The Jewish Quarterback...

Another good one from Jim M. – laugh and cry:

The coach had put together the perfect team for the Chicago Bears. The only thing that was missing was a good quarterback. He had scouted all the colleges and even the Canadian and European Leagues, but he couldn't find a ringer who could ensure a Super Bowl win.

Then one night while watching CNN he saw a war-zone scene in the West Bank. In one corner of the background, he spotted a young Israeli soldier with a truly incredible arm. He threw a hand-grenade straight into a 15th story window 100 yards away.

KABOOM!

He threw another hand-grenade 75 yards away, right into a chimney.

KA-BLOOEY!

Then he threw another at a passing car going 90 mph.

BULLS-EYE!

"I've got to get this guy!" Coach said to himself. "He has the perfect arm!"

So, he brings him to the States and teaches him the great game of football. And the Bears go on to win the Super Bowl.

The young man is hailed as the great hero of football, and when the coach asks him what he wants, all the young man wants is to call his mother.

"Mom," he says into the phone, "I just won the Super Bowl!"

"I don't want to talk to you, the old woman says. "You are not my son!"

"I don't think you understand, Mother," the young man pleads. "I've won the greatest sporting event in the world.  I'm here among thousands of my adoring fans."

"No! Let me tell you!" his mother retorts. "At this very moment, there are gunshots all around us. The neighborhood is a pile of rubble. Your two brothers were beaten within an inch of their lives last week, and I have to keep your sister in the house so she doesn't get raped!"

The old lady pauses, and then tearfully says, "I will never forgive you for making us move to Chicago!!!!

The homicide rate in Chicago is 15.2 per year, per 100,000 people.  In Israel, it's 2.4.  His mother has good reason to be afraid...

My Kind of Response...

From a location in Syria, an artillery piece fires three shots at an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) patrol.  Luckily there were no injuries and damage was slight.  Then the IDF immediately responded:


There was a time when the U.S. military had a similarly aggressive posture.  These days, multiple layers of politics, PowerPoint presentations, and battlefield lawyers would prevent any such timely response.  Perhaps a few days later, we'd lob a Tomahawk at a “training ground” or some other target that would make politically acceptable press.

The IDF stance seems to be more like “You shoot at me, asshole, and I'll take you out!”

I rather like that.

One Time After Another...

Over and over again, the Israeli government impresses me with smart actions.  They seem to be the exception that proves the rule of bureaucratic ineptness. 

Now they've come up with a clever way to defeat the (very clever) Palestinian propagandists, who have learned to play the Western media like the fine “useful idiots” they are.  From Strategy Page:

Israel is placing more cameras (either fixed or in vehicles or aircraft) in areas where its forces confront angry, or armed, Palestinians. This is to get a video of what actually happened in situations where Palestinians get killed and then accuse the Israelis of war crimes. Often Israeli troops are being ambushed or otherwise on the defensive. No matter, if Palestinians get hurt the Palestinians have learned that the media is willing to believe some outrageous lies and blame everything on the Israelis. All these videos, aggressively distributed by the Israelis, are becoming a real problem for Palestinian propagandists.

Read the whole thing...

Why is it that I have no hope whatsoever of either the U.S. Federal bureaucracy or the California State bureaucracy of ever coming up with something so sensible and clever?

Doom...

Israel Shoots Down an Unidentified Drone...

This drone almost had to be Iranian (either directly or through their proxy Hezbollah).  In any case, the Israeli radar and defense system was more than up to the task of dispatching this thing.  Israeli Defense Force (IDF) official video below, the full (public) story here.

Israeli Security Development...

Reader Simon M. passed this along:

TEL AVIV, Israel The Israelis are developing an airport security device that eliminates the privacy concerns that come with full-body scanners. It's an armored booth you step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on your person.

Israel sees this as a win-win situation for everyone, with none of this crap about racial profiling. It will also eliminate the costs of long and expensive trials.

You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter, an announcement: Attention to all standby passengers, El Al is proud to announce a seat available on flight 670 to London. Shalom!

Speaking Truth to Power...

Pat Condell, doing his usual awesomely good job...

You Are Trying to Confuse Me With Facts!

Excellent take-down of progressive hypocrisy and hogwash:

This is Not Good...

Turkey is cutting many of its (formerly cordial) ties to Israel.  Dang...

The Point of No Return...

An outstanding long article by Jeffrey Goldberg in Atlantic on the situation in the Middle East, mainly Iran vs. Israel.  There's far too much good stuff there to excerpt meaningfully, but here's a small sample:

Rahm Emanuel suggested that the administration is trying to thread a needle: providing “unshakeable” support for Israel; protecting it from the consequences of an Iranian nuclear bomb; but pushing it toward compromise with the Palestinians. Emanuel, in our meeting, disputed that Israel is incapable of moving forward on the peace process so long as Iran looms as an existential threat. And he drafted the past six Israeli prime ministers—including Netanyahu, who during his first term in the late 1990s, to his father’s chagrin, compromised with the Palestinians—to buttress his case. “Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu, Barak, Sharon, Olmert—every one of them pursued some form of a negotiated settlement, which would have been in Israel’s own strategic interest,” he said. “There have been plenty of other threats while successive Israeli governments have pursued a peace process. There is no doubt that Iran is a major threat, but they didn’t just flip the switch on [the nuclear program] a year ago.”

Emanuel had one more message to deliver: for the most practical of reasons, Israel should consider carefully whether a military strike would be worth the trouble it would unleash. “I’m not sure that given the time line, whatever the time line is, that whatever they did, they wouldn’t stop” the nuclear program, he said. “They would be postponing.”

It was then that I realized that, on some subjects, the Israelis and Americans are still talking past each other. The Americans consider a temporary postponement of Iran’s nuclear program to be of dubious value. The Israelis don’t. “When Menachem Begin bombed Osirak [in Iraq], he had been told that his actions would set back the Iraqis one year,” one cabinet minister told me. “He did it anyway.”

Bomb the Mullahs!

The United Arab Emirates' ambassador to the U.S. is saying publicly that the U.A.E. would support a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear capability.  Rumors have been swirling for months that many Arab countries were privately supporting such a move, and even that some (particularly Saudi Arabia) were covertly supporting an Israeli strike.

To anyone reasonably well informed about the Middle East, this isn't really very surprising – the Persians (Iranians) and Arabs have been at each other's throats for centuries.  To any Arab, the notion of the Persians obtaining the strategic advantage of a nuclear weapon would be all but unthinkable – an existential threat much like the threat that they themselves present to Israel...

Friends of Israel Statement...

Here.

Only Israel Has No Right to Defend Itself...

To me, Israel is the only essentially sane and sober government in the Middle East.  Theirs is a lonely plight, far more so than it should be...

Hamas Garbage Trucks...

Hamas, the well-known peace-loving organization that controls Gaza, has come up with a new way to bedevil the Israelis: garbage trucks that are actually disguised Kasem rocket launchers.  These look like a bit like the much-feared Soviet rocket launchers of WWII, but thankfully Hamas doesn't have them in the vast quantities that made the Katyushas so terrifying...

American-Israeli Policy...

Ed Koch is very worried...

Israel Versus Iran: Yes!

Iran (repeatedly) threatens to blow Israel off the map.

Iran is not-so-covertly developing nuclear weapons, and is close to achieving that goal.

Israel has nukes, and delivery capability, but surely wouldn't want to use them except in extreme circumstances.

Israel has the most powerful air force in the Middle East, and surely could reach Iran – but probably at great cost to her airmen, and with great risk to mission success.

The rest of the world is doing essentially nothing to defuse this situation.  China and Russia are blocking all attempts to use less-than-military pressure, and Europe isn't too excited about it, either – especially Germany and France, who are major trading partners with Iran.

What's a threatened Israel to do?

Develop a fleet of unmanned aircraft with the range to strike Iran and with the payload capacity to carry either bunker-busters or nukes.

Yes!

Could Israel Attack Iran on Her Own?

Retired Israeli General Dan Halutz has some doubts...

Little Israel Is Still Leading the Way...

As Uri Dromi points out:

A uranium enrichment facility nobody knew of suddenly emerges in the sacred city of Qom, Iran launches missiles that can threaten not only U.S. targets in the Persian gulf, but also Israel and southern Europe, and now the world panics.

Surprised? Not if you're an Israeli. For years we have been sounding the alarm, only to be told to stop crying wolf. Now we are asked to lie low and let the responsible leaders of the world take care of the situation.

It must be tremendously frustrating for many Israelis to watch obvious world-threatening problems develop – while most of the world ignores them.  Repeatedly the Israelis have acted when other nations would not or could not, to the benefit of us all.  The most recent example is their discovery and destruction of a nuclear facility in Syria.

My cynical bet is that the world will do nothing effective to stop Iran before Israel feels the need to take unilateral action.  Past experience suggests that when they do, the action will be effective – and they'll be publicly denounced by the entire world, while private nearly all countries will breath a huge sigh of relief.

We're lucky the Israelis are here to do the dirty work for those – like us – don't have the balls to do it themselves...

Have You No Shame?

An excellent speech by Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel.  My favorite moment is when he asks the delegations gathered at the U.N. “Have you no shame?”

Scary News of the Day...

The White House will shelve Bush administration plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move likely to cheer Moscow and roil the security debate in Europe.
The U.S. will base its decision on a determination that Iran's long-range missile program hasn't progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental U.S. and major European capitals, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The findings, expected to be completed as early as next week following a 60-day review ordered by President Barack Obama, would be a major reversal from the Bush administration, which pushed aggressively to begin construction of the Eastern European system before leaving office in January.

Not exactly what I wanted to read while drinking my morning tea.

By and large (and to my surprise), the Obama administration's foreign policy has been much like the previous administration's foreign policy – and I've been supportive of it.

This is a major departure.  With this move and other wimpy responses to Iran's belligerance, we've practically been begging them to make aggressive moves in both the Middle East and in Europe.  Once their nuclear capability is verified, I expect Iran to start experimenting with bullying tactics.  There's a long list of potential “first targets”: Turkey, Lebanon, Greece, Cyprus, and of course Israel.

But the really big question is this: how will Israel react to the U.S. visibly morphing into a laughable wimp in Iran's perception?  Will they unilaterally attack Iran?  My bet would be “yes”...

Bolton on Israel and Iran...

Today's Wall Street Journal has a fascinating short analysis piece by John Bolton (aka “The Mustache”). His forthright manner and adult analysis stand in stark contrast to the gobbledegook we're treated to by the Obama administration on this topic. His conclusion:

This brief survey demonstrates why Israel's military option against Iran's nuclear program is so unattractive, but also why failing to act is even worse. All these scenarios become infinitely more dangerous once Iran has deliverable nuclear weapons. So does daily life in Israel, elsewhere in the region and globally.

Many argue that Israeli military action will cause Iranians to rally in support of the mullahs' regime and plunge the region into political chaos. To the contrary, a strike accompanied by effective public diplomacy could well turn Iran's diverse population against an oppressive regime. Most of the Arab world's leaders would welcome Israel solving the Iran nuclear problem, although they certainly won't say so publicly and will rhetorically embrace Iran if Israel strikes. But rhetoric from its Arab neighbors is the only quantum of solace Iran will get.

On the other hand, the Obama administration's increased pressure on Israel concerning the "two-state solution" and West Bank settlements demonstrates Israel's growing distance from Washington. Although there is no profit now in complaining that Israel should have struck during the Bush years, the missed opportunity is palpable. For the remainder of Mr. Obama's term, uncertainty about his administration's support for Israel will continue to dog Israeli governments and complicate their calculations. Iran will see that as well, and play it for all it's worth. This is yet another reason why Israel's risks and dilemmas, difficult as they are, only increase with time.

My read of his piece is that he fully expects Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, and sooner rather than later. He sees the Obama administration's stance as accelerating this possibility, rather than delaying it (as Israel must be less certain of U.S. support now than at any time since at least the Carter era, and probably back to the time of Israel's founding). The longer Israel waits, the worse the tactical situation. Mr. Bolton also believes that the inevitable Iranian retaliation for such an Israeli attack will most likely take the form of “unleashing” Hezbollah and Hamas for terror attacks inside Israel.

I'd sure feel better about the Obama administration's foreign policy if we got this kind of analysis, supporting their positions, from someone on the team...