BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

The truth the media doesn’t want you to see in a concise nutshell. MAJOR HAT TIP: DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL

I'm sick of it. The 'friends' who say they aren't "anti-Israel" but keep calling for the U.S. to condemn Israel. Now they won't admit THEY GOT IT WRONG. That "humanitarian" flotilla? WAS A TROJAN HORSE FOR WEAPONS & TERRORISTS. As one journalist said "Israel is the only country in the world NOT allowed to defend itself." Enough's enough you 'Social Justice' activitists. There is no such thing as Palestine. So -- Shut up and sit down! Look what Israel didn't do wrong By John Podhoretz No matter whom you ask right now, it seems Israel did wrong. Ask someone unfavorably disposed toward Israel, and you'll hear that Israel did wrong because its assassins opened fire without provocation on a humanitarian flotilla intended to relieve the suffering people of Gaza. Ask a friend of Israel, and you'll hear that Israel did wrong because it sent its commandos in the dark into a hostile crowd that did ...

By Barak Ravid, Anshel Pfeffer, Jack Khoury and Avi Issacharoff Israel began fighting the diplomatic battle Tuesday to prevent the Goldstone Commission report on Israel's Cast Lead Operation in the Gaza Strip from being brought before the United Nations Security Council and from there to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where charges could be brought against Israeli officials involved in the military campaign. The report, compiled by a commission headed by former war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, accuses both Israel and the Palestinians of actions amounting to war crimes during the December 27 to January 18 battle in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Tuesday night a team lead by Foreign Ministry legal advisor Ehud Keinan, and which included representatives from the Justice Ministry and the military prosecutor's office, delivered a preliminary analysis of the Goldstone Commission report to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman. N...

UN chief says may charge Israel $11 million for damage done to its facilities during Gaza war, adds that it is 'critical' Israel freeze settlement activity. EU's Solana says he expects Netanyahu to endorse two-state solution. by Yitzhak Benhorin UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday it was "critical" that Israel halt all settlement activity. He added that he was considering fining the state $11 million for damage it did to UN facilities during the Gaza war. Ban says the fine was recommended by a committee elected to investigate damage done by the IDF to UN structures during Operation Cast Lead. Regarding the settlements he said, "The UN position is well known. It is critical that Israel freeze settlement expansion and dismantle outposts as the Quartet, and more recently US President (Barack) Obama, have asked," he told a press conference in New York. The secretary-general said the Middle East Quartet had scheduled a meeting in Italy ahead of an ...

by Ira Sharkansky The drama of Barack Obama's personality and his campaign of 'Change' have come under assault on several fronts. Reality is at least as tough as rhetoric. The skills that get a politician to office may not be those that enhance government. On the other hand, they might be. The man is smart, and he has good advisers. The test is ongoing. The jury will not decide for a while. Americans elected Obama, but he must lead the world. On his plate are not only existing commitments to bad wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the pirates of Somalia as well as the lingering issue of conventional troublemaking and nuclear weapons in Iran. Closer to home, the stock market has shown some promise that it may be coming back from its bottom, but there are other signs that the economic crisis has a way to go. Afghanistan strikes me as the most worrying issue on the president's agenda. It is a sink hole that cost the British dearly in the 19th century, and contributed to the ...

by David Warren In Toronto, on Thursday, I witnessed a little incident of some value to the interpretation of world affairs. It happened on a crowded westbound King Street trolley, trapped at Yonge Street by the early rush hour crowds. (Ottawans may envy any kind of functioning transit service.) Three young men, whom one might characterize as voluntary members of the underclass from the way they were dressed (expensive ghetto gear), jumped the back door of the trolley, in order to avoid paying fares. It is the sort of thing people just get used to in a decaying society. The drivers have their hands full processing paying customers through the front entrance, and can hardly be expected to guard the rear. But in this case, the driver more than noticed what was happening, apparently through his rear-view mirror. He shut the front doors, stalled the car, and elbowed his way through the standing passengers to confront his unpaid guests. "I've got bad news for you punks," he de...

Peter Berkowitz 's essay in the latest issue of the Weekly Standard provides good insight into what I think is the strategic irresponsibility of those in Israel's leadership who think that they can hold steady on a course that justifies failure on an a Palestine-Israel deal using Hamas and Iran as excuses. As things look today, the Likud Party and its chief, Benjamin Netanyahu , look like they are about to be given a stronger hand in the coming elections. And Netanyahu is pro-settlement, and in my view the continued expansion of settlements is the most toxic activity that is undermining the negotiations process and actually, in the long term, will assure a deterioration in America's support for Israel. Berkowitz points out : The major difference between the candidates went unaddressed at Herzliya. It concerns the future of Israeli settlements, the towns and cities built and populated by Israel in the territories it gained control over in 1967 in the Six Day War. While he...

By Procrustes: Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for World Net Daily, writes from Herzliya, Israel, that according to a top defense official speaking to WND, representatives from the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama informed Israel they would like to see the Jewish state’s offensive against Hamas scaled back before tomorrow’s inauguration. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said he was not aware of any official demand from Obama or his team, but that members of Obama’s team made it clear to the Israeli government it would be better for them if Israel’s three-week offensive come to an end as Obama assumes office. A representative from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office, who would not speak on the record on the matter, denied there was any contact between Olmert’s office and Obama regarding the Hamas offensive. “There is one president. His name is George Bush. We only deal with him. There was no c...

Oh Puhllleeeezze! Does anyone believe these murdering animals? "WITH RESERVATIONS" - golly, wonder what those might be? How about: when we bomb Israel they can't defend themselves or fight back all Jews need to die Israel needs to be wiped off the planet Everyone must convert to Islam and Sharia law must rule There is NO TALKING to these people. Unfortunately the Moderate Palestinians are not the ones in charge. Hamas is. And this is what we got. Now people are angry Israel is defending itself? Sounds a lot like this to me: CLICK HERE. Hamas: We accept Egypt's proposal for Gaza truce - with reservations By Avi Issacharoff and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondents and Reuters Hamas representatives held a press conference in Cairo Monday evening following talks with Egyptian officials, and announced that they have accepted in principle an Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire agreement to end the fighting between the Islamist group and Israel in the Gaza Strip, sa...

Monday, January 12, 2009 Cleveland Date: Monday, January 12, 2009 Time: 12 pm Location: Public Square in Downtown Cleveland Vienna, Austria Date: Monday, January 12, 2009 Time: 6 pm Location: 1010 Vienna, Place of the Jews Wien Date: 12. Januar 2009 Time: 18.00 Uhr Location: 1010 Wien, Judenplatz Portland, OR Date: Monday, January 12, 2009 Time: 7:30 pm - 9 pm Location: Congregation Beth Israel Street: 1972 NW Flanders Tuesday, January 13, 2009 Baltimore Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 Time: 11 am - 1 pm Street: Corner of N. Charles St. and Preston St. Princeton, NJ Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 Time: 7 pm Location: The Jewish Center Street: 435 Nassau Street Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Columbia, SC Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Time: 11:30am Location: South Carolina State House Building Street: Gervais Street & Assembly Street Hartford, CT Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Time: 7 pm Location: Mandell JCC Address: 335 Bloomfield Avenue West Hartford, CT London, UK Thurs...

I apologize. I usually have an overload of empathy and compassion. But this sympathy ploy reminds me of so many abusers I help people get away from... and this one works for the Press so he abuses that outlet as well. Surprise... NOT. BLAME SHIFTING A common bully tactic. It goes right along with changing the subject and making accusations. It's not always your fault though. It could be his boss, the clerk at the grocery store, the bank teller, the guy who cut him off on the freeway, a lack of sleep, a worrying situation … anyone or anything at all as long as it's not him. Blame shifting is not always obvious because it is not always directly linked to the situation at hand. Either way he wins. If nobody in the situation is to blame, then there is no way to resolve the problem. If you are to blame, then you must fix it. As for him, he is just an innocent victim and utterly blameless, therefore unable to do anything at all to find a solution, but totally justified in being a ...

(I am not, nor have I ever been a Bolton fan. I find him to be a reactionary war-hawk. But, I am smart enough to know when someone speaks truth and open minded enough to agree with someone's ideas; even when I don't like the speaker. - Barbara) By John R. Bolton War in the Gaza Strip demonstrates yet again that the current governance paradigm for the Palestinian people has failed. Terrorists financed and supplied by Iran control Gaza; the Palestinian Authority is broken, probably irretrievably; and economic development is stalled in Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinians are suffering the consequences of regional power struggles played out through them as surrogates. Israel isn't a happy place, either. It endures opprobrium from the world's High-Minded for defending itself from terrorism yet still finds itself subjected to terrorist attacks from Hamas and terrorists based in Syria and Lebanon. Israel's domestic politics are increasingly muddled, and its way forward ...

By Ian O'Doherty So, it's genocide now, is it? Or is it actually another holocaust, something which one typically restrained Palestinian analyst described as "worse than Hitler's war against the Jews"? Are we watching the ethnic cleansing of an entire people? Are we witnessing the deliberate eradication of a race? Well, no actually, we're not. Yet the conventional dinner party wisdom which we've had to put up with in the media, both here in Ireland and generally across Britain, is that somehow Israel is the aggressor in the rapidly worsening situation in Gaza. Footage of air strikes with the ensuing photogenic explosions and dramatic plumes of smoke, quickly followed by clips of collapsed buildings and enraged mourners, makes far better copy than actually looking at the reasons why Israel has done what it's done. Anyone who devotes only a cursory glance at the news, both print and television, would be forgiven for thinking that, out of spite, might and...

Has ANYONE in the Diplomatic Core realized THAT TERRORISTS DON'T LISTEN? The U.S. on Saturday blamed the militant group Hamas for breaking a cease-fire and attacking Israel, which retaliated with strikes of its own during what became the single bloodiest day of fighting in years. The White House called for the cease-fire to be restored, yet there were few indications that the violence, which has left more than 200 people dead and nearly another 400 wounded, was waning. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that the operation in Gaza would widen if necessary. It was "completely unacceptable" for Hamas, which controls Gaza, to launch attacks on Israel after a truce lasting several months, said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "These people are nothing but thugs, so Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas that indiscriminately kill their own people," Johndroe said in Texas as President George W. Bush w...