Jacob's Soap Box

By Mila

23 March, 2010

I used to be an anti-American liberal. I used to look at the “horrors” of American foreign policy and what I used to call “ignorance” of the average American citizen as the root causes for all the world’s problems.  Even though I didn’t have a remote idea of what its foreign policy entailed, this was my mindset and outlook then. Somehow I knew it was evil. Don’t ask me how though…

In retrospect, I never really considered its foreign policy to be the main problem. In  reality I saw the way the American people were in general as the biggest problem. I viewed Americans as unhappy people who thought they were happy, as people who had very little to no morals and who were misfortunate to have been born in a sort of capsule that prevented them from understanding how things came to be in the world.

I viewed them almost as part of a machine that worked in a very schematic system and as long as the machine was working then they would have no need to be concerned with the affairs of the world. I viewed them as uncultured and as slaves of a materialistic system that eroded humanity and emboldened pride and arrogance.

When the average American used to say “we are the best” it would infuriate me. Now I look back and realize that where I’m from we also used to say, “we are the best”. In short, for me, the United States, whether its people knew it or not, was the cause of all the materialism that lacked any humanity, promoted ignorance, lacked any sort of culture, and was an exporter of immorality throughout the world.

Because of this view, I then began to put blame on the United States for basically anything. Not only did I blame the US for things it didn’t do right, but for things that it didn’t do at all. I went as far as to construct this entire philosophy in my head where the central pillar of evil was the United States.

Furthermore, because I despised the American way of life and the mentality of the American people, I linked the United States with all the problematic regions in the world. So for example, if Africa was poor it was because the United States was stealing its resources and preventing it from developing as it used it as a war field, especially during the cold-war. If Latin America was corrupt, then it was because the United States needed it to be corrupt for its own interest and because it had put puppet governments in order to fight the Soviets during the cold-war. It was because the American elites needed a place to hide their corruptive transactions and so they used Latin America as a playground. And the list goes on and on….

My vision of reality was so twisted that I would somehow find some esoteric and totally unrelated evidence to support my theories and philosophies about how evil the United States was. I looked at everything through the lens of hate. I was conditioned by hate. Hate is an emotion, so I was plainly being emotional and not using a single neuron in my brain or my heart for that matter. In reality, I was simply being hormonal about the United States.

A few years passed since I’ve been living in the United States by the time I arrived at the university. At the university the professors agreed with me and my anti-American views, however when they would teach the history of my own country that faced 56 coup d’état, military dictatorships, hyperinflation, a guerrilla-style warfare, and Soviet puppets as leaders, they would not know minimal facts and would teach a fictional story about it. A story so far from what really happened that it sounded like a fairy tale to me. They taught a story that was fueled with victimhood and resentment and not based on what really happened. Most of my International Relations professors had never been to the country and were just spouting nonsense based on anti-American sentiment.

I was born amid guerrilla warfare. In fact, the guerrilla started the year I was born and continued until I was 8 years old. The dirty war was primarily fought in my city. And north of the city where I lived is where most of the Soviet driven violence via guerrilleros (or red fighters as we called them) occurred.

Honestly, I don’t remember much. I do, however, remember that those who people today refer to as the “disappeared ones” were the Soviet red driven guerrilla fighters that today people feel pity for and regard as victims.

Anyhow, these university professors here in the US were teaching their students how the US helped the military dictatorship in my country of birth kill its own people. But I knew better than these professors. One day I raised my hand and asked the professor of my Problems in US Foreign Policy class to talk about the Soviet driven guerrillas (militias) and the bombings and kidnappings they would do instead of focusing on some fictional story where the US was the aggressor. The professor knew nothing about the Soviet militias, but somehow he knew all about the US’s “help” to the so-called military dictatorship of my country. I was amazed that he knew nothing of the USSR’s involvement, but somehow it was the US’s (Reagan’s) fault.

Well, just six decades prior to the guerrilla, my country was one of the top 10 richest countries in the world. It had and it still has resources to sustain itself, the entire continent of America (South, Central, and North), and all of Africa combined. It has abundant oil, natural gas, and all sorts of minerals. Its agricultural industry is extremely rich and flowing with different resources.

It was once a country with the potential to be a super-power. It was going on the right path. Industries began to develop; infrastructure was being built around the country, its financial system had begun to boom and banks would lend large amounts of money, our monetary value was actually competitive in the world market, and investors from all over the world would come in and do business with us and even establish a branch of their own business in our country.
The country had a lot of potential and it was realizing its potential, however something happened and the country began to decline.

What happened?

What began as an inoffensive campaign strategy of a politician who played the populous game to win mass support with hollow promises to the poor, turned into the rule of an arrogant socialist full of resentment.

Soon after he assumed power changes did begin to take place. The financial system was quickly taken over by a central bank run by the government, property begun to be disappropriated from the “rich” and supposedly given to the poor, however this socialist didn’t give the poor anything. He just stole from the “rich” without any regards for the poor. It was the so-called rich (who were once poor themselves) that gave the poor an opportunity to work, get an education, travel around the country with great transportation and infrastructure so they could themselves become entrepreneurs and small business men and eventually get out of poverty as well, etc. If it wasn’t for the “rich” the poor would not have a chance to get out of poverty.

It was a fomentation of a class warfare that did not exist.

This socialist “leader” was evermore gaining power as industries began to be run by the government and so more labor unions were now part of the government body and the vicious cycle began. Without the capital to produce and severe financial barriers, fees, and taxes by the government for production, caused the producers not to produce as much and so the entire economic engine began to malfunction. Unemployment rate in the double digits was as common as the air we breathed. The ripple effect had begun.

Less production means fewer jobs. Less jobs means less consumers. Less consumers means less economic growth in every aspect. Less economic growth means more dependency. More dependency means more government.

The socialist leader who had assumed power under the banner of change and “healer” of a “great” socio-economic injustice managed to destroy not only the economic system, but the nation as a whole. This is where the ripple effect can be seen not just in the economic sphere.

When the false premise of some social injustice is inculcated into the minds of people then the country’s society becomes extremely divided. As a result of that division, the society becomes weak. As society becomes weak, so do individuals. And in a society where individuals become weak, progress is rare to non-existent. It turns into a society where corruption reigns.

In order to cope, survive, and have a chance in a system that is corrupt, people then become corrupt themselves. Corruption is a primordial side effect of socialism. With corruption comes distrust. With distrust comes the lack of any opportunity for citizens to form a significant political resistance to these destructive, false, and unsustainable socialist agendas. With the lack of an organized group of individuals fighting these socialist agendas, the government begins to take more and more and in less than a generation, the nation can become completely dependent on literally self-righteous corrupt thieves in power. It happens fast, but it could only happen after a society has been brainwashed to think that it’s a society in need of a revolution of some sort. Kind of like a defiance of the status quo. Only in an already sickened with division, hate, and resentment society can this happen successfully.

In the end, nations become so sick and its citizens so deep in a hole in the ground that they don’t know how to get out of it anymore.

The ripple effect of these nefarious agendas is so huge and so cyclical. In other words, it makes a society fall into a vicious cycle that throws it into an endless and hopeless abyss. A society keeps falling and falling until it no longer knows in which direction it must go in order to climb back up.

When I go back to my country I am extremely happy to see family and friends, but I see a huge sign at the airport that says “welcome, just make sure you leave all your hopes behind.”

By knowing this transgression of events that took place in my country I realized that the United States was a place where one could breathe fresh air and not the polluted air of corruption, hopelessness, and surrender.

I began to grow out of the childish phase that the United States was the cause of all the problems in the world. I began to look at the American people, not as a whole, but rather as individuals and that’s when I realized the great values of the American people. I was wrong to look at them collectively. I should have known that it was different here and not look at what Hollywood, the media, the TV, or the politically correct trends told me how the Americans were.

I began to feel a lot of respect and a great love for this country. One of the things that made me realize how ignorant I had been was when one day I watched a program on TV. The program showed scenes of the only war my country fought with a foreign power in modern history. When they showed young men from my country being shot in the battle field I was crushed with anger and felt such a degree of patriotism that I had never felt before. I have never watched that war that had taken place when I was 6 years old until I saw those scenes on TV. Those scenes didn’t just show me that patriotism and a great pride in one’s nation is a healthy thing to have in a world that is increasingly becoming “nationless”, but they also made me understand why the American people felt so patriotic and proud.

What I used to view as arrogance, turned out to be healthy patriotism and a sense of pride in one nation’s deeds. Here I was feeling the same sense of patriotism and pain for my own country while I watched scenes from one small war. The only war my country fought with a foreign power in modern history. I thought to myself, how insensitive and blind I was not to see how the American people had fought in so many wars spilling blood all over the world with cemeteries throughout the world and receiving more body bags than any other nation in the world since its short 200 year-old history.  And to think that I was one of those who viewed the United States as the only evil one who used nuclear bombs, but failed to see how Japan had killed millions of civilians. It was then that I realized how unjust I had been and how unfair the world was and is incrementally becoming towards the United States.

It was the United States that has virtually showed societies that had fallen into that endless abyss where the top of that abyss was so they could climb back up. It was the United States that showed by example that a better system of life could be adopted and individuals could flourish.

What happened yesterday is a huge wound into this nation’s health. It is as if an already weakened nation was given not a cure or even treatment, but rather an injection containing huge amounts of the same virus it had been infected with.

I have no words to describe how betrayed I feel and how hurt I am by the democrat’s insult with this bill. And I see them laughing and smiling full of arrogance that it makes me sick; literally sick. Definitely a sickness they could never cure. I don’t even think those Americans who are still defending this catastrophic monster plan only because it falls under the Obama presidency really know what the consequences of it are.

I just had time to finish reading most of the bill and my jaw dropped to the floor in disbelief. I still can’t comprehend how this could have happened in the United States.

I read the bill and it is worse than the nationalized healthcare system we had in a third-world country.  In fact, it is a lot worse. And to think this is just their first step.

This must be stopped. And I mean by any means necessary. The government has literally turned against its people. What are people supposed to do then?

Anyway, thanks for listening. I’m just in shock that this is happening and here.

© Copyrights Mila, all rights reserved

18 March, 2010

God, please safeguard me from my friends and leave me to take care of my enemies on my own.

(Anon)

Have no mistake, the recent diplomatic rift between Washington and Jerusalem is not about peace, it is not about settlements, and it certainly not about Jo Biden being “insulted” — it is about  Obama! the Obama Middle East Doctrine.

Firstly, let us dispose of some disinformation perpetrated by the Obama administration and his shrieking liberal media.

On or about 9 March 2010, the District Planning Committee of the Municipality of Jerusalem, not the government of Israel, approved the construction of 1,600 new residential units in Ramat Shlomo, an existing northern Jewish suburb of Jerusalem. Ramat Shlomo IS NOT in East Jerusalem as we know it, a term normally used describe the old city of Jerusalem and its immediately surrounding villages, it far from it, albeit it is about 1 km. (0.5 mile) north of the green line.

The Prime Minister of Israel, does not need to be notified, approve or disapprove such decision any more than the President of the United States needs to be notified, approve, or otherwise, of construction of a new mall in Washington DC, let alone getting an approval from a foreign county.

What is it that makes every tin-pot liberal, thinks that he or she has the right to trash Israel’s sovereignty over its capital and within the same breath (or stroke of a keyboard) lecture us about interfering in the internal affairs of some failed rogue country in Africa or the Middle East?

It is clear, that the approval by the district planning committee of Jerusalem municipality has nothing to do with Jo Biden’s visit to Israel, dignitaries visits are not part of the consideration for issuing building licences. Jo has been reported to have accepted it but apparently, but that was not enough for the “don’t let a crisis go to waste” White House and the PC pro-Arab brigade of State Department who went on a massive unprecedented disinformation anti-Israel campaign, you would normally expect from the Huffington Post, not from an ally.

This crisis represents a fundamental shift from the American bi-partisan policy on Israel in general and on Jerusalem in particular which had largely supported the Israeli position. For those fools who had thought that Obama is a friend of Israel, here is your answer!

This rift is not between the people of America and the people of Israel, American public support for Israel viz-a-viz the Palestinians runs 8:1 in Israel’s favour and traverses the partisan political lines, but since when American public opinion counts when it comes to White House ideology?

The Obama doctrine of peace in Middle East is one of appeasement and recapitulation,  appeasement of Islam, recapitulation of the United State policies and a literal recapitulation of Israel, there is no other way to describe it.

The Obama doctrine is based on the debunked assumption that Muslim terrorism can be defeated by addressing the stated grievance of Muslims, whether in the Middle East or elsewhere. Had that been the case, there would have been no Al-Qaida today. Al-Qaida was founded by the “Afghan Arabs” who had come to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invasion. Having defeated the Soviets, the core cause of their “grievances” the Afghan Arab did not go home, instead they decided to take on the world in general and America in particular.

The same applied to the Middle East. Every gesture of goodwill towards brought a wave of violence, Israel unilateral evacuations of South Lebanon and the Gaza Strip are a mere two examples among many.

Obama was and remains a “community organiser”, he thinks about the Middle East in terms of Saul Alinsky’s (another product of the Chicago left) of “the haves and have nots” whereas the “have nots”, in this case the Palestinians who need to be “organised” against the evil “haves”, Israel.

The failure of the peace process initiatives between Israel and the Palestinians were not due to lack of goodwill by successive American administrations or the intransigence of Israel on one issue or another, the blame lays squarely within the Palestinian camp.

The Palestinians do not want a state, they just want to fight for one! If you think that this is exaggeration, just read today’s paper and watch today’s news. It is Sept 2000 (second intifada) all over again, de ja vu.

Twice in the past 62 years, the Arabs of Palestine chose war instead of having their own state, the first time was in 1948 when they rejected the UN partition plan of Palestine and the second time in September 2000 when they violently repudiated the Oslo Accord, AFTER over 90% of their grievances had been addressed.

Although the Oslo Accord has been nullified by the Palestinians, it remain the only viable basis for a comprehensive peace in Middle East. The negotiations between Israel and Palestinians are now about what parts of the Oslo Accord are salvageable, not about wiping the slate clean and starting it again.

From Israel point of view, having failed in their attempt to destroy the Oslo Accord by brutal violence all across Israel (proper), the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians cannot expect a reward for their action, thus Israel needs much more convincing that indeed, this time the Palestinians actually want to live in peace side by side with Israel — unfortunately the last few days, once more prove the rule that they do not want a state.

Traditionally there were no disagreement between Israel and USA on this point … until Obama was elected, that is.

In his Cairo pandering speech last June (2009), Obama not only supported the Palestinians cherry-picking the Oslo Accord, but he handed them some cherries of his own, cherries that they had not have and had not asked for as a condition for negotiation.

In a typical moral-equivalent carefully crafted address he spoke in front invitees only audience, including representatives of the “Muslim Brotherhood”, the parent organisation of the Hamas, and he said (among other things):

The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop

[Emphasis and highlights are mine]

Oh, really Mr. President? “violates previous agreements”? let see what THE previous agreement really says about settlements.

Article V (3) of The Declaration Of Principles (aka The Oslo Accord) say that:

It is understood that [the permanent status] negotiations shall cover remaining issues, including: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbors, and other issues of common interest.

[square brackets and Emphasis added]

The teleprompter was not yet turned off as the Palestinians announced a new “pre-condition” for the resumption of the direct talks, indeed why not? Even the president of the United State agrees. The fact that they had agreed to put that issue aside for the interim period in the Oslo Accord became irrelevant. But, hey, this is the Middle East.

I want to make it clear that I have never supported the Jewish Settlement in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip (which is no longer relevant), I oppose it! but this is not the issue right now.

However,  Jerusalem is not the West Bank! Jerusalem is not a “settlement”, Jerusalem is Israel and Israel is Jerusalem!

* * * * *

Was the Obama Cairo speech, just a stupid comment by an inexperienced president, or was it part of the Obama Doctrine on the Middle East?

Events suggest the later. Although, clearly, Obama was absolutely wrong in his facts, he nevertheless  continue to pressure Israel to accept Obama’s created pre-condition for the resumption of the talks, and to cease construction in the West Bank settlements.

The Israeli government largely acceded to the American pressure albeit temporarily. Whether Israel agreed to halt construction in West Bank to help the president save face or for other reasons, I don’t really know, but what follows was taken straight out of Saul Alinsky’s book, Rules For Radicals.

In his book, Alinsky has a chapter on “Tactics” (of the Organiser) in which he lists “rules”, in Rule Thirteen Alinsky says that:

The Price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.

[Page 130 in paperback edition]

He goes on to explain:

You [the organiser] cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden agreement with your demand saying “you are right — we don’t know what to do about this issue. Now tell us”

[brackets added]

Such tactic is also known as the “salami tactic” or “moving the goal posts”.

Having got an agreement to partially freeze construction in the West Bank, rather than go back to the Palestinians with “now, what about you mate?” the administration jumped on the “opportunity” and in order to avoid being “trapped by the enemy” moved to the next slice of the salami, Jerusalem.

Read on Mr. President, Alinsky continues:

The fourteen Rule: Pick the target, freeze, it personalise it, and polarize it.

The target, Alinsky explains, is picked on a basis of vulnerability, you don’t necessarily attack the party who is responsible for your grievance, you attack the most vulnerable to such attack.

In this context, you do not attack the District Planning Committee or the Municipality of Jerusalem, the body that approve construction, you attack the “right wing” Israeli government. You further personalise your attack with words such as “insult”, and use emotive terms such  “Jewish settlements”, “occupied territory”, “illegal occupation” and, most of all, you attack, attack, attack!

The Palestinians, whilst have a claim on part of Jerusalem, (which they did not have during the Jordanian rule of East Jerusalem), areas such as Ramat Shlomo have never been an issue, not until now when the administration created it.

Instead of trying to bridge over differences, the administration is in fact putting the sides further apart, but that is not all.

What followed the administration attacks on Israel (“addressing” Palestinians grievances) is an EXPECTED wave of incitement and violence by Palestinians, not much dissimilar to those we saw in September 2000, except that the current violence is totally White House driven.

According to the Jerusalem Post:

The armed wing of Fatah, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, on Tuesday called on the Palestinian Authority to give back the weapons it had confiscated from the group’s gunmen so that they could participate in the “Jerusalem Intifada.” The call came as both the PA and Hamas continued to accuse Israel of planning to destroy the mosques on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

De ja vu!

What we see is typical Arab reaction to what they rightly see as a weakening of American support of Israel, thus a weakness of Israel — anyone who knows anything about the Middle East mentality could have foreseen it coming. I have no doubt that Israel will stop this madness but, no doubt, with the usual accusation “disproportionate force”.

Welcome to the Obama Intifada (God forbid), to borrow a term from Melanie Phillips of the Spectator. The same old story; Palestinians attack Jews, Jews protect themselves, Palestinians play victims, UN condemns Israel,  De ja vu!

What left now for Israeli government to do is give Obama a bit of his own medicine, to take a page from Alinsky book too and put the president “outside his experience”, as Alinsky repeats through his book,  or as Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post who does not mince her words this time when she says in her latest article:

Bibi can tell Obama to stick it where the sun don’t shine and rally the Israeli public and Israel’s many  friends in America to his side and so make it impossible for Obama to carry on doing this with immunity. Or he can lick Obama’s boots and set the clock ticking faster towards the destruction of this country.

Caroline! this is not a ladylike talk, but you succinctly expressed my sentiments. Butt out Mr. President before you have your name ingratiating an intifada.

© Copyright Jacob Klamer, all rights reserved.

4 March, 2010

The mere mention of the word “Mossad” immediately ignites the imagination and with good reasons. In fact to many, particular those who know little about it, the Mossad has become a legend, a story in which the fiction tend exceed facts.

The recent assassination in Dubai of Mahmud Mabhouh, a founder and a senior commander in Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades (the military branch of the Hamas) is an example.

The media, right around the world, was quick to point a finger at the Mossad, even before the Dubai police came up with, by now well publicised, an EDITED CCTV footage, allegedly depicting the Mossad agents movements, before and after the assassination, but not glimpse of “during”.

Israeli response was no different than its normal response as to alleged activity of the Mossad, “neither confirm nor deny”, a response you would expect of any government when asked about covert activities of their own security services.

Irrespective of whether this particular mission was carried out by the Mossad or not, it serves Israel’s interest to have the suspicion casted on the Mossad. Israel’s policy of “targeted elimination” ,as they call it,  intended to disrupt the operation of the terrorists, particularly their leadership ability to move freely. It serves Israel’s purpose that they all feel targeted, irrespective of whether they are or not.

True, initially this killing, at least on the face of it, seem to have the Mossad’s fingerprints all over it, but the more information comes out of Dubai AND if indeed that information is correct, a BIG IF, it looks less and less a Mossad operation.

Firstly, there is NO WAY under the sun that the Mossad (or the CIA or MI-5 or ASIO or any other competent security organisation for that matter) would send 27 agents into an Arab country on a covert mission, not even to capture or kill Bin Laden, NO WAY! 27 agents in a small place like Dubai is not a covert mission, it is a traffic jam.

Secondly, there is no way that any covert agents will stay back in Dubai for TWO DAYS after the mission was accomplished,  thereby tremendously increase the risk of being captured, it is sheer madness. One may argue that it was necessary to keep some agents back because the need to spread the departure of 27 operatives, but that only serve as one of the reasons why no one in his right mind would ever send 27 operatives on a covert mission.

(There is the more plausible possibility that there were 27 passports used by a much smaller team, but is not what the Dubai Police is saying.)

Thirdly, two of the agents (with Aussie passports) were reported leaving Dubai by a ferry to Bandar Abas (Iran) and travelled by land to Teheran to take a flight out. This is jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, Alice In Wonderland stuff!

A quick Google search reveals that indeed there is the only one ferry service from UEA and it goes to Iranian ports. The World Travel Guide Website also says about this service:

Ferry services operate to ports in Iran from Sharjah, although these are not recommended for tourists and timetables are erratic.

[Highlights are mine]

Would you plan evacuation of agents, not only via Iran, but also on a an erratic timetable when there are less risky routes such as crossing by land over to a less hostile country and flying from there?

The apparent concentration of the Dubai Police on Israel in a complete exclusion of any other scenario, points only to two possibilities: 1. Incompetence 2. Prior knowledge, or at least more knowledge than they (the Dubai Police) are willing to devalue.

According to the Israeli Debka Files (Hebrew) website, that has proven itself as reliable source when it comes to Israeli security, The Dubai Police has no single piece of evidence that can identify the perpetrators.

Repeating (Israeli) intelligence and anti-terror sources, the Debka Files says that the Dubai Chief of the Police, Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Al Tamim, that they found the assassins’ DNA and fingerprints taken from Mabhouh’s room, but not in their own rooms, is strange to say the least. And even if he has such DNA and fingerprints, the sources say, it is utterly useless without a database to match such fingerprints and DNA.

I would add that if indeed, the perpetrators left DNA and fingerprints behind, it is not theirs own but intended to send the Dubai Police into a wild goose chase, apparently successfully so.

Much was said in the media about the speed in which the Dubai Police came up with CCTV footage, and the apparent oblivious attitude of the team to the security CCTV cameras. Some Israel haters went as far as citing that as a “proof” of the agents “incompetence”.

Not so, say the Debka sources, the team, according to them, had shown high electronic sophistication evident by their ability to enter Mabhouh’s room by electronically overcoming the security lock and latching the inside door bolt from outside the room ON CAMERA.

But, there is 19 minutes gap (between 8:24pm and 8:43pm) in the CCTV footage, the presume time of when the assassination took place. This indicates that the team in fact had the equipment to control the security cameras of the hotel and what is shown was only what the team wanted shown.

The reason, according to the Debka sources, is that whoever carry out that operation WANTED to show their ability to penetrate secured areas, even when it is secured by CCTV, anywhere in the middle east. In any event, the “terminators” were disguised from head to toe making the footage is useless for the purpose of identifying them.

If you look at the video on my site, towards the end, the woman is seen looking at the camera with a smile.

* * * * *

All that is not necessarily a proof that Israel was not involved in the assassination but it certainly shows that the information that comes out of Dubai is anything but a proof that it was a Mossad operation, No identities, no method, no murder weapon, no idea how they got into the room, nothing!

The question is Why? Is it just a populous claim, or is it a purposeful “engineering” of facts and there is more behind the “proofs” that came out? The answer is open to conjecture, your guess is as good as mine but I’ll give it a shot.

So far the only link to Israel lays in the forged passports the perpetrators said to have used. 15 of which bore the names of known Israeli citizens with dual nationality, living in Israel.

On the one hand, if it was the Mossad, it makes sense that it “borrow” identities of real people, people who are, for certain, not using their passport during the operation. One can assume that the Mossad has the ability to detect, through border control records when such person leaves Israel, thus may be using his or her non-Israeli passport, and warn its agents do dump such  identity. The question remains how the Mossad got the details of such passports.

Indeed Israel permits it citizen to have dual nationality, but the foreign nationality of an Israelis with dual nationality is null and void (by Israeli law) once the person is in Israel , they are Israeli citizens and only Israeli citizens, for all intent and purposes. I know, I am one such a person.

By law, Israeli citizens, must enter and leave Israel on their Israeli passports and at no time they are required to produce their foreign passports, Never, except when they enter Israel for the first time as “olim” (immigrants) and during their naturalisation process — yes it is a possibility but only if these people still holding the same passport they naturalised on, I don’t know if this is in fact the case here.

I can tell you with certainty, that in 35 years of having dual nationality, I have never been asked to produce my Australian passport in Israel, or my Israeli passport in Australia, for that matter.

But, passport details are held on many computers, other than immigration; travel agents, airlines, hotels, banks, you name it. Any competent security agency, not only the Mossad, has the capability of braking into such computers and pulling out such passports details. Is there another common denominators to all those passports?

Further many counties, but not Israel or Australia, require arriving passengers to declare ALL their nationalities, if they have more than one. Indonesia is one I am aware of (still I was not require to produce the passport I was not entering on).

In any event the speed in which these forged passport were traced into Israel, raise questions, at least.

Yet, as soon as it transpired that three of the forged passports are Australian, our illustrious Prime Minister and his Foreign Minister, paraded the Israeli ambassador in front of the waiting media into the Foreign Minister’s Office for “an explanation”. It could not have come at a better time for uncle Kev who was up to his eyeballs in a domestic scandal and it gave him a media respite.

“This is not an action of a friend” said the Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, revealing his conversation with the Israeli Ambassador, “I am not satisfied with Israel’s explanation” said the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, as if he got any explanation. There was no question in their mind, or so they gave the impression, that indeed it is the Mossad who forged the Australian passports, as the PM publicly dispatch the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to Israel to “investigate”.

(As earlier explained, the people in questions, by Israeli law, are Israeli citizen only, thus the government of Israel has the powers to prevent its citizens from being questioned by a foreign country — Israel did not take such action on this instance in a stark difference when, a few years back,  Israel was prevented from interviewing Australians with dual Israeli citizens. It was when Mr. John Howard was a PM and I doubt that he would have sent the AFP to Israel on such useless mission, but I am digressing).

The Australian mission to the UN was instructed to change Australia’s vote on the Goldstone report from “against” to “abstain” despite the fact that just a few weeks back Australia had voted “against” on a similar resolution.  It was also quite a departure from Australia’s usual pattern vote in unison with the USA on Middle East issues.

Naturally, the DFAT (Dept Of Foreign Affairs and Trade) denied that the vote was a punishment of Israel. Australia is one of the few avid friends Israel has, that has been true irrespective of the colour of our governments since the inception of Israel, thus if this vote was not “a punishment”, it represents a marked departure from an Australian long term standing policy.

It is no secret that Kevin Rudd is trying to get Australia a seat on the Security Council in the next rotation, it is also no secret that Mr. Kevin Rudd has personal aspiration for a UN high position (Secretary General, has been suggested) both which can only be achieved  with the support of the None Aligned Movement (NAM) bloc in the UN, which in turn is controlled by the  Organisation Of Islamic Conference (IOC) block, do you get the picture?

(You may care to get further information as to how the UN works in here.)

Whilst our foreign Minister says that “this was not an act of a friend” (or words to that affect) and the Australian abstention in the UN was not a “punishment”, what was it then? An act of a friend? Well Mr. Smith, with friends like you who needs enemies.

And … it had to come. Our version of the New York Time, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that ASIO (The Australian Security Organisation) is investigating Australian with dual Israeli citizenship. Quoting the AAP the Sydney Morning Herald said that:

ASIO began investigating dual Australian-Israeli citizens suspected of spying for Israel well before last month’s assassination of the Hamas operative Mahmud al-Mabhuh, intelligence sources say.

Give me a break!

I would be surprised if there are more than 15,000 Australian citizens with dual Israeli nationality living in Australia (the question is not asked in the census, not that I recall). Let us see; how does that stuck with the “M-word” on our lefty media? For crying out loud, there are probably twice that number of Australians with dual Lebanese nationality in our jails, but they are not Muslims, just “persons with Middle East appearance”.

* * * * *

And finally, back to Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Al Tamim, the Chief of the Dubai Police; according to the New York Time blog of 2 March, 2010 the generals said  that

It is easy for us to identify [Israelis], through their face or when they speak any other language.

By their look general? I was born in Israel and I can’t do it! Israeli can be black (Ethiopian Jews), with a Scandinavian look and all in between, you must have some extra-perceptional abilities, sir.

True, I can generally pick up an Israelis when they speak English but only native Israelis, not those who immigrated into Israel. My ability to do it, as most native Israelis, comes from years being with NATIVE Israelis, we surely have a distinctive accent but it mostly taken as French (from my experience) for some reason, except for those people who spend a lot of time amongst NATIVE Israelis.

What is you reason sir? Where and when did you acquired that ability general? Hmmmm, food for thoughts, isn’t it?

© Copyright: Jacob Klamer 2010 – All rights reserved.

1 March, 2010

I have been missing in action for a while now, the reason is twofold that will became apparent as I tell the story.

Sometime towards the end of January, I posted on MySpace a video that I edited from the security CCTV (Close Circuit TV)  that is installed in the building I live in. Within a few seconds a massage appeared on the screen, informing me that that video, I just posted breached the copyrights rules and that my upload privileges been temporarily suspended.

The message further advised me, that should I persist in violating copyright rules, my uploading privileges be permanently revoked or my profile deleted (or words to this affect). It also gave me the facility to depute their ruling, but who wants argue with a JavaScript?

My own CCTV copy righted? seemed very odd. It turned out that it was not the video that was the problem but the background music that I added to the clip, “The Pink Panther” played by the Henri Mancini orchestra, that I ripped of one of my own CD’s.

Apparently the music companies include id’s in their music that enables hosting website to detect copyright music and indeed MySpace gave me all the details of the “offending” audio.

Before I go any further, I wish to make it abundantly clear that although it was not my intention, indeed I violated copyright laws, at least technically — I definitely, albeit unintentionally, violated MySpace’s condition of uploading, I have no argument with that part.

I immediately deleted the offending clip with a view of removing the background music and reposting it, but that was not good enough for JavaScript. JavaScript demanded that I take its “course” in copyrights law before it would restore my upload privileges, my acknowledgment that indeed I had violated copyright law notwithstanding.

Whilst I complied with that demand, I took umbrage at the condescending attitude of JavaScript during this whole ordeal.

MySpace was not put up for my benefits or yours, we all know that, it is there to get eyes in front of advertising. They have every right to make the rules and send JavaScript to enforce them. By the same token, I have the liberty of not posting my videos in MySpace.

There are a few ways to bypass the copyright filters, but I am not in the business of playing such games. I had established my own website a year and a half ago (initially for the sole reason of keeping my blogs that are deleted by JavaScript on an unknown basis, a whim, is probably a better description) thus I decided to move all my video clips and store them on my own site.

I removed all my videos from MySpace, not so much as a “punishment” but because they are all work of someone else (except my CCTV footage), thus potentially a breach of copyright law and MySpace Rules. Although my other videos had passed the watchful eyes and ears of JavaScript, there is nothing to stop JavaScript from playing gotcha games with me at some future date, by now I am accustomed to MySpace constant shifting of goal posts.

It presented me with a new problem. I had built my website following the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) using only HTML script, thus unable to embed most the video formats, including the mostly used one for website, flash-FLV. Further, in order not to be at the whim of other hosting sites (clip time and size limitation they impose and the occasional deletion), I had to have video clips playing on my site also hosted there. I am fully aware that at some stage I may need to increase my website band width but if it comes to that, so be it, I put my money where my mouth is

I could accomplish such task only by having my own JavaScript (but not as a policemen) and learning some basic video editing, two minefields that I decided to cross.

I had to learn two new kills, that did not have and I am glad to advise that, whilst I am an expert at neither, I managed sufficient skills in these two minefields to accomplish what I had set to do.

As JavaScript allows me to have more functionality in my website, I also decided, while I am at it, I re-build my website from scratch. This has kept me busy for weeks and away from writing blogs.

When it come to playing videos, there is always the trade-in between clarity and size. The more clarity a video has, the bigger its file has to be AND more important, a faster connection is required to view it uninterruptedly. I chose the mid-way but as I have a very fast connection (ADSL-2) and a fast computer, I have no way of knowing how its working for people with slower connections.

Whilst I am not yet completely done, you are welcome to go and check out my new site and comment or suggest improvements, if you so inclined.

I would appreciate, if you, particularly those with slower Internet connection, check out the videos section on my site and report any difficulties. Please name the “offending” video(s), your connection type/speed and the browser you are using.

For those of you who connecting from outside Australia, please note that Australia is connected to the world with only two cables, thus at times you may experience delays connecting to my site, irrespective of your Internet speed.

Now you have it.