
(in memory of the Six Million)
1. Hamas and Fatah, Up In A Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G - to quote the old schoolyard rhyme. Not like the newly minted Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. More like Hannibal Lechter dating Sirhan Sirhan. Jason (Friday the 13th) hanging with Freddy (Nightmare on Elm Street). Lex Luthor teaming up with Darth Vader. With Charlie Manson in the background absolutely beaming....
1. Hamas and Fatah, Up In A Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G - to quote the old schoolyard rhyme. Not like the newly minted Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. More like Hannibal Lechter dating Sirhan Sirhan. Jason (Friday the 13th) hanging with Freddy (Nightmare on Elm Street). Lex Luthor teaming up with Darth Vader. With Charlie Manson in the background absolutely beaming....
The genocidal group of murderous terrorists that is Hamas is making nice with the allegedly "moderate" (oh, please!!) group of former genocidal group of murderous terrorists that is Fatah. This does not augur well for whatever shambles the "peace process" has been reduced to, for Israel's relations with the useless EU and corrupt UN, the continued tense but non-violent stand-off over Gaza, and for peace in the entire Middle East region.
I can almost hear the top guns of each gang of thugs agreeing - "well, we may have our differences, but isn't the goal to kill the Jews and destroy Israel? - we can always kill each other later....."
I don't believe that this is any long-lasting relationship - both groups are such bitter rivals, too self-interested, too corrupt and so on that even the goal of killing Jews/destroying Israel won't be enough to keep them on the same page.
Here are a variety of items on this marriage (or whatever) made in hell:
- Hamas has taken over the Palestinian nationalist movement - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
- Canada-Israel Committee - Backgrounder - very good stuff here!
- Terrorist Unity and the Push for Statehood | FrontPage Magazine
- Analysis: Handing victory to Hamas
- A Bad Deal - By Dore Gold | Foreign Policy
- RubinReports: Fatah-Hamas Agreement: Another Nail in the “Peace Process’s” Coffin
- Hamas to PLO: Rescind recognition of Israel - Israel News, Ynetnews
- Commentary: Palestinians Dupe West | The National Interest
- No partner
- Canada-Israel Committee - Backgrounder - written by my good friend Steve McDonald of the Canada-Israel Committee
And what will the Americans do? Maybe since President Obama wasn't invited to Friday's Royal Wedding, he will embrace this one - hope not! Hopefully he will cut off American aid - which hasn't exactly been used so well anyway - for example - Pajamas Media » Palestinians in Shooting Spree U.S.-Trained, and Muslim policemen shouting "Allahu akbar" open fire on Jews praying at Joseph's Tomb - Jihad Watch.
In fact, it has been suggested that continuing aid would be illegal under American law - Kirk: Aid to Fatah-Hamas Axis Would Be Illegal - Commentary Magazine.
And speaking of the Americans - The Israeli-Palestinian Streetlight - Commentary Magazine
This ain't going to be pretty......
2. Arab Spring? I don't think so:
- Terrorist Unity and the Push for Statehood | FrontPage Magazine
- The problem in the new Arab Spring
- VDH's Private Papers:: The Nature of Arab Unrest
- And tolerance in Egypt? - I don't think so - Egypt: Pro-Israel blogger gets three years in prison - Jihad Watch. Where's that Google executive now?
- How the Arab Spring remade Obama’s foreign policy : The New Yorker - I did not know that the President had a foreign policy to remake, and I'm not sure that this is a good remake in any event
3. Getting Away with Murder in Syria - and while the world does the square root of nothing - I actually have a slightly saltier expression, but you get the point.
- The Bloody Streets of Syria | FrontPage Magazine
- “Let Israel Come” Commentary Magazine
- Crack-up - by Lee Smith > Tablet Magazine - A New Read on Jewish Life
- RubinReports: Syria: Crackdown Begins; West Does Nothing
- Syrian Protesters Shot Down while Shouting “We Are Peaceful” - Commentary Magazine
- The Syrian Spectacle at the UN :: Hudson New York
- Human Rights Watch: Impose Sanctions on Syria - Commentary Magazine
4. Back To The Peace Process and the One-State/Two-State Solution - Let's be clear - there is no peace process when the Palestinian representatives won't come to the table, make ridiculous demands from afar, and simply wait for their buddies in the EU and the UN to shove something down Israel's throat.
- Rubin Reports » What Will Happen on the “Peace Process,” Why It Will Fail, Why It Will Do Harm
- 'Jordan Is Palestine' Is it a Good Idea?
- Good morning, Palestine
5. Ambassador Michael Oren - but can logic and common sense penetrate a wall of indifference and the current manner of thinking in Washington? The Ultimate Ally - By Michael Oren | Foreign Policy
6. Useful Idiots #1 - never in short supply!
- Howard Jacobson: Ludicrous, brainwashed prejudice - Howard Jacobson, Commentators - The Independent
- Amnesty International Plays Host to Hamas-Friendly Publication - Commentary Magazine
- New York Times Airbrushes Useful Idiot Nazi | NewsReal Blog
- Leftists Visit, Hug Mother of Fogel Murderer | FrontPage Magazine
- The "Merchants of Peace" Racket
7. Useful Idiots #2 - Helen Thomas edition - Helen Thomas Cancels Appearance at Anti-Aipac Gathering – Forward.com
- Why They Didn’t Spare Vittorio Arrigoni | FrontPage Magazine
- Italian politician: Vittorio Arrigoni was ‘enemy of Jews’
- A Pacifist? He Hated Israel
9. Useful Idiots #4 - Jimmy Carter edition - The Rosett Report - Jimmy Carter, Guest-Blogging for Pyongyang
10. Useful Idiots #5 - don't they deserve their own little film?
11. Iran - this group of theocratic nuts (the leadership, not the people) are likely just sitting back, having a good time with all the unrest in the Middle East and waiting for the 12th Imam to come for a visit - and to kill some time, they are hanging some homosexuals, persecuting some religious minorities, doing some fission (clever, huh?), watching oil prices rise - oh, and banning dogs......now they've gone too far!
But maybe everything isn't as good as it seems in the Islamic Republic
- After Stuxnet: Iran says it's discovered 2nd cyber attack
- Pajamas Media » Rifts in Iran’s Leadership. Plus: Secret Meetings with Obama Admin?
- Hackers group says it will target Iran on Sunday - CNN.com
- 'Gulf nations concerned with increased Egypt-Iran ties'
- Inside Iran: What life is really like in Tehran - Middle East, World - The Independent
12. On The College Front - Yale versus Purdue...oh, and Purdue has a better football team!
Purdue -
13. Yom HaShoah - Sunday, May 1, corresponding to the 27th day of the Jewish month of Nissan, is Yom HaShoah. The date, which falls a week after the 7th day of Passover and a week before Yom HaZikaron (Israel's Remembrance Day was proclaimed by the Israeli Knesset in 1951, making this its 60th anniversary. Here is a primer - Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Memorial Day - My Jewish Learning.
15. Moving Video:
16. Learning About The Shoah - as I have said many times, the Shoah was not a monolithic event - it did not happen the same way in France as it did in Lithuania, for example. Similarly, educational material, books, movies, plays and other works about the Shoah are not monolithic. Here is what I hope is a useful guide to all the various material - The Thinking Person’s Guide to the Holocaust – Forward.com
17. Canadian Election - There is a Canadian federal election on Monday, May 2. When the election was called, the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper was the governing party in a minority government. For non-Canadian readers, the Conservative Party is pretty much the equivalent of the Republican Party in the US. To be quite frank, my vote goes to whichever party supports Israel the best.
The Conservative Party is a staunch supporter of Israel, even though, unlike in the US where there are electoral districts with heavy Jewish concentrations that can impact the outcome of an election, there is no political benefit to such strong support - if anything, there is political cost.
The other major parties, in terms of standings at the end of the last Parliament, were the Liberals, the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Quebecois. I would classify their respective support of Israel as being equivocal, schizophrenic and indifferent at best.
Recently, political commentator David Frum (sometimes credited with the creation of the "Axis of Evil" phrase) wrote a column criticizing Michael Ignatieff, the leader of the Liberal Party (which is traditionally the party of choice for Jewish voters) - Ignatieff 's dog whistle for anti-Israel voters. That prompted this column in reply by Liberal Party member Bob Rae - The truth about the Liberal party and the Middle East. I think that Frum got best of the last word with this column - David Frum: Bob Rae takes ‘shabby’ position on Israel | Full Comment | National Post.
Meanwhile, I am hoping that the Conservative Party wins a majority government position on Monday, though it is doubtful whether this will be the case. All reports are that (for reasons that have noting to do with the above spat) the Liberals are in free fall, and that the NDP (which has basically always been the third place party and therefore has often avoided the kind of scrutiny reserved for the Conservatives and the Liberals) is surging. The BQ only runs candidates in Quebec and are dedicated to Quebec sovereignty, so the best they can do is play spoiler, draw off support in Quebec for the other parties, and then become a separatist pain in the backside after the election.
Without getting into things in more detail, the deceptive thing is that while as noted the NDP is said to be surging - their supposedly growing support is expressed in ways that are incompatible with the way the election is decided. It is possible, for example, for a party to win 40% of the total popular vote across Canada and still not have any representation in Parliament. Of course, the media never says that - or this - the way they report the pre-election polls can influence voters to vote for a party portrayed as surging, even though that surge might only be in one part of the country. To further elaborate, if the NDP are surging in Quebec, all that surge might accomplish is to reduce the size of the margin by which the Bloc candidates win their seats in Parliament - but that is never elaborated upon or explained.
One last thing - a last minute "scandal" has emerged concerning NDP Leader Jack Layton - Layton slams ‘smear campaign’ over massage-parlour allegations | Posted | National Post. I do not know who orchestrated the leak, I am not a fan of such tactics, and it seems that the "scandal" is a bit overblown. That said, I am flabbergasted by the hypocrisy of people complaining of this leak when leaks that attack Prime Minister Harper and the Conservatives do not come in for the same criticism. Mind your double standards, people! Oh, and Mr. Layton - how's the heat in the kitchen?
18. In Memory of the Six Million - including some 1.5 million children.
(from the excellent series "Band of Brothers")













