Thursday, May 16, 2002

News from the Jericho Prison

Did you know that the American and British guards of the prison of the six vicious terrorists are not allowed weapons? The farcical nature of this arrangement is being played out, as described in this DEBKAfile report.<

Happy Shavuot!

Some great Shavuot stuff.

Wednesday, May 15, 2002

Huh?

ABCNEWS.com : Arafat Admits 'Mistakes,' Vows Reform says the headline. The subhead: "Yasser Arafat, who is under growing pressure at home and abroad to carry out reforms, made a vague promise to make some changes in his government. " Perhaps I am semantically challenged, but how does ABC reconcile those two? Oh, wait, I forgot - they don't have to.

It IS happening here!

How long before it reaches your neighborhood? Anti-Semitic Pogrom at San Francisco State

Why Arafat got Arafatter

Friends,

Here is a wonderful article by my friend Sam Orbaum, humour columnist at the Jerusalem Post. I'd like to point out that the list of food items and the amounts he quotes that were sent to the beseiged Chairman are not a joke. We all read about it in Israeli papers. Start your day with a smile.

Naomi Ragen



Why Arafat Got Arafatter
By Sam Orbaum
May. 14, 2002
Jerusalem Post

The only ones starving in the Ramallah siege were Arafat's guests. Well, the Jenin Holocaust is over, praise be Allah. We'll never know how many innocent millions were killed (some more than once), but the scope of the tragedy can be measured by the staggering number of cancelled subscriptions toTerrorist Weekly.

While the genocide of innocent terrorists was going on (according to Palestinian sources, the Israelis used atom bombs on Jenin. No, really!), almost forgotten was the heroic Ramallah Ghetto Uprising.

Yasser Arafat (the Gaza Gaon) and his luminary disciples, armed only with one short stick (honest!), staved off the Nazis' relentless onslaught for weeks, emerging miraculously unscathed, though unshaven. And fatter.

No one noticed this, except for Yasser's faithful wife Suha. From her tony digs in Paris, the Palestinian First Lady was watching on TV all the horrific tragedies befalling her beloved people at poolside (no, no - Suha was poolside; her beloved people were botzdeep), when suddenly she noticed a scruffy, big-lipped, fat little fellow on the TV screen.

"Hey, that's my scruffy, big-lipped, fat little husband!" she exclaimed to her attendants. She was very proud.

But if he was beseiged under the direst conditions for weeks and weeks, heroically withstanding an entire army almost singlehandedly, how did Arafat get Arafatter? According to heroic Palestinian sources, they survived on nothing but their own heroism.

"We swallowed our pride," Arafatter explained.

According to The Jerusalem Post, they survived on Osem, Telma and Tnuva. Look, you can believe what you want, but this was actually in the newspaper, so it must be true: during the 25-day period of the siege in Ramallah, the IDF allowed entry of 70 food items. The list, provided by the IDF and published in the Post, included: 13,200 pitot, 420 cans of humous, 423 cans of tuna, 100 kg. of potatoes and rice, soup mix, spices, cheeses, 720 bottles of Coca-Cola, one box of cornflakes, 30 cans of coffee, 155 boxes of tea, 360 kg of sugar, 100 heads of lettuce, 65 kg. of lemons, 24 watermelons, 40 kg. of grapes, and 60 kg. of assorted fruits. (Think of the poor delivery guy at the makolet.)

International human rights organizations will say sure, all that food, but nothing to eat it with (a form of psychological torture the Israelis learned from the Nazis). However, the list includes 3,000 spoons, not to mention 270 packages of toilet paper ("sure, one-ply, another form of psychological torture"), and 120 cartons of cigarettes ("another form of Israeli genocide"), all of which comprise standard starvation rations in concentration camps such as this.

That explains how Arafat got Arafatter.

I HAVE only one question: I One box of cornflakes?! This single item, more than anything else, provides clues of what life was like in the beseiged headquarters, and raises a lot of troubling suspicions.

I've been wondering about this night and day. Why cornflakes? Which cornflakes? What size box - family size, economy size, jumbo size, headquarters size? And above all, why only one? I mean, 13,200 pitot! 423 cans of (presumably dolphin-safe) tuna! 720 bottles of Coke! 65 kilos of lemons! And yet 1 box of cereal.

This is more tonnage than they brought over on the Karine A! These guys ate pretty well, more than entire Palestinian towns, yet human rights organizations claimed the captives were not supplied with food for 11 days. The Post story reported that "when Arafat met with European ambassadors, a complaint was relayed that foreign guests had not been given any food except for eggs."

No smoked salmon. No caviar. No hors d'oeuvres.

The European diplomats diplomatically blamed Israel. OK, that's fair. But the Palestinians had all that humous and didn't serve it to visitors? Maybe there were no waiters in the compound, I don't know. In any case, I don't think we should be blamed for that.

And making Europeans eat eggs without a fork, well! Were Muslim captives forced to ingest Zionist-produced cornflakes, which is against their religious beliefs? If so, that is a war crime.

The UN is asking questions. If it was Telma cornflakes, jumbo size, purchased at the Zilzol super in Beit Shemesh, it so happens they were on sale, two for the price of one, which means whoever bought it gave one box to the Palestinians and smuggled one box to his wife, which is also a war crime.

But the terrorists' shopping list clearly stated "one box." Even if only one person eats the stuff, he'd need more than one box for all those weeks in captivity, right? Maybe one of the terrorists decided to make a cheese cake, and needed just a small amount of cornflakes for the crunchy base. But that's impossible: intelligence sources note that Arafat's headquarters did not have a mixing bowl.

It is a known fact that Arafat eats a bowl of Ugi every morning (crumbs have been detected in his stubble), so why one box of cornflakes and not six or seven boxes of Ugi?

Aha!, say the human rights people, all of whom know the Geneva Convention by heart.

Prime Minister Sharon, who is believed to personally dislike Arafat, wanted to send in Rice Krispies, remembering that Arafat once admitted in an interview that the cereal's noise, detonated by milk, irritates him. But Foreign Minister Peres (why does everyone think he's the Palestinian foreign minister?) pointed out that given the situation - with so many fingers on so many triggers - the snap, crackle and pop could start a war.

And go explain that to the UN.

Could be one of the terrorists had a riboflavin deficiency, and without a cornflake a day he would die.

It's a little farfetched to suggest that the Palestinians needed the cornflakes as a key component in making weapons (well, it is a "vital source of iron"), but this is the Middle East, so it's quite possible. (This is serious here, so I'm not going to make a silly pun about "Killogg's," but feel free to do so yourself.) Many people like to read a cereal box while eating breakfast. Well, Palestinian terrorists are people too! This is one of the more rational theories, and it would explain why one box was enough. I'm not making fun of the Palestinians, and certainly not of Arafat, who after all, did marry Suha. Look, I would do the same if I were surrounded by the Palestinian army for more than a month: I would also draw up a shopping list, though I'd ask for Special K (and if someone else was paying for it, I'd ask for more than one box). Less tuna, please, but a few hundred steaks instead, and toothpicks. (The Palestinians did ask for toothpicks, but the Israelis refused, afraid they'd use them to burrow a tunnel to safety in Europe.)

Anyway, the siege is over, and the terrorists are now free and safe and hungry again, which is why they've hurried over to Arafat's headquarters in Gaza. They heard the IDF is going in, and the local makolet has been alerted.


Your House is not Our House, Amos - but Ours is Yours!

Avi Pekar of Yerucham responds to Amos Oz. Important reminder: Check out the pseudo-military patches of all Arafat's murder brigades: They all have a complete map of Israel. In other words, for them, every Israeli is a "settler." And remember, Arafat said his terrorists don't attack civilians - only soldiers and settlers. Hmmm...so even if the residents of Yehuda and Shomron were to move to the Negev, or to Tel Aviv, Arafat considers them fair game.

So what was your suggestion again, Amos?

Tuesday, May 14, 2002

Phony Funeral Footage

Israel Defense Forces site shows film frames and explains one of several ways the Arabs tried to make the number of Jenin casualties appear greater than it was.
"Purity of Arms"
An oddly stirring locution, explained in this Ha'aretz piece by Nadav Shragai. When I was in Tzahal (64-67) and had the concept explained to me, it was so self-evident that I was bemused. "How could it be otherwise?" I thought.

Sadly, I have since learned how.

Another point - a minor quibble with the use of "terror": Shragai says, "During all the years that passed between these two events, the Palestinians have clung to terrorism as a strategic option. Almost always, their targets were civilians." Let's recall the definition of terror. It is an act with five parties: Someone who wants to achieve a political end; the terrorists, whom they employ; the victims of terror, who MUST be innocent bystanders - the more pathetic, the better; the terrorized public; and the political leaders who are meant to be influenced by those terrorized to achieve the end of the first party.

That's why terror is ALWAYS against civilians.
The Silence of "Christians"
The Israel Insider did not put those quotes on "Christians" in their title of their article of that name; I added them. The Catholic church does not seem to bear any relationship to the Christians who steadfastly support Israel, such as those of the International Christian Embassy and other Protestant groups. israelinsider: The silence of Christians
Buy Shavuot Bouquets for Terror Victims and Soldiers
Read about this special campaign here, on IMRA. Then go here to buy a bouquet and send it.
The Mockery Continues
Is there no limit to this farce? Arafat is entirely consistent - but what is our excuse? We see him, we hear him, and we act as if he is saying what we want him to say. Did you hear that in Bethlehem he said, "I am here as a Moslem, and as a Christian"? And as a mocking, treacherous, murderous liar and leech.

Monday, May 13, 2002

Me, too!
Israel Insider publisher Reuven Koret says it beautifully: "I am a Zionist." Thanks, Reuven.
Glimmers of Truth about the Church Siege
From Naomi Ragen: "Remember CNN's Walter and Rosemary who were so worried about those 13 "young men" hiding out in the Church of the Nativity who were exiled by Israel? Whose hearts bled because the "suspected militants" to quote Rosemary, for whom even the word "militants" was too much, looked hungry and hadn't had a bath? Read all about these poor "young men", who Rosemary was so worried about, and over whom the CNN camerman cried openly, according to Walter...."
Arafat's Pet Murderers Used Christian School
I'm sure you saw this on CNN or ABC - NOT!

Sunday, May 12, 2002

Makes the point about Time, below
When the News in Pictures Was News
Not all Norwegians approve of Terje Rod-Larsen
IMRA - Sunday, May 12, 2002 Protest letter from Nowegian Israelis to Larsen
Dennis Prager Asked Israelis...
During his recent visit to Israel, noted speaker, writer, teacher Prager interviewed Israelis, asking them:

1. Why do you think that, with the exception of the United States, Israel is alone in the world?
2. Do you walk around afraid?
3. What is your primary feeling with regard to Arabs?

Here is what they answered.
IDF Apologizes to Palestinian Family
We make mistakes in the horrible confusion of war. We take responsibility for them. We profoundly regret them.
Shmuel-Dani z"l
I wish you could read Hebrew. The letters "z"l" are a transliteration of an abbreviation - "zikhrono levrakha" - meaning, "may his memory be a blessing." At this site (in Hebrew), there is a picture of Shmuel Dani, a 27-year-old who was killed in the war against terror. If you read through the site, from his wife Einav's eulogy, to the words and poems of nieces, nephews, relatives, friends, and strangers, you will find words of encouragement, of love, of sympathy, of strength. Of hope.

You won't find a single word of hatred, or of a desire for revenge.

This is who we are, World. These are the Jews. This is Israel.