PERES AFTER LIFE

In the June issue we suggested that with Shimon Peres in his 80s, the role of national fool would soon be up for grabs. One of our readers suggests this is a mistake. Over the decades Peres has become such a fixture in Israeli cabinets that they may not be able to conduct business without him. Our reader suggests that on his demise a stuffed Peres be propped up at cabinet meetings, with an implanted recorder emitting the “best” of his imbecile sonorities.

One advantage of keeping Peres perennial is that admiration for Peres provides a litmus test for exploding other gasbags with high reputations. For example, French “philosopher” Bernard Henri-Levy deserves a place in the gasbag Hall of Fame. In a long essay in The New York Times Magazine Levy fulsomely praises Peres as “the Wise Man of Israel” who has the “look of a prince-priest of Zionism.” In his voice of “melodious authority”, says Levy, Peres holds forth about “Mahmoud Abbas and Bill Clinton, whom he links as ’The men of good will. My friends. The friends of enlightenment and peace. The ones who will never renounce peace because of terrorism.’” (Never mind that Abbas was then praising Hezbollah as the “noble Arab resistance” on Al Arabiya TV). Peres, writes Levy, told him that Israel will “win this war” and clear the way for “paths of speech and dialogue.” Levy’s reaction to this mad babble? “I find that, today, for some reason, these prophecies have a new coefficient of obviousness and force.”

FOXMAN'S DEFAMATION LEAGUE

While most of the world defamed her, Pat Robertson courageously went to Israel in a show of solidarity and once the ceasefire was declared (under infamous UN Resolution 1701) voiced his misgivings about its results. Did the televangelist win high praise from Jewish organizations? Think again. Abe Foxman blasted Robertson as “irresponsible.” One wonders: what is the mission of the Anti-Defamation League? Does it consider support for Israel “defamation?” The dirty secret seems to be that the organization considers its real role to be as a support group for the Democratic Party. How else to explain its running newspaper ads praising Congressmen who support Israel – that list only Democrats!

ROTH'S ANTI HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

“Surprise” has been voiced that Human Rights Watch should serve as a propaganda arm for Hezbollah with its executive director Kenneth Roth saying he could “guarantee” the accuracy of Hezbollah’s phony figures on casualties in Qana.

Surprise is the last emotion that is appropriate. Human Rights Watch pulled a similar stunt in hyping the non-existent Israeli massacre of civilians in Jenin.

Human Rights Watch is a worthy member of the morally corrupt “human rights community.” Joe Stork is Deputy Director of the outfit’s Middle East and North Africa Division. Stork began his career at the radical (and radically anti-Israel) Institute for Policy Studies. Back in the early 1970s he was one of the “collective” that produced MERIP [Middle East Research and Information Project] Reports. MERIP’s chief problem was figuring out which Arab terrorist group it most identified with. On one matter MERIP had no problem. When Arab terrorists gunned down Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (and even the Communist Daily World called it “murderous banditry”) MERIP issued a flyer saying “Munich and similar actions cannot create or substitute for a mass revolutionary movement, but we should comprehend the achievement of the Munich action…It has provided an important boost in morale among Palestinians in the camps.” Stork went on to speak at a Baghdad Conference on Zionism as Racism.

Such are the credentials of the man Human Rights Watch chooses as moral arbiter for the Middle East.

LEDEEN WAS RIGHT

More and more it looks as if Michael Ledeen was right when he argued, prior to the invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, that toppling the Iranian regime was a more promising way to begin any effort to achieve constructive change in the region.

ISRAEL'S FIFTH COLUMN

This war has clarified – if any clarification was necessary – the extent to which Israel’s Arab citizens identify with the enemy. In Nazareth, Matthias Gebauer reports in Der Spiegel, identification with Hezbollah is all but universal. When two small children were killed by a Hezbollah rocket, the community blamed Israel, the mayor protesting that there was a shortage of alarm sirens. But Nazareth had shut off its alarm sirens because they also sound to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day and the city preferred to jeopardize its safety to being subject to an expression
of Israeli patriotism. At the memorial for the children the deputy mayor announced: “Our passports say Israel, but we are brothers of the Arabs.” Green Hamas flags flew everywhere.

Gebauer could find only one moderate voice, a restaurant owner who was afraid to give his name. “Nazareth is full of crazy people,” he said. “I don’t want to get into trouble.”

PLAUT ON PERETZ

Steven Plaut writes from Haifa: “The banner headline in Haaretz of August 17 was ‘Defense Minister Peretz Claims the Army did not Warn Him There were Missiles and Rockets in Lebanon.’ Now I personally published at least 50 articles and web postings after the Barak capitulation and unilateral withdrawal from south Lebanon, warning that northern Israel would soon be bathed by thousands of Hezbollah katyushas and I was hardly alone. I wonder what else Peretz was never warned of by the army – maybe that snakes bite and that smoking is bad for your health.”
No less bizarre is the news that a government commission to examine the effects of Kadima’s proposed “convergence plan” (eliminating the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria) had concluded after extensive study that the plan would expose Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport to rocket attacks. Any politician who needs a commission to figure this out needs to be committed.

Jihad is Kosher
Greg Jaffe in The Wall Street Journal reports that a judge on Yemen’s special terrorism court has acquitted 19 defendants who had traveled to Iraq to fight with al Qaeda and kill American soldiers – and bore wounds to show for it. The forty year old judge, who is no al Qaeda sympathizer and has family in the United States, said he had no choice: “Islamic Sharia law permits jihad against occupiers” of Moslem lands. The judge was puzzled by the protests from the American embassy and others. He asked “According to American law, isn’t it OK to fight with people of your own religion against the occupiers?”