20100419

Memorial Day for Israel's fallen - rings close to home for some Jewish-Americans

The Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, opened memorial events ahead of Monday's Yom ha Zikaron, Israel's memorial day for fallen soldiers and victoms of terrorism,by placing an Israeli flag on the grave of the most recent fallen soldier, the late Maj. Eliraz Peretz. Maj. Peretz was a deputy battalion commander in the Golani Brigade who was killed three weeks ago in an exchange of fire in the Kissufim area, and is now buried in the military cemetery at Mount Herzl.


Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schaefer of Santa Barbara, CA remembers his son, American-born Avi Gross-Shaefer, who served in the Israel Defense Force for 3-years specializing in counter-terrorism, and worked with special units in both the Israeli and American military. Avi was killed 2-months ago at Brown Univ in Providence, R.I., hit by a car, while studying and creating a curriculum in Israel-Palestinian conflict resolution.

(A Joo-Tube exclusive production for DemoCast).

20100415

Tehran: If Iran is attacked, nuclear devices will go off in American cities

This warning, along with an announcement that Iran would join the world's nuclear club within a month, raised the pitch of Iranian anti-US rhetoric to a new high Tuesday, April 13, as 47 world leaders gathered in Washington for President Barack Obama's Nuclear Security Summit. The statement published by Kayhan said: "If the US strikes Iran with nuclear weapons, there are elements which will respond with nuclear blasts in the centers of America's main cities." For the first time, debkafile's military sources report, Tehran indicated the possibility of passing nuclear devices to terrorists capable of striking inside the United States.

Without specifying whether those elements would be Iranian or others, Tehran aimed at the heart of the Nuclear Security Summit by threatening US cities with nuclear terror.


Debkafile's Iranian sources report that Tehran is playing brinkmanship to demonstrate that the Washington summit, from which Iran and North Korea were excluded, failed before it began, because terrorist elements capable of striking inside the US had already acquired nuclear devices for that purpose.


Although Iran has yet to attain operational nuclear arms, our military sources believe it does possess the makings of primitive nuclear devices or "dirty bombs."

In an interview ahead of the summit, President Obama warned: "If there was ever a detonation in New York City, or London, or Johannesburg, the ramifications... would be devastating."



In another shot at the summit, Behzad Soltani, deputy director of Iran's Atomic Commission, announced Tuesday: "Iran will join the world nuclear club within a month in a bid to deter possible attacks on the country." He added: "No country would even think about attacking Iran once it is in the club."

20100412

Mayor Ed Koch: "American Jews are perilously silent again"

"Deja vu" by Judith Apter Klinghoffer in History News Network

Ed Koch was wrong to run around Florida personally vouching that Barack Obama would be safe for Israel. He should have known better. At least, he is man enough to admit as much. He is also right to remind Americans, most especially Jews, that once again they are cowering in shameful silence.
"I weep today because my president, Barack Obama, in a few weeks has changed the relationship between the U.S. and Israel from that of closest of allies to one in which there is an absence of trust on both sides.

... Our closest ally - the one with the special relationship with the U.S., has been demeaned and slandered, held responsible by the administration for our problems in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. The plan I suspect is to so weaken the resolve of the Jewish state and its leaders that it will be much easier to impose on Israel an American plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leaving Israel's needs for security and defensible borders in the lurch.

I believe President Obama's policy is to create a whole new relationship with the Arab states of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, and Iraq as a counter to Iran - the Tyrannosaurus Rex of the Muslim world which we are now prepared to see in possession of a nuclear weapon. If throwing Israel under the bus is needed to accomplish this alliance, so be it.

I am shocked by the lack of outrage on the part of Israel's most ardent supporters. The members of AIPAC, the chief pro-Israel lobbying organization in Washington, gave Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a standing ovation after she had carried out the instructions of President Obama and, in a 43-minute telephone call, angrily hectored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.


Members of Congress in both the House and Senate have made pitifully weak statements against Obama's mistreatment of Israel, if they made any at all. The Democratic members, in particular, are weak. They are simply afraid to criticize President Obama. What bothers me most of all is the shameful silence and lack of action by community leaders - Jew and Christian. Where are they?

If this were a civil rights matter, the Jews would be in the mall in Washington protesting with and on behalf of our fellow American citizens. I asked one prominent Jewish leader why no one is preparing a march on Washington similar to the one in 1963 at which I was present and Martin Luther King's memorable speech was given? His reply was "Fifty people might come."

Remember the 1930s? Few stood up. They were silent. Remember the most insightful statement of one of our greatest teachers, Rabbi Hillel: "If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"

We have indeed stood up for everyone else. When will we stand up for our brothers and sisters living in the Jewish state of Israel?

If Obama is seeking to build a siege ramp around Israel, the Jews of modern Israel will not commit suicide. They are willing to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinians, but they will not allow themselves to be bullied into following self-destructive policies.

To those who call me an alarmist, I reply that I'll be happy to apologize if I am proven wrong. But those who stand silently by and watch the Obama administration abandon Israel, to whom will they apologize?

20100407

Global thinker, George Gilder: 'Every modern individual has a personal stake in protecting Israel's safety'

'It is in the vital self-interest of all Americans to protect Israel - an extension of Silicon Valley and human progress,' attests economist and futurist George Gilder. The microchips of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, so many of which are designed at Intel Corp's design center in Israel is just one of many examples of how vital keeping Israel stable is to the condition of our world.



Mr. Gilder, author of "The Israel Test," elucidates how being an ally to Israel benefits the human condition - via medical research & cures, communications technology, security intelligence, and economic stability. Filmed at Los Angeles' Sinai Temple; interviewed by Rabbi David Wolpe; question and answer period led by AIPAC Southern Pacific Region's Elliot Brandt, concluded by American Freedom Alliance's Avi Davis.  Mr. Gilder emphasizes civilization's interest in safeguarding Israel from delegitimization from political and economic rivals, and the Obama Administration's mid-east policies.

20100404

Caroline Glick plays out the ominous endgame of Obama's obsession with Israel and laxity towards Iran

Center for Security Policy's Sr. Middle East fellow, Caroline Glick, explains why the Obama administration's policies towards Iran and Israel are counterproductive for the security of the world. Ms. Glick explains why it is critical, in her view, for the world to deny Iran the development of nuclear weapons - at any cost (and why Obama's focus on Israel diverts and distracts global attention to the world's detriment).