Saudi cleric: Jewish and American soldiers get diarrhea when they face Muslims in battle
Here's a Saudi cleric who has a rather interesting view of what happens to Jewish and American soldiers in battle.
Let's go to the videotape.
Actually, from what I recall seeing during the Second Lebanon war, the IDF hands out pills that allow soldiers to go longer without relieving themselves so that they don't need to worry about where to do so.
Israel Radio reports that the government has reached a plea bargain with Anat Kam, the soldier who stole thousands of documents from Yair Naveh, who is currently in line to be vice chairman of Israel's Chiefs of Staff, and to be chairman at least temporarily. Kam turned the documents over to Haaretz reporter Uri Blau, who published articles based on the documents, and then hid out in London for months. The documents were highly sensitive, and involved, among other things, Israel's plans to defend itself in case of war.
Under the terms of the plea bargain, which will be presented to the court on Sunday, Kam would plead guilty to charges relating to the unauthorized retention of government property and documents, and the government will drop the treason charges that are pending against Kam. The government has also apparently agreed not to request more than a nine-year prison sentence with respect to Kam.
North Tel Aviv strikes again. If Kam had been a 'settler' and had stolen documents from a Leftist general, she'd probably be sentenced to life in prison. As I wrote in an earlier post dealing with the possibility of a plea bargain for Kam:
Funny that no one offered 14-year old Chaya or Margalit Har Shefi - both of whom did much less to endanger the country's security - a plea bargain.
But that's just one example of the double standard at work in the Israeli 'justice system.' Here's another one - also from today. Israel Radio reported today (Tuesday) morning that the police are out in force to prevent demonstrators against the 'peace negotiations' from blocking highways in protest. You will recall that two months ago, the police shut down a major highway (the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highway) at the height of rush hour to allow the Shalit family and their supporters to march in protest of 'government inaction' on Shalit's release.
The longer I live in this country, the more amazed I become at the blatantly unfair manner in which the law is applied here. When it comes to treating people fairly, we are on the level of a banana republic. The law is often selectively enforced.
Leftist Gideon Levy argues that the Carmel forest fire shows why Israel has no military option against Iran.
Every cloud has a silver lining: Maybe lessons will be learned from the fire. Not only fire extinguishers, fire trucks and new planes, but also new thinking, and fire retardants that douse the really big fire.
The home front's weakness should teach us that Israel apparently has no military option. This is a much more fateful lesson than all the fire's other lessons, and it should be dealt with. The apocalyptic descriptions of a missile attack on the home front if Israel attacks Iran or Lebanon appear even more apocalyptic in light of Israel's conduct when handling a medium-sized forest fire. Discussions on our future, therefore, should move to the arena that Israelis favor: the security arena.
Leave aside human rights and the occupation, don't worry about morality and justice, forget about peace as a leftist delusion and ignore the Palestinian problem. The issue is Israel's security interests, perhaps even existential interests.
The next wars will be home-front wars. This time the Israeli home front will be hit in a way we have never experienced. The first Gulf war and the Second Lebanon War were only the movie trailer for what could happen. An attack of thousands of missiles, as predicted by experts, will create a reality Israel will find hard to withstand. It isn't equipped for it, as we saw on the Carmel, and it isn't prepared for it, as we saw in the Lebanon war.
Any Israeli leader, even an adventurist and a former commando, should understand that the attack option is not really an option. It's true that we succeeded in a few bombings in the past, but nothing lasts forever and the Scuds against us won't always be hollow. A thousand new fire trucks and even the Iron Dome missile defense system will not provide protection. You can't build a fortress for every citizen. This leads to the second, unavoidable conclusion, which should penetrate very deeply, not only among diplomats and commanders, but also among the many warmongers among us: the only existential option is integrating into the region (a term coined decades ago by Uri Avnery ).
Levy is one of Israel's most extreme Leftist writers, and his article is obviously written with a note of glee. But he raises points that do need to be answered. First, the IDF has changed drastically since the debacle of the Second Lebanon War. It is no longer run by pacifists like Dan Halutz (who was the chief of staff) and Amir "Comrade" Peretz (who was Defense Minister). Even under the Olmert government, the IDF had changed, as was shown by the alleged destruction of the al-Kibar reactor in Syria, and more explicitly by Operation Cast Lead.
Second, there is no option of 'integrating into the region.' Levy and Uri Avnery and Israel's other flaming Leftists willfully ignore the fact that Israel does not have and has never had an option of 'integrating into the region.' The Arab states - and particularly the 'Palestinians' - wish to extirpate our existence. No more and no less.
Third, yes the fire ought to raise fears in all Israelis that we are not equipped to cope with the fallout from Hezbullah and Hamas missiles. Hopefully, the Home Front will now deal with that situation. And given the havoc apparently wreaked by Stuxnet, we will apparently have more time than we expected to try to improve on that situation.
The IDF undertook a massive drill in the Golan Heights on Thursday. They're preparing for war with Hezbullah.
Two combat units were involved in the drill that ended on Thursday. The collaborative training event took place in the Golan Heights, it said.
Thousands of soldiers and hundreds of armored vehicles dealt with simulated antitank missiles, rockets and mortar shells – as well as motorcycle-riding Hizbullah operatives.
"The training facilitated a simulation of an operational environment, which requires the commanders to talk among themselves, for example to coordinate fire… These are the things that we expect to happen during combat," a senior officer told Ynet.
The senior officer said the intensive exercise and the Israeli army's new technology will boost troops' capabilities on the battlefield. "It is now possible to shoot a larger number of targets over a shorter period of time," he said.
Unfortunately, the next war is probably inevitable.
A reminder that because I am in the US posting may continue later today and will start later tomorrow night.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
