Terrorism’s new face and why we need to fear it
It’s obviously going to start very soon.
“The Debate”.
Were the perpetrators of the murderous shootings in the Washington area terrorists?
I say yes. According to the FBI, they agree with me.
They define terrorism as such:
“the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a Government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
I can hear the detractors now:
But they weren’t part of the Al Qeda network. They were working alone, just like that “nutcase” who opened fire at the El Al counter at LAX. How can it be terrorism if the perpetrators weren’t affiliated to a terrorist group?<br>
This is what I fear the most. A pattern is starting to develop. Moslems working alone “for the cause” frightens me considerably a lot more than “terrorist networks”.
When dealing with terrorist organizations - government intelligence agencies, whether that be the FBI, CIA or the Mossad have an excellent chance of preventing attacks due to the nature of organized terrorism.
Often attacks are meticulously planned, involving a large number of people. Sometimes people talk. Usually tempted by money. Israel�s largest intelligence web is undoubtedly in the West Bank and Gaza. Thousands of �shtinkers�, or informants who collaborate with the Israelis are the backbone of Israel�s intelligence gathering in those areas.
My point being, there are always people on the payroll. Whether its Musa in Gaza City, Philip the bell hop in Paris or Shmuelik in Bat Ayin. There is always someone to give the authorities the heads up.
Granted there are times when intelligence fails. I don�t have to point out any examples of that.
Which brings me back to my original point. Independent terrorism. Terrorism committed without an affiliation to Hizbullah, Al Qeda or Hamas.
People whose opinions are formed by the environment they subject themselves to without an association with any organization.
We have seen this twice recently. The first was the terrorist attack at the Los Angeles county airport and now the sniper.
How will any intelligence organization get into the minds of individuals who act on their own accord?
We are staring at nothing less than the future of terrorism.
Are we prepared? If the way American citizens acted these past couple of weeks in the Washington DC is any indication I say no. And I fear.
Bus Bombing in the north
A bomb exploded on a bus near Pardes Chana near Hadera in northern Israel moments ago.
Read: The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz
There are reports of at least 30 wounded. It was apparantly a car bomb.
Sharon the singer?
Ariel Sharon broke out in song during his trip to the White House last week.
Read all about it here.
Sharon is full of surprises. Remember when he mentioned that he finds it difficult to concentrate on what US National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice says because she has “nice legs” ?
Classic
Jewish shame
More Baruch “The child molesting Rabbi” Lanner news. This article from Jewsweek contends that Lanner’s legal fees are being subsidized by sympathetic members of the Jewish community.
It reads:
Lanner has thus far posted $150,000 bail with the help of Nathan Zemel, whose brother, Fred Zemel, has been representing Lanner pro bono. In addition, Lanner has hired additional, rather expensive legal talent, including Nathan Dershowitz, brother of the better-known Alan Dershowitz. This has led one source close to the case to contend that, “someone is paying for all of his legal fees, and it cannot be Baruch alone.”
Wonderful. Sympathetic rich Jews who support child molesters. Just what we need. The source mentioned is right on target. Sources of mine concur with this theory. In fact, a very prominent member of the Jewish community of Teaneck is financially supporting him and prior to the trial had organized a job for Lanner.
Disgusting.
the view from here 2.0 is imminent
the view from here
I apologize for not posting daily. I have been working very hard on a new design for the site. If all goes well ‘the view from here’ 2nd edition will launch by the end of next week.
For now take a quick look at this story about a Scottish bloke who served for 25 years in the border police.
My American Jewish problem and yours
Hillel, the Foundation for Jewish Life has always pissed me off. Their “let’s not rustle feathers” attitude has always irked me. Granted, they do wonderful things for Jewish students. They deliver millions of dollars every year to fund Jewish programming on campuses across the nation, that is, if you are a prestigious private University.
Every year some great Jewish philanthropist gets his name on a building after he donates 5 million dollars to the cause. I always found this shocking because when I went to school at the State University of New York at Albany there were over 5000 Jews on campus. The Hillel on campus operated out of an office the size of my bedroom. The combined budget of all of the Jewish organizations on campus wasn’t enough to buy a cup of coffee and a bialy for every Jew on campus. National Hillel was of no help. The local board of the Jewish Federation claimed that they had no money for us. They actually had the chutzpah of asking us in a patronizing tone, “Do you want us to not send money to needy families in Israel? Should we stop funding the Jewish nursing home in Albany?
We organized a sit-in at the Jewish Federation of Northern NY and demanded that they meet the standards recommended by the Council of Jewish Federations 1994 Task Force Report, which recommended expenditures of $537,000 per year and nine full time student outreach workers to service Jewish student needs at SUNY Albany.
They gave us ice in the winter. In Albany, that is a whole lot of nothing.
Assimilation was beyond any of our expectations. We used to joke that there were two large Jewish student groups on campus. One was called “Jews who do nothing” and the second we referred to as the “Hellenists.” The Hellenists were those involved with Greek life on campus (Fraternities and Sororities). Get it? Jews assimilating with “Greek” culture?
Hillel’s idea of Jewish programming was hosting “Seinfeld Night” every Thursday. It was horrendous. I stayed far away from them while involving myself with an organization that promoted Jewish pride and a love of Israel.
We weren’t afraid to take stances.
When the Nation of Islam began programming on campus we did everything in our power to shut them down.
When Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael of the Student Non-Violent Cooridinating Committee) came to speak, we did not deny him his free speech (although we regarded it as hate speech and a clear and present danger) but we made his visit an unwelcome one.
When the Moonies began infiltrating the campus and recruiting students into their cult, we put an end to it.
When the All-African People’s Revolutionary party held a “Smash Zionism” conference and accused Israel of invading Uganda in July of 1976 just to steal a plane we did not sit by.
Every move we made we were condemned by the ADL and the local federation.
The shit really hit the fan when we accused our University President, H. Patrick Swygert of making remarks that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic and that his refusal to condemn anti-Semitism was in essence a toleration of anti-Semitism.
The local Jewish community immediately jumped to Swygert’s defense. They went as far as calling him a “philo-Semite”. We were told that he taught law at Tel Aviv University and that his children spoke Hebrew.
I don’t believe the man was anti-Semitic. I do believe though that he performed a poor balancing act. Treading thinly, he attempted to appease three groups. The first being African-American students on campus who traditionally and blindly followed radical elements of leadership within their community.
Secondly, were the liberals. SUNY Albany was/is a bastion of liberalism.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
If there was even a hint of criticism of a speaker, a liberal element would come out of the shadows screaming free speech at the top of their lungs, hence putting an end to all criticism.
I am all for free speech but I was a firm believer that my student funds should not have gone to pay for Muhammad X of the Nation of Islam to rant about the Jewish grip on Hollywood and why falafel isn’t the national food of Israel but rather of Palestine.
The third group was the Jews. As the Jews who wouldn’t keep their mouths shut Swygert owed us nothing. We were a “radical element” and the only true Jews he had to appease were the Jewish establishment in Albany which promptly gave him the tree of life award from the Jewish National Fund.
I have planted three trees in Israel and currently live in the forest and have never received such an award. Damn.
Interestingly enough, Swygert was among the first signatories of university presidents to sign on to a statement a couple of weeks ago decrying intimidation of Jewish students on campuses. He is now president Howard University where I presume there aren’t too many Jewish students.
The local Jewish community with the exception of a couple of really good people (and one former Machal fighter) blacklisted us.
We once disrupted an ADL fundraising dinner, condemning their silence on anti-Semitism on campus. It was absolutely mind boggling. These Jewish organizations had no priorities whatsoever.
Where is all this anger coming from? Why am I reflecting on events long forgotten, events that have taken place almost ten years ago?
Well, there were two current stories I have come across that have enraged me. Two news items that has managed to boil my blood.
The Jewish Week broke a story last week about how $8 million of the $20 million raised from American Jews by The United Jewish Communities (UJC) to provide security guards for Israel’s schoolchildren will be used for that purpose and the remaining $12 million will be used elsewhere. This is nothing more than deceit. There are currently 320,000 children in kindergartens that don’t have guards.
The UJC raised the money last spring as part of its Israel Emergency Campaign and specifically highlighted the fears of Israeli parents in its appeal for cash.
A hypothetical Aunt Yetta while eating her morning melon in the retirement community of Century village receives an emergency campaign letter begging that she help Israel’s children. Aunt Yetta loves Israel’s children. Aunt Yetta would want nothing more than Israel’s children to go to school safely. Little does Aunt Yetta know that it’s more likely that her donation is going elsewhere to other “programs.”
Deceit.
The second story was published in The Jerusalem Post.
This past weekend there was a divestment conference held at the University of Michigan. For an excellent report of what went on during the conference read this blog.
A Zionist campus group, Michigan Student Zionists had planned a rally and day long protest to be held outside the divestment conference’s hall on Sunday. The Hillel professional at the University of Michigan adamantly opposed the rally and urged students not to attend.
According to the article:
A recent e-mail sent to students and alumni by the group’s (Hillel) executive director, Michael Brooks, urged students to sign an on-line petition against divestment, donate to a campus fund-raiser for rebuilding the Hebrew University cafeteria that was bombed by Hamas in July, and participate in advocacy training seminars.
Donating money to the Hebrew University to remodel the cafeteria is a noble cause but I remain confused as to how this combats anti-Israel activity on campus. Sign an online petition against divestment? Are you kidding me? Wake up Mr. Brooks! As Jews we have learned many important lessons throughout the centuries. Among the most important is that ignoring a problem will not make it go away. Mr. Brooks does demonstrate however that he isn’t completely a fool. He urges students to get involved with advocacy seminars. I agree, Jewish students need to the proper tools to become activists. I fear though that what Mr. Brooks has in mind is completely different to the approach that I support.
Problems need to be confronted head on. The campus must be made an unwelcome home for the anti-Semites. Let them know when they have an event the Jews wont be sitting on their hands.
The days of candle light vigils are over. We are now living in different times. The stakes are higher. Israel very existence is being threatened. Lobbying, letter-writing and dialogue went out of style when the Olso process failed.
Mr. Brooks further demonstrated his inexperience as a pro-Israel advocate:
But Brooks, who said students across the political spectrum are involved in Hillel, questioned the wisdom of confronting conference delegates of the caliber of University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian, who was recently fired for suspected links to Islamic Jihad, and pro-Palestinian advocate Adam Shapiro, who is best known for eating breakfast with Yasser Arafat during Israel’s siege of Ramallah and comparing the IDF to the Nazis.
“If it were Edward Said or Noam Chomsky, I would be happy to come and respond to them,” he said.
Huh?
A rose by any other name is still a rose. What could Mr. Brooks possibly mean by this idiotic statement? To be honest I don�t understand his point. Is there a point? Does he even understand what he is saying? Where is the differentiation?
Al-Arian and Shapiro are Said and Chomsky. A Jew-hater is a Jew-hater. There is no differentiation.
The mask of anti-Zionism might ease the conscience of the anti-Semite, but for the Jews, the consequences are the same.
My views haven’t mellowed out a bit. I still have serious problems with the Jewish establishment. They regard themselves as the Jewish leaders in America, speak for American Jews, support Israel when it’s convenient for them. In the Jewish community, the wallet speaks. Who elected these leaders and why does the American Jewish community stand for it?
It’s a shame my family distillery was burnt down in 1934. I could have had a Hillel house named after me.
Justice
Finally some good news. “Rabbi” Baruch Lanner was sentenced to 7 years in prison. For those of you who don’t know who he is, Baruch Lanner abused children while he was a leader for the Orthodox movement, NCSY.
The Catholic Church isn’t the only one with problems.
The scandal was exposed by an expose’ by editor and publisher Gary Rosenblatt of The New York Jewish Week. The article documented a long record of allegations that Lanner had emotionally, sexually and physically abused a number of teenagers in his care.
What made this even more of a scandal was that there was a cover-up by members of the Orthodox Union and even worse, it seems that everyone knew what Lanner was doing but no one did anything about it.
One synagogue in the affluent community of Teaneck, NJ almost hired him as their Rabbi. Protests among congregants prevented him from assuming the position. People knew and did nothing. The question is why. Fear of airing dirty laundry? The need to protect one of our own?
There are people in the Jewish community who still continue to protect him and financially support him.
He was found guilty back in June.
Enjoy your jail time “Rabbi” Lanner and don’t forget to keep your hands to yourself. I hear in prison they don’t take too kindly to child abusers.
Self-haters.
Big deal. I was totally off base in my last posting. REALLY off base.
I did say that the bus attack wasn’t likely a terrorist attack. It’s just how I think from living here for six years. I always expect the worse. If I hear ambulances in the distance the first thing that pops into my mind is TERROR ATTACK! Its just a natural reaction. Like breathing
Now, lets talk about real terrorism.
Marwan Barghouti. I’m not going to go into why he is guilty of terrorism or why I don’t believe he should be put on trial at all. That is a discussion for another day. I want to talk about something else.
There is nothing I hate more in this world than a self-hating Jew. Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Woody Allen, Andrea Dworkin and for a little more flair let’s throw Lizzie Grubman ( I know nothing about her except that she is an idiot) into the list.
There are now two more proud Jews to add to the list. Shamai Leibowitz, Grandson of the late biblical scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz and Gisele Halimi, a French Jew who made a career out of defending Algerian terrorists in France. It is one thing to support Palestinian statehood, protest the occupation, fight for the human rights of the Palestinians etc. But to defend Marwan Barghouti, the ringleader of this entire new Intifada is crossing the line.
If Barghouti stood by his innocence and denied involvement in terrorist attacks defending him would be somewhat legitimate. But he doesn’t deny anything. Not a single thing. That’s where the problem lies. In essence, these Jews are guilty of supporting terrorist attacks. What makes them different than any of Israel’s detractors?
Could this be terrorism?
I might be jumping the gun here, in fact, I most likely am but was last night’s bus attack in California terrorism?
Probably not though. The FBI wouldn’t even consider it terrorism if the perpetrator was screaming “allah akbar” as he killed the driver. Let’s not forgot the attack at LAX which was most definately not terrorism.
For some reason the incident in California reminds me of the attack here on July 6, 1989 when Abdel-Hadi Suleiman Ghneim, 25, of the Gaza Strip, seized the wheel of an Egged bus traveling the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway and sent the vehicle plunging into a ravine; killing 16 Jews.
Let’s hope I’m wrong.
Ess, ess, mein kind
Sgt. Ari Weiss, 21, of Ra’anana was killed today when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on his unit during a routine patrol in the casbah of the West Bank town of Nablus.
Israelis are known for taking soldier’s death’s very hard. Some say that is one of the primary reasons that Menachem Begin resigned as prime minister in 1983. I too take the death of soldiers fairly hard.
Ari and I didn’t have much in common besides that fact that we were both born in America. I didn’t know him personally. It was through this article that was published in The Jerusalem Post two weeks ago that I first heard of him.
Ill post it here for your convenience:
‘Ess, ess, mein kind’ by ELLI WOHLGELERNTER Sep. 12, 2002
——————————————————————————–
Every Jewish mother worries whether her son has enough to eat, especially when he’s serving in the army. This is the story about one such Jewish mother who did something about it.
It is also the story of caring strangers she met who didn’t hesitate to donate food for her son and the 35 hungry comrades in arms serving with him in Nablus.
The soldier is St.-Sgt. Ari Weiss, 21, a member of a Nahal unit currently stationed in a house in downtown Nablus. He’s a good soldier, and a good son, who calls his mom every week and certainly before and after every holiday.
So when he called his mother, Susie, in Ra’anana after Rosh Hashana to relate his holiday experience, he told of his 25-hour stakeout the first night and day, and the second day spent praying and sleeping.
“He said he could only take with him for the stakeout what he could put in his pocket, so he took a halla, a bag of candy, and a mahzor,” said Susie. “He said everything worked out well, but all I kept hearing is ‘we’re starving, we’re starving.’”
She asked what she could do, but her son said there was nothing to do.
“I had one more question: How many are you? He said 35, and with that I hung up.”
Off she went walking down Rehov Ahuza, the main drag in Ra’anana, wondering what to do. Suddenly she came upon Kippa Aduma, the shwarma hangout she knows Ari loves.
“I went to the manager of the store, Roni, and said, ‘My son is in Nablus. He’s stuck in some hellhole with no fridge, and he’s hungry.’ He interrupted my sentence and asked the same question I did: ‘How many are there?’ I told him 35, and he said, ‘What time do you need it?’ “
After arranging for the pickup, Weiss walked down the street, satisfied she has done her motherly duty. Wandering into a wholesale grocery, she thought, Why not?
“I gave him the speil, and he said, ‘What do you want from me?’ I looked around and I saw candies and chocolate, but I thought they would melt. Then I saw a case of drinks. He said, ‘How many do you need?’ I said two, and he gave me 80 drinks.”
Feeling empowered, Weiss continued down the street and walked into Balkan Bakery.
“I started giving the shpeil, and he, too, interrupted me and said, ‘We close at 8, be here at 7:30 and I’ll give you everything I have left.’”
Amazed at the spur-of-the moment CARE package she suddenly found herself organizing, Weiss ambled farther down the street and into Meatland, a frozen meat and condiments grocery store.
“I gave the same shpeil, though this time in English because they are South African. I said how about some cookies, and he said, ‘OK, three cases.’ I said they don’t need so much, and he said, ‘Each soldier needs his own.’
“All this took place in the span of a half hour.”
Was it a Rosh Hashana-Yom Kippur feeling that was guiding her and the shop owners? Was it another indication of the rarely written story of the real spirit of Israel, the near unanimous support for the tired boys in the trenches?
“Everyone made it so easy,” said Weiss. “I was gratified, it was a warm feeling. Israelis are always put down as being rude, and here I didn’t even have to finish my request in my lame language, and they already understood what I wanted to say and were asking, ‘How many.’ And they didn’t know me from a hole in the wall.”
Weiss wife of Jerusalem Post columnist Stewart Weiss wasn’t done. Later in the day she took her younger children to Roladin, a bakery in Kadima, which gives tours of the facility.
“As they served cookies and cakes to the kids, I said to the girls behind the counter, ‘You don’t happen to have any extra stuff I can take to my soldier tonight?’ And she said, ‘Wait right here.’ Five minutes later she comes out with 15 individual honey cakes, with signs decorating the top saying, “l’chayal tzava, shana tova.”
Chatting with her girlfriends during the day, she told them what was happening, and when she got home there were more bags of goodies left by the friends, “who by the way thanked me for the opportunity to do this.”
There was one more thing to figure out: this being an army operation, coordinating delivery to the soldiers required a military maneuver. Weiss spoke to her son, who said he was a half hour from Ariel, and that if she could get the food there between 11 and 12 that night, he would take care of the rest.
“I told the head of my unit that my mother is getting us some food, and maybe someone can go to Ariel and she’ll bring us food there,” said Ari Weiss.
So from downtown Nablus an armored jeep drove to the temporary base outside town, and there a driver took the unit’s car and coordinated with Ari’s sister, Penina. The two of them pulled into the gas station outside Ariel at the same time.
“The driver freaked out, he though he was picking up a couple of bags of shwarma,” said Susie Weiss. “He drove back to the base, switched the stuff to the jeep, and then drove to the middle of Nablus to their house, where a couple of guys in full gear unloaded and brought it in.
“An hour later I got a phone call from Ari, with peals of laughter and screaming in the background. Not only was he king of the day, but I have 34 new boyfriends,” she laughed. “Soldiers were grabbing the phone saying, ‘Geveret Weiss, at lo yada’at ma at aseet lanu’ (Mrs. Weiss, you have no idea what you have done for us).”
For Ari, it was all about the pride of a proud son.
“Everyone loved my mom, everyone was really thankful and gobbled it up,” he said. “We didn’t even eat it all, there’s still some cake, pastries, and drinks left over. They asked if my mom paid for it, I told them that the stores donated it. I was smiling because I saw how my mother had organized it, and that meant more than the food itself.”
For Susie, it was all about being a Jewish mother.
“My goal was for them to have enough to last through Yom Kippur,” she said.
Mission accomplished.
As far as I am concerned this article focused on everything that is right and everything I love about this country.
It brought me back to the two months I spent in Hebron as a soldier. Our security detail was “8/8″, meaning, eight hours on duty, eight hours off. It was brutal. I was always cursed doing guard duty with the unit idiot whose ancestors were undoubtedly from Chelm. Army food is notoriously horrific, I lost about 30 pounds while in the Army due to my year-long fast.
A member of my unit was from Kiryat Arba, a settlement that sits above Hebron. Every eight hours his mother would come to each guarding station and drop off a bag of goodies. It didn’t matter if it was pouring, four in the morning or even if there were Palestinian riots. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a bit but you get my point.
The bag of goodies did wonders for my personal motivation and morale as well as the motivation and morale of my unit.
I would like to send my deepest sympathies to Ari’s family. I cannot fathom the pain they are going through right now.
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