Wanna see my rant collection?

Sorry to dump this on you so early in the week, but sometimes a boy's just gotta vent.  If you don't like seeing me angry and prefer the tear jerkers and family anecdotes... come back tomorrow.

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Rant # 1:  There are still quite a few prominent/well-read bloggers out there who somehow found the time in their busy schedules to report that the IDF was behind the massacre on the Gaza beach a couple of weeks ago... but have still not been able to find the time or interest in setting the record straight.

Look, I know we bloggers and journalers do this for our own enjoyment and we don't hold ourselves to typical journalistic standards of fact-checking and objectivity.  But you can't hold yourself up as  heroic grassroots truth-tellers who are severally and collectively forcing the the Mainstream Media (MSM) to do a better job when you are acting with less scruples and journalistic integrity than a bad high school newspaper!

Nobody put a gun to your head and told you to cover the story of the tragedy on that Gaza beach.  It's no secret that we all cherry pick the topics about which we blog to match our interests as much as our agendas.  To pretend otherwise would be ridiculous.  But once you've put something out there and it turns out to be 100% wrong... you need to step up and own it.

I am so tired of reading about how it doesn't really matter... how writing about who was responsible for the tragic death of her family won't make any difference to this orphaned little girl. 

That's just a bunch of tap dancing... and not very good tap dancing at that.

It was important enough for you to say the IDF did it, right?  That piece of information didn't do anything for this poor little girl either.... yet you just had to gleefully include it in your posts! 

Well guess what?  For that reason, and that reason alone, it's important enough now to tell your readers that you screwed the pooch... rushed to judgement... jumped the gun... made a bad call... trusted the wrong source... or quite simply; f*cked up! 

You need to sit down at your keyboard and type the words: "It wasn't an IDF artillery barrage that killed those people on the beach... I was wrong".  If you don't then you might as well stop pretending to to be the real deal... the unvarnished truth...  the writers with the courage to tell the hard truths to the world when the MSM won't.

Before I get a lot of denials and rationalizations from anyone let me make it clear I am angry with a lot of bloggers in general over this issue... but nobody in particular. 

I can tell you from frequent personal experience that few things in this world taste as bad as a crow sandwich served on two thick slices of shoe leather with a side order of hat.  But that's what's on the menu.  Eat up!

I don't care how busy you've been or how many other topics you've covered that have taken up all of your time.   You found the time to join (and help) our enemies around the world in making the IDF appear criminally negligent (or worse; like premeditated murderers).  Find the time to own your mistake!

Rant #2:  Did you hear about the bomb that blew up on a Tel Aviv beach popular with teenagers this past Friday afternoon just moments after the last teen had left the area?  No?  Here let me fill you in:

It was a very large and fairly sophisticated Improvised Explosive Device (IED) packed with bits of iron re-bar instead of nails.  It was fused to be detonated remotely using a cell phone... and only luck or the grace of G-d averted an unspeakable tragedy when it exploded moments too late to harm anyone. 

Still doesn't sound familiar???

Oh wait... I know why it doesn't ring a bell.  It's because it didn't happen at a teen hang-out on a Tel Aviv beach, but rather at a teen hang-out near a natural spring fed pool across the wadi from my house here in Gush Etzion. 

Forget what you've heard the PM say about Gush Etzion being an integral and inseparable part of Israel.  Forget what you've heard him say about Gush Etzion being part of the national consensus.  Forget that this attack took place in a place that is 100% legal in the eyes of our government and was intended to kill Israeli teenagers!

If you are not Ashkenazi... if you live in a development town... if you are religious... if you are a settler... and especially if you are any combination of any of these things... the Israeli press and government have no interest in you and don't value your life. Period.

Anyone who says otherwise is either blind or a liar. 

Rant #3:  This morning's attack where IDF soldiers were killed by infiltrating Palestinians and at least one soldier kidnapped is yet another escalation in the open military war being waged by the democratically elected Hamas government against the sovereign State of Israel. 

They promised they would do it during their campaign.  They said they would do it once they were elected.  There have been multiple clear acts of war including missile attacks, shooting attacks, attempted infiltrations and successful and attempted terrorist attacks inside Israel EVERY SINGLE DAY since the Hamas election. 

Yet our government can only wag its finger and warn that the next attack... the very next one... will require a strong response.  I honestly don't know anymore if I'm reading our press releases or Saeb Erikat's!  Oh I know... the main difference is that the Palestinians are actually making good on their promises.

I'm a moderate.  I'm a centrist.  I'm open minded.  I've listened and nodded my head as friends who voted for the current government told me about how things would be different this time.  If we would just leave Gaza we would have the freedom to act.  If we just give them more confidence building measures and let them elect the government they want we will finally have a partner with whom to negotiate.

F*ck that... and f*ck you if you think I'm going to stay stupid forever!

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OK, enough of this primal scream therapy.  Hopefully I'll be back to my usual self by tomorrow.