Month: May 2007

Column one: What is Israel’s Problem?, by Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post)

“All a person has to do is take a look at Palestinian ‘educational’ television, where Mickey Mouse exhorts kindergarteners to become mass murderers, destroy Israel… to know that Palestinian society seeks Israel’s destruction and Islamic global supremacy.”

“Former IDF chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya’alon expressed his view… ‘We argue over what the solution is, but we still haven’t agreed on what the problem is…. This obvious predicament has rarely been mentioned. It certainly has not informed the policies of Israel’s governments.'” read more

For context, click here.

‘Livni Secretly Met IDF Intel. Head’

Commentary:
Livni went behind PM’s back because he allegedly kept her out of the national security loop. But being mad at Livni is a poor, lame excuse for shenanigans with Jewish lives on the line. MB

Related reports:

What Olmert, Peretz, and Halutz Said

Not One Cabinet Member Acted Responsibly During Lebanon War: Dan Meridor

Kassam Lands South of Ashkelon; None Wounded

Two Men Caught in Possession of 101-kg Hashish [at Egyptian Border]

Police Prevent Palestinian Lynching [Disguised as Jews with Kippot] in West Bank

Woman Lightly Wounded by Stones Near Ramallah

IDF Arrests Two Palestinian Fugitives in West Bank

Two Kassam Rockets Land in West Negev; None Wounded

Terror Rocket Hits Near Power Station [in Ashkelon]

Hebron: Molotov Cocktails Thrown at IDF Soldiers

PM Blames Former IDF Chief of Staff for War’s Outcome

Related reports:

PM Blamed Halutz for War’s Outcome

Olmert to Winograd: Halutz Told Me the Army Was Ready

Olmert to Winograd Commission: IDF Let Letself Down

DM Blamed IDF for His Lack of Knowledge

Related reports:

Peretz to Winograd Commission: I Thought Army Was Prepared for War

‘I Was Not Told Army Was Under-Trained’

MK Sa’ar Says Peretz Testimony Reveals Embarrassing Ignorance

Political Attempt to Push Responsibility on Army – Doomed, says MK Shalom read more

Comptroller’s Report Takes Gov’t to Task (Jerusalem Post)

Related reports:

The IDF Dragged Its Feet in Confronting Terror Tunnels’, By Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)

Comptroller’s Report Criticizes Disengagement, Before and After

Disengagement Cost ‘Miscalculated’, By Tovah Lazaroff (Jerusalem Post)

Sderot Council: Report Shows We’ve Been Abandoned (Israel National News)

Kassam Problem Subject to Budget Constraints, IDF Says (Ynet)

Peretz: If We Had Means to Deal With Kassams, Things Would Look Different, by Hanan Greenberg (YNET) read more

I want to take this opportunity to express thanks and appreciation to Shimshon at Excellenceweb Internet Services, Ltd. and Hezi and Keren at Alefhost for speedily, efficiently and expeditiously resolving what could have been a nasty technical problem on this blog.

Yashar Ko’ach and Kol Hakovod!!

Moshe Burt

Benchmarks for a Bloodbath, by Evelyn Gordon (Jerusalem Post)

Excerpts;

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is not purposely trying to destroy all of Israel’s hard-won security gains of the last five years. But if she were, she could hardly have improved on her new benchmark proposal. The proposal comprises two parallel sets of “benchmarks”: steps (mainly Israeli) to increase Palestinian freedom of movement, and steps (mainly Palestinian) to combat Palestinian terror. However, it does not make either track conditional on the other. Thus should Israel accept the proposal, it would be pledging to fulfill its own side of the bargain regardless of whether the Palestinians honored theirs. And since increased freedom of movement for Palestinians includes increased freedom of movement for terrorists, that essentially means an Israeli pledge to facilitate terrorist operations even if the Palestinian Authority makes no compensatory effort to thwart such operations. read more