We leave Friday returning Saturday a week. This is our week at North Litchfield Beach with our Epping Forest family. This will be our 40th plus year .
+++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bret thanks the brainless know noting rioters.
+++
A Thank-You Note to the Campus Protesters
By Bret Stephens
Dear anti-Israel campus protesters:
Though it may take a few years before you realize it, supporters of Israel like me have reasons to give thanks to militant anti-Zionists like you.
Recently, a friend asked what I would have made of your protests if they had been less fervently one-sided. If, for instance, pro-Palestinian student groups at Harvard and Columbia hadn’t castigated Israel immediately following the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Or if Jewish students and professors hadn’t faced violence, harassment and antisemitic imagery from you or your allies from Harvard to Columbia to Berkeley to Stanford. Or if you had made a point of acknowledging the reality of the Oct. 7 rapes or the suffering of Israel’s hostages and their families while demanding their safe return. Or if you consistently condemned and distanced yourselves from Hamas. Or if all of you had simply followed rules that gave you every right to free expression without trampling on the rights of others to a safe and open campus.
In short, what if your protests had focused on Israel’s policies, whether in Gaza or the West Bank, rather than demanding the complete elimination of Israel as a Jewish state? What if you had avoided demonizing anyone who supports Israel’s right to exist — which includes a vast majority of Jews — as modern-day Nazis?
In that case, I told my friend, I would have disagreed with your views but I wouldn’t have despised them. Nor would a broad plurality of Americans, including many to my left. The result could have been a movement that would have had stronger arguments and greater impact. You would have been able to win over undecideds to your cause. And I would have had to fight harder to make my case that Israel must get rid of Hamas.
I realize this isn’t how some of you see it. The most hard-line among you want to “sharpen the contradictions,” as the Marxists say. Your real goal was not to shape U.S. government policy, at least in the near term. What you really want to do is normalize anti-Zionism, particularly on elite college campuses, while hoping that the bigger payoff will come in 20 or 30 years, when those you’ve converted to your cause become senators and governors and university presidents.
Sign up for the Israel-Hamas War Briefing. The latest news about the conflict. Get it sent to your inbox.
But the problem with sharpening the contradictions is that the contradictions being sharpened are your own. For every student who became ardently pro-Palestinian during the protests, another one, perhaps a Jewish student with previously indifferent feelings about Israel, finally saw the connection between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. For every professor who’s shown up to your encampment to lend support, you’ve lost a fair-minded liberal with your Maoist-style sloganeering and your arrogant disdain for the genuine fears of some of your Jewish peers.
And for every commencement ceremony whose cancellation you’ve effectively forced, or which you intend to spoil, thousands of apolitical students — who didn’t get to have a proper high school graduation thanks to Covid — have taken an intense and permanent distaste to you and everything you stand for.
In short, if sharpening the contradictions is the game you’re playing, it’s paying bigger dividends for my side than it is for yours. It’s also nothing new. Those 1968 protests you’re trying to emulate? What they mainly helped achieve was the election of Richard Nixon followed by nearly 40 straight years of right-of-center governance in the United States.
Nor is this the only help you’re giving my side.
I am a Zionist not only because I support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state — an abstract point about another country. I am also a Zionist for the most personal of reasons: because I see Israel as an insurance policy for every Jewish family, including mine, which has endured persecution and exile in the past and understands that we may not be safe forever in our host countries. For anyone with a historical memory of France until Dreyfus, Germany until Hitler or Iran until Khomeini, that kind of insurance is one Jews can’t afford to lose.
What happened on Oct. 7 shook my faith in the quality of that insurance: What else does the Israeli state exist for, after all, if not to protect its people from the kind of butchery they endured that day? But what happened on Oct. 8 — the moment your protests began — renewed that faith, because it gave me a glimpse into what America might yet become for Jews, at least if people like you were to gain real power.
I get that many if not most of you see yourselves as dedicated idealists who want to end suffering for Palestinians, champion equality and oppose all forms of bigotry. There are ways you could do that without making common cause with people who hate Jews, want to kill us and often do. Supporting a two-state solution would be one such way. Insisting that Palestinians deserve better leaders than Hamas is another. Building bridges with Israelis is a third.
Instead, without knowing it, you are my daily reminder of what my Zionism is for, about and against. For that, if nothing else, thank you.
++++
Spain Op-Ed
Here's an interesting viewpoint. The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez and published in a Spanish newspaper. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe, and possibly to the rest of the world......
By Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez
I walked down the streets in Barcelona and suddenly discovered a terrible truth: Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a group of people who represented culture, thought, creativity, talent.
We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who made great contributions to the world, and thus changed the world.
The contribution of today’s Jewish people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. Look at any donors’ board at any symphony, art museum, theatre, art gallery, science center, etc. You will see many, many, Jewish surnames.
These are the people who were burned. Of the 6,000,000 who died, how many would have grown up to be gifted musicians, doctors, artists, philanthropists?
And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the diseases of racism and bigotry, Europe opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.
They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime. Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts. And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.
We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.
What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.
Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it “offends” the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving in to it.
It is now approximately seventy years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This email is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, twenty million Russians, ten million Christians, and nineteen-hundred Roman Catholic priests who were humiliated, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and murdered. Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming The Holocaust to be “a myth,” it is imperative to make sure the world "never forgets."
This email is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world. How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center “NEVER HAPPENED” because it offends some Muslim in the United States?
If our Judeo-Christian heritage is offensive to Muslims, they should pack up and move to Iran, Iraq or some other Muslim country. Please do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along. We must wake up America, England, Australia and Europe before it's too late.
"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.”
++++
How to Stop the Border Crisis | PragerU
++++
From the Babylon Bee
If you're part of the administration of a major university, what you've seen on the news may have you feeling rather frightened. Say, for the sake of discussion, a large group of unruly students sets up an autonomous zone on campus and refuses to vacate. What can you do?
The Babylon Bee has come up with the following list of handy ways to quickly and easily remove protesters from your campus:
Halt all deliveries of pizza rolls and fruit snacks: They'll be running home to raid their parents' fridges before you can say "colonizers."
Tell them you saw a Jew across the street and he's getting away:They won't be able to resist the urge to hunt down one of their nemeses.
Send in Kyle Rittenhouse: He'll clear a quad in less than 12 seconds.
Throw granola bars containing gluten at them: All commies are allergic to gluten for some reason.
Tell them they have to locate Gaza on a map before they can protest: You'll likely be left with one or two protesters, tops.
Put up a sign that says "free drugs and gay stuff this way" with an arrow pointing off campus: We're pretty sure they're suckers for drugs and gay stuff.
Hold a Biden campaign rally:Instant ghost town.
Run around screaming "I'm unvaccinated!" and coughing everywhere: They may not be afraid to die for their cause, but they are afraid of COVID.
Pepper spray to the eyeballs:(Classic.)
++++
CIA Director knew Hamas's offer was a cruel stunt and supports it.
Think about that.
The administration doesn't care about the hostages.
They want Israel to lose.
Now that we have all the details of the Hamas offer, we can compare them to what Israel has accepted. The gaps are massive. Especially the number of hostages released alive and ending the war.
Israel: 33 humanitarian hostages released
Hamas: 18 humanitarian hostages released alive. The rest are "dead or alive."
Israel: 3 hostages released per day.
Hamas: 3 per week.
Israel: 20 prisoners for every humanitarian hostage and 40 heavy prisoners for every female soldier.
Hamas: 30 prisoners for every humanitarian hostage and 50 heavy prisoners for every female soldier.
Israel: Wants a veto on the identity of prisoners released.
Hamas: Israel gets no say.
Israel: Only civilians return to the north.
Hamas: Everyone returns, including armed terrorists.
Israel: No declaration on the end of the war.
Hamas: Declaration of ending the war in the first phase of the ceasefire.
It is hard to see how this gap is bridged. The differences are too great. It has become completely clear that Hamas pretended to "accept" a deal while actually hardening their position on several crucial issues.
++++
Re-election and Cowardliness - Too Conflictual
Essay By Dick Berkowitz
I too have a solution for Bibi as to how to resolve the Hamas' Gordian Knot.
I will state upfront, I seriously doubt what I am proposing will be adopted but, in my humble opinion, if you cannot lick them join them. By this I mean, Israel will never win the Propaganda War but at least they can narrow difference.
Here is my proposal:
The Encampment
Israel needs to turn the area, where the music festival is located, into a major encampment from which Palestinians cannot escape.
.
Palestinian Hostages
Hamas demands a return of 400 Islamist Terrorists per hostage for an equivalent ratio totaling 5000 Palestinians. The IDF should round up 5000 Palestinians as hostages, place them in the encampment and inform Hamas leadership it is their responsibility to feed them.
The second condition is they must purchase all food items from Israel and all profits will go to those who are hostages and/or relatives of those who lived in the locations attacked and destroyed 10/7.
Failure to do so would be deemed an act of genocide by Hamas for any deaths attributed to starvation.
Governmental Structure
The Palestinians would be told it is their responsibility to form a governmental structure that would become the model for how Gazan Palestinians would self-govern under supervision of Israel in cooperation with other Arab/Muslim nations who have joined the Abraham Accords.
Rebuilding
In addition to paying for sustenance, Hama leaders would be responsible for funding the rebuilding of Gaza and, again, all purchases of equipment, materiel etc. would be purchased solely from Israel and, again, all profits would go to any hostages, family members of those attacked on 10/7 and residents of those displaced by the destruction oft heir homes s etc.
Rafah
Nothing proposed above would bar Israel's ability to destroy any and all remaining Hamas divisions as well as Hamas leadership, including Yahya Sinwaren.wikipedia.org › wiki › Yahya_Sinwaren.wikipedia.org › wiki › Yahya_SinwarYahya Sinwar en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Yahya_SinwarYahya Sinwar
Commentary
The above proposals recognizes Hamas' attack was unprovoked, was a heinous act of war, resulted in untold misery and is the sole moral and financial responsibility of Hamas leadership.
It also sets in motion a hostage equivalence as well as a method whereby Palestinians can demonstrate their ability to self-governance in a manner they are ready to renounce any further government relationships both with Hama and the PLO.
The final non-negotiable decision is that the Government of Israel has the right to decide any further action they choose to take that assures Hamas' remaining divisions would be destroyed. As I noted at the beginning, I acknowledge this proposal would never be acceptable because Bide would never come on board. Why? Because he is constrained by his ambivalence.
Getting re-elected and cowardliness are too conflictual.
+++
No comments:
Post a Comment