The European June: Riots, Stonings, and Brawls

The European June: Riots, Stonings, and Brawls {click here}



Mr. President--- It's time to wake up to the reality of what your new Middle East policy is enabling throughout the world. Read the above and wake up before it's too late.

The Israel Test :: Middle East Forum

The Israel Test :: Middle East Forum [ CLICK HERE]

Finally someone who makes sense on United States policy towards Israel. Mr. President, Madame Secretary of State and your cast of thousands of advisers; you need to read this.

The Lakers are Champs

The Los Angeles Lakers are the champions of professional basketball.

They beat a great Boston Celtic team who played their hearts out and also deserved to win it all. Yes the Lakers are champs; the NBA referees are still chumps and the ABC commentators are flat out stupid and ridiculous. Commissioner Stern and your management; you are killing the greatness of the game. I will have much more to say about this later. Right now I'm too busy celebrating the greatest Laker victory ever.

OK it's one day later and this is what I say. The Lakers and Celtics played out a "monumental struggle" Game 7 of the Championship Final Series. This game was worthy, no pun intended, of being called one the greatest championship games of all time. However, the game was also indicative of the sorry state of the NBA. Watching this game was like watching a boxing match or a professional football game. Commissioner Stern; that's where you have it all wrong and a major reason why you are destroying the game. Basketball is an offensive finesse game; not a brutal defensive scrum. You and your managers and referees have it all wrong and until you correct this, the viability of the game will continue to decline.

This is precisely where your referees and the way they call the game comes into the discussion. The rules for the way refs call the game are very disturbing. First, your refs and their calls are encouraging all NBA teams to be brutally defensive against their opponents. This is causing far more injuries to your players than ever before. Second, there is no rhyme or reason to the way the refs call the game. Last night in the first half, supposedly, they were "letting them play". This caused your refs to not call at least a half a dozen clear fouls made by the Celtics against the Lakers. This caused the Laker offense to shut down and resulted in a clear advantage for the Celtics. Even your apologist ABC commentators had to point out a few bad calls against the Lakers. The second half, especially the 4th quarter, was very different. Suddenly the refs started calling the fouls much closer and this enabled the Lakers to come back from a huge deficit and ultimately win the game. Of course, the ABC guys completely missed this obvious turnaround in the way the game was called. In fact, I believe that the referees controlled the game and ultimately determined who would win the game. In this case, this was very satisfying for the Laker fans; and horribly disappointing for Celtic fans. Mr. Commissioner; do you see the folly in all this and the way it's destroying the game?

You might ask why the ABC commentators missed the obvious way the refs arbitrarily changed the way the game was being called? The obvious answer is they are told to defend the refs at all costs by NBA management because to do less who expose how phony the game has become. Basketball is no longer about how skilled the players are; instead its about how NBA managers, the referees and the NBA media complex can manipulate the game. As I have said before, this is destroying the integrity of the game.

I don't want to be just a complainer; so here some suggestions as to how the NBA can correct this miserable trend in the game:

1- Take a page from baseball and increase the number of referees assigned to each playoff game from three to six. This would substantially eliminate the excuses that the refs did not see the play or they were too tired from constantly running up and down the court.

2-Issue a ruling that says that refs cannot drink alcohol or take any drugs for at least six hours before any playoff game. This would accomplish my goal of eliminating the "old fart" referees from calling playoff games. These guys are too old for the fast pace of playoff basketball and should not be there anyway.

3-Substantially simplify the rules for what is considered an offensive foul and what is considered a defensive foul. Right now it's too complicated and even your refs can't figure it out. This could also help to restore the integrity of the game by moving back to an offensive finesse game instead of a boxing match or a football game.

4- Issue a ruling that emphatically states that fouls must be called consistently throughout a game. Any deviation from this shown by clear replay evidence must be severely punished. I suggest that if any ref is caught doing this three times, he or she should be automatically banned from calling any playoff game for an entire year.

5- Tell your announcers, commentators, analysts and experts that it is OK to tell the truth as they see it in calling the game; even if its negative towards the NBA, it's managers or the referees.

That's my opinion; what's yours?

National Bull---- Association (NBA)

I just watched Game 5 of the Championship Finals. The three ABC so-called game announcers completely missed what was happening on the court. How can they relate the action in the game when they so completely biased in favor of Boston and so completely biased against Los Angeles. Every time the incompetent referees missed a call favoring Boston there was complete silence. Every time the same incompetent referees missed a call favoring Los Angeles, there was extended discussion regarding the missed call. You don't believe me; watch the replay of this game.

How can anyone, novice or expert, believe in the integrity of the game when these kind of shenanigans are allowed to continue. The truth is that these are two evenly matched teams playing there hearts out. The only difference is the referees who are making sure Los Angeles losses by the calls they are making or not making. How the NBA can continue to operate this way is beyond comprehension.

By the way, I still think Los Angeles can win the Championship. However, they will have to beat both Boston and the incompetent referees in order to win. I sincerely hope this happens so that I can watch the ABC announcers cry and bitch about how unfair the referees were in making all those missed calls in favor of Los Angeles.

Israel Now Stands Alone

I find it very disturbing to suggest that the United States has abandoned Israel,its best friend and truest ally in the Middle East. Under President Obama and his misguided Middle East foreign policy,I believe that is exactly what the United States has done. Let me explain what I mean by this.

Up until a few days ago, it appeared as if the US had fallen into a well conceived Muslim public relations trap on the "flotilla incident". I thought the trap had been set only by the Israel haters in the media and the international community. However, it now appears as if the President and our government have been willing participants in setting this mean spirited trap. What has the United States accomplished so far? It now continues to throw "Israel under the bus",instead of standing up for the legitimate and legal right for any country to defend itself from its enemies. The President is so captured by his ego driven new Middle East foreign policy, that he is blinded as to the potential disastrous consequences of this new policy.

The United States is now embarking on a foreign policy that significantly weakens its freedom loving friends and their countries in the world and strengthens its real enemies and their friends in the world. This is an insane foreign policy that can only lead to disaster for Israel and United States. The "flotilla incident" provided the President with the opportunity to change the course of his new Middle East policy; instead he just "dug in his heels" and strengthened his resolve to lead us all down this incomprehensible path.

National Bull---- Association (NBA)

Commissioner Stern; your referees are at it again. There is no way the Celtics could have won Game 2 of the Championship Finals without significant help from your either blind or worse crocked referees.

How could you let your refs deliberately take Fisher and Kobe out of the game with bogus call after call. By the way, the announcers on ABC are not much better than those on TNT. You and your media conglomerate are ruining the game for all time by misrepresenting the action on the basketball floor. It's an absolute disgrace and you and all your underlings should be ashamed of yourselves. What do you care; you're laughing all the way to the bank. I'm talking about the integrity of the game and you guys are disgusting for destroying the game's integrity.

"Truth, Justice and the American Way"???

The President's foreign policy on Israel is reprehensible. There I have said it. I've been thinking it for sometime now. However, I wanted to let the "flotilla incident" play out before I spoke about my feelings. As we have watched the world's media absolutely bash Israel for merely trying to defend its people, it's become vividly apparent to me that President Obama is at fault. Let me explain why I feel so strongly about this.

When the incident first occurred, the Obama administration very quickly condemned the violence and the deaths of the fanatics, no matter what they call themselves. The clear implication was that this was Israel's fault; no matter what the facts were. That was bad enough. However, what's happened since is far worse. The silence from Obama and his Secretary of State is deafening as world governments and media continue to plummet Israel.

Make no mistake about it, Mr. Obama is deliberately and systematically dismantling 60 years of US policy of support for the only free and independent democracy in the Middle East. Why is he doing this? The first clue occurred about one year ago when the President made his now infamous "Egypt Speech". He made it very clear that was attempting to show Muslims everywhere that America was friendly towards them. His primary method of demonstrating new American support for Muslim causes and their governments was to signal a change in the relationship between the US and Israel. Ever since that speech, relations between the two countries have significantly deteriorated. The Palestinian peace process is in shambles, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not going well, we have had two failed attacks on America by Muslim militants and Israel's stance in the world has been weakened by our lack of support. So what has the President accomplished by his policy of placating Muslims at the expense of Jews? The answer is nothing; and as matter of fact, a strong case can be made that he is putting America in harms way with his misguided and very dangerous change in America's foreign policy towards the Middle East.

Here is the President's real problem. No one in the Muslim world believes that America is suddenly their best friend. You simply can't use a change in American policy towards Israel as an excuse to explain away two bloody wars that have killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. No one in the Muslim world now believes that America is their best friend and they never will believe this absurd notion.

By creating this absurd notion, what has America sacrificed? I believe that America has sacrificed a great deal of it's credibility as the leader of the free world. Freedom loving peoples and countries in the world will not understand what America is trying to accomplish by "throwing Israel under the bus". Muslim peoples and countries on the other hand will view Obama and his new American foreign policy towards the Middle East as weakness and thus the opportunity to strike at Israel and America. Thus, the unfair, unjust and terribly disheartening events surrounding the "flotilla incident".

President Obama has to "man-up" and admit he was wrong about his new American policy towards the Middle East before it's too late and some horrible event occurs in America or in Israel. A good way to start would be to publicly condemn Helen Thomas for her virulently antisemitic attack on Israel. Another positive step would be for the President to publicly support Israel's defensive and legal actions regarding the "flotilla incident".