Thursday, May 15, 2014
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Israel savior with water
Isaiah" Israel is a light to the nations:" Lior goyim
http://news.yahoo.com/future-thirst-water-crisis-lies-horizon-042831078.html and who will save the world?
http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Israeli-desalination-firm-wins-best-desalination-facility-of-year-at-Paris-conference-350108
now just stop the BDS boycott nonsense
posted by rabbi jonathan ginsburg
http://news.yahoo.com/future-thirst-water-crisis-lies-horizon-042831078.html and who will save the world?
http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Israeli-desalination-firm-wins-best-desalination-facility-of-year-at-Paris-conference-350108
now just stop the BDS boycott nonsense
posted by rabbi jonathan ginsburg
Iran has our drone cloned
Remember when Obama did nothing to destroy a top of the line US drone that landed in Iran?http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/13/cheney-why-didnt-obama-just-destroy-the-drone-when-he-had-the-chance/
When wouldn't you know Iran, as predicted, reversed engineered it. And it can bomb!Nust what the world needs. Our best drone in Iranian hands. Who is paying Obama's salary. US or Iran?
Story today. A 'nightmare becoming reality'? Iran unveils American drone replica.
Iran captured a US stealth surveillance drone in 2011, and started working to reverse engineer its own. Yesterday it unveiled what it claims is a replica, plus bombing capabilities.
Christian Science Monitor By Scott Peterson
Iran has unveiled its own copy of an American stealth drone it captured in late 2011, claiming to have cracked the “secrets” of the bat-wing craft and added weapons capabilities.
Today, Fars News Agency reported that while Iran’s duplicate of the US RQ-170 Sentinel drone was smaller, it also had a “bombing capability to attack the US warships in any possible battle.” The story in Persian was headlined: “America’s nightmare has become reality.” State television showed footage on Sunday it said was of a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf filmed by an Iranian drone.
The drone replica was unveiled at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) exhibition on Sunday, where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was briefed on how the drone, its systems, and structure had been reverse-engineered. He called it a “sweet day.”
When wouldn't you know Iran, as predicted, reversed engineered it. And it can bomb!Nust what the world needs. Our best drone in Iranian hands. Who is paying Obama's salary. US or Iran?
Story today. A 'nightmare becoming reality'? Iran unveils American drone replica.
Iran captured a US stealth surveillance drone in 2011, and started working to reverse engineer its own. Yesterday it unveiled what it claims is a replica, plus bombing capabilities.
Christian Science Monitor By Scott Peterson
Iran has unveiled its own copy of an American stealth drone it captured in late 2011, claiming to have cracked the “secrets” of the bat-wing craft and added weapons capabilities.
Today, Fars News Agency reported that while Iran’s duplicate of the US RQ-170 Sentinel drone was smaller, it also had a “bombing capability to attack the US warships in any possible battle.” The story in Persian was headlined: “America’s nightmare has become reality.” State television showed footage on Sunday it said was of a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf filmed by an Iranian drone.
The drone replica was unveiled at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) exhibition on Sunday, where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was briefed on how the drone, its systems, and structure had been reverse-engineered. He called it a “sweet day.”
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Dear John to john kerry
Dear John
Dear John,
Every few years a messiah arrives in Jerusalem, shakes hands, makes demands and promises to make peace in our time. Then when the whole thing blows up in his face, he throws up his hands and flies back blaming the ungrateful Jews for not embracing his vision.
You must have known this would happen. So many false messiahs have come before you, squinting against the bright sunshine, muttering under their breath to aides and assistants, pounding the table at meetings, downing martinis and fantasizing about the Nobel Peace Prize that they were sure was waiting for them at the end.
And they left with nothing except sunburn and simmering rage.
Did you really think you would be any different? Were you so delusional that you imagined you could succeed where career diplomats with a lifetime of experience in the region had failed?
What convinced you that you were the negotiating genius that the conflict had been waiting for?
It's not as if you had a good track record negotiating anything. Do you remember meeting Madame Binh in Paris? What about carrying Daniel Ortega's peace offer after assuring everyone that he wasn't a Communist? Right before he flew to Moscow. And let's not gloss over your visit to Assad. Was that peace in the air or was it just the nerve gas?
I know you don't have time to remember all your diplomatic triumphs. Or like Hillary, any of them.
When did you successfully negotiate anything, up to and including the purchase of your latest yacht?
You went to Paris to aid the Viet Cong. You went to Nicaragua to aid the FSLN terrorists. You went to Israel to aid the PLO. The USSR fell, but your old nostalgia for Communist guerrillas and killers hasn't deserted you. It's why you failed. And it's why you'll fail over and over again.
No matter what the PLO did, you blamed Israel. Just as no matter what the Viet Cong or the Sandinistas did, you blamed America.
The PLO can call for Israel's destruction, champion terrorism and ally with Hamas, but one of your minions will still provide anonymous quotes saying that the PLO can't be expected to negotiate while Israel possibly considers building houses in Jerusalem.
What's a little thing like genocide compared to a house?
Israel is expected to free terrorists who murder elderly Holocaust survivors, but the delicate sensibilities of PLO terrorists are outraged whenever a Jewish family that they haven’t managed to murder yet moves into a home in Jerusalem.
Good negotiators can put their sympathies aside to achieve their goals. But you never could do that. No matter how many press releases you put out touting your special relationship with Israel, a relationship almost as special as the one your fellow Massachusetts senator had with a girl in a '67 Oldsmobile whose drowned corpse turned up on the next day, you spoil it by threatening another intifada or calling Israel an Apartheid state. You lack the basic criteria of a diplomat. You're a bad liar.
You show up to provide moral support to the murderers and go home as their useful idiot. That was the pitiful function you served in Paris, in Nicaragua and in Israel. Forty-four years later you're still departing with that same awkward look on your face as if somewhere beneath the layers of Botox and suntan lotion you understand that something is wrong.
What you don't understand is that the something wrong is you. It's always been you. The only thing you ever did with any of your unsolicited interventions was make things worse. Your anti-war activism helped polarize a nation. Your malicious Winter Soldier testimony scapegoated veterans. Your Ortega intervention emboldened a terrorist group. And your peace initiative led to a unity agreement with Hamas.
After almost half a century, the only thing you ever do is make things worse. Any man with a scrap of decency looking back on a lifetime of diplomatic wreckage would have retired. Instead you finagled your way into becoming Secretary of State so you could fail on a grander scale.
The secret to your success as a lifelong failure is refusing to accept responsibility for anything. You just throw someone else's medals over the fence and blame someone else for your latest fiasco.
This time it's Israel.
You told the Senate last month that the negotiations between Israel and the PLO broke down because the Jewish State didn't release the latest set of murderers on time. There was no acknowledgement that Israel should not have been expected to release the murderers of civilians, including an elderly Holocaust survivor. After releasing three sets of murderers, in exchange for nothing except the PLO showing up and continuing to make more demands, you decided that Israel was to blame because the fourth set of murderers wasn't released on time.
Oh and let's not forget the popular "settlements" excuse. The settlement in question is Jerusalem. One of the oldest cities in the world. A city whose unity as the capital of Israel you endorsed on numerous occasions.
You cosponsored the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 which stated that the policy of the United States is that, "Jerusalem should remain an undivided city" and "Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel". You cosponsored Senate Consecutive Resolution 113 in 1992 which stated that "Jerusalem must remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected as they have been by Israel during the past twenty-five years."
Is this ringing any bells?
How about Senate Concurrent Resolution 106 in 1990 or Resolution 21 in 1997 which "Calls upon the President and the Secretary of State to publicly affirm as a matter of U.S. policy that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of Israel." Or 1323 and 1322?
You co-sponsored all of them. Were you obstructing peace all these decades? Or are you obstructing peace now by turning your back on them?
You also co-sponsored Resolution 46 stating that the modern State of Israel is "the outgrowth of the existence of the historic Kingdom of Israel established three thousand years ago in the city of Jerusalem and in the land of Israel."
You co-sponsored Resolution 522 with the same text in 2008. But that was a long 6 years ago.
During your presidential campaign, you released a paper titled, "John Kerry: Strengthening Israel's Security and Bolstering the US-Israel Special Relationship" in which you called Jerusalem, "Israel’s indisputable capital." Now you're disputing it.
Apparently you were for a united Jerusalem... before you were against it.
"As President, John Kerry will never force Israel to make concessions that compromise its security," the paper said. "As President, John Kerry would not expect Israel to negotiate without a credible Palestinian partner for peace - something that unfortunately does not exist today."
But you're not President so you can't be blamed for completely reversing those positions and insisting that Israel make concessions that compromise its security and negotiate with terrorists who sabotage every one of your futile attempts at peace negotiations. And then you head down to the Senate and blame Israel for sabotaging the peace process. And then you stop by the Trilateral Commission and suggest, off the record, that Israel is becoming an Apartheid state.
Clearly you haven't lost your diplomatic touch. But when your boss said that he would always have Israel's back, he forgot to mention the knife that comes with it.
Now you're off sulking on your yacht or playing phone tag with the Russian Foreign Minister while planning to unveil your peace plan which will gut Israel, carve up Jerusalem and give the PLO everything without obligating it to anything. And then the peace process and the next set of negotiations can restart all over again.
It's a brilliant plan, but you're forgetting one thing. But the terrorists you're helping will inevitably sabotage it just like they sabotaged your peace negotiations, just like Daniel Ortega sabotaged your peace offer and just like the Viet Cong destroyed the credibility of their useful idiots.
Blinded by glory and greed, you decided to cheat on another American ally with a red light and red flag back alley trollop wearing a bloody keffiyah and smelling of petroleum. And it won't work out for you, just as it didn't work out for you all those other times. Your Senate career is over, you hooked your dying star to a falling president and put your legacy in the hands of greasy killers who would sell their sister for a monopoly on imported American cigarettes.
You would have been better off just turning over all of Teresa's money to Bernie Madoff and then flying off to Afghanistan to negotiate in person with the Taliban.
Even while you're warning Israel that it will be destroyed if it doesn't listen to you, you have destroyed yourself and you are too stupid to know it. Your career is coming to a pathetic end. Had you retired from the Senate, you might have left with some dignity. Instead you will be a failed footnote in a failed administration.
It's a fitting fate for a man who worked to see his country fail to end his term as a miserable failure.
Whether it's Ukraine, Syria or Israel, you have failed. And Japan and Korea are still coming up. Have another drink. Fly to another conference. Closet yourself with your advisers and rant about Israel. And when you do leave, your career ending on a note of failure, you will no doubt blame those ungrateful Jews who wouldn't do what you told them to.
You won't be the first and you won't be the last.
But John, we weren't the ones who did this to you. You did it to yourself. Your arrogance brought you to this point. Your natural attraction to the red and the green, to terrorists and radicals, did you in.
Retire. Stay home, enjoy some quality time with Teresa on your yacht and the rest of your lifestyle bought with another man's money. It'll be just like working in government.
Just don't bother us anymore. We don't want to hear from you. Don't call us. Don't write. Don't even text. We're tired of your visits, tired of your speeches and tired of your long face. We're sick of your hypocrisy, your betrayals and your lies. And after all these years, we're just plain sick of you.
You can blame Israel all you like, but it's not us, John. It's you. It's always been you.
Sincerely,
The Jewish People
Every few years a messiah arrives in Jerusalem, shakes hands, makes demands and promises to make peace in our time. Then when the whole thing blows up in his face, he throws up his hands and flies back blaming the ungrateful Jews for not embracing his vision.
You must have known this would happen. So many false messiahs have come before you, squinting against the bright sunshine, muttering under their breath to aides and assistants, pounding the table at meetings, downing martinis and fantasizing about the Nobel Peace Prize that they were sure was waiting for them at the end.And they left with nothing except sunburn and simmering rage.
Did you really think you would be any different? Were you so delusional that you imagined you could succeed where career diplomats with a lifetime of experience in the region had failed?
What convinced you that you were the negotiating genius that the conflict had been waiting for?
It's not as if you had a good track record negotiating anything. Do you remember meeting Madame Binh in Paris? What about carrying Daniel Ortega's peace offer after assuring everyone that he wasn't a Communist? Right before he flew to Moscow. And let's not gloss over your visit to Assad. Was that peace in the air or was it just the nerve gas?
I know you don't have time to remember all your diplomatic triumphs. Or like Hillary, any of them.
When did you successfully negotiate anything, up to and including the purchase of your latest yacht?
You went to Paris to aid the Viet Cong. You went to Nicaragua to aid the FSLN terrorists. You went to Israel to aid the PLO. The USSR fell, but your old nostalgia for Communist guerrillas and killers hasn't deserted you. It's why you failed. And it's why you'll fail over and over again.
No matter what the PLO did, you blamed Israel. Just as no matter what the Viet Cong or the Sandinistas did, you blamed America.
The PLO can call for Israel's destruction, champion terrorism and ally with Hamas, but one of your minions will still provide anonymous quotes saying that the PLO can't be expected to negotiate while Israel possibly considers building houses in Jerusalem.
What's a little thing like genocide compared to a house?
Israel is expected to free terrorists who murder elderly Holocaust survivors, but the delicate sensibilities of PLO terrorists are outraged whenever a Jewish family that they haven’t managed to murder yet moves into a home in Jerusalem.
Good negotiators can put their sympathies aside to achieve their goals. But you never could do that. No matter how many press releases you put out touting your special relationship with Israel, a relationship almost as special as the one your fellow Massachusetts senator had with a girl in a '67 Oldsmobile whose drowned corpse turned up on the next day, you spoil it by threatening another intifada or calling Israel an Apartheid state. You lack the basic criteria of a diplomat. You're a bad liar.
You show up to provide moral support to the murderers and go home as their useful idiot. That was the pitiful function you served in Paris, in Nicaragua and in Israel. Forty-four years later you're still departing with that same awkward look on your face as if somewhere beneath the layers of Botox and suntan lotion you understand that something is wrong.
What you don't understand is that the something wrong is you. It's always been you. The only thing you ever did with any of your unsolicited interventions was make things worse. Your anti-war activism helped polarize a nation. Your malicious Winter Soldier testimony scapegoated veterans. Your Ortega intervention emboldened a terrorist group. And your peace initiative led to a unity agreement with Hamas.
After almost half a century, the only thing you ever do is make things worse. Any man with a scrap of decency looking back on a lifetime of diplomatic wreckage would have retired. Instead you finagled your way into becoming Secretary of State so you could fail on a grander scale.
The secret to your success as a lifelong failure is refusing to accept responsibility for anything. You just throw someone else's medals over the fence and blame someone else for your latest fiasco.
This time it's Israel.
Oh and let's not forget the popular "settlements" excuse. The settlement in question is Jerusalem. One of the oldest cities in the world. A city whose unity as the capital of Israel you endorsed on numerous occasions.
You cosponsored the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 which stated that the policy of the United States is that, "Jerusalem should remain an undivided city" and "Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel". You cosponsored Senate Consecutive Resolution 113 in 1992 which stated that "Jerusalem must remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected as they have been by Israel during the past twenty-five years."
Is this ringing any bells?
How about Senate Concurrent Resolution 106 in 1990 or Resolution 21 in 1997 which "Calls upon the President and the Secretary of State to publicly affirm as a matter of U.S. policy that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of Israel." Or 1323 and 1322?
You co-sponsored all of them. Were you obstructing peace all these decades? Or are you obstructing peace now by turning your back on them?
You also co-sponsored Resolution 46 stating that the modern State of Israel is "the outgrowth of the existence of the historic Kingdom of Israel established three thousand years ago in the city of Jerusalem and in the land of Israel."
You co-sponsored Resolution 522 with the same text in 2008. But that was a long 6 years ago.
During your presidential campaign, you released a paper titled, "John Kerry: Strengthening Israel's Security and Bolstering the US-Israel Special Relationship" in which you called Jerusalem, "Israel’s indisputable capital." Now you're disputing it.
Apparently you were for a united Jerusalem... before you were against it.
"As President, John Kerry will never force Israel to make concessions that compromise its security," the paper said. "As President, John Kerry would not expect Israel to negotiate without a credible Palestinian partner for peace - something that unfortunately does not exist today."
But you're not President so you can't be blamed for completely reversing those positions and insisting that Israel make concessions that compromise its security and negotiate with terrorists who sabotage every one of your futile attempts at peace negotiations. And then you head down to the Senate and blame Israel for sabotaging the peace process. And then you stop by the Trilateral Commission and suggest, off the record, that Israel is becoming an Apartheid state.
Clearly you haven't lost your diplomatic touch. But when your boss said that he would always have Israel's back, he forgot to mention the knife that comes with it.
Now you're off sulking on your yacht or playing phone tag with the Russian Foreign Minister while planning to unveil your peace plan which will gut Israel, carve up Jerusalem and give the PLO everything without obligating it to anything. And then the peace process and the next set of negotiations can restart all over again.
It's a brilliant plan, but you're forgetting one thing. But the terrorists you're helping will inevitably sabotage it just like they sabotaged your peace negotiations, just like Daniel Ortega sabotaged your peace offer and just like the Viet Cong destroyed the credibility of their useful idiots.
Blinded by glory and greed, you decided to cheat on another American ally with a red light and red flag back alley trollop wearing a bloody keffiyah and smelling of petroleum. And it won't work out for you, just as it didn't work out for you all those other times. Your Senate career is over, you hooked your dying star to a falling president and put your legacy in the hands of greasy killers who would sell their sister for a monopoly on imported American cigarettes.
You would have been better off just turning over all of Teresa's money to Bernie Madoff and then flying off to Afghanistan to negotiate in person with the Taliban.
Even while you're warning Israel that it will be destroyed if it doesn't listen to you, you have destroyed yourself and you are too stupid to know it. Your career is coming to a pathetic end. Had you retired from the Senate, you might have left with some dignity. Instead you will be a failed footnote in a failed administration.
It's a fitting fate for a man who worked to see his country fail to end his term as a miserable failure.
Whether it's Ukraine, Syria or Israel, you have failed. And Japan and Korea are still coming up. Have another drink. Fly to another conference. Closet yourself with your advisers and rant about Israel. And when you do leave, your career ending on a note of failure, you will no doubt blame those ungrateful Jews who wouldn't do what you told them to.You won't be the first and you won't be the last.
But John, we weren't the ones who did this to you. You did it to yourself. Your arrogance brought you to this point. Your natural attraction to the red and the green, to terrorists and radicals, did you in.
Retire. Stay home, enjoy some quality time with Teresa on your yacht and the rest of your lifestyle bought with another man's money. It'll be just like working in government.
Just don't bother us anymore. We don't want to hear from you. Don't call us. Don't write. Don't even text. We're tired of your visits, tired of your speeches and tired of your long face. We're sick of your hypocrisy, your betrayals and your lies. And after all these years, we're just plain sick of you.
You can blame Israel all you like, but it's not us, John. It's you. It's always been you.
Sincerely,
The Jewish People
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
66 years. Celebrate the miracle
66 years. Celebrate the miracle
Israel, the state of paradoxes, has a lot to be proud of
Op-ed: While Israel tops global surveys on negative contribution to the world, it is in fact a leader in contribution to humanity.
Ben-Dror Yemini
Published: 05.05.14, 18:42 / Israel Opinion
Sixty-six years ago, when 36 gentlemen and two ladies signed the Proclamation of Independence, they knew it wasn't going to be easy. They knew that the call for peace with the surrounding nations would be met with declarations of war and destructions. They were not sure that this newborn baby would last.
But there is one thing they definitely didn't know: That the State of Israel would lead the contribution to humanity and would also become the most hated country by that same humanity.
The State of Israel is characterized by paradoxes. For more
than three years now, young scientists from Israel have been submitting applications to the European Research Council (ERC), and for more than three years now Israel has been in the first place, for its size, in receiving grants. This is the most important foundation of its kind in the world. How does that match Israeli schoolchildren's poor achievements in international exams? It doesn't. We are the state of paradoxes.
For almost a decade now, Israel has been leading, or has been among the leaders, in global surveys about negative contribution to the world. When we are not at the top, we are in the same boat with Iran, Pakistan and North Korea. Not exactly something to be proud of.
When we move from perception surveys to facts, the picture is reversed. Israel is one of the leading countries in the world in developing medications and irrigation and water purification systems (the first place in the world in sewage treatment), in patent applications (first place in the registration of patents of medical developments) and in scientific publications (second place in the world in the three most important journals).
These achievements are not only a cause for national pride. They are mainly a contribution to humanity.
And the list goes on. The most expensive exports from Israel, according to weight, are more valuable than pure gold. We are talking about Summer Sun tomato seeds - $350,000 per kilogram.
Look back with pride, look forward with hope
There is no index of "contribution to humanity per capita." But if there were such an index, Israel would likely take the first place. Millions of people owe their lives to the irrigation systems and agricultural products from Israel. Not just the Third World. Even California Governor Jerry Brown recently asked Israel for research and technological aid in order to deal with the severe drought. How does this contribution match the oh-so-negative image? It doesn't. We are the state of paradoxes.
Some say it's not really a paradox, because "Israel and the Jews are the biggest players in the culture of violence, and that culture of violence is eventually going to destroy humanity." This is exactly what Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, said. The Nazis said the same thing.
But you see, these slanderous remarks were made by a person who headed an anti-violence institute in a prestigious university in the United States. They were made, in almost the same style, by a former British minister, Clare Short, and also by a well-known journalist from Israel. The message gets through. Thousands of academics around the world are spreading similar messages.
The fact is that 35 Palestinians were killed in 2013, and most of them were involved in terrorism. This number is less than the daily bloodshed in Syria, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Nigeria, in Somalia. The fact is that 99.9999% of the violent conflicts in the world have nothing to do with Israel.
But the hell with the facts. There is always someone who makes sure, even among us, to spread blood libels. How can the dispute between the real figures and the libels be settled? It can't. We are the state of paradoxes.
For 364 days a year we engage in self-flagellation. We have sinned, we have betrayed, we have committed a crime. With all this self-flagellation, which is sometimes legitimate criticism and sometimes self-hatred, we have lost touch with reality.
There are problems. Israel is far from perfect. The gaps and the housing prices are alarming. But in spite of all the problems, Israel is a miracle. A state founded from 70 Diaspora communities, most of which did not know anything about democracy. A state of poor refugees which became a world power in agriculture and irrigation and water purification and high-tech developments. A state which does not live by the sword, but by research, development and entrepreneurship. A state in which the talks about boycott and suspending investments conceal the fact that it is the most invested country in the world, and in some fields not even just for its size
Israel, the state of paradoxes, has a lot to be proud of
Op-ed: While Israel tops global surveys on negative contribution to the world, it is in fact a leader in contribution to humanity.
Ben-Dror Yemini
Published: 05.05.14, 18:42 / Israel Opinion
Sixty-six years ago, when 36 gentlemen and two ladies signed the Proclamation of Independence, they knew it wasn't going to be easy. They knew that the call for peace with the surrounding nations would be met with declarations of war and destructions. They were not sure that this newborn baby would last.
But there is one thing they definitely didn't know: That the State of Israel would lead the contribution to humanity and would also become the most hated country by that same humanity.
The State of Israel is characterized by paradoxes. For more
than three years now, young scientists from Israel have been submitting applications to the European Research Council (ERC), and for more than three years now Israel has been in the first place, for its size, in receiving grants. This is the most important foundation of its kind in the world. How does that match Israeli schoolchildren's poor achievements in international exams? It doesn't. We are the state of paradoxes.
For almost a decade now, Israel has been leading, or has been among the leaders, in global surveys about negative contribution to the world. When we are not at the top, we are in the same boat with Iran, Pakistan and North Korea. Not exactly something to be proud of.
When we move from perception surveys to facts, the picture is reversed. Israel is one of the leading countries in the world in developing medications and irrigation and water purification systems (the first place in the world in sewage treatment), in patent applications (first place in the registration of patents of medical developments) and in scientific publications (second place in the world in the three most important journals).
These achievements are not only a cause for national pride. They are mainly a contribution to humanity.
And the list goes on. The most expensive exports from Israel, according to weight, are more valuable than pure gold. We are talking about Summer Sun tomato seeds - $350,000 per kilogram.
Look back with pride, look forward with hope
There is no index of "contribution to humanity per capita." But if there were such an index, Israel would likely take the first place. Millions of people owe their lives to the irrigation systems and agricultural products from Israel. Not just the Third World. Even California Governor Jerry Brown recently asked Israel for research and technological aid in order to deal with the severe drought. How does this contribution match the oh-so-negative image? It doesn't. We are the state of paradoxes.
Some say it's not really a paradox, because "Israel and the Jews are the biggest players in the culture of violence, and that culture of violence is eventually going to destroy humanity." This is exactly what Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, said. The Nazis said the same thing.
But you see, these slanderous remarks were made by a person who headed an anti-violence institute in a prestigious university in the United States. They were made, in almost the same style, by a former British minister, Clare Short, and also by a well-known journalist from Israel. The message gets through. Thousands of academics around the world are spreading similar messages.
The fact is that 35 Palestinians were killed in 2013, and most of them were involved in terrorism. This number is less than the daily bloodshed in Syria, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Nigeria, in Somalia. The fact is that 99.9999% of the violent conflicts in the world have nothing to do with Israel.
But the hell with the facts. There is always someone who makes sure, even among us, to spread blood libels. How can the dispute between the real figures and the libels be settled? It can't. We are the state of paradoxes.
For 364 days a year we engage in self-flagellation. We have sinned, we have betrayed, we have committed a crime. With all this self-flagellation, which is sometimes legitimate criticism and sometimes self-hatred, we have lost touch with reality.
There are problems. Israel is far from perfect. The gaps and the housing prices are alarming. But in spite of all the problems, Israel is a miracle. A state founded from 70 Diaspora communities, most of which did not know anything about democracy. A state of poor refugees which became a world power in agriculture and irrigation and water purification and high-tech developments. A state which does not live by the sword, but by research, development and entrepreneurship. A state in which the talks about boycott and suspending investments conceal the fact that it is the most invested country in the world, and in some fields not even just for its size
no demographic time bomb
The key claim made by the left, Especially J street and exposed the deep seated animus of Obama and Kerry, using terms like "apartheid" Israel has That is a choice Between being a democratic nation and a Jewish one, since, THEY CLAIM, Palestinian population growth will force That dilemma.Only one problem. it is NOT TRUE. "Former Ambassador Yoram Ettinger and Langfan debunked the" Arab demographic time bomb "claims used to pressure Israeli withdrawals.
"There is no machete at the throat of the Jewish state, there is no Arab demographic time bomb; there is in fact a very well documented Jewish demographic tail wind, "Argued Ettinger, Noting the fallacy of asserting claims Israel must withdraw to the 1949 Armistice lines to Maintain a Jewish majority.
That added Ettinger Jewish fertility rates are at Their highest since the founding of the modern state of Israel, while Arab fertility rates are at Their deals, most hotels; additionally, I have a net emigration of Noted Arab residents is contrasted by a net immigration of Jews.
ACCORDING to the former ambassador, the current 66% Jewish majority "in the combined area of Judea, Samaria and pre-'67 Israel is trending upward." I have an Estimated 80% Jewish majority in the region by 2035. "http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/179442 #. U2pPtvldVwQ
Richard Baehr on Why J Street so dangerous
The J Street Challenge'
A new documentary, "The J Street Challenge," is being shown in a series of cities in North America, including Chicago, where I attended a screening this past weekend. The movie focuses on the left-wing Obama-supporting group that was founded in 2008 by Jeremy Ben-Ami, and that has successfully marketed itself as a pro-Israel, pro-peace organization, or merely pro-peace (when pro-Israel is less readily saleable on some college campuses).
As the film convincingly demonstrates, J Street has been anything but a pro-Israel group, and has been unremittingly hostile to the current government of Israel on pretty much every issue -- from opposing sanctions (and even the threat of military action by either the United States or Iran) in dealing with the Iranian nuclear program, to exclusively blaming settlements in Judea and Samaria for the absence of peace, to advancing the Goldstone Report in Congress, to demanding that pressure be applied by the United States on Israel to accept the negotiating demands of the Palestinian Authority.
J Street has attracted a large number of members in its first few years, and has established branches or chapters in many cities and college campuses. It has been heavily funded in its first few years by anti-Zionist hedge fund billionaire George Soros (a fact denied by Ben-Ami for several years, until tax filings revealed his lies), some donors who may be fronting for Soros (including a woman from Hong Kong no one knows who gave close to $1 million), and a leading figure in a front group for the Iranian regime, the National Iranian American Council. It is an unusual collection of people who in any case would never be described as pro-Israel. Jeremy Ben-Ami himself came to J Street after a career in public relations, with firms that have represented the government of Saudi Arabia, among others.
In the case of Soros, he has never been a shrinking violet on the subject of Israel. He has been a consistent critic, and has always wanted the United States to follow the lead of the European nations in distancing itself from Israel. So far, America has resisted this path, though President Barack Obama almost certainly would prefer to follow the European approach -- which involves pressuring Israel to make the concessions necessary to achieve a two-state solution, assuming there are any concessions that would ever get the Palestinians to say yes to a deal that would end the conflict (with no more claims) and leave Israel as a Jewish-majority state. Most importantly, J Street has provided a vehicle to begin the work on changing the narrative on Israel within the Jewish community -- in synagogues, Jewish federations, and Hillels, and more broadly, in colleges, the media, and Congress.
It is no secret that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has had a long successful history of lobbying members of Congress to support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. Given that Israeli governments move from Right to Left and back again (and are therefore at times more willing and at other times less willing to be accommodating with negotiating concessions), and American presidents have also been more or less supportive of Israel (Obama, Jimmy Carter, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George H. W. Bush among the less friendly; Harry Truman, Bill Clinton, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush among the more supportive), it has been easier for AIPAC to focus on members of Congress, rather than the executive branch, to shape a consistent bipartisan agenda on Israel.
J Street is in business in large part to weaken AIPAC and to pull away Democrats, especially leftist Democrats, from the bipartisan consensus on Israel in Congress. In an era where for the last 20 years the relations between members of the two parties in Congress has frayed, as a growing percentage of members from both parties have become more ideological and less willing to compromise, support for Israel has been one of the very few issues where members from the two parties joined together. J Street has worked to make those in Congress who are further to the Left adopt the positions of their ideological twins outside of Congress, who have pretty much all turned on Israel -- whether in the universities, the media, or synagogues.
AIPAC adopted a strategic posture of ignoring J Street. And to date, J Street has been unsuccessful in creating a new group within the Democratic Party in Congress that will challenge AIPAC. However, Obama has applied pressure on Democrats in Congress, particularly in the Senate, where Democrats still have the majority, to stand down from challenging him on issues, such as approving new sanctions on Iran if the current negotiating framework breaks down. Forced to choose between their leader and AIPAC, Obama won and AIPAC retreated and pulled the sanctions bill, a victory that J Street trumpeted as its own victory, as it of course had parroted whatever Obama called for from the beginning of his presidency (his "blocking back," as Ben-Ami has called it).
Truth be told, the consensus on Israel in Congress today represents a pretty low bar for achievement -- voting for foreign aid, signing onto some nonbinding resolutions, and cheering for Israel's prime minister when he speaks to Congress. For sure, there are real champions for the U.S.-Israel relationship in Congress, and they still come from both parties (Senators Mark Kirk and Robert Menendez, members of Congress Peter Roskam, Eliot Engel and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen), though many more these days are Republicans. However, it is easy to see how this dynamic could change in the future, and J Street is investing to make this happen.
On college campuses, future American leaders and political figures are being exposed to the progressive narrative that groups matter more than nations or individuals. You are defined by your membership in a racial/religious/ethnic group, and that is what has shaped your privilege or lack thereof, and your worldview. Morality is defined as supporting underdogs and the weaker party in conflicts, and achieving a redistribution of power and wealth/income to achieve more fairness in individual societies and in the world.
Israel loses in this equation, since it is viewed by the Left as a colonial power created by the West that drove out an indigenous people and that is now preventing Palestinians from achieving the self-determination to which they are entitled. This almost entirely false narrative is backed by nasty anti-Semitic groups that are largely Muslim (such as Students for Justice in Palestine) or anti-Zionist (Jewish groups such as Jewish Voices for Peace). When these groups battle pro-Israel groups to pass boycotts/divestments/sanctions measures in student governments, J Street has more often than not been arm-in-arm with, or in some cases, more quietly behind the groups that are pushing BDS resolutions and trashing Israel.
The vote last week by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations not to add J Street to their membership ranks was less a reflection of J Street's alleged pro-peace politics (there are existing pro-peace groups within the conference) but anger at J Street's aggressiveness in working to splinter the consensus among Jewish organizations on issues like Iran or the peace process and undermine or harm existing members of the conference to make them less effective.
J Street would be happy if, over time, it became the group that Democrats in Congress lined up behind, and AIPAC was left for the Republicans, which would of course mean the end of a bipartisan consensus in Congress on anything impacting Israel, since J Street can be defined by its opposition to AIPAC's agenda. In essence, J Street's goal is to make Israel a Democrats versus Republicans issue, as is the case for so much else in Congress and America, especially since the Left believes that demographic changes in America will soon make the Democrats the dominant political party. Soon it hopes that hostility to Israel will be as much a mainstream Democratic Party issue as global-warming hysteria, affirmative action, immigration reform, increasing the minimum wage, and raising tax rates on the wealthy.
"The J Street Challenge" is an attempt to offer a clear-eyed view of the real J Street agenda -- especially its goal to destroy the bipartisan consensus on Israel, so that its soft, mushy PR campaign of presenting itself as the group representing the pro-peace, pro-Israel majority in America can be seen for what and who is really behind the propaganda campaign.
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