Back tomorrow.
Meantime, there’s the latest SNN. It’s a roundtable discussion.
There’s also Haveil Havalim. You’ll have to tell me which are your favorite links; no time to read it tonight.
11/30/2008
Targeting Jews
I found this report from Arutz-7 heart breaking.
According to ZAKA emergency service, the body of the Rabbi’s wife Rivka was found covered with a tallit (Jewish prayer shawl), which her husband had managed to cover her with.
Presumably Rabbi Holzberg knew he was threatened, and possibly that his time was short, but when he saw his murdered wife, he accorded her the dignity of covering her body. I can’t imagine what he was thinking or feeling.
Israel Matzav observes that the terrorists clearly sought out the Chabad house. They intended to kill Jews.
(via memeorandum)
Treppenwitz who was in Mumbai just last week makes a similar observation. Plus read his two other posts on the outrage.
Aside from the fact that it is pretty clear that the terrorists sought out the Jews, according to this, they it accorded them “special” treatment.
The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: “Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again,” he said.
Corroborating the doctors’ claims about torture was the information that the Intelligence Bureau had about the terror plan. “During his interrogation, Ajmal Kamal said they were specifically asked to target the foreigners, especially the Israelis,” an IB source said.
(via Instapundit, memeorandum)
I’m assuming that Israeli and Jew are used interchangeably in this context.
CAIR hasn’t had the opportunity to condemn this Islamic terror in Mumbai yet, but they did helpfully note that the Holy Land Foundation verdict was based on “fear mongering.” So it took CAIR one day to condemn a legal outcome they disagreed with, but after four days they are silent about barbaric terror committed by their co-religionists. How does that fit in with CAIR’s vaunted “anti-terrorism campaigns?”
I think that seeking out people not of your faith and gunning them down generates a lot more fear than carefully laying out a case showing the relationship between fundraisers and terror groups. Who really is fear mongering? The U.S. government or the terrorists that CAIR is, so far, (and tellingly) quiet about?
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
11/29/2008
Gaza operation imminent?
This time, it’s not a badly-sourced bunch of rumors from a discredited journalist. This time, there’s a mortar attack from Hamas to respond to, and an Israeli soldier who has lost his leg due to the attack. But it’s starting to sound like Israel is getting closer to a large operation in Gaza to clear out terrorists again.
Israel is nearing a wide-scale operation in the Gaza Strip, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Saturday, several hours after eight Israel Defense Forces soldiers were injured in a mortar shell attack on the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel.
“There’s no doubt we’re getting closer to a wide-scale operation in Gaza, but it will be different from what took place in the past,” Vilnai said during an event in the southern city of Beersheba.
Of course, you have to take a look at the reasons behind the second mortar attack. It’s pretty evident:
The deputy defense minister rejected the possibility of evacuating the soldiers from the Nahal Oz base following the mortar attack, as the army did with the Zikim base last week. “We won’t vacate every place,” he said.
That’s right. Evacuate soldiers after Hamas attacks their base, and what does Hamas do? Attack more bases. It’s a pretty simple formula, one that’s been followed again and again in Israel, with the exact same result each time. You’d think they’d learn.
Some Israelis have the right idea. I like this solution a lot:
Likud Knesset members also addressed the Nahal Oz mortar attack Saturday. MK Gilad Erdan even came up with an original solution, saying the defense minister must set up a temporary detention facility in the Gaza vicinity and jail Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners there.
Erdan demanded that the new facility won’t be fortified. “It’s time for Israel to initiate creative solutions and prove to the world that it’s determined to do anything in order to stop the terror and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Not that it will happen. But it would rid the world of terrorists, a little at time.
11/28/2008
Still on break
I know the world is full of news, much of it awful.
But I’m still on break.
I’m apparently performing the Meryl Tour of Friends and Family bedrooms, as I was at my mother’s last night, at my friend Kim’s tonight, and will be at Lynn’s tomorrow.
I think sleeping in my own bed is going to feel just a little bit more special on Sunday night. Not that I don’t like visiting, but this is one for the record books.
Yes, that’s right. I’m sleeping around. (I know you were thinking it.)
11/27/2008
Happy Thanksgiving
Today, I give thanks for the many, many blessings in my life.
In the last year, I lost and found a Tigger, gained a new, wonderful job, and was able to buy—for the first time in my life–my own home. I’ve seen my friendships grow even more than they have in the last few years, and seen my nephews and nieces grow into amazing young men and women (you should see my brother’s son, with his soul patch, getting more handsome by the day). ((Oy. He’s shaving. He’s growing beards. Oy. I swear, he was four years old just last week.))
I have two tremendous co-bloggers (although one has been rather busy lately). Thank you, Soccer Dad and Snoopy, for keeping this blog going when I’ve been too tired or too busy or too depressed to post much. And for supplying a different point of view. (Not so different, but then, I’m not interested in point/counterpoint on this blog.)
I’m thankful for my readers, too, and of course that includes those of you who read and never comment. I used to call you my “invisibles” when I was running a BBS. I always thought the word “lurker” has too much of a negative connotation. In this world, some people talk, and many people listen. Same for blogging, BBSing, and message boards.
And I’m thankful, as always, that I live in these United States—the world’s most hospitable nation to Jews this side of Israel, and the world’s greatest democracy. I’m thankful to the servicemen and women who risk their lives to keep us that way. Long may America prosper. And the same for Israel. Am Yisrael Chai.
A little less talk, a little more action
Remember the warnings of Hamas, diplomats and self-styled experts?
The wisest policy would be to refrain from any intervention and leave Hamas and the Palestinian people alone. If Hamas’ failure is self-inflicted democracy will live on and the people of Palestine will, should they wish, choose another party at the next election. However, if Hamas is not given a chance to implement its programme of reform in Palestine and its failure is imposed by external players democracy in Palestine will be no more. There will probably be never a second chance for a peaceful political process. There will be another Intifadah.
From Hamas via NPR:
WESTERVELT: But senior Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef, interviewed in Gaza, warns that the Israeli and Western policy of trying to isolate Hamas will backfire.
Mr. AHMED YOUSEF (Senior Political Leader, Hamas): If I pressure you in the core, now, you have to do something. And they’re going to keep squeezing Gaza. I don’t know what – I can’t predict what’s going to happen here.
Analysts say the goal of Israel’s policy of isolating Gaza seems to be to pressure Gazans to turn against Hamas, which has led the area since it wrested control from the Palestinian Authority in June. Other observers warn that the pressure is likely to backfire, creating more volunteers for militant groups and stirring sympathy for Hamas.
While the court rejected arguments that Israel’s border closings amounted to collective punishment, U.N. officials contend that the tactic is empowering extremists who argue that talks with Israel have produced nothing good for Gaza.
“It creates more misery and frustration that feeds into the extremists who say there is no other way but violence,” said the U.N.’s Ging.
The opinion poll by An-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus found secular Fatah would take 31.4% of the vote in parliamentary elections against 14.4% for the Islamists Hamas.
The remainder of those who specified a choice were shared among smaller parties.
In a presidential election, 31.4% of respondents said they would vote for the Fatah candidate and 13.4% said they would vote for the Islamist.
A full 15.9% of respondents said they didn’t know how they would vote in either presidential or parliamentary elections. A total 19.9% of respondents said they wouldn’t vote in a presidential election and 19.4% said they stay away from parliamentary elections.
Maybe that’s why Abbas is pushing for elections.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, intends to call presidential and parliamentary elections for April, an aide said Tuesday, apparently in an attempt to head off a constitutional crisis and a further challenge to his authority by the Islamic militant group Hamas.
I’m no fan of Fatah, either, but it appears that (at least on this level) Israel’s policy has had the effect of reducing Hamas’s popularity. Not that it will change anyone’s mind. The folks who believe that the only way to treat an enemy is to engage in talks with them will not have their minds changed by evidence to the contrary. In a different context Noah Pollak observed back in May:
The extent to which Israel’s military victory in the intifada is simply not acceptable for discussion in enlightened quarters is amazing as a matter of cultural psychology.
The idea that enemies can be defeated with words alone is a belief of many in the foreign policy establishment, the media and academia. It seems this is one more indication that the truth is not so simple or that is idea is simply wrong.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Comments Off
11/26/2008
Thanksgiving break
I am heading up to NJ tomorrow morning to spend the holiday with my family for the first time in three years. I must say, I did not miss the drive. And while my sister-in-law is a great cook, I’m going to miss being at Sarah’s house. It’s not just the food. It’s the atmosphere, even if it is rather loud and doggy. Then again, my brother has a dog, and his niece has a creature that pretends to be a dog (it’s a Yorkie, and not the good kind).
I’m trying to figure out how to leave extra food for Tig without his eating it all the first day. In spite of being mostly Maine Coon, Mr. Tig does not have the Maine Coon cat habit of eating many small meals per day. Tig will eat and eat and eat and then eat some more if I let him. I have taken to putting the food up at night, because last week, Mr. Tig ate and ate and ate and ate, and then, while I was sleeping, threw up the food in my office. On the carpet. That was fun to clean. I’m afraid I might be coming home to a few messes, but, oh, well. Them’s the breaks when you have animals.
In any case, I’ve decided to leave food in the kitchen as well as in their regular eating place. I set them up in my bathroom, since it’s large enough to fit a whole herd of cats, and by keeping the food dishes upstairs, I no longer trip over the cats while they’re eating. Come to think of it, I think my bathroom is larger than the kitchen, if you don’t count the part with the table. (The kitchen, not the bathroom. There is no table in the bathroom. Just a double vanity with only one sink.)
Mr. Tig is tipping the scales at over twelve pounds now. He’s a week past nine months. And he’s about 36 inches long, tip to tail, when you stretch him out. It’s actually kind of tough measuring him, because he likes to play with the yardstick while I try to see how long he is. The tail alone is fourteen inches. He’s going to be much larger than Tig 2, I think. Fifteen pounds before plumping up is my guess, though I’m really going to try to keep him thin, or at least, as thin as a Maine Coon can be. They’re stocky critters.
Miss Gracie, meantime, is continuing to show nothing but happiness in her new home. She’s currently very happy that it’s cold out, because I put a blanket on my leather living room chair, and when I get up, she gets in the chair and then gives me The Look when I want to get back in it. So of course, I put a blanket on the sofa. And of course, she refuses to use it until I toss her out of my chair. She gave the cleaning crew quite a bit of entertainment last week when she tried to find a hiding place where they wouldn’t bother her. She did, ultimately. I couldn’t find her. When she finally came into the kitchen, hours after they left, she came from the direction of the guest room. I think she was hiding in the bathroom, behind the toilet. Or maybe even in the shower stall. But I didn’t think to look there. Tig stayed under the bureau the whole time. I wonder where he’ll go when he gets too big to fit under there?
Above is Miss Gracie in the bathroom doorway on a sunny morning. Soon after that, she wound her way up on the bed to sleep in the sun. All’s right with her world.
An early Happy Thanskgiving to you all. Posting will be light tomorrow, as eating will be heavy.
Iran’s Hezbollah ties, Reuters lies
It’s not just the subject of this article. The blatant Reuters whitewashing of Iranian Jew-hatred is getting so obvious, I may not be able to read Reuters for much longer.
Iran, a main backer of Lebanon’s Shi’ite group Hezbollah, urged the Lebanese people Tuesday to unite to confront Israel, the Islamic Republic’s arch foe.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comments to Lebanese President Michel Suleiman during a visit to Iran that included touring an exhibition by the Defense Ministry, Iranian media reported.
“Iran believes the capability of all Lebanese groups should be at the service of (Lebanon’s) power and unity to confront the danger of the Zionist regime,” Khamenei told Suleiman, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Iranian officials often call Israel the Zionist regime.
Iranian officials always call Israel “the Zionist regime.” And for some reason, Reuters does not put “Zionist regime” in quotation marks, yet this is the network that will put “terrorist” in quote marks if someone is describing Islamic terrorists. Or members of Palestinian “militant” factions.
But Reuters isn’t quite done with the whitewashing.
Tehran has often praised Hezbollah, which has formidable guerrilla army, for fighting Israel in a 34-day war in 2006. Israel has accused Iran of supplying weapons to Hezbollah but Iran insists it only provides moral and political support.
“Lebanon as a friendly and brotherly country in the region will always enjoy Iran’s spiritual support,” Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani told Suleiman, Iran’s ISNA news agency reported.
Hezbollah fighters are trained in Iran. Iran supplies arms and weapons to Hezbollah. Iran has sent billions of dollars in aid to the terrorist army of Lebanon in its fight against Israel. But Reuters still uses the old “Iran denies this” routine. Even Wikipedia acknowledges the truth of the matter.
Comments Off
The Miller’s tale (again)
Coming off of his triumphant op-ed in the Jerusalem Post, Aaron David Miller who has successfully participated in getting the Israelis and Palestinians come to agreements and have those agreements violated by the Palestinians, does a curtain call with a rehash in the Washington Post. As in the earlier op-ed (critiqued here, here and here. See memeorandum). First Miller argues, ignore the Palestinians:
The notion that trying and failing is better than not trying at all might be an appropriate rallying cry for a college football coach; it isn’t a suitable foreign policy principle for the world’s greatest power. The well-intentioned old college try, which was President Bill Clinton’s mantra at Camp David in July 2000, reinforced by his advisers, myself included, proved costly. And we had much better conditions in 2000 (if still not the right ones) than the new administration faces.
Yes, the conditions were much better in 2000. Miller and company had been working furiously for seven years to build on the Oslo Accords (that were agreed upon without any American involvement). Of course if the push for peace in 2000 didn’t work given those circumstances, it ought to make Miller wonder if his premises were wrong.
But Miller writes, don’t ignore the Middle East!
For a president looking for a way to buck up America’s credibility, an Israeli-Syrian agreement offers a potential bonus. Such a deal would begin to realign the region’s architecture in a way that serves broader U.S. interests. The White House would have to be patient. Syria won’t walk away from a 30-year relationship with Iran; weaning the Syrians from Iran would have to occur gradually, requiring a major international effort to marshal economic and political support for Damascus. Still, an Israeli-Syrian peace treaty would confront Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran with tough choices and reduced options.
None of this will be easy. An Obama administration, and particularly the new president, would need to be in the middle of things. It would be excruciatingly hard, time-consuming and expensive to satisfy Israel and Syria’s economic and security needs, and a final agreement would most likely involve U.S. peacekeepers. More important, the United States would need to push the two sides further than they are now willing to go, on the extent of withdrawal from the Golan Heights in Israel’s case, on normalization and security in Syria’s. But with Israeli and Syrian leaders who are serious, and with a new administration ready to be tough, smart and fair in its diplomacy, a deal can be done.
So the United States ought to get an agreement as a first step of weaning Syria out Iran’s orbit. Given that Syria has shown no inclination to leave that orbit what makes Miller think this will work? The same pixie dust he was snorting making him think he’d get an agreement between Israel and Arafat in 2000?
But that doesn’t mean that the United States should ignore the Palestinians.
So, Mr. President-elect, go ahead and try to buck up the Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire, train Palestinian security forces, pour economic aid into Gaza and the West Bank, and quietly nurture Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. But don’t go for the endgame — you won’t get there.
However, repeating bad ideas does not improve them or make them more viable.
But repeated past failures don’t get Miller down:
Instead, invest in an Israeli-Syrian peace, and, afterward, you might find, with a historic success under your belt and America again admired for its competence, you will be better positioned to achieve the success you want in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, as well.
He’s been involved in crap for so long he’s sure there’s a pony in there someplace. On the other hand, I’d be a lot more encouraged if I didn’t see that Israel’s enemies – like Syria and the Palestinian Authority – were not trying to undermine Israel’s legitimacy at every opportunity. I’d think that a necessary prerequisite for peace is the Arab world coming to terms with Israel’s existence. But what do I know? I’m not an experienced peace processor like Miller. Who has absolutely no successes to his credit.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
The press mess, McGirk quirk and the Nissenbaum shuffle
I really could do without the sanctimony. Dion Nissenbaum writes about Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip to reporters.
This week, after filing a letter of protest, the Foreign Press Association (of which Mc Clatchy Newspapers is a par t) took the matter to Israel’s Supreme Court and asked the judges t o overturn the ban.
“This blackout of the Gaza Strip is hurting Israel’s image in the eyes of the world and undermines its standing as the only democracy in the Middle East,” the FPA argues in the petition. “The defendants policies, in addition to being illegal and insufferable, hurt Israel and endanger its political nature. To put it plainly, one bad decision is worse than ten potential stories that may not be supportive.”
I understand that there are reasons for Israel to open Gaza to reporters, but this false concern for Israel’s image from a press association strikes me as utter hypocrisy. Nissenbaum’s protests are particularly irksome. If I were convinced of his good faith as a reporter, maybe I’d feel differently, but Nissenbaum himself enjoyed an afternoon in the company of an unrepentant killer – and even apologized for that killer and insists – despite an investigation and readily available evidence to the contrary – that the Israeli army deliberately targeted a reporter.
Or consider Time’s Tim McGirk on the recent unraveling of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Rocket fire from Gaza had largely stopped during a five-month cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that was brokered by Egypt, but that unraveled on Nov. 4, when Israel raided Gaza to destroy a tunnel it accused Hamas of digging to conduct cross-border raids. Since then, dozens of rockets have been fired at Israel, and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have responded with land and air attacks and by halting supplies that were to enter Gaza. Israel has hoped to tighten the screws on Hamas by blocking all but a trickle of aid from reaching Gaza’s 1.5 million stricken inhabitants, leading to what U.N. officials describe as a humanitarian crisis. For the past two weeks, the Israeli military has barred foreign journalists from entering the Palestinian territory to report on the siege.
Now I can tell that in August, Israel suffered at least 11 Qassam strikes and 3 mortar attacks. I don’t believe that I’d call 14 attacks in one month to fit “largely stopped.” Israel’s forbearance is quite a story, one that McGirk is unwilling to consider. And, of course, the description of Gaza in crisis is hardly new.
Nissenbaum and McGirk, of course, aren’t the only reporters in Israel. And it’s possible that their record is worse than most, but Nissenbaum’s complaint is more than a little phony when the job he’s doing is less reporter than propagandist.
And as far as the crisis in concerned it’s interesting to note this:
Over the past few months of relative quiet rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel as a sporadic reminder of the threat and possible test of the truce. Our Gaza colleagues offered a different take: that those rogue firings were less about the resistance than the burgeoning underground economy. When a rocket is fired, Israel closes the cargo crossing which pushes up demand for smuggled supplies and therefore smuggling profits. Gaza has been known to work in curious ways.
“[B]urgeouning is not exactly how I’d describe an area in a state of “crisis.” And the story raises the question of how strict the Israeli closure is if Janis Mackey Frayer got into Gaza to do this report. Did she go through Egypt?
Even going through Yahoo! News, I see a few items reported from Gaza, so it’s not like there’s a total absence of reporters in Gaza right now.
Like I wrote above, perhaps there is a case to be made for Israel allowing reporters in. But the lack of more reporters traveling to Gaza is hardly a crisis. And the FPA’s and Nissenbaum’s sanctimony is less than convincing. Maybe if more reporters tried actual reporting instead of propagandizing, Israel would be more sensitive to their mission to inform public’s right to know.
UPDATE: Backspin and Elder of Ziyon follow up. The latter writes about the foreign media based in Gaza:
They censor themselves more than the Gaza reporters who live there! After all, who reported on the stories I listed above? Certainly not the foreign media!
I’d add that you should also check out this post from the Elder. Yesterday he blogged about Hamas having secret jails in Gaza, Hamas/Fatah clashes at a Gaza university and Israel’s decision to send more goods into Gaza despite more missiles being shot into Israel. Then re-read Nissenbaum’s complaint. Nissenbaum (and I suspect most of the rest of the foreign media) wouldn’t report on these incidents. They only want to be in Gaza in order to write about Israeli mistakes, not about what goes on every day. That’s why their concern for Israel’s image is so hypocritical.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
11/25/2008
Bigoted disease struck from Canadian college fundraiser
Here’s a great example of what is wrong with political correctness: It turns people into total morons. (H/T: Hot Air.)
Carleton University won’t be holding a popular fundraiser to benefit cystic fibrosis, it was confirmed Tuesday, after the student council passed a motion falsely claiming the disease affects only white men.
In what journalism councillor Nick Bergamini calls an “incredibly divisive” move, the Council of Carleton University Students Association (CUSA) passed a motion at a meeting late Monday night that effectively cancelled the annual Shinerama fundraising campaign.
Shinerama events occur during the school’s orientation week and proceeds go to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF).
The association raised the motion based on information it received from one of its former executive members that the disease affects only white people and mostly males, Bergamini told CTV.ca.
[...] Cystic fibrosis, which is the most common genetic fatal disease in young people in Canada, affects just as many young girls as boys, Morrison added.
We have to wonder if perhaps the student council of Carleton U. is made up of absolute idiots. Because here’s the relevant text of the motion:
Whereas all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve the their diverse communities;
And Whereas Cystic fibrosis has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men
Be it resolved that: CUSA discontinue its support of this campaign
Say, Max, tell us what you think about this student council motion.
To be honest, it is a disaster. If you have a few extra dollars and you’re wondering where to donate it, give to the Cystic Fibrosis foundation. Max has CF. And while he is white and male, I’m pretty sure the disease didn’t consider that before it manifested in him.
UN to Darfur: These people can’t stay in camps forever
The irony of this story is so rich, I think I’ve suffered an overdose. The head of UN humanitarian aid says that Darfur refugees need to suck it up and stop expecting the UN to keep giving them handouts.
The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Tuesday that international aid for millions of Darfur residents can not go on indefinitely and said the Sudanese government and rebels must negotiate a solution that would allow the displaced to return home.
John Holmes made the comments as he visited Kalma camp, home to around 100,000 of the more than 2.5 million people displaced by fighting in the large region of western Sudan since 2003.
Earlier this month, Holmes appealed for $2.2 billion in donations to fund U.N. aid for Sudan, most of which would go to Darfur. The world body is providing food and other supplies not only to residents of camps but also to much of the remainder of Darfur’s 4.7 million population who still live in their homes.
Holmes said that while security in Darfur continues to deteriorate and people are still being displaced by violence, many cases are not emergencies because people are reasonably well settled in these camps.
“People are not dying of starvation,” he said. But “the problem is that people have been in camps for four or five years now,” he told reporters. “We need to find some solutions quickly so we don’t have to go on doing this indefinitely,” Holmes added.
After all, we don’t want to start another UNRWA, do we? These people aren’t Palestinians, so they can’t be fourth-generation refugees.
Yesterday, the UN commemorated 61 years of making Palestinians the only people in the world who can add Perpetual Refugee to their resume. But the Darfurians? Well, they have to come to grips with reality and find a solution to why they’re in refugee camps. Sure, there may be Islamic thugs ruling their country, burning down villages, raping, killing, and enslaving them. But hey, do they expect the UN to keep feeding and housing them forever?
Now, if only the Darfurians can convince the UN that Israel is really behind their problems. Then the UN would fund them indefinitely.
Montana vs. the lighthouse
I love this story. It starts …
ACTUAL transcript of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995. This radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on 10-10-95.
What I didn’t know (until last week), that it had been made into a video!
As great as it is, the story is not true!. And the Navy even has a page devoted to its debunking.
I don’t care, it’s still a riot.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Ehud Olmert: Hey, I’m still going to force my agenda down Israel’s throat
Ehud Olmert must think he’s the king of Israel. Because he’s trying to give away the farm without any kind of mandate, or even public backing.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made clear on Tuesday once again that he still has the mandate to make concessions on Israel’s behalf, despite his lame duck government.
“In principle there is nothing to prevent us from reaching an agreement on the core issues in the near future,” Olmert said regarding the ongoing peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
“We’re in a situation where it’s possible to do so, and I hope we do. It would be good for the State of Israel.”
In principle, he could, yes. But if he did so, it would be the final act of the most clueless prime minister Israel has ever had. Israelis don’t want to give away any more concessions to the Palestinians without first gaining security. Most Israelis do not want to give up any more land. They’ve learned that every time they give up land without anything in return from the Palestinians, it emboldens their enemies.
But gee, Ehud, it sure would put your name in the history books if you could force that peace deal, wouldn’t it? And that’s what it’s all about now: How history will see the prime minister who took over from Ariel Sharon, blew the 2006 Lebanon war, watched as Hamas took over Gaza, did not stop the rocket fire into Israel, and resigned due to corruption issues. He’s said he’s willing to give up almost every inch of territory Israel won in 1967, including half of Jerusalem (which Israelis do not want). And he’ll ask almost nothing regarding security issues on the Palestinian and Syrian sides. Just give them back the land and hope, is his strategy. Like it’s worked so far.
But hey—in principle, he could still broke a peace deal with the Palestinians and truly wreck things for the next PM. But at least he’d have all those cheerleaders on the left.
Asking the arsonist to put out the fire
Israel’s foreign minister has asked the UN to take a stand against the continued rocket fire from Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni demanded in a telephone conversation with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday that the world stop ignoring attacks on Israel by Gaza militants.
Livni “demanded that the international community stop applying a policy of ignoring acts of terror aimed at hurting innocent people,” her office said in a statement.
“The international community must sound its voice and influence more clearly and decisively,” she said.
Yesterday the UN just commemorated International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People – as if having at least 12 organizations devoted to (perpetuating) the “Palestinian problem” isn’t enough. Mahmoud Abbas recently elected “President of the Palestinian State” gave a speech at the event yesterday that included a graphic (.pdf) – in the upper right hand corner – portraying all of Israel as Palestine.
Let’s remember of course that even if the UN and Palestinians complain about the lack of goods in Gaza, there’s one commodity that doesn’t suffer: rockets.
Inside this storage hold, the walls and windows had been decorated for our visit with the group’s black flags emblazoned with emblems and Arabic script. The Al-Nasser Brigades are an armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, indoctrinated by generations of Gaza’s Islamic resistance, and these days loyal to Hamas.
The room bristled with rockets in varying sizes and stages of readiness that three faceless men in balaclavas quietly choreographed in a showcase of firepower. There was even a spotlight to afford better lighting for the camera. Large red warheads filled with explosives were screwed into place atop black metal tubes and hoisted onto their launching stands.
Each rocket was labeled by hand with white paint to identify its brandname and strength: According to the group, the al-Nasr 2 reaches a distance of four kilometres. The slightly better al-Nasr 3 rocket can go nearly three times as far. t is the al-Nasr 4 — at a daunting two-plus metres in length — that is the triumph of their development efforts.
The rocket has a range of 20 kilometers, proven last May when one of them careened into a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. It happened to coincide with a visit to Israel by US president George W. Bush.
The famous tradeoff of guns and butter has been altered to today’s Gaza where the new paradigm is flour and rockets. From what I can tell, the rockets are winning.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Comments Off
11/24/2008
A Heroes question
No spoilers, unless you haven’t seen the new season. In which case:
Holy Land Foundation: Guilty on all charges
Much, much more to come later. But the Texas jury found the defendants guilty on all charges this time around. Good for the prosecution.
Iran’s blogfather arrested
What surprised me about Hossein Derakhshan when I interviewed him in a café on Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim Street two years ago was that the self-exiled Iranian, who was arrested this month during a visit to Tehran on suspicion of being an Israeli spy, favored a nuclear-armed Iran and a religious Islamic regime.
What isn’t surprising is that Derakhshan has now been arrested. He was arrested for a most serious crime.
The object of his visit, Derakhshan said, was to show his countrymen Israel’s human face and to detoxify relations between the two peoples after Ahmadinejad called for Israel’s elimination.
“I want to humanize Israel for Iranians and tell them it’s not what the Islamic propaganda machine is saying – that Israelis are thirsty for Muslim blood,” he said. “And I want to show Israel that the average Iranian isn’t even thinking about doing harm to Israel. I want them to see Iranians who don’t look like Ahmadinejad.”
Damn him, trying to humanize Israel.
Do you figure that the Committee to Protect Journalists will be as keen to protect him as they were to protect Bilal Hussein?
Unfortunately, Iran has just executed someone else for spying for Israel.
The agency reported that Ali Ashtari was executed by hanging on Monday. It said he was arrested in 2006 and confessed during his trial in June to spying for Israel through security and telecommunication equipment.
Iranian news media reported in June that Mr. Ashtari, 45, had received a death sentence for spying. At the time, newspapers said he had been the manager of a company selling communication and security equipment to the Iranian government.
It’s hard to know if Ashtari was guilty, but my suspicion is that he ran afoul of the regime for some other reason and they charged him with espianoge. It was never clear how Mr. Ashtari would have gotten knowledge of Iran’s nuclear program. Even Al Jazeera sounds skeptical. Alas the Washington Post does all it can to make Iran seem reasonable by interviewing an Iranian counterintelligence official but not expressing much skepticism about the official’s claims.
It’s hard to feel a lot of sympathy for Iran, that its actions are being suspected.
The cleric, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is also a former president, said at Friday Prayer that a report released Wednesday by Mohamed ElBaradei, the atomic energy agency’s director general, was ambiguous.
“Unfortunately, Mr. ElBaradei always talks ambiguously,” Mr. Rafsanjani said. “We expect the agency to be fair and impartial.” Dr. ElBaradei said in the report that Iran needed to provide the agency with substantive information to support its claims that the country’s nuclear program was intended to produce only nuclear power, not nuclear warheads.
And I wish that Mr. Rafsanjani’s regime had been “fair and impartial” to Mr. Ashtari. Maybe they’ll show some of that to Hossein Derakhshan. Not likely.
Highly publicized executions and arrests might be one way to rally support when faced with falling popularity.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Comments Off
Hezbullah stronger than ever
It’s good to know that the UN is enforcing UNSC resolution 1701, calling for the disarmament of Hezbullah. Because otherwise, Hezbullah might be three times stronger now than it was during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.
Hizbullah has grown three times stronger than at the end of the Second Lebanon War, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.
“They have 42,000 missiles now, which could also reach Ashkelon, Beersheba and Dimona. The radical axis of Iran, Syria and Hizbullah is becoming stronger compared to the axis of the more moderate countries,” he added.
If we didn’t have UN Peacekeepers in Lebanon, turning a blind eye to the rearmament (and the truckloads of weapons coming in from Syria), things might be even worse than they were two and a half years ago.
As for Hizbullah’s recent exercises in southern Lebanon, Barak said this proves that UN Resolution 1701 is not working.
“Hizbullah’s involvement in the state of Lebanon, this identity, exposes Lebanon and its infrastructures to deeper damage in case of a future conflict,” he noted.
I’m so happy that UN is concentrating on the important things, like a day of mourning for the Palestinians to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UN partition of the British Mandate. It’s great that Nobel Peace Prize winners are calling for the expulsion of Israel from the UN, but not a nation that has taken an armed terrorist group, responsible for the deaths of Americans and Israelis the world over, into their government and made them legitimate—even as they regularly threaten to use their weapons to destroy Israel.
Yes, just another day in Israeli Double Standard Time.
Comments Off
11/23/2008
Ahmadinejad whistling past the graveyard
This one’s a laugh-out-loud example of sheer propaganda:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran’s economy will survive falling oil prices.
Iranian state television has quoted Ahmadinejad as saying the plummeting price of oil “will not cause any remarkable problems” to the economy.
He added in his remarks Sunday that the economy was self-reliant would be fine with an oil price of $5.
Really? Because international oil experts are of the opinion that Iran is in deep, deep trouble right now. Oil is under $50 a barrel. They say Iran needs it to be at least $70/bbl to break even, and some put it as high as $100/bbl.
Meanwhile, IRNA says that Mad Mahmoud is Iran’s most popular politician. However, this is the Iranian state media, so one has to wonder exactly how revealing the poll can be.
Based on an opinion poll President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the most popular political figure in the Iranian society.
The poll, conducted by IRNA Research and News Analysis Department at the 15th Tehran International Press and News Agencies Exhibition from November 20-21, showed that 55.69 percent of respondents would vote to President Ahmadinejad in the next year 10th presidential elections.
When IRNA breaks out the polls stats, you just have to laugh:
Nine (three percent) of the respondents were managing director of the press, 33 people (11 percent) journalism experts, 147 people (49%) were reporters, 48 people (16%) were employees, 36 people (12%) were in charge of pavilions and 27 people (nine percent) were graphists and photographers/photojournalists.
What did they do? Poll their own staff?
Detailed report on the opinion poll will be made available on IRNA website in two weeks’ time.
More detailed than that? What, are we going to learn what they ate for breakfast that morning?
Comments Off
The Israel-bashing crowd speaks
For some reason, Yahoo News linked to my latest post on Gaza in their “Most Blogged” section, which brought me about double the normal Saturday traffic. I woke up Saturday morning to 21 comments awaiting moderation. Sixteen of them never got approved, as they all fail the No Israel-Bashing rule. But I thought I’d share some of them with you, to show you the utter derangement and ignorance of the anti-Israel crowd.
Let us restate the point of my post: I wrote that the world is wringing its hands over a so-called “imminent” humanitarian disaster in Gaza, when there is no such disaster. It is all lies by Hamas, reported uncritically by the world media, with the full backing of the UN relief organizations who insist that Gazans are starving when they know full well that the Gaza store shelves are fully stocked, because they’ve been pictured in stores with, gee, shelves fully stocked. I also pointed out that there is a real disaster in Haiti that the UN is far less concerned about, with real pictures of real children who are, well, really starving.
Here are some of the comments:
It is true.
The catastrophe in Haiti is more pressing.
However, nothing can ever excuse that Israel withholds food shipments from Gaza.
Penalizing a population for how it casts its ballot is always a crime against humanity. Withholding food imports to Israel because it repeatedly re-elects war criminals would also be such a crime.
What you do is condoning a double-homocide just because there is mass murder on the other side of town.
That’s Jonas from Germany, completely ignoring the fact that there is no crisis in Gaza. But he’s not finished yet.
… but we must be realistic; which party of this conflict kills WAY more civilians?
So, which party is deliberately aiming rockets at schools and hospitals, and which party has tried to change its ways to the point that not a single civilian has been killed in the act of stopping terrorist rockets? But hey, don’t let the facts get in the way of your opinion there, guy.
Vic from Ohio shows that he’s stupid as well as illiterate:
it is as though king herodism has taken hold of israel.As a nation they are outlaws and I do not understand how the world stands back and watches.The treatment of palestinians is a holocaust the only pertinent holocaust involving jews at this time.Growing up in N.Y. among so many good caring friends I am shocked by the silence.
Hm. That “holocaust” must not be working very well, because the Palestinian population has grown 30% in the last ten years. The true Holocaust murdered two-thirds of Europe’s Jews. When you play the numbers game, the truth always trumps fiction. Too bad Vic is too stupid to read up on the facts.
Here’s one from a Bay Area denizen that’s short and totally incomprehensible:
one word: Israeoil
Um… huh?
Andrew is in Pakistan, and seems to have picked up the local attitude about Jews while he’s there:
Is anyone blocking the distribution of relief aid in Haiti?
There’s the finer point of the matter.
Indeed, no, no one is blocking aid to Haiti. Which makes it even more reprehensible that children are starving there. But then, Haitians aren’t firing missiles into Florida. Perhaps if they did, the world would be more helpful to their cause.
Mike gets all the Chomsky talking points down:
Why compare one human disaster to another as if they’re sale items at WalMarts? The forces of human destruction are the same around the globe -profit before people. Why are we giving billions to Israel to bulldoze people’s homes? Who’s the real terrorists here?
Then there’s the fact that Israel no longer bulldozes terrorist’s homes. Once again, don’t let the facts get in the way of your opinion there, Mikey. Just jump up and down and scream “Terrorists!” at Israel.
Danus from Denver asks:
You mention that no one has even a picture of emaciated child to show the world
But didn’t the Israelis block all foreign journalists from entering Gaza to prevent.. what exactly?
Funny, Hamas manages to get out the pictures of Gaza being blacked out… but there’s not a single picture of a starving child. Which proves… what exactly? That’s right. That it’s not a disaster. It’s a manufactured “crisis” that doesn’t exist.
Here’s a simple one from a guy whose email address is monkey_nads@hotmail.com. I kid you not.
lol, no israel bashing. what a joke.
No, actually, serious as a heart attack. By the way, nice email address. And oh, he has more to say:
you people are SICK! one asks sarcastically, How can Hamas build missiles and bombs if Israel doesn’t let them? that is BS. LET THEM? that is the problem, if palestinians want to do anything, israel has to let them. americans dont have to ask anybody to do anything, but be damned sure youd bomb them if you did. take a projection, who is the real terrorist?
Get it? Israel lets Hamas build the bombs. I’m not quite sure why, but Monkey Nads has the answer. It’s because Israelis are the real terrorists. They want to let Hamas fire rockets that can kill Israelis. If you can follow that logic, well, you, too, can have an email address that even my teenaged nephew would decline to use. (Because while he may be a teenaged boy, he has some modicum of taste.)
Diana from Texas says that Hamas is just a distraction, and it’s really all Bush’s fault, anyway.
I wish everyone could see past “Hamas” to the families,old women,children that are the ones who are suffering there. The military is always taken care of first.
You’re right,the two past elections of Bush sure did teach us consequences.
I’m guessing Obama voter. I’m also guessing that she, too, did not really read the post.
This one is my favorite: Khan from Sri Lanka.
It’s the tradgey of the human race, that a few law breakes such as an illegitimate ‘ state’ such as Israel can take the law into its hand and continue to enslave the people of GAZA with immunity. It is very clear that the UNO is nothing but an impotent organisation without the power to do anything. But the worst thing is that the so called Muslim countries have become so insensitive to the sufferings of their brothers that they do not even have the gut to raise a voice. It is time the puppet rulers of the Muslim world should be thrown out and a united Muslim nation should come into the forefront as a formidable force. It is time to empower the Muslim youth all over the world with this aim. Until then Gaza, our hearts weep for you and we are just watching the tragedy.
To which we must reply: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!
And there you have most of them. None of them actually took in the point of the post. All of them buy the Palestinian propaganda wholly. They insist that there’s a humanitarian disaster going on in Gaza, in spite of all evidence to the contrary that no such thing is happening—because the UN and the media are insisting that it is.
Well, I have my own news analyst for the last word on the Gaza situation. Max, tell us what you think is happening in Gaza:
Haveil Havalim
The Thanks and Giving edition of Haveil Havalim is up. I’m sure the New York Times editorial board will find something as horrifying in Haveil Havalim as they did in the video of Sarah Palin’s interview on a turkey farm. (I’ve watched the video. It’s, uh, well—I’m squeamish about lions killing prey on nature shows, and I went “That’s IT?” on this one.)
A few quick peeks: Rahm Emanuel loses his security clearance. (Ties to Israel. Has anyone lost their clearance over ties to Saudi Arabia?)
I like this idea: An India-Israel-US alliance against terrorism. The Indians face constant terrorist attacks from the Islamists within and without.
A rebbetzin’s husband (I love that concept) on trying.
There’s also the Kosher Cooking Carnival, which is probably a good thing to check out on the eve of Thanksgiving.
Read the rest. I’m only cherry-picking the few that I clicked on.
11/22/2008
Well, that was interesting
Yahoo News linked to my post on Gaza’s “imminent” disaster, and I have a ton of comments waiting in the moderation queue that will probably not get approved. Nobody reads the comments policy, except for the one guy who didn’t like the idea that this is a No Israel-Bashing Zone.
But boy, do I have post fodder for the finest examples of the anti-Israel arguments. These people obviously don’t read the news. There are still some complaining about Israel bulldozing terrorists’ homes, a policy that was stopped years ago. And then there are the incoherent Biblical references. Ummmm…. o-kaaay. (Stepping back slowly.)
I’ll have to check where they came from, because most of them were between 2 and 8 a.m. I suspect they weren’t from around here.
Comments Off
11/21/2008
A wistful look back
You know what I miss?
I miss the unserious posts. Not just the cat posts, but the posts with pictures of wasps on my tap, or how much Coke2 sucked, or the ant wars, or a host of other posts that you guys actually commented on (and frequently).
Is it me? Am I too serious? Or is it you folks. There are so many of you out there who never post a comment, who just keep coming by and reading, day after day. I mean, I know that’s the way the world works. Some people talk, most people listen. But I seemed to have more talkers back in the day when I had fewer listeners, if you get my drift.
I should remember to post at least one unserious post per day. Maybe more than one.
UN on Gaza: An “imminent” disaster years in the making
Let’s play a game. Guess when this article was written:
Leading UN agencies are issuing increasingly dramatic warnings about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Israeli forces continue their search for a captured soldier, Gilad Shalit. There have also been numerous expressions of international public dismay. But effective inter-governmental action to end the crisis is so far lacking, due largely to deadlock within the UN security council.
“An already alarming situation, with poverty rates at nearly 80% and unemployment at nearly 40%, is likely to deteriorate rapidly unless immediate, urgent action is taken,” the UN agencies said in a joint statement. The UN Relief and Works Agency said Gaza was “on the brink of a public health disaster” due to electricity and water shortages caused by Israeli military action.
Now guess when this article was written:
Gaza faces a humanitarian “catastrophe” if Israel continues to prevent aid reaching the territory by blocking crossing points, the head of the main UN aid agency for the Palestinians said on Friday.
Karen AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said the human toll of this month’s sealing of Gaza’s goods crossings was the gravest since the early days of a Palestinian uprising eight years ago.
The first “imminent” disaster article was written in July, 2006. The one above is from yesterday. So is this:
“It’s been closed for so much longer than ever before… and we have nothing in our warehouses… It will be a catastrophe if this persists, a disaster,” said AbuZayd, whose agency is the largest aid body providing services to Palestinian refugees.
Then there’s this one, from 2007:
“The situation in Gaza is worsening by the minute. Humanitarian disaster has been imminent for years but something has to be done now and very quickly,” Eyad Nasser, spokesman for the Red Cross in Gaza, told Ynet Saturday.
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
A humanitarian disaster was also predicted in May, 2006. Twice. And I’m sure if I checked my old archives, I’d find the same thing from even earlier.
It’s amazing how, for a place that is always on the verge of a humanitarian disaster, the mortality rate of Palestinians seems to be among the lowest of all the world’s disasters. You want to see a real disaster? Children in Haiti are dying of starvation.
The five-year-old teetered on broomstick legs; he weighed less than 20 pounds, even after days of drinking enriched milk. Nearby, a four-year-old girl hung from a strap attached to a scale, her wide eyes lifeless, her emaciated arms dangling weakly.
In pockets of Haiti accessible only by donkey or foot, children are dying of malnutrition, their already meagre food supply cut by a series of devastating storms that destroyed crops, wiped out livestock and sent food prices spiralling.
At least 26 severely malnourished children have died in the past four weeks in the remote region of Baie d’Orange in Haiti’s southeast, aid workers said Thursday, and there are fears the toll will rise much higher if help does not come quickly to the impoverished Caribbean country.
This is all I can find on Haiti about food aid in the UN News Center.
With seeds, water and ‘plastic’ UN helps Haiti offset hurricanes, food prices
However, this is the lead article.
Ban regrets that Israel has not heeded his call to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza
You have two instances of humanitarian disasters. In one, children are dying of starvation. (Click on the link. You’ll see what a starving child looks like.) In another, bureaucrats are whining that a disaster is “imminent,” but nobody can seem to find so much as a skinny child to hold up to the cameras.
Where is the world’s outrage?
Why, with Israel, of course. If the Haitian children were charges of Israelis, you’d find the world running to their defense in a nanosecond. But since Israel has nothing to do with them, they are being allowed to die off-stage—while the fake Gaza humanitarian “crisis” is being decried all the way up to the SecGen’s office.
Say it with me, folks: It’s Israeli Double Standard Time. But don’t worry, it only occurs on days that end with a Y.
The UN’s Jew-hatred
It can’t get much clearer than this. From an Eye on the UN press release:
This Monday, November 24th, the UN will commemorate its annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People with a film depicting Jews as Nazi-equivalents and a public exhibit mourning the sixty years of Israel’s existence.
“The event is an annual reminder that the UN’s real agenda is to delegitimize the birth – and the perseverance – of the state of Israel,” said Anne Bayefsky, Editor of EYEontheUN.org.
Monday’s observance marks November 29, 1947 – the day that the UN voted to establish a Jewish and an Arab state in Palestine – a decision accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs. This year’s observance is being held a week early due to scheduling conflicts.
As in years past, there will be a formal meeting Monday morning of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, a film, an afternoon meeting of the General Assembly on the “Question of Palestine,” and the opening of a public exhibit in the entrance to the UN’s New York headquarters.
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan referred to November 29th as “a day of mourning and a day of grief,” and the usual procedure is for UN member state after UN member state to use the opportunity to grieve for the suffering of the Palestinian people at Israeli hands.
The General Assembly is scheduled to adopt another six resolutions condemning only Israel for violations of human rights. The total number of resolutions criticizing Israel expected to be adopted at this fall’s General Assembly is 20, as compared to only four resolutions critical of human rights records in any of the remaining 191 UN member nations.
The 2008 installment of what is in essence a repeat of the “Zionism = Racism” allegation, will be the public showing of the film “La Terre Parle Arabe” or “The Land Speaks Arabic.” The film draws parallels between the Nazis’ final solution and the alleged Zionist design for Palestinians. It is commonly billed with these words: “…the late-19th century Zionists…drew up plans, put them into practice, then…used… force, often brutal.”
And it gets even worse.
Here is some of the script for the UN public’s edification:
“Christians and Muslims alike…unite in their hatred of Zionism…I preferred to die as a martyr rather than be governed by the Jews …We were against the Jews…The number of Jews increased constantly…The children cried …The Hagana had no mercy, no pity. Zionists! They were Zionists!… The Jews were shooting at us, they were facing us…The Jews yelled “turn around you bastards, you dogs.” They machine gunned us…They started killing people who were asleep…[We]…found a poor woman…pregnant. They had killed her and the baby came out of the womb. They started slaughtering them until morning.”
The exhibit to be opened at 6 p.m. on Monday in the UN lobby – the public entrance through which school children from across the United States and tourists from around the world pass every day – is entitled “The Palestinians: 60 years of struggle and enduring hope.” Bayefsky comments: “The “sixty years” of struggle is telling. It puts a lie to the alleged root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict as an “occupation” that began with the 1967 war. The real complaint is the alleged wrong of the creation of the State of Israel itself.” She adds: “The carefully selected word “struggle” also speaks volumes. What the UN glorifies as a struggle is a series of wars launched by Arabs to annihilate the state of Israel beginning in 1948, and the ongoing “struggle” of Palestinian and other Arab terrorists dedicated to the same end.”
Tell me, does the world commemorate the 60th anniversary of the separation of Pakistan from India?
The modern state of Pakistan was established on 14 August 1947 (27 Ramadan 1366 in the Islamic Calendar), carved out of the two Muslim-majority wings in the eastern and northwestern regions of British India and comprising the provinces of Balochistan, East Bengal, the North-West Frontier Province, West Punjab and Sindh. The controversial division of the provinces of Punjab and Bengal caused communal riots across India and Pakistan — millions of Muslims moved to Pakistan and millions of Hindus and Sikhs moved to India. Disputes arose over several princely states including Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir, whose ruler had acceded to India following an invasion by Pashtun tribal militias, leading to the First Kashmir War in 1948.
No? Why is that, I wonder? Hypocrisy? Naaah. Anti-Semitism? Now you’re getting it.
The generosity of Americans
On the campaign trail, Barack Obama accused Americans of not being charitable enough. Well, he was wrong.
As more Americans turn to charity amid worsening economic gloom, operators of food banks and other aid groups are relying on the surprisingly resilient generosity of their neighbors and finding that even when times are tough, people still give.
In Seattle, Boeing Co. (BA) employees tripled their cash donations this year to Northwest Harvest, operator of Washington’s largest food bank. And every week, Northwest Harvest spokeswoman Claire Acey says, companies call to say their employees have decided to skip their holiday party and buy food for the hungry instead.
Our synaogue food bank donations were higher than ever this year. I know I gave more than last year, and I gave a lot last year.
Greeves, of Harris Interactive, said that in a year when people are having trouble meeting basic needs, giving by individuals usually increases food, shelter and health care.
“If it makes them feel good and they feel like it’s making a difference, they’ll give money,” he said.
I don’t think it’s the “feel good” part that counts. I think the average American gives when she or he can when times are tough, because times are tough, and everyone can use a helping hand.