BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S SOMEWHAT TRUE! I love the Onion. When I worked I would often spend my lunch hours reading the free papers around NYC and trying not to choke on a tuna sandwich from laughing. I know from writing & performing comedy that truth is the funniest material there is. Here's a couple on recent events from The Onion that are not to be missed! The Mideast Peace Talks At last week's historic Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, MD, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sat down to begin the peace process. Here is what they agreed on: Jews will have East Jerusalem from January to June and Palestinians will have it from June to December To just meet again in another seven years The Gaza Strip is the rightful land of anybody who is nuts enough to live there Each country gets a pass on one rocketing per year Matzo/falafel cross-marketing campaign could be huge To at least fight over some nicer land Leave Becky Reynolds, wh...

THE POST-ANNAPOLIS BLAME GAME Reposting Honest Reporting's GREAT article (on target as always) about how Israel is being set up as the fall guy... AGAIN. I have followed up with a piece from my favorite blogger, Kathy Krajco - read, compare and know the enemy. And YES, the MSM and Islam ARE OUR ENEMIES ~~~~~~~ Israel's opponents laying the groundwork for blame if peace process fails. Less than a week after the Annapolis conference and even before serious peace talks officially begin on Dec. 12, Michael Shaik, the public advocate for Australians for Palestine, and Antony Loewenstein, co-founder the Independent Australian Jewish Voices, provide a distorted commentary on why the peace process appears doomed to failure. Writing in the Australian newspaper, The Age , Shaik and Loewenstein ignore the Palestinian Authority’s weakness and inability to implement their agreements, particularly in the area of security, as a factor in the peace talks. In fact, they write, the Palestinia...

BATTERED ISRAEL SYNDROME In bed yesterday, holding a heated oat bag to myself and wearing a metholated chest plaster to stop the coughing I started thinking about lying. My post on lying and how I feel about it yesterday was on my mind. Also on my mind was last week's Annapolis summit. It still upsets me. It was a dangerous and foolish meeting. One of the reasons I feel that way will stay personal. If I told you, you'd all send out the men with straightjackets telling them to look for me blogging while wearing a tinfoil hat. The other is the lying. The non-stop and lethal lying. Bush is lying to himself that he can do one "good" thing by making peace in the Middle East. He's already created a bad situation in Iraq, and he and his buddies are backstroking in oil money. But he's got Clueless Condi, the Dhimmi - telling him she can do this. He can't and she certainly can't. Condi, stick to your Ferragamos and stop kissing and hugging terrorists...

One of my problems with the Annapolis Summit was personal. Too personal. So my view of the summit was skewed because of this. The biggest one being that Annapolis, MD does not hold a good memories for me. I have been down in the D.C. area many times in the last couple years, because of my advocacy work for domestic violence victims and disability parity. I know the Hill well and have met with a few politicos or their assistants. It's not brain surgery, just makes me a concerned citizen. I also have a very dear friend in Virginia who I wish lived closer. But Annapolis. No. The year was 1977 and I was a sophomore in college (so now you all know I'm in my 50s... yeah I'm old.). In high school I had dated a boy for a while. The relationship had a very traumatic, and in retrospect - truly criminal ending.  In retrospect I should have been in therapy and on medication for the severe effects it had on me - effects that huge on me mentally & physically for yea...

ONE OF THESE THINGS IS JUST LIKE THE OTHER I gotta do it again... I know its monotonous and I sound like "Barbara-One-Note." However, repetition does help my ADD child so, maybe, just maybe - someone who stumbles onto my humble blog will read this and GET IT!! Yes, I do believe in negotiation, peace when possible and talking & openness. Yes, even with people who have hurt you or you hurt - in fact - ESPECIALLY. HOWEVER - in the case of the current Annapolis Conference with the Clown Car from Middle East now open and the clowns running amok around the stage - TALKING IS NOT GOING TO WORK. BECAUSE ITS ALL AN ACT. WE HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE and as my friend, Chaim said, the players are the same and the script has not altered . Except maybe Olmert the Jellyfish might help the snake pit of Arabs take apart Israel (something he has NO BIBLICAL RIGHT TO DO!) And why does it seem like I have done a 180-degree turn here? First, read why I relate personally to the plight of Is...

ACTING LIKE ITS FOR REAL When I was acting there was a principle called THE WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF - click here for explanation . I'm not sure if people are suspending reality here to think ANYTHING can actually be accomplished here. Why do we persist in thinking that we can negotiate with the Arabs? Why do we think that these leaders have any of the cajhones to take these people on? We can't - because just look at how they treat their own. Even if (miracle of miracles) we do get some PROMISE of peace (anyone having Oslo deja vu here?) can we trust or even believe them? What is wrong with people? Am I and some of my politically minded, clear-seeing friends the only ones who see this farce?? Israel wants peace. That's clear - but AT WHAT COST? How bad? Are they so desperate to "get married" they will wed themselves to evil? How long can we be ostriches? Am I one of the only ones who sees? Olmert is useless, he's not even listening to his own pe...

REUNITED... AND IT FEELS SO GOOD? TWEEDLE DEE & TWEEDLE DUM Tweedledum and Tweedledee Agreed to have a battle; For Tweedledum said Tweedledee Had spoiled his nice new rattle. Just then flew down a monstrous crow, As black as a tar-barrel; Which frightened both the heroes so, They quite forgot their quarrel. - Lewis Carroll

Towards Annapolis: Is U.S. Policy Changing on Israel's Rights in a Peace Settlement? I found this article very interesting and thought provoking, despite taking issue with certain aspects of the writer's opinion. While I believe that Bush "talks about of both sides of his mouth" (as does Olmert) when it comes to Israel, it was worth a read. Condi Rice has it wrong and I do believe that Bush, Olmert or Abbas can not be trusted with the fate of Israel. Hamas has already started sabre-rattling and it won't be long before other Arab factions start in as well. Annapolis, I feel, may be MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. We have been here before - at the OSLO ACCORDS... and it seems that politicians refuse to learn from history and continue to keep blinders on as they careen headlong towards disaster after disaster, with the fate of their countries & people smashing into it as well. One simply cannot negotiate with these people in good faith. Ever. by Dore Gold * After b...

A THREAT OR A PROMISE? Top Hamas official predicts wave of Palestinian violence after Annapolis Senior Damascus-based Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk was quoted on a Hamas Web site Friday as predicting a fresh wave of Palestinian violence in the wake of the upcoming U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference scheduled for next week. Hamas was not invited to the conference, to be held next Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland. The militant Islamic group has said that the summit is being held while Hamas-ruled Gaza is under an Israeli blockade and an international boycott, and therefore does not give a voice to all Palestinians. "Resistance in all its forms and means will escalate in the West Bank and Gaza against the Zionist enemy," Marzouk said in a written interview. "This is because Annapolis will expose the arbitrariness of the [political] settlement track and its destructive endeavors." Also Friday, Gaza's militant groups, including Hamas, rallied tens of thous...

HEADS UP ON ANNAPOLIS FROM THINK-ISRAEL & THE BLOGSPHERE A few days ago I got an email from Dr. Lipkin at Think-Israel who asked bloggers to contribute their postings about Annapolis to be consolidated and publicized. Here are the results. Scroll over the posts and click for embedded links: ------------------------------------------- "An invitation to Annapolis," by Ellen W. Horowitz. EllenWrite@bezeqint.net "Munich 1938, Annapolis 2007" by Chaim Szmidt. Read it at Freedom's Cost . [Submitted by me - Chaim's always worth a read!] "The Libel Tourist video", Rachel Ehrenfeld speaking. See this documentary at The Libel Tourist blog . Also viewable at astuteblogger.blogspot.com . [Saudis fund terrorists; ultimate objective -- to impose Sharia (Muslim Law) on everyone.] "Mandate for Palestine: The Legal Aspects of Jewish Rights" by Eli E. Hertz. Download it at Myths and Facts website . Or download it directly by clicking here. A Hebrew ...