Humanitarian Aid into Gaza
June 28th, 2007
IDF SPOKESPERSON ANNOUNCEMENT
A summary of humanitarian activity in the Gaza Strip coordinated by the IDF throughout the day
Despite the volatile security situation in the Gaza Strip, the IDF is continuing its efforts to provide a response to humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip.
Throughout the day the following humanitarian aid was transferred from Israel into Gaza through the Sufa and Kerem Shalom crossings with the coordination of the Gaza District Coordination and Liaison Office:
569 tons of animal feed
269 tons and additional 7 truckloads of flour
222 tons of straw
187 tons of sugar
143 tons of bananas and additional 9 truckloads of fruits
98 tons of salt
78 tons of cooking oil
28 tons of humus
12 tons of milk powder and additional 300,000 liters of milk
300,000 kg of seedlings
In addition, 480 tons of wheat seeds were transferred through a conveyor belt near the Karni crossing.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Rudy in Pittsburgh
I just returned from a campaign event for Rudy Giuliani in the Strip District of Pittsburgh. It went off very well with many fans in attendance. Of course, Rudy was personable as usual and worked the crowd stopping in a store to eat some pizza. I hope that the next time he drops by our fair city we will have more opportunities to hear him speak/debate the issues...(looks like they are just looking to raise much needed campaign funds at this juncture!)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
What other job could you...?
Ramon to Receive Salary Despite Absence
(IsraelNN.com) The Knesset’s Ethics Committee decided Tuesday to allow former Justice Minister Chaim Ramon to keep his full salary for the session held from October 2006 to March 2007, despite the fact that Ramon was absent from work during the entire period. Ramon was absent because he was on trial for forcibly kissing a female soldier. He was convicted and sentenced to community service.
The Ethics Committee, lead by MK Chaim Oron (Meretz), accepted Ramon’s argument that he had done whatever possible to shorten his trial and return to work. Members of the Movement for Quality Government expressed anger at the decision, saying “those elected by the public should not live on the public’s account while they are not acting on its behalf.”
Wow! What other job can one just not show up for months and still get paid? Note to self: Run for a Knesset seat...
(IsraelNN.com) The Knesset’s Ethics Committee decided Tuesday to allow former Justice Minister Chaim Ramon to keep his full salary for the session held from October 2006 to March 2007, despite the fact that Ramon was absent from work during the entire period. Ramon was absent because he was on trial for forcibly kissing a female soldier. He was convicted and sentenced to community service.
The Ethics Committee, lead by MK Chaim Oron (Meretz), accepted Ramon’s argument that he had done whatever possible to shorten his trial and return to work. Members of the Movement for Quality Government expressed anger at the decision, saying “those elected by the public should not live on the public’s account while they are not acting on its behalf.”
Wow! What other job can one just not show up for months and still get paid? Note to self: Run for a Knesset seat...
And they're off...
Just returned from the Mark Desantis campaign kick-off downtown. It was quite a show! Lots of media and a well organized display. It's nice to hear some intelligent speech come from Pittsburgh candidates. Now, if he can raise the money, he may have a fighting chance...I think we finally may have a serious Republican candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh!
http://kdka.com/video/?id=29256@kdka.dayport.com
http://kdka.com/video/?id=29256@kdka.dayport.com
Monday, June 25, 2007
Principle Positions: Solve the Palestinian refugee problem
Posted by Rabbi Benny Elon
Last week was a difficult time for the ingenious engineers of Oslo and the disengagement. They suffered many sleepless nights tossing and turning, their liberal consciences heavy. How could they sleep when Gaza was burning and the vision of an independent Palestinian state was being engulfed in the flames? The lack of sleep must have clouded their judgment - they saw it fit to ally with the “good gangsters”, Dahlan and Abbas who prefer to shoot their brothers in the knees as opposed to the “bad gangsters”, Hamas who shoot their brothers in the back.
The infighting among the Palestinians and the resulting deaths of countless of innocent men, women and children has reached new levels of intolerability. We must heed this violent wake up call to re-evaluate the issue at the core of the conflict- the Palestinian refugee situation. We have avoided resolving the refugee problem by hiding the refugees behind walls and like a ticking bomb waiting to explode; the refugee situation threatens to blow up in our faces. More than two-thirds of Gaza residents now live in filthy refugee camps and by allowing things to continue as they are we are allowing the perpetuation of a great injustice.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is mandated to negotiate with governments to rehabilitate refugees everywhere in the world except in the Middle East. Here, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) does not have the goal of rehabilitating refugees, its duties are reserved to providing services such as education, health, relief and social services.
Since it’s creation in 1949, UNRWA has been pressured by Arab countries to maintain the refugee camps. As a result, four generations of Palestinians have been used as pawns in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel. Palestinian refugee camps are breeding grounds for the terrorist infrastructure.
The children of the UNRWA refugee camps are born into the slavery of hatred and oppression. They are living in a dreadful state of poverty where indoctrination breeds freely. The refugees have been indoctrinated with the false hope of reclaiming the land that their forefathers abandoned before the War of Independence. The situation is explained clearly in the PLO’s refugee files, “In order to keep the refugee issue alive and to prevent Israel from evading responsibility for their plight, Arab countries - with the notable exception of Jordan -have usually sought to preserve a Palestinian identity by maintaining the Palestinians’ status as refugees.”
Under UNRWA’s control the refugee population has grown from 670,000 to the current figures of 4.4 million registered Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. The situation in these camps is desperate and only a true humanitarian solution- one that will provide these interned peoples with basic freedoms will solve this ongoing problem.
Israel must demand the release of all Palestinian refugees interned in camps, the closure of these camps, and total dissolution of UNRWA. When surveyed, the majority of Palestinian refugees want a visa to another country and seed money to help begin a new life outside the walls of the refugee camps. The reallocation of UNRWA funds combined with a few billion dollars from Israel, the United States and Europe could provide each refugee family with $100,000- $200,000 and the opportunity to begin a new life.
Providing visas and money is the solution that the refugees prefer. Restoring the basic human rights of Palestinian refugees by fully rehabilitating them and assuring their absorption into the country most compatible for them is the most humane thing that the world can offer them and it will present the Palestinian refugees with the greatest opportunity that they ever been given, to live in freedom.
To deny the validity of this proposal is to subjugate the Palestinian refugees to fifty-nine more years of suffering with the illusion that they have the right to return to Jaffa, Haifa and Katamon in Jerusalem. Anyone willing to allow the refugee situation to further perpetuate lacks an understanding in sound politics and more importantly in basic human decency.
http://blogcentral.jpost.com/index.php?cat_id=6&blog_id=75&blog_post_id=1247

Last week was a difficult time for the ingenious engineers of Oslo and the disengagement. They suffered many sleepless nights tossing and turning, their liberal consciences heavy. How could they sleep when Gaza was burning and the vision of an independent Palestinian state was being engulfed in the flames? The lack of sleep must have clouded their judgment - they saw it fit to ally with the “good gangsters”, Dahlan and Abbas who prefer to shoot their brothers in the knees as opposed to the “bad gangsters”, Hamas who shoot their brothers in the back.
The infighting among the Palestinians and the resulting deaths of countless of innocent men, women and children has reached new levels of intolerability. We must heed this violent wake up call to re-evaluate the issue at the core of the conflict- the Palestinian refugee situation. We have avoided resolving the refugee problem by hiding the refugees behind walls and like a ticking bomb waiting to explode; the refugee situation threatens to blow up in our faces. More than two-thirds of Gaza residents now live in filthy refugee camps and by allowing things to continue as they are we are allowing the perpetuation of a great injustice.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is mandated to negotiate with governments to rehabilitate refugees everywhere in the world except in the Middle East. Here, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) does not have the goal of rehabilitating refugees, its duties are reserved to providing services such as education, health, relief and social services.
Since it’s creation in 1949, UNRWA has been pressured by Arab countries to maintain the refugee camps. As a result, four generations of Palestinians have been used as pawns in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel. Palestinian refugee camps are breeding grounds for the terrorist infrastructure.
The children of the UNRWA refugee camps are born into the slavery of hatred and oppression. They are living in a dreadful state of poverty where indoctrination breeds freely. The refugees have been indoctrinated with the false hope of reclaiming the land that their forefathers abandoned before the War of Independence. The situation is explained clearly in the PLO’s refugee files, “In order to keep the refugee issue alive and to prevent Israel from evading responsibility for their plight, Arab countries - with the notable exception of Jordan -have usually sought to preserve a Palestinian identity by maintaining the Palestinians’ status as refugees.”
Under UNRWA’s control the refugee population has grown from 670,000 to the current figures of 4.4 million registered Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. The situation in these camps is desperate and only a true humanitarian solution- one that will provide these interned peoples with basic freedoms will solve this ongoing problem.
Israel must demand the release of all Palestinian refugees interned in camps, the closure of these camps, and total dissolution of UNRWA. When surveyed, the majority of Palestinian refugees want a visa to another country and seed money to help begin a new life outside the walls of the refugee camps. The reallocation of UNRWA funds combined with a few billion dollars from Israel, the United States and Europe could provide each refugee family with $100,000- $200,000 and the opportunity to begin a new life.
Providing visas and money is the solution that the refugees prefer. Restoring the basic human rights of Palestinian refugees by fully rehabilitating them and assuring their absorption into the country most compatible for them is the most humane thing that the world can offer them and it will present the Palestinian refugees with the greatest opportunity that they ever been given, to live in freedom.
To deny the validity of this proposal is to subjugate the Palestinian refugees to fifty-nine more years of suffering with the illusion that they have the right to return to Jaffa, Haifa and Katamon in Jerusalem. Anyone willing to allow the refugee situation to further perpetuate lacks an understanding in sound politics and more importantly in basic human decency.
http://blogcentral.jpost.com/index.php?cat_id=6&blog_id=75&blog_post_id=1247

Another all-time favorite quote
Michael: My father's no different than any other powerful man. Any man who's responsible for other people, like a Senator, or a President.
Kay: Do you know how naive you sound?
Michael: Why?
Kay: Senators and Presidents don't have men killed.
Michael: Oh. Who's being naive, Kay?
-The Godfather
Olmert: I'm Willing to Give Fatah Weapons - News Briefs - Arutz Sheva
Olmert: I'm Willing to Give Fatah Weapons - News Briefs - Arutz Sheva
(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has informed the chairman of the terrorist Palestinian Authority (PA) that Israel is willing to supply guns to the Fatah terror group.
NRG reports that Olmert has already given his word to Egyptian President Mubarak and to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that "Israel would be willing to transfer weapons to Fatah, subject to recommendations by US General Keith Dayton who is in charge of this matter." he leaders are currently meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh in the Sinai Peninsula.
Fatah routinely carries out attacks against Israeli civilians. A recent attack that was carried out with Fatah involvement was the January 29th suicide attack in Eilat that killed three innocents.
Ok, hold on, stop the tape, where did I hear this before???
Isn't it interesting how history repeats itself? As Santayana said, "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has informed the chairman of the terrorist Palestinian Authority (PA) that Israel is willing to supply guns to the Fatah terror group.
NRG reports that Olmert has already given his word to Egyptian President Mubarak and to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that "Israel would be willing to transfer weapons to Fatah, subject to recommendations by US General Keith Dayton who is in charge of this matter." he leaders are currently meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh in the Sinai Peninsula.
Fatah routinely carries out attacks against Israeli civilians. A recent attack that was carried out with Fatah involvement was the January 29th suicide attack in Eilat that killed three innocents.
Ok, hold on, stop the tape, where did I hear this before???
"Stop being afraid. There is no danger that these guns will be used against us. The purpose of this ammunition for the Palestinian police is to be used in their vigilant fight against the Hamas. They won't dream of using it against us, since they know very well that if they use these guns against us once, at that moment the Oslo Accord will be annulled and the IDF will return to all the places that have been given to them. The Oslo Accord, despite what the opposition claims, is not irrevocable." -Yitzchak Rabin
Isn't it interesting how history repeats itself? As Santayana said, "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Some thoughts on current events in Gaza...
This was a quick radio interview that I conducted on June 22 about the situation in Gaza... http://www.jewishexperienceradio.com/archives.html
Friday, June 22, 2007
"Dark Tourism"
Thursday, Jun. 07, 2007
Vacationing at Auschwitz
By Alex Perry
I don't wanna holiday in the sun
I wanna go to new Belsen
I wanna see some history
'Cause now I got a reasonable economy
Thus the Sex Pistols, on their calculated-to-shock debut album 30 years ago. But today, a holiday stop at the former Nazi concentration camp at Belsen is far from unthinkable; it's a common destination, together with Auschwitz, Dachau and Treblinka, in the growing travel niche market known as "Dark Tourism."
While many of us will head for the beaches, the mountains and the amusement parks this summer, some will be going to un-amusement parks. Lonely Planet, a leading publisher of travel guides, predicts in its Blue List — a summary of 2007 travel trends — that dark tourism will be one of the major growth areas in the industry. Some people want a holiday experience that others would deem anything but a holiday. "Travel to sites associated with death, disaster + depravity," is how Lonely Planet defines dark tourism. We're talking not only about the concentration camps, but also South Africa's apartheid museum and Robben Island prison; Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh trail; the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian; the old dockside slave dungeons of West Africa; the Tuol Sleng Killing Fields outside Phnom Penh; Rwanda's genocide memorials; even Katrina tours of New Orleans .
New York City's Ground Zero is probably the most famous example of a disaster site that almost immediately became a tourist attraction, and to considerable controversy. But it's not only recent catastrophes that attract: Auschwitz-Birkenau saw a 37% increase in visitors in 2004.
My work has taken me to a fair few of the destinations on the dark-tourism itinerary, but increasingly, I'm visiting them with a brochure. Afghanistan now has boutique hotels and cultural tours. The old stomping grounds of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia are overrun with tourists. I had to queue for scuba dives on a bunch of wrecked World War II Japanese ships off a remote island in the western Philippines. And when I embedded with a U.S. military unit for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, I had with me a 2002 edition Bradt tourist guide to Iraq.
Is this a good thing? Yes, and no. Professionally, as someone who spends his life attempting to ram the reality of what's going in the darkest corners of the world down the public throat, I'm delighted. A magazine article is one thing. But it's a lot better if people go voluntarily to these places and educate themselves.
But be warned. You are, in the prescient words of the Sex Pistols, taking "a cheap holiday in other people's misery." As any journalist who's ever reported a car wreck will tell you, it's amazing how many people want witnesses to their stories of death and destruction. But remember that these are invitation-only moments that you should never gatecrash. And you should always leave if the victims choose to withdraw the invitation.
Also: most journalists will tell you that exploring other people's horror isn't the healthiest way to spend your day. I was once a rather happy-go-lucky lad. Then I started covering war. Now, I'm a happy-go-lucky-and-sometimes-rather-sad lad. I'm not saying that a day out in the Normandy graveyards is going to alter your view of humanity. But it might. It might also change your view of yourself. Most of the war correspondents I know share not only a profoundly depressing view of humanity, but also an equally cynical idea of themselves. Voyeurism and self-gratification are bad enough, but building a career out of war plumbs whole new depths of poor taste. This what the 9/11 families meant when they called the Ground Zero merchandise sellers "unbelievably sick."
So be warned. There's much to be gained from dark tourism, but also much to be lost. And don't expect much of a break.
* http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1630425,00.html
Copyright � 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about this strange phenomenon:
"Dark tourism or Grief tourism is tourism involving travel to sites associated with death and suffering. Thanatourism,[1] derived from the Ancient Greek word thanatos for the personification of death, is associated with dark tourism but refers more specifically to violent death; it is used in fewer contexts than the terms dark tourism and grief tourism.
This includes sites of pilgrimage such the site of St Peter’s death in Rome; castles and battlefields such as Culloden near Inverness, Scotland; sites of disaster, either natural or man made such as Ground Zero in New York; prisons now open to the public such as Beaumaris Prison in Anglesey, Wales; and purpose built centers such as the London Dungeon.
One of the most notorious destinations for dark tourism is the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz in Poland."
Vacationing at Auschwitz
By Alex Perry
I don't wanna holiday in the sun
I wanna go to new Belsen
I wanna see some history
'Cause now I got a reasonable economy
Thus the Sex Pistols, on their calculated-to-shock debut album 30 years ago. But today, a holiday stop at the former Nazi concentration camp at Belsen is far from unthinkable; it's a common destination, together with Auschwitz, Dachau and Treblinka, in the growing travel niche market known as "Dark Tourism."
While many of us will head for the beaches, the mountains and the amusement parks this summer, some will be going to un-amusement parks. Lonely Planet, a leading publisher of travel guides, predicts in its Blue List — a summary of 2007 travel trends — that dark tourism will be one of the major growth areas in the industry. Some people want a holiday experience that others would deem anything but a holiday. "Travel to sites associated with death, disaster + depravity," is how Lonely Planet defines dark tourism. We're talking not only about the concentration camps, but also South Africa's apartheid museum and Robben Island prison; Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh trail; the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian; the old dockside slave dungeons of West Africa; the Tuol Sleng Killing Fields outside Phnom Penh; Rwanda's genocide memorials; even Katrina tours of New Orleans .
New York City's Ground Zero is probably the most famous example of a disaster site that almost immediately became a tourist attraction, and to considerable controversy. But it's not only recent catastrophes that attract: Auschwitz-Birkenau saw a 37% increase in visitors in 2004.
My work has taken me to a fair few of the destinations on the dark-tourism itinerary, but increasingly, I'm visiting them with a brochure. Afghanistan now has boutique hotels and cultural tours. The old stomping grounds of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia are overrun with tourists. I had to queue for scuba dives on a bunch of wrecked World War II Japanese ships off a remote island in the western Philippines. And when I embedded with a U.S. military unit for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, I had with me a 2002 edition Bradt tourist guide to Iraq.
Is this a good thing? Yes, and no. Professionally, as someone who spends his life attempting to ram the reality of what's going in the darkest corners of the world down the public throat, I'm delighted. A magazine article is one thing. But it's a lot better if people go voluntarily to these places and educate themselves.
But be warned. You are, in the prescient words of the Sex Pistols, taking "a cheap holiday in other people's misery." As any journalist who's ever reported a car wreck will tell you, it's amazing how many people want witnesses to their stories of death and destruction. But remember that these are invitation-only moments that you should never gatecrash. And you should always leave if the victims choose to withdraw the invitation.
Also: most journalists will tell you that exploring other people's horror isn't the healthiest way to spend your day. I was once a rather happy-go-lucky lad. Then I started covering war. Now, I'm a happy-go-lucky-and-sometimes-rather-sad lad. I'm not saying that a day out in the Normandy graveyards is going to alter your view of humanity. But it might. It might also change your view of yourself. Most of the war correspondents I know share not only a profoundly depressing view of humanity, but also an equally cynical idea of themselves. Voyeurism and self-gratification are bad enough, but building a career out of war plumbs whole new depths of poor taste. This what the 9/11 families meant when they called the Ground Zero merchandise sellers "unbelievably sick."
So be warned. There's much to be gained from dark tourism, but also much to be lost. And don't expect much of a break.
* http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1630425,00.html
Copyright � 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about this strange phenomenon:
"Dark tourism or Grief tourism is tourism involving travel to sites associated with death and suffering. Thanatourism,[1] derived from the Ancient Greek word thanatos for the personification of death, is associated with dark tourism but refers more specifically to violent death; it is used in fewer contexts than the terms dark tourism and grief tourism.
This includes sites of pilgrimage such the site of St Peter’s death in Rome; castles and battlefields such as Culloden near Inverness, Scotland; sites of disaster, either natural or man made such as Ground Zero in New York; prisons now open to the public such as Beaumaris Prison in Anglesey, Wales; and purpose built centers such as the London Dungeon.
One of the most notorious destinations for dark tourism is the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz in Poland."
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Holy Lands New Lure: Bikini Babes - The Lede - Breaking News - New York Times Blog
Holy Lands New Lure: Bikini Babes - The Lede - Breaking News - New York Times Blog
Sure...Sex tourism sells and this is the basis for the current Israeli government's innovative idea for boosting its numbers. Too bad we can't attract all the perverts that Thailand has!!! Why can't we succeed in selling Israel with its authentic traditional qualities instead of debasing our soldiers by acting in an undignified, unworthy, or dishonorable manner. Must we resort to pornography and if so, are we really attracting the type of tourists that we want for our Holy Land?
Netanyahu calls for deployment of Jordanian troops in West Bank - Haaretz - Israel News
Netanyahu calls for deployment of Jordanian troops in West Bank - Haaretz - Israel News
What a lovely couple! A Right-wing hawk and a Left-wing dove giving peace a chance...Is this a sign of the end of days? Not!
For all of my Netanyahu fans out there, please listen closely. Bibi wants to invite the Jordanians back to take control of the "West Bank", otherwise known as the "Aucshwitz Borders" (Abba Eban's nickname, not mine!). Although he claims to be faithful, I'm sure that he would not think twice before he would make a similar deal in the Golan with Syria. Now, if you think that those policies will strengthen Israel, fine, you are entitled to your opinion...but don't call yourself a right-winger! How can anyone still believe that this man has changed his tune from the days when he sold out Hebron? He is still willing to sell out Eretz Yisroel in the name of political pragmatism. Please do not be fooled yet again by this smooth and savvy actor...
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The Seven Wonders of the World
My father had six siblings and they were known as the SEVEN WANDERS OF THE WORLD. I've always had an attachment to the 7 wonders because of thhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifat and my D4DR gene. Anyway, I just noticed a site where they are voting on a new 7 wonders on 07-07-07 in Lisbon. I voted even though I was disappointed with the options. I wrote to them and proposed a blank ballot in which one can choose any location even if it wasn't formally nominated. I would probably choose the Temple Mount/Western Wall in Jerusalem. I'm sure many Muslims would like to see the Kabba in Mecca...Enjoy!
The site's URL is: http://www.new7wonders.com/
The site's URL is: http://www.new7wonders.com/
Monday, June 18, 2007
Looters raid Arafat's home, steal his Nobel Peace Prize | Jerusalem Post
Here's a classic! Let's see when this winds up on Ebay...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813047962&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813047962&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Contact your government officials before it's too late!
I have just contacted my government representatives with this message,
"I am writing to you to express my personal opposition to the proposed Immigration Bill. I do not believe that it will in anyway contribute to the security of the United States, but to the contrary will only make our defenses weaker. At this critical time in US history, we must not be complacent about this vital issue!"
I recommend for everyone to contact their representatives and send a similar message ASAP! What we need in this country are more triggers and not the kind found in these absurd bills but the kind that actually enforces border control!!!
"I am writing to you to express my personal opposition to the proposed Immigration Bill. I do not believe that it will in anyway contribute to the security of the United States, but to the contrary will only make our defenses weaker. At this critical time in US history, we must not be complacent about this vital issue!"
I recommend for everyone to contact their representatives and send a similar message ASAP! What we need in this country are more triggers and not the kind found in these absurd bills but the kind that actually enforces border control!!!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
INTERVIEW: 'We must combine activism with faith' | Jerusalem Post
INTERVIEW: 'We must combine activism with faith' | Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition
INTERVIEW: 'We must combine activism with faith'
One on One with RUTHIE BLUM, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 14, 2007
'We have to stop being so tribalistic," insists NU/NRP Knesset member Benny Elon, "and remember that no one group in this country would have succeeded without the others."
Such promoting of societal cohesion might seem out of place, coming from a religious right-winger with a reputation for undermining his political opponents with the purism of an ideologue. But then, Elon is altogether an unusual sort of firebrand - one whose gentle manner and good cheer don't correspond to the "extremist" image that has accompanied the 52-year-old resident of the West Bank town of Beit El throughout his political life.
It is a stereotype many would deem well-deserved. After all, Elon began his Knesset career as a member of Moledet - headed by murdered minister Rehavam Ze'evi - a party pegged as racist for its platform.
Indeed, the son of retired Supreme Court Justice Menahem Elon and husband of author and pundit Emunah Elon might just as well have tattooed the scarlet letter "T" on his chest for "Transfer," or "O" for "ousted out of mainstream discourse." Neither detractors on the Left nor center-rightists were swayed by Elon's claims of finding a "humanitarian solution" to Israel's Palestinian problem. It did not matter that what he said he had in mind was not the "forced expulsion" of Arabs in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip ("The only people expelled here have been Jews," he wryly points out), but rather a "voluntary population exchange," enabled by massive financial incentives.
Nor has he succeeded in persuading the political echelon or the public that Israel should cultivate Jordan's Hashemite Kingdom as the sovereign entity responsible for the Palestinians - rather than backing independent statehood.
These basic elements - together with the elimination of the refugee issue - comprised what came to be known as the Elon Plan. It was an initiative geared toward counteracting other peace proposals on the table, including the road map, which Elon opposed as strongly as he did the Oslo Accords before it, and the disengagement plan that followed.
Elon's open opposition to disengagement didn't go over big with former boss prime minister Ariel Sharon. While serving as tourism minister in Sharon's government, he was issued warnings about his subversive activities in Washington, which included lobbying against a withdrawal from Gaza.
Elon received his walking papers two years ago this month - two months before the evacuation of Gush Katif and northern Samaria. As the thorn threatening to prick Sharon's majority in the cabinet vote on disengagement, Elon (and Israel Beiteinu head Avigdor Lieberman, with whom Elon's National Union had joined forces) had to be booted out.
The rest, it could be said, is history - or, perhaps, history in the making. Which is why Elon - a leading member of the Christian Allies Caucus of the Knesset, and author of God's Covenant with Israel [Balfour Books, 2005] - is rolling up his proverbial sleeves and reviving his peace plan.
In an hour-long interview (in Hebrew) at his office in the Knesset, Elon expresses concern about a "lack of idealism" in the country, yet also waxes poetic about the people "who managed to create a prosperous western society in the desert," and harbors hope for the future.
In hindsight, what would or should you as a representative of the right-wing bloc that opposed disengagement from Gaza have done differently?
Today, I can't see anything that could have prevented that madness. Sharon had a magnetic personality, and the Right was confused. The opposition within the Likud - even among those who did not move over to Kadima, and even among those who actually opposed disengagement - was too little, too late. And when Sharon threw me and Avigdor Lieberman out of the government so that he would have a majority for the withdrawal from Gaza, they remained and continued to play the game.
The critical moment was the cabinet meeting on Sunday, June 6, 2005. Sharon wanted to fire me on the Friday before the meeting, because the rule is that 24 hours have to pass [after a minister is fired and before a vote can be taken]. I tried to stall being handed the letter telling me I was fired, so that I could buy time and vote in that meeting. This is why the meeting ended up being postponed until Sunday night.
By firing Lieberman and me, Sharon accomplished two things: He made sure he had a majority, and he instilled fear in everybody else. If the Likud ministers had stood up to him during that cabinet meeting, he wouldn't have had a majority, and everything would have turned out differently. But once the cabinet passed the decision to go ahead with disengagement, nothing could stop Sharon.
You're talking about political maneuvering within the government. But what about the public? Didn't Sharon succeed in persuading a majority of the voters that disengagement was the right path?
Yes, but during the early stages, it wasn't a done deal. We wanted Sharon either to hold elections or conduct a national referendum. The only thing he did was hold a referendum in the Likud - and he lost, but ignored the vote. If he had gone to elections, it's likely he would have won, just as he did when he formed Kadima. But at least we would have been given the sense that this was the will of the public, and therefore there was nothing more we could do. In retrospect, we see that Sharon gained the support of the public, because even after uprooting the settlements [of Gush Katif and northern Samaria], he won the elections. His popularity and power were dominant. Sometimes we witness people making history. Sharon was doing that through his personality.
Or leadership?
Yes, though in my view it was negative leadership. It's an amazing phenomenon. This was a man who used to be called a murderer by the media at home and abroad. Suddenly he's Mr. Popularity, and even Shimon Peres joins him!
Are you implying that what it took for him to transform from a "murderer" to a "leader" in the eyes of the world, the media and the public was to withdraw from territory and uproot Jewish settlements?
There's no question about it. The Left is incredibly influential in the media. Nevertheless, I do not underestimate the power of Sharon's personality. He also had stature as one of the founders of the country - from the older generation.
Compare that to Olmert's standing. He's trying to accommodate the Left, yet he's the opposite of popular. So it's not enough for someone to lean Left in order to gain support. There is no doubt that Sharon himself played a central role in this disaster of Jews being expelled from their homes for no reason. The situation in Gaza today is exactly as we said it would be: Sderot and Ashkelon are being fired on. This was not a prophecy. It was clear that that's what would happen. I'm afraid that even today, the public hasn't internalized what happened, or at least not as deeply as it should.
You are an Orthodox Jew and a rabbi. Are you not able to view the processes the state is going through from a biblical perspective - as opposed to a political one? Couldn't you see everything that has unfolded over the years as part of the story of the Jewish People, rather than one of the Israeli electorate?
Absolutely. But I don't think that we can analyze these processes while they are going on. Interpretation requires perspective and distance. While things are happening, you have to try to act according to your beliefs and do what you can. You don't sit with your arms crossed. History is filled with examples of Jews saying, "That's it. We're in the Diaspora. There's no point in struggling." [The Second Temple-period sage] Rabbi Yohanan Ben-Zakai did that. I believe that God has shown us over the past 100 years that he expects us to take action - not to sit back and analyze his moves. On the contrary. Look at the behavior of the anti-Zionist haredi rabbis in Europe who told their students not to make aliya. Then came the Holocaust, and later the establishment of the state of Israel. In retrospect, we see that it was the secular activists who did the right thing. Those religious Jews who said, "If God wants it, the Messiah will arrive on a donkey, and we'll wait for that time," were wrong. I'm not saying it was only secular Jews who had the right idea. There were also rabbis, such as Rabbi Kook and others, who preceded Herzl - but they were in the minority. Most of the haredi rabbis said, "Do nothing. Be passive. That's what God wants."
I think that God wants us to be partners - to understand the general direction and help go there. It's like when we pray. He hears our prayers, but sometimes he says, "I don't want to meet your requests. You asked that I save Gush Katif; I don't want to." Right now, I don't know why. But in a few years, it could be that we'll understand this was something fantastic - that God planned it for some reason that is not immediately apparent. By the same token, it could be that we were simply not strong enough to withstand it. In any case, we must not fail to act. We must combine activism with faith.
The way we are supposed to combine the performance of mitzvot and faith?
Right. You can't say, "I believe in God, and therefore I don't really need to put on tefillin [phylacteries]; I can do yoga instead."
Speaking of substituting yoga for tefillin, do you not blame the secularism of Israeli society for the current problems? Do you think that if Israelis spent more time keeping actual mitzvot, things would be different?
It's more complicated than that. What hurts me is that even secular idealism seems to have gotten lost. Much of the establishment of the state can be credited to secular idealists. These were the people who wanted to save the Jewish people through statehood, rather than Judaism. They understood that they shouldn't merely assimilate into other cultures, but rather save their people. They took action for the sake of this ideal. Afterwards, there were all the founders of the Kibbutz Movement and the Second Aliya. Today's tragedy is the lack of people like these.
But wasn't that Herzl's dream, after all? To create a normal state with normal people - not some ideological Utopia?
Yes, but there are many things Herzl didn't anticipate. He was a great man; he saw the big picture, but he didn't see some of its smaller facets. For example, he didn't believe that Hebrew would be spoken in the Jewish state. He said, "Show me a single Jew who will be able to ask for a train ticket in Hebrew. There is no such person."
He thought it would be like Switzerland; cantons in which different languages would be spoken, and with one more dominant one, perhaps German. Well, it didn't turn out that way, and I guarantee you he's not angry about it. Nor did he deal with the issue of Arabs. The romantics of the Zionist movement didn't understand that they weren't coming to an empty land. They didn't anticipate a situation in which, 59 years after its establishment, while Israel was celebrating Independence Day, the Arabs were mourning the Nakba [catastrophe].
Therefore, though I agree that what I ultimately want is normalization, I still recognize that we haven't reached that point yet. We still have a long spiritual-ideological struggle ahead. The winner will be the one who is willing to sacrifice more - the one connected to the land. If the Arabs are so connected to the land that they're even willing to commit suicide for it - and the Jews are just as willing to settle in Switzerland - the Arabs will win. It is clear to me that the more a person understands what Eretz Yisrael is and who the people of Israel are, the more motivated he is to fight for it. By the same token, the willingness of a person who is raised on soap operas and self-fulfillment to commit to the struggle is much smaller that that of his enemy. What is missing, then, is not necessarily a commitment to religion here, but a commitment to the ideal of Zionism and personal responsibility. Also, we have to stop being so tribalistic in this country, and remember that no one group would have succeeded without the others.
Still, I don't want to paint too bleak a picture. I'm a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and after the Second Lebanon War, we invited anyone who served in the army and wanted to talk about the war to do so. Many reservists took us up on that. Some were religious, but most of them weren't. Managers of hi-tech companies, for example, who dropped everything to join their units in the North.
Some said that they wouldn't have hired the commander of their brigade to be in charge even of a minor operation in their companies. These are men who know what management is, and their criticisms were totally justified. It was one of the most educational experiences I've ever had.
Now, these guys are the very definition of normalization - yet they are idealists of the highest order. They wanted to bring things out in the open in order to rectify them. Their main point was that we shouldn't be buying the nonsense that all the problems of the war were the fault of the politicians. The army, too, they said, was at fault.
As managers of companies, they understood very well what was wrong with the way the war was handled on the ground.
Lately, I have heard much grumbling among members of the Right to the effect that Israelis are so stupid politically - and so ignorant of and apathetic to their roots - that they "don't deserve a state." What you are saying would indicate that you don't agree with that.
No, I certainly do not. But it doesn't surprise me. That kind of frustration has been around forever. All you have to do is read the Bible. Even Moses complained to God that he'd had it with the people of Israel. No sooner did they leave Egypt, he said, than they began worshiping the Golden Calf. But even Moses was willing to struggle to rectify this.
And look at Herzl. He felt that he was giving his heart and soul to the Jewish people, and most of them thought he was crazy.
Leadership not only requires being a good diagnostician; it requires a deep-seated belief that, with all their complexities, the Jews are God's chosen people, and therefore cannot be given up on. Like a teacher confronted with a difficult pupil. A bad teacher kicks him out of the classroom. A good one works with that pupil to make sure that something good comes of him.
This is not to say that I don't also feel frustrated by what often appears to be suicidal impulses on the part of the Jews. The whole Oslo process, for example. And, if there are elections, I do fear similar processes ahead.
Perhaps this is in the Jewish DNA?
Yes [he laughs]. In the Bible, we are referred to as a "stiff-necked people." But we are also a people chosen to do a job, and by hook or by crook, we will have to do it. You know, somebody once defined the meaning of "stiff-necked people" for me. He said that a person with a stiff neck is one who is unable to look to either side - and certainly not turn his head to look back; he can only look straight ahead ["kadima," in Hebrew]. Like the Kadima party [he laughs]. In other words, he doesn't learn from history.
Or maybe it's someone who is unable to look heavenward.
That, too. On the other hand, if you look at the reservists I mentioned, you'll see that there's more to our people than that. All of Israel's achievements come from the people. Look at our economic boom, for example. Though it is true that part of it is the result of [former finance minister Binyamin] Netanyahu's policies, it is the people who make it happen. We are a people that succeeds in spite of war. A people who managed to create a prosperous western society in the desert. Which is why I am neither despondent, nor of the belief that we should sit around resting on our laurels.
What kind of action, then, are you suggesting?
What I am suggesting is a different kind of peace plan. Until now, the Right has always stressed what should not be done, rather than what should. You know, "no" to a Palestinian state, "no" to this and "no" to that. It hasn't presented a viable alternative to the Left. The public doesn't buy this. It wants to see a light at the end of the tunnel. And whenever a right-wing prime minister has come to power, the plans on the table have always been to his Left.
Is that because the only real right-wing plans are ones that no one in this country would agree to - such as the expulsion of Arabs, or more severe military operations?
I don't buy that. It is a leftist stereotype of the Right's positions. Furthermore, [he says, wryly,] the only people expelled here have been Jews.
I am reviving and updating the plan I created a few years ago, which is now more relevant than ever. Its main principles are to eliminate the Palestinian refugee camps and to have regional cooperation with Egypt and Jordan, with the latter becoming the state that has functional sovereignty over the Palestinians.
You know, UNRWA [the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] is something that only the Palestinians have. The rest of the world has UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]. I met one of the heads of UNRWA, and he said that the mandate of the UNHCR - in Asia or Europe - is to work with governments to solve refugee problems within a time frame of two or three years. UNRWA has no such mandate. Its job is to maintain the refugee camps. My plan includes demanding that UNRWA be shut down and finding a humanitarian solution for the refugees - which means getting them out of camps and enabling them to cease being refugees. With a few billion dollars from the US, Europe and Israel, we could give every family of refugees $100,000-200,000, and release them from being refugees.
Surveys indicate that what most of these refugees want is a visa to some country and money with which to turn over a new leaf - just as my father came here as a refugee from Germany and began a new life. As it happens, there were more Jewish refugees from Arab countries here than Arab refugees: We had 860,000 Jews whom we absorbed in the country, and 670,000 Arabs. The 670,000 became 3-4 million in refugee camps - four generations. There is no other place in the world where there are refugees unto the fourth generation. A fourth year, maybe, at most. The Jews from Arab countries, on the other hand, didn't remain refugees. They became landlords and began new lives. The Palestinian refugees weren't able to do this, because their plight was exploited by their leaders.
You talk of regional cooperation with Jordan and Egypt. Aren't you forgetting that neither is a democracy, and neither has come to terms with the state of Israel?
I am taking that into account. But I think we shouldn't exaggerate the democracy issue. I don't accept Natan Sharansky's view of democratization in the Middle East, in spite of the incredible respect and admiration I have for him.
Why did democratization work for Japan after World War II?
Japan had the MacArthur plan, the way Europe had the Marshall plan. But I'm not sure the character of the Far East is similar to that of the Arabs. With all its problems, Japan is an economic superpower. In contrast, with all its petrodollars, the Arab world remains backward.
The example I prefer is Turkey, which sacrificed some of its democracy to prevent radical Islam from winning. Turkey would lose its government if it adhered to a Sharansky model of democracy. It would become part of the Muslim Levant. I don't want to see Jordan adhering to that kind of democracy, either. I want to strengthen the king, and to create an alliance of Turkey, Jordan, Israel and possibly Egypt - and not wait for democracy. We shouldn't treat democracy as a religion; it is an important tool which, when not used properly, turns out badly.
When the Saudis talk about a Palestinian state, we have to reject that and look to cooperation with Jordan. Today, King Abdullah is willing to consider giving auspices to the Arabs in Judea and Samaria. Let's not forget that, until 1988, they had Jordanian passports. And if their Jordanian passports are returned to them, they will have a good economic future.
Forty years have passed since the Six Day War. Instead of thanking God for having been rescued from the "borders of Auschwitz," as Abba Eban referred to them; instead of thanking God that the war gave us back our holiest places; and instead of negotiating with Jordan about the Arabs in Judea and Samaria to enable them to be respectable Jordanian citizens, we faltered and argued with each other. If we had done all those things, we would have been living in peace a long time ago. There would have been the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan and Palestine. Everybody thinks that when you say "Jordan is Palestine," you're talking about toppling the king. On the contrary, it is in the West's interest to upgrade him. Help him financially. Give him military confidence, so that he won't have to be afraid to be the king of the Palestinians.
A wealthy American businessman told me that if he had a lawyer who consistently gave him bad advice about his deals, he'd stop listening - especially if the lawyer had been repeating the mistake for 15 years. Well, for 15 years, Shimon Peres and others have been doing just that. They are good people, but their efforts have failed again and again. It's time for our initiative to be given a try - with the support of the US Congress and the international Christian community.
Your work with the Christians is based on shared values to counteract radical Islam. How does this jibe with what you're saying here - which sounds more like some form of regional realpolitik than a moral imperative?
What I'm doing in the Christian Allies Caucus is stressing the biblical values that are the key to having faith and modernity simultaneously. Jews have always integrated into their societies by adopting cultures, while remaining believing Jews.
Through the grassroots efforts of the hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide, people who were raised on the Hebrew Bible and Jerusalem and on the "God of Israel," we hope to cause the Islamists to realize that they are contending not only with the Jews, but with billions of other people.
If we all work together towards this and the points in my plan, I believe that within 10 years, we'll have security and peace.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813030324&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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Copyright 1995-2007 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Israeli Jets vs. Iranian Nukes - article by Daniel Pipes
Israeli Jets vs. Iranian Nukes - article by Daniel Pipes
From www.danielpipes.org | Original article available at: www.danielpipes.org/article/4634
Israeli Jets vs. Iranian Nukes
by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
June 12, 2007
[With slight differences from the NY Sun version]
Barring a "catastrophic development," Middle East Newsline reports, George Bush has decided not to attack Iran. An administration source explains that Washington deems Iran's cooperation "needed for a withdrawal [of U.S. forces] from Iraq."
If correct, this implies the Jewish state stands alone against a regime that threatens to "wipe Israel off the map" and is building the nuclear weapons to do so. Israeli leaders are hinting that their patience is running out; Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz just warned that "diplomatic efforts should bear results by the end of 2007."
Can the Israel Defense Forces in fact disrupt Iran's nuclear program?
Top secret analyses from intelligence agencies normally reply to such a question. But talented outsiders, using open sources, can also try their hand. Whitney Raas and Austin Long studied this problem at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and published their impressive analysis, "Osirak Redux? Assessing Israeli Capabilities to Destroy Iranian Nuclear Facilities," in the journal International Security.
Raas and Long focus exclusively on feasibility, not political desirability or strategic ramifications: Were the Israeli national command to decide to damage the Iranian infrastructure, could its forces accomplish this mission? The authors consider five components of a successful strike:
The Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
Intelligence: To impede the production of fissile material requires incapacitating only three facilities of Iran's nuclear infrastructure. In ascending order of importance, these are: the heavy water plant and plutonium production reactors under construction at Arak, a uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, and a uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Destroying the Natanz facility in particular, they note, "is critical to impeding Iran's progress toward nuclearization."
Ordnance: To damage all three facilities with reasonable confidence requires – given their size, their being underground, the weapons available to the Israeli forces, and other factors – twenty-four 5,000-lb. weapons and twenty-four 2,000-lb. weapons.
An F-15I
Platforms: Noting the "odd amalgamation of technologies" available to the Iranians and the limitations of their fighter planes and ground defenses to stand up to the high-tech Israeli air force, Raas-Long calculate that the IDF needs a relatively small strike package of twenty-five F-15Is and twenty-five F-16Is.
Routes: Israeli jets can reach their targets via three paths: Turkey to the north, Jordan and Iraq in the middle, or Saudi Arabia to the south. In terms of fuel and cargo, the distances in all three cases are manageable.
Defense forces: Rather than predict the outcome of an Israeli-Iranian confrontation, the authors calculate how many out of the 50 Israeli planes would have to reach their three targets for the operation to succeed. They figure 24 planes must reach Natanz, 6 to Isfahan, and 5 to Arak, or 35 all together. Turned around, that means the Iranian defenders minimally must stop 16 of 50 planes, or one-third of the strike force. The authors consider this attrition rate "considerable" for Natanz and "almost unimaginable" for the other two targets.
In all, Raas-Long find that the relentless modernization of Israel's air force gives it "the capability to destroy even well-hardened targets in Iran with some degree of confidence." Comparing an Iranian operation to Israel's 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, which was a complete success, they find this one "would appear to be no more risky" than the earlier one.
The great question mark hanging over the operation, one which the authors do not speculate about, is whether any of the Turkish, Jordanian, American, or Saudi governments would acquiesce to Israeli penetration of their air spaces. (Iraq, recall, is under American control). Unless the Israelis win advance permission to cross these territories, their jets might have to fight their way to Iran. More than any other factor, this one imperils the entire project. (The IDF could reduce this problem by flying along borders, for example, the Turkey-Syria one, permitting both countries en route to claim Israeli planes were in the other fellow's air space.)
Raas-Long imply but do not state that the IDF could reach Kharg Island, through which over 90 percent of Iranian oil is exported, heavily damaging the Iranian economy.
That Israeli forces have "a reasonable chance of success" unilaterally to destroy key Iranian nuclear facilities could help deter Tehran from proceeding with its weapon program. The Raas-Long study, therefore, makes a diplomatic deal more likely. Its results deserve the widest possible dissemination.
Mr. Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org), director of the Middle East Forum, taught for two years at the U.S. Naval War College.
From www.danielpipes.org | Original article available at: www.danielpipes.org/article/4634
From www.danielpipes.org | Original article available at: www.danielpipes.org/article/4634
Israeli Jets vs. Iranian Nukes
by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
June 12, 2007
[With slight differences from the NY Sun version]
Barring a "catastrophic development," Middle East Newsline reports, George Bush has decided not to attack Iran. An administration source explains that Washington deems Iran's cooperation "needed for a withdrawal [of U.S. forces] from Iraq."
If correct, this implies the Jewish state stands alone against a regime that threatens to "wipe Israel off the map" and is building the nuclear weapons to do so. Israeli leaders are hinting that their patience is running out; Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz just warned that "diplomatic efforts should bear results by the end of 2007."
Can the Israel Defense Forces in fact disrupt Iran's nuclear program?
Top secret analyses from intelligence agencies normally reply to such a question. But talented outsiders, using open sources, can also try their hand. Whitney Raas and Austin Long studied this problem at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and published their impressive analysis, "Osirak Redux? Assessing Israeli Capabilities to Destroy Iranian Nuclear Facilities," in the journal International Security.
Raas and Long focus exclusively on feasibility, not political desirability or strategic ramifications: Were the Israeli national command to decide to damage the Iranian infrastructure, could its forces accomplish this mission? The authors consider five components of a successful strike:
The Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
Intelligence: To impede the production of fissile material requires incapacitating only three facilities of Iran's nuclear infrastructure. In ascending order of importance, these are: the heavy water plant and plutonium production reactors under construction at Arak, a uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, and a uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Destroying the Natanz facility in particular, they note, "is critical to impeding Iran's progress toward nuclearization."
Ordnance: To damage all three facilities with reasonable confidence requires – given their size, their being underground, the weapons available to the Israeli forces, and other factors – twenty-four 5,000-lb. weapons and twenty-four 2,000-lb. weapons.
An F-15I
Platforms: Noting the "odd amalgamation of technologies" available to the Iranians and the limitations of their fighter planes and ground defenses to stand up to the high-tech Israeli air force, Raas-Long calculate that the IDF needs a relatively small strike package of twenty-five F-15Is and twenty-five F-16Is.
Routes: Israeli jets can reach their targets via three paths: Turkey to the north, Jordan and Iraq in the middle, or Saudi Arabia to the south. In terms of fuel and cargo, the distances in all three cases are manageable.
Defense forces: Rather than predict the outcome of an Israeli-Iranian confrontation, the authors calculate how many out of the 50 Israeli planes would have to reach their three targets for the operation to succeed. They figure 24 planes must reach Natanz, 6 to Isfahan, and 5 to Arak, or 35 all together. Turned around, that means the Iranian defenders minimally must stop 16 of 50 planes, or one-third of the strike force. The authors consider this attrition rate "considerable" for Natanz and "almost unimaginable" for the other two targets.
In all, Raas-Long find that the relentless modernization of Israel's air force gives it "the capability to destroy even well-hardened targets in Iran with some degree of confidence." Comparing an Iranian operation to Israel's 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, which was a complete success, they find this one "would appear to be no more risky" than the earlier one.
The great question mark hanging over the operation, one which the authors do not speculate about, is whether any of the Turkish, Jordanian, American, or Saudi governments would acquiesce to Israeli penetration of their air spaces. (Iraq, recall, is under American control). Unless the Israelis win advance permission to cross these territories, their jets might have to fight their way to Iran. More than any other factor, this one imperils the entire project. (The IDF could reduce this problem by flying along borders, for example, the Turkey-Syria one, permitting both countries en route to claim Israeli planes were in the other fellow's air space.)
Raas-Long imply but do not state that the IDF could reach Kharg Island, through which over 90 percent of Iranian oil is exported, heavily damaging the Iranian economy.
That Israeli forces have "a reasonable chance of success" unilaterally to destroy key Iranian nuclear facilities could help deter Tehran from proceeding with its weapon program. The Raas-Long study, therefore, makes a diplomatic deal more likely. Its results deserve the widest possible dissemination.
Mr. Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org), director of the Middle East Forum, taught for two years at the U.S. Naval War College.
From www.danielpipes.org | Original article available at: www.danielpipes.org/article/4634
Friday, June 15, 2007
Gaza - The next Iran...
I think that the only "logical" result of the new Islamic State of Gaza (and Hizballah in Lebanon) is to pressure Israel into evacuating more territory and hoping that the resulting vacuum pulls in more friendly radical Islamist Al Quaeda types....I have already heard of reports from Gaza Arabs saying that they WISH Israel was back there!!! "Oh, how things used to be so nice when Israel was around"...
The repercussions of this are very serious and far reaching. It is already spreading to the "West Bank" and its only a matter of time before it effects the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt!
What is mind boggling is that: number one, the whole Israeli cabinet is on summer vacation and out of the country (Olmert, Peretz and Livni), and number two, PM Olmert is trying to put good old Ehud Barak back in charge (as Defense Minister)! Do they not realize that it was his unilateral withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, in the middle of the night, scheme that started all this in the first place? Do they not remember "Intifada I" when Rabin was out of the country and by the time he got back it was out of control? Where are peoples memories??? I keep having flashbacks of Dori from Finding Nemo...
Likewise, I have no words to express my dismay over Peres becoming Israel's 9th president...other than, A: He lost yet again (in the first round) and maybe they put him there just so he would keep his big nose (no, that was not an anti-semitic slur) out of real politics! Wishful thinking...I'm sure that this will come back to bite us in the end..:-(
The repercussions of this are very serious and far reaching. It is already spreading to the "West Bank" and its only a matter of time before it effects the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt!
What is mind boggling is that: number one, the whole Israeli cabinet is on summer vacation and out of the country (Olmert, Peretz and Livni), and number two, PM Olmert is trying to put good old Ehud Barak back in charge (as Defense Minister)! Do they not realize that it was his unilateral withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, in the middle of the night, scheme that started all this in the first place? Do they not remember "Intifada I" when Rabin was out of the country and by the time he got back it was out of control? Where are peoples memories??? I keep having flashbacks of Dori from Finding Nemo...
Likewise, I have no words to express my dismay over Peres becoming Israel's 9th president...other than, A: He lost yet again (in the first round) and maybe they put him there just so he would keep his big nose (no, that was not an anti-semitic slur) out of real politics! Wishful thinking...I'm sure that this will come back to bite us in the end..:-(
Monday, June 11, 2007
Axis of Evil - Muslims in America post 9/11
Last month I wrote about Maysood Zayid and Arab comedians. Well, last night I watched the "The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour" on DVD which has four Muslim/American comedians representing 3 Arab countries and Iran. I thought it was absolutely hilarious and recommend it to all. Although they wouldn't be considered 'good Muslims', they did a great job of portraying, in good taste, life as a Muslim in America post 9/11. Let me know what you think...
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Iran invites Israeli tourists...Interesting!
Iran invites Israeli tourists: "
Wednesday, June 06, 2007 by Staff Writer
Iran invites Israeli tourists
Just days after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that the “countdown to the destruction of Israel has begun,” Iranian government officials cordially invited Israelis to visit their country.
During a recent international tourism conference in Berlin, a representative of the Israeli culture and tourism television program “The Good Life” said he was shocked when high-level officials from the Iranian Ministry of Tourism singled him out and treated him to a very warm reception.
Sharon Lamberger told Israel's Ma'ariv daily newspaper that as the encounter drew to a close, the Iranians said they would very much like for Israeli tourists to come to Iran.
Israel and Iran had friendly relations prior to the Islamic Revolution and the overthrow of the shah by the ayatollahs. Many in Iran still remember those days, and are ready to reconnect with the Jewish state.
Lamberger said he hopes to use the information and material provided by his new Iranian friends to prepare Israelis for the day they are able to visit and explore the Persian homeland."
Wednesday, June 06, 2007 by Staff Writer
Iran invites Israeli tourists
Just days after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that the “countdown to the destruction of Israel has begun,” Iranian government officials cordially invited Israelis to visit their country.
During a recent international tourism conference in Berlin, a representative of the Israeli culture and tourism television program “The Good Life” said he was shocked when high-level officials from the Iranian Ministry of Tourism singled him out and treated him to a very warm reception.
Sharon Lamberger told Israel's Ma'ariv daily newspaper that as the encounter drew to a close, the Iranians said they would very much like for Israeli tourists to come to Iran.
Israel and Iran had friendly relations prior to the Islamic Revolution and the overthrow of the shah by the ayatollahs. Many in Iran still remember those days, and are ready to reconnect with the Jewish state.
Lamberger said he hopes to use the information and material provided by his new Iranian friends to prepare Israelis for the day they are able to visit and explore the Persian homeland."
Friday, June 8, 2007
Justice at last!
I hate to write about such a mundane matter as Paris Hilton, but I encourage everyone that believes in a fair and just system of law in the United States to write to Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer and commend him on his courage to uphold the law even with filthy rich spoiled millionairesses.
He can be contacted at:http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org/feedback/
ps According to the latest CNN online poll 91% of the people polled agree with the judges decision. My guess is that the 9% that don't agree with him are probably filthy rich spoiled millionairesses!
There goes the neighborhood...Scary!
Terror in America
Preparations for "Homegrown Jihad" in the U.S.?
By Douglas Hagmann NE Intelligence Network
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
CATSKILLS SITE EYED
5 June 2005: An article published by John Mazor and and Murray Weiss in the New York Post yesterday provided more media coverage into the Islamic encampment in New York state that this agency has been reporting on for the last 18 months - Islamberg. According to the report in the New York Post, "reports of gunfire and military-style physical training at the camp have led some investigators to believe that the group's members are preparing for homegrown jihad." An admission by one members of the enclave was interesting, considering the background of many of the residents: "We got guns up here just like everyone else got guns."
Image by New York Fox Channel 5
In addition to the guns, this investigator verified that they also have a school bus on the property - a bus like our children ride to school, except this bus appears to hold distinctions few other school buses have... windows that appear to have been "blown out" from the inside, and holes that resemble and appear to be bullet holes into its exterior shell. The bus sits idle on the property and does not appear to be operable. The fact that this bus is present on the property at all is curious, as this commune of Muslim followers of Pakistani terrorist Sheikh SyeSyed Mubarik Ali Gilani boasts of its own school program for its members.
Terrorist Sheikh SyeSyed Mubarik Ali Gilani
Questions posed to the members of the compound are unwelcome, and an investigative report published by this agency in conjunction with another Internet researcher was met with the ire of Sheikh Gilani himself on his web site in a scathing statement of disapproval and accusations.
Nearly six years after the worst terrorist attacks against the U.S. in our history, it is disturbing that disrupted Muslim terror plots merit less space and placement in the print media than matters related to Paris Hilton and and other "soft news." It is refreshing, however, to see the New York Post taking the lead in asking questions about what is taking place at Gilani-run compounds in the U.S. such as Islamberg. Considering that recent federal indictments have exposed that paramilitary training of Muslim men is taking place in the U.S. - such as those involved in the plot to attack Fort Dix - we would expect more coverage on this issue.
U.S. publications have much catching up to do, however, to our Canadian partners. To date, Judi McLeod, the founder and executive editor of Canada Free Press and her aggressive and super-competent staff of investigative reporters have blazed the trail in exposing such compounds here in the U.S. Canada Free Press has provided extensive and excellent coverage of Jamaat ul fuqra, the terrorist organization behind these compounds. Author and investigative reporter Paul Williams, the author of the new book The Day of Islam and whose reports have appeared on Canada Free Press and other Internet news sites, has also been working overtime to identify potential threats posed by encampments such as Islamberg and Jamaat ul Fuqra compounds that have become more active in the wake of the attacks on America.
With more than 35 such compounds spread over the U.S., many located in strategic areas close to locations of critical U.S. infrastructures, we need to be paying close attention to what is taking place inside America and our own back yards. And our attention span to such matters must be maintained until the threat against us - against our children and future generations, is terminated. Failure to do so could result in a school bus with blasted windows and bullet holes on a city street in America's heartland.
With special thanks to Mr. John Mazor and Mr. Murray Weiss of the New York Post, Judi McLeod and her staff at Canada Free Press, author Dr. Paul Williams, and Fox News5.
Preparations for "Homegrown Jihad" in the U.S.?
By Douglas Hagmann NE Intelligence Network
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
CATSKILLS SITE EYED
5 June 2005: An article published by John Mazor and and Murray Weiss in the New York Post yesterday provided more media coverage into the Islamic encampment in New York state that this agency has been reporting on for the last 18 months - Islamberg. According to the report in the New York Post, "reports of gunfire and military-style physical training at the camp have led some investigators to believe that the group's members are preparing for homegrown jihad." An admission by one members of the enclave was interesting, considering the background of many of the residents: "We got guns up here just like everyone else got guns."
Image by New York Fox Channel 5
In addition to the guns, this investigator verified that they also have a school bus on the property - a bus like our children ride to school, except this bus appears to hold distinctions few other school buses have... windows that appear to have been "blown out" from the inside, and holes that resemble and appear to be bullet holes into its exterior shell. The bus sits idle on the property and does not appear to be operable. The fact that this bus is present on the property at all is curious, as this commune of Muslim followers of Pakistani terrorist Sheikh SyeSyed Mubarik Ali Gilani boasts of its own school program for its members.
Terrorist Sheikh SyeSyed Mubarik Ali Gilani
Questions posed to the members of the compound are unwelcome, and an investigative report published by this agency in conjunction with another Internet researcher was met with the ire of Sheikh Gilani himself on his web site in a scathing statement of disapproval and accusations.
Nearly six years after the worst terrorist attacks against the U.S. in our history, it is disturbing that disrupted Muslim terror plots merit less space and placement in the print media than matters related to Paris Hilton and and other "soft news." It is refreshing, however, to see the New York Post taking the lead in asking questions about what is taking place at Gilani-run compounds in the U.S. such as Islamberg. Considering that recent federal indictments have exposed that paramilitary training of Muslim men is taking place in the U.S. - such as those involved in the plot to attack Fort Dix - we would expect more coverage on this issue.
U.S. publications have much catching up to do, however, to our Canadian partners. To date, Judi McLeod, the founder and executive editor of Canada Free Press and her aggressive and super-competent staff of investigative reporters have blazed the trail in exposing such compounds here in the U.S. Canada Free Press has provided extensive and excellent coverage of Jamaat ul fuqra, the terrorist organization behind these compounds. Author and investigative reporter Paul Williams, the author of the new book The Day of Islam and whose reports have appeared on Canada Free Press and other Internet news sites, has also been working overtime to identify potential threats posed by encampments such as Islamberg and Jamaat ul Fuqra compounds that have become more active in the wake of the attacks on America.
With more than 35 such compounds spread over the U.S., many located in strategic areas close to locations of critical U.S. infrastructures, we need to be paying close attention to what is taking place inside America and our own back yards. And our attention span to such matters must be maintained until the threat against us - against our children and future generations, is terminated. Failure to do so could result in a school bus with blasted windows and bullet holes on a city street in America's heartland.
With special thanks to Mr. John Mazor and Mr. Murray Weiss of the New York Post, Judi McLeod and her staff at Canada Free Press, author Dr. Paul Williams, and Fox News5.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
The seal and motto of São Paulo
I really liked the seal and motto of São Paulo. In Latin it says, ""Non ducor, duco" or "I am not led, I lead" in English...
A sign for Rudy Giuliani? Lightning strikes during answer
This speaks for itself...Classic!
CNN.com - CNN Political Ticker Storm's wrath strikes Giuliani «
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Skybus and Megabus
I decided to try out the two new ultra-cheap transportation options in the US. I booked tickets to Chicago and Milwaukee on Megabus (www.megabus.com) for $1 each way and tickets to LA/Seattle for $10 each way on Skybus (www.skybus.com)!
Last year I flew from London to Oslo for one penny (albeit a British penny) each way on RyanAir and it really wasn't too bad.
I look forward to reviewing the US versions after my trips.
Stay tuned...
Last year I flew from London to Oslo for one penny (albeit a British penny) each way on RyanAir and it really wasn't too bad.
I look forward to reviewing the US versions after my trips.
Stay tuned...
Friday, June 1, 2007
Skirt Power!
Pentecostalist refuses to wear pants
US World News
NEW YORK, May 31 A bus driver of the Pentecostal faith said she may sue the New York Transit Association for firing her just because she refused to wear pants.
Tahita Jenkins, 33, explained to her bosses that the standard issue bus driver's uniform, which required the wearing of pants, was against her religion, The New York Post reported Thursday.
She even went as far as to bring in a note from her pastor at the Holy Ghost Headquarters Prayer Band Mission of New Beginning Deliverance Church in Far Rockaway, in the New York borough of Queens, requesting that she be allowed to wear a skirt at work.
But even that didn't work and officials in the transit department insisted that she must either wear pants or culottes or lose her job.
Transit officials fired Jenkins on Tuesday and she is now considering filing a lawsuit.
A similar suit involving Brinks Inc., the armored security service, resulted in a Pentecostal woman being awarded $30,000 and offered her job back, although she had to wear culottes as a compromise.
US World News
NEW YORK, May 31 A bus driver of the Pentecostal faith said she may sue the New York Transit Association for firing her just because she refused to wear pants.
Tahita Jenkins, 33, explained to her bosses that the standard issue bus driver's uniform, which required the wearing of pants, was against her religion, The New York Post reported Thursday.
She even went as far as to bring in a note from her pastor at the Holy Ghost Headquarters Prayer Band Mission of New Beginning Deliverance Church in Far Rockaway, in the New York borough of Queens, requesting that she be allowed to wear a skirt at work.
But even that didn't work and officials in the transit department insisted that she must either wear pants or culottes or lose her job.
Transit officials fired Jenkins on Tuesday and she is now considering filing a lawsuit.
A similar suit involving Brinks Inc., the armored security service, resulted in a Pentecostal woman being awarded $30,000 and offered her job back, although she had to wear culottes as a compromise.
Sci-fi writers join war on terror
Sci-fi writers join war on terror
'CRAZY IDEAS'
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
From laser weapons to test-tube babies, science-fiction writers have imagined hundreds of futuristic technologies that were or are being developed and used by the government or produced for the public. Among them:
From author Robert Heinlein: cellphones, remote-controlled robot arms, microwave ovens, water beds.
From author H.G. Wells: atomic bombs, airplanes, television, joystick controls.
From author Arlan Andrews: tourist spaceships, downloadable pocket-sized books.
Looking to prevent the next terrorist attack, the Homeland Security Department is tapping into the wild imaginations of a group of self-described "deviant" thinkers: science-fiction writers.
"We spend our entire careers living in the future," says author Arlan Andrews, one of a handful of writers the government brought to Washington this month to attend a Homeland Security conference on science and technology.
Those responsible for keeping the nation safe from devastating attacks realize that in addition to border agents, police and airport screeners, they "need people to think of crazy ideas," Andrews says.
The writers make up a group called Sigma, which Andrews put together 15 years ago to advise government officials. The last time the group gathered was in the late 1990s, when members met with government scientists to discuss what a post-nuclear age might look like, says group member Greg Bear. He has written 30 sci-fi books, including the best seller Darwin's Radio.
Now, the Homeland Security Department is calling on the group to help with the government's latest top mission of combating terrorism.
Although some sci-fi writers' futuristic ideas might sound crazy now, scientists know that they often have what seems to be an uncanny ability to see into the future.
"Fifty years ago, science-fiction writers told us about flying cars and a wireless handheld communicator," says Christopher Kelly, spokesman for Homeland Security's Science and Technology division. "Although flying cars haven't evolved, cellphones today are a way of life. We need to look everywhere for ideas, and science-fiction writers clearly inform the debate."
Bear says the writers offer powerful imaginations that can conjure up not only possible methods of attack, but also ideas about how governments and individuals will respond and what kinds of high-tech tools could prevent attacks.
The group's motto is "Science Fiction in the National Interest." To join the group, Andrews says, you have to have at least one technical doctorate degree.
"We're well-qualified nuts," says Jerry Pournelle, co-author of the best sellers Footfall and Lucifer's Hammer and dozens of other books.
Pournelle and others say that science-fiction writers have spent their lives studying the kinds of technologies and scenarios Homeland Security officials have been tackling since the department began operating in 2003.
"We talk to a lot of strange people and read a lot of weird things," Bear says.
At the Washington conference, Bear offered to put biometrics researchers in touch with movie special-effects experts. The experts might be able to help the government determine how to match the face of someone walking through an airport to a grainy photo of a known terrorist.
Bear's latest book, Quantico, is a sci-fi thriller that has FBI agents and a bioterrorism expert racing to hunt down a homegrown terrorist.
"We'll play 'What if?' with anything," says Sage Walker, an emergency medicine physician turned sci-fi writer and the only woman in the group. She says the discussions with government officials "tend to be very intense and far-ranging."
So are discussions between the writers. During a coffee break at the conference, Walker, Bear and Andrews started talking about the government's bomb-sniffing dogs. Within minutes, they had conjured up a doggie brain-scanning skullcap that could tell agents what kind of explosive material a dog had picked up.
The 9/11 Commission called the 2001 terrorist attacks a result of the government's "failure of imagination." For this group, Walker says, there's no such thing as an "unthinkable scenario."
Why offer their ideas to the government instead of private companies that pay big bucks?
"To save civilization," Ringworld author Larry Niven says. "We do it in fiction. Why wouldn't we want to do it in fact?"
'CRAZY IDEAS'
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
From laser weapons to test-tube babies, science-fiction writers have imagined hundreds of futuristic technologies that were or are being developed and used by the government or produced for the public. Among them:
From author Robert Heinlein: cellphones, remote-controlled robot arms, microwave ovens, water beds.
From author H.G. Wells: atomic bombs, airplanes, television, joystick controls.
From author Arlan Andrews: tourist spaceships, downloadable pocket-sized books.
Looking to prevent the next terrorist attack, the Homeland Security Department is tapping into the wild imaginations of a group of self-described "deviant" thinkers: science-fiction writers.
"We spend our entire careers living in the future," says author Arlan Andrews, one of a handful of writers the government brought to Washington this month to attend a Homeland Security conference on science and technology.
Those responsible for keeping the nation safe from devastating attacks realize that in addition to border agents, police and airport screeners, they "need people to think of crazy ideas," Andrews says.
The writers make up a group called Sigma, which Andrews put together 15 years ago to advise government officials. The last time the group gathered was in the late 1990s, when members met with government scientists to discuss what a post-nuclear age might look like, says group member Greg Bear. He has written 30 sci-fi books, including the best seller Darwin's Radio.
Now, the Homeland Security Department is calling on the group to help with the government's latest top mission of combating terrorism.
Although some sci-fi writers' futuristic ideas might sound crazy now, scientists know that they often have what seems to be an uncanny ability to see into the future.
"Fifty years ago, science-fiction writers told us about flying cars and a wireless handheld communicator," says Christopher Kelly, spokesman for Homeland Security's Science and Technology division. "Although flying cars haven't evolved, cellphones today are a way of life. We need to look everywhere for ideas, and science-fiction writers clearly inform the debate."
Bear says the writers offer powerful imaginations that can conjure up not only possible methods of attack, but also ideas about how governments and individuals will respond and what kinds of high-tech tools could prevent attacks.
The group's motto is "Science Fiction in the National Interest." To join the group, Andrews says, you have to have at least one technical doctorate degree.
"We're well-qualified nuts," says Jerry Pournelle, co-author of the best sellers Footfall and Lucifer's Hammer and dozens of other books.
Pournelle and others say that science-fiction writers have spent their lives studying the kinds of technologies and scenarios Homeland Security officials have been tackling since the department began operating in 2003.
"We talk to a lot of strange people and read a lot of weird things," Bear says.
At the Washington conference, Bear offered to put biometrics researchers in touch with movie special-effects experts. The experts might be able to help the government determine how to match the face of someone walking through an airport to a grainy photo of a known terrorist.
Bear's latest book, Quantico, is a sci-fi thriller that has FBI agents and a bioterrorism expert racing to hunt down a homegrown terrorist.
"We'll play 'What if?' with anything," says Sage Walker, an emergency medicine physician turned sci-fi writer and the only woman in the group. She says the discussions with government officials "tend to be very intense and far-ranging."
So are discussions between the writers. During a coffee break at the conference, Walker, Bear and Andrews started talking about the government's bomb-sniffing dogs. Within minutes, they had conjured up a doggie brain-scanning skullcap that could tell agents what kind of explosive material a dog had picked up.
The 9/11 Commission called the 2001 terrorist attacks a result of the government's "failure of imagination." For this group, Walker says, there's no such thing as an "unthinkable scenario."
Why offer their ideas to the government instead of private companies that pay big bucks?
"To save civilization," Ringworld author Larry Niven says. "We do it in fiction. Why wouldn't we want to do it in fact?"
Congratulations Pittsburgh!
Congratulations Pittsburgh, You've (or yinz/yunz, in Pittsburghese) taken the first important step towards a two party system...
GOP mayoral candidate DeSantis unfazed by obstacles
Mark DeSantis
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Mark DeSantis sat in his sparse South Side office Wednesday, cradling his company's latest investment -- a plastic sphere of tiny wireless cameras called a "MobileFusion Ball."
The prototype might one day help soldiers or police officers safely survey a room filled with gunmen and hostages.
But DeSantis, soon to mobilize a political campaign, knows it will take a lot more than stealth technology to unseat Democratic Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
A day after learning he captured enough Republican write-in votes to challenge Ravenstahl in November, DeSantis said he is undaunted by the young mayor's enormous popularity and fundraising advantage, the Democrats' voter registration dominance in Pittsburgh, or the fact that a Republican hasn't been mayor since 1933.
story continues below
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"We need profound reform, and that really crosses any party affiliation or party lines," said DeSantis, 47, of Downtown, who founded the technology consulting firm Formation3. "Pittsburgh has some very serious problems."
He notes that a typical major U.S. city spends 12 percent of its budget to pay off long-term debt. Pittsburgh spends about double that.
"The debt and liabilities are really off the scale," he said. "Unless it's addressed right now, directly, on a grand scale, it will overwhelm this city. It will overwhelm our ability to take care of ourselves. And to me that's a big deal."
Shrinking the size of government to bring it more in line with the city's declining population, and combining city and Allegheny County services, are some of the issues he plans to discuss during his campaign.
DeSantis intends to rely on his deep background in business and politics, which Ravenstahl, 27, of Summer Hill, lacks.
DeSantis worked under President George H.W. Bush as a senior policy analyst in The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Department of Commerce, and served as an aide to the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz. He worked as a management consultant with a technology consulting firm in Virginia.
Ravenstahl, a one-term city councilman who inherited his job in September when Mayor Bob O'Connor died, said he would take any Republican challenger seriously.
"I think if a good enough candidate came forward with good ideas, I think anybody can win," Ravenstahl said yesterday.
He said he decided not to wage a campaign to capture the majority of GOP write-in votes in the May 15 primary in an attempt to run unopposed in the general election.
"I'm a Democrat," Ravenstahl said. "I didn't feel I wanted to pursue that at this time."
Party pride didn't deter another Democrat, county Chief Executive Dan Onorato, from pursuing Republican voters. Onorato, who will run unopposed in November, used an automated phone bank to woo Republicans. They rewarded him with 1,844 write-in votes, nearly triple the 623 netted by Matthew Drozd Jr., the son of County Councilman Matt Drozd.
A preliminary tally gave DeSantis 910 write-in votes, compared to 294 for Ravenstahl and well more than the 250 DeSantis needed to get on the ballot.
Ravenstahl said he would debate his opponent.
"Sure, I'm willing to talk about the issues," he said. "If I feel he's serious enough about his candidacy, it's something I'd be open to doing."
City and county Republicans must get serious about DeSantis' candidacy to pull off what many consider an improbable -- if not impossible -- victory, said Jerry Shuster, a University of Pittsburgh political communications professor.
"All of the Republicans have to coalesce around him," Shuster said. "They have to be able to put together the nucleus of a campaign team that handles everything from low-level door knocking to high-profile fundraising."
Ravenstahl has a big head start, with $695,905 in his campaign account. DeSantis has zero.
But he has been involved in winning Republican causes before, as a volunteer with Jim Roddey's successful 1999 campaign for county chief executive. He worked for Roddey's transition team.
Roddey said DeSantis is intelligent and articulate, understands politics, and loves Pittsburgh.
He believes DeSantis is running in order to highlight the city's serious financial woes, which "have been swept under the rug."
"I think Mark would favor cutting the size of city government, combining city services with county government and cutting the size of the fire department," Roddey said. "He has a lot of ideas that are sound, but are not going to be popular with the labor unions."
Mark F. DeSantis
Political party: Republican
Age: 47
Background: Born in Oakland and reared in Sharpsville, Mercer County.
Family: Single
Occupation: President of Formation3, a technology consulting firm.
Education: Graduate of Kennedy Christian High School in Hermitage; bachelor's degree in American studies and master's degree in business administration, from the University of Dayton; master's degree in technology management from American University, Washington; doctorate in public policy from George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.
Background: Was a senior policy analyst in The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Department of Commerce under President George H.W. Bush; served as aide to the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz; worked as a management consultant with Booz, Allen and Hamilton, a technology consulting firm in McClean, Va.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
GOP mayoral candidate DeSantis unfazed by obstacles
Mark DeSantis
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Mark DeSantis sat in his sparse South Side office Wednesday, cradling his company's latest investment -- a plastic sphere of tiny wireless cameras called a "MobileFusion Ball."
The prototype might one day help soldiers or police officers safely survey a room filled with gunmen and hostages.
But DeSantis, soon to mobilize a political campaign, knows it will take a lot more than stealth technology to unseat Democratic Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
A day after learning he captured enough Republican write-in votes to challenge Ravenstahl in November, DeSantis said he is undaunted by the young mayor's enormous popularity and fundraising advantage, the Democrats' voter registration dominance in Pittsburgh, or the fact that a Republican hasn't been mayor since 1933.
story continues below
<a href="http://ads.pittsburghlive.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/pittsburghlive.com/pittsburghtrib/s_510260.html/811917349/Position1/OasDefault/dollarbankP1R3_June07/DB_nothing_300x250.txt/34363131626538613436356662363430?http://dollarads.h2media.com/dollarads/nothingtohide/"><IMG SRC="http://ads.pittsburghlive.com/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/OasDefault/dollarbankP1R3_June07/http://ads.pittsburghlive.com/richads/dollarbank/nothingtohide/300x250_PL.gif" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 BORDER=0></a>
"We need profound reform, and that really crosses any party affiliation or party lines," said DeSantis, 47, of Downtown, who founded the technology consulting firm Formation3. "Pittsburgh has some very serious problems."
He notes that a typical major U.S. city spends 12 percent of its budget to pay off long-term debt. Pittsburgh spends about double that.
"The debt and liabilities are really off the scale," he said. "Unless it's addressed right now, directly, on a grand scale, it will overwhelm this city. It will overwhelm our ability to take care of ourselves. And to me that's a big deal."
Shrinking the size of government to bring it more in line with the city's declining population, and combining city and Allegheny County services, are some of the issues he plans to discuss during his campaign.
DeSantis intends to rely on his deep background in business and politics, which Ravenstahl, 27, of Summer Hill, lacks.
DeSantis worked under President George H.W. Bush as a senior policy analyst in The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Department of Commerce, and served as an aide to the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz. He worked as a management consultant with a technology consulting firm in Virginia.
Ravenstahl, a one-term city councilman who inherited his job in September when Mayor Bob O'Connor died, said he would take any Republican challenger seriously.
"I think if a good enough candidate came forward with good ideas, I think anybody can win," Ravenstahl said yesterday.
He said he decided not to wage a campaign to capture the majority of GOP write-in votes in the May 15 primary in an attempt to run unopposed in the general election.
"I'm a Democrat," Ravenstahl said. "I didn't feel I wanted to pursue that at this time."
Party pride didn't deter another Democrat, county Chief Executive Dan Onorato, from pursuing Republican voters. Onorato, who will run unopposed in November, used an automated phone bank to woo Republicans. They rewarded him with 1,844 write-in votes, nearly triple the 623 netted by Matthew Drozd Jr., the son of County Councilman Matt Drozd.
A preliminary tally gave DeSantis 910 write-in votes, compared to 294 for Ravenstahl and well more than the 250 DeSantis needed to get on the ballot.
Ravenstahl said he would debate his opponent.
"Sure, I'm willing to talk about the issues," he said. "If I feel he's serious enough about his candidacy, it's something I'd be open to doing."
City and county Republicans must get serious about DeSantis' candidacy to pull off what many consider an improbable -- if not impossible -- victory, said Jerry Shuster, a University of Pittsburgh political communications professor.
"All of the Republicans have to coalesce around him," Shuster said. "They have to be able to put together the nucleus of a campaign team that handles everything from low-level door knocking to high-profile fundraising."
Ravenstahl has a big head start, with $695,905 in his campaign account. DeSantis has zero.
But he has been involved in winning Republican causes before, as a volunteer with Jim Roddey's successful 1999 campaign for county chief executive. He worked for Roddey's transition team.
Roddey said DeSantis is intelligent and articulate, understands politics, and loves Pittsburgh.
He believes DeSantis is running in order to highlight the city's serious financial woes, which "have been swept under the rug."
"I think Mark would favor cutting the size of city government, combining city services with county government and cutting the size of the fire department," Roddey said. "He has a lot of ideas that are sound, but are not going to be popular with the labor unions."
Mark F. DeSantis
Political party: Republican
Age: 47
Background: Born in Oakland and reared in Sharpsville, Mercer County.
Family: Single
Occupation: President of Formation3, a technology consulting firm.
Education: Graduate of Kennedy Christian High School in Hermitage; bachelor's degree in American studies and master's degree in business administration, from the University of Dayton; master's degree in technology management from American University, Washington; doctorate in public policy from George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.
Background: Was a senior policy analyst in The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Department of Commerce under President George H.W. Bush; served as aide to the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz; worked as a management consultant with Booz, Allen and Hamilton, a technology consulting firm in McClean, Va.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
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