Lost
by David Benzion · 08/11/2006 5:02 pmI am far too despondent and depressed to possibly write anything coherent right now.
I cannot possibly express my disgust for Ehud Olmert.
The Jewish Sabbath has already begun in Israel, but mark my words– when Israelis turn on their radios and televisions Saturday night and realize what has happened, an unimaginable wave of agony and fury is going to roll across the land.
In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, here are some analysis’ from very perceptive writers who manged to detect what was happening before it dawned on everyone else.
Take their sentiments, multiply them a thousand-fold, add a mountain of primal bitterness, and you will begin to have an inkling of the political hell that is about to be unleashed by the Israeli public upon its political class.
I’m going to stop typing now before I put my head through the computer monitor.
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David,
I too look on in disbelief. At Isreal’s fight as well as our own. Where would we or the Jewish people be today if we had fought WWII in this manner. Giving up land by the Isrealis was a mistake. Is time for overwhelming force to be delt. Innocents may die but I still refuse to acknowlege the existance innocent/moderate Muslims until they stand as one and eliminate their own fanatics return to a “Peaceful Religion”.
Brother, i feel your pain. Call this the Rumsfeld Syndrome.
David, I know from where you speak.
I remember the days when Israel used to meet any attack with an overwhelming response.
What ever happened to the days when, as in the words of Sean Connery in the “Untouchables”, “When Capone pulls a knife, you pull a gun, when he shoots one of yours, you put one of his in the morgue.” The Hezbollah barbarians only understand the fist.
Israel is just like the USA and the leaky border, why do they take the PC route and hope if we’re nice they will be nice.
I pray for Israel daily!
David
I feel your pain. Its obvious the US has lost it’s nerve to defeat the enemy. Tragically, I fear Israel has done the same.
Why does the enemy not attack Russia or China? Because they would not let political correctness get in the way.
Does anyone think Iran will not use Nukes when they get them? And they will get them. Israel was my last hope……
Very Sad Days……
David you have my sympathies…along with the “Free” World
The U.N. …..what a joke !!!!
i dont get it either. 3 years from now, they’ll be attacked again. not to mention the weekly terrorist attacks that have occurred from hamas. where are the “churchhills” in israel ?
i pray for israel daily too, but she must help herself !
yah.. Israel only sent in Jack Bauer, when what they needed to do was send in Jack Bauer AND Chuck Norris…
by the way… Olmert just accepted the UN Cease Fire plan.
what a dumbazz.
David,
Although I am not a Jew, I also feel your pain on a multitude of levels. I actually believed (naively in retrospect) that when Israel withdrew from Gaza recently that they would use the fact that they did so as moral leverage when the inevitable next wave of terrorism occurred.
Obviously, the inevitable occurred and Israel has fallen prey to the forces of appeasement that exist (including the United States IMO) rather than using the moral leverage they rightly had. The crocodile of appeasement as described by Churchill has officially been fed another meal.
I stated a while back that I thought that the events in Lebanon would be very pivotal in the bigger war on terror. Consequently, I now believe we are on the rapid part of the slide towards full scale world war after reading this. Everyone involved in this should be ashamed; the UN just for being the UN, the US for acting like the UN somehow matters. I’m just sick about this.
Well, that’s it…. say to goodbye to Israel. They had a pretty good run. 1948 to 200?…. One of these days they’re going to wake up to an atomic weapon vaporizig Tel Aviv. You try to figure out why they quit now before the job is done…I can’t.
The end horror seems so obvious to me, it must be obvious to the Israel leaders too… Unless they know something I don’t….
Does anyone on LST have any idea why Israel has chosen to sit back and wait to be vaporized?
yes gone are the days of Moshe Dayan…
My daughter had a male pal who is 22 , graduate of a fine college in US, who tried to volunteer for IDF. No, he was put off as he is too old! he oculd volunteer for like 6 months maybe. Why do thy not want some mature or older people!
This got burried on another thread, I must post it again:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/incidents.html
Just think if we had elected Gore in 2000. I’m not enamored of Bush, but I imagine that Gore’s leadership would have been like what’s going on in Israel.
I think Israel knew they were in for a tough slog and that to take the Hizballers out they would take a lot of casualties in the process. This is an easy way out. Long term this will only empower the enemy.
I wonder if GWB would pull out of Iraq if the UN said so?
Israel has made a very big mistake IMHO.
Where daisy cutters and MOABs were needed, Olmert [Israels Slick willy] tried to bamboozle the Hezbos with BS.
Warefare has devolved to about 800 B.C. The entire enemy population is the enemy and the object of war is to kill the enemy.
Seriously the best counter battery fire to rockets launched from behind UN observation posts and Mosques is a volly from a Multiple Rocket Launcher battery firing cluster munitions!
I’m wondering now if Benjamin Netanyahu & his Likud party, who have held their tongues out of loyalty during a time of war, might now push to remove Olmert from office. The stakes are too high to continue allowing an attorney to run the government…Olmert has treated this more as a diversion than as the fate of his country…
I feel the pain of families who lost their loved ones on 9/11. I feel the pain of the families of our U.S. military whose sons and daughters have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The pain of the Israelis who lost their loved ones in their fight against Hezbollah is no less than the pain we feel at home when our children die.
The same holds true for families who have lost loved ones in Hezbollah’s fight against Israel in Lebanon.
When children die, mothers, fathers and families are tortured by pain and loss.
And sometimes unforgiving rage.
Is this global carnage really necessary?
Where are the diplomats and peace brokers who will save the planet from inept and ruthless rulers?
Do those who send our children to war send their very own children or themselves, for that matter?
I don’t think so. At least not in the U.S.
Israel, I believe, requires mandatory military service by all. This is a fair and just policy; more so than the U.S. where the poor fight and the rich get don’t have to.
How many on this blog have served in the military, by the way?
One also has to wonder why the U.S government, no matter what political party happens to be power, routinely supports autocrats and dictators in the Middle East, who as a rule, both repress and disenfranchise their people.
This repression and disenfranchisement of people is where the seeds to terrorism are sown.
But we are dependent upon the Middle East for our oil needs, aren’t we? And so we give them a pass because freedom means owning a SUV?
Libby, don’t drink the bong water!
“How many on this blog have served in the military, by the way?”
In have, and I know there are quite a few here that have, and have children that currently serve!
Have you served? Or do you serve yourself a heapin’ helpin’ of freedom as a result of others service?
“And sometimes unforgiving rage.”
Rage is good! Makes it easier to kill someone who is capable of killing innocents, like those that practice the “religion of peace”. Remember, squeeze the trigger, do not jerk it.
To quote Master Yoda, “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hatred, hatred leads to the dark side” Join the Dark Side, we have cookies…..
“Is this global carnage really necessary?”
I dunno, ask the nice people that practice the “religion of peace”:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
As a matter of fact, it needs to be ratcheted up a bit. Hit them harder! Appeasement to them means they have scored a victory. Victory is victory only when your enemy cannot fight any more!
Here’s the Hamas charter:
Small Excerpt… “Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors.”
http://www.acpr.org.il/resources/hamascharter.html
“freedom means owning a SUV?”
No, freedom is owning a Muscle car like this one:
http://www.americanmusclegrafix.com/images/New_Pics/71gtx1.jpg
I get 9 miles per gallon and if I see a baby harp seal in the road, I’ll mash the pedal to the firewall and squish him all over the blacktop!
If I see a US Navy SEAL, I’ll thank him for making martyrs from those that practice the “religion of peace”…
Israel will last only as long as Israel will fight! Think of Israel as like the only black family living in a neighborhood of klansmen! Three choices, 1 Move the entire country of Israel to Florida, 2 Get overrun and slaughtered by accepting “peace plans”, or 3 Fight for their very existence! I’d go for 3 myself, but what do I know?
I received this from a friend who lives in the Golan on Tuesday Aug 8, 2006, a few days after Olmert told The Associated Press that Israel’s Lebanon offensive will boost his proposal to withdraw from much of the West Bank. (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06216/711122-82.stm )
The Golan, Israel
From Daniel:
Olmert “stabbing us in the back”-
Many Israeli soldiers from Judea and Samaria were asking the question: “What are we fighting for? It’s the right question to which there is no plausible answer from the Olmert government.
We learned that some of the soldiers in some of the tank brigades were so angry they took large pieces of card board attached them to the back of their tanks and wrote on it in big letters, “Hezbellah is shooting us in the face, while Olmert is stabbing us in the back!” After several days a general saw the signs and forced the soldiers to remove them from their tanks. The truth was too much for him.
(end email)
Thus, as painful as this news is, I am not surprised Olmert would weasel and buy into yet another worthless UN resolution.
Olmert i9s an attorney, isn’t he? What more would you expect….
Golda Maier had a bigger pair!
Operation Wrath of God
Following the 1972 Munich murders at the summer Olympic Games, Meir appealed to the world to “save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed”. Meir and the Israeli Defense Committee felt that the world did not adequately respond and therefore authorized the Mossad to kill Black September and PFLP operatives wherever they could be found..
from Wikipedia
“And sometimes unforgiving rage.”
Rage is good, it purges you of the weak need to feel sympathy for someone that you have in your sights. Now squeeze the trigger, do not jerk it! Bang…
“Is this global carnage really necessary?”
No, a bigger carnage is needed to drive home to the “religion of peace” that murdering people is not a good thing to do. But do not fear they kill their own too:
http://www.headsetoptions.org/2006/08/07/goat-panties-and-suggestive-veggies/
“the poor fight and the rich get don’t have to.”
It’s a volunteer military…. Where’s the problem?
“How many on this blog have served in the military, by the way? ”
Probably way more than you flippantly assume! Myself for one, and I know of quite a few right off the top of my head that have. And there are a few parents who have sons and daughters that currently serve! Have you served? Or have you just served yourself a big ole heapin’ helpin’ of freedom that someone else served up?
“freedom means owning a SUV?”
No Freedom is owning an American muscle car that gets 9 miles per gallon and has a speedo that reads to 150 and no catalytic converter!!! Man, I’m spittin out greenhouse gasses like nobody’s business, so go buy a hybrid car so I can pollute more! Weeee-heeeeee!!!! I’ve noticed how the price of gas has droped since the war… oh wait… no it hasn’t!
David, the end is near! If they give up so easily now, wait till the murdering sons of, uh.. I mean the “religion of peace” folks get a nuke!
Bring back Bibi בנימין
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Benjamin_Netanyahu.jpg
Well.. They (Hizballess) are already declaring victory….
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3289572,00.html
David,
Coherent or not, you write just fine… Some say “feelings” are a weakness in times of war. I say “it is those with these passionate feelings concerning injustice that are driven and inspired to change the world.” And people like you, with both the passion and the knowledge, have a responsibility to do all they can (which you are), but pay a high price for this ability (which you are).
Thank you and Hang On Bro!
Israel needs Netanyahu to be Prime Minister.
I too am disappointed in the Isreali leadership and sorry for her people.
As to why they did this, isn’t it just simply liberalism taking over?
…and this may just be Olmert’s last recommendation as PM…hope springs eternal.
Patience, young man, patience.
We as a people never learn, this has been going on a long, long, time. Like him or hate him, he was one of the greatest leaders of all time.
“All who surrender will be spared;
whoever does not surrender but opposes with struggle and dissension,
shall be annihilated”.
— Genghis Khan
http://www.greenkiwi.co.nz/footprints/mongolia/ghengis_history.htm#khan
#19 and 22: giga dittos, bring back BiBi.
To All,
One side or both will violate any peace treaty. This arrangement is simply an agreement to postpone the immediate bloodshed.
They will fight until the seething anger on both sides is diminished and they come to realize there is more to gain by working together than against each other. I am old, but I think if I were young, I would not live to see that day.
Simple
I am not understanding the credibility you assign to the terrorists Simple, can you explain?
Looks to me like Israel is finished, and since the US seems to adhere to a similiar wartime philosophy, I fear we are doomed as well.
From Ha’aretz columnist Ari Shavit:
Ehud Olmert may decide to accept the French proposal for a cease-fire and unconditional surrender to Hezbollah. That is his privilege. Olmert is a prime minister whom journalists invented, journalists protected, and whose rule journalists preserved. Now the journalists are saying run away. That’s legitimate. Unwise, but legitimate.
However, one thing should be clear: If Olmert runs away now from the war he initiated, he will not be able to remain prime minister for even one more day. Chutzpah has its limits. You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power. You cannot bury 120 Israelis in cemeteries, keep a million Israelis in shelters for a month, wear down deterrent power, bring the next war very close, and then say - oops, I made a mistake. That was not the intention. Pass me a cigar, please.
There is no mistake Ehud Olmert did not make this past month.
#30
Sorry, link did not come up.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749484.html
Makes a pretty good case for having a military man/person as your prime minister versus a lawyer or politician. Causes one to ponder what a military man would have told the French regarding their cease fire proposal. The UN is a (corrupt)joke! All this does is give the terrorists time to re-group, re-supply and re-plan. Doen’t anyone over there know the history repeats itself again and again. This is solid proof. What makes the UN believe that this action will cause any different outcome than the last “cease fire”? The Hez-bowl-ian terrorists have vowed to annihilate Israel and Iran’s whacco leader whose name I cannot either spell or pronounce has said the same publicly. What is wrong with the thought processes of these people?
#15 Yes, I served in the US armed forces for six years during the Vietnam era as has many others on LST. We’ve had this conversation before. How about you? It’s one thing to “Feeeeeeel” their pain and another to actually try and do something about it.
Let this be a lesson to GWB also. Whatever your Sec of Defense says you need in regards to troop strength, double it and get the job done. Don’t worry about civilian casualties because the terrorists hide behind them as a strategery. Tell the UN to F off until the job is done.
Our technology has also hurt the new war. These smart bombs dont do the mass damage it takes to make an enemy give up. They know if they stay in certain areas they are safe from the smart bombs.
Israel should have launched 10 Katyushas back for every one that hit Israel.
#29 I’m not cashing my chips in yet. Hear that? That is a rumble of a mighty ROAR! Enough is enough…and this is too much…
#34
1:Fight for survival 2:Live in dhimmitude
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhimmitude
#34…as long as a free-press (aka liberal-pinko press) survives in spite of war-time conditions, political correctness games will be played by fighting participants. K-rockets are indiscriminate, hard-to-control weapons. Good shots land within 100-200 yards of a target unless fired at suicidally close range. IAF forces have chosen to be a bit more discriminate. Right? Wrong? All I know is this “new enemy” requires freedom-loving powers to change tactics and it hasn’t been done yet!
However — by Saturday afternoon, the landscape has changed.
One of my favorite singers put it this way, Matisyahu,,,What I’m Fighting For
************************************
What I’m fighting for
Is worth far more than silver and gold
What I’m fighting for
Is a chance to unite the past
When a brothers coming home at last
Fighting together for lives
Sons and daughters of Abraham
Lay down to a higher command
Don’t be tricked by the acts of man
Gods wisdom revealed in a holy plan
A chance to unite the past
When a brothers coming home at last
Fighting together for lives
To Zion we roll and we’re not all alone
Unite and you will find
What I’m fighting for
Is worth far more than silver and gold
What I’m fighting for
Is a chance to unite the past
When a brothers coming home at last
Fighting together for lives
To Zion we roll and we’re not all alone
Unite and you will find
What I’m fighting for
**********************************
Many people don’t know this about Israel:
Although it is the “Jewish” state, many jews there as secular and consider themselves fighting more for their nationality, rather than religion. Sort of like if we went to war with Mexico. Granted most of the people in the US are Christian, but we would be fighting for our USA nationality, not for the Christian faith just because our country has more Christians living in it. No, you would have Jews, Hindus, athiests fighting along with Christians.
and..
Golda Meir was not Israelli! She was a good ol gal from nidwest…Wisconsin!
# 15 please give barf bag alert before you post that again! Maybe you would like to hear about my friend whose teacher was eating ice cream with her little daughter there. 3 minutes later his teacher and her daughter were dead from a suicide bomber. Oh I know…those poor Palis….not
In the meantime,
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,208037,00.html
With the ayatollahs in Iran eager to welcome in the 12th Imam on Aug. 22 with an acto war, why do I sense we are setting up our own death trap in Baghdad?
Good Job Tim,
Credibility????
#41
Simple
Not sure the question but my curiosity was you seem to put the terrorists on the same level as the Israelis as many people are and asking the question why?
texaskas
#39
Excellent post! I agree with you totally, but I didn’t know about Golda Meir! Thanks for sharing.
Good Job Tim,
To the folks caught in the middle, namely the civilians, the distinction between a getting killed by a Katushka rocket or a guided bomb dropped by a F-16 seems pretty trivial. Dead is dead!
History has a habit of blurring definition with the passage of time. Take for example the American Revolutionary War. The rebel faction, which only comprised about 1/3 of the population in 1776, was regarded by the British as criminals. Both sides of the American Revolution engaged in deplorable tactics against the suspected civilian supporters of the opposing faction. American and British history books gloss over this portion of the war and focus on the battlefield events. The same will happen in the Middle-East in time and it will not matter who prevails.
However, my post had nothing to do with that. I was simply point out that neither side regards this as a stepping stone to lasting peace. It is merely a pause in the killing. A chance to lick wounds, resupply, rethink tactics, and move toward the next phase.
Both sides harbor seething hatred toward each other and cannot find anyway to compromise. This thing will not end until they get tired of killing each other.
The mighty IDF could easily defeat any standing Army in the region. The Hezbolla would be no match for the IDF on a battlefield. It understandable (and should have been expected) that the Hezbolla would shift tactics. Other eyes have seen and learned from what is happening there and in Iraq. One does not need a mighty army to defeat a mighty army.
The latter is not exactly a novel concept. It has worked before and will work again and again.
Simple
Simple
You do not compromise with terrorists. You do not negotiate with terrorists. There will be no peace until the terrorists are dead. Simple. End of story!
If Hesballa disarms, there will be peace. If Israel disarms, Israel will cease to exist.
This is why it is so sad that the Isreali government has agreed to this cease fire. The terrorists will continue their attacks and Israel will be damned by the world if they defend themselves. Israel’s government does not have the will to fight any more. Until Israel overthrows its liberal government and installs a military government, Israel will always be threatened by terrorists and countries like Iran and Seria who only want the full and complete destruction of Israel.
Israel had no choice. They way they chose to fight this PC war there was no way to win. Hizballers dug in behind civilians and the Israelis were left to bomb empty buildings instead of hizballers.
Every Israeli spokesperson I saw on TV made the point they were trying to avoid civilian casualties. Just like in Iraq that killed any chance of complete victory. Look back thru history,Romans, Huns, etc. They fought and whoever got in the way was killed until victory was achieved.
Mr SOB,
Which part of the Roman Empire are you refering to?
Rome expanded its territory in the manner you mention, but they reached a point where their legions could not hold the territory they had captured.
The decline began somewhere in the 3rd century AD and then the shoe was on the other foot.
I would point out that Israel is very small. It has a declining population base versus the surrounding Arab populations, which is expanding. One in Six Israelis is an Arab and the population projections show the balance of Arab versus Jewish folk becoming more even within the next two decades.
Personally, I think all of the bombing and shooting on the part of the Arabs is stupid. Wait a while and they can gain control by democratic means.
However, everyone misses the point on Hezbolla’s actions. This is a political PR campaign to embarass the surronding Arab states who have accomplished nothing in 60 years with Israel. Indeed, they have actually lost territory.
Iran and its proxy Hezbolla are playing to the poor Arab (mostly Shias) in the street. Their long term goal is the same as their rival Al Quaida, the establishment of a caliphate with dominion over all of the Arab States and their oil.
Simple
Simple,
You conclude Israel just go ahead and give up? Its inevitable they will vanish like many other civilizations. Why put up a fight.
Maybe Israel needs to show what will happen to anyone who tries to invade. Israel isn’t after land acquisition. Just land preservation. They don’t need thousands to occupy.
Israel chose to selectively bomb so called Hizballer positions thinking that would stop the rockets. Problem is they are all over the place and in residential areas Israel chose not to hit as not to make the Arabs mad. So now they have a stalemate with the militants which is a win for the Arabs.