Friday, August 11, 2006
Gatorade
1. I don't know about you but I am not getting on any flights these days
onto which two post-Zionist professors from Ben Gurion University get on
together carrying gatorade....
2. Academic Extremist of the Day:
First Name:
Louise
Family name:
Bethlehem
Department:
The Institute of Arts and Letters, Faculty of Humanities
Primary Email address:
bethlehem@013.net.il
Second Email address (extra):
bethlehem@mscc.huji.ac.il
Telephone: 02-5883851
Telephone (extra): 09-7415745
This little star of Bethlehem has made a career out of comparing Israel to
apartheid South Africa. Here is her comment this week:
Title: Praise Levy`s and Mijali`s brave civil dissent
Name: Louise Bethlehem
City: Hod Hasharon State: Israel
At times of "moral blackout" Gideon Levy`s insistence on reminding us of
the importance--and vulnerability--of Lebanese civil society and Nazir
Majali`s corresponding focus on Palestinian citizens of Israel in the
north, are especially valuable. Together they highlight the shameful
capitulation of Jewish-Israeli civil society to "chauvinism and
ruthlessness", with some notable exceptions.
In 1915, a celebrated Jew, Sigmund Freud published an essay entitled
"Thoughts for the Times on War and Death". In it, he warned that war
"overwhelms, with blind rage, anything that stands in its way, as though
there were to be no future and no peace afterwards. It tears up all bonds
of community among the warring peoples and threatens to leave behind an
embitterment that will make any renewal of these bonds impossible for a
long time to come".
When moral blackout devours the present, consolidating precious civil
bonds--of solidarity and dissent--offers a slender chance for the future.
Bethlehem's buddies:
http://www.cultstud.org/crossroads/session/bethlehem-gordon.htm
Beth On communist anti-Israel petitions:
http://oznik.com/petitions/010427signers.html
Promoting mutiny among Israeli soldiers:
http://www.seruv.org.il/english/academic_supporters.asp
Endorsing the Palestinian right of return:
http://www.thestruggle.org/R2R.htm
Declaring Israel planning Mass Atrocities:
http://www.thehandstand.org/archive/october2002/articles/oz.htm
3. Treason among Israeli Arabs:
Israeli Arabs
in support of Hezbollah
In Nazareth Israeli Arabs Demonstrate in support of Hezbollah
.Occupation and invasion = terror.
.Resistance = right and obligation. [July 16, 2006]
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
As Israel counts more than 100 dead in its war against the Hezbollah
terror organization, numerous Israeli Arabs, including Arab Knesset
members, have come out in support of the enemy. A number of demonstrations
and marches in support of Hezbollah have likewise been held by Israel's
Arabs.
One Member of the Knesset, Azmi Bishara, even refers to the members of
Hezbollah as .heroes.. He calls for Hezbollah to fight Israeli soldiers,
saying, .One must settle accounts with their murderers and resist [fight]
its aggression..
The following are 15 statements by Israeli Arab leaders and victims of
Hezbollah terror in support of Hezbollah, all said during the war:
Ra.oda Att.allah, Director of the Arab Culture Society in Haifa:
"The popularity of Hezbollah has grown substantially among the Arabs in
Israel. the first time there is a feeling of returning the honor, and that
the people are feeling for the first time that there is a group which
resists [fights-ed.] and stands firm against the Israeli army."[Al-Ayyam,
August 8, 2006]
Ali Mana, relative of 2 Israeli Arabs killed by Hezbollah missile:
.Hezbollah raised our heads and lifted our spirit.. [Al-Ayyam, August 8,
2006]
Wasil Taha, Arab Knesset Member:
.Resistance [Hezbollah attacks] is not terror but it is a moral value. As
for terror, the state [Israel] carries it out." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida,
August 6, 2006]
Arab Knesset Member, Chairman of Balad Party, Azmi Bishara:
"Solidarity with these heroes [Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists] is
the least [we can do]." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 16, 2006]
Muhammad Hasan Kan.an, Chairman Arab National Party:
.America, Britain and Israel will not succeed to defeat the peoples in
Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan... This is a war against Islam
and against the Arabs.. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 6, 2006]
Arab Knesset Member, Chairman of Balad Party, Azmi Bishara:
"The Palestinian and Lebanese resistance returned the confidence to the
Arab-Islamic identity after years of defeats." [Al-Ayyam, August 8, 2006]
Raa.d Salah, Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel:
.'A look at the region in which we live teaches that the two biggest liars
are Ehud Olmert and George Bush, who lead the world to carnage,
destruction, and massacres.' He called the peoples of the world to expose
the lies of those who burn children." [Al-Ayyam, August 8, 2006]
Raa'd Salah, Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel:
"The Palestinian people and the people of Lebanon are the winners because
they have justice, whereas Bush and Olmert are the losers because they
have falsehood". [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 8, 2006]
Raja Aghbariyah, Secretary of Israeli Arab Movement, .Abna Al-Balad.:
.This war forced all the factors to choose between the imperialistic
Zionist and reactionary Arab camp [on one hand] or the .peoples. and their
resistance [movements]. We chose the .peoples. and their resistance
[movements] in Beirut, Palestine, Iraq and Somalia.. He sent a greeting to
Hassan Nasrallah .because he upraised our heads. and added, .We are not
just against the war, but we are also in favor of the resisting people
[i.e. terror]. Therefore, we do not want their fake democracy in Iraq."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 8, 2006]
Family of young Arab girl, Du.a Abbas, killed by Hezbollah rocket:
"Blamed the government of Israel for the killing of their daughter."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 27, 2006]
Dr. Mansur Abbas, Chairman, Conference of the Southern Wing of the Islamic
Movement in Israel, and cousin of the young girl mentioned above:
"The Israeli politicians chose war and they are responsible for what is
happening." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 27, 2006]
Arab Knesset Member, Chairman of Balad Party, Azmi Bishara:
"Israel's goal has been to expel civilians after organized massacres, of
which the most well known are Dir Yassin and dozens more like it. To expel
them in order to settle in their place in 1948... [Now] Israel targeted
the civilians in Lebanon as a direct continuation of the historic chain,
in a bloody red moment in Qana: First, to punish those who supported the
resistance, second to expel the civilians in the South to the North in
order to cause additional communal tension in Lebanon and third, to
nourish the barbaric desire for revenge. This was a planned and intended
attack. Israel is a terrorist state." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 4, 2006]
Nimer Nimer, Israeli Arab author:
.What happened in Nazi Germany 60 years ago occurs today in Baghdad, Gaza
and Beirut.. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 6, 2006]
Arab Knesset Member, Chairman of Balad Party, Azmi Bishara:
"They [Lebanese children] are victims of a culture of criminal, savage and
barbaric [Israeli] aircraft. One must settle accounts with their murderers
and resist [fight] its aggression." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 4, 2006]
Popular support for Hezbollah:
"In the city of Nazareth a public conference was held the day before
yesterday in support of Lebanon and of Palestine." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida,
August 6, 2006]
"Thousands of Palestinians from .the interior. participated yesterday in a
demonstration that was organized by Balad [Israeli Arab political] party
to protest the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza
strip and to protest the barbaric offensive against the Lebanese people."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 16, 2006]
In Nazareth Israeli Arabs Demonstrate in support of Hezbollah
Text: .Occupation and invasion = terror.; .Resistance = right and
obligation.
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 16, 2006]
4. But Not ALL are traitors:
Israel Arabs ask to be drafted to serve IDF in response to Nasrallah
Aaron Lerner Date: 10 August, 2006
Ziad Muadi of the ITIM news service reports today on the MSN website
http://news.msn.co.il/news/StatePoliticalMilitary/Military/200608/20060810095654.htm
that a group of young Arabs, headed by Fuad Nasser, wrote a letter to
Minister of Defense Amir Peretz asking to be drafted to serve in the IDF
in
response to Nasrallah's call for the Arabs of Haifa to leave the city.
"We are proud of Israel, and its just struggle," the letter reads, "and
are
prepared to carry out any mission that the IDF gives us."
Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il
5. Debunking Chamishism:
http://www.debunking911.com/
6. Updates:
page 61:
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com/pdf/200608a.pdf
Helping Professor Plaut
Thank you so much for your continuing coverage of the story of Prof Steven
Plaut, who has, thus far, been successfully sued by radical left-wing Prof
Neve Gordon, who claims to teach something called .human rights. at Ben
Gurion University. [.Freedom of Speech and the Israeli Courts: A Privilege
only for the Left?. July 2006].
Plaut, who teaches economics at Haifa University, severely criticized
Gordon.s published writing, in which he (Gordon) writes the most
anti-Israel outrages you can imagine.
What should be happening is that Gordon should be charged. He actually was
once arrested for interfering with IDF anti-terror operations (he was
acting as a .human shield. to protect Arafat and his henchmen). But to
find Plaut guilty of slander because he said Gordon.s writings are
antisemitic is an outrage that we in the US would never tolerate.
No wonder my friends in Israel are comparing Plaut to Deborah Lipstadt.
She lost her court case when she was initially sued by David Irving
because Irving was allowed to .forum shop. his suit until he found a
pro-Nazi court with a biased judge. Gordon did the same thing to Plaut. He
found a pro-Arab court with an Israeli-Arab woman judge.
The fact that court and judge-shopping is allowed in Israel is
reprehensible.
I would suggest that all lovers of free speech refrain from giving any
donations to Ben Gurion University as long as Gordon is employed there (he
is not tenured). I can.t imagine why anyone would send a child to that
university as long as neo-Nazi, antisemitic extremists are welcomed on the
faculty.
Prof Plaut now has to appeal the original court ruling, which will cost
him time and money. Hopefully, the time spent will result in better laws
and precedents in Israel on issues such as this. We can help with the
money by sending a check to the Central Fund of Israel, 980 Sixth Ave.,
New York, NY 10018. The check should be earmarked to the Legal Forum-Prof
Plaut. For information, call 212-724-1642 or 212-354-8700, ext 208.
Mendel Gross
Fair Lawn, NJ
7. Quisling lives:
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749493.html
8. More make-pretend war:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749081.html
9. Sucking up to Hezbollah:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23811
10. Recycling the Protocols:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23784
11. Remember when Abbas was a "moderate"?
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23803
12.August 11, 2006
'Mass-Murder' Foiled
August 11, 2006; Page A12
Americans went to work yesterday to news of another astonishing terror
plot against U.S. airlines, only this time the response was grateful
relief. British authorities had busted the "very sophisticated" plan "to
commit mass murder" and arrested 20-plus British-Pakistani suspects. As we
approach the fifth anniversary of 9/11 without another major attack on
U.S. soil, now is the right moment to consider the policies that have
protected us -- and those in public life who have fought those policies
nearly every step of the way.
It's not as if the "Islamic fascists" -- to borrow President Bush's
description yesterday -- haven't been trying to hit us. They took more
than 50 lives last year in London with the "7/7" subway bombings. There
was the catastrophic attack in Madrid the year before that left nearly 200
dead. But there have also been successes. Some have been publicized, such
as a foiled plot to poison Britain's food supply with ricin. But
undoubtedly many have not, because authorities don't want to compromise
sources and methods, or because the would-be terrorists have been captured
or killed before they could carry out their plans.
In this case the diabolical scheme was to smuggle innocent-looking liquid
explosive components and detonators onto planes. They could then be
assembled onboard and exploded, perhaps over cities for maximum horror.
Multiply the passenger load of a 747 by, say, 10 airliners, and this
attack could have killed more people than 9/11. We don't yet know how the
plot was foiled, but surely part of the explanation was crack surveillance
work by British authorities.
* * *
"This wasn't supposed to happen today," a U.S. official told the
Washington Post of the arrests and terror alert. "It was supposed to
happen several days from now. We hear the British lost track of one or two
guys. They had to move." Meanwhile, British antiterrorism chief Peter
Clarke said at a news conference that the plot was foiled because "a large
number of people" had been under surveillance, with police monitoring
"spending, travel and communications."
Let's emphasize that again: The plot was foiled because a large number of
people were under surveillance concerning their spending, travel and
communications. Which leads us to wonder if Scotland Yard would have
succeeded if the ACLU or the New York Times had first learned the details
of such surveillance programs.
And almost on political cue yesterday, Members of the Congressional
Democratic leadership were using the occasion to suggest that the U.S. is
actually more vulnerable today despite this antiterror success. Harry
Reid, who's bidding to run the Senate as Majority Leader, saw it as one
more opportunity to insist that "The Iraq war has diverted our focus and
more than $300 billion in resources from the war on terrorism and has
created a rallying cry for international terrorists."
Ted Kennedy chimed in that "it is clear that our misguided policies are
making America more hated in the world and making the war on terrorism
harder to win." Mr. Kennedy somehow overlooked that the foiled plan was
nearly identical to the "Bojinka" plot led by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed to blow up airliners over the Pacific Ocean in 1995. Did
the Clinton Administration's "misguided policies" invite that plot? And if
the Iraq war is a diversion and provocation, just what policies would
Senators Reid and Kennedy have us "focus" on?
Surveillance? Hmmm. Democrats and their media allies screamed bloody
murder last year when it was leaked that the government was monitoring
some communications outside the context of a law known as the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA wasn't designed for, nor does it
forbid, the timely exploitation of what are often anonymous phone numbers,
and the calls monitored had at least one overseas connection. But Mr. Reid
labelled such surveillance "illegal" and an "NSA domestic spying program."
Other Democrats are still saying they will censure, or even impeach, Mr.
Bush over the FISA program if they win control of Congress.
This year the attempt to paint Bush Administration policies as a clear and
present danger to civil liberties continued when USA Today hyped a story
on how some U.S. phone companies were keeping call logs. The obvious
reason for such logs is that the government might need them to trace the
communications of a captured terror suspect. And then there was the recent
brouhaha when the New York Times decided news of a secret, successful and
entirely legal program to monitor bank transfers between bad guys was
somehow in the "public interest" to expose.
For that matter, we don't recall most advocates of a narrowly "focused"
war on terror having many kind words for the Patriot Act, which broke down
what in the 1990s was a crippling "wall" of separation between our own
intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. Senator Reid was "focused"
enough on this issue to brag, prematurely as it turned out, that he had
"killed" its reauthorization.
And what about interrogating terror suspects when we capture them? It is
elite conventional wisdom these days that techniques no worse than
psychological pressure and stress positions constitute "torture." There is
also continued angst about the detention of terror suspects at Guantanamo
Bay, even as Senators and self-styled civil libertarians fight Bush
Administration attempts to process them through military tribunals that
won't compromise sources and methods.
In short, Democrats who claim to want "focus" on the war on terror have
wanted it fought without the intelligence, interrogation and detention
tools necessary to win it. And if they cite "cooperation" with our allies
as some kind of magical answer, they should be reminded that the British
and other European legal systems generally permit far more intrusive
surveillance and detention policies than the Bush Administration has ever
contemplated. Does anyone think that when the British interrogate those 20
or so suspects this week that they will recoil at harsh or stressful
questioning?
Another issue that should be front and center again is ethnic profiling.
We'd be shocked if such profiling wasn't a factor in the selection of
surveillance targets that resulted in yesterday's arrests. Here in the
U.S., the arrests should be a reminder of the dangers posed by a
politically correct system of searching 80-year-old airplane passengers
with the same vigor as screeners search young men of Muslim origin. There
is no civil right to board an airplane without extra hassle, any more than
drivers in high-risk demographics have a right to the same insurance rates
as a soccer mom.
August 11, 2006
'Arc of Extremism'
By WILLIAM SHAWCROSS
August 11, 2006; Page A12
LONDON -- It took President Bush to tell the truth to Britain about the
alleged massive plot to blow U.S.-bound airliners out of the sky. In his
first comment on the apparently foiled attempt, he put it simply: "This
was a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists."
He is right, but in the first news reports in Britain yesterday, the words
"Islamic" or "Muslim" were hardly mentioned, let alone the dread word
"fascist." Instead the common code-words on television were that the 24
men arrested were "British-born" and "of Pakistani origin." No mention of
their Islamist ideology. Does the BBC think they might turn out to be from
Pakistan's embattled Christian minority? I don't think so.
In Europe, the truth is so terrible that we are in denial. Perhaps it is
understandable. We simply do not know how to deal with the fact that we
really are threatened by a vast fifth column, that there are thousands of
European-born people, in Britain, in France, in Holland, in Denmark --
everywhere -- who wish to destroy us. You see this denial in the coverage
of Israel's war against Hezbollah. The deaths in Lebanon are utterly
tragic. But if you watched only British television, particularly the BBC,
you would be hard-pressed to understand that Israel has been forced into a
war for its survival. Last weekend people marched in an anti-Israel march
though London carrying banners proclaiming "We are all Hezbollah Now."
As the historian Victor Davis Hanson recently pointed out, there is a
moral madness at work here. We refuse to admit there is a pattern to
global terrorism. We are terrified of being called "Islamophobic."
European papers are frightened to publish cartoons which some Muslims
demand we censor, but are happy to portray the Israelis as latter-day
Nazis. Not for nothing does Mr. Hanson say that we have forgotten the
lessons of 1938.
In a live BBC interview recently I called Hezbollah "Islamofascists." The
charming interviewer said nervously, "That's a very controversial
description"; I replied that it was merely accurate. She brought the
interview to a swift close. But it's not just Hezbollah, of course. The
same ideology of hate inspires al Qaeda, the inspiration if not the
controller of the British bombers.
In Britain we are actually quite lucky. We have a prime minister who, in
my view, has committed many errors at home; but abroad Tony Blair has a
clear vision, both moral and pragmatic, of the threat that we face. And
for this he is mocked and abused as nothing more than George Bush's
"poodle."
In a thoughtful recent speech in Los Angeles, Mr. Blair spoke of fighting
an "arc of extremism." That is Islamic extremism, whether it is inspired
al Qaeda or by Tehran, whether its footsoldiers are Sunni or Shiite,
whether they were born in Britain or southern Lebanon or Iran or Saudi
Arabia. As Mr. Blair said, the battle is over the values that are to
govern the future of the worlds. "Are they those of tolerance, freedom,
respect for difference and diversity or those of reaction, division,
hatred?"
"This is war" said Mr. Blair. Alas, it is. Wherever they were born, the
men who want to blow up airliners, who want to destroy Israel and, not
coincidentally, who want to kill all hope of a decent society in Iraq --
are Islamofascists who are united in hatred of us. The sooner we in Europe
understand that, and that they must be defeated, the safer everyone --
Christians, Jews, Muslims, nonbelievers -- will be.
Mr. Shawcross is author of "Allies: Why the West Had to Remove Saddam"
(PublicAffairs Press, 2005).
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115526395066533009.html
