Obama Wins, Muslims Divided

Ali ibn Abi-Talib, the seventh-century figure central to Shiite Islam, is said to have predicted when the world will end, columnist Amir Taheri points out. A "tall black man" commanding "the strongest army on earth" will take power "in the west." He will carry "a clear sign" from the third imam, Hussein. Ali says of the tall black man: "Shiites should have no doubt that he is with us."

An Iranian in Tehran sports a badge of Barack Obama. (AP: Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Barack Hussein in Arabic means "the blessing of Hussein." In Persian, Obama translates as "He [is] with us." Thus does the name of the presumptive American president-elect, when combined with his physical attributes and geography, suggest that the End of Times is nigh – precisely what Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been predicting.

Back down on earth, the Muslim reaction to Obama's victory is more mixed than one might expect.

American Islamists are delighted; an umbrella group, the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Election, opined that, with Obama's election, "Our nation has … risen to new majestic heights." Siraj Wahhaj, Al-Hajj Talib Abdur Rashid, the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Circle of North America, and the Muslim Alliance in North America responded with similar exuberance.

Hamas, and Islamist movements in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, India, Indonesia and the Philippines delighted in Obama's election. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch generalizes that jihadists and Islamic supremacists worldwide showed "unalloyed joy." The New York Times finds public reaction in the Middle East mostly "euphoric." John Esposito of Georgetown University emphasizes the Muslim world's welcome to Obama as an "internationalist president."

But plenty of other Muslims have other views. Writing in Canada's Edmonton Sun, Salim Mansur found John McCain the "more worthy candidate." Yusif al-Qaradawi, the Al-Jazeera sheikh, endorsed McCain for opposite reasons: "This is because I prefer the obvious enemy who does not hypocritically [conceal] his hostility toward you… to the enemy who wears a mask [of friendliness]." Al-Qaradawi also argued that twice as many Iraqis died during Bill Clinton's two administrations than during George W. Bush's.

For tactical reasons, the influential Sunni sheikh Yusif al-Qaradawi wanted John McCain to win.
Iran's hardliners also favored a McCain victory (according to Iran's former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi) "because they benefit more from enmity with the U.S., which allows them to rally the Islamic world behind their policies and at the same time suppress dissent at home." The Taliban took note of Obama's election promise to increase U.S. troops in Afghanistan, warning that, should he fulfill this plan, "jihad and resistance will be continued."

Iraqis are intensively divided about Obama's plan quickly to withdraw U.S. troops from their country. That plan, plus promises to end U.S. dependence on Middle East oil and to negotiate with Iranian leaders, rattled the leaders of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf governments.

Some commentators argue that Obama cannot make a real difference; an Iranian newspaper declares him unable to alter a system "established by capitalists, Zionists, and racists." Predictably, the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as Obama's chief of staff confirmed Palestinian perceptions of an omnipotent Israel lobby. A commentator in the United Arab Emirates went further, predicting Obama's replication of Jimmy Carter's trajectory of flamboyant emergence, failure in the Middle East, and electoral defeat.

In all, these mixed reactions from Muslims suggest puzzlement at the prospect of a U.S. president of Islamic origins who promises "change," yet whose foreign policy may buckle under the constraints of his office. In other words, Muslims confront the same question mark hanging over Obama as everyone else:

Never before have Americans voted into the White House a person so unknown and enigmatic. Emerging from a hard-left background, he ran, especially in the general election, mostly as a center-left candidate. Which of these positions will he adopt as president? More precisely, where along the spectrum from hard- to center-left will he land?

Looking at the Arab-Israeli conflict, for example, will Obama's policies reflect Rashid Khalidi, the ex-PLO flak he befriended in the 1990s, or Dennis Ross, his recent campaign advisor and member of my board of editors? No one can yet say.

Still, one can predict. Should Obama return to his hard left roots, Muslim euphoria will largely continue. Should he seek to make his presidency a success by moving to the center-left, many – but hardly all – Muslims will experience severe disillusionment.

KRISTALLNACHT SEVENTY YEARS LATER

Was There No Space in the World for Us?"

by Rabbi Marvin Hier, Simon Wiesenthal Center Founder and Dean

Seventy years ago, while Jews in America gathered at the Algonquin Hotel and Waldorf Astoria at banquets in support of Jewish causes or in personal celebration of a Simcha, the most notorious pogrom was unleashed by Hitler’s Germany. On this day

was born the Night of Broken Glass, Kristallnacht.

The Nazis said it was in reaction to the killing of a German official in Paris, but as documents showed, it was a state organized pogrom involving the highest officials of Nazi Germany. As Reinhardt Heidrich instructed his SS underlings – synagogues are to be burned down but only when there is no danger to the surroundings...businesses and private apartments of the Jews may be destroyed but not looted. Jews, especially the rich, are to be arrested - as many as can be accommodated in our prisons. Upon arrest, concentration camps should be contacted immediately to arrange their confinement...

In Baden Baden, a Christian who was forced to watch the march of the Jews that night wrote, they looked like Christ figures, their heads held high, unbowed by any feelings of guilt. At the local synagogue in Baden, Dr. Arthur Felhinger was forced by the SS to read to the Jews gathered, passages from Hitler’s, Mein Kampf. Every time he lowered his voice, an SS man stood behind him and clubbed him. The readings went on for a long time. Those who had to relieve themselves were allowed to do so, provided it was up against the Ark of the synagogue. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the synagogue was torched.

Meanwhile, the Nazis arrived at the Dislanken Orphanage on the morning of November 10th. There were 46 people there, 32 of them children when the Nazis began their destruction of the orphanage. As the children raced outside, seeking protection, the senior police officer of the town said, "The Jews are not entitled to any protection."

Terrified and standing outside, the children watched as the books, chairs, and beds, were thrown out of the window. Encouraged by the mob of some 200 that stood outside, the Nazis continued the pogrom. As he looked at the crowd, the director of the orphanage noticed that standing with them were the suppliers of the orphanage and the trades people who were regularly employed there. There was no remorse and no compassion.

None of them said a single word in defense of the children who were now left homeless.

While most non-Jews acquiesced, or joined the mob, a few did not. A week after Kristallnacht, in Swabia, Pastor Julius von Jan preached to his congregation, "Houses of worship have been burned down with impunity.

Men who served our nation and have done their duty have been thrown into concentration camps because they belong to a different race. Our nation’s infamy is bound to bring about divine punishment." One week later, Pastor von Jan was brutally beaten and taken to a concentration camp.

Soon after Kristallnacht, a German official in Berlin tells the US Consulate that the 50,000 Jews arrested after Kristallnacht would be released to other countries willing to take them in.

In a poll taken in America in the days following Kristallnacht, "88% of Americans disapproved of Hitler’s treatment of Jews, but 60% thought it was their own fault.

A few months after Kristallnacht, twelve-year-old Eric Lucas was sent by his parents to England. "We lived right on the border, beyond it stretched the free towns of Belgium and Holland. It was just an hour by train to the channel port of Ostend. It was a cold, dark February morning when I left Germany. I was the only passenger who boarded the train at the station. There were few travelers but many customs officials and soldiers.

When I was at last allowed to board the train, I rushed to the window to look for my parents, whom I could not see until I left the custom’s shed. They stood in the distance, but could not come to the train. I waved timidly, full of fear, but even that was too much for the guards.

A man in a black uniform rushed up to me and said, "You Jewish swine, one more sign or word from you and we shall keep you here."

And so I stood at the window, in the distance stood a silent and aging couple, to whom I dared neither speak nor wave a final farewell. But I could see their faces very distinctly.

A few hours before, just before they took me to the train station, my father and mother had laid their hands gently on my bowed head invoking the ancient blessing, that G-d let me be like Ephraim and Menashe – let it be well with you, do your work and duty, and if G-d wills it, we shall see you again. Never forget that you are a Jew, do not forget your people, and do not forget us. This, my father had said – his eyes had grown soft and dim.

My boy, added my mother, it may be that we can come after you, but know what? you will never be away from me, as tears streamed down her kind and sad face. With a last effort, she uttered familiar Hebrew words, "Go now in life and peace." Standing at the window, I was overcome with the certainty that I would never see them again. Cruel hands kept us apart at that last intimate moment. Why, oh G-d does it have to be like that?

There stood my parents, my father, leaning heavily on a stick, holding his wife’s hand. It was the first and the last time I had seen them both weep. As the train pulled out of the station to wield me to safety, I leaned my face against the cold glass of the window and wept bitterly."

In March of 1939, in London, Eric Lucas was still trying the find a foreign embassy willing to get his parents a Visa but, unfortunately, he was unable to do so.

Eric received one final letter from his parents. In it, his mother wrote:

"We shall never see you again, was there no space in the whole wide world for us two old people? I hope we shall not live very long now. There is nothing left to hope for. We are so lonely and forsaken. Was there nobody who could have helped?" Three years later, Eric Lucas’ parents perished in the Holocaust.

Of course there were heroes during the events of Kristallnacht and the Holocaust and we should do all in our power to make sure that their stories live on and are passed from generation to generation, but the other part of the tragedy must also be passed on – that there were more villains than saints – more experts at closing doors than those brave enough to open them – that hundreds of train operators went to work each day with their lunch bags while women and children were loaded onto cattle cars to go to the death camps. Then, they drove the trains to Auschwitz and Maidanek, never having second thoughts about what they were doing.

Let us take these lessons to heart – let us remember how many opportunities the world had to stop this, but did not – and let us vow that never again, under our watch, will we sit back and allow humanity to be so debased. May the memory of the martyred millions lead us to a better world for Jews and for all mankind.

Another Jew from Clinton Gov't to Join Obama-Biden Team

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

(IsraelNN.com) Vice President-elect Joe Biden has appointed former Clinton administration aide Ran Klain as his chief of staff, one week after President-elect Barack Obama tapped Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel to head the White House as chief of staff.

Both appointees are Jewish, but while Emanuel is an observant Jew, Klain intermarried more than 20 years ago and his family observes Christmas.

Klain, like Emanuel, promoted the Oslo Peace Accords, which eventually exploded into the Oslo War that has been raging since September, 2000. Emanuel choreographed the handshake between Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn in 1993.

Klain was an advisor to Gen. Wesley Clark, who as a presidential hopeful said in 1994 that the Middle East needs "a sustained and energetic American engagement to resolve the conflict."

Vice President-elect Biden's new top aide also served in the same position for Clinton's vice president Al Gore.

The reliance on Clinton administration officials endows the Obama-Biden government leaders with strong organizational skills but also with a legacy of handshaking and making declarations as a way to solve the Israeli-Arab struggle.

Klain was not directly involved in developments in the Middle East, in contrast to Emanuel. A public relations consultant who worked with Emanuel stated last year said that Emanuel "would like nothing more than to participate in another peace agreement signing."

Klain's religious background is light years from that of Emanuel, whose father was in the underground Irgun resistance movement during the British Mandate and who is an observant Jew.

Klain grew up in the Midwestern state of Indiana where Jewish identity meant not having a Christmas tree, he stated in a New York Times article last year. He is married to a non-Jew with an agreement that they celebrate Christmas but raise their children as Jews.

About ....Dershowitz on Carter and Obama

I understand Mr. Deshowitz's feelings about Jimmy Carter and am relieved he was instrumental in keeping him off the national stage.

Mr. Dershowitz is obviously a brilliant and talented individual. But he remains and individual and his opinion still only carries one vote. I have agreed and disagreed with him over the years. His view that Obama would have a positive effect on the "peace process" is ridiculous. Mr. Dershowitz predicted that Obama "will try to energize the peace process." Mr. Dershowitz must believe that land for peace will work (ask US Indians for their view) or that the Arabs don't simply want us all dead (him included) and Israel destroyed.

The contradictory evidence is huge!

Perhaps he needs to see the attitude of the Lithuanian government towards Jews:

"LITHUANIA SEEKS TO PROSECUTE WORLD WAR II
JEWISH PARTISANS WHO FOUGHT AGAINST THE NAZIS"

http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=4742599

This is simply unbelievable, unless you realize that these are simply the children of the people that created, perpetrated and deny the Holocaust.

DERSHOWITZ HELPED KEEP CARTER FROM SPEAKING AT DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

November 14, 2008 (Fort Lee, NJ) -- In an exclusive Shalom TV interview, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz revealed that he was among those who convinced Barack Obama to keep Jimmy Carter from addressing the Democratic National Convention.

I pushed him very hard to make that decision," Dershowitz explained in a conversation with Mark S. Golub on American Jewry's national cable television network. "Barack Obama had to make a choice between his Jewish supporters and his anti-Israel supporters like Jimmy Carter, and he did not choose Jimmy Carter. And that was an embarrassment for Jimmy Carter and a show of disrespect. And I'm very glad he made that decision. It was a good decision, a wise decision, a moral decision."

Speaking to fears among some American and Israeli Jews that Obama will be less supportive of the State of Israel than President Bush, Dershowitz predicted that Obama "will try to energize the peace process." Moreover, Dershowitz sees Obama's support in the pro-Palestinian community as an opportunity for the president-elect to move the peace process forward.

"The fact there are some in the Pro-Palestinian community who like him may be a positive thing--that he can reach out to both communities and be an honest broker who, without compromising Israel's security, can facilitate a kind of peace that will be both in the best interests of Israel and the best interests of the Palestinian people. I have a high level of confidence--not perfect confidence--but a high level of confidence that he will do the right thing."

Dershowitz also acknowledged that he received thousands of emails from Jews opposing Obama during the election campaign. While some emails where thoughtful and expressed legitimate concerns, Dershowitz is convinced that many were from "extreme right-wing Jews" and were "out-and-out racist."

"As Jew I was appalled by some of the racism that I saw in some of the emails that I got," Dershowitz said.

Dershowitz believes that Obama's election will be positive for Black-Jewish relations. "I think nothing could be better for Black-Jewish relations than the election of Barack Obama," he observed. "Barack Obama has expressed appreciation for the Jewish community and the role that we played in the Civil Rights Movement, and that's a good thing because some within the African-American community are very quick to forget that. So far, his relations with the Jewish community have been near-perfect."

Could Dershowitz be part of an Obama administration, perhaps as Attorney General? Dershowitz responded with a categorical, "no." Dershowitz also said he declined a request to represent Obama on the campaign trail, explaining, "I said I couldn't do that because I want to keep my own independent views independent. I don't want to be a surrogate for anybody."

Shalom TV, America's national Jewish cable network, is available in more than twenty million homes nationwide as a free service. With feature films and documentaries, news and public affairs programming, original series on Jewish learning, and shows for children, the Video On Demand channel presents programs of interest to the entire Jewish community. Participating cable companies include Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon FiOS, Cox, Bright House, Blue Ridge, Service Electric, and MetroCast.

The 4 Minute Audio :

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0013kdSLdH2acOVUMq8TvreplbMO9bU6zDGUGeXoKsFLETjRCSu-PMf8vZEr8JG15LDT8C5AGwFW0ZyPqD7xmvPuGRtTU9mGjWZjQ0QIF6iqnsTr5_smbVvDSYbgqRPqyfViF6XsVgeG6YRjr6yCzonktXF3lvK1c-kjTUtYmMi8F0=

Is Barack Hussein Obama 'Gog'?

Who fits the criteria to be the infamous 'Gog' of the Bible? Joel Gallis & Dr. Robert Wolf join Tamar and give their proofs as to why they believe that U.S. President-Elect Obama could be 'Gog'. They predict that the economy will soon spiral down in the USA and guess who will be blamed? Jews must make preparations now to make aliyah. A very interesting show where listeners call in.

Listen at : http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/274

Tamar Yonah is one of Israel's most popular English-speaking radio show hosts. She made Aliyah from Southern California and after serving in the Israeli army began a prolific career in radio, including production, news and program development. Tamar is a political activist, wife and mother residing in Judea and Samaria and currently hosts several top-rated shows, including Weekend Edition, The Tamar Yonah Show and TnT Dynamite. She also has an award winning blog that covers current events, religion and politics.

'Jews Around the Next President'

by Tamar Yonah

(IsraelNN.com) The recent appointments of Jews by United States President–Elect Barack Hussein Obama to his new administration should not be reassuring to the Jewish community in America or in Israel. David Bedein, Bureau Chief of the Israel Resource News Agency explained on Israel National Radio's 'Weekend Edition'that these recent appointments should be viewed with caution.

During the elections, Bedein covered the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania, working on behalf of the Philadelphia Bulletin. His coverage led him to realize that most of the rumors spread around about Obama, were "more or less concocted by the Hillary campaign.” However, Bedein stated in the interview that there were serious issues about Obama that he did discern while covering the Obama campaign:

"He [Obama] had hired a number of Jewish advisors who are quite critical of Israel, anti-Israel, people who fantasize about Saudi Arabia and peace intentions. People who had promoted the peace intentions of the PLO. Those three people are Dennis Ross, Dan Kurtzer and Martin Indyk. These three people pose a very serious problem to Israel. What's very important, is that Obama's first appointment in the white house, Rahm Emannuel, was the key person in the Clinton administration, [or] Clinton White House to make Oslo happen in 1992-3. So we have to understand that we are facing a situation of Jews around the next president who are very, very antagonistic to any of Israel's settlement policies in Judea and Samaria. But much more serious than that of course, is that the implication to the rest of Israel, if any of that territory is handed over, is that we'll see missiles on the center of Israel."

Bedein added that Rahm Emmanuel, in the early 90's, was one of the people who helped financially put together Bill Clinton's campaign. He gained tremendous influence in the White House, for the people, from a group called 'Americans for Peace Now.' They were the ones who engineered the Oslo process and he [Emmanuel] personally was the one who orchestrated the Rabin – Arafat hand shake on the white house in Sept. 1993.

"If you like the Oslo process Rahm Emmanuel is your man, if you don't like the Oslo process, he's your enemy." Bedein said. "Remember these are people who have their own way of liking Jews, …weak Jews basically.
…Jews who get into a high position, we call them 'Jews in the palace of the King.' It was the servants of Pharaoh who hated Moses the most. They liked being in the Palace of the King."

Bedein was asked how the world would look with a left wing Obama government in the USA and a Likud government with Binaymin Netanyahu in Israel. In reply, he said that everything has to do with the strength of the People of Israel. Israel needs a strong backbone, one supporting a strong Israel. It has to be “an Israel that does not put up with pressure from the State Department.” He added, "If 'PLO' ( Peres, Livni and Olmert) - if they, - if the PLO is neutralized, then Israel will be able to stand strong against these guys."

Our World: From Tel Aviv to Teheran, with love

Nov. 10, 2008
Caroline Glick , THE JERUSALEM POST

Two weeks ago, the Palestinians and their anti-Zionist Israeli and
international partners finally produced a smoking gun. They had a videotape
of evil settlers brutally attacking poor, defenseless Palestinians as they
innocently picked olives with their enlightened supporters in a grove by the
Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron.

The local media went into a feeding frenzy. The footage led the television
news broadcasts. Photos taken from the video were plastered across the front
pages of the newspapers. Radio talk show hosts denounced the criminal
settlers and celebrated the guileless Palestinians and their heroic Israeli
supporters. The Olmert-Livni-Barak government was quick to weigh in,
promising stiff punishment for the Jewish fascists involved and a
curtailment of their supporters' civil rights.

In the weeks that have followed, and with elections looming, Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have stepped up their
attacks on the evil right-wing extremists. At Saturday night's memorial
ceremony/political rally for slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv,
Barak called right-wing activists "cancers." He claimed that they are a
"threat to democracy." And he pledged, "We will uproot this evil from within
us."

The crowd loved Barak's statement. The few audience members who might have
booed him had already been beaten and arrested by police for disturbing the
peace. A handful of anti-leftist activists from the student group Im Tirtzu
came to Rabin Square carrying signs decrying leftist demonization of the
Right. The police beat them and carted them off before the rally began.

If it were true that settlers are marauding around Judea and Samaria beating
innocent Palestinians, perhaps it would be possible to understand this
assault against the Right. But as it works out, the videotape that was
supposed to be the definitive proof that settlers are violent criminals was
a fabrication. It was simply the latest anti-Israel snuff film brought to us
by our friends at Pallywood Productions. These are the same creative
filmmakers whose previous credits include the fabricated IDF shooting of
Muhammad al-Dura, the Jenin massacre that wasn't, the Kafr Kana massacre
that wasn't and a host of other notable blood libels.

The inconvenient truth that these activists remain liars was exposed at the
remand hearings of the settlers accused of beating the Palestinian olive
harvesters. As the NFC news Web site reported exclusively on Sunday, the
Palestinians showed their film as evidence against the arrested offenders in
two separate hearings before two different judges at the Jerusalem
Magistrate's Court. And at each hearing, after viewing the film the judges
concluded that through heavy editing, the video had inverted reality. Both
stated that it was impossible to know who began the fight - the Palestinians
and their Israeli and foreign supporters who beat the settlers, or the
settlers who walked to the grove on Shabbat carrying nothing but their
prayer shawls and hit them back.

The judges also noted that one of the Palestinians threw a large rock at the
back of one of the settlers after he and his friends had disengaged from the
fight. The judges expressed anger and amazement at the police for failing to
arrest the Palestinian who had clearly attacked the Jewish defendant without
provocation.

IT GOES without saying that the local media have chosen to ignore the
court's exposure of the latest hoax. The truth doesn't fit their
anti-right-wing narrative and so it isn't being covered.

What the local media and politicians such as Barak and Livni who seek to
criminalize the Right for political gain refuse to acknowledge is that their
embrace of these lies not only harms the settlers, it harms the country as a
whole.

Although from the rap they've gotten from the political Left and its
supporters in the media, it seems like right-wing extremists are both
numerous and powerful, the fact of the matter is that the number of
right-wingers who reject the authority of the state or would take the law
into their own hands is tiny. And they are politically isolated both at home
and abroad and have no money.

In stark contrast, the anti-Zionist, Israeli Left is an integral part of a
well-funded international movement actively engaged in waging political
warfare not against the settlers, but against Israel as a whole. The end of
this political war is Israel's destruction. The anti-Zionist Israeli Left
advances this destruction both by directly assisting terror groups and by
indirectly assisting terror groups through activities aimed at
delegitimizing Israel's right to defend itself.

The clear collusion between both Israeli and international anti-Israel
leftist activists with terrorist groups like Hamas is nowhere more evident
than in the terror-supporting International Solidarity Movement's newest
spin-off, the Free Gaza campaign. On Saturday, this group broke the IDF's
sea blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gazan coast for the third time in
recent months by sailing a ship filled with rabidly pro-jihadist and
anti-Israel European politicians from Cyprus to Gaza.

According to a credible source with close ties to the operation, the Free
Gaza campaign works closely with Israeli far-left groups including
Anarchists against the Wall, Gush Shalom, Gisha, Machsom Watch, New Profile
and Women in Black. These organizations are generously funded by the
US-based New Israel Fund, by European governments and by anti-Israel church
groups like the Quakers. The Free Gaza campaign's first ship, which arrived
in Gaza in late August, was led by Israeli anti-Zionist activist and former
lecturer at Ben-Gurion University Jeff Halper.

The Free Gaza campaign is a clear assault on Israel's national security.
Under the banner of "human rights," this new ferry service between Cyprus
and Gaza is meant to compromise the country's ability to combat terror
operations and to provide political support for Hamas. Crew members and
passengers on board these boats meet with Hamas terror commanders in Gaza
and coordinate future missions.

Their newest campaign is to prevent the navy from interdicting fishing
boats. Hamas and other terror groups make wide use of fishing boats to
import weapons and transport terror personnel from abroad into Gaza. By
demonizing the navy for interdicting fishing boats, and in open collusion
with Hamas, the activists provide political cover for weapons transfers and
jihadist maritime traffic into and out of Gaza.

To date, Israel has chosen not to intercept the Free Gaza campaign's boats
out of concern that taking such necessary action will prove a public
relations disaster both at home and abroad. And this concern is reasonable.
But by taking no diplomatic or military steps to prevent this
terror-supporting traffic from continuing and expanding, the government
allows these Israeli and European terror supporters to strengthen Hamas's
war machine and legitimize Hamas's objective of destroying Israel.

Official Israel's failure to act against this breach of its security is
directly related to its support of Israeli anti-Zionist groups when they
direct their guns at the Israeli Right - rather than Israel as a whole. As a
practical matter, it is difficult for the government to show that the Free
Gaza campaign actively supports the war against Israel when it willingly
embraces the bona fides of the Free Gaza campaign's supporters when they
attack settlers, or when the government adopts these organizations' false
assertion that the Right is the greatest threat to the country.

By the same token, it is difficult for the government to discredit films
purporting to demonstrate the human rights plight of Gazans as Pallywood
propaganda flicks when the government accepts these films as accurate when
their culprits are right-wing activists.

BUT WHILE the domestic Left sees a distinction between its right-wing
opponents and the country as a whole, the international community sees no
distinction between the two. Indeed, the international community has used
the cover that official Israel provides anti-Zionist activists for their
settler vilifying activities in order to advance the cause of criminalizing
Israel as a whole.

Case in point is what has become known as the Durban II conference in
Geneva. Durban I, it will be recalled, was the UN's 2001 "anti-racism"
conference in Durban, South Africa. The conference, which took place the
week before the jihadist attacks on the US, was an anti-Semitic hate-fest.
The American and Israeli delegations walked out as Israel and the Jewish
people were castigated as the greatest human rights abusers, genocide
committers, apartheid propagators and general all purpose bad guys in the
entire world.

The Nazi-like propaganda emanating from the conference led to violent
attacks against Jews all over the world. Durban I's resolutions also
provided the policy blueprint for much of political warfare that has been
waged against Israel by so-called human rights groups ever since. These
include the violent demonstrations against the security fence organized by
anti-Zionist Israeli groups, the Free Gaza campaign they support, and the
international boycotts against Israeli exports and academics they advocate.

Today, the UN is busily organizing its follow-up conference that will be
held next year in Geneva. As the watchdog group Eye on the UN reported over
the weekend, the conference's organizing committee just met and approved
most of the resolutions it is set to adopt at Geneva. These resolutions
again castigate Israel as the chief violator of human rights in the world.
Israel is accused of committing genocide, crimes against humanity and being
an apartheid state. It is also condemned as the most serious threat to
international peace and security.

But of course, what starts with Israel doesn't end with Israel. The
conference organizers have used the basic unanimity about Israel's criminal
nature to launch an assault against the foundations of Western civilization.
In addition to the numerous and repetitious attacks against Israel and Jews,
the conference organizers passed multiple resolutions calling for the
abrogation of freedom of expression and the criminalization of political
speech in order to outlaw discussion of Islamic terrorism and block
counterterror efforts in the West.

Among the conference's chief organizers are Iran, Libya, Egypt and Cuba.
Iran is the vice-chairman of the executive committee responsible for
planning Durban II. Much of the language in the proposed resolutions is
taken directly from resolutions passed at a planning session last year in
Teheran.

Israel had no hand in organizing this conference, which, following Canada,
it announced it will boycott. But over the years, it could have taken
actions that might have tempered or weakened the international coalition
arrayed against it.

If the government had outlawed anti-Israel groups like Machsom Watch, New
Profile, Gisha, Gush Shalom, Women in Black and Anarchists against the Wall,
rather than tolerate them on account of their activities against settlers,
it could at least have weakened their efforts. Had they been disbanded, they
would have had less capacity to legitimize and assist Palestinians and
Europeans who engage in political warfare against Israel on the ground.

By refusing to recognize the international consequences of their domestic
battle against their political opponents on the Right, the
Olmert-Livni-Barak government and the local media have strengthened Israel's
enemies in their battle to destroy the country.
caroline@carolineglick.com

Open Letter to Olmert, Livni, Netanyahu and the Knesset

Distinguished Leaders,

The future of Israel is but yet again at stake.

Let's review:

1948 created the state of Israel and have been attacked constantly by Arabs ever since.

The UN has always been against Israel because the voting is set up into blocs. The Arabs control the blocs vote by simply threatening to cut off a dissenting Countries Oil. Therefore all UN votes favor Arabs.

US Jewry has helped the Israeli economy through donations and tourism.

The US has made loans and loan guarantees to Israel that required Israel to buy US weapons. Israel needed the weapons in the past, but with the development of the Merkav and planes... they can stand more independently.

But.....

Did we create a state so that our children could study in bomb shelters to avoid the incessant and unrelenting rocket fire from the Arabs?

Did we create a state to build walls and hide behind them?

Did we create a state so that our people would cower in fear and run for their lives?

Can we only deal with the katyushas and kassems by building stronger rooftops?

Must we live in such a way that we are but 15 seconds from shelter at any given time?

Must we always worry what the world will think so that we accept conditions that no one else would find normal?

Why is there no policy of defending Jewish people and land with military force.

Why allow Arabs in to Israel at checkpoints that you set up to keep homicide bombers out?

Why shut down Meir Kahane because he wanted a strong Israel free of the murderous Arabs?

Why did we pull out of Gaza instead of expanding it and removing the killers?

Why do you allow Arabs in the Knesset? How can anyone trust them?

If Israel is to be the Jewish state...what are you doing to further that? Harassing Hilltop Jews? Hurting people at Amona, destroying Federmans house and brutalizing his family and friends.

Tell Obama that Israel will do just fine without any US intervention.
Have Barak tell Obama and all else that no more fuel or water or anything goes to Gaza. No deliveries of anything to Gaza. Decide when to take Gaza back. A little a t a time and begin to expel the squatters as you go. Disregard any foreign intervention and when the Arabs begin to offer land concessions for peace....
tell them when all Arabs are out of Gaza, Judea and Samaria we will talk!

Israelis are tired of war, homicide bombers etc...deal from strength ...not weakness!!!

Enough!

Enough!



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Jimmy Carter 2?

The US election is over.
America faces these issues:

1) Nuclear War (Iran, N Korea, Russia, China, Pakistan, Terrorists)
2) Current Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan.
3) Economy - Do we Trickle up or trickle down the economy?
4) Health Care System overhaul
5) Congress with no holds barred.
6) Middle East "Crisis"
7) Class "Warfare" or Upper Class and diminishing middle class
8) Immigrants accepting American values, principles, and national priorities?
9) English - National Language?
10) Are the continuing breakdown of family and family values a threat to society?
11) Drug-use, youth violence, poverty and family abuses of all kinds
12) US Bailout, Global Economy...good or bad.
13) UN - Reform to blind vote to make the current Arab oil blackmail less relevant.


So we now have a rookie in the White House. He will surround himself with highly educated leaders. President Elect Obama appears to suffer from one major problem.
He make actually believe that a peace in the Middle East is possible. I don't think he believes it. He can't actually think that any amount of money or land will change the Arabs from wanting to kill all Jews and destroy Israel. The Islamofacists that want us all dead, value death over life. How is it possible to talk to someone who wants you to either die or become Dhimmi.

I think that the approach Obama has advertised will be a disaster and the American Economy may become the best leading indicator on that.