Guilt by Association

I just mailed in my absentee ballot.

Without a doubt this was the most difficult election I ever voted for.

Normally I vote for a candidate based on their positions and record (with Israel and Economics being the most important to me).

I normally wouldn’t even consider their party affiliation.

But I couldn’t do that this election.

It far too important for the future of America and Israel that the Obama fail in everything he does, and that means the Democrats must lose control over the Senate and Congress.

Based on current polls of the upcoming election, the majority of America understands that too.

I’ve never voted a protest vote before. I’ve always voted for the candidates I like, even if they have no chance of getting in.

As usual, I carefully reviewed each candidate’s positions.

The first Republican challenger I liked a lot, but the Democratic incumbent has a very solid record of supporting Israel (not that I agree with his interpretation on what support actually means, but I believe he sincerely views himself as pro-Israel). But ultimately this Democratic incumbent only offered an understated reaction to Obama’s awful treatment of Israel and he took his sweet time before he offered it.

If he had stood up earlier and said more, my decision would have been much more difficult (or perhaps even different), but as they say, “too little, too late”.

I wasn’t impressed with the second Republican candidate at all. In fact, I disliked his positions on numerous, though not primary, issues. But lucky for him, I was even less impressed with most of the positions of the Democratic incumbent. So this Republican candidate grudgingly got my vote too.

The third Democratic incumbent was OK on Israel, but his economics were horrible, I mean really horrible.

His Republican competitor is a bit of an unknown, but he’s weighed in on all the major issues, and I like many of his positions. That was an easy decision.



From the three candidates I voted for, I would have voted for two of them anyway.

The third selection was my way of voting against the Obama and for America.

I hope my vote will help.

God bless America.

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Muqata blocks military aid to Lebanon

A joint Joe-Jameel post and news analysis

Much to the Obama administration and State Department's dismay, the US Congress Foreign Relations Committee is blocking $100 million of US military aid and training for the LAF . This follows Lebanon's attack on Israel, possibly using US weapons in the attack, and most likely using snipers who received US training.

Lebanese (LAF) soldier with US weaponry

This is not the first time that the LAF and Lebanese government subverted US military aid to attack Israel and US security interests.

Israel had set up a spy network in Lebanon to specifically spy on Hezbollah.

The US provided the LAF and Lebanese government with counter-surveillance equipment specifically to use against Hezbollah, and Lebanon instead only used it to locate and dismantle Israel's security espionage network against Hezbollah - also damaging US intelligence efforts against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Muqata is proud to have been the first to bring the matter to the attention of the general public of the possible misuse of US aid, equipment and training specifically during last week's attack on Israeli forces by the Lebanese government. Thanks to our investigative efforts we put this snowball in motion.

But this is not the first time that US security funding, equipment and training have been turned against Israel and US interests.

Palestinian Authority "policemen" have been involved in numerous terror attacks against Jews and US citizens. It is only a matter of time before US General Dayton's Palestinian militia is used full force against Israel. In fact, Dayton has himself warned that this is likely to happen by 2011 if no Palestinian state is created.

Dayton has been thrown out from the PA twice already. The first time was from Gaza, the second was a few months ago after Dayton had a disagreement with the PA leadership.

Israel (post on this subject to go up soon) has recently kicked out Dayton's PA "police" forces from some Arab villages after numerous attacks on Israelis coming from those villages that are under PA security management.

The US policy of funding easily subverted foreign military forces in unstable Islamic countries and governments in the hope of propping up weak leadership is not a sustainable policy. It is not good for US interests in the long-term.

Back in 2008, the US was praising Lebanese military aid (while Israel expressed concern), and the NYTimes even provided some relevant quotes supporting US aid to Lebanon's army.

Now, however, American officials say they have faith in the independence and professionalism of the army, which has become thoroughly integrated to include all of Lebanon’s many religious and ethnic factions, and has avoided interfering in politics. American-driven audits have shown that almost nothing given to the army has ended up in Hezbollah’s hands.

“They have demonstrated year after year after year that when we give them equipment, they take responsibility for it,” said Mark T. Kimmitt, assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs.

Israel made the same mistake by selling advanced arms to Turkey and supporting the PA, and now this policy is coming back to bite Israel.

Furthermore, it is only a matter of time before the Islamic Brotherhood attempts a coup against US-propped up Egyptian government once Mubarak dies, and gains access and control to all of Egypt's advanced US weaponry.

In short, providing military weapons, training and aid to Islamic countries is simply bad long-term policy.

When will the West learn this lesson?

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Are US Democrats Really Friends of Israel?

Of course they are.

But less than the Republicans, if we use the Goldstone Report as a yardstick.

Last week, resolution HR 867 was brought to the US House of Representatives;

"Calling on the President and the Secretary of State to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of the "Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict" in multilateral fora."

We owe a big thank you to Republican Representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Florida) for sponsoring this resolution, the 202 other bi-partisan co-sponsors, and to congress in general for passing the resolution by 80% of the House.

The resolution passed overwhelmingly, which shows that Congress stands firmly behind Israel, and condemns the Goldstone report for the lopsided bias that it is.

Yet the story is behind the numbers -- those that voted against the resolution (thereby not unequivocally rejecting the Goldstone report), those that were present but lacked a moral backbone to vote either way (you have to wonder what they're doing in congress in the first place), and those not present all.

Democrats: 70% voted against the Goldstone report, while 30% voted in favor, couldn't make up their mind, or didn't show up.

Republicans: 93% voted against the Goldstone report, while only 7% voted in favor, couldn't make up their mind, or didn't show up.

This blog is avowedly non-partisan, yet Democrats need to answer why more than 4 times Democratic Congresspeople are lukewarm to Israel (at best) than the Republicans on this issue.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the bias in Goldstone's report.


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No Tax on the Internet...in Israel

This morning in Israel, details of the new government budget and tax plan for 2009 and 2010 started to emerge -- along with a wildfire rumor that the government would start taxing the internet, with the following rates:

15 agorot (3.6 cents) per email

9 agorot (2.1 cents) in addition to the above, if the email contains an attachment

11 agorot (2.7 cents) for surfing the web, per downloaded megabyte)

and more...

Since this email flew around the web so quickly and attracted a lot of attention today in Israel -- in a rare move, the Bank of Israel/Ministry of Finance made an official announcement that there would be no tax on the internet.

Globes in (translated from the Hebrew) stated:

Due to the wave of rumors flooding the internet, the Treasury and tax authority hereby announce conclusively that there is no intention, nor was there any intention to levy any sort of tax whatsoever on internet services.

לגל שמועות המופץ ברשת האינטרנט, מודיעים במשרד האוצר ורשות המסים באופן חד משמעי כי אין ולא היתה כל כוונה לגבות מס כלשהוא על שירותי אינטרנט מכל סוג שהוא", נמסר מהאוצר.

Its funny how Israel's rumor mill follows the US almost to a carbon copy. The joker who sent out the email was inspired by the infamous internet tax bill from the United States (which was also a hoax) -- and claimed the US congress was planning on implementing a 5 cent surcharge per email.

It was so serious 9 years ago, that the US House of Representatives even passed a law, prohibiting the FCC from attempting to "set and impose fees on the internet."

Dateline: 05/16/00

By a voice vote, the U.S. House of Representatives today approved H.R. 1291, the Internet Access Charge Prohibition Act of 1999. The bill blocks the Federal Communications Commission from attempting to set and impose fees for accessing the Internet and should end forever the infamous myth of bill 602P and Congressman Tony Schnell.

"Notwithstanding subsection (b)(4) or (d) or any other provision of this section, the Commission shall not impose on any interactive computer service (as such term is defined in section 230(e)) or other information service provider any access charge for the support of universal service that is based on a measure of the time that telecommunications services are used in the provision of such interactive computer service or information service." -- From H.R. 1291 - Internet Access Charge Prohibition Act of 1999

The bill comes partially in response to a bogus email message circulated for at least a year warning Internet users of a fictitious bill "602P" by a fictitious Congressman named Tony Schnell creating a monthly surcharge on Internet access.

Speaking in debate on the H.R. 1291 -- the real bill -- Michigan Democrat John Dingell stated, "I only hope that the passage of H.R. 1291 will finally extinguish this cybermyth once and for all." (US Government Info)

Never a dull moment here...

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