November 2010 Archives

U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft fire chaff and flare countermeasures over the Nevada Test and Training Range Nov. 17, 2010. Approximately 40 C-17 Globemaster III and C-130 aircraft assembled in formations over the range to conduct air and ground operations as part of a biannual U.S. Air Force Weapons School mobility air forces exercise. (DoD photo by Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald, U.S. Air Force/Released)

A hearty well-done to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach for an excellent description of the essence of not only the Tea Party, but of the essence of American freedom and capitalism that sets us apart. The Rabbi understands that the miracle of America is that it provides the greatest platform for extending the reach of human achievement through individual freedom in human history: Why the Tea Party resonates with human dignity

More.

[Via Legal Insurrection.]

One of a number of indicators that the Arabs are just not ready for peace is their consistent denial of simple reality. This isn't about feelings, nor narratives, it's just about like it or not historical fact. If you can't clue in to that, you can't be a serious partner to sign an agreement with. Good on the administration for saying something about this nonsense: US condemns PA denial of Jewish ties to Western Wall

You didn't know? Indeed, it is! Stick it to the boycotters. Buy some Israeli stuff. In fact, you can buy it from local retailers and it's a win-win for everyone! Here's a good resource page for finding products. There's even a Boston page for you to look at if you're around here.

Heck, go to Amazon using this link, buy some Israeli brands (use the page above to zero in on some -- just click any region and then a category), and then it's win-win-win, since I get a cut of the take! Yahoo!

No need to stop today, either. Every day is a good day for BIGing.

[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]

The working theory among the think-tanks, academic campuses, newsrooms and diplomatic offices is that terrorists are just like us. Except depressed and insecure about it. Filled with self-loathing and in desperate need of anger management classes. If only some kind soul could plop them down on an analyst's couch and stuff them chock full of Prozac or Paxil, hug them without letting go, while reading passages from Jonathan Livingston Seagull-- then they'd be just as right as rain. And twice as wet.

One of the positive side-effects of the WikiLeaks business is the extent to which the "Neo-Lindberghians" (I love that expression though it doesn't exactly slip off the tongue, does it?) have been proven to be way, way off base in their persistent blame of Israel and American Jews for single-handedly attempting to drive the United States to war with Iran. Take note of who sticks to the narrative they've blocked themselves into and refuse to incorporate new data. The back and forth between Jeffrey Goldberg and colleague Andrew Sullivan has been ground zero for this particular battle. Here's a snip from Goldberg from yesterday addressing Sullivan:

Goldberg has been extremely gracious throughout, which is much easier to be when you've kept your head all along and have been proven correct in the end.

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from Fresno Zionism.]

I am going to quote something which most Americans know by heart and even think is unexceptional:

It is, however, very exceptional. For example, there is no corresponding freedom of speech in liberal, democratic Europe. There, the European Parliament reserves the right to determine what kind of speech is acceptable and to jail anyone that speaks in an unacceptable way.

The farce of the peace process, revealed once again by Palestinian Media Watch: Group that sings about destruction of Israel named national band by Abbas

More here.

Is it any surprise at this point that J Street's campus guy in Israel has views indistinguishable from what most rational people would recognize as those coming from an "anti-Israel" campus organizer? Omri has a great (though not surprising) post: J Street's Israel Campus Organizer Drew Cohen - Israel Is "Unjust And Even Criminal," He's Uncomfortable With "People Who Espouse Zionism". A taste:

The rest.

[The following, by Israelinurse, is crossposted from CiF Watch.]

In an article from 2006 Sherwood, whilst filling the role of Foreign Editor at the Guardian, laid out her vision for reporting from Jerusalem, stating that...

[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]

Please forgive me for saying this, but what really amazed me in reading the Wikileaks was how thoroughly they proved points I've been making for years. I wouldn't have had the nerve to say that except that readers have been telling me the same thing.

1. Iran steadily smuggled arms to Hizballah using various means including in ambulances and medical vehicles during the 2006 war. This violates the laws of war. At times, the media has condemned Israel for attacking ambulances though it showed Hamas was also using such vehicles for military and arms-smuggling operations. Moreover, the postwar UN force proved consistently ineffective in stopping smuggling while the U.S. government did not denounce Iran, Syria, and Hizballah for breaking the ceasefire arrangements.

2. Israeli leaders have repeatedly made clear in diplomatic discussions their acceptance of a two-state solution but warned that the Palestinian leadership sought Israel's destruction.

[The following, by Adam Levick, is crossposted from CiF Watch.]

"US embassy cables: The job of the media is not to protect the powerful from embarrassment: It is for governments - not journalists - to guard public secrets, and there is no national jeopardy in WikiLeaks' revelations."

In that brief headline, and subtitle, we have, in short, a journalistic ethos that is both narcissistic as it is adolescent - demonstrating a media elite who don't allow themselves to be burdened with such quaint notions as citizenship and responsibility. Whether or not such leaks - classified diplomatic communications from U.S. diplomats abroad - harms national security or endangers lives are questions the likes of Jenkins clearly are not burdened with.

Via Sissy. Highly entertaining:

We have three cats, and two of them fight each other all the time. It's actually quite entertaining as they never really do much damage. The trouble is that they both pick on the third cat incessantly and, though she is at least as big as the others, she is very gentle and timid and cannot (or does not) fight back. It's been a real problem for her and I think this has led to her peeing outside the litter due to stress (my guess).

Elder of Ziyon is running a little award poll for the best Hasbara events of the past year. I don't even know which one to vote for there are so many good ones. Well worth going over and taking a look at the choices.

[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]

What is the United States and the world going to do about an act of aggression by North Korea on South Korea, the deliberate unprovoked firing of mortars at civilians? And what are the lessons of this situation for other world problems?

First, nobody is going to do anything real in response to this attack. Indeed, the South Koreans are lucky that they aren't being investigated and condemned for something or other.

That last remark, of course, was a sarcastic reference to Israel's treatment though it also applies to other cases, for example the Russian attack on Georgia; the way the UN backed down in Lebanon to Syria and Hizballah pushing around the UN peacekeeping force; Iran's covert warfare against American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan; Pakistan openly sponsoring terrorism against India while India is unable to retaliate; and other recent cases.

Welcome back! Or are you still taking it slow? As you can see, I've given you something of a link dump today.

Personally, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It strikes me as fairly low pressure as long as you're not the one doing the cooking, and/or you have a small family and/or a family that all gets along. And I like the food. All good: Turkey (slightly overcooked, on the dry side), cranberry sauce (the canned jelly stuff is fine, though now that I'm older I do like it with the berries in), gravy optional. Mashed potatoes (not over-whipped, a little chunky is good), stuffing (nothing fancy, yes, Stove Top is perfect), candied yams (yes!), some green beans to round it out if necessary (or just chug a glass of V8), dinner rolls with lots of butter...and plenty of wine or other booze. Once finished it's official "don't bug me" time. Perfect.

I always wonder how those turkeys I see wandering through my backyard from time to time would taste compared to the Butterball I ate, but I'm not so curious I'm going to run outside and choke one to find out.

Oh, and the whole "being thankful" thing is cool, as is getting along with Indians (the Native American kind). I saw Fort Apache recently and there's no need to repeat that sort of thing. We need to commemorate better times.

Here, have some aurora, courtesy of APOD:

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]

Ali Abunimah is a dedicated anti-Israel activist. His website, Electronic Intifada, is widely read (US traffic rank around 106,000) and linked to (more than 2000 sites). Abunimah gives speeches, appears on panels and is often quoted on the radio. He claims to have met Barack Obama numerous times, and is responsible for this notable quote:

A charge detonates 1,500 meters from mine countermeasures ship USS Scout (MCM 8) in the Straits of Hormuz Nov. 19, 2010. The charge was built and detonated by Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 1 and Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2, both attached to Combined Task Group 56.1, during joint mine countermeasures training. Scout was attached to Combined Task Force 151, deployed in support of maritime security operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Joshua Lee Kelsey, U.S. Navy/Released)

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]

The main thing to keep in in mind about the phony 'pro-Israel' lobby J Street is that it is a creature of the Obama Administration.

So what are we to make of the latest J Street initiative, which appears to call for the US to impose a map on Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA)?

The issue of election day shenanigans perpetrated by the community organizers of Neighbor To Neighbor Massachusetts I described in my Pajamas Media article, Massive Voting Fraud Reported in Massachusetts, is not going away. Thanks to Worcester-area stalwarts, the issue remains in the public spotlight. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports: Voter fraud charges alleged - Activist group singled out

Read the rest. The city is blaming budget cuts for the issues with voter rolls, but that's just a small part of the problem. Keep at 'em!

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]

The NY Times doesn't even pretend to hide its bias any more:

East Jerusalem became part of Israel in 1980, with the passage of the Basic Law -- Jerusalem. Although the Golan Heights was not actually annexed, Israeli law and administration was extended to it in 1981.

[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]

If anyone tells you that the United States is a nest of Islamophobia and that's a huge problem that must be atoned for by all sorts of measures, just give them the official FBI hate crime statistics. The numbers are now out for 2009 and can be seen here.

The report and the site are very badly organized and the numbers vary somewhat in the different tables in a way hard to understand. But the proportions are consistent. The number of antisemitic attacks on Jews is almost nine times higher than those against Muslims.

So despite thousands of terrorist attacks, the arrests of would-be Islamist terrorists, the killings of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan by Islamist radicals, America has proved remarkably immune from actively hating or trying to hurt Muslims in the country.

In the main chart, the number of religious attacks is given as 1,303. Of these, 931 were against Jews and 107 against Muslims. Of the remainder, 51 were against Catholics, 38 against Protestants, 109 were against other religions, 57 against more than one religion, and 10 against atheists or agnostics. That "other religions" category is confusing. If that means Sikhs, Hindus, and Buddhists face as many attacks as do Muslims that would suggest a very big problem that isn't being addressed.

Of course, there are still 3199 racially motivated hate crimes (against African-Americans, 2284); 777 ethnically inspired ones (483 against Hispanics); and 1223 against homosexuals, but the numbers are down.

Here's what's interesting.

Which mass media outlets will report how much the numbers differ from the perceptions that many of them have worked so hard to promote?

How many mainstream publications will carefully avoid pointing out who the real main victims of hate crimes are in today's America?

Is anyone going to do some soul-searching or change their behavior regarding the bashing of Jews and Israel, especially on campuses?

Will people in academia, media, and government sing the praises of America as a remarkably tolerant society in terms, at least of religion.

A Spanish commercial. Not exactly safe for work:

Aside from all that noise the woman in the video is making, the thing I notice most is that she has to show ID to vote! From the explanation at YouTube:

[h/t: Seva B.]

From an email from Eye on the UN:

Related to this, at PowerLine: Obama's message to the world

Click through for the video.

A fascinating view through the window:

Photo by Rosie Bell, via Harry's Place. Further discussion at both places.

Sometimes a picture says to much about the problems we face. Oh, and also at Harry's: Did you know unless Israel is destroyed, the Hidden Imam will not come?

It says so on this pen, which is being distributed by South Tehran Azad University Baseej as a "free gift" to residents.

Religiously apocalyptical problems are not easily resolved through negotiations.

So I've been watching in a somewhat bemused manner the whole mounting hysteria regarding TSA airport safety methods. I use the word hysteria advisedly since it's been just an impression I've had. You get the impression amidst all the shouting about "rights" and anger over invasive searches that there must be some other side to the story.

Yes, we have a right not to be groped, but we also have the right not to be blown up in flight. Is there a balance here? Are there alternatives? Do these latest search methods serve a purpose? Knowledgeable and reasonable arguments that not only inflame outrage but also seriously examine alternatives have been lacking.

My question, in addition to that of the efficacy of current searches is, "Are we only doing this for fear of being accused of 'racial profiling'?" The answer seems to be emerging. At Gateway Pundit: TSA Chief Pistole Admits America Won't Adapt Israel's "Top-Notch Security Procedures" Because "Americans Don't Profile" (Video). Here's the operative bit of transcript:

Well we should. First of all, let's get one thing straight. Even the Israeli system doesn't do racial profiling, or so they say. When 20% of your population is Arab, profiling all Arabs doesn't get you far. And somewhere in here the idea of profiling has gotten encumbered with the idea that this means racial profiling. It doesn't. It's far more complex than that.

And even of profiling does involve a racial or cultural aspect, so what? If universities can continue to give admissions preferences to people of certain races so long as it is not the sole consideration, and businesses can continue to be forced to give racial preferences for hiring so long as it's not the sole consideration (or perhaps even if it is, someone correct me on this), then why shouldn't the TSA be permitted to consider those as one of many factors in a profile to protect us all? The genie is out of that bottle.

Society has many balancing rights. Is it better to give up the right not to be groped for the right to ride an airplane, or would you rather be groped less if an intelligent method could be found that caused you to compromise on another right -- the right not to be racially profiled? Sounds like it could be a very fair trade indeed.

To put it more starkly, if you can consider race and other factors in helping people get into college or get a job, you ought to be able to do the same thing in keeping me safe on an airplane.

If it turns out that we are really going through public groping sessions just because of oversensitivity to some politically correct ethos for no discernible sense or benefit, then Homeland Security deserves every bit of the outrage they're getting and then some.

Meanwhile, TheBulletPeople have come out with another of their excellent videos as Jack Webb himself shames the TSA:

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]

I have something to tell you: I am pro-settler.

OK, you are not surprised. But considering the amount of vitriol poured out every day on settlers and settlements, I thought I needed to explicitly say this.

For example, here is how Naomi Paiss of the putatively pro-Israel New Israel Fund (about which I wrote yesterday) justifies boycotting 'settlement' products and artistic activities beyond the Green Line:

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]

A two-faced policy on BDS

This January, an American charity, the New Israel Fund (NIF), was accused of funding most of the Israeli NGO's that provided the documentation for the Goldstone Report.  And the NIF supported organizations dedicated to the delegitimization of Israel for long before that.

[The following, by Ben Cohen, is crossposted from Z Word.]

Z Word contributor Karl Pfeifer draws my attention to this important article by Yale Professor Eva S. Balogh. It's about a demonstration organized by neo-fascist Jobbik Party at the Budapest statue of Count Mihály Károlyi, the democratically-elected leader of Hungary after World War One, and a much-detested figure on the far right.

Professor Balogh reports: "Előd Novák, a Jobbik member of parliament, put a sign around Károlyi's neck that read 'I am responsible for Trianon' (the 1920 peace treaty with the Allied powers that shrunk Hungary's territory - BC). Someone put a yarmulke on his head and finally came a rope around his neck."

Honest Reporting calls this, "An impressive CBC investigation of the Hariri assassination [that] concludes Hezbollah did the dirty deed."

Good on the CBC. And remember this as you read the inevitable "he said, she said" nature of much of the rest of the Western press's reporting on what everyone has known from the beginning was a Hizballah hit. Let's go to the video:

Canada's National Post has several articles on Iran's medieval justice system today: Iran's stone-age justice system and by Barbara Kay: Stoning rooted in tribal honour code which also addresses the issue of honor killing. Finally there is this revealing graphic (reproduced below): Anatomy of a stoning:

[The following, by Charles Jacobs and Sasha Giller, appears in this week's Jewish Advocate.]

Most Jews think we have a special responsibility to educate the world about the horrors of genocide - and to prevent other occurrences. Thus, when in 2003 the world learned about the Sudanese government's campaign to destroy the African people of Darfur in Western Sudan, Jews played a leading role in the movement to stop it. Indeed, Khartoum's supporters call the Save Darfur Campaign "a Zionist plot."

Presently, another region of Sudan - the South - may tragically become a scene of even worse mass killings. On Jan. 9, according to an American-brokered peace agreement, the African people of South Sudan will vote on whether to separate from the Arab-dominated North and create their own state. Considering the North's history of slaughtering Southerners - and that 85 percent of Sudan's oil is found in the South - it is highly uncertain whether the government in Khartoum will allow a peaceful separation. Indeed, Omar al- Bashir, an indicted war criminal who heads the regime, declared he will not accept anything but unity. Observers fear he'll launch an attack.

[The following, by Adam Levick, is crossposted from CiF Watch.]

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he is prepared to suffer any political backlash that comes his way for speaking out against anti-Israel rhetoric.

Harper told an audience Monday that while Israel is receptive to fair criticism, Canada is obligated to stand up for its ally when it comes under attack from others.

[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]

At a time when antisemitism is at the highest point in the West and the world generally since 1945, the battle against it faces a terrible obstacle.

To a very large extent, the driving force of this hatred is revolutionary Islamism, whether it be in the form of attitudes promoted by many Muslim immigrants to the West, or from anti-Israel propaganda generated by Islamist groups and their (usually) leftist allies in the West (directly or indirectly), or from Iran or Arabic-language media in the Middle East.

I was forwarded the following message from Canon White, a heart-wrenching cri de coeur...but who is listening? Even more, what's to be done? Iraqis will have to make their own future.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of good pics over there:

Nice video from Elder of Ziyon:

Congratulations to the vocal congregants at Temple Beth Avodah in Newton, MA. When they heard that J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami had been scheduled for "conversation" tonight at their synagogue, they spoke up and got the event canceled. They had no interest in having their second home play host to Ben-Ami, charlatan and leader of today's most prominent faux pro-Israel advocacy organization.

These people, whoever they are, were aware, while their Rabbi either was not or didn't care, of the massive controversy surrounding J Street. That controversy was alive when the group first arrived on the scene, and the disturbing questions -- most with equally disturbing answers -- have only continued to mount since.

J Street achieved notoriety not through the effectiveness of its pro-Israel advocacy, but through its budget and its shameful attacks on other, far more effective groups. In fact, calling itself "pro-Israel" has from the start been nothing more than a marketing term of art for the group. They are more accurately described as a partisan pressure-Israel organization with sharp elbows out to damage organizations doing far better work than they could ever hope to do.

Following complaints from congregants, Ben-Ami's venue has been moved from the Temple to the local public school. Cue extreme whining from Jeremy Ben-Ami to his huddled masses via email:

I can't imagine anyone caring about a bunch of J Street supporters signing a petition, but that's not the point. This is intended to get his followers inflamed and donating. Who cares? But note the blame placed on "right-wing activists." That's red meat for Ben-Ami's supporters, but unfortunately his problem is with the left, not the right. Is long time Democrat Josh Block a right-winger? Is Alan Dershowitz a right winger? No, J Street's problem is not just with people on the right, it's also a problem with people on the left, real Israel supporters who understand that J Street's isn't progressive, it's radical. It's a fake. It's a fraud.

Lying to and about donors is no new thing for Jeremy. Anyone who's followed the news about the group knows about its Soros funding and the lies Jeremy Ben-Ami told to cover it up. They know about the damage J Street has tried to inflict upon other important, irreplaceable groups like AIPAC. The attacks on individuals who don't share J Street's radical agenda. The attacks on the elected government of Israel. The demonization of those who disagree with them. The money they've gotten from people who could on no account be expected to give funding to an actual pro-Israel group. The support they've given to anti-Israel officials like Chuck Hagel. Their partnership with BDS supporters and terror apologists like CMEP. The fact that Ben-Ami's previous employer was a major pro-Arab lobbyist. The facilitating they've done here in American for such figures as Richard Goldstone and John Ging. The space and support they gave to outright anti-Zionists at their own national conference. The statements made by co-founder Daniel Levy that Israel's founding was a mistake (and there's more from Levy: Israel "Does Everything To Try And Turn" Palestinians Violent). It feels like every day there's more and it goes on and on.

These are not "right-wing smears." They are uncomfortable truths that stack up to a whole lot of substance, so much so that many people, even those who were enthusiastic about J Street at first, are starting to feel that J Street is nothing more than a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Oh, and by the way, no one has done more to turn support for Israel into a left-right partisan matter than Jeremy Ben-Ami and J Street. That is perhaps the greatest damage they have done to the pro-Israel community. The harm done in creating divisions in congregations like Beth Avodah's falls squarely in the lap of Jeremy Ben-Ami. If he has any conscience whatsoever he'll take a long look in the mirror.

Back to Newton. The Boston Globe tells the story while managing to completely gloss over the genuine issues people of all stripes have with them. This is typical of the Globe which has carried J Street's water for ideological reasons from the beginning: Newton synagogue cancels talk by critic of Israeli policies by Lisa Wangsness

This Rabbi is out to lunch if he doesn't understand at this late date how controversial J Street is. And catch that part about "conversation" at the end. Let's consider that.

Jewish Advocate editor Steven Maas was (and is) scheduled as interlocutor for the event. Maas is himself a self-described progressive who is likely to be sympathetic and unlikely to ask the tough questions with follow-ups required (for the record, Maas does a decent job of running a broad opinion section -- sometimes a little too broad even). Here's a link to his dismayed editorial: U turn on J Street. Paid subscription is required, but here is a taste:

That may be true in some cases, but I doubt it this time. What this does is add another bit of evidence that J Street is so controversial, so out of line and out of step, that even ordinarily quiescent congregants are willing to stomp their feet down and shout, "Enough!"

Of course The Globe's J Street shill, Jesse Singal, himself no stranger to the Soros largess (Yes, Jesse, we know you're not on the payroll anymore) has a blog post expressing puzzlement and dismay:

Apparently major media coverage is an indication of non-fringe status. The flawed logic is too obvious to dwell on. As to whether J Street's views are radical or not, that depends on where you stand. For Globie Singal they're fine, but I assure you, for the vast majority of the pro-Israel community they are way, way off base.

And let's have at this "conversation" thing. Conversations go on with everyone on the same level having an equivalent sharing of views. In this case we'd have a largely sympathetic questioner serving up softballs for Jeremy Ben-Ami to whack and dodge. Haven't we had enough J Street press releases masquerading as actual news items? "Conversation" is not having Jeremy Ben-Ami spinning on stage with carefully vetted questions screened from index cards -- the usual mode of operation.

From the Globe article:

Typical of the JCRC. What debate is he talking about. This was just going to be another J Street propaganda event.

Finally, let's hear from Jonathan Sarna, himself no right-winger, from the conclusion of the Globe article:

Indeed. And Sarna isn't the only person on the left to have such concerns.

See more on this from Carl in Jerusalem: Synagogue cancels appearance by J Street's Ben Ami, and JStreetJive: Ben Ami, The Prophet Martyred

Tonight's location and time is:

[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]

When Obama attacked Israel for building housing on Jewish owned land in Jerusalem, he was doing more than just pandering to his Muslim hosts with an obligatory dose of Israel bashing. He was diving once again into the ugly pool of bigotry, that first surfaced when he used Joe Biden as a proxy to launch a hate campaign against Israel over the same issue back in March.

And what it comes down to is Apartheid. Plain and simple.

The media and the administration only attack the municipal authorities of Jerusalem and the Israeli government for providing housing for its citizens-- when those citizens happen to be Jewish. If they are Arab and Muslim, then there's no problem. If they're Jewish on the other hand, then the alarm bells go off and the politicians and the press denounce them as enemies of peace. How does one describe that as other than "Apartheid"? What else is it, other than the belief that one group of people should be segregated by race and religion. Forbidden from living in places that are deemed to be the sole property of their Muslim conquerors.

[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]

With thanks for his research to Eliyahu and acknowledgements to The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times by Norman Stillman

Charred and damaged remains of the Great synagogue in Aleppo, Syria, one of 18 synagogues attacked by rioters in late 1947, causing half the city's Jewish community to flee.

It was in November 1945 that a series of anti-Jewish riots broke out in several Arab countries. In Egypt, anti-Zionist demonstrations were called by the Muslim Brotherhood, Misr al-Fatat and the Young Men's Muslim Association. Mass demonstrations took place on Balfour Day (2 November) in Cairo, Alexandra and other cities. Jewish businesses in Cairo and in the Jewish Quarter were looted and the Ashkenazi synagogue ransacked. The disturbances soon spilled over into anti-dhimmi violence, with Coptic, Greek Orthodox and Catholic institutions also attacked. Of 500 businesses looted, 109 belonged to Jews. Amazingly only one policeman was killed in Cairo. Five Jews were among six killed in Alexandria.

Good. ZOA: It's Troubling To See Jewish Leaders Defend Israel/U.S. Basher George Soros Against Glenn Beck's Criticism

It continues here, including much more evidence of Soros' anti-Israel and anti-American statements.

[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]

Is Iran's government sponsoring an Internet site that extols the German Nazis, their history and achievements, including the antisemitism that the current Iranian regime also supports? Or is it merely permitting one to operate in a highly censored communications' system?

Here are the facts. There is a discussion group site entitled IranNazi that has an Iranian internet URL. It is written in Persian and seems to have begun on August 24. All the material on the site is pro-Nazi and features pictures of Adolph Hitler, the swastika, and goose-stepping German soldiers. There is an English-language part as well.

Explanation: There's no place like home. Peering out of the windows of the International Space Station (ISS), astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson takes in the planet on which we were all born, and to which she would soon return. About 350 kilometers up, the ISS is high enough so that the Earth's horizon appears clearly curved. Astronaut Dyson's windows show some of Earth's complex clouds, in white, and life giving atmosphere and oceans, in blue. The space station orbits the Earth about once every 90 minutes. It is not difficult for people living below to look back toward the ISS. The ISS can frequently be seen as a bright point of light drifting overhead just after sunset. Telescopes can even resolve the overall structure of the space station. The above image was taken in late September from the ISS's Cupola window bay. Dr. Dyson is a lead vocalist in the band Max Q.

I had a great time Monday night at a Friends of the IDF fundraising dinner as one of about 500 people in attendance. It was a full house at the Newton Marriott.

Many of the usual crowd of crusty losers along with the latest rotating crop of young Sith apprentices were ineffectually protesting in the dark out on the roadway outside. They weren't much of a bother to drive past, and they served as a good fundraising tool inside the hall. Thank you.

Speakers included a wounded American serviceman who participated in the Wounded Warrior Project's Soldier Ride in Israel with other wounded soldiers from both America and Israel, as well as two IDF soldiers who told their stories.

The headliner was the incomparable John Bolton. A couple of take aways from his speech were when he described the most reasonable solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict as a three-state solution, with Gaza is absorbed by Egypt, and those parts of the West Bank not claimed by Israel absorbed by Jordan. He also said the window was closing the time for the world to take action against an Iranian nuclear program. Hearkening back to the Osirak era, he said that Israel shouldn't have to go it alone this time, but may decide it has to.

Hey, the food was pretty good, too.

The FIDF does a lot of good work and is a great way to show your support for people fighting our mutual enemies. You can find out more about their mission, as well as ways to give and participate, at the FIDF web site.

Via Yaacok Lozowick, good answers from Michael Oren:

Even supporters like Jeffrey Goldberg are starting to criticize NIF's policy toward support for anti-Israel boycotts among the groups it supports. The policy states, in part:

It must be tough to be NIF. Apparently if they draw a red line on this matter, they'll lose too many friends. Telling.

Goldberg:

[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from CiF Watch.]

The atrocity at Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad in which 52 Christians were murdered has set off a flurry of articles about Christians under threat of extinction in the Middle East. Al-Qaeda has declared Arab Christians a legitimate target. Even Robert Fisk of The Independent is sounding the alarm about a flight of Christians of Biblical proportions - and that was before the massacre.

First the Saturday people - now the Sunday people. Jews have been virtually wiped out in Muslim lands.  Now it's the turn of the ancient Christian communities.  Forty percent of the Assyrian Christian population of Iraq has fled since the fall of Saddam.

[The following, by Eamonn McDonagh, is crossposted from Z Word.]

In earlier posts we've established that the Catholic Kingdom of Spain can never be a state for all its citizens and must immediately become the subject of a campaign of boycott, disinvestment and sanctions until it agrees to dissolve itself and be replaced by a multi-religious, multi-cutlural Federation of Iberian Regions.

Now let us turn to another proud member of the European Union that persists in favoring the national and religious identities of one group its citizens over all the others. I'm talking, of course, about the Hellenic Republic of Greece.

[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]

Good news everybody. Saudi Arabia now has a seat on the women's board at the United Nations. That's right, a regime where it's illegal for women to drive or leave the house without being accompanied by a male guardian, where girls were pushed into a burning building because they were trying to flee without covering their 'obscene' female faces... will be a key player in the international effort to empower women.

Obama's ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, called the Saudi win, "a very good outcome". I'm not sure what she would consider a bad outcome. Given her role in kneecapping Canada for the Security Council seat, Rice would probably have considered a victory by a country that actually gives women full equal rights to be a defeat. When your only goal is to pander to the Third World, particularly the Muslim parts of it, in order to defy the colonialist and phallocratic Western patriarchy, handing over power to a phallocratic Eastern patriarchy is just a means to an end. At least until it actually becomes the end. The end of everything.

I wanted to draw your attention to a new web site monitoring the goings-on in our neighboring state of New Hampshire: The People of the Book. This should be an important resource.

For instance, if you were wondering what ever happened to one of the "Immigration Imams," Abdul Hannan (Imam Masood was deported), well, he's landed on his feet up north:

See the site for more (including embedded links in the above quote).

In related news, there's also a site doing similar work out in Western Mass providing data on what's going on out there: New England Town Crier

News and video from the American Anti-Slavery Group:

[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]

Soner Cagaptay, perhaps the world's best analyst on contemporary Turkey, writes:

"Independent media outlets [in Turkey] receive daily calls from the prime minister's office to adjust their coverage to favor the AKP [the ruling Islamist party], lest they face punitive fines. Self-censorship is so rife that outlets now "clean up" their acts without the need for AKP interference.

''A recent incident involved Oktay Eksi...who served for three decades as chief columnist of the country's most influential daily, Hurriyet. After writing an unbecoming column about the AKP leaders, Eksi was forced to "resign" when AKP chair and Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to "fight back." Hurriyet's owner, the Dogan Group, faces a $3.3 billion tax fine for anti-government activity--a sum larger than Dogan's net worth; another fine may finish it off. So much for independent media."

Step by step--in the schools, media, control over courts, and every other aspect of life--the AKP regime is moving toward imposing a semi-dictatorship, something that's going on virtually unnoticed in official Western circles.

[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]

The U.S. government is rushing an additional $150 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA) so that it can have a balanced budget. Funny, the United States doesn't have a balanced budget and the same government doesn't think that's a problem.

Moreover, the PA doesn't really tax its own people. The U.S. taxpayer is thus subsidizing its free services at the rate of about 50 cents per American. Since the PA actually rules a little over two million people (since it doesn't control either the Gaza Strip or east Jerusalem), this aid infusion alone provides each Palestinian there with about $75.

As if that isn't enough, though, one of the reasons the PA has run out of money is that it is spending $3.4 million for a museum to Yasir Arafat, a man who--among other things--once ordered the murder of the U.S. ambassador and deputy chief of mission in the Sudan and also rejected peace with Israel, destroying President Bill Clinton's heroic efforts to achieve a solution to the conflict. Arafat and his colleagues also stole hundreds of millions of dollars previously paid by U.S. taxpayers. Maybe the PA should collect that money if it needs additional funds.

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]

A free copy of a 24-page local newspaper called the "Community Alliance" landed on my porch today. Fresno has had more than one alternative newspaper competing with its one commercial paper, the Fresno Bee, over the years. Forty years ago it was the staunchly conservative Fresno Guide. Members of the counterculture hated the Guide, so they never picked up the free copies that were thrown onto their lawns, driveways and porches. Little by little, they weathered. By now they're all gone.

I picked up my copy of the Community Alliance. Unlike the Guide, this is a 'progressive' newspaper. It mostly contained locally written articles about people, events and issues in the area, but there were a few pieces about international subjects by diverse writers from outside the community. There is no distinction drawn between news and opinion, something that the right-wing Guide was careful about, I might add.

Simple. Via Rightnetwork:

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]

That's what everybody's asking about the latest settlement freeze offer/demand by the Obama Administration to Israel. According to the Jerusalem Post, here are the details:

[The following, by Adam Levick, is crossposted from CiF Watch.]

For some reason, I was the only one in the apartment who didn't hear the first wail of the siren - the civil defense mechanism which gives Israelis living within bomb radius of Gaza up to a full 20 seconds to take cover or move to a safer area. In the case of the flat in Ashkelon where we were staying - the home of my wife's aunt and uncle - which is near the top floor, they are instructed to descend two levels and take cover in the section opposite where a direct hit would land. The likely trajectory of a potential missile would make their home especially vulnerable.

It took me a couple of seconds to understand why everyone - Chana, her aunt, uncle, cousins, and friends - was running towards the door, but the second siren, which I heard simultaneously with the words "bomb", "we must" "take cover", uttered by someone, or everyone, finally confirmed the meaning of their worried expressions and the rapid urgency of their gate.

[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]

I spent yesterday evening in the company of a man whose grandfather spent much of the Holocaust dressed in a Nazi uniform. The difference between him and George Soros, is that he used that uniform as a disguise in order to find Jewish refugees and lead them to shelter. And that difference is a profound one. It is the difference between a perpetrator and a rescuer. Between a collaborator and a hero.

Yes Soros was only a teenager at the time. So was my father, who nevertheless escaped to join the partisans, rather than accompanying a Nazi officer in his search for Jewish property he could loot. He had no choice? He certainly had a choice. Even in the worst of times, people still can and do make moral choices. And the choice for everyone, for Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Poles, Frenchmen and so on down the line-- was to collaborate with evil, or to do the right thing.

[The following, by Richard Landes, is crossposted from Augean Stables.]

Jeff Jacoby asks a particularly pertinent question in his latest op-ed, Created by God to be good," on Atheist "humanism" (as embodied in the American Humanist Society) and its hostility to biblical (or quranic) morality.

It brings to mind the argument made by Kwame Appiah's book, The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen: that moral revolutions do not so much occur as a result of people who do the "right thing" for the "right reason" (practitioners of Kant's categorical imperative), as they do because there's a fundamental shift in the peer-group's view of what's moral: slavery, dueling, foot binding all go out when the dominant attitude disapproved of such behavior. If you duel to the death and win (as did Aaron Burr), and it's a career-ender because your peers take you as a hot-headed fool, dueling will not last long.

Jacoby challenges the the core message of the American Humanist Association: "that God and the Judeo-Christian tradition are not necessary for the preservation of moral values and that human reason is a better guide to goodness than Bible-based religion."

[The following, by Matt, is crossposted from Huffington Post Monitor.]

HP blogger Robert Steele, whom I have never heard of before, posted on a recent peace-process related article the following post:

So what are the conspiracies Steele espouses? 9/11 (of course), U.S.S. Liberty (oldie but goodie) and the USS Cole (hey, there's a new one!). Of course, there's no evidence for any of those three, but that doesn't stop Steele for posting it up.

[The following, by Richard Landes, is crossposted from Augean Stables.]

In preparing for a lecture in my honor-shame class, I was thinking about about the nature of the accusation that Israel is like the Nazis. This obviously doesn't have anything to do with reality. There's nothing that the Israelis and the Nazis have both done that every other sovereign entity in recorded history has done. On the contrary, any study of Jenin 2002 will reveal that the Israeli army is, militarily speaking, the opposite of Nazism on a scale of what is humanly possible. To accuse Israel of acting like the Nazis is an act of moral sadism, the worst insult you can hurl at a Jew.

So it's not about reality, it's a shouting match... the kind so common to honor-shame cultures, in which verbal provocations, degradations, and violence are paired in the struggle for dominance. Your mother wears army boots writ large.

[The following, by Richard Landes, is crossposted from Augean Stables.]

I recently had an exchange with a Muslim Dartmouth student who came to a talk I gave. I had made the point that American Muslims, rather than complain that Americans were treating them with suspicion after 9-11, should rather have explored what is wrong with Islam that it could produce people who, in its name, and believing themselves to be (the only) "true" Muslims, would do such a deed.

[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]

Lighting a candle at a remembrance ceremony for the 52 Christians massacred by Al-Qaeda at Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad (photo: AP)

The Daily Telegraph's Adrian Blomfield, normally stationed in Tel Aviv, ventures into Baghdad to file this report. He puts the massacre of Christians into rare context - the persecution of minorities in the Arab world, starting with the Jews (with thanks Frank, Lily):

Appropriate for Veteran's Day, just past:

[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]

Six years ago, on November 11, 2004, Yasir Arafat died. On that occasion, former President Bill Clinton explained why he wouldn't attend Arafat's funeral: "I regret that in 2000 he missed the opportunity to bring [Palestine] into being...." Not Israel, but Arafat did so.

Today, the Arafat era's lessons have been largely swept under the rug: his persistent mendacity, use of terrorism, cynical exploitation of an "underdog" posture to garner sympathy, and unfailing devotion to the dream of wiping Israel off the map. The placing of that last priority over creating a Palestinian state is why there is none today. Not Israeli policy, not settlements, but the preference for total victory over compromise.

At Arafat's funeral, one of his lieutenants, Saeb Arikat, proclaimed: "Give him the honor he deserves!" Let it be so.

As Benjamin Weinthal says in this Weekly Standard piece, Gerhard Schröder's perfidy, both while German Chancellor and after, come as no surprise to anyone who was paying attention at the time and not completely blinded by Bush hatred. What burns me, however, is the extent to which the American press itself was a willing and active accomplice to the crime. We heard over and over that George Bush wasn't popular with certain European leaders, as though this had everything to do with Bush, and nothing at all to do with any agency on the part of certain demagogic and corrupt European leaders like Schroder: Bush vs. Schröder

[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]

Last week, I was honoured to attend a preview of the Morocco exhibition at the Jewish Museum in London. In addition to leading lights of the Jewish community, Moroccan Jews living in London, and the British-Moroccan Association, it seemed like the entire staff of the Moroccan embassy had turned up, swarming around Her Excellency the genteel Princess Lalla in her Chanel suit, grand-daughter of the wartime king, Mohammed V. Several dignitaries had flown in specially from Morocco for the occasion, including Andre Azoulay, Jewish royal adviser, who read a message from King Mohammed Vl. The message was about Morocco's Jewish roots, Muslim-Jewish coexistence, Morocco as a beacon of 'democracy, justice and human rights'. One spokesman from the Association of Jews from Morocco said that 800,000 Moroccan Jews in exile still considered themselves loyal subjects of King Mohammed Vl.

This one's for you:

"The American Way" by Norman Rockwell

[CAMERA has the back story to the Ben-Dror Yemini take-down of leftist Israeli columnist Gideon Levy, posted in full below: Colleague Takes Gideon Levy to Task. Yemini's article is in response to a Levy interview with execrable British journalist Johann Hari which appeared in the UK's Independent. Read the CAMERA background at the link above. Here is Yemini's article, a typically masterful response to Levy's distortions.]

Baron of the Falsehood Industry

by Ben Dror Yemini

Originally published in  Maariv in Hebrew on October 15, 2010.   Translated by CAMERA.

If you want to know how to demonize the State of Israel, read the interview Haaretz's Gideon Levy gave to a British newspaper, The Independent. The Israeli journalist's web of lies makes Pravda- in its worst days- seem like a serious and credible newspaper.

[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]

While grief counselors are once again being rushed to congressional offices, the left is throwing a full blown temper tantrum. After spending two years warning about the threat of right wing extremism, MSNBC featured Ted Rall calling for a violent takeover of America [Video]. It's easy enough to write off MSNBC as a collection of television losers who exist only to cater to their own class of angry disenfranchised liberals with six figure salaries, but it doesn't end there.

The issue isn't really Rall, the Alan Grayson of cartoonists, an angry clown rehashing tired sixties tropes to senior citizen hippies who regret missing out on the Weathermen. Like much of the far left, Rall views America as an evil empire, rather than his country. And his prescription for terror comes down to promoting violence by other people in order to secure an expanded version of Lenin's "Land, Peace and Bread", or rights such as free health care, internet access, clothes (Gucci or Armani?), college and transportation. Rall himself can't decide how the revolution should happen, or even if the Tea Party is a racist protofascist movement, or a potential ally in overthrowing the system. Instead he fixates on arguing that the end is near, so it's time to step into the power vacuum.

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]

Item from the Palestinian Ma'an news agency:

[Actually, the PLO was created by the Nasser-dominated Arab League with Ahmed Shukeiri as chairman. The Fatah movement, of which Arafat was one of the founders in 1954, took control of the PLO in 1969. You'd think they would know their own recent history].

[The following, by batween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]

Israeli Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon is pursuing his campaign to put Jewish refugees on the peace talks agenda, by demanding that Palestinians recognise Mizrahi Jews as refugees, Ynet News reveals. (The most common response among sceptical talkback commenters is that Palestinians have nothing to do with the expulsion of Jewish refugees, an easily-disproved allegation; others recognise Mizrahim as refugees but demand a delusional 'right of return' to Arab countries', despite Jews having no interest in returning to Arab states which persecuted them.) Report by Ronen Medzini:

Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders perform for U.S. Sailors aboard the Arleigh Burke-class Destroyer Pre-Commissioning Unit Jason Dunham (DDG 109) Nov. 9, 2010, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The ship was in port in preparation for its Nov. 13, 2010, commissioning ceremony. The ship was named after U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Jason Dunham, who was mortally wounded by insurgents in Iraq in April 2004, and posthumously received the Medal of Honor January 11, 2007. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Martin Cuaron, U.S. Navy/Released)

Not the most compelling collection of photos at The Big Picture: 2010 World Fencing Championships, but I did enjoy the composition of #28:

[The following, by Michael C. Duke, is crossposted from the Jewish Herald-Voice.]

A JH-V investigation into J Street's campaign support also turned up additional connections between the group and controversial J Street donor George Soros.
Twenty-six of the 28 "Gaza 54" members who received official endorsements from J Street's political action committee won their races. The JStreetPAC posted on its blog Nov. 3 that it directed more than $1.5 million to "pro-Israel, pro-peace" candidates for the 2010 mid-term elections. With this sum doled out, J Street claims to be "the country's largest pro-Israel political action committee."

However, J Street's credibility as a pro-Israel lobby remains doubtful for many in the established pro-Israel community, due to the group's positions, associations and donor base - some elements of which are considered harmful to Israel and U.S.-Israeli ties.

[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]

On the day that the British Prime Minister visits the human-rights-challenged country of China , the Guardian published nothing about human rights abuses there.

But it did find space for an article on the mistreatment of prisoners in Israel, kept in tiny cages, not allowed proper exercise, and given no entertainment or reading material despite the fact that they've committed no crime.

The prisoners happen to be...chickens.

Now you won't find anyone more obsessed with good treatment of animals than me--owner of four rescued cats (or vice-versa) and saver of innumerable drowning insects, one squirrel, and a sparrow, among others--but this is ridiculous. One reason why is that Israel's standards on chickens are precisely the same as those in the EU but the Guardian has never done any articles on the oppressed hens of the United Kingdom.

Here's a good article about this anti-Israel obsession gone beyond the bounds of satire. Incidentally, next week the Nobel Peace Prize is being given to a jailed Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, who, I'm told, is an extraordinary person.

[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]

The media narrative is that Barack Hussein Obama is returning to the place where he grew up as part of a diplomatic tour. The truth is that Obama is visiting a genocidal country and paying homage to its regime, even while many of the atrocities continue.

But there is a reason you won't hear about the meat hooks where Indonesian backed militias hung their victims, before mutilating and killing them. You won't hear about the fields of the dead where the corpses of men, women and children were piled into mass graves. You won't hear of the machete squads who hacked people to death in full public view and on video. You certainly won't hear about the ethnic cleansing, the mass deportations, the gang rapes or even the murder of Western reporters. And there's a simple reason for all that.

Indonesia is a Muslim country. Their victims in East Timor were Christians.

To understand the significance of Obama's biography-- imagine that an American President who grew up in Nazi Germany on the eve of war, wrote only about his idyllic childhood running around the streets of Berlin and learning to read Mein Kampf, and then returned decades later, with no concession that a genocide had occurred here.

Good concise introduction from Dennis Prager:

From two girls to turbo blond (via Noah David Simon who has more):

[Edit: Well, that video is gone, but here's the video of the dance itself. Too bad, since the original showed the interaction with the judges which was more interesting.]

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from Fresno Zionism.]

The always-pungent Melanie Phillips writes,

She's thinking, in part, of the hecklers from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) who tried to disrupt PM Netanyahu's speech at the Jewish Federation's General Assembly today. She continues,

Richard Cravatts has at the absurd event, ongoing now: Israeli Occupation Week constitutes intellectual dishonesty

Seeming to confirm a worldview that the brilliant British commentator Melanie Phillips describes in her new book as "a world turned upside down," Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace have co-sponsored the tellingly named Israeli Occupation Awareness Week, which will be held from Nov. 8 to 11.

The events once again demonstrate the moral incoherence seen on many college campuses whenever there is debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Brandeis' ideology has clearly been hijacked by the Left's obsessive reverence for something that came to be known as "social justice," an ideological pathology that informs the very educational mission of Brandeis today...

The rest.

[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]

With the 2010 election, the game has changed. Republicans in congress are no longer powerless to do anything, but cast mostly symbolic votes against another piece of the radical Obama agenda. There will be pressure on the Republican congress to engage in bipartisan compromises and blame for inaction if they don't. The grass roots needs to keep the pressure on Republicans, while maintaining their opposition to the Obama agenda, and preparing for 2012. With that in mind, here are ten commandments to keep in mind for the next two years.

Pajamas Media has posted my story: Massive Voting Fraud Reported in Massachusetts - "Community organizing group Neighbor to Neighbor was seen violating laws at numerous polling sites, with the apparent blessing of the poll-watchers."

...in which I relate the stories of a number of Republican poll-watchers who were shocked at the behavior of "community organizing" group, "Neighbor To Neighbor" -- Massachusetts' own little ACORN. The title and sub-head are theirs (I tend to understate things). Here's a taste:

Here's the whole thing.

How about lots of Rabbis?

Crown Heights, NY - Chabad Emissaries Pose for Group Photo Amid Tight Security

[h/t: Alex K.]

I'm not sure how I feel about the dissonance of having this on a show that's basically about traditional ballroom dance. It doesn't really work for me. It would be interesting to get a candid take from Len Goodman, the stuffy judge from the American version of the show. Aw crap, who am I kidding? Like I give a crap about the sanctity of traditional ballroom dance. Pfft. Who cares? I admit, I watch Dancing With The Stars, but I usually get bored about four or five episodes in. Besides, the dance is beside the point. This is a political blog (mostly). May the surrounding Arab nations look on in mortified impotent jealous rage...Same-sex partners perform on 'Dancing with the Stars'

It might be the only time Pamela Anderson is ever going to be upstaged.

The flamboyant ex-Baywatch star and pinup girl is arriving in Israel this week as a guest performer on Channel 2's Dancing With The Stars, but, on last week's episode, all eyes were on contestants Gili Shem Tov and Dorit Milman.

They became the first same-sex dance partners in the history of the show, since the format was launched in 2004 as the British program Strictly Come Dancing.

Since then, some 30 countries have spun off their own versions of the show, including Israel in 2005. But none of the formats - from Albania to Vietnam - have ever featured same-sex partners.

Shem Tov, an openly gay TV sportscaster who has a son and lives with a female partner, and Milman, a professional dancer, performed a cha-cha dressed in matching, semi-transparent outfits with fishnet tights on the show's premier telecast this week, as they competed against 11 other couples...

Video and pics: First same-sex couple compete on Israel's Strictly Come Dancing as lesbian TV anchor insists on female partner and here Israeli Dancing with the Stars makes a gay statement

I dig shorty, BTW.

...and why groups like J Street and newspapers like the New York Times will never get it. Explained succinctly in this quote from former head of the Israeli Government Press Office, Danny Seaman (via Barry Rubin):

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism]

Here's yet another story (h/t: Israpundit) about the probable destruction of artifacts which may have immeasurable historical and religious significance to the Jewish people by the Islamic Waqf which controls the Temple Mount:

It's shocking and infuriating to think that this has been going on for years:

[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]

There are plans to turn Beit Farhi into a luxury hotel (Photo: Lucien Gubbay)

Nobody has sought the opinion of the former Jewish owners of 128 crumbling homes in Damascus' Jewish quarter, but the Syrian government, riding a wave of blossoming western tourism, has plans to bring it back to life. While some Jews are simply happy to see the quarter preserved, others, like Syrian-born Moshe Shemer, questions the legality of the renovation project. He wants the world to know the plight of Jews robbed of assets worth $80 million and expelled without compensation. Feature in the Jerusalem Post by Ksenia Svetlova. (With thanks: Lucien, bh and Lily )

Via Mick, apparently the refusal of an Iranian weightlifter to shake the hand of his Israeli competitor wasn't enough. He has been banned for life for the risk of air-bound Jew-cooties: Lifetime depravation for an athlete and the head of veteran's weightlifting team

At Brandeis, where else? Brandeis groups to co-host "Israeli Occupation Awareness Week"

Hey kids, no conceivable definition of "justice" could possibly involve the dismantling of the region's only actual protector of Human Rights in favor of the regressive regimes and religious Fascists who desire its destruction.

Jewish Voice for Peace (or for Israel in Pieces if you will) was, you may recall, recently named by the ADL as one of the top ten anti-Israel groups in the United States. And this isn't even Israel Apartheid Week yet! It's quite a line-up, with Chomsky, Diana Buttu, Alice Rothchild of AJJP and Workmen's Circle...and many more fun activities!

There is still life at Brandeis, however: Altered Consciousness: Israeli 'Occupation' Awareness Week, so all is not lost on campus. Take heart.

Perhaps this is a good opportunity for the quiet majority to do some counter-programming.

Imagine a nightmare Kafka-esque vision of the dictatorships of the world standing in judgment of the United States and pointing the finger of accusation at us over our Human Rights record. Imagine no more. That world exists, right now, at the United Nations. And we subject ourselves to it voluntarily. From UN Watch: Cuba Organizing Rogue Speakers' List of Hardliners in Bid to Ambush U.S. at Friday's U.N. Review

Update: Anne Bayefsky: U.N. Gives Obama a New 'Shellacking' -- Over Human Rights!

[The following, by Eamonn McDonagh, is crossposted from Z Word.]

About 20% of Israel's population is Arab and Israel comes in 15th in the UN's (yes, the UN) latest Human Development Index rankings. The closest ranking Arab country, the UAE, comes in at number 32 on the list.

via Yaacov

[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]

Christians in Iraq have been, and not for the first time, deliberately targeted in a major terrorist attack. Indeed, from Indonesia to Pakistan to Iraq, from the Gaza Strip to Egypt to Sudan to Nigeria, Christians are being assaulted, intimidated, and murdered by militant Muslims.

Yet virtually never do Christians in any of these countries--perhaps with some occasional exceptions in India--attack Muslims. In the West, there have been no armed terrorist attacks on Muslims or the deliberate killing of Muslims. There does not exist a single group advocating such behavior.

Have you seen any of this in the Western mass media? Have any Christian church groups--some of which find ample time to criticize Israel--even mentioned this systematic assault? Indeed, on the rare occasions that the emigration of Christians is mentioned, somehow it is blamed on Israel, as one American network news show did recently.

This is getting good. It started with a blow struck by life-long Democrat and former AIPAC employee Josh Block: So, How Did J Street Do?. This prompted a counter punch from J Street delivered by mouthpiece Amy Spitalnick: J Street slams former AIPAC spokesperson (Just a reminder that Spitalnick and J Street provided space and enforced security for a meeting of anti-Zionist bloggers at their first big conference. I shall never tire of reminding people of it.)

Well today Josh Block strikes back, and it is a hum-dinger, posted on the blog of Adam Credo at the Washington Jewish Week: Josh Block: J Street's 'worst nightmare'. I am tempted to post the whole thing, but I will just give you an excerpt and send you on your way:

Oh yeah, it's like that. Don't miss it. J Street is devolving into the margins even faster than I imagined.

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]

There is probably no single political action that has done more to prevent peace between Israel and the Arabs than the cynical exploitation of the descendants of the Arab refugees of the 1948 war. John Ging is the head of UNRWA, the UN refugee agency which does the dirty work of keeping the 'Palestinian refugees' living in camps for the Arab nations, who will agree to no form of resettlement except 'return' to Israel.

He's the perfect guy for the job: here is a fact sheet on John Ging from NGO Monitor:

[The following is crossposted from the IDF Spokesperson's blog, via Z Word.]

Yesterday, Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010, IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, sent to every commander in the IDF a letter in which he expressed his personal thoughts on ethics with regards to several recent incidents that had occurred. This letter was to be read to each and every soldier by the commanders of the IDF, as ordered by Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi.

Below, please find a translation of the letter, whereas the letter itself is originally Hebrew form:

"IDF Commanders,

"In light of recently expressed criticism regarding criminal investigations and trials of soldiers and commanders (due to incidents which occurred during military operations), I wish to stress my position on the matter.

[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]

Rachel's tomb in Hebron (Photo: Tomer Neuberg/Jini)

With its decision to brand Jewish holy sites as Palestinian, UNESCO has taken one more step along the road to erasing the Jewish heritage of the Middle East. But we may have no choice but to work with the international body.

In its biannual session which ended last week, UNESCO adopted proposals initiated by Arab member states to name two Jewish historical sites "Palestinian." In a 44-1 vote, with 12 abstentions, the UNESCO board declared the "Haram al-Ibrahm/the Cave of the Patriarchs and Bilal bin Rabah Mosque/Rachel's Tomb" to be "an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories"; " any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law."

The news that UNESCO has voted to designate the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Shrine in Hebron as mosques is bad news indeed: it shows that the Arab and Muslim block in the UN only have to stake a claim, no matter how dubious, and that claim would be endorsed. If they were to put forward a resolution tomorrow that the earth was flat, that resolution would be carried by an automatic majority.

[The following, by Charles Jacobs, appears in this week's The Jewish Advocate.]

We may have a breakthrough. For seven years now, a small group of activists has been trying to convince Boston's Jewish leaders that the Roxbury mega-mosque constitutes a danger to our community because it is funded and headed by people and organizations whose goal is to radicalize the Hub's historically moderate Muslim community. As part of this effort, Islamic anti-Semitic, anti- Christian, anti-gay and antiwomen teachings stemming from that mosque - in text and on video (see www.peaceandtolerance.org) - were shown to a specially convened Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) committee and to several Boston area rabbis.

The evidence is so clear that two weeks ago in the Advocate I risked writing: "Even Boston's progressive rabbis will some day be forced to say publicly that the MAS is a problem."

Well it was nice to see in the same edition of the Advocate that 51 Boston rabbis published a letter, the key quote being: "We are mindful that there are legitimate questions and concerns that need to be addressed regarding funding sources, leadership and positions taken by leaders in Islamic community centers and mosques." (Italics mine.)

[Credit where it's due, this is a very good (though non-name-naming) editorial by local CJP president, Barry Shrage that appears in this week's Jewish Advocate. The Advocate itself also editorializes that Workmen's Circle ought to change its rental policy in order to prevent Israel-hating groups access: Reputation for rent. Here is Shrage's piece.]

Whether the metaphor you prefer is an "umbrella" or a "big tent," Combined Jewish Philanthropies has always been committed to representing our diverse Jewish community as a whole, welcoming a broad spectrum of views on just about every issue. We Jews are especially passionate on our views about Israel, so given our disagreements, it isn't always comfortable under the tent.

But as we stand together, no matter how contentiously, under our communal umbrella, a line has clearly emerged: Jewish groups calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS for short) against Israel are different. They have chosen to ally themselves with a worldwide effort, profoundly hostile to Israel, that seeks to penalize and ostracize the Jewish state through consumer boycotts against Israeli products; advocating a halt to cultural, academic and athletic exchanges and collaboration; and encouraging individuals, companies, financial institutions and religious organizations to shed their investments in Israel.

Local columnist Janet Tassel emails with the following revealing anecdote:

Priorities.

[The following, by Dexter Van Zile, is crossposted from CAMERA's Snapshots.]

A woman from Ramallah has spoken up against the problems in Palestinian society in a forceful way. The interview was translated and excerpted by MEMRI.

In an interview to a liberal Arab website, Palestinian reformist Zainab Rashid condemned the manner in which the Palestinian cause has been hijacked by Muslim extremism. A key quote:

An extended excerpt from the interview can be found at MEMRI's website, here.

[I am not sure that anything has been "hijacked," since the war against Israel has been religiously motivated from the beginning, but if there is ever to be a resolution, uncompromising Islamism must be unraveled compromising secularism. Good luck. -MS]

Via The Flea comes a bit of salve on the wound that is Massachusetts. We die, so that Allen West may live (audio is good, but you can't see the man -- hear him):

[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan), a radical Sunni Islamist organization, was founded in 1928. Today it has several million members and branches all over the world, including the US. Although the Ikhwan's goal is similar to that of other Islamist groups, calling for the establishment of a transnational caliphate and the application of Islamic law and principles to all aspects of society, it differs from al Qaeda because -- at least officially -- it opposes violence at the present time, in most circumstances. But there are exceptions, including the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Hence it gave rise in 1987 to Hamas, its 'Palestinian' branch, which is open and explicit about its antisemitic and jihadist position. There is little or no daylight between the Ikhwan and Hamas, and Brotherhood-linked organizations around the world have played a large role in funding and supporting Hamas.

Jennifer Rubin at Contentions:

Whether J Street was really a deciding factor is hard to say. These results don't illuminate much, considering that J Street supports far-left candidates and this election was a repudiation of the far-left everywhere but Massachusetts. But it certainly doesn't help. It's baggage. No politician willingly takes more of that on.

But don't we all, really?

Proven with scientific precision by Darren Garnick and Ilya Mirman in Slate: If the Walls Could Talk - The Vanity Index: The biggest egos in the Senate. Garnick and Mirman literally traveled from Senate office to Senate office and quantifying the shrines to the self they encountered:

View the ego map at the link.

OK, so overall, it's a bipartisan list, but that doesn't prevent our very own taking pride of place, true to reputation.

From Scholars for Peace in the Middle East:

When saw, and subsequently posted on, the appearance of Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) at Jon Stewarts' rally, I admit I thought maybe, just maybe, Jon Stewart had actually taken the matter seriously, looked into it, and discovered something I hadn't been aware of. As it turns out, if Yusuf has actually repented from what he's denied he said (unravel that if you can), then no one's told Salman Rushdie. Nick Cohen at Standpoint (the site is apparently getting mega traffic at the moment and is currently down, so here's the whole thing): Rushdie on Jon Stewart

[The following, by Dexter Van Zile, is crossposted from CAMERA'S Snapshots.]

The murder of a few dozen Christians at the Church of Our Salvation in Baghdad on Nov. 1, 2010, has directed attention to problems that were barely referenced in the final "official" statement issued by the Synod of Bishops from the Middle East last month - unrelenting hostility toward Christians on the part of Muslim extremists in the region and the failure of government officials to protect the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in their countries.

This is not the first time Christian statements about life in the Middle East been overtaken by events. In 2004 and 2005 a number of mainline Protestant churches passed resolutions condemning Israel and portraying it as a singular obstacle to peace in the Middle East. In sum, these churches affirmed a narrative offered by Sabeel in 2005 - "End the occupation and the violence will end." Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 only to witness an electoral victory from Hamas in early 2006 and an attack by this organization that summer. People who bought the story told by these churches had no way to predict, explain or understand events as they happened.

[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]

With the attack on an Iraqi church and the mailbombs addressed to an American synagogue, while the media worry about Islamophobia-- Christians and Jews once again find themselves in the Muslim line of fire.

Acrophobia is unreasonable when walking across a sturdy bridge, but it is entirely reasonable to be afraid of heights when someone is trying to push you off the bridge. Aquaphobia is unreasonable on land, but when you're drowning, fear of the water is inevitable. So too with all phobias. They are only unreasonable to the extent which they are not an active and present danger.

[The following, by Ben Cohen, is crossposted from Z Word.]

This story is at least a week old, but it doesn't seem to have had much of an airing, so here goes. At this month's World Masters Weightlifting Championship in Poland, an Israeli competitor, Sergio Britva, took first place. Britva lifted an astonishing 300kg of weight, beating the second-placed competitor, the Iranian Hossein Khodadadi, by 4 kilos.

The two athletes mounted the podium to receive their medals, together with the third-placed competitor from Germany. Britva and the German shook hands. But when Britva offered his to Khodadadi, the Iranian refused it.

That unsporting gesture didn't prevent Khodadadi from being rebuked by the Iranian authorities for standing alongside an Israeli. According to Radio Zamaneh, "the Head of Iran's National Athletic Organization had earlier written a letter to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to receive instructions on how to handle situations where Iranian athletes have to confront Israeli athletes." You don't need a wild imagination to figure out what those would have been.

And so to the video embedded above. At 1′30″, you can see Britva mount the podium draped in an Israeli flag. He shakes hands with the German to his left. He turns to his right, but the Iranian declines. That doesn't seem to bother Britva, who is deservedly delighted with his victory. Then, at 2′21″, with Khodadadi and Britva still together on the podium, a stirring rendition of Israel's national anthem, Hatikvah, strikes up. Britva stands erect and solemn, choking back tears of pride and joy. His image then dissolves into another of the Israeli flag atop the Iranian and the German.

I don't know whether the Polish producers of the broadcast understood the enormous historical resonance here, but it really has to be seen.

[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]

Bias is a normal part of human thought. It is not a good thing, but it exists because we are only human. Our viewpoints influence how we see things. And that in turn influences how we describe them. But just because bias is normal, does not mean that it is acceptable.

Bias always exists, but journalistic bias has a tipping point at which instead of a free press, we have a propaganda press. When does that tipping point occur? Henry David Thoreau wrote that there is a certain amount of injustice in government, just as there is a certain amount of friction in operating a machine. But when "friction has its own machine", then the injustice is no longer an unfortunate byproduct, it is now the purpose of the machine. That is the case with tyrannical regimes who exist to oppress people, rather than the oppression being an unfortunate by product of the exercise of authority, as was formerly the case in the United States.

When it comes to the media, there is also a point at which "friction has its own machine". That happens when bias is no longer just injected into the reporting of a story, but when bias is the reason for the existence of a story.