(Exclusive Audio) Gaza Flotilla: Catching the Next Wave

So-called activists from Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Germany and several other countries are planning on sending waves of blockade-busting sea craft towards Gaza in coming days and weeks.

In an exclusive interview, Dave Bender speaks with an American-Israeli maritime security expert who says Israel must take a harder, clearer tack in averting a humanitarian disaster in the Hamas-led Palestinian enclave - and a possible military one on the high seas between Israel and its sworn enemies.

Listen in: http://www.davebrianbender.com

(VIDEO) Israel: 30 countries at mass-casualty, NBC drill

"Preparing for a germ warfare attack, Israel stages its largest ever drill on emergency preparedness as hundreds of emergency response experts from around the world attend a simulated biological attack on Tel Aviv."

Bombshell: Ft. Hood terrorist on White House trans. team?

Paper trail of the Fort Hood terrorist passes through - The White House transition team: "Security Priorities for the Next Administration" (original doc - pg. 29): http://www.gwumc.edu/hspi/old/PTTF_ProceedingsReport_05.19.09.pdf

(I rarely blog about politics in the United States, don't link to Atlas Shrugged, and frankly, don't particularly care for Pamela Geller's shrill blogging style or pseudo-reporting "scoops."

But this document - if valid - is a truly damning revelation about Nidal Malik Hasan, and an apparent link to President Barack Obama's White House transition team; so give credit where credit is due).

Imagine the Sandal Was on the Other Foot...

Judah is a "lion's whelp" (Gen 49:9), cautiously peering out of a balcony window of an apartment block in the northern coastal town of Nahariya. The structure sustained heavy damage during the 2006 war against Lebanon-based, Iranian-supported Hizbullah. I shot this during a subsequent katyusha rocket salvo fired into the vicinity. (Photo & copyright: Dave Bender)

Noted author and commentator Daniel Gordis, writing in The Jerusalem Post expands on the slogan: "If the Arabs put down their weapons, there would be peace; if the Israelis put down their weapons, they'd be dead:"

He was in his 20s, the young man with the question after my lecture. He couldn't have asked it more kindly or gently. Without a hint of cynicism or anger, he expressed what was clearly on the minds of many of the people his age in the crowd: "Can you justify a Jewish state," he wanted to know, "when having a Jewish state means giving up on so many of Judaism's values?"

Here's what he didn't say: Israel is the root of evil in the Middle East. It's the cause of checkpoints, of roadblocks, of a big ugly wall that runs along a border no one has agreed to. The Palestinians are desperate, and in the massive imbalance of power, they have no chance and no hope. Israel is the nuclear bully in a region that, were it not for Israel's existence, would no longer be on the front page. To achieve peace in the Middle East, Israel just needs to be subdued. Break Israel's intransigence, and we'll finally see progress.

"American Change" Dave Bender
Any connection to the presidential elections is strictly coincidental: I shot this - one of my favorites - several years ago. The elderly man is waiting for a city bus on a freezing, drizzly Friday morning in downtown Jerusalem. The red neon sign behind him is blinking on and off. He's holding fresh flowers and even fresher baked challah bread, to honor the oncoming Sabbath. Looking back on the photo several years after shooting it, for me, he's come to symbolize patience, serenity and calm hope in the face of inclement weather, the vicissitudes of time, and the roaring pace of modern life epitomized by the garish, blinking "CHANGE AMERICAN CHANGE" sign. (Photo & copyright: Dave Bender)

That was his unspoken claim, and now it's also the position of the Obama administration. At AIPAC's recent Policy Conference, Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. John Kerry made it clear that for the US to support Israel on Iran, Israel must settle the Palestinian problem once and for all. It has been widely reported that Rahm Emanuel, in an off-the-record session, said precisely the same thing.

After decades of tacit agreement that the US would remain silent about Israel's nuclear capability, a State Department official publicly suggested that Israel sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as if, on the eve of Iran's going nuclear and with Pakistani weapons in danger of falling into the hands of the Taliban, Israel's nuclear arsenal is the world's most serious concern.

A new message is afloat - Israel is the problem, and the US has had enough.


Even the pope couldn't help himself. His comments about the victims of the Holocaust were so tepid as to be outrageous, but he had no problem calling urgently for an immediate Palestinian state, as if Israelis haven't tried to create one for decades.

The young American Jews in my audience, clearly struggling with the morality of a Jewish state, now have the Obama administration and the pope echoing all their misgivings. I have no illusions that all this can be changed overnight, but with the upcoming Binyamin Netanyahu-Barack Obama meetings putting Israel into the spotlight once again, I'd like to propose the following thought experiment - at least to these young American Jews, and possibly to Obama himself.

IMAGINE THAT ISRAELIS decide that by Jerusalem Day, this coming week, they want a deal. So we take down the security fence. We remove the checkpoints. We open all the roads, and Gaza's sea and air routes. We agree publicly to return to something closely approximating the pre-1967 borders, and we accede to the demands that parts of Jerusalem be internationally governed, or even put under Palestinian control.

Does this end the conflict? Of course it doesn't.

The Hamas Charter calls not only for the destruction of Israel, but for Islamic war on Jews everywhere. (Why do we consistently refuse to believe that Hamas means what it says?) What would change? The noose would tighten. The rockets would be fired from a shorter distance and the demand for the return of refugees (thus ending the Jewishness of the state) would persist. As was the case when Israel left Lebanon in May 2000 or Gaza in the summer of 2005, Israel's enemies would smell a weakened, bloodied state and would prepare for the next stage of their war. But peace would not have come. Much as we all want this conflict to end, does anyone really doubt that? There is, as honest brokers must admit, nothing that Israel can do to end this conflict.

NOW, HOWEVER, TRY the opposite side of the thought experiment. Imagine that the Palestinians decide that they have tired of the conflict, or their electorate begins its long-overdue rebellion and insists on a settlement.

So the Palestinians, Hamas and Fatah, demand everything Israel's agreed to above - an end to roadblocks and the wall, an opening of Gaza, a bridge or a tunnel between Gaza and the West Bank and a return to the 1967 borders. Let's say that they even insist on Palestinian control of east Jerusalem. But they also recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. They agree to an immediate and permanent cessation of hostilities and violence (this is a thought experiment, after all) and insist that any other outstanding issues be negotiated and resolved with the US and the Quartet as intermediaries. And they require Israelis to vote within a month, no longer, on whether to accept the deal.

Will there be Israelis who object? Will there be residents of the West Bank who will resist leaving their homes? Yes, there will be. But would an Israeli plebiscite overwhelmingly approve the offer? Without question.

In a matter of weeks, three quarters of a century of bloodshed and suffering would come to an end. This, of course, is not going to happen, because all the new rhetoric notwithstanding, and all the confusion of today's young American Jews aside, there's always been one party that's sought peace, and another that's rejected it. It was true in 1948, and it was true in Khartoum. It's no less true today. It's never been up to us, and it's always been up to them. But this simplistic thought experiment is worth considering not because it can be implemented, but because it brings one unfortunate truth into stark focus.

Young American Jews ought to take note: Israel cannot end this conflict. It can weaken itself, but the only way it can bring peace to the region is to go out of business. If that is what the peacemakers really seek, we'll see that soon enough, with frightening clarity.

Comments and responses can be posted here.

Israel: 'A Soldier's Mother,' on Iran, and Defining 'Normal'

Click on the image for a full-sized, readable photo (Courtesy: Israel Homefront Command)

A Soldier's Mother has a painfully poignant entry about what the average Israeli must face daily, and, especially in recent days over the prospect of a missile war with Iran, and other neighboring countries and entities:

"They sent us something that is designed to be attached, hung, or using the magnet conveniently located on the back, stuck to the refrigerator door. The slogan says, “To be protected exactly in time.” (Trust me, it sounds better in Hebrew).

"The rest of the hand-out features a map of Israel in various colors. To the right of the map, the question: “How much time do we have to get to a protected area?”

"Below the question, there’s a legend, divided into two parts. The top part covers the bulk of Israel from the north Isra(bordering Lebanon and Syria), the instructions say to enter immediately. The next area, just to the south and west of these areas shows that you have 30 seconds. From there, down through the rest of the country, you have anywhere from 60 seconds to 3 minutes. To comfort those who know us personally, we are in the 3 minute zone, aren’t we lucky?"

Read the rest.

Terrorists + Israeli 'Southpark' + 'Guitar Hero' = Zany Hijinks!

NSFW (lot's 'o' cussin')


...previously on "Ahmed & Salim"

(H-T: Islam in Action)

Israeli 'Southpark' + Terrorists = Toxic Hilarity Ensues

From YnetNews:

"'Ahmed and Salim,' a provocative, humoristic animated web series created by two Israelis describes the life of two brothers whose father is an arch terrorist. Highly popular series also shocks many surfers."

After watching just one episode, "shocks," is putting it very mildly... what's more, boast the animators: "We don't care if people are offended."

Wonder if that uber-hip, devil-may-care, f-ck conventions attitude includes Israeli victims of terrorism - not to mention the animators' families and friends. Just a curmudgeonly thought from one's who's seen enough real terror, up close and personal.

Read the rest, if you have a strong stomach.

'I Occupied Your House in Gaza'

This editorial cartoon appeared in 1956 in a Swiss newspaper. Then Egyptian leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the dog in one panel, here represent "fedayun" cross-border Sinai terror attacks into Israel. Israeli David Ben Gurion, pre-state Zionist leader and Israel's first and longest-serving Prime Minister turns a repeated blind eye, until he - finally - retaliates after repeated provocations. Note the peanut gallery representing Arab and international opinion. My how things haven't changed a whit. Note my lack of surprise.

Such an image appearing in a Swiss media outlet? Now that's a surprise.
(Image H-T: Sina)
---
Yes, it's all over the intertubes. I'm posting it anyway; it needs to be read, and re-read because it's about the clearest, simplest thing out there at the moment about the conflict between Israel and Hamas - from one who's taking part in it:

An Open Letter to A citizen Of Gaza
I Am the Soldier Who Slept In Your
By: Yishai G (reserve soldier)

Hello,

While the world watches the ruins in Gaza, you return to your home which remains standing. However, I am sure that it is clear to you that someone was in your home while you were away.

I am that someone.

I spent long hours imagining how you would react when you walked into your home. How you would feel when you understood that IDF soldiers had slept on your mattresses and used your blankets to keep warm.

I knew that it would make you angry and sad and that you would feel this violation of the most intimate areas of your life by those defined as your enemies, with stinging humiliation. I am convinced that you hate me with unbridled hatred, and you do not have even the tiniest desire to hear what I have to say. At the same time, it is important for me to say the following in the hope that there is even the minutest chance that you will hear me.

Read the rest.

Israel, Hamas, Don Corleone & Blanche Dubois

In an incendiary op-ed, Jonathan Mark of the New York Jewish Week says Israel not only lost the battle with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, it abjectly surrendered, and on someone else's timetable to boot:

"This war was supposed to re-establish Israel's deterrence. That was supposed to be the lesson. Instead, the lesson is that Israel quits before the rockets do.

"Israel has established in Gaza exactly what it established in the Hezbollah war: That Israel can go three weeks and only three weeks, and then Israel looks at its watch (or at the European Union's watch) and goes home, job incomplete."

Read the rest for the Godfather and A Streetcar Named Desire references.

And as they say, "in related news:"

Gaza Doctor: Hamas Exaggerated Gaza Death Toll - 600 Killed, Mostly Fighters, Not 1,300 - Yossi Bar (Maariv-Hebrew)
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra Thursday quoted a doctor at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City saying that, despite Hamas and UN claims, most of those killed in Gaza were young men who were members of terror groups.
"The number of deaths was between 500-600...most were young men between 17 and 23 who were recruited into the ranks of Hamas, which sent them to be slaughtered," he said.
Journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi confirmed that only 600 people were killed, and not 1,300 as was widely reported, based on hospital visits and discussions with families of the victims.
"It was strange that the non-governmental organizations, including Western ones, repeated the number without checking, but the truth will come to light in the end," said the doctor.
"It's like what happened in Jenin in 2002," he said. "At the beginning they spoke of 500 dead; afterwards it was clear there were only 54 dead, at least 45 of them fighters."

---

Hamas Shot from Civilian Neighborhoods - Rod Nordland (Newsweek)
Israel blames Hamas for using housing areas, hospitals, schools and mosques to launch attacks into Israel or against its soldiers, provoking defensive counter-fire that it says is responsible for most of the civilian casualties.
Every one of the residents interviewed in eastern Jabaliya insisted that there had been no provocation from the area, no resistance fighters, and no rocket launchings.
"There aren't any tunnels around here, we are not resistance," said Najah Abd Rabo. Yet not more than 20 feet away from Najah, there was just such a tunnel, which Israeli troops had unearthed. Right in the middle of the road, it had a convincingly camouflaged roof that matched the rest of the road.
Talal Safadi, an official in the leftist Palestinian People's Party, said that Hamas fighters were firing from positions all around Al Quds Hospital in the Tal-al Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.

---

Hamas Confirms Executing Fatah Collaborators - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
PA Minister of Social Welfare Mahmoud Habbash accused Hamas on Wednesday of confiscating 63 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid while they were on their way to UNRWA in Gaza.
He also said 19 Palestinians were murdered in cold blood by Hamas during and after Israel's Gaza operation, while more than 60 others were shot in the legs.

'Our Neighbor and Why We Have to Kill Him'

Read this story, all of it. And then maybe understand what we're up against:

Our neighbor lives in the house in which our grandfather used to live. He claims he bought the first part of the house from a Turki, and later the second part from a British bank, but that doesn’t make the sale any less illegal: my family lived in that house for hundreds of years and we don’t accept the documents of sale. Now he’s living there. He is the son of monkeys and pigs.

The problem is that he’s not just brazen, he’s also strong, although he is a tiny guy.

The whole neighborhood hates him. He’s a thief and possessed by the devil. But he seems to be able to beat everyone. We tried to force him out of the house together, but it didn’t work. He has bulletproof windows, and the roof is made of inflammable material.

All we think about is him. Our own home is in ruins because all our efforts, all our money and ideas and energy are devoted solely to destroying our neighbor’s house. We’re utterly convinced that we will be perfectly happy just as soon as we’ve killed him and his house is a heap of smoking rubble. We live for one thing only: our neighbor’s demise. It’s a noble ambition for which we’re all willing to die.

Must reading.

(H-T: Treppenwitz)

'The Children's Brigade' (original music video)

Sandy Cash is a stunningly talented singer and songwriter, and a veteran mainstay of Israel's English-speaking folk music scene (and a very active scene it is, too).

Detroit-born and raised, she's also an old jamming friend, and it's wonderful to hear her clear and powerful voice after too many years.

This is the first time I can remember her tackling as horrific an issue as Palestinian child abuse - otherwise known as inculcating tots through teens to love and seek death, ideally via a suicide bombing or attack against Israelis. She writes:

"Palestinian society is raising its children on a steady diet of hate, and teaching them that the total destruction of Israel is imminent. This song is a lesson in the most intractable challenge of the 'peace process.'"

"The Children's Brigade"

This is a video that deserves to be forwarded far and wide.

Mumbai: Repaying Carnage with Kedusha

A moving tribute and call to action from R' Tzvi Freeman of Chabad:

"We're all in pain. We're all stunned. But you are asking questions you know you cannot answer. Why? How will that help anyone? What we need now is strength and courage. What we need now is to regather our forces and to rebuild.

"We knew beforehand that we are at war with an enemy. We knew that the world needs to be healed, that it oozes with a venomous darkness, and that darkness will not sit passively as we steal away its dominion. We knew that the more we fight this darkness, the harder it will fight back. We didn't fool ourselves. We decided we will fight and we will win. That is why Gavriel and Rivky went where they went. They went not as tourists, but as fearless soldiers.

Once you are at war, you don't stop to ponder all over again—can we win? Is this worth it? Maybe they're worse than we thought? That's deadly. If you would rather stay home and enjoy comfort while the rest of the world sits out in the cold, you should have decided that a long time ago. Now you are out there on the field of battle, you have already awakened the bear from its den, now there is no turning back.

They are darkness. We are light. They storm the shores with death in their eyes. We come to teach compassion and acts of beauty. They carry assault rifles and grenades. We carry candles for Friday night, a Torah of wisdom, joy and beauty.

Are we to surrender before them? Are we to stop and cry and ask, "maybe we're fighting the wrong battle"?

This Saturday night, a young couple is leaving Israel to take the place of the Gavriel and Rivky. We, all of us, will help them. The Chabad House of Mumbai had five stories. We will build a ten-story Chabad House in Mumbai, with greater light, with greater joy, with even more voices singing the Shabbat songs and children kissing the Torah scroll. We will build with a vengeance. We will fill the world with light and wisdom and the spirit of darkness in men's hearts shall forever perish. They come with their guns and their might, with a god of destruction and terror, but we come in the name of the Eternal, the source of all life and healing. They and all memory of them will vanish from the face of the earth and our lamp will burn forever.

May the Almighty G‑d hear the cry of their blood from the earth and put an end to all sorrow. May it be very soon, sooner than we can imagine.

Amen.

Iran threatens 'tens of thousands of missiles'

From The Washington Post:

Iran will strike U.S. interests around the world and Israel if attacked over its disputed nuclear program, a senior official was quoted on Thursday by the official IRNA news agency as saying.

"Nowhere would be safe for America with (Iran's) long-range missiles ... we can fire tens of thousands of missiles every day," said Mohammad Baqer Zolghadr, the deputy interior minister in security affairs.

JerusalemOnline Memorial Day update (Video - Channel 2 TV)

Today's Headlines:

Click to watch Memorial Day ceremony: Israel remembers its fallen Click to watch a Memorial Day commemoration Click to watch a tribute to those who fought and fell for Israel Click to watch the story of an Israeli peace activist killed in a terror attack.

Click on screen for more news

Seeing terrorism against civilians - from the inside out

From the very impressive site (and turn on your speakers):

The purpose of terrorism is to create victims. The goal is to murder and maim as many innocent people as possible. It is a political tool that has worldwide appeal, because it works. We have allowed it to work by not condemning and isolating those who use it. Terrorism has destroyed thousands of innocent lives in the past six years alone. Civilized people everywhere must condemn terrorism. We must speak in one voice. There is no excuse for terrorism - ever.

They represent a broad cross-section of humanity.

They are commuters on the London subway system. And on the trains in Madrid. They are celebrants at a wedding in Amman, Jordan and at a bat mitzvah in Hadera, Israel. They are little kids eating pizza; they are tourists in Bali and Egypt. They are people praying in churches and mosques and synagogues. They are celebrating the Passover Seder.

Even doctors who try to help can become victims. In September of 2003, Dr. David Applebaum, the head of the ER deparment at Shaare Zedek Medical Center was murdered along with his 20 year old daughter, Naava. They were in Café Hillel in Jerusalem.

(I wrote about this particular terror attack from a personal, painful POV here).

AIPAC LIVE/PRERECORDED COVERAGE

Go here to watch:

http://www.jerusalemonline.com/specials.asp

'Death to America! - and now for the weather...' (Al Jazeera in English)

Wonder what Dave Marash thinks of this...

Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up Jihadis

Terrorists ain't easy to love and they're harder to hold.
They'd rather give you a bomb than diamonds or gold.
Suicide bomb buckles and old faded kaffiyehs,
And each night begins a new day.
If you don't understand him, an' he don't die young,
He'll just hack your head away.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up jihadis.
Don't let 'em bomb cafes or explode them old trucks.
Let 'em be imams and mullahs and such.
Mamas don't let your babies grow up jihadis.
'Cos they'll never stay home and they're always alone.
Even with those virgins to love.

Terrorists like smokey old road bombs and clear mountain hideouts,
Little warm AK's and cell phones and hijacked flights.
Them that don't know him won't like him and them that do,
Sometimes won't know how to take him.
He ain't wrong, he's just different but Islam won't let him,
Do things to make you think he's right.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up jihadis.
Don't let 'em bomb cafes or explode them old trucks.
Let 'em be imams and mullahs and such.
Mamas don't let your babies grow up jihadis.
'Cos they'll never stay home and they're always alone.
Even with those virgins to love.

(Apologies to Willie Nelson and his original lyrics)