Coalition Politics: How To Banish Avigdor Lieberman to The Sidelines

There are many dimensions to the political situation present in Israel right now. On one hand I agree with the various opinions of Arlene Kushner, Caroline Glick and Ruthie Blum.

But last night as I was falling asleep, I suddenly had the solution to the Avigdor Lieberman problem. He has evolved or devolved from a strong Right wing Likud activist politician to a dangerous political anarchist, who gets his kicks from breaking up government coalitions and driving most everyone crazy. Inexplicably he has enough followers to keep him in the Knesset with sufficient MKs to stymie every possible coalition. Avigdor Lieberman wants to be the kingmaker and Prime Minister. I've come up with a way to lock Lieberman out of the government.

It's pretty obvious, once you think about it. Of course it's based on a shaky double "if."

If both Gantz and Bibi really want to avoid another useless round of Knesset Elections...

If both Gantz and Bibi really are sick of Avigdor Lieberman's dangerous political games...

Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu and Blue & White's Benny Gantz do no need Avigdor Lieberman to form a broad coalition together. Both parties got over thirty 30 seats in the last elections. Together that's the majority needed to form a government. Both of them can say that:

"For the good of the State of Israel, we must have a strong government, a broad-based government of Right, Left, religious and secular. We welcome all parties, all MKs who want to work together for the betterment and security of the State of Israel into our coalition."

That's it. That's what most Israeli citizens really want.

Can someone please send them the message ASAP...

Good News! Ruthie Blum Back in Jerusalem Post

Now that Caroline Glick, has decided to throw her hat into the political ring, the Jerusalem Post knew that they were losing a bit draw, so now Ruthie Blum is being featured on the back page of Friday's paper. If I'm not mistaken she will have an opinion piece there every two weeks.

I'm very happy about this. Of course I'd like it if we could read both Glick and Blum, but...

RIGHT FROM WRONG: THE LOST-CAUSE CAMPAIGN TO CHALLENGE PM

For complete article click here.

And he's more of Ruthie Blum. Listen, she's great!

Read and Listen Carefully: Bibi Did Not Cancel "Two State Solution!"

I'm carefully going over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Speech to the United Nations General Assembly, and I see these very clear words:

Our challenge is to transform these common interests to create a productive partnership. One that would build a more secure, peaceful and prosperous Middle East. Together we can strengthen regional security. We can advance projects in water, agriculture, in transportation, in health, in energy, in so many fields. I believe the partnership between us can also help facilitate peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Many have long assumed that an Israeli-Palestinian peace can help facilitate a broader rapprochement between Israel and the Arab World...
...That’s why in any peace agreement, which will obviously necessitate a territorial compromise, I will always insist that Israel be able to defend itself by itself against any threat. (emphasis mine)

I can't find any statement in his speech to make me believe that he has given up on the "Two State Solution." I also don't like the fact that he referred to Mahmoud Abbas as "president."

I don't see what Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) is so sure is a change in policy.

Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Hotovely said Netanyahu’s speech sent a loud and clear message that the so-called “two-state solution” is dead.
"The speech yesterday was the way to tell the world that the two-state solution had died. Netanyahu told the world that Abbas and Hamas are the same, they want to destroy Israel," she said.

Maybe her English isn't that good or she's just reading her own thoughts into her boss's speech. The Arutz 7 reporter should have asked her to quote the words on which she's basing this assumption. Sorry Charley, but I just don't see it.

Even my good friend Ruthie Blum and I don't agree about the value of Bibi's speech. I found her Israel Hayom article,  Words Matter, too optimistic. I even dared to call her a "moderate" in our public facebook discussion.

For me, the unabashed purist/extremist I need to hear two very simple things from our Prime Minister. I want steps and conclusions from the observations he makes so very clearly in his foreign speeches:

1. No more negotiations for a "Palestinian State" in land Israel liberated in the defensive war, June, 1967. On the eve of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, I admit that proposing such a state, giving our Land to our enemy was a great sin!
2. Due to the fact that the so-called United Nations "Human Rights" Council and other UN bodies concentrate on condemning Israel, rather than true international problems, I don't see the point in Israel's continued membership in this body. United Nations membership has not done Israel any good. We are just supporting our enemies here, so I bid you farewell. Israel is withdrawing its membership.

Honestly, yes, again, just call me an "extremist," I consider our membership in these bodies a dangerous waste of our limited resources.

And after that we must take action against the countries that don't recognize Jerusalem as Israel's Capitol City and start moving all of our foreign embassies to cities of our choice, just like they've done to us. 

The Problems Being a Jewish Mother Patriot

Ruthie Blum reveals just how hard it is for a Jewish mother to be a patriot at the time of war.

Maternal cognitive dissonance
On Thursday night, after 10 days of aerial warfare between Hamas terrorists and Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a ground incursion into Gaza. It was a move that much of the public, many members of the political echelon and the thousands of reservists who had been called up eight days earlier, felt was long overdue...
...Because of this, when rumors that the infantry was given the order to enter Gaza were confirmed, I was among many Israelis who heaved a huge sigh of relief. I even apologized to Netanyahu under my breath and on Facebook for having doubted the skillful manner in which he was handling Operation Protective Edge.
I simultaneously began to panic.
It is one thing to be convinced, as I was and still am, that a ground incursion (with Israeli soldiers going literally and figuratively door-to-door to snuff and stomp out terrorists and tunnels) is the way to go. It is quite another to cheer on such a campaign when one's own child is taking part in it.

An infantry reservist, my son was called up on July 9.

Geula Cohen with son
MK Tzachi Hanegbi

It doesn't matter how gung-ho a mother may be, she's still a mother and a Jewish mother is among the most paranoid and overprotective you'll find anyplace in this world.

Geula Cohen and I

Ruthie is in good company. Former MK and Jewish Underground Lechi (Stern Gang) heroine Geula Cohen has been heard to say during the time, those years that Gilad Schalit was being held by Hamas Arab Terrorists that if it were her son she'd fight like mad to get him released no matter what the cost, but she would also hope that nobody would listen to her. Because a mother's protective instinct isn't always what's best for the nation.

As hard as it is at times to send our sons off to war, or when they are independent married adults, know that they are in danger on the front-lines, we also know that for the safety and security and future of The State of Israel sometimes we must fight. When I look at the graves of the young men who were killed by Arab terrorists in our Shiloh Cemetery, I know too well that if we don't go out to fight our enemies, they will come to us. That's what terrorism is, the "convenient war." One doesn't even need to wear an army uniform to be killed.

It's better to go down fighting and to kill, destroy the Arab terrorists or they will just come here to kill us and destroy the State of Israel.

May this war be the war to destroy the Hamas Arab terrorists, speedily and with as few Jewish casualties as possible.

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach!

May We all Have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat!

"Maybe He'll be Prime Minister," No Longer a Blessing

The other day while riding Jerusalem Lightrail, there was a bored, angry toddler in his stroller next to me. His mother kept trying to prevent him from kicking me, but at one point she wasn't paying attention and he kicked my bag. I didn't have patience for that sort of behavior knowing how quickly it could escalate, so I asked her to have him face a different direction. She was understanding and moved him.

That would have had been the end of the story, and certainly not anything worth blogging about if an older woman (actually older than me) who was sitting across from us hadn't interfered.

"He's so cute. So what's the beg deal if he kicks you. It won't actually do you any harm."
"When you allow toddlers like this to kick and hit big people, they'll just learn to kick and hit younger ones, too." I replied.
"Oh, no, I used to teach little sweeties like him, and there's nothing wrong with what he did.  He may even grow up to be Prime Minister."
"Like Olmert?" I just couldn't resist saying. "Nowadays saying he'll be Prime Minister is no compliment."

She looked at me blankly, while the man sitting next to her almost lost his battle to keep in the laughter.

Actually, it's very sad that we can't count on anyone in any position to be perfectly honest, free from crime and cheating.  It seems like the "high places/positions" are full of people who aren't living according to law. The expression "above the law" seems to be their creed.

Sadly various forms of "cheating" exist in all levels of society as Ruthie Blum wrote in today's article in Israel Hayom.

But the effect this is having on average Joes indicates that it is going to take a lot more than a judge's outrage to eliminate illegal wheeling and dealing, which extends way beyond -- or rather far beneath -- high society.This week alone, I have witnessed three instances of cognitive dissonance in relation to Olmert that could keep the country's psychiatrists in clover for decades.On Tuesday, a taxi driver suggested not turning on the meter so he could fix the price. I refused. He was annoyed. But our conversation quickly turned to Olmert."Good for the judge," he said. "Enough with all these crooked politicians." (read the complete article)

For idealists like ourselves it hurts. I'll never forget how when many years ago for a school-recommended IQ Test for my older daughters, during the "parent background interview" the educational psychologist asked me if they each had a strong "sense of justice." I answered in the affirmative which wouldn't surprise anyone who knows them today.  That's how I was raised and how I raised my children, all of them.

I'm glad that there are some strong moral judges on the bench like Tel Aviv District Court Judge David Rozen who sentences Olmert, and I pray that the sentence will stand, that Olmert's lawyers won't succeed in their appeals.

If we are to improve Israeli society and values it must start from the top. I'm encouraged also by the recent nonacceptance of adultery of Israeli leaders. So far, most of the men targeted by the media's equivalent of the "first wives club" have been from the Right, but G-d willing, things will equalize as the issue gets more popular.

This week's Torah Portion is Bechukotai, In My Laws...
From Rabbi Yehuda Appel on Aish.com:

This week's Torah portion, Bechukotai, deals with the tremendous responsibilities given to the Jewish people. Just as each individual has a task to improve the world, so too the Jewish people have that role.
In the parsha, God addresses the Jewish people collectively, informing them of the severity of judgements - ranging from illness to exile - that they will face if they do not follow His path. The harshness of these afflictions can be seen as a direct correlation to the importance of the Jewish people's mission. As the nation who has been entrusted with God's instructions for creating a perfect society, the Jewish people are held to a higher standard.
On the other hand, at the beginning of the parsha, God promises the Jewish people that "if you walk in My laws and guard My commandments," you will be blessed with great peace and wealth. As much potential as there is for tragedy, great blessing can also be theirs.

Davka... yes, this week...

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach

May You have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat

For Truth and Common Sense re:Peace in the Middle East, Listen to Ruthie, Caroline and Arlene!

Honestly I've given up on the politicians running this precious country, Israel. On rare occasions we'll hear a wise word or two and then the mask and muzzle return. Even those who seem to understand reality when campaigning undergo some sort of lobotomy or brain transplant or could it be some high-tech zapping of the brain that preprograms our elected leaders to follow the script/screenplay of the anti-Israel radical Left...

They are blinded and deaf to the simple truth. Sometimes I think I'm the only one who sees the facts as they are. And then I read articles by three brilliant women, Ruthie Blum, Caroline Glick and Arlene Kushner. I'm not alone, thank G-d. And even more important Ruthie, Caroline and Arlene enjoy a much wider audience than I usually get, although some of my articles are published in the Jewish Press.

I'm going to quote excerpts from recent articles they've written, and I suggest you follow their writing.

Ruthie Blum:

Never mind that these "differences" involve the Palestinians' aim to delegitimize and destroy Israel. Forget about the fact that PA officials are open about this goal in Arabic. Indeed, mere days ago, Abbas Zaki -- a senior official close to Abbas -- gave an interview in which he said, "These Israelis have no belief, no principles. They are an advanced instrument of evil. They say, the Holocaust, and so on -- fine, why are they doing this to us? Therefore, I believe that Allah will gather them so we can kill them. I am informing the murderer of his death" (official PA TV, March 12, 2014, provided and translated by Palestinian Media Watch).

The peace fantasists and Palestinian apologists prefer to look the other way. This is why Obama was happy with Abbas' performance at the White House, such as when he said: "Time is so tight and we don't have any to waste, particularly given the extremely difficult situations in the Middle East. ... We hope the fourth batch of prisoners will be released on the 29th of March, which will give a very solid impression on the seriousness of all efforts exerted to achieve peace."

Caroline Glick:

By claiming that the cause of the conflict, and through it all the problems of the region owe to the absence of a Palestinian state, and by claiming that the reason that such a state doesn’t exist is because Israel won’t surrender sufficient quantities of land to appease Palestinian demands, the two-state formula says that the Jews are responsible for everything bad in the region.
Israel’s demand that our “moderate” Palestinian “peace partners” recognize our right to national self-determination in our historic homeland is an attempt by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to take this hallucinatory policy and force it into reality.
In reality, the reason that the conflict began, and the reason it continues to this day is because the Arabs writ large, including the Palestinians, and the Islamic political world reject all Jewish rights – to peoplehood and to national self-determination.
The PLO ’s 1964 charter, posted on the group’s UN Mission’s website, sums up the prejudiced sentiment thus: “Judaism, because it is a divine religion, is not a nationality with independent existence. Furthermore, the Jews are not one people with an independent personality because they are citizens to their states.”
Supported by the Arab and Islamic worlds, the PLO ’s fight is not about establishing an Arab state next to the Jewish state. It is about destroying the Jewish state, because, as far as the PLO and its supporters are concerned, Jews have no right to self-determination.

Arlene Kushner:

Perhaps even more troubling than the Palestinian Arab position on this issue is the US position. Talk about duplicity.  For a while press statements from the Americans acknowledged the right of Israel to be recognized as a Jewish state and accorded Israel that recognition. Then the backtracking began, with statements about how, yes, the US acknowledged a Jewish Israel, but that was not necessarily the position of all parties, and it was yet to be determined how this would be resolved in negotiations. Blah, blah... Most recently, Kerry was cited as saying to a Congressional committee that: ...he thought it was “a mistake for some people to be raising it [Jewish state recognition] again and again as the critical decider of their attitude toward the possibility of a state and peace.”  (Emphasis added) Translation: we cannot get the PA to change its stance here, so it’s time to start criticizing Israeli leaders, who are just troublemakers, for making this demand.

We in Israel have no choice other than to heed the words of these wonderful women and take appropriate action and cease these dangerous negotiations that will only lead to the most destructive war the State of Israel has ever experienced.

• The United States can't be trusted to mediate between Israel and the Arabs.
• The "two state solution" is more dangerous for Israel than the status quo.
• Israel is a the Jewish State, and denying it is like an act of war.
• Mahmoud Abbas is neither a "moderate" nor a "peace partner."
• The United States is neither unbiased nor neutral when it comes to Israel. 

What is Peace?

From the Webster Dictionary:
peace - harmonious relations; freedom from disputes; "the roommates lived in peace together"

I'm not interested in a photo-op followed by bombs, shooting, murder and a moving van!

That is the peace sic plan of the United States Government, and unfortunately my Israeli Government, media and public officials don't have the guts to admit that all these "negotiations" are just leading us to a major disaster. The "chaos, violence, turmoil, confrontation" will only be worse with the plan that Kerry has for us.

Neither the Americans nor the Arabs have been shy about their concept of "peace."

But in territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority, the U.S. secretary of state was pointing a finger, and it was pointed only towards the Israeli side. “Let me emphasize at this point the position of the United States of America on the settlements is that we consider them now and have always considered the settlements to be illegitimate,” Kerry said to reporters in Bethlehem, as captured in the State Department’s press release.
Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-tosses-arab-palestinians-addl-75-m-but-its-the-terrorism-stupid/2013/11/07/

That's not peace when Jews are forbidden to live, work and have the basic freedoms. Going back to the definition at the top of the post, the phrase " lived in peace together" is crucial to true peace, and that isn't on the menu the Americans are forcing on us.

Israel Hayom

What's really going on in the Israeli Government?  Listen to what Ruthie Blum has to say.

And I'll end with the reminder that legally we Jews/Israeli have full rights to Judea and Samaria.  Read Ambassador Allan Baker's ten points, hat tip to Arutz 7.  Following are a couple of them:

7. The legality of the presence of Israel’s communities in the area stems from the historic, indigenous and legal rights of the Jewish people to settle in the area, granted pursuant to valid and binding international legal instruments recognized and accepted by the international community. These rights cannot be denied or placed in question.8. The Palestinian leadership, in the still valid 1995 Interim Agreement (Oslo 2), agreed to, and accepted Israel’s continued presence in Judea and Samaria pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations, without any restriction on either side regarding planning, zoning or construction of homes and communities. Hence, claims that Israel’s presence in the area is illegal have no basis.

Trying to Untangle Israel From The American Web

I haven't been shy about the dangers of Israel's almost psychotic dependence on American approval.  The simple fact that the United States has absolutely no experience, success or comprehension of the unique and dangerous situation Israel is in vis-à-vis its enemy Arab neighbors.  It's like trying to get diagnosis and treatment for stage 4 cancer on one of those internet sites that promises 100% cures.

While the American Jay Jonathan Pollard is well into his third decade in an American jail for giving security information to its ally Israel, the USA is now suffering international disapproval for secretly spying on many or all of its allies.  How common is all of this spying?

From Ruthie Blum, Israel Hayom:

As a result, she and her counterparts would have done well to take certain precautions that come with the job. As British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher tweeted last week, "I work on assumption that 6+ countries tap my phone. Increasingly rare that diplomats say anything sensitive on calls."Then, last Friday, another classified document leaked by Snowden emerged. This one dealt with an attempt in May 2012 to hack into the communications network of the Élysée Palace, during the final weeks of Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency. What it revealed is that France had suspected the United States of being behind the cyberattack. More strikingly, it showed that the National Security Agency had denied any involvement in the incident by hinting that the Israeli Mossad was the likely culprit. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is probably pleased as punch with this particular leak, as it comes on the heels of a Washington Post article claiming that Turkey supplied Iran with the names of several Iranians cooperating with the Mossad. It is likely that these were the same "Israeli spies" whose executions were reported last April by Iran's state media.That Turkey is no longer Israel's ally is a given. Providing damning information to Iran, then, is in keeping with its hostility to the Jewish state in particular and the West in general.But, for the United States to cast aspersions on Israel's covert operations is not only a travesty; it brings to mind another case of the U.S. and France ironing out their political differences by using Israel as a scapegoat. Interestingly, it was also made public due to technological gadgets.

Technology makes it easier to do and harder to trace.

Photo: Avi Ohayon, GPO

Those of us Israelis who think out of the box and don't trust the glib assurances of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, US President Barack Hussein Obama and other officials from either government are not happy about the next round of talks being directed by United States Secretary of State John Kerry.  It's not just the totally overkill, exaggerated security arrangement to "protect" Kerry which will close down Israel's major roads.  It's the fact that Kerry keeps on insisting that his recipe for peace won't fatally poison Israel and destroy the only Jewish State in the world.
Caroline Glick:

The problem is that we are maintaining allegiance to a policy paradigm that is based on inaccurate strategic assumptions.
Amidror spelled them out.
Israel is operating under the assumption that there is a cause and effect relationship between our actions and Europe’s. To wit, if we ditch the phony peace talks, they will destroy our economy.
But there is no cause and effect relationship between Israeli actions and European actions. Europe made hostility toward Israel the centerpiece of its unified foreign policy without connection to Israeli actions. So undertaking strategically damaging talks with the Palestinians to appease Brussels is a fool’s errand...Israel is a victim, not a partner in the US’s Syria policy. Israel is weakened by Obama’s success.
As for Iran, it is now inarguable that the US’s primary objective is not to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. It is to prevent Israel from attacking Iran’s nuclear installations. Here too, success for Obama requires Israel to be imperiled.
Finally, our experience has shown us that peace is not a possible outcome of Obama’s pro-Palestinian policy. The only beneficiaries of administration’s use of European economic blackmail to force Israel to make strategically suicidal concessions to the PLO are the PLO and Hamas, and the anti-Semitic forces in Europe. 

Glick is right.  The Obama policy is bad for Israel.  I don't even think it's good for the future of the United States of America.

OOM, Shmoom! או"מ, שמום About That Ben-Gurion Was Right

Not only would Israel save a lot of money to leave the United Nations, but we'd also save ourselves a lot of grief and aggravation.  Dry Bones doesn't mention the United Nations in this cartoon, but the connection is very clear.

Ruthie Blum's latest Israel Hayom article blasts the United Nations for its hypocrisy and anti-Israel stance.

Israel's decision on Sunday to backtrack on its boycott of the U.N. Human Rights Council, and to attend the council's Universal Periodic Review in Geneva on Tuesday, was disappointing. If this, as was reported in Haaretz, is because Germany warned of the "severe diplomatic damage" that would ensue if Israel remained steadfast, it is downright disgusting.Israel severed ties with the UNHRC a year and a half ago, in March 2012, after having grown completely fed up with being the repeated target of unfair resolutions. The UNHRC was established in 2006 to replace the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which allowed countries with poor human rights records to be members.Now there's a hoot. Anyone who expected the name change to make a difference in the snake pit that puts primitive Third World states headed by abusive despots on a par with North America and Europe ought to have his head examined.In fact, in the Orwellian universe we all currently occupy, the very term "human rights" means the exact opposite. When embedded in a title of an organization, it is a clear indicator of that body's bias towards the forces that would bring down Western values. The fact that even U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his predecessor, Kofi Annan, accused the UNHRC of disproportionate focus on Israeli violations of human rights shows just how pernicious and pointless it is.

Israel and World Jewry must stop looking to to the United Nations, foreign countries, leaders and NGO's for moral authority and approval.

The most moral religion is Judaism, and for us to "be a light for all nations," we must use our own batteries and light-bulbs.

And we must stop discriminating against Jews.  Jews must be permitted to pray on the Temple Mount, Har Habayit. Jews must be allowed to live all over the Land of Israel, even in towns and cities that have a majority of non-Jews.  Anything else is antisemitic discrimination, whether done by Jew or non-Jew.  We shouldn't be worried about what the world will say.  At present they are just laughing at us, knowing that we're doing their dirty work.

Rosh Chodesh News

Today's the first day of Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan.  It sometimes happens that there are two days of Rosh Chodesh; one's the last day of the previous month and the second is the first day of the new one.  This Rosh Chodesh is one of those. 

It's a busy Friday.  First of all it's a Friday, so I'm busy getting read for Shabbat.  Second is that it's Rosh Chodesh, and I organize women's prayers at Tel Shiloh.  We had a nice crowd today including one woman who came from very far for the very first time for an "adventure."

 

 

And as a blogger, I've also taken responsibility for the international Jewish and Israeli bloggers carnival, Havel Havelim, which is hosted by Holy Sparks this week.  Read and share, please.  It has a number of blogs I'm not familiar with, which makes me happy.  Blogging is still alive and well.

HH isn't the only blog carnival I'm involved with.  There's the Kosher Cooking Carnival which I also run.  I was supposed to post the Cheshvan one today, but I don't feel it's ready.  I need to search for more posts.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who truly misses the brilliance and honesty of Latma's Tribal Update, which used to be my pre-Shabbat "fix."  Make due with reading the latest articles by Caroline Glick,   America and the good psychopaths, and Ruthie Blum,   'Grounds' for emigration. 

It's amazing how quickly the weather is changing.  The sky looked totally "Cheshvan," early winter this morning at Tel Shiloh.

That's it for now.

Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom

Israel Does Have Borders, From the Mediterranean to the Jordan

The Israel Hayom newspaper, which appears in English on the internet and is a free giveaway in Hebrew, has been doing a series of video discussions between Editor Steve Ganot and top op-ed writer Ruthie Blum.  The latest is about the European boycott of industrial products and other things from what is known as "the west bank."



Steve Ganot and Ruthie Blum in the Israel Hayom studio on Monday

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Photo credit: Israel Hayom

                                                   
Ruthie Blum is one of my favorite writers and I must include that I know her personally.  Remember that Israel is a small country, so it's not all that unheard of or surprising that people who have the same basic principles will end up meeting and becoming friends.

I haven't copied and used the code for the embedded discussion, because it goes on automatically and is annoying to people who want to read my blog.  So just click here and you'll be able to watch and listen.

There are a number of things that Steve Ganot has gotten wrong and isn't taking into account.  Even many of the Leftists who are in favor of a "Palestinian" state want it to be "demilitarized," so that Israel would have the only army between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.  For all practical principles, that's a border.

I don't think borders are all that important in a way.  I think of borders as the fence Shiloh and some other yishuvim don't have.  When we were looking for a yishuv to move to, I'd start feeling claustrophobic when I'd see these small fenced in communities.  In Shiloh we never had that .  There's a terrible disadvantage of a fence.  It must be moved every time we build for natural growth or any other reason.  It becomes like a noose.

In all honesty, I think that trying to make policy to please the Europeans is a total mistake.  Europe, which voted for Nazis, cooperated with Nazis and cooperated with the Nazis in the murder of six million Jews and four million others, has no right to give us lessons in morality.  Yes, I know there were wars between the Nazis and European countries and Great Britain, but once the countries were defeated, they joined in the killings.

I've been living in Shiloh for thirty-two years.  I don't see us as not being in Israel.  We pay Israeli taxes, vote in Israeli elections, obey Israeli law, serve in the Israeli Army.  Ganot claims that we aren't subject to Israeli law.

Ruthie brings up the important point that according to the Arabs, the issue isn't Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, Golan etc. The Arabs don't want us here at all!  Once we accept and recognize it we should be able to understand that all this "peace negotiation pressure" is a dangerous waste of time.

For Common Sense on the Middle East and Israel, Read Caroline, Ruthie and Arlene

Unfortunately Israel is ruled by men and women like Tsipi Livni, who dress like Hilary Clinton, old-fashioned feminists who try to think like men.  It's all these men and faux men who have gotten us into dangerous situations. 

Even in Biblical times, the women had to instruct our leaders on what to do.  Think about how the Matriarch Sarah was the one to tell Abraham that his first son Ishmael had to be banished, because not only wasn't he suited to inherit leadership, but he was a dangerously bad example for their son Isaac. And G-d confirmed that Sarah was correct.  Even when Tamar seduced her father-in-law Judah, which on the surface seems immoral, it ended up being the right thing to do.  Later on the five daughters of Tzlofchad had to instruct Moses about Land inheritance when there isn't a son, and again, G-d confirmed that they were correct. And during the dangerous anarchist time of Judges, again, women, Ruth, Naomi and Chana had to take charge to save the Jewish People.



Arlene Kushner

Caroline Glick

Ruthie Blum

So, you shouldn't be surprised when I say that common sense and the Right direction for the State of Israel and the world can be found in the writings of Caroline Glick, Ruthie Blum and Arlene Kushner.  To this very distinguished list I ought to add Ellen of Jewish Israel.  Sadly I must say that I have no respect for the judgment and policies of our Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his coalition.  To be accepted in the coalition, an MK must sell his soul.  That's the bottom line.  That's the meaning of coalition discipline.  That's why before the recent Israeli elections I kept on writing that I wouldn't vote for the NRP aka Bayit Yehudi, Jewish Home.  I was very upset that some seemingly good people like Orit Strook agreed to join them.  I had no illusions about Naftali Bennett's being a politician more than an idealist.  The "idealism party," the one run by Arieh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari, didn't get enough votes to pass the "threshold."  If people like Strook had gone with them, instead of the NRP, we'd have a Right opposition, instead of absolutely none.

And if I have no respect for the Israeli politicians and government leaders, I have even less for the American ones.  It's no secret that United States President Barack Hussein Obama is little more than a wooden dummy who reads his teleprompter screen or repeats what he hears through the tiny high tech earphone he now sports.

Here's a taste of recent articles by Caroline Glick, Arlene Kushner and Ruthie Blum:

Obama's power and its limitations
by Caroline Glick

US President Barack Obama's rapidly changing positions on Syria have produced many odd spectacles.

One of odder ones was the sight of hundreds of lobbyists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee fanning out on Capitol Hill to lobby members of the House and Senate to support Obama's plan to launch what Secretary of State John Kerry called "unbelievably small" air strikes against empty regime controlled buildings in Syria.

AIPAC officials claimed they were doing this because the air strikes would help Israel.

But this claim was easily undone. Obama and Kerry insisted nothing the US would do would have any impact on the outcome of the Syrian civil war. This was supposed to be the strikes' selling point. But by launching worthless strikes, Obama was poised to wreck America's deterrent posture, transforming the world's superpower into an international joke.

In harming America's deterrent capabilities by speaking loudly and carrying an "unbelievably small" stick, Kerry and Obama also harmed Israel's deterrent posture...

 

September 24, 2013: Seeing It Clear

by Arlene Kushner

...To gain a more complete picture of what the PA leadership is like, consider the following.  It is far worse than their refusing to condemn those Palestinian Arabs who committed the terrorist attacks of the last few days (more on this below):
Abbas Zaki, a member of the Fatah Central Committee (Fatah, remember, being the political mainstay of the Palestinian Authority), has charged that what the sniper in Hevron did is the fault of the Israeli government:
"The soldier was not on a picnic in Hebron."
Darn right he wasn't. Sgt. Kobi was stationed in Hevron, along with other members of the IDF, to protect the thousands of Jews who came for Sukkot.
And of course, the Palestinian Arabs who were throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails not far from where Kobi was standing were doing so for peaceful reasons...

 

Offensive, minus the charm

Ruthie Blum                                                                                                                            

Ahead of his participation in the U.N. General Assembly this week, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani has launched what many have been calling a "charm offensive." Though this term is inherently cynical, the reporters and pundits using it to describe Rouhani's recent overtures to the United States -- by way, among other things, of an op-ed in the Washington Post and interview with NBC News -- are not.

This is in keeping with the overall attitude toward the new leader of the Islamic Republic. Indeed, all Rouhani had to do to persuade the West that he is a "moderate" was to refer to himself as such. His predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had been far less accommodating to the Middle East peace fantasists. His public vitriol, nuclear grandstanding and genocidal threats made it difficult for them to dismiss the danger posed by the mullah-led regime in Tehran. This was in spite of great attempts to give him the benefit of the doubt, not to mention access to a podium at Columbia University...

 

Read on, my friends, read on...

Twenty Years of Oslo, Nightmare Not Dream

I wasn't planning on posting about the Oslo Accords which had been illegally and immorally forced on the State of Israel by extreme Left Israelis who didn't have the authority to negotiate in the name of the government but did.  I thought I'd post something nice about Succot, the holiday that commemorates the Biblical trek to the HolyLand.  But when I listened to the "discussion" on the Israel Hayom site between Ruthie Blum and Steve Ganot, I grrrumbled and knew that I just had to write about it.



I don't know Ganot but I do know Ruthie Blum and agree with her.  She didn't get her fair share of the time.  Ganot didn't make sense.  One of the earlier things he claimed was that the Arab violence was  against the Oslo Accords.  That's totally inaccurate.  The Arab violence was terrorism against Jews in the Land of Israel and the existence of the State of Israel.

Ganot also kept talking as if he was speaking for all Israelis, which isn't the case.  It's obvious that he's a Leftist no matter what he may call himself.  His aim is "peace" and not a viable, secure Jewish State called Israel.  Ruthie Blum hit on target when she said that  a war shouldn't have peace as its goal, only victory. 

Ganot also kept harping on the Israeli "dream" of peace.  Dreams aren't always realistic.  And the fact that the Israeli media has promoted a "dream" that has no chance of being reality in the near future is a big problem.  It's dangerous, just like those anorexics who want to be "thin like models" even when it's not suitable for their body type.  Anorexia can kill, and those who claim that Israel can survive after giving our Land to the Arabs are 100% wrong.  An anorexic state can't sustain itself when not only is it surrounded by enemies, but there are enemies inside whose goal is to destroy us.

Stop dreaming. Get real, or life will become a real nightmare!

Israel, Facts Not Fiction

Shouldn't news be objective?  It's much too easy to slant news turning what's supposed to be a simple factual article into an insidious biased piece of fiction.  When I was growing up, the only newspaper we ever saw at home was the New York Times, and as I've reminisced before, for me the "Sunday funnies" were the political cartoons in its "News of the Week in Review."  And in elementary school when we learned about newspapers, we only used the NYT.  So it's rather ironic that as an Israeli I've discovered that that's the newspaper once should be most suspicious of.  Journalists and bloggers from all over are kept busy writing expose`s about the inaccuracies and intentional slanting of their "news" articles and biased op-eds.

Among the many Israeli sources of irritation for The New York Times, none is more persistently aggravating than Jewish settlements. August has been an especially difficult month for the Times. In rapid succession, its Jerusalem reporter Jodi Rudoren, Pulitzer-prize winning columnist Thomas Friedman, and editorial board contributed factual errors about settlements that not only  revealed  falsehoods but blatant bias. Algemeiner

So I have my own way of finding the news.  I'm a long time fan (and friend) of Ruthie Blum, who's very upfront about the fact that she writes op-eds from the Right point of view.  Here's her latest:

The Palestinians' two-faced solution

Last week, while the first batch of Palestinian terrorists was being released from Israeli jails, the Palestinian Authority was too busy condemning Israel to express satisfaction. This is because the Israeli government had approved the construction of hundreds of new houses in east Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

The plans to build these new units were made public well before the start of the current pre-negotiation discussions, brokered by the United States. Furthermore, the additional housing is slated for areas that the Palestinian Authority ostensibly agreed would remain in Israel after a "two-state solution" was reached.

Nevertheless, the Palestinian Authority and its apologists, both in Israel and abroad, did what they always do when faced with "settlement expansion" -- they raised a stink, accusing Israel of provocation, at best, and violation of international law, at worst...  Israel Hayom 

It's also a good idea to subscribe to the IDF's youtube page.



Seeing is believing.  I must admit that sometimes it works too ahrd to be PC-politically almost Leftist correct, but they do show some valuable videos.

The Jewish Press's site also gives real news and isn't afraid to tell the truth.  This isn't the same Jewish Press I first read when visiting my then future in-laws forty-five years ago.

There's also Arutz 7 which was a pioneer site telling the truth.

In terms of today's political cartoonists, there's Dry Bones.


Egypt's Turn

The current drama of the Middle East is that every Arab state seems to be under attack by one bunch of Islamists or another ...and the countries are crumbling.
Years ago, I encouraged his creator to blog them.

And now there's a new guy on the block, i24, hat tip Tablet Magazine.  I don't know how accurate and objective they will end up being, but we'll see.

As a blogger, my aim is more editorial than hard news. That's my choice, and I don't hide it.

Where do you find your most objective news? Please answer in the comments, thanks.

Some Pre-Shabbat Reading

Just a quick selection.
Dry Bones

Unfair to Terrorists

Thinking out of the box? ...at last?

 

Israel Matzav

Kerry to US 'Jewish leaders': 'I know what's good for Israel better than its elected leaders'

US Secretary of State John Kerry has told a group of American 'Jewish leaders' that he knows what's good for Israel better than that country's elected leadership.

An optimistic-sounding Kerry asked the Jewish leaders for their help in supporting the newly restarted talks, The Times of Israel learned, saying that he feared for Israel’s future if a peace deal is not reached.

Ruthie Blum, could my tagging her have been the problem?

Ruthie Blum

Being targeted on Facebook For the past two months, intermittently, I have been barred from Facebook. The first time it happened was in June, when I tried to post my Israel Hayom column. Suddenly, a window popped up, telling me that inappropriate material had been found on and removed from my page. I was warned that if I continued violating Facebook's "community standards," I would be banned from the social network for good.

Caroline Glick

When failure carries no cost

August 9, 2013, 8:35 AM

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This week, after a three-and-a-half-year delay, US Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was finally placed on trial for massacring 13 and wounding 32 at Ft. Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009.

Hasan was a self-identified jihadist. His paper and electronic trail provided mountains of evidence that he committed the massacre to advance the cause of Islamic supremacy. Islamic supremacists like Hasan, and his early mentor al-Qaida operations chief Anwar al-Awlaki, view as enemies all people who oppose totalitarian Islam's quest for global domination.

Shabbat Shalom to all of you!

The Truth About The EU From Latma and More

This week's Latma gives a very accurate portrayal of the priorities of the European Union:

Flock Builder with a special report from the hospital and EU representative Johann Phlegmat explains the new boycott.

Please donate to support Caroline Glick's Latma so it can continue its very necessary service.

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.

For donations outside the US, here is a link to the donations page for our Israeli non-profit, the Zionist Incubator. You can make credit card donations to Latma by contributing to our non-profit. 

I also highly recommend dreading Ruthie Blum's latest article, Peres, Kerry and the EU.

What a Week! Obama's Choices and Turkey and Iranian Elections A La Latma

Let's start with Latma's news report from Turkey, Iranian elections and other tidbits.

Caroline Glick and her Tribal Update writers get it Right for sure.

Ruthie Blum thinks that things can't get much worse when it comes to United States President Obama,   Rice and Power can't make things worse, but in a rare move, I disagree.  I do agree with what Blum writes about Obama, Rice and Power, but I think it's dangerous to ever think that things can't get worse.   

"Indeed, Rice's appointment exemplifies the low-life political workings of the Obama administration: The better someone is at covering the president's tracks, the more he or she is rewarded for it. In Rice's case, this involved the Benghazi horror. After four Americans, among them Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in a carefully planned terrorist attack in Libya last Sept. 11, Rice wittingly and willingly became liar-in-chief for the White House and State Department. With gusto and disdain she hit the airwaves to perpetuate the bald-faced prevarication that the murders in Benghazi were the unfortunate result of a spontaneous Arab protest that had erupted as a result of an American-made video critical of Islam's Prophet, Muhammad.

Much as been written recently about what went on in Benghazi prior to the attack. One key theory is that the Obama administration had armed revolutionaries in Libya and Syria, and that Stevens was in the process of retrieving American weapons from Libyan jihadists when the policy was understood to be a bad one. It is believed that because Obama did not want any of this to emerge in time for it to harm his chances for re-election, he basically abandoned Stevens and the others to the killers. Whatever other facts come to light in the future, one is certain: A Special Forces rescue operation was not approved....

This is not the only reason for her promotion, however. Two others are equally relevant. One is that a presidential appointee for national security adviser is not required to obtain congressional confirmation. This means that Rice won't have to undergo any grilling that might expose her and her bosses' falsehoods.

The second is that, as national security adviser, Rice will enjoy the umbrella of the president's "executive privilege," granting her immunity from charges of contempt if she declines to testify in hearings on the Benghazi scandal.

Criticism of the Samantha Power nomination is centered on statements she made about Israel more than a decade ago. In 2002, when she was the director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Power gave an interview to University of California professor Harry Kreisler on a college campus radio show. When asked by Kreisler what she would advise the president if there were a serious human-rights crisis in "Israel-Palestine," she gave a glib answer indicating that she would support sending the U.S. military to protect the Palestinians from Israel." 

When people say that, it's like an eyin haraa causing things to davka get worse.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov

Israeli National Budget, Not Leaking Money in "The Settlements"

As usual, Ruthie Blum hit the nail right on the head in her Israel Hayom article, Tax shekels poorly spent .  The Left loves to blame the normal living expenses of communities in Judea and Samaria for Israel's budgetary problems.  But the truth is totally different.

Caroline Glick, Moshe Arens, ?,

Ruthie Blum at the Emanuel Winston

Yahrzeit.

First of all, as Caroline Glick mentioned in her talk at the  2nd Yahrzeit of Emanuel Winston, the Israeli economic growth is far better than the American or European.  Contrary to Yair Lapid's scare-mongering, our economy is strong and healthy.

Blum wrote about the terrible results and financial wastes of the Masa Israel Journey program, which instead of encouraging support and aliyah of young diaspora Jewry is fermenting more extreme Leftist anti-Israeli activists.

A recent article by Greer Fay Cashman mentions the over budget expenses of President Shimon Peres.

No one will deny that Peres is the most active of Israel’s nine presidents to date, and travels abroad with far greater frequency than any of his predecessors.
Because he has to take several senior staff and security people with him, the cost of such flights becomes inflated, and last year came to NIS 8.4m.
What the Calcalist report does not mention is the exorbitant cost of flowers.
There are huge floral decorations in abundance at the President’s Residence, and they are changed two or three times a week – especially if there is a state dinner, when the flowers gracing the tables and displayed in giant urns in the reception hall are in the national colors of the visiting head of state. Today, when artificial flowers look so real, there could be a savings of hundreds of thousands of shekels – maybe even millions – if all state institutions made a huge initial purchase of artificial flowers that could be rearranged to suit the occasion.

And about the so called "extra expenses" of the settlements.  That's one of the Left's favorite lies.  Think about it.  Schools, medical centers and other services are needed for citizens wherever we live.  It actually cost less to build in Judea and Samaria, because there's more empty land and real estate cost less.  Teachers get the same salary wherever they live, and rural bussing to school cost the same if in the Negev, Galil or the Shomron.

Housing is less expensive in most Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, so families with lower incomes can live more comfortably.  That's a simple example of supply and demand.  And when families can live more comfortably, than there's less need for welfare and all sorts of social services.  The more homogeneous communities are also socially stronger, helping each other which also reduces government expenses.

As we all know, the Left doesn't let facts get in the way of their ideology.

In Living Loving Memory of Manny Winston, ZaTz"L

Last night at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center I attended a very special event in honor of the 2nd Yahrzeit of Emanuel Winston.  It was MC'd by his amazing wife Gail.  We also heard messages from his two sons.  And there was a panel led by the multi-talented former aeronautics engineer, MK, Minister, Ambassador et alii, Moshe Arens. Other members of the panel were Caroline Glick, Ruthie Blum, Jay Shapiro and my husband Yisrael Medad.

At the event, it was announced that a new internet site has been created that will promote and publicize Manny's views and articles, http://winstonisraelinsight.com/.  Gail told us that there are thousands of articles waiting to be typed up and uploaded to the site.

The main subject, which was discussed in much fascinating detail was the tragic cancellation of the Lavi, the Israeli fighter plane.  Both Arens and Shapiro were heavily involved in that project, so hearing them speak added personal, factual details that can't be found from any other sources.  Arens, among other professions, is a historian and political scientist. 

Here's what Arens wrote about the Lavi three years ago. It's a must-read:

Who would have believed it? Some years ago Israel was developing the world's most advanced fighter aircraft, the Lavi, while the Western world's aircraft manufacturers were beating their way to our door, eager to participate in the Lavi project, or trying to sell their competing plane to the Israel Air Force. And now Israel goes hat in hand pleading for a chance to be allowed to acquire the F-35 aircraft, at a price tag of $150 million each. But it's not only the astronomical price. Israel is told that the F-35 must be taken as is - no changes or modifications to suit Israel's specific needs, and absolutely no Israeli systems included. Take it or leave it. Just imagine Israel's position today had the Lavi project not been canceled. The IAF would be operating the world's most advanced fighter, upgraded over the years to incorporate operational experience and newer technology. Much of Israel's industry would have moved a great step ahead, Israel Aerospace Industries would have become a leading developer of fighter aircraft, and most importantly, a number of options would be open to the IAF in choosing its next fighter. (complete article)

The Manny Winston site has a very good article, actually more, about the Lavi project.  I highly recommend reading it:

Don’t build a better aircraft, or we will shoot it down
Israel was told to drop the Lavi after Caspar Weinberger observed the flight test data.  It was too good; the results were coming in too fast on the plus side.  So the “Tucker” had to be killed again.
Regretfully, the Lavi was just what the United States needed, particularly after the A-10 was shown as incapable of surviving a heavy concentration of Ground-to-Air missiles.  The U.S. desperately needed a dedicated “CAS” Close Air Support aircraft and now.  Mr. Dov Zakheim, spokesman for Mr. Weinberger came in swinging.  His job was not only to kill the Lavi but to sell a revised version of the F-16 to be called the “A” Agile Falcon 16.  This very worthy, totally dedicated air superiority aircraft was now to be modified and called the Close Air Support “CAS” the Air Force was supposed to be looking for. (complete article)

I recorded some of the talk, (until my camera's memory card got overloaded,) especially what Moshe Arens said.  As the recordings finish uploading on youtube-shilohmuse, I will post them here.  So keep checking up over the next few hours or tomorrow, too.

Herew's Gail Winston talking about what we in Israel really need, Sovereignty!



Moshe Arens speaking...