Defending Terror

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
Asharq Alawsat

Seven years ago, many writers and journalists in our region defended and condoned the destructive attacks launched by Al-Qaeda, and in the process considered any criticism of the terrorist network to be in support of US foreign policy, without distinguishing between rational defense and political exploitation. These writers were unaware of the fact that the Al-Qaeda organization was a greater threat to them then to any foreign entity. Shortly afterwards, the Jihadist group showed its true colors in Riyadh, Dammam, Mecca, Medina, Sana'a and Amman History repeated itself in wake of the US invasion of Iraq, when our writers confused the rejection of occupation- a logical and justified political stance- with the praising of suicide attacks. They celebrated these attacks, describing them as acts of martyrdom. As a result, thousands of Saudis and other Arabs took up arms and traveled to As-Samawah, Al-Anbar and Baghdad. However, many of them on their way there fell into the hands of hostile Arab intelligence units, who ended up using them to serve their own interests.

Again, the same confusion took place during Israel's war against Hezbollah, and more recently, in its offensive against Hamas. Mosques, newspaper columns and discussion forums, all mobilized in an effort to Sharpen and revive the Islamic Jihad spirit, in what could be described as a recurring mix-up between the natural rejection of the Israeli onslaught and the involvement in a political camp run by Iran, which uses the Palestinian and Arab Cause to achieve its goals.

These goals have nothing to do with confronting Israel at all. They rather target countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan amongst others. Iran employs media propaganda to counter Israel and to spread the call for Jihad. Yet, deep down, it aims to destabilize the existing political reality in the Arab countries it targets.

This week, a new list of wanted terrorists was released by Saudi authorities with names and photos attached of young Gullible Saudi men who have moved to Al-Qaeda's new haven, the mountains of Yemen to pursue Jihad, while some traveled to Pakistan and others recruited and transferred to Iran, the driving force behind the mounting chaos in the region. Those new runaways and terrorists are, in fact, victims of the calls for Jihad under the cloak of facing Israel. The lie of liberating Jerusalem through Riyadh and Cairo.

Sadly, these intellectuals were confused by the situation, unable to differentiate between rejecting Israeli aggression and supporting groups loyal to Iran who operates a political and media operation with a clear agenda.

There is a world of difference between liberating Palestine and destroying it; between establishing a Palestine state and dividing it. Moreover, there is an unmistakable difference between backing the resistance and dividing it into organizations and governments.

What Iran did in collaboration with Israel is what has led us to the disgraceful situation we see today. A situation defended by journalists and media officials who can't distinguish between supporting the aggrieved and supporting the Iranian plot.

We don't need additional proof, because we have been witness to a number of repeated situations over a span of eight years and the destructive consequences is know to all.

We saw how calls for defending Al-Qaeda have led to the strengthening the network through funds, arms and men power. And after its defeat in Iraq the same mistake was made leading to the region's security forces to be an alert after realizing that Iraq was a training ground for Arab youth who are then shipped back to their countries to carry out operations there.

Which leads us to today, where we see a new list of young men involved in terrorist activities, as the complete their training in the mountains of Yemen, Pakistan and Iran. All those were lured by fanatical calls for jihad in Palestine and Lebanon. There is a saying that goes: "The road to heaven is paved with good intentions."

'This is no time to splurge'

Controversy grows over approval of lavish new facility for prime minister’s residence, office; Netanyahu pledges to annul decision should he win elections; Ynet learns that cabinet approved NIS 650 million project without detailed knowledge of expenses

Roni Sofer
Israel News

Controversy growing: Premiership candidate Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that if elected he will annul the decision to invest NIS 650 million (roughly $160 million) in a new residence and offices for the prime minister of Israel. Meanwhile, sources at PM Ehud Olmert’s office said that Netanyahu himself was the one who promoted the project to build the new facilities, after late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin initiated the move in 1995.


“In Netanyahu’s three years as prime minister, as the documents we possess show, this project was accelerated and pushed forward at full force,” one source said.


However, an associate of the Likud leader said that “during that period there was no economic crisis, and right now there is one.” The associate added that “this is not the right time for spending huge sums, during such a grave global crisis, instead of spending money on social needs.”


A total of 14 ministers voted Sunday to approve the construction of the new facility, yet their names have not been disclosed. Four ministers reportedly objected to the move, and at least two abstained. The names have been withheld because of pressure exerted by the ministers. As a result, there is no documentation of the ministers present during the vote.




Computer image of planned PM's residence



Notably, premiership candidates Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni did not take part in the vote. Livni said that she refrained from attending the session because of possible conflict of interest, while Barak’s office declined comment. However, Netanyahu was quick to accuse Livni of inadequate leadership because of her absence.



Ynet has learned that the following ministers were absent from the vote: Eli Yishai, Ariel Atias, Meshulam Nahari, Daniel Friedmann, Ruhama Avraham Balila and two premiership candidates - Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak.


Livni said participating in the vote would constitute a conflict of interest, while Barak's office offered no explanation.


Netanyahu was quick to criticize Livni's absence, saying she "ran away from leadership and responsibility."


Ynet has also learned that the ministers were not presented with a detailed list of the venture's costs and possible alternatives. According to the current model, the entrepreneur who will build the new residence will incur the immediate costs of the project, and will be reimbursed by the government over a 20-year-period.

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The following ministers apparently voted in favor of the project: Ehud Olmert, Haim Ramon, Zeev Boim, Raleb Majadele and Yitzhak Cohen. According to government officials, the additional eight ministers who backed the initiative but whose votes were omitted from the government records for fear of public criticism are Meir Sheetrit, Shaul Mofaz, Eli Aflalo, Shalom Simhon, Binyami Ben-Eliezer, Avi Dichter, Yacov Ben-Yizri and Rafi Eitan.


Four ministers opposed cabinet's approval of the project. Education Minister Yuli Tamir said that the money earmarked for the project could help renovate Israel's schools, while Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On said that the funding for the project could not be approved before the 2009 State Budget is passed.


Minister of Immigrant Absorption Jacob Edery, who also voted against the initiative, said "the prime minister is deserving of a respectable residence and decent offices, but the sum is astronomical, and it is not fitting to allocate such funds during this difficult time." Minister Gideon Ezra said the project was "important" but that "there are more important things we should be spending the money on."


Minister Ramon, on the other hand, said the expenses were "reasonable" as they would be spread out over a 20-year period and would "save a lot of money in the future."

Outgoing Israeli government bargains away military success in Gaza

DEBKAfile Special Analysis

February 8, 2009

All too quickly Israel's three war leaders - prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and foreign minister Tzipi Livni - forgot the goals they set for the three-week military offensive launched against Hamas on Dec. 27, 2008: That Operation Cast Lead would not halt until security prevailed in southern Israel, that the eight-year Palestinian missile offensive be brought to an end and that Hamas never be allowed to rearm for a fresh assault of terror. Six weeks later, the Islamists terrorists are reaping the spoils of a war they lost.

Jerusalem is feeding Egyptian mediators with concession after concession to keep Hamas at the negotiating table in Cairo and talking about a long-term truce. Frustrated Israeli commanders warn their victory is being traded to buy undreamed-of gains for Hamas, such as the creeping recognition of the Palestinian Islamist group as the Gaza Strip's legitimate ruling power and acceptance of the enclave's status as a forward Iranian base on Israel's southern border. The deal on the table in Cairo would moreover lead to perpetuating the separation between the pro-Western West Bank and the pro-Iranian Gaza Strip, generating a fixed impediment to any discussion of a potential Palestinian state.

Saturday, Feb. 7, defense minister Barak Hamas granted safe passage to Hamas leader Mahmoud A-Zahar to come out of hiding in Gaza for the first time since the hostilities began. He flew to Cairo and on to Damascus to deal with the release of the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit, held since he was kidnapped in 2006. By this concession, Barak gave Tehran, from which Hamas-Damascus takes direct orders, the last word on all these transactions.

Barak is believed to have promised Egypt that other Hamas leaders may also safely emerge from their bunkers as long as the Cairo negotiations continue, even though Hamas has made no commitments of any kind and continues to shoot missiles into Israel as well as smuggling arms.

As Israel's general election looms Tuesday, Feb. 10, Barak, who leads the Labor party, and his colleagues are disseminating pink clouds of optimism while pursuing steps that reverse the goals of Operation Cast Lead: They are solidifying Hamas' strength and its grip on the Gaza Strip for years to come.

DEBKAfile's military sources count eight areas in which the outgoing government is relinquishing assets to Hamas:

1. Military attacks on Palestinian military targets have been suspended in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has offered nothing in return except for an oral undertaking to Egypt to try and keep the level of missile fire down. The Israeli air force responds to each salvo by bombing empty Palestinian buildings and sand dunes.

2. Israel has suspended targeted strikes against Hamas leaders and commanders according to an understanding with Cairo.

3. According to another understanding, Israel will allow an increasing number of supply trucks and types of freights to enter the Gaza crossings daily.

This is a virtual surrender to Hamas' demands for fully opened crossings (translation: end of Israel's embargo of the Gaza Strip). Hamas has not been held to any guarantee for ending its smuggling of arms - or any other quid pro quo.

4. Israel has also promised Egypt to gradually lift its naval blockade of Gaza.

5. Jerusalem has given ground on its initial demand to remove Hamas from the crossings and pass them to Palestinian Authority control. The deal emerging is for foreign monitors to be posted on those crossings and report to Hamas. This is another form of Israeli recognition of the Palestinian extremists' rule of the Gaza Strip and its control of Israel's southwestern frontier.

If approved, it would also perpetuate the divide between the pro-Iranian entity in the Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas and the pro-Western territory of the West Bank under the control of its rival, Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority, which Hamas kicked out of the Gaza Strip in 2007

Israeli military sources warn that the eventual upshot of these Israeli concessions will be the collapse of Abbas' rule. Hamas will be able to use the Gaza Strip as a jumping-off base for taking over the West Bank as well.

It is a matter Israeli national policy to withhold recognition from the Palestinian Hamas – which the US and European Union also list as a terrorist organization for its commitment to violence and Israel's destruction. Yet, by knuckling under on this point, Israeli authorities will find themselves engaging Hamas officials willy-nilly in the day-to-day management of the shared border crossings.

6. Many of the soldiers who took part in the Gaza offensive declared that their mission was unfinished because Gilead Shalit remained in captivity. Instead of using its military feat to improve the chances for his release, Israel has allowed itself to be cornered here too. Hamas has upped its demand for the release of 1,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists including convicted multiple murderers of the Fatah, Tanzim, Popular Front and Hamas, which Israel was inclined to accept. Now the price has gone up to 1,250 inmates, all of whom are to be released at the Gaza crossings. The West Bank residents will be sent home later.

7. Israel has agreed to leave the monitoring of Hamas' arms smuggling in Egypt's hands, although Cairo's past record is notoriously wanting. For years, Egyptian police looked the other way as Hamas imported massive quantities of weapons through Sinai.

8. Not by a single word is Hamas required to dismantle its armed strength. Israel is therefore seen to be accepting the presence of an armed terrorist force on its border

Another Tack: Would you rather be a dog?

Sarah Honig, THE JERUSALEM POST

She wasn't at all aware of Proverbs 36:11 and had no idea how Bing Crosby's 1944 Academy Award-winning song "Swinging on a Star" remotely pertained to her pseudo-intellectual angst. The complexities of life were overwhelming enough without additional bewilderment. We'll call her Agam. She's the closest among my daughter's slew of close friends - all sporting trendy unisex names, all self-proclaimed secular progressives with uber-active social consciences and demonstratively disaffected demeanors. The world just so totally fails to live up to their expectations and they're so righteously indignant about it.

Flaunting adolescent scorn, Agam cast her ballot for the Gil Pensioners list when voting for the first time in 2006. That was the then-fad. She thought it a lark. My daughter's rebuke and the Lebanese fiasco later that year appeared to have produced some remorse. Agam promised not to be profligate with her democratic privilege this time around. Exuding public-spiritedness, she even got herself a job on a polling station oversight committee. She seemed a reformed character until she sighed plaintively in our kitchen the other day: "I don't know who to vote for. They're all the same. Nobody's worthy."

This provoked my own offspring into another chiding outburst. Agam defended herself: "I still have months to decide." The prospective polling station official didn't even know that polling day was just about a week away.

So much for how well-informed some citizens are. Therefore, for voters like Agam, who feel that no alternative out there is good enough, here's a thumbnail guide to the electorally perplexed. If you can't find the ultimate dream candidate, at least attempt a process of elimination. Make sure to support the adversaries of the following three candidate-categories:

1. Suck-ups to foreign potentates.

It's in your power to stop obsequiousness. It's time Israelis elect leaders who aren't embarrassed to tell the truth and put this country's existential interests ahead of making nice. It doesn't matter how much we curry favor with European heads of government. They all love us just about as much as Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who revealed his true colors unforgettably in recent hectoring harangues. Among assorted chilling proposals, he urged that Israel be chucked out of the UN. Most Europeans boast better decorum, but not more benevolence toward the Jewish state.

American honchos hardly have our best interests in mind either. Saccharine praise for George Bush wasn't only distasteful. It's downright harmful. "Bosom ally" Dubya was the first to impose the potentially ruinous "vision" of a Palestinian state on Israel. If this is what the warmest "pro-Israel" support produced, just imagine the "evenhanded course-correction" of Barack Hussein Obama, less well-disposed toward us and intent on "reaching out" to the Muslim world. If Israeli higher-ups applaud Obama's unproven goodwill before he earns our praise, they give him carte blanche to do as he pleases to our detriment. The last thing we ought to do is elect flatterers - like Tzipi Livni or Ehud Barak - who cloyingly invite pressure, instead of waiting and reserving judgment with a modicum of dignity.

2. Promoters of territorial surrender.

It's time to own up that defining our conflict as territorial is a dangerous canard. Perhaps born of naivete and wishful thinking, it's in effect cynically exploited to weaken Israel. Territory serves only as a pan-Arab pretext to persist in the war against Jewish presence in the Jewish homeland. This bloody war preceded Jewish sovereignty by decades, and indeed delayed it. Its aim was and remains to throw every Jew into the sea. Only tactics and alliances change, not objectives. The Arabs always sided with the most extreme anti-Jewish/Zionist element of their day - from Nazis and Soviets to Islamofascists. Arab moderation, as Yasser Arafat admitted in his Johannesburg speech hot on the heels of his Oslo stratagem, is a treacherous facade. Hence the noxious Jew-hatred inculcated into the youngest Arab preschoolers, the virulent incitement in Arab media and the exhortation to mass murder in the mosques.

"Occupation" is a code word for the Jewish state. An "end to occupation" denotes the destruction of the Jewish state. Territorial compromise doesn't satisfy Arab appetites. Livni, Barak and like-minded local doves strive hard to convince their electorate that Arab moderates - whose moderation is anyway in the eye of the beholder - would terminate the conflict in return for reasonable territorial concessions. This never was a tenable option and won't be any time soon. What the mighty Arafat couldn't grant the fawning Barak, the PA's will-o-the-wisp outgoing President Mahmoud Abbas cannot countenance. And as for Hamas, better not waste our breath.

Bottom line: Avoid candidates who advocate further withdrawals, especially from Judea and Samaria, which straddle the country's super-vulnerable eastern flank.

3. Four-flushers who play us for fools.

Candidates like Livni and Barak enthusiastically endorsed the midnight escape from Lebanon in 2000 and/or pushed for the subsequent 2005 disengagement from Gaza. They derided warnings that withdrawals and the destruction of Jewish communities would embolden fanatics and bring a rain of rockets farther into Israel. Confoundingly, however, reality refused to cooperate with these serial fantasists/bamboozlers and their ilk. Each and every forecast about unilateralism's catastrophic consequences proved indisputably accurate.

"Peacenik" willful duplicity made the Second Lebanon War and the recent incursion into Gaza inevitable. Yet even the mildest token of contrition remains absent. There can be no greater contra-recommendation than Livni's/Barak's moral omission.

Their perfidy, though, extends beyond pro-retreat raptures. They continued to lie. They failed to react to Hizbullah/Hamas aggression for years and allowed the enemy to stockpile massive arsenals. They told us that sending ground forces into the Gaza Strip would cost innumerable casualties, that controlling launching sites wouldn't reduce rocket barrages, that if we set foot in Gaza's mire we'd be unable to extricate ourselves, and finally that a job partially done is the whole shebang, that a premature return to square one will guarantee that a Lebanese-like flop won't be replayed in Gaza.

IN A NUTSHELL, Agam, even if you lack the absolutely perfect candidate to rave about, you can at least vote for the lesser of the various evils. You might not be sure about whom to vote for, but you can be sure about whom to oppose. If you don't vote to defeat sycophants, retreat-merchants and deceivers, then you'll surely fall prey to what Proverbs 36:11 admonishes against.

"Like a dog that returns to its vomit," stresses the ancient wisdom, "is the fool who repeats his folly."

Take heed Agam. Avoid repugnant reflexes and the thoughtless replication of what you shouldn't have done in past elections. To paraphrase the lyrics of Bing's old-time hit in the timeless spirit of Proverbs: "Would you like to be better off than you are, or would you rather be a dog?"

Trying To Kill An Imperishable Beauty: The Grotesque Joy Of Jihadist Violence Against Israel

Louis Rene Beres - Feb 04, 2009
The Jewish Press


To be sure, it is time to call all things by their correct names. Just as Israel seeks to bring great beauty into the world, its sanguinary Islamist enemies thrive reciprocally upon violence and horror. Contrary to what is generally reported in the media, there is absolutely nothing basically political or purposeful about their fevered campaign of Jihadist war, cowardice and brutality. Their true objective is plain for all to see. It is for the sheer and ecstatic joy of bringing incommunicable pain and utter extermination to Jews. Significantly, for these murderers masquerading as "militants," the means and ends of Jewish bloodletting are entirely indistinguishable. Why is this so difficult to understand at BBC, CNN and other disingenuous purveyors of falsity and contrivance? In Iran, as in Gaza, undisguised threats to annihilate Israel are even a perverse balm for manipulated majorities. Were it not for that country's determined capacity to inflict existential harms, these genocidal threats would not be all that serious. But Tehran's ascent to full membership in the Nuclear Club is now less than two years away, and such membership will likely coincide with an Iranian leadership belief in the Shiite apocalypse. This suggests that Jerusalem may soon have to face not only Palestinian suicide-bombers, but also the suicide bomber in macrocosm.

The true goal of Israel's myriad Islamist enemies, not only the goal expressed so openly by Iran, is always extermination. Even in a world that has now grown comfortable with every conceivable form of slaughter, Israel remains the object of glaringly new kinds of crimes against humanity. In the bitterest of ironies, an ancient nation that was ingathered to prevent another Holocaust has now become the dominant focus of yet another "final solution." Even more ironic, the rest of the world is not merely indifferent to newly impending crimes against humanity directed at Jews, but - at least in large numbers - shamelessly sympathetic to the prospective exterminators.

So, what else is new? For us Jews, it must seem, yet again, that there is nothing new under the sun. Looked at more broadly, the goal of Israel's enemies, especially Iran and the nascent Palestinian state, is to be left standing while Israel is made to disappear. For these irremediable enemies of a Jewish state, there can be no coexistence of any kind. Never. This is because their own enjoyment of the world, and also their own survival, presumably require Israel's extinction.

Soon, the new president of the United States, Barack Obama, will soberly and seriously extol the virtues of the same old twisted cartography - that is, the so-called "Road Map" to peace in the Middle East. Yet, like the Oslo Agreements that preceded it, this stillborn plan is premised on Israel's acceptance of land for nothing. Asymmetrical international agreements always miss an important point: International law is not a suicide pact.

Under the longstanding customary rule of "anticipatory self-defense," Israel still has every right to strike first at developing Iranian nuclear infrastructures. Further, to undertake such a preemption could become more than a legal right. It could even become a distinct obligation, not only to the imperiled people of Israel, but also to the most elementary expectations of civilized international relations.

If anticipatory self-defense remains operationally possible (a problematic determination at this point), Jerusalem should not be inhibited by smug assurances of alternative protections from the "international community." Here, for Israel to decline an operationally plausible preemption, could be nothing less than an implicit acknowledgment that international law may expressly defile international justice.

It must surely be a fatal mistake for Israel to believe that Reason and Justice govern the world. It must be an unforgivable error for Israel to project its own Western, rational and humane sentiments upon its most relentless and barbarous foes. As I have pointed out so often here in The Jewish Press, it would be a life risk for Israel to seek to remain standing by clinging foolishly to glaringly false promises and manifestly false hopes.

It is always an error for Israel to fashion policies upon deeply unwarranted assumptions. Whether in Gaza, West Bank (Judea/Samaria) or Tehran, Israel's Jihadist enemies wish to kill Jews primarily because such murder is felt to be a deeply sacred obligation. For these enemies, killing Jews is an authentic expression of religious sacrifice, and one that will confer precious immunity from personal death.

Could there be any greater incentive to plan the next genocide of Jews? This idea of death as a zero-sum commodity - "I kill you; I therefore remain alive forever" - has been explained in some of the finest psychology literature. For example, it is captured perfectly in Ernest Becker's paraphrase of Nobel Laureate Elias Canetti: "Each organism raises its head over a field of corpses, smiles into the sun, and declares life good."

Shouldn't this idea be especially obvious to us, to the Jewish People? Isn't it time that Israel finally understand what Otto Rank had revealed so courageously in Will Therapy and Truth and Reality: "The death fear of the ego is lessened by the killing, the Sacrifice, of the other; through the death of the other one buys oneself free from the penalty of dying, of being killed."

Israel's enemies, in order to remain standing - and to prevent Israel from standing up - seek tosacrifice the Jewish State on a bloodstained altar of war and terrorism. The idea ofsacrifice, therefore, is absolutely central to understanding what is now happening in the Middle East. The planned genocidal destruction of Israel is integrally part of a system of religious worship that is oriented toward the conquest of personal death.

Present-day Israel should not glibly ignore 4,000 years of Jewish history and world politics. The true source of global influence is always power, and the greatest expression of raw power is always the conquest of death. For the president of Iran, and for the proposed criminal government of executioners now battling each other for control in some future Palestinian state, killing Jews - indeed, killing Israel itself - offers an incomparable fusion of private ecstasy and personal survival. These sworn enemies of Israel are much more than dimly aware that in killing Jews and in killing Israel, theywill have killed their own death. For the Islamist "martyr," whether as a terrorist individual or as a murderous individual writ large (i.e. the state of Iran), killing Jews and the constituted Jewish State is the optimal way of affirming life. For this hideous "lover of death," nothing can be more important than overcoming personal mortality.

Only when Israel learns to acknowledge and appreciate this particular enemy perception will that country finally understand its overriding obligation to stay alive. To fulfill this sacred obligation, Israel should combine a determined willingness to preemptively destroy Iran's now nearly complete engines of atomic annihilation (a willingness spawned in part by the persistent refusal of the United States to itself exercise this expression of anticipatory self-defense) with a clear and parallel determination to resist any further territorial withdrawals from Judea/Samaria. The People of Israel are entitled to live securely on this land without constant threats of intimidation and also of dispossession issued by their own leaders.

The intolerable security costs to Israel of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza "disengagement" are now visible for all to see. To the extent that Hamas in Gaza, continues to closely collaborate with al-Qaeda (a portentous collaboration that has been all but ignored during Israel's ongoing Gaza operation), these costs will soon also have to be borne by citizens of the United States. Although still largely unreported, Hamas has already begun to allow al-Qaeda elements to fashion certain WMD terror weapons for strategic use in New York, London, Washington, and against other selected "crusader" targets in the West.

Israel can bring great and unparalleled beauty into the world, but only if the so-called "community of nations" can first understand the following: Israel is the canary in the mine; it is the civilized world's first line of defense against the Jihadist flood of medieval barbarism and voluptuous carnage. To continue to believe that suicide bombers and suicide states somehow have a proper place in our world would only repre

LOUIS RENÉ BERES (Ph.D., Princeton, 1971) lectures and publishes widely on Israeli security matters. His work is well known in Israel's political, military and intelligence communities, and to these same communities in the United States. Professor Beres was Chair of "Project Daniel," and is the author of ten major books on international relations and international law. He is Strategic and Military Affairs columnist for The Jewish Press.

UNRWA School Not Hit By Israel: U.N

2/6/2009 1:40 AM ET
(RTTNews) - The United Nations Thursday backed down from a claim that one of its school in Gaza was hit by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) mortar attack last month, correcting its earlier media statements that a massacre occurred within the U.N. education facility, media reports said. The U.N.'s latest field report reads, "The humanitarian coordinator would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school."

The revelation reinforces the Israeli assertions that the militant organization, Hamas had been attacking the Israeli forces from civilian locations, thus the high civilian casualties from Israeli retaliation.

The U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) January 7 said that "43 persons were killed following an attack on a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school transformed into a refugee site for displaced persons."
John Ging, UNRWA's operations director in Gaza, had accused Israel of deliberately carrying out a "horrific" attack by targeting its school and claimed Israel knew it was targeting a U.N. facility.

Following the U.N. claim, the whole world condemned Israel over what was perceived as a blatant attack on a school.

However, the latest revelations were not expected to ease calls by human rights groups for an independent investigation into these and other incidents.

Palestinian medics have said that many of the over 1.300 persons reportedly killed in the three-week Israeli offensive were civilians, including many women and children.

by RTT Staff Writer

The year American greatness collapsed

Jeffrey T. Kuhner
The Washington Times

Historians will look at 2008 and say it was the year that America ceased to be a great superpower. A war-weary public threw in the towel against Islamic fascism, and embraced President-elect Barack Obama’s policy of appeasement. Groveling in fear of a recession, Americans also overthrew their free market ideals. This was the year of false hope by an Obama prophet, who will only accelerate our demise. The core of Mr. Obama’s appeal — behind the vacuous promises of “change” and hope” — is that his election will ”restore America’s standing in the world.” The muscular, unilateralist foreign policy of President Bush is over. Conservative nationalism is out; liberal multi-lateralism is in. Mr. Obama vows to wind down the Iraq war restore our alliances and engage in direct dialogue with rogue states, such as Iran, North Korea and Venezuela,

Tue American electorate has buried its collective head in the sand, hoping that Mr. Obama can somehow — through his slick rhetoric, artificial demeanor, and worldwide celebrity status – will convince our enemies to lay down their weapons. He will not succeed.

Our celebrity-in-chief does not frighten or inspire the murderous, anti-American thugs in Tehran, Pyongyang or Caracas. They see him for what he is: a weak, naive and oscillating leader, who does not understand the growing threat against the West. In fact, he is even part of the problem.
Not since the late 1960s has, the United States — and Western civilization — faced such a powerful array of enemies. Islamic extremism is on the march.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan has become a hot-bed of fundamentalism. The Taliban and al Qaeda have established a vital sanctuary within its borders. NATO troops are in a bloody quagmire in Afghanistan. Hezbollah has set up a theocratic statelet within Lebanon. North Korea continues to sell missile technology to Syria (which, in turn, supports Hamas and Hezbollah). Somalia is teetering on the brink of an Islamist revolution. Saudi Arabia continues to fund radical madrassas around the world. Sudan is recruiting jihadists in its genocidal campaign against Darfur.

The biggest threat, however, comes from revolutionary Iran: 2008 was when Tehran reached the point of no return in its quest for the bomb. Iran’s mullahs are now within reach of possessing the capability for a nuclear weapons program.

In the face of this gathering storm, Mr. Obama pledges diplomatic carrots and negotiations. He fails to recognize we are at war not only with terrorist sponsoring states, but a totalitarian fascist ideology that seeks to impose a global Muslim caliphate. Radical Islam’s greatest ally is Communist China. Beijing’s capitalists don’t much care for Islamic practices (in fact, they have a restive Muslim population of their own), but their attitude is more Machiavellian: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

China’s leaders are bent upon becoming the world’s next superpower. They are engaged in a massive military buildup. They threaten neighbors, such as Taiwan, India and Japan. They have formed an anti-American, anti-democratic alliance with Russia, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria and Sudan.

If 2008 can be compared to any previous year, it is 1938 – the year of Munich, appeasement and self-delusion in the face of xenophobic militarism. Then the Axis powers consisted of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan. Today it is authoritarian China, a revanchist Russia and revolutionary Iran. Their goal: to bring America to its knees.

For the first time in decades, the United States faces a massive economic crisis. Moreover, 2008 saw the triumph of socialism in America. The taxpayer bailouts of the financial and auto sectors, the nationalization of the big banks, the explosion in deficit spending — all of it has not only failed to revive the economy, but marked a huge expansion in governmental activism.

Mr. Obama promises to complete America's transformation into a Scandinavian-style social democracy with universal health care, federally subsidized day care, a massive public works program and soak-the-rich tax increases. The results will be the same as in Europe: anemic economic growth, high unemployment, a bloated and ossified public bureaucracy and a dependent and less productive citizenry.

The European Union shows that a sclerotic, highly taxed, over-regulated economy eventually leads to a defanged military — and the inevitable loss of world power status. America has chosen to follow the ruinous road of Europe.

An honest and serious media would have exposed all of these issues — and the dangerous pitfalls of an Obama presidency. Instead, the 2008 campaign represented the culmination of a low, dishonest decade. A sycophantic press corps suppressed damaging information about Mr. Obama and effectively carried him into the White House. They have thus carried America’s Neville Chamberlain on their shoulders, in a massive delusion that the problem was George W. Bush when, in fact, the problem we face are the evil forces aligned against us.

In 1938, German dictator Adolph Hitler gained the precious months he needed to wage his war of aggression. History is repeating itself— except this time, Fascism does not have a Nazi face, but a Persian Islamic one. Americans think they have bought themselves peace and prosperity with Mr. Obama. Yet, neither peace nor prosperity has previously been secured by cowering to the enemies of freedom.

The year 2008 was the year of surrender.

Jeffrey T Kuhner is a columnist for the Washington Times

Why does Israel want to lose the media war?

There's an astounding article by Philippe Karsenty (pictured), the man who exposed the Mohamed al-Dura 'killing' as being (at best) falsely blamed on Israel, in which he rips the covers off his own battle with the Israeli government to expose the al-Dura affair. No, that's not a mistake. I know that Karsenty's court battle was with France 2, but he is still battling the Israeli establishment to try to make it fight media bias (Hat Tip: Ashan). In 2002, when it was still possible to do something immediate, Nissim Zvili was the Israeli ambassador to Paris. He listened courteously but explained to me that he was a friend of Charles Enderlin, the French journalist who narrated the al Dura hoax. [That's actually not surprising. Zvili was chairman of the Labor party and was an old-style Labor politician who believed that the State = the Party. CiJ]

In 2006, Zvili was replaced by Daniel Shek, who refused to shake my hand, and later commented on a Jewish radio that I was defending “conspiracy theories.” When I asked his colleague in charge of communication at the embassy in Paris, Daniel Halevy Goitschel, why he never returned my phone calls, he responded: “the phone doesn’t work at the embassy”. We are not even dealing with a lack of support here. On the contrary, I was being sabotaged.

When I won the case in May 2008, Yigal Palmor, the spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said: “Karsenty is a private individual and no one in the Israeli government asked him to take on his battle against France 2. Karsenty had no right to demand that Israel come to his aid. All calls on the Israeli government to come and ‘save’ him are out of place. He was summoned to court because of a complaint of the French television channel. I don’t see where there is room for the Israeli government to get involved.”

Last December, I went over the evidence with Aviv Shir-On, who now claims to have helped me, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). After two hours he repeated the old MFA refrain, “I’m not convinced”. Let’s say, for the sake of generosity, that Shir-On is just one more timid defender of Israel, so afraid of what “others” might say, that even the judgment of an independent (and hardly well-disposed) French court in favor of his own country, does not give him the courage to speak. So even though I won the case, and the new evidence from France 2 sharpens our argument, I could not count on Israeli officials to help move into a counter-attack. Enderlin, humiliated by the court decision, was allowed to bluff his way back to prominence, and recently, in the Gaza war, lead the journalists’ attack on the Israeli government. [Please follow that link and then come back here. CiJ]

You would at least think that maybe the Israeli foreign ministry would now appreciate what Karsenty did for us. Sadly - indeed stunningly - they don't.

On January 2009, I met Tsipi Livni, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and asked her about the al Dura story and the lack of reaction of the Israeli officials. Why didn't the State of Israel demand that France 2 admit their blood libel following the court decision? I was stunned by her answer: “Well, it happens that we kill kids sometimes. So, it’s not good for Israel to raise the subject again”.

Keep in mind that's the woman who would become Prime Minister next week. What astounding stupidity!

Oh, and for those of you who think we 'won' the media war during Operation Cast Lead, we did better than the last time, but we definitely did not win the media war.

Let’s return to the Gaza war. Israelis did much better in the media than they did in earlier crises. They were less quick to apologize; much faster to challenge… but only the Palestinians. Heaven forbid, they should challenge a news media that consistently attacked Israeli representatives even as they allowed Palestinian spokesmen to claim anything they wanted, and then repeated those claims to their audiences.

Karsenty is correct. If you go to the Fox link above (here it is again), you will see that it's not Israel's foreign ministry that is challenging the France 2 footage in question.

Like many Israeli bloggers, last week I signed up for a joint program of the foreign ministry and the absorption ministry that would try to use bloggers as front-line warriors in the country's public relations battle. Approximately 1,000 bloggers signed up. So far, all that has happened is that they have asked us to download a notification mechanism from Giyus.org, which lets us know every time something 'important' happens. But during the war, we weren't getting our information from the foreign ministry. The best and timeliest information I got during the war came from the IDF spokesperson's office, which contacted me directly (not through the media) and asked me to get the word out.

Why does the foreign ministry behave like it does? I'm not sure the foreign ministry is interested in winning the media war. For most of the last ten years, the foreign ministry has been under the Left's control, and has often worked at cross-purposes with the government in power and with the interests of the Jewish state. Then again, considering that our current prime minister and foreign minister consider Israel's most important goal to be the creation of a 'Palestinian' state reichlet, maybe the foreign ministry is carrying out the government's orders after all.

Who to Vote for?

Steven Shamrak

Quite often, during election time in Israel , I have been asked: "Who would you vote for?" As a true believer in democracy and the Jewish tradition of respect for the rights of individual to "Free Will", I am reluctant to advise people who to vote for, but I have no problem about pointing out who Israeli voters must not vote for.Based on the experience of many decades and the performance by the Labor party and recent political creations like Kadima, I would strongly recommend voters in Israel to remove from the Knesset as many as possible members of:

Labor party. Since 1948, the Labor party has been the dominant political force in Israel . For decades it has used its political power to corrupt and infest governmental infrastructures, including defence and the Israeli judicial system, by its own cronies! (That is the reason why vitamin "P"- Protectsia - has become the most important 'product' in Israel ). And now, the Labor party is actively promoting the bogus idea of a Two-state solution. It is willing to sacrifice more Jewish land and betray Jewish inspiration for the National homeland just for the need to stay in power and appeasement of our enemies, both old and new!

Kadima party. This is a new political innovation, just like the Shinui party of not long ago if you still remember it. Kadima was formed by corrupt and unscrupulous 'political survivors' who had opportunistically run away from the Labor and Lukud parties. These self-serving personalities, like Olmert, wanted to stay in power at any cost and needed to keep themselves protected from the law. That is why members of Kadima are in political unison with the Labor party.

Unfortunately, there is nothing can be done to change the ideologically skewed minds of the Meretz party supporters. I have never been able to understand why seemingly intelligent Jews with political affiliations to the Communist or Leftist ideologies are so motivated to facilitate the destruction of their own country and people. Don't they understand that Islam is repulsed by their principles and hates their guts even more then Zionism! How is it compatible with their ideology?

I just hope that this time common sense and true political integrity will prevail, and parties like Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, Habayit Hayehudi, Ichud Leumi and Shas will set aside their differences and focus on the achievement of the Jewish National goal, Eretz-Israel!

Vote for the Future of Israel. Many Israelis are disillusioned with the alternatives and may not vote as voting is not compulsory. It is of the utmost importance to inform the Israeli voting public that the following parties that have made a commitment to Mattot Arim ( Israel) that they will not support the creation of a Palestinian State on Jewish soil: Yisrael Beiteinu, Habayit Hayehudi, Ichud Leumi, Shas. (This message brought to you by the United Torah Bloc)

'Moderate' Fatah Fired Rocket at Israel . Al-Aqsa Brigades, Fatah movement's armed wing, said that its terrorists fired one rocket at the town of Ashkelon in southern Israel last Thursday. Another rocket landed near the southern Israeli town of Sderot. (It is time for "Reality Check"!)


Food for Thought. by Steven Shamrak

The pro-Zionist parties of Israel must remember how the Second Temple was lost to the Romans! Stop fighting each other and focus on winning over those voters who are sadly still supporting the Kadima or Labor parties and their policy of appeasement of our enemies.

Police to Influence the Election. A police investigation into Israel 's "Our Home" leader Avigdor Lieberman right before the elections is inappropriate. The police detained seven people connected to Lieberman. (It is a well known secret in Israel that the police and justice department are well 'stocked' by supporters of the Labor party.)

The missile fired from Gaza out to the Mediterranean last week was not a Qassam as reported but a C-802, the Iranian shore-to-ship Nur C-802 missile

What is the Rush For? Israel hastened its pullout of troops from the Gaza Strip, aiming to have the last units out before Barack Obama was sworn in as US President. (Why must security and the lives of Jews in Israel be 'synchronised' with the inauguration of the president in the US?)

While World 'Sleeps'. While the world's nations dilly-dally around dealing effectively with the Iranian effort to acquire nuclear weapons with which to wipe out Israel, the Islamist regime continues to race ahead in its efforts to get "the bomb."

Same Inaction Produce Same Result! Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said the Gaza war with Israel amounted to a "great victory". "We have stopped the aggression and the enemy has failed to achieve any of its goals." (When will the inept politicians learn?)

The Move is Long Overdue. The Chief Rabbinate has broken ties with the Vatican in protest of the Pope's decision to reinstate Bishop Richard Williamson, who is a known Holocaust denier. Williamson recently claimed that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were murdered by Nazis during the Holocaust, not six million. (It is Time to Regain Self-Respect and abandon the policies of appeasement)

Leadership with NO Self-Respect! Israeli President Shimon Peres (former leader of Labor party) apologised by telephone to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the latter stormed out of a Davos debate. (Erdogan was rude to Israel and stormed out in order to raise his own popularity in Muslim world. Why has self-disrespectful Peres apologised? When will stupidity end? Israel needs leadership, which respects its own people and country!)

Quote of the Week: "I cannot entertain the notion that any Israeli would tell the Hamas that they basically won. If someone does this, I will face off against him with full force." - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former leader of Kadima - So what was the 'Charade' war in Gaza for? To boost the popularity of Kadima party! How can the people in the Kadima and Labor parties look their neighbours and the parents of the killed solders in the eye? The new 'Calm' did not even last a week. Enough of the same ineffectual policies! A new direction must be embraced!

Sour Moral Victory for a Patriot. The Supreme Court has rejected a request by the military prosecutor to revoke leadership ranks from an officer, Reserve Captain Moshe Botavia, who refused to obey orders during the uprooting of Jewish communities as part of the Disengagement of 2005, but he was demoted to Second Lieutenant. (The Kadima/Labor government persecutes Jewish patriots but lets the terrorists of Hamas and Hizbullah off the hook.)

Why Have a Fake Truce? Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the radical Islamic rulers of Gaza will never accept a long term truce with Israel as long as the crossing points remain closed. (so they will be able to bring in even more weapons and break the truce any time it is convenient for Hamas, as has already happened!)

Iran Elite Forces in Gaza. Israel 's military killed several Iranian military advisers from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps during the 22-day war with Hamas.

UN fears of 'War crimes'. A UN human rights expert says Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip during its recent offensive there raised "the spectre of systematic war crimes" and needed to be investigated. ('Useless nothing' did not worry about "systematic war crimes" committed by Hamas during 8 years of indiscriminate bombarding of civilians in Israel . However, it was quick off the mark to start an anti-Israel smear campaign! This deeply anti-Semitic organization never cares about Jewish children who were killed by 'Palestinian' terrorists!)

The Peace that Was Never Offered. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose country has been engaged in indirect peace talks with Israel, said an Arab initiative for peace with Israel was "dead".

When Political Correctness is Cast Out. More than 90 per cent of Jewish Israelis backed the invasion in Gaza, although that view is reversed among Arab Israelis. Attitudes among Jewish Israelis were so hardened that 80 per cent would oppose Israel opening its crossings to Gaza even if Hamas stopped firing on southern towns. "There's no doubt that Israelis feel that justice is on their side," said Professor Ephraim Yaar. (The support among Jewish Israelis would be higher and stronger if the Israeli government would start the implementation of the Sinai Option! The attitude of the Arab Israelis has just exposed their anti-Israel standing again!)

Qadaffi Exposed 'Refugees'!

In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi states that Arabs who fled the newly established state of Israel in 1948 were not forced to leave by Jews, as many Arab politicians and intellectuals state in the world media. Many of the Arabs who left did so of their own volition, fearing violence that never materialized. Israel has stated many times that the Arabs left because they were prompted to by the Arab governments such as Egypt and Syria, which urged them to get out of the way in order to enable the Arab armies to get rid of the Jews. "It is important to note that the Jews did not forcibly expel Palestinians. They were never un-welcomed." Qadaffi wrote. (Sometimes Arab leaders are honest by accident!)

Divide et impera

The Jordan Times

The division between the Islamic movement, Hamas, and Fateh, the mainstream Palestinian grouping, is getting deeper and more worrying by the day.

The division between the two was aggravated by Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal’s decision to break away from the Fateh-controlled Palestine Liberation Organisation and establish a new national grouping. This led Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to declare that he will not continue a reconciliation dialogue with any Palestinian faction that rejects the PLO as the only lawful, internationally recognised representative of the Palestinian people.. Mishaal has not made his connection with Iran a secret; he visited Tehran for talks with Iranian officials and appears to be pinning more hope and trust on the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than on any other Arab country or leader.

This split in the Palestinian ranks overshadows all other divisions and disagreements in the region, including those related to the terms for a durable truce between Israel and Hamas.

Unfortunately, as long as the Palestinians are at odds over how to achieve independence and statehood, no amount of effort, from within or outside the area, can be expected to bear fruit, including any advocated by US President Barack Obama.

Internecine divisions have plagued the Palestinians from the day the British mandate over Palestine expired, in 1948. They continue due to the interference of non-Palestinian actors. As long as some of the self-declared Palestinian representatives continue to serve the agenda of foreign parties, the discord will continue to frustrate the attainment of the Palestinian national goals.

Arab countries can do much to reverse such trend. There are some Arab governments that have openly sided with one Palestinian movement or the other. Arab summits and other conferences under the umbrella of the Arab League have failed to achieve a durable Palestinian unity. This is due, in part, to the lack of candour of Arab efforts.

If Arab leaders say in public what they think and reveal in private, the attainment of Palestinian unity can be closer at hand. Patronising one faction or another is at the expense of the Palestinian national rights.

GAZAN TEARS DROWN CAST LEAD

Nidra Poller
Paris

What did we do wrong this time? It looked like Cast Lead would be appreciated at its just value, but no… international opinion couldn’t stomach a 3-week military operation against the jihadis of Hamastan. The repercussions in Europe and even in the United States were more radical than the “Al Aqsa Intifada” episode. To the point of punishing our six million victims of the Shoah by cancelling commemoration ceremonies. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123309682003921603.html Daniel Schwammenthal of the WSJ thinks its time to stop the flow of crocodile tears.) The level of Jew hatred in the “free world” has risen drastically. IDF personnel are threatened with arrest and prosecution in European countries for “war crimes.” And we hear once again that Israel has lost the PR war. What if it is not a question of PR, hasbara, propaganda, or other familiar techniques of persuasion? Global jihad—the ongoing never-ending Islamic war of conquest—is armed today with a weapon that I have named “lethal narratives.” Let us see how the narrative functioned to transform a justified riposte against an unabashed enemy into a criminal assault on innocent civilians.

Surprised by the massive December 27 air strike, Hamas had nothing to show for its suffering but a courtyard strewn with the husky bodies of uniformed combatants (William Sieghart of http://www.forwardthinking.org:80/described them as worthy police rookies who had just completed training in conflict resolution The Times 31 December ‘08). For approximately three days the conflict was described realistically. Hamas and its allies, after attacking Israel for eight years from Gaza, broke a six-month truce with a massive onslaught of rockets. Israel, like any democratic country, was forced to act to protect its population. Israeli strikes were aimed at Hamas command and control sites. The continued launch of rockets aimed at civilian targets deep into southern Israel was in and of itself justification for the Cast Lead operation.

Then Palestinian spokespersons—Leila Shahid in France—rushed into the media and started firing their lethal narrative Kalashnikovs. Pom pom pom pom occupation, colonization, blockade, food shortages, checkpoints, breadlines, blackouts, overburdened hospitals, shortage of medicine, collective punishment and--the jackpot—population density. “Gaza, with a population of one and a half million, is the most densely populated place on earth.” The population figures are bloated, the density is an outright lie (Gaza is 300 times bigger than the Washington Mall where a reported 2 million worshippers gathered on January 20th for the Barack Hussein Obama inauguration), but facts cannot stand up to the Palestinian suffering story.

Meanwhile, back in the Strip, Hamas got its act together: Bloodied bodies of small children, wailing women arms outspread, husky men pretending to be simple citizens, crooked statistics and cockeyed testimonials from Haniyehs’s willing UNWRA executioners cleverly described as “UN sources.” The lethal narrative covered the truth with a blanket of Israeli guilt, a totalitarian story that leaves no room for facts or common sense, no space for civilized debate. Once the all-encompassing delusion is locked in, nothing can dislodge it. Feeding on its own fuel it rises to new heights day by day. It is so predictable, one could write the news reports a week in advance. And, because the narrative replaces reality, subsequent revelations are inoperative. Hamas gunmen did fire from schools, mosques, and hospitals. They stored weapons in private homes. The population is fed up. The good doctor’s daughters were killed by Hamas weapons not Israeli gunfire… French media didn’t bother to cover any of these boring details.

International opinion, bloated on Gazan hunger and thirst, was not interested to learn that food supplies brought in daily were commandeered by Hamas while plump matrons in hijab wailed hunger and thirst. The European Union was howling for a humanitarian ceasefire, a humanitarian corridor, humanitarian open borders (from the Israeli side…the Egyptian border did not interest them) as trucks laden with aid trundled into Gaza every day. But real trucks with real supplies could not enter into the delusionary world that had replaced reality.

On the diplomatic front, President Sarkozy immediately went into European negotiation mode. Though his 6-month term as rotating EU president was over at the year’s end, he upstaged his successor, Czech president Mirek Topolanek, and grabbed a major role in the Ceasefire Diplomacy Show. Sarkozy declared the Israeli riposte “disproportionate” and proceeded to use his boundless energy in a frenzy of slapdash meetings that could have only one outcome—protect Hamas from the full force of Israeli might and fuel the relentless Israeli guilt production machine. Barack Hussein Obama conserved a lofty silence during the 3-week military campaign, allowing hope-soaked Zionists to believe he truly meant what he said about Israel’s right to self-defense.

And now, President Obama, his European friends and moderate Muslim allies, basking in their newfound complicity, are undermining Israel’s dissuasive capacity with hollow promises of a helping hand and a remake of that all-time flop—the Peace Process-- the new guilt-free way to lead Jews into the valley of death without an ounce of antisemitism.

Aided and abetted by EU peace-hawking diplomacy, Hamas, the Iranian proxy, made progress toward its stated goals of destroying of the State of Israel, killing Jews and establishing sharia in every last corner of the earth. How did Hamas fight? By hiding combatants dead or alive, displaying civilian wounds, and pumping out the lethal narrative. Instead of having the decency to thank Israeli citizens for bearing the full burden of this episode in the ongoing jihad conquest, European media and officials closed ranks behind Sarkozy the Ceasefireman and---deliberately or inadvertently-- spawned the most shameful public display of support for jihad ever witnessed in democratic nations. The pro-Palestinian demonstrations of 2000-3 were a mix of leftists, peaceniks, ecologists, and assorted do-gooders with a large contingent of jihadis. The recent marches in France were almost pure products of the Muslim Brotherhood, with a sprinkling of far left leaders and a surprisingly small contingent of black African Muslims. French media deliberately underplayed the virulence and the violence of these demonstrations, leaving the majority of the population dismally ignorant of the growing danger.

The enraged mobs that stormed through the streets of European cities and towns and, with equal virulence, in American cities as well, recall the murderous mobs that invaded Jewish neighborhoods in Arab countries in the late 40s and 50s. Today’s Jew-haters marched as conquerors, draped in keffieh, displaying Hamas, Hizbullah, and Palestinian flags, brandishing portraits of Izzedine al Qassam, shouting Death to Israel, Death to the Jews, equating the Magen David with the swastika, carrying bloodied dolls in winding sheets, burning Israeli and American flags, confident that no one would stop them.

These strikingly uniform marches must be recognized as an international show of force and an authentic conquest of territory achieved, not by fighting man to man but by provoking—and losing-- a military confrontation in Gaza. The civilian casualties are a weapon, the ruins are a weapon, and the bombed tunnels that are used to smuggle rockets into Gaza are transformed into victims of Israeli aggression. We can not understand these jihad strategies within a traditional war and peace framework. If, however, we understand that the aim is to kill Jews, to justify the killing of Jews, and to make that justification apply throughout the once free world, we will stop wasting our energy in futile attempts to prove that we—the Jews, Israel—are not evildoers.

Once the lethal narrative was locked in place, Hamas disappeared from the public mind, the rockets aimed at Israeli civilians lost their sting, and Israel was in the hot seat, accused—guess what—of killing children. The al Dura effect! Whenever an Israeli or a local Zionist appeared on a TV or radio debate in France, he was asked to explain why the IDF was killing children. The accused Zionist would open with a heartfelt expression of distress at the death of any child, every child, even a child used to shield armed men, and then explain the measures taken by Tsahal to avoid killing civilians. He might accuse Hamas of using “human shields” or regret the inevitable “collateral damage”…but could he explain how Hamas uses dead children as weapons aimed at the destruction of Israel?

How cruel! To leave Israeli soldiers with no alternative but to kill civilians, and then condemn them as heartless murderers. Could we lift that crushing burden off our shoulders and heave it at the insolent inquisitor? “Why do you keep throwing those dead children in my face? Do you really think I take pleasure in killing children? Do you think I am so stupid that I would go out of my way to kill children instead of attacking the armed men who want to kill my children? Do I kill children to endear myself with international opinion? Let me ask you something. Why don’t you convince Hamas to stop trying to kill Israeli children in Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheva and beyond? Why don’t you force Hamas to stop aiming at Jewish civilians? You can’t. Because you have no influence on Hamas. Your words fall on deaf ears, your clever negotiating schemes leave them cold, your threats, if you made any, would not faze them. The only way to “convince” Hamas is by military action. That is precisely what we are doing. You do not have the courage to admit it, so you ask me why we are killing children.”

An inquisitor enclosed in the lethal narrative of Israeli guilt cannot be convinced by facts; perhaps he can be shocked back into reality? They don’t like disproportion? Give them proportions! One thousand dead in Gaza is equivalent to one dead Jew in proportion to their respective populations. Palestinian suffering? A drop in the bucket. Palestinians are a tiny minority of the world’s Muslims, the vast majority live in their own splendid countries, or enjoy equal rights in our democratic nations.

Can our nonsense neutralize their nonsense? President Sarkozy promises to punish, with equal severity, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia [sic]! He will not allow anyone to import the Mideast conflict. How so? By confiscating satellite dishes? Forbidding domestic media to report on the conflict? Do Jews who import their loyalty to Israel attack Muslims, desecrate mosques, and burn hallal butcher shops? No. If Muslims attack Jews it is not because they import the conflict but because they import Hamas’ values and methods.

French Jews can’t defend themselves. While Jews were targeted in countless attacks—at least 150 to date—the media found time to focus on an incident in front of Lycée Jeansson-Sailly in the posh 16th arrondissement. Some Muslim pupils said they were attacked by extremists from the Jewish Defense League; the JDL denies all involvement. But the two 15 year-old Jewish boys accused of beating up the Muslims were immediately detained and charged. And the case was exploited to present a false picture of equally balanced inter-communitarian strife. Mainstream media present almost no details about attacks against Jews, give no details, identify no culprits, report no jail sentences.

Expression of sincere concern for Gaza’s civilians is like blood in shark-infested waters; it excites our enemies. Today, one week after the ceasefire, accusations against Israel have reached a paroxysm. Totally unrelated to reality, they are based on the jihad narrative that casts Palestinians as Jews to Israel’s Nazis. (Islamic tradition offers boundless sources of invective against Jews[1] in The Hamas jihadis who produce these lethal narratives and feed them to Westerners know their stories of Israeli exactions and atrocities are not true. (Charles Enderlin and Talal Abu Rahma, author and producer of the al Dura blood libel, had no shame in reporting this week on the senseless destruction of Mister Hammoudi’s orchards. Why Mr. Hammoudi? Why his harmless, unarmed, civilian olive trees? Why his plump ripe oranges? Oh, by the way, the Israelis claim—but who would believe them—that rockets were launched from this site.) And Israel not their only target. The vilification of Israel also subverts Western civilization by attacking its Judaic foundations, undermining its rationality, and drawing it into collaboration in a genocidal project that will, if left unchecked, destroy the West. While the EU plays peacemaker, its Brussels headquarters--with a 1/3rd Muslim population--goes wild with virulent anti-Zionist pro-Hamas demonstrations with all political parties except the xx (cite CDI). Freedom of expression is under attack throughout Europe, Geneva is preparing to welcome the Durban II hatefest, Geert Wilders will have to stand trial in the Netherlands for exposing truths about Islam. Will the United States resist this trend, now that Obama has launched his Yes We Can Mideast Peace Plan?

It is time for the rightful owners to take back the Warsaw ghetto image stolen by pro-Hamas demonstrators. Israel, not Gaza, is the Warsaw ghetto… no less courageous but, this time, sovereign and equipped to win. Many Diaspora Jews still refuse to believe that our fate is linked to Israel’s survival. But if conditions worsen in Europe and eventually in the United States, the balance will shift, greater support will be mobilized. Israeli citizens know how to fight to defend their country. Jews and non-Jews elsewhere in the free world will have to learn how.

As long as we don’t twist ourselves into guilt-ridden knots, we can be strengthened by the prevailing hysteria. It is time to admit, once and for all, that the problem in not the lack of reliable information. Anyone in his right mind can see that Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the extermination of Jews. If the military operation against Hamas is not acceptable to “international opinion” it means that Jews are not allowed to fight back ever against anyone. We can only be victims. It is up to us to prove the contrary.


[1] Salah Abd al Fattah al Khalidi. Qu’ranic Truths regarding the Palestinian Issue, London, Muslim Palestine Publications, 1994 in Bostom, Andrew, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: 447

“We have displayed above a number of despicable Jewish traits, and we have demonstrated that they are inveterate and deeply rooted in the complex Jewish consciousness, and they have instigated themselves deep in the debased Jewish personality. We have also shown that this has been the situation throughout all of Jewish history in general and it is embedded in the Jews of today. The noble Qu’ran is the sole source on which we have relied, and from which we have recorded these Jewish traits and what we have written about them is sufficient.”

Ichud Leumi: Revolutionary Reform for Western Olim

Yehuda HaKohen
Uri Bank, Candidate Number 5 on the Ichud Leumi (National Union) list, unveils a new revolutionary approach to western Aliyah [immigration to Israel]. He hopes to broaden the focus to meet the needs of the western Olim [immigrants] he hopes to represent in the next Knesset. This past Saturday night, 1,700 English-speaking Israelis packed into Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue to hear candidates from nine different Knesset factions speak of their respective parties' platforms. Many of the speakers addressed the need for significant changes in the way the country deals with national and security issues. Ichud Leumi candidate Uri Bank, the only native English-speaker on the panel, was greeted with rounding applause in response to his call to ensure that the Land of Israel remains in Jewish hands.

Bank also called for a "radically new vision" for dealing with western Olim, described in a flyer distributed by party activists at the event.

Western Aliyah has been the focus of recent Knesset caucuses and initiatives and is largely seen as the next source of potential mass Aliyah, especially in light of the current economic climate and a dramatic decrease in immigration from the former Soviet Union. Last year, 2008, saw the numbers of new Olim from all countries drop to the lowest Aliyah figures since1988. Despite the Herculean efforts of organizations like Nefesh B'Nefesh and Ami, the number of Olim from western countries remained the same as the previous year.

Immigrants, Not Immigration
Bank, who made Aliyah with his family from the U.S. at the age of 12, explained to Israel National News the flaw of all the new initiatives that seem to appear around elections time and then fade away as the new Knesset session begins. "A new caucus and lobby for western Aliyah is doomed to fail, like many previous efforts, because it is pushing Aliyah at the expense of Olim," he said.

He explained that until the experience of Aliyah is radically altered to become a comfortable, exciting experience, the numbers of western Olim will not increase: "The system must take into account that making Aliyah can be a difficult choice for many Jews from western countries, involving leaving their homes and comfortable lifestyles, bureacracy, difficulties in having degrees recognized and attaining professional licenses, and more."

When you came, they unrolled a red carpet,” reads the Ichud Leumi flyer distributed at the January 31 political debate, “but then they replaced it with red tape.” Uri Bank says his goal is to be the scissors to cut through that tape and bring a new life to Olim, while strengthening the country in the process.

Uri Bank is no stranger to the issues faced by Jews who make Aliyah from western countries. As a 12-year-old Oleh, Uri had to adjust to an Israeli classroom. When his family returned to the United States five years later, he remained in Israel. Bank studied in a Yeshivat Hesder and served as a tank commander in the IDF. He became involved in political life, always working for Aliyah-related causes along with other nationalist initiatives, and currently heads the Moledet faction, one of four factions making up the Ichud Leumi.

He actively entered the Knesset election campaign only recently, after having served the IDF as a reserve soldier during Operation Cast Lead. Bank completed his term of reserve duty even though he was legally exempt as a Knesset candidate and knew it would diminish his ability to campaign. He is spending the remaining week before the elections promoting the idea that the time for change has come, and that his background as an Oleh from the United States will enable him to effect that change.

"It is not that the government doesn't care," Bank explains, "but they don't know how to appeal to Jews from affluent, western countries. The government treats them based upon a system which wasn't built for Olim who come to Israel by choice, but rather those who come here fleeing persecution or searching for a better life. These Olim come with significant educational experience and save the country a tremendous expense for their higher education. They attract visits from friends, relatives, and business associates who contribute to the wealth of the country with tourist dollars, foreign capital, expertise, innovation, concepts of fair play and representative government, enthusiasm, idealism, and more."

Bank insists that these Olim have to be treated by a system that understands them, or they may never come in the droves that the Zionist endeavor needs. Furthermore, those who leave after having endured frustrations with Israel’s bureaucracy can create repercussions that negatively effect future Aliyah. "That is why the next Aliyah reform must begin with Olim who are already in Israel, and then be directed at future Aliyah," Bank says.

“No one should have to go through the hardships my family went through when they originally made Aliyah," he said, "fighting a system which doesn't understand them, and which ultimately caused them to leave Israel when I was 17 years old.” (His family returned to Israel in later years.) Bank intends to bring to the Knesset his understanding of the issues western Olim face and a desire to represent his constituency in the manner with which they are familiar from western democracies, acting as the model for what he terms a new "culture of accountability".

"A culture of accountability is the next best thing to district electoral reform, but it needs to begin with someone who has experienced a system of checks and balances and knows its merits and how it works." Uri also intends to put together an English-speaking Knesset team with a clear focus on tax reform, licensing, and educational issues that many Olim and their children currently face. He says his office will have an open-door policy for all issues confronting Olim from western countries.

Instead of pursuing membership on what are viewed as the more prestigious committees, Bank says he intends to sit on the Aliyah and Absorption Committee and even assume its chairmanship if offered. "Everyone wants western Aliyah," he notes, "but we are going to show them how to treat western Olim, and the Aliyah will soon come."

The Ichud Leumi's new Aliyah plan targets tax reform, erasing former Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's taxation plan of Western Olim which caused great hardships for new immigrants from the West. It also features a call for representational government, ecology-awareness, communal revision, expanding Aliyah Kehilatit (group Aliyah) and improving benefits, creation of an Oleh Forum, and more.

The Oleh Forum, as Bank sees it, will comprise elected representatives of Olim from various countries, with representatives from every country over various periods of Aliyah. The forum will meet to address immigrant needs and be the partners in effecting change in government policy and Israel’s attitude towards Olim.

Polls Show
Recent polls have shown the Ichud Leumi with five Knesset seats, which would guarantee Bank's election. However, he states, "we are aiming for at least ten seats, and the Aliyah vote will help to make it happen. The bigger the party is, the more we can represent our constituents which include western Olim and all those who want to make the State of Israel the dream Jewish state it is supposed to be."

Using the Holocaust to Attack the Jews

Walter Reich
Sunday, February 1, 2009; Page B02

Dozens of cities held ceremonies last week to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The good news is that the dead were remembered. The bad news is that even as the Holocaust is becoming a fixture in the world's memory, it is also being increasingly used as a weapon against the Jews and the Jewish state. For some, ironically, the acknowledgment of the Holocaust's reality has become a screen behind which anti-Semitism has gathered new force. The hard-core Jew-haters spent decades denying that the best-documented genocide in world history ever took place. That won them such derision that even many anti-Semites have begun to admit the reality of the Holocaust -- and now are hoping that simply by doing so, they can immunize themselves from the charge that they're anti-Semites in the first place. How can you be an anti-Semite, they figure, if you recognize the Holocaust?

But as some people who don't like Jews have found, it's worth acknowledging the Holocaust if you can then turn it into a cudgel against the Jews. And that they've done, in spades. According to this crowd, the Jews today have become Nazis. The Jewish state is now supposedly carrying out a Holocaust against the Palestinians. Jews, the haters say, have always been evil, and their evil is only growing.

Of course, not all criticisms of Israel are the product of such bigoted logic. People of good will around the world are naturally shocked by the tragic and appalling deaths of Palestinian civilians, including those killed in the recent war in the Gaza Strip. Like any country, Israel can be criticized. But the massive and unceasing eruptions of outrage against the Jewish state -- in a world in which other countries and groups have, often provoking barely any outrage, engaged in immensely more destructive and immoral behavior -- can only be explained in a few ways. One is that attacking Israel has become a means of attacking Israel's ally, the United States. Another is that over-the-top attacks on Israel, particularly those invoking Holocaust language, have become a means of once again attacking the Jews.

The Anti-Defamation League has documented the way this weapon was used during the recent war with Hamas. Here are a few of the placards spotted at rallies: In Times Square, the group reported such signs as, "Israel: The Fourth Reich," "Stop Israel's Holocaust," "Holocaust by Holocaust Survivors," "Stop the Nazi Genocide in Gaza" and "Nazi Genocide, Israeli Genocide." In Chicago: "Palestinian Holocaust in Gaza Now." In a Los Angeles demonstration, the Star of David in an Israeli flag was said to have been replaced by a swastika, accompanied by the words, "Upgrade to Holocaust Version 2.0." In San Diego: "Stop the Israeli Holocaust on Gaza." And the league reported that one rally in Washington included an effigy of the Israeli prime minister wearing a swastika armband and holding a dead baby.

The Gaza war provoked similar attacks from some world leaders and people of influence. "The Holocaust, that is what is happening right now in Gaza," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in televised comments, according to Reuters. The New York Times quoted a Catholic cardinal who argued that Gaza increasingly "resembled a big concentration camp." And according to the Jerusalem Post, a Norwegian diplomat based in Saudi Arabia sent out an e-mail from her Foreign Ministry account in which she wrote, "The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany." She reportedly also attached paired photos designed to suggest that Gaza was equivalent to the Holocaust: Next to the iconic photo of the Jewish child in the Warsaw Ghetto being menaced by a rifle-toting Nazi soldier, the diplomat is said to have placed an "image of an Israeli soldier aiming his weapon at a Palestinian boy."

Are all those who have accused Israel of being a Nazi state anti-Semites? Hardly. There's genuine anger in the Muslim world, as well as in Europe and elsewhere, about Israel's actions in Gaza. The suffering is terrible. So are the images of devastation Israel left behind. And there are also plenty of people who are angry at Israel because it stands for the reviled United States.

But the reality is that much of the vitriol directed at Israel has indeed been spouted by anti-Semites. Not only have they hurled the Nazi canard at Israel, they've expressed clear anti-Semitism -- some of it openly violent or even eliminationist. The pro-Israel but reliable Middle East Media and Research Institute has been documenting anti-Semitism on Palestinian television for years, including calls for the murder of Jews. It reports that, the day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, one Egyptian cleric admitted on an Islamist TV channel that the Holocaust had happened -- and added that he hoped that one day Muslims would do to the Jews what the Germans had done to them. To demonstrate what he had in mind, according to the institute, he showed footage of heaps of Jewish corpses being bulldozed into pits.

In designating an International Holocaust Remembrance Day back in 2005, the U.N. General Assembly acted with noble intentions, even if parts of the world body still aim to delegitimize Israel. Such commemorations help the world understand that the goal of the Holocaust was the annihilation of an entire people -- and help them appreciate the vast differences between that event and, for example, the war in Gaza. But even as the Holocaust has been increasingly acknowledged and explained, it also has been increasingly used as a cudgel to beat Jews and the Jewish state.

wreich@gwu.edu

Walter Reich, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University, is a former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Internet and terrorism

IICC

Hamas has recently launched PaluTube, its new file sharing website. AqsaTube, the previous file sharing website, has changed its name and appearance and is now known as TubeZik. Those changes resulted from the refusal of French and Russian Internet service providers to continue hosting AqsaTube.

Overview

Hamas has recently launched a new website called PaluTube . Also launched was a website called TubeZik , being a new version of AqsaTube. The file sharing website AqsaTube was taken offline twice after a French company and a Russian company stopped providing it with technical services.

Overview

Hamas has recently launched a new website called PaluTube . Also launched was a website called TubeZik , being a new version of AqsaTube. The file sharing website AqsaTube was taken offline twice after a French company and a Russian company stopped providing it with technical services.
2. PaluTube and TubeZik are file sharing websites, such as YouTube, in which users can upload video clips. The clips featured on the websites include incitement against Israel , preaching terrorism, and glorification of Hamas and terrorism. Also found on the websites are posters and clips pertaining mostly to Operation Cast Lead, portrayed as a “holocaust”. As is the case with Hamas's other websites, the information published complies with the radical ideology and the terrorist policy of the Hamas movement. Those websites are yet another constituent in the extensive Internet infrastructure of Hamas, which kept developing its websites during Operation Cast Lead and still does so.

The PaluTube website

The PaluTube website
Example of a poster from the website depicting the IDF's activity in the
Gaza Strip as a “holocaust” aimed against innocent civilians (January 16)

3. Technical details about the PaluTube website follow:

IP address: 213.167.40.131. According to our information, that IP address is used by another five websites, including 4gaza.info (Gaza-based news website), al-fateh.net (the Hamas online children's newspaper), fm-m.com (the website of Filastin al-Muslimah, a Hamas organ distributed from Britain ) and yet three other websites whose identity is unknown.

Private Registration Services: DomainsByProxy.com, 1based in Arizona , US.

Internet Access Provider: MASTAK, based in Moscow , Russia .

ISP: Hamas, Gaza .

Aqsa tube
Image from an incitement clip of Hamas which appears on the
homepage of the new version of Aqsa tube (January 26)

4. The T ubeZik website is actually the successor of Hamas's Aqsa Tube website, which was taken offline twice. At first glance it may seem like an innocent entertainment website which includes music and videos; however, it constantly shows an incitement video, also featuring archive footage about the leaders of Hamas and movies which encourage terrorism.

5. Technical details about the PaluTube website follow:

IP address: 87.98.226.7.

Internet Access Provider: OVH, a company from Spain (the French office of OVH formerly provided Internet services to Aqsa tube; however, it stopped doing so after the affair was exposed by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and following appeals from the media).

6. Aqsa Tube, which was similar in name and design to the popular American website YouTube, was first launched in early October 2008. It was serviced by OVH, a French-based company. 3 Following a publication of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center , several journalists addressed the company and asked for its comment. After it was approached by a BBC News reporter, the company said that it took the website offline as of October 15, 2008. Hamas then issued an official announcement (from Gaza ) titled: “Aqsa Tube taken offline as a result of Zionist-American pressure”. At the end of the announcement, Hamas expressed its commitment to reopen the website. 4

7. About a week after the announcement was issued, Aqsa Tube went online again, this time with the assistance of a Russian ISP called RU network. In the new version, the website's logo was remodeled to be less similar to the original YouTube logo. When approached about the subject, the Russian authorities ordered the company to take the website offline, saying it included radical themes which do not comply with Russian laws. Access to the website was subsequently denied.

8. In mid-January 2009, a new website called TubeZik went online under the same address. The website can also be reached through Palestine-info, Hamas's major web portal. This means that there are currently at least two active Hamas file sharing websites on the Internet , even though their design is different from Aqsa Tube.

9. In some cases, the public exposure of the fact that ISPs across the globe provide technical services to the websites of a terrorist organization had the desired effect. When they were addressed, some companies stopped providing technical assistance to those websites following the exposure. It is an ongoing battle where persistence is necessary. It is not a lost cause, however, since occasional tactical achievement are possible, thus making it difficult for terrorist organizations to run their web-based campaign of incitement.

1 Owned by Go Daddy, it is a company which provides paid privacy and anonymity services for website owners by registering the website with the company instead of using the website owner's name (anonymity which Hamas is interested in). The company registers the website under its own name on Whois sites, thus becoming associated with the website. However, the anonymity is not perfect because the names of websites' owners are obligatorily disclosed in most countries, even though in most cases a telephone number is sufficient.

2 Abu Nasser Skander (Skndr) was also registered as the owner of Aqsa Tube in the OHV office in France before Aqsa Tube was taken offline.

3 See our Information Bulletin: “ The Internet and terrorism: Hamas recently launched a new website called AqsaTube, an addition to its extensive Internet presence. Hamas makes intensive use of its website network to wage the battle for the hearts and minds of its various target audiences in the Palestinian Authority and worldwide” (October 12, 2008).

4 See our Information Bulletin: “ The Internet and terrorism: following the ITIC report on Hamas's AqsaTube, it was removed by its French ISP from the net. As a result, the site issued an announcement claiming it had been victimized by “Zionist-American pressure,” and stating it was currently making the necessary arrangements to return” (October 20, 2008).

Still Nervous

onathan Rosenblum
Mishpacha
January 28, 2009

President Obama is now safely sworn in. Even the few curmudgeons left who have not been completely won over by the new president felt a surge of pride in their country as they watched a black man take the oath of office. That could not have happened in any of the European countries that view themselves as America's moral betters. The new president had an impressive two months between the election and the swearing-in, during which period he succeeded in winning over half those who voted for his opponent. Conservative columnist Charles Krauthamer's assessment of Obama, after his cool in the face of the financial meltdown, has been more than borne out. Krauthamer updated Harry Hopkins description of FDR as "a second-rate mind with a first-rate temperament," calling Obama "a first-rate mind, with a first-rate temperament."

If anybody has been disappointed with America's new president in the months since the election, it has been his left-wing supporters. His cabinet appointments were mainstream in the extreme. He delivered his major economic policy speech at George Mason University, the last bastion of free market economics, supped with conservative columnists at the house of George Will, and reached out generously to his defeated opponent John McCain. He even told a television interviewer that there was a great deal of wisdom in former vice-president Dick Cheney's advice he should first understand the bases for the Bush administration's national security policies before seeking to dismantle them.

President Obama's Inaugural Address was filled with bones for the conservatives: He described the wealth producing power of free markets, warned terrorists around the world that "we will defeat you," acknowledged the determinative role of individuals, not just government, in the improvement of society, and mentioned G-d frequently.

Clearly, then, the hysterical pre-election portrait of Obama as the acolyte of ex-Weatherman terrorist William Ayers has proven comically overblown. And yet I remain concerned about the new president's likely approach to Israel.

Those concerns are not based on anything that President Obama has done or said. His quoted comments on Hamas missile attacks on Israeli towns were eminently sensible: If someone were shooting at my daughters, he said, I would do everything in my power to stop them. That commonsense, human response was notably absent from much commentary on the war.

No, my concerns about the Obama presidency derive primarily from his membership in the class of graduates of elite Ivy League universities. Much has been made by The New York Times about all the degrees from elite institutions Obama's staff possess. And that scares me.

Those fears are pretty much summed up in the statement of the new presidential envoy to the Middle East, former Senator George Mitchell. "There is no conflict without an end." That remark captures a common mistake of brainy folks: the assumption that they have the answers to all the world's problems. In 1996, Professor Robert Lucas, an Nobel laureate from the University of Chicago, boasted that economists now possess the tools to end the threat of worldwide depression forever, a claim that appears less well-founded by the day.

The belief that to every problem there is a solution is not just naive but dangerous when applied to Middle East peacemaking. It is predicated on the assumption that peacemaking is no different than negotiating a union contract. Both sides are jostling over the size of their piece of the pie.

But there are things that many people care about much more a larger slice of some material pie, and one of them is religion. That is something that smart technocrats commonly miss. Because religion plays no part in their own lives they fail to grasp its importance to others.

The repeated Western request that Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist is an example of that failure. Hamas would have to stop being Hamas, and renounce its religious belief that Israel exists on Moslem holy land, in order to recognize Israel's right to exist.

Peace between the Palestinians and Israelis does not depend the renunciation of this or that demand. It depends on the transformation of an entire culture of hate that has only intensified in the years since the handshake on the White House lawn. To attempt to suggest or impose "solutions," without first changing the human material reflects a detachment from reality. Even the Northern Ireland peace negotiations, in which Senator Mitchell played a major role, were only possible because of the emergence of a Protestant leader, David Trimble, eager to put aside old hatreds, and a radical change in the attitudes in the leadership of the IRA on the Catholic side.

Only those who believe in souls can appreciate the difficulty of changing cultures. But souls are not the province of those who think they can devise a solution to every problem. If man were nothing but a rationally calculating homo economicus, could most disputes be settled around a negotiating table with skillful slicing of the pie. But he is not.

The scary noises coming from Washington D.C. derive from a misplaced confidence that a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is close at hand. Practically President Obama's first act in office was to appoint Senator Mitchell as his Middle East envoy. It is unlikely that the new president would have given such high priority to the Middle East unless he thought that he could show some achievements.

That confidence is heard in the oft-repeated phrase "the general contours of the final solution have long been known to all the parties," as if a solution can exist apart from the societies upon which it will be imposed. In fact, the basis for an enduring peace is farther away than it was during the last phase of activist American peacemaking, under President Clinton. Gaza and the West Bank are today functionally independent, which vastly complicates everything. More importantly, Israelis have learned both in southern Lebanon and Gaza that every territorial withdrawal only makes them more vulnerable.

As an older friend always tells me, "The longer I live the more I find that brains are greatly overrated." Recognition of that fact may be the beginning of wisdom in the Middle East. Unfortunately, it is wisdom that is only likely to come slowly, if at all, to the smart fellows of the new administration.