by Gerald A. Honigman

now that you’re back from the Middle East Show?

Let me start this off with a compliment–something we were all advised to do when going in for a parent conference during my decades’ old teaching career.

As someone who has done some work himself on some thirty-five million stateless Kurds, who have been repeatedly used and abused by numerous parties for quite some time now, let me say that you, Vice President Biden, stand out as a source of relative reason and knowledge among your colleagues. You are to be commended for your concern about these people. Too often, they have been shafted by Washington folks–big time.

By the way, my own “stuff” on this subject is listed on one of Europe’s most prestigious centers of higher learning’s recommended reference lists…the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences-Po)…

http://bibliotheque.sciences-po.fr/fr/produits/bibliographies/question-kurde/index.html

So, if you’d like to have a chat sometime about why tens of millions of truly stateless Kurds still have no “roadmap, ” while folks like yourself expect Israel to cave in to all that Arabs demand for the creation of their own 22nd state–and 2nd, not first, one within the borders of the original mandate of Palestine as Great Britain received it on April 25, 1920, then I’d just love to spend time with you. So-called “Palestinians,” most of whom came into the Mandate from elsewhere (well-documented, by the way), are Arabs. Should Kurds rename themselves and demand not one, but multiple states as well, using this game plan?

The pity is, you probably already know much of what I would fill you in about…which makes the hypocrisy which you either indulge in, despite appearances ( or go along with regardless), stink only worse.

Joe, you’ve recently returned from the Middle East after blasting Jews for building on land that they have called home since the days of the Pharaohs.

Judeans (Jews) lived and owned land in Judea (the West Bank) clear up to the 1920s and 1930s–when Arabs massacred them. After Arab Transjordan (formed in 1922 from some 80% of the Palestine Mandate) seized the west bank of the Jordan River when it joined other Arab states in attacking a reborn Israel in 1948, it formally made Judea Judenrein.

Mr. Vice President, I hate bullies–don’t you?

I know that you’re merely carrying out your bosses’ orders here, but it’s still nauseating any way.

Now, I also know that you like to call yourself “pro-Israel,” for a number of reasons…fundraising and so forth. And, compared to your boss, you seem to be relatively so.

Joe, I don’t want you to be “pro”-Israel…really.

I just don’t want you to expect the sole state of the Jews to prostrate itself to those (such as yourself) who would place it in a vise because it refuses to accept all that you want to shove down its throat or up some place else.

Please tell me why it’s okay for Americans to own Samoa, have virtual if not actual control of the Panama Canal Zone, etc.; for the Brits to fight a war off the coast of Argentina for London’s imperialist claim to the Falkland Islands; and so forth, but an Israel practically invisible on a school globe is chastised because it demands that the compromise promised to it via UNSC Resolution 242 after the June ‘67 war still hold.

In case you forgot, here’s what a few folks had to say about this, since this is what the issue about Israel building in those very locales you guys are now complaining about is all about…

Britain’s Lord Caradon, one of the key architects of the final draft of 242:

We didn’t say that there should be withdrawl to the ‘67 lines; we did not put the word “the” in; we did not say “all of the territories” deliberately (when discussing eventual withdrawal, in the contect of true treaties of peace, not ceasefires)…We all knew that the boundaries (’49 armistice lines) of ‘67 were not drawn as permanent frontiers, that they were merely ceasefire lines of a couple of decades earlier…We did not say that those ( pre-) ‘67 boundaries must be forever.

President Lyndon Johnson June 19, 1967:

A return to the situation on June 4 (the day before the outbreak of hostilities) was not a prescription foir peace, but for renewed hostilities.

President Ronald Reagan, September 1, 1982:

In the pre-’67 borders, Israel was barely 10-miles wide…the bulk of Israel’s population within artillery range of hostile armies. i am not about to ask Israel to live that way again.

Secretay of State George Shultz, 1988:

Israel will never negotiate from nor return to the ‘67 borders

Many others understood all the above as well–the need for a reasonable territorial compromise–including America’s last leader, President George W. Bush. He spelled this out in letters given to Israel during its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza…yet another test that Arabs would flunk with flying colors.

Now, the Obama Administration acts as if none of the above matters and/or even exists.

In well-documented reports, Mr. Vice President, you used the same bully tactics with the late Menachem Begin back in 1982, banging on the desk with your fists and so forth, to try to intimidate him into relinquishing his nation’s barest security needs to American “no friends, just interests” policies.

Israel must not cave in here.

Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion Airport, Haifa, the Knesset, and so forth will be the next targets of Arabs in the aftermath of another Israeli unilateral withdrawal–as Sderot, Ashkelon, and less populated points south were after the Gaza withdrawal. And this time the Jews will have a well-trained, well-equipped Arab army, courtesy of Washington, facing them after Israel is forced to return to its 9-15 mile wide, pre-’67 existence.

Hey Joe, have you ever banged on the table or threatened Arabs over their far worse rejectionist attitudes and total intransigence?

To this day, even your “moderate” latter day Arafatian buddies of Abbas’s Fatah insist that they will never recognize Israel as a state of the Jews. And they talk still of Trojan Horse ceasefires…not real treaties of peace with “their” kilab yahud, Jew Dogs.

Here’s how this translates, Joe…

It’s fine with you, Mr. Obama, and your friends for Arabs to call the almost two dozen states they already possess “Arab” (members of the Arab league, etc.)–despite tens of millions of non-Arabs who have been conquered and forcibly Arabized (going on to this very day) who still live those “Arab” states–but how dare Jews, one half of whose families in Israel fled “Arab”/Muslim lands, claim their tiny, resurrected one.

Hey Joe, here’s what I know…

Peace–real peace, not that of the grave, the one which Arabs still have in store for Israel–will never come by forcing a miniscule Israel to forsake its minimum security needs in return for promises by Arabs which can (and will) be broken tomorrow.

When peace is made between enemies, for it to last (learn the lesson of what happened regarding Germany after World War I), a reasonable compromise addressing the needs of both parties to the conflict must be reached. No one side gets all that it wants at the expense of the other. That kind of stuff only gives rise to problems down the road.

Taking the lead from President Obama himself, Arabs have simply stated–repeatedly and recently–that their job in “negotiations” (i.e.,Hebrew arm-twisting) will be to simply receive, while Israel will do all of the concrete giving.

To such folks–whether the bad cops of Hamas or the Washington whitewashed good cops of Abbas, Israel owes nothing at all.

And if you really want to know what needs to be done, please read my new book http://q4j-middle-east.com.

by Gerald A. Honigman

Not Much… and it’s even worse than you think.

In July, 1994, Arabs, Iran, and/or a combination thereof blew up a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina–some 87 dead, 300 wounded….innocent men, women, and children.

To this day, no one knows for sure all the details… but Arabs and their cohorts were rejoicing throughout the Middle East.

No international call for justice was seriously pressed for (except by the Jews themselves); no stink was made over having to bring such cowardly b _ _ _ _ rds to justice. No nothing.

Now, contrast that disgrace with the following…

Recently, a chief Hamas honcho received his admission slip to meet his 72 virgins via a visit to Dubai.

Since then, much of the world has become determined to find out who this poor disemboweler of Jews’ dispatcher was.

Does anyone besides me have a problem with this?

Naturally, the fingers are pointing to Israel’s Mossad. But others are now being blamed too.

Look, the young children and others blown apart as a result of that 1994 act of Arab and/or Iranian heroism didn’t hurt anyone. But, they were Jews…

And any Jew who dares to assert that the resurrected state of Israel is a relatively good thing (everything in the realm of man is relative) is, by definition, a fair target for those who see justice only through their own eyes, denying any at all to scores of millions of others (not only Jews) in what they see as only “their ” own exclusive region….purely Arab patrimony as they like to tell it.

Yes, there are questions about hits of murderers on other folks’ soil.

Are there no such questions about massacring innocents on other folks’ soil?

Why more time and effort devoted to discovering who finally delivered just dues to another “militant” with the blood of babes, grandmas, and so forth on his hands than that shown over the butchery of those latter folks?

When these same dudes and dudettes were specializing in blowing apart Jewish teens in nightclubs; kids on buses, in pizza parlors, ice cream shops; mothers and their kids in shopping malls; families attending weddings Passover Seders, bar mitzvahs; and the like, do any of you out there in Readerland recall such depth of concern?

If it wasn’t Israel’s Mossad who paid Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Mabhouh a visit in Dubai, then it should have been…

Hopefully, many more such heroes–including those with safe havens in Damascus–will very shortly also find their way to Islamic Paradise.

by Gerald A. Honigman

I have a tendency to tick some specific groups of people off. I offer no further direct comment about this, except to say that I guess I am a passionate person and a bad liar…

I have recently retired, for medical reasons, from a career of teaching science to thousands of students (and fellow teachers via inservice) over the years. Biology–especially ecology and environmental science–has always been one of my life’s passions. Ever since my father, of blessed memory, spoke to me about the beautiful world G_d created as we watched the sun rise on the lake on one of our many fishing trips together since I was in diapers, I got hooked. I have led numerous folks (including college professors) on my wetlands ecology and biodiversity field trips over the decades.

I have always been a firm believer that G_d did not place man on this planet to trash the place nor to abuse others which G_d placed here as well. Stewardship is the term that some have used to describe what this relationship should be…and it’s a good one. I have had a poster greeting students and others entering through the doors to my classrooms summing this thought up…

Treat the Earth well…It was not given to you by your parents…It was loaned to you by your children.

I have not been an extremist in these regards, but I do know–without out any doubt–that man has indeed not been as careful over the ages (especially in modern times) as he needed to be…often with horrendous consequences.

As just one example, think of the billions of pounds of carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic chemicals (many extremely persistent) which have been dumped into various ecosystems, working their way up and through assorted food chains.

Because of this, if mistakes are to be made, my assessment has been to make them on the side of caution–yet, with an open-minded quest for solid, scientific truth, not that born simply out of passion. Having said that, most times we cannot wait until we have “100 %” solid evidence before we should act. By then, the results would often be irreversible.

Tragedy struck at Sea World in Orlando a few days ago.

Tilicum, a magnificent male Orca, killed his trainer. Other trainers have suffered similar fates with these cetaceans–a troubling curiosity since they have never been known to attack humans in the wild… and they have had the chance to do so.

Orcas are giant dolphins and, as such, have one of the most sophisticated brains in Kingdom Animalia.

That brain–and its owner– are indeed mind-boggling to scientists who continue to study them. But the same might also be true of other critters. Man, for a variety of reasons, often purposely avoids finding out that kind of stuff…it’s easier to accept what he often does to them.

What happens when you take an animal which relates to its environment largely via echolocation–bouncing sonar-like waves off of objects to locate and identify them (and which lives in close-knit, communal pods, often migrates hundreds, if not thousands, of miles at sea, where such bounced sonar waves dissipate, etc.)– and stick it into a confined, concrete aquarium where such waves come bouncing back into the cetacean brain is still up for grabs. Most scientists agree that it’s not a good thing…to say the least.

Unlike some land-based animals kept for display (not that their life quality is really “better”), the life span of cetaceans in such artificial bath tubs is greatly reduced from those living in the wild. Many dolphins are dead within just a couple of years in captivity as opposed to an average of thirty years in the open ocean.

The tiger that deliberately or otherwise gravely injured his popular entertainer/ trainer in a Las Vegas performance, the elephant which suddenly appears to go crazy in a circus, and so forth are all sending a similar message to the one that Tilicum did.

For years, I refused Sea World’s invitation for free admission to myself if I’d take my students there for a visit or such. It was a dilemma of sorts…

On the one hand, Sea World does educate the public, assist in saving wild animals in trouble, and so forth–good stuff, no doubt.

But the bottom line for me is that the use of such magnificent animals–cetaceans–to make money, while knowingly shortening their life span and imposing an artificial, harmful new set of conditions upon them–was/is a price too high to accept.

True, the tigers and elephants mentioned above are endangered in the wild–also only due to man. And so are wild dolphins–many also killed by human activities…fishing nets, pollution, and so forth. But this doesn’t mean that we should add insult to injury and pour salt on that wound by forcing animals to perform for human entertainment while endangering them even further–despite what the professed good intentions are.

Shifting gears, besides those who don’t give a hoot about the above, among others whom I also tick off are probably at least some of my Orthodox Jewish friends.

The Sabbath is supposed to be reserved for just G_dly things. Such stuff as writing is prohibited, in their view.

Working a full time job for decades, I often found that my best thoughts about “other stuff” came to me on weekends. Often I’d wake up at night with thoughts screaming to come out of my head…really.

Now, having to wait to write them down was indeed a risk…one which I have opted, right or wrong, not to take. My friends have often asked me if I ever slept when they noted the times of some of my e-communications.

This article you’re now reading is one such product…

However you describe this, I believe that G_d places those thoughts in my head–as G_d does with all other folks as well. That this often happens to me on a Friday after sundown or Saturday until dusk (Shabbat–the original Sabbath– introduced to the world by the Hebrew Bible) may be attributed to my mind finally being able to return to non-science-based thoughts…or to, perhaps, something Higher– if you get my drift. G_d inspires all of us.

So, of all of my sins, I’d like to believe that my writing about my G_d -given passions–whether for relative justice for all peoples in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, caring for Earth and the creatures G_d created, and so forth–will be the one I will be held least accountable for when I meet my Maker. Indeed, too many of those who would condemn such things as my Sabbath writing have displayed

by Gerald A. Honigman

…those racist Zionists…always stirring up trouble.

This time, they dared to name Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs as National Heritage Sites. Just Like they dare claim about Jerusalem and such. Ugh!

Imagine the gall…

Two sites that the world would know absolutely nothing about were it not for their Jewish connections–both over three thousand years old. Certainly not enough time for Jews to proclaim any rights to. I mean, think of the Alamo and America…And

yet, look what they just went ahead and did…

After all, we all know that those sites are really on “Palestinian” land on the “West Bank,” right?

Certainly the Obama Administration does…It just took Israel to task over such audacity. Like it also demands that no Jew live in Judea or Samaria (but it’s ok for 1/5 of Israel to be made of the freest Arabs anywhere in the world outside of the West) and stop building in parts of Jerusalem as well.

But–reply those Jew fascists–the land was not known as the “west bank” (as opposed to the “east bank” of the Jordan River, that part of the original 1920 Mandate of Palestine–about 80% of the total area–that British imperialism formed today’s Arab Jordan from) until the very last century and was known as Judea (as in land of the Jews) and Samaria for thousands of years before then. (Quick quiz:…Was Jesus born in Bethlehem of Judea or Bethlehem of the West Bank or Bethlehem of Palestine in the New Testament?)

Look, the time for politically correct should have been over long ago.

Bluntly, no Arab (with the exception of a few Christians, whose Lord was also Jewish carpenter) would have ever known of the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the Temple Mount (or, as Arabs call it, Buraq’s Mount–named after Muhammad’s winged horse, with the head of a woman, who supposedly just happened to fly him up to Heaven from the Jews’ historic Temple of Solomon), the significance of Jerusalem, Abraham, the Akedah, etc. and so forth if their “Seal of the Prophets,” Muhammad, did not flee his enemies in Mecca in the 7th century C.E. and take refuge in the date palm oasis town of Medina–established by Jews fleeing the Roman wars centuries earlier. Indeed, Jewish influence was so important in that region that Yemen, just to the south, had a series of Jewish kings practically right up to the rise of the Prophet of Islam.

After the hijrah–Muhammad’s flight to Medina–he soon found himself in the midst of a mixed Jewish and pagan Arab population (itself now influenced by the Jews). Before long, he himself was speaking about one G_d, supposedly has an encounter with the Angel Gabriel, speaks of Abraham, Moses, and so forth–all from the Holy Book of his Jewish hosts…and then orders his followers to face towards Jerusalem in prayer…as Jews do.

Wow…what a coincidence!

I mean, I’ll give that Hebrew Angel of G_d, Gabriel, credit, but perhaps–just maybe– Muhammad’s long sojourn and study with Jews, at the very least, also had something to do with his, and therefore also the Arabs’ who accepted his religio-political leadership–new beliefs?

A major Arab commentator, Jalaluddin, came right out about a thousand years ago and said Muhammad’s change of the qibla–direction of prayer–away from the Kaaba in Mecca towards Jerusalem was done only to win the support of the important Jewish tribes. While Jerusalem is never mentioned even once in the Qur’an, it is mentioned many hundreds of times in the Hebrew Bible (aka, “Old Testament”).

To say that such things as Jerusalem, Abraham, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and so forth are as important to Arabs and other Muslims as they are to Jews is to simply tell a lie. Or, perhaps, Jews should restake a claim to their holdings in Medina?

As soon as the Jews refused to accept Muhammad’s demand that they accept him as the ultimate human chief honcho, he massacred all the Jewish males and enslaved the women and children…and changed the qibla back towards Mecca again.
Jews don’t need President Obama or anyone else’s approval to declare the truth.

Israel is entitled to that territorial compromise promised by the final draft of UNSC Resolution 242 in the wake of the June 1967 War–whether in Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights, or wherever. And unlike places like American Samoa or President George Bush’s Texas ranch, Jews have thousands of years of history linking them to those lands–territory where Arabs continuously launched death and destruction from.

That President Obama and the State Department (which rejected Israel’s right to exist in the first place) expect Israel to simply cave in to all that the Arabs demand should be no shock to anyone with functioning neurons.

If Arabs can stake a claim to Jerusalem based upon the belief of a night journey by Muhammad from the Arabian Peninsula, on a winged horse, to the Temple of Solomon in the land of the Jews, then objections to Jews officially claiming the Tombs of the Matriarchs and Patriarchs as National Heritage Sites in Judea are utterly absurd and laughable. No Arab (with good intentions) will be kept out of those sites…

But, neither will any Jews.

Please see my new book at http://q4j-middle-east.com which Brigitte Gabriel and other major commentators have called “a must read.”

by Gerald A. Honigman

I love my “kid” brother, Dr. Joseph, for lots of reasons. Among those which truly stand out is the decision he made while still in high school to become a vegetarian.

Now, before some of you shake your heads and laugh, I have a question for you…

Have you ever visited a slaughter house to see what animals go through to satisfy your and my own eating habits?

I haven’t…but I’ve read enough to know it’s truly horrible.

As a fisherman, I do know what taking another life means…so (for that and other reasons) indulge very carefully and deliberately–yet my own practices are not as good as they should be either.

True, in nature, animals are often eaten alive while they’re still struggling. But we’re humans and we do have other choices.

Okay…this article is not about laying a guilt trip. What it is about is trying to find the best compromise. And that brings me to the real topic of today’s discussion, a contrast between how Jews and others who have not become vegetarians view the worth of G_d’s other creatures.

Over the years, I have often heard Gentiles ask questions about what “kosher” is all about. On a number of occasions, the subject has been a source of ignorant comedy as well–another way to poke fun at those “unbelieving” Jews.

To explain that the source of Kashrut goes back to the same source which gave the world such things as the Ten Commandments and such (i.e. the Hebrew Bible, aka “Old Testament”) might help a bit, but–for a number of reasons–usually not much.

While Kashrut–the rules for keeping kosher–involves a number of different issues, for the sake of this discussion, I will just focus on the Hebraic tradition of treating G_d’s creatures with compassion.

Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel here, please look at these excerpts from Aaron Gross’s Tikkun Magazine article, “When Kosher Isn’t Kosher,” in the Vol. 20, No. 2, March/April 2005 edition:

…Few contemporary rabbis have articulated the moral foundations of kashrut for so many of today’s current Jewish leaders as Rabbi Samuel Dresner. In his book Keeping Kosher, he reminds us that in the biblical vision, “permission to eat meat is understood as a compromise, a divine concession.” The Rabbinic tradition has taught that human beings were originally vegetarian in the garden of Eden on the basis of Genesis 1:29, “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food.” God’s original plan contained no slaughterhouses; animal slaughter was only reluctantly allowed after the flood (as in Noah…), and this slaughter had to be regulated.

As Dresner explains, “Jews are permitted to eat meat, but they must learn to have reverence for the life they take.” The laws of shechita (ritual slaughter) are the concrete manifestation of this required reverence. However, it also is now evident that kosher slaughter can be turned on its head, becoming among the cruelest methods of ending life. As Rabbi Barry Schwartz, who sits on the task force on kashrut for the Central Conference of American Rabbis, noted upon viewing PETA’s (People For The Ethical treatment of Animals) video, “If this is kosher, then we have a big problem.”

Fortunately, Rabbi Schwartz has been joined by many others, and, in a remarkable demonstration of spontaneous Jewish pluralism, these voices have come from across the Jewish spectrum. Rabbi Raphael Rank, the President of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, fired off a letter to all Conservative Rabbis shortly after the AgriProcessors’s story appeared, calling PETA’s investigation “a welcome, though unfortunate service to the Jewish community.” He argued that “[w]hen a company purporting to be kosher violates the prohibition against tza’ar ba’alei hayyim, causing pain to one of God’s living creatures, that company must answer to the Jewish community, and ultimately, to God…”

PETA (whose methods I sometimes have problems with) had gone under cover in a major kosher slaughter house and found some very disturbing practices there as well. Despite this, the latter still received higher marks than most non-kosher plants.

The point is–given the proclivity to imperfection all humans wind up displaying–Jews, for a very long time, knew what they needed to be striving for in these regards…and still do, even when they miss the mark.

Animals had to rest on the Sabbath as well as their masters. The idea of them being slaughtered just for sport–as in the arena–or trophy was forbidden. Jews cannot mix meat and dairy products because of the command not to seethe (boil, cook) a kid (young goat) in its own mother’s milk. It was bad enough that man was now eating meat–but cooking it in its own mother’s milk was beyond acceptance. The acidic process of digestion was perceived as a method of cooking, and so forth.

Okay, now let’s shift gears a bit.

A few days ago I read about a 16-year old matador who slew about a half dozen bulls in one day in the corrida. In Spain alone, tens of thousands of bulls are slaughtered this way each year.

Again, since I am against duplicating wheels, check out these paraphrases below from the CATCA (Campaign Against The Cruelty To Animals) site:

Before specially crossbred bulls get sent into the corrida to be slowly tormented and tortured with spears thrust into them by horsemen and such to weaken them even further prior the matador’s final execution, they are not released into the ring until…

–they are kept in the dark for days without food or water, given laxatives, hit with a large sack in the ribs and kidneys to weaken them;

–vaseline is placed on eyes to blur vision;

–cotton is stuck in the nose and throat to inhibit breathing;

–testicles are often stabbed with knitting needles;

–then, if the bull has then become too weak after all the preparation, turpentine is dropped on the testicles so it appears furious when it enters the ring (due to the burning sensation); it has been reported that the door which opens is deliberately dropped on the bull’s head as well in these regards.

Now, keep in mind that this does not even take into account what the horses go through as they often get gored and disemboweledduring this human “sport.”

Note that all of the above takes place in countries whose own religion often likes to lecture others about its superiority–frequently calling everyone else non-believers (and worse). Additionally, such “sports” as cock and dog-fighting are popular in such “superior” nations as well.

Yep…I recall even some “friends” of mine (let alone others) over the decades joking about kosher food and such…simply another way to ridicule those “G_d-killers.”

Just think about that a bit…

by Gerald A. Honigman

Back in 2005, I wrote an earlier version of this current analysis.

Over the years, the Syrian front in the Arab-Israeli conflict has wound up–due mostly to deadly Syrian shenanigans–being placed on the back burner, as far as American State Department priorities in the region were concerned.

Not that the Foggy Folks didn’t have “good intentions”–as far as the Syrians were concerned–but the latter were just too darn honest to even provide the facade of cooperation which, for public relations and the American Congress, would have been convenient to have before the squeeze was placed on the Jews once again.

Syria has never recognized the independence of Lebanon, and considers it along with at least Jordan (eastern “Palestine”), Israel, and itself to simply be part of Greater Syria. The break-up of the Ottoman Turkish Empire (which controlled much of the region for about five centuries) after World War I reinvigorated such schemes as well. Manipulations, assassinations, and so forth in Lebanon are linked to this, as is the 1970 partial invasion of Jordan to support the PLO’s attempted overthrow of the Hashemites there, support of one proxy group after another vis-a-vis Israel, etc. and so forth. Only Israel’s mobilization in the north in Black September prevented further Syrian action, very likely saving King Hussein’s derriere in the process.

In subsequent years, even though Israel was assured after the June ‘67 War via UNSC Resolution 242 that it would not have to return to the suicidal armistice lines imposed upon it in 1949 which made it a mere 9-15 miles wide in its strategic waist, but would receive secure, defensible real borders instead, over time such assurances were soon forgotten. My article, Resolution To Kill The Resolution, details this unfortunate turn of events.

With the appointing of James Baker III as Secretary of State during best pal, President George H.W. Bush’s presidency, Syria was assured that it would get the same deal Egypt got from Israel…a total withdrawal from lands Arabs repeatedly used to launch invasion, death, and destruction from–this time, the Golan Heights.

Only Syria’s unceasing machinations in Lebanon, support of the oppostion against America in Iraq, alliance with Iran, and so forth eased the pressure from Foggy Bottom on the Jews to hand themselves over as a sacrificial lamb.

Nowadays, things have now taken an even more serious turn for the worse.

Washington and the Foggy Folks have frequently shifted back and forth between the Syrian and Palestinian Arab tracks as events dictated. President Obama is on record supporting a total Israel withdrawal to the ‘49 armistice lines and agreeing to being inundated by millions of alleged Arab refugees. Those are key elements of the alleged Saudi (of the grave) Peace Plan that Mr. President has repeatedly said Israel would be crazy not to accept.

Subsequently, Israel’s “peace” partners among the Palestian Authority have refused to budge on any territorial or other compromise and have insisted that Israel simply cave in to all of their own demands. And they have been supported in this by the current American administration and, of course, the Foggy Folks (who fought President Truman over the rebirth of Israel in the first place).

Since Israel recently elected leaders who have so far resisted American demands for it to take steps towards suicide, negotiations between Israel and the good cops of the latter-day Arafatians of Mahmoud Abbas are at a standstill. The bad cops of Hamas are simply biding their time…

So, it’s now Syria’s turn again.

Arieh O’Sullivan reported in The Media Line on February 5th that the American ambassador–withdrawn after the Syrian’s involvement in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri back in 2005, is now set to return to Damascus, and at no cost to the latter.

Given the fact that the current American Administration is already on record calling Israel crazy to refuse such a “deal” which promises Arab good behavior in return for it giving away all of the concrete, essential tangibles necessary for defense and mere survival, James Baker’s old promise to the Butcher of Damascus will undoubtedly now be offered to his son.

To understand all of this in greater detail, some more history is in order. So please bear with me…

I just couldn’t get the image out of my head.

There she was, I guess about seven or eight years ago now, Ashleigh Banfield–MSNBC’s rising star–standing before a statue of the great Muslim warrior, Salah al Din, in Syria, glorifying the Arab claim that they were his modern descendants in the fight against Jews and other allegedly new crusaders in the region.

Arab tyrants love to make such claims. Syria’s twin butchers to the east are famous for this as well. The late Saddam, thanks to America, now of spider hole fame, loved to present himself as Saladdin reincarnate.

And poor Salah al Din is rolling in his grave.

A Kurd from northern Iraq (where Arabs later gassed and massacred Kurds by the tens of thousands), he indeed led the fight for the Dar ul-Islam against the crusaders in the Holy Land.

But those were the relatively early centuries after the Arabs burst out of the Arabian Peninsula, spreading their Caliphal imperial conquests in all directions. And despite the Abbasid Revolution (largely supported by the Mawali) which toppled the Damascus-based Arabist

Umayyads over such issues, non-Arab converts to Islam still sought to win equality in Arab eyes (and escape special taxes) by toeing, especially well, the Islamic line.

Listening to the Muslim but non-Arab Iranian President’s remarks about Israel’s destruction, some things change…and some things never change. One of the best ways for non-Arab Muslims to pass the ultimate litmus test is to out Arab the Arabs in Jew hatred.

Some of the worst hate-mongers on campus that I have encountered were from Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and so forth. That was the ticket to stand tall alongside Arabs in the Muslim Student Organization, etc.

So, while Iranians have suppressed and slaughtered Muslim Arabs in oil-rich Khuzistan (”Arabistan”), Muslim Kurds, Muslim Baluchis, Muslim Azeris, and others as well in the name of their own national interests, their religious credentials remain impeccable (without getting into the Shi’a-Sunni dispute). Supporting Hizbullah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad in the struggle to exterminate the Jew of the Nations (whose population includes tens of thousands of Iranian Jews who fled for their lives), insures this as well.

Back to Salah al Din…

In 1968, the Kurdish nationalist, Ismet Cherif Vanly, wrote The Syrian ‘Mein Kampf’ Against The Kurds (Amsterdam). So I couldn’t help feeling sickened by seeing Banfield endorsing the Arab line while standing in front of a mounted statue of that great warrior. If he only knew what the Arabs would be doing to his own people centuries later…long after their conversion to Islam, and still going on as I write this article: Kurdish children being forced to sing songs praising their Arab identity in schools; Kurds slaughtered for nothing more than seeking to be able to retain their own cultural identity and speak their own language while obtaining some semblance of equality; and so forth.

And a bit more perspective is in order as well.

One needs to keep all of this in mind when the murderous, despotic junk heap broadcasting from Syria leads the pack in attacking those allegedly “racist Zionists” who have made Arabic the second official language of their state, have Arabs who side with Hamas as representatives in the Knesset and leading demonstrations at Hebrew University, and have, as citizens, the freest Arabs living anywhere in the Middle East. And this despite the fact that many of the latter do indeed compose a potentially dangerous fifth column.

But, I’m drifting a bit…so let’s return to the implications of the pending return of the American ambassador to Damascus.

Despite Syria’s deadly hegemonic attitudes and actions towards what it sees as its Lebanese “provinces;” despite its appalling treatment of Kurds, native Jews, and others as well; despite its support for terrorists undermining Iraq’s attempt at democracy; despite the great likelihood that many of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction found a home in Syria; despite Damascus’ support of major terrorist organizations whose aim is the destruction of the Jew of the Nations and giving safe haven to those organizations within its own borders; despite its record as mass slaughterer of any and all who dissent, author of the infamous “Hama Solution;” etc., etc., etc….America is now poised to squeeze the Jews again–not Syrian Arabs.

Had Syria not opposed America in Iraq and blatantly assassinated independent-minded Lebanese, the Foggy Folks would have indeed be pressing forward with former Secretary of State James Baker’s pledge to Assad the First of a total Israeli retreat from the Golan Heights. President George W. Bush made Baker (whose law firm represents the Saudis against American victims of 9/11), his Special Middle East Envoy. Since I’ve written much about Baker’s Jew problem elsewhere, I’ll drop it for now.

Recall that the Heights were part of the original 1920 Mandate of Palestine until Britain and France did some imperial trading, and that the territory changed hands often throughout the centuries. It was not exclusively Arab, and Jews too had a long history there.

Recall as well how Syria used the Heights to rain terror on Israelis below prior to the 1967 War–which it also largely instigated.

And, lastly, also remember that Israel offered to return all of the territories right after that war in return for peace treaties and was offered the infamous “3 Nos of Khartoum” in response. It got attacked on Yom Kippur from those Heights again in 1973–Arab tanks rolling towards Israel proper. The Jew of the Nations came close to being destroyed that year. Since then, Syria has once again built up its own massive arsenal of missiles, aircraft, tanks, chemical weapons, and such, and is best buddies with a soon-to-be nuclear Iran which has pledged to eradicate Israel.

In earlier years, Israel’s current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already offered an almost complete return of the Heights in exchange for peace. The exception covered a tiny stretch of land protecting Israel’s water sources. But that was, of course, too much to ask of Arabs who–after all–are so understanding of their own national competitors’ needs. I’m sure, for example, that if the situation was reversed, and it was Israel who repeatedly attacked Syria and lost territory as a result of its aggression, that Syria would make a similar offer to the Jews.

Sure… And would you like to buy a bridge I’m selling?

Right now Israel controls the passes Syrian tanks would use to roll down hill to kill Jews.

Right now Israeli artillery can send Baby Assad and friends a calling card right from the Heights. Right now Syrian artillery and gunners can’t do this anymore to Jews. Right now Israelis are assured that an enemy sworn to its death will not be in control of its water supply.

And, also right now, America must finally rid itself of the Arabist State Department practice of constantly twisting the arm of its beleaguered friend to make suicidal concessions to such deadly and obnoxious adversaries, all of whom refuse to recognize the rights of anyone but themselves in the region. Like the Arabs, the Foggy Folks joined in the rejection of the very right of Israel to even exist in 1948…for a number of reasons, blatant anti-Semitism included.

Despite the Obama Administration’s openly admitted preferences on this subject, as with the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria (aka, the West Bank–only as a result of British 20th century imperialism), a territorial compromise–which meets the needs of both parties to the conflict–must be reached on the Golan as well.

Think of all the territories that have exchanged hands because of wars. America holds many territories itself because of this…not to mention others as well.

The national security requirements of the tiny sliver that is Israel on a world map need to be taken no less seriously…especially since, unlike the super power, three thousand mile-wide America (largely protected by vast oceans and with fairly reasonable neighbors) and others whose demands often extend hundreds–if not thousands–of miles away from home, those of the Jew of the Nations involve what’s going on right on its very own doorstep and in its virtual backyard.

Syrian Arabs have watched closely as Israel’s alleged moderate peace partners in the Palestinian (Arab) Authority took the new American President’s cue, dug their heals in, and openly proclaimed that Israel must do all the giving while they do all the taking in negotiations.

Damascus has excellent reasons to assume equal treatment in these regards.

Israel must offer its hand in peace, but must not cave in to another yet another version of Chamberlain’s “peace for our time”–whether on the West Bank, the Golan, or elsewhere.

Dr. Sherkoh Abbas, of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria, has written part of the Foreword to my new book, The Quest For Justice In The Middle East…The Arab-Israeli Conflict In Greater Perspective ( http://q4j-middle-east.com ) Not that it would do any good given the realities at work here, but perhaps it should also be required reading in Washington among the various powers that

The Movie Mel Should Have Made…

by Gerald A. Honigman

Mel Gibson has a new movie out, “Edge of Darkness.”

I like Mel Gibson as an actor and director.

I have enjoyed much of his work, and one movie, in particular, was truly amazing.

“They may take our lives, but they may never take our freedom!” Thus, allegedly, spoke William Wallace, a.k.a. Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. No doubt, the movie was hauntingly spectacular and led me to admire the Scots even more than I did already. Questions regarding the historicity of the movie, nonetheless, caused quite a commotion. Ronald Hamowy of the Department of History at the University of Alberta summed it up this way in his June 28, 1995 comments:

Frankly, this movie has about as much merit historically…as one of the countless dubbed Italian films about Hercules battling the tyrants…

Regardless, William Wallace was a true 13th century Scottish hero, and Mr. Gibson’s passion for the freedom of this people and sympathy for their cause shined through. And, as we read the above words of Braveheart, we’ll soon turn to another quote–but, this one by a leader of another oppressed people (one which Gibson obviously hates) fighting, over a thousand years earlier, yet another conqueror of much of the known world.

The Roman-sponsored historian, Josephus, detested his fellow Judaean countrymen who took up arms against the Roman Empire. He saw them as fighting a war that could not be won, leading their nation to ruin. He aligned himself with the future Emperor instead. So he wrote what he wrote not out of admiration. Keep this in mind as we progress here…

Indeed, the situation Josephus feared was the same as if Lithuania had taken on the Soviet Union in the latter’s heyday of power.

Yet, the Judaeans (Jews) did just that–and kept the struggle going on for about two hundred years. Judaea Capta coins can now be found in museums all over the world and were issued by Rome to commemorate its victory. The Arch of Titus stands tall in Rome to this very day as well and, among other things, displays Romans carrying away spoils of the Temple and Judaean captives.

So, the historicity of the Jews’ struggle is beyond reasonable doubt and is highlighted by the Romans themselves.

We’ll examine some of the speech of Eleazar ben Yair, leader of the last major band of Judaean warriors to hold out after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C..E., gave to his band of fighters and their families atop the fortress of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea just prior to the final Roman assault. Let’s turn first, however, to another brief but telling quote from the contemporary Roman historian, Tacitus, who, like Josephus, also lived during the time of the Jews’ struggle and had lots to say about it as well:

It inflamed Vespasian’s resentment that the Jews were the only nation that had not yet submitted (Vol.II, The Works Of Tacitus).

After Masada fell in 73 C.E., when the Emperor Hadrian decided to turn the Temple Mount into a pagan shrine, it was the grandchildrens’ turn to take on their mighty pagan conquerors. And, again, Roman historians, such as Dio Cassius, recorded the second revolt (132-135 C.E.) as well.

Among other things, the entire Twelfth Roman Legion was wiped out before the leader of this second major quest for freedom by the Jews, Shimon Bar Kochba, fell at Betar. Detailed letters from him to his troops have been discovered as were the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. One of the latter is the War Scroll which speaks of the conflict between…”the Sons of Light vs. the Sons of Darkness,” and so forth.

Let’s listen now to Josephus, Book VII, Wars Of The Jews:

“Now as he (Eleazar) judged this to be the best thing they could do in their present circumstances, he gathered the most courageous…and encouraged them ….by a speech: ‘Since we, long ago…resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than G_d himself…the time is come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice…’”

Gibson should now listen very carefully. Here’s Eleazar ben Yair…

“We were the very first that revolted from them, and we are the last that fight against them (see Tacitus’ quote above); and I cannot but esteem it as a favour that G_d hath granted us that it is still in our power to die bravely, in a state of freedom…”

Masada’s defenders committed mass suicide—families and all—rather than fall into Roman hands.

While a few scholars debate the details, practically everything else that has been excavated, discovered otherwise, and so forth testify to Josephus’ trustworthiness–so there is no reason to doubt him here.

Masada is an amazing place to visit. The Roman camps, ramp, etc. are all still all there just as Josephus described them 2,000 years ago. And remember, Josephus was no fan of those Jews atop the fortress.

So, let’s just say that if Mel’s Braveheart’s alleged quote about freedom can be taken as history,then there’s certainly no problem with Eleazar’s. Indeed, William Wallace has nothing over Eleazar ben Yair…or, Braveheart II, the movie Mel should have made. Indeed, he may have–if not for that “Jew thing” he has such a problem with.

So here’s the real reason for this update of my much earlier article…

Mel Gibson used his millions several years back to produce a film, “The Passion of Christ,” which deals with a topic which has caused millennia of suffering for Jews. Among other sore points, Gibson included the verse from Matthew 27:25, “His blood be upon us and our children,” whereby the Jews allegedly take blame for the death of Jesus. It has been used to justify Jewish suffering in the minds of many millions of Christians over the millennia.

The Pope, Reverend Billy Graham, and thousands of other Christian religious figures applauded the movie and saw no problems with it. “It is as it was” stated Pope John Paul II…

From a Christian theological perspective, those words are acceptable. But theology isn’t necessarily history, and there is now sound historical scholarship–with no theological agenda to promote either way–which puts much of what “it is as it was” in serious doubt. And much of it has been conducted by objective Christian scholars.

While I have admittedly not seen “The Passion of Christ” (I refuse to endorse or support the work of an anti-Semite), I have closely analyzed its topic through a scholar’s eyes while doing doctoral studies and later on as well. I have also watched the trailers to the movie and other clips which have shown me all that I need to see.

Let’s just say that what Mel claims to know as “historical truth” is, at the very least, debatable.

Jews, obviously, have theological differences with their Christian friends. Hopefully these differences can be discussed without fear of inquisitions, public disputations, forced conversions, and often much worse which accompanied those differences in the past.

Given those other “truths” which came out of a drunken Gibson’s mouth not long ago regarding Jews, however, I can easily see him participating in those above activities.

Jews could never deify any man, Messiah or otherwise. Roman historians wrote of this strange people who “worship a god no man can see and who refuse to even deify their caesars.” But this is a whole other debate.

The issue of the Jews’ alleged role as “G_d-killer,” which Gibson felt just had to be resurrected yet again in his film, has caused so much pain, suffering, and death to Jews over the centuries, that it’s hard to believe that this man, so sensitive to the plight of Scots, felt that there was nothing better to spend his wealth on. More theologically-based anti-Semitism was not needed out of Tinseltown.

While there are sophisticated ways of interpreting the New Testament’s Gospel of John, for example, when the average person reads him allegedly quoting Jesus calling the Jews (not just Pharisees, etc.) “sons of the Devil, doing your father’s deeds,” what impact can this sort of teaching have? Gibson evidently loves and endorses it. Indeed, he showed the devil incarnate weaving in and out of “his children” as they cried out for Jesus’s blood in his movie.

Is it also a surprise, therefore, that one of the first pictures in Europe of a Jew is entitled, “Aaron, Son of the Devil?”

Even the Renaissance sculptor, Michelangelo, put Devil’s horns on Moses’ head… regardless of the whitewashing some have tried to do with that as well, calling them “rays of light” instead. I’m sure that that’s what the average Gentile thought/thinks of when viewing that piece of artwork. And I’m also sure that Gibson will invite me to his Passover seder.

Is it, thus, really any stretch to next learn of untold thousands of Jews being massacred for “poisoning Christian wells” and causing the Bubonic Plague…and countless other tragedies committed in the name of the Christian “Prince of Peace” encountered as a result of such religious enlightenment?

The road to Auschwitz was indeed very carefully paved over the millennia.

After the famous “Passion Plays” throughout Europe, it was common for Christians to get drunk and next go after the local “G-d Killers.” Deadly massacres and pogroms were especially common around Easter time. Was/is that what Mel missed/misses?

While he claims to not share the anti-Semitism of his father, after that drunken episode with the policeman in which the most obnoxious of anti-Semitism spewed forth from his vocal cords, please forgive me if I call him a liar. One could argue that Jews have too long been the Suffering Servant of G_d ( there’s more than one way to interpret Biblical passages) to remain silent over this filmed passion play.

Think of the zeal Gibson showed for the struggle of an oppressed people in Braveheart. Now contrast this with his willing ignorance (and much worse) regarding this subject vis-a-vis the Jews–a struggle in which Jesus (Joshua) of Nazareth, regardless of how one views him, was caught up in and was crucified for–like thousands of Judaeans both before and after him–in his people’s fight for freedom against their Roman tormentors.

Yes, Gibson is a fine actor and a talented man. And any Jews who support him and his newest movie deserve whatever he wishes for them.

The headline of Avi Yellin’s article in January 22, 2010’s Israel National News/Arutz Sheva read , “Mitchell Pitches a New 5-Point Plan for Middle East Negotiations.”

The story reported that, according to Arab sources linked to alleged “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas’s latter-day Arafatians of Fatah and quoted by the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat, President Obama’s Special Middle East Envoy, George Mitchell is unveiling a five-point plan to force parties back to the negotiating table and press Israel to retreat back to the ‘49 armistice line–not border– which existed between Israel and Jordan until Israel was attacked by the latter in 1967.

Recall that President Obama had previously endorsed the earlier Saudi “Peace” (of the grave) Plan prior to his election and afterwards as well. He repeatedly stated that Israel would be crazy to reject such “peace.”

In a nutshell, that plan calls for Israel to retreat to its ‘49 armistice lines on all fronts (think the Golan Heights, from which Syria bombarded Israeli civilians for decades, as well as Judea and Samaria–aka, only as of the 20th century, the “West Bank), making it 9-15 miles wide in its strategic waist, where most of its population and industry are located, again. Additionally, it must next accept millions of allegedly “returning” jihadi Arab refugees raised on murderous Jew-hatred for decades. Recall that more Jews fled from “Arab” lands than vice-versa after a half dozen Arab states attacked a resurrected, microscopic Israel in 1948. In return, Israel supposedly will get a vague “normalization”–after giving up all the concrete tangibles minimally required just to be able to exist if the Arabs renege for whatever reason they will surely find.

While I didn’t see mention of the returning refugees in the short, new article mentioned above, recall that this stipulation was at first played down years ago as well. Nonetheless, it remains an integral part of that plan to this very day–one which Abbas insists he will never retreat from.

The reality, of course, is that this allegedly “new” Obama initiative is nothing more than the same old Saudi version of the Arabs’ well-known, openly admitted destruction-in-stages “Trojan Horse” schemes as described in direct quotes from earlier Arab “moderates” themselves.

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane to see how we got to where we are today…

At a State Department briefing on January 9, 1992, spokesperson Margaret Tutwiler was asked about accepting the word “Palestinian” when referring to the territories of the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. She replied that the U.S. had accepted this usage since 1979, but that it was for “descriptive” purposes only…Typical Foggy Folk gobbledygook.

When later asked, “if it’s a long-standing policy, why wasn’t the word ‘Palestinian’ used in Security Council Resolution 338…or in 242 which underpins the current peace process?,” Tutwiler replied,” I do not know… I’ll be happy to ask somebody for you.”

Some five years later, in a May 21, 1997 briefing, spokesman Nicholas Burns focused on the “settlements” issue…a harbinger of things to come.

Is it not “interesting” that in numerous State Department briefings over the decades–and in all the discussions and elaborations which have ensued to this very day with the Obama/Clinton foreign policy team running the American show–the ties never seem to be made between those settlements and the spirit and intent of UNSC Resolution 242, the basis for peace making between Arab and Jew in the region?

Perhaps a coincidence…most probably, not.

It seems to have taken Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to remind his State Department counterparts in an August 6, 2002 speech, “If you have a country that is a sliver and you can see three sides of it from a high hotel building, you’ve got to be careful what you give away and to whom you give it to.”

Much has been written about 242. Some claim it’s ambiguous…It’s not.

Adopted in the wake of the June 1967 War, started when Arabs blockaded Israel at the Straits of Tiran–a casus belli–and other well-documented hostile acts, 242 is as famous for what it did not say as for what it did.

As anyone who has studied this subject knows, among other things (and besides the references above), there was no mention of a total withdrawal by Israel to the 1949, U.N.-imposed armistice lines…lines which were never meant to be final political borders. This was reinforced by a call for the creation of “secure and recognized”, defensible borders to replace those lines…lines which turned Israel into a 9-15 mile wide sub- rump state–forever at its neighbors’ mercy, an easy target for terror, invasion, and prone to be sliced in half.

A reading of Lord Caradon, Eugene Rostow, Arthur Goldberg, and other architects of the final, accepted draft of 242 (not the French and Russian version) clearly shows that Israel was not expected to return to the deadly, absurd status quo ante.

As Ambassador Dore Gold and others have pointed out, President Lyndon Johnson summarized the situation this way on June 19, 1967:

” A return to the situation on June 4 (the day before outbreak of war) was not a prescription for peace but for renewed hostilities.”

Johnson then called for “new recognized boundaries that would provide security against terror, destruction, and war. He was then backed up by General Earle Wheeler of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and many others as well.

Recall that on the West Bank, Israel took these lands in a defensive war from an illegal occupant–Transjordan–which subsequently renamed itself Jordan as a result of its 1949 illegal acquisition of non-apportioned lands of the original 1920 Mandate west of the Jordan River that Jews, as well as Arabs and others, were legally entitled to live on.

Indeed, Jews have thousands of years of history connecting them to these lands and owned property and lived there up until their massacres by Arabs in the 1920s and 1930s. Additionally, many, if not most, of the Arabs themselves were also relative newcomers, pouring in–as the Minutes of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, Colonial Secretary and later Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s writings, and other documentation show–from Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere in the region.

General Wheeler’s document also envisioned Israel acquiring an adequate buffer zone atop the West Bank mountain ridge, in command of the high ground, giving it at least some semblance of in depth defense.

During President Richard Nixon’s term in office, official U.S. policy seemed to erode somewhat vis-a-vis Johnson’s position. Whether this was due to Nixon himself or the State Department’s Arabists (who fought President Truman and opposed Israel’s rebirth in the first place) reasserting themselves, on December 9, 1969 Secretary of State William Rogers allowed for only “insubstantial alterations” regarding the 1949 armistice lines. This is echoed by the Obama White House and the Foggy Folks today.

After having to answer to the late Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson and others as well, soon afterwards–until recently–the U.S. refrained from such deviation from both the wording and intent of 242.

Moving ahead, and once again utilizing Ambassador Gold’s useful summary, here’s what President Ronald Reagan had to say about all of this on September 1, 1982:

“In the pre-1967 borders, Israel was barely 10-miles wide…the bulk of Israel’s population within artillery range of hostile armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again.”

In 1988, Secretary of State George Shultz declared, “Israel will never negotiate from or return to the 1967 borders.” A rare exception to the State Department’s typical attitude, Shultz fought his own crew to give Israel a fair shake.

In the 1990s, during the Clinton years (despite the later pressure brought to bear on Prime Minister Ehud Barak to sweetin’ the pot by offering Arafat far more than 242 called for at Camp David and Taba in 2000), official policy, as expressed by Secretary of State Warren Christopher in 1997, was that, “Israel is entitled to secure and defensible borders,” a la 242. Yet Clinton undermined Israel from this point forward. While Arafat rejected the offers, the latter became the expected starting point for any future “negotiations”… i.e., Jew arm-twisting.

So, what happened between the days of Reagan and his latter day successors and son of his vice-president?

From Reagan’s 1982 statement that Israel would never be expected to return to its former vulnerable existence, we later came to President George W. Bush’s May 26, 2005 White House statement that the 1949 armistice lines must be the basis of peace between Israel and the 22nd Arab state–second Arab one in “Palestine”– which Bush and his new successor plan to create. Yet, just a year before, he echoed Reagan himself, stating virtually the opposite of his May 26th statement in a much publicized letter he gave to Prime Minister Sharon.

As Rogers and Hammerstein’s King of Siam said, “Tis a puzzlement!”

Indeed.

Yet, there was one constant ingredient that seemed to have constantly been at work for the erosion of support for both the vision and the spirit of 242: James A. Baker, III.

During Bush II’s dad’s days in office, best pal Secretary of State Baker promised the butcher of Damascus, Hafez al-Assad, a total Israeli withdrawal from the strategically important (and once part of the original Palestine Mandate) Golan Heights…his personal idea about what to do with 242.

Baker has been in the background for decades, especially since his close friends, the Bushes, gained ascendancy in American politics. His law firm represents Saudi and other Arab interests in this country and typifies how people move through the revolving doors of businesses tied to Arab interests back and forth into government positions–especially those in Foggy Bottom. Baker’s law partner, Robert Jordan, was appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia by President Bush in 2001. Casper Weinberger and many others have been through these lucrative doors as well. Most often, their influence has spelled trouble for an Israel trying to get a fair hearing and has been involved in eroding such positive developments as Resolution 242 and so forth.

In a Time magazine article back on February 13, 1989, Baker spoke of Israel as being a turkey to be hunted and carefully stalked. He has referred to Jews working for him and doing his bidding (including the recent American Ambassador to Israel) as his “Jew boys.”

But Baker is best known for his following piece of wisdom: ” F _ _ _ the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway!”

And if you believe that Baker is alone among the power brokers with these attitudes, I have two bridges to sell you.

The team running President Obama’s current foreign policy is a Democratic clone of the above when it comes to such issues. Obama’s admiration, friendship, key appointments, and so forth of the likes of Farrakhan, Rezko, Prof. Khalidi, Rev. Wright, Jessie Hymietown Jackson, Zbig Brezinski, Apartheid Israel Carter, Robert Malley, George Soros, General McPeak, Khalid al-Mansour, etc. and so forth have to be beyond the coincidental.

That, indeed, says it all regarding what Israel can expect from such circles. If you wonder why the vision of justice in 242 has been replaced by a constant bickering over settlements instead–never tying the two together–look no further.

President Bush’s winning a second term in office and his appointment of Baker as his Special Middle East Envoy combined with the recharged influence of the State Department’s old and new generation Arabists and the Bush family’s massive oil connections to negate any alleged influence of Evangelical Christians seeking justice for Israel. And since Bush II couldn’t run again, he had nothing to lose.

Things took a turn for the worse with the election of President Obama.

Under his watch, and with Hillary Clinton as his appointed Secretary of State, the assurances regarding key issues such as the return of refugees and no withdrawal to the ‘49 armistice lines that George W. Bush gave to Prime Minister Sharon several years back ( in that famous letter which accompanied the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza) have now either been denied as even existing or considered as a joke.

Only time will tell how this will all play out.

But, at this point, Israel will have to depend on the integrity, courage, and fortitude of its own leaders, expecting them to act as the leaders of any other nation faced with the same circumstances would act.

Only they can insist that Israel gets the justice Resolution 242 promised it.

And, while it would be nice to have support from elsewhere, that’s the way it should be anyway. Let’s hope Prime Minister Netanyahu is up to the task.

http://q4j-middle-east.com

by Gerald A. Honigman

An Iranian professor who teaches at a local major university and I have become good friends. I had earlier been invited to speak at his institution, where numerous students from the Middle East attend classes.

We have been discussing the recent events going on in his native land–events which especially pose a very harsh dilemma for Israel. Indeed, things happening in Iran right now make Israel’s choices only that much more difficult…

While the courage of millions of Iranians (with tens of thousands taking to the streets despite brutal repression) may eventually lead to the collapse of the current regime, the latter still has enough support with the folks with the weapons–who have a stake in the Islamic Republic–to also make that possibility very “iffy” as well. So, if Israel waits it out–hoping for an internal solution–who knows when or if that might even occur?

Meantime, Iran is getting closer than ever to becoming a nuclear power–with Israel as its primary target–and openly stated as such. When folks repeatedly and openly speak in terms of another final solution, Jews (many, at least) take them very seriously.

What especially complicates matters is that if Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs think they’re going to collapse via an internal revolt and they have become a nuclear power–or even if they “just” have numerous biologically and chemically-tipped missiles (which they surely have…those other weapons of mass destruction that Iraqi Arabs already used on Kurds and probably also on Iranians during their war primarily over Iran’s Khuzestan/”Arabistan” province’s oil in the ’80s)–they will very likely launch their strike against Israel before they collapse to help bring about their deeply rooted Shi’a belief that the chaos that will next ensue will, at long last ( after the massive Israeli retaliation, and so forth), bring their Hidden Imam–the Mahdi–out of hiding, ushering in their own version of the Christian Armeggedon (from the Hebrew, Har Megiddo) and the return of their own Shi’a Messiah.

Now, Iran is a big country with about 73 million people. Geographically, about seventy-five Israels would fit into Iran, and the former’s population is about one tenth of the latter’s.

The Mullahs have already shown they are willing to sacrifice millions of their own people for their cause–as displayed when young boys were used as living mine detectors and such in fighting Saddam’s then Sunni Arab-controlled Iraq.

Waiting, thus, is far more dangerous for Israel than many other folks realize or give a hoot about. Some –myself, for example–could make a good argument showing that Israel has already grossly endangered itself by caving in to outside pressure to not striking earlier while the targeting would have been easier, etc., and so forth.

While no one wants to see innocents on either side die as a result of the Mullahs’ deadly, genocidal games, Israel can’t afford to take a first hit for both geographic and demographic reasons described above.

Iran will survive a retaliation by the Jewish State–especially because the latter (unlike all of its Arab and Iranian enemies) will try its very best to zero in on military and political targets.

On the other hand, Iran will try its very best to destroy the entire Jewish State and will primarily and deliberately target Jewish population centers…as their Arab soul mates–when it comes to this subject, at least–do.

Alright, my friends. Each of you is now the Prime Minister of Israel. Recall that in 1938, Czechoslovakia was sold out in Munich by its “friends” for an alleged “peace for our time.” The world was soon at war anyway, because Hitler had his sights set far beyond the Czechs’ Sudetenland.

Given all of this, Mr. Prime Minister, now decide on your course of action for your own sole, resurrected nation–one which requires a magnifying glass to find it on a world globe.

www.http://q4j-middle-east.com

by Gerald A. Honigman

Ex-President Jimmy Carter has recently asked Jews for forgiveness.

Among his other sources of conflict with members of the Tribe are his persistently, one-sided takes on Arab-Israeli issues culminating in his book equating Israel with the former apartheid regime of South Africa.

Carter claims that the fact that his grandson is now running for office in their home state of Georgia has nothing to do with his apology. He states that Jews only make up 2% of the county where his grandson lives–about the same percent that Jews make up in the nation at large–and so uses this as further evidence of the integrity of his intentions.

Hogwash!

Now, before I go any further, let me say that I voted for Carter in the ’70s.

I liked his approach to environmental concerns. I believed that, given the way man has trashed this planet, any further mistakes–if they had to be made–needed to be on the side of caution and sane conservation.

For a number of reasons–especially after the Iran fiasco–I soon came to regret my decision.

I’ll never forget watching the Democrat National Convention on television a while back, and watching Carter chasing after that other hero of the Arabs, general anti-Semites, and the ultra left.

Yes, there was Mr. “Apartheid Israel” kissing the derriere of his Hollywood producer comrade, Michael “Israel is one of the three top evils in the world” Moore.

Birds of a feather, peas of the same pod, and so forth.

Like other Gentile politicos, the Democrat, Carter, has received millions of dollars from Arabs for his help in demonizing Israel and Jews. Ex-Secretary of State James f_ _ _ the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway Baker III, a Republican, is his worthy counterpart. Both have plenty of company.

Well, I have a way Jimmy can put this all to rest…sort of.

Since he is a man of the world whose books do indeed reach millions and influence world opinion, I have a new assignment for him–one which he should not have had me have to assign to him.

After all, for decades now, if Israel took one too many breaths, he was there to investigate, criticize, and dissect it under the high power lens of moral scrutiny. Most often, his critiques were given little or no context whatsoever. Jewish victims were constantly blamed themselves when issues such as blown buses, checkpoints, the security barrier, and such were discussed. Constantly, Arabs were given a virtual free pass in Carter’s assessments.

While constantly indulging in such hypocrisy, Carter acted deaf, dumb, and blind regarding what was happening in the region surrounding the nation of the Jews–his perpetually favorite target.

So, since he couldn’t figure out that he needed to do this himself, here’s his assignment. If he completes it, his words of apology to Jews might gain some credibility.

Jimmy, your first task is to travel to re-visit your friend, Bashar al-Assad, the butcher of Damascus and author of the “Hama Solution’s” son, in Syria.

I’m sure that the last time you guys met, the word “Kurd” never left your lips…while you were discussing mutual disgust regarding the nation of the Jews.

So, since you worry so much about Arab rights and conditions–which are harmed precisely because they want that tiny, sole nation of the Jews dead–you must now, at long last, demand that “Arab” Syria stop murdering and subjugating its millions of Kurds. The latter are not even allowed to speak their own language, have been forcibly Arabized for decades–yet I don’t recall a peep about their plight ever being uttered from your lips. Only America’s toppling of Saddam changed things for the better for “Arab” Iraq’s millions of Kurds. Again, not a peep out of you about them, nor concern over their brethren in the Turkish and Iranian portions of Kurdistan either…some thirty five million perpetually used and abused stateless people. Why hasn’t their plight caught your attention?

The second part of your assignment will take you to “Arab” North Africa.

Since you are allegedly so concerned about human rights, you will finally have to break your troubling silence about the plight of another truly stateless people (Arabs have almost two dozen states; “Palestinians”–no matter how you define them–are Arabs), the thirty million or so Imazhigen/Berbers, who predate their Arab conquerors by millennia and who, like the Kurds, have had their own language and culture outlawed by Arabs and who have been murdered if they have resisted. All of these things are happening in the here and now. Amazigh parents being told they must name their children with Arab names and other such goodies.

Why the silence?

If this was Israel doing one tenth of this , you’d be writing another book about those nasty Jews.

Okay, moving on.

Your next assignment has you moving just a bit south and east into the Sudan.

While Darfur in the west has been making the news of late, the forced Arabization of the south by the north has been going on for centuries and exploded once again in the ’60s.

Where has Carter been while this Arab enslavement, genocide, and such against black Africans (and not only in the Sudan) has been going on? And, unlike the most of the south, the blacks in Darfur are also Muslims…so, this goes beyond a religious jihad and truly involves Arab racism, pure and simple. Many quotes from black victims have testified to this.

And where has he been when millions of native Copts in “Arab” Egypt suffered this same subjugation, intimidation, Arabization, murder, and such? Or regarding the plight of the Middle East’s native Jews– those whom Arabs call “their” kilab yahud…Jew Dogs. One half of Israel consists of such Jews from “Arab” lands…the other half of the refugee problem Carter doesn’t seem to know or care about.

Alright…it’s time to bring this to an end.

So, here’s the deal, Mr. Carter…

Write your book and give your speeches and write your articles taking Arabs to task for the crimes they have committed against everyone else in the region besides themselves–real crimes, not measures Israel has been forced to take to merely survive Arab slaughter–and those Jews who care (many don’t, so they will support you right now) will take you seriously.

http://q4j-middle-east.com

Apology Not Accepted…

by Gerald A. Honigman

Ex-President Jimmy Carter has recently asked Jews for forgiveness.

Among his other sources of conflict with members of the Tribe are his persistently, one-sided takes on Arab-Israeli issues culminating in his book equating Israel with the former apartheid regime of South Africa.

Carter claims that the fact that his grandson is now running for office in their home state of Georgia has nothing to do with his apology. He states that Jews only make up 2% of the county where his grandson lives–about the same percent that Jews make up in the nation at large–and so uses this as further evidence of the integrity of his intentions.

Hogwash!

Now, before I go any further, let me say that I voted for Carter in the ’70s.

I liked his approach to environmental concerns. I believed that, given the way man has trashed this planet, any further mistakes–if they had to be made–needed to be on the side of caution and sane conservation.

For a number of reasons–especially after the Iran fiasco–I soon came to regret my decision.

I’ll never forget watching the Democrat National Convention on television a while back, and watching Carter chasing after that other hero of the Arabs, general anti-Semites, and the ultra left.

Yes, there was Mr. “Apartheid Israel” kissing the derriere of his Hollywood producer comrade, Michael “Israel is one of the three top evils in the world” Moore.

Birds of a feather, peas of the same pod, and so forth.

Like other Gentile politicos, the Democrat, Carter, has received millions of dollars from Arabs for his help in demonizing Israel and Jews. Ex-Secretary of State James f_ _ _ the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway Baker III, a Republican, is his worthy counterpart. Both have plenty of company.

Well, I have a way Jimmy can put this all to rest…sort of.

Since he is a man of the world whose books do indeed reach millions and influence world opinion, I have a new assignment for him–one which he should not have had me have to assign to him.

After all, for decades now, if Israel took one too many breaths, he was there to investigate, criticize, and dissect it under the high power lens of moral scrutiny. Most often, his critiques were given little or no context whatsoever. Jewish victims were constantly blamed themselves when issues such as blown buses, checkpoints, the security barrier, and such were discussed. Constantly, Arabs were given a virtual free pass in Carter’s assessments.

While constantly indulging in such hypocrisy, Carter acted deaf, dumb, and blind regarding what was happening in the region surrounding the nation of the Jews–his perpetually favorite target.

So, since he couldn’t figure out that he needed to do this himself, here’s his assignment. If he completes it, his words of apology to Jews might gain some credibility.

Jimmy, your first task is to travel to re-visit your friend, Bashar al-Assad, the butcher of Damascus and author of the “Hama Solution’s” son, in Syria.

I’m sure that the last time you guys met, the word “Kurd” never left your lips…while you were discussing mutual disgust regarding the nation of the Jews.

So, since you worry so much about Arab rights and conditions–which are harmed precisely because they want that tiny, sole nation of the Jews dead–you must now, at long last, demand that “Arab” Syria stop murdering and subjugating its millions of Kurds. The latter are not even allowed to speak their own language, have been forcibly Arabized for decades–yet I don’t recall a peep about their plight ever being uttered from your lips. Only America’s toppling of Saddam changed things for the better for “Arab” Iraq’s millions of Kurds. Again, not a peep out of you about them, nor concern over their brethren in the Turkish and Iranian portions of Kurdistan either…some thirty five million perpetually used and abused stateless people. Why hasn’t their plight caught your attention?

The second part of your assignment will take you to “Arab” North Africa.

Since you are allegedly so concerned about human rights, you will finally have to break your troubling silence about the plight of another truly stateless people (Arabs have almost two dozen states; “Palestinians”–no matter how you define them–are Arabs), the thirty million or so Imazhigen/Berbers, who predate their Arab conquerors by millennia and who, like the Kurds, have had their own language and culture outlawed by Arabs and who have been murdered if they have resisted. All of these things are happening in the here and now. Amazigh parents being told they must name their children with Arab names and other such goodies.

Why the silence?

If this was Israel doing one tenth of this , you’d be writing another book about those nasty Jews.

Okay, moving on.

Your next assignment has you moving just a bit south and east into the Sudan.

While Darfur in the west has been making the news of late, the forced Arabization of the south by the north has been going on for centuries and exploded once again in the ’60s.

Where has Carter been while this Arab enslavement, genocide, and such against black Africans (and not only in the Sudan) has been going on? And, unlike the most of the south, the blacks in Darfur are also Muslims…so, this goes beyond a religious jihad and truly involves Arab racism, pure and simple. Many quotes from black victims have testified to this.

And where has he been when millions of native Copts in “Arab” Egypt suffered this same subjugation, intimidation, Arabization, murder, and such? Or regarding the plight of the Middle East’s native Jews– those whom Arabs call “their” kilab yahud…Jew Dogs. One half of Israel consists of such Jews from “Arab” lands…the other half of the refugee problem Carter doesn’t seem to know or care about.

Alright…it’s time to bring this to an end.

So, here’s the deal, Mr. Carter…

Write your book and give your speeches and write your articles taking Arabs to task for the crimes they have committed against everyone else in the region besides themselves–real crimes, not measures Israel has been forced to take to merely survive Arab slaughter–and those Jews who care (many don’t, so they will support you right now) will take you seriously.

http://q4j-middle-east.com