October 2005 Archives

Woof. Long day and I'm on a sugar high.

Here's the audio of Deborah Lipstadt's discussion of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion including the Q & A [right click...save as...]. She was introduced by Richard Landes.

Lipstadt is a very engaging speaker and I found the subject very interesting. She also touches on Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories in general. As just listening to audio may be a bit dull, harkening back to the days when people would listen to music and stare at the album cover, here are photos I took of Landes and Lipstadt. I'll leave it to the reader to figure out which is which.

Just got back from watching Deborah Lipstadt give the keynote at BU's "Reconsidering “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”: 100 Years After the Forgery, October 30-31, 2005" conference. I truly wish I could have spent the entire day there listening to all the talks. It must have been fascinating, but with a family and the last really nice weekend day of the fall...I may as well have told my wife I was going to spend the day drinking at the bar as sell that idea to her, so the final presentation of the evening was all I managed.

Anyway, I will post the audio of her excellent address, probably tomorrow, so anyone can hear it if interested. I think you'll like it.

Afterward, the attendees were invited to a sneak screening of a new film that will be showing next Sunday at the Boston Jewish Film Festival -- Protocols of Zion. About twenty people or so stayed to watch. I'm going to chew this one over a bit before I consider reviewing it...I like to be positive on this blog (ahem)...but I really...well, if anyone else has seen the movie, I'd be interested in what you thought, because right now the more I think about it the worse I think it was.

An update on the post below regarding the widespread coupling of the story of a suicide bombing in Israel with photos of the grief of the bomber's family, Wrong Picture.

To her credit, The Washington Post's new ombudsman agrees with the criticism:

Here's a longish piece in the Washington Post purporting to be a run-down of the Libby/Wilson/Plame business: A Leak, Then a Deluge - Did a Bush loyalist, trying to protect the case for war in Iraq, obstruct an investigation into who blew the cover of a covert CIA operative?

But here's something I don't get. Here's that dilemma again. There's no mention of the fact that Iraq had, in fact, sought uranium in Niger, Joe Wilson said as much and then wasn't "forthright" about it. From Stephen Hayes' piece:

Yet upon reading the Post's story, the clear narrative one comes away with is that of the "VP wanted war at all costs and lied about uranium in Niger" point of view. You get nothing of the above quote.

So, is this just Post bias or is Hayes incorrect with what he's got written above? Or am I misunderstanding something? It certainly continues to sound as thought the Hayes narrative is correct, or at least a more honest and fair description of the Administration's viewpoint, but Post readers would never know.

Palestinian Media Watch: Hamas Pre-Election Video: More terror, Israel will be destroyed

Visit the link for more explanation and a portion of the video.

Some folks are commenting that Iranian President Ahmadinejad's genocidal remarks against Israel were for "domestic consumption only," and are not to be taken overly seriously. Not surprisingly, I respectfully disagree.

Iran sponsors real, non-rhetorical violence through multiple terrorist proxies, they have long been said to be allowing al Qaeda terrorists freedom of movement in their territory, they have been assisting the terrorists in Iraq, they have openly recruited suicide bombers, they have assassinated dissidents abroad and their own agents are responsible for bombings such as the 1994 bombing of an Argentinian Jewish Community Center.

Again, the nature of Iran's violence is decidedly non-rhetorical, it is quite real and ongoing, especially where Jewish targets are concerned. That means that it would be completely irresponsible not to take such statements seriously. Iran has one of the most highly developed terror-network infrastructures on the planet. It is utterly plausible that they would pass off a WMD and use it if they thought they could get away with it, and their highly developed terror network provides them a weapon in itself that will someday represent a deep temptation to use.

Further, even if Ahmadinejad's comments are not going to be coupled with orders to act, there is no shortage of people around him for whom he is providing the moral backing to do so on their own and who have the capability of doing so. There is no shortage of organizational structures as well that can act on this without explicit direction as well. "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

War and terror require not only the means, which Iran certainly has and is well on its way to improving, but the moral justification, the reasoning and the rhetoric, and Ahmadinejad is up for providing that. He's providing the motive for murder.

People used to make this excuse for Arafat all the time. They'd write off what he said in Arabic, saying it was just typical Arab rhetoric and that it shouldn't be taken seriously, and anyway, he had his hardliners to appease. Then buses started blowing up, and people started paying a little closer attention to what he had actually been saying and they realized that he had meant everything he had said. Imagine that. And, of course, the reason there were so many hardliners he supposedly had to appease was in large measure, perhaps the largest measure, because of what he had been saying to create them.

Coincidentally, some people used to say the same thing about Hitler -- that he was just throwing red-meat to some of the Nazi extremists. So you see, we've heard this all before, more than once. It's all fun and games and sticks and stones until someone gets hurt.

Iran has been hurting people for some time.

If we write this off as just for the internal, and fail to take it as seriously as the words themselves call for, we are complicit in it. We allow it to continue. We allow this sort of murderously motivating language to continue to be used, and that has deleterious effects both inside and outside Iran. The President of Iran is responsible for his words and their meaning. There can be no compromise on that. We must hold him responsible.

Anti-Zionist paranoia is not the fringist joke in Iran (and across the Middle East) that it is here in America. They believe it. Their fantasies are real to them, and their fantasies are vicious and bloody. Given what Iranians actually believe about Zionism, there is no reason to doubt they would and have worked themselves up to act violently against this perceived threat.

Finally, to imagine certain changes in the governing structure in the Islamic Republic are meant as "moderating reforms" assumes that "moderate reform" means the same thing to the Iranian regime that it means to Western liberal intellectuals. It does not. The words moderation and prudence simply do not have the same meaning and end goals to a Mullah as they do to Western liberals. Our goals and definitions are not the same.

Confusing the two is a deadly error.

Update: Not surprisingly, Haaretz is in the "don't worry about it" camp, because after all, what Iran really wants is peace and justice for Palestinians. Thanks anyway.

Speaking of Sabeel, at IsraPundit I find this statement issued by the administration of Coe College in Iowa after a recent Sabeel conference there:

Anti-Semitic statements at a Sabeel conference? Who woulda believed it?

An unfortunate element may make itself present at any conference, but other times it's unavoidable due to the nature of the conferees...as in this case.

United Church of Christ member and Judeo-Christian Alliance director issued the following statement at a press conference shortly after being denied entry to a UCC-sponsored Sabeel event in Toronto (I'm bumping this up to the top from the comments):

Are you an employer in the Richmond, Virginia area? If so, click here and take a look. Sounds like there's a highly qualified person there just waiting to be picked up by someone.

Jack Baxter was (and still is) a documentary film maker. Jack wasn't (and still isn't) Jewish. But he, like so many around the world, had seen this place called Israel on the news and became intrigued. He just knew there was a film there waiting for him to discover.

So off he went to Israel, with a short budget and a simple idea.

It didn't work out. See, he had heard about this articulate fellow named Marwan Barghouti then on trial is Israel for terrorism. It was said that Barghouti was really a potential and even worthy future Palestinian leader. But shortly after his arrival, Baxter found that there was already an Israeli crew working on a Barghouti documentary, and they were well along. He also encountered the vigils and stories of the families of Barghouti's victims and with them discovered that Barghouti was not the man for him.

What to do?

Short on money, and ready to pack it in and head home to New York, he stopped in at a little Blues bar down by the Tel Aviv beach called Mike's Place.

He had found his muse.

A film about Mike's Place would be the perfect story to tell -- one not shown on the world's news cameras. Here was a little slice of Israel where the subjects known as "politics" and "religion" were kept out on the sidewalk, where Israeli Jews, Arabs and world travelers could mix and the only thing they had to have in common was a love of music, booze and a good time. This was going to be a perfect look at the Israel we never see, the majority Israel, stripped of its obsessions and looking as Israel looks to the Israelis -- normal.

And that's how it went for awhile, with Baxter carrying the camera, conducting interviews with the staff and generally living the life and capturing the moments and the personalities.

But then the story took an unexpected turn.

At the end of April, 2003, two British citizens of Pakistani descent traveled to Israel and the disputed territories. They made contact with members of the International Solidarity Movement and other left-wing activists, one of whom, an Italian journalist, likely facilitated their crossing the Gaza border by traveling with them into Israel. The two then traveled to the Tel Aviv beach with murderous intent. One's belt failed to detonate. The other succeeded, killing three people and injuring scores of others. (In fact, it should be noted that the toll would undoubtedly have been far worse if not for the bravery of security guard Avi Tabib who prevented the pair's entry and by some miracle wound up critically wounded by surviving.)

Filmmaker Jack Baxter was in Mike's Place filming at the time. Suddenly the story line had taken an unexpectedly serious turn.

Baxter himself was critically wounded, but while he recovered in the hospital from multiple grave injuries, including nerve damage, massive contusions and the effects of "organic shrapnel," his assistants (and also Mike's Place employees) filmed on. The visions of good times and booze are done for the moment, as we're now taken from horror of the bombing through the aftermath and the story of the survivors whose lives have changed forever.

Everything changed that night, and the film brings us along -- from the former footloose and fancy free bohemian life of a staff who can't wait to go to work every evening, to the reality of shattered romance, sleepless nights and the anguish and pain of self-doubt and guilt amongst people embarrassed by the fact that everything's changed for them. We're along as witnesses to their all-too-human weakness as they face the reality of their own frailty and the fact that they just don't want to go back to work again, even though they know they must.

And they do.

Blues by the Beach is not the constructed montage of stock footage and staged pieces that one would see in say, the average Michael Moore film. This is close-ups, interviews, candid shots in natural lighting. This is story, real and as it happened. The impact is pure human truth. We want to reach into the screen and do...something to comfort these people. But we can't, and in that way it's as effective a seat-squirmer as any thriller.

If I could make one change, I'd have included more of the bloody reality of the bombing aftermath, footage that the filmmakers have but chose not to include. Perhaps a wise choice. They focused instead on the human stories rather than going for the shock visuals.

Jack Baxter's wife and the film's co-producer was on hand for the screening this morning at the Kendall Square Cinema. The couple have spent everything making this movie because they feel its message is so important and powerful. Now the Baxters are desperately seeking distribution and funding for better production formats.

Blues By The Beach could do more to bring home what's at stake to the average person regarding the reality of suicide terror -- in Israel and everywhere -- than 1000 scholarly articles or 100 TV pundits. Here's to hoping they succeed.

There will be a second showing tomorrow, Sunday at 11:30am at the Kendall Square Cinema. If you're in the Boston area and have the chance, don't miss it.

Wow. I wish the Vietnam generation and their mindset that runs the Boston Globe, NY Times, LA Times and on and on would dry up and blow away already.

My condolences to the bereaved friends of family of blogger and apparently extraordinary lady Momma Bear who passed away this past Wednesday. I met her and her also now recently deceased husband at the 1st Annual New England blogger bash last year. They were a fascinating pair.

They leave behind many admirers.

I just finished reading Colby Buzzell's new book, My War.

Buzzell was one of the most well known and widely read of the "MilBloggers" with boots on the ground in Iraq. His blog, My War, Killing Time in Iraq was a daily stop for masses of blog surfers, and the book fills in the gaps left by the posts on the now long-defunct blog.

One of the benefits of blogging so far has been the few times I've received review copies of books from publishers hoping I mention their books on my blog. Sometimes it's a book I really want to read, and sometimes...well sometimes... Anyway, we at Solomonia welcome them all, because we take pride of ownership in books. In fact, we need a bigger house, with a bigger office to hold more books. In fact, if anyone would like to send us a review copy of a bigger house, we would welcome it.

Fortunately, Buzzell's book is in the former category -- books I was not only happy to own, but happy to read. "CB" had a great blog, and he's written a great book. In fact the book contains a lot of his old blog entries with the gaps filled in describing how he joined the army, what was behind some of the posts, and what happened after the blog came down.

Buzzell joined up after kicking around from job to job and finding himself in his mid-twenties with no direction in sight. Although the entity known as "Army Recruiter" emerges as perhaps the most despised creature in the Buzzell demonology, there may be some projection occurring here as the story makes clear that CB went looking for the Army, not the other way around. Well, OK, he went looking for the Marines, but found the Army.

The book is a quick and enjoyable read, as anyone who read the blog would expect. A warning for the delicate: though Buzzell has an infantryman's heart, he has a sailor's mouth. The language is purely adult. It doesn't offend here, but be aware...

This is not a rah-rah patriotic flag-fest, nor is it a lame attempt at an anti-war prose anthem. It is what it is -- the point of view of a skater from California who listens to Social Distortion and joined the Army because it was a better job than any he'd had before -- except for a couple of occasions, like the first day of Basic and when the bullets start flying. At risk of sounding like a cliche, it's an irreverent look at everyday army life in the war zone. How's that for dust jacket material? Irreverent -- meaning with humor, not an unrelenting downer that the war's foes or those still looking to trip on the '60s Vietnam narrative might want, nor is it a goopy maudlin tribute to Mom, Dad and Apple Pie. It's what ya call 'nuanced' without being self-conscious about it.

The narratives of combat are exciting, but I found the descriptions of every day Army life to be the most interesting, and Buzzell shines there as much as he shines describing combat from the inside of an army Stryker vehicle. On a personal note, I found his description of starting to blog and write for the public to be about as perfect a description as I've read:

Yes! Exactly! If his descriptions of combat are anywhere close to conveying the reality of the situation like his descriptions of blogging, or of being a skate-jerk are -- fortunately two of the only things I can relate to from personal experience, thanks to guys like Colby Buzzell -- then they must be very good descriptions indeed.

As a side note, looking at the photo on the back cover, CB, despite his rugged description, appears a bit of a Poindexter, actually. (Joking! Joking! As you'll see if you flip open the book... That's just in case he reads this -- his head must be ready to explode from all the well-deserved good press he's been getting.)

In fact, though he may not yet know it himself, and that's good because if I want pretentious writing I'll read Vanity Fair, Buzzell is clearly an intellectual at heart, and a keen and sensitive observer and it shows.

In the end, My War shows that it isn't the flags, or the speeches, or the policy papers that motivate men. It's the guys standing on either side of him through the shared misery of training, the tedium of daily living and the flash-horror of combat. "Going through it together" is a lesson we could all take. My War cracks the door just barely enough so that we on the outside can have a peek and join them just for a moment.

Hell yeah.

Just a quick administrative note that my tech issues that have been causing commenters (and me!) to get weird errors ('500 errors') may be resolved. If anyone that tries to leave a comment and gets an error (even if the comment goes through anyway) would let me know about it by either...leaving another comment or emailing me at solomon = at = solomonia = dot = com I'd appreciate it. I'd like to put this issue to bed in my mind so I can move on to obsessing on other things. Hopefully I don' t hear anything, which is a good thing in this case.

The overtly antisemitic TV series airing over Ramadan in Jordan (See: Judenhass Nazi display in 'moderate' Jordan) has been cancelled following an appeal by 24 American Rabbis to Jordan's King.

Jordan Cancels Antisemitic TV Series, Following Protest by 24 U.S. Rabbis

Via Judith Apter Klinghoffer who notes:

I haven't had time to read this JTA special report in full yet, and I've got to go out now, but I've no doubt it's worth checking out just on a quick skim, so here's the link:

Tainted Teachings: What your kids are learning about Israel, America and Islam

Malik Tintilinic, of the Croatian blog Mali Crveni Patuljci (I'm told it means "Little Red Dwarfs" and is the name of a Croatian rock song), catches this little bit of inappropriate juxtaposition in an ABC News report on today's suicide bombing that killed five people in Hadera, Israel.

Accompanying what is a surprisingly fair AP report on the bombing (fair in that it does a pretty good job of not trying to twist to show how this bombing was really the Israelis' fault and actually portrays Islamic Jihad as worse than Hamas) is the choice of AP photo (shown here) which ABC has run with the report: Blast Kills 5 Israelis, Erodes Peace Hopes

Thing is, that's not a picture of one of the victims' family members, it's the perpetrator's sister:

Which strikes me as a bit like printing the story of an ax murderer who kills five people and wounds many more and running as the only graphic a picture of the ax-murderer's grieving family -- probably not the best way to illustrate the human cost. At best the taste is questionable.

Update: Dave notes that the problem with the photographic coverage of the story is quite wide-spread.

Congratulations to The Record, "The independent newspaper at Harvard Law School" for calling for the student group Justice for Palestine to uninvite Norman Finkelstein from the Harvard Law School campus. You would think that Harvard Law could do better than a man who's sole claim to fame is Jew baiting.

Amicus Curiae: Justice for Palestine or Jew-Baiting?

They go on. This one serves as a decent Finkelstein primer, too.

Benny Morris (need I mention he's hardly a right-winger?) reviews former Palestinian National Council member Salman Abu Sitta's book, Atlas of Palestine 1948: Reconstructing Palestine in The New Republic. It is scathing, it is scholarly and it is satisfying. This is highly recommended if you'd like, in three pages, to read a response to many of the lies currently in vogue concerning Israel's founding. Those who are confused about the history of Israel's founding and would like a primer could do worse than to read this piece.

Details and Lies by Benny Morris

Racial arguments are all the rage (ironicly among those who most loudly accuse Zionists of racism) these days, so I enjoyed this part:

John Hawkins of Right Wing News has done another one of his polls, this time in response to the BBC's poll of who people would choose to rule the world.

John's challenge was to choose a list of up to fifteen people to constitute a team to run every country in the world except your own. The results are in. I submited a list of a few "neo-cons" -- Kristol, Krauthammer, Wolfowitz -- the Jewish ones only, of course. After all, as long as we're being silly, might as well play into stereotypes. I see from the list a few names I should have included. Sharansky should have been an automatic, but he's had enough headaches already.

Right-Of-Center Bloggers Decide Who Should Rule The World

UCCTruths is reporting:

UCC member blocked from UCC-sponsored divestment conference

My apologies to UCCTruths for quoting the complete item, but I didn't see any way to do a permalink and don't want this to slip away.

This is scandalous as the UCC, as I understand their structure, is Congregational in nature. That is, there is theoretically space for a wide range of views, and no single Pope for dictating the line on acceptable teaching. There is supposed to be space for divestment pro and con in the UCC. The only reason to bar Mr. Van Zile that I can see would be if he were a dangerous person, or known not to conduct himself appropriately. Anyone who has met Dexter, or read his writings -- often linked to here -- knows that this could not possibly be the case. The only reason he could possibly have been barred would have been because he's known to be someone who does not support the conference's orthodoxy.

Keep an eye on UCCTruths for updates.

A new Christian group has formed to combat it. The backlash is in swing.

NEW GROUP FORMS TO CHALLENGE ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS

(via the comments)

Hat tip to Mike for pointing out this very good UN-watching site, Eye on the UN. Of particular interest, especially given the post below concerning the coopting of the language of Human Rights for nefarious purposes is this video and these still photos from the 2001 Durban "UN World Conference Against Racism."

If you want to understand why many of us have grown cynical to the point of dismissiveness of Human Rights-speak, watch this video. The video is a fair reflection of everything I've read and heard of what a UN conference that was to have been against racism turned into.

I've come to understand that some University of Massachusetts students are none-too-pleased with an invitation extended to an anti-Israel polemicist by the student chapter of Physicians for Human Rights. We're all familiar with the pattern. Everyone is concerned with "Human Rights," but there are always those ready to twist the words for use for a partisan or even twisted political agenda.

In this case, the invitation that has some folks up in arms is one extended to a highly partisan individual, Dr. Alice Rothchild of Visions of Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine. As per usual when we see "peace" and "justice" used in this context, it always seems to involve some form of the dismantling of Israel -- the only question becomes the means, as a look at the "issues" page of VOPJI/P shows -- it's a cavalcade of hits including tunes from the divestment, rationalization of suicide bombing, antisemitism is overblown, Zionism is Racism song books (and more!).

Given the guest of honor's proclivities and purposes, the organizer's assurances that the evening will be a dispassionate examination of the state of Human Rights from a physician's perspective ring rather hollow.

Here's the graphic they're using on the promotional posters:

I'm thinking the Human Right of people to ride buses without fear of dismemberment, the Human Right of parents to protect their children from murder, and the Human Right of people to live safely in their homes will not be high on the agenda. At least not if the Human Rights we're discussing are those of Israeli Jews.

Here's an interesting new blog started by a Cornell student that uses a creative format to display the "Left" and "Right" reaction to issues. You might find it interesting: DC Debate

Judith Apter Klinghoffer uses the case of a 78 year old arrested Ayatolla to make a salient point:

To which I would add that the real insulters of Islam are also those of us in the West who compromise our own values to pander to the worst aspects of the Islamic world...banning piglet, firing Professors who tell the truth to Arab students, living in fear of the "Arab street," refusing to stand up to Hamas-front CAIR, inviting the opinion of the Muslim Brotherhood in our decision making, on and on...

Not remaining true to our own values and imagining that Muslims will not or cannot be expected to compromise or respect them is not just an insult to ourselves, it's an insult to Muslims as well.

Hitchens is kvelling. Calling Galloway's Bluff - The Senate uncovers a smoking gun:

The rumors appear to have been true. Well, there were a lot rumors, but the ones way back that said that documents concerning Iraqi uranium purchases from Niger may have been forged by France -- those may have been true. (via LGF comments and American Thinker)

Telegraph: Agent behind fake uranium documents worked for France

This is going to keep things nicely complicated (other than what everyone should simply think of the French) -- as Saddam had approached Niger in 1999 and Joe Wilson reported as much, though he didn't tell the truth about that later. These documents apparently confirmed that a deal actually went through, at least according to Stephen Hayes' comprehensive Weekly Standard (and must-read) article (assuming they're the same papers):

Daily Scorecard fisks a letter from an admirer on Norman Finkelstein's site, here. The letter writer is lauding Finkelstein for his stand against international Jewish power and is expressing his sympatico feelings with his mentor's opinion that anti-Semitism is an over-rated problem:

I don't know if he's correct according to UK statistics, but I'd be interested in knowing. I believe the answer is that he is not correct, although I couldn't put my finger on a relevant post one way or the other. I know that is not correct with regard to Massachusetts or the US generally. I just wanted to remark on one aspect of this that I find interesting, then go on over and read Mike's post. The letter:

This is very typical of the far Left, and you'll find it in elements from Finkelstein and Chomsky to the door-to-door salesmen of the Somerville Divestment Project -- antisemitism is an exaggerated phenomenon that exists only as a cynical creation of ruling class Jews in order to manipulate the masses. This rhetoric is utterly analogous to the rhetoric of the antisemites of the far Right who believe in sinister Jewish control and manipulation through wolf-crying. It's one of the reasons the Left and Right are so often so comfortable with each other these days. They're at home with each other's paranoid delusions.

I usually wait until the end of my trip to do the heavy shopping. Can't stand having to walk around with heavy bags all day.

DoD: Horse, Other Gifts on Rumsfeld's Trip Symbolize Friendship, Cooperation

Just when I'm thinking, 'OK, now how's he get the horse home? And what's he do with it when he gets there? Does Rumsfeld own horses? Is he a horse guy? Have a ranch? What if he doesn't want it? And do they like, fly it in the cargo hold of a jet or something?

Ah, OK, I get it. They shoot the horse with the Civil War pistol. Problem solved. This international relations stuff sure is complicated.

So says a poem included in a collection to be distributed in schools across the UK. The poem was one of the winners of a nationwide literary competition. Completely outrageous at first, it's a bit tougher to judge without seeing the collection.

Anti-Semitic poem in children’s school book

Not willing to censor, but perhaps a little perspective or an explanation in a book intended for youngsters? Perhaps it's not appropriate for such a book at all. Impossible to know without the complete context.

Update: Of course it is fair to wonder if such a thing would be tolerated, regardless of context, directed at any other ethnic group. The article states that this was the only piece published without name, indicating it was probably the only controversial entry. More vicarious living, this time through the words of a child?

I have come around to the viewpoint that says that the Senate was woefully underprepared for the appearance of George Galloway before it, but I did hold out some hope that perhaps it was just a matter of the wheels of justice grinding slowly and not still waters running not very deep. Things are getting interesting again.

The Independent: Galloway lied over Iraqi oil payments, says Congress report

I'm thinking the whole thing ends up amounting to nothing more than more theater, but who knows? Now that they've got something on the record, and plenty of time to prepare a case in the traditional manner, maybe they can commence to trying to salvage some chicken soup from all that chicken shit.

Sunday night I attended a "Town Meeting" talk by Israeli Consul General Meier Shlomo (great name - Martin Solomon in Hebrew) and Boston Globe reporter Charles Radin concerning the Gaza Disengagement, "After Gaza: Looking Ahead." It was held at a Lexington (suburban Boston) Synagogue. Turnout was good -- I'm guessing around 2-250 people. Mostly an older crowd, as usual for these things.

I had thought it was to start at 7:00, so I was there plenty early for the real 7:30 start time. The first thing that struck me was how much security there was present. I've been to a fair number of these evening programs, usually with far more controversial speakers, and I've never seen this much security -- at least 15 police officers with metal detectors and a bag search and separate "Temple Members" and "Community" entrances. I figured this was overkill, but come to find out that the local "Peace and Human Rights" contingent was allowed out of McLean Hospital for the evening, so a serious armed police presence was considered necessary.

Since I was inside the hall reading a book at the time, I didn't catch the shenanigans going on outside until I was driving home. I missed this:

Boston Globe: Protester arrested outside Israeli's speech

Many are pointing out Matthias Kuntzel's catch of no small amount of hard-core antisemitic literature on sale in Iran's booth at Frankfurt Germany's International Book Fair -- all of which, as David Kaspar points out, is highly illegal according to German hate laws.

In his report, "Zombie" observes:

Yes, but I think it's worse than that. I think many Germans, and many Europeans generally, are living vicariously through the Iranians and their like. Through them, they can say the things their society doesn't allow them to say themselves -- the socially unacceptable things, maybe even illegal things. Turning in the hate-purveyors at the book fair would ruin the fantasy.

So they turn a blind eye to the sellers of the books, and they fund 'the other's' films.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're aware of the UN report implicating the Syrian regime in the death of Rafik Hariri (link goes to the unaltered version -- according to the Times of London as quoted at BoTW: "...computer tracking showed that the final edit began at about 11.38am on Thursday--a minute after Herr Mehlis began a meeting with Mr Annan to present his report. The names of Maher al-Assad, General Shawkat and the others were apparently removed at 11.55am, after the meeting ended.").

Today, of course, like the good drones of a Stalinist state they are, "hundreds of thousands" marched in the streets in support of their dictator.

Now, if Syria were a Free society, would hundreds of thousands have marched to support Assad, or would Assad already be out of power and Syria on its way to more normal relations with its neighbors?

Washington Times: Iraqi women take up arms

It's going to be tough to keep these women down once stability comes.

The reviews are in...

David Kaspar called it "...the first openly anti-Semitic film I’ve seen in the German cinema. Joseph Goebbels would have been proud..."

Matthias Kuntzel said "...the manuscript had to be submitted to the terrorist militias...It is hardly surprising that a movie filmed under such circumstances would avoid any principled argument against the killing of Israelis..."

John Rosenthal speculated "...perhaps [Director] Hany Abu-Assad does not consider suicide bombers to be terrorists..."

Tobias Ebbrecht said "...the suicide assassins do not appear as perpetrators but as victims in Paradise Now, whereas the Israelis whose senseless murder disappears into sacral white do not appear as victims but as perpetrators..."

Coming soon, to a theater near you, courtesy of Warner Brothers ... Paradise Now.

TigerHawk has a lengthy and interesting post on the uses of democratization. Go take a look.

I have a couple of minor quibbles/additions (assuming I'm understanding correctly).

TigerHawk:

I think he is shorting Sharansky here. Sharansky's ideas are not utopian, they are practical. That's the point of them, and the intended result is to do exactly what TigerHawk describes -- create enemies of extremism -- in fact, unleash the great middle to do exactly that. The idea is to change Fear societies into Free societies (which then necessarily become democratic). It's not just about democracy per se -- it's about Freedom. A Free society is one in which the moderate elements are able to oppose the radicals -- freedom and democracy create the ideological foot soldiers and the societal infrastructures necessary to do the internal combat TigerHawk describes. They change society from a dysfunctional one into one in which the masses of good people are unleashed -- where the marketplace of ideas is allowed to function and flourish. Witness, for instance, the difficulties the Ranting Sandmonkey had in organizing a simple candlelight vigil for a cause his regime supposedly supports! (Check in his archives about here.)

TigerHawk again:

I think the opposite is actually often the case. It may seem this way superficially, because protests by the "Arab street" are easy and popular with the powers that be, look good on the news, and are often exploited by our internal isolationist political forces like the CIA and the paleo-con end of the political spectrum (and the press), but they never have amounted to much have they? In fact, if you look at the places where we are most at odds with the regime, we are often most popular with the populace. Iran being a perfect case in point. In fact, we are often most hated and criticized for our support of unpopular, repressive regimes. Some of the places we get along with the regime best, like Jordan and Egypt, we pull our worst popularity numbers. So much for making nice. In fact, those two places are breeding grounds of Jew-hate in spite of being officially at peace with Israel. Go figure.

The trouble is really in the short-term, where opposition to a ruling regime may result in less cooperation and even open opposition from the powers-that-be, and we may suffer long before the power of the people can be unleashed from below in the long term. So the problem is in surviving through to the long term (not losing basing, not turning the armed forces of the regime itself into an enemy), not so much in unpopularity with the masses.

One of the keys is that America still needs to remain strong and let it be known that our enemies will pay a prices for choosing that role. If a society that may be somewhat aligned against us ideologically should become democratic, we still need to hold to this policy. After all, if there is no price to be paid for opposition, even a democracy will continue to hate us. But once they become a democracy, once they are free, and the great middle is able to speak, odds are that they will say to themselves, "Is war with America what we really want? Let's just call them the Great Satan, but let us not provoke him. It's not worth it." And then they turn inward and clamp down on the extremists, the terrorists that risk that peace that they desire and are enabled to fight from within for. And once they practice that attitude with a peaceful, rational, goal for awhile, it may just become a habit.

Brett Stephens has it just right in this OpinionJournal piece from yesterday.

A History of Violence - How did the Palestinians descend into barbarism?

Worth reading it all and bearing in mind as Mahmoud Abbas is feted at the Whitehouse.

There has never been a Palestinian State, and there is no Palestinian State infrastructure to turn juridsiction over to. That's why, for all the complaining about the horrors of occupation, and the screaming for it to end, there are simultaneous calls for Israel not to move too swiftly, to coordinate their moves and withdrawals with the Palestinian Authority -- becase they need to build a country in the wake of Israeli withdrawal. They must be the only people in history to be recognized as a nation without any of the characteristics ordinarily required for nationhood -- like a demonstrated ability to provide law and order, for instance. But then, the international community (such as it is) has made many an exception for the Palestinian Arabs. Is it they, their friends...or their foe that accounts for it?

By the way, that state infrastructure wasn't destroyed by Israel. It never existed. To the extent that there was a civil society, driven by a tribal village structure in the West Bank and Gaza, it was largely destroyed and supplanted by the return of Arafat's gang from Tunis in 1993. He is the one who destroyed what there was of a Palestinian society not solely dedicated to war and hatred. Is Abbas the man to change that? So far it looks more like anarchy and anarchy alone will do the job of tearing the old down. What is built in its place is more up to outsiders forcing change and responsibility on the Palestinians as they never have done before.

The prognosis isn't good.

Both MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch are reporting on the re-broadcast on Jordanian TV this Ramadan of a virulently anti-Semitic, Syrian produced, Hizbullah aired TV series. Note the sickness here. Note also that this broadcast purports to be a true reflection of the history of Zionism and is a demonstration of the reason that so many of us recognize as an utter canard that anti-Zionism is not synonymous with anti-Semitism. The two are not equivalent only in the abstract. In reality, this series shows off the actual anti-Semitic intellectual root of modern anti-Zionism. The Zionism shown in this series is what Middle Easterners refer to when they say they're against "Zionists," not Jews -- an obvious nonsense to anyone who's seen the truth of this broadcast. This anti-Zionism is completely different from the sanitized, less overtly Judenhass version they peddle to British college kids. This is what they have in mind, then they go do a sales job on Western Leftists, as though their motivations and the Western Left's are anywhere near equivalent to each other, and the Leftists nod their heads and eat it up and complain that accusations of Jew-hate are just an excuse to silence debate.

Open your eyes. These aren't fringe programs, and they're not presenting any new ideas.

The MEMRI report is here: Jordanian TV Airs Antisemitic Ramadan Series

I have pasted the entire Palestinian Media Watch report in the extended entry below.

The Washington Post has a sparkling architectural review of the Naval Academy's new Uriah P. Levy Chapel. (Previous related post: The Kosher Commodore)

A Trim Vessel of Worship - Naval Academy's Jewish Chapel Rises to Its Challenge

The home page of the Jewish Midshipman's Club is here, with many pictures of the chapel, including those taken during its construction.

Jim Davila points to this WorldNetDaily interview with "'Sheik Kamal Hatib, vice-chairman of the Islamic Movement, the Muslim group in Israel most identified with Temple Mount militancy,' in which he is reported to have spouted much lunacy," says Jim.

Also,

In other words, if the others accept their Dhimmi status, we may be able to make some minor accomodation, otherwise...

See Jim's always knowledgable commentary.

JoongAng Daily: Tobacco firm has Pyongyang plant

(hat tip: Mingi Hyun)

CNN: A homecoming for the secretary of state

Was Condoleeza Rice at Farrakhan's Millions More March? Didn't think so. She is a real inspiration.

The Fire has a repost of their National Review piece on the plight of DePaul's Thomas Klocek and conservative professors on campus generally. It's a good run-down of the DePaul situation so far. Pariahs, Martyrs — and Fighters Back: Conservative professors in America

There are several stories in addition to Klocek's. For instance:

(hat tip: Marathon Pundit)

This seems more than a bit over the top to me.

Group wants nonreligious book for contest

You know, it's been quite a while since I read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, but I don't remember Christ putting in an appearance. So the book is inspired by Christianity? So what? Is this the level of insanity that some people want to take church/state separation? Apparently so. How on earth do you root out all "Christian themes?" What becomes a Christian theme in the world of Barry Lynn?

This is the type of thing that makes religious people think that many political liberals (to use an admittedly over-broad term) aren't about getting just the practice of religion out of the public square, but that instead they're against all religion period.

As a member of a minority religious group, I am very sensitive about the imposition of majority religious practice in inappropriate venues, but it does not strike me as an exageration to say that this protest reminds me very much of the nut-bar fanatics across the Middle East who look at a movie like The Matrix and its references to "Zion" and condemn it as some sort of a Zionist plot. Regardless of his nominal religious affiliation (I've seen it joked amongst UCC'rs that sometimes it seems that UCC really stands for "Unitarians Considering Christ"), Barry Lynn is a secular Mullah. A fanatic.

But who's effort are they gearing up for?

Done With Mirrors: Get Ready For It

He's seen the embargoed material. AP headlines you won't see: "Pride in Sacrifice," "He Did His Duty," "Mourning but Proud"...you get it.

Update: Ralph Peters in the NYSun: Exploiting The Dead

It's all good.

Here is a long and fascinating interview with the Israeli archaeologist, Gabi Barkai, who's sifting the discarded debris from the Temple Mount.

Haaretz: Gems in the dirt

Here is a very interesting open letter from Boston City Councilor Jerry McDermott concerning the Boston Mosque at JR Telegraph. When I first read it I thought it was something for private distribution.

Read the rest. Very interesting.

Excellent article setting the record straight on the blindered view of the British press wrt Rachel Corrie and the bowdlerized version of the International Solidarity Movement they usually present.

This as London prepares to re-stage the play about her, as well as serve as ground zero for the performance of the Rachel Corrie Cantata.

Britain, one of your own daughters was slain with narry a peep of protest from you. Or was she not really one of yours?

Spectator: Dead Jews aren't news by Tom Gross

Marathon Pundit has a series of posts on the Ward Churchill appearance at DePaul. That quote is what one DePaul instructor told him after a brief conversation outside the talk. Why, I do believe his narrative is not being respected! Does Dean Dumbleton know?

Start here and keep scrolling.

Update: Even more photos and some video here, at Andrew Marcus's site.

YNet has some clandestinely filmed video of the construction under the Temple Mount, as well as video taken inside the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Jim Davila provides some commentary worth checking out. Just how damaging has the construction been?

Well ain't this swell. No sooner do I get a little extra attention (still getting lots of hits from the PJ Media site -- and look at all those excellent folks around me) when I go on a technical and work-related blogging lull. I was so distracted I even missed an event I intended to attend tonight.

I beg of you, check back tomorrow. There will be fresh bloggy goodness here. Well, there should be goll durn it!

Oh, and uh, rent Shaolin Soccer sometime. Same writer director as Kung Fu Hustle. Fun stuff!

I'm going to try upgrading to MovableType 3.2 this afternoon to see if that helps alleviate the odd errors that have been occuring. Just FYI. Some format stuff will change as I am going to simplify the main template and see if that helps as well. Please bear with me. Thanks.

Update: Just about there.

Update2: A very frustrating day. My upgrade went fine, but the thing I upgraded to try to get rid of, the persistent nagging errors visitors have been experiencing, are still with me, and I cannot rebuild the archives in order to bring everything into line with some of the changes I have made. I am working with both MovableType and Hosting Matters support (and banging my own head against the wall) to resolve this. Thanks again for your patience, but I'm done for tonight.

I haven't been watching enough TV lately. I'm probably the last person to know this, but there was a weather guy on FOX just now named Joe Bastardi. Best...name...ever. Makes you think someone in the booth is screwing around.

Reminds me of some of the customers I've had like Mrs. Bimbo and Mr. and Mrs. Bizarro. "Hi, Mrs. Bimbo, it's Sol..." Can't help it, that's a tough call to make.

At least Leni Riefenstahl didn't do propaganda films on the subject of Hitler gassing Jews.

David Kaspar writes from Germany:

Previous: Learning from Paradise Now with a link to a critical examination of that "educational material."

In the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies weekly update:

Emerson is the hall where I saw Sharansky and Dore Gold (on separate nights). The students and faculty were far better behaved those evenings.

...and hopefully more justice than he can handle, though somehow I think things are destined to come up short in that regard.

Amnesty and HRW are concerned for the fairness of Saddam Hussein's trial, scheduled to begin tomorrow.

Mick Hartley:

Clearly there needs to be some sort of process with a rational basis, but the idea that the trial should be the same as a Western-style criminal procedure -- is this really the guy? was it a crime? -- can't apply.

Here's a brief background on what he's going on trial for first:

Read the saga of Cafe Press and their running dog act on behalf of International Communism by censoring negative images of Fidel's Executioner, Che Guevara. Start here: Cafepress.com Censors The People's Cube, move on to here: Hillary-Guevara '08 shorts, anyone?. Follow it all the way through. The background and current status of the famous (infamous?) image is very interesting.

The story appears to have a happy ending. Internet vendettas against large corporations can sometimes succeed.

In Dissent, David Hirsch with a very readable essay with some interesting points in light of my entry below, The Skies are Spitting:

Against the "Academic Intifada"

Also...

(via Moonbat Central)

An excellent post exposing the bizarre blatherings of Clare Short and the other supporters of the execrable Rachel Corrie Cantata - The Skies are Weeping here, at Adloyada.

Far from it, of course. In fact, suicide terror has been brought to high art, exported, excused and justified by humanitarians world-wide -- people who's every impulse should be to know better instead seek every rationalization to support the cause they do. And what rationalization must that be? In order to turn their faces away from the true nature of the Palestinian culture of death that they have cultivated fertile international ground for they must believe that the behavior of Israelis, and in particular the behavior of Israeli Jews is singularly demonic...it must be singularly demonic in order to create such a singularly demonic "resistance." You follow so far? In order to avoid condemning the Palestinian culture of "resistance" too hard, they must imagine that the Jews are even worse. But you and I know that it's not true. You and I know that no one with any perspective can imagine that what the Jews have done in defending themselves and building a society that's the envy of the region and should be a boon to its neighbors is worse than the bahavior of so many other states in so many other conflicts around the world that have not spawned such loathsome and murderous opposition.

That imagining, that constructed vision of Jews as particularly evil actors is the very definition of anti-Semitism. The lies upon lies to construct it are anti-Semitic. That is the real wall that is the true obstacle to peace in the region. The obsession to keep adding bricks, to refuse to tear it down to get at the truth -- the truth of a fair perspective, of a true narrative of events -- that is anti-Semitism.

The Jews who go along with it, who add mortar to that wall and worse, do so "as Jews," are a particularly naive or foolish or hateful breed. Someone should do a psychological study (they probably already have) of the supporters of the "Rachel Corrie Cantata" and their like, to examine the Jew haters and the naive tools among them with particular attention given to the complexities of the thought processes of their Jewish number.

Fortunately in London, there will be a peaceful resistance.

Subtitle: No good deed goes unpunished.

The following is a true-life work story. It may be boring, especially for those who don't like math, so feel free to skip, but I have to get this down. I ordinarily don't blog about my work, but I felt the need to relate this one. I may think better of this and delete it later. Names changed, etc...

"The price is $3500.00."

He doesn't look happy...face a little flushed. Glances at his daughter.

"More than you expected?"

"Well..." Smiles, a little sheepish.

"It's a very nice item. There's a lot of work in this...sorry..." I give him a pained, empathetic look.

"I understand...are there other costs? The permit fees are extra I assume?"

"Yes, they are extra. Look...these materials are expensive, also..." I explain a little as to what goes into the cost, how much work there is. "I see you've got mailings from other places." The daughter is thumbing some competitors' brochures she's received. I've seen them all before. I have a drawer full of them. "If you want to look around, check the price, go ahead. It's not a problem. Please. I'll beat any price you get."

My profile is up at the Pajamas Media site. While I was sweating it earlier to see what the folks at PJ's (Hi Hillary!) would make of our interview, I can't complain at all with the result (right?).

So welcome to PJ Media watchers!

My sort of "best of" collection in the right side-bar is months out of date, but let me highlight one group of posts that first-time visitors may be interested in -- my interview with and guest posts by one of the principles behind The Second Draft (which should be posting previously unreleased Muhammed al Dura footage soon), Richard Landes:

Solomonia Interview: Richard Landes
Black Hearts and Red Spades: The Media Gets the "Intifada" Wrong by Richard Landes
Richard Landes: The Alternative to Realistic Fear is not Dumb Hope

You'll find a mix of material and postings here. I may go through a period of relatively uninspired raw linkage, then, "essay envy" taking hold, I'll get something stuck in my craw I can only pry out with a longer piece. I don't hesitate to post things that have already appeared on the "big blogs" -- not everyone who comes here is a blog addict, after all -- but I do tend to keep an eye out for stuff that hasn't already appeared elsewhere.

It's all about having my little nudge at the common sense.

Welcome.

P.S. By the way, the banners at the top of the page are random, so if you don't like the one you see, hit refresh.

P.P.S. For the record, I should mention that my "business degree" from BU is strictly undergrad (BS. BA.) and strictly undistinguished.

I'll be playing around with a few aspects of the layout here, so don't be alarmed if things get flaky. I don't know if anyone is using any of the alternate styles (the different colors, graphics and layouts), but those are all going bye-bye. I want to change a few things that I can't do and still have them work with the different layouts. If anyone was using any of them and wants them back, let me know, and I'll see what I can do, but I get the feeling most people just use the default anyway.

Sorry for the lazy posting. I stupidly went and started playing Black & White 2 and it's had me by the you-know-whats all day. I say stupidly not only because of the potential for addiction and time-wasting, but also because I have the prior experience of having played the original Black & White, one of the most over-hyped pieces of crap ever released. This one's been fun so far, and they seem to have removed a lot of the tedium that gave the original such a short shelf-life.

I use the cow.

Never fear. I will be burned out shortly. Read: now.

Oh, I also watched Fever Pitch at my wife's recommendation -- she had seen it on an airplane. It's surprising, because while I generally like her, my wife can't stand Drew Barrymore as a rule. I think there's some female psychology going on as I notice that Barrymore has gone from her previous pudgy-face cute to a state of distractingly homely in this film. Seriously...what happened? My theory is that too much plastic surgery coupled with her current weight-loss has left her with and oddly shaped face and nose. That's my theory. Thank you.

The movie was pretty good, though. Cute romantic commedy. Oh, and it was nice to see Ione Skye again, even if it was just a small role. I used to love her.

I'm giving the film a Solomonia rental recommendation.

P.S. I know people have been getting odd "500 errors" when leaving comments, and I'm working with Movable Type support to figure out why. It's something hard to nail down, but we are working on it. Sorry for the flakyness.

Previous entries have examined the case of Barnard professor Nadia Abu el-Haj, author of Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society -- an apparently politicized look at the practice of Israeli archaeology.

Previous entries on the subject have included:

Applauding the destruction of Joseph's Tomb at Columbia?
Murdering History in the Dark
Crisis at Columbia: Nadia Abu El-Haj

El-Haj will be the subject of an upcoming JAT-Action item which I have been given a preview of along with permission to post. I think the background portion of the item is excellent and will certainly be of interest to readers, so I have published it below, leaving out only the action portions of the email.

It certainly sounds as though some scholars have become so politicized that they've let their standards way down in order to include a political view they fancy. Radical chic for the academy. If you can't burn down Joseph's Tomb and murder "settlers" yourselves, employing someone who's friends do it may be the next best thing.

Some people worry that the bus they're riding will explode. Me, I did my interview for PJ's Media the other evening and now I'm living in terror over how I'll sound (and look!) when it finally appears. Not being in control sucks.

Edit: What are the odds they spell the blog name incorrectly? Most popular misspellings: Solomania and Solomnia.

Don't laugh. People can and have drowned in 2" of water. Of course, those people were drunk and/or unconscious...but maybe being in TV news counts.

Up the Creek: Out to Embarrass Bush Over Alleged Video Stunt, Today Gets Caught in Stunt of Its Own

(via Michelle Malkin)

Previously awash in controversy, Boston's Muslim Community has been at pains to prove that they are a moderate group, and have nothing to do with any sort of extremism. No doubt, many are. The Islamic Society of Boston has gone out of its way to distance itself from anyone with ties to extremism or anti-Semitism.

Why then did they sponsor a lecture by Dr. Salah Soltan (or "Sultan") back in February? And why is something called the Al Huda Society holding a fund raiser featuring Dr. Salah Soltan this coming Sunday (with a return address at Harvard University - registrations are to be mailed to Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138)?

Why does it matter? The question is, who is Salah Soltan? The Al Huda material calls him a "scholar," and the ISB itself points to him for explanation of religious matters, but is Salah Soltan someone who a moderate that wants to be taken seriously as such would associate with? Who is he?

(Read on to the extended entry. There's a LOT there.)

Not being a religious Jew, I am doing my normal thing here at work, although I do walk around with an extra dose of conflicted guilt on my shoulders -- as though I need more of that.

I hope God inscribes lots of good stuff in his account books for everyone for the coming year.

It would appear not all Presbyterian Churches are distancing themselves from the evil Caterpillar Corporation.

Heh.

(hat tip: Will)

CAMERA has a new report on DePaul Professor Norman Finkelstein that includes some welcome specific examples of Finkelstein's shoddy scholarship.

Norman Finkelstein's Fraudulent Scholarship

A must read for campus-watchers, Finkelstein fans, psychologists and those wondering what type of scholar the administration at DePaul thinks it's a good idea to recruit.

I thought this article was interesting because of the decidedly undiplomatic, forceful headline, and the place it's posted -- the Department of Defense. Decide for yourself if it means anything.

DoD: Bush Slams Syria for Interference in Iraq, Lebanon

Qatar bankrolls $6 million stadium for Arab Israelis

They can take all the cheap shots they want. Imagine how the region's calculus would change if the Arab foes of Israel practiced a little charity toward their fellows rather than keep them living in muck and misery.

Quite right.

JTA: Dean takes tough stance on Hamas (no permalink)

There you have it. Howard Dean advocates war for Israel.

The Jawa Report has a round up of info on the suicide/assassination of Syria's Interior Minister, Ghazi Kanaan -- likely a central figure in the Hariri assassination.

The Jawa Report: Syrian Minister 'Commits Suicide', Foul Play Suspected

CNN: Al Qaeda letter called 'chilling'

I wouldn't sweat the media battle if I were he.

Read that all you forty-year-old virgins and weep.

Those interested in divestment should not miss Alyssa A. Lappen's report on Sabeel's smash-Israel charity shin-dig held in Chicago a few days back. "Peace" and "justice" do not apply.

Racist Road Show

Read the rest. Shame on the mainline Protestant denominations and anyone else who participated in this.

Consider the self-destructive hatred that made this ever a question or news.

JTA: Group: Pakistan accepts Israeli aid (no direct link)

If this guy cloaks himself in "justice" and "peace" one more time I'm gonna puke. Reverend Donald Wagner, a professor and supporter of Presbyterian divestment efforts, is left incredulous that his efforts are not universally seen as prophetic and enlightened, but are instead recognized as regressive, anti-Semitic, naive, supportive of the worst aspects of Arab and Islamic nationalism, morally bereft and characterized more by misplaced blame than anything resembling "justice."

Daily Star: Christian prophetic voices face many battles

Middle East News Line: Iran Designs Nuke Warhead For Shihab-3 (via Regime Change Iran)

JoongAng Daily: China changes tack on asylum (hat tip: Mingi Hyun)

You'll know China is getting serious about pressuring North Korea when they stop helping to keep the inmates in the asylum. Allowing escape from a fear society becomes a major source of weakness for such a place, as hope of escape starts lessening fear of the regime. No prison is so hopeless and needs so little energy to guard as one who's inmates have no hope of release.

China is helping the North keep the bars in place. Then again, South Korea isn't exactly serious, either:

Well-meaning Jewish philanthropists find out that sometimes there's just no helping some people.

Daily Scorecard re-posts from the NY Post:

Once these rich fellers are done finding ways to flush their money away, I happen to know a very fine young man who's debilitating mortgage they could pay off as easily as you or I pay a toll. Have your people call my people.

The movie humanizing a suicide bomber is playing in German theaters, and the German Government has produced a companion pamphlet for students.

Matthias Kuntzel relates the situation and describes why the authors of the student guide should be fired:

Transatlantic Intelligencer: Suicide Bombing “for a Higher Ideal”?: Germany’s Central Office for Political Education on “Paradise Now”

You think this guy ever got punched?

About a year ago, I attended a conference discussing millennialism at which David Cook presented a paper on the apocalyptic dimensions of global Jihad, especially in its hostility to the USA – the ways in which people like Osama bin Laden (al Qaeda) and Yousef al Qaradawi (Muslim Brotherhood) believed they live in the apocalyptic moment when Islam would achieve its dream of conquering the world, imposing Sharia on all mankind, and usher in the millennial era of “peace” – global Dar al Islam. One of the participants, a professor with impeccable progressive credentials where Middle Eastern politics are concerned, remarked: “Just don’t let George Bush hear what you have to say.”

Nothing embodies better the ostrich policy of “progressives” than that comment. While the good professor had no grounds to question the validity of the deeply frightening analysis he had just heard for the first time, the last thing he wanted was for the President to hear about it. Why? Because it would fuel the administrations arguments for war, and “we” all know that war is the last thing we want. No war at any price… including deep ignorance about what dangers we face, including alliances with warmongers who happen to oppose the current war. After all, our progressive professor showed no personal interest in the material that he had just encountered. He was not moved to think, perhaps. of a more progressive way to approach this problem. It’s one thing to say, let’s work on this one ourselves because we don’t trust the President and his advisors; quite another to say we don’t want to know anything about this issue.

I couldn’t help but think of this exchange when I read the following piece by Ira Chernus, Professor of Religion at University of Colorado, Boulder, at HNN, the History News Network. Nothing illustrates better the inability to think about the dangers we face. Tired psychology about the debilitating effects of fear, rapid refuge in a politics of hope so staggeringly unrealistic that one has to wonder what universe the author lives in. I guess Colorado is far enough from NY or London or all those other places that have felt the wrath of global Jihad since 9-11 – for the professor not to give them much thought or much empathy.

Repair the damage done to Iraq…? What does he think Americans, both military and civilians are trying to do in Iraq? And what price do the Americans and other foreigners trying to rebuild the infrastructure pay for working on these projects? Who does he think is doing the damage these days? Or does his radar screen, set to moral autism, only pick up “our” sins, and not notice the insane hatreds and grotesque violence of global jihadis in Iraq who target Muslim civilians? Like Michael Moore, can these folk only register the suicide terrorists as activists… insurgents… freedom fighters… Minute Men?

This produces for the USA the same distortion that Stephanie Gutmann describes in The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians, and the Struggle for Media Supremacy as the effect of media coverage on the Israelis. She cites the scene in Fight Club where Edward Norton thrashes around fighting with an invisible enemy: “A map based on news coverage would have shown the State of Israel drawn in speed-addict obsessive detail sitting next to a mostly empty blob titled “Terra Incognita” or maybe “Here Be Palestinians” (p. 31). With Jihadi flaws blow-torched out of the picture, no wonder people can think that the best way to protect ourselves from danger is to be nice, nicer and nicest. Unfortunately, by tightening the grip of the Moebius Strip of Cognitive Egocentrism, that makes us all that much dumb, dumber, and vulnerable. And, alas, it is our own intelligentsia who seem to be working so hard to make us so. Who will write the Darwin Award for us when we’re done self-destructing?

Apropos of the story of the Israeli Nobel laureate below, Jonathan Edelstein points out that Haifa University, recent object of the British Association of University Teacher's boycott, has just appointed as a vice-president the first Arab to hold such a position at an Israeli University:

This news further demonstrates the absurdity and moral obtuseness of the AUT's boycott.

Power Line notes that the Gaza chaos and the historic failure of the Palestinian Arabs to "develop a normal civil society" is rapidly becoming everyone's business...now that Al Qaeda is moving in.

Con Coughlin says the recent bit of candor on the part of Britain toward Iran's "unhelpful" behavior in southern Iraq was the somewhat unintended product of a loose-lipped diplomat. Mr. Straw would have liked to have continued his appeasement rhetoric, and may still get back to it.

Telegraph: Now we know the truth about Iran, we must act

(via Regime Change Iran)

John sent out another one of his polls and I did participate. In fairness to RWN, I'll just include my responses here. Head to the site itself for the complete results:

Polling Right-Of-Center Bloggers On The Harriet Miers Nomination

The only reason that I answered D -- not sure -- rather than B -- rotten choice -- to #1 is that I do hold out the possibility that she may actually end up being an individual who proves everyone wrong as time goes on. How can we know?

It makes me view Bush less favorably because she clearly isn't an eminent person in any way, however, and even if he knows something the rest of us don't, he's done another crappy job in communicating whatever it is he sees in her to the rest of us. Maybe she'll do real well in the hearings. Maybe I'm also jaded in that I'm from Massachusetts and you can't swing a dead cat around here without smacking some lawyer who has credentials that sound as good as this woman's.

He certainly has to keep supporting her at this point or he looks like a Clintonesque flip-flopper who won't stand up for his own people or decisions. How lame would he look if he withdrew her now? It would prove there was no substance behind the nomination.

And finally, I have no idea at this point whether she should be confirmed or not. You would hope the hearings would help shed light on that, but somehow I think they'll involve more posing than light.

MEMRI TV: Arafat's Advisor Mamdouh Noufal: Arafat Planned and Nurtured the Armed Intifada

Someone should tell Sabeel.

The worst marketing idea ever? Brought to you by a UN agency, no less.

I believe the idea is to bring home the horrorible effects of war ON children, not bring war's effects home TO children.

Telegraph: Unicef bombs the Smurfs in fund-raising campaign for ex-child soldiers

What's UNICEF's next trick? Bringing home the horrors of animal cruelty by electrocuting the Easter Bunny?

Dennis Prager describes some of the trouble on campuses in the LA Times, When young Jews major in anti-Semitism (via Snapshots):

That seems correct to me. The idea that only the Jews of Palestine -- who worked hard to create a nation -- that their national aspirations alone in the world are uniquely demonic, are racist is by definition, is anti-Semitic. It is holding the Jews apart and divisive and insidious uniquely among nations. That is anti-Semitism. The fact that there are people with enough time on their hands to provide nuance and obfuscation and an intellectual veneer with a few chapters of text for their fellow travellers changes nothing.

There certainly may be an infinitely small minority of sincere anti-Zionists who are not themselves either anti-Semites or allowing themselves to be used for anti-Semitic purposes, but they are a small group indeed. Right now, many of those great bastions of leftist anti-racism and liberality, the universities, are cess-pit Judenhass incubators.

I have been sent a review copy of Noam Chomsky's new "book," Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World. Believe it. I suppose the publisher figures any publicity is good publicity, as it wouldn't take long on this blog to figure out I'd probably not be all that favorably impressed.

I call it a "book" because it's really an extended interview that spans only 200 pages and is printed in such a way that...well, remember when you had to write a five page paper for school, but you only had enough material for three and a half pages, so you cranked the line spacing on the typewriter up to 2.5 instead of 2 to stretch it? Yeah, it's like that.

I was going to play "fisk the random paragraph" by opening the book at random and discussing what's wrong or deceptive with the response I found there, but it would be too time-consuming to type in all the text. A flip through the book results in such reactions as, "Uchh," "Ugggh," and "people actually think like this?"

The trouble with Chomsky is that his twisted, selective narration of history and skewed analyses are so brazen and obvious in the subjects with one is familiar, that when one encounters Chomsky touching on something with which the reader is NOT familiar, you feel the need to run out and find out if what he's describing is true. You can't trust a word.

Anyway, it's a nice little trade-paperback. It appears to be well-printed, and I am grateful for receiving a copy (seriously). Maybe I'll read it some time. It appears mercifully short, although I have a ton and a half of unread books filled with good analysis and history and even nice stories all screaming for my time and attention.

Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World -- a new must-have for Chomsky fanbois everywhere.

Meryl notes that pressure is continuing to mount on Syria's Assad. We've been hearing about this for awhile now, but the volume of newsprint is certainly up. Maybe it's time for another fly-over.

BBC: Game theorists share Nobel prize

I put up a link to Daniel H Jacobs' piece questioning Joel Beinin's position of tenure as a quick-link yesterday. (No permalink -- I don't do permalinks for those.) Today, Jim Davila at PaleoJudaica notes a couple of minor problems with the piece, but expresses concern should the bulk of the accusations prove correct.

Does Stanford University Professor Joel Beinin really believe there were no Jews in Palestine between 70 CE and the 1500's?

(Hat Tip: Judith)

At Campus Watch, Hugh Fitzgerald reviews Nadia Abu El-Haj's book, Facts on the Ground: Archeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society, and...well, I think he didn't like it. I posted a review in full of the book previously in the entry Applauding the destruction of Joseph's Tomb at Columbia? One of my correspondents says this is a decently written review, but does have some concerns about Fitzgerald's piece, noting for instance that, contrary to what's implied, El-Haj has certainly visited Israeli digs, and describes them at length. Reading the piece again, I think Fitzgerald may be speaking figuratively -- that is, given El-Haj's conclusions and explanations, one would think she had no direct experience at all with actual Israeli archaeology.

Anyway, take a look at the review. It certainly appears that El-Haj's presence represents another case of politics trumping scholarship in highering.

Crisis at Columbia: Nadia Abu El-Haj by Hugh Fitzgerald

(Hat tip to Judith for one of the pointers.)

Nick Cohen has a required-reading essay (I agree and enhoyed 90%) in the New Statesman that's been widely linked elsewhere but not by me since the link was one free-click and then pay-only. Hat tip to Michael B in the comments for the link to the piece on Cohen's own site which requires neither pay, nor registration. Who would think a guy named Nick Cohen wasn't Jewish...not that it should matter...which is one of the themes of the piece.

Anti-Semitism isn't a local side effect of a dirty war over a patch of land smaller than Wales. It's everywhere from Malaysia to Morocco, and it has arrived here

The Boston Globe this morning dedicates a front page article by reporter Anne Barnard to advocate for more Israeli concessions toward the construction of a Palestinian Arab state. It's really quite astounding. It's not that one should be surprised that the Globe would dedicate a front page "news" article to shill for an agenda -- that's sadly to be expected. No, what's more astounding is the general political effort to construct not just a "Palestinian State," but a really, really good one. How many other nations in the world are there toughing it out on what they have without the rest of the world demanding that neighboring states cut them a break by conceding territory just to make them more even? You make due with what you get.

The majority of Palestinian Arabs support groups with overtly genocidal goals. Not just Hamas and the like, but even the PA itself glorifies suicide, maps itself over all of the State of Israel and supports the return of millions of Arabs to inside the borders of the Jewish State. As payment to these wonderful neighbors, Israel, of all people, is expected to make massive concessions of land, uproot thousands of its citizens and continue to jeopardize its people's safety and prosperity.

According to the article, the Arabs need the Jerusalem area as an industrial base around which to seed an economy. Well who developed the area to make it industrially desirable? Here's a hint: It wasn't the Palestinians. Israel itself was built on undesirable land. It was built on desert and drained swamps and whatever the Jews could purchase from gouging Ottoman land-owners. They accepted a rump partitioned state on lands less contiguous and ripe for development than what the Arabs already have. In return, despite war, terror and attempted genocide, they have built something through sweat equity and enterprise -- something this Calvanist New Englander can appreciate and admire. They merit what they have, and what they have is something that an unappreciative world and jealous neighbors think they deserve a piece of though it was built in spite of them.

If what's there in the West Bank and Gaza isn't good enough (barring, of course, logical border adjustments), let the Arabs turn to their neighbors in Jordan and Egypt for assistance and land concessions. To expect Israel to make massive contributions to a people who've done nothing but try to destroy them is perverse. To expect Israel to give Jerusalem to a people who've done nothing but their best to erase the Jewish presence there (physically in 1948 and the historical record ever since) is bizarre. Let the people who's most ubiquitous indigenous manufactured product is martyrdom posters and who's main export is the mainstreaming of suicide murder prove they merit gifts before they receive them.

Tell me, appeasers, paleo-cons, leftists, Globe staff, once you've sold out Israel and your own principles (against genocide, civil rights, rights for gays and women, a free press...), do you think it will have bought you anything? Or will you just encourage the forging of new demands?

This entry may seem a bit of a rant, and that it is. I guess I'm a reactionary at heart. I read garbage like this Globe article and feel the need to shake the sense into someone as a corrective. It may be born of reaction, but I think it's closer to the truth and a conveyance of reality than you're likely ever to read in the pages of the Boston Globe.

Will Israel need to make more concessions, including territorial concessions? It's likely. But the idea that those concessions will be massive, and that they will be all Israel's, and that that's default, assumed and expected starting position is unrealistic, morally obtuse and frankly a little sick.

Here's the dreck:

West Bank conflict brews after Gaza - Statehood, security spur competing claims on area

One more thing. I just can't let this conclusion pass unfisked:

Except for the hundreds, perhaps thousand of lives the wall has already saved. It was good for those people.

Edit: This article is so regressive it even contains the reembodyment of Sykes-Picot. You know, the two European diplomats who sat down during WWI and carved out the borders of the modern Middle East? Funny, I was under the impression a lot of people looked on that idea rather negatively in retrospect, but this latter-day Sykes-Picot comes in the form of a cartographer and Palestinian adviser (maybe that's the difference) named Jan de Jong, who's given unanswered column space to instruct us on what parts Israel needs to lop off of itself to finally satisfy the people that haven't shown any other interest aside from wanting to destroy it.

Ben Stein is excellent in this American Spectator piece (via Libertarian Leanings who rightly calls it "required reading"):

There are some good things in the Globe. One of them is Jeff Jacoby. Don't miss this one on CBS using Elian Gonzales to shill for the Cuban government.

Elian and the party line

Just watched it. I laughed out loud in several parts. If you're an action fan, particularly a martial arts action fan, you'll like this. I guess the only thing I didn't like was the bit of kinda-sorta real violence at the beginning (yeah, I'm a sap, I don't like it when the girly gets killed), and in the middle but I can't tell you about that or it could ruin part of it for you. It would have done itself a service by taking itself a bit less seriously -- well, it's not serious, but it should have stayed truer to that througout -- and making the bad-guys not quite 100% bad...anyway, those are quibbles.

Two thumbs up.

When did a bunch of eight-year-olds start running Dubai hospitals?

Widely linked is this story of a Norwegian teacher who's been ordered to stop wearing a Star of David necklace -- it being potentially offensive to Muslim students.

Aftenposten: Teacher told to drop Star of David

This is but one of a disturbing number of stories where identifiably Jewish events and symbols (Holocaust Remembrance Day in England, for instance...Piglet anyone?) have been declared to be "offensive to Muslims." Perhaps it will be acknowledged at some point that such instances feed, and rightfully so, concern about Muslim immigration and integration, and that those expressing concern deserve a better answer than having "racist" or "bigot" screamed in their faces. Further, if Norway (in this case), is experiencing a wave of new immigrants for whom a Jewish symbol is a provocation, isn't that a question that should have been resolved before such people were allowed into the country in the first place?

The Mayor of Chicago sent a boilerplate "Welcome to Chicago" letter to the Sabeel Conference being held there. He should have read Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein's letter in the Chicago Sun-Times first (hat tip: Reuben):

Ward Churchill will be speaking at Beamer's alma mater, DePaul.

An airing of alternative voices is planned.

Update: Apparently, Churchill was not invited by a student group, but at the behest of a single DePaul administrator, Dr. Harvette Grey, Executive Director of the DePaul Cultural Center. "I'm the Executive Director of the Cultural Center, and I don't need to explain why."

NATO will be taking over responsibility for the southern, and more dangerous, areas of Afghanistan in coming months. The US wants NATO's rules of engagement made "more robust," and the reasons show what a political mish-mash a NATO mission can be:

"Combat by committee" strikes me as a situation to be avoided.

The world's most over-rated prize for politics just got slightly less relevant.

ElBaradei, IAEA Share Nobel Peace Prize

Meryl says:

Roger Simon suggests a new blog movement...to abolish the prize.

Speaking of fictional histories, this BBC synopsis for the documentary, Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace, originally read:

After complaints, it has been changed to:

Would you trust the people who wrote that first paragraph to tell you the story of the last few years of Middle East peacemaking?

David Meir-Levi turns to good old-fashioned pamphleteering to dispel some of them -- the myths and legal issues of Israel's founding and ongoing existence. Very nice little resource presented for free at FrontPage [PDF]. Unfortunately, the fact that it's a PDF makes quoting from it a bit difficult. It should be required reading at the BBC.

[Update: Yes, I have since discovered how to copy and paste from a PDF file. Silly me.]

Funny thing. Another political party will be running in the Palestinian elections. Not surprisingly, it's a terrorist group.

JPost: Aksa Martyrs Brigades plan to run in next elections

Typical failed state/fear society. The most organized groups and thus the most ready to dominate are the terrorist groups. Behold Arafat's legacy of chaos and death.

They're already getting their "campaign" in gear:

In related news from Brussels,

EU may double PA annual aid

Pretty clever.

Academic sanity crusader Martin Kramer continues to expose the silly, and strangely paranoiac, statements of Mideast Professor Juan Cole. Israeli plot against Juan Cole!

Imagine, Daniel Pipes might have spoken to...an Israeli! One might think Cole has a 'thing' for Jews Israelis.

Campus Watch responds.

Why don't they just say it? "We don't feel the need to respond. Everyone can see this guy is ****ing cracked."

See here for a previous Kramer take down of an earlier episode of Cole's paranoid persecution complex.

NGO Monitor is reporting on a meeting of European NGO's getting together to plot and coordinate their anti-Israel divestment activities.

European Coordinating Committee of NGOs (ECCP) Meeting to Promote Boycotts and Divestment

The chairman is Belgian Senator Pierre Galand who was previously head of Oxfam Belgium, the entity that brought us the lovely poster shown.

You know, when I first saw the link for this blog, Campaign to Divest from "Palestine", I thought it was a bit over the top and ill-advised. I've never been a big boycott supporter, especially from a Jewish perspective, it doesn't make a lot of sense for a minority group (particularly a small minority) to be bringing boycotts into the equation. They can quickly turn on you.

But more and more I wonder why Israel and her supporters don't start nipping this sort of thing in the bud by bringing the boycott straight back at the perpetrators. Do you think things would change if Palestinian Arabs started being boycotted, blocked, fired from their employment? I think so. I suppose these things tend to work out badly for the boycotters, really though. Look at all that the countries that boycott Israel miss out on, and how backward they are. No, for many different reasons, it wouldn't be the right thing to do. But the thought does occur from time to time when reading reports like this.

A California textbook advisory board has rejected a proposed Oxford University Press text for use in California schools "as biased, erroneous and culturally derogatory."

This story strikes me as interesting for several reasons: One, that the publishers of a text on Jewish history wouldn't recognize some of the obvious anti-Semitic pitfalls in the presentation of Jewish history, and two, that it carries with it the seeds of something else we've seen lately -- the calling into questions the fundamentals of basic Jewish history.

JPost: California commission rejects textbook "biased" against Jews, Hindus

Both lose.

BBC: Snake bursts after gobbling gator

See the BBC page for a bigger picture. Play "identify the parts." I'd swear there's a second alligator in there.

The US Senate is finally getting around to doing it. (via LGF)

NY Sun: Senate Will Probe Saudi Distribution Of Hate Materials

I thought this was interesting. Maybe, perhaps, there was a little bit going on behind the scenes of Karen Hughes' recent and much-maligned trip:

I'm generally skeptical of such "quiet, behind-the-scenes" diplomacy -- which I imagine is attended by much wringing of hands and sincere expressions of concern...quickly laughed off when the door closes -- but, well...there it is.

Washington Times: Army takes control of Iran nukes

The Jihadis are their own motivation.

Christopher Hitchens: Why Ask Why?

Conclusion:

Worth reading the middle.

Looney Left and Right meet in the house of Lew Rockwell.

The Judeo-Christian Alliance has released a new, two-page primer on Palestinian Nationalist Christian group, Sabeel:

A Primer on Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center [MSWord Doc]

Jacob Laksin on Norman Finkelstein's new book:

Read it all if you're interested in a variety of subjects, including the never-ending attention grabber of the pathology of the self-hating Jew (and American). Enjoyable conclusion:

Ouch.

...if we get involved in the war.

Paraphrasing Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, 1940. Interesting interview, via The World.

Via neo-neocon I read with great fascination this lengthy movie review that comes out more as an effort to set the record straight on "the real Gandhi." If you have the time, take the time to read it.

Richard Grenier: The Gandhi Nobody Knows

It makes me think I should go back and revise my old entry, A Few Quick Thoughts on non-Violence and Trite Gandhi References -- on the pervisity of the International Solidarity Movement relating themselves to Gandhi -- and make it clear that I'm criticizing really only their comparisons to the popular version of the Gandhi myth.

Just when you thought it was safe to start filing away all that SwiftVet material...

The successor group to the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation (a spin-off group which has apparently adopted a wider mandate than the original group), is under attack by a series of lawsuits.

John O'Neill tells the story in this fund-raising letter. Being a man of no means, I can't contribute, except with this post, but you might at least like to take a look at the new site and familiarize yourself with the new site. This is a very interesting case. These guys represent a real danger to certain vested interests who have a true political incentive to keep the "Vietnam Vet as disfunctional murderer" narrative alive. These guys are fighting that image.

Here is O'Neill's letter:

I usually find these kinds of things silly -- like I don't even know how to answer half the questions, but this one was kind of interesting. I guess I can't really argue with the results, although I think I belong farther over on the socially permissive scale. Everyone else was doing it (saw it first at OceanGuy's), so here's mine:

You are a Social Moderate (55% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (66% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

According to DePaul Professor Thomas Klocek's attorneys, the university is trying to keep documents used in his court case a secret. They must be veeerrry interesting.

Here's the press release:

Exploring the limits of multi-cultural accomodation...I accomodate you, or you accomodate me? If I perceive it to be something, is it so, and if I misperceive, should it be you that changes?

CNN: Race fears spark St. George ban

(via LGF)

Someone messed with the wrong person I think? Contains profanity.

(hat tip: Soylent)

Happy New Year to all my Jewish readers!

OceanGuy points to this little flash. It's great.

"Another year already?"

"Moderate and independent" Al Jazeera is running a series educating the Arabic-speaking public on the truth behind 9/11. No cookie for guessing what they think the truth is...

MEMRI TV: Al-Jazeera TV Special: The Israeli Mossad Was Involved in the 9/11 Attack

On the other hand, this Egyptian General says that 9/11 was an inside (Whitehouse) job: MEMRI: Egyptian TV Interview with Egyptian General (Ret.) Muhammad Khalaf: According to VP Cheney, "This [9/11] is an Inside Job in the White House" Well, you know...it's tough to keep those conspiracies straight. The trouble is, in the Middle East, they're not conspiracy theories...they're mainstream.

NGO Monitor is protesting the appointment of Human Rights Watch's Reed Brody to a position with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The answer they received is also interesting -- basically, "Don't expect a response, we don't answer to anyone but ourselves." I didn't find the letter on-line, so here it is in full.

I was in the car this morning when I heard that the President had nominated Harriet Miers. The talk shows were all over it, with outraged conservative callers complaining about this apparently unqualified candidate. When I got back to the computer, I see a lot of the right-leaning blogosphere is also up in arms. Then just a few minutes ago, I watched Harry Reid giving a laudatory press-conference on the nomination. This is weird, and should be very interesting.

In a post below, I pretty much mocked the usefulness of a recent "ecumenical" group-trip to the Middle East. But according to this JTA article (hat tip: Judith), while the trip may just have been another all-expenses paid junket for the national-leadership types, some of the rank and file may have actually gotten something out of it. Maybe I shouldn't be so cynical.

Interfaith trip to Holy Land mends ties between Jews and Protestants

"Baridon realized for the first time that some people oppose the existence of the State of Israel." I think we bloggers aren't reaching enough people.

Get your buckets ready. Rachel Corrie is to have her own cantata performed in her memory in London: The Skies are Weeping. Please don't miss the email from Barry Shaw of The Netanya Terror Victims Fund that I've quoted in the extended entry.

Politically, Chomsky has always been a fraud. Is he about to be proven a fraud for his linguistics as well? And by a group of Israelis no less? How poetic...and interesting.

Forward: Upending Chomsky

Mick Hartley finds this excellent piece by Jonathan Sacks, Britain's Chief Rabbi (the relationship of Church to State is a bit different over there):

Read the whole piece, and Mick's quip.

Coming Anarchy's "Chirol" has a report, with photos, of his trip through Hebron. Chirol describes himself as "an avid supporter of Israel," and I have no reason to doubt it. Israel's supporters should read his post and face potentially uncomfortable facts. Some of the individuals most likely to choose to live in a place like Hebron are also going to be the people most likely to be bad neighbors and cause the most difficulty for those, like the Israeli authorities, trying to keep the peace. Even if most of the Jewish residents are good folk who just want to mind their own business, they are necessarily going to include some number who are going to intentionally behave as pests (to put it euphemistically).

I always read accounts such as these, even friendly accounts, with great caution. I have written before about the witting terror-dupes of the ISM who travel to Israel and just accept any a-historical nonsense that's fed to them for propaganda purposes. Even for a well-meaning and otherwise canny observer, however, I think there's a tendency to let the surface images take hold and add a layer of narrative explanation for which there is little or no proof -- Hebron has never been the Riviera of the Jordan, for instance...that doesn't make it the settlers' fault. I noted one example in the comments to Chirol's thoughtful post, and would love to see a well-informed response from someone who really knows what's what in Hebron.

Nevertheless, again, it behooves those of us who support Israel to face the plausible aspects of Chirol's report. It shouldn't surprise anyone that not all Jews are saints - that some are doing more than just trying to live in peace. Yes, there are walls and checkpoints and hardships because Jews qua Jews are not permitted to live there and that there are people who want to murder the Jews who have the temerity to challenge Arab racism, but we should also recognize that there are some Jews who make it difficult in turn on their own supporters. (Let me emphasize that again, just in case: I understand that the walls and soldiers are there to keep people from being murdered, and aren't there just to make life gratuitously tough for Arabs. People who don't like those walls and inconveniences must recognize how difficult the murderers in their midst make it for those of us who would otherwise advocate for easing those difficulties.) We may support the idea of Jews living, as they did in the recent past, in Hebron, but practicality is another matter. As I once heard Alan Dershowitz remark, of course it's just that Jews live in a place they inhabited continuously for millennia (Hebron was one of the oldest continuous Jewish communities on the planet prior to the 1929 massacre, and there are still families with ties there), but for practical reasons they may not be able to for the time being. Everything is a balance of costs and benefits. Is it worth fighting it out in Hebron? Maybe, maybe not. Just be aware of what that fight entails and the images and dilemmas it creates.

David Boxenhorn has a very nice post on the limits of strict logic.

...and it's not Israel.

Sandmonkey: Gaza's land continues to be stolen

She's been working with Hamas. That's not OK. That's not an appropriate vacation activity. The answer, "I rallied and organized for terrorists" is not an acceptable answer for "How did you spend your Christmas break?"

Anyway, someone would like to let the appropriate authorities know.

Neo-neocon does some digging into the back-story behind the infamous Tuvia Grossman photo. Just who's mistake was it?

How Tuvia Grossman got to be a "Palestinian"

For no other state would the solution be forwarded that, given incessant attacks by genocidal forces on that state, and given its arrogant insistence on defending itself and its citizens, and given an ongoing border dispute (that is, whether it should have any borders at all), that the state itself should be erased... for no other state would that be considered a moral solution but for Israel.

And people wonder why some of us think the United Nations is a dangerous waste.

UN Envoy Calls for End of Israel

Meryl, who's blog has a spiffy new look, catches the AP -- shocker! -- adding a bit of their own conspiracizing (not a word) to the story about the firing of the new Fire Department of New York Imam (You heard that, right? Yeah, he thinks, or thought -- he's resigned already -- the "official story" about 19 hijackers isn't quite all there is to it.)

Really, we all know AP's job is to report, but where is the sense of responsibility? Is it really necessary to pass on discredited conspiracy theory under the rubric of "some have said" without acknowledging that "it is not true?"

Interesting/disturbing article by Cathy Seipp on some Californians' attitude toward vaccination. These people are a danger to the rest of us. (via Peaktalk)

Dangerous Witchdoctoring - One mother and bad trends.

Also, as Pieter suggests, see Cathy's blog entry and comments...at least until they start debating the merits of circumcision at which point the anti-circumcision zealotry starts crossing my eyes.

Uh, no, this isn't turning into one of those "cat blogs." BUT, we did get a cat sometime last week and I thought I'd post a few pictures. Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. I admit I was feeling a bit lazy and non-plussed by the world. I also wanted to leave Richard Landes' excellent entry on the infamous picture of a bloodied Tuvya (or Tuvia) Grossman and its implications in the top spot.

Anyway, here are some non-posed pics of the cat, alone or sleeping on the couch with our daughter. All were taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ2, although even the larger versions that the thumbs link to are size-reduced for posting.

The cat's name is "MoMo."