Letters From Abroad: Middle East

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See ya!

A few months ago I was in Sderot, interviewing several groups of children for a US children’s magazine. The magazine wanted a story on what life was like for the children of Sderot, the Negev town of 27,000 that’s been under almost constant bombardment by Arab terrorists for over eight years.

Obviously enough, for virtually all of the children I was talking to, none of them knew what it was like to live any other way than the way they did. For their entire lives, the “Tzeva Adom” – incoming rocket warnings – had been what their days were filled with.  They’ve never had a day when they could be outside playing in any area where they were more than 15 seconds away from a bomb shelter, because that’s how much warning time the incoming rocket warnings permit.

So even though they live in this hot Negev village, none of them knew what it was like to swim in an outdoor swimming pool – all of them in Sderot were closed, years ago.  If a kid is in the water, there’s no way in the world he could make it to a bomb shelter in the 15 seconds before the rocket would hit.

None of them knew what it was like to be able to take a shower without having a family “shower monitor” standing outside the door.  The thing is, if you’re in the shower, you might not hear the warning siren.  So families set up elaborate showering schedules, with one family member posted outside to door, to pound on the door in the event the warning sounded.

All of them were accustomed to spending long days inside the bomb shelters, without ever going outside. Some days, the rocket warning sirens would sound every few minutes – you couldn’t get very far from the shelters anyway, so they may as well stay inside and play games.  On really bad days, school is cancelled, so in addition to the emotional trauma, their education suffers, too.

All of them worried about family members. The most heartbreaking story came from an eight year old girl, who told me that the worst thing for her was worrying about her mother and baby sister.  “When it’s night, and we’re sleeping when the warning sounds, we’re all upstairs,” she told me.  “It’s very dangerous up there, because if a rocket should hit, there’s only the thin roof above. The rocket would go right through.  So the moment we hear the warning, we all run down the stairs to the shelter room.  But my mother doesn’t.  She stays upstairs with my baby sister, because she can’t run down the stairs fast enough with the baby in her arms.  She just stays upstairs and lays down over my sister to protect her, if the rocket should hit. Mostly what I worry about are my mom and sister.”

It’s utterly impossible to tell you everything these children have endured at the hands of Arab terrorists, but you get the idea.

But today, a local news story tells that a bit of relief is at hand. A new – indoor! – children’s playground has just opened in Sderot.  Built at a cost of $5 million by the Jewish National Fund – hey, you don’t see any international conferences being called to raise money to help rebuild Israel, do you? – the indoor playground has 21,000 square feet with several age-appropriate sections. It has a media and computer section, a climbing wall, a mock “shopping mall” for dolls, teddy bears and action figures.  It has a birthday party area and a cafeteria and even an indoor mini-soccer field.

It also has something playgrounds in the US don’t need:  psychologists on duty, there to help distressed children or their parents.

The whole structure isn’t bomb-proof, certainly not built to withstand the kind of super Grad missiles the Arabs have been firing into Ashkelon these last few days, but scattered throughout the building are smaller shelters, close enough for the children to reach within 15 seconds when the warning sounds.   (And it’s still sounding, by the way. On March 1 alone, 12 Arab rockets slammed into Sderot.)

Because the new indoor playground can only accommodate 500 people at a time, an additional sheltered structure outside the building acts as a waiting room, for children waiting their turn to go inside to play.

Stop, now, just a moment, and think what these kids live through, every day of their lives. They don’t know anything but rockets and bombs, the death of friends, the unending, constant, unremitting and hate-filled missile attacks.

It’s no wonder, that when I asked one little boy if he ever thought there would be peace with the Arabs, he said, “Peace? Like, what do you mean?”

For several of the miserable years I worked as a Deputy Attorney General in Sacramento, our offices were in the Wells Fargo Building in downtown Sacramento. I don’t recall exactly how many floors there were, but it was a reasonably tall high-rise, mostly fronted with window glass.

Washing those windows was probably a full time job for some window-washing company. They’d erect their scaffolds and equipment, and proceed to wash and squeegee windows – rain or shine.

Which made no sense at all, of course.  Washing windows in the rain is a pretty stupid thing to do.  Except now it’s clear that the entire world has taken that concept and elevated it to world policy.

At a 71- nation conference, augmented by 16 regional, international and financial organizations, the window-washers of the world met in Sharm El-Sheikh to “rebuild Gaza”.  Their goal was to raise $2.8 billion to repair the damage Israel allegedly did during the Chanukkah War.  But glory be, they exceeded their estimates, and a total of $4.5 billion was raised, $900 million of which is American tax dollars.  Add this to previous commitments, and there’s now a fund of $5.2 billion to reconstruct war-damaged buildings in Aza.

Excuse me, but how nuts can you get?   The War isn’t over.  They’re washing windows in the rain.

If anyone out there actually believes that the conflict in Aza is past and that the time for rebuilding has come, they’re sadly mistaken.  Here’s one little hint: the war isn’t over as long as the Arab terrorists continue to fire rockets and missiles into Israel. On March 1 alone, 12 rockets were fired into beleaguered Sderot.

Hundreds of rockets have been fired, and of course now, it’s not just in Sderot anymore. The truth is, the daily rate of rocket fire is only slightly below what it was before the Israeli response began on December 27.  Worse yet, the rockets fired into Ashkelon (a major seaport, 120,000 people) over the last several days  have been the far more powerful Grads, missiles that are able to pierce the concrete reinforcements Israel constructed, hoping to protect the people inside.

Is anyone so disillusioned as to think that Israel will not respond to the continued attacks?  Is there anyone so biased as to think that Israel SHOULDN’T respond to the ongoing missile attacks on civilians in our cities, towns and villages?

Apparently. And the Community Organizer and Missus Bubba stand at the head of the line.

Of course, if the world wants to throw its money away on reconstructing buildings, which the Arab terrorists will use as launching pads for more missiles to fire at Israel, I suppose that’s their business.  The real problem is that the Arabs new $5.2 billion kitty won’t actually go for building reconstruction at all – it will be used, instead, to fill the terrorist’s coffers, to help them continue to terrorize Israel.

Beyond that, they’ll use the concrete, steel and other construction materials to build tunnels, bunkers and more rockets and missiles. After all, that’s what they did with the irrigation pipeline that the US provided a number of years ago, in a “humanitarian” effort to enable the terrorists to become farmers.  Instead, the terrorists cut the pipe into 3′ lengths, filled them with a rocket fuel cooked up from ingredients like sugar – also donated as a “humanitarian gesture” – and fired them into Israel for eight long years. 

Is there any reason at all to think that they won’t do exactly the same thing with the money and goods that are being donated now?

Clearly not. Although if this whole venture weren’t so desperately dangerous, you could almost enjoy the antics of the Useful Idiots of the world.  The opportunities for subsequent “I told you so’s” are almost unprecedented.

Take Douglas Alexander, for example, International Development Secretary for Britain’s Labor government, who pledged $30 million British tax dollars to help the terrorists. In amongst a sea of lofty pontification about peace, he insisted, “Israel must do the right thing and allow much-needed goods to get through to these men, women and children who continue to suffer.” 

And how about the Israeli men, women and children who will be the victims of those “goods” he insists must be allowed to pass through? 

Well – this was an opportunity for world governments to ante up tax dollars, to come to the aid of the international terrorist movement. It wasn’t the time or place to worry about Israelis.

Well, well. Missus Bubba finds herself on the horns of a dilemma. 

Remember the blog of February 24 – read it below, “And Now Hamas Thanks You Again” The issue was the $900 million that Missus Bubba is planning on donating to Hamas – ah! Excuse me!  To the ‘Palestinian’ Authority! To rebuild Aza. 

That’s a nutty concept from the beginning: imagine giving the Governor of Nevada $900 million to rebuild California,  without having California benefit from it.  Can’t be done, right?

The first and most obvious problem is that the PA has no power in Aza. Hamas is the elected government. You can’t give the PA money to rebuild Aza without working with Hamas – and benefiting them. Hamas is in control. And don’t ever forget it: Hamas is in control  because the Arabs of Aza want them in control. They like it that way.

So last week, we suggested that giving money to a moderate terrorist group to have them spend it in such a way that it would hurt a seriously bad terrorist group really isn’t a very good way to spend American tax dollars. The thing is, cash gifts to terrorists have a way of blowing up in your face – or in Israel’s face, anyway. 

Well, the status of that $900 million is now in doubt – and for very interesting reasons.  David Bedein, Middle East correspondent, reports a very interesting legal issue in today’s Bulletin, a Philadelphia newspaper.  

The thing is, no one in Israel believes that your American tax dollars are actually going anywhere but into the pockets of the Hamas terrorists. How could it be otherwise? 

But so eager is the Community Organizer in the White House to give your hard-earned dollars to his Arab friends that he’s willing to risk it. So what, if the money ends up helping the terrorists, I guess. It’s the intent that matters, isn’t it?

Anyway, on Israel television on Friday, one of the leading political correspondents had the best line: “If that funding does not end up in Hamas terror coffers, then I’m a circus ballerina,” said Ayala Hasson during the show.  Clearly the lady is not a circus ballerina.

But here’s the issue: what happens if Missus Bubba gives US tax dollars which land in the hands of Hamas.  Hamas is a listed “FTO” – Foreign Terrorist Organization – to which giving any kind of money is a serious violation of US criminal law.

Well, here’s what happened to Richard David Hupper, a 33-year-old York County, Pennsylvania native.  He gave $20,000 for “humanitarian aid” to Hamas, was caught and charged with a crime.  He ended up being sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison.

So do the math:  If  Hupper got three and a half years in federal prison for giving Hamas only $20,000, how many years would Missus Bubba get, for giving them  $900 million?

As they say about three lawyers on the bottom of a lake: ‘It would be a good start’.

I know you disbelievers are out there – you don’t believe the terrorist’s rockets and missiles can possibly hit schools and playgrounds as often as they do, and you don’t believe that if they did hit, there could be so many reasons why the children in the area didn’t happen to be present when the rockets hit.

But it happened again, on Shabbat, Saturday.

A “new and improved” Grad rocket hit an Ashkelon school on Saturday morning, zooming right through the reinforced roof that’s designed to withstand rockets and missiles – designed to withstand Kassam rockets, that is, not the kind of weaponry that Iran is now sending to its Arab cohorts in Aza.

The Grad did extensive damage to the school and several people were hospitalized, but indeed, because it hit on Shabbat when school isn’t in session, no children were hurt.  The school will be closed today, too – Sunday is a regular work and school day, in Israel.

Yesterday a second rocket also hit the outskirts of Ashkelon, and three others hit other areas, one in Eschol (in the Negev) and two in Sderot.  Same old, same old.

A television report showed how the Arabs are bringing in the new and improved missiles through tunnels from Egypt.  The IDF is bombing tunnels now – a change, from before the Chanukah War – but it’s not having much of an impact.

Egyptian officials continue to insist that the “ceasefire” is holding nicely. They say that with a straight face, mind you, in spite of the evidence to the contrary.

Nothing changes so much as it remains the same……

It’s gonna be a long four years.

Missus Bubba attacked Israel yesterday, for not “making an effort” to aid the poor Arabs in Aza. We are, she says, “placing obstacles” that slow down the delivery of “humanitarian” aid into the area.

“Israel is not making enough effort to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” her lackeys at the State department added. “The US expects Israel to meet its commitment on this matter.”

Well, first of all, why is it Israel’s obligation to solve the ‘humanitarian’ situation in Aza? We were the ones who were attacked, remember? We fought back against eight years of unceasing rocket and mortar fire.  Now we’re supposed to be caring for the enemy combatants and rebuilding their country?

And as far as “allowing the delivery” of humanitarian aid, it’s primarily been Egypt that’s blocking the crossings, not Israel. And we’re taking the precautions we are because the Arabs are still firing rockets and still trying to slip suicide bombers into Israel.  We have a right to defend ourselves, even though Missus Bubba apparently doesn’t think so.

But it’s funny:  no matter what we do, we get slammed. You might remember that during the Chanukah War, every day for several hours Israel unilaterally stopped all defensive actions to allow “humanitarian” aid to be trucked into Aza.  We stopped all military action — even though the terrorists didn’t. During these ‘humanitarian’ pauses, they continued shooting their rockets and mortars into Israeli cities and villages.

Why is it that no one ever suggested that Hamas – and the 22 wealthy Arab nations that support the terrorists – aren’t required to give “humanitarian” aid to Israel?  Beleaguered Sderot, Netivot and other areas that suffered year after year of devastating rocket fire, killing innocent civilians, damaging homes and factories, and virtually shutting down their business districts, could use a little ‘humanitarian’ aid, too.

If there’s now some sort of moral obligation to care for enemy civilians after a war, why does only one of the combatants get stuck with it? Why aren’t Hamas and their oil-rich supporters required to help Israeli civilians who are suffering, too? 

But let’s look at the pure facts: Missus Bubba says we aren’t “making an effort”. 

Since we ceased our fire into Aza (the terrorists continue to fire about three rockets or mortars into Israel each day, so they haven’t ‘ceased’ their fire) Israel has delivered 112,991 tons of aid and 2.6 million gallons of fuel into Aza.

During the war itself, December 27 – January 18, Israel delivered 1,365 truckloads of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including 33,580 tons of supplies such as food, medication, medical supplies, blood units and donations by various governments and blood units. It also delivered 440,000 gallons of fuel.

Did you read that right?  DURING THE WAR, Israel continued to supply the terrorists who were attacking us with food, medical supplies and fuel oil. 

But still, Missus Bubba isn’t impressed. She “expects us to live up to our commitments”.

So, do you think the terrorists living up to their commitments?  Well, no. They haven’t made any commitments at all – no one ever suggested that they should. They continue the rocket fire.  Who would have expected anything else?

And by the way, that concept of ‘humanitarian aid’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. A recent photographic report showed how the terrorists were making grenades out of the medicine bottles in which Israel had delivered medicines.

Some days – and with some people – you just can’t win, y’know?

Since 2002, we’ve known that uttering the truism, “No Arabs – No Terror” is illegal in Israel.  Back then, David Ha’Irvi had printed tee shirts with the words and was giving them away when he was arrested and charged with “incitement to racism”.  He was ultimately sentenced to six months community service.

Now Neria Ofan, a resident of the Shomron in Samaria, has been convicted of the same offense.  She was driving a car that bore a bumper sticker with the same phrase. This time, the judge – Shulamit Dotan of Jerusalem – spelled out her thinking.  Interesting.

 “The call ‘no Arabs – no terror’ is tainted with racism,” Judge Shulamit Dotan wrote, “It makes a connection between the entire Arab populace, without any differentiation among its members, and the execution of terror acts. It thus shows hostility and enmity toward an entire populace, only because of its national-ethnic origin.”

“The slogan also suggests a solution to the ‘problem,’” Judge Dotan went on to say, “in the form of collective punishment of the Arab population by making it disappear, either by expulsion of by other means, which the reader need only imagine, as long as the country remains ‘clean’ of Arabs.”

Acts of incitement to racism, the judge ruled, “connect between racist ideas and their execution through violent offenses.”

Well. It’s nice that we’re so sensitive on such matters, I suppose. It would be even nicer if that standard were applied equally, across the board, to ALL citizens of Israel. But it’s not. 

Take your choice from thousands of such events, but here’s one: On Election Day – February 10 – an angry Arab mob chased a Member of the Knesset, Aryeh Eldad, out of an Israeli city where he had gone to serve as an election monitor. They threw rocks and shouted, “Death to the Jews!”

Just so you know, “Umm El Fahm” is an urban center near Haifa in the north, an area which has been within the territorial confines of the State of Israel since 1948.  It’s also 100% Arab – all of them full citizens of Israel.

So, one might wonder:  If it is a criminal offense for an Israeli Jew to drive a car with a bumper sticker that reads, “No Arabs – No Terror”, then why is it okay for an Israeli Arab to shout “Death to the Jews” and throw rocks at a visiting Member of the Knesset?

If it’s an “incitement to racism” to suggest, “no Arabs, no terror”, why is it not an “incitement to racism” to shout ‘death to the Jews’ and throw rocks? Does the phrase “death to the Jews” not “show hostility and enmity toward an entire populace, only because of its national-ethnic origin”??

Does not shouting “death to the Jews” suggest a solution to the ‘problem’, in the form of “collective punishment of the Jewish population by making it disappear, either by expulsion of by other means”?

Apparently not. Not when it’s an Arab shouting the words.

This means, I guess, that Arabs in Israel are free to be openly, viciously, active racists threatening death to Jews, coupled with the apparently ability to carry out the threat. But Jews are convicted of criminal offenses and fined for wearing a tee shirt or driving a car with a bumper sticker that states a truism, No Arabs, no terror.  

As I’ve said before, I sometimes think we’ve become too civilized to survive.

Well, one thing about the Community Organizer in the White House.  He knows the easiest way to win friends and influence people – hand over the cash.

Not his own money, of course.  Yours.

A Whitehouse spokesperson “who asked not to be named” – right, you bet – made the announcement, as reported on Israel National News. The US is planning on giving $900 million dollars to the terrorists in Aza.

That’s on top of the $85 million you gave last December. Not to mention the tens of million dollars you hand over in other ways, all year long.  And yes, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to your money that the Community Organizer is handing over to just about everyone else on the planet. But still…. Someone, somewhere, has to earn that money, and the designated hitter is you, the taxpayer.

But this gift isn’t like paying your neighbor’s mortgage or nationalizing the banking industry. The problem is, cash gifts to terrorist organizations are the ultimate in the gifts that keep on giving.

Give terrorists cash, and it enables them to keep on terrorizing.  Why is that so hard for the world to understand?

“This money is for Gaza and to help strengthen the Palestinian Authority. It is not going to go to Hamas,” said the official, noting that Missus Bubba would announce the gift at a donor’s conference in Egypt next week.

It is simply beyond comprehension that the State Department can be that naïve. Let me say this simply:  The governing body in Aza is Hamas. Hamas controls the legislature – the Arabs of Aza elected them to do so. So when you give money to rebuild Aza, who, exactly, do you think is going to get it? The man in the moon?

Right, they insist the money will go to “strengthen Mahmoud Abbas”, head of a rival terrorist organization, Fatah, and his Palestinian Authority. But last year, of all the billions of dollars given to Abbas to “strengthen” him, Abbas turned right around and handed 40% of it to Hamas. Straight across the board, Abbas gave 40% to Hamas.

There seems to be no way to convince a naïve world that the only difference between Fatah and Hamas is that they’re playing good-guy, bad-guy, like cops do, on TV programs.  One pretends to be the tough guy, the nasty one, while the other swoops in with tea and sympathy, the soft approach. They’re hoping the criminal will forget that they’re both on the same side.

Just so, Hamas and Fatah – and Hezbollah, Al Qaida and all the rest.  Any divisions you see are superficial, skin-deep. They’re all fighting for the same cause.

So here we go with the US turning over another $900 to Aza.  The population of Aza is estimated at 1.3 million. That amounts to just under $700 for ever man, woman and child.

And guess what?  The average income in Aza is $700 a year.  So the US is really just handing over a year’s income to every Arab in Aza.

Nice deal.  Hey – that’s even better than what the Community Organizer is going to give you, isn’t it?  Of course You’re paying for it all – your own gifts, as well as those to Aza.

And just in case you’re wondering if your gift will win any REAL friends for the US among the terrorists, don’t be silly. They’ll grab the money — and laugh at you for being so stupid.

Now we know:  it’s thanks to the women’s vote that Tzipi Livni’s Kadima party won 28 seats in the next government. According to an exit poll which tallied the votes of 2400 people just after they voted, Livni won the vote from 60% of Israel’s secular women and 34% of its girlie guys – er, men. Secular men, that is.

Only 26% of “traditional” – religious – women and 20% of ‘traditional’ men voted for her.  Over all, 54.6% of Kadima’s voters were women and 45.4% were men.

The fact that women would choose to vote for a female leader, however disheartening, probably isn’t surprising.  To me, it makes no more sense to vote for a candidate because she’s a woman than it makes to vote against her for that reason.

But Kadima may have started a trend: According to the report of the survey published originally in Haaretz, an Israeli daily Hebrew-language newspaper, Kadima was the first party in Israel to use “gender terminology” as part of its election campaign.

I’m not terribly sure what that means, but whatever it was, apparently it worked.

We know that the Arab vote for the dovish Kadima was another factor – for Arabs to abandon the Arab parties to vote for a Jewish political party isn’t new, but reports are, this year many more Arabs broke the barrier than previously.  We don’t know how many – apparently no survey measured that.

Some women, though, apparently prefer to vote for a woman because she’s a woman. 

If there’s any logic to that, could someone explain it to me?   

This is one of those crazy days in which you wish that you were doing everything your enemies accuse you of doing.

Bibi Netanyahu has officially been charged with putting together the next government. He has six weeks to do so, and it shouldn’t be difficult – he already has an absolute majority, after all, 65 mandates out of the 120 seats in the Knesset.

But the world is going collectively bonkers at the prospect of his leading such a “narrow right wing government”.

Look at what they’re saying:

 “Israel is headed for an extreme right-wing regime,” Tzipi Livni, from the leftist Kadima party

“Netanyahu vows to lead Israeli right-wing government,” Reuters

“US is worried over the prospect of a right wing government,” Jerusalem Post

“Netanyahu vows to lead Israeli right-wing government,” headlines in Yahoo.com

“Right wing poised to lead Israel,” The Denver Post

“Hardline,” “Far-Right-Wing Government” on Rise in Israel,” New York Times

“Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish leader of Israel’s biggest right-wing party, Likud…” the UK’s Independent.

WHAT???  Excuse me.  Where did anyone get the idea that Bibi Netanyahu, or the weak-kneed Likud for that matter, were “hawkish” or “right wing”?  Would that they were!

Remember, back in 1997, it was Benjamin Netanyahu who negotiated with Yasser Arafat, Arab terrorist-in-chief at the time, and agreed to turn most of Hebron over the Arabs – a terrible, terrible decision that has resulted in nothing but death and chaos ever since.

After that, Bibi elected to stay in Ariel Sharon’s government while Sharon was implementing the disaster called the ‘Disengagement’, in which Israel turned Aza over to the terrorists.  Had Bibi resigned in time – he finally did, but it was too late to stop Sharon – he could have stopped the expulsion, which meant there would have been no Chanukkah War.  But he didn’t.

Bibi is no right winger – if anything, he’s a ‘pragmatic’ politician, one who announces ahead of time that he  doesn’t have any hard and firm principles, but will react to whatever situation exists at any given time.

Not that I’m not delighted he won – I am. Bibi was the best that could be elected, mostly because most of the people of integrity have left the ultra-corrupt world of Israeli politics behind. Bibi is the best of the lot who remain, who could be elected.

But Bibi’s no right winger.

More’s the pity.