Boker tov, Boulder!

Passover Prayer

My greatest hope and prayer this Pesach is that the Age of Audacity in which we find ourselves might yet be transformed into an Age of Redemption. This piece by Moshe Kempinski bolsters that hope and strengthens my prayer.

Redemption Begins With a Sigh

(IsraelNN.com) The revelations of the depth and breadth of the corruption in the higher echelons of the Israeli government are simply demoralizing. Ehud Olmert and his cohorts are still capable of inflicting much more damage to the state and people of Israel; yet, they have already crippled the soul and resolve of this nation.

The sheer scope and magnitude of the decay has left the simple citizens of this country with a feeling of great sadness. More dramatically, it has poisoned the country with a deep sense of demoralization. This is a country surrounded by threatening menace and filled with many internal dangers. To live in such a place that seems to have lost direction and vision can become unbearable for many.

Yet, it all depends on which direction you are looking.

On a recent visit to an uprooted Gush Katif community, our special hosts took us around to see the ditch being prepared for the flowerbed near the trailer home they are still forced to live in. One of them even showed us a colorful batch of weeds and said, with a voice filled with pride and a twinkle in his eyes, "G-d sent these 'flowers' to add some color to our mud-filled yard." Much effort has been exerted to create a warm and inviting environment out of the small and cramped space given to them by the Sharon-Olmert governments.

All this made us smile sadly until we saw a photograph of our hosts' beautiful home and lush garden, now in rubble, uprooted and barren in Gush Katif. Yet, they continued to make efforts to refashion their new, temporary trailer into a home filled with idealism and hope. With this in mind, several weeks ago, this Gush Katif couple went looking for bookshelves.

When the salesman in the furniture shop understood that the couple buying the bookcases were Jews expelled from their homes, he let out a deep and painful sigh. He reached out to grab the husband's arm.

"I can't believe what they did to you," he said. "I am not a religious person, but I feel completely connected to you. When they kicked you out of your homes I wept for days. It was just a crime, which led to the next war.

"I fought in that war and watched one of my friends killed right next to me, and another bled to death because they couldn't get the plasma to him in time," he continued. "I listen to the politicians speaking now and trying to hold on to their power, and I am sickened to my stomach. It has gotten to the point that my wife and I have decided to leave Israel in three months," he concluded.

The couple from Gush Katif became agitated and the husband declared, "That would be foolish. You have just been looking in the wrong direction." He went to explain and describe the great power, vision and idealism of his fellow ex-residents of Gush Katif. "Look at yourself," he continued, "you were so disturbed by what happened to complete strangers that, as you yourself said, you couldn't go back to work. Thousands of simple people have been working day and night to aid and support all those who have been expelled to re-establish roots and flourish."

The wife went on to explain what her 15-year-old son was doing during the second Lebanon war, a year after having his faith shaken and his dreams destroyed. She described how he and some of his friends went up to Nahariya to help the people, paralyzed by fear, who were stuck in the bomb shelters. They came to play with the children, comfort the elders and help with the shopping. The very same young people whose faith and connectedness to the people of Israel should have been shaken to the core instead intensified their connection.

The furniture salesman said, "But I don't have your faith or your determination."

Again the couple from the destroyed communities of Gush Katif declared that the opposite is the case. As long as his heart still felt the pain of a fellow Jew, then faith and determination were waiting to be revealed just below the surface of his soul. They finally invited the young man, his wife and two children to come spend a Shabbat with them in their tiny caravan. It is in those tiny quarters that this man and his young family will recover his faith and achieve a small sort of redemption. A redemption that began with a heartfelt sigh, which expressed a deep understanding and belief that things should be different.

That is how the redemption from Egypt began....

May Gd send flowers to all our mud-filled lives, and may this Pesach find our homes filled with idealism and hope, with faith and determination. Amen.

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P.S. As you make your final preparations, beware of senseless stringency (take 17 minutes to listen to Rabbi Lazer Brody).

Next year we should all enjoy shalom bayit ... in Jerusalem!
Amen.

Big Money /Deadline

As I send my $36 (double chai) to Rudy in time to be counted for the March 31st first quarter deadline, I am astonished by the mega money in this presidential campaign.

Bloomberg asserts that Hillary Clinton may report as much as
$40 million, "more than the $31 million raised by all Democrats in the first quarter of the 2004 campaign." Sheesh.

Why Rudy?

1995 - Giuliani had Arafat ejected from a concert at Lincoln Center.

When Rudy Giuliani spotted Yasser Arafat and his entourage making their way to a private box seat near the stage that evening, the mayor immediately ordered the Palestinian leader off the premises.

The man in the street cheered the mayor’s gutsy move, but the city’s liberal elite was appalled. "The proper role of New York, as the UN’s home city," sniffed The New York Times, "is to play gracious host to all of the 140 or so world leaders present for the organization’s gala 50th birthday celebrations."

A spokesman for the Clinton administration, which had done so much to build up Arafat’s reputation as a statesman, termed Giuliani’s action "an embarrassment to everyone associated with diplomacy."

.... Two days after the concert an unrepentant Giuliani said, "I would not invite Yasser Arafat to anything, anywhere, anytime, anyplace. I don’t forget."

1996 - In a show of support, Giuliani rode a Jerusalem bus line struck by suicide bombers just weeks earlier.

Accompanied by Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, security guards and journalists, Giuliani boarded the 6:30 a.m. bus, the same one that two suicide bombers had targeted in consecutive attacks Feb. 25 and March 3.

Laying wreaths at the sites of the attacks on Jaffa Road -- near the central post office and central bus station -- Giuliani said, "This is the little we, the people of New York, can do for the residents of Jerusalem."

2001 - Transformed by September 11

In a poignant moment captured by the HBO documentary In Memoriam: New York City 9/11/01, Giuliani looked skyward that morning and saw a body falling from the World Trade Center. He covered his mouth with his right hand, except that this time he was battling tears, not sweat.

In the aftermath, Giuliani found a language that spoke to all the emotions coursing through the national psyche. It was a blend of outrage and anguish, determination and reassurance. "The eyes of the world were on him, and he was out there helping us heal," says Rep. Tom Davis, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee....

Giuliani "is the Good Housekeeping seal of approval," says Davis. "He has no negatives."

October 2001 - Giuliani rejected $10 million from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal after the prince suggested that U.S. policies in the Middle East contributed to the 9/11 attacks.

The prince's statement said the United States "should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause.

"While the U.N. passed clear resolutions numbered 242 and 338 calling for the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip decades ago, our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek," the statement said.

Giuliani flatly rejected the prince's position. "To suggest that there's a justification for [the terrorist attacks] only invites this happening in the future," he said. "It is highly irresponsible and very, very dangerous.

"And one of the reasons I think this happened is because people were engaged in moral equivalency in not understanding the difference between liberal democracies like the United States, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism.

"So I think not only are those statements wrong, they're part of the problem," Giuliani said.

(See also these $audi investments worldwide).

2002 - Rudy's a Real Knight

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his work following the September 11 terror attacks. Giuliani received the award at Buckingham Palace in London in recognition of his work with the families of the estimated 2,800 people who died in New York.

"I was receiving it not on behalf of myself, but all the police officers and firefighters and rescue workers, heroic people of New York," he said. "It means to me recognition for a group of people that went through the worst attack on their country ever and came through it stronger ... and I'm just honoured to be their representative," Giuliani said after the ceremony at Buckingham Palace....

Giuliani will ... not be able to call himself "Sir Rudolph," however, as he is not a British citizen, but he can put the initials KBE (Knight of the British Empire) after his name.

He joked with reporters that the title wouldn't stick in parts of New York, anyway. "There are places in Manhattan where they would call me 'Sir Rudy' ... but in Brooklyn, if I started calling myself 'Sir Rudy' they'd say 'hey ... knock that off or we'll knock it off you,' " he joked.

August 2004: Giuliani's speech was magnificent!
(according to BtB)

[text at AmericanRhetoric.com]

"Terrorism didn't start on September 11, 2001. It started a long time ago and [it] had been festering for many years.

And the world had created a response to it that allowed it to succeed. The attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics was in 1972. That's a long time ago. That's not yesterday ... the pattern began early. The three surviving terrorists were arrested and then within just three months, the terrorists who slaughtered the Israeli athletes were released by the German government -- set free!

Action like this became the rule, not the exception. Terrorists came to learn, time after time, that they could attack, that they could slaughter innocent people and not face any consequences.

In 1985, terrorists attacked the Achille Lauro, and they murdered an American citizen who was in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer. They marked him for murder solely because he was Jewish. Some of those terrorists were released and some of the remaining terrorists, they were allowed to escape by the Italian government because of fear of reprisals from the terrorists.

So terrorists learned they could intimidate the world community and too often the response, particularly in Europe, would be “accommodation, appeasement, and compromise.”

And worse -- And worse, they also learned that their cause would be taken more seriously, almost in direct proportion to the horror of their attack.

Terrorist acts became like a ticket to the international bargaining table.

[....]

Don't be discouraged. Don't be cynical. We'll see an end to global terrorism. I can see it. I believe it. I know it will happen. You know, right now, right now, it may seem very difficult and a long way off. It may even seem idealistic to say that.

But it may not be as far away, as idealistic as it seems. Look how quickly the Berlin Wall was torn down, and the Iron Curtain ripped open, and the Soviet Union disintegrated because of the power of the pent-up demand for freedom. When it catches hold -- When it catches hold, there is nothing more powerful than freedom! Give it some hope, and it will overwhelm dictators, and even defeat terrorists!

.... And it’s our mission. It’s the long-term answer to ending global terrorism: Governments that are free and accountable. We have won many battles in this war on terror -- at home and abroad -- but as President Bush told us way back on September 20th of 2001, it will take a long-term determined effort to prevail.

The war on terrorism will not be won in a single battle. There'll be no dramatic surrender. There'll will be no crumbling of a massive wall. But we'll know it.

We’ll know it as accountable governments continue to develop in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iraq. We’ll know it as terrorist attacks throughout the world decrease and then end and we save lives.

And then, God willing, we’ll all be able on a future anniversary of September 11th to return to ground zero, or to the Pentagon, or to Shanksville Pennsylvania, and to say to our fallen brothers and sisters, to our heroes of the worst attack in our history and to our heroes who have sacrificed their lives in the war on terror, we'll be able to say to them that we have done all that we could with our lives that were spared to make your sacrifices build a world of real peace and true freedom."

Pelosi refusing to support British on Iran?

UPDATE 5pm-ish: More dots. You connect.

Pelosi Going to Syria Despite Objections

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit Syria, a country President Bush has shunned as a sponsor of terrorism, despite being asked by the administration not to go.
"In our view, it is not the right time to have these sort of high- profile visitors to Syria," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Friday.

Pelosi arrived in Israel on Friday in what is her second fact-finding trip to the Middle East since taking over leadership in the House in January.

Her repeat trip, an indication she plans to play a role in foreign policy, is also a direct affront to the administration, which says such diplomatic overtures by lawmakers can do more harm than good.

Pelosi will not be the first member of Congress in recent months to travel to Syria, but as House speaker she is the most senior.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the speaker "should take a step back and think about the message that it sends."

"This is a county that is a state sponsor of terror, one that is trying to disrupt the Senora government in Lebanon and one that is allowing foreign fighters to flow into Iraq from its borders," Perino said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "probably really wants people to come, and have a photo opportunity, and have tea with him, and have discussions about where they're coming from. But we just think it's a really bad idea," Perino said.

Pelosi's office did not immediately return a call seeking comment on why she was not heeding administration warnings.

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Half-staff or half-mast describes a flag flying approximately halfway up a flagpole or ship's mast... This is done in many countries as a symbol of respect, mourning, or distress. The tradition of flying the flag at half-mast began centuries ago to allow the invisible flag of death to fly on top of the mast, thus signifying death's presence, power, and prominence. (Wikipedia)

Power Line: Pelosi refusing to support British on Iran?

It's hard to believe, but that's what we're hearing from Capitol Hill. A resolution has been proposed in the House of Representatives that condemns Iran for the seizure of British sailors and marines, expresses support for our British allies. It's hard to see anything controversial in that. But apparently, the resolution has languished all week while Pelosi refuses to allow it to come to the floor.

Earlier today, Congressman Eric Cantor wrote the following letter to Pelosi.

Dear Madam Speaker:

Fifteen kidnapped British marines and sailors recently became the latest victims of a systematic Iranian campaign of terror and international defiance. The illegal seizure of the British forces is a signal that Iran views us as powerless to prevent it from realizing its aggressive ambitions.

For the sake of our standing in the world, our allies and most importantly the 15 British personnel and their families, I urge you to bring H. Res. 267 to the floor today before we adjourn. The resolution calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the British marines and sailors. It would also call on the U.N. Security Council to not only condemn the seizure, but to explore harsher sanctions to counter the growing Iranian threat.

In case anyone's unfamiliar, Republican Congressman Eric Cantor is the Chief Deputy Whip and represents the 7th Congressional District of Virginia. He serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and is Chair of the Congressional Task Fore on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. I met him last fall; he's a nice guy and a vocal supporter of Israel in Congress.

Meet the real "Israel Lobby"

ZOA - The poll of 1000 randomly selected Americans was commissioned by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel group in the US, and has a margin of error of 3.1%. It was carried out by McLaughlin & Associates, a major national polling company, on March 25, 2007.

By a margin of 10-to-1 (45% - 4.6%) Americans overwhelmingly support Israelis over the Palestinian Arabs.

By a margin of 5-to-1 (60% - 11%), Americans believe that Israel should not make more land concessions to the Palestinian Arabs.

By a margin of 2-to-1 (45% - 22%), Americans believe that a Palestinian Arab state would be a terrorist state rather than a peaceful democracy.

G-d bless America.

It's possible that the gloves are coming off

lifted from Abba Gav (Find Waldo Abdullah)

Douglas Farah: Saudis Carefully Edging Away from U.S.

Ties are seriously fraying between the Saudi royals and the Bush administration, largely because the Saudis appear to have abandoned any pretext of confronting terrorism and instead have returned full bore to the long-held tradition of co-opting or buying opponents.

One would hope, albeit in vain, that recent developments would end the happy talk of our Saudi allies in fighting Islamist terrorism and terrorist ideologies and theologies.

As the Washington Post’s Jim Hoagland noted, the most obvious sign of the change of heart, which many of us argued was at best skin deep, was King Abdullah’s decision to cancel his scheduled April 17 state dinner. Explanations have been vague as to why.

Then yesterday the king lashed out at the U.S. occupation of Iraq, for the first time calling it “illegitimate.” While there are many who believe that to be true, the timing of the statement, after several years of saying nothing nearly as strong, is indicative of the change. It is also noteworthy that the king chose to make the attack at a meeting of Arab heads of state, not just to his own people or in a lesser forum, but in forum that would garner the maximum media exposure.

Saudi Arabia has recently reasserted itself by brokering the Fatah-Hamas, hosting the Iranian president and threatening to arm the Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

This seems to me to be a reversion to true Saudi form, as their hearts have never been in the U.S.-led, sporadic efforts to encourage confrontation with jihadists and the wahhabi clergy. The governing system is simply too intertwined with the wahhabist stream of insular, aggressive and violent Islam to make a break and survive.

Saudi Arabia has also apparently moved to rehabilitate even the few terrorist financiers it agreed to designate, notably Wael Julaidan, an al Qaeda founder. He is apparently now under no restrictions at all, and is free to work, speak and write as he sees fit.

Shimron Issachar comments that

This comes at the same time as the Saudis making a direct threat against Israel, should they fail to accept their “peace proposal.” It’s possible that the gloves are coming off and the sides are now being chosen as a preliminary to full-scale war in the Mideast.

Sounds about right to me. So, who's going to be on our team? Who will stand with the U.S. or Israel? Anybody? Hello?

Gd save Israel (from Greenpeace)

JERUSALEM (AFP) - On a tour of Major Middle East ports, the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior docked near the city of Tel Aviv on Thursday with a call for Israel to suspend its undeclared military nuclear programme.

The Greenpeace flagship, which has sailed across the world in support of environmental causes, last month embarked on a three-month tour of the region's countries to promote a nuclear-free Middle East.

On Thursday it dropped anchor of the shores of Israel, the region's sole country assumed to have nuclear weapons....

"Nuclear power and nuclear weapons pose a serious threat to the safety and security of the entire region," said Paul Horsman, a Greenpeace activist.

Common Sense Quote of the Day

I predict that if such a premature American withdrawal from Iraq takes place in 2009, before 2015 Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan & Pakistan (at least) will be in the hands of radical Islamists with at least two nuclear powers among these countries.

Tarek Heggy's Nightmare at Contentions.

I agree with his prediction absolutely, simply because I see absolutely nothing that realistically might stand in the way of it coming true. This seems only common sense to me (though not so common among our senators, eh?).

US out of the UN / UN out of the US

March 15, 2007, Mohammad Abu-Koashi
Palestinian representative to the UN in Geneva:

"The Council should question why the representative of the apartheid regime of Israel is even among us [in this room]."

LGF

UN Watch has now put together another must-see video, showing the kinds of disgusting, evil speeches that are NOT banned by the UN Human Rights Council—including support for the execution of homosexuals, support for terrorist groups, Holocaust denial, and the inevitable demonization of Israel (to a frightening degree).

The United Nations at work.

More at the NY Sun (via Atlas).

Batty Bard Boomers

A friend sends along his invitation to attend a class reunion ('65 '66 '68 '69 '70) at Bard College. Here's an excerpt:

Five years ago when we wrote to you about our upcoming reunsion, we were all reeling with shock, our spirits scarred with the loss of so many lives in a place many of us considered an extension of the Bard campus. We grieved for those who were 9/11's victims and for the tragic, conflicting turn our world had taken. We worked hard to understand and come to grips with why and how to respond as individuals and as a nation. We shared a desire to know more, a desire that, as it turned out, has been completely confounded by the astoundingly blinkered response of our national government since those painful days.

A great deal has happened -- much of it characterized by an attempt to close off our liberties and to instill a sense that our innate individual powers of thought and discernment can no longer be depended upon. We have been told too often that it is not our role to think but to follow....

Somehow, when they say "a great deal has happened ... to close off our liberties," I don't think they're referring to these terrorist attacks, do you?

• 12 Oct 2002: car bombing outside nightclub in Kuta, Indonesia (202)
• 26 Oct 2002: hostage taking and attempted rescue in theater in Moscow, Russia (129 killed, not including 41 terrorists)
• 29 Aug 2003: car bombing outside mosque in Najaf, Iraq (125 killed)
• 1 Feb 2004: two suicide bombings of political party offices in Irbil, Iraq (109 killed)
• 21 Feb 2004: armed attack and arson at refugee camp, Uganda (239 killed)
• 27 Feb 2004: bombing and fire on ferry near Manila, Philippines (118 killed)
• 2 Mar 2004: multiple suicide bombings at shrines in Kadhimiya and Karbala, Iraq (188 killed)
• 11 Mar 2004: bombings of four trains in Madrid, Spain (191 killed)
• 24 Jun 2004: multiple bombings and armed attacks in several cities in Iraq (103 killed)
• 1-3 Sep 2004: hostage taking at school in Beslan, Russia (336 killed, not including 30 terrorists)
• 28 Feb 2005: car bombing outside medical clinic in Hilla, Iraq (135 killed)
• 14 Sep 2005: multiple suicide bombings and shooting attacks in Baghdad, Iraq (182 killed)
• 5 Jan 2006: bombings in Karbala, Ramadi, and Baghdad, Iraq (124 killed)
• 11 Jul 2006: multiple bombings on commuter trains in Mumbai, India (200 killed)

Arab League Unanimous

Arab leaders pose for a photo ahead of the opening session of the annual summit of the Arab league at the King Abdul Aziz Conventional Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Wednesday, March 28, 2007. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

News from the Arab League summit varies, depending on the source.

JPost: Arab League refuses to change plan

Israel adopted a low-key, wait-and-see approach Wednesday night to the Arab League's unanimous decision to relaunch without changes its land-and-refugee-for-peace initiative from March 2002.

The Prime Minister's Office responded to the Arab League decision taken earlier in the day in Riyadh by saying that Israel would "study in detail the initiative and see if there is anything new, any changes, and then respond."

.... In recent weeks Israel had sent signals to the Arab League urging it to change two articles in the initiative viewed in Jerusalem as enshrining the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel. Initial reports from the summit indicated that there was no alteration in the original initiative.

The initiative also calls for a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines and establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem in return for a peace agreement, an end to the conflict and normal relations.

Let us not be fooled. Caroline Glick clarified the Saudi plan as follows:

That initiative calls for Israeli surrender of Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and Jerusalem; Israeli acceptance of blame for the Arab world's refusal to accept the right of the Jewish people to national sovereignty; and Israeli acceptance of millions of foreign-born, hostile Arabs within its truncated borders. After Israel makes these suicidal concessions the Arab peace initiative states that the Arab world will be willing to recognize a defunct and defenseless Arab-majority State of Israel.

Norway is into it, but this was to be expected since they were first to "break the ice" by withdrawing from the economic boycott [link is to Aljazeera] of PA/HAMAS and renewing ties with the terrorists.

On behalf of Norway, I express my solidarity with the people of the Arab world in their quest for freedom, opportunity and development, [Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr] Stoere said in his statement.

Sweden is following their lead.

Analysis at Haaretz sees the Arab League attempting to mend internall rifts, while the BBC transmutes the inexorable pertinacity of the Arab world so that it somehow appears as Three No's from Israel:

Under the plan, Arab nations would recognise Israel if Israel withdrew from land occupied in the 1967 war, accepted a Palestinian state, and agreed a "just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem".

Very clever.

The Telegraph (UK) is less circumspect: Accept peace plan or face war:

Prince Saud delivered an unequivocal warning to Israel.

"If Israel refuses, that means it doesn't want peace and it places everything back into the hands of fate. They will be putting their future not in the hands of the peacemakers but in the hands of the lords of war," he said.

Prince Saud dismissed any further diplomatic overtures towards Israel. "It has never been proven that reaching out to Israel achieves anything," he said.

Oh, and al Reuters wants to make sure you know the opinion of the "Egyptian scholar,"

Youssef "we are a nation of jihad" al-Qaradawi.

The ADL has more on this "theologian of terror."

Abu Mazen yukks it up at the summit... with the foreign minister from the UAE.