When All Else Fails, Try Laughter: Israel to 'thank' fly-in activists in mocking letter

So, some 1500 'activists' give or take a few wackos decided to descend upon the Tel Aviv airport to express their indignation at Israel's human rights outrages...outRAGEs, we tell you...

Notice how the 'activists' always seem to target democracies and ignore murderers and tyrants?

Well, the Israeli government, no fools they, notice. And they've prepared a 'welcome' for them--an open letter, translated to many languages, and a summary deportation, at the expense of the airlines that flew them in.

"Dear activist," reads the letter that will be translated in a number of different languages. "We appreciate your choosing to make Israel the object of your humanitarian concerns. We know there were many other worthy choices."

For instance, the letter – drawn up in the Prime Minister's Office -- noted, they "could have chosen to protest the Syrian regime's daily savagery against its own people, which has claimed thousands of lives".

Or, they could have chosen to protest "the Iranian regime's brutal crackdown on dissent and support of terrorism throughout the world."

Or, if they just had to come to this part of the globe, they "could have chosen to protest Hamas rule in Gaza, where terror organizations commit a double war crime by firing rockets at civilians and hiding behind civilians."

But instead, the letter read, "you chose to protest against Israel, the Middle East's sole democracy, where women are equal, the press criticizes the government, human rights organizations can operate freely, religious freedom is protected for all and minorities do not live in fear."

Classic Bebe Netanyahu. Makes Lefties insane, because it simply states facts, and points out what childish schmucks they are.

If only the 'activists' would fly themselves into Syria and protest there...wonder what would happen to them?

Daniel Eisenbud On Why Israel Survives As The World Around Burns

OS has always marveled at the Israelis. He's never been there, but has encountered a few along the way, survivors or children of survivors of the worst the twentieth century could conjure up against them, and yet here they are. They create artists like Perlman, orchestras like Israel Philharmonic, they develop the technology that make cell phones possible, they make the desert bloom, they have a free press, and democratic elections, and it all looks chaotic.  Yet compared to Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya--need we continue?

On the way to somewhere else entirely, OS ran across this essay by Daniel Eisenbud at the Jerusalem Post.  It's an unusual piece, actually, detailing the difference between those Israelis who will not give in to the hatred that assails them, and those who do. And, in thinking about it, OS has met a few of both Eisenbud describes.

The most invaluable lesson I learned about survival from Israelis is that the healthiest way to deal with the vitriol directed at this nation is to not succumb to it, but rather, to transcend it. 

While Israelis – the vast majority of whom have served in the military – are acutely aware of the murderous hatred that tries to permeate our borders day after day, second after second, they also know from experience that giving in to the hate is a fool’s errand.

Indeed, I have found that the common denominator among Sabras is their majestic ability to rise above the odium that surrounds them and attempts to consume them.

It’s beautiful, and humbling, to behold.

 

To which OS can only add, 'Amen, brother.' But Eisenbud continues..

 

CONVERSELY, THE most jarring hatred I have encountered since moving to this country a year and half ago – apart, of course, from that of terrorists – may also surprise you.

It comes from the nefarious breed of Jewish immigrant who comes already filled with rage, and the mistaken belief that Israel is somehow an acceptable venue for their hate because of the copious amounts surrounding it.

 

To which OS must regretfully add--yes, you do have that correct as well. OS knows a family like that, preparing to move to Israel. The mother of the family quite seriously believes, for instance, that it would be a good thing for every Iranian to be wiped from the face of the earth. 

 

Seriously. Not making this up. It would not surprise the reader to hear that this family is seriously non-functional, would it? Rather like the Arab societies that surround Israel, consumed by their own rage at Israel, history, one another, themselves. Eisenbud is urging them to stay home, because Israel already has enough problems without them.

 

OS will stop now, because Eisenbud knows how to write, and you should read what he has to say. 

 

In these perilous days, he offers wisdom.

  

OK, Lemmee See If I Understand Correctly...Reviewing ObamaThink

Now, the Iranians are making noises about disrupting the sea lanes in the Persian Gulf, through which much of the current oil supply for the West travels. In response, the US has dispatched two naval carrier strike forces, which is a lot of tonnage and firepower in a pretty small corner of the world.

It seems to OS that this would be an expensive undertaking, seeing that we are 15 TRILLION dollars in debt, and Obama will demand to raise the debt ceiling. Hell, he may just tell Treasury to sell the bonds, Congress be damned!

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff is booking it to Israel to consult with our ally, who managed to ratchet up tensions in the area by doing something proactive about Iran's plans to build nuclear bombs and use them to kill Israel.

That means we may have a war on our hands already, in reality. That's expensive, seeing as we are 15 TRILLION dollars in debt.

If we were self sufficient for all our energy production, oil, coal, hydro, nuclear, whatever--then we wouldn't neeeeeeed to spend much money or mental energy on the Iranians. We could tell them to take their oil and brew it into tea and consume it themselves.

So, this would explain why Obama won't allow the construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to our Gulf Coast, right? Why, that might make us more self-sufficient, wouldn't it? And, private monies would be spent on its construction, as opposed to public monies spent on carrier groups patrolling the Persian Gulf, right?

This would also explain the EPA's efforts to shut down one of America's most productive coal mines as well, correct?  Isn't it cheaper to employ private money to mine and ship coal than to have carrier groups watching over oil tankers at taxpayer expense, seeing as we are, well, 15 TRILLION dollars in debt?

So, we have to sit back and wonder: Is Obama a blithering idiot, is he simply not able to hold more than one thought in his mind at a time, or is he deliberately attempting to torpedo the future of this country? Or is he perhaps corrupt, in the pay of some and not in the pay of others because they bid too low?

It appears to OS that there aren't many alternate explanations.  The situation makes no sense, and is deeply dangerous.

This is how wars get started. This is how people get killed by the tens of thousands and millions.

This is really what we can't afford.

This is why we must have grown-ups at the helm.  November 2012 cannot come soon enough.

Remember The Mantra: Israel Bad/Hamas Good, Israel Bad/Hamas Good,Israel Bad/Hamas Good--(keep going until you believe it...)

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas found the body Friday of a pro-Palestinian Italian activist who was killed by al Qaeda sympathizers in the Gaza Strip, raising questions about Hamas's control over the beleaguered enclave. Two men were arrested and others were being sought for the abduction and killing of Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, who was found strangled in an abandoned house Friday, Hamas officials said.

A group of strict Islamists aligned with al Qaeda, known as Salafists, had threatened Thursday to execute Arrigoni unless their leader, detained by Hamas last month, was freed.

It was an unprecedented challenge for Hamas, an Islamist group whose diehard hostility to Israel has deepened the isolation and poverty of Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

"Gaza is safe and I want to assure all visitors to Gaza that they are safe and secure," Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, told a French journalist.

"The crime that took place was an isolated incident ... and we will enforce the law against the perpetrators."

Hamas vehemently opposes the Salafists who espouse a more extreme form of Islam and appear to be attracting recruits -- including from among its own ranks.

Salafists see Hamas as insufficiently zealous, have attacked Internet cafes and want Christians expelled. They deplore Hamas for considering ceasefires with Israel and exploring political accommodation with secular Palestinian rivals.


And, from Donald Sensing, a story with video just too horrifying to describe...

Hmm...More Than Meets The Eye in Gaza: New Shopping Mall Opens

When OS hears 'Gaza', he thinks 'mud huts, rockets firing at Israel, and neighborhoods blow to Perdition by the IDF'.  And, apparently, there's a lot of that, except the rocket fire seems to have abated after the early 2009 thrashing administered to Hamas.

And, then again, there are scenes of true prosperity, even opulence, in Gaza as well.


Hmmm...somehow, the whole story is not being accurately told.

OS doesn't think this is some conspiracy one way or the other, but perhaps too many years of blood-curdling passions on one side or the other have totally skewed everyone's view.

Hmmm...

Just Another Day In Iran

Imprisoning journalists for ten years?

Administering beat-downs on journalists in Iran by bodyguards of the Vice-President?

Arresting students for 'anti-Prophet propaganda', and denying them access to counsel?

Priceless.

(Just what constitutes 'anti-Prophet propaganda', anyhoo?)

Just a reminder about our President, the 2010 winner of the Nobel Peace prize, who is eager to talk without pre-condition to the loony-toony in charge in Tehran, but who lacked the brains to call BP when their well blew up off our coast.

OS finds himself flashing back to 1938, when the free world sacrificed Czechoslovakia to Hitler in the cause of 'peace', vilifying the Czechs for having the temerity to attempt to defend themselves in the process.

What happened in 1939? There was clear warning of Hitler's intentions.

Iran bankrolls Hamas, and imports its thugs to enforce its will in Iran. Ditto Hezbollah in the south of Lebanon. Israel defends itself against both, and is vilified.

The loony-toony in the windbreaker has made his intentions clear as well, has he not?

What happens in 2014 when he has both a nuke and a delivery system?

Mr. President?

Adios, Helen Thomas: Departed And Unlamented

Even Helen Thomas learns that it is possible to get caught in the act of being one's self. She was caught with her virulently anti-Semitic pants down last week, and finally is retiring.

Wikipedia updated her bio today:

On May 27, 2010, outside a White House Jewish heritage event, Rabbi David Nesenoff asked if Thomas had any comments on Israel. Thomas replied, "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine,"[10] and added that the people are under occupation. Asked where they should go she replied that "they should go home" to Poland, Germany, America and "everywhere else".[11][12] Thomas subsequently issued an apology on her personal web site.[12][13][14] On June 6, Thomas's agency, Nine Speakers, Inc., announced that they had dropped her as a client, due to her remarks.[15][16] Craig Crawford, who co-authored "Listen up, Mr. President", said that he "will no longer be working with Helen on our book projects".[17] Other fallout from Thomas' statements include a rebuke from the White House[18] and cancellation of a commencement speech she was to give at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland.[19] Around noontime on June 7th, 2010 in consequence to her comments from a few days earlier, Thomas tendered her immediate resignation and entered into retirement.

She wasn't a harmless little old lady, as she was so often portrayed, and happily let everyone believe. She was a bitter partisan, carrying a legacy of anti-Semitism inherited from her Lebanese family heritage. This latest outrage was the final straw.

Of course, there will be an obligatory period of silence, the acquisition of a new speaker bureau representation, a new book deal, and she'll be on the road this time next year, in front of sympathetic anti-Semitic audiences on the left of American politics, as well as Muslim groups , explaining how she was victimized by the Zionists and the Jooo-ish Conspiracy.

In the interlude, we all get a bit of relief.

Miss Thomas, Oprah's on the phone. You available to appear?

'Peace Activists' And Their Culture Of Violence: James Corum Remembers

James Corum is no right-wing nutter living in his mother's basement, as the White House would have us believe about any who dare disagree with The One.

James Corum is Dean of the Baltic Defence College in Estonia. He has taught at American and British staff colleges and is the author of seven books on military history and counter-insurgency. He is a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve (rtd) and has 28 years' experience as an army officer.

Colonel Corum has a chilling tale to tell of life on the receiving end of the 'peace activists' activities, in the wake of the 'peace activists' activities on behalf of Hamas.

[quote]

I had my first experience with peace lovers in 1965 when my father was the deputy commander of the Presidio of San Francisco, in those days an Army post located right in the centre of the city. Due to its location, it was a magnet for the 1960s-era protests. My father was tasked to deal with anti-Vietnam demonstrations that began with the deployment of US combat troops to Vietnam. A group of seven liberal activists – some of them who later became quite prominent in the Democratic Party in California – requested permission to hold a demonstration on the Presidio. Of course, political demonstrations of any type are forbidden on federal property. My father, following federal law, denied the protest request. My father was also noted in the local press as the one who had turned down the peace activists’ – so a personal target was clearly identified.

The night after my father denied the peace demonstration request our car – a beautiful 1957 Lincoln – was completely destroyed by terrorists. In those days the Presidio was an open post - and anyone had access. From that day on, and for the next few months, we received constant death threats. Federal agents traced a lot of the calls to Berkeley – center of peace activities in the Bay area. When I was twelve I got quite used to picking up the phone and having peace people tell me they would kill our family. When you personally experience terrorism as a twelve year-old, you grow up quickly in terms of understanding politics – and especially understanding the true nature of “peace” activists.

Hmmm...that's 'peaceful', isn't it?

Col. Corum has more to tell, and OS recommends his thoughts to you.

OS also wonders what the man is doing as a retired officer teaching in Estonia, instead of an active general in service of his country. But then again, since there are so many 'peace activists' who have made their way to upper reaches of the government in the past decade, it comes as no surprise. OS notes that the GW Bush administration was also famous for its intolerance of any and all who dared disagree, or demonstrated that potential.

OS also calls to mind the verbal (thankfully not physical) violence he has witnessed by the 'peace activist' types directed toward any who dare offer an alternate opinion to the Party Line. One special moment occurred at church some time back, as a patrician lady attempted to verbally disembowel him in the halls for refusing to accept and post copies of the then latest cause pushed by the Left. OS was much younger and more naive, and left the encounter with his feelings bruised, instead of just seeing the old bat for who she was--an old bat with an abusive streak.

Some wisdom does come with age. Let's be careful out there. As he has stated before, anyone who demonstrates an enthusiasm for spilling blood over a domestic political difference of opinion is someone to be treated with a healthy wariness.

Maybe we're not the problem. Just sayin...

Silencing The Music In Somalia: NY Times Story

The next time some self-impressed multi-culturalist drones on about how all cultures are equally valid, that Islam is a religion of peace that poses no danger to civilization, etc., etc., etc., share this news nugget with them.

13 April, 2010
MOGADISHU, Somalia — At least 14 radio stations here in the capital stopped broadcasting music on Tuesday, heeding an ultimatum by an Islamist insurgent group to stop playing songs or face “serious consequences.” 

The insurgent group, Hizbul Islam, issued its ultimatum 10 days ago and set Tuesday as the deadline to comply, saying that music was “un-Islamic.” In other parts of the country, insurgents have taken over or shut down some radio stations. Last week, the Shabab, the country’s most powerful insurgent group, said it was banning foreign programs like those broadcast by the BBC and Voice of America, calling them Western propaganda that violated Islam.


The radio stations that stopped playing music on Tuesday are based in both insurgent and government-controlled areas of the ruined capital. Those located in insurgent-held territory seemed to have little alternative, but some of the managers at stations in government-controlled territory argued that the lack of security and the loss of advertising income led them to comply as well. 

Now, let's see.  We have the suppression of music, the silencing of news programming, all under threat of death at the hands of Muslim jihadists. They have to get their money from somewhere--should we wonder where out loud? Why do the supposedly 'moderate' Muslim states not publicly raise unshirted hell about this stuff?

Now, just for a reality check, let's check out some of the cultural offerings in Israel in the coming weeks. You know, the place with orchestras and conservatories, museums, A FREE ****!!!!**** PRESS, all the things that make them odious to Islamists. And, apparently, Mr. Obama seems to like the Islamists better than the Israelis. He sure as shooting won't stand up to them. Something to ponder as we vote this November, and as we contribute in the days leading up to it.

When this country, and the rest of the West, are willing to finally stand up and say: 'These people are thugs, plain and simple, and we won't tolerate them a moment longer. And, we won't give an inch or a penny to anyone who tolerates them.', we'll be on the road to the solution of our challenges with Islam.

They are the ones with the problem, we aren't.

Well, There's A Fine How-D'ya-Do

Harmid Karzai appears to be unhappy with his protectors (that would be our military), and threatens to align with the Taliban.

Sot of makes ya' warm and fuzzy all over, thinking about how Our Beloved Leader booked it over to Kabul on Air Force One just after passage of his health care bill, to have a pow-wow with the President of Afghanistan. Not much mentioned about what they talked about, but it appears to not have gone well. Oh, well, there's that couple of million melted away, what with flying the Presidential plane, all the military escorts that fly along, the mid-air refuels of one and all, etc. etc.

In the meantime, Bibi Netanyahu, the president of the one real friend we have on that side of the world, gets publicly dissed when he shows up to meet with The One.

Hmmm...lessee...

How many lives have we lost, US, UK, Canadian, NATO in Afghanistan? How much money have we spent? We've spent a bunch of cash on Israel, too, but at least they do their own soldiering, and know which end of the rifle to point at the bad people.

Girls, put down those school-books, and pull out them burkhas! Turn that damn music off! The Taliban is back in business.

No worries, just smile along with the Beloved Leader, and repeat after him:

Yes, we can!

Yes, we can!

Yes, we can!

Doesn't that feel better now, dearies?

This Is How Wars Begin: Obama Shuns Netanyahu, Hamas Stages An Ambush

...and an Israeli family loses a second son to the jihadists. Not a murmur from our press here--just another day. How many column inches devoted this week to the latest from Sandra Bullock? The NCAA? 'Medical marijuana'?

From the Jerusalem Post, the account of an incursion into Gaza by a tank unit, confronting Hamas fighters planting IED's near the border. 

Two Israeli soldiers killed:

On Friday evening, Maj. Eliraz Peretz, 31, from Eli, deputy commander of the Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion, and St.-Sgt. Maj. Ilan Sviatkovsky from Rishon Lezion were killed during combat with Palestinian gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip, near Khan Yunis.

Peretz led a force into Gaza after two Palestinians were spotted laying improvised explosive devices near the border security fence. During the ensuing fire exchange, a grenade in Peretz’s vest was hit by a bullet and exploded, killing him and wounding two of his soldiers. Sviatkovsky was then shot and killed as well.

Israeli officers still lead their troops, and suffer losses accordingly.

Further down the article, the poignant news is related:

Peretz’s brother, Lt. Uriel Peretz, 22, of Givat Ze’ev, was killed by a Hizbullah bomb along with St.-Sgt. Nitzan Balderan, 19, of Kibbutz Lotem, on November 25, 1998, when the IDF was still deployed in the security zone in south Lebanon. Both men were in the Golani Brigade. The family has another brother serving in Golani Battalion 13. The third brother participated in Operation Cast Lead last year.

OS doesn't know whether to weep, rage, or some combination of the two. Deepest condolences to the families. Who can imagine, much less endure these sorts of losses?

Our President won't be photographed with your Prime Minister, won't break bread with him. He's planning a state dinner for President Calderon of Mexico next month, the leader of one of the most chaotic, brutal and corrupt nations of modern history.

Something is terribly, tragically awry in the White House.

This is how wars begin...

Mossad's Man Inside Hamas

OldSouth always wondered how the Israelis seem to know exactly where to find the terrorists they seek.

Well, now we know in part, to quote St. Paul.

The son of one of Hamas’s founding members was a spy in the service of Israel for more than a decade, helping to prevent dozens of Islamist suicide bombers from finding their targets, it emerged yesterday. Codenamed the “Green Prince” by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of the Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, supplied key intelligence almost daily from 1996. He tracked down suicide bombers and their handlers from his father’s organisation, the Haaretz newspaper said.

It's an inspiring read about moral courage in the most dangerous of circumstances.

Truly, a Green Shoots nominee.

The Demise of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh

In the US, what with a professor murdering her colleagues, and a disaffected computer engineer deciding to wage a one-man war on the Internal Revenue Service with his private airplane, New Orleans taking the Super Bowl, and Tiger Woods delivering his tightly-scripted apology, the deliberately-engineered demise of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh by an expert team of assassins has not generated much attention.

But it does deserve some thought, as we in the US are engaged in a long-term brush war against some very bad people.  How do we protect ourselves against monsters without becoming monsters ourselves?

It's not just neurotic introspection. This guy was a monster, who happily participated in the murder of a lot of innocent people. But he was a human being, and no human life should be deliberately cut short nonchalantly.

The short version of the story is, that while on a business trip to Dubai, he was tracked down and killed by an expert assassination team, who were travelling on falsified European and UK passports. The hotel security cameras caught it all, except the act of killing itself. By the time his body was discovered, the team had left the country.

Very slick, very pro. Assumed to be Mossad, but about even odds that it was another Palestinian entity.

This guy made a lot of enemies in his day, as he himself was an equal-opportunity murderer.

OldSouth is always interested when people who live on opposite ends of the left/right spectrum arrive at essentially the same conclusion. Here we have one of those instances.

Alan Dershowitz at Huffington Post, in his lawyerly fashion, explores the legal and moral questions raised.

Mohammed Daraghmeh, also at Huff Post, explores the real possibility that Mahmoud was sent to his reward by the Palestinian Authority, who bear no love for Hamas.

In either case, he's no longer with us. He can't kidnap anyone, kill anyone, or supply weapons to help others do the same. This is cause for at least a sigh of relief.

Conservative Israeli blogger Israel Matzav offers more detailed perspective:

There are two reasons why Israel would want al-Mabhouh dead, and I'm going to take the second reason first because the main reason segues into the second question. Think Munich. Remember after the Munich Olympic Massacre how Israel sent agents all over the world to kill the murderers of Israel's Olympic team? Why did Israel do that? To show that actions have consequences. Al-Mabhouh kidnapped and murdered two Israeli soldiers. The kidnappings were among the very first terror attacks carried out by Hamas. If Israel killed al-Mabhouh, it has shown that it knows how to settle scores and that terrorists should not expect to ever be able to live in peace. Al-Mabhouh knew all that - that's why he lived in exile in Syria and it's why he had a security detail.

But the second reason for knocking off al-Mabhouh is far more important. Mabhouh helped found Hamas’s armed wing Izzadin Kassam in the 1980s, was behind the kidnapping in the first intifada of two Israeli soldiers and later established strong ties in Sudan, which he used to smuggle weaponry from Iran to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He was reportedly responsible for the weapons convoy that, according to foreign reports, Israel bombed during Operation Cast Lead as it was making its way to Gaza through the Sudanese desert.

In other words, if Israel took out Mabhouh, it also took out Hamas' weapons supplier, lessening the likelihood of any retaliation from Gaza.

In the midst of all the European hand-wringing over this assassination, and the outrage expressed at Israel for invading Gaza in early 2009, we need to remember:

Israel voluntarily handed over Gaza in 2005, exchanging tangible land and assets for intangible promises of peace with the Palestinians. What they got was Hamas taking Gaza over, using it to stage rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. Which led to the death and destruction of early 2009.

Mabouh was one of the prime actors in Hamas, and its weapons procurer. Sans his behavior, thousands of lives would have been spared.

So, the question remains: If we knock 'people like this' off, do we begin to become like 'people like this'?

And, knowing that a person like Mahmoud creates wholesale death and destruction, how can we fail to take advantage of the opportunity to send him to his reward?

Theze is complicated times, ya'll.