Conservative Musings

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Saturday, August 2, 2014

Ignorant Hollywood Stars Fail To Understand Israel.

Jon Voight Pens Letter to 'Ignorant' Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz on Israel: 'Hang Your Heads in Shame' (Guest Column)

9:00 AM PST 08/02/2014 by Jon Voight

Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

The actor urges colleagues to "examine their motives," asking "Can you take back the fire of anti-Semitism that is raging all over the world now?"

My name is Jon Voight and I am more than angry, I am heartsick that people like Penelope Cruzand Javier Bardem could incite anti-Semitism all over the world and are oblivious to the damage they have caused.

They are obviously ignorant of the whole story of Israel’s birth, when in 1948 the Jewish people were offered by the UN a portion of the land originally set aside for them in 1921, and the Arab Palestinians were offered the other half. The Arabs rejected the offer, and the Jews accepted, only to be attacked by five surrounding Arab countries committed to driving them into the sea. But the Israelis won. The Arabs tried it again in 1967, and again in 1973, launching a sneak attack on the holiest Jewish holiday. Each time the Jews prevailed but not without great loss of life. And when Israel was not fighting a major war, it was defending itself against terrorist campaigns.

And yet Israel has always labored for a peaceful relation with its Arab neighbors. It voluntarily returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in return for peace, and gave the Palestinians all of Gaza as a peace gesture. What was the response? The Palestinians elected Hamas, a terrorist organization, and they immediately began firing thousands of rockets into Israel.

After years of trying to make peace, the wars they had to fight, being attacked by their enemies, and still being attacked, and finally after years of running into bomb shelters and having hundreds of civilians killed by suicide bombers, civilians being killed in their sleep, stabbed to pieces, finding enough is enough and finally retaliating, instead of my peers sticking up for the only democratic country in that region, they go and take out poison letters against them.

You have forgotten how this war started. Did Hamas not kidnap and kill three young teenagers for the sake of killing, and celebrated after the killing? What a travesty of justice.

I am asking all my peers who signed that poison letter against Israel to examine their motives. Can you take back the fire of anti-Semitism that is raging all over the world now?

You have been able to become famous and have all your monetary gains because you are in a democratic country: America. Do you think you would have been able to accomplish this in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, et cetera? You had a great responsibility to use your celebrity for good. Instead, you have defamed the only democratic country of goodwill in the Middle East: Israel.

You should hang your heads in shame. You should all come forth with deep regrets for what you did, and ask forgiveness from the suffering people in Israel.

The Left Will Lead The Charge Against Israel, Against The Jews. It Always Has Been That Way!

Brendan O'Neill

Brendan O'Neill is editor of the online magazine spiked and is a columnist for the Big Issue in London and The Australian in, er, Australia. His satire on environmentalism, Can I Recycle My Granny and 39 Other Eco-Dilemmas, is published by Hodder & Stoughton. He doesn't tweet.

Is the Left anti-Semitic? Sadly, it is heading that way

By Brendan O'Neill Religion Last updated: July 27th, 2014

461 Comments Comment on this article

Protesters take part in a 'Stop the War' demonstration march from the Israeli Embassy to the Houses of Parliament on July 26, 2014 in London. (Photo: Getty)

There has been a lot of talk over the past two weeks about whether it is anti-Semitic to oppose Israel’s attack on Gaza. Radical Leftists and liberal commentators have insisted (perhaps a bit too much?) that there is nothing remotely anti-Semitic about their anger with Israel or their fury on behalf of battered, bruised and bombed Palestinians. And of course they are right that it is entirely possible to oppose Israel’s militarism without harbouring so much as a smidgen of dislike for the Jewish people. Some will oppose the war in Gaza simply because they are against wars in general, especially ones that impact on civilians.

However, it seems pretty clear to me that much of the left in Europe and America is becoming more anti-Semitic, or at least risks falling into the trap of anti-Semitism, sometimes quite thoughtlessly. In the language it uses, in the ideas it promotes, in the way in which it talks about the modern world, including Israel, much of the Left has adopted a style of politics that has anti-Semitic undertones, and sometimes overtones. The key problem has been the Left’s embrace of conspiratorial thinking, its growing conviction that the world is governed by what it views as uncaring “cabals”, “networks”, self-serving lobbyists and gangs of bankers, all of which has tempted it to sometimes turn its attentions towards those people who historically were so often the object and the target of conspiratorial thinking – the Jews.

Yes, one can hate Israel’s attack on Gaza without hating the Jews. But there’s no denying that the hatred being expressed for Israel’s attack on Gaza is different to the opposition to all other acts of militarism in recent times. Just compare the huge 2003 Hyde Park demo against the Iraq War with the recent London demos against Israel’s attack on Gaza. The former had an air of resignation; it expressed a mild, middle-class sense of disappointment with Tony Blair, through safe, soft slogans like “Not In My Name”. The latter, by contrast, have been fiery and furious, with screeching about murder and mayhem and demands that the Israeli ambassador to the UK be booted out. Some attendees have held up placards claiming that Zionists control the British media while others have accused both London and Washington of “grovelling” before an apparently awesomely powerful Israeli Lobby.

This is a recurring theme in anti-Israel sentiment today: the idea that a powerful, sinister lobby of Israel lovers has warped our otherwise respectable leaders here in the West, basically winning control of Western foreign policy. You see it in cartoons depicting Israeli leaders as the puppet masters of politicians like William Hague and Tony Blair. You can hear it in Alexi Sayle’s much-tweeted claim that the “Western powers” kowtow to Israel because they are “frightened of it… frightened of the power that it wields”. You can see it in the arguments of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their popular book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, which holds an apparently super-powerful pro-Israel lobby in the heart of Washington responsible for the Iraq War and all other kinds of disasters. The claim is often made that Israel has corrupted Western officials, commanding them to carry out its dirty work.

Sound familiar? Yes, this has terrible echoes of the old racist idea that Jewish groups controlled Western politics and frequently propelled the world into chaos – an idea that was especially popular in the early to mid-20th-century Europe. Very often, anti-Israel protesters treat Israel not just as a nation at war – like Britain, America or France, which also frequently launch wars that kill huge numbers of civilians – but also as the warper of policy and morality in the West, as a source of poison in global affairs, as the architect of instability across the globe. Indeed, a few years ago a poll of Europeans found that a majority of them view Israel as “the biggest threat to world peace”. So Israel is undoubtedly singled out by Leftists and others, and even more significantly it is singled out in a way that the Jews used to be singled out – that is, as a sinister, self-serving corrupter of nations and causer of chaos.

Much of today’s anti-Israel protesting has a conspiracy-theory feel to it, with its talk about powerful lobby groups designing wars behind closed doors in order to isolate Israel’s enemies and boost Israel’s fortunes. And this is in keeping with Left-wing politics generally, today. The Left has increasingly embraced a conspiracy-theory view of the world. It is now very common to hear Leftists talk about the “cabals of neocons” who control world affairs, or the “cult of bankers” who wreak havoc on our economies, or the Murdoch Empire that “orchestrates public life from the shadows” (to quote Labour MP Tom Watson). All seriously analytical and nuanced readings of international trends and political dynamics have been elbowed aside by contemporary Leftists, who prefer instead to argue that dark, hidden, mysterious forces are ruining politics, plotting wars, and enriching themselves at the expense of the poor. And, as history shows us, there is a thin line between railing against wicked cabals and cults and wondering out loud whether the Jews are secretly running world affairs, or at least wielding a disproportionate influence.

Indeed, some of the most influential trends in Left-wing politics over the past five years – including the Occupy movement and the Wikileaks movement – were both given to conspiracy-theorising and both also had a bit of a problem with anti-Semitism. So Occupy was kickstarted by Adbusters, a magazine convinced that powerful corporations control the masses’ fickle minds. In 2004, Adbusters published a disgustingly anti-Semitic article titled “Why Won’t Anyone Say They Are Jewish?”, which listed the neocons in the Bush administration and put a black mark next to the names of those who are Jewish. Not surprisingly, Occupy itself, which was obsessed with the baleful influence of small cliques of bankers and other faceless, evil people, often crossed the line into anti-Semitism, as the Washington Post reported. And Wikileaks, too, which is also a borderline conspiracy-theory outfit, what with its obsession with the“conspiratorial interactions among the political elite”, has had issues with anti-Semitism: one of its key researchers, Israel Shamir, was exposed by the Guardian as being “notorious for [his] Holocaust denial and publishing a string of anti-Semitic articles”.

It is not an accident that the three key planks of the Left-wing outlook today – the anti-Israel anti-war sentiment, the shallow anti-capitalism of Occupy, and the worship of those who leak info from within the citadels of power – should all have had issues with anti-Semitism. It is because the left, feeling isolated from the public and bereft of any serious means for understanding modern political and economic affairs, has bought into a super-simplistic, black-and-white, borderline David Icke view of the world as a place overrun and ruled by cabals and cults and sinister lobby groups. And who has always, without fail, been the final cabal, the last cult, to find themselves shouldering the ultimate blame for the warped, hidden workings of politics, the economy and foreign turmoil? You got it – the Jews.

Obama The First Dictator Of America

Standing Government Army Aka Homeland Security Getting Out Of Control

HOMELAND SECURITY AGENTS RAID HOME TO SEIZE LAND ROVER FOR VIOLATION OF EPA REGULATIONS

Protecting America from the deadly threat posed by vehicles which flout emission standards

by PAUL JOSEPH WATSON | JULY 29, 2014

In another example of how the Department of Homeland Security has expanded far outside the purview of its original function, six vehicles full of DHS agents were required to seize a Land Rover from a couple in Statesville, N.C. due to the fact that the vehicle allegedly violates EPA emission standards.

As part of its mission to “protect the Homeland,” the DHS has been busy seizing imported vehicles that don’t comply with safety and CO2 regulations.

Jennifer and Bill Brinkley were satisfied that their $60,000 dollar purchase of a Land Rover Defender on eBay complied with regulations because it fell into the exemption category of a vehicle 25 years or older.

However, when DHS agents turned up at the property, they compared the car’s Vehicle Identification Number to a list and immediately seized the Land Rover. The couple were not given “a chance to debate the issue.”

WBTV’s Steve Ohnesorge said DHS agents conducted “almost like a raid to get the car.”

“it’s just unnerving the way they did it,” said Bill Brinkley.

The feds have given the Brinkley’s 35 days to appeal the seizure but refuse to tell them where the vehicle is located. The DHS has also failed to respond to media requests about the incident.

The Department of Homeland Security, created in the aftermath of 9/11, was tasked with the role of protecting America from terrorists, man-made accidents and natural disasters. However, the DHS has been turned into a national police force with a remit that extends from seizing websites for copyright infringement to confiscating fake NFL merchandise.

As the Rutherford Institute’s John Whitehead explained in a widely circulated article last month, the DHS is becoming America’s domestic standing army.

“The menace of a national police force, aka a standing army, vested with so much power cannot be overstated, nor can its danger be ignored,” wrote Whitehead, before listing numerous examples of how the DHS is instrumental in pushing America’s decline into a militarized police state.

One such example occurred earlier this month in Greenville, North Carolina, when teams of armed DHS agents showed up outside a courthouse building. There was no threat to the building – the purpose of the agents’ presence was to “let people know they’re in the area,” while encouraging residents to snitch on their neighbors via the ‘See Something, Say Something’ program.

In another incident, the DHS conducted a military-style invasion of a small town in Illinois complete with armored vehicles, a Black Hawk helicopter and a phalanx of heavy duty equipment and weaponry. It subsequently emerged that the reason behind the show of force – which spooked locals – was to apprehend one man for downloading indecent images on his computer.

Given this history, the Brinkleys should probably count themselves lucky that they didn’t have guns pointed at their head during the seizure of the Land Rover, which the DHS apparently sees as a bigger threat to America than the nation’s porous borders and the fact that the TSA, a subdivision of the DHS, allows illegal aliens to board planes without identification.

Israel Moving Against Hamas In All Parts Of Gaza

Gaza fighting continues after collapse of ceasefire

Israeli forces advancing on Khan Younis and Rafah in apparent attempt to prevent Hamas from moving 'captured' soldier

Jason Burke in Gaza, Julian Borger and Paul Lewis
theguardian.com, Saturday 2 August 2014 04.51 EDT

Link to video: Gaza: Israeli soldier needs to be unconditionally released, says Obama

Fighting in Gaza intensified overnight, with reports indicating that Israeli forces were advancing around the southern towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, in what appeared to be an attempt to prevent Hamas from moving a soldier reported to have been captured.

Reports from Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip and close to where Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin is thought to have been taken, indicated heavy civilian casualties from Israeli bombardments. Troops continued to clash with Hamas fighters.

Around 100 people in Rafah have been killed and hundreds more injured in Rafah since fighting restarted after the three hour breakfollowing the collapse of an internationally brokered ceasefire collapsed on Friday morning. At least a dozen have been killed elsewhere in Gaza and scores wounded. Local health officials said the main hospital in Rafah had to be evacuated due tobecause of shelling on Friday afternoon.

In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, however, the Israeli army on Saturday told residents it was safe to return to their homes, as troops were seen withdrawing from the area. It was the first time troops had been seen pulling back since the start of the conflict 26 days ago.

"Messages have been conveyed to residents of the northern Gaza Strip that they may return to the Beit Lahiya area," an army statement said, with a spokeswoman indicating the message had been relayed to authorities in the Palestinian enclave.

It comes amid reports that Israel has pulled out of negotiations for a new truce, due to take place in Cairo on Saturday.

Around 1,650 Palestinians have been killed and more than 8,000 injured since the conflict started, according to the Gazan health ministry. The UN children's agency Unicef said that at least 296 Palestinian children had been killed, 30% of the civilian casualties. On the Israeli side, 63 soldiers and three civilians have been killed. Unicef said: "The number of child casualties during the last 48 hours may rise as a number of incidents are pending verification."

Air strikes continued in Gaza city overnight, hitting the Islamic University, a private institution associated with Hamas, and other targets, including several mosques. There was bombing in and around the city on Saturday morning.

Israeli troops were reported to have pushed further towards the northern village of Beit Hanoun and Shujai'iya, a neighbourhood east of Gaza city where the IDF say many cross-border tunnels used by Hamas to infiltrate Israel originate.

Early on Saturday, the Hamas military wing said in a statement on its website that it was "not aware until this moment of a missing soldier or his whereabouts or the circumstances of his disappearance". The group said it believed the soldier might have been killed in a clash with Hamas fighters about an hour before the start of the ceasefire. The Israeli military declined comment on the statement.

The US and the UN supported Israeli accounts that Hamas had taken advantage of the 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire to ambush IDF personnel near the entrance to a tunnel on the Egyptian border outside Rafah, on the southern end of the Gaza Strip, killing two soldiers at the same time as seizing Goldin.

Barack Obama said Hamas should be held responsible for the collapse of the ceasefire and demanded that it immediately release Goldin. He insisted the US was doing everything possible to prevent the deaths of Palestinian civilians, which he called "heartbreaking".

Obama strongly condemned the Palestinian side for failing to follow through on the truce. "If they are serious about trying to resolve this situation, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released as soon as possible," Obama told reporters at the White House.

He struck a pessimistic note about the prospects of piecing together another ceasefire after Friday's return to violence, an objective he said the US would continue to pursue, acknowledging that ceasing hostilities in the current climate would be challenging.

He reaffirmed his support for Israel's military attempts to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks and cross-border assaults using tunnels. "At the same time we've also been clear that innocent civilians in Gaza, caught in the crossfire, have to weigh on our conscience, and we have to do more to protect them," he said.

The president said it was hard to reconcile support for Israel's self-defence and concern for the death of innocent Palestinians: "I want to see everything possible done to make sure that Palestinian civilians are not being killed. It is heartbreaking to see what is happening."

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said the Hamas attack was "likely to have very serious consequences for the people of Gaza, Israel and beyond". Through his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, Ban said: "Such moves call into question the credibility of Hamas's assurances to the United Nations."

The bombardment of Rafah appeared to reflect what the IDF called the "Hannibal directive", in which it responds to any capture of a soldier with heavy fire aimed at stopping the captors leaving the scene, even if it risks injury to the Israeli prisoner.

Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told the US secretary of state, John Kerry, in a phone call: "Israel will take all necessary steps against those who call for our destruction and perpetrate terrorism against our citizens."

Kerry said: "Hamas, which has security control over the Gaza Strip, must immediately and unconditionally release the missing Israeli soldier. The international community must now redouble its efforts to end the tunnel and rocket attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israel."

Britain is providing a further £3m to support a rapid response by aid workers in Gaza to what the international development secretary, Justine Greening, described as "nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe".

The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, made a plea in the Guardian for the Israeli government to halt its military operations in Gaza and talk to Hamas.

Iron Dome Funding Finally Passes Congress. Reid Allows Separate Bill To Pass.

Here are the missiles!’ US Congress passes emergency funding for Israel's Iron Dome

Published time: August 01, 2014 15:33
Edited time: August 02, 2014 02:58

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A missile is launched by an "Iron Dome" battery, a short-range missile defence system designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells (AFP Photo)

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