Humble Opinions

So this morning, I stumbled upon this article on Al Jazeera’s website:

Iraq hit by triple car bombing

The article can be summarized in these sentences: “The first bomb appeared to target people queuing outside a municipal office to claim various allowances, he said. The second detonated when police and firemen arrived on the scene, and the third blew up on the road to the hospital.” At least 23 dead, 81 wounded.

First, I’d like to mention that although this triple bomb idea seems creative, it’s actually old news. This exact strategy was used in an attack against Israel in the mid 90’s, during the reign of Prime Minister Rabin. The second bomb that had gone off did kill officers and personnel on the scene helping victims of the first bomb, however the third bomb prematurely detonated, and missed. Ever since then, Israel has been prepared for this type of an attack in their response protocols. (We rock?)

Second, I’d like to state my opinion which is that suicide bombings (and terrorism in general) cannot be stopped by anything other than force. I personally feel awful that there are so many people that care so little about their lives that they would happily use it up to destroy the lives of others, but I think a lot of the blame for this goes to the leaders of those people who encourage these acts, as opposed to trying to help and improve the lives of the individuals they are attempting to represent.

I’m additionally saddened by the fact that these double and triple bombings are no longer shocking to me, as I am reading about another suicide bomb / car bomb in Iraq or Afghanistan almost daily. So what is the correct response?

Let’s look at what Israel did, because it is run by the smartest human beings that currently exist: In 2002, Israel began constructing the Israeli West Bank Barrier which separates the West Bank from the rest of Israel. It is a highly controversial barrier. Those on the left side of politics say the wall is a guise for secretly annexing parts of the West Bank, since the wall juts inward to the West Bank in a number of places, and also that it makes life for the Palestinians in the West Bank significantly more difficult. Those on the right say it was and is desperately needed to improve security against terrorism. Who’s right? Well, suicide bombings inside of Israel are down 99.99% since the constructional of the wall - you can make up your own minds.

I am a supporter of disproportionate response to suicide bombings and acts of terror. One could argue that being a democracy means abiding to the international laws of war, the Hague Convention (etc), and that every democracy must deal with these problems proportionately and legally. However, I feel that is appropriate when dealing with other democracies, not terrorists who are prepared to cross every line imaginable, and then some.

Dealing a disproportionate response does two things: (1) Clearly sets the price for committing acts of terror very high, and (2) Diminishes the terrorists’ abilities to carry out these acts, because the responses are ideally devastating their infrastructure, bomb making facilities, and weapons caches.

The only last point is that for this to really work, the UN needs to be dismantled for its idiocy, and support for worldwide terror. That’s about all… Did I mention Iran’s building a nuclear bomb?

EDIT: Just thought I would add that this morning, I checked the news as I normally do, and what did I find? 41 dead as suicide blast hits northwest Pakistan. I rest my case.

Tags: suicide bomb

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Shalom. Let’s just right into the meat and potatoes: Netanyahu is the man!!

On September 24^th, 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered (what I found to be) an earth shaking speech at the United Nations, in front of the leaders of all the nations of the world. For those who haven’t seen it, I’m obligated to link you to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YJfUlF-xtU

And here is a video of a few statements Netanyahu made immediately after his speech, to an Israeli camera crew:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLCpJTchK8Q

Speaking in perfectly fluent, and elegant English, Prime Minister Netanyahu laid the facts out as they truly are, and was not at all embarrassed or shy about lashing out at members of the UN, or its human rights council. I called the speech “earth shaking” partly because I found myself shaken to the core during certain moments of the speech.

Think about it - what an unbelievably historic moment of world and Jewish history. The individual who is generally accepted as being (in some way) a representative of the Jewish people stood before the entire world and asked “Have you no shame???” and here’s the best part - he lived to tell the story! Placing this into historical perspective is literally mind-blowing for me.

How many times in the history of mankind has a representative of the Jewish nation been afforded the opportunity to address the entire world? And given the freedom to say whatever they’d like? In the late 1200s, well after the Christians had reconquered Spain from the Muslims (all whilst Jews were living there, making it awesome), the Church would demand that a well-known Rabbi stand in front of a large audience, and debate Judaism against Christianity. This happened time and time again, in order so that the Church could publicly disprove Judaism. The only problem was that the Rabbis were not allowed to in any way slander the Church (obviously), lest they be put to death for committing blasphemy. In short, the Rabbis lost every time.

However, in the year 1263, a well-known Jewish convert named Pablo Christiani informed King James of Aragon the 1^st that he could not only publicly disprove Judaism, but that he could use Jewish sources to do so (namely the Talmud). After hearing this exciting news, the King organized a grand debate, and had one of the greatest Rabbis of the time, Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (a.k.a. the Ramban) summoned to participate in this debate. Before the debate began, the Ramban requested of the king the right to free speech, and shockingly, he was granted it. The debate lasted for 4 days (July 20 - 24).

Needless to say, Pablo was less than a match for the Ramban (think Mike Tyson vs a 3 yr old). Each night, the Ramban went home and recorded the arguments and transcription of the debate, and compiled it into a book called The Disputation at Barcelona. Although the Ramban was deemed the winner, he was also immediately exiled from Spain, never allowed to return.

So why do I mention this story? It took place 746 years ago, and since that time, there have been few situations like it…. until Benjamin Netanyahu (the man, if I didn’t already say) stepped up to the podium at the UN five days ago.

The general points of his speech were:

• The holocaust was very real, and anyone who affords a holocaust denier the right to spew their anti-semitic opinions should simply be ashamed of themselves.
• Israel did not WANT to perform the recent military campaign in the Gaza Strip, but rather was forced to, and took every measure possible to limit civilian casualties on both sides of the conflict. The UN had the power to prevent this, but did nothing - and now is accusing Israel of war crimes it very clearly did not commit.
• Israel wants to progress the world and mankind. If the nations of the world work together, we can “cure the incurable,” “lengthen our lives” and offer “all nations magnificent bounty of hope” ….. “and yes, we will clean up the planet.”
• Israel and Israelis are tired of war. They are tired of sending their sons, daughters, grandchildren, friends, and loved ones off to the IDF in order to keep their country safe (Israel has a mandatory military draft). They are tired of losing their loved ones, sick of endless war and attacks being plotted against them, and sick of paying 50% income tax to support their military.
• Israel wants peace. “We made peace with Egypt, led by Anwar Sadaat. We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein. And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and my people will make peace.”
• And one of his main and final points: The world must make a decision. The time has once again come where the Jews could be placed in existential danger. Will mankind continue its unfortunate pattern of ignoring the situation the same way the Allied Forces knowingly did not bomb the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz - or will they finally step up, and allow the Jewish nation to once and for all live in peace and tranquility, and be given the opportunity to fulfill their destiny of being a light onto nations?

Tags: netanyahu

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In Israel’s 60+ year history as a modern-day country, it has continuously bent over backwards regarding its relationship with its neighboring countries, and in how it treats its citizens (Jewish and especially non-Jewish). There are those in the world that believe Israel is an evil, racist, inhumane country, for reasons which I have yet to fully comprehend, but I would press those individuals to describe Israel’s evil agenda. With a very basic scanning of her history, it’s pretty clear (at least to me) that Israel has no aspirations of expanding through Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, or Jordan, and has no genocidal plot of exterminating a race or religion; nor does it seek global domination of any market or financial system whatsoever. It simply seeks peace for its citizens, and an equal opportunity to compete in the global markets - the same way many countries on earth do.

I remind my readers that Israel was established as a safe haven for Jews, after the previous 18 centuries had left them brutalized, murdered, and raped in every sense by a shockingly large number of world powers. It’s to everyone’s misfortune that Israel has been on high alert defense from her very first day of existence (literally), and has had a continual existential threat against her ever since, by greatly outnumbering enemies. I also remind my readers that all the land Israel has gained since the 1947 UN Partition Plan has been a result of the Arab world denying Israel’s right to exist, and Israel defending herself in wars waged against her.

Despite all this, Israel continues to bend over backward in the treatment of her non-Jewish citizens (whom make up roughly 20% of her population), and in her relations with her neighboring countries (even during wartimes). Here are a few examples:

1. It is pretty well understood that the relationship between the Jews and Arabs inside of Israel is a hairy one. Yet, Arabs are allowed to travel to & from Israeli neighborhoods and Arab neighborhoods inside of Israel, at worst case needing to stop at a checkpoint to ensure they’re not transporting any kind of explosives or weapons. Arabs are also allowed to work jobs in Israel, legally, as non-Israeli citizens. Israelis, on the other hand, are absolutely not allowed to enter Arab neighborhoods within Israel. This is because it is well known that a Jew walking around Ramallah, for example, will likely be kidnapped or killed fairly quickly. I am not exaggerating in the slightest. Around the very dangerous areas, IDF soldiers are stationed at all borders and forbid Israelis from passing for this very reason.
2. Israel has given its Arab citizens an opportunity to participate in its democratic government. Since the first election in Israel in 1949, Arabs have been allowed to run for seats in the Israeli Knesset. Currently, there are 13 Arab members of the Knesset, and 7 of the 120 seats belong to Arab parties. This fact alone is beyond shocking considering the ideologies of the Arab parties revolve around the creation of a Palestinian state, the nullification of Israel being a Jewish homeland, and pretty much everything that works against the goals and interests of the Israeli government. Yet, they are still allowed to run and be included on all voting ballads. The Arab parties in the Knesset are also allowed to run television ads on Israelis television, which they do in Arabic (without Hebrew sub-titles). I wonder what those ads are about…

   The Arab parties of the Israeli Knesset also constantly boycott everything Israeli, and protest everything in the interest of the security of Israelis. During Operating Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, the Arab parties in the Knesset were the only ones that boycotted every single Knesset meeting, and unilaterally opposed the operation - yet, made no protests whatsoever when hundreds of rockets were being shot into civilian, Israeli neighborhoods in Israel from Gaza, which was the primary cause for the war.

   Just yesterday, the Arab parties of the Knesset boycotted a senate session because it was “Jerusalem Day” in Israel - the day that commemorates Jerusalem being united under Israeli control in 1967. Sounds like they’re really looking out for the country whose government they are participating in.

3. One more thing regarding Operation Cast Lead… During the war, Israel had hospitalized members of Fatah, the “moderate” Arabs who helped Israel fight against Hamas (their sworn enemy) by way of providing locale intelligence. Let’s be clear about one thing: Fatah opposes Hamas in the inter-Arab struggle to be the leading group of Arabs that fight the “Israeli occupation” - however, Fatah opposes Israel incomparably more. The Fatah logo is a picture of Israel (from a map) with crossed swords over it, and a grenade underneath it. Shortly after the war, Fatah filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice against Israel for allegedly committing crimes against humanity. Thanks, Fatah. We hope your men enjoyed their stays in our hospitals.
4. As is well known, the peace that exists between Israel and Egypt is a cold peace - somewhat of a marriage of convenience. That being said, Israelis are free to travel to Egypt and spend as much tourist money as their hearts desire in the Sinai desert, and even in Cairo, Egypt’s capital city. On the contrary, Egyptians are forbidden to travel to Israel by the Egyptian government. Egypt does not want its citizen to in any way spend any money inside of Israel. In fact, Egyptians married to Israelis could even lose their Egyptian citizenship.

So, maybe someone can remind me what good has come to Israel from all this backward bending over? It doesn’t seem like it gets anything in return but animosity, opposition, and the continual desire for it to not exist.

I mean, how many countries that have been members of the UN for 60 years are still not recognized to exist by over 50 countries? The answer: 1. Israel.

Tags: israel

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