Daily musings 5/16/2016 - IDF Ethics.

Algemeiner: Former IDF general we are not the Palestinian defense forces

The ethics of the IDF are summarized as:
1. Protect Israeli Civilians at risk of IDF soldier lives.
2. Protect IDF soldiers where doing so does not infringe on 1.
3. Perform 1-2 with minimum civilian casualties among the enemy.

The ethics prescribed by the Obama administration are in stark contrast to these. They seem to be:
1. Disengage at all costs from areas of American influence.
2. Protect the army at all costs even if this endangers the population of the US.
3. Ignore civilian casualties when targeting enemy combatants of high value using drones.

I may not be nuanced enough for Obama, but nuance destroys ethical behavior and permits what Hannah Arendt called the banalization of evil.

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JJ: How to criticize Israel -- BY David Suissa

The order of the factors does not change the product. A mathematical axiom that applies to this piece of anti-Israeli propaganda. Saying you love Israel just before you dam it does not make you a lover of Israel.

To criticize fairly, one must present causes and address them. The rising anger of Jews in Israel at their Arab neighbors is rooted in missile strikes, stabbings, and 50 years of assaults and incitement to hatred. Anger is natural and designed to safeguard, that is why Israel is increasingly less interested in peace with its assassin Palestinian neighbors.

All one sided evaluations of Israel which doesn't even mention the problem is full of bull, and should not be printed by a reasonable Jewish Press, it should be left to our enemies to condemn us irrationally, not the PC garbage I read weekly in this paper.

Leonard Oken

Mr,Rogson and Mr.Hacker, I agree with you totally. Quite unsettling to realize that these publications are being infiltrated with...well today's version of American Jews! What will happen when we are gone and there is no one to" out " them?God willing the Moshiach will come and Israel will be so entrenched that no entity could remove her existence. Until then we must be vigilant at least to keep our sanity!

Daily Musings 5/12/2016 - How to criticize Israel, Is Trump good for Israel

JewishJournal:How_To_Criticize_Israel-David_Suissa

The order of the factors does not change the product. A mathematical axiom that applies to this piece of anti-Israeli propaganda.

To criticize fairly, one must present causes and address them. The rising anger of Jews in Israel at their Arab neighbors is rooted in missile strikes, in 50 years of assaults and incitement to hatred.  Anger is natural and designed to safeguard, that is why Israel is increasingly less interested in peace with its assassin Palestinian neighbors.

All one sided evaluations of Israel which doesn't even mention the problem is full of bull, and should not be printed by a reasonable Jewish Press, it should be left to our enemies to condemn us irrationally, not the PC garbage I read weekly in this paper.

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JewishJournal:Would President Donald Trump be good for Israel - Rob Eshman

Another anti Israeli diatribe from an anti Israeli newspaper.

If with Trump we can solve the 3 problems he recognizes, Iran, Palestian terror and hatred, and our UN problems, dayenu. We can then deal with the "demographic" bomb by separating, since we will have a partner to make peace with.

So let's accept that Trump is very Pro Israel, and stop with the dribble being put forth by this Newspaper both against Israel and against Trump

Daily Musings - 4/19/2016 -

WAPO -Trump’s national field director quits amid major staff changes by Jenna Johnson/Ed O'Keefe

What is happening is proper management from the top. After successfully completing the insurgency portion of the campaign, Trump needs aids knowledgeable of insider tactics, laws affecting how to purchase delegates, and other arcane, distasteful things he must do to counter the RNC.

Hopefully, after he wins, he'll make the one man one vote rule stick. A candidate controls the votes he so painfully acquired forever. He votes them, delegates go to a conference to interact, get training, but not to select candidates. Deals are made between candidates, not between power brokers and delegates....more

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NYT: Bernie’s Israel Heresy by Roger Cohen

I am often sickened by the "even handedness" which ignore motives, money, and process.
The motives of those who murder/attempt to murder Jewish men, women and children pursuing civilian activities are motivated by hate. There is no particular value to their act viewed sociologically or politically. The Jewish population has already seen worse, and adjusted. The left and the right agree that the attacks must be stopped through a variety of economic and social pressures (closing access to Israeli Jobs, blowing up the houses of the families of the murdering terrorists). There is some dispute of how hard/soft to proceed, but these are quibbles, not really political arguments.
So no particular Palestinian goals can be achieved except the expression of deep hatred of Jews for being Jews. This needs to be taken into account if and when the "Palestinians" decide to actually discuss peace.
Money is provided to organize the terrorism, by Hamas, the PLO, and/or Iran. The propaganda in the schools, in the radio and television, and in the Mosques is intense and on going, and besides incitement there are actual terrorist plots like the bombing of the Bus today, or the digging of the Tunnel the IDF just destroyed close to Gaza.
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WAPO: How South Carolina could fail refugees and religion - by Mark Hetfield and Jack Moline

As the shocking rise in anti-Muslim bigotry collides with increasing concern about terrorism at home and abroad, legislation attacking refugees has spread rapidly spread across the country.

There is nothing shocking or bigotry involved. Humans generalize, it is a good idea and saves lives. Muslims are seen as a dangerous group, because they are.  Pew Study in 2013 showed

Give than over 40% of the Muslim population (on average) want to impose Sharia law on us with refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan reaching 90%, I believe we can generalize on this subject.

The rest of the article is clap-trap. They state is bad because they will hold organizations responsible for the behavior of immigrants they bring over. But there won't be any criminal behavior by them, in any case.

So, why not hold them responsible if there is nor criminality? No harm, no foul!

Daily Roundup - Jan 28, 2016

Times Of Israel Blog: An-Abrahamic-team-in-israel-discusses-human-dignity-and-the-value-of-life

"The last four months in Israel have been characterized by terrorist incidents against innocent civilians and Israeli soldiers, as well as counter-terrorist measures that have taken the lives of many Palestinians in a new round of violence in Israel and the Territories (otherwise known as the West Bank or Judea and Samaria). This has been accompanied by increased incitement to violence and hatred on both sides which have only exacerbated the situation. During this period, calm rational dialogue and discussion have been almost totally absent."

What counter-terrorist measures have taken the lives of many Palestinians?  I am unaware of any Palestinian lives which have been lost over the past few months as a result of Israeli action other than those of the Palestinians, and Israeli Arabs which have actually attacked civilians and military personnel with cars, knives, and guns. While there have been some mild outbreaks of anti-Arab demonstrations in Jerusalem, none of these, as far as I know, have been violent.  Let me know the details of any such deaths.  The toll so far is over 30 Israeli citizens killed while going about their daily business.

This eternal attempt at ethical equivalence between murderers and the murders makes the rest of this article Pasul.

It is also wrong to say that calm, rational discussion has been absent. I am a daily listener and viewer of Israeli news, and the news I hear are mostly calm and rational, and often involve Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, especially Arab members of Knesset. Just about any view of Yaron London's one hour daily program London and Kirschenbaum (ז"ל) would disabuse someone of the notion that dialog is absent.

"The message was concise and clear: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Israel can live in peaceful coexistence together, with mutual understanding and respect. Our religious traditions—as was demonstrated by the texts of each tradition which were taught in the presentations– all stress the sanctity of human life and the dignity of every human being, irrespective of his or her religion, ethnic group, or nationality."

This may be the message of your discussion, but it is not the message delivered by those with knives, cars and guns everyday to the Israeli public.

There is a difference between reality and discussion, and that difference is never bridged by an ideological approach which equates justice with injustice, and terror with self defense.

Daily Roundup - Jan 21, 2016

HuffPost: Shooting to Kill--Ethical and Other Questions - Ron Kronish

"These are questions that are very much on my mind these days in the light of the constant killings of Palestinians who attempt to stab or otherwise harm Israeli soldiers and many innocent civilians. I have noticed that these questions are on the minds of other people in Israel, but not too many and not enough, probably due to a fear of speaking out that has been created by the government and by right-wing propagandists in Israel in recent weeks."

What an anti-semitic way of putting the question. 

A. We have the scene: 

1. Right wing regime - Right of center in defense certainly. Socialist by American terms in all other areas. Where is this "regime" calling comes from. It was democratically elected by fairly large margins (30 mandates!).

2. Fear of Speaking -- really, in Israel? You mean fear of not being heard unless you shout? Who in Israel has ever been afraid of speaking? Not the left, listen to the news, to London and Kirchenbaum read HaAretz, fear of speaking? Give us a Break! Total Nonsense.

B. We have the framing

1. "constant killings of Palestinians who attempt to stab..." So stop stabbing, end of problem!

2. No differentiation between those killed by civilians with weapons and those killed by the Police and Military.

2a. All those killed by civilians need to prove that the civilians did not fear for their lives. We saw one case where a shot woman was trying to stab the feet of people nearby before she was shot again and killed.  These are bystanders, thank God armed, and 30 I believe have already been killed. 

2b. In the case of the army and the police, these are trained personnel and you need to prove that any of them exceeded their training. Again there have been dead on both sides, people who were going about their lives, and terrorists that wished to commit suicide by murder. People whose suicide by murder brings praise as martyrs, and cash to their families.

If there was ever a case where the benefit of the doubt needs to go to the civilian, the police, the army, is when people determined to die, try to kill as many civilians as possible. The example in Tel Aviv shows what happens where there are not weapons and sufficiently trained personnel around to stop such crazed killers. Its aftermath shows how dangerous it is not to kill them on the spot when they hide among their neighbors who try to protect them from the authorities while being very vocal about the authorities not protecting them from the same terrorist. So much for fear of the authorities. (see the Israeli news, unfortunately in Hebrew, there is no dearth of speech).

I too was a student in Berkeley in the 60's and demonstrated against discrimination in the South. But blacks were not murdering whites and getting killed in the process, they were getting killed for being black, just as Jews are being killed in Israel for being Jewish. 

Scissors attack in Jerusalem : Very strange. The 14 year old stabs one person (a 70 year old Arab by mistake) and then tries to stab others who manages to hit her with a chair and throw her to the ground.  Her 16 year old companion raised her scissors at the man she tried to stab and was shot by the her victim who was carrying a gun. A policeman who was near by saw what happened and fired at the two, when he approached the one on the ground lunged at him with her scissors.  The result, the 14 year old died at the scene, and her 16 year old companion was seriously injured and is awaiting trial.

"Is it not time for Jewish leaders in Israel and in the Diaspora to question this "shoot to kill" policy? It is both morally unacceptable and pragmatically ineffective. Rather, it appears more to be acts of vengeance and lashing out, which just lead to more acts of vengeance, feeding the ongoing cycle of violence."

No, its time to demand that the terrorists stop terrorizing civilians.  It is time to punish their families who receive hero status and money from Arab sources.  It is time, with Palestinians, to separate them from Jews by physical barriers so that they cannot lightly attack.  Jerusalem may end up divided as a result, and some Arab and Jewish Israelis may need to move to make this separation possible.

These are the issues we need to discuss. How can we remain ethical while protecting ourselves. How can we live without weapons at the ready and suspicions against all who approach.  The psychological toll of this situation is enormous. It is both a miracle and a blessing that there have not been wide spread attacks on the Arab population by Jews who "have had enough."  Our faith and our ethics are strong, but this problem will not soon go away, nor will the problem of good Jews who cannot see the situation except through ideological eyes.

The last week

There are two stories which captured my attention during the past week:

1. The continuing saga of Obama care
2.      The continuing dance about making a deal with the Iranians.

 Obama Care

Reid’s use of the Atomic option (removing the ability to filibuster from all presidential appointments other than to the Supreme Court) shows one of the main differences between Republicans and Democrats.

The first threat to use this option was in 1841 by Senator Henry Clay.  In 1990 Senator Ted Kennedy tried to eliminate it, and in 2005, the Republican senators threatened the same.  In each of these cases, it was abandoned because bipartisanship was the basis for Senate work. If the majority party (50+the VP or 51) could not even get 9 or 10 of the minority party on an action, then the action was not taken.  Actions need to be palatable to both sides.

Reid’s removal of that safety will make Obama’s job of dictating the future of Obama Care easier.  He will be able to appoint judges to all levels of Federal courts except the Supreme Court.  He will be able to appoint anyone to any position requiring Senate Confirmation with a minimum of fuss.

In particular, the panel that will control Obama Care costs can now be appointed without any interference of the Republicans in the Senate.  This is probably one of the main reasons to use the Atomic Option, to eliminate arguments on specific appointees by just rolling over the opposition.

Of course, no party rules the roost forever, and what goes around, comes around.

Iranian Negotiations

The past 2 weeks saw the West engaged in another round of bazar negotiations with the Iranians.  They seem bent to achieve “Peace in our Time” while driving the world closer and closer to a Nuclear Holocaust.

Some Israel supporters talk about bunker buster bombs they got from the US, as if these would be able to penetrate deep under mountain bunkers created by the Iranians.  Such bombs exist in the range of 30,000 lbs., but what kind of airplane could carry them?

The US has the B2 a bomber built for carrying such enormous bombs. As far as I know, the Israelis lack such bombers. The F15 has a max takeoff weight of 68,000 lbs. given its own weight and that of the fuel necessary to take it to Iran, it seems unreasonable as a platform.  Cruise missiles from submarines are similarly not usable.  It leaves only the option of tactical nukes as a means of eliminating the full nuclear capability threat of Iran.

I hope my analysis is wrong, but given the Wests relentless drive for some face saving accord, a nuclear confrontation is brewing, and no one can know its ultimate results.

The "Humanitarian" ships to Gaza -- Part 3

This is my conclusion after surveying what has happened and its aftermath so far:

Israel again has shown that morality is not the best policy in War.
The ship should have been sunk. Israel should have helped rescue the ships passengers and provide medical care. Rules of war should have been applied, the ship was a combatant when it entered the combat area without approval from Israel and after being warned not to do so.

In war, we need to use Lex Talionis (the law of the fang- an eye for an eye...) If the war is not brutal enough, if it is made bearable because of political correcteness and a one sided wish to be kind and spare the innocent, then it goes on forever, and causes more damage than it should.

We need to make war unthinkably horrible, if we wish to have peace.
Leon

Blood libel and Humanitarian Reliev Convoy to Gaza, May 31 2010

I got this from a friend. It is a good presentation of the situation. I only disagree with his conclusion that Israel did the only thing it could do. In my opinion, the boats should have been holed and allowed to sink, saving as many of these "Humanitarians" from the water as possible. Knives and truncheons work less well in the water.

PS. I have suppressed the name of the author.
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The Blood Libel and the Humanitarian Relief Convoy to Gaza May 31 2010

The blood libel has been one of the most effective tools in controlling the Jewish people ever devised. It has been dated as early as the time of the Seleucid rulers over the Jews during their attempt to subdue the rebellious Jews under the Maccabees. It has been resurrected constantly in many guises, by both Christian, Moslem, political secular left and right when needed to put those uppity Jews in their place.

The principal format that occurs in a blood libel is: 1) An incident to provoke it, such as a mysterious illness or a death 2) A rush to place the blame on the Jews 3) A pogrom or mass execution 4) Revelation of the falsity of the accusation 5) Sometimes, an apology to the injured or dead Jews for the damage done, when it is too late, but when the desired benefit has been achieved.

It is a successful format that continues unchanged from antiquity through to this new millennium.

Thus, the Mohammed Dura affair, from which riots, battles, and needless death ensued, and for which Israel was broadly condemned. The first images the world saw was of a child gunned down by cruel and heartless Israeli forces—only later did the truth come out—that bullets came from the Palestinian side. By then, many more on both sides lay dead as a result of this rush to judgment.

Similarly, there was the Battle of Jenin, which led to an award winning documentary, Jenin Jenin, about the horrible massacre of thousands in innocent Palestinian civilians by Isarelis. Again, with the rush to judgment, passions were enflamed, and real deaths resulted as the accusation, widely broadcast, served to inflame anger against Israel and prolong the battles of the Second Intifada. Later, the truth came out- no massacres, no thousands of bodies. Casualties of war, both of Palestinians and Israelis, true, but no massacre. By then, however, the blood libel had done its damage.

Last year, a Swedish paper, Aftonblatt, published an accusation that Israelis had harvested organs from the bodies of Palestinians killed in the fighting in Gaza that year. Ultimately, the journalist himself denied responsibility, saying,” "But whether it's true or not - I have no idea, I have no clue”, and the Palestinian family whom the journalist interviewed for his information denied having made the accusation. No matter—more passions were inflamed and if there are rockets being fired today from Gaza into Israel, it is in part fueled by such blood libels.

Now, we have the makings of a new blood libel. Mohammed Abbas is rattling his non-existent sword, and Sultan-in-waiting, Erdogan, is shaking and quaking and the UN is demanding an inquiry. Israeli cruelty caused a willful attack and inflicted injuries and death on peace-loving humanitarians bearing needed supplies to a Gaza choked off by the heartless Jews.

When I look at the video released by the Palestinians, it is mostly of Israeli soldiers treating injured people. There is one scene of a soldier holding a gun, a few gun boats approaching, but mostly, of Israelis treating the injured. ( as presented on CBC( Canada) during an interview with Hanan Ashrawi, eloquently, as always, blaming Israel:http://www.cbc.ca/video/player.html?category=News&zone=world&site=cbc.news.ca&clipid=1509142225)

When I look at the video footage from the Israeli helicopter above, I see stun grenades thrown at Israeli soldiers, fire bombs, and an Israeli soldier being thrown from one deck to the next. http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/05/3101.htm

Other footage shows well prepared passengers beating the Israeli soldiers with metal poles. They know that they can beat the Israeli soldiers because they understand full well that Israeli soldiers do not behave the way Turkish soldiers behaved for example, against Kurds.

These humanitarians could easily have gone to the brothers of the Gazans, the Egyptians, who control access to Gaza from the Sinai. Would not the Egyptians care for their fellow Arabs, the Palestinians, and allowed free passage of goods into Gaza? These are brothers, after all! These humanitarians are no fools—they know full well how Egyptian authorities deal with trouble makers. (Has no one noticed that the Egyptian fraternity with the Gazans stops at the border of the Sinai and that there is a “ Great Wall” going up, an “ apartheid fence” to block the flow of goods into Gaza and the flow of Hamas affiliates of the subversive” Islamic Brotherhood” into Egypt?)

Had the passengers wished to deliver humanitarian supplies, they were specifically offered the possibility of being escorted to the port of Ashdod and the supplies being delivered by the Israelis after they would inspect cargo for weapons.

Either option would have deprived the “ Humanitarians” of their goal, to trap Israel in a Catch-22. Win-win for Hamas,lose-lose for Israel.

Had the ship entered Gaza, then the next, and the next ship would arrive, Hamas would have proven that it is capable of providing the Gazans with supplies. If so, then why negotiate with the Israelis and bother to make terms with the Fatah in Ramallah. The war can go on, this time with better rockets.

The Israelis took the only other option available to them—boarding. It has provided Hamas the explosives it needs.

The judgment of Israel is made in the court of world opinion, Guilty, regardless of the facts. Forget direct or indirect peace talks between Israel and Fatah, because Hamas calls the shots. The Europeans can continue with their delegitimization of Israel. The Turks can pretend once again to be the leaders of the Moslem world. Hezbollah can prepare its missiles for launching, Iran can go nuclear. American diplomacy can go on in circles.

The blood libel works

The "Humanitarian" ships to Gaza

There now is a new definition of humanitarian aid.

A group of ships, manned by extreme Islamists, trained to fight with knives and truncheons (so as not to be "fighters" with "weapons") plans to attack the Israeli military landing on their ship from Helicopters with ropes. The hopes are that some of them will be killed so that the "attacker" Israeli will have killed unarmed civilians on international waters and are therefore "pirates".

This is not a bad approach. The attacking "humanitarians" can pick their spots, their timing, and have full audio/video going at the time of the "Israeli attack." They can control it to the point that Israel needs to halt them outside the 3 mile area if they are to have any advantage in surprise, and if they wish to keep the "humanitarian" death toll down.

Hurrah for the Muslim extremist and their fellow travelers.
Leon

Obama is pro-Israel - ynet, Alon Pinkas

Alon Pinkas (Yediot 10/03/29) takes into account neither Obama's background nor his diplomacy so far.


The president is comfortable genuflecting in front of tyrants and kings, he has few words against strong men and has fervent wishes that America reform its ways.

His leftist background, his demonstrated propensity to feel for the underdog, and his definition of the underdog as the oppresse palestinians, gives the lie to Pinkases rather forced interpretations.

If the president were even handed, there would be daily briefings about the Hamas attrocities, the missiles, the tunnels, and the thousand other ways that organization is trying to wear Israel down in the south.

If he were even handed, there would be a concentrated push to resume direct talks, as was the normal diplomatic channel over the years.

Lastly, if he were even handed, he would demand that Palestinians not build a single building in East Jerusalem or Hebron, since these are disputed areas.

The president has clearly shown his cards. He will push Israel, and extort as many sacrifices as possible without asking the Palestinians for anything.

It is an even handed policy. He hits you with the right, then with the left, even handedly!

Leon

The limit of espionage

In this article Ronen Bergman (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3869009,00.html) praises Israel;s secret services for their tactical accomplishments and then, strangely ends with:
The bottom line: Excellent intelligence and operational capabilities can only go so far. At the end of the day, there is no substitute for dialogue and for a diplomatic process that always ends with some kind of compromise.
Israel has tried compromise for over 60 years. With whom? The Iranians who boast being able to withstand a counterattack after wiping Israel out?  Hamas, who gets wiped out repeatedly and continues to oppress its own population and seeks to increase civilian casualties among their own civilians?  The PLO which would not even accept Jerusalem?
Who do we compromise with? Our Creator on the choice of burial place?
When discrete, direct and targetted warfare cannot do the job. Only large scale warfare remains.  Israel, like America, is a paper tiger because everyone knows they will not transgress on Political Correctness. 

Kill as few as possible, suffer more casualties than required to achieve this purpose if necessary.

This seems to be the 11th Commandment.  We seem to forget that war has to be felt, as it was by the Jews in WWII, the Germans, and the Japanese to be able to convert all of these peoples to a new approach to life.  Jews became capable of creating a state, Germans learned to be peaceful (I hope it stays that way) and so did Japanes (I hope it changes soon to give china a local adversary).

It is time to learn that lesson, before we are taught it again by Iran.  "If one comes to destroy you, pre-empt him and kill him first." or in the words of Hill Street Blues: "Do it to them, before they do it to you.

Even Fox has a bias

Fox interviewed a family living in Gaza who were involved in an "incident" during the last Israeli incursion where Israeli's supposedly misbehaved.
The interview was more or less fair with the sides being properly represented until the family was asked. "Do you believe the Israeli behaviour will radicalize your children."

This is blatantly biased. Why not ask: "Do you believe years of shelling and suicide bombers may have radicalized the Israeli soldiers?"

I well remember Golda Meir's statement that she could forgive the arabs for killing her children, but would never forgive them for making her children kill them in turn.

War debases the value of life, but there are aggressors and defenders in all wars. In the Arab/Israeli struggle it is clear and obvious who is who.
Leon