Monday, October 31, 2011
Posted
10/31/2011 08:24:00 PM
As you know, pig farmers in the American Midwest call their pigs home with the yell, "SUUUHAAA! SUUUHAAAAAA!" You recall Suha Arafat giving a public speech in which she claimed Jews poison Palestinian wells, and Hillary Clinto applauded her? (See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123594610114604391.html and http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/01/13/bill_clintons_policies_may_echo_at_hearing/?page=full ) Well: http://www.israellycool.com/2011/10/31/the-downfall-of-sewer-arafat/ (see attached photos on that page) The Downfall of Sewer Arafat? Aussie Dave | Oct 31, 2011 | 0 comments This little piggy went to market.
This little piggy stayed at home This little piggy had an arrest warrant issued against her.. Suha Arafat, widow of late PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, is wanted by officials in Tunisia for alleged corruption, AFP reported on Monday. Tunisian Justice Ministry spokesman Kadhem Zine al Abidine told the French news agency that a warrant was issued for the 48-year-old Arafat, who was a citizen of Tunisia, until her citizenship was stripped in 2007. The allegations go back to a 2006 business deal, when Suha Arafat had a fallout with former first lady of Tunisia over the establishment of an international school in Tunis, AFP quoted Tunisian newspapers as saying. In 2007, Suha was declared persona non grata in Tunisia and had her citizenship revoked, reportedly by presidential decree. Suha was reported to be living in Malta, at least several months a year, where she owns a home. Since the ouster of former Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, a number of former regime officials have been charged with corruption.
Posted
10/31/2011 11:19:00 AM
1. http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/31/pino-jihada/Pino Jihada Posted By Steven Plaut On October 31, 2011 @ 12:08 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments For those of us old enough to be AARP members, the name "Kent State" conjures up memories of the killings of 4 Kent State students on May 4, 1970 in an over-reaction by Ohio State Guardsmen positioned on the campus during anti-war protests.
This past week Kent State gained a new basis for international notoriety and for a different sort of death, this time of academic standards and decency. Kent State is home to one of the worst tenured jihadists and pseudo-academic barbarians on the planet. Julio Pino is a tenured pseudo-academic, teaching Latin American history at Kent State. He was born in Cuba in 1960 and is a proud Fidelista, although he seems to prefer the option of having three square meals to eat in the heartland of American capitalism to living in the workers' paradise. In 2000 he converted to Islam and adopted the new name, Assad Jibril Pino. Since then he has been a professional anti-Semite and rabble rouser against Israel. He routinely denounces Israel for perpetuating "genocide" and Nazi-like crimes. (He evidently has never found any crimes in Cuba committed by the communists there, nor any human rights abuses of Muslims in Muslim regimes.) He proudly admits to being a full-time indoctrinator of his students at Kent State. He has referred to his students at Kent State as his "little jihadists" and his "beloved Taliban." He insists that the United States is "rapidly descending toward Christian fascism, we need more Ward Churchills." In September 2000, Pino declared a fatwa on the moderator of the "Marxism List," proclaiming that those who dared to disagree with him were "hereby sentenced to death." He routinely celebrates mass murderers and suicide bombers, including the al-Qaeda terrorists who attacked the US on 9-11. The Kent State student paper has had some biting satire to say about all this. Pino was in the news this past week for academic barbarism. An Israeli diplomat was speaking at Kent State and Pino jumped up and interrupted the talk by screaming "Death to Israel." Pino was upset when the diplomat noted that that Israel had offered humanitarian aid to Turkey, despite Turkey's recent behavior, and Pino insisted the aid was really just profits from murdering Arab babies. But there was more to this, in fact there was ultimate irony in it. The diplomat speaking at Kent State attacked by Pino was an Israeli Arab Bedouin and a Muslim. He is Ishmael Khaldi, an adviser to Israel's Foreign Minister. So any whining from the tenured Islamofascist Pino about Israel supposedly being an "apartheid regime" was being debunked before the eyes of the Kent State students in the very person who was being harassed by Pino. The president of Kent State University, Lester A. Lefton, denounced Pino for his behavior, but – as expected – refuses to do anything about it nor to take disciplinary action against Pino. Lefton himself is Jewish. But the very fact that Pino was granted tenured and still holds a position at Kent State shows that academic standards have been trashed at that university. He continues to use his university position as a launching pad for the jihad against America and Israel. It remains to be seen whether the Ohio governor and the Board of Trustees at Kent State will have the courage to do something about Pino. And we sure would like to hear why the FBI has never done anything about the Pino problem. Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/31/pino-jihada/ 2. Yesterday I posted the incorrect name of the Rector at Tel Aviv University (I posted the previous one). SO those outraged by terrorist cheerleader Anat Matar, please take a moment and write to the new Rector, the correct contact being: Rector: Prof. Aron Shai E-mail address: aashai@post.tau.ac.il Tel Aviv University P.O. Box 39040 Tel Aviv 69978 ISRAEL (apologies for posted wrong information)
3. While there has been debate since the "deal" in Israel and abroad about what the consequences of it may bring in the future, as I am writing this - the future is already here and we have a definitive partial answer. Southern Israel was this week blitzed with dozens of state-of-the-art rockets fired by the Hamas into Jewish civilian areas of the Negev. To make things clear, the targeted areas are inside Israel's pre-1967 borders and so are hardly "occupied territory." The rockets have killed, and one Israeli school building suffered a direct hit.
I think it is abundantly clear that the rocket barrage is a direct consequence of the "prisoner exchange deal." The Hamas had been relatively quiet in recent months in the anticipation that some deal would be struck for Shalit and that it would gain a windfall political profit from hundreds of its murderers being released from Israeli prison. Once the deal was completed, however, the Hamas had no reason for restraint. So any doubts anyone had about how the "deal" would affect terrorism were blown to smithereens by Hamas rockets in the Israeli south this week.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Posted
10/30/2011 03:23:00 PM
Israeli Academics in the News – Part I We have reported regularly on the antics and shenanigans of Tel Aviv University's Anat Matar, one of the worst tenured extremists at Tel Aviv University. She is violent and has been arrested for her violence. She despises Israel and wants it destroyed. She is a tenured faculty member in philosophy. Well, Sister Matar is back in the news these days as a cheerleader and open endorser of terrorist murders of Israelis. She is one of the Israeli airhead leftists who held a celebration of the freeing of the 1000 plus terrorists in the "prisoner exchange deal" that purchased the liberation of Gilad Shalit. But she was not celebrating because Shalit was being freed, but rather because murderers of Jews were being set free. One of those released from Israeli prison was convicted terrorist Muchlas Burjal. He had thrown a grenade at a bus with Jews inside, except the grenade did not go off. Anat Matar has proclaimed him a hero and participated in the welcoming celebrations when he returned home. She organized a group of Israeli leftists to greet the terrorist at his home, bedecked in PLO flags, joined by Arab fascist members of the Israeli parliament. Cited in Makor Rishon October 28, 2011, Matar says that Burjal is a hero because he threw the grenade at a bus carrying Israeli soldiers and not civilians, and such an attack is a legitimate form of resistance. Oh, and not to worry, Matar's own son was not inside the bus because he served time in prison for refusing to do army service altogether. Matar is now lobbying for the release of another convicted terrorist, one Walid Daka, who murdered Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam. Matar insists that Daka is actually innocent because he says he is. The court that convicted him disagrees. In an interview with Makor Rishon, Matar expressed support for terrorist violence by Palestinian against Israelis as resistance to "occupation." Curiously, some of the other Israeli ultra-leftist academic extremists are denouncing Sister Anat. For example, Alon Harel, a radical professor of law at the Hebrew University, criticized her for her celebrations of terrorism. Are you concerned that a tenured member of the faculty at Tel Aviv University is working as a promoter of murdering Jews and as an enabler of terrorist atrocities? Why not tell the heads of TAU what you think?: Tel Aviv University: President, Professor Joseph Klafter Email klafter@post.tau.ac.il Tel Aviv University P.O. Box 39040 Tel Aviv 69978 ISRAEL Tel: 972-3-6408254 Fax: 972-3-6406466 Rector: Prof. Dany Leviatan Email: leviatan@post.tau.ac.il and rector@post.tau.ac.il Tel Aviv University P.O. Box 39040 Tel Aviv 69978 ISRAEL American Friends Offices of Tel Aviv University: http://www.aftau.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_contact Other "Friends of" Groups: http://www.tau.ac.il/friends-eng.html Here are a few items that can tell you more about Anat Matar: http://www.isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Lee%20Kaplan%20-%20Anat%20Matar.htm http://isracampus.org.il/Extra%20Files/IsraCampus.Org.il%20-%20Seth%20Frantzman%20-%20TAU%20Ivory%20Towers%20of%20Critique.pdf http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/TAU%20-%20Anat%20Matar%20-%20Gets%20Arrested.htm Israeli Academics in the News – Part II
http://hurryupharry.org/2011/10/27/friends-of-raed-salah-ilan-pappe-says-the-blood-libel-isnt-anti-semitic Friends of Raed Salah: Ilan Pappe says the blood libel isn't anti-Semitic Lucy Lips, October 27th 2011, 2:39 pm The Immigration Tribunal ruling upholding the Home Office's ban of Raed Salah takes as established fact that the cleric said this in East Jerusalem in 2007: "We have never allowed ourselves, and listen well, we have never allowed ourselves to knead the bread for the breaking of the fast during the blessed month of Ramadan with the blood the children. And if someone wants a wider explanation, you should ask what used to happen to some of the children of Europe, whose blood would be mixed in the dough of the holy bread. God Almighty, is this religion? Is this what God wants? God will confront you for what you are doing." There is no other interpretation as a matter of history or elementary literacy for such a statement than the following: Raed Salah was presenting the blood libel — i.e. the medieval conspiracy theory that Jews bake bread with the blood of Gentile children — as legitimate. "God Almighty, is this religion?" clearly refers to Judaism in this context, not to Islam or to Christianity, as having incorporated cannibalism or vampirism into its holy ritual, thereby distinguishing beween such alleged barbarism and the purity of Islam ("We have never allowed ourselves…"). Crucially, Raed Salah, the court tells us, seems to understand that the blood libel is anti-Semitic and yet he somehow denies that this is what he has advanced. His defence has argued, to quote from the court ruling summary of the defence's case, that The reference to the holy bread was a metaphor used to convey an example of those who had falsely used religion to justify their crimes. It refers to the actions of Israelis who use religion to subject the Palestinians to oppression. The Appellant drew a parallel with the crimes of the Spanish Inquisition. The Appellant's evidence is supported by that of Professor Ilan Pappe who although describing the Appellant's address as at times incoherent and emotive, said the Appellant did not invoke the blood libel in this or any other speech, and made a clear distinction between Jews as a race and the actions of Israeli officials. The words used by the Appellant on this occasion did not amount to blood libel because he did not refer to Jewish bread; the message of the address was not anti-Semitic or even anti-Zionist, but directed to the violation of Muslim rights in Jerusalem. *** For more stories of academic atrocities involving Israeli (pseudo-?) academics, go to www.isracampus.org.il
Friday, October 28, 2011
Posted
10/28/2011 02:06:00 PM
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149183'Ben Gurion a Greenhouse for Radical Left' Zionist groups welcome decision to investigate professor for incitement, call on universities to act. Maayana Miskin Zionist groups expressed satisfaction Friday over the decision to investigate Professor Eyal Nir for incitement. Nir called on the public to attack Zionist youth dancing in the streets on Jerusalem day and "break their elbows."
The Land of Israel Legal Forum said the decision was a good one, but questioned why prosecutors had waited several months to look into Nir's statements. If a right-wing professor had called to attack leftist demonstrators, it would have taken the Justice Ministry just days to decide to open an investigation, Forum activists said. "The wheels of justice turn slowly and with astonishing selectivity," said forum head Nachi Eyal. The Im Tirzu student group warned that Nir is not alone. "Ben Gurion University has been a greenhouse for the extreme left for some time," activists said, mentioning notoriously anti-Zionist professors Niv Gordon and Oren Yiftahel among others. The university has the responsibility to act immediately against professors who use their publicly-funded positions to spread extreme-left incitement, the group said. "A lecturer must not continue to work in the university while inciting to murder." MK Ofir Akunis (Likud) said the decision was a sign of a welcome turn-around. "For years, the issue of leftist incitement against the right has been ignored," he said. "It must be handled with the full force of the law."
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Posted
10/26/2011 11:59:00 AM
Guide for the Perplexed Posted By Dr. Yasser Dasmabebi On October 26, 2011 @ 12:00 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments I have come to realize just how difficult it may be to decipher news about the Middle East, Islam, Israel, the Arab World, and all these powerful and explosive issues of our times for those who rely on such media stalwarts as The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the major television networks, cable news, etc. for their information. For example, how is a person to ascertain whether the slayer of a family is a terrorist or a militant or a gunman or an assailant or an activist or a freedom-fighter?
So, purely as a public service, I have organized the following glossary of the most pertinent terms and expressions, as typically used in the above-mentioned news sources. I hope, insha'allah, the reader will find it helpful to unravel the Gordian Knot of language that is today's (and yesterday's and tomorrow's) Middle East! Dr. Yasser Dasmabebi holds the Edward Said-Noam Chomsky Linguistics Chair at Abdul Abulbul Amir University in Cairo. ************************************
Aggression: Killing people who are trying to kill you. Al Qaeda: the terrorist group that, according to American security sources, embodies the world-wide Islamist movement, and that is either "significantly degraded" or is still "extremely dangerous," depending on which government official is doing the talking. Apartheid: The political/social system of the one and only country in the Middle East that integrates Jews, Beduins, Arabs, whites, blacks, Muslems, Ethiopians, Russians, Christians, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Bahai, et al. "Apes & Pigs": See "Jew" below. Arab Emir: Military dictator. Arab King: Military dictator. Arab President: Military dictator. Arab Prime Minister: Military dictator. Arab Spring: Replacement of one dictatorship with another, with the help of Western money and media cheerleading. Arab Street: Enraged mobs chanting and screaming their hatred, determined to annihilate Israel and the Jews. They can often be seen burning American and Israeli flags, passing out candies and firing guns into the air in response to successful murders of Westerners (closely related to): Arab Humiliation: The pervasive feeling on the Arab street generated by their failure to annihilate Israel and the Jews in several wars. Many opinion-makers, Middle East experts and op-ed writers argue that Arab humiliation is at the root of the Middle East conflict; i.e., "If only the Jews would let themselves be destroyed, the Arab street would feel better about themselves, and then there would be peace." Ayatola: Persian dictator. Spiritual leader of that faith that desires to ignite nuclear holocaust in order to bring about the arrival of the Mahdi. (See "Mahdi" below.) Bias: An expression of support for the existence of Israel. Caliphate: The unification of lands ruled in the name of Islam, ruled by a Caliph. (See "Arab King," "Arab President," etc. above.) Compromise: To give something palpable, such as land, in return for a promise not to keep on trying to annihilate you. Developing Country: A country that is not developing. Disproportionate Response: Winning. Diversity: The condition in which all cultures are viewed as equally and inherently virtuous, except for the culture of the West, which is viewed as evil by virtue of imperialism, colonialism and endemic racism (see "Racist" below). Emergency Laws: The law. Father of the Palestinian People: An Egyptian man, raised by his uncle, Hitler's buddy, and one of the world's most successful kleptocrats. (See "PLO" below.) Fatwa: A pronouncement of a mullah that sanctions murder, but only of disagreeable people, like inadequately covered women, Salman Rushdie, etc. Female Genital Mutilation: That ritual of which Western feminist organizations seem, by virtue of their silence, to approve. Hamas: The democratically elected government of Gaza whose founding charter calls for genocide. Hezbollah: The democratic group whose purpose is saving Lebanon from Israeli aggression, and whose founding charter calls for genocide. History: Having nothing whatsoever to do with what has actually happened, but rather being what has come to be called "narrative," i.e., "storytelling." For one example, allusions to the "Ancient Nation of Palestine;" and for another, almost all the Muslem accomplishments President Obama enumerated in his momentous Cairo speech (also see "Rewriting History" below). Holocaust: That genocide that did not happen, but that the Jews orchestrated in order to steal Arab land, and that of which the Jewish presence in Palestine is worse than. Honor Killings: The cultural imperative to murder one's daughter/sister/niece for humiliating male members…(see "Shariah" below). Human Rights: The credo by which murder committed by a person from a country which used to be called "Third World" (now considered racist terminology) is good (see "Resistance" below); retaliatory killing by a person who is either from a developed country, a white person or most especially a Jew, is bad (see "Agression" above). Human Shields: Integral part of Hamas & Hezbollah military strategy. Islamic Republic: Military dictatorship. Israel: Occupied territory (see "Zionist Entity" below). Israeli Prime Minister: Hawkish, right-winger, hard-liner. Jerusalem: City holy to Islam in which the Jews have no history. Jew: The source of all decadence and evil in the world; descendent of apes and pigs. Jihad: The inner spiritual struggle for self-purification or the bloody military struggle for world domination depending on to which journalist and in what language one is speaking.
Judeo-Christian Values: The credo of that civilization which has lost all its values, except for that racism is bad, and diversity is good. Koran: The book that was revealed word-for-word to the Prophet Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) by the Angel Gabriel…or not. Leftist: Supporter of PLO (see "PLO" below) and Hamas (see "Hamas" above) and Muslem Brotherhood (see "Muslem Brotherhood" below). Mahdi: The Shia Messiah who has been hiding for centuries at the bottom of a well. Martyr: Someone who kills someone else while killing himself, said to be rewarded for his martyrdom by the acquisition of 72 virgins upon his arrival in Paradise, at least according to what the Prophet Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) said the Angel Gabriel told him (see "Koran" above). Militant, Assailant, Gunman, Activist: terrorist. Moderate Palestinian Leader: Former KGB operative, Holocaust denier, and financier of Munich Olympic massacre. Mosque: A place for the storage of armaments. Muslem Brotherhood: A mostly secular and non-violent political party in Egypt. Occupation: Jewish presence in disputed territory. (See "Israel" above.) Peace: War of attrition. Peace Process: The dismantling of Israel. Peace Talks: The avoidance of peace. PLO: Organization created in 1964 to end the 1967 occupation. Palestinian Authority: The world's most successful kleptocracy. Palestinian Hero: Murderer of children. Palestinian Prime Minister: Moderate, bold (see "Arab Prime Minister" above). Protocols of the Elders of Zion: The authentic Jewish playbook for world domination. Racist: A person who disagrees with or does not like or does not support the reelection of President Obama. Radical Islamic Movement: A group whose stated official goal is genocide (see "Hamas" and "Hezbollah" above). Recognition: A truce until the next time. Refugee: Someone who has refused to take refuge, or who has not been allowed to take refuge. "Religion of Peace": That civilization with which the Judeo-Christian civilization is locked in a war to the death. Resistance: Randomly killing civilians, especially children. Rewriting History: See "History" above. Right: Demand to live in Israel by people who hate it and wish to destroy it. of Return: By people very, very few of whom have ever actually been there. Settlement: An illegal community made up of settlers. (See "Settler" below.) Settler: Someone who builds his house in order to thwart any chance at making peace between Jews and Palestinians. Shariah: The Islamic system of jurisprudence which codifies and dignifies rape, child marriage, specific classes of murder such as honor killings (see "Honor Killings" above), etc. Shia: People who are certain that Sunnis are not real Muslems, and are in fact infidels, and should therefore be slaughtered. Sunni: People who are certain that Shia are not real Muslems, and are in fact infidels, and should therefore be slaughtered. War Crime: Retaliation and defense. Any action whose intent is victory. War on Terror: Pretense that the enemy of the West is made up of small, shadowy groups motivated by childhood poverty (see "Al Qaeda" above). ("We're depraved on account of we're deprived" — apologies to S. Sondheim.) Zionism: The ideology of the Jews who aspire to control, dominate and take over the world. Zionist: Someone who is worse than a Nazi. Zionist Entity: That place that does not exist, as on Arab maps, but that must be destroyed. Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle. Click here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/26/guide-for-the-perplexed/
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Posted
10/20/2011 09:58:00 PM
Special blessing for Shmini Atzeret, even if a few hours late:. All around the Libyan Bush, The rebels chased the weasel. The monkeys thought the weasel would win, but Pop! went the weasel. I thought now would be an apt time to re-post this, from last Purim: http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/47519/ RETURN LIBYA TO ITS RIGHTFUL RULERS! By: Steven Plaut Date: Wednesday, March 09 2011 The world is wringing its hands over the fate of Libya. Being a helpful sort of guy, and what with Purim fast approaching, I know just the proper solution. Control of Libya should be returned at once to the natural and rightful owners of Libya, the people who controlled it before it was invaded and occupied by Arab military hordes. Libya should be returned to the Jews. Why the Jews? Well, because according to at least a few scholars, Jews controlled Libya not only before the Khaddafi era but long before the country was seized and occupied by the Arabs. And, according to at least a few theories, Libya was governed by a Jewish Berber queen known to history as Kahina. In the spirit of Adar and Purim, let's accept those theories as indisputable fact and proceed: Before the birth of Muhammad, back when there were no Arabs at all in North Africa, Libya and its surroundings were home to Byzantine occupiers and indigenous tribes. The latter were the true natives of the area. The Romans called the tribes Berbers, from which they derived the derogatory adjective "barbarian," but the Berbers called themselves Imazighen, possibly meaning "free people" or "free and noble men." Libya was Berber long before the Egyptians and their slaves built any pyraminds. Cathaginians conquered the area and were evicted by other conquerers, as were the Vandal tribes and the Byzantines. But the natives consisted of Berbers. And Jews. The Jews probably entered the area during the period of the Second Temple, and Berber-Jewish ties were strengthened during the revolt against the Romans in the Land of Israel that ended with the destruction of the Temple. North African Jews mixed with and influenced local Berber tribes. The French historian Marcel Simon claims that Tripoli, the same Tripoli in which Muammar Khaddafi suppressed his own people, was under the rule of Jewish Berbers as early as the first century of the common era. By the time the Arab imperialist armies entered Libya after the death of Muhammad, Berbers in Libya and North Africa belonged to Christian tribes (usually heretical heterodox Christians), pagan tribes, and at least one large Jewish tribe. And the Jewish tribe was led by a woman. No glass ceilings for her. She didn't need any Reform rabbis lecturing her about egalitarianism in Judaism. While known in most histories as the Kahina (from the root word kohen for priestess), her actual name is given variously as Dahiyah, Dahia, or Dhabba. Her tribe, known as the Jerawa, was based in the Aures Mountains in eastern Algeria and Tunisia, and its control extended into Libya. And she was a warrior queen. The historian Charles-Andre Julien, in his History of North Africa, calls her the Berber Deborah. Her most dramatic victories were over the Arab imperialist invaders. She decided to resist the illegal occupation of her homeland by Arab colonialists and kick them out with force. She drove the first wave of Arab invaders out of Libya altogether, though they later returned. After the Arab general Hassan ibn al Numan took Carthage from the Byzantines, the Kahina's forces defeated him on the battlefield. Alas, he later turned the tables and defeated her. Most Berber tribes were eventually Islamized, though they retained their penchant for embracing theological heterodoxy even as Muslims. The medieval Arab historian Ibn Khaldun writes at length about her military campaigns. The great historian Edward Gibbon, author of the classic history of Rome, mentions her. She was a figure of fascination for the American writer Washington Irving, better known for his tales of Rip van Winkle and Ichabod Crane. As we see, when Muammar Khaddafi's ancestors were chasing camels around what is now Saudi Arabia, Jewish roots were well entrenched in Libya. So would not the most logical resolution of the current political crisis in Libya be to restore it to its proper Jewish rulers? If the Arabs are thought to be entitled to 22 different states, why should the Jews not have at least two - one in the Land of Israel and one in Libya? Jewish high-tech know-how in agriculture would turn Libya into a rain forest within a decade. In fact, since Purim is coming and I'm in a good mood, I'll even suggest that the Palestinians be moved to the southern part of Libya near the Chad border and be allowed to set up their own state there. Maybe even two states, one for Hamas and one for the PLO. They can have a cut of Libyan oil revenue if they behave themselves there. If a brief period of Arab rule over the Land of Israel is thought to convey some sort of legitimate claim to parts of Israel for Arabs, why should Jewish rule in Libya, older than the Arab conquest of Palestine, not similarly confer natural rights of sovereignty? The peace plan is simple. The illegal Arab colonial occupation of Libya must end. All illegal settlements must be removed. The legitimate Jewish rulers of Libya must be restored to power!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Posted
10/17/2011 02:02:00 PM
The Netanyahu Capitulation By Steven Plaut "Those released will return to armed struggle. It is a great national achievement." Khaled Mashal, Chairman, Hamas Political Bureau, Damascus, Syria I think that the best definition of leadership is where a political leader is willing to resist populist pressure to do "popular" things whenever those "popular" things are harmful. A real leader is someone capable of resisting the temptation to act as demagogue and play to the crowd.
In the massive release of mass murderers about to take place (I am writing this just before it goes ahead) to "buy" back from the Hamas terrorists Israel's kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, Bibi Netanyahu has revealed himself to be the very opposite of a leader. He is a cheap demagogue playing to the crowd for transient popularity. And the people of Israel will pay the price for his theatrics. The release of the Palestinian mass murderers is popular in Israel at the moment, according to public opinion surveys. Netanyahu has a long track record of doing whatever the caprices of the public happen to favor at the moment. So I suppose in some ways it was not surprising that he agreed to this atrocity. A man who does not have the backbone to stare down and dismiss summer Woodstock-on-the-Yarkon "social justice" protesters cannot be expected to resist the passionate Israeli public desire to see Gilad Shalit released. The release of the murderers is fleetingly popular this week. Negotiating with Palestinians is also generally popular in Israel. So are price controls on housing and raising the minimum wage. So is (depending on wording of question) creating a Palestinian state. Being a leader means refusing to create disasters just because the public this week happens to feel that it is a nice idea to create them. There is a general and deeply-felt desire for Shalit's release among all Israelis. The media have kept the plight of his family in the headlines for five years. Shalit has been in captivity for longer than the US soldiers who survived the Bataan death march in the Philippines or British troops captured in Hong Kong and Singapore. But it is now clear that the main effect of the organizations in Israel drumming up support for "Let's get Shalit Released," and "We demand Shalit's Freedom," was to increase the number of murderers released in the exchange, from a couple of hundred to over a thousand. It was obvious all along that the protests "on behalf of Gilad" had no effect whatsoever on the Hamas other than persuading it to hold out longer for greater and greater levels of appeasement. The protests simply weakened the resolve of the already weak Israeli political leadership to resist the extortion. The first of the atrocious massive releases of terrorists by Israel took place in 1985, when the National Unity Government of the Labor Party and Likud released terrorists in the "Ahmed Jibril Deal," to the PFLP terrorist leader Jibril. Shimon Peres was the Prime Minister at the time (what a surprise!). 1150 prisoners were released in exchange for three Israeli POWs, who had been captured during the first Lebanese War. Many of the terrorists released resumed their careers in terrorism and led the "First Intifada." That moronic "deal" served as precedent. Thereafter Israel paid in the currency of murderers in every "deal" in which captive Israelis were taken, and even in exchange for the release of the corpses of Israeli soldiers murdered by the terrorists. The massive release of murderers naturally always served as incentive for the terrorists to kidnap more Israelis. There is some serious doubt as to whether Shalit would have been kidnapped in the first place had it not been for those precedents. In those repeated wholesale releases of terrorists, Israel always attempted to maintain a figleaf of self-respect, setting some limits on who could be released. There was Israeli reluctance to releasing murderers of children, or those who had actually pulled the triggers in killing civilians, or those involved in suicide bombings. No longer. The Netanyahu capitulation has at long last put an end to all pretense. The very worst mass murderers of children and civilians are about to be released. The litany of their crimes is too long and horrendous to be reproduced here. You can see more details here: http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/Details+Israeli+prisoner+swap+spark+outrage/5556176/story.html But they involve those who murdered multiple members of the same families, those who placed bombs in the Jerusalem Sbarro pizza restaurant murdering children, those who lured a 15 year old boy into the West Bank with internet flirting and murdered him, and too many other murders. Some of the atrocities sound more like events that took place in Nazi-conquered Europe than in the independent Jewish state. A surviving member of the family destroyed in the Sbarro attack is in the news this week for having vandalized the grave this week of Yitzhak Rabin, whom he blames for the murders of his family and the release of the murderers. (See http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148820) As in all cases of mind-numbing stupidity being perpetrated by Israel's government, Netanyahu came in right on cue and defended the capitulation on grounds of "What choice was there?" Whenever Israeli politicians choose the stupidest choice possible, they always insist there is no other choice. What choice was there? The choice was not to agree to the capitulation. Just say no. Of the terrorists released, many will revert to their careers of murder, as did so many released terrorists before them. They will be celebrated by the barbarians as heroes and role models. It should not take long before the cost of saving the life of one Jew will turn out to be the deaths of many Jews. The deal is popular because the Israeli public is familiar with the faces of Gilad Shalit and his family. The people who will now be murdered or kidnapped by the terrorists newly inspired by the capitulation do not have faces. Nor do THEIR families. Yet. It was clear all along that there were other ways in which Israel and its government could have dealt with the Shalit kidnapping and captivity. Israel could have assassinated 30 terrorists a day and announce that the targeting would continue every day until Shalit was released. Or Israel could have kidnapped the family members of Hamas leaders and held THEM in captivity until Shalit was free. Or Israel could have executed 30 imprisoned terrorists inside Israeli prison each day. Better yet, Israel could have eliminated the terrorist "bait" that drives kidnapping in the first place -- by executing terrorists. No one has ever been murdered by a terrorist who has already been executed. Every time anyone brings up the idea of capital punishment for terrorism, Israel's politicians wring their hands and whine about how "unethical" it is, how it violates Jewish ethics. All this coming from politicians who do not have the slightest idea of what Jewish ethics has to say about anything. Suffice it to say that capital punishment is as fundamentally grounded in Torah and Jewish ethics as are bans on incest and adultery. Jewish ethics explicitly prohibits abandoning other randomly chosen Jews to be killed in order to obtain the release of one Jew being threatened. Netanyahu and his team may soon be learning how ephemeral "popularity" is and how capricious the throng can be. It may not take long for the Netanyahu cowardice to reap what it has sown, in the form of busses exploding on Israeli streets or suicide bombing attacks on Israeli restaurants. And those victims of Netanyahu's capitulation will have faces and families.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Posted
10/11/2011 08:38:00 AM
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/11/occupy-berkeley/Occupy Berkeley! Posted By Steven Plaut On October 11, 2011 The focus of the country has lately been on the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, or "OWS." You know, the people who claim to speak for the 99% of Americans who are not wealthy capitalists and who think they can create social justice and equality by marching around the New York Stock Exchange and other centers of capitalism, like Greenwich Village. Here is how the leaders of the leaderless OWS describe themselves on their Web site: "Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants." They go on to promise: "We are growing. Block by block – city by city. We will see change in this country, in this world. It will happen sooner than you can imagine." Now it occurs to me that there is only one appropriate and sensible response to the "Occupy Wall Street" anarchists and street urchins. And that is to create a competing grassroots mass movement that will challenge the attention OWS is receiving in the media, while offering a rational and constructive alternative agenda for real social change. I propose that the alternative mass movement be called "Occupy Berkeley." OB will be a mass movement holding protests and street demonstrations in Berkeley, California. Its first order of business will be to occupy Telegraph Avenue. The slogan of OB should be, "We are the other 99.999999%," referring to the fact that people who despise Berkeley street hippies and "anarchists" represent exactly that proportion of the general population. OB will specialize in civil disobedience and street theater. Among its initiatives will be a mass roundup of Berkeley hippies who will be conducted to the central facilities of OB, where they will all be given free baths. A special re-education campus will be set up in Orange County, California, where all Bay Area communists and drug users will be sent to learn about the disadvantages of communism. OB will also rid Berkeley of those asking passersby for spare change. Instead, OB will promote entrepreneurship for panhandlers and for homeless youths. Anyone in the Bay area stopping passersby and asking for spare change will be ordered to do pushups, where the first 40 are unpaid but after that, payment will be made to the panhandlers at the rate of 20 cents per pushup. Tax free. Pregnant panhandlers and those over 70 will be permitted to do their pushups from the knees. Telegraph Avenue will be renamed "Wall Street West" and Shattuck Avenue will be renamed "Milton Friedman Boulevard." The area within 4 miles of the University of California (CAL) campus will be declared a tie-dye-free zone, where no tie dyed clothing may be worn. Discounts to the BART and other forms of public transit will be offered to Berkeley residents wearing ties and jackets. All the "head shops" selling drug paraphernalia along Telegraph Avenue will be converted into barber shops and Bible stores. When not using public transit, travel in SUVs will be not only permitted but made mandatory. Special retreats will be held for Berkeley residents still believing in communism. There they will be housed in Gulag barracks, woken up at 5 AM, and ordered to do physical labor without getting paid. Berkeley socialists can also be sent to the retreats, but they will only be woken up to work at 5:30 AM. Non-competitive sports will be prohibited during leisure time, only competitive sports allowed. Afternoon breaks at the camp will be devoted to generating greenhouse gases. On Saturday nights, "Dirty Harry" movies will be screened. Attendance will be mandatory. Vegan foods will be absolutely prohibited there. Berkeley is of course only the beginning. After Berkeley is occupied by masses of marching conservatives, it will be the turn of Madison, WI; Amherst, MA; and of course San Francisco. Any city or state approving of medical marijuana will next be targeted. Cities undergoing occupation by OB will see reverse affirmative action implemented, whereby anyone who was harmed in the past by affirmative action programs will be entitled to preferences, compensation, and reparations. Occupy Berkeley is growing, town by town, block by block, taser by taser. We are drawing bipartisan support from people sick and tired of the selfish indulgence of leftwing radicals and hippies. Unlike OWS, the only genders we represent are men and women. And we are accepting donations because we believe in materialism and selfishness. We chant: "The world is watching!"; "This is how democracy looks!"; "We are the ones we've been waiting for!"; and "It is never too late for a spanking." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/11/occupy-berkeley/
Monday, October 10, 2011
Posted
10/10/2011 11:37:00 AM
1. It would be hard to find a better illustration of the politicization and the anti-democratic character of Israel's dual judicial system. The story begins with a woman named Yifat Alkobi, a married woman from Kiryat Arba. She was arrested in 2007 for spitting and throwing stones at a Palestinian she claims was harassing her, the accusations against Alkobi being based on "testimony" from the radical anti-Israel NGO Yesh Din. She has been in the news before, accused of spitting on and cursing a Palestinian neighbor (http://exmypar.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/yifat-alkobi/ ). She first got sentenced to a fine and probation and was later acquitted of the charges (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4042311,00.html). But while being transported to prison she asked a Jewish policeman conducting her there not to leave her alone with Arab policemen. The Arab policemen were probably actually Druse or Bedouin border patrolmen. When word of her comment reached the Deputy Attorney General Shai Nitzan, he ordered that she be charged with "insulting a public servant," the favorite bludgeon of Nitzan to suppress the freedom of speech of non-leftists. Shai Nitzan, you recall, is essentially a Soviet-style official in charge of using the judicial system to persecute the Israeli Right and suppress freedom of speech. He is behind the campaign to arrest and indict anyone who recommends that people read a controversial book that Nitzan considers to be racist. He persecutes and harasses rabbis. He ordered a faculty member at the University of Haifa to report to the police, KGB style, about comments he made in his classroom, comments Nitzan considered bigoted but the University administration did not. This is the same Shai Nitzan who has never gotten around to indicting any of the Israel far leftists who call for murdering non-leftists and settlers, who endorse terrorism, and who call for mass lawbreaking and refusal to serve in the military. This is the same Nitzan who never indicts Arab public figures in Israel for endorsing terrorism and murder. But when a Jewish woman asks not to be left alone with Arab policemen, this was a transgression about which Nitzan leapt into action. Had an Arab woman asked not to be left alone in the company of Jewish men, Nitzan would never have done anything at all. Alkobi never said she would object to being left alone with Arab policeWOMEN. But the affair did not end there. It turns out that a young conscientious judge in the Jerusalem magistrate's court named Dov Pollack spoke out against Nitzan's behavior. When the Alkobi case came before him, Pollack ordered the police to explain in court how it arrived at this charge against her. The police opposed the demand to explain and demanded that Pollack recuse himself from sitting in the case, claiming he was "biased" and had "expressed political opinions." In addition, the police claimed that Pollack commented that Nitzan's behavior was due to the fact that he enjoyed the backing of the current Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court, Dorit Beinisch. Allegedly Pollack said that since Beinisch is due to retire in February he would schedule the trial for March in order for objectivity to be maintained. He also is alleged to have said that this was hardly the first case of one-sided biased prosecution by Shai Nitzan. In response, the Attorney General Moshe Lador, the leftist boss of Shai Nitzan, decided to file an official complaint against Judge Pollack with the "Commissioner for Complaints against Judges." The commissioner actually cannot fire a judge and the complaint is mainly a nuisance tactic. Pollack fired back his own letter of response, accusing Lador of improperly attempting to influence court procedures and decisions. (Alkobi was acquitted of the charges by a different judge, not Pollack.) So here we have the spectacle of a biased leftist State Prosecutor refusing to fire his own biased politicized deputy for his years of anti-democratic actions and his assaults against freedom of speech. And this same State Prosecutor is now attempting to suppress the freedom of speech of a judge and harass that judge for daring to question the political motives of Shai Nitzan in an obviously absurd indictment of a woman for doing nothing more than ask not to be left alone with Arab policemen. Shai Nitzan should have been indicted for bigotry, not Mrs. Alkobi. 2. People outside of the academic world have a great deal of difficulty believing how much of academia consists of sheep-like herd behavior. Having spent much of my professional career at the University of Haifa, I see the herd behavior all the time. The latest outbreak of mass sheep-like herd behavior developed at the University of Haifa in response to the recent vandalization of a mosque in the town of Tuba Zangria in Israel's north. First let me say that I am disgusted with any vandalization of any mosque or any other site regarded by any religion as sacred. I was revolted by the Florida preacher burning Korans. Civilized people do not dishonor the objects and buildings regarded by other religions as sacred. Israel has seen several acts of vandalization of Moslem sites, in most cases consisting of writing graffiti. A handful of youths, mainly teenagers, calling themselves "Price Tag," are widely suspected of being behind these, although I suspect the Kahanists. The "Price Tag" people are hooligans who also curse and attack Israeli police and soldiers and call them Nazis. I am all in favor of prosecuting them and would have no objection to their undergoing intense spanking. The vandalization of the Tuba Zangria mosque was probably the work of one or a few of these. Two youths have been arrested. There have been some other cases of vandalization this week, including graffiti at Moslem and Christian cemeteries in Jaffa (not counting the torching of a Jaffa synagogue by Arabs). I would not be surprised if these were the work of the same two or three kids. To put this into perspective, the incidence of mosque vandalization in Israel is small compared with the US and parts of Europe, and probably only involves a handful of kids. (The police claim that some of the Jaffa mischief is related to football/soccer hooliganism. In soccer games in Israel, Jews and Arabs sometimes yell "Death to Jews" and "Death to Arabs" at each other from the stands. One of the more popular soccer teams is the all-Arab "Sons of Sakhnin," and the catcalls are common when it plays. Soccer hooliganism is hardly an Israeli invention, of course, which is one reason I have always favored all newspaper reporting about soccer matches where hooliganism appears being printed in Talmudic Aramaic.) Let us note that there has not been a single Jewish public figure in Israel from any part of the political spectrum who has condoned the vandalizations. To the contrary, from Netanyahu on down the vandalizations were universally condemned in Israel. The matter became a University of Haifa obsession after the campus "Jewish-Arab Center," headed by a Jewish professor, issued a formal statement condemning the vandalization of the mosque. As your humble curmudgeon pointed out on a campus chat list for professors, condemning the mosque vandalization was all well and good, but the statement by the "Jewish-Arab Center" was issued the day AFTER Joseph's Tomb in Nablus was vandalized there by Palestinian terrorists, who painted swastikas all over the structure. The statement by the "Center" condemning what happened in Tuba Zangria never so much as mentioned the incident at Joseph's Tomb. The Tomb has been regularly vandalized by Palestinians every few weeks for many years. Your humble curmudgeon asked if the Jewish-Arab Center was only outraged by vandalization of Moslem shrines. Several professors wrote me nasty responses, telling me I should be ashamed of myself. Several other professors openly justified the vandalizations of Joseph's Tomb as legitimate acts of resistance. You can see one example posted at the top of http://isracampus.org.il/. Professors justifying the swastika painting at Joseph's Tomb claimed that it was not even a historical Jewish structure, that it was myth that Joseph was buried there, that it was actually a Moslem shrine. (The fact that the Moslem structures atop the Temple Mount are based on historic myth has never been proposed as a reason to remove them.) Never mind that local Arabs in Nablus all call it Joseph's Tomb in Arabic. One professor insisted that it was nothing at all like the mosque vandalization because the mosque vandals were motivated by hatred, while the swastika painters on Joseph's Tomb were motivated by a desire for peace and freedom and an end to occupation. Other professors objected that since Nablus was "outside Israel," the swastikas at Joseph's Tomb "do not count." I pointed out that there have been countless acts of vandalization of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries within Israel's Green Line 1967 borders, and of course those praying at the Western Wall have often been attacked by Moslems on the Temple Mount throwing things down at them, so there were plenty of incidents against Jews that the Jewish Arab Center could condemn. One professor told me I should be ashamed of making such statements just before Yom Kippur and its calls for atonement and the need for all Jews to atone for the vandalization. I responded that the discussion on the professors chat list about the mosque incident did indeed remind me of Yom Kippur, because of the part in the Yom Kippur prayers in which humans are described as sheep in a herd. This is not the first time the Jewish-Arab Center showed its biases. This past summer the head of the center issued a special greeting sent to everyone on campus wishing Moslems a happy Ramadan and an "easy fast" (obviously not a traditional Moslem greeting but a Jewish one). The statement was issued a few days before Tisha B'Av. At the time I asked why no wishes for an easy fast were sent out by the Center to Jews that week. Later, no doubt due to my jabbing my finger in their eye, the Center would send Happy Near Year greetings to Jews on Rosh Hashana, but again no "easy fast" for Yom Kippur. Perhaps the "Jewish Arab Center" should be renamed the Arab Center. In response to the statement by the Jewish Arab Center, large numbers of University of Haifa faculty members issued calls to go the Tuba Zangria to pay solidarity visits and to show the locals how horrified they are of the vandalization of the mosque. Some professors proposed using University funds to repair the mosque. Dozens of professors issued herd-like endorsements on the professors chat list of the calls to make pilgrimage to Tuba Zangria. Lest this appear to be merely the herd response of bleeding hearts and do-gooders, it should also be pointed out that many of those joining the herd were the very same people who campaigned against the singing of Hatikva at University of Haifa graduation ceremonies. The initiator of the solidarity caravan had suggested that the PLO "anthem" be sung at those ceremonies. Not a single one of those joining the herd condemned the swastikas at Joseph's Tomb. None of the professors proposed visiting the Jaffa synagogue that was torched this week by Arabs. Not a single one had ever issued a condemnation of Arab vandalization or Arab terrorist attacks against Jews. Not a single one of those joining the herd had denounced the massacre of children at the Merkaz Harav yeshiva in West Jerusalem in 2008, and in fact a few of the professors had justified that attack at the time. Those who were so adamant about how religious sensitivities must be respected spent Yom Kippur sending out email messages organizing a caravan of cars to Tuba Zangria the next day, to show their solidarity. It goes without saying that when their beloved Palestinians have attacked synagogues, including when those synagogues happened to have praying Jews inside (Paris and Istanbul come to mind), not a single member of the academic herd condemned this on the professors chat lists. So large numbers of University of Haifa academics are horrified by cases of juvenile Jewish vandals damaging Moslem (and occasionally Christian) sites, but consider vandalization of Jewish holy sites and murdering Jews to be legitimate protest and resistance. I think the entire matter can be summed up nicely with this nursery rhyme: Baaa Baaa Tenured Sheep, have you any wool, Yassir, Yassir, two bags full, One for the mosque, sir, and one for the church, But none for that little shul they burned down the lane.
Friday, October 07, 2011
Posted
10/07/2011 10:19:00 AM
This week the President of France, Nicky Sakozy, announced that the very notion of a "Jewish State" is a silly idea. See the report here: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148556Well, it occurs to me that if you REALLY want to find a truly silly idea, it is the idea of a French state. I reprint here an older posting of mine: http://www.meforum.org/62/land-for-peace-the-french-solution Land for Peace: The French Solution by Steven Plaut Middle East Quarterly June 2000, p. 96 http://www.meforum.org/62/land-for-peace-the-french-solution On a recent trip to Israel, French prime minister Lionel Jospin urged Israel to make concessions for peace. More interesting yet, in documents relating to his visit, Jerusalem was called the "capital of the Palestinian Authority." And what does he consider the capital of Israel? Tel Aviv, of course.1 This trip followed by a few years one made by President Jacques Chirac, who used the occasion of his visit in 1996 to announce that "Syria has a moral right to demand return of the Golan Heights."2 These French politicians may be on to something important. Never one to back down from a challenge, I have prepared a set of proposals for consideration by the French people, so they too can achieve a full, lasting, and just peace with their historic opponents. First, we all agree that territory must not be annexed by force. Therefore, we can also agree that Germany has a moral right to demand the return of Alsace-Lorraine, for the French aggression in 1945 and its consequent occupation must not be rewarded. "A full withdrawal for full peace" should operate here. Further, France must agree to the return and rehabilitation of all ethnic Germans expelled from Alsace-Lorraine after World Wars I and II, as well as all those they define as their descendents. But this, of course, is just the first step toward a solution, as no aggression can be rewarded—and France has much other stolen territory to return. It took Corsica from Genoa, Nice and Savoy from Piedmont; as the successor state, Italy must get back all these lands. By similar token, territories grabbed from the Habsburgs go back to Austria, including Franche-Comté, Artois, and historic Burgundy. The Roussillon area (along the Pyrenées) must be returned to Spain, its rightful owner. And Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine, and Gascony must be returned to their rightful owners, the British royal family. Not even this not enough for the sake of peace. Brittany and Languedoc must be granted autonomy at once, recognizing the Breton and Occitan Liberation organizations as their legal rulers. This leaves the French government in control over the Île de France (the area around Paris). That, however, still does not solve the problem of the Holy City of Paris, sacred to artists, gourmets, and adulterers. The Corsicans obviously have a historic claim to the Tomb of the Emperor Napoleon, their famed son, as well as the Invalides complex and beyond. For the sake of peace, is it not too much to ask that Paris be the capital for two peoples? The French authorities must agree to prevent French Parisians from even entering the sacred tomb area, lest this upset the Corsicans. The Saint Chapelle and the Church of Notre Dame of course will be internationalized, under joint Vatican-art historical auspices. Indeed, the French should consider it a compliment of the highest order that so many people see Paris as an international city. The French have nothing to complain of. They will enjoy the benefits of peace and retain control of the Champs Elysées. Actually, come to think of it, even the Champs Elysées may be too much. Recalling the French position that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel, perhaps the true French capital is not Paris at all, but Vichy. Steven Plaut teaches at the University of Haifa. 1 The Jerusalem Post, Feb. 24, 2000. 2 The Jerusalem Post, Oct. 23, 1996
Posted
10/07/2011 09:11:00 AM
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/07/from-israels-bus-300-affair-to-the-al-awlaki-assassination/From Israel's Bus 300 Affair to the Al-Awlaki Assassination Posted By Steven Plaut On October 7, 2011 It is perhaps the ultimate irony that the Israeli "Bus 300" affair is once again popping up in the media just days after the al-Qaeda terrorist with the US passport, Anwar al-Awlaki, was liquidated by a drone in Yemen. Many of the points being raised in debate over the killing of al-Awlaki are the same as those long raised regarding the Israeli "Bus 300 Affair." In both incidents terrorists were summarily executed by the intelligence agencies of democratic nations, without trial and "due process." Both cases are being exploited by the enemies of those democracies to paint them as "inhumane regimes." In the Bus 300 Affair, intelligence agents from Israel's Shin Bet liquidated two terrorists captured after hijacking a bus full of civilians, mainly women, and threatening to blow them up. The al-Awlaki affair is far fresher in everyone's mind. Many on the Left, joined by Ron Paul and some fringe members of the Right, are grumbling about how al-Awlaki was liquidated "without proper due process and trial." The eminent professor of law from Berkeley, John Yoo, probably made the best case for the killing, writing in the Wall Street Journal: Yet, from the howls on the left, you would never know that President Barack Obama had won another victory in the war on terror. Even as details of the operation leaked out, critics claimed that our government had "assassinated" an American citizen without due process. … Worse yet, they get the rights of a nation at war terribly wrong. Awlaki's killing in no way violates the prohibition on assassination … [A]ssassination is an act of murder for political purposes. Killing Martin Luther King Jr. or John F. Kennedy is assassination. Shooting an enemy soldier in wartime is not. In World War II, the United States did not carry out an assassination when it sent long-range fighters to shoot down an air transport carrying the Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. American citizens who join the enemy do not enjoy a roving legal force-field that immunizes them from military reprisal. President Abraham Lincoln confronted this question at the outset of the Civil War. Almost all of the commentators and bloggers who roll their eyes in mock horror over the execution of the two terrorists in the "Bus 300" affair refuse to report what actually happened there. On April 12, 1984, four Arab terrorists who had entered the Israeli Negev from Gaza commandeered an Israeli civilian bus filled mostly with women commuters returning home to Ashkelon from their jobs in Tel Aviv. There were pregnant women among the victims. The terrorists seized the bus and attempted to drive it towards the Egyptian border. They were armed with knives and explosives and threatened to blow up the entire bus with its passengers if stopped. They crashed through road blocks and were pursued by military jeeps. The bus eventually was stopped near Gaza City. The incident took place just a few years after the massacre of bus passengers by terrorists in another incident along Israel's main coastal road. Holding the Bus 300 passengers as hostages, the terrorists demanded the release of 500 jailed terrorists, threatening to murder the captives if their demands were not met. The next morning, an Israeli SWAT team stormed Bus 300 and freed the passengers. Two of the terrorists were killed in the operation. One Israeli woman on the bus died in the crossfire and seven others were injured. The Israeli military announced that all four terrorists had died in the operation. Later it turned out that two of the four had actually been captured alive and were executed by intelligence agents on the spot. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Syria took credit for the attack, although Israel claimed that Arafat's Fatah terror organization was responsible. The incident turned into a "scandal" when an Israeli newspaper called Hadashot (owned by the radical leftist Haaretz publishing house; it has since closed), edited by one Yossi Klein, defied Israel's military censor (which censors news reporting about some sensitive military matters) and published a photo of one of the captured terrorists being led away. (Originally published with faces of intelligence officers blackened out.) In the aftermath, several Israeli intelligence officers were indicted for their roles in "covering up" the execution of the two captured terrorists. All officers would be either exonerated in court or granted presidential "pardon" before indictment. Careers were damaged more by the negative publicity than from formal judicial actions. The head of the Shin Bet at the time was forced to resign. One intelligence officer named Ehud Yatom proudly boasted of his role in eliminating the terrorists. He later served as a member of the Israeli parliament (the Knesset). An official commission of inquiry then examined activities and procedures of the intelligence agency. The Bus 300 affair continues to generate public debate in Israel. It returns to the headlines whenever any of the figures involved are in the news, such as when Yatom was to be appointed director of the Israeli Parks Authority. There have been films, documentaries and plays about the incident in Israel and elsewhere. The latest is a Hebrew film recently released titled "A. – Liquidate them!" and it is generating a lot of public debate. The Israel far Left has long exploited the incident as a bludgeon against the supposed "human rights abuses" by the intelligence services. Yossi Klein, the same bloke who broke the law by running in Hadashot the photo of the captured terrorist being led away, has been exploiting the attention he is suddenly again getting and denounced the Shin Bet for engaging in things that are "immoral and illegal," in his opinion (Haaretz, October 4, 2011). He has been backed by some of Israel's most seditious self-hating leftist extremists. Both the al-Awlaki killing and "Bus 300" actually serve to illustrate the underlying problem concerning the nature of terrorism. Terrorists are not soldiers, do not behave as soldiers, and when they are captured they are not protected by international treaties regarding prisoners of war. They do not wear uniforms and they explicitly target civilians for purposes of creating mass panic and demoralization. By targeting civilians, they defy all norms of human decency. At the same time they are not civilian "criminals" and so are not entitled to the protections and niceties of the judicial system, from Miranda warnings and legal representation to due process in courts. Terrorism is neither civilian "crime" nor is it military activity by soldiers. It is something else, something unique, sui generis. It is absurd for terrorists to be processed and treated like common criminals, and it is just as absurd for them to be treated as prisoners of war. That is why Guantanamo base, waterboarding, kidnapping terrorists to third countries, and all the rest are methods that are perfectly sensible parts of anti-terrorism policy, even if they would be prohibited when dealing with common criminals and with military prisoners of war. To put it bluntly, terrorists should be summarily executed, unless there is some special strategic reason not to kill them (such as extracting intelligence). Try to imagine that some of the hijackers involved in the 9-11 attacks had actually been overpowered and captured by security personnel that fateful day and then the would-be hijackers had been summarily executed. Or imagine that Osama bin Laden had first been captured alive and only then executed by American security forces, after intelligence was extracted from him. Captured terrorists serve as open invitations to other terrorists to engage in more terrorism in order to gain their release. John Wilkes Booth was not read his rights nor provided with legal counsel. Summary execution of terrorists makes a moral point, that by their actions terrorists have forfeited any expectation of "due process" in court and of ordinary protection due to military prisoners of war. Just as we honor and proclaim publicly the merit of our heroes and role models, so it makes perfect sense for us to exhibit our disgust and revulsion with terrorists by liquidating them. While executing terrorists theoretically risks situations where innocent people could be killed in error, should proof ever emerge of such a case occurring, those involved in the error or crime can be indicted. But the burden of proof that an innocent person was so killed in an anti-terrorism operation would be upon the prosecution. The Shin Bet agents who summarily executed the two Bus 300 terrorists, captured while threatening to blow up a bus full of civilians, behaved properly. The terrorists involved indeed deserved to be summarily executed. The agents should have been proclaimed heroes, promoted and awarded medals. Those who express "anguish" and "horror" at such extra-judicial executions are people who prefer that terrorism thrive and flourish. Execution of terrorists makes them feel squeamish and uncomfortable. Their comfort is more important to them than preventing more 9-11s and more mass murders of civilians by terrorists in the Middle East. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/07/from-israels-bus-300-affair-to-the-al-awlaki-assassination/
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