Condi Does Olmert, Bringing Back Saddam, Livni Funs Up Justice

Condi Does Olmert

The sound of one hand clapping was heard throughout Israel today as Condi (can anyone tell me where this woman's mind went after she went to the state department?) told Olmert how much she appreciated the restraint Israel has shown in the face of the Hamas love rockets (translation: we really like you guys to be a pathetic helpless punching bag so our Arab buddies don't get too pissed off at us for screwing up royally in Iraq). No word if she also expects Olmert to "take one for the team" as far as Iran goes in order to help US intelligence (an oxymoron?) pinpoint the nuclear launching sites. Wonder how real estate development works post nuclear incineration?

Bringing Back Saddam?
In a piece in The National Review, James S. Robbins waxes nostalgic over the possibilities and implications of saying, "Oops, my bad" and bringing Saddam and his Baathist buddies back for an encore.

"The rumor that the U.S. has been backing Saddam all along has been out there in one form or another since 2003. It was originally intended to delegitimize the presence of Coalition forces, particularly among the Shiites. We overthrew him, but are keeping him around in case we need him, in case the Shiites grow too powerful. The notion has been hawked by the Iranian press for years, most recently this week in the Tehran Times. The story line is familiar — the U.S. fears a Shiite majority in Iraq that will pursue friendly relations with Iran. The answer is to overthrow the democracy and place the Baathists back in power. “The secret visit to Baghdad by US Vice President Dick Cheney and former secretary of state James A. Baker, who is currently the chairman of the Iraq Study Group, is part of the conspiracy,” the Times speculates." Click here for the rest of the article.

Boy, what would Papa Bush say to "W" about that? Time for James Baker to really earn his keep.

Livni Funs Up Justice
Fresh from her gig as foreign minister where her master plan was to brand Israel as a "fun" place to live and visit, Tzippi Livni, thanks soley to the political machinations of Olmert, found herself the holder of not one, but two ministerial positions with her co-opting of the Justice ministery. No doubt she is as qualified for that position as she was for foreign minister and no doubt her first act will be to put more 15 year old girls in prison for no reason or arbitrarily ban people from Yesha.........just for fun!!!! Sigh, almost makes one long for the days of Collette Avital.

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Guest Post: Fears Of Flying

By Zeev Shemer

The three fears of flying

The first fear regarding the danger of flying on an airplane is the fear of crashing. Many have been the accidents caused by either a mechanical or a human error. However proportionally speaking, flying is safer than driving.

The second fear is attributed to the invention of Yasser Arafat, an Egyptian born terrorist who took on the cause of the struggle of the Arab world against the "tyrannical" Zionist occupation. His group the PLO brought to the world our second featured fear: Hijacking.

Thanks to Arafat every airport in the world has a metal detector and security screening for passengers traveling across the skies. Every time we pass through a security checkpoint we owe it to Arafat, our Nobel Peace Prize recipient who brought hijacking and terror to the airlines of the world.

Hijacking will probably cease to exist. Not only due to the added airport security but also since 9-11, it is my guess, that passengers will fight to death before allowing hijackers to take control of an airplane, chances are hijackers would try to slam the airliner into a building anyway.

Our list continues and we come to fear number three: Shoulder-held heat-seeking missile launchers. The first time the world became concerned with this threat, was after a Russian TU-154 airplane, on route from Tel Aviv to the Russian Siberian city of Novosibirsk, exploded in mid-air and plunged into the Black Sea coast in 2001, killing all 76 people on board. A few days later came the admission:

* October 12th, 2001 People's Daily Online: “Ukrainian Security Council Secretary Yevhen Marchuk admitted on Friday that the Russian TU-154 passenger plane that crashed into the Black Sea on October 4th could have been mistakenly shot down by a Ukrainian S-200 missile, killing all 64 passengers - mostly Israelis - as well as 12 crew members.”

* On November 28th, 2002 two shoulder-launched SA-7 missiles were fired at an Israeli passenger jet departing from Mombassa, Kenya carrying 260 passengers and crew on board. Both missiles missed the airplane, and Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack. A simultaneous hotel bombing took place and 13 Israeli tourists and 3 local workers were killed.

* On April 2003 it was reported that Al-Qaeda terrorists planned to fire a Strella-2 anti-aircraft missile at an El Al airliner landing in London's Heathrow International Airport.

* On August 13, 2003 Jimmy Moore of Talon News reported: “An international plan to smuggle into the United States a shoulder-fired missile designed to shoot down a commercial airplane was interrupted by the FBI. Three people were arrested, including a British man in Newark. He attempted to sell a Russian SA-18 Igla missile to an FBI agent involved in a covert operation.”

* On September 24th, 2003 Israel National News: “Another Missile-to-Plane Attempt Thwarted - Police in Thailand recently nipped in the bud an Al-Qaeda missile attack against El Al passengers in the Bangkok airport. The plan was discovered when a man was found to be filming in the airport, and his arrest led to the finding of preliminary plans to fire missiles on an El Al plane during take-off.”

* On November 20th, 2006 Israel National News: “German Police Foil Terror Plot to Attack El Al Plane - Six suspects are under investigation by German authorities for plotting to blow up an El Al passenger flight out of the Frankfurt airport. The attack was foiled when an airport employee backed out.”

We have been told that El Al is installing an anti-missile system on all its planes. The Israeli-made system is called Flight Guard, and its manufacturer, Elta Systems, expects to sell its system to two other Israeli airlines as well: Arkia and IsraAir.

International intelligence sources estimate that 30 terrorist organizations are currently in possession of rockets, some 150,000 of which - mostly Soviet-made - are available for $5,000 each. We can only conclude that more airplanes have not been shot down as a result of miracles, but how many more miracles are we to expect in the near future?

Many such attempts are kept under the media’s radar. Sometimes we catch only a glimpse of a story, this is an example: Israel National News: “On October 23rd, 2003 El Al flight 105 Toronto - Los Angeles, was diverted from Toronto to Montreal by the control tower due to a security alert.” No further details were ever released. Rockets in fact have already felled 27 passenger planes, that is, at least 27 planes we know of.

To summarize, it is only a matter of time before Muslims take an airliner out. Hundreds of dead men, women, and children will provide the images that will hunt civilized man for decades to come. The world economy once again will take a hit and then it will look for an escape-goat. Israeli (lack-of) leadership will be forced to make further concessions to Muslim terrorists (referred to as ‘Arab militants’ and ‘innocent civilians’ or ‘victims of occupation’) who in return will then think of how to take terrorism to the next level.

How can we prevent this tragedy waiting-to-happen from occurring? A common football coaching technique comes to mind: “A good defense is a good offense”. For starters, El Al planes landing and taking-off over Arab-dense population zones is borderline insane. For argument sake, if Israel transferred the Arabs out of the State, not only would internal security ease-up but also terrorists would lose their raison d’etre. When the US made it clear that California was not part of Mexico anymore, or when England sent its fleet to the Argentinean coast to establish militarily that the Falkland Islands are British property, foreign claims slowly disappeared. If Israel can strongly establish its borders, Palestinian claims will eventually evaporate as well, but as long as Arabs are allowed a foothold in our land, (disloyal Arab-Israeli citizens, an Arab presence in Judea and Samaria) expect terrorism to continue. The struggle for a Palestinian state will not die-out until Israel either ceases to exist or does away with their dreams.

In the mean time, we’ll continue to travel with a few fears.

With Love of Israel,
Zeev Shemer
Ramat HaGolan, ISRAEL

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Olmert Channels, Carter as Uber-Putz, A Tutu for Beit Hanoun

Olmert Channels
Continuing on his winning strategy (see yesterday's blog entry), PM Olmert has now branched out into military expertise by dutifully ignoring all the military's warnings, and going full-bore with the ceasefire, all the while admitting he was "a little disappointed" about the few new Kassams that fell on Sderot. The sounds coming from the terrorist's lairs were said to resemble laughter on par with seeing the new movie, "Borat". Indeed, not content to merely vocalize the terrorists into fits of laughter, the PM has apparently decided to channel Stan Laurel for the full visual effect, according to expert medical observers. See the photo below.


This of course begs the question of whether Amir Peretz can learn to play Oliver Hardy, at least phonetically. Stay tuned.


Carter as Uber-Putz
Proving the myth that some people of US Southern extraction came into being as a result of humans mating buffalos (Oh, that was Billy? Sooorry), and that he is indeed a card carrying lying Jew-hater (no, not anti-Semite, as there are other semitic races other than Jews that Jimmy thinks are swell) former US President and Nobel Prize winner (you just can't make this stuff up!!) Jimmy Carter put aside his admitted thoughts of lust to promote his new book of lies and blood-libel against Israel with a sycophantic Larry King playing the all-too-willing foil. See
Video: Carter blames Israel for failure of roadmap, denies he’s anti-Israel.

Does peanut farming increase senility? The world may never know and may never care.

A Tutu for Beit Hanoun
Showing true lack of bias as well as new-found objectivity, the UN is sending African Archbishop and reknowned Israel-hater Desmond (Israel=Apartheid) Tutu (get the feeling there's a theme in this post?) on a fact-finding mission regarding the IDF shelling accident last week. Hmm, we could save them lots of time, money and anti-Israel headlines by forwarding them Feiglin's post of November 15. See www.jewishisrael.org/views/feiglin/67/feiglin_6704.htm

And you all thought the UN Human Rights Commisiion was beyond rehabilitation and couldn't get any lower!!

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A Winning Strategy Plus Not So Random Thoughts

A Winning Strategy
Moshe Feiglin's piece last week, "No One Knows More Than You" (see entry for Fri, Nov 24) made me realize that Olmert really DOES have a strategy to all this that we are all just too dense to see. I mean even his own fellow thugs, oops, I mean party members are railing against him, so sublime and brilliant are the workings of his mind. But at last, now I understand. Halutz has helped clear all the confusion by letting us know he was "partially consulted" (is that like being partially pregnant or partially mentally impaired?). Really, see for yourself at
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3333604,00.html

Olmert will lead us to victory without Israel having to fire a single shot. How? He is making sure that Hamas, Hizbullah, Iran, Syria, Eygpt, et al, will laugh themselves to death.


Can anyone come up with a good (but clean) caption for this photo?

Not So Random Thoughts
From Steve Plaut: " Israel's leading serial rapist escaped from prison by simply walking away. But before he left, he had posted a registered letter complaining about the phone monopoly. It seems that only Bezeq is allowed to run phones inside prisons and Benny Sela thinks there should be competition. Pretty sad when a serial rapist understands economics better than the Israeli government.
Ehud Olmert has proposed a new strategic plan for dealing with the Kassam blitz of the Negev and the Hamasification of Gaza and Judea and Samaria: He is proposing new retreats and capitulations by Israel. After all, the ones so far have worked so well!"


From Victor Hanson: "The Western liberal tradition is fragile and can still disappear"

The most frightening aspect of the present war is how easily our pre-modern enemies from the Middle East have brought a stunned postmodern world back into the Dark Ages.

Students of history are sickened when they read of the long-ago, gruesome practice of beheading. How brutal were those societies that chopped off the heads of Cicero, Sir Thomas More and Marie Antoinette. And how lucky we thought we were to have evolved from such elemental barbarity.

Twenty-four hundred years ago, Socrates was executed for unpopular speech. The 18th-century European Enlightenment gave people freedom to express views formerly censored by clerics and the state. Just imagine what life was like once upon a time when no one could write music, compose fiction or paint without court or church approval?

Over 400 years before the birth of Christ, ancient Greek literary characters, from Lysistrata to Antigone, reflected the struggle for sexual equality. The subsequent notion that women could vote, divorce, dress or marry as they pleased was a millennia-long struggle.

It is almost surreal now to read about the elemental hatred of Jews in the Spanish Inquisition, 19th-century Russian pogroms or the Holocaust. Yet here we are revisiting the old horrors of the savage past.

Beheading? As we saw with Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl, our Neanderthal enemies in the Middle East have resurrected that ancient barbarity - and married it with 21st-century technology to beam the resulting gore instantaneously onto our computer screens. Xerxes and Attila, who stuck their victims' heads on poles for public display, would've been thrilled by such a gruesome show.

Who would have thought centuries after the Enlightenment that sophisticated Europeans - in fear of radical Islamists - would be afraid to write a novel, put on an opera, draw a cartoon, film a documentary or have their pope discuss comparative theology?

The astonishing fact is not just that millions of women worldwide in 2006 are still veiled from head-to-toe, trapped in arranged marriages, subject to polygamy, honor killings and forced circumcision, or are without the right to vote or appear alone in public. What is more baffling is that in the West, liberal Europeans are often wary of protecting female citizens from the excesses of Sharia law - sometimes even fearful of asking women to unveil their faces for purposes of simple identification and official conversation.

Who these days is shocked that Israel is hated by Arab nations and threatened with annihilation by radical Iran? Instead, the surprise is that even in places like Paris or Seattle, Jews are singled out and killed for the apparent crime of being Jewish.

Since Sept. 11, the West has fought enemies who are determined to bring back the nightmarish world that we thought was long past. And there are lessons Westerners can learn from radical Islamists' ghastly efforts.

First, the Western liberal tradition is fragile and can still disappear. Just because we have sophisticated cell phones, CAT scanners and jets does not ensure that we are permanently civilized or safe. Technology used by the civilized for positive purposes can easily be manipulated by barbarians for destruction.

Second, the Enlightenment is not always lost on the battlefield. It can be surrendered through either fear or indifference as well. Westerners fearful of terrorist reprisals themselves shut down a production of a Mozart opera in Berlin deemed offensive to Muslims. Few came to the aid of a Salman Rushdie or Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh when their unpopular expression earned death threats from Islamists. Van Gogh, of course, was ultimately killed.

The Goths and Vandals did not sack Rome solely through the power of their hordes; they also relied on the paralysis of Roman elites who no longer knew what it was to be Roman - much less whether it was any better than the alternative.

Third, civilization is forfeited with a whimper, not a bang. Insidiously, we have allowed radical Islamists to redefine the primordial into the not-so-bad. Perhaps women in head-to-toe burkas in Europe prefer them? Maybe that crass German opera was just too over the top after all? Aren't both parties equally to blame in the Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan wars?

To grasp the flavor of our own Civil War, impersonators now don period dress and reconstruct the battles of Shiloh or Gettysburg. But we need no so such historical reenactment of the Dark Ages. You see, they are back with us - live almost daily from the Middle East.

Press Release

Manhigut Yehudit Chairman, Moshe Feiglin deplores Prime Minister Olmert's promises to the Palestinians in his speech at Ben Gurion's memorial service. A Prime Minister who calls upon his nation to forgo its national ethos should remember the words of Winston Churchill just before World War 2: "You accepted Shame to avoid war, now you have both."

Laughing Stock

By Moshe Feiglin

That's it. We've more or less reached the bottom of the barrel. Israelis have protested against their government, written letters, signed petitions, blocked traffic, held sit-ins, hunger strikes, gotten angry, gotten arrested, eaten their hearts out and toppled government after government only to get more of the same.

But now we have entered a new stage. Laughter. As far as the government is concerned, that is the very worst stage. The preposterousness of Israel's "leaders" attains new heights daily. "We won't let philanthropists take control of neediness," says the Defense Minister, after bragging about his great contribution to the success of the war in Lebanon. Behind the scenes, the Prime Minister and Peretz's own Labor party colleagues have decided that he must be replaced with none other than the man that brought the Hizbollah to Israel's northern border. Announcing the new Defense Minister...Mr. Ehud Barak!

While the politicians still bicker over who spoke with Abu Mazen first, the bullies in judge's cloaks decide that the State of Israel will officially authorize same sex couples who were married abroad...

"There is no military solution," the politicians explain time and again to Sderot residents. In other words, "Get used to it."

We've tried everything else. "Maybe we should try not doing anything?" Environment Minister Gideon Ezra suggests.

The good news is that the people have begun to laugh. Laughter is the stage after despair, and from that standpoint, it is the lowest rung on the ladder. But this laughter produces something very important; loss of legitimacy. No regime, not even the most despotic, can retain its power when it has become a laughingstock. Even the Nazi regime collapsed when graffiti mocking the Reich began to appear on the burning walls of Berlin.

The days of the ludicrous gang now occupying the government are reaching their end. Just a few MKs will remain from the entire Kadimah balloon. They will serve as living testimony to the rule of the spin doctors. The Likud will once again return to power.

And then what?

That depends on us. We can once again abandon the ruling nationalist party to the leadership of the man who warmly shook Arafat's hand and turned his back on Gush Katif.

Or we can work together to elect belief based leadership.

It is very simple. It all depends on our actions and our prayers.

Moshe Feiglin

Nobody Knows More than You

by: Moshe Feiglin
Founder and President, Manhigut Yehudit
Kislev, 5767 (November 23, 06)

I once had my own private life. I started a family and a business, built a house and voted for a different party in every election. Believe it or not, I even voted once for the pensioner's party -- 15 years before everyone else. What made me leave the warm corner I had created for myself and start to fight with the whole world?

It was like an arrow that hit me in the head. Suddenly, I understood that what I see is really all there is. No secrets. What I see is the unadulterated reality. It was when Rabin and Peres announced the Oslo Accords. Every time that a Leftist would argue with me in reserve duty and would run out of explanations for the madness, he would pull out the triumphant wild card: "Do you want to tell me that Rabin -- the Chief of Staff of the Six Day War -- doesn't know what you just told me? He must know things that you do not know and if he says that Oslo is good, that's enough for me..."

Suddenly, I realized that the people up there don't know anything of import that I do not know. The way that they control us and demand that we obey them is based on our belief that they have information that we do not possess. But then I understood that the essential information is available to everyone. In other words, the defensive wall of the anonymous citizen suddenly crumbled away. The emperor really does not have any clothes... As soon as you understand that, the responsibility is on your shoulders. You can no longer get up in the morning, go to work and rely on your leaders that certainly know what you do not know. That's it. Now the responsibility is yours.

I apologize in advance, but now I am going to remove your anonymous citizen's defensive shield. It's not that I am sadistic -- just that our situation is pre-Holocaust. You can surely see it coming. All that I am saying is that what you see is the exact reality. Jabotinsky urged Europe's Jews to run away. I cannot give you that advice. Your situation, in some ways, is worse than the Jews of Europe. You have a state and will not even be eligible for refugee status. But I can suggest a different solution.

First, though, three facts that we all see and clearly know:

1: America

America's defeat in Iraq is reaching completion. Just as I warned after 9/11, America cannot win this war, because it refuses to admit that the enemy is Islam. Clearly, America has no intention of embarking on additional military adventures in the Middle East. Obviously we cannot depend on Europe, with its large Moslem population. In other words, we remain alone to face off with a nearly nuclear Iran.

2: Israel

After it buried its soul in the sands of Gush Katif, the IDF can no longer defend the State of Israel. General Ron Tal has stated this very clearly. It is worthwhile to listen to what he has to say. Everyone suggests improving the technical capabilities of the army. They do not understand that the problem is much deeper. The soldiers who did not refuse to obey the expulsion orders thought that they were protecting the IDF. But just the opposite occurred; they destroyed it. I am not referring to the security collapse that the Disengagement brought about -- a collapse that the head of the GSS so aptly described this week. I am talking about the moral collapse that has eliminated the IDF.

Whether you agree with me or not, you cannot argue with the facts. This past summer, when the IDF encountered the first enemy that was not settlers, it was roundly defeated -- by a band of fighters in Lebanon. More recently, the IDF was embarrassingly defeated in Beit Hanoun. Both examples are military actions that the IDF initiated and that ended with the situation worse than it was at the beginning. As I write these words, I hear that a woman in Sderot has just been killed by a Kassam rocket. You can try to wriggle out of reality with post modern terminology. But the bottom line is that we lost. Until the IDF regurgitates the entire military command that was involved in the planning and execution of the transfer and expulsion from Gush Katif, it cannot be rehabilitated.

As usual in our country, the man appointed to head the Defense Ministry is the most suitable candidate politically and the most unsuitable candidate professionally. In other words, the country's survival is much less important than the political survival of various officials. Nasrallah has already forgotten the name of the labor union head that miraculously metamorphosed into a Defense Minister. But we -- will really never forget Amir Peretz.

The entire security and political leadership is currently preoccupied with personal survival. They have no time or interest in you or in me. The commanders in the field do not rely on them, and rightfully so. The IDF's miserable performance in Lebanon and Gaza leaves no room for doubt as to its ability to deal with the Iranian threat.

3: Iran

Some commentators and pundits have attempted to claim that a nuclear Iran is not so terrible. The proof? The nuclear Soviet Union. When push comes to shove, the pundits -- who also supported Oslo and the Disengagement -- say, Achmadinijad will not sacrifice himself and his country just to destroy Israel.

The problem is that there is no basis for comparison. The Gush Dan region -- most of Israel for all practical purposes -- can be neutralized with just one nuclear attack. It is possible that an Israeli submarine or bomber jet will extract a price from Iran for erasing Israel off the map. But Iran is not a city/state like Israel. Does somebody really think that Achmadinijad will not be willing to sacrifice a few Iranian cities so that he could become the modern day Salah-a-Din -- the new leader of the Islamic world, the death defying ruler who has liberated the Middle Eastern Moslem domain of the Zionist monkeys and pigs?

That's it. These are the facts. We all know them. The deceptive and clumsy band of misfits running the country today has no other significant information. In other words, the responsibility is now yours.

Can we do something? With the current leadership, there is nothing that we can do. We need leadership that will revolutionize our values system. We need leadership that will restore our sense of justice. That is the only way to rehabilitate our country and the IDF so that we can deal with the approaching holocaust. The only sector of the public that has the ethical codes and feeling of responsibility for the fate of the nation -- the only sector of the public that can produce the appropriate leadership to lead this revolution -- is the sector that has been labeled as the enemy; the Orange public. It's time to turn to them.

Bikini Branding and the Holy Land

by Yishai Fleisher

(Editor's note: Sometimes an article comes out that just says it all. Especially after the idiotic comments of Ayalon on Aliya worthy of Olmert at the OU convention. What was the OU thinking? Go Yishai........)


In a bid to "re-brand" Israel's unpopular world image, Tzippy Livni and the gang at the Foreign Ministry are about to embark on a massive PR campaign. Livni plans to paint Israel as a sexy, modern country with beautiful beaches and a successful high-tech industry to boot. Livni believes that by embarking on this "nation branding" campaign, she can move the perception of Israel away from war-torn and fanatical, to an image of the great Israeli dream - normalcy.

No doubt Israel does have something to offer those looking for beaches, night life and technology. But as the focus of a public relations campaign, this direction is doomed for failure.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe told a story to illustrate this point:

After the Six Day War, France, unhappy with Israel's grand victory over the Arabs, stopped their sales of the Mirage fighter jets to Israel. Israel, in need of fighter jets, turned to the United States with a request to buy American jets.

The US sent a delegation to Israel and the Israelis wanted to impress the American group and promptly took them to what the Israelis thought the Americans would be most interested in. They took them to Tel Aviv, to the playhouses, to the bars, to all the modernity that Israel could muster up at the time.

However, the delegation was nonplussed. They returned to America, gave a lukewarm report to Congress, and the sale did not go through. A few months went by and again the Israelis requested the sale of fighter jets. Again a delegation was formed and was flown to Israel. This time, however, the Israelis took the delegation to the Kotel (the Western Wall) and to the yeshivas of Meah Shearim, where the Americans saw the old study benches that were brought over from Europe.

When the Americans returned home and testified in front of Congress, they said: "We saw the Holy Land." The sale, of course, went through.

The point is so obvious, yet Israel's image makers cannot grasp it. Israel's image strength is not in its limping normalcy. Nor can Israel ever compare to the US's flesh-pots, Amsterdam's night life or the beaches of South America.

Israel's real image strength is in its unparalleled link to the Bible. Have you ever seen the ecstasy of a person, Jew or Gentile, as he or she sees the Kotel for the first time? Is it a coincidence that both Jews and Gentiles cry when they arrive in Israel? Israel has emotional impact not because of the beaches or the hi-tech, but rather because this place is the spiritual capital of the world.

How can you beat the branding effect of the most widely read book in the world? The Bible is the globe's all-time bestseller and Israel should capitalize on it. Israel's image makers, however, do everything in their power to distance Israel from this kind of image. Their world view is dissonant with Jewish history and religion, and therefore they do not see, nor do they want to see, the public relations benefit of Israel's Biblical-spiritual image. Moreover, they fail to see Biblical Israel's economic potential.

Yet, it is precisely by embracing, and not blunting, our image as the real-life successors of the Biblical past that we will create a winning PR campaign.

Tourism

The festival of Sukkot should be mega-season for spiritual tourism. Sukkot is the holiday when world citizenry was traditionally invited to Jerusalem to take part in the celebrations, and this custom should be revived. While this trend has already begun, it needs to be bolstered. Instead of making flights outrageously expensive during the Sukkot season, Israel should charter flights to encourage a world-wide pilgrimage.

Hebron is the great burial place of the Biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs, and the first capital of young King David. Hebron is a must-see for anyone seeking to connect with the roots of monotheism, yet Israel's image makers couldn't get themselves farther away from it. This special place should be transformed from a neglected and governmentally-rejected "fringe" town into a bona fide tourist site. Hebron could be a big winner if Israel would re-brand itself in Biblical terms.

The Old City of Jerusalem is a natural-habitat, authentic Biblical experience. In order to further this atmosphere, the Old City should be made off-limits to car traffic on Shabbat (the Sabbath). Tourists from Israel and abroad should be able to walk the stone-lined streets of the Old City with complete freedom, into an atmosphere of transcendent calm and warmth. The Kotel and the diverse communities in all quarters of the Old City will benefit by the creation of a unique cultural zone in the heart of the world's most special city.

Diplomatic Public Relations (Hasbara)

In our continuing struggle against terrorism, Israel would do well to paint its story in a Biblical context. Today's Israel and yesteryear's Israel are the same - the same nation, the same land, and the same problems. By providing such historical perspective, we can help people reframe the conflict in the Middle East. Suddenly, Mahmoud Ahamedinajad's Iran is akin to Haman's Persia and Palestinian suicide-bombers are not unlike the ancient Philistine guerrilla attackers. Girded with Biblical perspective, the world will root for Israel - just as they do when they read the Bible.

Another important aspect of a Biblical perspective is tikvah, hope. The Bible is full of hope for the Jewish people and for Israel. In today's dreary climate, we need to broadcast that message of positivity loud and clear.

In the Long Run

We can create a successful image of Israel abroad, but we need to start by creating the right self-image within. Israel must learn to see itself as a light unto the world, and not just as a bastion of normalcy. Israel's 'light' includes a unique blend of medicine and technology, law and spirituality. Where else in the world can you find a country that is a world leader in microchip development, in-vitro fertilization, farming innovations, Talmudic law and Kabbalah?

A practical way to sow this image in the long run is by creating mega-schools that would teach medicine, environmental sciences and technology to the people of the world. Israel is already an internationally respected educator in a variety of fields, including counter-terrorism, health and agriculture. This role should be increased into all fields of Israeli and Jewish expertise. Israel should be seen as the world's educational destination. And while foreign students study here, they will learn to love Israel and will always be its greatest ambassadors. Indeed, there are thousands of ways that a Biblical Israel can flourish once this way of thinking crystallizes in the minds of our leaders and our nation.

For the last 3,000 years, the Holy Land has been the preeminent destination for all mankind - travelers and conquerors all sought this piece of real estate. Today, maybe more than ever before, Israel can quench the world's thirst for authenticity, spirituality and purpose - but it has to rise to the occasion. Let's not cheapen and degrade the image of Israel by bikini-branding it. Let us market it for what it is - the most special place on the Earth, the Holy Land.

From The House Of "DUH"

House of DUH, part 1
Ah, the smell of leftist brain melt.....

Yoel Marcus of Haaretz eats kosher fowl for all to see.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/790428.html

As so eloquently described by Aaron Lerner: "Yoel Marcus played an important role as key supporter and advocate of retreat from Gaza. He suggested on the pages of Haaretz that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would be able to avoid his legal problems if he launched a withdrawal initiative and, viola!, soon thereafter Marcus was Sharon's confidant, enjoying scoops about Sharon's decision to launch - what a coincidence - a retreat plan. Marcus transformed into Sharon's biggest fan and leading cheerleader for retreat!"

House of DUH, part 2

[We told you so] Israel Foreign Ministry describes terrible situation since retreat from Gaza Strip.
Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: While the Israel Foreign Ministry describes in the following document the terrible situation since the retreat from the Gaza Strip this in no way is having an impact on the activities of FM Livni.

Instead of coming to grips with the fact that she and her fellow travelers have been advocating destructively dangerous policies reflecting both an incredibly short planning horizon ("let's forget about tomorrow" could be their theme song) and a cavalier attitude about security she is now pressing for a rush to create a sovereign Palestinian state based on a series of arrangements that could generously be termed a house of cards.

When a dog is hit by a car crossing the street it is careful the next time. But these are human beings. Not canines. For the full article see: www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=31684

House of DUH, part 3
Daniel Pipes weighs in........better late than never.
Time To Recognize Failure Of Israel-Egypt Treaty BY DANIEL PIPES - The New York Sun November 21, 2006. See www.nysun.com/article/43906


And The BIG DUH of the Day

Analyst: Take Over Gaza Now!
22:07 Nov 21, '06 / 30 Cheshvan 5767 by Hillel Fendel (Courtesy of A-7)

Veteran military correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai of Israel's largest daily, Yediot Acharonot, explains why a massive military offensive in Gaza is Israel's best alternative to fight the Kassams. See www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=115974

Chelm Logic, Open Mouth Insert Foot, Saying What Needs to be Said

Chelm Logic:
The following (with thanks to IMRA) reminds me of the story about the bridge in Chelm that had a hole in it and people were falling through and getting severely injured. So what action did the town take? Why, they built a hospital at the bottom to treat the injuries!!!!!

IDF Home Front Command data indicate that 19 of 24 schools in Sderot and the greater Gaza Strip area have been reinforced; the remaining schools will be reinforced within a few days. Fifty-six kindergartens have been reinforced; another 25 will be reinforced by the end of the month. Over 70 additional kindergartens will be reinforced by the end of March 2007. The State has invested NIS 285 million to date in the plan to reinforce communities in the greater Gaza Strip area; NIS 75 of this has gone to schools.

Yep, nothing like building at the bottom of the hole....For the complete article, see:
www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=31649

Open Mouth Insert Foot:
From the same article, Olmert says, "Throughout our history in this Land, during far more difficult times, we have never run away from our homes. We will not lend a hand to hasty actions that may be good for two or three days but which are liable to have destructive long-term effects. We do not want to take people out of their homes. Localized instances will be dealt with case-by-case but to load people on buses and whisk them off to five-star hotels? In no way is this Government policy."

Guess he feels threatened by Gadyamak. Oh that's right, Gush Katif wasn't running away or throwing 10,000 people out of their homes. It was necessary to save the collective asses of a few corrupt thugs. Now it all makes sense......

As for the other sufferer of foot in mouth disease (courtesy of IMRA): "COS Halutz indicates his perception of morality limits effectiveness of IDF in Gaza. "We still want to maintain moral, ethical and humane values in managing our fighting."

Tell that to the mothers of the soldiers killed in Lebanon II who died from a combination of incompetence and misplaced hyper-morality. See
www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=31669.

As Aaron Lerner puts it "Is the IDF about to return to the false morality of Jenin - where Israeli soldiers literally "died for PR" when a decision by Israeli officials to honor the human shields protecting Palestinian snipers from aerial attack gave them the opportunity to kill IDF soldiers?

Another puzzle: what is more moral: giving 2 minutes notice so that people can literally run for their lives from a building or giving 30 minutes notice so that impressionable youngsters in the neighborhood can be seduced by local terrorist leaders to act as human shields in the building?

Why is it moral to allow terrorists enough time to move weapons that can be used to murder Israelis?" See www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=31661


Saying What Needs To Be Said:

Referring to Saturday night's incident in which Arabs gathered at a terrorist's home to prevent Israel from bombing it, Rav Zalmen Melamed, Dean of the Beit El Yeshiva Institutions, said "Those who protect terrorists are not innocent." For the complete article see www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=115785

From The Sublime To The Ridiculous To The Answer

The Sublime:
From Caroline Glick's "Column One" in Friday's Jerusalem Post...."In Olmert and Livni's world, Israel won the war in Lebanon this summer; UNIFIL forces are good for the Jews; and Hizbullah - which is now working to overthrow the Lebanese government - has no interest in renewing its war against Israel.
The government sees no reason to prevent 1,500 PLO terrorists from Jordan from marching into Gaza with their guns and their families. Olmert and Livni welcome the prospect of releasing thousands of terrorists from prison to "strengthen" PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and they are eager to hand Judea and Samaria over to Abbas, not because doing so would help Abbas, but because it would good for Israel.
As Livni put it this week, we want to hand over land because otherwise the so-called peace process will stagnate, and "Stagnation is not in our interest and it is not our policy."
Our jovial government justifies its decision to do nothing to prevent Ahmadinejad from acquiring the means to keep his promise to destroy the Jewish state by incessantly claiming that someone else is willing and able to pay the price to defend us.
The people of Israel must not be seduced by the blindness and empty promises of our leaders. All efforts must be made to sideline these incompetent, self-serving bumblers and replace them with responsible leaders as quickly as possible. "

See the complete article at www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378421874&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Problem is, I hear she's a Bibi-ite

The Ridiculous:
This just in from IMRA....."Minister Gideon Ezra to re-launch his proposal Israel should not respond to fire for 10 days"

and

"Human shield forces suspension of IAF airstrike" YAAKOV KATZ and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 17, 2006 www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378419679&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The IDF said on Saturday night that it was suspending an airstike on the Gaza home of a Popular Resistance Committees commander after hundreds of Palestinians formed a human shield around the building.
The Palestinians flocked to the home of Mohammedweil Baroud in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya after he received a warning from the IDF late Saturday giving him 30 minutes to leave the house.
Barhoud heads a cell responsible for firing Kassam rockets at Israel.

and

Gd help us!!! Yossi Beilin is thinking out loud again....
There is something that can be done
By Gideon Samet Haaretz
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=beilin&itemNo=789163


The Answer:
In an effort to stop the Kassam launches at Sderot, I propose that Minister Ezra and Beilin form a human shield around Sderot. That and/or apply for the job opening as Peretz's bodyguard.

Thought for the Day

The following comes, courtesy of one of our members, extracted from the "Dow Theory" daily newsletter published by Richard Russell.....

Beats me. A law passed in 1991 opens Germany to anyone who has Jewish blood. Since then, about 190,000 Jews have immigrated to Germany, bringing the German Jewish population up from less than 30,000 after WW II to more than 200,000 today. In recent years, Germany has attracted more Jews than any other nation -- including Israel! Recently, Germany tightened restrictions on Jews, mainly because of Israeli pressure. Israel, with a rising Arab population, wants all the Jews it can gather.

Why would Jews want to immigrate to Germany? Maybe because they actually feel safe there, or at least safer than they would feel in Israel. Personally, had you told me all this back in 1946, I would have said you were out of your mind -- and I would have added that any Jews who want to return to Germany are crazy. Times obviously change. But do the Germans change? The German police have logged 8,000 "neo-Nazi crimes" including 425 violent attacks in the first six months of 2006 -- this represents a 20% increase over 2005. Is anti-Semitism imbedded in the German DNA?

From The Sublime To The Ridiculous To The Answer

Sometimes, on a given day, there are contrasts in the Israeli news that just scream for comparison.....


The Sublime
Esther Pollard's moving piece on the continued sellout and false blood-libel against her husband, Jonathan Pollard (see below).

The Public Lynching of Jonathan Pollard.Again By Esther Pollard - November 14, 2006

No matter how many different ways the same lies about my husband, Jonathan Pollard, are repackaged, they are still lies. Whether as a well-orchestrated series of "leaks" to the media by unnamed American officials; whether deliberately leaked to a Jewish writer for recycling in New Yorker Magazine; or whether repackaged in a slick new book by a "retired" American intelligence officer ---they are all lies.

For 21 years, the government of Israel has turned its back on Jonathan, enabling hostile elements in the American intelligence community to use his case as a weapon against Israel and the Jews. These enemies of Israel continue to point to Jonathan as "proof" that Israel cannot be trusted as an ally, and that American Jews are not loyal citizens. Ever vigilant, lest this valuable weapon against Israel be released from prison, the American intelligence community continues to lobby fiercely to keep Jonathan in prison forever.

Hiding behind a veil of secrecy which denies Jonathan's attorneys access to their own client's sentencing docket, American intelligence officials are able to make the most outrageous claims against Jonathan, knowing that they will never have to substantiate them, or be challenged in a court of law.

For the rest of this article see www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=31587

The Ridiculous
In an interview that has to be read twice to be believed, regarding the rocket attack yesterday in Sderot, Kadima MK Gideon Ezra discusses his strategy for dealing with the Kassams.

Minister Gideon Ezra: Israel should not respond to fire for 10 days
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 15 November, 2006

In a live interview broadcast during the afternoon news magazine of Israel Radio, Environment Minister Gideon Ezra (Kadima) proposed that Israel declare that it will not respond to Palestinian rocket attacks for a period of ten days.

"We have tried everything else and it hasn't worked," Ezra explained.

Ezra conceded that it would have been easier to promote the proposal if he had come out with it before a woman was killed and a man seriously wounded in Sderot by a rocket today (Ashkelon was also hit by four rockets this afternoon).

See www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=31596 for the full story. The man sounds like a Kadima candidate for Prime Minister.

The Answer
See below for Manhigut Yehudit's press release on the attack in Sderot

On the heels of today's deadly Kassam attack in Sderot, in which a woman was murdered and the Defense Minister's bodyguard lost both legs, Manhigut Yehudit contends that the bodyguard protected Defense Minister Peretz, but Peretz did not protect his bodyguard. Only Jewish leadership unstained by the crimes of Oslo, Wye and the Expulsion can forge a comprehensive and fundamental solution to Israel's problems.

Inverted Values in Beit Hanoun

by: Moshe Feiglin
Founder and President, Manhigut Yehudit
Cheshvan, 5767 (Oct, 06)

(This article appeared this week in the Makor Rishon Newspaper in Israel).

The planned operation was the mistake. And the mistake should have been the planned operation...

Last week's military operation in Beit Hanoun, in which Israel attempted -- as usual -- to find the terror needle in the civilian haystack, was responsible for Israeli casualties, but registered no military achievements.

On the other hand, the mistake -- accidental shelling of a civilian building in Beit Hanoun -- should have been the planned operation in the first place, albeit in a calculated and controlled manner.

Residents of territory from which Israel is fired upon must know that they have two options: Either prevent the firing or leave before their homes are destroyed. But this most simple equation, clear to the normative person, is not clear at all to Israel's leaders and army commanders.

The IDF's operation in Beit Hanoun was an exact rerun of all the false concepts that created the failure in last summer's war in Lebanon. It just makes you rub your eyes in amazement: The IDF is great, strong and sophisticated. But on the other hand, it is completely entangled in the values imbroglio of the "enlightened" tyranny.

For the complete article see www.jewishisrael.org/views/feiglin/67/feiglin_6704.htm.
Is Feiglin right? We want to hear from you!!

To hear my radio interview with Yishai and Alex on A-7, go to
www.israelnationalnews.com/data/radio/asx2006/11/13/rl_522.asx

Losers

By Jason Gold

I had the opportunity this sukkot to witness a unique phenomenon in Israel. It was something that I had heard about but did not quite believe. Yet here it was on display as clear as day. And it made me understand why the religious right in Israel is such a dysfunctional mess. Put simply, the religious right are losers. Losers in their own country.

Let's back up a little bit. Do I really think the religious right are losers? No, I respect, admire and study the torah-based literature they produce. I do not think they are losers. Yet, THEY think they are. THEY have conditioned themselves into believing that they are losers and that they are utterly incapabable of bringing any meaningful political change to Israel's pathetic form of government.

How does this manifest? It is manifest by the fact that the religious right would rather vote for any secular candidate rather than one that offers them faith-based (non-theocratic) leadership because they believe that any kippa-wearing candidate is necessarily a loser like them, even if this person has new ideas. It is manifest by the fact that the so-called religious parties, rather than lead the country, have become, special interest lobbyists for people who look like them, dress like them and speak like them. It is manifest by the fact that their votes in the Knesset allowed the disgrace of Gush Katif to happen by propping up a morally bankrupt, illegitimate government. It is manifest when the mayor of Jerusalem, a religious man, decides he is too politically impotent to lift a finger against the boosha (shame) of a gay parade in the world's holiest city. As a right-leaning secular Jew sitting on a plane next to me remarked, "We allow this after 2000 years? You datiim (religious) allow this? If we can't stop this, then we don't deserve Jerusalem. Maybe we should just lease the city to the Muslims. Then there won't be any gay parade." Tough to argue with.

So the religious leadership of the country has failed. Rather than bridge gaps with their secular brothers, they have allowed widening the gulf between them and secular Jew even more. They have brought shame, loathing and finger-pointing on themselves by the seculars as purveyors of those whose votes are for sale (rent?) for a little more funding. And yet despite all this, they continue to look for that messianic secular figure to lead them. Perhaps it is truely as Rav Kahane, HY"D, ZT"L, said. Perhaps because of how they look in the eyes of the goyim, they need a nice goyish looking leader to interact with the outside world so they can hunker down until Moshiach shows up.

Yet all is not lost. For when a high-ranking secular Likud official can openly state that he realizes no that he no longer trusts secular leadership for the land of Israel and that we need an acceptable faith-based candidate, perhaps the worm begins to turn. Perhaps the younger generation of religious zionist youth and chareidi youth will start to sound the clarion call against corruption, against business as usual, and against Gdlessness and moral bankruptcy. This was a hopeful sign that I saw in the old city over Chol HaMoed Sukkot as I gave out literature and interacted with these young people. They are hungry for authentic faith-based leadership. They are desperate to be proud Jews in their own land.

It is very simple. We are an am segulah. We need Manhig segula. I call on all Mafdalniks, Shasniks, Yahadutniks, (and even you Yisrael Beiteinuniks who were sold out so fast, it must have given you collective whiplash) to do what must be done. Join Manhigut Yehidut and help. The only way to do that is to join Likud. Hold your nose if you have to but join. Because if the best this country can do after the disgrace of Lebanon II is a government headed by Bibi with the same old players, then it really is a boosha and time to get the real estate lawyers working on that long-term lease for the Arabs.