Irony

Today Israel went after two terrorists in Gaza. They were hit from the air by the air force. They were killed. A family eating breakfast on their balcony near by was also killed. A mother and her children. But no they were not killed by the IDF. They were killed by the explosives that the terrorists had in their possession. Imagine that. Explosives being kept near civilians. Does Hamas take responsibility for putting its civilians in harms way or do they blame Islamic Jihad? Silly me. They are never responsible for anything.

Submitted by Carol

Not Now

Maybe later. Syria and Israel are not at war so we do already have a kind of peace. Our border with Syria is quiet. Our border with Egypt is not so quiet and we have a signed piece of paper that says we have peace. But they allow arms smuggling to our enemy Hamas. 

Eventually we will have to deal with Syria but I think we need to concentrate on only one thing right now. Figuring out how to deal with the Hamas/Fatah dynamic so we can reach an agreement which will end in two states for two people. As I view the dynamics of the region I see this as of major importance. Of course there is the obvious which is an end to the already too long conflict. The other reason is Iran. Iran is itching to get its claws into the area. It doesn't need a nuclear bomb. In fact the logistics of bombing Israel and not destroying Jerusalem and some of the neighboring Arab countries is pretty impossible. Even a dirty bomb poses most of the same problems. Now Syria and Iran have bonded. Syria arms Hezbollah with weapons from Iran. Syrias venture into nuclear something or other is in my opinion connected to Iran. While the IAEA was busy focussing on Iran, Syria was quietly building a secret reactor or nuclear bomb making plant with the help of the North Koreans. Smoke and mirrors. A good trick that luckily did not succeed. So back to the premise. How does Iran destroy Israel without directly bombing it? 

Lets go with the land for peace formula. Israel gives back the Golan Heights. Syria puts a civilian population on the Golan Heights. Then Syria puts a resistance movement on the Golan Heights. Well I would call them terrorists but thats just me. Everyone has learned from the Hezbollah Second Lebanon War example. Its the homefront stupid. They hit us just like Hezbollah and just like Hamas and friends in Gaza. We are then forced to hit back at a population center. You can all say its an act of war if we are hit. I say yada yada yada. What Hezbollah did was an act of war and we are still at fault because of civilian deaths. What is happening in Gaza is our fault because there are civilian deaths. The formula has been perfected. We don't have an answer to it. Not yet anyway. You need finesse to answer this kind of crap and we have no leaders who know what finesse means. 

So the argument that the height of the Golan Heights is not strategically important anymore due to advanced technology may or may not be true. It doesn't matter. Its not part of the equation. When we left Gaza the feeling was that the terrorists would do what they wanted. They were shooting at the settlers anyway. Except now they are closer to our population centers and things have gotten so much worse since we pulled out.

Once we have an agreement with the Palestinians we can deal with Syria. Until then they are a pawn of Iran who wants to destroy Israel and who wants control in Jerusalem. Its the whole Sunni/ Shiite thing. We need to take away the motivation to destroy our great country. Then we can deal with the Golan Heights which I think some parts of should stay permanently in our hands. 

Submitted by Carol 

Sharav

Its just too freakin hot to write about anything!

Two Irritants and an Idiot

Peace Now. Sounds like something one should strive for and something that most normal people would want. The group is celebrating 30 years of one sidedness that also wears blinders. Peace now was formed with one aim, to stop the occupation. I hate the term and no I do not live in la la land. It is the term adopted from the enemy which gives the impression that we went out to get us some more land when what we did was fight a defensive war and we ended up with extra land. The term occupation ignores the fact that we wanted to return the land and the only answer was NO from the Arabs. While I am at it let me just mention that although we wanted to negotiate its return it is as much Israel as Tel Aviv. So what irritates me? Certainly not vocabulary. What irritates me is their inability to advocate for peace on both sides. For them the end to the "occupation" will bring the coming of the messiah. Get out and peace will come. They ignore all Palestinian acts of violence against Israel. They ignore the fact that these terrorists see ALL of Israel as being occupied. They demand nothing from the Palestinians. They show no sympathy for the people of Sderot or victims of other terrorist attacks. Maybe if they had called themselves by another name and not pretended to be peace activists I would be less offended by them. You need only one side to make war but you need both sides for peace. Ironically I would like to see a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza. But for this goal I will never give my support or stand with those from Peace Now.

The second irritant I discovered this morning as I read my paper. The Ultra Orthodox community has decided to boycott a certain supermarket chain because the owner also operates mini markets that are open on Shabbat. Hypocrites! They do not boycott other establishments whose owners own other businesses that are open on Shabbat. I agree with the author of the article who said that this particular tycoon wasn't donating money to Ultra Orthodox venues. Money trumps halacha any day.

And lastly the idiot. Mr Meshal the CEO of Hamas in Damascus. I almost never think of him as a fool. His daughter just got married and he told her to have many children with which to fuel the resistance. Looks like our old buddy realizes that what he is doing won't succeed and he will need future generations because we, Israel, will still be here! Actually I may not be giving him enough credit because he did get that part right! 

Holy Cow!

Hey I woke up this morning and my usual routine is ro read the paper and have some coffee. I hadn't taken a sip of coffee yet as I opened the newspaper. There was an article on the front page, right in the center actually, about Sderot. For a few seconds I thought I was looking at Haaretz. Then I realized it was the International Herald Tribune. I was stunned. Okay so maybe it was the lack of caffeine but still amazing.

Fitna

I guess I need to add my 2 cents to the talk about this movie made by the Dutch member of parliament. For those that have not seen it the majority of the film consists of verses from the Qu'ran paired with speeches made by radical Islamic leaders. The verses are also paired with scenes from 9/11 and scenes from suicide bombings that took place in Israel. The later part f the film shows statistics pointing to the growth of Islam in Holland and in the world. This is paired with speeches by radical Islamic leaders where they talk about their quest for world dominance.

As a Jew I could not help but think how easily someone could take bits of text from the Torah to do something similar to the Jews. This guy crossed a dangerous line by using the religion to make a case against radical Islam. It will fuel those bigots who cannot or do not want to see the manipulation.  He seems to have a great fear of Islam taking over the world. I believe that is his motivation for making the film.

I hate radical Islam and all its bigotry and hate that they promote. This film however is the wrong answer to the problem of radical Islam. Hopefully his 15 minutes of fame will end and not in violence by either side. 

In Memorium

Our English bulldog, Max, died today.

He was the best dog ever. Hell, Max was the best friend ever.

He was old. He was eleven and a half years old and evidently for a bulldog, that's pretty damn old. He hadn't been doing well lately and there was nothing anyone could do for him but make him comfortable. Max went to sleep last night and I found him in his usual comfortable position this morning, but he wasn't with us anymore.

From the day we adopted him, Max was a character. He was so small I carried him home on the inside of my jacket because it was raining outside. I don't know if you've ever seen an English bulldog puppy, but they're three-quarters head and one-quarter body.

Max had more personality than 80 percent of the humans I know. His heart was huge, and pure. He demanded that you love him, and could never conceive of the concept that someone, either human or animal, might be put off by him. Being a male, other male dogs may growl at him, and Max would stand there wagging his piglet shaped tail with the attitude of, "Don't be mad at me...LOVE ME!" Have you ever seen a bulldog smile? Well, I don't care what you say. Max could smile.

He was a nurse. He knew instinctively when one of us wasn't feeling well and he would lay down next to us our use his best known cure...smelling our eyes. In Max's world, that was healing.

He was a clown. There are too many stories of the funny things he did, sometimes seemingly on purpose, that had us in tears of laughter. Charlie Chaplin couldn't have mastered physical comedy the way Max was able to. Someday I'll tell you the story of the frisbee.

He snored. He snored like an eighty-year-old man from the day he was born. Samantha found it soporifically soothing. I couldn't sleep if he was even in the next room.

He was stubborn, he was belligerent, he was self-willed, and he made those all into attributes. Something no human could pull off.

He was love defined. Max made it possible for our dog Elvis to find his home here, and Max saved a cat's life who we call Smelly and is also part of our family. Elvis loved Max. Smelly loved Max. And Max's opinion? Of course!

He was a friend. I know he fought to stay with us, but as "bulldogish" as he always was, he knew when it was time to go.

The phrase, "all dogs go to heaven" comes to mind about now. I gotta tell you. I believe that. And I also must say that I know there's a special place for Max in that heaven, and he's saying, "What's to eat?!"

There's going to be a huge, Max-sized hole in my heart from now on, but I'd never trade this pain for not knowing him at all.

Max was a great person. You shoulda known him.

Max Warady
September 1, 1996 - March 5, 2008



Submitted by Charley