The Middle East in now in the beginning-middle of an arms sales frenzy.The continued influx of Iranian arms to Hizbollah/Hamas,Russian sales to Syria,now the Russian sale of 250 long range Sukhoi fighter bombers together with 20 fuel tankers to Iran,and the U.S. package to the Saudis,Egyptians,Israel and other Gulf countries are what we see on the surface.
In regard to Israel,remember each year Congress will have to approve the sale.Superiority in arms,only means you will win.However the enemies firepower will cause more death and destruction before you are victorious.
Both Egypt and the Saudi regime could fall,not to an outside enemy, but to fundamentalists.They need not satellite guided bombs, but jobs,democracy,freedom for their women,religious freedom and an end to the support for the Mullahs.
After our last arms sale to the Saudis, they violated their pledge not to station the planes in Tabruk ,near the Israeli border(minutes in flying time).
Now again Fatah, has revised its stated principles to where they believe resistance
to the Israelis is legitimate.
Olmert should wake up and smell the coffee-the Arab world is not ready for peace talks, unless Israel as a pre-condition withdraws to pre-1967 borders,accepts the "right of return" and make Jerusalem their Capitol.Yes you can talk,but it would be better to tell the President that the price for the proposed arms to Israel is too high.Emphasis should be on pressuring Iran and Russia to stop the arms race.
Peace talks , must be accompanied by solid action on the part of the Palestinians and Arab world.Israel dare not take unilateral action, which is always irreversible.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Prof. Feldman / Haim Ramon / The Saudi Sale
Since there was so much discussion in my synagogue this shabbat (including Rabbi Tendler's sermon) regarding Prof.Noah Feldman, the Harvard lawyer,who married a Korean and had their picture removed from a PR piece,I thought I would add two thought to my last blog.
It turns out that in addition to being on the team that wrote the Iraqi constitution,he was the lawyer for the city of Tenafly in their unsuccessful bid to prevent the installation of an eruv.Certainly a noteworthy effort to prevent Orthodox religious practices.
My own take on him, is that here is a brilliant man,who has reached great heights in law,and the world of public policy.He is widely acclaimed,and surely his friends are telling him how brilliant his article in the NYT was.Yet, the one area he deeply desires acceptance from ,the orthodox community of his upbringing, shuns him as a traitor.Thus he strikes out at them.
I assume that his education at Maimonides,would have taught him that our traditions will not bend either to the NYT,or the Jewish Week.
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It is amazing how similar Liberals are in both the US and Israel.They live in a world of fanatsy.The realities of enemies that seek to destroy our way of life can be handled by soft talk, a drive for concessions on our part. diplomacy and more talk.
Haim Ramon,Deputy PM and close friend of Olmert,proposes an immediate 70% withdrawal from Judea-Samaria.He is in effect acting o n as a shill for Olmert,as Olmert acted for Sharon.
Leaving aside whether this is the right thing to do in the long run, by what parameter does Abbas deserve to be rewarded? Has he disarmed any group? Has he reformed the PA? Has the PA renounced the right of return? Does Abbas really control Fatah? and won't these rifles etc ,eventually be used against the IDF?
Why rush to give away territory, when you have not taken care of the 10,000 Gaza reidents?
Trusting Abbas is dangerous,and he has no track record of success.
Why endanger 240,000 settlers at this (or any ) point?
Item;
The Knesset passed the first reading of a bill restricing JNF lands to Jews.Liberal Jewish groups both religious and political are screaming "Apartheid".I know that when I was a kid in the 1940's ,riding on the NY subway with a blue and white JNF box going from car to car,I never collected for an Arab settlement.These left-wingers should be ashamed of themselves.
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I know full well that AIPAC and the organized pro-Israel community in the US follow the lead of Israel in most issues.
I believe that the upcoming proposed sale of 20 billion dollars in arms to the Saudis must be fought, even with the increased Israeli aid package.
The Saudis are not "moderates" a"-they have not helped us in Iraq nor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.They are the source of funding for Islamic anti-West fundamentalism.
The fact that Olmert told the Cabinet that he understand the need for the US to support the Saudis,shows his weakness as a leader, who has no backbone,
The similarity to May 1986 is uncanny. President Reagan wanted to sell 345 million dollars of sidewinder and harpoon missiles to the Saudis.Very dangerous weapons at that juncture in time.The Israeli govt.,kept quiet,and AIPAC backed off from fighting the sale.
Led by Sen Alan Cranston (D-Calif) and a very small group of activists,of which I was a proud part of, successfully defeated the sale.In my autobiography p-133 I describe the whole battle, including being called into the White House to meet President Reagan.He asked our small group to release the Senators who had pledged to us their opposition.We refused, and the sale was dropped.
The Congress must stand up,and activists must organize!
It turns out that in addition to being on the team that wrote the Iraqi constitution,he was the lawyer for the city of Tenafly in their unsuccessful bid to prevent the installation of an eruv.Certainly a noteworthy effort to prevent Orthodox religious practices.
My own take on him, is that here is a brilliant man,who has reached great heights in law,and the world of public policy.He is widely acclaimed,and surely his friends are telling him how brilliant his article in the NYT was.Yet, the one area he deeply desires acceptance from ,the orthodox community of his upbringing, shuns him as a traitor.Thus he strikes out at them.
I assume that his education at Maimonides,would have taught him that our traditions will not bend either to the NYT,or the Jewish Week.
=====================================================================================
It is amazing how similar Liberals are in both the US and Israel.They live in a world of fanatsy.The realities of enemies that seek to destroy our way of life can be handled by soft talk, a drive for concessions on our part. diplomacy and more talk.
Haim Ramon,Deputy PM and close friend of Olmert,proposes an immediate 70% withdrawal from Judea-Samaria.He is in effect acting o n as a shill for Olmert,as Olmert acted for Sharon.
Leaving aside whether this is the right thing to do in the long run, by what parameter does Abbas deserve to be rewarded? Has he disarmed any group? Has he reformed the PA? Has the PA renounced the right of return? Does Abbas really control Fatah? and won't these rifles etc ,eventually be used against the IDF?
Why rush to give away territory, when you have not taken care of the 10,000 Gaza reidents?
Trusting Abbas is dangerous,and he has no track record of success.
Why endanger 240,000 settlers at this (or any ) point?
Item;
The Knesset passed the first reading of a bill restricing JNF lands to Jews.Liberal Jewish groups both religious and political are screaming "Apartheid".I know that when I was a kid in the 1940's ,riding on the NY subway with a blue and white JNF box going from car to car,I never collected for an Arab settlement.These left-wingers should be ashamed of themselves.
=================================================================================
I know full well that AIPAC and the organized pro-Israel community in the US follow the lead of Israel in most issues.
I believe that the upcoming proposed sale of 20 billion dollars in arms to the Saudis must be fought, even with the increased Israeli aid package.
The Saudis are not "moderates" a"-they have not helped us in Iraq nor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.They are the source of funding for Islamic anti-West fundamentalism.
The fact that Olmert told the Cabinet that he understand the need for the US to support the Saudis,shows his weakness as a leader, who has no backbone,
The similarity to May 1986 is uncanny. President Reagan wanted to sell 345 million dollars of sidewinder and harpoon missiles to the Saudis.Very dangerous weapons at that juncture in time.The Israeli govt.,kept quiet,and AIPAC backed off from fighting the sale.
Led by Sen Alan Cranston (D-Calif) and a very small group of activists,of which I was a proud part of, successfully defeated the sale.In my autobiography p-133 I describe the whole battle, including being called into the White House to meet President Reagan.He asked our small group to release the Senators who had pledged to us their opposition.We refused, and the sale was dropped.
The Congress must stand up,and activists must organize!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
HOW ABOUT AN OBAMA/OSAMA MEETING? /MIXED MARRIAGES-NYT STYLE
Question for Sen. Obama, who niavely answered that as President,he would meet with anyone including the Iranian President.
If you were President in 1937-8-9,1940 would you have met with Hitler?
If no,why is it proper to meet with the Iranians/Syrians?
AFTER ALL.THE IRANIAN PRESIDENT,IS ALREADY AIDING IN THE DEATHS OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS,AND THREATENED OUR EXISTANCE.
If yes, then how about a meeting of the "Big O's"-OSAMA-OBAMA?
A President should only meet with foreign leaders,after proper diplomatic groundwork,in order that the prestige of the Office not be humiliated by a diplomatic failure.
Hillary is right. You are out of your league.
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The article in this Sundays NYT magazine section on the law professor who is upset at modern orthodoxy is almost a childish attack because he married a korean girl,and his yeshiva did not stand up and applaud.
A graduate of the Maimonides School in the Boston area,he attended an alumni get- together with his korean girl friend.Subsequently,their picture were cropped from the group.
The tragedy is not the missing pictures.Rather it is what is missing from the story.
How did his parents and family react?
Did she convert? I am sure if she had a halachic conversion,the pictures would be there.
How does he reconcile his upbringing ,with such an act? and didn't he realize the communal reaction to such a rebellious act?
If his wife did not convert,then how does he feel knowing that his children are not Jewish?
Gary Rosenblatt, the left leaning editor of the Jewish Week,in addition to placing blame on the good Professor,seeks to portay this as a crisis for modern orthodoxy and for the concept that you can be a good American and an orthodox Jew at the same time.HIS REASONING-since mixed marriages are accepted by secular society,our rejection of this concept places into question our ability to function within such a society as Torah Jews.
Nonsense! there is no crisis, but a tragic loss of a Jew.The fact that we follow our traditions and reject inter-marriage makes me no less a good American, than if I reject same sex marriage(accepted by many in secular -or even Reform/Conservative circles) even between two Jews,or a female clergy.
That is the beauty of America,and of Torah UMaddah.I follow the halacha,and the Costitution of this great country-no contradictions!
The fact that Rosenblatt himself wrote the story,(and not a staff writer),and he placed it on page one, is another example of his feelings toward MODERN ORTHODOXY,which he believes has turned too far to the right.That it has turned I agree, but this is not such an example.
If you were President in 1937-8-9,1940 would you have met with Hitler?
If no,why is it proper to meet with the Iranians/Syrians?
AFTER ALL.THE IRANIAN PRESIDENT,IS ALREADY AIDING IN THE DEATHS OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS,AND THREATENED OUR EXISTANCE.
If yes, then how about a meeting of the "Big O's"-OSAMA-OBAMA?
A President should only meet with foreign leaders,after proper diplomatic groundwork,in order that the prestige of the Office not be humiliated by a diplomatic failure.
Hillary is right. You are out of your league.
=====================================================================================
The article in this Sundays NYT magazine section on the law professor who is upset at modern orthodoxy is almost a childish attack because he married a korean girl,and his yeshiva did not stand up and applaud.
A graduate of the Maimonides School in the Boston area,he attended an alumni get- together with his korean girl friend.Subsequently,their picture were cropped from the group.
The tragedy is not the missing pictures.Rather it is what is missing from the story.
How did his parents and family react?
Did she convert? I am sure if she had a halachic conversion,the pictures would be there.
How does he reconcile his upbringing ,with such an act? and didn't he realize the communal reaction to such a rebellious act?
If his wife did not convert,then how does he feel knowing that his children are not Jewish?
Gary Rosenblatt, the left leaning editor of the Jewish Week,in addition to placing blame on the good Professor,seeks to portay this as a crisis for modern orthodoxy and for the concept that you can be a good American and an orthodox Jew at the same time.HIS REASONING-since mixed marriages are accepted by secular society,our rejection of this concept places into question our ability to function within such a society as Torah Jews.
Nonsense! there is no crisis, but a tragic loss of a Jew.The fact that we follow our traditions and reject inter-marriage makes me no less a good American, than if I reject same sex marriage(accepted by many in secular -or even Reform/Conservative circles) even between two Jews,or a female clergy.
That is the beauty of America,and of Torah UMaddah.I follow the halacha,and the Costitution of this great country-no contradictions!
The fact that Rosenblatt himself wrote the story,(and not a staff writer),and he placed it on page one, is another example of his feelings toward MODERN ORTHODOXY,which he believes has turned too far to the right.That it has turned I agree, but this is not such an example.
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