A collection of Nazi board games for children has been discovered in which points are earned for blowing up British towns and cities.
Historian Richard Westwood-Brookes said:
These games are testament to Hitler's total domination of propaganda.
It's an interesting reflection on how the Nazi propaganda machine made its way all the way down to children as young as four or five.
Meanwhile in Palestine, Hamas produces cartoons featuring Nahool the Bee:
Speaking in a recent episode, Nahool vowed to help take back Jerusalem from the "criminal Jews" and expressed his hope that he and all of his listeners would grow up to become holy warriors. . . .
"Nahool isn't for teaching hate. It's for teaching children to think in the right way, to socialize them in our culture's way of life, and, of course, to remind them of their rights to the land that was taken from us."
Get used to it. Islamofascists are in it for the long haul. You think the American public has the stomach to last that long? Neither do terrorists.
Just an afternoon visit to the ice cream parlor in Israel (click pic for full sized image) link removed as target site couldn't take the traffic):
Via Digg.
Palestine has been receiving escalating amounts of aid from the international community since 1950, over $5 billion since 1993 and $1.2 billion in 2006 alone. But according to the latest UN report:
Seven out of ten Palestinian households were in poverty today; nine out of ten in Gaza and one in two in the West Bank.
Only one in three people had a job. Each employed person supported six dependents.
The UN, of course, manages to put the entire blame on Israel. It does not mention that by 2002, 14 percent of aid money was being redirected to finance terrorist activities, and that this has only gotten worse since a terrorist organization has taken over the government. Much worse.
Update: The Philadelphia Daily News reports the Real Palestinian 'Catastorphe':
In the early morning of May 15, Hamas used mortars, missiles and machine guns to attack a Presidential Guard contingent belonging to Fatah that was stationed near the Karni border crossing with Israel. Hamas then hit a jeep carrying Fatah reinforcements, and ensured their targets were dead by shooting them in the head at close range.
When the shooting was over, 10 Fatah members were dead, with a similar number wounded.
Suddenly aware that their unprovoked massacre may have gone too far, Hamas claimed it was Israel who had actually killed the Fatah people and threatened any journalist who dared report otherwise.
Then, in a truly perverse twist, Hamas launched more than 20 rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot "to take revenge" for the massacre they themselves had committed. . . .
Instead of taking responsibility for their role in shaping their destiny, on virtually every occasion, the Palestinians have twisted their worldview to put the blame solely on Israel.
There is no self-awareness, not to mention self-criticism. No sense of accountability.
As have all Arabs. It's easier to blame all your problems on someone else than to try and fix them yourself.
Having finally been officially enshrined into power by the people of Palestine and recognized by the Europussies, terrorist organization Hamas isn't finding things quite so rosy:
Armed clashes intensified between rival Palestinian factions yesterday as Hamas accused Fatah fighters loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of fomenting civil war and trying to assassinate Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh at a Gaza border station Thursday night.
The latest violence threatened to undermine months of talks on a unity government between the Islamist Hamas party and Mr. Abbas' once-dominant Fatah to end a deadly power struggle within the Palestinian territories.
I remember when Hamas first came into power last March and the liberals said that things would quickly get better now that the Palestinian people were united.
Another silly liberal expectation in the crapper.
The politicians, journalists and intellectuals of Lebanon have, of late, been experiencing the shock of their lives. They knew full well that Hezbollah had created an independent state in our country, a state including all the ministers and parallel institutions, duplicating those of Lebanon. What they did not know – and are discovering with this war, and what has petrified them with surprise and terror – is the extent of this phagocytosis.
In fact, our country had become an extension of Iran, and our so-called political power also served as a political and military cover for the Islamists of Teheran. We suddenly discovered that Teheran had stocked more than 12,000 missiles, of all types and calibers, on our territory and that they had patiently, systematically, organized a suppletive force, with the help of the Syrians, that took over, day after day, all the rooms in the House of Lebanon. Just imagine it : we stock ground-to-ground missiles, Zilzals, on our territory and that the firing of such devices without our knowledge, has the power to spark a regional strategic conflict and, potentially, bring about the annihilation of Lebanon.
We knew that Iran, by means of Hezbollah, was building a veritable Maginot line in the south but it was the pictures of Maroun el-Ras and Bint J'bail that revealed to us the magnitude of these constructions.
Read it all, but I feel compelled to pull out a couple of other sections.
Finally, someone talking about the failure of the Lebonese government to do what everyone knew they should do:
The Security Council's Resolution 1559 - that demanded that OUR government deploy OUR army on OUR sovereign territory, along OUR international border with Israel and that it disarm all the militia on OUR land - was voted on 2 September 2004. ...
We had two years to put implement this resolution and thus guarantee a peaceful future to our children but we did strictly nothing. Our greatest crime - which was not the only one! - was not that we did not succeed but that we did not attempt or undertake anything. And that was the fault of none else than the pathetic Lebanese politicians.
And here is something you won't read in a Western "news"paper, mainly because it points to the truth of the situation rather than the distorted view that the "news" media gives us:
Apart from that, Tsahal has neither hit nor deteriorated anything, and all those who speak of the "destruction of Beirut" are either liars, Iranians, anti-Semites or absent. Even the houses situated one alley's distance from the targets I mentioned have not been hit, they have not even suffered a scratch; on contemplating these results of this work you understand the meaning of the concept "surgical strikes" and you can admire the dexterity of the Jewish pilots.
Beirut, all the rest of Beirut, 95% of Beirut, lives and breathes better than a fortnight ago. All those who have not sided with terrorism know they have strictly nothing to fear from the Israeli planes, on the contrary! One example: last night the restaurant where I went to eat was jammed full and I had to wait until 9:30 pm to get a table. Everyone was smiling, relaxed, but no one filmed them: a strange destruction of Beirut, is it not?
Anyone heard anything like this before?
Like the overwhelming majority of Lebanese, I pray that no one puts an end to the Israeli attack before it finishes shattering the terrorists. I pray that the Hebrew soldiers will penetrate all the hidden recesses of southern Lebanon and will hunt out, in our stead, the vermin that has taken root there. Like the overwhelming majority of Lebanese, I have put the champagne ready in the refrigerator to celebrate the Israeli victory.
But contrary to them - and to paraphrase Michel Sardou [a French singer. Translator's note] -, I recognize that they are also fighting for our liberty, another battle "where you were not present"! And in the name of my people, I wish to express my infinite gratitude to the relatives of the Israeli victims - civilian and military - whose loved ones have fallen so that I can live standing upright in my identity. They should know that I weep with them.
Technorati Tags: Lebanon, Israel, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, War on Terrorism, War on Islamofacism, Middle East.
Imagine that this morning 50 missiles were launched from Cuba and exploded in Miami. In addition to buildings and homes being destroyed, scores of Americans were being killed. Now imagine our allies responded by saying publicly that we must not be too aggressive in protecting our citizens and that America must use the utmost restraint.So begins a USA Today piece by Newt Gingrich titled Now isn't the time for restraint.Our history shows us that we, as Americans, would reject such bad advice. After all, we have never reacted to a direct attack on our soil with any restraint. Every time America has been attacked by an enemy, we set about defeating it and ending the threat.
Well said, as is this excerpt:
United Nations Resolution 1559, supported by the European Union, called for Hezbollah to be disarmed. If not now, when? If not by the Israelis, who?Remember that UN Resolution 1559 was passed in February of 2004.
Technorati Tags: Israel and Palestine, Hezbollah Must Die, Defending Democracy.
I'll not hold my breath.
Meanwhile, all of Israel waits to see if Palestinian leadership can return captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. It is, after all, Palestinian leadership that controls the situation and they have admitted it:
Hamdan, who is close to Hamas' top leadership, insisted that the case of the Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit who Palestinian militants are holding and the Hamas politicians were different.If al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades had kidnapped the the soldier, then Palestinian President Mahmoud could have reasonably beat his chest and cried that he couldn't control the actions of terrorists. But it was Hamas that took Shalit. Hamas, the terrorist organization that the Palestinian people elected to lead them. So it is Hamas, the leadership of the fake country Palestine, that is taking a prisoner of war. And the only way to take a prisoner of war is to be at war."He's an Israeli soldier, a prisoner of war, taken in a battle and falls under a legal category," Hamdan said of Shalit.
Shrinkwrapped observes:
Hamas has never really denied that they are at war with Israel, but has done just the bare minimum of obfuscation to allow much of the press and many Western governments to fantasize that they were ready to become a true governing body and negotiate peace with Israel. The kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, as terrible as it is for him and his loved ones, provides a moment of clarity which the Israelis have seized to good advantage.Israel is understandably going after Hamas leaders, no matter where they hide. So far, dozens of Hamas leaders have been arrested and the Israeli Air Force has hit more than 30 targets in Gaza - including the Palestinian Interior Ministry.Since Hamas admits that Shalit is a prisoner of war, taken in battle, there is no ambiguity left. Israel's military response is perfectly reasonable and acceptable. It is not a coincidence that most of the European governments (except France, of course) are maintaining a studied silence. Even the normally reliable Kofi Annan has refrained from doing anything more than making a perfunctory request for restraint.
You do not sit idle when thugs and terrorists to take one of your own. While some are bemoaning the "over-the-top" reaction, Daniel Gordis explains (read it all!) [HT to IsraPundit]:
In the meantime, the IDF was amassing tanks, APC's and artillery along the border, just minutes away from the high school that I'd visited in November. The enormous array of armor was a relief, at least to people here. Because they can't steal our kids and think that we're simply going to let it go on. Then, a few nights ago, the movement into Gaza began. Now, days later, the campaign still goes on. We've bombed here and there, have taken out much of their electric power, destroyed some bridges, sealed Gaza tight, buzzed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad summer home with four F-16's. But still, no Gilad. So the IDF arrested dozens of members of the Hamas government. And still, no Gilad.I am reminded of a passage from Starship Troopers (the book by Robert A. Heinlein, not the opprobrious attempt at turning it into a movie) which this exchange takes place between the protagonist and an instructor:The rest of the world thinks we're looking for a kidnapped soldier, so they don't really get this massive reaction. The EU's beginning to express concern. Bombing bridges was OK, but arresting the members of Hamas' parliament, they think, is a bit over the top. Buzzing Assad's palace, we're told, was provocative. Maybe.
The reason they don't get it is that they think we're looking for a soldier. But we're not. We're looking for Gilad. Everyone I hear talking about it calls him by name. Never "the soldier." Always Gilad. Our cell phones are buzzing with text messages reminding us to say a Psalm for him. Email in-boxes are filling with the same reminder, and even include the text of the Psalm, so you can say it right when you open the e-mail. And then, you're supposed to forward it.
For the past several mornings, as our kids have woken up, the very first words out of their mouths have been "Did we find him?" They just have to look at us to know the answer. Not yet. The unbearable week drags on.
"Are a thousand unreleased prisoners sufficient reason to start or resume a war? Bear in mind that millions of innocent people may die, almost certainly will die, if war is started or resumed."Exactly. Or as Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, put it:I didn't hesitate. "Yes, sir! More than enough reason."
" 'More than enough.' Very well, is one prisoner, unreleased by the enemy, enough reason to start or resume a war?"
I hesitated. I knew the M.I. [Mobile Infantry] answer — but I didn't think that was the one he wanted. He said sharply, "Come, come, Mister! We have an upper limit of one thousand; I invited you to consider a lower limit of one. But you can't pay a promissory not which reads 'somewhere between one and one thousand pounds' — and starting a war is much more serious than paying a trifle of money. Wouldn't it be criminal to endanger a country — two countries in fact — to save one man? Especially as he may not deserve it? Or may die in the meantime? Thousands of people get killed every day in accidents . . . so why hesitate over one man? Answer! Answer yes, or answer no — you're holding up the class."
He got my goat. I gave him the cap trooper's answer. "Yes, sir!"
" 'Yes' what?"
"It doesn't matter whether it's a thousand — or just one, sir. You fight."
"Aha! The number of prisoners is irrelevant. Good. Now prove your answer."
I was stuck. I knew it was the right answer. But I didn't know why. He kept hounding me. "Speak up, Mr. Rico. This is an exact science. You have made a mathematical statement; you must give proof. Someone may claim that you have asserted, by analogy, that one potato is worth the same price, no more, no less, as one thousand potatoes. No?"
"No, sir!"
"Why not? Prove it."
"Men are not potatoes."
"The soldier will only be released unconditionally and there will be no negotiations with a gang of terrorists and criminals," Meir told The Associated Press. "There is nothing to talk with them about."More from other sources:
If Hamas doesn't want to negotiate under fire, then they should stop playing with matches. This time, they have burnt themselves.
The problem with the Palestinians is that there is no significant sub-population who want peace with Israel; there are merely different groups who have different views on the optimal tactics to use to destroy the hated Jewish state. ...The dilemma for Israel is that to carry the war to the Palestinian people will be horrifyingly costly in terms of Palestinian civilian casualties, yet that is the only way the Palestinians will ever be convinced they have lost their war.
Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestine, Hamas, WMD in the Middle East, Gilad Shalit.
Then you can read his brief history lesson of the Middle East.
Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestine, Middle East.
Israel's foreign minister on Tuesday underlined the Jewish state's gains from its withdrawal from Gaza, disclosing that he met with his counterparts from more than 10 Arab and other Muslim nations this week.No one can deny that the changes going on in the Middle East are surprisingly significant. After all, who would have thought that Hamas would consider anything but the total destruction of Israel?Silvan Shalom also told the U.N. General Assembly that Israel would seek a seat on the powerful Security Council for the first time. ...
"The iron wall" that stood between Israel and most Islamic countries is coming down, Shalom said. "Relations are growing at a rate never seen before."
Hamas could one day amend a charter calling for the destruction of Israel and hold negotiations with the Jewish state, a political leader of the Islamic militant group in the West Bank said.Astounding news. Still, anyone who thinks that Israel will get a seat at the most powerful table in the anti-semitic UN has got to be on crack."The charter is not the Koran," Mohammed Ghazal told Reuters in an interview in Nablus on Tuesday.
"Historically, we believe all Palestine belongs to Palestinians, but we're talking now about reality, about political solutions ... The realities are different."
Meanwhile, with the murder of 52 innocents still fresh on the minds of UK citizens, a delegation of British Muslims has the chutzpah to ask Tony Blair to do away with Holocaust Memorial Day — because it is an affront to their sensibilities. Columnist Carol Gould responds:
However, now that the Muslim community of Great Britain has put its cards on the table and shown how little it cares about interfaith relations, it is little wonder even the most liberal of Anglo-Jewish leaders have recoiled in horror at the request for the abandonment of British Holocaust Day. Frankly, the idea that anyone would suggest the scrapping of this day of remembrance is repugnant and, simply stated, a hideous slur on the Jewish people. The Holocaust, born out of the repeated lies perpetrated by Hitler and Goebbels and reinforced by centuries of Blood Libels and slanders against Jews across the Christian world, is a defining moment in Jewish history. One and a half million babies and children were exterminated.
In 1963, Jordan occupied the West Bank and half of Jerusalem.
In 1963, Syria towered 3,000 feet over Israel, entrenched on the Golan Heights.
In 1963, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was born with only one objective: the total destruction of Israel and the eradication of all Jews.
By 1967, PLO terrorist attacks had escalated to 37 in just the first four months, Israeli children were sleeping in bomb shelters as Syria shelled farms and villages from the Golan Heights and Egyptian president Nasser declared:
We shall not enter Palestine with its soil covered in sand; we shall enter it with its soil saturated in blood.It was Jewish blood that Nasser lusted after and he moved 100,000 troops and 1,000 tanks across the Sinai Peninsula to Israel's southern border in June of 1967.
There was no doubt that an attack was coming; indeed, one Syrian general predicted a victory over Israel in four days "at most".
Israel decided that it would be better to fight on Arab soil rather than their own. On 5 June Israel launched a pre-emptive air strike and destroyed 309 of Egypt's 340 aircraft while they sat on the ground. Israeli ground forces then moved into the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip and engaged Egyptian ground forces.
Meanwhile, King Hussein of Jordan ordered his forces to attack the Israeli half of Jerusalem from the Jordanian-controlled half of the city. The Israeli's responded and by that evening Jordan's air force was decimated. By the next morning Israeli troops and nearly surrounded all of Jerusalem.
By the end of the second day Israel had destroyed nearly all of Syria's aircraft and had nearly total control of the skies. Israeli ground forces took the Western Wall and Jews controlled the holiest site in Judaism for the first time in 2,000 years.
By the end of the third day Israel had pushed Jordanian forces out of the West Bank and Jordan agreed to a ceasefire. By the end of the fourth day Israeli forces reached the Suez Canal, controlled the entire Sinai Peninsula and stood poised to drive to Cairo. On the fifth day Israel assaulted entrenched Syrian forces and took the Golan Heights on day 6 .
During the six-day conflict Israel lost 700 troops and 46 of its 200 fighter planes. The Arabs lost 18,000 men as well as virtually all of their air force and much of their armed weaponry. As a result of the war, Israel tripled its territory from 8,000 square miles to 25,000, taking the Gaza strip and the entire Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria, and only because of international pressure did Israel not drive to Cairo, Damascus and Amman, the capital cities of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, respectively.
This land belonged to Israel by right of conquest, yet Israel did not expel the people that lived there.
In fact, in 1978 Israel agreed to return 91% of the territory won when it agreed to give the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt. The cost of doing so was immense:
Because Egypt insisted that Jewish civilians leave the Sinai, 7,000 Israelis were uprooted from their homes and businesses, which they had spent years building in the desert. This was a physically and emotionally wrenching experience, particularly for the residents of Yamit, who had to be forcibly removed by soldiers from their homes.
Israeli troops dragged settlers screaming and sobbing from homes and synagogues on Wednesday, beginning a forced evacuation of Gaza settlements after nearly four decades of occupation.Thousands of unarmed soldiers marched door to door in six Jewish enclaves, ordering people out and in some cases breaking down doors when they refused. Police grabbed protesters off the streets and pushed them into waiting buses.
There are 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, providing a home to about 8500 people.
One woman wept and shouted "I don't want to! I don't want to!" as four female soldiers, each grabbing a limb, carried her out of her home in Neve Dekalim, the largest Gaza enclave.[Note: click here to listen to the song referenced, Ani Maamin.]In one synagogue, radical youths who had slipped into the main settlement bloc sang the haunting melody some Jews sang on their way to Nazi gas chambers.
One woman protested by setting herself on fire at a Gaza Strip checkpoint, suffering burns over 60 percent of her body. A man took a soldier's weapon at knife point and killed four Palestinian laborers. Emotions were running high.
Soldiers consoled weeping settlers:
In Neve Dekalim, a grizzled colonel, with tears in his eyes, shook hands with a young father, cradling the man's tiny baby, as he explained it was time to go.Another commander, identified only as Yitzhak, tearfully hugged another settler.
"It's not easy. These are very special people. This is the salt of the earth," Yitzhak said. "But we have a mission and we will carry it out, and I think these people understand that."
There are stories of soldiers praying with the settlers before loading them onto buses. There are stories of soldiers helping grief-stricken families to pack. There are pictures of soldiers weeping as they carried out their orders.There are pictures of soldiers consoling each other.
There are frequent references to the holocaust:
In Kerem Atzmona, considered one of the most religious and most resistant to the disengagement plan, residents used Nazi-era symbols to protest their removal -- painting houses with swastikas and marching from their homes with their hands held high and yellow stars of David stitched to their shirts.All across Gaza, the images are heartbreaking, even to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who ordered the evacuation:
"The pictures we see are heartbreaking, they are also breaking my heart," he said. ...Sharon defended his decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, saying he did it for the good of Israel. "I believe with all these difficulties, Israel will come out stronger," he said.
Hamas, the militant group, also said the evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza and the northern West Bank did not mean a complete liberation from Israeli rule, and it reserved the right to bear arms.
But we know who is cheering: Palestinians as they wave the Hamas flag, a symbol of terrorism and the slaughter of innocents since the second Intifada began nearly five years ago:Hamas militants, who claim the pullout as a victory for the uprising, slapped up posters on Gaza City walls showing a masked gunmen striding across crumbling settlements.
Palestinian militants are portraying the pullout as a victory for their suicide bombings and rocket attacks. Some fear militants will resume bloodshed once Israel's Gaza withdrawal is complete.
Palestinian terrorists are literally dancing in the streets. Others are setting up lawn chairs to watch joyfully as soldiers pull families from their homes.In 2005, Israel is giving up the Gaza Strip, yet it does so without guarantees provided by signed agreements and international backers. Daniel Pipes believes that this is a case of Israel literally destroying itself:
Israel's mistakes are not unique for a democracy  French appeasement of Germany in the 1930s or American incrementalism in Vietnam come to mind  but none other jeopardized the very existence of a people.Indeed, Jonathan Tobin explains why this retreat will change nothing in the liberal press:
Israelis had their own good reasons to say good riddance to Gaza, but they should expect no credit for it on the pages of The New York Times, or on CNN or NPR. Years and years of concessions have only served to reinforce the idea that Israel was always in the wrong. And nothing - not giving up Gaza, or even the whole of the West Bank and Jerusalem - will change that.As for me, I only hope that this does not become the picture that best describes the outcome of the Gaza evacuation: a Palestinian child celebrates with gun in hand:Until the day when Israel and its friends begin speaking once again of inalienable Jewish rights to this land, the most we can expect is still more of the same.
For more on the Six Day War:
Bloggers covering the Gaza evacuation:The scheduled withdrawal of Israeli communities from the Gaza Strip is a defeat for Israel, and the armed conflict that led to that "defeat" will continue until Israel leaves all of the West Bank and Israel, a senior Hamas leader said in an interview with Cybercast News Service.
The Palestinian Authority, of course, is famous protecting the Infatada that has targeted women and children and, just last week, even the sick and infirm as a woman who was receiving treatment "on humanitarian grounds" at the Israeli Beersheba hospital attempted to repay the kindness by blowing herself up inside of the hospital.
This is the same Palestinian Authority, of course, that has an official TV station that carries clerics who say nice things like "Jews are a virus resembling AIDS" and that Muslims "will rule America" as well as the rest of the world (once they rid it of Jews).
When putting one of the most holy sites in Christian lore in the hands of Muslim fanatics, one must remember how the two 2,000-year-old giant Buddha statues that were carved into the side of a mountain faired under their tender care. Remember those? You'll have to, because you'll never see them again.
One wonders how long before the manger gets bulldozed. Any guesses?
Support among Palestinians for suicide bombings has dropped sharply in the past six months, from 77 percent to 29 percent, according to a poll published Monday. ...The largest militant groups, Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, have said they would abide by the informal truce declared after a Feb. 8 Mideast summit. The smaller Islamic Jihad, however, carried out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed five Israelis in Tel Aviv late last month.
The poll also found that support for Hamas, which is competing in local elections in May and parliamentary elections in July, increased from 18 percent in December to 25 percent in March. Support for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement dropped from 40 percent in December to 36 percent. ...
In the poll, 29 percent of respondents said they approved of last month's bombing in Tel Aviv, compared to 77 percent who supported an August bus bombing that killed 16 Israelis in the town of Be'er Sheva.
He had more Jewish blood on his hands than anybody since Hitler. He was a strategist of the murder of women, children and the aged. No normal nation would have dedicated this amount of endless broadcasts to a person responsible for the deaths of so many of their kin.Exactly. Yet the press salivates over him and liberal moonbats considered him legitimate.
Arafat sleeps with the worms and his future is in God's hands. He is worth neither my pity nor my anger.
It is time we move on and concentrate on our future. The press will better serve us by focusing on the next leader of the Palestinian people. Hopefully he will want peace and not just the extermination of Jews and the embezzlement of funds.
I would allow him to return -- in a pine box.
"The barrier has drastically sunk the number of attacks", said the Belgian diplomat.Yes, international law is the important thing here -- not stopping the murder of women and children.However, although he admitted that the number of attacks has fallen, he told FT Deutschland that it does not mean that he finds the wall good.
Mr Marc Otte said that the problems with the wall and international law remain.
If there is anything the French hate, it is moral clarity.Heh, I told you this was a good article.
She continues:
It is no coincidence that France was acting in an overtly hostile manner toward the Jewish state when Sharon made his declaration.Money quote at the end:In recent years, rarely a day has gone by without some French leader doing something to make common cause with those devoted to the annihilation of the Jewish state.
From the French ambassador to Britain's statement calling Israel a "sh-tty little country," to former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard's declaration that the creation of Israel was "a mistake", to its persistent support of Arafat despite mountains of evidence implicating him as a current and active mastermind of terror, France has made it plain that it is an opponent, not an ally, in the Arab-Muslim war to destroy us. So yes, it was sweet to see 200 Jews telling us that they see their future here and not in France.
The problem with France is not simply that one in five French citizens voted for an avowed Holocaust-denier in the last election. Nor is it just that almost every week we hear another story about a synagogue torched, a rabbi beaten, a Jewish cemetery or Holocaust memorial defaced with swastikas or Jewish children terrorized on the subway or on their way to Hebrew school. Nor is it that France hates Israel. The French hating Israel is nothing that keeps anyone here awake at night.
The problem with France, rather, is that it has appointed itself arbiter of global justice, and in so doing inserted itself as a key factor in the US presidential race.
Kerry can choose to be a friend of France, or he can choose to be a friend of Israel. But this is one area where he can't have it both ways.
In a survey of 1,000 Americans conducted on July 14-15 by McLaughlin Associates, 74.1 percent of respondents said they oppose the Bush administration's annual aid package to the Palestinians, while just 10.4% said they support it....A few of the more intelligent German politicians are tired of it too, seeing as Arafat recently wired millions into a private account:The poll also found that 77.3% of Americans oppose the idea of stationing US troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while 12.5% support it.
Allegations that Arafat misappropriated international funds emerged earlier this week when German public broadcaster ARD ran a report with documents showing that Arafat wired $5.1 million in September 2001 to a personal account at the Arab Bank in Cairo. The report said the millions may also have included international aid money.Of course, other "diplomats" don't want to act so hastily:In light of the allegations, CDU's spokesman on Middle East policy, Ruprecht Polenz, called for the blocking of Arafat's account, "in which aid money is apparently sitting illegally." However, Polenz warned against taking blanket financial sanctions against the Palestinian Authority -- a move he said could strengthen opponents of the peace process, including the militant Hamas group.
Others said Europe should not act too hastily in distancing itself from Arafat. "As long as there's still an emotional solidarity in Palestine with Arafat, it wouldn't be prudent to write him off," said Gernot Erler, deputy chair of the SPD's parliamentary group.There's more of this drivel, if you care to read it. I swear I will never understand the diplomatic mind.
Nearly 80% of Jews support Israel's policy of killing terrorist leaders; even 11.6% of Israeli-Arabs support this policy.A nice discussion follows on whether opinions regarded as "right-wing extremism" can be considered extremism if it is the majority opinion. Now I know how liberals think.Contrary to popular perception that the overwhelming majority is in favor of ceding territory, 44.1% of Jews - and 21% of Arabs, including Druze - are against handing over any part of Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) even in the theoretical framework of a comprehensive peace agreement. A bit less, 39.8%, are against the dismantling of even one Jewish community under a peace arrangement. Surprisingly, 22.4% of Arabs agree with them.
Almost half - 47.7% - say that Israel must object to the establishment of a Palestinian state as a pre-condition for a peace arrangement. One out of seven Israeli-Arabs feels the same.
A Hamas suicide bomber blew up two armed Palestinians who tried to rob him at gun point in the Gaza Strip.Hamas claimed the “stickup men” worked for Israeli intelligence, while Palestinian security forces said the two were ordinary thieves.
Rather than give up his explosives, the bomber detonated them, killing himself and the two robbers near the border fence between Gaza and Israel.
Palestinian security officials said the the gunmen were criminals who were involved in a car theft ring that brought stolen vehicles from Israel to Gaza.
Hamas said the bomber was on his way to try to infiltrate into Israel, accompanied by another Hamas member and a guide, when they were stopped by the armed men.
The robbers forced the bomber to lie on the ground and tried to steal the bomb, but the militant detonated it, killing all three. The other Hamas man and the guide escaped.
Israel deserves our protection for many reasons, but that is the most compelling motivator for me.
For a powerful visual of what Israel faces, watch the intro to Middle East Info.org. Nice!
More than half the American public would be more likely to support a presidential candidate who is in favor of a united Jerusalem and defensible borders for Israel, according to a recent poll.That's right -- Americans are opposed to forcing Israel back to 1967 borders.
On another issue, 73% of the respondents agreed with the following statement: "Under a future Arab-Israeli peace agreement, Jerusalem should remain under Israeli sovereignty with freedom of religion for Christians, Muslim, Jews and all other faiths." Only nine percent of the respondents disagreed.Reminded that the tomb of Joseph in Nablus, the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, and the ancient synagogue in Jericho were "ransacked or desecrated" by the Palestinians since the start of the current violence, 60 % of the respondents said these events have made them "less trusting" of giving Jerusalem's Christian holy sites to the Palestinians.