“How Can You Defend Israel?” I was sitting in a lecture hall at a British university. Bored by the speaker, I began glancing around the hall. I noticed someone who looked quite familiar from an earlier academic incarnation. When the session ended, I introduced myself and wondered if, after years that could be counted in decades, he remembered me. He said he did, at which point I commented that the years had been good to him. His response: “But you’ve changed a lot.” “How so?” I asked with a degree of trepidation, knowing that, self-deception aside, being 60 isn’t quite the same as 30. Looking me straight in the eye, he proclaimed, as others standing nearby listened in, “I read the things you write about Israel. I hate them. How can you defend that country? What happened to the good liberal boy I knew 30 years ago?” I replied: “That good liberal boy hasn’t changed his view. Israel is a... Cinnamon Stillwell and Eric Golub: … What is odd is why more Middle East studies professors don’t relish the opportunity to condemn the medieval practices sanctioned by Shariah — stonings, beheadings, honor killings, and execution for apostasy, for starters. Instead, Abou El Fadl spent over fifteen minutes describing alleged acts of violence worldwide against Muslims by non-Muslims, a trend he ascribed to “the effect of the Islamophobic hate tract.” … Continue reading UCLA’s Professor of Fantasy… Robert Conquest, the pre-eminent scholar of Soviet Communist totalitarianism, in his elucidation of Western vulnerability to totalitarian ideologies, wrote that democracy itself is, “far less a matter of institutions than habits of mind”—the latter being subject to constant “stresses and strains.” He then notes the disturbingly widespread acceptance of totalitarian concepts amongst the ordinary citizens of pluralist Western societies. Many in the West gave their full allegiance to these alien beliefs. Many others were at any rate not ill disposed towards them. And beyond that there was…a sort of secondary infection of the mental atmosphere of the West which still to some degree persists, distorting thought in countries that escaped the more wholesale disasters of our time. From 1951-2010 nothing has changed conceptually in the thinking of Israels leadership with regards to Israels military doctrine, till now. Now Israel has abandoned even a modicum of pretense in defending the civilian population of Israel. Gone is the concept of preemption and taking the war to the enemy on the enemies territory. Now we are asked to shield our Soldiers and Army. What was true during and just after our declaration of Statehood has not improved. We are the same Galut Jews afraid of our shadow and afraid of what the Gentiles will say or do to us. It is easier to remove the Jew from the Galut than it is to remove the Galut from the Jew. Until that happens we will never be united nor really independent. Professor Eldad understood then what few understand even today. Yamit The Israel Restraint Forces by Dr. Israel Eldad Sulam #19 (1951) Terrorists have used pistols and automatic rifles to kill individuals. They have used suicide bombers with pinpoint accuracy to kill groups assembled in places of entertainment. They have used aircraft to kill hundreds and thousands. But the most effective terror weapon has become the ballistic rocket. It is cheap and launched from a distance against civilian targets, allowing the terrorists to escape before the rocket lands. For some years now, Israel’s civilian population has been targeted by terrorist rockets: first Katyusha rockets in the north launched by Hezbollah terrorists, and then Qassam rockets in the south... By CAROLINE B. GLICK Israel must be prepared for two things this upcoming year: A missile war with Hamas and a political war with Fatah. On Sunday thousands of Israel haters gathered in Istanbul to welcome the Turkish-Hamas terror ship Mavi Marmara to the harbor. Festooned with Palestinian flags, the crowd chanted “Death to Israel,” “Down with Israel” and “Allah akbar” with Hizbullah-like enthusiasm. The Turkish protesters promised to stand on the side of Hamas when it next goes to war with Israel. They may not have to wait long to keep their promise. Over the past two weeks Hamas has steeply escalated its missile war with over 30 launches. Last week, a missile that narrowly missed a nursery school wounded a young girl. by Roger L Simon, PAJAMAS MEDIA When I was a kid, I thought the United Nations was the most righteous and positively idealistic organization in the world. It was the hope of humanity and I worshipped it. (My father — a doctor — volunteered for WHO and I would accompany him to the New York headquarters about once a month, gawking at the colorful Third World costumes and wishing I could speak French, la langue diplomatique.) Man, times have changed. I now regard the UN as a kind of global racket with three principal, often related, areas of, in Mafia style, special interest: propaganda for totalitarian countries, massive corruption (e.g. Oil-for-Food) and spying. by Brian of London, INN The English Defence League (EDL) has attracted some attention in Israel because of the incongruity of non-Jews waving Israeli flags at demonstrations dubbed “far right” by the press and the Israeli Embassy in London’s virtually unprecedented step of condemning a pro-Israel local group in another country. The irony is compounded by the fact that this happened immediately after the EDL held a large pro-Israel rally outside the embassy. This distancing was presumably motivated by the attacks on the EDL in much of the British media and fear that failure to denounce the group will increase anti-Israel feelings in the United Kingdom, already at an all-time high. In fact, however, the people attacking the EDL are already Israel’s enemies while this group is one of its few friends nowadays. Moreover, the accusations of the EDL being a racist or fascist group...
“How Can A Liberal Defend Israel?”
by David HarrisUCLA’s Professor of Fantasy
See No Sharia Mindslaughter
But Conquest evinces no sympathy for those numerous “Western intellectuals or near intellectuals” of the 1930s through the 1950s whose willful delusions about the Soviet Union,...The Israel Restraint Forces
When the state was established people argued about what to name the army; it was more than just wordplay [.…] Some of those who argued,...The Government of Israel Has Abandoned Israeli Civilians to Terror
Rockets are a terror weapon
What used to be a basic tenet of Israel’s defense doctrine – that in war, the safety of the civilian population must be assured – has gradually been abandoned. Now, military spokesmen announce that in case of war, Israel’s entire civilian population can expect to be hit by terrorist rockets.
By Moshe ArensThe wars of 2011
Since Operation Cast Lead two years ago, Iran has helped Hamas massively increase its missile and other military capabilities. Today the terror group that rules Gaza has missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv. It has advanced antitank missiles. As...Durban III: Time for the U.S. to Defund the UN?
The latter rose to the fore recently when Wikileaks revealed an email from Hillary Clinton, urging her minions at Turtle Bay to snoop on their fellow diplomats. Quelle surprise, as we would say in the old langue diplomatique. Anyone with the slightest interest in the UN has known for years it was a cesspool of...The English Defense League
The EDL has attracted attention in Israel and the UK. We leave the reader to judge for himself.More Recent Articles
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
Wednesday 29 December 2010
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