Ted Belman
Min Yuval Steinitz (Finance)
- must be strong financially to be strong militarily and security wise
- Israel has the strongest recovery story
- Israel has 7.2% unemployment compared to 6.2% before the crisis.
- Israel chose to effect long term solutions rather than short term solutions so their spending was kept in check
- Israel also increased taxes when others were decreasing taxes
- this strengthens Israel to start lowering taxes while others are forced to increase them
- Israel focused on the long term rather than the short term.
- Israel also started with a bi-annual budget which added stability. Thus there is no budget debate now.
- Israel’s debt to GDP was kept low.
- expect 5% growth this year.
- will now try to reduce gaps in income to lift up the lower echelons.
- must lift up Arabs and Haredim
- want to reduce the number of foreign workers to reduce unemployment
- we should be proud
LAWFARE, GOLDSTONE, UN and NGO’s
Dr Rachel Erhenfeld, Chairwoman
Lt. Col Jonathan D Halevi
- he attacked the methodology of the report including the bias of its members.
- even B’Tselem doubted the reliability of report.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Simon Weisenthal Centre.
KAIROS PALESTINIAN DOCUMENT
- Palestinian Christians issued document denying Jewish claims to Israel
- Presbyterian Church
- World Council of Churches
(this was a very important talk. I will try to get links and transcripts)
Nitsana Darshana-Leitner
- Israel High Court supports many lawsuits started by these NGO’s
- it worries about Palestinian inconvenience and wants it minimized even if it is dangerous to Israelis.
- we must break the alliance between these NGO’s and European
Countries that finance them and our own High Court.
-
THE IRAN THREATS
H
- as US gets out of Iraq, Iran wants in.
- expects Iran will get the bomb before any revolution succeeds
-
Video Senator Evan Bayh
- based on shared values
- Iran can’t be allowed to get the bomb
- if sanctions don’t work we will have to consider force
- we are in this together
Amb Dore Gold
- a nuclear Iran will have greater influence over all their terrorist proxies
- a nuclear Iran changes the world balance of power in their favour
Harold Rhode Sr Advisor to Hudson Institute-NY
- most of the Mullahs hate this regime
- they want classic Shiitism - centred on Mosques
- middle class are trying to get out of the country.
- both are sending their money out of Iran
- Opposition wants to be bombed by the US
- they want to be liberated.
- Obama is wrong to say that if we attack we will make enemies of the people
Rep Elliot Engel, Chairman House FA Sub-Committee on the western hemisphere
- Chavez is a big enemy of Jews
- Venezuelan Jews are leaving in droves
- why is Iran and Chavez cozying up?
- Brazil - also outreaching to Iran
- fully accepts that Iran is a threat to the world and not just Israel
- US must support the opposition
- Iran must never be allowed to get bomb
TWO STATE SOLUTION OR MAYBE THREE OR MAYBE ONE
Min Benny Begin
- negotiating will not end in an agreement
- no one talks about Hamas
- but how can we talk about peace when Hamas exists
- supports bottom up approach
- no one in the israel government is prepared to endorse the offers of Kadimah for peace
Ehud Ya’ari, Sr Commentator on Arab Affairs, Israel Channel 2
- “The idea of a Palestinian state in the ‘67 borders is a punitive concept”
- Palestinians no ;longer support a Palestinian state.
- they still want staged process, first sovereignty and then the destruction of Israel
- The Palestinians have decided to annex us.
- our time is limited to two or three years. We must avoid being annexed
- we must create Palestine otherwise it will be two late.
Yoram Ettinger
- two key things to ensure survival, history and security
- Israel keeps digging the hole of Oslo, deeper and deeper.
- PC suggests the two state solution
- Israel used to be against it. What cause the change. Was it just Sharon agreeing to the Roadmap?
-Public opinion is divorced from reality.
- reality tells us the Arabs aren’t more compliant and are still preach hate.
- this is not a territory driven conflict so why do we think we can offer land for peace.
Itamar Marcus, PMW
- What is the PA teaching
- recall that they show Palestine to include what is now Israel. But that is just the beginning
- Thus they also consider Tel Aviv and all other Israel cities as settlements on Palestinian land.
- They are teaching their Children that Palestine includes it all.
- When they speak in the name of the PLO they don’t recognize Israel though the PS does. But the PA could fall apart.
- they keep teaching their children that this is a religious war til the end of time.
- as a result 91.7% of their children believe Israel doesn’t have the right to exist.
- children are taught that the Jews killed Arafat.
- leadership continues to honour terrorists
Zippi Hotovely MK
- the idea of a Palestinian state is dead and buried
- Barak and Begin both agree that Palestinians don’t want a state.
- French young parliamentarians also agree
- we should not avoid deciding. We can’t continue to ride two horses
- what do we want to do with Judea and Samaria. Do we want to annex it or do we want to give it away.
- We must annex it now.
- we must decide now.
- what do we want to do with the Palestinians?
- we should extend Israel law just as we did in Jerusalem. Thus we replace occupation law with Israel law
- give them citizenship but we must anchor Israel first as a Jewish state.
-
MK Arieh Eldad
- argued that we should end the Arab occupation of Israel which started 1300 years ago and we should emphasize the two state solution where Jordan is the Palestinian state.
- Arabs can be residents of Israel and citizens of Jordan.
Hillel Fendel wrote this up in INN
Let’s see, who did I run into today. First there was Aryeh Green who heads up MediaCentral where journalists, me too, hang out. I met with Larry Greenfield, VP & Fellow in American Studies at the Claremont Institute. He heard someone mention my name and came over to chat. He too is on my mailing list. Michael Snidecor, Chairman of The Office for Israeli Constitutional Law, whom I had met many times before, came over to chat. I had a short conversation with Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and her husband and a long conversation with David Harzoni who often writes for Commentary. I also said hello to Rachel Erhenfeld and Itamar Marcus, both of who I had met in New York. Last week I talked with Ron Shoval who heads Im Tirtzu the young Zionist group that outed the NIF so I said hello to him.
I went over to introduce myself to Rabbi Cooper the Associate Dean of Simon Weisenthal Centre. He knew right away about me and said he is on my mailing list. And so it went.
_______________________________
Comments on Israpundit.com
Obama has emphasized that he wants a lesser American international role.
Then why is he interfering with Israel?
This asshole is nothing but a lying two faced arrogant poor excuse for a president.
As my old Catholic sister use to say, “he has the backbone of a jellyfish”.
He and that idiot of a press secretary criticize Sarah Palin for putting a couple of words on her hand while the acorn community organizing nitwit president at times can’t even follow word by word on a teleprompter.
Damn is he making Jimmy Carter look good.
Comment by rongrand — February 16, 2010 @ 4:37 pm
_________________________________
Damn is he making Jimmy Carter look good.
Former President Carter would look good jumping into a live volcano.
Short of that happy prospect, it is hard to visualize him looking good.
But you are right…Obama is a reprehensible creature.
Comment by ayn reagan — February 16, 2010 @ 5:18 pm
______________________
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Democrats Receive Too Much Lawyer Money to Pass Tort Reform.
President Obama says its obvious, anybody who would dare fight his Obamacare measures are on the leash of the special interests. Funny how he never mentions the special interests that he is beholden to, like the unions who were exempted from “the Cadillac tax.” Or the real reason there is no tort reform, the President’s ties to the Legal industry.
At Open Secrets you can pull up campaign contributions by candidate and industry. The are calculated from PAC contributions and contributions from individuals giving more than $200, as reported to the FEC. Individual contributions are generally categorized based on the donor’s occupation/employer.
A look at the Federal Election Commission data from the 2008 campaign (released 7/13/09), shows that President Obama received the most cash from Lawyers/Law Firms (more than $43 million) almost 3x more than the number two candidate Hillary Clinton ($15 million), John McCain was number three he received less than a 4th of the Obama money ($9.9 million)
Comment by yamit82 — February 16, 2010 @ 9:03 pm
________________________________
Obama: So uranium, so weapons-grade, so what?
After Ahmadinejad announced 20% enrichment technology, Obama dispatched Michael Mullen to Israel. Mullen told us that the things aren’t really bad, and it would take Iran one to three years to produce nuclear bomb. Three months, actually, after Khamenei gives the order.
To reinforce his message, Obama also sent Joe Biden who will tell us that the worthless sanctions would somehow work, and work so fast that Iran won’t complete its bomb.
Comment by yamit82 — February 16, 2010 @ 9:55 pm
Mullen is the prototypical modern American military commander, straight out of the Colin Powell mold.
A politically conniving weasel.
Comment by ayn reagan — February 17, 2010 @ 1:27 am
___________________________________
A politically conniving weasel.
He looks like he has political ambitions or wrangling for that Job after service. He lies big time as well.
Comment by yamit82 — February 17, 2010 @ 1:52 am
These liberal generals like Mullen and Wesley Clark have no conscience.
They willingly sell out the troops for personal advantage.
Having read extensively about the Civil War as a teenager, I came to realize how generals like McClellan are basically sociopaths whose only concern is for themselves.
One George Patton is worth one million George Marshalls.
Comment by ayn reagan — February 17, 2010 @ 2:06 am
My father served under Patton and was in the first platoon to cross into Germany.
Israel: Offensive or Defensive?
By Harry Fisher
I was a sergeant in World War II. I landed at Normandy and fought the Nazis all the way up with General Patton’s army up to and into Germany. I was there when we ‘liberated’ the concentration camps.
I learned from the greatest generals how to fight a war and how not. I saw the results of being hard and not giving in. We pushed through the mud and we pushed through the rain. We never stopped pushing.
Before we would come into a town that the Germans had been in, we would shell them, just to let them know that we weren’t sissies. When we found some Germans, we hit them hard and did not stop firing until nothing moved. Patton was tough, he was there to win a war against a tough enemy who knew how to kill you and liked to ambush you.
Patton was clear. The enemy is afraid of our bullets. Don’t put your head down in a ditch and wait for the fire to clear. The enemy loves that. They will find you with their mortar shells, so get up and shoot, shoot, and keep shooting.
Patton was tough. He said things that his superior officer General Bradley had to censor. But I was there. I heard him say “if some one has a gun and doesn’t use it (meaning firing it) well, he is about as useless as the prick on the pope.”
He was not big on taking captives. He did not want any one standing Germans up against the wall and shooting them. Hell, he said, kill the bastards before you get them to a wall.
Patton’s philosophy was simple. “Attack, attack and keep attacking.” Never give your enemy a chance.
One time we came into a German village. They put out white flags to surrender. When our boys walked in and came close to the village buildings, they started shooting at them – an ambush. They retreated quickly. Patton gave the order to bring up the artillery and told them to level the whole damn village. Hell, he didn’t care who was there, men, women or children. He leveled it and left it as a lesson to them if they were going to pull the same trick again what to expect.
Today Israel is being attacked daily from the Gaza strip. She ignores it and it only gets worse. I want to tell you that building thicker roofs for the people in S’derot is not the answer; the Arabs will only get bigger bombs. How thick can you make a roof to protect people? What happens if they walk outside? Will the Israeli government build them tunnels under the street so that they may crawl to the market and to their jobs?
I believe that the Israeli government is making a mistake in being so lenient with Hamas. It is hard to send men into a war knowing that some of them won’t come back. But the more Israel waits, the worse the situation will get.
One time General Patton was talking to the men. He told us that one of his friends, General Scott, was a short, small man, but he said that he would be willing to get into a boxing ring with heavy weight champion Joe Louis if Louis would promise to be defensive. That was Patton’s was of telling us that being defense is a sure way to loose.
Here is what I think that Israel can learn from this much decorated hero. Warn the Gaza government and the peoples in the cities from where the missiles are shot that if they do not stop the shelling, their city will be destroyed. Then when some one shoots a missile, shell that city relentlessly until every one in it has either moved out or is dead. Completely level it. It may take a week, it may take longer. Israel has the guns, let them use it. Probably the UN or the USA or one or two of the European countries will cry that we are beasts, but, who the hell cares. It is not their ass being shelled daily from Gaza. Everyone knows that - if one Arab country would shoot one missile at the US or other European country, they would be attacked ten fold in return. What are we, shooting targets because we are Jewish?
It pains me to see a good state like Israel that wants to treat everyone in a humanistic manner being taken advantage of by their own leaders who care more what is written in the New York Times than what happens in S’derot.
Isn’t it time to begin to respect your own people who are suffering and stop giving support to the enemy? Only if we crush Hamas, will they begin to respect us. As long as we apologize for every ‘innocent’ civilian that get killed or injured, as long as we feed them and give them electricity to produce bombs, we are not being humanitarians. We are causing harm to our own people so that the goyim will think we are ‘nice’ people.
Who cares what they think? We must defend ourselves and the only way to do it is to be on the offensive. Remember, if you want to live in peace, you must be willing to fight for it, and fighting means just that.
Just remember, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. This is not a time to turn the other cheek, this is a time to turn their cheeks. And if the world yells and hollers, just say the hell with it, just keep on driving!
* * * * *
Harry Fischer
Harry Fisher was in the American Army when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He served as a drill sergeant bringing the troops up to fighting skills and then he headed to Normandy where he participated in the liberation of France and then the liberation of the concentration camps. He lives today in Jerusalem
Comment by yamit82 — February 17, 2010 @ 2:26 am
Meanwhile, Marshall set the tone for the anti-Semitic nature of the State Department:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/06/AR2008050602447.html
Comment by ayn reagan — February 17, 2010 @ 3:07 am
In 1948, America did not force the Arabs to stay out of the war. American companies went on working with Arabs during the war. America did not sell Israel weapons. When Israel began to win, America quickly got involved and arranged an armistice. America perceived Israel as a Soviet proxy, and did not want an expansion of Soviet influence.
n 1967, America did not prevent Egypt from re-militarizing Sinai (compare that with American tolerance of Germany re-militarizing Alsace-Lorraine). America, however, twisted hands of Israeli government, pushed it to wait, wait, and wait, perhaps Arabs won’t attack. Again, America expressly prohibited Israel to preempt. Only in the nick of the time, Israeli government broke free from its American masters and let the IDF to smash the Arabs. America forced Israel to stop short of Cairo and Damascus - when every military strategist agreed that repelling aggression without disarming the enemy is a recipe for a new war. And it came in 1973. Russia supported Egypt and Syria with military shipments years prior to the war and during it. Russians manned SAM batteries and piloted Egyptian planes. America did nothing to help Israel. Only when Israelis crossed the Suez, clearly winning the war, the first American aid has arrived - too late to be used. In return for its non-existent help, America forced Israel to stop at the Suez, rather than flatten Cairo, as the Egyptians would have done with Tel Aviv.
The United States backs Israel only tentatively. Jewish representatives, not US officials arranged the votes of negligible countries for the UN resolution to establish Israel. In 1947, America did not know or care much about the Middle East. The oil flow was smooth, and no one imagined that someday the US would have to placate Muslims to get oil. The US establishment, culturally and financially close to the Jews, acquiesced in establishing Israel but offered no practical help.
After the Arabs promised to drown the Jews in the sea if Israel were established, America pressured the Jews not to declare their state. The United States fought in many post-WWII wars and supported one side or the other in scores of other conflicts. Israel got no help from America in the 1947-48 war.
The Israeli War of Independence was protracted and bloody. America had plenty of opportunities to intervene. It did not. A little later in 1956, America applied diplomatic pressure and threatened military action to stop an Israeli-Franco-British strike against Egypt. Both Israel and Egypt were economically irrelevant to America, but it helped Egypt, not Israel. America has not hesitated to support colonialist powers against their vassals: France received US aid to fight in Vietnam. Egypt and Vietnam had similar communist regimes, but America supported the Egyptians. Its attitude to Egypt stems from a built-in dislike of Jews. The US establishment does not hate Jews enough to exterminate them but is sufficiently contemptuous of Jews to neglect helping them even in grave danger, whether by bombing Nazi death camps or supporting the newborn Jewish state against six regular Muslim armies.
Post WWII shock cannot explain America’s failure to help Israel. The US jumped into a conflict with the USSR in 1948 over the West Berlin blockade. America risked escalation with an ally over a minor problem with a former enemy. America stood behind the Germans but not the Jews.
The US attitude to Israel changed concurrently with its attitude to China and for the same reason: to counter the Soviets. Dissatisfied with insufficiently orthodox Israeli socialism, her affinity with France, and driven by Russian anti-semitism, the USSR abandoned Israel and stood by the Muslims. The US responded by supporting Israel. The American rapprochement with Israel was a one-man—Kissinger—show, not a culturally or politically predetermined development. In fact, many high-ranking American military opposed cooperation with Israel.
American assistance to Israel has always been meager. It was altogether negligible before 1971, increased in the closing days of the 1973 war, and peaked shortly after the Camp David capitulation. Inflation and the rising cost of the American weapons Israel bought made the assistance insignificant. The aid was important only to big Israeli brass who boosted their egos with expensive, unnecessary military toys from the United States. The changes in aid level show that the US was most interested in Israel at the peak of her strength after the 1967 war, less interested during the cold confrontations with the Soviets in the mid-70s, and uninterested when Israel showed her weakness by giving the Sinai to Egypt.
America, as usual, veiled its realpolitik support of Israel in moral terms, and the moralizing stuck. The aid, eroded by inflation, went on long after its rational basis evaporated.
Our American friends are not only ours. America is also the friend of Wahhabite Saudi Arabia, totalitarian Egypt, the Al Jazeera state of Qatar, Bedouin Jordan, Islamist Kuwait, terrorist Iraq, and just about every other enemy of Israel. Even Russia would be a more reliable and attractive imperial master for Israel than is the US. Our American friends sell immense quantities of advanced weapons to Saudi Arabia, provide $1.4 billion in annual aid to Egypt, fought for Kuwait, and spent more in Iraq in the last four years than they gave to Israel in the last forty years. The US plays it nice: it vetoes the UN’s empty proclamations against Israel, scorns Ahmadinejad for the genuine anti-Israeli feelings of all Muslims, and pats amenable Israeli leaders on the shoulder.
America used Israel as a bulwark against the Soviet Union’s expansion in the Middle East. In the late 1960s, America enjoyed wooing Israel away from France. But the best thing for America about Israel is that she creates a controllable threat. Arabs perceive Israel as a dangerous dog and the US as her master. The dog must be well-armed to bark loudly and increase the master’s importance. The American establishment needs Israel to be in conflict with Muslim states. The states threatened by Israel appeal to the US for protection and arbitration. Such policy doesn’t require the absence of peace treaties between Israel and Muslims. America has it both ways in the case of Egypt: the peacemaker’s laurels for pressing Israel and Egypt into the peace agreement, and afterwards the position of the power broker who arms both Israel and Egypt and oversees their hostile relations. A dog barks when it feels insecure; Israel in the eight-mile-wide Road Map borders will be permanently insecure, thus hysterical. The peace agreement with the Arabs would make Israel so narrow that she would not be able to afford war. Israel was very relaxed after 1967, enjoying a great depth of defense in Sinai. Ludicrously narrow Israel, surrounded by the Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon, Hamas-run Palestine, saturated-with-Russian-missiles Syria, and Iraqi-controlled Jordan—such an Israel will brandish her weapons to steer enemies away. The enemies will be afraid and spiral the arms race and lean toward America. It is soothing to believe that the US foreign policy establishment is stupid; no, it is devilish.
Only the stupid Jews imagine that the US Administration seeks Israeli benefit in the peace process
Comment by yamit82 — February 17, 2010 @ 3:39 am
I am in total agreement with Harry.
Not only Hamas, likewise Hezbollah, the Syrians and other Arab terrorist.
The IDF has the capability of wiping out any of these and yet they treat them with kid gloves.
I believe the Israeli government is more concerned about world opinion than they should be.
Please excuse the following: Fuck world opinion, the world is not being attacked on a regular basis and if they were they would retaliate and would not be concerned with Israel’s opinion.
Right now under the circumstance Israel has every right to take out the Syrians, Hezbollah and Hamas because they pose a dangerous threat to their people and the Holy Land.
By the way obama is also a threat however, since he lacks a spine, just tell him to go piss up a tree.
Comment by rongrand — February 17, 2010 @ 3:46
Rabbi Tovia singer on syria radio podcast
This is a must listen!!!!!!
http://wejew.com/media/174/Golan_is_Jewish/
http://wejew.com/media/2266/Bomb_Iran_Is_The_One_Answer/
Comment by yamit82 — February 17, 2010 @ 4:24 am