Friday, November 28, 2014

Follow IsBlog

Dear friend:

You have been receiving the daily postings from my blog, IsBlog (Israel Blog) that I have been sending to you by e-mail.  In order to improve and update my process, I am changing to a new format.  In future, the postings that I place on the website, www.jackscohen.wordpress.com will automatically be sent to you by e-mail, once you have added your e-mail address to the site as a follower.
If you want to continue receiving my blog, then you only have to do this once:
  • simply go to www.jackscohen.wordpress.com
  • find "Follow Blog Via Email" on the right hand side
  • insert your e-mail address into the box and press the 'Click to Follow' button
  • You will then receive an email from Wordpress where you must click the 'Confirm Follow' button in order to receive my blog.
This will enable me to simplify my process and also enable me to expand the number of recipients that has, until now, been limited by the number of e-mails that can be sent from the e-mail server.
I modestly hope you will choose to continue to receive my brilliant, incisive, informative and sometimes humorous missives.
Best regards
Jack Cohen

Punishment or justice?

The Israel Government recently re-introduced a method for dealing with terrorism in the wake of the recent wave of attacks that have taken the lives of 11 Israelis in a month.  The tactic is the destruction of their houses and also the expulsion of those who have been given Israeli id.  This applies particularly to the families of terrorists who have been killed in suicide attacks or attacks where they have been shot dead while committing a terrorist act.  How can you punish them if they are already dead?  The only way is to punish their family, so that future potential terrorists will be deterred.  This tactic works because young men and fathers are loath to cause the destruction of their family home and/or the expulsion of their wives and children from Israel, where they receive all sorts of benefits, including welfare.  We know this works because the former wave of suicide terrorism died out partly due to this punishment.
    Some of the British readers might regard this treatment as harsh, but actually this was the legal means of punishing Jewish fighters used by the British forces during the Mandate (1922-48).  It was declared legal by the British judiciary and was carried out by HM forces.  The Israeli Govt. merely adopted it and continued it, since if the British said it was legal it must be. By the way the civilized British used this tactic throughout their Empire.
    The expulsion is also legal, since when Israel captured the area in 1967 Arab residents of E. Jerusalem were given Israeli id, but not citizenship.   But, this is not permanent, it is revocable.  The families of the terrorists who drove a bulldozer into people last year,  the men who killed the 4 rabbis and the Druse policeman in a Jerusalem shul last week, and the man who drove his car into a queue and killed a woman and baby, are affected.  Some of these people and their families are in fact from the West Bank and have no permanent rights in Israel.  Two of the other attackers are in custody, the man who drove his van into a woman and stabbed her and the man who stabbed the soldier to death.
    Another Israeli death due to terrorism has been revealed, a construction worker who fell to his death from a building site in Petach Tikva has been found to be a terrorist incident.  His Arab co-workers cut the rope while he was suspended doing work on the building and he fell to his death. Three of his co-workers have been arrested.
    This tactic of destroying the houses of terrorists has been criticized by human rights groups as being "collective punishment," punishing the wives and family of the terrorist for his actions.  But, in trying to protect its citizens from such terrorist attacks, the Government is allowed to use extreme measures, and there is no reason why the family of a Palestinian terrorist should be immune from the consequences of his actions as well as benefiting from public welfare.  It's as if a Mexican family illegally entered the US and the husband killed someone and the wife then receives a pension, its just not right.  Also, other governments, including the British, are looking for ways to counteract the current wave of terrorism from the returning Syrian ISIS fighters.  PM Netanyahu is sponsoring a new bill in the Knesset that will bring together many anti-terrorism features, including stripping Israel Arabs who carry out terrorist attacks of their Israeli citizenship and deporting them after they serve their sentence and many other actions, including the destruction of houses of terrorists and the deportation of their families.
    People have asked why the homes of Jewish terrorists have not been demolished, but there is no comparison.  I can think of only four deaths caused by Jewish terrorists (Yitzhak Rabin assassinated by Yigal Amir; the massacre carried out by Baruch Goldstein; the shooting of passengers aboard a bus in Galilee; the death of the Arab boy Khdeir in retaliation for the murder of the three Israeli teens), but by comparison there have been hundreds of murders of Jews by Arab terrorists, and if you include the intifada, thousands.  So these measures are being used to counteract a wave of Palestinian Arab terrorism that is killing our civilians, and it must be stopped.  Any legal means are justified.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Own house in order

The State Department is continually preaching the Obama liberal agenda to Israel, treating Israel as an equal of the Palestinians and the other Arab States, and not as a true and loyal ally of the US.  What other country in the whole region can the US depend on, Turkey? Jordan? Egypt? Lebanon? Iraq? Saudi Arabia? Afghanistan? Pakistan?  From Europe clear across the globe to east Asia there is no militarily capable and pro-western country other than Israel.  Yet, when Israel builds a few houses in Jerusalem, we are criticized and talked down to, when the Knesset considers a bill regarding the nature of Israel as a Jewish State, we are lectured on democracy.  I say, put your own house in order first.  The rioting in Ferguson and across the US is worse than the rioting in Jerusalem and the trigger-happy white cops in the US are far worse than the border police in Israel, who have to deal with Palestinian terrorists and rioters all the time.  

It is demeaning and unnecessary for the State Dept. spokesman to lecture the Israeli Government and Israeli legislators on what they should or should not be doing.  It is direct interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country, that the US would never do to other countries, even its enemies.  If the spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry lectured the US Government on how it should handle the riots in Ferguson, or its racial problem, or its immigration problem, or the policies of the housing department of Washington DC, would that be appropriate?  Of course, not.  So tell the US to stop meddling in the interal affairs of Israel.  We don't need the benefit of your supercilious advice, we don't need to be lectured about democracy.
This is not only my opinion, but that of many Israeli legislators and officials.  For example, Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett  stated:
"I say to the Americans that the affairs of the State of Israel - we will manage. At the end it is our problem. This is an internal issue and I think that no one has the right to intervene with it."   I say to the US put your own house in order before you criticize us.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Another extension on Iran

Can you ever remember a time when the West was not negotiating with Iran to prevent their development of a nuclear weapon?  This has been going on for six years, I believe.  The latest round has been one year, between Iran and the so-called P5+1, namely the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, with the EU also represented.  That negotiation also failed and was already extended once.  Now today the negotiations failed again and were extended again for another 7 months, with the hopeful plan to conclude them in 4 months.
What are they negotiating about?  The international community are trying to prevent Iran becoming a nuclear state, i.e. developing a nuclear weapon.  The Iranian Government assures everyone publicly that they do not intend to weaponize their nuclear capability and only want to develop peaceful applications of nuclear technology, which every state should be allowed to do.  But, most people are skeptical and don't trust them.  How do we know we can't trust them?  As PM Netanyahu has said, why does an oil-rich state need such a large nuclear industry?  Why does a country like Iran need to make large quantities of highly enriched uranium that can only be used for bombs? Why does Iran need thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium?  Why does Iran need to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, if not to deliver a nuclear warhead?  And why did Iran keep most of its uranium enrichment facilities secret for a long time until they were discovered?  Would you trust these Ayatollahs, who answer only to Allah?  Would you trust the Iranian Government that is the major source of terrorism throughout the world?  On many occasions Pres. Obama and other western leaders have stated categorially, "we will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon."  But, so far Iran has kept them talking and playing for time, while it no doubt continues to improve its capability surreptitiously.
What has Iran to fear?  Mainly sanctions, placed by the US and the West against their trade and financial institutions.  There is no doubt that these sanctions are hurting Iran, but in a country where the elite cares little about the suffering of the people, as long as the gain for Shia Islam and Iran are strategic, they are prepared to accept the sanctions, but will never give up on their nuclear ambitions.  So they keep stalling.  According to the statements by the Western negotiators the talks have progressed, although there is no admission regarding what has actually been gained.  We are told that the Iranians are cooperative and that advances have been mainly technical.  At the same time, according to the Head of the International Atomic Energy Commission, Iran is still refusing to grant access to its nuclear sites in defiance of already signed agreements.
But, once again as PM Netanyahu has said, and others have echoed, no agreement is better than a bad agreement.  It is better that the talks have been postponed and will recontinue than that the West would have accepted no significant gain while easing the sanctions.  The Republican Congress wants to vote tougher sanctions on Iran, but Pres. Obama has asked them to delay this, to give the extended talks another chance.  US Secty of State Kerry claims that they have managed to extend the so-called "break-out time" the time that Iran would need to quickly achieve enough enriched materal to make a bomb.  But, this is highly questionable, since estimates of the break-out time vary widely.  Although Iran's bomb would be a threat to all the world, Israel and the Sunni Arab states would be most threatened.  Israel reserves the right to take action if it feels that the Iranian threat has not been stopped by the continuing negotiations and that Iran is ont eh point of prodcueing a bomb.  Hopefully this will never happen, but if it does hopefully Israel will find supporters, if not allies, among the Sunni Arab States.  Such an eventuality could change the face of the world.  

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Secular discoveries

They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother when they said that man could fly
They told Marconi wireless was a phony, it's the same old cry
Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
The following discoveries and inventions are what helped to develop and transform our secular society, and the people who invented and implemented them are the modern equivalents to saints in our secular society.
  • According to the historian L.T. White, it was the invention of the stirrup that transformed society, allowing armies of men to ride on horseback for days and fight in formation as cavalry.  This brought about the development of feudal society. 
  • The development of the loom allowed cloth to be manufactured, first in cottages, then in factories and finally in huge mechanized textile industries, fostering the industrial revolution.
  • The gun was invented by the Chinese in the 10th century based on their invention of gunpowder.  Many varieties of guns, from small revolvers to huge artillery pieces were developed over the centuries.
  • Galileo developed his first effective telescope in 1608, followed by improvements from Kepler in 1611, Huygens in 1655 and Newton in 1668.
  • Robert Hooke first used a microscope to describe cells in 1667 and this was improved on by van Leeuwenhock in 1675.
  • The first description of the circulation of blood and the function of the heart was by William Harvey in 1623.
  • The first physical law that was established was Boyle's law in 1662 that describes the relationship between the volume and pressure of a gas.  This resulted in the understanding of thermodynamics and led to the use of steam engines in transportation and the industrial revolution.
  • The first steam locomotive railway was opened in 1803 by Richard Trevithick in Wales to haul 10 tons of iron in one run.
  • The first internal combustion engine that uses gasoline (petrol) was patented in 1823 by Atkinson in the US and was greatly improved over the years by Otto, Benz, Daimler, Diesel and eventually Ford.
  • The first ocean-going iron hull steamship designed by Isambard Brunel crossed the Atlantic in 1845.
  • The first major oil discovery was at Oil Creek in Pennsylvania in 1859, and it greatly increased interest in internal combustion engines.
  • An efficient process for the production of steel was invented by Henry Bessemer in 1856 and exploited by Andrew Carnegie to build steel rails and girders for bridges and buildings starting in 1875.
  • The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.
  • Marconi invented the telegraph and pioneered radio in 1897   
  • The electric light, the gramophone and moving films were invented by Thomas Edison from 1876 -1908.
  • Alernating current electricity for general use was introduced by Nikola Tesla in 1886.
  • Ignaz Semmelweis was the first to show that germs are responsible for a human disease in 1847, by having physicians wash their hands this reduced mortality from childbirth from 18% to 2%.
  • Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch proved that microorganisms are responsible for infectious diseases in the 1860s.
  • Proteins as a group were discovered by Jakob Berzelius in 1830.
  • DNA was discovered by Friedrich Miescher in Tubingen in 1869.
  • Walther Flemming was the first to describe the process of cell division (mitosis) in detail in 1879.
  • Max Planck formulated the quantum theory in 1900
  • Albert Einstein was the genius who realized that time is relative to the observer in his revolutionary relativity theory of 1905.
  • Hans Bohr described the first satisfactory model of the structure of the atom consisting of a nucleus and electrons in 1913.
  • The Wright Brothers carried out the first successful heavier than air flight by man in 1902.
  • The first commercial flight took place in Florida, USA, in 1914.
  • The Haber process for the fixation of nitrogen chemically from the air was developed by Fritz Haber in 1918.
  • From 1902-1921 Vilhelm Bjerknes established the basis of scientific meterology.
  • The first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1926.
  • The first electronic television process was invented by Logie Baird in 1926.
  • William Shockley at Bell Labs invented the transistor in 1949 allowing the development of electronics.
  • Alan Turing built the first effective computer in 1943 and described the concept of the electronic computer in 1950.
  • Oswald Avery proved that DNA was the genetic substance in 1944 at Rockefeller Institute.
  • Watson and Crick described the double helical structure of DNA in 1953.
  • Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs built the first personal computer, the Mac, in 1976.
  • Bill Gates introduced the first successful computer operating system from Microsoft in 1980.
  • The world-wide-web or internet was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989
This is by no means a complete list. These advances were attained with great risk in some cases and with great effort.  It shows how many individuals in different areas were needed to give rise to the society we know today.  This secular society is not dependent on belief or religion, but is primarily dependent on science, technology, innovation and entreprenurship.  It is the only society developed by man that can provide improved individual consumer satisfaction and increased affluence.  By comparison those who seek to return to a religion-based society or a non-competitive model of society are doomed to failure.  They need to use the technology developed by this secular society, but they can never advance or improve on it.
The Arabs and Muslims need to develop the concept of toleration, just as we Jews have, so that others can live in peace beside them.  It is this arrogant nonsense that they (Muslims) have the only allowed belief system, as the Christians used to believe before western society became secular, that must be dropped and replaced.  Only when that happens will the violence subside.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Secularization

People are sometimes distraught when more murders of innocent Jewish victims occur at the hands of ruthless Palestinian Arabs.  Will it never cease?  How could a man run down a young woman in his van, then turn around and park and cross the road with a knife and systematically stab her to death.  Two people tried to stop him and were also stabbed, until he was shot several times, but is still alive in hospital in Israel, receiving excellent health care.  A youth attacked and stabbed a young soldier at random at the busy Haganah train station in Tel Aviv, and stabbed him until he died of his wounds. This Palestinian Arab was captured and is in prison.  Two Palestinian terrorists entered a synagogue in Jerusalem  while Jews were praying and murdered 4 of them as well as a Druse policeman in cold blood.  There is such hatred, it is almost incomprehensible.  Yet, similar things occur in the US almost every month, a student with a gun goes into a school and shoots dead from 1 to 20 people, and for what reason?  It makes no sense, yet it happens all the time. The common theme is that these murderous acts are irrational.
It has been noted that such murders of Jews have been going on here for over 100 years.  From the time Jews reappeared on the scene, although some Arabs welcomed them and worked with them, but most have responded violently.  There were murders of Jews in the 1880s, the 1920s, the 1930s, the 1940s and on and on.  What is the origin of this intense hatred, primarily it is tribal.  Yes, it has a religious origin, in the exclusiveness of Islam, the belief that all men must be either converted to Islam (submission) or must die.  We see this process working very efficiently nowadays in the region of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, where massacres and beheadings on religious, ethnic and tribal basis are unfortunately commonplace.  What could oppose and prevent these kind of acts?  Unfortunately only defeating the armies of the religious extremists will work in the short run.  And this is also true of the Palestinian fanatics, but in the longer run the only solution is secularization.
Secularization is the process that has occured throughout the Western world as a consequence of two related things, the rise of science and the demise of Christianity.  The democratization of the West has occured gradually over hundreds of years as a result of a process in which the hold that religion, in this case Christianity, had over the minds and lives of men was gradually reduced, and the rights of the individual, the concept of human rights, has taken hold.  The development of science played a very important role in this process, since it has replaced religion as the ultimate source of authority in our societies.  We no longer go to the priest for the answer to all our questions, we go to the scientist and the doctor.  Scientific medicine and hygiene has doubled our life expectancy over the course of the last century.  The only societies that have thrived in the modern world are those that have embraced science and secularization.
In secular society, in principle, it is not important what an individual believes as far as religion is concerned, as long as he or she adheres to the basic laws set down by secular society.  These laws, civil and criminal, may be derived from religion, but now stand independently, and must have an indepengent judiciary to implement them, and there must be free speech and a free press and protection of minority rights.  All these factors are the basis of a modern liberal democracy that tolerates individual differences in belief.  No society based on religion can compare to the kind of society that has evolved in the West.  We see the return to a purely religious concept of a medieval society as retrograde and dangerous, and we must oppose it. 
I wish that Palestinian society showed signs of secularization and democratization, but it unfortunately does not.  They oppose the existence of a Jewish State, Israel, as they oppose the existence of Jews, on the basis of blind hatred driven by religious and tribal fervor.  The only short term solution is to fight them and defeat them, the only long term solution is secularization.  And the only way I see this happening is for Israel to take over these areas and force them to accept our version of a secular state, in which minority rights are respected and all religious views are tolerated.  Whether or not Islam can co-exist with secularization is still a question.  Turkey was supposed to have been the example that proves the rule, but now that looks increasingly unlikely.  In effect, secularization is the only cure for religious domination of society.  

Sunday, November 23, 2014

No discrimination

This week PM Netanyahu made an important statement, that was supported by all his Coalition colleagues as well as the opposition.  He opposed a decision by the Mayor of Ashkelon to bar all Arab workers from working on construction projects and in schools and kindergartens in Ashkelon.  The Mayor said the reason was that parents are afraid to send their children to school with Arabs present, who could attack them, just as they had attacked Jews praying in a synagogue in Jerusalem.  It's true that there is little if any protection for schools and kindergartens from such an attack.  The police cannot protect every building and institution in the State.  On the other hand, the majority of innocent Arabs should not be punished for the actions of the small violent minority.  The fact is that the vast majority of Israeli Arabs (we are not talking about Palestinian Arabs who live in the territories and are much more radicalized) want to live a peaceful life and are loyal to the State of Israel.  At no time during any of Israel's wars has there been a major uprising of the Israeli Arab population.  There certainly has been radicalization of the youth, but apart from certain outbreaks of violence, the majority do not participate in violence or terrorism.  By punishing them all it only drives them into the hands of the extremists.
A notable feature of the current wave of terrorism and rioting in Jerusalem has been the fact that it is almost totally Palestinian Arabs living in East Jerusalem, who have Israeli id cards, but are not citizens and cannot vote in elections.  There has been violence from the West Bank, for example the drivers who deliberately drove into people and killed them (4 so far in three incidents) were Hamas members from the West Bank, but there has been no large-scale rioting in the West Bank.  Also, there have been isolated incidents within Israel, for example the rioting in Kfar Kana that escalated when a young Arab was shot by the police.  There was also a major clash in the village of Abu Snan recently, when a fight broke out between Arab Muslim and Druse inhabitants of the village and 40 were injured.  The Israeli police went in and separated the two groups and restored calm.  Note that the Druse are loyal citizens of Israel and the border policeman, Zidan Saif (30), who was shot dead by the Arabs who attacked the synagogue in Jerusalem, was a Druse.  Apparently the clashes in Abu Snan started when the Muslims wore their keffiyehs to school as a mark of protest.
In years past, parents in Israel used to do a rota to guard the schools where their children went (I remember doing this in the 1970s).  The parents job was not to stop the attackers, but to act as a deterrent and also an early warning signal.  Nowadays with cell phones it should be quick and easy to contact the police.  But, if such an attack does occur at a school or kindergarten (it is terrible that we are talking about this again) then it would definitely change the situation and things would quickly deteriorate.
Note that a border policeman has been brought up on charges for shooting a Palestinian youth with a live bullet.  This was a case where a youth who was nowhere near the rioting 6 months ago suddenly fell down and was shot.  It looked from the video as if he was pretending, from the way he put his arms out to save his fall.  But, apparently he was actually shot, and since there had been no order given to use live ammunition, this was an illegal shooting.  As a consequence, after an investigation, the presumed guilty party has been found and has been charged.  We are a country of law.  The Mayor of Ashkelon is also being investigated for breaking the law against racial discrimination.

Friday, November 21, 2014

The organized massacre

An edited version of this letter appeared in The Jerusalem Post 20/11/14:
Sir:
I totally disagree with the opinion expressed by Yaakov Lappin on the front page of The J. Post today ("Each attack inspires the next" 19/11/14).  He states "the latest horrific terrorist atrocity in Jerusalem appears to be the most recent in a series of unorganized Palestinian attacks, with no visible guiding hand of a larger organization behind it."   Yes, one morning the perpetrators got up and took guns, knives and an axe and found an undefended synagogue, by chance, and then went in and slaughtered Jews.  How naieve can you get?  Don't you think that this site was recconoitered, don't you think the perpetrators were prepared in advance, don't you think that they were given the go-ahead, don't you think they said their prayers before committing murder, don't you think they made sure their families were taken care of?   All of the terrorist attacks are coordinated, in secret, maybe only by word of mouth because of Israeli security, and are planned at the highest levels of the Palestine Authority. Just as Yasir Arafat did during the second intifada, but denied any connection to it.  We Jews are a monumentally stupid people, we give our enemies the benefit of the doubt, for example, most of those who went through the gates at Auschwitz believed "Arbeit macht frei."  You can't combat an evil enemy unless you know what you are dealing with. 
Yours
Jack S. Cohen
Netanya
This idea that the current wave of terrorism is "disorganized" and "spontaneous" is ludicrous. It's all organized through the contacts of terrorist organizations, families, clans and political parties.  When a certain district of youths are called to go out and riot, its all arranged in advance, they know what they have to do and where to do it.  They prepare their stones and petrol-bombs, and have their knives and even guns ready in advance.  When the Jewish underground wanted to escape from Acre Prison in 1948, it was all arranged and coordinated in advance (see the film "Exodus") without the British even being aware of it.
Unfortunately, people at the highest level of the Israeli Government also show this naieve stupidity.  The head of the Shin Bet Israeli intelligence service Yoram Cohen has gone on record saying that you cannot blame Mahmud Abbas for the current unrest, rioting and murders.  He ignores the fact that Abbas directly incited his population to take up arms to prevent Jews from going up to the Temple Mount.  In fact, Yoram Cohen blames the Jews for going there, and hence providing the Palestinian Arabs with an excuse to riot and kill.  What is his policy, if we Jews give up all our rights maybe the Arabs won't have any reason to kill us any more?  How does someone with such a perverted grasp of reality become the head of intelligence?  It boggles the mind.  Dep Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely has called on PM Netanyahu to fire him as being totally unfit for his position.
As further evidence of the organization of these riots, first the Israeli customs intercepted a huge shipment at Ashdod port of fireworks, knives and taser guns headed to Beit Hanina, one of the focal points of the Palestinian riots.  You can't have a riot without the necessary material.  Also, Hamas has called openly for a "day of rage" against Israel's supposed "desecration" of the Al Aksa mosque.  This is of course a lie, there is no desecration, only police protecting the Jews praying at the Western Wall and other visitors, and PM Netanyahu has announced numerous times that there are no plans, whatever individuals might say, for the Government to change the status quo at the Mosque.   So let's get real and fight this organized wave of terrorism against us.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Political controversies

Two political controversies are roiling the Israeli Knesset these days, they are the definition of Israel as a Jewish State and the Yisrael Hayom free newspaper.  Both issues have been fiercely debated and may cause the breakup of PM Netanyahu's Government Coalition.
As part of the Coalition Agreement, the Bayit Yehudi Party led by Naftali Bennett insisted that the status of the State of Israel being a Jewish State should be enshrined in law.  Such a bill was written and submitted, but the Justice Minster Tzipi Livni, who is against this proposition, diverted the bill and had it delayed.  Bennett complained about this political maneuver to PM Netanyahu and threatened to leave the Coalition if it is not reinstated, thus possibly causing the collapse of the Netanyahu Government.
At the same time, another bill before the Knesset, this time introduced by the Labor leader Eitan Cable, would outlaw the distribution of free newspapers in Israel.  This came about because the American billionaire, Sheldon Adelson, has been financing the publication and free distribution of a newspaper called Yisrael Hayom (Israel Today), which supports the Netanyahu Government, is pro-Likud nd is the most popular newspaper in Israel.  The Labor Opposition regard this as unfair competition and want to make it mandatory that newspapers should be paid for.  Yet, they also supported free pro-Labor papers in the past, that have all gone out of business.  Many regard this political maneuver as anti-democratic and hypocritical, but every party that is a member of the Coalition except Likud has supported this bill.  
So a party on the right and patries on the left have both threatened to bring down the Netanyahu Coalition Government. In fact, the far left Meretz party leader introduced a bill to dissolve the Knesset and call for new elections.  But, this is a futile maneuver, since with the current Palestinian violence in Jerusalem and the recent Gaza war, there is little appetite for left-wing approaches in Israel and both Meretz and Labor are expected to fare worse in the next elections.  Nevertheless, although the Coalition itself is under strain, it is likely that Netanyahu will manage to hold it together, because no one really wants to go to elections now and face the uncertainty of the public's choice. 

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Survive!

The four more Jews and the Druse police guard murdered in the massacre at the Kehilat Yaakov Synagogue in Jerusalem during prayers yesterday  morning are further proof that there is no possibility of compromise with the Palestinians.  They have no intention or possibility of compromising with us over the existence of a Palestinian State in anything but the whole of Palestine, that for them includes Israel.  There were scenes of wild celebration in the West Bank and Gaza following the murders of these innocent Israeli Jews.  Can anyone understand rationally why they would shout "Allah Akhbar" while murdering religious Jews praying to the one God that Mohammed adopted from the Jews. 
Mahmud Abbas, the illegal ruler of the Palestine Authority, who is intending to approach the supposedly civilized UN to become the President of a recognized state, was supposed to have given up terrorism many years ago.  But, of course he will deny responsibility for this attack, just a Arafat did before him. Abbas issued a statement condemning the attack, although only after US Secty of State Kerry called him twice and pressured him.  CNN erroneously described the attack as being on a mosque, as if the Jews did it!  The BBC refused to show pirctures of the carnage in the synagogue, although they had no problem showing the deaths of people in Gaza during the recent war.  Such hypocrisy.
The basic premise of the West is at fault in dealing with the Palestinian issue. It assumes there is some kind of solution, some kind of plan that can rationally "solve" the situation, and some moves that Israel can take to persuade the Palestinians to compromise with us.  But, there actually is not.  There is no "two-state solution," it is a mirage of superficial western liberal thinking, which the good liberal Jews in the Diaspora have bought into. If only Israel did this or did that, maybe the Palestinians could be satisfied.  The Palestinians are our mortal eternal enemies, just as the Nazis were, and the only thing we can do is either defeat them or fail to survive.
At the present rate they are killing about 2 Jews per week, for the past four weeks or so.  At this rate it is going to take them a very long time to kill us all, but they are depending on terrorising us, either into accepting their dictates, or giving up altogether and running away.  What we must do is recognise reality, put guards on all our institutions, including synagogues, just as there are in the Diaspora, and fight the bastards.  Those who think that killing more of them will make them angry and upset (and frustrated) are not facing reality.  It is not their anger or frustration that is motivating them, it is an organized, calculated process of murderous attacks, to demoralize and kill us.  Those who think these attacks are spontaneous or individual are not facing reality.  We must respond in kind, as we did before, by building security fences to close them off and separate ourselves from them, and to take all the strategic locations from where they might attack us and either kill them or starve them out.  I see no alternative.
Yes, there are good Arabs, just as there were good Germans, but unfortunately the good ones don't make the attacks and don't decide the policies.  The Muslim Arabs have a peculiar culture of death, violence and killing.  To survive we must kill them more than they kill us, and yet retain our humanity, just as the Allies did durng WWII.  Ultimately its the only way to survive.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Mantra

A Scotsman, an Irishman and an Englishman go into a pub.  The Scotsman says, "I don't know about you Paddy but things are not great for us,"  Paddy replies "Things are terrible for us too right now."  The Englishman says "Yes, we have lots of problems too, I know, let's blame it on the Jews, it worked for the Germans."
Of course, today they don't only blame the Jews, but they also blame the Jewish State, Israel, that in perceived wisdom is uniquely evil and suppressive of the poor Palestinians.  Who are "they", they are the liberal-left intelligentsia and the lumpen proletariat, who are always complaining and seeking scapegoats for their ills.  Even though in the Syrian civil war some 400,000 people have been killed in an orgy of carnage, the Syrian Arabs don't make a good scapegoat.   Even though in the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, they have massacred and beheaded thousands of minorities, Christians, Kurds, Yazidis, Shia, their crimes against humanity pale (in the biased minds) against the crimes of the Israelis.  Its so ridiculous. 
Recently Israel wouldn't let the Palestinian Arab youths pray on our Temple Mount, where the Temples of David and Solomon stood, because they were rioting and throwing stones and petrol bombs at our people and the police.  But, even the US Secty of State Kerry applauded PM Netnyahu's allowing all Muslims to pray there at Friday prayers and there was no violence.  The fact is that despite all the incitement by the Palestine Authority leaders, including Mahmud Abbas, against Israel and the Jews, there has been no change to the status quo of the Temple Mount.  It has been and continues to be under the control of the Muslim religious authority the Wakf and under the jurisdiction of King Abdullah of Jordan.  Yet, Israel will be uniquely vilified, by those who in no way care about Islamic prayer.
Their mantra is that Israel is an apartheid, imperialist colonialist state.  My answer to all those who think that Israel's actions are causing these "problems," these riots, the so-called frustration of the Palestinian people (that strangely manifests itself in organized riots from time to time), is that nothing we do as Jews or Israelis can change this situation, we are blamed whether we do something or not.  Usually they focus on the building of some homes in Jerusalem, which is our capital.  My mantra is: we are here by right and we are here to stay, so get used to it.