liars united for christ & israel

CUFI Washington-Israel Summit 2009

We’re going back to Washington for Christians United for Israel’s Fourth Annual Washington Summit on July 20 to July 22, 2009. You need to be there with us! We’re bringing together some of the most influential leaders and thinkers to update you on recent developments in Israel, the Middle East, and Washington, D.C. We’re holding a Night to Honor Israel with Dennis Prager and Pastor John Hagee. And we’re going to Congress so that each of you can share your support for Israel directly with your elected officials. America, Israel and the world are facing a great danger in the Middle East. Iran’s president has threatened to wipe Israel off the map, while every day he gets closer to acquiring the nuclear weapons with which to make good on this threat. We have no time to waste! The enemies of Israel are the enemies of America. They are the enemies of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These enemies have drawn the battle line. If a line has to be drawn, then draw that line around both Christians and Jews. CUFI’s Washington Summit is your chance to demonstrate that we are one- we are united. The first official 2009 Summit event will commence at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 20, 2009. Similar to the 2008 Summit there will be a pre-event on Sunday, July 19, 2008 at the Washington Convention Center. The CUFI leadership will host a time of fellowship and then praise and worship followed by a time of teaching and prayer on Sunday evening. Wednesday, July 22, 2009 will again be CUFI Capitol Hill day. Since we will not know the exact time for your Congressional appointments, please plan to depart Wednesday evening or at your leisure on Thursday, July 23 to ensure that you do not miss these important meetings. We also have two new events on Wednesday: a time for prayer on Capitol Hill in the morning and a wrap-up event in the late afternoon.

SUNDAY, JULY 19, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. CONVENTION CENTER
3 p.m. – 9 p.m.: Registration. You must present a photo ID to register. You must wear your Registration Badge at all times during the Summit. 5:45 p.m. – 6:45 p.m.: CUFI Washington Summit Welcome. Meet other attendees from your region and your CUFI Regional, State and City Directors. 7 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.: Praise and Worship. Praise and Worship will be led by Grammy and Dove Award winner Sonic Flood. 7:45 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.: Teaching Session & Prayer. Testimony by Jane Hansen, President of Aglow International. Cheryl Morrison,CUFI’s Region Three Director, will lead a teaching session on how to pray for Israel followed by a prayer session led by Rev. Billye Brim and Lynne Hammond. 9 p.m. – 10 p.m.: CUFI on Campus Welcome Reception.

MONDAY, JULY 20, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. CONVENTION CENTER
7 a.m. – 7 p.m.: Registration. We encourage you to register as early as possible to avoid delays. You must present a photo ID to register. You must wear your Registration Badge at all times during the Summit. 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.: Christians and Jews Standing Together, with Pastor John Hagee, Founder & National Chairman Of Christians United For Israel; and Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, Rabbi of Rodfei Sholom in San Antonio, TX. 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.: Open Lunch Break. 1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.: Break Out Session One. I. Israel 101: The Basics Of The Arab Israeli Conflict, with Gary Bauer, President of American Values; Andrea Levin, Executive Director and President of CAMERA; and Susan Michael, Director of the US Branch of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. II. Committed to Israel’s Destruction, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, Founder and President of The Israel Project; David Makovsky, Director of The Washington Institute’s Project on the Middle East Peace Process; and Cliff May, President of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. III. The Vanishing Christians of the Middle East, with Michael Horowitz, Director of Hudson Institute’s Project for Civil Justice Reform and Project for International Religious Liberty; Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom; and Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer. 3:30 p.m. – 5 p.m.: Break Out Session Two. I. Energy Independence, Ending Our Addiction to Foreign Oil, with Dr. Isaac Berzin, Founding Director the Institute for Renewable Energy Policy; Frank Gaffney, Founder and President of the Center for Security Policy; and Dr. Gal Luft, Executive Director of Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. II. The US-Israel Relationship Past, Present and Future, with David Brog, Executive Director of Christians United for Israel; David Frum, Editor of NewMajority.com; and Senator Rick Santorum, Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. III. Voices from Israel: Israelis Share Their Views on their Lives, Land and Future, with Elliot Chodoff, Political and military analyst; Ofer Fisher, Co-Founder & VP Development of the OR Movement; and Jonathan Medved, One of Israel’s leading venture capitalists. 5:15 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.: Bringing CUFI Home. CUFI’s national leadership will help you bring a Night to Honor Israel, Standing with Israel Meetings, Christians United for Israel Sunday, and other CUFI activities and events to your local community. 5:15 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.: Pastors’ Reception. Invitation to all Pastors attending Summit to meet Pastor Hagee and the leadership of CUFI. 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.: Joshua’s Generation. Student And Young Adult Dinner. 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.: Chairman’s Club Donor Banquet. Special Guest Speakers, Congressman Eric Cantor and Michael Medved. Private Concert by Randy Travis. Open to individuals, churches or ministries, who have donated $1,000 or more to Christians United for Israel since July 2008. If you desire to attend this special banquet, kindly contact the CUFI office. 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.: Movie. A movie about Israel will be presented for those not attending the Chairman’s Club Donor Banquet.

TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. CONVENTION CENTER
7 a.m. – 7 p.m.: Registration. You must present a photo ID to register. You must wear your Registration Badge at all times during the Summit. 9:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.: Talking Point & Civics 101 Seminar. David Brog will present and explain topics of discussion for our Congressional visits. 11:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m.: Regional Meet & Greet Luncheon. Meet your Regional, State and City Directors and other attendees from your region. Immediately after lunch, you will meet with the other delegates from your Congressional District who will be joining you on your visit to the Hill. 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.: Middle East Briefing, with Fred Barnes, Executive Editor of the Weekly Standard; Congresswoman Shelley Berkley; Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of CPMAJO; Consul General of Israel in New York Asaf Shariv; and moderator Gary Bauer, President of American Values. 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.: A Night To Honor Israel Banquet, with Pastor John Hagee and Dennis Prager.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2009 CHRISTIANS UNITED FOR ISRAEL DAY ON CAPITOL HILL
Registered attendees will meet with their elected officials throughout the day and present the Biblical positions of our support of the nation of Israel. Each registered attendee has the opportunity to meet with their Congressional Representative and Senators. 10 a.m. – 11 a.m.: Group picture and open prayer on the Capitol steps. 5 p.m. – 6 p.m.: Group wrap-up on Capitol Hill.

one of “NATO’s Secret Armies” on trial

‘Defenders of Ataturk’ on trial
for plotting to overthrow government
Nicholas Birch, Independent, Jul 21 2009

In a case described as the most important in Turkey’s history, two retired four-star generals went on trial yesterday at a high-security court outside Istanbul, charged with trying to overthrow the government. For some, the arrest of the highest-ranking officers in Turkey’s 63-year history of multi-party democracy is a critical blow against a once-untouchable military that has toppled four elected governments since 1960. For others, the charges are an invention of the ruling AKP party to weaken the secular army and open the way for the country’s Islamisation. There are 56 defendants in the case, including journalists, university rectors and businessmen. Outside the courtroom in Silivri, hundreds of their supporters waved national flags and portraits of Ataturk, the secularist founder of modern Turkey. “The patriots are in prison,” they chanted. Inside, the mood was sardonic. “Silivri jail,” one of the accused answered, when the judge asked for his address. Asked his occupation, a former mayor responded “professional criminal”. One of the retired generals, Hursit Tolon, was in court, wearing a business suit and looking relaxed as he answered questions. The other, Sener Eruygur, did not attend because of his poor health.

In the 1,900-page indictment, prosecutors allege that the men are part of a group bent on triggering a coup against the Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan. Dubbed Ergenekon after a legend of Turks’ Central Asian origins, the group formed in 2003, when the one-year-old AKP government pushed through laws to help the country’s EU accession talks get under way. It is alleged the group was unnerved by AKP’s roots in political Islam and because its EU-backed reforms undermined the army’s traditional position at the centre of politics. “We should have sorted this business out on 28th February, damn it,” the indictment quotes one general as saying, referring to a 1997 coup. “There wasn’t the EU then … Now everything is much more difficult.”

After the army chief of staff had blocked an alleged coup plot by top generals in 2003, prosecutors say, the conspirators changed tack, deciding to force military intervention by playing on the fear of Islam held by many Turks to destabilise the country. In May 2006, they ordered grenade attacks against a secularist newspaper. A fortnight later, a lawyer walked into one of the pillars of Turkey’s secular establishment, the High Administrative Court and shot dead a judge. Blamed at first on Islamists, the judge’s murder sparked public outrage. At his funeral, angry crowds tried to beat AKP cabinet ministers. Within months, millions had taken to the streets to listen to calls from speakers, hand-picked by the No 1 suspect in yesterday’s trial, for the military to intervene. In Apr 2007, it did, issuing a statement that forced early elections, which AKP won. But in Dec 2008, the High Court of Appeals ruled that the murderer, who had been sentenced to life by another court, should be retried as a part of the Ergenekon investigation. A lawyer for General Eruygur, the group’s alleged leader, has described the charges against her client as “malicious lies”. A secular opposition politician has compared the investigations to the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Despite appearances, the investigation has been as much the result of co-operation between the military and the government as a clash: none of the officers charged with Ergenekon membership could have been arrested without the consent of the current chief of staff, Ilker Basbug. Over the past month, however, that tacit entente has begun to crumble. At the end of June, after the publication of a document outlining another alleged military plot against the government, General Basbug complained of an “organised smear campaign” against the army. In another twist last week, pro-government newspapers claimed that members of a board responsible for appointing magistrates were trying to stifle ongoing investigations by removing prosecutors in charge of the Ergenekon case. With frictions between state institutions rising, and the Ergenekon case coming to resemble a tug-of-war between factions united only by a questionable attachment to democracy, even supporters of the investigation are starting to fear it may do as much harm as good. Umit Cizre, an expert on civilian-military relations, noted: “There is nobody left to trust”.

Laughter in court as retired Turkish
generals join celebrities in coup trial
Suna Erdem, Times, Jul 21 2009

Two retired generals became the highest ranking officers in modern Turkish history to go on trial yesterday. They are accused of a campaign of assassinations designed to plunge the country into chaos and pave the way for a military takeover. Sener Eruygur, a former Gendarmerie commander, and Hursit Tolon, a retired army chief, are among 56 defendants accused of plotting a coup against the Islamic Government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They face life sentences in the second wave of a trial aimed at the Ergenoken terror group. According to three indictments, thousands of pages long, the group is the latest incarnation of what has long been known as the “Deep State”. It is believed to include hitmen and senior figures in the security forces, state bureaucracy and judiciary who were prepared to sanction murder to protect Turkey’s secular system. The trial, being held in a converted police sports hall in Istanbul to accommodate the large number of defendants, seeks to resolve many unsolved murders allegedly committed by people working within the state apparatus.

But the complex sprawl of evidence and the unusually high profile and apparent respectability of those questioned, including a well-known actress, academics, two senior journalists and the wife of a leading constitutional judge, has confused and alienated the public. Much of the establishment media has portrayed the trial as a celebrity-filled farce, an impression likely to have been reinforced by the jocular behaviour of defendants yesterday. Ferda Paksut, the judge’s wife who was allegedly overheard describing supposedly impartial courts as being “on our side”, breezed in smiling, proclaiming her faith in the fairness of Turkish justice. Gurbuz Capan, a former mayor, raised laughter by describing his occupation as “professional criminal”. The prosecution responded by adding a third indictment to the charge sheet of fomenting violent unrest, plotting a coup and several murders, including the killing of a senior judge which was blamed on Islamists. The charges introduced yesterday documented 50,000 weapons found during the investigation.

It is not the first time that the judiciary has grappled with such murky matters. Veli Kucuk, one of the main defendants in the case, had already been implicated in a previous, half-hearted “Deep State” trial in 1996, when a senior policeman, a hitman and a leading politician were killed with a mafia moll in an unexplained car crash near the town of Susurluk. There are fears that the latest Ergenekon case may prove as inconclusive as previous attempts. The transfer of generals Eruygur and Tolon from prison to a military hospital and their subsequent release from custody has already raised eyebrows. So did the news that General Eruygur had “memory problems” from an alleged fall in prison. Suicides by two military figures possibly involved in killings are being treated with suspicion. This week a senior judicial body was rumoured to be attempting to replace the determined Ergenekon judges and prosecutors.

But there have been changes in the country. First, there is political will; previously, even the targets of military coups bowed to their challengers. Prosecutors, whose predecessors would “lose” documents, remain committed. “I remain hopeful,” said Yasemin Congar, the deputy editor of the independent Taraf newspaper, which has campaigned for the case to be taken seriously. “So far, politicians seem to be standing firm and none of the prosecutors have budged either.” The position of the army, which continues to see itself as the guarantor of Turkey’s secular constitution, is less clear. It has watched uncomfortably as EU harmonisation laws have led to an erosion of its considerable political power. But even the military, which is said to have discovered but covered up the Eruygur-Tolon conspiracy, has swallowed its objections, allowing police to conduct dawn raids on forces’ compounds to extract the former generals.

The idea of a “Deep State”, a military-political front devoted to the defence of secularism, has captured the imagination of the Turkish public for decades. The frequent coups, four since 1960, are often taken as evidence of a nationalist cabal. The theory seemed to be confirmed in 1996 when a car crashed near Susurluk. The bodies were identified as a senior police chief, a powerful parliamentary figure and an assassin. An investigation into the links between the men was cancelled abruptly. The Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, harbours similar suspicions. Soon after the arrest of the Ergenekon defendants, he said: “There is a deep Turkey working against the deep state.”

“the darkness is closing in” – at the guardian?

New era as British hostility reaches crescendo
Robin Shepherd, JPost, Jul 20 2009

It has been a terrible month for Israel’s reputation in Great Britain. The government has announced a partial arms embargo in protest of Operation Cast Lead. The charity War on Want has held a launch event for a new book entitled Israeli Apartheid: A Beginners Guide. The Guardian has featured commentaries promoting the apartheid analogy as well as accusing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of using Nazi language to defend settlement policy. The BBC and other media outlets have given massive coverage to the recent Breaking the Silence report slamming the IDF for committing “war crimes.” Barely a day goes by without a new front being opened against the Jewish state. Those of us who follow such matters are always in danger of getting too close to our subject. But, given that the IDF is not involved in combat operations, I for one have never seen a period like it. On Friday, the Guardian ran two anti-Israel opinion pieces on one and the same day. There’s something in the air. The Israel-haters smell blood, and they’re going in for the kill. It could be that we are on the threshold of a new era. But why now? The simplest explanation is that the relentless, unremitting stream of anti-Israeli invective that has been pumped into the public mind in Britain over the last decade or so was always going to reach critical mass at some point. There is nothing particularly significant about the timing. The clock has been ticking for years. Israel’s time has simply come.

Ultimately, the simple explanation may be the best explanation. But there are a number of other factors now at play which may have helped bring the situation to a head. First, the election of Obama is perceived by many British opinion formers as heralding a refreshing new approach to Israel from the US. For linguistic and historical reasons, political change in the US is keenly felt in Britain. Obama’s comments calling for a freeze on the settlements have provided the pretext for a renewed assault on Israel in general using the president’s huge popularity as cover. Second, the election of Netanyahu combined with the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister have offered new opportunities to make the attack personal. Even for Israel’s most virulent detractors, it was not easy to mount a hate campaign against Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni. Netanyahu has been demonized in Britain for years. Lieberman is portrayed as little better than a skinhead. The wolves have been thrown fresh meat. Third, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has recently recast the tone of British pronouncements on the Middle East and relations with the Islamic world in a way that serves the broader agenda of Israel’s opponents. For example, in a speech in Oxford in May, reported in the Guardian, he spoke of abjuring distinctions between “moderates and extremists,” a line that, despite Foreign Office denials, was widely interpreted as potentially paving the way for talks with Hamas and other militant groups. He also referred to “ruined crusader castles,” “lines drawn on maps by colonial powers” and to the failure “to establish two states in Palestine.” Miliband cannot be held entirely responsible for the way his words are interpreted. But it is precisely in such guilty, post-colonial terms that Israel’s opponents in Britain have always talked. To hear their own kind of language echoing back at them from the leading figure in the UK foreign policy establishment is likely to embolden them further. Fourth, in a country whose opinion formers still fulminate about the invasion of Iraq, sometimes portrayed as a venture inspired by Israel and Zionist neoconservatives in the US, the Netanyahu government’s hard line stance on Iran has got the alarm bells ringing again. Are we going to get sucked in to yet another war in the Middle East for the benefit of Israel, they ask. Fifth, Netanyahu’s new emphasis on insisting that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a specifically Jewish state is pushing Israel’s opponents against the wall and forcing them to declare themselves with greater clarity.

Of course, this does not just apply to Britain. But as a country whose opinion forming classes rank among the most hostile to Israel in the Western world, the move has provoked a particularly hysterical reaction. Since the Palestinians have made it clear that they have no intention of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, British opponents of Israel have been forced to choose between accepting that Palestinian rejectionism forms the real root cause of the conflict or themselves rejecting the Jewish character of Israel and the whole Zionist enterprise to boot. Put all of these factors together and it becomes easier to understand why a situation which was awful to begin with has deteriorated so rapidly. The obvious question now is where next. With the partial arms embargo in mind, we should obviously be watching for an extension of formal sanctions. Outside the governmental sphere, it is a racing certainty that unions will renew efforts for trade and academic boycotts. Media hysteria will grow as each new assault on Israel’s integrity helps legitimize and validate the next. For the Jews of Britain, the prospect of increasing anti-Semitism against this backdrop is all too real. The darkness is closing in.

jpost, sometimes i think i love you

Ship of fools
Erik Schechter, JPost, Jul 20 2009
The writer is a freelance military reporter based in Tel Aviv.

So when exactly did we go nuts? With depressing regularity, our leaders say the dumbest, most vile things. And we, the public, look up at this bloated, cacophonous monstrosity of a government and think, “Everything is OK.” Take our public security minister, for example. This June, while reviewing antidrug operations in southern Tel Aviv, Yitzhak Aharonovitch praised an undercover cop for his grungy appearance, remarking that he looked an “Araboush.” Now for those who don’t speak bigot, Araboush is an anti-Arab epithet on par with, say, Jewboy or Hymie. In any sane Western democracy, an official caught using such language could kiss his career good-bye. But not so here. When the media called out Aharonovitch for the slur, all he had to do was apologize, then assure us that the comment did not represent his worldview. And we moved on because no one who belongs to Yisrael Beiteinu could possibly be racist, right? I mean, this is the same party that sought to institute loyalty oaths, ban Israeli Arab political factions and prohibit commemoration of the nakba – the defeat and dispossession of the Arab community during the War of Independence. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, has even suggested disenfranchising Israeli Arabs by handing over their towns to a future Palestine. Oh, and there was that stray comment about bombing the Aswan Dam in Egypt. Again, in a normal Israel, Lieberman would be left to rant on a soapbox next to the meat-is-murder wackos and the Raelians. But what do we do with such a dangerous demagogue? Make him foreign minister, of course! For the past couple of months, Lieberman has been serving as our voice abroad. Well, sort of. Lieberman is, in fact, so toxic that Defense Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres have to pick up much of the diplomatic slack.

What’s strange is the fact that few people here seem troubled by this. Maybe it’s because we expect so little of our politicians that nothing shocks us anymore. After all, we do have a housing minister who backs Jim Crow-style segregation. Lecturing the Israel Bar Association earlier this month, Housing Minister Ariel Attias said that he sees it as his duty to keep Arabs out of Jewish communities in the North. Mixed towns are dangerous, he said: “Look at what happened in Acre.” Yes, let’s look at what happened in Acre. Last Yom Kippur eve, a pack of youths attacked an Arab motorist after he had driven into a mostly Jewish neighborhood. The assault then sparked an intercommunal riot that engulfed the city. None of this, though, matters to Attias. He doesn’t care about healing wounds; he just wants the Arabs hemmed in and out of sight. And we treat Attias like he only speaks for himself, like what he does is happening on the moon. Of course, not every minister in the government is prejudiced; some are just idiots. A case in point is Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz. He actually thinks that the future of Zion can be secured by changing Arabic place names on highway signs. Then there is Yossi Peled. This minister-without-portfolio suggests that we boycott US defense contractors and sell arms to nations not on the White House’s BFF list to register our displeasure with Barack Obama’s Mideast policies. Apparently, Peled wants Israel to risk $3b a year in foreign aid, lucrative defense projects with the US and superpower backing at the UN Security Council to keep on building in the settlements. A sign of still deeper dysfunction, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently told the Americans that he’d remove illegal outposts if the US took a harder line on Iran. In other words, Bibi would enforce our own laws only if first paid a political bribe.

Now, to be fair, we’ve had crummy ministers before. The Bibi government is just the reductio ad absurdum of our political system – a fractured partyocracy that panders to ideological sectors, not real communities. See, there’s no such thing as an Israeli citizen. There are just haredi voters, secular voters, Arab voters, etc., and we all vote as if no one else existed in the country. Likewise, the politicians act as if they were responsible to no one but their parties. Accordingly, the system encourages behavior that borders on madness as even the center must pay homage to the radicals. Indeed, if Netanyahu were to fire Lieberman, Attias and Co., their parties would bring down his government. The only way to end this farce is through regional representation. By dividing the country into voter districts, we can make each and every Knesset member beholden to the people. A first-past-the-poll system in each district would likewise temper extremist positions as assorted factions would need to band together to win. Unfortunately, our current crop of “public servants” has no interest in fixing the status quo. So to make a change, we will need to rally from the bottom up. If we don’t, we may wake up one day to find a country not worth defending.

Comments

1. shehter you’r the fool. (daniel – 07/20/2009 22:26)

2. Erik the brain-dead, No wonder you’re free-lance — you couldn’t sell your BS to a manure farm. Get a life and get out of the writing business. (laguna – 07/21/2009 02:45)

3. The depths. “The defeat and dispossession of the Arab population..”?? Why has this newspaper’s standards sunk to such a depth? Nothing about the Arabs’ renewed onslaught against the Jews on 30/11/1947, nothing about their regular armies invasion of Israel amid their leaders’ threats of genocide, nothing about the Jews’ pleas for the Arabs not to flee, nothing about the Arab leaders’ orders to the locals to leave the territory of Israel which they were about to invade. Who is this author, an Arab propaganda agent? (Yehuda – 07/21/2009 06:14)

4. Wow, talk about stepping on your own tongue! A great idea: reform the voting system, make it more responsive to the people. Then you try to sell this using partisan attacks. No wonder no one gives you any respect. Couldn’t you find a leftist or two to insult? Kadima who led Israel into two wars and pulled out at the moment of victory each time? Labour which pulled Israel out of Lebanon without taking our hapless Maronite allies with us? Peres who still thinks Oslo is working! At least Bibi & Libi are patriotic Zionist Jews, I don’t know about you. (Esav Benyamin – U*S*A 07/21/2009 07:29)

5. Why is it wrong to disdain Arabs? A people that lives in its own excrement? Look at Cairo, 16 million people, absolutely filthy in their clothing, their bodies, their environment, literally living in their own toilet. Why should we honour and uphold such an ethnic group? They are disgusting. (Mahinjun – 07/21/2009 08:02)

more shameless lies paid for by israel’s government

Breaking the rules
Michael Dickson, JPost, Jul 19 2009

The writer is Israel director of StandWithUs, which educates about Israel through student fellowships, speaker programs, conferences, written materials and Internet resources. Soldiers’ testimony can be viewed at www.soldiersspeakout.com.

It is clear from its latest report that the goal of Breaking the Silence is not to bring offending soldiers to justice or even to encourage reforms in IDF policy. If these were its goals, it would include names, ranks, facts, place names and dates; it would have released a detailed report to the authorities to encourage an investigation. Without this information, it is impossible to probe the veracity of the claims. The organization’s efforts to defame Israel in the international arena are successful. Despite the precedent of previous claims made against the IDF being disproved, and without waiting for an investigation into the allegations, supposedly reputable media organizations such as the BBC choose to report them as fact. Defamation of Israel is the order of the day. Breaking the Silence is misleading in its name and its aim. There is no silence to break. Israel is an open and democratic society that regularly criticizes its own actions, but this one-sided and shoddy report fails to stress the context of the war — a battle against Hamas terrorists hiding behind civilians — and it omits names, ranks and facts about soldiers and their stories. The report writers are keen to thank their funders, which shamefully include the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, Christian Aid and OXFAM, two charities which have in the past launched vitriolic anti-Israel campaigns, as well as the EU, which gave them $75,000 to “contribute to an atmosphere of human rights respect and values” and “to promote prospects for peace talks and initiatives.”

The EU is deceiving taxpayers if it is telling them that their money paying for this shoddy report is helping to promote peace. If members of Breaking the Silence were sincere, they would be presenting accurate facts about terrorism, the goals expressed in the charter of Hamas, the deadly rocket fire coming from Gaza, the anti-Israel incitement and the ways the Palestinians have contributed to perpetuating the conflict and to harming the lives of ordinary Palestinian civilians. If they were sincere, they would be raising awareness about the moral dilemmas the IDF faces. But this vital context is missing from their account. In response to this report, our organization set about filming testimonials and uploading them to a web site called Soldiers Speak Out, a platform for Israeli soldiers to share their personal combat experiences with the world. The site, created by soldiers to share their personal experiences of serving in the IDF, contains testimonials from soldiers which contrast sharply with the reports of alleged IDF misconduct made by Breaking the Silence. Breaking the Silence is breaking the rules for any kind of serious reporting. Its report is compiled from anonymous “testimony” from up to 30 people. In contrast, the soldiers who feature on our web site give testimony on camera without their faces blurred out and speak from their own personal experience. The IDF has more than 700,000 citizen soldiers and reservists, thousands of whom served in Gaza in the campaign against Hamas, who try to live up to its high ethical standards. Attempting to slander an IDF campaign on the basis of the anonymous reports is ridiculous. It is unlikely that the international media will give the Soldiers Speak Out site the kind of publicity they are currently lavishing upon Breaking the Silence. When it comes to Israel, good news is no news, but, as in previous occasions and despite those who exist to defame the IDF, the truth will out.

not for jewish would-be mothers, surely

Romania: Israeli physicians arrested
on suspicion of egg trafficking
Attila Somfalvi, Ynet, Jul 21 2009

Romanian authorities have remanded Harry and Yair Miron, the Israeli owners of the Sabyc Fertility Clinic in Bucharest, who are suspected of trafficking in human eggs, for an additional 29 days. Two other Israeli doctors, who are considered persons of interest in the case, were forbidden from leaving Romania at this time. Five other Israelis suspected as involved in the case have has their passports confiscated by the Romanian police. Romanian authorities detained 30 of the clinic’s employees Sunday for allegedly trafficking in human eggs and human stem cells. The majority were questioned and released within hours, but several were detained further, missing their flights to Israel. On Monday, the Bucharest court ordered Harry and Yair Miron, the father and son team who own and operate the clinic, remain in police custody for an additional month. Professor Nathan Levitt and Dr. Genya Ziskind, clinic employees who were also detained by the local authorities, were ordered not to leave Romania pending further investigation. Both are expected to be questioned by the Romanian police once again on Tuesday. The Romanian authorities alleged that the clinic took advantage of poor women, who donated eggs in exchange for a fee, an action which is illegal in Romania. One of the women reportedly told the Bucharest police that she had no idea that the act was against the law and that she did it because she was desperate for money. The department for fighting organized crime said in a statement:

The group was focusing on identifying foreign couples eager to resort to reproduction techniques and on grabbing Romanian women aged 18-30 to donate ova for $270 to $335.

Vladimir Belis, vice president of the Romanian medical control board Colegiul Medicilor said:

They managed to use poor women from all over the country. These women underwent medical procedures which put their health, and even their lives, in danger. This act has been illegal in Romania since 1998.

According to reports in the Romanian media, Bucharest authorities also questioned several Israeli women suspected of selling their eggs. Victor Zotta of Romania’s National Transplant Agency told local press that the Sabyc Clinic was operating illegally and that came under similar suspicion in 2002. Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yossi Levy told Ynet that the ministry and the Israeli Embassy in Bucharest have been fully briefed on the case and are keeping in constant contact with Romanian police and judicial authorities, adding that Consul General Lilly Ben Harush was doing everything possible in order to bring the case to a swift solution.

military keynesianism (& northrop grumman profits)

US, Israeli and British Air Forces in big war game over Nevada
DEBKAfile, Jul 20 2009

Southern Nevadans were warned last week that 62 warplanes would take off twice a day from Nellis Air Force Base, home of 414th Combat Training Squadron northwest of Las Vegas, in the latest 11-day Red Flag exercise. They would see (and hear) Israeli and US Air force fighter-bombers in dogfights and bombing raids. DEBKAfile’s military sources say the size of the Nellis air base, 111km long by 190km broad, enables large groups of aircraft to practice combat missions in wide spaces unavailable to their air crews at home. A large number of Israeli F-16C fighter-bombers from IAF Squadron 110 are taking advantage of the opportunity for mock combat drills in large groups and bombing missions with live ordnance. They flew in directly from home base, refueling on the way. The group is split in two, friendly “Blue Air” and enemy “Red Air,” to practice “Red Flag Measurement and Debriefing System,” which simulates real combat conditions. US F-16CGs of the Ohio Air National Guard will join Israeli craft in interdict missions for intercepting and downing enemy planes. Also taking part are US E-3 spy planes and US and British 135 transports.