A “masterpiece” has been written by Bradley Burston of Haaretz.  The article opens up:

At times like these, I envy the people who passionately, frankly, with all their hearts, despise Israel.

Well, only a writer from Haaretz can write something like this.  A Jew who desperately wants Israel to be just like all the other nations has realized that it cannot and will not.  This explains Burston’s bewilderment at Israel’s J Street stance:

In a gratuitous move breathtaking in its haughtiness, its ignorance of and disrespect for the United States and the American Jewish community, the Foreign Ministry – spearhead of Israel’s campaign against boycotts abroad – elected this week to boycott a meeting with five U.S. Congressmen visiting Israel.

Do you expect a right-wing government to tolerate to be given directives by another group of lost Jews-especially ones who (unlike Buston) didn’t have the courage to come to live in Israel?

I don’t think I have met one immigrant from “the first world” who wasn’t frustrated with their choice to live here in Israel.  That frustration is evident in the writer’s final statement:

My father did not flee the Soviet Union just so his son could one day have the chance to live in a place just like it.

I’d like to remind Bradley Burston that his father didn’t have the merit of leaving a considerably more comfortable situation simply because…it was the right thing to do.

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For previous OpEds and documents on national security and overseas investments in Israel, please visit The Ettinger Report at http://www.theettingerreport.co.il

Purim 2010 Guide for the Perplexed

Yoram Ettinger, February 25, 2010

Assembled from various Jewish Sages

1. Purim is the holiday of contradictions and tenacity-driven-optimism: Grief replaced by joy, Esther’s concealment replaced by the disclosure of her national/religious identity, Haman’s intended genocide of Jews replaced by redemption, Haman replaced by Mordechai, national and personal pessimism replaced by optimism. One of Purim’s lessons: Life is complex, full of contradictions, ups & downs and difficult dilemmas and worthy of principled-determination.

2. The timing – The Jewish month of Adar. Adar is the root of the Hebrew adjective “Adir” (glorious, awesome, exalted, magnificent).  It is, also, a derivative of the Akkadian word Adura (heroism). Jewish tradition (Babylonian Talmud) highlights Adar as a month of happiness, singing and dancing, prohibiting eulogies and fast on Purim. The zodiac of Adar is Pisces (fish), which is a symbol of demographic multiplication. Hence, Adar is the only Jewish month, which doubles itself during the 7 leap years during each 19 years cycle. Purim is celebrated on the 14^th (in non-walled towns) and (in Jerusalem) on the 15^th day of Adar (February 28 and March 1, 2010), commemorating the national liberation of the Jewish People in Persia and the (161 BCE) victory of Judah the Maccabee over Nikanor, the Assyrian commander. Moses – whose burial site is unknown – was born, and died (1273 BCE), on the 7th day of Adar, which is Israel’s Memorial Day for soldiers, whose burial site is unknown. The events of Purim occurred following the destruction of the 1^st Temple by Nebuchadnezzar (586 BCE) and the exile from Zion, during the leadership of Ezra who returned to Jerusalem, and the inauguration of the Second Temple (3^rd of Adar, 515 BCE) by Ezra and Nehemiah. Nebuchadnezzar died in Adar 561 BCE (Jeremiah 52:31).  Einstein published the theory of General Relativity in Adar 1916.

3. Purim’s Hebrew root is fate/destiny (“Pur”), as well as lottery (to commemorate Haman’s lottery which determined the designated day for the planned Jewish genocide) “to frustrate”, “to annul” (“Le’Ha’fer), “to crumble” and “to shutter” (Le’Phorer), reflecting the demise of Haman.

4. Purim – A (522 BCE) War of Civilizations between Mordechai the Jew and Haman the Iranian-Amalekite – constitutes an early edition of the war between Right VS Wrong, Liberty VS Tyranny, Just VS Evil, Truth VS Lies, as were/are the precedents of Adam/Eve VS Snake, Abel VS Cain, Abraham VS Sodom & Gomorrah, Jacob VS Esau (grandparent of Amalek), Maccabees VS Assyrians, Allies VS Nazis, Western democracies VS Communist Bloc and Western democracies VS Islamic terrorism.

5. Mordechai, the hero of Purim and one of Ezra’s deputies, was a role model of principle-driven optimism in defiance of colossal odds, in face of a global power and in spite of Jewish establishment.  According to Judaism, deliverance is ushered by the bravery of faith-driven individuals, such as Nachshon – who was the first to walk into the Red Sea before it was parted – and Mordechai. He was a politically-INcorrect statesman and a retired military leader, who practiced “disproportionate pre-emption” instead of defense, deterrence or retaliation. The first three Hebrew letters of “Mordechai” spell the Hebrew word “Rebellion” (“Mered”), which is consistent with the motto/legacy of the American Founding Fathers: “Rebellion against Tyrants is Obedience to G-D”). Mordechai did not bow to Haman, the second most powerful person in the Persian Empire.  Mordechai was a member of the tribe of Benjamin, the only son of Jacob who did not bow to Esau. The name Mordechai is also a derivative of Mordouch – the chief Babylonian god.

Mordechai was a descendant of King Saul, who defied a clear commandment (to eradicate the Amalekites) and spared the life of Agag, the Amalekite king, thus causing further calamities upon the Jewish People. Consequently, Saul lost his royal position and life.  Mordechai learnt from Saul’s error. He destroyed Haman, a descendant of Agag the Amalekite, and Haman’s entire power base, thus sparing the Jewish People a major disaster.

In Gimatriya, “Cursed Haman” (ארור המן) equals “Blessed Mordechai” (ברוך מרדכי) – 502.

6. Queen Esther, the heroine of Purim’s Esther Scroll (the 24^th and concluding book in the Old Testament) was Mordechai’s cousin. One cannot comprehend Purim without studying the Esther Scroll. Esther  demonstrates the centrality of women in Judaism, shaping the future of the Jewish People, as did Sarah, Rebecca, Miriam, Batyah, Deborah, Hannah, etc. Sarah was the first Jewish woman, and Esther was the last Jewish woman, mentioned in the Bible. Sarah lived 127 years and Esther ruled over 127 countries. The name Esther is a derivative of the Hebrew word “Hester” – “clandestine”, “hidden”, “subtle”, which was reflective of her (initially) unknown Jewish identity and subtle-style at the royal court.  The name Esther is also a derivative of Ishtar – a Mesopotamian goddess, Astarte – a Phoenician goddess. In fact, the one day pre-Purim Fast of Esther (commemorating the three day fast declared by Esther in order to expedite deliverance), was cherished by the Marano in Spain, who performed Judaism in a clandestine manner. The Scroll of Esther is the only book in the Old Testament, where the name of G-D is hidden/absent.  It has been suggested that the explicit name of G-D is absent because the Scroll of Esther is the only Old Testament book, which deals exclusively with the Diaspora and not with the Land of Israel. According to Michael Bernstein, the noun “King” appears 182 times in Esther Scroll, which is the total sum of 26 (numerical value of G-D) times 7 (days of creation). Esther’s second name was Hadassah, whose root is Hadass – myrtle tree in Hebrew – which constitutes a metaphor for eyesight 20:20. The name Esther is identified with the planet Venus (hence, Esther’s other Hebrew name – Noga – a glaring divine light, which is Venus in Hebrew). In Gimatriya, Esther (אסתר) and Noga (נגה) equal 661 and 58 respectively, and the sum of 6+6+1 and 5+8 is 13 (the number of G-D’s virtues).  In “small Gimatriya” both Esther (1+6+4+2) and Noga (5+3+5) equal 13, which is also the total sum of one in Hebrew (אחד) – which represents monotheism, as well as the total sum of love in Hebrew (אהבה).

7. The Persian King appointed Mordechai to be his top advisor, overruling Haman’s intent to prevent the resettling of Jews in Zion, the reconstruction of the Temple and the restoration of the wall around Jerusalem. He foiled Haman’s plan to exterminate the Jews. The king prospered as a result of his change of heart and escaped assassination. That was the case with Pharaoh, who escaped national collapse and starvation and rose in global prominence, once he appointed Joseph to be his deputy.

8. Purim’s four commandments:

*Reading/studying the “Esther Scroll” within the family, highlighting the centrality of family, education, memory and youth as the foundation for a solid future.

*Gifts to relatives and friends emphasize the importance of family and community.

*Charity (at least the value of a meal) indicates the value of compassion and responsibility.

*Celebration and Happiness sustains the element of optimism and faith as the backbone of an individual and a nation.

9. Lethal enemy destroyed and commemorated.  The pre-Purim Sabbath is called “Memorial Sabbath” (“Shabbat Zakhor”), commemorating the war of extermination launched by the Amalekites against the Jewish Nation, since the Exodus from Egypt.  One of Purim’s lessons: Be wary of enemies, employing false-tenuous accommodation, in order to conceal a strategic goal of extermination.

Who is a Moser?

Not Richard Silverstein. Nope.

A Moser in Judaism is basically a Jew who informs on another Jew to non-Jewish authorities. The law relating to a Moser has evolved over time. Jewish communities that lived in societies that discriminated against Jews, treated Mosers more harshly than those who lived in societies with fair justice systems. For instance, one who informs on a Jewish pedophile or criminal today in the United States, ought not be considered a Moser. The law of Moser is not, in fact, akin to the Mafia’s code of Omerta. The law of Moser was never meant to help criminal Jews escape Justice. It was meant to prevent injustice.

The law of Moser’s harsh strictures, often requiring the administration of the death penalty, also reflected the fact that such informants often lied in order to curry favor with the anti-Jewish authorities.

Recently, a team of at least 11 and as many as 17 people, killed the leader of Hamas’ Military wing, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Mabhouh was said to be in charge of Hamas weapons procurement from Iran and was personally involved in the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers. The suspects arrived in Dubai bearing a number of fake European passports and are suspected of being Israeli but that has yet to be proven unequivocally.

Despite that, self-described pro-Israel, pro-Zionist Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein, after posting photos of the suspects, expressed his fondest hope for those that carried out this extra-judicial killing as follows:

I would like to see Dubai take out Interpol warrants for these Israeli murderers. Then I would like to see Dubai request that the ICC try them when they are caught. I would like Israeli progressives to watch out for these people and report them when they see them so they can be identified even if they choose to stay in Israel where they can’t be captured. No more impunity

Are the people that committed this killing Israelis? We don’t absolutely know. Are they murderers? Is killing an enemy combatant, with blood on his hands, actively engaged in plotting the deaths of civilians, a murder? Or is it the sort of measured response to terrorism originating in Gaza, urged for by no less than Justice Goldstone in his infamous Report?

But one cannot help but be struck by the bile and pure hatred emanating from Richard Silverstein’s exhortation. He not only wishes ill against people defending Israel, he seeks to recruit fellow progressives in Israel to root out and bring to justice the suspects he hopes they will find in their midst. Will such suspects receive a fair trial in Dubai? I’m guessing… not so much. Will they receive a fair trial in the International Criminal Court? Well, Richard Silverstein is no expert on International law amongst other things he’s not an expert on. If he was he’d know that this sort of operation falls outside the ambit of the ICC. But whatever. This isn’t the first time Richard Silverstein has made a completely idiotic statement, and I suspect it won’t be the last.

Of course we can debate the merit of such killings. I have no doubt that Mabhouh will soon be replaced by someone else. But for a Jew to express such unbridled hatred against another Jew, and to actively urge people to turn them in, one has to wonder how the law of Moser ought to apply in such an instance.

Traditionally, no one was ever held in greater contempt than the Moser, and the sages often compared the informant to a serpent. Sanctions against Moserim range from death to excommunication. There isn’t much information about the penalty for one who encourages another to be a Moser. I would never suggest that Richard Silverstein be killed for his opinions and he excommunicated himself from Klal Yisrael a long time ago.

I guess the bottom line is that whatever the actual Jewish law is, Richard Silverstein has proven himself to be a world-class douche bag.

Poor Richard Silverstein and Tikkun Hamas

The Forward in its current incarnation has never met an Anti-Semite it didn’t like. Especially a Jewish one. This time out it profiles the tragic wrongdoing done to Richard Silverstein or the Tikkun Hamas blog. Poor Richard has been having a bad month. First he wailed despairingly that Palestinians are busy killing each other instead of killing Jews (as he would prefer) and then someone created a mean blogspot blog parody of him.

When normal bloggers have parody blogs created of them, they shrug their shoulders and move on but as everyone knows the biggest bullies are the first to whine when anyone shoves them back. Their cowardice is exactly what drives their viciousness in the first place. Richard Silverstein has made a career of defending terrorists who kill Jews but when a blog mocks him, Richard runs for his lawyer.

So Richard Silverstein lawyered up and began threatening to sue Google. (You would think that a blogger whose blog is subtitled “Making the World a Better Place” while supporting terrorists would have more of a sense of humor or at least irony) and his hissy fit has been picked up by The Forward.

The case of Silverstein…is but one example of the below-the-belt discourse that has taken hold in the world of Jewish blogging. Scurrilous barbs and sharp-tongued insults are routinely tossed back and forth through cyberspace from one Jewish blogger to another, appearing in long threads in the sections reserved for reader comments.

Tragic. Simply tragic. You see once upon a time the Jewish blogsphere was an oasis of peace and good fellowship and then suddenly people began turning mean and throwing “scurrilous barbs” at one another. Then we all took out our sword canes and had it out before becoming peers of the realm.

The Jewish blogsphere has like the rest of the blogsphere seen its share of fighting because like most of the internet, it’s basically a place for people to hang out and talk to each other. Typical of media articles on the subject is some sort of phony pretense that the internet was once a utopia that suddenly went sour.

Richard Silverstein’s case however is irrelevant because Richard Silverstein and Tikkun Hamas are not part of the Jewish blogsphere. He’s part of the Palestinian blogsphere.

The fake blog, called “Little Dickie’s Diaper Droppings,” wasn’t pretty. In addition to the scatological references, the site was riddled with graphic sexual innuendo.

Oh dear. Scatological references. And scurrilous barbs. How Dickensian. Poor Richard. Poor, poor Richard. Sure he defended Hizbullah but how could he be expected to cope with scatological references. Oh poop.

In the United States, Silverstein has invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 law that covers copyright infringement on the Internet, in his attempts to have the fake blog taken down. Silverstein said that when he contacted Blogger.com, the Google subsidiary that hosts the defamatory Web site, to demand that the site be removed, he was only partially successful.

“Clearly the people who run these sites know they’ve violated copyright, and what they’re trying to do is thumb their noses at me,” Silverstein said. “But what they’re actually doing is putting themselves in jeopardy.”

What Silverstein is doing is trying to silence a parody of himself. And he knows it too. Sadly he’s not in the UK or Israel so he has to resort to the DMCA, a bogus corporate funded law that doesn’t apply here. This is nothing more than harassment because a blogger who supports the terrorists shelling and murdering Israeli civilians is too thin skinned to cope with some scatological references.

So instead Poor Richard Silverstein is doing his best to try and intimidate everyone with threats of lawsuits while at the same time baselessly slandering a variety of folks including Steven Plaut, Aussie Dave, Rachel Neuwirth and others for conspiring against him. Somehow when he threatens to sue people because his sense of humor is limited to giggling when shells fall on Sderot, it’s a fight against cyberbullying. But when he slanders others and gets sued, he’s still the one being cyberbullied. This pathetic whining from Richard Silverstein would be ridiculous if it wasn’t being taken seriously by a major Jewish paper.

The Forward calls Richard Silverstein a liberal Jewish blogger but supporting terrorism does not make you a liberal. Certainly not Jewish. Jewschool might be a liberal blog. Maybe. Richard Silverstein is just Hizbullah’s spit bucket. The Forward’s claims of cyberbullying is limited to citing Richard Silverstein, Daniel Sieradski and Orthomom.

Is there any chance that the Forward would actually quote a conservative or Zionist Jewish blogger who has been targeted and harassed? I think the odds of that are about as good as Hamas and Fatah dancing the Hora together. Which speaks eloquently to the Forward’s bias.

And yet Richard Silverstein whines on.

If you’ve been trashed by Abitbol and his minions at Jewlicious you must have something important to say to the world. Only testosterone driven bullies like them would feel it was their right, nay obligation, to trash fellow Jews who diverge from their rather narrow religious-political views.

Behold the man. Behold the whine. The defender of terrorists cries suddenly for civility. You cannot serve as the propaganda outlet for the murderers of Jews and then hypocritically demand civility. Murder is the worst form of incivility imaginable and Richard Silverstein has made his blogging career trafficking in it. For a defender of murderers to plead for civility is hypocritical. It is doubly hypocritical for a professional slanderer and cyberbully to whine about bullying.

WHO: Z STREET, new unabashedly Zionist pro-Israel organization
WHAT: EXPOSES “NEW” J STREET PEACE PLAN AS SMOKE AND MONEY
WHERE: Univ. of Pa, Hillel Building, 1st floor, 39th & Walnut Streets, Philadelphia
WHEN: Thursday, February 4, 2010  7:00 p.m.
CONTACT:    Lori Lowenthal Marcus  18zstreet@gmail.org WWW.ZSTREET.ORG
********

Two new organizations have entered the arena to claim title to the label “pro-Israel.” One of them is J Street, the multi-million dollar entity that sprang from the bosom of George Soros the billionaire enemy of Israel, and like-minded people.  J Street’s novelty and unlimited dollars have enabled its manufacturers to put out a product branded “Pro-Israel and Pro-Peace,” when its real goal is to appease Israel’s enemies and have the current US administration impose an immediate Palestinian State in the region – because that’s what they think is best for the Palestinians.

The other new organization, Z STREET, is a young start-up with little money but with a sword that slices through J Street’s mellifluous phrases and falsehoods – the truth.

Using its unlimited bank account including contributions from enemies of Israel, J Street will be webcasting from Philadelphia to its satellite “locals.”  This corporate roll-out builds on the base J Street acquired when it completed its takeover of Brit Tzedek V’Shalom – an older and poorer organization, one much less slick but at least honest about its commitment to give Israel’s terrorist enemies what they want.

Z STREET, the unabashedly Zionist group, is also having an event at the same time and in the same building.  According to Z STREET founder Lori Lowenthal Marcus, “Our event, in contrast, isn’t intended to seduce people with smoke and money.”

“Instead,” Marcus explains, “Z STREET will expose the “Presto Palestine” peace plan, advocated by J Street, as a foolhardy disaster which would, if acted on, spell catastrophe for Israel, further destabilize the Middle East, and encourage the enemies of the West throughout the world.”

Dr. Mitchell Bard, author of “Myths and Facts” and director of the “Jewish Virtual Library” will be the featured Z STREET speaker.
###

Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Z STREET
WWW.ZSTREET.ORG
18zstreet@gmail.com
P.O. Box 182
Merion Station, PA  19066

How many flaws can one person have?  Blogger Richard Silverstein has built a “career” out of trying to discredit Zionism, Israel, “the right-wing,” and anyone who challenges aggressive hateful liberalism.  In a recent character-assassination, Silverstein, in English Pro-Israel Cyberbullying Alive and Well condemns fellow blogger Joseph Wiseman for “cyberstalking” Israel-critic Stephen Sizer (an Anglican vicar).   Here is the Tikun Buffoon, uncensored and unfulfilled, taking his anger out on anyone who doesn’t agree with him.  Meanwhile he is guilty of the very transgression that he is so eager to find in others.  In his own words:

“This is the same cyberstalker who had the audacity to write about Sizer:…”

“As I have periodically done when vexed by a persistent comment troll or cyberstalker, Sizer noticed that the IP address Wiseman used to post comments to his blog traced back to the University.  As you know, most companies, government agencies and universities have rules governing the use of their telecommunications (including computer) equipment.  These rules usually preclude the use of such facilities for engaging in illegal, abusive or stalking behavior.”

“Let me throw a little cold water on the party: no one has the right to use public computer facilities to smear the reputation of others and lie about them.”

“As for the police “knock in the middle of the night” (as Wiseman melodramatically portrays it), I’ve had multiple commenters threaten my life and abuse my child as well (not to mention the lawsuits and threats of lawsuits) and the police in my town could care less.  The FBI as well.  So I’m glad the local police force took this issue seriously.  People like Wiseman should know there are red lines they can’t cross (if they don’t know it already).”

“Let’s get a grip, folks.  Stop shilling for Joseph Wiseman.  The pity and melodrama is misplaced.  He’s a big boy.  If he wants to play rough, his victims can give as well as they get.  Or does Joe think they have to lay down and enjoy it?  Joseph Wiseman is a semi-professional character assassin.  A nasty piece of work.  Don’t cry for him, Argentina or anyone else.”

No one has a right to use a public computer to smear someone else?  But, a private computer, yes?  You want to explain the logic behind that?  Lashon hara is only performed by using a public computer?  Silverstein says he was raised in the Conservative movement.  No wonder that institution is breaking apart!  Is this what they are teaching Jewish kids?  Silverstein spends all of his time analyzing other people’s flaws and none of his time analyzing his own!   There is nothing passive about his philosophy.  Here is another Western loud-mouth bully going after everyone else because he cannot resolve his own issues.  Right Richard?

Speaking of hypocrisy and cyberbullying, on his own blog, in the same month (January 2010), Silverstein guns for Ephraim Khantsis, a young religious immigrant (oleh) to Israel:

With some key help from the intrepid Sol Salbe, I’ve learned quite a bit about our Kahane-wannabe.

Richard confesses that he has his little Tikun minions out and about trying to incriminate and slander other Jews.  Furthermore, as I can testify to personally, Silverstein uses his blog as a weapon against anyone who doesn’t agree with him, and refuses to allow those people to defend themselves properly.  Perhaps if the Conservative movement disintegrated, it wouldn’t produce people like Richard Silverstein.  Without “Tikun Olam,” there would be one less problem in the world to fix!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Anti-Leftist Grogger

1.     The anti-Leftist “Grogger”

By Steven Plaut

For months now, every Friday in Zion has seen noisy screaming violent leftist rioters attacking Israeli soldiers, engaging in hooliganism, and breaking the law.   The thugs are a mixture of foreign pro-terror “anarchists” that Israel foolishly lets into the country, joined by some members of Israel’s own “Leftists for the Extermination of Israel.”  For months they have demonstrated in the West Bank towns of Bil’in and Nil’in to show their support for terrorists mass murdering Israeli Jews.  They oppose Israel having a security fence because it makes it harder for the suicide bombers to reach Israeli children.

These past few weeks they have shifted their noisy activities to the Simon the Righteous neighborhood in Jerusalem.  The demonstrators demand that no Jews be allowed to move into the homes they legally own in that neighborhood because the neighborhood “belongs” to Arabs.  They closely resemble the Ku Klux Klan marchers who try to prevent black folks from moving into neighborhoods where they “do not belong.”

Now while I personally would prefer loading the noisy violent protesters onto a one-way bus for Gaza, or perhaps a one-way plane for Somalia, Israel insists on dealing with these thugs as “protesters.”   But now Israeli science and the ingenuity of the “Yiddishe Kopf” have come up with a new weapon that can be used to disburse these noisy cheerleaders for terror.

Israel plans to fight their noise … with noise.

That is correct.  Israel is about to take a lesson from Jewish history and adapt that weapon of mass destruction that we all use every year against Haman!   Just in time for upcoming Purim, Israel is going to employ an anti-leftist Purim grogger. And it really works!

Popular Science magazine on January 19, 2010 reported that Israel has developed a new “weapon” against terrorist cheerleaders and against pro-terror “Solidarity” rioters.  It is a “sonic cannon.”   It makes loud noises that sound like the sonic booms of jets.  It was developed by PDT Agro, a small company in Israel that had been previously building “sound cannons” that scare away pests from Israeli farms.  The new invention will be used to scare away leftist pests trying to assist Palestinian mass murdering genocidal terrorists.

The report in Popular Science is a delicious take-off on the science fiction classic “Dune,” in which the desert fighters (called “fedayeen,” of all things) battle the barbarians using sound weapons:  “A desert people have developed a new weapon that uses sound instead of bullets. But this time, it will be used to control crowds instead of fighting giant worms or devious members of House Harkonnen. The Israeli Defense Ministry has contracted for the production of sonic-boom stun-guns called ‘Thunder Generator cannons,’ which they hope to use in crowd-control situations.”

The new contraption fights noise with noise as a sort of way to fight fire with fire.   Here is the Popular Science explanation: “The weapon runs on LPG, a common cooking gas, which mixes with oxygen to generate powerful bursts of sound. Each sound burst lasts around 300 milliseconds, and generates a shockwave that travels from the cannon at almost six times the speed of sound.”

You realize what all this means?  If Israel has invented ONE cure for leftist hooliganism, just imagine what could lie ahead?  Perhaps an anti-leftism pill, which – when swallowed – raises the IQ by 50 points?  How about a special rubber bullet that electronically hones in on marijuana?  How about a special TASER that can only be discharged against the unbathed?

Be that as it may, this new real invention represents a giant scientific step forward for Israel.  As you may recall, Israel had been using Pepe Le Pew to help control the violent hooligans and anarcho-fascist thugs who pogrom weekly in the West Bank against Israel’s security fence.  A while back it was reported that Israel has decided to keep them in line by using “skunk bombs.”   These “bombs,” actually just a canister spray, apparently are so smelly that even an anarchist who has not bathed in 18 months is capable of being offended and repulsed by the odor. The Jerusalem Post reported:  ‘The skunk bomb is a foul-smelling liquid which is sprayed on the rioters.  “The smell is so strong that people flee immediately.”  Some news reports are claiming that the spray smells remarkably like a mixture of, well, Number One and Number Two.   At least one web site referred to it as Zionist Death Dung.

I am wondering whether the new sound cannon can be combined with other forms of anti-leftist music.  We all recall the Apocalypse Now movie, where the choppers come in firing while playing Wagner music.  So why not wheel in the new Israeli anti-leftist sound cannons while loudspeakers play loud Shlomo Carlebach songs in the background, or perhaps even Avraham Fried singing Chassidic songs?

And then we can all just sit back and watch the leftist varmints scurry!!

(Full news story here:  http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/israeli-sonic-cannon-control-rioters-scare-birds)

The entire world has been watching the coverage of the recent disaster in Haiti. Then I get an email telling me that Tikun Buffoon Richard Silverstein has been “covering” the events himself (see below). Low and behold, I found:

Didn’t know there was anything particularly Zionist about providing disaster relief? You learn something new every day. This is a story of exploiting the suffering of poor, defenseless Haitians on behalf of Israeli triumphalism.

Does someone have issues? Who would criticize Israel, even in a backhanded way, for giving this kind of humanitarian aid? We see what kind of fringe crackpot we are dealing with in “Tikun Olam.” Talk about desperation-frustration. Silverstein next quotes Yoel Donchin, who he describes as a former Israeli disaster relief worker:

Generally speaking, we start preparing for such a mission within hours of the announcement of a natural disaster. Most often the Israeli mission team is the first one to land in the area. Like those who climb Mount Everest, it plants its flag on the highest peak available, announcing to all and sundry that the site has been conquered. And in order to ensure that the public is aware of this sporting achievement, the mission is accompanied by media representatives, photographers, an IDF spokesman’s office squad and others.

If that weren’t enough, the comments section feature a reader complaining about Sol Salbe’s (friend of Richard) translation:

Jon says:
January 20, 2010 at 1:16 AM

This is quite a bad translation. Whole sentences are missing. I’ll deal with this tomorrow, I have productive activity ahead of me.
*
Richard Silverstein says:
January 20, 2010 at 3:40 PM

When you can translate Hebrew as well as Sol Salbe then you can talk. Till then shutup.

I have productive activity ahead of me.

That’s it. You’re done. I’ve had about as much snark as I can take. If you ever mature enough to actually write comments w/o snark & all the other infantilisms you introduce into yours you may let me know & I can reinstate you. Till then you’re toast.

Keep in mind that Silverstein was born in 1952. That puts him at around 58 years old! What man at that age behaves this way? Later on another commenter criticizes the control-freak leftist only to be censored:

Steven says:
January 20, 2010 at 3:30 PM

Silverstein is an absolute bigot. The truth is that he couldn’t give two hoots about Tikkun Olam. He just cares about attacking his brothers.
*
Richard Silverstein says:
January 20, 2010 at 5:05 PM

Actually, I couldn’t give two hoots about you. As for, Tikun Olam, I’ll lv my readers to judge whether I honor the standards of that concept. As for attacking, I’d say you did it first since I don’t know you fr. Adam.

You’ve violated my comment rules & are banned.

Perhaps we should let Richard himself have the closing statement on this issue:

And why is a country 5,000 miles away the first to establish a field hospital when the U.S. has far more such facilities & is far closer?

It’s wonderful to watch evil crumple up and wilt!

Little Dickie claims Israel is “Zionizing” Haiti

The whole world is amazed at the courage and tenacity of the Israeli medical team in Haiti. But not our favorite little kapo.

That is right – Little Dickie is complaining that Israelis saving lives amounts to the “Zionization” of Haiti. Hell, Dem Joos will next be building settlements in Haiti! He also carries an item from the UK whining about how the US is “occupying” Haiti under the guise of saving Haitians. You can see Haitians being occupied by Zionists in the photo.

Dickie himself thinks those Haitians are nothing but mud people who do not deserve to be rescued by any smelly Yids! He whines that if Israel REALLY wanted to help, it would send port-a-potties and food instead. He knows this by asking thousands of Haitians what they need most … not.

So just what exactly has Little Dickie sent to Haiti out of his own pocket? By which of course we mean – from out of his wife’s pocketbook? (Dickie does not work so he can sit around and gripe about the sort of aid that Israel sends to Haiti without having to donate a nickle of his own!)

Dickie prefers to help the poor Haitians with YOUR nickles and dimes!

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Update (1-26-10):

Bradley Burston of Haaretz has written a wonderful article about this subject matter.  Ironically in the comments section, Silverstein has his own opinion about Burston’s article!

Bashing Israel for saving Haitians

By Bradley Burston

I’d like to say a word of honor and thanks and, yes, pride for the Israelis, paramedics, physicians, nurses, midwives, and medical imaging technicians, who went to Haiti to save lives.

That’s it.

I believe that they are people, individuals, who went there to save limbs from gangrene and amputation, stanch internal bleeding, relieve crushing pain. To deliver babies. To risk their lives, using jackhammers and hydraulics and their hands to make crawl spaces under tons of concrete and silt, going in themselves to pull children and adults to safety.

For all the time that they’ve been working, however, people far away, snug in the comfort of their laptops, have been furiously busy as well, people who are enraged to the boiling point by news reports of the Israeli rescue mission. People who see it as their mission to tell the world exactly what’s wrong with all of this.

Over the past week, the work of the Israeli medical team has become a kind of Rorschach for how people view Israel and Israelis. Most of the comment, it must be said, is supportive. Even on the part of those who cast the humanitarian misery in Gaza in contrast.

But for a shocking number of others, the bottom line is simple: Israel, and Israelis, can do no right.

In its most extreme form, there are those who have accused Israel of using the Haiti catastrophe as a new reservoir for harvesting organs.

But even many of those who shun blood libels, have seized on the Haiti mission to bash Israel, revealing in many cases a hatred – and a bigotry – that borders on the visceral.

“I guess giving Israel credit for good deeds in Haiti,” wrote reader John Smithson on the widely read Mondoweiss site, “is like watching a serial killer or other sociopathic type mow an old woman’s lawn (or some other charitable thing).”

The contention is that Israel sent aid to Haiti on purely cynical motives, harnessing public relations to divert attention from the Goldstone Report, to divert attention from Gaza, to divert attention from its never-ending, always expanding internal crises.

The implication is that Israel, and Israelis, are constitutionally incapable of doing good for its own sake. Or that whenever they appear to do good, people of conscience should recognize that the evil designs behind it render any good that may be done, complicit in wrongdoing.

True, it is willful blindness to contend that Israel can do no wrong. But it is nothing short of racism to maintain, in Haiti and in general, that Israelis can do no right.

Israel, like all countries where war is endemic, like much of the unfortunate world, and like Palestine, is a nation whose people have been ruined, distorted, permanently traumatized, emotionally stunted. Yet Israelis, like people in all countries where war is endemic, and like Palestinians, have demonstrated enormous reservoirs of humanity under inhuman stresses.

As Palestinian-American journalist Ray Hanania wrote of the Israeli aid effort this week: “200,000 Haitians died in an earthquake. They sent doctors and supplies to help. That is a good thing. Just because we are fighting with Israel doesn’t mean we should sneer at that assistance to people in need. YES, I wish Israel could show the same compassion for Palestinians. But Israel and Haiti are not at war and Israelis and Palestinians (mainly Hamas and the settlers) are.”

People who truly know this place as more than a moral cartoon, also know that there is no such thing as a clear conscience in the Holy Land. Either your conscience is conflicted, or it is no conscience at all.

No one knows better than Israelis – not even their worst critics abroad – how flawed and wrongheaded their country’s behavior, and that of their countrymen, so often is.

No one knows better than Palestinians and their supporters, what it is to be tainted by bigotry, take missteps in conflict, and be dismissed by hatred.

I’d like to say a word of honor and thanks for the Israelis, paramedics, physicians, nurses, midwives, and medical imaging technicians, who went to Haiti to save lives.

Israelis, and Jews in the wider world, should not be forced to recite a catechism over how terrible, how flawed, how often mistaken they already know Israel to be, just in order to earn the right to feel and express their admiration, their gratitude, and yes, their pride.

Comment #187:

Title: Brad Burston…

Name: Richard Silverstein

City: Seattle

PEP (progressive except Palestine). Sad really.

I know Greg’s brother from Yeshiva days.  This is quite an article about our experience as American immigrants to Israel.

Gen-X Zionist

The epic of aliya can be characterized by the transformation from idealist to ideologue to tired man. As the voyage taken transforms from army to school to employment, all-encompassing clarity becomes fogged with obligation and chore. With time and acclamation, the dreams that were the impetus for the journey become less vivid, and principle is replaced with responsibility.

Of course each immigrant’s story is different. Perhaps qualification is necessary – this epic is personal, and mine.

Although raised on the seldom-told tales of my grandparents’ escape from the czar or whoever else was trying to snatch up a Jew, the idea of a connected past was abstract. My family had made it. We were Americans. So red-blooded was I that in the early 1980s, my friends and I played “fight the Russians” games on the playground. At 13 I put a yellow ribbon on our apple tree. Later, I flirted with joining Bill Clinton’s military – the papers to be signed were in front of me.

I spoke one language.

Without telling the story I’ve told so many times, I found my origins, my ancestral people and my place in life. Yes, I am a Jew. Yes, Zionism is cool. Yes, I want to be an IDF soldier.

Upon becoming Israeli, the mind at first struggles with the awesomeness of receiving that national ID card to carry on our person at all times. Each step on each cracked or poorly paved road in Jerusalem, with the sunlight reflecting off its stone-faced buildings, is a personal achievement, a testament to predecessors’ prayers.

They ran to America. I chose to come here.

I may not have walked thousands of miles from Africa or run from a dictator, but hey – I left the US Constitution, economic opportunity, entrepreneurship, customer service and order behind. That’s gotta count for something.

And it does. For a while. But the coolness eventually wears off.

After completing a three-year Israeli degree following a few years in the army, the ideals involved in making aliya and becoming part of something bigger, of living that dream, withdraws into some corner of the soul. Each day of life becomes routine.

Everything is an extension of the army. A truer understanding of the Israeli system, of university bureaucracy, National Insurance, banking, taxes and life as a not-so-special former lone soldier recasts the memory of “the old country” as an easier place, a more organized place, a place of comfort.

No more are the relaxing two-day finales of hectic schedules. Six-day weeks are common. Friday may be a day off, but Shabbat is coming and shopping must be done. Saturday may belong to us, but coming from over there, it just never feels right as the week’s final day of rest. That extra day of repose so loved, so enabling and empowering for the week to come, is just another manic start to the usual, over here.

Sundays are truly gone.

Terror attacks and reserve duty help form the basis of political views. Coffee can’t be shared without sharing personal narrations of frustration and injustice, resentment and corruption. Yet there are jokes and laughs and smiles in that round of brewed Turkish. What’s remembered is subject to choice.

We go to work. The “cuteness” of a car parked on a sidewalk has become irritation and then anger as someone justifies leaving a child in a car while he runs into a kiosk. A bus increases speed toward a crosswalk as it plays Are You Faster Than a Pedestrian?

The ideals are overcome by reality, and ideology is subdued by exhaustion.

The dream becomes tangible and, finally, it can be grasped that the daily concerns of all people everywhere are constant here, too. Bills, taxes, politics, road rage and on and on are ours as much as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Yes, this place is a place of reality.

But then someone walks up, smiles, and says, “Hello, dear Jew,” wishing a Shabbat shalom even though it’s only Wednesday. An old man in a line at some old Mandate-era office building goes wide-eyed in amazement and showers praise as he hears the story of a young Jewish man from the place where so many dream of going, who came here of his own free will and on his own, to make a new life.

Native-born Israeli friends who can’t pronounce the letter “R” declare you one of them, an honorary Kurd or Iraqi or Yemenite. And when some people talk of running if there’s a war – The War – the thought of abandoning the nation is unfathomable.

Friends get mad you’re not around for coffee.

And then one remembers all those people who came here shouting assertions of “Zionism forever!” after making the same journey from back West, promising to join the army and make the desert bloom, only to become disenchanted after failing to learn the language and being unable to find that job. They return to comfort. Gone.

Aliya is rebirth. In that sense, we are all young, learning and trying to make it. Tired is something we all learn to deal with. Being tired is part of being. It can be lived with.

And yes, the fatigue that led to collapse only moments earlier evaporates and a smile creates itself with the realization that all these little problems, inconveniences and daily aggravations belong to me as much as anyone else.

In an instant, endorphins of romanticism are released from some long-dormant Zionist gland and you recall that over there, the same historical connection to the ground simply doesn’t exist. Over there, not everyone encountered has a connection to you that transcends appearance, accent or degree of faith.

You’ll always be from over there. It’s just the way it is, and thank God for that. A wonderful place, that, offering the ability to reach beyond the voluntary acquiescence of precedent and prayer, allows for the capacity to see beyond the next hurdle. How many people are so blessed to be raised on the ideals of republican government, with heroes like Washington, Franklin and Bo Jackson?

But home is here now. And home is good.

The strings of memory may never stop tugging from time to time. Post-idealist weariness is part of growing up. All that is required to end the turmoil is release and acceptance.

Yes, being a capitalist is hard in a country with a socialist history. Yes, love and admiration of the Constitution and separation of powers can continue even when the system of governance here is a jambalaya of executive, legislative and judicial cramming together inside the overlaps of some Venn diagram detailing the party-bolting, coalition-concerned and proportional-(un)representation of the Knesset and its chosen courts.

And yes, it’s okay to contemplate what could be in our war-torn tiny land that has brought us all together.

The army will be calling for another month of my life. There will be another election. Each day builds strength for the next. Our poets, singers, bartenders and cops all share what you feel. Nothing is easier over there, not in that respect.

Breathe. Release. Accept.

And then, and only for a moment, as the last words of this essay are penned, there is nothing more wonderful than living in Israel, freedom-loving, separation-of-powers-believing, line-wanting, falafel-eating American that I am.

The writer is an internet editor at The Jerusalem Post.



Israel’s population at 2010 is 7.5m

On the eve of a new decade, Israel’s population stands at 7.5 million, according to figures released Wednesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

Published ahead of the secular New Year 2010, Israel’s population has continued to grow at a steady rate of 1.8 percent over the past seven years, with 160,000 new babies born since last January 1 and some 14,500 new immigrants arriving over the past year.

In terms of ethnic divisions, Israel’s Jews now make up 75.4% of the population or 5,664,000 people; Arabs, 20.3% or 1,526,000 citizens and the remaining 4.3% (319,000) are those registered as “others” by the Interior Ministry.

According to the CBS’s population report published ahead of the Jewish New Year in September, Israel is still a fairly young nation with nearly 30% of its population under the age of 14, compared to 17% in most other Western countries. Only 9.7% of the population is over the age of 65 in Israel, whereas in other Western countries this figure is closer to roughly 15%.

The report also showed that the average Jewish family size increased since 2008 from 2.8 children per household to 2.96. In the Muslim community, the average number of children per mother was 3.84, a drop from the previous two years where it had reached 3.97 children per household. Among Christian families the average number of children was down to 2.11 in 2008.

The ratio of men to women continues to be consistent, with the number of women in the country still slightly above the number of men, especially in the more advanced years of life. According to the statistics, there are 979 men for every 1000 women. In the under-37 age bracket there are more men than women, but the imbalance in the over-75 age group offsets this with some 673 men for every 1000 women.