Monday, November 14, 2011

Hi there - been tied up over the last while and unable to blog. At least when blogging about Israel, there is never any shortage of material! Anyway, this edition will have some "old" and some "new".

1. Iran - Does anyone really doubt that Iran's nuclear ambitions are basically designed at developing nuclear weapons rather than domestic energy supplies? Here are several links related to Iran and this important story - which no one seems to want to really confront.

2. Syria - Can someone please explain why the Syrian "Thugocracy" deserves the benefit of negotiations and a possible soft landing for its murderous leadership?


3. The Palestinians - Why in the world would anyone give them a state? Is there a shortage of terrorist-loving, and Jew-hating countries in the United Nations that I have not heard about?


4. Pat Condell On Useful Idiots


speaking of which:
5. Pat Condell On Burkas - it's only just short of a year until Halloween 2012.....


6. Antisemitism - always in style.....



10. What Other Nation In The World Has To Be Worried About This? Really.....Israel rushes airliner defences as Libya leaks SAMs | Reuters



12. Utterly Despicable - don't worry, you useless piece of trash - Hitler would have killed you anyway - The protocols of Gilad Atzmon - Israel Culture, Ynetnews


14. The French - Don’t trust the French - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews - I'm still trying to get over their treachery in the Shoah.


15. Lack Of Diplomacy - is this microphone off? Oh, it's on? Oops. Well, not really.

16. Oops, Did I Say Apartheid? sarcasm on - gee, it's a good thing that his original comments were never used against Israel or anything.... - sarcasm off - Goldstone: "Apartheid" allegations against Israel are a sham - Jihad Watch


(wow - it even has a foreword by Desmond Tutu
- and an introduction by Naomi Klein
- was Noam Chomsky busy?)

17. Startup Nation Version Redux - Google to set up Israeli incubator in 2012 - Globes


18. Oh Please - instead of my usual attempt at humor in my last item, in honor of the veterans who sacrificed more than we can ever imagine for Canada, I am posting this item. Are you kidding me? National Post editorial board: Shutting down Remembrance Day ceremony hurts kids | Full Comment | National Post




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Thursday, October 27, 2011

1. Gilad Shalit Follow-Up - While thankfully the media seems to be leaving Gilad Shalit alone and letting him try to recover from his unimaginable ordeal, that is not to say that the controversy over the decision to ransom him has abated in the least.





3. Here Are Some Of The Lovelies That Are Now On The Loose - Part 2


4. Here Are Some Of The Lovelies That Are Now On The Loose - Part 3




6. And Their Acolytes - are there any extra Hellfire Missiles around? Muslim Cleric Reportedly Offers Reward For Kidnapping Israeli Soldiers | Fox News

This would be a fitting end for this cleric.....




9. Khadaffi, Ghadaffi, Qaddafi, Qadhafi, Whatever - It all adds up to 'DEAD" - much to the chagrin of "fashionistas", political cartoonists, and others everywhere, the Colonel recently met his demise by a bullet to the head at the hands of his own people. Seems like a fitting end for a despicable tyrant who was a major sponsor of worldwide terrorism and bullied, intimidated, disenfranchised, stole from, and butchered his own people - and that was just on a typical day!


I cannot admit to being sad that he met such an inglorious end. Whether or not he should have been taken alive, I hope that in his final moments, he experienced the same things as did his victims.


My main concern is what is now going to happen in Libya. A variety of stories:

The following is NOT actual footage of the demise of the late unlamented Colonel, but it may bear some similarities.....



11. Turkish Earthquake - we don't need Israel's help, maybe we do, but even if we take it, we still hate Israel......

15. The Peace (???) Process (???) - The Palestinians have it all figured out - give us everything we want before we start negotiations, then we'll sit down and discuss what else we want.....

17. Memorial To Jewish American Military Chaplains - Jewish Chaplains Get Memorial of Own – Forward.com

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - Gilad Shalit is Released

In the culmination of an extraordinarily dramatic week, Gilad Shait was released today by the Hamas terrorist murderers who kidnapped him and held him incommunicado for 1,942 days - over 5 entire years. While the world pretty much said and did - nothing.


As I followed this story, my primary emotion was raw and open pain - pain for the Shalit family, pain for the many families of the innocent victims of the terrorists being released as part of the exchange agreement, and pain for the State of Israel that it, almost certainly uniquely among the nations of the world, is subject to this type of national nightmare.

I have never served in the IDF or any other military, nor, perhaps more importantly, have I ever had to send my children to do so. My thoughts are just those of a very ardent supporter of Israel and the IDF - and it is awfully easy to express one's opinions from the comfort and safety of Canada.

That said, for what it is worth, my personal view is that the next time an Israeli is kidnapped, Israel should either immediately (a) impose a total blockade of all food, water and electricity entering Gaza until the hostage is released unharmed or (b) start eliminating Hamas leaders and their underlings (whether behind human shields or not) one by one (or by the dozen) until the hostage is released.

By the way, Hamas has now set the price - an Israeli is worth 1,027 Palestinian terrorists - so the next time anyone screams abut a disproportionate response, they should bear that in mind. The world has lost any credibility on this issue - so their predictable outcry should just be ignored.

Hamas has shown its true terrorist colors, and for all the flaws of the deal, Israel has shown that it stands for life, not death.

I wish Gilad Shalit peace and tranquility, as prompt a return to normalcy as possible (if possible), and a long and healthy life. I wish the families of the terror victims the ability to cope with the agony they must be experiencing over the release of the terrorists who deliberately murdered their loved ones. And I wish the State of Israel the ability and wisdom to overcome this latest crisis and to emerge stronger than ever.

In any event, here are a number of links on this story from a variety of perspectives - and then everyone has to make up their own minds - but think hard - what would you do if you were one of the Israeli dramatis personae in this terrible saga?


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Saturday, October 8, 2011 - motzei Shabbat

Hope you had an easy fast and were sealed in the Book of Life for a sweet, happy & healthy 5772!!

1. Did You Know That "Koufax" Is A Verb? - Sandy Koufax very famously elected to sit out a Los Angeles-Minnesota World Series game in 1965 that fell on Yom Kippur - leading to a great anecdote - as related in the link - when non-Jewish Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale (who was a pretty darn good Hall of Fame pitcher in his own right) was shelled in the game and was lifted by Dodger manager Walter Alston, Drysdale said, "...bet you wish I was Jewish today"


For a great analysis of the significance of Koufax's decision, you should read the biography Sandy Koufax - A Lefty's Legacy, written by Jane Leavy.

Anyway, for this Yom Kippur, Washington Capitals forward Jeff Halpern decided to follow Koufax's example. Jeff Halpern and the Caps’ Yom Kippur opener - DC Sports Bog - The Washington Post.

“I just feel like I owe it to a lot of people that mean a lot to me,” he said. “It’s almost to uphold their beliefs as well, to honor them and do things that serve as an example for them, and for other people.”

Sounds like a principled guy.



2. Feel Free to Fight Among Yourselves - use guns, knives, clubs and rocks if necessary. Knock yourselves out. Wipe each other out. And leave Israel alone.

"The fact is that Israel has stayed out of the ups and downs (and ins and outs) of the Arab Spring. But Assad’s menacing of the Jewish State in this circumstance is evidence of how hazardous any Israeli-Arab frontier line is. If I were an Israeli strategist I wouldn’t give up the Golan Heights for anything. And I surely wouldn’t go back to the 1949 lines either. Nor, for that matter, would I surrender the Jordan River (which is not “deep and wide,” despite what the folk song says, though it may be “chilly and cold”) either to the Hashemite kingdom or to the Palestinian rump.

The failure of the Arab Spring is only the last chapter in the long-time failure of Arabs to tolerate, to make peace among themselves, to learn from others, to accept that a belief is not always or even usually a fact, to recognize that a mirage is a mirage."







8. Babi Yar - Babi Yar Remembered






12. Simon & Garfunkel - The other evening, I concluded with a post about Paul Simon. This week, I happened to see "The Harmony Game", a new documentary about the making of the classic album "Bridge Over Troubled Water" as well as a November 30, 1969 TV special (directed by Charles Grodin) called "Songs of America" - if you like Simon & Garfunkel, if you like learning the stories behind famous albums, or if you like the music of the 1960s and 1970s, this is a "must see". Here is a brief trailer, as well as some other classic Simon & Garfunkel music (including two of my S&G faves - Wednesday Morning 3AM and A Song For The Asking) .









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Thursday, October 6, 2011 - HAVE AN EASY FAST & G'MAR CHATIMAH TOVAH

1. Yom Kippur War - today is the 38th anniversary of the treacherous start of the Yom Kippur War, in which Israel fought yet again for her very survival. We should reflect on the enormous sacrifices made by the IDF in defense of the State of Israel, as well as the tremendous skill and adaptability exhibited by the IDF in overcoming the shock of the initial attacks and the deployment of new weapons and tactics by Egypt and Syria.




Sadly, Israel must forever stand ready to repel such attacks....

2. Attacks From Countries Controlled by Despicable Idiots Like This - Good old Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Iran's Well-Attended "International Conference on the Palestinian Intifada" and Ahmadinejad: Israelis should go back to original homes... JPost - Middle East. And to think that a bunch of students at Columbia University were excited to dine with this guy!





5. Palestinian Statehood - see Even the Most Moderate Palestinian Won’t Accept a Jewish State - Commentary Magazine and this rather "to the point" video:


6. Enough Already! - Another Jewish Nobel laureate? Ridiculed crystal work wins Nobel for Israeli | Reuters


7. Yom Kippur - a variety of Yom Kippur links:


10. Forget The Israel Lobby - The Commentator - The Antisemitism Lobby

11. I'm A Patriots Fan - no, not the New England Patriots. The George Mason University Patriots - GMU Law Holds its Ground on Free Speech :: The Legal Project


12. Inspirational Music - appropriate for this time of the Jewish calendar.



(and from The Jazz Singer - the 1927 original)




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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Just a brief version this evening.

1. Let Alone Everything Else They Have Done - you know, murder, torture, etc. - The Associated Press: Activists: Syrian regime detains 3,000 in 3 days and The Cult: The Twisted, Terrifying Last Days Of Assad’s Syria | The New Republic- so naturally, here is what China and Russia do - US 'outraged' after Russia, China... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics. Meanwhile, Assad is clearly losing it.



2. Gee, I Never Expected This - I think the saying is "when economic times get tough, blame the Jews." Thankfully, there was a knuckle-dragging graduate of Redneck University on hand to explain everything (where did they get this guy - central casting?). But it really does not matter if it is crude or "sophisticated" - better get ready for a lot of nasty Jew-bashing (which is already at very high levels).



3. Cause Them JOOS Don't Contribute Nuttin To Society - Jewish Scientists Win Nobel for Medicine – Forward.com - I don't think a Jewish person has ever won a Nobel Prize......OK, maybe a couple of them may have been Nobel laureates....but what else have they done for the world? Try this.



4. Suck It Up Boys - Palestinians say freeze in US aid taking effect - Yahoo! News and Smart Diplomacy Strikes Again - Commentary Magazine- That's just a shame. Didn't save for a rainy day? Spent (or more likely, stole) the billions and billions you have received over the years from the US and the EU? Go ask your Arab brethren - you know, the ones who use you as their perpetual foils against Israel and who don't even allow you to be citizens in their countries. What? The Arab League has stepped up to the table? Well, bully for them!

5. The Damn Amish Are At It Again - Truck bomb in Mogadishu kills at least 70 - The Globe and Mail - I did not know that the Amish were behind al-Qaida. Seriously. I did not know that. Because it sure wouldn't be radical Islamists - to even think that would be Islamophibic!



6. Bitter Lessons - Israel's Bitter Lessons

7. Limitations - The limitations of peace - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews

8. Statehood Stuff - more fallout from the Palestinian Statehood bid - some interesting articles here, especially the Arab one:

11. Dead Terrorists - make me happy. Sorry - I like it when evil is extinguished. Here's more about the late, unlamented Anwar al-Awlaki:

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