Discovering the blogosphere...

See the blogger bar at the top of the page? I like clicking on Next Blog, and travelling around the blogosphere like that. Every once in a while I land on a blog which also tries to protect Israel. Obviously if the blog's address is protect-israel.blogspot.com then it's a good starting point :)

For anyone who understands German, here's a post about Farfur, the Islamist Mickey Mouse.

protect-israel: Mickey Mouse im Hass-TV der Hamas

This Swiss blogger seems just as new as me to the blogosphere. Does this mean that defenders of Israel all over the world are waking up and using their only weapon in order to defend truth and justice, aka Israel?
I hope so. I hope we all become a network of strong independant blogs.

Wilkommen :)

Benjamin Netanyahu talks about the British Academic Boycott of Israel

I know not everyone in Israel likes Bibi. And I know people in Europe absolutely hate him. They don't even know why. But then again, they don't need rational reasons, do they?

Anyhow, Bibi is one of Israel's most articulate politicians. He has a sharp tongue during interviews, an impeccable way of speaking, and an assertive no-bullshit attitude. Always calm and posed, even when you can see he's angry. That's the true force of a diplomat. Being outraged, but without needing to raise one's voice. During last year's Lebanon war, he was one of the most vocal defenders of Israel on international screens, along with Dan Gillerman, another strong diplomat.

Here he is again, talking about the British Academic Boycott of Israel.



Come on, Europeans, really, what is it that you don't like about this guy? The fact that he tells things like they are?

In the face of evil, if good men and women sit back and do nothing, evil triumphs

Human Rights Watch wake up and smell the coffee

In an amazing almost flying pig moment (one of my favorite terms on LGF) not only are Human Rights Watch condemning Palestinian violence, but Israel isn't blamed!
'Palestinians committing war crimes'

Why almost? Well, of course they had to start killing each other for the HRW to take notice that human rights are being abused of in the Gaza Strip. So even though there's finally a condemnation of sorts, they could make an effort to not show so much who they really care about...

"These attacks by both Hamas and Fatah constitute brutal assaults on the most fundamental humanitarian principles," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. "The murder of civilians not engaged in hostilities and the willful killing of captives are war crimes, pure and simple."

So that means what? The residents of Sderot aren't civilians? And by the way, any news on Gilad Shalit? Is he still alive? Does HRW even care?

The Palestinian Journalists Union on Sunday criticized the use by armed factions of press insignia in a statement: "The use of vehicles that carry 'Press,' 'TV' or other signs ... exposes journalists' lives to danger, gives the Israeli occupation a pretext to target and kill journalists and restricts their ability to perform their professional and national duties. We demand all parties stop using these methods."

Because that's all Israel really wants... any good old pretext to target and kill journalists.
Notice also that the demand isn't that they stop attacking (legal) Israeli military posts from the territories that were so *generously* given to them two years ago. Nonono. The demand is that they continue, just use different methods. Yeah, that'll ensure peace and calm over the region. Pffff.

Oh well, at least the HRW didn't blame Israel for writing 'TV' on the terrorists' van. That's one brownie point for them.

Israel's "Greatest Loser" finally wins

The results are out! The next Israeli president is Shimon Peres. The first round ended with 58 votes in favor of Peres, 37 in favor of Rivlin and 21 in favor of Colette. In order to be elected, the candidate needs at least 61 voices, so they were getting ready for a second round, but Rivlin and Colette pulled out before, so that leaves Peres as president by default. Finally. I know what I just said about him being a shtinker and still think that. But I am happy for him. He deserves such a Kavod after all this dedication he's given to Israel. מגיע לו.
If you think about it, it's perfect. He won't be directly involved in politics (which is the way I like it) but the dignified persona that he his is still a representative of the State of Israel, and I know he is much respected even among lefties here in Europe.
Yeah, I'm glad with the results. I know they were predictable, but still.
מזל טוב שמעון, מכל הלב - Mazal Tov Shimon, me-kol ha-lev

Israel's next president

Today Israel's parliament is going to vote on who will be the next president of the State of Israel. The three candidates are Colette Avital (Avoda), Shimon Peres (Kadima) and Reuven Rivlin (Likud).

The position of President of Israel is largely a ceremonial role. As far as I'm concerned, the position is there so that when the Pope dies, the Israeli representative isn't someone as politicized as the Prime Minister of Israel. The full list of real responsibilities is here.

I'm not really sure who I'm rooting for.

Colette Avital I'm not very fond of. I'm sure she's a very nice person in real life, but her position about Jews in Diaspora and Israelis living abroad is personally offensive to me. I know I can't do the same to help Israel as Israelis living in Israel, but I do my bit in other ways. Don't pooh-pooh it. Israel needs all the help from Jews and Israelis in Diaspora that she can get. Who else will stand by Israel through thick and thin if not us?

She was the first of the three candidates to say she will be running for president if I'm not mistaken. Her slogan is very nice IMHO. It's a play on the phrase "Nesi'a Tova". The common way of writing it is נסיעה טובה, and it means "Have a good travel/trip/whatever". It is said so often nobody even notices it. She wrote נשיאה טובה, which means "Good (woman) President".

I'm not sure how much of the votes she'll actually get. She won't have the full support of Avoda since part will go to Peres. She won't get Kadima votes, they'll be for Peres and Rivlin. She won't get Likud voices. And the religious parties will probably not vote for her, for multiple reasons.

Shimon Peres is a whole other story. One the one hand I have a great deal of respect for him. He's the last one we've got who's been there from the beginning. He's given his whole life to Israel and fought, with pen and word, to secure a peace for Israel in the roads he believed were the right ones. He's given so much, yet has never been elected for the leading posts he held. When he was Prime Minister, it was either inherited (from Itzhak Rabin) or shared (with Itzhak Shamir). He ran for president last time, and was sure to win. Except he didn't. Somehow the relatively unknown Katsav got the majority of the votes. I wouldn't want him to be defeated again, not like that.

On the other hand, I have to admit, Peres is a shtinker. If he hadn't two-timed other politicians so often, maybe they wouldn't have done the same to him in the last elections. He's responsible for a big part of European anti-Israel sentiment. Did you know that in real life, Peres and Sharon are (were) very good friends? Yet he's the one who initiated the protest at Kikar Rabin following the Sabra and Shatilla massacre, and from there on he's known in Europe as the "Butcher of Sabra and Shatilla". Sharon was later judged as indirectly responsible (as in, he failed to predict correctly what would happen), but the damage was already done. For the European masses, Sharon is the one with blood on his hands, and they have no clue as to who Elie Hobeika is. Remember Jenin in April 2002? There was no massacre, even anti-Israel UN had to admit the facts. But if so, where did the word massacre come from? Peres was the first to say there was a massacre. The damage is done, Israel is viewed as a genocide machine. It doesn't matter that the issue was later "cleared up". Like the Head & Shoulders ad said in the 80's, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression". There's only one good aspect to his over-zealous Israel criticism. When he says something good about Israel, maybe people listen more, since he's also been such a hard critic as well. But that would require people to have good memories and actually care about right and wrong.

Last thing about Peres and Colette... It's a very well known secret in Israel that she's his mistress. Or at least was his mistress. Is this the sign that their relationship as such is over? I mean, if she wins, it really won't do magic for his male ego in the bedroom area. And he'll resent her (I assume). If he wins, she'll resent him. After all, she ran for the position before him (this time around).

Then comes Reuven Rivlin. I haven't got much to say about him. Listening to Knesset meetings I would hear his voice a lot, trying to be fair and just. During the disengagement plan I though it was very just of him to criticize what he thought ought to be criticized (this is what our politicians are there for, no?) but when push came to shove, he didn't back out of the Likud and didn't resign. I'm not sure how he'd hold up in international meetings with other international dignitaries and such. He doesn't quite have the presence and awe of Shimon Peres, or the dignified look of Colette Avital (who has come here quite often, she's a very good French speaker).

We'll see what the results tell us later today...

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.

ADL anti-boycott campaign in full

Now that the ADL anti-boycott site is working again, I got a look at all the ads for the campaign. I like them a lot. Maybe they're not aggressive enough in order to really shock people into deep reflection, but they have a point.

To be shown around!

There's only ONE Jewish country in the world

I have quite a number of Muslim and Arab friends. I avoid talking about politics, especially Middle East politics with them because I've already heard some of the things they say regarding the subject. And I'd like to keep them as friends.

Among these friends I must say I haven't got any who are die-hard Arafat-dishrag*-wearing Sharon-effigy-burning Pally supporters. Most of these friends don't care much for the subject (or any other world politics subject) and have the usual basic ideas that they were taught at home (Israel started the Six Day War, Israel is as aggressor, Israel is building an Apartheid wall, and your regular anti-Israel misconceptions) and since they don't care much for it, they'll never go read anything which will change their mind. The other bunch of friends are relatively more aware of what is going on, but are also very naive. They seem to think that everything can be solved if people just really got to know each other, etc. While I'd like nothing more than their vision of the world to be true, sadly it isn't.

I got an e-mail today from one of my "naive" Muslim friends. Before I go any further, I'd like to point out that he's not anti-Israel in any way, he's visited the country often and doesn't even mind too much the security checks he has to go through, he knows it's part of the deal. He's very attached to his religion and loves seeing the common points between our two religions, as well as between our two languages. His vision of Islam is very pure and very peaceful and not distorted. He's not very fond of the Israeli political scene, but that's okay. If every leftist anti-Israel moonbat would express him or herself in the same rational tones (naive, yes, but rational) as my friend's, then political debates would be equivalent to a Mary Poppins movie matinee. Imams should take a lesson from him rather than spew hate to an impressionable crowd during a Friday sermon.

Back to the email. (Sorry I tend to get carried away). I got an e-mail from him with an image of a flag of "An imaginary country."I don't know whether he drew this or got this from someone else and then forwarded it. In any case I wonder what he means by this. Does the mixture of the Islamic crescent together with the Jewish star in their respective colors mean that he'd like to have a Muslim country with all the freedoms that are natural in Israel? Does it mean that he would like there to exist somewhere in the world a country where Jews and Muslims coexist peacefully? Or does it mean that somewhere deep inside, even though he really likes Israel, he believes that the problems of the Middle East would be solved if only Israel would cease to be a "Jewish country" and would be a "Jewish and Muslim country"?

I'm not going to ask him, because I'm rather afraid the answer would be the third option (though the second one is quite possible too). Even if it's not what he meant by that picture, I know many people in the world believe that that would be the answer to peace in the Middle East.

Why? Why do people believe that the existence of one tiny country with a Jewish majority is such an obstacle to peace? One country of 6 million (or 7 now? I'm not sure) with nothing of monetary value on its lands, surrounded by a billion Muslims living in a dozen or so Muslim countries rich with oil, that's an obstacle? A country smaller than Rhode Island who asks nothing more than to live in peace with its neighbors and to cooperate with them to further advance the quality of life in the Middle East. Why does the one and only Jewish country in the world disturb people so much?

*Keffiehs look like dishrags to me. In fact, whenever one comes into my possession, that's the only use I have for it.