Iran's Incubator
Today was the deadline for Iran.
To stop developing the means of mass destruction.
Or rather, the means to blackmail the free world into submission to the will of the leaders, funders and facilitators of Islamic fundamentalist terror in the world.
The people who make us take our shoes off before boarding airplanes.
Who put us in fear of our lives whenever we embark on any form of public transport.
And Iran has given us all the finger.
And the Western powers - certainly the EU - will accommodate that finger.
At best, we can expect some wishy-washy agreement on sanctions that will affect Iran no more than a pinprick.
You may ask: who is to blame for this situation?
Most would say: Ahmadinejad. Without him there would be no nuclear designs on the West.
Some would say: Go back a step. Without Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran would still be pro-Western under the rule of the Shah's Pahlavi dynasty.
Others would ask: Well, where did Khomeni spring from?
The answer: France.
It is France which gave Khomeini sanctuary after he was expelled by Saddam from Iraq to which he had fled after denouncing the Shah's rule in Iran.
Much as I would just love to blame the French for being the incubator of Islamic fundamentalism and global terror, there is a story which redeems them.
Turns out that the head of their secret service, Andre de Marenches, offered the Shah a convenient accident for Khomeini in France. The Shah declined this offer, fearing that this would turn Khomeini into a martyr.
This has to go down as one of the worst mistakes in history!
For the want of a celebrity traffic accident - for which Paris has since established quite a reputation - the entire world is put at risk of terror at the least and nuclear destruction at worst.
This is the same story as King Saul who defied G-d's commandment in sparing the life of his prisoner, Agag. As a result, the Jewish people have had to struggle through generations of genocidal risk at the hands of Amalek and all of his ideological descendants, down to Haman, Hitler, Hussein and now Ahmadinejad.
Time is a Wasting
Time is a wasting.
Olmert and his motley crew should have been out by now.
But he is playing for time, prevaricating on the make-up of the enquiry commission.
Netanyahu and Lieberman of the Right should not make the same mistakes with Kadima as Olmert made with Nasrallah. They must now mobilise all forces, without mercy, to oust Kadima in the Knesset.
Just as Nasrallah kidnapped our young heroes, Kadima kidnapped the security of our state in its blind adherence to the principles of surrender for peace. There is no peace. There will never be peace.
Even if the Palestinian Arabs will it with all their hearts, the Jihadists in Iran and Arabia will never ever permit a peace treaty with Israel. That is implicit in their mission to totally subjugate the Infidels to the will of their God and their prophet. It is also the means of their survival as despotic leaders for as long as the conflict can be stoked and Israel cast as the external enemy.
A faraway conflict far more important than stable homes and education for Palestinian kids, more important than jobs for Iranian school-leavers, more important than womens' rights in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Why do our leaders and leader-writers not understand this?
Israel is not Ireland.
The Koran is no Blarney Stone.
It is their law.
Their abiding belief.
The infamous administration of Kadima must be brought down in the Knesset – and as soon as possible.
Commissions and tribunals may follow.
But, for now, the people's Knesset must rid us of this rotten, incompetent and corrupt leadership.
Let Olmert smoke his Havanas in opposition.
Israel needs strong and brave leadership committed to the secure future of our nation in the fullness of its homeland.
Inkblot Test
Take my Rorschach inkblot test on this space photo.
It portrays the terminator: the day-night divide over continental Europe.
But to me, it represents something deeper and more sinister.
The inexorable creep of Islamic fundamentalism across Europe.
Whilst traveling last week, I was able to catch up on some reading and was mightily impressed by a speech delivered in May by Winston Churchill's grandson to a JNF function in Melbourne, Australia.
Here is an extract:
"But today a new challenge confronts us: Extremist Islam has declared war on the rest of the world, as we see from their ruthless attacks - overwhelmingly targeted at innocent civilians - with the outrage of 9/11, the bombings in Madrid, in Bali, in London and most recently, in Jordan.Meanwhile the Fundamentalists are doing all in their power to mobilise against us the large Muslim communities living in our midst. There today are an estimated seven million Muslims in North America; nearly half a million in Australia, while in the European Union, the Muslim community is estimated at 20 million, including nearly 2 million in Britain.The scale of the problem confronting Europe today is epitomized by France, which has a Muslim community of some 6 million, or 10% of its population. But, taking the population aged 20 and below, that figure rockets to 30%, such is the birth rate among the immigrant communities. In other words, within one further generation, France will have become an Islamic country - a truly awesome prospect."
The full text of this outstanding speech can be viewed at this link.
I find it ironic that the scientific name for what is shown in this photograph is 'the terminator'.
For surely the alternative spectre I have ascribed to it will surely represent the termination of life in Europe, as we once knew it.
A Truckload of Goodwill
Undeterred by the Heathrow shutdown I turned up for last Thursday's night flight to Israel. I had no business there and no formal holiday plans. I just felt I needed to be there, perhaps to help out friends and family whose breadwinners had been called up for reserve duty.
On the trek to the El Al gate it was bizarre not see or hear a single cellphone. In this respect at least, the Islamists were succeeding in their assault on Western freedoms and turning the clocks back on progress. Calling home, I couldn't remember the last time I had used a normal payphone. The Chassidim looked forlorn without their oversized tallis bags and had to conform with the rest of us and our clear plastic bags.
By the following evening I was enjoying a Friday night meal with my cousins in Jerusalem. Ronit and her son-in-law Adi are paramedics in Magen David Adom. They told me of the plight of besieged families in the North and how grateful they were for the few supplies that MDA and others were able to bring. Home Front Command seemed about as unprepared for citizens in shelters as the IDF Command were unprepared for terrorists in bunkers.
One remarkable thing about Israel is the leverage of personal power. The vast majority of private aid organizations and soup kitchens that have helped the nation survive suicide bombings, recession and the Gaza expulsions have been created by very ordinary people with resources measured in love rather than money or influence. This week, in a small but special way, I joined that exclusive club, working with my cousins on the plan we hatched that Friday night.
At 8 am, on the first morning of the ceasefire, we turned up at a wholesale meat plant in Jerusalem's Romema district to load up 700 kilogrammes of pre-packed chicken and meat meals into a rental van donated by a hi-tech company. Then, on to the supermarket to fill the remaining space with diapers, rice, canned foods, sugar, oil and any other essentials we could think a family might need after a month of siege. And, for good measure, we stocked up with drinks, cookies and snacks for any soldiers we might meet along the way.
Against a steady stream of homebound troops in their armoured vehicles, we wound our way up to Kiryat Shemona by midday, heading for the home of Ofer, an army reservist and local community volunteer. There we unloaded the perishables into ice-cream freezers Ofer had rigged up in his backyard. Within a couple of hours, 18 families had already been allocated their food and necessities.
With the soldiers' goodies still on board, we pressed northward towards Metulla and – what used to be called – The Good Fence. Apart from the odd Katyusha craters in the roads, damage was surprisingly light. But on closer inspection it could be seen that the rocket payloads were lethal, with signs of ball bearings having torn through even the metal barriers at the roadside. We passed an open field in which some 40 tanks were parked. Their lowered gun barrels seemed to reflect the exhaustion of their crews, tasked with vanquishing in 48 hours an enemy they were held back from engaging for over 3 weeks.
Standing on a Metulla street corner, you can literally see into the front rooms of Lebanese houses on the opposite hillside. It was hard to believe Israelis here had been living tooth by jowl with feral Hizbullah neighbours for so many years. Pressing further we reached the Lebanese border and parked at a 100 metre gap in the fence beyond which an unmanned IDF tank stood in a ploughed-up field. I stepped into Lebanon.
But just one step.
Around the corner we delighted an IDF camp with gifts of drinks, cookies and snacks together with packets of wet towels to clean themselves up. Patting tankists on the back often raised a plume of dust. "From London??" they marveled. Many just couldn't believe that sane people would choose Israel as a destination in wartime, let alone bring goodies all the way up to the front line.
Our cargo hold finally emptied, we headed back down towards Kiryat Shmona. But there was to be an unscheduled stop. Adi turned the van into the empty car park of Tel Chai cemetery. In the centre of the car park was a pile of rocks surrounded by memorial candles topped with a blue and white flag. This was the spot where 12 army reservists were horrifically killed by a Katyusha which landed in the middle of their briefing assembly. It was a truly heartrending scene, surrounded by bare and blackened trees scorched by the explosion. Wedged in between the rocks of the makeshift memorial I noticed the charred remnant of a pair of spectacles.
As we wound our way back through Kiryat Shmona and Afula, the sadness of Kfar Giladi soon gave way to the heartening sight of makeshift banners on the roadside welcoming the troops on their homeward journey. An outpouring of goodwill as spontaneous as our own private mission that day.
Whilst many soldiers will be back with their families this Friday night, the vast majority have remained on station, with few illusions about the ceasefire lasting very long.
Over the past four weeks we may have seen the worst of Hizbulla.
But we have also seen the best of the ordinary citizens of Israel.
Labels: second lebanon war
Letter to Haaretz Editor
To David Landau
Editor: Haaretz
Dear David:
I haven't much time for Ehud Olmert, but for all the scorn he is about to face over his leadership in this war and the loss of our precious youngsters, my finger points firmly at you and your fellow editors of the so-called 'thinking man's press'.
In bending over backwards to air liberal opinions, you have left no space for the Pravda: the truth. You have forsaken the prime calling of a journalist: to probe and inquire. To cast light into the dark corners of political corruption and to expose those in whom the citizens' trust would be misplaced.
Instead you have signally failed in this duty. In particular by allowing Ariel Sharon a trouble-free election run to lead this nation over a precipice which – only by the grace of G-d – has been stopped at the last moment. Had Gilad Shalit's kidnapping not precipitated this conflagration, Hizballa's blitzkrieg would most likely have taken place after Kadima's handover of Judea and Samaria with devastating consequences. How long do you think Ben Gurion's new airport would have lasted within a 6km missile range?
It is time to review your editorial policy. Israel has more than enough demonizers and self-hating Jewish pundits in the outside world without paying for more in newspaper subscriptions. It is time you started flying the flag like the rest of us.
Spanish Fly in the Ointment
Spain's Prime Minister Zapatero has been one of Israel's biggest critics in the EU, proudly sporting a Palestinian keffiyeh and accusing our army of abusive force in its defence of Hezbulla's unprovoked missile attack.
Mr Zapatero will go down in history as the first leader of a western democracy to be elected by Al-Qaeda. The same Islamic terrorists who bombed Madrid on the eve of his election, dream of the return of Spain to its former Muslim Caliphate status as ancient Andalusia.
It is a fact of history that countries which expelled Jews lost their status and fell into obscurity. Spain is probably the best example of this. From its glory days as the center of world trade and home port to the legendary shipping armada, Spain can trace its decline almost exactly to the 15th century expulsion. Ask anyone about Spain and they will talk about British tourists and sherry casks: both filled to the brim with alcohol.
But let's not forget Spanish culture.
Bullfighting.
This is their time-honored sport in which a dumb animal is surrounded by sadists who stab it from every direction and, when it is almost bled into submission, the chief sadist severs its neck with a sword.
Sounds a lot like Al-Qaeda is doing to dumb Europeans.
A Prophesy Fulfilled
June 2005, Speech by Ehud Olmert
"We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies ...
Well Ehud, you got everything you wanted.
Now leave!
"Moussauoi Day" in Britain
August 10th. A day that can be added to the yahrtzeits of September 11th and July 7th imposed on our world by Islamic terror.
I think of it as "Zacharias Moussaoui Day" for Britain. A day that unfortunately America wasn't fortunate enough to have been granted by fate.
Had the so-called 20th hijacker been discovered in the USA as today's plotters were in the UK, the catastrophe of 9-11 would have been avoided and more than 3,000 innocent men and women would still be enjoying their lives and families today.
So, what will Britain do with this gift of fate?
This gift of life.
Will it regard it as a wake-up call?
Or simply press the snooze button until the next alarm.
I fear the latter ... true to European type.
Despite the upheaval at Heathrow airport, I chose not to cancel my plans to catch El Al's overnight flight to Israel. The Islamists may want to wipe Israel off the map but, so long as it IS on the map, I'm damned if they're gonna stop me visiting it.
By my 8 pm check-in Terminal 3 was eerily quiet. Most travellers had either cancelled or been cancelled. The few passengers trudging toward their departure gates seemed helpless and vulnerable without their faithful carry-ons and backpacks. Instead, all of us carried a small plastic bag containing tickets, passport, money and any essential medicines. That's all.
Possibly the most painful wrench was having to part with cellphones. It was a truly eerie feeling not seeing or hearing a single cellphone in use between check-in and the gate. And it was comical listening to the pre-flight announcements about switching off cellphones which no-one had with them.
To call home before boarding I had to use a payphone. I haven't used a payphone in years! It was truly like going back in time. Walking around clutching ziplock bags, bereft all our gizmos and gadgetry.
But then I thought: Isn't that exactly what the Islamists want? To take us all back in time?
To a primitive dark-age of Sharia law, holy wars, imprisonment of women, summary execution and beheadings.
It reminded me of the plane that landed in Riyadh airport and whose captain announced:
"We have just landed in Saudi Arabia. Please set your watches back 300 years".
Media Blind Spot
Dear Gentlemen of the Press and Media:
I hope you will take a few moments to open this file.
And remember our own children.
No less tragic than Arab children whose lives were lost in this conflict.
But with one major difference.
The Jewish children were deliberately murdered.
In cold blood, with malice aforethought.
And their killers celebrated and handed out sweets in the street.
Just as they did after 9-11.
Whilst our airmen apologised for a 0.01% margin of human error.
After 4,000 sorties in 21 days they are held to a higher standard than any pilot since planes first flew.
We expect no sympathy from the media.
Just even-handedness.
A bit of that will do nicely.
Non-aligned with Re-alignment
Ehud Olmert today apologised for making further commitments to future withdrawals from Judea & Samaria even as missiles rained down on Northern Israel.
A number of army reservists have refused drafting orders to Lebanon in the service of a Prime Minister committed to this kind of lunacy.
MK Benny Elon is right to ask: "How can you ask a soldier to risk his life in battle, only to return and see his home literally given away to the enemy?"
These refuseniks have sent Olmert an important message: Having seen the sacrifice of Gush Katif and its burned synagogues repaid by even more rabid aggression and killing, few Jewish officers will be ready to assist in any future withdrawals.
If the PM is so determined to press ahead with further Jewish evictions, he would be well-advised to recruit the next battalion of bailiffs from the ranks of the multi-national force being assembled for South Lebanon.
After all, the Europeans in particular will have so much practical experience to offer.
Mein Kampf : Mein Jihad
When the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem made his genocide pact with Hitler in 1941, little did he know that his Islamic disciples would seek to finish the job 50 years later with an ever bolder plan for world domination.
Both tyrants were driven by one central urge: to wipe out the Jews.
As are the Islamic fundamentalists of today, led by their fanatical clerics.
I urge all readers of this blog to take time out to watch the compelling movie 'Obsession' which exposes the Islamic threat to the world and our entire way of life. Produced by HonestReporting.com it reveals shocking parallels between the tactics and imagery of Hitler's nazism and the jihadist movement of today.
This film begs to be viewed by every Member of Parliament, Senator and Congressman. Indeed by every journalist and newspaper pundit.
It seems to me to be a final wake-up call to those - particularly in Europe - who pressed the snooze button after 9-11.
To see the movie, click here.
Labels: ahmadinejad, kampf
A Failure of Intel
The events of the last 3 weeks clearly demonstrate that there has been a clear failure of intelligence bordering on disastrous.
What troubles me is this:
If - with all of drones and satellites at their disposal - our people didn't know all they needed to know about the underground bunkers being filled wth missiles over a period of 6 years right on our northern border, what confidence can we possibly have of their ability to target anything in Iran?
For without doubt, it will be Israel alone that has to deal with Iran in the final analysis.
Sanctions will never work and no other country - including America - is in the mood to get involved in direct miltary action against Teheran.