AGGRESSION IN MUMBAI

It's too early to say but already the fingers are being pointed at the aggressive usual suspects for the atrocities committed in Mumbai and I suspect that the usual defences will be raised for these horrible actions including the turning of facts on their head.

There's no doubt however, that the victims and the targets are all innocent human beings, mostly locals in the wrong place at the wrong time or people from western countries, some of them tourists. Among them, the small Jewish population of Mumbai - hostages held by terrorists at the city's Chabad headquarters.

What's the root cause of these attacks?

It's the same root cause that applies everywhere such aggression and violence occurs - hatred. Hatred that is allowed to fester, is tolerated by many, excused and justified by many. That hatred becomes aggression and the result is violence, misery and death.

SOME IRANIANS HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOUR

I've been a watcher of Iranian politics for some time and found their ayatollahs and political leaders to be both humourless and emotionless (well ... the good emotions at least). It was therefore refreshing to read this satirical piece piece on the reformist Iranian website www.khandaniha.com. The site's editor, Manouchehr Honarmand, is responding to the letter sent by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to U.S. president-elect Barack Obama with an imaginary reply from Obama to Ahmadinejad. One can only hope that he manages to stay out of jail because I don't think Mahmoud and his backers will see anything funny in this:

Dear Mr. Ahmadinejad,

I learnt of your letter to me when my chief of staff Emanuel Rahm informed me that we had to send three dollars to the post office to cover the postage [due]. Next time, please put enough stamps on the letters you send me. I had a hard time with my wife, Michelle, over this. She asked why we had to pay postage due on a letter from someone who calls us 'the Great Satan' and collaborates with the likes of Hugo Chavez. You know that in the States, it's the wives who have the last word. It's not like in your country, where one can shut them up by giving them a sharp whack over the head.

Dear Mahmoud, I hate to tell you that your letter caused us quite a bother. The White House translators couldn't or wouldn't translate it, saying it was a job for the department of religious propaganda. Eventually we had to ask for the help of our friends the Israelis who know Persian better than us and even maintain trade relations with you guys on the quiet.

In your letter, you congratulated me on 'taking' the majority of the votes in the election, which I found quite puzzling. You should know that, in the U.S., presidential candidates do not 'take' votes but receive them from the public. People here do not go to bed on the night [of the election] and then wake up in the morning to find out who has seized the presidency... I have been told that, in one of your elections, a candidate took an afternoon nap, only to discover that, [while he was sleeping,] he had been eliminated from the running and someone else had won the election. Is that a true story?

Mahmoud, darling, in another part of your letter you asked my country to pursue a policy based on 'justice, respect for the rights of human beings and nations, friendship and non-intervention in the affairs of others.' Frankly, this surprised me, because if you are alluding to executions, you guys execute as many people as we do. However, in this country, a capital case is debated for 17 years on average, while in your country, 17 is the age of some of those who are executed... As for intervention in the affairs of others, [you have a point:] We Americans do invest considerable funds [in Afghanistan] in order to enable the children there to attend school. [We also invest funds] in order to prevent Russia from imposing its will on Georgia, and so on. But you guys also intervene in the affairs of others – only instead of sending children to school you strap explosive belts around their waists. A few days ago, the media reported that a three-month-old baby had joined an [Iranian] suicide squad.

Dear Mahmoud, I have no patience to read nonsense and respond to it, so next time you feel like talking to me, please call me on the phone – only please don't make it collect.

- excerpts from www.khandaniha.com, November 11, 2008.

HOSTAGES TO FEAR

They say that the views of The Australian newpaper columnist Janet Albrechtsen are extreme and that they should be discounted because she is from the right. However, in HOSTAGES TO FEAR she absolutely nails down the very crux of the probelms underlying the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

... no one imagines Israel is free from fault. But its Government is not creating civil institutions that preach hatred and violence.

By contrast, an entire generation of Palestinian children is being raised on a full diet of hate education, on jihad and anti-Semitism. This is the long-term hurdle to peace in this generation, and the next.

We don't need activists on boats, psychologists lecturing politics or news commentators with jaundiced bent to prove the truth of her words. The fact that most of the western media suppresses the news of what the Palestinians have been doing to their children tells us that every word that Albrechtsen has written in her weekly column is the solid truth. If only she could tell us why the others prefer to hide that truth in the blank pages!

THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONER

More stupidity from the United Nations.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had "followed the lead of her predecessors" by unfairly putting the onus on Israel for humanitarian conditions in Gaza, while giving the Palestinian terrorist group that controls the territory a pass.

In a statement issued today, U.N. High Commissioner Navi Pillay called for an immediate end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, saying that "…Palestinian men, women and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months." The commissioner's statement concluded with a brief sentence calling for an end to "Israeli incursions into Gaza and Palestinian rocket fire into Israel."

U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Unfairly Blames Israel, Gives Hamas A Pass

I'm personally stunned by the statement. I didn't think that Palestinian rocket fire into Israel came into his brief or that a U.N. official was permitted to conced that such things even existed (especially during the time of a ceasefire/truce/lull or whatever).

Rocket Science

The Israeli newsaper Yediot Aharonot notes that "approximately 25 residents of Gaza are hospitalized at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon," and reminds its readers that last Friday, "a Kassam rocket hit Ashkelon and shook the hospital." The author says, "Outside, there is a war to sow destruction and death, while inside, behind the walls of the hospital, we fight for patients' lives, regardless of their national origin."

The rest of the world's media talks about the suffering of the Palestinians brought about by the conduct of Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist groups which behaviour is routinely ignored by them.

Don't forget Palestine

The delusional muppets at Australians for Palestine had their "Wall Day" in Melbourne on Friday, 14 November, 2008 and by all accounts, it was an absolute fizzer.

And rightly so because a protest against a security barrier that has saved thousands of lives from Palestinian terrorists deserves to be treated with utmost contempt. It's true that the existence of the barrier has caused some discomfort to the Palestinian people but in the absence of any significant attempt by their leadership to stop the terrorism, the Israelis were left with no choice. And if the Palestinians have friends like the folk down at Australians for Palestine, then based on the gibberish they produce on their website, a peaceful resolution to the conflict and an end to the need for a security barrier are a long, long way off.

It's ironical that the AFP website is currently carrying a fawning tribute to the architect of Israel's security barrier - YASIR ARAFAT d. 11 November 2008 (sic) written by Sonja Karkar.

"Don't forget Palestine
Arafat never did, and he never let others forget"

One would imagine that among those who won't forget the man who died of a mysterious ailment four years ago (and not a week ago as the current AFP home page suggests) would be his beneficiaries who share the $3billion he looted from his own people.

THIS IS RESISTANCE!

This is an example of what resistance to Israel means to some in the Arab world. It's part of a radically different good neighbour policy that rarely gets highlighted in this country. I often ask myself the question why such things are suppressed in our media?

THIS IS RESISTANCE!

WHO'S THE BUNNY?

A man sifts through rubble after Israel's overnight operation and finds the lure that went missing from the Rafah Greyhound Track last week.

Remember the use of emotive photos by the international media showing bombed out building with images of pristine children's toys found in the rubble. The photo opportunities were so widespread and ridiculous that there's little doubt that they were placed there by Hezbollah operatives or even photo journalists in order to draw an emotional response. Here's one that accompanied this jaundiced Guardian article Hamas fires rockets after Israel kills six in Gaza about the destruction of a tunnel by the IDF near the Gaza border that was to be used by Hamas to kidnap Israeli soldiers. A man sifts through rubble after Israel's overnight operation.

Honest Reporting's Backspin is in no doubt and sadly, we're going to see more of this from a willingly gullible western media that doesn't mind having its leg pulled if it's at the expense of the Jewish State.

DIGITAL FAKERY

This is going to come as a shock to the world but today's Melbourne Age has revealed that shonky totalitarian rogue regimes may be using photoshop technology to spread false information - Photos of healthy Kim Jong-il 'faked'. Apparently, "digital sleuths" have uncovered evidence that recently released photographs of North Korean President, Kim Jong-il, were faked to cover up his possible illness.

The folks at Hizbullah and Hamas have been taking advantage of this technology for some time to assist in their propaganda war against Israel. During the Second Lebanon War of 2006, photographers sympathetic to Hassan Nasrallah's terrorist movement (including one whose work was given prominence by news agency Reuters) were caught red handed faking images that were designed to show Israel in a bad light. Despite ample evidence, most of the mainstream media simply ignored the phonies and allowed the anti-Israel propaganda machine to rumble on unchallenged.

Go figure!

POGROM A BLUEPRINT FOR TERROR

During the night of November 9-10, 1938, the Nazis unleashed the greatest pogrom against the Jews of Germany and Austria since the Middle Ages.

So begins the article POGROM A BLUEPRINT FOR TERROR by Michael Abrahams-Sprod in today's Australian Newspaper.

The writer points out that this pogrom "revealed to the world the savagery and barbarism of the Nazi regime, yet that fateful night also lays bare the hollowness of the world's indignation."

Seventy years after the event, the world still does not understand the depth of the horror that was visited on the Jewish people over the seven years that followed "The Night of Broken Glass" - Kristallnacht. We witness attempts by those who wish ill for the Jewish people today to suppress the viciousness of the savagery and the barbarism, to hide it and to make it meaningless.

The world should know what the Nazis did to the Jews - in full and with no excuses and no sickening false comparisons. To the extent that it does not know and does not seek to learn the horrors of the Holocaust, humanity is put to shame.

Tunnel Vision

Jason Koutsoukis recently misinformed Age readers about the 800 tunnels between Gaza and Egypt that he was told to say are being used to smuggle vital supplies like food and petrol for the poor suffering Gazans - Blockade forces Gazans underground to survive.

Well Jason, this might come as a surprise but the primary purpose of the tunnels is not to supply food and other supplies for needy Gazans - they are being supplied regularly through the normal channels and they wouldn't be needed at all if the Hamas junta agreed to abide by the reasonable requirements of a civilized government and stopped advocating genocide against its neighbour. The main purpose of the tunnels is like everything else that pre-occupies Hames: the destruction of the Jewish State and the killing of Jews. This is done through smuggling Iranian and Syrian weaponry and, once in a blue moon, by kidnapping or attempting to kidnap Israeli soldiers operating on the Israeli side of the border.

After being fooled into providing support for the Hamas PR machine with his 1 November article, Koutsoukis followed it in describing a 4 November IDF operation in Ceasefire in danger of collapse. The story is also about tunnels but these couldn't possibly be used for smuggling food and supplies into Gaza. These point in the direction of Israel and were going to be used for terrorist purposes so the IDF took the tunnelers out of the equation.

There should be no problem about that if the journalist covering the story wasn't such a stupid ass and couldn't see that Hamas has taken him to the cleaners over his stories about the poor, starving people of Gaza.

Wake up and realise that it's Hamas that's the problem Jason and they've played you on a break this time!

WE NEED TO TALK MORE ABOUT HAMAS

While Palestine advocates like Dr. Sarah Roy, a child of holocaust survivors, takes the opportunity to bash Israel on the holiest night of the year for Jews, the Hamas party which was elected to lead the Palestinians and runs Gaza with an iron fist, continues to unequivocally seek the annihilation of the Jewish people - Hamas Cleric Muhsen Abu 'Ita: The Annihilation of the Jews in Palestine One of the Most Splendid Blessings for Palestine

It's not pleasant to witness the suffering of those Palestinians or those Israelis who are caught in this violent conflict but it is very clear that their suffering arises from attitudes such as those espoused by the likes of Muhsen Abu whose views are endorsed at the very top of the Hamas tree.

However, Roy's talking tour of this country ignored those annihilationist views and focuses solely on blaming the Israelis. One can only wonder therefore at the sad pathology of people like Roy and her fellow traveller Geoffrey Binder who seek to use this connection with the holocaust to perpetrate their attacks on Israel which has to defend itself against a philosophy and a culture that aims to to repeat the horrors of the Third Reich.

The Muhsen Abu sermon will of course, never see the light of day in our mainstream media and will, in the main, stay on the blank pages.

RELIGIOUS CLEANSING IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The LA Times reports on what it calls "religious cleansing in the Middle East" in its editorial - A Christian exodus.

"The religious cleansing of Christians in Iraq is part of a larger pattern in which a faith with origins in the Middle East is being driven out of its native region. From Iraq to Lebanon, which once claimed a Christian majority, to Bethlehem, the West Bank town revered as the birthplace of Jesus, intra-Muslim violence and the Arab-Israeli struggle have combined to persuade (and in some cases force) Christians to relocate to Europe or North America."

The intolerance of Muslim regimes should not come as a surprise. Hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab and Muslim lands were "cleansed" from their host countries in the wake of Israel's independance in 1948 and prominent Palestinian political groups continue to call for the cleansing of Jews from the Middle East landscape, often with the open support of the so-called intelligensia in the West, some of who even call themselves "Jews" and attend Israel-bashing meetings on Judaism's holiest night.

WE NEED TO TALK MORE ABOUT SUDAN

Eric Reeves reports in The New Republic that "...[I]ncredibly, the regime committing genocide in Darfur is now meant to be in charge of a critical U.N. poverty and disease eradication program." - Millennium Development Grotesquery

He refers to the Sudanese government which has been selected to chair the UN programme overseeing the eradication of disease and poverty.

"Since it was the African countries' turn to pick the chair of the organization, and since the selection of Sudan was supported by China, the outcome - however outrageous--is hardly surprising. Strong support from the member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference helped ensured Khartoum's diplomatic victory. The selection of the National Islamic Front regime as chair is no mere symbolic exercise, though the symbolism of the choice is intensely dispiriting. For it comes at a time when the head of the regime faces a likely arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court - for crimes against humanity and for genocide in Darfur."

The inmates are well and truly in charge of the asylum.

Martin Whacks Fairfax

Matthew Ricketson of the Melbourne Age reports that "veteran broadcaster Ray Martin has accused commercial television networks and Fairfax Media, owner of The Age, of abandoning serious journalism - Martin hits out at TV networks and Fairfax cut-backs.

"Would the last journo out please turn off the studio lights?" he quipped to the audience at the annual Andrew Olle address in Sydney.

Too late Ray. The decline at Fairfax began long ago. It gathered momentum in 2002 with the appointment of a Middle East correspondent whose partisan views gave readers a highly slanted picture of the war between Israel and the Palestinians and precious little of the deadly conflicts brewing within Palestinian society during the past six or seven years. Things only got worse when Andrew Jaspan was given the gig as editor.

Abandoning serious journalism?

With O'Loughlin and Jaspan as the clown princes, Fairfax in Melbourne at least, was hardly an exponent of serious journalism, was it Ray?

RACISM AND HYPOCRISY

Detractors of Israel often accuse it of being many things which it is not. During a recent debate on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, one of the speakers offered his opinion that Israel was a "grubby little racist state" but when challenged, he failed miserably to provide any justification for this claim (which probably explains why his organisation has so few friends).

It's a pity therefore that news such as this story from Haaretz - Israel grants rare entry to cancer-stricken Iranian boy hasn't hit the media in our country. Israel welcomes a 12-year-old cancer-stricken Iranian boy for emergency treatment on his brain tumor while the leader of his country President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants Israel "wiped off the map" and vows that Iran will support the anti Semitic Hamas movement which rules Gaza until the "collapse of Israel".

What a shame that neither of these stories are covered in our local press.

TAKING INDEPENDENCE TOO FAR

The Independent Australian Jewish Voices is advertising a series of public lectures to be given around the country by Dr. Sara Roy who many would say is an apologist for radical Islam and Hamas which has among its aims, the destruction of the State of Israel and the killing of Jews everywhere.

The Melbourne public lecture will be held at the University of Melbourne tomorrow night 8 October 2008. The timing is impeccable for these independent "Jews" - most of those who aren't so independent will, in some way or another, be taking part in the observance of Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement.

In their defence I guess the people at the IAJV can say that the speaker is something of a nobody so there's nothing really to atone for on their part.

O'LOUGHLIN MAKES NICE ABOUT ISRAEL

I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I noticed this article published in the Sunday Age - Revealed: diary of a man who lived and died in space.

An O'Loughlin reporting in the Age from Jerusalem and not a single word of disdain and contempt for Israel or its people.

Thank you Toni O'Loughlin for covering this story about the late Israeli astronaut and hero of the Jewish people with the compassion and honesty that has been so long missing from in your own newspaper, the Guardian, and in Australia's Fairfax media. It was like a breath of fresh air.

SHANA TOVA - HAPPY NEW YEAR

SHIMON PERES - UN SPEECH

Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen ...

Over Sixty years have passed since the United Nations General Assembly voted on the historic resolution that would have put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Resolution 181 called for the establishment of a Jewish and an Arab state. Its title was: "Plan of Partition with Economic Union". It envisioned two states for two peoples, each fulfilling a distinct national aspiration.

The Jewish people adopted the resolution and established the State of Israel. The Arabs rejected it and led to war.

What happened in the ensuing years is much different from the resolution's original intent. While much has changed, the ironies of history summon similar circumstances today.

Today, again, we are the middle of the lake. There is no sense in rowing back. Continuing forward will show how near we are to the shore of peace.

Mr. President,

A year prior to Israel's declaration of statehood, its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, called me, a young man from a Kibbutz, to serve in our national defense.

Since then, I participated in Israel's dynamic realities: the building of security, striving for peace. So, I need no book to learn the history. I witnessed its miraculous unfolding.

We went through seven wars. All have paid heavily. Tears still flow down the faces of bereaving mothers.

Remembrance Days fill the air with silent prayers of widowed families who lost young boys and girls in battle. They are, today, at the same age, but lifeless.

Israel turned military victories to a peace process, knowing that the cost of life renders imperfect peace superior to perfect victories.

We have also achieved two peace agreements. The first with the largest Arab country, Egypt. The second with the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan.

All the land, water, and natural resources that fell in our hands through war, were repatriated after peace was signed. Our countries can now offer remedies to other disputed areas.

But for peace, the call in our region is to repair the damaged environment and wounded land leading to poverty.

If we shall not overcome the desert, the thirst, the pollution - they will overcome us.

Joint ventures can meet this call. Nature does not carry a national passport.

With the Palestinians, we negotiate full peace. Both parties agreed to building a Palestinian State side by side with Israel, living in peace, security and respect.

We tried to conclude the negotiations this year. It will take longer. But, I believe it can be accomplished within the next year.

We agreed to progress in spite of possible changes that may take place in the leadership.

Gaps have been narrowed through negotiations. Particularly the territorial ones. But, peace is not just a matter of territorial compromise.

Rogue politics reject peace even where territorial dispute was resolved.

In Lebanon, we implemented resolution 425. Yet Hizbullah paralyzed the country and cut the road to peace.

From Gaza, we withdrew completely and dismantled our settlements. Hamas responded with a bloody takeover and turned the strip into a basis of rocket fire.

These militants carry no positive alternative - but the agonies of Job.

They added kidnapping to bombings, bringing strife for innocent families. From this important stage, I call for the immediate release of Gilad Schalit. The son of Aviva and Noam. A peace-loving family.

This honored assembly should make his release top of its agenda. Holding a hostage in Gaza determines its isolation and further deterioration.

Mr. President,

At the center of this violence and fanaticism stands Iran.

It built a danger to the entire world. Its quest for religious hegemony and regional dominance divides the Middle East and holds back chances for peace, while undermining human rights.

Iranian support for Hizbullah divided Lebanon. Its support for Hamas split the Palestinians and postpones the establishment of the Palestinian State.

Yesterday, on this very stage, the Iranian leader renewed the darkest anti-Semitic libel - the protocols of the elders of Zion. An attempt to bring to life one of the ugliest plots of history.

Their despicable denial of the Holocaust is a mockery of indisputable evidence, a cynical offense to survivors of the horror. Contradictory to the resolutions adopted by this assembly.

Iran continues to develop enriched uranium and long range missiles.

They introduce a religion of fear, opposing the call of the lord in respect of life.

The Iranian people are not our enemies. Their fanatic leadership is their problem and the world's concern.

Their leader is a danger to his people, the region and the world.

He is a disgrace to the ancient Iranian people.

He is a disgrace to the values of Islam.

He is a disgrace to this very house, the United Nations, its basic principles and values.

His appearance here is already shame.

The Jewish People have known, throughout history, to stand firm at the face of evil.

Alongside the enlightened humanity we shall know to enable good and freedom to prevail.

Tehran combines long-range missiles and short-range minds. It is pregnant with tragedies.

The General assembly and the Security Council bear responsibility to prevent agonies before they take place.

Israel has shown that democracies can defend themselves. We do not intend to change.
Terrorism did not solve a single problem. It never has, and never will.

They will make the world ungovernable. If small groups of violent killers are allowed to threaten innocent masses, the world will be without order or security. A hopeless battleground.

The free world must unite to combat it.

Israel, on its part, shall continue to seek peace. We suggest immediate peace with Lebanon.

Israeli prime ministers indicated to Syria that for peace, we are ready to explore a comprehensive compromise.

In order to gain trust, and save time, we have suggested face-to-face meetings with President Assad: "Follow the successful example set by President Sadat and King Hussein".

We still await an answer.

I know there is a growing concern that peace is far away. My life-long experience provides me with a different point of view.

True, I have seen stagnation and regression in our journey. But, today, I can identify a road leading to the right direction.

In addition to the peace agreements, a series of summits took place - Madrid, Oslo, Wye, Camp David, Sharm and Annapolis. Their accumulated sum encourages a clear direction. In fact, Israelis and Arabs are marching towards peace.

After a long internal debate, Israel accepted the two state solution.

The Arabs replaced the three NOs of Khartoum (no peace, no negotiation, no recognition) with a peace initiative, inaugurated by King Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

I call upon the king to further his initiative; it may become an invitation for comprehensive peace, one to convert battlegrounds to common grounds.

I invite, respectfully, all leaders to come and discuss peace in Jerusalem, which is holy all of us. Where we all pray to the same lord, as offspring of the same father.

Israel shall gladly accept an Arab invitation at a designated venue where a meaningful dialogue may take place.

Mr. President,

We are facing a serious economic crisis. Maybe it has happened because we are rich and light with funds and poor and heavy with ideas. While we live in an era where science, not land, is the basis of economy.

Science does not stop at borders. Is not disturbed by distance.

Wisdom is not conquerable by armies. Knowledge diminishes discrimination because it operates through good will and transcends race, nationality and gender.

The Global dangers unite and divide us at the same time.

The dangers are the deterioration of environment. The shortage of water. The lack of renewable energy. The spread of terrorism and the increased poverty.

Divisions of the free world will increase them.

Unity offers the potential of alternatives. It will direct global investments to new areas and demanding challenges like health, security, education and environment.

The future is not in the hands of oil or gold. Intellectual assets, new inventions and superior education hold the key to our future.

In our region, border areas can become open economic zones. Enabling free movement of people, commodities and ideas. They may encourage tourism and build High Tech incubators. They will cultivate advanced agriculture.

Economic zones will provide a million jobs and produce billions of cubic meters of desalinated water. We started to do so. The first steps are promising.

The 21st century calls for pioneers. It is an opportunity to provide our children with peace and knowledge. Strength and friendship. It is their right. It is our moral obligation.

Mr. President,

The Jewish people are celebrating a new year. I would like to end with a quote from Rabbi Nachman of Breslav:

"May it be thy will to remove war and bloodshed from the world and perpetuate the wonders and greatness of peace.

All the inhabitants of the world shall recognize and know the truth: that we have not been placed on this earth to wage war and not for hatred or bloodshed."

Amen.
Shana Tova.
Thank you, Mr. President