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So "Sunni" me!
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More call up of IDF Reserves!
Having served in an elite military division of the IDF, Netanyahu understands war and knows when to defer to the recommendations of his military advisers! (See 1, 1a, 1b and 1c below.)
I met my retired Marine Col. friend in the gym today and he volunteered that two of the world's great democracies are being attacked: Israel from without and America from within.
I had the distinct privilege of listening to an IDF Lt. General this afternoon bringing me up to date on Gaza and Israel's Protective Edge. The speaker has a BA from an Israel University in Arab History, is fluent in Arabic and an MA from Harvard's Kennedy School in Management .
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Words have meaning but then they can also be manipulated.. (See 2 below.)
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After Gaza, will Iran be next? (See 3 below.)
and
My sentiments exactly! (See 3a below.)
and
More tunnels (See 3b below.)
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Hillary, bless her heart because she is soul less! (See 4 below.)
I served on The Woodrow Wilson Center"s Board for a brief time .
I first met Sam Nunn, when he was running for the Senate, I sent him a check for $1000, and it was returned because he had no opposition in his second term.
When he ran the third time I sent him another check for $1000 and he kept it though he had no opposition.
Politics has become all about money and that is partly what is wrong with our system.
Only wealthy candidates can run and need apply or those with wealthy connections.
Every once in a while a dark horse makes it but that is rare!
Consequently, we have the best government money can buy!
For those who believe Michelle Nunn is a sweet innocent young lady simply running because she wants to unite the nation, her fund raising strategy is anything but and her father's Rolodex is her treasure trove.
Her campaign is all about money and this excellent article by Linda Killian, of The WoodrowWilson Center, reveals the money facts behind Nunn's campaign.
Warrent Buffet, Jeff Immelt, and all the people her father knows and whose boards he serves and from his long political career, are being tapped in order to buy Michelle her Senate seat.
Nothing illegal or wrong about this, unless she does violate some obscure election law and by then it will be too late, but it is something to think about.
When Sam Nunn, chose not to run again, I happened to be meeting with him on Feb 1, 1990, in his Atlanta Office, and as we parted he said he had to go out and make some money because he had two kids in college. Sam certainly has and now he and his friends will be funding his daughter with millions. (See 4a and 4b below.)
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An apology is due! (See 5 below.)
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Will/Can Hollywood's Hamas empathizing bleeders ever get real? (See 6 below.)
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Dick
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1) IDF forces clash with Hamas in Gaza as operation continues
Several clashes occurred between the IDF and Hamas overnight between Wednesday and Thursday. The Givati Brigade's Tzabar Battalion killed two terrorists in gun battles in southern Gaza early in the morning.
A Golani infantry brigade unit saw a terrorist surfacing from a tunnel on Thurday morning, killing the gunman.
Paratroopers identified five terrorists and dispatched an air force craft, which struck the suspects, killing them.
The IDF is examining a number of peers found in Gaza to see if they are connected to new tunnels, or to underground passages that the army already knows about.
The IDF destroyed several tunnels in the past 24 hours, a senior IDF source said Thursday morning.
The air force is continuing to strike Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets, based on newly arrived intelligence, some of which comes from ground forces inside Gaza. It destroyed 110 targets in the past 24 hours, the army source said, and 4,200 targets since the start of hostilities.
On Wednesday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon spoke by phone with his American counterpart Chuck Hagel, who called for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza that would lead to a permanent end in fighting along with the disarmament of Hamas.
Hagel's call came amid US concern over the rising number of deaths on both sides of the conflict, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
The US secretary of defense stressed that any comprehensive resolution to the over three-week conflagration would need to result in the demilitarization of Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.
Hagel also reiterated Washington's stance in support of Israel's right to defend itself from attempts to harm its citizens. Ya'alon in turn thanked Hagel for his expression of support for Israeli defense, citing especially US contributions for the development of the Iron Dome rocket defense system.
Separately, the Pentagon said it had allowed Israel to stock up on grenades and mortar rounds from a US munitions store located in Israel as part of bilateral emergency preparedness arrangement.
The security cabinet on Wednesday approved continuing Israel's campaign launched on July 8 in response to a surge of rocket attacks by Gaza's dominant Hamas Islamists. But Israel also sent a delegation to Egypt, which has been trying, with Washington's blessing, to broker a ceasefire.
Israel briefly halted its strikes in Gaza after accepting an Egyptian truce proposal on July 15, but resumed attacks the next day as terrorists in Gaza pounded Israel with fresh salvos of rockets.
1a)
| PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the Start of the Cabinet Meeting: neutralization of tunnels only first stage in demilitarization of Gaza Strip |
"The IDF is continuing to act with full force across the Gaza Strip. IDF soldiers are completing the neutralization of the terrorist tunnels. These tunnels would have enabled Hamas to abduct and murder civilians and IDF soldiers via simultaneous attacks from many tunnels that penetrate our territory. We are now dismantling this ability. I said at the start of the campaign: There is no guarantee of 100% success, just as Iron Dome does not provide a complete answer, but the IDF actions have impressive results in the field and these actions are continuing at full strength even now. As of now, we have neutralized dozens of terrorist tunnels and we are determined to complete this mission, with or without a ceasefire, and therefore I will not agree to any proposal that does not allow the IDF to complete this work which is important for the security of Israel's citizens. Hamas has taken harsh blows from the IDF and ISA. We have struck hard at thousands of terrorist targets: Command centers, rocket arsenals, production facilities, launch areas and hundreds of terrorists have been killed. These achievements and the neutralization of the tunnels are only the first stage in the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. The US, the EU and other important elements in the international community have accepted our position and I must say that this was not an easy thing to achieve but we did it together, with hard work. I would like to express my deep appreciation to the soldiers and commanders of the IDF who are fighting in the field with extraordinary heroism. I would like to express special appreciation to IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. We are working around the clock, shoulder to shoulder, sagaciously and responsibly, for the people of Israel. Naturally, we cannot share with the public all of the information and all of the considerations at our disposal. We have an orderly plan and we are acting accordingly. On behalf of the citizens of Israel, I would like to send condolences to the bereaved families. I speak with them daily, with the parents and family members who have sacrificed what is most precious to them on behalf of our country. I have spoken with dozens of families. My wife and our sons have visited many families as well. I tell them with a heavy heart that their sons have fallen in the most just of campaigns – guarding our common home. I would like to say to the citizens of Israel: You serve as examples. Your resilience in the face of our enemies is impressive. It causes deep appreciation around the world. I must say that your strong stand is a national force multiplier that enables us to conduct this campaign in a sagacious and responsible manner, in a way that will give the best possible results for the State of Israel and its people. A unified leadership is important for the success of the campaign and it is very important for the people of Israel. Unity among the people gives us the strength to continue our hard and responsible work. I have no doubt that this unity provides additional strength to our soldiers who are fighting on the ground. And yet there is a minority among the public which, precisely at these times, chooses to take a more extreme position on this or that side. I say to you: Do not harm the special unity that we have. Mind your words and be careful with your deeds. And, more than anything, government ministers must serve as personal examples for the public at large. At this time, the nation expects all of us, especially government ministers, to unite behind the goal. When our soldiers are fighting the enemy and endangering their lives on behalf of us all, we owe them this. The more we are united, the stronger we are." Following the remarks by Defense Minister Yaalon and IDF Chief-of-Staff Gantz, Prime Minister Netanyahu added: "The IDF is a moral army without peer. It is vigorously fighting an enemy whose brutality is without peer. It tries, as much as possible, to avoid harming civilians. We in the leadership think about the soldiers. Every IDF soldier is precious to us. At this time, on behalf of the entire government and people of Israel, I would like to send my best wishes for a quick recovery to the wounded. We know your bravery and your desire to rejoin your comrades. I have visited some of them. Right now, their doctors are their commanders but we know that they are led by the spirit of the entire nation." |
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2)
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| The Bureau of Labor Statistics said, in the spring of 2013, that 7.8% of the workforce was unemployed. Simple enough. But what does that mean? What is the "workforce"? And what does it mean to be "unemployed"? Think of all those people who work for cash – the immigrant laborers waiting at gas stations and Home Depot for day work, the college students who babysit and tutor your children, everyone selling stuff on Craigslist or eBay. Are they unemployed? How about the guy who couldn't find a job, so he went back to school? Is he unemployed? What about the housewife who would like to find a job but isn't actively looking for one? Are these people part of the workforce? It's obvious that you can change the assumptions a bit and change the reported unemployment rate a lot. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3) The Iran Talks’ Gaza Connection
Lost amid the understandable focus on the fighting in Gaza was a major Middle East news story. On July 18, the U.S. and its Western allies agreed to extend the Iran nuclear talks for four months. But rather than the fighting between Hamas and Israel allowing the negotiations to continue under the radar, the events unfolding in Gaza ought to make it harder rather than easier for the Obama administration to evade its obligation to deal with this threat.
The leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee groused in public yesterday about the way the Iran talks are proceeding with little public accountability. Both Democratic Chair Senator Robert Menendez and ranking Republican Bob Corker expressed dismay about the way the supposedly finite period for negotiations with Iran had effortlessly transitioned into injury time with every possibility that the four-month period could be extended again in November. There was no appetite on the committee for a rerun of the bruising and losing fight Menendez waged against the administration on behalf of tougher sanctions on Iran in order to strengthen the West’s hand in the talks. Yet the frustration about the P5+1 process is clear.
While their comments didn’t get much attention, Menendez and Corker are right to be worried. More to the point, the Gaza crisis ought to be causing more concern about the Iran talks rather than allowing Secretary of State John Kerry’s negotiating team a free pass to continue to work toward an agreement that will both legalize Tehran’s nuclear program and fail to curb its support for terrorism.
It is important to understand that without Iran much of what is happening in Gaza wouldn’t be possible. Iran supplied Hamas with advanced rockets and money for years enabling it to create the infrastructure of terror that has plunged the region into conflict. Iran and Hamas had a very public spat in recent years when the Islamist terrorists chose to oppose Tehran’s ally Bashar Assad in the Syrian civil war. But the breach between the two may be over. Yesterday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he supported replenishing Iran’s arsenal. If, due to international pressure and the desire of the Obama administration to halt the current fighting, Hamas is left standing and in control of Gaza, the odds are good that Khamenei will make good on his pledge.
Economic sanctions on Iran made it harder for the regime to divert money to Hamas as well as to Islamic Jihad, which has stayed in Tehran’s good graces these past few years. But if Kerry gets the deal he is looking for, the sanctions that were weakened in the interim deal concluded last November would be eviscerated. At that point, Hamas may be able to count on refinancing and resupply from Iran as well as from their ally Qatar.
What has this to do with the nuclear talks?
The assumption on the part of most foreign-policy observers is that these are two separate issues. But that belief is a mistake. Iran’s status as the leading state sponsor of international terrorism through its support of Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and perhaps Hamas again makes it imperative that the P5+1 process not limit itself to talks that ignore the threat that Tehran’s auxiliaries pose to the West.
Kerry signed a weak deal with Iran last fall because, as he publicly admitted, the secretary decided sticking to the West’s demands for Iran to dismantle its nuclear program was not possible. Instead, he appeased Iran and granted tacit recognition to their “right” to enrich uranium in exchange for concessions that do little to retard the Islamist regime’s nuclear ambitions. The willingness of the West to go into overtime with an Iranian negotiating partner that has clearly signaled their unwillingness to agree to measures that would make it impossible for them to build a weapon may herald another retreat by Kerry. If so, that will bring us closer to the day when Iran will not only be able to threaten the West with a nuke after a brief “breakout” period but also hasten the moment when it can extend a nuclear umbrella over its allies in Lebanon and Gaza.
While the prospect of such a dismal outcome to these negotiations raises the possibility that Israel will decide at some point to act on their own to stop the Iranians, it also raises the stakes in Gaza. The U.S. decision not to keep its word about limiting negotiations with Iran makes it even more imperative for Israel not to allow Hamas to escape the current fighting with its arsenal and control of the strip intact. Just as Iran’s nuclear dream poses an existential threat to Israel, the American willingness to kick the can down the road on the nuclear issue makes it more vital that Israel finishes off Hamas now before an end to the blockade and Western appeasement of Tehran changes the strategic equation in Gaza and the Middle East.
3a) It’s Okay. Don’t Cry for Us Israelis
By Naomi Ragen
I’m sitting here in Jerusalem after a week of heartbreak over three murdered teens, followed by two weeks of sirens, bomb blasts, and finally, the funerals of young IDF soldiers, of whom one-third are students who should be taking their final exams, instead of risking their lives. I’m reading on the internet about what a horrible person I am as an Israeli and as a Jew, and what a terrible, immoral country I live in. All this criticism comes mainly from the European press: The Guardian, the BBC, papers in Italy, Norway, France, and don’t forget America: The New York Times, CNN. And I’m thinking: Gee, the British should understand. After all, they lived through the blitz, Nazis raining bombs indiscriminately down on them, the way Hamas is raining bombs down on us. And when the brave pilots of the RAF aimed their bombs at Dresden killing 300,000 men, women and children, they didn’t throw down leaflets telling people to politely evacuate; didn’t send their soldiers to knock on doors to see if they’d followed the leaflets instructions ( as CNN complained Israel failed to do at an UNRWA school, which was probably hit by a Hamas bomb anyway.) And I think of the rest of Europe, who rounded up our grandparents and great-grandparents, and relatives –men, women and children—and sent them off to be gassed, no questions asked. And I think: They are now the moral arbiters of the free world? They are telling the descendants of the people they murdered how to behave when other anti-Semites want to kill them? As for Americans, represented by the New York Times, that bastion of high-minded hypocrisy and mediocre journalism parading as the “newspaper of record,” one has only to read the article by Professor Auerbach in the New York Observer (Two Weeks of Shallow, Facile Moral Equivalency From the New York Times) to see how Jodi Rudoren and other Times apparatchiks have learned to close their minds and love Hamas. After all, there are CHILDREN DYING. It doesn’t matter that the Palestinians have educated an entire generation to be little Nazi-wannabes, who worship death and hate Jews, murdering their souls, and are now callously putting their bodies in harm’s way to use for touching photo ops. We shouldn’t be shocked by this omission by the Times. After all, The New York Times was one of the last news outlets to bring to the attention of the reading public the Nazi atrocities in Europe. Read the Times during the nightmare years, and see if you can’t find a pattern here. And so, as an Israeli, brought up with Jewish values, and an American, taught to love freedom, justice, democracy and fair play, I have to tell all of you- Europeans, Americans, and last of all Muslim terrorist sympathizers and barbarians, that what you are saying no longer moves anyone of good moral judgment and intelligence. The current crisis in Gaza is so morally clear-cut, so absolutely a case of self-defense, that I must say to you, as someone finally said to Senator McCarthy: “Sir, have you no shame?” I prefer that you - writers of these lies and libels-- hate me and my country, if it means that you can save your tears for other peoples dead. We aren’t greedy for sympathy. After all, we got so much after the Holocaust, we prefer other people to have their share now. These days, we prefer to live, rather than have people cry over us and the injustices done to us. So by all means, cry for the Palestinian people - men women and children- whose duly elected leadership has callously left them without protection from just retribution for their terrorist crimes. Who took their aid money and are living in Qatar in five star hotels building shopping centers for themselves. Who built terrorist tunnels under their homes, mosques, hospitals and schools, and recruited their sons to die for Allah, while they sit in bunkers waiting for the U.N. to rescue them. Don’t cry for us, or our families, or our children, or grandchildren. Not this time. Not ever. Not if we can help it. Because this time, thank God, we have a country. We are armed. This time, with God's help, we know how to protect ourselves from Nazis and their high-minded media cheerleaders. I would like to end this with an expletive and a hand gesture towards the people I’m addressing. Please choose one you think would be fitting. I can think of many.
3b)
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4) More bad luck for Hillary
If she weren’t such a ruthless and pathological power-hungry phony, I would almost feel sorry for Hillary Rodham Clinton. It’s starting to look as though 2016 may be another election like 2008, in which the presumptive nominee runs into sheer bad luck that ends up derailing her plans.
She never anticipated in 2008 that a young, untested, almost unknown freshman senator would trump her “historic first” woman president candidacy with the “historic first” black president strategy. This time around, the problem is slightly different, although a freshman senator who can meet (but not trump) the “historic first” appeal exists in the form of Elizabeth Warren, who has already captured the affections of the Democratic Party’s powerful left wing activists.
No, this time around, the problem is qualitative, a matter of electoral fashion. Who could have predicted that the fickle voters would start craving authenticity? Josh Kraushaar explains the national mood inNational Journal:
Barack Obama bears a lot of responsibility for sensitizing voters to the dangers of electing a phony. His notorious lies about ObamaCare are now costing many Americans dearly, in the form of lost health insurance policies, higher taxes, and shockingly high deductibles. He is regarded a untruthful by a majority of the public.
And poor Hillary just doesn’t do authenticity. Witness this very awkward moment with Jorge Ramos of Fusion TV, compounding her earlier problems dealing with her wealth:
Liberal Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post seems almost flabbergasted that Hillary still hasn’t figured out how to handle questions about her wealth:
There is a simple reason why Hillary can’t seem to come up with the right response: she has a chip on her shoulder about money, and is in the process of getting revenge on a large cast of figures who made her feel inadequate and humiliated in past decades, when she was uncomfortable about being poorer than those she regarded as her peers in the elite circles which she was joining.
If she were to be authentic, she would be very unappealing.
And, she is not nearly as good a liar as her husband and the guy who beat her out for the nomination in 2008.
At the age of 67, it is not likely that Hillary Clinton is going to become a gifted actor. She might well have gotten away with her phoniness in an earlier time frame. But now that Obama has poisoned the waters for phonies, she is experiencing her characteristic run of bad luck
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4a) Think Tank
By Linda Killian
.
The internal memos and 144-page campaign plan prepared for Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn are a fascinating if somewhat horrifying glimpse of the political industrial complex. The document–available here–was first made public by National Review. Much of the reporting so far has focused on internal opposition research in the memo exploring the potential weaknesses of Ms. Nunn’s candidacy. But I’d argue that the real revelations involve fundraising’s central role in every aspect of political campaigns. That’s not really news, but it is described in the memo in incredible detail. Ms. Nunn is advised to focus on fundraising “with relentless intensity” and to raise $15 million to $20 million if she is to have any chance of winning. A section called “Strategic Use of Michelle’s time” suggests that in the third quarter the candidate should spend 70% of her time on fundraising, 20% on media and political events, and 10% on debate prep. Ms. Nunn’s political advisers estimated that more than $80 million would be spent on this U.S. Senate race, with $30 million coming from the two major campaigns, $30 million from various party organizations and $25 million from independent expenditures. So far the Nunn campaign has raised more than $9 million. The campaign of millionaire Republican businessman David Perdue, a former CEO of Reebok and Dollar General who won a competitive GOP primary and runoff election, has spent $5 million, including $3 million of the candidate’s money. Mr. Perdue is expected to contribute additional personal resources. More In Think TankThese documents are worth studying if only to confirm most voters’ worst fears about our cynical, money-driven political system. Linda Killian is a journalist and a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Her most recent book is “The Swing Vote: The Untapped Power of Independents.” She is on Twitter: @lindajkillian. 4b) Organization Formerly Headed by Nunn May Have Given to Group with Terrorist Ties
A National Review Article says the nonprofit previously headed by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Michelle Nunn, gave grant money to a charitable organization whose parent organization has alleged ties to Hamas. Hamas has been at war with Israel and is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.
The document cited potential vulnerabilities in the campaign that Republicans could use to attack Nunn, such as alleged service awards by the Points of Light Foundation.
The article said IRS 990's from Points of Light show the foundation gave $33,000 in grants in 2008 and 2011 to Islamic Relief USA.
Eliana Johson wrote the article and says the organization is part of a worldwide network of charities that operate beneath Islamic Relief Worldwide, which she says has ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups.
“Islamic Relief USA , on its website, says that they’re legally separate entities, but then notes Islamic relief charities all operate, they’re all part of the same family. If you look at their annual report it talks about their work in Palestine as if they’re interchangeable organizations.”
But Nunn’s campaign said Points of Light never directly gave to Islamic Relief USA. Instead, a spokesman says a points of light subsidiary was hired by eBay to verify the tax exempt status of organizations including Islamic Relief USA.
They said it was individual eBay users who gave to the organization instead.
Nunn’s campaign manager, Jeff DiSantis, spoke about the internal document itself in statement.
This was a draft of a document that was written eight months ago. Like all good plans, they change. But what hasn’t changed and is all the more clear today is that Michelle’s opponents are going to mischaracterize her work and her positions, and part of what we’ve always done is to prepare for the false things that are going to be said.
Michelle has always sought to run a campaign that brings people together and gets Washington focused on the real challenges the country faces. And that’s the kind of Senator she’ll be.
University of Georgia Political Science professor Charles Bullock said it’s likely those supporting Nunn opponent David Perdue will use the leaked document to their advantage.
"It looks like we’re going to be seeing more about that as the campaign wears on. It looks like it is very ripe for an attack ad that opponents tend to run.”
WABE contacted David Perdue’s campaign but did not hear back by deadline.-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5) When Obama voters apologize
A good friend of mine apologized to me today. You see, he voted for Barack Hussein Obama in the 2008 election and he lives in a so-called “swing state.” He told me that he had not voted for Obama in the 2012 election, but that he realized that by supporting him in 2008, he had help unleash a deadly virus onto the American scene. He simply said he was sorry.
I think a good many Americans feel much the same as my good friend. They know that they were seduced by the very slick presentation that Barack Obama made in the 2008 campaign. They bought into the promises that he made about deficits and transparency and ethical government. They also know that there is a vast constituency of the Democratic Party that is entitlement bound. These welfare “victims” never thought through the implications of America’s fiscal crisis. They believed everything and anything that Barack Obama was slinging their way. And most of all, they loved hearing what Obama was going to give them.
So, my more aware friends who knew the true nature of the crisis were, nevertheless, seduced by the rhetoric and became the deciding swing vote in an election that did “fundamentally change America.” When 2012 came around, the welfare “victims” and the hard-core union and liberal base of the Democrats still hung onto the belief that Barack Hussein Obama was driving America in the right direction. And so, Obama was granted another four years to hammer America into something of his own liking.
Now, with 2 ½ years to go in Obama’s second Administration, I think most folks, including many in the solid core union and liberal base of the Democratic Party, are beginning to see the light. Many now suspect that Barack Hussein Obama is an empty suit. In Texas, people refer to someone who has no true experience or accomplishments as a person with “all hat and no cattle.”
But now our greater fears about Mr. Obama are confirmed. He has made his way through this world by lying and deceiving. There are no childhood friends recalling their growing up together. There are no college classmates reminiscing about dear old Occidental, Columbia, or Harvard. Obama is a manufactured fraud.
There is only the Chicago political machine and the Reverend Wrights of this world to partially fill in the many blanks where Obama was and what was he doing. Mr. Obama didn’t even write his famed Dreams of My Father. He simply has no documentable accomplishments to justify his political rise to power. Yet, the American people twice elected him to the highest office in our land. How did this happen?
Barack Hussein Obama has used his smooth public manner and a web of deception to gain a political foothold on the American landscape. But, as Lincoln said, “You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time. But you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”.
What do you call a person whose statements turn out to be false and it becomes known that he knew his statements were false at the time he made them. That, my friend, is the definition of a liar.
Liar is a word that rarely pops up in the media. It is considered too harsh and not appropriate for modern discourse. In a legal setting, a liar can be subject to imprisonment. In those instances, we call it perjury.
But the man occupying the White House is plainly and simply just a liar. From Fast and Furious to the IRS targeting of conservative groups to the shame of the Benghazi killings, what we have is a liar in the White House who has surrounded himself with many of his same ilk.
Putin, too, knows that Obama is not a man of his word. Rather, Putin recognizes a feckless President that can be bullied and manipulated to serve Putin’s ambition.
Once America fully comes to grip with the fact that Barack Hussein Obama and his henchmen (women) are liars, then maybe we can begin to unravel to mess of false promises and economic “snipe hunts” we have been fed.
Maybe we can regain our stature on the international scene.
As regards my good friend, apology accepted! What else could I do?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6) Time for Hamas's Hollywood Sympathizers to Snap out of It!
I love actors. Honestly -- that wasn't sarcasm. I started out as an actor before I began writing for a living. I shared my life with an actress who was/is a wonderful artist and woman. As they used to say about Jews And African Americans some of my best friends ... actors and writers, directors, musicians, artists of every type are the most empathetic people on earth. We have to be. It's not just a job, for the ones who are serious about it, it's our calling. When we say, "I feel your pain," we mean it. Because we must feel the pain of every character we portray or create. We feel the pain of that part of our own soul that corresponds to that of the character.
And no writer, actor or director ever plays, creates or directs a villain. Each character we create is the hero of his own story, and we find the humanity in each, no matter how villainous the character's actions may be.
That is even more so with the truly great artists like Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almadovar. Their work, collectively and individually, is an alter at which, I, as a screenwriter, playwright and novelist, worship often. They are my artistic Rabbis and teachers. They feel others' pain, no matter how villainous the character.
Bardem portrayed a chilling mass murderer in No Country For Old Men, and deservedly won the Academy Award for it. His portrayal was riveting, not because he portrayed the character's villiany, but because he somehow managed to convey his humanity, despite the fact that the character was a heartless serial killer who murdered, or not, depending on the outcome of the toss of a coin. That makes for great acting.
Unfortunately it can, and does, cloud both the moral and intellectual compass of many artists like the truly wonderful Bardem, Cruz, Almadovar et al.
They look at pictures of Palestinians, who truly are suffering in this war, which Hamas and its terrorist army have perpetrated against Israel and our civilian population, and they "feel their pain" or as close as you can get to doing that in Madrid or Malibu.
Palestinian homes are being destroyed. Israel is the one shelling them, as they rightly state, by land, air and sea. Therefore Israel, a white European Colonial transplant persecuting a brown skinned indigenous people, are the villains in this reality show watched by millions on TV. Therefore Israel must be condemned, damned, censured and stopped by the international community!
They have signed a letter stating," Palestinian homes are being destroyed!"
That is indeed true. The reason for that, my brothers and sisters in Cinema, are the actions of Hamas, a murderous and cynical terrorist organization which seized power, not from Israel but from the Government of the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas!
They lined up their fellow Palestinian brothers against walls and machine gunned them to death. If you have the stomach for it the videos are still on YouTube. They blindfolded and bound their Palestinian Brothers and pushed them off multiple storied buildings to horrific deaths.
That's Hamas. That's how they seized power.
Those were their crimes against their fellow Palestinians.
With the greatest respect, Javier, Penelope and Pedro, from one who admires your artistic achievements more than words can express, did you write any letters of outrage and condemnation then? Did you call on the international community to end the suffering then?
Well, but the deaths were only in the hundreds then, not over a thousand like now, and besides that was a Palestinian internal affair, one, which I'm sure, you felt uncomfortable in condemning.
But what Israel is doing is clear-cut.
It's genocide!
Is it really?
We're all visual artists at the end of the day, creating images for the screen. Look, then, at the picture below.
Well, but you say, no such killings of hundreds of Israelis have taken place!
Meanwhile the poor Palestinian people are suffering from Israeli bombardment.
My dear friends, no such killings of hundreds of Israeli civilians have taken placebecause of Israeli bombardment.
They have not taken place because my brothers and sisters in arms watch the border diligently, and when necessary, lay down their lives to protect our men, women and children from the terrorists who entered those tunnels next to, and many times from within, those very Palestinian homes whose destruction you rightly bemoan, as by the way do I, and, oddly, most other Israelis.
Those Palestinian homes are being destroyed because Hamas is committing a war crime under the Geneva accords, which you cite, against their own people, by launching their rockets, hiding their terrorist tunnel entrances and missiles, rockets mortars and machine guns, inside those homes, thus turning their own people's dwellings into Military targets . Why in the name of all that is holy, don't you at least acknowledge, let alone condemn, that clear and cruel war crime, not just against Israeli civilians but Palestinian civilians?
In your letter you state, "they (the Palestinians) are being denied.. electricity and free movement to their hospitals, schools and fields while the international community does nothing."
My friends, Hamas has fired from, launched rockets from, put terrorist tunnel entrances in, and hidden weapons inside, not just people's homes, but inside their schools and mosques and hospitals. Hamas has hidden their rockets in UN operated schools! That's not a wicked Zionist lie, that's a UN finding, against which they have, albeit weakly, protested.
I personally have been in Gaza as an Israeli soldier and have had Palestinian farmers come up to me, personally, because I wear an officer's rank, and demand of me that we, the Israel Defense Forces, not stop until we have killed all the Hamas operatives. Those aren't my words. They were the words of Palestinian farmers in El Atatra, and the reason they made that demand of us was because Hamas had confiscated the fields that had once supported them and their family by growing sunflowers, and now used them as rocket launching sites aimed at Israeli civilians.
Why in the name of the humanity I know you treasure, are you not condemning that?
That was a rhetorical question.
I know why you're not condemning that.
It's because they look weak and we look strong. And one always roots for the underdog in the movies. Except this isn't a movie. There's no one to say "cut" when the terrorist comes up out of the tunnel or the rocket or mortar is hurtling toward you.
It's not even a reality show though I know many in the media try to milk the ratings by presenting it as such.
But we're not Honey Boo Boo or The Housewives of whatever.
We're a country that was attacked, that said calm would be answered with calm and was answered instead with thousands of rocket attacks aimed almost exclusively at Israeli civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians. Hamas is committing war crimes against both our peoples not only while the international community dies nothing, but while well-meaning, empathetic people like you enable them like a well-meaning friend turning a blind eye to a junkie's addiction. Except in this case the junkie is a terrorist organization as wicked as any on earth. Don't you see that your misguided enabling is killing both our peoples?
I know it takes more effort to understand something than to simply emotionally react with whatever the bumper sticker mentality if the day is. But honestly, both the Palestinian people and we deserve better of you.
But you may excuse Hamas's terrorist tactics because they don't have an air force or tanks and thus is the only way they can fight back against a wicked force of Zionists who have invaded" the Palestinian territories instead of returning to the 1967 borders."
Friends, there's no excuse for not getting the facts straight -- you can Google them. With regard to Gaza, which is, after all, where the war is, Israel unilaterally withdrew to the 1967 borders almost ten years ago!!
In that time Hamas had launched three wars against us. There was no air campaign against Hamas until they began firing hundreds of rockets a day against us.
Because of the Iron Dome anti-missile system we developed, the rockets caused no loss if life on our side and so when Egypt proposed a cease fire and thePalestinian President and the Arab League endorsed it...we accepted it. I know history is a bore but this was only two weeks ago!
That's when Hamas launched its first terrorist tunnel attack against our civilians. Had we not intercepted and killed and driven back the terrorist force, it would have resulted in the worst terrorist attack, the highest loss of civilian life, in Israel's history .
That's when we had no choice but to begin the ground operation … after Israel, Egypt, the Arab League and the President of the Palestine Authority all agreed to end the violence, stop the killing And destruction and try to create a cycle of peace. It Is Hamas that has brought about this awful cycle of death.
I wrote a movie called The Hurricane that Norman Jewison directed. It gave me an opportunity to complement what I thought was one if the best scenes he had ever directed. The scene is in Moonstruck between Cher And Nicholas Cage, in which an emotional Nick Cage prattled on about his endless love blah, blah, blah.
Cage is pitch perfect the sincere, emotive lover. But he's just spewing so much nonsense that Cher hauls off and slaps him so hard his grandchildren probably felt it. She then shouts the same two words that, with the greatest respect, we who are suffering from Hamas' dual war crimes, have every right to demand of you, and every other armchair enabler, snap out of it!
Dan Gordon is a captain in the IDF (Res)
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