Sunday, November 25, 2012

High Tech Israel Strikes






Way to go Israel!


Jpost.com:



For Silicon Valley entrepreneurs seeking the next-best tech hub, plan to spend at least 17 hours on planes. Eventually, you’ll make your way to Tel Aviv, which was ranked the No. 2 startup ecosystem in the world by researcher Startup Genome.

Israel’s Silicon Wadi beat out the places commonly thought of as startup hotbeds, such as Los Angeles (Silicon Beach), New York (Silicon Alley) and Seattle (Silicon Rainy?). In a study recently published, which happened to coincide with renewed hostilities in the Middle East, cities were evaluated based on eight criteria including the performance of companies located there as well as their access to funding.

So why Tel Aviv? The city is overflowing with software developers and venture capital. Larger companies, including Google, have set up offices there. Facebook is now there, too, after acquiring facial-recognition developer Face.com in June.

But Tel Aviv isn’t a shrunken Silicon Valley. Distance aside, there’s a wide cultural gap between the two. Only 13 percent of founders there have lived in Northern California at one time, according to the report. That’s much lower than many others on the list. For example, in London or Paris, the rate is one out of every four founders. Another thing: Israeli entrepreneurs tend to have a lower appetite for risk than their counterparts in other top regions, the report said.

Besides Tel Aviv and London at No. 7, North American cities dominated the top 10. Here’s the full ranking from the study, which was funded by Spain’s Telefonica:

1. Silicon Valley 2. Tel Aviv 3. Los Angeles 4. Seattle 5. New York 6. Boston 7. London 8. Toronto 9. Vancouver 10. Chicago 11. Paris 12. Sydney 13. Sao Paulo 14. Moscow 15. Berlin 16. Waterloo 17. Singapore 18. Melbourne 19. Bangalore 20. Santiago


Thursday, November 22, 2012

Moishe’la Warns of More






BS”D
                                                          

Discussion with Moishe’la (and his family) Part 9
A handicapped child
7 Kislev 5773 (Nov 20’12)


There Are Almost No Leaders and All Is Confusion

It has been a very very hard day for all here in Eretz Yisroel. There have been many attacks on cities, villages, Moshavs in the South, rockets in Yerushalayim area, and Ashkelon Ashdod etc.

We’re under siege, and still Hashem has made unbelievable Nissim happen. When you consider that probably over a thousand missiles have been shot into Israel, and of course every Yid that was killed is an important person, still the casualties have been unbelievably low. Mamash a Ness! And many people are reporting unbelievable Nissim. Whole families in apartments that blew up and everyone walked out unscathed. And this type of thing has happened a few times. As much as the Arabs fire rockets at us, still comparatively they have done very little damage. True, houses have been blown up, but its still much less than the damage that was done with Sandy.

We can see clearly that Hashem is guiding us, trying to give us a message, and the message of course is “my children come back to Me. My sweet Yiddishe children come back to Me, leave the Egel HaZahav and come back to Me, leave all the stupidities of the Olam Hazeh and come back to Me. Because if not it’s going to get much worse, Hashem Yishmor.”

Now they’re speaking of a ceasefire, but they aren’t speaking to the Israelis. They are speaking to each other the American’s the Arabs, the Europeans, and they will let us know what they want Israel to do. They will bring us to the table and give us a pen and say sign. Of course ceasefires like that will only last a short time and we all know that the Arabs are notoriously known for breaking ceasefires. Usually what happens is, the Israelis keep the ceasefire meticulously, and the Arabs launch a few missiles here, a few there, but that’s not counted. The Israeli government doesn’t count it, and no other government counts it. It’s as if nothing has happened. However Am Yisroel is very angry about the situation and they have been demonstrating because they know if you don’t finish the job now then it won’t be finished. It will continue. The only problem is that most Yidden are wrong and everybody is seeing this not correctly. Hashem has sent the Americans or the Europeans or the English to force Israel into a battle; to force Israel into a battle that she can win only by a huge Ness and both Edom and Yishmoel want to take over Eretz Yisroel.

I’m warning you Am Yisroel. People from the outside have great designs planned for Eretz Yisroel, Hashem Yishmiranu. They don’t like Jews. We’re not Israelis, we’re Jews, and they hate Jews and they want Eretz Yisroel. They want it to be the center of their satanic religion. They want to show HaKodosh Boruch Hu that they are in charge or that their so called Moshiach is, really going to come to Eretz Yisroel and rule. But Hashem will not let them rule. We’re going to have a very hard time until Moshiach Tzidkainu will come and rescue us.

We have to rescue ourselves. We first have to do Teshuva, so that this hard time that’s coming upon us, will pass by with Rachamim. I told you it’s like a tunnel. We’re already in the middle of the tunnel and the door behind us is closing and the light is getting dimmer and dimmer, and we’re going forward deeper into the darkness. The darkness is still not as dark as it’s going to be. It’s going to be so dark that we’ll see nothing, nothing in front of us, nothing behind us. We won’t know where behind is and where in front is. We are going into total darkness.

Am Yisroel make it easy on yourselves. Am Yisroel, save yourselves much trouble. Save yourselves suffering. Come back to HaKodosh Boruch Hu. Those who are very far, keep Shabbos. Keep all the basic Mitzvos. Say Shema Yisroel in the morning and at night. Wash your hands (with a washing cup) when you get up in the morning and say Modeh Ani keep Taharas Hamishpacha and put on Tefillin. Get close to HaKodosh Boruch Hu. You’re not going to have another chance. Those who are supposedly close to HaKodosh Boruch Hu, dig down inside of yourselves and know what you have done wrong. Know that you’re on the wrong track and straighten it out. We’ve been wayward children, and Hashem loves us, and Hashem wants to bring us back. He is trying to show us how much He loves us with Nissim, so many

Nissim. And in America so many people have forgotten Sandy already, and so many people want to go back to their parties, but Am Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel don’t be like the Americans. Be better, be closer. Please I beg you, we should not have to go through more suffering than necessary. Please, please, I beg you. I beg you, come back, because if you come back it will be so much easier. It’s going to be hard. Believe me we’re going to go through Gehenom, but if we have Shmirah because we’re trying to be good, because we’re trying to be Tzaddikim, then Hashem will take care of us and protect us. However if we don’t want to listen to the warnings we have been getting now, like most of the Frum in America that have gone through the Frankenstorm, then we’ll be in big trouble and we’ll suffer very much.

I beg you Am Yisroel, listen to me. I want you to know that even if there is a so-called ceasefire tonight, it will be worth nothing. The Arabs feel that they have won and because of that Israel will be in very big trouble, and it won’t take long till you’ll see that my predictions are coming true.


Am Yisroel brace yourselves. Brace yourselves by doing Teshuva. Brace yourselves by loving each other, and doing Chessed for each other instead of all this Loshon Hora and Motzi Shem Rah, and all the violence in the Frum street one against the other. It can’t continue, and all of those who are working on the side of the Sitra Achra, will be wiped away.


I am saying the following to every Yid in Eretz Yisroel:

There is no reason now for any Yid to ever leave Eretz Yisroel again. I reiterate again, no reason ever to leave Eretz Yisroel again, never ever. First of all, there is nowhere to run to, and Eretz Yisroel is the place that Hashem promised us and this is where we must stay now, and we can’t save our lives by running away because there is nowhere in the world that wants Jews. There is no reason to leave Eretz Yisorel at all ever.


Tatti: Do people in America feel that things are changing?
Moishela: United States of America is a thing of the past and England is also on its way out. Many Jews feel it but many more don’t. Many are worried and are living with a black cloud over their heads trying to keep up business as usual but it doesn’t really work.

Mommy: Why were you crying so much when you woke up this morning?
Moishela: Last night a Tzaddik came to me in a dream. The Tzaddik was my Rebbe the Baal Shem Tov and with words he painted for me a vision of the near future of the world.

I saw death and destruction for much of the world,
I saw Yidden in Eretz Yisroel suffering pain and hunger and confusion,
I saw many Yidden their lifeless bodies strewn around on the ground,
I saw a group of Yidden coming together and crying out to Hashem.
They were wrapped in Talaisim and with Tefillin on their heads and arms they were crying and begging Hashem to forgive them and bring the Geula. They were begging Hashem not to destroy the descendents of Avrohom, Yitzchok, and Yaakov and telling Hashem they know the truth and begging Hashem to forgive them and bring Moshiach. Then the Tzaddik that showed me all this started to fade away and he said it’s up to Am Yisroel and then he disappeared.

Tatti: Wow that was a very frightening vision.
Moishela: Know that this is really the beginning of the end even if there is a ceasefire. The problem isn’t the Arabs the problem is that we the Yidden are not doing what we are supposed to do. The problem is that we Yidden many of us believe in Kochi VeOtzem Yodi. We are sure that we are the strong ones that our Iron Dome is what is saving Am Yisroel. There are Yidden that don’t believe that but still don’t believe in HaKodosh Boruch Hu the way they are supposed to.  

There are almost no leaders and all is confusion. The world is full of confusion and evil. Almost overnight the world seems to have turned from a jolly democratic world where people had no problem planning for the future with confidence that it would come to pass and as if overnight it has turned into a world where evil is taking more and more control. Every person has become afraid and worried about their daily existence and the world seems totally chaotic, like a huge insane asylum run by uniformed Reshoim and this is very frightening.

Election Day Looms: Spark of Yosef -or- Revealing Armilos




Election Bibi is imminently looming. The only question with Bib's, is to which ruach does he prefer to sway his Messianism: to the side of good, a spark of Torah or to the side of evil, a manifestation of Armilos mamash.

Israel and her Zionism has one dimension that is head and shoulders above the rest; in Israel everyone who belongs here matters, and can matter to no end. Much like the Borg of Star Trek, it ironically allows anyone to come aboard, not fearing an alien threat, but to the contrary, it welcomes the challenge.

With this philosophy everyone who rises in Israel by the breath of God, impacts the State, and this impact can ultimately impact the World. With creators of the State, such as Ben Gurion and cronies, the state is forever being formed, while incorporating transcending and including holons of its very fabric.

Every once in a while, as the State morphs into the conglomerate that we know it of today [and hence it will continue to crystalize, something unique to this "blend of Judaism", making it a fit arena, despite its level of treif. bad light =bad kli, while good light = change kli into new kli] we find a religious spark that makes the machine go haywire. But again, by its very design, it must incorporate the "virus."

The holy virus into the meat called Israel I believe began with Rav Kook, to whom the Jewish of the Jewish State of Israel he is solely responsible for. Thus to be consistent from then on, Israel is forever Jewish, such is the animal called Zionism, i.e. he merited by his Lishma belonging to be an eternal influence, bringing the Light of Moshiach into the World through Zionism, albeit one of a serious Tumah, much like a real Para Adumah.

After Rav Kook we saw Meir Kahane influence a further development into Israel. If anyone altered Israel with a spiritual earthquake it is him! The greatest gift he bestowed [much like Rav Kook in this dynamic] was the implementation of Moshiach ben Yosef into the fabric of Israel. This was a death blwo to Israel and her Tumah, for with MBY Israel now had a spark of Kedusha into it, a form of Golum almost. Kahane was right they say, where he was the most right, was that MBY was coming into creation slowly slowly, showing the Israel Dream was becoming a beacon of Redemption. This, many thought before, but now it could be believed even more. Then he died - very Yosef-esque!

To continue this thread, and into our current matzav, is the hero Yoni Netanyahu. he would further cultivate by his very being, MBY into Israeli psyche, to the extent that Bibi openly says that it is Yoni's blood that drives him and fuels his anger. It is not a coincidence that Pollard's name is Yonatan, as MBY is relative to this name, going back to King David and Yonatan.

Bibi is treif Erev Rav lets get that straight. He is a glorified jailer, but to whom? The spark of Ben Yosef is becoming tangible and I believe Yoni was the last with that spark, and it drives Bibi into his Messianic grandeur, to which if you read between the lines, Bibi expresses the scenario, again, if we read Bibi. To put it bluntly, Yoni boils Bibi's blood. Bibi decides if its Kosher or trief - God help us all.

So here is Bibi, the Head of State, and he must make a choice, however this choice has come to him in a  very intimate setting. He must choose to bring the spark of MBY further into creation, until it reaches MBD, or does he siphon the Ko-ach for himself, robbing Hashem of this light, for his personal gain. This tresspassing would constitute being Armilos mamash.

Thus he has a choice, one that ironically is being issued by his own blood, literally. To allow Geulah to develop according to God's will, and therefore facilitate MBY in further manifestation, or attempt to "eat the internal spark" [nogah - chashmal - spark, derech klippah] and thereby materialize Armilos. If he chooses Armilos, he perpetuates MBY and his death by the hands of Armilos, of which MBD is certainly nearby, as the Gra says, "Yehuda saves Yosef." For Bibi the choice couldn't be any closer to home - on every front! His choices will fashion reality, Geulah, and the State. He can either help MBY do his job, and be remembered as a good guy in history, or he can rob for his fame and claim the title of Armilos and help destroy Israel.

Whatever he chooses, he is involved with the sage of MBY, and it will live on with or without Armilos. The State will be affected for all of time no matter what; but Bibi can be a positive change and liberation for MBY, as opposed to his death much like Kahane suffered. I think Bibi will choose Armilos, as is predicted. With that said, Israel is headed for Armilos waters, the spark of MBY will further manifest, and the next arena will be born.

From Kook, to Kahane, to Yoni, to the next spark; eventually MBY will join forces with MBD. Until then we play out these little gilgul games with sparks, vessels, and souls. Let's hope Bibi recognizes this spark and where it comes from. He must realize it is not his, for he has no merit; but he can do a great tovah for it, through acting on its behalf, and allowing for the Final Redeemer to come forward, MBD. If he misses the mark, he will go down as prime operative of the Other Side.

One day, MBY will come, and the State will be butel to God. Until then the treifah zach continues, going through one spark of MBY at a time. The only question left is an age old question - Until When?!

Bibi faces election, one that he secured; he revealed his hand at the same time. Now its for real, much like Obama over there. The plan is: win the election, and then implement. Will Bibi play Obamanamics 2.0: "the best way to destroy a state is to be negligent to the point of internal decay and destruction" - Obama's mastery, or will he realize that he must act, and that this whole spark is about activity! - thereby saving Israel.

The job is probably only for the Messiah; thus we know the drill. In the meantime, election looms. D-day looms. Thank God there is a Moshiach to get us out of this, and as a person rather than a spark, we wait under the hands of God, not some guy named Bibi. The real Man has a role to fill, one that began with Rav Kook, and has been developing through Israel's Life post '48. It would seem the job is ready to be filled, and that's what this is all about. When the Sitra Achra is ready, then the side of Holiness is as well. And for that it is as Jeremiah says: "There is Hope for your End."


JPost.com:



In his statement to the nation Wednesday night announcing the acceptance of a cease-fire deal with Hamas in the south, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu effectively ended an eight-day military campaign and began an election one.

And the words he chose to tell the nation that the fighting with Hamas has – at least temporarily – ended, also foreshadowed what will be the theme of his campaign: providing security while retaining international support and avoiding an all out war.

When Netanyahu opened the winter session of the Knesset in October by calling for new elections, he stressed that during his tenure security had been restored to Israel as far fewer rockets fell, and far fewer Israelis were killed by terrorism, than under his immediate predecessors.

Further, he stressed, in the seven-and-a-half years total that he has served as prime minister, both during his first term and his second, the nation did not march off to war.

By agreeing to a cease-fire, Netanyahu kept this record intact, and it is a record that flies squarely in the face of the perception held of him by many abroad as a reckless warmonger with an impatient trigger finger.

But that perception is not born of reality, nor the one he wants to take into the campaign. Tough but responsible, yes; Dirty Harry with the Middle East’s most powerful army, definitely not.

“Since its establishment, the State of Israel has faced complex challenges in the Middle East, and in recent years we have all seen how that complexity has increased a great deal,” Netanyahu said Wednesday night.

“Under these conditions we need to steer the ship of state responsibly and with wisdom and must take into account numerous considerations, both military and diplomatic ones. That is how a responsible government acts, and that is how we acted this time as well. We employed military might along with diplomatic judgment.”

And there is the likely theme of his campaign – military might with diplomatic prudence, restoring quiet, albeit temporarily, while retaining international legitimacy.

His statement Wednesday night was also punctuated with praise for US President Barack Obama’s unwavering support, a sentiment surely heartfelt. It is also a sentiment that he wants the electorate to hear just two months before an election: “I can, and do, work with the US president effectively.”

The cease-fire that went into effect Wednesday night, putting an end to the latest round of fighting, will be met in the country with a mixture of relief and anxiety.

The relief is the fact that it will put an end to a dreadful week in which six Israelis were killed, hundreds wounded, a million people were confined to a few seconds from their bomb shelters, and millions more carried on with their lives under the threat of a rocket landing on their car, home or kids’ school. At times like these, a return to routine seems blessed.

The anxiety is because of a widespread recognition that this cease-fire is just the temporary lull before the next round. Operation Cast Lead bought a degree of deterrence and quiet for four years. The hope is that Operation Pillar of Defense will have done the same.

Netanyahu had a difficult tightrope to walk so soon before the election. On the one hand, he needed to restore a modicum of security to his citizens. On the other hand, he did not want – just weeks before the vote – to risk a full-fledged war that could easily sour and be used against him.

In a mere two months, the public will determine whether he succeeded in that task.


כ''כהן צדק ?? - דרך רמז

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

By the Love of God! [Now Playing!]

בית מדרש שם ועבר

Click Here For Shir HaShirim Vilna Gaon Chapter 8 Verse 6 - Finishing The Entire Book Soon!!!!

  • Jews and Noahides
  • Real Love
  • Exile vs. Redemption
  • Now is the Time
  • Levels of Soul
  • Lust or Love


Click Here For Newest Blog Post On NoahideNations.com [Rabbi David Katz]: "Shem's Blessing"


"Click" - The Mouse :)
                

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Bibi and Brotherhood: Remembering Gazan Grandeur



Bibi. He is being highly threatened by Hamas and the Arab World. I would not underestimate Bibi. His fire of revenge [for his brother] is going to come out one day. He says openly that he is who he is today, in honor of Yoni, his brother, who fell to terrorism.  Bibi has a boiling point, one that perhaps drives his Messianic mania.
Is this when Bibi blows the cannon?


The Globe and Mail:


Israel dealt a body blow to Islamic Jihad Monday, killing one of its most senior Palestinian leaders and exacerbating tensions between Jihad, the second largest militant group in Gaza, and Hamas. The result could make a ceasefire with Israel that much harder to reach.

Rames Harb’s charred body was carried out of a 14-storey office building in central Gaza, just before 4 o’clock in the afternoon. About 45 minutes earlier, the building, a media centre that is home to Palestinian and international journalist organizations in Gaza, was struck by an Israeli missile.

Mr. Harb and four Jihad colleagues were in their third-floor office when the missile came through their front window.

The colleagues were seriously injured, but Mr. Harb’s clothes were blown right off him and his body burned from top to bottom.

He probably never knew what hit him, but his organization does.

Standing amid the broken glass and shattered concrete shortly after the attack, journalists from the building said Israeli authorities had warned them the day before to stay away from their offices. Mr. Harb and his associates must not have gotten the message. They were alone in the building when the attack came. And while Jihad members are livid at Israel for killing their Gaza City leader, they also are angry at Hamas for the ruling group’s apparent willingness to accept Israel’s terms for a ceasefire.

It verges on collaboration, they say.

Israel bombed dozens more targets in the Gaza Strip and militants in the Gaza Strip fired 110 rockets at southern Israel on Monday, causing no casualties. Intense diplomatic efforts to craft a ceasefire agreement continued, with United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-moon shuttling from Cairo to Jerusalem and President Barack Obama pressing Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to use his influence with Hamas leaders to broker a stop to rocket launches from Gaza.

But Hamas, which has governed the densely populated Gaza Strip, is not the only player.

Islamic Jihad says it wants to fight the Israelis, not just fire rockets that get shot down. Ismalic Jihad members are said to have been more involved in combat with Israeli forces when they invaded Gaza in January, 2009, and said to have suffered more severe casualties.

They also say they won’t agree to stop firing rockets in the future, a position that would bring them into real conflict with Hamas should it agree to an Israeli demand that Hamas guarantee that all other militias in the Gaza Strip stop firing rockets and mortars into Israel.

‪Hamas officials insist they are not selling out to Israel when they indicate they are prepared to deal.

“The only ceasefire Hamas will agree to is one in which Israel agrees to stop all aggression and to end the siege [on Gaza], explained Mushir Masry, a leading Hamas MP. If Israel does that, he said, “it’s a deal worth having.”

‪Nabil Shaath, a prominent minister in the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah, made a rare visit to his native Gaza Monday to wave the PA flag and “to show Israel it can’t divide the Palestinians [between those in Gaza and those in the West Bank].”

“We are one people,” he said, “and we’ll stay that way.”

On the subject of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, he agreed that it would be good for all Palestinians, “provided Israel is made to adhere to it, too.”

Not every senior Palestinian official is keen to have a ceasefire, however, at least not yet.

‪Ayman Batniji, spokesman for the Hamas police force and a charismatic imam at a downtown Gaza mosque, was wandering through Shifa Hospital Monday afternoon.

Since police headquarters had been destroyed in the wee hours of Sunday morning – the new facility had only been open for six days – Mr. Batniji, dressed in a stylish brown leather jacket, had been without an office. His views, however, have a home among many in Hamas’s security forces.

On the subject of an Israeli invasion, he all but declared: Bring ’em on.

“It will be a big disaster for the Zionists if they enter Gaza,” Mr. Batniji said. “We’ve got 10,000 men willing to sacrifice themselves to kill as many of the Jews as possible.”

“These people [the Israelis] never learn,” Mr. Batniji said. “They lost in 2000 [when they pulled out of Lebanon]; they lost in 2005 [when they withdrew their forces from Gaza]; they lost in 2006 [when they retreated from Lebanon, again] and they lost in 2009 [when they ended their attack on Hamas in Gaza].

“They will lose even bigger this time,” he predicted.

Clearly, it is not an easy path for Hamas to agree to a ceasefire.



Monday, November 19, 2012

21st Century Zionica Looms






Pax Judaica - A docile America while Israelica feeds her stomache? One can see that if America sedates itself in a more baseline approach to World affairs, it will be Israel who is give free reign to be Deputy Active Policeman for the Sheriff who is in early retirement.

Business Spectator:


It’s tempting to think that with the United States becoming self-sufficient in energy and needing big cutbacks in military spending, Israel is going to be increasingly alone as it faces its many risks.

After all, so much of American engagement in the Middle East has been about protecting oil supplies and keeping the price of energy low, but the International Energy Agency has recently forecast that the US will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest oil producer by 2020. Soon it will become an exporter of LNG.

The US now gets only 12 per cent of its oil from the Middle East and horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing of shale oil and gas deposits has raised the real prospect of energy independence for the US, after decades of dreaming about such a thing.

And Israel’s leaders must be watching the soaring production of oil and gas in the US and the approaching fiscal cliff with growing alarm: in fact, maybe that’s why they've been coming down so hard on Hamas in the Gaza Strip in the past few days.

It’s much more complicated than that of course. It will always be in America’s national interest for it to keep the shipping lanes open and Persian Gulf oil flowing, even if, miraculously, the US doesn’t need any itself.

Energy independence for the US is still a long way off and any defence spending cutbacks coming out of the negotiations on the fiscal cliff are likely to be fairly small, but the balance of power and energy in the world is shifting nonetheless.

As American reliance for energy on the Middle East declines, China’s is increasing. China, and the rest of Asia for that matter, is counting on America to keep something resembling the peace there, to keep the oil flowing.

The key remains Iran, and increasing US oil and gas production is making the sanctions against Iran much more successful.

Iran denies supplying Hamas with Fajr-5 rockets that can get from Gaza to Tel Aviv, but they were made there. Thanks to the effectiveness of the sanctions, Iran is now risking a lot by supporting Hamas.

The other great global impact of America’s rapidly growing production of oil and gas is on manufacturing.

Once the fiscal cliff is dealt with, the focus of President Obama’s second term is going to be jobs and these days that means making the most of shale gas and oil. Already 1.7 million jobs have been created as a direct result of the US energy revolution, according to analysis by the consulting firm, IHS.

The deputy chairman of IHS, Daniel Yergin, writing in the Financial Times over the weekend, said billions of dollars of investment are now slated for US manufacturing because of inexpensive gas, and that by 2020 the number of new jobs resulting from it will be 3 million.

The effect of this on the global economy is hard to overestimate.

The technocrats now in charge of both Europe and China have a tremendous amount of work to do in reforming their economies to make them more productive and generally bring them into the 21st century.

To improve productivity, China, Japan, Italy, France and Spain all have to rapidly deregulate their economies and introduce market forces, as Australia has been doing since 1983. Failure to do so will eventually be catastrophic – and that goes for China as much as the others.

America is already deregulated (arguably too much so) and very productive. Cheap energy is likely to make it a manufacturing powerhouse once more – if not as an exporter, then certainly enough to supply itself 


Sunday, November 18, 2012

Operation Bibi: U've Uh Crossed The Line Pal






Bibi has shown his cards for the present matzav: this is about Red Lines - the Red Lines to come.

Bibi has essentially followed through on his words that those who cross Red Lines will be punished. A word to the wise over in Iran?! Consistency and a Man of His Word can be a dangerous thing.


YahooNews.com:



Gaza's Hamas movement wanted a showdown with Israel because its leaders are high on something called the Arab Spring and competing to become martyrs to the Palestinian cause.

Or, from another perspective, cynical Israeli politicians think a Gaza offensive will be a walkover that will assure re-election in January and at the same time provide a death-blow to Palestinian statehood moves at the United Nations. Those are two ends of a spectrum of theories among Israelis and Palestinians about what has propelled the two sides towards their second war in four years, escalating a low-level, slap-for-slap conflict to the brink of an Israeli invasion of Gaza. Without going back 2,000 years to the origins of the dispute, the roots of the latest high-explosive crisis can be traced in a series of "red lines" that have been crossed.

Specifically: firing a Russian Kornet anti-tank missile on November 10 against Israeli soldiers; Israel's assassination of top Hamas commander Ahmed Al-Jaabari on November 14 after both sides appeared to have agreed to a tacit ceasefire deal, and then Hamas firing long-range rockets at Tel Aviv on November 15. These were big steps that wrecked a fragile status quo. 

RULES OF THE GAME

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip seven years ago and has regularly used its airpower to deter Hamas and other Islamist groups from firing their rockets into the Jewish state. The militants do not recognise Israel's right to exist. In a bruising 2008-2009 three-week campaign, Israel first bombarded then briefly invaded Gaza, hoping to put a halt to the rockets for once and all. Operation Cast Lead left 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.

For a while, there was quiet, then the round of retaliations resumed. Missiles were fired, Israel struck back, sometimes targetting empty smuggling tunnels, sometimes targetting rocket crews. Palestinian civilians were also getting killed. Both sides speak of "the rules of the game". And now both sides accuse the other of "stepping over the red line".

Palestinian analysts agree Hamas has the wind in its sails since the Arab Spring swept away pro-Western autocracies and replaced them with Islamists, especially in neighbouring Egypt where the ruling Muslim Brotherhood is their spiritual mentor. "Of course, Hamas feels empowered by the change in the Arab countries around them and many believe Israel cannot isolate it any more," said a source close to Hamas who did not wish to be identified.

But while Hamas craves the legitimacy it needs to assume moral leadership of the Palestinian national movement from those it considers Western poodles chasing peace with Israel, it shares Gaza with armed salafist groups intent on violence. "Hamas has been under continuous blackmail from other factions since it has been more interested in calm in order to preserve its authority in Gaza," Hani Habib, a political analyst in Gaza told Reuters. 

CHANGING THE RULES

Trying to face both ways, Hamas abandoned efforts to stop these groups firing rockets at Israel and last month joined in, to show it was not getting soft in the chair of office.

In so doing, it tried to change "the rules of the game" but overplayed its hand, triggering a massive Israeli operation for which the military planning was sitting ready in a drawer. It came far faster and much heavier than Hamas expected. "While they thought revolutions in Arab countries served their aims and would make them stronger, they were not looking for war with Israel, not now, despite the fact they have been preparing themselves for one since the 2009 round ended," said the source close to Hamas.

For Israel, a security situation that had been contained and politically tolerable -- zero or very infrequent rocket attacks on the south by groups other than Hamas -- tilted with Hamas' decision to start shooting again, and with new weapons. Israel says the aim of Operation Pillar of Defence is not to re-occupy Gaza, or root out Islamists. It is to destroy long-range rockets such as the Fajr 5 from Iran that Hamas has acquired since 2009 and to disable Gaza's rocket capacity "for a very long time", said foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.

Could there be ancillary motives? Alastair Newton at Nomura Global Markets writes in a note to clients that "militants in Gaza have been building up stocks of missiles...and there does appear to have been an up-tick in missile attacks". "However," he adds, "an Israeli general election is now just two months away ... Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party has historically benefited from pre-election security concerns, which this latest conflict is likely to exacerbate." Although a vast majority of Israelis supports the operation, a high body count could reduce popular backing.

Another vote is also looming -- one that the secular government of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank wants to bring in the United Nations General Assembly by the end of November to give the Palestinians a diplomatic upgrade. Israel says this drive for U.N. recognition of a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem is "diplomatic terrorism". It has threatened to topple Abbas, who is regularly derided by Hamas for not supporting their armed resistance. Abbas himself is convinced the Gaza campaign is designed to sink his initiative, but has vowed to plough on. "Everything that is happening is in order to block our endeavours to reach the United Nations," he said on Friday. Israeli columnist Uri Dromi says Israel should remember that its Palestinian neighbours in the West Bank "are still committed to a two-state solution, namely, sharing the neighbourhood".

"If we lose them, then we are left with the others only." 

WHY THE KORNET?

Hamas has courted Egyptian support assiduously since the election of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in June. Mursi, however, has so far made clear that while denouncing Israeli "aggression" he will not go beyond diplomatic pressure. The nuances of Gaza's militant politics are fine but provide some clues as to how the showdown has escalated.

"Hamas did not claim the Kornet hitting the (Israeli army) jeep. The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) did," said the source close to Hamas. "It is true Hamas did not condemn it."

He did not deny that Hamas wanted to change the rules of the game whereby Israel decides when a round of violence will end.

"But assassinating Jaabari was like giving the go-ahead to all Hamas cells to use the equipment, weapons and training they had prepared for a possible war," he said. Hamas official and columnist Mustafa Assawaf said Hamas was "not interested in silence forever, or a big escalation". A shaky new truce was in place thanks to Egyptian mediation, he noted, when Jaabari ventured out fatally onto Gaza's streets. "Israel did not respect deals and understandings and after killing Jaabari tough reactions were inevitable even if it would lead to broader confrontation," he said. Hamas used greater force to "establish a new formula that Israel is not the only party that owns power and that the resistance has its own tools that can be painful to Israel".

Assawaf rejected the suggestion that an internal leadership struggle within the movement motivated the rocket gamble. "Hamas leaders are competing, but not for seats. They are competing for who dies as a martyr and gets into a coffin."


Don't Mess Around

I[ran] Into Gaza: Lookout!






Obviously.


Polymic:



Geopolitical strategy is a terrible and beautiful thing at once. It is time we connected the dots on the great game in the Middle East.

The Arab Spring started in North Africa. Egypt was the trigger and the opening salvo was Libya. Syria erupted shortly after Libya, slowly consuming Syria President Bashar al-Assad’s war machine in a pitched war against an externally-funded patchwork of insurgents. The Gulf monarchies were ultimately untouched and Iraq was left to stew in its own mess. Predictably, the Syria debacle is on the verge of spilling over into Lebanon and this consequently has lit the fuse in Gaza, with Israel already itching for a ground offensive in the pesky territory.

Democracy is not the objective of the “Arab Spring.”

It is about Iran.

What we’re looking at is a gradual devolution of behind-the-scenes terrorism and its consequent dirty tricks towards a systemic war with Iran.

Here’s how it works: for Israel to even have a chance of being on the map, it needs an umbilical cord to the United States, and to have unstable neighbours. Thus, we have the endless cycle of surprise attacks courtesy of Israel, kleptocrats like Saddam who think they can get even, bloody coup d’états and civil wars, and for colour – the target practice parties Hamas and the IAF organize on each other on a fairly regular basis.

Really, a classic imperial strategy of divide and conquer – prod and poke, stoke the fires, sign a peace treaty, rinse and repeat. Only now, the risk of playing with the matches is that it might set off the whole pile of TNT.

In Iran, for all the polemics since 1979, the Ayatollahs have adopted an intelligent foreign policy of official defense, while doing the exact same thing as the West – proxies and subversive terrorism tactics. The regime has been frustrating, because we can’t find a reason to fight them, and that is the bane of all the hawks in Tel Aviv and Washington.

So, how to prevent Iran’s regional hegemony?

First, confuse the ally system by messing it up. Stability in the Middle East is Israel’s biggest security problem.

Second, the presence of Iranian spec-ops in Syria is already dangerously close to providing a reason for retaliation against Iran. With Hamas firing Iranian missiles and Hezbollah potentially getting involved, it is near certain that Iran is probably going to be recognized as an aggressor in a matter of days or weeks.

Third, the timing is convenient too – after the American elections, President Obama would have no choice, but to pick a side. Israel is otherwise doomed on its own, so that’s a no-brainer. But, the price for that may be Egypt.

The wild card in all of this is indeed Egypt, because President Mohamad Morsi is currently sending officials in Gaza in a moral show of support for the Palestinians. That may, or may not, be followed by a revamp of the Egyptian air force with Russian aircraft. Again.

Perhaps overthrowing Mubarak wasn’t the brightest idea we ever had.

To conclude: we’re observing a chain reaction with a transparent objective – war with Iran. The American elections were the timing trigger, so regardless of the winner, the rapid deterioration of regional security would put the president in a bind, with no choice other than supporting Israel. Engaging Iran’s allies eventually draws in Iran to the point where a declaration of a war on defensive grounds paints Iran as the aggressor. In the macabre aftermath to untold, one thing is certain: thousands of people are going to die.

At least the Arab Spring had one positive outcome: all these people are going to be democratically killed.

Seriously

 
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