World to Israel: Surrender before it’s too late

By Caroline B. Glick, JWR

The international community — including some Israeli pols, American Jews and the media — are pushing hard. The Obama administration isn’t making things any easier.

A penetrating analysis that considers claims against Israel’s legitimacy

Over the past several years, a growing number of patriotic Israelis have begun to despair. We can’t stand up to the whole world, they say. At the end of the day we will have to give in and surrender most of the land or all of the land we took control over in the 1967 Six Day War. The world won’t accept anything less.

These statements have grown more strident in the wake of the slaughter of the Fogel family last Friday night in Itamar. For example on Thursday Ari Shavit , a columnist for Israel’s equivalent of the New York Times, Ha’aretz, called Israeli communities built beyond the 1949 armistice line the local equivalent of Japan’s nuclear reactors. Like the reactors, he wrote, they seemed like a good idea at the time. But they have become our undoing.

The international community’s response to the Palestinian atrocity in Itamar is pointed to as proof of that Israel must surrender. Instead of considering what the savage murder of an Israeli family tells us about the nature of Palestinian society, the world media have turned the massacre of the Fogel family into a story about “settlements.”

Take the Los Angeles Times’ for example From the Times’ perspective the Fogels were not Israeli civilians. They were “Jewish settlers.”
They weren’t murdered in their home. They were killed in their “tightly guarded compound.”

And, in the end, the Times effectively justified the murder of the Fogel children when it helpfully added, “Most of the international community… views Israel’s settlements as illegal.”

The Times’ report was actually comparatively sympathetic. At least it mentioned the murders. Most European papers began their coverage with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s announcement that the government will permit Israelis to build 400 homes in Judea and Samaria.

As for the governments of the world, most were far swifter and more aggressive in their condemnation of Netanyahu’s announcement of the building permits than they were in their condemnation of the murders.

Then there is the US Jewish community.

According to New York’s Jewish Week, there is a new consensus in the American Jewish community that imposing an economic boycott on Israeli communities outside the 1949 armistice lines is a legitimate position. The paper interviewed Martin Raffel, the head of the new Israel Action Network, a multimillion dollar effort by the Jewish Federations of North America and other major Jewish groups to counter the delegitimization of Israel.

Raffel called the boycott movement misguided, rather than wrong. Then he justified it by arguing, “Being misguided in one’s policies doesn’t mean one necessarily has become part of the ranks of the delegitimizers.”

If that wasn’t enough, Ron Kampeas, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Washington bureau chief wrote Tuesday that we shouldn’t rush to conclude that Palestinians carried out the attack. Kampeas wrote, “We do not yet know who committed the awful butchery in Itamar over the weekend.”

With American Jews taking a lead role in delegitimizing Israel and flacking for Palestinian terrorists; with the international media ignoring the massacre of the Fogel family and attacking Israel for its response to the event they didn’t cover; and with the US government united with the nations of the world in condemning the government’s decision to allow Israelis who are Jewish to build on land they own, the despair of a growing chorus of Israelis is understandable.

But while understandable, the notion that Israel has no choice but to surrender Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem to the Palestinians is wrong and dangerous.

Like his fellow defeatists, Shavit argues that Jewish communities in these areas are the cause of international moves to delegitimize Israel. If they were gone, so the argument goes, then neither the Palestinians nor the international community would have a problem with Israel.

The first problem with this view is that it confuses the focus of Palestinian and international attacks on Israel with the rationale behind those attacks. This is a mistake Israelis have made repeatedly since the establishment of the Fatah-led PA in 1994. Immediately after the PA was set up and IDF forces transferred security control over Palestinian cities and towns in Judea and Samaria to Yassir Arafat’s armies, Palestinian terrorists began attacking Israeli motorists driving through PA-controlled areas with rocks, pipe bombs and bullets.
Then prime minister and defense minister Yitzhak Rabin blamed the attacks on “friction.” If the Palestinians didn’t have contact with Israeli motorists then they wouldn’t attack them. So Israel built the bypass roads around the Palestinian towns and cities to prevent friction.

For its efforts, the Palestinians and the international community accused Israel of building “Jews-only, apartheid roads.” Moreover, Palestinian terrorists left their towns and cities and stoned, bombed and shot at Israeli motorists on the bypass roads.

Then there was Gaza. When in 2001 Palestinians first began shelling the Israeli communities in Gaza and the Western Negev with mortars and rockets, we were told they were attacking because of Israel’s presence in Gaza. When the IDF took action to defend the country from mortar and rocket attacks, Israel was accused of committing war crimes.

The likes of Shavit said then that if Israel left Gaza the Palestinian attacks would stop. They said that if they didn’t stop and the IDF was forced to take action, the world would support Israel.

Shavit himself engaged in shocking demonization of the Israelis living in Gaza. In May 2004 he wrote that they were undeserving of IDF protection and that no soldier should defend them because they weren’t real Israelis.

But then the Palestinians and the international community threw Shavit and his friends yet another curveball. After Israel expelled every last so-called settler and removed every last soldier from Gaza in August 2005, Palestinian rocket attacks increased tenfold. The first Katyusha was fired at Ashkelon seven months after Israel withdrew. Hamas won the elections and Gaza became an Iranian proxy. Now it has missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv.

As for the international community, not only did it continue blaming Israel for Palestinian terrorism. It refused to accept that Israel ended its so-called occupation of Gaza. It has condemned every step Israel has taken to defend itself from Palestinian aggression since the withdrawal as a war crime.

The lessons of these experiences prove is that Israeli towns and villages in Judea and Samaria and Israeli are not castigated as “illegitimate” because there is anything inherently illegitimate about them. Like the bypass roads and the Israeli presence in Gaza, they are singled out because those interested in attacking Israel militarily or politically think are an easy target.

The Arabs, the UN, the Obama administration, the EU, anti-Israel American and Israeli Jews, university professors and the legions of self-proclaimed human rights organizations in Israel and throughout the world allege these Israeli communities are illegitimate because by doing so they weaken Israel as a whole.

If Israel is convinced that it has no choice but to bow to these people’s demands, they will not be appeased. They will simply move on to the next easy target. Israeli Jewish communities in the Galilee and the Negev, Jaffa and Lod will be deemed illegitimate. In a bid to pretend that the communities in Judea and Samaria are somehow different from communities in the Galilee, proponents of surrender point to the non-binding 2004 International Court of Justice opinion that the communities in Judea and Samaria are illegal.
But Israelis who accept the non-binding opinion as a binding ruling for Judea and Samaria ignore that the opinion also asserted that Israel has no right to self defense.

The same people who think that so-called settlements are illegal also believe that opposition leader Tzipi Livni is a war criminal. The same people who think the so-called settlements are illegal would condemn as a war crime any attempt to enforce the law against irredentist Israeli Arabs.

Israel’s bitter experience proves incontrovertibly that bowing to international pressure just invites more pressure.

So what can Israel do?

The first thing we must do is recognize that legitimacy is indivisible. In the eyes of Israel’s enemies there is no difference between Itamar and Maaleh Adumim on the one hand and Ramle and Tel Aviv on the other hand. And so we must make no distinction between them.

Just as law abiding citizens are permitted to build homes in Ramle and Tel Aviv so they must be permitted to build in Itamar and Maaleh Adumim. If Israel’s assertion of its sovereignty is legitimate in Tel Aviv, then it is legitimate in Judea and Samaria. We cannot accept that one has a different status from the other.

Likewise, it is an act of economic warfare to boycott Israeli products whether they are made in Haifa or Mishor Adumim. Anyone who says it is permissible to boycott Mishor Adumim is engaging in economic warfare against Haifa.

Once we understand that Israel’s legitimacy is indivisible we need to take actions that will put the Palestinians and their international supporters on the defensive. There are any number of moves Israel can make in this vein.

For example, following the Palestinian massacre of the Fogel family, Netanyahu highlighted the fact that the PA routinely glorifies terrorist murderers and pays them and their families handsome pensions for their illegal acts of war. He also highlighted the genocidal anti-Jewish incitement endemic in Palestinian society.

While all of this is useful, talk is cheap. It is time to make the Palestinians pay a price for their depravity and to put their international supporters on the defensive.

Specifically, Netanyahu should ask the US to cut off all US economic and military assistance to the PA. Two PA intelligence officers were arrested as part of the Fogel murder investigation.

The US is training and equipping the Palestinian intelligence services. This should stop.

Two days after the massacre in Itamar, the PA dedicated a public square in el Bireh to terror commander Dalal Mughrabi. Mughrabi commanded the 1978 bus attack on the coastal highway in which 37 Israelis – including 12 children were murdered. The PA previously named a street, a dormitory, a summer camp and a sports tournament after her. Several popular songs have been written to glorify her crimes.

The US is underwriting the PA’s budget. This should stop.

Were the government to go after international aid to the PA, not only would it begin a debate in the US and perhaps Europe about the nature of Fatah specifically and Palestinian society generally, it would force the Palestinians’ myriad supporters to justify their support for a society that is defined by its goal of annihilating Israel.

It is hard to stand up to the massive pressure being brought to bear against Israel every day. But it is possible.

And whether defying our foes is hard or easy, it is our only chance at survival. Either all of Israel is legitimate or none of it is.

March 18, 2011 | 45 Comments »

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45 Comments / 45 Comments

  1. The callous international community will force a show down soon or later between the Palestinians and Israel. At this juncture Israel will have no choice but to win and enforce what the Balfour declaration stated regardless of what the world says.
    The Arabs and Palestinians have shown time after time that they do not want a Jewish state.
    What does the international community NOT UNDERSTAND?
    The Arab translation!

  2. There were 3 married couples having dinner together. The husband of the first couple turned to his wife and said Pass the honey honey. The second husband thought to himself I can top that. He turned to his wife and said Pass the sugar sugar. The third husband thought these guys are a couple of pansies! I can SURELY top that! So he turned to his wife and said Pass the Pork Pig!! ShyGuy. This was a test and you flunked. Now go and learn. LEARN how to appropriately defeat the enemy.

  3. Yerushami here. Going to Ma’ariv any minute. From tomorrow afternoon, around 5, till Monday morning, I will be silent running, IYKWIM.

    Forgot for the moment you are a Yerushalmi.

    IKWYM

  4. Mer says:
    March 20, 2011 at 3:53 pm

    The main reason why I dont spend much time on Israpundit is because it is not very user friendly to women

    OK. We confess.

  5. yamit82 says:
    March 20, 2011 at 5:37 pm

    No, I’m now in hangover mode and you?

    Yerushami here. Going to Ma’ariv any minute. From tomorrow afternoon, around 5, till Monday morning, I will be silent running, IYKWIM.

  6. Yamit, no major spelling mistakes and using HTML code. Tea-totaling it, today?

    No, I’m now in hangover mode and you?

  7. Yamit, try reading the posts in the sequence they were written.

    Well I did miss the first comment, so I guess my mea culpa, is appropriate. 🙁

  8. HOW TO START A FIGHT

    One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as
    a Christmas gift…

    The next year, I didn’t buy her a gift.

    When she asked me why, I replied,

    “Well, you still haven’t used the gift I bought you last year!”

    And that’s how the fight started…..

    ________________________________

    My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while
    we were in bed.

    I turned to her and said, ‘Do you want to have Sex?’

    ‘No,’ she answered. I then said,

    ‘Is that your final answer?’

    She didn’t even look at me this time, simply saying, ‘Yes..’

    So I said, “Then I’d like to phone a friend.”

    And that’s when the fight started…

    ________________________________

    I took my wife to a restaurant.

    The waiter, for some reason, took my order first.

    “I’ll have the rump steak, rare, please.”

    He said, “Aren’t you worried about the mad cow?”

    “Nah, she can order for herself.”

    And that’s when the fight started…..

    _______________________________

    My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school
    reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his
    drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.

    I asked her, “Do you know him?”

    “Yes”, she sighed,

    “He’s my old boyfriend. I understand he took to drinking
    right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he
    hasn’t been sober since.”

    “My God!” I said, “Who would think a person could go on
    celebrating that long?”

    And then the fight started…

    ________________________________

    When our lawn mower broke and wouldn’t run, my wife kept hinting
    to me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had
    something else to take care of first, the shed, the boat,
    making beer.. Always something more important to me. Finally she
    thought of a clever way to make her point.

    When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall
    grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing
    scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into
    the house. I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again
    I handed her a toothbrush. I said, “When you finish cutting the
    grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.”

    The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.

    ______________________________

    My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels.

    She asked, “What’s on TV?”

    I said, “Dust.”

    And then the fight started…

    ________________________________

    Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my
    lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the
    boat up to the van and proceeded to back out into a torrential
    downpour. The wind was blowing 50mph, so I pulled back into the
    garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather
    would be bad all day.

    I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back
    into bed. I cuddled up to my wife’s back; now with a different
    anticipation, and whispered, “The weather out there is
    terrible.”

    My loving wife of 5 years replied, “And, can you believe my
    stupid husband is out fishing in that?”

    And that’s how the fight started…

    _______________________________

    My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming
    anniversary.

    She said, “I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in
    about 3 seconds.”

    I bought her a bathroom scale.

    And then the fight started……

    ______________________________

    After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply
    for Social Security.

    The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver’s License to
    verify my age.

    I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at
    home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have
    to go home and come back later.

    The woman said, ‘Unbutton your shirt’.

    So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.

    She said, ‘That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for
    me’ and she processed my Social Security application.

    When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at
    the Social Security office. She said, ‘You should have dropped
    your pants. You might have gotten disability too.’

    And then the fight started…

    ________________________________

    My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror.

    She was not happy with what she saw and said to me,

    “I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you
    to pay me a compliment.’

    I replied, “Your eyesight’s damn near perfect.”

    And then the fight started……..

    ________________________________

    I rear-ended a car this morning…the start of a REALLY bad day!

    The driver got out of the other car, and he was a DWARF!!

    He looked up at me and said ‘I am NOT Happy!’

    So I said, ‘Well, which one ARE you then?’

    That’s how the fight started.

  9. ShyGuy. My reference to the Queen was for Yonatan now you. I told you to screw off because you have that bossy tone of telling others what to do.

    You may be right but he does it in a non offense manner. USUALLY!

    The main reason why I dont spend much time on Israpundit is because it is not very user friendly to women

    How can you say that we love the women posting here, at least the real ones as opposed to the myriad of female screen-names HYMIE keeps coming up with. Kendra and Julia some of his last gems.

    So dont ever insult me again by saying stupid things like if I ever decide to become Jewish.

    You are right! Shy should apologize.

    So screw off ShyGuy. I dont owe you any further explanation.

    You’re right again you don’t owe anyone an explanation.

  10. Mer, I didn’t mention anything about your “Jewishness” in my first post, which you responded to so rudely.

    Try fiddling for an excuse again.

    And while you may have been insulted by my second comment, which was a reply to your initiating rudeness, it has nothing to do with your gender. Why you think so is beyond me.

    And I stand by my 2nd comment even more now after your latest comment.

  11. Who do you believe???

    Report: U.S. considering strategic outreach to Hezbollah
    Washington Post says Obama administration weighing dialogue with Lebanese militant group’s political wing, in an effort similar to that attempted by U.K. in its dealings with Sinn Fein in the 1990s.

    U.S. denies report that it’s mulling strategic dialogue with Hezbollah
    White House spokesman Tommy Vietor stressed the U.S.’s unwavering no-contact policy with Hezbollah, denying allegations otherwise reported in a Washington Post article published Friday.

  12. ShyGuy. My reference to the Queen was for Yonatan now you. I told you to screw off because you have that bossy tone of telling others what to do. The main reason why I dont spend much time on Israpundit is because it is not very user friendly to women So dont ever insult me again by saying stupid things like if I ever decide to become Jewish. In my circle of people I am considered VERY JEWISH not because I advertise it but more because I radiate it. So screw off ShyGuy. I dont owe you any further explanation.

  13. Purim is holier than Yom Kippur? They didn’t teach that in Hebrew school!

    The Vilna Gaon (18th century Lithuania) explains that the word “Purim” is found in the biblical name for Yom Kippur – Yom haki-PURIM – which means “a day like Purim.” That which we accomplish on Yom Kippur with spiritual pursuits, we accomplish on Purim with physical pursuits. These holidays are two sides of the same coin, two opposite halves of the same day. Read More

    Purim Sameach

  14. Mer:

    Shy Guy says:

    Fact: the decree against the Jews was rescinded 2500 years ago; not so 70 years ago. Happenstance? The Nation of Israel doesn’t believe in happenstance. We are a people of the lessons of cause and effect.


    JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE (JDL)OF SHUSHAN HABIRA

    by Dr. Israel Eldad

    It is a good thing that the Jews, doomed to so many centuries of exile, should have one holiday that is sheer fun and delight when it is almost a virtue to get drunk; all the more so as it tends to inspire the optimistic Jewish soul with the belief that all the enemies of the Jewish People are bound to end up in the same way as Haman, though not so speedily and miraculously. Hitler’s end was in fact delayed, but with Stalin we almost experiences a similar miracle. After the famous doctors’ trial he had intended to exile all the Russian Jews to Siberia — dispatching them to their certain death, but it was his death that intervened.

    By the way, it was on Purim that he died. Be that as it may — the sages of the Talmud expressly provided that one cannot and should not rely on a miracle.

    If not miracles, what is there to rely upon? For Mordechai, the Jew of ancient Shushan, it was not enough to have the anti-Jewish decree revoked. He also realized that it was necessary to pray and fast — and pray and fast he did. He saw that it was necessary to plead with the king, and so he sent a certain lady to plead with him. Ultimately, he also asked the king’s permission to destroy and kill all of Haman’s followers, and if the Book of Esther says that he killed seventy-five thousand men that day it means that Haman has a whole party behind him a kind of Persian SS or El Fatah, through which he had intended to implement his final solution. On them Mordechai took his revenge.

    LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

    Therefore, a people that has a leader like Mordechai, a leader who can follow the triple course of faith and prayer, of political action and active defense may call itself truly blessed.

    Purim Sameach

  15. Mer wrote: Marginalizing the Queens role could cause the fate of man.

    ????? I see that you can’t tell the difference between Mordechai and haman.

  16. War on Jews: Life Held Cheap

    News of the deaths of a father, mother and their children in Israel has been relegated to the back pages of the world’s media. It has hardly made a dent in the American news. Hardly anyone knows about it, still fewer even care though it should send shivers down the spine of a nation that was attacked by these fanatic Amalekites over and over again.
    Still, nothing.

    American Churches are silent on it too. No friends here. Their focus is on appeasing Amalek.
    This is nothing new.

    The US State Department itself declared war on Jews long ago.

    Here is a short video of the sell out of Jewish life by the US State Department and F.D.R. who had agendas of their own.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpctGSuwAoQ&feature=player_embedded

  17. In Hebrew: Purim message from MK Michael Ben Ari.

    Supporting Amalek


    The US sends multiple millions of dollars to the terrorist organization called the Palestinian Authority thus becoming complicit in murder and mayhem in the middle east.
    The US has sent arms, money and training to those whose most fervent wish is to “push all the Jews into the sea dead or alive”
    With such a scenario, what could possibly go wrong?

    As Aaron Klein reports, “Two cousins are now in Israeli custody and are suspected in the slayings. Ahmed Awad is an officer in Abbas’ Preventative Security Services in the northern West Bank city of Nablis. Iyad Awad is an officer in Abbas’ General Intelligence services in Ramallah.”
    The articles continues:
    “the sources said the actual perpetrators of the attack were sleeper cells from Hamas, while the Brigades leaders planned the attack, provided logistical support and aided in the Hamas agents’ escape.
    If accurate, this would demonstrate unusual cooperation between Hamas and Fatah rivals.
    The U.S. administration has labeled Fatah as a “negotiating partner” for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” (cue laughs of derision here)
    And finally:

    “Since 2007, the U.S. has stepped up its efforts at training the PA, including a new, advanced program for Palestinian police to train 500 to 600 cadets at a time at the American bases.
    The U.S. currently operates training bases for the PA police and other militias, such as Force 17 and the Preventative Security Services in the West Bank city of Jericho and the Jordanian village of Giftlik.”

    The names don’t matter .. a cess pool by any other name is still a cess pool. This is Amalek no matter what name it now hides under.

    Nations that support those who make terror cannot hide behind words stating they love peace. It is plainly a lie.
    Either you love good and hate evil or you hate good and love evil. There is no compromise.
    By playing both ends against the middle , supporting both the PA and Israel the nations of the world show they are duplicitous.

    Adj. 1.duplicitous – marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another; “a double-dealing double agent”; “a double-faced infernal traitor and schemer”- W.M.Thackeray
    double-dealing, double-tongued, two-faced, Janus-faced, double-faced, ambidextrous, deceitful
    dishonest, dishonorable – deceptive or fraudulent; disposed to cheat or defraud or deceive

    When it comes time to send officials to Washington, to the White House,to the Knesset, will YOU vote for someone who wants to give aid and comfort to Amalek? Will you vote for anyone who wishes to even dialog with Amalek?

    King Saul tried dialog with Amalek, didn’t he? How did that work out for him?

    Will you vote for someone who wants a two state solution? Which really is working toward a “final solution to the Jewish problem”? If you support Amalek, don’t you become like Amalek?
    Would that make you an enemy of G-d also?
    It is something to think about isn’t it?

    The three big contributors to the genocidal driven enemies of Israel are:

    1.The EU
    2.America
    3.Japan.

    How’s it working out for you’all? Huh?

    Here is a 3 minute cartoon starring Wile E Coyote as the World
    and plucky and ever adorable RoadRunner as Israel.
    Let’s see how life works out:

  18. In Hebrew: Purim message from MK Michael Ben Ari.

    Amalek: Still Attacking the Vulnerable

    “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear G-d. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.”

    In order to identify Amalek we have to know his traits.

    1.Amalek is a stabber. His specialty is back stabbing the vulnerable. He attacks from the back and he is known for taking off the head.
    Even the name Amalek suggests they cut the throat or the head.
    2.Most particularly Amalek is a murderer of women, children and the elderly.
    3.Amalek attacks the unarmed, those vulnerable first.
    4.Amalek is evil for the sake of evil.
    5.Amalek is suicidal. They are compared it to a person who jumps into a scalding tub knowing he will cool down the water. His mission is ideological, he is fighting good, he is fighting G-d.
    6.Amalek is known for his sincere and total hatred of G-d.His war is always against G-d. He is the total foe of G-d.
    He has a pathological need to destroy anything that suggests G-d.
    7.Amalek knows no mercy, no compassion.
    8.Amalek made lists of the people of Israel in order to undermine them, cast doubt into their minds and to kill them.
    The Nazis did this also to plan the murder of Jewish people.
    These murderers did this also making plans at a secret meeting.

    The battle against Amalek is not like any other war or fight. It is not a geopolitical battle for money or territory, it is vastly different.
    The war against Amalek is a moral battle of good vs evil and is fought for the sake of righteousness alone.
    Only when war for real moral interest is raised above other reasons, will Amalek be done for completely.


    O G-d, do not remain silent;do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O G-d.
    See how your enemies growl, how your foes rear their heads.
    With cunning they conspire against your people;they plot against those you cherish.
    “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”
    With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you- the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to lend strength to the descendants of Lot,
    Do to them as you did to Midian,
    as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,who perished at Endor
    and became like dung on the ground.
    Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
    all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
    who said, “Let us take possession
    of the pasture lands of God.”

    Make them like tumbleweed, my G-d,
    like chaff before the wind.
    As fire consumes the forest
    or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,
    so pursue them with your tempest
    and terrify them with your storm.
    Cover their faces with shame, LORD,
    so that they will seek your name.

    May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
    may they perish in disgrace.
    Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD—that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

    Tehillim 83(psalms)

  19. There is of course one other step Israel must take, end its policy of Havlagah.
    It didn’t work in the 1930’s & it is not working now.

  20. Pity you, Mer. Some day, when you actually may decide to become Jewish, you may learn a little Torah and know what I was referring to. I never mentioned anything against the bravery and fortitude of Queen Esther. On the contrary. The documentation of Purim is named after her and her alone.

    I have no idea what made you curse me for my comment. Fact: the decree against the Jews was rescinded 2500 years ago; not so 70 years ago. Happenstance? The Nation of Israel doesn’t believe in happenstance. We are a people of the lessons of cause and effect.

    Purim Sameach to my fellow Jews.

  21. Mer – respectfully, there is a lot more to the story that has nothing to do with the Queen per se. She does her part, but the entire Jewish population “accepted the whole of the Torah” at the time without having the mountain raised over our heads to do so. There is a much deeper aspect to Purim, which is why it will be around after Moshiach comes and other, seemingly greater holidays won’t. It’s the reason were here to begin with.

    Purim Sameach!

  22. Screw off ShyGuy. Why was Purim different? Because the Queen wouldnt allow herself to be treated like a piece of meat which gave her more power to conquer evil. Try it sometime. It really works.

  23. Mer says:
    March 19, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    Bye bye to the Hamaans of the world. Every time you wish or pray or attempt to destroy the Jews it will just boomerang right back at YOU!

    Yes, but at what price to the Jewish people? The Jews of Achashverosh’s reign got off without harm. Can the same be said for the Jews of the 3rd Reich’s reign and the reigns of other such despots throughout history?

    Why was Purim different? Now go and learn.

  24. The “world” is not against Israel. The “world media”, along with much of academia, is.

    That doesn’t really represent “the world”, though they pretend they do.

    Most people are too busy dealing with their own lives to care about what is going on in Israel.

    If “the world” were against Israel, who forgot to tell the 60%+ of Americans who support Israel? Only a small fraction of American opinion consider the Palestinians to be ‘in the right’. Who forgot to tell Stephen Harper in Canada?

    There seems to be another part of “the world” that is truly living in a parallel universe on this issue. That is the seemingly unending string of American Republican presidential hopefuls that are traipsing over to Israel.

    If you run into Sarah Palin, Yamit, say “hi” for me, will you?

    I’d sure love to know what they are telling BB, but I strongly suspect the message is not one of “surrender”. Rather, it is likely more along the lines of profusely apologizing for the monstrosity of Obama, and assuring him that ‘help is on the way’ as of January, 2013….i.e., DON’T SURRENDER!

    Rudolph Giuliani was just there, I understand. He came back and said on national TV here in the U.S., on Hannity’s show, that he told Netanyahu to NOT TRUST OBAMA, no matter what.

    That is unprecedented, when you think about it. Imagine someone of Giuliani’s stature going to Israel in 1979, and telling PM Begin to not trust Carter no matter what, and from there, coming back here and announcing this on national T.V.

    I guess “the world” didn’t get around to telling old Rudy that he ought be pressuring Israel to surrender, either.

    Relax, Caroline. Things are bad, but they aren’t THAT bad.

    Happy Purim, everybody!

  25. Being that Israel is on the front lines of fighting world Islamic jihad, I don’t think she will lose too many friends.

  26. The reason there is no peace is that the Arabs don’t realize that they lost and the Jews don’t realize that they won.

    One Jew’s opinion.

  27. Bye bye to the Hamaans of the world. Every time you wish or pray or attempt to destroy the Jews it will just boomerang right back at YOU!

  28. It is hard to stand up to the massive pressure being brought to bear against Israel every day. But it is possible.
    Those who trade their Freedom for Security, in the end will have niether.

  29. (my eyeslids are getting heavy)
    zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    May they stay that way permanently. Just a thought. 🙂

  30. rongrand-

    Peace is for the strong not the weak.

    Focus on strength and continue building communities.

    HAPPY PURIM

    Innovative turn of phrase- ron, your comments are always very stimulating and thought provoking (my eyeslids are getting heavy)
    zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

  31. Bob says:
    March 19, 2011 at 12:27 am

    Stay strong and NEVER give up land for peace or you will end up with neither land or peace

    Well said Bob.

    Peace is for the strong not the weak.

    Focus on strength and continue building communities.

    HAPPY PURIM

  32. Mer says:

    Oh World. Go suck an egg. Happy Purim!

    My sentiment as well although I would have said it differently. 😉

    Purim Sameach

  33. Bob says: Stay strong and NEVER give up land for peace or you will end up with neither land or peace

    Sage advice!!!

  34. Some Advice to Israel from my UK perpective

    Does anyone care about the Sikhs who were displaced by the creation (land grab) of Pakistan in the Punjab which had been the homeland of the Sikh people for centuries, or Assyrian Christians, or Coptic Christians in Egypt.

    Let Israel be a beacon to the world that the Islamic Juggernaut and their rotten Oil money can’t have it all their own way all the time.

    And do not feel bad about it. There is NOT nor has there EVER BEEN another community of people that has lived peacefully with muslims.

    Stay strong and NEVER give up land for peace or you will end up with neither land or peace

  35. Some Jewish scholars have warned that we will come to a time when all the illusions of the secular Jewish leaders will be exposed as a total failure. That NO amount of concessions will ever satisfy the nations. That all the promises of our leaders of achieving peace though more concessions and more agreements will end up placing Israel at risk for destruction. They are moving towards despair and may eventually propose that the Jews of Israel surrender and consider a return to exile – assuming of course that any country will want them.
    We can also see how some American Jews are already sounding defeatist and are willing to blame Israel for the failure to achieve peace.
    In reality it is our corrupt Jewish leadership that is again betraying us to our mortal enemies. We are in danger of another holocaust and deep down many are beginning to sense it.
    The only alternative, in my opinion is to take seriously Deuteronomy chapter 28. (When all else fails, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!)