Thursday, October 15, 2009

1. This Is Just Great News - Why couldn't they infiltrate the Heineken Beer factory instead? Pajamas Media » Two European Nuclear Scientists Arrested as Al-Qaeda Suspects.


2. The Goldstone Report Fallout Just Keeps On Coming - As I suggested the other day, the comments of the author of the Goldstone Report say it all - but will anyone listen? - Commentary » Blog Archive » The Headline Says It All and Alan Dershowitz: Goldstone Backs Away From Report: The Two Faces of an International Poseur.

As is often the case - the initial blast of negative press against Israel is all anyone ever remembers - remember the Jenin Massacre, the "murder" of Muhammad al-Dura? among other libels? Once the feathers are out of the pillow, it is almost impossible to catch them and put them back.



3. Iran - This story gets more and more concerning every day. The international community's reaction seems ambivalent at best, if not contrary to downright hostile. I am not sure what they do not see - a nuclear Iran is a terribly dangerous entity. And if anyone cannot discern the difference between an allegedly nuclear Israel and a nuclear Iran - when was the last time that Israel threatened to destroy Iran?

With that in mind, here are a variety of links:

4. Turkey - It is alarming to note the fast pace with which Turkey seems to be moving away from good relations with Israel. This is topped off by the broadcast of a television drama that castigates Israel over Operation Cast Lead. So here are some links on this subject:

5. Speaking Of Al-Qaeda - Pajamas Media » Al-Qaeda Calls for ‘Holy War’ Against China - I say good! China will show them a response that will make what the Americans did in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay look like a garden party. But hey - go for it!





"For we Jews the issue is far more important since it is we who are the victims, the target of Christian fear and doubt. One estimate has it that had Jewry not been victimized by two thousand years of Christian wrath, our present population would have equaled that of the British Isles. Yet we choose to live as though the Shoah were unique, a mysterious event."
I have often wondered about the answer to the question answered in the excerpt - namely, if Jews had not been the subject of terrible persecution over two millennia, how many Jews would there be in the world today? This is the first time I have ever come across an estimate.

By the way - the current population of the British Isles is about 65 million. This is still only about twice the population of Canada, or just 5% of the current number of the 1,200,000,000 Muslims in the world.

The silent majority can no longer sit on the sidelines. As a first step, it's time for Canadian Muslims to revive the popular “Not in the Name of Islam” online petition, which begins: “We, the undersigned Muslims, wish to state clearly that those who commit acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent. No injustice done to Muslims can ever justify the massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will ever serve the cause of Islam.

11. Good News - No Need to Wait Until Next Year - The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize by Mary Eberstadt onNational Review Online



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Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

1. Iran - Russia - Yeah, I'd say that the Eastern European missile shield deal really worked out well - Russia's Putin warns against intimidating Iran = but keep sucking up - To Russia with Love: Washington Promises to Tone Down Criticism of Kremlin - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International.




"Why? The administration's fixation on preventing even minor construction internal to a settlement assumes that Jewish settlers are on the verge of taking over the entire West Bank. This is fanciful: There are about 200,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The settlers live on about 1.5% of the West Bank, and the very substantial majority are in four major settlement blocs around Jerusalem."












11. Michael Oren - Why the Holocaust Still Matters - Deep Denial | The New Republic and Andrew Sullivan on Michael Oren - Jeffrey Goldberg. Here's an excerpt:

Ahmadinejad's genocidal rhetoric and the iniquity of the Goldstone Report notwithstanding, Israel will, of course, continue to defend its citizens. No amount of vitriol will compel Israel onto a course of self-destruction. But what will be destroyed is any chance for peace. Having twice withdrawn unilaterally to recognized borders and received only onslaughts in return, and having suffered censure for protecting themselves from that aggression, Israelis will understandably recoil from additional retreats that will leave them vulnerable. Israelis, moreover, will not withdraw from any territory liable to become staging grounds for terrorist groups empowered by international agencies and convinced of their ability to murder Israelis with impunity.


12. Dry Bones Gets To The Heart Of The Matter (As Usual)

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Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

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.


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.





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?.

12. This Must Have Been Satisfying In Its Own Way - Talk About Satisfaction - Jeffrey Goldberg

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)?


14. Tattoos, One Of My Pet Peeves - Jews With Tattoos – Forward.com

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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Sunday, October 11, 2009 - Nobel Peace Prize Edition

1. Is There Any Other Story Out There? Cyberspace has been totally pre-occupied with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama on Friday.



At the outset, I think it is fair to say that by all accounts, President Obama did not seek the award nor campaign for it. The story says more about today's world than anything else. He probably wished he could have pulled a General Sherman (later echoed by President Lyndon Johnson) - "if nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve"


I have no problem seeing the President betting the award - when (and if) he earns it. In the meantime, giving him the award now is like giving a doctor who pledges to cure cancer the Nobel Prize for Medicine - when he has just started his research.

Finally, given that the Nobel Prize for Peace has been awarded to Yassir Arafat, Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu and Mohammed El Baradei, I think that the prize lacks some serious credibility.

In any event, here are a number of stories on the subject:


2. Well, There Are - Such As This BS Related Item From The UK - RubinReports: And speaking of Nobel prizes--you're not going to believe this and Israeli peace prize winners not on 'Guardian's list | International News | Jerusalem Post - they "forgot" to include the Israeli winners due to some technical glitch? How stupid do they think we are?





5. Good Old Sweden - from the home of Aftonbladet, where unfounded accusations about Israel are treated as worthy of publication - Sweden supports Gaza war crimes probe | International News | Jerusalem Post - one of my favorite candies is Swedish Fish - no longer! That will show them!











12. This Is Poetic Justice, For Sure - When They Killed Che – by Humberto Fontova | FrontPage Magazine - I hope that he begged and cried for mercy, and soiled himself from the fright.


14. Are You Serious? (Part 1) - Commentary » Blog Archive » Sometimes, a Watermelon Is Just a Watermelon. Not So at Yale - better not use bagels either...





18. Even Though It Was Filmed In Sweden....


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