The day after the release - random Gilad Shalit thoughts

I feel emotionally spent after spending the day yesterday following every minor event related to the release of Gilad. There's a jungle of thoughts running around my head, it's impossible to get them organized.

• Today is a better day than yesterday. Today, Gilad wakes up in his own bed, and will meet only people he knows and trusts.
• So many little things he'll need to catch up on. In five years he's missed out on (among others) Facebook, iPhones, last Harry Potter book, Lady Gaga, Chemistry Nobel prize... 
• We all saw the forced Egyptian TV Interview. It was cruel and sadistic. And yet, it highlighted the stark contrast between Gilad's sweet character and the brutality of his captors.
  I almost retched when I heard the question "You’ve known what it’s like to be in captivity. There are more than 4,000 Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, will you now join the campaign for their release?"
  Gilad answered "I’ll be very happy if they are released, but they shouldn't go back to fighting Israel"
  This answer is nothing short of amazing, considering his captors were right behind him with a gun, and he couldn't be sure that his answers wouldn't prevent him from going home.
• Side note: this was not how it was translated in Arabic or by the BBC. People not listening to the original Hebrew received "I'll be very happy if they are released and go back to their families". Why bother interviewing him if you're going to lie about his answers?
• Speaking of cruel and sadistic, the interviewer Dragon Lady said she didn't know he was being forced to do the interview.
  Really? Masked Hamas men with guns behind him, and you think it's his free will?

  

  This looks like it's exactly how Gilad would like to spend his time

• To all the people who criticize Israel for "disproportionate use of force", where are you now? Why are you not criticizing this deal for its disproportionality?
• Reading users' comments on any other news site which allows them is an experience equivalent to reading a Kafka novel. On more than one occasion I've read comments talking about "the arrogance of the Israelis, thinking that they're the chosen people, that one Israeli is worth over a thousand Palestinians".
  Really? You guys think that we set the exchange rate? How clueless can you get?
• To all the people who scream "Apartheid" at Israel, will you continue doing that? You do realize that here we have killers going free just because they're Muslim and their targets were Jews? 
• Amna Muna, the She-Devil who lured Ofir Rahum to his death, was not nice to other inmates while in prison. In fact, she harassed and terrorized them. So much in fact, that she refused to enter Gaza because she feared retaliation from her victims' families. Instead, she delayed the whole thing and finally got sent to Turkey. May she choke on a Turkish delight. Amen.
• There were some delays in getting Shalit back due, among other things, to the Egyptian interview. We waited patiently, holding our breath.
  There were some delays in getting the freed prisoners to Beitunia, and finally the transfer route was changed. Of course the Palestinians rioted and threw stones. No one is even surprised because it's so typical.
• Notice how relieved we all were that Gilad, while extremely pale, traumatized and underfed, is more or less in good condition?
  How come nobody even doubted that the Palestinian terrorists would be?
  Oh right, Israeli Double Standard time.
• I started crying when I heard the Yas'ur pilot say over his speaker "מביאים את גלעד הביתה" (We are bringing Gilad home).
• What a dissonance. Gilad, after 5 years in captivity, can still muster enough optimism in him to say that he hopes this will advance peace. The terrorists, after barely a few minutes of freedom, already cried for "the next Gilad Shalit" to be kidnapped. 
• It's so nice to see Noam and Aviva genuinely smiling. 
• I can hardly believe the strength of character that Gilad has shown. What a sweet, brave young man.

I'd like to end this post with an apology to Gilad. 

For years we've glimpsed into your life, into your family. We feel like we know you, and now that you're back we act almost like we deserve a piece of you and your life. We don't. Please forgive our curiosity, it all comes from a good place in our hearts, and we want confirmation that now, everything will be all right and you'll be happy. I hope everyone respects your privacy.

ברוך שובך

Israeli-Palestinian exchange rate

The next time you hear someone use the faded old rhetoric of  comparing number of Israelis killed vs. number of Palestinians killed in order to bash Israel, just remind them of the exchange rate which Palestinians have imposed on the region.

As of today, 1 Israeli life is worth 1027 Palestinian lives.

Let's have a look at the region's skewed concept of "Fair Market Value", shall we?

Over the past 30 years, Israel has released around 7000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 19 Israelis and the bodies of 8 Israelis. Here is an overview of some of the most notable exchanges:

• Jibril Agreement in 1985: 1150 prisoners released in exchange for 3 Israeli prisoners. Among the released: Ahmed Yassin
• July 1996: A deal with Hezbollah to return the remains of 123 Lebanese soldiers in exchange for the remains of 2 Israelis.
• June 1998: Another deal with Hezbollah, to return the remains of 40 Hezbollah soldiers (including Nasrallah's son's remains) in exchange for the remains of one Israeli.
• January 2004: Yet another Hezbollah deal, 435 prisoners in exchange for the bodies of 3 Israeli soldiers kidnapped at the very beginning of the 2nd Intifada (Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaid), and "businessman" Elchanan Tennenbaum.
  Among the released: Mustafa Dirani and Abdel Karim Obeid, two "jokers" originally intended as bargaining chips for Ron Arad.
• July 2008: 5 terrorists, among which Samir Kuntar, and the bodies of 204 other terrorists, were exchanged for the coffins containing the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. 
• September 2009: Israel released 20 female prisoners for a proof-of-life tape of Gilad Shalit.

No, Israel is no stranger to this history of lopsided prisoner exchanges.

A Double-Edged Sword

While all the news of the world are pointed at the Shalit family, I'd like to take a step back and look at Benjamin Netanyahu, who ultimately bears the responsibility for the decision of the prisoner release.

Think of all that must be going through his head, and has been for years.

On one hand, there's a boy who hasn't begun to live his life yet because he was obliged, as every young Israeli man, to first serve his country as a soldier.

Who actually has legal rights to Palestine? Part 1

With all this media frenzy about the Palestinian unilateral state bid at the UN this coming week, does anyone ever stop to think whether this move will have any legal ramifications? What's more, does anyone even care what previous commitments state and what they oblige their parties to uphold?

Well, the Mainstream Media (MSM) sure doesn't. Furthermore, President Abbas knows very well that the MSM has a selective amnesia when it comes to these subjects, and he exploits that to the max.

Why yes, contracts are legally binding. Unless you signed a contract with Israel obviously.

Points to keep in mind which we'll be developing in this post:

• United Nations General Assembly Resolutions are not legally binding.
• Rights in regards to Jews and Arabs in Palestine were created in International law during the British Mandate of Palestine (in other words, a long time ago)
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 does not call for the return to 1967 borders
• Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed legal agreements, or contracts, which give both parties not only rights but also obligations.

United Nations General Assembly Resolutions are NOT legally binding.

Wait, what? No way.

What present to get for a BDS friend?

Bored kids seeking to experience self-righteous indignation and then pretending that that indignation is useful to anyone. I'm sure we all know at least one person who fits that description. I have quite a few friends who do.

Now, the problem is, what do you do when their birthdays come around?

Yesterday, we had a little get-together for a close friend's birthday. Now to be totally fair, this friend isn't really active in the Palestinian arena of her organization, she concentrates mostly on developing countries in Africa (good on her!).  However, this doesn't stop her from randomly posting her organization's messages about the Arab-Israeli conflict on facebook, and to have simplistic four-word opinions such as "Palestinians live under oppression" or "Jewish settlers prevent peace" or even "Israel is exaggerating. Again". While she doesn't actively seek to BDS (She has no idea that all of the herbs she buys at the supermarket are from Israel), she knows her organization does a lot of propaganda for it, and she agrees with their reasons to do so.

She's not a bad person, though she does have some very enlightened thoughts such as that Jews wear funny little hats and that they don't integrate well, and they're really obsessive about their kitchens. (She babysat to a religious family once, and thought it was okay to bring her frozen lasagna and heat it in their oven. Let's simply say that hilarity did not ensue, and that the oven spent a week disassembled in the garden.)

Again, to be really fair, it's understandable that with what the medias here show of the conflict, it's almost impossible to have a different opinion, and it takes a great mind to be able to question oneself and search beyond the available platitudes.

I digress.

Her organization is very active in boycotting all things Israel, including open hearings and debates if they include anyone from Israel "with an agenda". They are definitely not in the business of understanding. Few people who proselytize about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict believe there is any value in listening to the other side.

I could have given her a little set of Ahava creams, or a basket filled with bamba, bissli and other Israeli calories, or perhaps an Israeli music CD (who doesn't love Idan Raichel?). But would she have felt differently about Israel's policies after feeling her super soft hands? Doubtful. I want something that will get her thinking, something that will start a debate. I don't need to convince people and to have everyone agree with me, but I do want their horizons to spread beyond their comfort level. Progress is made when ideas clash together. Or something.

Getting her a heavy duty geo-political book about the situation, or some historical analysis wouldn't be quite right. I'd obviously pick for something "from my side", and she'd be very wary reading it (if she ever would). I decided to give her an illustrated book called "How to understand Israel in 60 days (or less)" by Sarah Glidden.

It's the story of Sarah, a young American Jew, who goes to Israel for the first time, expecting it to fit her preconceived notions of it. It didn't. The tension in the story is based on the fact that progressive Sarah, like many of her cohorts, is critical of the State of Israel, particularly its treatment of the Palestinians. But what she sees is a reality much different from what she believed. Not all of it is good, which is probably the book's strongest point. It doesn't have all the answers. Heck, it doesn't even have all the questions. But she does question herself, and in that she does a grand job. It takes a very strong personality to say "I was wrong, I learned something new."

There are a few points in the book on which I wish she would have dug deeper, but on the whole I feel it's a very nice starting point for a more civilized discussion than random shouting of slogans. I hope that after reading this book my friend will see that there are no easy answers, and that not everything can be divided into "good" and "bad". Just because the loudest voices she hears seem to be so certain doesn't mean that they're right. It just means that they're the loudest.

I hope that after reading it, we'll have some interesting conversations where she'll be more open to hear my thoughts (right now, I can't possibly be objective because I'm Israeli and therefore too involved).

Hasbara doesn't always have to be directed at the masses, this type of hasbara is one person at a time. The book is available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Dutch. I'm sure you all know a person who could benefit from a book like this as a light introduction to the subject. Don't wait and make a lovely gift to your favorite BDS friend today!

1929 Hebron Massacres

This Week in History: The 1929 Hebron Massacre:

Spurred by rumors of an impending takeover of Al-Aksa Mosque, a mob slaughtered 63 Jews while over 400 were saved by local Arab families.

Reminder: The Hebron massacres happenned decades before any "occupation" or "settlements" or "right of return". What were they so angry about?

Alternative to 'Two-State Solution'

Just came across this article on Jpost.

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, former head of the National Security Council, warned in a new report that the current formulation of the two-state solution is untenable.
[... ]
"It's a solution that not only can't be agreed on, but probably can't be implemented," he charged, referring to the challenges in evacuating and relocating so many Israeli settlers as well as the security environment, among other concerns.
[... ]
For starters, he suggested that Egypt give the Palestinians 600 square kilometers of land from the Sinai peninsula to double the size of the Gaza Strip, so that the cramped million-plus population will have room to spread out and develop.

In exchange, Egypt would be given a comparable sliver of land along the Negev border with Israel as well as a tunnel connecting Egypt and Jordan directly under Israel's southern tip.

He also proposed Jordanian security control for the West Bank, since a major obstacle for Israel has become the rise of Hamas and the concern that any Palestinian state in the West Bank would be taken over by the radical Islamic group.

This is a very good idea.

First of all because when "Palestinians" complain that they want to go back to pre-67 borders, they always fail to mention the fact that back then they were a part of Egypt and Jordan.

Second, we have seen time and again that the Palestinian Authority is virtually non-existent when it comes to actually being an authority in charge of its population. To have "real" countries in charge of them and their economy could make everything different. Though we know that the peace with Egypt and Jordan is mostly in theory (especially in Egypt), in extreme cases they'd still have to abide to their signed obligations. Imagine a world where "Palestinians" who commit crimes against Jews in Israel actually get jail time!

This will never be accepted by the Arab world though. Know why? After they've spent so many decades trying to convince the "Palestinians", successfully, of their right to self-determination in no country other than their own, with Jerusalem as its capital, why would any Arab country want them in their population? They've created a population of violent hell raisers, and they won't have anything to do with them.

Abbas congratulates Kuntar's family

Abbas congratulates Kuntar's family. Isn't it lovely that Abbas is the person we're counting on to make peace with? Excuse me while I retch...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday sent his regards to the families of Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar and the other four Lebanese prisoners scheduled to be transferred to Hizbullah.

Abbas praised the prisoner swap and congratulated the Kuntar family.

Praised them for what? Raising such a good little murderer?

His whole village can't wait for him to get back

In Kuntar's home in Abey, streets were decorated with banners welcoming the return of the former member of the radical Palestine Liberation Front. "Samir Kuntar is the conscience of Lebanon, Palestine and the Arab nation. Abey welcomes the hero, prisoner Samir Kuntar," reads one sign.

Samir Kuntar is the conscience of Palestine. I have an idea, let's give them a country!

If someone in my village had murdered a little Palestinian or Lebanese four-year-old girl, I would never want them anywhere near me. I would hope my government puts this kind of murderer in jail, where such scum belong.

Meanwhile, while they are all celebrating for their precious child killer, in Israel the Goldwasser and Regev families are mourning. Until the last minute they had still hoped.

Politicians of Europe, listen to THIS guy

What do the politicians of Europe think when they hear this? Do they realize the truth in his words? The absurdity of even thinking about letting Sharia law enter a judgement?

He points out that many centuries ago, "Islam preserved ancient scientific knowledge..." which brings me to a point I'd like to address. I like very much the fact that he says "preserved" rather than "invented".

People often say of numbers (yes, those things like 1, 7 and 4) that they are Arabic numerals, and give the impression that numbers were invented by them and that without them we wouldn't have the wonderful world of maths.
Misconception.
The numbers are in fact Hindu numerals. When Europe came to know about them, it was through Arab and Persian mathematical works, so they called them Arabic numerals.

Didn't anyone else ever find it odd that even though "Arabs invented our numbering system", they themselves don't use it?

We Will Not Capitulate

Last year I found this article, a proposed text for a speech by the Prime Minister that would explain to the world exactly what it is we’re fighting...

We Will Not Capitulate

Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel.

We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off. If they continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue to bomb Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully in their homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land and turned the lives of our children into hell.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time you understood: the Jewish state will no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population centers in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you.

A voice for six million citizens

Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinejad proclaims.

And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are ignoring them again now. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again. Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers.

Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility.

Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for us to attack. This must be stated clearly and publicly, once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to boycott us and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not.

Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my plan for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and Samaria, the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the occupation and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm things down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement between us.

The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the Palestinians there a chance to build a new reality for themselves. The Prime Minister who preceded him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israeli presence in Lebanon and pulled the IDF back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish, develop and establish its democracy and its economy.

What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win even one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a handshake of encouragement? Ehud Barak's peace initiative at Camp David let loose on us a wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over 1,000 citizens, men, women and children. I don't remember you being so enraged then. Maybe that happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered body parts of the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of the people butchered while celebrating the Passover Seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya? What can you do - that's the way we are. We don't wave body parts at the camera. We grieve quietly.

We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy's children - we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behavior of our enemies. Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up against you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And you will taste more.

In a loud and clear voice

And Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. What did it get us? A barrage of Kassam missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of soldiers. Then too, I don't recall you reacting with such alarm. And for six years, the withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a dangerous, extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem - and from there to Paris and London.

An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes, awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a nuclear power in order to bring us to our knees. And make no mistake - we won't go down alone. You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along with us.

So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of hypocrisy. I don't recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of them kill Americans - and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to recall a similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned down large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO bombed Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population - then you also kept silent. What is it about us, the Jews, the minority, the persecuted, that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that all the others don't?

In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you openly and I will not apologize. I will not capitulate. I will not whine. This is a battle for our freedom. For our humanity. For the right to live normal lives within our recognized, legitimate borders. It is also your battle. I pray and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don't, you may regret it later, when it's too late.


By Ben Caspit, July 31st, 2006
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/457/743.html

The Flaw in the Land for Peace Concept

This headline, Arab League to visit Israel, caught my attention...

This article talks about the Arab League sending envoys to Israel to discuss an Arab "Peace initiative" which I think is flawed in its very core.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the foreign ministers
would lead an Arab League mission to Israel to discuss the Arab peace plan,
which would trade full Arab recognition of Israel for an Israeli withdrawal from all lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war and
the creation of a Palestinian state.

This is wrong. It is flawed to exchange something real and physical like land for something non tangible and vague like recognition. What does recognition even really mean? How can you say you don't recognize us if you're willing to talk to us about recognition?
We exist, whether they like it or not. This is not a matter of discussion. In my opinion, giving weight to their non-recognition of us gives them the power to play with us. It's a negotiation chip. They'll trade us recognition for something, but through that negotiation we will have actually gotten nothing.

The very act of party A negotiating with party B for recognition of party B implies the acknowledged existence of party B by party A, therefore the whole negotiation is futile.

The whole concept of land for peace is ridiculous. These disputed lands, we got them because THEY broke the peace. Had they not decided to wage war against us (I realize this is a very general THEY) then these lands would have never been in our hands. So we should reward both their war initiation and their losing the war by giving them land? If we had lost the Six-Day War, would we even have the option of negotiating anything? We would have been dead.

The concept of land for peace is flawed at the root. This is because in exchange of land, a physical tangible thing, we get back a concept, an idea, a warm fuzzy-wuzzy feeling which we hope is shared with our counterparts, but have no way of ever really knowing.
By this Israel pays for something which was rightfully hers from the beginning, the notion of peace.
Peace is not something which can be achieved in a day, there is no "On/Off" button for peace. It is achieved over time, with a respective cooperation of some sort (One which, I would imagine, would be ensured in a fair peace negotiation). Land can be given in one day, it does have that immediate property which can change in an instant from "ours" to "theirs".
On the other hand, if one day peace is achieved, it can disappear in a moment. The concept of peace can be erased with one movement. But the land given for this peace would then remain in their hands.
At this point, Israel will have lost everything and gained nothing.

"This is the first time the Arab League is coming to Israel," Regev said.
"From its inception the Arab League has been hostile to Israel. It will be the
first time we'll be flying the Arab League flag."

So they already won something. We're flying their flag. Are they flying ours?

And then the article talks of another part of the peace proposal, which in and of itself proves that this "peace proposal" is nothing more than a Trojan horse.

Israel has welcomed aspects of the plan, while rejecting its call for a
return of all of the West Bank and an implied demand to resettle within Israeli
borders the Palestinian families who became refugees from the 1948 war that
followed Israel's creation.

The refugees issue has always angered me. Not only the issue itself, but the world's blindness to what it means.
First the issue itself:

1. Even though about 680,000 people of Arab descent became refugees at the time of Israel's creation, most of them did so without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. Had they decided to stay, they would have been part of today's Israeli Arab population. These people have become refugees in their respective host countries, and have remained so for almost sixty years. We are now three or four generations later.
   At about the same time, about 1,5 million Jews were forced or threatened out of Arab countries throughout the Middle East. About 600,000 were resettled in the newly established Israel (the others fled to Europe or the United States).
2. These "Palestinian" refugees have lived in squalor ever since becoming refugees. One of the distinguishing marks of poverty is having many children per family. They excelled at that. Oddly enough descendants are also refugees, making them the only population on earth whose refugee status seems to be hereditary.
   If you would compare to other situations, this would mean that I, as a descendant of four European Jews displaced during WWII, would still be qualified as a Polish refugee, just as my grandparents were for a few years after WWII.
   I am sorry, but children, grandchildren, and whatever the ensuing family tree might be, they ARE NOT refugees. Of the original 680,000 refugees, how many are left? This is the only number that should be considered.
3. Obviously, having 8 kids per family or what not has increased their population to 3 or 4 million (I lost count). They are asking to relocate these 3-4 million refugees back in Israel. Since Israel is a democracy, a sudden increase of its Muslim population will make sure that the only Jewish country in the world will de facto no longer be Jewish. Why would they propose such a thing under the guise of a "peace proposal"? It's a sure death of Israel as we know it, and that is what they really want to achieve.

But the point that really angers me, and that no one seems to talk about, is the absurdity of this claim.

This claim, to return 4 million Palestinian "refugees" in Israel, is claimed and repeated in parallel with the claim for a Palestinian country. What do they need a Palestinian country for if the plan is for them all to be relocated in Israel? Why do they need to return to Israel if they have a Palestinian country? Isn't this an obvious attempt to erase Israel? Either from the outside, by creating a terrorist state as a neighbor, or from the inside, by eliminating the unique Jewish identity of the country through demographics.

No Mouse Trap Large Enough for this Filthy Rat

I've mentioned this creature before. Farfur is an Islamist Mickey Mouse lookalike. He preaches hate, terror, martyrdom and world domination on a children's show on Palestinian TV.

For some reason, they decided to eliminate the ugly Mickey Mouse clone. (Maybe they were about to get sued by Walt Disney for defamation of character?). Now let's see, if you'd ever want to eliminate a character from a children's program, how would you do that?

1. Discreetly never use his costume again. Maybe no one will notice.
2. Have a goodbye episode where you explain that he's going off to college or to Australia or to the moon or something. He'll promise to send postcards.
3. Have him killed by the evil blood-sucking money-craving land-stealing neighboring Jews. While he's killed have him remind the entire generation of influential young Palestinians that they will be forever miserable unless they liberate an imaginary country which never existed, and convince them that it actually did exist and it got stolen.

Obviously, the Palestinian authority responsible of what gets shown on TV opted for number 3. Color me surprised. Let's see some Oscar-winning acting on their behalf in the following video.

If you want a brief resumé of this great movie, here it is (taken from comments from LGF):

An old Palestinian man has a grandson, named Farfur, who, for reasons entirely unclear, is a gigantic rat. Grandpa bequeaths to his rodent kin the "keys" and "documents" to "Tel Aviv". (Which city didn't exist until Jews built it). Subsequently, Farfur the talking rat gets abducted and interrogated by a brutal African who is also Israeli. (We know he's Israeli because he wears his sunglasses indoors and generally behaves like a total prick). The African Israeli demands that Farfur turn over the Tel Aviv "documents", alternating his negotiating technique, bizarrely, between vicious beatings and generous offers of financial compensation. Farfur (the rat) spurns these inducements, and is subsequently beaten to death, apparently unable to defend himself, notwithstanding the fact that he seems to outweigh his assailant by a
considerable margin.

There are about a million reasons why this video makes me want to throw up, besides the horrible acting. I'll start typing them until my fingers get tired.

• Grandpa tells Hamas Mickey "This land which was occupied in 1948, is the land which I inherited from my fathers and forefathers".
  This is a phrase commonly used in order to give the impression that "Palestinians" have been there forever, whereas Jews came along recently and stole the land.
  This impression is FALSE.
  More information about this can be found in the book "From Time Immemorial" by Joan Peters. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In time, I'd like to discuss each chapter of her book on this blog.
• He continues "It is a beautiful land, all covered in flowers and olive and palm trees." Is this to give the impression that it was already this way when it was supposedly occupied?
  This impression is FALSE.
  Tel Aviv (this is the city he will soon talk about) was empty dune and founded in the 1880s by Jewish immigrants as an alternative to the expensive town, Jaffa. These empty dunes were purchased from willing Arab sellers in auctions, throughout many years, piece by piece. Here is a picture from such an auction in 1909.
  Anything that flourished in this arid desert is thanks to the Jews who came and built Israel out of the sand. "Flowers and olive and palm trees"? Not in Tel Aviv, not before the Jews.
• Now he talks about Tel Aviv. Sort of.
  "The land is called Tel Al-Rabi, but unfortunately the Jews called it Tel Aviv after they occupied it."
  This statement is FALSE for two reasons.
  Tel Al-Rabi never existed. It is the direct translation of Tel Aviv into Arabic. The Hebrew name was given to this city after it was given to the Hebrew translation of the book "Altneuland" by Theodor Herzl. There was no city there before Jews created it.
  There is a growing use of this fabricated name for the city of Tel Aviv. This is part of the increasing efforts to erase Israeli identity.
• The second reason that statement is FALSE is that Tel Aviv was never "occupied territory", or disputed territory or what have you.
  Tel Aviv always belonged inside Israeli borders. In the UN's 1947 partition plan, after the end of the Independence war in 1949 and until the Six-Day War in 1967, after that war and until today.
  But if Tel Aviv is "occupied", then that means they don't really want to live in peace with Israel next to them, does it? It means they want to completely get rid of Israel, coexistence be damned!
  Shocker?
  Not really.
• Grandpa talks about the keys and documents of the property he left behind. Meaning he was forced to leave everything behind and wasn't allowed to come back.
  This impression is FALSE.
  If he was forced to leave, it wasn't by the Jews. It was by Arab armies who promised they would wipe out the Jews in 1948. Arabs who stayed during the formation of the State of Israel became equal Israeli citizens with the same rights as everyone else. That's why you can still get the best Hummus in the WORLD in Jaffa. Because it's made by one of the descendants of the Arabs who stayed.
  On the other hand, Jews were forced to leave countless Arab countries. And they really were forced. Not make believe forced.
• "Documents proving that the land is ours".
  This is using what we insist on all the time, and turning it against us. We have documents proving that we bought the different pieces of land. We have proof that no lands were stolen.
• "Make sure you don't give up the land Farfur"
  Brainwashing the kids over and over again that they must never give up that land (which they never had).
• "From the filth of the criminal, plundering Jew".
  Palestinian Authority lets this pass on national television in front of thousands of kiddie eyes? Imagine the world outrage if on Israeli TV anyone said "From the filth of the criminal, plundering Muslim"? Double Standards, hellllloooooooo?
• "From the filth of the criminal, plundering Jew who killed my Grandpa and everybody else."
  Uh, I know children have a short attention span, but come on. Only ten seconds ago Grandpa keeled over and died from what appears to be old age and maybe overexposure to the sun (either that, or camel farts).
  Children watch this and it brainwashes them into thinking that even if Grandpa died of "natural causes", it is still Israel's fault. It is still the Jews' fault. Always the Joooooooos' fault.
• My four year old neighbor can draw a better Israeli flag than that. Are they so busy coming up with brilliant scenarios for the series that they don't have five minutes to draw a flag that actually represents a country? It's not the flag of Brazil or of Cyprus, which I'll admit are a bit harder to draw. It's two thin blue stripes and a star in the middle. You've burned it so often, you really ought to know it by now.
• Farfur is interrogated for unknown reasons by an Israeli agent who dislikes mice (apparently). Why are children shown this? What is the link between the two? Farfur having pseudo documents makes him an enemy of the state? There is a reason for this...
  It is to give the impression that Palestinians who are held in Israeli jails or are interrogated are actually innocent. (Because obviously, if Farfur has done nothing wrong, it would be ridiculous to interrogate him just because he has an old rusty key and a yellowing piece of paper). The impression is that Palestinians are interrogated just for the fun of the Israelis, even though they have done nothing wrong.
  This impression is FALSE.
  Palestinians who are held in prisons in Israel are there because they have some link with a terrorist activity.
  As Dan Gillerman has often said "They are not in there for some minor parking violation. They are there because of their links to terror."
• Ahhh the Israeli Interrogator seems to be forcing Farfur to sell his documents to the land, or in other words, to sell his land.
  This is to give the impression that previous occasions when Jews bought land from Arabs, if was forced.
  This impression is FALSE.
  In the 19th and early 20th century Arabs were more than willing to sell that useless desert land to foolish Jews. It seemed like easy money to them. Jews didn't force anything out of them. How could they have?
  Arabs made fun of the Jews for buying arid land and swamps, thinking those Jews really don't know the first thing about cultivating land. Then they saw what the Jews did with that "useless" land. Now they regret. Sour grapes. But nothing forced.
  If anything, nowadays, Arabs are forbidden to sell land to Jews. Not by Israeli law, nonono. By general Palestinian consensus. Arabs who sell land to Jews/Israelis get punished.
• All of a sudden Farfur is talking about liberating Jerusalem. Wasn't it Tel Aviv 45 seconds ago? Ah yes, mush it all up so that kids just keep the general idea of "I must liberate my land", which was never theirs to begin with.
• Farfur says "No, we're not the kind of people who sell our lands to terrorists".
  So Israelis are the terrorists now?
• The little veiled girl watches in utter sadness. She's only what, ten years old? Why is she veiled? I understand adult women who, of their own free will, wish to hide their "sexuality" and do so with a veil. But a girl that young is considered already as sexual and therefore needs to be veiled?
  That speaks miles about the morality of the producers of the show.
• Farfur was martyred. This is what is shown to children. In order to become a hailed martyr you need to defend your land.
• She talks of Mohamed Al-Dura, saying he was killed by Israelis.
  This is FALSE.
  If you look at the events of that day, it is almost physically impossible for an Israeli bullet to have hit that boy. It is completely possible that he was hit by a Palestinian bullet. But that's a whole other subject I'll also talk about another time.
• Us Infidels, we're supposed to be the descendants of monkeys and pigs (As far as the monkeys go, I don't really see the insult, but I guess they don't believe in evolution either) (maybe because they haven't?). But what are you trying to say, that Palestinians are the descendants of rats? Or that ultimately all Palestinians will have evolved into giant rodents? On Israeli Sesame Street, Kippi the hedgehog had hedgehog ancestors. No zoophilia in my childhood prime time TV.
• Look at that girl. What kind of a future will she have? Will she believe everything she repeats to the cameras? Will she also go and wear a belt bomb one day and be martyred? She seems like she could have been a smart girl. She could have been so much more than that.

The Palestinians have deliberately destroyed their own children; the destruction is thorough and complete. Is anyone surprised? Hamas swore they would annihilate Israel, and what better way to do it? Wage a multi-generational war against Israel. Indoctrinating the kids with nothing but hate and violence against Jews and Israel, giving them no hope for the present and a bleak future unless Israel is destroyed. How do you deprogram a whole generation who was brought up to think in this fashion?

And while we're on the topic, do you think Farfur is in heaven with 72 virgin Minnies?

Nonie Darwish

Nonie Darwish is an admirable woman with incredible courage. It's one thing to say the things she says if you come from a background like mine. But her? She is the daughter of a Shahid, was taught to hate Israel, and turned out to be a free thinker and a leader.



Press conference at Four Seasons, Beverly Hills for Voices of Muslim Reformers in the Modern World. On the right side you can see Wafa Sultan, another brave woman who isn't afraid to denounce what she believes is wrong in Islam.

This is the true enlightment of the 21 century.

Upcoming Elections in Belgium

I don't understand much about Belgian politics, they seem to have elections once a year for something or other. In a few weeks they'll be having elections for the Senate and the Chambre. A while ago they had communal elections, not long before that they had regional elections, not to mention federal and legislative elections and I'm probably forgetting something.
One of the political parties is called Parti des Jeunes Musulmans, the Young Muslim Party. Their propaganda has started going up (just like everyone else's, obviously) and I do wonder a bit about it. You see they have women on their list. But at least on one of their posters, where they show the faces of the top three names, the veiled woman's face is hidden by the party's name. Coincidence or unwillingness to show a woman's face? What if she does get elected, will pictures of her always be censored? And who on earth is she?



By the way, see the red bearded guy in the picture? He's Jean-François Bastin, the party's founder, a Belgian convert who's more known under the name of Abdullah Abu Abdulaziz Bastin. He's also been active/started some other political parties such as the PCP and the CIB (I'm not sure of the details, you'll have to excuse me) but he's quit those.
Why this person is "interesting" ?
Well, other than being the leading man on a list called "the YOUNG Muslim Party" even though he's about 60 years old, well he has "interesting" connections.
Is he inspired by Hamas n°2 Muhammad Abu Tir? Both of them sporting lovely bright orange beards...

And his family name has been in the news for reasons other than political elections in Belgium. In 2004 his son, Muhammed El Amin Bastin, was arrested for connections to the 2003 terror attacks against two synagogues in Istanbul. Remember those two terror attacks? On November 15, 2003, two truck bombs slammed into the Beth Israel and Neve Shalom synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey and exploded. At least 57 people died and and about 600 or more were wounded (numbers vary depending on the sources).

With neighbours like these...