Vampires 5

Vampires are real. If you meet one, you can become one, feel their thirst, feel their immortality, feel their secret known as 5.
For vampires are real, and they do walk among us, in daylight as in nighttime, they walk for 5.
Undeterred by crosses and holy water, or any other religion on earth, for they have their mysterious 5.
Five minutes, five hours, five seconds, even five microseconds. For vampires only feel as if they leave forever, while in fact all they have is a very brief life span of five. Any five, as long as it’s a quickie one.

Israeli cable television is now working on the first Israeli vampires show. A concept that is alien to the Jewish culture and the Israeli culture, but an integral part of the popular culture.

p.s.
According to National Geographic, vampires bats do exist, but the don’t go for the neck, they go for the toches.

Brit Tzedek v'Shalom Vs. Brit Shalom.

Brit Tzedeck v'Shalom – Peace & Justice Alliance, is a contemporary far left organization of north American Jews, operating mostly outside of Israel. Its name, in Hebrew is reminiscent of the historic ‘Brit Shalom’, ‘Peace Alliance’. A far left Zionist group in Israel of the 1930’s, then under the British mandatory rule, that was willing to make painful concessions to the Arabs in exchange for peace.
I won’t be surprised if the contemporary group had chosen its name to invoke the memory of the old one. Quite frankly it seems very transparent.
But are they the same?
The answer is NO, and it is not a humble ‘no’.
Looking at the record of statements and deeds (mostly statement) of the contemporary group a picture of mediocrity arises, full of immoral and irrational shortcomings.
It starts right in the front, with their title “Peace and Justice Alliance”. The adding of the word ‘justice’ is no small change to the difference between this group and the historic ‘Brit Shalom’, it is a fundamental change, as grave as the high value of peace and justice are in our democratic civilization.
Grouping together ‘peace & justice’ is a veteran element in Palestinian propaganda. It plays on the fact that we all want peace and we all want justice.
But put together these admirable values don’t fit.
Justice is subjective Peace is objective.
Justice is something people are willing to fight and die for and that includes going to war, peace is something we make painful concessions for, painful because we believe our causes to be just.
Which is why the Palestinian slogan “No justice No peace” has no peace in it, because justice by them is the maxim Palestinian demands, the right of return and the destruction of Israel.
Whether btvs choose their title out of shared malice or gullibility is irrelevant; that title is a fraud and they are apart of it.
Btsv claim they want Israel’s best interest, security and peace and moral integrity, but more then once a forgiving over-concern to the Palestinians slips out.
Take for example their reaction to the bombing of the 'Shefild Club’ in Rishon Letzion on May 7^th 2002:

Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, strongly condemns the suicide bombing in Rishon Letzion that took the lives of 15 Israelis and caused many more serious injuries.

The bombing is deplorable not only because the victims were unarmed, innocent civilians, but because of the excuse it gives Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to escalate his military reprisals. "Clearly, the Palestinian extremists that carried out this horrific attack want to disrupt the momentum of international efforts to find a just resolution to the conflict. Sharon¹s promised "harsh response" will mean they¹ve succeeded," said Clare Kinberg, a member of Brit Tzedek's board.

Israel’s defending itself from such atrocities is ‘excuses’ thus the lives of the armed members of the groups that carried out such attacks are equal to that of unarmed Israelis. They had condemned the attack, and immediately contradicted themselves by denying the right of self-defense.
And from their booklet for the 40th anniversary of the occupation, this is what Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman had said

Both Israelis and Palestinians have perpetrated violence against the other, and both have endured terrible losses. But there is no parity between the two. There is no symmetry between the occupier and the occupied.
Israel has occupied Palestinian lands for 40 years. It has systematically violated international law. It has built illegal settlements, demolished homes, confiscated land, destroyed the infrastructure, shattered the economy, and engaged in widespread torture and assassinations. For this we must hold Israel accountable. And from this we must not turn away.

Saying there is no symmetry between occupied and occupier is a license for the occupied to do all sort of atrocities. Calling Israel combating armed enemy combatants assassinations, denies Israel’s the right to defend its citizens.
Thus she had demonstrated two large moral holes, magnified by unverified and exaggerated charges.
And as far as their founder and the living spirit behind the movement, Marcia Freedman, is concerned, even after the disengagement, Israel is still the occupier of Gaza.
But the most outrageous thing is their chronology of events from 1967 to 2007 in that booklet. In it are omitted the mass murder campaigns by Hamas in 1994 and 1996, as well as the one carried out by all armed Palestinian organizations during the second intifada. Netanyahu just happened to get elected in 1996, and the IDF just happened to reoccupy the WB in 2002 and 2003.
This is not anti Israel; it is anti Israelis.
And this goes on farther in their booklet and press releases.
But the main point here is not their moral shortcomings, which is just a syndrome, but their mediocrity, a mediocrity that was unable to understand the whole aspects of security in the Israeli discussion about the territories.
After all that had happened since the Oslo process begun, and the second intifiada, btvs still have no grasp as to what their asking/demanding Israelis to risk.
‘Brit shalom’ on the other hand had members and supporters who knew that very well. And were asking a lot more, since they were asking us to give up the hope of a national home in exchange of peace:
Martin Buber, a theologian and a moralist who was there at the foundation of the Zionist movement.
Arthur Ruppin who was one of leading land buyers (redeemers) for the Zionist movement, and Ernst Simon, who fled Nazi Germany, to the land of Israel, and others. They had the decency to call what they were asking peace and not justice. Unlike the members of btvs, they where a known quantity, who contributed a lot to the formation of the Zionist movement and the formation of the future state of Israel, even though their views were unpopular. Brit Shalom members and supporters had earned the right to offer the deep and painful concessions they had offered the Arab side. But what gave btvs the right to ignore us the citizens of Israel, our concerns, our debates, and our disappointments from the peace process? Our concerns for the live of our loved ones, and preach us morality behind a title that show ignorance in both peace and justice?

Gerald Kaufman is a good Jew.

A good obedient Court Jew of a Jew. There are no more courts to house Court Jews so GK inhabits the improvised court of ‘Israel critique’ unable to distinguish between criticism and slander.
The claim that Israel uses charges of anti-Semitism to silence critiques of Israel is Palestinian propaganda accepted by some elements in the left because it was labeled ‘criticism of Israel’.
The fact is that Israel never done it – it is simply bad diplomacy. Only the blatant holocaust denial of the Iranian president forced our state officials to start addressing the issue.
The IDF replay, which GK claims the Nazis used, is a false claim. When the Nazis thought they are going to win, they did not try to hide their intentions, when they started to lose, they did try to hide their crimes.
[If only the Jews of Warsaw had at the time the amount of weapons Hamas has now in Gaza. ]
GK is a good person, but not a very smart one, he really cares, but he needs to be told/programmed how to care. GK spoke to a lot of empty seats, how many empty houses will listen to him now in the Jewish world?

Is it worth it?

Subject: personal opinion, the Shalit deal.



Now the debate in Israel is hitting up whether to release the 1430 or so murderers and mass murderers demanded by Hamas in exchange of Gilad Shalit or not to release.
The yea-sayers say yes because we must end his suffering and that of his family.
The naysayers say no because all those released, or most of them will return to terrorist activity.
Though I agree with the later argument I say Yes.
The reason is simple. Terrorism is not just a matter of will, but also means and opportunities, and with the heavy presence of the IDF in the West Bank, the check points and the security barrier, both means and opportunities had diminished substantially.
Second reason and the most important of them all, we the Israeli citizens, sent them (the soldiers) there to protect us, we owe it to them to do the outmost to get them out of captivity.
And a soldier who knows that his country, his government, his people, will do the outmost to set him free, will give his outmost to his country and then some more.
Plus then sense of solidarity will increase nation wide and even more so among the troops.
The third reason, I’m no Ehud Olmert so I’ll wait for Gilad’s return.

The impossible coalition.

Subject: Israeli election, commentary,

So it seems that while Kadima is the largest party, the right wing blok, headed by Netanyahu and Likud has the larger number of sits, 65 so far. The easiest Netanyahu can do is to turn this block into a coalition government.
But can he govern with such a coalition?
Because there is another coalition partner he has to take into account.
Abu Mazen and the PA.
Because what the Oslo process had done is to permanently wedlock the political leadership of both nations. Since Oslo both leadership are each other automatic coalition partner. And that is irreversible.
Why?
Because it is bound in the realities on the ground, that we – Israelis and Palestinians are stuck with each other. It is something that the various political elements within both nations had failed to realize.
To the Zionist Israeli left Oslo was a messianic catharsis, which will purify Israel from the sin of the occupation, and a vindication of their arguments.
For the PLO it was a political and a financial bailout after been excommunicated by much of the world, including the Arab world, for supporting Saddam Hussein invasion of Kuwait.
For the settler movement and their supporters and representatives in Israel’s political echelons it was an act of betrayal and religious heresy. Such an approach was and is highly arrogant since the left and center in Israel never assigned themselves to the settlers political believe system, and they had no right to impose it on others. Let alone facilitate the murder the elected prime minister.
To the Jewish anti Zionist far left it was also an act of betrayal, for the opposite reasons. Both feared the process would work.
For Arafat, Marwan Barguti, Mustafa Barguti, and other Fatah ‘moderates’ it was a Trojan horse means to destroy Israel. But as Rabin, aware of that possibility, had said: “let him see who’s strong”. Rabin new, what Arafat had found out via Arial Sharon, that it takes more then a Trojan horse to destroy Israel.
For Hamas, Islamic jihad, Faruk Kadumi, and the entire Palestinian anti Oslo coalition based in Damascus, it was an act of surrender, a defeat. For them, the struggle, the violence, the gun, is a holy cause in their own right. And international diplomacy with Israel (and the United States) is an anathema.
All these gave Oslo plenty of reasons to fail; and it did fail – fail to bring peace.
But it did succeeded to survive.
How come?
Reality: the two nations in this holy land are stuck with each other. And once both have similar civilian political leaderships, and an internationally agreed diplomatic mechanism to communicate and settle their differences it cannot be removed.
Thus it survived the second intifada and the Arafat betrayal, which lead to it. The growth of the settlements. The rise of Hamas, who found themselves doing the Fatah heresy, talking to Israeli media. And the instability of both governments.
Oslo is still around because we both are still around.
So what is Netanyahu gonna do?
The Kadima party is made up largely from ex Likud members that realized that rejecting the path of political solution is unrealistic and irresponsible, voted in by largely center left voters that realized that blaming everything on the occupation has its limits.
Netanyahu, Silvan Shalom, Dan Meridor, Limor Livnat, and maybe even Avigdor Lieberman, know this. But within the right wing block they are quit possibly a minority. With the majority wants to hit the brick wall of Oslo realities heads (of the party) first.
So can Netanyahu govern?
No!

Israeli election.

In the current election campaign, one of the slogans of the Communist party is “the first to oppose the war in Lebanon in 2006, the first to oppose the war in Gaza.” They forgot to add, “the last to oppose the suicide bombing and rocket lunching from Gaza.”

The things people do.

What do people do when they run out of arguments?

They throw shows and other stuff at people.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3667279,00.html

Sober Middle East realism

Subject: politics ; sober Jewish realism

When our bombs fall and explode they are heard a little louder then if someone else had dropped them.
If and when we have indeed hurt someone, his cries are heard louder then if someone else had done it.
And when we ache from tremendous pain – silence through the woods.

An open letter to the Israeli citizens?
Sam Bahour of El Bireh in the West Bank wrote an open letter to the citizens of Israel, or so the title claims.

http://www.thecommentfactory.com/letter-to-the-citizens-of-israel-from-a-palestinian-in-ramallah-1435

He wrote in English, to an English website, that belongs to an English newspaper in an English speaking country, England.
But he wrote it to us, Israelis, or did he?
In his letter he gives us a shopping list of commands of things we “could do” instead of what we are doing.
All of which come down to one thing, removing all the security measures that have successfully reduced the threat of terrorism and keeps our women and children alive and safe. How will that benefit us he does not say.
He talks about “buying into our government line that we were under attack”. Only someone who does not live in Israel can believe that it was just a line. We, from the left to the right, had seen the attacks; know people in the south that suffered from them. And many people, including public figures, including from the left, went to Sederot and near by communities to support the local population. All of them bare witness to the brutality of Hamas.
Then Mr. Bahour tells a strange story about a nameless Israeli, which he describes as a ‘former peace activist’, that is willing to kill 100,000 Palestinians? ??
Who is this nameless Israeli? Only Sam Bahour knows.
But is there is anyone among us Israelis who heard of anything remotely like this?
I’ll tell the non-Hebrew speaking world what we do know. And that is that the peace camp in Israel not only voiced concerned over the numbers of Palestinian casualties and death, but also called to end the fighting, to not engaging in the ground campaign and to settle for the air campaign instead.
So why slander the Israeli peace camp?
What sort of a person, calming to want peace will slander the other side peace camp?
And what is that number 650,000 arrested Palestinian in 30 years?
What does it include, assuming it is real: just political? Terrorism? Or also criminal activity?
People arrested for days to month, or also for a few hours and less?
People arrested just by Israel, or also by the PA?
So did Sam Bahour write an open letter to the Israelis or propaganda piece to the English-speaking world with an attractive title?
You’ll be the judge.

Dvar Dea blog on politics, history and other subjects.

Hallow everybody,Dvar Dea is a fancy way to say in Hebrew, ‘I have something to say’ and I have a lot to say. On politics that is the Israeli Arab conflict and related matters. On history; a bit on entertainment, and other stuff.