We're In The Army Now

Well, for the next six months postings are going to be a bit erratic. More erratic than normal that is. Yes, the Camel is off to Tzahal (the Israel Defence Forces) to fend off hordes of marauding Arabs from Israel's borders. Also, if you hear of any mysterious explosions in Damascus or Tehran during the next six months you'll know who's behind them, if you know what I mean, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, nod's as good as a wink to a blind man...or something.

But never fear, the Camel will return, probably as grouchy and irrascible as ever and the Punctillious Penguin may be posting in his stead, although that remains to be see as the Penguin himself may be joining the Camel in the army menagerie defending the borders of our land...well, at least making some coffee for the people defending the borders of our land.

Anyways, as Prince George said to Blackadder "Toodle ooo and all that".


He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God, from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.

May the Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighters from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.

May He lead our enemies under our soldiers' sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is the Lord your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.

Now let us respond: Amen.

You Damn Skippy!

The Israeli Supreme Court just ruled that targeted killings are ok. However, legal expert that I am, I disagree with the way the three-justice panel came this conclusion. The court said that terrorist operatives are not legally defined as combatants and therefore must be considered civilians, but are nonetheless not afforded the same protections granted to innocent civilians under international law. Frankly, this confuses me. Israel is fighting an undeclared terrorist / guerrilla insurgency and anyone involved in those operations, be it planning them, directing them or carrying them out, is clearly an enemy combatant and therefore a legitimate military target. How can these people be considered civilians simply because when they carry their guns, bombs, anti-tank missiles and RPG’s they’re not wearing uniforms and haven’t officially declared war? Who cares, they’re committing hostile acts against Israeli civilians and soldiers, what else does one need to know. They know the risks they take when they engage in such activities and they have to be willing to pay the price for the relentless violence they perpetrate.

"Ok Ehud, let me go now. The camera's are on us."

Sign Petition to Excommunicate Neturei Karta

Arye Friedman, Ahron Cohen and Jew-hater. Telling the differene is admittedly not easy (from left to right if you were couldn't figure it out)

Click here to sign the petiton to excommunicate this twisted group of traitors and collaborators against the Jewish People

The infamous Neturei Karta have unbelievably also attended this sick conference. I never cease to be disgusted and outraged when I hear about the activities of these idiots and I think it's time we did something about them.

The Guardian reports "Moshe Ayre Friedman, an Austrian rabbi, argued that the figure of six million Jewish dead had come from a prophecy by Theodore Herzl, founder of modern Zionism, long before the second world war. He said recent research suggested the true figure was about one million. "Politically and historically, the land of Palestine doesn't belong to the Jews and should be returned to Palestinians," he said."

More on Iranian Students Protest

Placard reads: 'Fascist President, Polytechnich is not your place'

As it's such a fascinating and positive story I thought I'd post up some other comments made by the students at their protest against Ahmadinejad and the Holocasust Denial Conference currently being staged in Tehran and being attended by assorted fascists, Nazi's, Holocaust deniers and multifarious scum.

The Times reported one student saying that the conference “has brought to our country Nazis and racists from around the world”

The L.A. Times wrote that a slogan used by the students was "Fascist president, the Polytechnic is not a place for you."

AFP reported that "Between 2,000 and 3,000 students also demonstrated at Tehran University on Wednesday to mark students' day, chanting slogans such as "for freedom and against despotism",ISNA reported at the time.

CNN reported that a student, "who witnessed the incident and did not want to be identified, told CNN that the protesting students interrupted Ahmadinejad's speech with slogans, including "Death to the dictator," "Get lost Basijis" -- a reference to right-wing students who support the government -- "Get lost liars" -- referring to the state-run press -- and "Political prisoners must be freed."

With unbelievably Orwellian audacity Ahmadinejad said in response to the protests
"We have resisted dictatorship for many years -- from before the 1979 Islamic Revolution," Ahmadinejad said, according to the agency. "Nobody can bring back a dictatorship even in the name of freedom."

I guess he's forgetting that Iran is ruled absolutely by the Theocratic dictatorship of the Ayatollah and the Council of Guardians

Iraq Study Group Report, Very Silly

It is incomprehensible to me how sane rational people can think that the Israeli-Arab conflict is linked to the sectarian violence in Iraq. I mean, what are these people actually smoking? America invaded Iraq one hundred and twenty-one years after Leon Pinsker published Autoemancipation, one hundred and seven years since Herzl wrote Der Judenstadt, one hundred and six years after the First Zionist Congress, fifty-five years after the establishment of the state of Israel, thirty-six years after the Six-Day War and three years after the Palestinians rejected a two-state solution and launched their murderous, terrorist war against Israeli civilians. How, in the pit of Hades, can the two be related, hmmm?

The truth is that I don’t think that even these capitulators and appeasers believe it. It just makes good political sense to say these things as it’s the popular, in-vogue thing to say and provides a scape-goat for the disaster in Iraq.

The other nonsense, about talking with Iran and Syria, is also, well, nonsense. These states are run by tyrannical, oppressive regimes who are cock-a-hoop at the moment because America is so hamstrung in Iraq. They see the political weakness of Bush’s administration and his inability to take any further harsh action and are therefore running amok in the Middle East, funding, arming and hosting terrorists, starting wars, assassinating people they don’t like, threatening oil-embargoes and building nuclear bombs. Iran in particular is run by a bunch of theocrats, religiously and ideologically devoted to destroying the State of Israel, removing all American influence from the region and establishing itself as the regional hegemon. Negotiation and compromise with these nutjobs is like trying to negotiate with a hungry crocodile, who's got a really bad case of tooth ache and has come from a particularly bad day at the swamp, to find his supper's not been cooked, his laundry's not been done, the kids are playing up and his wife's gone down river for a drink with her friends. I.e., not likely to succeed

Iraq Study Group Report, Stupid

Barry Rubin tells it like it is on the nonsensical Iraq Study Group Report.

“Let's focus on what the report says about the Arab-Israeli conflict...The section on this issue is just silly....

THE REPORT concludes that:

1. The Arab-Israeli conflict is inextricably linked to Iraq.

Really? I can't think of a single issue in the region it is less linked to. Iraq is about an internal struggle for power. The radicals are not extremists because of the conflict. By regional standards, nobody in Iraq even talks much about the conflict. This is repeating a mantra, not looking at the facts.

In this context, negotiations lead to violence because the extremists want to ensure the talks don't succeed. Unfortunately, those radicals include both the Palestinian and Syrian leaderships. Like it or not, there can be no diplomatic progress until the radicals are defeated.

2. The most important thing right now is for everyone to negotiate since it was the breakdown in talks that led to violence.

Wrong again. It was the refusal to make an agreement that led to the breakdown in talks, and to violence. The extremists don't want serious talks because they want victory, not compromise; or, to put it another way, the kind of gains they want are not those achieved by bargaining (West Bank/Gaza Palestinian state, return of the Golan Heights) but by fighting (demagoguery, holding onto power, destroying Israel)...Like it or not, there can be no diplomatic progress until the radicals are defeated.

3. A negotiated peace would strengthen Mahmoud Abbas.

Do these people pay any attention to the Middle East? To obtain peace, Abbas would have to make concessions. Making the needed concessions would destroy him. To make peace, Abbas would have to enforce law and order as well as stopping terrorism.

He is incapable of doing that. To get a peace treaty, Abbas would need to suppress Hamas, which he can neither do nor even try to do. Is that so hard to understand?

ANY COLLEGE undergraduate who has taken a couple of courses on the Middle East should understand the points above. (They probably don't because of the way the region is taught in universities, but you get my point.)

The only way this kind of thinking is going to damage the radical forces is if they fall down and hurt themselves from laughing so hard”.

Iranian Students Burn Pictures of Ahmadinejad

Fascinating report here about Iranian students trying to shout down their maniac, racist, Holocaust denying, Genocide aspiring President. I have concerns about their saftey though.

“Iranian students on Monday interrupted a speech by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Amir Kabir University in Teheran, Fars news agency reported.

The students interrupted the president's speech by shouting, "Death to the Dictator," and even tried to storm the podium, but were prevented by other students...

The students were reportedly taken out of the hall.

Eyewitnesses said that the protesting students also burnt pictures of the president on the university compound”.

Palestinians Hit Bottom of Moral Pit, and Keep Digging

This morning, in a drive by shooting, unidentified Palestinian gunmen shot and killed three children of Baha Balousha, a Fatah security official who led a crackdown on Hamas ten years ago. One Palestinian official said "The killers knew Baha was not in the car because he never drove his children to school. They couldn't get to him to kill him, so they killed his children instead". Another opinion has it that, the target was Balousha himself, noting that the windows on the car were blacked out and the gunmen therefore could not see who was inside and also that was the target of a esacped assassination last September.

From Russia With Love

Just thought people would be interested in this excerpt of a masterful summation of Russia's aggressive foreign policy, written by an up and coming political commentator. For the full version click here

""I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade". Thus quipped the Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great, who stamped Russian authority onto the international stage, seizing vast swathes of territory and establishing Russia as a formidable power in the middle of the eighteenth century. It appears that Vladimir Putin has taken her example to heart.

Buoyed up by high energy prices, Putin has embarked on an aggressive foreign policy agenda which seeks to re-establish Russia as a pre-eminent international power in opposition to what it perceives to be American and European hegemony. This foreign policy agenda is based around two primary goals, namely tightening Russian control over the former Soviet Republics and tightening alliances and friendships with like-minded states and in areas of strategic importance.
To Israel's detriment, it appears that Moscow has identified the Middle East as a primary region through which to recapture its former international significance. Russia has sought to present itself to the Arabs as a more neutral arbiter than the U.S. in order to increase its international influence in this strategic region of the world".

Pinch Me, I Must Be Dreaming, There'll Be Pigs Flying Next

Please read this paean to free-market economics and Economic reform from...Ha’aretz!!!. I know!!! Soon this bastion of leftist thinking will be advocating annexing the shtachim and population exchange. Ok, perhaps not, but this is still spectacular.

“There is not an economist in the whole world who could have predicted the current economic situation. After an unsuccessful war in Lebanon and enormous military outlays, accompanied by strategic threats from Iran and Syrian saber-rattling, after missiles on Sderot and a fragile cease-fire - despite all of this, the Israeli economy in 2006 is demonstrating extraordinary strength...

There is a single explanation for all the good things described here: A responsible, free-market economic policy expressed through budgetary restraint, a small deficit, tax cuts, reforms, privatization and opening the economy to the free movement of goods, services and capital, or in short: Less government, more business.

This is the policy that has been implemented in Israel since 1985, by all governments, but it was greatly accelerated by then finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2003. We are now reaping the fruits of his cuts, reforms and privatizations. We can now also thank the god of politics who prevented Amir Peretz from implementing his plans in 2003 - more taxes, more government, no reforms, no privatization....

Give it a chance, guys. Give the economy a chance to continue to grow. Stop with the populist headlines, do not block the reforms and growth. Only growth can create jobs and give the government the money - the taxes - needed to take care of society's ills. Only a wealthy state can, and must, take care of its poor”.

Tanks for Nothing

IDF tanks to be fitted with advanced anti-missile systems

The Israel Defense Forces will begin equipping its tanks with an advanced, active protection system capable of countering the latest anti-tank missiles. The locally developed system, known by its export name as Trophy, will be installed on Merkava Mark IV tanks, partly in response to the experience of the recent war in Lebanon. The new defense system creates a "canopy" that surrounds the tank, identifies the threat of the incoming anti-tank missile, and destroys that missile's warhead before it strikes.

The trophy system was ready for use years ago. The question we should be asking, is why this system was not fitted to Israeli tanks before the IDF's emabarassing debacle in Lebanon this summer. Israel... get a grip! Not just on your tank tyres, on the ineffective security doctrine that is so badly letting this counrty down.

WOMB FOR IMPROVEMENT

Arab, Jewish birthrates in Jerusalem equal for first time

For the first time ever, in 2005 the Arab and Jewish birthrates in Jerusalem were equivalent at 3.9 children per woman. An American-Israeli research report recently submitted to Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski found that the Arab fertility rate in Jerusalem has dropped in recent years, while the fertility rate among Jewish women in the capital has risen.

Hooray, for oneg shabbat!