Grasshoppa

The power of Campus Watch

After all the hand-wringing and complaining about how Campus Watch would chill the debate on Israel among academic circles, we find that the power of Campus Watch has been rather overstated.

I present to you, as evidence of my claim, People's #1: the Second (!) National Student Conference on the Palestine Solidarity Movement, which is to be held at the University of Michigan in mid-October. Given that this is a groups that characterizes Israel as "an apartheid state" and claimes that Zionism is inherently racist, I would say that the supposed Campus Watch imposed chill has quickly thawed.

Boy Shaprio is back

Concerned for the welfare of his boyhood idol, Yassir Arafat, our good friend, Adam Shaprio is back, extending his support for the Nobel Prize winner terrorist in chief.

I can understand people (even Jewish people) sympathizing with the plight of the average Palestinian who admittedly has a tough life. However, caring about the life of someone as odious as Arafat is beyond my comprehension.

No love

You know, I add people to my blogroll, and I see them checking my site, yet I get no reciprocation. Come on folks, help me out here!

Not so bad

So once again, the UN security council resolution (full text in that link) critical of Israel. I know, I know, and the sky is blue, so what?

This resolution is significant for a number of reasons. First, and most obviously, the US abstained from the vote, allowing it to be passed, indicating that the White House is none too pleased with the siege of the Mukata. Second, the resolution represents a compromise between a Syrian proposal and a US proposal. The notion US introducing a resolution critical of Israel is rather startling, however, give the outcome of this Security Council vote, it appears to have been a shrewd move.

While the US resolition called for the cessation of the Mukata siege, it also critcized Palestinian terrorism and called for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to be classified as terrorist groups. Unfortunately, the actually UN resolution fell far short of that goal, it did, for once, actually critcize the Palestinians and demanded action from them. This is a rare event indeed. However, had the US not introduced a proposed resolution, it would have been far harder to work against the very one-sided Syrian one.

Moreover, this resolution gives Israel good cover for ending this pointless siege. I've never been one to begrudge Israel's right to defend herself, but I find it difficult to see how the siege falls under that category. What this siege has done is focus attention on Arafat (who was rapidly become irrelevant) and make him, once again, look like a sympathetic figure. Furthermore, it has inflamed the Palestinians who are now actively protesting in the street over this siege, thereby bolstering Arafat's support.

With this resolution in place, Israel can withdraw from Ramallah, claiming to be merely abiding by a Security Council resolution, and demand that the PA live up to its half of the bargain. Then Israel can focus on more useful measures, like its recent raid in the Gaza strip which targeted Hamas terrorists. (The civilian casualties are, of course, regrettable).

Fight back already

So once again, a Jewish student has been attacked by an Arab (or Arabs) at Corcordia Univeristy And as usually, there's much whining and crying on the Jewish side... Corcordia should provide better security, it's letting the militant Arabs have their way on campus, but nothing is being done. That old joke about Jews being punching bags individually but unstoppable in an army comes to mind.

However, it's time for the Frozen Chosen to take matters into their own hands. Montreal has a large Jewish population and many of them attend Concordia. How about setting up private security patrols? Don't go around beating random Arabs, but perhaps if there were more eyes watching out for Jewish students, the Arab students would be less likely to use Jews as punching bags.

Overheard

While listening to FoxNews this morning on the TV, I heard one of the broadcasters say that the Israeli Amry was doing some redecorating at Arafat's compound. I had to chuckle.

Oooh ooh, change

Some things have been changing in the blog world, some for the better, some for the worse.

First, the bad news. Bruce Hill of War Now! has closed up shop. I don't know the specifics as to why, but I hope that Bruce finds a way to come back soon.

Which leads me to good news item #1:

The folks at Silent Running have picked up where Bruce left off. I'll be reading them regularly and hope you (yes, all 10 of you) to follow suit.

As for good news item #2, Sasha Castel has moved to new, classy digs. This brings a tear to my eye, as I remember when she was just starting out. Now she's got her own site replete with nice compliments from more famous folk.

The Double Standard

Earlier this week, former Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu's, scheduled speech at Concordia University in Montreal was cancelled when a group of pro-Palestinian protesters rioted, attacking Netanyahu's Jewish supporters. Read Elana's retelling of the event as well as this other first hand account. Howard Fienberg also has a thorough round up of stories about the riot.

The most striking commentary comes by National Post reporter, Daniel Kay, who was at the incident and listenedd to both the protesters and the press conference afterwards held by Netanyahu. I've extracted the important quotes:

First from the protesters themselves:

To the protesters -- well-steeped in the specious propaganda of the Arab world -- all of this was "legitimate resistance."

"Look what the police have done," a thin, friendly Concordia student named Ahmed told me, gesturing dramatically at a pane of smashed glass.

"But the protesters smashed the window," I said.

"Yes," he responded, "Out of frustration. Look at the way they're being treated!"

As we spoke, a group of Jewish students raised an Israeli flag. Almost immediately, a group of men chanting slogans in Arabic took it from them.

"Is that an act of frustration too?" I asked Ahmed, half seriously.

"They have no business taunting us," he said with great solemnity. "It's a provocation."

And now from a reporter at the press conference:

There are people who feel that holding your event at a place like Concordia University with a history of difficulties
... was like waving a red flag in front of these people," she said. "Perhaps that caused the problem."

Now consider what happened at Colorado College when it invited Dr. Hanan Ashwari, considered by many (this author included) to be an apologist for Palestinian terrorism, to give a keynote speech on September 12 about the effects of 9-11. Outraged Jews and non-Jews alike started a letter writing campaign to the college expressing dismay at her selection. Although the college did allow Daniel Pipes to speak, it stuck to its guns and allowed Ashrawi to speak. As it turned out, while there was a great deal of arguing and protesting, peace reigned as there was no violence to be found on either side.

So let's summarize: the Arab population of Concordia is angry and there have been previous violent incidents involving these same students, so nothing should have been done to "incite" them, including inviting a controversial speaker such as Netanyahu. These are the words of both the protesters themselves as well as their sympathizers, and are eerily similar to those sentiments castigating Ariel Sharon for taking his now infamous walk to the Temple Mount in September of 2000. As far as I can tell, these words are tantamount to saying that Arabs cannot and should not be expect to control themselves, so nothing should be done, no matter how non-violent, to provoke them. Imagine the fall out if the Jews had rioted in the same way as did the Corcordia Arabs, Not only would have they been condemned by the usual suspects (CAIR et al.) but undoubtedly by Jews all over (myself included). But we don't see this happening regarding the Concordia riot - while there were condemnations issued by
(ostensibly) non-aligned parties, all that is offered from the pro-Palestinian side is justification. Mr. Singh's missive is particularly egregious in this regard as it offers the following:

Free speech, expression and debate are crucial values in a society presumed to be democratic, but it wasn't the protesters who were attacking those values on Monday; rather, it was the organizers of Mr. Netanyahu's event at Concordia, as well as the university administration, that gave the event a go-ahead...

...And certainly don't expect Palestinian students -- many of whom are direct victims of Mr. Netanyahu's policies and the Israeli occupation -- to sit idle, or settle for being "polite."

And thus we have the double standard: free speech and violence for me but not for thee and until the Palestinians and especially their sympathizers hold themselves to the same standards as the hold Westerners and Jews, we should not expect the Israeli-Arab conflict to be settled, at least peacefully, anytime soon.

Never to forgive, never to forget

I ran across this comic today, and felt that it rang too true and thus makes a fine jump point for a discussion on the anniversary of 9-11.

It has been said that 9-11 was the day that everything changed but is that true? Prior to that date, most Americans lived in a cocoon of ignorance and isolation, secure in the knowldege that bad things only happened over "there" and that we had little to fear. We occupied ourselves with the pursuit of money and things. Our lives were so boring and empty that we obsessively watched the contrived lives of others on TV- Survivor, Big Brother, and the Real World. But on September 11, 2001, our world became, one again, "the real world." We Americans found ourselves on the receiving end of an act of war, declared on us by a shady group of radical Muslims and supported either outright (c.f. dancing Palesitinians in Nablus) or with silent ascension of "you deserved it" (c.f. the radical left, and the average resident of Cairo).

The images we saw on TV of death, destruction and pain were shocking and forever left an impression in the minds of most Americans. The fall of the Twin Towers marked the fall of the sense of invulnerablity that we Americans carried. We called for blood, revenge, retribution, and justice. Our government declared a "War on Terrorism" and then, with the help of a (very) few allies, invaded Afghanistan, successfully dispersing Al-Qaeda and removing their harborers, the Taliban, from power.

It's now one year later, and where are we now? Afghanistan (or at least Kabul) is liberated but rests on shaky (at best) ground. Our government is planning on an invasion of Iraq but appears to be disorganized and has garnered little, if any support from our putative allies. We are still beholden the the oil sheikdoms of the middle east because we refuse to change our lifestyle to curtail our dependence on foreign oil. As for air security, the only thing we can count on are long waits and random searches of grandmothers and breast feeding mothers. And despite all the promises of reform and improvement of American security agenies, all we have seen are repeated CYA terror alerts emanating from the FBI and the "Deptarment of Homeland Security" combined with the erosion of civil rights by our Justice Department.

And yet, most Americans have returned to their natural state of obliviousness. How many care that these new powers given the government wouldn't have helped prevent 9-11? The US had tons of clues that something was going to happen, but it didn't put 2 and 2 together because of individual and bureacratic failures, not from a lack of government power.

How many realize that we're still fighting a "war" with those who attacked us and their supporters, and how many care?

I hope on this anniversary, that the images of 9-11 which are flooding our airwaves and our networks will remind us this is not over and that we must keep both eyes on our enemies while keeping one on ourselves and our government. I know that many who have not directly suffered from 9-11 will be brought to tears by the replay of that fateful day, but tears will accomplish precious little. It's better to channel the anger and the sadness into a steely resolve which we will need in order to be victorious over our enemies.

The more things change...

... the more things stay the same, as we can now see in Germany, where someone firebombed a museum honoring the victims of a Nazi death march.

As distressing as that destruction was, more alarming is the poll cited in the same article:

According to the survey, which polled 1,001 people in east Germany and 1,050 in the west in April, some 28 percent overall believe that Jewish influence is too great, while 32 percent said they partially agreed.

Researchers found that higher numbers of people in the former West Germany had such feelings.

In 1994, 7 percent of eastern respondents agreed with the statement, compared to 14 percent today. In the west, 17 percent said Jewish influence was too great in 1994 compared to 31 percent today.

The survey, which had a margin of error of less than 2 percent, also found a rise in acceptance of the Nazi era, with 17 percent agreeing that "without the extermination of the Jews, Hitler today would be seen as a great statesman."

One wonders what exactly do they feel Jews influence too much - German politics, the media, the world? It's hard to tell, but really, it doesn't matter. These sentiments are eerily reminiscent of those which helped put Hilter into power, which according to almost 1/5 of those surveyed, probably wasn't such a bad thing - except for that Jew killing bit.

Munich Remembered

The following article is part of a blogburst - a simultaneous and cross-linked posting of many blogs on the same theme. This blogburst commemorates the Munich Olympics Massacre which began in the dawn hour of September 5th, 1972. Go to the The Index of the Munich Massacre Blogburst to find links to all the other articles.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, here is a brief synopsis:

At 5:00 AM, exactly 30 years ago, a seminal event in the development of modern terrorism took place. Eight Palestinian terrorists invaded the athletes' housing at the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. They killed and took hostage eleven Israeli athletes competing in the Games, demanding the release of 234 imprisoned Arabs and German terrorists. Over the next few tension-filled days, all the hostages and some of the terrorists were killed, mostly due to incompetence and perfidy of the German government. The Olympic Committee made a controversial decision to continue the Games, and has never participated in any memorial for the slain athletes. Eventually almost all the remaining terrorists were hunted down and killed by Israeli agents, directed by then Prime Minister Golda Meir.

Although 30 years have passed, this horror of this event is still haunts both Israelis and Jews around the world. Greg Garber of ESPN explores this issue with both Israeli and Jewish athletes. Not surprsingly, none of the athletes interviewed are not particularly concerned about being terrorist targets. I suppose that if you're Israeli, it's more dangerous at home than it is abroad, so why be more concerned. As for the Jewish American athletes, somehow, I doubt that Arab terrorists know who they are, let alone that their Jewish. Nevertheless, Garber's artcle is worth the read if only because it reminds us that all Jews are potentinal targets, regardless of location. Munich was the only the beginning of Arab targetting of Jewish civilians abroad. Arab terrorists have shot up a synagogue in Rome, blown up a Jewish community center in Argentina, and bombed a popular Jewish restaurant in Paris. Yet, like these athletes, we cannot worry about terrorism and we must continue on with our lives. I'm reminded of when I was visiting the Marais district of Paris (the Jewish and gay district), eating falalfel with my friend about a year ago, not long after the Dolphinarium bombing in Tel Aviv. The woman next to me, obviously recognizing that my friend and I were speaking English, asked me where I was from. I told her that I was from Boston, and she said to me, "You come all the way here for falafel? They'll kill you here." I replied, "I'm not afraid," and she smiled and said "good." Indeed, we must not be afraid.

A fine replacement

Of all the proposed replacements for the World Trade Center, this one strikes me as the most worthy. In my opinion, it is modern, tasteful, visionary and unique and would truly enhance the New York City skyline. Of course, I did find this particular paragraph describing one of the proposed security measures to be rather silly:

Our Cyber City will have a State of the Art External Security System which at this stage evolves around "Sound Waves" which has the capacity at a specific frequency to repel flying objects up to a five mile circumference. We will seek support from the political system to bring about an edict that a "Five Mile No Fly Zone" area is put into effect around the island of Manhattan.

If such a technology exists, why don't we have it installed all over the place? Who needs a missle shield when we've got a sonic repellent?

Blogburst

Judith Weiss of Kesher talk has organized a blogburst about the Munich Massacre of 1972 for tomorrow. Since I'm taking part in it, look here tomorrow for more on this important topic.

A new affiliation

While I was away, a new colaborative blog, Israpundit was begun as a blog for news and vies on Israel. I've accepted an invitation to join the blog and will be both poster there and here from now on. So don't wait any longer, go check it out!