IRIS Blog

This is exactly as I predicted when I called the "international disarmament force" an obvious fraud from the moment it was proposed by Israel's bankrupt leadership:

Illegal arms traffic into Lebanon across the Syrian border, mainly to Hezbollah fighters, is reported to be taking place on a regular basis, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday. In a report to the U.N. Security Council, Ban said news of arms shipments, including "detailed and substantial" reports from Israel, and other nations, showed the need for a team he was sending to propose ways of monitoring of the border.

"Such transfers are alleged to be taking place on a regular basis," Ban wrote. "I am deeply worried that the political crisis in Lebanon may be deepened and exacerbated" by arms smuggling. He also said that there was a growing threat from armed "extremist Islamist groups" who have found safe haven in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Not to worry, though. I'm sure Israel's leaders are preparing for the next Lebanon war as diligently as they did prior to the previous one.

Here is a cri de coeur for the Israeli public to act like Donald Trump and show Olmert and company the door. Public demonstrations are only a part of what needs to be done because the government cannot be forced to step down legally. They are entirely without honor and will not take the hint that they have lost the public's confidence. They must see an unending escalation in pressure as long as they cling to illegitimate power. The future of a nation must not be held hostage to Robert's Rules of Order.

I remain pessimistic, however, that anything other than a shift in players will occur. Perhaps only the Prime Minister will resign. Perhaps Israelis will not even achieve that relatively symbolic victory, but I would love to be proven wrong:

"Citizens of Israel," he said, "there are moments in the life of a nation, when it is compelled to look directly into the face of reality and say: no more!" He also said: "I alone bear responsibility for the failure," and added: This is my place of work." And now, with no hesitations or doubts, the time has come for this nation, this battered and skeptical nation, scarred and struck by distrust, to look directly at its prime minister and tell him: No more.

After all, he already announced he will not be leaving his place of work voluntarily. He already prepared his ministers - the ones who did not know what they were voting on when they decided to embark on a war - to praise him in every media outlet. He already enlisted the support of his spinmeisters so that they can juggle words, and he apparently believes in their ability to blur reality, juggle promises, and put the public to sleep.

However, maybe this time the public realizes it must not fall asleep, because it is no longer possible to fall asleep while we are safeguarding our lives. This government is headed by people who failed, severely, in exercising their judgment in one war. The next round, according to the experts, is coming soon. What have the leaders learned since then? Have they made time for protecting the home front while they were busy protecting their seats? Can we believe that in the next round they will be more level-headed and responsible? Is there anyone who can still believe that without being a complete idiot?

"This is my place of work," he said time and again in a speech drafted by his word-masters, yet he did not say how he was going to pay the price for failing at his job. He failed to mention to the public that the public - this nation that is looking directly into the face of reality - is his boss.

He appointed a commission of inquiry that does not have the authority to recommend that he be fired. The commission did everything in its power to make it clear to the public that the report is the gravest indictment possible against a prime minister in Israel: From this moment on, Ehud Olmert's future can no longer be a result of his own decision.

His place of work has a boss, and that is the public. The time has come for the public to say that this prime minister, and this entire government, the people responsible for the deaths of 117 soldiers and 44 civilians in a confused war, the people responsible for the distress faced by hundreds of thousands of bomb shelter dwellers, the people who did not possess a realistic or reasonable plan for what should be done on the front lines or at the home front - these people must leave their offices with disgrace and disappear from the public arena. Now. Before the next war.

They are stubborn, so this will not be happening at once. It will not be the first, or second, or third demonstration that would shock them out of their comfortable surroundings and curb their desire to continue their deception. Yet it will happen, as it happens in democracies, within a few months.

It will happen if the public regains its faith in its ability to be the boss and in the utmost importance of its publicly-owned enterprise - this country. For the sake of this country it is worthwhile to stand in the sun for months on end during demonstrations, and for its sake we should leave behind this contemptible indifference - for its sake and for the sake of its residents, the public must stand up and prove that it deserves more than Ehud Olmert and his government.

Hat tip: Dan Friedman

More evidence of the strong tendency toward misanthropy in Leftism, given the frequent pronouncements comparing people to "pollution":

HAVING large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanour in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a big car and failing to reuse plastic bags, says a report to be published today by a green think tank.

The paper by the Optimum Population Trust will say that if couples had two children instead of three they could cut their family's carbon dioxide output by the equivalent of 620 return flights a year between London and New York.

John Guillebaud, co-chairman of OPT and emeritus professor of family planning at University College London, said: "The effect on the planet of having one child less is an order of magnitude greater than all these other things we might do, such as switching off lights.

"The greatest thing anyone in Britain could do to help the future of the planet would be to have one less child"....

The population of developed nations is expected to remain unchanged and would have declined but for migration.

The British fertility rate is 1.7. The EU average is 1.5. Despite this, Professor Guillebaud says rich countries should be the most concerned about family size as their children have higher per capita carbon dioxide emissions.

Largely because of their ambivalence to children, secular liberals are essentially making themselves extinct. The trend is not immediately obvious, however, because of the counterbalance provided by immigration and because of large religious families. Here is a striking photo to illustrate the point. It shows a reunion in Israel of Princeton alumni who have immigrated to Israel. The picture is not atypical:



At least according to current demographic trends, the future of the Jewish people is religious, and in Israel.

It seems that the obsession with Palestinian victims may have only been a tool for Israel-bashing. But I wouldn't want to jump to conclusions...

For several weeks now the Gaza Strip has been burning. This is not a matter of fighting between Hamas and Fatah activists or actions by the IDF, but battles between armed groups that for the most part are identified with large clans. Nearly every day for the past two weeks, men, women and children have been killed in Gaza. The number of armed men in the Gaza Strip, according to various estimates, is greater than 100,000. These men belong to security mechanisms, political organizations and above all to clans, and are trying to ensure the economic interests of their kinfolk.

In recent weeks attacks on Western and Christian targets in the West Bank have also become common. Members of terror cells identified with Al-Qaeda-type organizations are blowing up and destroying institutions linked to Western culture such as the American School, a church library and dozens of Internet cafes.

But the world is ignoring this. The media in Israel and the West, which reported on every person killed or wounded in the conflicts between Fatah and Hamas or because of "the Israeli occupation," are not taking any interest in Gaza.

Despite the media bashing of Israel, Americans understand that no spin can justify suicide bombing:

American public support for Israel in the face of its enemies is at a five-year high, a poll found. A new survey commissioned by the Israel Project showed that an average of 66 percent of Americans rate their feelings toward the Jewish state as "warm" or "very favorable," while 11 percent gave Iran a positive rating.

Asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 65 percent of respondents said they support Israel, while 10 percent said they support the Palestinians. About three-quarters of those polled said the United States should not resume sending aid to the Palestinian Authority until the Hamas-led government "ends the culture of hate" and recognizes Israel.

In a backlash against the French Intifada, Nicolas Sarkozy won a decisive victory against the Socialist candidate. This victory of a Prime Minister with relatively conservative views (by European standards) on Israel, America, security and the free market mirrors the results of the German election:

France Set for a New Revolution

France is on course for a right-wing revolution after Nicolas Sarkozy secured an emphatic victory over his Socialist Party rival, S?gol?ne Royal, last night to become the country's next president.

Car horns sounded around the capital on the news that Mr. Sarkozy, 52, who heads the ruling Union for a Popular Movement party, had 53% of the vote against Ms. Royal's 47%, according to official exit polls.

At 85%, voter turnout was the highest in 25 years ? a testament to a campaign that captured the French imagination as a new generation of political leaders emerged.

This is an extremely positive development, but it does not amount to a "revolution," as many news services have termed it. Sarkozy's rivals have tried to paint him as a conservative, but he is not, as his own words demonstrate:

Out with the Old, in with the 'Jew'? Sarkozy Talks to the 'Post'

Meanwhile, the "youths" (a euphemism for Muslims hostile to French society) have burned 730 cars in riots nationwide, up from 100 on a typical night. 78 police officers were injured.

Rain threatened to put a dampener on Thursday's anti-government rally at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square but as the rally kicked off at 7.p.m. and the showers subsided, tens of thousands were expected to attend.

Hundreds of policemen were deployed to man the event and roads were closed leading to the venue.

The organizers of the rally told The Jerusalem Post that the event was not a "one-off" but was the first of a series of activities and events whose aim was to bring down the government.

It is unprecedented for any government anywhere to be as documentably negligent as this one. Don't get your hopes up for its fall, however. As I have said from the beginning, it can only be brought down (legally) by voting itself out of office. Because of the level of corruption of Kadima and Labor, it is nearly inconceivable for them to put the nation's interests ahead of their own.

Olmert may be forced to step down in the end, but that will leave the regime essentially unchanged.

The striking parallels between Islamist ideology and Nazism are rarely explored:

The extermination of Jews is Allah?s will and is for the benefit of all humanity, according to an article in the Hamas paper, Al-Risalah. The author of the article, Kan'an Ubayd, explains that the suicide operations carried out by Hamas are being committed solely to fulfill Allah?s wishes. Furthermore, Allah demanded this action, because ?the extermination of the Jews is good for the inhabitants of the worlds.?

The killing of innocent Jews by terrorist attacks is portrayed as Allah?s plan for the benefit of humanity.

It should be noted that Hamas?s justification for the extermination of Jews, both as God's will and for the benefit of humanity, echoes Hitler's words in Mein Kampf:

?In this case the only salvation remaining was war? If the Jew with the help of his Marxist creed is victorious over the peoples of this world, then his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity? Thus I believe today that I am acting according to the will of the almighty Creator: when I defend myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.? (Mein Kampf)

In another parallel to the Nazi genocide of Jews, the writer says he wants to be sure that ?everyone will know? that these murderous actions are ?not of [Hamas?s] own accord? ? an echo of the Nazi war criminals? repeated justification of their actions with the defense that they were only following orders.

The fact that these orders are said to be divine in nature makes Hamas?s justification for the murder of Jews even more ominous.