Judeopundit: March 2008

Monday, March 31, 2008

It's Juche day!

I bet you didn't realize the towering significance of March 31. The subtext of this article is that they now have the starvation problem relatively under control:

Today is the 26th anniversary of General Secretary Kim Jong Il's famous work "On the Juche Idea."

In this regard, Rodong Sinmun Monday carries a signed article describing the work as an immortal library which systematized and comprehended in all aspects the Juche idea fathered by President Kim Il Sung.

The army and people of the DPRK are now holding higher the banner of the Juche idea in the gigantic advance to win the final victory in building a great prosperous powerful nation under the Songun leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea, the article says, and goes on:

The people's unshakable will to advance under the uplifted banner of the Juche idea is manifested vividly, above all, in the fact that they are devotedly implementing the WPK's lines and policies, regarding them as absolute truth.

Their stand and attitude toward the WPK's lines and policies are transparent.

As the entire army and all the people fully display the spirit of devotedly implementing the WPK's policies, epoch-making miracles and feats are being wrought one after another in the Korean revolution and construction.

Their steadfast will is also manifested to the full in the fact that they are pushing ahead with the building of a great prosperous powerful nation in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance with firm belief in their strength.

Signal achievements are now being made at major units of the national economy effecting upswing in technological improvement and production, monumental edifices in the era of Songun built across the country and socialist landscapes shaped in towns and the countryside. All of them are a precious fruition of the Korean people's revolutionary spirit of self-reliance.

The Korean people's unshakable will also finds its vivid expression in the fact that they are reliably defending the ideological position of Korean-style socialism and the Korean socialist way of life while resolutely smashing the imperialists' reactionary ideological and cultural infiltration.

The Korean army and people are devotedly implementing the WPK's lines and policies and vigorously accelerating the building of a great prosperous powerful nation in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance, closely rallied as one in mind around their leader. This proud reality gives confidence that the history of the Korean revolution will shine forever as the victorious history of the Juche idea.

A recent article on a journalist's visit to North Korea relates:

As we moved through the austere town and out into paddy fields, the paranoia of "Dear Leader" Kim became apparent. At every junction and path with the main road, an armed soldier stood guard. Sometimes local people cowered behind walls as the buses went by.

We then passed through desolate, dry fields and farmsteads next to pine-forested hills. Most of the work in the fields seemed to be done by hand, with the occasional cart pulled by cattle. Despite the apparently barren landscape, we passed a huge gaudy mural of Kim’s dead father, "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung, pictured in a field of flowing corn.

A monumental edifice of the Songun era!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Haveil Havalim 160 is up! Carnival of the Insanities is up!

EOZ: "Bahrainis fear: 'Soon we'll see Israelis living among us'"

Judeosphere: "The Anti-Zionist Left Versus Barack Obama"

The Muqata: "Eliyahu's Cup"

MESH: "‘Fitna’ and the ‘Euroweenies’"*

Soccer Dad: "March mideast media madness"

Treppenwitz: "I usually hate being told I'm wrong..."

Yid With Lid: "Mugabe's Reign of Terror in Zimbabwe-- A Jimmy Carter Prduction"

Israel Matzav: "Why Israel's government is unaccountable"

Hirhurim: "Musical Mishnayos"

Karl Rove: "How to Win in a Knife Fight"**

* h/t: Martin Kramer **h/t RCP

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Obama: "If ABC had not broadcast that 9/11 sermon, I would have done it myself"

According to White House hopeful Barack Obama, if ABC News had not broadcast his longtime pastor's fiery anti-American comments about U.S. foreign policy and race relations, "I would have done it myself."

"Had the reverend not been exposed, and had he not been forced to acknowledge that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I would have made sure he was exposed myself" Obama said Thursday during a taping of the ABC talk show, "The View." The interview will be broadcast Friday.

In his sermons over the years, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has railed against the United States and accused it of leading the "World Arrogance and bullying powers." He also has said "Bourgeois ideology and culture are used as means of the imperialists for internal division of the socialist countries and anti-imperialist independent countries and moves for ideologically and morally disintegrating them and a guide for military aggression against them."

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, broke her silence on the matter Tuesday, saying that she would have probably turned Wright over to the FBI.

Asked about the controversy Wright's comments have created, Republican John McCain said while campaigning in Denver: "I can only say that I am sure, knowing Senator Obama, that he must be recovering now from decades of amnesia."

Source: AP--slightly edited by YG

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Arthur Waskow wants "Speakout Street Seders for the Earth"

When we last met Arthur Waskow, he wanted to make Chanukah more meaningful by shifting its focus to global warming. Here the Nation gives him a pulpit from which to have a go at Passover:

[...] This year, the first Seder of Passover falls on Saturday night, April 19; Earth Day occurs three days later, on April 22. The environmental focus of Earth Day--which has softened a great deal over the decades--could be sharpened in connection with Passover and its reminder about contemporary pharaohs . . .

There is a close relationship between our individual profligate consumption of coal and oil and the behavior of these pharaohs--Big Oil, Big Coal and Big Auto. They seduce us into our addictions while claiming that global "scorching" does not exist, or that if it does it is not the result of human misdeeds, or that even if it is, it will cost our economy too much to change. All this is the behavior of pharaohs protecting their power and wealth by making their products into our idols . . .

Beyond the conventional home and community Seders, we could do Speakout Street Seders for the Earth--perhaps during the week before Passover--to galvanize public attention and stir conversations at home Seders all over the country. Earth Day itself could be another venue for such events.

Could such Speakout Street Seders for the Earth gather people in many different cities to focus public attention on the need for change in public policy--and on the pharaohs that stand in the way?

At Environmental "Protection" Agency regional offices, demanding that the EPA permit the states to adopt higher earth-healing standards on carbon emissions?

Or at ExxonMobil offices, demanding carbon taxes?

Or at Congressional offices, with the Warner-Lieberman climate bill coming up for votes about then, needing major improvements? [...]

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Michael Young on Nasrallah's Eliminationism

Michael Young of the Daily Star provides an eloquent and important statement of what it shouldn't be necessary to call "obvious":

. . . in an interview with the newspaper Al-Wahda al-Islamiyya in February 1989, when Nasrallah was still only a Hizbullah field commander, he remarked: "The future is one of war [against Israel], not settlement; the line that [Yasser] Arafat is pursuing will only lead him to a closed door, and the day will come when warfare and the elimination of Israel will be the only options." (For a rundown of Nasrallah's statements translated into English, read the indispensible "Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah", edited by Nicholas Noe.)

Why is the topic important? Because over the years academics, analysts, journalists, and others, particularly the Westerners among them, who write about militant Islamist groups, have tended to project their own liberal attitudes and desires onto such groups, misinterpreting their intentions and largely ignoring what these groups say about themselves. Inasmuch as most such observers cannot really fathom the totalitarian strain in the aims and language of armed Islamists, totalitarian in the sense of pursuing a total idea, total in its purity, they cannot accept that the total idea can also be apocalyptic. Where Nasrallah and the leaders of Hamas will repeat that Israel's elimination is a quasi-religious duty, the sympathetic Westernized observer, for whom the concept of elimination is intolerable, will think much more benignly in terms of well-intentioned "bargaining." Hamas and Hizbullah are pragmatic, they will argue, so that their statements and deeds are only leverage to achieve specific political ends that, once attained, will allow a return to harmonious equilibrium.

This argument, so tirelessly made, is tiresomely irrelevant. No one has seriously suggested that Hizbullah or Hamas are not pragmatic. But one can be pragmatic in the means and not in the ends. If anything, pragmatism is obligatory in the pursuit of an absolute idea. [...]

Read the rest.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Junior sustainable eating advocates sing out!

As a recent Telegraph story reports:

A ban on the sale of junk food in California schools has sparked a thriving underground market with pupils turning "sugar pushers" and selling contraband confectionery to their peers. [...]

Many students, of course, cognizant of the importance of wise government measures to stem the corporate obesity conspiracy, have become quite incensed at this naked capitalist greed. Some have taken to penning protest songs such as the following:

I drank a lot of juice
O Lawd, I chewed a lot of gum
But I never ate nothin'
Make me need no Insulin
I seen a lot of kids walkin' round
With milk duds in the hall
But that Pisher don't care
About your bad cholesterol

Fat Chance, you Pisher
Fat Chance, you Pisher
I say Fat Chance
I won't be no Fatty Pants

You know the healther, the healther is a man
With the love sprouts in his hand
Oh but the pisher is a pusher
With evil corporate contraband
The healther for a nickel
Lawd, will sell you lots of good carbs
Ah, but the pisher bloat your body
Lawd, he'll leave your, he'll leave your weight to soar

Fat Chance, you Pisher
Fat Chance, you Pisher
I say Fat Chance
Won't be no Fatty Pants

Well, now if I were the principal of this land
You know, I'd declare total war on the Fatty Pants
Make lots of regulations and a brand new agency
And I'd fight him with a school-wide no tolerance policy

Fat Chance, you Pisher
Fat Chance, you Pisher
I say Fat Chance
Won't be no Fatty Pants

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Monday, March 24, 2008

Islam Online: "the Jews in Palestine have emigrated from various countries, and they have no right in this land"

It has been a while since we last visited the "Ask the Scholar" feature at Islam Online. This one concerns "Fight Ethics Between Islam and Zionism." When is it permissible to kill civilians?

Originally, it is prohibited to kill civilians, women, and children, but certain cases are exempted from this:

1. When all individuals on the enemy side participate in war, as then the term "civilian" would not apply to them.

2. When civilians do things to help militants, as then what they do would be regarded as a "military action."

3. When warriors use civilians, women, and children as a shield and there is no way for Muslim warriors to reach those militants except by killing those civilians.

4. When the enemies kill Muslim civilians, for then their civilians may be treated the same.

5. When a civilian "accepts" usurping a (Muslim) land, he is considered an occupier, and is not a civilian any more.

6. When children themselves are not intended (or targeted) to be killed (deliberately) without doing anything wrong or committing any crime.

It is well known that Israelis, men and women, indulge in war against Palestinians, so they are warriors. They are also usurpers of the (Palestinian) land, because the Jews in Palestine have emigrated from various countries, and they have no right in this land. In Islam, it is obligatory to liberate any Islamic land from occupation. It should also be known that jihad against the Jews is not because they are Jews, but because they are usurpers and warriors.

Glad that was straightened out.

Nasrallah: Israel "no longer an eternal entity" and "at least 68 percent of the [Lebanese] Jews" support war against Israel

Besides learning that Israel has lost its eternal mojo, we also learn that "Israel's 1967 war against Arab states was not a real war." I wonder what that means. Then, of course, there is the extremely rare actual mention of Lebanese Jewry in a current news story. From Iran's Press TV:

Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has said Israel is no longer an eternal entity and it is on the verge of collapse.

The Hezbollah leader made the remarks at a rally held in Beirut on Monday to commemorate the 40th day after the assassination of the movement's commander Imad Mugniyah.

He said Israel's 1967 war against Arab states was not a real war and the regime's military might has been exaggerated by western media and certain Arab leaders since then.

The 33-day war against Lebanon proved that Israel is a paper tiger and it is incapable of fighting real resistance which is being awakened by Hezbollah, Nasrallah added.

He said decades ago people were asking whether anybody could fight the regime but today Hezbollah has shown the world that the regime could be destroyed.

"Brothers and sisters, even in a religiously divided country as ours, 90 percent of the Shia and Sunni Muslims, along with 77 percent of Christians and at least 68 percent of the Jews have said yes to the poll asking them if they will support an act to oust the Israeli regime," the Hezbollah leader said.

68 percent of the Jews? 17 people?

Nasrallah said Israel repeated the same old-mistake of assassinating one of resistance heroes, this time Imad Mugniyah, in order to discourage people.

"They should be aware of the fact that, Imam Khomeini's precious words guides us through our sacred resistance, who once said, kill us, to see us stronger than ever. I swear Mugniyah's blood will not go to waste," Nasrallah said.

He termed the recent threats made by the US and Israel against Iran and Syria as nothing but another psywar aimed at weakening resistance in the region.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library:

Nearly all of the remaining Jews are in Beirut, where there is a committee that represents the community. Because of the current political situation, Jews are unable to openly practice Judaism. In 2004, only 1 out of 5,000 Lebanese Jewish citizens registered to vote participated in the municipal elections. Virtually all of those registered have died or fled the country. The lone Jewish voter said that most of the community consists of old women.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Linkim 3/23/08

Haveil Havalim 159 is up! Carnival of the Insanities is up! Carnival of Politics debuts.

Isreally Cool: "The Proof"

Daily Muslims: "9-11 was carried out by Zionists, Removing Musharraf Vital for Saving Pakistan, Says Qazi"

Huffpo: "Obama and Palestine"

Rooz: "Another Warning from Ayatollah Montazeri: Clergy Must Not Accept Posts in Government"‎

Times (UK): "Father of Iran’s drive for nuclear warhead named"

Paul Berman: "Why Radical Islam Just Won’t Die"

IRIB: "Fatah, Hamas come to terms"

Zawahri: "No one can say today that we should fight the Jews in Palestine only."

The sanitized Reuters headline is "Zawahri urges anti-Israel attacks over Gaza." The actual quoted language, however, also shows Zawahri calling for attacks on Jews worldwide and railing about "Jews and Crusaders" and the prophet cartoons.

Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called for attacks on Israeli and Western targets to avenge Israel's raids on the Gaza Strip, in an audio tape posted on the Internet on Monday.

"O Muslims. Today is your day. Hit the interest of the Jews and the Americans and all those who participated in the aggression against Muslims," said the speaker on the tape who sounded like Zawahri.

"Monitor the targets, collect the money, prepare the hardware, plan accurately and then attack," he added, without specifically naming any targets. No one can say today that we should fight the Jews in Palestine only."

The recording, posted on Web sites often used by al Qaeda and other Islamic militant groups, was produced by al Qaeda's media arm As-Sahab.

Zawahri called for Muslims to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the face of Israeli air strikes, but said demonstrations only served to let out steam, and that they should focus on armed struggle.

"Let them know that they would bleed for every dollar they spend on killing Muslims," Zawahri said.

"They cannot ... insult our prophet and support Israel, and expect to live in peace in their countries," he added, referring to the publication in the West of cartoons mocking Prophet Mohammad.

Zawahri accused Arab leaders of collusion with the United States and Israel in blockading Palestinians in Gaza. He singled out the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, calling them part of a "satanic alliance".

"The satanic alliance shows us its ugliness and how low it is, an alliance of the crusaders and the Jews and with them (Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak, and (Saudi Arabia's ruling) Saud family and the son of al-Hussein (Jordan's King Abdullah). [...]

Black hijab in karate?

Better not say "I divorce thee" three times to this one. From Tehran Times:

Iran has succeeded in gaining the International Karate Federation's approval for women to compete in the Asian games wearing hijab.

The decision to allow women to participate in the Asian championships while adhering to the Islamic dress code follows talks between IKF officials and Iran's Karate Federation Chief Behzad Katiraei in Morocco, Fars news reported.

Now Iranian women have six months to prepare for taking part in the Asian championships to be held in Malaysia.

However, negotiations on whether Iranian women can take part in international competitions while modestly covered still continue.

Some metaphors for the current state of the presidential race

Maureen Dowd:

It’s impossible to imagine The Terminator, as a former aide calls her, giving up. Unless every circuit is out, she’ll regenerate enough to claw her way out of the grave, crawl through the Rezko Memorial Lawn and up Obama’s wall, hurl her torso into the house and brutally haunt his dreams.

Huffpo:

. . . for 45 minutes, I saw a man who for days had appeared somewhat at sea, buffeted by waves that relentlessly pushed him off course, seem to find his compass and chart a course directly into the eye of the storm. I saw a man with the inner confidence, and the steadiness of a captain who knew he was sailing on uncharted waters but needed to go there anyway, take the nation with him and land them safely on the shore.

Daily News:

Midway through the second week of the Wright fiasco, and five days after Obama tried to cool the boiling issue with an important speech on race, it is increasingly clear we are witnessing a Democratic train wreck. For months, the collision has been unfolding in slow motion as the closely fought campaign worked its way across the country and the chances for a clear winner slipped away one state at a time.

Suddenly, the wreck is happening at full speed. The dream team is looking like a nightmare.

National Post:

"If your opponent is trying to commit [political] suicide, it's wise to just stand back," says Michael Munger, chair of the political science department at Duke University. "Obama seems to be trying to commit suicide. So there is no reason for Hillary to rise up and start shooting at him."

(Hat Tip: RCP)

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tags: politics, Obama, Clinton, Wright

Friday, March 21, 2008

Yvonne Ridley approves of the Mercaz HaRav attack

Repulsive as ever:

[...] While [David Milliband] found words of sympathy for the March 6 strike by a Palestinian gunman in Jerusalem he had none for the innocent babies in Gaza who were murdered. And while I would condemn the deaths of any innocents lets examine how Milliband and the media presented that attack.

They portrayed the strike on the Jewish seminary as one on a group of peaceful students in an Israeli religious school.

Mercaz is the springboard for the Israeli settler movement which is responsible for the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

It is heavily armed and teaches the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians before the establishment of settlements.

The students in the Mercaz seminary were armed and well trained in military tactics. Which is why one of the students ran out on the roof and shot the Palestinian twice before regular Israeli forces arrived.

As far as some people were concerned the attack took out 8 Israeli terrorists and wounded another 10 . . .

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Right-wing smear machine continues to couple candidate Haman's name with titles like "Ha'Agagi" and "Tzorer HaYeudim"

Democratic presidential hopeful Haman Memuchan responded harshly today to critics who continue to refer to him with titles like "Ha'Agagi" and "Tzorer HaYehudim." "I have never been Amelekite, I was not raised an Amelekite, and, in fact, I belong to a Molech-worshipping cult," he declared. "Even my Amelekite father was never particularly relgious," he added.

"Hopefully, my searing, nuanced and gut-wrenching speech on race will clarify my denunciation of the hateful views of my ancestor Agag. I, of course, could no more repudiate my ancestor Agag than I could my monotheistic grandmother, whose hate-filled slurs against human sacrifice often made me cringe."

This is your brain on Obamatol

Huffpo. A mind is a terrible thing to vaporize:

I watched Barack Obama's speech yesterday morning intently. The "pre-game show" of cable commentators predicted a somewhat grim outcome. What could Obama say that could possibly overcome his association with the words of his pastor, Jeremiah Wright? Would he throw his pastor on the train tracks? And even if he did, would he still suffer from guilt by association?

But then, for 45 minutes, I saw a man who for days had appeared somewhat at sea, buffeted by waves that relentlessly pushed him off course, seem to find his compass and chart a course directly into the eye of the storm. I saw a man with the inner confidence, and the steadiness of a captain who knew he was sailing on uncharted waters but needed to go there anyway, take the nation with him and land them safely on the shore.

Could he just sail off into the sunset now?

The pundits were clearly stunned. They knew they had witnessed something extraordinary, a moment when time seemed to stand still and a politician in the midst of a withering electoral storm did the unspeakable: he spoke the truth. The unspoken, unspeakable truth. He told the nation that he understood what was happening in white barber shops and black barber shops, around white water coolers and black water coolers, and that we are neither free from our prejudices nor merely prejudiced in our respective grievances, and that in both our prejudices and our grievances, we have more in common than we know.

With the exception of commentators who pride themselves on their bigotry, the speech drew immediate, nearly universal acclaim . . .

We regret to inform you that, convinced of his abject unworthiness to occupy the same world as Obama, the author of the above has passed on to a more inclusive place.

Somehow I am reminded of the hotcakes on Green Acres

The Ayatollah borrowed Kim Jong IL's speech writers again:

Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei on Thursday called the new Iranian year as the year of innovation and flourishment.

I think we have a Juche sentence of the day:

In a televised address on the occasion of the start of the new Iranian year, Ayatollah Khamenei said "This year, the atmosphere of innovation should dominate the country and all officials should consider themselves duty bound in using all the financial and spiritual facilities to present new and innovative works and shortcuts through sound management, right planing and wise handling of affairs so that people will get happy with outcome of the said efforts."

The IR Leader congratulated Iranian nation and Muslims on three auspicious occasions, including birth anniversaries of the Noblest Messenger of Allah Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH) and of his grandson Imam Jaafar Sadeq (AS) as well as the advent of the traditional Iranian Noruz celebrations, marking start of the New Iranian Year, wishing Iranians and Muslims a year full of prosperity and happiness.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that the new year will mark the 30th anniversary of establishment of the Islamic Republic system after years of successful defense of the country's independence and national dignity as well as brilliant achievements in the scientific other fields.

"All the efforts will remain ever outstanding and permanent in Iran's history."

You get the idea that they don't dare try anything other than a painfully literal translation of his words.

He added that this year will also feature inauguration of a new Majlis, that would along with the relentless and hardworking government, launch big works.

"We can not move smoothly and normally; we should try to proceed ahead by making double and more serious efforts that will ultimately gain further, more calculated, regular and disciplined momentum. In the domestic and complicated international domains too we should use all capacities in order to make big progress."

Ayatollah Khamenei said wise and brave plans in the foreign policy domain and success in the field will have an impact on the country's internal achievements too.

"The key to Iranian nation's problems is gaining strength and fortunately officials of the country are today paying enough attention to national dignity and have stood the enemy's bullying," he said.

This is your brain on totalitarianism.

The IR Leader then urged complete cooperation between government and the nation and said that's the key to the country's growing strength, especially the spiritual authority.

"One of my two expectations in the year 1387 is making innovations in different social, economic and servicing sections, including the country's diplomacy and moving in the path towards science and research; promoting the desired culture of serving people, especially the poor, and developing the country."

"My second expectation this year is completing and flourishing the activities, that started in the previous years, and the projects that government has initiated since recent years, so that results of the activities and efforts would make the public happy. So, I call this year as the year of innovation and flourishment," Ayatollah Khamenei added.

IR Leader also recalled remarkable events in the previous year, including detaining of 15 intruding British sailors and marines in Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf on March 23 and then their pardoning and release on Thursday, April 5, and the 8th Majlis elections on March 14 which presented a powerful and at the same time a patient and highly forgiving image of Iranian nation to the world people.

"At the end of the year too, the glorious and strong presence of the public in the Majlis elections once again reflected a powerful and strong image of the Iranian nation and their firm determination for proper management of the country." [...]

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

"Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep sense of gratitude to Islam"

Someone at MPAC-UK explains how well Jews were treated in Islamic countries:

[...] Prior to the creation of Israel, Jews and Muslims generally lived together in harmony, with Arab lands being a source of refuge for Jewish people against Christian oppression. Uri Avnery in his article 'Muhammad’s Sword’ writes: "As is well known, under Muslim rule the Jews of Spain enjoyed a bloom the like of which the Jews did not enjoy anywhere else until almost our time. In Muslim Toledo, Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked together and translated the ancient Greek philosophical and scientific texts. That was, indeed, the Golden Age."

"When the Catholics reconquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to leave. And where did the hundreds of thousand of Jews, who refused to abandon their faith, escape? Almost all of them were received with open arms in the Muslim countries. Nowhere were they persecuted. They knew nothing like the tortures of the Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the pogroms, the terrible mass-expulsions that took place in almost all Christian countries, up to the Holocaust. Why? Because Islam expressly prohibited any persecution of the "People of the Book". In Islamic society, a special place was reserved for Jews and Christians. Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep sense of gratitude to Islam, which has protected the Jews for fifty generations . . .

How positively inspiring!

Thanks for the Dhimmitude
The Jizya that we paid
Your spittle on my face
The beatings I received
Because I didn't know my place
How chastened I was

Thanks for the Almohades
We ran away from Spain
That is, if we weren't slain
We thought we had a golden age
Then it went down the drain
How golden it was

Thanks for the Massacres
Fez 1465
Eleven left alive
Granada in 1066
When most did not survive
How final it was

Thanks for "Convert or die"
In Yemen it was bad
Morrocco and Baghdad
Compulsion in relgion
Was really quite a fad
Transforming it was

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Linkim 3/19/08

Haveil Havalim 158 is up! Carnival of the Insanities is up! KCC 28 is up!

EOZ: "The very latest Purim costume in Sderot"

Israel Matzav: "'Palestinians' overwhelmingly favor terror and Kassams, oppose negotiations"

Daled Amos: "PA Wants To Go Hamas Million-Man March One Better"

Judeosphere: "The Official Judeosphere Checklist for the Aspiring Anti-Zionist Protester"

Solomonia: "Calls for Genocide Doctrines Have Infiltrated Hamas Ideology"

Treppenwitz: "'Sometimes people need to move'"

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Kosnik sez "Nakba Denial as Much a Crime as Holocaust Denial"

Your drivel is served:

Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany, and many other countries. The logic is that such a great humanitarian disaster should be remembered, and in remembering never repeated. Yet another humanitarian disaster, different, but certainly involving the population of an entire nation, still hanging over them with the spectre of obliteration from the face of the earth, in the name of race. And this disaster was caused by the very people who collectively were victims of the Holocaust. So certainly it is of great significance, something to be remembered, something to make them strive to avoid victimizing others as they were victimized. Yet almost the opposite has occurred. And so Israel denies the Palestinian Nakba ... but brave and powerful voices are speaking the unspeakable, telling the whole painful truth [...]

Have some Nakba-denial:

From Yaacov Lozowick (Right to Exist, p. 99):

Despite the frequency with which his work is cited in support of the most extreme Palestinian views, even the revisionist [Benny] Morris concedes that the 1948 war was a legitimate war of self-defense and Jewish independence, that no prior plan of ethnic-cleansing was contemplated, that the Jewish atrocities were balanced by Arab ones, and that in any case these were dwarfed by genocidal Arab intentions which the Israelis thwarted.

Holocaust deniers deny that 6 million Jews were killed. Nobody denies that 700,000 Palestinians became refugees. What the diarist means by "Nakba-denial" is failure to render the events of 1948 with the requisite amount of pro-Palestinian hand-wringing. And actually, spurious equating of the, ahem, Nakba with the Holocaust is itself a form of Holocaust denial.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Monday, March 17, 2008

Politically tone-deaf Iranian police commander: "95% of world drug seizure in Iran"

That's good, right? It means they're real, real good at fighting drugs:

Iran's geographical location and its commitment to fight drugs have turned it the world's number one drug fighter, top police commander says.

Iran's top police commander has declared that "95 percent of drug seizure in the world takes place in Iran."

"During the past 11 months more than 565 tons of drugs have been seized in Iran," Brigadier General Ismail Ahmadi-Moqaddam said in a press conference in Tehran on Monday.

"The number shows a 51 percent increase comparing to the same period last year," IRIB quoted him as saying.

The police chief said that during the upcoming Iranian year, anti-narcotics controls will be stepped up in the eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan which neighbors Afghanistan.

Last year, 93 percent of the world's opium came from Afghanistan. The figure is three percent up from 2006, according to the UN.

And it all ends up in Iran, is that the idea?

Rooz: "the most ‎controversial and rigged elections in the Islamic Republic’s history"

A headline at The Independent reads "A flawed election, but some flickers of hope." The official Iranian agencies all burbled about how the titanic turnout foiled World Arrogance conspiracies. Rooz, a website you should know about, takes a slightly different view:

‎Last Friday’s Majlis elections were, according to unofficial sources, the most ‎controversial and rigged elections in the Islamic Republic’s history. ‎

Prior to Friday’s elections, some political figures had warned about the election’s ‎integrity due to ideological affiliations between election administrators and oversight ‎committees. The earliest news reports on Friday morning indicated that soldiers ‎stationed in garrisons in Northern Tehran were "forced to vote for hardliner candidates." [...]

A news source in Tehran told Rooz that last Friday, workers working at state-owned ‎factories were forced to vote for candidates affiliated with the administration. According ‎to this source, laborers working at Saipa, Iran Khodro, and Pars Khodro auto assembly ‎plants, who were for the first time, working three shifts last Friday, were given campaign ‎material belonging to United Front candidates and asked to vote for them. More than 40 ‎thousand laborers were allegedly involved in the event. [...]

Aftab website published a letter authored by several candidates from the Broad Coalition ‎group (Etelafe Faragire Osoolgaran), a hardliner group rivaling the administration-backed ‎United Front (Jebhe Motahed). The letter revealed that the scope of vote-riggings and ‎violations were not limited to reformist candidates. In their letter, which was addressed ‎to the Guardian Council, the Broad Coalition candidates lamented frequent violations and ‎voter fraud. In the words of one analyst, in this election, "Ahamdinejad’s supporters ‎targeted not just the reformists, but also critical hardliners." [...]

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Cartoon and conspiracies from Arab News

What's new at Arab News, "The Middle East's Leading English Language Daily"? There's a cartoon, for one thing:

I hope that's criticism of the people launching the Qassams, but somehow I don't think that it is. We also learn that "Emperor’s Club VIP, the prostitution firm that entangled Spitzer in a call girl ring, is viewed by US intelligence as a front for Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad." We'll come in "where it gets interesting":

[...] Here is where it gets interesting. According to the Jewish Chronicle: "The Spitzer affair also had an Israeli angle. According to court records, Mark Brener, the alleged leader of the ‘The Emperor’s Club’ prostitution ring, held an Israeli passport. Brener was said by his attorney to have been a US citizen for the past 20 years."

The Chronicle then adds that Spitzer "spearheaded the 2004 investigation into financial misconduct in the World Jewish Congress, publishing a damning report about WJC mismanagement and unregistered payments to senior officials. The investigation led to a deal which barred then WJC Executive Director Israel Singer from being in charge of its finances." Singer was later fired.

Now Internet journalists are suggesting that Spitzer may have been targeted. FreeMarketNews.com says "Spitzer took on Wall Street like no other attorney general before him... His targets in the past have included everyone from big Wall Street investment banks and the $7.5 trillion mutual fund industry to polluting power plants and supermarket chains that underpaid delivery workers."

Wayne Madsen says Emperor’s Club VIP, the prostitution firm that entangled Spitzer in a call girl ring, is viewed by US intelligence as a front for Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad.

"The sources claim that Spitzer was 'outed' for his aggressiveness in attacking money launderers connected to Russian-Israeli organized crime syndicates and other Wall Street malfeasance."

Internet journalist and ContrarianCommentary.com Executive Editor Andy Martin said: "Spitzer may have stumbled into a prostitution ring run under the auspices of the Israeli government, namely the Mossad. It is entirely possible that Spitzer was assured that his participation in the prostitution ring was protected precisely because it was run by an Israeli asset." [...]

An entirely reasonable assumption from someone supposedly also stepping on ZOG toes . . .

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Friday, March 14, 2008

Fisk not sure what motivates suicide bombers, sure it's Bush's fault

Fisk's latest at the Independent tackles a subject of some interest: "The cult of the suicide bomber." Here is a typical passage:

. . . when my companion urged Khaled to remain alive for his mother's sake – reminding him that the Prophet himself spoke of the primary obligation of a Muslim man to protect his mother – the woman was close to tears. She was torn apart by her love as a mother and her religious-political duty as the woman who had brought another would-be martyr into the world. When my friend again urged Khaled to remain alive, to stay in Sidon and marry – eerily, the muezzin's call to prayer had begun during our conversation – he shook his head.

Not even a disparaging remark about those who would send him on his death mission – that they were prepared to live in this world while sending others like Khaled to their fate – could discourage him. "I am not going to become a 'shahed' [martyr] for people," he replied. "I am doing it for God."

It was the same old argument. We could produce a hundred good ways – peaceful ways – for him to resolve the injustices of this world; but the moment Khaled invoked the name of God, our suggestions became irrelevant. Rationality – humanism, if you like – simply withered away. If a Western president could invoke a war of "good against evil", his antagonists could do the same. [...]

Here are the closing paragraphs:

[...] It will be many years before we have a clearer idea of the number of bombers who have killed themselves in the Iraq war – and of their origin. Long before The Independent's total figure reached 500, al-Qa'ida's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was boasting of "800 martyrs" among his supporters. And since al-Zarqawi's death brought not the slightest reduction in bombings, we must assume that there are many other "manipulators" in charge of Iraq's suicide squads.

Nor can we assume the motives for every mass murder. Who now remembers that the greatest individual number of victims of any suicide bombing died in two remote villages of the Kahtaniya region of Iraq, all Yazidis – 516 of them slaughtered, another 525 wounded. A Yazidi girl, it seems, had fallen in love with a Sunni man and had been punished by her own people for this "honour crime": she had been stoned to death. The killers presumably came from the Sunni community.

One of George Bush's most insidious legacies in Iraq thus remains its most mysterious; the marriage of nationalism and spiritual ferocity, the birth of an unprecedentedly huge army of Muslims inspired by the idea of death.

You'll want to read the rest--not for the analysis, which is incredibly shallow and Bush-obsessed--but for the statistics, which are indeed staggering.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Palestinian kids try (and convict?) Barak

Barak once tried to give the Palestinians a state. From Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, where this sort of thing goes over big, evidently:

Zionist regime's war minister, Ehud Barak was charged in connection with the millitary operations in Gaza by the Plestinian Children's Parliament.

In a symbolic action, he was condemned by the children as being fully responsible for the occupying forces operations in Gaza, al-Jazeera reported.

In this trial, witnesses gave evidence of the regime's willful murders of Palestinian children cutting medical supplies to the wounded.

Palestinian children stated that they held the symbolic court in the hope that it would prompt international tribunals to put Barak on trial.

You don't think adults put them up to it, do you?

"the trial is only to appease your lords the Jews and Christians"

From Gulf News:

A group on trial charged with supporting the armed rebellion led by supporters of the late Badr Al Deen Al Houthi say their trial is to satisfy the Americans and Israelis.

"Our position is clear on this trial. We do not recognise it because the court is illegal and the trial is only to appease your lords the Jews and Christians," a defendant told the court from behind bars.

Fifteen people, including two women, are on trial, accused of forming an armed gang to carry out acts against military and security officials and governmental institutions in Yemen.

Prosecutor Khalid Al Mawri showed items confiscated from the group including grenades, detonators, poison, acids, explosives and mobile phones.

I'm not sure I understand the bit about the "mobile phones." More detonators? Recorded phone numbers to other baddies? Anyway, charming bunch.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Al-Manar proclaims "Third Destruction"

Two-bit terrorists with delusions of evil grandeur:

The Third Destruction, a new documentary film about the 2006 Israeli War against Lebanon, was launched in a press conference held on Wednesday at the Press Club in Beirut. The joint conference by Al-Manar TV channel and the Beirut International Center for production was dedicated to project the four-episode documentary that also addresses the repercussions of the Israeli defeat in that war. Politicians, Muslim and Christian religious figures, journalists and intellectuals attended the conference, during which a short promotion film was played.

Al-Manar general manager Abdallah Kassir described the documentary as an 'achievement' and vowed more Al-Manar documentaries. "The title (Third Destruction) was taken from Talmud. They say that the first destruction of the temple was at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon 578B.C. The second destruction of the temple was at the hands of the Roman Emperor 70 A.C. And now they fear that the third destruction has already started after the July 2006 defeat in Lebanon," Kassir said.

The documentary will be broadcasted on Al-Manar next Wednesday. It exposes the strategic fiasco within the largest army in the Middle East in light of the Second Lebanon War and the story of the Divine Victory of a resistance that transformed Merkava tanks, the pride of Israel's military industry, into a casket for invading Israel soldiers.

"Any Arab or even Western citizen can see this film; we're not talking about a film targeting a specific audience but about a film that presents what happened in July war from Israeli and western perspectives only," said Abdel Hussein Shebib, the documentary's author.

The film comprises testimonies and analyses by experts from Israel, Russia, the United States, Britain, France, Turkey, Egypt, and Lebanon. It includes information and footage to be reveled for the first time.

The documentary is dedicated to the people of the Resistance, the Resistance itself and everyone who contributed in achieving Divine Victory.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Imad Mughniyeh commemorative stamp!

This is an IRNA article entitled "Zionists should take Hizbollah leader remarks seriously." I hope they don't mind the slightly frivolous tone of the post title:

The Zionist regime should take seriously the brave and wise remarks of Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, Leader of the Hizbollah movement of Lebanon, a senior advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran said on Monday.

Rahim Safavi made the remark at the ceremony marking the release of the commemorating stamp of martyr Imad Mughnieh, adding that the Zionists should believe in what the late Imam Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said to the effect that the time of the Zionists is over.

Safavi, who is the Supreme Leader's top advisor on armed forces affairs, expressed hope that Muslim governments and nations will help the oppressed Palestinians in confronting the brutal Zionist regime.

"I wish leaders of certain Arab states would decide to shut down Israeli embassies and sever diplomatic ties with the fake regime," he said, adding, "I wish other Islamic and Arab nations would hold a protest rally just like Iranians to show their anger at the US and the Zionist regime."

I'd like to teach the world to rage in perfect enmity . . .

Sunday, March 09, 2008

"sinister connection" between prophet cartoons and Gaza "extermination campaign"

The cartoon conspiracy turns deadly! (Sinister laughter . . . ) From Al-Ahram:

There is a sinister connection between the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment in the West and the tepid reaction to the blatant extermination campaign Israel is waging against the Palestinians in Gaza. Under the guise of freedom of expression, some West European media and officials, including most recently German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, have sought to denigrate Islam and its symbols as a subhuman culture of cruelty and terrorism. It has thus become fair game for cartoonists, Europe's ultra-conservative politicians, and special interest groups. This attitude provides cover for Israel to escalate its carnage against the Palestinians in Gaza with impunity. Dialogue of civilisations aside, the perpetrators of this defamation campaign -- particularly Israel and its supporting chauvinists -- should know better. Breeding a culture of hate and intolerance may, one day, come back to haunt them, as it did in similar circumstances in the past.

Western Europe is under the spell of a neo- conservative wave that travelled across the Atlantic from the United States after 11 September. Germany, France, the Netherlands and Britain are ruled by conservative governments that perceive Islam as an implacable enemy. Acts of terrorism in Spain and Britain, illegal immigration, the influx of cheap, unskilled labour into the European job market and the resistance of migrants to coercive cultural assimilation into newly adopted homelands continue to create social tensions and political problems. Likewise, to Arab and non-Arab Muslims alike, Western Europe is not exactly the melting pot that embraces foreigners, gives them equal opportunity and accepts as slow and difficult the process of integration that may take more than one generation to accomplish. After all, pogroms were committed against European Jewry because of its cultural seclusion and determined resistance to assimilation.

Western ultra-nationalist politicians and their Israeli allies are stoking Islamophobia as part of a racist campaign to demonise Muslims. This campaign serves the best interests of Israel in that it masks its genocidal war on rebellious Palestinians caged in the Gaza Strip. Tightening the noose around their necks every day is the premeditated policy of a criminal state. Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai warned the Palestinians of "a bigger holocaust" if they intensified the firing of their primitive Qassam rockets into Israel. The Israeli army made good on this threat. Israeli warplanes, land-to-land missiles and direct military invasion killed nearly 120 and wounded more than 350 Hamas resistance fighters, innocent civilians and children in a week-long campaign. Later on, the Israeli deputy minister withdrew his statement, not because it betrayed Israeli designs to commit genocide against the Palestinians, but to protect the exclusivity of the terminology. [...]

Cute.

Linkim 3/9/08

Haveil Havalim 157 is up! Carnival of the Insanities is up!

EOZ: "Hasbara failures" 1, 2, and 3

Israel Matzav: "Official 'Palestinian Authority' newspaper calls Jerusalem terrorist a Shahid"

Daled Amos: "An Unexpected Way Our Taxes Help The Palestinians"

Judeosphere: "Fear and Loathing (and Reform?) in Iran"

Solomonia: "Sabeel Justifies Hamas Rockets"

Mere Rhetoric: "Annals Of Incompetence"

Kamangir: "Donate Your Kidney, to fight Israel"

Moonbat Corner:

Daily Kos: "Meet the boogeyman" (Meshaal the moderate)

Arab and Muslim Press:

IRIB: "Al-Quds will continue resistance"

Asharq Alawsat: "Are You in Favor of the Resistance?"

Neturei Karta to Nasrallah: "We have heard you speak just recently at the funeral of the assassinated Mr. Imad Mughniyah . . . "

I'll spare you most of the long groveling letter from the Neturei Karta to Nasrallah. The rest is at Al-Manar TV if you have the stomach for it. Here is a section dealing with the heapin' helpin' of Hezbollah hospitality that left an "indelible impression" on their "hearts":

[...] We have heard you speak just recently at the funeral of the assassinated Mr. Imad Mughniyah and many times previously. Hence, we know that you and your organization are deeply aware that there is a distinct difference between Zionism and Judaism and that there is a large segment of Jewish people, whether in occupied Palestine or throughout the world, who are entirely opposed to Zionism and the state of "Israel".

Further, a delegation of our Rabbis was guest in your magnificent country of Lebanon, and was hosted by your organization, the Hezbollah. We were there to attend the Conference of the International Union of Parliamentarians for the Defense of the Palestinian Cause.

The respect and graciousness that was extended to our group was beyond exemplary. At that time, thanks to the Almighty, we had the opportunity to see and experience at first hand, the fact that the Arab and Muslim people despite their long-suffering at the hands of Zionism have not fallen prey to the influences of evil.

We were confronted with love and friendship wherever we turned. Concern for our comfort was the first priority of every individual, wherever we traveled throughout Lebanon. Only then, after these good people were assured of our well-being, were we shown the suffering that they have incurred through the Zionist occupation. To our surprise and to their praise, this was all shown to us, without any accusations directed at our Rabbis or the Jewish nation.

The Muslim and Arab people obviously still remember that we don't have a religious conflict and that we have co-existed in harmony for hundreds of years. Many obviously understand the difference between Zionism and Judaism.

May we just mention three very moving experiences that we had in Lebanon that has left an indelible impression on our hearts . . .

I bet you can't wait to click over to Al-Manar and learn what they were. These guys make Michael Lerner, although not Norman Finkelstein, look good.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Saturday, March 08, 2008

"Farmer" becomes "Militant"

I was reviewing media coverage of the recent Gaza incursion and found a link to a Reuters's story entitled "Palestinian farmer killed in Gaza - Medics":

The link now points to a story entitled "Palestinian militant killed in Gaza - Militants":

Palestinian militant killed in Gaza - militants
Fri 7 Mar 2008, 12:58 GMT
[-] Text [+]

(Changes identity of dead man)

GAZA, March 7 (Reuters) - A Palestinian guerrilla was shot and killed on Friday in the northern Gaza Strip near the border with Israel, a militant group said.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, said one of its gunmen was killed in a clash with Israeli forces. However, an Israeli army spokesman said its troops had not fired any shots in the area.

The dead man had earlier been identified by medical staff as a farmer. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

"Medical staff"? Whose "medical staff"? There's a lesson here about Western news agencies' reliance on Palestinian sources.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Friday, March 07, 2008

Michael Lerner at Daily Kos: "equally grieving" for yeshiva victims and "victims of Israeli terror (which in the past week killed 120 people . . ."

You might want to put something in your mouth to protect your teeth before reading this:

[...] We at Tikkun feel equally grieving for the people killed by vicious and immoral terrorists at the Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav (the ultra-nationalist religious center that developed the ideology which inspired religious Zionists to believe that they had a God-given right to settle and hold on to the territories without regard to the consequences for the Palestinian people already living there) as we do for the victims of Israeli terror (which in the past week killed 120 people, many of them children, many of them sitting in their homes when Israeli troops randomly fire-bombed and murdered them, as documented by the same international human rights organizations that today condemned the attack in Jerusalem by terrorists). We understand that these killings can only be understood in the context of the 60 year old struggle between these two communities, and that nothing short of a full peace accord that will require a new open-heartedness on both sides can possibly break this horrible cycle of violence. [...]

Utterly repulsive.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Al-Alam (Iran): "Fadlallah Calls Attack in Israel 'Heroic'"

More enemies of civilization weigh in:

Influeccntial [sic] Shiite Lebanese leader Allamah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said the attack by a Palestinian gunman on an Israeli seminary in occupied Al-Quds Thursday night that left eight dead was a heroic act.

Fadlallah said in his Friday sermon: "The heroic operation in Jerusalem (Al-Quds) proved that the mujahedeen in Palestine are able to hit the Zionists hard."

"It was a natural reaction to the barbaric Israeli violence in Gaza", he added in reference to air and ground operations by the Israeli occupying regime last week that has left more than 130 dead, with most of them women and children.

The US, which remained silent on the Israeli offensive in which scores of unarmed Palestinians were slaughtered, failed Thursday to gain unanimous Security Council support to condemn the attack in Al-Quds.

Fadlallah also slammed the US administration for its unconditional support for the occupying regime and its dispatch of a destroyer to international waters off the coast of Lebanon.

"The dispatch of its warships to the Lebanese coast is an attempt to distract from its political and security failures in pressuring the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine," he said of Washington.

"It is to reassert its complete support for the Zionist enemy in the massacres in conducts in Gaza and the West Bank," he said. [...]

Fadlallah's exact relationship to Hizbullah, Iran, and Khomeinism are sometimes debated, but I guess where killing Jews is concerned, they are all one big happy Ummah.

IRIB: "11 Zionists killed in Qods operation"

"Zionists" are "killed," Muslims are "martyred":

A Palestinian gunman opened fire inside the Zionist regime's military training center in Qods late Thursday, killing eleven Zionists in the attack.

In a retaliatory operation against the Zionist regime's savage attacks on the Palestinian civilians including women and babies in the Gaza Strip, eleven Zionists at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva Western Qods were killed and another nine wounded when a Palestinian from East Qods entered the building and started shooting, witnesses said.

Earlier police said that two people had carried out the attack, which medics had initially said wounded 35 people.

Ambulances rushed to the scene while the regime's helicopters circled in the skies after what marked the first major attack in Qods since feburary 2004.

The combatants were members of "The Martyr Imad Mughnieh and martyrs of Gaza Brigades" affiliated to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

The attack came after more than a week of the Zionist regime's savage attacks in and around the Gaza Strip, where more than 130 Palestinians, mostly innocent children and women, have been martyred in eight days.

The hornet's nest which is the Iranian press is stirred up today. Here are some more stirrings:

IRIB: "Israel should wait for new Intifada"

IRIB: "All Palestinians support Qods operation"

IRIB Radio: "Iranians Protest Dane Insolent Cartoons, Zionist Regime Atrocities"

IRNA: "Tehranis stage anti-Zionist rallies"

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Iran threatens journalist's aged mother

From the NY Sun:

The Iranian government has presented an Iranian-American journalist working for an American-funded radio station with a choice between her 95-year-old mother and prison.

Over the weekend, a revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced the journalist Parnaz Azima to a year in prison for spreading "anti-state propaganda." If Ms. Azima, who is both an American and Iranian citizen, does not serve her sentence, the state will seize the home of her 95-year-old mother.

"This is a filthy trick they have done," Ms. Azima said in an interview by telephone from Prague, where she works for the Persian-language Radio Farda. "This is what they do with most people like me." She explained that the sentence meted out in absentia on March 1 was really a gambit to get her to quit her job with Radio Farda. She said similar tactics have been used against other intellectuals and journalists in Iran . . .

Jews should get out while they can.

Gazans thank Allah for allowing evil to prosper, Abbas regrets all unpleasantness whether murder of Yeshivah students or stopping Qassam squads

From Ynetnews:

Gaza's streets filled with joyous crowds of thousands on Thursday evening following the terror attack at a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary in which eight people were killed.

In mosques in Gaza City and northern Gaza, many residents went to perform the prayers of thanksgiving.

Armed men fired in the air in celebration and others passed out sweets to passersby.

Hamas stopped just short of claiming responsibility but issued a statement saying the group "blesses the (Jerusalem) operation. It will not be the last,'' Hamas said in a statement . . .

At his West Bank headquarters, Abbas harshly criticized the attack. "The president condemned all attacks that target civilians, whether they are Palestinian or Israeli."

Does that sound "harsh" to you? He couldn't even give the event he was supposedly condemning a sentence all to itself. Israel Matzav and EOZ have good coverage. There is much more at both sites besides the linked items.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Ramzy Baroud and fake cease-fires

Hamas and its perpetually outstretched olive-branch again--from Arab News:

[...] For Israel the rockets are important as a pretext to maintain a state of siege against Hamas and wage a low-intensity warfare that creates permanent distraction from the confiscation of Palestinian land and the expansion of illegal settlements. It also provides a justification for slowing the peace process.

So why doesn't Hamas deprive Israel of its rocket-pretext?

While pro-Israeli pundits in the US and elsewhere are prepared to defend Israel’s actions, many Israelis are no longer buying into their government’s pretexts.

According to a recent Tel Aviv University Poll, cited by the Israeli daily Haaretz on Feb. 27, "Sixty-four percent of Israelis say the government must hold direct talks with the Hamas government in Gaza toward a cease-fire and the release of captive soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit."

The mayor of the Israeli town of Sderot — which borders Gaza and is the main target of rockets — had also told the British newspaper, The Guardian, on Feb. 23, "I would say to Hamas, let’s have a cease-fire. Let’s stop the rockets for the next 10 years and we will see what happens."

I assume he's talking about an actual cessation of the rocket-fire. That wasn't part of the last status quo that Hamas claimed was a "cease-fire."

Hamas was actually first to issue calls for cease-fire. In fact, for years it has held true to a self-declared abstention from carrying out any suicide bombings inside Israel. [...]

And of course it had nothing to do with any of the thwarted attacks. By the way, Arab News has a really vile cartoon at the moment.

Monday, March 03, 2008

IRIB: "Islamic umma must generate waves of wrath"

The Supreme Leader is so mad at the Usurper Zionists that he calls them "capitalists"! That's going too far!

In the wake of the Saturday atrocious attacks by the Zionist regime against the Gaza Strip in which dozens of innocent people, including children fell martyrs, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei the Leader of the Islamic Revolution issued a message Sunday evening.

The full text of the message comes in the following.

Bismillahe Rahman-e Rahim

Great Islamic Umma,
Dear Iranian nation,

The bloody events in Gaza are so gory and heartrending that it could not be conveyed through pen or tongue. The naive children or innocent women and men having already endured months of hermetic siege are now slain in their homes; before the eyes of their parents the blossoming children are perishing in the rancorous blaze of callous usurpers, ditto parents before the eyes of their naive children whereas those who profess civilization and humanity have sat watching the colossal human tragedy with ultimate audacity, even some sit pleased with impudence.

The world of Islam is by no means excused to remain tight-lipped towards the rare atrocity.

The Islamic umma is expected to generate waves of wrath and the Islamic leaders must slap the wrath of their nations in the face of the Zionist regime.

The hands of the American government are soaked with the blood of the innocent Palestinian people. This is the support of the arrogant and rogue state which has emboldened the Zionists to commit the unforgivable crimes.

The Islamic nations and governments must make the voice of the innocent Palestinians heard throughout the world and let their reposing consciousness wake up.

Has the American nation realized that their authorities have sacrificed all human sanctities for the sake of the Zionists? Have the European nations got aware how far their politicians have gone under the reign of the Zionist capitalists?

It is not accidental that in simultaneity with those military ferocities, the most sacred Islamic sanctities are left at the mercy of profanity in some other corner of the arrogance-dominated areas of the world. There certain malicious pens backed by some devil policies are insulting the Mercy for the World People (a title for Hazrat Muhammad S.A.) to whom, the venerable, and to his Divine message the whole human being is indebted.

This last paragraph is a reference to the dreaded Prophet cartoons.The cartoons and the military incursion are a double plot!

Chavez compares Colombia to Zionist entity

You have no doubt read about the current saber rattling from Chavez, who will not take the killing of a FARC terrorist lightly. Now he is really pulling out the rhetorical stops, comparing Colombia to the Little Satan. From Washington Times:

A weekend battle sparked the mobilization, in which Colombian forces killed a top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in a camp in Ecuador.

"The obsessive conduct of those who prize the military option sharpens the armed conflict with grave possible consequences" read a statement from Venezuela's Foreign Ministry after the weekend killing of FARC's second in command, Raul Reyes.

On his weekly Sunday talk show "Hello President," Mr. Chavez accused Colombia of "invading" Ecuador, and compared the action to Israeli attacks against Palestinians.

"The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America," Mr. Chavez said. He called Colombia a "terrorist" state and its president, Mr. Uribe, a criminal; "Dracula's fangs are covered in blood."

Mr. Correa said Colombia deliberately carried out the strike beyond its borders. "There is no justification," he said last night, snubbing an earlier announcement from Colombia that it would apologize for the incursion.

Another account of Chavez's remarks:

Chavez compared the actions of the Colombian government to those of Israel in the Middle East who he accused of "invading," "bombing," and "killing" the Palestinian people with the intention of "preventing the union of the Arabic world."

"It is the fist of the empire," he said. "And we're not going to let them plant another Israel here in Latin America."

He sounds like his friend Ahmadinejad.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Some coverage of Gaza events

A current AFP story is entitled: "Israel defiant on Gaza onslaught amid international outcry." Here is the last paragraph:

At least 307 people have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence, most of them Gaza militants, since the relaunch of peace talks in November, 102 of them since Wednesday alone, according to an AFP tally.

MPAC-UK has a really daft post which uses thumbnail images of newspaper front-pages to prove that that "the 'free-press' of the democratic Western" [sic] isn't covering the "Gazan Holocaust" Did you know that the NY Times had "Not a single word" about it?

Islam Online has a headline that reads "Israel Continues Gaza Killing Spree." There is also a reader forum feature entitled "Israeli Massacre in Gaza.. Let's Help" with some unbelievable comments. According to one commenter, "So this is one more reason of muslims suffering, making friendship with the infidels."

According to a slightly outdated story at Al-Ahram, "With political negotiations going nowhere, Hamas is preparing to unleash mass popular action to end the Gaza siege and reconfigure the strategic balance with Israel." They better do that soon.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Linkim 3/2/08

Haveil Havalim 156 is up! Carnival of the Insanities is up!

EOZ : "Islamic Jihad claims to have Israeli body parts"

PTWatch, new site to monitor terror attacks.

TigerHawk: "Dictating retaliation"

Solomonia: "Daniel Pipes at Northeastern"

Soccer Dad: "He said --- wha-a-a-t?"

IPT: "Georgetown to Congressman: Don't Worry About Our Petrodollars" (h/t: Martin Kramer)

The "Holocaust" meme:

IRIB: "Real Holocaust taking place in Palestine"

Daily Kos: "Holocaust : The Countdown To Armageddon Has Begun!"

Daily Kos: "The Palestinian Shoah: Day 1"

Daily Kos: "Israeli minister threatens Palestinians with a 'Holocaust'"

More Links:

Washington Times: "Wrong-way GPS leading British astray"

Tehran Times: " Iran boycotts Paris pro-Zionist book fair"

Technorati Tags: blogs, j-blogs, blog carnivals, Israel, Palestinians, Hamas

Some analysis from Al-Jazeera--the "Israel wants lackeys" meme

We're going to be seeing a lot of analysis like this in the coming days. The Big and Little Satans really seek, the reasoning goes, to punish anyone who won't take orders. In the words of Norman Finkelstein:

Israel and the United States are attacking, because they will not allow any military resistance to their control of the region. That's the problem. If Hizbullah laid down its arms, and said: "We will do whatever the Americans say," you wouldn't have a war--that's true, but you would also be the slaves of the Americans.

Here is Al-Jazeera appying the same reasoning to Hamas and the current fighting:

[...] Israel's constant message to the Palestinians' leaders is that, if they fail to carry out what Israel wants, they will be punished - with imprisonment or by assassination - regardless of their political positions.

The notion that Palestinian leaders are only tolerated if they police their own people without defending them from Israeli aggression is not new.

It preceded Hamas's ascension to power, the launching of Qassam rockets into Israel and suicide bombings there.

Israel applies the concept to leaders who "recognise Israel" such as Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader, and those who do not, like Hamas.

Israel never forgave Arafat as he refused to give up national Palestinian rights in return for a fragmented and powerless entity and supported the second Palestinian Intifada that followed.

Today, Israel assassinates Hamas leaders in Gaza while imprisoning hundreds of Hamas and Fatah activists for resisting its diktats. [...]

Ah, the Teutonic touch that means so much . . .

Crossposted on Soccer Dad