A Gimps View From The North

IT'S BEEN QUITE A TRIP SO FAR

2011-07-07T05:01:00.002+03:00

Amazingly, we got me to the airport in plenty of time for my flight. After a farewell coffee with The Savtas I was whisked away by wheely driver and left to carry out my cigarrette smuggling plot. I bought 10 cartons, 5 of marlboro light for me and 5 Marlboro red for Jeff. I took the packages apart and stuffed the individual packs into my carry on bags, and they got through!Never mind the 3 cartons in my checked bags-giggles- The only problem was at LaG uardia, where the TSA stole the gifts . That for Jeff and Jonathan. I got to Portland a few minutes after Susie and we got the car and went to the hotel. That was a bit of an adventure! I was headed in the right direction but stopped at a huge place with a huge parking lot in to try to figure it out. A guy in a pick up stopped to ask if we were ok and tried to show us where the hotel was. He was very sweet and found two wrong ones. Then I found the right one quite by accident.
In the morning we went to Jeff's and found it after quite a few wrong turns. I made it up his porch steps but went ass over teakettle trying to get in the door. I landed on our bags and my crutch and burst out laughing. I used the steps to get up and got in. We had a lovely visit with Vicki until Jeff got home. Then the waterworks started. We laughed and cried and told old stories until it was time to head for Brunswick and find a hotel. We stopped at the Comfort Inn-no smoking-grrrrr- and took a room until Sunday. Ok. This coputer is driving me wild. More later.

DELAYED IGNITION

2008-11-13T22:29:00.002+02:00

It hit me but a few minutes ago that this Islam over all thing is nothing new. Ever since their prophet decided that Islam must become the universal religion and that all must be governed by Sharia law, they have kept on trying to impose their will on the rest of the world. This has been going on ever since the inception of their religion. Remember the Moors? They made great inroads in Western Europe back in the day, then, got their butts kicked right back to the desert where they belong. And now, a bunch of hundreds of years later, they are at it again. There is something reminiscent of Hitlers Aryan superior race in the whole Islamist thing. I kind of think that maybe Herr Hitler might have taken their idea and honed to fit his blond, blue eyed master race vision.

TRY THIS ON FOR SIZE

2008-06-16T12:20:00.002+03:00

I can't quite remember exactly what is was that made me think of this, but I can't quite shake it.Well, I do know what started me thinking about it.
In trying to explain the situation here with the Hamas, several pundits have tried to compare it to the Canadians starting to shoot missiles at the US for no reason. Nope, sorry, wrong analogy. What it *is* most like is the Abenaki, Adroscoggin and Passamaquody and Penobscot tribes banding together and shooting homemade rockets at towns in Maine. Yup. That's it. These days no one disputes that the settlers took land belonging to those and other tribes, usually by force, and there's a long long list of broken treaties, broken by the 'white men' and still not completely honored to this day.
The Arabs have the unfortunate habit of claiming as sacred land, just about every place any Muslim set foot on, with no regard to the facts of the matter.

WAITING FOR THE NEXT TIME

2008-03-04T10:02:00.002+02:00

Last week our idiot leaders sent the army into Gaza in the hopes of stopping the kassam and grad katyusha attacks from there.We had a few tense days up here because we knew that it wouldn't be long before katyushas started flying up here.
Yesterday our troops were pulled out of Gaza, having accomplished exactly nothing. Rockets are still flying down south while the Gazans are claiming a major military victory over us. The only victory they has was in media manipulation. As usual, most foreign reports started by saying that we attacked Gaza, and a few added the reason towrds the end, after they'd shown footage of injured Gazans and bombed buildings. Never mind the hundreds of rockets they shot at us, the Israelis they injured and killed, and the property damage and the trashed economy of Sderot. It's just a bunch of stiff necked Jews, after all.
It won't be long before we have to go in and finish the job. When we do, the good folks to the north will join the party with a nicely calligraphed invitation from Achmadinajar.
I can't adequately describe the outrage I fell that we are expected to let them shoot at us whenever they please, tell lie after lie, while we are encouraged to be patient. I wonder what the Spanish would do to the Basque region if the Basques started shooting rockets into Spain proper rather than just planting the odd bomb here and there. Or the Belgians, if their Flemish folk did the same thing? It seems that just the Turks and the Arabs here can get away with it. Who needs Kurds and Jews?
There was a bit of rioting in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Hebron and a few Arab cities inside Israel. Instead of letting them riot, our idiot government should have simply told them all to go home because the kid gloves are coming off and any one still rioting in an hour will be shot. And those who were still there should have been shot,shot to injure, not kill. That's what the Egyptians used to do to rioters, and no one ever said anything to them about it. Of course we'll never do that because it's much more important to show the world that we are better than they are. You don't see nightly news reports of us shooting rockets indescriminately at civilian targets, do you? That's because we don't, even though they'd like you to think that. We don't put women and children in harm's way to use for media manipuplation. They do. When they shoot kassams at Sderot everyone runs for cover, but isn't it at least worth a question that women and children in Gaza are always right where the trouble is, instead of safely at home?
I think I'll just stop here. The injustice upsets me too much.

I DARE YOU

2008-02-22T13:33:00.002+02:00

I hereby dare the Israeli government to arrest me for having spoken out, speaking out and any future out speaking I might do.
There is no garauntee of free assembly, or free speach in Israel. We don't exactly have a Constitution, do we? And we didn't have a Miranda to give us any rights opun arrest. No one reads anything from a little card for us to waive or not and they can hold us as long as they can get a judge to sign off on it. Oh, and best of all, client-lawyer priveleged conversations doesn't exist here either and they can keep your lawyer (if you can afford one) from visiting you in jail. They've also passed a law requiring disclosing the IP and identity of Israelis who write things against the government. AND THEY DARE CLAIM THAT WE ARE A DEMOCRACY? A MOCKERY I SAY.
Right. I am not going to shut up, especially after this landed in my in box today.

Dear Friends,

Women in Green received this important article from IsraelJustice.com.

Very often, friends of Israel who reside out of Israel, contact us and ask: "what can we do to help Israel?". Below is an email giving you at least one activity all of you can be part of.

Written by a group of Israeli citizens with American citizenship, it is an appeal for U.S constituents to join a network to call their congressman about the arrest of Jewish protesters in Israel.

Please circulate this appeal far and wide.

With Love of Israel,

Ruth and Nadia Matar
Women in Green

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Protecting Our Children
A Plan of Action to Deal with Mass Arrests of Supporters of Israel
by IsraelJustice.com

The Threat:
----------------
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saved by the United States from his domestic rivals in wake of the Winograd Report, is under tremendous pressure to dismantle Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Olmert has promised to help Bush in the U.S. plan to establish a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria by 2009. This will demand the destruction of first the so-called unauthorized outposts, followed by communities established in the early 1970s.

The government offensive has been planned by a triumvirate of Vice Premier Haim Ramon, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter and Justice Minister Daniel Friedman. Friedman's job is crucial as he heads the effort to maintain a legal system meant to quickly stifle peaceful protest against the government plan. As a result, Friedman and his chief aide, Shai=- Nitzan, are preparing a crackdown on all dissent, including a ban on assembly, speech, movement and prayer in holy sites. The government has introduced new laws to prosecute political dissent on the Internet and cellular phones while building new prisons to handle the thousands of demonstrators expected to be arrested under the crackdown.

The Timetable:
---------------------
Olmert has sought to delay the offensive against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria . But he has become more vulnerable than ever, given the growing threat to Israel from Iran , Syria and the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, which he believes would require increased support by and coordination with Washington . Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been meeting with Israeli officials and demanding that steps be taken in early 2008 that would lead to a Palestinian state.

The Experience:
------------------------
The Olmert government, and its predecessor, Ariel Sharon, have singled out Jewish supporters of Israel for special punishment. The feeling is that punishing Jewish dissidents, particularly residents of Judea and Samaria as well as their supporters, generates support from the governments of the United States , the European Union as well as their clients among the Israeli Left. Olmert and Sharon have pointed to the crackdown on the Jewish residents of the territories as proof of his willingness to take political risks to satisfy the international community.

As a result, the government has refused appeals to pardon the thousands of Jews arrested prior and during the Israeli expulsion of Jews from their homes in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria in 2005. The prosecution has refused to close the more than 700 indictments that stem from those cases. Today, Jewish minors, particularly girls, are held for months without charges because they refuse to cooperate with authorities. In all of the cases, the defendants were not accused of violent offenses. In January, several people were grabbed off the streets of Jerusalem for talking to foreign journalists during the visit by President Bush and charged with sedition.

Experience has shown that the politicians are either afraid of Olmert and the police. Indeed, many Knesset members are threatened by police investigations or scandal that could turn into indictments at any time. The major print media, with interests in government-controlled companies, have ignored the Jews. Even Israeli human rights organizations, financed by the European Union and U.S. foundations to defend Arabs, have refused to become involved. Members of the organized Jewish community in the United States have feared to speak out because they do not want to be seen as opposing an Israeli government propped up by Bush.

The Proposal:
-------------------
Some Americans in Israel -- whose children or friends have been among the detainees -- have found one pressure point on the Olmert government that actually works: telephone calls from members of Congress or their staffers to the Israel Embassy in Washington to request information about Jewish protesters arrested in peaceful demonstrations. Within hours, these detainees have been released from Israeli police custody.

We would like to help build a network in the United States that would expand on this success. The network of supporters of Jewish rights in Israel would demand accountability for those arrested or beaten by police in peaceful demonstrations, including attempts to pray at holy places.

The network would have two channels: One channel would focus on grassroots support; the other on political activists who have access to members of the House and Senate. The network, designed to generate constituency complaints, would encourage members of Congress to question the Israel Embassy in Washington and perhaps even the State Department to clarify alleged human rights violations of Jews. Supporters of this initiative would not need to take any position on the future of Judea and Samaria -- merely to call on Israel to account for reports of police brutality, arrest without charges and refusal to release Jews on bail for non-violent protests.

We are hoping to build this network so that we can stop the impending Olmert offensive against the Jews in the coming weeks. We urge you to help us establish this network or set up your own pressure group. As few as five people per congressional district willing to telephone a member of Congress can make a difference.

The prospect of turning to the U.S. political system to intervene is something we don't relish. But we have to face facts: Olmert, whose approval ratings have approached zero, has survived purely because of the Bush administration and its hopes that the prime minister will unilaterally withdraw from Judea and Samaria and establish a Palestinian state over the next year. Indeed, when Bush visited Israel in January, Olmert called the U.S. president "my confidante."

Our goal is to deter Olmert from draconian measures meant to destroy the Jewish community in Judea and Samaria and parts of Jerusalem . A network that monitors the arrests of Jews, particularly Americans, and asks members of Congress to seek clarification could buy valuable time. It could also move American Jewish leaders to quietly warn Olmert that he cannot continue to trample on Jewish rights without a backlash from American Jews and their supporters in Congress. Every Jew who is released is a Jew redeemed one of the most important mitzvot in the Torah. Can anything be more important?

Please send comments, suggestions or offers to be part of this network to pidionshvuim@gmail.com

=============================================
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org

IT'S OUR FAULT EVEN WHEN IT ISN'T

2008-02-16T15:32:00.002+02:00

No matter what happens in this area of the world it's our fault no matter what it was and the worse it was, the more it's our fault.Someone found a way to put a bomb in the headrest of Mughniyeh's seat in his jeep and blow him up. Even before all the pieces of that jeep landed in the street they were accusing us of doing it. I don't know if we did or didn't do it. If we did, it would be a good idea to keep quiet about it. Deny deny deny. I think we didn't do it. From what I've seen on the news, it could only have been either the Lebanese, Syrians or Iranians. Their operatives have been using car bombs to great effect recently in Lebanon and have access to Damascus. There's also the fact that a video of the blast appeared from Iran. The Lebanese have obvious reasons for doing it, the Syrians might have wanted to send a message, and the Iranians as well.
I don't know who did it, or why, but I suspect the Syrians and Iranians were in it together. Maybe to give themselves and others to something else to blame Israel for?

NOW HERE'S AND INTERESTING TID BIT

2008-02-08T07:34:00.000+02:00

I've known for years that there is no such thing as a Palestinian People. What I never realized until reading it at another Israeli blogger's site is that most of the Gazans are in fact of Egyptian decent and not just from a bunch of different Arab countries. They came here in the 30s and 40s to get jobs with the Jewish builders because things were so bad back in Egypt in those days that they decided to try their luck here. Whole tribes of families made the move and for the most part bettered their standard of living beyond their wildest dreams. Then, along came the radical agitators like Arafart and others of ilk who went to work convincing them that they deserve more, and are in fact a separate people when they are not. Now we have the thugs of Hamas doing their best to destroy Israel with the help of Olmert, Barak, Peres and Beilin. And nobody gets it. It just sails right over everyone's head. We forced our own out of their homes and businesses in Gaza, gave it all to the PA which promptly started firing rockets at Sderot and other places in the Negev while destroying any and everything we left behind that might have been useful for them, all the while blaming us for all their problems. Sorry. I'm not buying it. It is not our fault that they allowed their leaders to brainwash them. It is not our fault that they shoot rockets at civilian populations. They shoot at our civilians and yell that they will retaliate if we take out the shooters. Then, when we say we're going to cut off the electricity we supply them, but they don't pay for, they go and organize candlelight protests before we do anything. On the other hand, if an Israeli has trouble paying their electrickery bill they get cut off without so much as a "Sorry".
Recently they decided that they'd go shopping in Egypt and knocked down the fence between Gaza and Egypt, crossed over and wreaked havoc on the Egyptian towns closest to the crossing. Does anyone doubt that there are more than several of them over there just waiting to pull off some more attacks inside Israel like the one in Dimona last week. There is also no doubt that they brought in new and better weapons to use against us from their newly discovered underground firing positions. The picture on this morning's news were blood chilling.
While what the Hamas is doing to us is bad enough, what they are doing to their own is much worse. They have taken people who came here to make a living and improve their lives for themselves and their families and brainwashed, threatened and bullied them to become what is today one of the most violent, corrupt, and yes evil people on earth today, who are encouraged to send their children to be human bombs against the very people who allowed them the opportunity to get ahead.
And no one outside of Israel, and very few inside, can see it. Let there be no doubt about it. They will do the same the rest of the world (you) after they finish us off.

SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG IN BETHLEHEM

2007-12-24T09:36:00.000+02:00

It really is a pity that the only time of year that Bethehem, Nazareth, and other places associated with Jesus are talked about is Christmas time. Our news usually only covers the festivities, or lack thereof, in Bethlehem. Very few talk about what has been happening in those other places that have been Christian for centuries, over the last few decades. I don't have the exactt population statistics, but, it is obvious to anyone who knows those places (I am quite familiar with Nazareth) that the muslims have managed to take over and have run many Christians out of town. Not the Jewish population, the muslim. And they have done it very much by design. They terrorize the Christians. demand payment for protection,and make life impossible for them and the Christian world sits quietly by while all this goes on, or blames us for it. Ok, I guess maybe we are to blame in so far as we "allow" the muslims to get away with it,but, maybe the Christian world should wake up and start making some noise about their holy places, homes, cities, and sites, being taken over by muslims.
Anyone remember the mosque they tried to build in the courtyard of the church in Nazareth? In the end, the Israeli government put a stop to that nonsense. How long will it take before they manage to build it, not in the courtyard, but over the church itself? It's bad enough that world Christianity is pretty much sitting on their hands about these muslim attempts to take over, without realizing what will happen if they succeed in destroying Israel. We have been the guardians of all the religious sites of all religions. How long will it take for the muslims to take them over and obliterate them? Never mind allowing free access?

JUST ANOTHER RANT

2007-12-20T12:32:00.000+02:00

I am well and truly outraged on behalf of the residents of Sderot. They are taking a daily pounding by the peace loving Hamas, and our duly elected government refuses to provide minimum shelters for them.
Back in the day when we were dodging katyushas up here at least all buidings were built with shelters and security rooms were built on to all the apartment blocks. The present government has been ignoring it's primary function, indeed the primary function of any goverment which is to protect it's citizens from threats. Olmert had the nerve to tell the Supreme court that it was none of their business how or if his government provided protection. And they let him get away with it. Granted, effective shelter from those rockets can not be provided overnight, but, if work on a solution isn't started, they'll never have one.
There were actually people who thought that things would change for the better by appeasing the PLO (make no mistake; Fatah is the PLO) and Hamas. Just look where that got us, Sderot under constant bombardment. There was an airstrike in Gaza that killed a few Hamas types and sent the other scrambling for cover, so no rockets were launched for a few hours. Mark my words. The brave Hamas leaders went to ground, underground to get out their longer range, more destructive rockets. The fun and games have barely gotten started.
Maybe we can't turn the clock back and undo all the stupid things we've done since Oslo, but it really is time to start trying to figure a way out of this mess Rabin, Peres, Sharon, Olmert et al have gotten us into. Just think about it for a minute. Not one, not a single one of the 22 Arab countries has ever so much as lifted a finger to help their so called palestinian brethren. Not a one. Could it be that they know something we refuse to see?
Jordan was supposed to be their state, but the Brits screwed up by handing Sodding Arabia to the sodding Saud family and had to give Jordan to the Husein crowd, and none of them want anything to do with that newly discovered people-the palestinians. It's just another of those lies that's been repeated so often that it's now widely accepted as the truth. Sorry, but in my book the constant repeating of a lie does not make it any more true than it was the first time it was said. It well and truly infuriates me that we, as a whole have swallowed that one hook line and sinker. Israel is going down for the third time and our leaders either failed basic lifeguarding or just don't care as long as they can stay in office, even as the water is lapping at their chins.

SAY IT WITH KASSAMS

2007-09-02T18:39:00.000+03:00

Today was the first day of the new school year in Israel. By some miracle most of them opened on time with no trouble from the teachers union, which was unusual in that the teachers sort of have a tradition of starting a strike at the beginning of the school year. I'm not sure if all the damage done to the schools here in town after last summers' war has been repaired (probably not) but school started on time here.
HOWEVER, the school children in Sderot were welcomed back on their first day back with barrages of Kassam rockets. That's bad enough in and of itself, but that Olmert and Barak are just carrying on as if nothing happened is sick. Those two are so busy pandering to Abu Mazzen that Hamas is getting away with attempted murder. Make no mistake. So much as one kassam can not be fired from any place in Gaza without Hamas approval. It just can't happen.
Things are going to change over here very soon or it will be too late for everyone.

SHOULD NOT WATCH NEWS

2007-08-30T09:44:00.000+03:00

I really should not watch the evening news. It is not good for my blood pressure, or the TV itself. I have no idea how I controlled the urge to throw something at the TV last evening or how I came out of it without another stroke or heart attack.
We really have lost any claim to being members in good standing of the human race, never mind any claim to any moral high ground on any issue.
For some inexplicable reason refugees from Darfur have arrived here by way of Egypt. And what have we done with them? We have built two tent cities in the desert near a pre existing prison, separated the men from their wives and children and locked them all up. Why? I don't know because no actually asks that question. They just report on the conditions and that those people have no access to anything other than their jailers, no phones, no TV, no radios, no nothing.
I don't know who those poor folks are; if they are Muslims, Christians, or whatever. I do know that they are human beings who managed to escape the killing ground their country has become and against all the odds and reason made the mistake of finding their way here, where they have been locked up like animals. Actually, the animals in our zoos have better living conditions.
Some of them have actually been granted permission to leave the tent camp if they have an Israeli willing to take responsibility for them, but they have no way to make contact with anyone outside of their own camp, and they can't even read the letter informing them of that. They have to rely on a translation by an officer who doesn't have enough English to make a comprehensible translation.
I was so upset by the way we are handling these refugees that I actually vibrated from rage for a good half hour after the news.
I'm not quite sure what the answer is to this, but at the very least, if they must be 'held' they should be in something other than tents in two different places separated from their families. It also ran through my mind that at least some of them could be employed by some of us cripples until I remembered that this could be bad for those of us who run dodgy agencies to supply us with 'foreign care givers'. Finding a humane solution will most likely run aground on the shoals of more than one special interest group and everything will be left as it is until someone finds a way to exploit them.
And I have no doubt that we will expect better from the world when we turn into refugees ourselves, when we get ourselves exiled yet again. This sorry episode is bringing that day ever closer at warp speed.

WAIT JUST A MINUTE THERE

2007-08-28T08:39:00.000+03:00

Yesterday an officer in the IDF took a wrong turn (or so he claims) and ended up in a "Palestinian" concentration("refugee" camp) in/near Jenin, and was rescued by the "Palestinian security forces. Our 'fearless' leaders are now fawning all over the officer's saviors. Sorry, but something just isn't right there. An officer of his rank made that kind of a mistake and found himself there by accident and was saved from a lynch at the last minute by Abu Mazzen's merry men? That was such a well posted road that you'd have to blind to not know you were on a black (closed) road.
I guess I'm just disillusioned and paranoid enough about Olmert to actually think the whole thing just might be a set up to earn Abu Mazzen more brownie points with just about everyone and their uncle. And this happened on the same day that Hamas sent demands of more prisoner releases in return for a video clip of Gilad Shalit? Not for his release mind you; just for a glimpse of him. Sorry, but the whole Jenin thing is a bit too convenient and I for sure would not put it past the Ehuds-Olmert and Barak to come up with such a ploy. It's too bad that an officer was sacrificed for them. I would like nothing more than to be proven wrong, but, I fear I'm spot on the money again. What a mess we are allowing them to make.

MISSING THE MAIN POINT

2007-08-20T07:45:00.000+03:00

I really don't like waking up in the middle of the night because a light bulb turned it self on at maximum brightness in my head. It's even more annoying when it sheds illumination on something so obvious that should have been realized even in the light of day.
Two points were clarified by the middle of the light bulb, one of which leads directly to the second.
It really doesn't matter what the so called palestinians are called unless accuracy is of more importance than anything else. Whatever they are called, they are still an issue that needs to be resolved. That they have managed to convince just about everyone and their uncle that they are a separate entity is irrelevant to the issue simply because they have to be dealt with in the present reality which precludes the originally intended solution which was Jordan before they reinvented themselves as Palestinians. The Jordanians do not want them. They have enough of them there as it is and are trying as hard as they can to stay out of the whole thing. The Egyptians were never really in the mix because Gaza was theirs pretty much by default. They are as scared of them as the Jordanians and for good reason. If the more fanatic Islamist Hamas, (Iran's local proxy) gain more power than they already have, both Jordan and Egypt will in effect have Iranian Islamist fanatics right on their doorsteps. And Israel as a buffer and convenient target will be gone.
Without us as a distraction, it won't be long before a unified Jihad is launched against the West, and it will be too late to stop them by that point.
So, maybe recognizing the Palestinian lie isn't as irrelevant as I think it is because recognizing it is the first step in dealing with them.
So, how do we (and the rest of the world) sort the mess? I'm not sure at this point, but what I am sure of is that America and Europe have to take a good hard look at the whole picture including the historic aspects and stop pandering to, and appeasing them. Someone has to say "Stop" and force the so called palestinians to get their act together and start taking care of their people rather than putting most of the money they are getting in Swiss banks and buying weapons at the expense of building a solid economy for their citizens. That's a start that could possibly lead to them realizing that terror will get them less than a prosperous citizenry will. The problem with that is that they can not really be trusted to do more than pay lip service to the International communities demands in this area. They have yet to live up to so much as one clause in any of the too numerous to count agreements they've signed. It's always Israel that has to make 'good faith concessions'. And that has to stop right now. It's their turn.

I HAVE DONE MY CIVIC DUTY FOR TODAY

2007-08-14T13:08:00.000+03:00

I just rolled in after voting for the Likud party chairman. Do I really have to specify who I voted for, or can you figure it out for yourselves?
Had a quick chat with several of the local Bibi faction and we pretty much agree that Bibi will not only win this primary, he will also be our next P.M. if only because none of the other candidates are in a position to win. I'd much prefer that he win because he's seen as best suited for the job, not just as a last ditch default candidate.
Things are seriously wrong here. From the top, right down to the grass roots. It drives me wild that absolutely no one will take responsibility for their own messes. Our fearless leaders act as if laws are for others; not them. Sorry, but if you want to pose as a democracy, the laws apply to you too.
Lately we've had several incidents where teenagers killed other teens. I feel really bad for the parents of the dead kids, but, I can not for the life of me figure out why the parents think that anyone in the government is at fault. Those poor bereaved moms set up a protest tent outside Olmert's office. I don't know what they thought the government can do about homicidal teens. Maybe they were hoping that the elected would set an example and resign while taking responsibility for the mess we are now in. That is so not going to happen.
On the local front, our mayor is almost through with his trial. One of papers covered his defense in detail and what I don't 'get' is how he can avoid a conviction. Since when can a candidate for any office use "I didn't know what my people were doing in my name" as a defense? Even if he really didn't know (got a bridge for sale; anyone interested?) what they were doing in his name, he still is the one ultimately responsible for all the illegal shenanigans, and should have resigned immediately the moment the story broke instead of blaming everyone else and besmirching the reputations of those who made the original complaint. Our intrepid mayor really is a piece of work, and I hope he gets a nice long prison term to reflect on it. He really deserves it.
There, I think that's the root of what's wrong with us these days. It's never our fault. Someone else is always at fault and responsible. Things will not get better here until we figure that out collectively. And I'm only talking about things on a personal level, not trying to say that we are at fault for the so called palestinians plight. That is 100 percent their own damn fault.

POLIO UPDATE

2007-08-06T10:28:00.000+03:00

If it wasn't so pathetic, it would be funny. Our fearless Prime Minister is so scared of a bunch of cripples in wheelies that he brought in police and anti terror back up to protect himself from us. On second thought, maybe he was right. We can be a dangerous bunch when we get going. After the 1999 and 2002 demonstrations all the government ministry buildings have been barricaded so that the public they serve and which pays their salaries can't get in. One of the organizers was talking with the head cop and he made a comment about the building not being 'his' Boy oh boy did he get a lecture from me about it in fact being his as it is also ours. Not that it did any good. We had two people who had to charge their electric chairs and the security jerks wouldn't let them come 3 meters inside the outer barricade to use the outlet in the guard shack. That really set me off and one the cops actually had the unmitigated gall to tell one of them to stop moving all over the place so he wouldn't need to recharge the batteries. I'm lucky I wasn't arrested for yelling at him that day might well come when he'll be in the same situation, and that as he pace back and forth on his own two feet, that's exactly what Avi was doing on his scooter. In the end they let him take the scooter in, but he had to wait outside the barricade on someone's spare wheely. It really is too much. In the end it was decided to make a partial payment to the polio people, but we might well be back to make them hand over the rest. At least that gives some time to organize a small scooter to take. I simply can't manage that area in a regular wheely and I can't get Harley Too in the car.
This government really doesn't want to go there with us. I have a picture of the cops talking with Avi. I'll add it here later. Along with some others of the demonstrators.

DISGUSTING GOVERNMENT

2007-08-04T19:00:00.001+03:00

In the 1950s the then government of Israel decided not to import and use the new anti polio vaccines and the surviving results of that decision are now starting to suffer from post polio syndrome. There has been talk about compensating them for that horrendous decision for years and recently the Knesset passed a law to pay a fairly generous one time compensation and a monthly addition to their disability benefits. The process was supposed to start in September but now our criminal government is trying to get out of it. For that alone I think they should all be sent to prison, or given polio themselves.
Even worse there has been a lot of talk recently about government treatment of holocaust survivors. Much was said back in the day about the neccessity of a Jewish homeland for the survivors, and they were indeed brought here after WWII. The German government paid millions of marks both to the governmemt of Israel and to individual survivors who are now dying daily in large numbers. The great majority of those who are still alive live well under the poverty line, and the government lead my that Olmert man has ever so generously offered to give them an additional 80 shekels ($18.30) a month. The survivors had planned a demonstration along side of one by the polio victims tomorrow. It seems the survivors have been promised more money and have cancelled their plans to demonstrate. The polio folks are still going to demonstrate and I just hope the survivors don't regret their decision to cancel. This government can not be trusted for a minute to keep their word about anything.
I'm taking Rivkah home tonight and going to the demonstration tomorrow even though polio is not one of the things I suffer from. The way I look at it, it's everyone's fight. Not only was the vaccine not imported, many polio kids were experimented on medically with life long consequences. They deserve all the compensation they can get and I'm more than happy to help them fight for it.
This government really does have to go.

DEFIANT PRIME MINISTER

2007-07-28T07:44:00.000+03:00

Talk about arrogance! Olmert is unbelievable. He has pretty much told our High Court of Justice that he intends to defy them and to keep their nose out of his business. The three hospitals closest to the border have demanded that government build more protection against rocket attacks for them. They were all hit last summer and Olmert is refusing. When the hospitals threatened to go to the high court he announced that decision is the government's, not the court's and the court had best stay out of it. ECUUUUSE ME. Those are front line hospitals. Those are the hospitals the wounded are taken to. Civilian and Army. AND HE DOESN'T WANT TO BEEF UP THE PROTECTION? The guy has to go and if not for the whopping 3% popularity he presently enjoys, then for his complete and utter incompetence. He should get treatment for his delusions of infallibility. The guy is a menace. He just handed 30,000 guns over to Abu Mazzen's "security forces" along with millions of dollars. It's a given that it won't be long before it all falls to into the hands of Hamas, and turned against us. It's not paranoia talking, just listen to the Hamas. Olmert is much worse than Sharon, or even Rabin. You really have to be deaf dumb (as in stupid) and blind to think that any amount of aid from Europe and the US and Israel will stop Hamas and be able to prop up Abu Mazzen who is himself a terrorist.
Lately he's been paying lip service to idea of acknowledging Israel's right exist. It might be a good idea to listen in on his speeches to his 'people' in Arabic. He has talking out of both sides of his mouth simultaneously perfected.
Olmert is desperate for a visit to Stockholm to pick up a Peace (piece) Prize with his good pal the blind Syrian eye doctor who recently met and closed a deal with Achmedinajar for modern weapons and training. Nassrallah of Hizzbully fame was there too, and they are planning their next war to get rid of us, if we don't give them what they want. Assad wants the Golan, and Lebanon. The Iranian dictator has agreed to back him up on that with hizzbully help. And as usual, the whole world is not saying so much as one word about it.
Does no one understand that if we go, Europe and the US are next? Actually they don't much care about the order. They plan to have it all.

FROM WORSE TO WORST

2007-07-25T12:43:00.000+03:00

Things are spinning further and further out of control by the hour. Mr. Arrogant Olmert is openly defying the government ombudsman and the members of the Winograd commission and has stated that he will not, repeat resign. He's even trying his trusty method of getting his most vociferous opponents to join the government. That's the method he used to in effect destroy Avigdor Leiberman, who was an outspoken opponent of Olmert until he was lured into a cabinet post that has shut him up. Poor Yvette thought he'd be able to change things from inside the inner circle. He kind of forgot that it doesn't work like that here. Now Olmert is trying to get Bibi to join up. I'm hoping and praying that he won't. In fact I'm pretty sure he won't. Bibi is smarter than that and he knows that he must find a way to bring about Olmert's downfall as soon as possible. The other Ehud has to go too. This is by far the most corrupt bunch of politicians it has been our misfortune to vote into office yet, and we've had some pretty bad ones. These are the worst. They are sitting back waiting for a miracle to make the Hamas stop shooting qassams at Sderot, and actually seem to think that Abu Mazzen is one of the good guys, and will renounce terror once his little kingdom in the West Bank is stabilized with the help of Tony Blair and Olmert. Ain't going to happen.
It's long past time that we tell everyone involved and those who think they want to be involved that we are not making so much as half a concession to Abu Mazzen until he makes good on all the ones he was supposed to fulfill after Oslo. It really is that simple.
But our government is a bunch of balless wonders who are scared of their own shadow. They are the original 'cut and run' bunch.

TALK ABOUT THICK SKINNED

2007-07-19T08:28:00.000+03:00

It's starting to look like Olmert is never going to get the message. He clings to his position irregardless of the investigation reports that lay the blame for the fiascoes of last summer's war, not at his doorstep, but squarely in his lap. It's not bad enough that Olmert and his merry band of men(?) were criminally negligent towards the civilians during that war, he is now doing everything in his power to strengthen the PLO while they sit back and laugh out loud at the Israeli suckers. Abu Mazzen is no better than that Iranian nut case-Achmad in a jar. They are both holocaust deniers. In fact Abu Mazzen wrote his doctorate on the subject. If anyone is naive enough to think that so much as one dollar of the money being sent to the PLO will be used to improve the lot of the so called palestinians, they had best think again. It is also not beyond the realm of possibility that Hamas and PLO are working in lock step against us.
For the life of me I can not fathom why we don't demand that the so called palestinians are held just one of things they've agreed to over the years before we hand everything to them (including our heads on a silver platter) There won't be that much left after the functionaries siphon their cut straight into their Swiss bank accounts. Their people are useful for one thing and one thing only-to be used as pawns against the West.
It's not like we don't have enough trouble with the so called palestinian lot, now we have Assad Jr. telling us and the world that he'll be happy to negotiate a peace treaty with us right after we give him the Golan Heights. It's infuriating that I can actually picture him and Olmert accepting Nobel Piece prizes in Stockholm which is so very close to Oslo, where the whole mess pretty much started. Ah, yes, Oslo. That lovely agreement that only we are held to. The so called palestinians have not implemented so much as one clause of that travesty, whereas we are forever being pressured to give them just a little bit more to build trust. Enough I say. I'm not even going to whine about the rest of world demanding that we concede in areas that no one else has ever had to, nope, instead of whining, I'll just angrily mention it.
Just keep in mind that we go down, the rest of the world won't be far behind. And believe you me, that's no consolation.

TOO FAST

2007-07-13T08:43:00.000+03:00

Things are happening too quickly to keep up. Hizz 'Onner, our mayer somehow got the idiot PM to agree to upgrade the football (soccer) stadium here to the standard required to host matches in the league our football team was elevated to at the end of the last season. That really is the most important thing Kiryat Shmonah needs a year after the war. right? Well, let's see now. 75% of the shelters are still not in any condition to be used. The streets in town are full of pot holes and anyone with a jeep can just drive through town and feel like they are off road; way off road. I've driven on smoother tank trails. Businesses are failing left and right. None of the municipal departments can function properly. And the list goes on. But what we need most is new seating in the stadium. If we were going to have a soccer match to decide a peace treaty, maybe, just maybe, that would justify it, but as that isn't likely, a government that has bazzilions in reserves but is still planning huge across the board cut backs in the next budget just might be able to find something better to put money towards up here.
The only reason Hizz 'onner is still in office despite various legal opinions and a court ruling that pretty much orders the city council to remove him from office is that he is in Olmert's party as is the Interior Minister who has been petitioned to remove him office as well.
We are really losing it. Anarchy is orderly in comparison, and might be better in the long run than the willful disregard for law and order we have now. Oh, yes, there are citizen initiatives to get rid of our mayor but they can't make any progress in an atmosphere like this.
It all goes back to that upside down power pyramid and our losing the only moral guide we had until we became so arrogant. Bibi told me not to despair yesterday and I do think he is the only one who do anything to bring things around, with Uzi Landau, of course. It's not too late, but it's getting close.
There's just no justification for an Israel that has lost her way. We can actually be a Jewish Democracy (not a total contradiction in terms) if we want. All the secular lot has to do is realize that The Torah is what gives us the right to be here in the first place and stop fighting the Religious lot every step of the way. That's not to say that we should be a total Theocracy, but there is room for everyone if only people would stop and think and quit saying "My way is the only way"
There are times when Talmudic Law makes more sense than the system we use today which is pretty much the old British code of law left over from the Mandate, with a smattering of Ottoman leftovers thrown into the mix.
Under Jewish law a criminal owes a debt not just to society as whole, but also to his victim. Somehow that makes more sense to me than the usual 'the criminal must pay his debt to society' and that's the end of it. That bit of law goes back to the days when the Brits were subjects of the crown (owned by the king/queen) making any crime committed was one against the crown. It's well past time for the Jewish State to get back to Jewish justice and become what we are supposed to be- a moral people who can be an example to others rather than craven copycats. That's not to say there isn't room for some modern interpretation. We just have to get back to our roots a little more than we have til now.

OLMERT MUST GO

2007-07-12T15:56:00.000+03:00

Never mind all the damage the man is doing to the country, today he went too far, and caused me much discomfort. The most direct rout to the store I need to go to was blocked by security types because Mr. Olmert was in town. I had to go around in a huge circle just to buy some light bulbs.
Our Mayor, who is in Olmert's party has no trouble at all inconveniencing everyone.
Our mayor is on trial now for all kinds of political shenanigans but still in office. An investigation was recently started into the activities of another mayor in the country and if they find anything it's an easy bet that he'll be sent home. Our criminal mayor refuses to budge and even though just about everyone in a position to kick him out is stymied by Olmert and his cohorts. Our mayor is one of the worst in the country. I hope he goes to jail and gets a cell with Olmert, who should be in jail as well for his illegal dealings.
It looks like Olmert's next item on his agenda is to give the Golan Heights to Syria. He must be stopped, and stopped immediately. He called on Assad to negotiate with him and Assad's flunky's reply was, "Give back the Golan, then, we can negotiate a peace treaty" That should have set some warning lights somewhere. What worries me is that the Europeans and Yanks just might try to pressure into doing just that.
I'm wasted from being out way too long today. I'll pick this up later.

GOBSMACKED DOESN"T QUITE DO IT

2007-07-02T18:49:00.000+03:00

It's a good thing I was too tired last night to throw a hammer at the TV. Israel 10 did a whole shlockumentary on global warming/pollution and other related stuff. According to the poor misguided gal who narrated it, AlGore is as close to being a god figure as a man can get. And he must be right, after all, he won an Oscar. Never mind that saner voices are now being heard on the subject of global warming-he won an Oscar so he must know what he's talking about. Just look at all the Hollyweird types who agree with him. Come on, Channel 10, there was never an ice age followed by a period of heat? And the other planets are heating up because the populations there are driving big fuel guzzling cars?(tin foil hats, anyone)
This is not to say that we should keep on polluting our world. We really shouldn't, but not because of global warming, rather, because we are doing criminal damage to our environment. Toxic wastes should not be dumped just any old place, sewage should never ever run untreated into our seas, lakes, rivers and streams. That's just plain old obvious, or should be. But not to us Israelis. The Navy is still using a toxic cesspool of a river for training divers. The same river that killed Izchak. I have absolutely no doubt that that river is what made him, and thousands of others sick with strange diseases. Has anything been done to clean it up? Has the government recognized that it killed so many people in the service of their country? Of course not. Are the chemical companies and oil refinery still spilling noxious waste into it? Yes. And is any one doing anything at all about it? No, not one little thing. It seems that if those companies were required to clean up their act, it would be tantamount to admitting that they had been doing wrong for so long and someone just might be liable for it. There's another line of reasoning that says that we have other more pressing issues to deal with;like survival as a country. What they all ignore is that we are going to pollute ourselves out of a country long before the Arabs send us on The Long Swim. G-d gave us this land but it didn't come with a license to destroy it.
We are on a course of self destruction in every single thing these days. We pander to those who would destroy us while ruining the land. The worst part of it is that we are doing it to ourselves at warp speed.

PANIC IN THE NORTH

2007-06-21T22:31:00.000+03:00

While Striar and I were flitting around Haifa's suburbs, the good folk of Kiryat Shmonah were getting all worked up over a rumor. There were whisperings of impending katyusha launchings that was somehow connected to yet another kidnapping of soldiers along the border. Businesses closed, parents took their kids out of school and generally just panicked. No katyushas landed an no soldiers have been reported missing and no mention was made on the news of Kiryat Shmonah's self proclaimed state of emergency. Today the conspiracy theories were rampant. 'Nothing was on the news because they still aren't sure'
was one. There were several other I couldn't quite follow because they were so strange and convoluted.
Israel is too small a country for anything like that to stay a secret for long. And there were a lot of sheepish faces in town today on the faces of those who went straight into panic mode. I'm glad I was out of town for the whole brouhaha.
On the other hand there is a funny feeling in the air up here. It's a little like the time just before last years war. I'm too tired and hurt too much to get into any more depth on it right now, but I will continue this tomorrow.

THE UPSIDE DOWN PYRAMID

2007-06-18T14:17:00.000+03:00

You'd think that a pyramid that is balanced on it's tiny top (upside down) would eventually fall over. All the upside down pyramid that is Israel's system of government was set up so craftily by the founders that the closest it gets to tipping over is a very gentle sway in the wind. As Israelis don't understand what a real democracy is (they it's enough to have elections) I despair that we will ever fix the insanity that is our system of government and electoral procedures. It still works the way it was set up at the beginning. Back then it was pretty much the Union's game. The Histadrut which was the governing body for the pre state Jewish settlers chose who would run for any office. The Histadrut eventually mutated through several stages into what is today the Labor Party and the Histadrut is now the very corrupt union that still tries to run things. Eventually the Histadrut's rival organization (Leumit's Likud-Jabotinsky's followers) became popular enough to elect Begin, to just about everyone's surprise.
Being true politicians they had absolutely no incentive to change the way candidates were chosen, until Bibi Netanyahu became chairman and introduced an Israeli version of primaries. All the other parties followed suit and Israelis were more convinced than ever that this is a democracy. The point they keep missing is that in a real democracy, the power base should be the people, rather than the few at the top who are only interested in preserving their own power and to continue choosing who will run on their list for Knesset. It goes without saying that only people in the country who can set that pyramid on it's proper base are the government and Knesset. There is really no mechanism by which the people can force a change.
The MKs only represent loyalty factions in their parties and are selected in a strange primary vote that only decides their rank on the list. There is no such animal as local or even regional representation.
I would love nothing more than to turn that pyramid right side up, and work with a group that is trying to do just that. It's not going to happen as long as the 120 MKs hold out.
All the above is in partial explaination of why it's so hard to get rid of Olmert. Those 120 MKs have to vote him out and we the people don't have the necessary leverage to make them do it. Catch 22 anyone?

NO TIME WASTED

2007-06-17T19:28:00.000+03:00

Barak certainly didn't waste any time getting rid of Peretz. In a move that shouldn't have surprised anyone, he went behind Peretz's back and with a phone call or two to Olmert in America put himself in as the new Minister of Defense. There was a cabinet vote by phone and Peretz was gone. Not that it's a bad thing that he's gone, but, if you are going to do that to a guy at least have the courtesy to tell him. It's the same old Barak who up and took the IDF out of southern Lebanon ahead of the schedule he'd previously announced.
This latest move could prove to be very expensive for him. It gives Bibi an even better chance at trouncing him in the next election. Not only was Barak's move against Peretz cowardly to say the least, he didn't even wait 48 hours to break his first campaign promise. He said that he wouldn't make any decisions about joining the present government until a date for new elections was agreed on. Huhn? He's taking over as Defense Minister on Tuesday and no date for elections has been discussed, never ming decided.
I'm kind of glad that he wasn't in his new office when the katyushas hit town a couple of hours ago. I have a feeling that same group who sent those over today just might give him a welcome gift on Tuesday. With Olmert and Livni both out of the country right now, I rather doubt that Peretz will even think about another adventure in Lebanon. The Lebanese government and hizzbullies were as surprised by the katyusha as we were. All the security types are saying it was just done in sympathy for the situation in Gaza by an Al Qaeda backed group. Their aim was so bad that they only hit a Pontiac outside a local water factory another parking lot and a UN post inside Lebanon. Thankfully no people were hurt.
Things sure are going to be interesting here for a while.

THE AMAZING EHUD OLMERT

2007-06-17T14:31:00.000+03:00

Olmert scares me very much these days. No sooner did the PLO boss, Abu Mazzen decide to dissolve the unity government he had with the Hamas, than, oops, there was Olmert in Washington. G-d alone knows what Olmert hopes to accomplish there. It's more than likely that he will help get his arm twisted into helping the PLO. We've already helped them quite enough. We helped them to weapons that Hamas now plans to use against us. We helped them to the whole Gaza strip that Hamas now controls.
So, what's the answer? What do we do next? I'm not in favor of genocide. honest. I'm really not. So, what do we with two opposing warring groups whose purpose in life is to destroy us, and the US? Retake the territories and and try to sort them out that way? Iraq isn't exactly a shining example of that option.
What Olmert should do is come home right now, resign, and let Bibi Netanyahu and Uzi Landau start to straighten things out. I readily admit to not having a reasonable solution, and an unreasonable one is just that. It's time to turn the whole mess over to better minds. Not the usual international suspects whose solution would most likely be for us to go to Masada and jump, leaving the whole area to the so called palestinians. That would work for them, but I don't much like it.

IT FINALLY HAPPENED

2007-06-16T11:53:00.000+03:00

So, Peres finally won an election, sort of. The Knesset elected him President after he twisted arms and threatened dire consequences to any MK who voted against. The only thing I'm going to say about that is "Go to Town Hall and read Caroline Glick on the subject.Here's the link:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=our_world_peress_big_day&ns=CarolineBGlick&dt=06/13/2007&page=full&comments=true
I'm not going to say any more as long as he's still alive. He's one of the very few people in this country who does scare me.
And of course Labor went and elected Barak to be their fearless leader. I guess I'll just have to suffer his smug superciliousness until the next election simply because I actually do have hope that Israelis have seen the light shine right through him. If I'm correct about that, it means Bibi will win the next election even if as the lesser of two evils. Barak winning will mean the end of Israel sooner rather than later.
We need someone strong with all the chaos in Gaza threatening to spill over into the West Bank. The Hamas have proven beyond a doubt that they only thing they know is how to use violence and destruction to get their own way. They joyfully killed fellow Gazans and destroyed facilities abandoned by the PLO for no good reason other than they we the PLO's. Isn't that wonderfully sensible? At their huge street party celebration they took care to not only threaten Israel, but the U.S. as well. And we are supposed treat them like rational humans? Be my guest and see what it gets you. At best, a bullet in the head before a flight off an 18th floor of a high rise building. They did that to two of their own, so what would they do to us? Skip the bullet in the head? When is the rest of the world going to wake up to what these so called palestinians really are? There's always someone out there just waiting to point the finger at us for all their problems, when in fact their problems are of their own making. After we came into possession of The West Bank and Gaza, the population was allowed practical autonomy locally. They elected their own mayors and local councilors, were allowed to work in Israel proper and they were much better off economically. Israelis were welcomed at their business and traveled freely in those areas. The very minute Arafart arrived on the scene with his merry band of terrorist henchmen, the mayors and other local officials were murdered for having been collaborators with the Zionist enemy. Those worked in Israel were violently encourage to become walking bombs. Hatred for Israel was spewed from every mosque, radio and TV station and taught in the schools. Some of this attitude spilled over into arab areas in Israel proper, and Israelis were suddenly persona non Grata in places they gone to for years. Sorry, but the so called palestinians are nothing more than a malignancy to their own people. In my mind, any one who sympathizes with them deserves what they'll get.

IT'S ABOUT TIME

2007-06-12T00:04:00.000+03:00

After all this time spent writing here and talking just about every place else, it finally happened. Striar called to tell me that the Jerusalem Post, our English language newspaper had the above ads on the front page.It couldn't have happened at a better time. There's also one about the Golan Heights, but it's missing a minor detail. They forgot to mention the land we own in Syria. I hope that's just an oversight that will be corrected soon. So, there they all are!(a little fuzzy and not in order) At least I don't feel quite so alone any more. A few more voices have joined mine, and one of them is an ex cabinet minister from the Likud.
Sometimes I don't know whether to cry or laugh during the news and tonight was one of those times. An ex minister from Syria went to talk to one of the committees at the Knesset today and one of our Arab MKs chased after him yelling that he's a traitor to his people. It's not like we even have to ask which side he's on. The Arab MK I mean. The Syrian basically said what I've been saying all along; that Assad only wants the Golan, he couldn't care less about peace, he just wants the Golan. And all this was going on while the Hamas and PLO were going after each in Gaza yet again. The Hamas took some PLO guys to the 16th story of a building in Gaza, shot them in the knees, and head, then threw them off the building. And these bozos want a country?
As if all that isn't enough, Ehud Barak is trying to muscle his way back into power. The very same guy who turned tail and ran out of Lebanon leaving a basis for Sharon to pull out of Gaza unilaterally. Fat lot of good both those moves did us. I get physically ill when I see Barak on TV. He always has this arrogant, smug self satisfied expression on his face that makes my hands itch to wipe it off. He's more dangerous to us than all the terrorists together except maybe for Peres, but I'm not taking him on as long as he's alive.

RANDOM RAMBLING RANTING

2007-06-06T07:34:00.000+03:00

It's business as usual in the Labor Party. They are embroiled in an election for their head guy. The first round soundly removed Peretz from the number one spot and put Ayalon and Barak in a dead heat to be decided next week in a run off vote. It makes me ill to be exposed to Barak's superior supercilious smirk daily. The man actually believes that he can actually lead the country to peace if elected. After all he has more experience than Ayalon, and thinks he can beat Netanyahu in a general election. Maybe he can beat Netanyahu, but I hope and pray that we won't be that stupid. After all, he's the military genius who turned tail and ordered a midnight scarper from South Lebanon almost 7 years ago leaving our allies, the SLA to fend for itself and most likely be slaughtered by the hizzies, after fighting with us for so many years against the hizzies. Our politicians have good reason to believe that Israeli voter has a short memory and will buy just about anything they are told. We did elect Olmert whose whole campaign was based on his having been Sharon's number two man. That should have been the best reason of all to not vote for him. Sharon lied and mislead the whole country right straight into the mess with Gazan kassams with his bald faced lies. So, being the good little dupes we are, we elected Olmert who went and made a huge mess of everything he touched. Rather than despair, which would be understandable considering our election history, I prefer to hope that this time we'll get it right. We are doomed if we don't.
There was a time when I thought that Avigdor Lieberman just might be part of the answer, then he went and joined Olmert's government and said he wanted to influence things from inside. That has never worked at any political level over here. It's nothing more than selling out your beliefs for a cushy chair around a shaky table and throwing any credibility he ever had right out the window.

STRANGE NEWS CASTS

2007-05-28T14:25:00.000+03:00

I can't for the life of me figure out why some stories get into the news and others don't. My preferred Israeli channel-Israel 10 is usually pretty pro Clinton. Can't understand that either. The other day they ran with a piece about Bernstein's new book about the Clintons and it was anything but pro Clinton. What I quite enjoyed, but they seemed to have missed was that Bernstein is any thing other than a conservative. But here he was publishing a scathing expose on Slick Willy and Shrillery. I sure do hope it finishes off her hopes for the presidency. Having her in that office is scarier then Kerry even.
I caught parts of the latest Rosie scandal on Fox and cracked up laughing. They were going on and on about why Rosie reacted the way she did. Well, folks, duh and double duh. She's nothing more that a run of the mill playground bully and she did what any self respecting chicken bully would do. She ran home crying. Yup! It really is that simple.
I so wish Fox would stop calling the PLO fatah.PLO is what they are, and fatah makes them sound more reasonable. They are not. I would also like to hear everyone stop using the word palestinian for a group of people who are nothing more than regular old garden variety generic Arabs with a burning desire to destroy us and America. Why is it too much to ask for?

SOMETHING STRANGE IN THE AIR

2007-05-22T08:36:00.000+03:00

I was chatting with a friend who runs a business right next to the post office. The subject of why business is so slow lately came and she said exactly what I've been thinking. People are only spending on things they really need and that there's an atmosphere of something very bad impending. In this town 'bad' only has one meaning. Another war. With so many groups fighting each other, Hamas against PLO, so called palestinians against Lebanon and who knows who else, it won't be long before they drag us in too. There's also a lot of talk about at least three divisions of the Syrian army poised to take back the Golan. The army seems to be very concerned about it. Rather than leak anything to the press, soldiers (almost every family has at least one) are talking at home. It feels like they are trying to get us ready for what is to come without going on the record with it. Some even say that it feels like it did before the Six Day War. Everyone knew it was coming, and it was just a matter of time. I wasn't here then, but if so many people who were are saying that, I know what they felt then and it isn't at all nice.
Knowing that we've brought it on ourselves doesn't help at all. It just makes it worse.
There was a time when we could have stood up to the rest of the world and said" No. Arafart and his merry band of terrorists is not coming here. Period. If you think he needs his own state, find him one. There are twenty two Arab states to choose from." But, of course, we didn't.

SAT WHAT?

2007-05-21T23:29:00.000+03:00

How's this for insanity? We now have a Libyan leading generic arabs in an uprising against a sovereign government from an internment camp in Tripoli Lebanon. I mean really, what are those generic arabs doing in the those camps? Why are they there after so many years? Why on earth didn't their fellow arabs let them settle in arab countries? Could it be that they know that these particular arabs are prone to terrorism? This new thing Lebanon has taken things to new levels. Bet the Syrians are behind it. News reports say the Al Qaeda is involved too. They really want to destabilize, and take over Lebanon for once and for all. I watched the coverage on Fox for a while but it was so ludicrous that I went over to our news. The way Fox was describing the cloud of smoke coming from the internment camp was too much.They also pissed me off with their coverage of the bombardment of Sderot. By first describing our taking out of terror leaders in Gaza, and then talking about the kassams made it all sound like it was our fault. Ok, so everything *is* our fault. But there are limits. We left Gaza and the very next day they shot kassams. Enough already. Would you all please just get a grip before you find yourselves praying to allah with your butts in the air.

TWISTED LOGIC

2007-05-16T08:33:00.000+03:00

The Gazans are at it again. One faction killed a "leader" from the other faction so now they are shooting kassams at Sderot in the hope of dragging us in so as to have a common enemy to fight and obfuscate their own infighting. Of course it's all our fault that they can't be bothered to do any thing at all to improve the lives of their own people and that's our fault too. Just ask them, they'll get Mickey Mouse to tell you.
We no sooner dragged our own people out of Gaza than they started shooting at us instead of taking advantage of it and trying to build something good.
I had a disturbing thought last night. I wondered if maybe it could all be a ploy to get us to go in there, and give our friends to the north an opportunity to start up yet again. I sure hope not, but I wouldn't put anything past them.

THEY'RE AT IT AGAIN

2007-05-13T22:49:00.000+03:00

Here we go again. On the very day of a cabinet meeting where it was decided to do nothing about the kassam rockets that are being shot at Sderot daily, the Hamas and PLO get into a shoot out.
The next bit on the news was about the European and US ambassadors boycotting Jerusalem Unification Day. What is wrong with them? Don't they get it yet?
Why do I even bother about this stuff. It's a given.
I had a nice long post planned but I have a Teadrinker yammering in my ear, and it's hard to concentrate.

SYRIA RATTLES IT"S SABERS AGAIN

2007-05-12T10:13:00.002+03:00

Thank you ever so much, Olmert, Peretz, Halutz, and the rest of you idiots. Not only did you make a hash of the last war, and in so doing, give Nassralla the idea that eventually he and his hizzbullies will be able to destroy us, you've also given that idiot eye doctor from Damascus the idea that he will be able to get the Golan back.
Would you please explain why on earth anyone thinks the Syrians should even think they have any right to the Golan? Before you even attempt to explain it, read this:http://www.io.com/~jewishwb/iris/archives/955.html
And then try to explain this away:
- Another 16,000 dunams in Syria, of which only 3,000 dunams are on the disputed Golan Heights.
Bought and paid for. Why on earth don't you tell Assod that he can have the other 13,000 dunams, and forget about the Golan. Seems like a fair trade. Or we could give him the Golan and demand the other 13,000 dunams inside Syria proper. Bet he'd just love it if we started a city there?
It's not his. It's still on the land record books as ours, not his.
It's bad enough that you've bought the lie that there is such a thing as a Palestinian, now you are buying into the Syrian myth that the Golan was once theirs, when it is legally ours. Would you lot please wake up and start dealing with reality, before we all have to start swimming west? The fact that say it's theirs doesn't cancel the legality of the deeds that prove it isn't. Well, maybe it does, after all, an Arab only has to say something once and it's gospel truth to the rest of the world.

THREE CHEERS FOR THE FRENCH

2007-05-08T07:46:00.000+03:00

It had to happen. The good people of France finally did the right thing and sent a very clear message to just about everyone by electing a president who will at least try to take France back. It doesn't surprise me one little bit that it happened in France. The French are and have always been equal opportunity bigots. They hate everything that isn't French.
Be afraid dumbocrats, be very afraid. If the French got it right, there's hope the Americans might too. It could very turn out that the clear message they thought the American sent in the midterm elections was actually sent in mirror writing, and wasn't what the dumbocraps read into it!
I also suspect that the French election results will end up encouraging Olmert to not resign. If the French can make a hard right turn, so can we. Whatever happens it will be interesting to say the least.

KASSAMS IN SDEROT

2007-05-07T19:43:00.000+03:00

Don't get me wrong. I feel for the residents of Sderot. It's not nice to live in place that gets rockets of any kind shot at it on a daily basis. I know. We had that up here until 7 years ago.
Yesterday one of the kassams hit a roof, and thankfully there wasn't much damage done to house. They had the owner on the news and asked him how he would have felt if they'd been at home when it happened. Excuse me, but 1) no one was home and 2) the damage was restricted to the roof, so no one would have been hurt.I just love leading questions from the press.
The good residents are getting well and truly fed up with being targets for the peace loving citizens of Gaza, and rightly so. Unfortunately there's only one thing that can be done to stop the kassams and that is to turn the whole of Gaza into a parking lot for camels. The entire place has turned into the most chaotic outpost of anarchy imaginable. But the balless wonders in our government will never tell the rest of the world to piss off, then do what needs to be done. We did hit a vehicle that was transporting rockets and there was huge uproar that a terrorist was wounded. The uproar should have been about the terrorist not getting killed.

FOOTBALL AND OTHER SHITE

2007-05-05T22:12:00.000+03:00

Ok, so the local football (soccer) team managed to go up to the top league today, but did the fans really have to drive through town with blaring horns? It's not like it wasn't a foregone conclusion. I'm sure I'm not the only person in town who couldn't care less about football. Aside from just plain not liking the game, I really really resent that it and basketball are just about the only sports in this country that get any attention/support. Our tennis players get some attention if/when they win, but that's about it. Our Special Olympics aren't even getting the funding to go the next Olympics and there are some outstanding athletes who should go. What is wrong with us? Never mind. I've already answered that question here so many times I'm tired of repeating myself. I think I'll just wander over to my other blog and write some nonsense there.

HER ROYAL HIGHNESS

2007-05-04T12:03:00.000+03:00

Last night while watching coverage of the Queen Teadrinker, I almost scratched my scalp bald. While there is no earthly reason for her not to visit and have a day at the races, I can't help but wonder what all those VIPs thought they were doing riding along in horse pulled carriages waving to the crowds as if they were also royalty. Come on, folks. They woman may be a queen, but at the same time she's a queen with extremely limited powers. Ok, so Americans are fascinated by royalty and don't really have any of their own, but really, all that syncopated cow towing? At the end of the day she's just another 81 year old woman. The only real difference between her and any other 81 year old woman is that she lives in a palace, and has tons of staff to cater to her every whim.
I do hope she enjoys her day at the races.
Following the demonstration I didn't go to on TV was interesting. The organizers decided not to have any political speakers, like members of Knesset or other pols. Too bad they didn't stick to that decision and had Meir Shalev speak. He's only one of the most political authors we have. They really should have let a non pol from the right speak too. As it was, Shalev was soundly booed.
I guess my next step should be to open a betting pool on the day of Olmert's resignation. It looks like our intrepid, incompetent, blind minister of defense will go first.
Gotta love those hizzies. Nassralla said during a book show that he admires the Winograd Commission for coming up with the same conclusions he did, and he called for Olmert to resign. Pardon me while I choke. What is he doing still walking around?

POLITITIONS ARE MOST ANNOYING

2007-05-03T12:20:00.000+03:00

It's not enough that our present prime minister won his post with a platform of one plank and a rotten one at that,(I was Sharon's #2), he is now, with a popularity of a whopping 2%, that's right two whole percent, refusing to resign. He has a few friends encouraging him in his refusal to go home. They are pushing the theory that now is not the time for elections, and that he is the only one who can fix his mistakes, among other similar gems of wisdom. They may well be right, but are more likely wrong.
One of his exLikud ministers called for him to resign after he told her that if she did that, he would fire her. As of last night, he hadn't. She is next in line to take over if/when he goes home. I'd much prefer her over Peres.
After hearing the list of all the polititions who will be speaking at the demonstration in Tel Aviv tonight, I've decided not to go, but to go to Nazareth to visit friends. All the lefty peaceniks are going to speaking there in an effort to get their agenda moving forward again in a headlong rush to the destruction of the country.

THE PICTURE OF ENCOURAGEMENT

2007-05-02T10:37:00.000+03:00

Only in Israel could the Minister Of Defense do something so stupid with cameras in the vicinity!
Now the hizzbullies have put up a giant poster of this dab smack on the border to show how easy it will be to get rid us! As we have a new chief of staff, who knows the hizzbullies and Syrians well, they wold be well advised to not too rambunctious in the near future.

SO THEY WANT A NUKE?

2007-04-10T08:15:00.000+03:00

After following the story of the kidnapped Brits, I am very disappointed with Uncle Tony. There was absolutely no question that the victims were in Iraqi waters when they were grabbed. I kept hoping that Uncle Tony would tell that Ahmed In a Jar guy that if he wants a nuke, he can have one. No negotiations beyond "Give them back now, or you will get that nuke you are so desperate for" Short sweet and to the point. What ever happened to no negotiations for kidnap victims? Once upon a time it was the way things were, officially, until the wimps decided that prisoner exchanges were the way to go. I detest that our government plays that game. Exchange 1000 so called palestinians for 3 of our guys who were grabbed for just that reason. Granted our army isn't much of a deterrent any more (thanks a whole bunch Olmert) but enough is enough. Of course buying into the palestinian lie annoys me even more than the prevalent attitude that our soldiers have to be pampered. I don't want our soldiers to be injured or killed but, what the hells do we have an army for?

WHAT'S WRONG WITH US

2007-02-03T14:01:00.000+02:00

This is one of those things that have to be expressed in the most precise way possible. I hope I get it right here.
It has long been my opinion that the only thing that gives us (the Jewish People) the right to be here is The Torah. G-d gave us this land way back when, and we have managed to get ourselves kicked out several times. I'm afraid that we are well on the way to being kicked out again because we have forgotten not only who we are, but who we are supposed to be, and the source of that right.
As G-d's chosen we are not a privileged group chosen to be rulers of anyone, other than of ourselves, but rather to be "a light (example by doing) to other peoples. That's a pretty tough job in the best of times. When we start acting like everyone else because so many of us have bought into Liberal Secular ways, it's impossible. I'm not saying that we have to be like the fundamentalist Ultra Orthodox Jews, but we at the very least must recognize the document (Torah) that gives us the right to be here. Not an easy line to toe, but if we don't wake up PDQ it will be all over.
Our insane race after secularism will soon be our downfall. What kind of example are we to others or even ourselves? A very bad one on just about any issue of morality these days. We look to the decadent Western Culture for just about everything these days, at the expense of our own moral guide. This will be our downfall.

OY VA A VOY

2007-01-29T08:27:00.000+02:00

I was all ready to write a nice long ranting rave here, but on rereading my previos posts find that I've already said it all. It's too much to take, all the reruns of Hanoi Jane Fonda on her anti war anti American pony yet again, and she's been joined by that Clinton woman who is taking Kerry's place this time around. The lot of them should be tried for treason. Ok, it would be really nice to live in world with no war, but at what price? At the cost of our freedoms? Sorry folks, but sometimes you just have to stand up and say "No" with guns and tanks and bombs. Otherwise we will all be living under sharia law and I'm sorry, I'm just not willing to do that. Open your ears and listen to them. It's not like they don't say it every day all day long. There will come a point when it's just too late and we won't be able to do a thing about it. And that day isn't far off. More later. I'm not done by a long shot.

A PARKING LOT FOR CAMELS

2006-11-18T11:31:00.000+02:00

It's really getting old. This whole thing with the 'so called' palestinians who are well into geriatrics and should be on the verge of death but the idiot Euroliberals seem to want them to keep on helping them no matter the cost to themselves. They just can't seem to figure out that if the P.A. is strengthened, it will be their turn before they know it. It's real simple, folks. We pulled out of Gaza and the very next day the rag heads were shooting their qassam rockets at us and threatening all kinds of deadly mayhem rather than trying to put something positive together. And yes, it is our fault not only for just existing, but, worse, for buying into the lie that there is such a thing as a palestinian people, when anyone who has read two pages of history knows that there is no such animal. It's an invention of radical Islam and it's just that simple. Tell a lie often enough and people will eventually think it's the truth. Just go read Mark Twain's travel diary about his visit here. There's also the fact that this area has never been anything but a waste land in any one but our hands. Is it any wonder they want us gone? Do they actually think that if they get rid of us they will be able to maintain what is left behind? Yeah, right. They've had so much time to get the areas they do have turned around and made into a thriving functioning authority to build a country on, but the only thing they've used that time and billions of Euros and dollars for is to try and get rid of us. That may well happen sooner than any of us thinks, but they will only use that victory as a spring board to turn the rest of the world into an Islamic empire. Why oh why can't the rest of the world figure it out? The rag heads have only said it at every opportunity. The only answer is turn Gaza and a few other pieces of choice Sandland into a parking lot for camels with the meters in Nassralla's living room. It's so sad that so few will only figure it out after they start praying with their butts in the air in fluent Arabic.

OUR WARS AND WEATHER

2006-08-19T12:16:00.000+03:00

Granted, I'm on pretty wobbly ground scientifically with this, but, I don't really have the data or ability to do it right. On the other hand, I've been following it for years in my own way since 1980. And I bet the science will back it up.
Whenever there's a crisis with our 'neighbors' and we do the right thing-not the politically correct thing-THE RIGHT thing, we get good weather, when we do the wrong the thing the weather is bad. If we mess up in winter, there's next to no rain, if in summer, it gets hellishly hot. It just happened again. During the war, the weather was beautiful, hot, but not too hot. It was comfortable in the shade and not at all humid. We no sooner stopped than it got hot and humid. Really HOT and really humid. Ick. I'm willing to bet that we won't get much rain this coming winter unless we end up back in the fight and doing it right. Of course, there are rarely wars or fighting here in winter.
Just look at last winter; after we left Gaza-no rain, well, there was some, but far from enough or even average.
It's not a matter of religious observance. It's a matter of doing what we are supposed to do.
This last round with Hizzbullies was one big mess from beginning to end. Our fearless leaders from that Olmert jerk to the idiot Minister of Defense,Foreign Minister Finance Minister (he's another whole story) et.al. just didn't do their jobs. I don't much care at this point that Barak (Falula Face) and Sharon are even more at fault for not doing a thing about what was going on in Lebanon with the Hizzbullies from the second Falula Face turned tail and ran and let them dig their tunnels and bunkers and bring in tons of weapons. Hell, *I* knew it was going on (common sense) but they had the intelligence reports and ignored it. Do not even try to tell me that a guerilla group can not be defeated militarily. They could have been defeated if we'd done it 'right' from the start and not hesitated. There is no excuse for the public relations fiasco. It was almost as if we didn't know what they are capable of in that area. They had absolutely no problem making things up as they went along. How many times did a nice clean toy show up on top of rubble and the same people end up in pictures flashed around the world crying over things that never happened. And do not forget Cana 2. A fabrication from beginning to end with dead bodies trucked in from morgues. There's also the casket lie. When asked why there were lots of empty caskets lying around the answer was that they had been damaged by our bombs. Think they were going to tell the world that they weren't burying their dead so they could manufacture massacres? Did we forget the fact that they don't bury in caskets? When was the last time anyone saw a terrorist funeral with the dead guy in a casket? Never! They wrap 'em up in a shroud and bury them, just like we do. Remember the dead guy in Gaza that jumped up from his stretcher and ran off?) No caskets.....And we never bothered to point that out. They also used civilians as shields, then ran inside, put on a dress and blended in with real civilians, all while shelling civilians on our side of the border and whining about us destroying innocent people. HA! It's just too infuriating for words and the world almost bought it. Actually a fair amount of the world did buy it. Their hero, Nassralla is claiming victory from his bunker (afraid to come out, Hasan?), and saying that his little organization will not give up it's weapons. In the end they'll 'join' the Lebanese Army and use it as spring board for spreading even more destruction, and the UN and bleeding heart Europeans will them get away with it, because they are scared that if they don't give in, they'll be next. What they are refusing to understand is that they will be next for precisely that reason.
Terrorism of the Islamic variety is still strong and now they are even more dangerous than ever with this wonderful victory under their uniform belt.
It might be good idea to start learning the Koran by heart and practice praying with our butts in the air. Or, an even better idea might be to start looking at ways to stop them, Syria and Iran before it goes much further. Iran is more intransigent than Saddamn ever dreamed of being, and he has that retarded eye doctor from Syria sounding more bellicose than ever talking about taking the Golan back.
Things couldn't be more wrong here if we planned it that way.
Our intrepid press is too occupied with the chief of staff selling stocks (maybe it was just on his "to do today list") on the same day the fighting started and the sexual harassment cases of our president and that sleaze minister of justice and a few others. They do manage to slip in a question or two about what went wrong with war, but, even though just about everyone here knows exactly what went wrong, and why, we are fooling around with non issues. What went wrong was that this whole country lives on the infantile words "Trust us, it will be OK" then forgets to demand answers when it isn't.
There is absolutely no excuse, never mind justification, for what happened and even less for us sitting back and letting them get away with it. The reason it happened is no excuse and until we get the democracy thing sorted, it will just continue as it is. In a proper democracy the power pyramid has the power starting at the bottom with the people, and going upwards towards the top. In this insane country the pyramid is standing on it's head with the power trickling up to the people at the broad 'base' at the top. In other words, and upside down pyramid. It was set up that way back when, and for that reason will be next to impossible to change, because the only people who can change it are the very ones who will lose their power if we do.
Having elections does not a democracy make especially if the already elected *leaders* are the very ones who decide who we will elect.
The pool is open. How long before we're at it again? Please place your bets before Friday.

IT'S TOO QUIET:EXCEPT FOR THE TALKING HEADS

2006-08-14T19:44:00.000+03:00

Ok, so the raghead Hizzbullies think they won. Fine, let them, there are just a few little problems there. What exactly did they win? Nassralla said that he kidnapped our soldiers so that he would be able to negotiate their release for the Hbullies and the so called Palestinians.If he had been able to pull that off, there's no doubt that would have been in a position to pretty much control the P.A. and squeeze us from both North and South, not to mention East eventually. Granted that is just about the only success we had-preventing that. We also managed to get the Lebanese government's ass in gear and their agreement to move the Lebanese Army down to the border, along with a beefed up UN force. We also did a lot of damage to the Hbullie's infrastructure which was mostly houses in the South that had tons of missiles and launchers in them. The houses, missiles and launchers are gone and so are not a few tunnel networks. Our Army isn't going anywhere until the Lebanese and UN take over. Then it will be up to us to make sure everyone behaves.
The Hbullies fearless leader has yet to crawl out of his bunker. Wanna bet it's under the hospital in Beirut that we didn't bomb? He has, however, taped a victory speach that will be broadcast soon. That should be interesting. He certainly likes to talk.
The people on our side who are responsible for this will not be taken to task over it. Sharon is dead for all intents and purposes. And Barak is running around polishing his English. They both knew exactly what was going on up there, and instead of stopping it, let it go on. Ok, ok, if my grandmother had wheels.....we can't go back and fix that, I just pray that we'll learn from it.
I also hope and pray that the proper Lebanese government will find the funds to help rebuild the houses and things that were destroyed in S. Lebanon. If they don't and Nassralla gets an open check from Iran we'll be right back to where we were 34 days ago. It's pretty much up to the politicians from now. And shall we not forget that a good number of those poor unfortunate refugees are members in good standing of Hizzbolla? They'll be going home and rebuilding their militia. Why am I not feeling much confidence?
It might be a good idea to go listen to Nassralla now.

THE END IS IN SIGHT MAYBE

2006-08-12T13:16:00.000+03:00

It really is the epitome of insanity. The freaking UN has agreed on cease fire terms, which is all good and nice. As far as I'm concerned they can stop shooting at each other right now.
Our government has agreed in principle to the terms, and the Hizzbullies have announced that they defeated the Zionist occupier of Palestine. Their head guy, the one who really does wear a rag on his head seems to have missed the point of the agreement and is acting like he'll be able to get right back to business as usual. I have my doubts. The IDF isn't going anywhere until the real Lebanese army is in place with an international force to back them up and we are going to destroy as much of their infrastructure as we can. I'm willing to bet that in addition their North Vietnamese tunnel network they also have a tunnel to rival the one under the Channel from Syria to where ever.I just hope and pray that our guys find and destroy it (them). There's also UN resolution 1559 that calls for the disarming of all private militias in Lebanon. Do not think for so much as a nanosecond that we'll turn a blind eye yet again to that clause. Ulmert can not get away with that. He's in enough trouble as it is for not doing what had to be done from the beginning, him and his Defense Minister and Chief of Staff. What a mess they made of things. Never mind that the whole thing is actually Barak and Sharon's fault for ignoring the situation up there 6 years. We all knew what was going on right under our and UNIFIL's noses. If only we had done this after the first kidnapping up there, they would not have been able to dig in-literally- and equip themselves to even 1/10th of the level they have achieved.
Now, listen up, all you bleeding heart peace freaks.If you don't want to start learning Arabic and the Koran by heart, and start praying with your butts in the air, you will demand that the Hizzbullies and Iran are dealt with immediately. It really is that simple. We lose=you lose. If you don't believe me, just listen to them.
We over reacted to their provocation. Yeah, right! At least we don't run around doctoring pictures and staging *massacres* We don't use women and children as shields to shoot missiles at anyone. We just sit in shelters for over a month-32 days- and then apologize for accidentally killing the Hizzbullie's human Shields. We also did not make anyone in the line of fire stay there at gun point.
Take it from me, it's not easy to stay in a town that is getting shelled by a bunch of raghead terrorists who want only to do as much damage to as many civilians as it can.
They hit 4 hospitals, 18 education facilities, 1116 apartments and houses, and the list goes on and on. And we're the bad guys!?
Those who supposedly know figure it will take over a year to repair all the damage. At the rate we get things done, it will take a lot longer. The up side is that now that they've pretty much destroyed the special ed school they might just get around to equipping it properly. Don't hold your breath, I said maybe.
Other than our artillery it's been way to quiet today. The last siren was at midnight. Nothing so far today and that is scarier than anything. There's a pool going on when they'll start today. My bet is on around 1500, and that it will be the worst we've had to date. Please G-d, let me be wrong.

SO, GIMP WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN?

2006-08-01T17:12:00.000+03:00

I wish I had a chrystal ball that would tell me what's next, but, as I don't, all I can do is guess.
Guess #1: We will go in to Lebanon and do more summer cleaning.
Did anyone notice that the "victims" of Kfar Cana 2 were amazingly bloodless? And that the CNN reporter who went to the actual building didn't notice anything odd about a perfectly clean pillow and mattress being on top of the rubble inside rather than sticking out of it? I'm sure that the hizzbullies staged the whole thing. They shot katyushas from there knowing we'd shoot back and in the 8 hours between when we bombed and the building collapsed they emptied all the morgues and put the bodies in there, then, blew the building themselves. They *are* terrorists, remember? That's my bet on it. I'm no expert, but the building did not look like one that was hit by a bomb from the air. The blast looked like it came from inside outwards, parrallel to the ground. Something is very fishy there. Too bad we'll probably never be able to prove it.
Guess # 2: The Hizzbullies will wait a while before shooting at us, then hit hard when we go back to normal. This cease fire the West is so hot for will not happen any time soon, but if it somehow does, the hizzies will break it and we'll be right back where we started. Yes, I do think they were very surprised at our reaction this time. The last time they did something like this and kidnapped 3 soldiers, we didn't hardly blink, and we let the so called Palestinians get away with it too, so, why on earth would we do something now? SURPRISE! Of course there is a minute chance that they just might think twice before trying something again. But don't count on it.
Guess # 3 We will keep on until we achieve our objectives and at some time along the way, we will prove who did what at Kfar Cana and world opinion will switch back to our side. I have a sneaking suspicion that the US and Brits already know what happened.
Things have been way too quiet today, and I'm sure they aren't finished with us yet. A few mortars on Metula are nothing more than an attmpt to lull us back to 'normal' Oy if we fall for it.
That's just my 'short take' on it. I could be all wrong. It will be interesting to reread this in a few months.

ISRAELI OR AMERICAN?

2006-07-22T10:56:00.000+03:00

Jeffro and Vicky's best friend Robbie sent this to me the other day and it struck me that applies to us as much as to Americans and that it is absolutely true.

Written by an Australian Dentist....and too good to delete....

To Kill an AmericanYou probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)

"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim.
In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.

The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
<>
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Please keep this going!
Pass this around the World ?
then pass it around again.
It says it all, for all of us

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WAR OR STOP THE HIZZBULLIES

2006-07-21T11:30:00.000+03:00

I've been through more than few barrages of katyushas and shrugged it off. Even the one that knocked me off the motorcycle in '92 didn't effect me like the ones coming down now. Of course having a proper missile land 50 yards away was scary as hell. Actually the thing that really has me scared is the thought that we are going to be stopped before the Hizzbullies are finished off and gotten rid of. What is wrong with the rest of the world? Has everyone forgotten that it isn't just our war? Don't they realize what will happen if we lose? Bush and Blair seem to get it, as do Egypt, Jordan, the Saudis and even the legal Lebanese government. They all want us to finish them off. It's pretty obvious to any one who isn't brain dead that the whole thing was started as a diversion for the Iranian head case who wants a nuke to use to turn the rest of the world into one big Islamoglobe. If we are not allowed to the job now, it will be too late and everyone had best start learning the Koran by heart. It really is that simple and they've been saying it for years now.
We have a battery of artillery just inside town and it makes more noise than you can imagine. It fires almost all day long and most of the night. There's a corridor from there straight up our street and it sounds like they are right in the house.
At the risk of repeating what has been said over and over here (and I do wish the TV talking heads would shut up) this isn't going to end unless we go in and clean out the North Vietnamese style tunnel systems they had 6 years to build and stock. Everyone is wailing that the price in casualties will be too high, but the price of not doing it will be much higher-an Islamoworld. I'm not as frightened by the missiles as I am by the thought that we might stop before the job is done. That's just not an option for us, or the world.
Never mind the fact that I'm not sure we even deserve to win, the rest of the world doesn't deserve for us to lose.
I'm not going to go into what's so wrong with us right now. And I don't want to dwell on the local corruption and how the local authorities are handling things here. It starts at the top and if the government doesn't get it's act together PDQ they just might have a civilian revolt on their hands when the shooting is over.
I'm sorry, but it infuriates me that people in the line of fire are encouraged to leave. That does nothing except reinforce defeatist behavior. It smacks of what the Arab leadership did back in '47 and '48 when they told the Arab population to leave their homes so that they could come back after the Jews were wiped out. They turned into refugees and lost their property. I expected better from us, but, I guess I was wrong. I still think that giving in is wrong and I'm staying right here in my own house and bed even if they don't know it. I do, and I refuse to give them that small victory. As the authorities are only helping the people in shelters and I'm well supplied and have a fully fueled jeep outside and two credit cards, I'm not a burden on the system. Of course if things get too wild, I do have my own shelter right in the house, complete with TV, phone lines, books, VCR, and comfy recliner I can sleep on, if need be. I hope I don't wuss out and use it, but it could happen.
I can't believe my ears. One of the wealthiest women in the country, who bought herself a radio show just referred to the poor Lebanese. I don't think so. If they didn't have the smarts to get rid of the Hizzbullies themselves and are letting us do it, I refuse to feel bad for what they are going through. Of course, I detest her on the best of days. She's always looking for someone else to donate/help, rather than putting her hand into her own pocket and doing it herself. She is well able to. But, she's another story for another day, and a perfect example of what's wrong with us."It's not *my* problem, get someone else to fix it."
I'm having a hard time figuring out what I want to say here, except that we have to finish what they started.

IGNORING REALITY

2006-05-06T22:05:00.000+03:00

For all that I love politics and usually enjoy pontificating on the situation here, I just can't seem to find the energy to post here. To say that I am disgusted by the election results is way too mild, but, I also have no doubt that this will be the shortest lived of any Israeli government to date. It's just not going to last, and I'm not in the mood to get into detail here and now. Ulmert is a megalomaniac without Sharon's grace and ability to talk to people. His arrogance will be his downfall and he'll go down hard when he goes, but, being Israelis, I doubt we'll learn much collectively from it. Maybe my month in the States will give me enough distance to get back to my usual ranting and raving, but, right now, I'm just too happy to want to ruin my good mood with our political insanity.

REQUIRED READING

2006-03-13T09:03:00.000+02:00

Even though elections are only two weeks away, I'm not going to post here until Gimp House is completely up to date. I *am* going to copy the following article which gives much details on a subject I've ranted on several times and is much better written that anything I could write. It is required reading for anyone who has any hope at all of understanding what is going on over here. There could very well be a test on it in the near future even though every day here is a test on it;a test we and the so called Palestinians fail daily.

http://www.a

ish.com/jewishissues/middleeast/Oppressing_the_Palestinians$.asp

Oppressing the Palestinians?
by David Meir-Levi

A comprehensive review of lifestyle and trends for Palestinian Arabs over the last two centuries.

Reprinted from FrontPageMagazine.com

How did the Palestinians reach their current tragic state? Are the Israelis responsible? What about the other Arab states and the Palestinians' own leaders? What part of the blame falls on them?

These are important questions. The answers are complex, requiring a historical literacy and a willingness to go beyond the simplistic notion of the international media that the Mideast conflict is a matter of conflicting rights and Israeli "occupation" of Palestinian lands.

Early Oppression of Palestinian Arabs by the Ottoman Turks

The exploitation of Palestinian Arabs began more than 170 years ago, when Israel was still an impossible dream, and intifadas and suicide bombers were unimaginable. At the height of its rule in the early 19th century, the Ottoman Empire instituted "Tanzimat," a series of laws promulgated over several decades which radically changed the nature of land ownership. As a result of the new laws, wealthy land owners, bankers, business owners, and money lenders anywhere in the Empire could now buy land formerly owned communally by the Arab peasants (fellahin) in the towns and villages of the region that would later become known as Israel.

From the mid-1830s to the late 1850s, wealthy Arabs (effendi) from Cairo to Beirut, Jaffa to Damascus, purchased land previously owned by hundreds of thousands of fellahin, who suddenly found themselves landless serfs instead of successful small farmers, now working what had once been their own land as tenants of the effendi.

In years of inadequate harvest, Arab money lenders granted usurious loans and took as collateral both future harvests and whatever land remained under communal ownership. When future harvests were insufficient to pay off the debt, with its astronomic interest rate, the money lenders confiscated more land and pushed the fellahin deeper into a modern-day version of feudal serfdom. In other words, the Palestinian Arab peasantry watched helplessly as their land was bought out from under them, by their own people, 50 years before Zionism.

From the 1830s onward, travelers such as Karl Marx and Mark Twain commented on the desolation and emptiness of the area. The Sultan could not collect taxes from unoccupied land. So the Turkish authorities forcibly relocated Bulgarians, Circassians, and Arabs from surrounding regions. Some stayed, worked the land, and assimilated into the local population. Others found a way to escape back to their homelands. The crown's policy of forced resettlement impacted negatively on the indigenous Arab fellahin. The newcomers created competition for resources (especially water) and offered new sources of supply for agrarian markets. The Arab peasants, already reduced to subsistence agriculture, had to work harder simply to survive. (1)

The Benefits of Zionism to the Arab Peasantry

From the 1880s onward, Zionists bought land in ever-increasing amounts all over what would later be called Israel, and in trans-Jordan. They purchased land from two main sources: The crown and the wealthy Arab land-owners (effendi), both local and absentee. The fellahin or peasants were already dispossessed.

Owned by the Sultan, crown land was largely unoccupied and un-worked. The Sultan was delighted to have someone purchase, develop, and pay taxes on it. The purchase of crown land rendered no one landless. In fact, it had a positive influence on the neighboring fellahin. The technologically advanced Zionist agrarian endeavors resulted in the reclamation of arid areas with modern irrigation. In addition to learning new agricultural techniques, the Arab peasants could graze flocks on the newly created grassland surrounding the Zionists' fields. In the swampy areas of the Jezreel and upper Hula valleys, newly drained swampland created arable tracts beyond the holdings of the Zionists, and local Arabs worked those lands, albeit illegally as squatters as far as the crown and wealthy Arab landowners were concerned.

Unlike the wealthy Arabs who purchased land under the Tanzimat and kept the fellahin on the land as serf-like peasants, the Zionists worked the land they purchased themselves, as farmers, and thus had no use for peasant labor. Re-location of the Arab peasants was accomplished in several different ways. Zionist purchasers sometimes paid an additional fee to the wealthy Arab land owner, for instance, to help subsidize the peasants' move. There was much un-worked land both in the land west of the Jordan River and in Trans-Jordan (the land to the east) that could be bought with these funds. The former Arab serfs could now once again become land-owners, thanks to the surcharge paid by the Zionist purchasers.

Sometimes, the wealthy Arab land-owner illegally kept the surcharge. When Arab peasants did not receive their payment, they complained and sometimes sued the Zionists in the Muslim courts of the Turkish administration. In many cases, the Zionists paid the surcharge again to the peasants rather than incur the expenses and risks of a court case, especially as Jewish plaintiffs in a Muslim court.

Sometimes, the Arab peasants demanded that other land be bought for them so they would not have to search for uninhabited farmland. The Zionists often did this to avoid confrontation. But after fulfilling their part of the deal, they often found their land suddenly covered with Bedouin tents or the shanties of squatters. Having no police or other armed force of their own, they turned to the Ottoman rulers of the region for justice. Sometimes honest neighbors would attest that the new occupants were indeed interlopers trying to extort money from the Zionists. At other times, in the absence of such witnesses, the Zionists had to pay off these squatters or buy land for them elsewhere. (2)

The Hope-Simpson report in 1930, addressing the question of uprooted Arab peasants under the British Mandate (imposed after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I), concluded that only a bit more than 800 families were actually rendered landless by Zionist land purchases over the decades from 1880 onward. While initially more than 3,000 Arab heads of households claimed such status in the hope of gaining land or money at the expense of the Zionists or the British, the Hope-Simpson staff found that only a fraction of that number were legitimate (3).

Over all, the Zionist endeavor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was highly beneficial to the indigenous Arab population ruled by the Turks. Among the benefits were the agricultural advances the Zionists brought to Arab peasants and Bedouins who migrated in from surrounding areas in considerable numbers from the 1880s onward. Wealthy Arab land-owners enriched themselves at the expense of the Zionists who were willing to pay inflated prices with double and triple surcharges in order to procure land for the creation of a Jewish homeland. And some Arab peasants were able to reverse the tragic consequences of the Tanzimat land-grab and regain their status as land-owning farmers thanks to the Zionists' willingness to pay them or buy land for them, often in trans-Jordan (4).

Arab Jew-hatred Under the British Mandate

British involvement in the Holy Land began in the early decades of the 19th century. When the French assisted Mehmet Ali and Ibrahim Pasha in Egypt during their revolts against the Turks, England worked with the Sultan to counter the Egyptian rebellion and thus limit the extent of French influence in the Middle East.

English political and cultural representatives now filtered into the Holy Land to build schools, hospitals and other cultural centers. British exploration of Christian holy sites began at this time. The result was a rapidly growing sphere of British influence on the Eastern Mediterranean litoral from Beirut to Gaza by the late 19th century. With the opening of the Suez Canal and discovery of petroleum in "Mesopotamia" (later Iraq), British interest in the region skyrocketed. Eventually Britain would build oil refineries in Haifa and a railway connecting the Eastern Mediterranean port with Iraq.

This British activity translated into massive economic growth. Thousands of Arab peasants were given an education and exposed to modern medicine. Between the Zionist development in agriculture and medicine and British industrial and cultural advances, the economy of the region grew rapidly. Infant mortality plummeted, life expectancy increased, migration to the region continued unabated, and the Arab peasant could find employment that paid him in a month what his peasant father earned in a year. Arab agricultural techniques improved as well, and for the first times, farming in the region changed from subsistence to commercial, with the Arab tenant farmers producing enough to meet their own needs and have excess for marketing (5).

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the League of Nations' created "British Mandatory Palestine," which encompassed all of the Holy Land west of the Jordan River and what would later become the Hashemite Emirate of Jordan to the East of the Jordan River (Trans-Jordan, now known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan). The goal of this arrangement was for Britain to assist the Arabs and the Jews who lived there to become able to govern themselves autonomously, at which point Britain's mandate would end.

In 1922, Britain established Trans-Jordan in the area east of the Jordan River (which constituted 74% of the entire Palestine Mandate) and declared it the Hashemite emirate. The majority of the population were Arabs from the Palestine region, but the rulers were Hashemite Arabs originally from Arabia. Jews were forbidden by law to enter this new emirate, and the existing Jewish farming settlements east of the Jordan River were dismantled and relocated in areas to the west. In other words three quarters of the Palestine Mandate were declared Judenrein (ethnically cleansed of Jews) by the British in order to appease the Arabs.

Under the Palestine Mandate, the economy of the remaining area continued to prosper. Rather than using the draconian methods of the Ottoman army to keep order, British officers encouraged the growth of a local indigenous leadership. Thus, the infamous and pro-Nazi, Hajj Amin el-Husseini, although indicted by the British for his role in the anti-Jewish riots of the early 1920's, was appointed the "Grand Mufti of Jerusalem" by the British High Commissioner. Even the lethal anti-Jewish riots of 1929 and 1936, sparked in large part by the Hajj's incendiary anti-Jewish preaching and behind-the-scenes machinations, did not undermine the British determination to assist the Arabs of Mandatory Palestine to develop institutions of leadership in preparation for self-rule at some point in the future (6).

The Arab War against the Jews and their State: 1936 to 1947

Although the Zionist endeavor, along with the British contributions to the region's economy, brought unprecedented prosperity to the region, and created the environment in which the Arab population could more than triple between 1855 and 1947, Arab leadership resented Jewish progress and feared the growth of the Jewish population. Despite efforts by leading Zionists to develop modes of cooperation and joint programs with industrial and agrarian leaders, the Hajj and other Effendi provoked anti-Jewish sentiment and pressured the British to put a complete stop to Jewish immigration. The British agreed to reverse their stand on the concept of Palestine as a homeland for the Jews, and a series of "white papers" limited the number of Jews that could enter the country. But rather than appeasing Arab leadership, these attempts at mollification emboldened the Hajj to preach a full-scale revolt. In 1936 Arab riots took the lives of dozens of British and hundreds of Jews. With World War II looming, the British moved swiftly to quell the revolt (7).

At Parliament's behest, Lord Earl Peel visited the region in 1937 to find a way to satisfy Arab demands. His conclusion was that the Arabs and the Jews could not live together, and the only option was partition. Thus was created the "Peel partition plan" in which the Arabs in the area west of the Jordan River would receive about 85% of the land, and the Jews 15%. The division was based on the areas in which each group had the most population. In other words the Jews were being offered 15% of the remaining 26% of the original Palestine Mandate, the other 74% to the east of the Jordan River having already been given to the Hashemites. The Jews accepted this arrangement. The Arabs rejected it -- the 92% of the original Palestine Mandate they would now have was considered inadequate -- and they went to war.

The leaders of the 1937 revolt imagined that the British would buckle under sustained attacks, and that Jews would stop immigrating. But their terrorism, hit-and-run tactics, and relentless attacks on Jewish civilian populations created a situation that the British could not allow to continue. By 1937, as war clouds gathered in Europe, they quickly augmented their military strength and over the next year killed somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 Arabs, ending the revolt in 1939 (8).

While Arab historians decry Britain's use of overwhelming force to end the revolt, it is important to remember that before they resorted to force the British attempted to find a solution via a negotiated compromise. Had Arab leadership accepted this compromise, and created Palestine alongside of Israel as the Peel Commission recommended, the Palestinian people would have had their own state in 1937 on about 85% of what is today Israel and Palestinian Arabs would be living on 92% of the original Palestine Mandate (in a new Palestinian state west of the Jordan River and in the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan east of the river).

By preaching Jew-hatred and provoking the revolt against the British, the Hajj and his cohorts betrayed the interests of their own people and condemned them to a war they could not win and to the loss of a Palestinian state. After their defeat, the Arab leaders of the revolt who escaped the British dragnet initiated their own "night of the long knives," executing as many as 3,000 of their own people whom they accused of collaboration.

In the post-war era, the British, fed up with the costs of empire, handed the "Palestine question" over to the newly formed United Nations. The UN undertook a thorough and in-depth evaluation of the partition proposal. Several fact finding missions went to Palestine and found in the Zionists a willing and cooperative group. Lengthy and uninhibited interviews with leaders, rank-and-file, rich, poor, new-comers, and even refugees on board the immigrant ships that had been held up by the British all resulted in the impression that the Jews, especially after the Holocaust, needed a state. It was clear as well that there was enough land legally owned by Jews and the Jewish Agency for a state to be cobbled together. In order to avoid infringement upon land owned by Arabs, this Jewish state would be rather odd looking and problematic. It had a segment in the south connected to a sausage-like segment in the middle and a third piece that was just barely contiguous to the other two in the north. It was an administrative, managerial, and security nightmare. Nonetheless it was a state, and the Jews accepted it.

But the Arabs remained adamantly opposed to any solution that included Jewish self-determination. The Arabs avoided the UN representatives, insisted that the UN had no jurisdiction over the Palestine Mandate, refused to meet with fact-finding committees, or sometimes agreed to meet with them and then did not show up. With the British gone, the Arabs were confident that they could ethnically cleans the Jews from the Palestine Mandate, and the Palestinian state to emerge would be an Arab country.

By a tiny margin, the UN partition plan (Resolution 181) was passed on November 29, 1947, creating a state for the Jews, on the three slivers of land (the Negev, the northern part of the coastal plain, and the eastern Galilee), representing about 55% of what is today Israel (or about 1/8th of the original British Mandate on both sides of the Jordan). The territory which the UN apportioned to Israel was primarily land that Jews had purchased and developed over the past 100 years, plus the desolate Negev south of Beer Sheba, almost completely uninhabited and deemed uninhabitable. The Arab state on the remaining 45% plus the Hashemite emirate in Trans-Jordan gave the Arabs a total of 7/8th of the land that the Balfour Declaration had originally committed as a homeland for the Jews. The Arab state was to include much of the southern coastal plain from the Sinai border up to Jaffa, all of the West Bank's central hill country, and the western Galilee. Jerusalem was to be an international city shared by both groups and administered by a UN commission (9).

Zionists and Jews everywhere rejoiced. Had the Arab world accepted the partition, there would have been a Palestinian state in 1947, and peace for the next fifty plus years. But the Arab leaders had no interest in such a state and launched a war to destroy the new mini-state of Israel instead.

Arab Responsibility for the "Catastrophe"

The creation of Israel is referred to as "an-Nakba" (the catastrophe) in Arab historiography and the political pronouncements of Arab leaders and their supporters. But the catastrophe experienced by the Arabs of Palestine was the result of Arab policies, and the Arab rejection of any solution that would include a Jewish presence in the Middle East. Five Arab armies invaded the three slivers that were Israel in an attempt to destroy the new state. Under threat of annihilation, Israeli forces defended the slivers that had been assigned to them by the United Nations. Part of that defensive action included driving Arab civilians from their homes in a few Arab villages located at strategically important sites or which sat upon major arteries, especially the road to Jerusalem. These actions, both legal and commonplace in wartime (Mohammed is praised for doing the same thing to Jewish villages near Mecca), have been reframed by Arab propaganda into the fictional history of Israel's "aggression" against the Palestinians (10).

In fact, the flight of Palestinian Arabs began months before the shooting started. Tens of thousands left the Galilee and areas from Jaffa south and fled to Lebanon and Egypt. Tens of thousands more fled after the shooting started, and long before the Jewish army had taken any measures against strategic villages. It is well documented that Arab leaders, military, political and religious, urged the peasantry to flee so that the Arab armies could enter unencumbered and quickly do away with the Jews (cf. Meir-Levi, "Big Lies" for documentation). By the spring of 1948 almost 350,000 Arabs had left their homes.

The Israeli attack on Deir Yassin has been singled out and falsely presented by Arab historians as the quintessential example of Jewish barbarism in which "Zionist thugs" brutally massacred hundreds of innocent civilians. In fact, Iraqi soldiers had occupied the village, dressed as women, and hid in the villagers' houses. Survivors of the attack admit openly that none of the atrocities ascribed to the Jews ever actually occurred. These atrocities were the invention of Dr. Khalid Husseini, director-general of the Arab radio station "Voice of Palestine." As he explained, he broadcast his own fictionalized account of the battle in order to shame the Arab states into sending more troops to wipe out the Jews.

To the degree that the battle at Deir Yassin sowed panic among the Arabs throughout the rest of Palestine, that panic was the result of Dr. Husseini's lies, not the Israeli actions. But most important, the battle occurred on April 9, 1948, almost 6 months after the Arab flight had begun by which time more than 300,000 Arabs had already left Israel (11).

In the south, close to 300,000 more Palestinian peasants were forced to flee at gunpoint by the Egyptians, according to Yasir Arafat himself. The Egyptian army forced the Arabs of southern Palestine into what Arafat called "concentration camps" in the Gaza Strip. Today we know these as the refugee camps into which nearly 1,000,000 hapless, homeless, helpless, hopeless Arabs are crowded together under abominable conditions, thanks to the Egyptians (12).

But Arab responsibility for "an-Nakba" goes even further. The Arab forces of Jordan occupied the West Bank, and King Abdullah unilaterally and illegally annexed it to his Hashemite kingdom. King Farouq of Egypt declared Egyptian sovereignty over the Gaza Strip. Both actions were illegal in terms of international law, and in high-handed defiance of UN resolutions 181 and 194. When the war was over, and armistice lines drawn, the land which the UN had apportioned to the Arabs of Palestine had been seized by the Arab states that had invaded, supposedly to help the Palestinians. When Israel offered to return land taken in its defensive actions and to negotiate fair settlement of the refugee issue, but only in exchange for peace, the Arab states refused. Better the Palestinians remain refugees than the existence of Israel be ratified (13).

Jordan and Egypt not only illegally occupied the land that was supposed to be the Palestinian state; they and other Arab States forcibly maintained the helpless Palestinian refugees in concentration camps as a living grievance against Israel and the West.

The Arabs who stayed and became citizens of Israel (about 170,000 in 1949, today in excess of 1,400,000) prospered. Today Arab Israelis serve as members of Parliament (Knesset), as faculty in universities, as highly educated professionals in just about every field of endeavor, and enjoy a standard of living, political and personal freedom, and economic opportunity unparalleled anywhere in the Arab world.

Israeli Generosity to the Arabs Who Attacked Them

In his very detailed and comprehensive "Records of Dispossession," Michael Fischbach documents Israel's desire to offer reparations as part of the resolution of the refugee problem (14). Israel was unwilling, in the absence of a state of peace, to permit hundreds of thousands of members of a potentially hostile population to re-enter the country during wartime. So repatriation was possible only after peace; but reparation offers could be made.

At the Rhodes conference (1949) individual refugees and whole groups tried to discuss reparations with Israeli representatives. But Arab leaders prevented their own refugees from meeting with the Israeli delegation. The USA and the UN insisted that restitution and resettlement elsewhere would be a fair and reasonable resolution. But the Arab states refused. Some Arab leaders expressed openly their lack of concern for the refugees, and many refugees were openly hostile to the Arab delegations (15).

Later, Israel offered restitution and the return of frozen bank accounts and safe deposit box contents. But under pressure from Arab governments, refugees refused to fill out forms needed to verify ownership, because that might imply recognition of Israel. Israel rewrote the forms to placate the refugees; but only a tiny fraction submitted the requests (16).

In 1960, Israel was still trying to find ways to pay reparations to refugees via secret contact through Cypriot authorities; but Arab states again intervened to prevent a settlement. As late as 1964 when the US Department of State developed a "technical program" based on reports estimating the value of refugee property, Israel agreed to use this program as basis for negotiations for just compensation. Again the Arab states refused to meet, refused to negotiate, rejected the report; and they kept the whole opportunity secret from the refugees (17).

The 1967 Arab Aggression and the Immense Benefits of Israeli Occupation

Egypt and Syria started the Six Day war with the USSR's help by massing troops on Israel's borders, evicting the UN and USA peace-keeping forces from the Sinai, re-militarizing the Sinai with thousands of tanks and tens of thousands of soldiers, closing the Straits of Tiran, and doing illegal fly-over incursions into Israeli airspace. When they dragged Jordan into the campaign and prepared for a three-pronged simultaneous invasion, Israel struck. Israel's lightning victory created a new wave of Arab refugees. Some estimates assert that as many as 200,000 Arabs fled the West Bank as Israeli forces entered, seeking refuge in Jordan (18).

Within a few days of the June 10 cease-fire, Abba Eban, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, made his famous speech offering to negotiate the return of captured territories in exchange for three Arab concessions: diplomatic recognition of Israel; negotiations to decide on universally recognized borders and other issues; and peace as a final outcome. Western countries expressed amazement that the victor was offering to negotiate with the vanquished and was willing to make concrete concessions (return of territories) in exchange for symbolic and diplomatic ones. To formulate a response to this unexpected new reality, the Arab states called a summit meeting in Khartoum (capitol of Sudan). The result was the now infamous three Khartoum NOs: no recognition, no negotiations, no peace. Thus Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was caused first by Arab aggression and then by Arab refusal to negotiate a peace after the Arab armies had been vanquished (19).

After the war, Israel began what is sometimes called its "mini-Marshall plan" for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, investing hundreds of millions of dollars to bring them both into the 20th century with regard to infrastructure, roads, sewerage, electricity, phones, radio and TV broadcasting, water purification and water supply. World Bank records indicate that the GDP of the West Bank grew at the average rate of 13% per year between 1967 and 1994. Tourism skyrocketed, unemployment almost disappeared as hundreds of thousands of Arabs worked in Israel's economy earning far more than their counterparts in other Arab countries. Seven universities grew up on the West Bank in place of the three teachers training schools that existed before 1967.

And, perhaps most telling of all, free and unencumbered access to Israel's medical infrastructure resulted in a declining infant mortality and a rise in longevity. The infant mortality rate was reduced from 60 per 1,000 live births in 1968 to 15 per 1,000 in 2000. Under a systematic program of inoculation, childhood diseases such as polio , whooping cough , tetanus, and measles were eradicated. During the two decades preceding the First Intifada, the number of schoolchildren in the territories grew by 102%, and the number of classes by 99%, though the population itself had grown by 28%. Illiteracy rates dropped to 14% of adults over age 15 (compared with 61% in Egypt, 45% in Tunisia, and 44% in Syria). The rapid growth in population as a result of access to Israeli medicine, in addition to Arab immigration into the territories from "Diaspora Palestinians" all over the Arab world, resulted in a tripling of the Arab population from around 950,000 in 1967 to more than 3,000,000 in 1994 (20).

All this time the Arab nations remained formally at war with Israel. In 1979, Egypt alone among the Arab states agreed to sign a peace treaty with Israel. In response to Egypt's willingness to sign the peace, Israel withdrew its forces and settlements in the Sinai.

The peace signed with Egypt also offered a new opportunity for Palestinians. Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat invited Arafat to their peace table. Arafat refused, and in doing so, squandered what could have been yet another opportunity for Palestinian statehood. Sadat was then assassinated by Muslim radicals for making peace with the Jews.

Arafat Takes Over and Destroys Palestinian Prosperity and Peace

When the 1993 Oslo Accords allowed Yasir Arafat to set up shop in the West Bank as the head of the newly created Palestinian Authority, the robust economy created in partnership between Israel and the Arabs ground to a halt and then went into a steep decline. By 2002, the West Bank's GDP was one-tenth of what it was in 1993. Israel has been blamed worldwide for the economic plight of the Palestinians when it is entirely the responsibility of Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. Yet, the record as registered in annual UN Human Development Reports, clearly shows that the Palestinian people were much better off under Israeli occupation than under the Palestine Authority's control.

Data provided by the UN Human Development program of 2005 (21) indicate that the economic difficulties experienced by the Palestinian Arabs were largely the result of policies of the Arafat regime and not from any oppression by the State of Israel. Looking at what it calls "The Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)," the UN report cites many examples of how positive trends in human development have been reversed. For instance, the second Intifada beginning in Sept. 2000 resulted "...in a sharp deterioration in living standards and life chances." The poverty rate nearly tripled from 20% in 1999 to 55% in 2003. The report notes that because of the Intifada, the town of Nablus, a prosperous commercial hub prior to September 2000, became an economic basket case. Shops were closed; to survive, workers had to sell their tools, and farmers were forced to sell their land. It was Arafat's war, not Israeli rule, that destroyed Palestinian prosperity and bled its people (22).

Even with the disruption of their economy that the Palestinians suffered as a result of the Intifada, the Palestinians are still listed as seventh in a list of 103 developing countries, on a par with Cuba, Singapore and Columbia. A number of other Arab countries rank far below the Palestinian territories. Even more ironic is the fact that while the Palestinians receive more aid per capita than any nation in the world (except one, Cape Verde) because of Arafat's terror war and his embezzlement of huge amounts of this money for himself and his terror armies, the Palestinian people have experienced a severe decline in economic well-being. The UN report suggests that Arafat diverted almost all of the aid money to his various militias. So the aid money, rather than helping the economy and thus creating conditions that would end violence, actually promoted violence (23). The picture that arises from the UN 2005 report is a clear continuation of trends documented in the 2004 report (24).

The Post-Oslo Terrorist War against Israel

The Oslo Accords of 1993 created what would turn out to be the last best offer of statehood and peaceful co-existence alongside of Israel. As with every other opportunity since 1937, Israel accepted the agreements, recognized and supported the concept of Palestinian statehood, and fulfilled its obligation under the Oslo Accords to create and arm a Palestinian Authority. But before the ink was dry, Arafat was betraying the agreement he had just signed to renounce violence. To be sure, he spoke words of peace in English to the West. But in Arabic he began preaching Jihad and rejecting every one of his Oslo commitments. By early 1994 he had joined with the Islamic terrorist group Hamas in beginning a "low intensity" terror war operating in Israel and in Lebanon.

When in June of 2000 at Camp David, Arafat rejected what Saudi prince Bandar bin-Sultan described as the best offer the Palestinian people could possibly hope for, he threw away what proved to be his people's last chance at a negotiated settlement that would have led to statehood and to peace. His reply to Barak's offer of a Palestinian state on 97% of the land they had demanded, was to launch a Second Intifada. This terrorist war driven by suicide bomb attacks against Israeli civilians began in September 2000, and has led to the empowerment of Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

Arafat created a massive thugocracy to oppress and terrify his people and to maintain his own power. He embezzled billions of dollars from the aid money pouring in from Arab states, the EU, the UN, the UK and the USA, to line his own pockets and fund his terror war. He exploited the maneuverability and the base of operations that the Oslo Accords gave him, to create massive graft and corruption in his crony-government, and to attack, intimidate, arrest torture and kill anyone of his own who objected (25).

By the end of Arafat's life, Israel and America had concluded that there could be no peace with him at the helm. Realizing finally that they had no negotiating partner for a peace, Israelis has begun drawing their own boundaries with a fence to keep terrorists out. Arafat's legacy is clear: the current Palestinian government has no leadership capable of putting an end to the terrorism, to the descent into chaos and lawlessness, and to the ascent of the terror gangs in both the Gaza and the West Bank.

CONCLUSION

So what are the answers to the questions with which we opened this essay?

Who is responsible for the plight of the Palestinians? From the data presented above, the answer is obvious. From the 19th century onward, Arab leaders, both local and external, have betrayed the Palestinian Arabs, forced them into poverty, cheated, intimidated, and oppressed them, condemned them to serfdom and stolen the land out from under them. Every opportunity for statehood was squandered by leaders who chose war and terrorism over peace and cooperation (see Addendum). Arafat's totalitarian kleptocracy, his "democracy of the gun", was most assuredly the very worst, most heinous, of all betrayals.

How did Palestinian leaders let their people fall into such a tragic state? They didn't "let them," they did it to them. A heartless, Machiavellian Arab leadership bent on violence, war, terrorism, destruction and genocide subordinated Palestinian hopes and aspirations to their own dark plans; even while Zionists in the pre-State period and the Israeli government thereafter accepted, supported, and attempted to assist the Palestinian people.

Why did the Palestinian people allow themselves to be reduced to this tragic state? It is true that Palestinian leaders ruled as tyrants, by terror, intimidation, and totalitarian repression. But even under a totalitarian tyranny, people have broken free. Today we are witness to the Ukrainian revolution, the Cedar revolution in Lebanon, and the rise of a courageous defiant democratic process in Afghanistan and Iraq (thanks to the USA coalition forces). So why have the hopeless, hapless, homeless, helpless Palestinians done nothing to take their fate into their own hands?

It would require psychiatrists or cultural anthropologists to venture an answer to this question. But one thing is certain: there are no leaders without followers.

Notes

References are to sources in the bibliography, listed by author. Where pages are not noted, the information has been summarized from broad segments of the authors' works.
1.) O'Brien, Mandel, Scholch, Shafir
2.) Almog, Avneri, Bard, Fischbach, Gilbert "History", Shapira; Sankowsky
3.) Gilbert "History", O'Brien, Sachar, Sufian
4.) Bard "Myths and Facts", Sachar, Sufian
5.) Fromkin, Gilbert "History"; Karsch, E & I; McCarthy; Sachar
6.) AASOR, McCarthy
7.) Almog, Sankowskiy, Segev
8.) Gilbert "History"; Idem, "Arab Israel Conflict", O'brien; Sachar; Sankowsky, Segev
9.) Bard "Idiots Guide", Gilbert "History", Idem "Routlege Atlas", O'Brien, Sachar, Schlaim
10.) Bard "Idiots Guide"; Gilbert "History"; Idem "Routlege Atlas"; Karsch,E, "Fabricating Israeli History"; O'brien; Pappe; PBS; Sachar; Schlaim
11.) Meir-Levi, "Big Lies"; PBS; O'Brien.
12.) Meir-Levi, "Big Lies", Hart
13.) Gilbert "History", Idem "Arab Israel conflict in Maps", Idem "Routlege Atlas", Karsch, E. "Fabricating Israeli History", Meir-Levi "Big Lies", O'Brien, PBS, Sachar, Schlaim
14.) Fischbach, pp. 87 ff
15.) ibid, 199f
16.) ibid, 210 ff
17.) ibid, 295 f
18.) Gilbert "History", Idem "Routlege Atlas", O'Brien, Oren
19.) Oren, Sachar
20.) Summarized from articles listed in "Economy of West Bank and Gaza Strip"
21.) UN Arab Human Development Program 2005
22.) Ibid, pp. 281 ff
23.) Ibid, pp. 312, ff
24.) UN Arab Human Development Program 2004
25.) Brown; Meir-Levi, David, "The Missing Piece is missing pieces", Ibid, "Left Wing Monsters", Ibid "Islamokaze war and Palestinian poverty", Walsh

This article can also be read at: http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/middleeast/Oppressing_the_Palestinians$.asp

IT'S JUST TOO MUCH

2006-02-01T22:43:00.000+02:00

Unbelievable is the only word I can think of to describe the latest survey of Kadima voters. It seems that a majority of those intending to vote for that party of corrupt criminals are planning on voting for it simply because Sharon founded it. That's it, no other reason. Of course there really isn't any other reason to vote for it. There's no platform, the MK list is Ehud Olmert's personal picks, the party has nothing. It's 100% a one man show, and what a man (?).
The goings on today in 'Amonah were a total disgrace, based on lies and treachery. Both sides were 100% right and 100% wrong. Ulmert's gang of thugs based their decision to clear 'Amonah on Sharon's totally wrong and immoral withdrawal from Gaza. He lied to get elected then trampled the very democracy he claimed to represent, and withdrew unilaterally from Gaza. Then today Ulmert went and ordered the army and police to use every means at their disposal to remove settlers from 'Amonah. The settlers refused to accept his wrong headed questionably illegal, undemocratic unilateral decision to remove them and tried to withstand the forces sent to prove a point. Ulmert refused to listen and acted like a dictator in order to achieve his ends. In doing that he gave even more power to those who would destroy us. And that's just plain wrong. They find it convenient to forget that they are the very people who turned a blind eye to the illegal building going on in the West Bank and even financed it. Now they are pretending to be ever so law abiding, when in reality there isn't a law they haven't trampled with their lead loaded army boots.
The major problem is that thanks to all the left wing politically correct crap that so many people have bought into without thinking it through, we have all but renounced our right to this land and are actually legitimizing the Arabs spurious claim to it. They have absolutely no legitimate claim to it what so ever. It was given to us by G-d and we have gone and tried to become a people like the rest of the world rather than to try live up to our g-d given mission to be a light unto the Peoples, or in simpler terms, to set a moral example for them by living righteously and not by imitating them. Yet again, we are on the verge of losing everything we spent 2000 years yearning for, and have no one to blame but ourselves for following the false gods of appeasement.

HYSTERIA HELPS NO ONE AND NOTHING

2006-01-27T09:31:00.000+02:00

I swear, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I heard the results of the elections in the 'so called' Palestinian Authority yesterday and the immediate hysterical reactions to the big Hamas win. Ok, everyone, it's deep breath time. Time to sit back and think for once. What exactly happened there? The Hamas won big time and the Tunisian Thugs were voted out. Why? Was it because the average 'so called' Palestinian really believes the Hamas will get rid of us, OR, because they are sick and tired of the Tunisian Thugs never ending corruption and that they really wanted to get rid of the Tunisian Thugs and give a group they perceive as being strong a chance to get things moving in a better direction? I have a funny feeling that it just might the latter. At least I hope it is. The PA has been in a state of total chaos bordering on anarchy for a long, long time and people really prefer some order in their lives. Abu Mazzen and the rest of the Tunisian Thugs just didn't have the power to clean things up, and stop the terror by disarming the terrorists and getting the PA running for the benefit of the people. If the Hamas wants to get anything done they will have to get the support of the Europeans and Americans. That won't happen until they give up their terrorist ways. Our hysterically vocal leaders would do well to shut up and wait before making far reaching pronouncements that they will eventually have to back down from. Let the Europeans and Americans, who are in no small part responsible for the elections taking place with Hamas participation, sort it, then get on with business. There really is no way the Hamas can function if their international (Western) funding is cut off, and it will be, if they don't get on the same page as their benefactors PDQ. I rather doubt the West will put up with Iran backing them for long and Iranian funding just won't be enough. They need the West to survive.
Abu Ala resigned immediately but Abu Mazzen announced that he's staying in office for now. Other Tunisian Thugs were hard to find after the results were announced. They disappeared and with any luck will stay that way. There has been speculation that Hamas will need to keep some of the Tunisian Thugs on for a while to appease the West and get things started. Abu Mazzen really should have cut and run because he just doesn't have the support to stay and do much of anything. He'd be much safer in just about any other part of the world. Is he brave or stupid? Only time will tell.
So, let's just sit back and wait to see what develops.

WILL I EVER LEARN?

2006-01-14T10:57:00.000+02:00

I just never seem to learn to do my homework before running my mouth at warp speed. I based my last post on commentary, instead of checking for myself. As it turns out, the Likud did indeed weed out some of the baddies, and I *can* vote for the Likud list as it stands. I just hope they manage to get the right message across. Kadima scares me more than ever now. No one in that party is even close to being able to stand up to the slightest pressure from Europe or the US. It really is going to be between Kadima and Likud. Bibi is going to have to do a whole lot of work on the social/welfare issues and has to turn it all back on Sharon, and Sylvan Shalom. That could be a problem because that jerk Shalom is Bibi's number two, and their economic strategy was actually correct. The fact that it ended up hurting a whole lot of people who didn't deserve it is beside the point. The major thrust was to get the economy healthy again so that those who need it will be able to get more. It worked too. Our economy is doing quite well, and that's thanks to Sharon and Bibi, Shalom had very little to do with it.
Shinui(Change) did. They kicked out the old number two guy and now the whole party is in an uproar. Poraz (# 2) quit and went home to sulk, and several others quit and are threatening to start a new party. Lapid (# 1) is going to make an announcement on Sunday, and all bets are off on that. Shinui was pretty much a closed party run by two people. The new guard is starting to make noises about opening things up to their general public and allowing the party to be run on a more democratic basis. That would be refreshing. I don't much care about Shinui per se, it's just interesting to watch.

THEY JUST DON'T GET IT: OR MAYBE THEY DO

2006-01-13T10:24:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was primary voting day in several parties, notably, The Likud and Shinui. Shinui's delegates seem to have gotten the general idea and voted in new faces for their list of Knesset candidates. That's nice, but as Shinui is right up there with Labor as far as I'm concerned (useless) it really doesn't matter. Likud completely missed the point and kept all the same old, tired, people. That shouldn't come as surprise because they really don't understand that we, the people, want something better. If it had been a proper primary, open to all party members, it might have been different, but, alas.....It sucks that we have to vote for a list, and not individuals. The upside is that no one knows who voted for whom or which list. I desperately want Bibi as P.M. but just as desperately don't want anyone on the Likud Knesset list to get in. Quite a problem I have here. At least I have until the end of March to decide. In many ways I think The Likud has earned a resounding slap in the face, and will most likely get it on 28 March. Just for refusing to give up their ministerial positions, every single minister deserves to get the boot.
If it weren't so important, I could easily sit back and watch the circus, but it is ever so important and that new party must be kept to a minimum in the new Knesset. The Americans are already twisting Ulmert's arm, much as I suspect they twisted Sharon's. It's probably too much to hope that he'll be able to withstand the pressure any more than Sharon did. He's already allowing them to vote in East Jerusalem in the upcoming P.A. elections. Sharon at least was resisting that one. That will make it next to impossible to not allow Jerusalem to be divided eventually. On the other hand, that will make a good campaign issue for Bibi and he'll be easier able to counter their their "radical right wing" rhetoric, which is beginning to sound like a broken record. They are all reading from the same script. I just hope there'll be a backlash vote against them, but considering how we Israelis are not exactly independent thinkers (for the most part) I doubt we'll do as we should and send the lot of home and demand a representative democracy in place of the current insanity we put up with and try so hard to convince ourselves and others is a democracy.

SPECULATIONS ON SPECULATIONS

2006-01-11T23:15:00.000+02:00

I've mentioned this before, but that's not going stop me from doing it again. The press just can't not keep trying to report things before they can be reported. This time it's Sharon and all of our news outlets are trying to outdo each other in the 'will he recover or be a resident of the cauliflower patch' sweepstakes. Even the densest of viewers has to have figured out by now that there is simply no answer to that question now, nor will there be for a long time. Come on guys, report what is known and leave the predictions to tea leaf readers.
It would also be nice if all the politicians would stop arguing about who is Sharon's ideological successor. As if anyone could possibly even begin to guess what went on his mind over the last two years. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that one or more western leaders had a very unpleasant chat with him about Gaza and that certain threats might have been involved. Sorry, but and Alzheimer like disease doesn't explain that much of an about face. Credible threats do, and there a few people out there I wouldn't put it past. The thing is, we'll probably never know.

THINGS CHANGE

2006-01-07T22:48:00.000+02:00

Things change so quickly here it's often hard to keep up. They are now talking about a slight improvement in Sharon's condition, but there is still a lot of confusion and much missing information, so it's hard to tell. In any case the prognosis is not good.
Bat Chen called and after we settled her new dog questions and my letters, we got on to the 'subject of the day' and after I explained some of the medical stuff to her we came up with a theory. She heard Pat Robertson's statement that this is G-d's punishment for giving away land. I said that while I do agree that it was partly for giving up the land, but also for the way the settlers were turned into refugees in their own country, and that I have this strange picture in my mind of G-d whispering in Sharon's ear. Bat Chen took it a bit further and added that it wouldn't surprise her at all if Sharon woke up and fully recovered as a result of negotiations with G-d. Of course I had to mention Rabin, and she said that he probably turned G-d's offer down flat, and that's why he died so quickly. Who knows? Stranger things have happened and while it's not always obvious, I am a believer. We'll just have to wait and see. We both firmly believe that the hand of G-d is at work in this.

WAITING

2006-01-07T10:41:00.000+02:00

There has been pretty much nonstop TV coverage of Sharon's condition in Israeli TV. In fact, it's gone on and on and in the end not reported much *new*s. They just repeat themselves endlessly and get medical experts on to second guess the docs who have the impossible job of treating(trying to save him from their mistakes) him. If (and I say this with great caution) the reports on the meds he received after the first stroke are accurate, Sharon is a victim of gross(not malicious, just overkill, hoping that by overtreating him they could save him) medical malpractice. That much anti coagulation medication is a good way to ensure that he'd bleed out from even a hangnail if it bled. It's too late to second guess about anything that was done because we can't go back in time and change anything. I'm just noting it, and will file it away under "things to keep in mind when....." What were those doctors thinking when they prescribed those dosages of those drugs? Haddassah Ein Karem is supposedly the best hospital in the country, but this makes me wonder. Every time the bleed starts they drag him off to yet another operation, and even more damage is done. The doctors proudly announced that his brain stem looks like it escaped any damage. That's nice, but if the rest of his brain is a cauliflower patch, what good is it? That just leaves him with basic body functions and damn little else.
People have been dragging out stories about patients who woke up from severe brain trauma and relearned everything. All those cases were of much younger people. It's not very helpful to hand out hope of a miracle that is not medically possible. I can't help but feel that we are being lied to at every turn. Anyone with the slightest bit of medical knowledge can put the pieces together and figure things out for themselves.
The religious fanatics are all trying to out do each other with divine reasoning that this is his punishment for going against G-d's will. It may well be, I rather think it is, but not so much a punishment as a way to put a stop to any more. I'm no theologian, but I do think that the so called religious leaders from all denominations should just keep their mouths shut. G-d can take it up with him as and when. Ok, ok, so I don't follow my own advice to the clergy, but, hey! I'm not exactly a person of influence, so there's no danger of too many people being swayed by my views. According to the news they are going to try and disconnect him from the machines after Shabbat or maybe on Sunday. For his sake, I hope they leave him be if he can't survive without them. It's not that I want him dead, I don't, I just want him out of office, which he is in any event. If it's time, it's time.
Of course this all fits in very neatly with my own take on life and death. I think that we are all here for a purpose and when we've fulfilled it, we die. In a vain attempt to second guess the divinity,I think that Sharon has done what he was supposed to do and now it's time for him to go and let the next generation go on from there. There's a lot of talk about his legacy, and the pundits have pointed out that his legacy is mostly made up of contradictions so it will be very hard to follow because no one really knows what it is.
Then there's my own person opinion of the differences between Sharon and Rabin's deaths. Rabin was allowed to be murdered by a fellow Jew. Sharon was taken (is being taken) by G-d himself. Both made huge mistakes, but Rabin's were more grievous than Sharon's. I have some level of understanding of this, but I'm having trouble finding the correct words in English. You work on it for a while! My brain is tired.

SO MUCH FOR GETTING MY MESSAGE ACROSS

2006-01-06T08:09:00.000+02:00

These blogs and the internet are amazingly wonderful. I misspoke(wrote) the most important part of yesterday's post and was called to order by a guy in Texas. It still amazes me that people bother to read my blogs, never mind take the time to comment. Most of the comments here have been spam which I promptly delete, but the Texas guy was spot on. What I was really trying to say, but managed to garble was that Sharon has packed more achievements into his 77 years than almost anyone I can think of, and if it is time for him to go, he can go well satisfied with having accomplished so much more than most of could dream of doing in twice that time. The only explanation I can come up with for having written what wrote is that in comparing the whole thing to The Philmore in my mind lead me to imply about Sharon what so many said to me; "He was 83 and lived a long full life." Yes, he did, but that doesn't mean that we should try to comfort ourselves or others with that platitude. Thinking about it that way isn't right, at least not for Sharon, especially when it can interpreted to mean that I think 77 is long enough. Long enough is however long G-d decides for each of us and maybe we should think about that before writing/saying inane, meaningless things of that nature because we don't know how to express ourselves properly. At this point I'm not sure if I'm getting what I meant to say across, or just making it worse. In spite of all rantings against what Sharon has been doing lately, I never wished him dead, just out of office.
The pundits are asking questions like: "why was Sharon allowed to go to the ranch before the catheterization?" "Why didn't he have a helicopter standing by at the ranch?" and "Why did they let him go to back to work so soon?" No brainers, one and all. He was the P.M. and you can't dictate things like that to him. He wanted to go to the ranch for the same reason I checked out of cardiac ICU AMA. There's no place like home. If he had had a chopper standing by for emergencies those same pundits would have been wailing about special privilege. Maybe he should have taken a 'time out' after the first stroke, but, things just don't work like that here, not this close to an election, they don't.
I just hope the docs and others involved, like his sons don't get caught up in the turn the machines off or not issues, and let him go without a lot of argument, if he can't survive without the machines. He doesn't deserve the indignity of that. When it's time, it's time.

Sharon

2006-01-05T19:42:00.000+02:00

Sharon has actually already checked out, but, it looks like the docs won't admit it until they try to take him off the machines. His body might still be functioning (sort of) but *he* is gone. When I said I wanted him out office, this wasn't what I had in mind, but at the age of 77, and with a full life behind him, I'm ok with it. I actually liked the guy. Once, in the Knesset cafeteria he mispronounced Kiryat Shmonah, and I corrected him. I correct everyone who says it wrong. He laughed and told me "good for you, keep it up" Other people I've corrected have been less nice about it. Yup, Sharon was a nice guy, his politics not withstanding.
Sharon did so many good things for the country that I can almost forgive his last two years and write them off as some form of Old Age Dementia He served the country his whole life.
The reaction in Gaza is disgusting, only Gaza, mind you, the West Bankers seem to have a bit more sense. The Gazans are having kids walk around with misspelled signs saying Deat To Sharon and other such slogans. Odd that they were all together for the news crews. Don't they realize how things like that look to outsiders? When Ara'fart' croaked there was none of that here even though many of us were happily rejoicing, but not for the press or foreign consumption. Abu Mazzen has completely lost control and has no way to stop them from giving the so called Palestinians a public relations black eye. It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to start shooting kassams again.They seem to be a bit nervous about how we might react.It's interesting that just about every country in the world, including the Arab ones have new crews camped out at the hospital.
The Lebanese guy who spoke for his government almost seemed to be warning the various katyusha shooters to lay low. We'll know soon enough if he got the message across or not. It would be a very bad idea to escalate things up here.
I am hopeful that the new party Sharon started with all those corrupt politicos will self destruct. For now Ehud Olmart is acting P.M. and he's capable enough. The amusing thing is that he and others are going on and on about continuing "Sharon's Path". Ok, which one? For every stated position of his in the last two years, he has at least two, and sometimes three others, diametrically opposed to each other. He said one thing and did another too many times to count. I'm not sure Olmart is strong enough to carry the election. I certainly hope not.

SO SHARON HAS A HOLE IN HIS HEART

2006-01-03T19:08:00.000+02:00

Poor, poor Sharon. He's going to have a cardiac catheterization on Thursday and the news is full of "will they put him under or just use a local? And will he be able to run things or should he hand his prime ministerial powers to someone else?" I don't think he should be running things now, in any event, but, unfortunately, no one asked me. I am rather enjoying the knowledge that he has a good two months of pain from the catheter insertion site ahead of him. Oh boy. Does that ever hurt, and it stays sore forever.The fact that he will have a purple groin will not, I repeat will not influence me to vote for him. Nothing will. The man is a menace, and has to go. Kassans are still flying and things are super tense up here, not to mention the fact that the settlers he kicked out of Gaza and promised to promptly resettle are still not settled, or even close to it. He turned them into refugees in their own country and the PA is in total chaos, verging on anarchy, and Abu Mazzen is doing nothing to get things on track there. It's a bit nuts that the various armed groups can weak havoc in the PA and shoot kassams at us at the same time. Their so called cease fire is over and they are planning the end of the Zionist entity, while the whole world looks on, just waiting for us to be vaporized, or worse, defend ourselves. They are so shortsighted that they simply can not comprehend that they are detested as much, if not more than we are, and that they are also on the international terror list of things to get rid of. Sharon just isn't up to dealing with any of it, and I don't trust his post CVA cognitive powers at all. We need Netanyahu, not Sharon and his corrupt cronies.

SHARON AND STROKES AND MORE

2005-12-31T09:22:00.000+02:00

If it weren't so important, and if I didn't know better through personal experience, I'd probably be ok with Sharon making decisions so soon after his stroke. I remember mine quite vividly and do not buy for a minute that he is mentally capable of running things. They say he never lost consciousness, but later said that he had trouble talking. Well, I was conscious the whole time too and never had trouble talking, but I was far from lucid. I argued with the doctor about which hospital to go to, and after I won the argument, went to the bus station to take a bus to the hospital! I did have the good sense to call Irit who had the good sense to grab a taxi and rescue me from my insanity. Granted, Sharon never had the chance to do anything quite that stupid ( I was convinced of the logic of the decision to take a bus to the hospital in Haifa) he does think he can function as PM. Sorry, but he can't and shouldn't, especially not now with kassam rockets being fired at the western Negev and Ashkelon, and with Al Kaeda shooting katyushas at us and scoring direct hits on buildings in town. Our intelligence lads say it was Al Kaeda and the rockets had Russian writing on them, and time delayed fuses. As usual, very little was done about it other than complaining at the UN. Like they are going to anything about it. Syria is the bad guy in this. Russia supplies Assad with the rockets and they end up in houses in Kiryat Shmonah, and we run to the UN? Being shot twice in one month is just not an option, and saying that the Lebanese government is responsible just doesn't cut it when the rockets were supplied by Syria thanks to the Russians. The fact that our response is negligible encourages them to keep right on shooting at us. I'm really not sure what our response should be, but it should not be to sit back and send letters to the UN. If that's the best Sharon can come up with, we are in deep trouble. Terror leaders are openly proclaiming that it's only a matter of time before they run us out of "their land" The got us out of Southern Lebanon and Gaza by using terror, and they'll get rid us completely by the same means eventually. And all Sharon and Mofaz do is write letters and make noise. Restraint is going to push us all into the Med swimming for our lives before too long.

RENEWED HOPE

2005-12-20T10:29:00.000+02:00

The Likud actually had the good sense to elect Natanyahu chairman. The very thought of Silvan Shalom being elected was making me physically ill. I enjoyed watching the special broadcast after the polls closed. Sharon's people were so transparent in their attempts to color the Likud as far right and almost reactionary right that I couldn't help but grin through it. If they weren't such a bunch of corrupt liars, it might work. But they ARE a bunch of corrupt liars and it seems that people are realizing it. Sharon is the worst of the lot. All Bibi has to do is show Sharon's flip flops and let Sharon's record speak for itself. He totally ignored party decisions and did as he pleased, blatantly flaunting any semblance of democracy. His new party, Sleaze United doesn't even have appearance of democracy-it's run by him and he doesn't even have plans for any kind of primary to put his list for Knesset together. For every election promise he makes it will be child's play to show what his word is worth; -0. It was truly funny to channel surf and watch all the SU spin artists say the same thing again and again. Granted, the Israeli public has proven itself time after time to be stupid and to fall for the worst of the lot, but I think that maybe this time it won't work. Sharon and his corrupt band of thugs are just too transparent and have already overreached themselves.
It was also interesting to watch the reactions of the so called Palestinians to Sharon's stroke. They were celebrating his imminent demise in the streets.

Speaking of Sharon's stroke, I would like to point out, from personal experience, that even though he came through it without any trouble, there are some very scary psychological aspects that his people are doing their best to minimize. Been there, done that. Even without lasting physical side effects, things change. I was a complete nut case for a year after my stroke, and my physical problems were not stroke related, I just couldn't think straight. Everything was overshadowed by that close call. I had mine when I was 48, Sharon had his at 77, an age when he can not help but be thinking of his mortality unless he really does have delusions of immortality from watching Highlander reruns. Believe me, no matter what his people say, the man can not be trusted to lead his party, never mind the country. The talking heads trotted out just about everyone in the country who had a stroke and survived, to talk about the effects, but not one of them went into the psychological aspects.
I ran into Eli Zafrani(Bibi's man up here) yesterday and told him that. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if I get a call from them asking for my take on it. They'll get it with pleasure. Sharon is more dangerous than ever and surviving the stroke might have made him more megalomanic than ever. He should be a posted hazard.

STROKES ARE NOT CHILD'S PLAY

2005-12-19T08:47:00.000+02:00

I'm not as bitter as I might be about the stroke I had in 1998. I tend to look at it as just another hurdle in the adventure that is life. Most of the time, that is. Then along comes Ariel Sharon who has a minor stroke but is lucky enough to have it diagnosed in time for no permanent damage to done. That's when I get pissed off at the quack who missed mine by a country mile. Just another game at the craps table of life that I lost, and what ifs are useless. I have to deal with it.
So Sharon had a stroke on the eve of elections. I can only hope that Israelis, in their medical ignorance will decide to send him home in March. Not that the alternatives are all that great. Whiskers (Amir Peretz) just isn't up to it, and if the Likud runs Silvan Shalom I might just have another stroke/heart attack at the thought of his wife in the PM's bed. That obviously leaves me rooting for Bibi Netanyahu who is actually capable of doing the job. Whiskers and SS are talking 'help the poor' while Sharon is stirring the terror kettle. I really don't want a guy who just had a stroke doing that. It's just too dangerous and transparent. The only person capable of turning the so called Palestinian lies back on them is Netanyahu. They are doing an amazingly good job of telling lies often enough to convince the whole world that what they say is true. It just isn't. If you don't believe me, go read what Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) had to say about this patch of earth when he was here. It's just this simple. There were very few Arabs here until Jewish pioneers started arriving from Russia and created jobs for them. They moved here from all over the Arab world to take advantage of opportunities we made for them and now they want it all for themselves. That's fact, historical fact, not spin. It's gotten so bad that even we have forgotten that. It's about time we remember it before it's too late, if it isn't already. We've allowed them to turn us into our own worst enemy and have us believing that we are the bad guys here, that we occupied the West Bank and Gaza for no reason other than to occupy them. We didn't start the Six Day War. We just won it and found ourselves saddle with the territories. The fact that we messed up big time then is our own fault. Had we been a little smarter and a bit less arrogant, things would be very different today. We weren't and here we are today, in deep trouble. Repeating a lie endlessly doesn't make it the truth.

THEY MUST BE STOPPED

2005-12-15T08:09:00.000+02:00

Sharon, Mofaz and the United Sleaze must be stopped. Unfortunately they are still in office and have every chance of staying there even after the elections. It's almost a given because they are in a position to manipulate things in such a way to convince voters to reelect them.
When Sharon pulled us out of Gaza he promised heavy retaliation for every mortar rocket shot at us. What he didn't tell anyone, much less the public, was that he had every intention of provoking them to shoot at us by continuing to take out top terrorists. As far as I'm concerned, he can flatten the whole place, but the deliberate provocation of attacks is just plain wrong. And to do it right after the young Fatah members who won the primaries in the PA went on a rampage against the old guard (Tunisian Thugs) because the youngsters won the primaries was just plain stupid. We all know that Abu Mazzen isn't going to do jack-shit to disarm the terror factions, but the young 'uns might. Of course they could as easily become as jaded and corrupt as the old timers, but they deserve a chance. By shooting missiles at baddies all Sharon accomplished was to turn attention and anger back towards us, and away from the Tunisian Thugs. The pre election spin will be to point to the killings and tell us that he is protecting Israel. Sorry, but any one who believes a word the man says should check into the nearest mental hospital for a reality check.
I'll save the Iranian insanity for another time.

OUT OF CONTROL

2005-12-14T09:08:00.000+02:00

This country is spiraling out of control at warp speed. People don't even bother to think of laws as recommendations anymore, they simply ignore them and do as they please. Why not? Our duly elected leaders have absolutely no concept of honesty or morality, so why should we?
Sharon trampled any semblance of democracy when he thumbed his nose at the whole country by going ahead with the Gaza withdrawal in direct defiance of his party's express wishes. He then broke away from the Likud and started his own party, and filled it with members who are under police investigation for a variety of criminal activities. Our very own mayor joined as well. *He* was forced to resign yesterday after the police recommended that he stand trial for election bribery. How good of him to spare Sharon's party the embarrassment of his pending trial. He should have retired as mayor as well fact he should have done that before leaving Sharon. Actually, it's ok as the city council is now pretty much solid opposition to him. The opposition now is the majority and it is likely that they will force him out. It can't happen soon enough for me.
If our highest elected officials can get away with so much, why in the world should we bother with being moral law abiding citizens?
One day our Defence Minister says he will stay in the Likud, then a few days later leaves it for Sharon's gang of thugs, giving the exact same reasons on both occasions. And we are supposed to not only believe him, but vote for him. He's not the only one. Several others did the very same thing. Opinion polls show a huge election win for that lot and if they indeed win, we deserve it. I can only hope and pray that Sharon loses and loses big and that we, the voters have enough sense to demand changes and accountability from our politicians. I don't have much hope of that happening, but I can and do pray for it.

A VOTING WE WILL GO

2005-12-05T09:53:00.000+02:00

When I got off the plane in Israel for the first time in 1970, I knew I was home. Ok, it might have been the jet fuel fumes that did it, but I knew I was home. It was pretty much the same with Kiryat Shmonah. I felt right here, and still do. Last night I finally figured out that this country and town are home, and like any home, it's never finished just right. There are always things to fix and redo. Also, like a house, you don't throw up your hands in frustration and leave it because it needs work. You repaint, buy new furniture and look for ways to make it ever nicer. This country and town bring out the same feeling in me. You don't walk away because there are things you don't like; you stay and try to fix the things that need fixing.
Whiskers (Amir Peretz) got himself elected head of the Labor Party and will be running for Prime Minister. The first thing he did as Big Boss of the party was to pull the Labor ministers out of the coalition with Sharon and force elections. Sharon then broke away from the Likud and formed his own party that has attracted most of the politicians I detest really should call their new party United Sleaze, rather than Forward. A more corrupt group will be hard to find, unless you look here. Our corrupt incompetent mayor also joined Sharon and actually believes he'll be elected to the Knesset.
The surveys are all predicting almost a landslide for Sleaze United, but, I have my doubts. Surveys are fine and well, but something happens to people when they get to the polls. Dewey v Truman, for example. If we, in our stupidity, reelect Sharon, we will deserve what we get. Whiskers is as bad, if not worse, but at least he isn't corrupt, just brutal. Brutal I can live with, corrupt is another story. There could very well be a backlash vote for Whiskers, but I hope not. I talked to one of the Likud guys yesterday and told him I want to rejoin, now that the worst of the baddies are gone. I intend to support Netanyahu for PM. He really is the only one who can get the things done that need doing. He *is* the right one for this country. Whisker's people will go on and on about his stint in the Finance Ministry and that he pushed thousands of families below the poverty line. What actually did that was the decades long unquestioning acceptance of welfare. All Bibi did was try to get people off welfare and back to work. He didn't take anything away from us, the crips. Ok, he also didn't give us anything, and our benefits are at the same level they were 6 years ago and costs have spiraled up. Something really has to be done about that, but Whiskers won't do a thing about it, except spin a good tale about it to get elected. I just hope that when it comes down to it, voters will see through the BS and do some political house cleaning. Optimism is a good thing, isn't it?

LONG TIME NO POST

2005-10-18T09:45:00.000+02:00

It's almost too much to bear. I sit and watch the news and think that I should post here, then don't.
Unbelievable as it was to me, we actually went ahead with the Gaza withdrawal and removed ever single settler from Gaza and dumped them in all kinds of temporary housing and have ignored them ever since. Supposedly there were plans for their resettlement in Israel proper, but thousands are still in hotels, with no jobs, no schools and very little hope for the future. I guess an argument could be made that they knew it was coming and should have made plans, but that really was the government's job. We are so going to pay for that, not only financially through the national budget, but in every other way possible. The transfer of Gaza to the so called Palestinians was far from smooth and the barrier between Gaza and Egypt was wide open, allowing all kinds of stuff and people (terrorists) to cross into Gaza. No one lifted a finger to stop it, not Abu Mazzen's thugs, nor the Egyptians, who supposedly were patrolling the 'border' for that very reason. Now the P.A. is demanding a way to get from Gaza to the West Bank without Israeli interference. Translate: they need a way to get weapons and terrorists from Gaza to the W. Bank. Abu Mazzen and Arikat are also whining that they can't do anything about it without ammunition for the weapons we gave them under the Oslo accords. Hmph. They also want us to stop rounding up know terrorists in the W. Bank, and blame us for the attacks on that basis. Ok, maybe they are having a hard time stopping the terrorists without ammunition, but they certainly aren't doing anything to explain to their people that terror isn't the *way* any more. Not a thing has changed in their news, schools, or sermons. We are still the Zionist enemy, and it is every good Muslims duty to rid of the world of us. If only our lot would stop playing into their hands, and look for a new strategy, and get the spin cycle adjusted, we might get somewhere, but Sharon is riding high now, after his victory in the Likud's Central committee, so he'll just continue with the tried and mistakes that have never worked and never will. He should take a time out and rethink the whole thing, instead of continuing on this road to self destruction. It would also be a good idea to sort the settlers, but he's forgotten them now that he's gotten them out of his way.
If all that isn't bad enough, the so called Palestinians now know that armed resistance will get them what they want, so why should they stop and try peaceful methods? No reason I can think of.
The WAll. We started building a security wall to keep the terrorists out, but it's going nowhere fast. Large parts are still unbuilt and everyone and his uncle want it torn down in spite of the fact that it's actually working in the places it's been built. The terrorists just take advantage of the gaps and manage to get through. Yeah, alright, fewer than before the wall, but if we would just finish it, even fewer would get in.
Ok, enough for now.

EVERYTHING IS WRONG

2005-08-14T11:04:00.000+03:00

I think I'm beginning to understand why things are so fouled up here these days, and I have the weekend with Bat Chen to thank for the insight. She's young and has very little interest in current events, rarely watches the news. We got into it over the withdrawal and when I tried to tell her that Israel can not be considered an occupier for the simple reason that we did not instigate the war that left us with Gaza and the West Bank, rather, we ended up with them for the simple reason that Egypt, Syria, and Jordan attacked us and at the end of that conflict we were left with those areas and no matter what we offered short of dismantling Israel, Egypt and Jordan refused to take them back. She is also too young to remember that under our *rule* they ran their own lives, elected local officials, came and went with little trouble, worked here, and we shopped and visited there with no fear. Then, we made the biggest mistake possible. We agreed to let the Thugs from Tunis come here to be their legitimate leaders, rather than insisting that they be allowed to elect their own leader from the locals. It's our own fault the Tunis Thuds got here and started Intifadas 1 and 2 against us and wiped out any chance of coexistence between us. It is so true that memory is short about things like. The Intifadas have pretty much wiped out our collective memories of the time when things were more or less ok in those areas. The major problem was that noone wanted the West Bank and Gaza. What did they know that we didn't? They knew that if they could the Tunisian Thugs in as leaders, it would lead to the end of Israel. They were right and we not only allowed it, we encouraged it. Now we are paying for it, with the big last payment not far off. Some mistakes just can't be corrected, and this is one. Very few people remember, much less, talk about it. The brainwashing worked for the most part.
Bat Chen doesn't remember when we could shop and visit in the West Bank and brings the fear of terror with to the Israeli Arab areas which for the most part are as safe as can be. She was scared still when we had to stop a few meters from an Israeli Arab village, and was concerned enough about Cfar Yasif to even ask Aadel if it was safe for us to go there. She said that my reassurances are meaningless because I live in Kiryat Shemonah in direct defiance of the Hezbollah, so have no appreciation of her fears. The look on Aadel's face was priceless. Mine must have been too. She is completely clueless when it comes to current affairs, never mind local geography. Even Aadel got a lesson in local geography. He made a comment about Arab villages up here and I had to tell him that there are very few and named the closest. Yes, he was suitably impressed with my knowledge! At least we didn't get into the issues themselves. It's just that Bat Chen is an extreme example of the rest of the country. I just hope my lesson sticks. From past experience with her, she'll be quoting me verbatim within 2 days, and taking full credit. That's just fine with me. We both know where she got it. I just wish our *fearful leaders* would remember, and at least try to stop the run away train that is the withdrawal.
Netanyahu resigned from the Finance Ministry, and is doing all he can to turn things around, but even *he* is missing the point and not addressing the source of the problem. I might have to have a chat with him. Israelis need some remedial modern history lessons before things can have any hope of being fixed. So do the so called Palestinians who sold their future prosperity to a bunch of thugs who driven them into abject poverty and turned their children into suicide bombers and who feed them a steady of hatred, and taken away everything they had under our occupation. The elders who do remember it are too scared of the thugs to even think about it and the youngsters who don't remember it have been thoroughly indoctrinated to believe that we were evil occupiers, and those folks will never gut out from under those teachings. It's tragic that there's no way we can wait for the Thugs to die off naturally because the damage has been done and the next few generations will be brought up to believe what they have been taught, and the ones who remember will die and the truth will die with them, and those of us who do remember aren't allowed to and of course to the so called Palestinians we are satanic liars.
It hurts to live here during the period that will one day be known as the beginning of the end.

WORDS FAIL

2005-07-20T08:15:00.000+03:00

Imagine me speechless. Kinda hard, right? Well, it happened yesterday as I watched the news and realized just how insane our fearful leaders are. They are even more wacko than nuts behind the Waco Texas fiasco. Protesters against the withdrawal have been surrounded by the army and police in a village down south not far from the Strip. This to prevent them from marching to Gaza, and organizing there to thwart the withdrawal. Busses were stopped as far away as Kiryat Shemonah to prevent protesters from joining the main group at Netivot. Too bad I didn't know there was a bus leaving town for it. Had I known, I would have been on it. This is too insane for words. Every year at this time there is a celebration of the Babba Sali's life in Netivot where he's buried. This year it coincided with the withdrawal and it was planned that after the celebration, a march to Gaza would be held. The Powers That Be shipped every available cop and soldier south and they all linked arms and blocked the march. At some point they let them through and they all went into a village called Cfar Maimon where the cops and all locked them in and are refusing to let them out until they agree to be escorted (ESCORTED) home. It seems to me that there is something not quite right about this happening an a country that calls itself a democracy. Of course while this insanity is going on, the criminals are having a field day as there are no cops available to arrest them. They are all busy preventing the crime of protest by people who don't want to be forced from their homes by a lie. Of course these are the same people who wanted a referendum on the withdrawal, and who agreed to abide by it's results, as Sharon agreed to abide by the results of the vote in the Likud Central Committee, but didn't! That would be the very same Sharon who campaigned against this very plan but changed his mind no sooner than he won reelection and is now demonizing the people who were foolish enough to believe him and vote for him. And he dares call them the criminals in this. My head aches just thinking about it. Of course the media is doing it's best to help the bad guys by reporting that all the cops are out putting down the Jewish insurgents and thusly encouraging the crime wave, not to mention aiding and abetting the Hezbolla by telling them the army is spread thin up here. I'm expecting katyushas any time now. It's just too much.

DON'T BELIEVE HIM

2005-07-16T10:58:00.000+03:00

Abu Mazzen is trying to take back control of Gaza in an attempt to stop the Hamas from shooting kassam rockets at our settlements before the withdrawal. He's not having any noticeable success. It's obvious that all he wants is to consolidate his hold on the PA and get us out with as little trouble as possible. He can denounce terror as much as he wants, but, I don't buy it. Nor should anyone else. He's one of the old guard committed to destroying us one way or another. It was a colossal mistake to bring the Tunisian gang back after they'd been kicked out of every other place they were exiled to rather than insisting that the so called Palestinians who stayed put and were getting along with us just fine, be allowed to elect their own leadership from within. There is little to no doubt in my mind that had that happened, the so called Palestinians would have had their own State long ago and we would be getting along just fine and all the terror would never have been. It infuriates me that absolutely no one talks about this. It's a mistake we have to recognize and try to rectify. I'm not sure it can be fixed at this point. The terror gang is too well entrenched and even after the old guard dies off, the younger ones are poised to take over and continue. Things will not change unless the general population in the PA wakes up and kicks them out and demands the chance to run things *their* way and not the *Tunisian* terrorist way. Not much chance of that happening though. Things could have so different if only our government had not made that one unrectifiable mistake. Boy oh boy , was it a doozy!

BOOM GOES THE TERRORIST

2005-07-13T10:27:00.000+03:00

How not surprising that a terrorist blew himself up along with a bunch of innocent people on a crosswalk near the mall in Netanya yesterday. At least this time the group claiming responsibility had a new reason. He blew himself up in protest over the security wall that we are dragging our feet building. It had nothing to do with the Maccabia Games-aka- the Jewish Olympics. Yeah, right. Wanna buy a bridge? The wall bothers them because the purpose of the wall is to keep them and their bombs out. With any luck, this 'brave act of martyrdom' will give the Jerusalem jerks a push in the right direction.
I found it a bit ironic that this attack created even more disabled people who will be excluded from attending the games as all of us were this year. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that disabled folks wanting to attend the games would not be able to. No reason, just no access. I'm amazed that the various delegations didn't put a stop to that by refusing tp participate until us crips were allowed in. I wonder if they also banned the disabled delegates from the bridge collapse? I think I'll check it the gimp forum later. It also surprised me that the head crips didn't call for a demonstration outside the stadium. You betcha I would have hopped a bus and gone.
After days of hemming and hawing and saying that the London attack was not the work of suicide bombers, the Brits have now discovered that it was indeed their handiwork. It should come as no surprise that the PC police are carefully picking their way through a linguistic minefield to not use the words Islamic terrorists so as not to cause a backlash against the Muslim white hats. I'll also bet that yesterday's attack here strengthened Blair's idea that the solution to Muslim terrorists in Britain is peace here in Israel and that if the ragheads say the wall is an impediment to peace, we have to pull it down and let the ragheads blow us up at will. Somehow I miss the logic here. Give in to terror in one place and watch it blossom and grow world wide.
there was a bit of excitement on the northern border yesterday, but not in our area. The west got it, but no one was hurt. Nassralla wants to keep the border on a slow boil.
Our talking heads say it's internal Lebanese politics, but, again, as with most things here, I can't quite find the logic. The theory goes that the Hizzies want to prove to the Lebanese that are needed as an armed militia to keep us in line. Huhn? If keeping the border area simmering and generally causing trouble is what they think is a good way to show how and why they should no have to turn in their weapons and become a political only party, then, I miss the logic. If this were to happen in any other part of the world, they would have proven the exact opposite-why they should be disarmed. My head is aching. Nothing makes sense over here, or anywhere else.

LONDON ETC.

2005-07-11T08:27:00.000+03:00

In waiting to post my thoughts on the attack in London, Carolyn Glick beat me to again. You can read it here.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CarolineGlick/cg20050710.shtml
To say that I was horrified to see the carnage on Sky News would be putting it mildly. But hearing the running commenrary by the Sky reporters was almost as bad. Like maybe there was any doubt that it was a terror attack? I remember feeling the same disbelief even after the second plane hit the WTC and some Fox reporters were still in doubt. Of course it might just have been disbelief caused by the shock of it all, but after 9/11 and Madrid, there really couldn't be any doubt. Come on people. Then to hear Blair say that the solution to this kind of terror is an Israeli Palestinian peace agreement just about sent me round the bend. Is he not listening? The so called Palestinian idea of peace is no Israel and no Jews. Those jihadists have stated over and over that their goal is to make the whole world an Islamic empire and stamp out infidel democracy. The time to start listening to what they say is well past.
If the Spaniards think they are safe because they pulled out of the Iraq coalition, they can just wait until the jihadists decide it's time to terrorize them into doing things their way. It's not far off.
I suppose the French and Germans are congratulating themselves for being against the War on Terror as they haven't had an attack yet, but, they will, make no mistake in thinking their day won't come. They will soon be called on to appease their radical muslim population and if they don't do it quickly enough and to their complete satisfaction-BOOM.
There does seem to be a bit of sense being shown by the citizens of France and Holland who rejected the EU "constitution" which would have been a good vehicle for expanding the jihadist agenda in the long run by diluting the various countrie's ability to act independently on just about any issue affecting them.
Our news lot are too infuriating for words. Some of them are taking the Brits to task for not having as efficient an emergency response as we have. Few bodies have been identified and they actually seem to think that one agency or another will be able to find the perpetrators. Don't count on it. They are long gone, and even if you buy into the theory that it was the European branch of Al Quaeda, and that there's a chance the actual people who people who planted the bombs might be found, there's still the larger organiztion which is busily planning an encore. Those fantics want it all their way and won't stop until they either win or are wiped out. It's just that simple.

ORANGE IS NOT MY COLOR

2005-07-08T16:22:00.000+03:00

Orange is my least liked color. It does absolutely nothing for me. I just don't like it. But that isn't stopping me from wearing it and having orange streamers tied to Harley Too's mirrors. Orange is the color the soon to be evicted settlers chose to symbolize their struggle against Sharon's insane insistence on withdrawing from Gaza no matter what. The man is most certainly certifiably insane, as well as senile, and most likely in advanced stages of dementia. He just can't pass up an opportunity to attack the settlers who disagree with him with every vile, arrogant, untrue bit of invective he can dredge from the ruin of his mind. He also dares to claim that they/we are dangerous to democracy. Excuuse me? Democracy? In Israel? Sharon? He should be locked up for that alone. this is the man who swore he would never give up the territories in order to be elected. He was no sooner elected than he did a 180 and announced that there was no choice but to pull unilaterally out of Gaza. His party's central committee didn't like that one little bit and held a vote on the issue. Sharon promised to abide by the vote, then did another 180 and carried on all the while saying that he won the election and that was as much of a referendum as anyone needed. He of course completely ignored the annoying fact that he was elected only because he swore not to do what he is now hell bent on doing. Democracy? I don't think so.
If all that isn't enough, he attacks those who disagree with him on a daily, no, hourly basis. This insanity has been going on since the day he was reelected and rather than doing the right/correct/democratic thing and either having new elections or a referendum, he's going ahead no matter what. This in spite of the fact that very little has been done to ready new homes for the evicted settlers. There have been several demonstrations against the withdrawal, mostly pretty restrained. Last week there was an ugly incident where some hooligans spilled oil and ninja nails on a main junction. Of course it was the settlers, there's no doubt in spite of the fact that the criminals who did it have not been caught. Geee, it couldn't possibly have been the handiwork of provocateurs, could it? Of course most of the road blocking has been done by settlers from the West Bank(a much more radical bunch) who will soon be in the same situation as the Gazans.
We had a bit of a wild night up here in the north last week. My old pals the Hezbollah crossed the UN approved border and got caught. Both sides got in a shooting match and one of our soldiers was killed. And we got one of theirs. We can hear the artillery in town and Pegasus mostly ignores it. Suddenly there was a loud boom that sounded like a katyusha. Peg did his flying dog imitation and landed on me shaking all over. I called my reporter and told him. Peg is an infallible predictor of things going boom that shouldn't. The whole town was in a panic that katyushas were landing. The news reported that the shelters were open,(they weren't) and later we found out that the Katyusha was in fact a missile that fell off a helicopter(ours) and hit between a moshave called Margaliot and my old neighborhood in town. Pegasus still has his 100% rating. It was indeed something that should not have gone boom. Sometimes I just don't know why we bother. We get all worked up about the Hezbollah,(Nassralla is one leader you can believe, he has promised a day full of surprises on withdrawal from Gaza day, and I believe him) then shell ourselves by accident.
Israelis pride themselves on being politically savvy, we are, with a few exceptions a country of people who take sides for no good reason and with very little thought. It always amazes the locals that I can back up my opinions with facts and not emotion. Israelis are either Likud, (right), Labor, (leftish) or Meretz, (left) for the simple reason that their parents were. We/They have no idea where to go for accurate information which is needed to form an opinion. It's exhausting, it is.

ALMOST HAVE IT SORTED

2005-06-21T09:49:00.000+03:00

I've almost gotten the religion thing sorted in my mind. The operative word here is -almost- Hardly a day goes by without a new aspect popping up just to confuse me.
So, where do things stand now?
The Da Vinci Code sent me on this search, but the questions actually started with a radio show many months ago called Dark Matters when Don and Dwight brought Stichin's http://www.sitchin.com/ Sumerian aliens to my attention. The basic contention there is that an alien group arrived in Sumeria-a part of modern day Iraq and started the whole monotheistic thing which eventually to Judaism (there are indications in the Old Testament(New too) of angels (giants) that might well have been aliens. These aliens gave Moses the 10 Commandments and the rules by which Jews still live today, and lead people away from Nature Worship to the idea of One God, and morality. Ok, so far, so good. But who created these aliens who seemingly presented themselves as The Creator? Were they just messengers of the Higher Power, or did they find a primitive (by their standards) place and decide to shape and control our progress? Where does Jesus fit in here? Did something go wrong with the aliens original plan (The Law according to the Old.Testament)? Did they decide a new direction was needed, and did that go wrong too? There's not much of a case these days for the N.T. having done much better than the O.T. in helping us become more moral; rather the opposite. In fact more horrors were perpetrated in the name of Jesus than at any other time in the history of this planet. Is it all just a cosmic experiment to see what *we* can become? Have we been 'praying' to aliens these thousands of years? Are they (the aliens) just playing with us because they can?
I don't have definitive answers to any of my questions. In fact, I think it all boils down to personal belief at this point, and I doubt we'll ever really know. I do, however believe that Judaism is a better code of morality and that Christianity is as much a perversion of God's laws as the various radical sects of Judaism are. Everything any of us need to live *good* moral lives is right there in the O.T. for us to learn on our own without anyone else interpreting it for/to us. We have simply given up on taking responsibility for our own lives and handed that responsibility to interpreters-rabbis/ministers/priests/churches, and that is where we have all collectively gone wrong.
My take on it is that each of us is/should be struggling with personal issues of right and wrong, that this is the world we should be concerned with, not the hereafter, if there is one, and that trying to influence others of the *right* of our individual way is as bad if not worse than acting immorally.
I'm still turning all this over in my mind and the more I read and search, the more I am convinced that there must be,*is* an Almighty and that the Old Testament is the closest to *right* that this world has.
It's time for the A Team now, but I'm sure 'll be back with more wonderings on the subject.

WHAT GIVES ME THE RIGHT?

2005-06-15T13:07:00.000+03:00

I've been asked more than once what gives me the right to criticize our government. A comment to the effect that if things are so bad here, why don't I just pack up and go back to the States?
Well, the answer to that is pretty simple. Israel is home to me, and I love it in spite of the warts and other crap. I strongly believe that in order to fix things that are wrong, you must first define them, then look for solutions. Granted, I do my fair share, and possibly more of winging, but I am also looking for answers and want/hope to be part of changes for the better here. I *do* understand that there is nothing coming close to a consensus on what is wrong here, never mind how to fix it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to sit on my hands patiently waiting for universal agreement. One of our major problems is the "It will be alright" syndrome. People here just don't realize that in order to change things and make them better, it's not enough to wait for someone else to fix it. You have to be actively involved.
One of my favorite commentators said something to effect that we can not dismiss corruption at the top and take no responsibility for it ourselves. We elected them and keep on electing them knowing who and what they are. We really can't duck the issue by pointing to those higher up on ladder. It's as much our fault as it is theirs because we put them there and we and only we can change it. I end up saying that nonstop at election time, as well as in between. It just might be time to get more vocal and take another 1992 style shot at things. I wonder if the new paper would let me write a column. On the basis of 'charity' starts at home, I think I'll write up a piece on local issues and send it to the paper. Worst case-they circular file it.

THE BEST OF INTENTIONS

2005-06-11T10:26:00.000+03:00

I really truly intended to post here more often. In fact, just this past week I promised myself to pick a topic every day and post a few on that topic. Of course insane things (my life) diverted me. There's also the fact that I am weary of the crap going on here. Same old same old day after day. On the other hand, now that I've made up with Danny and Orna and rejoined the Sprinzak Parliament which meets every evening in Danny and Orna's yard and is made up of Danny, Orna, Shimon (Danny's brother) Yechiya (our beloved neighbor and electrician of choice) Albert, (neighbor) Lillian, (Albert's wife) Natan [(Danny's cousin or uncle) I get confused] and yours truly, and anyone else who happens by and has an opinion to offer, (we are nothing if not open to all) I just might start choosing the previous night's topic and expound on it here. We are all pretty my right of center and agree that things are going to hell in a hand basket here. Thursday's subject by default was kids and why they behave more like hooligans by the day. The quints across the path have been harassing me since I moved in and I try my best to ignore them. They have recently taken to yelling at me when I go out with Peg that I am a witch and fat. Yeah, but I already know these things, I don't need the neighborhood genetic accidents to remind me every time I go out. I'd been waiting for a chance to have a word with the mother, but I just never caught her at a good time. This is a supposedly religious family, which would usually mean that the kids are quiet and well mannered. Not this lot! On Thursday, Mamma heard them yelling and screaming at me as I rolled towards the parliament meeting and came out to drag the sorry parade to apologize to me. I told her in no uncertain terms that I detest kids and only want to be left alone and ignored as I ignore them. She agreed and with any luck they will knock off the obnoxious behavior.
The incident sparked off a long discussion of why kids are so out of control these days. There are junior high aged kids in school yards with knives, and group rapes in the news daily, and everyone is walking around shaking their heads and wondering what to do. The root of the problem is that parents don't have either the time or inclination to properly supervise their kids. It's too much work and interferes with their own free time, so kids do what they see on TV. There's also the fact that corpoal punishment at home and school is against the law and the kids know it. Add to that mix the Israeli parent's attitude that their kid is always right and you have a recipe for mayhem. Yes, it really is that simple. Parents are afraid to discipline their kids and teacher are not allowed to. Israeli parents expect the education system to do not only do their jobs, but to teach them everything they need to know, in such a way that the kids don't have to put any effort into learning. And people wonder what's wrong with the country. There you have it in a nut shell.
Add the rampant corruption at all levels of government to the mix and it all becomes clear.
The next session of Parliament is tonight, and I have every expectation to have some new subject for tomorrow's rant.

PARDON ME WHILE I BUST A GUT LAUGHING

2005-06-02T16:20:00.000+03:00

Oops-e-daisy! The EU referendum of the proposed constitution has been thumbs downed by France and the Netherlands. If it weren't so pathetic it would be uproariously funny. Trying to get so many countries to agree to a single constitution to unite so many countries into one union is about the dumbest thing I ever heard of. The United States did it almost 230 years ago, but only had 13 original states that had to ratify the U.S. constitution, over which the writers had many a fine verbal battle. That meant that the 37 states that joined the Union over the years had a ready made document to ratify, and one would assume that if things got as far as a ratification vote in the joining states, it was almost a given.
This whole EU thing seems to me to be the Europeans trying to copy the US 230 years late. It's a bit ironic that what they are trying to do is put together a solid block to function as a united body, much as the US is. If they want to do that, it might be a good idea to come up with a treaty/constitution that limits the EU's power and gives more autonomy to the individual countries, much as the US constitution is set up to do. The fact that the US Federal Government has usurped many of the States powers in direct violation of the constitution is beside the point. I would recommend the Europeans safe guard against that. I wonder when the Asians will get around to trying to do the same thing. If they ever do, it won't be long before someone gets the bright idea (not) of using the United Nations as a framework for a World Wide Governing Body. The mind boggles. Best get rid of the UN as it is today ASAP. That is one place even more corrupt than our government and the PA together. Now, *THAT'S* corrupt.

We released 400 P.A. prisoners today. It was kind of interesting to note that no Israeli prisoners were released from P.A. prisons. Could the reason for that be that there are none of ours there? Is it possible that they have no Israeli terrorists in their jails for the simple reason that there are no Israeli suicide bombers? Sure, we had Baruch Goldstein and Ami Popper and a few others, but Goldstein got killed during his rampage and WE put Popper in jail ourselves, just like we have anyone else caught so much as thinking about trying a few terror tactics on the P.A. Think about that for a bit.

SICK AND TIRED

2005-05-25T11:35:00.000+03:00

Our government is doing and excellent job of keeping me constantly infuriated. It's a never ending litany of insanity.
*They* are going ahead with the withdrawal from Gaza no matter what. That no matter what includes not having any place to put the victims-no housing ready-no alternative jobs-nothing. All those poor people, who sacrificed so much for us at previous governments behest only know that they are going to be removed from their homes(that are most likely going to be taken over by the family's of suicide bombers and terrorist chiefs due to arrive from Syria and other places courtesy of Abu Mazzen) and sent to live no one knows where. Where are their kids going to go to school? Where are they going to live? Work? What about the cemeteries? This is so typical of the Israeli attitude "it will be ok ("יהיה בסדר") when it obviously won't be farce that is our government gets more insane by the hour.
They commissioned a report on the education system that the only thing anyone involved agrees on is that there are major problems as things are now. They can't agree on what the problems are, never mind how to solve them. The Powers That Be accepted the Dovrat Report and the education minister is trying to move ahead with it but the teacher's union refuses to even discuss it. They know as well if not better than anyone that education stinks in the country and probably know as well as anyone what to do about it, but were there any educators on the Dovrat Commission? Of course not. There were just a bunch of economic/financial whizzes who came up with the bottom line style solution. So now both sides have dug in their heels and things are really ugly. The union is screaming for the minister's head because she managed to squeeze some money out of the finance minister to implement the Dovrat plan and the union is yelling that she kept it a secret from them in order to use it as leverage. Yeah, well, gee whiz, and this from the self same people who out of hand dismissed and refused to even discuss Dovrat. Of course that's just politics as usual and the lot in power now learned all these neat political tricks from the very people screaming about their own tactics being used against them!
Then there are the so called Palestinians who spent the last week or so shooting rockets at the Gaza settlements. About that we were treated to assorted excuses, among them that they were shooting because of internal Palestinian differences. Right, they are in disagreement among themselves so they shoot at us. Yup, makes perfect sense! Some of the comments coming from Hamas make me wonder if maybe they should take over from the Tunisia thugs. The same bunch of terrorists who got themselves kicked out of Jordan, only to wreak havoc in Lebanon from where they banished to Tunis only to be brought here to be hailed as the so called Palestinian great hope and promptly proceed to create a system of corruption and regressive depression to rival that of Saddamn with the world's blessing. Oh, the poor so called Palestinians, occupied as a result of a war started by their brethren, who under that occupation enjoyed unprecedented economic progress only to have it all turn into a nightmare by their newly imported leadership. That was the big mistake. Instead of insisting on a leadership from the locals we allowed the terrorists to come in and do as they pleased. Of course no one talks about it any more because it's too late. The corruption and hate keep pouring out and the poor people just don't know who or what to believe. I have little doubt that they, the people are sick and tired of a steady diet of terror and would gladly trade it for prosperity and peace even it means accepting the Zionist Entity as a neighbor. I almost feel sorry for them, as they have been lied to, stolen from and repressed by the very leaders they hoped would bring them independence and prosperity, but gave them the opposite. If the Yanks and Europeans would just get over themselves and take a good hard objective look at what's going on and let the so called Palestinians decide for themselves what they want, some progress just might be made in a positive direction. The terror and incitement must stop, as well as the corruption that is the P.A. Ok, I'll give the soapbox a rest and come back to it later. Of course there's more!

THE SOLUTION IS SO OBVIOUS

2005-05-18T10:37:00.000+03:00

I first realized this some 30 years ago, but, it got hidden in the back of my mind until it jumped out yesterday. The world hates us, the Jews? Ok, fine. They want us out of their precious countries? Ok, fine. Send 'em all to Israel, we'll be happy to take them, and I bet our fearless leaders would be more than happy to sign an binding agreement that we will never ever try to take over the world or interfere in any way. Of course, if they want to keep us quarantined where they can keep an eye on us, they'll have to call off the Arabs, who not only don't want us here, they don't want us anywhere on earth. Of course the downside to this is that they won't be able to blame the ills of the world on us anymore, but that surely is a small price to pay for getting all of us out of their hair? There might also be a bit of a problem with space for all the new immigrants, but I'm sure a solution to that can be found. Excuse me, but I have to go pry my tongue out of my cheek and I'm not sure where the crowbar is!

SHARON MUST BE STOPPED

2005-05-16T21:51:00.000+03:00

He's really going to do it and not even G-d can stop him, or so it seems right now. The whole thing is just too insane. Have we really come this far only to destroy everything we've built over the last 100 or so years by ourselves? Was it all in vain? Are we really that stupid? I guess we are, and that we deserve to be the generation to be remembered as the one that brought disaster on our people, all by ourselves. There *are* one or two voices of sanity in the wilderness that is modern Israel;Uzi Landau and Palmach Zeevi, and a few others. My major beef with the so called Palestinians is that they want it ALL and have done absolutely nothing except kill us to get it. Where is their infrastructure? Their school system only knows how to teach hatred of us as witnessed by their children's TV programming on their " National Day of Mourning" which is that same day as our Independence day. They are still preaching hatred of us in their media, and we are supposed to accept that and give them everything they want. They've been here long enough to have built up a decent school, health, and welfare system, not to mention democracy, but they preferred to listen to the power brokers in Syria, Iraq, Iran and the old PLO leadership, rather than plan ahead for the good of their people. It's sad, but sorry, I have no more sympathy for them. Instead of building something positive they put all their energy into destroying us. I *do* think that we possibly could have more to help them get on the right road to prosperity when we had direct control of the so called territories, before the PLO lot was allowed to come from Tunis. Just one of many missed opportunities. Arafart and his crowd should never have been allowed to come here. There are not a few so called Palestinians who remember that things were better before the terrorist thugs came back and instituted their corrupt regime. They won't say it out loud these days-it's too dangerous, but, in spite of our presence, they had free local elections. Does no one else find it odd that most of those elected back then were killed for collaborating with the Zionist Entity? Economically they were better off, then, the first intifada happened and things got bad for them. Gee? Wasn't there anyone there with the guts to do something about it? Obviously not. So, they have no one to blame but themselves for their situation. It's too bad that no one there stood up and said "We don't the thugs from Tunis, we want to elect leaders from within"
If they want to think that they accomplished something through terror, that's just fine. We know how much more could have been done if they'd chosen a different road. Maybe they'll figure it out one day, but, they'll never admit it.
It's just too sick to pull out of Gaza and turn the whole thing over to them for the families of suicide bombers and terror organizations from Syria and other places. Abu Mazzen already invited them but he's keeping a low profile on the proposed use of the abandoned homes and businesses. I just hope the evacuees find a way to destroy their homes in time. It's just too much and my Mind has gone into melt down. It's time go do some more thinking on my religion project. That's coming along nicely and should be in shape to write about here in a couple more weeks. It's a much more positive thing to ponder than the Sharon disaster.

A SCREAM IN THE DARK

2005-05-08T17:14:00.000+03:00

It's too much, way too much, and I don't know why we are expected to lie down and give in to something that is just plain wrong. Read the following and *then* you tell me if I'm paranoid or just plain nuts.

In the late 1800s-early 1900s Jewish pioneers started coming to Palestine with an eye towards building a Jewish homeland.
Land was bought for the purpose at full price from absentee landlords with money saved by Jews all over the world who turned it over to The Jewish National Fund for that express purpose. There were very few indigenous Arabs here at that time, though Arabs from 'away' started to arrive in order to take advantage of jobs the Jews could offer them. The Jewish settlers not only built communities on land purchased for them, they set up organizations that one day would be useful as a skeleton government for the fledgling state. The Histadrut served multiple purposes as union, health insurer, bank, and founded many of today's large businesses which were also employers. The largest building companies were once owned by the Histadrut as were many other large firms that have since been privatized. They also started school systems, and had a self governing committee that in 1948 became the first provisional government of the State of Israel. During all this time the Arabs did nothing, I repeat NOTHING for themselves except run crying to the Brits and before them to the Turks that there were too many Jews here and we were buying up all their land. Land that was sold for hard cash by absentee landowners. To this day they (the Arabs) have not done one single thing to prepare themselves for independence except to try to get to get rid of us with the help of the self same oppressors (landlords) who sold us the land right out from under indigenous villagers at times. They did not organize anything other than terror groups- no schools, no institutions to take over self government functions, no health insurance schemes, no industry, in short, they did nothing to put themselves in a position to be able to take over and run things for themselves. And NOW we should leave Gaza and give them what we have built so it can be turned over to the families of suicide bombers? I don't think so. We earned the right to be here by wresting the land from a condition of barrenness to fields, towns, cities, and prosperity. What have they done except try to get rid of us any way they can so they can just walk in and take over what we have built? Not a damn thing is what. Not that what we have done is perfect, far from it, and the next person who says we are a democracy in my hearing is likely to get hit upside the head, but we have built a functioning, relatively prosperous, viable, somewhat, almost, sort of democratic, state through our own vision and hard work. It still needs a lot of work and many tweaks, but they can't have it. When will the world wake up? Ah, hell. Go read Caroline Glick at TownHall.com she says it better. And I'm getting tired of railing at the wind.

KIRYAT SHEMONAH AND MORE

2005-05-07T11:55:00.000+03:00

Our lovely little city now has 3, count them, 3 free Friday newspapers. I use the term newspapers cautiously as only sort of deserves the term these days and it's owned by Hananiah Fahima which should come as no surprise to anyone in town. He managed to hire the services of a fairly good editor, a good reporter, a decent satirist, and a pretty good columnist. His timing was brilliant. The new paper debuted a couple of weeks before Passover, the traditional week for the other two papers to not come out. He also cut advertising rates to the bone and it looks like the battle is on. The Aloni (Meida 8) crowd who are already in trouble with their new illiterate editor and wannabe reporter won't be able to stay in the game much longer at the rate things are going. There is really only room for two papers in town and Meida looks like it's on the way out.
I adored the headlines in the new one. The police have recommended prosecuting our corrupt mayor! Yes! I've been waiting a long time for that, and if they don't prosecute, it will not be pretty around here. Ok, so Fahima has a bone to chew with our illustrious mayor, but everyone knows he's crooked, and at the least, things will be interesting. I think I'll dust off Bye Bye Barby in the hope it will be useful at some point. I might even translate it into Hebrew even though Bye Bye Birdie wasn't exactly a big hit here and not many will get the reference! I can still have fun with it.
The news last night about the so called Palestinian plans for the soon (maybe not) to be abandoned homes of the settlers in Gaza came as no surprise. They want to give them to the families of the suicide bombers in place of the homes we destroyed. They haven't exactly made a public announcement on the subject, but, it makes sense. It seems they think it will be a fine solution and prevent fighting among the factions over the abandoned property. What a great solution! Suicide bomber families side by side with the terror organizations Abu Mazzen has already offered Gaza to. When will the insanity stop? Why do I even bother to ask? It will stop when the world, especially this part of it, is Judenrein. Even as we prepare to pull out, they make no secret of the fact that it is just the beginning and that their ultimate peace plan is to get rid of Israel. They keep saying that they want to move ahead on the roadmap, but do absolutely nothing to move forward on the issues they agreed to. It seems that they want us to do our share and once we have, there will be no reason for them to do anything as we won't be here anymore. What really upsets me is that we are just sitting back and letting it happen. All based on lies Sharon is perpetuating. I've come to the conclusion that Sharon is seriously suffering from senility. I do not buy that he sees thing from 'there' that we can't see from 'here'. I think it's rather the opposite. I'm sure we all know how easy it is to manipulate a senile senior citizen, and I suspect that's exactly what happened here. At least *I* didn't vote Likud last time. The man gotta go, and we must stop the unilateral withdrawal. The only result of which will be more terror as it will be obvious to the other side that it works. Excuse me, but I thought that we were the country that NEVER negotiates with terrorists? I guess I was wrong big time.

ROLLING IN THE AISLE

2005-04-27T20:04:00.000+03:00

I guess it really is true that in order to live here, a reasonable level of insanity is a requirement. Ok, so Mubarek didn't bring Putin here for Ezer Weitzman's funeral, but then, our ever so thorough news coverage didn't bother mentioning anyone coming from Away. And Putin *is* arriving here today AND the reporters have already told us what will be said between him and Sharon. I guess I won't have to watch the news to see what actually happened. I already know! And that preknowlege has me rolling around in hysterical laughter. Putin is going to invite us and the so called Palestinians to hold peace talks under his (Putin's) auspices in Russia! Pardon me while I split a gut. Now there's a country with experience in peaceful endeavors! Yup! Right! On the other hand, it does make a lunatic kind of sense, like everything else here. It still infuriates me that Sharon is going to get away with his withdrawal from Gaza under fire yet. He is blind to the fact that Barak's heroic scarper out of Lebanon under fire is exactly what brought the terror into the very heart of the country, and that capitulation is just going to give the terrorists renewed hope that if they keep blowing us up, eventually we will unconditionally withdraw from the whole country. All of a sudden I'm not laughing any more. The worst part is that we deserve it. Israel is nominally a democracy, sort of, one that is rotten from the top and which has an electorate that just never learns. We keep on accepting the same old crap and do absolutely nothing to change it. We whine and moan and groan, but that's it. We accept it as our lot and will pay dearly for it unless a miracle happens. The spoiled, selfcentered people of this country wouldn't know a democracy if it walked up to them and introduced itself. The evility trickles down to all of us from the top. We want what we want when we want it-NOW and the hell with anything that looks like it might get in our way. I'm too tired and angry to be coherent now, so, I'll leave it and get back to it another day.
Last night while watching the news I realized something about armies and how their soldiers march. The less democratic the country, the closer to goosestepping their soldiers march. Syria's army was leaving Lebanon with an almost goosestep stiff legged march. I've noticed that about a few other totalitarian countries armies as well. Saddams thugs marched that way too, as do the so called Palestinian *police* Maybe more attention should be paid to military marching? Hum, something to think about?

EZER WEITZMAN

2005-04-25T18:23:00.000+03:00

We've only had 7 presidents since the country was established, and the presidency doesn't exactly come with powers like in the US, but, for the most part, we love and respect our Presidents, and want to see them get the honor they deserve. Ezer Weitzman, was perhaps our most controversial President, while at the same time the best loved. He died last evening at the age of 81 after a full and meaningful life. He was the man who was most responsible for making our Air Force one of the best in the world and the architect of it's success in 1976. After leaving the Air Force as it's commanding officer and joining Menachem Begin in Herut, (today's Likud) he left Begin's government for ideological reasons, and moved to the left. He started in the Irgun or Etzel (my memory fails and I'm too lazy to go looking right now) and moved leftward over the years. He met with Arafart when it was still very much against the law to meet with anyone from the PLO. While he was president he made it a point to visit all the families whose soldiers were killed while in service, and made it a point after leaving the presidency to visit every single family of the soldiers killed in the helicopter crash, over 70 different families. He often said somewhat odd and seemlingly inappropriate things in public, yet was admired by most. I met him once quite by accident when he was at one of the local shopping malls. I had no idea he was even in the area, and blithely rolled into the mall, only to be stopped in my tracks by Naomi Porat who was with Mr. Weitzman and his wife. Naomi introduced me to them and we chatted for a minute or two. Their warmth and caring were impossible to miss and Reuma was interested in how I ended up in a wheelchair and asked how I was getting along here. Naomi said she'd tell more about me later and that I'm one of the area's better known activists and a fervent Zionist. I left the encounter in awe of those two people who had done so much for the country, and feeling very fortunate to have met them.
One thing which greatly displeases me is that the Egyptian President, who also supposedly admired him didn't tell Vladimir Putin who will be visiting him in Egypt on the day of funeral that, he, Mubarek, is going to the funeral and that Vlad is welcome to share his plane/helo/whatever. As things stand now, neither are coming and that puts the two of them down at gutter level in my eyes. The one thing I do not to see is any statement of condolence from either of them.
As a country we will miss Ezer Weitzman. Very few, if any, have done more for the country than he did.

THIS CAN NOT BE GOOD

2005-04-17T19:13:00.000+03:00

I am speechless at the audacity of the so called Palestinians, and I don't understand why; after all it'd their SOP, and I know they won't be satisfied until we are gone. There was a demonstration there today demanding that we release ALL the so called Palestinians from our jails. They're probably going to give the homes and business we are leaving in Gaza to them, so the leadership that will be moving there from Damascus will have an experienced, ready made cadre. Is it possible that the rest of the world just doesn't get it, or, is it that they want us gone forever because their lives just aren't as comfortable with us as they think they'd be without us? Of course we, ourselves, are doing a great job of digging our own graves. Removing our settlers from Gaza is utter insanity, and in direct opposition to any meaning of peace I've ever encountered. At the very least, the so called Palestinians should trade the *Triangle* including Wadi Ara for Gaza. The major problem with that is that the people who live there would much rather be part of the Zionist entity and can claim to their so called Palestinian 'brothers' that they can work to get rid of us from the inside. The problem with that is that, while they might want us gone, they do not want the PA running things.
Abu Mazzen is not exactly going out of his way to disguise the fact that he is no more than Arafart's left over right hand. While simultaneously claiming that we are in violation of everything they think of, they themselves do absolutely nothing they previously agreed to, and demand that we do and give more while they just sit and wait to get as much as they can so they can go right back to full scale terror attacks, and so get rid of us. Polls show that the every day so called Palestinian is sick and tired of the violence and is beginning to realize how much it has cost them not just in terms of life and property, but in terms of health, welfare, and prosperity. Some of them have even noticed how well their 'brothers' have it here and are starting to figure it out. Corruption may be rampant here, but they have taken it to new levels in the PA, and their people are figuring it out. I'm still hoping against hope that the withdrawal won't happen, and as usual, Caroline Glick said it better than I ever could.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CarolineGlick/cg20050416.shtml

GLICK SAYS IT BEST

2005-04-10T09:34:00.000+03:00

She did it to me again! Caroline Glick, the J.Putz(Jerusalem Post) editor had a piece in Garthwaite's daily dispatch that says it all, and better that I ever could. You can read it here: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CarolineGlick/cg20050409.shtml She has, as usual, hit the nail on it's head. Too bad so few are reading it here.
I woke up to news reports that one of the most wanted terrorists is broadcasting from Temple Mount that we are going to destroy the Temple Mount and their rotten mosque up there. His broadcast is no less that a call to arms to defend their ever so holy place. Some of our lot were planning to go up there and do 'who knows what' but the Powers That Be(but shouldn't) have deployed Police units to keep Jews off the place. Right, we are going to damage/destroy it. It was our renovation of Solomon's Stables into a huge mosque that caused cracks in the foundations. Tragically it *was* our religious establishment that forbade Jews to go there after we liberated the Old City in 1967, and our very own government that went along with it, rather than declaring that whether to go up there is something that each one us should decide for ourselves, and not caving in to a bunch of rabbis. The justification for Jews not being allowed up there is that it is the holiest of Jewish places and our presence there would be a profanity. Like having a mosque there isn't? Again, it goes right back to my contention that Judaism is about personal choice, not rabbincal rule.
My thing against the rabbis might well be interpreted as making me anti religious, and therefore, open the way to the argument that if I'm so against rabbincal interference, how can I justify our right to be here. Not so. It actually strengthens my argument. The Bible itself gives us the right to be here, and it also makes it crystal clear to me that each and every one of us is responsible to ourselves and G-d(no middle men or arbitrators) for how we live our lives, those of us who come to things independent of rabbis, as well as those who won't do a thing without their rebbe's blessing. G-d gave us this land thousands of years ago, and by our own actions we managed to get ourselves kicked out twice and are heading straight for a third dispersion. We will have earned it, if we don't take a time out and do some soul searching, and stop playing into the hands of our enemies, which leads me right back to Glick's article.
I'm still holding on to the ridiculous hope that Sharon's evacuation of Gaza won't happen. It's just too insane in light of Abu Mazzen's invitation to the Syrian based terror groups to move their operations to Gaza once we are gone. The misconception that he wants reform and peace is going to cost not only us, but the whole world dearly. It might be easier to just hand over the keys and leave, but, of course, there's no place to go. We are unwanted everywhere, so, I guess all I can do is hold and pray and write about it. (not that any one takes any mind of my blatherings)

NAUGHTY AT FUNERAL

2005-04-09T20:32:00.000+03:00

I would have expected such behavior from third graders, but not even from them at a funeral, never mind the Pope's. Our purely ceremonial (and useless) President Katzav was almost, but not quite the better behaved of those involved. Ok, so he shook hands with Assad the son and with Khatami of Iran, where Katzav was born. So far so good and only to be expected. The problems arose from Katzav's childish hurry to put out an official press announcement on the hand shakes. This rush to tell all resulted in a denial by Assad's handlers and a very angry Sharon. What Sharon had to be angry about, I do not know. Katzav was in a position where to not shake hands would have been rude, not to mention surly. We are talking about three grown men at the Pope's funeral, one of whom had to run and tell the world. He really should have known that the smart thing to do was tell Sharon, then, decide whether or not to tell. It's too bad no pictures of the moment have been released. Assad has turned it into an infantile case of "It never happened" Now go prove it did. Ah, both Assad and Khatami are now denying it happened. How stupid, and disrespectful of the Pope. After all, this Pope was more open to Jews and Muslims than any other. So what if they shook hands with Katzav? This Pope was the first ever to go to a mosque and a Synagogue. Come on, children. Act your ages, and if you can't, stay home. Some people just can't be taken out in public.
On a local note: the idiot editor and intrepid reporter of local gossip rag infamy, did it again. In trying to prove how smart and with it they are (not) they put a caption under a picture of an overturned Hummer that said Under the Hammer........Hebrew is written without vowels, so Hummer and hammer are actually spelled the same. The problem is that Hebrew word for hammer is patish, and they used patish. I am going to have so much fun with that next week in town. In trying to show how smart they are, they proved the exact opposite! It's sad to watch that paper get more unreadable every week. It used to be THE PAPER, but, the other one is adding a page or two every week, which says it all.

WE ARE LOSING IT

2005-04-07T09:36:00.000+03:00

It infuriates and saddens me that we are so anxious to be a part of the Western culture at all cost that we are happily appropriating Western Cultural icons as our own. Way back in the Dark Ages, when I was growing up, a Jew would never ever send flowers to a Jewish funeral. We have our own traditions for mourning, traditions that focus more on life than death. We also did not cross our fingers, hearts, or anything else as those are direct references to the cross. The same cross that is referred to in the expression "knock on wood" which we also never used. Israelis have no such qualms, as evidenced by the widespread use of funeral wreaths even by government officials. The latest thing I've noticed is that many cars sport stickers on rear windscreens that say "no fear" I've been wondering if that is yet another adaption of the Catholic Pope's Fear Not. When I first saw them I thought is was just the Israeli driver's way of thumbing his nose at the statistics that say he is 300 times more likely to die in a car crash than any other way. Now, I think it might be yet another Christian thing we have adopted, and I bet that not one of the idiots who have on their cars know why or where it came from. I get absolutely furious when I hear "We'll keep our fingers crossed that Maccabi wins" from sportscasters on TV. By our thoughtless use of what have become secular expressions the world over, we are losing the uniqueness that gives the right to be here. I am NOT saying that we should all become Ultra Orthodox, but I DO wish we would give things more thought before mindlessly taking on things that are so not ours. And yes, I do often mention it to repeat offenders, complete with explanation. Just like I correct anyone who mispronounces my town's name in my presence....including Ariel Sharon, who has been corrected twice that I can remember. Minor irritations in the great scheme of things, but that's how the big things happen, or in the Hebrew-All because of a small nail.הכל בגלל מסמר קטן

JUST WHO DOES RICHARD GERE THINK HE IS?

2005-04-05T21:09:00.000+03:00

The audacity of the man is nothing short of breathtaking. He actually has the nerve to come here and try to make peace between us and the so called palestinians? By what authority? I really don't like the man. I have no time for that kind of arrogance. Is he angling for the Nobel (ignoble) Peace (piece) prize or to be the second actor to be elected President of the US. If it's the latter, using this as an opening move in his campaign is stupid to say the least. What understanding of the issues can he posibly have to let him think that he has any part of the answer to things over here? Or is he actulally arrogant enough to think that an outside Hollyweird perspective is what's needed? Ach, who knows what goes on in the mind of a guy like him? I don't, nor do I want to. The only thing with Gear in the title that I'm interested in is Top Gear Extra with Jeremy Clarkson, and his crew! IN fact, I'd rather like to hear what Jezza himself thinks on the subject. He'd most likely have us holding our sides in laughter all the way through the signing of the agreement.

THE POPE AND FOX NEWS

2005-04-03T16:46:00.000+03:00

Fox News really did a good ruining one of the most important events of our time. Their coverage of the Pope's death was a nightmare of over kill. They had people talking nonstop about things they knew very little about, with a few experts scattered in. It's too bad they couldn't have covered it more like Sky News did. Sky pretty much went on with news as usual with a runner about the Pope at the bottom of the screen. During the time I watched Sky they didn't have a commentator on the scene saying things that in the end turned out to be inaccurate to say the least. The Fox guy kept saying that when the Pope died the lights in his apartments would be turned out. They weren't. Nit picky as that may be, it was much worse when they declared him dead because they heard a Sky producer mistranslating a Vatican statement on air. The nonstop coverage with a runner about other news. It would have been much better had they done it like Sky. It was frustrating, to say the least to hear someone trying to translate The Lord's Prayer from Latin to English. Heck, even *I* know it by heart(in English and Hebrew) and to hear such a bad partial translation was painful. They also frequently misused terms like Papacy and Pontificate. Fox *is* known for it's lax linguistic standards, but they should have made the effort to at the very least not let their reporters sound like total ignoramuses. Now we'll have to suffer through their half assed reporting of the funeral and the conclave. In the best tradition of modern news services they are already into the prediction business, trying to guess who the next Pope will be. I guess that's pretty inevitable, but I would much rather see them do short biographical pieces on the Cardinals and let us speculate based on that. At least the Catholic commentators they are bringing in, refuse to speculate on that.
For those of you out there who don't believe in G-d or the Deity (either the traditional Biblical Deity or the 'Alien one), I'd like to point out that the late Pope was too much the right man at the right time for his election to have been other than the Hand of The Deity at work. Pope John Paul II could not have been other than divinely inspired. That is not to say that I think the Christians got it right, but that he was such a good man that even if what he believed was based on a man made mistake, it matters not a whit. He was a truly good man and made a difference while he was here.
Bush's statement was the best I've heard so far and I doubt if anyone else will come close to his eloquence on the passing of the Pope. Laura looked like she was on the verge on tears while her husband spoke. I must admit that I went a bit beyond the verge while Bush spoke.
It *has* been interesting listening to personal stories of people who met the Pope especially in light of what my children said after they saw him here. Both were among the Police who secured his trip to Galilee in 2000 and they both felt his power. They were both within touching distance of him different times and I'm sure they will never forget it.

THE POPE IS DYING

2005-04-02T10:05:00.000+03:00

The pope is dying, and in spite of my feelings for Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular, it saddens me. This Pope was a wonderful man, one of the few, if not only, truly good men in our time. Ok, so I think his belief is based on a huge deception, but, not a bad one in and of itself. He tried to correct so many things his predecessors did, and succeeded in most areas. He was a brave man who lived his beliefs, and in my opinion possibly was as close as anyone can get to a living example of how Jesus meant for people to live. Even this close to death. There are so few truly good people on earth. He will be missed.
Thinking about him and my 'take' on the Church, brought me to the idea that most post monotheistic religions are pretty much some form of continuation of the premonotheistic *pagan* ones, with maybe one exception, but that exception pretty much depends on the whole Sumerian 'alien' issue. There have been findings by Stitchin that indicate that things might have been given push in a direction that lead to Judaism and a religion based on ethical behavior, a set of 'rules' that tell us how to live as 'good' people. I still think things got twisted through the early years of Christianity by men who were looking for a road to power and a way to control people. The independent aspects of Judaism had to be changed and a middleman inserted. People just can't be trusted to figure out for themselves what the right thing to do is. Then, there's the whole female/goddess issue. It seems there might have been a slight mistranslation and that Eve was not created from Adam's rib, but was his other side, which would make the Feminine an equal partner in everything. Premonotheistic religions had as many goddesses as they did gods. In fact it seems that goddesses dominated in areas of the world where agriculture was prevalent, and gods, where hunting was the way of life. As to the issue of human sacrifice, it is possible that there was very little of that back then, and that with a few possible exceptions, it was inserted by recorders of religion to make a point. I'm still reading and thinking, and know I will never be a theological expert, but I *do* want to learn more and come to my own conclusions. It's going to be bumpy, but interesting ride.

I DO WONDER AT TIMES

2005-03-31T21:24:00.000+02:00

And the Yanks think *they* are having judicial issues? Our, every ready, willing, and able(?) Supreme Court ruled on an old bone of contention between the Religious and Secular factions today and have the Religious up in arms and looking for ways to get around it. The Who is a Jew question gets taken out and dusted off for a few more rounds in the ring of public contention every now and then. Today the Justices added their .02 shekels(at a sn exchange rate of 4.32 shekels to the dollar) worth to the issue. They ruled that anyone who underwent a Conservative or Reform conversion is eligible to move here under the Law of Return. The Law of return basically says that any person who was born of Jewish parents, or underwent an Orthodox conversion, or had at least one Jewish grandparent can move here and be granted citizenship under the law of return. The Religious lot have problems with that formula, but as it's pretty much the same one Hitler and his crowd used to decided if someone was Jewish, they don't make too much noise about it. They *do* make very difficult for any one who comes here under the 1 grand parent part of the rule. Not over civilian issues, but over religious ones, like marriage, and burial and how they are listed in the 'nationality' clause. Judaism is passed on through the mother for the simple reason that the mother is always known.
Ok, so, now anyone who was converted can come here under the law of return, and walk straight into the Black Suit crowd's insanity. They care not a bit that it is strictly forbidden to remind a convert that he was once not Jewish.
The way I look at it is; if someone wants to be Jewish enough to go through a conversion of any type, and be known as Jew for the rest of his life, then in my eyes he's as Jewish, if not more so than one who was born to it and never really did anything to be so considered. A convert went through the whole thing for what were for him good enough reasons that were accepted by a Rabbinical Court of which ever movement he chose. Who are the Black Suits to say he is any less Jewish than I am? I do realize that it is a sensitive issue, but really, there are limits.
Terri Shiavo died today. I am sad that things ended up the way they did and that she was allowed to be killed in such an inhumane way. Whether her husband was right or wrong, there is no doubt in my mind that courts should have erred on the side of life. This could lead to some very scary things in the future. And don't any one dare use the words mercy killing in my presence. It was so not merciful.
I am slowly reading my way through The Secret Of The Code and finding things I have to think about on every page. What a book! It will take a long time to assimilate it all and be able to express my new insights. I want to take it nice and slow so as to not miss anything. It brings so many different aspects together in a way I've never run into before. Pagan, to Biblical, which leads right into modern day theology. I'm thinking all the way through and turning new ideas this way and that way when not reading.

THIS COULD GET UGLY

2005-03-31T09:30:00.000+02:00

It is so true that the more things change the more they stay same, so it looks like the French got at least one thing right. The so called Palestinians had a so called democratic election [as if an Israeli would know a democratic election from any other kind, (but more of that another time)] Abu Mazzen is just Arafart *B* and can't/won't do any thing about cleaning up the terror infrastructure. This is a recurring theme here, but true none the less. It seems that our lads gave his lads some intel about a group in Tulkarem that was planning an attack and the name of the perpetrator of the last one in Tel Aviv was on the list. The intel was passed on to Abu Mazzen who did absolutely nothing about it. Ooops. Our talking heads figure that he's scared to take on the big bad groups, who are threatening him. His best bet for survival is to get rid of them. But, don't hold your breath.
The Yanks are even saying (if quietly) that he's not doing enough to keep his end of what he is expected to do to insure forward movement on any peace plan. Has anyone told the Yanks about his promise to the terror groups presently headquartered in Damascus? That alone should be enough to get him a high placement on the Bad Guys List. And lest we not forget, Assad has said he'll take his troops out of Lebanon. Does that include the Hezbolla? Of course not. They have to stay there to keep things off balance and accuse us of interfering. Nasralla loves to talk about how keeping Lebanon in turmoil is in our interest when it blatantly is not.

I'm not going to redo my whole Christianity is a huge mistake theory here, but there have been a few revisions to it since I started reading the companion book to The Da Vinci Code, The Secrets Of The Code by Dan Burstein. There's nothing there to change my mind that Christianity is pretty much a hoax perpetrated on it's faithful by strong man tactics by those who became powerful enough in the movement to hide certain relevant facts concerning Jesus and Mary Magdalene. I am still convinced that Jesus did not preach anything against Judaism, but rather, was trying to get things back on track and his disciples had to make drastic alterations to get membership up. It also makes perfect sense to me that he WAS married to Mary M. What has changed is that I now think that the early church did everything in it's power to reduce the role/power of women in religious life. There seem to be indications that women were central to what Jesus was teaching, and that the now common perception of G-d as masculine is just plain wrong. To me it makes much more sense that the Devine is a union of opposites-male AND female. Come on people, even men realize that things pretty much come to a grinding halt without BOTH genders, in vitro not with standing The old time pagan religions worshipped the goddess as well as the G-d. Someone way back then, in the earliest days of Christianity decided that one way to move folks from the Pagan ways would be to deny the feminine, and exclude women from central roles in the emerging Church. Was it a conspiracy as Dan Brown seems to think? My mental jury is still out on that one, but might come in with a verdict by the time I finish the book. In keeping with my belief that 'there are no coincidences or accidents' it is just possible that odd twists and turns of emerging Christianity are part and parcel of THE PLAN. The basic tenets of Christianity are, after all, grounded in our Torah. Things start to fall apart when the Jews of that time refused to take on the new twists to their beliefs, and have been refusing to ever since. For most of the time since then we have pretty much sat by quietly practicing our religion, and refusing to be converted. It's only recently that we've gotten a bit rambunctious on the world political/religious stage. The one thing we all pretty much agree on is the Jesus WAS Jewish. The rest is open for discussion.

PLAYING CATCH UP WITH MYSELF

2005-03-25T22:40:00.000+02:00

I haven't been keeping up here for reasons that can be found in Gimp House, but that should be over now, and with any luck, I'll be able to post here more or less regularly. There were three topics I wanted to write about yesterday, but got sidetracked before I got to them. With my luck at least two of them could result in a visit from the Security Service types!
Back on the night Rabin was killed, crocodile Dundee was on TV and I had to leave for my ride to work. I figured I'd get there in time to see the end. By the time I got there, the news that Rabin had been shot was on and for obvious reasons, no more movie. I never did get to see the end, until last night. I caught up with the movie about half way through, and watched avidly to get to part that was on when I left. As can only happen to me, I found that I left home a whole two minutes before the movie ended, so, in effect, missed nothing. After almost 5 years, that was a bit odd. I'd had seeing how that movie ended parked on the back burner of my mind foe so long that it was a bit of a surprise to find out that I hadn't missed anything at all.
I am very thankful that I live here now and not in the States. They have lost it there. A country that gives credence to PETA and takes animal rights more seriously than those of woman is not the place for me. Terry Shiavo is being starved to death because her husband wants it that way. I am very sorry, but as long as there is no conclusive up to date medical information on her state and she is breathing on her own, HE is the one who should be starved. As long as one medico says there's a chance at some rehab for her, she should be fed, and treated. The damages award her husband got should be taken from him and transferred to her parents. The whole thing is too insane to contemplate. She may have said that she did not want to be kept alive machines, but she IS breathing on her own and a feeding tube IS NOT a machine. Come on, people. Give her a chance.
There was one more subject I wanted to have a bit of a rant on, but I can't recall what it was at the moment.

FLUMMOXED

2005-03-22T09:27:00.000+02:00

I absolutely do not understand the Eurosport sites' results of the World's ladies championship. In one place, they have Kwan as Bronze medalist, but all the articles say Kostner won bronze and Kwan was left off the podium. The medal *was* given to Kostner (I saw it myself) but the points have Kwan winning it by a fraction. Ah, well. It doesn't really matter. It was a great competition and Slutzkaya was wonderful.

Things are as insane as ever here. The Likud is driving themselves and everyone else crazy with their pre budget vote antics. The MKs don't seem to grasp that if they topple Sharon, very few of them will keep their seats after the election. It scares me to think that Peres and his lot might take over. One of the Likud lot actually came out against the disengagement and blasted Sharon for the way he is demonizing the settlers who were sent there by the government, and now are being thrown to dogs by the very people who sent them there. Is it any wonder that they are so bitter? Instead of the support and recognition the deserve, they are scorned,cursed, and made to feel like criminals for demanding that Sharon keep his word to them and the whole country. This goes on even as Abu Mazzen tells the terrorist leaders in Damascus that after the Jews leave, they can set up headquarters in Gaza. Doesn't much sound like he's going to disarm or disband them.
Folks up here are starting to get jumpy when there's a loud noise they can't immediately identify. Shades of the good old days when there more katyushas than birds in the sky. The Syrians as well as Abu Mazzen are getting a lot experience playing Arafarts game-tell them what they want to hear, the do what they want to do, and so on and on and on.
And now Kofi Anan is playing it too. He wants to reform the UN and the things he's proposed look like a good way to up the obfuscation factor there. A more corrupt, ineffective international band of semi legal thieves is all they are and they are planning their long term re entrenchment as I type.
I've pretty much come to the conclusion that the Europeans major trouble is that they miss the power they once held on the world stage, and that in spite of the fact that they went through WWll against German's, they missed the point. They didn't learn that the worst thing to do is to give into unreasonable demands. They will be against whatever the US wants simply because it's the US and they resent having lost their power and having been helped back to their feet by the US after the war. I guess we'll have to go through it yet again, and of course, they, the EU will learn nothing from it another time. It's true, the more things change, the more hey stay the same. Quell domage. And damn the French anyway.

IT HAD TO HAPPEN

2005-03-20T12:45:00.000+02:00

It seems the folks at Worlds made a minor booboo and Kwan won bronze, bumping Kostner down to 4th place. They awarded the medal to Kostner in the ceremony. It seems a bit stupid to do that before the results are properly calculated. There's only a small difference in their scores; less than one point. I was hoping Kwan would get bronze, but, in truth, Kostner deserved it by a small margin. How in the world did a mistake of that magnitude happen? The scoring system is supposedly computerized and the results should have come up in the proper order.

I completely misunderstood that promo for the Israel 1 news. They did an interview with Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers infamy, and it was a revelation. The man should still be in prison for what he did back then. He is dangerous. On one level I can understand being against ALL war, but that only works if EVERYONE ELSE IS TOO. Wouldn't it be lovely if there was no more war or need for armies? If only; but as long as there are bullies out there like Saddamn, Assad,Bin Laden, and Nassralla, we don't have that luxury, nor will we for a long time to come. Ellsberg claims that Bush et al lied to the American people and the whole world about the need to go into Iraq, and that he thinks the Yanks will never leave. His contention is that it took 10 years to get out Viet Nam and thy didn't have oil, so, how much longer will it take to leave Iraq, which does? Of course the Iraqis would be better off under Saddamn than in the position of struggling to become a democracy. Dictators are ALWAYS better, as long as they only do bad things to their own people. Sorry, not buying it. Lots of Iraqis were killed during the takeover, but how many were murdered and tortured by Saddamn and his sons? Get over it, people. The bad guys gotta go. The ever so wonderful Europeans are against the US, and some (spain) have run away in the face of terror. Does anyone there really think that has made them safer in the long run? Of course not. Rule # 1; NEVER GIVE IN TO TERRORIST DEMANDS. Did no one over there learn that the best way to get the playground bully to leave you alone is to stand up to him? Come on, people, how many times do they have to tell you that they want to dominate the world and turn everyone into good little obedient muslims before they figure out they mean it. Are the Europeans really so petty as to believe that in light of their loss of influence worldwide, the US is evil incarnate because their influence is greater? If so, they, the Euros are just a bunch of whiney, snot nosed losers who not only lost, but refuse to acknowlege it. Many countries in the EU are already faced with muslim pressure from with in. If they don't wake up PDQ, it will be too late, if it isn't already

TEARS OF JOY

2005-03-19T17:34:00.000+02:00

I'm not quite sure why I'm posting about Worlds here, but maybe it's because even in figure skating, there's no getting away from political intrigue. The ladies Free was better than I could have hoped for. Kwan didn't make it to the podium by one place only, but Slutskaya wiped the ice with the others. She was brilliant and I still get choked up when I think of it. To come back from she went through over the last few years and win Worlds so resoundingly was a joy to watch. And even more wonderful for her, in her home town. Well done, Irina. I'm thrilled for you. Sasha Cohen(USA) silver and Carolina Kostner (Italy) bronze were just right too. I'm a bit sad for Kwan, but, she just didn't skate that well and to be in 4th place isn't the end of the world. I like her a lot and her skating is lovely to watch. All that's left now is the gala tomorrow, then back to normal(?)!

It was most interesting to note the Russians were all wearing new Russia jackets. AND the soldiers were no where to be seen. Does the new incarnation of the KGB read my blog, or was it noticed by others?

Our Chief of Staff, Boogie Ayalon had a go at Sharon and Mophaz on the subject of the dastardly duo not extending Ayalon's tour for an extra year, as has been customary. There has been a lot of speculation on the subject, and I'm afraid I agree with those who say it was because a YES man is wanted for the withdrawal and Ayalon had to go because he tells it like it is and not they way S&M want it to be. This does not bode well for the army or the country.

There was an promo on just before the news flash at 1700 for the news tonight. From what I caught, an American *expert* of some kind was analyzing the Sunday Times assertion that we have American permission to implement plans for wiping out Iran's nuke program. The bit they showed had the *expert* saying that we should go to the press before the bombs start falling, rather than while they are falling. I have a better idea. Let's just e mail the plans to the Iranians in the hope that the plans will be enough to scare them out of continuing? My post on the subject is one of the lost posts, and I have no intention of trying to recreate it, other than to add that I wondered then, and wonder now why the Brits printed it? The French and/or Russians I could understand their motive, they have direct financial interests in the Iranian nuke program. BUT THE BRITS? Too bad their G notices only apply to their own government secrets. They might want to expand it to include their allies.