IRIS Blog

Putting UN peacekeepers in Lebanon is like using honeycake to guard an anthill:

"The Lebanese army's secret service arrested a network of non-Lebanese terrorists who were watching the movements of UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) troops in south Lebanon and who were planning to carry out attacks against them," the Lebanese army said Monday.

"The network planted an explosive device along the main road between Al-Abbasseya and Jall el-Bahr, near Tyre, targeting a UNIFIL patrol, but the device failed to explode," the army said.

An army spokesman said the network was planning two other attacks in the same area with the aim of killing a large number of UNIFIL troops.

The lesson in the classic Economics in One Lesson is that bad economics focuses only on immediately visible effects of a given policy. For example, a broken window "stimulates" the economy by providing work for the glazier, as well as the glazier's clients, the glazier's clients' clients, etc. Ignored are the invisible uses that that money might have been used for, as well as the the pure loss that the broken glass represents. This led to the Keynsian fallacy that war is good for an economy because it revives the construction business. By extrapolation, it has enabled the drunken sailor spending habits of governments by convincing them that any expenditures have this magic infinite stimulatory effect.

Similarly, appeasement looks good in the short term because it creates feel-good photo opportunities of hostage family reunions, while the enormous number of future victims is invisible. As Israel prepares for the mother of all hostage ransoms, citizens should consider the South Korean lesson as the Islamist kidnappings skyrocket, along with innumerable preventable jihadi attacks:

Millions of dollars handed over to secure the release of South Korean hostages in Afghanistan have been used to buy weapons deployed against British and American forces in the country, the Taliban claims.

Major Alexis Roberts, 32, Prince William’s former platoon commander at Sandhurst, was one of the victims of the Taliban offensive funded by the hostage money. According to Taliban fighters interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph, the money has also been used to train recruits to carry out terrorist attacks in Britain and America.

South Korea has repeatedly denied claims by Afghan officials that it paid cash to secure the release in August of 21 Christian volunteers who were held for nearly six weeks. But in a recent meeting, three Taliban fighters involved in the conflict with the British in Helmand province said that $10 million cash handed over in two installments had been used to boost operations in Afghanistan and abroad.

"It was a God-sent opportunity," said Mullah Hezbollah, 30. "It has helped us to multiply our stockpile of weapons and explosives to wage battle for at least a year or so."

He said the money had been paid in August, shortly before the Taliban’s fugitive spiritual leader, Mullah Omar, ordered Operation Nusrat (victory), an offensive against coalition troops which ran throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which finished last week. During the operation, four British soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan, including Major Roberts.

"We were really concerned when we received orders to launch Operation Nusrat, because we had hardly any funds to buy weapons to carry out such a major offence," said Mullah Hezbollah. Thanks to the ransom payments, however, the operation proceeded with "full vigour".

Every citizen of New Jersey is about to be forced to ponder this issue:

Shall the amendment of Article II, Section I, paragraph 6 of the Constitution, agreed to by the Legislature, revising the current constitutional language concerning denial of the right to vote by deleting the phrase "idiot or insane person" and providing instead that a "person who has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting" shall not enjoy the right of suffrage, be adopted?

Ehud Olmert will leave at least two legacies. He is probabaly the least popular leader of any democratic country since the advent of polling. (The lowest-polling American president, Richard Nixon, had more than double Olmert's support at his nadir.) Currently, he is apparently working to distract from that record with criminal investigations:

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz instructed the police Sunday to open a third criminal investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, regarding suspected wrongdoings committed when he was Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor. Olmert's lawyers have been informed of the decision.

The suspicions revolve around a company that was represented by Olmert's longtime associate and attorney Uri Messer, as well as political appointments in the Small Businesses Authority and in other assistance to his political protégés.

Investigations against Olmert are already underway regarding 1) the purchase of a home on Jerusalem's Cremieux Street at a price substantially below market value, allegedly in return for exerting his influence in Jerusalem's municipality to aid the contractors, and in 2) favoring his business associates in the sale of Bank Leumi's controlling shares owned by the government.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has written an important challenge to the traditionally inward-focused Orthodox Judaism. While it is controversial, the debate may not be relevant. Dennis Prager explains why he talks to general audiences using a spin on Willie Sutton's justification for robbing banks--"that's where the Jews are." There isn't any way to reach the majority of Jews as a separate audience because most cannot be found in a synagogue. The case for Judaism must be made in the open.

Most Jews do not realize that Judaism is by far the religion with the most intellectual credibility.

For example, while most religions claim that God revealed himself to a single person or at most a small group of people in private, Judaism reports that God provided open miracles to an entire nation for decades (and correctly asserted thousands of years ago that no one would ever make a subsequent claim of national revelation). For example, millions of Jews walked through the split Red Sea as Pharoah's army drowned. Israel was then fed for a generation in the wilderness by manna that would cease every Sabbath.

Another item that Jews rarely consider is that Christianity endorses the Jewish narrative, even though religions are generally mutually exclusive. For example, Muslims believe that the Rabbis rewrote the Bible to expunge the evidence for Islam. Jews do not believe in Jesus or the Christian New Testament, but Christians believe in the Old Testament.

It therefore makes sense that Jewish values should find a welcome reception in a society with a cultural foundation in Christianity.

In a recent column I argued for the need to bring Judaism to the mainstream world. Judaism has nearly always been relegated to a backseat role. This is bizarre, given that every great monotheistic faith derives its core principles and, indeed, its monotheistic raison d'etre from Judaism. In effect, this makes Judaism the light of the world.

Judaism, of course, and not Christianity, is the faith that Jesus Christ staunchly defended and practiced his whole life. And yet the light of Judaism has never been allowed to directly illuminate the earth with its potent radiance.

Jews have forever erred in feeling that Judaism is not for non-Jews. Ironically, the greatest enemy of Judaism throughout the ages has been the Jews themselves who have remained utterly convinced that Judaism has nothing important to say to the wider world.

The results have been tragic. First, relative to the general population, there are barely any Jews in the world because we refuse to spread the light of our faith to those who might adopt it. Second, anti-Semitism could arguably have been mitigated had the demonization our people and our faith been countered by millions of non-Jews who turned to Judaism for wisdom and guidance.

It is time to correct this greatest of all Jewish omissions. The time for Judaism has arrived. The world today faces unprecedented social problems that Judaism is uniquely qualified to address.

Read the whole article...

This is what the US gets for $2 billion in aid annually:

The Egyptian authorities have released a top Hamas operative wanted by the Palestinian Authority and Israel for his involvement in terror attacks over the past few years, PA officials told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

The officials expressed outrage over the release of Nahro Massoud - one of the commanders of Hamas's armed wing, Izzadin Kassam - who fled to Egypt more than a year ago. At the request of the PA, Massoud and several other Hamas fugitives were arrested by the Egyptian security forces and held without trial.

Massoud's name had appeared on a Hamas list of prisoners whose release the group was demanding in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit.

But it was not clear Sunday whether the Egyptian decision to release the Hamas fugitive was linked to secret talks on reaching a prisoner exchange deal with Israel. The Egyptians have been acting as mediators between Hamas and Israel in a bid to secure the release of Schalit, who was kidnapped by Hamas and other Palestinian groups in the summer of 2006.

This is reminiscent of another "moderate" Muslim country, Indonesia, that honored the Bali bombers with a Ramadan barbeque at the home of the Indonesian "anti-terror" unit. Key quote:

"We are all Muslims. We make them our brothers, not our enemy."

Here's why Iraq hasn't been in the news lately. The Democratic party realized it wasn't a winning issue for them anymore, and the mainstream media followed suit. Apparently, during the media quiet, the war is being won:

The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq....

"I think it would be premature at this point," a senior intelligence official said of a victory declaration over AQI, as the group is known. Despite recent U.S. gains, he said, AQI retains "the ability for surprise and for catastrophic attacks." Earlier periods of optimism, such as immediately following the June 2006 death of AQI founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. air raid, not only proved unfounded but were followed by expanded operations by the militant organization.

There is widespread agreement that AQI has suffered major blows over the past three months. Among the indicators cited is a sharp drop in suicide bombings, the group's signature attack, from more than 60 in January to around 30 a month since July. Captures and interrogations of AQI leaders over the summer had what a senior military intelligence official called a "cascade effect," leading to other killings and captures. The flow of foreign fighters through Syria into Iraq has also diminished, although officials are unsure of the reason and are concerned that the broader al-Qaeda network may be diverting new recruits to Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The deployment of more U.S. and Iraqi forces into AQI strongholds in Anbar province and the Baghdad area, as well as the recruitment of Sunni tribal fighters to combat AQI operatives in those locations, has helped to deprive the militants of a secure base of operations, U.S. military officials said. "They are less and less coordinated, more and more fragmented," Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, said recently. Describing frayed support structures and supply lines, Odierno estimated that the group's capabilities have been "degraded" by 60 to 70 percent since the beginning of the year.

See also: Iraq Sees Dramatically Low Death Toll

Prediction: There will be no outcry over this:

Palestinian Authority security forces shot dead two Palestinians on Saturday, including a five-year-old boy, in the West Bank city of Qalqilyah.

According to local resident, security forces opened fire after a 22-year-old man refused to stop at a PA roadblock in the city. The 22-year-old man was killed, as was five-year-old Yazid Obid.

What is the chance that the most unpopular leader in memory of any democratic country will be able to pull off an unpopular peace deal which a significant percentage regards as national suicide?

This won't help:

Officers of the National Police Department's Fraud Investigations Unit are questioning Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Tuesday morning in relation to corruption charges in the "Bank Leumi Affair." Olmert is suspected of interfering with the bank's privatization on behalf of wealthy allies from overseas. It is one of several criminal investigations or suspicions involving the Prime Minister.

Tuesday's probe, carried out "under caution," is taking place in the official Jerusalem residence of the Prime Minister. Questioning may continue on Wednesday. An interrogation "under caution" indicates that the interviewee may face criminal charges.

According to suspicions, then-Finance Minister Olmert allegedly intervened on behalf of two of his friends who were interested in buying control of Bank Leumi, which was undergoing privatization in 2005. The men involved eventually dropped out of the bidding and are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

When the tender for privatization of Bank Leumi was published in November, 2005, Olmert ordered changes which he explained would encourage more investors. But, police suspect that Olmert was using his influence to help his friends.

Suspicions pointing to Olmert's part in the Bank Leumi Affair were first raised in testimony given by the Finance Ministry's Accountant General, Dr. Yaron Zelicha. As a result of Zelicha's statements, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss initiated his own investigation into the bank's privatization process. The material collected was handed to the State Prosecutor's Office, which, on January 17, 2007, ordered police to begin a criminal investigation of Ehud Olmert.

While Olmert was being questioned, Zelicha was appearing on the first hour of government-run Israel Radio's afternoon news magazine. "I was brought up not to merely swim with the tide or look the other way," Zelicha said. "I refused to have it be written in history that Bank Leumi was stolen under my watch... I and my people were able to stop the sale of Bank Leumi to Olmert's friends at a loss to the State of hundreds of millions of dollars."

Asked why he did not turn to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz with his suspicions, but rather to the State Comptroller, Zelicha said, "I didn't turn to Mazuz because I feared that he was a weak man, and that this was why he was appointed in the first place."

Those Israelis whose income places them in Israel's top 20th percentile pay 80% of the taxes that are levied in Israel, according to the yearly report published by the Finance Ministry's State Income Authority Sunday.

In addition, the salary of almost half (47%) of salaried workers in Israel is not high enough to be subject to income tax.

In 2006, the collection of taxes rose by a real rate of 11%....

The direct tax reforms have put more weight on the taxes that are paid by those wage earners that are in the top 20th percentile of the Israel economy. In 2002, before the reforms, the top 20% paid 76% of direct taxes compared with 80% in 2006.

This is an Achilles' Heel of democracies. The majority can vote to confiscate the wealth of the wealthier minority. In a small country like Israel, the productive minority can then respond by shielding their wealth through paying off government and legal "fixers" or by staying out completely, which then impoverishes the nation. It is no accident that the typical growth path of the vaunted Israeli hi-tech startup is to move to Delaware as soon as they are able. Delaware is the U.S. state that has the lowest burden of taxes and regulations.

In this area, morality means restraint from the impulse to take one's neighbor's money by force of government, which leads to the wealth of a nation.

Ironically, Netanyahu lowered tax rates, which the Left decried as a cruel shift of the tax burden to the poor. Instead, it resulted in a huge increase in tax revenues, particularly from the wealthy.

That is because many dream of a return to the economic boom that Israeli security and justice brought:

A survey of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza by Near East Consulting on September 28-30, 2007, asked about the "main issue that makes you feel concerned."

Responses: Economic hardship - 35%, the internal power struggle - 22%, the absence of security - 20%, the Israeli occupation - 8%.

The following three stories sum up the utterly self-inflicted situation that Israel now finds itself in in Gaza. A steep rise in Gaza smuggling has led to a longer range Katyusha rocket being fired into Israel. Of course, IRIS predicted this prior to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.

Steep Rise in Arms Smuggling into Gaza - Including 70 Katyushas

There has been a sharp increase in the quantity of explosives, including various types of rockets, smuggled into Gaza from Egypt over the last few weeks, say senior officers in the Israel Defense Forces.

Hamas now has complete control over the smuggling routes from Egypt, having forced the clans that previously controlled these routes to take orders from it.

They added that the arms smuggling has expanded markedly since Hamas seized control.

Fatah sources said Sunday that terrorist organizations in Gaza recently received a shipment of about 70 Grad Katyusha rockets.

Gazans Dig for Profit

The flow of people and commercial goods through border terminals has been cut sharply since Hamas took control of Gaza.

That has translated into huge profits for the Palestinian clans that dig the smuggling tunnels.

"There has been an increase in demand especially since June," said Abu Salman, a veteran tunnel builder. "Many other tunnels are being constructed."

He said each tunnel is built with several shafts so that if one opening is blocked by Israeli forces or by the Egyptians, smuggling can continue.

Now that Israeli forces have left Gaza, tunnel-diggers are able to break ground closer to the Egyptian frontier.

Palestinians Fire Longer-Range Rocket Deeper into Israel

Palestinians fired a Katyusha rocket into Israel east of Gaza on Sunday that landed in Netivot, 6.8 miles east of Gaza. The Katyusha, a factory-manufactured missile with a longer range than the Kassam, better accuracy and a warhead of some 11 pounds, must be smuggled into Gaza rather than made there. The Israeli Army said four Katyushas were fired from Gaza before - one was fired at the city of Ashkelon a year ago. The Katyusha has a range of 7.4 to 12.4 miles, as opposed to the Kassam's range of 5 to 7.4 miles. The Katyusha was used extensively by Hizbullah in southern Lebanon against Israel in the August 2006 war.

Consider when reading this story that fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were Saudis and that Saudi Arabia is the largest funder of the Global Jihad:

The Saudi Arabian government will temporarily release 55 prisoners recently transferred from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and will give each of them about $2,600 to celebrate the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz granted the temporary releases from detention centers in Saudi Arabia so the prisoners could spend time with their families during the holiday in mid-October, the Okaz newspaper reported.

This is reminiscent of a story IRIS reported on last year:

Saudis Release 11 Detained ex-Guantanamo Inmates

My comments then are worth repeating now:

They served a few months since the US released them to Saudi custody. Now they will resume jihad, of which the Saudis are the world's most ardent proponents.

Meanwhile, every student in Israel will be required to view this debunked propaganda:

Schools will have to issue a warning before they show pupils Al Gore's controversial film about global warming, a judge indicated yesterday.

The move follows a High Court action by a father who accused the Government of 'brainwashing' children with propaganda by showing it in the classroom.

Stewart Dimmock said the former U.S. Vice-President's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, is unfit for schools because it is politically biased and contains serious scientific inaccuracies and 'sentimental mush'.

He wants the video banned after it was distributed with four other short films to 3,500 schools in February.

Mr Justice Burton is due to deliver a ruling on the case next week, but yesterday he said he would be saying that Gore's Oscar-winning film does promote 'partisan political views'.

Israel is an asset to United States (and therefore world) security. American combat fighters do not have the opportunity to probe the Axis of Evil's defenses in battle situations, and America certainly receives full information regarding these sorties:

The Russians have sent technicians to upgrade Syria's air defense system after Israel foiled it using stealth technology to remain invisible during an airstrike.

The Israeli air force used a sophisticated electronic warfare system operated by F-15I jets and a fleet of specialist electronic warfare aircraft over the Mediterranean during the attack on a suspected nuclear facility near Dayr az-Zawr on September 6.

They transmitted signals that jammed the Russian-made radar and the Syrian army's communications.

Notably, the Israeli government finally admitted to the Syrian incursion today. I pointed out from the beginning that the denials were not plausible.

Unfortunately, Israel's political echelon just delayed further the purchase of American stealth fighter jets, due to lack of funds. This is the main reason why the economic strength that is an inevitable consequence of free-market reforms is essential for Israel.

On the bright side, half a billion dollars were found in the Israeli budget to fund Fatah directly and indirectly, Hamas.