Worth Listening to: "1000 days in Syria," Avi Lipkin

I'm going to be honest.  I don't agree with everything my old buddy Avi Lipkin is up to nowadays, but I think his "1000 days in Syria" talk is excellent and definitely something everyone should listen to.

Avi talks about the Arab spring, Syria and Hillary Clinton.

SOS! USA, UN, Europe, Help Egypt! and Butt Out of Israel

There's a real dangerous emergency situation going on in Egypt.  It started with the "Arab Spring" there not long ago which was celebrated by United States President Obama and other Leftist peace groupies.

At least 15 people are reported to have been killed as Egyptian security forces moved in to clear two protest camps occupied by supporters of deposed president Mohammed Morsi in Cairo.
But the Muslim Brotherhood, which backs the protests, put the number of casualties much higher.
Bursts of gunfire were heard and armoured bulldozers moved in. Security forces fired tear gas. BBC

Poets love to describe "spring" as the sweet smell of flowers and freshly cut grass in the spring, but this spring smells more like the sickly stink of a lot of broken bottles of cheap perfume in a closed space. There has been a lot of blood spilled, too.

Looking back at Obama's speech:

The comments came in Obama's most comprehensive response to date to the uprisings sweeping the Arab world. Speaking at the State Department, he called for the first time for the leader of Syria to embrace democracy or move aside, though without specifically demanding his ouster.
As he addressed audiences abroad and at home, Obama sought to leave no doubt that the U.S. stands behind the protesters who have swelled from nation to nation across the Middle East and North Africa, while also trying to convince American viewers that U.S. involvement in unstable countries halfway around the world is in their interest, too.
Obama said the United States has a historic opportunity and the responsibility to support the rights of people clamoring for freedoms, and he called for "a new chapter in American diplomacy."
"We know that our own future is bound to this region by the forces of economics and security; history and faith," the president said.
He hailed the killing of al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and declared that bin Laden's vision of destruction was fading even before U.S. forces shot him dead.
Obama said the "shouts of human dignity are being heard across the region."
The president noted that two leaders had stepped down - referring to Egypt and Tunisia - and said that "more may follow." He quoted civilian protesters who have pushed for change in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen but noted that among those nations, only Egypt has seen the departure of a long-ruling autocratic leader.

If Israel has any questions, as it should, about American expertise in understanding the Arab mentality and culture of "democracy," it should just consult with Egypt's Morsi.

As of just a few extremely short years ago, Egypt was a bastion of stability in the Arab world.  That's  why many Israeli politicians of the Right and Left agreed that PM Menachem Begin had done the right thing to give the Sinai to Egypt.  I davka disagree with them, as does Caroline Glick.

As the intervening 32 years since the treaty was signed have shown, in essence, the deal was nothing more than a ceasefire. Israel surrendered the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and in exchange, Egypt has not staged a military attack against Israel from its territory. 

The peace treaty's critics maintain that the price Israel paid was too high and so the treaty was unjustified. They also argue that Israel set a horrible precedent for future negotiations with its neighbors by ceding the entire Sinai in exchange for the treaty. Moreover, they note that Palestinian autonomy agreement in the treaty was a terrible deal. And it set the framework for the disastrous Oslo peace process with the PLO 15 years later. 

For their part, supporters of the treaty claim that the precedent it set was terrific for Israel. The treaty cites the borders of the Palestine Mandate as Israel's legal borders. And since the Mandate envisioned a Jewish state on both banks of the Jordan River, at a minimum the peace treaty sets a precedent for a future annexation of the west bank of the Jordan. -Caroline Glick

But with the explosive situation in Egypt, things can get much worse once a ruler decides to distract the people from their own problems.

Considering that the American brokered "peace sic plan" hinges on the reliability and stability of an Arab terror state that doesn't exist, and the precedent of a treaty that is on the verge of collapse, I think we should cut our losses and get on with building our country, the State of Israel.

The Advantage of the "Israeli Bubble," or Eye of the Storm

Quite a number of years ago, I blogged on Arutz 7's English site.  Actually I probably still can, since they didn't tell me to stop.  I just found it time consuming and there were too many quirks to the process needed.  I called my A7 blog "The Eye of the Storm."  That's because things do look different and lots calmer in my hometown of Shiloh than you'd think from what you read or hear in the media.

The Forward has an article claiming that our "Israeli Bubble" is dangerous and shields us from reality.

Ironic, but also predictable. The effectiveness of the barrier is twofold: It has stopped terrorist attacks, and it also has made it possible to live in (West) Jerusalem or in Tel Aviv and pretend that the Occupation doesn’t exist.
Unfortunately, this is a delusion — a bubble — with severe consequences. South Jerusalem, after all, is home not just to the German Colony’s liberals, but also to the neocons at the Shalem Center, now Shalem College, who for decades have peddled the idea that there is no hope for peace with the Palestinians, and (in the words of Daniel Gordis, one of Shalem’s most articulate spokesmen) we should settle in for 100 years of occupation. Regrettable, Rabbi Gordis says, but inevitable.
This is a self-fulfilling prophecy, of course. Claim that there’s no Palestinian partner, undermine those Palestinians who are, and lo and behold, soon there will be no Palestinian partner. If you will it, the 100-year war will be no dream.
But the real delusion is deeper still: that somehow, the rest of the world will sit idly by and allow this situation to worsen, year after year, decade after decade, without finally turning on Israel. In the bubble of southern Jerusalem, Israel is a complex but miraculous place where kids can play in the street, the Jews have a home and bus drivers read Shakespeare. The matzav, the “situation” with the Palestinians, is an unfortunate side-note to an otherwise complicated, fascinating, problematic, multi-faceted, beautiful, tragic enterprise in Jewish self-determination.
Outside the bubble, however, the Palestinian “situation” is not a side-note but the primary tune. It’s everything else about Israel that is merely secondary. To most of the world, Israel is defining itself by the Occupation, and all the rest is commentary.

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/181552/forgetting-the-mideast-conflict-is-easy-in-israel/?p=all#ixzz2bALHnLIM

Wine glasses create non-uniform
distortion of their background

I disagree.  I think we see things much more clearly from here.  There are no distortions.  When you look into a "bubble" from the outside you won't get an accurate view.

Over twenty years ago, when one of my daughters was looking for a place to do Sherut Le'umi, National Service, she and a few friends went to a city they considered far from the then intifada and politics of the yishuvim (Jewish communities in YESHA, Judea, Samaria and Gaza) they lived in.  They just wanted what they imagined to be a "normal" place.  Imagine their surprise when the greatest topic of conversation at the Shabbat table was  happening in YESHA.  At home they didn't hear as much. 

Here in Shiloh we go on with our lives.  The parents of young children are worrying about who will be teaching their kids next year and rushing around to buy books, clothes and school supplies, just like everyone else.

In Yafiz, (and Rami Levy,) Sha'ar Binyamin, where I work, Jews and Arabs are jostling around together shopping.  We're living proof that people like Jay Michaelson who wrote the Forward article haven't a clue.  They're letting their ideology distort their vision.

The calm here isn't a lie.  The Left and all those who claim that the Arabs will explode in violence aren't objectively predicting.  They are instigating and encouraging Arab violence by making excuses and rationales for the Arabs.

I'm on the inside.  I work with Arabs.  And if the world, including Israeli Leftists, media, politicians, academics and community workers would just leave things alone we would eventually achieve a true peace.  It will take a long, long time, but it can happen.

True peace can't be negotiated.  True peace comes from the inside and works its way out.  Faux peace, implemented by "treaties" is external and wears off, like the "democracy" of the "Arab Spring," which has been proven a deadly farce.

Arab Spring à la Latma

There's nothing like Latma's Tribal Update to make sense out of the news.



It's not enough just to watch and enjoy the shows from Latma.  Latma need our support:

Latma is funded by donations from private individuals who believe that the voice of Zionism must be heard, loud and clear, in Israel and throughout the world. We need your help in order to stay open and continue sounding our voices.

If you are in the United States, Latma is  funded by donations to the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Israel Security Project which I direct. If you would like to contribute to our work, which is funded entirely by viewer contributions, please go to this link.

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Caroline Glick

Shabbat shalom

Arab Spring Sprung Out of Control

Leftist media, politicians, ideologues led by the Obama-Clinton government lauded the riots that heralded what they dubbed "Arab spring," but the truth is that the demonstrators rioters were not innocent, well-meaning human and civil rights activists.  They were dangerous, violent anarchists and worse.

The citizens of those Arab countries are not enjoying new freedoms and western-style democracies.  It shouldn't surprise anyone who actually paid attention; life is hell, yes, even more hellish than before.

Egypt, which had been a strong ally of the United States now isn't thanks to the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi as well describe in this Tablet article.

Ruthie Blum, expert in the Carter-Obama-Carter foreign policy disasters tells more about what's happening in Iran and how totally oblivious the United States is to reality.  (Shades of Jimmy Carter, nu?)

Iran’s useful idiots in Washington

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave an interview to Bloomberg Radio, in which she reiterated Washington’s position on how to best prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Negotiations, she said, are “by far the best approach.”

This should not have come as a surprise to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is used to being snubbed by the administration of President Barack Obama. Nor did anyone else – least of all the regime in Tehran – fail to note that Clinton’s dismissal of “deadlines” and “red lines” was aimed directly at Israel.

United States President Barack Hussein Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary (still wannabe president?) Clinton are still refusing to admit that sweet-talking aka "negotiating" with the Iranians is the worst way to stop their nuclear weapons program.  They are fixated on 1950's failed child psychology methods.

Listen to Frank Gaffney response to Obama's nomination speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. hat tip Israel Matzav




Hillary Clinton actually admits that she hasn't a clue but refuses to take responsibility and admit personal failure.

Today, speaking about the despicable and stomach-wrenching attacks by Islamists on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and our embassy in Cairo, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked: “How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?”
 That single line is the most damning indictment of Hillary Clinton’s State Department that could ever be penned. It demonstrates her complete lack of knowledge about the region, her failure to anticipate security threats, and worst of all, her willful ignorance about the Islamists that she and President Obama trusted to take over Libya and Egypt.

The United States Embassy in Yemen was attacked and how did the Americans react?



How can people still refer to the United States of America as a world power?

Widespread damage was caused when the US consulate in Benghazi was stormed

 The United States is in trouble.

11 September

1. US embassy in Cairo attacked, flag torn down and replaced with an Islamist banner
2. Mob attacks US consulate in Benghazi, US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans killed
13 September
3. Protesters break into the US embassy compound in Sanaa, Yemen, amid clashes with security forces
Further violence reported in Cairo

Does the USA really want or need another four years of Barack Hussein Obama?