Ajami on Lebanon
Fouad Ajami has another great piece on Lebanon, sounding that lyrical-melancholy key that only he knows how to find when writing about such subjects.
Fouad Ajami has another great piece on Lebanon, sounding that lyrical-melancholy key that only he knows how to find when writing about such subjects.
I haven't been able to be much of an enthusiast about what the U.S. is doing in Iraq, and here Andrew McCarthy, one of the most reality-oriented commentators, says exactly why with reason and nuance. I just think he overdoes it in saying it doesn't matter if Iraq is a democracy. It does matter, but: not as much as the administration seems to think; and anyway it's not likely to happen, not on a level approaching the true Western level.
DEBKAfile does it and it's not exhilarating; far from it.
The second Palestinian terrorist-attack-by-bulldozer in Jerusalem this month, whereby an Arab terrorist injured 18 people before he was shot dead, took place Tuesday, July 22. And still the Israeli government dithered over whether or not to demolish the home of the originator of this form of rampage, who on July 2 sowed death and destruction on Israel’s Jaffa Street.
The cycle of lone-wolf murders in the capital carried out by Palestinian residents began five months ago, on March 6, with the massacre of eight students at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva.
On July 12, a gunman injured two Israel border policemen guarding the Old City’s Lion’s Gate.
None of these attacks has produced a government decision on how to handle the new cycle of death terrorizing the Jerusalem population at the hands of its Arab citizens, or a form of deterrence. Indeed, Tuesday, just hours before the copycat bulldozer rampage in the city center, President Shimon Peres chose to roll out a red carpet in honor of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and fly the Palestinian national flag over his residence.
Peres was not put off by the fact that Abbas last week cabled his congratulations to the Nahariya killer Samir Kuntar upon his release by Israel to Hizballah in exchange for the bodies of two kidnapped Israeli soldiers.
In these circumstances, DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources have no doubt that the cycle of terror will roll on until a hand is raised to stop it.
German Jewish journalist Henryk Broder recently made this great speech on anti-Semitism--to the Bundestag.
Some great points about the swap with Hizballah by Israeli pundit and activist Yoram Ettinger:
1. Released terrorists, Hate-Education and the Real Middle
East. The released
terrorists are the product of Hate-Education, which has been the
manufacturing-line of homicide bombers. Israeli and Western tolerance of
Hate-Education perpetuates terrorism and war. Leaders who promote Hate-Education
should be boycotted by western democracies. The positive/enthusiastic reaction –
to the released terrorists - by Abu Mazen, Hamas,
Lebanon, Syria, Iran
2. Leadership. Prime Minister Golda Meir did not put herself in
the shoes of a mother. Prime Minister Golda Meir sustained herself in the shoes
of a leader. Prime Minister Golda Meir explained her
rejection of a PLO-proposed swap (70 Palestinian terrorists for the 11 Israeli
athletes during the Munich
3. Leadership VS
Followership. Failed
leaders follow – rather than shape – public opinion polls. Failed leaders
succumb to domestic and external pressure, temptation, emotions.
4. Long-Term VS Short-Term. Leaders do not sacrifice long-term values
and strategy on the altar of short-term emotional-diplomatic-political
convenience and false-sense of security. Leaders ponder the potential impact of
presently-released terrorists upon the escalation of future
terrorism.
5. Learn from – don’t repeat – past mistakes. Precedents document rise in terrorism and bloodshed following each Israeli swap of terrorists (for live or dead Israelis), as highlighted by the 1985 swap of 1,500 Palestinian terrorists for 3 Israeli soldiers, which supplied many of the “generals” and “foot soldiers” to the 1987-1992 wave of Palestinian terrorism (1st Intifadah).
6.
Terrorists Swap – No
Virtue. The willingness to
swap terrorists in exchange for civilians/soldiers may be construed as virtue by
some Israelis and westerners, but it is construed as vacillation by Arab
regimes. Deterrence and
determination are the prerequisites
for survival and peace in the Middle East.
However, the willingness to swap terrorists is defined by Middle
Eastern dictionaries as self-destruct appeasement, undermining
deterrence, thus causing a setback to stability, security and
peace. It constitutes fuel –
and not water – to Middle East
7.
Terrorist Swap – A
Derivative of World View. Terrorist
swaps reflect a world view, which goes through suspension of disbelief,
distancing itself from
the Real Middle East, while adhering to “The New Middle East” and/or contending
that “There’s no military solution to terrorism,” “We’re tired of fighting and
winning,” “The price of winning would be too high to both sides,” “Restraint is
strength.” It is a reflection of ideological weakness and detachment from the values of Classic
Israel, which enhanced the notion of “Can-Do Mentality” “Willingness to pay any price for liberty" and "The sky is not
the limit.”
8. If the 2008 terrorist swap is right, could the Entebbe Operation be wrong?
Mona Charen on the fiasco of the Israel-Hizballah "swap":
Every Israeli is now at much higher risk for kidnapping and murder. Why in the world should Israel's enemies shrink from murdering their captives if they get just as much for corpses? Hamas continues to hold Shalit in Gaza. His life expectancy has just been radically reduced. It's inspiring that the Israeli government (like the U.S. armed forces) is devoted to bringing their people home dead or alive. But not like this. Not like this.
Let me add: Send Olmert home.
Thanks to IsraelNationalNews for this rundown of HonestReporting's findings:
Media watchdog Honest Reporting has determined that The New York Times is biased against Israel. The organization discovered that most headlines concerning attacks are written in the active style when concerning Israel but in the passive when concerning Arab terrorists, who usually are called "militants."
It cited several headlines, such as "Israeli Force Kills 9 in Gaza" in contrast with "Rocket Fired from Gaza Kills Woman in Southern Israel." In 22 articles that dealt with Israeli counterterrorist operations, the headline writers used the words "Israel kills" and "Israel shoots." However, a large majority of headlines describing Arab attacks omitted the names of the terrorist attackers and focused on the weapon, as in "Rockets Hit Israel Whose Strikes Kill 5" and "Suicide Attack in Israel Kills One."
A study of pictures in the Times stated,
"Seventy-five percent of the photographs that could be objectively
determined as drawing sympathy for one side or the other in the
conflict favored the Palestinians. Palestinian casualties of Israeli
military operations and pictures of civilians dealing with shortages in
Gaza dominated Times coverage" during the period of the past 12 months
during the time period studied.
One picture of a funeral for
an Arab teacher shows relatives crying over the death, leaving the
reader ignorant of a rocket attack near an Israeli playground and
pre-school nursery that precipitated the counterterrorist operation
that killed the teacher. The picture also did not show that the
supposed school where the teacher worked was a series of huts used by
terrorists to launch rocket attacks against Israel.
Another
pictures showed Arabs fleeing with infants from an Israeli attack
although the accompanying article described the death of a
three-year-old whose father was "a fighter" for the Islamic Jihad
terrorist organization. He and his brother had fired on the IDF from
alongside and inside the house that was hit by an IDF shell.
"He has brought shame and embarrassment to the entire population of
Israel by being a leader whose moral standards are those of a
small-time racketeer without the slightest comprehension that more is
expected of him than obtaining the best possible lawyers to defend
himself with."
So says Hillel Halkin about Ehud Olmert in this sobering piece on Olmert's and other Israeli leaders' corruption. I think the rising political corruption is related to the reigning moral and intellectual corruption of the appeasement era that began in Israel in the early 1990s. The underlying idea is that you can get by with bribery and quick fixes.
Again former defense minister and foreign minister Moshe Arens sums things up incisively--not only the Olmert government's two years of dysfunction vis-a-vis Hizballah and Lebanon but diligently repeating the same mistakes vis-a-vis Hamas and Gaza. Arens ends with:
As far as members of the Olmert government are
concerned, all this is of little consequence. Wishful thinking
predominates in their minds. The northern border is peaceful, and only
occasional rockets and mortar shells disturb the "cease-fire" in the
south. Why should things not continue this way?
Anyone who believed that Hassan Nasrallah was going to supply
meaningful information on the fate of Ron Arad is likely to believe
anything. They can dream on, but it is time the Israeli public woke up.
Yes it is really time, but unfortunately a deep listlessness has set in among them.
