Moshe Dayan on born on a kibbutz near the Sea of Galilee in 1915. When he was 14, he joined the outlawed Haganah, an underground defense force to protect Jewish settlements from Arab attacks. Although caught and imprisoned by the British for two years, he would fight for them in Lebanon during WWII, losing his eye. In the 1948 War of Independence, he fought on all the fronts, defending Israel; by 1953 he was Chief of Staff of the Israeli Armed Forces. In 1956 he led the Suez Campaign.
In 1967 he was Defense Minister for the Six Day War. He remained in that position through the War of 1973. Although a genuine hero in every sense of the word, he was held responsible for the initial success of Egyptian forces in the surprise attack on Yom Kippur (1973), and would resign from his position.
Israel is too small of a country, and it's enemies too numerous, for any miscalculations regarding it's security.
I believe Joe Biden is qualified to give Mayor Callahan advise at the Blue Grill in Bethlehem, Pa.. In Jerusalem, with Netanyahu, he's out of his league.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteThe Obama Administration’s foreign policy is outrageous and frightening.
Scott Armstrong
If you think strategically you will realize that Netanyahu needs Biden and Obama. Politicians are always trying to balance doing the "right thing" and staying in power. I believe Netanyahu wants peace, a two state solution but his electoral base does not. He can use the USA to counter his base and stay in power.
ReplyDeletegary, generally speaking, i don't want to get too much into the israeli-palestinian debate. there are those much more qualified than I for that. i must however answer your statement. i believe that most israeli's do support a two state solution; the problem is the other side really wants only a ONE state solution, with no israel.
ReplyDeletemy greater point for this post was that in reality it was biden who made the gaffe, not israel. however, netanyahu is such a diplomat and statesman, he saved face for biden.
According to the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, in a report issued yesterday, 43.9% of Palestinians favor a two state solution. The goal should be to bring the others along. Netanyahu needs to be encouraged (pushed) by world leaders to facilitate this process. A two-state solution is the only viable way to end the killing and suffering in the land Christians, Muslims and Jews call holy.
ReplyDeletegary, that source is palestinian media outlet;
ReplyDeleteThe Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre (JMCC) seeks to empower both Palestinians and internationals by disseminating information on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Palestinian politics.
their headline today is inflammatory; that israel tortured a palestinian to death. i can tell you that when israeli's are killed, or as the scud missiles came in the gulf war, they celebrate in the streets giving out candy. i believe if that 44% figure was anywhere near true, there would already be two states. again, this is precisely the debate i wished to avoid and will not continue
Elections have consequences.
ReplyDeleteBarrack Hussein Obama told everyone who he was BEFORE the election.
I am to be surprised now by the foreign policy of his Administration?
Well, I am not.
What shameful treatment of a historical friend and ally of the United States of America.
Mr. Molovinsky,
ReplyDeletePlease take into consider another side: The Christians that have welcomed Jews and Palestinians before and continually during these conflicts. These Lebanese Christians have endured throughout the years French mandate, Syrian occupation, harassment from militant Muslims and Christians, hostile Palestinian camps within their home country borders, and most recently unprovoked and strategically precise Israeli bombs that wiped out the Lebanese Christian North's infrastructure and communications. These people are my family. They hold no grudges. They hold no ill will. They house no terrorists and either forced to or openly have welcomed all people into their land.
So when I read your comments regarding your written exposay, forgive me, if I assume your generalities in writing offend a few people; most especially when you try to draw parallels to likening Joe Biden to Moshe Dayan. There might be some better parallels that you could have focused on that would have been more realistic.
Sincerely,
Alex Joseph
Washington, D.C.
alex, you write;
ReplyDelete"draw parallels to likening Joe Biden to Moshe Dayan."
i do not understand this statement. my point, and often i write too cryptically, is that even the israeli hero moshe dayan was forced to resign for the public perceiving one failure in regard to their security. israel has no room for mistakes. israel can afford to take orders from no one, much less joe biden. there is no comparison between joe biden from delaware who has done nothing of merit i know of, and moshe dayan or netanyahu or any israeli prime minister who are all true historical figures.
i don't want to get into the israel/palestinian conflict, or likewise the israel/lebanon situation. because you did write about "israeli bombs", i must say that apparently the syrian influence is again increasing. saad hariri visited damascus last year. i read only yesterday that israel claims that syria is supplying scud missiles to hezbollah.
if you reply, please restrict yourself to explaining what you meant about biden/dayan.
perhaps on one of your visits home we can meet for coffee
come on molovinsky--you put up a picture of Dayan and slam our vice-president and then say you don't want a debate on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
ReplyDeleteThe Jews are not the historical friends and allies of the United State of America?
ReplyDeleteReally?
Here are JUST A FEW (Pennsylvania) American heroes of the Revolutionary War :
Col SOLOMON BUSH (Deputy Adjutant General of PA State Militia)
Col ISSAC FRANKS (aid-de-camp to General George Washington, later Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Maj LEWIS BUSH (died shortly following Battle of Brandywine, Sept 1777, as a result of battle wounds)
Capt NOAH ABRAHAM, Cumberland County
Ensign MORDECAI DAVIS, 2nd PA Battery, killed August 1776
EASTON resident MICHAEL HART ("a public spirited and leading citizen")
PHILADELPHIA resident ISSAC MOSES ("advanced three thousand pounds when Robert Morris undertook to raise money to prosecute a War of Independence")
As luck would have it, these heroes were apparently of the Jewish faith.
SOURCE MATERIAL :
"The American Jew As Patriot, Soldier and Citizen"
by Simon Wolf, Louis Edward Levy
-----------------------------------
I could be here until the cows come home listing Jewish heroes who made contributions to the founding of the United States of America.
There is plenty of material available documenting the contributions of Jews to the American Revolution just on-line alone ready for further examination and confirmation.
Here, anyone with 1/100 of a brain already got the point.
gary, here's the debate which i will host; how much can united states dictate israeli policy. btw, moshe dayan was the front man for menachem begin with egypt for the camp david peace treaty and deserves much of the credit, as does carter of course.
ReplyDeletei'm assuming had mccain won the election, you would be as protective of palin as vice president?
anon 5:34, nobody said the jews were not historically good americans. so, i will not print more comments proving they are.
ReplyDeletethis is a difficult topic to moderate. gary wants to discuss the israel/palestinian issue and started off with a palestinian website, but i won't go there
alex would like to discuss the israel/lebanon situation, but i won't go there
i will host dialogue on the growing difference in us/israel policy under obama and our policy vs. israeli interests in iran
Mr. Molovinsky,
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, in my opinion :
Obama's foreign policy with respect to Israel SAYS the Jews are not historical friends and allies of the United States.
And I beg to differ.
Meanwhile, Obama's foreign policy with respect to Iran is either :
A) incredibly naive
B) something far more sinister
Iran's leader, Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust denier, has REPEATEDLY stated his goal is to DESTROY Israel.
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel"
Washington Post
"Ahmadinejad: Destroy Israel, End Crisis"
Aug 3, 2006
I take Bozo the Persian Clown at his word.
Apparently, from all the anti-Israel press I have been reading lately, not everyone in the United States sees matters the way I do.
Oddly enough, I am German raised up in the Presbyterian church. I have no relatives or business interests in Israel, either. Perhaps this is of no concern to me.
So, should I look the other way (like lots of Germans did at another place and point in time) and let Obama schmooze with the Holocaust denier who has repeatedly stated he wants to destroy Israel without pre-conditions?
Or should I stand up and say, "Israel is my historical friend and ally. You mess with them - you are messing with me"?
You know I respect and accept your judgement.
What AM I supposed to think?
-----------------------------------
BTW - I hear Iran are busy bees working hard on their nukes program. I also hear that it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Iran could have weapons which could hit the US in about five years time.
Perhaps I heard wrong.
rolf, you have to separate the jews and israel. i agree that obama seems less supportive of israel than say bush, but nobody accuses him of saying that the jews, especially american jews, are not historical friends of america. i say "seems" less supportive, because there are those, including jews, who believe that obama is actually trying to move the peace process forward by showing a more equal stance to both israel and the palestinians/arabs. i personally feel that he does in fact feel less kinship than his predecessors. the same can be said about his actions toward iran, that they may be calculated on appearing more even handed. both he and hillary clinton have stated publicly that the united states stands behind the survival of israel. i do agree with you about ahmadinijad's wish list. lastly, i believe that israel, although a friend of united states, will act in it's own security, when and how may be necessary.
ReplyDeleteI do not buy the "more equal footing" --- that is a major league smoke screen.
ReplyDeleteA very, very well-played ball, as the English might say --- my opinions, of course.
I will give Mr. "Not A Christian Not A Jewish Nation" a pass on Judeo-Christian Western Civilization history tonight because I hear you when you say separate US Jews and Israel.
Meanwhile...
RO
Obama and Clinton fail greatly reach anything even remotely close to a CONVINCING SINCERITY when they say what they say regarding Israel.
ReplyDeleteI know it.
You know it although are far too much of a diplomat along the lines of Netanyahu to get anywhere near admiting such.
And, the rest of the world knows it.
(I bet Poland doesn't put too much stock into what Obama says)
RO
Mr. Molovinsky,
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that I wanted to discuss was your ill wantonedly use of generalities. To be honest, I find them pretty offensive. I have noticed over the past months, that many other bloggers, yourself included, have found topics offensive when speaking either on specific topics or generalities.
I would think that a topic, as touch and go as the Middle East, would be an especially sensitive topic.
Fact - Israeli bombs did bomb North Lebanon, a predominant area civilian and peace loving Christians.
Fact - Hezbollah did bomb Israel and killed civilian Israelis.
Fact - Ariel Sharon drove way past U.N. restricted zones and killed many innocent Christian and Muslim civilians in Southern Lebanon.
Unproven Fact - weapons of mass destruction have not been found in Iraq.
Another Unproven Fact - no scud missiles from any nation in the world, especially Russia or Syria, have been found in Southern Lebanon.
Fact - I am not Hezbollah.
Fact - I am not Syrian.
Fact - I am not an Israeli.
Fact - I do not want to talk about the complicated Middle East.
Fact - I do want to address the offensive generalities that I perceive when I read your article.
You lay throughout your response and this article misinformation. Then you acknowledge that you write cryptically. And then you ask,
"if you reply, please restrict yourself to explaining what you meant about biden/dayan."
I ask you, what are you trying to gain by posting an article as such with a picture of Moshe Dayan in battle fatigues, especially in front of the Wailing Wall, and making reference to our Vice President?
Please excuse me if I seem to be charged. But as I stated before, I am very offended at your flippant remarks regarding a very sensitive subject to all.
Sincerely,
Alex Joseph
Washington, D.C.
what is in my post article that you find false or not a fact?
ReplyDeletethe points you raise in your comment are all over the map and time.
ariel sharon in lebanon was many years ago.
no weapons of mass destruction in iraq has no relevance here, except; how convenient that you use a common arab talking point and at the same time defend "our vice president"
although there were hundreds, if not thousands of missiles in southern lebanon for use against israel, they were not scud missiles
although you're a christian, you're still upset by the photo of dayan in east jerusalem at a sign pointing toward the wall. (it's not even the wall) i suppose you prefer the previous arab position that the wall was not accessible to jews unless they didn't mind being stoned to death.
in 1982 ariel sharon was vilified for not preventing the Phalanges (Maronite Christian militias) from killing palestinians civilians in sabra and shatila camps.
ReplyDeletealex, now 28 years later, you write that sharon killed innocent christian and muslim civilians?
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
ReplyDelete---------- Gandhi
never again
ReplyDelete----holocaust survivor
Without question.
ReplyDeleteNever again.
- GENTILE GERMAN ACCEPTING HISTORICAL RESPONSIBILITY AND MORAL OBLIGATION
Mr. Molovinsky,
ReplyDeleteAre you trying to portray me as insensitive or an Anti-Semite? Because I was offended by your article, I am labeled as offending you and making many vast an unrelated accusations. Some as long as 40 years ago.
I have no problems with Moshe Dayan. I have no problems with the wailing wall. I am on the side of living in peace. I do not want to nor will I kill anyone in the name of peaceful co-existion. I AM a Semite.
Please learn your history and validate your new sources. I am making very valid points. But your pettiness is getting in the way of your vision.
You are putting words into my mouth, that I have never expressed. Allow yourself to open your eyes and try to see things from a different perspective. Give me a fair shake. We both have peace in mind.
But, please, please, and for the second time, tell me what the object was of this post.
And because I didn't clearly make this evident before, so for the third and fourth time, this article is very offensive to me.
If you want the truth, it seems that I cannot have an educated discussion with you. You appear to put words in my mouth that would portray me to be a monster.
You wrote... " here's the debate which i will host; how much can united states dictate israeli policy."
Here is my response... I believe our government give a certain amount of money to the government of Egypt every day.
I also, believe that our government gives the same amount of money, if not more, to the Israeli government everyday.
Would you considered that a significant amount of an ability to dictate policy to either of those two governments?
Alex Joseph
Washington, D.C.
alex, it is not my intention to offend you. i wrote a post about moshe dayan, which attempted to show that despite being an israeli hero for three wars, he was forced to resign because of his miscalculations regarding egypt in 1973. i was inspired to write it because of the way netanyahu has been treated by washington (in my opinion) since the "incident" with biden. i believe the gaffe was by biden, he had no right to berate israel because of an internal israeli announcement, however ill timed it was. no, i do not believe that our financial support of israel means that we are entitled to dictate policy concerning their survival. i made it very clear in my post that there is no room for error when it comes to israel's survival, or lack of enemies. you wrote originally that you were offended that i mentioned dayan and biden in the same post. you wrote that you were offended by the picture of dayan near the wall. the post was not written to offend you. the current post about the wall also wasn't written to offend you, but was inspired by this post.
ReplyDeleteIsrael's enemies are weak and divided, it is one of very few nations in the world to posses nuclear weapons (let alone the middle east) and it has the support of the most powerful nation on the planet.
ReplyDeleteIsrael's security is practically guaranteed.
anon 9:26, i believe there are few countries whose security is less guaranteed. they are outnumbered 50 to 1. only their attack against the iraqi reactor prevented that enemy from prevailing. the same threat now comes from iran. your point of view serves israel's enemies well. understand, the country is the size of rhode island, at it's waist, 25 miles wide.
ReplyDeleteEARTH to Anon 9:26 :
ReplyDeleteThe US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral MICHAEL MULLEN's inability to deny United States jets would shoot down Israeli warplanes is not anything anyone with even the slightest understanding of geo-politics would come close to accurately describing as "support".
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, the genius who was US National Security Advisor to JIMMY CARTER and completely incapable of affecting the 444-day Iranian Hostage Crisis, advocates shooting down Israeli jets and is given plenty of air-time in the Main Stream Media to state such.
"Israel's security is practically guaranteed."
Back to pre-school to start from scratch for you.
Try to color only in between the lines this time.
Don't eat the paste and, most importantly, stop sniffing the glue.
KLAUS VON STAUFFENBERG
Let's see the complete quotes from MICHAEL MULLEN:
ReplyDelete“We have an exceptionally strong relationship with Israel. I’ve spent a lot of time with my counterpart in Israel. So we also have a very clear understanding of where we are. And beyond that, I just wouldn’t get into the speculation of what might happen and who might do what. I don’t think it serves a purpose, frankly,” he said. “I am hopeful that this will be resolved in a way where we never have to answer a question like that.”
and
"They’re an extraordinarily close ally, have been for a long time, and will be in the future,”
Israel may be small, but physical size matters very little in this game, especially when so much of the region is covered by desert. Israel has a highly advanced military, a thriving economy and control over water (the most valuable resource in the ME).
Check back in ten years--even after the big bogeyman Iran has nuclear weapons. Israel will still be there and the United States will still support them.
Might as well have a link to an article, so you don't think I'm just making those quotes up.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/top-officer-iraq-no-fly-zone-applies-to-israeli-jets/
I really don't understand where all the paranoia is coming from. The ME isn't ISRAEL VS THE MUSLIM WORLD it's actually a smidgen more complicated than that.
anon 11:34, i also checked out that complete quote and agree with you that it was taken out of context, HOWEVER, i disagree both about iran and the desert. with the current regime in iran, nuclear weapons would be a very real threat to israel. israel's enemies are in it's back yard; any military missile, such as a scud, even with conventional warhead, could reach anyway in the country.
ReplyDeleteIsrael cannot afford to take orders from anyone, except a loving God.
ReplyDeleteReview the Ten Commandments and you will realize the slippery slope you climb when mixing politics and religion.