January 2010 Archives

This weekend's Maariv exposes the New Israel fund for financing anti-Israel propaganda groups in Israel. The expose is based on a study by Im Tirtzu, a Zionist student group. The study found that the New Isreal Fund finances most of the Israeli anti-Zionist organizations. The group also discovered that the UN Goldstone report took 92% of its anti-Israel material from organizations funded by the New Israel Fund...

...According to the report, 92 percent of the negative citations used in the Goldstone Report to criticize the IDF's conduct in Gaza last year came from 16 Israeli NGOs, which Im Tirtzu has alleged received some $7.8 million in financial support from the NIF in 2008-2009 alone.

Among the NGOs listed in the report are Adalah, Breaking the Silence, B'Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Center for the Defense of the Individual, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Yesh Din, Doctors for Human Rights, Gisha, Bimkom, Rabbis for Human Rights, Itach, Other Voice, New Profile, Machsom Watch and Who Profits from the Occupation.

The report states that the above NGOs contributed "hundreds" of testimonies and other materials to the Goldstone Report, and that while Palestinian and UN sources inside Gaza were also consulted during Judge Richard Goldstone's investigation in the Gaza Strip last summer, the bulk of the damage was done using the material provided by the Israeli NGOs.

"The Goldstone Report looks the way it does because of these 16 groups and the quotes they provided," a spokesman from Im Tirtzu told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "In that vein, our goal is to remove the NIF's mask and show the public what they really are - which is a fifth column, plain and simple."...

Many regions in Gaza Strip have been deprived of electric power since several days ago due to lack of fuel supplies resulting from failure to pay bills of the imported fuel.

Ghassan Al-Khateeb, in charge of the government information center in the West Bank town of Ramallah, said in a statement on Tuesday the Palestinian Authority is "doing its best to make up for the shortage of fuel after the (European) donor countries stopped paying the bills." The authority, since more than two months ago, has been paying more than 80 percent of the bill for purchase of the fuel for the power generators in Gaza, in addition to paying identical bills for Israel, he said...

..."Since the donors stopped paying, Hamas needs to pay the money that it collects from the people," he said. He declined to say how much money the authority was seeking from Hamas.

Hamas demanded that the EU continue to foot the bill.

"Cutting off fuel ... is a crime against humanity because the victims of this crime will be children and the elderly and the sick," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman.

Since the EU stopped payments three months ago, the Abbas government has paid only for some of the required fuel, forcing the power plant to run below capacity, officials said...

Israel delivered more than 600,000 liters of fuel to Gaza between Wednesday and Thursday. Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad requested 110,000 Wednesday after the Dor Alon Energy company reduced supplies, following a disagreement between the Fatah-led PA and the Hamas government in Gaza over payment for the fuel.

The European Union paid for the fuel until November. Since then the PA has paid 80 percent of the bill, 10 million Euros a month. Hamas made a committment to pay the rest and collected the money from the public for electricity, but according to the PA, has not given the government in Ramallah payments for three months.

...PCHR noted strong "reservations on the aid method adopted by EU, represented in providing funds to cover the costs of the industrial fuel. This aid has encouraged thousands of civilians not to pay their power bills, in spite of their ability to pay these bill, under the pretext of the availability of external financial support. This is not in the interest of people."...

...By reducing the production of the Plant to the half, the deficit of electrical power in the Gaza Strip increased to 42%, PCHR found.

The compound deficit of electrical power resulted in power outage in wide areas across the Gaza Strip with an eight-hour cycle of on and off cuts, the report said...

...The Gaza Electricity Distribution Company (GEDCO) is responsible for collecting payment from Gaza power beneficiaries. The Energy Authority referred its failure to supply the industrial fuel to its financial deficit, which is the result of nonpayment by the GEDCO.

GEDCO collects 20 million shekels per month, of an estimated 55 million in bills handed out. According to the report, an estimated 60- 70% of beneficiaries have not paid their bills since 2000, owing approximately $ 2.7 billion US dollars to GEDCO.

As a result, GEDCO reported that the Company was not able to pay its bills to the Energy Authority.

Of the bills collected, GEDCO transfers between 12 to 17 million shekels to the Energy Authority and the rest is spent to cover GEDCO's operational costs, networks maintenance and salaries, PCHR said.

The power plant, PCHR noted, is a stock company, a third of which is owned by Morganti, an American company. The Palestinian Development and Investment Company (PADICO), Pal Tel Group, the Arab Bank and other companies own the second third of the Plant's shares, while the third third is owned by individual shareholders, the report said. In June 1999, the plant declared and subscribed capital of 60 million US dollars, in 2008, the net revenues were registered at 6.278 million, while in 2007, its revenues amounted to 4.355 million.

"We can not understand the large size of revenues made by the Power Plant in view of the growing power crisis in the Gaza Strip," PCHR noted...

Is the answer a 2nd ADL?
By Charles Jacobs

My critique of the Anti-Defamation League for not doing more on Islamic anti-Semitism brought a sharp and somewhat defensive response from the organization's leader, Abe Foxman, which unintentionally confirmed my point. In attempting to prove me wrong and misguided, Foxman only cited one specific public "action" by the ADL on the threat of radical Islam - a speech he gave almost four years ago. The only other examples he provided were private briefings, which cannot be checked or assessed for their effectiveness.

In his letter to the Advocate, Foxman wrote that "the greatest threat to the Jewish people and the highest priority for the ADL was that which came from Islamic extremists." Yet, a review of ADL's Web site shows that since 1995 the organization has devoted less than 3 percent of its thousands of press releases to "Islamic Extremism" and "Arab Anti-Semitism."

Why is this so?

In both the Muslim world and in the West, a huge torrent of Islamic hatred for Jews spews from a wide range of sources, some of them state-financed. In books, articles, television and radio, mosque sermons, organization position papers and even schools, hatred of Jews is presented daily to an audience of millions. This torrent dwarfs all other non-Islamic sources of anti-Semitism combined, resulting in significant risks to the safety of Jews worldwide.

The Obama administration appears to have abandoned plans to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and four co-conspirators on trial in Lower Manhattan, according to administration sources.

"It seems less and less likely" that the trial will take place in New York, according to a senior administration official.

The administration was facing a surge of political opposition to hosting the trial in New York. That opposition crystallized in recent days when New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, an early supporter of holding the trial in the city, said the security and financial costs were too great.

In a letter to the president Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said a New York trial heightens the risk of a terrorist attack...

During the past week, THE WEEKLY STANDARD surveyed United States Senators on the U.S. government's handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas Day bomber. The questions we asked were simple: Does Senator XX believe that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should have been read his Miranda rights? And does Senator XX believe that Abdulmutallab should be tried in civilian courts?

Only one senator offered a clear and unequivocal "yes," in support of the Obama administration's handling of Abdulmutallab: Senator Roland Burris (D-IL).

We received answers from 38 of 40 Republicans. All 38 said that Abdulmutallab should not have been Mirandized and that he should not be tried in civilian court...

Threats and harassment are becoming increasingly commonplace for Jewish residents in Malmö in southern Sweden, leading many Jews to leave the city out of fear for their safety.

"Threats against Jews have increased steadily in Malmö in recent years and many young Jewish families are choosing to leave the city," Fredrik Sieradzki of the Jewish Community of Malmö (Judiska Församlingen i Malmö) told The Local.

"Many feel that the community and local politicians have shown a lack of understanding for how the city's Jewish residents have been marginalized."

Last year there were 79 crimes against Jewish residents reported to the police in Malmö, roughly double the number reported in 2008, according to the Skånska Dagbladet newspaper.

"That probably doesn't tell the whole story because not everyone chose to make a report. Perhaps they fear they will add to an already infected situation," Susanne Gosenius, a hate crimes coordinator with the Skåne police, told the newspaper, which has published series of articles about the growing anti-Semitism in Malmö.

In addition, Jewish cemeteries and synagogues have repeatedly been defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, and a chapel at another Jewish burial site in Malmö was firebombed in January of last year.

There are currently an estimated 3,000 Jews living in the south of Sweden, with most residing in Malmö, Helsingborg, and Lund.

About 700 currently belong to the Jewish Community of Malmö, but the group's membership rolls have been dropping steadily in recent years.

"It's sort of a downward spiral," Sieradzki told The Local...[More.]

A rally of Jewish leaders took aim at Target stores Thursday for selling a globe that omits the name Israel but instead labels the region Palestine.

"It is a very serious thing, its not just a little mistake, we're seeing companies kowtowing to people who live in tyrannical governments who are trying to dictate policy here and dictate how people think and feel," said Rabbi Gary Moskowitz, who led the rally at Zuccotti Park on Liberty Street and Trinity Place in downtown Manhattan.

"We're fighting 'global war on terrorism,' and in this global war we have to 'target' the people who are coming against us," said Moskowitz. "I hope Target did this in error.. and they must have a recall of all these globes."

In a statement, a Target spokeswoman said: "It is never our intention to offend any of our guests and we apologize. We have removed the mini-globe from our shelves, and we are following up with our vendor."...

...I haven't blogged much over the last couple of days and the simple reason is, that I have been unnerved and a little shocked by accusational emails, sent to me from a certain quarter of the conservative evangelical Anglican church. I have been advised today that an Anglican group wishes to sever ties with me and no longer want me to work with them, on an upcoming project, on a voluntary basis. I can only assume this is because I haven't toed the party line.

It has become very apparent to me that Stephen Sizer is heavily involved in, and very influential within, this Anglican group. I'm not going to name them, but it is fairly easy to deduce Stephen Sizer's Anglican connections online. Every comment I have received has been done privately, through email and never publicly. Here is one example:-

I have discovered from your site that you have been instrumental in what I can only regard as a hate campaign. I was horrified to read the list of people who have taken up this war cry.

My comments on another blog have even been noted and an email sent to me, to warn me off.

So far I have been accused of: organising a lynch mob, witch hunt, hate campaign, making a song and dance, making things awkward for an Anglican group affiliated with Sizer, of being culpable of terrorising, of dishing out persecution, of consorting with the 'wrong types', and told that I should 'draw a veil' over any of Sizer's theology that I may have an issue with, and so on. I think you get the picture.

The issue of theology is to me now moot, as my main concern is freedom of speech and the involvement of the strong arm of the law in an attempt to intimidate and censor a blogger...[More.]

An Arab university lecturer and writer is hiding underground out of fear for his life after shocking the Palestinian Authority with a book that links Jews with the Temple Mount. The Arab world has been conducting a campaign, including removal of tons of dirt containing archaeological evidence, to try to eliminate historical Jewish links with the Temple Mount.

Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, of Birzeit University in Ramallah, threw acid on the propaganda campaign that tries to convince Arabs that the First and Second Temples never existed. He wrote in a book, "The legendary Temple of Jerusalem may be the place of the Presence of the Almighty and where the High Priests served Him." [Note that this isn't even much of a statement, just weasel words. -MS]

PA officials are furious with Nusseibeh, a scion of a distinguished Arab family, who now is in hiding and cannot be contacted even by mobile phone.

However, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Middle East expert at Bar-Ilan University, told Arutz 7 that Nusseibeh actually is "small potatoes" compared to a Muslim grand mufti, in the days of the British Mandate, who wrote in 1929 that the Holy Temples on the Temple Mount were Jewish,

According to Dr. Kedar, Nusseibeh already had made enemies in the PA after declaring he is not interested in returning to his former home of Ramle, located near Ben Gurion Airport. He also was threatened with death several years ago after urging Arabs to stop suicide bombings and to abandon their claim to a "right of return" to Israel...

Malaysia's former premier Mahathir Mohamad said on Wednesday there was "strong evidence" the US faked the September 11 terror attacks as an excuse to go to war against Muslims.

"There is strong evidence that the attacks were staged. If they can make Avatar, they can make anything,' Mahathir told the Conference for the Support of Al-Quds (Jerusalem), as quoted by local media...

...The former premier also blamed Jews for hindering progress in US foreign policy. Voicing his disappointment that Barack Obama had not yet ended the war in Afghanistan or closed the US terror detention center at Guantanamo, he explained that "there are forces in the United States which prevent the president from doing some things. One of the forces is the Jewish lobby."

Jews "had always been a problem in European countries. They had to be confined to ghettoes and periodically massacred. But still they remained, they thrived and they held whole governments to ransom," Mahathir said.

"Even after their massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to continue to be a source of even greater problems for the world."...

Jewish groups praised Rush Limbaugh for his "outspoken support for Israel" after his controversial remarks on Jews and the banking industry.

"There has been controversy recently over statements made by radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh about Jewish voting patterns, political ties and the recent Massachusetts election. We are deeply dismayed by the unfounded criticism of the talk show commentator's observations," read a statement issued Wednesday by several Jewish organizations, including American Friends of Likud, the news monitoring group CAMERA, Emunah of America, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, National Council of Young Israel, Religious Zionists of America and Z-Street.

"While one may agree or disagree with Mr. Limbaugh's views on many subjects, his outspoken support for Israel has been eloquent, informed and undeniable. Moreover, in commentary on the Jewish people, he has been nothing short of a philo-Semite. We are grateful for his strong and singular voice on these issues," concluded the statement...

Human Rights Watch rejected a Hamas claim that the Palestinians did not target Israeli civilians with rockets during the Gaza war.

In a statement Thursday, the human rights group said there is strong evidence that "Hamas' claim that rockets were intended to hit Israeli military targets and only accidentally harmed civilians is belied by the facts."

A Hamas commission investigated claims in the United Nations' Goldstone report and will turn the report over to the United Nations before the Feb. 5 deadline set for responses, according to reports.

The Goldstone report found that both Israel and the Palestinians committed possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in last winter's Gaza war. The report asked both sides to order independent probes.

Human Rights Watch said that Hamas deliberately targeted civilians with rockets during the Gaza war and restated that targeting civilians is a war crime, the French news agency AFP reported...

Zelda Rubinstein, who played psychic in 'Poltergeist,' dies in Los Angeles at 76

Zelda Rubinstein, the 4-foot-3-inch character actor best known as Tangina, the psychic who tries to calm a family inhabiting a haunted house in the 1982 horror film "Poltergeist," has died. She was 76.

Her agent, Eric Stevens, tells the Los Angeles Times that Rubinstein died Wednesday at a Los Angeles hospital. Stevens says she recently suffered a heart attack...

...The congressmen urged Obama to pressure Israel to ease the movement of people into and out of Gaza, especially students, the sick, aid workers, journalists and those with family concerns, and also to allow the import of building materials to rebuild houses. Israel has warned that such materials would be used to rebuild Hamas infrastructure and not civilian homes...

Another antisemitic Swedish/Scandinavian politician denies the Jews their obvious right to determine their own lives. In an interview, ironically about stamping out antisemtism in Malmö, Sweden, Mayor of Malmö, Ilmar Reepalu, blames the collective Jew, Israel, for recent attacks against Jews in Malmö, "due to the conflict in Gaza last year spilled over to Malmo."

But Reepalu goes further to elucidate his true views on Israel, which basically follows the thinking in the Islamic world, that Jews are not allowed a national movement of their own. For him, Zionism equals racism. But he wouldn't ever dream labeling the Palestinian movement as racist, for not wanting a single Jew to remain on "Arab land", as well as the Arab/Muslim states that support their position. From the interview:

Skånsen.se: "Have You considered to say in public, that Malmö does not accept antisemitism. Or is it controversial?

Ilmar Reepalu: We don´t accept Zionism or antisemitism. They are extremists, which want to set themselves over other groups and believe they are worth less."

[More.]

MJT: On the subject of anti-Americanism, I think you nailed it, and it really isn't that complicated. You wrote, "Anti-Americanism is the region's lingua franca, and from Nasser to Nasrallah it has not changed in over fifty years. The United States is hated not because of what it does, or because of what it is. The United States is hated for what it is not, not Arab and not Muslim."

Now, surely the fact that the U.S. plays a powerful role in the Middle East feeds into this. Like you said, it goes back to beginning of our presence in the region. If we had the geopolitical footprint of, say, Belize, hardly anyone in the Middle East would spend much time even thinking about us. But since we aren't going to shrink our footprint to the size of Belize or even Europe--not even with Barack Obama as president--is there really much we can do about this?

Lee Smith: The short answer is no. The long answer is also no--but I'll elaborate anyway. Arab anti-Americanism, as I point out in the book, did not begin with the Bush administration, but goes back to the very beginning of our presence in the region and becomes the pre-eminent channel for anti-colonial sentiment after the Suez Crisis of 1956. The irony is that as President Eisenhower asserted the US's anti-imperialist credentials and demanded that the French, British and Israelis withdraw from Egypt and leave Nasser alone. We had effectively ruined France and Great Britain's position in the Middle East and it was not long before they left entirely--France left Algeria and Great Britain abandoned its position in the Persian Gulf. Hence, we were the only remaining Western power in the region and all the anti-colonialist sentiment was directed at us, even if our presence there has never resembled anything like that of a classical colonial power.

There is also a tribal element behind the anti-Americanism that I detail in the book, but it dovetails nicely with the once reigning anti-colonial sentiment articulated by the Arab nationalist intelligentsia, a theme encouraged at the time by our Cold War rivals in Moscow. Of course it was nonsense: Colonial powers extract wealth from their holdings for their own sake, as Syria did during its 15-year-long occupation of Lebanon; they don't typically go in and produce wealth for the sake of the locals, like the Americans did in discovering oil in Saudi Arabia, marketing it, and protecting it and the Saudi Royal family for some 65 years at the expense of the American taxpayer. The money we've spent over the years protecting the Gulf, including the outlay for the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, dwarfs the figures we've provided Israel and Egypt, the two top US aid recipients.

Of course, neither facts nor precise language will have much effect on Arabs who hold anti-American positions, nor on Americans or other Westerners who have similar views, from a so-called leftwing perspective...[More.]

The Goldstone Report, when read in full and in context, is much worse than most of its detractors (and supporters) believe. It is far more accusatory of Israel, far less balanced in its criticism of Hamas, far less honest in its evaluation of the evidence, far less responsible in drawing its conclusion, far more biased against Israeli than Palestinian witnesses, and far more willing to draw adverse inferences of intentionality from Israeli conduct and statements than from comparable Palestinian conduct and statements. It is worse than any report previously prepared by any other United Nations agency or human rights group. As Major General Avichai Mandelblit, the advocate general of the Israeli Defense Forces, aptly put it:

"I have read every report, from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Arab League. We ourselves set up investigations into 140 complaints. It is when you read these other reports and complaints that you realize how truly vicious the Goldstone report is. He made it look like we set out to go after the economic infrastructure and civilians, that it was intentional: It's a vicious lie."

The Goldstone report is, to any fair reader, a shoddy piece of work, unworthy of serious consideration by people of good will, committed to the truth.

The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) - the international affiliate of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) - today filed a comprehensive response with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) challenging the objectivity of the UNHRC-sponsored Goldstone Report on Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last year...

... In its filings, the ECLJ highlights the systematic biases throughout the Goldstone Report and its failure to adhere to U.N. Guidelines and the International Bar Association Guidelines for proper and objective fact-finding.

Notably, each of the Goldstone Mission's four authors made prior statements that indicated pre-existing biases against and conclusions about Israel, including Professor Christine Chinkin, who said Israel committed war crimes before she served on the Mission. The Goldstone Report, the ECLJ contends, fails to provide anything resembling the full and appropriate context that prompted Operation Cast Lead, including years of Hamas terror attacks against Israeli civilians and territory...[More.]

I am the blogger at the centre of Sizergate, having had an unwelcome visit from the police at 10am on a Sunday morning when I was still in my pyjamas. You can read my story on the Index on Censorship or on BBC News.

I am a Christian strongly opposed to anti-Semitism, and I also support the continued existence of Israel. I attend an Anglican evangelical church occasionally, and also a neo-charismatic church more regularly. I hope for a just and peaceful solution to the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict that provides security for Israelis and Palestinians alike, as well as justice for both Jewish and Arab refugees from 1948.

A couple of years ago, I began reading up on Christian theology on the Middle East, and discovered the Rev Stephen Sizer and the Sabeel network. I read some of Rev Sizer's theology, and looked through his papers on the internet, where I found out that he had given a talk in Iran at the invitation of the Khomeinist regime, to talk about the dangers of Christian Zionism. I thought it was ridiculous that Rev Sizer on the one hand was calling for an end to apocalyptic religious agitation from Christian Zionists, without mentioning anything of the apocalyptic religious agitation of his Khomeinist hosts! Where's the ethics in that?...[More.]

While the quality of internal IDF probes can be debated, there is no question regarding the quantity of the investment the Israeli military has made in investigating last winter's Operation Cast Lead. Hamas, on the other hand, while it has promised to conduct its own internal investigation, has so far done nothing.

In April, 2009, the IDF released the findings from five major probes into the operation. While some found operational mishaps, no evidence was found to back up allegations of intentional attacks on innocent Palestinians...

...Since then, the IDF increased the span of its probes, and as of last month was in the midst of 30 criminal investigations based on testimonies of Palestinians who met with Military Police investigators at the Erez Crossing. Another 130 incidents were also under review by the Military Advocate General's Office.

According to a senior IDF officer, many of these probes have been completed, and the military has yet to discover evidence to support claims of intentional killing of civilians or mass looting.

In addition, the IDF has announced it will increase the participation of legal advisers in operation-planning forums and will likely use additional means to warn civilians to flee their homes before attacking.

Hamas has conducted no investigation of any kind, and has given no indication it intends to change its doctrine of using civilian infrastructure to wage war...

...An al Qaeda suspect given free reign with her tongue in a public courtroom. Jurors threatened. Prosecution in jeopardy.

Now, imagine the scene being repeated in 12 or 20 or 25 more courtrooms across America simultaneously with similar high-value suspects and the jihadi dregs of Gitmo.

Are you ready? It's coming.

...When it was released four months ago, the report was vigorously condemned across the political spectrum. The Obama administration's Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, George Mitchell, called it "one-sided and deeply flawed." United Nations ambassador Susan Rice called it "unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable." The State Department expressed "very serious concerns" with the way the investigation was conducted and the conclusions it reached. The ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee declared: "In addition to its endemic anti-Israel bias, the Goldstone Report contains ominous implications for the future right of the U.S., Israel and other sovereign democracies to defend themselves."

The Wall Street Journal condemned the Goldstone Report as "a new low" for the United Nations while the Economist called it "deeply flawed" and "a thimbleful of poison." The Washington Post editorialized that the Goldstone Report made a "mockery of impartiality" ("War Unchecked," Nov. 15). The Post also noted that the Report concluded, "on scant evidence, that 'disproportionate destruction and violence against civilians were part of a deliberate policy' by Israel [while] at the same time, it pronounced itself unable to confirm that Hamas hid its fighters among civilians, used human shields, fired mortars and rockets from outside schools, stored weapons in mosques, and used a hospital for its headquarters, despite abundant available evidence." Even B'Tselem, the left-wing Israeli human rights organization, denounced Goldstone's claims of Israeli targeting of civilians.

We could go on, but it is unnecessary: The Goldstone Report is viewed as neither legitimate nor scrupulous by serious scholars, lawyers, politicians or activists...[More.]

...I should perhaps mention that the court also cited statements by a "gang expert" who argued that playing D&D might stimulate gang activity because Dungeons and Dragons has a structure similar to a gang:

The sole evidence the prison officials have submitted on this point [the connection between D&D and gangs] is the affidavit of Captain Muraski, the gang specialist. Muraski testified that Waupun's prohibition on role-playing and fantasy games was intended to serve two purposes. The first aim Muraski cited was the maintenanceof prison security. He explained that the policy was intended to promote prison security because cooperative games can mimic the organization of gangs and lead to the actual development thereof. Muraski elaborated that during D&D games, one player is denoted the "Dungeon Master." The Dungeon Master is tasked with giving directions to other players, which Muraski testified mimics the organization of a gang.

This argument is, I think, too weak to bother refuting -- even if it is just barely compelling enough to pass muster under the rational basis test. By this "reasoning," you could ban the "cooperative game" of football because "during football games, one player is denoted the 'quarterback.' The quarterback is tasked with giving directions to other players."

A Hamas TV program for children is once again promoting Shahada - Martyrdom for Allah - as a positive goal for kids.

In the most recent episode of the show Tomorrow's Pioneers, the child host asks a 10-year-old girl who phones into the program whether she had been afraid of dying during the 2009 Gaza War.

"No, I wasn't afraid," the little girl says. "I wished for Shahada (Martyrdom) - Shahada for Allah."

The host is effusive in her praise that "even this little girl" dreams of Shahada, and adds, "We all wish for this."

The exchange is more than just another example of Hamas's continued promotion of Shahada for children. The young caller's response also proves the success of years of propaganda by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (Fatah) to indoctrinate children to aspire to Martyrdom for Allah, and to believe that seeking death is a greater value than seeking life.

To see more examples from PMW's website about the promotion of Shahada, click here.

For more examples of the success of this strategy, click here...

Since last fall, the federal Conservative government has been withdrawing taxpayer funding from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that use their grants to take sides against Israel in the Middle East conflict. Now comes word that last week, Ottawa told the United Nations it would no longer fund the world body's Palestinian refugee agency. From now on, Canadian aid to Palestinians will be directed to specific projects. We will no longer give lump-sum aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), since most of that money simply goes straight into the Palestinian Authority's (PA) general treasury, where it might be used for humanitarian projects or might be used to arm and train terrorists.

This is a bold move for Ottawa, which is the first Western government to cut off funding for UNWRA.

Although UNWRA has long been a biased player in the Arab-Israeli conflict, it is seldom criticized for its incitement of anti-Israeli hatred and violence by Palestinians. It has funded textbooks that deny the right of Israel to exist and paid teachers who call on Palestinian children to push the Jewish state into the sea. It harbours radical Islamists and anti-Semites on its payroll and was even caught in 2004 using its own ambulances to ferry terrorists away from Israeli sites they had just attacked.

But most politicians and journalists consider UNWRA to be sacrosanct. Too many swallow whole the agency's assurances that it is not involved in promoting terrorism and anti-Israeli sentiments in the West Bank and Gaza. Criticism of it always elicits howls that UNWRA's mission is only to care for four million refugees in 59 camps and promote peace and understanding in the region.

So rather than get dragged into a public relations war with the UN and its acolytes, last week, before Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled his Cabinet, then-Treasury Board President Vic Toews informed UNWRA and the PA that from now on, Canadian aid would be earmarked to specific projects, chosen by Ottawa, such as food aid.

Ottawa also announced it would defund Alternatives, a Montreal NGO that two summers ago organized an education camp in Quebec, welcoming "500 motivated militants" from Lebanon, Iraq, "Palestine" and Venezuela...[More.]

Palestine Report Back Submitted by ujpadmin on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 5:26pm. When: Sunday, January 24, 2010, 6:00 pm Where: Home of Ann Glick • call for directions • West Newton Start: 2010 Jan 24 - 6:00pm COME TO AN INFORMAL REPORT BACK FROM PALESTINE SPONSORED BY THE UJP PALESTINE TASK FORCE Sunday, January 24, 2010

6 PM Potluck dinner -- Reports and slide show starts at 7 PM

Sarah Roche-Mahdi, Ridgely Fuller, and Lois Mastrangelo have all recently returned from the W. Bank and Egypt. Sarah was in Egypt with the Gaza Freedom March, Lois traveled with the Michigan Peace Team in the W. Bank and Ridgeley visited many sites both with Sabeel and on her own in E. Jerusalem and the W. Bank, focusing on nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation.

We will ask for donations to aid programs in Palestine and to break the siege of Gaza.

The Report Back will be held at Ann Glick's home in W. Newton. Call her for directions at 617-332-[snip] or email her at aglick@hotmail.com.

Deval Patrick 8%
Charles Baker 8%
Tim Cahill 10%
Christy Mihos 4%
Jill Stein 61%
Other 9%

The latest Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza left behind $1 million in U.S. dollars and vehicles loaded with various supplies. A Palestinian media report says Hamas political and terrorist leaders now are fighting over those assets...[More.]

Also Praises Reps. Sherman and Myrick and ADL

On May 21, 2009, a registered student group at UC Irvine called the Muslim Student Union featured extremist British politician and Israel-basher George Galloway, who spoke about his group called Viva Palestina and the convoys of supply-filled vehicles that the group was bringing into Gaza. This program was part of the annual Israel-bashing event that the Muslim Student Union sponsors on campus, this one entitled "Israel: The Politics of Genocide."

There is evidence that at the event, funds were solicited from the audience for Viva Palestina. There is additional evidence - including a 31-page report about Viva Palestina prepared by terrorism experts at Steve Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism - that Viva Palestina's goal is not charitable but to provide support to Hamas. In fact, during the March 2009 Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza, Galloway stated, "This is not charity. This is politics."...[More.]

THE PEOPLE OF GAZA NEED YOU

Fundraiser for Viva Palestina Gaza Aid Convoys with

The honorable *GEORGE GALLOWAY*
Member of British Parliament
Leader of the Viva Palestina convoys to Gaza
Lifelong international activist

*Monday February 1, 2010 6:30 PM*

**
*The Palestinian Cultural Center for Peace*
*41 Quint Avenue, Allston
*Parking is limited. Take public transportation.
Green Line B -- Harvard Ave stop to Glennville Ave to Quint Ave -- Map

*Tickets* at the door -- General: *$20* - Students with ID: *$10*
Limited capacity private reception with Mr. Galloway: *$1000* -- to
reserve a spot: email: marwanelma...@yahoo.com

/Viva Palestina has successfully delivered 3 convoys of urgent aid to
Palestinians under siege in Gaza. To learn more, go to / http://vivapalestina.org/*//*

* LIGHT FOOD WILL BE PROVIDED*

The Palestinian American Congress strongly condemns the assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Yaseen, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas and his aides by the Israeli air force...This assassination is yet another proof that the United States should no longer support Sharon's barbaric policy...

This is a guest post by Seismic Shock.

As some people have noticed, I've been rather quiet in blogging about the Reverend Stephen Sizer's activities of late.

After all, what more can be said of a man who forwards emails from Holocaust deniers, shares platforms with Holocaust deniers, and shamelessly flaunts his anti-Zionist theology before Iran's apocalyptic Holocaust-denying regime? As Iranian pastors are arrested and house churches closed down, why is the Khomeinist regime translating Sizer's book on Christian Zionism into Farsi? How many more times can I point all this out?

Yet there's another reason why I've been quiet, and whilst I've held my tongue and my pen for a while, now is time to speak.

At 10am on Sunday 29th November 2009, I received a visit from two policemen regarding my activities in running the Seismic Shock blog. (Does exposing a vicar's associations with extremists make me a criminal?, I wondered initially). A sergeant from the Horsforth Police related to me that he had received complaints via Surrey Police from Rev Sizer and from Dr Anthony McRoy - a lecturer at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology - who both objected to being associated with terrorists and Holocaust deniers...

The Israeli military is completing a rebuttal to a United Nations report accusing it of grave violations of international and humanitarian law in its Gaza invasion a year ago. Its central aim is to dispel the report's harsh conclusion -- that the death of noncombatants and destruction of civilian infrastructure were part of an official plan to terrorize the Palestinian population...

...Maj. Gen. Avichai Mandelblit, the Israeli military advocate general, said in an interview that those assertions went beyond anything of which others had accused Israel.

"I have read every report, from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Arab League," he said at his desk in the military's Tel Aviv headquarters. "We ourselves set up investigations into 140 complaints. It is when you read these other reports and complaints that you realize how truly vicious the Goldstone report is. He made it look like we set out to go after the economic infrastructure and civilians, that it was intentional. It's a vicious lie."...

While many here think that the Goldstone report failed to expose of the practices of Hamas, they are more concerned about their own army's conduct. Still, virtually no one in Israel, including the leaders of Breaking the Silence and the human rights group B'Tselem, thinks that the Goldstone accusation of an assault on civilians is correct.

"I do not accept the Goldstone conclusion of a systematic attack on civilian infrastructure," said Yael Stein, research director of B'Tselem. "It is not convincing. But every incident and every policy has to be checked by an independent body because the military cannot check itself. They need to explain why so many people were killed."

SAVE THE DATE GAZA IS STILL UNDER SIEGE - THE PEOPLE OF GAZA NEED YOU

FUNDRAISER FOR GAZA WITH The Hon. GEORGE GALLOWAY Leader of The Viva Palestina Convoys to Gaza, British Member of Parliament, and Lifelong International Activist.

MONDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2010 AT THE PALESTINIAN CULTURAL CENTER FOR PEACE MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW SOON

A year ago the Israeli army was readying itself to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, after a three-week campaign which led to accusations of war crimes.

The Israelis said they launched their assault because they could no longer tolerate the indiscriminate rocket attacks which were being launched on Israel from inside Gaza.

One year on, celebrated Gulf War veteran Colonel Tim Collins travelled to Gaza for a soldier's view of the conflict.

Rush Limbaugh reached a new low with his borderline anti-Semitic comments about Jews as bankers, their supposed influence on Wall Street, and how they vote.

Limbaugh's references to Jews and money in a discussion of Massachusetts politics were offensive and inappropriate. While the age-old stereotype about Jews and money has a long and sordid history, it also remains one of the main pillars of anti-Semitism and is widely accepted by many Americans. His notion that Jews vote based on their religion, rather than on their interests as Americans, plays into the hands of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.

When he comes to understand why his words were so offensive and unacceptable, Limbaugh should apologize.

LIMBAUGH: Scott Brown had a lot of success with independents, and that's -- that's what Jewish liberals like to call themselves when they're asked. They call themselves independents before they'll refer to themselves as -- as liberals. So if Jewish people who voted 78 percent for Obama -- which is far higher than any other group except African-Americans -- if Jewish people gave Obama 78 percent of their vote, what if they're experiencing buyer's remorse like all these people in Massachusetts did? Do you realize how important this could be? I don't think there's buyer's remorse yet in the black community -- that's still pretty strong.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: To some people, "banker" is code word for Jewish; and guess who Obama is assaulting? He's assaulting bankers. He's assaulting money people. And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there's -- if there's starting to be some buyer's remorse there?

In an anticlimax to a week of outrage, Newton aldermen unanimously voted to take no action on a controversial resolution to welcome a Guantanamo detainee to the city.

At a meeting of the full board Tuesday night, the Programs and Services Committee substituted their original approval of the resolution with the No Action Necessary designation. The switch was greeted with applause from the approximately 80 people in the audience, as was the vote of the full board that killed the proposal without an up or down vote. The matter was disposed of in ten minutes.

But while attendees were happy the resolution was no longer on the table, they were still upset at the aldermen who proposed and approved it.

"It's outrageous to even bring this question before the board ... all of us in Newton are ashamed now," said Mikhail Gershteyn after the meeting. "Every official who brought it should be recalled."

The resolution, docketed by Aldermen Stephen Linsky and Ted Hess-Mahan, called for the city to ask Congress to allow Guantanamo detainees into the country and for the city to specifically welcome Abdul Aziz Naji, a 34-year-old Algerian, to Newton should he be cleared to enter the United States. Two Newton attorneys, Doris Tennant and Ellen Lubell, have been working pro bono for Naji while he's been held in Guantanamo...

...Charles Jacobs, a columnist for the Jewish Advocate and the main organizer of the turnout Tuesday night, was not satisfied with the measure merely disappearing from the aldermen's docket.

"We deserve an apology," Jacobs said. "If they do not apologize, we should think very seriously about a recall."

The city charter does not allow ballot initiatives to recall elected officials.

DANVERS, MA - Today, Senate-elect Scott Brown lends his name to Bill Hudak's race to replace John Tierney in Congress. Hudak, the Republican candidate, is a small businessman and attorney that has made news for challenging Tierney to a number of townhall events to talk about health care, taxes and out of control government spending.

"Bill was with us from the beginning and is the representative the people of the sixth district need. Bill is not beholden to special interests and will help me bring the voice of the people Washington," said Brown.

"I have been working side-by-side with Scott Brown for months with the same message. The people don't care about our party affiliation. They care about a government out of touch, out of control and badly in need of reform," comments Hudak.

"Tierney embodies everything that is wrong with Washington. Tierney voted to raise taxes ninety-seven times, voted for a government-run health care system that would tax Massachusetts people to provide health care coverage for those in other states, and Tiereny votes 99% of the time with Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership in Congress regardless of the consequences to people here in his district. It is clear that John Tierney is out of touch," continues Hudak...

As they crossed the Rafah border to participate in a protest, two UC Berkeley students were "underwhelmed" by the Egypt-Gaza Strip border that had taken them so long to cross.

Nuha Masri and Maggie Young were part of a group of 100 students and activists from the U.S. that had flown halfway across the world to participate in the Gaza Freedom March.

According to Young, organizers had planned on 50,000 people attending in protest of the economic block of the 25-mile by 7-mile Palestinian enclave bordered by Israel and Egypt.

Upon arrival, 1,400 international activists assembled in Cairo but were denied exit passes to the Gaza Strip by the Egyptian government.

At the last moment, the Egyptian government allowed 84 students and activists to pass through the Rafah border crossing to participate in the protest.

According to Young, the 84 demonstrators arrived in Gaza city via buses, but were disheartened. Instead of the march being led by the protesters, it was primarily led and controlled by 500 men who were associated with militant group Hamas, which dominates the strips government...

As of 20 January:

• 367 patients have been cared for in the hospital
• 104 life-saving operations have been performed
• 44 patients are currently hospitalized
• 7 babies have been born in the hospital

Stunning turn for ADL
By Charles Jacobs

Hip, hip, hurray!

In a major shift, one that may alter the course of Jewish-Muslim relations in this country, the Anti-Defamation League announced on Monday that a much heralded effort by American Muslim organizations to root out radicalism in their communities was a "sham."

The ADL said that in response to the growing number of reports that American Muslims were involved in terror plots, national Muslim-American organizations had pledged to tackle the problem of "radicalization" in their communities.

National Islamic groups announced that specific efforts to deal with the issue had been initiated at a major Muslim convention last month. The chair of the conference, which was convened in Chicago by the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America, called for Islam to be "clean and clear of all extremism."

But instead, according to the ADL, the convention "served as a forum for religious scholars and political activists to rail against Jews." Speakers described Jews as "the worst kind of people" and claimed that "Allah gave us the Jews" as the primary historical and religious example of those who "take the wrong path." Other speakers said America was at war with Islam and that it is a Muslim duty to "liberate [all of] Palestine" - a clear call for the annihilation of the Jewish state.

The ADL reported that books and CDs by radical anti-Semitic sheikhs such as Yusuf al- Qaradawi and Anwar al-Awlaki were on sale at this "anti-radicalism" conference. (The ADL has called al-Qaradawi a "theologian of hatred"; al-Awlaki was allegedly consulted by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused Fort Hood killer.)

The ADL's direct, specific and public condemnation of these major American Muslim organizations marks a belated but welcome stunning turn of events that will reverberate around the country - and I hope here in Boston, where a multimilliondollar, Saudi-funded Islamic Center, built by the Islamic Society of Boston, is now run by the Muslim American Society. The society, according to federal authorities, is "the American face of the Muslim Brotherhood" - the ideological and operational center of the global jihad. Yusuf al-Qaradawi was for years listed on the sworn filings of the Islamic Society of Boston as a member of the mosque's board.

It is particularly meaningful that the ADL focused on the tactic of deception employed by mainstream Muslim groups. Around the country, Jews and others have entered into dialogues with Muslim groups, some directly linked to the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle. Jewish public acceptance is a chief goal of radical Islamist groups, which, in effect, get a key to the city when given a "pass" by its Jews.

We will be watching to see if this important ADL statement actually heralds a new direction for the organization, which I and others have criticized for being too "politically correct" on the issue of radical Islam. (See my last Advocate column, "Where is our Leadership," Jan. 1). It is hard to change the culture of such a large organization. Incredibly, just last week, when a Muslim man had to be physically removed from an airplane in Miami as he was ranting about wanting to "kill all the Jews," the ADL's Miami director told reporters that the incident showed "that anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews is still very much a part of society." Society!? That is precisely the sort of PC selfdeception that national director Abraham Foxman will have to squelch at the ADL.

We have high hopes that the ADL's pivot marks the start of a serious strategic effort to confront the most daunting threat our community faces. Leading Jewish organizations need to conduct conferences around the country on global Islamic anti-Semitism and Islamist penetration of American society. They need to focus attention on the Saudi lobby and its impact on silencing scrutiny and criticism of anything Islamic. They need to mobilize efforts to spur congressmen to address these issues, none more pressing than that of Muslim anti-Semitism in the universities, a large and growing problem that is being mostly ignored. They need to reach out to Christians, Hindus and moderate Muslims, who have - more than Jews, in many places - been targets of radical Islam.

Charles Jacobs is president of Americans for Peace and Tolerance.

The US Supreme Court has overturned a decision by a lower court in Philadelphia to block the execution of a former "black power" militant.

The lower court reversed the death penalty on Mumia Abu-Jamal in March 2008 after finding that the jury had been given flawed instructions.

The ex-Black Panther's conviction for murdering a policeman still stood.

The Supreme Court made its ruling after a case in Ohio last week which turned on a similar legal issue...

...So for me it boils down to this: I was a Democratic consultant for long enough to want to believe that Coakley can still prevail, and there is still a remote chance that the polls in this race will be as misleading as they were in New Hampshire. However, my head is not my heart. Barring another polling meltdown, Scott Brown is the likely winner.

A Democratic operative familiar with Martha Coakley and the DSCC's massive get-out-the-vote operation says that outreach workers in and around Boston have been stunned by the number of Democrats and Obama supporters who are waving them off, saying they'll vote for Scott Brown.

They had John Kerry, their sitting US Senator, Jim McGovern their sitting US Congressman (and a supporter of terrorists), Tim Murray, our sitting Lt Governor and former mayor of Worcester, and the current mayor of Worcester, Joe O'Brien. They still ONLY turned out about maybe 150 people. Two hours later there were thousands showing up for Scott a couple blocks down the street. I thought this was pathetic and showed the weakness of their campaign.

Alas, Ben Smith didn't have room in his Tweet to give the full color of her remarks. I imagine they went something like this:

"Greeting Bostonians and other residents of this state which I know how to spell. Thank you for gathering here amidst this precipitation. I find your loyalty and enthusiasm very encouraging. Intelligent carbon-based life forms do not to expose themselves to this sort of climate. That is why my opponent spends so much time in sports activity parking areas while we congregate around public libraries. Ha ha ha. I laugh at his disregard for the germs of those who frequent such areas. I for one do not share that disregard so I am going to return to my automobile. Please remain here and display your very encouraging support for those issues I have endeavored to associate with my campaign."

Martha Coakley may have just had the shortest rally in political history. Her car swooped up to the curb here at the Boston public library and she jumped out to greet the throngs . . . of three union members holding signs. She spent about five minutes shaking hands in the rain before ducking away with her handlers. Coakley said her turnout has been "tremendous," and predicted a win. She praised President Obama and President Clinton for coming. After she praised Clinton, NRO asked her whether she was comfortable with Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy to Haiti, stumping for her while that nation struggled to deal with last week's earthquake. "I think nobody tells President Clinton what he wants to do or can do," said Coakley. "I think he said very articulately how it was best for him to be on the ground here," and that "it didn't make sense for him to go there." What? She couldn't really mean that, right? I pressed: "It didn't make sense for him to go there?" Coakley's response: "You can ask him."

...Brown has surged to a double-digit lead over Coakley in three Massachusetts communities identified as bellwethers, according to the latest SuffolkUniversitybellwether polling of the race for U.S. Senate.

Gardner, Fitchburg and Peabody all show solid margins for Brown, the state senator running against Coakley. The cities were identified as bellwether communities because in the most recent "like election" - the November 2006 Senate race between the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Republican challenger Kenneth Chase - the results in all three communities were within 1 percentage point of the actual statewide results for each candidate. Additionally, party registration in those cities is similar to the statewide voter makeup...

A new InsiderAdvantage poll conducted exclusively for POLITICO shows Republican Scott Brown surging to a nine-point advantage over Martha Coakley a day before Massachusetts voters trek to the ballot box to choose a new senator...

Well we're about to finish up. Anything else you'd like to say or promote before we finish?

Well, I would add that I'm so focused on this Scott Brown special election right now because what it has proven that conservatives as a movement can come together and make a difference, even in a place as liberal and as Democratic as Massachusetts. Conservatives coming together are making a difference and we're going to win in Massachusetts because of conservatives all across the country. I hope we continue to do this. I hope we continue to be smart, be active and help stop the Obama administration and the Left's agenda on the Hill.

Insurgent Massachussetts Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown told CNN he expects to be installed quickly as Massachusetts' next senator should he win the state's special election Tuesday.

Asked about the state of the race, Brown said he's still campaigning as if he's running "down 30 points."

But sounding confident, the GOP state senator says he's made plans to travel to Washington Friday if he's victorious.

Brown warned any plan to quickly pass health care reform before the results are certified in Massachusetts would send the wrong message to Americans...

I am a student at MIT and today I went running with a couple of my buddies from the track team through downtown Boston. We wore homemade t-shirts in support of Scott Brown. Having never done anything like this before, we were a little hesitant at first. However, a police officer stopped us within the first few blocks and told us that we needed to think of something to yell to bring attention to our shirts. He was very helpful. We covered a little over 6 miles from the Prudential Center, past Boston Commons, around the Garden center, and back along the Freedom Trail, yelling,"Vote for Scott!" The response was overwhelmingly in favor of Scott Brown. People were cheering us on and we got honks from police cars, garbage trucks, and even an ambulance. It was awesome. In the end, an older gentleman stopped us and gave us a box of cookies with Brown's face on them. I will be shocked if Brown doesn't win.

We got one push-polling call Friday asking us if we'd vote for Scott Brown if we knew he'd vote in lockstep with Washington Republicans. I asked the pollster who was paying for the poll and she said it was the Massachusetts Democratic party. We got another polling call this evening, from some polling organization I'd never heard of. It was a robocall so I just hung up. The kids have even started hanging up on the calls. I'm not sure how much stock to put in polls at this point.

As I drove to two social events today from Brookline through Newton, Needham and Wellesley I saw 5 signs: 4 Brown and 1 Coakley.

One guy I know was quoted in the Boston Herald as saying he'd support Coakley because "it's important to keep the Democratic majority in the Senate." There was lots of enthusiasm for going to the Obama rally on Sunday, but the line filled up early with students who wanted to see President Obama. There is not much enthusiasm for Coakley herself.

In a normal year such dud candidates would win anyway, as is obvious from John Kerry being our other senator. This year people are fed up. It is the wild spending, it is our governor, and it is young people in a state with RomneyCare not wanting to pay sick old people rates for health insurance under ObamaCare.

...The Israeli delegation landed in the capital of Port-Au-Prince on Friday evening (15 January) and established its operation center in a soccer field near the airport.

Two teams, comprised of search and rescue personnel and canine operators from the IDF canine unit were sent out on rescue missions. The first team was sent to the Haiti UN headquarters in order to assist in rescuing survivors. The rescue teams are working in cooperation with local authorities in order to reach disaster struck areas where survivors can be located and assisted...

On Sunday night (17 January) a resident of Port-au-Prince gave birth to a son at the Israeli field hospital. As a token of appreciation and gratitude, his mother decided to name him Israel in honor of the country that helped her. (Photofeed: IDF)

Editor's note: The Advocate last week interviewed Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown. As of press time, Democrat Martha Coakley's campaign had not responded to the Advocate's request to be interviewed or answer a questionnaire.

Yes, we repeatedly contact her since before Christmas, requesting an interview. As the election drew near, we even submitted written questions. Both a reporter and I called her staff. Only on Wed., after we had gone to press, did I hear from a staff member.

Needless to say, we were quite disappointed.

...I examined the language of Brown's proposed amendment in a prior post. That amendment provided a "religious belief" exemption to the law requiring that hospitals provide such contraception, consistent with state anti-discrimination law. But Brown's amendment also required that the hospital have a plan in place for the victim to get the emergency contraception from some other provider at no extra cost.

Coakley also is being disingenuous because, as I detailed in my prior post, Coakley supports the Senate health care bill which contains an even broader exemption protecting health care providers who do not want to provide abortion-related services or referrals for such services. That exemption is broad enough to include refusing to provide abortion-related services to rape victims...[More.]

Shipping giant UPS isn't amused by a Democratic Party campaign pamphlet attacking Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown that plays off the company's slogan "What can Brown do for you?"

Atlanta-based United Parcel Service, known for its ubiquitous brown trucks, demanded yesterday that the Massachusetts Democratic Party, which is listed as paying for the pamphlet, stop distributing it.

The mailer asks "What can Brown do to you?" It shows Scott Brown dressed up as a UPS driver and says, "He can reward corporations that ship your job overseas just like George W. Bush."...

Jury selection in the "Lady Al Qaeda" trial got off to a bizarre start Wednesday with the accused terrorist telling jurors she was "boycotting" - and demanding Jews be excluded from the panel.

"If they have a Zionist or Israeli background...they are all mad at me," said Aafia Siddiqui, a U.S.-trained neuroscientist charged with attempted murder.

"I have a feeling everyone here is them - subject to genetic testing....They should be excluded if you want to be fair," she told Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman.

Prospective jurors weren't present for that outburst, but they were in the courtroom to hear her say, "I'm boycotting the trial...there are too many injustices."

At another point, Siddiqui repeatedly refused to talk to her own lawyers, saying she didn't trust them.

"I don't trust you either," she told Berman.

She even tried to toss a handwritten note to prosecutors requesting time each day to pray. Berman said time would be set aside.

Siddiqui, 37, is accused of picking up an M-4 Army rifle and firing two rounds at a team of Americans who tried to question her in Afghanistan on July 18, 2008...[More.]

Once labeled a suspected terrorist, Abdul Aziz Naji doesn't have a home or a country. But some officials in Newton are doing what they can to give him both.

Naji has spent much of the past eight years being held as an enemy combatant in Guantanamo Bay, before being cleared for release in May 2009.

Members of Newton's Board of Aldermen are proposing a resolution asking Congress to allow cleared detainees into the United States and to welcome Naji into "into our community as soon as such ban is lifted."

"We're raising our hands," said Alderman Stephen Linsky, who proposed the nonbinding resolution. It unanimously passed out of committee and will go before the full board on Jan. 19.

The 34-year-old Algerian has been connected to Newton for several years -- local lawyers Doris Tennant and Ellen Lubell having been working for him pro bono since 2006, trying to appeal his classification as an enemy combatant.

Though he was cleared to be released by the Guantanamo Detainee Review Task Force -- and was never charged with any crimes -- he's still at Guantanamo because he fears persecution from the Algerian government if he's repatriated to his home country, Lubell said.

Lubell holds no illusions about a municipal resolution changing the minds of congressional lawmakers, but she's delighted that the resolution makes a stand for her client and the principles she's fought for.

"It's a symbolic gesture that really runs counter to what we think as fear-mongering, the fear that has been generated that all these guys are bad and are going to blow us up," Lubell said. "Some of them, including our client, should never have been in Guantanamo in the first place."

Naji was arrested by Pakistani police in 2002 during a house raid and eventually was transferred to Guantanamo.

Most of the evidence against Naji came from torture, both of him and other prisoners, Lubell and Tennant said. The United States government alleged Naji was a member of designated terrorist group Lashkar al-Tayyibi, but Naji said he worked in a legally operated charitable wing of the organization...

...The IDF delegation will construct a field hospital in the disaster area that will include 220 personnel, among them Home Front Command rescue teams and IDF Medical Corps teams.

The field hospital will include 40 doctors, 25 nurses, paramedics, a pharmacy, a pediatrics department, a radiology department, an intensive care unit, an emergency room, two operating rooms, a surgical department, an internal department and a maternity ward.

The hospital can treat approximately 500 patients each day, and in addition will perform preliminary surgeries, and will house approximately ten tons of equipment.

The Home Front command forces will include 30 rescue workers, task force intelligence, logistics forces and a communications department, in addition to search and rescue and population aid experts from the Home Front Commands Search and Rescue Unit...

A former chief United Nations weapons inspector is accused of contacting what he thought was a 15-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, engaging in a sexual conversation and showing himself masturbating on a Web camera.

Scott Ritter of Delmar, N.Y., who served as chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-98 and who was an outspoken critic of the second Bush administration in the run-up to the war in Iraq, is accused of contacting what turned out to be a Barrett Township police officer posing undercover as a teen girl...

...The police affidavit gives the following account:

Officer Ryan Venneman was posing as 15-year-old "Emily" in an online chat room when he was contacted by someone using the name "Delmarm4fun." This person, later identified as Ritter, told "Emily" he was a 44-year-old male from Albany, N.Y.

"Emily" told Ritter she was a 15-year-old girl from the Poconos, at which point Ritter asked for a picture other than the one "Emily" had posted on her account. Ritter then sent her a link to his Web camera and began to masturbate on camera.

"Emily" asked Ritter for his cell phone number, which he provided.

Ritter again asked "Emily" how old she was. Told she was 15, Ritter said he didn't realize she was 15 and turned off his webcam, saying he didn't want to get in trouble.

Ritter told "Emily" he had been fantasizing about having sex with her, to which she replied: "Guess you turned it off ..."

Ritter then said: "You want to see it finish," reactivated his

webcam and continued masturbating and ejaculated on camera.

The online conversation occurred in February 2009, but the investigation lasted until November, when Ritter was charged, because police had to undergo the lengthy process of obtaining court orders to get Ritter's cell phone and computer information...

...This is not the first time Ritter has been in such trouble...

Our Attorney General Martha Coakley is now claiming that she is the victim in the sidewalk cram down her campaign stooge gave a reporter. She told reporters today that "I know there were people following, including two from the Brown campaign who have been very aggressive in their stalking."

"Stalking?" So who are these "stalkers," anyway?

Are there citizens following her campaign around and recording her public statements? That's nothing new. Maybe there's a Brown campaign person taking photos or handing out fliers? It happens in nearly every campaign.

But "stalkers?" Stalking, as Attorney General Coakley knows, is a crime. So is assault, like shoving someone to the ground and repeatedly pushing them...

...Coakley is ending the campaign on a high note of condescension. William Jacobson highlights a classic quote from a Boston Globe feature on Coakley's campaign. In an election with such high stakes, with so little time left in the campaign, the Globe wondered if she was being too passive.

"As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?'' she fired back, in an obvious reference to a Brown video of him doing just that at the Winter Classic hockey game played at Fenway...

In part two of Bill Whittle's investigation of radical Islam's influence over our government, a former FBI special agent discusses how our government has looked the other way as an Islamic insurrection mounts within our borders.

...everything changed yesterday.

The video of the Coakley staffer -- most likely DNC hack and former Kerry campaigher Michael Meehan -- shoving The Weekly Standard's John McCormack to the ground, and then repeatedly shoving him again and again in view of AG Coakley, is a watershed moment. It could turn out to be a campaign killer.

First, it highlights the fact that Coakley had left Massachusetts to attend a lobbyist fundraiser in D.C.. Taking big bucks from Big Pharma in the middle of this fight? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Then there's the guy who got shoved. McCormack is the reporter who asked the question about Afghanistan that literally stopped Coakley in her tracks. After a few blinks of incomprehension, she answered by asking, "Does anyone ELSE have a question?" This issue is a disaster for Coakley because it reveals her utter lack of experience or (apparently) basic knowledge on foreign policy, just two weeks after a terrorist successfully got on a U.S. airplane...

As I walked down the street, a man who appeared to be associated with the Coakley campaign pushed me into a freestanding metal railing. I ended up on the sidewalk. I was fine. He helped me up from the ground, but kept pushing up against me, blocking my path toward Coakley down the street.

He asked if I was with the media, and I told him I work for THE WEEKLY STANDARD. When I asked him who he worked for he replied, "I work for me." He demanded to see my credentials, and even though it was a public street, I showed them to him.

I eventually got around him and met up with the attorney general halfway down the block.

"Attorney General, could I ask you a question please?" I said. "We're done, thanks," Coakley replied. She walked back toward the restaurant, apparently searching for her car. She remained silent as I (politely) repeated my question.

Coakley staffers told me they didn't know who the man was who pushed me, though by every indication he was somehow connected to the campaign.

GAZA CITY -- When Munzer Diyya wants to get away from it all, he sits astride his motorcycle and takes to the open road -- all 45 kilometres of it.

Diyya has the misfortune of being an open road enthusiast living in the Gaza Strip, a tiny territory sandwiched between Israel and Egypt and blockaded by both...

C-SPAN said a call-in host should have upbraided an anti-Semitic caller.

"Program hosts, whose role is to facilitate the dialogue between callers and guests, are certainly permitted to step in when a caller makes ad hominem attacks or uses obscenity or obviously racist language," a statement to JTA said. "Given that this involves quick judgment during a live television production, it's an imperfect process that didn't work as well as it should have that day."

The cable network, which covers the U.S. Congress, government hearings, think-tank sessions and news conferences in their entirety as a means of expanding government transparency, has been stung by criticism following a Jan. 4 broadcast of its "Washington Journal" call-in show...

I was one of the many Brigadiers at the pre-debate rally at UMass and when I got there, I was pretty overwhelmed at the trailer truck of Martha signs and hundreds of union members holding them. While speaking with one of the union guys holding the Coakley sign, he admitted that his union was paying him $50 to stand and hold the sign. I was blown away, I always thought that these guys were out in the cold like us, doing what we thought was the right thing to do, not that they were actually being paid a fee to do it.

The best part was when he admitted that although he was there because he needed the money, he was voting for Scott!!...

Frantic over the possibility that a Democrat might lose the race to replace Sen. Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts, the Democratic National Committee has sent its top spinner, Hari Sevugan, to the aid of Democratic candidate Martha Coakley, who appears to be rapidly losing ground to Republican Scott Brown. But what can Sevugan do to shore up Coakley's struggling campaign? Well, he spent his first day on the job trying to tie Brown to Sarah Palin...

Israel has made enormous sacrifices in an attempt to secure peace - including unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. I support a two-state solution that reaffirms Israel's right to exist and provides the Palestinians with a place of their own where both sides can live in peace and security. As our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel lives every day under the threat of terror yet shares with America a dedication to democratic ideals, a respect for faith, and a commitment to peace in the region. Until a lasting peace is achieved, I support the security barrier erected by Israel which has proven successful in protecting Israeli civilians from terrorist attacks.

When Ted Kennedy died last August, Democrats said they'd honor him by finally passing the national health care he had long campaigned for. What an irony it would be if the race for Kennedy's successor in Massachusetts denied Democrats the 60th vote to ram their federal takeover into law on a partisan basis.

That prospect isn't as implausible as it once seemed in that most liberal of states, as Republican Scott Brown has closed to within striking distance of Democrat Martha Coakley in the January 19 special election. A Boston Globe survey released this weekend showed Ms. Coakley with a 15-point lead, but a survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found the race a dead heat, with Mr. Brown up 48% to 47%. The scary prospect for Democrats is that the race is even this close on their home ideological turf, and turnout is always difficult to predict in special elections...[More.]

With Democrat Martha Coakley in trouble in the Massachusetts special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat, Democrats could lose vote No. 60 for President Obama's health-care bill. In response, an army of lobbyists for drug companies, health insurance companies, and hospitals has teamed up to throw a high-dollar Capitol Hill fundraiser for Coakley next Tuesday night. The invitation is at right...

Of the 22 names on the host committee--meaning they raised $10,000 or more for Coakley--17 are federally registered lobbyists, 15 of whom have health-care clients. Of the other five hosts, one is married to a lobbyist, one was a lobbyist in Pennsylvania, another is a lawyer at a lobbying firm, and another is a corporate CEO. Oh, and of course, there's also the political action commitee for Boston Scientific Corporation...

The fare was light, and attendance was even lighter, but enough contributions came in to enable the organizers of yesterday's fundraiser for state Attorney General Martha Coakley to claim the outcome was a favorable one.

"I think it was a success," reported organizer Nora O'Brien. "We raised more than $1,500, and that's a good figure."

Local Democrats had hoped for at least 100 attendees. O'Brien estimated the number was close to that.

But in reality, Sunday's event paralleled the listlessness with which voters statewide have treated the upcoming election...

New York, NY, January 11, 2010 ... As the number of American Muslim extremists allegedly involved in terror plots in the U.S. and abroad continues to grow, major Muslim-American organizations have publicly acknowledged the existence of a problem in their community and vowed to tackle it head on.

But the initial effort to root out radicalization - announced by a few of these groups in the wake of the arrests in Pakistan of five Muslim-American students from Virginia for allegedly attempting to join a terrorist group - has proven to be a sham and a cover for anti-Semitism and extremism, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) held a major community convention in Chicago in December 2009 where the convention chair called for an Islam "clean and clear of all extremism."

But the convention, which had been specifically identified by MAS and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as the venue to begin the effort to combat radicalization, failed to seriously address the problem. In fact, it provided a platform for extremist views, according to ADL. The Chicago convention, which attracted more than 1,000 participants, served as a forum for religious scholars and political activists to rail against Jews, call for the eradication of the state of Israel and accuse the United States government as waging a war against Muslims at home and abroad.

"It is shocking that this conference, identified by some major Muslim-American groups as the venue to start the process of reform at a time of growing attacks and threats by American Muslim extremists, was a sham and nothing more than a cover for the dissemination of hateful anti-American and anti-Israel views and anti-Semitism," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "The fact that it provided a platform for extremist views calls into question the sincerity of the effort to serve as a legitimate counterbalance to radicalization. No legitimate blueprint for change can emerge from a convention permeated by messages conveying hatred of Jews, the denial of Israel's right to exist and the idea that the U.S. is at war with Islam."

ADL pointed to numerous troubling speeches and other developments during the annual convention of the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) held December 23-27:

• Religious scholars and political activists railed against Jews from both a political and theological standpoint. Rafiq Jaber, former President of the Islamic Association of Palestine, a Hamas-affiliated anti-Semitic propaganda organization, described Jews to the audience as "the worst kind of people," who came to Jerusalem "with false pretenses."
• Hamed Ghazali, Chairman of the MAS Council of Islamic Schools and professor at the Islamic American University in Michigan, told the audience in Arabic that "Allah gave us the Jews" as the primary historical and religious example of those who "take the wrong path."
• Other speakers argued that the eradication of the state of Israel is a religious duty. Sheikh Raghib Al Serjani, an author and physician from Egypt, declared in Arabic, "It is the duty for all Muslims to liberate all of Palestine from the North to the South, from Al Quds to the sea, it's a duty for all Muslims to liberate one complete full land of Palestine... It's not just about liberating Al Quds. It's all occupied!"
• Materials sold at the convention included books and CDs by radical anti-Semitic sheikhs such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a leading Muslim Brotherhood ideologue based in Qatar who is known for his support of terrorist groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah; and Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. born Muslim cleric based in Yemen who has encouraged American Muslims to attack non-Muslims and Western targets.
• Another theme repeated throughout the convention was the notion that the U.S. government is attacking Islam as a religion. According to several speakers, the American government targets Muslims in the U.S. through its policies and Muslims abroad through its wars.

Even from the inception of the convention, serious questions arose as the organizers sought to draw participants by advertising two known anti-Semitic extremists from abroad as keynote speakers: Zaghloul Al Najjar, an Egyptian cleric who has described Jews as "devils in human form," and Ra'ed Salah, leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who served jail time for financing Hamas. Neither of the advertised speakers attended the convention.

In 2009 alone, an alarming number of American Muslim extremists were charged, convicted or sentenced on terrorism charges, including terror plots in the U.S. and abroad. From the shootings at Fort Hood and at an Army recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas to plots in New York, Chicago, Massachusetts and elsewhere, the suspects were fueled by an extremist ideology that demonizes America, Israel and Jews.

...The journalist relays that "she says that she wants to go on Howard Stern with the Palestinian flag wrapped around her breasts, because she believes he's a closet racist; she thinks Oprah is stingy and doesn't give enough money to charity, because as much as she gives, she has many millions more."

Asides like that will earn her an A in many a liberal arts class. With that one sentence she displays the necessary politically correct bona fides. Bogus charges of racism and a proclamation of self-righteousness regarding the poor could well turn her into a popular radio personality. Hey, it's all Al Sharpton needed.

Unfortunately for the young icon, Howard Stern took exception to her shallow jibes: "Wrap that flag over your head and suffocate yourself. What do I care? Move to Palestine. Go live there. ... See how the Palestinians treat porn stars. Tell me what it's like to be buried in sand when they throw stones at your head. ... Let's see what they do to porno stars in Palestine. They'll be very, very liberal about your political statements."...

...The 2-1 ruling was handed down in the case of a Guantanamo detainee seeking release through a constitutional, or habeas, review of his case. But instead of being a paean to the power of the writ of habeas corpus, language in the opinions supporting the ruling may instead serve as a rallying cry for those who say it is time for the president and Congress to face reality and recognize the old rules no longer apply.

U.S. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote the majority opinion, and a separate concurrent opinion agreeing with the majority document. In that second opinion, in a highly unusual departure from judicial custom, Brown sets out a chilling vision of the stakes and new tactics in the war against terror.

"War is a challenge to law, and the law must adjust," Brown wrote. "It must recognize that the old wine skins of international law, domestic criminal procedure or other prior frameworks are ill-suited to the bitter wine of this new warfare. We can no longer afford diffidence. This war has placed us not just at, but already past the leading edge of a new and frightening paradigm, one that demands new rules be written. Falling back on the comfort of prior practices supplies only illusory comfort."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is sometimes called the second highest court in the land. It reviews all cases arising from Guantanamo claims, and its decisions in that venue must be followed by the other U.S. circuit courts of appeal.

The case before it was brought by Ghaleb Nassar al-Bihani, a Yemeni citizen, who has been held at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2002...

...The opinion said all of al-Bihani's arguments "rely heavily on the premise that the war powers granted by the (congressional Authorization for Use of Military Force) and other statutes are limited by the international laws of war. This premise is mistaken. There is no indication in the AUMF, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 ... or the MCA of 2006 or 2009, that Congress intended the international laws of war to act as extra-textual limiting principles for the president's war powers under the AUMF. The international laws of war as a whole have not been implemented domestically by Congress and are therefore not a source of authority for U.S. courts. ...

"Therefore, putting aside that we find al-Bihani's reading of international law to be unpersuasive, we have no occasion here to quibble over the intricate application of vague treaty provisions and amorphous customary principles," the opinion added. "The sources we look to for resolution of al-Bihani's case are the sources courts always look to: The text of relevant statutes and controlling domestic case law. Under those sources, al-Bihani is lawfully detained."

All three judges on the appellate panel agreed al-Bihani's release should be denied, but one dissenter said international law does apply to the case. The ruling will apply to all Guantanamo detention cases, unless overruled by the full circuit court or the Supreme Court...

Director Oliver Stone's upcoming Showtime documentary miniseries "Secret History of America" promises to put mass murderers such as Stalin and Hitler "in context."

"Stalin, Hitler, Mao, McCarthy -- these people have been vilified pretty thoroughly by history," Stone told reporters at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour in Pasadena.

"Stalin has a complete other story," Stone said. "Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any single person. We can't judge people as only 'bad' or 'good.' Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and its been used cheaply. He's the product of a series of actions. It's cause and effect ... People in America don't know the connection between WWI and WWII ... I've been able to walk in Stalin's shoes and Hitler's shoes to understand their point of view. We're going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them. We want to move beyond opinions ... Go into the funding of the Nazi party. How many American corporations were involved, from GM through IBM. Hitler is just a man who could have easily been assassinated."

The controversial director's 10-part documentary series for Showtime promises to focus on events that "at the time went under-reported, but crucially shaped America's unique and complex history of the last 60 years." Subjects in "History" include President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan and the origins of the Cold War with the Soviet Union...

...Stone said that conservative pundits will dislike the show...

...Stone eventually hopes to send "Secret History" to schools as a teaching curriculum.

..."It would be a very different counterweight to what they're learning," Stone said. "Nobody is going to force it down anybody's throat."...

Is the Met afraid of Mohammed?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art quietly pulled images of the Prophet Mohammed from its Islamic collection and may not include them in a renovated exhibition area slated to open in 2011, The Post has learned.

The museum said the controversial images -- objected to by conservative Muslims who say their religion forbids images of their holy founder -- were "under review."

Critics say the Met has a history of dodging criticism and likely wants to escape the kind of outcry that Danish cartoons of Mohammed caused in 2006.

"This is typical of the Met -- trying to avoid any controversy," said a source with inside knowledge of the museum.

The Met currently has about 60 items from its 60,000-piece Islamic collection on temporary display in a corner of its vast second-floor Great Hall while larger galleries are renovated. But its three ancient renderings of Mohammed are not among them...

...A few days later, in October, Brumberger flew from New York to Chicago to join Edwards for a trip to China. "Hey, I need to talk to you," Edwards said abruptly when they met in the terminal at O'Hare. They walked together to the airline's premium lounge, where Edwards had reserved a private meeting room for their conversation. "Sit," Edwards said--and then tore into Brumberger.

Stuff from the road is getting back to people, and it's obviously you who's doing it, Edwards said angrily. You didn't recognize who you work for. You don't work for Nick and Peter. You work for me. I trusted you like a son, but you broke my trust. I can't have you around me anymore. You're not coming to China, and you're never working for me again.

Brumberger's heart sank. "I'm sorry you feel that way," he said. "I always thought my goal in all of this was to do everything I could to help you become the next president of the United States."

"Why didn't you come to me?" Edwards asked.

"I did come to you! I came to you in Ohio. I called you after Labor Day! I tried!"

"No," Edwards said. "Why didn't you come to me like a fucking man and tell me to stop fucking her?"...

...These are real actors, real playwrights (Cohen and Williams, Levi), and real directors (DeLisa White, Shauna Horn), not propagandists.

This is precisely what Craig Dershowitz (not a relative), the president and producer, had in mind. "You don't have to be Jewish to be pro-Israel. You don't have to be Jewish to work with us. We are not a Jewish talent show. You have to be an artist and a good one. We do Art, not Propaganda."...[More.]

... the young couple was hanging out at Sturgell's house when her brother rode up on his bike, all excited. He had found two fishing poles in this huge pile of trash. Come check it out, he said. So they did.

At the edge of the trash mound, sticking out from beneath a box, Sturgell spied a worn green folder.

She pulled it out, brushed off the dust. Across the top, bold letters said, "Department of Defense." Inside, she found retirement papers from the U.S. Army; a citation for a Purple Heart issued in 1945; and a certificate for a Bronze Star medal "for heroism in ground combat in the vicinity of Normandy, France ... June 1944." In the center of the certificate there was a name: Delbert E. Hahn.

Why would anyone throw that away? Sturgell asked.

And who is that guy? Colt wanted to know. Must be old, a World War II vet. Looks like he served at D-Day!

That night, they took the paperwork back to Sturgell's house and searched Delbert E. Hahn on the computer. Nothing. They talked about who he might have been, the life he might have led.

The next morning, they went back to the trash heap and searched for more clues. They rummaged through boxes, overturned furniture, picked through piles of the past. Colt moved a ratty couch -- and something fell out. A metal vase, or box, some kind of rectangular container about a foot tall. On the base was the name: Delbert E. Hahn.

"It's him," Colt told his girlfriend. "This must be him, in his urn."...[The rest.]

In Egypt, seven Coptic Christians were murdered yesterday by a Muslim gunman as they filed out of a midnight mass in the southern town of Nag Hamadi. In Pakistan, more than 100 Christian homes were ransacked by a Muslim mob last July in the village of Bahmaniwala. In Iraq that same month, seven Christian churches were bombed in Baghdad and Mosul in the space of three days.

Such atrocities--and there are scores of other examples--are grim reminders that when it comes to persecution, few groups have suffered as grievously as Christians in Muslim lands. Fewer still have suffered with such little attention paid. Now a new report from the non-profit ministry, Open Doors USA, shines a light on the scale of oppression.

In its annual World Watch List, Open Doors ranks eight Muslim countries among the 10 worst persecutors of Christians. The other two, North Korea (which tops the list) and Laos, are communist states. Of the 50 countries on the list, 35 are majority Muslim.

Take Iran, which this year ranks as the world's second-worst persecutor of Christians. Open Doors reports that in 2009 the Islamic Republic arrested 85 Christians, many of whom were also mistreated in prison. In 2008, some 50 Christians were arrested and one Christian couple was beaten to death by security officials. At least part of the reason for the mistreatment appears to be the result of Muslim conversions to Christianity: Apostasy carries a mandatory death sentence in Iran...[Read it all.]

A breakthrough in the research of the Hebrew scriptures has shed new light on the period in which the Bible was written, testifying to Hebrew writing abilities as early as the 10th century BCE, the University of Haifa announced on Thursday.

Prof. Gershon Galil of the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa recently deciphered an inscription dating from the 10th century BCE, and showed that it was a Hebrew inscription, making it the earliest known Hebrew writing.

The significance of this breakthrough relates to the fact that at least some of the biblical scriptures were composed hundreds of years before the dates presented today inresearch and that the Kingdom of Israel already existed at that time.

The inscription itself, which was written in ink on a 15 cm X 16.5 cm trapezoid pottery shard, was discovered a year and a half ago at excavations that were carried out by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel at Khirbet Qeiyafa near the Elah valley.

The inscription was dated back to the 10th century BCE, which was the period of King David's reign, but the question of the language used in this inscription remained unanswered, making it impossible to prove whether it was in fact Hebrew or another local language.

Prof. Galil's deciphering of the ancient writing testifies to its being Hebrew, based on the use of verbs particular to the Hebrewlanguage, and content specific to Hebrew culture and not adopted by any other cultures in the region...

...Gurion's weakness vis-a-vis Eisenhower should be the magic key to Obama's success to bring about a different Israeli policy.

Israel is desperately concerned about Iran's development of a nuclear weapons capability Obama started to negotiate with Iran. He should take the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation out of its bilateral context and into a global one of nonproliferation, including linking it to talks with Iran.

Since nuclear nonproliferation is an Obama priority, he should make it clear to Israel that America's protection of Israel's "nuclear ambiguity'' will be difficult to maintain if Israel has not reached out to make peace on his watch. What is a higher priority for Israel's security: the proliferation of settlements or the perpetuation of Israel's nuclear ambiguity, under which it avoids enormous pressure from the international community to conform to the nonproliferation regime?

This is the kind of dramatic change in Obama's approach that is required. Like his predecessors, Obama has to think about Israel globally in order to give both the United States and Israel the opportunity to achieve peace. That would change the balance of power in the Middle East in the direction intended by Truman: the power coalition between the United States and Israel.

Point of order! Mr. Cohen's thesis is based on Eisenhower's forcing Israel out of the Sinai in 1957.The U.S. pressure forced Israel to withdraw from Sinai without securing ironclad guarantees against Egyptian aggression and blockades. That failure led to Egyptian aggression that brought on the 1967 war. In October, 1965, American Jewish leader Max Fisher visited Eisenhower at his Gettysburg farm. Eisenhower admitted to him "... looking back at Suez, I regret what I did. I never should have pressed Israel to evacuate the Sinai.... If I'd had a Jewish advisor working for me, I doubt I would have handled the situation the same way. I would not have forced the Israelis back" (Peter Golden, "Quiet Diplomat, Max M. Fisher" pp.xviii - xix,Herzl Press 1992).

The Senate race
By Kenneth H. Kaplan Special to the Advocate

Nearing the end of a brief Senate campaign focused almost exclusively on domestic issues, State Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican candidate, sought to sharply distinguish himself from his Democratic opponent in the areas of security and Mideast policies. Brown called Attorney General Martha Coakley wrong on both Iran and Afghanistan and portrayed himself as a longtime friend of Israel who would be one of its leading advocates in Washington.

Brown, a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard who cited more than once his "training in the issues of war and peace,'' said Coakley is "out of touch on military issues." He said she is making a mistake by extending constitutional rights to terror suspects "at taxpayers' expense," insisting that they instead be treated as enemy combatants.

Brown spoke last weekend by phone from his home in Wrentham in advance of the Jan. 19 special election. At times both laid back and feisty in the half-hour interview, he wondered aloud whether young American Jews fully understand Israel's security needs. He criticized President Obama for pressing Israel to freeze all settlement activity, but praised his plan to send more troops to Afghanistan. On the campaign itself, he said, "If I could have the Jewish community come out, a bloc [Coakley] thinks she's getting, I'll win this thing by 5 to 8 percent."

The following are excerpts from the interview:

Q: Israel enjoyed extremely close ties with the United States under the Bush administration. Critics say despite that, no real progress was made toward achieving peace, leading them to conclude that the US should put more pressure on Israel. Do you subscribe to that view?

I understand it, but I don't agree with it. ... President Bush was one of the most pro-Israel presidents in our lifetime, and first of all, it takes two or three entities to get down to the bargaining table and come up with peace. But when you have groups who will not adhere to the treaties of yesteryear and want to have a whole new set of treaties, one of the first things you need to do is have these entities recognize the agreements and honor them, and obviously recognize the right for Israel to actually survive.

Q: Speaking of existing agreements, Israel previously agreed to stop building more settlements. The Obama administration pressed Israel to halt any more settlement activity. Are settlements an obstacle to achieving a two-state solution?

Well certainly, but Israel also has the right to live in its lands without having another country dictate terms before you get to the bargaining table. Whether it's close settlements or not build, you can't be giving away cards before you get to the bargaining table. ... I find it offensive that [Obama is] setting the terms before even sitting down at the table. ... I think that Israel had done more than enough in terms of extending the olive branch to get people to the bargaining table.

Q: Israel's security barrier in the West Bank and its incursion into the Gaza Strip both achieved their aims, measured by the reduction in suicide bombings inside Israel and rocket fire from Gaza. Yet both have been condemned as violating Palestinians' rights. Are Israel's methods excessive?

A: Well, when it comes to your survival, I don't know, what's excessive? When you have people lobbing missiles into your bedrooms, you need to establish security measures to protect your kids, your families. ... And don't forget. when you have Hamas lobbing missiles from hospitals and schools, you're at an unfair disadvantage. Israel and the United States, we follow the Geneva Conventions and the protocols and the laws of war.

Q: The United States was fortunate to have been spared in the attempted attack aboard a Detroit-bound plane. How should the US tighten air security? Is there anything that should or should not be borrowed from Israel's methods, which, while effective, have been criticized for involving profiling?

A: Let me just backtrack and add another wrinkle to that. I do not believe that these people should be treated as ordinary criminals. They should be treated as enemy combatants. We're in a war. Clearly there was a tie to Al Qaeda. [The Detroit suspect] should never have been lawyered up at taxpayer expense. He should immediately be treated as an enemy combatant and transferred down to Gitmo or some other facility, and interrogated under the laws of the United States and the Geneva Convention and all the laws of war, first of all. So there's a mistake that Martha Coakley is making by providing constitutional rights to enemy combatants and opening up a whole new level of rights that they're not entitled to at taxpayer expense. ... I would rather spend more time keeping our people safe and then maybe infringing on our liberties a little bit at a time when in fact there are some very serious threats upon us.

Q: How concerned are you that Iran is close to acquiring a nuclear weapon? Do you believe economic sanctions can halt the Iranian program? If not, should other measures be considered, or should the world, and Israel, find a way to coexist with a nuclear Iran?

That's scary. Well, first of all there's a couple of things happening. Ahmadinejad ... Martha Coakley wants to have one-on-one negotiations with him. She would go there. That's ridiculous. You don't want to legitimize his regime and give it a propaganda tool. She'd be the only one who wants to do that. Not even President Obama wants to do that. Low-level negotiations are great, but they're obviously playing the cat and mouse game. ...

They're at 28 percent unemployment. Their cash reserves are almost gone. So if there is any type of economic threat right now, that can work ... it would shut their industry down cold. ...

Everyone knows that Israel has the right to protect itself. The option to attack Iran is always there. You don't even need to mention it.

Q: Martha Coakley recently voiced opposition to Obama's plan to send more troops to Afghanistan. What do you think should be the American commitment?

First of all, she's wrong. It shows how out of touch she is with military issues. ... By having the amount of troops we have there now, they're spread so thin that they're vulnerable. So ... I do support the president. Especially his 180 on this very issue. He took the time to figure out what the problem was. I commend him for that, publicly. ... He's looking to provide the tools and resources to our men and women to finish the job. And the job is very clear. It's to make sure the Taliban and Al Qaeda do not reestablish bases, reestablish control.

The Russian-born pianist Evgeny Kissin, who became a British citizen in 2002, has accused the BBC of "slander and bias" against Israel, broadcasting material he describes as "painfully reminiscent of the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda".

Mr Kissin, 38, who until now has not generally been known as politically engaged, has written to the director-general of the BBC, Mark Thompson. According to a close friend of the pianist, he has decided to become "actively involved in exposing and countering the evil propaganda of certain British media and especially the BBC."

Mr Kissin's decision to use his fame and artistic renown to protest to the BBC on Israel's behalf contrasts with the criticisms against the Jewish state regularly voiced by musicians such as Daniel Barenboim, who holds Israeli citizenship.

In Mr Kissin's letter, he accuses the BBC's Persian Service of a "blood libel concerning Israel's alleged harvesting of Palestinian organs and blood for future transplant".

He continues: "It beggars belief that the British taxpayer should be funding an organisation which is aligning itself with Iran's despotic leader in its antisemitic propaganda. Other print media like the Guardian, which erroneously printed this libel propagated by Israel's enemies, have since apologised. I am not aware of any such retraction from the BBC."

Mr Kissin, who was a child prodigy in his native Russia and is now widely recognised as one of the greatest living pianists, intends from now on to speak out against media bias against Israel, which he sees as both fuelling and being fuelled by antisemitism.

In his letter, he says that when he became a British citizen he was "inspired and proud to belong to the country of Winston Churchill, who famously said: 'There is no antisemitism in England because we do not consider ourselves more stupid than the Jews'. Above all, the BBC and especially its World Service, had always been a beacon of light, of truth and objectivity to those of us behind the Iron Curtain, in the 'Evil Empire'. Reaching out to far corners of the world, it was the voice of a country which for us was a model of democracy and human rights."

He concludes by asking: "Is it not time for the BBC to return to the values for which it was so much respected, before it finds itself in the garbage of history, together with Pravda, Tass, Volkischer Beobachter and Der Angruff?"...[More.]

...While Palin enjoys support from some prominent Jewish conservatives, it is not an exaggeration to say that, more so than any other major political figure in recent memory (with the possible exception of Patrick J. Buchanan), she rubs Jews the wrong way. In a September 2008 poll by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Jews disapproved of Palin as the pick for McCain's vice-presidential running mate by a 54 to 37 percent margin. (By contrast, 73 percent approved of the selection of Joseph Biden as Obama's.) Ask an average American Jew about Palin and you are likely to get a nonverbal response--a shiver, a shudder, a roll of the eyes, or a guffaw. Naomi Wolf, the feminist writer, sputtered that Palin was the "FrankenBarbie of the Rove-Cheney cabal," articulating the mixture of contempt and fear that seemed to grip many Jewish women. The disdain is palpable and largely emotional. While 78 percent of American Jews voted for the Obama-Biden ticket, it is fair to say that most did not harbor animosity toward or contempt for Senator John McCain; the same cannot be said of their view of Palin. Prominent Jews like Reagan-era arms-control official Kenneth Adelman, who expressed great admiration for McCain, proclaimed that the selection of Palin was beyond reason: "Not only is Sarah Palin not close to being acceptable in high office, I would not have hired her for even a mid-level post in the arms-control agency."...[More.]

...At first, Hege kept the crime secret, for fear that publicizing it would discourage other critics of Islam from speaking out. Not until a month later did she report the brutal event to the police, and then only after a lawyer friend had secured a guarantee that the report would not be made public. But the steady rise in Muslim violence in Europe, culminating in the Westergaard attack, helped changed her mind about publicly revealing the assault. She also wanted to underscore the fact that many in the media--people like Vaïsse, I might add--were by their see-no-evil approach to the subject encouraging physical attacks on people like her and Westergaard. This state of affairs, she felt, needed to be addressed publicly and its real-world consequences made clear.

The fact is that for years Hege has been the target of a ruthless, tireless, and breathlessly mendacious campaign of criticism by the far-left Norwegian media. She's become Public Enemy Number One among not only radical Muslims but also Communists, socialists (whose numbers in Norway's capital are not insignificant), and what Hege calls "organized anti-racists." These are members of Scandinavia's many government-funded organizations who claim to be liberal opponents of racism but are in fact largely concerned with defending even the most illiberal aspects of immigrant cultures. Indeed, Hege doesn't believe that her assailants were Muslims; she suspects that they were far leftists of the sort who proliferate in neighborhoods like Kampen and who have made common cause with European Islamists. Hege is also convinced--as am I--that the media's concerted effort to identify her as a racist and Islamophobe influenced her attackers. This is not difficult to believe: it was, after all, the Dutch media's demonization of Fortuyn that helped put him in an early grave instead of in his country's prime ministership...[More.]

..Official sources in the anti-Jewish Arab media have published wild accusations drawn directly from the history of the blood libel. The purpose of this incitement is to demonize Israel and the Jewish people, and so make Israel's destruction acceptable. As a result, an entire generation of Arab youth has been radicalized and corrupted, and it is hard to fathom how peace between Arab and Jew will ever be possible as long as this incitement is ignored.

The sad irony is that this anti-Israel demonization campaign has been widely successful, influencing many people beyond the Muslim world. One sure reason for this success is that the roots of this campaign lie in the very cultures that now resonate so strongly with it. The old blood libel was born in Europe, and organ harvesting has become the new blood libel.

The latest alleged victims are Ukrainian children, an accusation reported by Iranian Press TV. At an aptly named "pseudo-academic conference" in December held in Kiev, a Ukrainian philosophy professor warned that Israel is planning genocide against Ukrainian children, having already kidnapped 25,000 of them in order to harvest their organs. At that same conference two other professors featured their book blaming the 1930s famine and their country's current poor economic condition on "the Zionists." Such is the credibility of all these allegations. (13)

The same report carries a story about a "Jewish gang" abducting Muslim children in Algeria and selling their organs. The story alleges that bands of Moroccans and Algerians have been cruising Algerian streets looking for young children, whom they force across the border into Morocco where they are sold for their organs to Israeli and American Jews. This story has gone viral in the Muslim world and was picked up by Al-Jazeera and many other outlets. It originated in statements made by Mustafa Khayatti, head of the Algerian National Committee for the Development of Health Research. Khayatti linked the Algerian kidnappings to the Rosenbaum organ trafficking story in the U.S. (13)

Can one begin to discern a pattern here?...[The rest.]

"The objective is to put an end to the pro-peace popular resistance in the villages and to crush, once and for all, the Palestinian peace movement."

The Senate also confirmed several U.S. envoys. The list included Alan Solomont, who raised more than $500,000 for Obama's presidential campaign, as ambassador to Spain and Andorra;...

Egyptian security forces and Palestinians clashed at the Gaza border on Wednesday over the delay of an international aid convoy, killing one Egyptian border guard and wounding 15 Palestinians...

...It was the worst violence on the border since an Egyptian major was killed by Palestinian gunmen during Operation Cast Lead in December 2008.

The Egyptian state news agency said Palestinians shot and killed the 21-year-old border guard who was in an observation tower overlooking the frontier. Nine other guards were injured by the stones thrown across the border by hundreds of Palestinians...

...More than 50 activists and over a dozen members of the security forces were injured. Activists briefly seized some policemen as well...

John from Franklin: I for one am sick and tired of all these Jews coming on C-SPAN and other stations and pushing us to go to war against our Muslim friends. They're willing to spend the last drop of American blood and treasure to get their way in the world. They have way too much power in this country. People like Wolfowitz and Feith an the other neo-cons -- they jewed us into Iraq -- and now we're going to spend the next 60 years rehabilitating our soldiers -- I'm sick and tired of it.

C-SPAN host: Any comment on that?

Scheuer: Yeah. I think that American foreign policy is ultimately up to the American people. One of the big things we have not been able to discuss for the past 30 years is the Israelis. Whether we want to be involved in fighting Israel's wars in the future is something that Americans should be able to talk about. They may vote yes. They may want to see their kids killed in Iraq or somewhere else to defend Israel. But the question is: we need to talk about it. Ultimately Israel is a country that is of no particular worth the United States.

C-SPAN host: You mean strategically?

Scheuer: Strategically. They have no resources we need. Their manpower is minimal. Their association with us is a negative for the United States. Now that's a fact. What you want to do about that fact is entirely different. But for anyone to stand up in the United States and day that support for Israel doesn't hurt us in the Muslim world is to just defy reality.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown - who called for a federal wage freeze yesterday - has cashed in on more than 130 taxpayer-funded daily travel allowances to the State House this year, a Herald review shows.

Brown ranks ninth among state senators who took so-called "per diems" last year, the review shows, even as he raked in some $80,000 from his private law practice and also pocketed an extra $15,000 in a taxpayer-funded stipend as an assistant minority whip.

"It's hard to be a small government candidate when you're taking full advantage of what your position in government has to offer," said Boston University communications professor Tobe Berkovitz [Who?].

Brown faces Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley and long-shot independent candidate Joseph L. Kennedy in the Jan. 19 Senate election for the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

As of Dec. 23, Brown, who commutes 35 miles to the State House, pocketed his $26-per-day travel allotment on 136 occasions in 2009 - for a total of $3,536. That was on top of his $77,000 Senate salary...

Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not "arrested", but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eve...ntually came -- they were professionals -- and rescued me from the border bullies.

When they handcuffed me, I said that no country has ever treated me so badly. Not China. Not Vietnam. Not Afghanistan. Definitely not Singapore or India or Nepal or Germany, not Brunei, not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Kuwait or Qatar or United Arab Emirates. No county has treated me with the disrespect can that can be expected from our border bullies.

...Here is the scary part:

Note this clip from the marchers with sounds of "Intifada, Intifada" and "resistance is justified":

AND NOTE THE PLACARDS with the handprint.

This promotional video for Hamas shows off the "education" of children - Terrifying in its matter-of-factness. The child with bloodied hands is featured about 5 minutes into the video:

Although the irony of the placards used might have been lost on most of the demonstrators, it probably was not lost on the organizers. People need to be educated about the symbolism they are being co-opted to adopt. Perhaps they will think twice...

In December, in a Tel Aviv restaurant, while I sat casually discussing my successor at the State Department with my dinner companions, I mentioned Hannah Rosenthal's J-Street affiliation, suggesting that this affiliation concerned me. Nearby sat a former US Foreign Service officer who upon the conclusion of her meal took it upon herself to -- quite rudely -- interrupt our meal to inform me in front of several other people, that in her opinion, J-Street was "a friend of Israel, not an enemy." She then ran off out of the restaurant in a huff, shooting me a dirty look as she left. As publicly offensive as this woman proved to be, her rude declaration seemed to suggest a bothersome arrogance. Worse was the very public repetition of this effrontery by Ms. Rosenthal, the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism when she publicly criticized and insulted Israel's Ambassador to the United States for purely political reasons.

Ms. Rosenthal suggested that Ambassador Oren "could have learned something" by attending the recent J-Street conference, which he refused to attend due to his differences over policy with the group. She attacked him in an Israeli newspaper in her official capacity, a position which dictates that she fights anti-Semitism, not breed it by openly picking a fight with Israel's Ambassador to the United States, thereby aiding and abetting anti-Semites around the world.

This episode only reinforced my early fears about her views. Her failure to see that today's anti-Semitism is so heavily dominated by anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism. Ms. Rosenthal entirely misses the point that by attacking Israel's Ambassador, for such reasons, suggests that criticism of Israel as the "Jew among the nations," or as the collective Jew, is not off limits. If the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism can do it, then why can't anyone else?

In my term as the Special Envoy, I found the issue of Israel overwhelming in nearly every meeting. Wherever I went, denials of anti-Semitism were abundant from those I encountered. Yet, these same parties were all too willing to easily slide into denunciations of Israel to my face and then proceed to blame Jews collectively for Israel's actions next. For example, in 2008 in Jakarta, Indonesia, I met with several members of the Ulama (Muslim religious council). My hosts immediately denounced Israel and for good measure, mocked the Torah, calling it "illegitimate." They then asked that "no more Jews come to Indonesia."...[Read the rest.]

HRW's Ken Roth goes out of his way to bash Israel in the latest proof (as if any was needed) that HRW has lost all sense of objectivity concerning the Jewish state...[The rest.

At a pro-Hamas demonstration in San Francisco last week, Jewish Voice for Peace and the American Friends Service Committee finally dropped all pretense about their position on Israel. While both of these groups had been vigorously involved in anti-Israel activities for years (and joined together to co-present the now-notorious showing of "Rachel" last summer at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival), each had maintained the pretense that they didn't oppose the existence of a Jewish state per se. They have now decided to admit what we knew all along-- that they are fully and completely aligned with groups that openly call for the elimination of Israel, and that they share the agenda of groups such as al-Awda, International ANSWER, and, in the end, Hamas...

When former University College London mechanical engineering student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a plane on Christmas Day, he became the fourth president of a student Islamic society to face terrorist charges in three years. Waheed Zaman, former president of the Islam Society at London Metropolitan University, is facing a retrial on charges that he was involved in the 2006 liquid-bomb plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners, and two others have been convicted of terrorist offenses since 2007. The government-funded Islam and Citizenship Education Project, which aims to encourage British citizenship to be taught in madrassahs, and even supplies teaching materials, clearly has a lot of work to do, as do British universities.

When I was in my final year at UCL, the "Christmas undie bomber" would have been in his first year, a "fresher." We may even have crossed paths in the library or Students' Union. Like all freshers, he would have attended the annual Freshers' Fair and signed up to various clubs and societies, probably ignoring the Ultimate Frisbee Society and the Wilderness Medicine Society and making a bee-line for the Islamic Society, which he would then go on to lead. Whilst I was getting drunk and becoming increasingly convinced I was going to fail my finals, somewhere nearby he was beginning to be radicalized...[Read the rest.]

NOT ALL DEATHS ARE SAD. The federal estate tax died at 12:01 A.M. on January 1, an occasion of joy if there ever was one. Allowing it to expire was one of the few sensible things Congress accomplished in 2009. Keeping it dead should be a congressional goal for 2010.

Estate-tax repeal was one element of the tax cuts George W. Bush signed into law in his first year as president. But the legislation was perversely drafted. It phased out the tax over 10 years, reducing the rate from 55 percent in 2001 to 45 percent in 2009, and then eliminating it entirely in 2010 - but only for a year. If Congress does nothing else, the estate tax will reappear in 2011, at the old rate of 55 percent on all assets above $1 million.

Needless to say, this temporary vanishing act is wreaking havoc on estate planning, and many analysts expect lawmakers to revive the tax sometime this year, perhaps even making it retroactive to January 1. But if the goal is clarity and certainty in the tax code, a far better option would be to make the repeal permanent...

...Far from affecting only billionaires and pampered heiresses -- inheritance tax supporters love to invoke Paris Hilton -- taxes on estates are mostly levied on small- to medium-sized businesses and family-owned farms. Between 1995 and 2004, the congressional Joint Economic Committee noted in a 2006 report, estate taxes were paid by the owners of more than 37,000 "closely-held businesses," as well as 24,000 farms, 50,000 limited partnerships, and nearly 28,000 other non-corporate businesses. "These data clearly indicate," said the JEC, "that the estate tax has broad and significant costs for thousands of family businesses."

Since many such businesses operate without large cash reserves, a hefty tax bill can leave them with no option but to liquidate valuable assets or sell off the business entirely. The cumulative cost to the economy can be measured in lower growth, lost jobs, and diminished entrepreneurship...[More]

So we were in Boston this evening enjoying the New Year's parade. To our horror, at the rear of the parade was a large group, 50 - 75 people or so with large banners saying "Free Palestine", "U.S., Stop Working for the Jews, "Support Hamas", etc. The marchers were shouting "Allah Akbar", to the parade watchers. It was awful. I've looked online for news reports of it, but haven't seen anything yet. I don't know if they needed permission to march. Just thought people would want to know.

Before the parade I did take some pictures of the one of the haters with a sign saying "America Stop fighting for the Jew", and was yelling Allah Akhbar. One of his friends changed it to "America Stop fighting for the Jewish state", the first hater then started yelling Allah Akhbar, Happy New Year and that the Palestinians deserve to be free. He was generally peeving the passers by since the sidewalks were crowded and he was being a nuisance.

...As elites in the West come to grips with the role Islamist extremism plays in fomenting violence in the Middle East, Spain, England, Scotland, the U.S. and India, a small but vocal group of Jews have achieved prominence by walking in Kreisky's footsteps, by offering the same message he did in the 1970s: It's the Jews - and not the people who hate them - who are the problem. Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas aren't really so bad, it's the Jews and their state we need to worry about.

They offer this story as part of an exchange with two categories of people, the first category being those who are predisposed to think badly of Jews. The second category consists of those intent on denying the existence of or appeasing jihadism, a religious-based authoritarian and expansionist mass movement whose leaders have used Israel and the Jewish people as scapegoats to explain the inability of Muslim and Arab countries in the Middle East to adapt to the modern world.

It's hard to tell these two groups apart - there's a lot of overlap - but nevertheless people in these two categories share an abiding interest in hearing Jews assert that it's their fellow Jews and the institutions they run that are the source of the world's problems. Non-Jews intent on hearing this narrative and Jews willing to offer it have, like Kreisky and the Austrian voters who supported him, worked out a mutually beneficial exchange that proceeds as follows:

Disaffected Jews who have little credibility or influence in the Jewish community in the U.S. or Israel are accorded adulation in the non-Jewish world by legitimizing the notion (detailed by Bernard Harrison) that Jews are "a malign and conspiratorial political entity" that must be combated or expelled "lest the host body politic be irretrievably harmed or corrupted or both,"[14]and by portraying Israel as a monstrous nation intent on genocide or ethnic cleansing and the Jewish state as the cause of most, if not all of the problems in the Middle East.[15]

By proffering this narrative, these Jews achieve, thanks to their non-Jewish allies, prominence and influence they were previously denied by their fellow Jews. In order to legitimize this exchange, these disaffected Jews portray their newfound Christian allies as morally, spiritually, and intellectually superior to the retrograde and hard-hearted (i.e., mainstream) Jews they condemn.

In addition to being the recipients of naked flattery as a result of this exchange, non-Jews experience the frisson of hearing and affirming (and the privilege of repeating) anti-Jewish rhetoric that has been rendered acceptable because it has come out of the mouth of a Jew. It also inoculates them against charges of anti-Semitism and gives them leave to ignore threats or hostility to Jews as unimportant...[The rest.]