The title of this piece consists of the names of five captives whose status can be defined by the Hebrew phrase “Assirei Tzion,” which means literally Captives of Zion, but refers to those being held in captivity for the sake of Zion.

Gilad Shalit was a corporal in the IDF at his post in Israel when he was abducted by a group of terrorists just over a year ago and dragged into Gaza where he is now being held in a pit. His captivity is almost Biblical. His brothers came to free him, but it was too little and too late to save him. Perhaps he will be brought to Egypt and will save us all.

Eldad Regev, and Ehud Goldwasser aka Udi, were abducted on the Northern border when a group of terrorists crossed into Israel territory and kidnapped them. They too are still being secreted after nearly a year and after a war which was supposedly fought to free them.

Jonathan Pollard sits in a federal prison in the United States where he has already served more time than any other convicted spy. Jonathan Pollard spied for Israel while working for the U.S. Government, and has been sentenced to life in prison. As I already said, spies for other countries have been freed or exchanged in less time than Jonathan Pollard has already served. He should be freed; he should be free, having been already freed.

The last prisoner on my list is the Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Ehud Olmert. Mr. Olmert is a prisoner of the Peter Principle. Under ordinary circumstances, if there is such a situation ever, in Israel, Mr. Olmert would never have become Prime Minister. He was put into this position by the circumstance of the stroke which did everything but kill the former Prime Minister, Gen. Ariel Sharom. Be that as it may, how he got there is not as important as how he does and what he does while he is there. Jonathan Pollard was already a prisoner when Mr. Olmert took office; he will still be there when Mr. Olmert leaves office. Mr. Olmert has done little to free the three other named Prisoners of Zion, and what he did was hampered by his own captivity. Ehud Olmert is NOT made of the stuff that Prime Ministers are made of. He is a party hack, not a real leader or innovator. He doesn’t even have sense that Levi Eshkol had before the Six Day War, (now forty years ago), when Eshkol gave up his position as Minister of Defense, which he held in addition to his position as Prime Minister. Under pressure, Levi Eshkol gave up the position to the best man for the job at the time, Moshe Dayan.

In Mr. Olmert’s defense, I must note that there is no clear individual or group of individuals who CAN do what needs to be done in and for Israel today. What is clear, to those of you who know something about Israel is that I left names of my list. If I were to add the names of the other captives of Mr. Olmert’s lack of any idea of what to do, I would have to add the names of all the citizens of Sderot, and all the displaced persons who were removed from their homes and livelihoods when Arik promised them the world and Israel peace.

Free all the Prisoners of Zion before you free a single convicted Arab Terrorist. Don’t meet with the minor, defeated terrorist in the West Bank. Don’t give Abbas money or guns or even the time of day until you have liberated the Prisoners of Zion.

Earlier today I was reminded of a particularly nasty case in which I was the only witness for defense. I proposed a single, and in my mind simple, question to the prosecution. Although I never received an answer per se after a brief pause from the prosecution’s side, all charges were dismissed. The question I posed then is the same question I pose now: “Where is the rule/law that requires this?”

In Gaza the fighting is still going on between various “Palestinian” Terrorist groups. The absolute truth at this time is that we, the West, the U.S., Israel, and the EU have no dog in this fight. Simply put, I already know the outcome of the fight and am willing to give odds to anyone foolish enough to bet. The winner will be a group of Terrorists. Further, whichever group of Terrorists wins their agenda will include the “liberation of all of Palestine” which is Arabic for “destroying Israel.” Their agenda will also include attacks on “the Great Satan” which is Arabic for “the U.S.” but you already knew that, I am sure. The third part of their agenda is to bring “peace to the entire world.” Although I list this as third on their agenda, it is actually first, and the other two points are steps toward achieving that final magnificent goal.

The only acceptable translation from the Arabic for “peace in the entire World” is bringing all of mankind to accept Allah as expounded in the writings of Muhammed and his successors. Repeatedly we have received instruction and warnings that unless we all accept Islam, and worship Allah as prescribed we will be killed by believers, who are given full and absolute rights to do so whenever and however they choose.

The blood hasn’t dried on the streets of Gaza; the items looted from Yasser’s home haven’t yet been sold on Ebay; the smell of gunpowder and the wailing of widows has not abated, but George W. Bush knows what Israel has to do now. Israel has to support the terrorist who has been vanquished from Gaza, as his defeat has proven that he is “moderate” (whatever that means), and a worthy “partner for peace” (whatever that means). Israel has to give Abbas money, and weapons, and “wide-ranging concessions” which include promises to dismantle established communities, and freeing an as yet unknown number of duly tried and convicted prisoners from Israel’s jails on the grounds that they are Arabs. The only good part about this whole thing is that Abbas lost, since it is obvious that the President of the U.S. would do the same for Hamas if they had lost.

What are the rules applicable to international treaties and agreements today? Here they are:

Rule 1: At the end of any conflict, no matter what the outcome or who the participants, Israel must cede land to Arabs.

Rule 2: Any agreement between Israel and any Arab organization, or Arab dominated organization, (including but not limited to any Arab State, the UN, and the Red Cross), or any agreement between the United States and any Arab dominated organization, as above, is only binding on Israel. Any items in such agreements which appear to be binding on the non-Israel side to the agreement are to be considered at most to be recommendations.

Rule 3: Israel must understand that Israel is to blame for every death to anyone who claims blood ties or even friendship with Arabs within a radius of 20,000 Kilometers from the center of Tel-Aviv. This rule specifies Tel-Aviv since the BBC has been recently forced to apologize for reporting that Jerusalem is the Capitol of Israel. It offended too many of the LOYAL British Terrorist Spawn in Londonistan.

Rule 4: It is required that any negotiation must include the phrases, “freedom for Prisoners” (although this may be switched to “prisoner Exchange” from time to time), and the phrases “dismantling of settlements” and “liberation of Palestine,” within the first paragraph. Any deviation from this rule would make the agreement null and void upon the non Israeli side, although any punitive (toward Israel) sections would still be enforceable even if no agreement is reached. This is above and beyond the application of Rule 2 above.

A very long time ago; longer than I care to remember, though I remember it as if it were yesterday, I attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City. In biology, (a required class), we occasionally amused ourselves by trying to sell unwary students a specimen which we assured them contained “the oldest amoeba in the world.” The trick is that every amoeba is the oldest amoeba in the world. Amoebas multiply by division, (a thought we carried over to math class).

I still like riddles and puns and other amusements for the educated, and so I pose this to you, “what is the different between a radical terrorist and a moderate terrorist?”

Clearly, the difference is that the “moderate terrorist” hides his explosive belt under a suit jacket, a clean white shirt and a tie.

Over the past weekend, we witnessed the political version of amoebas multiplying on two fronts:

In the first instance, Hamas threw El Fatah out of Gaza. Almost immediately, the world adopted the poor orphaned Fatah, and decided that giving money to El Fatah to “stabilize” the West Bank, was a good idea. I warn you, any version of such an action is the de facto recognition of TWO independent “Palestinian” States. I think that you need to have your eyes closed, plugs in your ears and a very large clothespin on your nose if you want to give El Fatah and/or Mr. Abbas any of my hard earned money. Mr. Abbas, as you know is a “moderate terrorist.” And YES, it IS MY MONEY!! Mr. Abbas is the heir to the late Yasser Arafat (Y”S), who first promulgated the idea of a “moderate terrorist by addressing the UN in New York with a machine pistol tucked into his waistband under his military style jacket. He also is one of the first to promote division as multiplication, as well as “plausible deniability” as the CIA would call it. When any members of El Fatah “went too far” in fighting the “war of liberation” and incurred the wrath of the West, Arafat would cut them loose and give them special funding. Suddenly there was “another group of terrorists, worse than Fatah” doing things that made Arafat look like a statesman.

And now the United States is “urging Israel” to send money, and open the borders with Mr. Abbas’ State on the “West Bank.”

The second incident over the weekend was the firing of “only 2 Katyusha” rockets into Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel. According to Hisbuller sources, they didn’t do it! Wow! Another previously unheard of group of (I guess), “Extremist Terrorists” did it, and the ever-trustworthy HizBull(S___)ers had nothing to do with it. Let’s look at this another way. Who is the real government in Southern Lebanon? Do you believe for a nano-second that some other group could have brought in a Katyusha launcher and fired it? Let me go to the closet and try to find my gullible face.

I urge the President to stop all aid and encouragement to ALL Terrorists and Terrorist facilitators. Don’t support the less terroristic! Support Israel! Israel supports the U.S.

And one more thing, according to the Balfour Declaration, and the League of Nations proclamation, it is ALL to be used as a Jewish National Homeland. How many slices do you wish to give away, when it isn’t even your cake?

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Or, what is a terrorist?

I find it interesting, though not amusing to watch the news these days. It seems that there is a problem with two words in common usage in the news; these words appear to be interchangeable, although not quite. These two words are, of course, “terrorist” and “militant.” To some degree, I am in favor of making the two synonymous. Its most favorable effect is that as these people blur the line between the words, they undermine their own attempt at soft-pedaling terrorism and/or terrorists. On the other hand, there is some perfidy in the use of “militants” when speaking about “terrorists.”

Why do they do this? The CNN answer is self-preservation. CNN has repeatedly stated that they self-censor their reports from the “middle-east” because to do otherwise would endanger their reporters. I give them some credit for their honesty (at least in reporting their dishonesty). Of course, jeopardizing the security and safety of the rest of the world is what they are trading for the safety of their reporters, and I am not happy about that at all.

That they (CNN) have admitted their censorship, however, puts them ahead of FOX, which can’t quite decide what to call the people in the “camps” in Lebanon who are, it seems, in open insurrection against the legitimate Lebanese government. FOX often flips and flops even in the same sentence. Is this the doing of the Saudi Prince who holds a minority share of FOX? FOX of course has the distinction of having on its staff a “knife-point Muslim” reporter as well as a “knife-point Muslim” cameraman. Steve (Muhammed) Centanni is no longer reporting from the “Middle-East” but he has not taken any public steps to disavow his conversion.

All of this leads to an interesting situation. Reporters and camera crews are shepherded and their output is managed in areas where the “militants” control their safety, but are allowed to roam freely, speak to and report on what they choose from the only true democracy in the “Middle-East.” The reason that they have this freedom is that Israel is a FREE Society, and FREE Societies don’t usually put lots of restrictions on the FREE Press.

I don’t think that I can do anything to help or “fix” these “so-called” news outlets that place the safety of one or two or even ten reporters ahead of my safety, or that of the entire rest of the world. I do have a piece of advice for them though. It is advice which relates to an observation by one of the founding fathers of this great country. Ben Franklin is quoted as opining that a stopped watch is better than an inaccurate watch in that you can be sure that it is telling the exact time twice a day. From that piece of wit and witticism we can deduce that news which may be tainted by considerations for the safety of the reporter(s), has no value, in that we never know when we can trust it.