Collecting For Terrorist Groups On US Campuses (Updated)

The question is whether Attorney General Holder and the Justice Department will do anything about it--

Did Group Raise Funds for Hamas on Campus?

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A U.S. congressman is the latest to call for a Justice Department investigation into whether a pro-Palestinian group has been raising money on college campuses for Hamas.

Another Goldstone Interview--The Blinders Are Still On

Judge Richard Goldstone has been interviewed by the New Statesman. Here are some excerpts:

Some who criticised your support for Nato now cheer the Gaza report. What about accusations that it was biased against Israel?

Let's Talk About ISRAEL'S Rights In Those "Occupied" Territories

As long as we are talking about history and international law--let's get it right

Israel's Right in the 'Disputed' Territories

By DANNY AYALON

The recent statements by the European Union's new foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton criticizing Israel have once again brought international attention to Jerusalem and the settlements. However, little appears to be truly understood about Israel's rights to what are generally called the "occupied territories" but what really are "disputed territories."

That's because the land now known as the West Bank cannot be considered "occupied" in the legal sense of the word as it had not attained recognized sovereignty before Israel's conquest. Contrary to some beliefs there has never been a Palestinian state, and no other nation has ever established Jerusalem as its capital despite it being under Islamic control for hundreds of years.

Palestine, USA!

I came across a  hotel in Chautauqua, NY--located on Palestine Ave.
Doing some searching I found that there is also a Palestine, Texas

If you visit the Visit Palestine webiste, you'll discover that

After One Year, Gazans Would Rather Forget Hamas Than Remember The War

At a time that around the world blogs are commemorating the anniversary of the Gaza War with support for Hamas, Gazans just want to get on with their lives.

Hamas marks 1 year after war, but many stay home

Hamas loyalists marked the one-year anniversary of Israel’s devastating war against Gaza’s Islamic militant rulers with defiant protests and a moment of silence on Sunday — even as most of the territory’s residents ignored commemoration events and some even criticized the militant group for not attending to their needs.

How About A Hizbollah-Hamas Turf War?

Why should there be any more honor among terrorists than there is among thieves? After all, we have already seen Hamas and Fatah going at each other.

LEBANON: Deadly bombing targeting Hamas on Hezbollah turf remains shrouded in mystery
An explosion went off Saturday night just a few blocks from where hundreds of Shiite Muslims had gathered to hear Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah address the faithful on the eve before the last day of Ashura, the annual 10-day commemoration of Imam Hussein, who was killed in the 7th century.

Arab League Stands Up For International Law (sort of)

The good news: the Arab League supports international law and respects for human rights:

Secretary General Amr Moussa said Sunday that the Arab League was determined to prosecute the persons behind war crimes in Gaza.

In a statement issued to mark the first anniversary of the Israeli army’s attacks on the Gaza Strip, Moussa recalled the report drafted by the Arab League’s independent investigation commission on the attacks and the report written by Justice Richard Goldstone, who was entrusted by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate these crimes.

He said in this respect that the stability of the region was dependent on a fair and lasting peace, the result of the recovery by the Palestinians of their rights and the establishment of a State in their territories occupied since 1967.

The bad news? Not so much:

Promoting Pius XII

Promoting Pius XII

by Robert S. Wistrich

Exactly ten years ago, on a cold winter morning in New York City, the Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission, established to investigate Pope Pius XII’s response to the Holocaust, met for the first time to discuss its future work. I was the only Israeli historian among the six scholars (3 Catholics and 3 Jews) designated by the Vatican and leading Jewish organizations to study this hotly contested issue. A little under two years later, the project was abandoned as a result of the Holy See’s unwillingness to release materials from its own archives that could help clarify issues that our team of scholars raised in our provisional report. Already at that time, in the last years of Pope John Paul’s pontificate, there were moves afoot to place Pius XII on the fast track to sainthood, but they were probably slowed down by Israeli and Jewish protests and a desire by Church authorities to prevent a serious rupture in Catholic-Jewish relations.

At issue was the silence of Pius XII during the Holocaust and his indirect complicity in the Nazi mass murder of Jews. These allegations, which first emerged around 1964, had prompted the Vatican to publish eleven volumes of its own documents (edited by four trusted Jesuit scholars), most of them appearing in the 1970s. It was these documents in Italian, German, French, Latin, and English that we were originally asked to review. The million or so unpublished documents from the pontificate of Pius XII (1939–1958) according to the Vatican’s most recent estimate, will only be available in about four year’s time.

Desperation Is The Mother Of Invention--Not Of Terrorism

Someone left a comment on one of my posts (Gaming Gaza: It's The Truth--Not Gaza--That Lies In Ruins) defending terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians on the basis that

desperate people don't think rationally. Desperate people turn radical. It has always been like that.

Yet in the most recent attempted terrorist attempt against the US, we see once again that when it comes to terrorism, ideology trumps economics.

Powerline writes that the Nigerian Muslim who tried to blow up the Northwest/Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit appears to be

 the son of a prominent Nigerian Banker named Alhaji Umaru Mutallab who most recently has been an engineering student at University College in London.

If that information proves out, Mudallad (or Mutallab, or whatever) will fit the usual Muslim terrorist profile: young, well-educated, from a prosperous family, oriented toward science and engineering. [emphasis added]

The same post links to Mark Steyn who spells it out:

So once again we see the foolishness of complaceniks who drone the fatuous cliches about how "in this struggle, scholarships will be far more important than smart bombs". The men eager to self-detonate on infidel airliners are not goatherds from the caves of Waziristan but educated middle-class Muslims who have had the most exposure to the western world and could be pulling down six-figure salaries almost anywhere on the planet. And don't look to "assimilation" to work its magic, either. We're witnessing a process of generational de-assimilation: In this family, yet again, the dad is an entirely assimilated member of the transnational elite. His son wants a global caliphate run on Wahhabist lines.

That link in that quote is to a post Steyn wrote in 2008, where he noted in a criticism of John McCain:

There's plenty of evidence out there that the most extreme "extremists" are those who've been most exposed to the west - and western education: from Osama bin Laden (summer school at Oxford, punting on the Thames) and Mohammed Atta (Hamburg University urban planning student) to the London School of Economics graduate responsible for the beheading of Daniel Pearl. The idea that handing out college scholarships to young Saudi males and getting them hooked on Starbucks and car-chase movies will make this stuff go away is ridiculous - and unworthy of a serious presidential candidate.[emphasis added]

And yet the accepted narrative continues to claim just that--resulting in added pressure on Israel, and continued terrorist threats around the world.

Technorati Tag: Terrorism.

What Can You Tell About A 10-Year Old By The Animals He Identifies With?

The other day, I went to my daughter's school to pick her up. While waiting, I noticed these 4 pictures on the wall, part of a school project by a small group of 5th graders. While they are by 4 different children, I noticed what seems to be pattern, or progression, if you will...

Why Not Switch Netanyahu And Abbas And Make Everyone Happy?

The West Bank apparently would not mind:

Israel is helping by getting rid of checkpoints, but there are still a great many complaints about how its forces keep placing new ones unexpectedly at sites from which they had been removed, and continue to enter Palestinian urban centers to make arrests - despite vigorous Palestinian Authority operations against every attempt by terrorist groups to organize themselves. The quality of life of the "average Palestinian resident" has improved dramatically, in comparison with past years. A Palestinian journalist said this week that the situation in the West Bank is not only better than in the past, but "terrific." [emphasis added]

Haaretz begrudgingly admits:

Many Church Leaders Remain Silent While Palestinian Christian Arabs Suffer At The Hands of Muslims

Many Church Leaders Remain Silent While Palestinian Christian Arabs Suffer At The Hands of Muslims

Alex Grobman

Dr. Grobman is a Hebrew University trained historian. His is the author of a number of books, including Nations United: How The U.N. Undermines Israel and The West;  Denying History: Who Says The Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? and a forthcoming book The Palestinian Right To Israel about Israel's moral and legal right to exist as a Jewish State to be published by Balfour Books.

On December 11, 2009, a group of Palestinian Christian leaders issued a 13 page document known as   "Kairos Palestine-2009: A moment of truth." Having "reached a dead end" because of the “Israeli military occupation,” the leaders appealed to churches worldwide to treat Israel as they had apartheid South Africa by divestment and economic boycott.¹

Given that the authors of this document include Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Lutheran Bishop of Jerusalem Munib Younan, Archbishop of Sebastia Atallah Hanna from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, we should not be surprised with this distorted description of the plight of Christian Arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.

Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer, warns that the present Christian Arab leadership is not telling the truth about the real conditions in these areas, and who is really responsible for perpetuating the anguish of Arab Christians.  The “patriarchs and archbishops of Christian Arab denominations,” he says, “who are currently deceiving the international community, are self-interested people. They collaborate with the Muslim perpetrators of intimidation and violence. Against all evidence they claim that the Christians Arabs are living comfortable and prosperous lives. In fact the present situation is growing worse by the day."”²

3 In The Last 4 Months: The Chronology Of Suspicious Behavior On Airplanes Goes Back To 1999

John Leonard has a post in American Thinker addressing the question of Terror Test-Runs on Airlines? While the post is about very recent examples of suspicious activity on the airlines--activity suggesting a terrorist dry run--at one point Leonard reviews earlier examples, going back to 1999:

America West Flight 90 -- Nov 19, 1999. In this pre-September 11^th incident, two passengers speaking Arabic roamed the plane without permission and attempted to enter the cockpit in what has been described by the 9/11 commission in their report as a dry run. "Students" Muhammed al-Qudhaieen and Hamdan al-Shalawi were placed in custody and removed from the flight. Bomb-sniffing dogs were brought to search the plane. The airline was sued for discrimination, but the case was dismissed.

Northwest Flight 327 -- Jun 29, 2004. Described by flight marshals as a terrorist dry run, thirteen men of Syrian descent changed seats, congregated in the aisles, used the bathrooms excessively, appeared nervous, and behaved in a strange manner long enough to draw attention and concern from fellow passengers. Air marshals on the plane instructed the flight crew to radio ahead for law enforcement to meet the plane when it landed in Los Angeles.

US Airways Flight 300 -- November 20, 2006. The infamous case of the flying imams, who allegedly changed seats in order to take control of every entry and exit route from the plane, ignored their assigned seats, requested unnecessary seat belt extensions, and disrupted the flight. The unused seat belt extenders were left lying on the airplane floor. Hmmm. Webbed strap belts with metal heads attached -- why would anyone be concerned about that? Who worries about customers acting strangely who make obviously unnecessary and unusual special requests?

The imams were removed from the plane but cried discrimination after the fact. They sued the airline and received an undisclosed settlement. CAIR and the imams declared victory.

AirTran Flight 175 -- Jan 1, 2009. According to an article published by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, nine Muslims traveling to an Islamic conference were removed from the plane after two members of the group allegedly engaged in a debate about the safest location to sit in the event of a bombing on the plane. The conversation alarmed other passengers, who alerted the flight crew and caused the plane to be diverted. According to Doug Hagmann in the Canada Free Press:

[N]one of the remaining 95 passengers made it to their ultimate destinations on time, AirTran refunded some tickets and made other booking arrangements due to the incident, which cost the airline dearly in time, money, and passenger goodwill.

A press release from AirTran found at EuroInvestor.co.uk incredibly reported that AirTran actually rewarded the nine Muslims who disrupted the flight, saying:

The airline has refunded the air fares of the nine passengers detained for questioning, has agreed to reimburse the passengers for expenses incurred by taking another airline and has also offered to transport the passengers home to Washington, DC, free of charge.

So let me get this straight: the nine Muslims who caused the flight delay and scared other passengers profited from their misconduct? Their airfare was refunded and they got a free flight home? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me...is this a great country, or what?

United flight 22 -- September 28, 2009. According to the KTLA.com, two men of apparent Middle Eastern descent were removed from a flight at LAX, and the flight was delayed while the bomb squad searched the plane. An article in the LA Times reported the incident as follows:

A law enforcement source said at least one of the men ran into a restroom on the plane and appeared to hide while the New York-bound jet was taxiing on the runway, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.

AirTran 297 -- Nov 17, 2009. A group of ethnic passengers used electronic devices on tarmac preparing for takeoff, changed seats, moved around, ignored flight attendants' instructions, and caused flight delay as the plane returned to terminal.

UA 227 -- Dec 9, 2009. A group of passengers believed to be of Middle Eastern descent changed seats and allegedly moved other passengers' luggage at the gate while the plane prepared for departure, prompting their removal from the flight and bomb-sniffing dogs to check the baggage.

Read the whole thing.

That's 7 examples--4 of them just this year and 3 in the last 4 months.
There are still lots of questions left unanswered amidst claims of bogus information--but the questions need to be answered and those answers need to be made public.

Leonard concludes that there are 2 potential motives for what is happening--

Two possibilities that come immediately to mind are either that these incidents are orchestrated as a ploy to create a scenario to litigate for profit like the imams from US Airways Flight 300 -- or something more sinister is in the works. In the aftermath of Fort Hood, can we afford to ignore warning signs of abnormal or pattern behavior any longer?

Time to get busy with those answers.

Technorati Tag: AirTran 297 and UA 227 and Terrorism.

Have A Moebius Bagel For Breakfast!

No video, but there is a step-by-step primer on cutting bagels in such a way that they end up linked to each other.




There is also a recipe for trilobite cookies, "the result of my most recent research into what ancient trilobites would have tasted like if primitive biochemical processes were based on jam/chocolate/cookie molecules."

Enjoy!



[Hat tip: Debby, The Odd Links Gal ]

Technorati Tag: Bagels.

It Takes Two To Conduct Lawfare--Israel Responds To Attempts To Arrest Its Leaders

Hamas has now claimed responsibility for the warrant to arrest Tzipi Livni in Great Britain:

The Islamist group Hamas is masterminding efforts to have senior Israeli leaders arrested for alleged war crimes when they visit European countries including Britain, a top Hamas official involved in the effort has told The Times.

The campaign by Hamas takes advantage of an aspect of law in England and Wales that allows anyone to apply for an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes without the need for a prosecuting lawyer. The identity of the person or organisation that applied for Ms Livni’s warrant has not been made public, but Hamas says that it initiated the move.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said yesterday that the Government was “looking urgently at ways in which the UK system might be changed in order to avoid this sort of situation arising again”.

Well, if Hamas is really eager that international law be applied to war criminals, Israel is ready to start treating Palestinian terrorists as the law actually dictates:

For Immediate Release
December 21, 2009

HIGH COURT PETITION: CAPTURED HAMAS TERRORISTS
MUST BE TRIED AS WAR CRIMINALS

(JERUSALEM) The human rights organization Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center
has filed a petition today to the High Court of Justice (BAGATZ) in
Jerusalem demanding that Hamas terrorists arrested by Israel be tried for
war crimes and crimes against humanity, not just murder as is the current
practice.

According to the petition, the Attorney General violated Israeli law by
refusing to indict the terrorists who fire rockets into Israel for war
crimes and crimes against humanity-crimes that carry a life sentence without
the possibility of pardon or early release.

Israel is bound by the humanitarian provisions of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, as well as the Hague Convention and other international
treaties, which stipulate that the deliberate targeting of civilians in the
context of an armed conflict is a war crime; while the deliberate and
systemic assault against a particular civilian population constitutes a
crime against humanity.

By engaging in terror activity and deliberately launching Kassam and Grad
rockets into Israeli civilian centers during Operation Cast Lead, Hamas
activists repeatedly and systematically targeted civilians, and specifically
Israeli civilians, for murder-placing them squarely in the definition of
both war crimes and crimes against humanity. Citing previous Supreme Court
rulings, the petition notes that such international law has been accepted as
binding on Israeli courts and law enforcement authorities.

According to the petition, the State of Israel, having suffered inordinately
from the horrors of terrorism, has a unique duty to serve as a model in the
battle against the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by
terrorists and recognized as such under international law.

According to Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin and attorney
for the plaintiffs, "The Goldstone Commission report showed that the
Attorney General's policy of indicting Hamas terrorists for ordinary crimes
rather than crimes against humanity has fanned the flames of war crimes
accusations against Israeli leaders and soldiers by the UN and the
Europeans. Not only has this policy played down the heinous nature of the
genocidal atrocities of Hamas, it has left the field open for Israel's
enemies to make wrong and dangerous claims against us. The failure to indict
Hamas activists for crimes against humanity is immoral, hurts Israel's
interests and, above all, is in flagrant violation of Israeli law."

FOR MORE INFORMATION: (ISRAEL) 972-3-751-4175, 972-52-383-7020
(US) 212-591-0073, Email: info@israellawcenter.org [emphasis added]

Universal Jurisdiction did not start with the Goldstone Report; neither did the attempts to accuse Israeli leaders of being war criminals and attempt to arrest them. What the Goldstone Report did do, however, is give the appearance of legality and justification to such actions.

The resultant chaos is attributable to the sloppiness and bias of the Goldstone Report and to those connected to it

Technorati Tag: Lawfare and Universal Jurisdiction and Hamas and Operation Cast Lead.

Gaming Gaza: It's The Truth--Not Gaza--That Lies In Ruins

Last year, Lauren Booth--peace activist and sister-in-law of former PM Tony Blair--described the situation in Gaza:

She spoke of the situation in Gaza and said, “Yesterday, I visited mothers of children under the age of five. Nutrition here has deteriorated threefold over the last two years because it is impossible to bring food through the crossings. Unemployment has risen, so people can't even afford to buy what food there is left."

That was about a week after she had gone shopping:

Christiane Amanpour Demonstrates Zen And The Art Of Diplomatic Effort

Once in a while I add captions to images, but then there are other times when the image and the actual caption just go together hand in glove.

Here, the picture of Christiane Amanpour of CNN seems to epitomize what the caption calls "diplomatic effort."



The image is the static image from a video I saw on Augean Stables.

Technorati Tag: Christiane Amanpour.

Hariri And Al-Asad Meet To Bury Hatchet--No Word Yet In Whom

Keep in mind that--as this piece points out--Sa'ad Al-Hariri's father was murdered: allegedly by Syria. Such are politics in the Middle East:

Newly-elected Lebanese Prime Minister Sa’ad Al-Hariri flew to Damascus on Saturday to meet with his longtime foe, Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad. The meeting was cloaked in warmth and camaraderie, signaling a new chapter in the relationship between the Middle Eastern neighbors. Syria has been the primary suspect behind the 2005 murder of Hariri’s father, Rafiq: a killing that ultimately led to Syrian troops being expelled from Lebanon. But it was a green light from Al-Asad that paved the way for a unity government led by Al-Hariri to be seated in Beirut. One recent indication of the new alliance was approval by the new Lebanese government to allow the political manifestation of the Hezbollah terrorist organization – which sits in the government and holds cabinet positions -- to win approval to maintain its weapons contrary to United Nations resolutions demanding that the group be disarmed.

What Me Worry?

I guess it only seems fair that if Ahmadinejad has his puppet in Lebanon in Hizbollah that Syria should have one too.

Technorati Tag: Hariri and Assad and Lebanon and Syria.

Livni Barred From Britain, While Hizullah Safe At The Sarbonne

Now there's an interesting study in contrasts--

UK court issued arrest warrant for Livni

A British court issued an arrest warrant for former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni on war crimes charges but withdrew it on finding she had canceled a planned trip to Britain, the Guardian newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, in France:

Mahmoud Abbas--This Is The Man The West Is Pinning Its Hopes On For Mideast Peace?

I like this bit from Rick Richman's post at Contentions:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — currently in the 60th month of his 48-month term, a declared non-candidate for re-election (in the event there is ever another Palestinian election), presently governing only half of the putative Palestinian state — has told Haaretz that a peace agreement could be reached within six months if Israel will make more pre-negotiation concessions.

Peace could be reached not only in our time but with four full months left over to complete Netanyahu’s 10-month settlement freeze. Abbas will hold the football himself.

Why Windows Outsells Macintosh Among Iraqi Insurgents (Updated)

 CBS News reports:

Iraqi insurgents have reportedly intercepted live video feeds from the U.S. military's Predator drones using a $25.95 Windows application which allows them to track the pilotless aircraft undetected.

...When a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, is far from its base, terrain prohibits it from transmitting directly to its operator. Instead, it switches to a satellite link. That means an enterprising hacker can use his own satellite dish, a satellite modem, and a copy of the SkyGrabber Windows utility sold by the Russian company SkySoftware to intercept and display the UAV's transmissions.

I guess we'll just have to wait until Steve Jobs comes out with the iDrone.

UPDATE: I didn't realize it, but there actually is such a thing as an iDrone by Apple.

Technorati Tag: Predator and Windows and Mac.

Iranians Ignored--First By Obma; Now By Time Magazine

From niacINsight:

It is widely believed that millions of Iranian voters had their votes stolen during June’s Presidential election. Now, once again, the Iranian people had their votes taken away when Time Magazine awarded Ben Bernanke the honor of Person of the Year.

For those of you who, like me, were are upset that Time didn’t choose the Iranian protesters as their person of the year, there is some consolation knowing that the rest of the world did.

BBC: Jerusalem--Holy To Muslims and Christians!

The BBC seems intent on solving the Middle East crisis--by completely rewriting history.

SELECTIVE HISTORY

Rabbi Avi Shafran

One hardly expects the British Broadcasting Corporation to present an objective or comprehensive picture when it addresses the Middle East. But a recent BBC radio documentary may set some sort of record for myopia.

History Repeats Itself, First As Tragedy, Second As FARC

With apologies to Karl Marx.

In The FARC and the 'Peace Community', Mary O'Grady writes in The Wall Street Journal about how those who claim to work for peace--don't. In this case, the example is in Colombia, from the Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Samir, a former member spoke with O'Grady:

He also told me that the supposed peaceniks who ran the local NGO were his allies and an important FARC tool in the effort to discredit the military. In a September 2003 speech, President Uribe expressed his concern about the possibility that some "human rights" groups are actually fronts for terrorists. The international left, including Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.), jumped all over the Colombian president for making that claim. But Mr. Uribe's comments were supported by information gathered by Colombian intelligence. Now, testimony from Samir, and countless others who have come in from the jungle, gives Mr. Uribe's charges further backing.

When Samir describes the situation, it sounds oddly familiar:

Agudath Israel Yarchei Kallah In Yerushalayim (January)

Technorati Tag: Torah and Yarchei Kallah.

Ahmadinejad's Puppet Speaks Out In Defense Of His Master (Updated)

Mehall warns Israel that the Arab world is solidly behind Iran having a nuclear bomb:

Hamas leader Khaled Meshal warned on Tuesday that Islamist militant groups would back Iran if the Islamic Republic was attacked by Israel, Iranian state television reported.

The Goldstone Report: Don't Forget Dr. Hina Jilani

When discussing the flaws of the Goldstone Report--and the biases of the Goldstone Commision itself--little attention has been paid to Dr. Hina Jilani.

I found a discussion from last month featuring Justice Stephen Breyer--along with Dr. Hina Jilani and Beverly McLachlin, Chief Just of the Supreme Court of Canada and Gregory Craig, White House Counsel of President Obama.

You can view the video of the discussion: Law vs. Power: Who Rules? Who Makes the Rules? or download a transcript in PDF.

Goldstone Report: Let's Do The Time Warp Again!

It's astounding, time is fleeting Madness takes its toll
The Time Warp, Rocky Horror Show

Anyone read this editorial by Alan Dershowitz?

When it comes to Israel and its enemies, The Goldstone Report cooks the books about facts, cheats on interviews, and releases predetermined conclusions that are driven more by their ideology than by evidence. These are serious accusations, and they are demonstrably true. Consider the following highly publicized "conclusion" reached by The Goldstone Report about the recent war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel: "The Goldstone Report found no cases in which Hamas deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack."

No cases! Anyone who watched even a smattering of TV during the war saw with their own eyes direct evidence of rockets being launched from civilian areas. But not The Goldstone Report. How could a mission, which claims to be objective, have been so demonstrably wrong about so central a point in so important a war? Could it have been an honest mistake? I don't think so. The Goldstone Report not only failed to interview witnesses who had contrary evidence, it ignored credible news sources, such as the New York Times and the New Yorker.

Truth be told, I found this while going through some editorials in the NY Sun--from 2006. The actual op-ed reads:

Pictures You Don't See Every Day

From An Email...



Pictures You Don't See Every Day

Must have been McNaughty

-----

Looks like UPS wins!!!

-----

Oh, come on... Just one?

-----

Starting with spelling…

-----

...I think it was the FedEx driver

-----

Made by the school that teaches Arithetic

-----

Major dilemma in California:

-----

How do you get there from here?

-----

Everything you need for your 'shotgun' wedding!

-----

It's a good deal, but... Oh, the college costs!

-----

McLogic gone wrong...

-----

'Mass suicides...Cows going over the edge...tonight on Channel 3 News...'

-----

Good Job!! Well, Make that "former job."

-----

Load 'em up with burritos, Mom!!

-----

I'm Confused...

-----

How am I going to write that if I'm ILLITERATE?

-----

I can't even comment on this one

-----

Must be Wyoming …Beautiful, lush lawns of dirt...

-----

Make up your mind!!!

-----

Don't drink and make signs...

Technorati Tag: Humor.

No, That Mosque Was NOT Burned--And Why It's Likely Jews DID NOT Do It

The following is an excerpt from Arlene Kushner's blog:

December 15, 2009



"Rush to Judgment"

Last Friday, in the Arab village of Yasuf, in Samaria, near the Jewish community of Tapuach, a mosque was vandalized.

News reports spoke of the fact of "mosque arson," but in point of fact the mosque wasn't torched. Korans and prayer rugs were burned, while the mosque was left in tact -- this fact visible from photos. Graffiti was written in Hebrew on the wall of the mosque: "Price tag -- Greetings from Effi." This is presumed to represent a radical group of "settlers" who have vowed to extract a price from the Arab population every time the Israeli government restricts development by Jews in Judea and Samaria. It is thus being assumed in many quarters that Jews did this in "revenge" for Netanyahu's building freeze.

Israel's Open Letter to the Arab World

Danny Ayalon pens historic op-ed in largest pan-Arab daily newspaper
15 Dec 2009
The Deputy Foreign Minister calls on the Arab world to step forward and join with Israel to defeat the forces of extremism and destruction in the Middle East.

Here is the link to the Arabic article--and below is the English translation

The Difference Between Burning A Mosque And Burning A Synagogue

The New York Times today on the arson attack on a mosque--possibly by Jewish settlers:

West Bank Is Tense After Arson at Mosque

"Passions ran high on Sunday in this Palestinian village in the northern West Bank two days after arsonists, presumed by Palestinians and many Israelis to be Jewish extremists, set fire to the central mosque.

A delegation of Jewish religious leaders and activists, including some from West Bank settlements, tried to reach the village to express their abhorrence of the attack. But the Israeli Army prevented the group from entering Yasuf for security reasons as enraged villagers proclaimed that the visitors would not be welcome.

“The people will not allow it,” said Wasfi Hassan, a local farmer. “It is like killing a man, then going to his funeral.”" [emphasis added]

The only thing more harsh than that, I suppose, is killing a Jew and celebrating his death.

Comparing Parades: Israel vs. Iran

Michael Zebulon has written an article for American Thinker on Tractors.
He kind of sets the tone with this opening:

In unmistakably peace-loving Tehran, Western observers have beheld street processions of missiles - conspicuously emblazoned with clearly stenciled words evoking all the charm and grace of a greeting card:  "To Jerusalem."

The Zebulon is getting at is not so much tractors as it is about parades...and tractors...and Israel, on Yom Yerushalayim:

Open Letter: Goldstone, I too am a war criminal

In a world that hasn't had surgery to have its Goldstones removed, to be moral is to submit to evil without resistance.


Goldstone, I too am a war criminal

By David Chinitz


I moved to Israel from the United States in December 1981. It was the same day that the Israeli government officially annexed the Golan Heights. Hearing about it literally as me, my wife and our three month old daughter - now a lawyer in Tel Aviv - were about to board the plane, I mentally processed the issues: Is such a unilateral move legal? Is it wise? Is it just? To be honest, I pretty much just shrugged and got on the plane.

Over the last 28 years I have come to appreciate the shrug as the signature gesture of Israeli children. When an Israeli child has doubts about something on offer from an adult, the shrug is her way of signaling: "Sorry, that doesn't work for me." While the physical shrug disappears with age, the Israeli manner of shrugging things off is at one and the same endearing and off -putting. But given the environment of endless hostility in which Israelis live, their shrug is not the kind that reflects callousness but reconciliation to the fact that life in this part of the world is really messy, both morally and practically. There's not much choice but to carry on.

Ever Notice In Which Countries Women Are Wearing The Burka--And In Which Ones They Aren't?

“Traditional Islamic dress” is not so “traditional.” Talk to any educated Muslim woman who attended university in the fifties, sixties or seventies—back when they assumed history was moving their way and a covered woman was merely a local variant of the Russian babushka, something old and wizened you saw in upcountry villages. Now you see them in the heart of the metropolis—and I don’t mean Beirut or Abu Dhabi so much as Paris and Brussels. It’s very strange to be able to walk around, say, Zarqa, hometown of the late “insurgent” Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and look 90 per cent of the women in the eye, and even be rewarded with a friendly smile every so often, and then to fly on to London and be confronted by one masked face after another while strolling down Whitechapel Road in the East End. The burka, the niqab and the hijab are not fashion statements but explicitly political ones, and what they symbolize in a Western context is self-segregation. [emphasis added]
Mark Steyn, What signal does Barbie’s burka send?

This raises a question that I've raised before about the line between religious and political expression. This goes further than merely the question of being ultra-religious for ones own sake and enters the realm of to what degree Western society must accommodate  religious Muslims--and vice versa.

Goldstone Report: Will They Post Corrections?

“And I wouldn’t consider it in any way embarrassing if many of the allegations turn out to be disproved.”

Judge Richard Goldstone, in an interview with The Forward, October 7, 2009

 
Good thing.. As it turns out, in Between Goldstone and Gaza, what's one more zero? Martin Kramer uncovers the fact that one of those allegations is wildly exaggerated:

"An Inconvenient Truth": A Short Review Of The British Attitude Towards Israel

From Melanie Phillips--in her column in The Spectator:

Yesterday evening, the historian Andrew Roberts delivered a remarkable address at the annual dinner of the Anglo-Israel Association. I reproduce it here in full, with no further comment.

My Lords, Ladies & Gentlemen,

It’s a great honour to be invited to address you, especially on this the 60th anniversary of AIA, and I’d like to take the opportunity of this anniversary to look at the overall story of the relationship between Britain and Israel, and to try to strip away some of the myths.

Because it seems to me that for all the undoubted statesmanship implicit in Arthur Balfour’s Declaration of November 1917, promising ‘a National Home for the Jewish People’, it doesn’t mean that Britain has ever been much more than a fair-weather friend to Jewish national aspirations.

Now Both Kofi Annan AND Hamas Are Exonerated

Today's Daily Alert has a translation of an Arabic article:

Hamas: Goldstone Report Exonerates Us from War Crimes Against Israel


Hamas second-in-command Musa Abu Marzouq said in an interview: "All paragraphs in the Goldstone report convict Israel and totally exonerate Hamas from any misconduct. For instance, the report exonerates Hamas from the accusation of using civilians as human shields and attributes this accusation to Israeli forces. Likewise, the report exonerated Hamas from all other accusations mentioned by Israel, and even when the report is dealing with the rockets which were launched from Gaza, it speaks about military groups without naming Hamas." Translated by Jonathan D. Halevi (Al-Mashahid Al-Siyasi-UK, Arabic, 5Dec09)

The only real question is: What took them so long to figure it out?!

To All Dentists Interested in Aliyah

From an email:

To All Dentists Interested in Aliyah:


The Ministry of Health in Israel (Misrad Habriut)  is proud to offer Part 1 of Israel's dental exam in New York. The licensing exam for dentists in Israel involves two parts: Part 1 - the theory based test which, until now, is given twice a year in Israel. The second part is a clinical test, which will continue to be held solely in Israel. From the time you pass the written exam, you will have three years to take Part 2 of the exam. 
Part 1 of the dental exam will be held in New York on March 9^th, 2010. The exam will be given in Eglish, and will mark the begining of the dental certification process even before making Aliyah.

Feel free to forward to share this information with any other dentists you know who are thinking of making Aliyah within the next 3 years.
For further information, please contact Avital Gourarie at avital@nbn.org.il
*Note: While Nefesh B'Nefesh is the facilitator of this exam, they are not responsible for the specifics of the test, nor do they have any influence on exam results. Nefesh B'Nefesh is not responsible for last minute changes or cancelations by the Ministry of Health.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Aliya.

Time For Judge Richard Goldstone To Come Clean (Updated)

 Justice Goldstone said no one had been able to show any error of substance in the report nor to repudiate any of its findings.
Interview with South African Sunday Times, November 15

It is one thing for Judge Goldstone to dismiss the numerous analyses of the mistakes in the report that bears his name; it is another thing entirely to ignore the existence of those analyses altogether.

Yet that is what Goldstone has been doing all along, and did again just 3 weeks ago, exploiting his greater exposure to public opinion to claim that the Goldstone Report is above reproach.

It isn't.

YU: Chanuka To-Go

Featuring: Rabbi Norman Lamm - "Half the Hanukkah Story" Rabbi Reuven Brand - "Inside Outside" Rabbi Kenneth Brander - "Chanukah in the Prism of the Rav's Teachings" Dr. Steven Fine - "The Temple Menorah: Where Is It?" Rabbi Josh Flug - "Chanukah & Mehadrin Min HaMehadrin" Mrs. Dena Knoll - "Chanukat HaBayit" Mrs. Pnina Neuwirth - "Who wants to be a Greek?" Rabbi Shalom Rosner - "Being a Jew Inside and Out" Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner - "The Message of Huram, Hiram, Hirom and Chanukah"

Technorati Tag: Chanuka.

Muslims Both Initiated And Funded Goldstone Report--Which Explains A Lot

Back in October, Al Jazeera reported on an interview it had with Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC):

Al Jazeera: The UN's Goldstone report has been in the headlines in the past few weeks - not without controversy - and has brought to light the conduct of the Israelis and Hamas during the war on Gaza earlier in the year. Does the OIC see this as a step forward in recognising what transpired during that war and in bringing the plight of the Palestinians to the fore on an international scale?

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu: Let me first start by completing the story of the history of the Goldstone report. What I would like to put on record is that the OIC was the initiator of this process.

On January 3, during the attacks on Gaza, we convened the executive committee of the OIC on a ministerial level. It was decided that the OIC group in Geneva should ask the Human Rights Council to convene and consider the possibility of sending a fact-finding mission to Gaza.

On December 4, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, went a step further in revealing the origins of the Goldstone Report:

The Prosecutor also fielded questions about allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by Israel. When asked, he offered no confirmation of reports that he had been invited by Hamas to advise on the legality of a Hamas-led investigation into attacks in Gaza this January. But, he admitted to working closely with the Arab League on the matter, which had helped finance the fact-finding Goldstone mission.

This of course explains the mandate given by the United Nations Human Rights Council, which targeted Israel alone, in language implying the conclusion the report was supposed to find:

Look Who's Benefiting From The Global Economic Slump: Israel--And The West Bank (Updated)

I remember for years how the Israeli economy was a joke--how the currency was constantly being devalued, how converting your dollars into shekels provided you what seemed like a small fortune.

Things are different now.
Very different--today, the Israeli economy is no longer a joke.

Jewish Business Ethics In Light Of Current Events

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

Rabbi Avi Shafran

A number of Jews, including Orthodox Jews, have been implicated in financial crimes over recent months.

Some of the scandals have proven somewhat less scandalous than when they first appeared on front pages and were seared into readers' minds. Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, for instance, currently stands convicted of misleading a bank to secure a loan. Although that conviction, amazingly, could result in an effective life sentence, charges that Mr. Rubashkin knowingly hired illegal aliens were dropped; and more lurid accusations – that he mistreated employees, abused animals and ran a methamphetamine factory – are no longer heard.

In some other cases, accusations have been made but evidence has not yet been heard; and both Judaism and American law insist on a presumption of innocence.

But there have certainly been cases in the Jewish community where guilt has been well established. Bernie Madoff may never have been Jewishly observant, but the Orthodox community has certainly had its share of fraud convictions, if on smaller scales, as well.

The Only Thing More Popular Is Claiming An Affair With Tiger Woods

The list of countries claiming Israel is harvesting their people's organs is growing.

When the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet published Donald Boström's story in August that the IDF harvested the organs from the bodies of Palestinian Arabs, it caused an uproar--not only because the story was unsubstantiated, but also because Boström didn't care:

"But whether it's true or not - I have no idea, I have no clue."

Netanyahu's Settlement Freeze Is Not A Betrayal--And Neither Was Begin's (Updated)

Isi Leibler writes in the Jerusalem Post defending Netanyahu's decision to put a 10-month freeze on construction in the settlements. Leibler outlines the connection Israel has with and dependence on the US

HOWEVER THESE factors and our reliance on the US do not oblige us to behave like a banana republic and accede to every diktat of this administration. We must simply ensure that if we are obliged to resist a particular US demand, it should be over an issue on which Congress and the American people would be inclined to support us.

Alas, the settlement issue has become so convoluted and distorted in the minds of the public that even many American Jews are confused and unable to distinguish between outposts, isolated settlements and the major settlement blocs.

Leibler believes that a compromise now will strengthen Israel's hand later--with the Obama administration, and, if necessary, with Congress and the American public.

Leibler also points out that Netanyahu is not the first Israeli Prime Minister to carry out such a freeze:

Swiss Minaret Ban Defended--By Former Terrorist

In Can we blame the Swiss?, Tawfik Hamid--Islamic thinker and reformer, and one-time Islamic extremist and member of a terrorist Islamic organization--gives 4 reasons why the passing of referendum in Switzerland to ban the building of more minarets is justified:

It's The Law: Obama Cannot Accept Nobel Peace Prize (3 Updates)

On December 10, the Nobel Awards will be handed out.

Tad Armstrong, a lawyer and founder of ELL Constitution Clubs (www.ellclubs.com), writes in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the Nobel Peace Prize is not Obama's to keep:

Former Muslims United Applauds Swiss Referendum Victory Banning Minarets, “the Bayonets of Islam”

From an email I received:

Former Muslims United Applauds Swiss Referendum Victory Banning Minarets, “the Bayonets of Islam” Nonie Darwish, executive director and co-founder of Former Muslims United (FMU) applauded the results of a Swiss Republic referendum banning the construction of minarets among the approximately 150 Mosques serving 400,000 Muslims in Switzerland. Minarets are Muslim towers to call the faithful to prayers through loud speakers five times daily. These towers are symbols to both Muslims and non-Muslims of the Islamization of Europe, America and other Western democracies. Ms. Darwish of FMU said: "the Swiss referendum victory is the equivalent of banning what Turkish PM Erdogan called: ‘the bayonets of Islam.’ Supporters of a ban claim that allowing minarets would represent the growth of an ideology and a legal system - Sharia law - which are incompatible with Swiss democracy. The Swiss Referendum victory drew a red line against Islamization in Europe.” She also noted that “this referendum victory is a credit to Swiss citizens, especially women voters who viewed construction of Minarets as leading to adoption of other graphic elements of Sharia law including wearing of burkas in public by Muslim women.” Darwish also pointed out that polls taken after the victory in the Swiss Referendum in neighboring Germany indicated that a similar effort there might win a plurality of votes. Darwish added that "many Muslim groups are denouncing the ban as oppression to freedom of religion. However, such Muslim groups will be more credible if they first denounced the oppression of religious minorities in Muslim countries who make it illegal to practice any religion other than Islam. Muslim groups who claim that they are oppressed in Europe should be the first to stand up and yell "not in the name of my religion" when Churches are burnt in Muslim countries. But instead all we hear from Muslim groups is "I am a victim" and "I am offended" while the blood of non-Muslims is being shed in the name of Sharia. Former Muslims United is a US-based civil rights organization with the goals of seeking the protecting the human and civil rights of Apostates from Islam in accordance with the laws of the United States and its Constitution.

Co-founders of Former Muslims United Nonie Darwish, Ibn Warraq, Amil Imani, Wafa Sultan, Mohammed Asghar, Mano Bakh, Walid Shoebat For more information on Former Muslims United go to formermuslimsunited.org

Technorati Tag: Minarets and Switzerland.

Minarets Syndrome: Don't Forget How Are Synagogues And Churches Faring In Moslem Lands?

Much has been made--and only been made--about the Swiss referendum and how that reflects religious discrimination. This would be as good a time as any to note just how non-Muslim houses of worship are faring in Muslim countries. Christian Science Monitor does just that:

1. Indonesia. In a state with large minority populations of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and animists, the US State department reported in 2009 that at least 9 churches – and 12 mosques associated with the Ahmadiyya Islamic sect (which mainstream Muslim groups consider heretical) – were forced shut by violence or intimidation from community groups, and that a number of churches and Hindu temples have struggled to receive official permits in recent years. The Indonesian government has on a number of occasions stepped in to prevent church construction, largely over fears that it would stoke sectarian violence. But religious practice, by and large, is freer in Indonesia than most other Muslim majority states.

2. Egypt. The country has a sizeable minority of Eastern Orthodox Christians, or Copts. By law, their churches must receive the permission of local Muslim communities before new construction is allowed. The State Department’s religious freedom report on Egypt in 2009 says in part: “Church and human rights leaders complain that many local officials intentionally delay the permit process. They charge that some local authorities refuse to process applications without ’supporting documents’ that are virtually impossible to obtain.”

3. Saudi Arabia, home of Mecca and Islam more generally, is one of the least religiously free nation’s on earth. In the Kingdom, the public practice of any faith but Islam is illegal. Christian’s and Jews receive 50 percent of the compensation that a Muslim would receive in personal injury court and the country has no churches at all, though it officially tolerates private worship in homes.

4. Pakistan. Freedom of religious worship is constitutionally guaranteed, but in practice the government sets limits and there has also been a rise in attacks by militant groups on both Christians and Shiites in the majority Sunni Muslim country in recent years. The State Department found that “societal discrimination against religious minorities was widespread, and societal violence against such groups occurred.” District level government “consistently refused to grant permission to construct non-Muslim places of worship, especially for Ahmadiyya and Baha’i communities” the State Department found, while also noting that missionaries are allowed to work inside the country. In 2009 “public pressure routinely prevented courts from protecting minority rights and forced judges to take strong action against any perceived offense to Sunni orthodoxy,” the report said.

I don't know if this list is all-inclusive, but I would be more than happy to see the rights afforded to Muslims among the kafirs be extended to these four countries, for a start.

Of course, given the low expectations for rights and freedoms for non-Muslims in these countries, it has become second nature to assume it is a lost cause, while Islam--one of whose main goals is to expand--is given the opportunity to do just that.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Minarets and Switzerland.