War or Not War on The Syrian Front?

Please don't get me wrong. I don't like war. So when I recommend fighting our (Israel's) enemies it's not from a love of fighting.  It's strictly because I want us to live and survive.  It's like chemotherapy and surgery as a cure for cancer.  I've never heard of anyone who enjoys and looks forward to that. But if you want to live in good health, sometimes you must take difficult, unpleasant and risky steps.

As of late, Israel doing just that with Syria on our northern border.  Our military actions there are G-d willing going to prevent that enemy of world peace, Syria, from getting stronger and more dangerous.  Arlene Kushner has been writing some excellent articles about the issue/situation.  Here's the latest.

The original expectation that Syria would not retaliate for Israel's hits inside of that country appears to be holding true:
A Syrian government official has indicated that Syria would not be responding "immediately:  "Syria will respond to the Israeli aggression and will choose the moment to do so. It might not be immediate because Israel now is on high alert.  We will wait but we will answer."
It has been suggested that statements by Israel regarding the need to prevent Iranian weaponry from making its way to Hezbollah provides a possible out for Syria. While indeed, the strikes were on Syrian soil, they weren't intended as attacks on Syria -- which would require a response. (complete article)

And of course the best way to prevent war is prevention.  This Times of Israel article explains that.

photo credit: Yossi Zeliger/Flash90

On June 7, 1981, eight F-16s destroyed Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear reactor in Baghdad. Less than a day later, the government of prime minister Menachem Begin acknowledged that the Israel Air Force was behind the attack, acting on the imperative to prevent an enemy state from obtaining nuclear weapons.

In 2013, three airstrikes were carried out in Syria — one on January 30 and two over the past weekend — that reportedly destroyed weapons convoys on their way to Israel’s enemies in Lebanon. All three attacks were blamed on Israel, but the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained radio silence. (In February, then-defense minister Ehud Barak hinted at Israeli involvement in the earlier strike but stopped short of directly acknowledging it.)  (complete article)

Israel is celebrating Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, tonight and tomorrow.  It's now forty-six (46) years since the 1967 Six Days War, when Israel survived a war against three enemy states, Egypt Jordan and Syria.  Their expressed and publicized aim had been to destroy Israel push all Israelis into the sea to die.  This was no surprise attack.  They, Ehypt, Syria and Jordan proudly announced this to all as they gathered their troops. Egypt ordered the United Nations to take away the "peacekeeper" forces that had been stationed just to prevent such an attack. And the United Nations quickly complied with Nasser's demands.

World Jewry prayed and the world stood by, watched and waited to see what would happen.  That's why when I hear those useless, bombastic promises by American leaders to "stand by" Israel if we're attacked, I find no comfort.  I remember what standing by really means.  It's waiting like vultures to pick up the scraps that would be left, G-d forbid, if Israel was to be destroyed. We can't count on anyone, just G-d and ourselves.

There's an Israel Hayom article by Dr. Ronen Yitzchak that discusses how unreliable United States President Barack Hussein Obama and other western leaders are when it comes to following through on their threats.

The West does not really want to intervene

In a December 4 speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair, Obama said "I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command, the world is watching. The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."

Damascus received warnings from other European leaders as well. British Prime Minister David Cameron warned of a military option should Assad cross the red line and French president Francois Hollande declared unequivocally that "the international community will not stand idly by."

...

This is Obama's moment of truth. The lack of an appropriate military response in Syria will prove to the world, and especially to Iran, that his threats hold no weight. The conclusion is obvious: In the long run, Israel will not be able to rely on Western threats against Iran's nuclear program, because when push comes to shove they could turn out to be empty threats.

The West will not agree with Israel's red line, and will have a hard time admitting it was ever crossed. It will seek compromises and dither -- past the stage when it is possible to act militarily. (complete article)

 

The United States is an enormous country.  Even taking into account, attacks like the Boston marathon bombing, the continued existence of the USA is never in danger.  The same holds for  most of the west, so they haven't a clue as to the security needs of the State of Israel.  And in all honesty, I don't think they care.

The State of Israel must make its security decisions and policy according to what is best for us and not follow any other country's advice.

And will there be a war with Syria?  I don't know. But one thing for sure is that we must weaken them and show no fear.

The FBI and IDF à la Latma and Two Important Articles

Definitely one of Latma's best...

The Tribal Update brings you a revealing interview with the commanding officer in Judea and Samaria and a glimpse into the FBI's investigation into the Boston Marathon bomber.

And another couple of articles that are definitely worth reading:

Caroline Glick's Time to confront Obama in which she explains in detail how bad and dangerous United States policy is when I comes to Iran, Syria and their internal security.  The article  also appears in the Jerusalem Post.

I also highly recommend reading Ruthie Blum's latest article which she wrote  for  Communities at WashingtonTimes.com,   Richard Falk and Radical Islam and also Israel Hayom.

Sorry, But Not All Mothers are The Same

Leftist philosophy and culture are based on a popular fallacy that we're all the same deep down.  Sorry Charley, but that isn't true, not at all.  Not everyone has the same basic values, not even mothers.  Similar to the Japanese World War Two kamikaze pilots who flew their planes and themselves into American targets to destroy and die, Arabs and Muslims value and praise dying if it kills the enemy.  That's what's behind the mentality, philosophy of "suicide bombers," the Arab terrorists who strap themselves with explosives to blow up Israelis and plan on dying in the process.  The families of these terrorists proudly celebrate those acts.  The idea that their son or daughter died killing Jews makes them very happy.

Paula Stern, A Soldier's Mother, wrote about the Boston Marathon Bombers' mother and her eerie reaction to her older son's death and what those two boys did.

The mother of the two brothers is Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. In this interview, she speaks of her sons Tamerlan and Tzhokhar Tsarnaevso to CNN.

“If they are going to kill him. I don’t care. My oldest son has been killed, and I don’t care. I don’t care if my youngest son is going to be killed today. I want the world to hear this. And, I don’t care if I am going to get killed too. Okay? And I will say Allahu Akbar! That's what I'm going to say!“  -- Zubeidat Tsarnaeva 

The surviving brother, all of 19 years old, has said the actions they took were to defend Islam. His words, combined with his mother's words make it clear what the motive was. It is, once again, a message from a culture that cares more for martyrdom than life.

This is the woman, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, whose children are murderers, terrorists. 

At one appointment, Tsarnaeva “started quoting a conspiracy theory, telling me how she thought 9/11 was purposely created by the American government to make Americans hate Muslims,” Alyssa 23, wrote on her blog of her visits to the apartment. (complete article)

Now, why did the Tsarnaeva family move to the United States?  I think that Americans should be very, very nervous about their immigrant population from certain countries and cultures.  I'm just being very pragmatic.

Listen to her words.



If this is for real, shouldn't she be arrested?

Those Hidden Cameras, Catching the Boston Marathon Bombers, Almost Like the Book "Act of Treason"

Innocuous, hidden cameras are all around us.  I tell customers who are dressing/trying on clothes or undressing/dressing their kids in a corner of the store where I work that there are people watching and filming them.  It's actually no secret that there are cameras all around.  There's a screen alternating the various camera feeds for all to see at the קופה ראשית Cupah Roshit, "mini-office," customer relations corner in between the entrance and exit of the Sha'ar Binyamin Rami Levy supermarket.  They've recently upgraded to color from blurry black and white, so I asked jokingly to the manager of the shift if I should now start worrying about wearing makeup to work.

Just a couple of days ago when the American security authorities began asking the public who had been taking pictures of the Boston Marathon at the time of the bombing for all pictures, still and moving, so they could try to get a filmed record of what happened and who could have left the bombs, I thought of a book I had recently read, Act of Treason by Vince Flynn.

In Flynn's book, the fact that someone had placed himself behind a pole (or was it a tree?) at the time of the fatal explosion made one of investigators suspicious and ended up being the key to the successful investigation.  That summary of the book doesn't do it justice.  I did enjoy reading it but had to throw it out, since my copy was old and falling apart.  Who would have thought that just a couple of months after I had read the book, it would be so timely?

Most of us are totally oblivious to the fact that in today's world there are security cameras all over.  And even if there aren't security cameras, there are other cameras filming us.  I remember reading that a philanderer was caught cheating when his wife saw him with another woman when they were watching the then popular Woody Allen movie Annie Hall.  Allen had filmed some real life street scenes, without asking each and every person's permission and inadvertently included that man driving around with his lover.

Some food for thought...
Someone is watching us all of the time.  Why are we more afraid of being filmed and spied on by humans than the fact that G-d sees, hears and knows everything we do, all places and all times?  We can't hide from G-d, even though men can't always catch and punish the guilty...

Nu, So The American Terrorists in Boston Aren't Arab, They're Just Muslims

Consider the title of this post food for thought. 

Photo: EPA

And here's something I commented to some articles I found in the internet about the capture of the Boston Marathon Bombers:

I think the Americans should treat those bombers just the way Israel treats Arab terrorists and give them visits, education and a chance to be released when their supporters hold innocent people hostage. And if you think America shouldn't, then maybe Israel should learn from Americans how to punish murderers. 

I added to that a link to my post about the death penalty and the importance of using it against terrorists.

Death Penalty for Murdering-Terrorists! 

Terrorists are more dangerous than "regular" criminals, because they have ideology pushing them, which makes them believe that their criminal acts can be justified.

According to the New York Times, the bombers were known to the FBI after the older one spent six months with his father, but after being investigated, nothing was discovered.

The brothers were born in Kyrgyzstan, an official said, and were of Chechen heritage. Chechnya, a long-disputed Muslim territory in southern Russia, sought independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union and then fought two bloody wars with the authorities in Moscow. Russian assaults on Chechnya were brutal, killing tens of thousands of civilians as terrorist groups from the region staged attacks in central Russia.  

No doubt all of the information they have is now being reassessed.

“We went to Chechnya to visit relatives,” Mr. Tsarnaev said in an interview in Russia.

The trip will come under intense scrutiny to determine whether he met with extremist groups or received training, current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials said. Kevin R. Brock, a former senior F.B.I. and counterterrorism official, said, “It’s a key thread for investigators and the intelligence community to pull on.”

Now to get back to my earlier comment about how to treat terrorists. In America there is talk about treating the surviving bomber differently from the way they would treat a regular criminal/suspect.

The seeds of arguments to come were already apparent, however. Questions arose concerning the arrest and prosecution of the surviving brother, and whether he should be given a Miranda warning and other elements of constitutional rights in criminal cases. Further attention surrounds the government’s early scrutiny of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and whether warning signs may have been missed.

In the hours after the arrest, Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona, both Republicans, issued a statement late Friday calling for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is a naturalized American citizen, to be treated like a terrorist, not a criminal, with reduced constitutional rights and no right to remain silent as promised in Miranda warnings.

In Israel we give the terrorists too many rights.  We also keep them alive, even when we know that they are killers/murderers. And then they are traded for kidnapped Israelis.  It would make much more sense for us to execute them.  I wonder what the Americans will do with the one they have captured.

Arab Terrorists Attack Eliat; No One is Immune

I've been blogging about that horrid, cruel deadly attack on the Boston Marathon.  Please don't think I consider Israel immune from such things.  Arab terrorists in the Sinai launched rockets at the southern city of Eilat today.

Two rockets were fired at southern Israel's city of Eilat from the Sinai Peninsula this morning (Wednesday, April 17).

We shouldn't think the rockets as harmless, just because there was minimal damage. 

Islamic Militant group in Sinai claims responsibility; one rocket falls at building site, second falls in open area.

Landing site of rocket in Eilat, April 17, 2013. Photo: Spokesperson police southern region

       

 

At least two Grad rockets fired from the Sinai area hit Israel's southernmost city of Eilat on Wednesday morning, causing no injuries but some damage.   
An Islamist militant group in the Sinai Peninsula Magles Shoura al-Mujahadin claimed responsibility for the attack on its website on Wednesday saying it targeted Eilat with two Grad missiles and then withdrew safely. (Jerusalem Post)

The Sinai was once the buffer zone for Israel, when we had control of it, from the end of the 1967 Six Days War until then Prime Minister Menachem Begin decided to give it back to Egypt.  Now, especially considering the chaos in Egypt, there's nobody to keep the peace in the Sinai.  It's just the place for Arab terrorism to fester, because it's mostly empty and has a long coastline.

There are no better defense than land and G-d to be perfectly honest.  Land makes it more difficult for enemies to get close, and G-d makes the missile or bullet fall harmlessly.  And don't forget, we can't count on G-d to always make the enemy miss.

Israel's victories are not due to superior weapons or soldiers.  We have defeated our enemies, even when we had insufficient arms.  And no doubt you can easily list militarily strong and advanced countries that have lost wars.  There's also a matter of soldiers' motivation, and there's also that secret, uncontrollable factor which is very involved in Israel's wars.  That's the Yad Elokim, The Hand of G-d.  We must never take for granted that G-d will always save us.  We must make our efforts, and like with "matching funds" if we give, so will G-d.

How Can You Capture an Enemy When You Don't Know Whom to Look for?

From what I've been reading and hearing on the news, American security, police still haven't a clue as to who, what and why the Boston Marathon was bombed.  Confusion reins.

A runner near Boston's Kenmare Square after yesterday's explosions.(Getty Images/Alex Trautwig)

BOSTON (CBS) – Federal and local investigators are asking the public to come forward with information, photos, or video to help them track down who’s responsible for the deadly explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line.
Officials said they had received 2,000 tips as of noon on Tuesday.
Three people were killed and 176 hurt when two bombs went off Monday afternoon on Boylston Street. 17 of the injured are in critical condition.

That doesn't sound encouraging, not at all.  It's easier to search for a needle in a haystack, because at least then you know you're looking for  a needle.

Officials from Boston to Washington seemed overwhelmed by the task of managing the aftermath of the shocking terror attack at the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday. Though the White House called the two bombings acts of “terror,” President Barack Obama declined to do so in his remarks to the nation--and the Department of Homeland Security had not issued any terror alerts as of Tuesday morning, as might be expected.Meanwhile, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick referred to the site of the terror attacks in downtown Boston as a “crime scene,” and could not answer reporters’ questions about whether and how people would be able to commute to the area as usual the following morning.
“We are very much going to depend on you,” he told journalists during a press conference stuffed with politicians and law enforcement officials--but very few answers.

Will Americans begin to fear large public gatherings?



The one thing the police and other security experts know is that the bombs were made by experts who were trained in bomb making to cause the mot physical human damage. A there more of those sorts of bombs stored away waiting to be used in other American locations against more innocent United States citizens?

BOSTON — The explosives that killed three people and injured more than 170 during the Boston Marathon on Monday were most likely rudimentary devices made from ordinary kitchen pressure cookers, except they were rigged to shoot sharp bits of shrapnel into anyone within reach of their blast and maim them severely, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Apparently the bombs were made of commonly sold kitchen equipment, so it would be difficult to trace the bomber.

I  see this American style terrorism as very different from what we suffer from here in Israel. Our Arab terrorist and international Leftwing enemies proudly brag about their aims to destroy us.  See PMW

What Was The Point of That Boston Marathon Bombing?

What is there to say besides רפואה שלימה Refuah Shleimah,  Complete Recovery to the injured and May G-d Comfort the mourners?  The United States is a frightening place.

In America, one doesn't quite know who, where and what are dangerous.  What was the point, the aim of that Boston Marathon bombing?  Has anarchy reached the streets and events of the United States of America?  I don't quite see it as the terrorism as I know it living here in Israel when nobody is quite sure who the bombers are and what they want.

At least 3 dead, more than 100 hurt after two bombs explode at Boston Marathon
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/15/explosion-reported-near-finish-line-boston-marathon-spokesman-says/#ixzz2QbFO2Dav

The deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon that killed at least three and injured more than 130 is believed to be an act of terrorism, senior White House officials told Fox News.
Two explosions tore through the finish line of the world-famous race just before 3 p.m., going off simultaneously as throngs of onlookers watched runners complete the 26.2-mile trek. The timing of the blasts immediately sparked suspicions of a deliberate act.
“When multiple devices go off, that’s an act of terrorism,” a senior administration official told Fox News, just moments after President Obama delivered a statement to the nation and did not use the word “terror.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/15/explosion-reported-near-finish-line-boston-marathon-spokesman-says/#ixzz2QbGcKV4u

I've ranted plenty about winning that American security check lottery aka random checking.  Israeli security practices profiling, which judges/analyzes me as what I am, a harmless overweight grandmother.  During my last trip to the states a few months ago, I was "patted down" so frequently, most of the time being told, "just random checking."  Too bad I hadn't bought a lottery ticket; I could have won a million dollars instead, since my name was coming up so often.

I live in Israel.  I'm the survivor of a terror attack.  I was even injured in that attack, though very lightly.  I've lost friends and neighbors to terror attacks, so please don't consider me blind to the dangers.  In all honesty, I think America is a more frightening place.  We here in Israel have some idea who our enemies are.  In the USA, considering the impossibility to predict attacks, shootings, etc. the attacker may be anyone at all, a disgruntled and/or unstable child, teen, employee, neighbor, family member or stranger.  And, yes, there may also be foreign anarchists and terrorists ideologically and culturally related to the same Arab terrorists who want to murder Jews and destroy the State of Israel.

I ask in all sincerity:

How Americans can protect themselves from such dangers?

Honestly, I don't know.