Doesn't anyone proof-read this stuff for consistency?: I usually go easy on non-native English speakers if their editorial style is a bit off, but contradictions within the article? C'mon. Straight from our good friends in Saudi Arabia, the
Arab News website is a guaranteed good time. Aside from their political cartoonist, M. Kahil, who puts out some of the best Jew=Nazi propaganda cartoons around, the editorials are always fun to read and rip. To wit: An editorial today by
Nourah Abdul Aziz Al-Khereiji entitled "We are all fighters in this war" makes the point that:
it is obligatory on all Muslims to assist the fighters who volunteer for martyrdom in this cause. Every Muslim and Arab should participate in the jihad for the holy lands.
In all fairness, his point is that Muslims should donate money to the cause of jihad. But what of President Bush's attempts to shut down "charities" that support Hamas and Islamic Jihad? To this he says:
The US president has even dared to demand that we Arabs and Muslims stop supporting and sympathizing with the families of the Palestinian martyrs. He calls them murderers. The American Jews used to collect donations for Israel with the slogan “Pay a dollar to kill an Arab!” Our slogan, on the contrary, is — and was — “Pay a riyal to save an Arab.” We have never demanded money from the people “to kill a Jew.”
Pretty noble. Until the end. In his demands for Muslims to donate he says:
"Even doubtful incomes such as bank interest can be spent lawfully for our Palestinian brothers. Such money could be used for buying and supplying weapons. It was the shortage of ammunition that made the heroes of Jenin after eight days abandon their resistance against the third strongest army in the world, armed and financed by the United States."
But of course the weapons they buy wouldn't be used to kill Jews. For that, of course, they use colorful language and a feather duster. But maybe he differentiates between attacking soldiers and civilians? A good try:
"Why is that Israelis can kill any number of Palestinians with impunity anywhere in the world while Palestinians cannot kill the thieves of their lands who are only a few meters from them?"
Aside from the lack of consistency in the article we can draw an important and highly cynical conclusion: Arabs and Jews have a lot in common. We both (though I've never heard this from Jews) campaign for charity under the slogan "Pay a dollar, kill an Arab." The only difference is the end of the Arab slogan "and hopefully take a few Jews with him (or her).
Shalom: Good shabbos to all and have a good weekend.
Rabbi wants to meet with Prince Abdullah?: The Waco Tribune-Herald hopes to
meet with the Saudi when he is in town.
Rabbi Seth Stander said the invitation was suggested by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Stander and Yoffie wrote joint letters to Bush and Abdullah saying a meeting with national Jewish leaders in Waco "could highlight the positive role that religious leaders and traditions can play in overcoming the great distance that exists between the Arab nations and the Jewish people."
We have ways of making you "liberate" Palestine: The 19 April issue of "Khabat" reported that, 10 days earlier, Iraqi security forces executed a young Kurdish man in the Iskan quarter of Kirkuk after he refused to join the voluntary al-Quds army, which Saddam Husseyn formed to liberate Palestine. (Michael Rubin, RFE/RL)
Hi Everyone: Seeing as how I've joined this blog, I thought I might introduce myself to y'all. I am Rami Genauer, an expatriate Seattlite living in New York and currently writing for The Forward newspaper. There, as here, I am the token Orthodox Jewish guy, a position I love. I am a political conservative, and yes I do know how silly it sounds to be an Orthodox Conservative (In fact, if I ever get around to starting an organization for like-minded people and then we need to change something, you could call that Orthodox Conservative Reform. Sorry, I should have saved that until we knew each other better.). My contribution to the blogospere is minimal but growing as indicated by the core of die-hard, repeat visitors to my site,
Opinion Native. I appreciate Howard's invitation to join his venerable blog and look forward to many happy contributions.
Welcome the new guy to Kesher Talk:
This blog moves one step closer to being a real community (the English equivalent to the Hebrew word "kesher"), as we are joined by Rami Genauer. May he blog well.
French Foreign Minister suggests pressuring Sharon by pressuring the American Zionist lobby: Hubert Vedrine suggests at a closed meeting that the EU should try to whittle away at
American Jewry's support for Airel Sharon.
Is chicken soup the Jewish Penicillin? Nutrition News Focus looked at a study back on the day of the presidential election:
Chicken soup goes by many names besides its usual one, including the one in the headline. The October 2000 issue of CHEST carried a study of how this soup might alleviate symptoms of the common cold. While
this was a scientific study, it appears the authors had their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks when they weren't slurping soup.
It was found that chicken soup lessened the amount of white blood cells attracted in test tubes. The gold standard in this study was
labeled "Grandma's recipe," but commercial soups also showed similar activity. However, the activity by canned or packaged soups ranged from almost none to extremely effective. Grandma's homemade soup was in the middle of the pack.
HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The effectiveness of chicken soup is rediscovered every so often by scientists. Any warm
liquid is good for a cold and soothes the throat. Chicken soup may kill viruses and reduce inflammation, but matzoh balls don't seem to add to its medicinal effect.
How Arafat was "elected": I'd been meaning to write about this, but someone else came along, who gets paid to write on these issues, and got there first: "
The sham 1996 vote."
Conan O'Brien last night:: "Secretary of State Colin Powell turned down an offer by former President Jimmy Carter to get involved in the Mideast peace process. Carter wanted to get involved, and Powell said no. However, Powell did ask Carter to build a shed for his backyard."
Mike Sultan's INS funnies:
Congress is now planning to split the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The INS is going to be split into two separate agencies.
One agency will let in the drug dealers ... the other agency will let in the terrorists.
***
The current head of the INS, James Ziglar, wasn't available to comment on the planned shakeup of the INS.
He was traveling in Australia.
God-bless-him, if there is one thing we have to put a stop to ... its those Australians sneaking across our borders causing mayhem, threatening our way of life.
What's up with those Saudi troop movements? Stratfor.com offers a few
possibilities.
Israel urges Jews to leave France: How crass. Eli Yishai, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, "held extensive talks with the leaders of the French Jewish community and urged them to
pack up and immigrate to Israel," his Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas Party said in a statement.
This was mostly spurred by the Le Pen victory in the first round of the French presidential elections. But Le Pen's victory shows no signs of lasting into the important second round, where he looks set for a nasty thrashing. Not to mention, there are probably Jews who voted for him.
My fiancee keeps asking me what I would do if I was in France... would I plan to leave... etcetera.
Never mind that I would have made plans to leave before the rise in anti-semitism -- I mean, come on, the place is loaded with French people!
Anyhow, I will report back on Monday with some fresh perspective on France. My brother, who lives in France, will be visiting us this weekend on his way back from a business trip. Stay tuned.
Scheer stupidity, chapter 1,034: Go watch
PejmanPundit rip Robert Scheer's latest LA Times screed to shreds.
Supporters of Israel in Ottawa arrested and harassed by mall cops following rally: I first got wind of this one from an email (so I doubted the veracity). Now, I am not so sure...
The Ottawa Sun reported this morning that a "Montreal man believes he was the victim of a hate crime at the hands of Rideau Centre security guards Sunday who arrested and detained him for
carrying an Israeli flag."
Sharon speaks to AIPAC: Read the text of his
videoconference yesterday.
Are the Saudis preparing for war?: Israel Radio reported at 7:00 PM yesterday that Saudi officials say the Saudis have massed 8 brigades on their border with Jordan in response to intelligence reports that Israel has massed forces along the length of its border with Jordan.
Israel Radio further reports that a military spokesman in Israel denies the information.
Why isn't Israel letting the UN into Jenin? Brushing aside Israel’s demand for a delay, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a
U.N. team on its way to look at Israel’s military operation in the
Jenin refugee camp, scene of the fiercest fighting during the recent Israeli offensive. Israel has not said whether it will bar the mission from entering the West Bank camp, but it has expressed strong reservations about the team’s mandate as well as its composition.
My fiancee asked me this morning why Israel was delaying the UN inspection of Jenin. If indeed there is nothing to hide, why delay? Let the UN see how the Palestinians blew up their own homes, etc.
Israel asked to send representatives to brief U.N. officials “to make sure that the government’s point of view was understood,” and they could arrive on Thursday, the U.N. statement said. The secretary-general agreed to postpone the departure of the fact-finding team to allow those consultations, “but he expects the team to be in the Middle East by this Saturday.”
Well, aside from the likelihood that any information it collects being turned against Israel no matter what it shows...
Gideon Meir, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official, said the U.N. team was established with the goal of finding fault with Israel. “From our point of view the whole thing is a set up for Israel,” Meir said. “Everything is against Israel here. What about the terror attacks?”
... Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Yehuda Lancry, who met with Annan, also said Israel wanted more military and counterterrorism experts added, plus assurances the team would confine its activities to Jenin and undertake an investigation of Palestinian terrorist activities in the refugee camp.
Annan would not discuss his choice of team members, though he did not rule out adding additional experts if necessary, a statement from the U.N. spokesman said.
Journalist asks, "What, me, morally bankrupt?": Scot Shuger on
interviewing terrorists - "From a pure journalism point of view, this all makes perfect sense. But think about this story just a little bit and watch your moral intuition needles start bouncing all over the place."
Berkeley City Council takes a temporary hiatus from insanity: A city famous for its foreign policy edicts pulled back from taking a stand on the painful conflict in the Middle East, voting not to divest from Israel and Palestinian areas.
``We've got so many problems here in Berkeley. I think we need to lower the rhetoric,'' said Councilwoman Polly Armstrong, who abstained from voting on the grounds she wasn't elected ``to solve the Arab-Israeli situation.'' (
AP)
First-hand reporting of Palestinian murders: National Post reporter Stewart Bell witnessed
a mob taking its revenge on three Palestinians in Hebron yesterday. The men were accused of helping the Israelis find Marvan Zalum, Hebron leader of the Tanzim militia, who was killed in a missile attack on his car.
UPDATE: A Jerusalem Post reporter writes about witnessing another murder of an alleged "collaborator." He
talked to a witness, who had lied to him about the incident, an hour later, away from the scene of the crime:
...the wounded man I had photographed was shot because he was suspected of having collaborated with Israel. In his words, "He help the jaish [army]. That's what the men said. He help the jaish."
I asked him why he had lied to me, and he said, "It looks very bad for my people."
Rudy supports Israel: "We're here -- we're all here today for the same purpose -- to support America, to support Israel and to support all those who join us in understanding that we have to end terrorism, we have to end the threat of terrorism, and we have to make it clear that we're going to stand together to accomplish that purpose."
Read Rudy Gulianni's speech from the
Israel rally in DC.
J’ACCUSE: Has France No Shame ?Denounce France's anti-U.S. and anti-Israel Foreign Policy and Protest French anti-Semitism
RALLY at the EMBASSY OF FRANCE
4101 Reservoir Road, NW
Washington, DC
Tuesday, April 306:00 - 7:00 pm
Limited Street Parking Available
Parking also available at Georgetown Medical Center for $10.00
(reduced rate - tell them you are attending the Council Rally)
For more information contact the Council at jcouncil@jcouncil.org
Sponsored by the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington
Mosque-see TV: Blogger Tim Blair's Fox News column this week proposes a new line of TV shows
for the Arab world.
Jean-Marie Le Pen and French Jews: The strong showing of far-right leader Jean- Marie Le Pen in the first round of France´s presidential elections holds some bitter ironies for the nation´s Jews. Notorious for the anti-Semitic views he has espoused, Le Pen until recently had seen support for his National Front Party waning. But in a campaign dominated by France´s rising crime and delinquency rates, the National Front´s anti-immigrant and law-and-order rhetoric caught the attention of French voters. (
JTA)
Florida talk show host announces he will make an ass out of himself, as usual: "A holocaust denier running second in France has to be Israel's worst nightmare," says Martin. "And Ariel Sharon was the 'campaign manager' for LePen. The rise of European rightists is directly attributable to Ariel Sharon. He has legitimized anti-Semitism. Europe was smoldering; Sharon lit the match at Jenin."
Florida talk show host and foreign policy analyst Andy Martin, the only American talk radio host who supports Palestinian rights, will hold a forum on the Internet Thursday, April 25 to discuss whether the French presidential vote heralds an "anti-Semitic wildfire in Europe." Martin's radio program, heard Monday-Friday over WPBR-AM, West Palm Beach, covers Florida issues from noon-1 p.m. and foreign policy from 1-2 p.m.
Christian conservatives and Israel: Tish Durkin's National Journal column says that CCs want Dubya to read some Genesis: "I will bless them who bless Israel, And I will curse them who curse Israel."
This is remarkable, particularly in light of the frequency with which American fealty to Israel is attributed to "the Jewish Lobby." After all, the Christians rallying to Sharon include elected officials who represent few Jewish voters. They clash bitterly and habitually with most Jewish voters on some of the issues that are most cherished by both groups, from abortion to school prayer. Unlike Democrats, Christian conservatives have nothing to gain by puncturing the wartime popularity of the unabashedly faith-based president. And, on one international question after another, they are among the first to denounce any whisper of any reduction of the prerogative of America to act unilaterally. Finally, there is the question of whether what Powell and company are allegedly advocating constitutes some real abandonment of Israel -- or merely a viewpoint that, at this moment, in this situation, it is not in America's interest to strike this rigid a pose. That opinion might be good analysis, it might be bad analysis -- but it's not a matter of holy writ.
Or is it? In the eyes of many on the Christian Right, the answer to that question is a resounding yes.
To talk even superficially to a handful of committed evangelicals is to realize the vast power of the Christian Lobby on the issue of Israel: power in terms of political leverage, and power in terms of theological force. "American support for Israel is undergirded by the support of millions of conservative Christians," says R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. And it's not a lip-service, interfaith-outreach kind of support, either.
"Israel is No. 1, because it represents the totality of who we are as Christians," says Janet Parshall, who spoke at Monday's rally. Five days a week, Parshall hosts a nationally syndicated, biblically informed, radio talk show that attracts some 3.5 million listeners -- 80 percent of whom, she estimates, strongly support Israel for theological, rather than political or strategic, reasons.
Which brings us back to the end of the world as it pertains to the Bush administration's policy in the Middle East. Not that Christian conservatives' theological affinity with Israel is based strictly on the distant, apocalyptic future; it also has to do with the past (the roots of Christianity in Judaism) and the present (Israel is already Christians' Holy Land). But the centrality of Israel to that distant, apocalyptic future is at the core of a belief that is both more widely and more deeply held than nonadherents might imagine. And it is very much part of what motivates the hammering that Bush is getting from some of his best ideological friends.
Needless to say, the area of eschatology, or "the understanding of the last things," cannot be treated here with anything like the requisite sweep or nuance. But just for a hint of what is at stake, it is worth taking a quick look at the dispensationalists, millions of whom live in America, and several of whom patiently walked me through a progression that I will try not to mangle too badly.
Dispensationalists are Christians who believe literally that, one day, Jesus Christ will come back to earth and reign for 1,000 years, and that his doing so will fit into a timetable that has been divided into seven stages, or dispensations; the world is now in the sixth, or the "church," stage. The next stage, which might be called the "end-time," will be heralded by the Rapture, when Christ will turn earthward "for his own." That is, he will call born-again Christians, dead and alive, to heaven. (The souls of the dead, already in heaven, will be reunited with their bodies.) Then, the Antichrist will appear on earth. "The Antichrist will set himself up as the savior of the Jews," explains Pait. "Some people believe that one of the things that will make the world turn to the Antichrist is that he will be able to bring a seeming peace to the Middle East."
The reign of the Antichrist will be seven years, known as "the tribulation." The first three and a half of these will be taken up with that seeming peace, after which the Antichrist will turn on Israel, thus completing the sum of mankind's sins, incurring the judgment of God, and ushering in a period of unprecedented persecution of Israel. This will culminate in the surrounding of Jerusalem by hostile nations bent on its destruction, and the stage will be set for the battle of Armageddon. At this point, dispensationalists believe, Christ will return to earth, astride a white horse, "with his own" -- a cavalry of the faithful streaming from the clouds. He will make a triumphal intervention in the battle, restore the temple in Jerusalem, and commence a 1,000-year reign that will evince a new heaven and a new earth, and extinguish Satan forever.
Like many truths of many faiths, all this may well strike the unconvinced as bizarre. For purposes of Bush's current dilemma, though, that matters not one whit. What matters is that dispensationalists constitute anything but a fringe element of Bush's conservative base. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest non-Catholic denomination in the United States, and while no breakdowns exist as to exactly who among them believes exactly what, all my sources told me that that the majority would probably be considered dispensationalists of one kind or another. (And several sources recommended to me Left Behind, a hugely successful series of books that are based in dispensationalist thought.) Moreover, one needn't be a dispensationalist to see Israel as the literal scene of that literal showdown.
For such believers, Israel is no mere strategic ally or singular Middle Eastern democracy, and their commitment to Israel would be firm even if there were no such thing as an American Jew. For them, Israel's creation in 1948 was a prophecy fulfilled. (And for dispensationalists, fulfilled pretty quickly, too: The concept only appeared in the 19th century.) The fact that Israel had gone so long without existing as a state only made the fact of it all the more vivid. "Many, if not most, conservative evangelicals in the United States greeted 1948 as the dawning of an eschatological age," says Mohler.
Without wanting to connect every possible dot in the most simplistic possible way, it is not hard to see this spiritual view of Israel as quite a filter through which to perceive actual events there. Such Christians need not be -- and they stress that they are not -- looking for the Antichrist in every Yitzhak, Ehud, or Bill who attempts to make peace in the region. But, if I understand it right, they have a built-in skepticism toward the very concept of near-term peace in the region. It isn't that the conflict can't be minimized and contained and managed, certainly way down from its present pitch. It's that a true, comprehensive, lasting peace is not simply hard to achieve -- it is impossible, until the tribulation is endured, the savior comes, and the battle is won. In this world view, the ill fate of all those Middle East peace plans, over all those decades and all those presidencies, scents less of futility, than of vindication.
The No-Kidding Headline of the Day:
"Palestinian Vows End to Cooperation" (Washington Post)
Should we call them something other than Palestinians?: Humorist Larry Miller suggests an alternative:
The Palestinians want their own country. There's just one thing about that: There are no Palestinians. It's a made up word. Israel was called Palestine for two thousand years. Like "Wiccan," "Palestinian" sounds ancient but is really a modern invention. Before the Israelis won the land in war, Gaza was owned by Egypt, and there were no "Palestinians" then, and the West Bank was owned by Jordan, and there were no "Palestinians" then. As soon as the Jews took over and started growing oranges as big as basketballs, what do you know, say hello to the "Palestinians," weeping for their deep bond with their lost "land" and "nation." So for the sake of honesty, let's not use the word "Palestinian" any more to describe these delightful folks, who dance for joy at our deaths until someone points out they're being taped. Instead, let's call them what they are: "Other Arabs From The Same General Area Who Are In Deep Denial About Never Being Able To Accomplish Anything In Life And Would Rather Wrap Themselves In The Seductive Melodrama Of Eternal Struggle And Death." I know that's a bit unwieldy to expect to see on CNN. How about this, then: "Adjacent Jew-Haters."
Do the Saudis want a boycott of the U.S. or not? "
UPI Hears..." thinks not:
United Press International has obtained a copy of what purports to be "a secret and urgent" memorandum issued by the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Guidance and addressed to all preachers of mosques in the kingdom. The memo, signed by the directors of endowments and mosques in Holy Mecca, refers to "available information about continued leaflets in some mosques calling for boycotting U.S. products and about mosques preachers referring to those leaflets by supporting the boycott of U.S. products." The memo said the emir of Mecca "categorically prevents the distribution any of such leaflets or referring to this during preaching" that "is meant to enforce awareness of the people about religious matters." The emir warned that if such things are repeated "all will be accounted for" including mosque officials.
Leno last night: "Suspected 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui was in court today. Once again, he called for the destruction of America. Then he fired his lawyers, demanded that the court give him new Muslim lawyers, he says it's his right. Apparently he wants to destroy America, but only after our justice system gives him a fair trial, then it's okay after that."
Turning over in their - no, wait, turning over their graves: More than 130 graves have been damaged or destroyed in a Jewish cemetery in the Slovak city of Kosice. A spokeswoman for the local authorities described the attack as one of the worst of its kind in the country since the Holocaust. A Jewish community leader said the cemetery had already been vandalised several years ago, but not to the same extent. (from the BBC World Service)
Another Mike Sultan funny: John Walker Lindh and Zacarias Moussaoui, the two Al-Queda terrorist guys
... awaiting trial ... locked up 22 hours a day.
They each have a copy of the Koran in their cells ...
... hey, think about it, maybe this time around ... they'll actually read the Koran.
Pejman, pepperoni thy self: The Pejman Pundit is wracked with guilt. The Kosher-keeping blogger ate a
pepperoni pizza this weekend.
His readers have chimed in, not necessarily helpfully. bj_hadden suggests:
These things happen. People make mistakes. I've made many, many mistakes. The trick is doing your best not to make mistakes, but not dwelling on them when you do. Despair is a sin as well. You know you screwed up, fine great. Just do your best not to do it again and everything will be fine. This doesn't cross the threshold of actions you can't get away with screwing up over, like murder. It's just that your hunger got the better of you. So "ego te absolvo" problem solved.
Captain Scott:
Pepperoni pizza, crushed red peppers, and a jug of cold cola is a sublime combination, transcending religious dogma. God loves us and makes wonderful delicious things like beer, pizza, and nutella to make us happy.
But Pizza hut? Please...
Elena S. (Middle East Realities) recommended reading this
Onion article to assuage his guilt.
Christopher Cross:
Well, as Dennis Leary once said:
"Eggplant tastes like eggplant. But meat tastes like murder, and murder tastes pretty g-ddamn good."
And John Tabin has the most cogent suggestion:
Dude, I'm a wishy-washy Reform Jew, but even I know we don't confess immediately after sins. What are we, Catholic? Wait til Yom Kippur. Don't eat for a day, you're all clear for a year. (Compare that to Lent-- forty days of self-denial. As one Jewish comedian noted, even in sin they're paying retail.)
I wouldn't worry too much about eating Snowball and Napolean-- the allegorical Trotsky and Stalin deserve to be devoured.
Who am I to offer help to Pejman?
As the Jewblogger, people have been making two interesting assumptions about me, which I feel compelled to dispell:
- I don't keep kosher. I've never been able to justify the practice to myself. I was not brought up kosher. I love shrimp, lobster, pork spare ribs and pepperoni. Am I a bad man? Maybe so.
- I do not keep shomer shabbos. My fiancee and I endeavor not to do any work-related work during the Sabbath, so I extend that to this blog. Besides, it seems a good way to mark the Jewish nature of Kesher Talk.
162: That is the number of news stories in the Nexis database using the phrase "homicide bomber" in the last two months.
Which march to cover? The MRC shows that the network newscasts found the small pro-terrorist rallies this weekend much more news-worthy than the pro-Israel rally last week. (
Pro-Palestinian March Covered, Pro-Israel One Skipped)
Putting up or shutting up: Bruce Hill is pondering being a
warblogger correspondent in Israel.
Fudging the attendance records: How many people were on the mall for the Israel rally? Probably over a hundred thousand, but exactly how many we don't really know.
The Agence France Presse had this to say about Saturday's pro-terrorist rally: "Police estimated that around 50,000 people took part in the peaceful protest although organizers, a coalition of pro-Palestinian pressure groups, put the figure at 100,000."
Anti-semitism in Bay Area academia: Brandon Bosworth looks at anti-semitism at
UC Berkeley.
Israel and non-Jewish residents: Elena S. (Middle East Realities) supports a more intelligent
Israeli immigration policy:
Under current law, non-Jewish parents of soldiers are allowed to stay in the country while their son or daughter is in the IDF. But, they must leave when the child is released from the IDF, unless the child dies in uniform, at which time they are granted automatic citizenship.
I must admit that this seems quite silly to me. Given the current situation in Israel, the government should accept all people who have honest and legitimate aspirations of fighting (and possibly dying) for the Holy Land. It is quite a slap in the face to have parents sending their children to fight in a war and then not allow them to remain in the country if their kid comes out alive....that's gratitude for ya! The Israelis need everyone they can get, and this type of selection seems insensitive at best. I would hate to think that Israel lost a bunch of potential soldiers on account of this silly rule. It's time to change this one. Christian parents have my support in their fight for citizenship.
Trying to get in? I made the mistake of flipping by CNN yesterday morning and watched video footage of a gang of "peace activists" trying to barge their way into Arafat's compound in Ramallah.
I know they were "peace activists" because the anchorman insisted on using the term every other second, stressing how peaceful they were, while the Israelis arrested them.
Will this building withstand a Molotov cocktail: A Kesher Talk reader tells me he was in synagogue this weekend, but was preoccupied with thoughts of how sturdy and secure it was...
The Euro-anti-semitic attacks seem to have us on edge.
Brilliant child blinders at the New York Times: A quick house editorial in the NYT today demands action against
child soldiers. They make no mention of any Palestinian suicide bombers, of course.
Celebrate Earth Day, but don't eat the organic soup: My latest Data Dump column for TechCentralStation is up this morning. A classic canard from supporters of organic food is that it is more healthy for you than regular, pesticide-grown food. So the organic folk were over the moon when a study appeared saying they were right. Unfortunately,
they were not right at all...
Two cents on the first round of the French election: The success, so far, of
Jean-Marie Le Pen may be reflective of his law-and-order focus. Let's face it, the French might be anti-semitic as a whole (I see no evidence that they are), but they surely don't appreciate these kinds of public disruptions.
Sadaam's endless generosity: ABC News reported last night that "Saddam Hussein is offering payments of $25,000 for each Palestinian home destroyed by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp. That's according to the Iraqi news agency. The Iraqi leader has already been paying families of Palestinian suicide bombers as much as $25,000..."
Thanks for the memories: David Hewitt, I very much appreciate you sending me sick photos of dismembered people you claim were "massacred" secretly in Jenin. And I especially appreciate it clogging up my mail server and sapping my bandwidth. You're such a nice guy, I think everyone should know how to contact you, too:
damianhewitt2002@yahoo.comCome on, everyone, make a new friend today.
Palestinian photo fun: Bjorn Staerk has photos of a pro-terrorist rally in
Oslo, Norway.
Terrorist-supporters rally in DC; residents treat them like insects: They're an annoyance, nothing more. No longer do the local media try to interview the "protestors" or to let them discuss all 5 million of their "issues." Now, it is round-the-clock coverage still, but focused only on how to avoid them on your commute.
Meanwhile,
Fredrik K.R. Norman has reports on peaceful rallies (meaning, rallies to show support, not demonstrations designed to cause people pain and anguish) for Israel in Copenhagen and Ottawa.
UPDATE: The Washington Times checks out the DC protestors'
agendas and actions.
No, American Jews have not all suddenly become right-wingers:
Frederick K. Norman queried me for my opinion this weekend on shifts in American Jewish political alignment.
I would like if it were true, but its not. The RJC poll back in December which claimed to show American Jewish voters just waiting for the right spark to suddenly vote conservative was plain wishful thinking, at best. This Ira Rifkin
MSNBC story is surely wet-dream material for Republican campaign managers but it just has no basis in political reality. What we might be seeing (and I don't have enough data to convince me entirely) is a more solidly hawkish attitude among American Jews. Period. You can associate that with either the GOP or the Democrats, but either way, it is not a political alignment in the traditional sense. It is a foreign policy attitude shift.
