Things are looking up...there are more and more people who are willing to say that Saudi Arabia is an enemy, not a moderate state. And this is right at the top in Washington.
I think that Bush is trying to avoid frying the circuits at the State Department by taking on both Iraq and the Saudis all at once. But I would suggest that once a decision has been made about Iraq, the Bush Administration will turn its eyes towards Riyadh and will become more and more open about its wish for a radical change in leadership in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi's gig is finally up.

Little Green Football has a brilliant analysis of this article from the Jerusalem post, The Suicidal Street.
But this debate has not dimmed support for suicide attacks. Indeed, according to recent polls taken by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, 72% of Palestinians endorse suicide bombings and the killing of Israeli civilians (This is down from the April high of 76% support of suicide terror.) The poll found the support rate at more than 80% in the refugee camps. This, in contrast to the 24% of Palestinians who supported terror in 1997.
Along with 50 other Palestinian intellectuals, Nusseibeh signed a petition in the Palestinian daily Al-Quds beseeching their countrymen to put away their suicide bombs because the bombings "run counter to Palestinian National Interests." Both lauded and scorned, the advertisement was followed by successively diluted ads which led not with the signatories condemning suicide bombings but with a condemnation of the "occupation." The series finally ended with an advertisement in the daily Al-Ayam claiming that the bloodshed can only cease when the occupation ends. The call to end suicide bombings appeared near the end.
What is really disturbing about the article is that beyond the fact that almost 80% of Palestinians endorse genocidal bombings, those who oppose it never do so because bombings are barbarian, cruel, morally wrong or anything like that. No, they are wrong simply because they might hurt the Palestinian cause and give Israel an excuse for retaliation. What this means is that if the Palestinian propaganda machine was turned up a notch and managed somehow to make bombings even more appealing than they currently are to the left and day-dreaming liberals, we'd probably have more bombings and more killings. This shows the childishness of the Palestinian psyche: it is bad to smoke because you may get caught by your parents. Don't cross the street outside of the pedestrian crossing because it is not permitted. What morons. What cruel imbeciles. How can Israel be expected to negotiate with these people or even contemplate having them as a sovereign country at their doorstep? Just read the article. There is only one answer to these questions. Israel cannot.

Pejman Yousefzadeh has interesting views on various military strategies to follow in Iraq.
What surprises me is that Pejman adheres to the given view that "a potent American military presence will be necessary to ensure that Iraq does not ultimately fall apart in a post-war environment". Can someone explain why that would be such a bad thing? Iraq was artificially created by the inept British diplomacy which followed WW1. It put together a number of ethnic groups which have nothing in common and certainly very little affinity (Sunnis, Kurds, etc...). Why not consider breaking Iraq up as independent states therefore reducing the risk of Iraq re-emerging as a threat to its neighbors? Worked in the USSR, didn't it?

There are rumors that Israeli Arab students helped smuggle the bomb into Hebrew University. According to Carolyn Glick, the actions of the de facto "5th column" in Israel goes far deeper and doesn't bode well for relations between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews in the future.
Following last Wednesday's massacre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the somewhat embarrassed gut reaction of many students was to murmur that Israeli Arab students at the university may have assisted the terrorists in bringing their bomb onto the campus.
Shmuel Mattityahu, a graduating economics major, explains that the suspicion arose naturally, because over the course of his studies he, like many other students, has witnessed a frightening radicalization among their Arab classmates. At the core of this radicalization, in his mind, lies a total rejection of Israel's right to exist.

Israel is preparing for the inevitable missile attacks which will come from Iraq as soon as the US attacks.
I would hope that this time, the US will allow Israel to lobe a few missiles itself as retaliation in case Iraq tries to bomb Israeli cities. If you remember, the US put tremendous pressure on Israel not to retaliate during the Gulf War so as not to offend the Arab countries which had joined the coalition forces. I would venture that this time, the US will not be so concerned about Arab reactions as they have all decided not to support any action against Iraq (remember the big love-in in Beirut not so long ago).

"Experts" predict that the war with Iraq might be a long and difficult conflict. Are these the same experts who predicted that the Taliban would be a formidable adversary and that Somalia would be a cake walk?

How do you get to put the title "expert" on your business card anyway? And wait, there is more. Over the last 50+ years, which Arab army has actually put up any kind of significant resistance in front of Western armies? Other than the Russians in Afghanistan who made the usual mistake of thinking that a conventional army could defeat a popular guerilla (see Vietnam), let's see the record of Arab armies in the past.
WWII...allied with the Germans (why am I not surprised); got their rear-end kicked.
1948...against Israel. Folded in about 3 weeks against an army about 1/10th their size.
1956...Ass-kicked, again.
1967...all Arab countries together lost in 6 days and left over 1 million pair of boots in the desert as they felt more comfortable running with bare feet. Under international pressure, Israel returns most of the territory it conquered.
1973...put up a good fight this time. Attacked while half of Israel was in synagogue (Yom Kippur). After 2 weeks, Russia and the US made Israel stop its troops before they reached Cairo and Damascus. Again, under international pressure, Israel returns most of the territory it conquered (that's the famous land for peace swindle), including the biggest chunk of the Egyptian army encircled in the Sinai desert.
1979...Iran/Iraq war. Their fight reminded us of how ugly 2 drunken sailors look when they try to hit each other but keep missing.
1991...Gulf war...there was a war? You're kidding! Looked more like a large scale exercise to me.
1991...after the Gulf war. Iraq uses poison gas against its own civilian population. Now there is a display of military genius and courageous deeds.
2001...intifada against Israel. All operations are geared to killing as many unarmed defenseless civilians (especially women, children and teenagers). Wow...how impressive.
I am sure that you'll agree with me. The guys at West Point must be scratching their head trying to figure out how to emulate this glorious recent Arab military past. How do these Arab super heroes do it?
So, shall we say that it will take 2, 7 or 10 days for Iraq to fold?

Eric Margolis provides a detailed history of Iraq and how we got where we are now.
As in many other cases, Saddam was actually the pick of the West (to overthrow the Ayatollahs in neighboring Iran) and he was helped by...no one other than the US and the UK (among others). As is often the case, the US bet on the wrong horse (remember the Talibans, Noriega and other choice democrats). Oh well, better luck next time.
Note to the State Department and the Pentagon: it usually is not a good long term idea to support tyrants, dictators, blood-thirsty fascists or anyone just because they are against some regime you don't support. Sometimes the cure can be worse than the disease.

Here is the presentation that "rocked the pentagon" dealing with Saudi Arabia. It is a little flippant but still to the point. Go to the bottom of the article for the 24 slides.
My question is...this stuff is so obvious, why hasn't anyone clued-in until now? I mean duh!!! 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, so is Bin Laden; Saudi Arabia refused to help in the investigation after 9/11; the Saudi royal family holds a telethon to raise $80M for the families of homicide bombers; the government-controlled Saudi press keeps spewing out antisemitic and anti-American venom daily...but we still believe that the Saudis are "moderate" Arabs and are "allies" of the US. Yep! that would have been my first guess too.

As always, Mark Steyn gets it. Why would anyone want to keep Arab countries "stable"? They are corrupt, undemocratic, war-mongering fascist tyrannies. A little bit of destabilizing could only improve things.
When Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, warns the BBC that a US invasion of Iraq would ‘threaten the whole stability of the Middle East’, he’s missing the point: that’s the reason it’s such a great idea. Suppose we buy in to Moussa’s pitch and place stability above all other considerations. We get another 25 years of the Ayatollahs, another 35 years of the PLO and Hamas, another 40 years of the Baathists in Syria and Iraq, another 80 years of Saudi Wahabbism. What kind of Middle East are we likely to have at the end of all that? The region’s in the state it’s in because, uniquely in the non-democratic world, it’s too stable. It’s the stability of the cesspit.

There cannot be a Palestinian State until the Palestinians, as a people, have been de-programmed from years of Jew-hating incitement and Islamo-fascist education.
As Colin Powell is about to meet senior Palestinian representatives today, this column from Naomi Ragen came back to me. I think it is right on the money.
After World War II, the Allies understood that to rehabilitate the German people, they needed to be de-Nazified. They understood that years of Hitler youth group poison, and a warped educational system needed to be undone. Until then, the German nation had heavy restrictions laid down concerning re-armament. The process of rehabilitating the Germans included the active creation of democratic institutions and a viable economy, with the help of fellow democracies.

Mr. Powell, the Palestinian people need to be re-educated. They needed to give up the suicide-homocide Muslim fanatic cult indoctrination. This is going to take years and years. We need to take all their educational institutions and reform the curriculum. Perhaps the UN relief agencies can put some guidelines on their generosity? No more money until we see some results?

One possible response to my question about the lack of response from Sharon following the latest wave of terror. According to David Warren, Sharon's eyes are already pointing to Baghdad where the real action is about to start.
My take on it is that Sharon will wait for the fireworks to start in Baghdad and then will start his very own party, while no one is paying attention. This is when Adolf Arafat, Sheik Yassassin and the rest of the Palestinian Mafia will be dealt with once and for all. Watch.

Elana says hello. She arrived safely in Israel and has already ran up quite a cellphone bill. She has just started her program of meeting personalities and interesting people. Her first impression is that even though security is extremely tight (there are tanks and armored vehicles in many areas of Jerusalem) and everyone gets searched regularly, people are out shopping, at restaurants and cafes and enjoying life as much as reasonably possible. What a tremendous example of resiliency and determination Israelis are giving us in the face of an enemy determined to keep striking.

Daniel Pipes believes that Israel is slowly winning the war against Palestinian terrorism. It looks like Palestinian society is slowly collapsing on itself because of a complete lack of any economic activity and greater difficulty in recruiting suicide bombers.

I am not as optimistic as Daniel Pipes but I think he is onto something here. Israelis are certainly not demoralized and they are more united than ever in fighting terrorism. Land for Peace is dead. Peres is widely seen as a traitor. Iraq's and Iran's clocks are ticking. Saudi Arabia's big lie as a US ally has finally been exposed. Maybe there is hope after all and Sharon's wait and see attitude is finally paying off.

The Canadian Prime Minister distinguishes himself, yet again, by asking "both sides to exercise maximum restraint" following the massacre at Hebrew University. Here is his official statement:

STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien responded with anger at the recent terrorist attack at Hebrew University, which brutally took the lives of innocent Israeli and international students:

"I was outraged by the horrific attack at Hebrew University, an act of cold-blooded terror that adds to the death toll on both sides in recent days. This attack was especially odious to Canadians since we have a special relationship with Hebrew University and because it embodies the spirit of tolerance and harmony that must prevail in the region if a just and lasting peace is ever to be realized, an uplifting spirit that I witnessed first hand during my visit to the campus in 2000.

Now more than ever it is vital that violence and extremism not be allowed to prevail. We call on both sides to exercise maximum restraint and avoid any actions which could inflame the situation.[emphasis added]
Aline joins me in expressing our deepest condolences to the surviving victims and families who have lost loved ones. Our wishes extend to the faculty and student body of Hebrew University."
So, again, Canada equates both sides by asking the victims not to react so as not to "inflame the situation". This is a man who almost single-handedly strangled a man who was heckling him (I am not kidding). I guess that is what he calls restraint. This is also the man, who when he was asked questions about East and West Jerusalem said "East, West, North, South, I don't really know where I am". What a complete embarassment for Canada this man is.

Execution in Arafat's compound - an eye-witness account. Interestingly enough, today the UN published a report condemning Canada for Racism. How irrelevant is the UN?
Yep, this is true. The UN thinks that the summary execution of prisoners by Arafat and his "security" men is OK (haven't seen any condemnation, resolution or grandiose pronouncement by Kofi Annancompoop), but that Canada has a problem with a number of racist policies (including the fact that...oh no, this is so horrendous...Canadian provinces have slightly different anti-racism laws...there I said it!). I can see why these 2 things are equivalent in UN parlance. Heck, for these idiots at the UN, the killings of innocents Israeli women and children and the assassination of a known terrorist (with the blood of hundreds of innocent people on his hand) are considered equivalent.
And my taxes are paying for this? I am waiting for a UN report on human rights violations in every one of the Arab and third-world countries which make up the bulk membership of this Mafia. Think I could be waiting for a while? By the way, does the UN think that the Canada Immigration people are actually screening people trying to come INTO Canada, even though it is a racist state or preventing Canadians from escaping this racist hell hole?

Think Saddam should be a little worried? Joint Chiefs Back Iraq Action.These are among Bush's most senior military advisors and they unanimously endorse military action against Iraq.
Looks like the sleeping giant is slowly waking up. According to the Joint Chiefs, it will take 30 days for the Pentagon to get ready to carry out the President's orders once they are given, even for a massive operation involving 200,000+ personnel. Hope Saddam has a few sleepless nights. I'd say his future is pretty much behind him.

Scoop: A newly discovered document shows the actual 72 virgins awaiting the martyrs. Thanks to Zionblog for this amazing piece of journalism.

Think Palestinians cannot sink any lower? Think again. A woman who eventually gave herself up for fear that her family's home would be destroyed was planning to detonate herself holding a baby as a disguise.
Read this again..."holding a baby as disguise". This proves 2 things. Palestininas such as these are animals. Israel's policy of blowing up the home of the terrorists' familes (advocated by me on this very blog over 4 months ago I may add!) works as a deterrent.

She allegedly approached a senior member of the Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and offered to be a suicide bomber, saying it was a woman's right to have the privilege of perpetrating such an act.

Damaj was contacted two weeks later and was reportedly informed that she would be given the opportunity to carry out an attack holding a baby as a disguise. In the event, the attack was not perpetrated.

She was later offered another mission. She prepared a letter for her family and was later filmed holding a rifle and a copy of the Koran. A week before the planned attack, however, she surrendered, saying that one of the reasons was concern that her family's home might be demolished.

Jay Zilber writes about Palestinian culture. And he nails it on the head. OUCH!
"So that, now, by a huge majority -- confirmed by their own polling aparatus -- the only clear consensus of the Palestinian people is that they should conspire to to kill Jews. The Palestinian culture is a death cult. These people worship at the alter of nihilism. They have been taught no trades, no skills, no expertise -- except for explosives and munitions. They would sooner themselves die than accept the relative success and durability of the Jewish culture, literally a stone's throw from the pit they have created for themselves."Very ouch!

Instapundit found this pearl from Steve Chapman on how he "hates the UN". Brilliant.
My favorite part: "And to think that a whole swathe of wet leftie know-nothings (including Assad's man in the UNGA [UN General Assembly]) called Jenin an instance of Israeli 'brutality.' Do any of them really know what brutality looks like? Were Israel to act like just another Middle Eastern shitpile, there wouldn't be a terrorism problem in Israel because there wouldn't be any terrorists because they, and their families, and their neighbours, and their neighbours' neighbours would all be dead or deported to Jordan. Why send in the IDF on foot into Jenin going from house to house when they could simply have used the Assad method: encircle the town with tanks and artillery pieces and simply reduce it to rubble? Why bother with the specific targetting of militants when it would be far more thorough to simply do what the Kuwaitis did after the Gulf War, and expel a few hundred thousand Palestinians? When Israel occupied Lebanon there was outraged condemnation. Now that Syria occupies Lebanon no one is interested. While Hafez al-Assad was flattening Hama, the UN were too busy fulminating about the IAF's attack on Iraq's nuclear reactors to notice.

And in spite of this, Boy Assad's lackey is able to pontificate in the UNGA meetings as though he were Gandhi's fucking star pupil. That's what I hate about the UN."

So someone in the US is doing something about the Hebrew University murders...well, sort of.
Apparently, some US senators and representatives are asking for the extradition of those responsible for the killing of 24 Americans in Israel since September 2000. They are even asking for Sheik Yassassin to be extradited. Maybe Israel should give US carte blanche to go and get him themselves. It would be interesting to see how the US would accomplish this with no civilian collateral victims when clearly this animal is hiding among civilians. By the way, isn't it interesting that Yassassin's wife has been heard suggesting that she would never allow her son to become a martyr? How low can these low lives go? Wrong....much much much lower. Lower than any human being could ever aspire to. They are dirt.

What does the lack of Israeli reaction to the latest wave of bombings mean?
I am really puzzled by the complete lack of reaction from Israel to the latest wave of bombings which took place last weekend. Sure they clamped down on travel in Nablus and part of Gaza, etc...but this is surely not going to accomplish anything. So what gives here?
I would love to know what you think. Please feel free to comment. Here are some possibilities:
1. Sharon has just lost his desire to fight and is waiting for some breakthrough to finally go back to the negotiating table without loosing face.
2. Israel is waiting for hell to break out in Iraq so it can cleanup while the world is focusing elsewhere.
3. Sharon is waiting for public opinion in Israel to be so fed up with the Labor apologists that he will call a snap election and wipe out Labor once and for all.
Any thoughts?

Wonder how Powell will get around this one...looks like some people in Washington are starting to clue in on the fact that Saudi Arabia is at least as big a problem as Iraq when it comes to its support/funding of global terrorism.
Finally. Someone, somewhere has recognized that the fact that 15 out of the 19 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia is not mere coincidence. It is the result of a fact that has been blatantly obvious to many, except for the "experts" at the State Department: Saudi Arabia is a terrorist state. Saudi Arabia finances and supports terrorism. Saudi Arabia wants its Wahhabism to become the most prominent and active branch of Islam in its fight to evangelize the entire "infidel" world. And Saudi Arabia has been using its oil as a way to pretend that it is a "moderate" Arab state. The gig is up. And with Saudi Arabia supplying only 8% of the oil used by the US, surely it is only a matter of time before the US recognizes that its hands are not tied by the quasi-fascist Saudi Arabian regime. It's about time!

Has CNN reverted to its old habits?
According to CNN, "eleven Israelis killed in attacks by Palestinian militants". Militants? Hang on...once they kill people, they are still militants? Wouldn't terrorists be the proper label? I think it is time to flood CNN with e-mails again. Looks like it is the only thing they understand.

One word: Napalm.


Palestinians celebrate the latest bus-bombing in Israel

It is time for Israel to hit and hit VERY hard.
Seven attacks in one day...this is what Israel faced this weekend. 13 dead, or the equivalent of over 600 dead in America on a per capita basis. That is 1/5th of 9/11 in one day. Where is the indignation? Where is the outrage from the idiots such as Kofi Annan, Colin Powell and others? Isn't it time for Israel to say "to hell with the world opinion"? When Israel doesn't react, more violence happens and goes unpunished. When Israel reacts, it gets condemned regardless of what it does.
So it is time for Israel to give the IDF the green light to solve the Palestinian terror problem once and for all. It will cost lives, many lives. It means that all those who incite violence against innocent civilians (the entire Hamas leadership including Sheik Yassassin as well as Adolf Arafat), must be destroyed (best), brought to justice (good), expelled (not so good). It might mean asking Sharon to step aside as he clearly does not have the fortitude to unleash such an operation. It means getting rid of all the Labor apologists from the Israeli Cabinet (Peres and his acolytes). And it means finally coming to terms with the fact that Israel only has one option: wining this conflict militarily and annexing whatever territory it needs to guarantee its long term security once it has defeated the current Palestinian threat.

Yes! It's true!
Yes, I'm off to Israel in about 3 hours. I'm excited, nervous, apprehensive all at once. I haven't been back to Israel in just over 3 years and I can't wait to compare and contrast both experiences. I'm so thankful to have been given this opportunity by the people/government partially funding my trip. It's truly an honor to join the politicians, journalists, victims of terror and other Israelis who will be meeting us on our trip. Three weeks from now I'll give you a personal update on the wonders and challenges of Israel. Until then, my father will keep you guys up to date on my adventures. Keep well and keep reading! Bye!

Elana is off to Israel!
I will remain purposely vague about her actual schedule and itinerary for obvious reasons.
It was her decision to find a way (cheap!) to get there and get a first hand view of what is actually going on and how Israelis are dealing with the plague that Adolf Arafat has imposed on their country. She has joined a group which will meet politicians, journalists, academics and scholars (real scholars, not the Islamo-fascist type whose only claim to fame is how much venom they can spit out and how much blind incitement they can generate). She will also meet victims of the genocide-bombers as well as Palestinians who have decided to act and behave like human beings and respect life more than death.
And, even though I am afraid for her safety, I support her 100%. I was going to say that I support her courage, but I feel that those who really exhibit courage are the average Israelis who go about their daily lives in the midst of this Arab violence. It is the mothers who still send their children to school, not knowing whether they will come home. It is the reservists who have to put their jobs, careers and lives on hold to go and fight the Palestinian-imposed plague. It is the security and rescue people who are litterally scraping victims off the roads after each brutal attack. It is the medical staff who show unlimited compassion for Israelis and Arabs alike in treating their wounds, including when the patient is a Palestinian bomber or a shooter. It is the men and women of the IDF who continue to fight clean in spite of the inhuman, illegal and odious tactics used by Palestinians (such as hiding terrorists among civilians in Jenin and Gaza, such as using people suffering life-threatening diseases as suicide-bombers so that their bodies contaminate all the victims who are unlucky enough to survive the initial blast). Finally, it is the average Israeli, who, in spite of all the violence, does not take his gun to go and kill all the Palestinians who dance on the street after each "successful" attack on innocent Israelis.
Elana will be there for three weeks during which I will hold the fort and report on her trip as she keeps me informed. In the meantime, if you have a minute, please say a little prayer to whatever god you pray to for the safety of Elana and the other bright, young, and gutsy kids who have joined her on this important trip. Thanks!

He's back!
My father has returned from his trip to Italy and France! He'll begin posting tomorrow and we have some VERY exciting/surprising news to announce. We're keeping you guys in the dark until tomorrow though, so check back often!
Tootles!