#FLAME Facts & Logic About the Middle East

[feedbaylenny]

It’s not easy being a moderate. That’s definitely what I consider myself and it seems to make people on both sides angry.

Either that, or because I tell it like it is.

Today, the issues that got to me started with this post from Miami journalist Eliott Rodriguez.

Fine points, and you can click here or click here to watch.

Then some idiot wrote these two *separate* comments, *each* of them leading to the majority of the discussion:

The second post generated more comments than the first. People wondered what Cuba has or had to do with what CBS News described,

“Oprah Winfrey reports on the Alabama memorial dedicated to thousands of African-American men, women and children lynched over a 70-year period following the Civil War.”

https://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/

Fascinating story. Horrific pictures. In fact, there’s even a 60 Minutes Overtime video called “Why 60 Minutes aired disturbing photos.”

And that idiot used this as an opportunity to make cheap political cat-calls. Notice the word “ancient” in the first post. One person referred to it,

“Like the Jews enslaved by the Egyptians .. yet, we still read and talk about it … and pray about daily. Denial is a terrible thing.”

Another told that guy to

“Tell holocaust survivors or their children that their images are apart of a leftist agenda, please do I’ll Wait!”

This was my part of the exchange. I started by referring to the Cuba remarks vs. the subject of the 60 Minutes report:

But my “favorite” line is Eliott summing up what that one person did to an important conversation.

Then came word that the awfully biased United Nations chose Syria out of all countries in the world to chair a disarmament conference, just days after that country in the middle of a civil war allegedly used chemical gas on its own people.

  The BBC reports Saturday, “the Syrian-American Medical Society said more than 500 people were brought to medical centers in Douma (Duma),”

“near the capital Damascus, with symptoms ‘indicative of exposure to a chemical agent.’

“It said this included breathing difficulties, bluish skin, mouth foaming, corneal burns and ‘the emission of chlorine-like odor.’

“Neither the death toll nor what exactly occurred can be verified as the area is blocked off with access denied. (Note from Lenny: Absolutely the OPPOSITE of what’s happening around Israel, not because Gaza – led by the terror group Hamas – is a free, open society, but because Israel is, with freedom of the press.)

“The estimates of how many people died in the suspected chemical attack range from 42 to more than 60 people, but medical groups say numbers could rise as rescue workers gain access to basements where hundreds of families had sought refuge from bombing.”

Now, the US and Russia have traded barbs at a UN Security Council meeting. The Russian representative said the incident was staged and US military action in response could have “grave repercussions.”

US ambassador Nikki Haley said Russia – being a Syrian military backer – had the “blood of Syrian children” on its hands. She said if the UN Security Council acts or not, “either way, the United States will respond.”

Later Monday, President Trump pledged the incident would “be met forcefully,” adding the US had a lot of military options and a decision would be taken “tonight” or “shortly.”

UN Watch reports Syria is due to “chair the United Nations disarmament forum that produced the treaty banning chemical weapons” from late May into late June. The US and others are expected “to strongly protest, and for their ambassadors to walk out of the conference during the four weeks of the Syrian presidency.”

Whatever happened to President Obama’s red line against chemical weapons? Absolutely nothing! This could’ve and should’ve been avoided. The Washington Post published this article, “The problem with Obama’s account of the Syrian red-line incident,” a year and a half ago.

To the situation in Gaza and reaction: Starting with the basics, Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian National Authority after Yasser Arafat died. Then, the PLO Central Council voted him into office indefinitely. So there’s no democracy in Judea and Samaria, which is referred to as the West Bank of the Jordan River.

In 2005, the Israeli army withdrew from Gaza and dismantled all settlements in the Gaza Strip. Then, the terror group Hamas was elected as the Palestinian government. Abbas, who succeeded Arafat in Judea and Samaria, lost.

  According to Wikipedia, “There have been conflicts between Hamas and similar factions operating in Gaza, and with Israel” and “The radicalization of the Gaza Strip brought internal conflicts between various groups” like deadly Hamas crackdowns. Plus, of course, nobody can ignore all the rocket fire from Gaza into Israel from schools and hospitals – any way to use civilians as human shields.

So there has not been a Palestinian group to negotiate with Israel.

Tonight, a friend I respect in certain areas but on the far left fringe posted this on Facebook.

So Israelis should just sit back and let everyone nearby do what they want to do?

This was somebody else’s response, and then mine to my friend.

Click here for the link I used and read on to understand.

Do you believe the headlines you read?

The group Facts and Logic shows many mistakes in The New York Times, and this incorrect headline was last Saturday: “Israeli Military Kills 15 Palestinians in Confrontations on Gaza Border” but what really happened was “Palestinian Terrorists Attack Israel’s Gaza Border, 15 Dead.”

It compared what’s happening to the US-Mexico border

“being attacked by 40,000 rioters whose goal is to overthrow the United States and reclaim Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. What if they were hurling Molotov cocktails, rolling burning tires and trying to cut holes in the border fence? How would our country respond?”

Some people say Israel overreacted. Tell that to the folks who live in the area, like southern Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California!

Facts and Logic guessed,

“We’d probably respond with leaflets and loudspeakers warning the militants to stay away from the border. If they didn’t stop rushing the border, we’d use tear gas, then rubber bullets. If they persisted and tried to tear down the border fence, we’d respond with live ammunition, and some would die. Which is exactly what happened when the terrorists attacked Israel last week.

“The Israel Defense Forces have identified 10 of the 17 people killed as members of Hamas or other Palestinian terror groups. This was no family picnic or peaceful demonstration.”

Even worse, “Hamas leaders told the protesters, the so-called March of Return marked a “new phase in the Palestinians’ national struggle on the road to liberating all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

In other words, don’t shed any tears. That’s conquering all of Israel.

You can’t say they’re attacking Israel to end the boycott of Gaza. Facts and Logic says they’d be attacking Egypt since “Egypt controls the Rafah crossing to Gaza, which was open for less than 30 days in 2017, compared with some 280 days for the Erez crossing from Israel.”

We know the phrase “war is hell.”

I ask you, who started it and who is experiencing (and arguably deserving of) hell?

There have been numerous offers of land for a Palestinian state. The Arabs rejected the 1947 UN Armistice Plan and Israel won its War of Independence. Then, 19 years later after a war of defense that took only six days, Israel

“drove Jordan from eastern Jerusalem and the Jewish homelands of Judea and Samaria (later known as the West Bank) and repulsed Egypt from Gaza. Shortly thereafter, the Arab League issued its famous Khartoum Resolution: ‘No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with it.’ (Any questions? -Lenny) Since then, despite numerous Israeli offers of land for a Palestinian state, the Arabs continue to reject peace.”

Luckily, the Gulf states may be coming to their senses with Iran being a bigger, closer enemy. In fact, India’s airline can actually fly over Saudi Arabia to and from Tel Aviv, saving gasoline and hours! (Israel’s El Al can’t do so at this time.) The way it’s looking, the Palestinians will be the LAST Arabs to make peace with Israel.

I’ll end this section with this Facts and Logic note that serves them right:

“Following World War II, the Germans and Japanese surrendered and were forced to give up lands they had earlier occupied. In return they were granted peace and sovereignty. The Arabs, on the other hand, have never surrendered, despite losing numerous wars with Israel, and they have never accepted peace. Sadly, until the Palestinians are willing to give up their quest to conquer Israel, they are doomed to unending struggle and statelessness.”

Then tonight, I saw this story from a week ago:

It reminded me of this story:

The New York Post reported,

“A Brooklyn legislator was accused Wednesday of delivering a bizarre tirade against Jews, while ripping Mayor Bill de Blasio as a sellout, during a local community board meeting this week. Assemblywoman Diane Richardson’s 50-minute rant during the Board 17 meeting Monday night faulted Jews for gentrifying in her district. … During a rezoning talk, a board member complained that people constantly ring her doorbell to ask if she’s interested in selling her home. ‘It must be Jewish people,’ Richardson responded, according to Lew Fidler, a former City Council member who is Jewish and attended the meeting as a representative of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.”

Want to stereotype? We’re not the ones who ring doorbells or even knock on doors!

But The Post reports, “Before faulting Jewish interlopers, Richardson snidely referred to Brooklyn state Sen. Simcha Felder as ‘the Jewish senator from southern Brooklyn.’”

(He should be taken to task for “new rules for what yeshivas must teach … the result of state Sen. Simcha Felder’s push to lower standards for yeshivas. Lawmakers mercifully nixed that outrageous demand but did agree to new language, seemingly written just for yeshivas, that spell out new curriculum requirements.”)

Would that work with any other group of people?

The article also said Assemblywoman

“Richardson apparently knew her remarks were controversial because she had board officials shut off the board’s tape recorder before her comments. Richardson also invoked race when discussing what she called the city’s uneven placement of homeless shelters.”

This is how the discussion played out.

  So a few giggles about the absurdity of the whole thing.

I don’t know why Richardson felt the need to invoke race or religion.

I would think people like her have suffered enough. Didn’t last night’s 60 Minutes teach anyone anything? And now, she’s a New York State assemblywoman who made herself look like only the first three letters of her title.

from http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Diana-C-Richardson/

I wonder if she even realizes her district contains Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, plus Crown Heights and Eastern Parkway. There’s also the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, but I think she should stay as far away from there as possible, and not be any influence.

Apparently this was the second time in as many weeks Richardson had a breakdown.

The Post wrote she

“also went ballistic … at a Democratic caucus in Albany, sources said. Assembly Democrats who witnessed Richardson’s outburst at Speaker Carl Heastie over funding one of her pet projects said they were stunned and outraged, calling it the most abusive and rude behavior they ever encountered at a caucus meeting.

“She had a meltdown. She was really out of control,” said one Assembly veteran.

“Everyone in the room was appalled at her behavior. She basically accused the speaker and his staff of lying to her. It was a personal attack. I’ve never seen anything like that in conference.”

Another Assembly Democratic insider who witnessed Richardson’s rant called it “the most abusive behavior in memory.”

Looking for some sort of apology, Richardson has had no press releases posted in almost a year, since May 3, 2017.

Click here for her website and let her know what you think.

Distorting history, stirring up stereotypes It's not easy being a moderate. That's definitely what I consider myself and it seems to make people on both sides angry.