Bookmark this if you want to refute USS Liberty conspiracy buffs. The USS what? Okay, this is what happened:
On the fourth day of the Six Day War (8 Jun 1967), at about 2 PM Sinai time (then, GMT+2), Israeli defense forces attacked the USS Liberty about 14 miles off the coast of the Sinai peninsula, near El Arish.
After ten official US investigations (including five congressional investigations), there was never any evidence that the attack was made with knowledge that the target was a US ship and that there is substantial evidence the attack was a tragic mistake caused by blunders of both the US and Israel. Eight US presidents, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush (41), Clinton, and Bush (43), have each accepted the conclusion that the attack was a tragic case of mistaken identity.
Nevertheless, conspiracy theorists continue to claim the Israelis knowingly attacked a US ship. By some estimates, there are more conspiracy theories about the Liberty incident than about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
This would not surprise me. When I lived in Austin I took
the daily paper, and as soon as Stupidfada II began (i.e. a year before the WTC attack) there was a letter to the editor about the USS Liberty about once every two weeks. And those are just the ones they printed. On message boards where Israel gets discussed you will see rants about the USS Liberty more often than quotes from
The Protocols. It's one of those pre-cooked anti-Israel conspiracies that can be popped in the microwave, warmed up, and served on a moment's notice.
This site carefully dissects and rebuts the theories. Apply where appropriate.
(via Bill Herbert, who
writes about meeting A. Jay Cristol, who created the site and wrote a book on the subject.) (Bill via
Meryl, who notes an excellent
fisking of John Pilger's latest crap on the same blog)
Sex-segregated busing in Israel: The strengthening grasp of the ultra-orthodox has now taken hold of the Egged bus company in Israel, which may soon run bus lines in Jerusalem
segregated by sex. If the plan to operate "kosher" bus lines goes forward, women passengers would only be allowed to board buses if they are modestly dressed, drivers would not be allowed to air secular radio stations, and "non-kosher," immodest advertisements would not be permitted on bus panels. The decision is pending approval from the Ministry of Transportation.
It is hard to argue against my wife's complaints of Israel's "fundamentalist" society when faced with news like this.
Turning of the Tide. Howard notes
a study claiming that Israeli Arabs' fad for identifying as "Palestinian" rather than "Israeli" may have peaked. Now pro-Israel campus activists are saying that anti-Israel activism
may have peaked also. Yup, even in Berkeley.
In February, the campus played host to the first national conference of the pro-Palestinian student movement. In April, against the backdrop of escalating Middle East violence that followed the Passover suicide bombing in Netanya and the resulting Israeli incursions in the West Bank, an estimated 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters massed for a demonstration on campus that ended in the occupation of a central campus building and 79 arrests.
This semester things at Berkeley have been quite different. Oren Lazar, a former chair of the campus's Israel Action Committee, said that probably the most substantial pro-Palestinian action of the fall semester was a protest against an Israel Action Committee-sponsored campus address by former prime minister Ehud Barak. Lazar scoffed at the protest's impact, saying it "wasn't much of a protest. It's a wonderful turn of events, as far as I'm concerned, when they're being the reactive side, they're on the defensive; and we're out there setting our agenda, putting our message out, and dictating what the dialogue on campus is going to be."
Go get 'em, kids.
PS Stefan Sharkansky
had an interesting time with a camera at the Barak speech. Even if you already read Shark's original account, there are some comments there now that are worth a look.
Blog music. If you are in New York on the eve after Christmas with nothing to do, turn out for
Electrolite blogger and science-fiction publishing honcho Patrick Neilsen-Hayden and the debut of
his band Whisperado, at the C-Note in the East Village. If Whisperado plays like Patrick writes, it'll be a wonderful evening. Follow the links for more info.
Bah, Humbug. I love to read him, but I usually don't post links to
Lileks, especially if someone like
Charles already has, because it would be redundant and I prefer to sniff out more obscure links. However, there are many LOL sentences, and - as a feminist who thinks "Women's Studies" had a very short shelf-life - this is my favorite:
You know, if every “Woman’s Studies” department was closed, and the student loans were used to create businesses that hired women instead of studied them like tragic butterflies impaled on the patriarchal pin, we might be better off. Granted, we’d be without PhDs theses like “Rape Symbolism and Beatrix Potter: A Rake’s Progress,” but the culture would survive; the only noticeable effect at all would be a 17% decrease in Frieda Kahlo poster sales, and a 50% decrease in 33-year old college students.
Amen.
UPDATE: Turns out Sullivan likes that paragraph too.
Nominations sought. Charles is
soliciting nominations for both Idiotarian and Anti-Idiotarian Awards of the Year. There's still time to make your wishes known. I suggested we actually make little trophies, have them engraved, and send them to the winners. And send out press releases announcing the winners, and do a blogburst on it. Linking all to the
Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto. It would take a bit of work, but would be a great publicity stunt for the Anti-Idiotarian cause, not to mention the blogs involved. (cough cough)
The free agent learning curve: Consider this my public service announcment for the week.
I have been learning the ropes of freelancing and consulting since the end of October. Last week, I learned the value of clear communication with your clients, as I dealt with my first client disagreement. Today, I learned the lesson of follow-up. Specifically, always check up with the people you are meeting near the time of your meeting to ensure that they have not forgotten. Doing that would have spared me a couple of hours blown time today - the guy I was meeting had to go in for emergency dental work, and his secretary did not let me know b/c she screwed up the booking for our appointment...
So, learn from my mistakes, please. And visit Old Town Alexandria when you are in DC... I had not been there in ages and it is so cool...
Downturn in the "Palestinization" of Arabs in Israel: The Hebrew newspaper Yediot Ahronot reports that a Haifa University poll conducted by Prof. Sammy Smooha and Dr. Assad Ghanem reveals that the "Palestinization" of Israeli Arabs has been halted, apparently as a result of disappointment with the course of the latest Arab intifada. While 34% of respondents defined themselves as Israeli Arabs and not Palestinians in 2001, today this figure has jumped to 45%. In 1995, some 54% had defined themselves as Israeli Arabs.
Dizzying Diet News: My latest TechCentralStation column is a fun romp through the latest
diet news, with short stops in body mass indexing, acne prevention, exercise and tasteless food.
Yet another Jew blogger on the list: Please welcome Solly Ezekiel's
GedankenPundit to Kesher Talk's Jewish blogger link list.
Syria's Assad gets an interesting greeting in London: No, I am not referring to the disgustingly slavish response from Britain's Tony Blair on dictator Assad's recent visit. I am referring to the myriad groups of protestors, as reported in UPI Hears on Dec. 17:
When Syrian President Bashir Assad arrived for lunch with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street on Monday, the street demonstration looked like a scene from a Peter Sellars movie. One group was clearly an Arab rent-a-crowd, mostly male, mustered by the regime to cheer the president and carry pro-Assad banners. The leader of this group arrived in a chauffeur-driven limo and wore a camel hair coat. Next to them, separated by a line of London policemen, was a rent-a-crowd of a different persuasion: members of a Jewish organization chanting variations on the theme of "Hands off Israel!" Then came a group of Syrian exiles who shouted anti-regime slogans and exchanged glares with the pro-Assad crowd. But the largest and noisiest group, which included several attractive, jeans-clad young women, banged kitchen utensils together, swaying to the rhythm. Their banners read ... "Down with Chavez!" Seems the Venezuelans had asked for a permit to demonstrate against President Hugo Chavez, and the police had included them in the Assad demo because they were short of manpower to assign constables to a separate venue.
The Decalogue. The NYTimes is running
a series on how ordinary people experience the Ten Commandments in everyday life. The web page also references the series of
one-hour films which cover the same ground via fictional vignettes (available on DVD, and a must see). Here is an annotated
English translation of the original
"Aseret ha-Dibrot" (Ten Sayings") to compare to the KJV (Protestant) reworking the NYTimes links to.
Maccabees are Coming to Town. This parody truly captures the
original spirit of the holiday.
by Eric Schrager. (To the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming...")
They're grinding their swords
Sharp as a pin
A guerilla war
They're going to win
Maccabees are coming to town
You'd best be a Jew
Or suffer your fate
It does you no good
To assimilate
Maccabees are coming to town
They know if you're Assyrian
They know if you dig Greeks
They see you on the temple mount
Consorting with Hellenistic freaks
You'd best be a Jew
Or suffer your fate
One day's worth of oil
Is gonna last eight
Maccabees are coming to town
Ouch. And scroll down
this blog (no permalinks) for a
new Jewish joke:
A woman went to the post office to buy stamps for her Chanukah cards. She said to the clerk, "May I please have 50 Chanukah stamps?"
The clerk asked, "What denomination?"
The woman replied, "O my God, has it come to this? O.K. - give me 1 Haredi, 2 Hasidim, 8 Orthodox, 12 Conservative, 16 Reform, 7 Reconstructionist and 4 Humanistic."
Ba-da bum. Purim's right around the corner, folks.
"Security" trumps preservation of the past. Historical buildings in Hebron are
threatened by demolition as a result of the shootings there last month.
Originally, the plan consisted of two parts: an open promenade in an area that was not built up and an "alley promenade," which was supposed to have traversed the southern edge of the old town, among the ancient buildings and within the historic fabric. The plan included a recommendation to preserve and rehabilitate the ancient buildings. According to Levy, at one stage he even cooperated with an Egyptian architect in planning the preservation and reconstruction work at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. After the fierce battle that took place there on November 15, between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Palestinians (in which four soldiers, five Border Police, three Jewish settlers and the two terrorists were killed), dealing with the plan was transferred to the hands of the IDF.
Now, the paramount concern is not to preserve
a unique historical fabric that was created over hundreds of years, layer upon layer, where there are buildings from the Mameluke period, from the 15th century to the 19th century. . . . a picturesque Casbah
but to "create territorial contiguity between Kiryat Arba and Hebron " and a settlers-only promenade.
I hope the razing of the buildings is successfully challenged. I refuse to accept that Israel has to destroy its own history (which includes the interaction of Arabs and Jews in Hevron over centuries) to make a space safe for its people.
(via
Yudel)
Just the facts. 9-11 victims, by
country and citizenship. the largest losses, besides the USA, were from England, Mexico, Philipines, Colombia, Japan, and Jamaica.
The internet and security. Very interesting
interview with Whit Diffie, one of the inventors of public key encryption, who seems to have been a socially-cloistered geek who decided that learning about the social sphere wasn't a bad thing.
You do become compromised, but at the same time, you don't regret becoming compromised, because you learned interesting things; you were involved with interesting people. I started out thinking of myself as NSA's opponent, but within a few years, as a result of studying its technologies and activities, I developed a great deal more sympathy for intelligence overall. In the context of the Cold War, the worst possible thing was to imagine two blind men in a room with machine guns. Intelligence was a stabilizing phenomena in international relations in a way that I thought liberals were blind to.
(via a blog link I don't remember - let me know if it was yours and I'll give you credit.)
Making Saddam submit. Fred on Everything has some
background information on
Jack McGeorge, the weapons inspector who became a
15-minute celebrity when it was discovered that he is active in the S&M community, and doesn't have certain academic qualifications that some critics think he should have. Fred points out that McGeorge
was a Marine Corps demolitions technician, worked for the Secret Service at the White House level, and studied at nuclear-weapons school. You will then note years when he doesn't seem to have been doing much . . . . When people work in fields that require security clearances, they usually have blank spots in their resumes. They don't talk about them.
Fred also has a refreshingly blase attitude about McGeorge's sexual predilictions:
When I met Jack, I had heard of kinky sex, but had never encountered it. I said so. He invited me to a couple of parties and a bus trip to the old Vault in New York (where I once stood at a urinal next to Danny the Wonder Pony in full tack. Life is nothing if not interesting). I expected the macabre and ghastly, stray organs lying wetly on tables, a collection of budding Jeffy Dahmers. No. This was suburban hobbyist S&M, games for otherwise ordinary bureaucrats and programmers who wanted to be paddled by their girlfriends, or vice versa. An S&M party looks like a Batman convention and smells like a storage room for saddles.
I can vouch for that, and that's all I'm going to say.
It's both a floor wax and a dessert topping. Diane and
Jonathan agree that Israel is both European and Middle Eastern, but they disagree on which chunks are which. Underlying issue: Should Israel be a member of the EU? (Considering the EU's shameful funding of Arafat's terrorists and
reluctance to have the matter investigated, I wonder why Israel would bother, even if Europe
is its largest trading partner.)
Economists Against Israel, Part V: I received this interesting correspondence from "Brendan T." of Sparks, Nevada, to last week's
TCS column on the "costs of Israel."
I have interspersed his e-mail with my replies.
I find your critique of Stauffer's analysis interesting. I agree that if his analysis is structured as you say, it is a good critique...
Except, that --
1. The constitution does not authorize the federal government to "guarantee loans" or even send "foreign aid". There is a provision for the federal government to borrow money, but none to loan money, or guarantee loans. There is , of course, no provision for it to take American money by force and intimidation, and give it to foreign governments. You almost admit as much, when you draw a carefull distinction between private funds voluntarily sent to Israel, and foreign aid. As a libertarian, I oppose all foreign aid. As an American of Irish descent, I am incensed that American Zionists do not support their favorite cause as the Irish American community was forced to do for generations-voluntarily.
Brendan, "American Zionists" did and still do support their "favorite cause" with their own time and money. Stauffer lashed out against that as well, noting that American Jewish charities and philanthropists have made grants or bought Israel bonds worth $50-60 billion. He called this expenditure of private funds by private citizens "a net drain" on the American economy. Much of that funding over the years went to reclaiming the desert, making a barren wasteland into an agricultural heartland. Irish-Americans' favorite cause, if I may be so bold, was the Irish Republican Army and its war of terror against Protestants and the British.
I realize that your libertarianism makes it hard for you to comprehend why the U.S. government should support anyone, let alone a foreign country, but when that country provides so much benefit both to us and to the world, I don't fear loneliness in my position of support for them.
2. The Arab embargo was largely the result of Nixon's delinking of the dollar to gold. When Nixon did that, the Arabs knew inflation was on the horizon, and banded together to guarantee the price of oil by raising it in terms of a weakened dollar. The war of 1973 also, of course, played a part. But, Arabs love gold, and will take the necessary steps to insure that oil buys gold at the same rate.
Fair enough. That just further supports my point that Israel, and American support for it in 1973, were only a minor influence on the Arab decision to enact an embargo.
3. Despite all your claims that Israel guarantees all these rights, it is still a socialist nation, with enormous debt . Whether or not a "democracy" exists in the Middle East has no real bearing on our vital interests there. The Arabs will sell us oil simply because we are the largest market, and they want to make money. Over time, this capitalist exchange will ameliorate the policial and economic conditions in the Middle East. Nothing that Isreal does or "stand sfor" is an any way a positive for that most basic principle--trade brings prosperity, prosperity raises living conditions, a raised standard of living brings more social concern and justice. By functioning as a thorn in the Arab mind, Israel is a hindrence to raising the standard of living in the Middle East. Pure and simple. Isreal should exist as a nation solely if the voluntary assistance from global citizens is sufficient to help it exist. If its existence is due primarily to foreign aid promoted by ethnic voting blocs and championed by collective guilt over Christianity's complicity in anti-semitism, then in my opinion it should not exist.
Oh, if only Israel would go away, Arab countries could become prosperous and democratic? Actually the exchange in oil and other services seems to have limited use in transforming Arab society. Radical Islamists drink Coca-Cola, listen to Britney Spears, and pledge "Death to America." Somehow, I think that our desire for commerce is not the only cure to what ails them.
Israel's socialist-leaning economy troubles me -- and it troubles Israel as well. The crunch they now face, after their own equivalent of the dot-com-bomb, may lead to changes in their long-running economic morass.
Ethics and morality, in the end, are why we support Israel. As a commentator on my article pointed out, it would be easier not to support Israel; easier to prop up Arab autocracies and appease Islamofascists in return for oil and temporary safety. But America is not about doing things "easy" just for their own sake. America is about working hard and trying to do the right thing, for ourselves and, when we conceivable can, for the rest of the world. Because we know that if we don't do it, no one else will fill the void.
Dude! You have an American Attitude! Sweet!You're a gun-toting, bar-dancing, ya'll-saying, t.v. show-copying,
war-waging, ass-patting, hamburger over-eater.
Take the What the Hell Kinda Attitude is That? Quiz at aka cooties
Economists Against Israel, Part IV: Much to my surprise, Front Page magazine
reprinted my TCS column wholesale - I guess TCS is supplying content to other sites now? Anyhow, the interesting part is the
comments section, which, like the one beneath my column at
TCS, is overflowing with vitriol.
New blogs on the list: Kesher Talk adds one new Jewish blogger,
Haggai's Place, and two new war bloggers,
Gideon's Blog and
Fresh Squeezed News.
What American city am I? 
Congratulations, you're Boston, the rebel city.
What US city are you? Take the quiz (by Girlwithagun)
Economists Against Israel, Part III: The cost-benefit study of U.S. support for Israel (which I analyzed in my
TCS column on Friday) has elicited another friendly bit of hate mail from someone who claims to be a U.S. Marine:
Fienberg,
Factoring in the 3,000 Americans killed on 9/1/01, the 34 American sailors on the U.S.S. Liberty cold-bloodedly slaughtered by Israel in 1967, and the many, many American security secrets and personnel compromised, and assassinated by Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard, the United States has certainly gotten more than enough for the 1.7 trillion dolllars, "The Jewish Homeland" has leeched off the American people for the past thirty-years.
Not to mention, the alienation of America's long-standing allies, the soul-searing enmity of all our former Arab allies, and the pariah status America has assumed, since its' over-the-top generosity to your shitty little, neo-Nazi country - Israel.
Sooner than you think, the American people, en masse will shake the parasite called Israel off its' collective back, and we can all go about restoring the country we love so dearly.
In the interim, given your loyalties to Israel, you should move there. You, and other israel-fisters like you, put all Americans at risk, by continuing to live in a country yo so obviously care nothing for.
Captain R.C. Vachon (rosvac@msn.com or BLukerjr@earthlink.net)
U.S.M.C.
Camp Pendleton, CA
If the Guardian didn't exist we would have to invent it Dept. Geez, Steven, why don't you tell us how you
really feel?Who the fuck is Jonathan Glancey, and what the fuck is he writing for? This is the Monbiot-esque anti-war voice for today: not against war in Iraq as such, they just want it to be a war they can feel good about. This is almost beyond fisking, but let's run down that list of the evils of Western civilisation.
And then he does. Hilarious, succinct, and the comments ain't bad either.
David Lawson says, "It might be worth compiling a few awards for 2002: Most strained metaphor, worst analogy, the Harold Pinter Stridency Award and so on..." If we can pull together 20 children's book recomendations in 24 hours, and Sullivan already got us started with his
Susan Sontag award, I'm sure we can come up with the
Warblogger Idiotarian Awards for 2002 in 2 weeks. Anyone?
. . . . and scrolling down,
more hilarity.
I love the Forward Dept. Howard, if you are thinking of
laying tefillin, you might want to read
this.. . . chiropractor and acupuncturist Dr. Steven Schram attended a Manhattan seminar hosted by Soho Herbs and Acupuncture on "treating psycho-emotional disorders with traditional Chinese acupuncture."
". . . we're getting to the point that runs up the spine and goes over the head," Schram said. "When Sinonneau reached this point, I sort of realized that that's exactly where the tefillin knot is placed. I pretty much had an 'Aha!' moment." The diagrammed, footnoted version of that "Aha!" can be found in the October issue of the Journal of Chinese Medicine. Schram's article, "Tefillin: An Ancient Acupuncture Point Prescription for Mental Clarity," posits that when worn properly, the leather straps of phylacteries, or tefillin, stimulate acupuncture points associated with improved concentration.
(The paper version also has diagrams.)
Something tells me this guy will be leading a workshop at
Elat Chayyim this summer. . . .
The Big Blue Blogosphere Book of Best Children's Stories. Some
bloggers are
responding to a limp list of children's books in the Seattle Times by
recommending their own
favorites for this gift-giving season.
What I want to know is - am I the only grade-school nerd who made a conscientious effort to read every
Newberry Award winner? (There was a
big poster in my grade-school library listing all of them, and I slogged through them one by one. Liked about half of them.)
Wow!
Someone besides me read
Bambi as a kid! I still have my original copy, a small hardback with a forward by John Galsworthy. Must be a first edition - 1929. I forget how I ended up with it - maybe it was my mom's, or my aunt in
children's book publishing bought it for me. I would agree with Meryl that it is dark for a "children's book," but so are the Brothers Grimm. I also read all the Robert Louis Stevenson books (with the
Howard Pyle illustrations!) and an abridged
Robinson Crusoe. Meryl, how young are you talking about? I think these are all appropriate for 10 and up.
My picks:
* Most
Heinlein juveniles. (I would stay away from
Podkayne of Mars.) I started with
Citizen of the Galaxy at age 10 (still my favorite), and it was certainly no less dark than Bambi. I never had any trouble identifying with the young protagonists, their adventures and moral dilemmas, even though most of them were boys. (Occasionally a young-adult-novel version of a
Tough Chick would put in an appearance.) Heinlein's influence on world politics is incalculable: he inoculated more young impressionable minds against rampant idiotarianism than Ayn Rand, he reached them at a younger age (and continues to this day, posthumously), and he was a better writer too.
*
A Wrinkle in Time I read it at least 10 times from 10 to 16. Never liked her other books half so much, but that one hit me just right at just the right time.
*
Johnny Tremain. A poignant novel of the American Revolution, it is deceptively quiet but stays with you.
* Anything by Margeurite Henry - I still have my copy of
Gaudenzia: Pride of the Palio, (with the Lynd Ward illustrations) which is a true and bittersweet story, and she writes English with an Italian lilt that works perfectly. I also enjoyed the
Black Beauty series and the
My Friend Flicka trilogy (better than the TV show) but I wasn't horse-crazy enough to consider them favorites.
* I prefer the
Just-So Stories to the
Jungle Books. I never saw Kipling's original drawings till I was an adult, but I would recommend an edition with them - they are sly pen and ink drawings with their own commentary. (Did you know that the
Bi-Coloured Python Rock Snake sounds just like William F. Buckley?) Also
Captains Courageous is wonderful.
*
The Prisoner of Zenda. This
Victorian romantic fantasy is technically an adult novel, but anyone who could handle a Heinlein juvenile could enjoy it. I have a hardback English edition with tipped-in color illustrations, probably bought when we went to visit my grandmother in England when I was 8. (And we have not seen the last of that charming heel Rupert of Hentzau - there is a
sequel! )
* But my favorite author as a kid (before I graduated to Heinlein) was
Robert Lawson, who illustrated
his own and other authors' books in a pen and ink style that owed a lot to Albrecht Durer and usually contained hidden details that would keep me occupied for hours. He was also a great story-teller, and created a unique format wherein the reader would learn about a famous person and historical period through the eyes of an animal companion: Ben Franklin's mouse (who lived in his fur hat), Paul Revere's horse, Captain Kidd's cat, and Columbus' parrot. He also wrote a novel about the construction of the
first Ferris wheel (for the 1893 World's Fair) and one about a boy who is shrunk to 2" tall and has built for him a little cockpit on the back of his seagull friend Gus, and flies to Europe (
The Fabulous Flight). All of Lawson's books are delightful.
* Finally, I have to mention this goofy picture book called
Ethelbert, by Rosemary Hoyland. It's about a tiger cub who has adventures. I still have this book because I love the illustrations, especially the one where Ethelbert and the explorer in the pith helmet and striped socks are rolling down a series of (numbered) rapids on a raft, with a teakettle bubbling over a small campfire the whole way. (Apparently there is some kid's TV show
very loosely based on this, but do not accept anything but the genuine article.)
Special Offer!!! For certified members of the tribe ONLY!!! Will YOU have ADVANCE WARNING of the next very large public site chosen for DESTRUCTION by Islamist fanatics, or other MYSTERIOUS Powers in international politics??? Or will you be like the
2 Israelis and approximately
400 American Jews who were INSIDE the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, because they did not take advantage of this GENEROUS OFFER!!! Get your own
red Mossad hotline phone NOW!!!
Shortest fisking on record. Good catch, Grasshoppa!
Cognitive dissonance Dept. Damian Penny picks up on
this charming bit of bigotry:A respected Saskatchewan Indian leader said Friday Hitler did the right thing when he "fried" six million Jews during the Second World War.
Mr. Ahenakew then goes on repeat uncritically everything the defeated Germans said to him about Jews when he was stationed there in the Canadian Army in the 1950s.
Ahenakew said the Canadian army was trying to liberate the world when it fought in Europe during the Second World War, not liberate Jews. When reminded the Nazis committed genocide against a variety of ethnic and social groups, he said "exactly, they were trying to clean up the world."
Mr. Ahenakew clearly fails to appreciate the irony in his statement.
He then goes on to criticize "bigotry in city schools."
"My great grandson goes to school here in Saskatoon. These goddamned immigrants -- East Indians, Pakistanis, Afghanistan, whites and so forth -- call him a dirty little Indian. He's the cleanest of the old goddamn works there. That's what I'm saying. It's starting right there, at six years old."
Indeed, Mr. Ahenakew, and at what age did your Jew-hatred start? Oh I forgot. You are a brown-skinned person, so by definition (warped academic multi-cultural definitions, that is) you can't be a bigot. But - those Pakistanis and Afghanistanis, they are also brown-skinned people! So if they call your great-grandson a "dirty little Indian" they can't be bigots either! Only white people can be bigots! Like Hitler! No, uh, I guess not. After all, Hitler tried to clean up the world! Yeah! By eliminating the white Jews! But, but, according to Hitler they weren't white, and he was trying to create a super-race of pure white people. I'm, I'm, uh, confused . . . I guess I need some diversity training or something . . .
Frantic attempts to disassociate from unsavory fellow-travelers Dept. Ha. ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ha. (via
lgf comments)
Righteous European gentiles Dept. Along with
Pilar Rahola and
Oriana Fallaci, let's send blessings to
Francois Zimeray, the lone EU parlimentarian who questions Chris Patton's blank check to Arafat and his PA.
Israel's few supporters have gradually abandoned him, and only he is left in the battle that appears - from outside at least - to be Sisyphean and futile. . . . Patten, the official overseeing the transfer of funds [to the PA] and the one being accused [by Zimeray], said he has no intention to address the issue. Regardless, said [Patten], Zimeray only obtained 50 of the 172 signatures necessary to bring the issue up for a vote before the full parliament. When it became clear that Zimeray, with the assistance of his hard-working assistant Shira Ansky (a personally imported Israeli), had actually obtained 110 signatures, [Patten] changed tactics and angrily announced that he would regard the establishment of an investigative committee as a vote of non-confidence on himself and his performance.
But Zimeray reiterated his demand. "I can't sleep at night and I'm struck with nausea due to the EU's behaviour. Why must I, and other taxpayers in the European community be forced to finance Arafat's terror? . . . I want to know which funds went to the PA's Swiss bank account, and why European cash - which was supposed to benefit the Palestinian people, who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition - was secretly moved back to Europe."
(via
Tal G)
Mindfucking the peace-kiddies. Haggai notices some signs around campus that at first glance seem to be anti-war. But only at first glance.
Haggai also stops in at
Bitter Lemons, a Palestinian-Israeli "dialogue" site, and
quotes from several of the regular contributors. Yossi Alpher effortlessly wipes the floor with Palestinian claims; a few examples:
Some of the difficulties go back to Arab/Palestinian misinterpretation and abuse of international norms and resolutions beginning many years ago. Dwelling upon them might seem like pointless quibbling if it were not the Palestinians who constantly insist on the principle of "international legitimacy.
Then he goes on to give example after example. Another Israeli, Shlomo Brom, nails it with this pithy comment:
This misperception [that violence can be an effective tool] is linked to Palestinians' lack of understanding of the difference in approach between themselves and Israel regarding the nature of agreements. The Israeli approach is juridical, sticks closely to the literal wording of the agreement, and insists on its execution to the letter. Not infrequently the Palestinians pursue ambiguous or equivocal wording that enables them to act in one way while representing that they are doing the opposite, or to present an interpretation favorable to their interests at a later juncture. To this we must add a generally lenient approach to the very existence of agreements......"
What he said.
Economists Against Israel, Continued: The
Israeli Insider published a version of my column on the "costs of Israel" analysis today.
And I am enjoying the correspondence on my original
TCS version from Friday. Here is some of it, in all its mis-spelled glory. First there is "kip" (valhat@aol.com):
This comes to no surprise to me that this money has been waisted by our govt. to defend a terrorist state . However if all the truth be known it would be much,much higher. No wonder all the arabs hate america. The only thing left to do is sacrafice a few thousand young men and women in unessary war
And then Greg Woods:
well, i really don't care who hates us, the point is that we shouldn't be there in the first place.
I could waste a lot of bandwith reprinting all the debate, so why don't you go to
TCS, scroll to the bottom of the article, and follow it for yourself.
Before you go, here is a supportive email I received from Israel:
Mr. Fienberg - Shalom from Jerusalem, Israel!
First, let me thank you for an extremely lucid analysis of Mr. Stauffer's diatribe against Israel. What most Americans fail to do, I'm afraid, is look at the FACTS (of any case, but for sure, in the case of Israel), preferring, instead, to base their arguments on the emotion and sway of any given moment, especially as illustrated by the images shown by CNN and other primarily anti-Israel media outlets.
One thing that seemed to be missing (unless I'm the one who missed it) from your article, however, is that the majority (if not all) of the "military aid" the United States "gives" to Israel is spent IN the many aspects of the Defense Industry of the United States.
Thus, the benefits to the United States include jobs and income for probably many more families there than are benefited here, except perhaps in the direct saving of lives.
While watching a report last night about the current campaign on US college & university campuses in which students are calling for the stoppage of investments in Israel by those same colleges & universities, I wondered how many of those same students who were protesting so vehemently against Israel had their tuitions paid for by parents who worked in that same Defense Industry. How many, in fact, wouldn't be able to attend Georgetown or other expensive colleges & universities if the US stopped the military aid to Israel and put out of work many of those employed in the several aspects of the Defense Industry.
Just a thought from this side of the big pond!
suzanne pomeranz
jerusalem, israel
