ALERT

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New York Times Sums Up “Wrenching National Debate”

“JERUSALEM - Israel’s government voted Sunday to trade one of the most notorious convicts in its prisons, a Lebanese murderer, for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers whose cross-border capture led to and partly motivated its monthlong war with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah in summer 2006.

After a wrenching national debate that drove hesitant officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, to accept the deal, the cabinet voted 22 to 3 to trade the prisoner, Samir Kuntar, along with four other Lebanese, for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the two Israeli soldiers.” Read more

Jerusalem Post Voices Previous Opposition and Current Consensus

“THIS NEWSPAPER opposed the release of Kuntar for the remains of Regev and Goldwasser because of the heinous nature of the crime he committed and because it will likely strengthen Nasrallah in his efforts to show Hizbullah’s concerns transcend his own Shi’ite community (Kuntar is Druse and was a Palestine Liberation Front operative).

But the cabinet has spoken and its stance is supported by most Israelis, much of the media and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, who told the ministers that he feels himself responsible for all IDF soldiers - the fallen included. All of us must now respect the decision.” Read more

Jerusalem Post Commentator Defines Israeli Character of Decision

“Much will be said and written in the coming days about Sunday’s cabinet decision approving the release of Samir Kuntar, four Hizbullah fighters, an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners, dozens of Hizbullah and Palestinian bodies, and information on the disappearance of four Iranian diplomats in exchange for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, both now presumed dead, and a Hizbullah report on the fate of Ron Arad.

But one thing is clear. This decision reflects some key characteristics of Israeli society. Indeed, it is fair to say it was a typically Israeli decision - for better and for worse.

Visitors from abroad are generally struck by three things about Israel: It is a country that feels vibrant and very much alive; it is a country that is superb at finding short-term solutions to problems; and it is a country where there is feeling of greater solidarity than elsewhere in the world, where people genuinely do feel a degree of responsibility for one another.” Read more

Glick Voiced Opposition Prior to Decision

(An agonizing decision made in the only true democracy in the Middle East will be accepted by its citizens, but of course this will be not an end to the questions raised by that question, which were articulated by Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick with characteristic clarity of thought that was underlined, but not compromised, by a deep compassion:

“That Israel will pay a price in blood if the deals go through is a certainty. That more families will meet the fates of Schalit, Regev and Goldwasser is a certainty…

“…Through no fault of their own, the Regev, Goldwasser and Schalit families have become the mouthpieces of Hizbullah and Hamas. This is as natural as it is tragic.” Read heart-wrenching commentary in its entirety.

Israel’s Decision Emboldens Hamas

“Hamas on Monday said it was emboldened by Israel’s decision to trade Hizbullah terrorist Samir Kuntar for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

Gaza strongman Mahmoud Zahar, speaking to the independent Al-Quds radio station, said Hamas would take advantage of this decision to release people Israel accused of having blood on their hands like Samir Kuntar. We have to take advantage of this to release our prisoners.” Read more

Israel’s Public Rehearsal of a Lonely Last Resort

Israeli journalist Hillel Hakim makes sense of recent Israeli military maneuvers. Here are some strung-together excerpts from this tough-minded piece (emphasis added):

“So now it’s official. Israel’s air force is in an advanced stage of training to attack Iran’s nuclear installations…it was a rehearsal to which the public was invited - or at least, the intelligence agencies of the countries that tracked the operation on their radar screens.

You don’t, of course, conduct such an operation when you have already decided to strike; at that point, the more secrecy, the better. You conduct it when you don’t want to strike and think your only hope of avoiding it is to convince the world that you will do it unless you are given a good reason not to. This month’s air maneuvers, it might be said, were Israel’s plea to the world to be shown that such a reason exists.

But the world is not going to oblige. Israel has every right to feel anger at such hypocrisy. True, a nuclear Iran would be more of a menace to them than to others, but it would be a menace to nearly everyone. There is something genuinely revolting about a world that preaches the need for peacefully dissuading the Iranians from developing atomic weapons while knowingly practicing a policy that in the end leaves Israel no choice but to send its planes into the air.

Israelis also have the right to feel fear. A lot could go wrong with an attack on Iran… But Israelis also have the right to feel pride… at least this time Jews can lean on themselves. Read the Hakim commentary in its entirety in the New York Sun.

Presbyterian Report Echoes Classic Christian Anti-Semitism

Progressive Zionist Bradley Burston writes in Haaretz with impassioned indignation about a Presbyterian document that has shocked and hurt the American Jewish community:

“What would it take for a dozen of the most prominent U.S. Jewish organizations to state collectively that they were deeply distressed and profoundly hurt by the actions of the largest Presbyterian denomination in America?

What would it take for Jewish leaders who believed that their years of painstaking dialogue with the Presbyterians had finally resulted in mutual understanding, only to sense in shock that they had been stabbed in the back, betrayed by a quietly rewritten church position paper that now smacked of understanding for depictions of the Jew and the Israeli as Christ killer?

When Christian liberation theology considers a situation of oppression in which the oppressing power is a state that is Jewish, with a population and leadership predominantly made up of Jews, the revised report reads, Christians suffering oppression at the hands of the Jewish state, its army or its citizens, identify with Jesus in his suffering.

Sometimes Palestinian Christians liken their experience to the passion of Jesus, or describe themselves as being crucified as Jesus was crucified, the text continues. The implication of such descriptions is that the state of Israel and its policies are the crucifying power.”
Read the Burston commentary in its entirety.

State Dept Seems to Side with Saudi School

In the following excerpted article from the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Steve Emerson reports on indications that the State Department will not be of much assistance in curtailing Islamist propaganda at a Saudi school in Virginia.

“High school students in the Wahhabi-led school learn that the Jews conspired against Islam and Sunni Muslims should shun all Shia Muslims. They also are taught that killing an apostate or an adulterer is acceptable under Islamic law. And polytheists (defined elsewhere as Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and even Shia and Sufi Muslims) likewise can be subject to death for their transgressions.

It is troubling enough to consider such lessons being ingrained in the minds of teenagers in Riyadh and throughout the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But the same textbooks are in use in Alexandria, Va., at the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), a report issued earlier in June by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) found…

…the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which leases property to the Saudi Academy, appealed to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice for guidance… Early indications are that the State Department won’t be of much assistance in evaluating these textbooks.” Read Emerson’s report in its entirety.

When & Where Islamization Occurs

“Islam is not a religion nor is it a cult. It is a complete system…Islam has religious, legal, political, economic and military components. The religious component is a ” beard ” for all the other components…Islamization occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so-called ‘religious rights.’

When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to ‘the reasonable’ Muslim demands for their ‘religious rights, they also get the other components under the table. Here’s how it works (percentages source CIA: The World Fact Book (2007).”

Read more of this essay adapted on Front Page from Dr. Peter Hammond’s book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat

Internal documents: Capitol ill-prepared for bomb attack

A future terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol is highly probable, and Congress’s specialized bomb squad is unlikely to be able to deal with it, according to internal U.S. Capitol Police documents obtained by The Hill.

The unclassified internal letters and memos, written by Capitol Police captains, lieutenants, and sergeants between 2005 and 2007, detail more than three years of complaints to their superiors about the Hazardous Devices Unit’s lack of vehicles, its desire for more frequent training and the inadequate level of experience of bomb technicians within the specialty unit.

A suicide bombing or a car bomb are “the two major threats to the United States Capitol complex and the Congressional community,” according to a memo from mid-2006. While Washington, D.C., has not experienced the effects of such attacks, “the possibility that one of these two techniques may be used remains quite high and could become a reality.”

Read more of this report from The Hill

Music Festival Strives to Bridge Gap with Mix of Idealism & Realism

“Despite the ongoing talks between Israel and Syria, and sporadic contacts with the Palestinian leadership, there doesn’t seem to be much progress happening over a solution to the ongoing regional tension and violence. So it might not be a bad idea to try a different tack, one that circumnavigates the political domain and tries to appeal to an alternative area of interest shared by all inhabitants of the region.

That’s an ethos embraced by Erich Oskar Huetter, a thirty-something Austrian cellist who periodically doubles as artistic director of the Sounding Jerusalem Festival. The annual festival is currently under way for the third time and will end on July 5.

One of Huetter’s declared intentions is to use the festival to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer together and to offer a glint of hope for peaceful coexistence.”

Read more of a hopeful article from the Jerusalem Post about a music festival that attempts to span the gap between Israelis and Palestinians with a mixture of hope and realism.

Harvard Study Shows Large Majority of Arab Israeli Citizens Prefer Israel

“It is difficult to find a more neglected story than the relative satisfaction of Palestinian Arabs living in Israel as is revealed from a recent Harvard study (Palestinians Arabs (including those living in greater Jerusalem) constitute 20% of the population). Aware of inconvenient polls which reveal that Palestinian living in Israel are vehemently opposed to becoming citizens of Palestine, the researchers did their best to lower the satisfaction number by phrasing the question so as to receive the most negative number. They asked Palestinian Arab if they would rather live in Israel or in any other country in the world.

Let yourselves go, dream away, they researchers seemed to be say. Fantasize. How about living in Dubai, in Britain or the US?

What a disappointment. Israel’s Arab citizens refused to play along. The vast majority of them insisted that like Israel best.”

Read more about these highly significant and sadly neglected research findings.

Iran’s “Nightmare Scenarios” Studied by U.S. Intelligence

“WASHINGTON - An attack on the U.S. 5th Fleet, exploding Saudi oil refineries, and a Hezbollah operation against a soft target in the Americas, Asia, or Europe. These are scenarios America’s intelligence analysts are now poring over as Israel signals its preparedness to deal with Iran’s race for the A-bomb.” Read more of this report from the New York Sun.

Homeland Security Designates “High Risk” Sites

WASHINGTON (CNN) — More than 7,000 facilities, from chemical plants to colleges, have been designated “high-risk” sites for potential terrorist attacks, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Experts long have worried that U.S. industrial facilities could be used as terrorist weapons.

Next week, the department will send letters to the facilities notifying them that they present the highest potential consequences in the event of a successful terrorist attack, said Robert Stephan, the agency’s assistant secretary for infrastructure protection.

The facilities include chemical plants, hospitals, colleges and universities, oil and natural gas production and storage sites, and food and agricultural processing and distribution centers, Stephan said. Read more of this CNN Report

Why Americans Back Israel

“In the future, as in the past, U.S. policy toward the Middle East will, for better or worse, continue to be shaped primarily by the will of the American majority, not the machinations of any minority, however wealthy or engaged in the political process some of its members may be.” Read more

“New Low in Presbyterian-Jewish Relations”

The church’s statement on anti-Semitism “marks a new low-point in Presbyterian-Jewish relations,” the Jewish leaders said. “Indeed, this document reads as a blueprint for how to engage in anti-Israel activity without being accused of anti-Semitism.” Read more

Two Facets of youtube & Anti-Semitism

A friend of ALERT sent us a link to a video about anti-Semitism that is as essential to watch–and to forward–as it is disturbing. Equally troubling was the anti-Semitic video we noted under the heading Related Videos. Youtube cuts two ways.

We mourn the passing of ALERT benefactor SPENCER, S.A. (SASH). 76. Sash A. Spencer, a resident of Key Biscayne, Florida passed away on June 10, 2008 in New York following a brief illness. Mr. Spencer was the founder and chairman of Holding Capital Group, a private investment firm specializing in leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, and money management. Born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia on June 22, 1931. He traveled with his parents in Europe during his early years before moving to the Philippines where he lived and was imprisoned during the Japanese occupation. Mr. Spencer graduated from American School in Manila, Philippines in 1948. He received an A.A. and B.S. Degree in Commerce, Malayan Colleges in 1946 and 1954 respectively. During this period he also operated his own company, Operated Mercantile, Inc, in the Philippines, which was in the import/ export/services industry. Mr. Spencer was an officer in the US. Army, OCS Artillery, 101st Airborne Division from 1955-1958. Following his discharge from the army he went on to earn his MBA with distinction from the Wharton School in Accounting at the University of Pennsylvania in 1959. After earning his MBA he was a Principal with McKinsey & Co., Inc., Management Consultants, in Washington, DC and New York from 1959-1966. In 1966 Mr. Spencer became President and CEO at the Briggs Manufacturing Company in Detroit, Michigan. He left in 1970 and was Managing Director of A.P. Moeller (Maersk Line), Copenhagen, Denmark until 1975 when he founded Holding Capital Group. Mr. Spencer was an avid art collector, racer of sailboats and a hiking enthusiast. Surviving are Mary M. Spencer, his beloved wife of 47 years and his sister, Linda Fales of Sunrise, Florida. Mr. Spencer was preceded in death by both of his parents and his brother Henry. Miami Herald

Steve Emerson Discusses Implications of Israeli Military Exercise with Shepard Smith

SMITH: Yeah, the Israelis took out Iraq’s nuclear facility twenty some odd years ago. Take a look at the map right here because the Iranians may have learned from that experience and have reportedly hidden a lot of their nuclear facilities in various locations that are secret and underground. Do we have the map? Put it up. There it is. Alright, let’s assume the U.S. or the Israelis for that matter engage in a tactical air strike. Would we hit all of them?

EMERSON: There’s no way that they could hit all of them. They don’t have the strength, the strategic strength, the capability to do that, but they can hit maybe five percent of the targets. If you take out five percent of their capability of their enrichment you can retard their development of a nuclear facility or production by about ten or fifteen years. After all, what they’re doing is buying time. Read more

Bloomberg in Boca Raton Blasts Rumors that Obama is a Muslim

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, injecting himself directly into the presidential campaign, forcefully denounced on Friday what he called a “whisper campaign” linking Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to Islam. Read more

David Brooks Delineates “The Two Obamas”

New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks is at his analytical best deconstructing for us the split Obama persona.

“Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this past winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency of now. But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck for votes.

“This guy is the whole Chicago package: an idealistic, lakefront liberal fronting a sharp-elbowed machine operator. He’s the only politician of our lifetime who is underestimated because he’s too intelligent. He speaks so calmly and polysyllabically that people fail to appreciate the Machiavellian ambition inside.”

In the following paragraph Brooks pulls a commentary rarity—admitting to ambivalence on a crucial issue:

“I have to admit, I’m ambivalent watching all this. On the one hand, Obama did sell out the primary cause of his professional life, all for a tiny political advantage. If he’ll sell that out, what won’t he sell out? On the other hand, global affairs ain’t beanbag. If we’re going to have a president who is going to go toe to toe with the likes of Vladimir Putin, maybe it is better that he should have a ruthlessly opportunist Fast Eddie Obama lurking inside.” (Ital ours)

Brooks concludes with a sweeping statement about the candidate’s political abilities

All I know for sure is that this guy is no liberal goo-goo. Republicans keep calling him naïve. But naïve is the last word I’d use to describe Barack Obama. He’s the most effectively political creature we’ve seen in decades. Even Bill Clinton wasn’t smart enough to succeed in politics by pretending to renounce politics.

Read in its entirety this sparking, discerning and significant opinion piece.

U.S. Says Israeli Military Exercise Seemed Directed at Iran

“Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military’s capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran’s nuclear program.” Read more

Iran Threatens to Hit Back with “Strong Blow”

“If enemies, especially Israelis and their supporters in the United States, would want to use a language of force, they should rest assured that they will receive a strong blow in the mouth, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami was quoted by AFP as saying during a Friday prayers sermon, which was also broadcast live on state radio.” Read more

Robert Spencer Urges Repeal of Hate Speech Laws

“If people can be prosecuted for insulting words, we are all in trouble. Soon they will begin prosecuting those who commit Islamophobia, as the Organization of the Islamic Conference wants Western countries so very much to do. After all, it is no accident that CAIR and co. so consistently and indefatigably label all Islamorealistic discourse as hate speech. They want to make it illegal for the kuffar to dare to point out that Muhammad and the Qur’an preach the subjugation of the Infidels under Sharia. Then it will be against the law to discuss the motives and goals of those who would conquer and subjugate us. And one of the last defenses against that conquest will have fallen.” Read more

Homegrown Young Jihad Wannabes

“That old guard is still dangerous and still plotting spectacular attacks. But it is the new wave that more urgently requires our attention. This cohort is composed of homegrown young wannabes who dream of glory and adventure, who yearn to belong to a heroic vanguard and to root their lives in a greater sense of meaning. Inspired by tales of past heroism, they hope to emulate their predecessors, even though, for the most part, they can no longer link up with al-Qaeda Central in the Pakistani badlands. Their potential numbers are so great that they must now be seen as the main terrorist threat to the West.” Read more

Today has been another of those days when astute reporting and insightful commentary in Haaretz on several issues taken together seemed to us to sweep through current occurrences and thinking. Below you will find:

– Egyptian activist’s observation of how common in the Arab world is intimidation of human rights workers–

–American correspondent alluding to different possible responses to the strikingly disproportionate number of Jews in Congress, running a complex gamut from Jewish pride to an ingrained anxiety depicted with Jewish humor and the inevitable irony.

– Analysis of the thinking of the Israeli architect of the temporary truce with Hamas

Human rights activists in Arab world face countless threats

“Speaking of the violations against human rights defenders in the Arab world, the Director of (EOHR) in Cairo, Hafez Abu-Seida, said that placing legal constraints that hinder the establishment of human right organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) is considered to be very common among Arab countries…that obstacles and violations practiced among human rights activists vary from one Arab country to another. In some states, governments create legal obstacles for any potential human rights organization, while in other countries, NGOs and civil organizations are simply not recognized at all.” Read more

Will Next U.S. Congress top current record number of Jewish lawmakers?

“It is a silly question, I know that. Only fellow obsessive-Jew-counters will understand the temptation to try and predict whether the 2008 Congress will break the record number of Jewish legislators that was established in the 2006 election cycle…But here we are, doing exactly that.. Whether it is good or bad for the American Jewish community to have so many Jewish legislators serving in Congress can be a matter of debate (See First thought on most Jewish Congress ever: Wow. Second thought: Oy)” Read more

Truce is a temporary alternative to a large ground offensive

“The cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, the very same organization that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said once again on Wednesday that we are not talking to, has one thing in common with the Oslo Accords. Just like Oslo, for the tahadiyeh (Arabic for temporary truce) Israel is paying in hard currency for general future commitments.

A large military operation would not have immediately ended the firing of Qassam rockets or solved the problem of arms smuggling. At the same time, there was the need to quickly end the suffering of Israelis living near Gaza. Like Barak, Gilad believes that in the long run a confrontation with Hamas is almost inevitable, but then the cabinet can come to the nation with clean hands and say we tried everything, now it is the IDF’s turn.

What Gilad cannot say is that the choice of tahadiyeh was first and foremost a political one. From the moment Olmert and Barak reached the conclusion that they did not have public support or political breathing room for a large ground offensive in Gaza, the die was cast.” Read more

Israel-Hamas Truce Called Fragile & Temporary

“As operatives of Hamas boasted victory, claiming an agreement with Israel to temporarily halt violence in Gaza is imminent, American and Israeli critics, including a top Middle East adviser to Senator Obama, Daniel Kurtzer, expressed skepticism that the lull in fighting could hold for long.” Read more

Moshe Arens: Israel Has Nothing to Fear from Next U.S. Administration

“The U.S.-Israeli relationship is based on firm foundations of common values, ideals and strategic interests that do not depend on whether the administration in Washington is Republican or Democratic. The relationship is a major part of Israel’s strategic posture and should not be impaired by Israeli politicians under any circumstances. Although some Israeli prime ministers have in the past made the unfortunate mistake of indicating their preference for one of the candidates in the American presidential elections, until now, no one until has been as blatant as Olmert when he declared that the next administration would not be as friendly to Israel as the present one. That statement is certainly not likely to advance our country’s relationship with the next administration. If at all, the contrary should have been said: We expect the relationship with the next administration, regardless of who is elected president of the United States, to be even better.” Read more

Arab PR Has Not Led to Victory

“Golda Meir once said that a bad press was better than a good epitaph. In other words, pragmatic considerations must take precedence over public relations…Sometimes it seems as if contemporary Israeli governments have forgotten that concept. Yet in general, especially where it counts, this principle continues to prevail in Israel.” Read more

Electronic Blueprints Found on Computers of Nuclear Smuggling Network

“American and international investigators say that they have found the electronic blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon on computers that belonged to the nuclear smuggling network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist, but that they have not been able to determine whether they were sold to Iran or the smuggling ring’s other customers.” Read more

Iranian Threat too Serious to Be Exploited by Cynical Israeli Politicians

“The compulsive fixation on the Iranian issue ensures Israel’s status in the eyes of creation as the source of trouble. When Israel is perceived as the central factor in the tensions with Iran, it should not be surprised if it is depicted in the world as the major offender in the spiraling cost of oil…The American public and its leaders are not safely nestled in Israel’s pocket. The Iranian nuclear program is too substantial a threat for it to serve as a tool in the hands of cynical Israeli politicians whose tongues wag too freely.” Read in its entirety this thought-provoking and controversial commentary by Haaretz diplomatic affairs analyst Akiva Eldar.

Canadian Islamic Congress Sues Mark Steyn

“Earlier this month, the columnist Mark Steyn went on trial for being mean. Steyn’s offense was to have published, in the fall of 2006, an excerpt from his book, America Alone, in the Canadian newsweekly Maclean’s. In it, Steyn advanced the provocative but by no means untenable argument that plunging birthrates in Europe would precipitate a demographic decline, forcing Continental countries to reach an accommodation with their radicalized Islamic compatriots. Europe’s future, Steyn suggested, belongs to Islam.” Read more