Stand for Israel

Sometimes a headline says it all

Ha'aretz: "Hamas: War will settle Jerusalem dispute, not talks"

"Human rights" group's founder zings it for unfair, inaccurate attacks on Israel

Robert Bernstein, the founder of Human Rights Watch, sadly writes in the New York Times that he has to distance himself from the group: HRW used to recognize the differences between open, democratic societies and closed, authoritarian ones, and knew that you cannot compare "abuses" in the two. Now, he says, HRW has cast aside the distinctions it used to make and is making a moral muddle:

Nowhere is this more evident than in its work in the Middle East. The region is populated by authoritarian regimes with appalling human rights records. Yet in recent years Human Rights Watch has written far more condemnations of Israel for violations of international law than of any other country in the region.

Israel, with a population of 7.4 million, is home to at least 80 human rights organizations, a vibrant free press, a democratically elected government, a judiciary that frequently rules against the government, a politically active academia, multiple political parties and, judging by the amount of news coverage, probably more journalists per capita than any other country in the world — many of whom are there expressly to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Meanwhile, the Arab and Iranian regimes rule over some 350 million people, and most remain brutal, closed and autocratic, permitting little or no internal dissent. The plight of their citizens who would most benefit from the kind of attention a large and well-financed international human rights organization can provide is being ignored as Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division prepares report after report on Israel.

Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective on a conflict in which Israel has been repeatedly attacked by Hamas and Hezbollah, organizations that go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields. These groups are supported by the government of Iran, which has openly declared its intention not just to destroy Israel but to murder Jews everywhere. This incitement to genocide is a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Read it in its entirety here.

Bibi looking to tackle Israel's "brain drain"

A few years ago, economist Omer Moav published a study documenting Israel's "brain drain": the troublingly high rate of Israeli academics--PhDs and other highly educated types--leaving Israel for more lucrative positions abroad.

Now, Prime Minister Netanyahu has announced that he's trying to find ways to draw them back. (He charmingly stated that he plans to "vacuum-suck" them back.)

The problem may not seem severe but Moav showed that the problem is more than a statistical blip: Israel produces top-notch scholars, but loses them to other countries because Israeli universities cannot pay enough to keep them (they also may not offer enough time and resources to compete with conditions abroad).

When the "best and brightest" leave, Israel pays on a number of levels: economically, educationally, and in diminished morale. 

In a 2005 article from Yediot Aharonot on the topic, Prof. Eyal Winter of the Hebrew University described a recent visit to Cornell University in upstate New York: After Winter's lecture, a former student now studying at Cornell invited him to join her for a Rosh Hashana dinner with other Israelis. Winter recalled: 

I thought I was going to meet five or six Israelis, but I was amazed to find about 50 young Israelis in their thirties at the dinner. All of them were staff members at the university, or in the final stages of completing their dissertation, and all of them already had good job offers from leading universities in the U.S.

Netanyahu is proposing the creation of a special fund designed to lure back the top 300 Israeli scientists now doing research abroad.

PA: Obama squishy on promises to pressure Israel; Tobin: Nobel committee not.

The Associated Press is reporting that an internal Palestinian Authority document laments that Palestinian hopes in President Obama have "evaporated" following what Palestinians say is the administration's back-tracking on promises to pressure Israel.

Of course, the article noted, that it was "not immediately clear whether the October 12 document reflected Abbas's own views or was intended to be leaked as Fatah's attempt to pressure US President Barack Obama to bear down harder on Israel." Hmm.

Meanwhile, Commentary's Jonathan Tobin wonders whether the President's recently announced Nobel Peace Prize isn't a "down payment" to put more pressure on the Jewish state.

Turning Point Three

Israel is currently engaged in a five-day civil defense drill, the largest ever in its history:

A rising and falling siren will sound Tuesday morning at 11 A.M. for a minute and a half as part of this year's Home Front Command national exercise, with all citizens encouraged to practice entering their protected rooms.

The exercise is meant to raise the public's preparedness for possible missile attacks on the country. The drill, named Turning Point 3, is being run by the Home Front Command and the National Emergency Authority. It is the largest ever emergency exercise the nation has undertaken.

In addition to the Home Front Command's request for all citizens to enter their secure rooms for 10 minutes, all educational institutions will also participate in the drill. All students will enter their schools' designated secure rooms, shelters or other protected spaces, and afterward the students will watch a special broadcast prepared by the command specifically for them.

Obama meets with Netanyahu

U.S. President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today in Washington D.C. to discuss prospects for Middle East peace.  Obama was pushing for a two-state solution, but Netanyahu was not ready to commit to anything until the Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist:

Netanyahu said he was ready to resume peace talks with the Palestinians immediately but said any agreement depended on their acceptance of Israel's right to exist. It was not immediately clear in the way he phrased the response whether Netanyahu was demanding that as a precondition for talks.

"There's never been a time when Arabs and Israelis see a common threat the way we see it today," Netanyahu said, speaking of a sense of urgency felt throughout the Arab world about Iran's nuclear program.

 

Rabbi's Message

May 14, 2009

Dear Friend of Israel,

As I noted last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently appointed scholar Michael Oren as Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. This was an inspired choice. As a political and diplomatic historian, Oren has the talent and skills to manage the U.S.-Israel relationship at a particularly delicate moment.

Moreover, as a gifted and articulate spokesman equally comfortable speaking to the media or to audiences spanning America, Oren is uniquely well-suited to bring Israel’s case not only to the Obama administration and the State Department, but directly to the American people. He knows as well as anyone that - whatever takes place in the insider circles of politics, academia, and the media--American support for the Jewish state’s ongoing struggle for peace and security remains high.

Read on...

Yadlin's report

Israel's Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin has been very busy.  With Iran flaunting their nuclear aspirations, Hamas still bent on destroying Israel, Hezbollah threatening from the north, and Egypt's borders an issue of security he knows Israel is surrounded, literally, from all sides.  So what to do?

Yadlin reports that while the border with Egypt is better than before, this has not stopped the smuggling completely. Hamas can still permeate the Gaza-Egypt border and, with the uranium recently found on Egyptian turf, this is not a good thing. 

Yadlin commented that:

Gaza's Hamas rulers have been reinforcing their capabilities since Israel's offensive earlier this year...the group was unlikely to unleash a massive attack on Israel this year, but was using lessons from that offensive to prepare for a future confrontation.

Threats from the east are on Yadlin's radar as well.

"Iran is intentionally advancing its nuclear development in such a way so as not to cross any nuclear red lines by enriching low-grade uranium that is not sufficient for weapons development, but that can quickly adapt to weapons-grade uranium in such a short period of time that the process can't be sabotaged,"

Unfortunately, it seems the only thing to do is wait. Yadlin doesn't see war as a possibility in the near future, at least not between Israel and Iran. However, Hamas can play the waiting game too, and it happens to be their specialty:

According to the anonymous official, representatives in charge of Hamas negotiations are to notify the Egyptian brokers that the organization will agree to an immediate long-term ceasefire with Israel if the IDF ceases all military activity in the Gaza Strip.

In Hamas terms, "ceasefire" usually means time to re-arm and regroup. The estimate is that Hamas is willing to hold the ceasefire for 10 years. That is ten years for them to smuggle more weapons and raise more children to fight Israel.  Whether or not Israel's response should be military, she cannot stand quietly on the sidelines.

Iran on the horizon?

Iran's leadership repeatedly calls for Israel's destruction, denies the Holocaust, and funds Islamic fundamentalist and terrorist groups. Iran has ignored the world's call to halt their nuclear weapons program.

There have been many different messages out in the media speculating on whether or not Israel will attack Iran. Israel has made pre-emptive strikes before, such as the 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, but it is unclear if the obvious danger posed by Iran will force Israel to use the same tactic in this case.

President Shimon Peres has stated that talks of an attack on Iran are not true, but this weekend Israel conducted military exercises that hint otherwise:

Israel Air Force planes conducted exercises between Israel and Gibraltar, including midair refueling, according to a report published Saturday in the French weekly L’Express. The writer speculated that the distance of the exercises that were carried out, 2,361 miles (3,800 km) from Israel, appeared to confirm that the IDF is preparing to attack Iran if Teheran continues its refusal to end its nuclear program.

This is not to say that Israel is immediately preparing for an attack. Israel has been conducting exercises for some time now to prepare her citizens for the possibility of a missile attack from Iran, Syria, or Lebanon. However, some experts say that Israel wants to be prepared in case it is given the "go ahead" to attack:

"Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words," one senior Israeli defense official told The Times. 

Israel's "unique moral achievement"

A great speech delivered by CAMERA's Dexter Van Zile on the occasion of Israel's 61st birthday:

Israel’s enemies have not yet learned to follow the example of self-criticism and self-correction set for them by the Jewish state and by the Jewish people. Instead they have used this self criticism as a tool to de-legitimize the Jewish State.

The vast majority of the American people are not fooled by this tactic. The American people may not speak Hebrew or Arabic, but we can see the difference between Aliyah and Jihad. We can see the difference between Aliyah and Intifada. The American people can see the difference between Am Yisrael Chai and “Back to the Ovens.” The American people know who has withdrawn from territory and who has launched rockets. The American people know the difference between the people who build greenhouses and those who demolish them. The American people know who has made the peace offers and who has rejected them. The American people know who has mourned the death of civilians and who has danced in the street when civilians were murdered.

Read it all.