Wednesday 10 February 2010

Israel Matzav: Rented thugs 'protest' in front of European embassies in Tehran

Rented thugs 'protest' in front of European embassies in Tehran

On Tuesday, rented thugs protested in front of the Italian, French and Dutch embassies in Tehran against 'interference' in Iran's 'domestic affairs,' and in the case of the Italians, also against statements made by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during his visit in Israel last week.

Borna, the semi-official state news agency reported that students from the University of Tehran gathered in front of the French embassy in Tehran to protest their “anger and repulsion toward France’s interference with Iran’s domestic affairs.”

Borna News Agency described the plainclothes agents as “representatives of the [University of Tehran] student body,” and reported that the gatherers were holding placards that read: “Iran’s domestic affairs is not your business.”

Supporters of the regime also gathered in front of the Italian Embassy in Tehran. According to Italy’s foreign minister, demonstrators were shouting, “Death to Italy” and throwing stones and eggs at the embassy building. Italy’s foreign minister has said that because of the incident, the Italian Ambassador to Tehran will not be attending the 22 Bahman celebration.

The protests followed Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s announcement in Israel that he wants tighter international sanctions against the Iranian regime.

Let's go to the videotape. I'll have more below.



By the way, a commenter on that video who claimed to be Italian 'assured' the Iranians that Italians 'don't support Israel.'

JPost mentioned a protest at the Dutch embassy as well and added:

Television footage of the protests shown on Sky TG 24 showed protesters throwing stones and eggs at the Italian embassy. Foreign Ministry officials said none of the protesters managed to get inside and that police intervened.

[Italian Foreign Minister] Frattini told the Senate that the protest was "hostile" and that the group tried to assault the building.

The Italian news agency ANSA, citing unidentified sources, reported Tuesday that the Iranian Foreign Ministry had summoned the Italian ambassador to protest Berlusconi's remarks in Israel.

Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reported that a group of university students had gathered in the afternoon at the gates of the French and Italian embassies, which are next to each other in downtown Teheran.

The students hurled eggs and tomatoes at both buildings and denounced what they sa
The protesters demanded Iran scale back its relations with both countries and they shouted the word "takeover" in a reference to the 1979 student takeover of the US Embassy.By the way, the JPost reports that the Europeans plan to 'coordinate' their level of participation in the 'celebration' in Tehran on Thursday, but does not say, as the Iranian-sourced piece first quoted above does, that the Italians will be boycotting.

Hmmm.id was Italian and French support for Iran's opposition movement, the report said.


Israel Matzav: Rented thugs 'protest' in front of European embassies in Tehran

Israel Matzav: 'America will be cursed if we reject Israel'

'America will be cursed if we reject Israel'

Robert Avrech reports on a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition by another female Israel supporter whom the Left loves to hate: Michele Bachmann.

Why the liberal hatred and obsession with Bachmann and Palin?

It's not hard to understand.

Articulate and appealing Conservative women—Bachmann, Palin, Coulter, Malkin—are a direct and powerful rebuke to the liberal so-called feminist narrative. A narrative that is based on the Orwellian notion that only liberals can be authentic feminists, and by implication authentic women. Those who deviate from this political and social orthodoxy are not just ideological opponents, but existential enemies.

As Lenin said, “We are not interested in debating our opponents but in destroying them.”

As every screenwriter knows, a compelling narrative deperately needs a worthy antagonist. Thus Bachmann and Palin—in fact, all Conservative women—have become the anatagonists of choice for the rapidly collapsing liberal narrative.

Yup. Andrew Sullivan has already called Bachmann insane, although for now, at least, he has not commented on her body parts.

Here's the money quote from Bachmann on Israel:

I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle.

A lot of Leftist Jews feel queasy when they hear Christians quoting the bible about Jews. I want to address that. One should not take Christians quoting the bible or speaking about Jews in religious terms as necessarily meaning that they want to convert us. Christians from both the Right and the Left may quote the bible to and about Jews. Consider this from President Clinton's October 27, 1994 speech to the Knesset.

Thirteen years ago, he said, he and Mrs. Clinton visited Jerusalem's holy sites with their pastor as part of a religious mission. A few years later, "when he became desperately ill, he said he thought I might one day become President." At that point, Clinton recounted, his friend and teacher told him, " 'If you abandon Israel, God will never forgive you.' He said it is God's will that Israel, the biblical home of the people of Israel, continue for ever and ever."

What that article doesn't tell you, but which I recall from radio coverage at the time, is that the ultra-Orthodox parties were thrilled with Clinton quoting the bible, and Israel's Leftist parties were not. And Clinton is definitely not a Rightist. Was he trying to convert us?

Hmmm.


Israel Matzav: 'America will be cursed if we reject Israel'

Israel Matzav: UC Irvine's free speech and anti-Semitism problems

UC Irvine's free speech and anti-Semitism problems

Roger Simon follows up on the near-riot at the University of California Irvine during Michael Oren's speech on Monday night. Simon asks a question that was bothering me: If campus police knew that this could potentially happen (and they did), why weren't they prepared to stop it, as I noted happened at Brandeis when I was there in November. The answer is not pretty.

The University of California Irvine has a severe free speech problem and has had one for a long time. Part of this stems from the school’s history of what is politely called multi-culturalism – actually a euphemism for cultural relativism, a bankrupt pseudo-philosophy that provides a phony intellectual veneer to totalitarian behavior. Another part is good, old-fashioned anti-Semitism, which seems to be cropping up everywhere these days. A third part is even more old-fashioned cowardice, working in tandem with the other two.

School officials say they were embarrassed. They should be a lot more than that. They should rectify this situation immediately and in a serious way, because this is a serious case of racism. The reputation of the whole University of California system is at risk here in an era when taxpayers are in a justifiably rebellious mood. Given what’s happened, outside the sciences, it’s hard to regard Irvine as a legitimate educational institution. Why would any of us pay for what is happening there? The California Board of Regents and the administration of UCI should think about that.

Ouch.

But given that UC Irvine is one of the most prominent participants in the anti-Israel hatefest every spring, and given the way Oren and other pro-Israel speakers have been treated at UCI over the years, Simon's criticism is more than well-deserved.

Israel Matzav: UC Irvine's free speech and anti-Semitism problems

Israel Matzav: Columbia gives yet another Jew-hater a platform

Columbia gives yet another Jew-hater a platform

Remember Van Jones, President Obumbler's 'green czar,' who was thrown under the bus after Jim Hoft outed him as a 9/11 truther? Jones is trying to rehabilitate his image and 0 as usual - Columbia is willing to oblige him.

The Green Collar Economy: /A discussion with Van Jones, President Obama’s former special advisor on green jobs.
Monday, February 15th, 6 – 7pm, Uris 141

*Van Jones, an award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean energy economy, comes to Columbia Business School to share his vision of a future “green economy.” His book /The Green Collar Economy /was a New York Times bestseller and/ /is considered the definitive book on “green jobs.”

From March to September 2009, Van worked as the special advisor for green jobs at the White House Council for Environmental Quality. In that position, he developed policy recommendations to help implement the Obama Administration’s commitment to clean energy jobs.

Van Jones website: http://www.vanjones.net/

It's going to take a lot to convince anyone but the real moonbat Left that it's worth it to listen to Jones. ABC News reported on Tuesday that after spending $2 billion(!) on wind turbines, the Obama administration has succeeded in creating about 6,000 jobs overseas and 'a couple of hundred' in the United States (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). So each of those American jobs cost $10 million to create, and if you're charitable and add in the overseas jobs the cost of creating or saving 6,200 jobs is still $322,580 per job.

But the moonbat Left still loves Jones anyway, because he has the number one qualification to be one of their favorites and to be invited to speak at Columbia: He's a Jew hater.

Here's a transcript of a 2002 radio interview with Jones that gives us some more insight into yet another Jew-hating associate of Barack Obama:

Dennis: now w Van Jones "AUDIO of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in San Francisco.. Van: I came to the holy land to get a view of the human rights situation.. I was totally unprepared.. THE WORST RACIAL PRACTICES OF THE LAST CENTURY ARE PRESENT HERE, IN SHOCKING COMBINATION.. Arab citizens under a pass situation like apartheid.. about the harrassment of an Arab American in our group at the airport.. people in the US don't have a clear view of what is going on.. like 'settlements'.. 30,000 people in massive cities, with Burger Kings and malls, and defended with the whole might of the Israeli army.. wholesale demolition of Palestinian homes.. the US supporting the whole mess.. to see it.. to see what it means for Arab people is really really distressing.. Dennis: US media shows Israel backed into a corner.. Van: I came over here very concerned about Israeli children living in fear.. nobody is winning here.. WHAT I'VE SEEN HERE GOES FAR BEYOND WHAT COULD BE CONSIDERED FOR SAFETY.. ABSOLUTE HOUSE ARREST FOR EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN A CITY.. 24/7 FOR WEEKS AT A TIME.. NONE OF THIS COULD RATIONALLY BE CONCEIVED OF AS DEFENCE.. I HAVE BEEN A LIFELONG OPPONENT OF ANTI-SEMITISM.. NOW NOT TO SPEAK OUT HERE IS ANTI-SEMITIC.. WE OWE IT TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.. AND PALESTINE.. TO PUT AN END TO THESE KIND OF ABUSES.. THERE IS NO DIVISION BETWEEN US POLICY TOWARD IRAQ AND TOWARD ISRAEL-PALESTINE.. THE US GOVERNMENT ON THE WRONG SIDE OF SANITY.. to push Iraq into a corner and threaten it with massive war.. we need new leadership in Tel Aviv and Washington.. let's link all these situations together.. boldly speaking the truth.. I went to the funeral of a young Palestinian boy shot by Israeli soldier.. I saw his bloody body being placed into the ground.. since I've been here four children killed by soldiers.. not being reported by the media.. but being recorded in the hearts and minds of the mothers and fathers here.

I wonder if anyone will show up to heckle him.

Israel Matzav: Columbia gives yet another Jew-hater a platform

Israel Matzav: Naked images of actor printed and circulated from full body scanner

Naked images of actor printed and circulated from full body scanner

This ought to make everyone feel really comfortable about going through those useless full-body scanners.

Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London.

UK Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said last week that the images produced by the scanners were deleted “immediately” and airport staff carrying out the procedure are fully trained and supervised.

“It is very important to stress that the images which are captured by body scanners are immediately deleted after the passenger has gone through the body scanner,” Adonis told the London Evening Standard.

Adonis was forced to address privacy concerns following reports that the images produced by the scanners broke child pornography laws in the UK. When the scanners were first introduced, it was also speculated that images of famous people would be ripe for abuse as the pictures produced by the devices make genitals “eerily visible” according to journalists who have investigated trials of the technology.

However, the Transport Secretary’s assurances were demolished after it was revealed on the BBC’s Jonathan Ross show Friday that Indian actor Shahrukh Khan had passed through a body scan and later had the image of his naked body printed out and circulated by Heathrow security staff.

...

The abuse of the naked body scan images in this instance is a total violation of every data protection law in the UK. Far from treating the story in a comical manner, Khan should be filing a very expensive lawsuit and preparing for a successful and lucrative outcome.

In the meantime, the revelation that the naked body scanner images are being freely printed out and circulated by airport security staff should prove to be the death knell for plans on behalf of governments worldwide to institute the scanners on a widespread basis.

Courts have consistently found that strip searches are only legal when performed on a person who has already been found guilty of a crime or on arrestees pending trial where a reasonable suspicion has to exist that they are carrying a weapon. Subjecting masses of people to blanket strip searches in airports reverses the very notion of innocent until proven guilty.

Barring people from flying and essentially treating them like terrorists for refusing to be humiliated by the virtual strip search is a clear breach of the basic human right of freedom of movement. Security experts agree that such scanners would not even have stopped the incident that has been exploited to justify their widespread introduction – the Christmas Day underwear bomber.

Indeed.

Oh and by the way....

Despite governments claiming that backscatter x-ray systems produce radiation too low to pose a threat, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety concluded in their report that governments must justify the use of the scanners and that a more accurate assessment of the health risks is needed.

Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, according to the report, adding that governments should consider “other techniques to achieve the same end without the use of ionizing radiation.”

“The Committee cited the IAEA’s 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement, drafted over three decades, that protects people from radiation. Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” reported Bloomberg.

Time to drop the scanners and use the Israeli system. It's far more sensible and accurate.

More here.


Israel Matzav: Naked images of actor printed and circulated from full body scanner

Israel Matzav: Wiesel speaks out against Ahmadinejad

Wiesel speaks out against Ahmadinejad

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel has put together about fifty Nobel Prize winners who have signed a full-page ad to appear in major newspapers that denounces Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Wiesel has his head on straight.

The prolific author has put together a petition denouncing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, signed by some 50 other Nobel prize winners, which will run as a full page advertisement in newspapers such as the New York Times.

"We're sure that the president of Iran, the world's Number 1 Holocaust denier, plans to destroy and annihilate the Jewish state, and bring disaster to the entire world," he told Army Radio, adding, "We plan to distribute the petition ... so that it reaches as many people as possible."

He said that Ahmadinejad is "dangerous because he openly claims that he wants to annihilate the State of Israel, to exterminate another six million Jews."

"I wouldn't cry if I heard that Ahmadinejad was assassinated," he quipped, calling the Iranian president "a pathological danger to world peace."

So here's the real question: Who else signed? Did Barack Obama? Jimmy Carter? Al Gore? Mohamed ElBaradei? Hmmm.

Israel Matzav: Wiesel speaks out against Ahmadinejad

Elder of Ziyon: Pure anti-semitism in Islam Online

Elder of Ziyon: Pure anti-semitism in Islam Online

Elder of Ziyon: Former Jordanian diplomat argues for Arab claim to Haifa

Elder of Ziyon: Former Jordanian diplomat argues for Arab claim to Haifa

Elder of Ziyon: Egyptian newspaper blames US allies for killing Nasser

Elder of Ziyon: Egyptian newspaper blames US allies for killing Nasser

Chaim K. RIP

Chaim K. RIP

Chaim K. passed away late Saturday afternoon. He was 87 - not that you'd know it by watching the callers making condolence calls at his Shiva this week, some of whom are quite some years younger than his older grandchildren. "You don't know us", they tell his children, "but we were friends of your father. Such a luminous man!"

Chaim was born in a small Polish town no-one has ever heard of. He was 17 when the Nazis invaded, and his entire immediate family fled East, eventually washing up in what is today Kazakhstan. They spent the war years in what were combination refugee-and-labor camps. His father starved to death, but the rest of them survivied. In later years his sister (who died a few years ago at 91) reminisced that Chaim would combat his hunger by reading whatever he could get his hands on until he fell asllep from exhaustion, thereby managing to do without a meal.

Also in the camps he met his future wife, "she didn't even own a pair of shoes". Chaim was good at cobbling things together, and managed to help her survive the hardships.

After the war they went back to Poland. None of her family had survived; there was no point in trying to rebuild lives in Poland, and by 1948 they were in Israel.

Arriving in war-torn Jerusalem in 1948 the found accommodations with a cousin who lived in Batei Ungarn, near Mea Shearim. The cousin had seven children in two rooms, but since it was crowded anyway, why not take in the newcomers? No long afterward Chaim found an abandoned two-room house on the wrong side of the barbed-wire fences which marked the new border that ran through the city. A block or two from Sheikh Jarrah, if you insist on details. The building was functionally in No-Mans Land between Israel and Jordan, but there was an IDF position on its roof; the troops reached the second floor through a trapdoor from one of the rooms. Still, it was better than the place in Batei Ungarn, so Chaim, his sister and their spouses moved in. No-one ever came to visit them at their house beyond the border, and the troops on the roof occasionally had fire-fights with Jordanian troops, but worse things can happen. Chaim and Miriam had three children there.

In 1960 they moved. Chaim was making a good living as an accountant, and they were able to afford a brand new 2-1/2 room apartment in the Katamon area. When they first moved in the 70-square meter place looked so impossibly spacious that they considered renting one room, or perhaps simply sealing it off for visitors. They remained for the rest of their lives (Miriam died two years ago this week). They had three children, 11 grandchildren, and right now there are 16 great grandchildren, with the 17th expected in two months. The youngest two grandsons, at 19, are hardly older than the oldest of the great grandchildren (17).

20-some years ago, as Chaim should have been about to retire, he was offered the challenge of setting up the financial department in one of the large settlements. He thought about it for a day or two, and took the job, which he held until he was in his late 70s. Even then he retained his position as one of the stalwarts of his synagogue, and as the accountant of a local charity; two days before he died he transferred all the details of the charity to his son. In recent weeks he has no longer been able to participate in his daf yomi study group (9:30 am, the "old codgers' group") so one of the others came to him each day to learn, all the way until the end.

Have I mentioned he was a nice man? Always smiling, often with a Yiddish joke, relating to people as equals. His son is the boss of one of our public utilities. A few weeks ago I met the two of them, the son supporting his father on the way to the synagogue; the father dressed, as usual, in his suit, tie and fedora even though he could walk only with the greatest effort. I pointed to the street we were standing on, where the son's company has been digging these past two months: "Chaim, can you please tell the boss of the company they really ought to fix this street already?!" He beamed and said he'd try.

Yesterday they paved the street and it looks spanking new. "He did it", I told his son. "He got it fixed".

Fifty years in a single neighborhood is quite a while, and alongside the unexpected mourners I told of above, the surviving old-timers are coming to pay their respects. The neighborhood was originally built by rich (mostly Christian) Arabs in the 1920s, when Chaim was a boy in that forgotten Polish town; it was sparsely populated, with large detached houses. In the 40s, as he fought his hunger, lots of important British officers and officials moved in. Once the Arabs and British were gone, it was filled with the Jews who had been deported from the Old City, two miles to the north, after the Jordanians took it over. Then in the 1950s, the mostly empty hillsides were built up with apartment buildings for the large numbers of refugees and immigrants pouring into Israel and living mostly in tents. Only in the 1990s did it begin to change again, so that today there's a large population of wealthy British and French Jews moving away from the rising antisemitism in their countries, and rich Americans not fleeing from anyone - and upper middle class Israelis, too.

Sit in the tiny apartment Chaim died in the other day, however, and you'll be reminded of the people who dominated the area for 40 years. The Lithuanian Holocaust survivor; the Polish one; the two Moroccans, the Iraqi; the man from the Old City whose father and brother-in-law fell in its battle; the 68-year-old Yekke (German Jew) who's father disagreed with Chaim about what sort of synagogue they needed, 50 years ago, so each built his own, and each sometime came to the other's.
Originally posted by Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Love of the Land: Words, words, words

Words, words, words


Moshe Arens
Haaretz
09 February '10

(It strikes me as a good summation of what's been said in recent weeks and conclusions to be drawn. Y.)

One might be inclined to brush off the recent verbal exchanges between Ehud Barak, Walid Moallem and Avigdor Lieberman as no more than Hamlet's "words, words, words" that have little meaningful content. Nevertheless, they are an indication of the thoughts running through the minds of Israel's defense and foreign minister and Syria's foreign minister. So just what are these thoughts?

Let's start with our defense minister. Barak is saying that if Israel does not negotiate a peace agreement with Syria - one that would lead to the return of the Golan Heights to Syrian control - Israel is risking a war with Syria; that after such a war, we would simply return to the present situation and the need to negotiate a peace agreement with Syria and give up the Golan.

Really? Does that mean that in his opinion Israel's deterrent capability against Syria that has existed since the Yom Kippur War and was reinforced during the first Lebanon war has worn thin over the years and, in effect, no longer exists? Does that mean that after a war initiated by Syria, Syria's situation would essentially be no different than before it attacked Israel, that it would continue to remain a threat so that Israel would be forced to concede the Golan Heights? Well, that would be good news for Syrian President Bashar Assad, and if taken seriously by him might even put adventurous thoughts in his mind.

Except that Assad knows better than that. He knows that a war with Israel would probably damage Syria severely and leave him with little chance to continue to make demands on Israel; that is, unless he places great reliance on the thousands of ballistic missiles he has accumulated over the years. Moallem hinted at their use. "Israel should know that a war will move to Israel's cities," he said. So maybe in fear of the destruction of its cities by Syrian missiles, Israel would prefer to concede the Golan Heights to Syria to prevent such a war. Is that really the balance of terror that now exists between Israel and Syria?

(Read full article)


Love of the Land: Words, words, words

Love of the Land: Khamenei and the Politics of Indecision

Khamenei and the Politics of Indecision


Mehdi Khalaji
Institute for Near East Policy
10 February '10

(A very complex country with many different forces in conflict. The despots may yet lose. Two more related articles are linked below)

February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is the most important official holiday in Iran. The public faces of the opposition Green Movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi, have called for street demonstrations to mark the occasion. Meanwhile, government officials at every level have warned against such protests, threatening tough action against any participants. In this tense atmosphere, what are the prospects that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will agree to political compromise?

The rhetoric on both sides has grown more heated in recent days. Gen. Hossein Hamedani -- commander of the Muhammad Rasoul Allah Army, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) branch in charge of Tehran security -- warned that "anyone who protests against the government on February 11 is not part of the Iranian people, and we dare to say that he is foreigner's agent." On the opposition side, Mousavi gave a February 2 interview in which he argued that the 1979 revolution did not end despotism in Iran. "[W]e have been too optimistic about the revolution," he said, implying that the Islamic Republic has deep flaws in its very structure.

Pressure on Khamenei

After the surprising violence on December 27, 2009 -- the Shiite holy day of Ashura -- Khamenei faced intense pressure from government moderates to make at least minimal concessions with the opposition and extinguish the crisis. For example, moderate conservatives in the Majlis issued a report linking Said Mortazavi, former general prosecutor of Tehran, to the torture of prisoners in Kahrizak detention center. They argued that if the government takes action against such notorious hardliners, it will be able to forge a compromise that ends the protest movement.

These relative moderates seem to believe that some concessions are necessary to prevent the imminent demonstrations from spiraling out of control and eclipsing the Ashura violence. They also hope to prevent erosion of the Ahmadinezhad government's legitimacy outside Tehran and in the eyes of citizens who have remained passive thus far. In addition, they seem to believe that without compromise, the regime will do even more harm to its global image and perhaps increase international pressure on Iran.

(Read full report)

Related: The Basij Resistance Force: A Weak Link in the Iranian Regime?

How to Assess Political Fissures in Iran


Love of the Land: Khamenei and the Politics of Indecision

Love of the Land: New Revelations About the UN Goldstone Report that Seriously Undermine its Credibility

New Revelations About the UN Goldstone Report that Seriously Undermine its Credibility


IMRA
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
10 February '10

Col. (ret.) Desmond Travers was one of the four members of the UN Fact Finding Mission that produced what is widely called the Goldstone Report. The Mission investigated Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009. Travers joined the Irish Defense Forces in 1961 and retired after forty years. As the only former officer who belonged to Justice Richard Goldstone's team, he was the senior figure responsible for the military analysis that provided the basis for condemning Israel for war crimes.

After following his repeated public appearances with the other mission members in July 2009, and especially in light of his most recent interviews, serious flaws have now become evident in the methodology he followed, in his collection and processing of data, and in the conclusions he draws. In the past, the flaws in the Goldstone report, and especially its lack of balance, have been criticized by the London Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist, but the fundamental problems of its military analysis have not been fully addressed. In the material presented here, this becomes evident in four specific ways:

1. A Fundamental Bias against the Israel Defense Forces

2. False Information Reported About Weapons Systems

3. Completely Inaccurate Data

4. Lack of Professionalism in Conducting Thorough Investigations

(Read full review)

Love of the Land: New Revelations About the UN Goldstone Report that Seriously Undermine its Credibility

Love of the Land: Confronting Jews who defame Jews

Confronting Jews who defame Jews


Isi Leibler
Candidly Speaking from Jeusalem
10 February '10

The time has come to draw red lines between legitimate criticism and initiatives seeking to demonize Israel.

Richard Goldstone’s infamous role as the token head of the UNHRC report accusing the IDF of war crimes is only one example of prominent Jews who exploit their origins as a way to defame their people. In fact, until recently, Goldstone was considered a respectable Jew, even a Zionist. He was blinded by hubris and ego, and allowed himself to be seduced by the bitterest enemies of his people into providing legitimization for a blood libel against the Jewish state.

Unlike Goldstone, most Jewish renegades were driven by desperation to unburden themselves from what they regarded as their repressive ethnic and cultural roots. Historian Jacob Talmon described such deviant behavior as “a Jewish neurosis” in response to centuries of oppression and pariah status.

The purported commitment of these Jews to universal and humanitarian values was usually belied by extreme attacks on their own people and association with sponsors who were outright anti-Semites.

Streams of such Jews emerged during the 19th century in the wake of emancipation. A classic example was Karl Marx, whose anti-Semitic diatribes were reflected in outbursts like “money is the jealous god of Israel, by the side of which no other god may exist… The social emancipation of the Jew is the emancipation of society from Judaism.”

In czarist Russia, some Jewish social revolutionaries even endorsed pogroms against their own kinsmen, hoping that by venting their frustrations on Jews, the masses would ultimately turn on the czar.

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: Confronting Jews who defame Jews

Love of the Land: Im Tirtzu

Im Tirtzu


Im Tirtzu
20 January '10

Im Tirtzu is a moderate centrist extra-parliamentary movement that engages in on-campus Zionist advocacy, in an effort to strengthen the values of Zionism in Israel, with the aim of securing the future of the Jewish people and the State of Israel and advancing Israeli society in its struggle to overcome the challenges it is currently facing.

http://imti.org.il/en/



Im Tirtzu is the only movement that engages in public advocacy on behalf of the State of Israel and of Zionism on Israeli campuses, based on the recognition and understanding that the student population must necessarily constitute the major vehicle of Zionist renewal.


Love of the Land: Im Tirtzu

Love of the Land: From enlightenment into darkness at Oxford and Cambridge

From enlightenment into darkness at Oxford and Cambridge


Melanie Phillips
The Spectator
09 February '10

From the blog of the Community Security Trust – the self-defence organisation of the British Jewish community:

Last night Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, spoke at the Oxford Union. A meeting that was frequently disrupted by members of the audience reached its low point when one person shouted “Kill the Jews” in Arabic, before being thrown out of the meeting.

... There is a detailed account of the meeting on The edge of where? blog, which has this revealing vignette about the attitude of at least one person in the audience:

Outside the debating chamber, all the while, protestors were shouting ‘free free Palestine from the river to the sea’. When Ayalon argued that this chant amounted to a call for Israel’s destruction, and asked where Israeli Jews would have to go for Palestine to be free ‘from the river to the sea’, the woman sitting next to me said ‘back to where they came from!’ I couldn’t resist and had to ask her where exactly it was that she expected Jews to go ‘back to’, to which she replied, ‘well you’re in England, you appear to be doing fine’. I didn’t think it worthwhile to point out that actually my grandparents ‘came from’ Poland and Czechoslovakia, and that the reason I am in England today is that in the 1930s they were not ‘doing fine’ in the countries they ‘came from’.


This follows the disinviting by Cambridge Israel Society of the Israeli historian Benny Morris, one-time darling of the left for his revisionist history of David Ben Gurion but now apparently a non-person because he tells the truth about the Arab threat to Israel.

(Read full story)

Related: 2 Press Releases: Oxford Union to take disciplinary action against students who disrupted Deputy FM Ayalon. Ayalon looking into possibility of pressing charges against student who shouted "Slaughter the Jews" at Oxford Union event


Love of the Land: From enlightenment into darkness at Oxford and Cambridge

Love of the Land: 'Judenrein' Middle East views Jews unfavourably

'Judenrein' Middle East views Jews unfavourably


Bataween
Point of No Return
10 February '10

With only some 4,000 Jews still living in Arab countries, we are now seeing the practical results of a judenrein Arab world: 90 percent of the Middle East views Jews unfavourably. Hardly surprising: Arabs no longer have no personal contact with Jews. The only images they see are the negative propaganda on their TV screens - evil Israelis killing children or mutilating Gentiles, or devious hook-nosed black hats from Brooklyn conspiring to rule the world. The only people who have a favourable view of Jews are those Arabs who still live among Jews - Israeli Arabs. The Jerusalem Post reports:

"The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes survey conducted last year paints a worrying picture of attitudes towards Jews in the Middle East.

"In the predominantly Muslim nations surveyed, views of Jews were overwhelmingly unfavorable. Nearly all in Jordan (97 percent), the Palestinian territories (97%) and Egypt (95%) held an unfavorable view. Similarly, 98% of Lebanese expressed an unfavorable opinion of Jews, including 98% among both Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, as well as 97% of Lebanese Christians.

"By contrast, only 35% of Israeli Arabs expressed a negative opinion of Jews, while 56% voiced a favorable opinion.

"The survey was conducted between May 18 to June 16, 2009.

"The sample size of each of the countries surveyed was over 1,000 people and the margin of error was 3%. Results for the surveys in these nations are based on face-to-face interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. All surveys are based on national samples, except in Pakistan where the sample was disproportionately urban.

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: 'Judenrein' Middle East views Jews unfavourably

Love of the Land: The new pioneers

The new pioneers

An exclusive interview with Yuval and Tamar Marcus, residents of Shimon Hatzadik in Sheikh Jarrah.


Peggy Cidor
In Jerusalem/JPost
05 February '10

For the past few weeks, the small Sheikh Jarrah playground (built through a grant by the Jerusalem Foundation) on Nablus Road, facing the entrance to the Shimon Hatzadik Cave, has become the stage for a weekly demonstration held by a wide range of left-wing activists and human rights organizations. On Friday afternoons, largely radical groups gather on the right side of the street. On the opposite side stands an ever-growing group of policemen. In between, whether driving or walking to the nearby mosque, Arab residents stare at the two groups with a glint of cynicism but mostly with indifference. The demonstration is a protest against the ongoing establishment of Jewish families in the neighborhood, which is considered a major obstacle to the division of Jerusalem in eventual negotiations.

Two weeks ago, the police arrested more than 20 of the Jewish demonstrators, among them Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and former head of the Open House. For many, that was considered crossing a red line by the police. As a result, the following week a much larger group – more than 300 people – turned up to show their support for the demonstrators, as well as their anger at what they consider a harsh attitude toward them by the police. Slogans, catcalls, placards and, as of this week, a group of drummers are turning the Friday demonstrations at Sheikh Jarrah into a new tradition.



During all this time the Jewish residents of the neighborhood, those who raised the ire of the protesters in the first place, have not been seen or registered any reaction, even though some of the slogans and placards are directed at them, such as “Settlers = Thieves.” In fact, not one of the 17 families installed in the tiny neighborhood situated between the commemorative stone for the victims of the Hadassah convoy during the War of Independence on the upper side of the street and the mosque near the American Colony hotel – three compounds of houses in all – ever show up, even speak to the media or express their position in any way.

For the past 10 years, since Jewish residents first began to move into the neighborhood, few have agreed to speak to the press. But this week, Yuval Marcus and his wife, Tamar, opened their home to In Jerusalem and agreed to talk about how it feels to live in an Arab neighborhood (“We feel rather secure here”), how they feel about the ever-growing demonstrations on Fridays (“We are not so aware of them”) and to say a few things about their connection to the Land and how they understand the term “pioneers” today.

How long have you been living here?

Yuval: We’ve been here for four and a half years. We arrived here as a young couple, and our two children were born here. We are both from here, Jerusalem.

What brought you to live here?

Yuval: It’s a simple ideological decision. We both strongly believe that settling in Jerusalem is something essential for Am Yisrael [the Jewish people]. We came here because it is crucial for our sovereignty over Jerusalem. After 1967, this area was totally devoid of Jews, and it is crucial to create a continuity of Jewish presence here. It is important on a national Jewish level, much more than personal consideration. And thus, though I am not happy about Arab families evacuated and living in the streets [though they built here without permits], this seems to me much more important.

(Read full interview)

Love of the Land: The new pioneers

Love of the Land: How Adam Lowther learned to stop worrying and love the (Iranian) bomb

How Adam Lowther learned to stop worrying and love the (Iranian) bomb


Fresnozionism.org
09 February '10

The most frightening thing about this mind-numbingly wrongheaded op-ed in the NY Times (“Iran’s Two-Edged Bomb“) is the line at the end that describes the author:

Adam B. Lowther is a defense analyst at the Air Force Research Institute.

Let’s hope that he wrote this as a result of a bar-room bet on the gullibility of the Times, because we really don’t want anyone basing policy on this. In that spirit, let’s look at the five reasons that Dr. Lowther thinks the Iranian nuclear bomb has an upside:

Reason 1:

Iran’s development of nuclear weapons would give the United States an opportunity to finally defeat violent Sunni-Arab terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Here’s why: a nuclear Iran is primarily a threat to its neighbors, not the United States. Thus Washington could offer regional security — primarily, a Middle East nuclear umbrella — in exchange for economic, political and social reforms in the autocratic Arab regimes responsible for breeding the discontent that led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The US cannot provide ‘regional security’ when all it can offer is nuclear retaliation. So when Iran, which already controls Syria and Lebanon and will soon control Iraq, pushes to raise oil prices and threatens to unleash Hizballah, for example, what do we do? Nuke them? Iran knows that the US cannot afford to get bogged down in another conventional war.

Even if we could provide security, the ‘deal’ Lowther proposes will not help defeat Sunni terrorism, for the following reasons:

(Read full post)


Love of the Land: How Adam Lowther learned to stop worrying and love the (Iranian) bomb

Love of the Land: The Middle East Comes to Irvine

The Middle East Comes to Irvine


Jeffrey Goldberg
The Atlantic
09 February '10

Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., tried to give a speech at UC Irvine but was shouted down by Muslim protesters, who apparently weren't equipped to argue with Oren, just drive him from the stage. All this is par for the course, but I did find this one bit of information amusing:

The Muslim Student Union said in its statement: "We strongly condemn the university for cosponsoring, and therefore, inadvertently supporting the ambassador of a state that is condemned by more UN Human Rights Council resolutions than all other countries in the world combined."


To the Muslim Student Union, the fact that the UN Human Rights Council has condemned Israel more than all the other countries of the world combined means that Israel is worse than all the other countries of the world combined. To more rational, less prejudiced people, this fact means that the UN Human Rights Council is not a serious organization, but one under the control of dictators and despots. (See: Banned Speech: The UN Council That Created the Goldstone Report)

Related Article/Video: 12 arrested for disrupting Israeli ambassador
.

Love of the Land: The Middle East Comes to Irvine

RubinReports: New York Times Says: Time’s Up for Sanctions with Iran. But the Obama Administration isn’t Ready#links#links#links

New York Times Says: Time’s Up for Sanctions with Iran. But the Obama Administration isn’t Ready

Please subscribe: Only original analysis, serious thought, no ranting. Why click daily when you can get free home delivery?

By Barry Rubin

The New York Times has a new editorial on Iran, February 9, and it is probably the best one yet. Naturally, it is phrased in ways friendly toward the Obama administration, though a note of impatience appears. Nevertheless, there’s an explosive device contained within it that the writers probably didn’t even notice. Don’t stop reading until you get to it.

In this case, the title tells all: “Time’s Up.” Paragraph 1:

“Over the last four years, the United Nations Security Council has repeatedly demanded that Iran stop producing nuclear fuel. Iran is still churning out enriched uranium and has now told United Nations inspectors that it is raising the level of enrichment — moving slightly closer to bomb-grade quality.”

This is fine as far as it goes, but notice it puts the onus on the UN Security Council. The Obama Administration has only had one of those years but it has not led in taking any real action--last September in his big speech there he didn't ask the Security Council to do anything--so this paragraph could just as easily have been directed at the president. No, that’s not the bomb.

Then, the second paragraph tells us what a great job the president has been doing:

“ President Obama was right to offer to negotiate with Tehran. Washington and its allies were right to look for possible compromises even after Tehran was caught—again—hiding an enrichment plant.”

OK, so he tried and it didn’t work (though this has been clear now for five months). Then the Times gives the conclusion: “Enough is enough. Iran needs to understand that its nuclear ambition comes with a very high cost.”

Here’s the bomb:

“President Obama said on Tuesday that the United States and its allies are `moving along fairly quickly’ on a new sanctions resolution. He also said it would take several weeks to draft a proposal. That is not reassuring. Once a resolution is written, the negotiating process typically drags on for weeks, if not months.”

Right. After dealing with this issue for a year, as of mid-February the Obama administration has not yet started drafting a proposal for the UN, despite his own September deadline, despite his own December deadline, no one has had time to plan the next step? Why wasn’t a draft resolution set in early January when it was clear that it would be needed? In other words, with luck there won’t be a resolution before the middle of the year.

Part of the answer is that the Obama administration is all carrots, no sticks. A different president would have said while engaging Iran: and by the way if you don't make a deal here's specifically what we are going to do to you. But Obama and his colleagues didn't do it that way, not even preparing to get tough behind the scenes.

There are also two serious weaknesses in the Times editorial that point to flaws in administration policy. Here’s the first:

“American officials say they are eager to impose sanctions that would inflict maximum damage on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which runs the nuclear program and a large chunk of the Iranian economy. The plan, as we understand it, is to block their banking, their shipping, their insurance. American officials also say they want to minimize the additional suffering of the Iranian people. That makes sense to us, although squaring the circle won’t be easy.”

Well, it makes no sense to me, and won’t scare Tehran. Think about it a moment. Does the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps do much business in America or Europe? Can’t they create dummy companies and easily move things around? Isn’t this a small part of the overall Iranian internationally connected economy? In short, this plan is toothless and worthless.

Here's the truth: anything that hurts Iran's economy will hurt Iran's people. The Obama administration assumes that this would make them blame America and support the regime, rather than blame the regime and want to get rid of it. One can debate that issue but once you've decided to minimize damage that means the regime can ignore the pinpricks. The administration thinks it is smart and has a policy that is perfect. In fact, it is a policy that will inevitably fail in every respect.

Note the Times doesn’t even mention the congressional plan for sanctions which is much better: block gasoline and other fuels. How can it discuss the issue without considering the only plan actually on the table right now, and endorsed by both houses of Congress for that matter?

Second, the editorial remarks that there are big problems with Russia and China supporting sanctions without mentioning that for a year the Obama administration—and on several occasions the Times itself—has been assuring us that this won’t be a problem. I remember back in September that the Times editorial praised as a great achievement the fact that Obama persuaded the Russians to think about sanctions. They thought about it and are against them.

Now China is building a huge refinery in Iran, just announced a new offshore oil-drilling project there, and has moved up to the top of those trading with Iran. Yet the Obama administration acts as if it is possible to overcome Chinese and Russian opposition with any serious sanctions. It isn’t. And what possible leverage has the administration built up to pressure these two countries? None at all.

So, to summarize, we know the following:

--The Obama administration has been slow in dealing with an urgent issue, one in which every day counts, using all possible excuses for delay.

--It has pretended that Russia and China will be won over and now it is clear that this won't work.

--The U.S. government's specific sanctions' plan is bad to start with.

--The UN process will whittle it down further.

--Many months will be required to get it through and when it does the sanctions will be too minimal to have any effect.

--A lot of the problem is that this U.S. government has rejected leadership in favor of consensus and renounced taking action on its own in favor of multilateralism.

--It intends to ignore a good plan which has massive support in Congress.

--The U.S. government hasn't prepared its resolution yet and (as we will see in a moment) does not have a back-up plan in place. If it fails at the UN, it will then have to start from near-beginning to get the entire EU (including countries like Sweden and Spain) to support some form of sanctions, which will also be delayed and whittled down.

The editorial concludes:

“The more the Security Council temporizes, compromises and weakens these resolutions, the more defiant and ambitious Iran becomes. If the Security Council can’t act swiftly, or decisively, the United States and its allies will have to come up with their own tough sanctions. They should be making a backup plan right now.”

Make a backup plan right now? What have they been doing for the past year? Can you imagine how this failure would be presented with any other president in office?


RubinReports: New York Times Says: Time’s Up for Sanctions with Iran. But the Obama Administration isn’t Ready

Israel Matzav: Dangerous hallucinations in Washington and New York

Dangerous hallucinations in Washington and New York

Max Boot discusses a bizarre New York Times op-ed written by one Adam B. Lowther, who is claimed to be an analyst at the Air Force Research Institute at Maxwell Air Base in Alabama. Lowther believes that an Iranian nuclear weapons will bring Messiah's time.

He claims that a nuclear Iran will deliver all sorts of hidden benefits for the U.S.:

First, Iran’s development of nuclear weapons would give the United States an opportunity to finally defeat violent Sunni-Arab terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Here’s why: a nuclear Iran is primarily a threat to its neighbors, not the United States. Thus Washington could offer regional security — primarily, a Middle East nuclear umbrella — in exchange for economic, political and social reforms in the autocratic Arab regimes responsible for breeding the discontent that led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

He takes this fantasy to another level by imagining that not only will the Arab states be empowered to defeat al-Qaeda — something they already have an interest in doing — but that OPEC will also crack up, the Israelis and Palestinians will settle their differences because they’ll both be so scared of Iranian nukes, U.S. defense exports to the Middle East will increase, the Arab states will bear more of the cost of their own defense, and Iran will become a more responsible actor with nuclear weapons than without them.

Boot worries about the consequences of such an article appearing in America's self-proclaimed 'newspaper of record.'

Lowther’s article is hard to take seriously, but the fact that it appears in our leading newspaper and is written by a government employee is sure to lead many in the conspiracy-mad Middle East to imagine that it represents the views of the U.S. government. That will only further encourage Iran and discourage its neighbors. Not that Iran needs much outside encouragement. Its leaders are plainly convinced that the U.S. is not going to do anything substantive to stop its nuclear program. And they are probably right. But that is hardly cause for celebration.

No, it's not. For the record, Lowther has written books about both terrorism and asymmetrical warfare, so for those of you whose reaction was (like mine) "who the heck is this guy?" he's apparently not an unknown quantity. I think he's just lost his mind.

Israel Matzav: Dangerous hallucinations in Washington and New York

Israel Matzav: The absentee ballot conundrum

The absentee ballot conundrum

Evelyn Gordon has an eminently sensible discussion of the absentee ballot issue I discussed on Tuesday.

The proposal put forth by Netanyahu’s largest coalition partner, Yisrael Beiteinu, would allow absentee ballots for anyone who has held a valid Israeli passport for the past 10 years — about 500,000 people. And opponents are right that this is far too broad. First, in terms of sheer numbers, that constitutes 7 percent of the total population and fully 10 percent of eligible voters — a far higher proportion than is the norm in other countries that allow absentee voting.

Moreover, many of the 500,000 people in question have been living abroad full-time for many years. Indeed, you can have a valid Israeli passport for 10 years without setting foot in the country that entire time. Thus people who are not living in Israel and whose daily lives are unaffected by the country’s policies would have a disproportionate impact on the outcome of any election.

This is particularly problematic because Israel is a country at war. Overseas residents are not the ones who will suffer daily rocket fire if a territorial pullout goes wrong, nor will their sons’ lives be at risk if the government launches a military operation. Thus it is completely inappropriate to give them a major voice in electing those who will make such decisions.

Yet at the same time, proponents of absenting voting are right that the current system is irredeemably unfair. Under current law, the only people allowed to vote absentee are sailors and diplomats (and their families). Hence a businessman who lives in Israel year-round but happens to be abroad attending a major trade fair on Election Day cannot vote. Ditto for a professor who has taught for 20 years at an Israeli university but happens to be on sabbatical abroad during election year — unless he is willing to pay $1,000 to fly to Israel for Election Day and cast his ballot there. It is long past time for Israel to stop disenfranchising such citizens.

It is not technically difficult to distinguish permanent overseas residents from Israelis there temporarily, as it was in days gone by. The law could simply require absentee voters to have spent a specified proportion of the past five (or seven or 10) years in Israel, and ballot applications could be checked against border-control data to see if the applicant qualified.

I would add another test: If you pay taxes in Israel (other than on rent collected by owning an apartment here), you can vote and if you don't, you can't. Most Israelis who leave don't bother to pay taxes. Many who intend to return do bother to pay National Insurance payments (because when and if you come back, you have to make them up if you haven't paid them).

The American way of letting everyone who holds citizenship vote won't work here. On a percentage basis, the number who have left is too high. On the other hand, the Americans also require that you file tax returns even if you reside permanently abroad, and with the Bush tax credits being paid to us as well, my guess is that the percentage of Americans who file from abroad has increased dramatically over the last ten years.


Israel Matzav: The absentee ballot conundrum

Israel Matzav: Wave of the future: Burka-wearing gunmen rob Paris bank

Wave of the future: Burka-wearing gunmen rob Paris bank

What a great idea for a way to rob a bank!

Employees let the pair through the security double doors of the banking branch of a post office, believing them to be Muslim women. But once inside, the men flipped back their head coverings and pulled out a gun, officials said.

They seized 4,500 euros (£4,000) in cash, according to staff at the branch in Athis Mons, just south of Paris, and made their getaway.

...

The unusual bank heist, carried out on Saturday, will provide ammunition to supporters of a blanket ban [on the burka] due to security concerns.

The women (I guess they're women) in the picture have nothing to do with the story.

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: Wave of the future: Burka-wearing gunmen rob Paris bank

Elder of Ziyon: Arab diplomat annuls marriage to bearded bride

Elder of Ziyon: Arab diplomat annuls marriage to bearded bride

Elder of Ziyon: Iranian cleric warns of Jews buying land - in Kurdistan

Elder of Ziyon: Iranian cleric warns of Jews buying land - in Kurdistan

Elder of Ziyon: Col. Travers and Goldstone

Elder of Ziyon: Col. Travers and Goldstone

Elder of Ziyon: Abbas tried to stop Channel 10 corruption report

Elder of Ziyon: Abbas tried to stop Channel 10 corruption report

Antisemitism as a Matter of Time?

Antisemitism as a Matter of Time?

Leon Wieseltier is one of the finest wordsmiths in American public discourse. Yesterday he published a column about his former colleague at The New Republic, Andrew Sullivan. (h/t Silke). It's not his finest column, not even close, which is too bad. Perhaps the relationships between the two men interfered in one way or another; we can't know.

Very briefly, Wieseltier says that tropes Andrew uses these days about Israel are antisemitic. He doesn't come out and say Andrew is, mind you, but he circles around the idea.

Jonathan Chait, another TNR fellow, today responds to Wieseltier by stating emphatically that "Andrew is not an Anti-semite". Chait disagrees with him on Israel, but knows him not to be an antisemite.

Andrew himself relates to the matter from time to time, always to profess his innocence of antisemitism.

From what I can see, he really isn't one. Not yet. Which isn't to say he won't become one. That, after all, is what makes the history of antisemitism so lethal: that people can join (and also leave). If hatred of the Jews were stable, and individuals either were or were not for their entire lives, it would be easier to contain. It isn't. People can be free of the affliction and later die from it; they can be afflicted and cured; they can be latently antisemitic then actively so, then again latent. So long as they are free to think, people can change their minds in whatever direction they change them in.

Is Andrew on the way to becoming an antisemite? It's possible. He's already using antisemitic types of expression, as Wieseltier shows, and as any sustained reading of his popular blog will demonstrate.
Originally posted by Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Esser Agaroth - Good News! ...But Not Really That Good

Good News! ...But Not Really That Good

26 of the Eleventh Month 5770

On my way to work, I saw a man who appeared to be of Asian decent, dressed up more than the usual Philipino attendants to the elderly. At first glance, he could have been a tourist or a visiting professor, albeit an eccentric one.

He was talking to a religious, young man, who seemed backed against a bus stop. It looked a bit suspicious. I heard him speaking in Hebrew, but nothing which would raise a red flag. So, I let it go, and kept walking.

After getting something to eat before heading off to work, I saw this man again, now speaking to a religious woman. They were at the bus stop where I needed to wait for my bus. This man was now speaking in English.

He was talking about some Christian nonsense, and the woman was calmly refuting him. Another young man with a kippah, and an older man without a kippah were beginning to gather in to listen as well.

Without yelling, or even raising my voice, I entered the fray. "This is avodah zarah, idolatry. you are polluting our Land. You are not even allowed to be here."

The woman found the opportunity to walk away, and the younger man yelled after her, "Kol HaKavod!" (Well done!)

He responded with, "Three years ago, I heard the word of god! You cannot ignore the word of god!"

"We already have the word of God. We follow halachah, Torah Law. You're not allowed to be here."

Clearly jarred, he gluided away, still jabbering on.

The younger man yelled after him, "Meshugah!" (crazy!)

The man without a kippah reminded me of the psychological disorder known as "Jerusalem Syndrome," and that maybe the Asian man had it. I said, "Maybe." Even though the symptoms had not been confirmed.

Whether it was better for them to ignore him, to tell at him, or to allow themselves to be engaged by him, aside, they reacted much better than I have seen native Israelis react. Good news.

But for every nut job out there, there are two or more Christians out there, who have done some serious study in workshops, courses, and retreats, how to attack and to steal Jewish souls.

"Rabbis" are praising them.

Political parties are helping them to settle here.

So, unfortunately, my good news wasn't that good after all.



*********


For a summary of Christian motives and strategies in Israel, I recommend the recent article "The New Christian Zionism And The Jews" by Rachel Tabachnick.

Esser Agaroth - Good News! ...But Not Really That Good

DoubleTapper: Airport Travel Humor

Airport Travel Humor

تنسيق-الكليات-لعام سكس نيك كس

xrays and body scans merge in airport security: Dry Bones cartoon.

http://www.drybonesproject.com/blog/D09C27_2.gif
From Dry Bones


DoubleTapper: Airport Travel Humor

Palestinian Authority Policeman Murders IDF Soldier - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

Palestinian Authority Policeman Murders IDF Soldier - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

ZOA: Univ. of California Gives Muslims %u2018Free Pass%u2019 to Incitement - Jewish World - Israel News - Israel National News

ZOA: Univ. of California Gives Muslims %u2018Free Pass%u2019 to Incitement - Jewish World - Israel News - Israel National News

Deputy Minister May Sue Protestor Who Yelled %u2018Slaughter Jews%u2019 - Politics & Gov't - Israel News - Israel National News

Deputy Minister May Sue Protestor Who Yelled %u2018Slaughter Jews%u2019 - Politics & Gov't - Israel News - Israel National News

Brutal Midnight Arrests in Gilad Farm - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

Brutal Midnight Arrests in Gilad Farm - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

Arabs Attack Christian Evangelists in Samaria - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

Arabs Attack Christian Evangelists in Samaria - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Israel National News

Deputy Minister in Gush Etzion: Time for Senior Citizen Centers - Inside Israel - Israel News - Israel National News

Deputy Minister in Gush Etzion: Time for Senior Citizen Centers - Inside Israel - Israel News - Israel National News

British and American Courts Threaten Jews%u2019 Independence - Jewish World - Israel News - Israel National News

British and American Courts Threaten Jews%u2019 Independence - Jewish World - Israel News - Israel National News

Love of the Land: Will $40 Million US Tax Dollars Subsidize UN Agency That Tolerates Teaching Martyrdom to Palestinian Kids?

Will $40 Million US Tax Dollars Subsidize UN Agency That Tolerates Teaching Martyrdom to Palestinian Kids?


Heather Robinson
Huffington Report
07 February '10

Last week the United States announced an initial contribution of $40 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency dedicated to providing food, jobs and education in the Palestinian territories. According to a U.S. State Department press release, the money will "provide critical health, education, and humanitarian services to 4.7 million Palestinians across the region."

This United Nations agency, which receives the largest share of its funding from the U.S. taxpayer, has in recent years come under fire due to at least one of its employees' admission that it employs members of Hamas.

Last month, due to concerns Hamas had infiltrated UNRWA, the Canadian government quietly decided to redirect funding away from the agency; instead, the $300 million in aid Canada has pledged to the Palestinians for the next five years will go to food aid and the support of the Palestinian justice system in an effort to help the Palestinians build a civil society.

Perhaps the U.S. should follow Canada's lead.

In recent years, watchdog organizations have shined a light on the content of books in schools in the Palestinian territories - and what they illuminated was a consistent pattern of propaganda denying Israel's right to exist, dehumanizing Israelis and Jews, and lacking any concrete perspective that would point towards a nonviolent resolution of the conflict, such as a two-state solution. UNRWA schools use the same text books as those that are used in Palestinian schools run by the Palestinian Authority - and by Hamas.


While not part of the original article I have added this as a current example of children's media from Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Feb. 5, 2010

(Read full article)


Love of the Land: Will $40 Million US Tax Dollars Subsidize UN Agency That Tolerates Teaching Martyrdom to Palestinian Kids?

Israel Matzav: 'Daddy gave me a present, a machine gun and a rifle'

'Daddy gave me a present, a machine gun and a rifle'

In the latest episode of the weekly children's program Tomorrow's Pioneers on Hamas TV, a Palestinian boy chose to sing the following children's song:

"Daddy gave me a present, a machine gun and a rifle.
When I am a big boy, I will join the Liberation Army.
The army of [Izz Al-Din] Al-Qassam (Hamas),
which has taught us how to defend our homeland.
Our homeland is precious, precious.
We [are] victorious, victorious over America and Israel.
[Improvises:] Son of a bitch - what brought you to this land?"

It is worth noting that the two hosts, the young girl Saraa and Nassur, an adult in a bear costume, approved of the boy's choice of song and let him sing it. Only when the boy cursed("Son of a bitch"), did the young girl cut him off, pointing out that the "program is a program for children, not for anything else." The objection was to the boy's cursing, not to the content of the song. The adult inside the puppet ended the exchange by defending the boy: "He didn't say anything else, Saraa. He said the truth."

Let's go to the videotape.



Palestinian Media Watch has more about this program here. Isn't it great how the 'Palestinians' are preparing their people for 'peace'? Especially the younger generation....


Israel Matzav: 'Daddy gave me a present, a machine gun and a rifle'

Israel Matzav: Yemen al-Qaeda wants to block shipping to Israel via Red Sea

Yemen al-Qaeda wants to block shipping to Israel via Red Sea

Here's another war we didn't seek. Yemen al-Qaeda wants to block shipping to Israel via the Red Sea.

"The Christians, the Jews, and the treacherous apostate rulers have pounced on you ... you have no other way out from this plight other than to wage jihad," the wing's deputy leader, Saeed al-Shehri, said in an audio tape posted on a website often used by Islamist groups.

Shehri, a former inmate of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay from Saudi Arabia, was one of 30 al Qaeda members that Yemen claimed to have killed in an air strike in December but this was later denied by the global militant network.

Shehri also said the Yemen-based wing's failed bomb attack on the plane to Detroit on December 25 had been carried out in coordination with network leader Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attack in January, weeks after al Qaeda in Yemen said it was behind it.

Shehri called on Somalia's Islamist al Shabaab insurgents to help block a narrow strait at the mouth of the Red Sea that separates Yemen from the Horn of Africa.

"At such a time the Bab (al Mandab) will be closed and that will tighten the noose on the Jews (Israel), because through it America supports them by the Red Sea," Shehri said.

The area across the strait from Yemen is far from al Shabaab's territory.

How many more former Gitmo inmates are in Yemen? What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: Yemen al-Qaeda wants to block shipping to Israel via Red Sea

Israel Matzav: Overnight music video

Overnight music video

In this song, God is asked to watch over us. Honestly, I took this particular video because the sound quality was better than the other two I saw in which this song was performed.

Let's go to the videotape.


Israel Matzav: Overnight music video
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