Kesher Talk: 01/13/2002

Friday, January 18, 2002

Congressman is scared, for the wrong reasons: JTA reports that U.S. Rep. James Traficant (D-Ohio) wants to add questions regarding ethnic background and religious affiliation to a proposed jury questionnaire at his upcoming trial, the Roll Call newspaper reported. Traficant faces felony charges of bribery, accepting illegal gifts, racketeering, fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion. At a pretrial hearing earlier this month, Traficant worried about a Jewish backlash, saying he was concerned that Jewish jurors would resent his well-publicized support of alleged concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk. The lawmaker also has voiced support for the Palestinians and spoken out against Israel numerous times. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against the use of ethnicity in the course of composing a jury."

To be frank, Mr. Traficant, the worldwide Jewish conspiracy is the least of your problems now. Time to invest in soap on a rope.

Thursday, January 17, 2002

An anti-semitic incident a day... makes Paris an annoying place to stay? An Anti-Defamation League analysis finds that between September 9, 2000 and November 20, 2001, 330 anti-Semitic incidents took place in Paris - about an incident a day. They also discover (surprise!) that French Jews are a tad concerned with the rise in incidents...

The future of the "Stans": ForeignWire.com has an interesting article on the former Soviet Islamic republics, written this past summer: "All that can be said for now is that only when the Central Asian states evolve proper “governments” can there be any expectation of an improvement in the present negative cycle. There are enough natural resources here for these states to escape the poverty trap."

Hebrew school daze: Jonathan Rosenblum writes in defense of Jewish day schools:

Nearly 200,000 Jewish children are currently enrolled in day schools. That is 40% of Jewish children receiving Jewish education. Those day schools constitute the best, if not only, hope for Jewish continuity in America. Every study shows that graduates of day schools, no matter what the school's denominational affiliation, are much more likely to observe Jewish rituals and holidays, and are far less likely to intermarry than those who do not attend day schools.

... Yet virtually every day school is in dire financial straits. Teachers are paid less and receive fewer benefits than public school teachers, and parents with large families struggle under tuition burdens of up to $70,000 a year.

Far from being too well supported by the Jewish community, the day schools are poor stepchildren. Less than 5% of Federation giving goes to day schools, and the initiative of Chicago philanthropist George Hanus to have every Jew designate 5% of his estate to defray the costs of day school education has not yet caught on with the wider Jewish public.

Mostly because the "wider Jewish public" is not too keen on them. I think many Jews like to know they are there, but are not overly concerned with ensuring that themselves. I am in the position of not having to yet worry about my child's education, since I have no child yet. When I do, I doubt that I would send him or her to a Jewish day school. Especially considering the quality of the public schools in the neighborhood in which my fiancee and I just moved into. In any event, I am putting off most charity issues until after we get settled in the new place, and we see how much cash we have to spare every month...

Saddam predicts US collapse: Pot calling the kettle, somthing something... The Press Association reports that "Saddam Hussein says Iraq will not be caught off guard if attacked by American forces and predicts the US will collapse as a superpower. The Iraqi dictator's remarks came in an address marking the 11th anniversary of the start of the Gulf War. More than 12,000 Iraqis rallied in Baghdad to mark the start of the bombing campaign against their country, during the 1991 conflict."

Slovak accused of Nazi past: Slovak Jewish leaders criticized the award of a top honor to a man historians claim was an active supporter of Slovakia´s wartime Nazi-puppet state. Five leading Slovak historians said Jozef August Mikus, 92, who was presented with the Pribina´s Cross by President Rudolf Schuster two weeks ago, showed a xenophobic attitude toward Jews while working as a diplomat during the war. Mikus received his award for his lifetime´s work in fighting for Slovak independence. (from the JTA)

Claiming the Temple Mount Richard Cheznoff writes in the New York Daily News that

for more than 30 years, Jerusalem's Islamic Religious Council, or Wakf, has campaigned to claim the Holy City's Temple Mount — the traditional site where Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, where Solomon built his Temple and where Jesus prayed — as exclusively Islamic. ... Arafat's stooges ... are systematically destroying any evidence of historic Jewish and Christian presence on the Temple Mount, or Harim al-Sharif, as Muslims call it. The same Wakf that has forbidden legitimate archeologists at the mount has been carrying out its own illegal excavations for years. The prime target: Solomon's Stables, which during Jesus' time were connected directly to the chambers of the Holy Temple. Not one inch of the eastern section of the mount remains unscathed. Archeological remnants — some from the periods of the First and Second Temples — have been unearthed, hauled away or dumped into the valley below. In their place, the Wakf has brought in newly hewn stones and paved over history, taking what between 515 B.C. and A.D. 70 was part of the actual temple complex and converting it into an underground mosque. Most alarming are reports that as a result of the shoddy diggings, the southeastern wall of the Temple Mount has begun to bulge and is in the intermediate stages of collapse.

Wednesday, January 16, 2002

The Real Hebron: Barbara Lerner writes in NRO that she

went to the city of the patriarchs of Western civilization — Abraham's city — expecting to find a single cluster of foreign Jews, alone in a vast sand-sea of Arabs, with no other Israeli civilians for miles and miles. I thought I'd find only little bands of Israeli soldiers, there to protect an isolated Judean outpost. Secular Israelis in Jerusalem told me I was brave to go, and before I did, I believed them.

Afterwards, I realized what their problem was: They'd never been there either; they were relying on the same press reports as I had. As I waited for the Egged #160 bus that takes you from Jerusalem's Central Bus Station to the outskirts of Hebron, those reports seemed credible enough. Soldiers with machine guns outnumbered civilians in the upstairs waiting area, and a lot of them got on the bus with us. Our carry-ons were searched before we boarded, and afterwards, I sat back for what I thought would be a long ride, interrupted, if at all, by sniper fire. But five minutes in, the bus stopped on a Jerusalem street corner to pick up more passengers — Jews, Arabs, and indistinguishables — none of whom were searched. It kept making stops (I quit counting after the seventh), both inside Jerusalem and long past it — in a plethora of little towns on the hills above the road, some Jewish, some Arab — all the way to Kiryat Arba, a town of 7,000 Jews about a mile from Hebron. Altogether there are about 10,000 Jews in the South Hebron Hills, and fewer Arabs than the inflated numbers the press keeps citing. Hebron's mythic isolation is just that — mythic.

Said rides to the rescue: That jubilant jackass (also known as Edward Said) opines that, as he writes, "two hundred Palestinians are unable to receive kidney dialysis because for 'security reasons' the Israeli military won't allow them to travel to medical centres."

Does he suppose if they lived in any Arab country, they would ever get treated? When will the London Review of Books return to Planet Earth?

Opening peaceniks' eyes in Israel: Judy Lash Balint works for a 1/2 day every few months as a guide for a little-known Seattle-based peace group known as the Compassionate Listeners. They send tour groups to Israel to be shown the leftist's view of the real Israel. What no one seems to notice is that Balint is not with the program.

"My role is to explain the Jewish historic, spiritual and strategic significance of eastern Jerusalem, and to show them examples of Jewish development in this part of the city," she explains. In so doing, she burst many of the myths that they have about the "occupied territories."

Just Say No ... to Suicide Bombings...: Grasshoppa's blog alerted me to this interesting case against suicide bombings in Palestine. Of course, I had not realized that the case had to be made.

This author in Lebanon's Daily Star notes the "superficial similarity between civil disobedience and terrorism: both can only achieve results in democratic and open societies... However, the similarity stops here; for while civil disobedience is in essence an act of dialogue, the ultimate aim of which is to win people over, terrorism is an act of war aiming to intimidate."

Lousy Rights: Human rights, eh? All sorts of the usual suspects are upset at the treatment of the Islamic terrorists we are holding in Cuba. But Kathy Kinsley (Editor of the On the Third Hand...by a Bellicose Woman weblog) has a very different bone to pick. I'll leave it to a direct quote, since she is just too good to cut:

How shocking. The Marines seem to have shaved the heads and beards (and probably mustaches too) of the prisoners before bringing them to Guantanamo Bay. The American Muslim Council says this is "humiliating" to conservative Muslims, but the Pentagon spokesman said they were lousy, and that was the only way to delouse them in Afghanistan. Both sides are completely ignoring the true victims of this travesty.

The lice. How dare they remove the poor innocent lice from a warm and food-rich environment and leave them to face the harsh Afghan winter! It's silent genocide, I tell you. Those poor creatures now must face the brutal Afghan winter with no shelter. How will they survive? With their food source removed they will slowly starve even if they don't freeze. Have our Marines no pity for these poor beings? Our hearts should go out to them. I call for volunteers from our wonderful animal protection agencies to immediately fly over there and save these innocent victims from the unforgiving Afghan winter. Surely the Animal Liberation Front or PETA will take the time to rescue these sufferers before it is too late!

As for the prisoners, it seems are being fed a breakfast of bagels and cream cheese, which is certainly not culturally appropriate food. Arabs generally will eat beans, don't even try to tell me that a military base has no beans; that I will never believe. As for the Aussie, we can give him bread and vegemite. The Brits can have bread and marmite. There are plenty of snails crawling all over Cuba, I'm sure we can cook up something for any French. That will all be nice culturally appropriate food (and serves 'em right). They can send the bagels and cream cheese to me.

Syria offers its genocidal experience: According to the New York Times (Jan. 15), "Syria is seeking to repackage its experience asphyxiating Muslim extremism as a textbook antiterrorism campaign." The gov't exudes "a certain sense of vindication that what was once condemned as a human rights horror might now help improve long-troubled ties" with the U.S. Syrian intel agencies "are even sharing their knowledge about tracking militant cells with the West, earning praise from American officials."

Sure, let's take lessons from the government that massacred an entire town where a rival tribe resided, then paved it over.

Hebrew influence and the coming war with Iraq? Victor Davis Hanson takes an amusing look at how figures in the 1930's would react to U.S. plans for taking on Iraq. My favorite follows:

“Think of America First”
by Charles Lindbergh, American hero

I have just returned from a fruitful visit to Iraq and can confirm that almost everything we read in the American media about Saddam Hussein is a lie. He has no weapons of mass destruction — that is all a media fabrication fed by the warmongers here at home. He wishes peace more than we do. His crime seems to be that he wants the best for his own people. They are in really bad shape thanks to the rotten deal he got from the governments of Britain and America after the last war.

We have no business anywhere near Iraq — which is a reliable oil supplier to America and stops Iranian fundamentalism. It is a modern state. It has professional and impressive armed forces. In fact, Iraq doesn't like fundamentalists or Communists any more than we do.

There are worse things than not having regular elections. If we are to go to war with a power that wants no war with us, then we can only blame the Hebrews here at home and the Zionists abroad. They'd all like nothing better than for American boys to shed American blood, in a time of economic depression, to further their own plots at world domination. Look, the truth is that we are on the wrong side of history in the Middle East. I see only a bloody and hopeless war against such a powerful and well-prepared Iraqi military. This will be no Afghanistan. The Iraqis have a real air force. Let's just keep our noses out of it, and worry about things here at home.

Tuesday, January 15, 2002

The United Arab Emirates' state-run rag, the Khaleej Times, reports that their President, "His Highness Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan," met with William Burns, US Assistant Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs, in Abu Dhabi yesterday. The president told Burns "that Israel's claims of practising self-defence against Palestinian attacks and its branding the legitimate resistance of the Palestinians against occupation as terrorism were futile and invalid attempts."

Futile and invalid. The claims of self-defense might be considered invalid by many in the world - luckily, self-defense as an action is not futile.

United in Trouble: Bahrain announced to the Gulf Daily News that they are standing in solidarity with Saudi Arabia "in the face of repeated, unjust attacks by the Western media." Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa told a press conference in Riyadh that "Anything that harms Saudi Arabia, harms Bahrain too and we are together in a joint destiny."

Hopefully, that joint destiny will include the overthrow of their corrupt dictatorships.

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan slowly forging an alliance: EurasiaNet reports that Dushanbe and Tashkent are slowly coming together. "A major complicating factor is the significant Tajik minority in Uzbekistan, especially in historically significant regions such as Samarkand. Uzbekistan is the region's largest military power and most populous country, while Tajikistan is the poorest country in the former Soviet Union and continues to struggle to recover from a 1992-97 civil war." (for more on the Tajik civil war, see my 1993 paper, "A Triangle of Instability and Conflict") EurasiaNet elaborates on why they are tying the knot:

The geopolitical upheaval, precipitated by the September 11 attacks, provided Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with strong incentives to settle their differences. Washington's sudden and intense focus on Central Asian stabilization opened a conduit for rapprochement between Rahmonov and Karimov. During Rahmonov's visit, Karimov stressed that "under the new conditions we are fated to be together and [strive to] overcome by common efforts those difficulties that have faced our peoples."

Uzbekistan, in particular, is ready to restructure Tajikistan's debt and reduce it by 10 percent (US $12 million) as well as cut prices and tariffs on transportation of cargoes and gas. Both sides are also eager to improve trade turnover and to settle long-standing border delineation questions. Settlement of all these issues would pave the way for increased cooperation on anti-terrorism and anti-drug trafficking measures.

Hey, even some of them can admit it! The latest dispatch from MEMRI highlights that reality is not a stranger to at least a few Arabs. "Along with the usual letters to the editor denying any Arab or Muslim role in the September 11 attacks - or, alternately, calling on the U.S. to amend its foreign policy - the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat has published a few letters calling for a thorough self-examination in the Islamic world." Well, we have to start somewhere. If it has to be on the letters to the editor page, so be it.

What constitutes a "cease-fire"? The Christian Science Monitor interviews Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv, "For Arafat, a cease-fire is not total. He wants some fire while negotiating. For him, it is legitimate to maintain the option of violence... For Sharon, a cease-fire means total Palestinian submission to his terms. He is uncomfortable with the political process and settlement freeze that would ensue" in keeping with recommendations last year of a US-led fact-finding mission whose implementation is the target of US envoy Anthony Zinni's missions.

ADL exposes the organization called "Muslims of the Americas" (MOA): The Anti-Defamation League web site has an expose on this group (I forget what prompted them to run it, sorry - this is what happens when I have to sit on links until blogger is up and running). My favorite is this excerpt from an article on the MOA website entitled "Satanism":

Jews are an example of human Satans. This is why Jews are the founders of Satan worship and Masonic lodges, and are now trying to take over the entire globe in which the global religion is to be Satanism….In the US there are now thousands of temples where Satan is worshipped. This Satanism has now become the ultimate tool in the hands of Zionists.

Can the GOP get more minority votes? The answer is yes. However, my friend Eli, in this article on The American Enterprise Magazine -- Online, mistakenly cites the Frank Luntz/RJC poll as evidence of a chance to win over Jews to the Republican party. His overall point is sound, and he assures me he will temper the conclusions he draws from the RJC poll when the piece goes into the print edition.

British anti-semitic sentiments: To refresh your memory, here is the telling excerpt from Barbara Amiel's Telegraph column which brought so many elite anti-Semites out of the closet:

Recently, the ambassador of a major EU country politely told a gathering at my home that the current troubles in the world were all because of "that shitty little country Israel".

"Why," he asked, "should the world be in danger of World War Three because of those people?"

At a private lunch last month, the hostess - doyenne of London's political salon scene - made a remark to the effect that she couldn't stand Jews and everything happening to them was their own fault.

When this was greeted with a shocked silence, she chided her guests on what she assumed was their hypocrisy. "Oh come on," she said, "you all feel like that."

Amiel had a new column yesterday, reacting to the reactions to this previous one:

Anti-Semitism is the street corner on which the old Right and the new Left rendezvous - illustrated, among others, by this week's New Statesman cover story on "The Kosher Conspiracy?".

All the same, I've never had much sympathy for the political correctness that makes words a crime. Far from endorsing such a position, I've always been on the other side.

One takes a very dim view of anti-Semitism, but it should not be the subject of a tribunal or legislated against, any more than putting up a girly calendar in the office should be.

Robbing, killing or the civic exclusion of people is the crime, not the dislike of individuals or groups. People (though not the state) are free to have stupid views, indeed racist or bigoted ones. I consider them human rights. Except I will not enter into a conspiracy to keep quiet about them; not even a well-bred conspiracy.

She is upset that people focused so much attention on one small part of her column, and ignored her larger point - that times are truly changing:

Islam itself is split between Islam, a religion endorsing the qualities of charity and mercy, and militant Islam-Islamism, which is intolerant and expansionist and seeks to convert by terror.

This was true before America launched its war on terrorism, but, as I pointed out, the truth often needs a nudge from 16,000lb daisycutter bombs.

A questionable portrait of Arab/Muslim America: Shibley Telhami writes in the Brookings Review (a journal published by the Brookings Institution) that "There is much that's misunderstood about Arabs and Muslims in America." Too true, but it is not clear that Shibley helps any by citing the claim of six million Muslims. It makes me wonder where she gets her data...

Anti-Alcohol = Anti-Semitic?: JTA reports that anti-Semitism pervaded a recent anti-alcohol demonstration in Russia. The teetotalers held signs saying, "If you drink wine and beer, you are a lackey of Tel Aviv," and yelled anti-Semitic slogans, according to the Union of Councils for Jews in the former Soviet Union. The rally was organized by an anti-Semitic monarchist group.

Are there Arabs serving in the Israeli army? JTA discovers that while Israeli law doesn't explicitly exclude Arabs from military service, it has become accepted practice that satisfies the needs of both sides:

The Arab community does not want to take part in any potential fighting against other Arabs, and the Jewish establishment feared that Arab soldiers could become a fifth column. The Arab sector also has resisted frequent proposals to institute an alternative national service — essentially, some kind of social work — instead of military service.

Throughout the years, however, the IDF has allowed Muslim and Christian Arabs to enlist on a volunteer basis. This was especially encouraged in the Muslim Bedouin community. The Bedouin, who in the past lived in nomadic desert tribes, proved to be excellent pathfinders, and their service has been invaluable in border patrol missions. Bedouin have become the backbone of the Desert Patrol Unit, which in recent years has been in charge of patrols along the border with the Gaza Strip.

Several hundred Muslim and Christian Arabs volunteer for the army, generally seeing it as a source of livelihood or a prudent career step. Although Arab volunteers often are considered outsiders by their own society, the Israeli political establishment likes to depict them as an example of the potential integration of Arab citizens in Israeli society.

Monday, January 14, 2002

Explaining the PLO arms shipments: OpinionJournal.com asked its readers to help Yasser Arafat come up with innocent explanations to give Colin Powell about the interdicted arms shipments. My favorite in the collection is from reader Mike Albrecht: "I did not have relations with that vessel, the Karine A."

American opinion on Israel The Project on International Policy Attitudes has their latest analysis of American public opinion of the Middle East. Their analyses are usually good, though they often draw out far more detail than is supported by the polls...

Views of Israel and Palestinians: Americans have a fairly positive view of Israel and a very strong majority views Israel as a friend, but only a substantial minority views it as an ally, and Americans are divided over sending US troops to defend Israel in the event it is attacked. In the wake of September 11th views toward Israel grew marginally warmer, even though Americans see a link between the attacks and US support for Israel. A plurality to slight majority has a negative view of the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat, but a very strong majority now favors the idea of a Palestinian state.

Support for a Palestinian State: A very strong majority supports President Bush's position in favor of a Palestinian state. Without the context of the President's support, a slim majority or plurality is in favor.

View of Israel-Palestinian Conflict: When viewing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more Americans tend to be sympathetic to Israel, but this has rarely been a majority position. While more Americans blame the Palestinians than Israel for the impasse, in most cases a majority refuses to blame one side over the other and a strong majority thinks that both sides need to change. The majority is pessimistic about the potential for resolving the conflict.

US Role in Negotiations: The majority of Americans want the US to play an active role in the Middle East peace process. A very strong majority of Americans wants the US to play an even- handed role in this process, but a majority feels that in fact the US favors Israel. This support for an even-handed approach extends to the idea of equalizing the level of aid between Israeli and the Palestinians in the event of a peace agreement, and a slight majority favors the idea of the parties sharing Jerusalem as a international city. A strong majority favors putting more pressure on both parties to resolve the conflict, and thinks it is reasonable to expect more cooperation in light of the war on terrorism.

What to do about Iraq? Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan write in the Weekly Standard that we must take down Sadaam ASAP:

Yes, it is essential to capture bin Laden and destroy al Qaeda. It is necessary to stabilize Afghanistan and back a functioning government there. And, yes, we have to roll up the al Qaeda operations in other troublesome parts of the world.

But none of this precludes dealing with Iraq, or makes the obligation of dealing with Iraq less urgent. The United States can, after all, walk and chew gum at the same time. The Iraqi threat is enormous. It gets bigger with every day that passes. And it can't wait until we finish tying up all the "loose ends." For one thing, those loose ends are not just minor details. If bin Laden has left Central Asia, he'll be hard to find. Who knows how long it may take? Meanwhile, history moves on, and the clock is ticking in Iraq. If too many months go by without a decision to move against Saddam, the risks to the United States may increase exponentially. And after September 11, those risks are no longer abstract. Ultimately, what we do or do not do in the coming months about Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq will decisively affect our future security.

And it will determine more than that. Whether or not we remove Saddam Hussein from power will shape the contours of the emerging world order, perhaps for decades to come. Either it will be a world order conducive to our liberal democratic principles and our safety, or it will be one where brutal, well-armed tyrants are allowed to hold democracy and international security hostage. Not to take on Saddam would ensure that regimes implicated in terror and developing weapons of mass destruction will be a constant--and growing--feature of our world. Destroying Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda is, obviously, very important. Dealing with other sponsors of terrorism--Iran in particular--is crucial. But, in the near-future, Iraq is the threat and the supreme test of whether we as a nation have learned the lesson of September 11.

If Israel did not exist, the Arabs would have to invent it: "If Israel did not exist, the Arab world, in its current fit of denial, would have to invent something like it to vent its frustrations. That is not to say there may not be legitimate concerns in the struggle over Palestine, but merely that for millions of Muslims the fight over such small real estate stems from a deep psychological wound. It isn’t about lebensraum or some actual physical threat. Israel is a constant reminder that it is a nation’s culture—not its geography or size or magnitude of its oil reserves—that determines its wealth or freedom. For the Middle East to make peace with Israel would be to declare war on itself, to admit that that its own fundamental way of doing business—not the Jews—makes it poor, sick, and weak." (Historian Victor Davis Hanson writing in the City Journal)

Turkey is the linch-pin of civilization: Melik Kaylan writes in the Wall Street Journal: "Draw a fingerline from Europe through to Afghanistan, from Moscow (or Chechnya) through to Jerusalem and the line will pass through Turkey. If there is any truth to the "clash of civilizations" thesis, the line of separation or rapprochement runs through Turkey, where Europe meets Islam. For the longterm stability of that entire region, buffeted by the inflammatory overspill of oil politics and jihadist activism, the stability of Turkey is a sine qua non."

Kesher Talk

Friday, January 18, 2002

Thursday, January 17, 2002

Wednesday, January 16, 2002

Tuesday, January 15, 2002

Monday, January 14, 2002

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