Underdog Israel beats Cuba in baseball, is one win from semi-finals
If you've been in a cave for the past week, you probably don't know that Israel's baseball team advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Baseball Classic, defeating 3rd ranked South Korea, 4th ranked Taiwan and 9th ranked Netherlands to get there. Israel's team was ranked 41st going into the tournament, despite having ten major leaguers on its roster.
On Sunday in Tokyo, the Israeli team beat 5th ranked Cuba 4-1, and now needs just one win against top-ranked Japan or 9th ranked Netherlands (which they have already beaten) to advance to the semifinals at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. (If you're wondering, the US is ranked second).
Israel’s batters overcame an early 1-0
deficit, and the team’s pitchers kept the heavily favored Cuban team to
just five hits, continuing the squad’s unlikely Cinderella run.
Cuba inched ahead in the second inning with a
home run from Alfredo Despaigne, the player who singlehandedly sent his
country into the second round when he scored all of Cuba’s runs against
Australia on Thursday.
But after that, it was entirely Israel’s game.
Team Israel took a 2-1 lead in the sixth when
Zach Borenstein singled to right scoring Ty Kelly from second base.
Blake Gailen made it 3-1 with a two-out double to right that scored Nate
Freiman.
Israel tacked on another run in the eighth on a sacrifice bunt by Gailen that scored Borenstein from third.
Josh Zeid pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth when he got Willian Saavedra to ground out to third with two out.
The Israeli team has become the tournament’s unlikely darlings on its way to a 4-0 start in the international tournament.
Now we all know that there may not be 10 Israelis who aren't American born who know how to play baseball. So how does Israel have 10 major leaguers on its squad? It's a rule quirk.
Nearly all the members on Team Israel are American Jews. By WBC rules, a
player may compete for a country if he is eligible for citizenship
under its laws. Israel extends the right of automatic citizenship to
Jews, their non-Jewish children, grandchildren and the non-Jewish
spouses of their children and grandchildren.
Uh huh.
But they should have taken me along to read the Megillah for them (I've read it from a scroll more than 70 times to as many as 800 people). Let's go to the videotape.
Israel will face the Netherlands at Noon on Monday Israel time.
The win over Cuba gives Israel a strong mental boost ahead of games against the Netherlands and host Japan to advance in the quarterfinal round, which is played as a round robin. One win in those two games could be enough to bring Israel to Dodger Stadium for the semifinals.
...
[Manager Jerry] Weinstein rebuffed critics who have called Team Israel really a second Team USA. "The attitude in our clubhouse is we are representing Israel. We are not the Junior Varsity team for Team USA. We are Team Israel, and make no mistake about that."
After Sunday's win, starter [Jason] Marquis noted "We have quality baseball players on this team; guys who have big league experience, a lot of young prospects who have bright futures, and a good mix of veterans who can help these guys through these tournament games."
Marquis did revel a little in becoming a role model in the United States. "It's a great story for people back home who follow the game and who are in our shoes - have Jewish heritage - to look up to players like us who may not have otherwise had that opportunity."
I don't know about that. For most American Jews your Bar Mitzva is that time when you realize that you are far more likely to own a team than to play for one.
Obscenity personified: Obama lies, stabs Israel in the back, wishes us a Happy Chanuka
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone. And a freilichen (Happy) Chanuka too.
The title of this post was stolen from a tweet by Anne Bayefsky after the United States abstained in the Security Council on Friday, allowing a resolution to pass that condemns as 'a flagrant violation' of 'international law' Israel's 'settlements' in the 'West Bank' and 'east' Jerusalem.
Will this resolution matter? John Bolton thinks it will. Let's go to the videotape.
Meanwhile the killing in Syria continues, but since there are no Jews involved, no one cares.
What better time to break with 50 years of US policy in the Middle East and try to impose a 'solution.'
Oh and guess what the mamzer was doing at the very moment he let the resolution pass... he was wishing all the stupid Jews who voted for him a Happy Chanuka.
Thanks for the stab in the back Obama.
While the resolution has not woken up too many Democrats to the fact that Obama's a Jew hater, it has woken up the Israeli government. In fact, Prime Minister Netanyahu claims that Obama had specifically promised to veto any UN resolutions in his last days in office.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday accused President Barack Obama of breaching a specific commitment to Israel by allowing through Friday’s UN Security Council anti-settlements resolution, and compared the outgoing president’s behavior to that of predecessor Jimmy Carter, “a president who was hostile to Israel.”
Vowing not to be forced by international
pressure into withdrawing from disputed territory, he said the incoming
administration of President-elect Donald Trump had indicated that it
would join an all-out war against what he called a “shameful” and
“scandalous” decision.
He described the 14-0 vote in the Security
Council, with the US abstaining, as “the swan song of the old world that
is anti-Israel.” Now, he said, “we are entering a new era. And as
President-elect Trump said, it’s going to happen a lot faster than
people think.”
In this new era, it will a lot more costly for those who seek to harm Israel, he warned.
Practically speaking, Netanyahu also announced
that Israel was re-evaluating all of its dealings with the United
Nations, and that he had already instructed officials to cut off “30
million shekels ($7.8 million) of funding for five UN bodies that are
particularly hostile to Israel.” More such action will follow, he
promised.
He noted that he had recalled Israel’s
ambassadors from New Zealand and Senegal, two of the four countries that
sponsored the resolution that have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Israeli aid to Senegal has also been halted, he said.
I think he should recall his ambassadors from the UK and France and Egypt as well, and call the US and Russian ambassadors in for a dressing down.
Netanyahu had more to say.
The US abstention came in “a complete
contradiction” to a “specific commitment by President Obama in 2011,” he
said. It was “a shameful anti-Israel ambush” by the administration, he
said.
“The whole Middle East is going up in flames,”
he said, “and the Obama administration and the Security Council” target
Israel, the region’s only democracy. “How shameful.”
...
US legislators intend to pass a law to punish
states or organizations, including the UN, that seek to hurt Israel. The
US alone, he noted, provides a quarter of the UN’s funding.
He said Israel was “on a journey” to improve
its relations with the nations of the world. “It could be that this
scandalous decision yesterday will accelerate this process. This is the
straw that broke the camel’s back. Yesterday’s decision is a recruitment
call to all our many friends in the US and around the world — friends
who have had enough of the UN’s hostile treatment of Israel and who
intend to push fundamental change at the UN.”
Therefore, he said, invoking the spirit of the Hanukkah festival which began on Saturday, “the light will oust the darkness.”
I've been warning about this for years. There have been two attempted terror attacks in New York City this evening. The first was in Chelsea, on 23rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, around 8:30 pm.
EXCLUSIVE/ Two independent sources told EurActiv.com that the US has
started transferring nuclear weapons stationed in Turkey to Romania,
against the background of worsening relations between Washington and
Ankara.
According to one of the sources, the transfer has been very challenging in technical and political terms.
“It’s not easy to move 20+ nukes,” said the source, on conditions of anonymity.
According to a recent report by the Simson Center,
since the Cold War, some 50 US tactical nuclear weapons have been
stationed at Turkey’s Incirlik air base, approximately 100 kilometres
from the Syrian border.
During the failed coup in Turkey in July, Incirlik’s power was cut,
and the Turkish government prohibited US aircraft from flying in or out.
Eventually, the base commander was arrested and implicated in the coup.
Whether the US could have maintained control of the weapons in the
event of a protracted civil conflict in Turkey is an unanswerable
question, the report says.
Another source told EurActiv.com that the US-Turkey relations had
deteriorated so much following the coup that Washington no longer
trusted Ankara to host the weapons. The American weapons are being moved
to the Deveselu air base in Romania, the source said.
Deveselu, near the city of Caracal, is the new home of the US missile shield, which has infuriated Russia.
The Romanians are denying the story. And of course, no one else is confirming it.
According to practice dating from the Cold War, leaked information
regarding the presence of US nuclear weapons on European soil has never
been officially confirmed. It is, however, public knowledge that
Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy host US nuclear weapons.
From Israel's perspective, anything that gets nuclear weapons away from Turkey is good for the Jews.
At the Nazareth Restaurant and Deli in Columbus, Ohio, owner Hany Baransi is proud to be Israeli.
Hany Baransi has been serving authentic hummus and falafel in his
central Ohio eatery for 27 years, proudly giving diners a taste of his
Israeli Christian Arab heritage between bites of rich Mediterranean
fare.
A sign bearing an Arabic greeting—“Ahlan Wa Sahalan”— hangs
prominently near the glass doors of his Nazareth Restaurant & Deli
in Columbus, through which passersby can also spot an Israeli flag.
Baransi says he has always been outspoken about his Israeli identity,
and so when his restaurant was attacked on Thursday evening by a machete-wielding man, he believed it was no coincidence.
No, it was no coincidence. Nor was the attacker's name: Mohamed.
The assailant, identified by police as 30-year-old Mohamed Barry,
“came in and asked where I was from,” Baransi told The Tower. While
Baransi was at home nursing a headache at the time, one of his
employees– a young waitress– told Barry that the owner is from Israel.
The man left after he determined that Baransi wasn’t at the restaurant,
only to return around 30 minutes later with a machete and start hacking
people.
“He came to each table and just started hitting them,” Karen Bass, who was in the restaurant at the time, told WBNS. “There were tables and chairs overturned, there was a man on the floor bleeding, there was blood on the floor.”
Fortunately, no one was killed and Barry was caught by police after he tried to hack them too.
So is the Middle East coming to Columbus? The local police chief doesn't think so but Baransi has a different opinion.
“Is it a random attack? Yes, but it wasn’t a random attack like you’re
walking in the street and there are 10 shops and you pick one,” he said.
“It was a random attack [insofar] that I was one of the Israelis
[picked] between all of the Israelis that are around here. It was a
terrorist attack.”
“I am a very outspoken Israeli, and I have an Israeli flag in my
restaurant,” added Baransi, who moved to the United States from Haifa in
1983 and said he tries to visit Israel as often as he can. “When people
[from the Arab community] ask me where I am from, I tell them I am
Israeli, I am an Israeli Christian Arab, it’s not like I am Palestinian,
and then they start arguing and fighting with me.”
...
“You know, we are Israelis, used to this in our lives, people
attacking us and wanting to kill us,” he observed. “But Americans — I
have young ladies, 19, 20-years-old, they probably never heard people
yelling and screaming. It was a huge experience for them. And some of
them are very devastated. All of us communicate on a daily basis, and
some of us, a couple of people, are still having a really hard time.”
He said that he is only willing to reopen his restaurant once his
staff assures him that they are ready. “Even though I am hurting
financially badly, if this time is needed for the well-being of my
employees, I am okay with that,” he stressed. “God will provide for us.”
First they come for the Saturday people and then they come for the Sunday people? Bet on it.
Not just in England and France: There are Muslim no-go zones in the United States
Muslim enclaves that are hostile to surrounding communities are
springing up across America. Funded by Pakistani radicals, 22 villages
in 9 states have been established that are teaching terrorist tactics to
members of their compounds.
Barack Obama’s
repeated insistence that Bashar al-Assad must leave office – and that
there are ‘moderate’ rebel groups in Syria capable of defeating him –
has in recent years provoked quiet dissent, and even overt opposition,
among some of the most senior officers on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.
Their criticism has focused on what they see as the administration’s
fixation on Assad’s primary ally, Vladimir Putin. In their view, Obama
is captive to Cold War thinking about Russia and China, and hasn’t
adjusted his stance on Syria to the fact both countries share
Washington’s anxiety about the spread of terrorism in and beyond Syria;
like Washington, they believe that Islamic State must be stopped.
The military’s resistance dates back to the summer of 2013, when a
highly classified assessment, put together by the Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then led by General Martin
Dempsey, forecast that the fall of the Assad regime would lead to chaos
and, potentially, to Syria’s takeover by jihadi extremists, much as was
then happening in Libya. A former senior adviser to the Joint Chiefs
told me that the document was an ‘all-source’ appraisal, drawing on
information from signals, satellite and human intelligence, and took a
dim view of the Obama administration’s insistence on continuing to
finance and arm the so-called moderate rebel groups. By then, the CIA
had been conspiring for more than a year with allies in the UK, Saudi
Arabia and Qatar to ship guns and goods – to be used for the overthrow
of Assad – from Libya, via Turkey, into Syria. The new intelligence
estimate singled out Turkey as a major impediment to Obama’s Syria
policy. The document showed, the adviser said, ‘that what was started as
a covert US programme to arm and support the moderate rebels fighting
Assad had been co-opted by Turkey, and had morphed into an
across-the-board technical, arms and logistical programme for all of the
opposition, including Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State. The so-called
moderates had evaporated and the Free Syrian Army was a rump group
stationed at an airbase in Turkey.’ The assessment was bleak: there was
no viable ‘moderate’ opposition to Assad, and the US was arming
extremists.
Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, director of the DIA
between 2012 and 2014, confirmed that his agency had sent a constant
stream of classified warnings to the civilian leadership about the dire
consequences of toppling Assad. The jihadists, he said, were in control
of the opposition. Turkey wasn’t doing enough to stop the smuggling of
foreign fighters and weapons across the border. ‘If the American public
saw the intelligence we were producing daily, at the most sensitive
level, they would go ballistic,’ Flynn told me. ‘We understood Isis’s
long-term strategy and its campaign plans, and we also discussed the
fact that Turkey was looking the other way when it came to the growth of
the Islamic State inside Syria.’ The DIA’s reporting, he said, ‘got
enormous pushback’ from the Obama administration. ‘I felt that they did
not want to hear the truth.’
‘Our policy of arming the opposition
to Assad was unsuccessful and actually having a negative impact,’ the
former JCS adviser said. ‘The Joint Chiefs believed that Assad should
not be replaced by fundamentalists. The administration’s policy was
contradictory. They wanted Assad to go but the opposition was dominated
by extremists. So who was going to replace him? To say Assad’s got to go
is fine, but if you follow that through – therefore anyone is better.
It’s the “anybody else is better” issue that the JCS had with Obama’s
policy.’
But what's more shocking is what the Joint Chiefs decided to do about it.
The Joint Chiefs felt that a direct challenge to Obama’s policy would
have ‘had a zero chance of success’. So in the autumn of 2013 they
decided to take steps against the extremists without going through
political channels, by providing US intelligence to the militaries of
other nations, on the understanding that it would be passed on to the
Syrian army and used against the common enemy, Jabhat al-Nusra and
Islamic State.
Germany, Israel and Russia were in contact with the
Syrian army, and able to exercise some influence over Assad’s decisions
– it was through them that US intelligence would be shared. Each had
its reasons for co-operating with Assad: Germany feared what might
happen among its own population of six million Muslims if Islamic State
expanded; Israel was concerned with border security; Russia had an
alliance of very long standing with Syria, and was worried by the threat
to its only naval base on the Mediterranean, at Tartus. ‘We weren’t
intent on deviating from Obama’s stated policies,’ the adviser said.
‘But sharing our assessments via the military-to-military relationships
with other countries could prove productive. It was clear that Assad
needed better tactical intelligence and operational advice. The JCS
concluded that if those needs were met, the overall fight against
Islamist terrorism would be enhanced. Obama didn’t know, but Obama
doesn’t know what the JCS does in every circumstance and that’s true of
all presidents.’
Once the flow of US intelligence began, Germany,
Israel and Russia started passing on information about the whereabouts
and intent of radical jihadist groups to the Syrian army; in return,
Syria provided information about its own capabilities and intentions.
There was no direct contact between the US and the Syrian military;
instead, the adviser said, ‘we provided the information – including
long-range analyses on Syria’s future put together by contractors or one
of our war colleges – and these countries could do with it what they
chose, including sharing it with Assad. We were saying to the Germans
and the others: “Here’s some information that’s pretty interesting and
our interest is mutual.” End of conversation. The JCS could conclude
that something beneficial would arise from it – but it was a military to
military thing, and not some sort of a sinister Joint Chiefs’ plot to
go around Obama and support Assad. It was a lot cleverer than that. If
Assad remains in power, it will not be because we did it. It’s because
he was smart enough to use the intelligence and sound tactical advice we
provided to others.’
Russia Today has published a list of the nationalities of the passengers and crew of Germanwings 9525, which crashed on Wednesday in the French Alps. The list is not just Spaniards and Germans. It includes two Iranians, two Venezuelans, an Israeli and two Americans.
12:47 GMT:
AFP reports that these are the
nationalities of the A320 victims, which have been confirmed by either
Germanwings or the country’s governments:
72 Germans
35 Spaniards; Spain says there may be up to 39
3 British, confirmed by the government, which says there may be more.
3 Kazakhs
2 Americans
2 Argentines
2 Australians
2 Colombians
2 Iranians
2 Japanese
2 Venezuelans
1 Belgian
1 Dane
1 Dutch
1 Israeli
1 Mexican
1 Moroccan
1 Turk
Obviously, the nationalities could be totally innocent and I would not suspect that, for example, the Israeli and the Americans were involved in any foul play. Or the nationalities could be less than innocent.
No, the US was not supposed to participate in the 'human rights council' hearing
In an earlier post, I quoted a Reuters report that claimed that the United States had abandoned Israel to the tender loving care of the United Nations 'human rights council.'
As you can see from the statement above, that report was not quite correct. The US, as a matter of principle, boycotts Item 7 on every 'human rights council' meeting agenda, because that is the permanent items for excoriating Israel. If you can't read the image above, you can find the statement here.
The Europeans, on the other hand, according to my sources, violated an agreement with Israel by commenting on Item 7. The Europeans have a deal with Israel that if Israel submits to the Universal Periodic Review, the Europeans will boycott Item 7.
Of course, a much more principled stance for both the US and Europe would be to leave the 'human rights council' altogether. But that will have to await new elections in the US.
Judging by their actions, most Arab leaders have no desire to see the
Palestinian issue resolved. They seem to prefer preserving the status
quo. They blame Israel for refusing to make concessions to the
Palestinians and hope that this refusal will weaken Israel, even though
Israel is their strategic defense against Iran.
Most Arab leaders do not want to create what is bound soon to
become yet another terrorist Islamist state, dedicated to the Muslim
Brotherhood's ideology and to toppling their regimes.
The Arab leaders
already have to contend with ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the Al-Nusra Front in
Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, which are enough for them, to say nothing
of Africa from Nigeria to Somalia and everything in between.
But if Israel can be blamed for another of world's ills, with Kerry's blessing, why waste the opportunity?
...
In response to the colossal threat of radical Islam, the whimpering
voice of the West can barely be heard. The U.S. administration targeted
Israel for condemnation. A "senior official," most likely the current
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, called Israel's Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "chickenshit," for being afraid to make
peace with the Palestinians.
According to the "Arab street," including the Palestinian street, it
is the Americans and Europeans who are cowards, afraid to take
significant steps against Iran, and terrified of the Islamic ghettoes in
their cities, which have been exporting terrorists to fight for the
Islamic State, and providing housing to the seasoned fighters who
return.
The Sunni states under Shi'ite threat cannot even reach an agreement
among themselves about what is to be done; and the Palestinians, in
their folly, have chosen the worst possible moment to ignite violence in
Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque. The Palestinians seem not to
understand that the Arab regimes that might support them are currently
busy fighting for their own survival, and have no desire to fall prey to
Palestinian provocations about what they realize all too well are
fictional threats to Jerusalem.
Given the current situation, Turkey's regional political actions are
dangerous, underhanded and hypocritical. To achieve their ends, Turkey's
leaders seem to have no qualms about sacrificing their minorities, such
as Christians and the Kurds (most of whom are Sunni). Turkey's leaders
were the first to cry "humanitarian crisis" when Israel imposed a
closure on the Gaza Strip to prevent Iran from sending Hamas arms.
Turkey sent the Mavi Marmara flotilla to protect the Gazans, who
were never in any danger in the first place. Turkey's leaders then
weakened Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who, at least at
that time, showed himself willing to reach a peace agreement with the
Israelis. But when Syria's Kurds are being killed in Kobani on a daily
basis, the Turks are silent, perhaps secretly comfortable seeing a group
that wants a state of its own apart from Turkey, being attacked.
Thus, when John Kerry claimed that it was the unresolved Palestinian
issue that caused a ripple effect that created ISIS, he simply inspired
the Palestinians to use Al-Aqsa mosque as a religious trigger for future
bloodshed. The idea is not new; it was used in 1929 by the Grand Mufti
of Jerusalem and led to anti-Jewish riots and the massacre of the Jews
in Hebron. It was used again by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in 2000, to
incite the Palestinians to the second intifada, which killed untold
numbers of Jews and Arabs. Today, Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas's Khaled
Mashaal are doing the same thing to incite a jihad that this time will
truly be religious and not based on real estate.
The more Kerry accuses Israel of having had a hand in creating ISIS,
the more the Palestinians will use Al-Aqsa mosque to stir the fire
burning under the bubbling cauldron of the Middle East.
...
Somehow, John Kerry has managed to link to Israel the Shi'ite-Sunni
civil wars, radical Islam's Muslim Brotherhood-inspired global plot and
the creation of ISIS. Then he linked the failure of the Palestinian
issue to have been resolved to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
The unpopular and inconvenient truth is: if there is to be peace,
Hamas has to be disarmed, the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip
have to be demilitarized, Mahmoud Abbas has to recognize the State of
Israel as the homeland of the Jews, and Netanyahu has to recognize the
Palestinians state. Israel will then compensate the Palestinians with
land in return for the land on which the three large blocks of
settlements stand, as has already been agreed.
It is not Israel but the Palestinians who are trying to avoid
negotiating a final agreement. They see themselves, with the backing of
the UN and Secretary Kerry -- and in a final breakdown of any trust in
future international agreements -- as able to achieve their desired
result without having to make any concessions.
Read it all. Ironically, JPost reports today that the European Union has appointed a new foreign policy chief. Guess what her goal is....
The EU’s new foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told the European
media on Monday that she would like to see a Palestinian state by the
time her five-year term is up.
“The important thing for me,”
Mogherini said, “is not whether other states, European or not,
recognize Palestine. What would make me happy, is if a Palestinian state
existed at the end of my term.”
She issued her statement to the French daily newspaper Le Monde in advance of her visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Friday and Saturday.
One thing that's sure to make the 'Palestinians' want to 'negotiate' is more European chickensh*t....
'Screening airline passengers for Ebola with infrared cameras a no-brainer...US is lagging behind'
An American-Israeli expert in infectious diseases has attacked the United States' failure to screen airline passengers by taking their temperatures using infrared cameras as a means of preventing passengers with Ebola from boarding planes.
According to Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev Professor Leslie Lobel, “the world has been asleep for 50 years
regarding infectious diseases and Ebola is the wake-up call.”
Lobel is a world-recognized virologist who has studied the virus and others emanating from the African continent.
“Fifty years ago, we were dealing with
eradicating polio, smallpox and yellow fever which had similarly high
mortality rates. Today, most of the world seems to understand the need
to screen passengers in airports using infrared cameras for elevated
temperature as a simple precaution — the US is lagging behind,” said Dr.
Lobel.
“Nearly everyone involved in the outbreak
response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall,” WHO said
in a draft internal document obtained by The Associated Press, noting
that experts should have realized that traditional containment methods
wouldn’t work in a region with porous borders and broken health systems.
Of course, if TSA ever started screening passengers for fevers, you can bet that (a) it would be done randomly rather than targeting people carrying the passports of affected countries and (b) it would cause long lines at the check-in counters.
As to WHO, anyone who depends on any UN agency to do anything reliably (other than hate Israel) is simply detached from reality.
Those of you who recall the story from 10 days or so ago when it was disclosed that the United States had denied Israel Hellfire missiles for use in Gaza, and who are aware that Britain and Spain have placed an embargo on weapons sales to us, might be wondering whether Israel has sources for weapons other than the United States and Western Europe. Unfortunately, while we have such sales they are negligible.
According to Defense Ministry figures, around one-quarter of the
output of the Israeli defense industry is intended for IDF use. The rest
is exported.
Despite official Israel’s reluctance to get specific
about its arms trade, reports submitted by various states to the UN’s
Register of Conventional Arms shed some light on the matter. For
example, Ukraine’s official reports state that two years ago, Ukraine
sold Israel 193 missiles and 32 launchers. According to reports made as
part of the voluntary disclosure mechanism, in 2010 Ukraine sold Israel
four Strella (SA-7) missiles and two launchers, about 75 Igla missiles
of various models and 10 launchers for them. It is not clear why Israel
purchased so many Russian-made shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.
The assumption is that they are being acquired as part of Israel’s
development of systems to counter them, such as the aircraft-defense
system. As recently as February, Defense Ministry officials and Elbit
Systems announced the successful completion of tests of the Sky Shield
system, which is intended to protects civilian aircraft from
shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. Arms experts have said it likely
that Russian-made missiles were used in the test. Still, the number of
missiles Ukraine reported selling to Israel is relatively large even for
that purpose. Defense Ministry officials declined to comment for this
report.
Reports in the UN Register that were examined in recent
years point to some more interesting acquisitions, mainly for
Soviet-made arms that are not considered at the forefront of technology.
For example, in 2008 Ukraine reported that it sold Israel a launcher
for BM-21 rockets — a launcher that the Israeli army used in the past
after it was captured as booty in the Yom Kippur War and used during the
first Lebanon War. Hezbollah uses it to fire Grad rockets. In 2006, the
Czech Republic sold Tochka tactical missile systems to Israel. Two
years previously, Bulgaria sold Israel six 130 mm artillery systems
about which no further details were provided.
Against the backdrop of reports about Britain and Spain examining their
arms sales to Israel, an expert characterized the amount of arms that
Israel purchases from countries other than the United States as
“negligible.”
...
Israel has signed several significant defense contracts with other
countries in recent years. Germany provides Israel with submarines from
its HDW shipyards in Kiel. Israel has purchased six submarines so far,
three of which are in use by the Israel navy. The IDF has taken delivery
of two submarines, with additional deliveries scheduled through the end
of 2019.
Italy last year arranged to sell 30 M-346 training
aircraft to Israel. The first of these are already making their first
flights. As part of the deal, Israel sold Italy several defense
products, an Israeli-made satellite and a deterrent aircraft produced by
Israel Aerospace Industries in a deal estimated at $2 billion dollars.
Last
month, the Defense Ministry issued an international tender for the
purchase of “defense ships,” which will be used to protect the offshore
natural-gas drilling rigs in the Mediterranean Sea. According to an
Israeli Navy plan for the protection of the rigs that the defense
minister and the chief of staff approved about two years ago, four more
large vessels will be required to secure the area properly, at a cost of
roughly 100 million dollars per ship. The names of several foreign
shipyards — in Germany, Italy, the United States and South Korea — were
mentioned in the past as possible makers of the ships that would protect
the natural-gas fields.
There are two answers. In the short term, export less and use our own arms. That will help only when the arms in question are arms that we produce domestically. Obviously, there are things (like submarines) that we do not produce domestically, and for which we will still be dependent on other countries.
But in the long run we should be developing our own military industry more than we have been. If we have learned nothing else in the last six years, we should have learned that there are even situations where we cannot count on the United States. We should not be dependent on anyone. Not even the United States. What if Hillary Clinton - or possibly worse Elizabeth Warren is the next President? We would have 4-8 more years of pressure and unreliability. It's time that we learn to cope on our own. We're a big enough economy to pull it off.
It's come to this: Egypt urges American restraint in Ferguson, Missouri
In light of the farce that was the United States' 'universal periodic review' at the 'human rights council,' I don't suppose we should be too surprised that the government of Egypt feels that it is able to give 'advice' to the United States regarding the current tensions in Ferguson, Missouri.
Egypt on Tuesday urged U.S. authorities to exercise restraint in dealing
with racially charged demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri - echoing
language Washington used to caution Egypt as it cracked down on Islamist
protesters last year.
It is unusual for Egypt to criticize such a major donor, and it was
not immediately clear why the government would have taken such a step.
...
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry's statement on the unrest
in Ferguson read similarly to one issued by U.S. President Barack
Obama's administration in July 2013, when the White House "urged
security forces to exercise maximum restraint and caution" in dealing
with demonstrations by Mursi supporters.
The ministry added it was "closely following the escalation of
protests" in Ferguson, unleashed by the fatal shooting of an unarmed
black teenager by a white policeman on Aug. 9.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would know how to find his cheek with his tongue. So maybe he really means it?
In any event, the fact that the modern-day equivalent of the Mouse that Roared feels able to criticize the United States for actions anywhere outside of Egypt speaks volumes about just how poorly regarded the United States is under Obama.
And you were wondering why the likes of ISIS and al-Qaeda feel at liberty to do whatever the heck they please?
Israel, Egypt and Abu Mazen have Hamas cornered with Russian help?
I don't like to sole-source DEBKA reports. But for reasons that I will explain below, I believe that there may be some element of truth to this one, which claims that Israel, Egypt and the 'Palestinian Authority' have managed to corner Hamas with Russian help (Hat Tip: Udi S).
Debkafile’s
intelligence sources report exclusively that Egyptian President Abdel
Fatteh El-Sisi, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have lined up in a solid
phalanx against the Islamist Hamas-Islamic Jihad alliance.
Their lineup, backed from the wings by Saudi King Abdullah and Russian President Vladimir Putin, set itself five objectives:
1. To confront Hamas with a solid political-security front which is beyond its power to break.
2. To corner Hamas into accepting the Egyptian ceasefire proposion unchanged and unconditionally.
3. To compel Hamas to disarm, i.e. dismantle its rockets and
tunnels, so pulling the teeth of its military wing, Ezz e-Din al-Qassam.
4. To distance the Obama administration from the triple bloc’s dealings with the Palestinian Islamist factions.
5. To keep the Europeans from interfering in those dealings.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy meeting
in Brussels offered Friday to take charge of Gaza’s border crossings and
work to prevent illegal arms flows.
Saturday, Cairo, Jerusalem and Ramallah politely informed Brussels
that they preferred to handle this situation on their own and no
European diplomatic or security assistance was needed.
The quiet shaping of this three-way alliance for resolving the Gaza
conflict, by means of a sustainable cessation of hostilities, kept most
of Israel’s and world media guessing, says debkafile.
In the interests of tight secrecy, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe
Ya’alon chose to keep the rest of the cabinet in the dark as well,
incurring loud complaints from ministers.
The proposition the three partners have formulated puts Hamas and
Jihad on the spot. The Arab world has abandoned them and their only
source of funding is Tehran. So their choices are grim: Face an
escalated war that Israel will fight until the bitter end, or swallow
hard and accept the only proposition on the table which is tantamount to
disarmament and capitulation.
Their isolation is complete. The Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian
leaders have managed to cut Hamas away from any backing in Washington,
Qatar and Turkey as well as blocking its path to Moscow.
To encourage Hamas to choose the right path, the Israel Air Force is
cruising around-the-clock over Hamas bases and command centers in the
Gaza Strip, ready at a signal to switch to the offensive if the
Palestinian fundamentalists make the wrong choice in Cairo.
Mahmoud Abbas, who appeared to be sitting on the sidelines of the Gaza
conflict during Israel’s month-long military operation, finally threw in
his lot with Sisi and Netanyahu when it came to the crunch.
Why do I believe that this story might be true.
First, we already have seen Russian cooperation with Israel that effectively counteracts European attempts to punish the Jewish state.
Second, because we know that President Hussein Obama and Secretary of State John FN Kerry favor Hamas, and that Vladimir Putin is an expert at making them look like fools running around in circles.
Third, there's this piece by Amos Harel in Haaretz explaining why the Egyptian cease fire plan is a disaster for Hamas.
In effect, according to one columnist from the Palestinian
Authority-affiliated Al-Ayyam newspaper, the proposal offers the same
understanding reached after Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, with
only cosmetic changes. All of the gestures made by Egypt toward the
Palestinians, like easing restrictions at border crossings and the
gradual elimination of the Israeli buffer zone within the Gaza Strip
come with a very heavy price, as far as Hamas is concerned: Renewed,
reinforced presence of Palestinian Authority forces in Gaza.
This
is a tough pill to swallow for Hamas, as are Egypt’s efforts to bring
the Oslo agreements back to the surface through the back door; Hamas
reviles Oslo even more than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does.
Therefore, it’s not surprising that official Hamas spokespeople
criticized the Egyptian proposal on Saturday. What is surprising is the
rather moderate reaction by the Islamic Jihad, always considered more
extreme than Hamas. It seems that the Islamic Jihad has recently been
warming up to Cairo, and perhaps is less committed to the comprehensive
demands that Hamas had set when the sequence of humanitarian cease-fires
began. Israel, at this point, has yet to issue an official response to
the Egyptian proposal, as it was leaked to the Arab media.
...
The quandary that Hamas faces is clear: without an achievement to tout,
the incredible sacrifice of Gaza’s population – roughly 2,000 dead,
hundreds of thousands of refugees, thousands of homes as well as
infrastructure destroyed – will seem for naught. On the other hand, the
long series of cease-fires might make it hard for the organization to
keep fighting. The humanitarian disaster in Gaza, along with electricity
and potable water shortages, has forced Gaza residents to focus on
rebuilding. The more hawkish approach, favored by Khaled Mehsal in
Qatar, would mean renewed suffering for the Gazan population.
Tzipi Livni may no longer be Israel’s foreign minister but she still has
a capacity to cause diplomatic tremors. Last weekend she did just this
by declaring that there was an agreement between Israel and Egypt to
strangle Hamas. Since there was no official affirmation or denial from
Cairo, despite calls from Hamas to do so, Livni’s remarks evoked a flood
of commentary. Few doubted that there is indeed an Israeli-Arab axis,
spearheaded by Egypt, whose immediate aim is to dismantle Hamas’ control
over the Gaza Strip. Ultimately, it also seeks to eradicate from the
region all structures of what they call political Islam.
...
[A]n item posted by the military spokesman Lt. Col. Muhammad Samir on
his Facebook page the day after Livni made her declaration did highlight
to some measure the current level of collaboration between Egypt and
Israel. He noted that the Egyptian army had destroyed a total of 1,659
tunnels in the border area between Gaza and Egypt; a feat which the
Israelis themselves could not have pulled off from their position on the
northern and eastern borders of Gaza.
What the officer did not concede, however, was that this was largely
due to American assistance. Since 2008 the US had given the Egyptian
army equipment worth $23 million to identify and destroy the tunnels,
which for the past eight years have been the lifeline for Gaza’s
population.
Furthermore, in one year since the overthrow of Egypt’s civilian
President Mohamed Morsi the regime in Cairo have closed the Rafah
crossing for a total of 320 days. The reason, they claim, is to counter
security threats in the Sinai.
Apart from the tunnels and Rafah crossing, the Egyptian authorities
had yet another lethal weapon in its arsenal. That was the state-backed
media, which during the same period revelled in an orgy of anti-Hamas
vitriol that reached its climax with their wholehearted support for the
latest Israeli onslaught on Gaza. In a country where press freedom has
long been dead and buried, such ranting could not take place without
official approval and support.
Hmmm.
In case you're wondering, the Egyptian newspaper al-Shorouk published what it claims is the text of the Egyptian proposal on Friday. You can find an English translation here.
On Monday morning Israel time, I blogged a Mark Steyn piece whose real title (which I changed) was the one in the picture above (credit for the photoshop goes to Twitchy). I am pleased to tell you that America's... ahem... you-know-what's... have been found... in Israel.
Israel denied a request by Moscow to let a Russian missile boat
anchor at Haifa a month ago, making the decision against the backdrop of
the crisis in Ukraine, said a senior official in Jerusalem involved in the matter.
Israeli
officials were worried that allowing a Russian naval vessel to visit
Haifa would worsen tensions with the United States. There were also
concerns about possible espionage.
The request was handled by the
national security adviser, Yossi Cohen. He asked for the opinion of
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin
Bet security service, but not the Foreign Ministry. All opinions were
negative and the request was denied.
The official said Israel
strives to maintain neutrality in the big powers’ confrontation over
Ukraine; pictures of a Russian warship at Israel’s main naval base would
convey that Israel was siding with Moscow.
Okay, so the motivation wasn't so pure - they didn't want to increase tensions with the US.... But the botoom line is that Israel stood down Russia. When was the last timedid Obama ever do that?
US defends Kuwait Airways discrimination against Israelis
The United States Secretary of Transportation is defending Kuwait Airways against charges of discrimination due to the airline's refusal to carry Israelis on its non-stop New York - London route.
In late 2013, a formal
complaint was filed with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation
(Secretary) alleging illegal discrimination by Kuwait Airways (KA) on
the basis of national origin, in violation of federal law
proscribing such discrimination by air carriers. The complaint concerned
the airline's refusal to transport Israeli nationals on nonstop flights
from New York to London. KA's bigoted policy is readily apparent: to
purchase tickets through the airline's website, the passenger must
select his or her nationality from a drop-down list of countries, as
well as the passport issuing country. Israel is absent from these
drop-downs and, consequently, Israeli nationals cannot buy tickets.
The Secretary denied the
complaint earlier this year, asserting that KA had not violated any
U.S. anti-discrimination law because the airline is required to comply
with Kuwaiti law, which prohibits Israeli passport holders from entering
Kuwait. As the attorney now pursuing this matter correctly articulated,
"In essence, the Secretary determined that Kuwait Airways did not
violate U.S. law because that airline was required by Kuwaiti law
to discriminate against Israeli nationals." The Secretary's rationale
is particularly unfounded because the flight at issue goes from New York
to London; the fact that Israeli passport holders cannot enter Kuwait
is wholly irrelevant. Moreover, if any entity conducts business in the United States, it must comply with U.S. law.
Dissatisfied with the
response, Eldad Gatt, who filed the initial complaint, commenced an
action in U.S. federal court in March 2014, appealing the Secretary's
denial and requesting appropriate relief, arguing that "[t]he Secretary
has officially endorsed Kuwait Airways' policy of boycotting Israeli
nationals, and has explicitly authorized Kuwait Airways to continue its
blatantly discriminatory practices."
The complainant is hoping that Kuwait Airways will be barred from operating in the United States if it refuses to change its discriminatory practices.
I'm planning a trip next month, so just for the fun of it, I went to Kuwait Airways' website and tried to book a round trip between London and New York. It keeps telling me that there are no flights available. In fact, I even tried pushing the reservation to June and got told no flights available. And I never reached the nationality question. You don't think they're refusing to transport me because my computer is in Israel, do you?
You know, back in 1991, Israel took a whole bunch of missiles for Kuwait....
#BDS_Fail Asia to overtake US as number 2 destination for Israeli exports
For the first time, Israel exported nearly as much to Asia as to the US in 2013, and is likely to export more in 2014.
The region is expected to come in as Israel’s second-largest trade
partner for 2014 behind the European Union, shifting the United States
into third place, according to the ministry’s Foreign Trade Authority.
In 2013, exports to Asia nearly equaled those to the US for the first
time, coming within 0.6 percentage points as a share of total exports.
When countries are not clustered into regional groups, however, the United States remains Israel’s largest single trade partner.
The ministry expects exports to Asia to grow from 21 percent of total
exports in 2013, to 24.5% in 2018, while combined exports to the EU and
US will shrink from a 63% share to 59.9%.
Exports to all other countries amounted to 16% in 2013, and are projected to fall to 15.5% by 2018.
A decade ago, Asia accounted for just 15% of Israeli exports, while the
US provided more than a third of the market, Foreign Trade Authority
director- general Ohad Cohen said.
Oh my: Across the USA, Jews urged not to walk home from synagogue alone
In an unprecedented move, the National Council of Young Israel has urged American Jews not to walk home from synagogue alone on the two final days of the Passover holiday.
The security precaution is one of several emailed to those affiliated
with the national modern orthodox synagogue network this week in
response to the recent shooting attack at a Jewish Community Center in
Overland Park, Kansas.
Jewish community centers, synagogues and other institutions around the
country boosted their security last week following the attack, in which
Klansman Frazier Glenn Cross killed three people, including a teenage
boy.
Police have increased their presence at Jewish sites in both New York
and Washington and senior Jewish communal officials have consulted with
both the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
“Don't walk home alone late at night. Always walk with a buddy,” NCYI’s Ari Matityahu recommended to affiliate communities.
Other security precautions suggested include not letting strangers into
synagogues, employing the “Run/Hide/Fight model of active shooter
response” and securing trash cans so that “bombs can’t be hidden in
them.”
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
