Boker tov, Boulder!

The Will To Live On

Here's a great little story for you in honor of the passing of the old year and the coming of the new. It's from Herman Wouk's book, The Will To Live On, and describes his encounter with BG.

"What took you so long?" Ben Gurion asked me when we first met, during the intermission of a performance in Hebrew of my Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, at the Habimah Threatre in Tel Aviv. It was a gala evening, laid on in honor of the playwright, a newcomer to Israel, so even the informal Israeli were somewhat dressed up, but the squat paunchy Zionist leader, instantly recognizable by the floating wings of white hair on his tanned balding head, wore a khaki open-neck shirt and pants. My wife and I had been out at sea with the fledgling Jewish navy, had docked late in Haifa, and had been rocketed to Tel Aviv in a military car, barely in time for the second act. So his inquiry might have been a gentle twitting about that, but it was not what he meant, and I understood him.

"I'm not here yet," I replied, adopting his allusive style.

He grinned and invited Sarah and me to his home in the Negev desert. Next day we came to the Sde Boker (Field of Morning) kibbutz in a command car escorted by a jeep with a mounted machine gun, for back in 1955 the raw little county was being bloodily harassed in broad daylight by fedayeen, terrorists from Egypt and Gaza. Ben-Gurion was out of office and working on his memoirs, so he discoursed in long Churchillian style on history, politics, philosophy, and literature until the sun was low. His wife Paula, seeing that he was enjoying himself, invited us to stay for dinner.

"No, no, they're kosher," said Ben-Gurion.

"So I'll make them hard-boiled eggs and salad."

"Paula, they have to get back to Tel Aviv before dark."

When we were leaving he came out with his straight Zionist line, no more hints. "You must return here to live," he said. "This is the only place for Jews like you. Here you will be free."

"Free?" I ventured to reply. "Free? With enemy armies ringing you, with their leaders publicly threatening to wipe out 'the Zionist entity,' with your roads impassable after sundown -- free?"

"I did not say safe," the old man retorted. "I said free."

Iseman v. The New York Times Co.

Kol hakavod to Vicki Iseman who is suing the Times for defamation. I hope she gets in there and gets her $27 million before the company goes under.

This is originally from the Virginia Lawyers Weekly, via Long Island Business News, then Byron York at the Corner, and then edited somewhat by BtB for readability.

Washington lobbyist Vicki L. Iseman has filed a $27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times for a February article about Iseman and her relationship with Sen. John McCain.

The suit also names the executive editor of the Times, its Washington bureau chief and four reporters who wrote the story as defendants. William Keller, the paper’s executive editor, did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment on the suit.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond on Tuesday, alleges the article falsely communicated that Iseman and McCain had an illicit “romantic” relationship in 1999 when he was chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and she was a lobbyist representing clients before Congress.

Both Iseman and McCain denied any improper relationship. However, the public viewed the story as being about an affair, according to the suit, which cites the post-publication remarks of 10 different commentators across the political spectrum. In each case, their comments about the story assumed it was about an alleged affair, the lawyers noted.

The piece was published at the height of the primary season last winter, and, the suit states, the defendants knew that it would “reverberate around the world.”

....The Times’ own public editor, Clark Hoyt [in perhaps his best moment as "the readers' representative"] published ... a “blistering attack” on the Times’ decision to publish the original Iseman article.

Iseman waited to file the suit until after the presidential election, in an effort to avoid influencing its outcome, her lawyers said.

A little levity to break the monotony of war and riots

Someone just sent me this from a website somewhere in the backbone of America, where people are actually rooting for Israel.

"Hamas Anti Aircraft Battery About to Take out Israeli F-16"

Understatement of the Day

Naomi Ragen:

"The difficulty of rooting out terrorists who hide behind newborn babies and cancer patients is hard for a civilized country like Israel to deal with."

You see, the big brave Hamasniks are hiding in hospitals.

Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin .... noted that large numbers of Hamas operatives are hiding in hospitals and that some are posing as medical staff." Some are also hiding in mosques and some of those have been turned into headquarters, since they assumed Israel won't attack them there.

But lo, and behold: IDF bombs 'terror mosque'

The IDF confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Air Force jets bombed a mosque in western Gaza City. Medical sources in the Strip said that several people were hurt in the attack.

IDF officials said that the mosque was used by terrorists as a storage site for missiles and explosive materials. The army said that Palestinian rocket cells were firing at Israel from the mosque area and from nearby sites.

A short while after the Air Force attack, additional explosions could be heard in the mosque, apparently as result of arms blowing up.

In recent days, the army had been closely monitoring the mosque and discovered that it was used as a hiding spot by Hamas members, who proceeded to fire rockets at Israel from the area.

The attack on the mosque was carried out in line with legal authorization provided by the military's experts on international law. Earlier, Judge Advocate-General Avichai Mandelblith approved strikes against sites used for terror activity, even if they happen to be located in holy or sensitive spots.

They're not going to like that in Fort Lauderdale.

Antwerp Belgium

via Jihad Watch

The demonstration that the Arab European League (AEL) in Borgerhout (Antwerp) organized against the bombardments of the Gaza Strip, has gotten completely out of hand.

... The situation truly got out of hand when the demonstration disbanded at about 3:15pm. A group of protesters then marched towards the Jewish neighborhood in Antwerp. The police had completely closed off the neighborhood upon which started a cat-and-mouse game.

T.... The protesters caused much damage, in particular to car windows but also trams and basses were attacked. The De Lijn bus company is diverting all buses and trams on the Turnhoutsebaan-Carnotstraat-Rooseveltplaats route. [...]

During today's demonstration damage was done also in the Antwerp Diamantwijk (Diamond Center) where many Jews live and work. Today there is no activity in the sector, according to Freilich. Most shops are closed.

....There's also an issue of the Hamas flags which were present in the demonstration in Brussels for the suspension of the bombardments on the Gaza Strip . According to Freilich the green flag with the white text of Hamas is a banned symbol in Belgium of a terrorist organization. [...]

Various protesters in Brussels held the famous Hamas flag. The Jewish community is shocked that this is allowed. [...]

They're shooting Jews in Copenhagen

Gunman wounds 2 Israelis in Denmark mall shooting

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – A gunman wounded two Israelis working at a packed central Denmark shopping mall Wednesday, Danish police said.

The two wounded men are Israelis in their 20s, police spokesman Lars Thede said. He said it was too early to speculate on whether they were targeted because of their nationality.

One of the wounded was shot in the arm and the other in the leg, police said. Their condition is unclear.

The shooting took place at the Rosengaard mall in Odense, 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Copenhagen. It occurred around 3.30 p.m. (1430 GMT), when the mall was filled with people doing last-minute shopping before the New Year's break.

Thede said a video surveillance camera showed a man in his mid-20s pulling out a gun before opening fire.

"We cannot say whether he is Palestinian, Iraqi or where he is from," he said. "It is too early to say whether this has something to do with what happens elsewhere"....

UPDATE: Arutz Sheva is calling it a terrorist attack:

[Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi] Levi made a point of stressing that the Israeli government believes there is a connection between this terrorist attack and the Arab world's opposition to the current military operation in Gaza.

"In the Foreign Ministry, a direct line is drawn between these assaults and the sharp anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish propaganda in the Arab national and international media since the beginning of the operation in Gaza," he said. "We don't have proof, but that is our estimation."

A number of Islamist terrorists have been discovered living in Vollsmose, a suburb of Odense in the past two years, including three former PA residents and a Danish native who became a convert to Islam. All were arrested in 2006 and convicted of plotting to carry out terrorist acts using TATP, a deadly explosive favored by suicide bombers in the Middle East.

Some 85 percent of the community is populated by Muslim immigrants, many of whom came to the country since 1980 from Iran, Iraq, Somalia and the Palestinian Authority. Estimates vary, but Muslim authorities say their population numbers approximately 300,000 in Denmark, with 115 mosques operating throughout the country.

Anti-Israel Pandemonium in Gaza City Fort Lauderdale FL USA

---------------------- UPDATE Jan. 2nd ---------------------------

This "demonstration" of Jew-hatred and incitement to murder was apparently organized by A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). At their website, they list the following contact information:

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Tuesday, December 30 5:00 pm

Federal Building: 299 E. Broward Blvd.

Contact: 954-707-0155

[or] FtLauderdale@answerfl.org

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

via Atlas:

CNN "explains" the "evolution" of Hamas without ever using the word MURDER -- Plus, What "Truce"?

See them tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe. Wouldn't want to get HAMAS mad at CNN, right?

Timeline: The evolution of Hamas

Even Wikipedia dares to be more explicit, and that's not saying much.

I swore to myself that I wouldn't get sucked into screaming about the inevitable barrage of anti-Israel media bias, but my resolve evaporated the minute I saw scores of headlines about Israel refusing a truce. Fact of the matter is, the Hamas offered no truce. What they said was, "It would be easier to dry the sea of Gaza than to defeat the resistance and uproot Hamas, which is in every house of Gaza.” (I believe that last bit.)

It turns out what the New York Times [my fave, Ethan Bronner: "Israel Rejects 48-Hour Cease-Fire Plan"] (and others) are talking about is an idea that there should be a truce, according to some French foreign minister. Of course Ethan doesn't explain this until Paragraph No. 6 ... and he doesn't talk about any rockets fired until Paragraph No. 8, where he gives no clue as to the number or damage.

You have to read pretty much further to get to the really bloodthirsty Hamas quotes, the ones that must drive Dhimmedia crazy since they make the propped-up "militants" look like terrorist scum after all. But hardly anyone reads that far...

The statement added that if there was a ground invasion, “the children of Gaza will be collecting the body parts of your soldiers and the ruins of tanks.”

Little does Ethan seem to realize -sitting, as he is, not in Gaza City but in Jerusalem- that this is not just dramatic affect; Hamas means that quite literally. I have an old pic in the files of palestinian children doing just that. The date is May 29, 2005 but unfortunately I didn't save the caption.

Death to Israel, Jewish-style

Where have I been? I had no idea there was such a thing as an "International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network."

With Jews like this, who needs HAMAS?

Paul Schmelzer [I think that's Shmuck, misspelled] at The Minnesota "Independent": Jewish community to protest ‘brutal’ Israeli strikes at Sen. Klobuchar’s local office...

With Israel’s air strikes against Hamas in Gaza now claiming more than 370 lives (including at least 62 civilians) and extending into a fourth day, Jews around the world and in the Twin Cities are expressing outrage over the bloodshed. (Four Israelis have reportedly been killed from Hamas rocket attacks.) From 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. today a rally of “hundreds” will be held outside Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s Minneapolis office to protest Israel’s “brutal” use of force, according to a release by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN). Jewish leaders will read the following statement at a 1 p.m. press conference:

blah blah blah...

not in our name...

blah blah blah ... etc...

Pardon the diry laundry. Of course I'm always the one preaching against Jews turning on one another, especially in public, but there can be no Jewnity with these guys. They are just another facet of the enemy.

עסן זאלסטו געהאקטע לעבער מיט ציבעלעס, שמאלצהערינג, יויך מיט קניידלעך, קארפ מיט כריין, איינגעדעמפסט מיט צימעס, לאטקעס, טיי מיט ציטרין, יעדן טאג -- און זאלסט זיך מיט יעדן ביס דערשטיקן

"You should eat chopped liver with onions, schmaltz-herring, chicken soup with kneidlach, carp with chrein, roastbeef with tsimmes, laktes, and tea with lemon every day -- and choke on every bite!"

Day 5: "Clear Signs of HAMAS recovery" & some criticisms

I'm torn between wanting to know WTF is going on, but not wanting to hear any more criticism of Israel than is absolultely necessary, especially this early on. So FWIW (Omri explained to me - this means "for what it's worth." It's always good to know young people) ...

DEBKAfile Special Analysis
December 31, 2008, 1:00 PM (GMT+02:00)

An improved Grad rocket landed on open ground in the Yoav Council region, location of the towns of Beersheba, Kiryat Malachi, Ofakim and Netivot as well as Kiryat Gat, the only town not targeted by a Hamas rocket so far. But the Lachish region east of Kiryat Gat was. Gedera, some 35 km from the Gaza Strip, reported a hit later.

On Day 5 of the Gaza conflict, Wednesday, Dec. 31, Hamas loosed a massive hail of rockets and missiles every few minutes. They claimed 9 Grad rockets had been fired. DEBKAfile's military sources attributed the clear signs of Hamas recovery to three causes:

1. Heavy rain and mist over the region which limited visibility and inhibited Israeli air force action against missile sites in Gaza.

2. Hamas had restored its chain of command for organizing and directing missile squads and stepping [up] the tempo of launches. Its leaders are still hiding underground.

3. By Tuesday, Hamas had managed to transport large quantities of missiles from underground caches to firing positions near the Israeli border.

... by Tuesday night, the Israeli war command appreciated its error in omitting to launch the IDF ground operation Monday, Day 3 of the Gaza offensive. Instead of opening up then with a limited incursion that would evolve into a broad ground operation, Israeli leaders wasted precious time in futile discussions on international demands for a ceasefire, which had no chance of holding up.

Defense minister Ehud Barak, instead of running the war, spent hours on the phone with French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, before he, prime minister Ehud Olmert and foreign minister Tzipi Livni, finally agreed that the French 48-hour truce proposal was unrealistic.

Now, Israeli tanks and armored forces will have to wait for the weather to clear while watching Hamas broaden its swathe of attacks.

Wednesday, Hamas fired 35 missiles and rockets in two and-a-half hours, striking targets in an area that stretched from relatively near locations like Sderot, Shear Hanegev and Ashkelon, to the farther 40 km-extremity of Beersheba, Ashdod, Yavne, up to the outer limits of the Yoav Council and finally Gedera.

DEBKAfile's military sources report that Hamas is suspected of having acquired rockets with a range of 50-55 km, bringing them ever closer to central Israel. They estimate that Hamas is holding this weapon in reserve for the potential Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.

It is also disclosed that the Israeli air force mounted its second attack on the Philadelphi border zone's smuggling tunnels Tuesday, Dec. 30, after learning that Hamas had repaired some of the 40 tunnels first bombed Sunday.

The Air Force has revised its estimate of the quantity of Hamas missile stocks destroyed down from 50 percent to 10-15 percent. This means that their remaining stock is more like 8,000 than 6,000, including at least 100 long-range extra-punch Grad rockets. They can therefore keep up a high level of firing for around 80 days.