Friday, August 18, 2006
Treason Chic at Haaretz
1. Yesterday I posted the story of how all Israel achieved in the war was
an agreement that the Hezbollah would not parade its weapons in too open a
manner from now on, which I called hiding the katyusha in the Gabaliya.
Well, the new greeting on the streets of Beirut these days is now "Is that
a katyusha you have hidden there in your gabaliya or are you just happy to
see me?"
2. http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/10397/
Five Years After Sbarro Bombing, Will the Murderer Simply Walk?
August 17, 2006
A mourner prays outside the ruins of the Sbarro's pizzeria in Jerusalem
days after the Aug. 9, 2001 terrorist attack there.
Frimet Roth
With war raging against Hezbollah, it's easy to overlook Israel's other
threat. The events five years ago provide a stark reminder of the enemy
across our southern border: Hamas.
On Aug. 9, 2001, two Palestinian Arabs, Izzadin al-Masri, the 22-year-old
son of a well-to-do restaurateur, and Ahlam Tamimi, a 20-year-old
university student and part-time journalist, set out. Hamas had trained
and equipped them. Tamimi had scouted for and located the target -- the
popular Sbarro's restaurant in downtown Jerusalem.
Tamimi, in revealing Western clothing, was disguised as a young Israeli
woman. Masri had a guitar case slung over his shoulder, packed with 5
kilograms of explosives -- along with nails, screws and bolts to
exacerbate the injuries. When they reached the unguarded entrance to the
crowded pizzeria, Tamimi and Masri parted. He entered the eatery alone and
detonated his bomb.
My 15-year-old daughter, Malki, had entered moments earlier with her
friend, Michal Raziel. I know from speaking with a survivor that the girls
were standing on line waiting to order. Each was urging the other to go
first. That was all I knew about what happened inside the restaurant that
afternoon -- until I interviewed Esther Shoshan.
"I was upstairs with one of my daughters," Shoshan recalled. "We'd wanted
to sit downstairs where it's roomy, near the windows. But it was too
crowded. Two of my daughters had gone to park the car. Two others, Miriam
and Yocheved, went down to the lower level to get our food.
3. Blunder Ho:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525881381&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
4. Lying about diversity:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23935
5. Useful idiots:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23947
6. Feminizts for Islamofascism
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23946
7. Israel's Booboos
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23925
Israel's Biggest Mistake
By Ben Shapiro
Townhall.com August 18, 2006
8. Several people have accused me of gross rhetorical excess when
speaking about Haaretz. I regularly describe Haaretz as a Palestinian
newspaper printed in Hebrew, and as a paper that is trying to corner the
seditious corner of readers as its main clientele. Unfair, ludicrous
rhetorical excess, right?
Well, take a moment and read this article, which Haaretz runs in its
weekend magazine today, and then YOU make up your own mind about my
anti-Haaretz rhetoric:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/751743.html
'Through the looking glass'
By Sayed Kashua
My hands tremble as I write this, but in this war I was against my
country.
A huge mirror separates the two rooms. Just like in the interrogation
rooms in movies. I am sitting on the far side of the mirror and watching a
group of people who are answering questions and cannot see me. This is
called a focus group. It consists of a group of people who were invited by
Sikkuy, the Association for the Advancement of Equal Opportunity, as part
of a study involving a project to promote the equality of the Arabs in
Israel. "Young people, center-left" is the description of the group of
eight people who are expressing their attitudes toward the Arab
population. I always wanted to hear what Israelis think without knowing
that they were talking to an Arab, without their being politically
correct.
"Credibility problem" was the key phrase. "Knife in the back." "Their
natural increase." "Car thefts." "Crime, drugs, prostitution." "To
transfer them," one of the young people said, using both hands to make a
raking gesture. They were to be followed by a group that describes itself
as center-right, God preserve us.
At first I listened to every word. Afterward I lost interest. Somehow I
had a good feeling. True, they hate us, but there was nothing new, nothing
surprising in what they said. Ahead of the entrance of the second group I
was already immersed in jotting down ideas for my next column:
"Excuse me, I am so confused that you can't imagine how much. I feel a
powerful urge to come out of the closet, but I'm not sure this is the
right place. If this were an Arab paper, in the sense that its main target
audience is Arab, I would certainly write differently. No, no
manifestations of schadenfreude or warlike slogans. On the contrary, if my
target audience were Arab, I would be a lot blunter, a lot more critical.
But here, for the Israeli reader, I am afraid that my thoughts, which
never fully coalesced, will be construed as defeatist, resulting in the
possible loss of my deterrent capability.
"In this war I was surprised to discover how important deterrence is,
whereas I in my daily life always wanted to lose that capability, to make
my deterrence evaporate. Do you have any idea how sad it is when I enter a
pub and people immediately flee, especially girls, without my even having
approached them? The very appearance is deterring, not to mention the
name. My deterrent capability is so potent that infants, including mine,
start to cry when they see me.
"But that is not the issue here, and you are not Arabs. So where was I?
Yes. I was very confused in the past few weeks. In general, I felt
frustrated and hoped that it would end as quickly as possible,
irrespective of who won and who lost, just so they would announce that it
was over already. I am writing two hours after the cease-fire came into
effect. I hope that when this is published the cease-fire will still be in
effect.
"I am about to let you in on a few secrets, but I?m far from sure that
this is the smartest thing I can do. In fact, it may be one of the
dumbest. Because I can tell another story when the war is still in the
background and so wrap up another week, then wait for things to return to
normal and go back to dealing with marginal matters like racism,
discrimination, xenophobia and the difficulty of coping as an Arab in the
Jewish state.
"Well, it's like this: I was against the war, but after it started I
wanted the army to lose, or at least not to feel victorious. My hands
tremble as I write, but in this war I was against Israel - make no mistake
- my country. This has nothing to do with the other side, it has nothing
to do with what I think about the side that fought in this round against
the IDF. It's true that I would prefer that the IDF, that the State of
Israel lose without the consequence being that soldiers die. I would like
to see it lose in arm-wrestling. Rows of tables in which soldiers from
both sides sit and arm-wrestle. I would prefer a loss by penalty kicks.
"The past few weeks were so confusing, and included phone calls to friends
I grew up with, whom I lived with and who I knew were fighting; looking
for the names of victims with my heart pounding and my head exploding; and
ending with a feeling of relief when I did not identify friends in the
lists of names. You can say it?s treason, you can say what you want, but I
am still unable to understand how I can be happy when I hear that another
IDF tank has been hit and at the same time afraid that I have friends
inside it and then cringe when I see the photographs and under them the
ages of the fallen."
***
Another focus group concludes its session. A break. I can go out for a
cigarette and call home to see if everything is all right. I read out to
my wife what I had written so far. She says that I am an idiot, that you
don?t write like that, that they will take what they want and treat the
rest with skepticism and in the end I will find myself accused of
anti-Semitism and on trial.
I know that no lessons will be learned from this war. I know very well
that it will only heighten the hostility and the hatred and the arming for
the next round, which everyone is looking forward to. I know that the IDF
will not forgo this; its honor was sullied and it will not let that
situation continue for long. But somehow I hope that the IDF's deterrent
capability really was damaged. I really am glad that Israel now looks a
bit less frightening. Many argue that that is a sure recipe for
complacency that will lead to another attack on the country, whereas I
truly believe that the less monstrous Israel appears, the better the
prospects of it being treated as human. I know very well that if Israel
had won in a knockout the hatred for the country would have spiraled and
the desire to arm and plan for the next attack on it would be far
stronger.
True, the spirit of the war and the patronizing and the arrogance continue
to dominate the public discourse, but still, somewhere inside I feel that
I can be far more forgiving and identify with Israel precisely now, when
its pride has been hurt, when its intimidation capability has been
damaged, even a little. Suddenly I see the racism and the hatred as more
material, something that can be confronted. With its arrogance, Israel was
seen as an ideology against which nothing could be done.
"I am so happy," said a pretty woman on the other side of the glass, ?when
Nasrallah's missiles land in their villages." It's hard to believe, but I
smiled indulgently.
9.
There is a famous country-western tune entitled "I was Country when
Country wasn't Cool". Barbara Mandrell made it famous.
My mind keeps coming back to that as I observe with amusement the sudden
changes in the Israeli street. Sure, the Tenured Left and Haaretz are
still hoping for more Israeli failures and capitulations. But the
Israeli of the street is another species altogether.
Suddenly it is all but impossible to find anyone calling himself or
herself a leftist (at least outside of the softer academic departments on
the campuses). Suddenly everyone is insisting he or she saw the
katyushas coming all along and had been opposed to the Barak capitulation
to the Hezbollah in 2000. Suddenly everyone is telling you "I told you
so". Suddenly the public opinion polls are recording near-zero leftist
responses to any question, no matter how formulated.
And it is so much like the country western song, which talks about how
country music became popular and everyone is claiming to have always been
part of it.
The actual lyrics of the song can be seen here:
http://my.homewithgod.com/pkbutterfly/awardslyrics.html
Here is the New Israel Version:
I Was Rightist When Rightist Wasn't Cool
I remember wearin' Kova Temble hats and Orange shirts
Even when they wer'n't in style
And I was listenin' to Arutz7
When all of my friends were diggin' Rock 'n Roll and Rhythm & Blues
I was Rightist, when Rightist wasn't cool
I was Rightist, when Rightist wasn't cool
I am Rightist, from my hat down to my boots
I still act, and look the same
What you see ain't nothin' new
I was Rightist, when Rightist wasn't cool
I remember circlin' with the settlers, being pulled out
And tuning out Haim Yavin
I remember when no one was lookin'
I was puttin' Orange Ribbons on my car
I took a lot of kiddin'
'Cause I never did fit in
Now look at everybody tryin' to be what I was then
I was Rightist, when Rightist wasn't cool
They call us rightist bumpkins
For stickin' to our roots
I'm just glad we're in a movement
Where we're free to give the jerks the boot
I was Rightist, when Rightist wasn't cool
Yeah, I was Rightist when Rightist wasn't cool
