Ehud Olmert has a fatal flaw. Fatal for Israel mostly. Give him a position
of power and he exploits it to enrich himself, and damn the consequences
for the country. When he was Jerusalem's mayor, Ehud Olmert pillaged the city treasury for himself and his cronies.
On five separate occasions Ehud Olmert was investigated by the State Comptroller for theft
and corruption. Shall we begin with a quick overview?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=386304
http://www.kokhavivpublications.com/editions/israel/2006/01/amir-oren-corrupt-Ehud
Olmert-is-worthy.php
Only two years went by, and in the race against Ariel
Sharon it emerged that Ehud
Olmert had not learned his lesson. The investigation of his
relations with contractor David Appel found that Ehud
Olmert's office manager, Shula Zaken, had phoned Appel, asked
him for a contribution to Ehud
Olmert's election campaign, and arranged the visit by the mayor
of Athens, suiting it to his needs. Ehud
Olmert joined the conversation on an extension and said to
Appel, "Whatever you want, just tell me," but Attorney General
Menachem Mazuz realized that Zaken had implicated Ehud
Olmert through no fault of his own - "Yes, Mr. Mayor Ehud
Olmert" - and closed the case.
In the affair of the Likud receipts, Mudrik mentioned with skepticism
one of the witnesses' problems with his memory, which conveniently
became confused. At that time, the judge did not remember that forgetting
is a common human phenomenon. Ehud Olmert remembered hardly anything in the Appel case - not the
Greek delegation, not the special help that Appel had requested, and
not even whether such help had been received. This was the second
incident that caused Ehud Olmert an attack of amnesia. The first was recorded
in 1988, in criminal case 84/87 against Yehoshua Halperin of the Bank
of North America. Ehud Olmert, the witness for the prosecution, had borrowed
$50,000 from Halperin interest-free, but found at least 12 different
ways to say that he could not remember.
With his recent newfound power, Ehud Olmert was quick
to turn it to his advantage. First, he compromised Israel's telecommunications
industry.
Partner is one of the country's three cellular companies. Its clients
include the military, police...in fact, the whole security apparatus.
Because of the fear of a hostile takeover, nobody may purchase more
than 10% of a cellular company's stocks without interference by the
government.
In mid-December, Ehud Olmert flew to Hong Kong and met with the CEO of
Hutchison Telecommunications International, the majority shareholder
in Partner. Just a week later, an Egyptian company, Orascom, bought
19.85% of Hutchison's shares which just happened to give it a 9.997%
of Partner's stocks.
Ehud Olmert had coached well. Now one of Israel's most important telecommunications
companies had a new Egyptian partner, one with stakes in companies
in Algeria, Iraq, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Israel's dearest friends.
As for Ehud Olmert; did someone say kickbacks?
Not content with compromising telephone security, Ehud Olmert is now working
on our fuel supplies:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/672426.html
Policy
u-turn: Ehud Olmert wants to buy gas from Britain, not only Egypt 19.1.06
| 18:16 By Sharon Kedmi
In an abrupt about-face of policy, acting prime minister and finance
minister Ehud Olmert is seeking to buy natural gas from Britain. The
gas would derive from an offshore field British Gas has developed
in partnership with the Palestinians: the Prime Minister's Office
under Ariel Sharon had prohibited buying from them.
At present Israel's sources of natural gas are the Tethys Sea consortium,
but its field is not large, and Egypt. Yesterday Ehud Olmert wrote to Gordon
Brown, Chancellor to the U.K. Treasury, saying Israel would be glad
to do business with British Gas.
Ariel Sharon had opposed buying Gazan gas, on the grounds that Israeli
money might wind up financing terrorism.
One can only wait
with bated breath for the new business opportunities which await Ehud
Olmert, the peacemaker, when Ehud Olmert gets his shot at the big
prize: four years as prime minister.
end part
one
Now to the vulgar slander that appeared in
the Jewish Press last week.
First, some background:
Before I ever heard the name Daniel Pipes, it was reported to me that
he had mounted a campaign of slander against me. Until then, I didn't
realize that not only was he a member of the Council On Foreign Relations
(CFR), he was almost entirely funded by them directly or by proxy.
His prominence was not due to any innate talent; he had an in. His
father, Richard, was head of the CIA's Soviet department through the
Cold War.
Pipes turned to writing mediocrities with names you don't know like
Goldwasser, Balint and Plout.
Their assignment was to write to every site and newsgroup which published
me, threatening them if they so continued. The first two, I surmise,
saw how they were used and backed off. What remained was the third
mediocrity, Plout.
Now I never publish his name simply because he doesn't deserve any
publicity on my coattails. Leave it be said that he is a professor,
virtually unknown in Israeli academic circles, and he once wrote a
book, apparently about the local boy scouts movement. I looked it
up on Amazon. It is number over a million, meaning it's sold about
twelve copies.
Pipes tried to cover his tracks by setting up a phoney grudge between
me and him. That didn't work because, if I had to, I would choose
a much worthier grudge match. But he took on his assignment with vigor
and not much intelligence. After being caught in the act with sites
loyal to me, he played the same game using pseudonyms in places like
Rotter.net and Israel's Wikipedia. But he was too dumb to cover his
tracks well.
His style of slander was repetitious enough but the big giveaway was
referring to Pipes and leaving links to his site everywhere he showed
up. The best giveaway though was, acciCheap Dental Insurancely or not, now and then,
thoughtfully including his e-mail address in the comments supposedly
by other people.
His most vicious slander was a longterm attempt to portray me as a
Holocaust denier. For that I am suing him next week. In the Jewish
Press article, to save himself in court, he admitted it wasn't true.
But in the wake of it, he employed a few devotees with names like
Efratguy to spread the same lie.
Consider this letter just received from a blog owner:
I posted your email in my blog and someone in new jersey did a search
for "daniel pipes shill blog" and found us, and then several
visitors came from Tel Aviv straight to my site. They anonymously
said a few rude things about you and now they're just lurking. I was
amazed at how quickly they showed up AND the fact that there were
probably a hundred returns to that search...think they went to every
one of them and badmouthed you? anyway, my blog is at http://nord.twu.net/acl/news.html
Stay safe... looks like you're enemies are pretty desperate to shut
you down. I couldn't believe it when they called you a neo-nazi and
a holocaust denier!
On the Pipes/Plout partnership:
http://web.israelinsider.com/Editorials/4982.htm
On Pipes's
fine organization:
http://www.newswithviews.com/guest_opinion/guest82.htm
A few of the letters sent to the Jewish Press were forwarded to me.
I'm told many more were sent and I can't begin to express my gratitude
to all these wonderful people. Let us categorize the arguments. First,
the writers noted the article had no research, no scholarship, but
it sure contained a lot of hate:
"Virtually
every "question" raised by the conspiracists about the Rabin
assassination has
by now been fully explained away and answered:"
Only
error and misdeeds have to be explained away, like trying to "explain
away" lipstick on your shorts.
*
It
is surprising to me that the Jewish Press would support such weak
quasi-intellectualism as was present in the conspiracy article by
Steven Plaut. One can never judge the truth by just labelling something
mental illness and writing it off like that. Every true Dayan (and
scientist as well) understands that every detail of a claim must be
examined carefully before a conclusion is reached as to its veracity
or lack thereof.
*
Next, the writers expressed the suspicion that the article was commissioned
by people a great deal more powerful than the "author:"
*
Tell
me, dear Mrs Klass, do you have any idea who could possibly have been
paying whom to make fun of a very good and serious man called Barry
Chamish and whose political fortunes are supposedly served by it?
*
One
wonders why the author of this article finds the official gov't line
so much more credible than the obvious conclusion which the above
facts lead to. One also wonders if he doesn't have similar biases
in his poohpoohing other conspiracies, in particular the Rabin Assassination
which he has written about extensively in defense of the gov't position.
*
Plaut
then quotes a certain "seminal book" by Daniel Pipes. The
entire Plaut article thus strives to resemble a scholarly review of
another scholarly work.
This
sort of writing just proves that he is either a mole or a tool of
the Federal Government.
*
The
author then goes to the fallacy of logic (argument ad hominem) and
links Barry Chamish to fringe neo-Nazi and Holocaust revisionist groups.
I can attest, that as a conservative in some political aspects, nonetheless
my writings have appeared in the web-pages of the far left in America.
The fact of the Internet is, that anyone can cut and paste the writings
of anyone else. So much for the spurious use of argument ad hominem
by the individual to whom I address.
Very simply put; Barry Chamish writes with a bias to Israeli nationalism
and Daniel Pipes is a Neocon. There you have it.
*
But what really peeved the writers, was the "author's" insinuation
that I, and anyone who thinks as I do, is "mentally ill."
Now here's where things get interesting:
Israel's
Plague of Conspiracism
1-Conspiracism is probably best characterized as a form of mental
illness. Are you a licensed psychiatrist?
2-Some researchers in psychiatry plainly agree.....WHO?
*
Commentary:
International Relations, Research & Education
Vocabulary words used incorrectly by individuals who consider themselves
intellectuals create misrepresentation, but what is even more bizarre
is how loosely some individuals use non existent terms or words.
There are many slick unsavory characters from all walks of life who
probably contribute to numerous unsolved mysteries.
There is no reference to "conspiracism"
or "Conspiracists" in legal or medical terminology
or any reference to a diagnosis of "conspiracism" as a mental
illness or "plague".
Conspiracy: in Criminal Law occurs when two
or more persons conspire/ plan an unlawful
act, which becomes unlawful when
done by the concerted action of the conspirators.
Civil Conspiracies: the term "civil" is
used to designate a conspiracy which will furnish ground for a civil
action,as where, in carrying out the design of the conspirators, overt
acts are done causing legal damage, the person injured has a right
of action.
Reference: Black's Law Dictionary-Fourth Edition
*
His
faulty logic goes like this: Because some people believe in conspiracies,
all people who believe in conspiracies suffer mental illness, and
therefore promote anti-Semitism thus they are dangerous and you should
avoid them.
*
When
I have questioned Plaut about his passion against Chamish, he was
totally steadfast. No facts in the world could sway Plaut from his
attitude. His answers were full of emotion. He did not answer my questions
just lashed back about Chamish being crazy.
As I see it, Plaut has a personal dislike for Chamish and the Jewish
Press fell prey to it. If it is not a personal dislike, it is probably
part of a campaign to discredit Chamish so the truths he does discover
are not given validity. I guess that would make it a conspiracy, and
since I am the one to suspect it, by Plaut's definition that would
make me mentally ill.
*
Daniel
Pipes may be an 'expert' on the Middle East but it is news to me
that he is also a serious student of psychology. To describe all those
who come to grips with some of the most serious conspiracies - and
their
cover-ups - as paranoid delusions, - means that a huge percentage
of
Israel needs to be in the padded cell recommended by this supposed
academic.
*
At
risk of being called a conspirator by Plaut, and therefore mentally
ill by his definition, I question why Plaut is so vehemently opposed
to Chamish's work that he would spend so much time and effort to discredit
him.
*
Conspiracy theories are like Chassidishe Maises (miraculous stories
of Tzaddikim) If you believe all of them you're a fool, if you don’t
believe any you’re in denial!!!
*
Now look at this remarkable exchange, sent to me. The reader merely
suggested that Plout appear on Tamar Yonah's radio show on Arutz Sheva
to explain his views, because she often has me as his guest. What
is Plout's answer? He calls Tamar "mentally ill."
I asked Plaut if he'd be prepared to be interviewed on
Tamar Yona's show. This was his reply!!
--- Steven Plaut <splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il>
wrote:
I do not debate with the mentally ill.
On Thu, 19 Jan 2006, > wrote:
Dear Mr Plaut Chamish often is heard expounding on Tamar Yona's Arutz
7 show. If she invited you, would you be prepared to be interviewed
by her (by phone) to bring up the points you've raised in your interesting
"Plague" article?
Yaakov
*
In his defense petition to the court at the upcoming suit, plout submitted
reams and reams and reams of quotes from my work. He knows every word
and nuance of my writing. In fact, he knows it far better than I do.
I certainly never read anything he's "written," so if he
doesn't like my stuff, why doesn't he just ignore it? What is the
reason for this obsession.
As you will soon see, many readers assume he is on Pipes' payroll
and just wants to impress the boss. That answer is not entirely satisfactory
to me. He attacks his mission with way too much vigor.
Can you imagine anyone working day and night, non-stop, just to put
an end to my writing success? There have to be more sinister causes.
And I found one. A clinical psychologist working for an American prison
service took the trouble of reading plout's "work" and analyzing
it. His professional conclusion has to be the right one:
I
suggest that the evidence indicates that Steven Plaut is suffering
from an acute form of mental illness known as “Arrested Development.”
This mental illness is characterized by denial of the obvious. This
mental illness usually develops in childhood as a psychological self-defense
mechanism for survival in an abusive home. Mr. Plaut in fact is in
denial of a truism that nearly every mature psychologically balanced
adult acknowledges, id est, “The annals of history are replete
with accounts of conspiracies.”
Now
we have to ask ourselves why Steven Plaut feels compelled to write
missives containing such bitter vitriol? In a google search for Mr.
Plaut's writings I discovered that nearly everything he writes is
a tirade or a screed. His articles almost without exception are written
in the attack mode. He reminds me of a two year old screaming to get
his demands met. It is obvious to me that Mr. Plaut is crying out
for help. He has an identical psychological profile as the inmates
whom I counsel in the state prison system. He appears to be unbalanced.
He needs to get help soon.
We are
clearly dealing with one very sick individual.
*
Now let us look at the anger the writers felt at the Jewish Press.
First, it was reported to me by several people, that the paper didn't
have the courtesy to reply to their letters:
I just wrote to
the Letters to the Editor. I've heard nothing back.
*
Other writers
reported they refused to grant me an equal hearing:
A
situation has developed in The Jewish Press where serializing Barry's
essays has been replaced by serializing non-stop, primitive attacks
against Barry, WITH NO RIGHT OF RESPONSE.
This
is not right.
And
I say that it is not right as a journalist
who has been a member of the U.S. Society of Professional Journalists
for 16 years, a member of the Foreign Press Association in Israel
for 15 years, who produced a nationally syndicated radio show in New
York (The Barry Farber Show), was a Business and Finance Reporter
with Reuters' second largest bureau worldwide, in New York, and worked
with CBS Television National Network News, in New York.
This is
NOT RIGHT.
You
cannot maintain the pretense of The Jewish Press being a serious newspaper
-- unless you simply want to be seen as another Shtetl Jewish organizational
rag -- if you go on and on and on publishing these Trash Barry Chamish
"commentaries" and "letters-to-the-editor", NEVER
allowing your victim a right of response.
This is
an OUTRAGE.
*
A
group of Orthodox Jews would be the last group I would expect to go
along with smearing another person as you allowed to happen in your
paper. Using the Laws of Evidence as a standard, do you excuse yourself
because you are not acting in a court. Well, you are acting in the
court of public opinion. Perhaps you also ignore the possibility that
what you printed was loshen hora.
Decency on your part would have posted the opposing opinions next
to each other and let the reader come to his own conclusion.
*
Others felt the newspaper may have been on the take, and the "author"
certainly was:
If
this article did not come 'covered in money' then a modicum of research
on your part would have shown the entire thrust of the article to
be completely invalid. If it did come 'covered in money' then you
should have prominently displayed the 'sponsor'.
*
Two writers demanded an apology to me or they would stop reading the
amateurish rag for good. Below is one good example:
I
won't be hitting your website ever again, and I will be asking my
friends and family to find their Israel and Jewish news elsewhere.
Unless, of course, you'd like to apologize to Barry Chamish IN PRINT.
I am utterly outraged. I plan to post my opinion about this all over
the web (see the Weekly Thought in the blogspot of Solongroup.org).
You have no idea how large a sector of society you are offending.
Take that into consideration at your next board meeting.
*
But everyone agreed
the paper printed blatant libel:
The
Jewish Press should be ashamed to allow this kind of vulgar slander
to appear on its pages.
*
I have an appeal. I took the article to my attorney Dov Even Or and
he advised me that it was amongst the most blatant and libelous hatchet
jobs he's ever seen. But a suit from Israel would bankrupt me even
before it was heard. I can afford to sue a plout from here but can't
reach the jewish press without a New York based-attorney. If anyone
can represent me on contingency, we have an easy victory and a great
way to get Israel's anguish publicized. Please write me if you can
take on a trial for justice...that will pay for itself.
**
The Vatican rolls on. My new DVD Zion First: The Vatican's New Crusade
For Israel becomes more relevant by the day. How much so? Under separate
cover, I am sending you a photo of the
pope in his happy youth standing beside the butcher Mengele.
http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=96786
Plan
to Internationalize Jerusalem May be Urged at Herzliya Conference
11:34 Jan 17, '06 / 17 Tevet 5766
(IsraelNN.com)
The non-profit Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies has issued a
study recommending that Jerusalem's holy sites be administered by
an international body. The study likely will be presented at the annual
Herzliya conference schedule to start this Saturday.
The
center's research concluded that the "lack of trust between Israel
and the Palestinian Authority" supports turning the authority
over to an international committee to preserve holy sites. Jordan
closed off non-Moslem sites during its occupation of the eastern part
of the city. Israel re-opened up Christian and Jewish sites to visitors
after Jordan retreated during the Six-Day War in 1967 and Israel reunited
the capital.
http://www.shofar.net/site/ARDetile.asp?id=7900
