FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

Birthright is probably the most successful — one of the only successful — programs to connect Jewish young people in the US and other countries with Israel.  Participants get a free 10-day trip to Israel where they visit historical and religious sites, and most importantly meet Israelis from the same age group. The program seems to insulate participants to some extent against the more fantastic anti-Israel lies that are current in the media and academic world.

Today there is a struggle in America for the minds and souls of Jewish youth. The anti-Zionist Left understands that secular and religiously liberal Jews are often completely ignorant about Jewish history and the realities of the Middle East. At the same time, because of their liberal politics, they are especially sensitive to appeals on behalf of human rights, justice, anti-racisim, etc.

They too have been successful in recruiting young Jews, but to the Palestinian cause. For example, one of the founders of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) that placed Rachel Corrie in front of an IDF bulldozer, was the Jewish-born Adam Shapiro. Jews are enormously useful to them, because their presence supposedly demonstrates that the Palestinian cause is not antisemitic.

Sometimes, deliberately or through naivete, the actual Palestinian objective — the replacement of Israel by an Arab state — is ignored, and anti-Zionist groups present themselves as pro-Israel, wanting only to improve Israel by making it more democratic, more just, and less ‘racist’. This is the line taken by J Street and especially its campus group J Street U. Writer Peter Beinart has practically made a career out of saying that young American Jews are disconnected from Israel because it is theocratic, undemocratic and racist.

Naturally, they are out to get Birthright. In the video which follows, you will see some Jewish Israel-haters disrupt a reunion of Birthright alumni. I don’t recognize the women, but the young man (well, he’s 34) who stands up at 2:00 into the video and who later (2:44) continues speaking after being ejected is Max Blumenthal, who has made several viciously anti-Israel videos, including the famous one in which he provoked drunken American students in a Jerusalem bar to say rude things about President Obama.

Here are some things I noticed in the video:

Those who disrupted the meeting associate themselves with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. They use the now familiar “mic check” technique, developed because Zucotti Park protesters did not have a permit to use bullhorns or other amplification, and so the audience shouts back each phrase of their speaker. It is supposed to symbolize the unity of an anarchic, leaderless movement, but — particularly when it is used to disrupt — it appears chillingly totalitarian.

They refer to themselves in OWS terminology, as “the Jewish 99%.” The 1% is the mainstream Jewish leadership like AIPAC and the Jewish Federations, etc. who support Israel. This is essentially Beinart’s thesis, that the leadership is old and out of touch.

Blumenthal, who says that he went on a Birthright trip in 2002, calls an appeal for Jewish solidarity “the definition of racism” (3:40). He doesn’t discuss the attitudes of Palestinians, although he notes that he was told at an “official presentation” that they “teach their children to hate Jews” — as if this is something that hasn’t been exhaustively documented in studies of textbooks, children’s programs, summer camps, etc. in the Palestinian Authority and Hamas-ruled Gaza. The woman who speaks immediately after asserts that she was

amazed…by how racist birthright and Israel really are…you can’t have a Jewish and democratic state. It’s just not possible.

Of course a different conclusion that she could have drawn was that it may not be possible for a democratic state to coexist with people whose national movement is committed to destroying it.

Watch the video and see if you too don’t find these people remarkably unappealing:

Technorati Tags: Birthright, Israel, OWS

Lately, we hear the word ‘unsustainable’ a lot. The US deficit, the Italian and Greek economies, celebrity marriages, etc. Here are two more situations, both in the Mideast, that are unsustainable. In both cases the crunch will come in a matter of months.

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People think I’m a pessimist! Listen to David P. Goldman (‘Spengler’):

Egypt is about to turn into Somalia-on-the-Nile, with unlimited leakage of weapons to Hamas in Gaza. That makes an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians about as probable as the return of the Pharaohs. The simple inattention of the world community to Egypt’s impending catastrophe astonishes. Last week we learned that Egypt’s liquid foreign exchange reserves were down to about $13 billion, about two months’ import coverage in a country that imports half its caloric consumption. A huge current account deficit due to the collapse of the tourist industry and workers’ remittances is partly to blame, but billions are leaving the country each month in capital flight.

On May 27, Sarkozy hosted the leaders of the Group of 8 industrial nations in France. The G8 promised $20 billion in aid to Egypt and Tunisia, and Sarkozy said that the amount might double. Since then, the subject has dropped out the news. If aid to Egypt was on the agenda of the Group of 20 meeting in Cannes Nov. 3, where Sarkozy called Netanyahu a “liar,” it went unreported by the whole media. Last May’s emergency package evidently has been forgotten, because the Europeans are too busy figuring out how to bail out Italy and their own banking system, and Obama doesn’t want to defend a massive new foreign aid package in the 2012 elections.

To make things even worse, the pipeline carrying Egyptian natural gas to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria was blown up yet again, for the seventh time since the fall of Mubarak, costing Egypt millions of dollars of lost revenue each day.

Israel will get needed fuel in some other way, and in a couple of years will be self-sufficient thanks to its newly-discovered Mediterranean gas fields. But the 81 million Egyptians will not be able to eat their gas.

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Leaks about the IAEA report, which more or less recognizes what we have all known for years — that Iran is developing nuclear weapons — gave rise to a remarkable public debate in Israel about whether to attack Iran and try to at least delay its program, and also to numerous reports that such an attack, with or without the support of the US and the UK, is actually in the works. I think that the familiar cliché that “those who tell, don’t know; and those who know, don’t tell” is applicable here.

Nevertheless, there are some things that we can assume are true. One is that Iran’s threat to unleash Hizballah and its rockets in the event of an attack on its nuclear facilities is credible. Should this threat deter Israel in the event that Iran crosses the red line (wherever that may be)?

I think not. If Israel does not attack Iran because of fear of Hizballah, then the threat of Hizballah will not diminish, and Iran will proceed to develop nuclear weapons. At the end of the day, Israel’s position would be far worse.

Could Hizballah destroy Israel? Of course not. But Israel’s options vis-a-vis Iran are limited by the sword hanging over it from the north. Not only that, but with Hamas becoming more dangerous as Egypt falls into chaos, more resources will need to be committed to the south. And if war breaks out with Hamas, then Hizballah could become an additional front.

Maybe Israel’s planners think that Syria will fall to the Sunnis, supported by Turkey. Then perhaps Hizballah’s supply lines would be cut and it would wither away. Lebanon might fall into the Turkish orbit rather than Iran’s. My guess is that this would be better for Israel, despite ErdoÄŸan’s flamboyance.

But who knows how long it would take? Less time than for Iran to go nuclear? I doubt it.

I think that Israel needs to deal with Hizballah preemptively, on its terms, not Iran’s. That means either before or at the same time as an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. But keep in mind that an attack on Iran by Israel alone would require a major effort for Israel’s air force. It might be impractical to do both at the same time. The ideal tactic would be a simultaneous attack by the US on Iran — the US has the capability to do a much more complete job — while Israel goes after Hizballah. It’s not impossible, but I think it’s unlikely.

Note that even though Hamas is much weaker than Hizballah, it presents a unique problem which Hizballah does not: who will take over if Israel crushes Hamas? Israel does not want to re-occupy Gaza, nor does Egypt. But there are plenty of Lebanese who would be happy to see Hizballah’s power broken.

It seems to me that the logical thing for Israel to do is to remove the threat of Hizballah. As in 2006, I think that much of the Arab world and Turkey will tacitly support such an undertaking to the US, and therefore Israel — also as in 2006 — will be given time to complete the job. Of course it will not be able to completely screw up as it did in 2006, but I think the leadership and the Army are much better prepared now.

There are many dangers, such as direct Iranian intervention or — probably worse — Iranian sponsored terrorism against the US aimed at forcing the US to rein in Israel. The fact that Obama is perceived as weak would encourage this.

But I think it comes down to this: would Israel prefer to fight Hizballah now, or underneath an Iranian nuclear umbrella? It has a few months, at most, to decide.

The status quo is unsustainable.

Technorati Tags: Egypt, Israel, Iran, Hizballah

Sarkozy and Obama at the G20 Summit.

“I’m sick of him,” says Sarkozy. “He’s a liar.”

“You’re sick? I have to work with him every day,”  replies Obama.

Ah, the joy of an open microphone! But what’s new here? We know they don’t like Netanyahu. Here they have important things to worry about, things like the world economy falling apart and, for Obama, an election looming. And those pesky Yids just refuse to bend over to be f***ed by the Palestinian Arabs. Not only that, but their shitty little country‘s economy is doing just fine!

And on top of that they keep threatening to bomb Iran! As if someone who threatens to wipe you out and has nuclear weapons might really mean it! Jewish paranoia!

Yes, the Jews are our misfortune, they think. There are all those Nobel prizes and almost daily announcements of medical breakthroughs from Israel, but after all, the Palestinians deserve a state. We don’t owe the Jews anything — didn’t we save them from the Holocaust?

Oh — we didn’t? Well, but we helped them win their independence…er, didn’t we? No? Well, we — the US at least — give them huge amounts of aid, which of course must be spent on US-made weapons, so they can defend themselves, as long as no Arabs get hurt in the process. Doesn’t that count for something?

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Obama is pained by the fact that he has to work with the Israeli Prime Minister every day. Excuse me, Isn’t Israel is a sovereign state? Does it need daily guidance on managing its affairs? Does Bibi have to phone Obama every morning for instructions?

Sarkozy thinks Bibi is a liar. After all, he tells him that he has to stop building in ‘Arab East Jerusalem’ and Bibi responds that it is the capital of the Jewish state. Liar!  But France had previously let it be known that it would vote against admitting the non-state of ‘Palestine’ to UNESCO, and then voted for it. Who’s lying now?

And why does Sarkozy think ‘Palestine’ belongs in UNESCO?

France explained that it believed that Palestine had the right to become a member of UNESCO, “whose vocation is to work towards generalizing a culture of peace within the international community,” according to a news release from the French Consulate in Jerusalem. — NY Times

“A culture of peace!” Who would know better about that than the Palestinian Arabs! They are specialists in peace, having popularized airline hijacking, hostage killing, murder of schoolchildren and suicide bombing for ‘peace’ (not that the record of UNESCO has been so great even without ‘Palestine’).

Here’s what I think: Sarkozy and Obama should learn that the Jewish state actually represents the best of Western culture, stop hassling Netanyahu about building in his capital city, treat him with dignity, and support Israel in its struggle to survive against the barbaric forces that want to destroy it.

And if the interests of Israel are not important to them, how about the results for Europe and the US if Iran succeeds in its project to dominate the Middle East?

Technorati Tags: Sarkozy, Obama, Netanyahu, Israel, UNESCO, Palestine

A nine-foot long Grad rocket from Gaza flies toward an Israeli city

I’ve seen films of London during the WWII rocket attacks, in which the V1 ‘buzz bombs’ flew across the sky. When the buzzing of the pulse-jet engine stopped, the people below knew that the bomb was about to fall, perhaps on them. It must have been terrifying.

Israelis today are experiencing exactly this terror. Here is a short account of what it is like, by Hagit Riterman, published in the Israeli newspaper makor rishon on November 4. My thanks to the Daily Alert for the English translation.

Suddenly You See a Rocket Flying Toward You

600,000 Israelis live in the Beersheba metropolitan area. Last Monday evening I was driving into Beersheba, listening to a song on the radio. Through the window I noticed a young girl running fast and looking scared, not sure where she was going. Suddenly I saw that all the cars ahead of me had stopped in the middle of the street. Their occupants were getting out and running. I understood – the air raid sirens.

I ran with the others to take shelter between two buildings. There were women there hugging the concrete walls. Some were crouched down, and one was shaking. Other sat on the ground. Then someone shouted, “Look up!” and I saw them in the sky. Two bright lights, like balls of fire with tails, almost white, flying in an arch in the sky, coming from afar. I thought they were about to land next to us, but the Grad rockets continued to fly and passed over our heads.

We heard explosions and later learned that the Iron Dome missile defense system succeeded in shooting down the two rockets that were aimed at the center of the city. When I saw the two rockets flying in the air, heading towards us, seconds before they passed overhead, I understood so well the fear that people here are now living with. We’re not soldiers in wartime, we’re the civilian population. And in the middle of an ordinary day, during a routine drive down the street, suddenly you see a rocket flying in your direction.

Nazi Germany was a formidable opponent with a massive war machine. It would take the most powerful nations on earth several years to finally put an end to the regime. But Hamas and the other terrorist factions, with their Nazi-like ideologies, are nothing. Israel could crush them like cockroaches.

So why do Israelis have to put up with the daily terror from Gaza?

Technorati Tags: Israel, Grad rockets, Hamas

Logo of the "anonymous" hackers. Do their mothers know what they're doing instead of their school homework?

Yesterday I wrote about an interview with Italian MP and journalist Fiamma Nirenstein, who referred to the widespread support in the UN for Palestinian statehood as “lunacy.” But the UN is just one place where this disorder prevails. Anti-Israel lunacy is most pronounced on the Left, both in the high reaches of academia and among the poorly educated activists in our streets and apparently at their computer keyboards.

Several Israeli government websites were down Sunday, including the public sites of the IDF, Shabak and Mossad, after a public threat from the hacker group “Anonymous” to attack Israeli sites in retaliation for the interception of last week’s attempt to break the blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Despite the claims of the group, there is no reason to doubt the Israeli officials who say that the outage was a result of a hardware problem in the data center in which these sites are hosted.

The self-styled “hacktivists” accused Israel of ‘piracy on the high seas’ and claim that Israel’s actions were

illegal, against democracy, human rights, and international and maritime laws. Justifying war, murder, illegal interception and pirate-like activities under an illegal cover of defense will not go unnoticed by us or the people of the world. We do not tolerate this repeated offensive behavior against unarmed civilians…

— video statement by “Anonymous” (my transcription)

The absurdly pompous video ignores the fact that even the UN’s own commission investigating the 2010 seizure of the Mavi Marmara declared that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is legal, and that a blockade-running ship may be boarded in international waters. It tells us that the seizure took place at “exactly 5:59 Gaza time,” as if this is relevant, in order to create an aura of seriousness.

Despite its appeal to international law, it insists that ‘Palestine’ is a “sovereign nation” (it is not) and accuses Israel of acts of war against it. Naturally it doesn’t mention Hamas’ rocket fire on Israeli civilians. “We are legion. We do not forget. We do not forgive. Expect us!” the video concludes in its  now-familiar signoff.

This is beyond stupid. It seems to me to be more or less on the level of something that a mediocre high school student might do. Unfortunately, in today’s world even a mediocre student can become a dangerous Internet vandal if he has access to networks of compromised computers that can mount DDoS attacks (explanation here, and much more than you wanted to know here).

The ‘lunacy’ part is that while these ‘activists’, both the ones on the boats and the ones behind their keyboards, claim to be acting in the name of  democracy, human rights, peace, justice, freedom, and so on, they are in practice supporting the Hamas, which is undemocratic, tramples on human rights (of women, Jews, Christians, homosexuals, etc.), is presently making war against Israel and whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the murder of its people.

But hey, who cares about the real world?

Technorati Tags: Israel, Anonymous, flotilla, Gaza, Hamas, lunacy