Search This Blog

Sunday, April 25, 2010

HAMAS RELEASES A TWENTY MINUTE CARTOON RIDICULING GILAD SHALIT AND HIS FATHER.

THE MORAL BANKRUPTCY AND HEARTLESS CRUELTY OF HAMAS IS NOW COMPLETELY TRANSPARENT TO THE WORLD.

Noam Shalit, Gilad's father, spoke bravely, realizing publicly that the cartoon video represents an Hamas exercise in "psychological warfare".

It is the opinion of this Blog that this "cartoon" is tantamount to an announcement from Hamas that Gilad Shalit is dead.

Perhaps it is time that Israel return the 1000 prisoners that Hamas wants set free. May these prisoners be dressed in nothing but t-shirts sporting photos of Gilad Shalit, then air-dropped at ten-thousand feet en masse from a cargo plane into the heart of Gaza city, sans parachutes. May the inhabitants of Gaza then be swallowed up by the sand.

May Gilad's mother and father and family be comforted among the mourners of Zion.

05/05/2010 - RETURNING FROM THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT.

Returning from the heat of that moment on April 25, when I wrote in anger, calling for a vivid revenge, it is important to make a complete separation between my own comments and those of anyone else. It is also important to make clear that the vivid revenge scenario I painted above was not intended as "comfort" for the Shalit Family. In explanation it is best to understand the revenge paragraph of the above comment as a verbal cartoon in response to a cartoon. As I have stated previously in this Blog, the kidnapped whereabouts of Gilad Shalit had to be known by more than a few Gazans. Someone had to know someone, who had to know someone, who knew someone, who knew (knows) the location in which Gilad Shalit was being held captive. That not one Arab revealed what they knew to Israel in order to enable Israel to secure his freedom is not merely beyond conscience, it establishes the collective guilt of the Gazans. And it must be remembered that Israel has no captives in circumstances analogous to the circumstances by which Gilad Shalit suffers. Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, though they be proven murdering terrorists, are well fed, are visited by the Red Cross, and even share conjugal visits with their wives. They watch TV, listen to the radio, are free to pray, etc. Hamas screams and hollers and makes issue that Israel should free a thousand adjudicated murdering terrorists; but, they cannot see to the freedom of innocent Gilad Shalit. Subsequently to April 25, I have written calling for UN and governmental condemnations of Hamas, as well as for the unconditional release of Gilad Shalit. But, there have been no such resolutions; at least, no news has reported of their existence, or even that such resolutions may be under consideration anywhere. How bankrupt is the world, that not one government, large or small, and neither the UN especially, has condemned Hamas nor called for Giald Shalit's unconditional release? Instead the world plays host to Ahmadinijad!

Monday, April 19, 2010

YOM HAZIKARON, 5770 (MEMORIAL DAY, ISRAEL, 2010 CE) & PATRIOTS DAY IN MASSACHUSSETTS & 1415 YOMIM "HATISHBI".

IN MASSACHUSSETTS, WHERE THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION BEGAN, WHERE SOME OF THE FIRST AMERICAN JEWISH SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA CAN BE TRACED, TODAY IS "PATRIOTS DAY".

GILAD SHALIT MARKS DAY 1415 OF HIS SOLITARY CAPTIVITY IN GAZA, ALLOWED TO SEE ONLY HIS CAPTORS, NO ONE ELSE, NOT HIS MOTHER, NOT HIS FATHER, NOT EVEN THE RED CROSS.

112 ISRAELI SOLDIERS HAVE DIED SINCE ISRAEL MEMORIAL DAY LAST YEAR.

22,682 ISRAELI SOLDIERS HAVE DIED SINCE 1948.

ON THIS DAY IN 1943 THE JEWS OF THE WARSAW GHETTO BEGAN THEIR UPRISING AGAINST THE NAZIS; THEY DIED FIGHTING WITH ROCKS AND PISTOLS AND MOLOTOV COCKTAILS AGAINST THE LUFTWAFFE AND AN ENTIRE PANZER DIVISION RATHER THAN BE SHIPPED OFF TO THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS OF WHICH EVIDENCE HAD FINALLY REACHED THEIR EARS.

"ANA B'KOACH GADOLATH YMINCHA TH'THYR TZRORAH." ("We implore YOU, by the Power of YOUR Right Hand, release the Captive.")

HAYOM ESRIM YOM SH'HAYM SHNAY SHVUOTH V'SHISHA YOMIM L'OMER, HAYOM "YESOD B'TIFERETH". (Today is the 20th day towards the Omer Day; the mystical qualities of this 20th day include Foundation and Harmony.)

Sunday, April 11, 2010

"WEST BANK OCCUPATION" -- THE DIFFERENCE TODAY COMPARED TO 1967.

IT IS ALMOST 43 YEARS NOW SINCE THE "SIX DAY WAR", AND 1407 DAYS SINCE GILAD SHALIT WAS KIDNAPPED. HOW ARE THESE EVENTS RELATED OR UNRELATED?

In 1967 Israel "occupied" the "West Bank" [Judea-Samaria] as a result of the famous "SIX-DAY WAR". It was then that Israel also occupied the Golan Heights (well into Syria), Southern Lebanon, and the Sinai.

As of today, most of the Golan has already been returned to Syria in fruitless peace efforts; with the exception of the Sheva Farms, all of Southern Lebanon has been returned to Lebanon, again with no peace. Neither Syria nor Lebanon acknowledges Israel nor Israel's existential right. All of the Sinai has been retuned to Egypt as part of a peace agreement that is a very cold peace, "warmed up" perhaps by Egypt's "failure" to successfully patrol the Egypt-Gaza border or to identify and destroy smuggler tunnels large enough to bring automobiles into Gaza. Israel has a similar peace with Jordan.

Contemporary to Israel's achievement of statehood, Jordan overran and occupied Judea-Samaria, then the de facto homeland of Palestinian Arabs. Post 1967 it was Israel's expectation that Israel would aid the Palestinian Arabs in creating a Palestinian Arab State, just as the UN had hoped for in 1947. If Israel were to leave Judea-Samaria ensuing the 1967 military victory, then a political vacuum would have existed in that territory, allowing Jordan to re-occupy, and exposing Israel again to greater military vulnerability.

If the Palestinian Arabs had been amenable to recognizing Israel's right to exist, there would have been a Palestinian Arab State then and there in Judea-Samaria. It is not Israel's fault that terror organizations such as Black September and the PLO of Yassir Arafat would not dance, instead choosing to wage decades of war and terror on Israel with an eye to the total destruction of the Jewish State. The world has no excuse for failing to remember this, and neither does Israel.

By now Israel should have annexed Judea-Samaria.

By now Israel should have freed Gilad Shalit.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

BIDEN AND THE COMING THIRD INTIFADA

BIDEN AND "THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES".

Two examples in recent Israeli history can tell us much about "unintended consequences": The Gaza Withdrawal, and the Gilad Shalit Kidnapping.

Despite legitimate rights to live in Gaza, the State of Israel imposed a forced withdrawal of every Jew from Gaza, expecting that Gaza would be a peaceful neighborhood that would soon along with the "West Bank" become a Palestinian [Arab] State. Instead, Israel has suffered repeated terrorism from Hamas controlled Gaza, terrorism including ten-thousand Qassam rockets fired into Israel for years, which not so long ago caused Israel to finally respond in the form of a forceful invasion of Gaza. Many had warned the Sharon/Olmert government that withdrawal from Gaza would have only negative effects. Sharon and Olmert did not listen. What happened in Gaza is clearly an unintended consequence of the Olmert/Sharon decision to withdraw from Gaza.

Who would have thought that a simple, daring kidnapping would lead to a full scale war? And yet such was the unintended consequence of the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. Tomorrow will mark the 1400th day of Gilad Shalit's captivity. In a daring raid via tunnels dug underground across the Israeli border from Gaza, Arab terrorists attacked and murdered most of Gilad Shalit's unit and took Gilad Shalit captive. In the north Hezbollah sought to mimic this act, killing several Israeli soldiers and capturing Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whom they later murdered. Attacked from south and north by Hamas and Hezbollah, including the daily barrage of Qassam rockets from Gaza targeting Sderot and then more advanced rockets from southern Lebanon that could reach as far as Haifa, Israel found itself embroiled in a full scale war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, known as the Second Israel-Lebanon War. That war may or may not have been inevitable. It is not likely that this War was an intended consequence of the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit.

Simultaneous to the visit of Vice-President Biden to Israel barely three weeks ago, Israel announced construction plans for 1600 housing units adjacent to the Arab Quarter of Jerusalem on an undeveloped hillside. Biden condemned this announcement, as if it were a deadly terrorist attack, taking personal offense, taking offense on behalf of the Obama Administration, and thus lighting a fire of such condemnations around the world. A diplomatic response could have finessed even the appearance of insult and lent focus on the purpose of the Biden Peace Mission. Instead Israeli-American relations have become strained, the Peace Mission has been set back, and America's Image has weakened in the world, while traction has been given to the world image of America as Bully. Arab militants now have propaganda ammunition by which to justify stepped up terrorism against Israel. In the past two or three weeks such stepped up terror has cost the lives of Israeli Soldiers and Arab Terrorists. The Arabs have resumed the firing of Qassam rockets from Gaza into southern Israel, and Israel has responded with air attacks into Gaza. A Third Intifada is a real possibility, perhaps an unintended consequence of the failure of Vice-President Biden to respond with positive diplomacy to the surprise Israeli Construction announcement.

Vice-President Biden went to Israel, ostensibly on a Peace Mission.

Nothing Vice-President Biden did or said furthered peace, nor did anything he said or did lead to the release of Gilad Shalit. Perhaps this too is an unintended consequence of Vice-President Biden's lack of diplomacy.

Israel has just celebrated Pesach (Passover), which Holiday Commemorates Liberty from the Slavery of Ancient Egypt, which Holiday concludes on Tuesday Evening, which would be Day 1402 of Gilad Shalit's Captivity. Let Gilad Shalit Go! Set Gilad Shalit Free!