"Syria: Armed groups carried out Houla massacre" (PressTV-Iran)

We all know that Assad wouldn't do anything like that:

A Syrian government investigation into the massacre that recently killed more than 100 people in the western Syria village of Houla has blamed anti-Damascus armed groups for the killings. The head of the inquiry, Brigadier General Qassem Jamal Suleiman said during a news conference in the Syrian capital on Thursday that between 600 and 800 armed terrorists used heavy machinery to carry out the attacks on the village on May 25. The fatalities included dozens of women and children. "It appears that all the victims came from peaceful families who refused to rise up against the government or take up arms, but had rows with armed groups," Jamaleddine stated, adding that facts and evidence showed the victims had been killed at close range.

There were no traces of burns or other evidence that could indicate that artillery bombing by Syrian forces had led to the massive loss of life, he further noted.

The general went on to say that the grizzly massacre had been carried out in an attempt to “eliminate the presence of the government [in the area] totally and turn it into a region out of government control."

"Killing children does not meet any goal of the government but those of the armed groups," he pointed out, insisting that Syrian troops did not enter the area before or after the incident.

The head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Major General Robert Mood said in a briefing via video from Damascus to an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on May 27 that the UN observers in Houla had estimated the fatalities at 108, including 49 children and 34 women.

However, the Security Council condemned the violence at the meeting, saying it “involved a series of government artillery and tank shelling on a residential neighborhood.”

Damascus has strongly denied any involvement in the bloodshed and blamed armed terrorist groups for violence across the country as part of a plan to ignite a civil war.

Syrian authorities continue their investigation into the massacre.

Let's hope they get to the bottom of it.

"Leader's Aide: Israel Lacks Courage to Wage War on Iran" (Fars News-Iran)

Variations of this headline occur constantly in the Iranian press. Are they nervous?

A top advisor of Iran's Supreme Leader challenged the Zionist regime's intensified war rhetoric against Tehran, saying that the arch-foe of the Islamic Republic does not dare to stage a military attack against Iran.

The comments were made by Supreme Leader's Advisor for International Affairs Ali Akbar Velayati in a meeting with a group of Egyptian journalists here in Tehran on Wednesday.

Asked about Israel's growing saber-rattling and threat of military attack against Iran, Velayati said, "The Zionist regime has neither the power nor the courage and venture to do so for it knows that if it embarks on doing such a thing, it won't exist any more."

Iranian officials and commanders have warned that any enemy move, even the slightest aggressions, against the Islamic Republic would be reciprocated with a destructive response and will endanger enemies' interests all around the world.

In March, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stressed Tehran's military preparedness to give a crushing response to any possible aggression against the country.

"We do not possess a nuclear weapon and we will not build one, but we will defend ourselves against any aggression, whether by the US or the Zionist regime, with the same level (of force)," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing thousands of Iranian people in the holy city of Mashhad, the provincial capital city of Iran's Northeastern province of Khorassan Razavi.

The Leader said Washington and its allies are well aware that Iran is neither in possession nor in pursuit of nuclear weapons and the real reason behind their enmity against Iran is their thirst for the nation's oil.

Is oil good for quenching one's thirst?

"Syria carnage funded, fueled by US-led Zio-Wahhabis: Analyst" (PressTV-Iran)

The title is better than the article:

An “unholy alliance” of US-led Zionists and Wahhabis is funding and fuelling the deadly unrest in Syria, trying to “bring the Syrian government to its knees”, a political analyst says.

“Syria is bracing for more political chaos as all antagonistic forces appear to have entered into an unholy alliance to bring the government to its knees by ingeniously choreographing massacres and attributing them to Syrian government, thereby turning the country into fertile soil for US-led invasion,” wrote Dr. Ismail Salami in an article published on the Global Research website on Tuesday.

Pointing to the deadly clashes in the township of Houla in the Western Syrian city of Homs, which, according to the UN observer mission in Syria, left 108 people dead, he added that “What deserves due attention in the carnage that happened in Houla is that many were shot dead at close range, many were Shia Muslims and many were women and children.”

“In other words, these atrocities are conjectured to have been carried out at the hands of the extremist Wahhabis and al-Qaeda elements who are notorious for targeting women and children in their terrorist operations,” the political analyst further elaborated.

The analyst also explained that the fact that those murdered in Houla were mainly Shia Muslims reinforces the conjecture that the massacre was perpetrated by the “Wahhabis” who “nurse inveterate loathing” toward Shia Muslims.

Salami pointed out the role of Washington in sponsoring Syrian rebels, referring to a recent report by The Washington Post that they “have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States’”. [...]

Juan Cole adopts Muslim Brotherhood view of Israel-Egypt peace treaty

Cole throws land-for-peace under the flag-bus of Caliphate Buslines:

The American political elite, very attentive to big money in politics and to the Israel lobbies, almost certainly is pulling for Shafiq to win. Mursi and the Brotherhood have a long history of hostility to Israel, and talk about revising the Camp David Peace Accord of 1979. (Camp David was supposed to lead to a resolution of the Palestinians’ problems but instead became a separate peace for Egypt and a means whereby the Israelis could further displace and expropriate the Palestinians, denying them any citizenship in a state and keeping them as riffraff who can be victimized at will. In this respect, a Brotherhood government in Egypt that stood up for the Palestinians would be a positive step).

If the government of Egypt and Hamas in the Gaza Strip become one giant blob of Islamoplasm, then the post-Palestinianism of Hamas will have triumphed over both land-for-peace and Fatah. The MB-Hamas government of Egypt-Gaza won't exactly be "standing up for the Palestinians"--one Palestinian recently complained that Hamas is "erasing Palestinian culture"--but a Sunni version of Khomeinism should certainly find its fortunes on the rise. And that's Juan's kind of development!

"It is the unanimous aspiration and desire of mankind at present to study and disseminate the Juche idea"

If "mankind" is "unanimous," how can there still be "imperialists"?

The International Alliance of Societies for the Study of the Juche Idea and Songun Policy in East European and Central Asian Regions on May 18 posted on its Internet homepage an article titled "Ranks of world progressive people regarding the Juche idea, Songun idea as a banner for life and struggle are on the increase".

Today the scientific accuracy, truth and validity of the Juche idea and the Songun idea have been more clearly proved in the practical struggle of the Korean people as the triumphant banners of the human cause of independence, the article said.

The Juche idea, the Songun idea founded by President Kim Il Sung and developed in depth by leader Kim Jong Il has been widely disseminated in many countries and regions of the world over the last decades, it noted.

The article gave a detailed account of the fact that the work for studying and disseminating the revolutionary idea of the peerlessly great persons is brisk in various parts of the world and study organizations grouping prominent personages have been formed to conduct energetic activities.

It is the unanimous aspiration and desire of mankind at present to study and disseminate the Juche idea, the Songun idea at a time when the imperialists have become more undisguised in their high-handed and arbitrary practices.

The article cited facts that political parties, organizations and publishing houses of many countries are bringing out works of the President and Kim Jong Il and books introducing the originality, truth and vitality of the Juche idea, the Songun idea.

The "Juche idea" basically means starve everybody to feed the army, or at least the elite units, by the way.

Turkey "approves" its own "indictment of Israeli commanders" (PressTV-Iran)

What could be more meaningful than an indictment from a Turkish court?

A court in Turkey has approved an indictment seeking multiple life sentences for four Israeli military commanders over their role in the 2010 killing of nine Turkish activists on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

The indictment, which was arranged by Istanbul state prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci, was presented to the court last week and its approval means the start of a trial in absentia against the Israelis, Reuters reported.

The Israeli military attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in the international waters on May 31, 2010, killing nine Turkish activists on board the Mavi Marmara, which was part of the six-ship aid convoy.

Relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated since Israel's deadly assault on the humanitarian mission in the Mediterranean Sea.

Turkey kicked out Israel's ambassador and halted all military cooperation with Tel Aviv after a United Nations report into the atrocity released in September 2011 didn’t condemn the Israeli regime forcefully.

The 144-page indictment called for nine life sentences to be given to each of the four Israeli commanders, among them Israel's former Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.

Another milestone for the world community.

Happy Shavuos!

Sunday and Monday, starting sundown Saturday night, will be the holiday of Shavuos (or Shavuot if you like), commemorating the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. One custom involves staying up the whole first night reading something called Tikkun Leil Shavuos, which contains selections from the various parts of the Torah--something from every parshah, something from every tractate of the Mishnah, the Book of Ruth, some mysticism, etc. The idea is that the Jewish people fell asleep the first time, but we can make up for it every year by staying up since a holiday is a spiritual repeat of the original event. Sometimes I make it all the way through without falling asleep, sometimes I don't.

We also eat dairy foods for the festive meal of the first day, such as the blintzes and sour cream pictured above. There are numerous explanations for this practice, but it is worth noting that blintzes and cheesecake taste good. More info here and not just about blintzes. See you Monday night (or Tuesday). Chag Sameach!

Juan Cole is worried about the safety of Tel Aviv

And the big threat is Global Warming!

Some of Israel’s Mediterranean coast is sufficiently low-lying, including the city of Tel Aviv, that the rising ocean levels that will be caused by global warming will submerge them over time. In past eras, an increase of 1 degree celsius translated into 10 to 20 meters increase in sea level. Even if we can hold our present increase to 3 degrees celsius through a crash global green energy program, that would be an increase of as much as 60 meters or 180 feet. Tel Aviv will certainly end up under water if humanity goes on spewing carbon dioxide into the air at this rate–not in this century, but over time. A majority of Israeli Jews live in and around Tel Aviv. Climate change is the real existential threat, not bluster from Iran.

I don't know about you, but I think the threat from Iran is a bit more pressing.

"Supreme Leader: Collapse of Arrogant Powers Imminent" (Fars News-Iran)

Some Supreme Leader blather to start your morning:

Developments in the West display that the world's arrogant powers are definitely on the verge of collapse, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday.

"The front of oppression, arrogance and bullying is weakening and on the verge of demise despite its apparent hue and cry," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing a number of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) cadets in Tehran on Wednesday.

He meantime underlined that despite the arrogant powers' decline, "the pioneering Iranian nation continues its speedy move towards more progress and materialization of justice in the decade of progress and justice".

Noting that the Iranian nation is hopeful of its future, Ayatollah Khamenei called on the country's youths to continue Iran's glorious path in the future so that the nation will reach its real eminence. [...]

Good thing he said that. They were considering deviation from the glorious path . . .

"Israel is fast becoming a Talmudic state, or a state guided by the pornographically racist Talmudic principles" (Khalid Amayreh)

Here are the first three paragraphs of his latest rant:

By now, and given Israel's brazen lebensraum policies in the West Bank, along with its Shamelessly bellicose regional behavior, it should be amply clear that reaching a stable, durable and genuine peace with the Jewish state is out of question, at least for the foreseeable future.

Israel is fast becoming a Talmudic state, or a state guided by the pornographically racist Talmudic principles, whereby non-Jews, including billions of Christians and Muslims, are viewed as non-human beings.

Don't be beguiled by the Zionist hasbara, which morphs the black into white and the big lie into a "truth." Pay more attention to what Israel does, not what Israel says, because Israel is intrinsically mendacious. Israel after all is itself a big lie, a gigantic war crime, and a scandalous aberration in the history of humanity. [...]

Good for a few laughs, right? Also at the Palestinian Information Center site, the usual blather that follows peaceful visits by Israelis to the Temple Mount: "Change and Reform bloc: the storming of the Aqsa Mosque sets off alarm bells":

The Change and Reform bloc held the occupation fully responsible for allowing and protecting Zionist settlers during storming Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The bloc said in a statement, on Sunday, that the Zionist occupation continues committing crimes against the Palestinian people, lands, and holy places. Zionist settles stormed today Al-Aqsa's courtyards in Jerusalem under IOF protection as an attempt to strengthen what they claimed to be the status of the temple. These repeated Jewish attacks on the Aqsa Mosque reveal the malicious intents to demolish it to establish an alleged temple on its ruins, the statement stated.

It added that the continuing settlers’ attacks on Al-Aqsa mosque set off alarm bells for Zionist Plots against Masjid Al-Aqsa. [...]

Yeah, let's establish an alleged temple . . .

"Bin Laden died of narutal causes - ex CIA agent" (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting)

That's "natural causes." More conspiracy theories from Iran:

A former agent of the CIA has revealed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has died of natural causes five years before the US announced his death.

In an interview with Russia’s Channel One, Berkan Yashar, who is also a Turkish politician, said the US has not killed the al-Qaeda leader.

“In September of 1992, I was in Chechnya, that’s when I first met the man whose name was Bin Laden. This meeting took place in a two-story house in the city of Grozny; on the top floor was a family of Gamsakhurdia, the Georgian president, who then was kicked out of his country. We met on the bottom floor; Osama lived in the same building,” Yashar said.

According to the former CIA agent, he personally knew Bin Laden’s three Chechen bodyguards, who had protected him until his death and witnessed his death on June 26, 2006.

“Even if the entire world believed, I could not possibly believe it,” Yashar said. “I personally know the Chechens who protected him, they are Sami, Mahmood, and Ayub, and they were with him until the very end.”

“Only three Chechens buried him, according to his will” in the mountains on the Pakistan-Afghan border, he said.

Yashar added that the CIA abducted one of the bodyguards, Sami, before the announced killing of Bin Laden last year.

He says the bodyguard disclosed to the US the exact place of burial in the mountains.

“There was no assault. I know the American operations from the inside: they find the grave, dig out bin Laden and tell everyone about this. They need to show how technologically the security services worked, how each step was controlled, and then present it as a great victory to show that taxpayers are not paying taxes for nothing,” he said.

Washington announced on May 2, 2011 that Bin Laden was killed by US forces in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The lack of transparency over bin Laden's death has cast further doubt over the announcement.

And you read it here first . . .

"Top Commander Reiterates Iran's Commitment to Full Annihilation of Israel" (Fars News-Iran)

If only Juan Cole were here to tell us what this headline means:

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said threats and pressures cannot deter Iran from its revolutionary causes and ideals, and stressed that the Iranian nation will remain committed to the full annihilation of the Zionist regime of Israel to the end.

Addressing a defense gathering here in Tehran on Sunday, General Firouzabadi said that nations should realize the threats and dangers posed by the Zionist regime of Israel.

He reiterated the Iranian nation and Supreme Leader's emphasis on the necessity of support for the oppressed Palestinian nation and its causes, and noted, "The Iranian nation is standing for its cause that is the full annihilation of Israel."

The top military official reminded that the Iranian Supreme Leader considers defending Palestine as a full religious duty and believes that any kind of governance and rule by anyone other than the Palestinians as an instance of usurpation.

Earlier this year, Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stressed in explicit remarks Iran's direct involvement in the Palestinian and Lebanese confrontation with Israel, including the Lebanese Summer 2006 33-day resistance against the Zionist regime.

"Wherever Iran interferes, it announces it in a very straightforward manner. For instance, we interfered in confrontations against Israel, which resulted in the (Lebanese) victory in the 33-day war and (Palestinians' victory in) the 22-day (Gaza) war," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing millions of Friday Prayers worshippers on Tehran University Campus in February.

"In future too, we will support and help everyone who opposes the Zionist regime," the Leader underscored.

"The Zionist regime is a real cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut, God Willing," Ayatollah Khamenei underscored.

I would say that authorizes Israel or the Great Satan (the object of similar and closely related hatred), or both, to take the necessary action. A pinpoint strike on the nuclear program is not the only option.

Advice for Hasbarists 1: Don't trivialize or understate the Jewish connection with the Land of Israel

Advice for Hasbarists seems to be the rage currently. So I thought I would try my hand in a multi-part series, mainly as an opportunity to write down things I often write in comment threads on other people's blogs but not necessarily here, where I often let the things I post speak for themselves. The most obvious place to start is something that often strikes me in the statements of both anti-Zionists and defenders of Israel: a rather lame-sounding account of what the actual connection is between Jews and the land of Israel. The anti-Zionists, of course, often begin sentences something like this: "Just because your ancestors lived somewhere 2000 years ago, that doesn't give you the right to blah blah blah . . ." What makes things worse is that well-meaning supporters of Israel will write that Jews "Yearned to return to Israel for 2000 years." That may be true, but it hardly captures the significance of Israel to Jews and the Jewish part of Israel's significance to the world at large.

To cut to the heart of the matter, the connection between Jews and Israel is Divine in origin and essential to G-d's intent in creating the world. That says it all for me, but I understand the impulse to express the Jewish connection to Israel in secular term, especially since there is a whole raft of secular lies out there that should be countered. The would-be secular hasbarist who wants to tackle the subject of the Jewish connection to Israel should realize he has a subject which is hard to describe adequately in a short space.

The importance to civilization at large of the connection between Jews and Israel is impossible to overstate. The two religions in the world with largest numbers of followers, Xianity and Islam, are both spin-offs of Judiasm. Both claim to be the true religion of Moses, David, Solomon, and not surprisingly, both revere Jerusalem. You may remember those diagrams printed in many editions of Dante's Divine Comedy with Jerusalem as the center of the universe. You may recall that Blake wrote of building "Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land." Neither of those giants of world literature were thinking of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as I once jokingly remarked, although the reverence shown by Muslims for the Al-Aqsa Mosque does derive from the same thing that inspired Dante and Blake

Another problem with stating that "Jews yearned for Israel for 2000 years" and leaving it at that is the implication that Israel was off the Jewish map for 2000 years and was not the site of any actual Jewish history during that time. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Ba'alei Mesorah (or Masoretes) were still living in Tiberias and preserving the biblical text for most of the first 1000 years of that 2000 years. At the end of the 13th century, the Ramban (Nachmanides) was living in Israel, rebuilding the Jewish community in Jerusalem, and composing one of the two or three most famous Biblical commentaries in the Jewish tradition. He wrote his commentary in the world's only surviving uniquely Palestinian language: Hebrew. There was an eager audience of diaspora Jews equipped to read this Palestinian commentary since they were mostly putting more emphasis on Hebrew education than on education in the languages of the lands they inhabited. Some of these Jews were in Egypt, just across the border from Israel. Many were in other parts of the Middle East and North Africa.

In the 16th and 17th centuries the author of the Lecha Dodi prayer, the author of the Shulchan Aruch (the primary modern code of Jewish law), and Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (the Arizal, the most famous Jewish Kabbalist of the post-ancient world) all lived in Safed. Safed was repeatedly destroyed afterwards by natural disasters and various Arab raids, but the Jews kept returning there. And it took more than yearning to return. Jews gave Palestine its first printing press. Jews have been the majority population in Jerusalem, the crown jewel of Israel's towns and cities, since about 1840, i.e. from many decades before the first Zionist olim arrived until the present, since before the time we describe as "in living memory" you could say, since nobody from that time is still alive.

I could go on for a long time and I still have not touched on matters that will be familiar to many readers: the constant mention of Israel in the Jewish liturgy and scripture, the halachic distinction between chutz la'aretz (outside of Israel) and Israel and the many precepts of the Jewish religion that are only operative in the land of Israel. Israel may presently have the largest concentration of Jews in the world and quite likely, the largest concentration of Jewish children in the world. I will stop here, however. Stay tuned for Part 2.

A metaphor for thinking "land-for-peace" is a good idea

"Israel becomes a target in Egypt's presidential vote" (Reuters)

Here is the first paragraph:

Israel has become a punchbag for politicians vying for votes in Egypt's presidential race, playing on popular antipathy in Egypt towards its neighbor, but the realities of office are likely to ensure a 33-year-old peace treaty is not jeopardized.

And who knows better than Reuters? However, I think the Islamists will dispose of whatever is left of the treaty. Now that the gas pipeline has been taken care of, they will be able to turn their attention to border raids and so forth. Israel's inevitable acts of self-defense will be construed as "aggression," relations will deteriorate, and the seven or eight Palestinians who actually want a two-state solution will be shafted.

"Mossad agents brain washed me" (Fars News-Iran)

Nice title:

Majid Jamal Fashi, a Mossad operative and assassin of IRI nuclear scientist revealed Sunday that Zionists had brain washed him by offers of money and post in such a way that he thought he was savior of world before his murderous act.

Fashi who assassinated top Iranian nuclear physicist, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi in January 2011 told IRIB minutes before execution Tuesday that the path he took ended up in frustration.

Fashi said his mind "was deviated by foreign media's empty words" which made him a dissident of the Islamic Republic and prompted him to leaver the country. He said Zionist agents, having found him as an avid seeker of money and reputation, built on his weak points and gradually turned him into a murderer and traitor.

Asked about his trainings in Israel, Fashi said the Zionists replicated the scene of assassination for him in 'Israel' as if it was a verified copy of the original. He said even the color of house door and mosaics of alleway floor were the same as in Iran.

"They only told me he (Ali-Mohammadi) was making atomic bomb and stands a threat to humanity," Fashi said, adding that they brain washed him to the extent he thought he was a savior of the Earth.

"They even called the highly strong bomb by which to kill Ali-Mohamadi a technological advance," the assassin said.

Fashi revealed that the one who first absorbed him and had him join Mossad was later killed by Mossad as his mission was over.

Fashi said following his murderous act he felt proud until reaching home however when he saw in television whom he had assassinated, he realized that all Israeli claims were false.

If only he had been reading MondoWeiss!

"Foreign Adherents to Juche Idea Laud Juche Idea, Songun Idea" (Korean News)

Great news for World Progressive People!

The adherents to the Juche idea who visited the DPRK said that the Juche idea, Songun idea is the great idea in the present times whose validity and vitality have been proved in practice.

Edmond Jouve, director-general of the European Society for the Study of the Juche Idea, said that the Juche idea indicates the road for the popular masses to independently shape their destiny.

He noted that the idea is stirring up the progressive mankind including the Korean people for its scientific accuracy and truth.

The world progressive people are highly praising President Kim Il Sung, founder of the idea, as the eternal sun, he noted.

Ivan Draksler, chairman of the Slovak Association for Supporting the Juche Idea, noted that the idea is being widely disseminated worldwide, proving its vitality.

The Korean people have registered shining achievements by applying the idea, he said.

The Juche idea is the source of the Korean people's faith in independence and their tremendous strength.

The people could defend socialism while smashing the moves of the imperialist allied forces to stifle the DPRK as they have firmly maintained the independent stand in the revolution and construction, he noted.

He continued to say that the Juche idea, Songun idea is important guidelines to be followed by the countries and nations desirous of independence and progress.

Anarbek Usupbaev, chief of the Group for the Study of the Juche Idea of Kyrgyzstan, said that the Juche idea, Songun idea is the great guiding idea indicating the road ahead of mankind in accomplishing the cause of independence.

Omar Lopez, chairman of the Venezuelan National Society for the Study of the Juche Idea, expressed the will to more thoroughly arm themselves with Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism to fulfill the noble mission and duty as the pioneer of the times disseminating the progressive idea.

Not Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism-Kimjongunism? Reeducation camp for you, Omar!

Angry Arab: "In how many ways have Arabs have to express their opposition to any peace with Israel before the White Man gets it?"

The actual post is about Egyptian hostility to Israel. It's ironic--most of what he means by the "White Man" consists of people who have "gotten it"--in America, anyway. The ones least likely to have gotten it are his political allies.

"Ahmadinejad: Zionists Fighting Goodness, Tormenting Entire Humanity" (Fars News-Iran)

Ahmadinejad's rhetoric goes through a cycle of sorts. Sometimes he belittles the Zionist entity. Sometimes he attributes fantastic powers to it:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the Zionist regime and its affiliates as a source of torment for the entire humankind, specially the oppressed Palestinian people.

"The Zionists' existence is against goodness and is a source of evil, suffering torment" for all humanity, Ahmadinejad said, addressing a large group of people in Khorassan Razavi province, Northeastern Iran, on Sunday. [...]

And who could be more tormented than Ahmadinejad himself?

And then what happened to Safed?

Anyone who is Jewishly literate has heard of the Safed Kabbalists. In the 16th and 17th centuries Safed became, perhaps, the intellectual capital of the Jewish world and was able to boast of Rabbi Yosef Karo, the author of the Shulchan Aruch; Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz, the author of Lecha Dodi; the Arizal, and other Torah-greats. We might ask, however, what happened then? Why didn't the Torah greats of the 18th century live in Safed/Tsfas? Here is part of the Wikipedia account of the subsequent history of Safed:

[...] Over the course of the seventeenth century, Jewish settlements of Galilee had declined economically and demographically, with Safed being no exception. In around 1625, Quaresmius spoke of the town being inhabited "chiefly by Hebrews, who had their synagogues and schools, and for whose sustenance contributions were made by the Jews in other parts of the world." [19] In 1628, the city fell to the Druze and five years later was retaken by Ottomans. In 1660, in the turmoil following the death of Mulhim Ma'an, the Druze destroyed Safed and Tiberias, with only a few of the former Jewish residents returning to Safed by 1662. As nearby Tiberias remained desolate for several decades, Safed gained the key position among Galilean Jewish communities. In 1665, the Sabbatai Sevi movement is said to have arrived to the town.

An outbreak of plague decimated the population in 1742 and the Near East earthquake of 1759 left the city in ruins, killing 200 town residents.[20] An influx Russian Jews in 1776 and 1781, and of Lithuanian Jews of the Perushim in 1809 and 1810, reinvigorated the community.[21]

In 1812, another plague killed 80% of the Jewish population, and in 1819 the remaining Jewish residents were held for ransom by Abdullah Pasha, the governor of Acre.[citation needed] During the period of Egyptian domination, the city experienced a severe decline, with the Jewish community hit particularly hard. In the 1834 Safed Great Plunder, much of the Jewish quarter was destroyed by rebel Arabs, who plundered the city for many weeks.

In 1837 there were around 4,000 Jews in Safed.[22] The Galilee earthquake of 1837 was particularly catastrophic for the Jewish population, as the Jewish quarter was located on the hillside. About half their number perished, resulting in around 2,000 deaths.[22] Of the 2,158 inhabitants killed, 1507 were Ottoman subjects. The southern, Moslem section of the town suffered far less damage.[23]

In 1838, the Druze rebels robbed the city over the course of 3 days, killing many among the Jews.

Starting to notice a pattern here?

"Catfish-Jowl Aspic Enjoys Popularity" (Korean News)

I don't think most Americans are too worried about having to eat North Korean food, but I find it comforting that it isn't kosher:

Conspicuous among the dishes, presented to the 17th April Holiday Food Festival at the People's Palace of Culture, was the aspic made of catfish jowl.

Sliced aspic garnished with carrot and celery became the focus of the people's attention.

The dish was presented by Ju Suk Hui at Tongchonho Restaurant.

Noting that many people like to take the dish, she told KCNA:

"The catfish jowl can also be steamed, roasted and fried.

But, the people, including those with dull appetite, chose to take the aspic, because it contains all of catfish's nutrients and is well digestive as well."

Yum.

Pesach Sheni

From Chabad.org:

A year after the Exodus, G‑d instructed the people of Israel to bring the Passover offering on the afternoon of the fourteenth of Nissan, and to eat it that evening, roasted over the fire, together with matzah and bitter herbs, as they had done the previous year just before they left Egypt. “There were, however, certain persons who had become ritually impure through contact with a dead body, and could not, therefore, prepare the Passover offering on that day. They approached Moses and Aaron . . . and they said: ‘. . . Why should we be deprived, and not be able to present G‑d’s offering in its time, amongst the children of Israel?’” (Numbers 9:6–7).

In response to their plea, G‑d established the 14th of Iyar as a “Second Passover” (Pesach Sheni) for anyone who was unable to bring the offering on its appointed time in the previous month. The day thus represents the “second chance” achieved by teshuvah, the power of repentance and “return.” In the words of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch, “The Second Passover means that it’s never a ‘lost case.’”

It is customary to mark this day by eating matzah, shmurah matzah if possible.

And skipping tachanun. Now go eat some shmurah matzah! Also, follow the link to Chabad.org for various elaborations on the homiletic message of Pesach Sheni: "There is always a second chance."

Angry Arab on NY Times article on Israeli Jazz: "They stole Falafil, and now Jazz is Israeli"

This is an example of what I call "Helen Thomas Syndrome"--inability to see Israelis as anyhing other than European. About half of Israeli ancestry is from the Middle East. Why wouldn't Israelis eat felafel? Anyway, I particularly enjoy the way AA makes up his own transliterations for Arabic words and names that already have standard transliterations in English. Right, AA, we know you're a native speaker of Arabic.

"Anglo-Zionist financial conspiracy" (Press TV-Iran)

More conspiracies than you can shake a stick at, courtesy of one "Peter Eyre - Middle East Consultant":

We are currently listening to the Bank of England chief Sir Mervyn King telling us that more should have been done to avert the current crisis!

Well, Mr. King you certainly hit the nail on the head considering that it was you that allowed our ex-PM Gordon Brown to empty the gold bullion out of the vaults of the Bank of England and send it over to the EU.

It is you Mr. King that knows all about the fraud in this country starting with our current Prime Minister, David Cameron, and its cancerous growth that has now spread amongst many senior MPs and Members of the House of Lords.

It is you Mr. King that represents the financial arm of the New World Order in Britain and you alone that allows trillions to slip in and out of this country utterly and totally unchecked.

What I find astonishing is the fact that this man has been with the Bank of England since 1990 and still has the audacity to keep saying we could have done more.

One would assume that with his knowledge base and his academic qualifications that this man would be capable of not only seeing pending collapses on the horizon but also have the ability to resolve such issues as and when they arrive.

Well, Mr. King lets just put you in the picture as to what is really happening in the world and what is happening here in the UK and why you are not doing anything about it!

Massive fraud and corruption is taking place each and everyday here in the UK and you know about it because you are part of the rot and continue to allow it to happen!

$15 trillion (equivalent to the total US debt), was transferred from the US Reserve Bank into the HSBC Bank in London and then passed on to the Royal Bank of Scotland. No one appears to know what happened to it after that but who cares. “What’s $15 trillion when shared amongst friends?”! I would also add that the total US debt is well above this amount and could be as high as three times that amount…and just to think 46 million Americans are living on US Food Coupons!

I am led to believe that another $6 trillion was given to Italy which as we all know is now under the rule of the New World Order (NWO)…otherwise known as the IMF!

What I find so frustrating is the arrogant open way that all the maggots from the NWO operate within government ranks, the banks and in the corporate sector. Gordon Bowden and I have named and shamed many of them in my previous articles with our dear Prime Minister David Cameron right up there with the best of them. However when you uncover a giant spiders web of fraud and corruption one must always try to find the spider and needless to say that spider is none other than the Rothschild’s…the big fat maggots that feed on the flesh of the British people.

One cannot put all the blame in one basket when you had such maggots as Alan Greenspan, Timothy Geithner, Ben Bernanke and the other pile of maggots called the Rothschild’s who added more fuel to the fire. Can you even imagine they were talking about moving 750,000 tonnes of gold bullion when only 1507 tonnes had only been mined at the time!

Am I getting through to you all and do you fully understand what this is all about?

Can’t you see how evil this NWO is and how they fund themselves by way of their many giant ponzi schemes that operate from the thousands of boiler rooms in almost every country in the world.

Let’s just step outside of this country for one moment and reflect on one such fraud: We all know that 9/11 was an inside job involving not only Mossad, the CIA and many people in high office but were you aware what was actually going on in the Pentagon just prior to it being hit with a cruise missile (not a Boeing)? [...] I took part in a radio debate on Monday morning at The Voice of Russia, 12 St James Square, London. The topic was “one year on after the death of Bin Laden” and the current state of Al Qaeda. The Panel was Dr. Christina Hellmich, from the University of Reading, Valentina Soria from the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies and two other guests that were outside of the studio, Lorenzo Vidino from Center for Security Studies, Zurich, Switzerland and Robert Crowley from the Risk Advisory Group.

After the initial introduction it came my turn to discuss this very controversial topic. I started by saying that Al Qaeda does not and has not ever existed and that it was all a part of the existing “Islamaphobia” to keep terrorism alive.

I thought at first that I was the thorn between two roses when it came to Christina and Valentina but it then became obvious I was listening to a sort of Zionist ideology on a ratio of 4 against 1 and that no matter what my opinion it was not going to draw any acknowledgement or acceptance from the other side, especially when I said that Bin Laden was not killed one year ago but actually died in the Military Hospital in Rawalpindi on or around the 14th of December 2001. I also went on to say that 9/11 and 7/7 were both inside jobs and also gave reference to the Madrid Train Bombing which allowed Lorenzo to go on the attack with the full support of the other three. However, having been put in a box time did not allow me to explain further on this all import issue and so I decided not to get into a slinging match and let it pass. [...]

And we'll let the rest of this article pass . . .

"Iranian Students Urge OIC to Show Swift Reaction to Quran Burning in US" (Fars News-Iran)

Iranian news sites never sound so happy as when they report on Koran-burnings:

Iranian students strongly condemned desecration of the Muslims' Holy Book by a US pastor, and called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to show decisive reaction to the provocative move.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, students of the University of Quranic Sciences and Studies said that the burning of copies of the Holy Quran by US pastor Terry Joins in the state of Florida was a "plot hatched by leaders of the US and the occupying Zionist regime (of Israel)".

They said that the sacrilege of the Holy Quran was a move aimed at assessing the reaction of the Muslim world.

The statement further called on the OIC and the Iranian foreign ministry to react strongly and decisively to Jones' provocative move in a bid to stop further desecration of Islamic sanctities by others.

On Sunday, Iran condemned the Quran burning by the US pastor as an "insulting and provocative" act, and urged the United States to apologize to the Muslim World.

The Pentagon had asked Jones to refrain from burning the Qurans out of concern for the safety of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Quran burning and sacrilege of Islamic values has become a commonplace move by Americans in recent years, while the opposite has never happened and Muslims have never desecrated values of Judaism, Christianity and other divine religions.

Well, hardly ever . . .