Thursday, October 22, 2009 - Another Mini-Blog From The Road (Phillies Advance to World Series!!)

1. How Can You Trust Human Rights Watch? Not surprisingly, Human Rights Watch has not reacted well to the NYT piece by founder Robert Bernstein that I linked to yesterday. Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic reviews what he terms Blatant Dishonesty from Human Rights Watch.

So my question is - if you can't trust them to tell the truth about themselves, how can you trust them to tell the truth about anyone, especially Israel? In the meantime, here is a testament to Mr. Bernstein - Robert Bernstein's Courage - October 21, 2009 - The New York Sun.

2. Truth Or Fake? - Ron Radosh » An Onion Parody, or a UN Human Rights Report: You Decide - I mean, really! Sounds like a war crime to me! Wow......

3. Really - Are You Sure (Part I)? Solana: 'We have no time to lose' on Iran Israel Palestine-Gaza Conflict Jerusalem Post - it took this long to figure this out?

4. Really - Are You Sure (Part II)? Canada's top general: Now we see what IDF was up against Israel Palestine-Gaza Conflict Jerusalem Post. With absolutely no disrespect to the Canadian military, and I mean that sincerely, we ain't talking about the Oka Crisis here - we're talking about large numbers of heavily armed radical Islamists sworn to the destruction of Israel and sitting on Israel's borders.

Famous Picture from the Oka Crisis - 1990

Hezbollah Rockets

(not an NHL team, by the way)

- What if the Mohawks at Oka had

lobbed a few of these babies into Montreal?

What if they had launched 8,000?

What would Canada have done?

5. Here's An Important Truth - In the Middle East, talk is cheap - News Analysis - Painful Mideast Truth - Force Trumps Diplomacy - NYTimes.com.

6. I'm Not Surprised (Part I) - Lockerbie bomber still alive, Libyan official says Reuters

7. I'm Not Surprised (Part II) - Toronto imam preaches hatred of Jews and Christians! - Jihad Watch

8. Beyond Hitler's Grasp - I have just finished reading this very interesting book by Michael Bar-Zohar that details the rescue of the 50,000 Jews of Bulgaria during the Shoah. This was largely due to the efforts of King Boris III, many members of the Bulgarian legislature, the leadership of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, as well as prominent members of Bulgarian society. These people somehow faced down Hitler himself, as well as Adolf Eichmann and Theodore Dannecker and ensured that not one of the 50,000 Jews living in Bulgaria were deported. And this despite the fact that Bulgaria was a German ally.

That is not to say the record was perfect - the Jews of Thrace and Macedonia were deported and brutally murdered - though there is some argument about whether that could have been prevented because while Thrace and Macedonia ostensibly came under Bulgarian control during the war as a reward for siding with the Third Reich, the terrotories were in fact firmly controlled by the Nazis.

So while we sadly remember the murdered Jews of Thrace and Macedonia, we give thanks for the Bulgarian Jews who were not deported - almost all of whom, by the way, later emigrated to Israel.

Here is an interview with the author:

9. The Lesson Of The Holocaust - Menachem Z. Rosensaft: Holocaust overload Op-Ed Contributors Jerusalem Post. Note in particular:

"The Holocaust was the greatest carnage ever perpetrated. It looms as the epitome of all that is worst in the human condition, and led to the codification of genocide as a crime against humanity. As such, it must be studied so as to prevent future atrocities, not reduced to insensitive, throwaway punch lines."

10. Something Light - This image has been making the rounds - I have received it about 25 times from various people.

You are looking for a book. You cannot find it. You have looked everywhere - Chapters, Indigo, Coles, Amazon, Barnes & Noble - but no luck. You know why? You have been in the store below (say its name fast & you'll get it) - sorry for my "French"!