Doc's Talk: Yes Virginia – No. The President is Not an Honest Broker.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Yes Virginia – No. The President is Not an Honest Broker.

Ruth King

Since health care talk is all the rage in congress and the media now, let me ask you some medical questions. If your doctor prescribed medication with side effects which almost killed you several times, what would you think if he wanted you to try it again without giving any consideration to alternate therapies? Suppose you had a chronic and annoying, but curable, rash on your arm: what would you do if your doctor ordered amputation instead of therapy and asked you to consider suicide as an alternative?

Don’t answer. I know you’re not dumb, but consider the policies that President Obama and his political “death panel” are prescribing for Israel without any regard to the lethal consequences of the past. Every single time Israel has tried appeasement and concession the only response from the Arabs was terror and ratcheting up their demands. So why is this administration putting the squeeze on Israel and extracting living wills from a tired and war weary but always dependable ally?

Once, dividing Jerusalem raised hackles and opposition among Israel’s supporters, and Americans understood that an Arab/Muslim state in that tiny spit of land between the Jordan River and pre-1967 Israel was economically untenable and a potential disaster for Israel and Jordan. Grudges die hard in the Middle East and the PalArabs remember when good old King Hussein expelled and murdered thousands of them when they challenged his throne in 1973. By the way, do you think the United Nations noticed or cared? Did their Arab brothers in the Arab League express any remorse? Nah.

Follow the dots from all the previous American efforts to “broker” a peace agreement from Camp David to Oslo to the “Road Map” to the Gaza withdrawal to Obama’s recent “unyielding opposition” to Israeli towns in the West Bank and his recent speech at the United Nations.

Egypt, Israel’s ostensible “peace partner,” has flouted all its agreements with Israel and its sermons, speeches, media and schoolbooks are rife with anti-Semitic diatribes.

Oslo led to the longest, most gruesome spree of terror in Israel’s history. Markets, buses, cafes, holiday celebrations…the haunts of civilians of all ages were targeted.

When Israelis vacated Gaza, they left behind state-of-the-art farms and equipment and dwellings, all purchased for local Arabs by American Jewish philanthropists. They were looted, set on fire, destroyed and all symbols of Jewish presence and ritual were desecrated. The United Nations only noticed that there was no commerce or food and gave only minimal attention to the rain of rockets….from Gaza to civilian homes in Israel…over 755 in 2009 alone.

All these efforts were supposed to bring peace and enhance American and Israeli reputations among the Muslim people of the world. They did the opposite – or do you think, Virginia, that that orgy of hatred and burning of the American flag throughout the Muslim world elicited by the cartoons of Mohammed which started only months after Israel left Gaza, could have been avoided if only Israel had amputated itself some more? And by the way, international anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel has escalated to alarming levels in spite of all the amputations.

Nonetheless, at the United Nations President Obama evoked his “special czar for Middle East Peace” George Mitchell who will midwife a settlement based on: "security for Israelis and Palestinians, borders, refugees, and Jerusalem……Two states living side by side in peace and security – a Jewish state of Israel, with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and realizes the potential of the Palestinian people.”

Got that? Contiguous territory. That means Israel is cut in two, since that's the only way the West Bank and Gaza can be contiguous. Refugees. Read that as the Arab “right to return” and flood Israel with four generations of Arabs who learn from cradle to grave that Israel must be destroyed. Jerusalem, borders, refugees, occupation – back to the 1967 lines – all the code words are there and his Arab audience knows what they mean. He gave Israel real end-of-life counseling. No wonder he got a standing ovation.

And who is supposed to be the Arab “leader” to partner Israel’s total capitulation? Why it’s Mahmoud Abu Mazen Abbas, the president of Fatah which we are continually assured is not as mean as Hezbollah and Hamas, and ready to cut a deal with Israel. In fact, Fatah is ready to cut Israel’s throat, and its leader and president the “moderate” terrorist Abu Mazen holds the knife.

Why is Israel asked to trust a man whose college thesis published by Moscow University denies the Holocaust; a man who masterminded the Munich Massacre in 1972; whose ties with rogue regimes and international terrorist networks is documented; whose “education ministry” is mirror image of Hamas/Hezbollah anti-Semitic incitement; and who, for good measure still refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and has never renounced violence as a tactic?

Why is Israel asked to displace 300,000 people who live in the hills of the West Bank on the pretense that they are an obstacle to peace? They are indeed an obstacle…but to an Arab onslaught against Israel’s population.

Well, we are told by pundits and think tankers and legislators, and the State Department that with a two state (dis)solution of Israel swords will turn into plowshares. No, Virginia. They will turn to shovels for burial.

The Mideast is on the brink of conflagration….Iran steadily and surely obtaining nuclear arms; Lebanon is a tinderbox hostage to Hezbollah; Syria and Iraq, Iran and Libya are getting cozy with each other bonding with hatred of Israel and desire to humiliate the West; radical Islam is extending its goal of caliphate; the Taliban grows stronger and more defiant; and the sugar daddies of jihad, namely the Saudis and the Emirates, continue to fund and enable terrorism and mount their stranglehold on our economic sovereignty.

But the Obama administration fiddles while the Muslim world burns with hatred, and pits all its foreign policy muscle against Israel.

What can possibly be behind this “Fatahl” approach that ignores this reality? Why has our government gone beyond any previous administration in its antipathy to Israel?
Yoram Ettinger, and Israeli diplomat and commentator asks:

“What’s in it for the United States?

What has transformed Israel into an American liability? It is the largest U.S. aircraft carrier, which requires no U.S. personnel, which can't be sunk, which is the most battle-tested and cost effective, which is located in a most critical area for vital U.S. national security interests and which is sparing the U.S. mega-billion dollars annually and the stationing of additional real aircraft carriers in the Middle East?

Why would the U.S. Administration punish the Jewish State for fulfilling its security requirements, thus cutting off its (U.S.) nose to spite its (U.S.) face?”

The answer, I fear, lies in the President’s outreach to Muslims. Instead of seeking alternatives that will free our economy from Arab oil and blackmail, the President understands what Bat Ye’or and Moshe Sharon and Raphael Israeli and Robert Spencer and Andrew Bostom know. Islam’s price for a temporary and tenuous accommodation with the West is Israel.

And our President displaying an abysmal lack of principles and knowledge of history is willing to cut the deal.

And you Virginia……Is your love for the “Changeling” President still blind?

Editor’s note: This article was adapted from two of Ruth King’s articles of the October issue of OUTPOST magazine.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ruth S. King is a freelance writer who writes a monthly column in OUTPOST, the publication of Americans for a Safe Israel.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk