Bibi sent an inspiring message to the Israeli press after week 1:

“We will need to think creatively, and in new ways, about how to resolve complex problems…”

He was not talking about the education budget or the evaporating Dead Sea. He was also not talking about the bumper to bumper traffic during the morning commute between Highway 1 and Route 9 between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

“…In order to reach practical solutions, we will need to think about new solutions to old problems…”

He then continued, failing to cite an actual objective.

“To succeed, we will need to study the lessons of the 17-year effort at negotiations and to embrace original thinking, to think outside the box…”

He was referring to the Oslo accords.

But the Prime Minister made it clear that he is:

“willing to achieve an historic compromise with our Palestinian neighbours so long as it maintains the national interests of the state of Israel with security first and foremost.”

Of course undermining Jewish nationhood would be disappointing for millions.

Amid threats by the Palestinians to end the negotiation process if the Jewish Country refuses to renew the West Bank building moratorium upon its September 26 expiration, Avigdor Lieberman assured that this will not and cannot be the case. During a special Rosh Hashanah toast, he also recalled the ineffectual Oslo conference and the ensuing tragedy of the Second Intifada.

“Do we have a real partner?” he pondered, “What if we sign with Abu Mazen [Abbas] and Hamas takes over?”

Why would the result of an exit from the West Bank be any different than the result of the Jewish exit from Gaza?

“We learned nothing from the Disengagement from Gush Katif…If we return to the 1967 territories, the demands from the Palestinian side will only increase.”

Meanwhile, Nabil Abu Rudaineh cursed Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Mahmoud Abbas when he was quoted as saying:

…The one who does not represent the Iranian people, who falsified election results, who oppressed the Iranian people and stole authority has no right to speak about Palestine, its president or its representatives…

…President Mahmoud Abbas came to power through free, democratic and authentic elections supervised by more than 2,000 international and Arab monitors…We are the ones who fought for Palestine and Jerusalem…

…the Palestinian leadership did not oppress its people as did the Iranian leadership under Ahmadinejad….

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Last June, Mr. Chavez made a public declaration that he believed the Mossad was scheming to assassinate him and that the Israeli government was bankrolling his Venezuelan opposition.

Vice president of the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela (CAIV), David Bittan Obadia, made the following statement according to the Jewish Chronicle Online in anticipation of the meeting set for September:

“We do not deem [anti-Semitism] a state policy, but the government has the tools to stop it…We will be very straightforward in expressing our concerns. We can see that the government is willing to cooperate…” Stoically he then declared, “This anti-Semitism is troubling us all and it needs to cease immediately.”

According to Jewish journalist Jennifer Lipman:

Anti-Jewish sentiment has been a problem throughout the presidency of Hugo Chavez. In his 12 years in power, the populist leftist leader has made speeches accusing “Semitic banks” of sabotaging the economy and lent his support to an indigenous Islamic group known as “Hizbollah Venezuela.”

In just one isolated instance of antisemitism in the Bolivarian Republic, only days after a public rant in opposition of Israel’s actions in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, in January of 2009, vandals broke into Sephardic synagogue, Tiferet Israel, only a mile from Chávez’s presidential palace in Caracas. Torah scrolls were trashed and spray paint informed the walls of death threats for Jews and the Jewish country.

A member of the Carcas Jewish community predicted that:

“Chavez and his supporters will not give up power, irrespective of the election result, and many members of our community are concerned that if there are disturbances, we will be targeted. When there is anarchy, there are always people who use it to attack Jews.”

She also observed that:

When the mood intensifies, like during the current election campaign, there are politicians who immediately bring out the incitement against the Jews. Is this by order of the president? I don’t know, but the president sees and hears everything in the government-controlled area. Many Jewish families in my area have left or are leaving.

Also, earlier this summer, Chavez met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and called on Latin America and the Arab world to fight together what he deemed “America’s imperialist and capitalist interests abroad.”

Meanwhile, amid delays to negotiate with Syria, due to rumored Israeli reticence, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF Chief of General Staff Lieutenant, General Gabi Ashkenazi, OC Military Intelligence Major General Amos Yadlin and OC Planning Branch Major General Amir Eshel are all giving a stalwart push for peace meetings with the Syrian government – while an effort is being made to stall the sale of weapons to that country from Russian suppliers.

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Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad recently released this statement:

“I think this is a most fundamental question and I believe, without wishing to really prejudge what will happen in the next few days, the next few weeks, we are approaching that moment of reckoning…Some questions really need to be answered…There is not really a whole lot of time to waste…”

The Palestinian Plea:

A state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank with East Jerusalem as the capital.

Some background:

A poll was recently taken by the French press about the Palestinian population’s general consensus on the matter.

Here is what they came up with:

91% of Arabs in the Palestinian homeland – that is from the Jordan to the Mediterranean – believe that an official Palestinian state is “essential” or “desirable.”

94% of Palestinians in Jerusalem, (both east and west) believe that the city should belong to a Palestinian state.

86% of Palestinians are in support of the use of violence to the creation of a state. (“the use of violence is essential for 36.7% of respondents; desirable for 18.7%, 16.8% acceptable, tolerable for 14.0%”). On the other hand, according to deduction, 13.7% of Palestinians are opposed to violence.

Here is what Israel has done recently to concede with Palestinian demands and the demands of those behind the Palestinian cause:

In the West Bank…

Since the beginning of 2010, sixty roadblocks have been removed, leaving sixteen checkpoints remaining open.
Road number 443 has opened for Palestinian traffic.

There has been a 50% increase since 2009 of permits issued to enter Israel.

In the beginning half of 2010, there has been a 15% increase for Palestinian patients receiving medical treatment in Israeli hospitals. 82,058 of these permits were issued and 14,675 of which were issued for children.

There has been an 11% increase of the number of trade permits issued for entry to Israel. In the beginning half of 2010, 22,910 trade permits were issued, in comparison to 20,503 trade permits which were issued in the first half of 2009; and 500 additional permits were issued to merchants to enter Israel.

There’s been a 78% increase in vehicle imports to the West Bank in the first half of 2010 in contrast to the first half of 2009.

There was a 2.7% increase in the al-Quds stock market index for the first half of 2010, and this while unemployment decreased by 3% in the first quarter of the year.
3,000 housing units were built for a brand new Ramallah district city.

6 Palestinian Security Forces battalions and 150 civil defense personnel were coordinated for special training in Jordan.

There have also been regular joint meetings between heads of the Palestinian Security Forces and the IDF Central Command. In addition to this, there have been joint Israeli and Palestinian police and firefighters’ meetings.

According to the official IDF spokesman Twitter feed:

“In 1967, 80% of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria not connected to water network. Today, 90% connected to water grid.”

According to the official IDF blog, in Hamas controlled Gaza:

“During the week of 22nd – 26th August 2010, a total of 1,074 truckloads (24,288 tons) of humanitarian aid and development assistance for the local civilian population and 1,697,598 liters of diesel fuel entered the Gaza Strip.”

And

“Between June and August, the capacity of the Kerem Shalom Crossing was expanded by 210%, facilitating the daily entry of up to 250 truckloads of goods for humanitarian and development projects throughout the Gaza Strip.”

For a chart of Arab Public Opinion of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, click this

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“our enemies and haters may come to an end, Abu Mazen and all these villains – may the Holy One, Blessed Be He, afflict them with the plague… these evil enemies of Israel.”

Abu Mazen is the same as Mahmoud Abbas.

Nissim Ze’ev, a veteran Knesset representative for the Shas said on Sunday that the Rabbi was misunderstood:

“He means that the Holy One, Blessed Be He should end the hatred that the villains harbor against us. It is easy to interpret what he said as meaning that we do not want peace, but this is untrue. The Rabbi supports negotiations for peace. The Jewish people has many enemies and the Rabbi does not mean to say that all of them should be annihilated, just that their hatred for us should end.”

Hilmi al-Ghoul, an “adviser on national matters” to the chief of the Palestinian Authority said that Rabbi Ovadiah’s “racist” pronouncements, pronounced on the eve of resumption of direct talks between the Jewish Country and the PA, under American auspices, sends a message to the world that the Jews refuse to accept the “two state solution.”

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Moslehi was quoted as saying:

“Oriflame intended to fight the (Iranian) system. There are no economic reasons behind the company… We realized through the evidence that the arrogance (Western powers) and intelligence agencies sought to create security problems for the country through this company.”

An Oriflame representative in Stockholm said the firm is in no way involved in political activities. CEO Gabriel Bennet said:

“We are a cosmetics company, we are selling direct. We are of course not involved in any political activities in the country (Iran)…”

Mr. Bennet continued,

“It’s very difficult to comment on this because we don’t know why our colleagues have been detained, we don’t know why the company has been shut down…” Ah, the mysterious Iranian signature! “We are doing our utmost to solve the situation in Iran and especially for our colleagues being detained.”

Moslehi insisted:

“These companies operate with outside support and are not engaged in economic activities. They are under the guidance of spy agencies.”

To which refuted the Sweating Swede:

“The firm’s business model is to sell cosmetics and give 40,000 Iranians, mainly women, a possibility to earn money through direct sales.”

Good for Iran on cracking down. But why so paranoid?
Meanwhile Teheran is ready, willing and able to supply the Lebanese army with any arms it may need. This is nothing new since the Hezbollah swung into town in 1982.
Iranian General Ahmad Vahidi said,

“Lebanon is our friend, if there is a demand in this respect, we are ready to help that country and conduct weapons transactions with it.”

The USA is on the case, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that such transaction between the Islamic Republic and the Republic of Lebanon is exactly why “the importance both to our (American) national security and the security of the region to continue with our security assistance to the Lebanese people.”

This comes after, as OneJerusalem reported last week, the US suspended $100 million of foreign aid to the sometimes seedy Republic of Cedars, which is really OK, because plenty of arms donations are coming to Lebanon from France, anyway. Herve Morin, French Defense Minister sent a letter to Elias Murr, according to the Jerusalem Post, pushing the sale of 100 HOT anti-tank missiles to be used on their Gazelle helicopters.

Well, the US also warned Lebanon – and I think that means, should Lebanon crumble under Hezbollah influence, the IDF has the capability of destroying the Lebanese Armed Forces in four hours!

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Israel’s Transport Minister Yisrael Katz made the plans known at a meeting early in the week with supporters of Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

The track begins in Rosh Ha’ayin, near Petach Tikvah in Israel via Ariel to Nablus in the West Bank – and then between Ramallah and Latroun in the West Bank and Israel, respectively.

There passengers could catch a connection to the main line between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Another railway track will also be built between Jenin and Beersheba in Israel’s Negev desert.

Katz declared his wishes to construct train tracks between the Gaza Strip and Yad Mordechai in southern Israel, as well, where passengers may link up to the West Bank railway line or other lines in the Jewish Country.

Israel Railway, according to Haaretz, has invested more than $700,000 in the framework stages of the initial section of the line between Rosh Ha’ayin and Nablus.

The train will link the historic Valley Train to Haifa and the Jerusalem line.

The Valley Train, inaugurated in 1905, once ran from Haifa to Damascus in Syria where it linked up with the Hejaz Railway to Medina in the Arabian Peninsula.

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In general people tend to always look for the dark side and the “ongoing struggle” that must go on. Maybe it sells better. But when no one was looking this happened…

Gaza 2010..
Take a good look. This is worth preserving and growing. This is what it can be like all over the PA.

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There are four New Years: on the first of Nisan the New Year for kings and for festivals; on the first of Elul the New Year for the tithe of animals. Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Shimon say, on the first of Tishrei: on the first of Tishrei the New Year for years and for the shemittin and for the Yovalot, for the planting and for the vegetables; on the first of Shevat the New Year for the tree, according to Bet Shammai. Bet Hillel says, on the fifteenth thereof.

Well Rosh Hashanah, the first day of Tishrei, the New Year for years is what I would like to talk about today.

This is not just a time to rejoice and give Rosh Hashanah Gifts, it is also a time to look around us and see the renewal of the world, humanity, nature, the body, the soul.

Rosh HaShanah is the anniversary of the Creation of the Universe.

One symbol of this Holiest of all days is the Shofar, which is really a trumpet made from the horn of ram.


In synagogue on Rosh Hashanah it is blown to the following pattern:

Tekiah – one long and straight blast
Shevarim – three medium, blasts
Teruah – nine staccato blasts in

According to Rabbi Shraga Simmons:

In Jewish tradition, a king is first and foremost a servant of the people. His only concern is that the people live in happiness and harmony. His decrees and laws are only for the good of the people, not for himself. (see Maimonides, Laws of Kings 2:6)
The object of Rosh Hashana is to crown God as our King. Tekiah — the long, straight shofar blast — is the sound of the King’s coronation. In the Garden of Eden, Adam’s first act was to proclaim God as King. And now, the shofar proclaims to ourselves and to the world: God is our King. We set our values straight and return to the reality of God as the One Who runs the world… guiding history, moving mountains, and caring for each and every human being individually and personally.

And

When we think about the year gone by, we know deep down that we’ve failed to live up to our full potential. In the coming year, we yearn not to waste that opportunity ever again. The Kabbalists say that Shevarim — three medium, wailing blasts — is the sobbing cry of a Jewish heart — yearning to connect, to grow, to achieve.

And

On Rosh Hashana, we need to wake up and be honest and objective about our lives: Who we are, where we’ve been, and which direction we’re headed. The Teruah sound — 9 quick blasts in short succession — resembles an alarm clock, arousing us from our spiritual slumber. The shofar brings clarity, alertness, and focus.
The Talmud says:

“When there’s judgement from below, there’s no need for judgement from above.”

What this means is that if we take the time to construct a sincere, realistic model of how we’ve fallen short in the past, and what we expect to change in the future, then God doesn’t need to “wake us up” to what we already know.

shana tova, happy and sweet new year

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The library, collected since 1772 and comprising over 12,000 volumes and 381 manuscripts was originally seized by the Red Army in Nazi Germany as war loot. The Foreign Ministry of the former center of the Soviet Union said that the ruling – that is to hand over the documents to the United States was a “rude violation” of international law. The ruling claimed that because the Rebbe, Joseph Isaac Scheersohn, who was forced in 1927 to leave Russia, had no heirs, that the library was nationalized.

The Russian ministry claims that the library is available for scientific study and worship. Spokesmen of Chabad-Lubavitch in Brooklyn fear that some of the manuscripts in the library could be for sale on the black market.

Another possibility for the future of the library, one which was not mentioned in the proceedings, would be to hand over the manuscripts to the Israeli government since it is the National body of the Jewish people.
For towns such as Kfar Chabad (founded in 1948), Nachalat Har Chabad (founded in 1969) and Kiryat Chabad (founded in 1979), Israel has become a welcome homeland for the Chassidic Movement.

American district Judge Royce Lamberth said the plaintiffs can sue to recover more than 25,000 pages of manuscripts and letters, which properly belong to the Scheersohns. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2004 in California against the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Russian State Library and the Russian State Military Archive.
All of the documents were originally taken to Latvia and then Poland after the Rebbe left Russia in 1927. The Russians seized the library after the outbreak of the Second World War when the Rebbe left for Brooklyn. Since then, they have been filed in a Russian Military Archive.

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Could they be more idiotic?

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Thought OneJerusalem. Why else would the Jewish Country have needed to crush the country’s infrastructure during the 2006 invasion? Who else could be responsible for the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri? UNIFIL, Michel Suleiman – nay – democracy isn’t calling the shots in Beirut. The Iran-funded Hezbollah is.

What Lebanese Defense Minister, Elias al-Murr had in mind with his personal contribution of $670,000, according to the Reuters article, was to convince Lebanese citizens living abroad throughout the world and domestically to help pitch in – build up the Lebanese army that is.

But would the $100 million from the United States really be such a good idea? Firstly, after recent clashes between Lebanon and the IDF along Israel’s northern border, it undermines the Jewish Country, which – let’s face it – is only to be expected from this current American administration. At the same time the dangerous Tehranian goofballs too have donated $720 million to Lebanon since 2006. Why should we believe that money donated to Lebanon is going anywhere but into the pocket of Nasrallah the notorious?

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Well, Israel was happy to have Ashton Kutcher visit last week. The occasion? It was the birthday party of the founder of the Kabbalah Center, Rabbi Shraga Berg.

Well, Mr. Kutcher also visited the Tower of David and the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and even stopped by Abu Ghosh for some of the world’s finest humus.
One of the most impressive stops on Kutcher’s itinerary was a visit to Hebron, where he saw firsthand the tomb of the Patriarchs of the Jewish faith. On several occasions Demi and Ashton were seen wearing the famous Kabbalah Red String from the Tomb of Rachel. He also visited the grave of Joshua the elder in a village called Kafel-Hareth, outside of Nablus. He was greeted their by IDF Colonel Avi Gil, commander of the Ephraim Brigade who gave the 32-year-old American actor a baseball hat bearing the logo of his brigade.
　

The News and Opinions blog, The Promised Land wrote:
　

“I wonder if Ashton Kutcher knows what poor judgment he demonstrated yesterday. Both Nablus and Hebron are well within the occupied territories. For more than 40 years now, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in these cities have no political or civil rights, can’t travel, work or study freely, and are tried in Israeli military courts under British colonial laws. The area of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is particularly nasty. Entire streets are forbidden to Palestinians, kept only for the use of a tiny and radical settlers’ community, which frequently harass and abuse the Arab residents.”

　
Let’s assume, quite to the contrary, that if there were any political motives behind the visit, it was a religious pilgrimage in the face of Islamic-fascism and anti-Semitism. The blog post continued:

“Did anyone tell Ashton Kutcher that in 1994 a Jewish Terrorist named Baruch Goldstien (another resident of Jewish Hebron) opened fire on the Arabs praying there, killing 29 and wounding more than a hundred? Does Kutcher understand that coming to Hebron to pray with the Jewish community there is like riding into a black neighborhood in Alabama, 1950, with a KKK group? Does he realize that going to Nablus with an army hat is seen in the same way as going there on a Tank?”

Ashton Kutcher is a follower of Kabbalah, not Islamism – why should he care? Besides, will anyone remind the author of the Promised Land blog that on August 23 and 24 of 1929, Arabs massacred sixty-seven Jews in Hebron, which was then part of the British Mandate of Palestine…

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“The design of Arrow 3 promises to be an extremely capable system, more advanced than what we have ever attempted in the U.S. with our programs…This has to do with the seekers that have greater flexibility and other aspects, such as propulsion systems – it will be an extremely capable system.”

Is he an Indian giver?

In May the White House announced a $205 million grant supposed to fund a 10-unit battery of the Iron Dome system. The Iron Dome is something of a fence which will surround the country and protect its southern flank against short-range Kassam rockets fired by disgruntled Islamists.
　
The munificent aid package will probably be a one-time grant, while the Arrow 3 funding cuts are permanent.
　
Besides for this, more cuts could be on the way. For instance, the Magic Wand system (known as “David’s Sling”), used to defend Israel against medium-range missile attacks was $84.7 million, while last year’s budget was $134.7.

The Arrow 3 anti-missile system, with a kill ratio of 99% is intended to intercept and destroy long-range ballistic missiles, such as the ones that could possibly be fired at Israel by the Iranian regime in Persia.

The system which is one of the most advanced defense systems in existence is being jointly funded and produced by the Israel Aerospace Industries and the U.S.- based billionaire Boeing aerospace and defense contractor.

Also known as Hetz, the Arrow 3 is a family of anti-ballistic missiles designed to fulfill a theater missile defense system which would be even more efficient than the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile.

Jointly funded – jointly produced by both the Jewish Country and the former British colonies of the New World – the corporate sector that is, development of the system began in 1986. Israel Aerospace Industries and Boeing are responsible for the fiscal infrastructure.

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Oh and mortar fire too.

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator said the Palestinians had submitted a “far-reaching” peace proposal to Barack Obama which would end the conflict with Israel and resolve Palestinian claims – too much hookah puffing?

Obama has pledged to the Palestinians that if Mahmoud Abbas agreed to go into direct talks, there would be an augmentation of the West Bank construction freeze, set to end in late September – too many Marlboro Lights and booze has clearly blurred the President’s Middle East outlook.

As for the Sinai attack, a Jordanian man was killed and three wounded when one of the rockets hit central Aqaba, the Jordanian Red Sea port city. There were, thank God, no casualties reported in Eilat where the rocket struck north of the hotels.

The IDF is in contact with the Jordanian and Egyptian armies.

Egyptian officials told the Israeli media that the attack could not have come from Sinai, which they say is heavily secured – however, Egypt recently sentenced 26 alleged members of a Hezbollah spy cell on charges of plotting attacks on tourist sites and smuggling weapons to Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Will Egypt begin to work closer with the Jewish Country to keep the border secure?

Will Hamas succeed in destroying peace talks between Israel, Fatah and Obama, which will, as always, prove ineffectual, anyway?

Stay tuned and find out…

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42-year-old Hamato Samir was the editor of the newspaper al-Hayat al-Jadida, based in Gaza. He had reportedly encountered problems working with a colleague believed to have links with Fatah – and was consequentially let go. Hamato is the father of seven children and also supports his parents. Al-Hayat al-Jadida which is sponsored by the PA is now banned in Hamas’ Gaza Strip.

Head of the Press Information Ministry in Gaza, Marouf Salama says that it is only ethical to allow a free-flow of Fatah press filter into Hamas-run civilization, such as Palestinian TV, as long as the PA allows the free flow of Hamas-sponsored press into Fatah territory, such as al-Aqsa TV or the West Bank newspaper, al-Risala. Ghassan al-Khatib, director of the PA Press Office in Ramallah says that Hamas has yet to fulfill their end of the bargain.

A man named Sahar al-Aqra is another example of Palestinian journalists being harassed by the Hamas regime. Two weeks ago, he was denied the right to enter into Egypt via the infamous Rafah crossing. Wanting to go to Egypt to study at a post-graduate level, his passport and identity card were seized at the checkpoint and torn. He was accused of being affiliated with Keith Dayton, the United States military general, sent to the West Bank to train military units and security forces loyal to Abbas.

Stay tuned for more schismatic and fascist showdowns in the unoccupied territory.

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“In feature films about John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon and George W. Bush, Oliver Stone, gave free rein to his imagination and was often criticized for doing so”

Writes Larry Rohter of the New York Times. During the recent New York Times interview, Rohter wrote that Stone stated,

“People who are often demonized, like Nixon and Bush and Chávez and Castro, fascinate me…”

And the famed director does not wane in his creative calling or his denouncement of demonization.

Stated Stone:

“We’re going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them. We want to move beyond opinions …Go into the funding of the Nazi party. How many American corporations were involved, from GM through IBM. Hitler is just a man who could have easily been assassinated.”

What is so fascinating is that such a political and historical skeptic would not come to the side of Israel – the true victim and even the archetypal victim of demonization.

Furthermore, is not anti-Semitic rhetoric really a kind of “funding” for neo-Nazism?

Stone stated in the recent New York Times interview as the cause for disproportionate attention to the Holocaust in American media:

“The Jewish domination of the media. There’s a major lobby in the United States” he said “They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***ed up United States foreign policy for years.”

Mr. Stone will be attacked for his comments by those who love America and by Jews who love themselves – just as Mr. Stone is attacked by critics for the historical and biographical motion pictures which he makes. The common denominator is his masterful misrepresentation of the truth.

There is no defense for the artist who tells lies in the real world. His honorable occupation of story-telling on the silver screen loses credibility, you see.

So while Stone slanders his father’s people and Mel Gibson digs his hateful hole deeper; while Meg Ryan boycotts Israel and Stone’s boy Hugo Chavez lets the Hezbollah operate freely in Venezuela, and the “demonized” Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to tell lies and facilitate the murder of Israelis – not one Christian Hollywood notable has stepped up and said, “enough!”

Aside from this, Stone should be aware: the true demon is within himself. Because of this, his art suffers.

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