Election day results!

Let's see if my google trends theory stands up.

Here's today's data:



Google trends tells me that Obama wins.

Let's see..

Israeli Kids Like to Fight!

I guess this is good news.

Israeli boys like to fight, far more than their American counterparts. 1 in 4 boys get into fights. I can relate with that.

I often complain about how disrespectful and troublesome Israeli youths are, but I suppose that kids who fight this often aren't as likely to go as quietly into the night like so many of our ancestors.

Frank

Shana Tova!

Another new year is here and its sure to be a good one for Israel!!!

I just know that Hashem will grant us another great year if we all have the right emunah and study lots of Talmud! Learning as much as we can about the goat and the ox is sure to defeat our enemies, and if evil does fall upon us its clearly because we haven't been saying enough tehilim!

with love,

Frank

Obama, McCain, Google Trends, and the Russo-Iranian Quagmire...

I'm someone who puts a premium on the web.

So far this is what Google trends have to say about web activity for the two of them, and as you can see Obama (and even Hillary Clinton until recentely)is beating the pants off of McCain on the web. It's kind of sad really:




You can rationalize and reason away about why Obama is flying so high and McCain so low, but in the end you can't argue with the fact that Obama's exposure is monumental. BTW this traffic is drawn almost exclusively from within the US.

Obama is taking a bit of a dip lately, which is really what matters, so perhaps we are in for a bit of a convergence in traffic.

Will this predict the results of the election?

Maybe.

Does it matter really matter for Israel who wins Israel?

Maybe.

The air of Schadenfreude which courses through my veins kind of wants Obama to win just to see how bad things can get.

But…The way I see it, the biggest problem either can pose for Israel would be in how they would handle the following scenario:

Israel may attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear aspirations. The US may elect to support Israel militarily. This could result is a massive backlash, in an increase in mid-eastern oil prices, leaving the Americans hurting (and crying like children). Russia may choose to intervene to protect Iran (its client state). The result: Big problems.

The question is: Which presidential candidate will benefit Israel more under these circumstances?

I think it's clear that McCain would be the popular choice.

But in my heart I believe that neither would matter because both of them will more than likely become paralyzed on the horns of the said dilemma. The US is a diminished power in the eyes of the world. They are vulnerable to oils shocks. Russia is resurgent. ANd most of all, they are going to look out for number one no matter what position Israel finds itself to be in (which is understood). Things do not look good.

But maybe this is just what the US needs to get its juice back.(Not).

Israeli hackers penetrate Hamas website

I love this!!!

Hamas should be forcefully penetrated on a regular basis!!!

(Oh, wait maybe they are!)

I have often wondered when our Zionist hackers would start making a public showing against the enemy.

When asked if he believes that hacking can lead to change, he said, “We want to convey the message that there are still people who care and who are sick and tired of governmental apathy. We believe in all ways of fighting back and our means is the Internet. We will do anything that causes damage.”

Amen!

On engagements, negotiations, and solutions:

Hey folks,

We all know how stupid Israeli attempts at problem solving and conflict resolution are in the political/military arena. I have always seen Israeli’s conflict resolution tactics as little more than futile attempts at applying tried and true salesmanship and business principles to the resolution of the local violent conflict.

It really appears as if they are doing no more than applying The One Minute Manager combined with How to Win Friends & Influence People (great books in and of themselves, unfortunately they haven’t yet gotten to The Gift of Fear) in order to create peace with fanatical Islam. It’s ridiculous. But that’s probably why business works in Israel and politics does not.

Here is a great little piece by Barry Rubin (I like his stuff; you can find more of it at gloriacenter.org) on what I would call straight up Israeli Realist common sense:

Let me say it again: despite the mountains of speeches, conferences, articles, committees, foundation grants, projects, currencies of every description and policies expended on it, there is no solution in sight for the conflict. It will continue for decades.

Afterwards read this other piece by Rubin:

ENGAGEMENTS, OF course, have effects other than direct success. One is to buy time for someone. But for who? If one party subverts other states, builds nuclear weapons, demoralizes the other's allies and sponsors terrorism during talks while the other side... just talks, the first side clearly benefits far more.

Then tie them all together with this little tidbit from the economist on the futility of going overboard essentially on problem solving and negotiation:

What this shows is that even with one negotiator having perspective-taking abilities it can produce a better overall outcome for both sides. “You want to understand what the other side's interests are, but you do not want to sacrifice your own interests,” says Dr Galinksy. “A large amount of empathy can actually impair the ability of people to reach a creative deal.”

As a bonus, take a good read of Caroline Glick's interview with the National Review:

The shackled warrior is Israel. Between the Israeli peace movement, the local and international media, the U.N., Europe and the U.S., Israel is both forced to fight the war being waged against it with both hands tied behind its back and to believe that it bears responsibility for the genocidal anti-Semitism that has taken over the Islamic world.

Enjoy the Frankness!

Column: JDL - 40 years later

Being that Rabbi Meir Kahane has never received objective treatment in Israel for any of his contributions, Libby Kahane’s article in the Jpost this past week was a very pleasant surprise. I cannot imagine another mainstream Israeli publication being fair enough to have printed her words, so Kol Hakavod to the Jpost for having the decency to do so.

I personally have tremendous reverence for the Rabbi and I know that his work and indeed existence played a pivotally crucially positive role in my development as a Jewish human being.

He was a sheepdog amongst the sheep, and I will respect anyone of us who takes on that noble and most thankless mantle. He was one who said that yes we may have been weak, but need not succumb to weakness. He was one who said that even though we may be sheep, we need not be food for the wolves.

And whether you like or agree with every thing he said or not there are two things he did for us which are irrefutable: he completely redefined the Israeli right wing in the public consciousness, and best of all unlike so many other leaders of our people from past to present from start to finish he never lied to us.

Rabbi Meir Kahane allowed me to believe that a Jewish future is possible and that angry men like me have their place in it too.

God Bless his memory.

Jewish Train Etiquette

This is a unique insight so pay attention.

Train is the best way to travel in Israel. It truly is. I have often tried to put my finger on what exactly makes traveling by train in Israel just so delightful and have finally come up with the reason.

Having used the train system here well over a thousand times I can say that, with rare exception, the trains here are clean, quiet, and well air conditioned. Everyone seems to relax on the train and just mind their own business. It’s like taking a mini vacation to some quiet foreign countryside.

Thus, the reason people love riding the train in Israel is because it is one of few places here that actually allows you to forget that you are in Israel at all.

The trains provide a temporary bubble of normalcy where one can escape the cruel realities of Israeli roadways and interpersonal interactions.

However, there is something that has disturbed me from day one; something so vile that it spoils the experience for me every time and leaves me cringing and grinding my teeth, and that is the way we board and disembark from the trains.

Though the ride itself is much more pleasant that a typical bus ride, like the bus lines people crowd the car doors and entrances trying to force and shove their way on to the train without any concern for anything else whatsoever. This is usually at the expense of the people who are trying to get off, who are all at once overwhelmed in wave of over eager train boarders more than willing to run them down for a shot to get on that train. (I once saw a guy carrying a baby trying (and screaming in horror) to get off the train nearly trampled by a group of people too impatient to wait for him to get off until one Good Samaritan jumped in to save the baby from falling.)

So what is it that really bothers me?

It wasn’t that many years ago that fuckin’ Nazi’s packed us on and off trains shipping us to and fro from Ghetto’s, slave labor and death camps. It is my opinion that we Jews shouldn’t be over eager to get on any train, ever. The notion of Jews crowding on to trains is not something I relish to enact in life, ever—and certainly not in the Jewish state.

I think that there should be signs on the trains that read something like:

Relax and take your time boarding, there were those who could not.

So what I do is I wait. I will not push. I wait until the pandemonium calms down, even if the train is packed and I risk (gasp) having to stand.

Our honor and dignity are worth it.

Enjoy the Frankness!

FY on FB!

Plebeians,

You can now check the Frankness out on Facebook. You may also fan the Frankness.

The fan page is equipped with a discussion board too, so let the good times roll!

Enjoy the Facebook Frankness!

Caroline Glick on forcing Israel's elites from power?

In this piece Caroline Glick breaks down a bit knowledge on this country’s illiberal leftist crypto-fascist elites—which is always important reading in my book.

I’ve got to be honest and say that I believe that her final statements approach something akin to the Frankness.

These excerpts are pretty golden:


In a sad twist of fate, Israel's current elites are the direct descendents not of their Zionist predecessors, but of the exile elites their predecessors fought. Sixty years after statehood was declared, Israel is led by men and women who oppose Jewish power and embrace instead the Diaspora model of ingratiating themselves with foreigners through appeasement.


And…


THE ELITISTS' passion for pieces of paper - or even just negotiations about them - is a general one. Anyone who is willing to talk about signing one, whether they are American presidents or Syrian dictators, is a friend and a partner. And anyone who questions the elitists' stubborn belief in agreements as Israel's ultimate goal in all things is an enemy of peace.


And especially…


But of course, the elites are not the entire country. They aren't even the majority, just a powerful minority. There can be little doubt that in due time the stubborn Zionist Jews will force our elitists from power and secure our country for the next 60 years.


I have to ask: is she verging here on a Frank musing? Or does she mean something else by “force our elitists from power”…?

Religious Fetish Update:

The Name Changer:

The name changer is an irritating annoyance of a filthy fetishist.

The name changer is person who late in life suddenly decides to start referring themselves by a name other than the one they are popularly known by. People who for years are known by a more secular name insist that everyone they know only refer to them by a religious name—regardless how stupid the name sounds, like Shloimy, Label, Channa Rachel, or Shprintzeh Leyah.

The notion of name changing is done only to appease the religious in group and nothing to do with anything else, ever. This fetish is usually associated with BTS.

Never accommodate a name changer—it will only contribute to the proliferation of more religious name fetishists.

If you ever sniff one out just stop 'em and say: "Ay fetishist! Keep your name right where it is, you will not become a new person by changing your name in some neurotic fetishist fervor!!!"

Enjoy the Frankness!

Expertvillage.com

Expertvillage.com is great!

I love this site so much I have to give it a plug!

It has everything on it from Martial Arts moves to how to bake a Hallah!

It can get quote creative in its scope.

Check it out.

The Irony of 60

I find it funny.

In the Talmud one who dies before 60 is considered as if he was "cut off" (Karet) from his people by God—in an act of divine justice for certain insufferable wrongdoings. 60 being the half way point to 120—which is considered an ideal life span.

Israel is 60—I wonder: will we make it to 61?

I find it funny.

61 people are all it takes to form a government in Israel. 61, being the majority of our 120 person Knesset. Are the insufferable wrongdoings of 61 people all it takes to lead us to our doom—nuclear or otherwise?

Will 61 of 120 MK's get us over the 60th year hump to set us on our way to 120?

The Matzav in a nutshell

What can I say; the nuances of this report provide enough material to wax endlessly Talmudic about the insanity of our local predicament well into the next 60 years.

As usual Strategypage.com merits a full reproduction:


Arabs Fed Up With Palestinians

May 8, 2008: The Palestinians are fragmenting into dozens of mutually antagonistic factions. The new West Bank police, organized by Fatah, has found themselves battling clan, political and religious militias. Hamas continues to support attacks on Israel, which comes down to several crude Kassam rockets fired into southern Israel each day, plus several attempts to attack Israeli troops guarding the border between Gaza and Israel. Hamas continues to insist that, long range, they will destroy Israel. Because of that, Israeli military leaders do not want to have any ceasefire with Hamas, believing it will be used to pile up more rockets and fortifications for their next major attack on Israel. But the U.S., Europeans and Arab nations want a cease fire, so the Israelis continue to negotiate. Everyone understands that a ceasefire would not be an absolute halt to violence. Several Palestinian terrorist groups would refuse to participate in any ceasefire, and the Israelis would go after key terrorist personnel after such attacks.

Since these peace talks began six months ago, nearly 500 people, most of them Palestinians, have died in terrorist attacks and counter-terror operations. Currently, the UN is demanding that Israel resume fuel shipments to Gaza, despite Hamas attacks on the fuel transfer gate and facilities. Hamas is using the fuel shortage to keep their security forces moving, while denying mobility to the anti-Hamas groups in Gaza.

More Arab diplomats are privately telling the Palestinians (both Hamas and Fatah) that the Arab world is fed up with Palestinian squabbling, corruption and general inability to move forward. This is not expected to change anything, and avoids the fact that the Arab nations caused many of the Palestinians problems by not allowing Palestinians to migrate to other Arab nations after 1947 (the Palestinians could only stay as refugees). Israeli traditionalists see all this as an opportunity to take control of more land in the West Bank (which they see as part of "Greater Israel") and East Jerusalem (traditionally the Arab side of town). The Palestinians insist on removing all Israelis from areas they have moved into since 1967 (when Israel conquered the West Bank). That is not likely to happen because the small religious parties in the Israeli parliament are crucial for forming a government.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah has become increasingly violent, using groups of masked men to attack similarly outfitted pro-government (Sunni and Christian) gangs. Neither side is willing to spark another civil war, yet both sides are becoming more aggressive.

Religious Fetishism! (Or, The Fetishes of Israel)

The religious fetishist is an individual who elects to place remarkable sentimental emphasis, elaborately display, broadcast overtly, or obsess upon the role of religious devices, rituals, superstitions, clothing/adornments, music, ideas/concepts, or religious scholarship within ones life.

To be clear, religious fetishism, like all things, exists within a spectrum.

So for example, one who maintains a specific superstitious sentimentality for a certain type of Kippah to the exclusion of all others may be said to have a Kippah fetish, specific to the type one wears—more specifically, as Kippah wearing itself is a generally standard or universal practice within “religious” Jewish life and is rather commonplace and essentially unremarkable in virtually any Jewish community or circle, Kippah wearing as a general practice in itself scores a virtual (if not absolute) zero on the religious fetish scale.

However, wearing a large Breslov type Kippah with large letters proclaiming a slogan of some kind in place of a more common place Kippah leads to a significantly higher score on the scale of religious fetishism. Add some long curly side locks and you have an individual who scores higher yet. A person clad in a Kippah that covers the entire head topped of with a tassel or pompom at the crown accompanied by prominent curly side locks is making a personal and very public statement about the religious importance/value/correctness of their appearance, as well as their fixated preference for it in opposition to other options: their elaborately displayed (and specifically selected) appearance takes on a remarkable sentimental ritualistic emphasis (with supernatural implications), which in turn broadcasts a specific preference for unusual or atypical lifestyle choices, or in other words: it’s the display of a Religious fetish.

Due to my dissatisfaction with religious fetishism of almost every kind I would like to highlight those that perturb me most:

The Haredi:

Haredim are religious fetishism incarnate. They even have rival fetishist gangs whose entire goal in life is to proliferate their own fetishes while suppressing those of rival fetishists. Their fetishes range from: side lock fetishes, hat fetishes, holy book fetishes, Shabbat kugel fetishes, chulent fetishes, unemployment fetishes, obscurantist fetishisms, elitist fetishisms, and various misogynistic fetishisms. Some have Palestinian/Islamic fetishes. ALL have a European alter heim fetish.

The Ba’al Teshuvah (BT) with Ba’al Teshuvah Syndrome (BTS):

The Ba’al Teshuvah with Ba’al Teshuvah Syndrome is one of the most annoying of the religious fetishists, quite generally they obsess upon religious minutia too openly for comfort and to a degree intolerable to FFB’s and people who are in general more well balanced and casual about religious minutia. They incessantly ask stupid questions that they wouldn’t ask if they had a half-ounce of dignity (in which case they would just pick up a few books on basic Jewish laws and really learn them). To be fair its not always out of stupidity and indignity that they persist so, often they know the answer to their question but make the error in thinking that all people in the real world are as interested in their religious metamorphosis as their rabbi’s at BT school were—and are more often than not just trying to impress the rest of us with their religious fetishism (an undo their years of non-religious life). Its funny how I never think of BT’s who don’t have BTS as Ba’al Teshuvah’s—I suppose that BT is in itself something of a pejorative term.


The Minyan Addict:

The Minyan Addict is a nuisance no different than a housefly or mosquito. You are likely to encounter a minyan addict at malls, public events, on airplanes, on busses, on trains, etc—anywhere they can easily enough (and tortuously enough) subject you to their addiction. There you are minding your own business enjoying yourself with your friends or family and some overly enthused stranger with a minyan fetish jumps into your life asking something like: “have you davened mincha yet?” ARRRGH. This one really grinds my gears. The only retort to somebody like this is to say, “Well if I hadn’t I wouldn’t make it your problem” or “If I hadn’t it would be me bothering you instead of it being the other way around” or just lie and say yes. I have tried these all and they all work, but occasionally I give in to guilt and join all the other guys who this minyan fetishist duped into getting involved in his addiction. (Ever notice the faces on the other guys there? They feel stupid for saying “no” too).

The Halachist (or the Halahick obsessive fetish):

“I’m not sure you’re allowed to do that… That’s Asur…According to [insert rabbinical authority] you shouldn’t watch TV/listen to the radio/use the internet/read secular books/live in Israel/etc… Can you say Vayechulu with me? … I don’t think you can eat that… That’s not Da’as Torah”… It’s too late to daven now…mamesh…takeh…gevalt… rahmanah letzlan… you cant eat that now… we can’t understand even one hair off the top of [insert rabbinical authority]’s head… that’s still not Da’as Torah…blah, blah, blah.” They have a religionist/Halachah/worshiping fetish, whereby they view Judaism as being solely defined by Halachah. These are Halachah worshiping orthodox practitioners of Jewish ritual who worship worshiping.

The Carlebach/orthodox hippy Fetish:

The Carlebachnik is a weird type. By and large their most obsessed over item is their scarf, which they wear in all types of weather (never wearing a coat with it; wouldn’t want it to become concealed) in a manner that can only be reminiscent of a flamboyantly homosexual fighter pilot. They love to quote “Reb Shlomo” who is to them a sort of Prince of Peace whom they hagiographize by the moment—tales of Reb Shlomo are increasingly and deliberately taking the form of Hassidishe Maisess. Avoid the direct wild-eyed gaze of guitar playing ones…their guitars and flutes are another weird obsession. They have a quasi-spiritual/hippy fetish.

The Spiritual/Kaballah Fetish:

These are the types who wax mystical about klipot and tikunim. At advanced levels they begin to obsess over wearing the color white, often with a hood and dark sunglasses. They are useless imbeciles whose only true ambition in life is to lead a cult. They have a perverse spirituality fetish.

The Redemption Fetishists:

They are religious/spiritual/kiruv/messianic fetishists all in one; a one stop shop of absolute weirdness. Their messianic fetishism usually takes the form of personality cult over a living or deceased rabbinic figure, as did their ancient religious/spiritual/kiruv/messianic antecedents and predecessors: the Christians. They have a redemption fetish.

The Authenticist Fetish:

They ramble on and on about authentic Judaism (there is no such thing). Their fetish is some sort of “Authentic” Judaism. Simple enough.

The Apikoras Fetish:

One who delights in denouncing aspects of Judaism and waxing iconoclastic, especially with the more traditionally sacred aspects of Judaism. Yours truly, the Frankness is indeed guilty of indulging in this tasty fetish.

So next time someone lousy religious fetishist gets in your face, just look him or her straight in the eye and say: you have a religious fetish and I won't tolerate it, so F**k off!


Enjoy the Frankness!

Yom HaShoah, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Ha'atzmaut (Or, send in the clowns)

These are days of awe.

On Yom HaShoah we lament those who were eradicated and praise those who chose not to be as easily so.

On Yom Hazikaron we esteem and grieve our fallen defenders.

On Yom Ha’atzmaut we celebrate the reconstitution of our place on this earth.

However, every other day of the year we mockingly undermine those events, the great spirit of our reconstitution, and especially the fallen.

Therefore I say, that on these very days of pageant commiseration we mock them still—mock them with our moments of silence, mock them with our shallow commemoration, and mock them with our flags.

I am incensed by our feeble annual symbolisms and by how hollow the root causes of these days echo in our minds as they pass by, year by year by year.

We have accomplished so much in these last 60 years but have yet to undo that self-destructive thing within us that we still allow to dwindle our numbers, devastate our spirit, and jeopardize our Birthright: an existence exceeding a contentment with life hanging constantly in the balance.

Our Birthright is dignity. Our Birthright is life. Our Birthright is grand legacy.

All of the parties, barbecues, religious services, ceremonies, and dusty flags unfurling are just more and more bread for the ever-growing circus that the state of Israel has become, and of which we are growing increasingly dim and oblivious.

It is my passionate hope that we merit 60 more years, but that within them we tire from the notions of mere survival and pragmatics defined by an acceptance of Jewish collateral damage. But most of all, that we begin exercising the Birthright through our own will to power.


Enjoy the Frankness!

Yet further strangulating factors for your review:

Ok here we go:

The facade of Israeli prosperity and its economic doom projected by the Economist:

There is no shortage of plans and ideas. The trouble is carrying them out. “Implementation is a science in itself, and in the current Israeli reality it's not possible to carry out long-term, top-down reforms,” says Shimshon Shoshani, a former director-general of the education ministry. Political instability, frequent staff changes, over-centralisation, lack of long-term planning by bureaucrats, aggressive unions and the occasional war all get in the way. And in Israel, where wealth gaps coincide with ethnic and social ones, economic policy is about a lot more than malnourished children and bad housing. It also affects the country's political and social stability."

Annihilation predicted by none other than Benny Morris:

Israel terribly missed a golden opportunity in 1948" to transfer the Palestinian Arabs out of the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. "Because the Arabs attacked us, we had a chance to do this. We should have gone the whole hog as a result of the aggression [against us]. Now, [transfer] is neither moral nor practical. It may become so down the road, if we enter apocalyptic circumstances.

And later…

This is my feeling," he acknowledged. "I'm not optimistic. But then the whole Zionist experience has been almost miraculous. So maybe logic will be defied. Historical logic points to the eventual dissolution of the Jewish state. The powers around us are so great. There is such a strong will to annihilate us that the odds look very poor.

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center details the growing power of Hamas forces:

Hamas is advancing its military buildup based on two main systems: the internal security system, at the center of which is the Executive Force, its main security arm for controlling the Gaza Strip; and its military-terrorist system, at the center of which are the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which deal with planning and carrying out attacks against Israel and defending the Gaza Strip from within…its forces, which today are estimated at 20,000 armed operatives…

More on that from the Jpost:

Since 2005's disengagement from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has forged a formidable military of 20,000 men, many of whom have been trained in Iran and Lebanon…

Terrorists tried to poison a restaurant but, hell,lets make easier for them to do so, and make the thankless jobs of the many brave men whose job it is to stop them that much harder.


Former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak and Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann duke it out:

Asked what damage Friedmann would cause, Barak replied, "Membership in the judicial authority will be more political, and its authority in the areas of human rights and the fight against corruption will be much more restricted. The judicial authority will be diluted and weakened, prone to strong political influence, its judges chosen not according to talent but [according to] political connections. It will be largely shorn of its ability to protect the rights of the individual, minorities and the ethics of government. It will be a castrated court, a midget court."

The haredi code of Omerta over Child Molestation:

"The famous conspiracy of silence among the haredi population, which the welfare services and police are dealing with, is a mark of disgrace to the entire sector. Wanting to maintain an image of morality at any cost, they fall into the hole dug by negative elements in the name of Torah, in the name of righteousness. An intensive brainwash has turned psychologists into 'religion's enemies,' social workers into those 'causing people to leave religion' and the police into the messenger of the foreign regime. In this glass house, monsters grow and thrive among us."

The mythical and dwindling establishmentarian dream of the obedience of the Arab Israeli sector:

DR. ELIE REKHESS, director of Tel Aviv University's Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation in Israel, says it's absurd to expect Israeli Arabs to celebrate their devastating loss in the War of Independence. "Today, 60 years after Yom Ha'atzmaut, there are very few Israeli Arabs who celebrate the holiday - and how could they? Independence Day for whom, a war of liberation from what? On the contrary, for them it's the nakba, and what is absolutely clear is that in the last 10 years, their conception of Yom Ha'atzmaut as Yom Hanakba has strengthened significantly."

More strangulating factors analyzed:

These are good,(and yes I am getting lazy):


Fear of democracy by Caroline Glick

"Like all anti-democratic movements, today's political Left seeks to silence debate and so undermine democracy, first, by demonizing anyone who doesn't agree with it and then by passing laws that criminalize speech or override the people's right to decide how they wish to live."

Where's the shame? by Asher Meir

"French diplomat Joseph de Maistre commented almost 200 years ago, "Every nation has the government it deserves." Israel will never have, or deserve, honest and competent legislators if the voters don't insist on them."

Too much deference by Jonathan Rosenblum

"WHENEVER ISRAEL acts out fear of becoming a pariah state by exercising greater restraint or making further concessions, it only convinces its critics that even Israelis know that they are the villains in this piece."

Hmm...

Barak calls off German trip next week as Damascus raises war alarm

Palestinian sniper fire injures Israeli minister’s bureau chief outside Gaza

MEPs urge Europe, Israel co-operation on missile defence coverage

Good thing we're only dealing with Islam, the nation of peace, otherwise you might think there's something to be worried about!

Strangulating factors of Israeli life: An Update

Here are 3 good articles I'd like to share:

Israel's accountability problem by Caroline Glick highlights failings in the Israeli justice/court system, how they infringe upon civil liberties, and how justice is often only attainable through international efforts at circumnavigating that system.

High noon with marshal Zelekha by David Horovitz discusses the experiences of Israel’s first accountant general with the widespread financial corruption, which permeates every level of Israeli governance.

Minimum wage for soldiers by Asher Meir discusses a bill that is in the works that will provide minimum wage for all IDF soldiers. (Perhaps this will lead to an end of conscript exploitation and army bureaucracy?)


Each offers criticism of the system and its apparatchik tools who I so loathe.

The end of Aliyah? (or, the well deserved death of the Jewish Agency)

In homage to that famous New York Sun editorial, I would like to start out by saying:

Yes, Yishai, there will be Aliyah!

But moving on:

The Jewish Agency talking about the end of Aliyah kind of of reminds me of Israeli's after the Lebanon war talking about the end of tanks in warfare: the conversation is ridiculously stupidly naive. Like so may Arab armies, the gentiles of the world will never cease in providing reasons for individual and mass Aliyah.

We aren’t facing the end of Aliyah.

We are facing the end of the Jewish Agency.

And as that inefficient and completely ineffective organization dwindles it now spins the “end of Aliyah” as a smokescreen to cover its own utter uselessness.

The Jewish Agency has been underperforming for years—just ask any Oleh who made Aliyah in the pre-Nefesh B'nefesh years. Its main function has been to allow its politically opportunistic administrators and employees the ability to say they work there and use it as a podium for career advancement. Those chickens are now coming home to roost.

Its downfall is inherent within its status as the only Israeli public sector institution in which Diaspora Jews can actually have an impact.

The JA has spurned its crucial donor base within the US over the last couple of decades through is ridiculously bureaucratic buffoonery, forcing communities in the US to develop their own Israel initiatives free from the Agency’s lack of financial transparency (since it traditionally takes a lot of money and provides nothing to show for it) and impotence in execution.

As a result the Jewish Agency has suffered from significant under budgeting across the board for the past several years, leaving its jobbers to meander hopelessly about looking for reasons to justify their organizations existence, and doing nothing all the while save for using the agency as a footstool towards other useless politically titled jobs.

But perhaps most of all, in the wake of these developments organizations like Nefesh B’nefesh and a host of other private initiatives have made a mockery of the Jewish Agency while exposing it for the impotent fraud it is through their professionalism, effectiveness, and transparency. NBN provides an example (if not inspiration) as to what the Jewish agency could have been had the right kind of ethics and strategy ever been employed.

To answer issues relating to its uselessness the Agency has proceeded to streamline over the last several years in an attempt at projecting the image of trimming the sources of financial strain—like so many ponds of sweaty useless fat—that have been holding it back from doing its job. As its very raison d'être, Aliyah has become Agency enemy number one.

If the agency is able to spin the death of Aliyah well enough then it will be able to prolong its own slow death by advancing with fundraising for newer and better projects (sic). Then the agency and its apparatchiks will then be able to virtually undo the very purpose of their organization—leaving them with even less actual work—while keeping their paychecks and soap boxes.

Even so, there is nothing to fear from the death of the Jewish agency. In fact things are better off this way. I have no fear that the private sector will pick up where the public sector has failed in regards to Aliyah across the spectrum, and that all of the worlds potential Olim will get their chance, eventually. 

I say down with the Jewish Agency, down with it. Let it burn my friends, let it burn.

And, let us celebrate in its ruin, for in an almost prophetic way, the Diaspora has killed the Jewish Agency because it wasn’t good enough at exposing them to Israel. The Diasporas desire for Israel has led to the crumble of an eye sore of an Israeli institution and that is something that should inspire us all with hope for the rest of the systems eventual change.

Enjoy the Frankness!

Barak: Negotiations with Syria central Israeli policy goal (or, Ehud Barak: King of the One Liners)

Good evening folks and thanks for coming...Please, take my country!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...........

"One of Israel's central policy goals is to launch peace negotiations with Syria and to see Damascus abandon the cycle of extremism,"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...........

"Israel is the most powerful country in the region, and this is what will ultimately allow it to strive to attain (peace) agreements."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...........

"We consider Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Fatah as partners for peace"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...........

Oh...wow...whew...oh man...thanks Ehud, I really needed that!

It just goes to show that in the hands of a true master a played out joke will become funny again if he bides his time for a while before going at it anew.

Some words on the Frank Yehudi perspective:

I get a substantial amount of email from people wanting to understand exactly what my perspective is all about. I’d say that there is about a 50-50 split between the people who either don’t totally understand what I am communicating but find it compelling nonetheless, and people who incessantly challenge my Frank disaffirmations—like do-gooder DLT zombies. The former is of the benign inquisitive sort while the later is the type of soft and spongy zombie of which the establishment has made its bread for many many years.

Needless to say, not everyone can handle the Frank Brass Tacks Tachlis.

When I say that there’s little in Israel that I believe in, I mean that I no longer see this country through the Oleh tinted perspective that I once did and have since come to conclude that there isn’t any greater hope/glory/redemption (what have you) to be had for this country or people beyond the best of what we currently enjoy.

I don’t believe in any of the spooky religious pronouncements or grand political schemes vainly proliferated by this establishment and its hangers on.

They are, very Frankly, feeble self-deceptive tools employed by those who would rather live a pleasantly deluded life guided by a sort of inane positivistic hope and reliance in the Government’s, military’s, and Religion's ability to solve our more alarming concerns, which only serves to numb the legitimate threat of impending doom that hangs above them that much further.

I find thoroughly revolting both traditional Jewish “pragmatism” and Israeli political shenanigans, but I am even more exacerbated by the unalterable and unwavering willingness of the tiny Israelis to stand for it all.

In my view, Israel is a country beset internally by deluded factions and externally by determined aggressors. Israel is beset inwardly and outwardly by a clash of civilizations.

Israel is on the whole a nation of individuals beleaguered by distorted psyches as a result of the refugee/elitist dichotomy that has dominated its socio-cultural evolution. As I have posted before, the vast majority of the Israeli population today is either (essentially) refugee or the immediate descendants of refugees. Furthermore, when I review the groups those people belong to I see that the differences between them are not so much cultural but civilizational. And, that amongst WW2 refugees, Sephardi, Yemenite, Ethiopian, or Russian refugees the only commonality that can exit amongst them is the refugee experience itself—a condition each civilizational subgroup answers with its own unique cultural response, yet remains inherently and invariably dominated by the selfish needs for sustenance and security, and is precluded by divisiveness.

There can be no cultural melting pot in this mess; it is simply too multi-civilizationaly faceted and inherently divisive in its nature to allow for any successful melting into a cohesive culture, and more so, the nature of the Israeli electoral system perpetuates and aggravates that divisiveness to such a degree that it completely undermines any hope that democracy could have of creating a commonality among those groups of use in managing this country’s present lingering threats.

[If you are a proponent of a particular grand religious or political scheme of any kind (other than leftists who thrive on the establishments crookedness) then you should take a look at this situation and ask yourself: Can a cultural or political cohesion ever develop out of such chaos? Can these groups be expected to maintain similar ideas relating to politics, identity, culture, or nation? Can “Judaism” or “Zionism” maintain any shared meaning (even a vague one) amongst these groups? Can such fragmentation, such cleavages, aggravated by the establishment itself and inherent within the system by which we choose our national leadership and agenda ever get things close enough to being right to count? I say no.]

Now, as if this weren't bad enough, consider that this complex circumstance is managed under the auspices of amateurishly bureaucratic Israeli governmental institutions— themselves beset by inefficiency, prejudice, and cronyism—which in itself isn’t unique, but under the circumstances described above only serves to aggravate things immeasurably more so. But more, the system itself is beset by illiberal elitist leftist oligarchical European Ashkenazi crypto-fascio-crats who dominate the government, media, academia, industry, and therefore are the primary shapers of policy on the governmental level and public opinion amongst the bewildered and oblivious plebian refugees that compose the population. These crypto-fascio-crats are no less divided, in terms of politics and identity and are therefore no aid to any of these struggling groups so desperate for some form of leadership and guidance.

Were this all to occur on an isolated tropical island that had no more to worry about other than mild changes in the weather or how fast the grass grows then the outlook would not be so bleak. But, Israel is under siege by maximalist enemies (punctuated by the lying/cheating nature of Arabic culture) who not only root for its destruction but also quite effectively dedicate the resources to guarantee that eventuality. In light of this, the amount of time that this “project” (as some have so cutely put it) has to endure the growing hell-bent Moslem cancer that spreads along Israel’s borders threatening holocaust in the forms of Iranian nukes, Iranian proxies: Hamas, Hezbollah and Fatah murdering innocents, fifth column Israeli Arabs, Moslems in the Knesset free to make mendacious and inflammatory pronouncements with utter impunity, etc. is not an issue that I can engage with cute optimism or positivistic delight. It makes Frank mad.

They Moslems are wolves and we have mad ourselves into their pray through endless efforts at appeasement and placation to their agendas—mainly through the Israeli establishments choice of policies that are so transparently and shamelessly crafted in order to appease both the violent bloodlust of the Moslems and the arrogant disdain of the establishments European idols in whose image they fashion themselves culturally and socially. (As I see it, these policies are in part just a further expression of the establishment apparatchiks yearning for the approval and validation that their European Masters have so cruelly denied them over the centuries).  

I have no hope in the Pseudo-Realist parties maintaining the status quo--pick your poison, whose only value exists within just how revolting and threatening they are in the eyes of the establishment. 

The natures of the social cleavages, establishment, the enemy who has besieged us, mechanics of the governmental institutions, and the distorted psyches of Israelis as a whole leave the prospect of a hopeful future quite dim—apart from a host of other strangulating factors.

I don’t see any hope for change in this country other than by way of massive nationwide social revolution directed towards the downfall of the establishment and the elitist class of the Israeli 300 once and for all. But this will not happen. Things will not improve. They will gradually come apart, seam by seam until it is all no more—perhaps for another 2000 years or so.

For as it has been written:

This should be unacceptable to us; this is obscene - how can we not cry out in protest? Six million souls look down on us and cry because six million wasn't enough for us to have learned our lesson.

Truer words...


Enjoy the Frankness!

Link Shout Out!

I want to send a shout out to the most recent Frank linkers, who are all awesome and well worth your time:

• Atlas Shrugs 2000

• Israel Jewish News

• The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy

• The Nescient Shibboleth

Famous last words???

"This reminded me of the days before (former Prime Minister Yitzhak) Rabin's murder. It's unfortunate that that there is a public which cannot put limits form itself. I only came to pay my respect to the murdered, not to engage in politics"

This is so utterly ridiculous.

Aside from the hypocrisy (you know, her party being the leading force for lending terrorists and terrorism unprecedented respectability in the “free world” in a most unrestrained fashion), I want to know when statements like these will actually start to turn into famous last words???

It is my sincerest hope that the Lovable Freedom Fighting Moderate Peace-loving Democratic Moslem’s of this region will make the Knesset their next target for an attack--specifically on a day when the most high chief establishment apparatchiks actually make it to work, (the minor ones can get a pass, I’m not completely heartless ya know!).

I would be giddy in anticipation over the comments spewed from those halls of ill repute after such an enormously entertaining event takes place!

I wonder then if we will hear cries like:

“They are trying to undermine the rule of law”

“This attack was aimed at undermining the peace process”

Or, like the one quoted, which every establishment MK joke just lusts after. Every member of Labor must relish over the opportunity to say: "This reminds me of the days before Rabin's murder”. I wish whoever said that would have to eat those words.

F**k their sanctimony.

People like this are amongst the most vulgar and entertainingly sick people in this country. They never let any event (even tragic) pass without sticking their F*****g faces into the mix in order to foster divisiveness within this sorely psychologically distorted nation and I root for their destruction.

Enjoy the Frankness!

The Problem with Dati Leumi Types

The problem with Dati Leumi types (DLT’s) is that they are entirely non-threatening. Nobody is afraid of the Dati Leumi as a movement or individualy and so no one takes them very seriously, neither politically nor on any other level.

You might think that the combination of “nationalism” and “religion” would make for a potent combo in the Israeli political scene, but I’m here to tell you that the movement’s parties are a big ZERO in that realm. They have no power and only a very minimal political draw, mostly attracting feeble minded knitted Kippa wearers, naïve/clueless uninformed yeshiva types, and deluded run of the mill Oleh types.

I perceive the vast majority of Dati Leumi types as effeminate white toast wimps who sit on the jock of this country’s elitist oligarchical leftist illiberal crypto-fascist establishment like a wart on a toad’s backside. I have never met a dedicated DLT who I thought could put up a serious fight against a determined aggressor or beat me at poker. So I fear none of them and I’m sure nobody else does either.

Like court Jews in ghetto shtetl Europe, the Dati Leumi movement has made the Establishment its bunk mates time and time again even in the face of impending tragedy for itself. The prime example of this is of course Gush Katif where their parties sat in the government until forced out like a penniless junkie from an opium den.

All of the weeks before that stupid travesty the DLT’s sat around talking about how they would celebrate a great feast after the disengagement would fail to come to pass through some divine miracle. But, in the end they did nothing to lend credibility to their ideology. AND I think we all knew that that is exactly what was going to happen.

During the ignoble fall of Gush Katif all the DLT’s did do was cry and cry pseudo-hysterical tears like children being dragged out of a candy store. The men wept on the shoulders of the soldiers who came to destroy their homes and disinherit their families from their hard built communities, begging and pleading with similarly pathetic soldiers not to go through with their orders.

To top it off, you had one of the movement’s eminent religious leaders, quintessential establishment tool Shlomo Aviner, viciously attacking praiseworthy protesters who were doing no more than trying to substantiate through action the very belief system of which he is presumably a proponent, i.e. safeguarding the Land of Israel from its own ruin.

It was pathetic.

It was a joke.

Orange Shmorange.

The actions that some of their Johnny come lately leadership took in Amona is entirely unimpressive and without merit. I scorn those politicians to such a degree that they couldn’t begin to earn the privilege of my sympathetic contempt even on their best day.

DLT’s lack the fiery passion and guts required to really inspire the masses with respect for their principles, which they fail to lend credence to at every juncture tested.

They are disrespected across the spectrum by any and all natural allies. Hareidim view them as lacking in religious conviction. Secular Zionists view them as politically clueless. Kahanists view them as weak. I invoke these groups not as support for my views (because I have no faith or trust in any of them) but rather to indicate just how truly lame they and all of their ridiculously side-locked hill dweller sheep herding pseudo-radical offshoots really are.

I hurt having to write this due to all I have gained personally from the beauty contained within many of their truly great Rabbi's teachings. But this statement needs to be made.

It is truly a dream of mine to see every DLT unleash the type of hell upon this system that the establishment’s media mouthpieces have so falsely and ridiculously predicted it capable of for so many years. But, this will never happen.


Enjoy the Frankness!

Engaging Doomsday

We are all afraid to see the third commonwealth collapse. And believe it; if it happened twice it can happen a third time. However, we cannot fear it so that we refuse to fully engage our vile nemeses head on. Our nation simply cannot afford to await the bitterness of a foolish death without taking the fight to the F’n Iranian puppet masters once and for all rather than sustaining this fixed delusional focus upon their proxies.

Nevertheless, it’s clear to me that the Israeli elitist oligarchical leftist illiberal crypto-fascist establishment, within whose laps the core of our states power rests, is incapable of fully engaging this crisis because:

• Engaging Iran as the primary state culprit behind the conflict in our region lays waste to the idea that Palestinian statehood will bring an end to the conflict here, which has been the bedrock of their political agenda for the last 20 years.

• As I have written before: In any case, no matter what develops we can only be certain that our "leadership" will make the wrong choices, or at very best begin to approach a decent policy only to fumble the ball early on, never to recover it.

• Even if we were to engage Iran and win, we are guaranteed to screw up the endgame by failing to permanently prevent the local Moslem's from being courted by any potential future benefactors waiting in the wings after the Great Persian Father has been removed from the equation. Unless of course, the elitist oligarchical leftist illiberal crypto-fascist establishment is undone and it’s suicidal doctrine of Moslem appeasement is exposed as well.
  

But that aside, do you want a really good reason for Israel to attack Iran in any case?

Here you go:

I would rather us not give the smug effeminate exile drunken Hareidim of the Diaspora the opportunity to say: "See, We told you we were right! The Talmud says Jews shouldn’t even live in Israel..." Which is indeed something our incineration at the hands of the Iranians would allow them to do, AND I for one do not wish to stand by idly and give them that opportunity!!! Damn Straight!

Here is a pretty good, if not basic, article on engaging Iran:

The Iranian-Israeli War

When will Israel and Iran go to war? They already have.

By Yossi Klein Halevi

Immediately after the massacre of eight students in a yeshiva library in Jerusalem last week, speculation began within the Israeli security establishment and the media about who had dispatched the lone murderer. Was it Hamas? Hezbollah? Perhaps a new, unknown organization claiming to act on behalf of the "liberation" of the Galilee? In fact, the speculation was pointless. Regardless of the affiliation of the actual perpetrator, the ultimate responsibility for this attack, as for almost all the terror attacks on Israel in recent years, lies with Iran.

Click here to read more...

Drafting yeshiva students is not the issue!!! (Or, more mind numbing BS from the halls of our establishment’s loyal opposition)

"It's not a matter of numbers, but of ethics," Steinitz said. "I can accept that a few hundred scholars would be selected to study, as in the time of David Ben-Gurion. But the current situation of thousands of ultra-Orthodox boys not serving in the IDF is intolerable and should be changed, not because we urgently need more soldiers, but because we need the feeling that all sectors are sharing in the mission of protecting our homeland."

Ethics??? Sharing??? The ethics of sharing??? Are you F’n kidding me?!

This is just more BS to busy the plebes with so that are minds are kept too occupied to actually consider just how badly this country’s elitist establishment is screwing and exploiting us at any given time--which is the only real issue at hand.

The number of soldiers that share in the burden of protecting this country is an absolutely meaningless issue. It plays no role in this country’s poor morale or in its entirely flawed policy and security decisions. If you think it does then you are just another feeble minded Israeli clone who has yet to open his eyes to the reality of this failing “republic” and its intensifyingly desperate spin down the drain. Which, in lack of the ability to actually change or improve for the better I can only find solace in its increasingly amusing character.

BUT, just to point out how stupid we are, when it comes to the ethics of sharing and the intolerable status quo that prevails in our midst then how about a bit of sharing in the few places it really would matter, like:

The top economic percentile sharing in a greater wealth distribution and closing this country’s incredibly widening disparity of income??? It is appalling that 36% of this country’s workers are making under 3000NIS/month.

AND:

The breaking of public and private monopolies, from the electric company, to publishing, print and electronic media. Let’s not forget to include in that batch the privatization of ports and government-controlled industry, which result in the strangulation of our quality of life and economy through insane union strikes and low industrial productivity. Let them share in the ownership (or at least justifiable wage and competitive production standards) with workers and the benefits of making these sectors more transparent and service oriented with the public at large. Let's not even start talking about the banks...

OR:

The Knesset sharing its power by allowing us to elect our own representatives individually, rather than engaging in the farcical political pageantry of this country’s bitterly flawed “democracy”. And if not that much, the Knesset could at least give us tax payers a break and stop some of its ridiculous spending, for example on the farcical MK personnel allotments under the title of "voter spending budget" that MK's recieve in order to spend what often amounts to many peoples annual salaries on connecting with their voters, which is just another huge lump of BS, you know, since they aren't accountable to us voters to begin with?! What a joke.

AND JUST MAYBE:

The Supreme Court sharing its method of choosing its members (at least with elected officials) rather than choosing their own members based upon ideological parity and caste, while they go gallivanting about this country carving up laws as if it were their own personnel piece of steak.

In short, how about some social, economic, and political reform?

These are issues that really matter. THEY ARE KILLING US. But in order to keep us plebes mentally weak and occupied they foster social tension amongst us by taunting us with empty meaningless ideas like “sharing in the mission of protecting our homeland” and sending our young men to act as bullet catchers for this country’s corrupt regimes insane policies, based completely upon Olmert’s (and all those establishment tools who came before him) self-serving struggle for political survival. In a sense you could say that Olmert’s decisions to send our young men out to die is something of a marketing decision--necessitated by his and his predecessor’s similarly stunningly selfish marketing decisions.

As I have written before, the apparatchiks use concepts such as these (and Zionism) as crude manipulative tools in order to turn us into busy workers ants that will not contest the true evil and decadent nature of this establishment and its self-perpetuation. To them we are all just barbarians who must be guided into the light by hook or by crook--while they make a shekel or two on the deal.

As if the orthodox are the real culprits in this behind this country’s downfall…I wish people like Steinitz in the alleged “opposition” would have the guts to ignore irrelevant issues and call this country’s illiberal crypto-fascists for exactly what they are and use all of their local and international resources to not only defeat them politically but to utterly crush them in oblivion.

Doomsday for Israel? Negotiations With Hamas? More Piecemeal Conflict? Hezbollah Strikes back? US Military Involvement? you decide...

Here are two articles with  opposing view points on the matter of a Hamas
Hezbollah combined attack strategy.  Israeli leaders interpretations of events to come no doubt presents a variety military, diplomatic, and political ramifications for everyone involved.

What will happen? 

Decide for yourself:

Article 1, from the Guardian: Faced with a doomsday scenario, Israel must sit down with Hamas

Article 2, from Strategypage : Hamas Seeks a Blaze of Glory

In any case, no matter what develops we can only be certain that our "leadership" will make the wrong choices, or at very best approach a decent policy only to fumble the ball early on, never to recover it.

Jonathan Rosenblum on the Supreme Court

Jonathan Rosenblum is good.

Here is a great piece he wrote on the Supreme Court, undressing that institution and its members down to what they really are: Sanctimonious Illiberal Crypto-Fascist Oligarchs:

Our Illiberal Court

by Jonathan Rosenblum
Jerusalem Post
March 4, 2008

"The Supreme Court has been widely regarded as Israel's most stalwart liberal institution since Barak took over as its president in 1996," wrote Calev Ben-David last week in these pages. Had he described the Court as Israel's most left-wing institution he would have been on safer ground (though all those academic departments in which a traditional Zionist can never gain appointment might contest the title).

One can be both left-wing and fundamentally illiberal. European human rights councils and university speech codes that would forbid quoting the Koran, in the name of protecting against Islamophobia may be left-wing. But they are not liberal.

Plato will never be listed among the philosophers of liberalism. Yet under Barak, the justices assumed the role of Platonic Guardians, or, in former Court President Moshe Landau's description, "governing elders." That task, Landau added, is one for which they had no training and showed little aptitude.

Click here to read more...

Article: "Diplomacy: War and piecemeal"

Here is a Jpost article from the Friday edition that sheds a little bit of light on the piecemeal factor I have been talking about.

It cannot be understated just how demoralizing this type of war fighting can become on troops and commanders, as well as citizens. It will result in a reverse attrition in terms of morale, upon us. Decisive action is required to reach even minimal goals and Olmert has been completely incapable of achieving them in any form. He has failed time and time again in two separate theaters of combat--pointlessly risking our civilian soldiers lives. 

Imagine the same piecemeal strategy employed against Iran (which is what is happening based on the fact that Hamas and Hezbollah are both Iranian proxies). I can see Olmert sending bombers out over Iran just to call them back as they are about to drop their payloads just so he can announce on TV: "See we could destroy their weapons if we wanted to, now they will see just how serious we are and destroy them themselves. Now they have seen our power!"

Ridiculous.


Diplomacy: War and piecemeal

By Herb Keinon

Throughout a tense and dramatic week - a week of battles in Jabaliya and Grad missiles falling on Ashkelon - the government's leaders have repeatedly deflected questions about Israel's tactics and strategy in the Gaza Strip by saying they don't want to give the enemy any foreknowledge of what the country will do.

"Everything is possible: aerial and ground raids, special operations and other operations; everything is up for discussions," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday. "We will not be revealing what we are considering, or when, because we don't want to give our enemies the chance to prepare," he continued.

Fair enough. But there is one collateral problem: Not only is the enemy confused; so are the country's citizens. If asked what their government was trying to do in Gaza this week, most people would probably say the policy was aimed at protecting the citizens of the South and stopping the rocket fire. But follow-up questions - whether Israel was trying to topple Hamas; whether Israel wanted to go back into Gaza; whether Israel was aiming not only to stop the rocket fire, but also end the massive arms buildup there - would probably be met with befuddled looks, a scratch of the head, and a goofy "I dunno."

Click here to read more…

And the beat goes on...

"The attack drew international condemnation, including from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel said that the attack would not derail peace talks."

Uhhh…

There is so much that is F'd up with this bite of information that I really don’t know where to begin...it is simply the absolute height of absurdity in every notion of the word and therein encapsulates the hysterically insane and psychologically fraught nature of this country’s distorted national psyche.

In case I haven’t made this clear, the people of Israel have been so intellectually and morally disarmed by this country’s ruling class for so many years in its efforts to sustain its dominance over the people that Israelis are by and large incapable of drawing healthy conclusions on political/national issues.

The elitist oligarchs have kept this state’s proverbial body strong and mind incredibly weak, so much so that even in the face of yesterday’s travesty many Israeli’s will take solace in the ridiculous notion of a condemnation made by either terrorist icon Abu Mazen or the “international community”.

The state of Israel is like a man being devoured by a pack of hungry wolves who pleads with them not to devour his vital organs in the off chance that they will just eat his legs instead and leave the rest of him alone--stupid and dying.

I would also like to add that I will remain unimpressed by any “reprisal” made by Israel as a result of this attack on us--if there should even be one. Don’t let any cheap action on this government’s behalf buy you off either.

I would like to end with a prayer:

GD Bless The Souls So Brutally Taken From Within Our Midst, On Our Watch, As result Of Our Pathetic Inadequacies As A Nation, And May He Avenge Their Cruel Slaughter For All To Behold If Shall We Fail To Do So.

F**k Olmert!

The full scale tragedy of tonight's events have yet to unfold, however one thing remains abundantly clear: our enemies must pay for this blood and yet, they will be rewarded instead.

They will and so will all of our other enemies. Anyone who suggests talking instead of domination on any and all fronts is a f**king waste of life.

More than that, our enemies will be rewarded as will those who reward them, with continued power and continued strangulating control over this nation.

I can scarcely endure the deterioration of this country any longer. A country with as much potential as Israel for being a guiding force to the world, that yet remains incapable of realizing that mantle can only be referred to as evolutionarily inadequate.

This country has become the f**kin' abyss. 

F**k Olmert, F**k the Arabs, and F**k the capitualtors.


Kahane Tzadak...more and more every day.

Earthworm Olmert!

Does it escape everyone but me that these two are virtually indistinguishable?!

Israeli Cab Diary: The Non Sequitur Cab Battle

OK, so I order a cab for what should be a normal ten minute drive and it shows up late as usual, but then…

I get in the car, the driver, a Sephardic man in his late forties with nose hair protruding in sickening bushes from both nostrils says:

I don’t know what do about it, you know, I mean I can see but I just can’t see that well when I’m driving. If I get too close too something just tell me. I can see but not when I get to close to things, so the doctor wants me to wear these glasses but they are so expensive, you know the brand I’m talking about…what’s it called…um…you know…just tell me already…um…well anyway he gave me an interesting thing with it, here, you know, to clean the glasses with, but who needs it. Here look at it, it’s in the glove box, I’ll find it for you…Ok here it is, do you know anything about this kind of stuff? Well in any case my son is in Jenin you know and he’s a great kid he’s been there for a few days. What do you say about that? Kids are so spoiled today. The fact of the matter is you have to understand the way UEFA works, the rules are very detailed and its crazy you know? Wow, I saw this awesome car, a Ferrari, but I would just smash it to pieces I don’t know how though, that’s just the way it is though in this city…

I could barely contain myself. But I thought, what am I gonna do, just sit here and listen to this guys Non Sequiturs without throwing a few back of my own like some kind of wimp?

I make it a point to never back down from a Non Sequitur cab battle challenge.

So I spit this at him:

Well I got to tell you, a tiger just escaped from the San Diego Zoo and its going crazy, killing people and other nonsense, eating ice cream and the such, you know what a tiger does to ice cream, tears it to pieces and leaves you bloody to die, one guy got his leg torn right off, but that’s nothing where I’m from there’s already a meter of snow on the ground, a meter, wow, but here it’s a sunny day, I don’t understand how it works, and I’ve got to tell you I don’t let anyone get in my way when I have to piss, if you’re there you’re in trouble…but you know how it is, my shoulder hurts and I cant carry stuff, so everyone on the road can go to hell with the penguins who I F’n hate anyway…you know what I mean…

He answers back:

Those damn fire trucks…

And there I was. Bested by a true genius in his element. It was beautiful.

All I could add was:

Touché sir, touché…

And it was over, just like that...I was served.

My friends, you might think that a Non Sequitur cab battle is harmless fun, but  I'm here to tell
you that she is a soulless temptress to be respected and feared. 

But I already know what you're thinking, if it weren't for the honor I too would have forgone the pleasure.

More American Hypocrisy

People's beliefs in the amusing notions that the US wouldn’t stand by and watch Israel go down in flames and that Fatah is a force of moderates/peace partners are for me reminiscent of hamsters running a wheel, no matter how fast those beliefs get them no where they keep going and going and going...

Fairly decent article that touches on both issues and upon Hamas' use of American weapons seized in the takeover: 

Will the State Department Side with American Terror Victims or Yasser Arafat?
As Abbas brags about Fatah’s terror legacy, we wait and watch.

By Andrew C. McCarthy

After nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered in the atrocities of September 11, 2001, President Bush boldly announced that the United States would not distinguish between terror networks and the regimes that support them. They would all be regarded as hostile and dealt with accordingly.

What a sad commentary it is that, less than seven years later, we are left to wonder whether our State Department will stand with the American victims of terror or join forces with the other side: a regime with a long, remorseless record of practicing terrorism, preaching terrorism, and murdering Americans.

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Talk about Piecemeal Conflict...

This is spectacularly amusing!

Olmert is already pulling out. "That fast?", you ask? Indeed that fast. Seems almost a bit premature, doesn't it?!

He's attempting to micro manage the conflict to protect his image. Olmerta's (kind of like Omerta, but his code of silence is in never admitting he made a mistake, which if he did might balance out his favor a little in more feeble Israeli minds) goal here is redemption. He wants to redeem his failures in Lebanon by doing the exact apposite of everything he did there--or so he will portray. But since he is a crummy leader and a crummy poker player too  he F'd up again by allowing Hamas to declare a victory over Israel.

I cant wait for his pathetic spin on the issue that will probably transmogrify over the next several days if not weeks in ever more feeble attempts to justify his leadership.

Even if he goes back in, he will never get passed the shame of this premature withdrawl, which any man who is half his salt knows is a garaunteed recipe for...well... you get the idea.

Here is more validation for me:

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5078 

Israeli troops abruptly withdraw from Gaza. Seven-story Ashkelon building hit by Katyusha Monday

March 3, 2008, 11:59 AM (GMT+02:00)

Shortly after Israel’s withdrawal, Monday, March 3, the Palestinians stepped up their cross-border attacks. One of three Katyusha rockets fired from Gaza at Ashkelon hit a seven-story building sending a dozen people into shock and sowing wide panic in the city of 120,000. Four missiles exploded in the Eshkol farmland area south of Sderot, while mortar fire was aimed at Sderot, Kibbutz Yad Mordecai, Nahal Oz and Netiv Ha’asara.

DEBKAfile reports: Prime minister Ehud Olmert suddenly decided on the pullback of Israeli ground and armored units from northern Gaza before dawn Monday before they reached their goal of halting Palestinian fire. Stage one of Operation Hot Winter was announced at an end. He was later attacked by members of the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee for aborting the operation in contradiction of the pledges he and the defense minister made Sunday. Both had vowed that military ground action would press on until the Hamas missile-rocket offensive against Israeli civilians was stamped out.

Up until late Sunday night, Qassam rockets continued to explode in Sderot and surrounding villages and Katyusha rockets in Ashkelon at the average rate of 50 per day since Wednesday. The three-day Israeli infantry, tank and air incursion left more than 100 Palestinians dead, most Hamas combatants, some civilians and children. Two Israeli soldiers were killed.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Aborting this action in mid-stream leaves Israel with the options of air, surface missile and artillery raids - or short, shallow forays – all of which have long proved ineffectual.

Olmert’s order to the Israeli ground force to turn around and withdraw in mid-offensive was astonishing and unprecedented. Senior officers fully expected the Palestinian Hamas terrorist leaders to rush into declarations of victory and claims that they had beaten the Israeli army into a retreat. And indeed, Hamas staged a victory march in Gaza City later Monday.

Our political sources disclose that Olmert, during his absence in Tokyo last week, was far from happy with the way acting PM Tzipi Livni and Barak handled the sharp spike in Palestinian missile attacks. He felt they had caused an unnecessary escalation of the crisis to the point that a major military operation became unavoidable.

Olmert insisted that short, sharp military strikes would have defused the crisis and obviated the need for a broad military offensive in Gaza, which he had consistently prevented.

By aborting the operation Monday night, he rapped them both and also moved to put down the incipient revolt in his government and Kadima party, spearheaded by two senior ministers – Avi Dichter, internal security and former Shin Bet chief, and Shaul Mofaz, transport, ex-defense minister and chief of staff. Both publicly urged a stepped-up ground offensive to crush Hamas rule of Gaza, arguing that all other tactics - military, sanctions and siege - had failed.

DEBKAfile’s political sources report that Hamas won useful points in the propaganda war by getting images and footage of Palestinian women and children casualties of Israeli strikes onto TV screens and front pages way ahead of the suffering of Israeli civilians from the gratuitous Hamas blitz.

This eased the way for Washington to lean hard on the prime minister to break off the operation. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened to call off her visit on Tuesday, March 4, and laid the blame on Israel for the breakdown of peace talks with the Palestinians, although it was Mahmoud Abbas who formally suspended all contacts with Israel. She accused Israel of undermining the Bush administration’s entire Middle East strategy. Olmert found it politic to bow to this pressure.