this afternoon Yonatan Einhorn Z"L, but unfortunately had to leave before the one for Michael Levin Z"L started. Here are some pictures of Yonatan's memorial and Michael's grave:

 

 

 

 

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Gaza Caliphate Established Thanks to Jewish Nihilists

Hamas fighters kiss the ground before entering the Preventative Security headquarters in Gaza City in this image taken from TV Thursday June 14, 2007. The Hamas fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. (AP Photo/Al Aqsa TV Via AP Television)

You, the believers in the end of Abrahamic religion, really thought you could spread your shallow bagels-and-Khanafe religion to the proud Muslim descendants of Abraham's first-born living in the Land of Israel?

You really though that you could create Palestinian Kapos, bribed and blackmailed to perpetrate your fraud that their justice ends at the Green Line? Jews who have traded their birthright long ago for red lentils are flabbergasted that their Muslim cousins are not taking the same bait.

"Don't you see - forget about your foolish Koranic halacha that says we can't even live as non-dhimmi sovereigns here and we will make you prosperous beyond your wildest dreams."

The most bizarre part of this whole situation lately is that Al-Aksa Brigades, fully controlled and run by Fatah, has been carrying out attacks on Jews regularly, with the trickled down funding and weapons supplied by Israel and the US. "Well, they have to maintain their street cred," says some senior government strategist with no relatives in Sderot.

Though b'nai Yishmael are currently at war with us and currently our grave enemies, it is a good day when our murderers execute each other in the streets.

It is interesting that the day Shimon Peres finally rises to power is the day the Islamic Caliphate of Gaza is founded, armed with the arms he handed over, dancing on the smoldering coals of the Jewish towns he torched.

Welcome to the New Middle East. Buckle your phylacteries, it's gonna be a wild ride.

See you in Homesh within the month. Stay tuned.

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What Israel Can Learn From the Arabs...

Through the early 90's, Israel was considered to be the worlds foremost expert on fighting terror.

Today, not so much.

Perhaps Israel can learn a thing or two from her Arab neighbors, as to how a state combats terror - particularly during those instances when the terrorists place themselves within civilian population centers - and once again restore her "no one messes with the Israelis"* (Passenger 57 - 1992) image in the eyes of the world.

*(OK, OK, you got me. In the movie, Wesley Snipes uses a word other than messes...)

Lebanese helicopter strafes militants

A Lebanese army helicopter on Saturday fired missiles and strafed suspected positions of Islamic militants on the edge of a Palestinian refugee camp with machine gun fire in the first air force involvement in nearly two weeks of fighting...

The air force's first involvement came on the second day of an offensive the army launched to defeat the militants and force their surrender from the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp where they have been holed up.

Keep in mind that we are talking about a densely populated refugee camp, with civilians all around. Also, consider how Lebanon is dealing with all the human rights activists who are itching to get inside the area to "help":

The deaths raised to 37 the number of soldiers killed since fighting between the army and militants began on May 20. At least 20 civilians and about 60 militants had also been killed in the fighting before Friday's offensive. Civilian casualties could not be determined in the latest fighting since relief organizations were not allowed inside the camp.

And what of the media?

The situation on the ground was unclear as journalists were pushed far away from the military zone, and media reports were conflicting on the military's achievements the previous day.

There you have it folks, the Arab 2 pronged approach to combating terror:

1) Strike the enemy wherever they are - and strike hard.

2) Keep relief organizations and the media out of the picture until the mission is completed.

Were Israel to adopt this approach, it could be the second greatest contribution of the Arab world to the Jewish People, ranking a distant second to hummus.

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Kahane Moment - 1977

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Outsourcing The Next Shoah

From Dan.
Yishai, Shalom - today's rant:

Why is Europe, primarily Germany, subsidizing trade with Iran (Moolah for the Mullahs)? How is subsidized trade to the benefit of the European taxpayer; it would seem to be a losing proposition. (see excerpts from an article below).

The Iranian regime is an economic basket-case with 30% inflation because the Mullahs mismanaged the oil industry and embezzled the wealth of the country. The regime would most likely collapse if not for the kind support of the German gov't. The German gov't also supports other "friendly" regimes such as those in Syria and Lebanon.

Why isn't there a Jewish/Israeli boycott of German goods. Why are we buying gadgets from these people? Why aren't there demonstrations in front of German embassies in Tel-Aviv and Washington.

Germany is conducting a second Shoah by proxy with Iran. They're outsourcing the Shoah to Iran. Why are we silent?

Kol Tuv,
Dan

Excerpts from the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal follow:

"The European Union--led by Germany, France and Italy--has long been Iran's largest trading partner ... Even more notable: Its trade with Tehran has expanded since Iran's secret nuclear program was exposed ..."

"But the real story here is that these businesses are subsidized by European taxpayers. ... has boosted Iran's economy and--indirectly by filling government coffers with revenues--its nuclear program.

"Federal Government export credit guarantees played a crucial role for German exports to Iran ... Iran tops Germany's list of countries with the largest outstanding export guarantees, totaling €5.5 billion. "

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Another Kassam Murder In Sderot

Today's victim was Oshri Oz, 36, of Hod HaSharon, an employee of the Sderot-based "Peretz Bonei HaNegev" construction company. Survived by his pregnant wife and 3-year-old daughter, Oshri was Israel's tenth fatal casualty of a Kassam rocket in the past three years - and the second in the past week.

Do you know what's sick?
What's sick is that we barely care, and will barely remember his name.



My wife lit a candle to honor his memory... Do whatever you can...

Here is a stupid idea that I came up with. Learn the following list of animal's names in Hebrew (if you do not already know them). When you use one of these Hebrew words in the future, remember that you learned that word the day when Oshri Oz was murdered in Sderot. Maybe in this small way he will be remembered, and his death won't be completely meaningless...

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A Case of Bad Gas

The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel is considering signing a 15-20 year contract to purchase gas from a British energy company that would earn the "Palestinians" $1 billion. The gas would be supplied from the Gaza marine field, off Gaza's coast, which the "Palestinian Authority" has control over (as a e result of the "peace process"), thus earning them one quarter of the estimated $ billion deal.

Last month the cabinet approved continued negotiations with BG over purchase of the gas, a decision that necessitated a previous ban on buying natural gas from the PA. The change of heart, government officials said, was simply the product of economics, since buying the gas from Egypt, another option, would cost twice as much.

Now, there are many problematic aspects to this potential deal, but here are two of them:

1) Would anyone care to guess what the Hamas led PA will buy with $1 billion? In short, this would not be the first time that the State of Israel would be funding our enemies efforts to destroy the Jewish State (See: The Oslo Accords / "Peace Process".)

The fact that there isn't a law forbidding such actions speaks volumes.

2) Equally troubling is why the State of Israel, which possesses very few natural resources, would give away a gas field off it's coast worth billions of dollars?

Once again, this is not the first time Israel has made such a mistake.

Post Six Day War, after Israel had liberated the Sinai peninsula, it was discovered that there were was enough oil reserves in the Sinai to cover 100% of Israel's energy needs for a long time to come. As part of the "peace process" with Egypt, Israel gave away the Sinai and all her oil fields, leaving Israel with no peace and no oil.

Those on the left often speak of how much the "settlements" have cost Israel. Well, I think the time has come to begin asking how much "peace" has cost Israel, both in dollars, and in lives.

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SDEROT - CITY UNDER SIEGE

Ezra, Tamar Yonah, and I had the opportunity to head down to Sderot to do a live broadcast with some amazing people including Rabbi David and Mechi Fendel, Noam Bedein, Shlomo Wollins, and others.

Here is a photo album of our time there.

Here are the links to our two hours of amazing broadcast:
HOUR ONE
HOUR TWO

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BREAKING: Elders Hold News Conference

Pandemonium around the podium

A spokesman for the Elders of Zion, Mr. Larry Elder, is holding a news conference in which he is stating the Elders' recommended course of action in Sderot. I am liveblogging, here goes:

LE: ... the Elders recommend the following:

a) we get a normal Prime Minister instead of this meshugener shaygetz.

b) the new PM gets the IDF to build The Gazanator.

c) the new PM holds a news conference in Sderot in which he unveils The Gazanator.

d) The Gazanator is a computer connected to some Howitzers on one end and the Color Red incoming rocket alert system on the other. Basically, what it does is confirm that there is an incoming rocket and have a Howitzer fire a shell into a randomly selected point in Gaza's populated areas.

e) The PM then proceeds to load the Howitzers with shells himself, so as to make clear the responsibility