A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Pro Football Hall of Fame Disses The Jets

I visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the first time on Monday. There are things that can and should be improved, but if you find yourself within 100 miles of Canton, Ohio, it is certainly worthwhile to visit.

The interactive trivia game, however, must be updated. Question 1 asked which team has never won a division since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. The choices were the Bucs, the Jets, the Lions and the Bears.

The correct answer is obviously "none of the above," but that wasn't an option. According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the New York Jets have not won a division since the merger.

What about 1998 and 2002?

Two division titles in 39 seasons is bad enough. Please don't take even those away.
posted on 1/29/2009

 
Change We Can Count On

After three years of incompetent leadership, in twelve days, Israel has a chance to move forward from Kadima's failures to the leadership of Binyamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman, Uzi Landau, Benny Begin and Moshe Ya'alon. Kadima, from Tzipi Livni to Tzipi Hotovely.

Current polls are encouraging, predicting a Likud-led coalition with a bloc of nationalist and religious parties comprising 65-70 Knesset seats. Yet it's astonishing that those polls still show Kadima in second place among Israeli parties. This from a party that in 2006 based its campaign on the idea that Israel had no peace partner and would have no peace partner for many years, and then entered into final status negotiations with an imaginary peace partner. A party that called for unilateral withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria and a strengthening of the large settlement blocs, and then within month abandoned both of those ideas. A party that claimed that Jerusalem would stay united no matter what, and then offered to turn the Old City into Palestine. A party that still has no solution for rocket attacks on its citizens, yet pretends that Israel can withdraw from Judea and Samaria, placing Jerusalem and Tel Aviv well within rocket range. A party that went to war in Lebanon announcing that the policy of giving up hundreds of terrorists for captured soldiers was over, and then forgot all about that policy more quickly than soap operas forget about returning dead characters to life. A party that was too busy celebrating the purported success of its Gaza operation to notice that neither smuggling nor rocket fire have actually ceased.

The time has come for Israelis to say, "No, we can."

-Israel can say no to more unilateral withdrawals.

-Israel can say no to more concessions without reciprocity.

-Israel can say no to more pipe dream "solutions".

-Israel can say no to dividing the Old City and making Jewish life there untenable.

-Israel can say no to giving up the Golan.

-Israel can say no to more wars without any strategic goals.

-Israel can say no to more acquiescence to rocket attacks.

-Israel can say no to a party whose leaders are tired of fighting, tired of being courageous, tired of winning, and tired of defeating Israel's enemies.

-Israel can say no to a party that has no ideology and no values, and exists solely out of personal opportunism and the desire for political power.
posted on 1/29/2009

 
United States v. Jews

It took only 11 minutes for the U.S. to recognize Israel, and for the past four decades, America has by far been Israel's closest ally. America has also of course been a land of great opportunity for its Jewish minority.

There is one area in which Jewish Americans are subject to state persecution, and that is when their relations with Israel - real or imagined - are deemed worthy of scrutiny. The Department of Justice opposes bail for American Jews under indictment on grounds that they might immigrate to Israel, while it prosecutes Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman on extremely dubious grounds. The Pentagon, FBI and CIA falsely accuse people like David Tenenbaum of being spies for Israel, and as a matter of course deny security clearance to Jews who have visited Israel, or have relatives who live there.

Then there is Jonathan Pollard. It is disappointing, but not really surprising, that President Bush did not grant Pollard's request to commute his sentence. After more than 23 years in prison, and with a life sentence, there isn't much cause for optimism that Pollard will be released anytime soon - if ever.

Earlier this month, Newsweek quoted former CIA director James Woolsey as saying that the duration of Pollard's imprisonment is typically reserved for "only the hard-line Soviet bloc spies." Woolsey therefore supported Pollard's release, so long as he expresses contrition and agrees not to profit from any book or movie deals.

Pollard's crime was very serious, justifying a long prison sentence. But for Pollard to be serving an identical sentence to Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen is a disgrace.

Alas, Pollard had the misfortune of spying for Israel. Had his espionage been on behalf of, say, China or Saudi Arabia, Pollard would have been home many years ago.

Or perhaps not. After all, unlike Pollard, those who spied for those countries are not Jewish.
posted on 1/19/2009

 
Jets Update

Among the candidates the Jets interviewed for their head coaching job, I believe that Rex Ryan was the best fit.

Nevertheless, I have my doubts about Ryan. More top coordinators fail as head coaches than succeed.

Early reports are that the Jets will keep Brian Schottenheimer as offensive coordinator. If Ryan was forced to do so by Woody Johnson and Mike Tannenbaum, it would be a foolish move.

While there is some benefit in keeping Schottenhimer - the offensive system would stay mostly intact - there are plenty of good offensive minds that could be obtained to replace him. Ryan, as head coach, should be able to pick whom he wants on his staff.

If the Jets were so intent on keeping Schottenheimer as offensive coordinator, I believe they should have hired his dad, Marty Schottenheimer as head coach. I'm well aware of Schottenheimer's history of failing in the playoffs. But he coached a 14-2 team two years ago, and the Chargers did not play poorly in their playoff loss to New England.

Ultimately, it seems unfair that Tannenbaum and Schottenheimer get to stay, with Eric Mangini taking the fall for the 2008 collapse.

Looking toward 2009, the Jets need to decide whether one of their young quarterbacks can start in the NFL. If so, they should sign a veteran to compete with Kellen Clemens and/or Brett Ratliff for the QB position. Byron Leftwich, Kerry Collins, Jeff Garcia and David Carr will be free agents and the Jets should sign one of them. If not, they will need to draft a quarterback in the first or second round.

Finally, the Cardinals' playoff ascension is indicative of what can happen if a team peaks at the right time and catches some breaks. The #4 seeded Cards, who the Jets crushed in week 4 and who were 8-7 a few weeks ago, were very lucky to be home for the NFC Championship game. Even jaded Jets fans could not have expected that Arizona would be playing in the Super Bowl, while the Jets have completed their 40th consecutive season without a trip.
posted on 1/19/2009

 
The Gaza Invasion and the Ceasefire

From the comfort of New York, I have no standing to criticize the decision of Israel's government to end its military operation in Gaza.

Nevertheless, I cannot help but feel that Israel will have to again go back into Gaza, and that its soldiers and civilians - and the other side's civilians too - will pay a far heavier price then. Inevitably, the price paid in diplomatic standing and international opinion will be similarly higher.

The IDF operation exposed Hamas for the paper tiger it is. Hamas is a terror group, not a real army.

But that could change.

The government's stated objectives for the 2006 Lebanon War - to crush Hezbollah and to secure the return of the kidnapped soldiers - were unrealistic, and along with the high casualty rate, as a result the war appeared to be a debacle.

In contrast, the Olmert government didn't offer any specific objectives for the Gaza operation, and so, with the comparably lower casualty rate, the operation could be called a success.

I think Olmert got it backwards. With Hezbollah, the goal should have been deterrence via airstrikes that would occur at an unexpected time. With Hamas, a crushing victory - like the crushing of terror in Judea and Samaria in 2002 - was within Israel's grasp.
posted on 1/18/2009

 
I don't usually look at the obituary notices in the New York Times, but for some reason I did one morning last week. There was a familiar name, that of my law school classmate and fellow summer associate.

During the summer of 1996 (I couldn't help but notice that the firm's obit got the year wrong), among a total of around 40 summer associates, I and six of my law school classmates worked at a large midtown firm. It seems inexplicable that two of those six have now died under tragic circumstances.

The summer of '96 was extremely intense outside of the office. It was also an intense 13 weeks in my first real job. Afterward, I chose to work at another firm.

I have never been back to the firm since, and before long lost touch with a number of people whom I had quickly gotten to know well during those 13 weeks.

It would be trite - and probably also disingenuous - to claim to have learned an important lesson as a result of this latest tragedy.

The best to hope is that the mourners can be comforted, and that the rest of us can keep life's pressures in their proper perspective and choose to prioritize what is really important.
posted on 1/18/2009

 
Ambassador Bolton Agrees With Me

Since the formation of this blog in May 2003, I have been arguing that (1) there is no two-state solution to the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and (2) in lieu of an independent Palestinian state, any solution would require Jordanian and Egyptian security control over Judea and Samaria, and Gaza, respectively.

I was therefore very pleased to read John Bolton's op-ed in today's Washington Post. Bolton, our former ambassador to the UN, writes:

We should ask why we still advocate the "two-state solution," with Israel and "Palestine" living side by side in peace, as the mantra goes. We are obviously not progressing, and are probably going backward. We continue poring over the Middle East "road map" because that is all we have, faute de mieux, as they say in Foggy Bottom.

The logic to this position is long past its expiration date. Unfortunately, it is hard to imagine a new approach that the key players would receive enthusiastically. If the way out were obvious, after all, it would already have been suggested. So consider the following, unpopular and difficult to implement though it may be:

Let's start by recognizing that trying to create a Palestinian Authority from the old PLO has failed and that any two-state solution based on the PA is stillborn. Hamas has killed the idea, and even the Holy Land is good for only one resurrection. Instead, we should look to a "three-state" approach, where Gaza is returned to Egyptian control and the West Bank in some configuration reverts to Jordanian sovereignty. Among many anomalies, today's conflict lies within the boundaries of three states nominally at peace. Having the two Arab states re-extend their prior political authority is an authentic way to extend the zone of peace and, more important, build on governments that are providing peace and stability in their own countries. "International observers" or the like cannot come close to what is necessary; we need real states with real security forces.

This idea would be decidedly unpopular in Egypt and Jordan, which have long sought to wash their hands of the Palestinian problem. Accordingly, they should not have to reassume this responsibility alone. They should receive financial and political support from the Arab League and the West, as they both have for years from the United States. Israel should accept political and administrative roles by Jordan and Egypt, unless it intends to perform such roles itself (which it manifestly does not)...

For Palestinians, admitting the obvious failure of the PA, and the consequences of their selection of Hamas, means accepting reality, however unpleasant. But it is precisely Palestinians who would most benefit from stability. The PA -- weakened, corrupt and discredited -- is not a state by any realistic assessment, nor will it become one accepted by Israel as long as Hamas or terrorism generally remains a major political force among Palestinians.

If you will it, it is no dream...
posted on 1/05/2009