The Last Exile

There has been a great deal of discussion concerning American diaspora Liberal Jewry and Israel. I haven’t really commented about it because the dilemma is not mine. Modern Liberalism can be a very fine thing but at the end of the day; it is not much of a shield to use to keep one safe from who invoke the ancient cry ‘Kill the Jews’ as a battle call to action.

It won’t save you from rocket attacks, being stabbed or bulldozed on the street, or being fired upon while driving your car or being blown-up on a bus or at the market or a mall. Of course, you can try it, but well, good luck to you. Then there is the fact that most ‘Liberal Zionists’ in North America aren’t particularly Torah observant either which would be my first guess why the connection is tenuous in even the best case circumstances. Be that as it may, I found this at the Jerusalem Post and thought it blog worthy.

The confrontation at sea between pro-Palestinian activists seeking to end the international blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza and Israeli forces seeking to enforce the closure has put Israel in a difficult position. Despite the fact that the aim of the so-called “freedom flotilla” was to bring aid to the terrorist regime running Gaza, the deaths of several persons on board one of the ships that resisted the commandos who boarded the vessel has created a public relations bonanza for the anti-Zionist groups that organized the effort.

The chorus of condemnations raining down on Jerusalem only hours after the incident shows the depth of anti-Israeli passion around the world as governments, NGOs and UN officials all chime in with the usual refrains about the use of “disproportionate” force, as well as the myth about the ships seeking to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in a region where food and medical supplies are not barred by the Israeli and Egyptian blockade, which is aimed at forcing Hamas to either step down or recognize Israel.

But while Israeli spokesmen will be scrambling to tell their side of the story in coming days, the spotlight on “liberal Zionists” will be crucial in determining not only the way American Jewry responds to the crisis but the reaction from the Obama administration.

As with the case of Israel’s December 2008 counterattack on terrorist strongholds in Gaza after years of ceaseless missile attacks on its southern towns, this week’s naval confrontation offers American Jews a stark choice. They can back Israel or Hamas.

(…)Americans looking for a justification to excuse themselves from the more difficult task of explaining Israel’s dilemma to a hostile world may seize upon the convoy deaths as a fresh rationale for quitting the ranks of the country’s supporters. But if that is what amounts to liberal Zionism these days, then its adherents must be judged as, at best, fair-weather friends, and, at worst, little different from open anti-Zionists who implicitly support the Palestinian terror organizations and the elimination of the Jewish state. If liberal Zionism in 2010 amounts to backing Hamas’s propaganda campaign and the delegitimization of Israeli self-defense, then it’s time to admit that such liberals have left the Zionist camp altogether.

I know where, why and who I stand with, but who do you stand for?

Seriously, it’s the first word which comes to mind after reading the first paragraph at this Ynet News article.

Thirteen female European activists, arrested for their participation in the flotilla to Gaza, attacked Immigration Authority officers escorting them to the airport for their deportation, the Interior Ministry reported Wednesday.

Despite the calm that ensued following Monday’s violence aboard the Turkish vessel Marmara, the Immigration Authority claims some of the activists detained in Israel have been instigating clashes with the authorities.

The ministry said the young women began to riot in the police bus conveying them to the airport. “They yelled and cursed,” said an officer of the authority’s Oz unit. “They called us names and cursed Israel. When we arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport, two of them attacked me screaming, tried to push me, slap me, and scratch me. They yelled, ‘free Palestine’ and ‘Israel is a terror state’. They only calmed down after an entire team apprehended them.”

No one does peace activists quite like Palestinian supporters. If I can get serious for a moment, I haven’t always thought particularly well of CSIS but I certainly hope CSIS will be taking a few long walks and hard looks at the three Canadians who have allegedly taken part in the Flotilla of Fools and are due to be deported from Israel. If for no other reason than to monitor the type of violent radical types these three have been openly cavorting with.

While its easy to criticize the IDF’s decision to let Navy commandos board the Flotilla of Fools with paintball guns as their primary weapons, the fact remains the IDF evaluated the character of the peace activists using the world ‘peace’ and thought them nothing more than well-intentioned retro hippies ready to sing ‘Give Peace a Chance’ rather than an armed horde of thugs ready to do violence at the mere sight of sailors of the Israeli nation. I doubt the state of Israel or the IDF will ever make that same mistake again.

The outrageous behaviour of the Palestinian Peace camp has awaken the Israeli street from its slumber and demonstrations in support of the IDF and against Turkish perfidy have been happening around the country. Ynet News:

(Photo Michael Cherkassky)

“We fell into the trap they set us,” said Ronen Shuval, chairman of Im Tirtzu. “We convinced ourselves that they were peace activists, so the soldiers went on board with paintball guns instead of tear gas and weapons,” he said, referring to the raid in which participants of the flotilla resisted the soldiers, resulting in bloody clashes which left nine activists dead.

“We went out with three main messages,” he explains: “Moral support for the IDF and the navy, protest against Turkish hypocrisy, and a message not to yield to the other side’s psychological warfare.
“Various groups have tried to promote terror activities under the guise of human rights, and we fell into the trap and went into battle with paintball guns. We have to remind ourselves that a terrorist is a terrorist, and that’s how we have to deal with him.”

(Photo: Natan Gilat)”We set the system going at full volume,” he continues. “We held a huge demonstration in Beersheba, one of the most apathetic campuses in Israel, and we shook it out of its lethargy. We also held impressive demonstrations in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in Haifa, and one in front of the Turkish embassy. People on campus are motivated to participate. Another demonstration will be held tomorrow (Thursday) in Tel Aviv University, and a demonstration is planned in Haifa to take place at sea, under the title ‘We’re all navy’.”
 
“Our aim is to make people boycott Turkey and its products, to combat Turkish hypocrisy,” Shuval explains. “Our hasbara (official explanation) system is not good abroad because it is weak inside the country.”

Count me in on the boycott against Turkey.

Update: Arutz Sheva has posted videos of Israeli student demostrations in support of israel around the country.

The Toronto Star carries a fluff piece on one of three Canadian Peace activists who shameless took part in the Free Gaza Movement. One of the activists actually described his role as to defend the journalists aboard the Flotilla of Fools against the ‘vandals’ – known to all normal sane non-peace activist types as the IDF. Non-violently he alleges. But really now – how do we know he and the two other Canadians with him doesn’t have blood on their hands?

Are we to take him at his word…we all know what happened when the IDF made the mistake of taking the Free Gaza Movement peace activists as real ‘peace’ activists.

Dr. Dawg is allegedly on hiatus, but don’t think that’s stopped his blog from standing out for it’s progressive Canadian humanists who insist Israel is not only always wrong but evil too. Dawg’s found guest bloggers who share his personal bile. Allison at Creekside shared the limelight yesterday and I intend to share the joy. Apparently, Canadians are to be ashamed of the following:

Canada was the first country in the world to boycott Gaza for electing Hamas.

If a political-terrorist movement contains ‘death to the Jews’ as part as part of its charter and reason for existing, and is consequently, elected to a parliament; it is suppose to be a ’cause’ for celebration? I would think the calls to annihilate a group of people based on religious ethnicity was a bad thing but apparently its all good as long as your a ‘humanist’ and the victims are Israelis. Bad Stevie.

When Israel bombed Lebanon in 2008 killing 1400, Steve called Israel’s actions ‘measured’.

The only time Israel bombed Lebanon in 2008 was in Allison’s imagination. If she is referring to the Israel-Lebanon war of 2006, Steve was entirely correct – providing he actually said that. We really have only Allison’s word on it – no link. Since Allison cannot be bothered to fact check the simple basic stuff in her posts; I wouldn’t take her say-so on the weather above her on any give day as a factually based – let alone her ability to accurately quote anyone’s words.

In fact, Israel had the power and ability to bomb Lebanon back to the stone age a few times over and didn’t. I remember distinctly watching that war and being disgusted at how the IDF was forced to operate under the trio of incompetents (Amir Perez, Ehud Olmert and Dan Halutz). It was an outrage.

What Allison deliberately chooses to ignore, deny or just is too plain ignorant to know (pick your poison) was the fact Hezbollah deliberately brought the war into Lebanon by firing rockets into Israel to act as a diversion while their ‘freedom fighters’ attacked two Israeli Humvees with the deliberate goal of kidnapping Israeli soldiers to hold for ransom/hostage. It wasn’t even the first time Hezbollah mounted such an operation but it was the first successful incursion in sixteen months worth of try. Nor was the Lebanese casualty count 1400 but props to Allison for not allowing her lack of numeracy to hinder her ranting. I suppose the only proper progressive response for Hezbollah’s outrageous acts of regression was for the Israeli state to lay down and die. It gets better.

We supported the Wall at the UN.

‘Cause when the Israel Wall went up separating the disputed territories from the approximate ‘47 Armistice lines it drastically cut down on the numbers of Israeli civilians injured, maimed and killed by Palestinian suicide bombers infiltrating the area. Oh, the infamy of it – since everyone knows Palestinian convenience must always trump Israeli life and/or limbs. The UN said so.

Canada had the largest delegation at last year’s Conference on Anti-Semitism in Israel and provides nearly twice the Canadian forces to man the borders of Gaza as does the United States.

Oy vey, more Canadian infamy. I am at a loss as to understand why having the largest delegation at a conference on Anti-semitism in Israel is a source of shame. I suspect it has something to do with the ‘Jew’ thingy which clearly gets under Allison’s skin and obviously rubs her the wrong way. Personally, I look forward to the day when Allison does share why the ‘whys and hows’ of how Anti-Semitism is not a bad thing – if for no other reason than the sheer entertainment value.

The Canadian Forces now man the border of the Gaza Strip. Who freaking knew? But more importantly, did anyone tell the IDF, Egypt or even Hamas for that matter? It must be one of the Elder’s operations since only a ’select’ few like Allison know about it. How she managed to circumvent the Elder’s security measures is beyond me. What’s the moral here? The world only loves and reveres dead Jews. Living ones – not so much.

Against this complicity by our own government in the three-year-old Israeli blockade of Gaza, we must raise our voices in support of international law. We must no longer allow our government to speak in our name here.

When the Flotilla of Fools made their intention to break the ‘blockade’ of the Gaza Strip public knowledge the father of Gilad Shalit asked them to deliver a small aid package to his son who is being held hostage by the Hamas dictatorship of the Gaza Strip – the Free Gaza Movement point blank refused such a small basic humanitarian request. But those ‘humanitarians for some’ are the people progressives often refer to as ‘heroes’.

The irony of the Free Gaza Movement was that apparently the aid was completely unnecessary. The UK Financial Times;

For close to three years, the tunnels below Rafah have offered a unique lifeline to Gazans, who are otherwise deprived of all but the most basic humanitarian supplies. They have also allowed Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Strip, to replenish its coffers and rebuild its military arsenal, making the tunnels a target for Israel.

Today, however, Nasim is more worried about the decline in business than he is about Israeli air raids. He says Hamas, whose security officers can be seen in the tunnel area, is taking an ever greater cut of the operators’ profits. Moreover, the prices of many smuggled goods have fallen in recent months, thanks to a supply glut that is on striking display across the Strip.

Some argue that Gaza’s tunnel economy is becoming a victim of its own success. Hundreds of tunnels have shut down over the past year as the result of greater Egyptian efforts to stop the flow of goods – and weapons – into the Strip. But the remaining tunnels, about 200 to 300 according to most estimates, have become so efficient that shops all over Gaza are bursting with goods. Branded products such as Coca-Cola, Nescafé, Snickers and Heinz ketchup – long absent as a result of the Israeli blockade – are both cheap and widely available.

However, the tunnel operators have also flooded Gaza with Korean refrigerators, German food mixers and Chinese airconditioning units. Tunnel operators and traders alike complain of a saturated market – and falling prices. “Everything I demand, I can get,” says Abu Amar al-Kahlout, who sells household goods out of a warehouse big enough to accommodate a passenger jet.

I bet he does too. He certainly knows a good racket when he sees one.

Allison H/t goes to Backstreet Blogger.

No one does peace activist quite like a Palestinian supporter BBC:

More than 800 people marched through the city centre and down Oxford Road, where the crowd surged at the BBC’s entrance, smashing its front doors. One man climbed to the top of the building to plant a Palestinian flag and there were at least three arrests. Protesters said they were also angry about the BBC’s coverage of Israel. Police officers formed a chain across the BBC’s Oxford Road entrance and surrounded the building with police vehicles and officers. Protesters from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, who organised the demonstration, chanted slogans including: “BBC tell the truth.”

But the sense of ridiculousness doesn’t end there.

Talat Ali, 40, organizer from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: “This is a peaceful demonstration against the attack that has taken place on the Gaza flotilla. “We are not happy with the way commanders boarded vessels and butchered people. “We are not happy with the biased news given by the BBC.”

Not only is all concept of irony completely lost on these people – their outrageous conduct has killed the any concept of satire.

I hesitate to even put this video of the IDF boarding one of the Flotilla Ship of Fools which clearly shows the so-called ‘peace activists’ in action and validates the IDF reports of the incident. It also clearly establishes a chain of events which lead to the deaths on board the ship and places the responsibility for the deaths at the hands of the so-called peace activists.

There are those who insist it is otherwise and long for nothing better than the day when a Israeli Prime Minister would be put in chains and dragged to the Hague for a crimes against humanity show-trial for the crime of defending Jewish lives. Even now, there are those who distort history and would seek to make Canadians feel ashamed for supporting Israel at the UN against the chorus of condemnation for erecting a wall to stop the suicide bombers which laid waste to the treasure of our lives.

To them, Palestinian convenience trumps Israeli life or limbs. Every single time. While rockets rained down on Israeli civilians they dismissed the plight of Israeli civilians as a mere trifle…a momentary inconvenience. Hezbollah’s deadly arsenals represents nothing more than a barrage of oversize firecrackers. Their hearts remained unmoved while Israeli schoolchildren sought shelter when the code red alerts sirens blared on their walk to school. They saw nothing wrong in this state of affairs. To those, this video is nothing but an orgy of porn feeding their lust for our blood.

To my Israeli brethren, my heart is with you but the world is mostly against us like it as almost always been. There is no room for nuance in my stand. I am putting this video up for those who have yet to choose a stand in the hopes there hearts will be unhardened.

And less we forget what deadly arsenals are carried to our enemies let us roll to what was found on the Francop just last November.

The Free Gaza Movement Flotilla of Fools designed to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip has been broken instead. Reports are still sketchy and everything coming out of Israel is subject to the military censors. The Jerusalem Post carries the most comprehensive report I’ve read this morning.

Armed Navy ships were escorting boats from the Gaza protest flotilla to Ashdod on Monday afternoon, hours after IDF soldiers and activists clashed in a fatal raid.International activists aboard the ships opened fire on IDF soldiers who boarded the ships to prevent them from breaking the Israeli-imposed sea blockade, the IDF said Monday.

According to the IDF, the international activists “prepared a lynch” for the soldiers who boarded the ships at about 2 a.m. Monday morning after calling on them to stop, or follow them to the Ashdod Port several hours earlier. According to the IDF, the international activists “prepared a lynch” for the soldiers who boarded the ships at about 2 a.m. Monday morning after calling on them to stop, or follow them to the Ashdod Port several hours earlier.

According to IDF reports, at least 15 activists were killed during the ensuing clashes and dozens were wounded. Some of the wounded were evacuated to Israeli hospital by Air Force helicopters.Five Navy commandos were also wounded, some of them from gunfire.At least 2 soldiers were seriously wounded. 

And the usual suspects are calling down the wrath of of heaven against the Israelis but it appears the non-violence stanch of the Free Gaza Movement failed to adequately explain non-violence protest doesn’t include stealing soldiers guns and opening fire.

Upon boarding the ships, the soldiers encountered fierce resistance from the passengers who were armed with knives, bats and metal pipes. The soldiers used non-lethal measures to disperse the crowd. The activists, according to an IDF report, succeeded in stealing two handguns from soldiers and opened fire, leading to an escalation in violence.

The usual suspects will carry on and Israel has another public relations disaster on its hands. In the meantime I suggest you read the links in this post by the Elder of Ziyon who has been carrying the water on the Free Gaza Movement.

I want to leave you with one thought. Israel has taken the protesters into Israel. The wounded will be attended and the detained will be fed and housed and the world will bear witness to it but can we say the same for Gilad Shalit?

Update: This is a News 1 report suggesting the Israelis who originally boarded the first ship were equipped with ‘paint-ball rifles and were surprised to be met with such force by the so-called pacifists who attacked en-mass. One soldier is quoted he felt it would be the lynching in Ramallah over again.

Since the Palestinian desire to kill Jews through imploding on Israeli buses, nightclubs, shopping malls and markets has been thwarted by the various security measures various Israeli governments have implemented (the security barrier, checkpoints, and drastic reduction of work permits allowing Palestinians freedom of movement into pre-1949 Israel etc.,) there is this notion out in the wider world which gives all appearance to believing the lack of successful attacks launched by the Palestinians against Israeli civilians somehow equates into a lack of desire or motivation on the part of the Palestinians to launch so-called ‘resistance’ operations. Although this couldn’t be further from the truth which is the so-called ‘resistance’ continues to launch operations against Israeli civilians – abet in a far less spectacular way than a bus or store bombing but often with just as deadly intentions.

Arutz Sheva carries the personal account of an Israeli civilian, a father who was simply driving his car to take his children and wife for a Shabbat celebration last Friday.:

This is what happened: we were on our way for a Shabbat at the pre-military academy in Neveh Tzuf. After taking the turn at the “British Police Junction” I began thinking, for no apparent reason, about some of the well-known shooting attacks that took place on the roads, and about families that were wiped out by terrorists. I remembered the Tzur family (ambushed by terrorists who murdered two of them, a mother and her son, near Beit El, in 1996), the Hatuel family (ambushed by terrorists who murdered five, a mother and four daughters, near Gush Katif, in 2004), the Schijveschuurder family (five of whom were killed in the Jerusalem Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing in 2001), not without asking myself why these negative thoughts were appearing just now…

About two kilometers west of the junction we reached a curve where one must slow down. Suddenly I heard shots from very close range. I shouted to my wife: ‘they are shooting at us, get down!’ and I slammed down the gas pedal in order to get out of the kill zone. But then I saw that the engine’s power had died and that it simply was not responding. I shifted to lower gear and pumped the gas pedal but the engine was dead. The first bullet had cut the radiator pipe, penetrated through the manifold into the engine, exited with a bang through the oil sump and hit the asphalt below. In one second, the oil spilled out of the engine and it died.

A terrible feeling of helplessness. We are inside a tin box that is slowly rolling along. The terrorists continue to fire at us in a controlled fashion, one bullet every two or three seconds. With me in the car, which has turned into a death trap, are my wife and four agitated children who could get hit at any second. A true lose-lose situation: I can’t stop the car and charge the terrorists with my gun because then the full car remains exposed like a duck in a shooting range. I can’t escape because the motor is gone.    

I figured that the shooting was coming from the mountain’s extension south of the road and so I turned hard to the opposite lane in order to reach the slope and get out of the Palestinians’ range. When the car stopped I got out quickly, took out the kids and threw them into the bushes on the mountainside. The little one started shouting “mommy” and ran to the center of the road with me following her, lifting her up and simply throwing her to her sister. Only then did I cock the handgun and start looking for the terrorists. I surmised that they would be drawing near in order to confirm the kills and so I began advancing in their direction so as to prevent them from reaching the family. I was trying to plan how to conduct an effective battle with ten bullets in a small Glock 26.

You can read how it ends by clicking on the Arutz Sheva link but this isn’t the first attack or even the last but merely one out of many.

The ongoing captivity Gilad Shalit is turning into a virtual propaganda boon for Hamas and its supporters. Ynet News:

Hamas-owned “Falasteen” journal published a “rare and special” interview with captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, an interview, which, only at the end of the report, turned out to be fabricated.
 
The paper’s political analyst Mustafa al-Sawwaf, was allegedly given the opportunity to interview the soldier in captivity, but at the end of his article, the journalist writes, “All this was in a dream, which I woke up from, after recording this interview.”

And what does Shalit learn in al-Sawwaf’s dream interview?

“I would not be exaggerating if I said I didn’t expect the treatment to be so good. Especially after I learned in school and in the army that the Arabs are murderers and criminals and that they deserve to die,” Shalit “said” in the fabricated interview.

“But these years I have spent here have proved to me that what I learned is not true and that they are people with feelings and that they love life and give civil and humane treatment, the opposite of what is said. I would like to end my words with a cry to my people – help me live, from your son, Gilad Shalit.”

If Shalit learned all Arabs are murders and criminals I don’t expect he learned that in an IDF basic training course…although, he might think so given his present circumstances but good thing it’s all a ‘dream’. I suspect Shalit would not necessarily characterize his kidnapping which resulted in the death of two of his comrades and the injuring of three others as particularly ‘civil’ or ‘humane’. Of course, there is also the fact he is held in such isolation that the Red Cross is not allowed to visit contrary to umteen laws regarding the treatment of prisoners of war.