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6/26/2010 at 2:48:00 PM - 6/27/2010 at 5:52:08 AM
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How Turkey was lost by Carl in Jerusalem (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 4:31:00 PM
How Turkey was lost This is part of a very long piece in Commentary by Michael Rubin that attempts to piece together how the West totally missed the signals that Turkey was going Islamist. A decade ago, Turks saw themselves in a camp with the United States, Western Europe, and Israel; today Turkish self-identity places the country firmly in a camp led by Iran, Syria, Sudan, and Hamas. Turkey may be a NATO member, but polls nevertheless show it to be the world’s most anti-American country (although, to be fair, the Pew Global Attitudes Project did not conduct surveys in Libya or North Korea). Nor do Turks differentiate between the U.S. government and the American people: they hate Americans almost as much as they hate Washington. This is no accident. From almost day one, Erdogan has encouraged, and his allies have financed, a steady stream of antiAmerican and anti-Semitic incitement. Certainly, many Turks opposed the liberation of Iraq in 2003, but this was largely because Erdogan bombarded them with antiAmerican incitement before Parliament’s vote, which withdrew the support promised to the operation. Much of Erdogan’s incitement, however, cannot be dismissed as a dispute over the Iraq war. In 2004, Yeni Safak, a newspaper Erdogan endorsed, published an enemies list of prominent Jews. In 2006, not only did Turkish theaters headline Valley of the Wolves, a fiercely anti-American and antiSemitic movie that featured a Jewish doctor harvesting the organs of dead Iraqis, but the prime minister’s wife also publicly endorsed the film and urged all Turks to see it. Turkish newspapers reported that prominent AKP supporters and Erdogan aides financed its production. While much of the Western world boycotted Hamas in the wake of the 2006 Palestinian elections in order to force it to renounce violence, Erdogan not only extended a hand to the group but
also welcomed Khaled Mashaal, leader of its most extreme and recalcitrant faction, as his personal guest. The question for policymakers, however, should not be whether Turkey is lost but rather how Erdogan could lead a slow-motion Islamic revolution below the West’s radar. This is both a testament to Erdogan’s skill and a reflection of Western delusion. Before taking power, Erdogan and his advisers cultivated Western opinion makers. He concentrated not on American pundits who found U.S. policy insufficiently leftist and sympathetic to the Islamic world but rather on natural critics, hawkish American supporters of Turkey and Israel who helped introduce Erdogan confidantes to Washington policymakers. After consolidating power, however, the AKP did not cultivate Jewish and pro-Israel groups, but they did little to sever the relationships. Turks traditionally looked kindly on Israel and Jews; of all the peoples of the Ottoman Empire, the Jews in Palestine were one of the few who had not revolted against the Ottoman Sultan. In the 1980s and 1990s, Turkey and Israel had much in common: both were democracies amid a sea of autocracy. They enjoyed close diplomatic, economic, and military relations. So many Israeli tourists visited Turkey that Hebrew signs became ubiquitous in Turkish cities. It was not uncommon to hear Hebrew in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar or in restaurants along the Bosporus. Against such a backdrop, many Jewish groups turned a blind eye to warning signs of Erdogan’s antipathy and rationalized Turkey’s outreach to Hamas and Hezbollah, Syria, Sudan, and Iran. It was not until Erdogan exploded at the 2009 Davos World Forum, telling Israeli President Shimon Peres “you know well how to kill,” storming off the stage, and subsequently accusing Israel of genocide, that Jewish groups awakened to the change that had come over Turkey. Much of the blame for failing to recognize Erdogan’s agenda also lies in the West’s intellectual approach to radical Islam. For too many, the
headscarf was the only metric by which to judge Islamist encroachment. For Erdogan, however, the scarf was a symbol; the state was the goal. Even after Erdogan began to eviscerate the checks and balances of Turkish society, European officials and American diplomats remained in denial. Certainly moral equivalency played a role: as Erdogan asked last October, why should Turkey accept the Western definition of secularism? For too many Western officials, however, to acknowledge Turkey’s turn would be to admit the failure of moderate Islamism. To criticize Erdogan’s motivations would be racist. … Turkey today is an Islamic republic in all but name. Washington, its European allies, and Jerusalem must now come to terms with Turkey as a potential enemy. Alas, even if the AKP were to exit the Turkish stage tomorrow, the changes Erdogan’s party have made appear irreversible. While Turkey was for more than half a century a buffer between Middle Eastern extremism and European liberalism, today it has become an enabler of extremism and an enemy of liberalism. Rather than fight terrorists, Turkey embraces them. Today’s rhetorical support may become tomorrow’s material support. On the world stage, too, Turkey is a problem. Rather than help diffuse Iran’s nuclear program, Erdogan encourages it. Turkey’s anti-Americanism, its dictatorship, and the inability of Western officials to acknowledge reality endanger security. Hard choices lay ahead: as a NATO member, Turkey is privy to U.S. weaponry, tactics, and intelligence. Any provision of assistance to Turkey
today, however, could be akin to transferring it to Hamas, Sudan, or Iran. Does President Obama really want to deliver the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to a hostile Turkey, Iran’s chief regional defender, as promised in 2014? Should Turkey even remain in NATO? After all, half a century ago, NATO learned to live without France. Losing Turkey is tragic, but failing to recognize its loss can only compound the tragedy. The worst outcome, however, would be to let strategic denial block assessment of lessons learned. As mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan quipped, “‘Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.” Perhaps, in hindsight, the West’s mistake was to ignore the danger of Erdogan’s ascendance into the driver’s seat. Read it all. When you’re done, you’ll realize that there’s nothing left to be saved with Turkey. It’s all over. And you’ll wonder why the Israeli government doesn’t just shut down the embassy and bring the diplomats home, and whether the US is really going to allow Turkey to stay in NATO and deliver the F-35 JSF to it in 2014. posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:31 AM Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Fish Tales When I casually read the headline that Sec. of State Hillary Clinton was embroiled in a gefilte fish tariff hullabaloo, I thought it was a fish tale conceived of in the spirit of Purim. Nope. Accordi... • Uncle Moishy at Pesach with the Perls’ 2006 A video summary of the Pesach with the Perl's program in Grand Island, NY. Our hotel is located right outside of Niagara Falls. Come for Pesach! Enjoy the food! Take in... • Surprise: The Left hates India for the same reason it hates Israel Surprise: The Left hates India for the same reason it hates Israel This analysis about the American Left's disenchantment with India rings true (... Original post source
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Open Borders, Open Pit by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 8:26:00 PM
New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg seems to have a new exit strategy. After trying to spread rumors that suggested he might run for President, in the hopes that one party or the other would give him the V.P. spot, failing and struggling through a third mayoral election that he promised would never happen against a candidate who never bothered to show up and still almost beat him, Bloomberg needs a way out. Sure he’s done a fine job amusing himself by scattering modern art atrocities painted day glo colors on the city hall lawn. He’s made Manhattan impassable for traffic, after Albany shot him down on his commuter tax. But waging a war on good taste and cars just isn’t enough. Nor is enthusiastically backing the Ground Zero mosque, spending ridiculous amounts of money overhauling basic city infrastructure like bus stations and firehouses to meet with his idea of architectural standards (transparent and on an angle usually). Now it’s immigration reform. Bloomberg has announced the Partnership for a New American Economy, which is a fancy way of saying that he’d like to legalize a whole lot of Mexican illegal aliens which will somehow lead to a “New American Economy”, which is good because anything “new” must be better than old. Like New Coke. Or New Strain of Diphtheria. Or New Kids on the Block. Joining him are a bunch of CEO’s, including Rupert Murdoch. It’s not exactly a big secret that the are two reasons we have open borders. The first reason is the Democratic party’s reliance on importing dependent minority groups to build a voting base. The second reason is that the Republican party spends too much time answering to corporations who want open borders. The Chamber of Commerce is a big proponent of open borders, which makes Bloomberg’s collection of CEO’s from Disney (does the Mouse really need migrant workers?), Marriot, Hewlett Packard, Boeing, American Express, Morgan Stanley and the New York Times (migrants could probably do a better and cheaper job of writing their articles) and Rupert Murdoch of Newscorp. DOOCY: The country is so gridlocked around this. What can business do that Washington, DC has not been effective in doing so far? MURDOCH: Well you just gotta keep the pressure on the congressmen. You gotta do it on the press and on the television. It’s a political thing. They gotta fess up to it. [...] You gotta recognize that there
are millions of bright and intelligent people around the world — whether they are in China or in Hungary or in Germany or something — who want to come to America and live the American Dream. DOOCY: Right, but they can’t. [...] This is a political hot potato. How do get past the partisanship that is out there and is so biting for a while? MURDOCH: I think we can show to the public the benefit of having migrants and the jobs that go with them. So we’re once again talking about major corporations lobbying congress to ignore the will of the people. But Murdoch completely sidesteps the fact that importing migrant workers does not mean importing “bright and intelligent people”, it means importing people to do bad and cheap labor, so companies can cut labor costs and pass them on to the taxpayer funding the social services for the migrants. That’s already the situation that exists today. I’m all for importing millions of bright and intelligent people, though perhaps not during a major recession. But that’s not what either Democrats or Republican big business advocates want. What they want are cheap and easy people, who can be exploited on the job and at the voting booth. That’s why immigration quotas look the way they do. That’s why it’s much easier for people from the Third World to move here, than for Europeans. Immigration “reform” has become a euphemism for open borders with Mexico. And you only need one look at some of what’s going on in Mexico and now in border states to see why that’s a bad idea. This doesn’t bother CEO’s who live in gated communities, get driven to work in limousines and think they’re immune from the problem. Whose exposure to Mexico is through high end resorts
and servile waiting staffs who are happy to have a job. And that’s exactly the culture they think they’re bringing to America. Cheap labor catering to their whims. They have no idea what reality is, and they don’t care. Bloomberg more cynically makes the case that companies are outsourcing because of immigration restrictions “Immigrants have always been an essential part of America’s economic strength,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “This coalition was formed to change our current immigration policy, which is undermining our economy and threatening our status as the world’s leading power. Too many innovative new companies, and the jobs they create, are being formed overseas because entrepreneurs can’t get a green card to start them here. We need to break the legislative stalemate that has taken over Congress if we want the U.S. to remain competitive in the 21st century.” Again Bloomberg, like Murdoch conflates HB1 type workers (which is another issue) with what he’s actually proposing, which is the legalization of illegal aliens. We don’t have a lot of illegal aliens holding down those kinds of jobs. And America has booming immigration numbers, yet somehow corporations are still outsourcing. Now with huge unemployment figures, are employers really leaving America because they can’t find workers? Is it because we’re denying citizenship to some sort of specialists that can only be found abroad? That’s not the reality of the situation. Corporations outsource because of the regulatory environment in the US, which applies high taxes and minimum wages. You don’t need a large human resources staff in China. You don’t need to pay them more
than a fraction of what they’re paid in the US. You don’t even need to care if they kill themselves. While yuppies crowd into lines to be the first to get the latest iPhones, those phones are made by Foxconn workers, hundreds of thousands of migrants, crowded into dormitories, subjected to regulations that would not even pass muster in an American prison, who were being paid around 135 dollars a month. Pressure on Apple and Foxconn has doubled salary. Which just means that sooner or later, Apple will move on to a country with even cheaper labor. This is likely to happen once China becomes middle class and workers get used to a base salary and some expectations of how they should be treated. This already happened in America. And the only place the clock is turned back is around illegal aliens. Which is exactly why businesses love them. But then they demand that the government legalize them and take them off their hands. And then more illegal aliens are brought in to replace them. Some corporations are just looking to squash competition from companies that do employ illegal aliens. Others genuinely believe this is some kind of solution, which means that they are completely in denial. For the mayors the payoff is obvious. Legalization means more federal social services dollars and more voters come election day, to shoulder aside those pesky natives who don’t want to pay more taxes or see their city implode. As corporations pass the cost to the cities, the cities want to pass the cost to the Federal government, while benefiting from ladling out federal money to supporters in ethnic communities, OPEN page 5
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The UN must try Iran’s 1988 murderers by NoahDavidSimon (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 8:21:00 PM
I never thought there would be a U.K. Guardian article that I thought was worth reposting, but it would seem the information I had that made me suspicious of the Green Revolution was true. The leaders of the resistance are part of the same genocidal absolutist regime that now hunts them down. When will the populists realize that they are pushing hope without reason is the formula for despair and no hope. So why were the so called progressives trying to market this guy as a good Revolutionary? Wasn’t Arafat of Palestine bad enough? The mass murderers of 1988 now hold power in Tehran. The world must make them face justice Geoffrey Robertson guardian.co.uk This weekend marks the first anniversary of the death of democracy in Iran – the rigged election which the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared lost by reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Afterwards protesters were shot dead in the street and taken for torture to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison; several have been hanged as mohareb– enemies of God. This intolerance of dissent should have come as no surprise: this is the same regime that got away with the murder of thousands of political prisoners – and has never been called to account. It happened in the summer of 1988, after the war with Iraq ended in a bitter truce. Iran’s prisons were full of students sentenced for protesting against Ayatollah Khomeini in the early 1980s – Marxists and leftists of all varieties and supporters of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation – a guerrilla movement with a different version of Islam. They had been sorted by prison officials into groups of those who remained “steadfast” in their political beliefs or who were apostates. The regime decided they should be eradicated so they would not trouble the postwar government, and Khomeini issued a secret fatwa authorising their execution. Revolutionary guards descended on the prisons and a “death committee” (an Islamic judge, a revolutionary prosecutor and an intelligence ministry official) took a minute or so to identify each prisoner, declare them mohareb and direct them to the gallows erected in the prison auditorium, where they were hanged six at a time. Later their bodies were doused in disinfectant and transported
in meat trucks to mass graves. Their belongings were returned in plastic bags to their families three months later, but the regime still refuses to reveal the location of the graves and continues to forbid relatives from gathering at one site which has been identified in a Tehran cemetery. Comparisons between atrocities are invidious, but this involved almost as many casualties as Srebrenica and was a cold-blooded killing by the state of prisoners after the war had ended. It bears some comparison to the death marches of allied prisoners at the end of the second world war – the Japanese generals responsible were sentenced to death at the Tokyo trials. So who was responsible for the Iranian prison slaughter? Ayatollah Khomeini is dead. But the three leading figures of his regime are still very much alive, and available to be put on trial in an international court. The then president, Ali Khamenei, is now Iran’s Supreme Leader – the man who endorsed last year’s rigged election. Ali Rafsanjani, still a powerful political player, was then the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, who were
ordered to carry out the killings. Then there is the man who in 1988 was Iran’s prime minister – Mir Hussein Mousavi, today’s reform movement leader. Mousavi was challenged at election meetings last year by chants of “1988 but has declined to tell what he knows of the mass murder. In the course of an inquiry conducted for the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation I have come across an interview he gave to Austrian television in December 1988. In answer to allegations Amnesty International was making, he dishonestly said the prisoners were planning an uprising: “We had to crush the conspiracy – in that respect we have no mercy.” He appealed to western intellectuals to support the right of revolutionary governments to take “decisive action” against enemies. It is an irony that the regime he defended with such hypocrisy now crushes his own supporters without mercy. But this is what happens when political and military leaders are vouchsafed impunity. The UN did not bother about Saddam Hussein’s use
of poison gas at Halabja earlier that year, and it turned a deaf ear to Amnesty reports about the prison slaughter (Iranian diplomats claimed the deaths had occurred in battle). But there is no statute of limitations on prosecuting crimes against humanity, and the mass murder of prisoners already serving sentences for political protests must count as one of the gravest of unpunished crimes. The fact that they were killed ostensibly because they did not believe in God – the God of the ayatollah’s revolution – makes their slaughter a form of genocide: the destruction of a group because of its attitude to religion. Most of the judges and officials who implemented the fatwa are still in high office in Tehran – under a supreme leader who, when asked about killing prisoners replied: “Do you think we should have given them sweets?” There is still time for the UN security council to enforce international law by setting up a court to try the perpetrators of the prison massacres. This may be a better way to deal with a theocracy whose behaviour in 1988 provides the best reason for concern over its future behaviour with nuclear weapons. • Geoffrey Robertson QC’s report The Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran 1988 can be downloaded here. • This article was amended on 8 June 2010. Due to an editing error, the original incorrectly described the MKO – Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation – as “a guerrilla sunniMarxist movement”. This has been corrected. via guardian.co.uk Posted via email from noahdavidsimon’s posterous So this was your freedom fighter? Try supporting Israel. They have Democracy already. Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Chabad UI: Shabbat shalom! Join the Tiechtel's & Chabad on Campus family for services, dinner, friends and fun, or all of the above!! Chabad at UI invites you to Shabbat services &/or dinner this... • The Virtual Lesson, “Beginning to study Zohar” , Lesson 15 Lecturer: Rav Michael LaitmanDate: 2010-0307Video: ENG 57MB Audio: ENG 10.16MB ... • Stupid Jews: Israel upgrades Turkish tanks Stupid Jews: Israel upgrades Turkish tanks Israel has completed the upgrade of 170 40-year old Turkish tanks to the state of the art (Hat Tip: Sh... Original post source
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Israeli protesters press Binyamin Netanyahu to help free abducted soldier Gilad Shalit by Harriet Sherwood (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 4:06:15 PM
Supporters of the soldier seized by Hamas four years ago begin a march to Jerusalem to secure his freedom Thousands of Israelis are expected to join a 12-day march across the country beginning today to put pressure on their government to secure the release of Gilad Shalit, the soldier abducted by Hamas four years ago. The Shalit family and their supporters will set out from their home in Mitzpe Hila, Galilee, and take a winding route through Israel to Jerusalem. They hope to be joined by artists, musicians, rabbis, activists and “tens of thousands” of ordinary people. On arrival in Jerusalem, Noam Shalit, Gilad’s father, plans to establish a protest tent outside the home of the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, where he has pledged to remain until his son is freed. “We don’t see any alternative after four years of government failure to obtain the release of my son,” Shalit told the Observer. “There have been many, many failures, but now it’s time to put public pressure on the government.” The Shalits yesterday released a video urging Netanyahu to “pay the price” necessary for Gilad’s release. In a direct appeal, Noam Shalit says: “Enough talk. Now is the time for
decisions.” Asked if “the price” – the release of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners – was too high for one soldier, he said: “The price is not our business to deal with.” An opinion poll published on Friday showed that almost 75% of Israelis support the release of Palestinian prisoners serving sentences for militant attacks in return for Shalit’s freedom. His fate has huge resonance in Israel, where military service is a requirement. Most families can identify closely with the Shalits’ loss. Gilad Shalit, then 19, was abducted and two other Israeli soldiers killed when militants burrowed underneath the border in southern Gaza to raid a military post on 25 June, 2006. The Shalit family has asked Hamas to permit an exchange of letters, which has been refused, according to their lawyer Nick Kaufman. The International Red Cross has also been denied access, which Hamas says could reveal the soldier’s location, leading to an Israeli raid or air strike. Hamas last week claimed it had allowed Shalit to watch the France v Mexico World Cup match. Shalit, who has dual Israeli-French nationality, was “very sad” at France’s defeat, Hamas’s al-Aqsa satellite TV station reported. There has been no direct proof-oflife evidence since Hamas released a video of the soldier last autumn, in which he was holding a Palestinian newspaper dated 14 September 2009, in exchange for the release of 20
women prisoners being held by Israel. The Israeli media is backing the renewed Shalit family campaign, with most newspapers urging the government to strike a deal over his release. Intense negotiations – brokered by the German intelligence agency, the BND – to reach an agreement with Hamas foundered earlier this year. Each side blames the other for the impasse. Hamas’s list of prisoners to be released in exchange for Shalit is believed to include Marwan Barghouti, a popular Fatah leader serving five life sentences, and Ahmed Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who Israel believes was behind the assassination of tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001. “A deal is on the table,” said Kaufman. “It was brokered with the full co-operation of both sides. Israel essentially agreed to release the Palestinian prisoners, but to date Hamas hasn’t given a formal response.” According to Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official, negotiations came to a halt after the personal intervention of Netanyahu. Zahar told the Observer he was “fed up” with talking about Shalit but referred to earlier comments he had made blaming the Israelis for the breakdown in negotiations. However, there have also been suggestions that the deal was vetoed by Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader based in Damascus.
Mark Regev, Netanyahu’s spokesman, said: “We have a responsibility as a government to bring back Gilad Shalit. But the prime minister also has a collective responsibility, and to sign on the bottom line of Hamas’s demands would not be fulfilling that.” • Israel • Hamas • Gaza • Binyamin Netanyahu Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Gaza blockade: Israel deports activists from the Rachel Corrie aid … Gaza blockade: Israel deports activists from the Rachel Corrie aid ship In stark contrast to Israel's deadly Gaza flotilla raid last week, no activists aboard t... ... • How To Lead a Passover Seder, Part 2 How To Lead a Passover Seder, Part 2... • Flowers for Religious Holidays – Quality Flower Gifts from Online Florists A respectful gesture during religious festivals is to send a gift or a card. Sending flowers works incredibly well for any religion.There are various flowers associated with part... Original post source
Sanctions are not the solution by Carl in Jerusalem (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 2:48:00 PM
Sanctions are not the solution Congress passed tougher sanctions against Iran this week. We’ve already seen one representative urging President Obama to use the sanctions rather than waive them (and there were others), but the real key here is that the sanctions are not the end but the means for trying to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And when they prove to be insufficient, as is likely to be the case, further action must be taken. We aren’t likely to know whether sanctions are “working,” and the Iranians are quite likely to exploit the additional time to stave off other measures. How are we to know if work stops on the mullahs’ nuclear programs? And if the Iranians declare that they will return to the bargaining table, what is to prevent them, as they did last year, from practicing the
same game of delay as they continue with their plans? The problem, it seems, is not merely the absence of effective tools to force a change in the Iranians’ conduct but also the will and determination to use those tools in a meaningful way. Obama set the pattern last year — withholding support for the Green movement, muting the reaction to the Qom revelation, and allowing deadline after deadline to pass. From all this the mullahs have learned that very little is required to hold the U.S. at bay and that we are overeager to avoid confrontation. At every turn, they have bested Obama and the “international community” and bought themselves breathing room. The sanctions, therefore, are not the solution to the Iranian threat. Rather than congratulating the administration for passing sanctions after nearly a year and a half, Congress and proIsrael groups must make clear that “containment” is not an option and that we will use military force and provide Israel with unconditional
support if necessary. “Passed useless sanctions and allowed Iran to go nuclear” is not a result from which the president, lawmakers, or American Jewry will recover. And it is not an outcome Israelis can tolerate. Indeed. posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:48 AM
Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • In Israel, Building Community With Breakfast Walking through the Arab souk (market) in the Old City of Nazareth feels something like stumbling upon a secret garden. Just a few steps from the throngs of tou... ... • U.S.: 228,000 women have undergone or are at risk for female genital mutilation U.S.: 228,000 women have undergone or are at risk for female genital mutilation ... • Euthanasia: Mercy Killing and Judaism Learn about Euthanasia: Mercy Killing and Judaism. Our sites C y b e r s y n a g o g u e www.esynagogue.org www.jewishconversionchicago.com www.neshamah.org Gail site w w w . g a n s k o k i e . www.jonathanginsburg.net BLOGS... Original post source
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who return the favor by voting for them. Game, set and match. But none of this is good for the economy. Even if we ignore the social issues, this is hardly the time to promote more unemployment or government spending. Bloomberg and the CEO’s are doing the Obama Administration a favor, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if this Partnership for a New American Economy was even solicited by the White House. But their contempt for what the voters actually want is truly stunning. The marketplace does not reward this strange combination of workplace regulation and immigration deregulation. It’s like pouring water through a blocked hose. All you’re going to do is break the hose. That’s what has been happening to the American economy, as businesses import cheap labor in a system where cheap labor is illegal. That has driven the growth of illegal labor and off the books jobs in ethnic communities. But all that means is people using the system’s social services, without paying into it. Immigration “reform” advocates argue that legalization will fix this by having them pay into the system. What they ignore is the fact that the only reason they’re viable, is because they’re economically viable is because they’re not paying into the system. Outsourcing and companies departing for climes with cheaper labor will continue. There may not be much we can do about it, besides
applying tariffs, a notion that would give those same CEO’s fits. But unless we can either automate more efficiently, block cheaper products or educate and organize people that buying more expensive but better made products is the thing to do– the same process will continue. But pushing legalization will accomplish nothing except to help drown the middle class. The south relied on slave labor, which created a wider gap between those on the top and on the bottom. The north relied on immigrant labor in its factories. Some of those immigrants were treated almost as badly as the slaves, but they did have enough mobility to be able to move up or to have their children and grandchildren move up into the middle class. But that same process can no longer work, when the middle class is being taxed to subsidize a dependent lifestyle for the people on the bottom. As a result those in the middle are sinking and those on the bottom have no real incentive to rise. If they want consumer products, there are credit cards. If they want homes, the government will subsidize their mortgage. The American Dream increasingly no longer makes sense, as people live on credit and government entitlements. The big businesses and the government see no problem with any of this. The taxpayer sees half the problem with this picture. But it’s only half the problem. Governments and corporations are
drowning the middle class in reckless spending. The bill keeps being passed along. Illegal immigration is just one snapshot of a much bigger problem, which is the end of responsibility. Where leaders once thought generations ahead, now they hardly think a year ahead. And the mountain of debt rises. Problems aren’t fixed anymore, they’re perpetuated and labeled as wise policies. Money is spent and the bill is passed, and then it’s passed again and again. Until the system breaks down, and then the bill is passed to someone else. Until finally something that is too big to fail, actually does fail, and there’s no one bigger around to bail it out. Real leadership requires recognizing the nature of a problem, and to understand both the positive and negative consequences of every proposed solution. Illegal immigration for cheap labor is the dark side of an American Dream achieved through regulating business. Legalization is as pointless as pointing to a factory’s polluted groundwater runoff and talking up its benefits. It redefines the problem and ignores its negative consequences. That is not leadership. That is spin. And we’re drowning in it. For the Republican party to get serious about stopping illegal immigration, it needs to take a long hard look at big business, and have a serious dialogue with them about the tax based consequences to their own companies of increased social services spending. And for the
Israel News by paraisrael (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 3:15:12 PM
by jamestraceur Israel And Gaza: Life On Both Sides New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright spent three weeks in Gaza late last year. Wright discusses Israel’s recent easing of the Gaza blockade — and explains what it could mean for the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations. Read more on NPR Israel’s chief rabbi: I will ban cruel slaughter Israel’s chief rabbi said he will not certify beef as kosher if the animal was ritually slaughtered using cruel methods. Read more on JTA G8 turns the screw on North Korea, Iran and Israel – Summary Huntsville, Canada – The leaders of
the world’s eight most powerful developed states turned the screw on North Korea, Iran and Israel on Saturday as they concluded a two-day meeting in Canada…. Read more on EARTHtimes.org
Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Israel News by jamestraceur Israel frees Hamas MP held since 2006 Israel on Sunday released one of several Hamas MPs arrested after Gaza militants captured an Israeli soldier in a deadly cross border raid in J... • Israel News by jaime.silva Israel reverses rules on Gaza blockade JERUSALEM – Israel said on Sunday it was easing a land blockade on the Gaza Strip to allow in all goods except for arms and materials used ... • Israel News by jaime.silva Israel drafts updated list of items barred from Gaza - Mon, 21 Jun 2010 PST JERUSALEM – Israel pledged Sunday it will immediately allow all goods into Gaza except weapons and items d...
Republican party to get serious, conservatives need to actually take a hard line on it, instead of letting the Chamber of Commerce and the CATO Institute have the inside track. Because the road we’re going on now has a station coming up, and it’s called Europe. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there. And when we get there, we’ll cease to have a functional economy altogether. All we’ve have are entitlements, subsidies and a half-forgotten dream of former glory. Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Torah Tidbits Shavuot... • Tribes Mezuzah from the Artazia Collection #691 GM OM Each Mezuzah Case is truly like a miniature artwork. Measures 4.25" High by 1.25" wideHand painting, with a variety of materials meticulously arranged insideCan be mounted indoors or outdoors under ... • Fayyad the faker If there is any Palestinian Arab politician who is regarded as untouchable by the Western media, it is PA prime minister Salim Fayyad. Article after article praises him as an economic reformer who is ... Original post source
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Netanyahu’s blunder by Carl in Jerusalem (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 7:22:00 PM
Netanyahu’s blunder Was Prime Minister Netanyahu wrong to ease up on the Gaza blockade? Benjamin Kerstein argues that the mistake wasn’t the easing up but easing up after the flotilla incident. While there is no doubt that he was under immense pressure to ease the blockade, particularly from President Barack Obama, and may have concluded that the blockade is a justifiable sacrifice for the cause of enlisting American support against Iran, none of this mitigates Netanyahu’s responsibility for placing Israel in this ludicrous position. In the first days after the flotilla incident, he played his usual defiant role, laying responsibility for the flotilla violence squarely on the thugs aboard and projecting the image of a resolute statesman unwilling to bow to unjust demands. It took him slightly less than a month to fold, and it is a spectacular fold indeed. He has vindicated Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s brinksmanship in supporting the flotilla, proven to Obama once and for all that Israel can indeed be pushed around, undermined and humiliated Israel’s defenders around the world, and handed the flotilla activists precisely the victory they wanted. They never got close to
Israeli territorial waters, but they succeeded in breaking the blockade nonetheless, and it was Netanyahu, of all people, who led them through. At the same time, it is almost impossible to imagine what the prime minister hopes to gain from his concession. It almost unthinkable that the Obama administration will actively aid him against Iran in the way he hopes. So long as the AKP remains in power, no amount of concessions will appease the Turkish desire to realign itself with Islamic theocracy. The international community has not the slightest intention of treating Israel with anything resembling fairness or sympathy, and as the EU announcement shows, they are more than prepared to pressure Israel for further concessions, each more dangerous than the last. In fact, the only way Netanyahu’s actions make sense is if they are the result of shallow and simplistic wishful thinking, a far cry indeed from Netanyahu’s carefully cultivated media persona as a hardened realist. It must be said that all of this renders a serious judgment on the prime minister; because this is not, unfortunately, the first time this sort of thing has occurred. Throughout his career, Netanyahu has attempted to reap the rewards of defiant, toughminded rhetoric, portraying himself as the one Israeli politician willing to stand up to threats from Israel’s enemies and misguided demands
Rep. Dan Burton: ‘Don’t waive the sanctions’ by Carl in Jerusalem (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 8:38:00 PM
Rep. Dan Burton: ‘Don’t waive the sanctions’ Here’s Representative Dan Burton (R-Ind) urging President Obama not to be like Neville Chamberlain (yes, he makes the comparison outright) and not to waive the sanctions passed by Congress this week. Let’s go to the videotape. posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:38 AM Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Hamas attacked Red Cresecnt – confirmed Early Friday morning I reported that Hamas attacked a Red Crescent headquarters in Gaza,
expelled staff and doctors, and stole files. I predicted that Ma'an wouldn't cover the story until some officia... • Should Israel Cooperate With A UN Investigation? It appears all but certain that the United Nations will approve of an international investigation of Israel's boarding of the "flotilla" ship carrying terrorist related passengers.There is some talk t... • Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany Product DescriptionBetween Dignity and Despair draws on the extraordinary memoirs, diaries, interviews, and letters of Jewish women and men to give us the first intimate portrait of Jewish life in... Original post source
from its friends. But every time this alleged toughness has been put to the test, he has failed spectacularly. From the Hebron Accords and the Wye negotiations during his first term in the late 1990s to the settlement freeze and now the blockade in his second, Netanyahu has said much about his courage and convictions and, in the end, done nothing whatsoever to indicate that he possesses either. Each time serious political pressure has been brought to bear, he has folded, usually in highly ignominious fashion. And each time, Israel has been damaged politically while gaining nothing in return. This time, I fear, is no different. Had Netanyahu simply conceded the blockade from the beginning, the same result would have ensued, and Israel would have been spared the unjust but inevitable criticism that resulted. Instead, the prime minister made a show of sticking to his guns, failing to understand that if you
choose to do so in the face of pressure and controversy, you must do so to the end, and while this may not garner you accolades from others, it will at least gain you their respect. Netanyahu has now lost both, and Israel is the poorer for it. He has a point. I’d rather see Netanyahu stick to his guns. On the ‘blockade.’ On the ’settlement freeze.’ On Jerusalem. Instead, Netanyahu makes a show of doing the right thing and then caves. posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:22 AM Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Tisha beAv ???? ??? – Kinot ????? ????? of ‘Arvit – Montreal Moroccan Daily Halakhot La Halakha Marocaine Quotidienne www.darkeabotenou.com Download the full hour Téléchargez ici: www.sendspace.com 1. Divré / Lu Yishqelu 0:00 2. ... • Rememberance day in Israel – May 2006 Air raid siren goes off for 2 minutes and watch as all cars on the main Tel Aviv highway come to a halt, drivers get out and stand at attention - nowhere else in the wo... • The Jewish vote The Jewish vote Israel: Making President Obama Pay a Political Price from Daphne Weisbart on Vimeo. posted by Carl in Jer... Original post source
Overnight music video by Carl in Jerusalem (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 5:51:00 PM
Overnight music video Here’s Lev Tahor singing Yedid Nefesh, which is sung by some on Friday night at the beginning of Kabbalat Shabbat (the prayer welcoming the Sabbath) and by others at the third Sabbath meal as the Sabbath ebbs away. Let’s go to the videotape. posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:51 AM Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Where there’s smoke, there’s fire? Where there's smoke, there's fire? On Friday, the White House denied New York Times columnist Roger Cohen's claim that the United States
will not... • Israeli Human Rights NGO Demands Accounting of Mr. X A few days ago I reported about the sad fate of a prisoner in the Ayalon jail, kept in solitary confinement with no contact with anyone outside or inside the prison (except presumably his interrogator... • SHOFAR CLASS – THE MINISTRY OF THE SHOFAR: By Jim Barbarossa (The Shofar Man) – SEGMENT 5 of 9 Jim Barbarossa (The Shofar Man) teaches, ministers, instructs, and imparts anointing on The Ministry Of The Shofar. This is Part-1, Segment 5 of 9 of the very popular 3... Original post source
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Work accident! by Elder of Ziyon (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 7:33:00 PM
A 24-year old member of the Qassam Brigades, Osama Hassan, died of injuries incurred during an unspecified “jihad mission” on Friday night. No doubt it was of the peaceful jihad type that we hear so much about. You can see lots of pictures of his dead body at the Al Qassam website, because that is apparently a wonderful thing to behold. Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Dore Gold’s New Web Initiative The One Jerusalem family is pleased
to announce that our good friend Dore Gold has launched a new website where his insights into the most important issues of the day will be on display 24 hours a da... • 10 Minute Topics: Pesach Seder The next in a weekly series of 10 minute topics teaching about various topics within Judaism. This week's topic is: Pesach Seder. On the first night of Pesach (first tw... • SNL Weekend Update, Israeli style SNL Weekend Update, Israeli style Yes, it's another video from Latma, Caroline Glick's humor network, with English subtitles, featuring the 'Pale... Original post source
Video: LATMA’s tribal update by Carl in Jerusalem (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 3:23:00 PM
Video: LATMA’s tribal update Here’s the weekly tribal update from LATMA. Let’s go to the videotape. posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:23 AM Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Daily Quote: Sivan 15, 5770 – May 28, 2010 You have a cup full of oil in your hand; if a drop of water falls into it, and corresponding drop of oil spills out. In the same way, if a word of Torah enters your heart, and word
of mockery corresp... • Sid Yiddish Throat-Sings & Shofar Workshop While in Seattle, Washington in late, February, 2007, I (Sid Yiddish) presented a miniworkshop incorporating the origins of throat-singing, complete w/some basics, and... • White House denies agreeing to UN Commission on flotilla of fools White House denies agreeing to UN Commission on flotilla of fools The White House has denied a story I blogged just before the Sabbath started t... Original post source
Submitted at 6/26/2010 3:00:00 PM
Lecturer: Rav Michael Laitman Date: 2010-06-27 Video: ENG 42.87MB Audio: ENG 7.64MB Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Negiah: Touch, Halakha, Orthodox Jew, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, Leviticus, Tannaim Product DescriptionHigh Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Negiah, literally "touch," is the concept in Halakha that forbids or restricts
by israel (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 3:08:00 PM
By Tony Czuczka June 26 (Bloomberg) — Group of Eight leaders expect Israel may decide to take action against Iran out of concern that the country is building n… Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • “The Hebrew Mamita” Vanessa Hidary (Def Poetry)"The Hebrew Mamita" Vanessa Hidary (Def Poetry) Season 3, Episode 3 (S03 E03) Original Air Date: 18 April 2003 def poetry jam spoken word slam... • Sweden: Death threat, arson attack against Swedish Mohammed cartoonist Sweden: Death threat, arson attack against Swedish Mohammed cartoonistLars Vilks says
physical contact with a member of the opposite sex. A ... • Torah Code 2012 Marshall Masters is involved with the project which focuses on a next generation research approach to Torah Code analysis. This video is an early project demo and not i... • Tehillim 130 My first upload ever. My take on a ridiculously common tehillim. I tried to stay in my punk/ country fusion-ish comfort zone, while still making it all jewishy and stuff... Original post source
he got a threatening phone call after the Uppsala attack."Is this the artist Lars Vilks? You will die."... • Traditionelle Weisen fur Pesach Schwous Und Sukkot Traditionelle Weisen fur Pesach Schwous Und Sukkot ... Original post source
Part 3: Preface to the Sulam Commentary, item 76, Lesson 24 by Bnei-Baruch (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 3:00:00 PM
Part 2: The Book of Zohar – Selections, chapter "Vayetze", item 143, lesson 10 by Bnei-Baruch (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel)
G-8 Expects Israel May Take Action on Iran, Berlusconi Says
Lecturer: Rav Michael Laitman Date: 2010-06-27 Video: ENG 30.09MB Audio: ENG 5.36MB Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • A silent correction to paper over the bigger problem The clueless oped written by Catherine Ashton for the New York Times has received a silent correction.It used to say,This is where the industrial center of Gaza used to be, before the shelling just ...
• Yom Hatzmaout – Israel’s Independence Day Ashkelon cityhall workers starting to hang the flags of Israel stat for the comming Yom Hatzmaout - Israel's Independence Day 2010 – Israel's 62 Birthday. Photos Rafael Ben-Ari/Ch... • Israel: A History ISBN13: 9780688123635Condition: NEWNotes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. Product DescriptionIsrael is a small and relatively young country, but its turbulent history has placed it squ... Original post source
Open thread. by Elder of Ziyon (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 7:33:00 PM
Tonight, I have a choice between blogging or catching a movie with the kids. See you tomorrow: ) Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Peaceful PalArab Passover Here are some of the events that happened in Gaza while I was not able to post:Three young men, aged 16 and 17, were injured when a rocket
intended to land in Israel fell short in Beit Hanoun, Gaza. O... • Oumguil – Talit A3la Lbhar | about talit www.al3ayta.com Talit case (prying shawl) Image by yanec Mehdi cover Souad Massi - Talit 3al Lbir Video Rating: 5 / 5 ... • Part 1: The Book of Zohar – Selections, chapter “Vayikra”, item 85, lesson 5 Lecturer: Rav Michael LaitmanDate: 2010-05-17Video: ENG 55.56MB Audio: ENG 9.9MB ... Original post source
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Part 1: Writings of Rabash, Part 4: Introduction to Shlavey ha Sulam, article the Book The Tree of 15, 1984, lesson 2 Life, item 3, lesson 3 by Bnei-Baruch (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 3:00:00 PM
Lecturer: Rav Michael Laitman Date: 2010-06-27 Video: ENG 41.41MB Audio: ENG 7.31MB Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Nir Barkat blasts Obama Nir Barkat blasts Obama This is a small country. If in the rest of the World they say that there are no more than six degrees of separation, in I... • Jeffrey Goldberg, Like a Broken
Clock, Gets Things Right Once in a Great While And it’s worthy celebrating when he does (since it happens so rarely): “I don’t believe that time is on Israel’s side in the American Jewish community,” he said. “I... • ‘Palestinian Authority’ textbooks continue to incite'Palestinian Authority' textbooks continue to incite Over the years, I have written several posts about 'Palestinian' textbooks and how they are ... Original post source
by Bnei-Baruch (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 9:00:09 PM
Lecturer: Rav Michael Laitman Date: 2010-06-27 Audio: ENG 9.75MB Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Hanukkah in Santa Monica John Bayless sings the classic Tom Lehrer song for Roger Englander's 80th birthday party at the Villa Marina Inn in Newport RI, November 19, 2006... • IDF Home Front Command
Launches Media Campaign in Preparation for National Home Front Exercise Nekudat Mifne 4, 16 May 2010 Today, Sunday, May 16th, 2010, the IDF Home Front Command will launch a media campaign in preparation for the national Home Front exercise Nekudat Mifne 4 (English: Turning Point 4). The joint exerci... • Rambam at Silver Lake Cemetery April 2010 01 Image taken on 201004-21 11:32:28 by hebrewfreeburial.... Original post source
G-8 Leaders Expect Israel Who voted no? May Act on Iran Nuclear Program, Berlusco… by Carl in Jerusalem (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 6:05:00 PM
by israel (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 3:02:00 PM
By Tony Czuczka – Jun 26, 2010 Group of Eight leaders expect Israel may decide to take action against Iran out of concern that the country is building nuclear w… Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Clinton to headline AIPAC Clinton to headline AIPAC As I'm sure many of you have heard already, Hillary Clinton is going to headline the AIPAC conference at the end of the... • David Star On Kurdistan . Israel Image taken on 2009-04-03 01:54:31 by Kurdistan KURD ???????? ??????? ?.... • The Way: Using the Wisdom of Kabbalah for Spiritual
Transformation and Fulfillment ISBN13: 9780471228790Condition: USED - GOODNotes: Product Description"The simple and practical wisdom I have gained by reading this book and studying Kabbalah is immeasurable." —Madonna ...
Who voted no? In the Senate, the vote on Iran sanctions was 99-0, but in the House it was 408-8. Who voted no? Jennifer Rubin has some interesting observations about this group. Who are the eight? Well, there is an interesting overlap with J Street’s favorite lawmakers. Tammy Baldwin, Earl Blumenauer, and John Conyers all voted no Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • Peres mission to Russia fails Peres mission to Russia fails Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Federal Service for MilitaryTechnical Cooperation, said Russia would sell MiG-29 fi...
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Part 4: Introduction to the Book The Tree of Life, item 3, lesson 3 by Bnei-Baruch (Hija del Zion para Israel - Daughter of Zion for Israel) Submitted at 6/26/2010 3:00:00 PM
Lecturer: Rav Michael Laitman Date: 2010-06-27 Audio: ENG 9.75MB Hija del Zion para Israel Support Israel • All the news that’s fit to print? All
the news that's fit to print? CAMERA takes the New York Times and the BBC to task for ignoring the 'Palestinian' corruption scandal exposed b... • Follow our authors on tour! The Sydney Taylor Book Award will be celebrating and showcasing its 2010 recipients with a blog tour February 1 -5, 2010! What is a blog tour, you ask? A blog tour is like a virtual book
tour. So inste... • Return to One In the ancient Book of Formation, it is written,“If your heart races, return to One.” There are times when you find yourself in a state of inspiration... Original post source
• Dayan Toledano Shavuot... • U N H R C v i a elderofziyon.blogspot.comPosted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous ... Original post source