Pro-Israel stalwarts tell N and O their message

May 20, 2009

Facts Trump Rhetoric at DC Israel Rally Vigil
by Lori Lowenthal Marcus, , May 20, 2009

Washington, DC Israel Vigil

As Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu entered the White House lion’s den with US President Barack Obama on Monday, more than 100 pro-Israel supporters showed up outside with two messages: (1) No Nuclear Iran; and (2) No Terrorist Palestinian State on Israel’s borders.

For more than three hours sign-clad Israel-supporters sang and chanted and talked about the existential threats posed by both a nuclear Iran and a Palestinian State. The crowd was unabashed in its support, and the vigil continued for several hours.

Based on the current emanations from Washington, many Israel supporters have begun to fear that the present US government no longer shares Israel’s view of what is the best strategy for stabilizing the Middle East. The concern is that the new US compulsion to make friends with the Arab leadership in the region may now trump its previous stalwart allegiance to what has always been its closest ally in the Middle East - Israel.

Although few in the crowd actually believed that their presence was likely to have an impact on the geopolitical wrestling going on in the White House, they still felt compelled to be there.

“About a week before Netanyahu’s visit, committed Zionists began circulating emails asking who was going to be in Washington representing our viewpoint,” said New Yorker Hillary Markowitz of AMCHA, a grassroots organization started by Rabbi Avi Weiss, “and I realized I had to do it because no one else had yet committed.”

Markowitz obtained a permit for a pro-Israel vigil in Lafayette Park across from the White House, organized buses to take New York area supporters to and from Washington, and began an email blitz publicizing the vigil.

In just a few days people rearranged their lives to converge on Washington. In addition to more than two bus loads from New York, others came from up and down the east coast. There were Christian Zionist supporters who made the trip all the way from Orlando in order to inform the two statesmen of the importance of Israel’s safety and sanctity. The largest organizational contingent was from Chabad, which brought large signs and even larger voices.

Elliot Holtz, a Philadelphian who had never before traveled outside of his hometown to attend a political demonstration explained why he made this trip: “The critical importance of President Obama hearing the message of ‘no pressure on Israel for the sake of dialogging with Iran’ was worth my day.”

While the pro-Israel crowd numbered fewer than a thousand, “those present were actually better than if thousands had arrived because they were so highly motivated,” Laban Seyoum, an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian who was present, later told pro-Israel activist Jerry Gordon of Florida.

Unlike many other demonstrations about the Middle East, the supporters of Israel far outnumbered those who showed up to demonize Israel. Of course, a few Code Pink (gay rights extremists - think the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s analog to the civil rights movement) members came, hoping to attract attention with their street theater antics.

They were dressed as Israeli police officers — in pink, of course — with cardboard cutout machine guns and large displays representing the Israeli checkpoints. When told that in the Muslim Middle East homosexuality is strictly prohibited, the practice of which is punishable by death, the young woman blowing on her police whistle was incredulous. Her fall back position was to insist that Israelis kill gays. Confronted with the news that gay Arab Palestinians actually go to Tel Aviv in order to be openly gay without fear of murder, she simply walked away. They don’t let facts interfere with their rhetoric.

But it wasn’t only the ladies in pink who repeatedly demonstrated their ignorance of facts, and who refused to allow that to stand in the way of their gleeful demonization of Israel.

The shirt of one anti-Israel protester (left) read: “Got Human Rights? Palestinians don’t.” He refused to believe that Arab Palestinians have greater freedom of the press in Israel than in the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories. This was surprising, given the man was wearing a press pass, showing him to be a member of the National Press Association.

One of the handful of other anti-Israel protesters proudly held a sign condemning “Israeli Apartheid.” When she was asked to give an example of Israeli apartheid, she shot back, “Palestinians aren’t allowed to vote in Israel.” When told that Arab Israelis serve on the Israeli Supreme Court and in the Israeli government, including the cabinet, she continued to insist that Israel is an apartheid state.

The vigil was a symbolic push for the US superpower to assist Israel in protecting itself from a nuclear Iran and from a terrorist state being carved out from within its own borders. Those who showed up to represent that view were satisfied that, even if Israel no longer has the kind of friend it needs in the White House, they showed that despite the glee on the Arab street, Israel still has its supporters on the American street.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus writes about the Middle East

The Late Great State of Isreal

American Thinker

May 17, 2009

The Late Great State of Israel

By Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Aaron Klein's The Late Great State of Israel: How enemies within and without threaten the Jewish nation's survival

WND Books (April 28, 2009)

249 pp. $25.95

Aaron Klein, the intrepid Middle East bureau reporter for World Net Daily, hopes that his new book, The Late Great State of Israel, will blast open the tightly shut eyelids of most of the Western world in time to prevent the demise of the Jewish State.  The most striking way he does that is by revealing that all of us -- the Bush and the Obama administrations and the rest of the world -- have been hoodwinked into actively participating in the Final Solution proudly and publicly trumpeted by the, at least thus far, "organizationa non grata" Islamic terrorist group Hamas.

For the past four years Aaron Klein has been reporting from Israel, covering every major event in the news vortex of the Middle East.  There are many differences between Klein and nearly all the other Middle East journalists: he actually interviews the Arab Palestinian terrorist leaders and asks them about their plans to annihilate Israel, the extent of their military build-up, and the degree to which weaponry provided by the West to support Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party has been acquired by Hamas.  The terrorists answer Klein honestly and unequivocally.  Read this book and find out what they say.

Klein knows that merely exposing the unabashed genocidal agendas of the Muslim world's terrorist leadership will not, because thus far it has not, motivate any organized efforts to thwart them.  He knows that because, despite the reports he files directly quoting those terrorist leaders' statements of their intention to annihilate the Jews, no outcry has been heard to permanently deprogram the terrorists, let alone any efforts to actually eliminate them.  That is, unless you consider the modern version of torture known as dialoguing terrorists to death. 

So what information does Klein provide to start the revolution? 

Klein spells out in elaborate, substantiated detail the extent to which Hamas has infiltrated Fatah.  In those situations most relevant to US and world aid to and support of Fatah, Fatah is Hamas.  Trying to hold hands with one but not the other is impossible.

But wait!  Aren't Fatah and Hamas locked in a death struggle, the winner of which gets to be the official terrorist group of the Arab Palestinians?  How could they be the same?  There are two answers to that, an obvious one nicely wrapped in a maxim, and one that Klein has mined from his exhaustive investigative reporting.

Both Fatah and Hamas define themselves almost exclusively as genocide-seeking enemies of Israel; they are aligned in hatred against their common enemy - the Jewish State.  So, as the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.  That's the obvious one. 

Now let's turn to the more significant factor.  This one completely spins the aforementioned maxim on its head: sometimes the enemy of my enemy is still my enemy -- especially when those enemies are not just similar in principle, but are actually the same. 

Here's an example which Klein documents in detail: Just before Hamas routed Fatah in Gaza, Israeli security officials "warned that all major intelligence and security organizations associated with Fatah were in a state of ‘deep infiltration" by Hamas."  In fact, in one of the interviews that makes this account so valuable, Klein learns from a Fatah intelligence official that after the Hamas Gaza takeover, "Fatah officials found Hamas had penetrated their security organizations at the very highest levels."

But we do not have to rely on anonymous quotes from Fatah officials, as Klein further explains: On July 27, 2007, Abbas released a 200 page report of an investigation into the conduct of Fatah fighters in Gaza.  The goal of the report was to uncover the reasons why Fatah's control of Gaza crumbled so quickly and completely to Hamas.  Nabil Amr, a senior Abbas aide who served on the investigative committee, stated on the record that it was because "Fatah security forces were in a state of infiltration by Hamas."

And here's the biggest jaw-dropper: while intending to support and bolster Fatah to defeat Hamas, the United States may actually have been helping Hamas defeat Fatah.

Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, the American security coordinator in the region, birthed the eponymous US strategy.  The Dayton Plan was for the US to strengthen Fatah's security forces so that Fatah would defeat Hamas, a scourge both to Fatah and the US.  Yet Klein shows that, by coordinating strategy with a Hamas spy, it appears that the US actually helped Hamas bring down Fatah.  Klein outs the Hamas mole and explains how the evidence, including admissions by Fatah leaders, fits together.   

Dayton has a lead role in another, painful episode in Klein's book.  Klein reveals how the US-trained Palestinian troops turned tail and scattered every time they were charged with confronting Hamas terrorists, even on their own turf.  In a repeated Twilight-Zone like scenario, the Israeli Defense Forces had to step in and defend its sworn enemy, Fatah, from its other sworn enemy, Hamas.  In April, Lt. Gen. Dayton addressed a US newly-trained Palestinian battalion: "As I look at you, I couldn't be more proud of the fact that you stepped up to be the founders of a Palestinian state."  The greatest irony, of course, is that in order to support the charade of a finely-trained Fatah militia, the Israeli military seems well on its way to being pretzel-twisted into stepping up as the actual "founders of a Palestinian state." 

The Late Great State of Israel is a lament from a very well-informed insider who fears it will be too late before the world awakens to the endgame taking place in the Middle East.  He provides example after well-researched, documented example of the almost total inversion of reality to reportage on the Arab-Israeli conflict.  If just one of his other chapters, each of which is devoted to another inverted reality, shakes up readers, Klein's gloom may lift.  But if even the chapter about the Hamas-Fatah convergence doesn't cause an avalanche of reality-realignments, Klein's despair will be entirely justified.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus writes about the Middle East for various media outlets.

Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/the_late_great_state_of_israel.html at May 17, 2009 - 11:27:02 AM EDT

OK NOW will the world take Iran's threats seriously?

Iran tests missile with range that can hit Israel

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer29 mins ago

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran test-fired a missile capable of striking Israel, U.S. Mideast bases and Europe on Wednesday — a show of strength touted by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he battles for re-election next month against more moderate opponents.

The U.S. responded by saying Iran must choose between destabilizing the Middle East or accepting the dialogue offered by President Barack Obama. The U.S. leader threatened earlier this week that Iran could face further international sanctions if it does not respond positively by year-end to U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program.

Israel said the test appeared to be Iran's response to a positive meeting on Monday between Obama and new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

U.S. officials confirmed the launch and Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington that Iran is at a crossroads and must choose its course.

"They can either continue on this path of continued destabilization in the region or they can decide that they want to pursue relationships with the counties in the region and the United States that are more normalized," said Whitman. "Our concerns are obviously based on nuclear ambitions and the implications that long- and medium-range missiles have with respect to that," he added.

Alex Vatanka, a senior Middle East analyst at Jane's Information Group, said the test "does not change the strategic equation" in the region because Iran has had the ballistic missile capability to hit Israel and much of the Middle East for more than a decade with its Shahab missiles.

It was likely intended to send a message to the Obama administration that Iran cannot be bullied into talks and also to show the country's strength in hopes that would boost Ahmadinejad's popularity among voters in the June 12 election, Vatanka said.

Iran says its missile program is merely for defense and its space program is for scientific and surveillance purposes. It maintains that its nuclear program is for civilian energy uses only.

Tehran said the solid-fuel Sajjil-2 surface-to-surface missile has a range of about 1,200 miles. It is a new version of the Sajjil missile, which the country said it successfully tested late last year and has a similar range. Many analysts said the launch of the solid-fuel Sajjil was significant because such missiles are more accurate than liquid fuel missiles of similar range, such as Iran's Shahab-3.

"Defense Minister (Mostafa Mohammad Najjar) has informed me that the Sajjil-2 missile, which has very advanced technology, was launched from Semnan and it landed precisely on the target," state radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. He did not name any targets for the missile when he spoke during a visit to the city of Semnan, 125 miles east of the capital Tehran, where Iran's space program is centered.

Italy said its foreign minister, Franco Frattini, canceled a planned trip to Iran on Wednesday because Ahmadinejad wanted to meet in Semnan rather than in Tehran.

Najjar said the Sajjil-2 differs from the Sajjil missile because it "is equipped with a new navigation system as well as precise and sophisticated sensors," according to Iran's official news agency.

Sajjil means "baked clay." It is a reference to a story in the Quran, Islam's holy book, in which birds sent by God drive off an enemy army attacking the holy city of Mecca by pelting them with stones of baked clay.

Two U.S. officials confirmed the missile launch, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

"It appears the test was a success," one official said. "It appears they launched a medium-range missile."

After the test, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that if Iran manages to produce nuclear weapons, it would "spark an arms race" in the Middle East.

Iran's nuclear and missile programs have alarmed Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu pressed Obama to step up pressure on Tehran when the two met in Washington on Monday.

Moshe Arens, a former Israeli defense minister who trained in the U.S. as an aerospace engineer, said Wednesday's test was apparently part of Iran's broader quest to develop more advanced missiles and nuclear capability.

"They're increasing their abilities to launch rockets of longer and longer range that go beyond Israel and into Europe and eventually will carry nuclear weapons," he said. "They're troublemakers and you have to deal with troublemakers."

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel's elimination, and the Jewish state has not ruled out a military strike to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat. The Israeli government has been skeptical of U.S. overtures to Iran, which have received a mixed response from Ahmadinejad.

Many Western experts have expressed skepticism about Iran's professed military achievements, saying the country provides no transparency to verify its claims. Most believe Iran does not yet have the technology to produce nuclear weapons, including warheads for long-range missiles.

The U.S. released an intelligence report about 18 months ago that said Iran abandoned a secret nuclear weapons program in 2003 under international pressure and has not restarted it.

Israel and several other countries have disputed the finding. But many in the West at least agree that Iran is seeking to develop the capability to develop weapons at some point. A group of U.S. and Russian scientists said in a report issued Tuesday that Iran could produce a simple nuclear device in one to three years and anuclear warhead in another five years after that.

The study published by the nonpartisan EastWest Institute also said Iran is making advances in rocket technology and could develop a ballistic missile capable of firing a 2,200-pound nuclear warhead up to 1,200 miles "in perhaps six to eight years."

After the testing of the Sajjil in November, a senior U.S. military official said Washington believed Iran was testing the first stage of what would be a two-stage rocket. Multiple stages allow long-range missiles to use less fuel.

The launch came just weeks before the vote that could influence Iran's response to the U.S. outreach. Two of the three candidates approved by Iran's constitutional watchdog to run in the June election are reformists who favor improving ties with the West.

The hard-line president has been criticized by his opponents and others for antagonizing the U.S. and mismanaging the country's faltering economy. On Wednesday, the constitutional watchdog approved three candidates to challenge Ahmadinejad, setting up a showdown between reformists and hard-liners.

___

Associated Press Writers Pamela Hess in Washington and Steve Weizman and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090520/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran/print;_ylt=Aqn9ooT5TZaqqb3bUtiTctEUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTB1MjgxN2UzBHBvcwMxNARzZWMDdG9vbHMtdG9wBHNsawNwcmludA--

Vigil to Keep Israel Intact

**Please pass this on**
WHEN: Monday, May 18th, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
WHERE: Lafayette Park, across from the White House, Washington, D.C.
WHO: Everyone who cares about Israel

Join me at the May 18th White House Vigil when Israeli PM Netanyahu meets with Pres. Obama.

There is immense worldwide pressure on Netanyahu to acquiesce in the creation of a terrorist Arab Palestinian state on Israel's borders.

Prime Minister Netanyahu needs to SEE each of us standing in front of the White House. Pres. Obama does too.

Bring signs, American & Israeli Flags, Prayer Books and shofrim, food and water.

You needn't be there for the whole vigil, but you do need to be there.

Netanyahu thanks Durban II boycotting countries

This is a bold, unabashed and assertive demand that Israel be treated as an equal amongst nations. A thank you with spine, how's that for a twist? And may we all go FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH!!
Lori
*********

PM Netanyahu sent a Letter to the Countries that Boycotted the Durban
Conference in Geneva


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to the countries that
boycotted the Durban Conference in Geneva thanking them for their decision.
The Prime Minister also praised the countries whose delegates walked out
during the speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the event.

The Prime Minister wrote in the letter:

"As Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, I am writing to express my
appreciation for your decision not to participate in the Durban II
conference in Geneva. That decision helps restore a measure of sanity
in a world in which a conference against racism gives a platform to the head of a regime that denies the Holocaust and openly seeks to perpetrate a new one through the destruction of the Jewish state.

With the most basic values of humanity under assault, your government took
an unequivocal moral stand. It is my fervent hope that this stand taken by
your country and a handful of others will mark a turning point in this
battle and that moral clarity will once again prevail in world affairs."

what moral compass guides the IDF

The slander heard 'round the world, originally published by Haaretz, that the IDF targetted civilians during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, was proven to be baseless. The soldiers who "testified" about the outrageous conduct of the IDF were later proven to have simply repeated hearsay, despite the characterizations of that testimony as first-hand reporting. In addition, the incidents about which the hearsay was raised were certainly not instances of the wanton killings of civilians.

So read about the very moral and compassionate acts of the IDF from true first hand accounts. StandWithUs is a wonderful organization - check out its website for lots of valuable information: www.standwithus.org.
**************

ISRAELI SOLDIERS SHARE THEIR PERSONAL COMBAT
EXPERIENCES WITH THE WORLD


JERUSALEM (April 6, 2009) – A new wesbsite created by Israeli soldiers to share their personal experiences of serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has had 20,000 views in just its first week. www.soldiersspeakout.com contains testimonials from soldiers which contrast sharply with recent reports of alleged IDF misconduct. Additional testimonies have been added since the March 29 launch.

StandWithUs, an international education organization, created the website in response to IDF members in its student programs who felt they had to speak out. This independent initiative is not coordinated with either the IDF or the Israeli Government.

Explains Roz Rothstein, international director of StandWithUs, “we created this website because a few isolated allegations from ‘anti-war’ Israeli soldiers are being used to defame the IDF. Yet the IDF has over 700,000 citizen soldiers and reservists who try to live up to it’s high ethical standards. The IDF impartially judges all alleged violations, and punishes offenders.”

The soldiers share experiences rarely told by the international media. Nina, a 25 year-old IDF medic who served in Gaza, recounts how she and other IDF soldiers treated wounded Palestinian men, women and children and arranged for them to be flown to Israeli hospitals for medical care. She explains that IDF medics are taught not to see nationality, but rather to treat the wounded with the severest injuries first, even if they are terrorists.

Amir, a military reserve paramedic in the Givati unit in Gaza, confirms Nina’s account. “I was present when injured Palestinians were flown out by IDF chopper to Israeli hospitals. Imagine the cost of that helicopter, but we believe that human life is of the highest value – their identity doesn’t matter.” Amir’s video relates how he helped a pregnant Palestinian woman in labor while he was searching for terrorists in Gaza.
The soldiers also describe the challenges of fighting terrorists who use inhumane tactics. Inon, a 25 year-old lieutenant in the Golani brigade, recalls that during the 2006 Lebanon war, he and his unit spotted an elderly woman shouting in pain. As they tried to help, they realized that Hezbollah had wired her with a suicide bomb belt and was using her as a human trap for the Israeli soldiers. "This is what we are up against."

“We had no shortage of volunteers,” remarks StandWithUs Israel Director Michael Dickson, “Many feel that the media has been skewed. Many soldiers feel a deep sense of injustice, including those who risked their own lives in Gaza to protect Palestinian civilians. These young soldiers are deeply moral and recognize that their service is vital to a country like Israel, which is constantly endangered by terrorists and hostile neighbors.

“All the soldiers we met illustrate the IDF’s moral code with first-hand experiences. The media may not always report on it, but by putting the soldiers’ stories on the Internet, they can speak to people directly. I anticipate that there will be many more soldiers speaking out,” predicts Dickson.


· The Soldiers Speak Out website is at www.soldiersspeakout.com
· It officially launched on Sunday, March 29, 2009.

Passive Genocide

So far President Obama and England's Prime Minister Brown have publicly announced their demand that Bibi pursue the "Two-State Solution." (See Sharpe's article, below, for info on that point.) Would England embrace a 2 state solution if County Kent became inhabited by and controlled by terrorists and demanded sovereignty? Would England maintain porous borders with Kentistan? Would the US do that if New Englandistan became inhabited by and controlled by terrorists?

This obsession with continuing "the peace process" that will - WILL, not might - lead to Israel's annihilation; and with the "two state solution" by shaving off parts of a tiny country and granting sovereignty to those portions which are committed to Israel's destruction, is a passive insistence on genocide. That is what we must call these vile demands - passive genocide.