Sunday, February 01, 2009

Prof. Shlomo Avineri denounces the leftist "McCarthism" at Tel Aviv University

1. For so long I was alone in calling for R&D, Re-Occupation and
Denazification. I have insisted ever since the first "withdrawal" that
ultimately Israel would have no choice but to re-occupy the areas
abandoned.

But now a very senior Israeli public figure, a former head of military
intelligence, General Yaakov Amidror, has come out in favor of
Re-Occupation of Gaza. (Netanyahu has been trying to get him to run as
part of the Likud slate. He is Program Director of the Institute for
Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Vice
President of the Lander Institute in Jerusalem.) See this:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3664842,00.html
'Unclear to Hamas that they lost'
"When a war is over, failure is usually clear to one side, and it won't be
in any hurry to go to war again," said Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Yaakov Amidror,
former head of the Assessment and Production Division of IDF Intelligence.
"The instant he has the capability, it depends solely on his good will .
or, more accurately, his bad will."

"The rocket barrage this morning (Sunday) proves that this is not the case
. the war did not end in a way such that it is clear to Hamas that they
lost," added Amidror. "Moreover, a large part of their capability remains
intact."

"Hamas sees the future possibility for reinforcing their strength through
continued smuggling. Since this is the situation, and it is clear to
everyone that the State of Israel, contrary to any declarations, won't be
in a hurry to embark on another large-scale operation, Hamas is trying to
make it clear to us that the war is not over and that the State of
Israel's leader's bragging statements that victory will deter and bring
quiet have no grounds whatsoever," Amidror explained.

According to Amidror, "On the backdrop of international hostility, Hamas
feels strong enough to continue firing rockets, and the State of Israel
doesn't have a good response to this.

"Every Israeli citizen needs to ask himself why Qassam rockets aren't
being fired from Qalqilya into Kfar Saba. After all, it is only a distance
of 700 yards. The answer is that the IDF is there, if needed, all day and
all night.

"There is no way of fighting terrorism without physically controlling the
field. The State of Israel decided to forego controlling the field in
Gaza, and, as such, gave up in all practicality its capability to fight
terrorism there," Amidror claimed.
Amidror agreed that "the State of Israel has a difficult decision to make:
If it does not want to reach a situation in which Hamas cannot strike, it
must occupy the Strip for a long time. Otherwise, Israel accepts an enemy
that fires whenever it feels like it. There are two bad, difficult, and
complicated alternatives . anything else is putting up a smoke screen for
the public.

"We only did half the job. We needed to occupy Gaza and not cheat
ourselves. It would be a very gentle statement to say that this operation
did not achieve its objectives. The military part was carried out. The
army did what it was told. In my opinion, it simply wasn't told the right
things," concluded Amidror.

2. Well, duh, of course the New Inquisition in Spain against Israelis is
a form of anti-Semitism:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3664585,00.html

Anti-Semitic decision in Spain

Spanish judge's war crimes ruling undermines State of Israel's right to
exist
Dror Nissan


The Spanish judge's decision to launch legal proceedings against, more or
less, the entire top brass of Israel's security establishment at the time
of Salah Shehade's assassination in July 2002 has left the official Israel
wide-mouthed and helpless. As it turns out, the Dreyfus Affair is in fact
ongoing history that repeats itself at various locations, times, and
contexts, yet the ant-Semitic undertones are always present.

It is simply difficult to believe how much injustice, arbitrariness,
Orwellian language and Israel-hatred can be found in a relatively brief
ruling. Moreover, a system where any junior judge anywhere can easily
indict the State of Israel's entire security cadre justifies some puzzled
questions.

According to a legal source in Madrid, Justice Fernando Andeo decided to
grant the petition filed by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights "in
the name of universal justice," which Spain recognizes in all matters
pertaining to crimes against humanity and genocide.

How many bombastic words had to be enlisted in order to draft such
disturbing and baseless paragraph and ruling? After all, what are we
talking about here? Our fundamental right to rise against those who seek
to exterminate us.

Salah Shehade was a Palestinian arch-terrorist, the head of Hamas'
military wing in Gaza, and the founder of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam
Brigades. He was a man who ceaselessly engaged in terror and in the murder
of Jews . for 20 consecutive years, even when he was jailed in Israel.

Shehade planned and approved a very long series of terror attacks,
including the murder of five yeshiva students in Atzmona and the killing
of four IDF soldiers in an attack on an army post near Gaza.

Israel attempted to assassinate him for a long time. Eventually, Shehade
was killed when his home was bombed, in a strike that also killed his aide
and 14 others, including his wife and three of his children, as well as
women and children who were his neighbors. Yet it is needless to say that
it is the State of Israel's existential right and duty to assassinate
people like Shehade.

Terrorists hope to paralyze Israel
As result of the combat norms adopted by Shehade and his organization .
namely, always taking shelter behind helpless civilians or humanitarian
facilities, based on the assumption that this will paralyze Israel and
stir intolerable dilemmas to the point of operational impotence . innocent
have been killed, regrettably, and they will continue to be killed.

Yet Israel cannot be paralyzed and refrain from taking action against its
arch-enemies because of their despicable norms. In this context it is
perhaps worthy to note the brutality displayed by Hamas men to their Fatah
brethren in Gaza.

Israel did not wait for the Spaniards. The killing of innocents that
accompanied Shehade stirred public outrage that culminated with a letter
written by IDF pilots and the filing of irritating complaints in Britain
over alleged war crimes against the army chief, Air Force chief, and
Southern Command chief at the time.

Israel had been debating and suffering throughout its existence because of
these dilemmas, which are not yet shared by its enemies. The struggle
against terror is existential and essential, and as such, due to the
terrorists' modus operandi (as clearly demonstrated during Operation Cast
Lead,) it sometimes involves unavoidable harm to civilians.


In the face of the terrible and unjust decision in Spain, it is the
official Israel's duty to sound all the alarms and make all the noise it
can make. We are dealing with a decision that undermines our fundamental
right for sovereignty and security. This is a decision that conceals deep
de-legitimacy for the State of Israel's right to even exist. Indeed, it is
an anti-Semitic decision.


3. Want more proof that we are in a new era and a new ball game? Yaron
London, who spent the past decades serving as a talking leftist head, is
having second thoughts. Let him speak for himself:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129703

London: 'Any Population that Votes for Hamas Deserves to be Bombed'
Shevat 7, 5769, 01 February 09 01:19
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Left-wing television and media personality Yaron London
surprised many of his colleagues during the recent war against Hamas by
calling for a no-holds-barred military response against the civilian
population of Gaza.
London first outlined his views in an article in Yediot Acharonot, and
then elaborated upon them for clearly-shocked interviewer Razi Barkai on
Army Radio.
.It appears that we have exhausted the options of moderating Hamas
fanaticism with measured responses,. London wrote, .and the time has come
to shock the Gaza population with actions that until now have nauseated us
- [such as] killing the political leadership, causing hunger and thirst in
Gaza, blocking off energy sources, causing widespread destruction, and
being less discriminating in the killing of civilians. There is no other
choice..
Asked by Barkai, a veteran left-wing broadcaster in his own right, why
there is no choice, London responded, .The strategy of modular and gradual
pressure has not brought the desired results. We cannot absorb any more
Kassams, we cannot fortify the entire south, we cannot take over Gaza
because the price will be too heavy, and gradual pressure has only made
Hamas and the Gaza population even tougher and more fanatic. I therefore
concluded that there are only two remaining options: being extra nice to
them, or being extra tough ."
Barkai interrupts and says, .There is a third option: negotiations with
Hamas..
London: .Which will bring what?.

Barkai: .I have no idea, but it is a possibility, at least in theory..
London: .Negotiations will lead only to a ceasefire, whose duration will
be determined solely in accordance with Hamas interests; we will not come
out of that period with a greater advantage in terms of arms and weapons..
Asked how he can guarantee that a tougher Israeli offensive will yield the
desired results, London said: .Experience in past wars shows me that if we
are tough enough, then at a certain stage, their standing-power will
break. I am referring to both the population and their leadership; they
are the same, because the population voted for Hamas. I can.t separate
between one who voted for Hamas and a Hamas leader..
Barkai: We will have to deal with very difficult pictures of hungry
children .
London: Yes.
Barkai: and destroyed houses -
London: Yes.
Barkai: and dead unarmed civilians, etc. How will we be able to deal
with this?
London: Everyone in Gaza is armed. There is a consensus in Israel that the
time has come to do take action. We cannot fortify Ashdod, and Netivot,
and Sderot, and bear this disgrace.
Barkai: There might be thousands of dead?
London: I hope not . I hope that one real blow will put an end to this
before we get to that.
Barkai: Give me an example of such a blow.
London: I don.t want to give an example, but you can go back to history
and see.
Barkai: [short pause] The only thing I can think of, and that you
apparently don.t want to say, is the bombing of cities such as in World
War II.
London: Right. You don.t need to bomb a whole city; a quarter of a
borough should be enough.
Barkai finally asked, .Tell me, have you undergone an . I don.t want to
say .ideological crisis. because that sounds too high-brow, but perhaps a
little crisis.
London: My brothers in Sderot are what brought me to this.
Barkai uses his trademark phrase: .Ki ma?. [Because what?]
London: Because I can.t take the idea of little frightened girls running
around in the streets of Sderot. That.s the whole thing. You can
tolerate it for a certain amount of time, like the kibbutzim of the Jordan
Valley did, or if it.s only a small amount of terror organizations, or
whatever. But when an entire population of 1.5 million voted for this
Hamas government, then this population has to bear the responsibility.
That.s the whole story.

4. When a country DESERVES to go bankrupt:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129702


5. Prof. Shlomo Avineri, dean of Israeli political science, himself a
leftist and ex-Marxist, denounces the leftist McCarthyism at the law
school of Tel Aviv University, writing in Haaretz. As you may recall, a
petition of academic moonbats, backed by Haaretz, has been attempting to
prevent a woman army colonel from lecturing in the TAU law school because
she fails to meet their extremist anti-Israel political litmus test.
Avineri tells them off here:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060378.html
Caution, McCarthyism ahead


By Shlomo Avineri


And especially this citation: 'he attempt to "protect" those who belong
to the left while employing McCarthy-style methods against those
associated with the right is nothing but hypocrisy, which has no place in
academia. The people working to prevent Sharvit-Baruch's appointment do
not realize that the proposal gives legitimacy to the dark forces that
lurk on the sidelines of Israeli society, to begin pursuing the voices in
academia that strike them as "unpatriotic" or "insufficiently Zionist."
This may even apply to some of the people heading the fight against
Sharvit-Baruch.'

Well, duh.

Of course the anti-Israeli pro-terror extremist columnist Gideon Levy
disagrees: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060380.html

5. Haaretz: Hamas says it is ready for a one-year truce. Plaut
translation: Hamas is willing for there be a situation for a full year in
which it shoots rockets at the Jews and the Jews turn the other cheek
without retaliating. Haaretz is also ready for that.






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