Saturday, March 24, 2007

How About Some Even-Handedness?

Stanley Fish (web only) and Nicholas Kristof have recently had columns in the NY Times about the suppression of criticism of Israel by the Powerful Jewish Organizations and Influential Jews.

These columns have drawn about 900 published reader responses, mostly critical of Israel.

One obvious conclusion is that criticism of Israel exists: Carter's book, the NY Times columns and the readers' responses. Criticism of Israel is happening. Obviously, there is no suppression or inhibition caused by the supposedly Powerful Jewish Organizations and Influential Jews. One wonders what motivated the critics of Israel to invent that particular piece of really nasty fiction.

How about some even-handedness?

How about some criticism of Palestinians?

Palestinians kill Jews whenever they get an opportunity. Any one care to criticize murder?

What is most criticizable (aside from the criminality of murder) is the sheer stupidity these Palestinians display.

After decades of Jew-killing what have the Palestinians accomplished? They still are a third-world nation totally dependent on handouts to live from day to day.

If they gave up their obsession with killing Jews and behaved like normal human beings, they might, just might, make some progress toward moving up to second-world status. They might achieve a standard of living comparable to the poorer people of Egypt or Algeria.

For the Palestinians, that would be something to look forward to.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Critics of Israel

Critics of Israel like to say that the Jews have taken away land at the expense of the Palestinian Arabs

Go back to the year 70 A.D. The Romans expelled the Jews from Palestine.

Whoever moved into the land formerly occupied by the Jews did so at the expense of the Jews.

Move forward. At the time that Israel was created by the United Nations in 1948, Palestine was governed by the British, who grabbed the land from the Turks after World War I. The Palestinian Arabs never had a nation there.

When Israel was created, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq tried to destroy Israel and grab the land for themselves. They failed. Eventually, Egypt and Jordan made peace with Israel.

Arafat grabbed the opportunity to become the ruler of the Palestinians by promising the destruction of Israel. He became a tyrant, stole hundreds of millions of dollars and of course failed to destroy Israel.

Now Abbas and Hamas preach the destruction of Israel. They also are failing.

What should the Palestinians Arabs do? Continue to try to destroy Israel?

You know what that's like? A puny, underfed mangy mouse shaking his fist at a lion and squeaking: "Me and my brothers and cousins will destroy you!"

Pathetic, isn't it?

So are the critics of Israel, equally pathetic, if not more so.

The True Reason for the Iraq Invasion

Finally, the true reason for the Iraq invasion is explained in an op-ed piece in today's NY Times.

In March 2001, the National Energy Policy Development Group (better known as Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force), which included executives of America’s largest energy companies, recommended that the United States government support initiatives by Middle Eastern countries “to open up areas of their energy sectors to foreign investment.” One invasion and a great deal of political engineering by the Bush administration later, this is exactly what the proposed Iraq oil law would achieve. It does so to the benefit of the companies, but to the great detriment of Iraq’s economy, democracy and sovereignty.

Since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has been aggressive in shepherding the oil law toward passage. It is one of the president’s benchmarks for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a fact that Mr. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gen. William Casey, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and other administration officials are publicly emphasizing with increasing urgency.

This law gives a huge bonanza to ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP. It is the grandest of thefts enabled through the sacrifice of more than 3000 American lives, maiming another 20,000 Americans, killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and expenditure (past, present and future) of more than a trillion dollars.

The audacity of this corruption is awesome.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

What Should Israel Have Done Differently?

When critics of Israel blame Israel for the Palestinian people's misery are they blaming the guilty party?

Ponder these inconvenient facts:

1. In 2000, Ehud Barak, the Prime Minister of Israel offered Arafat more than 90% of what Arafat asked for.

2. Arafat did not make a counter offer.

3. Arafat refused Barak's offer.

4. Arafat did not give a reason for his refusal.

5. Arafat went home.

6. Using Sharon's legal and previously approved walk on Temple Mount as pretext, Arafat started the Intifada which is still running today.

7. After a multitude of suicide-murders, Israel built the wall (with Palestinian help) and took other steps to protect itself.

What should Israel have done differently?

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Puzzling . . .

There is one question that needs to be answered: Considering that Iraqi politicians from the 3 main factions have agreed on a plan for sharing oil revenues, why are the Arabs continuing to kill each other?

Here's another related question: Why isn't Bush conducting a big information campaign in Iraq to teach the Arabs that they have what they wanted and there is no further need for bloodshed?

Thursday, March 08, 2007

So, this respectable lady . . .

A calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy and walked
right up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and
said, "I would like to buy some cyanide."

The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world do you need cyanide?"

The lady replied, "I need it to poison my husband."

The pharmacist's eyes got big, and he exclaimed, "Lord, have
mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband! That's
against the law! I would lose my license! They'll throw both of
us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen! Absolutely not!
You CANNOT have any cyanide!"

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a photo of her
husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife.

The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, "Well, now.
That's different. You didn't tell me you had a prescription."

The GOP's Problem

Why is the Republican party offering Giuliani as its leading candidate for the Presidential nomination?

Why not? Here is why the GOP should not even be thinking of Giuliani:

1. Miserable family values: married 3 times, informed his second wife of his impending divorce at a press conference, carried on with his mistress publicly while still married to the second wife. First wife was his second cousin. How's that for the candidate of the "family values" party?

2. Giuliani is an arrogant egomaniac bully. He has a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Unsuitable for any position of power.

3. Zero experience in the international area.

The GOP is stuck with Giuliani or McCain (another problem candidate) because nobody with any real ability is making a serious run for the nomination.

Why not? Because the Republicans Party has conceded the 2008 election to the the Democrats.

Note: The 2006 New York State election provided a preview. The Republicans were forced to nominate non-entities to run against Spitzer for Governor and Hillary for re-election as Senator because the two Democrats had a lock on the election. Spitzer won with 75% of the vote and Hillary won with 67% of the vote.

What Do the Critics Expect of Israel?

As long as the leadership of the Palestinians is irrevocably committed in speech and in action to the destruction of Israel, what should Israel be expected to do except to strengthen its position and to protect itself to the best of its ability against suicide murderers, rocketeers and other criminals?

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Why Focus on Israel?

I wonder what percentage of the critics of Israel also criticize Russia for killing Chechens, Indonesia for killing East Timorese, Egypt for mistreating Coptic Christians, China for mistreating Christians, Tibetans and the Falun Gong, Japan for refusing to apologize for its war crimes, France for killing Algerians and of course, the United States for all the harm we have done to Iraq?

If the critics of Israel focus only on Israel, one would have to ask, "Why single out Israel? What is so unique about Israel?"

If the critics of Israel focus on Israel because of their deep love for Arabs, why don't they criticize the Arabs who kill other Arabs?

Monday, March 05, 2007

Are Critics of Israel Anti-Semitic?

Are critics of Israel truly motivated by the suffering of the Palestinian Arabs or by their own hatred of Jews? That is the question that I would like to consider.

On the evidence of comments listed in the media and in books, the real cause of the misery of the Palestinian Arabs is not seriously considered by critics of Israel. The inescapable conclusion is that critics of Israel are mainly motivated NOT by sympathy for the Arabs but by hate for the Jews.

What do I mean? Only this: the chief cause of the misery of the Palestinian Arabs is not Israel but the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs, first Arafat and then Abbas and Hamas.

How did Arafat mistreat the Palestinian Arabs? Only in the following ways:

1. Arafat stole most of their money. At the time of his death, Arafat had a fortune estimated by various sources of at least 300 million dollars, or as much as 3 billion. Money that had been contributed for the development of the Palestinian Arab nation was stolen by Arafat and hidden in foreign accounts. Substantial amounts were paid to Arafat's cronies who built grand seaside villas and drove Mercedes automobiles. Also, Arafat's wife who lived in Paris with their daughter received a stipend of $100,000 per month. At his death, she accepted a settlement of $22 million.

2. Instead of providing an excellent education for Palestinian children (a requirement for developing a modern democratic state with a high standard of living), Arafat taught them to hate Jews, gave them guns and explosives and directed them to become suicide murderers.

3. Instead of providing jobs for his people, he sent them to be day workers in Israel in low level jobs. At the check points, Arafat's cronies extorted payments from these poor people.

4. Open sewers in the streets of Gaza.

5. Miserable living conditions inside and outside the refugee camps.

6. No freedom of speech. Beatings and disappearances.

7. And in the typical fashion of a tyrant, incessant defamation of Jews.

None of these crimes committed against the Palestinian Arabs by their own leaders are even considered by the enthusiastic critics of Israel. What could the reason be? Obviously, the "high-minded" critics really have no concern for the Palestinian Arabs. What they have is a hate for Jews. So they accept uncritically the fantasies cooked up by Arafat, Hamas and their ilk and have a go at Israel.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Said This

“. . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely ‘anti-Zionist.’ And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God’s green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews–this is God’s own truth.
“Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so.

“Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them.