Boker tov, Boulder!

an absolute outrage

from Naomi Ragen:

Friends,

..... These people went from large, flourishing families in beautiful homes with thriving businesses to unemployed, homeless refugees. Families are being destroyed. Children are turning to drugs, parents are having heart attacks. And some teenagers have even been hospitalized in closed mental institutions.

You won't believe your eyes when you read the memo below, compiled by volunteers of All4Israel, a little, all-volunteer group that is working hard to alleviate some of the misery, work that should have been borne by our government and our major Jewish organizations and their well-paid directors.

SELA, with Mr. Yonatan Bassie at its head, who has personally profited by the disengagement (he owns farms that are now selling vegetables once exclusively grown in Gush Katif, he sold land to the government to house the refugees...) has been largely responsible all of this needless suffering. Every single one of those incompetents should be fired.

For shame, for shame for shame, for shame. I can't believe my government has turned its own people out of their homes and has made no provision for them. People who were the bravest of us all, who suffered the most during the Intifada. Who lost so many parents, children, rabbis. These beautiful, brave families, that no Arab terrorist onslaught could destroy, are being destroyed by their own callous government. And no one cares.

If you are a donor to any Jewish organization, please call them and ask why no emergency funds have been set up to help the Gaza refugees. Where are our priorities?

Zalman Indig (who kindly helped me take online donations for Rachel S., every penny of which he wired directly to Israel) is the head of All4Israel. Below, he shares information gathered by his volunteers in Israel.

Every blessing,
Naomi

.... The lists are pilling up, the stories are unbelievable. None of the large organizations we know of have helped them out. They rcvd from them sweaters and sweats, food packages or stoves but not real money. They are offered short term loans, but they are afraid to take them because they don't know when they'll be getting their compensation.

Here is a story you will love. One family has lived there for 29 years. They have asked them to produce 29 years back electricity bills. Who keeps such records? The family replied that the first few years they had generators anyway and the Electrical company doesn't keep such records. SO for now their compensation is tied up. One family has a soldier in the army. They had to supply proof that he was still living at home even though he was a soldier or he would not be included in the family compensation, so theyhad to bring photos of him with the family, in the house in uniform!!!

Should I go on? Any way I received this list, I thought maybe you can do something....

Some bios:

Family #1 - 6 children - husband died less than two months ago of sudden unpredicted heart attack . Two children elementary school age + soldier son-IDF service , others older recently began work very part time. Family faces many difficulties related to what happened

Family #2 -7 children - two in Yeshiva high school ,one in Midrasha .,two married . unemployed

Family #3 -11 children -one in Yeshiva HS + four in higher education institutes. Wife very recently began teaching part-time

Family #4 -7 children - one in elementary school, one in Yeshiva H.S., Four in universities, one in IDF service/ Husband is blind and wife very ill with Lupus disease.

Family #5 -6 children -two in elementary school, one in yeshiva H.S., one in Midrasha , one in college , one in national service.- recently began working part-time

Family #6 - 3 children in kindergarten and nurseries .Unemployed - seeking opportunity to rebuild farm business, organized temporary morning Kollel for unemployed men.

Family #7 - 3 children - one in elementary school, one in yeshiva H.S., one in IDF service. Husband suffers from limiting heart disease , wife from other health problems

Family #8 - 3 children - serious health problems -unemployed

Family #9 - one parent family -two in IDF service --three in Universities, God willing will have expense of wedding for daughter in month of Adar . Unemployed.

Family #10 - one-parent family -two young children -- mother studying in Higher education. unemployed.

Family #11 - 6 children - two in elementary school--one in high school.. unemployed (wife may start working next week part-time).

Family #12 + 5 children - one in Kindergarten, one in elementary school, one in Yeshiva High school , two in IDF service, unemployed

Family #13 -one parent family- + 8 children -one in Yeshiva H.S.-one in Yeshiva Gevoha, 5 in universities. -unemployed

To help these families, please visit & put "For families of Gush Katif" in the comments field.

Or mail your checks to:

All4Israel
53 Dewhurst St.
Staten Island, NY 10314

I can't help but say it. THIS SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE. Giving tzedaka will help in the immediate, but all the dollars in the world can't right this wrong. It was a complete collapse of what it means to be a Jew. Anyone with eyes in their head can see that the Disengagement was not from the Arabs, to whom we are still making concessions; we, the Jewish people, disengaged from these families. And we'll do it again -Gd forbid- when the police, soldiers, cages and bulldozers come to Judea and Samaria... because no doubt they'll want their "West Bank" Jew-free as well. And there seems to be nothing we won't give the Arabs if they say they want it.

Absolutely, send a generous check, but don't think for a moment that it comes anywhere near being restitution. It's guilt money, plain and simple, because we just sat and watched it happen.

... and they'll probably despise having to take it.

Happy days are here again

from YahooFinance

Things are looking up for the economy, says Investor's Business Daily in an editorial. Consumer confidence is soaring, new home sales just hit a record, and orders of durable goods manufactured in the U.S. are rising at twice the expected rate. We have "the pro-growth Bush economic policies" to thank for this "prosperity." So why isn't the Bush administration standing up to take the credit?

The economy "appears to be booming," says Vikas Bajaj in The New York Times, but "it is not that simple." Consumer confidence is only soaring because it sank so low when Hurricane Katrina sent gas prices through the roof. And home sales are slowing down no matter what the new figures say. If the Fed keeps pushing interest rates up, the housing market will slow even more and consumers will cut their spending. So don't "expect the party to continue."

Another reason to move to the Right: The Left is home to such pervasive pessimism, they're soooo depressing .... Republicans are a more cheery lot by far.

in reach of a watershed transformation

Joe Lieberman

.... More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.

Progress is visible and practical. In the Kurdish North, there is continuing security and growing prosperity. The primarily Shiite South remains largely free of terrorism, receives much more electric power and other public services than it did under Saddam, and is experiencing greater economic activity. The Sunni triangle, geographically defined by Baghdad to the east, Tikrit to the north and Ramadi to the west, is where most of the terrorist enemy attacks occur. And yet here, too, there is progress.

There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. And Sunni candidates are actively campaigning for seats in the National Assembly. People are working their way toward a functioning society and economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi and American military there to protect it.

.... In my meeting with the thoughtful prime minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, he declared with justifiable pride that his country now has the most open, democratic political system in the Arab world. He is right.

Kudos to Uncle Joe.

Equal Opportunity for Women? or Gender Preference?

Terror's stealth weapon: women
by Mia Bloom

SAJIDA RISHAWI shocked the world when she appeared on Jordanian television and admitted her role in the plot to blow up a wedding at a hotel in Amman on Nov. 9. Her monotone speech and lack of emotion sparked an instant debate regarding the growing role of female terrorists and suicide bombers.

The stereotype exploited by terrorists is that women are gentle, submissive and nonviolent. Women evade most terrorist profiles because they are perceived as wives and mothers, victims of war-torn societies, not bombers. But terrorist organizations are increasingly employing women to carry out the most deadly attacks.

Based on my study of suicide bombings in Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Israel and the occupied territories, Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt and Iraq, 34% of attacks since 1985 have been carried out by women.

The use of the least-likely suspect is an obvious tactical adaptation for a terrorist group under scrutiny. Female operatives not only better penetrate a crowd of civilians because women are assumed to be noncombatants, they get more publicity than their male counterparts.

continued . . .

MIA BLOOM is the author of Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (Columbia University Press, 2005). A longer version of this article appeared in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

al Qaeda presents

... video of preparations for the triple suicide bombings against Baghdad hotels.

"This is the Palestine Meridian Hotel, which will be targeted by brother Abu Juheiman, driving a Cherokee jeep. That's the corner. Here he should pay attention to where he should meet Abu Naim. Pay attention to Abu Naim, who will be waiting here. This bomb will be directed to the right, to blow up the first concrete barrier, and the second, dirt barrier.

"Here you can see the Ishtar Sheraton Hotel, which will be targeted by our brother Abu Dahham, with the cement-mixer, loaded with the larger amount of explosives. It will turn left, and, Allah willing, when he enters this way, his distance from the target will not exceed 20 meters. I pray to Allah for our success."

More, including video clip, at MEMRI.

Hamas wins

Palestinian students wearing Fatah scarves participate in the elections for the student-council at the Al-Najah University in the northern West Bank city of Nablus Tuesday Nov. 29, 2005... (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Haaretz: Hamas recaptures control of student council at Nablus university

Hamas' student movement has regained its governing position on Al-Najah University's student council in the West Bank city of Nablus, winning 40 seats in council elections on Tuesday. Fatah's student organization won 34 seats ...

Last year Fatah won council elections by a small margin, defeating Hamas who had for eight years governed the university's student council.

Sources in Nablus said the results of the university elections were a sign that Hamas could have a similar victory in the coming city leadership elections, scheduled for December 15, and for parliamentary elections, set for January 25.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday he'll honor results of Fatah primaries conducted in the West Bank, but has not decided whether voting should resume in the Gaza Strip.

No wonder Hamas won, with the Fatahaha supporters wearing those goofy hats.

L'affaire Finkielkraut

Oy, did he recant or not? Solomonia has the latest.

I have a hard time following this further because the Haaretz story (which now seems as if it may have been a smear attempt) was such a kick in the stomach. Banagor, though, - brave soul and fluent French-speaker that he is- went all the way to Le Monde to find out more.

[Finkielkraut] doesn’t come out and say that he didn’t mean what he said, but it does amount to the same thing. He definitely tries to explain his positions with less force, and that just appears like a capitulation. Ha’aretz was wrong to say that he came out and recanted - absolutely. But it pretty much amounted to the same thing. If you could compare the two in French and the interview that many had read in English, he comes out far less passionately about his words than he originally did.

The Lone Paladin goes on to examine whether Finkielkraut is the new Dreyfuss, and reminds us of two writers --

One “created” a famous phrase which just may still haunt Europe today as an eternal and piercing truth. The other “created” the movement which resulted in the State of Israel.

Curious? Read the whole thing... then scroll down ever so slightly to his earlier (somewhat vulgar but hugely powerful) Rant: Europe, the whore - where not a single scathing word is minced.

Highly recommended, but not for the faint-hearted.

Mazal tov to Nitsana!

from Naomi Ragen:

Friends,

Many of you may know the name Nitsana Darshan-Leitner from my columns. The activist lawyer (who just had triplets!!) doesn't do anything in a small way. When she represented the Ungar family, she managed together with her American co-counsel to get a $116 million dollar judgement against the PLO for the murder of this lovely young couple, which left their toddler and little baby orphans. Only miraculously did the children themselves survive the attack. The lawyer for the Hamas and PLO was none other than Ramsey Clark (good luck Saddam, now that he's taken on your case!)

Recently, Clark went to the U.S. Supreme court trying to get this overturned. Today, he lost. The Supreme Court refused to hear this case. The money will go to the two little orphans, being raised by their grandparents. Now, if Nitsana can just sue the PLO for every single murder it's committed, Suha will have to move out of the Ritz. And maybe, just maybe, they won't be able to afford more terror attacks against young parents and their babies....

Naomi

The story is covered by AP at Israel Insider; background at the Jewish Independent.

DONATE to Nitsana's work at Shurat HaDin.

UPDATE: Note also this online memorial to American victims of Islamic and Arab terrorist attacks. . .

Everything is politicized these days

My friend Mimi writes:

I just received a brochure for the 40th Annual TESOL [Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages] Convention and Exhibit taking place in March in Tampa. I used to be an ESL [English as a Second Language] teacher but have not received one of these brochures for a few years. What a change! Most of the presentations, of course, look innocuous but there is one called TESOL in an Age of 'Terror. The first line of description of this presentation reads

In the post-9/11 era, some have argued that English-speaking countries are engaging in empire building as part of the "war on terror."

This looks like propaganda to me. There is an implicit assumption that there really is no war on terror, maybe not really any terror.

Another questionable presentation is entitled Teaching for Peace Through Global Education Simulations.

This workshop shows how to incorporate an international perspective into English language teaching through content-based simulations designed around global issue themes. Participants study about experiential learning, experience creative classroom simulations from the field of global education and peace education, and take home an exciting variety of resources.

These presentations seem to have a political agenda in a conference that should just be about ways to teach English better.

... perhaps the worst is a page with the title TESOL Global Memberships: Eligible Countries. I don't really know what this means but the United States is not on the list. Neither is Israel. But "Palestine" is.

I could not find the same information on the web but maybe you can. If not, I would be glad to fax pages to you or you can get a brochure from:

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.
700 South Washington Street, Suite 200
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
Tel. Toll Free: 1-888-547-3369

Messing about the TESOL website, I think I may have found the crux of this moldy biscuit:

TESOL is a recognized nongovernmental organization of the United Nations (UN) Department of Public Information. As part of its agreement with the UN, TESOL distributes news and information from the UN to its members.

Any BtB reader who would like to pursue these issues with Mimi should email me.

Ireland's right to exist ... reconsidered

About The Dubliner

This young city magazine is widely regarded as the definitive guide to Irish culture. With amusing, incisive articles on everything from dining out to dirty weekends, The Dubliner features some of the best new writing and photography in Ireland.

So what's happening, according to this definitive guide to Irish culture? You won't believe it. Well, maybe you will . . .

An op-ed by former Irish Labor Minister Justin Keating published this month, begins this way:

I have a tree in Israel, and I once had a certificate to prove it. In about 1950 a lady from a Zionist organisation planted it for my support of the Zionist Youth Movement in Ireland. But it is all so long ago that it has probably been cut down by now, and I have lost the certificate. At the time, like many young Europeans with left-wing views, as the full horrors of Nazi genocide became known, I supported the new state. But now I have totally changed my mind.

More quotes via HonestReporting:

"the Zionists have absolutely no right in what they call Israel, that they have built their state not beside but on top of the Palestinian people, and that there can be no peace as long as contemporary Israel retains its present form."

"Did the Jews of the Old Testament come from what is now Israel? The answer is No."

Hardly amusing or incisive.

I say we take his tree away.

And furthermore, I've been thinking... I used to have a little shamrock, but I've since lost track of it, and wouldn't want it even if I could find it, because while I used to believe that Ireland had the right to exist, I have totally changed my mind.

Should you care to fight Keating's poisonous lies, the antidote is here and The Duliner's editor is here.