1. Obama Reaction Continues - I'm not going to dwell on this story until the end of time, but I will post these links from the incomparable Mark Steyn and Victor Davis Hanson - Who Really Won? by Mark Steyn onNational Review Online and Works and Days » Nobelitics. I also got a huge charge out of this cartoon
Also - here is a suggestion of the first thing that the President can use the Peace Prize as leverage for - American Thinker Blog: 3 Iranian protestors face hanging.
3. The Guardian is Full Of It - Tom Gross: Britain's Guardian newspaper tries to airbrush Israelis out of the Nobel Prize map - Full Comment - I still can't get over this story and the absolute lie offered in response.
4. Yom Kippur War - This will change people's opinions of Nixon - it changes mine - Thirty-Six Years Ago Today, Richard Nixon Saved Israel—but Got No Credit.
5. Exhaustion? A while ago, I posted a story about someone who said one of the reasons that his support of Israel was waning was that the effort was exhausting him - here is a great response - No Right to Exhaustion Daniel Gordis - Dispatches from an Anxious State.
6. Do You Think This Is Important? Or Will Ever Be Raised? Goldstone: ‘If This Was a Court Of Law, There Would Have Been Nothing Proven.’ – Forward.com. Also, see Israeli officials warn against support for UN report - Middle East, World - The Independent.
7. Kasztner's Train - I just finished reading this book. The basic story - of a Hungarian lawyer and Jewish leader who negotiated with top Nazis - including Adolf Eichmann - and saved some 1,600 Jews on the so-called "Kasztner's Train" - is amazing in and of itself. However, I found the last part of the book to be most interesting - dealing, even briefly, with a topic that I had never considered - the manner that survivors of the Shoah were treated in Israel after the Second World War.
Briefly put, my reading was that "ordinary survivors" - being those who did not actively resist the Nazis and their henchmen - were looked down upon as not being the equal of the chalutzim (pioneers) who settled the modern State of Israel.
However, the part of the story that really upset me related to a libel trial that took place in Israel and that centered on Kasztner's activities in World War Two Hungary - survivors and others accused Kastzner of dealing with the devil, of enriching himself with some of the valuables needed to bribe the Nazis, and of coercing Jews in other parts of Hungary into not resisting the Nazi deportations.
At the trial, Kasztner's brother asked a Szatmar Rabbi who had been on "Kasztner's Train" (together with his large family and a number of his followers) if he would testify on Kastzner's behalf. The response?
"He had been saved by God, he insisted, not by another human being - and, least of all, by a Zionist"I was so upset I had to put down the book.
In any event, here are some stories about Kasztner and the documentary about his story, which will be released in North America shortly.
- He sipped the devil's soup with a short spoon - thestar.com
- Tracking Kasztner’s Train – Forward.com
- Killing Kasztner - the Movie
8. Genocide - The controversial Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of Hitler's Willing Executioners - weighs in - SPIEGEL Interview with Daniel Jonah Goldhagen: 'Mass Slaughter Is a Systemic Problem of the Modern World' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International.
9. Turkish Trouble - This is a concern because the major support for the good Turkish-Israeli relationship has come from its military - Israel: Hmmm, maybe these arms sales to Turkey aren't such a good idea - Jihad Watch, US criticizes Turkey for canceling NATO military drill | Middle East Conflict and Turkish ministers head to Syria for strategic talks | Middle East Conflict.
11. The Nakba - This is what the Arabs call the founding of the State of Israel - translated, it means the "catastrophe" - mind you, as you will see, they always seem to forget (a) they attacked Israel instead of accepting the UN Partition Resolution and (b) the somewhat larger number of Jews who had lived in Arab countries for generations who were expelled at the same time. Robert Satloff, who wrote "Among The Righteous" reports that the U.N. Equates the "Nakba" to the Holocaust. Atlantic columnist Jeffrey Goldberg follows up with Did the "Nakba" Happen?.
13. Persecution of the Baha'i - By those tolerant, peace-loving Iranian clerics and the thugs under their command - Faster, Please! » Accomplices to Evil - interesting, isn't it, that the only place in the Middle East where the Baha'i know religious freedom is in Israel (picture below is in Haifa)?
15. Minarets - In Halifax, a new mosque is being constructed in an old, established part of the city. The mosque includes a minaret, which, as I understand, is not a religious obligation but rather a manifestation of political muscle. Maybe the City Fathers/Mothers should read Anger Over Anti-Islamic Poster: Why the Swiss are Afraid of Minarets - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International.
16. Iran - Bombs Away The New Republic, National Intelligence Estimate Was Wrong - WSJ.com and How Iranian nukes would reshape the Middle East. - By Lee Smith - Slate Magazine. And isn't it nice to know that after President Obama dropped the Eastern European missile shield thing (which was likely part of the reason he was "Nobelized") the Russians are not playing ball on sanctions on Iran. Also see this story. Do you think that they might have promised one thing and done another?
18. Dolphins Beat The Jets - My Dolphins have played some amazing games with the New York Jets - often coming out on the wrong end of the score. Monday night's game was another exciting one, with Miami prevailing on a touchdown with just 2 seconds left in the game. Here are the highlights.
By the way, one of the best moments between these two great rivals was the famous "helicopter catch" by Miami receiver Nat Moore - check this out and you'll see why.
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