Wednesday, October 6, 2010

1. Sombre Anniversary - Today marks the 37th anniversary (on the Gregorian calendar) of the start of the Yom Kippur War. On October 6, 1973, Arab military forces led by Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on what was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year. After severe initial losses in men and materiel and the need to adapt to new Soviet supplied/taught tactics and weapons, Israel was eventually able to reverse the Arab onslaught. The war ended on October 25 with Israeli forces across the Suez Canal 101 kilometres from Cairo, encircling the Egyptian Third Army in the Sinai Peninsula, and occupying positions a mere 40 kilometres from Damascus. The war also came very close to bringing the superpowers into direct confrontation.


There are various views about the effects of the war. Common themes include:
  • after the wild success of the Six Day War of 1967, the Yom Kippur War shattered any thought of Israeli invincibility or complacency.
  • the imposition of the Arab oil embargo
  • an enhanced reputation for Anwar Sadat
  • a greater focus by all parties on negotiations for peace, leading ultimately Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem in 1977, the Camp David Accords, and peace between Israel and Egypt (even if it is a very cool one).


Israel's human losses were extremely heavy - estimated at almost 3,000 killed and as many as 8,000 wounded. The IDF fought with incredible bravery and skill against very long odds, but we should always remember the terrible human cost.


2. Are Worms Kosher? and is Israel responsible? Is it a double-edged sword? Lots of questions!! Caroline Glick :: The lessons of Stuxnet


3. The Other Existential Threat - The Other Existential Threat



5, This Will Get Someone Into Trouble - Under the gun: how the people of Gaza feel about Hamas

6. Which Side Are They On?J Street Co-Founder: Israel's Creation 'An Act That Was Wrong' | Jewish News From WorldJewishDaily.com - and this is a group that has this on its web-site:
"J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans to advocate for vigorous U.S. leadership to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to broaden debate around Israel and the Middle East in national politics and the American Jewish community."
After recent stories regarding the true role of George Soros in funding JStreet and JStreet's role in shepherding Richard Goldstone (yes, that Richard Goldstone) around Capitol Hill, maybe it is just time for these guys to pack it in.



8. We Made The Post! Almost everyone I know has sent me this link, but here it is anyway - The Jewish heritage of ‘New Scotland’




10. Basketball Season Is Almost Here - yes, so is hockey season!


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Motzei Shabbat - September 25, 2010

I hope that "my" Jewish readers enjoyed the first 2 days of Sukkot followed by a restful Shabbat, and that "my" non-Jewish readers had a good week.

1. Here's Something You Don't See Everyday - Secret Jewish heritage converts neo-Nazi - CNN.com



3. The Peace Process - a big deal is being made over whether to continue the moratorium on new Israeli construction in Judea/Samaria - Commentary » Blog Archive » Settlement Freeze: An Unacceptable Veto. Everyone on the Palestinian side says that to do so is vital for the talks to continue and would constitute a major Israeli concession indicating her willingness to make peace. Well, it would be nice for the Palestinians to make some gestures of their own - like doing something about this - PA affirms death penalty for land sales to Israelis (this would be a good, albeit very minor, beginning). How about the Arab backers of the Palestinians doing something concrete about this - I am a refugee. Or this? - Arab politics; Palestinians suffering.


Fayyad (supposedly a moderate - my insertion) canceled a scheduled subsequent press conference with Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon in New York on Tuesday, after Ayalon refused to approve a summary of the meeting which said "two states" but did not include the words "two states for two peoples."

"What I say is that if the Palestinians are not willing to talk about two states for two peoples, let alone a Jewish state for Israel, then there's nothing to talk about," Ayalon told the Post in a telephone interview. "And also, I said if the Palestinians mean, at the end of the process, to have one Palestinian state and one bi-national state, this will not happen."
It ain't just semantics, folks.




7. Fall In NYC - and the nuts come to town for the UN General Assembly, including our favorite nut, the President of Iran. Here are some reflections:


9. Sometimes, What Goes Around Does Come Around - love it - Zombie » Sirhan Sirhan dedication backfires on Bill Ayers 36 years later

11. A Chilling Read - even if it concerns the death of Adolf Eichmann - The Executioner


12. Falafel Guy - not my favorite food,but watch this guy go!

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I'm back after a break over the Yomim Noraim - the Days of Awe - between the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). I hope that "my" Jewish readers have been inscribed in the Book of Life for a happy, healthy and prosperous 5771, and, of course, I wish all the best to "my" non-Jewish readers.

1. Death Of A Leader - I am sad to report on the death of Irving Schwartz, of Sydney, Nova Scotia, a man I had the privilege to meet briefly many, many years ago. I doubt that my words could describe him well, so I will simply link to his obituary - SCHWARTZ Irving Schwartz 81 years, New Waterford SCHWARTZ, Irving ... | Jobspress and Prominent N.S. entrepreneur dies at 81.

May the family be comforted among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

2. Time Magazine - you know - "Time" as in "Grime", "Slime" and "Crime".

Many years ago, when introducing then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the magazine's editors referred to him as "Begin" as in "Fagin" - the hook-nosed shyster from Oliver Twist. Truly a lack of editorial sensitivity, even for the 1970s. Since then, Time has had the reputation of being antisemitic/anti-Israel or both.

In any event, the latest controversy arose with the publication of an issue coinciding with the start of the recent Israel-Palestinian peace talks. Look at the cover:


I think that the title of the article is a gross indecency deliberately calculated to delegitimize and discredit Israel in the eyes of the world at a very sensitive time. The content of the article also follows traditional antisemitic themes such as focusing on an alleged obsession with money.

I also believe that Israelis (of all political stripes) want peace - secure, tangible, meaningful and lasting peace - with their neighbors, more than anyone can describe.

I might have had more sympathy if the article presented a story to the effect that despite the unwillingness of the Palestinians to make any meaningful concessions toward achieving a lasting peace, that despite thousands of terrorist attacks on innocent civilians, rampant incitement against Jews and Israelis in the Palestinian and Arabic education system and entertainment industries, and unwarranted international isolation on a prodigious scale, Israelis have somehow been able to build a stable, relatively safe and economically successful country. I would have understood a story about skepticism about the likelihood of success. But that is not what was presented.

Here are links to some of the fallout from the whole fiasco (read the 2nd link in particular):
3. I Have An Idea - How about a Time magazine issue dedicated to why the Palestinians don't care about peace? It could include:
4. Yom Kippur War - an amazing story of heroism from the 1973 Yom Kippur War - Brik's Wall




6. How I Spent My Summer Vacation - 100,000 children attend radical Hamas summer camps

(Hamas or not Hamas?)

(Hamas or not Hamas?)


8. Ongoing Madness - The ongoing madness. On a separate but related note, you should also read this - The west's bloodstained hands | The Spectator and this - All the News That's Fit to Slant | Jewish News From WorldJewishDaily.com.

9. Collection of Jewish Stories & Themes - interesting stuff.....

11. No Wonder People Want Archives Sealed - MI6 Attacked Jewish Refugee Ships After WWII - The Daily Beast - fast forward to 2010 and compare with the "Freedom Flotilla"


12. Israel Police Band - performs in Moscow:

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Saturday, September 11, 2010 - motzei Shabbat


I have deliberately timed this posting to "go live" at 8:46PM ADT for 2 reasons. First - it will be after Shabbat has ended. Second - it will mark (in a manner) the time that American Airlines Flight 11 was deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower on September 11, 2001 - though of course, that was in the morning - 8:46AM - followed later that day by United Airlines Flight 175 (South Tower), American Airlines Flight 77 (The Pentagon) and United Airlines Flight 93 (brought down by heroic passengers in rural Pennsylvania).

There are lots and lots of articles, links, etc. about this, the ninth anniversary of 9/11. The events of the day. The conspiracy theories. The aftermath. The current controversies. And so on. You can find that in lots of places.

What I am going to share with you is an article that has always resonated with me about Rick Rescorla - one of the murdered victims who lost his life that terrible day in New York City.

I know that his story is only one of many, and I am not judging his to be more-deserving than any others. Like I said above, it has always resonated with me - perhaps because of the connection to his participation in the famous Vietnam battle at the Ia Drang Valley (the subject of the film "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young....").

Here is the article - I hope that you find it as riveting and memorable as did I



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Saturday, September 4, 2010 motzei Shabbat

This will likely be my last blog posting until after the conclusion of Rosh Hashanah. I would like to take this opportunity to wish my Jewish readers only good things in 5771 - that you should be inscribed in the Book of Life for a healthy, happy and prosperous year.



1. Peace Process? - This past week marked the start of the latest round of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The headline that struck me was this: Abbas: If Talks Fail, it Will Be Israel's Fault | Jewish News From WorldJewishDaily.com - which says to me - "we can do and say whatever we want, but if there is no success, it's not our fault". Not a good attitude, I'd say.



Also falling into the category of useless comments is Rabbi Yosef: "Death to Abu Mazen and Palestinians" | World of Judaica - see also PM distances himself from Rabbi Yosef's 'plague' comments. While I can understand that Palestinian leaders are seizing on this to make it into a big issue, which I think - to a large degree I think it is a case of "the pot calling the kettle black".


Here are a variety of other links on the peace negotiations subject:
2. Incapable of Words - If anyone ever doubted the type of genocidal types that make up Hamas - which utterly controls Gaza - this atrocious and sickening story should open their eyes - Four Jews Murdered in Arab Terror Attack - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News.


And this just makes it worse:
While the PA, the ostensible peace partner, "condemns" this terrible act of terrorism - Hamas vows more attacks to come, as PA condemns West Bank shooting - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News - you have to go to the source and get the whole story - what did the PA actually say? Try this:
"We condemn this operation, which goes against Palestinian interests," Fayyad said.
Salam Fayyad is the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority. Be still , my heart.......

In the meantime, may HaShem console the families of the victims among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

3. And Speaking Of The Guys In The North - US envoy Oren warns: Hizbullah has 15,000 rockets on border - boy, that 2nd Lebanon War and the whole UNIFIL things really worked out well, didn't it? Also - see - 'Hizbullah, Syria to cooperate on conflicts with Israel' - personally, I think that this is a good thing - it may be hard to hit at Hizbullah in their practice of asymetric warfare, but Syria is a sovereign country and if things get hot, then it's fair to strike against Syria.




5. I Guess He Forgot To Put It In His Book - "Hmmm - I've criticized the Turks, I've criticized the Muslims, who did I forget???Where are my editors!!

Relax, don't worry - antisemitism is always in style - German central banker criticized for remarks on Jews - Israel News, Ynetnews.

"By Friday, De Gucht was apologizing. In a statement he said it was not his intention "to cause offense or stigmatize the Jewish Community. I want to make clear that anti-Semitism has no place in today's world and is fundamentally against our European values."
One question, though - how can they come up with such eloquent apologies so quickly? Maybe Salam Fayyad (see above in item 2 could learn a lesson).





9. What Do You Think? Jewish congress wrong to oppose former Mayor Whitton: senator - an interesting philosophical question.

In Halifax, First Nations people have been and continue to be upset over the prominent use of the name "Cornwallis" - Cornwallis Street, Cornwallis Junior High School, Cornwallis Park and so on - for Edward Cornwallis, a British military officer who was the Governor of Nova Scotia from 1749-1752. He is infamous for ordering a bounty on the heads of Mi'kmaq warriors after a violent raid against European settlers. This led to an escalation of hostilities and mutual atrocities until a subsequent Treaty was signed.

In the case of Cornwallis, he lived in a different era, with different standards and at a time when Nova Scotia was, at least in some manner, a battlefield.

How do we judge people who came before us? Certain "people" are easy - Hitler and the Nazis, for example. But how do we judge someone like Edward Cornwallis, Mayor Whitton, or, as is noted in the original link - our former Prime Minister Mackenzie King?

I do not know the answer. Senator Segal's suggestion that judging past figures by today's standards is a no-win proposition may not be inaccurate, but seems superficial.



11. Jewish Life in Poland - right off the top of my head, prior to September 31, 1939, there were some 3,000,000 Jews in Poland who comprised about 10% of the total population. By the end of the war, there were some 5,000 left. In light of that - an interesting article - The Revival of Jewish Life in Poland By Steve Lipman - Jewish Action - OU.ORG


12. Jewish Life In Portugal - Many may be familiar with the impact of the Spanish Inquisition on Jewish life, but may not be familiar with what happened in neighboring Portugal. On the trail of the Jews of Portugal





16. Just In Time For The High Holy Days - Piyutim, Poetry In Conservative's New Prayer Book- Forward.com


17. Doubly Chosen - The Few, The Proud, The Chosen


18. The Beatles - for Beatles lovers - Rolling Stone releases Beatles 100 | Stuff.co.nz - how many bands had enough good songs to merit rating the top 100?


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