The Zionist Conspiracy |
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A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews. 
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
Yaacov Lozowick Even though he apparently supports Tzipi Livni and Kadima, author and historian Yaacov Lozowick's blog is a gem. His posts invariably provide a unique and thoughtful perspective. (For the record, I have never communicated with Lozowick; this post is motivated by his outstanding site.) 30 Years After Tisha B'Av 1979 A little less than three hours remain in the 25 hour Tisha B'Av fast day. My family spent the summer of '79 in Jerusalem. I was six years old. On Tisha B'Av (which I think fell out on a Thursday that year too), at around 4 a.m., my father was rushed to the hospital. In the morning, I decided to say tehilim (Pslams) for my father's recovery. Only I mistakenly did so while sitting on a chair - in breach of tradition that we not sit on chairs until the afternoon of the fast day. I felt guilty and was worried that G-d would be upset with me and take it out on my father. As I recall, my father was hospitalized for most of the day with a kidney stone, and was released around mid-afternoon. The next morning, we received The Jerusalem Post, which reported that on Tisha B'Av, Thurman Munson had died in a plane crash. More Nonsense From Nathan Jeffay The Forward's Nathan Jeffay continues his impressive streak of making factual statements with no relationship to the truth. Here's his latest example: One in four Kadima voters — 24% to be precise — see disengagement as having been a mistake. If you recall, the very reason for establishing Kadima was to facilitate the disengagement. Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister for Likud, could not secure his party’s support for disengagement and so he split off and set up Kadima to drive the measure through.Except that the "disengagement" was implemented in August 2005, and Sharon quit Likud and founded Kadima in November 2005. Saturday, July 25, 2009
On Gates, Crowley and Obama President Obama had it exactly right when he at first stated that the Cambridge, MA police acted "stupidly" in arresting Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. As Obama pointed out, once it was obvious that Gates was indeed in his own home, the police should have left him alone. It would have been better if Gates had not lost his temper while being questioned by Sgt. James Crowley. For some reason, however, many cops - Crowley apparently among them - seem to think that being talked back to justifies arrest for "disorderly conduct." Many citizens also seem to think there's some law about being silent and completely compliant while in the presence of police officers. While this is surely the most prudent approach, no such law exists. Did Gates appear to be a threat to Crowley? I doubt it, in which case his arrest was worse than stupid. It was an abuse of authority. This does not make Crowley a racist. Many white people are arrested for disorderly conduct for the "crime" of talking back to a police officer. Sunday, July 19, 2009
Don't Bother The Times With The Facts In the sports section of today's New York Times, Mike Tanier writes: "The Jets just weren’t very good last year. Their won-loss record was inflated by an easy slate of opponents from the A.F.C. West and N.F.C. West."Inflated? The Jets were 3-5 against the "easy slate of opponents" in those divisions - beating the Cardinals, Rams and (barely) the Chiefs, while losing to the Raiders, Chargers, Broncos, 49ers and Seahawks. Meanwhile, the Jets were 6-2 against the rest of their opponents. OU At The White House For several generations, the Orthodox Union has set a high standard in its kosher certification of food products. If the White House caters an event and wants to serve kosher food, then by all means, the OU should be present and play a prominent role. Meeting with President Obama is different. Last week's fiasco, at which the OU's president had nothing substantive to say to Obama about his antagonism toward Israel, was a betrayal of the public the OU purports to represent. Nothing about Israel's rights to Jerusalem. Nothing about the real nuances of Jewish life in Judea and Samaria. No unapologetic expression of support for the government of Israel led by Prime Minister Netanyahu. The pareve (pun intended) press release the OU put out after the meeting was even more pathetic. This is not a personal criticism of OU President Stephen J. Savitsky - who attended on behalf of the OU - nor of the OU's other leaders. They are all good people who have devoted themselves to the community. But when it comes to politics they have no leadership skills whatsoever. Nor can they be allowed to delude themselves - and us - that occasional access to the White House has any correlation with even minimal impact on policy. We desperately need new leaders to emerge. Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Gary Ackerman: The Jew and the Politician Here's my column in this week's Jewish Press about Rep. Gary Ackerman: In January 2001, as President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak begged Yasser Arafat to take a break from killing Jews to accept the Old City of Jerusalem, hundreds of thousands of Israelis rallied in Jerusalem to oppose the city’s division. Simultaneously, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein's Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun hosted an event in solidarity. A highlight of that event was a speech by Congressman Gary Ackerman, who told those of us in the audience: “I come here not as a politician, because this isn’t about politics. I come here as a Jew, a Jew who is troubled, concerned, pained and angry.” An impassioned Ackerman said then: “Give it away. Chop it up. Parcel it out. Never! It’s time to let the world know that Jerusalem will never, ever again be divided!” For six more years, Ackerman remained a strong supporter of Israel. When in 2006 Hamas won the Palestinian Authority legislative elections, Ackerman said: “U.S. foreign assistance is a gift, not a right. The Palestinian Authority, as long as it is led by Hamas, a terrorist organization responsible for the deaths of dozens of Americans, is obviously disqualified from this kind of aid.” Ackerman made clear then that he had no sympathy for PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, saying, “he never demanded that Hamas and the other terrorist groups disarm and disband. Now, we see that after a year of trying things Abu Mazen's way and not feeling that they got any real benefits, Palestinians have voted to go in a different direction. That was their right. But it is absolutely critical that our policy adjust to reflect their decision.” In 2006, it was “absolutely critical” for the PA to be “obviously disqualified” from American dollars. But the next year Ackerman became not just any Congressman, but a real player – the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. In 2007 – with Hamas still controlling the PA legislature and by then having taken full control of Gaza – Chairman Ackerman initiated a letter in Congress demanding an increase in aid to the PA – leading to the U.S. pledging hundreds of millions of dollars. This year, when the Obama administration announced $900 million in additional support to the PA, Ackerman was fast to “strongly endorse the Obama Administration's readiness to put America's money where our mouth is.” But Ackerman’s about-face was hardly limited to aid to Palestinians. In March 2008, Ackerman blasted Israel for “settlement expansions and new housing in Jerusalem.” So much for letting “the world know that Jerusalem will never, ever again be divided.” Ackerman really ramped things up following the election of President Obama. In February, he charged that the situation in the Middle East is “spiraling downward” due to “the march of settlements,” the “perpetration of settler pogroms,” and even “digging in Jerusalem.” When President Obama decided to place settlement construction on top of his foreign policy agenda, Ackerman initially played the part of the town idiot, saying: “I have to hear specifically from the administration exactly how they define [settlement and natural growth] and is there room for defining the terms.” Somehow, the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia had missed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s prior statement that “the president was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here. He wants to see a stop to settlements – not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions.” Within days, Ackerman was sure to fall in line, demanding a complete “freeze of settlement construction.” In case that wasn’t clear enough, in a tone sounding a lot like Clinton, Ackerman explained: “No expansions, no how, no way, no shticks, no tricks.” That was followed by the State Department’s confirmation that Obama’s demand for a settlement freeze includes an end to any construction in the post-1967 Jerusalem neighborhoods. As spokesman Ian Kelly answered when asked whether the demand included Jerusalem, “We're talking about all settlement activity, yes, in the area across the [1949 armistice] line.” In other words, Obama demands an end to construction in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, Gilo, Har Homa, Ramat Eshkol, Ramot, French Hill, and Pisgat Ze’ev. And since East Talpiot and Hebrew University on Mount Scopus were no-man’s land between 1949 and 1967, no construction can take place there either. Gary Ackerman hasn’t had a word to say about that. If you’re important enough for him to talk to you, Ackerman will probably recite for you the mantra about his commitment to Israel and its security, and about what a great friend of Israel our president really is. Ackerman may even boast about how many times he’s visited Israel. Instead of the usual tired platitudes, the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia should set the record straight about the future of Jerusalem. Will he “let the world know that Jerusalem will never, ever again be divided?” Or – as alluded to in President Obama’s speech in Cairo – should Jerusalem be given away, chopped up, and parceled out? The answer – which must be presented with “no shticks” and “no tricks” – will tell you whether Gary Ackerman comes to Washington and to his congressional district in Queens and Long Island as a Jew, or as a politician. | "
