I*Consult

AIPAC Doesn’t Win or Lose. Its Purpose Is to “Be There” for Pro-Israel Americans

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 08:18:00 +0000

A version of this article appeared in Tablet Magazine, March 4, 2013.

It was a called a crushing defeat for AIPAC on Capitol Hill.

A full year AIPAC toiled to block the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia. AIPAC had a “4-D” strategy to “debate, delay, delink (from the sale of weapons to Israel) and, if all else failed, defeat.” The sale was vetoed 301-111 on October 14, 1981 in the House of Representatives, but it still had to go to the Senate.

While the AWACS aircraft with its massive radar dome was a very high-profile defensive weapon, it wasn’t the real target of that 1981-82 legislative campaign. The F-15 aircraft and air-to-air missiles were certainly more lethal. But more important than all, after the fall of the pro-American (and locally unpopular) Shah of Iran in 1979, the Reagan Administration sought to pivot and establish Saudi Arabia as the “pillar” of American policy in the Middle East. The AWACS, really meant originally for Iran, was the bow on top of a pile of American goodies like F-15s, refueling planes, a new navy, airbases, and more. Selling to the oil rich kingdom meant that the Defense Department could amortize its own purchases of the high-cost gizmos and weapons systems. And Saudi oil revenue would be sent back and spent in the United States.

The sale represented a new American policy. Saudi Arabia – not Khomeini’s Iran, and certainly not Israel – was to be the darling of American policy-makers. The case for Saudi Arabia and the AWACS sale was actually made in the previous administration. Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served in the previous term as Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, had argued that Israel was not a strategic ally of the United States, and AIPAC had to make the case that the autocratic, corrupt and corrupting Saudi Arabia wasn’t either. Saudi Prince Bandar, a racquetball partner of Colin Powell, was provided an office on Capitol Hill by one of the Republican Senate leaders so that he could make the rounds of offices with ease. One Saudi lobbyist, a long-time Washington veteran who once served in the Kennedy White House, coined the slogan “Reagan or [Menachem] Begin,” attempting to challenge the patriotism of anyone who opposed the sale.

Saudi AWACs craft

The slogan was ironic; the Israeli opposition to the weapons sale was lackluster. One senior Israeli air force officer belittled the AWACS as a “flying bus.” Yitzhak Rabin, who had been cozy with Henry Kissinger and learned much from the statesman when he was ambassador in Washington, was never happy with American citizens, including American Jews, being involved in foreign policy. He preferred to work out arrangements with U.S. Administrations when it came to arms sales – sometimes based on “one for them and two for me.”

AIPAC testified in Congress that the sale – and the pro-Saudi shift in policy – was bad for America and bad for the Middle East. On occasion, AIPAC didn’t even raise the argument that the sale would also endanger Israel.

Prince Bandar and President
Reagan in Oval Office

But the sale finally passed in the Senate 52-48 on October 28, 1981 when President Reagan applied the full weight of the White House’s power, supported by the “Arab Lobby,” which included arms manufacturers, oil companies, and Arab registered foreign agents/lobbyists. Another irony of the battle: some of those who accused AIPAC, a domestic lobby, of being Israeli agents – Sen. William Fulbright comes to mind – later had to register as Saudi foreign agents.

Yes, the AWACS sale to Saudi Arabia was perceived as a major AIPAC loss. The senior staff at AIPAC certainly felt like it was that day when we dragged ourselves back to the office after the Senate vote and shared a cry in a side office.

Today, looking back at that sale in 1981, at events since and at the recent Senate confirmation of Chuck Hagel, neither the AWACS sale nor the Hagel appointment should be placed in AIPAC’s loss column.

Just days after the AWACS vote, the State Department’s legislative office called AIPAC’s lobbyists to request their assistance in gathering support for passage of the Foreign Aid Bill in which many countries and foreign programs were included. It has been an axiom on Capitol Hill for decades that “Israel is the engine that pulls the Foreign Aid bill through Congress” and that AIPAC is an important ally for Administrations.

After the bruising AWACS fight, it was years before an Administration attempted such an unjustifiable sale again. Saudi Arabia never became the pillar of U.S. policy, and by 2001 the U.S. Administration had to work overtime to shield the kingdom from embarrassing facts about the 9/11 attacks.

I doubt AIPAC’s leadership ever sat down and wrote out rules that it learned from the AWACS battle. But 30 years later these lessons were internalized, at least by me:

• Washington campaigns should be about policies, not personalities.

• Congress represents the American public’s sentiment, and that sentiment is strongly pro-Israel.

• Administrations, and their “realist” advisors, often worry more about “interests.” I cannot think of one president who has not clashed with Israel or its American supporters over his perception of American “interests.” Those interests include oil, American arms sales, Israeli arms sales, territories, etc.

Si Kenen (left) and the author (1970s)

• AIPAC’s founder, Si Kenen, once told me decades ago, “Administrations come and go; Congress is constant.” He also reflected on the election cycle and cautioned, “In Washington, even-numbered years (run-ups to U.S. elections) are pro-Israel; odd-numbered years (after an election, such as 2013) are pro-Arab.

• Pyrrhic victories for one side – which the Hagel’s nomination will turn out to be – does not always translate to a loss for the other side.

One writer who I admire recently wrote AIPAC lost the battle “to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.” Well, despite the calumnies of the Washington Elders of Anti-Zion that he mentions (Baker, Brzezinski, Gates, et al), AIPAC possesses no ICBMs, squadrons of F-15s or submarines which can destroy Iranian nuclear facilities. But it can, does and has pushed in Congress for stronger sanctions and for larger Israeli military aid packages, often against Administration preferences.

As AIPAC convenes in Washington with tens of thousands of pro-Israel Americans of all ages, religions, colors, and political affiliations it is wrong to view it as a winner or a loser. Citizen activists at the AIPAC meeting will meet with virtually every member of Congress. AIPAC plays predominately in the congressional arena, the arena that belongs to the American public, the political activists and the voters. It’s the arena where all who play and compete are winners.

The author worked for AIPAC in Washington and Jerusalem from 1972-1997. He was in charge of the public relations campaign during the AWACS debate.

Israel's Elections 2013 and a Lesson from 2001: For Every Political Remedy There Is Probably an Ill

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:59:00 +0000

The 2012 Israeli elections revealed several flaws in the political system including the dictatorial power of some party leaders to single-handedly choose his/her slate of party candidates and the ability of special interests to stack party primary votes.

Reprinted below is a Jerusalem Post article from 2001 on the weaknesses and potential dangers of political primaries. The article is as relevant today as it was in 2001.

I Plead Guilty

By Lenny Ben-David

Tuesday, January 16, 2001 -- Justice Minister Yossi Beilin's accusation was only half in jest: "Lenny's responsible for the election system we have today."

In my diplomatic capacity in Washington last year (2000), I was escorting the minister and his aides to a meeting with US Attorney General Janet Reno. As we stopped along the way for a coffee, Beilin made the charge. I knew what Beilin was talking about, but his aides were puzzled. Next came the explanation.

About 10 years ago, Labor MK Avraham Burg called and asked if I could brief him and several colleagues on the workings of the American primary system. I had served with an American Jewish organization since 1972 in Washington and Jerusalem, and US election-watching was an important part of my work.

Burg received me at the Knesset and escorted me to a table in the members' dining room. I was as surprised as others in the room when I saw the other MKs gathered for the private briefing: Yossi Beilin and Binyamin Netanyahu. Strange bedfellows.

Jeanne Kirkpatrick - she knew
35 years ago

As I recall today, I briefed the ambitious politicians on the growth of primaries in the US as the preferred method of parties choosing their presidential candidates. Gone were the days of the "smoke-filled rooms" of party hacks and veteran politicians who chose their party's favorite. But I issued a stern warning as I gave them a monograph written in 1978 by a then-relatively unknown political scientist, Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick.

"Primaries can kill political parties," I cautioned as they took Dismantling the Parties, Reflections on Party Reform and Party Decomposition.

Kirkpatrick was clearly disappointed by the Democratic Party's choice of senator George McGovern in 1972 and governor Jimmy Carter in 1976. A less photogenic candidate such as senator Henry Jackson would probably have been her preference as the Democratic candidate.

There were several underlined passages in the monograph I distributed:

"Carter's campaign was a striking manifestation of the new politics, one demonstrating that a candidate without standing as a national party leader could move through the nominating process to victory without either the support of the leadership or a powerful ideological appeal or an issue constituency.

"The functions of the parties were being progressively assumed by government, public-relations firms, professional campaign consultants, and candidate organizations.

"Primaries tend to personalize politics by focusing attention... on individuals who compete not as their parties' nominees but as persons with distinctive characteristics. Because the competing candidates often share most ideological orientations, personal attributes such as appearance, style, and wit attain new importance."

INDEED, sitting before me were three young, hungry politicians with their cool, telegenic, and articulate "appearance, style, and wit." Standing in their way in their parties' power structure were politicians 25 and 30 years older.

One of Kirkpatrick's warnings rings true even after 22 years and from a distance of 10,000 kilometers. "Because candidates can go directly to the voters in search of the nomination," she wrote, "primaries permit candidates as well as delegates to be selected without having ever served an apprenticeship in the party, without ever being... socialized by the party.

"In addition," Kirkpatrick continued, "the absence of any role for party organizations encourages a focus on personality and at the same time communicates to voters and activists alike a sense of the party's irrelevance to this most important decision process."

Israel's adoption of a primary system could similarly lead to the decline of the major political parties, I warned Burg, Netanyahu, and Beilin. Burg's response was a gleeful talmudic term accompanied by the required twist of a talmudist's thumb upward, "ipcha mistabra" [The opposite reasoning makes more sense].

The three embarked on their political paths. They were soon joined by a handful of IDF generals, political neophytes who parachuted into the political fray. Together they instituted primaries, replaced party functionaries with outside political consultants, and effectively crippled their own political parties.

Today, just weeks away from new elections under the old-new rules, Israel's political body will be considering another change in the way we elect our prime minister and Knesset. Caution is required. Kirkpatrick's closing words of her study on political reform are worth repeating: "It is a basic article of faith... that for every ill there is a remedy; by now experience should have taught that, at least where political institutions are concerned, for every remedy there is probably an ill."

President Lincoln's Secretary of State Describes Jerusalem in 1871, Attends Friday Night Services at the Hurva Synagogue

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 10:31:00 +0000

William H. Seward (1801-1872)
(Photograph by Mathew Brady)

William H. Seward served as President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State. On the night of Lincoln's assassination Seward was attacked in his home by one of Booth's co-conspirators and was seriously wounded.

But he survived, and in 1871 traveled the world and visited Jerusalem where he described the population, visited the "Wailing Wall," and even participating in Friday night services, apparently at the Hurva synagogue.

His earlier visit to Jerusalem 1859 may have sparked an interest in President Lincoln to visit the Holy Land, evidenced in Mary Todd Lincoln's statement to the pastor presiding at Lincoln's funeral that her husband said "he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the Saviour. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem."

Below are excerpts from Seward's 788-page book Travels around the World. The text below is interspersed with my comments:

June 13, 1871--"Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following." [Psalms]

We have done so, and we have found it neither a short nor an easy promenade. The city occupies two ridges of a mountain promontory, with the depression or valley between them. The walls of the modern Turkish city have been so contracted with the decrease of the population, as to exclude large portions of the, ancient city. Jerusalem is now divided according to its different classes of population. The Mohammedans are four thousand, and occupy the northeast quarter, including the whole area of the Mosque of Omar. The Jews are eight thousand, and have the southeast quarter. These two quarters overhang the Valley of Jehoshaphat and the brook Kedron. The Armenians number eighteen hundred, and have the southwest quarter; and the other Christians, amounting to twenty-two hundred, have the northwest quarter, which overlooks the Valley of Hinnom.... [Emphasis added. Note the Jewish population was double any other group in the Old City.]

The Jews throughout the world, not merely as pilgrims, but in anticipation of death, come here to be buried, by the side of the graves of their ancestors. As we sat on the deck of our steamer, coming from Alexandria to Jaffa, we remarked a family whom we supposed to be Germans. It consisted of a plainly-dressed man, with a wife who was ill, and two children--one of them an infant in its cradle. The sufferings of the sick woman, and her effort to maintain a cheerful hope, interested us. The husband, seeing this, addressed us in English. Mr. Seward asked if he were an English man. He answered that he was an American Jew, that he had come from New Orleans, and was going to Jerusalem.

We parted with them on the steamer. The day after we reached the Holy City we learned that the poor woman had climbed the mountain with her husband and children, and arrived the day after us. She died immediately, and so achieved the design of her pilgrimage. She was buried in this cemetery [on the Mt. of Olives]. She was a Jewess, and, according to the Jewish interpretation of the prophecies, the Jew that dies in Jerusalem will certainly rise in paradise.

June 15th.--"And the name of the city from that day shall be, the LORD is there."

Our last day at Jerusalem has been spent, as it ought to have been, among and with the Jews, who were the builders and founders of the city, and who cling the closer to it for its disasters and desolation. We have mentioned that the Jewish quarter adjoins, on the southeast, the high wall of the Haram [The Haram el-Sharif, or Temple Mount]. This wall is a close one, while the upper part, like all the Turkish walls of the city, is built of small stone. The base of this portion of the wall, enclosing the Mosque of Omar, and the site of the ancient temple, consists of five tiers of massive, accurately-bevelled blocks. It is impossible to resist the impression at first view, notwithstanding the prophecy, that this is a portion of the wall of the Temple of Solomon, which was hewn in the quarries and set up in its place without the noise of the hammer and the axe. So at least the Jews believe.

For centuries (we do not know how many) the Turkish rulers have allowed the oppressed and exiled Jews the privilege of gathering at the foot of this wall one day in every week, and pouring out their lamentations over the fall of their beloved city, and praying for its restoration to the Lord, who promised, in giving its name, that he would "be there." [Seward reports that Jews were permitted access to the Wall only one day a week, Friday.]

The Jewish sabbath being on Saturday, and beginning at sunset on Friday, the weekly wail of the Jews under the wall takes place on Friday, and is a preparation for the rest and worship of the day which they are commanded to "keep holy." The small rectangular oblong area, without roof or canopy, serves for the gathering of the whole remnant of the Jewish nation in Jerusalem. Here, whether it rains or shines, they come together at an early hour, old and young, men, women, and little children--the poor and the rich, in their best costumes, discordant as the diverse nations from which they come.

Illustration from Seward's book.

They are attended by their rabbis, each bringing the carefully-preserved and elaborately-bound text of the book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, either in their respective languages, or in the original Hebrew. For many hours they pour forth their complaints, reading and reciting the poetic language of the prophet, beating their hands against the wall, and bathing the stones with their kisses and tears. It is no mere formal ceremony. During the several hours while we were spectators of it, there was not one act of irreverence or indifference. Only those who have seen the solemn prayer-meeting of a religious revival, held by some evangelical denomination at home, can have a true idea of the solemnity and depth of the profound grief and pious feeling exhibited by this strange assembly on so strange an occasion, although no ritual in the Catholic, Greek, or Episcopal Church is conducted with more solemnity and propriety.

Though we supposed our party unobserved, we had scarcely left the place, when a meek, gentle Jew, in a long, plain brown dress, his light, glossy hair falling in ringlets on either side of his face, came to us, and, respectfully accosting Mr. Seward, expressed a desire that he would visit the new synagogue, where the Sabbath service was about to open at sunset. Mr. Seward assented.

An Old City synagogue, similar to the one described by
Seward (circa 1900)

A crowd of "the peculiar people" attended and showed us the way to the new house of prayer, which we are informed was recently built by a rich countryman of our own whose name we did not learn. It is called the American Synagogue. [The description is of the Hurva Synagogue; the nearby domed Tiferet Synagogue was not inaugurated until 1873. The writer is apparently mistaken about the American donor. The most likely foreign philanthropist to have been credited with building the Hurva is Moses Montefiore of England or Alphonse or Edmund de Rothschild of France.] It is a very lofty edifice, surmounted by a circular dome. Just underneath it a circular gallery is devoted exclusively to the women.

Aisles run between the rows of columns which support the gallery and dome. On the plain stone pavement, rows of movable, wooden benches with backs are free to all who come. At the side of the synagogue, opposite the door, is an elevated desk on a platform accessible only by movable steps, and resembling more a pulpit than a chancel. It was adorned with red-damask curtains, and behind them a Hebrew inscription. Directly in the centre of the room, between the door and this platform, is a dais six feet high and ten feet square, surrounded by a brass railing, carpeted; and containing cushioned seats. We assume that this dais, high above the heads of the worshippers, and on the same elevation with the platform appropriated to prayer, is assigned to the rabbis.

We took seats on one of the benches against the wall; presently an elderly person, speaking English imperfectly, invited Mr. Seward to change his seat; he hesitated, but, on being informed by Mr. Finkelstein that the person who gave the invitation was the president of the synagogue, Mr. Seward rose, and the whole party, accompanying him, were conducted up the steps and were comfortably seated on the dais, in the "chief seat in the synagogue." On this dais was a tall, branching, silver candlestick with seven arms. [Pinchas Rosenberg, the Imperial Court tailor of St Petersburg donated a silver candlestick in 1866.]

The congregation now gathered in, the women filling the gallery, and the men, in varied costumes, and wearing hats of all shapes and colors, sitting or standing as they pleased. The lighting of many silver lamps, judiciously arranged, gave notice that the sixth day's sun had set, and that the holy day had begun. Instantly, the worshippers, all standing, and as many as could turning to the wall, began the utterance of prayer, bending backward and forward, repeating the words in a chanting tone, which each read from a book, in a low voice like the reciting of prayers after the clergyman in the Episcopal service. It seemed to us a service without prescribed form or order.

When it had continued some time, thinking that Mr. Seward might be impatient to leave, the chief men requested that he would remain a few moments, until a prayer should be offered for the President of the United States, and another for himself. Now a remarkable rabbi, clad in a long, rich, flowing sacerdotal dress, walked up the aisle; a table was lifted from the floor to the platform, and, by a steep ladder which was held by two assistant priests, the rabbi ascended the platform. A large folio Hebrew manuscript was laid on the table before him, and he recited with marked intonation, in clear falsetto, a prayer, in which he was joined by the assistants reading from the same manuscript. We were at first uncertain whether this was a psalm or a prayer, but we remembered that all the Hebrew prayers are expressed in a tone which rises above the recitative and approaches melody, so that a candidate for the priesthood is always required to have a musical voice.

At the close of the reading, the rabbi came to Mr. Seward and informed him that it was a prayer for the President of the United States, and a thanksgiving for the deliverance of the Union from its rebellious assailants. Then came a second; it was in Hebrew and intoned, but the rabbi informed us that it was a prayer of gratitude for Mr. Seward's visit to the Jews at Jerusalem, for his health, for his safe return to his native land, and a long, happy life. The rabbi now descended, and it was evident that the service was at an end.

Coming down from the dais, we were met by a band of musicians playing on drums, fifes, and violins. We questioned whether this music was a part of the service of the synagogue, but our doubt was removed when we found it accompanying us to the gate of our hotel. The Jews, in their dispersion, are understood to be forbidden the use of musical instruments in worship. Their chants of praise are the traditional songs of Israel, just as the Christians, who have succeeded them, prefer, to all other devotional hymns, the Psalms of David.

A pleasant dinner ensued with the United States consul and his accomplished wife… [end of excerpt.]

After his dinner with the American Consul General, Seward and his party left Jerusalem the next day for Damascus, Beirut and European capitals. He returned to the U.S. in October and died the following year. His travelogue was published posthumously by his son in 1873.

Seward’s account of his encounter with the Jewish community in Jerusalem 140 years ago is an important addition to the history of American involvement with the Jews of Palestine. American ties to a Jewish homeland predates Israel’s founding in 1948 and even the formal establishment of the political Zionist movement in the 1880s. The relatively large population of Jews in Jerusalem Seward discovered in 1871 is testimony to the age-old Jewish dedication to Jerusalem.

For the Palestinians’ sake, it’s time to kill off Arafat

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:35:00 +0000

Arafat and Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini

A version appeared in The Times of Israel

There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do: Go through his clothes and look for loose change. – Miracle Max, “The Princess Bride”

Yasser Arafat was poisoned in 2004 with polonium, a dangerous radioactive substance, a Swiss laboratory concluded and Al Jazeera reported this week. Arafat’s wife, Suha, literally went through his clothes and underwear to find loose change to prove her husband was poisoned. Now she has called on the Palestinian Authority to exhume her husband’s body from the mausoleum in Ramallah.

What is her motive? She told Al Jazeera she seeks to enhance Arafat’s “great legacy. [This will] glorify more his legacy, will get people to go more into his footsteps, not giving up the land….But his legacy…will be more and more as a great leader from our century, one of the great leaders of all the world. This will intensify this down-to-earth, lovable, humble person.”

Such a eulogy is surely expected from a wife who, according to some reports, absconded with hundreds of millions of dollars of aid money deposited in the Palestinian accounts to which she had signing powers.

But make no mistake. Yasser Arafat was a murderous, genocidal, diabolical, duplicitous sexual deviant who died at the age of 75. He was despised by Arab and Israeli alike. Syria’s Hafez Assad tried to jail him. King Hussein of Jordan once said of Arafat, “He never came to a bridge he didn’t double-cross.” And Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak considered him a cur.

Arafat and his forces fleeing Beirut in August 1982 under the
watchful eye of the Israel Defense Forces and U.S. Marines
(Photo credit: Lenny Ben-David)

On August 30, 1982, I stood on the roof of a warehouse in Beirut port in a forward IDF position and watched the evacuation of Arafat and his fighters. Firing volleys of victory “fantasia” rounds into the air, the terrorists drove past U.S. Marine sentries protecting their departure. From our perch, meter-long camera lenses recorded every face, so it’s easy to believe the reports that Israeli snipers had Arafat in their cross-hairs. But Prime Minister Begin reportedly gave the order for the snipers to stand down. Over the years of intifadas and suicide bombings I often regretted his decision.

In the rogues gallery of the 21st Century, he certainly ranks with Osama Bin Laden for pure malevolence and blood thirst.

Lest we forget, the body lying in the elaborate Ramallah crypt belonged to an evil man who commanded brigades of terrorists that mowed down or blew up thousands of innocent civilians in Israel and across Europe. He ordered the murder of Israel’s Olympic athletes in 1972. In 1973, he gave the orders to execute three diplomats (two American, one Belgian) in Khartoum, Sudan. He ordered the massacres of Christians in Lebanon. He mocked the United Nations when he showed up with a pistol on his hip in 1974. He embraced Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian revolution in 1979. And he was behind the massive arms smuggling attempt on board the Karin A in 2002.

When it came to the peace process, he spoke with a venomous forked tongue, beguiling gullible Westerners with promises of peace while inciting jihad against the Jews in his Arabic declarations. His promises to cancel the genocidal “Palestinian Charter” were never carried out.

I was in the auditorium in Cairo in 1994 when Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin were supposed to sign the Oslo II Accords under President Hosni Mubarak’s sponsorship. Arafat pretended to put his signature on the document, but an observant Israeli team saw that he had faked it. “Ya kalb!” (“You dog”), Mubarak shouted, and he demanded that Arafat come back and sign.

Yasser Arafat during a pilgrimage to Mecca (photo credit: The Palestinian Authority via Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90)

Is this the legacy of a “great leader?” Or is this the next myth the Palestinian people want to perpetuate, along with the Nakba, the UNRWA-perpetuating tale of millions of refugees, and the denial of Jewish ties to Eretz Yisrael? (Arafat, after all, told President Bill Clinton that there never was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.)
Murder by poison is as legendary as it gets (Socrates, Napoleon, and Snow White come to mind), especially since polonium can only be produced in an advanced radioactive research center. Russia used the poison to kill a dissident six years ago.
Less romantic and mythical, however, is the more likely cause of Arafat’s death – AIDS.

Arafat’s sexual proclivities have been an open secret for years. The former head of Rumanian intelligence, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa , disclosed in his book “Red Horizons,” that one of his officers reported, “the ‘Fedayee’ [Arafat’s code name] is in his bedroom making love to his bodyguard. The one I knew was his latest lover. He’s playing tiger again. The officer monitoring his microphones connected me live with the bedroom, and the squawling almost broke my eardrums. Arafat was roaring like a tiger, and his lover yelping like a hyena.”

In an in-depth 1976 biography of Arafat, writer Thomas Kiernan chronicled the life of a young Arafat in Cairo. When Arafat discovered his girlfriend, Jinan al-Oraby, was friendly with the daughters of the Harkabis, an Egyptian Jewish family, he arranged for the murder of their father. When Jinan expressed sorrow for her friends, “Yasser went into a rage… he proceeded to beat me, tearing my clothes off…he threw himself on me… He tried to penetrate me, but he could not do so. This made him even more irrational.”

Kiernan also relates Arafat’s relationship with a boy, Ahmed, whose parents ended up on the Israeli side of the border after the 1948 war. An associate of Arafat’s related, “Yasser tried to get the boy to publicly denounce his parents…Yasser really loved the boy. He was delicate, sensitive, like a flower. He was very much a part of Yasser’s inner circle – four of five boys who lived in the same place, and well, you can imagine what I mean.”

Kiernan continued: Arafat held a “kind of formal hearing for the boy” because of his refusal to denounce his parents. “Arafat sobbed and sobbed as [a young associate] proceeded to castrate the boy. The next day the boy was dead.”

After Arafat’s death, his personal physician admitted in a TV interview that his patient died of AIDS.

Today, Suha Arafat and the Palestinian leadership are demanding an international tribunal to investigate Arafat’s death comparable to the tribunal established after the bombing death of Lebanon’s Rafik Hariri.

Their worship of Arafat as a hero and martyr reflects just how delusional Suha and some members of the Palestinian leadership have become.

The chemical element polonium was discovered and named by Marie Curie in honor of her country of origin, Poland. But perhaps it should be named for Polonius of “Hamlet” fame who could look at Suha’s attempt to lionize Arafat and warn, “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.”

Today is Bobby Kennedy's Yahrzeit

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 08:38:00 +0000

Who knew the young Kennedy was a reporter in Palestine in 1948?

I discovered his amazing reports and published them here.
RFK actually drove in the convoys to Jerusalem, and whenever I see a picture of the convoys I search for him. His Boston Post reporting was very pro-Jewish State ("Israel" was not named at that point), and, like a good Kennedy, he wasn’t fond of the Brits.

In Jerusalem in 1948 and holding an imaginary (David's) slingshot.

Biographer Arthur Schlesinger wrote that Joe Kennedy was unhappy his son took the trip. Neither was his girl friend who dropped him. But later RFK married her sister Ethel, and the kids credit Israel for the shiddach.

Kennedy’s daughter, Kathleen, once told me “People don’t realize my father was killed by a Palestinian terrorist because of his support for Israel.”

As for his motive, assassin Sirhan Sirhan cited Kennedy’s support for Phantom jets for Israel. He committed the murder on the first anniversary of the Six Day War.

Those Scary Nuclear Negotiations with Iran Last Week. Was the Next Meeting Postponed to Fit the EU's Catherine Ashton's Schedule?

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:49:00 +0000

First published in The Times of Israel

A detailed account of the last week's nuclear talks with Iran appears in How Iran Talks Came Back From Verge of Collapse by reporter Laura Rozen in yesterday's al-Monitor. After interviewing several diplomats and behind-the-scenes sources, she presents a picture of negotiations that were deteriorating if not for the leadership role of the EU's Catherine Ashton and the praiseworthy skills of American negotiator Wendy Sherman. At the end of the day, Ashton said the talks were "constructive and useful."

But there are several very troubling passages in Rozen's report -- in fact, downright scary.

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili kicked off the first international nuclear talks in over a year with a three-hour dinner at the Iranian consulate in Istanbul Friday night. The mood at the informal dinner—meant to build rapport between the two chief negotiators ahead of the formal talks getting underway the next day—was described by aides as “good and friendly.” Conversation deliberately steered away from specific discussion of the Iran nuclear issue. (What did they discuss? “Political party funding in the U.S. [emphasis added],” a European diplomat apprised of the conversation told me Monday, among other topics, including the Arab spring.)

… Ashton has earned “a status as a genuine, open-minded but tough—thinking negotiator who the Iranians trust and are willing to deal with.”

Ashton has earned her reputation as a strong critic of Israel and the IDF. She has consistently used her post as the EU's "foreign minister" to press for Palestinian positions and to make "even-handed" remarks when commenting on Israeli reactions to terrorist attacks.

That's why her three hour dinner with Iran's negotiator is troubling. With no discussions on the Iran nuclear topic, they had a "good and friendly" conversation about "political party funding in the U.S" among other topics. Considering the two personages there could be little question they were talking about their shared perceptions of Jewish political influence in the U.S.
Of course the Iranians will "trust" her.

Naivety Gone Wild --"Engaged" so Much They Should Get a Room
Other sections of the Rozen article describe the P5+1 negotiators as hopeless in their naivety and faith in negotiations with Iran. They actually admit measuring Iranian “body language” as a positive indicator: Who's Responsible for the Delaying Tactic?

"The morning session was very positive: the vibe in the 3+3 was wow, they are engaging,…we know what the principles are,” the Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity. “But let’s not get excited: it’s going to be a bloody long road for them to negotiate, a long and painful process….”

Despite the lack of a U.S.-Iran bilateral meeting, the Iranian delegation was engaged and attentive when [US negotiator Wendy] Sherman directly addressed them during the morning session, several diplomats said. “The Iranian delegation body language when Wendy spoke was direct and engaged,’ the European diplomat said.

According to Rozen's account it wasn’t Iran that delayed the next set of talks. Washington wanted May 10. It didn’t fit into Ashton’s schedule before May 23!

Finally, in one-to-one negotiations, she headed off unrealistic Iranian demands and got everyone to agree … that a next meeting had to be held; and crucially … that it had to take place quickly so as not to drag this process out more than it needs to,’ he said. Indeed, the next Iran nuclear talks, scheduled to take place May 23 in Baghdad, is a couple weeks later than the Americans had hoped, diplomats told me. (Washington had been hoping for a May 10 meeting date.) But Ashton’s schedule could not accommodate one before then.
It certainly sounds like the Iranians got several "freebies" out of their weekend in Instanbul.

Establish a field hospital on the Israeli-Syrian border. Now.

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Operation conducted in an Israeli field hospital

The field hospitals exist in storage. The experienced medical personnel are available. Demands for Red Cross access to Syrian wounded are being made.

A version of this article appeared in The Times of Israel

The Arab League, Turkey and two-thirds of the American public all favor the establishment of safe havens in Syria. But the war criminals ruling in Damascus won’t hear of it. They’re probably correct that such redoubts would quickly become staging areas for the Syrian rebels and army deserters. American defense planners are reluctant to protect such buffer zones lest the U.S. get sucked into another maelstrom in the Middle East.

In the interim, thousands of innocent Syrian civilians continue to be massacred. Thousands more are lying wounded without medical attention. Syrian hospitals have become the hunting grounds for Assad’s thugs searching for victims for their voracious sadist appetites.

In recent days even Russia has joined the chorus of countries calling on Syria to give the Red Cross access to wounded civilians. But if the Red Cross gets to the wounded, where should they take them?

Israel should consider the establishment of a large field hospital at the Golan Heights crossing between Syria and Israel at Majdal Shams on the Syrian side of the border. The United Nations Disengagement Observation Force, UNDOF, located on the Golan since 1974, could provide the diplomatic cover. The Red Cross – if given access through a safe corridor – could provide ambulances to move wounded from devastated Daraa in southern Syria or from the nearby Kuneitra region where fighting was reported earlier this month.

View video of an Israeli emergency field hospital in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

To avoid another Syrian and Iranian-directed “civilian” march on Israel’s defense lines, like the June 2011 attempt, the field hospital must be on the Syrian side.

Only a small percentage of the residents of Majdal Shams, the Druze town under Israeli control since 1967, have accepted Israeli citizenship. Few of the Druze residents serve in the Israeli army. The town may be viewed by Syria’s Assad junta as relatively neutral. At the same time, Israel’s Druze community could serve as the public face of the medical efforts, while the IDF’s vaunted medical corps could provide experienced medical personnel.

Israeli field hospital in Haiti

More than a decade ago the United States pre-positioned military field hospitals in Israel for use by the U.S. military or Israel in the event of a regional emergency. The carnage in Syria is precisely such an emergency.

For the world community, accused of abandoning the innocent civilians of Syria, the Golan medical initiative would provide a first step in meeting their responsibility. For Assad, it releases some of the world pressure without surrendering territory to the Syrian Free Army. And for Israel, it provides another tangible sign of peaceful intentions to the Arab world – already secretly sending some of its sick and impotent (yes, that kind of impotence) to Israeli hospitals.

If there’s a tiny chance for coexistence with the post-Assad government of Syria and if Syria doesn’t shatter into ethnic satrapies, a life-saving medical facility along the Israel-Syrian border may be a good place to start a coexistence process. Today.

Peacekeeping Forces in Sinai In Danger (Republishing a 4 Year Old Report) Gaza Chaos Likely to Metastasize -- Are American/Multi-National Forces in Sinai Targets?

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 06:00:00 +0000

March 14, 2012: Associated Press reported hours ago:

Bedouins surround peacekeepers, some US, in Sinai
Uruguayan officials say some of their peacekeeping troops have been surrounded by armed Bedouins in the Sinai desert. And they say U.S. and Colombian troops may also be trapped. The standoff apparently began this week and is still continuing as hundreds of Bedouins armed with automatic rifles surround the peacekeeping force. The force's camp is in Egyptian territory near the border with the Gaza Strip.

[That's the 12-nation MFO peacekeepers, some 1,650 soldiers. The U.S. contingent is the largest.]

January 27, 2008

Gaza Chaos Likely to Metastasize. Are American/Multi-National Forces in Sinai Targets?

The pictures from the Gaza-Egypt border show tens of thousands of Gazans celebrating their “release” from the Hamas-controlled area. But the mass shopping spree may soon be replaced by a paroxysm of deadly terrorism. Consider the terrorist organizations and targets now in play.

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are now relatively free to travel throughout the Sinai, including the long, lightly defended Egyptian-Israeli border. They are likely equipped with new weapons and explosives obtained from Hamas arsenals in Sinai. Those weapons no longer have to make the arduous route through tunnels into Gaza. Possible targets: All of Eilat and Israeli army positions and remote villages along the border. Exactly one year ago, in January 2007, a suicide bomber from Gaza infiltrated from Sinai and killed three Eilat residents.
Egyptian resorts in Sinai are high on the terrorists’ target lists, particularly those that cater to Israeli and European tourists. Dozens of guests were killed in a Taba hotel bombing and beach camping areas in October 2004. Al Qaeda was suspected.
Al Jazeera reported on Sunday that Egyptians arrested 20 armed Palestinians in Sinai. They were equipped with explosives and electronic devices to listen to Egyptian military transmissions. If true, the arrest suggests that foreign intelligence services may be playing a role in directing the terrorists. Best guess is Iranian, Hizbullah, and/or al Qaeda involvement.
The 1,800 Multi-National Force and Observers (MFO) in Sinai are sitting ducks for the terrorists. The lightly armed soldiers come from 11 nations, but by far the largest contingent is from the United States. In recent days there were reports that the American forces withdrew from the El Gorah base near Al Arish. U.S.-led multi-national troops are at war with Islamic radicals in Afghanistan and Iraq. Chasing the Americans out of another base in the Middle East will be a great achievement for Nasrallah, Ahmadinejad, Bin Laden, and Assad. In August 2005 an IED was detonated near an MFO vehicle. In April 2006 a suicide bomber attempted to attack an MFO vehicle in Mansoura, Sinai.
Today, January 27, the Fiji Battalion in Sinai reports that one of its three checkpoints is only 100 meters from where the Gaza security wall was breached. The unit, according to its commander, “is observing and monitoring the movement from Gaza into Egypt and out of the designated zone [emphasis added] of the MFO which we are part of.”
That means that the tremors coming out of Gaza could spread across the Sinai and the Suez into Egypt itself. The Moslem Brotherhood does not require much to ignite riots in the streets of Cairo.

Netanyahu at AIPAC didn’t remind Obama of the US failure to stop Scud missiles from falling on Israel in 1991

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:32:00 +0000

The Prime Minister's presentation of two letters

A version of this article appears in The Times of Israel

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu displayed to his AIPAC audience on March 5 a letter from 1944 urging the United States to bomb the railways to Auschwitz and a letter with the American War Department’s refusal. “Such an operation would be of such doubtful efficacy,” was the American response. “Such an effort might provoke even more vindictive action by the Germans.”

The implications of Netanyahu’s speech were clear, and some commentators were uncomfortable. The editor of Ha’aretz grumbled “Netanyahu compared Iran to Nazi Germany, its nuclear facilities to death camps, and his current trip to the White House to a desperate plea to former U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt by the Jewish-American community to bomb Auschwitz.”

I can personally attest that Prime Minister Netanyahu truly fears attacks on Israel of Holocaust proportions. Fifteen years ago, while serving in the Israeli Embassy in Washington, I joined Netanyahu, then in his first term, in a private meeting and lunch with Vice President Gore. Already then he was warning the U.S. government of the Iranian threat and of Russian scientists helping to build Iranian missiles.

But, in all candor, there’s a more immediate and troubling analogy that Netanyahu could have made: The American insistence in 1991 that Israel not preemptively destroy Iraqi Scuds aimed at Israel, despite Iraqi officials’ open threats, and that Israel not retaliate when those missiles, thought to be armed with chemical warheads, started falling on Israeli cities.

Israel really had no dog in the 1991 fight; it was an American-led war to recapture Kuwait from Iraq. Iraq was facing a coalition which included many Arab countries, and the Bush administration hid Israel behind the drapes.

Tel Aviv suburb after Scud attack, 1991
(Israel National Photograph Collection)

According to Moshe Arens, Israel’s defense minister at the time, his American counterparts “expected that within 48 hours the U.S. Air Force would eliminate the missile launch capability of the Iraqis. If it turned out that they were not going to be able to do it within 48 hours, Israel would be free to take whatever action it considered appropriate.”

Not a single Scud missile or launcher was knocked out by American planes, not just in the first 48 hours, but during the whole war. Yet President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker insisted that Israel continue its restraint and not “spoil” their coalition. They assured Israel that the most modern Patriot anti-aircraft missiles would be dispatched to Israel and would be able to shoot down the Scuds. Post-war analysis showed that not a single Scud was intercepted by the Patriots.

Meanwhile, the commander of the American coalition, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, objected to the number of American planes hunting Scuds in western Iraq, wanting to redirect U.S. aircraft to the Kuwait front.

At the height of the war Arens was sent to Washington to meet with President Bush. In a 21-year-old news account that could actually describe Prime Minister Netanyahu’s meetings in Washington last week, The New York Times wrote, “An administration official said Arens seemed to be ‘laying the groundwork if the Israelis decide to retaliate.’ The administration official said that in the talks with Bush, Arens ‘didn’t say absolutely that the Israelis were going to retaliate. But he didn’t say they were not, either. He made a very emotional presentation, though.”

Rescue team at work after attack on Tel Aviv suburb
(Israel National Photograph Collection)

Prime Minister Netanyahu has stressed that the difference between Germany’s genocide against the Jews in World War II and the Iranian threats against Israel today is the existence of Israel and its army which protects the Jewish people of Israel.

True enough, but the 1991 trauma of the United States minimizing Saddam Hussein’s threat against Israel and denying Israel the right to defend itself gnaws at the psyche of Israelis alive today. Israel was pressured and acceded to the demand that we do not have a right to defend ourselves. We and our children ourselves – not as descendants of Holocaust survivors – experienced the terror of the vicious Scud barrages while the United States in effect told us “sha shtil yidim” – Jews sit still.”

Maybe Netanyahu was being polite to his American hosts who remember 1991 differently or choose to ignore it. But maybe that 1991 experience makes it a little easier to understand Israelis’ discomfort when our best friend and ally says “trust us.”

Destroying Syrian Weapons of Mass Destruction -- Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:36:00 +0000

Kurdish dead after an Iraqi gas attack on Halabja
in 1988. An estimated 4,000 died. (Photo:
Wikimedia)

First appeared in the Times of Israel

Publication last week of of my article “Syria’s Arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction Must Be Destroyed,” seems to have grabbed the attention of reporters and officials in the Pentagon and State Department. Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin reported on Friday that the State Department is quietly warning Middle East countries about Syria’s WMD.

CNN has a strange story from the Pentagon this weekend claiming that 75,000 U.S. troops would be needed to secure Syria’s chemical and biological weapons. This appears to be yet another “news” story spun to discourage any new U.S. military engagement in the Middle East.

Actually, the most effective method of destroying these doomsday weapons may be from the air by bombing and incinerating the chemicals and viruses. Napalm or fuel-air explosives, also known as thermobaric bombs, create widespread and super-hot explosions, hot enough to destroy the chemical agents.

The United States government uses two methods to destroy chemical agents — neutralization of the chemicals or incineration in furnaces. A decade ago the U.S. National Research Council concluded, “Storing chemical weapons poses a greater threat to public safety than destroying them [by incineration]. The NRC recommends completing the destruction process ‘as quickly as possible’ because the most urgent threat is from an accidental or deliberate release from stored chemical weapons.”

True, the bombing of Syria’s unconventional armory is not the same as a controlled incineration, but what’s the choice?

Foreign Policy’s Rogin quotes an unnamed State Department official that the United States has “long called on the Syrian government to destroy its chemicals weapons arsenal and join the Chemical Weapons Convention.”

Syria is much too busy massacring its own people to consider destroying its chemical weapons arsenal. Maybe it’s time for the U.S. and allies to show Bashar Assad how it’s done.

How quickly we forget

The following is an excerpt from a July 2007 Jane’s DefenceWeekly article:

Dozens of Syrian military officers and Iranian engineers were killed on July 26 in Halab, Syria, as they were attempting to mount a chemical warhead with mustard gas on a Scud-C missile, Jane’s Defence Weekly reported.

An explosion spread lethal chemical agents, including mustard gas, VX gas and sarin nerve gas, killing 15 Syrian officers and dozens of Iranian engineers who were in the facility. Dozens of people were injured.

Syria’s Arsenal of Unconventional Weapons Must Be Destroyed

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:34:00 +0000

Published in the newly launched Times of Israel, an exciting new Internet newspaper.

Click to read the whole article. Here are excerpts:

Syria’s unconventional weapons were the doomsday weapons every new Israeli soldier was warned about. A very ominous percent of Syrian artillery shells, bombs, and missile warheads were armed with Sarin, mustard gas, or VX, we were told....

A CIA study released in 2010 stated, ”Syria has had a CW [chemical weapons] program for many years and already has a stockpile of CW agents, which can be delivered by aircraft, ballistic missiles and artillery rockets.”...

In 2003, Libya’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi renounced the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and invited western nations to destroy his country’s stockpiles. Long-range missiles were destroyed, and chemical and nuclear programs were dismantled.

What motivated Qaddafi to destroy his WMD? Some analysts believe that he came to the prudent decision when he saw the crushing of Saddam Hussein after Western countries (only) suspected him of developing WMD.

In Syria, however, no such flash of temporary sanity is likely to dawn on Syrian President Bashar Assad. He is fighting for his survival, and those weapons are his ace in the hole, his “Samson complex” –- “if you take me out, I’ll take you all down with me.”...

In Libya, the controlled destruction of WMD and missiles was conducted with Qaddafi’s reluctant cooperation. In Syria, the destruction of the stockpiles will only occur if they are obliterated and incinerated by Western missiles, warplanes, and cruise... missiles.

HT to JG for this terrifying article about Syria's advanced bio-weaponry program.

Syria's Bio-Warfare Threat: an interview with Dr. Jill Dekker

Iran Threatens Two More Naval Chokepoints In Addition to the Strait of Hormuz

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:15:00 +0000

By Lenny Ben-David

First appeared in The Weekly Standard, February 9, 2012

Considerable attention is being given to Iranian threats to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which a large proportion of the world’s petroleum sails. The U.S Energy Information Administration estimates that “almost 17 million barrels in 2011, up from between 15.5-16.0 million bbl/d in 2009-2010,” sails past Iranian gun and missile emplacements along the coast, mine-laying ships, and Revolutionary Guard fast boats. In 2011, that amounted to “roughly 35 percent of all seaborne traded oil, or almost 20 percent of oil traded worldwide.”

Yet the recent visit of two Iranian naval vessels to the Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah should draw attention to two more vital naval chokepoints—the Bab el Mandeb Strait at the southern tip of the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal located between the northern tip of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. (See this map.) More than three million barrels of oil pass through the Bab el Mandeb every day on the way to the Suez Canal and the SUMED (Suez-Mediterranean) pipeline used by tankers that are too big to traverse the Canal. Closure of the Bab el Mandeb would force ships to travel around the southern tip of Africa.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration warns, “The international energy market is dependent upon reliable transport. The blockage of a chokepoint, even temporarily, can lead to substantial increases in total energy costs. In addition, chokepoints leave oil tankers vulnerable to theft from pirates, terrorist attacks, and political unrest in the form of wars or hostilities as well as shipping accidents which can lead to disastrous oil spills.”

The Iranian ships docked in Jeddah, the large supply ship (the Kharg) and the relatively small destroyer (the Shaid Kandy), are not necessarily a direct threat. But they do represent the Iranian potential for troublemaking.
Last February, the Kharg sailed through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean and paid a port call in Latakia, Syria. There it is believed to have unloaded containers of Iranian and Chinese weapons and missiles, presumably for Hamas or Hezbollah. One month later, the Gaza-bound Victoria, registered in Liberia and with 50 tons of weapons loaded in Latakia, was stopped by the Israeli Navy. Its weaponry reportedly included anti-ship missiles.

While civilian ships laden with weapons bound for those terrorist groups have been stopped and the weapons confiscated, no navy is going to stop an Iranian naval vessel in peacetime to check if it is loaded with weapons.

Presumably, Western satellites and intelligence services will be watching the Kharg to see if it continues through the Suez Canal to Syria, as it did last year. But it is also important to see if the Kharg delivers – or delivered already – containers in the Eritrean port of Assab, located precisely at the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea.

In late 2008 published reports claimed that Iranian ships, troops, weapons, and even submarines were seen in Assab. The Eritrean government rejected the reports as “persistent disinformation campaigns by Israeli intelligence officials.”

Nevertheless, Iranian “engineers” were seen in Assab more recently – “maintenance workers” for an oil refinery, Eritrean officials explained.
Authorities in an African port management association were queried this week about Iranian naval traffic in Assab. This was their response: “As you may be aware the Eritrean Government is strict on limiting communication with the outside world and this affects our ability to get information regarding the ports of Massawa and Assab.”

Iranian naval ships have also been patrolling in the Gulf of Aden which lays just south of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, waters known for their Somalia-based pirates. In early February, Iran claimed that its ships chased away pirates attempting to hijack an Iranian oil tanker in the area.

Iran’s growing interest in the region led it to announce plans to open embassies in Somalia and in Djibouti, another country on the Horn of Africa that borders on the Bab el Mandeb.

Turkey is funneling aid to the regime in Mogadishu to challenge to Iran’s subversive activity in Somalia, as recently detailed by Turkish analyst, Abdullah Bozkurt: “Intelligence reports detail how the Mullah regime in Iran has been providing arms and munitions to the insurgent groups in Somalia, including al-Shabaab,” Bozkurt wrote in Zaman. “Tehran has been funneling most of its aid to insurgents through the ‘Christian’ dictator of Eritrea, Isaias Afewerki, who has been cozying up to Iranian regime for years.”

The recent soccer rioting in Egypt should light up more warning lights for the security of the Suez Canal chokepoint. Besides rioting in Cairo and Port Said, at the northern tip of the Canal where more than 70 people died in the soccer stadium, rioting and deaths took place in Suez City at the southern tip of the Canal.

The Canal is extremely vulnerable to terrorism, particularly as the Sinai Peninsula is becoming a lawless sanctuary for all sorts of bad guys – Bedouin smugglers, Hamas, al Qaeda and Hizbullah. In 2009, Egypt caught a Hizbullah spy network operating in Egypt and the Sinai, headed by a senior Hizbullah operative named Sami Shihab. At the time of their arrest the terrorists had been reconnoitering tourist sites and traffic in the Suez Canal.

Imagine what a few well-placed mines could do to shipping in the Canal. In 2010, more than 3,000 oil and gas tankers sailed north and south in the Canal.

Something very different: A Dvar Torah -- Discourse on the Bible Why Did Judah “Come Down” so Strongly on Joseph?

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:22:00 +0000

Painting of Joseph and his brothers, Charles Thévenin, 1789

At the beginning of next week’s Torah portion, Vayigash, (Genesis 42) we are witness to Judah’s aggressive, unbridled and most undiplomatic behavior toward Joseph, Pharaoh’s viceroy. What went through Judah’s head as he approached Joseph? What caused him to unleash such an outburst that in the end caused Joseph’s emotional breakdown?

It appears that just one word in Joseph’s previous remarks incited Judah’s response.

First, let’s look the brothers’ conversations. Not just between Joseph and Judah, but look at all the conversations and dialogues between the Forefathers and their families when discussing travel between the Land of Israel and Egypt. Here’s an example of the Torah’s narrative of Abraham’s journey to Egypt:

And Abram descended to Egypt …And it occurred as he drew to entering into Egypt…But it happened at the entry of Abram into Egypt…Pharaoh called Abram… here is your wife; take her and go! And Abram went up from Egypt… (Genesis 12)

Note the different sets of verbs: descend - ascend or go down - go-up (yoreid-oleh) of Abraham’s journey versus the set of verbs enter-go or come-go (bo-lech) of Abraham’s interaction with Egypt and Pharaoh.

Is there a difference? So it appears.

When the Forefathers travel to Egypt by themselves or talk within the family they “ascend and descent.” On the other hand, when there is an external character, especially if his name is Pharaoh or his deputy, they use the phrases of “come and go.”

Is there a point behind the language changes?

Joseph and his brothers by Gustave Dore

It’s likely that Abraham and his descendants had a deep faith in the holiness of Eretz Yisrael and used a more spiritual term when they referred to the aliya to the land and the yerida from the land. But to outsiders, especially the ruler of Egypt who viewed his land as the center of the universe, the children of Israel were learned in the ways of diplomacy and they were careful not to insult their exalted hosts. They came and went; they did not descend and ascent.

Here are several examples to prove the “descend-ascend” and “come-go” pattern:

• And they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites…and they brought (vayavehu) Joseph to Egypt. (Genesis 37:28)

• And they said to Joseph … your servants have come (ba’u) to buy food. (Gen 42:10)

• (Joseph said to his brothers) go (lechu) and bring the provisions… (Gen 42:19)

But when traveling alone or speaking within the family:

• And Joseph had been brought down (hurad) to Egypt (Gen 39:1)

• And Jacob said to his sons there are provisions in Egypt go down (redu) there (Gen 42:2)

• And Jacob said to his sons (Benjamin) shall not go down with you (Gen 42:38)

There are several more examples of “come-go” verbs especially in the dialogue between Jacob and Pharaoh (Gen 47).

But there is one very unusual irregularity in this verbal code, so extreme that Judah was unable to restrain himself and Joseph was unable to contain his emotions.

At the very end of the Torah portion of Miketz (Gen 44:17) Joseph tells him “As for you, go up (alu) in peace to your father.”

[The division of the two Torah portions at this very point weakens our ability to comprehend the huge drama taking place here. It is possible that at this point Judah actually understood who was standing before him.]

Judah doesn’t believe what he heard and he responds immediately: Then Judah approached him…

After Judah heard the word “alu - ascend” he responded repeating the family verbal code in a blunt and pronounced fashion:

Then you (Joseph) said to your servants bring him down [horiduhu] to me… (note the anomaly since Joseph in Gen 42:20 stated “Your brother who is youngest you shall bring [tavi’u] to me”)… And it was when we went up to your servant my father… We said we cannot go down… then we went down … [Jacob said] you will have brought down disaster …Your servants will have brought down the old age of your servant our father in sorrow to the grave… and the youth (Binyamin) will go up with his brothers… For how can I go up to my father if the youth is not with me?

Eight times Judah used the ascend – descend verbs in his verbal challenge to Joseph. The code was broken, as was Joseph. When he understood that the brothers had uncovered him, he was forced to reveal his identity, and he continued to speak with them in the family verbal code. “Hurry and go up to my father… Come down to me, do not delay. You must hurry and bring down my father to this place.”

An additional point:

If there is such a family code based on the ascend – descend verbs, why did the brothers use their private code to the “man in charge of the house of Joseph… and they said we had indeed come down (yaradnu) to buy food... and other money we have brought down (horadnu)"? (Gen 43:20)According to the Midrash, the interpreter standing between Joseph and his brothers (Gen 42:23) was the son of Joseph, Menashe. And according to Bible commentator Yonatan ben Uziel (circa 450 BCE) Menashe was also the man in charge of Joseph’s house.

Thus one explanation of the brothers’ use of the family code is that after they had spoken to the young Hebrew-speaking interpreter they thought that he was privy to the family code. The approached him (vayigshu – the same verb describing Judah’s approach to Joseph), but they quickly concluded that he was an Egyptian and not a family member when he responded, “Your God and the God of your father has given you a hidden treasure... Your money came (ba) to me...” Gen 43:23.

How much of the Palestinian Refugee saga is a fraud? Here's an example

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:49:00 +0000

There's little question that some of Palestine's Arabs date back a millennium. Indeed, studies show that some, particularly those in the Hebron Hills areas, were Palestinian Jews who were forced to convert to Islam. Some families in places like Yatta still practice Jewish customs in secret like the Spanish conversos.

Nahr el Bared in 2007

But many Palestinian Arab families are relatively new to Palestine, some coming in the last century because of economic opportunities that developed as a result of Jewish enterprises. British officials, such as Winston Churchill, described the improved economic conditions that brought them to the area.

A perfect example is evident in the population of the Nahr el Bared ["Cold River] Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. As recently as three years ago, sources described many of the residents as originally coming from North Africans countries who immigrated to Palestine in the 1930s.

[The phrase "Nahr el Bared" was the code radioed to terrorists by Yasir Arafat to Sudan in 1973 ordering the execution of one Belgian and two American diplomats.]

The Nahr el Bared camp reportedly had a population of 30,000 in 2007, when a bloody battle broke out between camp radicals, led by Fatah el Islam, and the Lebanese Army. Whole neighborhoods were destroyed during the four months of fighting.

[Hundreds were killed, but the savagery of the fighting barely elicited a headline, a UN condemnation, or a solidarity vigil somewhere around the globe.]

This is how Wikipedia described the Nahr el Bared camp's components three years ago:

Nahr el Bared camp after four months of warfare

"The different sectors of the camp are named after areas of what is now the northern Israeli Galilee region: Safourieh, Sasa, Safad, etc. Other sectors are more commonly known by the origins of the families living there: e.g. the 'Maghrebi' area where families originally from Algeria, Tunisia or Morocco who had moved to Palestine in the 1930s now live."

Check out the Wikipedia entry today and see how this important fact of the Palestinians' origins was censored:

"The different sectors of the camp are named after areas of what is now the northern Galilee region : Safourieh, Sasa, Safad, etc. Other sectors are more commonly known by the origins of the families living there: e.g. the 'Naseem' area where families originally from Acre, Canada or Morocco who had moved to Palestine in the 1930s now live. [What happened to Algeria and Tunisia? Canada?]"

Yes, the families of many Arab refugees originally came to Palestine only in the last 100 years, and someone is trying to cover that up.

Gingrich may have ignored current realities, but Winston Churchill agreed with his history

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:41:00 +0000

Churchill meeting el-Husseini in Jerusalem
1921 (Library of Congress)

When Newt Gingrich discussed the Palestinian Arabs last week, he echoed sentiments made by Winston Churchill to an Arab leader in Jerusalem 90 years ago.

A reminder: Gingrich told the Jewish Channel, “Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people, and they had the chance to go many places,” said Newt Gingrich.

Arab demonstration, Jerusalem, 1919/1920. The banner on
the left reads "We resist Jewish immigration," the banner
on the right reads "Palestine is part of Syria."

Churchill visited Palestine in 1921 while serving as Great Britain's colonial secretary. He met with the former mayor of Jerusalem and Arab leader, Musa Kazim el Husseini, who complained that life under the British was worse than under the Turks, who were vanquished three years earlier. El Husseini also complained about Jewish immigration to Palestine.

Churchill chided el Husseini and dispelled any notion of an Arab Palestinian sovereignty. "I thought, when listening to your statements, that it seemed that the Arabs of Palestine had overthrown the Turkish Government. That is the reverse of the true facts. It has been the armies of Britain which have liberated these regions."

Indeed, a year earlier, in 1920, the Arabs of Palestine identified themselves as residents of "southern Syria" and demonstrated in Jerusalem against the British Mandate, in favor of inclusion as part of Syria, and in opposition to Jewish immigration.

Churchill went on to press el Husseini to accept the opportunity to work with the Jews who were building the land -- for their own benefit. "You can see with your own eyes," Churchill said, " in many parts of this country the work which has already been done by Jewish colonies; how sandy wastes have been reclaimed and thriving farms and orangeries planted in their stead. It is quite true that they have been helped by money from outside, whereas your people have not had a similar advantage, but surely these funds of money largely coming from outside and being devoted to the increase of the general prosperity of Palestine is one of the very reasons which should lead you to take a wise and tolerant view of the Zionist movement."

U.S. Aid to the Jews of "Palestine" and the U.S. Navy Were Essential 100 Years Ago

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:43:00 +0000

Jews of the Yishuv

In the course of preparing the sister blog History of Israel -- Picture a Day, we came across many reports of the severe persecution and suffering of the Yishuv - the Jewish population of Eretz Yisrael, Palestine. Ottoman officials harassed, tortured, imprisoned and expelled Jews, especially "Zionist" activists.

An account of life in Palestine during the first world war was presented to the World Zionist Congress in 1921 by the London Zionist Organisation.

Several points are amazingly relevant today.

Here is an excerpt:

In spite of all efforts made in Palestine to cope with the situation, the Jewish population would have succumbed had not financial help arrived from America. From the day when war broke out [Jewish] Palestine had appealed to America for help.

America was at that time the one country which through its political and financial position was able to save [Jewish] Palestine permanently from going under. It was stimulated to do so by the deep interest in Palestine which of recent years had been awakened in American Jewry. ...

Great assistance was given by the American ambassador, Henry Morgenthau, who had visited Palestine some months before the outbreak of the war, and had promised his support to the director of the Palestine Office, Dr. Ruppin. Thanks to the efforts of the Zionist Organisation and of men like Jacob Schiff, to whom the Bank, the Palestine Office and the representatives of the Chovevi Zion had appealed, a large remittance of money — the first of many — was sent from America to Palestine. ...

USS North Carolina to the rescue

On October 6th, 1914, the American warship "[the USS] North Carolina" landed in the harbour of Jaffa, and the envoy of Ambassador Morgenthau, M. Wertheim, brought 50,000 dollars. Half of this sum had been given by Jacob Schiff, the other half by the Zionist Organisation with Nathan Strauss.

The arrival of this warship and of those that followed it was quite an event in the country. It raised the downcast spirits of the Jews, who saw that they were not abandoned, but could reckon on help from their brethren abroad. These ships also increased the prestige of the Jews in the eyes of the rest of the population and of the local administration. People saw that the Jews through their connections abroad were much more powerful than their numbers would have led one to expect.

These American ships continued their good services on behalf of the Jewish Yishuv. They brought money from time to time, and hospitably took on board the expelled Jews and the other immigrants who fled from Palestine for fear of starvation and persecution.

The transmission of the money, which was a task requiring considerable address and scrupulous care, was carried out admirably. Besides money, food also came from America on a special ship, the "Vulcan.'' Altogether, from October, 1915, 3,522,930.03 francs was brought to Palestine in thirteen American ships.

Photo Essay: The Jewish People Will Not Be Expelled from Jerusalem Again

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:48:00 +0000

The Library of Congress is a treasure trove of history. View this massive photo archive of photos of life in Palestine from the beginning of the 1900s. It includes construction of Tel Aviv and Jewish "colonies and settlements" throughout Palestine. The collection contains photos of Turkish soldiers in Jerusalem prior to 1917 (and here), the bloody scenes after Arab pogroms against Jews in 1929, and pictures of Jews praying at the Western Wall almost 100 years ago (and here).

As I skimmed through the pictures, one theme caught my eye -- the expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem. Time and again.

Arch of Titus in Rome showing the spoils of Jerusalem

We have all seen the ancient Arch of Titus relief of the Temple vessels carried by Jewish captives in Rome after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

But in the Library of Congress collection, we can also find pictures of Jews being evacuated during Arab riots and pograms in 1929 and 1936, as well. In 1948, Life Magazine's John Phillips photographed the heart-wrenching pictures of Jews of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem captured by Jordanian soldiers or being expelled.

70 CE. 1929, 1936. 1948. Too many times.

Jewish evacuation from Jerusalem's Old City after 1929 pogroms

Jews evacuating the Old City during the 1936 Arab revolt against Britain

The expulsion of Jews from the Old City under the guns of Jordanian soldiers (John Phillips)

Policy-makers in European capitals and in Washington oppose Jewish construction in all sections of Jerusalem. Radical leftist tourists fly in to Jerusalem to join Palestinian demonstrators protesting Jews returning to homes they were chased from in 1929 and 1936.

The actual photos presented here may not be seared into the Jewish people's collective memory. But they are permanent scars on their collective heart. It's a fact that those policy-makers should bear in mind. It's another important emotion behind the declaration, "Never again."

Jews streaming into the Jewish Quarter 2011

This picture on the right was taken earlier this month in Jerusalem during Jerusalem Day celebrations commemorating the reunification of the city during the 1967 war.

For millions of Jews, it represents actualization of the age-old prayer, "And to Jerusalem, Your city, in compassion may You return, and may You abide within it as You have spoken. May You rebuild it soon in our days as a structure that is eternal..."

Robert Kennedy's Yahrzeit (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968) Remembering the Words of a Friend of Israel

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 09:14:00 +0000

With make-believe sling-shot

A young Harvard graduate, Bobby Kennedy, defied his father and decided to visit Palestine in March 1948, before "Israel" had been proclaimed. The perceptive observer described his experience in a series of articles published in June 1948 in the Boston Post, a newspaper that closed in 1956. Click here to read the pro-Yishuv (Jewish communities) series, including pictures provided by RFK's family.

Editor's note: Years later his daughter told me, "My father was killed by a Palestinian terrorist [Sirhan Sirhan] because of his strong support for Israel." He was killed on the first anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War.

After Nakba Day, Prepare for Naksa Day -- June 5

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Mon, 30 May 2011 06:23:00 +0000

Cutting the fence on May 15

Nakba Day on May 15 is when the Palestinians commemorate their "catastrophe" of 1948. Next week Palestinians commemorate Naksa Day ("the setback"), the June 5 start of the 1967 war, and Palestinian and Hizbullah organizers are promising more "unarmed civilian" attacks on Israel's borders.

The previous blog on this page shows the Hizbullah ties to the May 15 attacks and the identical tactical planning evident in the attacks on the Lebanese and Syrian borders.

Below are excerpts from an article written by one of the Maroun al Ras participants, Nour Samaha, a 28-year-old Swiss-Lebanese freelance writer based in Beirut. Presumably, Israeli security officials are studying similar photographs and the accounts of the May 15 attack on Israel's borders in preparation for the next onslaught.

Samaha on the way to Haifa

Note Samaha's admission of Hizbullah involvement, her hope to "liberate Palestine" and meet in Haifa, her shahid determination to attack the border, the mine-clearing operation carried out by the "demonstrators," and the account of the Lebanese Army shooting at the demonstrators, as the IDF Spokesman claimed at the time.

Sunday 15th May, 2011

7.30am, Nada calls. "The buses are already full and they told us if we want to hitch a ride we'd have to stand the whole way down, is there space with you?" The buses are full? Big smile on my face. "Of course!" After a stop for coffee, we began our journey down, with Ahmad leading our two-car convoy. It was very unlikely we would get lost though, because every kilometre or so we'd pass half a dozen buses decked out with Palestinian flags, clearly heading in the same direction as us. And if somehow we missed those, someone had kindly taken the time to signpost the entire journey down with directions to Palestine. I guess for future reference, you know, after we've liberated it and we can make plans to hang out in Haifa for the weekend. Forward planning; I like.

Compare Nour Samaha's description and pictures from the Maroun Al-Ras Lebanon attack on Israel's border with this YouTube clip taken from the assault from Syria on the Israeli border position at Majdal Shams. The tactics and deployment are identical.

Trying to be clever, Ahmad searched for an alternate route to beat the crowds to Maroun el Ras. Clearly the organisers, in conjunction with Hizbullah, had predicted there would be people with Ahmad's mentality, and blocked all other roads leading to the hill top, ensuring complete control of the masses of people descending on the border from all corners of the country. And it was very well executed. Herding us like sheep into a pen, we got in line behind each other, slowly moving forward.

The assault on the Israeli border -- the treeline

Covered in Palestinian memorabilia, from flags, to scarves, to traditional dress, to keffiyehs, to self-designed t-shirts, Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians, and even a few Westerners, chanted and sang, while some played the tablah. There was a festive feeling, the atmosphere was almost electric with nationalism, solidarity, and hope. "The people want to free Palestine!" was chanted repetitively on the road towards Maroun el Ras.

On the final stretch of the hill, just behind the destination point, shots were heard. Young boys started running towards the sounds. We started running towards the sounds. Eventually we rounded the corner and arrived at our destination point; the garden donated by Iran following the 2006 war with Israel, which overlooks the border with Israel.

From the start we had taken the decision to go to the border fence, so once we found the others, we headed down towards the fence. Looking into the distance at the border, one could see a hail of stones being thrown over the fence, almost automatic, as if in time with some invisible beat. Some had even managed to throw a couple of flags onto the fence. As the shots continued to ring out, news quickly travelled up the hill, with people passing on unconfirmed statistics of the dead and wounded. "1 dead." "4 dead." "10 wounded." The shots continued.

At the bottom of the hill was a dirt road. By this time it was probably around 1pm, and the [Lebanese] army had started to gather, forming a blockade to prevent protestors from crossing into the field which led to the fence. We had seen scores of people retreating from the fence following several shots from the Israelis, before returning, hurling stones with renewed anger. Attempting to pass the blockade, we were at first politely asked to back away, before being roughly pushed back by the army, who were shouting at us to back up. "But we want to be at the fence," we pleaded with them. "What? You want to go over there are get shot? Are you not seeing the bodies they're bringing back?" One soldier responded aggressively.

But we were. We were seeing the bodies alright. We were seeing them, boys as young as 15, critically wounded. We were seeing them, wrapped in make-shift blankets and stretchers made of keffiyehs and Palestinian flags tied together. We were seeing them, covered in blood from gunshot wounds to the head, chest, or abdomen. And that's why we wanted to be at the fence. The more bodies were pulled away from the fence, whether dead or wounded, the more we, as a crowd, wanted to be there. To help, to support, to get angry, to chant, to do whatever was necessary to defend.



Lebanese army before they opened fire

 [Lebanese] army got tetchy with the crowd's pushing and shoving, and fired warning shots in the air. Followed by another round. People ducked to the ground to avoid the spray of bullets, unsure of what just took place. This wasn't supposed to happen; isn't the army supposed to fire at the enemy? Wasn't the enemy on the other side of the fence currently killing our protestors? The crowd reacted quickly, picking up whatever was around them and throwing them at the army; sticks, stones, bottles. A rain of objects fell on the soldiers, who retaliated with another round of shots. People started screaming at them; "Why??" "You should be firing at the Israelis not at us!" "Use your fire on the Israelis!" "You fire on your own people?!"
At one point the shots rang out. Everyone scrambled to the ground, face down, while shouting "watch out for the mines!", "Heads down! Keep your heads down!". But within seconds, everyone was on their feet again, running towards the fence, with their arms cocked and ready to throw. It would take about a minute before you heard "ambulance!", "injured!", or "killed!" as a result of the latest barrage of bullets, causing the protesters to get riled up even further. This did not happen just once, or twice. This was happening all the time. It got to a point where some people stopped ducking the bullets.

We noticed the Lebanese army had decided to come back. By now it was after 5pm, and the Lebanese army had clearly been given fresh orders; move the protestors away from the fence, using any means necessary. And they did. To the letter. People were being hit with sticks, others were being shoved with rifle butts. The [Lebanese] army started firing. And wouldn't stop. Not even for a minute. They fired above our heads and marched forward, straight towards the protestors. But they kept firing. They marched passed us, weapons in the air, still firing. It was so loud, and so many, the ground was vibrating. The rest of the crowd were already halfway up the hill, the army having succeeded in pushing them far away from the fence. We stood up, ready to make our way up the hill.

Minding our step, we got closer to the fence. The area immediately in front of the fence, where the remaining protesters had gathered, was essentially a minefield, littered with unexploded mines. In an attempt to prevent further casualties, the protestors had marked off the mines with (again) make-shift fences, as a warning to avoid that particular patch. At one point, several of the protestors unearthed the mines themselves, carefully lifting them and placing them together next to the fence. One protestor stated that at least 40 mines had been uprooted and placed there.

One If by Land, and Two If by Sea*Another Hostile Flotilla Attacked Israel, but This Time by Land

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:18:00 +0000


Lebanon staging point. Sign says "Iran's Garden" (AP)

There are remarkable similarities between the Mavi Marmara flotilla in May 2010 and the Nakba marches from Lebanon, Syria and Gaza on May 15. The Israeli intelligence services seriously underestimated their threats, and IDF soldiers were unprepared for the violent ambush that awaited them. The media portrayed Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians as unarmed civilians in both cases. The Israeli army's reaction was deemed by some as disproportionate and possibly in violation of international law. And Lebanon's government copied a page out of Turkey's play book and screamed about Israeli war crimes.

In 2010 it took days for the world to learn the true belligerent nature of the Mavi Marmara's passengers. They may have been in civilian garb, but they were determined combatants nonetheless. Such was also the case in the Gaza, Maroun al-Ras, and Majdal Shams invasions.

Many of the photographs of the May 15 Nakba incursions have not been published in the media, but they are posted on the news agencies websites for purchase. Almost 200 can be found on Yahoo's news photo website. [Photos from Reuters and AP are presented here for illustrative and educational purposes and not meant for commercial use.]

Analysis of the pictures provides several important lessons.

All of the Nakba cases involved the illegal invasions of Israeli territory or areas under Israeli sovereignty. Hamas was behind the attack at the Erez Crossing from Gaza, the Syrian government organized the recruitment and busing of hundreds of Syrian-Palestinians to Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights, and Hizbullah paid for and organized the assault at Maroun al Rus. These were not cases of a lost shepherd or tourist accidently crossing the border. The IDF had every right to respond to the invasions with force.

Southern Lebanon is predominantly Shi'ite. The Sunni Palestinians were bused in by the thousands from refugee camps around Lebanon. "Lebanese activists also took part in the march, which counted Hizbullah among its organizers, the Beirut Daily Star reported on May 16. Naharnet reported, "The organizers of the rally told AFP that Hizbullah had financed the events."

1. note the flags and the treeline.

Close inspection of photos show Hizbullah's involvement. One of the men accompanying a wounded man in this AP photo (1) appears to be carrying unfurled Hizbullah banners. But the picture at the top of this blog makes it very clear. The sign above the assault's staging area in Maroun al Ras bears Iran's symbol and the words "Iran's Garden."

2. Cutting the fence

Pictures prove the hostile intention of the assaults. This picture to the left (2) shows a man with wire cutters attempting to cut through the fence between Lebanon and Israel. He has already passed other wire barriers. Israeli soldiers stand on the other side of the fence beneath the trees.

The next photo (3) shows the "charge" of the mob to the fence. Israeli soldiers are beneath the trees


3. Charging the line

The next picture (4) shows men attempting to breech the fence and establish a "beachhead." They're taking cover from Israeli gunfire. Note the man in the striped brown shirt on the right top. He later shows up in a Reuters photo (5) wounded on a stretcher hundreds of meters from the treeline, heading up the hill to the staging area of "Iran's Garden."

3b. Charging the fence - continued

4. Attempt at a "beachhead"


5. Brownshirt wounded

6. How it was done on the Syrian front

On the Syrian front, note how the attackers successfully scaled the fences (6) and then proceeded to attack an IDF jeep. (7)

7. Attacking an IDF jeep

There were reports that some of the mob on the Lebanese front were killed by Lebanese soldiers, but it appears from the pictures that the Lebanese inflicted a few bruises at best. To reach the Israeli border, the Maroun al Ras mob actually had to pass a company of Lebanese soldiers. In picture (8) the soldiers can be seen above the black fold in the larger flag. In photo (9) the soldiers are successfully blending in with the vegetation. Again, the treeline is Israel, and the Lebanese soldiers just stood there hundreds of meters away.

8. Army company grouped above the black fold of the top flag.

9. How did they get past the army?

10. Naughty, naughty!

There are several almost comical photographs of Lebanese soldiers trying to restrain a few rock-throwers with their batons. (10) Meanwhile, the mob behind them is attempting to breech the fence.

Is there anyone in Washington still serious about providing weapons to the Lebanese army?

View the pictures of the UN peacekeeping forces along Israel's border with Lebanon and Syria -- UNIFIL and UNDOF -- trying to stop the incursions and protect the peace. Oh, wait, there are no such pictures because the force mandated to keep peace was nowhere to be seen when Israel's sovereignty and security were under attack. So much for the idea floating around Washington to meet Israel's security demands in a peace agreement with the Palestinians by providing a foreign peacekeeping force on the West Bank.

· * "One if by land, and two if by sea" was the signal for warning lanterns posted in a church steeple to warn of the British approaching Boston in 1775, part of the story of Paul Revere’s famous ride.

Bashar Soprano of SyriaCompared to the Assad clan, the Mafia is a bunch of boy scouts.

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Sun, 15 May 2011 22:37:00 +0000

Published originally in The Jerusalem Post

I confess. I never watched The Sopranos. I didn’t need to; I already had my fill of blood, murder, mayhem, fratricide and evil by observing the Assad family saga since the early 1970s, when Hafez Assad carried out his coup in Syria. I admit that as an intern reporter for the Near East Report, I predicted that, as was the way of Syrian leaders up to that point, Assad’s tenure would be brief and would probably end with acute lead poisoning. Of course, he went on to lead Syria for almost 30 years, and then passed on the gavel – and stiletto, bomb and pistol – to his son Bashar in 2000.

Bashar Assad wasn’t supposed to be the successor. That was the role intended for the favorite son, army officer Basil, who died in a car crash in 1994. But no death in Syria or Lebanon is accepted as natural or accidental, and it was suggested that Basil was killed for his role in suppressing the Syrian- Lebanese drug trade in the Bekaa Valley. Ironically, that massive drug trade helped make Syria’s ruling elite wealthy, and today the Bekaa, now under Hezbollah rule, still continues to fill the veins of addicts around the world. Money laundering, weapons and drug dealing are very lucrative businesses for the Assads and their associates.

The Assad regime was clearly behind Sunday’s incursion into Israeli-held Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights. Besides serving as a diversion from the ongoing repression, the gathering of hundreds of “demonstrators,“ purportedly Palestinians, could only have been organized by Assad’s government in collusion with Hamas, headquartered in Damascus. No gathering of more than five people is tolerated in Syria, not to mention the busing of hundreds across a country under martial law.

Bashar's coronation in 2000 didn’t go over well with his brutal uncle, Rifaat, who over the years had sought to grab the Syrian reins. When president Hafez suffered a heart attack in 1984, Rifaat’s large private army, the Saraya al-Difa guard, began to seize strategic sites in Damascus. Hafez pulled himself out of his sick bed, rallied his loyalists and banished Rifaat to Europe.

Rifaat had served his brother loyally just a few years earlier, when he was dispatched to eradicate the Muslim Brotherhood insurrection in Hama in 1982. In 1980, in response to an attempted assassination of the president, Rifaat’s army massacred 1,000 Brotherhood members held in the dreaded Tadmor Prison.

Rifaat’s war on the Brotherhood was ruthless. Tom Friedman described in his book From Beirut to Jerusalem how “throughout the next year, surprise searches of Hama, Aleppo, and other Muslim Brotherhood strongholds became a weekly event. During these roundups, curbside executions were regularly carried out.”

By 1982, Friedman wrote, Assad “decided to end his Hama problem once and for all... playing by his own rules... Hama Rules.”

Friedman details the horrors of Rifaat’s troops torturing, pulverizing, gassing and massacring Hama’s residents. Telephone and telegraph links “between Hama and the rest of humanity” were cut. Directing deadly tank fire, artillery and attack helicopters, Rifaat’s troops carried out his order, “I don’t want to see a single house not burning.” Rifaat later boasted to a Lebanese businessman that his troops had killed 38,000 people in Hama, Friedman reported.

After his exile, Rifaat reportedly tried cozying up to the Americans and purchased a mansion in Mclean, Virginia, not far from Teddy Kennedy’s home. Apparently this was too much for Hafez. Rifaat’s home was torched by arsonists, and Rifaat was never known to step on American soil again. He resides in Britain today.

The Hafez-Rifaat homicidal partnership is a family tradition, now bequeathed to President Bashar and his brother, Maher, the commander of the Syrian Army’s Fourth Division. That division has been tasked with taming Deraa by any means necessary, including Hama Rules. Deraa is where the popular uprisings began in February.

Why does Deraa have the distinction of becoming the new center for rebellion? The Turkish press revealed the answers:

“Ten children living in the Syrian city of Deraa were inspired by the Arab Spring and wrote an expression of freedom on walls,” reported the Hurriyet daily. “They were arrested by the intelligence agency [headed by Assad’s brother-in-law Assef Shawqat]. Families of the children applied to the Office of the Governor, but that didn’t help. They went to the intelligence offices. That didn’t help either. Finally, the Office of the Governor was raided and the children were taken back. There was a problem, however: Some of the nails of the children had been removed, and some had been raped. The families went ballistic, and their tribes were outraged. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets, burned down the intelligence headquarters and the phone company belonging to [Assad’s billionaire cousin] Rami Makhlouf. This is how the fear threshold against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria was passed.”

Besides running Syria’s government with an iron fist, the Assad clan and its associates control Syria’s media, army, phone companies, intelligence service, tourism services and banks. They’re also involved in smuggling, the drug trade and arms dealing in and out of the region. Lebanon, a regional financial center and smuggling hub, is important for Syria’s kleptocrats, and Syrian hegemony in Lebanon is critical for the clan’s financial success.

If the Assad associates are not blood relatives or from the Alawite sect, then they’re likely connected through marriage.

Both Hafez and Rifaat were married to women from the wealthy Makhlouf clan, and the Makhloufs play leading roles in the economy and the army.

Another one of Rifaat’s four wives is the sister-in-law of Saudi King Abdullah, which reflects some of the long-playing intrigues between Syria and Saudi Arabia, possibly including the 2005 assassination of Saudi favorite and Hezbollah/ Iran nemesis Rafik Hariri.


Rifaat (blue suit) talking to Abdullah

One of the world’s leading arms dealers and drug traffickers, Syrian Monzer al-Kassar, had close relations with Syrian officials. His father, Muhammad, was an official in Hafez Assad’s government. His wife is the sister of a former Syrian intelligence head. One of Rifaat’s daughters was reportedly Monzer Kassar’s mistress. Of his many passports, one was Syrian, NBC Dateline reported. His name has been tied to the Lockerbie terrorist bombing and even to the Iran- Contra weapons deal. Kassar was also a close friend and quartermaster for terrorist leader Abu Abbas, leader of the Achille Lauro cruise boat attack. Kassar was reported to have served as liaison between the Syrian government and Argentine president Carlos Saul Menem, and his name was raised as a suspect in the bombings of the Israeli Embassy and the AMIA Center in Buenos Aires. Kassar was finally arrested in a sting operation to sell arms to South American terrorists. He was convicted in a US federal court in 2008.

US and British officials have suggested that Bashar Assad could still emerge as a “reformer.”

But the systemic corruption, brutality and evil of Syria’s leadership is well beyond reform. The cancerous ganglia of the Assad clan, growing and metastasizing for 40 years, must be excised, even at the risk of losing the patient.

"Land for Peace" 20th Anniversary of a Great Editorial Cartoon

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Sun, 01 May 2011 09:05:00 +0000

~~Can anyone decipher the name of the cartoonist?~~ Jim Berry of Berry's World. HT: DG
Is there a digital cartoon archive to find a better copy? This one has suffered 20 years of coffee stains and bulletin board pins.

The New York Times Changes Its Format for Describing Civilian Casualties in Gaza

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 13:45:00 +0000

After insisting that "about half" of the dead in recent fighting in Gaza were civilians, and faced with evidence that the figure was closer to one-quarter, the Times has changed its description of casualties. There was an interesting new formulation in The Times' coverage of the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian pro-Palestinian activist living (and dying at the hands of Islamists) in Gaza.

According to the Times, "[Arrigoni] had been worried about leaving because of rising tensions on the border with Israel after a recent Hamas attack on a school bus in Israel that critically injured a 16-year-old boy. In the subsequent clashes, 19 Palestinians, including some civilians, were killed in Gaza and he feared more deaths from Israeli fire. [emphasis added.]

Gaza Casualties: The NY Times Sticks By Its Story. Is There a Bigger Subtext in the Paper's Gaza Coverage?

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:15:00 +0000

Hamas funeral

It comes down to who you believe. The Palestinian Ma'an News Agency says that three Gaza dead were fighters, not civilians. The Times' reporter in Gaza, a man whose father was tragically killed by an Israeli bomb in the 2009 Cast Lead operation, appears to be the one claiming they were civilians.

Yesterday's posting raised the question of the number of Gaza civilians killed in the latest round of the Hamas-Israel war. The Times claimed "about half" of the 18 dead were civilians. In response, and after researching the background of each casualty, this blog concluded that only five were civilians (and at least four of them were in close proximity to rocket launches). The other 13 were fighters. [April 14: another Hamas fighter, Mahdi Jumaa Abu Azara, died of the wounds he suffered in Rafah last week, bringing the total number of fighters to 14 out of 19 killed.]

In response, the New York Times correspondent, Isabel Kershner, emailed today:

"You appear to base your assertion that four of them were Qassam fighters on a report from the Maan news agency. Our Gaza correspondent reported at the time that three of them were in fact non-combatants, but civilians collecting gravel from the old airport.There were two incidents of Israeli fire in the area that afternoon, one which killed a Hamas fighter, and another that killed the other three men."

"Our Gaza correspondent has re-checked his information and says that the three are widely regarded in Gaza as having been non-combatants. No militant group has claimed them as members, which would be highly unusual if they indeed belonged to one. I personally have checked the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Arabic website, where fallen 'resistance fighters,' or Mujahadin, are honored. Only one is honored as having been killed on April 7 -- Saleh al-Tarabin."

To reiterate yesterday's posting, the Palestinian news agency Ma'an stated they were "resistance fighters" of the Al Qassam Brigade. The ages of the three - 18, 23, and 25 - also suggests that they were fighters, not gravel scroungers.

The first Ma'an article stated, "[Israeli] raids hit targets in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis. The strikes killed four, identified as resistance fighters affiliated with Hamas. A statement from the Al-Qassam Brigades identified those killed as leader Salah Tarabin, 38, Musab al-Sufi, 18, Muhammad Almanmom, 25, and Khaled Aldbari, 23."

The second Ma'an article, reporting on their funeral, stated, "In Rafah, Al-Qassam members Saleh At-Tarabeen, 38, Mus’ab As-Sufi, 18, Mohammad Al-Mahmoum, 25, and Khaled Ad-Diyari, 33, were marched from the Abu Yousef An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, toward their homes, and then to the Ash-Shuhda Cemetery for burial."

Problematic Reporting from Gaza

Presumably, the "Gaza correspondent" Kershner has been checking with is the Gaza reporter, Fares Akram, who has been filing stories for the Times.

Writing for a western publication, particularly one as well-known at the New York Times, must be a very difficult assignment for a Palestinian reporter in Gaza. Last month Reuters' offices in Gaza were raided by Hamas security forces, reporters were beaten and computers were smashed. "Severe harassment by Palestinian Authority and Hamas security forces targeting Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Gaza has had a pronounced chilling effect on freedom of expression," the Human Rights Watch warned on April 12.

NY Times' Fares Akram

Akram, writing in 2009 for the British Independent, wrote of his father's tragic death at the start of the Cast Lead operation in an article, "The death and life of my father." Here are some poignant and telling excerpts.

A bomb had been dropped on the house at our small farm in northern Gaza. My father was walking from the gate to the farmhouse at the time. It was our beloved place, that farm and its two-storey white house with a red roof. ...Israeli ground troops and tanks invaded Gaza in the name of shutting down Hamas rocket sites, the peace of that place was shattered and my father's life extinguished at the age of 48....The house was reduced to little more than powder, and of Dad there was nothing much left either.

The Israelis may say there were militants in the area of our farm, but I'll never believe it. The most advanced point for rocket-launchers is 6km south. Up at the border, it is just open farmland with nowhere to hide. My father, Akrem al-Ghoul, was no militant. Born in Gaza and educated in Egypt, he was a lawyer and a judge who worked for the Palestinian Authority. After Hamas took over, he quit and turned to agriculture. Dad's father, Fares, who had been driven out of his home in what is now Israeli Ashkelon in 1948, had bought the land in the 1960s.

My grief carries no desire for revenge, which I know to be always in vain. But, in truth, as a grieving son, I am finding it hard to distinguish between what the Israelis call terrorists and the Israeli pilots and tank crews who are invading Gaza. What is the difference between the pilot who blew my father to pieces and the militant who fires a small rocket?

After the experience of local stringers distorting news coming out of Gaza and the West Bank during hostilities, it must be asked: Is the Times' reporter in Gaza not under constant Hamas threats? Is his reporting influenced by the tragic loss of his father?

The Times had to deal with this issue last year

The New York Times was faced with a serious dilemma last year when it was revealed that its Jerusalem Bureau Chief Ethan Bronner had a son serving in the Israeli army. The Times' public editor, Clark Hoyt, discussed whether Bronner's coverage of Israel involved a conflict of interest and recommended that Bronner be reassigned. The paper's executive editor, Bill Keller, rejected Hoyt's advice and kept Bronner at his post. Here's Keller's explanation:

"My point is not that Ethan’s family connections to Israel are irrelevant. They are significant, and both he and his editors should be alert for the possibility that they would compromise his work.... I do know he has reported scrupulously and insightfully on Israelis and Palestinians for many years. And I have no doubt that if a situation arose that presented a real conflict of interest, as opposed to an imaginary or hypothetical one, we would discuss it, and he would not hesitate to recuse himself."

The Bronner-Akram predicaments could help formulate a journalistic axiom: Reporters who are critical of Arab regimes risk their lives. It would be surprising if their reporting were not distorted. On the other hand, Israel-based reporters who are critical of Israel and its government are admired by their colleagues and know they will never be punished by Israel.

Was there a fraction of the sturm und drang over Akram's hiring as there was over Bronner's? Maybe there should be.

Post Script: Kershner's Criticism

Ms. Kershner was critical of yesterday's blog posting. "I respect your and our right to dispute the figures," she wrote, "and thank you for drawing attention to an important issue, but it is unfortunate that everything was made so public before I even had a chance to check the information at our end and respond to you."

Everything made so public? And the New York Times' goldstoning of Israel and describing the school bus attack as having taken place in Gaza are not public? The Times' fact-checking of such a contentious issue should have been done before publication. The response to the Times' original article was meticulously researched and sourced. Ms. Kershner's defense of the "about half" civilian claim is based on a Gaza correspondent's impressions and on the absence of three names on a Hamas casualty list. Hardly proof, especially when a Palestinian publication states differently.

The New York Times Goldstones Israel Again. Doubles the Number of Civilian Casualties in Gaza

noreply@blogger.com (Our Mission) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:30:00 +0000

There in the middle of an article about Justin Bieber's visit to Israel, The New York Times' Isabel Kershner goldstones Israel.

"Last Thursday, a 16-year-old Israeli boy was critically wounded by an antitank missile fired by Hamas militants at a school bus in [SIC] Gaza.* That triggered days of intense exchanges of fire, during which 18 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, were killed."

So how much is "about half" of 18? How many dead civilians? Eight? Nine? Ten?

Actually, the real number of civilians killed is five. It's relatively easy to find out just by looking at Arab sources in English.  And according to Arab sources, four were in close proximity to terrorists firing missiles at Israel.

   --- Late Breaking: See Ms. Kershner's response below and a newer second response ---

A list of the 18 dead can be found below and on the site of Muslim News. Next to the names, I identified them as "fighters" or "civilians."  That determination is based on linked articles in the Muslim News, the Palestinian Maan News Agency or Human Rights Watch.

1. Mahmoud Al Manasra, 50, Al Shijaeyya. Civilian
2. Mohammad Al Mahmoum, 25, Rafah. Fighter
3. Mosab Al Sufi, 18, Rafah. Fighter
4. Saleh Al Tarabeen, 38, Rafah. Fighter
5. Khaled Ad-Dabary, 23, Rafah. Fighter
6. Mo’taz Abu Jame’, Khan Younis. Fighter
7. Abdullah Al Qarra, Khan Younis. Fighter
8. Nidal Qdeih, 21, Khan Younis. Civilian
9. Najah Qdeih, 48, Khan Younis. Civilian
10. Talal Abu Taha, 55, Khan Younis. Civilian
11. Raed Shihada, 27, northern Gaza. Fighter
12. Bilal Al ‘Ar’ir, 23, Al Shijaeyya. Fighter
13. Mahmoud Al Jaro, 10, Al Shijaeyya. Civilian
14. Ahmad Ghorab, northern Gaza. Fighter
15. Mohammad Awaja, Rafah. Fighter
16. Taiseer Abu Sneima, Rafah. Fighter
17. Ahmad Al Zeitouniyya, northern Gaza. Fighter
18. Zuheir Al Bir, Al Zeitoun neighborhood – Gaza. Fighter

According to Human Rights Watch, "Kamal al-Manasra, a relative of Mahmoud Al Mansara (number 1), who lives next door, and Sami Harazen, said that about 3 p.m. they heard what sounded like a small rocket being launched from somewhere in or near the neighborhood.... 'Two minutes after the rocket, I heard a shell hit my uncle's [Mahmoud's] house,' said Kamal al-Manasra. 'My uncle and his son and brother went over to check on the house, and while they were returning another shell fell on my uncle and killed him.' Harazen gave a similar account, though he believed the Israeli response occurred less than one minute after the rocket launch."

In the case of Nidal (8) and Najah (9) Qdeih, Nidal's uncle Fayez Qdeiah told Human Rights Watch that "he heard three mortars fired by Palestinian armed groups from somewhere nearby."

Human Rights Watch also places another civilian next to a rocket-launching terrorist. "Residents of Shajaiya told Human Rights Watch that members of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad fired mortar rounds from a cemetery in the middle of the neighborhood.... Shortly after the mortar attack, at around 7 p.m., an Israeli strike hit the cemetery but caused no casualties, residents said. About 10 to 15 children from the area ran into the cemetery to look at the strike site. Five minutes later, residents said, a second strike hit the area, killing one of the children, Mahmoud Wael al-Jaro (13), and a member of Islamic Jihad named Bilal al-Areer (12).

View the rocket in the cemetery in this video released by the Israel Defense Forces.

I am thankful for Ms. Kirshner's rapid response:

The school bus in Gaza was obviously an editing error, and I have asked for it to be corrected.
As for the civilian casualty figures, our reporting of the numbers has been based on the information provided by our correspondent in Gaza. I can already see a discrepancy in that your list has all the men killed in Rafah as fighters, whereas he identified three of four killed there on the first day as civilians collecting gravel near the old airport, if I remember rightly. Anyway we have asked for a thorough check and hope to have results soon.

The Times' reliance on local Palestinian stringers and reporters is a serious problem for the western press in general. During the second Intifada, it meant that many reports and dispatches were not factual, to say the least. I responded to The New York Times correspondent:

The listing of the four Rafah men as “fighters” is based on this Maan news report. Notice the pictures of the military funerals, as well. It appears pretty conclusive.

Thursday's Gaza dead laid to rest

Published Friday 08/04/2011 (updated) 09/04/2011 12:00

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Thousands marched in Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza City after Friday prayers, carrying the bodies of seven men killed by Israeli fire the day before. Six of the dead were Al-Qassam fighters, and a seventh a 50-year-old civilian. In Rafah, Al-Qassam members Saleh At-Tarabeen, 38, Mus’ab As-Sufi, 18, Mohammad Al-Mahmoum, 25, and Khaled Ad-Diyari, 33, were marched from the Abu Yousef An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, toward their homes, and then to the Ash-Shuhda Cemetery for burial….

We are looking forward to the Times' "thorough check."

* The Times corrected the location of the bus attack: "Last Thursday, a 16-year-old Israeli boy was critically wounded by an antitank missile fired by Hamas militants from Gaza at a school bus in Israel. That triggered days of intense exchanges of fire, during which 18 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, were killed."