FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

This received almost no coverage in the major media:

President Bush extended a waiver on moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem just days before a Congressional vote on whether to urge him to move the embassy [the resolution passed the House unanimously — ed].

The White House released the text of the waiver of the 1995 law on Friday night, a “dead” time for news organizations and after the Jewish Sabbath had begun. Waiving the law, the statement said, “is necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States.” It adds: “My Administration remains committed to beginning the process of moving our Embassy to Jerusalem.” — JTA

I am not picking on President Bush; President Clinton did the same. And I’m sure that both of them thought it was a shame.

But you see, if the US moved its embassy to the actual capital of the State of Israel, the way it is located in the actual capital of every other country that has an embassy, then the Arabs would get angry.

And everyone knows that angry Arabs tend to riot, blow things up, take hostages and sometimes behead them, fly airplanes into buildings, and so on. Far better to have angry Jews, who just write blog articles.

By the way, this cannot have anything to do with “The Occupation”, at least not the one that started in 1967. The Knesset meets in West Jerusalem, which has been in Israeli hands since 1948.

Technorati Tags: Jerusalem, Israel, Bush

The policy of Hamas, expressed in their charter, their public statements, and most of all by their actions is to commit a genocide against the Jewish people in Israel. Terrorism against civilians, especially suicide terrorism, is their chosen tactic.

Furthermore, Hamas espouses an Islamic fundamentalist outlook in which (Muslim) women are second-class citizens, Jews and Christians are third-class, and Hindus and others are “polytheists” who should be killed. If possible, their attitude toward homosexuals is even worse.

The international community was nevertheless willing to support the Hamas-led Palestinian government if they would only agree to renounce terrorism, recognize that Israel — in some form — had a right to exist, and respect prior agreements between the PLO and Israel. Of course it was not prepared to give even minimal lip service to these principles.

Nevertheless, a significant number of secular, well-educated and supposedly enlightened European Union delegates believe that Hamas should be directly funded by Europeans:

“If we don’t end the boycott the region will descend into civil war and al-Qaida-type terrorist groups will emerge,” Belgian Socialist lawmaker Veronique De Keyser said ahead of a Wednesday parliamentary debate with the EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana on the situation in the region.

“The only solution is to recognize the government that was legitimately elected – and talk with all of its members,” she said.

She is among a large group of EU parliamentarians – as many as 250 in the 785-member house, according to some lawmakers – who would like to see the EU’s 27 member states radically change their policy toward the Palestinians.
— Jerusalem Post

De Keyser, who has said that she would like to strangle the Israeli ambassador, is a particularly stupid and irrational individual, but it’s nevertheless shocking to see almost one-third of the EU parliament sharing her point of view.

They may not have noticed, but the region has descended into civil war, despite the large amount of unofficial funding reaching Hamas. And Hamas is an al-Quaeda-type terrorist organization; I’m not sure what the distinction is that De Keyser seems to see.

I’m sure that the EU will ultimately decide to fund the Hamas government, although in a practical sense it will be unimportant because of the various backdoor methods that have already been implemented to provide it with money for weapons and explosives. Official recognition, however will nevertheless implicate the EU as a partner of the antisemitic, terrorist and genocidal Hamas.

This will only bring the day closer that Europe finds itself, like Israel, locked into a death struggle with the forces of Islamic darkness. They won’t be able to say that I didn’t warn them.

Technorati Tags: EU, De Keyser, Hamas, Israel

What are they up to?

A member of the Syrian parliament, Muhammad Habash, confirmed on Tuesday that his country was actively preparing for war with Israel, expected to break out in the summer, Israel Radio reported.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Habash said it was no secret that the Syrian military was arming itself for the upcoming confrontation with the IDF.

He also claimed that the Israeli government was the one that wanted the war so that it could survive politically. — Jerusalem Post

This last part is nonsense. This government would not be helped by war, and in fact is doing everything possible to avoid conflict, even in places where it should perhaps be more aggressive, such as Gaza.

The IDF is taking Syrian activity quite seriously:

OC Military Intelligence Chief Maj. -Gen. Amos Yadlin also referred to the northern border in his briefing to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset.

“Syria is making very real preparations, cleaning army posts, conducting large drills and strengthening defenses. They are reaching a state of readiness for war more than in the past, but this doesn’t mean they’ll be ready for war tomorrow. The Syrians have a very large quantity of long-range missiles. They do not need to move forces around to attack with these missiles.

Within the IDF, movement of Syrian forces towards the Golan Heights border is considered a preliminary sign for potential escalation and allows the army time to prepare – usually 48 hours. Over the past few months the Syrian army raised its level of alert, thus effectively eroding most of the preliminary signs. Together with the long-range missiles mentioned by Yadlin, the implications of the latest developments are that Syria can potentially catch Israel by surprise. — Jerusalem Post

A surprise attack by Syria, especially if it targeted population centers with medium-range missiles, would be very, very foolhardy. Even combined (as it probably would be) with assaults by Hezbollah and Palestinian groups, there is no imaginable way it could prevent a massive Israeli counterstrike. It’s hard to imagine that Syrian President Bashar Assad is not well aware of this.

As I’ve written before, one possibility is a limited attack by Hezbollah and Hamas. In this scenario, the Arabs would be able to inflict significant damage on Israel and possibly force concessions on various issues while remaining under the international umbrella. In that case, the Syrian preparations might be seen as defensive, intended to deter Israel from hitting Syria, which will of course be supplying Hezbollah during the conflict.

Another possibility suggested by my own contacts in the IDF is that Syria is preparing for her role in a counterstrike against Israel if the US takes military action against Iranian nuclear sites. Such a counterstrike would certainly involve Hezbollah directly, and possibly covert action by Syria.

Although the political climate in the US does not appear to make an attack on Iran likely, the decision to do so is in the hands of the President. Something like a nuclear test or a terrorist attack in the US which could be attributed to Iran might trigger it.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Syria, IDF

Recently some commentators have started to use the phrase “battered nation syndrome” to explain the strange responses of some Israelis and Jews to Arab terrorism. The analogy is to an abusive relationship from which a woman (usually) won’t take steps to escape, because the continued violence has led to a loss in self-esteem and a conviction that the violence is somehow her fault.

Battered women often try to placate or conciliate their abusers, even when this behavior appears irrational to outsiders. And they often find that the abuser’s violent tendencies are actually reinforced by the victim’s passivity.

Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now writes

There is no way to avoid admitting the truth and to state clearly that the continued occupation, which this week will mark its 40th year, has inflicted a mortal wound on Israel’s status in the world. The British boycott is just the first harbinger of things to come.

A year ago, former US president Jimmy Carter published his book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, which exposed a sad but accurate picture of the reality in the territories under Israeli control…

There is no way to avoid admitting the truth and to understand that the continued Israeli-Palestinian conflict presents Israel as an occupying nation, violent and forceful, which strives to conquer more territory and to expel Palestinian citizens from their land.

Oppenheimer is probably aware of the almost 100-year history of violent Arab rejection of a Jewish presence in the Middle East. Somehow he fails to make the connection between the fact and nature of the occupation and this rejection.

Even further, he fails to see that the occupation can’t possibly be a sufficient explanation for the extreme Israel-hatred that underlies the boycott, nor does he appear to notice that Carter is paid by Saudi Arabia for his work. How does he miss these things?

A reasonable person would conclude that Israel is being ‘presented’ as at fault here because the boycotters and Carter are trying to divert the blame for the conflict from violent Arab rejectionism and place it on Israel. But Oppenheimer doesn’t get it because he is a battered leftist.

He believes that the rejectionists can be placated by withdrawals from occupied territory, despite the fact that the violence started long before there even was a state of Israel, not to mention occupied territory. And he is unable to see that the conciliatory behavior that he favors, such as the withdrawals from South Lebanon and Gaza, have been perceived as weakness and have reinforced the violent tendencies of Israel’s abusers.

We need to see the abusers and their allies as they are, and not as distorted by the psychological defense mechanisms of those like Oppenheimer.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Oppenheimer, battered nation syndrome