Hizballah 2: Israel 0

With the first pictures of the coffins coming in, I can't help but be impressed by Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hizballah. He played his part well and in the end of the staring match Olmert blinked first. Then again maybe it is hard to win a staring contest after surviving a bout of eyelid cancer.

Two years ago Ehud Olmert stood before the Israeli Parliament and declared his intentions for the Lebanon War. They were twofold. First, his main goal, was two free the captives Ehud Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev. Second, to dismantle the Hizballah and to move them away from the Israeli border.

Nasrallah, promised to defeat the Jewish Zionists and to return prisoners of the Zionist state to Lebanon.

On August 14th 2006, the war ended. Israel had returned home with its tail between its legs. They returned with the loss of both soldier and civilian lives, heavy property damage, and no victory. What they did not return with was what they set out to retrieve in the first place, the hostages.

Throughout the past two years, Israel has not managed to discover any clear cut evidence regarding the hostages. Hizballah made a point of this yesterday by announcing in a local Labanese newspaper that the Israeli's were in for a surprise because one of the hostages are still alive.

Against the security cabinets advice, Ehud Olmert, decided to free five known murderers, and over a hundred bodies in return for the two soldiers. Nothing could change Olmert's mind, even after the soldiers were pronounced to believe to be dead, Olmert stood firm. Almost as if to say, I do not really care if they are alive or dead.

Olmert could not stand the pressure place on him by the families and the media. He could not stand before the crying relatives who wanted their family members back. Olmert did not have the fortitude to do what was right for the country, for future hostages, or for Gilad Shalit who still sits in Gaza.

He could not stand up against the citizens who told him how to do his job. This decision was not based on intelligence, or insight. No, this deal was decided by his inability to stand up for what is right.

In the meantime, families such as the Haran family, whose family was brutally murdered by Samir Kuntaur have been ignored. Their pain was not enough, their tears not large enough, their dead not fresh enough. So they watched, powerless, as the man who destroyed their family was pardoned and freed.
Samir Kuntar the man who brought 31-year-old Danny Haran father of two down to the beach with his four year-old daughter Einat. Samir Kuntar who shot a father in front of his daughter. Samir Kuntar who proceeded to smash a four year-old's head with the butt of his gun until she was dead.

I cannot help but look up in awe at Hasan Nasrallah the man who has twice beaten Israel. First in the Second Lebanon War, when he sent Israel home empty-handed. And once more today, as he fulfills his promise to his people of bringing home the prisoners.
Ehud Olmert had been defeated and humiliated once more by his enemies. Let us be fair it is not Olmert's fault, they pressured him into it, he had no choice.
In the future, we need to be stronger, because we know that he will not be.

First hand account of the Haran family murder in the Washington Post.

And Then There Were Six...

Our illustrious Prime Minister, Mr. Ehud Olmert has made the headlines once more for the ongoing investigation connected with the envelopes filled with money that he recived from Mr. Telenski.

Since March 2006 Olmert had been investigated for six different accounts of bribery or using his position unlawfully.


1)The house on Cremiuex street. Olmert, as the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor, is believed to have a received a $320,000 discount on this purchase in return for helping speed up a real estate project - Investigation Not Closed


2) Once more as the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor, it is believed that he interfered with the ministries investment center forcing them to invest in a company called Dimona Select owned by a Ori Meser a friend of Olmert, against the better interest of the office. - Investigation Not Closed


3)Again as the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor, it is believed that he promoted friends in the Likud party into the Authority of Small and Meduim Businesses - Investigation Not Closed


4)The Bank Leumi scandal, in which it is believed that during the privatization of the bank Olmert worked as the Interim secretary of Treasury for Sharon and used his connections in the bank to help Frank Liouy an Australian Businessman and friend of Olmerts' - The police wanted to close the investigation while the district attorney said the investigation is not over


5)Recently, Moris Telensky testified that he gave envelopes of money to Olmert, while Olmert does not deny receiving this money he claimed that the money he recieved was through his friend Ori Meser and his secretary Shula Zaken. This money he claims, was to be used for the elections in Jerusalem, and the Likud primaries. - Investigation Not Closed


6) This past weekend, a new suspicion was uncovered. When Olmert worked as the mayor of Jerusalem and Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor, he is believed to have used governmental funds to fly out of the country. While many organizations requested funds for legitimate fund raising trips, they only received a bill while Olmert and his family actually took the trips. Investigation Not Closed

(Information can be seen on Ynet in Hebrew)


It amazes me that this man is still in office. After his failures in the Lebanon War and more recently the hostage exchange, I would expect him to do the right thing and resign.

If we are to believe even half of the investigations, none of which he has been cleared of yet, this is not an honorable man. The only way we will manage to dethrone him is with a crowbar and a lot of elbow grease.


Is this truly the man we want to be handling negotiations with our enemies? Can a man with no morals truly bring peace, does he really care? Were the numerous errors in judgment since stepping into office truly mistakes or are there other envelopes with money that we no nothing about? Can we trust a man who since moving into politics has been known for putting himself first before the people? These, I feel, are all legitimate questions with which we have no answer.

In my humble opinion this man, whether tried or not, has been involved in numerous shady deals. The type you hope that an upstanding person would shy away from. At home we can only assume that he is unpatriotic having children that no longer live in the country he governs.

Alternatively, try to imagine one of the young Bush girls saying "I no longer want to live in America i want to move to France." This would be considered a devastating political blow. No one would vote for a man whose children shun there own country.
No one that is, except for this country.

As we near what is rumored to be new primary elections we can only hope that our Prime Minister will not manage to make more mistakes before his term is up. That his past catches up to him before he falls back into his old ways. That maybe he will wake up and decide to put the nation before his own interests. We can only hope that since we do not have the will to physically throw him out of office that by the time he leaves there is still an office left.

Quiet With That Bulldozer, the Police Are Sleeping

It is possible that the time has come. The police in Israel have become a superfluous entity. One that sits impotent on the sidelines as the citizens do the work.

This year we have had two such terror attacks involving an "Israeli-Arab" (A mistake in it's own right). In both attacks the police stood by as citizens or alternatively, soldiers on break do their work for them.

The former attack was the famous Mercaz Harav attack in which 8 students, six of whom were under the age of 18 were gunned down in cold blood. During this attack the police actually arrived and refused to enter. One policeman stood outside, drew his gun, and actually tried to stop Dovid Shapira from entering. Dovid Shapira was unimpressed by the officer and said "get out of my way." In return the officer replied, "you can't go in there you have no vest (bulletproof vest)."

David Shapira took no heed and entered the building managing to kill the injured terrorist. The terrorist had been shot moments beforehand by a student, Yitzchak Daddon, who climbed on the roof and shot the terrorist with his personal weapon.

The story was quickly buried and did not even appear in others. The police stated that no one could prove that the terror attack could have been stopped earlier. But, while the officer stood outside willing to stop anyone who wished to save lives, more children were slaughtered.

Our current bulldozer attack is still less clear. From what I understand, the first person to shoot the terrorist was in fact a police officer. A young women aged 22, shot the terrorist twice and stopped him. Her partner quickly climbed on the tractor to see if the terrorist was still alive. After checking for a pulse, the terrorist was pronounced deceased.

Suddenly, from the side a rock flew out of nowhere and hit the dead terrorist, who miraculously came back to life. The terrorist continued until, once more, an off duty soldier, who happens to be Dovid Shapira's brother-in-law, jumps upon the moving vehicle. As he runs towards the tractor he grabs a handgun from one of the many police officers in the area and shoots the terrorist three times in the head. A S.W.A.T. officer then jumps up behind the young soldier shooting the terrorist twice and the terrorist is proclaimed dead.

Here we see the incompetence of the local police, where they cannot even properly check the pulse of an unmoving terrosist.

In addition, they would like to call the policewoman who shot the terrorist first "the real heroine." First of all, she did not stop the terrorist so in fact she did nothing. Second of all, she was doing her job! She did not do anything extraordinary, she did her job, Here in Israel, when the police do their job it has become an extraordinary event.

The soldier who climbed on a moving tractor, and stopped the terrorist said that he was just doing what any citizen or soldier should do. An impressive response coming from someone who pulled a stunt only seen in movies like Diehard.

I conclude, with the evidence above that maybe the time has come where the Israeli government should be handing out weapons to your everyday citizens. This way when the next terrorist attack will come (of that I have no doubt), we will be protected. Thus leaving the police to do what they do best, sit on the side, watch, and try to take the credit in the end.

Terror attack on video, WARNING!!!! You will see a man get shot!

Israeli Rant

I have decided to dedicate this blog to a rant on the Israeli way of life. While I love living in Israel and would not consider living anywhere else, like any country we have our problems. When built up these problems explode (much like a Palestinian). Therefore, I will use this media to rant about the current issues and problems.