68 Comments

1. Norman Simms:

Yes, Phyllis–again you are on target.

I have just re-read Stefan Zwig\’s The World of Yesterdasy, and his chapters on the blindness, deafness, and self-induced sleepiness of the world to the rise of Nazism seems all too true–and happening agaion with a vengeance,.

If anyone would like to put together a collection of essays and reports on the abuse of language and the new techniques of propaganda used in this War against the Jews, they can contact me by email. We can do a special number of Mentalities in a year’s time.

Norman

Oct 5, 2009 - 10:04 pm 2. truepeers:

Yes, the world does not hold the Palestinians to account for their violence. Part of the problem, I think, is that few Westerners really understand the nature of the resentment that drives it, preferring instead to believe in some Jewish/Israeli wrongdoing as explanation.

But I’m not sure substituting “homicidal” for suicide bomber is likely to increase our understanding of the Palestinian mind. It seems to me that the desire for self-destruction is a key component of the homicide. What “the Jew” symbolizes, what the Palestinian and the Global Intifada ultimately oppose, is the modern global economy and nation-state system, and those who succeed in it. To make self-destruction a part of one’s protest against this economy is to insure the purity of one’s act, as once successfully performed, one’s opposition can never be bought off or redeemed within the system that one seeks to destroy precisely because one cannot leave it any other way now that there is but a single global economy and all must “belong” to it.

Likewise, I think it a mistake not to consider that the Iranian leadership may well be quite happy to sacrifice millions of “their own” people to the cause. This is not just murder; it is murder and suicide on a mass scale; the hatred of “the Jew” is ultimately always also a question of self-hatred.

Oct 5, 2009 - 11:46 pm 3. truepeers:

I might add that Hitler was not only obsessed with killing Jews; he was also obsessed with the idea that the German youth of the 30s and 40s make a self-sacrifice that would justify the sacrifices of WWI and the cause of bringing into being the 1000 year Reich. He positively gloried in the idea of millions of Germans dieing to realize the dream. I think it would be a mistake not to think a similar mindset is at work among some in the Muslim world dreaming of a renewed Caliphate and a world one day brought under the universal rule of Sharia. For such a cause, many will wish to die. Why does the term “suicide” suggest sympathy and not disgust?

Oct 5, 2009 - 11:56 pm 4. Ken Besig Israel:

There is an old saying that one who asks in fear asks for refusal. Well for some time now, in it’s effort to be understanding, generous, and even charitable, especially to our bitterest enemies, the Israeli government has made itself look weak and fearful of any kind of confrontation. This has emboldened our enemies and confused our allies, even the American Jewish Community. Let me ask you, Phyllis, what other religious group but the Jews would abandon their holiest relgious site, the Temple Mount, to the mercies of their most depraved and loathesome Palestinian enemies? What other army in the world but the Israeli Defence Forces forbid, by official military order, it’s soldiers from fraternizing or even speaking with Jewish settlers? No Phyllis, no other country or religious group in the world except Israeli Jews would behave in such a craven and despicable manner, and thus no other country in the world would ever make itself and it’s innocent citizens such an easy and even inviting targets for lies, slander, libel, verbal and physical abuse, and even murderous attacks.
Phyllis, I can’t even blame our enemies for the way they kick us and hammer us because we Israeli Jews have made beating us up a winning situation for them!

Oct 6, 2009 - 12:34 am 5. MiamaMan:

Thanks.

It is true, one of four Hitler grandparents is so open to the possibility of Jewish ancestry, so as to make it very probable. For, her paternal grandmother (Schilkgruber, later Hitler by marry, the mother of Hitler’s father Alois) was a maid in a Jewish family of means, the Frankenbergers of Graz, and was found pregnant, the teenage son of the family being a suspect, and then that family provided her with monetary support till Alois was born, then a lump sum…why?

Oct 6, 2009 - 4:26 am 6. Grantman:

Phyllis – you used the term, “War against the Jews.” As you know, Lucy Davidowicz wrote a book of that name 20+ years ago. Harrowing.

I shuddered at your use of the phrase in the article because it’s true. I’ve been trying to tell some friends about the current state of the world and this description is probably the most apt.

Thanks for bringing it back. This should get wider attention. Norman – you have the right idea for the first step.

Oct 6, 2009 - 4:28 am 7. AQUA:

Perhaps we can look forward to a future headline:

AHMADINEJAD REVEALED TO BE A JEW.

ENTIRE WORLD NOW DECIDES TO CONDEMN AND ISOLATE IRAN.

Oct 6, 2009 - 4:59 am 8. MiamaMan:

Very interesting and appropriate, Phyllis, but then, scary as well.

For the hijacking of language by the Jihadis has been perfected as an art, and it is now in full swing worldwide.

I will just add the Indian dimension here to what you said, as I know is not well known as the current one with Israel.

Negationism of the crimes of Islam in India started way back, in the 1970’s, the result of a dubious alliance between the apologists of Islam and the Marxist academia (implanted in India by Indira Gandhi, the center of which is New Delhi).

It can be called negationism as it exhibits the same characteristics of the negation of the Jewish Holocaust (Shoa) and the Gypsy Holocaust (Porrajmos) mainly by Europeans. As a result, a large number of Indians themselves do not know about the Hindu Holocaust at the swords of Islam in India (longer than the Jewish, with many more victims, and as purposeful as the Jewish one). School curricula are totally riddled in India with falsehood and lies, so young ones are being misled from the start.

Already an important book by Sitaram Goel “Hindu Temples: What Happened To Them”, could not be published in its original form in India in 1990 due to pro-Islamic pressure. The book also criticizes and expands upon the alliance of Islamists with the Indian Marxist academia, at the forefront of which is negationist and Cornell University visiting professor Romila Thapar. However, not a single mistake has been found in Goel’s book. The critics use the simple tactics of negation, half-truths, disruption, and outright lies to divert the attention of the observer and reader.

Mind you, these crimes continue even today against Hindus in several Muslim countries and in the Kashmir. The tremendous events in 1989 in Bangladesh, destruction of many temples and murders of Hindus were also mentioned in an addendum in Goel’s book.

Everywhere that Islam has established itself, sooner or later, this ugly aspect of intolerance and negationism of past crimes, comes into effect. This should be a sobering fact for those naive enough to expect Islam to evolve, change, become more humane.

Thus I like the title of your article, verily enough, this time the Warsaw Ghetto possesses Saura Agni (in Sanskrit the fire of the sun, the same reaction used in nuclear weapons). Israel, tiny Israel, contrary to her detractors’ claim, is right now at the forefront of the fight for humanity.

Oct 6, 2009 - 5:05 am 9. andrew m. upton:

A belated Happy Birthday to you and a continued gratitude for your insightful and motivating writings. Although much of our preaching is to the choir, we need to keep inspiring each other to do more to confront ever more challenging events. Thank you

Oct 6, 2009 - 5:07 am 10. wayne:

Your last question regarding Israel’s enormous nuclear arsenal is one that has confounded me for months. I have repeatedly emailed the largest mouth-pieces of public discourse about this and no one has offered the slightest commentary.

Israel is sitting on somewhere between 100 and 300 hydrogen bombs in the 0.2 Megaton and up range, most of which are on ICBM’s similar to (and likely derived from) our MX Peacekeeper and Trident systems with multiple warheads. These are modern nuclear weapons – not the Hiroshima era devices the Iranians are attempting to obtain.

It is only the insanity of Iranain President Armageddon-eye-jab and Ayatollah Khamelmanning in believing a nuclear exchange with Israel (which will destroy Iran) will bring about the return of the Mahdi to lead the armies of Islam into victory over the world that is pushing this whole crisis.

I actually feel sorry for the Iranian people. Millions of them are going to die for the insanity of a bunch of psychopaths and my only worry is we have self-absorbed blinded fool sitting at the tiller of the Western World and his stupidity could very easily lead to this going beyond Israel wiping out Iran and drag in the Russians, the Chinese, and the rest of us in an exchange that will kill hundreds of millions if not billions.

Oct 6, 2009 - 5:46 am 11. George Jochnowitz:

If the story that Ahmadinejad has Jewish ancestors becomes widespread in Iran, then maybe he’ll have to flee the country. He would have to ask for political asylum in Israel. That would be cool.

Oct 6, 2009 - 6:19 am 12. David W. Lincoln:

Phyllis, I am sure you remember the writings of Taylor Caldwell. In the novel about the Apostle Luke, we find, “no man is more abhorred than a man who is different from his neighbors”.

So, because the Jewishness of Jews makes Jews stand out amidst the human race (and Israel is, via design, and demographics a Jewish state), that is abhorrent to those who see themselves come up short when they compare themselves to Jews.

Therefore, Phyllis, even given the fact that
nukes are not enough to protect the Jewishness
of Jews, more is needed, and that is for those
who have no even-handed reason to fear the Jews to come to the aid of the Jews. Which is
one thing about me, even though I am a follower of he who was a Jew, that you already
know about me. Plus, I am not the only one to
do so.

Oct 6, 2009 - 7:09 am 13. Pajamas Media » This Time, the Jewish Ghetto Has Nuclear Weapons:

[...] Read the entire article here. [...]

Oct 6, 2009 - 8:36 am 14. Evil Pundit:

Not everyone in the world hates Jews. There are those of us who are sympathetic to Israel.

Unfortunately, the Left-Islamic alliance of convenience has the upper hand in much of the media, and in government as well. But that might change, if more people recognise that militant Islam threatens not only Israel but, ultimately, all liberal democracies and freedom-loving people.

Oct 6, 2009 - 8:51 am 15. Old Soldier:

Dear Israel,

Hold on. Don’t give in, don’t give up anything. We will try our best to make this country your friend again in 3 years.

Oct 6, 2009 - 9:03 am 16. R. Greener:

Geography and resources determine all armed conflicts. Right now everything favors Israel. Israel has the third largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world as well as the means to deliver them to their prospective enemies. Israel’s most probable enemies have no nuclear weapons at all and no means of delivery. Besides, any sort of nuclear attack on Israel would kill many more Arabs than Jews and would invite complete destruction via retaliation from Israel. Who would be crazy enough to do that? What are you afraid of?

Oct 6, 2009 - 9:21 am 17. HEPT:

Recently we got a very good idea of Muslim’s dealing with a UN food aid program for their own people, Yup, The Taliban blew the HQ of the food aid program because it was not GOOD for Muslim’s.
To force your own folks to starve and suffer for their own good. How Profound an interpetation of islam is that?
When you understand the mind set of the jew hating muslim’s then you can deal with islam.
I fear the only way to deal with islam is to always be prepared for attack and kill them in large numbers I mean if feeding starving muslim’s is bad for islam then what exactly is considered good for islam?
Homocide/suicide bombers?
what a screwed up religion this is.

Oct 6, 2009 - 9:27 am 18. Poor Citzen:

There is no good news when it comes to the Mid East. Leaders from both sides are stuck in their own sand box mentality and that has not changed since the inception of the israeli state. It will not change now. Its a nightmare. Any chance there will be peace? No way hozay.

Oct 6, 2009 - 9:54 am 19. Hans Moleman:

It is quickly becoming clear that President Obama’s foreign policy has a simple but astonishing goal: to rid us of both enemies and allies. And the first ally to be abandoned is Israel.

The policy of appeasement of our enemies has been painfully obvious. In facing Iran, North Korea, and now a newly revanchist Russia, Obama has offered goodwill, apologies, and concessions, in the expectation that these will appease them and ensure good behavior in the future. It didn’t work for Chamberlain and it is unlikely to work for Obama. But there it is.

The flip side has been less obvious, but it, too, is emerging. Israel has received more of Obama’s pressure and condemnation than any of the nations that seek to push her into the sea.

The “moral equivalence” approach, where the smallest failings of democracies are equated to the greatest atrocities of tyrants, has been seen before from the left. But here we have something even worse: harsh condemnation of Israel for adding bedrooms in the West Bank without even a balancing concern about Palestinian shelling of Israeli homes.

During the campaign, Candidate Obama was asked to name America’s closest allies; he slowly reeled off Britain, France (yes, France), and Canada. He did not mention Israel. It was excused at the time as a mental oversight.

And ghosts of the far Democratic past are reminding us that we have seen this before.

“Elder Statesman” Jimmy Carter blasts Israel as an apartheid regime (when not busy condemning Republicans of blanket racism). And Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski yesterday suggested that the US should shoot down Israeli jets if they cross US/patrolled Iraqi airspace on a mission to destroy Iran’s fast-developing nuclear weapons program. Shoot them down!

This reminder of the Carter foreign policy inclinations should be enlightening. Remember that the present brutal, fanatical, genocidally Jew-hating Iranian regime came to power during Carter’s (and Brzezinski’s) watch (in 1979). As was the case with the late, lamented (by some) Saddam Hussein’s brutal aggressive regime in Iraq (also in 1979). And who can forget the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (also in 1979) and Carter’s effective response?

Indeed, there is much to learn from the Carter/Brzezhinski foreign policy. But these particular gentlemen never learned it, and anyway ought to have been shamed into perpetual silence on world affairs long ago.

Yet Obama continues on in the same path – outreach to enemies, pushback to allies. Why? There are two possible answers. One is cowardice, the other ideology.

Now, cowardice (like racism) is a hefty charge, and not to be thrown around lightly. It amounts to being nice to those who are itching to fight with you, while venting your frustration on those closest to you. It is the pattern of the Bully, and there are few things uglier. (And for the record, I don’t think this is the motivator here.)

The other explanation is ideology, specifically the ideology of isolationism. We generally reserve the label for Republican policy in the 1920’s and early 1930’s, but it appears equally applicable here. Back then (and it continued well into the Roosevelt years) we intentionally distanced ourselves from our allies in the recent World War. We rejected all efforts to respond to aggression overseas. And we limited our active diplomacy to high-minded disarmament schemes.

So this stuff is nothing new. But back then it was properly condemned as “turning our backs to the world”, while today it is seen as the highest kind of international outreach, the noblest level of diversity. “All nations are equal, and we love you all equally. So don’t expect us to take sides in any of your petty quarrels.”

It is of course not just Israel who is on the receiving end of this two-sided doctrine. The retreat on missile defense in Europe is being seen properly in most places as craven appeasement of Russia, who objected to anything that would limit Iran’s western “outreach” or reinforce the independence of Russia’s former colonies in Eastern Europe. But the message was two-fold: Russia must be appeased, but similarly Poland and the Czech Republic must be reminded that we have no stake in ensuring their independence. Poles and Czechs, like our other allies, are on their own.

Similarly in the Americas, we reach out to Venezuela’s Castro clone Chavez while distancing ourselves from strong ally Colombia. In Honduras we stand up for the rights of a budding Chavez clone to make himself president-for-life. Everywhere the same: outreach to anti-American regimes, pushback to American allies. The goal? To make them all just “other nations”.

In a sense, this has been leftist doctrine consistently since the McGovern repudiation of the “Truman Democrat” foreign policy in 1972. It can be seen in the left’s repudiationof the Bush overthrow of Saddam Hussein. That was offensive on two fronts; it overthrew an enemy, and it threatened to create an ally!

Oct 6, 2009 - 10:02 am 20. Lonni:

In the book of Ezekial, Chapters 38-39 is a prophecy of the outcome of this situation. Iran does come against Israel, under the leadership of Russia, as well as other, smaller nations. Israel is met in the valley with a thundering army and yet, when the dust clears, all but one sixth of the enemy is dead. The description of the battle is regional due to the number of countries involved and nuclear because of the marking of “bones” to be buried. However, the outcome is what gives me hope for Israel. God Himself intervenes and Israel recognizes that She has been saved by God and not Her own resources. Keep the Faith!

Oct 6, 2009 - 10:04 am 21. Sherab Zangpo:

Two Popes, John Paul II and the present Pope, have already said that the Holocaust has to be understood as a DIRECT presence of the Beast in the human history, a direct presence of Evil and Hell: today’s hate against Israel (and all antisemitism in general) must be seen as the continuation of the same action by the same evil.
It is (in a perverted way) “logical” that the left, that fosters a pseudo-culture of nihilism, allies itself with the muslims, who have already been allied with hitler, to fight against Israel.
Israel represents the TRUE hope in its being the fire that has been lit like a beacon after the night of the Holocaust: nihilist can only HATE it, especially those who propagate fake “hope”. Israel is Witness of the Light of God Who Is Love, nihilists can only hate it.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Oct 6, 2009 - 10:06 am 22. Sherab Zangpo:

Ignore the troll.
In discussing this subject, the trolls take the side of satan , you don’t discuss with satan.
Please.

Oct 6, 2009 - 10:09 am 23. George Jochnowitz:

R, Greener,
Is there any reason to think that Islamists care that Muslims would be killed and destruction would take place? Moderate Iranian President Rafsanjani said years ago that retaliation, no matter how severe, would merely damage the world of Islam, but that atomic weapons would destroy Israel. Would someone as fanatic as Ahmadinejad or Khamenei hesitate to sacrifice, say, 35 million Iranians in order to kill 5 or 6 million Israelis? They would be overjoyed to make the sacrifice. The radical mullahs have no instinct of self-preservation because their faith is stronger than their will to live.

Oct 6, 2009 - 10:20 am 24. R. Greener:

George Jochnowitz -
Where in any Muslim or Persian history do you find suicidal behavior on a national scale? I find none. The ruling class in all Muslim countries mirrors the western ruling class – they control nearly all the wealth. And they quite nicely for it. Are you seriously afraid such people would sacrifice themselves, their nations and their wealth to “try” to eliminate Israel? There are no guarantees of success, you know. Plus… there simply is no Muslim nuclear weapon capable of striking at Israel while there most certainly is an Israeli capacity to obliterate any enemy. You can have all the faith you want but as Stalin asked about the Pope – “How many divisions does he have?” In the real world of military might, the cards are stacked in Israel’s favor for as far into the future as any of us alive can see. And never forget – Israel probably has more votes in Congress than Obama does.

Oct 6, 2009 - 11:02 am 25. Raymond in DC:

Wayne writes, “Israel is sitting on somewhere between 100 and 300 hydrogen bombs in the 0.2 Megaton and up range, most of which are on ICBM’s similar to (and likely derived from) our MX Peacekeeper and Trident systems with multiple warheads.”

Pure speculation. As the saying goes, “Those who know, don’t say; those who say, don’t know.” Moreover, his assumption that Israel missiles are “likely derived” from the US MX and Trident systems has no foundation.

It’s enough that Israel’s enemies believe that Israel’s response to an existential assault will be fierce, it won’t come from one direction, and it will not be bound by White House calls for “restraint”.

I’m not as pessimistic as Stephens. Netanyahu has already, according to reports, reaffirmed US-Israeli understandings on the nuclear question, and Israel won’t surrender its ultimate deterrence just so the US can get a paper deal with the Iranians.

Oct 6, 2009 - 11:38 am 26. SjB:

Phyllis,

I am a new reader and would like to thank you for your article. It is good to know that others have concerns and observations similar to mine. For the last 6 months, I have had the eerie feeling that evil is afoot and that events are parallel to pre-Nazi Germany (and escalating each day).

I will try to not repeat what you and other commenters have said better than I could, but I would like to add one thought that I do not think has been fully addressed: the re-alignment of alliances.

I may be all wet, but it is this factor that made my head dizzy last night. It all seemed so clear for a brief moment. We are heading into another world war and this is the build up. I fear for Israel and I fear for our nation. May God have mercy upon us all.

Oct 6, 2009 - 11:56 am 27. SjB:

I miswrote: Please correct pre-Nazi to pre/early Nazi Germany in my last comment. I have not been able to shake off the feeling that not only ishistory is repeating itself, it will be worse.

Oct 6, 2009 - 12:05 pm 28. erik of dale:

The war against the Jewish people did not start and did not end with the rise and fall of Hitler. It’s been a part of the history of the Jews for centuries. The difference today, as Ms. Chesler points out, is that the “Ghetto” Jews of today, in the ghetto of Israel, is armed and dangerous. My only concern is that the Israeli’s will hold off on using their power until it’s too late. Jews have always sought peaceful means to ending conflicts, it’s part of the Jewish character and Jews are loath to use war as their only resort. Let’s hope they don’t wait too long.

Oct 6, 2009 - 12:42 pm 29. George Jochnowitz:

R. Greener,
The Iran-Iraq War lasted 8 years. Iran could have ended it on satisfactory terms after two years. Ayatollah Khomeini continued fighting for another six years, leading to over 100,000 casualties. I would call that behavior suicidal.
Furthermore, Iran held American hostages for 444 days. Nothing happened to Iran because Carter was president. But Khomeini was tempting the US to invade Iran, which turned out not to be suicidal only because America was not led into temptation.

Oct 6, 2009 - 1:18 pm 30. Albert:

What exactly is the impending threat that Israel faces? Surely not the threat of some fanatic 1500 kilometers away, a zealot who has no control over his country’s nuclear program (note, this power lies with the country’s supreme leader). Iran has no strategic (conventional or assymetric) or tactical (suitcase weapony, etc.) measures that could threaten the security of Israel.

The Qassam rockets fired into Israel are surely a war crime, a crime against innocent civilians by Hamas, but they pose less of a threat than the common flu. More people die every month in Israel from the common flu than have ever been killed by Qassam rockets flying into the country.

Oct 6, 2009 - 2:13 pm 31. Jerry:

You can tell what side someone is on if you talk about conscience, shame and guilt.

“How would you feel if the position you held with regard to Israel resulted in the destruction of her inhabitants?”

“I feel they deserve what they got!” – pure anti-Semite! Feeling that families you do not know deserve death is an attitude that cannot be approached without a large Darwinian stick.

“I would feel nothing at all. No different from knowing that innocent children died of preventable disease or starvation. I don’t know them, so I cannot feel for them.” An egregious expression of a human limitation that this person exhibited – aggravating theoretical opposition to Israel and then disavowing responsibility when someone else took them seriously.

“I feel that governments make their people suffer through their misguided policies. The Jews suffered for their leaders’ misperceptions and missteps.” This person never visited Israel or, having done so, refused to make a judgment call about its value to the world. He believes, like Obama-types, that there is no good or evil in the world. Such a person has never suffered personally by the stands he has taken, and in particular such a person has not had to deal with systemic threats to his children. Like the family of the former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, they chose assimilation into a world without values, only interests and needs.

There are other variations on these themes, but each one has more to do with the person or the influences that molded him than the Jews. The Jews are the Rorschach cards upon which the Gentiles of the world build their fate.

Oct 6, 2009 - 2:21 pm 32. Laura:

This is indeed a sick, twisted world where genocidal islamists are embraced and their victims are treated as pariahs. Dictators such as ahmadinijad and qadafi are free to travel the world and get invited to make speeches, others like Chavez go to film festivals, yet officials from Israel, a free, democratic nation dare not travel abroad for fear they will be arrested. Orwell could not even have conceived of the current nightmare we are living through.

Oct 6, 2009 - 2:36 pm 33. ForNow:

Re the phrase “suicide bomber”

For a while I pushed the phrase “omnicide bomber” since such a person seeks to kill everybody, including himself or herself, at least everybody in the immediate vicinity. Of course, in some cases, the omnicidal impulse could expand to target the whole world. Anyway, the phrase didn’t catch on.

Oct 6, 2009 - 5:01 pm 34. bob23bob:

Israel is at the front line of the battle between the free West and all the puppets manipulated by the anti-democratic totalitarian doctrine of Islam. If the free West gives up on Israel, it is giving up on freedom. Currently there is a major shift happening in Europe where freedom loving politicians vow for Israel and are pointing out the dangers of the growing influence of Islam. Although a lot of the mainstream media are still anti-Israel, the people of Europe are starting to realize at first hand, through Muslim immigration, what Israel is up against. If Israel would have acted like the leftists would want them to, Israel would have been eradicated a long time ago. Whatever you do, don’t give in, not even an inch, because you’ll never get it back. BTW, is something like “land for peace” not just plain blackmail?
My money is on the change the Muslim immigration into Europe is bringing to the awareness of Europeans as well as on the change in mentality of the Euro-Muslims. Although the lesser educated ones will most likely gravitate toward radical Islamic views, the educated ones will undoubtedly realize what the free West has to offer and renounce dogmatic Islam.
And last but not least the power of democracy: if I were a Muslim woman and given the opportunity to vote, as should be in the free West, who would I vote for? If I had only half a brain I would vote for the demolition of anything that stood in the way of my liberation.

Oct 6, 2009 - 5:17 pm 35. The Phranc:

@ R. Greener
Iran sent hordes of unarmed men holding nothing but korans into battle to overwhelm Iraqi machine gun posts and to clear mine fields the hard way. The basij are now the thugs who beat protesters but they started as hundreds of thousands of will martyrs ready to die and sent to their deaths by the religious fanatics that still rule that country. That would be both a muslim and Persian example.

Oct 6, 2009 - 5:21 pm 36. Moho:

So, let me understand this.

Given your asinine analsyis of other issues, this ought to take a while…I’ll be back in a few hours.

Oct 6, 2009 - 5:39 pm 37. Moho:

I was pulling for you Chesler. But no, you didn’t understand. Better luck next time. Try getting a friend or somebody sane to help you read the paper.

Oct 6, 2009 - 5:40 pm 38. Jeffrey:

The truth is that every nation that opposes or oppresses Israel will suffer to greater and greater degrees. As was promised by the Heavenly Father; “On that day I will make Jerusalem a stone too heavy for all the nations to lift. All who try to lift it will be severely injured”
The world is being judged on how it treats ‘the people of the book’ that also includes those grafted in Christians.
What’s the big deal with Israel? The answer follows;
“But by their (Israel’s) transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”
Sound significant? Hence the battle ground. All the worlds’ evil and hatred focused on tiny Israel. We who believe must separate ourselves from the haters lest we get caught up in the destruction.

Oct 6, 2009 - 5:53 pm 39. Seattle:

I always have and always will be a strong Israel supporter. Anyone who has not seen the History Channel Documentary called “Saddam and the Third Reich” should watch this program.

Available from History Channel Shop and also on You Tube.

It points out the foundations of the Baath Party and modern anti-semintism have deep roots and was influenced greatly by Nazi Germany. This show blew my mind when I saw it a year ago. It amazes me how few people know this story.

Oct 6, 2009 - 6:22 pm 40. Mike Jefferson:

Wayne writes, “Israel is sitting on somewhere between 100 and 300 hydrogen bombs in the 0.2 Megaton and up range, most of which are on ICBM’s similar to (and likely derived from) our MX Peacekeeper and Trident systems with multiple warheads.”

Raymond writes, “Pure speculation. As the saying goes, “Those who know, don’t say; those who say, don’t know.” Moreover, his assumption that Israel missiles are “likely derived” from the US MX and Trident systems has no foundation.”

Whether Israel posesses any nukes is an intense matter of debate. The original reactor at Dimona is purportedly a heavy water, enriched uranium variety of late 50’s early 60’s vintage with a nominal output estimated between 30-100 mW. Surrounding the site are various above/underground reprocessing facilities. It’s been in operation for forty some years though no one country has admitted to supplying the Israelis with enriched uranium. As an aside, supposedly 200 tons of uranium ore disappeared from a ship in the Mediterranean and it may have been diverted to Israel.

Interestingly, Israel’s association with the apartheid government of South Africa may have predicated on a uranium for technology transfer. The South African’s nuclear program was dismantled in the early 90’s before the fall of the racist regime. Outside of intelligence circles, no one knows the extent of this relationship, or what ultimately occured.

Much of what is publicly known about the Israeli nuclear program was revealed in the mid-80’s by Mordechai Vanunu. Again outside of intelligence circles, Vanunu’s claims have never been verified or refuted. Based on Vanunu’s information, Israel can produce a little over a kg of plutonium a week or material sufficient for approximately 4-12 nukes/year and they are in possession of roughly 100-200 weapon ready nukes.

Israel does have significant payload delivery systems, though they aren’t Peacekeeper/Trident systems. The Jericho I was a short range missile based on the French GADM and had a maximum range of 300 miles. The Shavit (Jericho II) which was introduced in the late 80’s is a multi-stage solid rocket system that can launch a 300+ pound payload approximately 900-2000+ miles. More importantly, Israel has several cruise missle like systems which can be launched from air platforms or its dolphin-class submarines.

So while it appears that Israel may have nuclear capabilities, and most certainly long range payload delivery systems, one can not confirm that they have functional nuclear weapons.

Oct 6, 2009 - 6:36 pm 41. Paul of Alexandria:

Re the phrase “suicide bomber”

This is actually an accurate term. These people desire not only to kill an enemy, but to do so in such a way that they sacrifice their own lives. A close examination of Muslim philosophy shows that this is one of the few ways in which a Muslim is guaranteed heaven in the hereafter.

There is a tale told of an evil bandit who was the dispair of his village and his parents. He was killed during a raid on a Jewish caravan. Afterwards, his mother had a vision showing her son in Paradise; because he had been killed shedding the blood of infidels his sins were forgotten.

Oct 6, 2009 - 6:49 pm 42. David W. Lincoln:

Lonni, a point of difference. Joel Richardson
has more than private interpretations to point to leadership other than Russia in the chapters of Ezekiel that you mentioned. Take a look at http://www.joelstrumpet.com

Oct 6, 2009 - 7:03 pm 43. David P:

Alberts Statistical Logic

I’d like to ask how Albert actually got those figures, were they provided to him on the internet or did he spend years living in Israel to gather those numbers himself? My guess is the latter, Albert likely has no conceptual understanding of basic Israeli topography having never set foot there. My next question would be what compels Albert to express himself in this manner, to invalidate Israeli concerns on behalf of his armchair logic?

Oct 6, 2009 - 8:31 pm 44. w.e one:

i remember when i was a young boy in grammar school
some of the kids where getting on my case over a game
they where all over me hitting ,scratching ,pooling my hair
on the other hand I was a quite and very gentle boy, never
looking for trouble .but that day I found myself hitting back
with force, I didnt know I had. I ended bitting those guys
even giving one a bloody nose, I tell you, they where lucky
I didnt have a nuclear weapon…that is whats happening
in a way to Israel,every body in their neighbor hood is trying
to hit on them,but the only difference is that Israel has a few
nuclear weapons and pooch come to shave they will use them.
And then,well I dont think there will be then any more….

Oct 6, 2009 - 11:15 pm 45. logos1j1:

Perhaps, as the sagacious archbishop of Canterbury has suggested, the Muslims in Londonistan should be given the right to enforce Sharia law withing their own community. In this case the arrested Israeli could be handed over to the mullahs and, being found guilty (after a fair trial, of course) be beheaded according to Allah’s command – in a western nation that has long since abandoned the death penalty for its own criminals! Surreal? Indeed. But what scares me is that I’ve let my imagination come up with many such absurd scenarios only to read about them in reality a few months or years later. Either you are right and Europe is once again descending into the madness of anti-Semitism (if they ever abandoned it) or else it is something much more mundane – but just as sinister: they are simply selling Israel out for oil and a false sense of security. The recent sale (what else could it be called) of the only man convicted in the Lockerbie bombing seems to support the latter. But of course it could be both.

Oct 7, 2009 - 1:24 am 46. Greenconsciousness:

Phyllis: I missed it — what did Obama do at the UN — I heard him trash global women’s rights but did not catch that which you referred to — or maybe it is the same thing, But did he endorse the sharia is religion and cannot be criticizes human rights platform of the killers? He will let US troops be killed in Afghanistan while he pretends to be thinking — as he will let Iran get nuclear weapons while he “deliberates”.

Oct 7, 2009 - 2:09 am 47. oldguy:

Remember when Jack Kennedy warned the Soviet Union that any missle fired from Cuba will be considered to be fired from the USSR? Israel should deliver that message to all the Western nations. It’s the only thing these Western leaders seem to understand.

Oct 7, 2009 - 6:30 am 48. myth buster:

Why don’t we refer to them as the Islamic Kamikaze Corps? Sure, Japanese WWII veterans resent the comparison, and not without justification, but if it’s better propaganda than the alternative, so be it. It’s also a pretty accurate description, considering that they see themselves as the sword arm of Allah.

Oct 7, 2009 - 7:48 am 49. WackyMacky:

Israel knows that it can’t count upon anyone but itself and that equation does include, I’m very sorry to say, the United States. What good judgment on their part.

Anyone who doubts that Israel has nuclear capabilities, which by this time are formidable, should check the seismometer readings, in the vicinity of South Africa, prior to the government change to majority black rule. I remember the shock waves through the establishment at the time. The absolute stunned silence of a world caught flatfooted.

You may be sure that there is a game afoot to disarm her, among the other games that the international socialists are playing, this one, with their Islamic “friends.”

Oct 7, 2009 - 8:04 am 50. myth buster:

R. Greener- You’re making the dangerous assumption that the Iranian regime correctly calculates the risk. MAD only works when dealing with rational actors who deem the enemy’s threat credible. If Iran operates under a delusion that it can strike first, destroy Israel, and eliminate any capacity for Israel to retaliate, what incentive would they have for delaying their attack, even assuming they aren’t suicidal?

Oct 7, 2009 - 8:07 am 51. Albert:

David P,

I have been to Israel, twice actually, not that it matters. I have never lived in the country. But what are you trying to say? I got those statistics from the Israeli government web site. And I’m just asking questions–why are you insinuating about my motives?

What legitimate threat does Israel actually face? In real terms, I’d like an answer. No rhetoric, no fear-mongering. I think this question is at the crux of the issue–how can Israel respond accordingly if it cannot accurately measure such threats.

Israel has a right to security. What is the threat, and what is the response?

Oct 7, 2009 - 8:14 am 52. truepeers:

Why don’t we refer to them as the Islamic Kamikaze Corps? Sure, Japanese WWII veterans resent the comparison, and not without justification, but if it’s better propaganda than the alternative, so be it. It’s also a pretty accurate description, considering that they see themselves as the sword arm of Allah.

-the problem with this analogy is that the Japanese kamikaze were dieing for an actually existing state that could reasonably be seen to be protecting their own people. In other words, my self-sacrifice might reasonably be seen to improve the worldly potential of my nieces and nephews. In this sense, the kamikaze was only an extreme instance of a practise among warriors through the ages.

-one might say the Palestinian suicide bomber is likewise dieing on behalf of a proto-state and improving the chances of his near blood relations; but I think s/he also draws from a larger Jihadi culture in which you get people killing themselves for a sheer Utopian fantasy of a one-world, Caliphate and Sharia-ruled, order that will bring eternal order/submission/obedience to the world so that we no longer have to live with conflict and resentment (as if Islam could ever exist without a market in resentment towards “infidels”/kaffir; realists know that in a world where everyone professed Islam, the infidel would just be some competing sect and conflict and resentment would continue to mar our lives). In other words, I don’t take many Palestinians, let alone suicide bombers, on good faith that they just want to live in a state next to Israel and in a world system of competing, negotiating, nation-states.

Thus the Jihadi suicide bomber can not be accorded the respect one might make to a soldier who makes a rational self-sacrifice for his people, if we believe s/he really doesn’t want to come to terms with worldly realities. S/he must be judged in terms of the inherently irrational fantasy on which s/he is killing, a fantasy that would require endless killing if seriously pursued. It is both more immoral and more potentially deadly than the kamikaze. The Jihadi suicide really is a form of mindless self-destruction, as well as murder, and our intellectual challenge is to seek to understand the aspect of our common humanity that allows that deadly fantasy to come into being.

Oct 7, 2009 - 9:49 am 53. R. Greener:

myth buster -

How about actually busting some myths? What evidence do you have (I have no interest in what you may “believe”) that Iran is irrational and will act accordingly? And more importantly, where do you get your notion that Iran even has a nuclear weapons program not to mention an existing capability? And finally, what sort of first-strike is Iran supposed to launch against Israel when they have neither airplanes nor rockets that even approach the necessary range to do so? Just what is it you are so afraid of?

Oct 7, 2009 - 11:00 am 54. biblio44:

29. George Jochnowitz: “R. Greener, The Iran-Iraq War lasted 8 years. Iran could have ended it on satisfactory terms after two years. Ayatollah Khomeini continued fighting for another six years, leading to over 100,000 casualties. I would call that behavior suicidal.”

And yet Iran survived and its revolution survived. The facts that you point out should give pause to anyone advocating a US invasion of Iran. The consequences would be horrendous.

Oct 7, 2009 - 12:54 pm 55. truepeers:

What evidence do you have (I have no interest in what you may “believe”) that Iran is irrational and will act accordingly?

-If I might jump in, I think serious thinking about such questions has to begin with the realization that no community, anywhere, anytime in history, has ever been bonded without some degree of irrationality. Religion comes into existence first of all to bond people, pragmatically (as an alternative to animalistic forms of social order), and only secondarily does it evolve some (never complete) capacity for revealing human truths that take us beyond social bonding so that we can question it. If you think it needs to be proved that men will do irrational violence in attempts to renew a crumbling social order, you haven’t been paying attention to history. For example, if the West, with all its accomplishments in philosophy and science, could nonetheless have produced the politicians and generals who gave us the mass sacrifice of World War I, what do we have reason to hope of Islamic philosophy and science? The idea that self-interest among the rich and powerful will mean that men will do a lot to avoid a sacrifice of themselves or their children, only begs the question of what will they then do when they really think they need a sacrifice. The Iranians are obviously playing a very dangerous game; how can you explain this without assuming there is some calculation there that a major sacrifice (some degree of irrationality) may be necessary to renew faith and reason as the Islamic world know it.

Oct 7, 2009 - 1:02 pm 56. R. Greener:

truepeers -

You are either joking or you have no idea what you’re talking about. “The Iranians are obviously playing a very dangerous game:” WTF does that mean?

Oct 7, 2009 - 6:22 pm 57. myth buster:

I’m aware of how much more obscene suicide bombers are than the kamikaze, which is why the surviving members of the kamikaze corps (the 20,000 men slated for suicide missions during the American invasion of Japan, which was canceled due to the atomic bombs provoking Japan to surrender) resent the comparison. Still, if you want to avoid the terms “suicide” and “homicide,” “Islamic Kamikaze Corps” sounds like the best thing we can come up with.

What evidence do I have that Iran or Muslims in general are irrational and/or poor judges of their chances of success? Answer: the fact that they keep picking fights with Israel. Israel has won wars decisively time and time again, and they keep coming back for more, because their hatred of the Jews outweighs everything else in their minds. Now, the regime boasts about wiping Israel off the map while running a clandestine nuclear program. Surely a rational and well informed actor would realize that such posturing is suicidal when dealing with Israel, especially if they have no intention of building/using a nuclear weapon. Why? Because Israel is scared; they know that they can’t trust anyone else to come to their aid, and they’ve seen time and time again that the Muslims want them dead, therefore, Israel can’t afford to take the chance that Iran may be able to attack with a nuclear weapon, and so they’d be inclined to launch a preemptive strike, with nuclear weapons if need be.

Oct 7, 2009 - 6:41 pm 58. truepeers:

You are either joking or you have no idea what you’re talking about. “The Iranians are obviously playing a very dangerous game:” WTF does that mean?

-Care to give us some account of reality by which to weigh your either/or? The Iranians have been engaged in what many consider acts of war against the US for 30 years. They threaten to destroy Israel. They are striving to claim leadership of the global Umma in the jihad against a Western-led modernity and in the process are riling up their Sunni neighbors. They are at war with many of their own people and trying desperately to maintain internal cohesion by focussing on these external enemies and struggles. If all this doesn’t look to you like a dangerous game with room for all kinds of irrational acts of sacrificial violence, in one direction or the other, well then what is your alternative reality…?

The basic point is this: one commonly sees the argument that we, in the West, are irrationally bonding ourselves against some external enemy; if only we could see that it is not in the interest of that country to go to war with us (leaving aside consideration of the fact that Iran *is* at low-level war with us…). One never sees, however, that the usually leftist critic of the West has properly considered that just the same kind of need to bond “irrationally” against external rivals is just as much a part of their humanity as ours and that this can lead to all kinds of dangerous miscalculations about reality. Anyone who thinks that societies only fall into war because of rational calculations of self-interest/military strenght doesn’t know what he is talking about… and especially not when you’re talking about a society on the verge of civil war.

Oct 7, 2009 - 7:02 pm 59. David P:

Albert

What exactly is your definition of a ‘legitimate threat’?

How can one ‘measure legitimacy’ on a sliding scale?

Legitimacy is a factor of perception with infinite variables.

“In a war there are many moments for compassion and tender action. There are many moments for ruthless action – what is often called ruthless – what may in many circumstances be only clarity, seeing clearly what there is to be done and doing it, directly, quickly, awake, looking at it.”

You have no parameters to measure legitimacy against, therefore you have no right to judge.

Oct 8, 2009 - 6:34 am 60. R. Greener:

If a quadriplegic said he was going to punch you in the nose – would you be afraid? In order to be afraid of an Iranian attack on Israel don’t we need to establish – FIRST – that Iran is capable of such an action? Look at a map and then show me the evidence that Iran represents a military threat to Israel. In fact, most military analysts claim that Israel cannot attack Iran without using in-flight refeuling, which would have to come from US resources, or by launching their air attack from US bases in Iraq or Turkish bases. You go on and on about these so-called “wars” without ever looking to see if the parties are even capable of such hostile acts. And what about the FACT that Pres. A. doesn’t have authority over the Iranian military, the Revolutionary Guards or over foreign policy either? Doesn’t that matter? Iran does not have a western style Executive Branch. The Supreme Council and the Supreme Leader make all those decisions. People talk… Israelis, Americans and Iranians… because everyone has an agenda to serve. The chances of any “war” involving Israel and Iran are ZERO! How can so many intelligent Americans be so paranoid?

Oct 8, 2009 - 7:26 am 61. truepeers:

The chances of any “war” involving Israel and Iran are ZERO!

-you say this at a time when there is a war, via Iranian funding, training, and supplying of armies in Lebanon and Palestine, when Iranian terrorist agents in the US, or France, or UK, might, at a moment of heated passions, do something. And you have perfect faith all this can never balloon into anything more. The bottom line is that Israel does not know exactly when Iran will have a bomb – and it really only needs one or two – capable of destroying Israel. Who knows when they will fear enough, or when Obama, humiliated enough by his international bumblings, will do something in a cloud of emotional calculations. So what if Ahmadinejad is not a law unto himself; do you really think the Mullahs aren’t also obsessed with antisemitism and apocalyptic dreams of a returning Mahdi? How anyone can look at this and be sure no war can break out is to have a kind of faith guarantee that I think can only emerge from a need to come to terms, somehow, anyhow, with a real existential crisis, the uncertainty of which is too much to bear.

Oct 8, 2009 - 8:55 am 62. David P:

R.Greener: “military analysts claim”

They “speculate” based upon the ‘quantifiable (logical) variables’ ignoring ‘confounding (illogical) variables’ therefore they lay claim without certainty because the quantity of ‘logic’ the dependent variable, is not a constant & is precarious at best. It’s dangerously irresponsible to make assertions & draw ‘any reliable’ statistical conclusions when factors in your scale are flawed.

Oct 8, 2009 - 9:07 am 63. Hans Moleman:

I have just finished reading an interesting and disturbingly timely book. Why We Watched: Europe, America, and the Holocaust, by Theodore S. Hamerow, a hstory professor at the University of Wisconsin, chronicles and analyzes a story too rarely told: why the USA and Western European democracies exerted so little effort to prevent Hitler’s genocide of the Jews of Europe.

Hamerow gives full credit to the supreme efforts made by the allies in the war to defeat Hitlerism – once the allies belatedly recognized that their appeasement and isolationism would not avert the danger of further territorial aggression.

In the final analysis, there were three reasons why the west only watched the Holocaust.

First, the legacy of the isolationism that tainted all Western political parties in the inter-war period. This left the West with a residual sense that what Hitler did to his own people was his own business.

Second, a near-universal toxic mixture of anti-Semitism and fear of anti-Semitism. This was the context for any discussion of doing more to help the Jews of Europe. Anti-Semites before the war treated Hitler’s racist policies as an internal matter. Once the war started, any discussion of explicitly helping the Jews was treated as a distraction from the supreme effort to win the war. And the staunchest anti-fascist [political leaders worried that any effort at aiding Jews would stir up anti-Semitic feelings ion the citizenry – the feelings that Hitler and Goebbels constantly tried to fuel – that the war was for the benefit of the Jews. A macabre balance was maintained between hatred of Jews and fear of anti-Semites as the gas chambers did their work.

And third, a failure of the imagination necessary to appreciate the depth of Hitler’s evil and the seriousness of his commitment to the “final solution”. Western leaders restrained themselves from even talking openly about the death camps. They worried that many citizens would regard such talk as ridiculous exaggerations akin to WWI baby-killing atrocity tales from the “Rape of Belgium”, and thereby discredit themselves as preposterous propagandists. In fact, many western political leaders harbored their own doubts about whether the death camp reports were not in part lobbying pressure tactics directed at increasing Jewish immigration. Western foreign-policy “realists” certainly felt that Hitler’s Jew-hatred could not be stronger than his will to win the war; as a political leader, surely he would put national survival over Jewish extinction. Few could believe that, by the time Hitler could be stopped, the Jews of Europe might be a cause irretrievably lost.

Hamerow attributes the largest role to anti-Semitism and the reciprocal fear of anti-Semitism. But the interaction of all three factors enabled the ultimate sad outcome, an outcome so dismal that even now we refuse to acknowledge it: the near-total success of Hitler’s plan to rid Europe of Jews. The Germans murdered two-thirds of the Jews within their reach, and the majority of the rest left Europe as soon as possible. Most of those who fled came to the US and Israel.

Which brings us to the present day.

Again, we see a nation seeking to control its region and dominate its neighbors. We see this nation in the hands of militant fanatical ideologues and apocalyptic tyrants. We hear in their own words their hatred of the Jews and their commitment to destroy them.

And now we see them devoting all themselves to a level of nuclear armament that will put their neighbors under their control, and put extinction of the hated Jews within easy military reach.

And again, the factors which enabled Hitler’s Germany are at work to enable Ahmadinejad’s Iran.

The counsels of isolationism tell us to stay out of the fight, to maintain even-handed detachment, to avoid antagonizing enemies or reassuring allies. Indeed, we seek to have neither enemies to oppose nor friends to support.

And anti-Semitism stalks the world more fiercely and openly even than in the 1930’s. Islamism has revived The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the resentment of the Jews as all-powerful world puppet-masters. Once again, Jews are cautioned not to wear openly Jewish clothing or hats on the streets of cosmopolitan, urbane, post-modern, multicultural Europe, for fear of mob attack. Meanwhile, Democratic elder statesman advise Israel, “for its own good”, to avoid antagonizing the world with its bad behavior, or risk a rise of…anti-Semitism!…in Gaza and the West Bank!

And, above all, we have the pernicious influence of foreign-policy realists who reassure us that Iran couldn’t possibly mean what it says about eradicating Israel. That’s just rhetoric, big talk. They must know that they couldn’t possibly use nuclear weapons even if they get them. After all, they wouldn’t want to risk the casualties from an Israeli or UIS second-strike. They’re not crazy, after all!

The ultimate failure of imagination, as we saw on 9/11, is to refuse to believe people when they say they want to murder us.

Will we, once again, sit and watch? Despite the present excitement about “talks”, it appears that the world is dithering while Iran arms itself with first-strike weapons of annihilation.

Oct 8, 2009 - 1:48 pm 64. R. Greener:

Have you totally lost contact with reality? “… the world is dithering while Iran arms itself with first-strike weapons of annihilation.” Are you mad? What evidence do you have for this nonsensical assertion? Stop telling us what you “feel” and let’s have something of what you “know” to back-up your claims.

Oct 9, 2009 - 10:11 am 65. steven:

” The foot soldiers are completely hypnotized; I do not know what will awaken them.”

Nothing will. We live in an age when people believe what they wish to believe. Neither history nor facts nor deductive reasoning that proceeds from facts move them.

Oct 11, 2009 - 2:16 pm 66. Lynn B:

I will never understand the need of over a billion people to destroy a country of 7 or 8 million people. Israel is a land of different races, cultures, and religions. Gaza is a land of one race, one culture, one religion and no Jew or Christian, Buddhist or Hindu is welcome there (except for the useful idiots like Hass) Which land is apartheid?

Oct 11, 2009 - 7:06 pm 67. Lynn B:

And, if it helps any at all, I wear a Star of David in support of Israel and for my grandmother who was asked to leave the Netherlands. Talkback at Haaretz was interesting. I encourage everyone to join the fray. Haaretz.com

Oct 11, 2009 - 7:13 pm 68. David M.C.:

Albert stated:

The Qassam rockets fired into Israel are surely a war crime, a crime against innocent civilians by Hamas, but they pose less of a threat than the common flu. More people die every month in Israel from the common flu than have ever been killed by Qassam rockets flying into the country.

I would like to point out a few sharply-contrasted comparisons between Qassam Rockets and the flu:

1) Proliferation of the flu virus is casual, and unintentional by those who carry it.

2) Naturally-occurring Influenza was not created by one man to weaponize it against a neighbor he hates.

3) It is sad enough that Influenza and other communicable illnesses and disease can cause a greater mortality rate than these Qassam Rockets.

But it becomes a horrific nightmare to imagine the outcome if one could indeed weaponize and focus a concerted bio-warfare attack against a purported enemy to cause mass-mortality. This is actually a viable discussion in certain places right now.

4) Given this, it should be noted with gratitude that minimal property damage and physical harm/mortality has come from Qassam Rocket attacks.

however, it would be a far different playing field if these tiny rockets could be accurately guided in order to have a high incidence of collateral damage and casualties.

Recent events show us a demonstration of Iran’s intention of extending rocket technology and payload delivery in order to reach Israel, which I can safely conclude is an Iranian objective in the regional struggle for domination, semetic genocide, etc.

With clandestine efforts by North Korea, and such politically-embarrassing gaffes as catching a German ship transporting weapons and ammunition destined for Iran, it is apparent to me that the needed technology will eventually reach Iran at some point. It will be just a matter of time, and better concealment by her clandestine allies.

In either case, the perspective of taking neither Influenza or Qassam Rockets seriously is perilous to those who would suffer harm or mortality as result. In both cases, preventative and defensive measures work best.

Israeli’s IDF is focused on this exact point, lest a surge in lives lost or damage to property skyrocket.

Yes, my pun was fully intended…

Oct 14, 2009 - 4:28 pm

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