Obviously, all the fault of the Zionist enterprise, code for: Jooz.

A popular pastime in Gaza is swapping gruesome footage of dead or dying victims of the Strip's incessant violence.

The images used to be almost exclusive legacies of clashes with Israeli forces but last year that changed. Now being far more keenly traded are snapshots of Palestinian fratricide, gruesome images taken by "militia-cams' that record scenes for posterity.

Spend any time near the emergency ward of Gaza's Shifa Hospital and security staff or ward workers will offer a look at their mobile phones, which they'll quickly switch to video mode to show images of victims of intra-Palestinian clashes being wheeled in agony from ambulances.

Sit in a town square for more than five minutes and you'll be quickly encircled by youths clamouring to outdo each other with images of death and mayhem.

A veritable library of the "intrafada" now exists in Gaza among militias and clans. Most were added during 2007, when the numbers of intra-Palestinian deaths jumped by 800 per cent — from 55 to 439 — almost all of the deaths in Gaza.

Last year was, by any measure, a revolutionary year in Palestinian politics. More than at any time in the previous two decades, the two most dominant political blocs were willing to bid for influence through the barrels of their Kalashnikovs.

Another factor that contributed to the violence, however, was a creeping radical Islamicisation — a small but growing number of youths in Gaza hitching themselves to an al-Qa'ida world view that pitches them against the rest of the Strip and renders, as fair game to be killed, anyone seen as acting "un-Islamicly'.

A spate of so-called honour-killings of women accounted for about 25 per cent of the body count — far higher than any of the years before.

To read the complete article, please click here.

I just noticed that Soccer Dad also covers this story, but he provides some invaluable links which reveal that this gruesome behavior in Gaza has ample precedent in the fratricide-ridden Arab world. What's most shocking is that the Gazans really do blame the Israelis for their own barbaric behavior. A refusal to take responsibility for one's own actions is a sure sign of an immature mind, a degraded society.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:17 AM | Comments (3)

May 14, 2008

Hamas: We Will Persecute and Burn the Zionists to Eternity

Olmert's peace partners give the official Palestinian Nazi salute.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said Wednesday that a Palestinian state will be established on all of the land of Palestine and not only on parts of it, and that it will include "Jaffa, Lod and Haifa."

Zahar also reiterated Hamas' unwillingness to recognize the State of Israel and said that the group "will continue to persecute the Zionists wherever they are, after we prove that the Zionist army can be defeated — contrary to what was believed in the past, that it is impossible to beat the Zionists."

Speaking in the Gaza Strip, he went on to affirm Palestinian right of return, claiming that the "right of return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians is closer than ever."

"After we defeat the Zionists we will persecute them… we will persecute them to eternity, and the sun of the freedom and independence of the Palestinians will burn all of the Zionists," he continued.

Original article from The Jerusalem Post.

I have a few questions and observations:

1. Why is this terrorist Jew-hater still alive? One hellfire missile from an Israeli drone will feed hell.

2. Why is Israel supplying fuel, power and medical supplies to Gaza? The Arabs who live in Gaza elected Hamas, thus overwhelmingly endorsing their genocidal program. Gaza shares a border with Egypt. Let the Egyptians supply, no doubt, brilliant medical care to their beloved Arab-Muslim brothers.

3. In the past few days mortars and rockets from Gaza have slaughtered two Israeli citizens, Jimmy Kedoshim, 48 and Shlomit Katz, 70. This morning, a missile from Gaza scored a direct hit on a shopping center in Ashkelon injuring a dozen men, women and children. The rocket was a Grad Missile, designed and brought into Gaza from Persia. It has a larger payload than the Quassam and a range of 12 miles. The technology will only improve. The corrupt PM Olmert has been negotiating with Holocaust denier and terrorist leader Muhamar Abbas. This is not just appeasement, it's self-strangulation on a national level. The first duty of the state is to protect all its citizens—not just the latte sippers in Tel Aviv. Yes, I guarantee, if missiles from Gaza were hitting Tel Aviv, Olmert would invade Gaza faster than he'd take a bribe.

4. Not only is Olmert negotiating with Abbas, but he's been negotiating a cease-fire, in reality a hudna‚ through Egypt, a leaky partner for Israel—with Hamas. This signals to the Arabs that Israel has lost the will to fight. No wonder Hamas boasts of destroying Israel and burning Jews. At this point, Olmert and Livni are no less than enablers of Hamas and all transnational terrorist groups who seek to eliminate Israel and rid the world of Jews.

5. Once again, Seraphic Secret urges Israel to cut all fuel, power and medical supplies to Gaza.

6. Israel should announce that each rocket, mortar and missile from Gaza will be met with an automatic response of ten shells to one. Thus it will be quite clear who is responsible for the rain of destruction.

7. If the attacks from Gaza don't cease within ten days, carpet bombing should commence. The civilian population will be warned in advance so they can make their way to Egypt, into the warm embrace of their generous Arab-Muslim brothers.

8. Gaza is an enemy state and should be treated as such.

9. Olmert is an appeaser and should be recognized as such.

10. If Israel continues with her current policies of appeasement, she will soon be bracketed by an Syrian-Persian controlled Lebanon—a done deal—and Gaza, a proxie for Persia. Israel must act with overwhelming force to short-circuit this Shia terror encirclement, and to reestablish regional deterrence. All else is suicide in slow motion.

11. And unless Israel deals decisively with these barbarians, then Israel will soon be subject to this sub-human jihadist savagery.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:26 AM | Comments (12)

May 12, 2008

The Fleet Positions Itself for War Against Iran

Currently, there is a large U.S. naval deployment that points to a an overwhelming military strike against the Persian nuclear facilities. The carrier rotations indicate a clear tactical pattern for war.

Why now?

Iran will not willingly give up her nuclear ambitions. That much is clear. Iran is intent in spreading its hegemony throughout the region. Currently, she is, through her proxy Hizbullah, in the process of turning Lebanon into another Gaza.

We can assume that America and Israel are sharing intelligence on this operation. The Saudis, who fear and detest the Shia Persians are, no doubt, opening their files on their Muslim brothers. The Gulf Sunnis are as anxious as Israel to defang the Shia Mullahs.

President Bush and his advisers cannot risk an Obama presidency, in effect, a second Jimmy Carter. Obama, an entrenched leftist, is an appeaser. The Persians, and every transnational terrorist movement, would eat him—and us—alive.

Nuclear weapons in the hands of the Mullahs would be a disaster for the region and for the civilized world. President Bush understands the geopolitical implications. And yet the American press yawns in the face of a regime that denies one Holocaust while it promises another.

Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, “unprecedented in its scope.”

Bush’s secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area – from Lebanon to Afghanistan – but is also far more sweeping in the type of actions permitted under its guidelines – up to and including the assassination of targeted officials. This widened scope clears the way, for example, for full support for the military arm of Mujahedin-e Khalq, the cultish Iranian opposition group, despite its enduring position on the State Department’s list of terrorist groups.

Similarly, covert funds can now flow without restriction to Jundullah, or “army of god,” the militant Sunni group in Iranian Baluchistan – just across the Afghan border — whose leader was featured not long ago on Dan Rather Reports cutting his brother in law’s throat.

Other elements that will benefit from U.S. largesse and advice include Iranian Kurdish nationalists, as well the Ahwazi arabs of south west Iran. Further afield, operations against Iran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon will be stepped up, along with efforts to destabilize the Syrian regime.

And this:

Our observations regarding developments began back in September of last year, as we began to watch how the rotations would come together for 2008. We have discussed 6+2 strategy for carriers before. The carrier strategy which was enabled by the Fleet Response Plan was designed to insure the Navy has 6 aircraft carriers available within 30 days to anywhere in the world, with 2 more available by 90 days. The theory is that beyond 90 days, the other 2 carriers not conducting a nuclear refueling would be available within 180 days. 6+2 is theory though, it usually involves several of those 6 carriers returning from deployment, thus the 30 day metric.

However, as the rhetoric builds, we observe 6+2 is getting very close to reality. Lets count them down.

Here is the 6 for the 30 day response this summer:

6 & 30 Days:

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) - Deployed to Gulf

USS George Washington (CVN 73) - Deployed on way to Japan

USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) - Next Atlantic Fleet Carrier to Deploy

USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) - Next Pacific Fleet Carrier to Deploy

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) - Surge Atlantic Carrier Behind Roosevelt

USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) - Surge Pacific Carrier Behind Reagan

2 & 90 Days:

USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) - Rotating from Japan to San Diego (Currently Deployed)

USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) - Currently Deployed, Returning Home

2 & 180 Days:

USS Enterprise (CVN 65) - 16-month Extended Docking Availability Began April 11th

USS Nimitz (CVN 68) - Currently Deployed, Extended Drydock Availability Begins After Deployment

Nuclear Refueling:

USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) - Unavailable until end of 2008

Check closely, we list both carriers for 60 days as deployed today, plus a 180 day carrier as deployed today. In other words, they won't be unavailable until the Navy decides them to be.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:16 AM | Comments (7)

May 02, 2008

Whitewashing Hamas

An important commentary from Caroline B. Glick, the woman who should be Prime Minister of Israel.

Another ordinary week has come and gone in southern Israel.

Bombarded by rockets from Hamastan in Gaza, residents of Sderot, Ashkelon and nearby towns watched as their national leaders conducted negotiations by proxy with Hamas to release hundreds of terrorists in Israeli jails and consolidate Hamas's weapons supply lines by suspending Israeli counter-terror operations during a "cease-fire."

Between trips to the local bomb shelter, they watched Israeli trucks deliver fuel and supplies to Hamas in Gaza in the morning; and they watched Hamas store the fuel and supplies in depots near the border in the afternoon. In the evening they watched news reports echoing Hamas' claims that Israel is depriving Gazan hospitals of fuel and Gazan civilians of basic foodstuffs.

Wednesday night they tried having a Yom Hashoah ceremony in Sderot but it was interrupted by incoming missiles. For its part, Hamas marked the Holocaust with a documentary series claiming that the genocide of European Jewry was a satanic Jewish plot to cull the Jewish population of its handicapped and to manipulate the world media.

Hamas captured headlines this week with its allegation that Israel was responsible for the death of a Palestinian woman and four of her children in an explosion in Bet Hanoun in Gaza as the IDF targeted Hamas terrorists from the air. The IDF conducted two investigations showing that the woman and her children were killed by something else: a secondary explosion caused by bombs the Hamas terrorists — one of whom was her husband — were carrying at the time the IDF targeted them.

To read Caroline Glickman's complete article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friends, Joel Wiesz, Yonoson Fisgus, M.D.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:21 AM | Comments (2)

May 01, 2008

Hamas TV: Jews Planned Holocaust to Kill Disabled

While Jimmy Carter was meeting with Hamas, the terrorist group made the most of the legitimacy bestowed upon them by this Jew hating Democrat by producing for Arab TV an “educational film” about the Holocaust—Palestinian style.

Good job, Jimmy!

Yup, in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is being observed today in Israel and America, Hamas commissioned a television program that claims a gruesome conspiracy between the Nazis and the pre-state Jewish leadership.

And don't forget Hamas has endorsed Barack Obama.

No wonder the Arab world hates Israel and Jews with such passion. They are fed lies from cradle to grave.

Let me repeat the obvious: the wars between Israel and her Arab neighbors has nothing to do with so-called occupation, boundaries, walls, or a Palestinian state.

It's about Jews living and breathing in the mideast.

From The Jerusalem Post:

According to the documentary's narrator, Israel's first prime minister David Ben Gurion decided that Jewish “disabled and handicapped are a burden to the state,” after which “the Satanic Jews” —the film cuts to a picture of a hassidic Jew — “thought up an evil plot to be rid of the burden of disabled and handicapped” — the film then cuts to piles of emaciated corpses — “in twisted criminal ways.”

“This is official Hamas TV,” explained PMW director Itamar Marcus. “It's owned and totally controlled by the Hamas leadership in Gaza, and it goes out by satellite to the whole Arab-speaking world.”

And remember, Israel is supplying Gaza with the energy and fuel with which this and other fine educational movies are produced.

Keep it up Israel.

National suicide on your 60'th birthday, makes perfect sense.

What to do?

Well, I know a few ladies who have a few common sense proposals.

Brigitte Bardot takes aim at jihadists in France.

Carole Lombard says: “Bomb Gaza back to the stone age.”

Lillian Gish vows: “I'll pick off those pesky jihad varmints one by one!”

Peggy Cummins is Gun Crazy and will fight the Islamists to the death.

Zhang Ziyi is an old fashioned girl. She'll disembowel the Islamofacists.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:46 AM | Comments (3)

April 17, 2008

Hamas: All Out for Obama

Hamas says: Vote for Barack Hussein Obama—Or Else!

Last night during the Democratic debate, as Obama explained that his way of dealing with the Persian nuclear threat was by talking to them, my fearless wife turned to me and said:

“I'm scared.”

I nodded my head in agreement.

Both candidates promise to surrender in Iraq and thereby turn Iraq into a province of Iran.

Obama, the most left wing member of the Senate, with a voting record even more left wing than Senator Edward Kennedy—that's quite a feat—didn't answer one question directly. He's the slippery politician cleverly disguised as an anti-politician.

I realized that much of Obama's appeal lies in is his voice. He sounds like an oboe. He sounds like he knows what he's talking about. His well modulated tones are soothing. You feel like you can fall asleep listening to Obama drone on and on—he's like an appealing Philip K. Dick android—and when you wake up all will be well.

In truth, it's a well crafted illusion.

Look, I'll be honest, I hope the Democrats nominate Obama because the more the American people learn about this radical leftist, the more they will be inclined to vote for John McCain. Last night, by refusing to give straight answers, Obama revealed his shallow core. For if Obama were to give straight answers, the American electorate would flee from his banner in record numbers.

But of course, the Jew-hating jihadists recognize a potential Trojan horse when they see one:

On the eve of a planned meeting of its leader Khaled Meshaal with former President Jimmy Carter, the Hamas terrorist organization has expressed the "hope" that Senator Barack Hussein Obama will win the presidential elections and change America's foreign policy.

Even though Obama has said that he would not meet with Hamas unless it renounces violence and recognizes Israel, or becomes the recognized leadership of the Palestinians -- he has no qualms about holding talks with the leadership of Iran, Syria, and North Korea -- that doesn't seem to bother the Hamas leadership.

"We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections," Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, said in an exclusive interview with World Net Daily and with the John Batchelor Show on WABC Radio in New York.

He saw Obama's comments about Hamas as political posturing that was understandable to lull supporters of Israel before the election.

To read the complete story please click go to Israeli Insider.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:44 PM | Comments (10)

April 15, 2008

Poison Plot c/o Pardoned Fatah Terrorists c/o Olmert

Last week, we linked to a story about a gruesome plot by Fatah terrorists to poison the food in an Israeli restaurant and murder as many Jews as possible. It turns out that this plot was hatched by Fatah members who were released from Israeli prisons in an amnesty deal brokered by PM Olmert and his government.

Seraphic Secret draws some core lessons from this latest Palestinian atrocity.

1. Terrorists should never be pardoned. They should either be killed or locked in jail for life.
2. When an Islamist makes an agreement it's worthless. Jihadists have no honor. They are liars who will do and say anything in order to kill Jews and Christians.
3. Fatah is and always has been a genocidal terrorist organization.
4. Prime Minister Olmert and Foreign Minister Livni are a clear and present danger to the Sate of Israel. They ignore S'derot—under steady bombardment from Judenrein Gaza—all the while making nice to Mahmoud Abbas, a Holocaust denier and and a terrorist.
5. The more concessions Israel makes to her enemies the more terror she invites.

The terrorist cell that planned to poison an Israeli restaurant this month was led by jihadists who were recently granted amnesty by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, WND has learned.

The pardoned terrorists, members of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, were directly involved in orchestrating the foiled attack, according to defense sources. They were granted amnesty in October as a stated Israeli gesture to help bolster Palestinian Authority President and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

The terrorists were given amnesty on condition they disarm, refrain from attacks and spend three months in PA detention facilities and another three months confined to Nablus, the northern West Bank city in which they reside.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:00 AM | Comments (3)

April 14, 2008

Fatah: "Drive Them [Israelis] All Out of Palestine"

Child care, Palestinian style.

Seraphic Secret has long maintained that there is no difference between Fatah and Hamas. Both are genocidal terror groups who have vowed to eliminate the State of Israel.

But don't take my word for it, let's hear from a high ranking PLO member as he speaks to an Arab audience in Lebanon.

Title of Video: Palestinian Authority Representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki Supports Anti-Israeli Attacks and States: We Act According to the Phased Plan. Once We Get Jerusalem, We Will Move On to Drive Israelis Out of All of Palestine

Click here for the Video Clip.

And here is the transcript of excerpts from the interview with Abbas Zaki, Palestinian Authority representative in Lebanon, which aired on NBN TV on April 9, 2008:

Abbas Zaki: We believe wholeheartedly that the Right of Return is guaranteed by our will, by our weapons, and by our faith.

Interviewer: Do you still believe in weapons, not just in negotiations?

Abbas Zaki: The use of weapons alone will not bring results, and the use of politics without weapons will not bring results. We act on the basis of our extensive experience. We analyze our situation carefully. We know what climate leads to victory and what climate leads to suicide. We talk politics, but our principles are clear. It was our pioneering leader, Yasser Arafat, who persevered with this revolution, when empires collapsed. Our armed struggle has been going on for 43 years, and the political struggle, on all levels, has been going on for 50 years. We harvest U.N. resolutions, and we shame the world so that it doesn't gang up on us, because the world is led by people who have given their brains a vacation – the American administration and the neocons.

Young Palestinian: As I recall, the invasion of 1982 and the destruction of South Lebanon was not just in response to missile attacks, but in response to operations as well. Israel does not use only the missiles as a pretext. It uses any activity of the resistance as a pretext.

Abbas Zaki: The important thing is that in any operation, Israel will pay a price. We don't want cases in which you don't kill even a chicken, but Israel kills 20 of you. I salute any operation that makes Israel pay a heavy price.

The P.L.O. is the sole legitimate representative [of the Palestinian people], and it has not changed its platform even one iota. In light of the weakness of the Arab nation and the lack of values, and in light of the American control over the world, the P.L.O. proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine.

Courtesy of MEMRI.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Brother-in-Law, Rabbi David Singer

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:08 AM | Comments (6)

April 10, 2008

Eat, Drink, Die

Grill Express Restaurant

Palestinian restaurant workers planned to serve, gee, what a shock, dishes laced with poison to Jewish patrons.

Here's another stunner. The terrorists are aligned with Fatah, the very group with whom Prime Minister Olmert is negotiating.

Yup, Olmert and Livni are propping up a genocidal Arab regime who are no different than Hamas.

Oh, wait, I'm sorry. Mahmoud Abbas does wear nice suits. They are made in London by the best bespoke tailors. In fact, the very tailors who cut the suits for the corrupt Columbia Professor Edward Said, who also looted money from Fatah for his sartorial pleasure.

Look, they're all a bunch of corrupt bums who have no interest in building a state, only in destroying a state—Israel—and, naturally, these Palestinian, ahem, leaders, steal as much money as possible.

That's our American tax dollars at work.

And EU currency being used to plot terror attacks in the heart of London.

In the meantime, Jew-killing is the name of the game, the more gruesome the better.

Y'know, when terrorists plan on killing Jews and the Prime Minister of the Jewish state rewards the terrorist entity with er, peace talks, it only encourages further terrorist attacks.

It's called positive reinforcement.

The thwarting of an alarming terror plot was cleared for publication on Thursday, almost three weeks after a joint Shin Bet and police operation led to the arrest of two Palestinian employees of the 'Grill Express' restaurant in Ramat Gan.

The men, Eihab Abu Rial and Anas Salum, both 21-year-old residents of the West Bank city of Nablus, had planned to lace dishes served at the establishment with a powerful toxin without odor or taste, in the hopes of killing as many patrons as possible.

The two did not have working permits and were residing in Israel illegally. While in Nablus, they had been recruited to the al-Aqsa Martyr's Bridges, the military wing of Fatah, under the guidance and funding of Hizbullah.

The men were arrested by police investigators following information obtained by the Shin Bet, several short days before they planned to carry out the attack.

In their questioning the men told interrogators they were to receive the poison from two operatives in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus – Husseini Salag and Hani Quabi – who are still wanted by security forces.

The white substance is virtually undetectable and affects its victims approximately four hours after being ingested.

Click here for the complete story.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

Anti-Semitic Obama Supporter Attacks Jewish Philanthropist

Daphna Ziman

Daphna Ziman is a Jewish philanthropist in Los Angles. Her work with the African American community is well known. Last night, she was supposed to be honored. Instead she was subjected to a vicious Jew-hating diatribe by a supporter of Barack Obama. It's no secret: the black community is riddled with Jew-hatred. And with so many apologists for Jeremiah Wright on the left and in the Jewish community, well, Jew-hatred has found a comfortable home not just in the black community but in the Democratic party.

by Daphna Ziman

April 8, 2008

Hi,

I have to tell you of an experience I had last night that was so anti-Semitic and frightening:

Last night I was honored by Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, for my work with Children Uniting nations with African American children who are living out of home care. I have dedicated my life to saving these children from abuse, neglect and a life of crime. We created 'adoption day' and "Day of the Child" determined to recruit caring adults to be mentors and life savers for our at risk children in the inner cities.

The Mayor was present and City Council member Bernard Parks, assemblyman Mike Davis, Senator Mark Ridely Thomas etc. I was introduced as a children advocate and a leader in the Jewish community. I began my speech by talking about how I woke up in the morning and listened to Hillary Clinton's speech, in the spirit of Dr. King from Memphis, that moved me so deeply. I expressed to the crowd how grateful I was to listen to Sen. McCain apologize to the community for mistakes he has made in the past. I acknowledged Sen. Obama's speech from the campaign trail about Dr. King's mentorship.

After I spoke and thanked the fraternity and their members, Rev. Eric Lee, pres. and CEO of Southern Christian Leadership Conference of greater Los Angeles, was introduced as the key note speaker.

He began his speech by thanking Jesus for Obama, who is going to be the leader of the world. He continued by referring to other leaders Like Dr. King, being that this was the moment of celebrating Dr. King's spirit on the anniversary of his death, and Malcolm X.

It was right after the mention of Malcolm X that he looked right at me and started talking about the African American children who are suffering because of the “JEWS” that have featured them as rapists and murderers. He spoke of a Jewish Rabbi, and then corrected himself to say "What other kind of Rabbis are there, but “JEWS”. He told how this Rabbi came to him to say that he would like to bring the AA community and the Jewish community together. “NO, NO, NO,!!!!” he shouted into the crowd, we are not going to come together. “The Jews have made money on us in the music business and we are the entertainers, and they are economically enslaving us.”

He continued as to how now the salvation has come and the gates have open for African Americans to come together behind Barack Obama, because now is the time to show them (meaning the Jews).

He continued to speak about “White supremacy” vs. the talents and visionaries in the core of African Americans. He demeaned being given freedom, by saying “To what?” to a country that kills women and children.

I could no longer be polite and sit in front of the crowd, so I walked out.

Members of the fraternity ran after me as did my staff, I was not able to contain my tears and I cried. I cried for me and my family, who have tried so hard to help the African American community, because we adopted children from the same realities and wanted to give back to other children and people. We have been completely color blind, for us it was only helping those children in need.

This letter has been truncated for reporting purposes, as our sole interest in sharing this with you is to provide you with a first hand account of Daphna Ziman's devastating personal experience of anti-Semitism at a recent event at which she was being honored.

From Stand With Us.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Aliza Zibkoff

And here's Roger Simon interviewing Daphna Ziman for Pajamas Media. This is worth watching for Ms. Ziman is utterly authentic, completely believable and shocked by the vicious Jew-hatred that was unleashed at her and the Jewish people. She's a Jewish liberal who's been mugged by reality.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:17 PM | Comments (24)

April 09, 2008

To Destroy Gaza

Hamas marches in Gaza reminding citizens of their duty to kill Jews.

Two Jews, Oleg Lipson 37, and Lev Cerniak 55, were murdered by Palestinian terrorists in Nahal Oz.

What were these Jews doing?

What was their crime?

They were providing fuel to the citizens of Gaza.

Who were the terrorists who committed this deed?

Three terror groups claim responsibility: Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and Fatah's Mujahideen Brigades.

Fatah, by the way, for those who are slow on the uptake, is the, ahem, moderate terrorist group with whom PM Olmert is negotiating, in fact, secretly negotiating, and gee, on a fast-track to divide Jerusalem and G-d knows what else he and Foreign (very foreign) Minister Livni have given away to this genocidal organization.

Seraphic Secret has long maintained that supplying energy to those who have vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the earth is suicidal.

The choice is clear: it's either the citizens of Israel or the citizens of Gaza.

I choose the citizens of Israel.

The barbarians in Gaza have made the choice for me.

And by the way, so have the savages in the U.N.

If the government of Israel does not act, it's time to replace this odious government.

Now, with this murderous attack, the terrorists have brought home the terrible paradox of supplying energy to those who have vowed to murder every Jew on the face of the earth.

Pin-point assassinations make for nice headlines and are blah, blah, blah, morally defensible, but in the long run they do not win wars, nor do they maintain any form of deterrence.

Until the civilian population of Gaza is brought to its knees, until Gaza is turned into a vast parking lot Israel will become one huge S'derot.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:27 PM | Comments (3)

Carter to Hug Hamas

It comes as no surprise that Former President Jimmy Carter is planning to travel to Syria to meet with senior Hamas leader Khalid Mash'al, probably on April 18.

Carter, best friend to dictators everywhere, will achieve two important benchmarks with this meeting.

1. He will bestow legitimacy on a Jew-hating and genocidal organization.
2. This visit will increase petro donations to the Carter library.

It should be kept in mind that the Hamas covenant calls for the annihilation of the state of Israel. Major parts of the charter are based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It also calls for a caliphite to rule the world.

I suppose Carter expects to moderate Mash'al's “militant” views. Or maybe they'll just sit around discussing the vast Jewish lobby that controls American foreign policy.

Khalid Mash'al has been on Israel's hit list for many years. He's the definition of a terrorist, a war criminal. Former President Jimmy Carter not only enables Jew-haters and terrorists, he props ups tyrannies that would murder every Jew on the face of the earth.

It's interesting to note the similarities between Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter. Both advocate talking to our enemies without preconditions. Just the other day, Barack Obama, sounding like a replay of Carter, called for a “diplomatic surge that includes Iran.”

In truth, Iran becomes more dangerous every single day.

But Barack Obama, like all donkey appeasers, figures that just making nice to jihadist Jew-haters will, y'know, charm them into being good neighbors. As if that's ever happened. Hey, Obama's Pastor certainly never moderated his views on Jews or Israel. Not in 20 years. But then, as far as we know, Obama never even tried to talk some sense into his good Pastor. Nope, Barack Obama just sat there for 20-years, with his wife and children, nodded his head and responded, “Amen brother.”

I will say it right now: Jews who vote for Obama are either suicidal, stupid, or hey, delusional, which is pretty much the definition of a Jewish Democrat these days.

With all due respect.

Anywhoo.

This notion of Iran as a partner to stabilize Iraq is not merely gullible, but dangerous. Persia seeks hegemony over that region of the world. Persia, from 1980 to 1988 fought a bloody war with Iraq in which a million men were slaughtered. Now Persia sees her chance to annihilate her blood enemy and absorb that country as a province, and snatch Iraq's vast oil fields as a grand prize.

Obama, when speaking to General David Patraeus, sounded not just like an appeaser and a defeatist, but quite frankly, he was way over his head.

Never forget that Jimmy Carter lost Iran. Never forget that Jimmy Carter helped usher in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

It appears that Barack Obama is determined to lose Iraq and perhaps throw Israel into the bargain.

It's quite clear that Barack Obama is a replay of Jimmy Carter.

Oh, and guess which Democratic candidate Carter is backing in the primaries?

Duh?

And this from the Republican Jewish Coalition:

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) today called on Sens. Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama to speak out in opposition to former President Jimmy Carter's possible plans to visit with Hamas terror chief Khaled Meshal in Syria. As reported by FOX News, the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Tuesday that Carter is planning a trip to Syria in mid-April and will be meeting with Meshal.

"It is unacceptable that a former American president would choose to dignify and legitimize Hamas leader Khaled Meshal with a visit. Hamas is a designated terrorist organization that denies Israel's right to exist, kidnaps Israeli soldiers, fires rockets on Israeli towns, is responsible for the deaths of American citizens and celebrated in the streets of Gaza after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Meshal has even called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 'courageous' for denying the Holocaust," said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks.

"As presidential contenders who have pledged to protect America and stand with our ally, Israel, we urge Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama to speak out forcefully against former President Carter's possible meeting with Khaled Meshal and to ask him not to have this meeting," said Brooks.

Flash Video: Jimmy Carter's War Against the Jews

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:54 AM | Comments (12)

April 08, 2008

Al Qaeda on Iraq

Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaedas’s second in command.

I've just been listening to Barack Obama question General Petraeus about Iraq. Obama says that if America were to withdraw from Iraq, things might get “messy.”

Really?

I would think that the word genocidal would be more appropriate.

The contrast between Obama and General David Patraeus is stark. General Patraeus has spent his entire adult life honorably serving and defending this country. Barack Obama is the slick creature of George Soros and his vile moveon.org and their legion of Jew-haters.

Let's keep in mind that Barack Obama has been in the Senate less time than the five-and-a-half years John McCain was imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton being tortured by the North Viet Namese Communists.

The thought of Barack Obama as Commander-in-Chief of General David Patraeus and men of his ilk is, to say the least, frightening.

But listen, don't take my word for how disastrous an American withdrawal from Iraq would be, let's hear from the jihadists themselves—who are salivating at the idea of an American surrender.

No wonder the Arabs in Gaza are all for Obama.

This from that fine blogger Wolf Howling.

Ayman al Zawahiri is al Qaedas’s second in command. He gave an interview to al Sahab in December, 2007, and, most recently, answered written questions in a kind of jihadi talk radio show. Both provide a wealth of information and insight into the mind of a man who is in equal measure a religious fanatic and psychopath.

I've been going through Zawahiri's most recent communiques as time has allowed over the past week. They are worthwhile for spelling out the goals and intentions of al Qaeda, as well as for giving a window into the logic of a true Salafist:

1. Iraq remains al Qaeda’s central front:

As-Sahab: And what is the most important field in which this Mujahid vanguard is wrestling with the enemies of Islam?

Zawahiri: Iraq is the most important of these fields.

2. One of the points I have repeatedly made is that pulling out of Iraq would have dire long term consequences for our ability to conduct foreign policy and gather allies, particularly among nations threatened by radicals. Zawahiri thinks so too. He fully expects the U.S. to retreat from Iraq, repeatedly referring to Vietnam. He later explains that he forsees al Qaeda reasserting itself after America leaves Iraq and that the Anbar Awakening cannot keep al Qaeda out of Iraq without American support:

Zawahiri: And I also call on all Muslims to stop supporting the armed groups which have cooperated with the Americans against the Muslims and mujahideen. And I warn those individuals from among the armed factions who have been involved in cooperating with the occupation against the mujahideen that history is recording everything, and that they will lose both their religion and life, and that the Americans will soon be departing - Allah permitting - and won't keep defending them forever. And let them look at the fate of America's agents in Vietnam and the fate of the Shah of Iran, and intelligent is he who learns from other's mistakes.

That is why those who conspire against the Jihad and Mujahideen in Lebanon with American weapons, Zionist collusion and Saudi money must know that they are digging their graves with their own hands, and that the Americans and Jews will not defend them, because they are looking for those who will defend them, and whoever doubts this should remember Vietnam and look at Iraq and Afghanistan."

I expect the Jihadi influence to spread after the Americans’ exit from Iraq, and to move towards Jerusalem (with Allah’s permission). As for the militias mentioned, they have failed to eliminate the Jihad with the help of what is called the strongest power in the history of mankind, so will they succeed by themselves or with the help of Iran?

To read the entire article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)

Iraq: Persian Proxie

Iraq's future if Obama becomes President.

Caroline Glick explains why the Iraq war is the central front in the clash against Iran and Syria. It is worth noting that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have staked their presidential runs on the theme that the Iraq war is wrong and they will withdraw American troops. In short, they promise to surrender—and leave Iraq a vacuum to be filled by Iran, who yearn to spread Shiite hegemony over that region of the world.

Which would, by the way, be extremely bad news for Israel.

Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Sunni states wouldn't be thrilled either. In fact, they want to see Iran annihilated. Preferably by the Israelis.

Of course, Iran and Iraq fought a bloody 8-year war in which over a million men and Iranian boys died in World War I style trench warfare. This war continues as Iran pours arms and terrorists into Iraq in order to kill American and allied troops, destabilize the country, and to convince the American public that Iraq is a replay of the Viet Nam War.

The Democrats are the party of appeasement and defeatists. The notion of winning a war, of sticking by obligations and allies just never occurs to this party.

It matters little to Democrats that after America shamefully fled Viet Nam over 750,000 anti-Communists were murdered and a million innocents slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge Communists in Cambodia. They don't remember that Viet Nam invaded Cambodia to stop the horrific slaughter because America no longer had the will to intervene on foreign shores—even when genocide was taking place.

The Democrats have no historical memory. They have become fossilized isolationists, more concerned with so-called global warming than with confronting true evil—Islamic jihad.

The Republicans are willing to fight evil, yet they fail to explain that evil. And that failure must be corrected for it can turn fatal.

And yet, rather than make clear to Congress and to the US public that the war in Iraq is not an Iraqi war per se but a key battleground in a regional war in which Iran and Syria have combined forces on multiple fronts in a bid to defeat the US and its allies, the Bush administration obfuscates that central truth. For the past five years, key administration officials have repeated the bizarre claim that Iran and Syria share the US's interest in bringing stability to Iraq and that responsibility for ending the war rests solely on the shoulders of Iraq's government rather than on the shoulders of the foreign governments who are waging the war.

To read Caroline Glick's complete article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:11 AM | Comments (6)

April 02, 2008

Why A Terrorist Strategy

Typical picnic and bar-b-cue for the peace-loving citizens of Gaza.

Professor Barry Rubin explains why Arab/Muslims use terrorism as a political tactic to brutalize, neutralize and then hollow out national states.

In addition, Professor Rubin reveals the parasitic role played by the western media as they insist on defining these murderous terrorists as “militants” or “extremists,” in their quest for objective neutrality. I think Rubin is being generous. Many in the international media, most certainly the wretched and always unreliable BBC, are just plain Jew-haters.

As we survey dozens of arch liberal newspapers and television stations we are forced to conclude that the media have surrendered all common sense when it comes to reporting on the Arab war against the Jewish people and the tiny state of Israel.

Professor Rubin's article brilliantly explores another vital issue that we write frequently about here at Seraphic Secret: the grotesque misuse of language by Islamic totalitarians. Language is twisted and deformed by the jihadists, and the perversions and definitions that are spewed by these caliphite terrorists are casually accepted and spread by the western media—all in the name of moral equivalence and multiculturalism.

The end result is the death of language, the death of meaning, and the global spread of Jew hatred disguised as politically acceptable anti-Zionism.

It is once again 1938.

Many years after September 11, despite more than 10,000 terrorist attacks by radical Islamist groups alone, there is still an amazing amount of confusion and falsehood over what should be a very simple point: What is terrorism all about?

The answer is politics and, to be specific, revolutionary politics. Most obviously, terrorism is a tactic used by political groups but, most importantly, it is a strategy. Defining who and what is "terrorist" should be neither a moral judgment nor a propaganda exercise. It is a simple use of political analysis.

There are many incomplete or misleading concepts of terrorism. Often, terrorism is conceived as evil and its perpetrators as irrational criminals. While, of course, terrorism is evil in moral terms the problem with this approach is that it feels no need to go further in understanding what is going on.

Partly as a reaction to that concept, terrorism is presented as a matter of opinion. In today's world, of course, repressing women, denying freedom, and murdering dissenters are often presented in democratic countries as a mere cultural choice, an aspect of local color. It should be remembered that when the Communist USSR made an alliance with Nazi Germany the Soviet foreign minister explained that fascism was merely a matter of taste.

Leaving all that aside, though, once the issue is defined in moral terms then it is being depoliticized. The media thinks of itself as neutral. Consequently, the English-language Western media often calls people who commit terrorist actions "militants" or "extremists." That may be a good thing since it indicates a radical and implies a violent orientation. But it only educates up to a point.

Here's what you need to know: There are arguably good reasons for having a terrorist strategy, not as a reaction to poverty or oppression but as a way to seize state power and transform societies.

Why does an ideology or movement decide that its best course is deliberately murdering the maximum number of civilians? The choice of terrorist strategy is a judgment particularly about one's goals, enemy, and constituency.

Only a despotic goal pursued by a totalitarian movement can sustain a terrorist strategy which, in turn, further reinforces an anti-democratic, intolerant orientation. A radical Islamist dictatorship in which the ruling elite's whim is rationalized as divine will is the shining hell that is the movement's utopian dream. This replaces the Marxist dictatorship of those claiming to embody the proletariat's needs with that of those pretending to interpret divine desires.

To be deserving of mass murder or even genocide, the enemy must be defined as simultaneously demonic and weak. Pure evil, so to justify its being massacred but also cowardly to explain why the revolutionaries will triumph. We have reached the point where many non-radical Muslims agree that criticizing radical Islamism is punishable by death.

Unfortunately, a large part of the West seems to be acting in a way that seems to embody the predicted weakness but that, too, is another story. More relevant here, though, is the fact that the terrorist strategist may make a tactical adjustment in the face of a tough opponent. The reason that Muslim Brotherhoods in Egypt and Jordan do not presently engage in terrorism has nothing to do with their worldview and everything to do with fear of repression. In contrast, Hamas and Hizballah--very parallel movements in every way--can go all-out because there is no government of their peers that is going to flatten them for doing so.

Especially important is the terrorist strategist's assessment of his constituents. He must believe that terrorism will be relatively popular among those he wants to win over. Terrorism appeals as a revolutionary strategy largely because the violence used against Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, and Western targets is largely cheered among Arabs. Only a minority are radical Islamists but a majority is pleased, at least at their work in nearby places. The fault lies with the fans in the stands rather than the victims in the arena.

This is the problem presented by terrorism and radical Islamism. Crazy people can be given therapy, misunderstandings can be cleared up with dialogue; honest grievances can be resolved by mutual concessions. With determined, ideologically clear, mass-based revolutionary movements you can only defeated them or surrender. Holding them off, that is preventing them from winning for a very long time until they are truly worn down, is another option. Refer here to the history of Communism.

Finally, a new twist is added, not for the folks at home but for the suckers out there. "The communists disdain to conceal their aims," wrote Karl Marx in 1848. Since then, the public relations' industry has flourished. Terrorist movements and supporters learned to feign innocence (and moderation), accusing their victims of being terrorists. With a lot of help from prestigious Western news organs they have turned the tables.

Arab leaders spoke in 1948 and 1967 of repeating the Mongol massacres and driving the Jews into the sea. This has not completely changed. Hizballah chief Hasan Nasrallah said recently, "The Zionist entity can be wiped out of existence." But there is no end of commentators around to explain that he doesn't really mean it seriously.

Instead, the sophisticated talk is of "collective punishment" and "excessive force." Even a young gentleman of the old school like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has many saying he was misquoted about seeking to wipe Israel off the map.

Consider this 1993 exchange between two founders of the U.S.-based, Hizballah-supporting Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR):

Omar Ahmad: "There is a difference between you saying, 'I want to restore the '48 land' and when you say 'I want to destroy Israel..."

Nihad Awad: "Yes, there are different but parallel types of address. There shouldn't be [a] contradiction. Address people according to their minds. When I speak with the American, I speak with someone who doesn't know anything. As for the Palestinian who has a martyr brother or something, I know how to address him, you see?"

Yes, I see. But I wish everyone else did, too.

Barry Rubin is Director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Interdisciplinary Center university. His latest book, The Truth about Syria was published by Palgrave-Macmillan in May 2007. Prof. Rubin's columns can be read online at: http://www.gloriacenter.org/index.asp?pname=submenus/articles/index.asp.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:21 AM | Comments (8)

April 01, 2008

A British Call for Freedom

In our previous post we commented on the wretched BBC.

This post is the anti-BBC.

Here, in just 6 minutes, a loyal and freedom loving British citizen, with common sense—and without public tax dollars—speaks eloquently about the dangers of Islam, the appeasers in Britain, the arch appeaser in Canterbury, and the path of dhimmitude that some in Britain are allowing to flourish.

This will put a smile on your face—unless you're a communist, a socialist, a code pinkist, an anarchist, a Jew-hater, an Islamist yearning for the return of the caliphite, or a member of Pastor Jeremiah Wright's congregation.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Treppenwitz.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:44 PM | Comments (5)

Gaza for Obama

Stunning piece of news. Barack Obama is the candidate of choice in Judenrein Gaza. Won't be long before Barack's, ahem, former Pastor, Jeremiah Wright's sermons are selling like hot cakes in Gazastan.

Notice how the BBC correspondent frames the entire narrative—genocidal Gaza, oh dear, perfectly comprehensible—as all Israel's fault because of the so-called occupation. Of course, Hamas, Fatah, Hizbullah, and practically every Arab on planet earth consider the entire state of Israel to be occupied territory. But, for the over-educated, over-bred jihadist enablers of the BBC, well, whatever.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

Shocking News: Hamas Hate Jews

"A Palestinian girl held a Koran and a fake rifle at a
recent rally organized by Hamas in Gaza."

Steven Erlanger, crack reporter for the New York Times, has just discovered that Hamas actually hate Jews.

Now, carefully read the caption to the photo that accompanies Erlanger's article. I actually laughed out loud.

"A Palestinian girl held a Koran and a fake rifle at a recent rally organized by Hamas in Gaza."

Fake rifle.

Really?

Because a homicidal, Jew-hating Palestinian would never carry a real Kalachnikov. And of course, Hamas go to the trouble of manufacturing fake automatic weapons because y'know, they wouldn't allow their delicate, non-violent women to carry real-live weapons.

Some thoughts about the editors/caption-writers at the N.Y. Times:

1. Delusional.
2. Listening to sermons by Barack Obama's, ahem, former Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
3. Wouldn't know a real gun from a fake gun if it shot them in the face.

In his article, Erlanger goes easy on Fatah, as if they don't incite Jew-hatred also. Erlanger has been in Israel for several years and only now has discovered that the Hamas covenant is a murderous and Jew-hating document that's partially based on the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” Maybe in another few years Erlanger will become aware that Fatah is no different than Hamas. Didn't Erlanger notice that Fatah has been marinating in the martyrdom of the terrorist who committed the Mercaz Massacre.

No, of course not, that would ruin Erlanger's neat narrative.

In the meantime, Jews are murdered by genocidal Arabs while Erlanger and his ilk continue to apologize for terrorists, and when they do publish articles that nibble at the truth, the attempts are so feeble, using language so cautious, that the moral equivalence that lies at the heart of the beast shines through.

Like the western journalists who overlooked Stalin's genocide, history will harshly judge Steven Erlanger, Isabel Kirshner, Helene Cooper, and all the other fellow traveler's of the New York Times and the other arch liberal journalists who have aided and abetted Arabs terrorists. Their words, no less than bullets and shrapnel, have murdered and maimed countless Jews.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:18 AM | Comments (9)

March 20, 2008

Obama's Pastor Worships Hamas: What a Shock

Barack Obama with spiritual mentor Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

From BizzyBlog comes evidence that Obama’s church not only has anti-white, anti-American feelings, but may also have a pro-Hamas bias. The July 22, 2007 Trinity United Church of Christ bulletin reprinted an article written by Mousa Abu Marzook, deputy of the political bureau of Hamas. Originally printed in the LA Times as Hamas’ Stand, Pastor Wright added a new title, “A Fresh View of the Palestinian Struggle”. The Times was criticized for giving a Platform To Genocidal Terrorist. Where does that leave Obama’s church? Marzook is a known terrorist and created an extensive Hamas network in the United States.

The smoking gun is here in Obama’s church bulletin. Was Obama there? Does he support Hamas? Expect Obama and his supporters to simply ignore this tacit if not direct support of a terrorist organizaton.

Via: Free Republic

Again: Seraphic Secret maintains that Barack Obama's character and judgment are severely impaired. The proof is his 20-year association with Reverend Wright and his black separatist church, a church that espouses “a pledge of allegiance to a black value system.” Whatever that means. Reverend Wright is a bigot, an anti-American demagogue, a spinner of paranoid fantasies, and obviously a Jew-hater and pathological anti-Zionist.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2008

Lessons of the Great Syrian Raid

A new poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians support the attack this month on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem that killed eight young men, most of them teenagers, an indication of the alarming level of Israeli-Palestinian tension in recent weeks. The survey also shows unprecedented support for the shooting of rockets on Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip and for the end of the peace negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leaders. The pollster, Khalil Shikaki, said he was shocked because... never before, he said, had a majority favored an end to negotiations or the shooting of rockets at Israel... His explanation for the shift, one widely reflected in the Palestinian media, is that recent actions by Israel, especially attacks on Gaza that killed nearly 130 people, an undercover operation in Bethlehem that killed four militants and the announced expansion of several West Bank settlements, have led to despair and rage among average Palestinians who thirst for revenge. Mr. Shikaki’s poll also showed that the militant Islamist group Hamas, which Israel and the United States have been trying to isolate, is gaining popularity in the West Bank.

Complete article here.

In short. It's all the fault of the Jews.

Let me point out the one recent military action in the Middle East that should have had far reaching lessons for Israel and for all major counter terrorism operations, but it seems to have been overlooked.

In 2007, the IAF mounted Operation Orchard, a brilliant and completely successful raid deep into Syrian territory when the IAF bombed a Syrian, North Korean, Iranian facility—probably nuclear.

This raid was so far reaching, so technically advanced that the Syrian ground defenses went dark. The Israelis hacked into the enemy network and rendered them useless. The Syrians had no idea that the IAF was in their airspace. And when they finally became aware of the Israeli incursion they were so intimidated they didn't scramble one single fighter to engage in a dog fight. They knew it was suicide.

But here's the lesson: The Syrians never retaliated.

The Syrians didn't even protest in the U.N. Security Council.

The Syrians and the Persians were so cowed by Israel's overwhelming military and technological capabilities that they just hunkered down and shut the hell up. For they know that if Israel gets riled Israel can annihilate them.

Israel and the world should have taken notice of the Syrian and Iranian reaction. Instead, Israel retreated to her old patterns of appeasement. S'derot and now Ashkelon suffer daily from missile attacks.

One could argue that the Syrian raid was mounted, most certainly, because of an existential threat.

But I will argue that Hamas, Fatah, Hizbullah, and the slow, grinding, wearing down of Israel's national will by being conditioned to accept daily bombardment is also an existential threat.

The lessons of the Syrian raid are obvious: When Israel uses her military might—not pin-point assassinations—the terrorists and their state hosts crawl back into their holes and cower in fear. They are, at the core, bullies who hide behind the skirts of women and children. They cannot fight against Jews as equals.

And now, after the Mercaz Massacre, when common sense informs us—we don't need polls—that the Arab street supports and glorifies this and all atrocities, it's time for the Israeli government to hit the enemy, wherever he resides, with overwhelming and crushing force.

All else is national suicide.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:16 PM | Comments (10)

March 12, 2008

Iran Places Bounties on Israeli Leaders

The latest annual Israeli Intelligence Report, compiled by the IDF Intelligence Branch, with the help of the Mossad and the Shabak (General Security Service) has just been submitted to the government and it is a bit more forthright than the convoluted American NIE. The authors sum up the major threats to Israel in this way:

1) Lebanon is crumbling and falling into the hands of Hizbullah.
2) Syria remains a threat.
3) Israeli-Arabs are joining the fray.
4) Gaza and the world-wide Jihad movement are threats to Israel.
5) But the most significant danger of all lies in Iran's nuclear program.

Not mentioned is this latest bit of blood-lust from the Holocaust denying Islamic Republic of Iran.

Iran has placed a bounty on the heads of Israel's security establishment via its state-supported Islamist student union.

Students offered rewards totaling one million dollars for the execution of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad Director Meir Dagan and IDF Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin, the state-run Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported Monday.

The group has requested that Iranians wishing to increase the bounties donate their kidneys. The bounty for Barak is currently 400,000 dollars, while the murders of Dagan or Yadlin would earn the would-be killers 300,000 each. "These sums will be given to any person, or their families, who could punish these individuals in any part of the world," the Islamist group announced.

Banners announcing the bounties feature the quote by Islamic Revolution Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that "Israel must be wiped off the map." The line has become a rallying cry for Iran's President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad in his bid for nuclear capabilities.

But by all means, let's allow this terrorist Islamic state, proudly reaching for the genocide of the Jewish people, to acquire nuclear weapons. What could possibly go wrong?

Via: Arutz Sheva

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:01 AM | Comments (15)

March 10, 2008

Arabs Celebrate Merkaz Massacre

This clip is from Israeli television. Even if you don't understand Hebrew, the pictures speak for themselves—Gazan and Jerusalem Arabs celebrating the terrorist massacre of eight young boys learning in Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav.

The world shouldn't forget the Arab response to Jewish murders. And neither should the Israeli government, who reflexively yield to appeasement in the face of every horror—a sure path to self-destruction.

When you look at the footage keep in mind that Israel is supplying these joyous people with electrical power, fuel, and humanitarian aid; and that the IDF does everything in its power not to harm these blood-thirsty civilians.

Also keep in mind that this is not an Arab-Israeli conflict. In fact, Hamas terrorists are now almost entirely trained by Iranian forces, and Hamas openly boast of the Sunni-Shia alignment against the Jews and the West.

In truth, the only language the genocidal Jew-haters understand is force, and until they are brought to their knees in unconditional surrender—as was Germany and Japan in World War II—these dysfunctional societies will be an existential threat not only to Israel, but to Western civilization.

Once again, Seraphic Secret's Five Steps to Victory:

1. Denying power and fuel to Gaza.
2. Cutting off all talks with Fatah. There's nothing left to talk about.
3. Declaring the boundaries of Israel final.
4. Including Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.
5. Further, Israel must rid herself of the appeasers Olmert and Livni. They are a mortal threat to the Jewish State, to the Jewish people.

You Tube: via Seraphic Friend, Michael Makiri.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:12 PM | Comments (15)

March 06, 2008

Slaughter of Yeshiva Students

From Naomi Ragen:

I write you this with a heavy heart. This evening, about 8:30 p.m., an Arab terrorist from East Jerusalem, bearing a blue Israeli identity card, entered one of Jerusalem's elite Rabbinical academies, known as Mercaz Harav. He carried a package into the unguarded building where rooms full of young boys in their early to late teens sat pouring over the pages of the Talmud. Some of them had just returned from the kotel. They were waiting for the festive evening—marking the beginning of the joyous month of Adar, the month of the holiday of Purim—to begin.

The terrorist headed for the library. He opened his package. Inside was a gun and so many rounds of ammunition that security forces at first thought it was a suicide belt because of its enormous weight. He saw young, unarmed yeshiva students learning Torah and he opened fire at point blank range. In a room nearby, some older students heard the shots. At first they thought it might be firecrackers to welcome in the month of Adar. And then they heard the screams. Somehow, about twenty of them were able to rush out of the library and barricade themselves in another room. They heard the shots and the screams. They watched the shadow of the terrorist as he walked to and fro, silencing the moans of the wounded with further shots. They waited, expecting to be killed at any moment.

A yeshiva student in the dormitories, hearing the shots, took his personal weapon and opened fire on the terrorist, wounding him. From across the street, a former student of the yeshiva, a paratrooper and an officer, took his weapon and ran across the street. Because of his familiarity with the yeshiva, he was able to find the exact angle from which to fire at the rampaging murderer, shooting him in the head, and putting an end to the carnage. He did this at great personal risk.

So far, we in Jerusalem are hearing reports that eight boys are dead, and many more are injured, some of them seriously. We are hearing reports that the Hamas is giving out candy and rejoicing in Gaza. Hamas leaders are proud of this "hero."

This is the kind of heroes that Muslims have. The kind that kill young unarmed students at point blank range. May G-d avenge their blood.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:36 PM | Comments (5)

March 03, 2008

War is the Remedy

Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman

“War is the remedy our enemies have chosen, and I say give them all they want.”

General Sherman said that. And he knew something about war. He brought the South to its knees by making the good citizens of the Confederacy suffer the consequences of their horrific culture and evil political choices. Sherman's aim was simple:

“To whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.”

It was called Operation Hot Winter.

And it was doomed before it began.

Hama's rockets were reaching Ashkelon. This made Olmert look bad. Okay, he was always willing to sacrifice the citizens of S'derot. They are poor, mostly North African Arab Jews. Totally expendable.

But when the Katyushas, c/o Iran, via our good friends Egypt, reach Ashkelon, well, that called for some smoke and mirrors.

So Olmert unleashed the IAF and the IDF.

Sorta.

And Hamas flinched.

Listen, it doesn't take a lot to make these terrorists squeal like pigs. They start calling for, ahem, cease-fires as soon as the shrapnel gets close to their leadership. Look, they have no problem letting civilians die, they have no problem sending homicide bombers—translation: gullible morons. But when their own heads are on the line, it's cease-fire time. Actually, in Arabic, they're calling for hudna, which means they want time to regroup, recover, rearm, and then start killing Jews when they're strong enough.

Olmert and Livni played their roles as expected. Instead of destroying the Hamas infrastructure, instead of cutting power and fuel to the terrorist statelet of Gaza, they have withdrawn all IDF troops from Gaza. Just in time for Condi Rice's visit.

No wonder Hamas have announced that: “Israel's defeated soldiers have retreated from Gaza.” And of course Hamas have claimed victory. They are not entirely wrong. The purpose of a military offensive is to crush the enemy. This simple and basic doctrine seems to elude PM Olmert. He uses the IDF like chess pieces in a cynical game designed to keep him and his crumbling coalition in power.

“Next stop, Tel Aviv.”

So: we'll see Qassams raining down on S'derot and the more sophisticated Katyusha's on Ashkelon. We're back in reruns. Everyone is comfortable. Especially the Europeans, who find it intolerable when Jews defend themselves. They're far more comfortable with pogroms, mass graves, y'know, lots and lots of good, manageable dead Jews.

Israel will never break out of this self-defeating cycle unless she changes the rules of engagement. That means going on the offensive against Hamas. Destroying infrastructure, killing leadership, including the men who hide out in Damascus. Israel will never know peace unless she achieves total victory over her enemies.

The Seven Samurai don't negotiate. They fight.

This means:

1. Denying power and fuel to Gaza.
2. Cutting off all talks with Fatah. There's nothing left to talk about.
3. Declaring the boundaries of Israel final.
4. Including Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.
5. Further, Israel must rid herself of the appeasers Olmert and Livni. They are a mortal threat to the Jewish State, to the Jewish people.

Unless these steps are taken, Israel will sprint endlessly on a treadmill going nowhere, until she's physically and spiritually drained—and then her enemies will pounce to devour the Jewish State.

Meanwhile, check out LGF's link to a Reuter's article on Gaza. It's pure jihad propaganda that could easily find a slot on Al Jazeera.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:54 AM | Comments (31)

February 28, 2008

Abbas: Moderate Terrorist

Mahmoud Abbas, Moderate Holocaust Denier, Moderate Terrorist

We're shocked, just shocked. The moderate President of the moderate Fatah, who attended the moderately Marxist Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow and wrote a sparkling dissertation on Holocaust denial, yeah a few Jews died during World War II, but mostly from y'know, disease, is whipping out some pretty snappy dialog these days.

This President of not very much (actually he seems to be co-President of Israel) and who receives billions upon billions of dollars in aid from the Europeans and from our brilliant State Department, is actually threatening violence against his beloved Jewish peace partners.

And we thought that this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Hey, we have a great idea: let's hand over Judea, Samaria and half of Jerusalem to the Arabs. Maybe then we'll score some brownie points and the Arabs will like us—they'll really like us—and we'll all live together in peace and harmony, sip latte and sing Kumbaya.

Or: we can deny power and fuel to Gaza, stop talking to Abbas. Declare all boundaries as final and let the Arabs sort themselves out once and for all.

The world will then have to pay attention to genocide in Darfur, Kenya, Congo, Chad, Tibet, North Korea, the list of true horror shows is endless.

Anywhoo, this from Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate President of the moderate Fatah:

PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said that he does not rule out returning to the path of armed "resistance" against Israel and took pride in the fact that he had been the first to fire on Israel and that his organization had trained Hizbullah.

In an interview with the Jordanian daily al-Dustur, Abbas said that he was opposed to an armed struggle against Israel - for the time being.

"At this present juncture, I am opposed to armed struggle because we cannot succeed in it, but maybe in the future things will be different," he said.

The PA president also expressed pride both in himself and in his organization, Fatah, for trailblazing the path of resistance.

"I had the honor of firing the first shot in 1965 and of being the one who taught resistance to many in the region and around the world; what it's like; when it is effective and when it isn't effective; its uses, and what serious, authentic and influential resistance is," Abbas said.

"It is common knowledge when and how resistance is detrimental and when it is well timed," he added. "We (Fatah) had the honor of leading the resistance and we taught resistance to everyone, including Hizbullah, who trained in our military camps."

Original article here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:31 AM | Comments (2)

February 19, 2008

The Jew Haters of the Methodist Church

When an organization chooses to target the Jewish state, and only the Jewish state with one sided criticism—propaganda really—charges more suited to a totalitarian regime, then we are inclined see classic Jew hatred.

The United Methodist Women's Division chooses to ignore the terrorist entity of Hamas in Gaza, the terrorism of Fatah, the Islamic State of Iran that denies the Holocaust and threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, they ignore North Korea, a regime that uses famine as a weapon to murder several million of its own citizens, ignores the genocidal regime of Sudan, and of course ignores the 22 Arab countries that make up the Arab League where human rights are abused on an hourly basis. Naturally, these women have no interest in the mass murder and refugees of Congo where 45,000 people die each month, and the devolving state of Kenya.

That's why the United Methodist's Women's Division is a gang of slick, terrorist enabling Jew-haters.

Among the latest exploits of the United Methodist Women’s Division is a children’s book intended to instill anti-Israel themes among Methodist younsters. Innocuously called, “From Palestine to Seattle; Becoming Neighbors and Friends,” the booklet portrays Israel as an oppressor of Palestinians while omitting all mention of terrorism. It was written by Mary Davis, a former United Methodist missionary in “Palestine,” where she led “study tours,” whose political content no doubt was predictable.

The United Methodist Women’s Division, with over $60 million in assets, $30 million in annual income, and nearly 700,000 members, is one of the most powerful women’s groups in America. Its mostly older members, strung across over 30,000 local churches, earn money for their New York-based headquarters with bake sales, Christmas bazaars, and church suppers. Few among them realize that their donations fund causes of the radical left, including anti-Israel activism.

In the children’s story, a Seattle Methodist pastor just returned from “Palestine” shares a letter from a young Arab boy in Bethlehem with his own children. The Arab boy, Tarek, has never been to McDonald's because the closest one is in Jerusalem, and travel there requires a pass by the Israelis. Naturally, the American children are disturbed. In an ongoing pen pal exchange, Tarek asks the American children why their country thinks all Palestinians are terrorists. The Americans are embarrassed. They summon up the nerve to ask Tarek why passes are needed to travel to Jerusalem.

To read the complete story by Mark Tooley, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend Miranda Rose Smith.

Today's Links:

From the mighty Professor Barry Rubin: Who Owns the Palestine Card? Professor Rubin argues that the Palestinian conflict is really just a fig-leaf for the larger regional conflict where the Shia are determined to destroy Israel and build a hegemony in the Middle East.

From Breath of the Beast. Obama's Campaign and the Real Meaning of the Che Flag. Or: How dopey are Barak Obama's supporters? Answer: There are no words. It's almost painful witnessing our friend Yaacov Ben Moshe slicing and dicing a Barak supporter as she defends the Che flag incident. I have to admit, I look at Barak Hussein Obama and his, ahem, fainting believers, and I smell George McGovern.

EU Politicians Make Empty Promises to Hirsi Ali H/T Phyllis Chesler

This is excellent because it's about Hollywood Good Guys. Via our good friend Dirty Harry at Libertas.

Hizbullah=Nazis

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:55 AM | Comments (17)

February 17, 2008

Fatah Falls Apart?

This fine article analyzes the chaos that is Fatah. The fact that the Olmert government is negotiating with such a stew of thugs drives home how delusional the foreign policy of Israel, and the Western powers truly are.

By Barry Rubin

Rather than unite in the face of the Hamas challenge and the task of gaining support from the West Bank’s people, Fatah seems to be collapsing.

Or perhaps the feuds are not only over power but who gets to control the almost $7 billion scheduled to be given the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) over the next three years. A contributing factor is that Fatah has said it will hold a congress in March, the first full such meeting in almost 20 years.

There are at least five factions operating in Fatah today, and even that is an understatement. While PA “president” Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad enjoy Western support, they have very little from their own organization. These two are relative moderates who have no internal base of support. Even the very tiny group of those who can be called moderate is split since, for example, Ahmad Khouri (Abu Ala), is quarreling with Abbas.

Then there are the cronies of the late head of Fatah and the PA, Yasir Arafat, who have not developed any moderate tendencies but are using Abbas to cling to power. A typical example of this group is Hakam Balawi who was the PLO ambassador to Tunisia when Arafat’s headquarters were there, a particular favorite of Arafat. These people are basically careerists who simply stick with whoever is leader.

A third group are the hardliners, like Abu Ali Shahin, who views himself as a revolutionary fighter. Other powerful figures in this group include Farouq Qaddumi, the actual head of Fatah; Sakhr Habash (Abu Nizar), chief of the Fatah Revolutionary Committee; and Salim al-Zaanoun, head of the Palestine National Council (PNC), the PLO’s legislature. These people want a continuation of armed struggle against Israel and believe that total victory is still possible.

A fourth faction can be called the “young guard,” but this is also split among different contenders for leadership. Muhammad Dahlan, formerly the leading Fatah security (i.e., military) commander in the Gaza Strip is one candidate; Marwan Barghouti, the head of Fatah in the West Bank and now imprisoned by Israel, is another. Dahlan and Barghouti are also very much at odds.

Recently, Shahin has called Abbas a failed leader who should resign. Balawi claimed Dahlan was plotting against Abbas, and Dahlan in return accused Balawi of being an Israel spy.

As if this isn’t enough, the “young guard” knows that the current leaders will not give it any meaningful share of power in Fatah. The group, for instance, does not have a single member on the Fatah Central Committee.

In short, PA and Fatah politics are a mess. This has long been true but few noticed and it didn’t matter when Arafat was alive since he kept the lid on everything, while playing off his subordinates against each other, and provided unity.

Now, however, things are different. It is amazing that since Fatah and the PA are the West’s candidate to make good use of almost $7 billion, beat Hamas, establish a Palestinian state, and make peace with Israel, few observers take note of this disastrous situation or factor it into their policies. Unless Fatah changes its ways, and there is no reason to believe it will do so, one can only wonder if Hamas will be controlling the West Bank, too, within five years. Certainly, one can expect the aid money to disappear without helping the Palestinian people much and be sure that this divided, quarreling leadership will not be able to make peace with Israel.

Professor Rubin is Director of Global Research in International Affairs.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2008

How Mughnieyha Got Dead

Some days, it's just good to roll out of bed go to shul, daven, not check out any news until Shabbos is over and then BOOM, discover a nugget of gold like this:

Nothing seemed very remarkable about the short, bearded man who mingled with other guests on Tuesday evening at a reception in Damascus, the Syrian capital, to mark the 29th anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iranian revolution.

Yet before the night was over he was dead in the twisted wreckage of his car and the inevitable assumption was that Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, had killed him with an ingeniously planted bomb.

The news spread rapidly that the dead man was Imad Mughniyeh, an elusive figure known as “the Fox” who had been one of the world’s most feared terrorist masterminds.

According to Israeli intelligence sources, someone had replaced the headrest of the driver’s seat with another containing a small high-explosive charge. Israel welcomed his death but the prime minister’s office denied responsibility. Hezbollah accused the “Zionist Israelis” of killing its “brother commander” but believed the explosive had been detonated in another car by satellite.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Seraphic Friend Shrink Wrapped analyzes one short section of this story and comes to the conclusion that someone is not quite telling the truth.

Soccer Dad, always a sober analyst, raises questions about the reliability of the sources for the head-rest story.

And here's an informative article from The Weekly Standard that ties in Mughnieyah with Al Qaeda.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:48 PM | Comments (0)

Mughniyeh's True Legacy

The great Caroline Glick provides some fascinating analysis into the recent assassination of terrorist Imad Mughniyeh. As I wrote earlier, this was no ordinary hit, the complexity of such an operation cannot be overstated. Running foreign agents in a totalitarian state like Syria is a massively difficult undertaking that demands financing, rock-solid intelligence, agents who speak the native language fluently, cover stories that bear the closest scrutiny, the ability to set up the hit right under Puppy Assad's brutal secret police, and of course a smooth exit after the assassination, when borders are sealed and the country is locked up tighter than a sardine can.

Mughniyeh was not killed because of past deeds, though certainly the Israelis had him marked for death many years ago—no, this terrorist was deleted in order to halt future operations.

It is quite possible that terror master Imad Mughniyeh was not killed Tuesday night in Damascus for his past crimes, but to prevent him from carrying out additional attacks in the future.

On January 30, French security services raided a Paris apartment and arrested six Arab men. Three of the men - two Lebanese and one Syrian - were travelling on diplomatic passports. According to the Italian Libero newspaper, the six were members of a Hizbullah cell. Documents seized included tourist maps of Paris, London, Madrid, Berlin and Rome marked up with red highlighter to indicate routes, addresses, parking lots and "truck stopping points." The maps pointed to several routes to Vatican back entrances.

Libero's report explained that the "truck stopping points" aligned with information the French had received the week before from Beirut. There, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah had convened a conference of his senior terror leaders where he ordered them to activate Hizbullah cells throughout Europe to kidnap senior European leaders.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:13 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2008

Our Friends The Saudis

This from the country, actually a corrupt family corporation, that does not allow Jews to set foot on its holy Muslim soil.

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.

The threats halted the fraud inquiry, but triggered an international outcry, with allegations that Britain had broken international anti-bribery treaties.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jake Novak

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2008

The Day After the Mughniyeh Hit

Bashir Assad is not a happy puppy.

First, the Israeli Air Force shuts down his state-of-the-art missile defense system, c/o Russia, and bombs his in-progress nuclear facility into nothingness.

The Syrian air force does not scramble. Pilots cower in underground bunkers. They are not going to get into dogfights with Israeli pilots.

Putin promises to rebuild the missile defense system. Sorry, no refunds.

Okay, so the IAF were able to drop in, uninvited. But at least Assad was able to keep a tight rein on Damascus, his capital, where he boasts giving aid and comfort to the world's most notorious terrorists. This gives Assad status in the Arab world. He's got bragging rights. He props up the world's most vocal Jew-killers and boasts about it 24/7. This places him on a pedestal far higher than Egyptian President Mubarak or those decadent Saudis.

But now, boom, someone, has blown it all sky high. The Mughniyeh hit was the result of an extremely complicated and sophisticated operation. The assassination reveals that Assad's security services are not as all-knowing as he pretends. The hit reveals that an enemy service set up safe houses in Syria for months, maybe years, conducted surveillance, obtained lots and lots of explosives, right under Assad's nose. And oh, let's not forget that the assassination team have exited Syria, and are being debriefed by their extremely proud and happy handlers. Mazal Tov.

Interpolation:

The hit was clean, almost surgical. No innocent bystanders were killed. So we know that this wasn't a case of Arab fratricide. This was not a Syrian job, a Lebanese hit, an Iranian blood bath. No this was an extremely professional job carried out by security services who only wanted to kill one man and minimize civilian loss of life. There was a moral core at the heart of this killing. And let's not forget the Mughniyeh connection with Fatah.

End Interpolation:

And this is the scary part for Assad and for Hizbullah—no doubt there are double agents within Hizbullah and the Syrian security services who cooperated in giving up intel about Mughniyeh.

This assassination is no ordinary killing.

Every terrorist in Damascus is looking over his shoulder wondering: who is the traitor?

Hizbullah thug-in-charge Nasrallah is already in the Israeli cross-hairs. He can't be feeling optimistic this morning. Thus, he's threatened war against Israel, but chances are Hizbullah will strike at softer targets in Europe and America where innocent citizens are easy prey.

I am particularly concerned about South America where the Iranian intelligence services have been busy building up their terror networks for the past few years.

If not today, then tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Assad has to be worried about his image as fierce dictator. The Israelis, and whoever erased Mughniyeh, are making him look really bad.

Finally, I have a question: when America invited Assad to Annapolis, did they conveniently forget that he was providing a safe haven to Mughniyeh, the man responsible for murdering so many Americans?

Today's Links:

Arabs Set Fire to Joseph's Tomb. Under agreements with the PA, Joseph's Tomb is supposed to be protected. Now the PA are claiming that Joseph was not Jewish, that he was a Muslim. Oh, we get it, now it's okay to set fire to the tomb.

Victor Davis Hanson looks at Barak Obama, then looks at the Robert Redford movie The Candidate, and so should you.

Obama and American Jews by Eric Trager.

Obama and Israel by Noah Pollak

Enabling Palestinian Terror. H/T Seraphic Friend, David Paulin

The Return of the Wacko Vet Media Narrative by David Paulin.

The Danish Cartoons Part II: What a Riot!

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:06 AM | Comments (5)

February 13, 2008

Hizbullah Terror Chief Killed in Damascus

When a man died in a bomb explosion late last night in Damascus, Syrian police kept media and other onlookers well away from the scene of the blast in the affluent Kfar Soussa district.

Syrian media, all of which falls under the direct or partial control of the regime, still hasn’t mentioned the incident, but Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV station in Lebanon today confirmed that the dead man is Imad Mughniyeh, one of their top commanders and one of the world’s most wanted terrorists.

Among the crimes Mughniyeh masterminded:

* The 1983 suicide bombings in Beirut that killed over 300 US marines and French troops.

* The 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed.

* A wave of Western hostage-taking in Lebanon in the 1980s.

* The 1992 bombing of Israel’s embassy in Argentina in which 29 people were murdered.

* The 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish center in which 95 people died, including Holocaust survivors. (In reporting Mughniyeh’s death this morning, the BBC refused to call the Buenos Aires bombing of elderly Jews “terrorism” and merely referring to it as “an act of violence.”)

The left-wing Israeli paper Ha’aretz, today called Mughniyeh The epitome of the “Axis of Evil”.

Mughniyeh had been in hiding for years and had undergone several rounds of plastic surgery to disguise his appearance. In recent years, he established links with Osama bin Laden despite the Sunni-Shia heritage of their respective terror groups.

Hezbollah has blamed Israel for assassinating Mughniyeh. Israel has not denied it.

Original article here at NRO.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Dr. Carol

Update I : Hamas know exactly who sent Mughniyeh to hell. Thus, they call on all Muslims to unite against the Zionist Octopus.

Update II: Howling Wolf comments on the Mughniyeh hit.

Today's Links:

Dhimmi Dutch Catholics. H/T Seraphic Friend, Jake Novak.

Howling Wolf Presents: Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh: The McCain Derangement Syndrome.

Seraphic Friend Treppenwitz believes that Olmert is going to open a ground offensive against Gaza very soon—to save his political neck. Seraphic Secret would not be surprised.

Judith Apter Klinghoffer Blogs: The Danes Under Siege, It's No Cartoon

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:25 AM | Comments (8)

February 12, 2008

Jihad in The Pentagon

You know, this has all the earmarks of a Hollywood film, except for one little detail: the bad guy is a Muslim.

Here's a follow-up on the story. Nice resolution. H/T Seraphic Friend, Aaron Schultz.

Today's Links:

The Path to the Final Solution. An excellent You Tube video. Don't miss it. H/T Seraphic Chaver, Kishke.

Iran Celebrates by Hanging America and Israel. But by all means, let's learn to live with a nuclear Iran. What could possibly go wrong?

The Bias of the N.Y. Times and Gaza. Seraphic Secret has frequently labeled NY Times Jerusalem correspondent Steven Erlanger a spokesman for Hamas. The Augean Stables reveals that Erlanger is that and more. He's a lazy writer, a mediocre thinker, and a deeply compromised journalist who makes nice to terrorists in order not to lose access to their Jew-hating propaganda.

Listen to the hollow man, Erlanger, attempting to defend himself. Intellectual collapse.

Che & Obama. Well, of course Obama didn't know about the Che and Cuban flag in his campaign office in Houston, Texas. But listen, don't you think that those who support Barak Obama says something about Obama? Last I counted, the Communist ideology so beloved by Che Guevera and his supporters is responsible for the murder of approximately 100 million human beings in the 20th century.

I've just noticed that Seraphic Friend Jeremayakova is on the same wavelength as we are, and expands elegantly on the Obama yadda-yadda.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:53 AM | Comments (11)

February 08, 2008

Hamas: We're Allowed to Lie

Seraphic Secret believes that it's vital to understand the tactics of the jihadists, Caliphite yearning terrorists who have vowed to eliminate the State of Israel.

Hamas, like Fatah, frequently lie to the Western press in order to score propaganda victories in their relentless march towards their genocidal goals.

The justification for their lies is religious and bound up in Islam, in the doctrine of “taqiyya.”

Read on, and the next time a Hamas, Fatah or any jihadist spokesman is quoted by the gullible Western press, chances are pretty good that what you hear is a tissue of lies.

Hamas leaders spoke to the Arabic language Ash-Sharq il-Awsat newspaper recently and explained that as Muslims, they are allowed to lie. In an interview printed on Thursday, senior Hamas terrorists explained, “A Muslim is permitted to say things that oppose his beliefs in order to prevent damages or to be saved from death.”

This approach, known in Arabic as “taqiyya,” was behind several Hamas leaders’ recent public expression of support for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, they explained. Senior Hamas terrorists in Samaria, who were recently released from jail, publicly expressed disapproval with the Hamas takeover of Gaza and said they supported the PA forces. The sources quoted in Ash-Sharq il-Awsat explained that the Samarian terrorists’ announcement was not a sign of dissent within Hamas ranks, but rather a permitted use of “taqiyya” to deceive Abbas and avoid prison sentences.

Original article here.

Soccer Dad provides some perfect examples of the lies that Hamas feeds to the Western media, lies that cover war crimes.

Hamas lies to cover war crimes—crimes defined by Article 28 of the Geneva Conventions—and Israel's military responses, defined by the same article, are perfectly acceptable.

Article 28 of the Geneva Conventions: The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.

Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat.

******* Today's Links:

Here's a nice story, a Lubavitch Hasid takes over as principal of a chaotic, failing South Bronx school, and against all expectations, turns the school around. Read about Shimon Waronker.

Here's a fine article by military historian Abraham Rabinovich contrasting the IDF of the Yom Kippur War, and the IDF of the Second Lebanon War: Endgame.

My Hollywood friend Dirty Harry lists Ten Reasons to be Hopeful for 2008. He's talking Presidential elections, folks.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:03 AM | Comments (11)

February 06, 2008

The Protocols of Hamas

It's important to understand the ideology of Hamas, the freely elected government of the Palestinian people.

Here is Article Twenty-Two of the Hamas Covenant.

For a long time, the enemies [Jews] have been planning, skillfully and with precision, for the achievement of what they have attained. They took into consideration the causes affecting the current of events. They strived to amass great and substantive material wealth which they devoted to the realisation of their dream. With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.

You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.

"So often as they shall kindle a fire for war, Allah shall extinguish it; and they shall set their minds to act corruptly in the earth, but Allah loveth not the corrupt doers." (The Table - verse 64).

The imperialistic forces in the Capitalist West and Communist East, support the enemy with all their might, in money and in men. These forces take turns in doing that. The day Islam appears, the forces of infidelity would unite to challenge it, for the infidels are of one nation.

"O true believers, contract not an intimate friendship with any besides yourselves: they will not fail to corrupt you. They wish for that which may cause you to perish: their hatred hath already appeared from out of their mouths; but what their breasts conceal is yet more inveterate. We have already shown you signs of their ill will towards you, if ye understand." (The Family of Imran - verse 118).

It is not in vain that the verse is ended with Allah's words "if ye understand."

If article Twenty-Two, the non-Koranic passages, sound vaguely familiar, that's because Hamas lifted most of their lunatic conspiratorial ravings from the notorious anti-Semitic Tzarist forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Hamas is a proudly genocidal organization whose charter is filled with debased Jew-hatred and vows the elimination of the State of Israel, to be replaced with an Islamic Caliphite.

Hamas clearly says that there is no room for Jews in Muslim lands. Hamas states that negotiations are merely a delaying tactic to buy time for the umma, the Muslim forces, to gather strength and then eventually destroy Israel.

In the 2006 Palestinian elections, certified by former President Jimmy Carter, Hamas was overwhelmingly chosen to lead the Palestinian people. Not just in Gaza, but in Judea and Samaria.

Thus the covenant of Hamas represents the will of the Palestinian people.

Those who say that the Hamas covenant is meaningless are not rooted to reality. They are, of course, paternalistic, treating the Arabs like children.

In fact, the Hamas covenant means everything. It's the heart and soul of Hamas. One only has to analyze the tactics and strategy of Hamas to realize that they are following their covenant—chapter and verse.

During World War II, America and her allies made no distinction between German and Japanese armed forces and the citizens who supported their chosen governments. The allies understood, quite clearly, that only the most ruthless military actions could put an end to those totalitarian regimes.

At some point in the near future Israel will have to destroy Gaza, infested with jihadists—for reasons of security and deterrence. This is reality. All else is fiction or national suicide.

*******

Today's Links:

Seraphic Friend, David Ribner, has started a new blog, African Conflict, a forum to discuss the historical backgrounds and the geopoliticial implications of ongoing conflicts, wars, and interventions in Africa.

Take Me to Your Leader Barry Rubin mediates on the, ahem, unremarkable rulers in the Arab world.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:06 AM | Comments (6)

February 04, 2008

Homicide Bomber in Dimona

From The Israel Project:

As Israel continues to work for peace a Palestinian suicide bomber killed one woman and wounded 11 other people when he blew himself up in a crowded mall in the southern Israeli city of Dimona at 10:30 A.M. (8:30 A.M. GMT). A second suicide bomber was killed by a policeman before he could detonate his explosives belt.

The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group was the first to claim responsibility for the attack, but Fatah’s armed wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) later claimed responsibility for the bombing. Hamas stated that the attack was “justified.”

The terrorists infiltrated into Israel from the Sinai region, having originally come from Gaza. The border between Gaza and the Egyptian Sinai peninsula is currently open after Hamas destroyed the border-barrier two weeks ago.

This is the first time the southern town of Dimona has been hit by a suicide-bomb attack. Israeli defense officials warned last week that Hamas and other terrorist groups had sent terrorist operatives into the Sinai through the open Gaza-Egypt border, in order to carry out suicide bombings in Israel. On Saturday, Feb. 3, two Palestinians wearing suicide-bomb belts were caught in Sinai by Egyptian security forces and on Friday, Feb. 2, 15 armed Palestinians were also arrested in Sinai by Egyptian forces.

In 2007, Palestinian terrorist groups attempted to carry out 29 suicide bombings in Israel which were prevented by Israeli security services, according to Israel’s internal intelligence agency the General Security Services.

The last suicide-bombing occurred on Jan. 29, 2007 in Eilat, was also perpetrated by PIJ and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and came from Gaza via Sinai. In 2007, there were 17 attempted suicide bombings originating from Gaza.

2006 Terror Attacks:

Jan. 19 – PIJ and suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt at a Tel Aviv falafel stand. Thirty-one people wounded.

March 30 - An Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade suicide bomber killed four Israelis near the West Bank settlement of Kedumim.

April 17 - A PIJ suicide bomber killed 11 people at a falafel stand in Tel Aviv, in an attack similar to the one carried out Jan. 19. The bombing also wounded 60 others. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

Source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Suicide and Other Bombing Attacks in Israel Since the Declaration of Principles (Sept 1993),

Seraphic Secret will say it once again: Israel is under no obligation to provide the terror state of Gaza with power and fuel.

Further, the citizens of Gaza, in free and democratic elections, overwhelmingly elected Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and its replacement with an Islamic State. The charter also calls for the death of Jews everywhere.

Thus the citizens of Gaza are enemies of Israel, and as America bombed German and Japanese cities and her citizens into the stone age in order to restore civilization, Israel must do the same to Gaza and to any Arab entity that threatens Israel's security.

By the way, if you are under any illusions about how ordinary Gazans respond to the news of this horrendous attack on Israeli civilians, click here.

More on Kobi Mor, who shot and killed the second homicide bomber.

Soccer Dad correctly points out that this homicide bombing is a direct result of the breach in the wall between Gaza and Egypt. The MSM floated the false story that the Gazans poured into Egypt because they were starving. This was, of course, a lie. No one in Gaza is starving. The Gazans were buying luxury items like TV's, motorcycles, visiting relatives, and oh yes, buying narcotics, trading in black currency, and naturally, smuggling arms, ammunition, and moving Iranian trained jihadists into Gaza, and Sinai, in order to stage terror attacks in Israel.

*******

Today's Links:

Farewell United Kingdom. If you cannot even honestly name the problem, you cannot fight it. The UK will not survive as a democracy into the next century. That's an easy call. It will devolve into a barbaric Islamic entity. Even the U.K. educational system is geared for self-destruction. And let's not forget U.K. Muslim Policemen and government officials aiding and abetting so-called honor killings. In the article, "Asian" is code for Muslim.

Memo to the Jews: For the love of G-d, get out while you still can!

If all this doesn't ring alarm bells then take a look at this story about Muslim medical students who refuse to obey basic rules of hygiene because it clashes with Islam. Personally, I'd prefer a nice Jewish doctor—who, y'know, scrubs before a procedure. But hey, that pesky hygiene thing is probably just part of the international Zionist conspiracy thing we hear so much about in the enlightened Arab world.

And though bigamy is illegal in the U.K., well, if you're Muslim and you've got a couple of wives and you're applying for welfare—no problemo!

As I said, the U.K. is toast.

Okay, some good news: The IAF's Greatest Hits.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:02 AM | Comments (17)

February 01, 2008

Attack on Efrat

Karen's brother, his wife and children and live in Efrat. We have close friends who live in Efrat. Naturally, this terror attack gets our attention.

Terrorists threw an improvised explosive charge (IED) at Israeli vehicles between El Khader junction and Efrat North junction Friday morning.

An additional explosive charge blew up as the IDF combed the area.

YeshaNews reported there were no casualties. A bomb crew is making sure the area is safe, and the road is closed for now.

Original story here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:17 PM | Comments (19)

January 30, 2008

Made in Israel

When Israel expelled 9,000 Jews from Gaza, we were assured that the Arabs would build a productive society, and the border with Israel would be peaceful, afterall, the so-called occupation of Gaza was at end.

That's what the liberal narrative promised.

Reality intruded.

Hamas told the truth. Their terror tactics drove the Jewish pioneers from Gaza, rendering another patch of land Judenrein and Islamic. Thus in the free and democratic elections of 2006, certified by non other than Jimmy Carter, the so-called Palestinian people overwhelmingly elected Hamas, for they wanted more of what Hamas achieved in Gaza, they yearned for what Hamas vows in their charter: the annihilation of the State of Israel.

Now, the grotesque scenario continues on an even greater level as the Jewish State continues to enable Gaza, the Palestinian State, an enemy entity, in its all out war (4th Generation War, to be sure, but just as fatal) against the Jewish State.

Now, the Israeli Supreme Court orders the Jewish State to supply Gaza with the power and fuel with which to launch terror attacks against Israeli citizens.

Elements of the Jewish people have now chosen the welfare of a belligerent enemy jihadist state over innocent Jewish citizens.

This is not just an infamous decision, this is intellectual collapse, this is slow motion suicide, this is, yes, murder of Jews, by Jews, through legal decisions that are profoundly immoral.

The first duty of a state is to protect its citizens. Israel is failing miserably in that duty.

The groups that sued on behalf of Gaza are a fifth column in Israel, and the Israeli Supreme Court are a chamber of leftist fools. These two groups are the best example of Lenin's dictum: The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will use to hang them.

Here's a sickening article from a, sigh, German magazine, detailing how Qassam rockets are manufactured. The writer is clearly enamored of these murderous terrorists, something we've come to expect from the Eurotrash, Jew-hating press. But here's the point: as long as Israel continues to supply energy and fuel to Gaza, Israeli children will live and die in terror.

The vehicle finally stops at a dirt track. The Islamic Jihad rocket factory is housed in a kind of garden shed. The hut measures five meters by five meters, metal pipes with small wings lean against the wall in the corner: Half finished Qassams. There are several tightly packed garbage bags on a shelf. "TNT," says Abdul and produces a chunk. The explosive looks like lumpy sugar. A large cauldron is sitting ready on a gas cooker while bags with Hebrew writing are piled up high up against the wall. "Fertilizer for the rocket fuel," Abdul says and grins. "We get it in Israel."

To read the complete article, please click here.

Here's an invaluable Timeline of Rocket Attacks from Gaza, from The Israel Project. Clarity helps. Of course since Gaza was made Judenrein, more than 4,000 rockets have been launched from Gaza. Appeasement always invites aggression. So for those who are chomping at the bit to hand over Judea and Samaria and, of course divide Jerusalem, well: You. Are. Delusional.

Update: We assumed, incorrectly, that the Israeli Supreme court would accept the arguments of the Israeli Fifth column. We are delighted to report that the Supreme Court have rejected the arguments of these Jew-haters. But let us repeat: Seraphic Secret believes that Israel is under no obligation to supply the terrorist state of Gaza with any power or fuel whatsoever. The so-called humanitarian supply is nonsense. All material in Gaza is funneled into killing Jews.

No state can survive when she supplies the enemy with the means of her own destruction.

Update: Just noticed that Soccer Dad has also posted about this digraceful German journalist, who, what a shock, has a history of writing deeply sympathetic pieces about Arab terrorists intent on killing Jews. Old habits die hard among our Teutonic friends.

Today's Links:

Notice how the, ahem, human rights groups in Israel, are absolutely silent when Arabs murder desperate African refugees trying to get into Israel. You know why? Because they are not human rights groups. They are Jew-hating thugs, dedicated to the annihilation of the Jewish State.

Daniel's Pearl father writes in The Wall Street Journal on the ethics of journalism and the Al Durah Blood Libel.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:27 AM | Comments (7)

January 25, 2008

Know Your Enemy

The Hamas government's Covenant, Article Thirteen:

[Peace] Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion.

And further down:

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with. As in (sic) said in the honourable Hadith:

"The people of Syria are Allah's lash in His land. He wreaks His vengeance through them against whomsoever He wishes among His slaves It is unthinkable that those who are double-faced among them should prosper over the faithful. They will certainly die out of grief and desperation."

This represents the democratically elected charter of the people of Gaza.

*******

Today's Links:

Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat.

Blast Kills Lebanon's Anti-Terror Officer. Syria continues to murder all opposition. And Lebanon edges closer to all-out civil war.

Imam offers Prayer at Iowa Statehouse: Watch Out!

What's the worst that could happen when you release terrorists from Israeli jails as, ahem, confidence building measures? Well, they kill more Jews. That was a really hard call.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2008

Sinai Terrorist Alert

Immediate fall-out from the Gaza-Egyptian breach. As always, it's Israel who has to be on alert. This from Andrew Cochran at Counter Terrorism Blog:

The Israeli government has issued warnings against traveling in the Sinai Peninsula in the wake of Hamas' destruction of the Egypt-Gaza Strip border wall and the elimination of any effective border security at the Rafah crossing. "Terrorists in Sinai are working to abduct Israelis and transfer them to the Gaza Strip," warned the Prime Minister's media adviser. "The currently open border between the Gaza Strip and Sinai makes it easier for terrorists to move back and forth. Therefore, the National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau recommends that Israelis avoid visit Sinai and that any Israelis currently there leave forthwith." The sight of tens of thousands of people streaming back and forth between Gaza and Egypt raises the likelihood that arms shipments and cash will be streaming to Hamas without hindrance from sympathizers in Egypt and elsewhere. It's a nightmare security scenario for counter-terrorism forces in Egypt and Israel, and for U.S. officials intent on negotiating a comprehensive peace settlement. Surely Israel will not risk further infiltration by waiting for Egypt or a third party to reassert border security there.

This looks like the "Waziristan-ization" of Gaza to me.

*******

Today's Links

Who said Jews are smart?

Look what they've done to Anne Frank. Appalling! H/T Judd Magilnick via LGF

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)

Gaza and Egypt: The Big Silence

Make no mistake about it, the bombing of the wall between Egypt and Gaza by Hamas is a major event. Hamas have, in effect, declared war on the Egyptian government. Mubarak is in a difficult position. He despises and fears Hamas and all the transnational terrorist gangs who have taken root in Gaza. Yet at the same time, he's been appeasing them, allowing arms and money to flow from Egypt into Gaza, in order to maintain the stability of his corrupt regime. Now, Hamas, as they always will, have broken the rules of the game. Mubarak cannot take control of Gaza, nor can he ignore this terrorist entity.

Gaza is the u-boat under the entire region and sooner or later it will be necessary for this genocidal state to be destroyed.

Seraphic Friend Shrink Wrapped believes that the toppling of the wall is in fact, good news:

There has been an impressive conspiracy of silence regarding one particular aspect of the situation in Hamastan (Gaza) which may be dissolving of necessity; this conspiracy reeks of hypocrisy and venality but has served the needs of the Palestinians, their Arab brethren, and the usual demonizers of Israel, which includes the UN and much of the Western press. It is a two part fiction. The first part deals with the Palestinian/Gazan relationship with Egypt. Despite the fact that every map of Palestine shows a long border between Egypt and Gaza, the MSM typically neglects to follow a simple line of logic; ie, while it may be true that the Israelis at long last had finally cut off some supplies into Gaza from Israel in response to the dramatic escalation of rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza into Southern Israel, few Diplomats or Media spokespeople were so impolite as to mention that it would be a trivial matter for Egypt to take over the task of distributing the West's largess to the suffering population of Gaza. To those who might object that Israel would not allow Egypt to do so, perhaps Condoleeza Rice could remind them that as part of the current push for a "peace process" Israel ceded the border between Gaza and Egypt to Egyptian administration. While food, fuel, medical supplies could have easily been imported through Egypt, for political reasons both Egypt and Gaza abjured such an obvious solution. Maintaining the fiction that the big, bad Israelis were starving the poor Innocent Palestinians was of more value than actually caring for th Gaza population. Further, Egypt, to all accounts, has always had a rather porous border when it came to military supplies.

The second part of the fiction is part of a larger one, Arab solidarity with the Palestinians. The Ummah has been primarily concerned with destroying Israel and Palestinian suffering and Palestinian terror has been their primary weapon.

Both of these issues have been clarified in the last 24 hours.

To read the complete article, please click here.

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Today's Links:

Terrorist Attacks North and South of Jerusalem.

Pallywood: Hamas Staged Some Blackouts. Shocking, just shocking! H/T Seraphic Chaver, Kishke.

Soccer Dad argues that mainstream newspapers are now Complicit in aiding the terrorist gang Hamas.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:30 PM | Comments (6)

January 17, 2008

Stopping Iran

An important article in Commentary Magazine by Norman Podhoretz on why America must bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities.

Up until a fairly short time ago, scarcely anyone dissented from the assessment offered with “high confidence” by the National Intelligence Estimate [NIE] of 2005 that Iran was “determined to develop nuclear weapons.” Correlatively, no one believed the protestations of the mullahs ruling Iran that their nuclear program was designed strictly for peaceful uses.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Podhoretz does not believe that Israel will attack Iran. For the mission to succeed, he explains, the attack must be pulled of with little margin for error. Casualties for Israel could be enormous. America's military, Podhoretz writes, can operate with a much larger margin for error and sustain higher casualties. This is all theory, based on a paper written by American MIT academics. In fact, all military missions are all based on perfect models. And beside, the IAF is rather good at accomplishing the seemingly impossible. Seraphic Secret respectfully disagrees with Mr. Podhoretz. Israel has been directly threatened by Persia. Even if Israel is faced with severe IAF casualties in an attack on Persia, the alternative—a nuclear Iran—is unthinkable for Israel, for the entire region.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:50 PM | Comments (5)

January 14, 2008

Freedom of Speech? Only for the Jihadists

Seraphic Secret has long maintained that the war on terror is being fought on multiple fronts: military, propaganda, and judicial. Perhaps one of the most dangerous developments is the use by Muslims of Western courts to further the cause of jihad. In England, it has reached terrifying proportions. Canada seems to be following the same dreadful template.

Ezra Levant is a Canadian publisher who published the Danish cartoons. For that act, a Saudi cleric living in Canada made a complaint to Canada's HRC which Mr. Levant was hauled into the commission to answer. He was kind enough to videotape these proceedings and post them to the net.

For the revealing videos—it's an Orwellian world in Canada—and further links, go to Howling Wolf.

Meawnwhile, Israel seems to be sliding into a police state mentality. H/T Seraphic Friend Lance Fogel

Israel Matzav comments in-depth about the problem of free speech in Israel. And as Seraphic Secret has noted, it's only the right who are under attack. Olmert's enablers on the left are untouchable. H/T Seraphic Brother-in-Law, Rabbi David Singer.

*******

Today's Links:

More, ahem, "humanitarian aid" for Gaza, is caught at one of those pesky check-points.

The Europeans are aware of the Iranian nuclear threat. They are not really concerned, nor encouranging to Israel's security situation. A sobering article. A Green Light for Iran.

She was shopping for Shabbos. A homicide bomber self-detonated. She survived. And now she writes. Essential reading. My Shrapnel.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:20 AM | Comments (15)

January 09, 2008

Al Qaeda in Gaza

Gaza continues to devolve into a jihadist entity. Al Qaeda's Fatah al Islam has a firm foothold on that narrow north-south salient. Under the leadership of terrorist chief Shaker al-Abessi, his forces can be seen racing through the streets of Gaza in their min-vans. Before too long, Gaza will go the way of Afghanistan under the Taliban, a hollowed-out state run by illiterate thugs spouting sharia, running Mafia style shake downs on every street corner, and justifying their existence with the most vicious Jew-hatred since the Third Reich.

Seraphic Secret has repeatedly warned that Israel's conflict with her Arab neighbors has nothing to do with borders, nothing to do with so-called refugees. These are only fig-leafs for the true existential conflict: the intolerance of Islam for Jews in Israel, for Judaism anywhere.

The moment that the Jewish state joined hands with Islamic totalitarians and rendered Gaza Judenrein, the die was cast. It became acceptable for Muslims to dictate where Jews could and could not live.

Gaza was just the first patch of land. Next comes Judea and Samaria. Then Jerusalem. Haifa. Tel Aviv. London. Paris. Brooklyn. It's not enough that every Arab/Muslim country on the face of the earth is Judenrein, no, the planet must be Judenrein.

The expulsion of Jews by Jews from Gaza has turned that land into a forward base for the most dangerous jihadist groups operating in the jihadist empire. The residents of S'derot are living under a constant barrage of missiles. It is intolerable that Israel is not defending this town. It is disgraceful. The first duty of the state is to defend its citizens. The Olmert government is failing at this task miserably.

Let us repeat a simple but effective road to victory:

1. Turn off all power and fuel to Gaza.
2. Destroy the infrastructure of Hamas through hell-fire missiles.
3. Announce that the next missile from Gaza into Israel will be met with bombardments into the civilian population of Gaza.

*******

Memo to the American Navy:

With all due respect, the next time you get swarmed by a bunch of Persian speedboats who announce that “You are going to explode in a few minutes.” Well, for the love of G-d, open up with those neat Gatling Guns and blow the Naval Republican Guards out of the water. This was no miscommunication, they were testing you, testing your mettle.

Guess what?

You failed.

Now they know that you're the next U.S.S. Cole.

Nice to know that military analyst Ralph Peters agrees with me completely. This link was sent to me a few minutes after I put up my post. Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend Lance Fogel

*******

Today's Links:

The Washington Post publishes a true piece of Jew-hatred. Once again we can count on the peaceniks to emerge as the most vicious of anti-Semites. Hat Tip: About a dozen Seraphic Friends. This one was just off the charts.

My buddy Treppenwitz explains what the 67' borders really means.

Meanwhile Shrink Wrapped, who might be the best shrink in the blogosphere, explains the Muslim mindset when it comes to Jews, Israel, and Dhimmitude. A fine piece of analysis: The Ancient Scourge.

Over at Libertas, my friend Dirty Harry, who now loves Pico Kosher Deli, my fave restaurant in the universe, has just posted his Top Ten Films of 2007. Take a look, it's way different than mine.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:32 AM | Comments (8)

January 08, 2008

No-Go Zones for Non-Muslims

Seraphic Secret has warned over and over again that once it becomes acceptable to create Arab lands that are Judenrein, there will be no line in the sand the jihadists will not cross.

Remember, Jews are the canary-in-the-coal-mine of civilization.

Well, in Britain, there are now no-go zones for non-Muslims.

When Muslims tell you that the presence of Jews is intolerable in Gaza, or in Judea and Samaria, or in parts of Jerusalem, or, heck let's face it, the 22 Arab/Muslim countries that are Judenren, well it doesn't take too much foresight to see that the next logical step in the aggressive rise of imperial Islam is to create zones where the presence of non-Muslims is intolerable in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and New York.

And Condi is enabling this barbaric mind-set.

Time is running out for Israel. If she doesn't get serious about the jihadist threat, I fear for her existence. Here then our recommendations for defeating the Arab/Muslim threat.

Towards Victory:

1. Jews have the right to live anywhere in the world. Especially in Israel, the Jewish State.
2. Appeasement leads to further aggression on the part of Israel's enemies.
3. There is no peace process, there is a process of war.
4. Israel should cut off all supplies of power and fuel to Gaza.
5. Israel should cease all negotiations with the Arabs. There's nothing to talk about. We have legitimized these genocidal killers far too long.
6. Israel should declare Israel's boundaries; the Arabs can sink or swim.
7. Israel should announce that the next rocket that comes from Gaza will be met with an overwhelming barrage against the infrastructure of Hamas.
8. If the rockets from Gaza continue, Israel should announce that the next attacks will be directed at the civilian population of Gaza.
9. Israel must carry through on these threats. Further: all terrorist attacks must be met with disproportionate responses.
10. Israel must never trade land for promises of peace.

Today's Links:

From Soccer Dad. Want to know the difference between Republican and Democratic candidates? Democrats don't mention Islamic Terrorism. Hey, it's a No-Go Zone.

From Breath of the Beast: Why the Left Taunts the Tiger. A fine analysis on the addiction of the chattering classes to sneering at the culture that shields them from extinction at the hands of the jihadists.

From Dhimmi Watch: Columbia Professors to Visit Iran to Apologize to Ahmadinejad. I wish this was a joke, but no, this is what passes for sophisticated thinking in the groves of academia. I dunno, where I come from, Brooklyn this is known as bootlicking. Hey, maybe while the good professors are in Persia they can catch a nice amputation, or hanging, Sharia-style.

Seraphic Secret has long maintained that the Arab Israeli conflict is not about land, certainly not about boundaries, and come one, Arab refugees? Listen when people pick up and schlep maybe 30 or 40 miles away that does not make them refugees. No, the conflict is existential, it's about the right of Jews to live in Israel, in the Jewish homeland. It's a religious war being waged by the Muslim world against Judiasm and Jews. As a reminder of this basic elemental truth, Al Qaida blasted two Katyusha rockets from Southern Lebanon into Northern Israel today as a Hello President Bush. Israel's strategic and tactical response? They are going to maintain the status quo. Wow. That must have the jihadists shaking in their boots. And as for the really effective UNIFIL troops in Southern Lebanon that Tzipi Livni assured would guarantee Israel's northern border. Uh-huh. Really good job. I have a question: when is Israel going to get rid of this disastrous government? H/T Seraphic Friend, Michael Makiri.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:16 AM | Comments (12)

December 31, 2007

Sugar From the EU

Proving once again that the so-called Palestinians are far more interested in killing Jews than in building a state, the IDF discovered 6.5 tons of potassium nitrate at one of those humiliating check-points, in sacks that were disguised as sugar. The sacks were labeled humanitarian aid from the EU.

Potassium nitrate is the chemical that was used in the first World Trade Center bombing and in the Oklahoma City bombing. It's the active ingredient in Kassam rockets.

It's worth noting that the IDF siezed the potassium nitrate at a check-point in Judea and Samaria, the area nominally under the control of the "moderate" Fatah. No doubt the moderate terrorists were shocked, just shocked to discover the chemicals right under their moderate noses.

Need we mention that the potassium nitrate was headed for the Judenrein state of Gaza?

Need we mention that is is illegal to bring potassium nitrate into Judea and Samaria and Gaza? Why? Because the chemical is used to murder Jews. We realize this is a hardship for the poor Arabs and no doubt, Peace Now, and B'tselem, finds this ban an outrageous human rights violation, but there you go, it just goes to show how fanatical some people feel about protecting Jewish lives.

And the EU. What do they say? Well, nothing. They're like totally: no comment. They can't be bothered even thinking about something so insignificant. But really, what can they say? They have been enabling Jew-killing for over 60 years. Yup, we're counting World War II.

Now, we understand that the Europeans feel guilty about their reprehensible behavior during World War II when they willingly participated in genocide, or just turned a blind eye to the slaughter of Jews. And so in order to erase that shameful, bloody stain Europeans self-righteously cast the Jewish state as modern day Nazis and the Arabs as the Jewish victims.

It's moral inversion of the worst sort.

But you know what, we don't buy it. No one does. No one who's sane and honest.

The Arab/Muslim world is awash in virulent Jew-hatred. Their plans for Israel and for world Jewry are frankly genocidal.

Europeans should admit the truth. They favor the Arabs because of oil. And because Europeans are still habitually anti-Semitic.

And European countries are drowning in scary, hostile Muslim immigrants. The demographic time bomb is ticking away; tragically, the appeasers and cowards have gained the political upper-hand.

So the EU have chosen sides. And once again, the Jews are expendable.

We're shocked.

So, EU, definitely keep sending tons and tons of, ahem, aid to your peace loving Arab buddies.

Keep trying to salve your bloody conscience, at the expense of the Jewish people.

Here's my guarantee:

Sooner or later the Arabs will send a nice big sack of sugar back to Europe—in deepest gratitude.

Oh yeah: How about turning off the power to Gaza? Really, Seraphic Secret has been suggesting this tactic for, oh gee, a long time. This shipment of potassium nitrate is practically a declaration of war from Gaza. It's really time to stop supplying the terrorist entity in Gaza with the power and fuel with which to make war on the Israel. It's time for the Israeli government to get serious about Gazastan.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:16 AM | Comments (6)

December 28, 2007

Hey Kids, Let's Put on a Jihad Show

We liberated Gaza by force, not by Oslo or by Taba -

but with my steadfast people, and with its blazing fire.

We liberated Gaza by force, not by Oslo or by Taba -

but with my steadfast people, and with its blazing fire.

Rafah sings, and the Kalashnikov replies.

Rafah sings, and the Kalashnikov replies.

We, who know no fear, are the lions of the jungle.

Look how beautiful our Gaza is. We crowned it with a laurel wreath.

We have proven that with our will, we can defeat the colonialist army.

Look how beautiful our Gaza is. We crowned it with a laurel wreath.

We have proven that with our will, we can defeat the colonialist army.

We have regained our freedom through bloodshed and the wrath of fire.

We came out on the day of liberations to celebrate our pride – hurrah!

We came out on the day of liberations to celebrate our pride – hurrah!

Gotta love Palestinian TV for children. Hey, we have Sesame Street and Sponge Bob and they have this, um, child abuse. But by all means, let's reward such worthy people with a state.

For the complete transcript of this charming children's song which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on December 20, 2007, please go to MEMRI.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:59 PM | Comments (2)

December 27, 2007

World War IV

Victor Davis Hanson reviews World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism by Norman Podhoretz (Doubleday 2007, 240 pp.)

World War IV is an indispensable book for these times. The war in Iraq has occasioned some of the most shameful partisan behavior since Vietnam, as well as generating in the mainstream media a narrative filled with what Podhoretz accurately calls “misconceptions, distortions, and outright falsifications.” To correct this partisan spin, Podhoretz economically and clearly surveys both the facts and the distortions, providing readers with all the ammunition they need to counter the “Bush lied” and “illegal war” master narrative relentlessly peddled by the Democrats and their shills in the media. Even more important, World War IV sets out the case for sticking with the Bush Doctrine, whatever its drawbacks, as the best policy for countering the threat of Islamic jihad. All serious voters this coming year should not pull the lever until they have read this book and understood what is at stake for America’s security in the coming decades.

To read Victor Davis Hanson's complete article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, A. Mark David, Q.C

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:06 PM | Comments (4)

December 20, 2007

The Trojan Horse Called Hudna

Hamas is offering Israel a Hudna.

This is no surprise.

Their upper ranks have been decimated in the past few days through targeted killings. The terrorists are in disarray, on the run, mounting poorly coordinated operations and dying in great numbers.

A Hudna, let's be clear, is an opportunity for the terrorists to rebuild their networks, replenish their ranks, and prepare the next round of attacks. Hamas will find a pretext to break the hudna when it suits them. A hudna serves no one but the terrorists.

Under no circumstances should Israel accept this offer.

As we explained yesterday:

The IDF should continue with the targeted killings. In the past few days they have knocked off an impressive list of terrorists, eleven senior Islamic Jihad operatives were killed in Gaza, including Majd al Harazin, head of Islamic Jihad's military wing and Karim Dahlul, director of their Qassam missile production.

This indicates that human intelligence in Gaza has improved along with electronic surveillance via drones and other cool Hollywood SFX methods. The terrorists are thugs, clever thugs, but they are stuck a few generations behind the super smart Jews in the technology field and this puts them at a severe disadvantage. The IDF should keep offing the terrorist, and stay on the offensive. This keeps the terrorists awake at night, has them scrambling from safe house to safe house; their cell phones are useless—Israeli surveillance are listening. And best of all, the terrorists are wary of every loser cousin who might bear a mysterious grudge and flip for Shin Bet.

This constant pressure reduces the terrorist network to a profoundly constricted circle, unable to better their military resources, or mount effective terrorist attacks. Inevitably, the cells stagnate, members turn on one another due to personality conflicts, mutual suspicion and creeping paranoia. The terrorists become disoriented, hunted things, nice fat targets for Israeli smart bombs.

As I correctly analyzed, the terrorists are grievously wounded, and their networks, large and small, are so seriously degraded that they are now begging, through Israeli journalists, for a Hudna.

Now is the time for Israel to ratchet up the pressure to even higher levels. When you have the enemy on the run, it is your military obligation to pursue and destroy them. If not, they will return and sow terror on the civilian population of Israel.

Now is the time for another round of targeted killings.

Now is the time to unleash the dogs of war.

If the government of Israel accepts this Trojan horse called Hudna, they will have missed a golden opportunity to cripple Hamas to the point of impotence.

Links: Mere Rhetoric also comments on Hamas begging for a hudna.

Soccer Dad presents a fascinating report on how Israel should play the world-wide PR game. Hint: Pull out your map of the Mideast.

Very happy to bring you this story about our friend Lisa Ramaci.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:48 AM | Comments (8)

December 14, 2007

Syriantoxication

Yesterday, we wrote about the assassination of Lebanese General Francois al-Hajj, which we dubbed, the Murder of Lebanon. Barry Rubin, an eminent analyst of the Syrian dictatorship, weighs in on the delusions of the west when it comes to diplomacy and the murderers in Damascus.

A strange malady has apparently descended on part of Israel's, much of America's, and most of Europe's elite. Let's call it Syriantoxication, the belief that there is a real chance to make peace with Syria and—in its extreme version—that Lebanon should be sacrificed for that goal.

To call this wishful thinking is understatement. Why is this happening?

To read Barry Rubin's complete article, please click here.

Meanwhile, Soccer Dad, has done a superb job of collecting and analyzing the best reporting on the assassination of General al-Hajj and the devolving political situation as Syria extends her bloody imperial reign—with Iran's aid—over Lebanon.

Seraphic Secret once again warns: the gravest short-term threat to Israel's security lies to the North. If Syria and Iran rein over Lebanon, Israel will be trapped in a Gaza-like terrorist vise. And once again, Israel will be faced with the option of invading Lebanon. But Lebanon will no longer be Lebanon, it will be an extremely dangerous Syrian/Iranian proxy with Hizbullah as a nominal figurehead.

This is what comes from years of incremental appeasement. You turn around one day and your genocidal enemies are in your backyard, smiling; for now they control entire countries, lands that have been hollowed out and been made into compliant shells for transnational terrorist gangs. This is Sudan. Huge swaths of Pakistan are no-go zones for the central government, and are controlled by terrorist warlords. It is Gaza after it was made Judenrein. And it is Syria's strategy for Lebanon.

Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

Rational National Suicide

As mortars and rockets rain down on southern Israel every day, two distinct world views have come into sharp focus. IDF Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazy states, that to put an end to this intolerable situation Israel must control the territory from where the terrorists operate. As an example, he points to the presence of the IDF in Judea and Samaria. No mortars or rockets are launched from those areas. Connect the dots, he challenges.

But the Israeli left, typified by Foreign Secretary Tzipi Livni, argues that the so-called peace process will be destroyed if the IDF invades Gaza. Plus the Americans and the invaluable Europeans will get, y'know, really angry. And they might actually segregate Jews at international peace conferences, force Israelis to use Jews-only service doorways. And, gasp, the Arabs might not shake our hands. Can't let that happen.

Thus explains Caroline Glick, we have rationalizers versus rationalists.

FBI agents undergo Islamic "sensitivity training" by people who are themselves the subjects of their counter-terror investigations. US military personnel at Guantanamo Bay are forced to wear gloves when they touch copies of the Koran belonging to their jihadist prisoners.

More disturbingly, in their rush to placate this irrelevant tiny minority of jihadists, Israeli, US and European officials willingly trounce their core values of the rule of law and freedom of expression. In Israel, Israeli Jews who build homes without permits are prosecuted to the full limit of the law and ejected from their homes. Israeli Arabs who have built entire towns illegally are ignored by authorities in the interest avoiding diplomatic consequences or stirring up passions.

In the US, one can stand outside the White House and burn the American flag without fear of criminal charge. But if a person draws a pig on a copy of the Koran in a public library, he is liable to find himself under arrest for committing a hate crime. And in Europe, you can participate in a demonstration invoking Islam as you call for the destruction of Britain or Holland or Demark without fear of legal action, but if you publish a caricature of Muhammad in your newspaper, you may find yourself the subject of a criminal probe and forced into hiding for promoting racism.

To read Caroline Glick's complete column, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Joel Weisz

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2007

The Murder of Lebanon

The December 12th assassination of Brigadier General Francois al-Hajj, 54, his bodyguard and five innocent bystanders, was a professional job. The blast was caused by a 77-pound bomb that was hidden beneath a car parked on the street. This has all the earmarks of a Syrian hit, most certainly in coordination with Hizbullah and the Ahmad Jibril Palestinian Group.

This murder has the same MO as the 2005 assassination of ex-Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri, most certainly carried out by Syrian intelligence in association with Pasdaran.

This operation demanded the coordination of several lethal players and structures: safe-houses; financing—lots of cash was needed to make this operation function at all levels; a high degree of security had to be maintained; human intel was gathered and disseminated through various networks; there was betrayal—most certainly at high levels inside the Lebanese army; and expert bomb-makers were at work.

No rag-tag terrorist group could have pulled off this assassination so smoothly. This was a professional operation run by state-trained pros, men who have by now most certainly fled Lebanon for the safety of Gaza, Damascus and Tehran. Lower echelon operatives will melt into the Bekaa valley and the teeming northern Palestinian towns that are despised by the general Lebanese population.

No murder charges will ever be filed against anyone. And of course, in the Arab world, the Mossad will be blamed, which is insane for this was the last thing Israel needed. But insane and quite stupid conspiracy theories are the honey of the Arab world. The reality of their dysfunctional societies are simply too shameful to confront. It's far easier to blame the Jews, for, well, everything.

General Hajj was expected to succeed General Michel Suleiman, the army chief of staff, who was to become Lebanon's next President.

The murder serves two purposes:

1. Revenge: General al-Hajj was a Christian, born in the southern Lebanese town of Rmeish. His village has a history of resistance against Muslim terrorists since the late 60's. Numerous young men from his town are officers in the Lebanese army and have, over the years, fought Syrian occupation and Hizbullah. Most recently General al-Hajj led the Lebanese army against the Fatah Islam Terror group in the Nahr al Bared Palestinian camp in norther Lebanon this past summer. General al-Hajj was hostile to Hizbullah, and had plans to chase them out of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

2. Message: From Syria to the Lebanese Army. To avoid confronting terror groups, especially Hizbullah. Syria will not rest until Lebanon is once again under Syria's domination, through her proxy, Hizbullah. The Lebanese army, traditionally neutral in politics, has now been warned. If they seek confrontation another ruinous civil war will most certainly erupt.

What can we expect? Resolutions from the U.N. Syria and Iran look most favorably on these multi-paragraph resolutions; in their eyes, the more time the bureaucrats at the U.N spend pushing paper, the better. Time is always on the side of totalitarians. Democracies are notoriously impatient, a grievous weakness in geo-politics especially when confronting the threat of radical Islam, a patient and lethal beast.

The butchers in Damascus understand that even as they murder the opposition, western liberals invite them to peace conferences, and Israeli leftists yearn to hand back the Golan from which the Syrians would control the strategic high ground, an invaluable asset, not to mention the only bargaining chip the Israelis hold. For the Syrians it's a win-win-win situation. They kill, and kill and kill and they suffer not a single negative geo-political consequence.

INTERPOLATION:
In truth, the Syrians don't want the Golan back. They desperately need the status quo. It strengthens their shaky regime, props up their belligerent posture as the true confrontation state against the Zionist entity in the Arab world. A status they thoroughly enjoy and publicly celebrate.
END INTERPOLATION:

Israel is now being surrounded and strangled in a terrorist vice: Gaza, Lebanon; now the Israeli government talks of dividing Jerusalem and turning Judea and Samaria over to the Arabs, which means a deadly encirclement by short-range weapons—snipers and mortars.

This is a recipe for national suicide. Jerusalem and a host of other Israeli cities will turn into S'derots, under constant terror attack; and if Israel responds properly, she will be accused of a “disproportionate response”—which is the only sane response when civilian populations support and celebrate terrorist infrastructures.

Lebanon is falling under a Syrian/Hizbullah/Iran axis—merciless terrorist entities—and the world yawns.

*******

Here at Seraphic Secret we like to report good news. In New York, a bunch of thugs attacked three Jews who dared say: “Happy Chanukah” on the subway. To their aid came a young Muslim student from Bangladesh. Hat Tip, Seraphic Friend, David Paulin

Update: Muslim Hero is Honored H/T Seraphic Chaver, Kishke

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:22 AM | Comments (1)

December 10, 2007

The Fallacy of Islam Equivalency

Some common sense is always nice:

How many times have you heard this from your leftist friends when speaking about the barbarism of radical Islam?

Oh yeah, what about the Inquisition? What about the Ku Klux Klan. What about Timothy McVeigh? What about radical Christians who blow up abortion clinics? Huh? What about them? Huh?

So how do you respond to such moral equivalency pap as that? Respond with this:

More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined. ( source)

More civilians were killed by Muslim extremists in two hours on September 11th than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. (source)

Islamic terrorists murder more people every day than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years. (source)

19 Muslim hijackers killed more innocents in two hours on September 11th than the number of American criminals executed in the last 65 years. (source)

For the original post go to: The Gathering Storm

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:51 AM | Comments (3)

December 06, 2007

No Gays in Persia—And We Know Why

Remember when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his talk at Columbia University, declared: “We are friends with the Jewish people.”

Who can forget such golden ivy league moments.

Ahmadinejad went on to lecture learnedly about the Holocaust: “There are researchers who want to approach the topic from a different perspective.”

Wow. Just what the university needed, a fresh perspective. For this parents shell out over 50K per year. Talk about scams.

Let's see, regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions, Ahmadinejad stated: “They are completely peaceful.”

Audience reaction? Yawn. What is the big deal about a jihadist nuclear bomb? Global warming, now that's something to get worried about.

The Palestinians? Well, of course the Persian demagogue was going to hit this note. It's in the playbook of every petro-tyrant on planet earth.

Predictably, the audience was up and cheering, clapping, and howling Allah Akbar. And those were the Jewish students. What can you do, the so-called Palis are a leftie fashion item, like an overpriced and truly hideous Marc Jacobs jacket.

Really, Columbia University students and faculty are so tedious, such left-wing dupes, in short: a bunch of Jew-haters.

But: when queried about homosexuals in Iran, President Ahmadinejad firmly declared: “In Iran, we do not have homosexuals like in your country. We do not have that in our country. We do not have this phenomenon. I do not know who has told you that we have it.”

(Which means, I suppose, Persia has no theater, no film industry, and G-d help Persian women, no really good hair-stylists.)

Audience reaction?

Off the charts. There was roiling anger mixed with disbelief, plus a massive dose of contempt. Gosh, the peace-loving Columbia intellectuals were ready to lynch the little Persian fella. You would have thought the guy had denied the Holocaust or, um, called for the annihilation of the State of Israel.

Gotta love those morally astute Ivy league academics. Pass the Kool-Aid, please.

Well, now we know why there are no homosexuals in Iran.

The Iranian regime murders them.

Iranian Makwan Moloudzadeh had not celebrated his 20th birthday when he was hanged on Wednesday in Kermanshah prison for having had a homosexual relationship seven years ago.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Seraphic Friend Shrink Wrapped has an excellent blog, Heads Will Explode, that explores the left's pact with jihadists. It's a fine analysis of the lengths radical ideologues will go to deny reality.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:12 PM | Comments (0)

Iran: Dangerous as Ever

It looks like America has kicked the can down the road. As Seraphic Secret has already pointed out, Israel alone bears the responsibility of taking out the Persian nuclear facilities. The latest NIE report, that liberals are so anxious to embrace, a first, since liberals never believe anything from our intelligence services, only serves as cover for America to get out of Dodge and let the Israelis do to Persia what they did to Syria.

A simple question: Why would Iran, which floats on an ocean of oil, choose to invest in a nuclear energy program instead of upgrading its refining capacity so that it doesn’t have to import gasoline? He fears there’s only one answer. So does Israeli intelligence: “If one looks at the investment, if one looks at the nature of the project, if you look at the cost to the Iranian economy, there is no logical explanation other than that the Iranian program is not benign.” Even the Times acknowledges that mastering enrichment, which will Iran will now certainly be allowed to do, is the hard part of building a weapon; El Baradei himself estimated just a few weeks ago that if they’ve worked out the kinks in their 3,000-centrifuge cascade, they could have a bomb in a year. The cause for celebration, especially on the left, isn’t that Iran is no longer a threat, it’s that it’s a threat that Bush has no grounds for confronting militarily and is unlikely to be able to pressure diplomatically. It’s the next president’s problem now.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Essential reading: John Bolton on the flaws in the Iran Report. H/T Seraphic Friend A. Mark David, Q.C.

Plus: Iran Closer to Nuclear Bomb than West Admits.

Oh, and from the, ahem, moderate PA: Hitler is a hero on Pali radio. Gee, what a shock. The Arab world feeds on a steady diet of Jew-hatred. There are real-world consequences to such vile propaganda.

Meanwhile, Hamas are stealing fuel from Gaza hospitals to use in terrorist operations. Naturally, Israel will be blamed for causing a humanitarian disaster.

And the current Israeli government is appeasing these terrorist gangs. I feel like I'm witness to national Jewish suicide in excruciating slow motion.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

December 03, 2007

PA Murdered Zoldan

Hold the presses.

The moderate Arabs, Israel's, ahem, partners for peace, murdered Ido Zoltan. The always reliable PA Police murdered Zoldan in cold blood.

This is truly stunning, a plot point we did not see coming. You mean Mahmoud Abbas' police force actually kills Jews?

No way.

But, but, (stuttering in disbelief here) they want peace. The New York Times tells me so, endlessly, tediously, with Woodstock-worthy prose and analysis that floats comfortably in the stratosphere.

And Olmert knew about the murderers before Annapolis, but kept quiet because, y'know, he was respecting shiva, the mourning perid.

Forgive the gallows humor.

Actually, because he's Olmert, the most wretched Jewish leader since King Ahab, sans the kosher kitchen. Yup, Ahab and Jezebel had a glatt kosher kitchen, it's in the Talmud.

Anywhoo.

Let's not forget that Zoldan's murder was facilitated by the removal of fourteen IDF check-points. Why? To appease the Israeli left—Peace Now should be renamed Pogrom Now—to restore Arab honor and dignity (that's a tall order) but really to make Jew-killing far more convenient.

For goodness sake, let's release more terrorists from Israeli prisoners, quick, or they might turn to terrorism out of anger and frustration. And while we're at it let's remove some more check-points, hand over over Judea and Samaria, at least half of Jerusalem, and listen why don't we throw in Beverly Hills. Maybe then the Arabs will be satisfied.

Or, hey, here's an original idea from Ehud Barak, let's offer the Jews some gelt to make a quick exit from Judea and Samaria. They're in it for the money, right?

Just when I thought I have seen the bottom of Israeli politics, along comes a bottom-feeder of the most cynical kind and really—pass the barf bag.

Barak wants to offer money to Israel's most loyal citizens to leave the land of Israel.

I wonder what would happen if a Jew offered Arabs money to exit their homes, because their presence was, y'know, intolerable to Jewish sensibilities.

Uh-huh.

Thought so.

I have a question for the left: when will you be satisfied that enough real estate has been declared Judenrein so that—cue Kumbaya—peace (theoretically) will rein?

So far 23 Arab countries (I'm including Gaza here, it's a so-called Palestinian state) are free of Jews.

Now you want to make parts of Israel free of Jews.

Doesn't that seem really and truly weird?

And suicidal?

Just asking.

The IDF and General Security Services (Shin Bet) released for publication Sunday night that two Palestinian Authority (PA) National Security Force officers and another accomplice are the ones who murdered 29-year-old Ido Zoldan on November 19.

Israeli security officials knew Zoldan was murdered by PA policemen, because two of the three terrorists who shot him to death were arrested the next day in a joint IDF and Shin Bet operation.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:39 PM | Comments (1)

Chavez: Jew-hater

Hugo Chavez, Communist tyrant, hero to the left, buddy to Danny Glover, Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, and super friend to the working class, super model Naomi Campbell, is also, get this, a Jew-hater.

What a shock?

Well, it won't be long before Venezuela is Judenrein. Gosh, Jews are running out of real estate. And now even Israel is shrinking, incredibly, as Gaza is Judenrein and it's become acceptable to speak of making parts of Judea and Samaria Judenrein, and it's now even fashionably brave—not fool-hardy, suicidal, a-historical?—to talk about making sections of Jerusalem Judenrein, because, y'know, that'll definitely bring about peace. This time it'll be different.

Because the Arabs are so anxious for peace. They have demonstrated it over and over again. Right?

It's quite odd, liberals never ever bring up military victory as a tactic for bringing about peace.

That's actually the one sure-fire method that works against totalitarian regimes. Nothing else has ever triumphed. Against the Communist Soviet empire America fought hundreds of bloody proxy wars over several generations, alongside a vigorous arms war, a brutal covert war in every corner of the world, and of course an economic war that ultimately shattered the Soviet empire. No treaty, no piece of paper flapping in the wind has ever defeated a tyrant, especially a determined Islamic empire on the march.

Police raided Venezuela’s main Jewish social club on the eve of a national referendum.

The raid on La Hebraica late Saturday night occurred just hours before Venezuelans went to the polls to decide on constitutional changes proposed by President Hugo Chavez. The raid was seen as a provocation against the Jewish community, which is almost unanimously opposed to Chavez, a major ally of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his leftist reforms.

The police raid took place as 900 Jews enjoyed an all-night wedding party at the nearby Union Israelita synagogue in Altamira, an upscale suburb of Caracas.

According to sources, members of the police unit that investigates drug-trafficking and terrorism broke the main gate of La Hebraica in the middle of the night, allegedly looking for weapons and explosives.

Officers searched the premises but found nothing, the sources said.

Venezuelans on Sunday rejected by a narrow margin 69 constitutional amendments proposed by the Chavez government, including eliminating presidential term limits, which would have paved the way for Chavez to be re-elected indefinitely.

Saturday night's raid echoed one from November 2005, when Venezuelan police raided a Jewish school in Caracas looking for weapons. None were found.

Original article here.

Caracas Jews brace for violence, and flee Venezuela.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, David Paulin.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:55 AM | Comments (7)

November 29, 2007

The Day After Annapolis

The Annapolis Summit saga continues based on 5 misconceptions….

1. That Palestinian society can be reformed by outsiders.

2. That economic assistance to the Palestinians can alleviate political problems.

3. That Mahmoud Abbas can become the agent for change and therefore he deserves the support of the West.

4. That Palestinian society can be quickly transformed into a good neighbor of Israel and that a stable settlement is within reach.

5. That Hamas control of Gaza can be uprooted by inter-Palestinian politics.

With all of the platitudes during the Summit leading to bi-weekly meetings ahead, we will capitalize on the momentum created by our united widespread open opposition to the Summit.

We quote Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) who said, “Middle East negotiations should proceed with caution . . . While all Americans hope for a lasting peace in the region, the American people cherish our ally Israel and the security of Israel must come first…Peace talks have failed in the past because one side wanted peace and the other side wanted Israel.”

Meanwhile, Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook of Palestinian Media Watch report:

Just a day after Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the Annapolis peace conference pledged to negotiate a peace treaty by the end of 2008, Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority continues to paint a picture for its people of a world without Israel.

An information clip produced by the Palestinian Authority Central Bureau of Statistics and rebroadcast today on Abbas-controlled Palestinian television, shows a map in which Israel is painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag, symbolizing Israel turned into a Palestinian state.

The description of all of the state of Israel as "Palestine" is not coincidental, and is part of a formal, systematic educational approach throughout the Palestinian Authority. This uniform message of a world without Israel is repeated in school books, children's programs, crossword puzzles, video clips, formal symbols, school and street names, etc. The picture painted for the Palestinian population, both verbally and visually, is of a world without Israel.

The fact that this campaign continues before the ink on the Annapolis agreement is even dry appears to contradict the central promise of the Palestinians at the Annapolis conference: that Israel has a right to exist.

Hat Tip: Unity Coalition for Israel

And Melanie Phillips asks: One question, Mr. President: what the hell has happened to you?

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:35 PM | Comments (3)

No Room for Jews in Israel

Reality check #1: There were fair and free elections among the so-called Palestinian people. The winner, in a landslide, was Hamas. Only a single precinct went for Fatah. So the true and legitimate voice of the so-called Palestinian people is Hamas.

Reality check #2: Hamas tell the truth. It's a relief to hear, from the Muslim/Arab world, such, er, honest straight talk. Even if it is frankly and boastfully genocidal. One has only to read the Hamas Covenant to understand that their aim is the annihilation of the "Zionist entity", the imposition of Sharia and the elimination of Jews from, well, the face of the earth.

That Israel is negotiating with Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas, President of Fatah, President of, er, Nothingness, is just proof that Israel and the West are in denial of a terrible reality.

Reality check #3: The Arab/Israeli conflict is not about land, it's certainly not a regional conflict. Rather, it's an existential religious conflict where the Islamic world has declared war on Judaism.

The guest list at Annapolis proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt, for no one in their right mind believes that, say the Saudis, Algerians, Mauritanians or the charming Sudanese really give a crap about the so-called Palestinians. Annapolis was a ghastly check-list of Muslim/Arab tyrants who refuse to recognize Israel as a sovereign state, Muslim/Arab nations that are Judenrein, Muslim/Arab nations that make genocidal war on their own citizens, Muslim/Arab nations, that given the opportunity, would wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

Yes, here gathered in one hall was a rogues gallery of Muslim/Arab tyrants and Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni were begging for their blood-soaked handshakes.

How degrading for the Jewish people.

Well, at least Hamas are here to, um, speak honestly. They don't even bother to claim to be merely anti-Zionist and not anti-Jewish.

Reality check #4: How to defeat Hamas.

Hamas, the true and democratically elected representative of the so-called Palestinian people, are proud Jew-haters.

Hamas on Thursday called on the UN to rescind the 1947 decision to partition Palestine into two states, one for Jews and one for Arabs.

The group said in a statement, released on the 60th anniversary of the UN vote, that "Palestine is Arab Islamic land, from the river to the sea, including Jerusalem... there is no room in it for the Jews."

To read the complete article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:36 AM | Comments (7)

November 28, 2007

Eliminating the Jewish State

Seraphic Secret has frequently pointed out that the only difference between Fatah and Hamas is tactics. The long term strategy of both terrorist gangs is identical; their charters mirror one another calling for the elimination of the "Zionist entity."

Fatah use a double pronged offensive: terrorist attacks, with plausible deniability built in for the gullible left and the Jew-hating Europeans. They cloak their murderous operations—sub-contracted through Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and other gangs—via a clever and patient political strategy of nibbling away at the physical borders of Israel. This has been immensely successful with the appeasers on the left always anxious to trade away territory for, well, nothing.

Gaza, now Judenrein, is just the first step in several incremental steps to dismember Israel.

Judea and Samaria are next.

After that: Jerusalem.

The left are, of course, in full compliance, anxious to step up to the plate and repeat the same mistakes over and over again for they just want to be loved by those who want nothing more than to kill them. It's the Stockholm Syndrome in bold type.

Hamas have no patience for demographic war. They just want to kill Jews—now. And, in truth, they speak for the majority of the so-called Palestinian people. Let's not forget for one moment that Hamas won the free and fair elections—Jimmy Carter, hero to the left, certified the final results—in a landslide. Only one precinct went for Fatah. Really, it's Hamas who should be sitting at Annapolis, let's be honest. Mahmoud Abbas is President of the "Hey, Mahmoud, Nice Suit You're Wearing Today, Society." If Israeli citizens and the IDF were not in Judea and Samaria, Fatah would be toast in about two hours.

INTERPOLATION:
The Hashemites in Jordan, contrary to their public pronouncements, would not be happy puppies. The last thing they want to see is the IDF scampering out of Judea and Samaria. That would mean another Black September for the hapless Hashemites.
END INTERPOLATION:

In fact, in every single country in the Arab world, if free elections were held, the Islamists would win—hands down—and the more secular reformers would have their throats slit.

And for those who believe that the Arabs really want to live in peace and justice with Israel.

Well, yeah, absolutely true.

But don't superimpose your Western values on the words peace and justice. When Muslims speak these two words they are imagining a world where Sharia rules as justice and peace means that Jews (and all religious minorities) are dhimmis, a severely oppressed underclass.

Just ask Jews from Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Ethiopia, or Morocco what life was like under the Muslim yoke of peace and justice.

That's why the Arab/Muslim world is, Judenrein.

Here's a superb article by Daniel Pipes that actually has something nice to say about Ehud Olmert, and reveals the Arabs as a bunch of racist Jew-haters.

Shocking, huh?

Hey, we like to surprise our Seraphic Friends.

Surprisingly, something useful has emerged from the combination of the misconceived Annapolis meeting and a weak Israeli prime minister, Ehud ("Peace is achieved through concessions") Olmert. Breaking with his predecessors, Olmert has boldly demanded that his Palestinian bargaining partners accept Israel's permanent existence as a Jewish state, thereby evoking a revealing response.

Unless the Palestinians recognize Israel as "a Jewish state," Olmert announced on November 11, the Annapolis-related talks would not proceed. "I do not intend to compromise in any way over the issue of the Jewish state. This will be a condition for our recognition of a Palestinian state."

He confirmed these points a day later, describing the "recognition of Israel as a state for the Jewish people" as the "launching point for all negotiations. We won't have an argument with anyone in the world over the fact that Israel is a state of the Jewish people." The Palestinian leadership, he noted, must "want to make peace with Israel as a Jewish state."

Raising this topic has the virtue of finally focusing attention on what is the central topic in the Arab-Israeli conflict -- Zionism, the Jewish nationalist movement, a topic that typically gets ignored in the hubbub of negotiations. Since nearly the birth of the state, these have focused on the intricacies of such subsidiary issues as borders, troop placements, armaments and arms control, sanctities, natural resources, residential rights, diplomatic representation, and foreign relations.

The Palestinian leadership responded quickly and unequivocally to Olmert's demand:

The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Nazareth unanimously called on the Palestinian Authority not to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Salam Fayad, Palestinian Authority "prime minister": "Israel can define itself as it likes, but the Palestinians will not recognize it as a Jewish state."

Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's executive committee: "This issue is not on the table; it is raised for internal [Israeli] consumption."

Ahmad Qurei, chief Palestinian negotiator: "This [demand] is absolutely refused."

Saeb Erekat, head of the PLO Negotiations Department: "The Palestinians will never acknowledge Israel's Jewish identity. ... There is no country in the world where religious and national identities are intertwined."

Erekat's generalization is both curious and revealing. Not only do 56 states and the PLO belong to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, but most of them, including the PLO, make the Shari"a (Islamic law) their main or only source of legislation. Saudi Arabia even requires that every subject be a Muslim.

To read Daniel Pipes' complete article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2007

Teddy Bear Jihad

I am so relieved that the Sudanese have been invited to Annapolis. After all, we need sane, level-headed, diplomatic voices in these trying times.

Okay, so the Sudanese are guilty of genocide. What're you gonna do, it's their culture. This is the age of multi-culturalism, right?

We'll just have to be tolerant of Khartoum's official death squads, the Janjaweed, who have murdered somewhere between 200 to 400,000 non-Arabs in the past few years. The Janjaweed have also cast a million non-Arab Sudanese into refugee camps where untold numbers are dying on an daily basis. Accurate body counts are hard to come by. The Janjaweed are not exactly methodically Nazi-like in their paper-work. Why? Because most of them are illiterate Muslims. But they do know how to murder and they do know how to mutilate and rape. They have also kidnapped an untold number of women and female children as sexual slaves.

Anyway, the Western world protests feebly, (not the Muslim world, what a shock) but gives most of its attention to, who else, the so-called Palestinians.

Why?

1. Unrelenting Arab terror. If you murder innocent men, women and children that makes your grievances, er, legitimate.
2. Oil from our Saudi friends. If you have endless buckets of black gold, that makes your intolerable religion, er, tolerable.
3. Propaganda from, well, everybody. If you tell lies often enough, well, Julius Streicher looks like an amatuer compared to Al Jazeera, Al Reuters, Al AP, Al New York Times.
4. Fashion. The so-called Palestinians are, well, a fashion accessory for the always fashion conscious left, the place to be for civilized glib academic Jew-haters. Even the lefties have come to realize it.

Meanwhile, back in the happy-go-lucky Islamic Republic of Sudan, the religion of peace marches on and we wait for Peace Now, Tony Judt, or Henry Siegman to blame the Jooz for the Teddy Bear Jihad.

A British teacher is facing 40 lashes in a Sudanese jail if convicted of insulting Islam's prophet by letting children name a teddy bear Mohammed.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Chaver, Kishke

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:03 AM | Comments (4)

November 26, 2007

Total War

I'm going to go out on a limb and make a wild prediction—dripping irony here—that attempted terrorist attacks in Israel are going to increase during Annapolis.

And after Annapolis fails, and everybody blames the Jooz, the Arabs will riot and of course the world will excuse their bloody rampages—after all, that's their culture—and Hizbullah/Iran with Syrian support will gobble up Lebanon.

Why not? America just legitimized the murderous, and imperial—19 years occupying Lebanon—Syrian regime by inviting those thuggish assassins to Annapolis.

Once Lebanon goes to Hizbullah/Syria/Iran, well, all bets are off.

Another civil war will probably explode. And everyone will blame the Jews. Including, who else? Peace Now. They can always be counted on to embolden those who wish to annihilate Israel and the Jewish people. Call it The Josephus syndrome.

And to take advantage of the chaos, Hizbullah in Gaza will step up their attacks on Israel in order to goad the IDF into a ground invasion of Gaza.

Israel must resist this invitation. Instead, Israel must cut off all the power and fuel supplied to Gaza. There is no moral imperative to supply your enemies with the power to kill your own citizens.

If this does not pacify Gaza, then the Israeli air-force should bomb that jihadist salient back to the stone age. There is no reason for a single Israeli soldier to die or get wounded in a ground invasion.

There is no victory in warfare unless the citizens who have chosen to ally themselves with tyrants and genocidal governments are made to suffer along with their leaders. Witness Japan and Germany during World War II.

I am talking about total war.

This tactic of warfare was used in 1864 by Union troops under Maj. General William Tecumseh Sherman when he burned Atlanta to the ground and began his March to the Sea. The March was designed to break Southern morale. In Sherman's words: "... to make Georgia howl."

Sherman understood total war. He realized that that to win one must strike at the enemy's infrastructure. After Sherman's March the Southern economy collapsed and Lee's army was shattered.

Total war is not pretty, but it does save lives for it ends wars quickly instead of allowing conflicts to drag on endlessly, generation after generation.

It's time to make Gaza howl.

In the meantime, that fine analyst Barry Rubin has written an article about that folly: Annapolis.

Despite thousands of claims by lots of famous people, national leaders, and respected journals, solving the Arab-Israeli conflict will not make radical Islamism or terrorism go away. Would you like to know why? Because even if this issue could be solved—which isn’t about to happen for reasons requiring a different article—to do so would necessitate a compromise including an end to the conflict, acceptance of Israel, and compromises by the Arab side. These steps would inflame the extremists and make any Arab rulers who accepted it vulnerable to being called traitors. It would increase instability in the Arab world, also by removing the conflict as splendid excuse and basis for mobilizing support for the current rulers. Arab politicians understand this reality; most people in the West don’t.

To read Barry Rubin's complete article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:48 PM | Comments (15)

The Moral Dementia of Annapolis

Warning: Annapolis is being supported by Israel's most deep-end leftist organization Peace Now. Not surprising, Peace Now has some of their most fervent supporters here in La-La Land. If you hang around long enough you'll no doubt them babble on about Tikkun Olam—alot.

As if they have the vaguest idea what this concept truly encompasses.

At the moment, for it's the fashion, they think it means buying useless computers for Africans who desperately require roads, medicine, septic tanks, clean drinking water, y'know basic sanitation; or they lecture—endlessly, drearily—about so-called global warming, instead of confronting true and frightening evil: jihad.

It's so much easier to rant about the weather and hold, ahem, interfaith services with clever jihadists than actually show some moral and physical courage and confront these Jew-haters head-on.

Have you ever noticed that far left organizations bear names that have no relationship to reality. Peace Now has nothing to do with peace and everything to do with appeasement and the slow-motion annihilation of Israel.

One can scrawl the word peace, Shalom, on all the blackboards in the world, but it's the gesture of a fantasist when the other side is committed to your destruction, in fact boasts of this end-game relentlessly in their media, in their mosques, in their, ahem universities, and through their grade school educational system.

Just take a walk through Gaza or anywhere in the Arab world. Jew/Israeli hatred—there is no difference—is pandemic. Posters of so-called martyrs—actually, butchers of innocent men, women, and children—are displayed like rock posters. There is no talk of peace, only victory and the destruction of the Zionist entity.

When the Arabs speak of "occupation" they are talking about the entire state of Israel. From the Jordan to the Mediterranean. It's in the charter of Hamas and Fatah/PLO. Both documents are Islamist and boastfully genocidal. Parts of the Hamas charter are based on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Let's be clear: Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas is president of nothing. Gaza belongs heart and soul to Hamas, Hizbullah, and a dozen criminal clans. And the only thing that keeps Judea and Samaria from sliding gleefully into the arms of Hamas is the presence of brave Jewish citizens and the Israeli Defense Forces.

Once again, we are living in 1938.

Too bad that so many in the West refuse to learn the lessons of history.

And of course, so many are Jews.

Sometimes, the only way to achieve peace, is through the business end of a gun.

In preparing for the Mideast conference in Annapolis, Maryland, this week, Jerusalem Post columnist and deputy managing editor Caroline Glick took some questions from National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez Monday morning.

Glick, a senior Middle East fellow at the Center for Security Policy, is author of the upcoming book (March), The Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad will be released in March. All Glick clicks are available here.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: Is there anything good to come out of Annapolis?

Caroline Glick: It is hard to see any positive outcome from the Annapolis conference. Some have argued that the conference will make clear the distinction between states interested in peace and states uninterested in peace. But it is far from clear why this is the case. Indeed, one of the basic flaws inherent in the Annapolis conference, and indeed in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s recent frenetic pursuit of Palestinian statehood is the complete absence of moral distinctions between states committed to the ideals of peace, freedom, and fighting terror and those committed to jihad, tyranny, and hatred.

To take just the most obvious example of Rice’s moral equivalence, she upholds Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Prime Minister Salam Fayad as moderates who seek peaceful coexistence with Israel. Yet the fact is that neither Abbas nor Fayad have taken any steps that could be considered conducive to peace. They joined a unity government with Hamas in March and would have remained Hamas’s junior partner in that Saudi-brokered governing arrangement had Hamas not decided to oust Fatah forces from Gaza in June. Fayad has continued to pay the salaries of the Iranian-trained Hamas army in Gaza since the terror group’s takeover of the area just as he pays the salaries of Fatah terrorists in the West Bank.

In addition to his position as political leader of the Palestinian Authority, Abbas is also the head of the Fatah terror organization. Due to its reputation as a secular terror group, the U.S. State Department upholds Fatah as a credible partner in peace talks with Israel. But this strains credulity. Since the onset of the Palestinian jihad against Israel in September 2000, Fatah has carried out more terror attacks against Israeli targets than either Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Just last week Fatah terrorist murdered 29-year-old Ido Zoldan.

In spite of Fatah’s moderate reputation, the fact is that Fatah terror cells in the West Bank are bankrolled by Iran and its Hezbollah proxy. Its operatives are directed by Tehran no less than Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives are.

To read the complete interview, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Dr. Carol

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:49 AM | Comments (6)

BBC Wipes Israel off the Map

From the BBC Radio yesterday morning:

“And later in the program, after we have heard from our correspondent in Annapolis, Maryland, we will be speaking to representatives from both sides, the Palestinians and the Americans.”

"Was this just a mistake, or was it a further subconscious glimpse into the BBC’s warped worldview?"

Original Post from NRO

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Dr. Carol

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:09 AM | Comments (4)

November 23, 2007

Iraq's Savage Ironies

Below is a fine article by Victor Davis Hanson, in which he brings much needed military/historical perspective to the war in Iraq.

Recently, at a Shabbos lunch, I had a discussion with a friend about Iraq. My friend, sputtering in fury, claimed to have turned a corner against President Bush because of how poorly the war has been handled. I asked my friend if he felt that Eisenhower and his generals had done a good job in North Africa?

My friend shrugged, “Pretty good.”

He had not a clue as to the series of blunders made by the Americans, tactical and strategic, in North Africa, nor the terrible toll in lives through poor planning, especially in airborne operations.

There is a learning curve in all wars, I explained, terrible as it is, and in this conflict with jihadists, the U.S. army, outfitted and trained for traditional war, must adjust to Fourth Generation combat. It's a huge change. And General Petraeus and his Colonels have done a magnificent job.

“Well, why didn't Bush do it earlier?” My friend shot back angrily.

“There were other generals in the way. Some of them real turkeys. The army is an unforgiving bureaucracy.”

Dripping with sarcasm: “Well, you're more forgiving than I am.”

“No, I just live in the real world.”

My friend went on to attack the corruption in Iraq.

I said that far worse went on in the Civil War. “Unfortunately war draws out the the best and worst in men.”

“There was no corruption in World War II,” my friend assured me. “Harry Truman made sure of that.”

I looked at my soup.

I went: “Uh-huh.”

There is no dialog with dirt ignorance.

The war in Iraq — as all wars — is fraught with savage ironies.

In the build-up to the invasion, anti-Americanism in Europe reached a near frenzy. It was whipped up by French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, and evoked warnings of an eternal split in the Atlantic Alliance. If Iraq had proved a catalyst for this expression of near hatred — fueled by long-standing angers and envies — it soon, however, proved to be a catharsis as well.

Both leaders overplayed their hands when the U.S. had already begun downsizing its NATO deployments in Germany. Elsewhere, Europeans started to have second thoughts about alienating America at a time of rising Russian belligerency, and suffered from increased worry over radical Islamic terrorists at home and abroad.

The result is that their successors, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, are staunchly pro-American in ways their previous governments were not, even well before the Iraq War. And given the increased jihadist threats to Europe, worries about Iran, and the consistency of the U.S. effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, these governments may well have learned — in a way they did not anticipate in 2003 — that there really is no other ally like a steadfast United States, in these unstable times.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend from the Great White North, A. Mark David, Q.C.

Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat.

And let's not forget Project Valor-IT Veteran's Day Fundraiser, to provide voice-activated lap-top computers to injured and disabled veterans. Please donate generously. This is a very important tzedakah, charity.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:04 AM | Comments (10)

November 21, 2007

Oscar Worthy Terrorist Flick

Here's a little terrorist video that will actually put a smile on your face.

My buddy Treppenwitz has posted a fine little video of some Arab/Muslim terrorists, I assume in Gaza, launching what appear to be standard mortar rounds, probably c/o Ehud Olmert, from a home-made rocket launcher, towards Israeli civilian populations, in order to kill, maim, and terrorize.

All the while chanting: "Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar."

But I know, they're not really Muslims. They're radicals who have hi-jacked the, er, religion of peace.

Anyway: These master terrorists are feeding mortar rounds into a toilet pipe, over and over again, and pretty soon—well, I don't want to spoil Act Three for you.

It's a classic short, Oscar-worthy. Far better than Lions for Lambs, Rendition, Redacted, Valley of Elah, etc.

Go to that excellent blogger Treppenwitz, a man who totes a laser-pen in his pocket, and then click on the very interesting film clip.

To paraphrase Dirty Harry: It will make your day.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:19 AM | Comments (4)

November 20, 2007

Terrorist in the AP Newsroom

Further proof that the mainstream media is infected with jihadists and their Western enablers. The AP is one of the most wretched news organizations on earth. There is no transparency to their operation. Try and interview their reporters and editors about how they choose their stories, or their hiring practises, and you run into a brick wall. The official policy of the AP is their reporters are not allowed to give interviews to, get this, the media.

Pravda reborn.

In Stephanie Gutmann's invaluable book The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy, there is an entire chapter devoted to AP's bias against Israel and Orwellian methods. You must read this book, it's a real eye-opener, one of the most important exposes about the sad state of journalism in the Middle East ever published.

The U.S. military says it has "convincing and irrefutable" evidence that an award-winning Associated Press photographer is connected to the insurgency in Iraq.

The photographer, Bilal Hussein Zaidon, faces charges in the Iraqi Central Court based on the evidence, Pentagon officials said Monday.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell and other U.S. military officials would not say directly what charges he faced. They referred reporters to the Iraqi court system.

Hussein, an Iraqi who lives in the western Anbar province city of Ramadi, has been held without charge by the U.S. military since April 2006, when bomb parts and insurgent propaganda were found in his house after the U.S. military asked to use it as an observation post during an operation.

Hussein was already under suspicion by the U.S. military because he arrived at terrorist attack sites so quickly that they suspected he had advance knowledge of attacks, according to Morrell.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jake Novak

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:36 AM | Comments (4)

November 19, 2007

FBI Hate Crimes, 2006: Jews Suffer Over 5 Times More Attacks than Muslims

Remember this the next time CAIR starts claiming protected victim status. From the FBI's site (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair) comes a table on hate crimes, from which I have taken here only the number of hate-motivated offenses committed in 2006 against each group. Be sure to look at the whole table at the FBI site.

Anti-Black 3,136

Anti-Jewish 1,027

Anti-White 1,008

Anti-Male Homosexual 881

Anti-Hispanic 770

Anti-Female Homosexual 192

Anti-Islamic 191

Original article from Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch.

Hey, I know, CAIR can accuse the FBI study of, y'know, Islamaphobia.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, David Paulin

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:22 PM | Comments (5)

Oceans of Blood: The Al Durah Blood Libel

From that fine blogger Breath of the Beast, the latest on the blood-libel that should be on the front pages of every paper in this country, but won't be because, y'know, it's okay when Muslims fake a death and then libel Israel, Jews and Judaism, and the Islamic world, enabled by the Western press, uses the obviously fake and bloodless footage as an excuse to launch murderous terrorist attacks in every corner of the world.

Muhammed Al Durah is alive. My guess is that he's in a madrassah somewhere in Pakistan or Sudan. Meanwhile, his father makes a nice living traveling about the Muslim world signing pictures of his "dead son" much like O.J. Simpson signing memorabilia at sports conventions.

The Muslim world is addicted to the culture of death. The younger the better. It is ghastly.

Even more ghastly are the Jews on the left who enable these monsters. Charles Enderlin is a Jew, an Israeli citizen, a man who tampers with evidence. May his name be blotted from our memory.

Charles Enderlin is adrift in a rising ocean of blood. He is either so arrogant or so blinded by his fear that he is helpless to do what needs to be done to stem the tide. It is a tragedy of Biblical scale. When it all started, he was riding an exhilarating wave. (Background: here, here and here)

In October of 2000 he had what must have been a dream job. He was the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for France2. He got to live in one of the great, cosmopolitan, civilized cities of the world and report daily on a simmering, dangerous, richly symbolic conflict at the cutting edge between civilization and chaos. There was always a story. Because he lived and worked in Jerusalem there was never any censorship or physical threat or even any physical discomfort. He had Palestinian stringers who fed him footage and information from the unsafe and difficult areas so he could sit in Jerusalem, edit film in his fuzzy robe and slippers and be a war correspondent.

I am guessing that he just got too sloppy and arrogant to see how he was being used by his trusted Palestinian sidekick Talal Abu Rahma. Rahma knew the boss wasn’t disposed to check up on his work as long as he delivered serviceable goods and he gave him a juicy scoop once in a while. One day, Rahma overplayed the deal and Enderlin was setup for a fall. The rest of the story boils down to what Enderlin knew, when he knew it and whether or not he would take responsibility for it.

His now controversial report on the alleged shooting of a twelve year old boy named Muhammed al Durah at Netzarim Junction in Gaza vaulted him to the top of the jounalistic world. He had “scooped” everyone and had presented a perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict that had been hinted at by the media and longed for by the liberal and leftists in the dank guilt-ridden recesses of the west- especially Europe. It quickly became apparent that although it had never actually been seen or proven, there was a large and willing potion of the audience that readily took to the image of the Israelis as oppressors and thugs. The film and Enderlin’s presentation of it would, if true, have been proof of murderous brutality by the Israeli army. Enderlin reported that they killed the boy in cold blood. Looking at the report footage now, with the knowledge and background that has come to light it is hard to believe that such ambiguous and poorly staged stuff could have caught the imagination of the world the way it did. But, then, you had the voice of Charles Enderlin telling you what to believe about it in your ear and it is always dangerous to underestimate the size and explosivity of the subterranean lake of anti-Semitic blood-libel that seems to bubble and churn beneath the entire world’s population.

To read the complete story, please click here.

And here is a report by Melanie Phillips on the Al Durah blood-libel, from the trial in France.

Ms. Phillips concludes her piece on a powerful cautionary note:

The ‘killing’ of Mohammed al Durah was swallowed uncritically by the western media, despite the manifold unlikeliness and contradictions which were apparent from the start, because it accorded with the murderous prejudice against Israel which is the prism through which the Middle East conflict is habitually refracted. This scandal has the most profound implications not just for the media, not just for the Middle East conflict but for the western world’s relationship to reason, which seems to grow more tenuous by the day.

The very best book on why the media tilts so ferociously against Israel is Stepanie Gutmann's The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy. Highly recommended.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2007

Come Home

From Iraq, Michael Yon, our greatest war correspondent, tells us in no uncertain terms that the surge has worked, that the terrorists are on the run, that the forces of freedom are winning.

But the Democrats last night on CNN were deeply invested in America's defeat in Iraq.

Are the Democrats unaware of the reality of what's happening in Iraq? Or is the truth a mortal wound to a party whose platform is built on defeatism?

Michael Yon contributes a lovely and moving photo essay.

I have to say this: I'm glad that Christians are returning to their churches to worship. It's a fine thing and I hope freedom of religion spreads in Iraq.

But the fact remains that Iraq, like every Arab/Muslim country, save for several thousand Jews in Morocco, is Judenrein and toxic for Jews.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen any fighting. I can’t remember my last shootout: it’s been months. The nightmare is ending. Al Qaeda is being crushed. The Sunni tribes are awakening all across Iraq and foreswearing violence for negotiation. Many of the Shia are ready to stop the fighting that undermines their ability to forge and manage a new government. This is a complex and still delicate denouement, and the war may not be over yet. But the Muslims are saying it’s time to come home. And the Christians are saying it’s time to come home. They are weary, and there is much work to be done.

To read Michael's complete photo essay, please click here.

And let's not forget Project Valor-IT Veteran's Day Fundraiser, to provide voice-activated lap-top computers to injured and disabled veterans. Please donate generously. This is a very important tzedakah, charity.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:10 AM | Comments (7)

November 14, 2007

Spy vs. Spy

A Muslim woman lives in America illegally, fakes a marriage to gain U.S. citizenship, infiltrates the FBI and CIA, and then passes info to Hizbullah. But of course there's "no evidence she was a spy." Oh yeah, she's also the sister-in-law of one of Hizbullah's principle U.S. financiers, Talal Khalil Chahine, who has fled the country. And she's from Detroitistan. No, she's not a spy. Must be, ahem, Islamaphobia running rampant in the FBI and CIA.

So much for the background checks.

A former agent for the FBI and CIA pleaded guilty Tuesday to faking a marriage to win U.S. citizenship, clearing the way to being hired and given security clearances by the two intelligence agencies.

Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, emigrated to United States from Lebanon in 1989. She was given U.S. citizenship five years later and began working as a special agent at the FBI's field office in Washington in 1999, according to a criminal information sheet filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

While working as a special agent, Prouty improperly searched an FBI computer database for information about her relatives and links they might have to the Hezbollah terrorist organization, the criminal sheet showed. She joined the CIA in 2003 and resigned as part of her guilty plea Tuesday, officials said.

To read the complete story, please click here.

The great Debbie Schlussel has more damning evidence on the Hizbullah spy.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Chaver, Kishke

And let's not forget Project Valor-IT Veteran's Day Fundraiser, to provide voice-activated lap-top computers to injured and disabled veterans. Please donate generously. This is a very important tzedakah, charity.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:52 AM | Comments (13)

November 13, 2007

Mr. Homicide Bomb Goes to Washington

How stupid is the State Department and are our lawmakers in Washington?

There are no words.

Read on and let us caution our readers, a barf bag will be most handy. This is a case where a simple Google search could have turned up all one needs to know about this jihadist Jew-hating Islamist.

Tamimi's Washington trip was timed to generate support for an upcoming U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit at which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to outline a Palestinian state including most of the West Bank. Some reports claim Olmert also is willing to cede sections of Jerusalem.

According to media reports, Tamimi and his group expressed to U.S. lawmakers last week a six-point platform that includes plans to set up a panel representing all the faiths that would condemn media or government incitement against any religious group; a board that would review educational materials for incitement; and a "hot line" to address any emerging crisis surrounding access to holy sites.

But in the recently released book, Schmoozing with Terrorists, by WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein, Tamimi presented a different attitude, stating Jews have no right to Jerusalem or to Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount.

Tamimi also is well-known for his justification of Palestinian suicide bombings and was accused by Israel of inciting violence at the beginning of the second Palestinian intifada that started in September 2000.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:53 AM | Comments (1)

November 12, 2007

Arafat Memorial Turns Into Bloodbath—What a Shock!

So what happens at a memorial for terrorist leader Yasser Arafat? Flowers, speeches, dignified and calm crowds of well-wishers acting like, y'know, civilized people?

Not exactly.

In fact, the memorial turned into a riot and blood bath.

Not a Jew in sight. Though I'm sure the Arabs will blame the Jooz.

No, this was just more Arab on Arab violence that is, in fact, a fitting tribute to the bloody legacy of Arafat, one of the most reprehensible figures in modern history: a terrorist, a liar, and a thief who pocketed millions upon millions of dollars earmarked for humanitarian aid.

The memorial for Arafat, a thug, was attended by thugs who acted, well, in character.

Sure, let's give 'em a state. Just what the world needs, another dysfunctional, Jew-hating jihadist Arab country.

Oh wait, they already have a state, it's called Gaza. And what a fine, peace-loving country they are building.

Hundreds of thousands of Fatah supporters fled in panic today after gunfire erupted at a memorial event for former Palestinian Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat.

The anniversary had given the defeated faction in Hamas-controlled Gaza a rare chance to hold a rally. Medical officials said at least 15 people were wounded.

Fatah officials accused Hamas forces of opening fire from the nearby Islamic University. Hamas said its men had come under fire from Fatah gunmen and shot back.

To read the entire story, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:42 AM | Comments (2)

The Saudi Threat in America

One of the politically correct lies we are fed is that Saudi Arabia is a "moderate" Arab state. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Saudis are in the forefront of the jihadist war against the West. But because of our need for oil, and their need to placate the West, they wage their holy war in particularly piratical methods. Expertly and cunningly the Saudis put on one face to meet the West, while at the very same time the corrupt Saudi royal family foments hatred of Jews through national education that teaches The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to grade school children, slick lobbyists in Washington, pouring millions of petro-dollars into the Middle Eastern Studies departments of our universities—fig-leafs for official Jew/Israeli hatred—and the financing of radical mosques on foreign shores to promote hatred of Jews, Christians and all non-Wahhabi sects of Islam.

Here's a fine article by Frank Salvato on the Wahhabist Infiltration of America.

Part of the reason many Americans don’t appreciate the significance of Osama bin Laden’s declarations of war against the United States and the West is because they are completely oblivious to the in-roads radical Islam has made within the United States. Radical Islamists (i.e., Islamofascists, Wahhabis) understand that the conflict must take place on multiple fronts: militarily, economically, diplomatically and ideologically. Because they understand the complexity of the confrontation and the ability of the West to adapt to challenges – albeit lethargically – they employ multiple tactics in their aggressive pursuit of victory. The West’s addiction to sensationalism, epitomized by our limited attention to detail, unless it plays in the superficial 24-hour news cycle, facilitates the successful infiltration of radical ideology into Western society.

Much to the chagrin of the multicultural and the proponents of diversity, those who promote radical Islamist ideology thrive on the fact that the politically correct culture of the West – and the United States in particular – deems it inappropriate to question religious practices or teachings. With this politically correct “wall of separation” in place little if any scrutiny is given to the information disseminated within any given religious institution. This directly facilitates the ideological advancement of Wahhabism, the most radical and puritanical form of Islam, within the mosques of the United States.

To read the complete article, please click here.

And here's another article from The Times, Saudi Arabia is the Hub of World Terror, by Nick Fielding and Sarah Baxter.

Hat Tip: America's Truth Forum

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:33 AM | Comments (2)

November 11, 2007

Hamas to Sieze West Bank

The great thing about Hamas is they tell the truth. They hate Israel and they want to annihilate the state. They hate Jews and they want to kill every Jew on the face of the earth.

Okay, we appreciate blunt talk from our enemies.

Unfortunately, too many on our side—jihadist enabling leftists, delusional liberals—refuse to believe that there are people out there who actually—get this—don't like Jews. They have a hard time believing that there are people who prefer the death shrieks of battle over the soothing harmonics of Kumbaya.

Take Prime Minister Olmert. A leftie and a liberal. Easily the most inept Jewish leader since—hey, King Ahab was pretty bad but, according the the Talmud, at least he and Queen Jezebel kept a kosher kitchen. My pious Catholic Mexican housekeeper knows more about Yiddishkeit than Olmert.

Anyway, Olmert's planning on going to Annapolis at the end of the month and making, as liberals like to phrase it, "painful concessions" to the PA.

Painful as in: Lots and lots of Jews are gonna die.

Here at Seraphic Secret we make no secret—ouch, bad pun—of believing that the expulsion of 9,000 Jews from Gaza was a religious, national and international disaster.

It was a disaster worthy and equal to Neville Chamberlain's surrender of the Sudetenland to Hitler.

Appeasement leads not to peace, but to further aggression. Our Arab and Persian enemies proudly boast that Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon and then from Gaza were clear victories for Hizbullah/Iran and Hamas, clear victories for the jihadist armies of Islam.

And yet, Olmert, President Bush, and the EU have apparently learned nothing from past debacles. They insist on following the same short-sighted policies of appeasement that only lead to strengthening the hand of the jihadists and lowering Israel's defensive posture and her national deterrence capability.

There is no land for peace.

There is only land for war.

In the Palestinian national elections, Hamas did not just carry Gaza but they won every precinct in Judea and Samaria (The West Bank) save one lone precinct that went for the PA.

If Olmert is foolish enough to give up more land, and suicidal enough to consider handing over parts of Jerusalem, then the Arabs will truly have Auschwitz borders ringing the State of Israel.

Jewish history teaches one clear lesson: when our enemies tell us that they plan to kill us, we should believe them.

A top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip warned on Friday that the Islamist movement would seize control of the West Bank if Israel withdrew from the occupied territory.

"Israel says the party in power in Ramallah (Fatah) serves its interests and if Israel withdraws from the West Bank, Hamas will take control. That's true," Mahmud Zahar told a party rally in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip.

He called on Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party to "learn the lesson of what happened in Gaza"—where nearly five months ago Hamas routed the moderate leader's loyalists and security officers in the coastal enclave.

To read the complete story, please click here.

And on Veteran's Day, let's not forget Project Valor-IT Veteran's Day Fundraiser, to provide voice-activated lap-top computers to injured and disabled veterans. Please donate generously. This is a very important tzedakah, charity.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:04 AM | Comments (7)

November 08, 2007

Jew-Hatred in England, Gaza Confessions, and Good News from Iraq

Melanie Phillips reports on the alarming rise of Israel/Jew-hatred in England. This should remind all decent people that Jews are the canary in the coal mine of civilization.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, David Paulin.

Seraphic Friend Mere Rhetoric shows us in no uncertain terms that more aid to the Palestinians means more dead Jews.

Meanwhile, in Israel, this from a man who supported expelling Jews from Gaza:

The disengagement from Gaza "was a mistake" National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told Non-Stop Radio (Radio Lelo Hafsaka) on Thursday.

"I admit and confess," Ben Eliezer said, "I was with those who strongly supported [former prime minister] Ariel Sharon, and today I say with my head held high: We erred, we made a very big mistake."

To read the complete article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Chaver, Kishke

Over in Iraq, more good news you will not read about in the mainstream media, but the great Michael Yon has an important dispatch about an important photograph.

Michael writes:

A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from “Chosen” Company 2-12 Infantry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John’s, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope.

The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. "Thank you, thank you," the people were saying. One man said, "Thank you for peace." Another man, a Muslim, said "All the people, all the people in Iraq, Muslim and Christian, is brother." The men and women were holding bells, and for the first time in memory freedom rang over the ravaged land between two rivers.

Karen and I are flying east to visit family. We'll try and blog while we're away, but postings might get a bit spotty. We wish all our friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:16 AM | Comments (3)

November 07, 2007

Hamas Goes Hollywood

Your first instinct may be to laugh, but this is no laughing matter. Besides the cost in human suffering, where Arab leaders once again spend millions on projects that do not improve the lives of their citizens, it is imperative to realize that Hamas is choosing to earmark huge amonts of money towards massive propaganda. This is the life-blood of the media war against Israel, Judaism and the West. The Big Lie, repeated over and over again, soon goes from being an outrage, to being common place, to another accepted truth in a world of moral relativism.

How long before Michael Moore or Danny Glover drops by to sign a co-production deal?

Though its people are struggling to make ends meet, Hamas officials are busy worrying about raising funds for the ambitious project to turn Gaza into a movie-making emporium. First in the production order is a film based on a novel penned by hardliner Mahmoud Zahar.

It's a tale worthy of its own movie script: The Gaza Strip's isolated and cash-strapped Hamas rulers plan to build a $200 million media city and movie production house that will be part tourist attraction and part effort to cement control of the territory it seized by force in June.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Lance Fogel

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:36 AM | Comments (17)

November 02, 2007

Saudi Marriage Expert: How to Beat Your Wife

Let's see, America has Dr. Phil and Oprah, and the Arab world has "Dr." Muhammad Al-Arifi.

We have our culture and they have their culture.

Who are we to say that we are civilized and they are barbarians.

Anyway, sit back, relax, prepare for some unique relationship advice, and find out how to, um, beat your wife.

He's Saudi author and cleric, "Dr." Muhammad Al-'Arifi, who in a remarkable segment broadcast on Saudi and Kuwaiti television in September, counseled young Muslim men on how to treat their wives.

"Admonish them—once, twice, three times, four times, ten times," he advised. "If this doesn't help, refuse to share their beds."

And if that doesn't work?

"Beat them," one of his three young advisees responded.

"That's right," Al-'Arifi said.

Click here to view the segment at MEMRITV.org

He goes on to calmly explain to the young men that hitting their future wives in the face is a no-no.

"Beating in the face is forbidden, even when it comes to animals," he explained. "Even if you want your camel or donkey to start walking, you are not allowed to beat it in the face. If this is true for animals, it is all the more true when it comes to humans. So beatings should be light and not in the face."

To read the complete article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jake "Fox" Novak

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:42 AM | Comments (10)

Fatah Police Defect to Al Qaida

Ever since Israel expelled 9,000 Jews from Gaza two years ago, turning yet another patch of Middle Eastern soil Judenrein, the situation on the ground has become increasingly dire.

Israel expected she would get peace in return for land.

As if there's a long history of such behavior on the part of her Arab enemies.

Israel expected that she would garner good-will from the world for expelling her own citizens and creating a national trauma.

Instead, Israel is treated with more contempt than ever before.

And Gaza is now a forward base for every transnational Islamic terrorist gang in the neighborhood.

The IDF has a plan to cut off minimal amounts of electricity and fuel to Gaza, the entity that is bent on Israel's destruction. But the EU, lapdogs to the Saudis, protested vehemently because, as we all know, it is Israel's responsibility to supply power to the very people who have taken a sacred vow to annihilate the Jewish state.

Israel's judiciary might actually come through and allow the power cut-offs.

But this cut-off will not be enough. Not nearly enough.

So, as Gaza sinks into spasms of uncontrollable violence, Israel is backed into a corner where she will have no choice but to invade the Gaza salient and pay a heavy toll in the lives of her ground troops and of course, the lives of Arab civilians.

The very game plan the jihadists are wishing for.

Once again, the peaceniks, the humanitarians will be responsible for the vast bloodshed that is to come.

Scores of Fatah policemen who used to serve in the Palestinian Authority security forces in the Gaza Strip have now joined the al-Qaida-affiliated group calling itself the Army of Islam, sources in the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry told The Jerusalem Post Thursday.

Meanwhile, Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, claimed responsibility for firing 20 rockets from the Gaza Strip recently. The group said the attacks signaled the beginning of a military campaign dubbed "Operation Gaza Autumn," in the course of which it would fire hundreds of rockets at Israeli communities. It said residents of Sderot had two choices: leave or die.

To read the complete article, please click here.

And here's some news about PA policemen, newly deployed in Nablus that should send shivers up and down the spine of sane Israelis. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with these fine and upstanding young men? Their loyalties are, um, solid, right?

Meanwhile, in Gaza, the preparations for war against Israel continue deep underground:

The IDF has stepped up its efforts against the terror infrastructure in Gaza and, in a 36-hour operation that ended Thursday, discovered seven weapons-smuggling tunnels in the southern Strip along the Egyptian border.

The kilometer-long tunnels were discovered near Dahiniye by an elite Engineering Corps unit and troops from the Golani infantry's Battalion 51. The tunnels were found within two kilometers of the border with Israel and, according to the IDF, had been used intensively in recent months to smuggle weapons and explosives from Egypt into Gaza.

The troops destroyed the tunnels in controlled explosions. IDF sources said they had been large enough for people to pass through and were most probably used by terrorists to leave Gaza on their way to Iran or Syria for training.

To read the complete article, please click here

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2007

Al Qaeda Defeated

From Michael Yon, our most valuable journalistic resource in Iraq, important information that will not be reported by the mainstream media.

I have a question.

If there is good news from Iraq is that bad news for the Democrats?

And if the answer is yes, what does that say about the core ideology of the Dems?

“Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,” according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe. Speaking through an interpreter at a 31 October meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, Sheik Omar said that al Qaeda had been “defeated mentally, and therefore is defeated physically,” referring to how clear it has become that the terrorist group’s tactics have backfired. Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad. They are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans.

Colonel Ricky Gibbs, the American brigade commander with responsibility for the Rashid District in south Baghdad today told me, “So goes South Baghdad goes Baghdad.” General Petraeus had told me similar things about the importance of South Baghdad. In fact, Rashid is quickly developing into what might be one of the final serious battlegrounds of the war.

For Michael's entire photo-essay, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2007

Mufti: No Jewish Prayers in Palestinian Jerusalem

This is shocking, just shocking. A senior Pali Mufti speaks honestly about the final Pali Arab strategy for the Har-Habayit, Temple Mount—if Jerusalem is divided.

Guess what the plan is?

1. Freedom of worship for Jews.

2. No Klingons permitted in Pali Jerusalem.

3. The Temple Mount will be Judenrein.

If you answered #1, you need to cut back on your meds—drastically.
If you answered #2, you really should move out of your parent's basement.
If you answered #3, mazal tov, you are an incredibly sophisticated analyst of Middle Eastern affairs.

Of course, the arch left will dismiss Sabri's statements as irrelevant because he is no longer the official Mufti; the idea being, we imagine, that his opinions are grossly outside the normal boundaries of the dysfunctional Pali society; a culture that values death over life. Indeed, Pali society indoctrinates its youth into believing that the highest status one can achieve in life, is a blazing and bloody death, killing as many Jews as possible. Yes, such widespread values do qualify as a pathologically dysfunctional culture.

Anywhoo.

We have a sneaking suspicion that the current PA appointed Mufti and the oh-so-benevolent Pali Arabs will, I dunno, not be very tolerant of Jews and Judaism once they gain control of precious and holy Jerusalem real estate.

Hey, what can I tell you, it's just a dark and and lurking suspicion. Gosh, what's got into me? Where's my faith in human nature, in the religion of peace?

Maybe it's because I'm flashing on Arafat's solemn promise to respect and protect Joseph's tomb.

That worked out really well, didn't it?

If Jerusalem is divided, and it's eastern part made the capital of "Palestine"—world Jewry will be forever cut off from the hope it has held onto for 2000 years, and be once and for all prohibited from ascending the Temple Mount and even from praying at the Western Wall.

This warning was clearly sounded in an interview the former PLO-appointed mufti of Jerusalem gave to The Jerusalem Post this week, excerpts of which were published Thursday.

Ikrema Sabri emphatically told the Post that no Israelite temple had ever stood on the Temple Mount.

What's more, the cleric insisted, the Western Wall - whose massive stones the entire world knows to have been laid by Herod the Great during the Roman occupation of the Land of Israel - had nothing to do with any temple either.

"The wall is not part of the Jewish temple. It is just the western wall of the mosque. There is not a single stone with any relation at all to the history of the Hebrews....

To read the complete article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:30 PM | Comments (4)

Thugs in Charge

It's an odd phenomenon. The mainstream media gleefully splash huge headlines whenever an Arab is killed by an Israeli.

But far more Arabs die at the hands of other Arabs.

It's not even close.

Sectarian murder between Fatah and Hamas is epidemic. Clan and tribal feuds in Gaza are reaching horrific levels.

Do we need to mention so-called honor killings which cannot even be properly counted for so many Arab women are slaughtered in the dead of night and secretly dumped in unmarked graves.

From Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group:

Since its victory in the January 2006 parliamentary elections, Hamas has violated the human rights of numerous populations throughout the Palestinian Territories. From April 2006 through June 2007, Hamas committed various international war crimes against Fatah members. Hamas engaged in the capture, torture, and murder of Fatah members and leaders throughout the Palestinian Territories. Members of the Hamas stormed the homes of Fatah members with guns and weapons, wounding and sometimes killing selected targets and civilians during the months following Hamas’ parliamentary victory.

To read Ocean Guy's entire article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:11 AM | Comments (6)

Fatah TV Promises Elimination of Israel

According to received wisdom Hamas are the radicals and the PA are moderates.

Seraphic Secret has been saying for several years that the only difference between Fatah and Hamas are tactics. The long range goal for both terrorist organizations is the destruction of Israel.

Hamas wish to eliminate Israel immediately through all forms of terrorism.

The PA are happy to utilize terrorism, using their proxies Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, The Tanzim, The Executive Force, and the always useful fig leaf of negotiations. This gives the PA time to chip away at Israel's resolve, strengthen the Israeli and western left (always useful allies for jihadists) and wring consessions through petro blackmail using unscrupulous oil rich Arab allies and their powerful western lobbies.

It's easy to see that the PA are playing the oldest shill game in the world. All you have to do is be willing to monitor their media. Pay close attention to the rhetoric they feed their own people, not the lies carefully packaged for the gullible west. You'll quickly realize that Mahmoud Abbas and his entire thugocracy are the same genocidal jihadists as Hamas and Hizbullah.

A new music video appearing regularly on Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority television over the past week promises the elimination of Israel and the restoration of the "Arab identity" of cities throughout the Jewish State. The propaganda clip stands in stark contrast to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's recent declarations in support of reconciliation with Israel, issued ahead of the upcoming multinational Middle East peace conference organized by the United States.

As explained by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook of Palestinian Media Watch, "While the Palestinian Authority announces in English its demand for a two-state solution, to its own people in Arabic it continues to define all of Israel as 'Palestine,' and to promise Israel's destruction. A new video clip, broadcast numerous times daily since it first appeared on Fatah-controlled TV last week, passionately promises 'Mother' that every Israeli city will be 'liberated' because its 'identity is Arab' and 'Palestinian.'"

To read the rest of this article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2007

Negotiations Fatah Style

This is an interesting negotiating tactic. The, ahem, moderate Holocaust denying President of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, threatens violence if he doesn't get everything he wants.

Wow, that's a moderate starting point.

Seraphic Secret has maintained that peace talks with the Arabs are a dead issue. They have no interest in building a state, only destroying a state.

Some geo-political conflicts can only be solved on the battlefield.

The jihadists who have incited this war understand this just perfectly. It's time for the Jewish state and the Jewish people to realize the same awful truth before it's too late.

The Persian nuclear threat is only a hint of what's to come from the genocidal Muslim world.

At some point Israel will be forced to make war on the Palestinians and crush them in a terrible conflict that will, once and for all, show them that they are a defeated nation. Their only reasonable option will be an unconditional surrender and then reconstruction.

It worked with Germany and Japan.

The Arabs have given Israel no other option.

Abbas warned Tuesday that unless all the issues at the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are solved, violence will break out anew in two or three years.

Israel Radio reported that Abbas also said that a planned US-sponsored Middle East parley in Annapolis, Maryland, has been scheduled for November 15, but that the date was not yet final.

Israel Radio later quoted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying that he would make a "great effort" to ensure that the conference becomes a first step towards peace. Olmert said it was imperative to avoid making excuses and to venture forward in negotiations despite the risks involved.

Meanwhile, the chief Palestinian peace negotiator, former PA prime minister Ahmed Qurei, said Tuesday there would be no talks with Israel unless a deadline was set for establishing a Palestinian state.

To read the rest of the article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Chaver, Kishke

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:28 PM | Comments (2)

The Fate of Iranian Jews

Fascinating article about the Jews of Persia.

"I can tell you, based both on personal experience and on what I hear from friends, that there are places [in Iran] where Muslims have already divided among themselves the homes and property of their Jewish neighbors. They say that if there will be a war, the first thing they will do is slaughter the Jews."

To read the entire article, please go to Soccer Dad.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:59 PM | Comments (4)

Google Maps go Dark on Israel

Last week we noted that jihadists in Gaza were using Goggle Maps to target Israel. Unlike some of our more, ahem, liberal commenters, we thought that this was an atrocity and unacceptable.

We also tipped our readers to the facts that Google execs were in secret talks with the IDF.

Well, we are glad to report that when the jihadists reference Israel, em excuse me, the Zionist entity, on their computers, they will come up blank.

We assume the ACLU will sue Google for, er, not providing Muslims with freedom of information to kill Jews.

Seraphic Secret would like to extend a note of appreciation to Google for not just living up to their corporate motto of "do no evil," but for actively fighting evil—a far more worthy goal.

Hat Tip: Our National Treasure, Soccer Dad

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:39 PM | Comments (18)

October 29, 2007

Kanefsky: Rabbi to Fatah

Normally we would ignore an article printed in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. The circulation of this weekly paper barely reaches 16,000. This blog reaches far more readers in only two days.

There's also its editorial slant that is somewhat left of Trostsky. A recent editorial advocated that Jewish women marry non-Jewish men because y'know, things are tough out there in the singles world.

As a Christian friend remarked me: “With Jewish journalists like that who needs Hamas.”

Indeed.

This leads us to Yosef Kanefsky. This past week The Los Angeles Jewish Journal got to splash a headline that proclaimed an Orthodox Rabbi Advocates Dividing Jerusalem.

Oh joy for the the not-so-Jewish Journal.

We heard sales, er, give-aways of the Journal spiked—in Gaza.

As we said, we'd like nothing better than to ignore Kanefsky, an arch leftie crank in Pico Robertson area, who leads a Romper Room congregation, but naturally the story was gleefully snapped up by the Los Angeles Times, a paper that would like nothing better than to see Israel disappear from the map. And of course, all the usual leftist Conservative, and Reform suspects jumped in to greet their lone Orthodox colleague to the Official Neville Chamberlain Appeasement Club. One of these characters labels Kanefsky a—get this—visionary.

Actually, now that we think about it, this is quite appropriate

Kanefsky sees things that do not exist.

And so, now that the Los Angeles Times has given Kanefsky's minority opinion legs, we are forced to weigh in on the matter and give this narcissist the last thing he should be afforded: attention.

You see that's one of the core problems of the left; when they publicly advocate for their extreme leftist positions they become invaluable collaborators to Israel's and Judaism's enemies. They become propaganda tools of Hamas and Fatah, proud advocates of genocide.

They become enablers to genuine Jew-killers.

If not by deed, then through the language of collaboration.

That's why Lenin pegged western liberals as "useful idiots."

Kanefsky, insufferably smug and self-righteous, a gift to the jihadists, is not, as he no doubt sees himself, a courageous voice, but a gullible man, so self-absorbed that he doesn't realize that his name is now at the head of the list being drawn up by Fatah and Hamas as the Jew most likely to head up the Judenrat.

Seraphic Friend Omri Ceren of Mere Rhetoric does a nice job of analyzing Kanefsky's Quisling-like proposal:

The Los Angeles Jewish Journal has decided to print an article by Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky advocating handing over Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Other people will probably handle the rank impracticality and immorality of this proposal: "Don't worry about the historical Arab desecration of Jewish cemeteries in Jerusalem or how the Wakf's ongoing destruction of Jewish artifacts on the Temple Mount is openly linked to denying Jews access to Jerusalem by unblinkingly stating that Jews never had a temple in Jerusalem — the Palestinians won't cheat on their obligations because United Nations peace keepers will protect Israeli interests!" Super.

What we're concerned with is the blistering stupidity of this Kanefsky's understanding of Middle East negotiations, and what it says about how he's bought into an anti-Semitic myth that becomes an anti-Israel talking point that becomes the basis for peace talks that end with hundreds of murdered Israelis. The article itself is a confused hodgepodge of largely unrelated leftist whines about how the Israelis have been mean (Jerusalem, settlers, human rights, etc), until it reaches this elegant crescendo of naivety:

To read the entire article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:12 AM | Comments (20)

October 25, 2007

Gaza Blackout at Long Last

Israel is about to cut some electricity and fuel deliveries to Gaza. It's about time. Seraphic Secret has been calling for this simple measure—for years.

It is, literally, insane that Israel is providing electricity and fuel to an entity that is sworn to her destruction.

To those who accuse Israel of imposing collective punishment on Gaza.

No kidding.

That's war.

That's the price Gazans pay for electing the genocidal Hamas terrorists into positions of leadership. That's the price Gazans pay for allowing, encouraging and celebrating homicide bombers and the launching of daily missiles into Israel.

In fact, Gaza is lucky that her enemy is Israel. Any other country faced with such unrelenting violence and hateful propaganda would have, long ago, reduced to Gaza to ashes and rubble.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak's approval earlier Thursday of an IDF plan to impose sanctions on the Gaza Strip in wake of the escalation in Kassam rocket attacks was the first step, defense officials told The Jerusalem Post, towards a "complete disengagement" including the gradual reduction in Palestinian dependency on Israel for gas and electricity.

During his weekly security meeting on Thursday Barak approved the plan that had been formulated by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yosef Mishlav in line with the recent cabinet decision that defined Gaza as a "hostile entity."

According to the plan, one of the power lines connecting Israel and Gaza will be shut down at first for 15 minutes after a rocket attack, gradually increasing the cutoff length if the barrages continue, up to a two-hour limit. In addition, Israel will begin reducing the amount of gasoline it allows into the Gaza Strip.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Chaver, Kishke.

And just to give you an idea of the charming people Israel is dealing with in Gaza:

A senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committee in Gaza encouraged terrorists at a press conference Wednesday, "Kill Jews everywhere without waiting for permission." Terrorist leader Abu Al-Sa'id also called for the disbanding of the Palestinian Authority (PA) government, which he said should be replaced by a "Resistance Authority."

He called for the murder of Jews as retaliation for the death of an Islamic Jihad terrorist who was killed in a massive riot at the Ketziot prison in the Negev earlier this week.

Original article from Arutz Sheva.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:19 PM | Comments (15)

Google Earth Used to Target Israel

Google, whose motto is: Do no evil.

Well, it seems to Seraphic Secret that aiding terrorists in their murderous work qualifies as evil incarnate. It should be quite easy for the clever software engineers at Google to block out the Israeli portions of their Earth Maps.

Palestinian militants are using Google Earth to help plan their attacks on the Israeli military and other targets, the Guardian has learned.

Members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group aligned with the Fatah political party, say they use the popular internet mapping tool to help determine their targets for rocket strikes.

"We obtain the details from Google Earth and check them against our maps of the city centre and sensitive areas," Khaled Jaabari, the group's commander in Gaza who is known as Abu Walid, told the Guardian.

Abu Walid showed the Guardian an aerial image of the Israeli town of Sderot on his computer to demonstrate how his group searches for targets.

The Guardian filmed an al-Aqsa test rocket launch, fired into an uninhabited area of the Negev desert, last month. Despite the crudeness of the weapons, many have landed in Sderot, killing around a dozen people in the last three years and wounding scores more.

To view video and read the rest of this article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Chaverim, Kishke and Lance Fogel

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:49 AM | Comments (14)

October 23, 2007

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week

It's Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

At Tulane University, some 1500 people turned out to hear Ann Coulter give a speech connecting dots between radical Islam and the events of 9/11 and expressing the importance of continuing the War in Iraq. It took 15 police officers and personal security for Ms. Coulter to keep the crowd at bay.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, David Horowitz spoke to 600 students and various members of the community about the oppression of women in Islam and the silence coming from women’s studies departments on America’s campuses regarding this issue. The volatile crowd quieted immediately when Horowitz began his speech by showing an enlarged photograph of a Muslim woman on her knees being shot in the back of the head by Muslim fundamentalists. “Everyone in this photograph is a Muslim,” Horowitz began. “There is a helpless victim; there are perpetrators of murder. This photograph is why we’re here tonight.

At DePaul University in Chicago a rowdy crowd greeted Robert Spencer, a author of Religion of Peace? and other books on radical Islam, and Iranian dissident Amir Abbas Fakhravar, who detailed the record of violence, murder and human rights mayhem by the Achmadinijad regime. Fielding a hostile question from one member of the audience, Spencer said: “Anyone who thinks that there has been a full and fair and open discussion of Islamo fascism on our campuses and particularly in our Middle East Studies departments simply hasn’t been paying attention.”

To read the entire article, please click here.

And of course, this statement from the Judenrat at, where else, Columbia University, those Jews who enable the jihadists, those Hellenized Jews who insist on giving a helping hand to the Jew-haters of the world. H/T Seraphic Friend, David Paulin.

And here's a wonderful interview with Nonie Darwish, An Infidel in Jerusalem. H/T Seraphic Chaver, Kishke.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:47 AM | Comments (9)

October 22, 2007

Resistance is Futile

From Michael Yon, America's greatest war correspondent, the disconnect between what's really happening in Iraq and what the MSM are reporting. Plus more encouraging news from Iraq.

All describe the bizarro-world contrast between what most Americans seem to think is happening in Iraq versus what is really happening in Iraq. Knowing this disconnect exists and experiencing it directly are two separate matters. It’s like the difference between holding the remote control during the telecast of a volcanic eruption on some distant island (and then flipping the channel), versus running for survival from a wretch of molten lava that just engulfed your car.

I was at home in the United States just one day before the magnitude hit me like vertigo: America seems to be under a glass dome which allows few hard facts from the field to filter in unless they are attached to a string of false assumptions. Considering that my trip home coincided with General Petraeus’ testimony before the US Congress, when media interest in the war was (I’m told) unusually concentrated, it’s a wonder my eardrums didn’t burst on the trip back to Iraq. In places like Singapore, Indonesia, and Britain people hardly seemed to notice that success is being achieved in Iraq, while in the United States, Britney was competing for airtime with O.J. in one of the saddest sideshows on Earth.

No thinking person would look at last year’s weather reports to judge whether it will rain today, yet we do something similar with Iraq news. The situation in Iraq has drastically changed, but the inertia of bad news leaves many convinced that the mission has failed beyond recovery, that all Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, or are waiting for us to leave so they can crush their neighbors. This view allows our soldiers two possible roles: either “victim caught in the crossfire” or “referee between warring parties.” Neither, rightly, is tolerable to the American or British public.

Today I am in Iraq, back in a war of such strategic consequence that it will affect generations yet unborn—whether or not they want it to. Hiding under the covers will not work, because whether it is good news or bad, whether it is true or untrue, once information is widely circulated, it has such formidable inertia that public opinion seems impervious to the corrective balm of simple and clear facts.

To read the rest of the article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:43 PM | Comments (9)

October 21, 2007

Moderate PA Plot to Assasinate Olmert

It should be clear by now that PA President and Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas has no ability nor intention of curbing the terrorists that make up the PA.

This is sheer fantasy.

The only difference between Fatah and Hamas is tactics. Hamas wants to destroy Israel immediately, Fatah is willing to work through various stages for Israel's annihilation, aiming for a one-state solution, which would mean the end of the Jewish state and dhimmitude for Jews and Christians—at best.

Of course, the Arabs can always count on fifth columnists like Yossi Beilin who urge Israel to keep on negotiating even as terrorists plot a final solution. Belilin and his ilk have zero understanding of the enemy, zero comprehension that Israel and the West are locked in a life and death struggle with Muslim jihadists who have no interest in compromise.

Once again we are living in 1938, and once again the Jews are the canaries in the coal mine. And once again, as in Communist Russia, the Jews on the left have become the most implacable foes of the Jewish people.

Some of the five Fatah operatives suspected of plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were members of the PA security forces and were meant to guard the prime minister's convoy, Chanel 2 quoted Israeli security officials as saying on Sunday.

Earlier Sunday, Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin informed the cabinet of the plot to fire at the prime minister's convoy during a trip to Jericho to meet with PA President Mahmoud Abbas on August 6.

In the wake of the plot, the Shin Bet said it would now prevent any meetings involving Israeli officials in Area A - the area under full Palestinian control.

To read the rest of the article please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Chaver, Kishke

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:20 PM | Comments (4)

October 19, 2007

Detroit Dhimmis

Okay, it's official, our airport security systems are not just pitiful but fractured. Check out the photo after the post that reveals the Dhimmitude of Detroit Metro.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Yonoson Fisgus, M.D.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:41 AM | Comments (1)

October 18, 2007

The Camel in the Tent

Make no mistake about it, the Islamic world has a long-term strategy: to destroy Israel and conquer the West—by whatever means necessary. We are in the midst of an Islamic revival after 300 years of cultural confusion and silence.

There are those who neatly divide the Arab/Muslim world into moderate and radical regimes.

This is wishful, even suicidal thinking.

At the core, there is no difference between the regimes in Iran or Dubai and Oman. Their long term goals are identical: the eradication of Israel, the ascendancy of Islam and the decline of the West.

The only difference between the regimes is that Iran is more bellicose, more vocal in its public language. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Oman and every other Islamic State have the exact same goals, they merely use coded language to fool gullible Westerners into believing that they are moderate and Westernized.

Given the opportunity, every Arab country would vote for an Islamacist party over a more secular party. Witness Hama's overwhelming victory over Fatah. They took every precinct in Gaza, and every precinct in Judea and Samaria but one. The only reason Hamas does not control Judea and Samaria is because those areas are not Judenrein.

The same happened in Algeria where the government had to ruthlessly suppress the Islamic party who had overwhelmingly won the popular vote over the more secular government.

So rid yourselves of any notions of moderate Arab regimes.

They only exist in the minds of naive Westerners.

The latest front in the Islamic battle against the West is the very foundations of free enterprise. How we handle this assault will spell life or death for the West.

Objections to Borse Dubai's proposed acquisition of 20 percent of Nasdaq last week prompted Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank to quip, "In the ports deal, the concern was smuggling something or someone dangerous... What are we talking about here — smuggling someone onto a stock exchange?"

It is not "who" Dubai will smuggle into the stock exchange we should worry about. It's the arrival of the world's first Islamic stock exchange exerting unprecedented Islamic influence in the heart of the U.S. and Western economies that should raise our alarm. Dubai's handsomely paid Washington lobbyists see nothing wrong with that. Rather, they claim the deal benefits U.S. financial markets, giving "Nasdaq access to rich Mideast pockets." Unfortunately, the deal also increases the appeal and influence of Islamic financing in the West.

What is "Islamic" finance? Islamic, or Shariah-based finance, is the 1920s invention of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna. He ordered the Muslim Brothers to create an independent Islamic financial system to supercede the Western economy, facilitating the spread of Islam worldwide. He set the theories and practices and his contemporaries and successors developed Shariah-based terminology for "Islamic economics," finance and banking. [emphasis added]. Attempts by Muslim Brotherhood members in the early 1930s to establish Islamic banking in India failed. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser shut down the second attempt in 1964, after only one year, later arresting and expelling the Muslim Brothers for attempts to kill him. Saudi Arabia welcomed them and adopted their ideas.

To read the entire article by By Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:42 AM | Comments (7)

October 16, 2007

Art and the, ahem, Religion of Peace

Jihad arrives in Sweden. It was only a matter of time. We anxiously wait for the artistic community in America and in Europe to rise in defense of this man against the brutal juggernaut of radical Islam.

Indeed, we wait and wait and wait...

No doubt the brave and enlightened artists in Soho will continue to churn out passionate denunciations of the Bush administration.

No doubt the brave and enlightened craftspeople in Hollywood will continue to churn out, er, passionate denunciations of the Bush administration, films the public has no interest in seeing.

And no doubt our elite campuses will skate right past this and all incidents like it and probably damn Lars Vilks as an Islamophobe.

Yup, as in the days of the Stalin, the artists on the left can be counted on to assist the Jew-haters and the butchers of humanity.

Swedish artist Lars Vilks says all he's doing is taking a stand in the name of artistic expression. But because of that stand, on this afternoon he's lying low -- on the ground, in fact -- looking for bombs under his car.

Al Qaeda has put a $100,000 price on his head and offered an extra $50,000 for anyone who murders him by slitting his throat after the eccentric artist and sculptor drew a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog.

To read the entire article and for a video of the artist, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jake Novak

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:16 PM | Comments (2)

Brooke Goldstein on the Dennis Prager Show Today

National talk show host Dennis Prager will interview Brooke Goldstein about her film The Making of a Martyr this Tuesday, Oct. 16th at 10:30AM PT.

Dennis Prager will be guest-hosting a special evening of films about Islamic terror on Thursday, October 18, 2007 as part of the Liberty Film Festival Screening Series. The LFF is proud to be screening Brooke Goldstein and Alistair Leyland’s film The Making of a Martyr along with Pierre Rehov’s The Road to Jenin. BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY BEFORE THIS SPECIAL EVENT SELLS OUT! Dennis Prager will speak before the films and will host a special Q & A session with filmmaker Brooke Goldstein afterward to discuss the threat of Islamic terror to Israel and the West.

Click here to go to Libertas to read the entire article.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:04 AM | Comments (5)

Hey Kids, Let's Put on Jihad!

This from One Jerusalem:

Even though the Palestinians signed onto the Road Map which requires all official Palestinian institutions to "end incitement against Israel," a review of Palestinian text books shows that 12th graders are still being taught about Jihad and martyrdom while the maps in their textbooks do not include Israel.

During a recent meeting between Congressman Eric Cantor and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad, the PM admitted "You wouldn't call our curriculum a 'peace curriculum.' Cantor concluded from this conversation that included other questions about the state of ridding the Palestinian educational system of hate against Israel that the will to reform is not there.

Along with being a requirement in the First Phase of the Road Map - a requirement that has not been fulfilled and that no one is requiring the Palestinians to deliver on - it is important to keep in mind the words of Clinton Administration negotiator Dennis Ross: Commenting on the state of the Palestinian education system he concluded, "that no negotiation is likely to succeed if there is one environment at the negotiating table and another on the street."

Read Dore Gold's analysis here.

Why doesn't the United States insist that the Palestinians live up to their agreement and stop teaching hate?

Why don't Olmert and Livni?

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:30 AM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2007

Jihad in America

The New York Times is finally paying attention to the violent Muslims who are intent on destroying America, Israel, Western civilization.

When Osama bin Laden issued his videotaped message to the American people last month, a young jihad enthusiast went online to help spread the word.

“America needs to listen to Shaykh Usaamah very carefully and take his message with great seriousness,” he wrote on his blog. “America is known to be a people of arrogance.”

Unlike Mr. bin Laden, the blogger was not operating from a remote location. It turns out he is a 21-year-old American named Samir Khan who produces his blog from his parents’ home in North Carolina, where he serves as a kind of Western relay station for the multimedia productions of violent Islamic groups.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Here's the question: what are limits of free speech in America? This vile kid in North Carolina, IMHO, has no right to disseminate videos which show how to build bombs that are used to kill innocent people all over the world. He has no right to call for the death of Americans. This kid is our enemy and should be arrested and put on trial for sedition.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:16 PM | Comments (13)

September 30, 2007

Abbas the, Ahem, Moderate

We are constantly being told that Fatah and its Holocaust denying President Mahmoud Abbas are moderate. Time and again, we are assured by the current Israeli and American governments that Abbas "deplores violence" and that he is a "political pragmatist."

Well, yes, he deplores violence when he speaks to the Western press. To the Arab press, he's just another admired Jew-hating jihadist.

And Abbas is a political pragmatist. He advocates the destruction of the state of Israel over several years. Hamas and Hizbullah want to do it now, the sooner the better. But Abbas is content to do it over several generations, using various methods.

Thus, to strengthen Abba's hand, Olmert and Co. release Fatah aligned terrorists from Israeli jails in order to prove that there are positive results to negotiations with Israel.

Olmert has yet to show the Israeli public what they get in return save dead Jews and steadily shrinking borders.

Oh yes, Israel gets lots and lots of, well, promises.

These terrorists vow to give up their murderous ways against Israel.

But, guess what, sharia, Islamic law conveniently provides an out, a terrorist loophole. It's, ahem, kosher for Muslims to lie to infidels in order to further jihad: taqiyya

So much for Arab/Muslim honor.

Thus Israel releases convicted terrorists, indeed strengthens Fatah's hand, and Abbas has even more gunmen at his disposal to kill even more Jews.

This is known as the politics of national suicide.

Anyhoo!

Now that Hamas has bitch-slapped Fatah in Gaza, Abbas has decided to pull back the happy-g0-lucky secular image of Fatah, and roll with the latest fashion: insane Islam.

It's Jihad for Dummies in Fatah Land.

Never forget that the conflict between Israel and her so-called Palestinian enemies has nothing to do with the so-called occupation of Judea and Samaria. It was never about the 9,000 Jews who lived in Gaza.

It has always been about the existence of the state of Israel.

It's always been about the intolerance of the 22 Arab/Muslim states for one tiny Jewish state.

It's always been jihad disguised under a hundred fashionable grievances that resonate with the gullible liberals of the West.

Once again, we remind our readers of this simple equation when evaluating Hamas and Fatah:

Fatah is Hamas
Hamas is Fatah.

For further proof:

A new squad of morality police has begun detaining Palestinians who eat or drink in public during Ramadan in the West Bank, where the Islamic month of daytime fasting was always widely observed but never imposed.

The 12-member squad appears to be an attempt by President Mahmoud Abbas' West Bank government to challenge the monopoly on religious righteousness claimed by the militant group Hamas, the rival ruler of Gaza.

The sudden deployment of Ramadan police was unexpected in Ramallah, the seat of Abbas' government and the most cosmopolitan and well-to-do of the Palestinian cities. Ramadan squads have not been set up in other West Bank towns.

To read the rest of this article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2007

Inside Columbia University: The Saudi Lobby

We received the letter below from a Senior Professor at Columbia University who wishes to remain anonymous. Free speech at Columbia University does not extend to Republican Professors who support Israel. Such orphans must remain in the closet, or hazard coming out to social ostracism and losing their faculty appointments.

Thus, progressive Democrats in action.

As Seraphic Secret has pointed out time and again, the threat of tyranny comes almost exclusively from the left in America. Those who most vigorously call for freedom of speech are, in fact, quickest to strangle those individuals who disagree with their radical opinions.

Make no mistake about it: the least free places in America are our elite universities, and as more and more petro-dollars flow into university bank accounts, the so-called Middle Eastern Studies Departments become official Jew-hating groves of academia, and before we know it, some universities will be so corrupted by Islamic money that Jew/Israeli and America hatred will become the norm.

And then jihad will be required courses for students on our universities.

At some point we will have to declare these institutions, their faculties and students: enemies of the state.

I am not being a fantasist, not after what I saw and heard at Columbia yesterday. I am, sadly, being realistic.

Here is the letter from our Columbia Professor. It is most illuminating.

1) The faculty at the School of International and Public Affairs made the invite, (also last year). They are the most radical of all the faculties at Columbia with some of the most odious hate America types imaginable. They hate Bollinger and any aspect of the university that deals with money, especially the fund raisers.

2) You were right on target alluding to the Summers' incident when discussing Bollinger's craven decision not to overrule his own faculty. He's afraid of being voted out like Summers and that makes him worthless. His opening questions were his way of lashing out at the SIPA faculty, but we both know how much that is worth. He has not only enabled Iran, but also the SIPA faculty who will now endeavor to outdo themselves with another invite of this kind next year. They'll probably go for Chavez or Robert Mugabe.

3) For all the talk about the Jewish money Bollinger will lose from alumni, the real problem for him is the Saudi money. As you know the Saudis HATE Iran and they're not happy about this appearance. It serves Columbia right: do you know that Columbia began removing its King's Crown logo from many of its mailings so as not to offend the Saudis? You see, the King's crown has crosses on it. They replaced it with the Queen's crown, (which has spades), until some richer American alums cried foul. Now they just avoid the crown altogether. We were all stupid enough to think it was about offending secularists, but of course it was the Muslims.

4) Bollinger probably won't survive this unless John Kluge rides to his public rescue... and that may not happen. Kluge probably wants to stay silent about this and he's not married to Bollinger anyway.

5) There is strong talk that Bloomberg may be the next president of Columbia. I'm not sure he would do better, but he would probably have more guts.

Yesterday when I heard the wretched Columbia students cheering Mahmoud every time he mentioned the Palestinians, it occurred to me that a terrorist has just been arrested in Israel. He had just taken part in shooting and bomb attacks near Shechem.

This terrorist was just released from an Israeli prison as a gesture of good will to Fatah. He took a solemn vow that he would not take up arms against Israel.

So much for Arab honor.

These are the people the Columbia students were cheering.

Here is my final word on this vile affair: For the most part, liberal arts education at our Universities involve teaching American students that the traditions they come from are worthless, things to be discarded and spit upon. Mahmoud comes from a culture where children are taught to die for their traditions and culture.

Who wins in such a battle?

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:28 PM | Comments (22)

Columbia: The Persian P.O.V.

Well, I hate to have to say it, but I told you so:

This from the Islamic Republic News Agency on Mahmoud's visit to Columbia:

Ahmadinejad-Colombia [sic] Varsity (?) - Address

Despite entire US media objections, negative propagation and hue and cry in recent days over IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scheduled address at Colombia [sic.] University, he gave his lecture and answered students questions here on Monday afternoon.

On second day of his entry in New York, and amid standing ovation of the audience [bold type by Seraphic Secret] that had attended the hall where the Iranian President was to give his lecture as of early hours of the day, Ahmadinejad said that Iran is not going to attack any country in the world.

Before President Ahamadinejad's address, Colombia University Chancellor in a brief address told the audience that they would have the chance to hear Iran's stands as the Iranian President would put them forth.

He said that the Iranians are a peace loving nation, they hate war, and all types of aggression.

Referring to the technological achievements of the Iranian nation in the course of recent years, the president considered them as a sign for the Iranians' resolute will for achieving sustainable development and rapid advancement.

The audience on repeated occasion applauded [bold type by Seraphic Secret] Ahmadinejad when he touched on international crises.

At the end of his address President Ahmadinejad answered the students' questions on such issues as Israel, Palestine, Iran's nuclear program, the status of women in Iran and a number of other matters.

Original article here.

And of course, as I predicted, there's a transcript of the, ahem, debate, but, gee, what a shock, Lee Bollinger's opening remarks have been disappeared—as have all remarks deemed offensive to the peace-loving Islamic Republic of Iran.

So, what was accomplished by this charade?

That's easy. Another huge propaganda win for the Islamist terrorist world. As I said, Bollinger is an idiot and Columbia University is now directly complicit in aiding and abetting jihad and, no doubt, strengthening the genocidal hand of Hamas and Hizbullah in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.

I strongly urge every Columbia University alumnus to withhold all contributions to Columbia. Vote with your check book. That's the only language these useful idiots understand.

Oh, and of course, Mahmoud, met with, ahem, Jewish Rabbis, AKA Rodefim, in New York.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:38 AM | Comments (4)

September 24, 2007

Dance with the Devil

It's official.

Bollinger's an idiot.

I know, everybody's all hot and bothered about his fierce intro/attack on Mahmoud.

Yippee.

You think anyone in Iran is going to see that?

If you do, you are, and I say this with all due respect, also an idiot.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Libya, Yemen (oh wait there are only 27 TV's in Yemen) or anywhere in the peace-loving Arab Muslim world?

Think again.

What they are going to see in Iran and the Arab/Muslim world are Al Jazeera clips of Mahmoud blathering on about the Palestinians—which drew applause from the Columbia audience, stunning, huh? And his looooong monologue about the happy-go-lucky women of the joyous Islamic Republic of Iran.

One of my favorite Bollinger moments was when he got all patriotic and teary-eyed about Columbia University graduates who are serving in the U.S. armed forces in Iraq, some of whom have been killed and wounded, by Iranian trained terrorists.

This from the man who has banned the ROTC from Columbia University.

Repeat after me: massive intellectual fraud.

Let's give credit where credit is due. Mahmoud spoke an important truth: he said there are no homosexuals in Iran.

The audience jeered and laughed.

They should be more sober.

There are no homosexuals in Iran because, as Yoni observed, they have all been murdered—publicly hung or stoned to death. The religion of peace in action.

Bollinger, like almost every liberal I've ever met, does not understand evil and how it operates. Arrogant and intellectually vain, Bollinger believes that by posing glib questions about free speech he's defeating a tyrant.

It's the opposite.

By engaging in toothless dialog with a Holocaust denier, with a man who at this moment is murdering Americans in Iraq, Bollinger reveals himself as a dupe and a hapless tool of a master jihadist.

The students of Columbia cheered every time Mahmoud brought up the Palestinians.

This is going to play beautifully on Palestinian and Persian TV. I mean, it's going to go over big time. The Columbia kids are on-board with defeating the Zionist dogs. Al Manar, and Al Jazerra won't even have to sweeten the audio track. And the cut-aways to the cheering American kiddies—golden. Leni Riefenstahl would have killed for such footage.

Mazal Tov Dean Bollinger, you've just, no doubt, helped kill a few more Jews. And you've proven that America is a weak and clueless country with no idea who the enemy is.

You may not see it that way, but that's how the Arab/Muslim world sees it, and that's what counts.

As Hugh Hewitt said on his radio show a few minutes ago: “You can't dance with the devil and walk away unscathed.”

From Seraphic Friend Yehudit at Kesher, photos from ground zero of the NYC anti-Ahmadinejad Protests

And the great Caroline Glick, on the jihadist enablers at Columbia:

As a result, what was said yesterday at Columbia is of no consequence whatsoever. What matters is that by inviting Ahmadinejad to its campus, Columbia University announced that supporting or opposing the genocide of the Jews is a legitimate topic for discussion. In so doing, as an institution Columbia has taken itself beyond the pale of legitimate discourse. As an institution, Columbia has embraced depravity by renouncing the intrinsic sanctity of human life.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend: Progressives Unmasked

And finally a bit of sanity from the Governor Schwarzenegger:

Governor Schwarzenegger Issues Statement on California’s Divestment from Iran.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued the following statement today regarding legislation to divest from Iran, AB 221. “California has a long history of leadership and doing what’s right with our investment portfolio. Last year, I was proud to sign legislation to divest from the Sudan to take a powerful stand against genocide. I look forward to signing legislation to divest from Iran to take an equally powerful stand against terrorism.”

AB 221 by Assemblymember Joel Anderson (R- La Mesa) creates the California Public Divest from Iran Act which prohibits CalPERS and CalSTRS from investing public employee retirement funds in a company with business operations in Iran. CalPERS, the state’s employee retirement fund, is the largest pension fund in the nation and CalSTRS, the state’s public education retirement fund, is the second largest pension fund in the nation.

September 2006 Gov. Schwarzenegger signed two bills, AB 2179 and AB 2941, prohibiting the state’s pension funds from investing in companies with active business in Sudan and indemnified the University of California from liability that might result from its divestments from Sudan.

In the 1980s, the state approved similar measures to allow state entities to divest in South Africa in order to protest its apartheid policies.

Via: Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors Los Angeles

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:39 PM | Comments (8)

Terror University

Below is a fine article about Columbia University as an enabler of Jihad.

Seraphic Secret would like to point out that freedom of speech, so highly touted by the left, is quite selective. Lawrence Summers, former President of Harvard University, was ousted after making comments deemed sexist by members of his, ahem, progressive faculty.

I guess the frail ladies of Harvard got seized by the vapours.

At the moment, several thousand, ahem, progressive faculty members at Stanford are trying to block Donald Rumsfeld's appointment to a faculty position because, well, y'know, they don't like what he's going to say.

Progressives are, in case you haven't noticed, the new thought-control police.

In short, the left supports freedom of speech when it comes from the left, from leftist tyrants, mass murderers like Castro and Hugo Chavez, and from Islamic tyrants and Jew-haters like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

If Columbia really believed in freedom of speech they would invite the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan to speak at Columbia.

But they don't believe in freedom of speech.

They are narcissists who revel in their self-righteous, suicidal ideology.

It is naïve to ignore the uses to which Ahmadinejad will put his invitation. Over the past years, Ahmadinejad’s confrontational rhetoric and policies have resulted in diplomatic isolation and economic hardship for Iran. These developments are unpopular among Iranians. It is beneficial to Ahmadinejad and his regime, then, if he can claim to the Iranian people that his leadership is not hurting their country. If he can demonstrate that he is treated abroad as a respected leader, he will be better able to counter his critics at home. Columbia’s invitation thus gives political assistance to Ahmadinejad.

Bollinger has written that “it should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas...implies our endorsement of those ideas.” That is true. But the argument against the official invitation of Ahmadinejad is not an argument against listening to his ideas. It is an argument against bestowing prestige on Ahmadinejad. There are many ways Columbia can engage with his ideas without giving him the politically valuable respectability of an official speaking invitation. Columbia can hold a forum on his views. It can play recordings of his speeches and ask experts to comment on them. It can create courses on the history and ideology of the Iranian Revolution. Indeed, if “listening to ideas” is truly Bollinger’s goal, then bringing to campus Ahmadinejad, a master of deception and propaganda, should be one of his last options.

The issue here is not free speech. That is a red herring. We have heard no one argue against free speech. The issue is values: What standards should Columbia use in giving out valuable, prestigious official speaking invitations? Whatever standards apply, they should preclude an invitation to the head of a regime that behaves as Iran’s does and they should in particular preclude an invitation to an individual who promotes hatred and violence as Ahmadinejad does.

To read the entire article, please click here

Hat Tip: Stefanie L. Pearson, The Shalem Center

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:10 AM | Comments (3)

September 23, 2007

Rally Against Iranian Jihad & Their Western Enablers

MONDAY, SEPT. 24:
What: Ahmadinejad to speak at luncheon at National Press Club by videolink
When: Protesters needed from 11:00-2:00. Come for however long you can.
Where: Washington, DC: National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW.

Please note: Attendance inside is limited to NPC members, their guests and accredited media only.
Our protest will be held outside of the NPC Building at the corner of 14th and F Streets NW which is close to the Metro Center metro station.

For More info: Contact Meagan Buren at 202-230-7389 or Brandon Gray at 202-857-6627

MONDAY, SEPT. 24:
What: Rally led by Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Community Relations in cooperation with United Jewish Communities, UJA-Federation of New York and Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Speakers include Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame, III, (Capt., USNR, Ret.), pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.
When: 12 p.m. (rain or shine)
Where: NYC: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 2nd Ave. at 47th St. Across the street from the U.N.

For more info: Conference of Presidents, 212-318-6111 or info@conferenceofpresidents.org or the JCRC, 212-983-4800, ext. 161 or info@jcrcny.org

MONDAY, SEPT. 24:
What: Rally by students from Columbia and dozens of other organizations.
When: 12:30 - 3 p.m.
Where: NYC: Outside Columbia University at W. 116th St. and Broadway.

Only people with Columbia student IDs will be allowed on campus. The main protest will happen on Broadway on public space next to the building where Ahmadenijad is speaking, so even non Columbia people can protest at this event.

For more complete information please go to The Israel Project

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:28 PM | Comments (0)

Columbia U: "Sure, We'd Invite Hitler."

Columbia University, where Nazis and Islamo Nazis are always welcome.

You think I'm being, er, facetious?

Then just watch this illuminating video of Columbia's Dean John Coatsworth. And yes, this is higher education in America.

And Jewish parents, don't forget to send in your massive tuition checks to Columbia University. It's vital that you continue to pay the salaries of these, um, educators. Because y' know, if your kids don't go to Columbia, chas v'shalom, they might end up at Yeshiva University.

Hat Tip: Weasel Zippers.

Just to set the record straight for these enlightened ivy leaguers.

1. Jihadists have a specific goal when they speak in Western venues. It is to show the home team that they have power and legitimacy in the west. It is to demonstrate the inevitable rise of Islam and the decadence of the west.

2. The Arab/Muslim world views our freedom of speech as a fatal weakness.

3. On television, the Muslim world never sees any debate—there never is. They never hear any tough questions—and there won't be. They only see what the government wants them to see: a nifty photo-op of their glorious leader taking the west by storm, and being treated with great respect. Which counts for everything in the Muslim world.

4. By inviting the Iranian tyrant to speak Columbia University puts the stamp of legitimacy on a regime that is one of the most repressive on earth. This is a regime that denies the Holocaust, a regime that threatens genocide to Israel—please don't tell me it's a bad translation. The Nazis at the Wannsee Conference never used the words murder or kill when they were talking about the Jews of Eastern Europe either. This willful obtuseness with language by the chattering classes on the left is a form of Jew-hatred the world should no longer tolerate. It's disgusting.

5. The Iranian regime declared war on America and they have been killing Americans ever since. Inviting a man who orders the killing of Americans on a daily basis excuses these murders past, present and future. Has Columbia University never heard of the massacre at the Khobar Towers? Oh wait, they probably have heard of that atrocity, but they don't care. This is a university that bans the ROTC from campus because of the "Don't ask, don't tell policy." Of course, this Soviet-style ban immediately revokes any freedom of action on the part of adult gays who might just want to serve their country. But y'know, the tyrants on the left know better.

6. The Iranians are also responsible for the slaughter of 85 Argentinian Jews in 1994. Does this state sponsored terrorism resonate with Columbia University? Are they going to sit down with this smiling butcher and discuss it with him?

7. No, they will not.

8. Of course the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis of over 400 days is ancient history to the academics at Columbia University and the Iranian tyrant who took part in this crime. He was just a student, right? Like the Columbia students in the 60's. Good times.

9. Let's face it, Columbia University is filled with, in Lenin's words, useful idiots. The Iranian tyrant will smile and blather on about "justice." No one in the room will understand that he's actually talking about Islamic justice, which means publicly hanging accused homosexuals, or stoning women to death who are suspected of adultery. People will say, “What's the harm in inviting him to speak, the Republic can take it. Grow up.”

10. But these people are jihadist deniers. These people have not a clue about how this visit plays in the Muslim world. These people do not understand propaganda and how it inflames jihad.

11. They do not understand that invitation to speak at Columbia University is a vital step forward in jihad, another step in our dhimmitude.

12. How are the Dems responding? Check out the progressive Jew-hating kids at the Daily Kos. A Jewish lesbian has a crush on Mahmoud, because he's like all cute and cuddly and most important, he speaks out about the "horrors of the Bush administration." Via: Little Green Footballs.

In the preface to his great history of Rome, Livy explains his motive in writing this monumental work:

...to trace the progress of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:20 AM | Comments (10)

September 21, 2007

N.Y. Times to Host Ahmadinejad

Seraphic Friend Mere Rhetoric reports that the New York Times Editorial Board will be hosting a lunch on Monday for Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

Update#1: This story is false.

We apologize to our readers and to The New York Times.

Update #2: Okay, Ahmadinejad is not being hosted by The New York Times, but he is being hosted by The National Press Club. And this is not a joke.

And here's video of Ahmadinejad in a Q & A where he states: “... if the world is calm, Europe will eradicate the Zionists.”

Here are some excerpts.

In principle, the Zionists lack any religion. They are lying when they say that they are Jews. They have no religion. They are against religion, because religion means friendship, brotherhood, peace, and justice. Religion means to respect the divine prophets. Note this. Religion means to respect others. It means friendship between peoples. Note that wherever the Zionists are, there is war, and wherever there is war, they are the ones behind it. As a matter of fact, if you examine American society, you will see that they oppress the Americans. They oppress the Europeans, even though they are a minority. They infiltrated in an organized manner... No more than 10,000 of them are part of the organization, and the rest just follow them. But they have become a powerful underground political party, which has the money and the media at its disposal. They do not want friendship and peace between peoples. They do not want there to be friendship between the Swedish government and other countries. This way they get rid of their complexes about the Prophet of Islam and all other prophets. As you know, an affront to the Prophet of Islam means an affront to all the divine prophets, because the Prophet of Islam is the Seal of the Prophets.

Therefore, because the Zionists have no religion, I strongly suspect that they are behind [the Swedish cartoon], and that they want to embarrass the Europeans, and make the European governments face a challenge. They want to instigate a war, because war is the essence of their existence. If the world is calm, the people of Europe the Germans... If the world is calm, they will eradicate the Zionists. I’m convinced of this. Do you know how many messages I get from Germans every day? They have an aversion to the Zionists. The Zionists humiliated the German people very much. But the Zionists are in control. The moment the world is calm and people can express their views, you will see that they will drive them out of Europe. The people of Europe themselves will drive them out. The [Zionists] do not want such a thing to happen, and that’s why they instigate new turmoil every day.

This from the man just invited to speak at Columbia University.

As commenter David Paulin has pointed out Columbia University does not extend freedom of speech to an ROTC program.

But to this thug Ahmadinejad, they just roll out the red carpet.

No Jew, no decent person should give one penny to this disgusting institution.

Alumni should let Columbia know that they will not longer send the university any money.

Columbia has become a poison ivy.

Inviting this man to speak at Columbia legitimizes him and his genocidal fanatical beliefs. It raises his stature, his Jew/Israel hatred in the Arab/Muslim world.

The unthinkable becomes normative because, well, an Ivy League university thinks enough of him to engage him in civilized dialog.

But he's using the opportunity for propaganda purposes.

Columbia and the National Press Club are just useful idiots. They are accomplices to evil.

Hat Tip: Little Green Footballs

Update #3: Groups to Demonstrate Sunday, Monday in New York Against Visit by Iranian President

Several groups are planning rallies Sunday and Monday to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's planned visit to New York, where he is scheduled to speak at Columbia University Monday and address the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday.

Ahmadinejad has spoken openly about his plans to share nuclear technology with like-minded countries and his stated goal to govern the world . He has also said Israel should be "wiped off the map," called the Holocaust a myth and said Jews should return to the European countries from which they escaped.

At 12:30 p.m. Sunday, New York City Council Member David I. Weprin (D-Hollis), chair of the New York City Council Finance Committee, will join other elected officials, community groups and civic leaders to protest Ahmadinejad's visit and urge Columbia to rescind its invitation. The rally is to take place at Columbia's main gate at W. 116th St. and Broadway.

On Monday, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York are sponsoring a rally at 12 p.m. (rain or shine) at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 2nd Ave. at 47th St., across the street from the United Nations.

One of the speakers at the "National Rally to Stop Iran Now" is Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame, III, (Capt., USNR, Ret.), pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. She is co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America and a director of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. Burlingame can be reached at 914-844-3146 or db@911familiesforamerica.org. The rally is being held in cooperation with the United Jewish Communities, the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. For more information, contact the Conference of Presidents at 212-318-6111 or info@conferenceofpresidents.org or the JCRC at 212-983-4800, ext. 161 or info@jcrcny.org .

Also on Monday, students from Columbia and other universities including Rutgers, Brooklyn College and Queens College as well as high school students, are scheduled to join together from 1-3 p.m. to protest Ahmadinejad's speech to students and faculty. Ahmadinejad's address is scheduled for 1-2:30 p.m. at Lerner Hall, located at W. 116th St. and Broadway. The students will join activists from dozens of Jewish organizations including StandWithUs, Hasbara Fellowships and The David Project, at W. 116th St. and Broadway. Please see below for students available for interviews, expert sources on Iran and information about Ahmadinejad.

Via: The Israel Project

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:46 AM | Comments (11)

September 20, 2007

Syria Elected to UN's Nuclear Watchdog, I'm Not Kidding

This is is so absurd, so grotesque, it's actually funny.

Two weeks after Israel's alleged bombing raid in Syria, which some foreign reports said targeted North Korean nuclear material, the UN's nuclear watchdog elected Syria as deputy chairman of its General Conference on Monday.

The 51st session of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) opened in Vienna on Monday and will run through Friday.

The Syrian news agency SANA proudly reported the election on Tuesday, adding that Syria was also successful in including "the Israeli nuclear arsenal as an item on the agenda of the conference."

To read the rest of the story, please click here.

Keep in mind that Syria just assassinated another Lebanese politician opposed to Syrian domination of Lebanese politics.

Keep in mind that Syria has been buying nuclear material from North Korea. That's why Israel mounted Operation Orchard and there was a big boom in western Syria.

Keep in mind that Syria is a particularly cruel fascist dictatorship.

Okey-doke, we can't resist.

Appointing Syria to the IAEA is like:

1. Putting a pedophile in charge of a kindergarten.

2. Appointing Goering to head up the Nuremberg Trials.

3. Having Lindsay Lohan as your drug counselor.

You get the idea.

We invite Seraphic Secret readers to contribute their whackiest analogies to compete with the U.N./Syrian axis.

It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:57 PM | Comments (16)

September 18, 2007

The Syrian-Iranian Explosion

Further proof that the Syrians and Iranians are developing weapons of mass destruction.

Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Magazine report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Meanwhile, the mighty Caroline Glick reminds us of the necessity of Recognizing the Axis of Evil.

Can somebody tell me why the wretched Ehud Olmert is Prime Minister of the Jewish State when Caroline Glick is clearly the Jew most qualified for the job.

I'm baffled. But then, I work in Hollywood, I walk around in state of permanent confusion.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)

PA Celebrates 9-11 Terror Attacks

Y'know how the Israeli and American governments are always telling us that the PA and its Holocaust denying President Mahmoud Abbas are moderate, people with whom we can do business.

Y'know how they are always telling us that Fatah are really the good guys on the block, as opposed to the crazies in Hamas.

Didn't Israeli PM Olmert release a hundred or so Fatah terrorists as a confidence-building measure in the good ol' PA?

Yeah, we're confident they're still a bunch of terrorists.

Anywhoo.

It's all smoke and mirrors. We've been through these scenes before with Fatah and Arafat. We were assured that he was no longer a terrorist. We were told over and over again that Fatah were moderate, even as they were killing Jewish civilians. Sheesh, they even gave the old murderer Arafat a Nobel prize even as he was micro managing a dozen terrorist acts all over the world. Guess when you kill enough Jews you still qualify for a Nobel Peace Prize in Sweden.

Call me whacky but those Swedes should just give the next Nobel Peace Prize to The Dear Leader in North Korea. Makes as much sense—at least the Swedes will be consistently insane in their choices.

But I digress.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas is no different than Arafat. Like his predecessor, Abbas also has 17 security services at his disposal.

Factoid: In the Arab-Muslim world, a security service is shorthand for: terrorist gang.

Wait. I take that back. Abbas is different than Arafat.

He wears a much nicer suit than Yassir, who looked like something the cat dragged in. Mahmoud is a very well dressed terrorist. A bespoke terrorist. I understand he has his suits made for him on London's Saville Row. Your tax dollars at work, America.

Otherwise, Arafat and Abbas play the exact same game. They make nice to the western press and say the exact opposite to the Arab press. In short, they lie to the gullible western media and tell the truth to their genocidal homeboys.

Seraphic Secret has, time and again, drawn this simple equation:

Fatah is Hamas.
Hamas is Fatah.

The only difference is this: Hamas boast that they want to annihilate Israel immediately. Fatah favor the destruction of the State of Israel by incremental stages.

Both agree that the future Palestinian state will be Islamic and, naturally, Judenrein.

Oh, and by the way, the PA despise America even as they demand our tax dollars. They also celebrate the 9-11 atrocities quite openly in their Fatah financed newspapers and TV stations. America hatred is like a national fever among the Palestinians.

But sure, give these barbarians their own state.

Oh wait, they already have it: It's called Gaza. And what a lovely place it is. Another Arab/Muslim paradise—Judenrein, naturally.

For more details read how the the peace-loving Palestinians celebrate the 9-11 atrocities—if you have the stomach for it.

The Palestinian Authority continues a long tradition of celebrating the 2001 World Trade Center terror attacks by publishing cartoons in its official daily that glorify Osama Bin Laden and the attacks, or mock the suffering of the U.S. This year's cartoon shows Bin Laden smiling while making the “V” for victory sign with two fingers in the shape of the burning Twin Towers. The PA daily that published the cartoon, Al Hayat Al Jadida, is owned by the PA and controlled by the office of Mahmoud Abbas. The only text on this cartoon is "Exclusive to Al Hayat Al Jadida," which means it was prepared specifically for the official Palestinian Authority daily.

To read the entire article and to view the official PA cartoons, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:25 AM | Comments (7)

September 17, 2007

Gaza: The New Order

Now that Gaza is Juderein, read about the Islamist utopia Hamas are creating.

For years, the seaside Flower of the Cities resort was that rare place in the Gaza Strip where the dress code did not rule out bikinis. Now, with some of its cinder-block cabanas turned into prayer rooms, the beach club shows how Hamas is consolidating its hold here three months after seizing power.

Bushy beards and black head-to-toe cloaks for women have become common at the club, which the armed Islamic movement torched in June after routing the secular Fatah party on the streets. The facility has been rebranded the al-Aqsa Resort, with a new logo featuring the revered mosque complex in Jerusalem next to a beach umbrella. Hamas followers collect the $2.50 entrance fee.

To read the rest of this article please click here.

Douglas Farah comments on the article and life in Gaza.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jake Novak.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:26 PM | Comments (0)

Jew-Hatred and Jihad

Even the 9/11 Commission Report, the summation produced by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States in July 2004, falls short in this regard. Its chapter on "Bin Laden's worldview" makes no mention of his hatred of Jews. This silence is all the more surprising in that the commission quotes documents in which bin Laden unambiguously expresses his hatred of Jews. For example, in the "Letter to the American People" of November 2002, which the report repeatedly cites, bin Laden warns: "The Jews have taken control of your media, and now control all aspects of your life making you their servants and achieving their aims at your expense." Osama goes on: "Your law is the law of rich and wealthy people. . . . Behind them stand the Jews who control your policies, media and economy." Yet the report's authors inexplicably fail to see the significance of these words and the ideology behind them. The report also ignores the history of Islamism. It accords the entire pre-1945 period just five lines. Yet it is precisely this period that fostered the personal contacts and ideological affinities between early Islamism and late Nazism—the linkage between Jew-hatred and jihad.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:17 PM | Comments (2)

September 10, 2007

New York: Islamists Day Parade

From the astounding Atlas Shrugs, the Islamists Day Parade in New York City. Photos and Video. You'll need a strong stomach, it's the religion of peace on the march.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:58 PM | Comments (3)

September 07, 2007

Osama: The Pitch

Well, the anniversary of the 9-11 atrocities are fast approaching and who pops out of his Caliphite-Cave?

Yup, Osama bin Laden.

I gotta tell you, he's like some aging Hollywood starlet. He's dyed the gray out of his beard, and euuw, he looks like a drag queen. A really unattractive drag queen. Sheesh, millions of dollars and Osama can't hire a decent hair colorist and stylist.

Oh man, what a great idea for a Hollywood comedy:

Here's the pitch: Terrorist leader hires top Beverly Hills hairdresser to make him look good for his next terror vid. Naive hairdresser—perfect gay role for Brad—flies to remote Wackistan and proceeds with his gentle and peaceful ways to civilize and pacify the terrorist leader. Think "Brokeback Mountain" meets "Shampoo."

I gotta pitch this. Immediately. The D-girls will eat it up. It's high-concept, zany, and politically correct.

So utterly stupid they will buy it in the room.

Anywhoo!

Watch out. Osama is pissed. At the Democrats. You know why? Because they haven't pulled our troops out of Iraq like they promised. The chutzpah!

Okay, Osama didn't say chtuzpah. I'm taking literary license here. I'm a screenwriter, I need some room, y'know?

Osama compares Iraq to Vietnam. He accuses Donald Rumsfeld of mass murder. Sound familiar? I'm telling you, Osama sounds exactly like George Clooney, Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, most everyone in Hollywood. Hey, when did Osama become a Tinsel Town player?

What am I saying? He sounds exactly like my local sot-so Jewish weekly.

He also adores Noam Chomsky. So what if Chomsky was born a Jew? They both hate America, they both hate Israel, they both hate Jews. Osama can slit Chomsky's throat after Chomsky has served his purpose. Think Stalin and Isaac Babel.

I love this part: The Kyoto Prorocols, Osama is like all shame, shame that America has not signed. He's Mr. Green.

This from a guy who slaughters and incinerates innocent human beings: men, women, children. Call me crazy but I see something of a contradiction here.

But hey, I'm sure the post-modern deconstructionists at Duke University will straighten out my decadent middle class way of thinking.

Yup, Osama's really worried about global warming. Isn't that touching. He's like all sensitive and totally Sierra Club. I'll bet he gets lots of marriage proposals from women in the Bay Area, Oregon and Seattle. No problemo, ladies. Osama has multiple wives, always room for one more in the harem. You might even get to wear a tie-dyed burqa. Or not. Osama's kinda touchy about women's rights. I'd play it safe and stick with the basic black burqa. It's the new, um, black.

I'm telling you, Moveon.org should recruit this guy as a spokesman and fund raiser; they are on the exact same page. And I have a sneaking suspicion that OBL has been writing most of the posts on the Daily Kossack. I'm not exaggerating, Osama's talking points might be lifted directly from The Daily Kos, Nancy Pelosi—or Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama or John "Pretty Boy" Edwards.

The Dems must be thrilled to know that OBL is counting on their policies. I wonder if OBL has been donating money to Hillary's campaign?

Osama does the Holocaust: He says that if the Nazi genocide had occurred closer to Muslim countries, "most of the Jews would have been saved by taking refuge with us."

Hellloo! Osama. Reality check! The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Hussein, traveled to Germany, had private meetings with Hitler and heard all about the Final Solution. And the Mufti was like: “Mein Fuhrer, when do we start?”

The Mufti raised an all Muslim SS Brigade in the Bosnia to help Hitler exterminate Jews.

"Mein Kampf" is still a best seller in the Arab world. It should be. The title translates: My Struggle. Which in Arabic is, get this: My Jihad.

And as for how lovey-dovey Muslims and Jews were in the good ol' days: It was the Muslims, back in the middle-ages, who invented the yellow star for Jews to wear on their clothes, not the Christians.

OBL repeatedly and proudly takes credit for the 9-11 attacks. The tin-foil-hat crowd who claim that it was an inside job are going to have to come up with some lunatic spin to counter this obvious truth. Shouldn't be too hard.

Osama's all angry about Western colonialism. Wow, he's been taking extension courses at Harvard. But then , gosh darned, he gives it away, reveals that he and his religion are the true Imperialists. Because the point of the video, Osama's real point is simple: if you—meaning everyone on the face of the planet—does not convert to Islam—Osama and his terrorist buddies are going to kill you.

Counter Terrorist consultant Daveed Gartenstein-Ross analyzes the Bin-Laden tape. H/T Jeremayakova.

Pamela, at Atlas Shrugs, has a great write-up on the OBL terror vid.

The Mighty Michelle Malkin also has a full round-up.

Karen and I wish all our Seraphic Friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbos.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:45 PM | Comments (6)

August 30, 2007

The anti-Israeli "Hollywood" Blacklist

They use all the familiar grievances: the occupation of Palestinian lands, the oppression of the Palestinian people, blah, blah blah. But look, the Egyptians don't give a crap about the so-called Palestinians, never have. They have them locked up in Gaza—I'm talking air-tight—and the only thing that gets into Gaza from the Egyptian border are Kalachnikovs, Qassam Rockets, and other implements of destruction — courtesy of The Muslim Brotherhood, who bribe the Egyptian border guards, or threaten to kill their families if they don't cooperate.

No, Egypt hated Israel long before there was any so-called occupation.

Flashback: 1948, the U.N. declares a partition plan for separate Jewish and Arab states. Helloo, the Palestinian state they are always claiming they want; well they had it, and they threw it away.

Stunning, huh?

“The Arabs,” as Abba Eben once said, “never miss a chance to miss a chance.”

Back to our exciting narrative: Egypt, the most prestigious Arab power in the region, with the largest army, rejects the international partition plan, and along with four other Arab armies, including a so-called Palestinian Brigade, invades the newly-born State of Israel, promising to “drive the Jews into the sea.”

No, not for a nice, refreshing swim.

Egyptian broadcasters in Cairo urge Arabs in Israel to flee and return after the Jews are slaughtered—to collect the spoils of war. Those Jooz are just swimming in money. It says so in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion; favorite bed time reading in the Arab world.

The Arabs lose the war, and gee, what do you know, the Egyptians don't want to take responsibility for the fleeing Arabs, an inconvenient, angry mob massing on their borders. What happened to the promised spoils of war?

Awkward.

Egyptian solution: shove their beloved Arab bretheren into Gaza, lock them up, throw away the key, blame the Zionist dogs.

Let's not forget Anwar Sadat: the Egyptian President bravely flies to Jerusalem and signs a peace treaty with Israel. Soon afterward, he is assassinated by The Muslim Brotherhood, who publicly and proudly explain that they eliminated Sadat as a traitor for making peace with the Zionist entity. Anwar Sadat's passing is deeply mourned in Israel—not in the Arab world.

So let's dispense with this nonsense about occupation.

The hatred and desire to eliminate the State of Israel and remove the 3,000 year old Jewish presence in Israel is ancient, rooted in Islamic religious doctrine and Pan Arabic national hatred.

How is it, the Egyptians, and every other Arab/Muslim nation ask themselves, that Israel, barely 60 years old, the size of a postage stamp, is a military giant, an economic juggernaut, and we in the Arab world can't even produce flush toilets?

Makes for some deeply shameful feelings, and a culture that simply refuses to take responsibility for its own failures.

The Arab/Muslim world is dysfunctional, it tells itself, because, um, the Zionists, the Americans, and the Christians have conspired to make it so.

And so on.

It is deeply telling that in the case that follows below, the hostility in Egypt is from the left, not from the Muslim Brotherhood. In other words, the left wingers in Egypt, so called secular and western-influenced, agree with the Jihadists on one crucial issue: Israel is a virus that cannot be tolerated.

Sound familiar? Yes, indeed, the left in Egypt mirror the left in America and Europe in their Jew-hatred cleverly disguised as "mere anti-Zionism."

Anywhoo.

Let's turn to the leftie Egyptian's and their outrage at one of their own for, get this, having the chutzpah to appear in a movie with an Israeli/Jew.

The horror! The horror!

The chairman of Egypt's Actors' Union said Thursday that the group planned to investigate one of the country's brightest young movie stars for appearing in an upcoming miniseries with an Israeli actor.

To read the rest of the story, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Kishke

Also: For a great summation of the status of The Disputed Territories I strongly urge you to read this at that mighty blog Bookworm Room.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:16 AM | Comments (15)

Public Spotlight on Terrorism

Steve Emerson is, at last, on-line, with his Investigative Project on Terrorism.

This is an excellent resource about world-wide jihad from New York to Jerusalem and it's free. We strongly urge all our Seraphic Friends to bookmark this site. If you want to understand the existential battle being waged against the West by the Muslim radicals, this is the place to go.

Emerson is one of our finest counter-terrorism experts. The fifth columnists in America fear and loathe him—a sure sign that Mr. Emerson is doing his job. He is never quoted in the New York Times, another sign that Emerson is an expert in his field. When Mr. Emerson appears as a guest on TV, Jihadist apologists are, invariably, made to look foolish under his cool and relentless barrage of facts. They end up accusing Mr. Emerson of being anti-Islamic.

What a shock.

On the fine Counterterrorism Blog, Jeffrey Breinholt writes:

Sometimes without us knowing it, legal standards change suddenly. It happened today, when the Investigative Project on Terrorism launched its public (and free!) website. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance demonstration of it last week, and came away stunned. Information that has been questioned, sometimes through accusations about the motives of the messengers, is now available to everyone. Anyone with access to the Internet can now see and hear audio and video recordings of Islamic American leaders making statements that have frequently been denied. The truth can sometimes be inconvenient. I predict that, in some future judicial proceeding, August 29, 2007 will be recognized as the moment when those legally charged with the responsibility of “due diligence” and knowing the details of the Islamic threat to our institutions — journalists, academics, bankers, and government officials — will no longer be able to claim plausible deniability. Steve Emerson and his staff, led by Michael Fechter, have performed an amazing public service.

The website is an absolute boom for those of us involved in public commentary and education about counterterrorism. Now, we can finally get beyond debates over whether someone actually said or wrote something to the more interesting question of the implications. I expect the debates to get sharper, and the analysis more refined, since there will no longer be disagreements over basic facts. Hopefully, this will be on immediate display on the Counterterrorism Blog. I encourage all of our readers to get acquainted with this remarkable new tool.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Yonoson Fisgus, M.D.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:43 AM | Comments (12)

August 29, 2007

Flight 93 Memorial: Jihad in Disguise

Someone you love is, G-d forbid, murdered. Years later a memorial for your beloved is designed, and oh my gosh—the memorial glorifies guess who?

The murderer.

Does this scenario sound too grotesque to be real?

Well, obviously you have not been paying attention to the Flight 93 Memorial designed by Paul Murdoch of Los Angeles.

The Flight 93 Memorial murders those good people over and over and over again.

I know nothing about Mr. Murdoch except what I glean from his design and it is this: he has no compassion for the victims, nor for the relatives, loved ones and friends of the victims; he enables jihad by appeasement and surrender to the symbols of our Arab/Muslim enemies. His design spits on the graves of the dead, and celebrates the murderers.

Murdoch's design is a disgrace; he should be fired and his design relegated to the ash heap of history along with Soviet Socialist realism. It is on the exact same level.

The mighty Michelle Malkin has a complete wrap-up: Seeing is believing.

Here's another story that will just break your heart about a father of a victim who is fighting this wretched design.

Write the National Park Service, which must approve the final design here.

Call the Superintendent of the Flight 93 National Memorial at (814) 443-4557. Or fax (814) 443-2180.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, David Paulin

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:29 AM | Comments (20)

August 21, 2007

EU Lights UP Gaza

Relief was on the way Tuesday for Gazans who had sweltered in dark, airless homes and choked on generator smoke during five days of power outages after European donors announced they would resume desperately needed aid.

The European Union had suspended payments for fuel that powers major Gaza electricity generators on Sunday, suspecting the Strip's Hamas rulers were pocketing electricity revenues. On Tuesday, it announced that fuel shipments to the power plant would resume the following day.

To read the rest of the article, please click here

Okay, that didn't take very long. Yesterday, Seraphic Secret correctly predicted that the EU would quickly reverse their decision, and true to form they have done just that. Now, Hamas can return to stealing money that's supposed to be used for electricity and funnel it into terrorist activities. And let's not forget those private bank accounts in the Cayman Islands so beloved by the Fatah and Hamas leadership.

Stunning turn of events.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2007

EU Cuts Lights to Gaza

Gaza Strip - Hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents were forced to make do without electricity Monday as the coastal strip's power supply became the latest victim of feuding between Gaza's Hamas rulers and their Fatah rivals.

European donors stopped paying key electricity aid over the weekend, concerned that Hamas is siphoning off revenues. As Fatah and Hamas traded charges of corruption, at least half of Gaza's 1.4 million people were plunged into darkness.

To read the entire article, please click here.

A few observations:

1. I'm shocked, just shocked that Hamas, a terrorist gang are also, get this, corrupt.

2. Where is the money going? To buy arms to kill Jews in Israel and Americans in Iraq. And let's not forget Lebanon. Hamas are anxious to destabilize the Beirut government and help Hizbullah sieze power. You can also be sure that money is also flowing into Judea and Samaria in preparation for an eventual Hamas blood-bath with Fatah.

3. Hamas, like Fatah, don't give a damn about the ordinary so-called Palestinian people. They care about killing Jews, destroying the State of Israel. They view the ordinary Arab as nothing more than a prop in a series of battles designed to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

4. If the EU are refusing to turn money over to Hamas, you can bet your bottom dollar that Hama's corruption is, um, epic. I mean we're talking about the EU; these are people who think that Jew-killing is a legitimate multi-cultural activity.

5. Imagine if it was Israel who turned out the out the lights in Gaza; Steven Erlanger would be writing a long, outraged front page story for the New York Times. Instead, we have a vast silence from America and Europe.

6. I wonder why.

7. Personally, I'd love it if someone would accuse the EU of Islamophobia. That would just crack me up.

8. Time for the Greenies in America to open up shop in Gaza, teach 'em the virtues of solar power. Sit-com pitch: Larry David's soon to be ex, jets — private, naturally — to Gaza and teaches the natives how to get along without electricity. Low carbon footprints and all that. As TV Guide says: “Hilarity ensues.”

9. The rockets will continue bombing Israel. You know why? Because the workshops the terrorists maintain have their own generators. No, they do not share them with ordinary families who need to eat. Are you kidding?

10. I guarantee Hamas will make all sorts of solemn pledges to some dopey Norwegian EU rep. He'll go: "Ja, Ja." and the lights in Gaza will get switched back on. Hamas will laugh because it's so darned easy pulling the wool over the eyes of the gullible kaffirs.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:10 PM | Comments (5)

August 17, 2007

Soccer Terror Match

The Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to glorify terrorists and to present them as role models for children.

In a school in Tulkarem (West Bank) this week, a soccer tournament was named after Ziyad Da’as. Da’as planned the attack in which a gunman opened fire with an M-16 rifle at a Bat Mitzvah in Hadera in January 2002, killing six and wounding 30. He was also behind the kidnapping and murder of two Israelis in Tulkarem in 2001. Da’as, a Fatah-Tanzim city commander, was killed by Israel in August 2002.

Significantly, the article indicated that the tournament took place in a Palestinian school and that the school administration was thanked "for providing the means for its success." Some Western governments have recently renewed funding of the Palestinian Authority, including its educational infrastructures, based on the assumption that schools are involved in positive education.

It should also be noted that in reporting the story, the PA daily glorified the terrorist as “one of the brave people of the Palestinian resistance." The daily Al Hayat Al Jadida is owned by the Palestinian Authority, and is therefore indirectly funded by Western money.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

Headline: "The team named after the Shahids (Martyrs) of the Southern Quarter wins the tournament cup named after the Shahid Ziyad Da’as.

This tournament…commemorates one of the brave people of the Palestinian resistance, whom the Israeli occupation forces assassinated in cold blood…

The committee that organized the tournament thanked the administration of the school... for hosting the tournament in the school yard and for providing the means for its success...

At the end of the tournament, the viewers indicated that the tournament was in a level to suitably commemorate the brave Shahid (Martyr), the mercy of Allah be upon him, Ziyad Da’as, and that an annual tournament should take place on the anniversary of his death."

[Al Hayat Al Jadida, August 15, 2007]

Original Article from the Palestinian Media Watch

A few observations:

1. This tournament was sponsored by Fatah, not Hamas. Fatah are considered, ahem, moderate, and the present Israeli government and America are propping up this gang. Remember Seraphic Secret's simple equation: Fatah is Hamas. Hamas is Fatah.

2. The Israeli "occupation" is kind of, y'know, dopey. What kind of occupation allows the occupied to behave in such a barbaric manner? The Israeli occupation is, let's face it, merely a police action to protect Jews who wish to, y'know, continue breathing.

3. Will we read this story in the New York Times? Will Steven Erlanger or Isabel Kershner write an outraged piece about the murderous ethics of the so-called Palestinian people?

4. No, they will not.

5. Will the oh-so-sensitive left, the lovers of the U.N and the NGO's protest this horrendous crime against memory, languag