Ariel Sharon (1928-2014)

By TheTower.org Staff On January 11, 2014

Ariel Sharon – the 11th prime minister of Israel, and a man who dominated the Jewish state’s political scene first as a pertinacious force from the right and eventually as a heterodox diplomat who oversaw broad Israeli territorial concessions – died today, eight years after slipping into a coma in the aftermath of a massive stroke. He was 85.
Sharon’s decades-spanning career was marked by periods of deep controversy and widely acknowledged acclamation, and was book-ended by grave wounds acquired on the battlefield of the War of Independence and by political power secured via successive Israeli elections. His final political years, as prime minister from 2001 to 2006, will be remembered as ones marked by sweeping counter-terror operations followed by arguably even more sweeping peace gestures.

Ariel Sharon - A life in pictures

Sharon has died

 
Ynet reviews the key events in the life of one of Israel's greatest political and military leads. Ariel Sharon 1928-2014

Ynet

Published:  01.11.14, 14:31 / Israel News

Ariel Sharon 1928-2014

From general to political leader

General Sharon with then-Prime Minister Golda Meir in Sinai, Egypt. Yom Kippur War. 1973 (Photo: GPO)

Sharon with then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. West of Suez Canal. Yom Kippur War 1973. (Photo: Bamahane, Abraham Vered)

PLO official: "All Palestinians in Israeli prisons should be released. There should not be a single Palestinian detainee in an Israeli prison."

Including those who have murdered Israeli civilians in the past, and those who will do so in the future.
Remember: these are the "moderates." "Of course, Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with anyone who is dedicated to its destruction. But while I know you have had differences with the Palestinian Authority, I believe that you do have a true partner in President Abbas..." -- Barack Obama, March 21, 2013
"Recording: PLO official to IMRA: Israel must release anyone who attacks during the talks," by Aaron Lerner for IMRA, December 30, 2013:

Alfred Hitchcock's unseen Holocaust documentary to be screened

  http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/alfred-hitchcocks-unseen-holocaust-documentary-to-be-screened-9044945.html

 

The British Army Film Unit cameramen who shot the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 used to joke about the reaction of Alfred Hitchcock to the horrific footage they filmed. When Hitchcock first saw the footage, the legendary British director was reportedly so traumatised that he stayed away from Pinewood Studios for a week. Hitchcock may have been the king of horror movies but he was utterly appalled by "the real thing".

 

In 1945, Hitchcock had been enlisted by his friend and patron Sidney Bernstein to help with a documentary on German wartime atrocities, based on the footage of the camps shot by British and Soviet film units. In the event, that documentary was never seen.

Israel and the death of pan-Arabism

January 10th, 2014
Caroline Glick

The so-called Arab Spring unleashed forces that have been dormant for a century. Like their counterparts throughout the region, Israel’s Arabic-speaking minorities are changing in profound ways. But our leaders fail to grasp the implications of what is happening.


Consider the Christian community.


Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox priest from Nazareth, has become the symbol of this new period. Nadaf is the spiritual leader of an Israeli Christian movement calling for Israeli Christian youth to serve in the IDF. He is responsible for the 300 percent rise in Christian Arab enlistment in the IDF in the past year.


Nadaf does not hide his goal or his motivation. His seeks the full integration of Israel’s 130,000 Christians into Israeli society. He views military service as the key to that integration.


Nadaf is motivated to act by the massive persecution of Christians throughout the Arab world since the onset of the Arab revolutionary wave in December 2010.

Please, Don't Boycott Shiloh Industries

My Right Word

Please, don't boycott Shiloh Industries.

There are many reasons not to.

It's not nice.

It may be illegal.

More importantly, Shiloh Industries, Inc. 

is located in Valley City, Ohio, not in the Land of Israel, and Shiloh Industries is http://myrightword.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/please-dont-boycott-shiloh-industries.html

a leading supplier, providing lightweighting and noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) solutions to automotive, commercial vehicle and other industrial markets. Shiloh delivers these solutions through design, engineering and manufacturing of first operation blanks, engineered welded blanks, complex stampings, modular assemblies and highly engineered aluminum die casting and machined components serving the body-in-white, emission, powertrain, structural and seating needs of OEM and Tier 1 customers. The company has multiple locations across North America, including in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Mexico, and has approximately 1,770 employees.

It has nothing to do with "settlements" or "occupation".

Wait.  It does provide an occupation to some 1770 people.

And Ramzi Hermiz 

is president and CEO of the company and I am going to assume he's not Jewish.

The Arab League and peace, after 68 years

Alexander H. Joffe
The Times of Israel
January 9, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3715/arab-league-peace

The disconnect between the past and the present in the Middle East is growing fast. Consider the anachronism called the Arab League.
In December, after an "emergency meeting" called by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby declared that "not one" Israeli soldier could remain in the territory of Palestine. An Arab League report condemning American support for "Israeli security expansionist demands" was also cited in Middle Eastern news sources but made little impression in the West.

The statement made little impression on US Secretary of State John Kerry who was "grateful that the Arab League as a whole and Saudi Arabia individually will be significantly involved in helping build support for this effort." He also promised to update "our Arab League partners."

Update: After Mortars Fired from Gaza, Israel Air Force Targets Terrorists, Terror Site

  IDF Blog
January 9, 2014

After mortars were fired from Gaza at Israel, the IDF targeted terrorists during their final preparations to launch rockets toward Israel early Thursday morning. No damage or injuries were reported among the soldiers.

An Israel Air Force aircraft targeted a terror site in the southern Gaza Strip later in the morning. Direct hits were confirmed.

“This ongoing conflict that we are facing on a daily basis cannot be endured by Israeli civilians,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, IDF Spokesman. ”It is the IDF’s obligation to operate to the best of its abilities to prevent such malicious terroristic intentions from terrorizing Israeli civilians and assaulting IDF soldiers. We will continue in our activities to deter all threats originating in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel Palestine: Who’s Indigenous?

Ryan Bellerose in Ryan
 

This is the first post by a new Israellycool contributor, Ryan Bellerose. He has been known to Israellycool for a while and we’re delighted to publish this important essay here.

I am a Métis from Paddle Prairie Metis settlement. My father, Mervin Bellerose, co-authored the Métis Settlements Act of 1989, which was passed by the Alberta legislature in 1990 and cemented our land rights. I founded Canadians For Accountability, a native rights advocacy group, and I am an organizer and participant in the Idle No More movement in Calgary. And I am a Zionist.

Indigenous status

To begin, let us acknowledge that there is no rule that a land can have only one indigenous people; it is not a zero sum game in which one group must be considered indigenous so that therefore another is not. However, there is a very clear guideline to being an indigenous people. It is somewhat complex but can be boiled down to the checklist below, as developed by anthropologist José R. Martínez-Cobo (former special rapporteur of the Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities for the United Nations).

This list was developed because indigenous rights are beginning to be respected across the planet. This recognition is incredibly important, so we as indigenous people cannot allow non-indigenous people to make false claims, which ultimately would harm our own rights. Israel is the world’s first modern indigenous state: the creation and declaration of the sovereign nation of Israel marks the first time in history that an indigenous people has managed to regain control of its ancestral lands and build a nation state. As such, this is incredibly important for indigenous people both to recognise and to support as a great example for our peoples to emulate.

Official translation of the full text of a Saudi-inspired peace plan adopted by the Arab summit in Beirut, 2002.

The Arab Peace Initiative

The Council of Arab States at the Summit Level at its 14th Ordinary Session,

Reaffirming the resolution taken in June 1996 at the Cairo Extra-Ordinary Arab Summit that a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East is the strategic option of the Arab countries, to be achieved in accordance with international legality, and which would require a comparable commitment on the part of the Israeli government,

Having listened to the statement made by his royal highness Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, crown prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in which his highness presented his initiative calling for full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967, in implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, reaffirmed by the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the land-for-peace principle, and Israel's acceptance of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in return for the establishment of normal relations in the context of a comprehensive peace with Israel,

Emanating from the conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties, the council:

“A Long Hard Struggle”

I’m encountering a lot of anger here in Israel, and the depression that often follows.  Pit-of-the-stomach anxiety, too.  How could it be otherwise?

 

Kerry took off on Monday but plans to be back very soon.  His “framework” is still not in place, and the rumors continue to fly.  Some of those rumors suggest that the framework might be verbal and not in written form at all.  This may be because he cannot put together a document that both parties would sign – which would be good news.

 

Netanyahu: "There is still no document and the Americans are not succeeding at obtaining agreements between the sides." 

 

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=14573

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

According to Israel National News yesterday:

“Governmental sources report that US Secretary of State John Kerry is behind the European boycott threats on Israeli products and companies operating in Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
“The EU published its guidelines last July, boycotting Israeli companies operating over the 1949 Armistice lines.

Report: Kerry is Behind European Boycotts

Govt. sources reveal that Kerry is responsible for EU boycott threats, keeps them in check during talks, ready to escalate if talks fail.
By Ari Yashar, INN
Governmental sources report that US Secretary of State John Kerry is behind theEuropean boycott threats on Israeli products and companies operating in Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
The EU published its guidelines last July, boycotting Israeli companies operating over the 1949 Armistice lines.
At the moment, Kerry is making sure the threats stay in check, but as soon as the peace talks fail he intends to open the floodgates and spur on full-blown international boycotts on Israel, reports Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio).
Palestinian Authority (PA) officials reported last September that Kerry was putting pressure on the EU to delay boycotts so as to give him an opportunity to push Israel into peace talks. That report also appears to support the new revelations regarding Kerry’s manipulation of anti-Israel boycotts.

Opinion: A deadlier strain of Al-Qaeda

Faeq Muneef

One of the obstacles in the fight against epidemic viruses is the evolution of newer, more virulent strains which emerge after medical science has begun to make progress in lessening the initial impact. These strains sometimes carry mutations that make traditional vaccines ineffective.

The newly-emerging Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a mutant strain of Al-Qaeda, one that has developed to such an extent that it threatens everyone and everything around it. The videos which ISIS members have uploaded online presage the beginnings of an even fiercer form of criminality than we have ever seen before. These are individuals not only totally accustomed to committing abhorrent acts violence which disgust ordinary people—decapitation, the mutilating of corpses—they are also happy to boast about them, filming their awful crimes and broadcasting them online like trophies for all to see. They incline towards bloodshed in a manner that reveals a truly sadistic nature, though they claim to be seeking to restore the rights of individuals and to champion the cause of Islam and Muslims.

Juan Cole remains a lying idiot

Elder of Ziyon

The lying, fifth rate academic Juan Cole is at it again, with a spectacularly stupid post called "Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State is like saying the US is a White State."

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is adding a fifth demand to his negotiations with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas: That the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.”

As I've noted, this is not a new demand, and it was originally created by Olmert and Livni, not Netanyahu. But, hey, Juan Cole is an "expert," right?

Now comes the straw man arguments:

PA leader: Stages plan to eliminate Israel is basis of PA policy

Abbas Zaki, close associate of Mahmoud Abbas, says a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders is only first stage in the PA’s program because “the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages”
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=10494

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Senior Palestinian official Abbas Zaki posted on his Facebook page an interview he gave to Syrian TV in which he said the PA will only agree to a treaty with Israel if the Palestinian state is established on the 1967 lines. However, he stressed that ’67 lines would only be the beginning. After that, the Palestinians will continue with the stages plan:

“Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the ’67 borders. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages.”

Click to view

In an interview on Al-Jazeera TV in 2011, Zaki also mentioned this PA stages plan and referred to “the inspiring idea,” explaining that it means the end of Israel. He said that Mahmoud Abbas shares the goal of eliminating Israel in stages, but that the PA says it only wants a state along the 1967 borders because it is unacceptable politically to say you want to destroy Israel:

It’s Hard Taking Mick Out of the Diaspora

My Right Word


Mick Davis is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the U.K.’s Jewish Leadership Council and rich (a potential bonus he was asked to waive last year was worth £11m and this report indicates he was to receive: £9.6m a year on offer for staying at Xstrata for three years but this item has it that he “misjudged the corporate climate in a dispute over executive pay which resulted in him leaving with a £15m pay off.”).

He is now claiming that “Rejecting two states means endangering Israel - and the Diaspora”.  He previously wrote about “Defending Israel with one hand tied behind our back” and that “Without Israel's support for the 2-state solution, Diaspora Jews are crippled in the fight against BDS and delegitimization”.  He’s a Diaspora Man, alright.  

“Where Are We Going?”

The installation of a new computer has – incredibly – slowed down my writing for about a week.  Learning new systems can be a challenge. As many of you already know, it was necessary for me to check with readers for whom I had multiple addresses, as the new system has no default for addresses.  I think I’ve covered all bases, but if you are receiving this at an address that is different from the one I had been using for sending you my posts, please, let me know.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

The date I have written here is 2014, and I am pleased that I remembered.

 

With all honesty, this was the major change that “the new year” represented for me.  But I have no desire to be insensitive: And so, I thank all who wrote to wish me a good new year, and extend the same wishes to all of you.  Mostly, however, I extend these wishes on a personal level: may each of you have health, loving family and friends, satisfying work, secure income.

Why Is There Really No Palestinian State: The 1-State Solution

Barry Rubin 

The following is an extract from Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Yale University Press, forthcoming February 2014).

JERRY: Well here’s your chance to try the opposite. Instead of tuna salad and being intimidated by women, chicken salad and going right up to them.

GEORGE: Yeah, I should do the opposite, I should.

 JERRY: If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.

GEORGE: Yes, I will do the opposite. I used to sit here and do nothing, and regret it for the rest of the day, so now I will do the opposite, and I will do something! – Seinfeld “The Opposite”

In 1939 a World War loomed in Europe. The British–which ruled Palestine as a mandate–were desperate to soothe Arab views and keep them on their side during the impending war. It did not care what the Jewish Zionists said; it was going to dictate- as the Americans want to today- the parameters of a peace agreement. Note the similarity to today, but with Iran in the place of Germany. Here is now why its diplomacy will not work. The Arab states had rejected the British concessions, hence the foreign minister Ramsay MacDonald embarked on another round of concessions to them.

Secretary of State, John Kerry's, Proposal Assessed

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought: US-Israel Initiative”
"Israel Hayom”, January 4, 2014, http://bit.ly/Kq550P
 
The value of Secretary John Kerry's assessments and proposed peace agreement, which would reduce Israel to a 9-15 mile waistline (the pre-1967 lines), in the increasingly raging Middle East, is consistent with Kerry's track record.

Kerry's Syrian Track Record

Until the eruption of the civil war in Syria, Kerry was a member of a tiny group of US Senators – along with Chuck Hagel and Hillary Clinton – who believed that Bashar Assad was a generous, constructive leader, a reformer and a man of his word. Kerry was a frequent flyer to Damascus, dining with Assad and his wife at the Naranj restaurant in central Damascus.  Following a motorcycle ride with Bashar al-Assad, he returned to Washington referring to Bashar as "my dear friend.” 

In September 2009, Kerry opined that "Syria is an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region,” while Assad was conducting hate-education, repressing his opposition, hosting and arming terrorist outfits like Hezbollah, cozying up to Iran, and facilitating the infiltration of Jihadists into Iraq to kill US soldiers. WikiLeaks disclosed that on February, 2010, Kerry told Qatari leaders that the Golan Heights should be returned to Syria and that a Palestinian capital should be established in East Jerusalem.  "We know that for the Palestinians the control of Al-Aqsa mosque and the establishment of their capital in East Jerusalem are not negotiable.”