Eye On Israel

Hezbollah Issues Strong Statement to Israel

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:24:00 +0000

Hezbollah has just today followed up Israel's friendly gesture (the release of enemy combatants - more in the next article) with the statement that they have the ability to launch rockets against any point in Israel. The leader of this terrorist group, Hassan Nasrallah, told Arab television station, Al-Jazeera, this in a recent interview that is scheduled to air soon. His comments were, "Even in the months of July and August 2006 [during the war with Israel] there was not one place in occupied Palestine that we could not reach, every point and every corner. I stress that we can do this today as well." These comments were made during a time when the Hezbollah militants have been identified as they moved their rocket launching systems into civilian districts of southern Lebanon. This is being done to prevent Israel and the UN from identifying these trouble spots and taking appropriate actions against them as allowed by the UN. These actions by Hezbollah mirror what they did last year during the conflict with Israel. Throughout that war, they continually protested to the targeting of civilian quarters by Israeli aircraft. Israel maintained that they had no choice as Hezbollah had hid their rocket sights amongst the common populace. These rockets are not ones which one might think of at the mention of the word. These are small, mobile rockets with small range and limited accuracy. They are easy to hide in neighborhoods. This continues as Israel is forced by the world opinion to watch.

My view on the leader's comments can be demonstrated through the following analogy: When someone wants to protect their home from intruders, they look at the options of survellaince and observation before them. They can buy an entire visual survellaince system and have it installed throughout the house and grounds, which would incur great expense, or they can avail themselves of a much cheaper, almost equally effictive method. They can go to a store and purchase multiple signs that say that the house is protected by a security system and they can install inexpensive "dummy" cameras on the exterior of the house. Through this "installation", criminals may tend to not put to test the sincerity of these signs and pass on by the house. This is what Hezbollah is doing with Israel. Even in the war last year, when they had this so-called caoability to hit Israel everywhere, they never employed this even in the face of taking mass casualties through the Israeli offensive. History shows us that terrorist organizations never need a reason to strike a people, beyond the disconnected logic that they piece together in their own minds. As a result, if they want to attack a people, they will do it, and most often without forewarning. Nasrallah's comments on their firepower capabilities strike me as nothing more than saber-rattling in an attempt to prevent Israel from making a move against their increasing buildup of potential aggression. Israel has enough military strength to flatten Lebanon, and Hezbollah knows it. So, they choose the next best thing to having mass weaponry - saying that they have mass weaponry.

New Elementary Textbook Causes Uproar

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:23:00 +0000

A new textbook came out over the weekend to be used in Israeli schools. This textbook is a stab at making the Arab populace in Israel (20%) feel more comfortable and a part of the culture than they do now. As a result, the book teaches the 8 and 9 year olds that read it that the founding of the nation of Israel was a "catastrophe" - found in the word "Nakba". This word has formerly been a no-no to use as it was coined by the Palestinians as their term for the 1948 founding of Israel by the Jews.

This textbook has been praised by the Education Minister of Israel as "a development whose time is overdue." This endorsement by such a high-ranking Israeli person has sparked more of a outcry as other government persons demand the dismissal of the the Minister. This attempt to placate the Palestinians by inserting part of their propaganda on the existence of the "Zionist" State will do nothing but confuse the Jewish boys and girls who are forced to consume this along with their own view of the establishment of Israel. Young people of this age are at an impressionable point in their lives and to teach them this in school only sends this message - "if someone continues to bully you, compromise and adopt their view as your own, but do not push your own view as it may cause for more hurt feelings on the part of the bully."

The education of the children of any nation is a sacred trust. It was through education that Marxism was propagated so effectively and so it will be through the educational system in Israel that will bring about Israel's greatest challenge - before, they have had to only be concerned with the fighting and bombers from without; now, Israel's educational system has handed the Israel of tomorrow to the Palestinian people due to a different enemy - the enemy of the passive pen.

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 22:53:00 +0000

Israel Will Attack Hamas Leaders

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Wed, 23 May 2007 21:07:00 +0000

In a bold move, Israel has declared that they will step up their attacks against Hamas if the rockets do not stop. They have stated that no one, not even the Palestinian Prime Minister, is exempt from these threats. Israel has suffered casualties and property damage in the ongoing onslaught of Kassam rockets. As a result, they promised that if one child or woman dies in these attacks, they will come after the Palestinian elected leaders. Hamas has responded with a threat of their saying that, if Israel does follow through on these statements, they will retaliate with "unprecedented" force. As they made this statement, they continued their attacks on Israeli soil.
Israel needs to enforce this demand they have made and follow through with it. This is not a typical assassination attempt of a political leader - this is taking action against the very person that is ordering these attacks. This is not simply a case of a political individual condoning a practice through silence; these Hamas leaders are giving the instructions and orders which the militia arm of the government is carrying out. Hamas is a rogue group, one which never should have been voted into power to begin with. However, seeing their aggression and anger at Israel as of late, it is no wonder why their own people cowered under and voted for these people. It is never an advantageous position for a country when the group of people who are looking to take power run on a platform of military aggression. It is one thing if reasonable diplomacy has been attempted (ie. USA and Iraq, or even Iran) when speaking of making military movements. However, when the only "diplomacy" that has been attempted is summed up in phrases similar to "get out of this country", that makes for some very precarious ground to tread.
Israel may suffer political, diplomatic and personnel losses if they carry through on this ultimatum, but they will lose more now (and in the future) from the repercussions of letting empty warnings again fall to the ground.

"Hamas Will Pay..." - Prime Minister Olmert

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Sun, 20 May 2007 19:31:00 +0000

In Palestine, tensions are easing between the rival political parties, Hamas and Fatah, as they test a ceasefire that has been established. This does not bode well for Israel, however, as these two parties unite in their fight against Israel. It has always been Fatah's policy for diplomatic negotiating with Israel as opposed to guerrilla warfare (at least that is the policy on paper). Hamas has always vocalized their displeasure with paper diplomacy by their constant rocket and suicide attacks. With these two factions reunited, Fatah gets to have Hamas do their dirty work as they sit back and decry the violence that goes on. Hamas does not mind being the "bad-guy" in this situation as they have claimed suicide attacks done by Hezbollah as their own. In their mentality, the only thing better claiming someoneelse's attack for their own is carrying it out themselves.
Following this ceasefire is a pick-up in rocket attacks against the Israeli town of Sderot. Israel's Prime Minister Olmert has declared that "Hamas will pay" if these attacks do not cease. He has told the Hamas-led government that if they do not cease in these terrorists attacks, Israel will have no choice but to intensify the retaliations against them. Hamas has not yet replied to this warning.
It is my opinion that Hamas will not back down as they do not view their actions as acts of aggression but of retaliation in answer to the "Zionist occupation". Also, if they were to cease, it would tell their fanatical supporters that they do not have what it takes to defeat the enemy. They consider their personnel losses as more martyrs for the cause. Israel should definitely step-up their attacks and not worry about the global response to it. Israel is attacking military and terrorist targets as opposed to the civilian establishments that have been targeted by the Hamas terrorists. Hopefully, we will continue to see Israel's authorities taking a strong stand against their Arab oppressors.

Palestinian Aid Worker Plotted Assassinations

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Sun, 20 May 2007 19:26:00 +0000

Mizab Bashir, a 25-year old translator, was indicted today in Jerusalem on many counts involving intelligence gathering and developing plans towards assassinating the Prime Minister and many other key political officials. These murders were intended to avenge the deaths of Palestinian militants. Bashir worked as an aid worker for the organization Doctors Without Borders, a position that he has held for six years. It was not until last year that he was granted an Israeli travel permit that enabled him to cross the border of Palestine and enter Jerusalem. While in Jerusalem, he had done much in the way of reconnaissance work and intelligence gathering as he planned for and plotted future terror attacks. He made a mistake, however, when he started staking out a building that he thought was an Israeli government building but was actually the US Consulate. This soon led to his eventual capture on April 19th.

This situation should highlight many things in Israel's favor. One, Israel allowed this man and the humanitarian organization he worked for free access into and out of their country, in spite of the fact that he was an Arab. Also, he had been allowed to work in Israel for over a year before being captured. It was during this time that he became skilled in hand to hand combat and other measures that would fit him towards the action of taking out a high-ranking government official when the situation presented itself. Thankfully, Israeli forces where on top of their security game, as always, and were able to apprehend this man before any serious harm was done. That they were able to single him out and prevent any act of terror from occurring is a tribute to their own intelligence program. It should give the Prime Minister reason to rest safely knowing that the team of people protecting him are some of, if not the, finest fighters in the world.

Israel Launches Airstrikes Against Gaza

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Sun, 20 May 2007 19:24:00 +0000

On Tuesday, Palestinian militia began shooting rockets over the border into Israel. One of the rockets hit a school injuring a child. As a result, Israel began launching airstrikes against Palestine. They mobilized armored vehicles and troops as well to move over the border to make a step towards protecting the areas that give easy access to the terrorists as they launch these rockets. The rockets that are being used by the Palestinian militia are Kassam rockets. These rockets are smaller weapons that allow the terrorists to move them easily as they pick locations to fire upon. Not only are they easy to move, they are hard to locate. However, their small size also benefits the Israelis as it renders them highly inaccurate. As a result, few casualties have been suffered from the launch of these rockets in spite of how many have been fired into Israel.

So far, Israel has killed around eleven of the enemy in Palestine, three of those coming today as they killed one in an attack on a building and two more in an attack on a car carrying a Hamas member and Kassam rockets. According to Arab reports, these eleven have been "martyred" in their effort to rid the Zionists from the region. Along those same lines, Hamas (the reigning party in Palestine) has said that they will begin stepping up attacks on Israel again, attacks that will more than likely include suicide bombers in the cities of Israel. However, these attacks might be somewhat of a struggle for them as there has been factional fighting going on between he Hamas and the rival Fatah parties. Struggles like these are not done on the floor of the parliament with legislation but on the city streets with weapons. As a result of this infighting, Hamas capabilities are currently split between attacks on Israel and defending their own dominant position in Gaza.

The fighting is continuing, even at this moment as Hamas fighters continue lobbing rockets into Israel. Even though they were the ones to instigate this current conflict, Israel is still the one coming under fire before the eyes of the world. Media outlets picture Palestine as the poor, underdeveloped people who are being persecuted by the military superpower that is besieging their nation. Palestine has the support of Lebanon, Syria, Iran and even Russia in their struggle against Israel. These nations have smuggled countless numbers of armaments to the terrorists in Gaza - there is no reason to assume that these Kassam rockets are the extent of military technology at their disposal. I believe that they have a purpose with using these rudimentary methods of warfare. This purpose has an end-game of grandstanding before the world. As they fight Israel with bullets, they are fighting an even bigger war against them with the weapon of the printed word. The major media sources of the world have often gathered behind these "freedom fighters" and this instance is no different. People in America need to know and realize the importance of standing with Israel as they do what is totally normal and within their responsibility - protecting their people and nation.

Riots in Jerusalem

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:52:00 +0000

Prime Minister Olmert has turned down demands and requests to terminate the excavating that is being done in the vicinity of the Temple Mount. The Arab population is opposed to this saying that it is desecrating the ground. Other people are saying that it is not worth it for the political and civil upheaval that is ongoing due to these actions. Many people believe that the Israeli Arabs are simply using these renovations as a reasonable outlet for their anger and fury at what they call the "Zionist invaders."
Earlier today, riots erupted within the Temple Mount area as Muslim worshippers began raining bottles, cans and other debris on the police who entered the area in full riot gear in response to the potential that existed for injury against the workers. About 150 Muslims holed themselves up inside the Al-Aqsa mosque until negotiators from Israeli police and Muslim mediators convinced them to exit, and that without incident.
The work is still to be ongoing and is the first time that excavations of this sort have been done in this area. The last time an official visit was paid to the area was from Arial Sharon in 2000. That sparked rioting and violence that continued for years. This situation is far from being resolved amongst the dwellers of Jerusalem. "We ask God to unite the Palestinians, with their rifles and tunnels, to be able to cleanse Al-Aqsa of the ... excavations," Nizar Rayan, a Hamas leader, said. It appears that groups such as Hamas are using these circumstances as fuel to incite more Muslims against the Jews and to give the international community a "reason" for their hatred to spew out again in the form of suicide bombers and other acts of terror. It remains to be seen if the Israeli government will back away from this latest incident or whether they will have the fortitude to make a plan that is fit to the task at hand and follow it through to its completion.

US Says Israel Violated Agreement

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 03:32:00 +0000

The United States government has a policy when they sell arms to nations that prohibits them from using them in an aggressive fashion. In the sale of cluster munitions, the agreement does not allow nations to use them in civilian areas. These munitions release tiny, deadly bomblets that disperse over a wide area. Israel deployed these munitions in many areas of Lebanon during the summer war in response to the rockets that had been launched against them.
This presents an uncomfortable situation for President Bush as to how he deals with Israel. Protocol would be to exercise sanctions against Israel and, at least, limit the sale of cluster munitions to Israel for many years. However, experts in the government assert that this is different as Israel was deploying these munitions in an act of defense, which would be in keeping with the agreement. Hezbollah was firing rockets against Israeli citizens from civilian neighborhoods in southern Lebanon. Israel responded in a fashion that included the cluster munitions. They have admitted to the US government that they used American made munitions in their attacks.
Now, the intelligence briefing goes to Congess for them to determine what type of action should occur against Israel. Any action would have to include President Bush's approval, so Congress could save President Bush the embarrassment of having to make this decision by throwing out the briefing and letting it slide.
It is my belief that the Bush administration understands and supports Israel's use of their weaponry. After all, the use of the cluster bombs was in defense of their citizens. These weapons were deployed areas that would have been strategically difficult for ground troops to have made a surge on. It would have caused significant loss of Israeli life, so the cluster bombs were an effort to eliminate the threat that existed in those areas. The fault of the civilian casualties lies at the feet of the Hezbollah terrorists as it was these individuals who used these innocent families as human shields. Israel had no choice but to take the path they chose.
In the 1981, Israel used F-16s that they obtained from the US in their preemptive attack on the Iraqi reactors. In their contract to obtain the F-16s, they had to signify that they would only use them for defensive measures. The attack on Iraq was clearly not defensive, so President Reagan had to publicly condemn the attack. However, behind closed doors, American diplomats (including Vice-President Cheney who had later become Defense Secretary) thanked the Israeli government and congratulated them on their boldness and deciveness in their actions. I believe that America will follow the same course again. President Bush and his administration are too strong of friends with Israel to attack the diplomatically with sanctions for protecting themselves when the US has just recently imposed sanctions on the rogue nuclear nation of Iran who is clearly operating agains the will of the international community.

President of Israel Granted Leave

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:31:00 +0000

President Moshe Katsav was granted a leave of absence for a three month period so that he can prepare his case against a charge of sexual assault. As president of Israel, he exists in what is largely a ceremonial post but one that is also immune from prosecution. Prime Minister Olmert has called for him to step down, but Katsav claims he is being set-up.
My opinion on this is that the allegations have brought enough to bear that he should step down to preserve the office. I realize that rumors are brought to bear against political figures and leaders all the time, but for them to be take seriously enough, they must have some form of substance to them. Israel itself has a low number of crimes such as these that take place (or are reported) and it is a shame for the county's figurehead to be involved in something of this nature. If he is worried about a legacy, the best way that he could control it would be to step down "for the good of the country" while the process goes through the legal system. For him to deny this so violently while maintaining that he is keeping his office is to lend great doubt to the credibility of his claims that this is a fraud case because he is fighting hard to stay in the one place where he cannot face prosecution - the office of the president.

Israel Will Use Military Force With Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 04:41:00 +0000

While the UN and the Western world continue to ponder the affects of the trivial sanctions levered at Iran, Israel makes the firm statement that they will not let Iran gain nuclear status. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking at the national security conference, said, "The Jewish people, with the scars of the Holocaust fresh on its body, cannot afford to allow itself to face threats of annihilation once again. No nation has the right even to consider its position. It is the obligation of every country to act against this will all its might." "We can stand up against nuclear threats and even prevent them."It has already been rumored from many sources high in the IDF that Israel has plans that could quickly bring to a halt the nuclear aspirations of Iran. They have stated that they can and will do this, with or without the support of the US. While nuclear researchers contend that Iran is still years away from having nuclear capabilities, Israeli intelligence believes that Tehran may announce that it has the centrifuge technology necessary to increase the enrichment of the uranium. In effect, they would have reached a major milestone which would signal that the possibilities of their nuclear technology being used for solely peaceful purposes would diminish greatly. Still, countries around the world continue to assert that it is within Iran's sovereign right to develop nuclear technology and research. Even if a nuclear threat mushrooms from Iran, these countries and politicians maintain that peace talks are the avenue of choice as opposed to the strict military stance that Israel has taken. However, diplomacy is always the weapon of choice when that nation is outside of missile range. Israel does not have that luxury and knows that, to preserve their existence, they must be ready to fight strength with strength.

Former President Carter Tramples Israel In New Book

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Barkowski) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 04:41:00 +0000

A US president's transition from Commander-in-Chief to private citizen does not necessarily leave him without the ability to cause political havoc. President Carter illustrated this in his recent book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid". The title alone shows the slant against Israel, yet Carter says it was designed bring out emotional discussion. When his book came out, it caused such an uproar around the world and in Jewish population centers that 14 members of the advisory board at the Carter Center stepped down in a show of disapproval of the book. President Carter claims that his book is not an attempt to vilify the nation of Israel but to bring to the global forefront the sorrows of the land of Palestine and her people. At a recent speech at Brandeis University, Carter said: "Israel will never find peace until it is willing to withdraw from the Territories, and permit the Palestinians to exercise their basic human rights. The current policy is leading to an immoral outcome that is undermining Israel's standing in the world."One question that I would like to ask Mr. Carter is why he does not support the Israelis to exercise their basic human rights, especially that to life. He blames Israel for the failure of the roadmap to peace, while it is the suicide bombers and Palestinian terrorists that continue to set up blockades on that road. This is a land which Israel has more of a right to historically, politically and militarily than Palestinians do. What Mr. Carter does not mention in his public remarks is that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians currently live in Israeli owned land. Not only does the nation of Israel permit this, but they even allow them to do such things as vote while offering them protection - in Jewish cities! This is yet another example of the accusations which are brought against the nation of Israel as they try to protect their own citizens and grant them the right to life, property, freedom of religion and the other basic freedoms that most Americans forget they possess.