Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

1. You Lost The First Two, Why Would You? - Abbas: We won't launch a third intifada | Middle East Conflict.


2. Military Discipline In The IDF - And I thought that the soldiers took their orders from their mothers.....Opinion: For God - or country? | Op-Ed Contributors | Jerusalem Post



4. You Will Never Shut Out The Truth - The UN Kicks Out a Leading Critic – By Joseph Klein | FrontPage Magazine and Steven Edwards: UN battles Canadian prof over rules, pro-Israel speech - Full Comment. Watch this video - though you have to watch the whole thing before the sound kicks in.




6. Didn't Anyone Think This Through? I mean, really. How does someone decide to try KSM as a criminal?

7. Good Old Iran - Never far from the headlines!


10. I'm Not Surprised By This - and he has a lot of friends - The Traitor Class « NewsReal Blog - but he's smarter than all of us, don't worry.

11. Go To Hell - Really, go straight to hell. Hey, this can be a new feature:

12. Speaking Of The President - Nothing personal...


15. Drop Everything!! - Forget Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the settlement issue - check this out - Bill that would affect 'shtreimels' delayed | Israel | Jerusalem Post



17. Ask The Czechoslovaks - Remember 1938? I''ll bet the Czechoslovaks (as they were at the time) do - Commentary » Blog Archive » Re: The Value of an International Guarantee - and they weren't Jews.


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Hillel Update #2


I have now spoken further to the person who wrote to the new Executive Director at Berkeley Hillel. She has given me permission to post much of the response on my blog. As I believe that this is an important issue that needs to be covered accurately and fairly, I will publish the relevant parts (which is pretty much the whole response).
"I want to thank you for your concern for Hillel and offering us an opportunity to respond to some of the accusations as well as tell you the current state of affairs at Berkeley Hillel.
After several mistakes and errors by previous leadership of Hillel the board responded by hiring a new Executive Director. I began work as the executive director of Berkeley Hillel in July of 2009. All of the claims that Ms. Glick speaks about happening 2 and 3 years ago have not happened since. Past mistakes have been corrected and last year Hillel restored a robust range of Seders after a two-year hiatus, contrary to what Ms. Glick wrote in her column. On Yom HasShoah last year we had a packed room of students who listened to the story of a survivor experiences and rebuilding his life.
We have also had a robust offering of Israel opportunities to help students develop a deep and mature relationship with Israel. Here are just a few of the offerings this past semester:
* Hebrew Hour - Twice a week The topics range from Hebrew poetry to life of the average student at Cal.
* From Rambam to Yehudah Amchai - Every Friday, Hebrew speaking graduate students, facilitated by two Hillel staff members, study a wide spectrum of text. The forum is modeled after a pluralistic Yeshiva in Tel-Aviv which brings together both observant and secular Israelis that study text ranging from traditional Rabbinic to modern poetry.
* Teaching Hebrew - All the Birthright participants who do not speak
Hebrew and other students who express interest will meet on a weekly basis to study basic Hebrew in a casual manner.
* Israeli Art exhibit - Hillel will host different art exhibitions from
Israel around the building. The content will range from nature scenes, to typical life throughout the country, to artistic depictions of different Israeli communities.

Fall 2009

* September 3 & 26 - Kesher-Enoshi held their kickoff event, followed up with hosting Friday night dinner at Hillel. They had dynamic and creative ice breakers and valuable information about the group to help new students orient themselves with the goals and mission.
* October 8 - Professor Hanan Alexander, visiting from Israel, from the
Education department spoke to students about the relationship between the holiday of Sukkot and the idea of Aliyah to Israel. 14 students from different groups came and discussed this topic, which led to interesting perspectives and ideas.
* October 21 - Singer's from Israel's version of American Idol joined the
students at the weekly BBQ. They shared their music and their amazing life journey's. We hope to meet up with them again in Israel on our Birthright trip this January.
* October 22 - Mr. David Makovsky (Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and
Director of the Washington Institute's Project on the Middle East Peace
Process) and Mr. Ghaith al-Omari (former senior advisor to Mahmoud Abbas) had dinner with a handful of student leaders from Tikvah and later spoke to the community about the process of moving to a true agreement of peace in the region.
* October 23-25 - 5 students from campus attended the J street college
track portion of the conference in Washington DC. Their hope was to get a better understanding and educate themselves about the organization. Our goal is to equally subsidize Cal students to attend the AIPAC and StandWithUs conferences.
* October 27 - Linda Gradstein, National Public Radio reporter discussed the role of the media in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories.
* November 3rd - Yariv Oppenheimer, Secretary General (Director) of
Shalom Achshav, will come to speak with the campus community.
Again thank you for your interest in Berkeley Hillel and I want you to know that it is my vision as the new Executive Director of Berkeley Hillel to not repeat the mistakes of the past and to continue to build strong and committed Jewish students.
Happy Thanksgiving."
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Hillel Update


To update my entry from last night about the Berkeley Hillel, my friend has now received a detailed response from its new Executive Director. The bad news seems to be that the events in question did happen a few years ago. But the much better good news is that under his watch, they are not at all likely to happen again.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Mini Blog

When I grew up in Halifax some 100 years ago, there was a very popular rock group called "April Wine" with some suburban Halifax roots. They had a number of hits, including a song called "The Whole World's Going Crazy" - which is the theme of today's mini-blog. (personally, I think the world went stark, raving psycho a long time ago, truth be told - see, for example, "Germany, Nazi, 1933-1945").

Case in Point #1 - Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist - Iraq | War | Map - FOXNews.com. I will spare you the details and (especially) the pictures, but this terrorist was behind one of the most gruesome events in Iraq - the murder of 4 American contractors and the subsequent mutilation and exhibition of their remains (which, as an aside, in my humble opinion, makes Abu Ghraib look like a weekend frat party and the alleged flushing of a Koran a high school prank). Regardless, the terrorist claims that - are you sitting down? - one of the Navy SEALs punched him:

"Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it. Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Is this the way to show support for the military - especially the elite anti-terrorist units who risk their very lives to capture this type of scum?


Case in Point #2 - On my last blog, I linked to a column by Caroline Glick in which the following paragraph appeared:
"Take UC Berkeley's Hillel center, for example. Since Ken Kramarz, Hillel's regional director for Northern California, started his job in June 2007, Berkeley's Hillel has adopted a hostile view towards Judaism and Israel. As pro-Israel community activist Natan Nestel notes, in the past year alone, Hillel held a dance party on Yom Hashoah, and it held a Cinco de Mayo barbecue on Remembrance Day for Fallen IDF Soldiers. It has also failed to hold community Seders for the past two years. Instead, last year, its members hung signs in the Hillel building declaring, "Matza sucks."
I was literally made nauseous from reading this. I wrote to the national Hillel organization to ask if these allegations were true. No response. A friend wrote directly to 2 reps at the Berkeley Hillel to ask if these allegations were true. No response. There is nothing that I saw on either the main Hillel website or the Hillel Berkeley website to suggest otherwise. To me, this suggests that the allegations are true.

And if the allegations are proven true, then I hope that in some (lawful) way, the people behind this repulsive behavior reap what they have sown. They will deserve it.





Case in Point #5 - Brazilian president: 'There's no point isolating Iran' | International News | Jerusalem Post - they're just so warm and fuzzy - they terrorize and oppress their own people, threaten Israel and deny the Holocaust - the trifecta!! - by all means, don't do anything that might upset them or hint that their behavior is simply unacceptable.


There's not other way to end this mini-blog except for this:

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Sunday, November 22, 2009

1. Buycott, Not Boycott - In my recent Cranky Edition, I noted the plan to boycott Mountain Equipment Cooperative because it sells Israeli products. Well, here is the perfect response - Cross-Canada BUYcott Alert for Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) « BUYcott Alerts.


2. Boycott, Not Buycott - Chesler Chronicles » Boycott Burqa Barbie









8. Jonathan Pollard - I have never been especially knowledgeable about this case. Now, as he enters his 25th year in prison, the story is getting some media attention. Here are some links to sites with varying opinions (note - some of these are written by members of his family):





12. Caroline Glick on American Jewry - Can you believe this excerpt from this piece - Caroline Glick's Column: Whither American Jewry? | Columnists | Jerusalem Post - are you kidding me?
"Take UC Berkeley's Hillel center, for example. Since Ken Kramarz, Hillel's regional director for Northern California, started his job in June 2007, Berkeley's Hillel has adopted a hostile view towards Judaism and Israel. As pro-Israel community activist Natan Nestel notes, in the past year alone, Hillel held a dance party on Yom Hashoah, and it held a Cinco de Mayo barbecue on Remembrance Day for Fallen IDF Soldiers. It has also failed to hold community Seders for the past two years. Instead, last year, its members hung signs in the Hillel building declaring, "Matza sucks."






17. Amazing Achievement - This is an amazing achievement in and of itself - Israel top patent producer in Western world - Israel Business, Ynetnews. Now consider it in light of Israel's turbulent 61 year history.

18. OK - I'm A Juvenile - I get a laugh out of this stuff.

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Saturday, November 21, 2009 - Shavua Tov!


1. What Were They, Um, Thinking? New Statesman - Exclusive: easyJet grounds in-flight magazine after Holocaust gaffe. Would someone do a fashion photo-shoot at Vimy Ridge? I think that the problem is that too many people today have no true of what really took place in the Shoah, nor its significance. The 1940s? Gee, that's like 60 years ago. Come on people - get with it.


2. What Were They, Um, Thinking #2? When Nazism Was All The Rage On Campus, Steven Plaut - of course, in this case, we aren't talking about modern-day photographers, we are talking about the creme de la creme of the ivory tower crowd - who surely could not have been wrong.....oops! And this is very very very worrisome given the current state of affairs on so many campuses - where so many of the intellectual elite seem bound and determined to repeat the mistakes of the 1930s.


3. What Were They, Um, Thinking, #3 - “The Matrix” Meets the Muslim Brotherhood – by Ryan Mauro | FrontPage Magazine. This ought to be a real sweetheart of a movie - a, shall we say, questionable advisor, and an incendiary subject. The director says that the movie is intended to portray the "....true meaning of Islam". I'm not holding my breath.


4. This Is Really A Surprise - Pajamas Media » Christians Suffer Under the Palestinian Authority - this never seems to hit the main stream media - mention Israeli "apartheid"........





7. And The Never-Ending Issue Of Iran - If it was up to anyone but Israel, they will be talking about sanctions right up to the time the Iranians are fueling the launch vehicles for the nuclear weapons - Obama: New Sanctions on Iran Are Forthcoming – Forward.com. Other Iran stories:





10. This Pretty Such Sums It Up - RubinReports: Israel: We believe in Life; You Benefit - and the world condemns Israel.

11. I Cannot Stomach This - Haredim, police clash at fresh Jerusalem rally against Intel plant - Haaretz - Israel News - what makes these guys better than extremists from other religions? Simply because they are Jewish - not in my books.







15. Interesting, In-Depth Article - http://washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=3140.

16. Various Aspects Of Home-Grown Terror (Including Fort Hood) - some things to consider:
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