Israel’s News Blog Magazine: Daily Stories Video and Photos

Likud Party opposition leader Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu appears to have made a ’slip of the tongue’ again with his latest comments concerning Israel’s alleged air raid into N.E. Syria. Speaking on the nightly Mabat news program, Netanyahu said that Israel did indeed conduct an air operation in Syria, and that the reasons for doing so have already been divulged all over the globe. Speaking during an interview with Chanel 1 news chief Haim Yavin, Netanyahu said “I was a party in this matter, and from the very first minute gave it my endorsement and my backing”. He went on to say that it is too early to actually divulge all the details of the operation; but when asked if he congratulated the Prime Minister, Netanyahu replied: “personally, I did”.

Needless to say, government officials, from the Prime Minister on down, are furious at Bibi’s “faux pass”, since from the moment the “air intrusion” was announced by Syrian officials, Jerusalem had been mum as far as admitting that such an operation actually taken place. This is not the first time that the former prime minister had made remarks that had gotten him into hot water. These slip-ups have occurred a number of times in the past, both when he was P.M., as well as on other occasions.

Many people, government officials included, are saying that Netanyahu is trying make political capital out of this event, and that Bibi wants to strengthen his party’s political position; a position which has already improved since the end of 34 day Lebanon II war in July/August 2006. Both Kadima and Labor party officials have lambasted Netanyahu for his remarks that “border on national irresponsibility, especially in light of this man’s previous political positions, including Head of State”.

Members of Netanyahu’s own political party, as well as those in more right-wing parties, came to his defense; and some even praised him. Likud parliamentarian Yuval Steinetz, a right-winged political strategist and close friend of Netanyahu, said that his statements “were most unfortunate, but are really nothing more than a storm in a teacup.” Former army general Effi Etam, leader of the National Religious Party, even went so far as to condemn Prime Minister Olmert himself, and said that the ruling government is finding ways to attack their political enemy. “Olmert should examine his own comments made concerning the outcome of the Lebanese war”, Etam said.

Netanyahu’s remarks, as controversial as they were, may not have been nearly as dangerous as ones made by the Prime Minister himself a couple of months back, when during a press conference, he as much as admitted that Israel has nuclear capability. Another Likud member, Gilad Erdan said that although Netanyahu’s remarks “could have been less controversial, they were still mush less dangerous than the prime minister’s in regard to Israel’s nuclear program.”

As the old saying goes, the “cat’s out of the bag”; and now government officials are trying to practice damage control, especially in light of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to both Israel and the West Bank. Bibi’s friend, Yuval Steinitz cautioned everyone to “exercise restraint as we arrive at the Jewish “Days of Awe”. But even Steinitz appears to admit that his friend’s remarks “could have been phrased a bit differently”.

Same old Bibi? It depends a lot on what political card one carries – if one is a party member at all.

A recent comment by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Allan Greenspan that the Euro may one day replace the U.S. Dollar as the “reserve currency of choice” makes people wonder where the ‘greenback’ is heading. At present, the dollar is falling sharply against the European currency with the Euro reaching an all time high recently of $1.3925.

Israelis have always had a love affair with the Dollar; and for years virtually all real estate transactions were pegged to this currency, including rentals. Even many insurance policies were ‘linked’ to the Dollar; as well as salaries, savings schemes, and other important financial transactions.

This may all be changing, however, as the greenback continues to travel “south” against the ever strengthening Euro. It must be remembered that the EU represents a number of European economies, including ’softer’ ones like Greece, Portugal, and recent new EU members from the former Eastern European “Commicon” countries such as Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria.

With all this in mind, including America’s massive national debt and balance of payments deficit, it’s no wonder that the ‘pristine Europeans’ who spend virtually little on national defense, are able to bask in the glory of their “wonderful economies”.

Everything seems wonderful, until you consider some very important reasons for this discrepancy between the two currencies. For one thing, except from some token forces, the Europeans seem content to sit back and let America be the “policeman of the world”. EU member economies often do not indicate the true situation in these countries; as many of them have high rates of unemployment and many people virtually living on the dole. By importing “guest workers” from Turkey, the Balkans, North Africa and southern Asia, European industries and service businesses are propped up by lower paid foreign workers; and what is not taken care of in this manner is done by ‘outsourcing’ to India and China. While countries like Germany still have a problem selling their higher priced cars to Americans, they have offset this by opening assembly plants in the U.S. New markets for high-line German autos like Audis, BMW’s and Mercedes Benz have been found in China and other Asian countries, where assembly plants have been opened as well.

And from a financial aspect, the Europeans do not seem to have a problem with criminal and terrorist organizations like the Russian Mafia and Al Qaeda “laundering” their illicit incomes, including “blood diamonds” in European financial institutions. The downside of this influx of illicit capital comes in the form of increased control by criminal and terrorist elements, as well as the encroaching “Islamization” of Western Europe; especially in France, Germany and the Netherlands, and even in the U.K.

Gt. Britain still uses the Pound Sterling as its official currency, even though it is a full EU member; and the “Quid” is now hovering at the $2 level. For this reason, Israeli currency dealers are continually favoring the Pound and the Euro over the greenback in regards to people wanting to buy foreign currency when traveling to EU countries.

Despite everything, however, people shouldn’t write off the Dollar as the US economy is still on the most admired, and America is still the destination of choice of many people who want to share in the American Dream. So in this respect, Mr. Greenspan’s comments may be a bit pre-mature; and it can be for certain that it will be a while before the “Great Mosque of New York City” will be built anytime soon.

Can the same be said for London, Paris, Amsterdam or Berlin?

No sooner had Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad split New York for a bit of “Latino Cucaracha” with his new friend, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez; then it was “back to normal” in our part of the Middle East. Hamas is now threatening to “send 200 suicide bombers” (women) against IDF Merkava tanks. Hooray for ‘normalcy’! I was almost beginning to think that those good folks had forgotten us with all that attention on that diminutive guy with the week’s growth of beard and the same drab tie-less suits that resemble something that Borat would wear when promoting his beloved Kazakhstan.

After being on the constant receiving end of Palestinian Qassam rockets, including more than 12 sent in a period of one day, it appears that the new Defense Minister Ehud Barak is finally keeping his promise concerning dealing with the people who shoot those home made ‘bottle rockets’ over into Sderot and other places within Israel. Israeli reprisal operations, mostly from the air, have killed at least 12 Gazans, including some suspected terrorists in both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. 4 Civilians were also killed, however, due their just being in the vicinity where IAF rockets hit their targets. After all, Gaza is so oversaturated with people that it’s very difficult to pick out targets without having innocent bystanders nearby. And the terrorists know this fact very well, and use it as propaganda weapons for more negative world opinion against the Jewish State. In fact, this time, PA President Mahmoud Abbas also jumped on the bandwagon and lambasted Israel for the “massacre” of innocent Palestinians.

Poor guy. I guess that was the best he could do from his relative comfortable headquarters in the Muqata compound in Ramallah. Mr. Abbas, who has been recently receiving a lot of support, both morally and financially, from Israeli P.M. Olmert, must have been feeling the heat from his former Prime Minister, Ismail Hananyah, who just happens to be in charge of Hamas’ Islamic fiefdom in Gaza.

Anyway, getting back to ‘basics’, Dr. Nizar Rian, a senior Hamas official, declared that his approximate 50,000 Hamas fighters “sleep with explosives, ready to prevent Israeli tanks from intruding into holy Palestinian territory”. He also said that many more Palestinian women have now joined their ranks and are prepared to become martyrs as well. He reminded Israel that women have been used very effectively in past terror operations, and though it is frowned upon by the Quran for women to assume militaristic roles, “the duty to guard to Motherland is more important than any other consideration”.

Guard the “motherland”? It’s more like blowing up their enemy, especially Israeli innocents. The horrible terror attack at the restaurant in Haifa a few years back, as well as an aborted attack from a Palestinian woman on her way to explode herself in the emergency entrance of Beer Sheba’s Soroka Hospital, are two examples of “guarding the Motherland”.

We will all surely hear again soon from Mr. Ahmadinejad, as soon as he returns from having cappuccino coffees with Mr. Chavez. But until then, we can go back to ‘normality’ which includes dealing with Hamas’s new threat of 200 female suicide bombers. I wonder what they are expecting to receive in paradise, as their male suicide counterparts await the embrace of 72 gorgeous virgins? Modern versions of Omar Sharif perhaps?

The Israeli government finally seems to have gotten a “wake up call” regarding it’s dealings with the Hamas entity in the Gaza Strip. On Wednesday, September 19, it was announced that Israel now considers the Hamas led government in Gaza to be “enemies of the State of Israel” due to it’s continued hostilities, largely as a result of the firing of Qassam rockets. Declaring Gaza to be a “hostile entity”, it was decided that only the most necessary humanitarian supplies, such as food and medicine, will be allowed into the strip from Israel.

These statements just coincidentally occurred during U.S. Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Jerusalem; resulting in Ms. Rice being a bit ‘lost for words’. During a carefully worded comment on the Israeli government’s actions, she said: “We will endeavor to assist the Palestinian population in Gaza with all possible humanitarian aid, since they and the West Bank are part of a future Palestinian State”.

Hamas reaction was indeed swift and frank. When interviewed Wednesday afternoon by Channel 2 TV, Hamas spokesman Fauzi Bahumi said: “This Israeli action is nothing short of a declaration of war. Nothing has changed since Israel left Gaza two years ago, and we are still being treated like prisoners in our own land.”

When asked if it might be possible to find a way to enter into negotiations with Israel, Bahumi replied: “How can we recognize our enemy?”

Reaction by commentators to this new stance on the part of Israeli P.M. Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak was like saying “duhh ..hello!, so what else is new?”

Indeed, what else is new, except that this new declaration now formally lumps the entire citizenry of Gaza into the status of being sworn enemies of the Jewish State. In light of almost daily firing of home-made Kassam rockets, one of which recently hit an army base and injured 69 young recruits just completing their basic training, at least the Israeli government has finally decided to tune into reality. This change in tactics will now allow Israel to cut off electricity, water and supplies of fuel to Gaza when it feels necessary to do so.

Palestinians in the (so far) Fatah controlled P.A. entity in the West Bank condemned the action, and a spokesman for “newly promoted” P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas said that the action is “collective punishment against the entire Palestinian people and discourages concrete discussion towards peaceful negotiations”.

Abbas’s comments are now a bit confusing. After all, aren’t the Fatah-led Palestinians supposed to be Israel’s good buddies? And didn’t Olmert just “promote” Mr. Abbas to Palestinian Authority President instead of Chairman?

It appears that finally, Israel is calling ‘a spade a spade’ as the old saying goes. Likud party leader Binyaman Natanyahu has been advocating this action be done for some time now, and Olmert and Co. must have decided to play the same game of “hard ball”. With captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit still languishing in captivity “somewhere in Gaza” the reality of this 1.5 million population “entity” on Israel’s doorstep, and which has actually become an Islamic quasi-republic, presents a new reality to the possible future declaration of a Palestinian state.

As a result of Israel’s new hard line stance, and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approaching, the next few weeks will undoubtedly be nothing short of “interesting”. And to quote a well known Chinese saying: “we are living in interesting times”.

Protest demonstrations in the Burmese capital of Yangon (Rangoon) took a turn for the worse on Wednesday when soldiers of the ruling military government began wide scale arrests of monks and others, and began to use brute force to put down demonstrations that have been ongoing in the country for more than ten days. Known as the Republic of Myanmar since the army took over and declared martial law in 1988, the country has become one of the most oppressed and isolated countries in the world; second only perhaps to North Korea and possibly Iran.

The wave of protests, are the largest since the failed uprising in the late 1980’s. Led by National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1988 uprising was forcefully put down by force. Ms. Suu Kyi, who later won the Nobel Prize for her efforts toward peaceful opposition to military rule; has been under house arrest for most of the 18+ years since her party won a sweeping political victory in 1990. Not only were she and other NLD party members never allowed to hold office, she was denied travel to Oslo Norway to collect her prize.

The recent demonstrations have resulted partially from a series of economic and social problems on behalf of the ruling junta.

The protests in Yangon, were first initiated by Buddhist monks, who have suffered immensely under the brutal military regime. Their large numbers on the streets of Yangon were soon joined by ordinary citizens whose chants and written slogans said that they had all had enough of military rule and are now demanding their rightful opportunity to participate in the running of their country’s affairs.

After keeping a low profile for more than a week, the army finally began to take a much firmer stand, and began arresting people and shooting at them with tear gas. Soldiers also broke into several monasteries and began to arrest and beat up monks, many of whom were taken away in military vehicles to unknown destinations. The mood on Thursday became even uglier, when soldiers began firing heavy amounts of tear gas, as well as live ammunition into the still protesting crowds. Although the junta had been successful in preventing most of the monks from continuing their protest, large numbers of private citizens were out on the streets, and were hit by more tear gas and live ammunition. At least 9 people were reported by witnesses to have been killed by gunfire, including a member of the Japanese press corps stationed in Yangon.

The entire affair has escalated into an international crises; and the U.N. is sending special envoys to Yangon to try to mediate in the affair. In the 1988 uprising, more than 3,000 people were reported killed by troops firing into demonstrating crowds. In the severe crackdown that followed, thousands more were taken away to detention camps; and many were never heard from again. While the rule of the military junta has not been as bad as the genocidal nightmare of the Pol Pot led Khmer Rogue regime in Cambodia during the 1970’s, it still ranks as one of the most oppressive; and has literally isolated this former British colony from the rest of the Free World. I say ‘free world’ since the only real allies of this beautiful S.E. Asian country are countries like China and North Korea. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi became world famous during the former uprising for her non-violent stand against the military; who never let her and her NLD party cronies take over leadership, despite her resounding victory in the last held free elections. Many of her countrymen managed to escape Burma and are now languishing in refugee camps in Thailand, which shares a large eastern border with Myanmar.

Unless some immediate and tough intervention is made by either the U.N. or by neighboring countries like India or Thailand, the result of this latest uprising will no doubt be as bad or worse as the one in 1988. The moral we can all learn from this sad and unfortunate episode is that personal freedom and democracy must never be taken for granted. For one day, it could be lost; as it was in this beautiful land made immortal by books by authors such as Josef Konrad; whose literary works such as Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim are still being read and enjoyed today. The kind, gentle Burmese people portrayed in these books deserve better than what they are having to endure in this country of golden Buddhist shrines, elephants, and teak forests.

John Coatsworth, Dean of the School of International Relations at Columbia, said over the weekend that “if Adolf Hitler himself had arrived in the U.S. and wanted to speak at our university, we would certainly let him. If he were willing to engage in moral debate in our university student forum, he would be welcomed as everyone has a right to express their views”. This statement by a prominent member of the Columbia U. faculty was backed up by Mr. Lee Bollinger, the university president, who has the ‘distinction’ of introducing their special guest, Iranian President Mahmoud Achmadinejad, who is scheduled to speak Monday at 1:30 P.M. EST.

No doubt Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech, followed by a question and answer forum, will be “interesting”, to say the least. Trying to compare the Iranian leader with perhaps the most notorious man in history, might be another matter, however, as Mr. Ahmadinejad appears to be a bit more clever than The Fuehrer was, and this will most likely be brought out in his speech; assisted by a contingent of interpreters to convert Ahmadinejad’s native Farsei tongue into American English. Hitler never had the opportunity to set foot in America, probably due to “logistical factors” as well as his being a bit ‘pre-occupied’ with events going on Europe prior to the outbreak of World War II.

Had the Nazi dictator been able to make it over to New York, the most likely visitation venue at the time, and had the defunct League of Nations been situated there, instead in Geneva Switzerland, it would have been interesting as to what kind of reception he would have received. Hitler and his entourage, undoubtedly including his propaganda genius Joseph Goebbels, would surely have flown over in the dirigible Hindenburg, in order to show their pride in German manufacturing ingenuity ( he would have needed an arrival like this to make up for his athletes’ poor showing against a superior American team in the 1936 Olympiad, held in the German capital, Berlin).

Upon arriving in New York, The Fuehrer would undoubtedly have gone into a tirade on the League on Nations podium, with his usual lambasting of Jews and Communists; and with probably large numbers of protestors outside as now will be the case with Mr. Ahmadinejad. Hitler would also say that he was not pursuing the possession of weapons of mass destruction, including a new type of super bomb, later to be known as a nuclear bomb. When later asked why his country was zealously persecuting minorities, especially Jews, Hitler would most likely have laughed and said: “you see, we are merely trying to ‘purify’ the German people and rid it of vermin and other forms of pests. This is the only way we can be strong!”

Are these words, actually spoken by this mentally disturbed individual, really much different than the words spoken by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said that he wants the Zionist State of Israel “wiped off the face of the map” and that his words “are the Iranian People’s words”?

Judging from the state of world affairs during the mid to late 1930’s, had Hitler actually arrived to the U.S. would U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt have invited The Fuehrer to dinner at the While House? After all, American relations with Nazi Germany were actually fairly cordial prior to Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939; much more so than the present state of no relations between America and the Islamic Republic. Roosevelt might even have wanted to make amends for “embarrassing” The Fuehrer by sending 18 black athletes, including the immortal Jesse Owens; who won 4 gold medals. The Afro-American part of the American delegation wound up with 14 gold medals, 25% of all such medals won in the entire games.

There are no such problems facing U.S. President George Bush; and he will certainly not extend any kind of invitation to the Iranian president to visit Washington. Even at the General Assembly, as occurred last year, the two men’s paths will not likely cross; even though Bush will also speak before the General Assembly. 70 years have passed since the time when Adolf Hitler might have shown up in News York; had it been “logistically feasible”. And yet, not much has really changed in so far as tyrants being tyrants.

Many were ‘delighted’ to hear Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declare that “there are no homosexuals in Iran” at his appearance before a selected audience at New York’s Columbia University of Monday, September 24. Many more were even more thrilled to hear him say before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday that “the nuclear issue is now a closed subject and will only be discussed within the framework of the IAEA”. All this is good to know, and makes everyone who hasn’t been following this absurdity more apt to eat their Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes without burping. I think that the most reassuring statement yet by the visiting Iranian leader was in regards to his grand visions of the future, Some of these ‘visions’ include a demise of Western powers, especially the United States; and the creation of an Israel-less Palestine, to be brought about by “democratic referendum” .

With all this “good news”, why are a lot of people, even the leaders of countries like France and Germany so worried? I’m not referring to this boogeyman’s usual enemies like the U.S. and Israel. I’m referring to former friends of the Islamic Republic like France and Germany, both of whose leaders used their forum opportunity before the General Assembly to speak out against the dangers of Iran becoming a nuclear power. Why this new stance by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy? This is something that had previous only been espoused by people such as U.S. President George Bush and Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair (especially following the Iranian ‘detainment’ of several of Her Majesty’s naval personnel).

And why was Columbia University President Lee Bollinger so “frank” when introducing his special guest as “a cruel and petty dictator”? Perhaps people are finally starting to wake up in regards to the potential danger of this man who doesn’t seem to give a ‘didly squat’ concerning reactions to his ideas for a new world order. As he later said himself, when addressing the world body: “the age of the empires are over”. I presume that by ‘empires’ he was referring to his adversaries, and not to his own country, formerly known as Persia, and once one of the greatest empires in the world. In fact, the Persian Empire once threatened to overwhelm the entire known world, and was only held back by the combined efforts of 300 of Grecian King Leonidas’ personal warriors, and the victory of the Grecian naval fleet over the Persians at Thermopylae.

All that was a long time ago, however, and now a new religious imperial threat, in the form of militant Islam, threatens to once again overwhelm much of the modern “Known World”.

It is truly amazing that a demigod such as Ahmadinejad can come to a place like New York and express his views within the combined aspects of free speech and diplomatic immunity. It’s the policy of diplomatic immunity that has caused so many problems in the past, especially during the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union. Diplomatic immunity has allowed people traveling with diplomatic passports to get away with virtually anything - even murder. As long as two countries are not in an actual state of war with one another, their representatives can freely come and go as they please under the guise of diplomatic immunity.

Besides proudly saying that homosexuality does not exist in his country (or heterosexuality either, unless people are married); he also said that all groups living in Iran, including women and minorities such as Jews have democratic freedoms and “proportional representation” in parliament.

With all this “good news”, why are so many so anxious for Mr. Ahmadinejad and his entourage to go back to where they came from? It’s early Autumn in New York; but from a political point of view for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it might as well be the dead of winter.

Some of the deadliest Palestinian terror leaders have come out to praise Rosie O’Donnell, saying her theories on 9/11 and the Bush administration are spot on. The people applauding the former co-star of “The View” are known terrorists and murderers, such as Ala Senakreh, who have not only planned and executed terrorist attacks against civilians but also developed the global terror strategies used in Iraq, the US and the UK.

“I agree with everything O’Donnell said,” boasted Ramadan Adassi, chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank’s Anskar refugee camp.

Adassi’s terrorist boss, Ala Senakreh, went one step further and invited O’Donnell to come spend some time with them in the terror addled West Bank: “We welcome Rosie O’Donnell to stay among us and to get to know the truth from being here, like many American peace activists are doing,” said Ala Senakreh.

The terrorists sound off about O’Donnel in Aaron Klein’s book Shmoozing With Terrorists, which contains shocking interviews of radical Islamist conducted by a Jewish reporter from New York.

If O’Donnell does take the terrorists up on their offer to come live with them, she might want to keep the fact that she is gay on the down-low since Senakreh and his Islamist crew consider homosexuality a disease that should be punished by death. You can’t please everyone all the time, Rosie– but you sure can try!

No boys and girls; this isn’t a jingle like the one heard every year at Christmas time. And Iran’s “beloved” president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is definitely not Santa Claus. But he is definitely coming to town – New York City that is – on Monday, September 24, to address the annual opening session of the U.N. General Assembly. This isn’t Mahmoud’s first visit, as he also came last year to address the U.N., not long after he had made his famous comments concerning Israel’s “irreverence” and that it should be “wiped off the face of the map”.

Scheduled to address not only the UN world body; he is also slated to address a large gathering of students and faculty members at Columbia University, located on the other end of that same island that was attached by Muslim extremists in September, 2001.

This year, the Iranian President’s visit to that international “free talk zone”, otherwise known as the United Nations, comes with the Islamic Republic being even closer to becoming a declared nuclear power. It also comes just days after a series of new weapons, including new fighter bombers and long range missiles were unveiled at Iran’s annual National Day parade officiated over by “you know who”. During this parade, the Iranian leader made further unfriendly comments, including one which stated that nothing, even the U.S., was going to stop Iran from achieving its military development goals; including its nuclear ambitions.

Despite all of this, not only is this guy and his entourage going to show up on American soil; he is also scheduled to make a speech at such a prestigious academic institution as New York’s Columbia U. His declared purpose for this address: “Americans do not know the truth”.

While it’s understandable that Mr. Ahmadinjad will again be allowed into the U.N.’s famous landmark, which due to the clauses written in the organization’s founding charter makes this patch of territory “off limits” for the U.S. or any other country’s jurisdiction; it doesn’t explain why Ahmadinjad should be allowed to address the student body of Columbia – albeit with the assistance of an interpreter. Mr. A. may be surprised to discover that though he doesn’t know English, at least well enough to make a credible address in this language; there may be a number of Farsei speaking people in the university audience – including some representing the Islamic Republic’s opposition; who are very interested in hearing what he has to say, before his words are ‘diluted’ a bit by his faithful interpreters. His interpreters, no doubt hand picked from among his political followers - some of them highly educated, will do their best to convey their mentor’s words of enlightenment. This ‘enlightenment’ includes why he believes that the genocidal event known as The Holocaust is a fabrication; and why (in his opinion) that upstart group of people, known as Zionists, should be banished from lands they have “occupied” over the past 60 years. This territory includes cities like Haifa and Tel Aviv, of course; not to mention “Holy al Quds”, otherwise known as Jerusalem.

Other un-welcomed tyrants have made addresses before the U.N. in the past, including Russia’s Nikita Khrushchev, who banged a shoe on the podium and said to the Free World: “We will bury you!”; and also Cuba’s cigar smoking and gun-toting Fidel Castro. And, of course, that gun-toting Palestinian bad guy, Yassir Arafat; who even managed to win the Nobel Prize in the end for his “contributions towards world peace”.

It’s very doubtful that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will win any peace awards – not this year anyway. And it’s surprising that Columbia U. would let such a man stand behind its forum’s podium, even though the university’s faculty has become more and more anti-Israel in its orientation over the past several years. There still is that hallowed right, however, in the American Constitution regarding freedom of speech and opinion. But that “right” is supposed to be reserved for Americans and not for persons with ultimate goals of mass destruction; which includes destroying sovereign nations such as Israel.

One thing for sure is that Mr. Ahmadinejad won’t be seen strolling by the Duck Pond in New York City’s Central Park. Or will he? He may even have the outright audacity to visit Ground Zero: site of the former World Trade Center. After all, he appears to have his own ideas as to why this event happened- and who the perpetrators really were.

With these realities in mind, and in light of what might be coming down in the next few months, this person should simply not be welcome on America’s, or any other free nation’s shores.

As Israel enters into the Jewish New Year of 5768, it now has a total population of 7.2 million inhabitants. One statistic is particularly interesting – for men anyway – is the percentage of males to females. For every 1,000 women there are only 977 men! Of course, that takes all age spectrums into consideration, including the actuarial fact that women live longer than men: age 82.2 for women against 78.5 for men. Despite everything, there are simply more gals than guys, giving the male sex something to celebrate in regards to availability.

The sex discrepancy is present in most countries, and except in areas where women really don’t want to go to, such as Antarctica, or some other inhospitable place, there are usually more gals than guys.

Other statistical findings point to an increase in Israel of certain minority groups, including Arabs and the growing number of people classified as simply “other” (meaning they don’t have a particular known religion). Many Israeli Jewish men, in recent years anyway, have begun to marry non-Jewish women, including many women who originate from the Former Soviet Union countries, such as Russia and the Ukraine. The statistical studies also find that more than half of Israel’s population live the country’s center, which everybody knows is the best region to party in.

All of these facts do not help single women who are still looking for Mr. Right; and are reaching the age where they may have to think about settling for “Mr. Compromise”. Go into any of the many singles bars and other hang out places in Tel Aviv, and you can immediately see that men seem to have more confidence when it comes to hitting it off with available females. Naturally, this attitude seems to be be rampant with Israeli men anyway, which has long given them a reputation of being a bit “macho” when it comes to their treatment of the opposite sex.

All is not lost however, in regards to women who still find themselves without a mate or steady boy friend. Israel is still considered a ‘young country’ in regards to the number of its population being under age 30. Compared to Europe anyway, Israeli women have more children then their European counterparts. While that fact doesn’t console many women who are single and “not enjoying being so” it does mean that women do have that certain “something” that makes them attractive to men. A little ingenuity and creativity, otherwise known as seduction, does work in the right time and place.

As for you men out there in this enviable position of being more in demand due to being fewer in number: Don’t worry – be happy!