22-Jun-07: Little reported, the terror attacks go on

Qassam rocket barrages fired directly at the non-disputed, non-occupied Israeli communities of Ashkelon and Sderot caused injuries and damage on Wednesday night. But even people strongly interested in events happening in this part of the world would not know since the attacks were almost entirely unreported outside Israel.

The facts:

• Two Israelis were injured by the rockets. Ten others were hospitalized for treatment.
  
• A synagogue (place of worship) was damaged.
• Another rocket crashed into open space near a gas station on the outskirts of Kibbutz Nir Am.
• The attacks do not lack an admitted perpetrator. The terror organization Islamic Jihad openly and publicly claimed responsibility.
  
• Head of the Hamas regime, Ismail Haniyeh, aligned itself as usual with the acts of terror, disingenuously asserting that Hamas "is not responsible for protecting Israel". In reality, members of Hamas have engaged in acts of murder and terror that have taken the lives of hundreds of Israeli adults and children in the past seven years of this ongoing war.

Meanwhile, for those of us in despair at the reality of Hamastan right on our doorstep, armed to the teeth and with a thoroughly successful bloodbath of its own Fatah brethren freshly behind it, here's this cheerful Salon look at how "the nice young men in beards" i.e. Hamas thugs, keep traffic moving and investigate "petty crime".

17-Jun-07: Plain words about games

Israel's Nobel Prize-winning game theory specialist, Prof. Israel (Robert) Aumann, has a voice that needs to be heard by circles much wider than those who hear him today. His common sense and logic, his love of Israel, and his plain-spokenness are all exemplary. Every additional word is superfluous. Listen.

See to our needs first
There is no leadership crisis, but rather a crisis among the people
Prof. Israel Aumann

The question is not whether to enter the Gaza Strip or not. Before discussing Gaza we must first enter Israel and mend the deep crises created among the people.

What is happening today in the Gaza Strip is the direct result of Israel's failed and defeatist policies over the past 15 years. Since my opinion has been sought, I say that this is a policy destined to bring about the demise of the State of Israel. It's not just the policies. It's also the defeatist state of mind. All day long people are screaming "Peace, peace, and gestures, gestures!" Concessions and disengagements were made and settlers expelled. All this has ultimately achieved the opposite result.

We have to stop the empty slogans such as "Peace is made with enemies and not with friends." In order to achieve peace we must first and foremost be prepared for war. We have to change this state of mind at the core. It wasn't only the Romans who said that those who seek peace should prepare for war. Even game theory, for which I received the Nobel Prize, says so. We have to be emotionally prepared to bear and to inflict casualties – and not to scream "peace, peace," all day long. Only if we are prepared to kill and be killed – we shall not be killed. This is the paradox of war.

We have to extract ourselves from the bubble in which we are living and to understand that we are under a great existential threat.

I hear the arguments saying that everything stems from a leadership crisis. There is no leadership crisis - the crisis is entirely among the people. We elected our leadership knowing full well who these leaders are and what they are capable of. We elected this leadership six months after the expulsion from Gush Katif – and thus we endorsed the expulsion with our own hands. So don't say there is a leadership crisis, the crisis is entirely among the people.

Prof. Israel Aumann is an economics Nobel Prize laureate