Turmoil in the Middle East: My Take - By Naomi Ragen

Turmoil in the Middle East: My Take
By Naomi Ragen

Instead of bombarding you with daily hand-wringing over the situation in the
Middle East, I decided to wait it out so as not to imitate certain
journalists and world leaders (who shall remain nameless) who were taking
sides before even knowing what that meant. I think now, with Mubarak
apparently gone, that there are certain things that are possible to say:

1. The people of Egypt, like all the peoples of the Middle East save for
Israel, were mired in a political system that was corrupt and which did not
allow them to pursue life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness. There is no
way for an Egyptian to start a business or get the financial means to marry
without bribes and years of horrifying bureaucratic nightmares. That was and
has always been the reason for instability in the Middle East. This, not
Israel, is probably the leading cause for the rise of Muslim fanatics and
terror organizations that are destroying the peace of the whole world.
Unfortunately, this fact is something the democracies have long ignored.
This is a wake-up call for them. Let's see if they sleep through it.

2. Mubarak has always kept Egypt's treaties Israel. For that, the people of
Israel are grateful. We are also grateful that he did what needed to be
done to control the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded in Egypt in
1928 to promote sharia law, it created a military wing which had close links
to the Nazis during the 1930s, when the Brotherhood was involved in spying,
sabotage and support for the terrorist activities of Haj Amin el-Hussaini
in British
Mandate Palestine. The Brotherhood disseminated Hitler's Mein Kampf and The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion widely in Arab translations,

Douglas E. Schoen, adviser to four former Israeli Prime Ministers over the
last 30 years, wrote in a Fox News editorial that if elections are held in
Egypt now, there is a fifty percent chance of the Muslim Brotherhood taking
over the country. For Israel, that would be a nightmare. We can only hope
against hope that the true will of the people who started this revolt to
make better lives for themselves and their families will not allow one
dictatorship to replace another, leading to a war that will no doubt prove
disastrous for everyone.

3. The White House, in this terrible time of uncertainty and change in the
Middle East, has been confused to say the least, and dangerously
wrong-headed. Encouraging the protesters, then siding with Mubarak, then
welcoming Mubarak's ouster just before Mubarak declared he wasn't leaving
has left us in Israel shaking our heads. With this kind of instability in
Washington, where is the strong ally we pretend we have?

4. Caroline Glick's article
pointing
out that while the White House was sleeping, Pakistan, which receives more
U.S. dollars than any other country on earth, has DOUBLED its atomic arsenal
and has begun testing long range missiles, is a must read. While the White
House has banned all terminology relating to a war on terror, and President
Obama is calling for 2 billion dollars of ADDITIONAL AID to Pakistan, a
country
half in the power of the Taliban at this point, how will this play out if
the Muslim Brotherhood takes over Egypt?

5. I see hopeful signs in the speech of British Prime Minister David
Cameron in which he backed up PM Merkel's admission that multiculturalism in
Europe has failed, warning Muslim groups that if they fail to endorse
women's rights or promote integration, they will lose all government
funding. This realism is reassuring.

It is my hope that the democracies will get stronger. The only way that can
happen is if people vote out dangerously delusional leaders with their head
in the sand and ideological rhetoric in their mouths. The only way that can
happen is if people abandon their bandwagon mentality, and stop waiting for
the
New York Times to tell them who to vote for. Reality is going to get a lot
more real, even for the most dim-witted ideologues. Let us hope that our
future leadership
is not from their blinded ranks.

--Naomi

The Surprised and the Amazed: By Moshe Feiglin

The Surprised and the Amazed: By Moshe Feiglin

13 Shvat, 5771
Feb. 17, '11

Why didn't Mubarak send in the tanks? Why didn't Tahrir Square turn into Tiananmen Square? Is the Egyptian regime less cruel than its Chinese counterpart?

How is it that all the dictatorships in the Arab world have suddenly gotten weak in the knees over unarmed civilians doing nothing more than demonstrating? After all, the regime is all-powerful; they have built their security forces over decades in concentric circles so that the inner circle will owe its existence and power to the ruler and will always do his bidding. And if the need will arise, it will always force the ruler's will on one circle after the next until it reaches the very last citizen. What brought about the collapse of all these mechanisms of oppression?

We all look on in amazement as history unfolds before our very eyes. Nevertheless, we must differentiate between the amazed and the surprised. When rightist former MK Geulah Cohen stood up in the Knesset thirty years ago and spoke of the aliyah of millions of Jews from the USSR, current President Shimon Peres mocked her and said that she was hallucinating. When the Camp David Accords were signed, there were those who promised eternal peace, while others warned that war was just a question of time and the risk and price were not worth the return. And then came the Oslo Accords, when the "surprised camp" euphorically reveled in the New Middle East and World Peace, while the "amazed camp" went out into the streets to warn of the national catastrophe. Why are all the wise men - all the foreign affairs commentators, former ambassadors and professors - always surprised, while the regular people look on in amazement, but are not surprised in the least?

The answer is simple. The "surprised camp" is the camp of the utopian hallucinators that detached itself from reality - the Holy One, Blessed Be He. They pretend to create reality themselves and when that doesn't happen, they are surprised.

The "amazed camp" is made up of the people connected to reality. These are the people who knew that the Egyptian regime was a dictatorship that would fall sooner or later. They knew that the all-out war between decadent and decaying Europe and the sword of Islam would not be settled with the Western-style democratization of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. They are the same people who, even at the entrance to Auschwitz, knew that one day the Jewish Nation would return to its Land, as the Creator had promised. They did not know how it would happen, just as we do not know how the Jewish State with Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as its spiritual center will take shape and form. What we do know is that it will happen and that it is more certain than all the learned pontifications of the "surprised camp." We stand amazed as we watch the tapestry unfold, just as Eliezer the servant of Abraham watched in amazement as Rebecca drew water for him, understanding that G-d had crowned his journey with success.

What is causing the revolutions taking place before our eyes?

Sovereignty in any type of regime is always in the hands of the nation. When the nation does not view the leader as being legitimate, all the mechanisms propping up the regime are of no avail. They will all collapse like a house of cards. This is true for dictatorships and democracies alike. The difference is that in democracies, a mechanism is in place for the orderly transition of government. Often, the regime will manipulate democracy to fool the public and into thinking that it chose the existing regime and that it desires its rule - even though nothing could be farther from the truth. These tricks can postpone the revolution - but they cannot prevent it.

Here in Israel, we are somewhere in the middle. Israel is not a dictatorship by its simple definition. It has broad freedom of speech. But where the borders of freedom of speech end, democracy also ends and turns out to be a dangerous illusion. And woe to he or she who expresses an opinion that is beyond the limits set by the Israeli Thought Police.

We live in a dictatorship of thoughts, constantly under the watchful eye of the Thought Police. It is not easy to sense our dictatorship. That is why people in Israel are not demonstrating in the city squares. But the suffocation feels the same - the suffocation that doesn't even have a Tahrir Square to light up the end of the tunnel.

But there is something we must remember: The Egyptians did not go out to the streets because their economy was bad. Is the average Egyptian worse off now than he was five years ago? All the attempts to explain the revolution in Egypt with one reason or another do not adequately explain what happened. It isn't the economy, not the oppression, not Facebook and not Twitter. It is simply the Divine removal of the legitimacy of the regime. While it may seem overly simplistic to say that the revolution in Egypt was Divinely inspired, that is the basic truth.

Does this mean that we can go home and wait until G-d hands us the leadership on a silver platter? Certainly not. We must be on the playing field, in the best shape possible and completely prepared. But we must understand that the necessary process of faith-based revolution - a process that will surely occur, for we have no other option - has its own timetable that is not dependant upon us.

We will do our part and when the time comes, the legitimacy will be taken from the current regime, will return to the nation and from there to the faith-based leadership that it deserves. We must take the responsibility to prepare for that day and pray that it happens soon.

Iranian Warships - Suez Canal - Is all H#ll about to break loose?

Holy crap if I look at Ynet, it appears that the war is imminent!

Iran is trying to use the unrest in Egypt etc for a diversion to rachet up the pressure in the Middle East.

I don't understand why they would do this unless they have a deliverable Nuke ready. They would otherwise simply want to keep buying time until they were in a position to
attack with or without provocation!

Warning Sign?

The idea that a new government in Egypt might simply cancel Egypt's Peace Agreement with Israel has been greeted with disinterest by both the international community and the U.S. administration. It is a worrisome warning sign. Especially about the durability of any deal cut with the Palestinians.

No Entry for Jews?

(This is how sick the Israeli Government is)

Two days ago, Friday, February 11, on the eve of the Shabbat of the
portion of Tetzaveh, security forces, army and police, prevented a
group of dozens of Women for Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
members from touring the Crusader neighborhood in Hebron, that is
located less than 100 meters from the Cave of Machpelah.

As part of the movement's monthly tours in the area of Judea and
Samaria, this time under the headline: "You have three places
regarding which the nations of the world cannot defraud Israel and
say, You are thieves: the Cave of Machpelah, the tomb of Joseph, and
the Temple," dozens of participants came to Hevron from Jerusalem,
Beit Shemesh, Maaleh Adumim, Modi'in, Efrat, Gush Etzion, and Kiriat
Arba-Hebron.

The tour began at the Cave of Machpelah, where the guide, Aryeh Klein,
explained the cardinal importance of Hebron as the place of the Jewish
people's first acquisition in Eretz Israel. Abraham purchased, not
only the cave to bury his wife Sarah, but also the surrounding field,
thereby acquiring a possession for the Jewish people in its land.

After the tour of the Cave of Machpelah, the group wanted to enter the
nearby Crusader neighborhood. This is a neighborhood that until
recently was neglected, and inhabited by only a few individual Arab
families. Recently, however, much money flowed there from European
countries in order to renovate the quarter, to bring in hundreds of
families of released terrorists, all for the purpose of driving a
wedge between Kiriat Arba and ancient Hebron. Noam Arnon explained
during the tour that if, Heaven forbid, this plan for populating the
quarter were to come to fruition, it would be a ticking bomb.

At the beginning of the week leaders of the Women in Green movement
informed the IDF of the intention to tour that quarter, and received a
negative answer. Indeed, large IDF and police forces stood at the
entrance and prevented the group from going in. Yehudit Katsover and
Nadia Matar, in the name of the entire group, protested this disgrace
and humiliation. "How is it possible that the Spanish Foreign Minister
could tour here last week, but not us? Instead of allocating so many
security forces to prevent us from entering the neighborhood, allocate
these forces to provide security for the tour, which is only a
five-minute long tour of the quarter - less than 200 meters long - in
Area C, which is under Israeli control. Now we have learned that there
is no point in requesting permission. So don't be surprised if our
youth tour the hills of Judea and Samaria without asking for
permission, because every request for permission is refused. We
promise to return to the quarter, without asking for a permit, without
informing you, and tour in it."

Details about the upcoming tour of the quarter will be publicized shortly.

After the protest, the group continued as planned and went to see the
"Stakes in Hebron" exhibition in the Machpela Visitors' Center - an
exhibition of historical photographs taken by Gershon Ellison on the
beginnings of the renewed settlement in Hebron after 1967. The message
of the exhibition is clear: to take the initiative, to push, to
advance, to do, to establish facts on the ground, and to struggle.

The struggle for the land of Israel continues today.

With G-d's help, by the merit of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs who are
buried in Hebron, and by the merit of all the pioneers, the successors
of Caleb son of Jephunneh, "We will certainly go up, and we shall gain
possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it" (Numbers 13:30).

For details: Yehudit Katsover 050-7161818 and Nadia Matar 050-5500834
http://www.womeningreen.org/

Iranium - The Movie A MUST SEE!!!

Iran’s nuclear program presents a threat to international stability. Yet successive American administrations—Republican and Democratic alike—have misread the intentions and actions of the Iranian regime.

How dangerous is a nuclear Iran, even if it never detonates a weapon? What are the guiding principles of the Iranian leadership? To what lengths would the regime go to carry out its agenda? How far have Iran’s leaders already gone to fund the world’s most powerful terrorist organizations? And why have American leaders failed to gain the upper hand in relations with Iran during the past 30 years?

In approximately 60 minutes, Iranium powerfully reports on the many aspects of the threat America and the world now face using rarely-before seen footage of Iranian leaders, and interviews with 25 leading politicians, Iranian dissidents, and experts on: Middle East policy, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation.


http://www.iraniumthemovie.com/

Is the Middle East Imploding?

Are the forces of the Muslim/Arab/Nazi's starting to make a push to take over all of these Arab Countries with protests and "unrest" or are the populations of these Countries really trying to follow Tunisia?

Either way Israel is in the middle and rightfully remains quiet....unlike to Muslim in the White house that just can't back off.

Is Mubarak headed to Florida for his payoff at this very moment?

We shall see.

Avi

The real right of return!

The illusion of Arab-Jewish coexistence is a delusion that leads directly to tragedy.

Arabs and Jews (1976)

The illusion of Arab-Jewish coexistence is a delusion that leads directly to tragedy. On the one hand, it is patently false. On the other, it encourages mad policies on the part of the Israeli government. Thus, we find that a group of yeshiva students travelled to the Galilee village of Peki’in to pray at several sacred sites. What makes Peki’in special is that never since the destruction of the Second Temple was it empty of Jews. Throughout the long exile there were always Jews in this small place and, today, one lone family remains, a father and his unmarried daughter.

When the students came, they were met with stones by the local Arabs and Druze. They were forced to call the police and leave. When the Arabs were asked why they had stoned the Jews they replied that they feared that they had come to settle there … [Sounds familiar? Today, Jan 23, 2011, apartment buildings for Jews are being built starting a new Jewish neighborhood in Jaffe. This led to a huge, loud and angry Arab demonstration in Jaffe, with shouts of “We don’t want Jews in our neighborhood.” BG]

This is the truth of Arab-Jewish coexistence and the tragedy of the Jewish policy of illusion. In the JEWISH state, Arabs have reached the point of chutzpah and gall when they can stone Jews and openly explain that they feared that the Jews might try to settle in their village. There is NO Arab village in the JEWISH state and the Arabs live in the JEWISH homeland by sufferance of the Jews. For them to have the brazenness to question Jewish rights is both symptomatic of their true feelings as well as the result of the timid and frightened “non-policy” of fear of what the world will say, that has led to an incredible decision to place two soldiers on trial in connection with the death of two Arabs killed in rioting against Jewish sovereignty. Both deaths occurred as Arab mobs, encouraged by Jewish weakness and hesitation, stoned Israeli troops, threw Molotov cocktails at them and tried to cause conditions of anarchy and revolt that would eventually force Jews to retreat from Judea and Samaria.

Both deaths occurred as Israeli soldiers were attacked and tried to put down the revolt. At first, the government refused to put soldiers who were facing an enemy committed to wiping out the Jewish state, on trial. Now, under pressure, they have agreed. The result will be that any soldier will hesitate before firing and will fear the consequences of his doing what any normal soldier should do. The result will be that the Arabs will know this and be encouraged. The result is that, once again, capitulation to the Arabs will breed more arrogance, more demands, more revolt.

K A H A N E”
The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea

September 1976 – Elul 5736


[All the above we are suffering today. BG]

If you did not receive this Rabbi Kahane article personally and would like to be on my weekly Rabbi Kahane article e-mail list, please contact me at:

BarbaraAndChaim@gmail.com

Election Trap

Here in Israel, we are seeing idealistic and optimistic Egyptians being interviewed by Israeli reporters at demonstrations in Cairo. I couldn't understand why those inspiring and pro-democracy interviews seemed both familiar and sad.
And then it hit me. 1984. The barrier between Israel and Lebanon had been replaced by a "Good Fence" gate. Lebanese citizens flooded into Israel. We saw idealistic and optimistic Lebanese being interviewed by Israeli reporters. We were all thrilled with the prospects for peace and real change. But I remember one depressing interview. A Lebanese schoolteacher said that he was visiting Israel while it was "still" possible to do so.

The Good Fence is now a barrier between Israel and the forces of Hezbollah, the Islamist Iranian puppet in Lebanon.