One of the most pressing questions today for Israel and her friends is this: How can Iran be stopped from obtaining (and using) nuclear weapons? The answer may not be what you think. Murray Farber is a retired journalist in Fresno.
By Murray Farber
Visiting Fresno yesterday, Israeli TV newsman Gil Tamary offered his opinion on a hot current question: Should Israel, the U.S. or any other country bomb Iran to block its development of nuclear weapons?
By Vic Rosenthal
An Israeli professor has generated a storm of criticism in Australia:
According to [Prof. Raphael] Israeli [of the Hebrew University], who didn’t back down when he was approached by the national press, the experience of the West proves that when a Muslim minority becomes more than one-tenth of a country’s population, it bodes ill. “When the Muslim population gets to a critical mass you have problems. That is a general rule, so if it applies everywhere it applies in Australia.” Even though their numbers are still well below that in Australia, complained Israeli, “they are so vocal, and they make so much noise,” that it’s incumbent on the state to implement a “preventative policy” that will leave the Muslim citizens as a “marginal minority” before life becomes “untenable.”
Dr. Colin Rubenstein, president of the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) [the “establishment” so roundly criticized recently by left-wing Jews! — ed], harshly criticized Israeli’s “unacceptable and unhelpful” views, saying that the Council “will not be co-hosting any of his further appearances in Australia.” — Ha’aretz
Is this a racist or “islamophobic” (I hate this word) sentiment that should be shouted down, or is it a political statement that can be true or false?
There’s been lots of speculation about whether an Iranian official who recently disappeared may have defected to the West or been kidnapped by the US or Israeli intelligence, and about what information he can provide:
By Vic Rosenthal
Unsurprisingly, given the sustained anti-Israel and antisemitic content of the Egyptian media since (and before) the ‘peace’ treaty, some Egyptians are outraged by alleged Israeli war crimes in the film “Ruach Shaked”, directed by Ran Edelist, which was shown on Israeli television last week. The Jerusalem Post reports that
Severe warnings emerged from Egypt on Friday that Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer would be arrested if he set foot on Egyptian soil. It followed the documentary film about the Shaked Reconnaissance Unit which seemingly held Ben-Eliezer responsible for the deaths of 250 Egyptian prisoners of war during the Six Day War.
“We demand that the Egyptian court bring these murderers and war criminals to justice on Egyptian soil,” Egyptian MP Mustafa Bakri told the Kol al-Arav newspaper on Friday.
It’s clear that the incident did not happen — Shaked did not kill unarmed Egyptian prisoners of war, but rather a lesser number of Palestinian Fedayeen who, while retreating, were still fighting.
“It seems that the prime minister and Nasrallah are getting their stories straight,” an outraged MK Effie Eitam told Ynet Thursday on Olmert’s statement that the second Lebanon war was planned beforehand.
All throughout the war and afterwards, Hizbullah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah defended himself from public criticism by claiming that Israel had already been planning the war and that it “jumped at the chance” to strike.
According to Haaretz, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Winograd Commission that a military operation in case of a kidnapping incident along the Lebanese border was planned as early as March, 2006, four months prior to war.
Several MKs criticized Olmert’s statement, which they said backs up Nasrallah’s repeated claims, and could jeopardize Israel ‘s credibility.
Much as I hate to defend Olmert, I need to make the point again — as I did in the case of the ‘plan’ to bomb Iran — that military contingency plans are not the same as the government deciding to do something.
All of those generals have to have something to do during peacetime, and it consists of making “what if” types of plans. There is no evidence that the government made a decision to go to war in advance of the kidnapping of the soldiers and the accompanying rocket attack.
Indeed, judging by the conduct of the war, it’s hard to believe that advance planning of any kind was done.
