We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Rabbi Bill Berk, who retired from a large Reform congregation in Phoenix to lead educational cultural tours in Israel, is definitely a liberal -- by US or Israeli standards -- politically. Regardless of liberal or not, almost all Israelis are unified in supporting the Israeli actions in Gaza. That may come as a shock to many Western liberals who have become accustomed to taking positions negative toward Israel.
Below is Bill Berk's "Letter To My Old Friend" in the US who wrote to him criticizing Israel's actions against Hamas in Gaza. Berk's old friend wrote him (as Berk summarizes):
1. Israel has its boot on the neck of Gaza in too many ways; 2. Nothing will stop Hamas rockets--you can’t kill your way out of the mess in the Middle East; 3. Netanyahu is like George Bush—a thoughtless bully.He is jerking us like “political poodles on a leash.”In other words he is manipulating the Israeli people including thoughtful people like me; 4. Israel is losing all its friends except for right wingers and the “Christian TeaParty.”
Below, Bill Berk demolishes those ignorant assertions. Berk's rebuttal is comprehensive, and provides better understanding than you'll see in most of the Western media.
Israel is a democracy, with rights of free speech, petition, and protest. The tiny number of far left Israelis are vocal and often ally with radical Arab-Israelis. In this video today, they held a protest in Jerusalem against Israel bombing Gaza. Then, they scurried away as soon as the air raid siren went off that a rocket may come in from Gaza.
From the Comments to this Youtube video:
these were a group of redical lefties and arabs inside of israel (jerusalem) who protested agains israel and showed support in gaza people..when the siren hitsuddenly nobody supports terror and starts running.
To illustrate the credible range of debate or discussion within the Jewish community, excluding the left-fringe J Street's usual meowing for a mythical peace with those who adamantly and violently refuse peace, please read this short column by a professor and the reply by another. I favor the reply, because dire realities cannot be wished away.
Hamas fired off more Iranian rockets toward Jerusalem. One landed in a West Bank Palestinian village.
Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward Jerusalem on Tuesday landed in the Gush Etzion area Tuesday, with one hitting an open area of a Palestinian village in the West Bank, police and the IDF reported. It was unclear if the rocket caused any damage or injuries, although AFP reported Palestinian paramedics were making their way to the scene.
Hamas not only tries to kill Israeli civilians but doesn't care about killing fellow Palestinians.
Meanwhile, to continue the report linked above:
Meanwhile, the IDF embarked on a series of major strikes in the Gaza Strip, striking 11 terrorist cells and 30 concealed rocket launchers in Gaza, and engaged in a wave of artillery strikes, an IDF Spokesman's Office statement said.
One of the strikes hit a rocket launching cell responsible for firing on the Jerusalem area.
The IDF said it also struck an apartment used as a hideout by a senior Hamas official, as armored vehicles and artillery units continued to directed fire at Hamas targets.
Hillary is on the way, to talk in Ramallah with the PLO. Gee, that will do a lot of good, since for Hamas and the PLO each other are enemies. She'll be in Jerusalem, presumably to muscle Israel into not launching a ground operation in Gaza to eliminate more rats. Then she'll visit Egypt, whose "mediation" sits on a table etched with anti-Israel statements. Soft diplomacy yields to soft-headedness. At least, one Associated Press reporter called out the State Dept. spokesperson on ignoring Turkey's calling Israel a "terrorist state" at the same time considering giving the faux-NATO partner US Patriot missiles along its Syrian border.
Reporters Without Borders accused Israel of a war crime, targeting innocent civilian journalists. The Reporters Without Borders, first, need to better understand the Geneva Conventions. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the authority on the Geneva Conventions.
"Inasmuch as they are civilians, journalists are protected under international humanitarian law against direct attacks unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities."
That does not protect those masquerading as journalists nor does it protect terrorists hiding among journalists. Today, Israel killed five of them. Further, Reporters Without Borders has not protested Hamas directly denying journalists in Gaza their right to leave Gaza.
Reporters Without Borders are without the confining borders of journalistic ethics. Quelle surprise!
Instead of watching Anderson Cooper on CNN say "Wow! What a big blast"(*actual quote below, just as uninformative and inane), supposedly providing useful reporting from within Gaza (actually a "safe" location there), you'd get more info and quicker via the rapid postings from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) blog. Israel has every interest in getting facts out there before the pro-Pals and enablers among the international media can distort and lie. Bookmark the site to keep up on what's happening. (Remember, Israel time is 7-hours later that NY and 10-hours than California.) Here's a sample of what's available:
Date: 19/11/2012, 5:05 PM Author: IDF Website
4 senior operatives targeted with a pinpoint strike while inside of a civilian media building. Updates here and on Twitter
6:45 p.m.: A short while ago, the IDF released a video showing pilots aborting airstrikes due to uninvolved civilians in the area. Click here to watch the video and read about how the IDF takes care to avoid harming Gaza's civilians.
5:05 p.m.: A short while ago, in a joint IDF- ISA operation, the IDF targeted a hideout used by senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, who were a part of the terror organization's rocket launching operations, in the northern Gaza Strip. A direct hit was identified.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, who were involved in firing rockets at Israel, were inside a civilian media building when it was targeted.
This is a further example of how terror organizations cynically use those inside civilian populated institutions as human shields.
Baha Abu al-Ata, a member of the Higher Military Council, is the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Gaza City Brigade and is involved in orchestrating rocket launching and terror attacks against Israeli civilians. Al-Ata is also involved in the manufacturing of arms and firing long-range rockets at Israel....[read on for bios of the others]
1:40 p.m.: This morning, the IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yoav (Poly) Mordechai addressed the Israeli press at a briefing. He spoke of IDF activites overnight, including progress the IDF has made in reducing the rocket attacks against Israeli civilians:
"Yesterday saw a decrease of 40% in the number if rockets fired on our territory from the day before, continuing a downward trend. During the night we made 100 attacks, including the bombing of 40 smuggling tunnels between Rafah and the Sinai Desert. We bombed both the opening of the tunnels and along the course of the tunnels ensuring a long process of reconstruction.
In addition, in the last 12 hours we have struck 6 squads in the midst of launching rockets. We attacked a stadium in Gaza City after receiving verified information of a launch from within the stadium, again showing the terrorists' continued use of civilian centers. In an effort to warn the residents and innocent bystanders and keep them away from strikes, we are, at this moment, controlling the radio stations within Gaza in order to deliver these messages to the civilians."...
* Actual quote: "Whoa!" he said, as he dove nearly out of the camera's frame. "Well, that was a rather large explosion," he added as he stood up straight again. "That was probably the largest explosion that we have heard just in the past -- really in the past hour."
The below email just reached me. The Good People Fund is a nonprofit that operates with the highest transparency and lowest costs, to steer funding to small needs that may fall beneath the radar of the giant charities or governments. See the Guidestar review for its 5-star rating. If you can give, please do at the US address below. Make sure to mark your check or credit card contribution with "Package From Home." - Here's a description of the lady who started this program.
Dear Friends of A Package from Home,
It is now 6:30 PM Saturday night and we have just watched the TV pictures of our troops gathering at the Gaza border. A few minutes ago, I received a call from Lt. Col. Zvika Levy. You may remember that he is the Commander that I deal with concerning the needs and problems of Lone Soldiers and other needy soldiers. . He was on his way from his Northern Kibbutz down to the border at Gaza He told me that there is an immediate need to provide 1.000 packages containing a warm fleece jacket, long underwear, boxer shorts and anti-fungal stockings. The total cost of the packages will be $33,000. As always, I told him that I would do the best I could to fulfill the need.. The urgency is for the warm clothes to be distributed immediately to them while they are waiting, alongside the border, for orders to enter Gaza. The package will also include a washable hand knitted woolen ski cap that is sent to us from knitters around the world, even as far away as New Zealand.
If you are wondering why the Army is not providing these things automatically to each soldier, I will give you the answer that the Army gave me at the beginning of our project, 13 year s ago. I was told, “The Army has a budget and when they have to choose between ordering M-16s and fleece jackets, they buy the M-16s”.
Israel can no longer restrain itself in dealing with those who would indiscriminately kill our citizens. As a result our soldiers have been ordered to report to their units at the Gaza border.. The weather in Gaza is very cold. The tanks are not insulated. The need to supply these packages at this time is evident. We need your support to enable us to provide some comfort for the soldiers who are putting their lives on the line in order to eliminate the firing of rockets against Israeli civilians. Once again, I turn to you for financial support. The current situation is an emergency which requires immediate action.
May Hashem protect our soldiers.
Barbara
Tax deductible shekel or other currency contributions can be made to the AACi ,and mailed to POB 53349,Jerusalem 91533, Israel. Please make a notation that your gift is for A Package From Home.
Tax deductible dollar contributions can be made to Good People Fund 384 Wyoming Ave, Millburn, New Jersey, 07041 USA. (For a credit card donation, please see Good People Fund web site at www.goodpeoplefund.org and follow donate here prompt. Please make a notation that your gift is for to A Package from Home.
About 1500 Jews and Christians attended a rally today in San Diego to Stand With Israel.
A group of about 25 pro-Palestinians showed up and tried to interfere with their vile chants of hate through a loudspeaker. The leader of the chants read them off a phone. When the leader stopped for a moment their crowd stopped, like the puppets they are. -- As I and my family were leaving, a young guy shouted his curses in my ear. I flipped him off and told him to come on and try me. He backed off as I called him a "xxxxxx" (begins with f and ends with t). Pro-Pal punks.
Here's another way Hamas stashes its armaments. In this case, under a Hamas leader's house, hit by the Israeli Air Force. Note the secondary explosions.
Here's a depiction of other ways Hamas hides its arms, as discovered during Cast Lead (late 2008-early 2009), and disregards Gazans' safety and lives, indeed callously uses their lives as sacrificial shields and pawns.
Below is a dispatch from Israel, bold emphasis added, from -- who woulda believed it -- the frontline in Jerusalem. Yesterday, an Iranian supplied missile landed just miles from the holy sites of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I haven't seen a mention in the press reports of this that fanatic Muslims are indiscriminately targeting not only civilians but the holy sites of billions of people.
Bill Berk is a transplanted American in Jerusalem, Israel. In his earlier career, Berk was rabbi of a large congregation in Phoenix, Ariz. Now he leads educational cultural tours within Israel. He will be the rabbi for my son's Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem on April 8.
Dear Friends,
Many of my friends have emailed and asked about my welfare and to share a few words about what is going on.Batya and I are safe.This has been a tense few days.You are watching television and suddenly you see the words at the bottom of the screen “Siren in Ashdod” and then you hear the siren on the television and a few seconds later you might hear a “boom.”For those of us who grew up in quiet suburban American communities it is jarring, to say the least.But, hey, Ashdod isn’t Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.You worry about the folks in Ashdod but it seems far away.After all it takes an hour to drive from Jerusalem to Ashdod.As the crow flies it is 34 miles away.And then suddenly we got the news—rocket heading to Tel Aviv.That certainly raised the blood pressure a bit.Then a few minutes after Shabbat came in we are luxuriating in the soft light of Shabbat candles and enjoying Jerusalem quiet when suddenly for the first time ever, we hear the dreaded siren.Its not on t.v.It is directed at us—a rocket is headed towards us.Quickly we made our way to the stairwell and went down a few floors where it is considered safer.After what happened in Kiriat Malachi (3 dead in a 4th floor apartment) we have learned it is not good to be in an apartment that is on the upper floors.We wait a few minutes and head back to our apartment.I have heard the sounds of war before—on the border with Lebanon and during the 2nd Intifada.But this is the first time somebody is aiming at me.Needless to say we were stunned, along with all the other Jerusalemites.
It is important to know that between January 1, 2012 and the day before Israel killed the Hamas military commander they shot 750 rockets into Israel.Over the past few days they have shot another five or six hundred rockets at us.These rockets are aimed at all of us—civilians—all over the country.What are we supposed to do?What would the United States do if UCLA was closed due to rocket fire from Mexico?What would America do if Canadian terrorists shot rockets into Minnesota and they had to close the University of Minnesota? My step-daughter was sent home from her college in Ashkelon.The whole school was evacuated.She said the scene on the buses and the cars fleeing Ashkelon reminded her of World War II movies where people grab a few belongings and run.
Of course this is not 1939.We have a very strong army, navy, and air force.We know how to defend ourselves and we will defend ourselves.I’ll add one overtly political comment. I think it is fair to criticize Israel for not being as creative as we might be in dealing with the Palestinians.But the whole world, especially the Islamic countries, has been totally unresponsive to the thousands of rockets fired at Israel since we left Gaza.The news is full now of reports of world leaders coming here—now.Where were they when hundreds of thousands of Israelis were huddling in stairwells and shelters?Now you come? It’s a bit late.It is uncomfortable for the world, apparently, when we defend ourselves.This, however, is now squarely on our agenda.Let us pray that soon we’ll have some Islamic creativity and some new thinking—it’s time to accept the fact that Israel is here to stay.
Bill
Rabbi Bill Berk Marketing Coordinator and Tour Educator Keshet: The Center for Educational Tourism in Israe www.keshetisrael.co.il
Last night I pointed out Hamas' ambition to rocket Jerusalem. Then there's this: Rockets land in field outside Jerusalem as war looms over Gaza. Where's the outcry from world religious and political leaders about the potential destruction of Jerusalem? About the same place it has been from the destruction of Jewish sites in Jerusalem by Jordan in 1948-9, or the destruction since then in other countries of religious sites by fanatic Muslims. -- BTW, the above news link says the rocket landed just outside of Jerusalem. According to a London Telegraph report, the Iranian rocket landed near an Israeli town. Jerusalem is largely surrounded by Palestinian areas, which could have been hit. What if Palestinians had been or are hit? Will there be a protest against Pal on Pal atrocities?
There is this good news: The Obama administration and the US Senate are standing behind Israel's right of self-defense. The question is whether, if Israel must escalate, as it appears it well may, will the Obama administration flake out? Jonathan Tobin is pessimistic:
Hamas is also counting on the usual routine of international diplomacy to save them from the consequences of their aggression. Though the Obama administration, along with the West, is backing Israel’s right to self-defense, tolerance for Israeli counter-attacks is probably limited and it won’t be long before Washington joins Moscow in calling for a cease-fire that will rescue Hamas from having more of its leadership and its weaponry eliminated.
Read it all for more realistic pessimism about Israel's and Hamas' strategic positions.
The continual rocketing of Israel civilians over many years, indiscriminately, along with the terror attacks across the border, are legally an international crime against humanity. But the Western press and the UN fails to raise the charges, and only pays attention -- usually critically -- when Israel defends its people's right to live.
This graphic shows the current reach of rockets from Gaza, to the south of Tel Aviv, and the ambition to hit Jerusalem and Israel's sole international airport between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The next graphic is your mission, should you choose to accept it:
So you won't have to wait until tomorrow morning's links, here's some of the better ones that explain much about what's now going on between Israel and Gaza:
Those who are willing to sacrifice and risk all will hold the future. Veterans have proven they are there. We will follow. We will lead. We will be there. Tens of millions of us. For everyone else, enlist in building a secure future. Get to work. Give it everything you have. Then some. That's what it takes. The future belongs to those with the courage and dedication to create it. America was built by rolling up our sleeves, with confidence, with faith, not by moaning, surrendering, or slinking away.
When I posted that our loved Marianne had died, I included this photo of Marianne with the lady Marianne called her "surrogate daughter."
This morning Marianne's "surrogate daughter" Commented at the original post. I asked her permission to post her Comment more prominently, along with her name and contact info in case any Maggie's Farmers want to offer assistance with Marianne's loved husband Downs. We emailed each other and here it is. Bless you Colette. You are a Maggie's Farmer of the first order.
Comments: Thank you all for the kind words about Marianne. I am touched but not surprised by the kind and thoughtful comments. All of them spot on. She was all of that, and more, in person. Her maggies farm family was very special to her and many a time I would get a call to read a post by one of her pals. I was with Marianne and Downs almost every day of her illness. When things were tough she would tell me that the SEALS came and took her to a place by the sea to relax so she could face the next day. She never complained, never whined, and everytime I walked into her room I got a smile. I have been with Downs making the transition from a life with his beloved in his home of 40 years to a life without her and a move to assissted living at Bayou Manor, 4141 S. Braeswood #413, Houston, TX 77025. As one can imagine he is very lonesome for her. One doesn't often get to choose one's parents. I have been gifted by their presence in my life and honored that they chose me to be their surrogate daughter. S. Colette Chapman
Bruce, I remember Marianne speaking of you, Yep, that’s me, and please do. Marianne kept very close tabs on Downs and few suspected that he is suffering from dementia to the extent that he is. He lives in the present and the past, not tomorrow or yesterday. Without her day to day guidance he is not able to live independently in their home. He and I have our daily cheers and tears over missing her. They were the light of each others lives for 41 years. I only had her 27 years but I will cherish them all and I’m grateful to still have Downs and am devoted to keeping him as happy as I can for her as well as him.
S. Colette Chapman, Assistant to Gene Arensberg,Longpoint Land & Cattle Co.713-412-0971 cell, 281-431-6700 ranch office
The name Marine still and always will mean something special, the best, and our ranks and merits grow with each generation. In addition, maybe a bit out of form, but yesterday a young friend on active duty in the Navy in his pure dedication to why he serves, patriotic idealism that does not expect or demand recompense, reminded me of how I felt 44-years ago when I dropped out of grad school and enlisted in the USMC as an enlisted man. The USMC was all enlistees then. Now all branches are enlistees. Today's military are committed professionals fired by love of country. We are all Semper Fidelis now and I welcome the other servicemembers into our fraternity.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention, Marines are still and will always be the best. And, Always Faithful, as you can see from this special story, special but not untypical.
Via Call Me Stormy blog, "Today’s dancer isn’t from the movies, but from real life. She’s Anastasia Skukhturova, a tall and luscious Russian, and this past weekend, she won the Second Annual Pole World Cup, defeating 60 pole-dancing competitors from 25 nations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil."
The Times Of Israel just published a new piece from me: "Anti-Israel Circles Of Influence On Campus." The focus is on faculty. Students may suffer but they come and go. The professors stay on, to indoctrinate more students, many of whom will go on to leadership positions in the US or their countries of origin.
I use the example of one prominent US campus. Names are named. "There are many other professors at UCSD who could be highlighted. The ones chosen are to illustrate how the ripples of influence on attitudes toward Israel emanates from the core Israel haters to the euphemistic ones to the useful idiots, and thus on to gullible students and faculty." To quote myself, "What one sees is circles of influence, with the inner circle providing the splash and outer circles adding to the wave. It is that wave that creates a campus atmosphere which gives the impression that the entire campus is critical of Israel and that, it is charged, creates a hostile atmosphere for Jewish and pro-Israel students and faculty."
This is similar to what is occurring on many other US campuses. The leading figures at each interact with their like at other campuses and influence many others at other campuses. Exposure is an important remedy.
It is Tuesday, 8:18PM in San Diego, and Fox and CBS both just called the election for Obama.
The Democrats look to actually be picking up some Senate seats, the Republicans holding the House. All Republicans can hope and pray for during the next four years is that court challenges slow the Obamashackle to tie America down in regulatory chains, China keeps buying our increasing debt, that the very aged Supreme Court justices take their vitamins, and the international jackals transform into lambs. Not much to hang a hat on, is it? Actually, much reason to feel hanged. If you have children, better get them to learn to live frugally, study and work hard, and develop resilience and intestinal fortitude. That's all that will save them.
I'll leave it to others, maybe myself Wednesday morning, to sound smart about this debacle
‘The most important election since 1860′ - Jason (12) asked me which presidential elections were most important. I answered, 1800 for setting the Jeffersonian course of the new nation, 1828 for Andrew Jackson's version of "power to the people", 1860 for Lincoln, the Civil War, and the decades of recriminations after, 1932 for FDR's reshaping of America, 1980 for Reagan resteering America back to confidence and prominence, 2004 for rejecting defeatism, and 2012 for again a major fork in the road for America, which is looking from the electoral projections we're f**ked. What are your pick(s)?
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff of the Obama White House, said the election would be decided in “five states and 500 precincts,” and it may have been even fewer.
and
The United States is populated by groups of people who may as well be living in different countries. They have separate histories, cultures and visions for the future. They are two distinct nationalities, divided by mutual distrust and joined by mammoth public debt.
"Why did CBS release a clip that appeared to back up Obama's claim in the second debate on Oct. 19, a few days before the foreign policy debate, and not release the rest of that interview at the beginning?
"Why on the Sunday before the election, almost six weeks after the attack, at 6 p.m. does an obscure online timeline posted on CBS.com contain the additional "60 Minutes" interview material from Sept. 12?
"Why wasn't it news after the president said what he said in the second debate, knowing what they had in that "60 Minutes" tape -- why didn't they use it then? And why is it taking Fox News to spur other media organizations to take the Benghazi story seriously?"
Remembering 1980: Are the Polls Missing Something?: "On the one hand, Romney backers point to Gallup’s projections for a shrinking electorate to claim the polls have way overstated Obama’s advantage....On the other hand, Obama aides David Plouffe and Jim Messina have been saying for months that their single-minded goal is an expansion of the pro-Obama electorate and that their very well-organized ground game will deliver it on Tuesday." -- On the other hand, and another hand, and another, only the Hindu Goddess knowing, there are and will be other explanations come Wednesday morning.
The issue is that when you look at the world from these sorts of institutional lenses, identifying problems becomes relatively easy. Solving them becomes very hard. It's no mystery how you get economic growth. You need to provide opportunities and incentives. But how do you make that political equilibrium? How do you make it so that everybody in society actually agrees and abides by a system that provides those incentives and opportunities even if it's not in their short-term interests? Those are the real challenges and that's exactly the sorts of issues we're seeing in Europe, it's the sorts of issues we're seeing in the United States, it's the sorts of issues we're seeing in Turkey. The problems are reasonably easy to identify. Developing solutions to them is hard because you cannot develop the solutions from the outside. It's not an engineering problem. At the end of the day you really need the grassroots solution to it. You really need people themselves to start taking part in the political process because any solution you impose from above is not going to stick unless it has the support of the people, unless the people themselves are the ones who push for it, who demand it, and who implement that solution. DARON ACEMOGLU is the Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. In 2005 he received the John Bates Clark Medal awarded to economists under forty judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. He is the author of Why Nations Fail.
‘Totally MAD’ celebrates 60 years of satire - I wish i still had my collection. But, I still have recollection of many. MAD helped shape a generation or two, for the better, to question and laugh at hollow pieties of all types.
A security breakdown in Benghazi - The light begins to peek under the covers at WaPo -- coming next?: "Exclusive: Emails Show Media Cover-Up With White House
GOP Senators to White House: Stop Leaking National Security Secrets : "A group of Republican senators is demanding to know why the White House continues to leak to the press highly classified information that “stands in direct contradiction to the information briefed to congressional oversight committees,” according to a letter sent Friday to President Barack Obama....The senators demand to know if the leaks were authorized by a White House clambering to salvage the president’s image....“Appointing a Special Prosecutor would remove even the appearance of political influence,” the lawmakers write."
It is Tuesday, 8:18PM in San Diego, and Fox and CBS both just called the election for Obama. 
