Sunday, July 24. 2011 - it's too darn hot....

Despite (or in spite of) of the numerous current deadly serious events of the last week or so (the mere mention of which turns my stomach) and the generally serious political and economic situations playing out in the world, today's blog posting will be somewhat on the lighter side. There will be lots of time to return to the nasty real world in the next edition.

1. It's Too Darn Hot - man, could Ella Fitzgerald sing......


2. It's Too Darn Hot #2 - a secret Chassidic trick.....


3. It's Too Darn Hot #3 - don't even mention it....


4. End Of An Era - the NASA Shuttle program has come to a quiet end - in my opinion, it constituted an amazing technological achievement requiring intelligence and bravery. It is well we also take a moment and remember the astronauts who died on the Challenger and Columbia disasters.


5. It's All In Your Perspective, I Guess -


6. Weather Forecast Of A Different Type -




9. Afghanistan - as the Canadian combat mission comes to an end, it's appropriate to remember the bravery and sacrifice of the Canadian military personnel who served there - especially those who died and were wounded. Canada's participation was such a politically charged issue, that it is hard to find a reliable and even-handed assessment. Is this cartoon accurate?


10. Funny Commercials - my daughters showed these to me - I think they are understated but quite funny, and take a nice shot at the world of social networking.


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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

1. Thank You - thank you to the people who have taken the time to respond to the request in the last edition of this Blog. The responses took a number of different forms, and were uniformly encouraging.

2. This Date In History - Just as an aside, it came to me earlier today that July 20 is the 67th anniversary of the failed von Stauffenburg attempt to assassinate Hitler in the Wolfsschanze, the Wolf's Lair, his East Prussian command bunker near Rastenburg, as well as the 42nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.


The von Stauffenburg assassination plan was the subject of the 2008 movie Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise. I thought that the movie was fairly accurate historically. However, it gave me the impression that the military and civilian figures who tried to kill Hitler in this plot and take over Germany were altruistic heroic resisters to Hitler and his Nazi agenda.


In my opinion, while the conspirators were brave in some fashion, their real intent in attempting to kill Hitler was more likely to facilitate making a separate peace with the Western Allies, avoiding the total physical destruction of Germany and the German Army, maintaining a dominant role for Germany in Europe, and absolving themselves of their own war crimes. I doubt many of them strongly objected to the war against the Soviet Union, for example, or to Germany's military or racial policies (even if they may not have agreed with the physical destruction of the Jews and others regarded as being untermenschen). In any event, as we know, the plot failed, pretty much all of the conspirators were subjected to farce show trials and then murdered in a nasty fashion, and the Second World War in Europe continued for close to another full year, resulting in untold more death and destruction.


3. Those Pesky Jews #1 - this is extremely well done - hard to argue with these facts, those that doesn't stop the usual suspects from doing so (shout out to "AI" - no, not Allen Iverson - for this one).



"In Nazi Germany people were imprisoned and even killed for trying to fight anti-Semitism. In America we are free to fight it, but too many of us choose to ignore this hate that dares not speak its name. Anti-Semitism is real, it is murderous, and it is very much with us today. Speak the truth and shame the devil. Whatever your religion, your politics, your views about Israeli policy, fighting anti-Semitism is part of what it means to be a decent human being."
6. Those Pesky Jews #4 - Minister investigates anti-Israel blogging during office hours Canada News Ottawa Sun. I may not like what this guy (who works as a financial and business development advisor to the Canadian federal Heritage Minister) has to say, but I suppose that in Canada (as in Israel) he has the write to express himself as he wants as long as he doesn't breach any applicable laws and as long as he does it on his own time using his own resources. In any event, check this out - some serious weasel words here, in my humble opinion:

"In an entry last year to NDP MP Libby Davis, Zimmo called Israel a rogue state, accused it of piracy and murder, and called B’nai Brith a hate group. Zimmo didn’t deny writing the entry, but said he couldn’t remember if he worked that day."

7. The "Palestinians" And Their "State" - things are ratcheting on the diplomatic side regarding the Palestinian bid for statehood. Here are a variety of links:

"There is no historical, institutional or legal basis on which to recognize a Palestinian state today, except as a kind of “virtual state,” which exists in some fashion in the imaginations of various parties but which has no tether to reality. In the West Bank, Palestinians crucially depend on Israeli cooperation to function. Other more modern aspects of statehood, such as respect for human rights, freedom and a functioning democracy - all of which are required of other countries seeking recognition - are sadly lacking in the Palestinian case."


8. This "Deserves" Special Mention - 6 in 10 Palestinians reject 2-state solution... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics - read this finding - if it is accurate, would you give these people a state beside yours?

Seventy-two percent backed denying the thousands of years of Jewish history in Jerusalem, 62% supported kidnapping IDF soldiers and holding them hostage, and 53% were in favor or teaching songs about hating Jews in Palestinian schools.

When given a quote from the Hamas Charter about the need for battalions from the Arab and Islamic world to defeat the Jews, 80% agreed. Seventy-three percent agreed with a quote from the charter (and a hadith, or tradition ascribed to the prophet Muhammad) about the need to kill Jews hiding behind stones and trees.


9. In Remembrance - very poignant and well-written. Remember the fallen and what they died for... JPost - Opinion - Op-Eds. This applies as much to me as anyone else, but boy is it easy to tell the Israelis what to do when you do not live in Israel, send your children to the military and so on. I think that these rabbinic students have spent too much time in a politically correct ivory tower and are dangerously naive.


10. Poor Hugo - Chavez Imperiled | FrontPage Magazine - OK, I'm shedding crocodile tears for the bastard......


11. Syria - the descent deeper into hell continues:
12. Kobi Oz - my cousin recently returned from a trip to Israel absolutely raving...........about Kobi Oz and his new album - OK - I am showing my age - his new disc - Psalms for the Perplexed - here is one video - "Escalator" (with subtitles):

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Saturday, July 16, 2011 Motzei Shabbat

1. A Request - When I started this blog page a couple of years ago, it was for three main purposes - first, as my way of demonstrating my support for Israel and hopefully promoting & eliciting similar support from readers - second, as a way for me to express my personal opinions on issues to do with Israel, Judaism, the Shoah, and so on, and third, as a way to collect, publish and distribute relevant articles in one spot rather than driving people crazy by sending them numerous emails a day with articles I thought they would find interesting.

If you have your own blog, you know how much time and effort it takes to publish a blog edition even once a week. While this blog is a "labour of love", it is definitely contains both elements - a lot of love for Israel, but also a lot of labour.

One of the gadgets you may notice on my blog is something called "StatCounter". Together with internal reports generated by the Google Blogger program itself, StatCounter gives me some idea of the traffic to this site - don't worry - it does not give out any personally identifiable information - it just tells me general information such as the city where the server is located through which someone accesses the site, the operating system they use (Windows, Mac, etc.) and the page(s) that were accessed.

In any event, when I look at the stats from these sources, it seems that readership, if you will, is low. That is OK in the sense that I do not seek any monetary gain at all from publishing this blog. However, it is somewhat discouraging to know that a lot of hard work on my part may be dong little more than cluttering up a tiny corner of cyberspace.

So to try to get a sense of whether to continue publishing (though my decision will in no way detract from my advocacy for Israel), I have included a simple poll on the top right side of the page. Please take a moment to answer the poll, to post a comment on the web page (it can be anonymous) and email me at mpublicemail@gmail.com and let me know your thoughts. If you make a comment or email, remember - criticism is fine, as long as it is constructive. I will not publish the identity of any respondents unless they identify themselves in a comment posted to the blog.

By the way, if you use Facebook, I have a Support Israel Now page that you can access by this link - I post things there more frequently - please consider "liking" the page of the page - there is a link to do this just below the survey section.

I hope you will take the time to share your thoughts with me. Thank you and Shavuah Tov.


2. Flop-Tilla Review - well, the second annual parade of morons, supplemented by a fly-in of morons, pretty much turned out to be a flop. SARCASM ON I am just so happy that the IDF did not have to intervene and brazenly murder any earnest, peace-loving, kumbaya-singing "peace activists" in direct contravention of international law SARCASM OFF.


Coincidental with this year's non-event, a UN report was issued that somehow came to the conclusion that even Israel had rights to defend itself under international law (don't worry, that won't last long - there are a thousand trained leftist monkey-lawyers working on overturning it) - UN report: Gaza blockade legal, Israel doesn't owe Turkey apology for Marmara - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News - I deliberately linked to the report from Ha'aretz given the leftist philosophy of that publication - even they could not twist it against Israel.

Anyway, here are some other links on the subject:
and to top it all off.....


3. The UN Giveth, The UN Taketh Away - UN: Israel used unnecessary force against protesters on Nakba Day - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News - like that corrupt den of weasels and vipers has any ability to be logical or consistent - personally, I do not give a tinker's damn what the UN says - good or bad - you really cannot trust it in any fashion -

4. This Is Typical Of The UN - from the utterly reprehensible and disgusting anti-Semitic bastard of a Jew Richard Falk - Issue 302 - UN Watch - and nothing will happen to him at all. Also see - Gabriel Latner: The failings of Richard Falk Full Comment National Post and Pillay says Falk's cartoon ... JPost - Jewish World - Jewish News

5. Falk Would Feel At Home Here - from commentator Pat Condell:


6. Two Sides Of The Coin - Israeli ingenuity on the battlefield with the intent of targeting terrorists - IDF tank shell wins Israel Defense Prize - Israel News, Ynetnews, while Hamas concentrates on killing as many as they can, regardless of who they are (OK - it would be really cool if they were Jews...) - Gaza: Economic recovery and improved rocket technology. (2) - By Sharon Weinberger - Slate Magazine

"Indeed, Israel may be improving its defenses, but the militants have been improving their rockets. They have, over the years, become more adept at aiming them, with help from Google Earth. Particularly since the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlements from Gaza in 2005, the rocket attacks, to be effective, have had to go longer distances.

Was it harder to target Israeli positions before the advent of Google Earth in 2005? I asked Abu Saif. "No, it was easier," he replied, smiling. "Because the settlements then were inside Gaza."

7. A True Hero - Yonatan Netanyahu - killed on the 1976 Entebbe Raid - Yonatan Netanyahu’s odyssey... JPost - Features - Insights & Features

Entis, who now works in a District of Columbia management consulting firm, didn’t consider that Netanyahu might have been involved until he saw his friend’s name on the front page of The Washington Post, news that “hit me right between the eyes.” But Entis’s reaction – like that of Netanyahu’s other friends who eulogized him last week – didn’t stop with tears. Entis’s devotion to his work in business is far weaker than Netanyahu’s was to Israel, and his friend’s death moved him to scrutinize his own life. “One of the problems in America is that we are a nation of relatively uncommitted people. Yoni had an ideal, and when he died, it made you think about your own life,” Entis explains. “It’s also a question of relative values. Yoni was willing quite literally to put his life on the line. That’s quite unusual. And there are even fewer people who derive that devotion internally.”

8. As The Arab Spring Shifts Into The Arab Summer - what's the latest?


9. Brain Damaged - the subterranean Hassan Nasrallah has figured out that Israel was the author of the indictments of the Hezbollah terrorist slugs who were behind the massive car bomb that assassinated Rafik Hariri, if not the assassination itself - Nasrallah implies Israel behind Hariri hit - JPost - Middle East and Analysis: Hassan Nasrallah exposed - JPost - Middle East. For which the little terrorist gets the George Costanza Viennese Psychiatry Award:


10. This Is Serious - Anti-Semitism on the rise at Canadian universities, committee says - The Globe and Mail - but rest assured, with all kinds of ivory tower hand-wringing, nothing will be done - especially at next year's IAW hate-fest.


11. Erring & Forgiving - Erring and forgiving, &c. - Jay Nordlinger - National Review Online - makes a number of relevant points.

12. Have You Heard Anything By Way Of A Response? #1 Not me.....Response to Embassy Attack Will Be Crucial - Commentary Magazine


14. Syria - apparently just doing whatever the hell it wants....


15. The Boycott Law - the latest controversy - I am still determining my thoughts on the issue, but here is a large variety of various opinions from all over the spectrum:
16. The "Palestinians" - I thought that they were Egyptian or Jordanian Arabs....anyway.....
17. Around The Jewish World - the brutal murder of the young Chasidic Jewish boy in New York was just too much for me - Chris Selley: Some things are just out of our hands | Full Comment | National Post:

"Modern, secular people are constantly living in fear of, or at least actively mitigating, minute risks. In some cases, as with pesticides and cellphone radiation and bisphenol-A, they’re mitigating risks that scientists can’t determine to exist at all. They spend money, they worry, and they make decisions like not allowing their kids to walk to school by themselves or play outside unattended. They suffer for that faith. In Brookyln, some very sad people seem to be gaining both strength and a determination to continue living their lives without fear from things they can’t control. We should all be so lucky."

Here are some other stories from the Jewish world that are much easier to read:
18. Closing Video - it's in Hebrew, but there are English subtitles.

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