# 165 – Storms, Schalit, Etc.

December 22, 2010

A mishmash of subjects – Get a cup of coffee…

Storms

The destruction of outdoor cafes is NOT the end of the World. So don’t think the following images of the post-storm status is asking for sympathy. Just pictures…

These are relatively new boardwalks that have been ripped up.. and those poles were – last week – a very attractive ‘bamboo wall’.

Gilad Schalit

A veteran journalist, Eliezer Whartman, took out an ad in Nov 20 Jerusalem Post – I have to transcribe it….

“This letter was published a few days ago in the Jerusalem Post. Everything that has been done so far has failed. It is time to change tactics. We must talk to them in the only language they understand. The only thing that Hamas responds to is force, and we must use it to free Gilad Schalit.

As a bereaved father, I can feel the pain that the Schalit family is enduring. At the same time, I strongly oppose the release of hundreds of terrorists with blood on their hands, as Hamas demands, who, as experience has shown, will go out and kill again.

A rescue plan

Sir – Gilad Schalit has been entombed in a dank, dark cellar for four years. He has not been visited by anyone.

The Israeli reaction has been to hold demonstrations, to seek international intervention, to organize mass marches, to stage camp-ins, etc. Nothing has worked, and nothing will work until Israel makes Hamas’s life so miserable that it will be forced to release Schalit.

Three modes of action suggest themselves:

1. Hamas is dependent on a myriad of tunnels from Egypt to smuggle in weapons, food, fuel and a host of other badly needed items. It levies a tax on all of these imports. Without it, Hamas couldn’t survive. Israel should serve notice on Hamas that each day Schalit remains in captivity, the Israel Air Force will destroy a tunnel (or two) until all are gone. Ultimately Hamas would have to give up and release Schalit.

2. Side by side, Israel should cut off all aid to Hamas. There is no reason why Israel should be supplying aid to Hamas, its enemy. The Allies imposed a total boycott on Germany during World War Two. Let the Egyptians, who have a common border with Gaza, help their stricken brethren.

3. Israel should impose on imprisoned Hamas terrorists the same conditions that Hamas has imposed on Schalit. This would provoke an anguished outcry from their families, who would violently demonstrate in the streets, joined by hungry, disillusioned, unemployed Gazans. The demonstrators would demand that Schalit be released in order to get their sons back.

All three actions taken together would bring Hamas to its knees and bring about Schalit’s release. If Hamas retaliates by rocketing us, our air force would systematically destroy neighborhoods in Gaza after giving prior warning to the inhabitants to leave. In World War II, the Allies firebombed Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Berlin without giving prior warning to the residents, mainly women and children.

Scores of thousands were killed. The British were brutal occupiers of Palestine from 1917-1948, killing Jews and thwarting efforts to create a Jewish state. The savage, inhumane British naval blockade locked the doors of Palestine to millions of Jews seeking to escape the Nazi butchery in Europe. America (which turned away a refugee ship) dropped two atom bombs on Japan, killing millions. Let the world not preach morality!

4. Hamas has declared war on us. We must react decisively. It’s time to stop wringing our hands and take meaningful action.”

It’s me again…if you, if anyone has read this far and this much, then I ask you to let me know if Mr. Whartman is off his rocker or not. Try..try to put yourself in Israel’s position on this subject. Yes, we have made an icon out of this young soldier, So what’s new about that? He now represents so much of what we fear, we yearn for. And STILL the Israeli government is close to caving in on the exchange of over 1,000 Palestinians, so many of whom were found guilty of terrorist crimes.

We are nuts, you say. Wait a minute…no, you don’t say. The World is conveniently quite silent on this matter.

Me? You know what I think.

You Tube

You may not know it, but You Tube does have some censorship. It has closed the Palestinian Media Watch channel, an Israeli organisation that exposes some of the Palestinian propaganda machine. (By the way, it is a fact that the Israeli govt. officially spends only $2-3 million on ‘propaganda’, whereas the Arab countries spend ‘a little more’….).

The silly thing most complaints have come from Arab individuals and organisations, yet nearly everything on which it reports is produced by the Palestinians!

Get the picture?

Israeli Arab dentist

Went to friends last night for a wonderful dinner! The host told a great story of treatment that both he and his wife needed: implants, root canal treatment, crown and bridgework. It was all done by one of the leading dentists around, at reasonable prices, high quality service, etc. etc. And he’s an Israeli Arab. The story was related with ‘almost pride’, yet more a sense of frustration that no one outside Israel hears or absorbs the meaning of such a story.

Disproportionate action/reaction – Rockets from Gaza

2 more shells were fired yesterday from Gaza. That makes around 750 fired since the ceasefire. I call that disproportionate.

On Saturday night, 5 Gazans were killed by an Israeli army strike on a cell preparing to launch rockets at Israel – according to Palestinian sources. Now this may be disproportionate, according to the neutrals out there.

Shall we have a survey? How many shells should be fired, discriminately or indiscriminately, from Gaza, before we launch another Operation Cast Lead, at the risk of killing so many? What should we do? Where’s the UN, Europe, US, Arab League…?

Liberalism

Obama’s legalising the open presence of gays in the US forces. I’m not taking sides…but Israel has also just passed a law which allows gay men to officially adopt their partner’s or spouse’s child/children.  So there…

I’m off on my bike to play some tennis.

Stephen