Am I the only one who sees a difference between making a proposal to your boss and leaking it to the media to pressure your boss to implement it? For some reason, unnamed 'defense officials' (who are presumably not the minister or the deputy minister) think that leaking their proposals for appeasing the 'Palestinians' to the media is acceptable behavior (Hat Tip: Shy Guy).
The list, consisting of
measures that are intended to appease Palestinians but will not
compromise Israel's security, was submitted to ministerial officials,
but whether it will be implemented has yet to be determined.
The document offers
that ammunition will be handed to the PA, including crowd dispersal
measures, and that permits to open new Palestinian police stations be
granted.
The document also included a list of 30-40 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom ill or elderly, who can be released
without posing a risk to the State's security, in the eyes of defense officials.
That was one of the arguments used to release Sheikh Yassin in the '90's. He gave orders for Hamas suicide bombings for years until Israel liquidated him.
The proposal further
suggests that Israel support the development of Palestinian villages,
industry and roads, including the construction of a road around Ramallah
and the improvement of the authority's infrastructure.
According to sources with the defense establishment, the measures will achieve Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
an advantage with his people.
Why should we be supporting a dictator whose four-year term expired more than four years ago? For that matter, why should we be paying for the construction of the infrastructure of a 'Palestinian state' - which will be dedicated to our destruction. Let them pay for it themselves from all their 'aid money' that they get from the 'international community.'
Last week, senior officials have insisted that Israel
had no intention of granting any appeasement measures until peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians were resumed.
And that's why they're taking their 'proposals' to the media and not to their bosses.
The Mattot Arim organization is outraged (via email):
Civil servants in the Defense Ministry/IDF, who are supposed to be non-political, are instead hard at work promoting their own favorite pro-Palestinian concessions.
They even brazenly publicized their initiatives: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4369625,00.html:
These civil servants are promoting the following terrible ideas (have they learned nothing??)
a, supplying more ammunition to the Palestinians
b. giving Palestinians permission to build more "police stations" (military camps i.e.)
c. releasing 30-40 life-sentenced terrorists next month (!)
d. MOST DANGEROUS OF ALL: allowing Palestinians to build up (i.e. gain footholds in) the Israeli part of Judea and Samaria -- right next to all the Jewish communities -- rather than building in the large areas the Palestinians already took over as a result of the Oslo accords!! (the Hebrew article, but not the English translation, explains this last point; so if you read Hebrew, you can see it here: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4368580,00.html).
For those wondering why these employees are not fired (even assuming they could be identified)... most of them are unionized and cannot be fired!
Europe continues to delude itself that Hezbullah is not a terror organization, or alternatively that it has a 'political branch' that is not a terror organization. Europe will not ban Hezbullah, partly because they fear it, partly because they don't recognize the full extent of its threat and that it cannot be bought off in the long run, and partly because Hezbullah 'only targets Jews' anyway.
But Europe's appeasement of Hezbullah comes with an ever increasing price. JPost reports that shortly after the Burgas terror attack last summer, an Iranian woman traveling on a Canadian passport was caught surveilling the Chabad Center in Sofia.
An Iranian-sponsored female agent in her 50s, holding a Canadian
passport, traveled from Istanbul to Sofia several weeks after the bombing of the Israeli tour bus
in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas in July 2012. She was arrested
on her first day in Sofia after the Bulgarian police, on high alert,
noticed she was monitoring the Chabad center.
Her mission was to
survey the Chabad center – which houses a synagogue – and not the main
Sofia Sephardi synagogue, as first reported.
The Canadian may be a dual Iranian-Canadian citizen.
...
Dr. Matthew Levitt, director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism
and Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and a
leading authority on Hezbollah’s global terror operations, told the
Post that, “It would not surprise [us] if Iran or Hezbollah were found
to be behind this plot [against the Chabad center] last year. Recall
that five years earlier Western intelligence indicated that ‘Hezbollah
chiefs and Iranian intelligence officials had put Bulgaria on a list of
nations propitious for developing plots against Western targets.’ “Their
first attempt at killing Israeli tourists failed when a suspicious
package was noticed on a bus carrying Israeli tourists from Turkey to
Bulgaria in January 2012. Six months later Hezbollah operatives struck
again, this time with devastating success in Burgas.”
The latest
disclosure about Iran’s alleged monitoring of the Chabad center may add
new weight to the EU talks about banning Hezbollah, Iran’s chief proxy
in Europe.
Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, an expert on Iranian terrorism
in Europe and senior fellow with the Brussels-based European Foundation
for Democracy, told the Post on Saturday, “Europe needs to wake up and
learn from Hezbollah’s terrorism.” He said the group uses Iranian
“know-how and money” to launch its terror attacks.
Islamic terror organizations have a special place in their hearts for Jews in general, and for religious Jews and especially for Chabad in particular. People who are visibly Jewish seem to disturb them more than others. And the world doesn't care.
Krauthammer asks when Muslim nations will apologize to the US
I'm sure many of you have heard that American soldiers in Afghanistan 'improperly disposed' of some Korans last week (they burned them), that the US issued a groveling apology, and that at least two American soldiers have been murdered as a result.
Charles Krauthammer asks a good question: When will the Islamic nations apologize to the United States?
This very issue was addressed a few weeks ago in a Newsweek cover story titled “The War on Christians.” Writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali accused Western media outlets of participating in a “conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance,” though she did admit the silence may be due to a fear of fanning the flames and creating a larger conflict in the region.
I'm with Krauthammer and Carlson on this. ONE apology - preferably not from the President - is appropriate because the United States as a matter of policy does not burn Korans (or Bibles or any other books for that matter). The repeated apologies - going all the way up to the President - are nothing but groveling. And the violence ought to be put down just like it's put down when non-Muslims are violent.
But the President who is so proud that 'my middle name is Hussein' isn't capable of seeing or doing that. He knows one way - and one way only - of relating to Muslims. Groveling appeasement.
Video: Rick Santorum slams Obama for appeasement (and Candy Crowley for defending it)
This is an interview that was done on Sunday morning television by CNN's Candy Crowley with Republican candidate Rick Santorum, who backs up his accusation that President Obama is an appeaser of terror and of Iran.
Crowley does not seem happy.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Lisa Graas via Twitter).
New US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is threatening a unilateral American response to the supply of weapons by Iran to Islamic terrorists in Iraq.
Fourteen US military personnel were killed in Iraq in June, the highest monthly toll in three years.
...
"We are very concerned about Iran and the weapons they are providing to extremists here in Iraq. And we're seeing the results of that," Panetta said. "In June we lost a hell of a lot of Americans as a result of those attacks. And we cannot just simply stand back and allow this to continue to happen ..."
Panetta, on his first trip to Iraq as defense secretary, said Washington's first effort would be to press the Iraqi government and military to go after Shi'ite groups responsible for the attacks.
"Secondly, to do what we have to do unilaterally, to be able to go after those threats as well, and we're doing that," he said.
"And thirdly, to bring pressure on Iran to not engage in this kind of behavior. Because, very frankly, they need to know that our first responsibility is to protect those that are defending our country. And that is something we are going to do."
Does Panetta realize what administration he now serves? Obama's response to an attack on American diplomatic personnel in Damascus was to order the Marines to hold their fire and then to threaten a lawsuit. Does Panetta really believe that Obama will approve any military action against Iran or its proxies? What could go wrong?
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
