Sunday, November 25, 2007
The Olmert First Amendment
"Olmert escaping from
police - to Annapolis"
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 25 November 2007
Army Radio correspondent Guy Varon reports this morning that the Egged bus
company cancelled a protest ad campaign at the last minute of right wing
activists against prime minister Ehud Olmert, under the slogan "Olmert
escaping from police - to Annapolis".
Egged claims that the ad is improper because it offend the public
consensus.
http://glz.msn.co.il/newsArticle.aspx?newsid=10614
In the same spirit, Moshe Hanegbi, the legal commentator of Israel Radio,
recently said that one of the grounds for criminal charges against the
group
behind an ad campaign that featured Shimon Peres donning a kafiyeh is that
it is against the law to "offend a public servant".
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@...
Website: http://www.imra.org.il
2. In 2004 the following article appeared when the Israeli government
released hundreds of imprisoned murderers as a "peace gesture." The
result was a wave of new murders. A direct result was also the
kidnapping of Israeli soldiers in the summer of 2006, triggering the
make-pretend "war" that Israel then "fought" against the Hizbollah. Now,
as Ehud Olmert prepares to release hundreds of imprisoned murderers, I
thought it is timely to re-post this:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/3274
I Am Ashamed to Be an Israeli
14 Kislev 5768, 24 November 07 10:51
by Steven Plaut
(IsraelNN.com) I have spent most of the past 12 years being ashamed to be
an Israeli. Israeli governments made me ashamed, and they did so by
abasing, disgracing and humiliating me as a Jew and as an Israeli.
I have been ashamed for 12 years at being an Israeli, because this was the
period in which the governments of Israel abandoned the struggle for
Jewish national survival. They stopped trying to defend me and all other
Jews. They lectured me that it was my fault that the Arab fascists were
attacking Jews, and that it was within my power to stop the carnage, if
only I would agree to demean myself sufficiently, to grovel before the
terrorists of the Middle East, and to appease the anti-Semites. I could
achieve peace if I would agree to place my neck in an Arab noose, but if I
refuse to do so, then I would be the impediment to peace and my obstinacy
would be to blame for all further carnage.
For 12 years, my government pursued a policy of defending me and my family
by abandoning all attempts to defend us. My government decided to pursue
peace by pretending that war did not exist. After two millennia of
anti-Semitism, my government decided that anti-Semitism does not really
exist, and that when people randomly murder Jewish children, it is because
they have some legitimate grievances, because they have suffered, and
because Jews have shown them insufficient sensitivity.
My government implemented policies based on the presumption that the
making of concessions to blood-thirsty terrorists would be rewarded with
moderation and goodwill, that importing armed Nazis into the suburbs of
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem would cause them to seek peace. My government
followed policies based on the notion that the Jews were evil, insensitive
and selfish. My government decided that if Jews would only "share" their
land and resources with those who rule the entire territory from the
Atlantic Ocean to Central Asia, that is, with those who refuse to agree to
any "sharing" that allows a Jewish state to exist anywhere in the Middle
East, then there would be peace.
My government decided that rewarding terrorists for violence would end
violence, and then told me that there was simply no alternative to
coddling terrorists and Nazis. My government pursued peace by pretending
that war did not exist. My government sought peace through arming and
bankrolling terrorists. My government decided that anti-Semitism can only
be overcome by redressing the "underlying grievances" that it reflects. My
government fought terrorism by not fighting it, and by trying to appease
it. My government insisted that I must coddle anti-Semites and terrorists,
and must pander to their agenda and desires, for there is no other choice.
My government over the past 12 years preached to me that it was my own
pride and my parochial patriotism that was the obstacle to peace. It told
me I must seek peace through self-abasement and self-humiliation. My
government told me that if I would show willingness to compromise, then so
would the Arabs.
My government has been wrong about everything, but refuses to admit it has
been wrong about anything.
My government decided that Palestinians are a "nation" and that chunks of
my Jewish lands were in fact "Palestinian lands". My government decided
that Arabs may freely live any place they wish anywhere in the land of
Israel, but I may not live freely where I might choose if it happens to be
across the "Green Line". My government instituted discrimination against
me and against other Jews in the name of "affirmative action", quotas and
preferences for Arabs and directed against me.
My government fought for my survival through cowardice and endless
"restraint", turning my other cheek against my will, pursuing endless
"goodwill gestures", which only inflamed the violence. It did so despite
the fact that I and my fellow Israeli citizens voted repeatedly to revoke
the "Oslo approach" and voted in favor of pursuing war against our
enemies, not appeasement. My government abandoned all of northern Israel
to the mercies of the Hizbollah rockets, now aimed at me in the thousands.
My government abandoned the Jewish towns near the Gaza Strip to rocket
barrages from the PLO.
I have spent the past 12 years cringing in shame. My government made me
feel that way. But I have never felt as ashamed at being an Israeli as I
did this week, when my government decided to reward the Hizbollah for
murdering three of my fellow citizens in cold blood. My government also
abandoned Ron Arad, releasing his kidnapper, rewarding the terrorists who
kidnapped him, who "sold" him to Iran and possibly murdered him. My
government decided to release nearly 450 murderers with blood on their
hands in order to "buy" the release of the carcasses of three of my fellow
citizens, who were murdered by the Hizbollah after they had been kidnapped
by it.
My government had abandoned southern Lebanon to the Hizbollah and assured
me there would be complete tranquility thereafter. After the farcical
Israeli "withdrawal" ordered by my government, the Hizbollah has fired
almost daily into Israel, has sent in terrorists who murdered Israeli
civilians, and snatched the three soldiers (two Jews and one Bedouin Arab)
whose bodies were released this week, after murdering them in cold blood.
Last week, the Hizbollah murdered one more army officer working a
bulldozer; in response, my government punished some empty Hizbollah
buildings. The prisoner "deal" was possible only because my government
refuses to execute the murdering savages, the terrorists. My government
thinks capital punishment is inhumane, and its absence has made possible
the murders of 1,300 of my fellow countrymen. That is like twenty two
September 11ths, when measured proportional to population.
The Hizbollah also held as prisoner a man who had entered Lebanon for
criminal purposes, possibly a drug deal to pay off his gambling debts. I
opposed releasing any terrorists to get him released. I might have
considered agreeing to release a handful as payment to the Hizbollah to
keep him imprisoned there, if he is indeed a drug smuggler.
My government decided to respond to the murders of the three POWs by
rewarding their murderers, not by converting three Hizbollah towns into
large parking lots, not by bathing the Hizbollah leaders in napalm. My
government signaled to all my fellow citizens that it was unwilling to
avenge our deaths. My government let every Israeli soldier know that his
life would be worthless if captured by the enemy, because my government
would always seek "deals" with those who murder POWs. My government made
it known that by grabbing some Israelis as hostages, anyone could obtain
any concession they want from my country. My government also let every
soldier know that, if captured in war, he would be abandoned to his fate
by my government. My government agreed to this "deal" with the Hizbollah,
a deal that spit on the family of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad. The man
who kidnapped and "sold" Arad has been released by my government as
payment for the release of the common criminal.
My government is trying to cover its shame by boasting that it "held out
tough" and refused to release the baby-murdering terrorist Samir Kuntar,
the man who murdered the members of the Haran family in Nahariya. My same
government boasts that it would have released this arch-murderer had the
Hizbollah so much as told Israel where Ron Arad (or his grave) is.
So much for "standing tough".
My government is a disgrace. My government practices cowardice and
pretends it is courage. My government displays indifference to the
Israelis who will now be murdered by those released terrorists and
murderers. My government had the gall to pretend it was acting out of
compassion and morality when it signed this capitulation, when it placed
that smirk on the face of the Hizbollah chief terrorist, boasting of his
victory.
To drive home the point that the "deal" proves to the world that the Jews
are on the run, the terrorists blew up a bus in Jerusalem, the same
Jerusalem they pretend is holy to them, as part of celebrating the
stampede of Jewish flight. After all, the Hizbollah was being rewarded for
terror, so why should not the Palestinians follow their lead in obtaining
Israeli surrender?
The bus atrocity in Jerusalem was carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, a PLO terror group under the direct command and control of
Yasser Arafat.
My government pretended it was suddenly acting out of Jewish ethical
values. My government would not know a Jewish ethical value if it popped
up in its face. My government pretends there is a "Part B" to this
capitulation, in which information about Ron Arad will be released. I do
not believe them. I think my government is lying, to window-dress this act
of cowardice.
As I watch the victory smile on the mug of the Hizbollah chief terrorist,
my own government makes me cringe. My government makes me ashamed of being
an Israeli.
3. Oh about that "Israel" Lobby:
http://www.forward.com/articles/12079/
4. Hmmm. The "Israel Lobby" anti-Semites crashed and burned in Euro
book fair: http://www.forward.com/articles/12071/
5. A Prime Minister about Nothing:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3475197,00.html
6. NY Jews under siege:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195546713758&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
