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.