Chas Freeman controversy sheds light on DC Israel climate

March 15, 2009

By now most everyone knows the former Ambassador Charles "Chas" Freeman has withdrawn his appointment to be the Obama admin's top intelligence analyst. If you heard anything about his controversial nomination and favorable views toward Saudi Arabia and the Tianemen Square massacre, it was no thanks to the mainstream media. Instead conservative and Jewish bloggers are credited with -- or blamed for -- his bowing out. Freeman himself lashed out at the "pro-Israel lobby" in DC for wrecking his nomination.

Mainstream media reported on Freeman's angry withdrawal, but very little of the controversy itself. Caroline Glick, a conservative columnist for The Jerusalem Post, writes about why the entire episode, from his apointment to withdrawal, is disturbing to American intelligence and to Israel.

Glick notes that the main controversy "revolved around his financial and political ties to potential and actual US adversaries" and not his views on Israel, which were prediminantly negative.

Whatever the reason for his resignation, it is a good thing that Freeman was forced to resign. It is a very good thing that the man writing the US's National Intelligence Estimates and briefing the president on intelligence matters is not a hired gun for the Saudi and Chinese governments who believes that Jewish Americans have no right to participate in public debate about US foreign policy. But while his appointment was foiled, the fact that a man like Freeman was even considered for the post tells us two deeply disturbing things about the climate in Washington these days.

First and foremost, Freeman's appointment gives us disconcerting information about how the Obama administration intends to relate to intelligence. Freeman was appointed by Adm. Dennis Blair, President Barack Obama's director of national intelligence. Blair stood by Freeman's appointment even after information became known about his financial ties to foreign governments and his extreme views on Israel and American Jews were exposed. Blair repeatedly extolled Freeman for his willingness to stake out unpopular positions.

Blair ... defended Freeman ...(and) the Islamic Republic. He claimed that just because Iran is enriching uranium, there is no reason to believe that the mullahs are interested in building a bomb. That is, America's top intelligence officer is willing to take Iran's word on everything.

On the other hand, he isn't willing to take Israel's word on anything. Although he acknowledged that his nonchalant assessment of Iran was based on the same information as Israel's dire assessment of Iran, Blair scoffed at Israel's views, claiming that they are colored by the Jewish state's fears. In his words, "The Israelis are far more concerned about it, and they take more of a worst-case approach to these things from their point of view." ...

THE SECOND disturbing development exposed by Freeman's appointment is the emergence of a very committed and powerful anti-Israel lobby in Washington. In the past, while anti-Israel politicians, policy-makers and opinion-shapers were accepted in Washington, they would not have felt comfortable brandishing their anti-Israel positions as a qualifying credential for high position. Freeman's appointment shows that this is no longer the case. ...

From September 11, to Russia's invasion of Georgia, from Hamas's victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections to the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate that claimed Iran ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003, it is clear that in recent years, the US intelligence community has regularly substituted wishful thinking for true analysis. Freeman's appointment and the emergence of the anti-Israel lobby as a major force in Washington policy circles show that turning the US away from Israel has become a key component of that wishful thinking.

But, as they say in the world of intelligence, forewarned is forearmed.

Read it all here.

The treachery of driving in Israel

March 15, 2009

Okay, so it isn't just me who experiences new depths of road rage and utter shock on Israeli roads. I've often wondered if there is a correlation between erratic driving and Israel's constant fight for existence. Emma Shevah, writing in the Independent Minds, describes perfectly the situation on the roads and even a link to terrorism in a column. Here are some highlights or read the entire article here. I've always wanted to write about Israeli drivers, but Emma captures the roadway experience/nightmare to a tee. I'll highlight some of the lines that elicited verbal responses:

Israelis are notorious drivers. There's something to be said about the collective character of a nation and the way those attributes are transferred into driving habits. If you think Israelis are rude, impatient, arrogant, tetchy and care only about their own progress in life (and I guarantee you won't be the only one), you should witness the way they drive. ...

The art of queuing has yet to grace these shores: in public toilets or to get on buses, it's a question of push right on in regardless of who may have been before you or how old and weak they are. On the roads it's no different: imagine a junction with a slip road to the right, a stream of cars lining up for two hundred yards to take it, driving slowly, in lane. Then imagine a car sailing past the entire line and ramming in between two cars at the front. Cheeky bastard, right? Now imagine lots of cars doing it, one after the other in a constant effrontery to the done thing. You feel foolish, a sucker, nudging forward politely like that, driving pettily close to the car in front so they can't ram in front of you as you get closer to the turning, but they do, and they'd go into you unless you braked.

There are no grid boxes at junctions so even when there is no forward access, drivers care about nothing other than their own progress through the lights, so they block the entire junction and haughtily ignore the furious beeps of the drivers who can't get past.

The way to get someone out of the fast lane on a motorway is to drive right up to their bumper at 120km an hour and flash your lights, and if they don't move, overtake on the inside and zigzag in and out of the other lanes, in between cars that are too close to each other already, missing them by millimeters. Last week I crossed a set of lights in town only to see a car in front of me, in my (single) lane, reversing. He reversed all the way down the hill backwards, on the wrong side of the road, with me following him open-mouthed. One house near the kids' school has an unfortunate driveway: in order to get out they have to reverse onto a busy roundabout, and I've seen them do it without the slightest hint of caution. I've seen a policeman driving whilst speaking on his mobile phone when a civilian would be fined 1000 shekels for the same crime. I had a police van (not in emergency mode) drive right up behind me, flashing me to move over, but I couldn't change lanes as a car was parallel to me, so the only thing I could do was drive above the speed limit , overtake the other car, and let the police van pass. Forced over the speed limit by the police! I could go on and on and on. Sometimes it's laughable but in reality, driving here is not a pleasant experience - it's fraught with tension and aggression, and worst of all, it makes you drive like a cheeky bastard too.

A recent study by PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA) showed that terror attacks influenced driving behaviour in Israel: following a terror attack there was a 'temporary lull in light accidents followed by a 35% spike in fatal accidents on Israeli roads 3 days after the attack'. The results were based on analyses of road accidents and terror attacks between January 2001 and June 2002, when the intifada was taking place, and whereas previous studies had focused on subjective reports of post-traumatic stress, the report concluded that there was a "population level behavioural response to violent terror attacks".

I have no doubt that the stress of living in this country - not only in relation to terror attacks but the general stresses of not earning enough money for a decent day's work (The Jerusalem Post recently reported that 49% of Israelis don't earn enough to cover the basic monthly expenses); of the persistent threat of survival as a nation state and as individuals on the dangerous streets; of living in a boiling pot of political, religious and economic tensions, and other factors, like the heat of the summer and diabolical road surfaces, all contribute to the atrocious driving habits and exceptionally high accident rates. But also, to a significant extent, the problems on the roads have to do with a basic lack of consideration for other drivers, an absence of civility and manners (I sound like my mother) and driving recklessly and illegally because you bloody well feel like it and who the hell are you anyway? Unlike some of the factors involved, those minor details are things that every single driver on Israeli roads could do something to improve on a daily basis.

Ugh. I'm frustrated just reading about it!

The Score is no Longer ‘Love’

Sweden’s reception of Israeli tennis team full of violence and hate
March 11, 2009

Tennis isn’t what it used to be. And neither is anti-Semitism. Both have undergone a revolution in the Scandinavian country of Sweden where Israel’s tennis team was greeted with protests fit for an evil tyrant or aggressor.

Once upon a time politics stayed out of sports. But for Israel, that ended in a fury in Munich when Palestinian terrorists executed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team in 1972. Perhaps it is that memory which, for Israelis, makes the Swedish riots last weekend even more poignant when the Israeli Davis Cup team played its match.

The riots come just a few weeks after Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe’er was barred from the Dubai Open by the United Arab Emirates. And just before that, Sweden recommended that an Israeli tae kwondo delegation -- 45 athletes and five coaches on the way to the Swedish championship -- stay home due to Muslim threats against them. They did.

The tennis team didn’t. In the supposed bucolic, neutral country of Sweden, up to 10,000 protestors and masked rioters gave tennis a new face. The protest was dangerous enough that the city banned spectators from the game in Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city with a large Musilm population, saying it could not guarantee the Israeli players‘ safety. The game was played to about 400 media representatives, sponsors and guests in attendance, according to reports. But no fans.

The masked rioters threw paint bottles, stones and firecrackers at police in riot squad vans and on horseback. One of the demonstrators climbed onto a police van and stomped on its flashing lights, smashing them to bits.

“We are ... anarchists who want to protest against the fact that there are this many police officers to protect the representatives of a repressive occupying force that massacred so many innocent people in Gaza,“ a demonstrator named Jan told AFP.

The demonstration was to protest against Israel's recent offensive in Gaza.

For Israel athletes who played the Swedish team, it was all a bit surreal playing to an empty stadium. Israel player Andy Ram described the intense security surrounding the team from the Jewish state, where it is more higher than it was in Dubai.

“At any given moment, we are surrounded by police vehicles, undercover police officers, and anti-terror forces,” Ram wrote in a Ynet editorial. “Every morning, they take us from the hotel to the stadium via another route, through an underground parking lot, with part of the ride being undertaken in armored vehicles. Since we landed here, almost a week ago, we left the hotel only three times.”

He continues: “The feelings within the Israel team are very grim. All the innocence that prompted us to play tennis has disappeared, and this match, which was supposed to be a beautiful moment of sports, has become completely worthless. Nothing here is reminiscent of the Davis Cup; what we have is a war atmosphere, tension, and the feeling that something very bad may happen at any moment.”

Yes, I know sports these days is rarely for the love of the game any more. Fat contracts and glamorous lifestyles add to the allure. But being whisked around by security and playing to empty stands surely curtails the glamor.

If the vitriol and protests continue, its safe to assume that other cities with large Muslim populations will follow suit. This could lead to a ban on Israeli athletes and teams in the name of national security in other countries.

The protests, isolated as they may seem now, could lead to the isolation of Israel, first through its sports.

Fatah party asking West for more money

The $600 million from the US apparently wasn't enough
March 6, 2009

The Palestinian Authority is asking US and European taxpayers to fund a new television station, run by Fatah, in order to counter its rival party Hamas. This is in addition to the millions of dollars promised to the PA and the rebuild Gaza at a donor conference in Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this week. The US promised $900 million: $300 million to go to Gaza rebuilding and $600 million to the PA.

Israeli Arab reporter Khaled Abu Tomeh questions this new move in this article. Here are some excerpts where he makes some astonishing points:

Abbas and his Fatah companions want to tell the Palestinians through the new TV station how bad Hamas is. They want to tell the Palestinians that Hamas is a “dark and bloody militia that seized power over the Gaza Strip through violence.” They want to send out the message that Hamas is acting as an agent of the Iranians, whose primary goal is to undermine all “moderate” Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East.

Moreover, Fatah wants to tell the Palestinians (and whoever wants to listen) that Hamas is largely responsible for their miseries and for the fact that the Gaza Strip has been turned into an Islamic “emirate” and a center for jihadists and suicide bombers.

In which case, the question that pops up is: So why are Abbas and his Fatah lieutenants chasing Hamas and literally begging the Islamist movement to agree to the formation of a “unity government” with them? If the purpose of the new TV station is to discredit Hamas and portray it as a bloodthirsty terrorist movement, so why are Fatah representatives sitting with their Hamas counterparts in Cairo, where they are talking about joining forces and distributing ministerial portfolios?

For the past three years, Fatah’s media outlets have done almost everything to try and discredit Hamas in the eyes of the Palestinian public, but so far with little success. Hamas members and leaders have been accused by Fatah of rape, embezzlement, murder, kidnappings and various other crimes.

Yet there is another problem with the Fatah-controlled media and it’s related this time to Israel.

While targeting Hamas, the Fatah newspapers, radio and TV stations and Web sites have also been inciting against their peace partner, Israel, and against the US and Europe - the same parties that are financing Fatah and supplying it with weapons. Ironically, it is this type of incitement that drives more Palestinians into the open arms of Hamas.

Why? Because if you are telling your people day and night how bad and evil Israel is, your people will then say that this means that Hamas is right - you can’t make peace with Israel or any Jew. And if you are telling your people (through your media) that the Israelis are war criminals and colonialists and land thieves and cowards and vampires and children killers and are basically responsible for all the miseries of the Palestinians, what will the people think of Mahmoud Abbas when they see him meeting with any Israeli? They will certainly spit in his face and ask him, “Why are you talking to these Jews? You yourself have told us how bad and evil they are.”

The last thing the international community needs to do is to fund yet another Palestinian media outlet that promotes hatred, violence and anti-Western sentiments. The new Fatah TV station is not going to be much different than the other Fatah-run media organizations. If anything, it will help raise another regeneration of Palestinians on hatred and glorification of suicide bombers.

First Terror Attack of 2009 Rattles Nerves in Jerusalem

March 5, 2009

Article first published here.

In the first incident of its kind this year, a bulldozer driver sped down a busy Jerusalem street on Thursday afternoon near the city’s largest mall and rammed a police car, sending it sailing into the air and flipping over twice with two officers inside.

The incident comes the day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in the country speaking with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders about preconditions for a peace agreement.

The bulldozer driver, who had an open Koran in the vehicle according to police, was shot by police officer who had just arrived at the scene. He later died in the hospital. The two officers were slightly wounded, according to a police spokesman.

“We’re 100 percent sure it was an intended terror attack carried out by an Arab or a Palestinian from East Jerusalem based on what we found at the scene and the life-threatening situation it was,” Israel Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld tells Newsmax.

The driver had no identification on him so police weren’t certain if he was a Jerusalem resident or a resident of the Palestinian territories with a work permit for Jerusalem. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. Rosenfeld said police were investigating which nearby construction site he was working at the time.

The attack, the first this year in Jerusalem, underscored the fragile relations in the mixed Israeli capital where Arabs and Jews mingle on the job and socially. This was the fourth bulldozer attack in the last year.

Rosenfeld said police had no specific warning or information about an impending terror attack, but since the country’s security forces have gone on high alert now especially ahead of next week’s Purim holiday.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat arrived on the scene shortly after the attack. This is the first attack in the city since he was elected.

“The attack targeted us for no reason other than the fact that we live in Jerusalem. This was an attack carried out exclusively for the purpose of harming civilians,” he said.

Improved rockets launched at Israel

March 1, 2009

Palestinians have managed to use during the cease-fire to improve their rockets. One of two improved Kassam rockets were launched and smashed into an Ashkelon school, luckily on Saturday, in an attack that tore through the school and destroyed classrooms.

In all, seven rockets were launched over the weekend, most hitting open fields. Police said terrorists in Gaza assembled the rockets that struck Ashkelon using an improvised technique to make them more powerful.

The two rockets had a 170-mm. diameter, which allowed for a greater amount of explosives to be packed inside.

"These are improved Kassams, more powerful than standard Kassams. They have a longer range and pack a bigger punch," a police source told The Jerusalem Post.

Amnesty Int’l Calls for U.S. Arms Embargo Against Israel

Feb. 27, 2009

Article originally printed here.

Amnesty International has called on the Obama administration to immediately suspend weapons sales to Israel after the human rights organization said it found that most of the weapons Israel used in the Gaza Strip were manufactured in the United States.

“To a large extent, Israel's military offensive in Gaza was carried out with weapons, munitions and military equipment supplied by the USA and paid for with U.S. taxpayers’ money,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East. “The Obama administration should immediately suspend U.S. military aid to Israel.”

Israeli officials say the report robs Israel of its right to self defense.

Amnesty’s report, “Fueling Conflict: Foreign Arms Supplies to Israel/Gaza,” also calls on the United Nations Security Council to “impose immediately a comprehensive ... arms embargo on Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.”

The group accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes in its 38-page report, but focused heavily on Israeli actions and American weapons used in the Gaza Strip. Amnesty researchers found that weapons fragments in school playgrounds, hospitals and in homes were mostly made in America, the report said.

In a statement, Israel's Foreign Ministry slammed the report calling it a biased version of events during and leading up to Operation Cast Lead, which left 1,300 Palestinians dead. The report neglected to mention Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields, the statement said.

“Hamas openly and in an organized fashion uses women and children to protect military targets, and booby-trap homes and public buildings,” the foreign ministry said. “The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) never intentionally targeted civilians.”

The report also called for halting arms sales to Hamas, but admitted that “Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have smuggled small arms, light weapons, rockets and rocket components into Gaza, using tunnels from Egypt into Gaza; this weaponry has been acquired from clandestine sources.”

Hamas’ weapons, funded by Tehran and other Arab regimes, are illegally supplied through tunnels connecting the Strip to Egypt.

NGO Monitor, a watchdog group of non-governmental organization, said, “Amnesty’s attempt to equate the transfer weapons to Israel for legitimate defense, with clandestinely smuggled arms to a terrorist organization, is defamatory, immoral and absurd.”

NGO Monitor Director Gerald Steinberg said the report was “clearly part of a campaign to deprive Israel of the means to defend itself.”

But the report could gain traction in the U.S. After a visit to the region last week, Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., said he planned to recommend the U.S. reassess its military support for the Jewish state. Baird, who visited Gaza with Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said he was troubled by the American origin of Israeli weaponry.

“We need to use every pressure available to make these needed changes happen,” he said. “If our colleagues had seen what we have seen, I think their understanding of the situation would be significantly impacted. They would care about what happened to the Palestinians.”

Danny Reisner, a legal advisor to the Israel Defense Forces, countered accusations that Israel committed war crimes and noted that Israel suspended the war every day to allow humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza.

“People are complaining that war crimes are being committed - and I agree,” he said. “War crimes are being committed by Hamas.

“They are waging war. Therefore we can respond within the realm of war. The other side does two things fundamental to the problem: they don’t abide by the rules and they don’t identify themselves as combatants.”

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.

The Amnesty report questioned a 10-year agreement ending in 2017 in which the U.S. would provide $30 billion in military aid to Israel. Israeli defense officials said they were concerned, especially ahead of U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell’s arrival in Israel today, that President Barack Obama will cut military aid to Israel.

“Mitchell is a known opponent of the outposts and the settlements,” a senior defense official told The Jerusalem Post. “The Americans may try to use the military aid as a way of pressuring the new government into dismantling outposts and freezing construction in settlements.”

Meanwhile, the British government is being sued by pro-Palestinian groups for selling weapons to Israel. The suit, filed this week, accuses the government of flagrantly breaching international law by continuing British export of arms to Israel. The Foreign Office said that the British government “monitors the situation in Israel with care in considering applications for arms export licenses.”

This case calls for suspension of arms to Israel and for the European Union to suspend a preferential trading agreement with the Jewish state. It also calls for the arrest, on the basis of war crimes, of Israeli agents visiting England. Lawyers for Al Haq, a Palestinian charity representing 30 families in the case, said more legal action is planned against Israel.