Islam and the Evironment...: The Earth Island Journal has a screed on how much more
Green-friendly the Koran is compared to the texts of other religions.
Funny, throughout the piece, the author fails to note that the Jews turned desert into fertile farmland in Israel, while the Muslims... drilled for oil and blew things up. Who's the green one again?
COMMENTS: Gar Smith actually responded to my simplistic critique. Thanks to OpinionJournal for catching his attention.
#1. Jun 22 2002, 12:04 am
What?
"In an essay on the "Significance of Environment in Islam" in the April 1998 issue of the Islamic Voice, Akhtar Mahmood, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Punjab, notes that 'Islam discourages luxurious and lavish living.' Muslims see the existence of luxury as 'an expression of social injustice, as few can afford luxurious items at the expense of the deprived masses.'"
You. have. got. to. be. kidding. This is almost too easy. I don't even need to NAME the countries I'm thinking of.
Jeremy
#2. Jul 01 2002, 06:55 pm
I agree with Jeremy -- and I wrote the article.
The Saudi princes and the leadership of most of the Middle Eastern oil kingdoms lead lives of lavish ostentation and clearly enjoy the wealth and power that sets them apart from -- and far above -- the majority of their citizens.
Akhtar Mahmood was describing pious Muslims not the House of Saud.
Perhaps the conclusion is that some Arab rulers do not follow all the precepts of the prophet.
And, yes, there is intolerance in the Koran (like the belief that homosexuals should be outcasts) but the focus of the article was to explore the environmental content.
Thanks for reading the original article in its entirely.
Gar Smith
Alabama Democratic primary runoff - the battle continues: On Tuesday, June 25, Alabama voters will head to the polling booths to choose between incumbent anti-Israeli Earl Hilliard and upstart pro-Israeli Artur Davis. Both candidates are black. I've previously shown how the
American Muslim Council is mobilizing against Davis, how the Congressional Black Caucus has shown its anti-Israel stripes by berating the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to support Hilliard in the contest, and how Davis got started raising funds from
Jews and friends of Israel.
Now the Council on American Islamic Relations is getting in on the act. Well, not them
per se, but their "CAIR-PAC", which sent out this message:
CAIR-PAC URGES SUPPORT FOR REP. HILLIARD
CAIR-PAC, a new American Muslim political action committee, today urged the American Muslim community to support Rep. Earl Hilliard (D-7th, Alabama). Hilliard is being challenged by an opponent who is heavily supported by the pro-Israel lobby and who received most of his campaign contributions from outside the state. The run-off election is scheduled for June 25. Election observers say the race is too close to call.
In a message to American Muslims, CAIR-PAC wrote:
"Congressman Earl Hilliard (D-7th, Alabama), a strong supporter of issues of concern to the American Muslim community, urgently needs our help to win reelection. He has consistently supported a balanced US foreign policy in the Middle East and opposed lopsided bills that harm the interests of America and the Muslim world. He is a strong defender of civil liberties and also the first African-American elected to Congress from Alabama...
"Congressman Hilliard is being challenged solely on the basis of his support for a balanced US policy in the Middle East. Reports indicate that his challenger has received more than $600,000 from pro-Israeli lobbies that seek to punish and make an example of him for his balanced and fair approach to the Middle East."
Not to rain on CAIR (or CAIR-PAC)'s crusade against Israel, but the Birmingham News found that
BOTH candidates have received a majority of their funding from out-of-state donors:
Hilliard and Davis have raised nearly equal amounts for the primary, according to Federal Election Commission reports. As of June 5, Hilliard had received $511,058, excluding loans. Davis generated $518,746.
... An examination of the contributions showed both candidates drew a majority of their donations from out-of-state. Of the $451,852 itemized for Hilliard, 86.64 percent from out of state. Of the $481,632 itemized for Davis, 77.39 percent came from out of state. ("Hilliard, backers rap Davis at bridge", Jun 19)
Do angels have free will? This was a heavy question I laid on my orthodox uncle last year, as my fiancee and I started wrangling with it at Yom Kippur. We usually read that angels are more perfect than humans, partially because they can only obey God's will. Or something along those lines. And yet, at Yom Kippur we read that it is not only us humans being judged for our sins by God, but angels as well. What gives? I have found an answer of some form, courtesy of
AskMoses.com:
Generally we say that only human beings have freedom of choice and that angels just do what their told. They have no evil inclination, so they wouldn’t want to do anything wrong even if they did have the choice.
But, we do find that certain angels were punished, which would imply that they do have freedom of choice.
For example, the Talmud (Bava Metzia 65b) relates that Elijah the prophet once revealed to Rabbi Judah the Prince that if Rabbi Chiya and his sons would pray simultaneously the Messiah would arrive. Rabbi Judah then called a public fast day and during the prayer service ordered Rabbi Chiya and his sons to lead the service. (On a fast day, three people lead the services.) When they reached the prayer of “He restores life to the dead,” an allusion to the Messianic era, the world shook. A voice was heard in heaven: “Who revealed secrets in the world?”—referring to the secret of how to bring the Messiah. And the reply was: “Elijah.” Elijah was then brought and administered sixty lashes of fire.” This story seems to imply that Elijah, an angel, has freedom of choice and can incur punishment by choosing wrongly.
Furthermore, the Talmud (Chagigah 14b-15a ) relates the story of four sages who entered heaven by reciting G-d’s ineffable Name. Only one of them emerged unscarred from the experience. One died; another went crazy; and a third became an apostate. Why did this last one become an apostate? He saw the angel Matat who had permission to sit while recording the merits of Israel. He said, “Hasn’t it been taught that in Heaven there is no sitting…and no weariness? Perhaps [G-d forbid] there are two divinities in Heaven?” Matat was then ejected and administered sixty blows of fire.
The exact meaning of these stories aside, they seem to imply that angels do in fact have free choice and can therefore be punished.
Some commentators maintain that these “punishments” should not be taken literally and they are merely metaphoric. However, Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, a 19th century mystic, says that although angels in general do not have free choice, the two angels mentioned in the above stories, Elijah and Matat (who was originally Enoch), were actually humans who had ascended to heaven and became angels. So even in their celestial state they still maintained their human capacity to choose.
Source: Mi Camocha 5629 (end)
Palestinian peace advertizing: A Palestinian ad recently called for an end to "military operations targeting civilians in Israel." The ad explicitly labels the attacks on civilians as "military operations", not as crimes, not as immoral acts. The rationale for ending them is the signatories' conclusion that these "operations" are counter-productive, not that they are unjustifiable. The ad specifically mentions "...targeting civilians in Israel". This implies that targeting civilians outside of Israel, and targeting non-civilians wherever you can target them is okay. This begs the question, how do you define Israel?
Sephen Sharkansky has background on the ad, a discussion from NPR and
his analysis of what it really means. To sum up: "a classically duplicitous statement that is seen as positive by credulous and hopeful westerners, that is seen as a wink-wink sign of encouragement by the thugs and murderers of Palestine, and that is seen for what it is by those who read it carefully."
All hot and bothered...: The New York Times got its knickers in a twist this past Sunday over the effects of climate change in Alaska. But as I show in my article on
TechCentralStation today, they pulled their data out of their hindquarters.
NPR, Enemy Radio: NPR led the news this morning with Israel ... well, "Israeli tanks are in the Palestinian city of Nablus this morning," only later to mention in passing that three kids, their mother, and a guard were killed last night by the PFLP.
From that choice example, you can go to read Arlynn Nellhaus' exposition on NPR --
National Palestine Radio.
Mother, three children and security gaurd killed last night: A woman, three of her children and a security guard were killed Thursday night in a terrorist infiltration of the Jewish community of Itamar in the West Bank, before soldiers subdued and killed the attacker, officials and witnesses said. Four other people were reported wounded in the exchanges of gunfire, a ten- and 13-year old child, and two Border Policemen. The infiltrator entered Itamar, a hilltop community near Nablus, at about 9:30 p.m., taking a family hostage, officials from the Samaria regional council and witnesses said. The ordeal lasted about two hours.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a broadcast by Lebanon's Al-Manar
television, which is affiliated with Hizbullah. (
Jerusalem Post)
The Inquirer sympathizes with terrorists? On June 9, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a front-page story addressing the after-effects of Palestinian terrorism. But instead of focusing on the victims of terrorism and their families, this report filed by Michael Matza — the Inquirer’s correspondent in Israel — homed in solely on the complaints of the relatives of the terrorists. It detailed what Matza called a "controversy" over the disposition of the remains of some (though not all) of those Arabs who have blown themselves up while massacreing Israelis. According to Matza, the bodies of some of these murderers have not been returned to their families. His report contained the charge that this practice, if true, was a form of “collective punishment” against the Palestinian people.
His editors went even further, concocting a front-page headline alleging that “Palestinians’ remains fuel a bitterness.”
The story jumped inside the paper, where underneath a picture of the grieving mom and brother of one suicide bomber, the editors added another headline, “Fate of corpses fuels passions in Mideast.”
Philadelphia's Jewish paper,
The Jewish Exponent, has
more.
Palestinian terrorism in the U.S. -- in 1968: The Jewish Internet Association sends this notice:
With all the current tragic news from Israel, and fears of more to come in Israel, the United States and elsewhere in the world, it is easy to forget that the first major terrorist violence by a Palestinian Arab in the United States was in 1968.
I am referring to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy on June 4, 1968 in Los Angeles. It has been largely forgotten that his assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was a Palestinian Arab, motivated by Kennedy's pro-Israel position in the US Presidential primary elections.
When Sirhan was in police custody they found him to be curiously composed, convinced he had done a great and marvelous thing and not at all troubled or remorseful. Sound familiar? If he was in the Middle East today, Sirhan would probably be a homicide bomber ready to give his life by killing Israeli or American civilians. Instead, he changed American history by killing Bobby Kennedy and injuring five others with eight shots from a .22 pistol.
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was born March 19, 1944, in Jerusalem, Palestine, the fifth son of Bishara and Mary (Muzher). The family practiced Jordanian Christianity. The Sirhan family came to the United States from Jerusalem in the mid-1950s. The family was not implicated; only Sirhan Sirhan seems to have become radicalized.
In his notebooks, police found writings such as: "RFK must die," "Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated before June 5, 1968," and "My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more (and) more of an unshakable obsession…(He) must be sacrificed for the cause of the poor exploited people."
You will note that June 5, 1968 is the first anniversary of the Six Day War. Lieutenant Manny Pena, the key investigator for the LAPD, summarized: "Sirhan was a self-appointed assassin. He decided that Bobby Kennedy was no good because he was helping the Jews. And he was going to kill him."
The connection between Sirhan and the Middle East went beyond his own fanaticism. In February 1973 gunmen burst into the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan and seized American Ambassador Cleo Noel and his charge d'affaires, George Curtis Moore. The Black September terrorist organization, associates of Yassir Arafat, took responsibility for the assault and demanded the release of Sirhan Sirhan and other jailed Palestinian Arabs. The demands were not met and the Americans were executed, possibly on direct orders from Arafat.
For more on these events see "
Robert Kennedy Assassination: Revisions and Rewrites" and "
The Black September slaying of the Americans."
UPDATE: Got this letter from a Kesher Talk reader June 22:
Very interesting article about Sirhan Sirhan. Nonetheless, I was struck by the article's citation of how his family practiced Jordanian Christanity. That's incorrect as there's no such thing as to 'practice' Jordanian Christanity The family is Jordanian Christian and would either practice as Melkites, one of the Eastern rite churches of the Catholic church dominant in Jordan or as members of one of the various branches of Eastern Orthodox churches.
Great blog. I read it often.
Best regards,
Xavir Basora
Without Israel, they would not exist: Lawrence Henry lays out what would have happened in the post-colonial years in the Middle East
had there been no Israel: they would have been even more of a mess, he concludes. The transformation of Arab countries -- to prosperity, modernity, and peace -- is "blocked by (their) obsession with Israel." That is the conundrum. Without Israel, they would not exist. Without the obsession, they will disappear.
The "Holocaust Anxiety" of American Jews: Israelis are justifiably
baffled by it, but anti-Israeli Ira Chernus's attempts to paint the phenomenon as
the impediment to peace in the Middle Easy is baffling all on its own.
Montreal's Jews doing fine, thanks: Yeah, but for how much longer?
If, as rumors would have it, Jewish life is on the decline in Montreal, someone forgot to tell the 100,000-plus Jews who make their homes in this cosmopolitan city.
True, following the election of a separatist Quebecois government 25 years ago, the Jewish community worried that it faced economic setbacks and cultural extinction. Some 20,000 Jewish baby-boomers fled town for points west and south, knocking Montreal off its perch as Canada's Jewish capital and transforming Toronto into an economic powerhouse. But despite worries of a "brain drain" of the Jewish community's brightest and best, the Jews of Montreal have stayed committed to their tight-knit and diverse community. From the community's growing day schools to its low intermarriage rate, to the newly-built $35-million Jewish community campus, Jewish life is thriving in the cultural center of la belle province.
Anti-abortion, anti-semitic?: The Forward unjustly criticizes a Buffalo Jewish paper for not playing up the possible (but probably irrelevant) Jewish aspects of the case of an
anti-abortion terrorist.
"Israel Acts to Seize Arab Land After Blast; Bush Delays Talks": That was how
The New York Times referred to
yesterday's massacre in Israel.
Blogger Josh Kraushaar also has a link to a transcript from Alan Keyes' show
last night, where he talked with reporter Bob Arnot (who was at the scene of yesterday's bombing) and terrorist professor Clovis Maksoud.
Mossad Bugs Arafat's HQ: Secret Transcripts Revealed: Three cheers to the Indepundit for unearthing this hilarious and painfully accurate
secret document. It lays bare Arafat's plans and how easily he adapts to change and circumstances.
From the "Duh" Files: Ami Eden writes in the
Forward, "
Study: Palestinians Target Civilians."
Now there is a piece of shocking research!
Compared to Palestinian casualties, Israel's dead during the 21-month-old intifada include a higher percentage of noncombatants, women, children and people 40 and over, according to a new study.
Due out next week, the study by the Herzliya-based International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism shows that only 22% of the 506 Israelis killed in the intifada through May were combatants, compared to 53% of the 1,450 Palestinians killed during the same period.
The number of Israeli women killed (135) is twice as high as Palestinian women and the number of Israelis 40 and over killed (159) is 50% higher than the same Palestinian cohort — despite the fact that three times as many Palestinians have died overall.
Another bus gets bombed Wednesday night: A suicide bomber, possibly female, blew up shortly after 7:00 p.m. near a hitchhiking stop in the French Hill neighborhood of northern Jerusalem killing at least seven people and wounding over 40 others.
Two of the fatalities died in surgery after the attack. Four of the wounded are listed in critical condition, according to Magen David Adom Spokesman Yerucham Mendola. A six-year-old and a 14-year-old, both girls, are among the wounded, according to sources at Hadassah-University Hospital, Mt. Scopus.
The Fatah's "Raed Karmi Branch" of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades took responsibility for the attack, in a statement sent to press agencies. Karmi was a terrorist killed in an IDF targeted interception several months ago.
The area has been closed to traffic as sappers search for other bombs, and drivers are requested to clear the roads for EMS and crews and security forces.
"The police chased him to try to stop him, and when he got to the (bus stop), he blew up a large device," said Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy. One of the policemen chasing him was badly hurt, Levy added. The car sped away, disappearing into Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, police said.
A police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the bomber got out of a red Audi, broke past a group of security forces, and set off the explosives. The car sped away, disappearing into Palestinian neighborhoods, heading north towards Ramallah, Levy added.
The explosion in the French Hill neighborhood blew out the back and the sides of the bus stop shelter, leaving just a concrete bench and the roof. Body parts were scattered on the street, which was covered with blood and shards of glass.
A baby carriage was overturned, and rescue workers covered it with a black plastic bag.
The head of the bomber was found layng on a hill above the scene of the blast, according to reports of remains found by investigators.
At least six people were killed, said Avi Zohar, a spokesman for Israel's rescue services. Several of the wounded were in critical condition, rescue workers said.
The area, a busy intersection adjacent to the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat, has been the scene of numerous terror attacks since the onset of fighting with the Palestinians.
The heavily guarded, combined hitchiking point and bus station, is heavily used by the city's residents as well as commuters to Samaria cummunities and the city of Ma'ale Adumim to the east.
In case you've forgotten, here is what happened on Tuesday:
Wednesday's blast comes one day after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 19 people on a bus in southern Jerusalem, the deadliest bombing in the city in six years. (with files from the Jerusalem Post and photos from the AP)
Israelis find an odd way of coping with suicide bombings: "According to Maa'riv there is an illegal gambling going on about where is the next terror attack will happen. There are different odds for different areas. A terror attack on the Azrieli skyscrapers will earn the gambler 1500 times his bet and in Eilat times 1700. the more usual places like Jerusalem earn the gambler only 150 times his bet. The minimum bet is 10 shekels (two dollars) and there are strict definitions about the rules and about what will be considered as a terror attack." (courtesy of
Gil Shterzer)
More on Ashleigh Banfield, MSNBC "reporter": I received correspondence yesterday from a Kesher Talk reader whose name has been withheld. He saw my last post
yesterday criticizing Banfield:
I was shocked last month when Ashleigh Banfield was responding on the air to criticism of her interviewing hooded member of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. She read on the air two viewers' objections to her essentially uncritical interviews and ostensible attempts at humanizing terrorists over a two or three day period. Her shrill and condescending response was something to the effect that Israeli soldiers had killed innocent Palestinians too and so her form of reporting of Hamas was thus justified. She strongly implied that Jewish soldiers were murderers and were somehow being humanized themselves through interviews of them. I was flabbergasted at her non sequiturs and thoughtless moral equivalency. I was suprised to see no reporting or comments by bloggers about it.
...I have also watched Banfield occasionally interview Israeli and Palestinian spokesmen in tandem over the past three months. Unfailingly she courteous to the Palestinians, almost always asking open-ended questions and rarely following up. On the other hand, she seems generally abrupt, aggressive and leading in her questioning of Israelis.
Tal G. reports on the suicide bombing in his neighborhood: From 8:47 pm Monday night:
There is a high terror alert in Jerusalem, and I am sitting here in my apartment listening to the helicopters fly overhead. They say that a specific person is planning a suicide bombing, and he might have succeeded in getting into Jerusalem already.
And then Tuesday afternoon:
Your sense of outrage is restored when the bombing is in your neighborhood. The current toll from the #32 bus bombing is 19 killed and 50 wounded, many of them kids and teenagers on their way to school. The Pat Junction where the bombing took place is about a 5 minute drive from where I live - I used to pass by there everyday until I found a better route to take T. to work.
This AM I didn't check the news (I was busy with a technician who was trying to install Cable Modem service). When I left for work and turned on the radio, I could tell that something happened, but the coverage had already left the scene of the bombing and switched into "introspective" mode - so it wasn't immediately clear what had happened. T. then called me and told me that there had been 18 people killed just a few minutes away. The #32 bus had been going towards downtown - so it hadn't yet passed through neighborhoods where T. and I know people.
The bomber boarded at Beit Tzafafa - an Arab village in southern Jerusalem. One teenager saw him and backed away a few moments before the blast and escaped with minor injuries.
What to call U.S. Middle East policy: Amygdala has found the best
description:
Kenneth Pollack, director for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, says the Middle East policy "seems a little like a cushion: it seems to take the shape of the last person to sit on it." Also, it's lumpy, and given how many people have sat on it, it smells something awful.
Sephardi Jews to sue Arab League to counter Palestinian refugee claims: Jews who once made their homes in Arab nations are planning to
sue the Arab League for lost and stolen property. Some 800,000 Jews fled Arab lands in the aftermath of Israel’s creation — roughly the same number of Palestinians who became refugees in the wake of Israel’s War of Independence.
The lawsuit does not estimate a financial figure, but is seeking restitution for 200,000 houses, 6,000 synagogues, and hundreds of schools, cemeteries and other assets confiscated from once-thriving Jewish communities across the Arab world.
Compensation is unlikely to be granted of course, but money is not the point. The lawsuit is a strategy to raise awareness of the issue to “counterbalance” the Palestinian proposal for a right of return to Israel and alleviate pressure on Israel to accept it.
MSNBC columnist thrashes the "Jewish lobby": Ashleigh Banfield recently read this note from an e-mailer: “What are the interests of America in Israel? What do we get from Israel by supporting them with billions of dollars? Do politicians in the US support Israel for America’s interests or just for their own benefit?”
In reply, Banfield quoted some figures on money contributed by “the Jewish lobby” versus money contributed by the “Arab and Muslim lobby":
Very quickly from the Center for Responsive Politics, here is the amount of the Jewish lobby. In fact in the last 12 years, 41.3 million dollars has come into mostly federal candidates and party committees. That's about two thirds or so is going to the Democrats. When it comes to the Arab and Muslim lobby, though, it's less than 300,000 dollars for the same 12-year period. Hopefully that answers your question as well. (May 8)
The next evening Banfield read a viewer e-mail criticizing her “Jewish lobby” contentions:
Your response incorrectly conveyed the message that the sole reason the U.S. and our politicians stand with Israel is the fact that the pro-Israel lobby in the United States provides millions of dollars to U.S. politicians, while the pro-Palestinian lobby provides only a small percentage of that sum.
President Bush, U.S. diplomats, politicians of both parties, and commentators have stated America’s strategic interest lies in that Israel is a democracy, a free and open society with Western values, and a free market economy – the only such country standing in a sea of totalitarian and repressive Arab regimes.
Banfield falsely responded that she had mentioned Israeli democracy:
Gary, very good point that you make. You're absolutely right. There are lots of reasons cited by American leaders and Americans alike for standing behind Israel. And the democracy in Israel is one of them. I did mention that, in fact, I didn't leave that out last night.
In return,
Alex Safian explains where Banfield went off the rails:
Now, maybe Banfield realized she should have cited Israeli democracy, maybe she even believed she had – but the fact remains that the words never passed her lips. Undaunted by the criticism, Banfield then repeated her claims about the Jewish lobby, adding that “somebody once told me as I was getting into the journalism business, always follow the money trail ...”
Had Banfield really followed that trail, she might have noticed that the largest contributor in the “pro-Israel” list she cited is the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation (CMEP), which supposedly gave about 20 percent of the total, all to Democratic candidates (a curious thing, since so many Republicans have been so supportive of Israel). And she might have further noticed that CMEP’s positions have more in common with many pro-Palestinian groups than with those of the mainstream Israeli consensus. CMEP’s founder, for example, defended Syria’s late dictator, the notorious Hafiz al-Asad, as a good and benign ruler. Does that sound like the “pro-Israel” lobby?
In addition, had Banfield dug just a bit deeper, she might have noticed that CMEP is, in any event, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and is therefore legally barred from making any political contributions whatsoever. In other words, Banfield’s research was less than thorough.
No less important, Banfield also ignored two crucial players in the struggle for public opinion: staunchly pro-Arab US businesses, and staunchly pro-Israel Evangelical Christians. US companies that do billions of dollars of business in the Arab world, especially with the Gulf states, routinely do their Arab clients’ bidding when the time comes to lobby Congress or the administration against Israel. And Evangelicals overwhelmingly support Israel, were a crucial component in President Bush’s winning electoral coalition, and are pivotal to the hopes of many conservative candidates. So maybe the next time Banfield goes “On Location” (the name of her program), she might leave the flak jacket and passport at home and instead visit the headquarters of big oil, followed by a side trip to the Bible belt. Both she and her viewers might actually learn something.
Whither Afghanistan, so let's move to Pakistan: Arnaud de Borchgrave has a weighty piece, probing if Pakistan is
taking Afghanistan's place as the new fulcrum of transnational terrorism.
Intelligence sources in Washington, London, Paris and Rome agree that al Qaida's underground network in Pakistan is functioning with the complicity of the clergy and intelligence services. President Pervez Musharraf's much-publicized crackdown on Islamist extremists is a dismal failure, according to Western intelligence appraisals. Pakistani national police sources in Islamabad estimate that some 10,000 Afghan Taliban cadres and followers and about 5,000 al Qaida fighters are now hiding in Pakistan "with the full support of intelligence authorities, as well as religious and tribal groups," according to one source.
No praying while flying: Montreal businessman Michael Chernack claims Air France and one of its employees denied his religious rights on a flight to Paris in April 1999. He is
suing the airline and the worker for $150,000:
When he launched the lawsuit in September 1999, Chernack alleged he was ordered to stop praying at the back of the plane about two hours before the scheduled 7:30 a.m. arrival in Paris. Describing himself as an observant Jew, Chernack said he was proceeding with his prayers - which necessitated the wearing of a prayer shawl and phylacteries (black square cases containing parchments inscribed with biblical messages) - "in a barely audible and unobtrusive fashion" when he was approached by the chief steward.
The steward, identified in court papers as Joël Corneloup, is said to have told Chernack in French: "This is an airplane and not a place for occult practices; return to your seat immediately."
... The defendants acknowledged in a December 1999 statement that Chernack was asked to return to his seat, but that it was in order to follow company safety policy about keeping passageways clear. They also argued that Quebec courts don't have jurisdiction in the case since the incident occurred outside Canadian territory on an aircraft registered in France with an employee who is a French citizen.
This happens to other religious groups, particularly Muslims. I will explain more soon, when my article on Muslim civil rights is ready...
Palestinians against Palestinian statehood? While the question of establishing a Palestinian state remains at the center of international peace efforts, the number of Palestinians who are having second thoughts about the quest for nationhood is quietly growing -- particularly among the younger generation. "They are saying forget about Palestine and give us Israeli passports so we can get on with our lives," a young Palestinian lawyer commented recently. These Palestinians want the same status as the "other" Palestinians who live in Israel and are classified as Israeli-Arabs. The "one state" alternative has always lurked in the shadows, but a growing conviction among the younger generation that Arafat and his team will either get nowhere or settle for too little has widened its support. On the face of it, the idea of formally adding the West Bank and presumably Gaza to Israeli territory should also be attractive to Israelis as well -- but it certainly isn't. The problem is in the numbers. There are 4.2 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, another 1 million in Israel itself, and another 4.5 million in the Palestinian Diaspora. Israel's Jewish population totals 5,757,000. But demographic projections show the Palestinian population growing faster than that of the Israeli Jews, raising the distinct and -- to Israelis, unwelcome -- possibility that the Jews could become a minority in their own state. (UPI Hears...)
The fog at Newsweek: Edward J. Epstein discusses the fog at Newsweek magazine, where Michael Isikoff insists that the April 2001 meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta and the Iraqi consul Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani never happened. All the big news outlets have parroted him, based on his un-named Czech sources, despite all of the
on-the-record Czech sources who say Michael is mad as a hatter and twice as blind.
American anti-semitism: The AntiDefamation League's survey of anti-semitism was interesting, but no reason for panic. For once, I agree whole-heartedly with the New York Times'
synopsis.
That old cad leading Syria says he is the one leading the war on terrorism. Some one at
Knight Ridder newspapers must have a grand sense of humor:
Syria, long considered a sponsor of terrorism, is cooperating with the Bush administration to stamp out Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, and it recently provided intelligence that saved the lives of American soldiers, Syrian President Bashar Assad said.
Irish loyalties: from a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at Queens University in Belfast:
Locally, you would be amused by the next item. Drive along Sandy Row and you will find it lined on both sides with Israeli flags (I am not kidding). Rather good quality new ones, too. Ever since Jenin , Israeli flags have sprouted throughout Loyalist Belfast. By contrast, Palestinian flags adorn the New Lodge and other republican ghettos. Oi veh!!!!!!!! You couldn't make this up.
American Muslim Council mobilizes against the "Jewish lobby": The AMC is intervening in the heated Congressional Democratic primary in Alabama between incumbent anti-Israeli Earl Hilliard and upstart pro-Israeli Artur Davis. Both candidates are black and are causing a rift within the party (see my posts from
June 13 and
May 31).
The American Muslim Council has issued an urgent appeal asking its friends to support the re-election campaign of Rep. Earl Hilliard, D-Ala. The five-term Hilliard is facing off against Davis in a June 25 runoff election.
"Because of his unwavering support of issues dear to the Muslim community in America," AMC Executive Director Eric Erfan Vickers writes in an e-mail, "Congressman Hilliard has been under a vicious political attack from his opponent who is receiving substantial help from AIPAC...
the Jewish lobby." Citing Hilliard's opposition to a congressional resolution supporting Israel in the aftermath of the massacre at Jenin and the fact that "he has worked to end the sanctions on Lybia (sic)," the AMC says, "Our community's financial support will make the difference in whether Muslims keep a friend in Congress or face a new foe."
[emphasis added]
Slamming MSNBC's Michael Moran, part II: You may have caught my posting on Friday, which was critical of MSNBC's
Michael Moran and his dismissal of biased reporting. It appears to have inspired some other folks.
Howard Owens (Global News Watch)
wants to teach Moran what terrorism means.
Meanwhile, Alex Frantz (Nuisance Blog) has run some
fact-checking on MSNBC and Moran, and producing even more evidence...
Who was Richard Meinertzhagen? On December 3, 1947, four days after the UN voted in favour of partition in Palestine, Dr Chaim Weizmann cabled Col. Richard Meinertzhagen to say, “To you dear friend we owe so much that I can only express it in simple words - May God Bless You”.
Citizens for a Constructive UN ask: "
Who was Richard Meinertzhagen and why the accolades from a top Zionist leader who would become the first president of Israel?"
U.S. Jews Barred From Arab Nations Hold News Conference: What would be the point, you might ask. Jews in general are not exactly welcome in Arab countries; American ones not at all.
And yet Israel accepts travellers from all over the world, no matter what religion they practice. Yet this morning I received a press release from CAIR, taking up the cause of a group of American Muslims who were denied entry to Israel b/c of security concerns. BTW, these same-said Muslims were on a "fact-finding" mission to meet with "peace activists":
U.S. MUSLIMS BARRED FROM ISRAEL HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE
WHAT: On Monday, June 17, the group American Muslims for Jerusalem (AMJ) will hold a news conference outside Union Station in Washington, D.C., with some of the 20 American Muslims barred from Israel on Sunday.
The Muslim "Peace Through Understanding" delegation, organized by AMJ, went to the Middle East on a fact-finding tour to meet with Israeli and Palestinian peace activists. Delegation members were held under guard for eight hours at Ben Gurion airport before being denied entry because of "security concerns." A delegation spokeswoman told Associated Press she believed her group was expelled because it was made up primarily of American Muslims.
Israel recently detained, and then released, two American Muslim relief workers who sought to help Palestinian civilians whose lives were disrupted by the Israeli invasion of the Occupied Territories. A number of other American and European peace activists have been detained and deported by Israeli authorities.
WHEN: Monday, June 17, 11 a.m. (Eastern)
WHERE: Outside Union Station, Washington, D.C. (Group members will arrive at Newark airport in New Jersey and then travel by train to Washington, D.C.)
Anti-semitism, anti-Zionism and the Left: Mick Hume writes today in the
New Statesman about the strange company of Western leftists:
Once upon a time, a hundred years or so ago, it was fashionable to attack something called "Jewish capitalism". August Bebel, a German friend of Karl Marx, described this attempt to give anti-Semitism a progressive spin as "the socialism of fools".
Today's fashion for Israel-bashing seems to me to represent a similar foolishness. It is not old-fashioned anti-Semitism. But there is a growing tendency to endorse dubious ideas under the guise of solidarity with the Palestinians. It is the anti-imperialism of fools.
Boycotting terrorist oil: can we do it? Given the various proposals, among pundits and chain emails, to boycott certain companies in order to boycott certain countries, I asked energy reporter Mike Sultan to uncover the truth.
For your information, according to a Department of Energy report summarizing US crude oil imports for this past April ...
... the top five sources for US imported crude oil are ... Saudi Arabia, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and Iraq.
Of the top 15 US crude importing companies ... four of them, Sunoco, Shell, Conoco, and Equiva, do not import crude oil from either Saudi Arabia or Iraq. (This was true at least for April, 2002 and for April, 2001 ... and bears continued watching.)
The data that I have does leave some gaps. Is Sunoco's remaining supply from Qatar or from crazed gun-toting Norway? Is Iran finding some way to sneak oil into our tanks?
For the data I have:- Sunoco: .08% of its imports from Canada, the rest unaccounted for ...
- Shell: 77% of its imports from Mexico ...
- Conoco: 91% from a combo of Canada, Mexico and Venezuela ...
- Equiva: [which I've never heard of] .02% from Canada ... rest unaccounted for
With gas from Shell or Conoco and a hybrid vehicle, I hope to be able to tell the Saudis and Iraqis to go to ...
Gaurdian Jewish Angels cancel patrols: The rabbi who had been organizing
patrols to protect Jewish neighborhoods in NYC has, according to the AP,
cancelled them, for now.
My new column and another article: My Data Dump column this morning on TechCentralStation looks at the
smallpox vaccine and what to do with it. Should the government hold onto it, only vaccinate critical emergency servicepeople, or vaccinate everyone?
The Buffalo News also ran my article on
rollercoaster safety on Sunday.
Journalist emeritus Marvin Kalb on media bias: Kalb recently appeared on the PBS show, "Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg." A veteran diplomatic correspondent for CBS News and NBC News and former Harvard professor of history, he charged that general media coverage was "
tilting pro-Palestinian":
In my judgment, my personal judgment, is that [the coverage] is tilting pro-Palestinian. And let me give you the evidence for that. When several days ago, week or so ago, the President and the Secretary of State began to ask Prime Minister Sharon to pull Israeli forces out of the West Bank, the Bush doctrine stated not only Israel pull out of the West Bank, but the Palestinians and Arab world [were told] you have to do something to proclaim your opposition to terrorism. [Bush] balanced his ticket, but the coverage was not balanced; it was strictly -- or strictly is too strong -- it was largely [blaming] the Israeli side, 'Get out of the West Bank.' And you would find verbs like 'Israel defies President Bush.' And it set up a collision between Israel and the United States... But deep down there is not a collision. There is a greater collision, in my opinion, between the United States and the Arab world, than there is between the United States and Israel, but the press covered it as if it was a collision strictly between two democracies.
Kalb also laments the media's use of the word "occupation":
"The word 'occupy' is used a great deal. The Israeli forces 'occupy' the West Bank. The word occupy was not used when the Americans moved into Afghanistan. We didn't 'occupy' Afghanistan. But now the word is being used, for example, on the Israeli side, partly because the Israelis have been in occupation of an area since 1967, so it sort of slips in easily. But I think good journalists ought to think about what they're saying. Occupation is a tricky term that the Palestinians use all the time and it evokes strong negative feelings and images. But you have to ask yourself what is, in fact, happening.
