Olmert: Israel's worst prime minister?

Remembering Olmert's record -Caroline Glick

[I]t is critical to consider outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's actual record of service as prime minister. [B]y understanding what he has done over the past three years and two months, we ensure that he will be properly remembered [as] the worst prime minister Israel has experienced to date.

[T]he only prime minister to have led Israel to defeat in war - and indeed, in his case, in two wars - Olmert wielded the sword with utter strategic incompetence.

Throughout his tenure as prime minister, Israel never once launched a sustained operation aimed at blocking organizations in Gaza from transporting ever more lethal weapons systems into the area through its border with Egypt.

Olmert entered office in January 2006 pledg[ing] to unilaterally surrender Judea, Samaria and large areas of Jerusalem to the Fatah terrorist organization. Olmert was both politically and ideologically committed to the [mistaken] belief that wars are unwinnable and consequently enemies need to be appeased rather than defeated.

Hizbullah's and Hamas's post-surrender aggression exposed Olmert's political platform as both wrongheaded and dangerous. Absent an order to conquer southern Lebanon and defeat Hizbullah as a fighting force, the IDF could not hope to defeat Hizbullah. [T]he only "message" Israel conveyed was one of military incompetence and weakness.

Instead of concentrating diplomatic efforts on convincing the nations of the world to prevent Iran from acquiring the means to destroy the Jewish state and to dominate the region, Olmert concentrated his diplomatic efforts on strengthening the Fatah terrorist organization against the Hamas terrorist organization.

This goal required him to ignor[e] certain basic facts about Fatah. Israel needed to ignore the fact that Fatah rejects its right to exist and openly calls for its destruction. Israel needed to ignore Fatah's continued direct involvement in terror attacks against it and its complicity with and support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad attacks. Israel had to ignore Fatah's cozy ties with Hizbullah, Syria and Iran and the leadership role Fatah occupies in the international diplomatic offensive and political war against the Jewish state.

Due to Olmert's willingness to turn a blind eye to Fatah's belligerence, the effect has been to legitimize all of our enemies and encourage them to maintain and expand their campaigns on every front.

[D]ue to Olmert's refusal to acknowledge Fatah's lead role in terrorism, he paved the way for the current state of affairs where Fatah forces are now being trained and armed by the US military.

By destroying the IDF's international reputation as a world-class fighting force though twice committing it to war and twice refusing to allow it to fight to victory, Olmert wrecked Israel's reputation as a steady and reliable strategic ally in Washington.

Our wherewithal to survive with the strategic wreckage he has laid before us depends on our capacity to understand and remember the dimensions of Olmert's incompetence.
[Jerusalem Post]

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The future of the alliance

Distancing America from Israel -Benny Avni

With Benjamin Netanyahu sworn in as Israel's prime minister, Western capitals are in a dither about the irrelevant question of Israel's commitment to the vaunted "two-state solution."

The "solution" - based on President Bush's vision of a democratic Palestine living peacefully next door to Israel - has no relevance to the world as it is now: Palestine is further from developing a viable democracy than it was when W. set forth the idea.

Questions of Netanyahu's commitment to the idea are just a new club for those in Washington who think that distancing America from Israel will somehow solve U.S. problems with the larger Muslim world.
(New York Post)


Netanyahu Vows "Every Effort to Reach Viable Peace" -Shahar Ilan

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset that his government will make every effort to reach "a viable peace with all of Israel's Arab neighbors."

Netanyahu said. "Israelis know how to spot genuine peace whenever it is offered."
(Ha'aretz)
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Obama & Clinton's nameless war

Is There a War on the Term 'War on Terror' -Jake Tapper, Teddy Davis & Kirit Radia

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the Obama administration is no longer speaking of a "War on Terror."

"It's just not being used," said Clinton during a briefing with reporters aboard her plane to the Hague to attend an international conference on Afghanistan. "The administration has stopped using the phrase and I think that speaks for itself," she said at a different point during her trip.

The story began after the Washington Post obtained an e-mail from an official in the Office of Security Review, saying that, "This Administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Global War on Terror' (GWOT). Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' "
[ABC News]
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Media Targets Israel

Of Innocents and Savages -Leslie J. Sacks

Google "Congo killings" and the search engine will find you 3.56 million references. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is 2.3 million square kilometers, and is home to 62.6 million people.

Enter "Gaza killings" and Google will locate 8.56 million references. The Gaza Strip is 360 square kilometers, and home to 1.5 million people. That is one-thousandth of the land mass, and two-hundredths of the population, of the DRC.

The media (both 'new' and 'old') bias is indisputable.

Less than 1,000 Gazans were reliably documented as killed in their last war with Israel, many of which were armed militants. In Congo, over four million unquestionably innocent civilians have now been killed in the past twelve years. Horrific stories of rape, burnings, and mutilations abound. And yet, the media's fixation on Israel's 'oppression' of the Arabs continues.

The question is evitable: why is there such a focus on deaths in Gaza-a war triggered by the firing of over 6,000 rockets at Israeli civilians-while the exterminations in the DRC are comparatively ignored?

Is it because the Congolese are black and invisible people who cannot help but murder each other? Or is it because Hamas and the Gazans have been granted victim status, giving 'activists' everywhere a perfect whipping boy in Israel?

Either way, it doesn't speak well for the evolution of mankind: blacks, apparently, are still savages, and Jews still deserve to be killed.
[Leslie J. Sacks Blog]


UPDATE:

Israeli Military Closes Probe into Gaza Misconduct -Howard Schneider

The Israeli military's top lawyer closed an investigation into alleged misconduct during the recent three-week war in Gaza, concluding that charges made by graduates of a military preparation school were "based on hearsay" and had been "purposely exaggerated."
(Washington Post)
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Abbas' Palestinian Authority crushes kid's orchestra

PA dismantles W. Bank youth orchestra -Khaled Abu Toameh

[The] Palestinian Authorit[y] disbanded a youth orchestra from [the] West Bank after it played for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel.

Adnan Hindi of Jenin called the Holocaust a "political issue" and accused conductor Wafa Younis of dragging the children into a political dispute.

He added that Younis has been barred from the camp and the apartment where she taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra has been boarded up.

The 13 Palestinian musicians, aged 11 to 18, are members of the Palestinian orchestra Strings of Freedom [pictured above] that is based in the refugee camp. The concert was held at the Holocaust Survivors' Center as part of "Good Deeds Day."
[Jerusalem Post]
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Koran: Israel belongs to Jews

What the Koran Says about the Land of Israel -Simon Rocker

The foundation text of Islam, the Koran, recognizes the special link between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.

Cairo-trained British imam Sheikh Dr. Muhammad Al-Husseini says, "You will find very clearly that the traditional commentators from the eighth and ninth century onwards have uniformly interpreted the Koran to say explicitly that Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) has been given by God to the Jewish people as a perpetual covenant. There is no Islamic counterclaim to the land anywhere in the traditional corpus of commentary."

One classic commentator of the Koran, Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838-923), describes the verse in the Koran (5:21), "O my people! Enter the Holy Land which God has decreed for you," as "a narrative from God...concerning the saying of Moses...to his community from among the children of Israel and his order to them according to the order of God to him, ordering them to enter the Holy Land."

"No fundamentalist, no matter how hard they try, can overrule the existing tradition to say there is, in fact, an Islamic counterclaim to Eretz Yisrael," Dr. Al-Husseini says.
(Jewish Chronicle-UK)
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Israel hits Sudan...

Israeli attack on arms convoy reported -Patrick Martin

In a surprise attack, with overtones of Hollywood, Israeli fighter jets reportedly hit a convoy of Iranian weapons bound for Hamas in Gaza as the trucks made their way across the desert toward the Egyptian border. The assault killed several people, destroyed all 17 vehicles, and clearly was intended as a message to Iran, whose nuclear program Israel has threatened to destroy.

It is believed the arms convoy was headed across Egypt to Sinai and, from there, to the tunnels that serve Gaza.

Former Israeli Air Force commander Avihu Bin Nun described to Israel's Army Radio the enormous difficulty in carrying out such an operation:

"The planes had to pass over areas that have defenses against missiles and against other air forces; this had to be done at night, the target had to be hit precisely and not something else. This is quite an operation. And you also don't have years to prepare for this kind of operation."
(Globe and Mail-Canada)


Sudan Strike Targeted Weapons Capable of Hitting Tel Aviv
-Amos Harel, Barak Ravid & Yoav Stern

Alluding to foreign media reports of an Israel Air Force strike in Sudan in January, Prime Minister Olmert said, "We operate everywhere we can hit terrorist infrastructure - in nearby places, in places further away, anywhere we can strike them in a way that increases deterrence."

Israeli officials declined to confirm or deny Israel's involvement in the air strike in Sudan.

Any Israeli decision to attack such a distant target would likely have been based on the belief that Iran could deliver arms into Gaza, possibly including 70-km.-range Fajr rockets which could strike Tel Aviv.
(Ha'aretz)


U.S. Officials Confirm Israel Struck in Sudan
-Michael R. Gordon & Jeffrey Gettleman

American officials said Israeli planes bombed a convoy of trucks in Sudan in January believed to be carrying arms to Gaza during the weeks it was fighting a war with Hamas there.

Two American officials who are privy to classified intelligence assessments said Iran had been involved in the effort to smuggle weapons to Gaza and that an operative with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had gone to Sudan to coordinate the effort. One American military official said the strike was one of a series of Israeli attacks against arms shipments bound for Gaza.
(New York Times)
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Point-CounterPoint: Obama & Iran

Iran Has a Problem as "Great Satan" Turns on the Charm -David Blair

If Iran's leaders could choose between a belligerent America threatening "regime change" and a conciliatory U.S. President hailing their "great and celebrated culture," they would probably prefer firebreathing threats.

Their difficulties only arise when the "Great Satan" stubbornly refuses to be remotely satanic. President Barack Obama's conciliatory and nuanced approach towards Iran confronts its leaders with their greatest foreign policy dilemma in years. Any visitor to Tehran is struck by how young Iranians have embraced Western - and specifically American - popular culture. By appealing to Iran's Westernized youth, Obama is seeking to widen the divide between the regime and its people. In addition, there are pragmatic figures inside Iran's regime who want to explore the possibility of easing tensions with Washington.

Obama's intervention is designed to help them while isolating Ahmadinejad. Obama's words are designed to help Ahmadinejad's opponents in the June election by raising the possibility of a genuine rapprochement with America.

If Obama's approach succeeds, he will achieve one of history's greatest diplomatic coups. If he fails, America has carefully ruled nothing out. Obama may yet have to decide whether to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities by military means. If he ever reaches that juncture, he will be able to argue that America tried every alternative.
(Telegraph-UK)



Free Lunch -Caroline Glick

[A]s the mullahs sprint toward the nuclear finish line, the Obama administration is pretending that the jury is still out on whether or not the Islamic republic wants a nuclear arsenal.

[T]he Americans have dropped even the pretense of requiring a change in Iran's rhetorical positions as a precondition for diplomatic recognition. The US now pursues its diplomatic reconciliation with Teheran with the sure knowledge that this peace process will lead to Iran's emergence as a nuclear power.

Sadly, Western leaders are not pursuing peace, [t]hey are pursuing appeasement.
[Jerusalem Post]
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Fight for a Palestinian change of heart

Palestinians Who Helped Create Israel -Daniel Pipes

Palestinians have so loudly and for so long rejected Zionism that Mufti al-Husseini, Yasir Arafat, and Hamas may appear to command unanimous Palestinian support.

But no: polling research finds that a substantial minority of Palestinians, about 20 percent, is ready to live side-by-side with a sovereign Jewish state.

Although this minority has never been in charge and its voice has always been buried under rejectionist bluster, Hillel Cohen of Hebrew University has uncovered its surprisingly crucial role in history.

He explores this subject in the pre-state period in Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948.

Cohen demonstrates the many roles that accommodating Palestinians played for the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community in the Holy Land. They provided labor, engaged in commerce, sold land, sold arms, handed over state assets, provided intelligence about enemy forces, spread rumors and dissension, convinced fellow Palestinians to surrender, fought the Yishuv's enemies, and even operated behind enemy lines. So great was their cumulative assistance, one wonders if the State of Israel could have come into existence without their contribution.

Cohen calls collaboration with Zionism "not only common but a central feature of Palestinian society and politics." No one before Cohen has understood the historical record this way. He discerns a wide range of motives on the part of the Yishuv's Palestinian allies: economic gain, class or tribal interests, nationalist ambitions, fear or hatred of the Husseini faction, personal ethics, neighborliness, or individual friendships.

Cohen also confirms the key fact that not all Palestinians are the enemies of Israel. This offers cause for hope; indeed, were the 20 percent of Palestinians who accept Israel expanded to 60 percent, the Arab-Israeli conflict would close down.

Such a Palestinian change of heart – and not more "painful concessions" by Israel – should be the goal of every would-be peacemaker.

[Jerusalem Post]
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The State of the American Campus

On Campus: The Pro-Palestinians' Real Agenda -Khaled Abu Toameh

During a recent visit to several university campuses in the U.S., I was told that Israel's Gaza operation was launched only because Hamas was beginning to show signs that it was interested in making peace and not because of the rockets that the Islamic movement was launching at Israeli communities.

I was also told that top Fatah operative Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in prison for masterminding terror attacks against Israeli civilians, was thrown behind bars simply because he was trying to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Many people I met supported Hamas and believed that it had the right to "resist the occupation," even if that meant blowing up children and women on a bus in Jerusalem.

We should not be surprised if the next generation of jihadists comes not from Gaza or Afghanistan but from university campuses across the U.S.
The writer is an Arab Israeli journalist
(Hudson Institute-New York)
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Obama's Iran move

Obama Message to Iran Shows U.S. Strategy Shift -Gerald F. Seib

President Barack Obama's video message to Iran marking the Persian New Year last week spoke volumes about the strategy that lies behind his pledge to reach out to Tehran. When the Bush administration reached out to Iran, it sought consciously to go around its leaders and speak directly to the Iranian people, hoping to drive a wedge between the two. Obama's message began: "I would like to speak directly to the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Because the president was talking to Iran's leaders, he was effectively saying the U.S. recognizes their legitimacy and isn't overtly seeking a regime change.

The long search for Iranian "moderates" has proved so futile that the administration is prepared to deal with what it gets, not what it wishes it had. The message was designed to give the Iranians what they always complain they don't get: respect. Twice Obama referred to Iran by the title its leaders use, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The deeper question is whether outreach has any real chance to make a difference. Privately, senior administration officials harbor real doubts.
(Wall Street Journal)

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The Pistachio Scandal: US had to pressure Israel to bar Iranian nuts

Israel Switching to U.S. Pistachios -Michael Doyle

While Israel maintains a trade embargo on Iran, there is evidence that low-cost Iranian pistachios were finding their way into Israel via Turkey.

After repeated complaints by U.S. officials, earlier this year Israel raised its tariff on non-U.S. pistachios to 23%, effectively rendering tariff-free U.S. pistachios a better buy in Israel, a country that leads the world in per-capita pistachio consumption.
(Modesto Bee)


UPDATE:

Israel Levies Pistachio Tax to Combat Iranian Imports

The Knesset Finance Committee, in a bid to block covert imports from Iran, approved a government plan for a 23% tax on roasted pistachio nuts. Roasted pistachios in Israel are imported through Turkey and appear to originate in Iran.
(Bloomberg-Jerusalem Post)
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Islamist split widens

An Islamist Split on Al-Qaeda? -Clifford May

Sayyid Imam al-Sharif [pictured above] - also known as Dr. Fadl - may be the most influential Islamist you've never heard of. The Telegraph (UK) notes he was "part of the tight circle which founded al-Qaeda in 1988 in the closing stages of the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan."

He went on to lead an insurgency against Egypt that landed him in a Cairo prison, where he has since spent his days writing.

In a new book, Exposing the Exoneration, Dr. Fadl writes: "Have the Islamic peoples become guinea pigs upon whom bin Laden and al-Zawahri try out their pastime and sport of killing en masse?" On the 9/11 attacks he observes: "To cross the ocean to go to your enemy in its own home and destroy one of its buildings, and [in retaliation] it destroys the Taliban state - and then you claim to be a mujahid (jihad fighter) - only an idiot would do such a thing."

He criticizes Muslims who settle in the West and then take up arms against their hosts. "If they gave you the opportunity to work or study, or they granted you political asylum," it is "not honorable" to "betray them, through killing and destruction."

Al-Qaeda's interpretation of Shariah law is not just incorrect, according to Dr. Fadl - it is a "criminal school of belief." He argues that Islamic jurisprudence does not provide unrestricted permission to indulge in indiscriminate killing of noncombatants.
The writer is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
(Washington Times)
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Shalit and the Israeli Media

Noam Shalit stands in front of a sign showing the number of days that his son, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, has been in captivity, at a protest tent. Shalit was abducted by Palestinian gunmen from Gaza during a cross-border raid in June 2006

Gilad Shalit Media Event -Yisrael Ne'eman

Over the past week there was non-stop media coverage [in Israel] of vigils and protests demanding that the Israeli government make the prisoner swap necessary to ensure the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit who has now spent over 1000 days as a Hamas prisoner.

The Olmert cabinet is negotiating his release through Egyptian mediators but is not willing to cut a deal involving the return of certain Hamas murderers convicted of involvement in bombings which killed and injured thousands of Israelis. Approximately half of all convicted terrorists return to terrorism once freed. Yet you would barely know this from engaging the Israeli media.

Night after night Shalit's release was the main story with the Israeli government standing accused of having abandoned him. Family, friends and supporters of his freedom are constantly interviewed.

[T]hose who claim the future blood of innocent [Israelis] is far too high a price [to pay], many of whom are relatives of terror victims, are barely heard.

Even when trying to "balance" the story the [press] plays on emotions. "What would you do if he was your son?"

They do not ask the Shalit advocates "How many blood thirsty terrorists would you release” and “will you take full responsibility for all of their terror acts in the future?"

All of these protests and vigils, while being of emotional comfort for the Shalit family, have only raised the price of Gilad's release, adding more murderers to the list of Hamas terrorists to be freed. Islamists everywhere are now further encouraged to abduct or capture Israelis and/or westerners and in particular soldiers, knowing they can demand a heavy price in the release of terrorists in the future.

Gilad's freedom and security are dear to all. But let us not forget, so are the freedom and safety of all of us whether in the present or in the future. No one is worth more than Corporal Shalit, but then no one individual life is worth less either.
[Mideast: On Target]


UPDATE:

Protesters Block Visits to Hamas Prisoners -Roee Mandel

[D]ozens of [Israelis] protested outside the Sharon Prison and blocked the entrance of visitors. Yoel Marshak of the Kibbutz Movement said, "We are here to...block visitation to [Palestinian] prisoners, as long as they are not allowing anyone to see Gilad Shalit."

The joint protest of the World Likud, Beitar Movement and Kibbutz Movement displayed a unified front in the demand to have the conditions of security prisoners changed to match those under which Shalit is held. "With Gilad Shalit held for 1,000 days now without anyone knowing where he is, we cannot have Palestinian prisoners enjoying visitation, watching television, and reading the newspapers," said Marshak.
(Ynet News)
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My tree is calling: Israel's technology shines

The Orange Tree Is Texting - Again -Stephanie I. Freid

A sensor developed by Israeli scientists sends text messages to farmers when crops need water, or to homeowners when the Ficus is thirsty.

Israel Agricultural Ministry plant physiologist Dr. Eran Raveh and his earth-scientist partner Dr. Arie Nadler spent seven years perfecting the hammer-shaped sensor that gauges moisture levels in plants and trees and sends real-time alerts to mobile phones or computers when water levels are low.

The sensor helps cut water usage and avoid unnecessary and damaging over-irrigation by providing accurate water-level feedback. "The idea behind creating the sensor was to cut irrigation costs by up to 50%," Raveh said.
(Fox News)
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VideoBite: Obama uses dramatic mass communication appeal to Iran

Obama Extends Iran a Video Olive Branch

President Obama issued a videotaped appeal to Iran on Friday offering a "new beginning" of diplomatic engagement.

"My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us, and to pursuing constructive ties," Obama said in a message timed for the Nowruz spring holiday celebration in Iran.

He said the U.S. wanted Iran to take its "rightful place in the community of nations." "You have that right - but it comes with real responsibilities, and that place cannot be reached through terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization."
(Reuters/New York Times)
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Jihad humor

Click on above poster for larger image

Young Iranian blogger dies under mysterious circumstances

Iranian Blogger Dies in Prison -Robert Mackey

Iranian blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi [pictured above], who had been sentenced to two years in prison for insulting the country's leaders, died in [a] Tehran prison.
(New York Times)
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Terrorist's daughter puts Gaza in historical context

An Arab-Made Misery -Nonie Darwish

The media tend to attribute Gaza's decline solely to Israeli military and economic actions against Hamas. But such a myopic analysis ignores the problem's root cause: 60 years of Arab policy aimed at cementing the Palestinian people's status as stateless refugees in order to use their suffering as a weapon against Israel.

I lived in Gaza as a child in the 1950s when Egypt, which then controlled the territory, conducted guerrilla-style operations against Israel from Gaza. My father commanded these operations.

In those years the Arab League started its Palestinian refugee policy. Arab countries implemented special laws designed to make it impossible to integrate the Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab war against Israel, forcing a Palestinian identity on these people for eternity and condemning them to a miserable life in a refugee camp.

The Palestinians continue to endure hardships because Gaza continues to serve as the launching pad for terror attacks against Israeli citizens.

If the Arabs really loved their Palestinian brethren, they'd pressure Hamas to stop firing missiles at Israel. [I]t's time for the 22 Arab countries to absorb the Palestinians.
(Wall Street Journal - Europe)
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Poignant Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch: I am not Jewish but...

Remarks by Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corporation, upon receiving the American Jewish Committee's National Human Relations Award.

In the West, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the help of Europe and the United States. Tonight I say to you: Maybe we should start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel.

[T]he "West" is no longer a matter of geography. The West is defined by societies committed to freedom and democracy. And if we are serious about meeting this challenge, we would expand the only military alliance committed to the defense of the West to include those on the front lines of this war. That means bringing countries such as Israel into NATO.

My friends, I do not pretend to have all the answers this evening. But I do know this: The free world makes a terrible mistake if we deceive ourselves into thinking this is not our fight.
[American Jewish Committee]

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