Wednesday, March 10, 2010

1. A Surprising View From The Other Side - Yalla Peace: 'Apartheid week’ or ‘weakness’?
Wrong!
The sign below is an example of Apartheid - show me where there is any similar sign in Israel......


2. Celebrating The IDF - well, not everybody celebrated - there were the usual grab bag of the usual suspects who showed up - Chesler Chronicles » Waltzing at the Waldorf: Israeli Solders Face Another Kind of War

(don't let the facts get in the way)


4. Hate Is In The Air - after the Madrid attacks, one might think that Spain might understand what the battle is all about - guess not - Editorial: The Spanish disease.


5. I'm Really Surprised - EU Parliament backs Goldstone Report.




"This is a tactic the Left always uses: repeat the lie enough times, and anyone will hopefully believe it, especially if the target is Israel or the United States."

9. What A Shame - another terrorist has gone to hell. We'll do out best to send your buddies along soon.



"Because Mr. Obama and his administration can't do anything to punish an enemy, they'll try to punish a friend by extracting a promise from Israel to learn to live with the neighborhood nuclear outlaw. Nobody at the White House puts it quite that way. Not yet. What Mr. Obama wants now is Israel's connivance in "toughening" sanctions against Iran and its accelerating nuclear program but exempting China and maybe Brazil (and eventually anyone else) from obeying the sanctions. This is such a transparent farce that only a puffed-up windbag like good old Joe would undertake such a mission to Jerusalem."
12. Mystery Solved! - Crosby's golden stick and glove finally recovered - Posted Sports - phew! - just when I was about to call Miss Marple, Lieutenant Columbo, Matlock, the boys from CSI (all the shows) and Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote).

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 #2

1. Rachel Corrie - You may recall that Rachel Corrie was a young American member of the International Solidarity Movement who died in Gaza in March 2003. Not surprisingly, the circumstances of her death are bitterly contested by the ISM and the IDF, though it would seem that there is little doubt that she was acting as a human shield in a very dangerous place. A civil trial in the US against Caterpillar Tractor (for supplying the tractors to Israel to be used in contravention of international law) was dismissed. A lawsuit in Israel against the IDF and the Israeli Defense Ministry is poised to start tomorrow.



Here are my observations.
  • while her death is unfortunate to tragic, depending on your perspective, she was the author of her own misfortune. It is naive to think that she could act in this manner in a highly dangerous area without risking death or serious injury.
  • I would like to know where else in the world but in the liberal democracies could the lawsuits in question be permitted, and perhaps even seen as normal? Haven't heard a lot about lawsuits in Russia for what was done in Chechnya, in China for what was done in Tibet, or in Iran for what was done to its own people protesting a rigged election. As usual, everyone criticizes the structure of the liberal democracies until they can find a way to use it to their advantage. Guys, you cannot have your cake and eat it too.
  • it seems pretty clear that whatever Ms. Corrie thought she was doing, she and her buddies were being cynically used by the Palestinians for their own purposes. A Hamas activist stated to the Observer newspaper that ""[Corrie's] death serves me more than it served her. Going in front of the tanks was heroic. Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs."
  • in the article below, there is a picture of an apparently very angry Corrie (apparently wearing a head covering of some sort like that worn by many Muslim women - I guess she went along to get along - did she protest this or actively embrace it?) burning an American flag. Notice the audience of young children. Was that her style of activism - promoting hatred of her native country in front of children? Did she ever try to counter the unbelievable antisemitism that is rampant in the Palestinian media and education system? Did she preach love for her fellow human being, regardless of religion or nationality?
  • Corrie's parents have tried to say that the use of this flag burning picture was some sort of attempt to justify her death and that in essence that she received the death penalty for that act. Sure. Sorry - that is a bunch of foolishness - the two acts are separate, though it does show that Corrie was not the little angel she is portrayed to be. They also assert that she had the flag because the children she was working with had drawn 2 flags - one Israeli and one American - and that while she would not burn the Israeli flag because of the Star of David, she felt it OK to burn the American flag. Right. Can someone please tell me why Palestinian children in Gaza would be drawing US and Israeli flags? Call me cynical - but I don't think it was part of their world geography class.
So I am not particularly overwhelmed with sympathy for her or her family - especially since her death has been exploited as a propaganda tool against Israel. She put herself or allowed herself to be put in that position. This was not some sit-in of a college campus in the US, nor a protest outside a coffee store for not selling free-trade coffee. This was inserting oneself into an extremely dangerous place and then paying the price. You want to stick your nose into someone else's business - better be careful.

According to the legal maxim - volenti non fit injuria - which basically means that if someone willingly places themselves in a position where harm might result, knowing that some degree of harm might result, they cannot then sue if harm actually results - Hey Rachel - if the shoe fits.....

My final word - in this case, theory met reality. As is often the case, reality won. Case closed.




4. A Box Of Matza Costs What? - The High Cost of Jewish Living

5. This Makes Me Nervous - Biden reassures Israel on Teheran


6. Book Review - The Israeli Peace Movement: A Shattered Dream written by Tamar Hermann and reviewed by Benny Morris - Peace, Processed - by Benny Morris > Tablet Magazine - A New Read on Jewish Life.


7. Book Review #2 - Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero written by Abigail Green and reviewed by Adam Kirsch - Orthodox Liberal - by Adam Kirsch > Tablet Magazine - A New Read on Jewish Life




9. Good Old Iran - I would really rather blog about other things.....


11. Turkey - some interesting stories:
12. Nice Deed - a friend of mine who is vacationing in Florida helped rescue a stranded bottle-nose dolphin - way to go! My mind then immediately leaped to this Seinfeld classic moment.

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

1. A Good First Step - York University suspends student running anti-Semitic Website - this should not take long, unless the bleeding hearts get hold of it - I mean the bastard has apparently admitted to his call for genocide against Jews -
"After the Post reported on the police investigation, Mr. Hossain was unapologetic and defended his support for a genocide against Jews, writing, "Yes, I can call for the slaughter of an entire people."

2. Meanwhile, IAW Marches On - This is truly a disgusting event - not because it criticizes Israel - which is fine as long as the type of criticism is the consistent as that leveled at other nations - but because the criticism is so extreme and so divergent from reality that it easily falls into Natan Sharansky's 3D test - demonization, double standards and delegitimization -and amounts to antisemitism.
3. Turkish Turkey - You can always count on the PM of Turkey to say something completely idiotic - 'Rachel's Tomb was never Jewish'. Hey pal, guess what? I'm not sold on the whole "Mohammed flew to heaven on a horse from the Dome of the Rock" thing - what do you say to that?






7. Where's The UNHRC Now? - 'Serious threat to Venezuela's Jews'





"Why do those who love the Palestinians never march for the Chechens, the Tibetans, the Sudanese, the Congolese? People who speechify endlessly on the Palestinians show no interest in the Uighurs. Those who care about only one of the world’s downtrodden peoples naturally arouse suspicion that something other than humanitarian feeling is behind their rhetoric."

10. Those Annoying Telemarketers - this oughta fix 'em.

Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, March 6 - motzei Shabbat

1. What's The Delay?? - arrest this hateful bastard & charge him under the Criminal Code -what would happen if someone were to say the same thing against Muslims? University may suspend student over anti-Semitic postings and National Post editorial board: A case study in hate - Full Comment.


[note - this image is just a random sample - it is not
an example of Hossain's "work"]


3. Speaking of Hate - Israel Apartheid Week is here (there is so much hate they need two weeks to spew their trash). Just proving that if say something loud enough and long enough, it gets a life of its own - facts and reality do not matter in the least. Here are a number of links about this annual disgrace - that has nothing to do with free speech or academic freedom - just vilification of Israel.


4. Big Story In Canada This Week #1 - Niqab Showdown in Quebec
"Quebec Immigration Minister Yolande James authorized the expulsion of a Muslim woman from a government-sponsored French class at Cégep St. Laurent, a report said Tuesday.

The student, an Egyptian who is a permanent resident of Canada and who wears a veil over her face known as a niqab, apparently refused to reveal her face in class and insisted male students not face her, according to La Presse."

This has provoked a number of comments - but (sarcasm on) I am sure glad to know that the case is in the good hands of a human rights tribunal (sarcasm off).





8. Mind Your Own Business - Marty Peretz

9. I've Heard That Loose Lips Sink Ships - but that famous saying from World War II is so 20th century - AFP: Israel aborts raid after soldier posts details on Facebook.



11. Dead Guy in Dubai - unlike the late unlamented target, this story refuses to die.
Apparently Dubai is going to teach its sleuths to recognize Jews and Israelis by their physical features - how Third Reich of them!

"After announcing the ban on Israelis with dual nationality, Dubai’s police chief, Lt.-Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, said on Monday that authorities in the Gulf emirate would be on the lookout for “Jews".

A Channel 2 News broadcast Monday night showed Tamim pointing at his own face and saying, “We know how to recognize them.” The United Arab Emirates will “deny entry to anyone suspected of having Israeli citizenship,” he said, adding that Israelis with dual nationality would be denied entry.

We will not allow those who hold Israeli passports into the UAE no matter what other passport they have,” Tamim said. Police will “develop skills” to recognize Israelis by “physical features and the way they speak,” he claimed."


12. Good Idea - Purge Nazi legacy from medical science, Canadian doctor urges - if you can stomach it, follow this link and read about Nazi medical experiments - you will be shaken to your core.


13. Speaking of The Nazi Era - More about Pope Pius XII - Saint or Hitler's puppet?

14. Big Story In Canada This Week #2 - In the Throne Speech that signified the re-opening of Parliament, the Conservative Government proposed revising the national anthem to remove the allegedly non-neutral gender reference to "true patriot love in all thy sons command". First of all, "son" is not necessarily a reference to a male person - it can also mean "A native or inhabitant of some specified place; as, sons of Albion; sons of New England". Second, if you want political correctness - how about changing "our home and native land" - only the First Nations people can make that claim.

15. Iran - always good for some material.
Posted by at 2 comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)