Here's the part that links to my grandfather's father and mother. My grandfather's name is Simon.
Simon was the only one not deported to a death camp.
Of all those who were deported, one came back. He had no children.
My grandfather's siblings had a total of eight children between them.
They were all murdered by Germans and Poles. Babies, toddlers, teens and their parents. At Auschwitz, Sobibor, Mauthausen.
Almost all of Europe conspired to rid itself of its Jews. My family was part of 6.000.000 Jews murdered. My grandfather is the only one who survived to have children and grandchildren.
Now three hundred million Arabs, supplemented by hundreds of millions of other Muslims clamour daily for Jew blood. And have been doing so for more than half a century.
There's a reason Israel exists. There's a need.
I wish there WAS a God, who would remind Ariel Sharon of this need. But then, if there was a God, He let the Shoah happen. And his name must indeed be Allah.
Israel has given the American administration commitments that it will not build between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, and that the contested project has been put on hold indefinitely, Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday.
The comments were the first public confirmation by a top government official that Israel has frozen the controversial building plans in the wake of American pressure.
Why? What's the US stake in this? What does it cost them if Israel builds wherever it wants?
Hundreds, possibly thousands have died in the US as a result of hurricane Katrina. Damage is running in the billions, and at present, people are struggling just to survive.
Even China is sincerely sympathetic.
But in Kuwait, which would now be just another province of Iraq if the US hadn't come to its rescue when Saddam attacked and occupied it in 1990, Arabs have a different take on things:
But how strange it is that after all the tremendous American achievements for the sake of humanity, these mighty winds come and evilly rip [America's] cities to shreds? Have the storms have joined the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization?
Note the attempt at sarcasm?
Elsewhere in the article, this "high-ranking Kuwaiti official, Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi, director of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Endowment's research center" assures us this is not schadenfreude.
I feel so much better now.
When Saddam attacked Kuwait, he met no resistance. These Arabs have a disgusting mindset, but we're lucky they don't have the guts to act it out. They are faithlessness incarnate. Thanks to MEMRI, every bit of filth that comes out of their mouth gets translated. And we no longer have an excuse for ignorance on the true character of the 21st century Arab.
Today one year ago, Muslim terrorists from Chechnya committed what is probably the worst massacre of its type in history, in the North-Ossetian town of Beslan. The reported number of deaths varies, but is thought to be at least 344. Half of those were children. Hundreds more were injured.
The perpetrators were Muslims from the so-called 'break-away' republic of Chechnya, under orders from Shamil Basayev. For a more detailed but somewhat romanticized report on this homicidal maniac go here.
The group of terrorists was made up not only of Chechens. There were Arabs there too, not surprising because Basayev practices Wahhabism, that particularly venomous variety of the already toxic ideology of Islam.
Ostensibly, Basayev is a rebel, a freedom fighter, fighting to free Chechnya from the Russian yoke. And there can be little doubt that Russia's behaviour in Chechnya virtually guarantees an insurgency. Putin's heavyhanded approach to quelling aspirations of sovereignty could only result in a violent backlash.
But this is no time to go into a chicken-and-egg discussion.
Chechnya is predominantly Muslim. And like Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo, worldwide Islam jumped up and took notice when - what was at first - a nationalistic struggle erupted, and made it part of the global war that is currently going on.
Basayev sounds in the interviews like a very angry man. There may be legitimate reason for his hatred against the Russians. It all becomes irrelevant however the moment you feel justified in murdering childeren because children on your side have been murdered.
And you lose any legitimacy you may have had when your co-murderers are people that have nothing whatsoever to do with your cause. You just share a religion with them.
Islam.
It unites Saudi's with Bosnians, Somali's with Pakistani's, Thai's with Algerians and Moroccans with 'Palestinians'. It unites Muslims in their global war on the infidel, and it unites them in their barbarism towards women and children.
There is a lesson Beslan should teach us. It is the same lesson we should draw from the bombings in London and Madrid, from the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, from the more than eight hundred murders at the hands of Muslim extremists in Southern Thailand in 2004 alone, from the tens of thousands murdered by car- and suicidebombs in Iraq, and the more than a thousand civilian deaths by terrorists in Israel:
There is a global war going on.
It is a war by one ideology against another. And one of the sides doesn't even realize it is at war.
Feeling kinda murderous tonight after reading this piece at FrontPageMag. Don't get me wrong, the article is excellent. Nothing new really, it sums up the continuous betrayal of the Israeli people by its elected leaders.
Prior to 1993, Yitzchak Rabin campaigned on two basic points: no talking with the PLO, and "Whoever considers descending from the Golan Heights is abandoning - abandoning - the security of the State of Israel." (I know that latter quote by heart because it was featured in a campaign by Golan residents against descending from the Golan Heights, as proposed by Rabin's party.) Rabin won the premiership from Yitzchak Shamir, who had allowed PLO representatives to be seated under the aegis of the Jordanian delegation during multilateral talks in Madrid.
The Oslo Accords then followed, passed through the Knesset only thanks to two Knesset members who defected from a now-defunct far-right party, Tzomet. These delegates were literally bought off at taxpayers' expense, giving Rabin a one-vote majority for the single most far-reaching decision adopted by the Israeli parliament. In effect, the last twelve years of history in the Jewish State were determined by a majority dependent on ideological turncoats and on Arab, anti-Zionist representatives.
Rabin got what he deserved. And Peres and Beilin deserve the same.
...Ehud Barak ran on a campaign of separation from the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Ironically, he adopted a slogan of the far-right Moledet party, which advocates the transfer of Arabs to achieve the same end, "Us, here. Them, there." Within a year, Barak put forward a proposal to relinquish 98 percent of the land of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, to divide sovereignty over Israel's capital, and to offer the PLO 2 percent more land in pre-1967 Israel.
Arafat reacted to the proposal with the massive assault that became known as the Oslo War, or the Second Intifada.
Barak at least was honest about his intentions, he stated up front that he was about to give away half of Israel to the Arabs. Lucky for us Arafat was still alive then to turn him down.
...Ariel Sharon stated publicly on multiple occasions that unilateral withdrawal was both dangerous and un-Zionist. On April 23, 2002, addressing a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, he repeated, again, "The fate of Netzarim is the fate of Negba [a Negev town] and Tel Aviv." He would not be uprooting any communities, he declared, including "isolated" ones. For good measure, Sharon further explained, "Such an evacuation would encourage terrorism and bring pressure on us."
The Likud platform, likewise, read: "The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting."
In January of 2003, voters sent Mitzna and the Labor party as a whole to an unprecedented defeat. Ariel Sharon's Likud won more seats than it had ever won before.
And Sharon is way overdue for a meeting with a bullet.
Where are the MEN in Israeli politics? Is there really no hope?
I recently spent nearly three weeks in Portugal. My parents have moved there after their retirement, and I went there with my family for holidays. It was a great vacation. The wether was fantastic, the ocean was Atlantic, the people are so nice in Portufal. Not for the first time I gave moving there serious thought.
It wasn't long before my wife noticed the complete apparent lack of Muslims. I went to Lisbon, and various smaller cities, and although I am sure they exist in Portugal, there were no Muslims to be seen. I talked about this with a friend, who told me that Portugal is a 'racist' country (his words). Portugal has its colonial past, and blacks live there, but they are only 'tolerated'. "If there's any crap from them, they get in trouble, both from the police and from people in general. And there's virtually nobody who then takes the side of the trespasser". I was told much the same goes for Muslims.
There is exactly one (1) mosque in Lisbon. Lisbon is a much bigger city than Amsterdam, but the latter has 57 mosques at the latest count, small and large. The other three larger cities have similar numbers of mosques.
Racism is not a solution for anything, certainly not for Islam, which is not a race to begin with. But the attitude of not taking any shit is a sensible one, PARTICULARLY in the case of Muslims.
Holland is slowly waking up to Muslim extremism, but it is trying to use existing laws to fight the radicals. This does not work, because anything that targets Islam specifically (which is what is needed) comes down to a form of discrimination, which is (rightly) illegal. But Islam is a special case. Just as membership of neo-Nazi groups is prohibited, so Islam can be made a special case. Groups like the Rote Armee Faction (AKA Baader-Meinhof) were declared illegal, mostly because their purpose was in fact to overthrow the democratic countries, and replace it with socialist or anarchist entities.
Their aim was to destroy the host countries.
Islam has that same goal.
The moment mainstream politicians can get themselves to admit this, openly, the door is opened to a solution. Islam is not just another religion. It is an ideology that seeks to dominate the world, and supplant all other ideologies, like capitalism, socialism, communism, etc. If this is undesirable to the West, they should act accordingly.
I make nice money in Holland. I could not easily find a job in Portugal that even comes close to paying what I make now.
But once back in Holland, it struck me more than ever before how many traditionally dressed Muslims walk the streets. People who speak very little Dutch, and who do not in any way participate in Dutch daily life. Who want to change Dutch society into another version of what they - or their parents or grandparents - left behind. It doesn't occur to them that (consciously or not) they're trying to destroy what attracted them to this country in the first place. The freedom, the capitalism, in short, Western society. They want to have their cake and eat it.
I don't really want to leave Holland. But if Holland allows itself to be transormed more and more into a dhimmi country, the choice won't be that hard to make.
This is a what-if scenario. Its goal is to describe a possible course of events in case Israel decides to ignore the US when determining policy regarding the Arabs.
History For those familiar with the history of the founding of Israel, as well as that of the various Arabs countries, and the role of the US in them, it must be clear that US and Israeli interests are not identical. In fact, a strong case may be made that US policy has been more detrimental to Israeli interests at crucial moments in history than that it has been beneficial. Just a few examples: The US withholding crucial information about Egyptian and Syrian intentions right before the 1973 Yom Kippur war, intense US pressure on Israel to not deal decisive strokes during ALL its wars with the Arabs, US vetoes on Israeli trading with parties deemed off-limits by the US, crushing US pressure to accept US-designed 'peace' deals with the Arabs that were grossly one-sided in favour of the Arabs, etc.
The US is not a friend of Israel. This is a recurring theme of this blog.
There is no doubt that given the choice, most Americans would choose the Jews over the Arabs any day of the week, and in fact would choose to support Israel as a matter of policy. The actual policymakers however have diametrically opposed interests, and use Israel only as bargaining chip in their dealing with the oil-laden Arabs. People like former Secretary of State James Baker even made it a point to demonstrate to the Saudi's the power the US holds over Israel.
Israel has not become America's dog voluntarily. So what is this gun the US State Department is holding to Israel's head? And the subject of this essay: Is it really a deadly weapon, or is there perhaps nothing to fear but fear itself?
Finance In fiscal year 2004, Israeli exports to the US made up nearly 37% of the total. This amounts to nearly US $13 billion. In fiscal year 2003, Israel received $662 million in economic aid from the US. In addition to this, Israel has received roughly US $2.5 billion annually in military aid. Since 1985, total US financial has as averaged about US $3 billion, and since 1949, the US have given financial aid to Israel a total of just over US $80 billion. In addition, the US have lent Israel another US $17 billion, of which roughly US $2 billion in debt remain as of fiscal year 2004.
Huge amounts of money involved then.
But to put it in a US perspective: The 2005 US defense budget for fiscal year 2005 is just over US $400 billion. In other words, the amount of money given annually to Israel - something Israel bashers like to beat Israel supporters with - amounts to about three days worth of just the US defense budget. The total US budget for 2004 was US $2.238 thousand billion.
To put it another way, the US spends one-seventh of one percent of its annual expenditures on helping Israel. It takes the US slightly less than twelve hours to spend the amount of money it gives to Israel each year.
By comparison, I spend more on car magazines. And I'm pretty sure the US looks upon Israel as being equally trivial. I could easily do without the magazines, and if the US had no need anymore for a stick to threaten the Arabs with, the US would cancel its subscription on the Jews. And save twelve hours worth of small change.
The US gives nearly that much to Egypt, just so they won't wage war on Israel. Egypt, a major source of Muslim extremism, home of the Al-Azhar University, where the Muslim Brotherhood has its roots.
Clearly, in US foreign policy priorities, Israel ranks just above Egypt, and just below the budget for designing new tie clips for embassy security personel.
Viewed from the Israeli side, thinks of course look a bit different. Three billion US dollar is a lot for Israel, in fact it makes up almost six percent of its annual expenditures.
Six percent. Could Israel do without that six percent? Or could it replace it somehow?
Alternatives Of course, this is assuming that cutting aid would be the only sanctions the US would institute against Israel in case of a total "I don't care about your opinion" attitude from Israel. Israel has a lot of trade with the US, going both ways. An active economic boycott would hurt much more, and the US is certainly capable of putting Israel in the same category with Cuba.
Now there's a thought. Make friends with Cuba, and whoever is friends with Cuba, like Hugo Chavez, and all the totalitarian nutjobs Castro counts as his friends. Not a very attractive prospect, but in my view preferable over the leash the US currently has around Israel's neck. Israel would be independant, to deal with the Arabs as they would like, and the US doing the bidding of the Saudi's wouldn't make any difference.
Israel would be free to develop economic ties with parties now designated off-limits by - you guessed it - the US. Selling high-tech military hardware to China is not my idea of fun, but isn't it a whole lot more healthy than being a serf of the US? Israeli sovereignty and independance is a joke at present. And perhaps being just the 51st state wouldn't be so bad, if only the US also looked at Israel that way.
But they don't. There used to be a time when the arms balance was always maintained in Israel's favour. But this has been radically changing in the last 10-15 years. Saudi has been sold AWAC's, and the latest model F15, against agreements with Israel, and these airplanes have been stationed at bases near Israel, against agreement with Israel. Egypt too has been propped up militarily far beyond any defensive need, and any offense of Egypt can have only one target. Even the Palestinian Authority received US $200 million in fiscal year 2004. This is an organization that publicly and officially calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, sponsors other terrorist organizations and incites hatred and violence against Israel through its official state media and state-sponsored mosques.
Conclusion Israel should change its current relationship with the US. I submit that the US has more to lose than Israel does. If the interests of Israel and the US coincide, good. If they don't, no problem. They each go their own way, even if those ways are diametrically opposed.
This isn't really such a strange proposition once we accept the simple - albeit painful - truth: There is really no rational reason for the idea of Israel and the US being joined at the hip. It is wishful thinking, encouraged by a smart and media-savvy US State department.
Israel would survive the cut-off from the US. It would even survive economic sanctions from the US.
And it would be free. To make policy based not based on what the Saudi's want the US to dictate to Israel, but based on what is good for Israel.
We search the purses of little old ladies so that recent immigrants from Saudi Arabia named "Mohammed" wearing massive backpacks don't get singled out.
