Thursday, March 27, 2014

Finally True Hope For Those With ALS

Hat Tip to Israel Matzav

For many years those with ALS also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, have prayed for a cure for the disease that would eventually kill them.  And now an Israeli company, BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics  has been granted a US patent for their autologous stem cell technology.
Israel-based BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics said on Monday the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company a key patent for its autologous stem cell technology.

The patent covers BrainStorm's stem cells induced to secrete elevated levels of neurotrophic factors for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Pending approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, the company is preparing for its upcoming mid-stage Phase II trial in the United States with its NurOwn adult stem cell therapy.

BrainStorm is developing NurOwn for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Separately, the company said it has signed a definitive agreement with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to conduct a Phase II clinical trial of NurOwn in ALS, pending FDA approval. The other two clinical sites slated for the trial are the University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital and Mayo Clinic.

"The recent bill introduced to the U.S. Senate to support regenerative medicine research is yet another indication of the increasing recognition that stem cells hold the promise for curing life-threatening and debilitating conditions like ALS," said Chaim Lebovits, BrainStorm's president.

"We are very encouraged by the bill's proposal to appoint a council that would develop and maintain a national strategy for the promotion of regenerative medicine research and development."

SOURCE
The following is a clip from Channel 2 in Israel about this breakthrough. It is in Hebrew with subtitles.



Click here if the video fails to load.

Stephen Hawking has ALS and is boycotting Israel.  Will he show himself to be a true hypocrite and take this treatment or will he have the fortitude to refuse this cure?  I bet it will be the first.

For other sufferers of ALS there is now true hope.  Let us hope that the final trials all go well and thousands are now cured.  How Mr. Gehrig would be jumping with joy for that.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Just Thinking



March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.
Except for this year.
The lion has eaten the lamb!

Wednesday's Hero

This post was suggested by Michael

Lt. Milton Ricketts

Lt. Milton Ricketts
28 years old from Baltimore, Maryland
USS Yorktown (CV-5)
August 5, 1913 - May 8, 1942

U.S. Navy

For extraordinary and distinguished gallantry above and beyond the call of duty as Officer-in-Charge of the Engineering Repair Party of the U.S.S. Yorktown in action against enemy Japanese forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea on 8 May 1942. During the severe bombarding of the Yorktown by enemy Japanese forces, an aerial bomb passed through and exploded directly beneath the compartment in which Lt. Ricketts' battle station was located, killing, wounding or stunning all of his men and mortally wounding him. Despite his ebbing strength, Lt. Ricketts promptly opened the valve of a near-by fireplug, partially led out the fire hose and directed a heavy stream of water into the fire before dropping dead beside the hose. His courageous action, which undoubtedly prevented the rapid spread of fire to serious proportions, and his unflinching devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.


You can read more here

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.

Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look.

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.


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Monday, March 24, 2014

How To Be A Racist

The latest rant by Pat Condell



Click here if the video fails to load.

As if you didn't know.

Islamic law is adopted by British legal chiefs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/relig...

Government intervenes at school taken over by Muslim radicals
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/relig...

Woman did not show her face at Heathrow airport
http://www.asianimage.co.uk/news/1104...

British schools where girls must wear the Islamic veil
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/...

Sharia courts "as consensual as rape"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/relig...

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Amnesty International Shields Ben White From Questions During Anti-Israel Lecture

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Algemeiner


Amnesty International hosted Ben White at a lecture Friday night, in what I assume was the UK. They also shielded White from critical questions from a Jewish member of the audience named Richard Millett. Algemeiner has the report and a video of Millett being refused his chance to ask a question (which White wouldn't have answered anyway).

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/03/23/jewish-writer-blackballed-at-amnesty-international-event-featuring-anti-israel-activist-ben-white-video/#comment-4182354

This is of course, is how White operates. When he returned to UC Irvine last November, he refused to answer my question.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2013/11/boring-ben-white-sings-same-old-song-at.html

In addition to my own comment in the Algemeiner reader thread, another reader from Venezuela made the comment that Amnesty International has been missing in action in his country under the Chavez-Maduro regime.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Dear Future Mom

Today is World Down Syndrome Day.  And here is a heartwarming message from 15 ambassadors with Down Syndrome to a future mother of a child with Down Syndrome.



Click here if the video fails to load.

Down Syndrome is not the end to a life, it is a life of challenges, but a life.  There is no reason to abort murder a child because he or she has Down Syndrome.  It is the opportunity to raise another warm, loving person.



Thursday, March 20, 2014

Theological Question


The curse can be found in Genesis 12:1-3
1.  Now the LORD said unto Abram: 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee.

2.   And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.

3.   And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Something President Barack Hussein Obama should have been told and often.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

March Madness

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Russia has just gobbled up Crimea, Syria is in flames, and a Malaysian 777 has been missing for 12 days. Yes, it's a mad month, indeed. And our president is not missing a beat. He is talking on the telephone to Angela Merkel, sending Joe Biden to "reassure" our European allies, and, as is his annual wont, predicting who will win the NCAA tournament.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/obama-s-final-four--florida--arizona--michigan-state--louisville-140435870.html

And the winner will be.....




Wednesday's Hero

This post was suggested by Sarah

U.S. Army

Yesterday marked the end of a 12-year review by the Pentagon when 24 soldiers from WWII to Vietnam, who were denied the award they earned, finally received their Medals Of Honor.

Spc. 4 Santiago J. Erevia
Staff Sgt. Melvin Morris
Sgt. 1st Class Jose Rodela
Sgt. Candelario Garcia
Spc. 4 Leonard L. Alvarado
Staff Sgt. Felix M. Conde-Falcon
Spc. 4 Ardie R. Copas
Spc. 4 Jesus S. Duran
Cpl. Joe R. Baldonado
Cpl. Victor H. Espinoza
Sgt. Eduardo C. Gomez
Pfc. Leonard M. Kravitz
Master Sgt. Juan E. Negron
Master Sgt. Mike C. Pena
Pvt. Demensio Rivera
Pvt. Miguel A. Vera
Sgt. Jack Weinstein
Private Pedro Cano
Pvt. Joe Gandara
Pfc. Salvador J. Lara
Sgt. William F. Leonard
Staff Sgt. Manuel V. Mendoza
Sgt. Alfred B. Nietzel
1st Lt. Donald K. Schwab


You can find more information here

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.

Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look.

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.


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Sunday, March 16, 2014

Kerry Frustrated At Peace Framework Between Jews And Amalekites In The Persian Empire

Stolen from Elder of Ziyon

Achashtranim News Service (ANS) SHUSHAN - Secretary of State John Kerry is preparing to return to the Persian Empire to defuse the escalating tensions between the Jews and the Amalekites in that Middle Eastern kingdom.

Secretary Kerry thought that he had a framework agreement hammered out between the two parties, including that Jews should be allowed to live "freely and peacefully in the Empire." But Parshandata, spokesman for the Amalekites, refused this condition, saying "International law is on our side."

"The King specifically passed a decree saying, and I quote, 'to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.' The UN and international laws upholds the right of kingdoms to make up their own decrees and to enforce them, This is a local Persian issue and there is no reason for Secretary Kerry to get involved."

Mordechai, a Jewish activist from Shushan, disagrees. "The Amalekites and Agagites are suggesting no less than genocide against an entire people," he said, as he led a small protest outside the King's gates wearing sackcloth and ashes in a media stunt..

Parshandata vehemently denies Mordechai's statement. "There is no such thing as a Jewish people. The idea of Jewish peoplehood is incompatible with the facts of history. They are nothing but criminals, and they have no right to live freely and peacefully."

Mordechai, the Jewish leader, continues to insist this language be included.

Aridata, an Agagite leader and head of the "Brutally Decapitate Semites" (BDS) movement, charged that the Jews were poised to take over the entire kingdom and must be utterly destroyed. While sharpening his sword, he stated, "They already illegally occupy the capital, and many other cities and villages have gathering places where they get together and scheme to dominate everyone else. I hear rumors that there is a Monica Lewinsky situation going on in the King's palace itself, and that the king is being held hostage by a Jewish woman who is blackmailing him!"

Secretary Kerry, not wanting to upset either of the parties in this delicate time for negotiations, and showing frustration that his plan could unravel without an agreement, backtracked on the "live freely and peacefully" condition. He told Congress this week that insisting on the "freely and peacefully" language would be a "mistake for some people to be, you know, raising it again and again as the critical decider." However, in a move that may upset the Amalekites, Kerry insisted that the United States does not want to see the Jews "perish" on the 13th of Adar. "We would strongly protest any mass murder, if it comes to that," Kerry said.

Amnesty International refused to take any sides in the matter. Deborah Hyams, Amnesty researcher on Middle East issues, said, "We are of course against genocide, but the Amalekites have a point when they say that Jews are not a people and killing them all would not constitute 'genocide'. Also, the language of the decree does not sanction mass murder explicitly, but only 'to cause to perish,' which may mean to allow Jews to have the human rights to kill themselves if they so choose.

"We have more important issues to deal with, such as the illegal building of Jewish homes in Judea by the minority who remain there illegally after their alleged Temple was destroyed.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

What Does Haman Say



)

Click here if video fails to load.

King says come
Queen says no
Adviser says it's time for her to go

With Vashti gone
Achashveirosh
Needs a queen to call his own
Esther is brought
Shushan's abuzz
As the king goes oo la la
But there's one sound, that no one knows:

WHAT DOES HAMAN SAY???

Second to the king-a-king-a-king!
Bling-bling-bling-bling-blinga-blinga-bl­ing!
Special signet ring-a-ring-a-ring!

WHAT HAMAN SAY???

Ba ba ba ba ba ba BOW!
Ba ba ba ba ba ba BOW!
Ba ba ba ba ba ba BOW!

WHAT HAMAN SAY???

On your, on your knees you go!
On your, on your knees you go!
On your, on your knees you go!

WHAT HAMAN SAY???

You you you you you you Jew you Jew!
You you you you you you Jew you Jew!
You you you you you you Jew you Jew!

WHAT HAMAN SAY???

Mordechai
Though he knows
Haman eyes him
He's composed

Haman's paused
He stands still
No he won't bend to his will

Haman is mad, this Jew's too bold
Time to kill him and his kind
Makes a decree, to be enforced
Kill the Jews with no remo-o-o-o-orse
But of co-o-ourse
he l-o-o-o-st

Esther knew and told a-cha-shve-ro-o-osh
He went for a stroll
Came back and behold

WHAT DOES HAMAN SAY???

Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-NO!!!
Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-NO!!!
Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-NO!!!

WHAT HAMAN SAY???

Pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-put me down!
Pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-put me down!
Pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-put me down!

WHAT HAMAN SAY???

A-hee-ahee ha-hee!
A-hee-ahee ha-hee!
A-hee-ahee ha-hee!

WHAT HAMAN SAY???

Boo-hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo!
Woo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo!

WHAT DOES HAMAN SAY???

Now Haman and his sons
Are ancient history
Hanging from his own gallows
While they hang from a tree
What is your sound?
We don't care anyway
You perished with your family
We're here to staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

Arur Haman asher
bikesh l'abdi
baruch Mordechai
(G-d sent us a wake-up. We davened and Hashem forgave us. So Haman failed to slay us.)
ha' Yehudi.
I'm a Jew
I know who
Really runs the show
(G-d is the creator)

Dressing Up



Purim starts tonight.

PURIM is here!
And Western women politicians are dressing up.
But not for Purim.
They're dressing up to please Haman.


Friday, March 14, 2014

What Huwaida Araff Didn't Tell the SDSU Audience

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Elder of Ziyon


On March 10, International Solidarity Movement co-founder Huwaida Araff spoke to an audience at San Diego State University. A description of her talk can be accessed here along with a video taken by myself.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2014/03/huwaida-araff-at-sdsu.html

As I previously described, Araff described the First and Second Intifadas launched against Israel as basically unarmed rock throwers facing off against armed soldiers with tanks and fighter planes. She only made passing reference to the suicide bombings that took place.

What she didn't talk about was this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_suicide_attacks

She didn't talk about this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Aviv_Jerusalem_bus_405_attack

That attack was attributed to Islamic Jihad.

She didn't talk about this: (Graphic)



Or this:


Sbarros Pizza attack 2001 - 15 dead 130 injured

Or this (Graphic)

The body of a man, foreground, victim of a bomb blast, and an investigator are seen amidst the debris in the dining room of a hotel in the coastal city of Netanya, north-western Israel Wednesday March 27, 2002. A suicide bomber blew himself up Wednesday in a hotel dining room in this Israeli resort as guests gathered for a passover Seder, the ritual meal ushering in the Jewish holiday. (AP Photo/Uriel Sinai) ***ISRAEL OUT*** MAGAZINES OUT Photo: URIEL SINAI

Above is what remained of the Park Hotel in Netanya during Passover 2002

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_massacre

As Jews were gathered in the Park Hotel in Netanya to celebrate Passover, Abd al-Baset Odeh walked into the hotel dressed as a woman, found a crowded area and blew himself up. Thirty people were killed and 140 injured. It was the work of Hamas, whom Araff  refers to as a "political faction". Here is how the scene was described by one of the Zaka units sent in to gather up the body parts.

"The sprinklers had burst, so there was water all over he floor, mixed with blood. In the central area, where the bomb went off, it was nearly up to our knees because there was a wall surrounding the dance floor. When we first went in, we saw fingers, hands, eyeballs, and smaller bits of flesh floating in the water like fish."
Preachers of Hate-Islam and the War on America, by Kenneth R Timmerman, Crown Forum 2003

Nor did Araff dwell on what has caused those conflicts between Israel and Gaza-namely the rocket attacks into southern Israel schoolyards launched by that well-known political faction Hamas. Just in the past couple of days, Hamas has sent more rockets into Israel. Oh, excuse me. Islamic Jihad has taken credit.

I could go on and on with more pictures of blown up buses and mangled corpses, but you get the idea. Ms Araff gave her audience of college students a one-sided account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that all but ignored the horrific acts of terror carried out by Palestinians against innocent Israeli men, women and children acting on the orders of "political factions" like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It  is all part of the dishonesty of the International Solidarity Movement, the same dishonesty that leads them to lure impressionable young Westerners to the region, indoctrinate them, train them, and put them in harm's way.

A Society Of Cowards

The latest from Pat Condell


)

Click here if the video fails to load.

We're getting what we deserve.

Censoring Jesus and Mo establishes UK sharia blasphemy code
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co...

Cowardly MP supports the extremists
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/...

Maajid Nawaz defends decision to tweet controversial cartoon
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2...

Nick Cohen on the media's submission to Islamic blasphemy code
http://nickcohen.net/2014/02/15/twent...

Who is Muhammad Shafiq?
http://hurryupharry.org/2013/12/05/wh...

Mo Ansar exposed as a fake
http://hurryupharry.org/2014/01/28/mo...

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Sacrificing America's Troops ~~~ By J. D. Longstreet

Stolen from Faultline USA



America's Next War Will Be A Blood Bath

Look. I'm no "super patriot" or anything approaching that. I do, however, have a deep and abiding love for America and at one point in my youth signed my name to the necessary papers stating that I would willingly give up my life for my country as a soldier in the United States Army.

I was a lousy soldier. In fact, I was so bad, I was chosen for Officer's Candidate School, which I promptly turned down, ticking off my commanding officer something awful and, as a result, I spent much of my time for the next several weeks working KP duty and any dirty job the CO could come up with to degrade and humiliate me.

Not a problem. I stuck to my guns and he to his. I never felt the least bit of remorse for my decision -- and -- given the same set of circumstances as then, I'd make the same decision again. However, had I known then what I know now, I'd have taken that slot at OCS school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and got my behind off Tank Hill at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

C'est la vie -- such is life.

This stroll down Longstreet's Memory Lane is brought to you courtesy of Obama's gutting of the US military.

For those of you who have been around as long as I have, you understand what is happening and what will, inevitably, happen when next we go to war. (Never think, for an instant, there will not be a "next" war. There is always, repeat -- ALWAYS -- another war. So long as human beings inhabit this planet, we're going to fight each other. Why, it's the greatest adventure a man can have and we're not about to give it up.)

Students of American history know that our Founding Fathers had an aversion to a standing army. The Founders knew that standing armies often used the power with which they had been entrusted to enslave the very peoples they had sworn to protect even though they had been organized and sworn-in precisely to protect the country from its enemies.

Eventually, reaching the decision that a country MUST, indeed, have a trained military to protect its interests, the Founders settled upon a military under strict civilian control. It has worked tolerably well, but there is a prickliness between our military leaders and the civilian politician controllers that is, at times, palpable.

It is an open secret that (until recently), by far, the US military -- from the enlisted ranks to the officer corp are of a conservative political bent. It is the nature of the beast. The political left has been attempting to destroy that bastion of conservatism, which has been a burr under their saddle for two and a half centuries.

Today they are making serious inroads into the military and the destruction of same is well within sight. By infusing the greatest fighting force the world has even known with homosexuals and female combat soldiers, the capability of the American combat arms to be effective on the battle field has been deeply compromised. We will see just how compromised when we count the body bags returning from wherever the next war is fought, if, of course, it is not fought here on our own shores (which is a growing possibility every day).

With a joke of a Commander-in-Chief (who could not successfully command a Cub Scout troop) in charge, and rules of engagement that do not allow American forces to inflict serious, lasting, damage on the enemy and subjects our fighting forces to unacceptable levels of unnecessary danger, more and more of our troops are breaking down mentally from the mounting stress of the battlefield with no way to release the pressure in a good old knock -down-drag-out, no-holds-barred, winner-take-all firefight.

That happens when you take a group of men and train them to kill in great numbers as quickly and efficiently as possible -- and then force them to take the enemies abuse in battle without exercising their superior ability to wipe the floor up with said enemy. It is depressing and degrading to our fighting forces.

Esprit de corp is all but gone. Active duty soldiers dread being outed as US soldiers for fear of being thought of as homosexuals. As a result fewer recruits are enlisting. If the job market was better, there would be even less fresh recruits signing up.

The US military which has traditionally enjoyed the love and devotion of the American civilian is finding that admiration has slipped and is continuing to decline at an alarming rate.

With the political purge of the officer corp by the Obama regime, we have lost far too many fighting generals and are left with parade ground peacocks and politician soldiers whose worst fight to date has been a traffic jam on some freeway.

Think I'm nuts, huh? Just remember: The US hasn't won a war since the Second World War! Still think I'm blowing smoke??

And now the Obama Regime intends to cut the standing Army to levels it has not experienced since BEFORE WWII.

For those of you too young to remember, after World War One we cut the US military tremendously. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the US barely had a military. We had what we are about to have again, a bare bones force of old equipment and badly trained kids for soldiers.

So. What happened? Well, for six or eight months after the US decided to officially put up a fight, our military was slammed all over the globe. We lost one battle after another. Our dead and wounded piled up because we had nothing -- and no one -- with which to fight. The will and the spirit was there, but not the wherewithal.

That was what the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo was all about. The American public and the American military had become so dispirited the Roosevelt government felt it had to do something to boost morale. Thus, the Thirty Seconds over Tokyo spectacle.

If the US is called to a conventional war with "Obama's military" we can expect to take unacceptable losses for months, maybe longer. But this is a different time, a time of Buck Rogers' weapons.

What I'm attempting to say is this: if an enemy gets in a first strike and that first strike happens to be a nuclear attack or and EMP attack, the US won't have the time or the opportunity to rebuild it's military. We will be stuck with whatever we have on hand, both men and materiel. As a former Secretary of Defense famously said: "We go to war with the army we have."

Doesn't it make sense to have a standing Army that is the biggest, best equipped, best trained, best led fighting force on earth -- I mean, seeing that there won't be a second chance to get it right?

So far, the Obama Regime has managed to alienate practically every country on earth, to one degree or another, against America. Even centuries long friends are stand-offish as a result of Obama's unpredictability.

Usually a country has AN arch enemy. America has a whole list of them -- anyone of which could deliver a debilitating attack upon our shores at any moment.

The world we live in today is a reflection of the world as it was in the 1930's -- just before it blew up.

There is Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, the Islamofascists, all of them preparing to hit America with nuclear and/or EMP attacks. All the while, Obama is cutting our military to the bone and decimating our nuclear arsenal.

I am very concerned that we have missed our chance to save America. By reelecting Obama in 2012, America chose defeat, ruin, and eventual enslavement. And there appears no chance for redemption in the coming Presidential Election in 2016.

More and more, I am coming to understand that the dye is cast, the Rubicon has been crossed. Our course has been chosen and set. I get the feeling that the train has left the station, the journey has begun and, unfortunately, we are all along for the ride.

Defeatism? No. Defeatism was in November 2012. No. This is acceptance of reality.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Forecast For Israel: Rocket Showers UPDATE



Islamic Jihad was a little peeve when Israel killed 3 of its members the other day.  So today they decided to retaliate.
Terrorists in the Gaza Strip have battered towns and villages in southern Israel with at least 50 rockets, in the largest-scale attack since the 2012 Pillar of Defense counter terrorism operation.

IDF Radio is reporting that between 50 and 55 rockets have landed in Israel so far, after initial reports put the number at closer to 25. Of those, at least five were launched at Sderot; the Iron Dome has stopped some of them from making an impact on Israeli soil, according to the latest updates.

No injuries have been reported.

The Islamic Jihad terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack, in response to IAF airstrikes in Gaza on Tuesday, which killed three Islamic Jihad terrorists. Those airstrikes were themselves a response to an attempted mortar attack on IDF forces by the terrorist squad.

"The Al-Quds Brigades responded to [Israeli] aggression with a volley of rockets," read a statement released by the Iranian-backed group.

At least of one of the communities near Gaza has reported damage from the rocket fire, according to the latest news reports, though it has not been confirmed which one.

Residents are being advised to stay in protective shelters until further updates warrant; the Israeli Police has raised the alert level throughout the Negev in response to the rocket fire.

IAF helicopters are patrolling the skies near Gaza now, as "security forces and the IDF are weighing the appropriate response," according to Walla! News.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reacted to the attack by pledging a "forceful" response against those responsible.

"This seems to be in response to our counter terrorism efforts yesterday," Netanyahu declared, according to Channel 2. "We will continue to strike those who want to harm us, we'll act against them very forcefully."

The attack comes a day after the Israeli navy revealed the contents of the Klos C weapons ship, intercepted on its way to Gaza by Israeli commandos.

Evidence seems to suggest the ship was sent by Iran, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told reporters the contents - including nearly 200 mortar shells and dozens of Iranian-made medium-range rockets - underlined how the Islamic Republic was directly aiding Gaza-based terrorists to target Israeli civilians.

The deadly cargo was reported intended primarily for Islamic Jihad.

The rocket fire also comes less than an hour after Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron addressed the Israeli Knesset, and voiced his support for ongoing peace efforts between Israel and the PA.

SOURCE
Poor Islamic Jihad.  First they lose their cargo from Iran, then 3 of their members will killed.  And they think that by firing rockets will stop the Israelis?  No what this does is to destroy the so-called truce between Israel and Gaza.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has already vowed to "Move Forcefully" against rocket fire.  I suggest that he does more.  That he finally takes out all of Hamas and Islamic Jihad once and for all time.

UPDATE:

The amount of rockets fired is now over 100.  These rockets are being fired from civilian areas, normally schools, hospitals and homes.

If the Arabs want a war, they are going about the right way to start one!

Wednesday's Hero

This post was suggested by Michael

Cmdr. Ernest Edwin Evans

Cmdr. Ernest Edwin Evans
36 years old from Pawnee, Oklahoma
Commanding Officer USS Johnson (DD 557)
August 13, 1908 - October 25, 1944

U.S. Navy

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Johnston in action against major units of the enemy Japanese fleet during the battle off Samar on 25 October 1944. The first to lay a smokescreen and to open fire as an enemy task force, vastly superior in number, firepower and armor, rapidly approached. Comdr. Evans gallantly diverted the powerful blasts of hostile guns from the lightly armed and armored carriers under his protection, launching the first torpedo attack when the Johnston came under straddling Japanese shellfire. Undaunted by damage sustained under the terrific volume of fire, he unhesitatingly joined others of his group to provide fire support during subsequent torpedo attacks against the Japanese and, out shooting and outmaneuvering the enemy as he consistently interposed his vessel between the hostile fleet units and our carriers despite the crippling loss of engine power and communications with steering aft, shifted command to the fantail, shouted steering orders through an open hatch to men turning the rudder by hand and battled furiously until the Johnston, burning and shuddering from a mortal blow, lay dead in the water after 3 hours of fierce combat. Seriously wounded early in the engagement, Comdr. Evans, by his indomitable courage and brilliant professional skill, aided materially in turning back the enemy during a critical phase of the action. His valiant fighting spirit throughout this historic battle will venture as an inspiration to all who served with him.


You can read more about Commander Evans here and here

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.

Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look.

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.


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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Huwaida Araff at SDSU

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Discover the Networks


Huwaida Arraf, departure of Spirit of Humanity.jpg



Last night, International Solidarity Movement co-founder Huwaida Araff spoke at San Diego State University as part of a program hosted by the Charles W Hostler Institute on World Affairs. The moderator was Professor Jonathan Graubart of the above organization. The event was attended by above 70 people almost all students, many of whom were Graubart's students were attending as part of a class assignment. Also present was Adam Shapiro, Araff's husband and also co-founder of ISM. In his introduction, Graubart said, "it was regrettable that a few outside groups had made some ungenerous comments about the lecture series and myself". The event lasted about two hours.

In her presentation, Araff told of her birth and upbringing in America (Her parents were Palestinians from Israel), her education, and her travel to Jerusalem, where she was to remain for a year working for an organization called Seeds of Peace.  She became a Palestinian activist working against Israeli "occupation" and stayed beyond the year after resigning from the above organization. She recounted the First Intifada (1991-93), the Second Intifada that began in 2000 when Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount, and the creation of the International Solidarity Movement. (I may have missed it, but in her presentation-in-chief, I don't recall hearing her actually refer to the ISM by name.)

She then went on to describe efforts to bring in "internationals" to participate in protests against roadblocks and checkpoints etc. She stated that it was their reasoning that Israeli soldiers would be reluctant to use force against people who did not look like Palestinians.

Needless to say, her talk was long on Israeli injustices and violence on Palestinians and short on any Palestinian transgressions over the years including hijackings, the Munich Olympic massacre, bus bombings,  other suicide bombings, or rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel. The Intifadas, which she experienced, was basically characterized as resistance and rock-throwing against Israeli tanks and bullets. Rachel Corrie's death (2003) was also mentioned. (According to Araff's account, Corrie was trying to convince the bulldozer driver not to demolish a house and the driver ran over her). She also referred to Yasser Arafat as "Chairman Yasser Arafat" in obvious respect.

In the q and a, I got the first question (beginning of part 4) and asked her about her reported comment to a  Duke University audience (2004) that the ISM cooperated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which are State Department-recognized terrorist organizations. I also asked her to comment on the reports that two British suicide bombers who attacked Mike's Bar in Tel Aviv in 2003 had stayed at an ISM facility prior to crossing over into Israel.

(Note: I am paraphrasing Araff's response. Refer to video for her exact words.)

In her response, she said that what she told the Duke audience was that while ISM's tactics were non-violent, she could not tell others not to employ armed resistance. She said that she considered attacks against unarmed civilians as illegal, but that there were rules of war that governed resistance to armed occupation. She said ISM would not reject someone joining them because they had connections to those organizations, but that she would explain that ISM rules dictated non-violent actions. She did not address my question about the above three organizations. As for the event at Mike's Bar, she said that when she received the news, she decided to call a press conference and inform the press that the two had been at an ISM facility. According to Araff, the two had shown up in Gaza and asked to visit. She said they came by the ISM house, had tea and left. According to Araff, the ISM had no idea of their intent to launch an attack. In a  followup question, I asked her pointedly if ISM had any connections to Hamas. She replied in the negative ("No".) She explained that ISM preferred to be independent and not be a part of any "political factions" because if they were aligned with one group, another group might not want to work with them as a result. (Again I am paraphrasing.) Interestingly, she never said anything close to, "We would never associate with Hamas because they are terrorists or  designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department.") There was absolutely nothing critical said about Hamas. She referred to Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for Palestine merely as "political factions".

Below is the video in 5 parts. At one point, there is about a 20-second gap when I had to change the memory card in my video camera.




Part 1





Part 2

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Part 3




Part 4

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Part 5

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Monday, March 10, 2014

Obama’s Betrayal Of Israel As A Jewish State



When I first heard this I wasn't shocked at all.  I knew that this was Barack Hussein Obama's plan from the moment he became President.
From Frontpage Magazine:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has flatly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Such recognition is a key condition that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded for reaching an acceptable peace agreement on a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Netanyahu explained the importance of such Palestinian recognition, which would amount to an expression of the Palestinians’ good faith intention to truly end the conflict by accepting Israel’s right of self-determination to once and for all live in peace as the Jewish state its founders envisioned:
“The central question at the end is of course ‘Are you willing to recognize that the state of Israel is the nation state of the Jewish nation?’. If you don’t have the brunt of the agreement, then why turn to the leftovers. Concentrate on the central and difficult questions that they need to provide an answer for, but they don’t provide an answer. If they do give an answer — its negative. They say that they will not recognize a Jewish state in order to leave the right of return on the table. So then what are we even talking about here? That a Palestinian state will be established but it will continue its conflict against the state of Israel with more preferential borders? We are a lot of things, but we are definitely not fools.”
Incredibly, the U.S. State Department backs Abbas’ position. The spokeswoman for the State Department, Jen Psaki, stated in an interview Saturday with the “Al-Quds” newspaper that[T]here is no need for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The American stance is clear in that it recognizes Israel as a Jewish state, but there is no need for the Palestinians to recognize it as such in a final agreement.”

Psaki is ignoring the Palestinians’ intent to throw out any Israelis still living in an independent Palestinian state. Abbas, for example, declared that “If we want an independent state, I will not accept any single Israeli in our territories.” He denied that he was against the Jews per se, but such antipathy is precisely what animates the xenophobic, anti-Jewish Palestinian ideology. This ideology starts with the Palestinian Authority’s attempt to falsely re-write the history of the Jewish homeland, denying that Jews have any historic connection to the land at all. Official Palestinian Authority outlets broadcast this lie over and over again. For example, in a documentary appearing last December on an official Palestinian Authority TV station, a woman proclaimed: “I’m not against Jews. They can live. They can live on Mars, Allah willing, but they cannot take over places that are not their places, or land that is not their land and a homeland that is not their homeland.”

On January 7, 2014, the official spokesperson for President Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeina, accused the Israeli government of “falsifying history.”

Then there is the provocative statement by Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash in a sermon delivered in the presence of Abbas and broadcast on official Palestinian Authority TV. Al-Habbash said that any peace agreement reached with Israel is just the first step towards defeating Israel, citing as the “model” Mohammed’s conquest of Mecca just two years after he had signed a treaty that gave his forces time to gain enough strength to carry out the conquest.

Recognizing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state would be contrary to the Palestinians’ goal of returning millions of the descendants of the original refugees to pre-1967 Israel. In other words, while insisting that Israel withdraw to the pre-1967 lines to make way for an independent Palestinian state devoid of any Israeli Jews, the Palestinians still demand the right to undermine the Jewish character of Israel, even as it existed pre-1967, by flooding Israel with so-called “refugees” (actually many descendants several generations removed from the original refugees) rather than giving them real homes in an independent Palestinian state.

Thus, Psaki’s dismissal of the importance that Israel attaches to the Palestinians’ recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, as part of any viable peace agreement, enables the Palestinians to continue to pursue their xenophobic, anti-Jewish agenda. However, Psaki is simply reflecting the Obama administration’s willingness to turn a blind eye to Israel’s core concern to maintain its Jewish identity. The Obama administration is willing to bend over backwards to accommodate Palestinian prejudices in pursuit of a vacuous peace. President Obama displayed this callousness during the course of an interview he conducted late last month with Jeffrey Goldberg, a columnist for Bloomberg View. Obama issued a veiled threat of diminished U.S. support for the Jewish state if Israel does not succumb to his demand for more concessions: “If you see no peace deal and continued aggressive settlement construction — and we have seen more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time,” Obama said. “If Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited.”

Obama made no mention of the Palestinian demand for the “right of return,” which could allow potentially millions of refugee descendants to descend on a land they did not come from in the first place. Why doesn’t he publicly upbraid Abbas for refusing to concede on this unreasonable destabilizing demand?

This brings us back to the issue of the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state as part of a final peace agreement. Perhaps there is an alternative solution which might be difficult for the Palestinians to refuse. They should at least be willing to explicitly acknowledge in the final agreement their support of the two-state principle declared in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 recommending the partition of Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states. The Palestinian Authority would have a hard time refusing this proposal since the General Assembly resolution according it observer state status at the UN contains in its preamble the words “The General Assembly…Recalling its resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947.”

Moreover, the Application of the State of Palestine for admission to membership in the United Nations, which the Palestinians submitted to the UN Secretary General on September 23, 2011, states as follows:
“This application for membership is being submitted based on the Palestinian people’s natural, legal and historic rights and based on United Nations General Assembly resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947…”
Part II of Resolution 181 contains Section A, entitled “THE ARAB STATE,” and Section B, entitled “THE JEWISH STATE.” Why can’t Abbas at least be willing to repeat these headings in an acknowledgment of the rights accorded both sides in the two-state solution embodied in Resolution 181, the resolution he now relies on as a basis for an independent Palestinian state?

Finally, President Abbas himself said he realized that it was a mistake for the Arab states to have rejected the General Assembly Resolution 181 partition plan. In an interview in 2011 with the Israeli Channel Two, President Abbas said: “At that time, 1947, there was Resolution 181, the partition plan, Palestine and Israel. Israel existed. Palestine diminished. Why? […] I know, I know. It was our mistake. It was our mistake. It was an Arab mistake as a whole.”

What the Obama administration should be telling President Abbas in no uncertain terms is to correct the Palestinians’ historic mistake once and for all by explicitly embracing the principle of a Jewish state and an Arab state living side by side, as outlined in Resolution 181. It is time to call Abbas’ bluff rather than having the State Department run interference for him.



Click here if video fails to load.
I contend that the destruction of Israel and the scattering/murder of the Jewish people is and has always been the plan that Obama and the Democrats have had.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Music For A Sunday Morning

Dancing In Jerusalem


Click here if video fails to load.

Lyrics:

"God will fulfill your heart's desire
Take you to the place you want to go"
Keep dreaming of the land of your history
And you're walking the streets before you know

On wings of eagles they took to the sky
Not sure how this magic carpet would fly
Then cries of joy at the first Shalom
50,000 Yemenites coming home

My heart is dancing in Jerusalem

Next came Ezra and Nechemia
Redeeming our brothers of Babylon
2000 years in the shuq of Bagdad
Soon every last soul would come along

Though it seemed impossible to achieve
Morocco's Jews were the next to leave
They're a pillar of the temple of Solomon
Hear the sound of French ringing through Zion

My heart is dancing in Jerusalem
Soon we'll be dancing in Jerusalem
The whole world dancing in Jerusalem

V'lirushalayim ir'cha
B'rachamim tashuv
V'tishkon b'tocha
Ka'asher dibarta

Beta Israel watched in awe
From the tribe of Dan in Ethiopia
Slipping through the border of the Sudan
They crossed the desert to reach their land

We marched for the rights of refusnikim
To help them realize their aliyah dream
After 70 years of a living hell
See the celebration when that curtain fell

My heart is dancing in Jerusalem
Soon we'll be dancing in Jerusalem
The whole world dancing in Jerusalem
Your heart is dancing in Jerusalem
Time to come home to Jerusalem


Verse 1 depicts aliyah from Yemen, verse 2 from Iraq and Morocco, verse 3 Ethiopia and the former USSR.
"And to Jerusalem, Your city, may You return in compassion, and may You rest within it, as you have spoken."
--Liturgy

Saturday, March 8, 2014

REMEMBER!!!

Daylight Savings Times starts tomorrow at 2 AM.  Don't forget to bring your clocks forward one hour.



We will lose an hour of sleep, so go to bed an hour earlier.  But be of good heart.  We get the hour back in the fall.

Amazon.com Donating to MPAC

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip to Steve and Investigative Project on Terrorism

Amazon.com  announcing that it is donating a portion of its proceeds to the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

http://smile.amazon.com/ch/95-4675391

This means that I will no longer purchase any books or anything else through Amazon.com.

Abbas Sentenced Hundreds Of Syrian Palestinians To Death In 2013 (poster)

Hat tip to Elder of Zyion

Ma'an reports on a brand new Palestinian Arab lie:
Fatah central committee member Mohammad Ishtayyeh said on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority had attempted to negotiate the return of Palestinian refugees from Syria, but Israel had refused.

Ishtayyeh said in a meeting with diplomats organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Ramallah that the PA had tried with all its might to "end the suffering" of Palestinians in Syria through international mediation.

Israeli officials, however, had refused to allow them to come to the Palestinian territories.
What really happened, from AP, January 10, 2013:
The Palestinian president said he has rejected a conditional Israeli offer to let Palestinian refugees in war-torn Syria resettle in the West Bank and Gaza, charging it would compromise their claims to return to lost homes in Israel.

Abbas said he asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon last month to seek Israeli permission to bring Palestinians caught in Syria's civil war to the Palestinian territories. The request came after fighting between Syrian troops and rebel fighters in Yarmouk, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. About half of the camp's 150,000 residents have fled, according to a U.N. aid agency.

Abbas told a group of Egyptian journalists in Cairo late Wednesday that Ban contacted Israel on his behalf.

Abbas said Ban was told Israel "agreed to the return of those refugees to Gaza and the West Bank, but on condition that each refugee ... sign a statement that he doesn't have the right of return (to Israel)."

"So we rejected that and said it's better they die in Syria than give up their right of return," Abbas told the group. Some of his comments were published Thursday by the Palestinian news website Sama.
Hundreds of Syrian Palestinians have died since then. And it is all because Abbas didn't even give them the choice to live. His "principles" are more important than their lives.

Even as Palestinian Arabs continue to die in Syria, no one is pressuring Abbas to reverse his death sentence. The UN is silent. NGO's are silent. World leaders continue to treat Abbas with respect. Newspaper editorials gush how "moderate" he is.

And Syrian Palestinians continue to die, every day, directly because of a decision Abbas made more than a year ago.

Every single "pro-Palestinian" activist should be asked in every venue they speak if they agree with Abbas. Amnesty International and Oxfam and Human Rights Watch should be asked whether they agree that Syrian Arabs are better off dead than given the even the choice to live.

The Heinrich Boll Foundation, which heard this new Palestinian Arab slander against Israel, should be told the truth.

Shouldn't everyone?


Friday, March 7, 2014

Edinburg Votes to Join Texas, Accelerating Mexico Crisis

Stolen from Gates of Vienna

An amusing take on the Crimean crises.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The latest on the Mexican crisis, from Reuters:
EDINBURG, Mexico (Reuters) March 6, 2022 — Edinburg’s legislature voted to join Texas on Thursday and its Washington-backed government set a referendum within 10 days on the decision in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over Tamaulipas state in Mexico.

The Edinburg region of Texas — which was ceded to Mexico in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama to satisfy domestic political pressures — consists on the former counties of Webb, Zapata, Jim Hogg, Starr, Hidalgo, Willacy, and Cameron. The region is now part of Tamaulipas state.

The sudden acceleration of moves to bring Edinburg, which has an Anglo majority and has effectively been seized by Texan forces, formally under Austin’s rule came as UN leaders gathered for an emergency summit to find ways to pressure Texas to back down.

Russian President Vladimir Putin took steps to punish those involved in threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Mexico, ordering the freezing of their Russian assets and a ban on travel into Russia.

The Russian Navy announced a guided-missile destroyer, the Archangel, was heading to the Gulf of Mexico in what it said was a long-planned training exercise and not a show of force.

The Edinburger legislature voted unanimously “to enter into the Republic of Texas with the rights of a citizen of the Republic of Texas”.

The vice-governor of Edinburg, home to Texas’ Gulf of Mexico military base in Port Isabel, said a referendum on the status would take place on March 16. He said all state property would be “nationalized”, the U.S. dollar could be adopted and Mexican troops would be treated as occupiers and be forced to surrender or leave.

The announcement, which diplomats said could not have been made without U.S. President Rand Paul’s approval, raised the stakes in the most serious east-west confrontation since the beginning of the Great Collapse.

U.S. stocks fell and the dollar weakened further after the news. Moody’s ratings agency said the stand-off was negative for Texas’ creditworthiness.

Texas said it would make it easier to give passports to native English speakers who have lived in Texas or the United States. Paul has cited the threat to American citizens to justify military action in the Caribbean in 2019 and now in Mexico.
Far from seeking a diplomatic way out of the crisis, Paul appears to have chosen to create facts on the ground before the East can agree on
more than token action against him.

UN leaders had been set to warn but not sanction the U.S. over its military intervention after Washington rebuffed Eastern diplomatic efforts to persuade it to pull forces in Edinburg, with a population of about 2 million, back to their bases. It was not immediately clear what impact the Edinburger moves would have.

French President Dominique Strauss-Kahn told reporters on arrival at the summit: “There will be the strongest possible pressure on Texas to begin lowering the tension and in the pressure there is, of course, eventual recourse to sanctions.”

A Edinburger legislature official said voters will be asked two questions: should Edinburg be part of the Republic of Texas, and should Edinburg return to an earlier constitution (2017) that gave the region more autonomy?

“If there weren’t constant threats from the current illegal Mexican authorities, maybe we would have taken a different path,” deputy legislature speaker Donald McTeague told reporters outside the legislature building in Edinburg’s main city, also named Edinburg.

“I think there was an annexation of Edinburg by Mexico, if we are going to call things by their name. Because of this mood and feeling we took the decision to join Texas. I think we will feel much more comfortable there.”
To provide some perspective on the Ukraine crisis, the imaginary article above was created by modifying this Reuters story (which has already been altered by Reuters via several updates since I downloaded it).
The Crimea was a part of the Russian state from 1783 — when Catherine the Great wrested it from the Ottomans — until 1954, when Nikita Khrushchev assigned it to the Ukrainian S.S.R. for internal Soviet political reasons.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Israel And The Rest of the World


By Dennis MacEoin

Everybody hates Israel. That is not just accepted wisdom, it is a reality that chokes all rational debate on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. There are exceptions, of course, such as Canada, but most of Western Europe has slipped from support for Israel to support for the Palestinian cause, as if both sides might not have valid claims to the disputed land.

Most Americans are enthusiastic about Israel, but the U.S. government under Barack Obama, has, in recent years, shown increasing antagonism. Unsurprisingly, not a single Muslim nation likes Israel at all.

Many hate the Jewish state precisely because it is a Jewish state -- there seems no other reason why they might hate it. Many, in a display of true prejudice, have never even visited it.

In the world in general, and Europe in particular, anti-Semitism is growing at a rate not unlike the 1930s. It does not take much mental grip to see the link between that escalation of the "oldest hatred" and the refined political and religious rejection of Israel as the one and only state in the world that deserves to be abolished. Or, as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once put it in Farsi, "exterminated" (Umam-e Eslami bayad Isra'il-ra qal' o qam' kard: The nations of Islam must exterminate Israel.)

In a Friday sermon, former Iranian President Rafsanjani also made the statement, "If one day, a very important day of course, the Islamic world will also be equipped with the weapons available to Israel now, the imperialist strategy will reach an impasse, because the employment of even one atomic bomb inside Israel will wipe it off the face of the earth, but would only do damage to the Islamic world."[1]

While the world focuses on Israel's flaws (often imaginary), in Saudi Arabia there are special roads for non-Muslims to ensure they cannot enter Mecca or Medina.


But then, one might surely ask, if everyone hates Israel, will it make the slightest difference if it actually is wiped off the face of the earth? Will it matter if another six million Jews are gassed or driven into the Mediterranean? If most of the people on the planet hate Israel and want to see a massive Palestinian state take its place, then who will weep if the Jews go and the Arabs come and take over, as so many people now say they have every right to do? Would it not be a blow for humanity, justice and people everywhere if the oppressive, violent, and apartheid Jewish state were to be removed from the earth?

Are you starting to feel a bit uneasy about this?

Some might hold back from wishing death on the Jews, but would not hesitate if someone else were to kill them. Or force them to pack their bags and leave their homes to make room for an army of Palestinian "refugees." If you hate Jews enough, nothing may seem too bad for them, and no history of pogroms and the Holocaust will be enough to dissuade you and your friends from doing it all over again, or rejoicing that someone else is doing it for you.

The treatment—or rather, mistreatment—of the Jews stands out in the modern era as the single greatest emblem of man's inhumanity to man. From the Christian (and post-Christian) West to the Islamic East, hatred of Jews has led to unfettered cruelty, and a continuing refusal to accept any form of moral or ethical constraint. However much Jews suffer, anti-Semites want them to suffer more. However far Jews might try to run, their self-appointed overlords will try to hunt them down and start the process of hate and persecution all over again. However much Jews contribute to human civilization, win Nobel prizes, develop cures for illness, create remarkable films, set up hospital units worldwide to treat the sick, irrigate the fields of the poorest farmers and change our lives for the better — the haters sneer and lie and kill Jews with the same knives; and every time a Jew is killed or wounded, dance on the same floors.

And what have the Jews ever done to deserve any of this? Are the Jews really the masterminds behind every war, every revolution, every economic disaster, every plot, even the Holocaust itself? Yes, according to anti-Semites, either the Holocaust never happened and was made up to secure Israel as a country for the Jews; or else the Jews instigated it to force other Jews to flee Europe to Mandatory Palestine, to take it over. Just read a few comments on YouTube as a measuring stick for this mental illness.

Of course, I know the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion says all this (apart from the Holocaust slurs), but the Protocols is a forgery;[2] and not just a forgery, but a cheap and shoddy product of the Tsarist secret police before World War I. Even though it is now more than a century later, some people still treat this libel as Gospel, and write comments on YouTube to prove that the Jews are the worst of mankind.

In Arab countries, after many years, the Protocols is still a bestseller. And Hitler's Mein Kampf, tagged in 2011 by Waterstone's in the UK as the "perfect Christmas present", in its electronic form is selling hand-over-fist. How hurtful -- and deeply unjust -- that is to Jews who have just made critical advances in medicine or saved a Palestinian child's life when operating in an Israeli hospital, or journeyed to Africa to teach better methods of farming, or traveled with an Israeli aid team to Haiti or the Philippines to save yet more lives.

The Jews are not the worst of mankind; they are like the rest of us, some bad, some good, and some so talented they have left indelible marks on every field of human endeavor. They have always been an underappreciated force, above all in the realm of ethics. No religion has developed in so well-structured a fashion as Judaism; its impact on Christian and Islamic ethics is well attested. Without the Jews, a major force for good and a barometer for moral concern would be taken from civilization entirely -- or is moral concern something the world would secretly rather do without?

The irony is that it is precisely these prejudiced, conniving, and racist haters of Jews -- including those who envisage the destruction of the one and only Jewish state and those who conjure up a realistic threat of a second Holocaust -- who have the arrogance to treat the Jews, including the Israelis, as if they are the most prejudiced, the most conniving, the most racist of all mankind -- and the most immoral -- and, of course, deeply inferior to Christians or Muslims.

The false piety of much Christian condemnation of Israel is matched only by the cheap moralizing of the followers of Islam in their attacks, both physical and verbal, on the Jewish state; or their failure to recognize that Jerusalem was always a Jewish city; that there were two Jewish temples there; and especially in the obsessive Palestinian refusal to recognize any part of Israel as a Jewish entity, or to make peace with Israel, or even to acknowledge that there has been a continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land for three thousand years.

The loss of Israel -- engineered as it would be by a coalition of "progressive" Muslims and Western secularists, along with anti-Semitic Christians and hard-line Islamists -- would not be a victory for any of the values we hold dear. On the contrary, it would be one of the greatest disasters to befall mankind. The values we consider highest – such as peacemaking, neighborliness, cooperation, caring for the less fortunate, for those of different religions, ethnicity, and mutual defence against aggression – would start to crumble, and our sense of human progress would weaken and lose its hold on our minds and hearts. If we could do that to the Jews, a people of great deserving, who have done so much for us, what might we then do to others? For even if the Jews were gone, there would still be other, weaker people for us to persecute and eliminate.

Does such a prognosis seem inflated, even barely respectable? Israel, however, did not emerge in the way most other countries have done, as an expression of traditional boundaries, a containment of one or more specific languages, a repository of a single culture, a place determined by one king, one dominant holy man, or one parliament, or one body of laws. Of course, Israel has had several of those things, beginning with the establishment, on that same plot of land, of the oldest set of laws after Hammurabi: the Ten Commandments and the earliest set of social welfare laws.

Modern Israel had the original acclamation of much of the international community; it set up a democratic parliament, established a set of basic laws, and, when other nations let boatloads of refugees sink at sea, served the Jews as the only sanctuary, free from a persecution which still exists to this day, and, sadly, which is once again being orchestrated by people supposedly educated enough to know better.

For civilization — any civilization — to work, there must be a core set of values that crosses from one culture to another, acquiring on the way a sort of universal validity. Small differences may exist between one country and another, one language and another, and even one religion and another. With few exceptions, people who belong to Western civilization believe that it is absolutely wrong to take a human life (except in life-or-death cases or self-defense). We strongly believe in human rights even if we are not always observant of them. In general, Western countries advocate and legislate for equality between men and women, equal justice under law, an independent judiciary, and freedom of and from belief. We attempt to expunge racism in its various forms from our streets and businesses. We defend minorities, religious, political or gender-based. And free speech, we defend that too, even when it hurts us to do so.

Islamic civilization holds often starkly different values. A man's or woman's life may be taken, often by beheading or stoning, for a wide range of "sins," from heresy (really, free thinking; there, called blasphemy) to adultery to apostasy (more free thinking). A Muslim also may not be punished for killing a non-Muslim, or even another Muslim if his intent is to further the cause of Islam. Although not Islamic in any true sense, female genital mutilation and honor killings are far from uncommon. They happen in the UK and the US, mainly within Muslim communities – as well as in Muslim countries.

Perhaps Islamic civilization would find the disappearance of the Jewish state a satisfactory gift. But Western civilization might not wear this too well, except for that part occupied by those who consider themselves as members of the far left -- Stalinists, Trotskyites, anarchists and anti-Semitic Christians who believe they do the will of God, and even Quisling Jews -- when they curse Jews and boycott Israel.

When the Nazis took power, Germany seemed to be one of the most civilized countries in the world, with a rich culture, a deep grasp of academic achievement, and a growing mastery of science and technology. Within a few years, the country had been reduced to the status of the most barbaric of countries, the most abusive of human rights, perhaps the most savage political entity in history. And not many years later, Germany was in ruins, destroyed by the very totalitarianism it had used to impose itself on the rest of Europe.

Across the world, people came to condemn the great wrongs Germans had done to mankind. Germans rebuilt their nation only by rigorously excluding that tendency to totalitarianism. Yet today, young Germans march against Israel and, in fighting Israel, fight the Jews. What conceivable right do the scions of that black period and the years of wiedergutmachen [compensation] have to treat Jews as untermenschen [subhuman] once again, to march in the streets where the SS marched, to bellow as their grandfathers bellowed, Juden Raus, "Jews out" -- out of "Palestine," out of the Middle East, out of everyplace.

Whatever its detractors may say, Israel declares loudly that it is a country where the best Western values are honored, where democracy, the rule of law, the creation of new laws through an elected parliament, the fair treatment of all minorities, rights for women, for gays, for all citizens, Jews and non-Jews alike, are demanded. But say it is also a Jewish country based on Jewish ethics, and someone of limited intellect will come along clutching a copy of the Torah, the Talmud, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or anything else they can lay their hands on, and declaiming that they can prove Judaism is a bloodthirsty religion that has always worked to defeat and mistreat non-Jews. In the past years, I have only known a violent and angry Islam; yet the world is silent. The world excuses Islamic murder, but focuses on flaws, often imaginary, on the part of Israel.

The very establishment of a Jewish state stood for more than even its founders guessed. It was open defiance of the universal impulse to persecute and kill Jews.

Only in their Holy Land could the Jews weave their own destinies at last -- and do. Israel thrives. They have won Nobel prizes and made some of the greatest advances in science, technology, and medicine. Israelis create world-class hospitals and universities. They have written more scientific papers per capita than any other nation, and have saved children's lives – Palestinian children's lives – in a dozen operating theaters, and sent aid teams around the world to save yet more lives. Israeli "apartheid"? Far from it. All facilities and opportunities are equally open to all Israelis: Black, White, Arab, Christian, Jew -- everyone. Far more than in say, Saudi Arabia, where there are special roads for non-Muslims to ensure they cannot enter Mecca or Medina, or where a Bible is not even allowed in the country. Or all the mosques where every Friday congregants are told that Jews are the sons of pigs and apes. It would seem that is racism; that is apartheid.

What the destroyers of Israel would do is negate every one of Israel's achievements and more, and leave a hole in the world, in their own world. What, after all, would take the place of Israel? Another failed state, riven by strife, characterized by failure, poverty-stricken, dependent, just another victim of the authoritarian Arab way of governing? Is that something that will set civilization towards new horizons? It is up to us to keep the lights on, to place civilization against barbarism, to put our minds and bodies between Israel and all who mean her ill.

[1] "Iran Calls for the Destruction of Israel," Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Center for Special Studies, Special Information Bulletin, November 2003, citing Khabar TV, December 14, 2000. Cited in Joshua Teitelbaum, What Iranian Leaders Really Say About Doing Away with Israel, Jerusalem Center for Pubic Affairs.
[2] See David Aaronovitch, Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History, London, Jonathan Cape, 2009, pp. 22-48.