Israel's Savant-Idiot
Shimon Peres, in line again for Foreign Minister in Israel's ongoing political farce, continues to churn out pearls of foolishness—although, perhaps proof of dotage, he often repeats old sound-bites. Like "Politics is the art of compromise, whereas religion is not about compromise." That and the following Jesse Jackson imitations are all from one speech given to the reverent applause of the Jewish Agency's annual assembly in Jerusalem. "Today we have a government without a policy and a policy without a government." "The Likud must make up their own mind. Do they want to go back to the greater Israel or do they want to go ahead to a greater peace." (Peres must be the only politician in Israel unaware that the last thing the Arab states have in mind is "peace" with Israel.) "Let them keep Arafat as a Palestinian problem instead of a Jewish problem." (As if what goes on in the Palestinian Authority does not affect Israel.) And then, for chutzpah: "I feel myself that I am also religious. I represent the religious interests more than many other religious people."
All this pales before Peres at a Labor Party conference in Tel Aviv, also in June, where he assailed Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's economic policies, their success the one bright spot in the record of the Sharon government. "The government's economic policies have resulted in 6,000 millionaires and 6 million beggars" proclaimed Peres. But what do you expect from the man who boasts that he wooed his wife Sonia by reading her from Das Kapital?
For those who fear Peresisms will die with Peres, we have good news. There is a Peres-in-waiting in Labor Member of the Knesset Matan Vilnai. Criticizing the fence, he told Israel Radio that "a safe border isn't one protected by land mines but one that the other side accepts." And when the border the other side has in mind is the Mediterranean Sea? Back in 2001 Vilnai explained that Israel should not be concerned if the PA had anti-aircraft missiles since "they do not endanger people -- just aircraft." Now there's a Foreign Minister in-the-making.

Home-grown Chutzpah
Dennis Ross, not content with the damage he did to Israel as arm-twister-in-chief in the Clinton administration, now makes a thinly disguised offer to run the Israeli government directly. Ensconced as director of the Jewish Agency's pretentiously titled think tank "The Jewish People's Planning Policy Institute", Ross suggests that a standing committee of Diaspora Jews be established with which the Israeli government would consult "before taking any initiative which could impact on the standing of Diaspora Jewish communities." (That's every policy of any consequence.) One didn't notice Ross consulting the Israeli government before taking around a group of PLO terrorists (the "Tanzim") to members of Congress last year.
And then there's Clinton's National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, another candidate for that "standing committee" no doubt, fresh from stuffing his socks with secret papers from the National Archives.

Swedish Anti-Semitism
While most of the attention is focused on anti-Semitism in France, Sweden, despite its tiny population of Jews (an estimated 20,000 of whom only 8,000 are registered with the Jewish community) is emerging as yet another trouble spot. In a letter to the Israeli daily Haaretz published June 9, four former chairmen of the Jewish community of Stockholm now living in Israel took the occasion of a visit to Israel by Sweden's Foreign Minister to emphasize that her government needed to take determined measures to stem the anti-Semitic tide.
The former community leaders say that verbal and physical attacks on Jews have increased to the point that school children feel impelled to hide the fact that they are Jews and the police stand passively by when extremists attack pro-Israel demonstrations and activities. Moreover, they point out that the problem is not confined to Moslems. (There are 400,000 in Sweden.) They write: "Over the last decades, Sweden has become a center for racist and anti-Semitic White Power music, and several anti-Semitic groups have established Swedish websites spreading anti-Semitic propaganda. The Swedish Church has just recently initiated a boycott campaign, a reminder of the commercial boycott of Jews in various societies in the past." (The Presbyterian "divestment" campaign, discussed in this Outpost, has its European models.)

Israel's Ostrich Media
The wonderful Carolyn Glick, who pounds home painful truths in the Jerusalem Post, lambastes the Israeli media in a no-holds-barred article entitled "Our Daily Drivel." She reports that Shin Bet (Intelligence) Director Avi Dichter disclosed at a cabinet meeting that while Israel is the largest contributor to the Palestinian Authority's budget, a billion dollars or 45% of the
total budget, no oversight is exercised to ensure that part of the money is not used to fund terror. As Glick writes: "In saying this, Dichter was making a clear and almost unprecedented indictment of the government. Our government is putting a billion dollars a year into a black hole controlled by one of the most active terror regimes in the world. And this terror regime is actively waging war against our country." Glick writes that "in an even semi-rational country, this disclosure would have been the story of the week -- if not the year.”
But not in Israel. Says Glick: "Sadly, this story received four lines buried at the end of a story in the inside pages of Yediot Aharanot and barely a mention anywhere else."
Glick points out that Dichter's briefing had the makings of another major story the media ignored. Dichter told the cabinet that Jerusalem Arabs support the terror war against Israel as strongly as other Arabs. Since sixty percent of all suicide bombings in the last year occurred in the capital, how will a fence protect Israel from continued jihadists? Again, says Glick, the Hebrew language press paid this no mind.

Al-Jazeera in Canada
Another sign of anti-Americanism from our northern neighbor: the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission has approved Al Jazeera, with its record of disseminating the most vicious anti-American and anti-Semitic fantasies as "news," for broadcast in Canada while "controversial" Fox News has still not been granted permission to broadcast by that same Commission.