Sunday, April 10, 2011 - quick hitters - the "I" Edition

1. I Want To Make A Correction - I want to correct one thing I said in my last posting about about the attack on the school bus. The bus was not hit by a Qassam missile, but by a Kornet laser guided anti-tank missile.

Critical difference.

To a large degree, when the Hamas terrorist murderers fire a Qassam, they point it toward Israel and hope that (a) it makes it to Israel (though they really could not care less if it lands in Gaza and kills or wounds some of their own populace - after all, these are the guys who fight from hospitals, schools and mosques and have made human shields into an art form) and (b) that it hits something "worthwhile" like a hospital, building or school.


On the other hand, an anti-tank missile is capable to being aimed at something - like, gee, I don't know, a tank.....

"The missile had started development in 1988 as a modular, universal system able to engage any target from a mix of platforms using a reliable laser beam guidance system that was simple to use." (my emphasis)

So when the Hamas terrorist murderers say that they didn't deliberately target a school bus, they are just proving themselves to be lying bastards (again).

Just for fun, let's see if you can tell the difference - hint - one of these two images is the actual school but that was attacked:



Were you able to identify what was what? I thought so.

2. I Wonder - Where Is The Outrage? - as I asked in the post from last night - where's the outrage over the deliberate targeting of a school bus? Pretty muted, to say the least - JoeSettler: The silence is deafening

But you can count on this type of utter nonsense - Turkey condemns 'disproportionate' IDF violence in Gaza. I'd like to say what I really feel, but I promised myself I would not use rampant profanity.

I wonder what the Turks would do if the Kurds did something like that to them - I;'m sure they invite them in for a nice steaming cup of Turkish coffee and a passing around of the hookah, all while singing the Turkish equivalent of Kumbaya.



(ok - this is a parody)

Maybe the Turks should read this - The art of disproportion - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.



3. I Think This Means "KEEP IT UP" - Hamas appeals in Hebrew on Israeli radio for ceasefire | The Australian - good - that must mean the Israeli response is hurting them, so keep on keeping on.







7. I'm Appalled (Not Really) - does anything like this have any shock value any more? Fred Malek: Nixon's Jew-counter goes on the record but omits the worst part. - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine

8. I Can't Wait - Julian Assange: We Ignited the Arab Revolutions. Now We Will Rock Israel - what is with this guy - he thinks he ignited the Arab Revolutions? There no a jail cell that can hold him (not because he can escape, but because his ego is that large). How is the defence to the rape charges coming along, by the way?



10. I Thought This Was Funny -

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Saturday, April 9, 2011 - motzei Shabbat

1. Letters To The Editor #1 - persistence pays off - here are 3 letters that were published in the Halifax Herald this week - I happen to know one of the authors......



Outrageous article

Re: "Polarizing book speaks truths," April 3, by Matt Semansky.

This article outrageously refers to Israel as being "racist" and "fascist." Israel, as most enlightened people know, is an incredibly multicultural country with a rich cultural mosaic and an incredibly tolerant society.

Consider this if you will: An Arab (Salim Joubran) serves on the Israeli Supreme Court, the former Miss Israel (Rana Rasian) is Arab, the captain of Israeli soccer team Hapolel Tel Aviv (Walid Badir) is Arab, the former deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset (Majalil Wahabi) is Druze.

Israel has accepted thousands of African refugees fleeing for their lives and welcomed thousands of Ethiopian immigrants. Jews and Arabs sing and dance together, swim at the Dead Sea, and are educated and shop together.

Don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper.

Mike Fegelman, Executive director, HonestReporting Canada

Reach out to Jews

I was dismayed but not surprised that Hamas and Fatah have opposed teaching the history of the Holocaust to Palestinian children starting in September ("Hamas warns UN," March 27). Many young Canadians who study this genocide are horrified to the point of being physically sick. The systematic murder of six million Jews is beyond fathoming.

Let’s bring this matter closer to home. What have we done to build bridges of understanding between the Jews and Gentiles who live here in Halifax? In view of the history of tensions between Jews and Christians, what have local church denominations done to show solidarity with their Jewish brothers and sisters?

April 11 marks Holocaust Day (Yom HaSho’ah) and April 19 marks Israel’s Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut). It would be refreshing if even one church reached out to a synagogue saying: "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Jennifer and Kirby Smart, Kentville

Regarding Nakba

Re: "Selective criticism," (April 3 letter) on Israel’s "Nakba law." The law allows that government to withhold or reduce budgets from government-funded bodies which deny Israel’s existence.

A sovereign state passes a law, amended after adhering to a truly democratic parliamentary process, that seeks to cut the budgets of institutions and bodies that reject its basic values. The state does not aim to minimize or ban criticism — everyone is still allowed to voice their views. It is just that the state will not finance its own critics and those who harm it.

Perhaps it is just me, but such a step seems reasonable, even a step that more states should adopt. Does it make a difference that the state is Israel?

Maybe, for once, the reflexive Israel bashers should instead concern themselves with events elsewhere in the Middle East — such as protesters shot by their own governments in Syria and Libya, women and gays being stoned to death in Iran, Christians being murdered in Egypt and Pakistan, and UN workers being murdered in Afghanistan. There don’t seem to be many letters from them about those subjects.

Mark David, Halifax

2. Hamas - The Hamas terrorists have started acting up again - firing 120 missiles into Israel since Thursday. One such missile hit a bus carrying Israeli schoolchildren, and there is a strong suspicion that the bus was deliberately targeted.


So, what would happen in Mexico fired the same number of missiles in the US, Poland lobbed 120 missiles into Ukraine, or Spain let a few loose at France? But these are attacks against Israel - so the rules are different. The silence from the world is again deafening.

And not that it should matter, but just to be clear, we are talking about missiles being launched from an area in which there are no Jews (except perhaps Gilad Shalit) and which Israel unilaterally evacuated in 2005, uprooting thousands of settlers and communities. Oh and the missiles are being launched into an area that was always within the boundaries of 1948 Israel. In any event:


And here's a guy who finally got what was coming to him - Hamas militant killed in Gaza strike was 'physically' involved in Shalit kidnapping - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News - though I think that his death was too quick and easy. Anyway, I'm sure he's finding out now that he's in a special area of hell with the rest of the world's dead terrorists and that there aren't any 72 virgins waiting for him.


3. Letters To The Editor #2 - from today's National Post:

Re: Hamas Fires Missile at Israeli School Bus, April 8.

One need not look further than Hamas's English website to understand that Hamas has no intention of ever living at peace with Israel and returning to a "calm," as this article suggested. After specifically targeting a school bus with Jewish children, Hamas proudly took responsibility and claimed that "The operation left two Israeli settlers injured."

Israeli settlers. That is not a reference to Israeli settlers who have moved to lands captured in 1967; this refers to Israeli school children who have the misfortune of living within Gaza rocket range. In Hamas's eyes, all Jews in Israel are settlers -it doesn't matter if they live in Sderot, East Jerusalem or Eilat.

Yet Israel is supposed to negotiate with these barbarians.

Joseph Schwartz, Thornhill, Ont.

I read with revulsion that Hamas fired a missile directly at an Israeli school bus. While I would actually expect no less from this terror organization, I am still reeling. Israel responded and evidently five unfortunate Palestinians were killed. I am now waiting for the cries of "disproportionate response" from the usual suspects. And I guess they're right; Israel's response was disproportionate inasmuch as a proportionate response would have been for the Israelis to attack a Palestinian school bus.

Thank goodness that this is not how a moral and democratic nation such as Israel responds to unprovoked attacks. Israel has no choice but to defend itself to stop these attacks and cannot let the assaults continue without Israel's evidently amoral enemies paying a price. No other civilized nation would have done less.

Howard C. Tenenbaum, Thornhill, Ont

3. Waging War - I think that the West has largely forgotten the price one has to pay to defeat evil - reminds me of the saying that you should never bring a knife to a gun fight. Or, to put it theatrically, try this from "The Untouchables":




4. Goldstone - New Attacks on Israel Bring Goldstone Controversy into Focus - Commentary Magazine. And doesn't this story surprise the heck out of you - Europeans, UN: We Stand by Goldstone Report - here's an understatement if there ever was one:
"How can these countries simply ignore Goldstone's recantation and plough ahead as if his claim that Israel targeted civilians were true? According to Shepherd, anti-Israel sentiment has become so strong in Europe that that the truth is less important for those nations than advancing their goals vis-a-vis Israel."

Maybe the EU and the UN should read this opinion - A victory for moral clarity in the Middle East



5. Antisemitism - I do not like people who automatically scream prejudice as soon as something bad befalls them - but I have little doubt that the UN/EU story above, Israel Apartheid Week and the BDS Movement, to name but only three examples - is antisemitism through and through. Yes, the Boycott of Israel Is Anti-Semitic - Commentary Magazine. And if antisemitism is your thing - I've got a travel idea for you - Spain: The "Most Anti-Semitic Country in Europe": Hudson New York

6. Speaking of Apartheid - and false accusations - South African Charge of Israeli Apartheid Rings Hollow : Hudson New York










Here is a modern adaptation of the old joke to the effect that the Jews wandered 40 years in the wilderness because Moses would not stop and ask for directions.......



12. Shoah - after the Second World War, when the vanquished Nazis just became ordinary Germans and the highest levels of the Western Allies decided that help was needed to hold back the Communist hordes, it became fashionable to think that the atrocities of the Shoah were really only committed by the Nazi leadership and the ideologically fanatic SS. There is tons of evidence to the contrary - and here's another - Rape, Murder and Genocide: Nazi War Crimes as Described by German Soldiers - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International


13. Scapegoat - the concept being contained in the Torah (Vayikra (Leviticus) 16.22), I guess everyone thinks that Jews and Israel need to be scapegoats for all time - ONLINE ONLY: The Israel Scapegoat | Standpoint
But now we've seen evidence that the overriding concerns of the jobless, imprisoned, censored, bullied and bloodied peoples of Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria have not, in fact, been the real estate habits of ultra-nationalist Jews in the West Bank, much less the fractiousness of the Netanyahu cabinet or the sacredness of the Temple Mount. The momentum and direction of history was better guessed at by Facebook and Twitter than by the Guardian or the BBC. One might have imagined that Israel, if only temporarily, was about to be consigned to the periphery of the what-went-wrong debate.
14. The Suit With No Occupant - Andrew Klavan's latest





17. Home Grown Concerns - it's only a matter of time before something really bad happens here - Alex Wilner: Canada grows its own terrorists Full Comment National Post

18. Back to Passover




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Saturday, April 2, 2011 - motzei Shabbat

1. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise - you know, like Gomer Pyle would say it.



And some commentary:
(from the time to the issue of the Goldstone Report)

This reminds me of the countless criticisms of Israel - too many to mention - but like the "oops if never really happened" Jenin Massacre - where the truth only comes out later when the heat of the moment has passed and most no one cares - or bothers to read the other side of the story. More evidence that the famous Winston Churchill quote I have referred to before- "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on" - is 100% correct.

2. Syria - things continue to develop here
(not so fast.....)


5. Dubious Distinction - The Most Islamic Community in Europe - I am not criticizing people who believe in Islam - I am criticizing people who move to another country and utterly disrespect the customs and values of that country - the liberal democratic values that our veterans fought and died for (and continue to fight and die for to this day). Try this on for size:

"The most influential Muslim in Leicester is Shaykh Abu Yusuf Riyadh-ul-Haq, a hard-line Muslim cleric who runs the Al Kawthar Academy, an Islamic school in the city. Ul-Haq, 40, is also the leader of a new generation of "home-grown" British Islamists who loathe Western values, support armed jihad and preach contempt for Christians, Jews and Hindus.

Ul-Haq, who preaches in mosques across Britain, outlaws television and music, and says football is "a cancer that has infected our youth." He is appalled by young women who want to get educated and go to university. He regularly praises the work of the Taliban and their attacks against British troops in Afghanistan."



I have said this before and I will say it again - Great Britain - which despite certain "warts" in its history like colonialism and imperialism - but which country doesn't have such warts? - is responsible for many of the best things in the world today - and which I would summarize simply as the rule of law, pluralism, personal freedom and respect for individual rights of property- and which played an absolutely indispensable role at the start of World War II as the last Western bastion of resistance to the Nazis until the United States entered the war - is slowly committing national suicide by the death of a thousand cuts - one day, it is going to "wake up dead" and find that the whole place has turned into a giant Leicester.


6. More Problems With Moral Equivalence - Koran Burning and Massacres - personally, I think that burning the Koran is stupid - but then again, I think that flag burning is stupid, as are such things as an award-winning photograph showing a crucifix submerged in the "artists" urine.


In any event, the fanatics who committed the atrocities in Afghanistan are solely responsible for what they did - period and full stop. They are only empowered by crap like what Luke Russert wrote - this whole politically correct, post-modern world seems to wallow in, among other things, an incredible inability to recognize any concept of personal responsibility and simply passes the buck and throws up barriers constructed of a million excuses that simply blame others.

7. I'm Not Sure How To Interpret This - Gaza Rights Group Says Militants Endanger Civilians - NYTimes.com - I'm sure that Hamas could not care less.

8. Passover Will Soon Be Upon Us - with the start of the Hebrew month of Nissan (not the car....) just days away, Passover is right around the corner. Here's a somewhat tongue in cheek commentary on this very important Festival of Freedom - Passover: The Marketing Miracle – Forward.com.

"A system where companies, like Facebook, can facilitate human rights violations when it is in their business interest is a system that needs fixing. Companies must be accountable. Human rights do not only apply when they are popular and can garner public outrage and media attention. Facebook’s responsibility to close a group advocating violence arose when the first complaint was made. The number of complaints should not matter, only the fact that the clock has started and Facebook should respond in reasonable time. I still believe we need legislation to make this the law."
10. UNIFIL - the proper name of this entity is the "United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon" - its mandate after the Second Lebanon War is 2006 was to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, including, among other things - "security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL as authorized in paragraph 11, deployed in this area".

UNIFIL's name should be changed to "United Nations Totally Clueless and Blind Force in Hezbollah-Land" - Thanks, United Nations! Israel uncovers 1,000 new Hezbollah military sites in Lebanon - most of which are south of the Litani River. Hezbollah's desire for peace war is palpable don't you think?

And don't get me started on these parts of 1701 - "full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of 27 July 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese State" and "no sales or supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon except as authorized by its Government"


11. Cultural Stuff - food, music, literature and film - Tablet Magazine is a great source for links with a Jewish perspective:

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