Search This Blog

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

POSITIVE ELECTION RESULTS? WHY NOT? WE SHALL SEE...

LOOKS GOOD SO FAR!

Israel has chosen a broad spectrum of solid leaders.  May HaShem prove them all to be equal to the tasks before them, tasks which are not simple; yet, neither are they hopeless tasks:  peace and security in a place surrounded by war and hatred, prosperity and stability in a time of economic strife, and faith and freedom caught up in a timeless struggle with each other.

HAREDIM INTO THE MILITARY?

It is a good idea, that everyone serve the country, including service in the military.  There already exist successful examples of devoted military service by religious Jews (note: saying so here in such an understated way is not intended to belittle anyone).  Haredim may conceivably be a special case; and so it is incumbent on the Nation of Israel that there be a national dialogue on the subject that is not based merely on resentments, be those resentments by persons religious, non-religious, anti-religious, or Haredi.

Those, who insist that Haredim serve in the military, ought to ask themselves two questions: (1) Are there service protocols that may be tailored to enable Haredim to serve in ways consistent with Halachah; and, (2) Are there societal protocols that non-religious and anti-religious Jews ought to commit themselves to in order to make their own contribution to the integrity of Israel (e.g. - keeping some of the vital Shabbas Halachoth, dressing Modestly, keeping Kosher, etc.)?

IRAN DEADLINE?

June 6 would be a good deadline date for Iran to come clean with respect to it's nuclear ambitions, to cease it's imperial provocations around the world, and to cease it's campaigns of Holocaust Denial and Jew Hatred.

Such a deadline should be established jointly by the UNGA and the UNSC under combined Israeli, American, Russian, and Chinese sponsorship;  and, the suggested joint sponsorship process should have, as it's foundation, repudiation of the Iranian policy of Holocaust Denial, a subject cogently brought to world attention by PM Netanyahu earlier this week on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27).

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

GESHEM-GESHEM!! MAYIM-MAYIM!! MIN HA'SHEMAYIM!!

YEARS AND YEARS OF DROUGHT -- AND NOW -- FINALLY -- HEAVENLY -- RAIN, RAIN, RAIN!!!

HASHEM PROVIDES THE BEST CONTRIBUTION FOR PEACE, LOVE, AND PROSPERITY -- MUCH NEEDED WATER!!!

Two wonderful opportunities exist now for Israel: (1) Make optimal use of the replenishment of it's water resources, and (2) redesign and rebuild for flood weather, so that damage will be minimal -- even close to zero -- next time around (which may be sooner than we may think).

Perhaps in it's redesign efforts Israel may set an example for other nations, even the USA, by building on stilts and by incorporating other elevation engineerings into construction in low-lying areas, especially along the sea; and by constructing multi-use barriers inclusive of wind and tidal power.

The best place for the ocean is "Under the Boardwalk"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyzCccndc2w

Sunday, January 6, 2013

"STATE OF PALESTINE" ??????????? OY, GEVALT!!!!!!!!!!!!

FROM THOUGHT TO SPEECH TO ACTION...

Mahmoud Abbas has led the PAL on a path that calls to mind a fundamental teaching of Hasidus, "From Thought To Speech To Action".  Abbas has thought "State of Palestine".  Abbas has spoken "State of Palestine".  Abbas may imminently win an existential "State of Palestine".

Today it was reported by the Associated Press that Abbas has ordered the Palestinian Authority (PA) to officially change it's name to "State of Palestine" on the presumption that it is consistent with the recent decision of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to recognize the "State of Palestine" (SOP) as a full Non-Member Observer "State".  The keywords are "State" and "Palestine".

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has not so recognized a "State of Palestine".  Can the UNSC override and negate the UNGA recognition of the SOP?  If so, then the effrontery of the PAL and the UNGA may be checked by firmer UNSC action than it's presently passive non-ratification of the UNGA move; and Israel must so urge the UNSC.

Perhaps in one united decision the UNSC may officially recognize the non-observer status of The Holy See and simultaneously officially nullify the UNGA recognition of the "State of Palestine".  (Whether or not the UNSC can be brought to an unanimous vote to override the UNGA in this matter should be regarded as possible on structural grounds regarding matters of proper balance of power at the UN, if a case for the Right of Override by the UNSC may be made de jure, defacto, or de implicatione by the UN Charter.)

Or must such a precedent be established via the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Brussells?  Does it not make sense, that if any type of Observer Status, Non-Observer Status, or actual Statehood is recognized by the UNGA, that such recognition must be ratified by the UNSC in order to become valid, binding, and active at the UN?  This logic should apply as well to recognition in such UN bodies as UNESCO or the Antiquities Authority.

There is a speedy "train" in motion upon which the world appears ready to board; that "train" is official recognition of the "State of Palestine".  If the UNGA may say that there is a "State of Palestine", then what is to stop the majority of individual Member States of the UN from officially doing the same?  (Are the Member States of the UN bound to honor the both the UNGA and the UNSC prior to acknowledging a State?  No, in fact neither, but, a tidal wave of "permissions" flowing outwards from the UNGA epicenter of the "Arab Spring" may drown Israel and the World.)

Precedent already exists at the UN, that Member States may not be required to acknowledge each other.  That precedent exists in that there are at least twenty member States, who have chosen not to recognize the existence of Israel.  This is a "thumbing the nose" at both the UNGA and the UNSC, as much as it is an affront to Israel's Right to Exist .  This first precedent of non-recognition is also precedent to it's inverse, that an individual State may be UN Member State and yet independently recognize any entity claiming to be a state, e.g. the "State of Palestine" or, hypothetically, the "State of Al-Quaeda in Yemen", "Al-Quaeda in Syria", "Hezbollah in Syria-Lebanon", etc.

It must be remembered that the guiltiest parties to this nefarious recognition of a "State of Palestine" may be the more than fifty Member States, which either did not show up to vote or deliberately abstained from voting; a UNGA two-thirds majority in favor of Statehood for the PA could not have manifested, had those fifty-plus Member States voted against PA Statehood.

The propaganda war waged in the name of "Palestine" by the Arabs, having achieved a worldwide victory at the UNGA, may now press further into official recognition by the majority of individual States throughout the world, leaving only the UNSC and a handful of States to yet recognize "The State Of Palestine".  The weight of time and pressure on these remaining official bodies to recognize "The State Of Palestine" does not favor Israel.  Such "olives" these Arabs press into "oil...." 

Israel urgently faces "crunch time" decisions to defend itself from deleterious final status in the face of probable international recognition of the "State Of Palestine" along unsustainable borders for Israel.  In the jargon of basketball, the "game is into overtime" and Israel must exercise a "full court press" in order to survive and advance to the next level.

What can Israel do?

In the Media and at the UNGA, UNSC, ICJ, and to individual States throughout the world, Israel must itself move from thought to speech to action or, failing to do so, concede to the Arabs a ghettoized Israel.

Israel must:

1.  Make the case, as there is no UNSC-recognized "State of Palestine", that it is premature for the PAL to change it's name;

2.  Make the case, as there is no UNSC-recognized "State of Palestine", that the UNGA must freeze it's present recognition, until and unless the UNSC recognizes a "State of Palestine".

3.  Make the case -- for by definition "Jews" and "Israel" are "Palestinian" and "Palestine" (by the ignominious nomenclature of the Ancient Romans) -- that recognition of any entity of Palestinian Arabs must only be by some appropriate name, e.g. "Fatah", as the heritage of foreign occupations of Israel/Palestine  requires prominent recognition and receives none.  (In fact it would be quite elegant to press the UN Antiquities Authority to verify this history and nomenclature of Israel from Roman times to the Present....)

4.  Make the case that Israel will not recognize the presently alleged "State of Palestine" nor will speak "of" or "to" the PAL except by an actual appropriate name, e.g. "Fatah" in proper recognition of identity and in order to no longer give verbal credibility to the identification of the Arabs as Palestinian and the Jews as Not-Palestinian.

5.  Take strong, calculated, restrained, strategic, tactical, and expeditious actions on the ground to secure Israel; these should be inclusive of settlement activities, construction activities, defense preparation activities, police activities, judicial activities, and political activities. 

6.  Make the case strongly that none of the four explicit tests of the Montevideo Criteria for Statehood are met by the PA ("Fatah"), as these four tests (stable population, borders, government, and capacity for international relations) are each of them and collectively questionable, controversial, and disputable.

**************************** LEGAL ARTICLE REFERENCE
REGARDING THE U.N., THE HOLY SEE (VATICAN), AND THE P.A./STATE OF PALESTINE:

American Society of International Law 09/07/2012
http://www.asil.org/insights121208.cfm.

Friday, January 4, 2013

"QUASIMODO" OR ""WINNIE THE POOH?

OGRE OR PUSHOVER (TO BE OR NOT TO BE)?


The world wants to believe that we are ogres. And so we contort ourselves until we become ogres.  Or we distort ourselves into such niceness, we cannot even believe it ourselves.

The West keeps us on a tight leash, such that we choke, then the West asks, "Why didn't you tell us the leash was too tight?"

The West murders us in ghettoes for centuries; now we morf ourselves into builders of "security fences".  Sanity would have us resettle our historical homeland!

Meanwhile -- what goes on beneath Jerusalem?

What goes on below the Temple Mount?

The Waqf digs, deeper and deeper, destroying evidence of Jewish
Heritage.  The Waqf every day today pulverizes the antiquities of our heritage, even as the Nazis cremated millions of our precious living heritage.

For this the United Nations elevates the "Palestinian Authority"; having already appointed the PA to the UN Antiquities Authority, now the UN has granted the PA into virtual Statehood!

Bibi N., Tzipi L., Ehud B., Moshe F., Shelly Y., Arye D. -- 

EFSHAR B'YACHAD BEYN HAMETZAR AL HA'ETHID!