Judeopundit: September 2007

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Gut Yom Tov!

Sukkos is called "Zeman Simchaseinu"--the "time of our rejoicing." Thus, the holiday is particularly associated with rejoicing, and I hope you have an especially joyous one. I usually don't post on Chol Hamo'eid--see you after Simchas Torah.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Ahmadineajd meets with U.S. Muslim leaders, calls U.S. "big prison"

Ahmadinejad's message is delivered to a more receptive audience and adapted accordingly. From Iran's PressTV:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slams Washington's domestic policy saying the US has turned into a big prison for the American nation.

He made the remarks at a meeting with the leaders of US Muslim community on Tuesday.

Ahmadinejad criticized the offensive remarks made by Columbia University's President Lee Bollinger adding, "They insult the guest they've invited and echoed statements of a terrorist group in their remarks. They knew their words would not affect me and just tried to prevent the university students from listening to new words."

Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a pretext to occupy Palestine and displace millions of peoples, therefore its aspects should be studied. "They displaced
the Palestinian nation under the pretext of the massacre of the Jews; if it is revealed that the Holocaust has nothing to do with the issue of Palestine and the figures in this regard are exaggerated, they will have nothing to say."

"Resolutions are no longer of any use to counter Israel's crimes and the approved resolutions are not implemented either. I'm sure that Americans are against those crimes and consider Palestinians to be right."

He described discord between Shias and Sunnis in Iraq as a plot hatched by the enemies, which can be thwarted by unity.

Ahmadinejad called on all Muslims to strive for justice in the world adding, "We believe all religions have the same origin. Christians, Jews and Muslims all believe in the savior."

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

While in New York, Ahmadinejad met with Mugabe

Mahmoud has been very busy lately. But how could he not find time to meet with "the valiant African figure"?

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe on Monday reviewed avenues to bolster all-out bilate ralrelations.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Underlining the need for unity of the developing states against American and British neocolonialism, he called for further activiation of various groups such as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Group 15 and Group 77 in order to develop the United Nations.

The Iranian President further appreciated the active presence of Zimbabwe in the NAM Ministerial Meeting on Human Rights and Cultural Diversity held in Tehran early September.

For his part, President Mugabe, criticized the unilateralist approach and misuse of the UN Security Council by the bullying powers, and urged the developing states to confront such approaches by the big powers.

The two presidents underscored the need for formation of a joint economic commission.[...]

They better form it quickly.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Monday, September 24, 2007

Daily Kos: "The Conspiracy"--"Explaining Diane"

This diarist presents a letter/comment, responding to a column by Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com about Diane Feinstein, "symbol of the worthless Beltway Democrat." This diary will probably be removed, but as of right now . . .

I have a theory that I am finding fits this example too, Diane is, I believe, part of the much larger Zionist conspiracy to control this country and to control its political will to serve the Right wing Israeli dream of dominating the middle east . I know this is regarded as "anti-semitic" and characterized as paranoid fantasy by supporters of this dream but this is what I see. This country has been taken over by domination of the Main Stream Media (MSM), (indeed a lot of the European press is heavily influenced too) and domination of the congress by AIPAC with heavy infiltration of the security, military and other branches of government and finance to serve this dream of a bigger stronger Israel. This domination did NOT happen by accident, it has been directed and financed and supported by a group of people who are posing as Americans but acting in what they see as Israels' best interest. Of course Americans are guilty of allowing this to happen, in our complacency we have been too lazy and blind to the realities of the larger world. I doubt we are ready to wake up yet, the pain is not large enough. To accept this theory is too difficult and requires too much learning and painful looking at realities, it requires accepting that we have been duped and been suckers to a brilliant strategy of subversion and control and to admit that our much admired system of government and constitutional law has many loopholes and weaknesses. This is a bitter pill to swallow and one that will take awhile for most people to digest if they ever get the chance.

I think this question (for most people) needs to be examined carefully. I know I will be attacked for bringing this up, I will be called all kinds of names and accused of all kinds of things. I still think it is an issue that needs to be examined carefully, thoughtfully and sensitively. Most of the people perpetrating this conspiracy believe wholeheartedly that they are doing a good thing, something that needs to be done. They believe that they know better than other people in the world, that they are hated or misunderstood by the world and have to resort to trickery in order to survive . . .

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Related: "The interview I wanted to hear"

Nuttiness from Iran: a mini-review

Now that Ahmadinejad is making the rounds in New York, it might be useful to review some of the conspiracist statements frequently uttered by either Ahmadinejad or the "Supreme leader," Ayatollah Khamenei.

The Ayatollah on the Samarra bombings (US, Zionist plot)

The Ayatollah on the prophet cartoons (Israel conspiracy)

Ahmadinejad on Shia-Sunni infighting. (US, Zionist conspiracy)

Ahmadinejad on the reason for establishing Israel (". . . to halt the process of all other countries' scientific and economic development and advancement, on the pretext of ensuring that regimes's security" and "so that the regional nations would not taste a day's length of peace and stability.")

Interviewers should bring up some of these claims. Scott Pelley's interview with Ahmadinejad on 60 Minutes supposedly involved some tough questioning, but I'm not that impressed. I'm sure "Mr. President" came expecting to deliver some nuclear denials and to do some damage-control on the Holocaust issue. Why not try to draw Ahmadinejad out on some of the above-mentioned conspiracist fantasies?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Linkim 9/23/07

Carnival of the Insanities is up! Haveil Havalim 135 is up! (or not)

Sultan Knish: "Lunar Craters of the Rishonim and Jewish Craters on the Moon" (h/t: Daled Amos)

EOZ: "Abourezk, part 4"

Daily Kos: "Why I Have A Little Crush on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad"

Solomonia: "The Scholars Are Out in Force Today Over Abu El-Haj"

John Derbyshire: "Islamophobophobia" (Via Jihad Watch)

Jonah Goldberg: " . . . by 'we,' I mean a grand coalition of people who delight in watching one of the 20th century’s most pompous gasbags fall from the top of the laughingstock tree and hit every branch on the way down."

Divrei Chaim: "kiddush on shabbos yom kippur for someone who must eat"

Kamangir: "Solid Proof that Israelis are Paranoid"

Hungnam Fertilizer Complex Art Circle back in the news!

The last time we met the Art Circle of the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex, they were performing for the Dear Leader himself. We don't learn about any exalted Juche personages in the audience this time, but I'm sure they were there. I mean, how can you give a performance at the People's Palace of Culture without some politburo members there at least? I'm sure future articles will correct this troubling omission:

Employees and art circle members of the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex gave art performances at the People's Palace of Culture a few days ago, winning accolade of the audience.

Enjoying the performance, the spectators keenly felt once again that the tradition of revolutionary mass culture and art created in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle is being carried forward in the Songun era.

President Kim Il Sung who set out on the road of revolution in his early years expounded in a unique way the mission and task of revolutionary literature and art suitable for the demand of the new times and wisely led the work for their realization, thus giving the origin to the mass culture and art.

In the initial stage of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle he created such immortal classical works as "An Jung Gun Shoots Ito Hirobumi", "A mountain Shrine", "The Flower Girl" and performed them among people.

The masterpieces not only implanted the anti-Japanese patriotism and consciousness of national independence in the minds of people but also constituted a motive power of forcefully rousing them to the anti-Japanese struggle.

During the armed struggle against Japanese imperialism, he created revolutionary dramas including "The Sea of Blood" and revolutionary songs such as "Korean People's Revolutionary Army" and "The Song of the Anti-Japanese War", inspiring the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters and broad sections of people with faith in certain victory and indomitable will.

The anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters always lived an optimistic life, dancing and singing the revolutionary songs including "Song of Revolution", "The Guerrilla March", "Song of People's Power" and "Song of General Mobilization" even in immeasurably difficult ordeals. They also wrote revolutionary dramas and novels to enrich the mass culture and art.

In the hard-fought battles of the Fatherland Liberation War, servicepersons of the Korean People's Army, who inherited the traditions of the anti-Japanese war, made front-line musical instruments and danced and sang songs full of conviction in the victory and optimism to strike the enemy with terror.

Front-line musical instruments? Like the bayonet da gamba?

In the periods of the postwar rehabilitation and construction and the socialist construction, too, the Korean people built the gigantic creations for the development and prosperity of the country in different parts of the country, singing the revolutionary songs. [...]

Gigantic creations? Like Pulgasari?

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Ahmadinejad's "vague wish for the future" featured at parade celebrating new missile

You may remember the efforts of Juan Cole and Jonathan Steele to do damage control after Ahmadinejad's remark about wiping Israel "off the map." English isn't Persian, of course, but Steele's assertion that "the Iranian president was expressing a vague wish for the future" always seemed quite wrong to me. Anyone who follows the Iranian press, even in English, knows that remarks about the demise of Israel often occur in a military context.
Here's another example for anyone who is interested:

Iran on Saturday warned the West of the "serious consequences" of launching any attack against the Islamic republic after showing off a new longer-range missile in public for the first time . . .

The parade was marked by a litany of slogans calling for "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." Western military attaches, apparently warned of this in advance, boycotted the rally for the second year running.

"Israel should be eliminated" and "No Iranian Muslim, no Muslim recognises Israel," were among the slogans borne on the back of military vehicles, quoting the words of Iran's revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"Israel has to be wiped off the map," read another Khomeini quote which aroused worldwide controversy when it was repeated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 . . .

Part of the controversy concerned the question of whether Ahmadinejad had said anything bellicose at all. Many on the left have not figured it out yet.

The Date goes on

EOZ, IsreallyCool, and, of course, MPAC-UK, are reporting new developments in the Zionist date saga. According to Islam Online, the perfidious Zionist dates have now reached Morocco.

Branded with Israeli trademark "Bat Sheva", Israeli dates are flooding Moroccan markets during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

"I found dates carrying Israeli trademark in the markets," Abdel-Jalil, a teacher, told IslamOnline.net Saturday, September 22.

Trademarked "Bat Sheva"--the Hebrew name of the town of Beersheba--the Israeli dates can been seen in abundance on the shelves in eastern and central Morocco.

The "Made in Israel" label is obviously seen on the packages.

"We used to buy dates from Arab countries such as Tunisia," said hajj Mohamed, a dates vendor.

"I myself would not buy dates produced by our enemy," he said.

The Israeli-Arab conflict dates back to the 1948 when well-armed Israeli militants bombarded Palestine and forced its natives into a panicky flight to establish the state of Israel . . .

____________________________________________________________________________

Friday, September 21, 2007

Yom Kippur

Gemar Chasimah Tovah!

Easy Fast!

Here is "Yom Kippur in a Nutshell" from chabad.org:

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year--the day on which we are closest to G‑d and to the quintessence of our own souls. It is the Day of Atonement -- "For on this day He will forgive you, to purify you, that you be cleansed from all your sins before G‑d" (Leviticus 16:30).

For twenty-six hours--from several minutes before sunset on Tishrei 9 to after nightfall on Tishrei 10--we "afflict our souls": we abstain from food and drink, do not wash or anoint our bodies, do not wear leather shoes, and abstain from marital relations.

Before Yom Kippur we perform the Kaparot atonement service; we request and receive honey cake, in acknowledgement that we are all recipients in G-d's world and in prayerful hope for a sweet and abundant year; eat a festive meal, immerse in a mikvah, and give extra charity. Late afternoon we eat the pre-fast meal, following which we bless our children, light a memorial candle as well as the holiday candles, and go to the synagogue for Kol Nidrei services.

In the course of Yom Kippur we hold five prayer services: Maariv, with its solemn Kol Nidrei service, on the eve of Yom Kippur; Shacharit--the morning prayer; Musaf, which includes a detailed account of the Yom Kippur Temple service; Minchah, which includes the reading of the Book of Jonah; and Ne'illah, the "closing of the gates" service at sunset. We say the Al Chet confession of sins eight times in the course of Yom Kippur, and recite Psalms every available moment.

The day is the most solemn of the year, yet an undertone of joy suffuses it: a joy that revels in the spirituality of the day and expresses the confidence that G-d will accept our repentance, forgive our sins, and seal our verdict for a year of life, health and happiness. When the closing Ne'illah service climaxes in the resounding cries of "Hear O Israel... G-d is one" and a single blast of the shofar, followed by the proclamation, "Next year in Jerusalem." Then joy erupts in song and dance (a Chabad custom is to sing the lively "Napoleon's March"), followed by the festive after-fast meal, making the evening after Yom Kippur a Yom Tov (festival) in its own right.

Drat! Somebody leaked Plan A!

This is a D-Kos diary from an entity calling itself "Roseeriter." Spot the dangling modifier:

Seem's like odd timing to me. Either he's got really big balls and is flaunting himself, daring Bush or is he being set up?

The scenario that keeps coming to my mind is with Ahmadinejad out of Iran what a perfect time to strike his nuke plants. Especially where Israel is bombing strategic areas in Syria and Bush wouldn't 'talk' about it at yesterday's news conference..well it smells fishy to me.

As a published author of three novels, my writer's intrigue sees all kinds of set-up scenarios. As a Bush hater I see all kinds of sinister plots.

For instance if Bush does Bomb Iran while the Iran president is in the states, Ahmadinejad could easily be detained, thus preventing an Iraq occupation scenario in Iran meaning troops won't have to be deployed on the ground and that would make 'things' look better for Bush.

Just food for thought.

I could use a good fast.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Fisk on the Antoine Ghanem murder

Note the gratuitous references to Israel as he discusses--or avoids discussing--Syria's role. From the Independent:

Antoine Ghanem was an easy target. Few bodyguards, no one would think that a member of parliament who represented the Armenians of Lebanon was a target. The little street in which he lived – tall tower blocks, boutiques, flower shops, was not a place where you would try to kill an enemy of Syria – if he was an enemy of Syria – but Antoine was blasted to pieces in his car as he left his home yesterday evening . . .

Lebanon is not a democracy in our Western sense of the word. Nor, for that matter, is Israel. "Democracy", as we like to call it in the West, does not sit easily in this part of the world.

But Lebanese politicians – for the most part but not always, men, are brave folk – who know the cost of standing up for their country against its more powerful neighbours, be those neighbours Israel or Syria.

There will be few in this country last night – and today – and tomorrow – who will not see Ghanem's murder as another attempt by the Syrians to destroy any form of freedom in this little country. There will be equally little proof that shows Syria to blame.[...]

We'll see. Is Fisk accusing Israel? There are other hints in the parts I didn't excerpt.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

BBC: Journalist has limited options

This is actually called "Israel has limited options in Gaza." See if you can spot the journalistic option chosen by this writer:

For any government, ensuring the security of its citizens is paramount . . .

One possibility might be to explore the Hamas leadership's apparent interest in some kind of ceasefire . . . But the Israelis clearly want to do nothing that would give Hamas a breathing space to consolidate its control in Gaza . . .

The Israeli cabinet decision to declare the Gaza Strip hostile territory . . . talks of steps to reduce the supply of fuel and electricity to the Gaza Strip . . . But this will only be seen by Palestinians as a form of collective punishment . . .

A major incursion of long duration would risk significant Palestinian civilian and Israeli military casualties.

Israel could re-occupy the north-eastern part of the Gaza Strip and push back the rocket launchers, but for how long would it stay? [...]

Some analysts have reluctantly suggested that the preferred option might be a return to the targeted killing of senior Hamas leaders . . . But this too raises all sorts of issues . . . Such a step would inevitably draw strong criticism from abroad, further damaging Israel's diplomatic standing. [...]

It sounds to me as if Israel has a large number of options. Even good options have drawbacks. The question in each case is whether the drawback is more objectionable than the continued Qassam attacks. Any elected government that decides on a policy of firing missiles at an other country pretty much acquires total responsibility for any damages which ensue in the event that the other country has the means to defend itself. That should dispose of a number of these objections. Or it would in a sane world. Or in an insane world that contained a sane Israel.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Date Up-Date

Remember that MPAC-UK-proposed boycott of Zionist entity dates? You'll be shocked to learn that not all Muslim shopkeepers jumped to support it. MPAC says it best in a new, admirably restrained article entitled "Boycott Muslim Shops That Turn Traitor!":

Ramadan has come, a time when Muslims around the world focus on all that is good and just. All Muslims come closer to Allah in this period except those who are truly cursed. It seems many Muslim shop-keepers fall into that category. Putting the money God before the One true God that created them. For years some Muslim shop-keepers have been selling dates soaked in the blood of Palestinian children. Can you believe the parasites who are selling Muslims dates from Israel to open their fasts with during Ramadan?!

Israel is raking in bundles of money from Muslim neighbourhoods and ploughing this back into stealing the land from the people we Muslims pretend to care about. Buying more bullets to shoot in the back of little stone-throwing youths, building more illegal settlements for the rabid racists that they call ‘settlers’ and we know as colonists

Non-Muslims around the country have been brave enough to launch boycotts of Israel. Can you believe Muslim organisations are not doing the same within our own community? Typically, neither have our scholars organised an effective call to stop this blood soaked trade, focusing our minds instead only on how high our trousers should be or how long our beards are. Scholars such as Shaykh Yusuf Al Qaradawi have clearly supported the boycott – so why have we not heard about this issue in the mosque? [...]

Why indeed? Boycott the non-boycotters of the non-boycotters!

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Fars News: "Iran to Suppress Possible Aggressions Crushingly"

Sorry to be obscure, but I kept thinking: What does the odd prose-style here remind me of? Wait . . . it's coming to me . . . I know! Fishele and Fraydele! It's all in the adverbial elements:

Former commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi warned here on Tuesday that possible invasions of his country will be suppressed in a twinkling of an eye.

"Enemies should know that if they intend to launch a military attack on Iran, they will have to face our powerful armed forces, specially Basij (volunteer troops) and they will be suppressed in the least time possible," Rahim Safavi said during a ceremony to honor his 10 years of service as the commander-in-chief of the IRGC.

Meantime, the General noted the global conditions for the US, and said, "Wide hatred for the US in the Muslim and other world countries is now a reality, which has derived from the bad and improper performance of the Americans across the world."

"At present, the United States is stuck in a bad dead-end in Iraq and it can't survive this problem easily," he added.

And then Safavi's mother happily served him his breakfast made from nutritious and reasonably priced ingredients.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Juan Cole locates himself in the political spectrum

This is all in one relatively brief post. We learn, for instance, that Stephen Walt's opponents are "fascists":

The techniques of smearing and pressure politics deployed against his appearance can only be described as a form of Zionist-fascism (whether deriving from Christian Zionists or Jewish ones), which is a much more potent danger to open intellectual inquiry in the United States than is usually realized.

We learn that speakers are "disinvited" at Harvard "apparently on grounds of disagreeing with Alan Dershowitz." The David Project is called "Likudnik" (the biggest insult in the Cole lexicon) and its name put in quotes. Criticism of Jewish Israel-bashers is called "a form of anti-Semitism." (Juan, we didn't know you cared!) Solidarity is expressed with Norman Finkelstein, and a George Bisharat op-ed is recommended. Finally, we learn that "Gaza is the worst outcome of Western colonialism anywhere in the world outside the Belgian Congo." The imprecision and vagueness of this last statement actually helps. Tempers the extremism.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

No Crocs on the escalator!

Don't even ask how many of my kids wear those things. From the AP via SFGate.com:

At rail stations and shopping malls around the world, reports are popping up of people, particularly young children, getting their toes caught in escalators. The one common theme seems to be the clunky soft-soled clogs known by the name of the most popular brand, Crocs . . .

Four-year-old Rory McDermott got a Croc-clad foot caught in an escalator last month at a mall in northern Virginia. His mother managed to yank him free, but the nail on his big toe was almost completely ripped off, causing heavy bleeding.

At first, Rory's mother had no idea what caused the boy's foot to get caught. It was only later, when someone at the hospital remarked on Rory's shoes, that she began to suspect the Crocs and did an Internet search.

"I came home and typed in 'Croc' and 'escalator,' and all these stories came up," said Jodi McDermott, of Vienna, Va. "If I had known, those would never have been worn."

According to reports appearing across the United States and as far away as Singapore and Japan, entrapments occur because of two of the biggest selling points of shoes like Crocs: their flexibility and grip. Some report the shoes get caught in the "teeth" at the bottom or top of the escalator, or in the crack between the steps and the side of the escalator . . .

I knew there was a reason those things annoy me so much.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Chevez abolishes more freedoms

The current target is private education. The AP does its usual balancing act:

President Hugo Chavez threatened on Monday to close or take over any private school that refuses to submit to the oversight of his socialist government as it develops a new curriculum and textbooks.

"Society cannot allow the private sector to do whatever it wants," said Chavez, speaking on the first day of classes.

All schools, public and private, must admit state inspectors and submit to the government's new educational system, or be closed and nationalized, with the state taking responsibility for the education of their children, Chavez said.

A new curriculum will be ready by the end of this school year, and new textbooks are being developed to help educate "the new citizen," said Chavez's brother and education minister Adan Chavez, who joined him a televised ceremony at the opening of a public school in the eastern town of El Tigre.

The president's opponents accuse him of aiming to indoctrinate young Venezuelans with socialist ideology. But the education minister said the aim is to develop "critical thinking," not to impose a single way of thought . . .

That's a relief.

All schools will be bound to "subordinate themselves to the constitution" and comply with the "new Bolivarian educational system," he said, referring to his socialist movement named after South American independence hero Simon Bolivar . . .

Chavez also noted that previous Venezuelan educational systems carried their own ideology. Leafing through old grade school textbooks from the 1970s, he pointed out how they referred to Venezuela's "discovery" by Europeans.

"They taught us to admire Christopher Colombus and Superman," Chavez said, adding that education based on capitalist ideology had destroyed "the values of children."

Columbus and Superman? Those twin imperialistas?

Sunday, September 16, 2007

CS Monitor: "Palestine: democracy not Zionism"

This Jimmy Carter-ish article declares that a "decent two-state solution to the 'Palestinian problem' has become impossible." Other bloggers have already noted the extremeness of the author's anti-Zionism. I would just like to look his claims to practicality:

. . . if this problem is ever to be solved, it must be redefined. Those who truly seek justice and peace in the Middle East must dare to speak openly and honestly of the "Zionism problem" – and then to draw the moral, ethical, and practical conclusions that follow . . .

What does the "practical" part of that look like?

Just as marriage is vastly less complicated than divorce, democracy is vastly less complicated than partition. A democratic post-Zionist solution would not require any borders to be agreed, any division of Jerusalem, anyone to move from his current home, or any assets to be evaluated and apportioned. Full rights of citizenship would simply be extended to all the surviving natives still living in the country, as happened in the United States in the early 20th century and in South Africa in the late 20th century . . .

And all the Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, of course, will then line up to turn their weapons in. We didn't want a Palestinian right of return after all! We're fine with no explicitly Palestinian sovereignty over anything! Of course, Whitbeck is not saying that all this will be "easy":

No one would suggest that the moral, ethical, and intellectual transformation necessary to achieve a decent one-state solution will be easy. However, more and more people now recognize that a decent two-state solution has become impossible.

What distinguishes the "not easy" from the "impossible"? I'm not supposed to ask that. Does he have to do everything? Redefine the problem and solve it, too?

It is surely time for concerned people everywhere – and particularly for Americans – to imagine a better way, to encourage Israelis to imagine a better way, and to help both Israelis and Palestinians to achieve it. It is surely time to seriously consider democracy and to give it a chance.

Not that this involves weening the Palestinians from forming People's Liberation Fronts or Martyrs Brigades or anything . . .

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

More Dates to Boycott

A recent MPAC-UK article contemplates the horrifying prospect of Muslims breaking their Ramadan fasts with Israeli dates.

To some people this may be nothing to worry about, but think about this. Is there really any point in fasting if on the other hand you are providing the state of Israel with money which will inevitably kill and oppress your fellow innocent Muslims in Palestine?

To enable their fellow Muslims to identify Israeli date packaging, MPAC helpfully provides some photos. And this is not only of great benefit to Muslims who wish to boycott Colonialist Medjools and Apartheid Deglet Noor dates, but also to Imperialist lackeys who actively seek out these oppressive but delectable jewels of the desert. So we thought we would supplement their excellent work with some further examples:

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Linkim 9/16/07

Haveil Havalim 134 is up! Carnival of the Insanities is up! Update: Best of Me Symphony

Tigerhawk: "Osirak redux, and the idiom of military action" (h/t: Instapundit)

Israel Matzav on recent events in Syria. Scroll down for more posts on the same topic.

Kamangir: "'Shield of Modesty' invented in Iran"--you won't believe this.

Steyn: "Looking for love in all the wrong places"

Joseph Hertzlinger: "The Amodio Study and the 'Chickenhawk' Accusation"

The Muqata: "Shmita has arrived!"

Meryl Yourish: "A Holocaust tale, 1"

No points for "endearing stylistic eccentricity" under NCLB

Jonathan Kozol offers a little rant (and explanation for his partial hunger-strike) about the No Child Left Behind act at Huffpo. Did you know that "sophisticated" "methods of assessment" allow one to grade for "authenticity"? I must keep up more with developments in education:

Sophisticated as opposed to low-grade methods of assessment would not only tell us whether little Oscar or Shaniqua started out their essays with "a topic sentence" but would also tell us whether they wrote something with the slightest hint of authenticity and charm or simply stamped out insincere placebos. (A child gets no credit for originality or authenticity under No Child Left Behind. Sincerity gets no rewards. Endearing stylistic eccentricity, needless to say, is not rewarded either. That which can't be measured is not valued by the technocrats of uniformity who have designed this miserable piece of legislation.)

Is whether or not to give credit for "endearing stylistic eccentricity" dealt with so minutely in NCLB? I would like to see the language of the provisions which discuss this topic.

Abu Guy Fawkes?

This is from the folks at Reuters, who helpfully suggest that this event "could fuel tensions":

A Hamas-led security force said on Sunday it found a bomb outside the parliament building in the Gaza Strip, a development that could fuel tensions between governing Islamists and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

"We have thwarted a bombing attack against the parliament headquarters," said Islam Shahwan, a spokesman for Hamas's Executive Force that polices the territory.

He said the bomb contained 15 kg (33 lb) of explosives and was placed at the parliamentary compound's gate.

"The engineering unit of the Executive Force defused the device. The Executive force is searching for the perpetrators," Shahwan said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility . . .

If the threat was to the "parliament building," shouldn't the bomb have been handled by the Legislative Force's engineering unit?

Dar Al Hayat: Jihad el-Khazen recommends . . .

The Host and the Parasite - How Israel's Fifth Column Consumed America, by Greg Felton, was published in 2007. The book comprises consolidated details on the conspiracies of the lobby, of Israeli terror, and on Israel's role in massacres like Qana, Sabra and Shatila, along with explanations on how the lobby controls the United States that in turn controls the United Nations and international organizations.

So The Lobby pretty much controls everything, then?

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Fisk channels his inner Taliban

New horizons in cultural relativism:

. . . there still stands an English tombstone which I would read each time I panted past it in my Sutton Valence school running shorts on wintry Saturday afternoons. I don't remember whose body it immortalises, but I remember the carved verse above the name: "Remember me as you pass by,/ As you are now, so once was I./ As I am now, so you will be./ Remember Death will follow thee."

And I do recall, exhausted and frozen into my thin running clothes, that I came to hate this eternal message so much that sometimes I wanted to take a hammer and smash the whole bloody thing to pieces. Yes, somewhere in our dark hearts, perhaps we are all Talibans.

Although only some of us are Talibans in our open day-to-day actions.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Chabad.org: "Rosh Hashanah in a Nutshell"

This was my last post before Rosh Hashanah from last year:

The festival of Rosh Hashanah --the name means "Head of the Year" --is observed for two days beginning on Tishrei 1, the first day of the Jewish year. It is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, and their first actions toward the realization of mankind's role in G-d's world.

Rosh Hashanah thus emphasizes the special relationship between G-d and humanity: our dependence upon G-d as our creator and sustainer, and G-d's dependence upon us as the ones who make His presence known and felt in His world. Each year on Rosh Hashanah, "all inhabitants of the world pass before G-d like a flock of sheep," and it is decreed in the heavenly court, "who shall live, and who shall die... who shall be impoverished, and who shall be enriched; who shall fall and who shall rise." But this is also the day we proclaim G-d King of the Universe. The Kabbalists teach that the continued existence of the universe is dependant upon the renewal of the divine desire for a world when we accept G-d's kingship each year on Rosh Hashanah.

The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the shofar, the ram's horn, which represents the trumpet blast of a people's coronation of their king. The cry of the shofar is also a call to repentance; for Rosh Hashanah is also the anniversary of man's first sin and his repentance thereof, and serves as the first of the "Ten Days of Repentance" which culminate in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Another significance of the shofar is to recall the Binding of Isaac which also occurred on Rosh Hashanah, in which a ram took Isaac's place as an offering to G-d; we evoke Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son and plead that the merit of his deed should stand by us as we pray for a year of life, health and prosperity. Altogether, the shofar is sounded 100 times in the course of the Rosh Hashanah service.

Additional Rosh Hashanah observances include: a) Eating a piece of apple dipped in honey to symbolize our desire for a sweet year, and other special foods symbolic of the new year's blessings. b) Blessing one another with the words Leshanah tovah tikateiv veteichateim, "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year." c) Tashlich, a special prayer said near a body of water (an ocean, river, pond, etc.) in evocation of the verse, "And You shall cast their sins into the depths of the sea." And as with every major Jewish holiday after candlelighting and prayers we recite Kiddush and make a blessing on the Challah.

May you be sealed and inscribed for a good and sweet year.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

A green-fatigue clad figure joins the truth-brigade

From Reuters via Drudge:

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said the U.S. government misinformed Americans and the world about 9/11, echoing conspiracy theories about the terror attacks against the United States six years ago.

In an essay read by a Cuban television presenter on Tuesday night, Castro said the Pentagon was hit by a rocket, not a plane, because no traces were found of its passengers.

"Today one knows there was deliberate misinformation," wrote Castro, who has not appeared in public since July of 2006 when life-threatening surgery for a secret illness forced him to hand over power to his brother Raul Castro.

"Studying the impact of planes, similar to those that hit the Twin Towers, that had accidentally fallen on densely populated cities, one concludes that it was not a plane that crashed into the Pentagon," Castro said.

"Only a projectile could have caused the geometrically round hole that allegedly was made by the plane," he said.

"We were fooled like the rest of the planet's inhabitants," he wrote.[...]

He has a lot of company:

Cindy Sheehan
Hugo Chavez
Rosie O'Donnell
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Keith Ellison
Ed Asner
Robert Fisk

Rodong Sinmun on the Carnival of the Capitalists

It is the law governing the development of history that capitalism goes to ruin and socialism emerges victorious and no force on earth can reverse the direction of the development of history towards socialism.

Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article observes this.

It goes on . . .

The Carnival of the Capitalists is an unpopular exploiting blog-carnival, an unequal blog-carnival where the privileged have power in hands and get richer by exploiting the toiling people who account for the majority of the population.

Socialism is incomparably advantageous to the Carnival of the Capitalists. In socialist society, the people are politically stable and lead a worthwhile and happy life, having sound thinking and mentality and culture.

In the DPRK, the people have become the master of the country and society and lead a happy life on an equal footing, exercising all their rights. The DPRK is the only country in the world where people are guaranteed all rights ranging from the right to work to the right to food, clothing and housing and the right to study and receive medical care.

The "advantages" of the Carnival of the Capitalists much touted by the imperialists and the reactionaries are nothing but sophism to cover up the reactionary and corrupt nature and vulnerability of the capitalist system.

Thanks to Juche Girl for the image.

Monday, September 10, 2007

BBC: More of the same old nonsense about Shakespeare

Don't believe it:

Actors including Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance have launched a debate over who really wrote the works of William Shakespeare.

Almost 300 people have signed a "declaration of reasonable doubt", which they hope will prompt further research into the issue.

"I subscribe to the group theory. I don't think anybody could do it on their own," Sir Derek said.

The group says there are no records of Shakespeare being paid for his work.

While documents do exist for Shakespeare, who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, all are non-literary.

In particular, his will, in which he left his wife "my second best bed with the furniture" contains none of his famous turns of phrase and it does not mention any books, plays or poems.

The 287-strong Shakespeare Authorship Coalition says it is not possible that the bard's plays - with their emphasis on law - could have been penned by a 16th Century commoner raised in an illiterate household.

The group asks if one man alone could have come up with his works
It asks why most of his plays are set among the upper classes, and why Stratford-upon-Avon is never referred to in any of his plays.

"How did he become so familiar with all things Italian so that even obscure details in these plays are accurate?" the group adds.

Conspiracy theories have circulated since the 18th Century about a number of figures who could have used Shakespeare as a pen-name, including playwright Christopher Marlowe, nobleman Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon.

"I think the leading light was probably de Vere as I agree that an author writes about his own experience, his own life and personalities," Sir Derek said. [...]

So de Vere was a Venetian Jew, a mythical ancient British king with three daughters, and a Moorish general? Shakespeare's plays were popular. They are intensely poetic, but they are not self-consciously learned (compare the plays of Ben Jonson) and they draw heavily on English sources, such as North's translation of Plutarch's Lives. People who complain that Shakespeare was a "commoner" are snobs.

If there was a conspiracy to falsely pass off William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon as the author of the plays in the First Folio, then Shakespeare's fellow actors Heminges and Condell were in on it, as was Ben Jonson. And about being paid for his work, he was part owner of the acting company that performed his plays. The ideas in this article reappear periodically and serious scholars of Shakespeare generally do not take them seriously. You shouldn't either.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Intelligent MPAC-UK Post-title of the Day

Click on the image to enlarge.

You already know the story. I just wanted you to see the post-title. Such mental giants.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Dissident Voice on the "inversions" of the "ethnic cleansing regime"

I love pretentious writing.

How were the terms of US political and economic debate severed from basic standards of evidence and common sense? Why does the word "hypocrisy" seem inadequate to describe the pretzel logic of the neo-conservatives? Why do the people of the United States remain inert as the madness at the top claims the authority to hemorrhage its execution of Iraq into a nuclear war on Iran?

The people . . . inert to the hemorrhage-authority-claiming madness . . .

John McMurtry is a decorated professor of philosophy who has pursued questions like these to the ideological foundations of today’s US-centric global empire. His analysis offers insights that can help us identify and think our way out of this now ubiquitous "mind-lock". McMurtry’s approach also turns out to be useful for illuminating core ideological contradictions in Israel’s US-supported ethnic cleansing regime, which has been forcing Palestinians off their lands for the last 60 years.

Taking time out for meals, of course.

McMurtry narrates the ascendance of a "fanatic mind-set" in the west following the demise of the Soviet Union, when "a strange ideological inversion occurred." Marxism’s ‘economic determinism,’ "abhorred by liberal theory," was swiftly replaced with the West’s own brand of imposed economic determinism. "Inevitable globalization" was framed as a product of unaccountable and unstoppable forces unleashed by a veritable law of nature, the ultimate "wisdom of the market" that benefits all.

McMurtry demonstrates the destruction of value and meaning inherent in the adoption of this absolutist dogma, which claims to encompass all human activity and reflexively rules out of order any other explanation or concern. He also traces the use of this irrationality to justify brutal economic and military predation under the twin deceptions of "free trade" and "democracy". The nakedness of this nonsense is revealed by McMurtry’s observation that it glorifies its "no alternative" market theory and bullying imperial trade policies as the ultimate in economic freedom . . .

Observers of Israel and its influence within the United States see a long trend toward ideological convergence between the two nations, especially in foreign policy, war, economics, and propaganda. One of the little-noted fundamentals of this growing affinity is a mutual and increasing need and desire to justify unjustifiable acts and obscure incriminating truths.

The convergence of the Big and Little Satans . . .

So it is not surprising that Israel is awash in the same intellectual process of inversion that McMurtry finds so pervasive in the US.

Israel . . . awash in a pervasive inversion process . . .

Indeed, one could argue that many of Israel’s ideological contradictions are at least as old as the state. Using McMurtry’s style of formulation and taking broad liberties with his method, here are a few of the more obvious inversions of meanings and values underlying the Israeli government’s proclamations and practices. US readers may note the obvious parallels:

Israel’s "right to defend itself" assumes the "harsh necessity" of its military and civilian occupation of Palestinian land, which is an illegal act of war. Self-defense = Aggression

Israel’s security depends upon the continual provocation of forces that will threaten Israel’s security when provoked. Security = Promotion of insecurity

Israelis’ freedom depends upon the imprisonment of another people. Freedom = Denial of freedom

Israel’s democracy depends upon the racist exclusion of its indigenous5 citizens and the empowerment6 of the most intolerant of its privileged citizens. Democracy = Apartheid

Israel is a "bastion of religious freedom" in which civil law is based on an "orthodox" version of a single religion. Religious freedom = Religious exclusivity

Israel’s continued prosperity requires "market liberalization" that dramatically increases poverty and consolidates wealth at the top. Prosperity = Poverty [...]

You mean, prosperity *doesn't* equal poverty?!?!

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

IRIB Radio on the Mossad-Arab Axis

We have met these same conspirators before:

New revelations have come to light which show The Zionist regime's intelligence agency, Mossad's involvement in the sacrilegious Terror attacks on the Holy Askari shrines; the shrines of 10th and 11th infallible successors of the Holy Prophet of Islam, Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon Him and his progeny) in the Iraqi city of Samara. The Iraqi newspaper, "Abeyant Al-Jadida" quoted an Iraqi interior ministry official as saying that based on the Iraqi security officials' investigations and inquiries into the bomb blasts which destroyed the minarets of the Holy Askari shrine, it has emerged that the Zionist regime's secret agents and spies were closely involved in carrying out these sacrilegious Terror attacks.

Those arrested in connection with the investigation into the Terror blasts at the Al-Askari shrine, have confessed that they carried out the Samara operations with a pre-planned plot through some Arab states in order to create religious and sectarian violence and seditions.

Without mentioning the names of those countries involved, the Iraqi paper, "Abeyant Al-Jadida" wrote Iraq's interior minister, Jawad Al-Bulani, will announce all the details of the Samara terrorist attacks in 4 days.

In their second sacrilegious Terror attack on the Holy Shrine in Samara, the terrorists blasted the minarets of the Holy mosque and shrine of the 10th and 11th infallible successors of prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon Him and his progeny) in June, 2007.

Linkim 9/9/07

Haveil Havalim 133 is up! Carnival of the Insanities is up!

Gateway Pundit: "UN Human Rights Head Joins Ahmadinejad at Israel-Bash!" (h/t: LGF)

Kamangir offers some perspective on the subject of offensive cartoons.

Weekly Standard: "The Nazi roots of the 9/11 attack." (h/t: Discarded Lies)

ATFP: "Sense, Nonsense and Strategy in the New Palestinian Political Landscape" (h/t: Martin Kramer)

Steyn: "No terrorism, just war?"

Jeff Robbins: "Anti-Semitism and the Anti-Israel Lobby"

Solomonia: "Former US Senator: The Arabs Involved in 9/11 Were Cooperating with the Zionists"

Howard Jacobson: "There seems to be a pecking order among the dispossessed, and Jews come last" (h/t: Simply Jews)

Mere Rhetoric: "Unintentionally Hysterical 'What About All The Good Things Hamas Is Doing?' Attempt Of The Day"

Israel Matzav: "The terrorist work release program" (h/t: BTB)

Eye on the World: "Arabs Murder ISM Activist, ISM Silent"

Al-Ahram: "9/11 for dummies" If they only knew . . .

Mehr News: "'Che Guevara, Image of a Revolutionary Man' hits Iran’s bookstores"

One often sees references to "conservative hard-line clerics" in Iran, but they quite consciously present themselves as leftist. This is part of a phenomenon I call "bad taste in infidels":

The book “Che Guevara, Image of a Revolutionary Man” compiled by Gita Garkani is now available in Iran’s bookstores.

The book comprises 400 pictures, some of which have been published for the first time. It reviews the life of Che Guevara from his childhood until his death.

Ernesto Che Guevara was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

AP yearns for more substantive Bin Laden tape

They aren't rating this one so highly:

Analysts say the video that came out days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks is more about timing than substance . . .

(North) Korean News: "the flood-victims directed attention to protecting the portraits of President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il than their families"

Remember the story about the lady who got burnt trying to protect slogan-bearing trees from fire? This one is called "Spirit of Defending Leader with Very Life Displayed in Flood-hit Areas":

The recent unprecedented heavy rains triggered off flood and landslide in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, causing heavy human and material losses.

But the flood-victims directed attention to protecting the portraits of President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il than their families.

The torrential rains on August 9 submerged the township area of Hoeyang County. Over a thousand families there were evacuated to safety places. They came there, carrying not their properties but the portraits of the President and the leader.

Students of Koksan County School for Agricultural Skilled Workers and people in the county defended the picture of smiling President from the downpour.

Ri Chun Hwa, a worker of the Changdo County Clothing Factory, brought over 1,500 books carrying the images of the great men of Mt. Paektu, from the County Publication Circulation Office to a safe place through torrents of water at the risk of her life.

Many people including People's Security officer Choe Myong Gil in Ichon County and teacher of Ichon Middle School No. 1 Hwang Myong Ok rushed in public buildings and dwelling houses without hesitation to save portraits, realizing that they would soon crumble.

Among such people are peasant of the Jongdong Co-op Farm in Phyonggang County Cha Hyang Mi who handed over portraits to rescuers and went to the bottom of the torrent water, peasant of the same farm Pak Jong Ryol who lost his wife and child by landslide but saved the portraits and worker of the Ichon Foodstuff Factory Kang Hyong Gwon who firmly took portraits in his hands in flood though his five-year-old daughter slipped down from his back.

Oh no . . . no . . .

After the flood, corpses were dug out of the silt. Found out in their bosom were portraits wrapped with vinyl sheets to prevent them from being spoiled by water.

It is the just outlook on life of the Korean people to enjoy their existence, dignity and happiness in the effort for defending the leader at the cost of their lives.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Human Rights Watch accuses DePaul of "indiscriminate" tenure denial

Professor Norman Finkelstein still shakes with anger when he recounts the night the denial-of-tenure notices came in the mail disappointing his career-hopes and those of eight of his colleagues.

"We were all leading scholars. There was not a single one of us who was not heavily published," the 54-year-old said.

A prominent human rights group on Thursday rejected DePaul University's claim that the firings were caused because of erratic and unprofessional behavior.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said there were only "rare" cases of Finkelstein's showing disrespect for others' views and that DePaul's "indiscriminate" firing actions have outraged thousands of students and social-justice advocates.

Human Rights Watch said its report was based on interviews with 94 students, 13 anti-war activists, and 27 faculty members, including "non-tenured Assistant Professor" Mathew Abraham, who commented "The general public used to look to the academy for leadership, vision, and most importantly, uncorrupted knowledge. Not anymore."

Update: Unlike previous reports, the current HRW report includes recommendations, most notably, that DePaul should be tried in the World Criminal Court for crimes against the humanities.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Rooz: "What Has Government Done with 140 Billion Dollars?"

Some things are simple. Countries with oppressive governments have bad economies:

Six months after state-run news agencies estimated Iran’s foreign reserves to be around 20 billion U.S. dollars, and five months after the central bank put that figure at 9 billion dollars, and coinciding with the resignation of central bank governor Ebrahim Sheibani, news reports announced that Ahmadinejad’s administration had spent the country’s foreign exchange reserves despite generating Iran’s highest ever oil revenues.

The central bank’s foreign currency chief reported that only 3.6 billion Dollars was left in Iran’s foreign exchange reserves, thus refuting the administration’s claims that more money is held in the reserves.

With the figure announced by Mr. Mohammad Jafar Mojarrad, Majlis deputies have no option other than to question the administration once they return from their summer recess. How has the administration spent 140 billion Dollars [the highest reserves Iranhas ever had] in just two years?

According to financial analysts, this is the highest amount spent by any administration in Iran’s history.

In a news story, E’temad daily speculated that government officials may have lost track of actual amounts in the foreign exchange reserve accounts, as the government has released two contradictory reports about its account balance in two days . . . .

What worries financial analysts more than anything else is the fear that government officials may hide or distort reported figures in an effort to boast their achievements in the face of growing foreign threats. The government’s political and economic officials constantly downplay the effects of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran and insist that foreign governments are hurt more by sanctions than Iran is. This claim is made now with as much force as it was made before any sanctions resolutions were passed against Iran.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Chavez economics start to work their magic

I figured Chavez might get away with his economic adventures for a certain time thanks to Venezuela's oil wealth, but the inevitable economic rot seems to be setting in immediately. From the International Herald Tribune:

The Venezuelan economy, under the direction of President Hugo Chávez, is starting to unravel in the currency market.

While Venezuela earns record proceeds from oil exports, consumers face shortages of meat, flour and cooking oil. Annual inflation has risen to 16 percent, the highest in Latin America, as Chávez tripled government spending in four years.

Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips are pulling out after Chávez demanded that they cede control of joint venture projects . . .

"This has been the worst-managed oil boom in Venezuela's history," said Ricardo Hausmann, a former government planning minister who now teaches economics at Harvard University. "A devaluation is a foregone conclusion. The only question is when."

JPMorgan Chase and Merrill Lynch expect Chávez to devalue the bolivar 14 percent in the first quarter of 2008 after he introduces a new currency Jan. 1 that will lop three zeros off all denominations . . .

Chávez terminated the broadcast license of the country's most-watched television network in May, sparking weeks of student protests. He has threatened to take over cement makers, hospitals, banks, supermarkets and butcher shops, saying they were not obeying price controls.

"It's like our director of marketing, our director of sales, our director of manufacturing is President Chávez," said Edgar Contreras, who runs international operations at Molinos Nacionales, a Caracas-based food manufacturer that employs 1,500 people. "We can't go on like this."

Contreras called the government-set prices on many products "fantasy prices" that are below production costs. Milk, chicken, coffee and flour have disappeared from store shelves in Caracas at times this year.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Press TV (Iran) on you-know-who

Picked up from here, and only marginally more extreme than Walt and Mearsheimer et al.

Those who follow what's going on in the world know that the invasion and occupation of Iraq were based on a myth created by the neo-conservatives in America, trumpeted by George W. Bush and spread by a Zionist-controlled media.

That myth, a fictionalized account of non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussein's non-existent arsenal was created by "dual loyalists" in the American administration who wanted to eliminate any possibility of Iraq developing a destructive force that could endanger Israel.

Now, a new assault orchestrated by the Zionists is moving forward on the basis of another myth: that Iran is developing a nuclear arsenal and wants to "wipe Israel off the map".

The invasion of Lebanon was part of that myth. When Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on Lebanese territory, the Israelis leapt at the opportunity to use that as an excuse to attack Lebanon, provoking Hezbollah to retaliate.

The Israelis knew that if they provoked them, Hezbollah would respond in kind. While destroying Lebanon's infrastructure and murdering its civilians, the Zionist propaganda machine blathered its usual line about self-defense. The conclusion of the deceptive argument was that Hezbollah's attacks on Israel prove that Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map.

The next part of the sham argument holds that since Iran wants to eliminate Israel, according to its president, and because it insists on its right to develop a nuclear capability, and as they're lying about wanting nuclear power for peaceful purposes, Iran must be attacked.

However, Iran's president did not say that Israel should be wiped off the map. That interpretation of what Ahmedinejad said was based on a fraudulent translation of his speech. His comment was "Imam [Khomeini] said “This regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the pages of history." [...]

That "fraudulent translation" is still in IRIB's archives.

"The Zionist regime is one of them"

From ISNA. When is the last time you saw a current reference to the PLO?

Iran's president noted that the only cure for the old but renewed wounds on Palestine's body was its nation's integrated resistance, faith and unity.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a meeting with the head of the political department of the Palestinian Liberation Organization pointing to the falling power of the world's bullies said it was so naive to presume that the U.S. and some European countries were caring about the Palestinian nation.

"Because the Zionist regime is one of them," he gave evidence.

He while calling the Palestinian nation "invincible" added that great victories were always made out of difficulties.

Ahmadinejad also assured that Iranian government and nation would stay faithful to Palestinians' ultimate goal and were ready to help them.

Farouq Al-Qaddoumi also for his part while appreciating Iran's supporting his nation added "In spite of all pressures on my nation they would continue resistance and the holy war."

"Finally, victory is what Palestinians gain."

CS Monitor: US "Craig-like"

Since it does not appreciate the democratic nature of Hamas, Hizbullah, and Iran!

What most Americans often don't seem to realize is that a Craig-like credibility gap characterizes how the US is perceived by much of the outside world . . . .

The US promotes democratization in the Middle East and has taken direct action by invading Afghanistan and Iraq to bestow the blessings of democracy. However, for Muslims, the coverup emerges when Washington then rejects the outcome of the democratic process following Hamas's victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections, and when it disregards the fact that in Lebanon Hizbullah is an elected part of the government. Washington ignores the fact that Iran is a democracy (albeit one of a very theocratic sort) with hotly contested elections . . .

"Of a very theocratic sort"--that's an important qualification.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Juche sentence of the day

This one seems to have been written by a broken robot:

The stand on attaching importance to the nation represents the Juche-oriented view and stand on approaching everything from the stand of putting the interests of the nation responsible for carving out its destiny above all, not outsiders, in the struggle for carving out the destiny of the nation.

That should give you renewed strength to face the challenges of your day.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Kucinich meets Assad

"If everybody in the world today had a flower instead of a gun
There would be no wars
There would be one big smell-in."

From PR Newswire via Earthtimes and DKos:

In a meeting today with Dennis Kucinich, US Democratic Presidential candidate, Syrian President Bashar Assad said that Syria would be willing to participate in a multinational conference and peacekeeping force to help Iraq to manage its transition from occupied country to sovereign nation.

Assad made these assurances and other observations in a two-hour meeting with Kucinich, who traveled to Syria to discuss a peace initiative which has arisen out of his anti-war work in the House of Representatives. President Assad agreed with Kucinich that various US demands for the privatization of Iraq's oil and partition of Iraq would mean a continuation of war.

"We must stand for strength through peace, for a sovereign and unified Iraq. President Assad is willing for Syria to play a significant role in assisting in the stabilization of Iraq," said Kucinich. "President Assad knows that an international peace keeping and security force must be organized and ready to deploy in order to facilitate the end of the occupation. He understands that the US cannot leave a vacuum in Iraq, but that at the present time the US occupation is fueling the insurgency. He is recommending a parallel political process involving an Iraqi national conference, the disarming of militias, and the building up of an Iraqi army which would eventually takeover from international peace keepers."

Kucinich said the fact that Syria, a nation of just 20 million people, has both welcomed and is providing free health care and education to the million and a half Iraqi refugees is evidence of Syria's vital role in the region. "The international community must recognize and appreciate that Syria has at its own great cost provided a lifeboat to millions who suffer from the humanitarian crisis which the war in Iraq has created." [...]

Kucinich and his wife Elizabeth visited the ancient holy site of Notre Dame de Saydanaya, where today fully veiled Muslim women worship together with Christians. "This is the one of the few places in the world that I have witnessed such profound coexistence, and harmony," Mrs. Kucinich said. "In this time of religious strife it is important to bear witness to places which show the way of peace."

This evening Kucinich spoke to over 150 academicians, journalists and politicians in Damascus where he presented his new security doctrine. "Strength through Peace turns the neoconservative doctrine of Peace through Strength on its head. The neo-cons' Peace through Strength, has led to unilateralism, military build up and illegal war." Kucinich told the packed audience, "Strength through Peace favors the upholding of international law, treaties and direct engagement, which is why I am here" Kucinich added.

"I believe that through direct communication there is new hope for peace," he said. "The world is ready to fall in love with America again. It is important that America reaches out to show our true values, our compassion and our willingness to work for peace." [...]

Crossposted on Soccer Dad