RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/letters/2012/08/17/letter-exposing-israel
THIS VENOM IS SPREAD THROUGH ANOTHER OF THE MYRIAD THE BOYCOTT AND DIVEST MOVEMENTS AND THE INTERNATIONAL “PEACE”MONITORS…..AND THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES….. THE SCREED IS BELOW THIS EXCELLENT RESPONSE FROM DAVID HERSCH….RSK

David Hersch SAIPAC
The South African Israel Public Affairs Committee
Cape Town

Business Day 17 August 2012.

David Hersch

I was living in Israel during 2009 and 2010 when Crawford-Browne was there with the World Council of Churches (WCC), not an organisation friendly to Israel’s either. He morphs from describing himself as an “international peace monitor”, being there on behalf of the United Nations, to admitting to being there with the WCC. At that time he was staying at the Augusta Victoria, a church-hospital complex located on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, not far from Mount Scopus. I was aware of his presence and his spuriously agendised dispatches from Israel.

Standing at a checkpoint near Bethlehem, he was no “peace monitor”, but rather a self-appointed irritation with no attempt or intention on his part to acquire real knowledge and balance on the situation.

To Israel’s credit and proof of how democratic it actually is, it allows the likes of Crawford-Browne to enter Israel with their nefarious agendas. Compare this to the South African Government not allowing the Dalai Lama to enter this country for a one day birthday bash for Desmond Tutu.

As for the so-called “apartheid wall”, which Crawford-Browne likes to repetitively rehash, I lived next to it at Mevaseret Zion, just outside Jerusalem, and it is the finest defence against rampant suicide bombers and attacks on Israelis. Think of this fence, 94% of it is wire except where sniping can or did take place, in the same way as the burglar bars and security doors on most of our homes. Why do we have burglar bars? Simply because we want to be safe in our homes, which is an inalienable human right. So what makes Israelis that different from the rest of the world in this regard? Absolutely nothing…. except in Crawford-Browne’s mind.

And the “apartheid roads”, another perennial rehash of his? Crawford-Browne neglects to tell us that the Israeli Supreme Court opened Route 443, a main highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, to the Palestinians living near it. However, in the same way as South Africa has checkpoints at our borders, airports and harbours, so does Israel. The area controlled by the Palestinian Authority, Areas A & B in terms of the Oslo Agreements, which the Palestinians are a signatory to, are no different to Lesotho or Swaziland and if people pass from these countries to South Africa, they go through checkpoints. The roads in Lesotho and Swaziland all lead to checkpoints as do the roads under the Palestinian Authority.

Readers are reminded that the Arab attacks on Jews have been going on for more than a hundred years, long before there was a State of Israel and long before there was a 1967 war that forced Israel to take over the former illegally annexed Jordanian occupied area of the “West Bank”, an area originally allocated and technically still belonging to Israel in terms of the Mandate by the League of Nations, the San Remo Conference and later also adopted and confirmed by its successor, the United Nations and never rescinded

Crawford-Browne trots out his usual boring list of uncontextualised, selectively untruthful and unproven comparative analogies, sentimental claptrap and conspiracy theories. All irrelevant and repetitive. He didn’t leave one out this time as they rapidly ran into each other. What utter balderdash!

As for “the Zionist lobby loudly tries to divert attention to Syria” Mr Crawford-Browne, there is no need for any attention being diverted to Syria as Syria is doing a wonderful job doing so all by itself.

Crawford-Browne tries to put a spin on a “Zionist Lobby” and thereby imply a bad connotation. Lobbies are part of every day political life in most democratic countries and I would say the Arab/Muslim lobby is highly active in South Africa and elsewhere. Crawford-Browne, by divulging he is the Secretary, SA organising committee for the discredited Russell Tribunal on Palestine, reveals inadvertently that he too is a lobbyist. He is certainly earning his honours in Agitprop, which by definition is a way of conveying an extreme left-wing message via the media and other means. This is a term and technique that originated and was perfected in the unlamented USSR.

Crawford-Browne can glibly ignore what is going on in Syria. He takes no notice and is blind to the daily carnage and deaths which is there for all to see on TV News Channels every day. Over the past year the daily death toll has risen daily and is now reaching 14,000 people. No protests? No criticism? No boycotting of Syrian exports? No morality? Only blindness and bigotry. Not a care as it is fine in his mind for Arabs and Muslims to kill each other by the thousands in his highly selective view, as long as they are not Jewish. Is this just another inconvenient truth to ignore Mr Crawford-Browne?

Those who demonise and delegitimise Israel, who say the world would be better off without it, who hold it to standards of perfection no other country is held to, who extol or commiserate with its mortal enemies, who obscenely liken it to Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa, who make it the scapegoat not only for crimes it hasn’t committed, but for those of which it is a victim — yes, such people are anti-Semitic, whether they acknowledge it or not and when they are Jewish on top of it, they are simply traitors. You are such a person Mr Crawford-Browne. You are an anti-Semite which you hide in a cloud of righteousness and pretence.

I quote from Crawford-Browne’s own Lord, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake”…. and He wasn’t talking about you Mr Crawford-Browne.

There are stories that Israel’s next tank will not be heavily armored. Instead, they will rely on an active defense such as the Trophy system.

See a video of the Trophy System. Trophy has intercepted RPG rounds fired from Gaza.

The US is trying it on American tanks in Iraq. [Jan Poller]

press@understandingwar.org

ISW Publishes Must-Read Backgrounder on Israeli Integrated Missile Defense System

Israel exists under a threat of mortar, rocket, and missile attack that has grown from intermittent harassment to a constant and existential strategic threat.

In a new Backgrounder titled “ Threat and Response: Israeli Missile Defense,” ISW Senior Naval Analyst Christopher Harmer provides a clear picture of the technology and weapons used to attack Israel, as well as the defense initiatives the Israel Defense forces (IDF) have used to counter these threats, namely the world’s first battle-tested, integrated missile defense shield.

At the tactical level, the Iron Dome component of the IDF missile shield has proven effective at intercepting inbound mortars and rockets from both Gaza and southern Lebanon. From a strategic perspective, the system has changed the risk/reward ratio for Hamas and Hezbollah operatives. Harmer examines the types of weapons that threaten Israel, including mortars, rockets, and the infamous Scud, Shahab and Sejil missiles.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/get-ready-to-fight-iran/2012/08/17/1abe88c6-e7f8-11e1-8487-64e4b2a79ba8_story.html
Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence, is director of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies.

This fall, all the boxes will be checked for an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Consider this Aug. 1 statement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Time to resolve this issue peacefully is running out.” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that “there are risks in the situation today . . . [but] it’s infinitely more dangerous . . . to deal with a nuclear Iran in the future.” When President Shimon Peres added his voice to the public opposition to a unilateral Israeli strike this fall, an associate of Netanyahu accused Peres of having “forgotten” the role of Israel’s president. Israeli logic holds that it must choose between, as the media reports put it, the bomb and the bombing.

The Iranian regime will soon possess enough low-enriched uranium to build an arsenal of nuclear bombs. Moreover, Iran’s deputy navy commander, Abbas Zamini, said in June that “preliminary steps in making an atomic submarine have started.” This provides Iran an excuse to continue enriching its uranium stockpiles to weapons-grade levels. Meanwhile, “P5+1” negotiations have ended without an agreement. Western-imposed sanctions have damaged Iran’s economy but have not produced a shift in the regime’s political thinking or nuclear drive. Covert operations against Iran’s nuclear facilities and scientists — for which no one has claimed responsibility — have similarly failed to stop the program. Despite some political difficulties, the regime in Tehran continues to reign.

Add to all this the issue of the “zone of immunity” — the point at which Iran’s nuclear facilities would become immune to an Israeli military strike. For Israel, the conclusion is clear.

As Netanyahu and Barak rule out arguments against an attack, they are watching developments in the Sunni world. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Libya have increased oil production, reducing fears that an attack would send prices skyrocketing at a time of international economic angst. The bleeding Assad regime in Syria is in no position to support Tehran. Rising Sunni-Shiite tensions in the region could potentially ease collective Islamic outrage over an Israeli attack on Iran.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314347/man-no-plan-mark-steyn Americans, according to a Winston Churchill quote of uncertain provenance, always do the right thing after they’ve exhausted all other possibilities. More verifiably, Sir Winston, upon being asked if he had any criticism of the United States, replied tersely: “Toilet paper too thin, newspapers too fat.” But that was then. Today America is a […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314357/egypt-s-military-and-arab-spring-andrew-c-mccarthy Earlier this week, I wrote about Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. He is a Muslim Brotherhood adherent who rose to the rank of general in Egypt’s military — the armed forces he has just been tapped to command by Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood eminence who was elected president of Egypt a few weeks back. My column […]

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ ONLY WHEN THE DEBATE IS MODERATED BY A BLACK LESBIAN IN A WHEELCHAIR WILL THE LEGACY OF AMERICAN RACISM FINALLY BE LIFTED FROM OUR SHOULDERS Just as the media had finished congratulating itself for selecting a woman, CNN’s Candy Crowley, as one of the 2012 presidential debate moderators for the first time in 20 […]

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ FEEL THE HATE? A great deal of attention has been paid to hate-filled protests in front of synagogues by the Westboro Baptist Church or school protests in Beit Shemesh, but in Ann Arbor hate-filled left-wing protests have taken place in front of a synagogue every Sabbath for a decade. What you are seeing is […]

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=281571

As demented and disastrous as the two state “solution” is, most alternatives proffered by the Right would be no less calamitous.

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” – Sir Winston Churchill

As readers of this – soon to be discontinued – column are well aware, I have been a resolute opponent of the two-state solution (TSS), for a variety of reasons, including its logical inconsistency, moral bankruptcy and proven impracticality. Accordingly, I have argued that continued attempts to pursue it will inevitably result in tragedy and trauma for both Arab and Jew.

Perilous proposals

Sadly, however, those who rightly – no pun intended – oppose the TSS have been less than comprehensive and far-sighted in formulating the well-intentioned alternatives they proffer in its stead. Indeed, if implemented, some of these alternatives may well precipitate situations just as perilous at TSS – in some cases perhaps more so.

These TSS-resistant alternatives can be broadly bracketed into four major groupings:

(a) Those that advocate stabilizing the status quo, putting the emphasis on managing the conflict rather than resolving it, and condition any further accommodation of Palestinians’ demands on them “getting their act together” – i.e. by demonstrating more peace-conducive behavior.

(b) Those that are “Jordan-centric,” and involve giving Jordan a crucial role in the envisioned end-state solution – either as the planned abode of the Palestinian Arabs in the “West Bank” and/or in giving Amman the function of running the lives of the Palestinian Arabs in the “West Bank,” subject to overarching Israeli sovereignty.

(c) Those that advocate Israel’s partial annexation of Judea and Samaria, typically of the dominantly Jewish-populated Area C.

(d) Those that advocate annexation of the entire “West Bank,” offering Israeli citizenship to its Arab residents, typically together with changes in the electoral system to marginalize the potential impact of their vote.

EdZiegler.Blogspot.com

For many years our elected officials have stated that Israel is an important ally to the United States. As with any political issue there are differences of opinions. The treatment of Israel is one such issue. The opinion, actions and lack of actions toward Israel by the current Administration presents a picture of how the President considers Israel.

While campaigning for the presidency in 2008 the then Senator Barack Obama said, “We must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state with Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided.” In August 2012 Obama’s Press Secretary Jay Carney, avoided a direct answer as to which city the U.S. recognizes as the capital of Israel. It should have been an easy answer since, in 1995, Congress passed a law that states the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

In 2010 President Obama humiliated Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu by not extending the usual red carpet treatment given to visiting dignitaries, and this to an ally. There was no press conference, no photographed handshake and Netanyahu was taken through a side entrance. President Obama also decided not to eat (as normal) with the dignitary (Netanyahu) and eat with his family instead.

During 2009, 2010 and 2011 President Obama visited approximately 46 countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq and Egypt where he bowed to King Abdullah showing respect to a higher leader. Yet In the three plus years he did not make time to visit Israel supposedly, a good ally.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/frank-gaffney/norquist-repudiates-romney-ryan-on-defense

Norquist Repudiates Romney-Ryan on Defense

On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, were sharply criticized over their commitment to reverse massive budget cuts Team Obama is making at the expense of our military capabilities and national security.

What made this attack notable – and potentially very damaging to the GOP standard-bearers – is that it came, not from the Democrats, but from a prominent Republican political operative, Grover Norquist. It is hard to see how his contention that Messrs. Romney and Ryan can’t be trusted to spend wisely on defense will help anybody but their opponents.

In remarks to the bipartisan Center for the National Interest, Norquist threw down the gauntlet to the Republican ticket. He declared he would fight defense spending increases, or even relief from the next, debilitating round of cuts. These amount to a further half-a-trillion dollars in across-the-board cuts over ten years under what has been called a “doomsday mechanism” known on Capitol Hill as “sequestration.” What makes matters much worse is that these cuts come on top of nearly $800 billion in Pentagon budget reductions already in the pipeline – a fact the anti-tax activist studiously ignores.

For a guy whose ostensible expertise is domestic economic matters, it is doubly surprising that Grover Norquist fails to recognize another disastrous effect these enormous reductions in defense spending will have – on employment and communities all over the country. Estimates run as high as 1 million jobs lost and $59 billion in direct lost earnings and $86.4 billion in gross state product in the first year alone. (For a detailed analysis of the impact by congressional district, see the Defense Breakdown Reports at www.FortheCommonDefense.org/reports.)

What Norquist did do, however, is directly take on the GOP ticket by opining that “Other people need to lead the argument on how can conservatives lead a fight to have a serious national defense without wasting money,” Norquist said. “I wouldn’t ask Ryan to be the reformer of the defense establishment.”

The question occurs: Just who does Grover Norquist think would be better suited to be stewards of the “defense establishment” and the national security it is charged with providing? Having no expertise on these matters himself, in whom does he have more confidence than the people the Republican Party hopes will lead this nation for the next four years?