Olmert's other speech

Ma'ariv's Ben Caspit writes the speech that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should have written:

Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of
Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel.

Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims. And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are
ignoring them again now.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again.

Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility.

Must reading.

(Hat tip: An Unsealed Room)

Greetings from the bombarded north!

Ma'alot: Residents and volunteers inspect home, demolished in
Katyusha attack, Wednesday, Aug. 3. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Sorry for being away a few days: I am posting this from Rosh Pina, near Tzfat along the northern border with Lebanon, as Katyusha and IDF artillery exchange fire nonstop - the sounds of both thudding nearby. I will post as many video and audio reports, and photos as possible.

I visited residents and rabbinic leaders in Nahariya, Ma'alot, Rosh Pina, and IDF forward artillery positions in the last two days - holding one interview under fire. Hizbullah lobbed close to 200 rockets into Israel in the last 48 hours, killing one Israeli-American immigrant and wounding dozens of others.


Remnants of Katyusha rocket which hit Ma'alot earlier in the week.
Orange sticker says, "Caution. Flammable material," written in Hebrew,
indicating that the propellant was either smuggled into Lebanon
from Israel or was taken from IDF stocks. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Rockets kept falling throughout the night and into this morning.

Editing these reports down now. Please check back here later today and tonight, (depending on Internet connectivity, and how long I hold out during the fast) to see and hear the results.