Israel's abandonment of the path of defeatism

"JUST HITTING ANOTHER
BRICK WALL"

Before my Daddy posts his regular

Sunday blog, here are the answers

to yesterdays’ TV Quiz:

A.) The Life of Riley

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. William Bendix Chester A. Riley

2. Majorie Reynolds Peggy Riley

3. Lugene Sanders Babs Riley

4. Wesley Morgan Chester Riley, Jr.

B.) Dennis the Menace

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. Jay North Dennis Mitchel

2. Herbert Anderson Henry Mitchel

3. Gloria Henry Alice Mitchel

4. Joseph Kearns George Wilson

C.) Make Room for Daddy

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. Danny Thomas Danny Williams

2. Jean Hagen Margaret Williams

3. Marjorie Lord Kathy “Clancy” O’Hare Williams

4. Rusty Hamer Rusty Williams

5. Angela Cartwright Linda Williams

D.) Lassie

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. Jon Provost Timmy Martin

2. June Lockhart Ruth Martin

3. Hugh Reilly Paul Martin

4. Lassie Lassie

E.) Real McCoy’s

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. Walter Brennan Grandpa Amos McCoy

2. Richard Crenna Luke McCoy

3. Lydia Reed Hassie McCoy

F.) The Many Loves of Dobbie Gillis

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. Dwayne Hickman Dobbie Gillis

2. Bob Denver Maynard G. Krebs

3. Sheila James Zelda Gilroy

G.) The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. Ozzie Nelson Ozzie Nelson

2. Harriet Nelson Harriet Nelson

3. David Nelson David Nelson

4. Ricky Nelson Ricky Nelson

H.) Father Knows Best

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. Robert Young Jim Anderson

2. Jane Wyatt Margaret Anderson

3. Elinor Donahue Betty Anderson

4. Bill Gray Bud Anderson

5. Lauren Chapin Kathy Anderson

I.) The Lone Ranger

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. Clayton Moore Lone Ranger

2. Jay Silverheels Tonto

3. Silver Lone Ranger’s Horse

J.) Hopalong Cassidy

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. William Boyd Hopalong Cassidy

2. Topper Cassidy’s Horse

K.) Oh Susanna

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. Gale Storm Susanna Pomroy

2. S.S. Ocean Queen Name of Ship

3. Zasu Pitts Esmerelda “Nugey” Nugent

4. Roy Roberts Capt. Huxtly

L.) Dr. Kildare

Actor’s Real Name Show Name

1. Richard Chamberlin Dr. Kildare

2. Raymond Massey Dr. Leonard Gillespie

How many did you get right?

“Munchkin"

Important move forward

in Israel's abandonment
of the path of defeatism

and surrender:

The return of thousands of Israelis to the ruins of Homesh village in northern Samaria this week was a bolt from the blue. A rare combination of wisdom, morality and great timing, the demonstration forced the local media to acknowledge the strategic folly and moral bankruptcy of the expulsion and withdrawal policy that transformed some ten thousand Israeli Jews into internal refugees a year and a half ago.

Homesh was one of the 21 communities razed by Ariel Sharon's government in August 2005. Monday thousands marched to its ruins and pledged to rebuild it. Although by Tuesday radio and television newscasters were predictably agitating for the IDF to violently remove the demonstrators, their anti-settler prattle came off flat. The thrill was gone.

After the war in Lebanon last summer, and Gaza's post-withdrawal transformation into a mini-Taliban state, it is no longer possible to sound intelligent while advocating Israeli withdrawals and expulsions. Since few people are willing to sound like fools, most of the broadcasters acknowledged the withdrawal's strategic failure.

Without its strategic fig leaf, all that remains to defend the policy of ethnically cleansing areas of Jewish presence is the hatred card upheld by the Arabs and the Left. Both claim that Jews must be removed from their homes because their mere presence in their communities is responsible for the genocidal hatred than has taken control of the Palestinian and the Arab world's collective psyche.

The protesters at Homesh ably dispensed with this anti-Semitic nonsense by pointing to the fact that the IDF remains in the areas in spite of the removal of its Jewish residents. The IDF has remained in place because contrary to the promises of the plan's proponents, the expulsion of the Jews of northern Samaria and Gaza did nothing to mitigate the Palestinians' commitment to Israel's destruction. To the contrary, it simply whetted their appetite for war. Indeed, what the aftermath of the expulsions proved was that far from burdening the army, before they were destroyed, the communities in northern Samaria and Gaza protected the IDF by providing secure bases for operations.

As luck would have it, the demonstrators exposed the moral bankruptcy and strategic idiocy at the heart of the withdrawal and expulsion policy just as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel. Rice came to pressure the Olmert-Livni-Peretz government to conduct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority's Hamas-Fatah terror government. The ultimate object of Rice's proposed talks is the expulsion of hundreds of thousands more Israelis from their homes in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem just because they are Jews. There can be little doubt that their protest took the wind out of Rice's sails.

“Abouna” Gregori