The only reason this woman’s windshield isn’t in a million tiny pieces is probably because of a special ballistic laminate that is commonly used on windows in Israel. Boys will be boys and its all good – unless the IDF arrests the little thug - then the world will weep crocodile tears for this ‘child’s plight’.

I can hardly believe I have lived to witness such a miracle, and miraculous it is. The enemies of Israel have rarely returned any Israeli captive – let alone one who is still alive. After six years of captivity that can only be described as cruel and contrary to all established international law concerning the welfare and treatment of captured soldiers, Gilad Shalit has been redeemed out of Egypt.

The price for Shalit’s redemption from captivity was steep and bitter. The ransom has been paid with yesterday’s blood, and possibly, tomorrow’s tears. It is not a deal I would have wanted to be made and it is a deal which has caused controversy and much bitterness within Israel – and inside the Jewish community outside of Israel. But today, in harsh reality of day; we know the price and value of a Jewish life. One Palestinian is worth 1/1027th of a single Jew. I did not set this value on a Palestinian life, and neither did the government of Israel; this is the price the enemies of the Israel have demanded for a single Jewish life. So be it, and let the blood be on their hands.

Everyone and their grandmother has criticized the Israeli government. In an act of irony Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu even wrote a treatise years ago arguing against the negotiation with terrorists or the release of terrorists for any Israeli. And yet, it was the Likud government lead by Netanyahu, who was able to secure the release of Gilad Shalit. There is an old axiom in Israeli politics – Only the Israeli left can make war, only the Israel right can make peace. Only the Israeli right could have paid this bitter ransom..

Those outside of Israel often forget how small the country of Israel is – understandably so – given that Israel often punches above her weight. This smallness, creates an interesting dynamic within the society. Israeli society looks at the soldiers of Israel, as literally their own sons and daughters. There is a connection, a personalization of each soldier of the IDF. There is a ‘parental or family’ type relationship between civilian and military within Israel society so Gilad Shalit was not just the son of Noam and Aviva, but of everyone.

Intrinsic within this relationship is a trust, a sacred trust, between the soldiers of Israel and the people. It translates simply like this; no matter what, one way or another, we will bring you home, alive or dead, we will bring you home. The price for Shalit was bitter, but the sacred promise has been fulfilled and the trust preserved. And this, is far more important than what might possibly come in the future. Many other countries say this to their soldiers, but only Israel, fully lives out this creed.

Ask yourself this; who did Israel exchange for the life of Gilad Shalit? Murders and thugs, and such as these, are not the people to lay the foundation of a great society. This is a society based on infamy and blood which will topple under the weight of its own corruption. Someone explain to me how Israel is the loser of this exchange when the likes and lives of those like Amana Jawad Mona are no longer Israel’s responsibility to clothe and feed? I will take a thousand Gilad Shalits over the likes of her.
(Source: Arutz Sheva)

Even now, the enemies of Israel demand more Israeli soldiers be captured and held hostage for ransom. The truth is, the enemies of Israel, have never stopped trying to capture the treasure of the Israeli nation, but, Baruch haShem, their best efforts to date have resulted in only empty hands.

For the past six years, Gilad Shalit has been held in captivity, for six years, Rosh HaShanah has come and gone without Shalit numbered among us. On Yom Kippur, it is thought that our life and portion for the coming year is sealed in the Book of Life. On this day, it is held lawful to pray with even the greatest transgressors among us in the synagogue, and yet, for five Yom Kippurs; Gilad Shalit has not been counted among our midst.

But even so, for six Yom Kippurs, Adon Olam has written Gilad into the Book of Life and sustained his life against the odds of men. And in this year, 5772, Adon Olam has deemed that Gilad Shalit’s portion of life shall be that he can be counted among his people during the holy days of Sukkot. For those who do not know, after the Babylonian captivity ended, Sukkot was the first sacred holiday observed after the resumption of sacrifices in the Temple.

So it is right and proper that a captive of Israel has been redeemed and returned during Sukkot. For those who question the wisdom of the Israel government, perhaps, it is better to have a little faith in the one who has always sustained us and redeemed us.

“They [Israelis] know for certain that our [Palestinian] roots are deeper than their false history. We, from the balcony of our home, look out over [Islamic] holiness and on sin and filth (Jews’ praying at Western Wall) in an area that used to have [Arab] people and homes. We are drawing our new maps. When they [Israelis] disappear from the picture, like a forgotten chapter in the pages of our city’s history, we will build it anew (residential area). The Mughrabi Quarter will be built here (on the Western Wall Plaza).

The television network of the so-called ‘moderate’ Palestinians. Now according to a certain blogger of my acquaintance, accusing the Palestinians of “anti-Semitism or racism, is a stretch. To put it mildly.” For some strange reason ’stretch’ isn’t the word which comes to mind when I think Palestinian anti-Semitism. As rampant as Jewish anti-Semitism has been for centuries within the Arab world; what I find far more disturbing is those who enable Palestinian racism and prejudice by giving it a complete pass.

Update: Since Dr. Dawg just can’t seem to get it. Maybe a picture of the handiwork of the people he works so hard to provide moral cover will help him get it.

(Picture taken from Many Like Me)

I was reading Sarah Honig’s latest column on the coming ‘tsunami’ at the UN with Palestinians. While I have very little to quibble with Honig’s column, I was struck by one incredible and existential ‘why’. Let me quote Honig at length to set up the existential ‘why’.

The 1947 UN partition plan earmarked a status of corpus separatum (separate entity) for Jerusalem, to be overseen by international administrators. Since the Arabs had already violently rejected the Partition Resolution, besieged Jerusalem, conquered and occupied parts of it, expelled all Jews from the Old City and demolished sacred Jewish sites, Ben- Gurion saw no logic in unilateral Israeli adherence to impotent UN proclamations.

On December 5, 1949, five days before the UN General Assembly was to reiterate the internationalization of Jerusalem (and kick off preparations to take control), Ben- Gurion defiantly declared Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Without trepidation he told the Knesset: “We consider it inconceivable that the UN would attempt to sever Jerusalem from the State of Israel or infringe upon Israel’s sovereignty in its eternal capital…

“Jewish Jerusalem will never accept alien rule after thousands of its youths liberated their historic homeland for the third time, redeeming Jerusalem from destruction and vandalism.

“We do not judge the UN, which did nothing when member-nations of the UN declared war on its resolution of 29 November 1947, trying to prevent the establishment of Israel by force, to annihilate the Jewish population in the Holy Land and to destroy Jerusalem, the holiest city of the Jewish people.

“Had we not been able to withstand the aggressors who rebelled against the UN, Jewish Jerusalem would have been wiped off the face of the earth, the Jewish population would have been eradicated and the State of Israel would not have arisen.
“Thus, we are no longer morally bound by the UN resolution of November 29, since the UN was unable to implement it.

“…The attempt to sever Jewish Jerusalem from the State of Israel will not advance the cause of peace in the Mideast or in Jerusalem itself. Israelis will give their lives to hold onto Jerusalem, just as the British would for London, the Russians for Moscow and the Americans for Washington.”

The UN remained impervious. On December 10, 1949, its General Assembly voted by a whopping majority (38-14, with seven abstentions) to uphold its 1947 resolution and place Jerusalem under the auspices of a UN Trusteeship Council, to be governed by the council’s own appointees.

That was the tsunami of 1949. It threatened to engulf fledgling Israel. But Ben-Gurion didn’t lose his cool. Instead of bowing to pressure, he mounted the Knesset podium yet again to repeat what he had enunciated a mere few days earlier: “We cannot assist in the forcible separation of Jerusalem, which would unnecessarily and unjustifiably violate the historical and natural rights of the Jewish people.”
He assertively stressed that “the State of Israel has had, and will always have, only one capital – eternal Jerusalem. This was so 3,000 years ago and so it will be, we believe, to the end of time.”

Ben-Gurion then put to the plenum’s vote his proposal to transfer the Knesset and the government from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It was approved.

There is probably not one city more contentiously claimed than Jerusalem, the historical capital of the Jews and the heart of Judaism. There were periods when Christians claimed exclusive domain of Jerusalem and expelled the Jewish presence from Zion. In an act, now of historical irony, the Jews were only allowed to return when the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem from the Christians was complete. It was only the magnanimity of Muslim rule which allowed the Jews to dwell once more within Zion’s walls. Of course, if the Jews were not despised by the Christians would the Muslim forces been so magnanimous? I think not.

No one, who claims to be a supporter of the so-called two-state solution, is suggesting that Jerusalem should be internationalized, but rather, divided between two states. The western half would remain in Israel’s control and capital while the eastern half would come under Palestinian control to be their capital. What I find most curious is that there is a general international consensus that no government will recognize even western Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. But these same states, are willing to recognize western Jerusalem as Israel’s capital providing the Israelis allow the Palestinians to destroy the unity of the eternal capital of the Jewish people.

While I agree with Honig, that all Israelis and Jews need to do is to stand firm in the face of international perfidy and intransigence, I am struck by this singular fact. Only are the Jewish people are denied the right to determine their own capital. Only the Jewish people are told they must divide and share their ancient capital with a people who never existed as a separate distinct group until the re-establishment of the ancient Jewish state.

So the ‘why’ becomes simply this; why is it that only the Jewish nation is not allowed to determine their own capital?

While most of the so-called pro-Israeli political bloggers are busy writing about the Palestinians, Iran, Syria or the Jew baiting among the faux flotilla human rights activists; the Israeli body politic is in the midst of a greater public protest and push back against the rise of cottage cheese prices. This week, the protests have reached the Knesset and even the Prime Minister has waded in.

The first time I had Israeli cottage cheese was this winter and I have to admit it was completely unlike any of the Canadian (foul stuff) cottages cheeses that are widely available for sale here. In fact, I thought it was yogurt originally as it doesn’t have texture or flavour as Canadian cottage cheese.

I wish the Israelis must success in their protests and can only wish that Canadian consumers would feel half as enraged over our own outrageous prices for dairy products.

x-posted to The Last Amazon, exiled.

When a young vulnerable young woman can be left battered, bloodied, and raped in a stairway and the perpetrator of this heinous crime, in a plea bargain arrangement to a lesser charge (only to spare the victim further emotional trauma), receives a jail sentence of only 18 months should be used as evidence of the racist nature of the Israeli court systems against Arabs…what can one say to that kind of warped pathology? I am going to quote and paraphrase Benjamin Kerstein, The New Ledger –

These revelations prove that, put simply, the Israeli left, and Dr. Dawg Gideon Levy foremost among them, rushed to defend a rapist in a case about which they knew nothing and about which they cared to know nothing. It played to their prejudices about Israeli society and reinforced their hatred of Israeli their fellow citizens. They felt they knew all they needed to know. As a result, they compounded a young woman’s trauma, exonerated a monstrous criminal in the court of public opinion, and debased themselves as human beings.

Dr. Dawg Gideon Levy fancies himself a prophet, a teller of uncomfortable truths to an uncaring society. Where this has led him is frankly horrifying. Did he know the details of the case? No, but he made no attempt whatsoever to find out about them. Did he shrink from slandering a rape victim as a racist? Apparently, not for a moment. Did he shrink from condemning this entire society on the basis of almost no evidence at all? Absolutely not. Did he disgrace himself and his profession? Unquestionably. He was the leading voice of a group of Canadian leftists who, in ironically sexist fashion, defamed a victim of rape out of demented sympathy for the man who violated her. After all, these things happen.

Now Kerstein was originally talking about Ha’aretz columnist Gideon Levy and in my eyes, Dr. Dawg’s horrendous moral position is far worse than Levy’s – as Dawg cannot claim ignorance of the case details as Levy did when he penned his article. In fact, Dawg commented on my post recounting the details which were not widely reported outside of Israel on this matter. In my non-medical opinion, I would suggest that Israeli Derangement Syndrome has taken complete control of Dawg’s neuro-pathways. In the old days we had a name for this kind of individual….

Indeed. Read the rest here.

Is Israel to blame for the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to invest in water infrastructure, recycling of water, developing an adequate water delivery network to meet their needs or even the failure to connect Palestinian farmers to their own water grid? Apparently, if you live in Dr. Dawg’s world the answer is always a resounding yes.

Arutz Sheva carries the most recent report from the Israeli National Water Authority on refuting the new/old ‘big lie’.

And speaking of water theft..why pay the Palestinian Authority for water used when you can just steal it from one of those evil settler types that the Dr. Dawg’s of the world live to demonize and malign with immunity?

NEW YORK – A $5 million lawsuit filed in federal court in New York on Tuesday against former US President Jimmy Carter and publisher Simon & Schuster alleges that Carter’s 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid contains false information and was intended to deceive the public and promote an anti-Israel agenda.

The five plaintiffs in the suit, readers of the book, want their lawsuit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages, to be deemed a class action, meaning that the plaintiffs would be seen to represent a much larger group – that is, everyone who purchased Carter’s $27 book.

The plaintiffs are Americans, with two of the five holding dual American-Israeli citizenship. The suit alleges that the five plaintiffs in the suit who purchased Carter’s book, as well as others, assumed they were buying an accurate record of historic events relating to Israel and the Palestinians.

By claiming to be a Middle East expert, the suit claims, Carter and, by extension, his publisher, intentionally presented inaccurate information that was highly critical of Israel and therefore violated a New York law that makes it illegal to “engage in deceptive acts in the course of conducting business.”

According to a press release sent out by plaintiffs’ attorneys David Schoen and Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the suit is “the first time a former President and a publishing house have been sued for violating consumer protection laws by knowingly publishing inaccurate information while promoting a book as factual.”

The complaint notes that former Carter aides and colleagues contacted Simon & Schuster with concerns about inaccuracies in the book, but that the allegations were not investigated further.

I suspect Carter’s mea culpa on his book is not going to help his statement of defense.