BAGEL BLOGGER EXCLUSIVE ON PERETZ: Bagel Blogger has the latest revelation on the Peretz binocular incident--uncovering some fauxtography that would make Reuters blush.

Technorati Tag: Amir Peretz.

CAIR PACKAGE: Little Green Footballs has a scan of the letter CAIR is sending along with a copy of Carter's latest book. I suppose it was more PC than sending a copy of the Protocols. Between the books CAIR is sending and the ones Hamas is burning...

Technorati Tag: CAIR and Jimmy Carter.

BARACK IT TO ME GENTLY: According to Rosner's Blog on Haaretz: Obama Supports Israel. Period.

Maybe make that: Obama Supports Israel. Periodically.

Ali Abunimah at The Electronic Intifada is none to happy with Obama, and provides a picture of then Illinois state senator Barack Obama and his wife Michelle with Columbia University Professor Edward Said and Mariam Said at a May 1998 Arab community event in Chicago at which Edward Said gave the keynote speech.

True, that was 8 years ago.

But cheer up Ali--it's a long way to the election and Oabama, Edwards, and Clinton have plenty of time to get nuanced.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Barack Obama.

SHOCKER: BBC poll: Israel has worst world image. I suppose the only thing more shocking is how close Iran is. Israel: 56% negative; 17% positive. Iran: 54% negative; 18% positive.

And what is behind Israel's negative image?

"It appears that people around the world tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the pursuit of military power," said Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, which conducted the research along with pollster GlobeScan. [emphasis added]

That's it! Disengaging from Gaza, threatening to retreat from the West Back--it must be just like Abu Abir said:

Mr. Abir blamed the Jewish state for the desecration of the Gaza synagogues by Palestinian Arabs, claiming the decision to leave the structures intact was part of an Israeli conspiracy.

Israel "left the synagogues behind so the world would see the Palestinians destroying them," Mr. Abir said.

Boy, those Zionists just can't get anything past these guys.

Technorati Tag: Israel.

IT'S CALLED ISLAMOFASCISM FOR A REASON: Treppenwitz thinks Palestinians who are suddenly surprised, and upset, by bookburnings by Hamas--shouldn't be.

Meanwhile, Elder of Ziyon points out that the book in question is of Palestinian Arab folktales that apparently are considered suitable for children, and shares one of the stories.

No doubt Hamas is doing it for the kids.
Yeah, we know the kind of curriculum Hamas prefers for impressionable minds.

Technorati Tag: Hamas and Palestinians and Bookburnings.

CBS 60 Minutes Gets It: Jihad.com

From 60 Minutes, a piece on the extent and power of Jihad via the Internet.

Technorati Tag: Islam and Jihad.

Pictures of the Purim Parade in Ma'aleh Adumim

Good News From Israel has 314 pictures posted on his website of the Purim Parade/Carnival from Sunday, March 4, in Ma'aleh Adumim. Called Adloyada, the theme of the parade was Biblical stories.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Purim.

Driving Miss Daled Amos

What did you do on Purim?

Me, I drove my daughter around town.

I drove her to the Chagiga Motzei Shabbos.
I drove her home from the Chagiga.
I drove her over to buy food for Mishloach Manos and back.
I drove her to deliver Mishloach Manos.

Just one catch.
I had to drive the car at 10 miles per hour.

Something my 7 year old ate on Shabbos disagreed with her so much that on Motzei Shabbos she threw up: and everywhere I had to drive her--and she insisted that I drive her--she also insisted that I drive slowly, otherwise she thought she would throw up again. She didn't have to tell me twice--though she did. Every time we got into the car.

Fortunately, where we live there are a lot of side roads and driving in the 2-10 mile range was for the most part not a problem.

I was sure that I was going to get stopped by a policeman, thinking I seemed suspicious driving up and down streets at a crawl.

"Sorry officer. You see: today is Purim, I'm delivering Mishloach Manos, and my daughter is nauseous and may throw up any minute. Go ahead sweetie--tell the nice policeman"

Anyway, we survived the day without incident, and it was a Chag Sameach.
As I hope it was by you.

Technorati Tag: Purim

Rice and the 'Borderline Schizophrenia' of US Diplomacy

Condoleezza Rice singlehandedly redid the border between Iraq and Turkey during a session of the US Senate when she was asked to explain recent negotiations between the Kurds of Northern Iraq and Turkey:

This is regarding the PKK, which we have categorized as a terrorist organization in our list. The PKK performs activities at the border between Turkey and Kurdistan and is responsible for the attacks inside Turkey." [emphasis added]

The border of course is between Turkey and Northern Iraq, not Kurdistan.

Michael Rubin comments on the repercussions of Rice's mistake:

It has become fashionable in Rice’s tenure to abandon allies, be it democracy activists in Egypt, Cedar Revolution activists in Lebanon, and now Turkey. It is unfortunate in the extreme. Her careless remarks bring Turkey closer to taking action on its own in Iraq, where the PKK has established bases.

Of course, if you follow Rice's exploits in the Middle East you can see that Israel has been abandoned as well. In fact, a few years ago Rice had another case of 'borderline schizophrenia' when, back in November 2005, she said the following:

Good morning. Two months ago, Israel and the Palestinian Authority took an unprecedented step on the road to peace with the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, returning control of that territory to the Palestinian people. Israeli and Palestinian leaders have been hammering out practical arrangements to gain the benefits of that withdrawal and improve conditions in the rest of the Palestinian territories.

...First, for the first time since 1967, Palestinians will gain control over entry and exit from their territory. This will be through an international crossing at Rafah, whose target opening date is November 25th. [emphasis added]

Of course, Gaza has never been Palestinian territory--assuming you are referring to the Palestinian Arabs. James Taranto noted Rice's error and pointed out the actual historical background:

Before World War I, the entire region, including Israel and the disputed territories, was part of the Ottoman Empire. Between World War I and 1948, the British administered it. In 1948 the Arabs went to war rather than accept a U.N. partition of Palestine that would have created Jewish and Arab states. After that conflict and until 1967, Egypt controlled Gaza and Jordan controlled the West Bank.

It is a historical error on Rice's part that is telling, and derives in part from her fixation on coddling the Palestinian Authority. Unfortunately, when it comes to Israel, Rice has not limited herself to merely mis-stating the facts. The problem is that not every diplomatic end in the Middle East can be achieved by ramming it down Israel's throat. Rice commented in an interview with Cal Thomas last year that

...I know too, as a student of international history, that there are so many things that once seemed impossible that, after they happened, simply seemed inevitable.

That of course is the whole point--that to be sustainable some things have to happen and develop on their own. They cannot be forced.

This is another element of history that Condoleezza Rice seems to have forgotten.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Condoleezza Rice.

Israel Vs. Real Apartheid

The ongoing claim that Israel is an apartheid state is apparently in ascendancy again, having most recently manifested itself in the form of “Israeli Apartheid week”. It's Almost Supernatural from South Africa notes some of the flaws in the comparison:

...The problem with the comparison is that the separation between Israel and the Palestinian territories is more akin to the separation between South Africa and Mozambique (or any other bordering state) than to South Africa and the Bantustans.

There are many differences in practice (Israel does not rely on the Palestinian territories for labour) but the key difference is one of design.

The separation between South Africa and the Bantustans was designed and implemented by apartheid South Africa. The separation between Israel and the Palestinian territories however, was designed by the 1947 UN partition resolution 181. It was not Israel that created this separation (in order to racially subjugate a majority population!) The UN created the separation in order to create two separate states for two separate nations. This happened all over the Middle East once the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

Those that now claim that Israel has created Bantustan-like homelands for the Palestinians are either completely ignorant of the Middle East history, ignorant of what apartheid really was, or they are being deliberately malicious. Either way I am certain that part of their campaign is driven by hate.

I wonder how many of the silly American students participating in the recent “Israeli Apartheid week” can even name a single apartheid law passed by the old South Africa.

Meanwhile, as long as there are people out there making the comparison--can anyone point us in the direction of the Palestinian Nelson Mandela?

Technorati Tag: Israel and South Africa and Apartheid.