Jewish Indy

Pres. Bush Rejects 'Negotiating With Killers,' ...Except Fatah

by Nissan Ratslav-Katz
Arutz Sheva
11 Iyar 5768, May 16, 2008

(IsraelNN.com) One theme repeated in the speech of US President George Bush at a special Knesset session on Thursday was the rejection of appeasement and negotiations with terrorists. In the same speech, and echoed in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's speech, Bush praised Israel's concessions for peace and envisioned a Palestinian State.

"No nation should ever be forced to negotiate with killers pledged to its destruction," President Bush told the Knesset, adding that "we stand together against terror and extremism, and we will never let down our guard or lose our resolve." He went on to note that "the founding charter of Hamas calls for the elimination of Israel" and that "the President of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map."

Bush then decried negotiations with "terrorists and radicals" as "the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

On the other hand, in his speech, Prime Minister Olmert said that the visit to Israel by the US President "provided another important opportunity for us to discuss the advancement of a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in accordance with your vision, Mr. President, of two states for two peoples. Your personal involvement, and the commendable efforts of the Secretary of State, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, is vital for the success of the intensive negotiations taking place between us and the Palestinians."

Parsha of the Week: Be'har

Meir Weinstein
Jewish Defense League of Canada
May 15, 2008

This week’s parsha is called 'BeHar'. And the Basic English translation is 'from Mount Sinai' and starts with the following words: "Hashem spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall observe a Sabbath rest for Hashem. For six years you may sow your field and for six years you may prune your vineyard and you may gather in its crop, but the seventh year shall be a complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for Hashem… " (Vayikra 25:1-4) The Sages explanation of this verse is as follows, 'On Mount Sinai. What is the connection between Shemittah (when the land of Israel is to rest for one year) and Mount Sinai? This reference teaches that not only the broad outlines, but also the details of all the commandments were given at Sinai--as were those of Shemittah--even the commandments that the Torah recorded many years after the Revelation at Sinai. The otherwise superfluous “on Mount Sinai” is meant to indicate that all the commandments are of Sinaitic origin, as well (Rashi; Sifra)

How to think about Israeli Democracy*

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them? - Shakespeare, Hamlet (3:1)

Prof. Paul Eidelberg
The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy

May 15, 2008

Aristotle, the father of political science, who wrote discourses on some 150 different regimes, distinguishes between five different types of democracy . To simplify matters, the present writer has only two types of democracy in view, one of which was unknown to Aristotle and perhaps to anyone else, for that matter .

Both types have as their basic principles freedom and equality . In one type, both freedom and equality are indiscriminate, which is to say that freedom and equality lack ethical and rational constraints . I call this “normless” democracy—the kind that characterizes post-Christian Europe and threatens to overwhelm the United States with every advance of moral relativism . Aristotle would have called this a democracy verging on anarchy, which is hardly a regime—for Aristotle, a term that signifies a distinctive way of life .

The second type of democracy I call “normative” democracy—some may prefer to call it a “republic”—a type whose principles are discernable in the American Declaration of Independence . This document implicitly derives freedom and equality from ethical monotheism and thus places limitations on freedom and equality . Obviously, Aristotle’s political science does not take account of such a regime . In any event, we need to clarify the use of the word democracy in relation to Israel .

The word is constantly on the lips of Israel ’s politicians, judges, rabbis, academics, journalists, the literati, and ordinary citizens . All boast of Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East ,” and so people think throughout the world . In fact, Israel ’s reputation as a democracy is precisely what endows its Government with legitimacy and its ruling elites with respectability, especially in America , where Israel ’s classification as a democracy counts most .

What confuses the issue is this . The mentality of a society may be democratic insofar as its people may exalt freedom and equality . Yet, despite universal suffrage and periodic multiparty elections—prerequisites of democracy—the structure of a government may not be democratic . This can happen in a society where those who wield the Legislative and Executive powers of government are legally capable—between elections—of ignoring the abiding beliefs and values of the people with impunity . This is the case of Israel . Still, how are we to understand democracy as it exists in Israel ?

Two Delusions

Delusion: “A persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, especially as a symptom of psychiatric disorder.”

Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Foundation for Constitutional Democracy
May 15, 2008

Israel ’s government, as well as its rightwing critics, suffer from a delusion . During the past three decades, regardless of which party or party coalition has controlled the government, its ruling elites persist in the futile and fatal policy of “land for peace . ”

Rightwing critics of this policy also suffer from a delusion . For more than thirty years they have been playing on the turf of the enemy—on the territorial issue . Despite all their fine essays, their petitions, their newspaper ads—yes, despite all their patriotic protest demonstrations— Israel ’s government has never deviated from its suicidal policy of territorial retreat . The critics know this, but they remain fixed on the plying ground of this government .

As I have written on several occasions, the critics—the groups composing the so-called nationalist camp—fixate on “policy” issues, not on “regime” issues . They fail to see that the policy of “land for peace” has been institutionalized, and that the only way to get this self-destructive policy de-institutionalized is to radically change Israel ’s political and judicial institutions . Instead of forming a united front whose explicit public goal is to change the regime, the non-parliamentary groups that compose the fictitious nationalist camp devote an enormous amount of time and energy, talent and money—a lot of money—persisting in their delusion .

ISRAEL'S ARMY KNOWS EXACTLY WHICH JEWISH TARGETS ARE NEXT, BUT DOES NOTHING

IDF Intelligence Chief: Ashdod Next on Attack List

Arutz Sheva
10 Iyar 5768, May 15, 2008

(IsraelNN.com) Ashdod, Kiryat Gat and Be'er Sheva are next in line to be the targets of Arab terrorists' rocket attacks, IDF military intelligence chief Major General Amos Yadlin said in an interview with the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz. He made the comments before Wednesday's rocket attack on a shopping area in the port city of Ashkelon, several miles south of Ashdod.

"Every community within a 40-kilometer (25-mile) range may come within range of the Hamas rockets," he predicted.

Obama adviser: Divide Jerusalem

Mideast pointman blasted by Israeli leaders as 'hostile' to Jewish state

By Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily
May 13, 2008

JERUSALEM – Jerusalem must be included in any negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, stressed Sen. Barack Obama's Middle East adviser Daniel Kurtzer.

"It will be impossible to make progress on serious peace talks without putting the future of Jerusalem on the table," Kurtzer said yesterday at a conference organized by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute or JPPPI.

Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, has long been recognized by Israeli leaders, including prime ministers, as biased against Israel and is notorious for urging extreme concessions from the Jewish state. He was appointed as a primary Obama adviser on the Middle East earlier this year.

During a discussion panel yesterday, Kurtzer reportedly went on to fault the Bush administration for not doing enough to pressure Israel into dividing Jerusalem. In reaction, JPPPI head Yechezkel Dror said Jerusalem must become the cultural center of the Jewish people.

Kurtzer said in response that "before we do that, we must first accept a number of facts and the political reality of Arabs who live in East Jerusalem who do not feel part of the city."

Obama: Israel is a 'constant sore'

Questions whether 'settlements' are in Jewish state's best interest

WorldNetDaily
May 13, 2008

Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama says Israel is a "constant wound" and a "constant sore" that infects "all of our foreign policy."

Obama, under fire for attracting praise and support for his presidential run from the terrorist group Hamas, spoke to Atlantic Monthly at length about his views of the Middle East.

Asked if he thought Israel represented a drag on America's reputation overseas, Obama said: "No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable. I am absolutely convinced of that, and some of the tensions that might arise between me and some of the more hawkish elements in the Jewish community in the United States might stem from the fact that I’m not going to blindly adhere to whatever the most hawkish position is just because that’s the safest ground politically."

"I want to solve the problem, and so my job in being a friend to Israel is partly to hold up a mirror and tell the truth and say if Israel is building settlements without any regard to the effects that this has on the peace process, then we’re going to be stuck in the same status quo that we’ve been stuck in for decades now," he said.

Myanmar tragedy and 'global warming'

"...If Gore and his global-warming deceivers ever have their way with us, we, too, will have nowhere to flee."
by Joseph Farah
WorldNetDaily
May 14, 2008

Al Gore has made the pronouncement: Tens of thousands were killed by a cyclone in Myanmar because of "global warming."

During an interview with National Public Radio's Terry Gross about his new paperback, the appropriately titled "The Assault on Reason," Gore said: "And as we're talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated. And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China – and we're seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming."

In fact, later counts suggest the death toll in Myanmar may reach 100,000.

But those tragic deaths will not be a result of global warming. They will be the result of several other factors under denial by the climate-change zealots:

IRANI BOMBS HIT 100 IN ASHKELON SHOPPING MALL

Up to 100 injured by Iran-made rocket which wrecks crowded Ashkelon shopping mall

DEBKAfile
May 14, 2008, 11:17 PM (GMT+02:00)

Jihad Islami and Popular Committees claimed the attack with Hamas' blessing. After examining the rocket shrapnel, police commander Uri Barlev confirmed it was a Grad (Katyhusha) military rocket made in Iran.

Of the 100 people injured in Ashkelon’s bustling mall, four people were seriously hurt including a mother and her four-month old baby. Two women suffered moderate injuries and the others of whom many were children were slightly hurt. Four were dug out of the debris.

The Palestinian rocket crashed without warning into the roof of the three-floor building, fired from the former Israel Dugit site in N. Gaza just when President Bush was winding up a conversation with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. The attack revived fresh demands for a major operation to put a stop to the daily attacks from the Gaza Strip. Ashkelon is 15 km north of Gaza.

Furious complaints were heard in the streets of Ashkelon over the failure of the siren to sound an alert in time for people to take shelter from the rocket attack. Homeland Command officers explained the decision not to activate the siren by the many recent false alarms that kept the population on edge and the wish not to disturb the Bush visit.

Security minister Avi Dichter, trade and industry minister Eli Yishai decide to skip the gala banquet in the US president’s honor and travel to Ashkelon instead.

Casualties have mounted recently from the daily Palestinian attacks on Israeli communities outside Gaza. Two people were killed in the last week.

Gaza Region Kibbutz Spokesman Demands Protection From Gov't

by Baruch Gordon
Arutz Sheva
9 Iyar 5768, May 14, 2008

(IsraelNN.com) Dari Barkin, spokesman for the Israeli kibbutzim surrounding Gaza, says that daily life has been very tough for civilians in the last seven years under rocket and mortar fire.

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When asked what he wants the government to do to protect the Jews in the region, he said that they need more shelters and safe places to run to when attacked. He did not mention a demand for the military to silence the attacks.