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July 31, 2007
Examination
“They tried to, how to say it, wash my mind?’
“Brainwash you?”
“Yes, that is it, exactly.”
The Doctor is in his mid to late sixties. Thin as a celery stalk, he is exquisitely polite as he simultaneously conducts a physical for my life insurance policy, and slowly, haltingly reveals his life story. Shy and painfully reserved, the physician is almost apologetic about offering up the harrowing details.
“After the Americans left, the Communists arrested us and put us in camps — just like what they did to your people, how do you call them?”
“Concentration camps?”
“Yes, concentration camps. Roll up your sleeve, please, so I can take blood pressure.”
“What happened in the camps?”
“They forced us work, day and night, and they washed our minds, brainwashed us with Communism and atheism. There was very little food.”
“When you say we, who do you mean?”
The Doctor stops and looks at me. His gaze feels like an x-ray penetrating skin, blood, bones.
“Did I take speak your blood pressure numbers?”
“No, not yet.”
“I remember the camp and my family and what happened, and the memory is —”
His voice breaks off.
The Doctor concentrates, takes my blood pressure, inscribes the numbers on the insurance form. Pleased with the results, the Doctor smiles and says something, but I have no idea what he's saying for he's speaking in French.
"Pardon, I do not speak Francais.”
He is startled.
“Really, all my Jewish friends speak a beautiful French.”
“Not this Jewish man.”
“I receive my original medical training in French”
He bows ever so slightly, and apologizes. Believe it or not, I return the bow. It just seems, y'know, the polite thing to do.
The good Doctor wants me to lay down so he can hook me up for an EKG. I move towards Ariel's ZT'L room.
Karen steps up, and says:
“Are you sure you want to do that in there?”
I look at Ariel's bed. Remember all the years we spent with our beloved son, nursing him in that bed.
“Let's go to the guest room,” I suggest.
Karen and I lock gazes. Always, always, we are in this together.
The Doctor hooks me up for the EKG, continues the examination.
And I continue my examination.
“How did you resist the brainwashing in the camps?”
“I am Buddhist.”
“You say you had family in the concentration camp, can you tell me how many, and what happened to them?”
“Five brothers and five sisters. The North Vietnamese Communists killed them; murdered my five brothers, murdered my five sisters. Killed my entire family.”
“Baruch Dayan Emet,” I whisper.
The portable EKG machine chimes: Beep! Beep! Beep!
“Very nice, very good heart.”
“That's a relief.”
Rolling up the EKG printout, the Doctor muses out loud:
“Americans do not understand what happened after they left Vietnam. Americans do not realize what the Communists did to us. Americans do not understand the great killing that happened.”
“I'm sorry.”
The Doctor jots down some notes on his company forms. His handwriting is neat and meticulous.
“I'm sorry,” I repeat.
I sound so stupid, so lame. I actually feel guilty for the slaughter of his five brothers, his five sisters.
The Doctor inclines his head, and with no hint of bitterness says:
“I escaped into the jungle. I was lucky, and became a boat person. I came to America. I love this country. But still — Americans do not understand.”
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:34 AM | Comments (22)
July 30, 2007
Coming Soon: Sharia Airlines
This is, no doubt, an opening salvo in the next offensive by Muslims on western civilization. Look for the ACLU to take up the cause of The Flying Princesses.
Three Arab princesses were thrown off a packed British Airways flight after refusing to sit next to male passengers they didn't know.
The dispute — in which the three princesses from the ultra-conservative Qatar royal family demanded segregated seating — left the London-bound plane delayed on a baking Italian runway for nearly three hours.
Furious passengers whistled and clapped as the row intensified before the captain eventually ordered the women to be escorted off the plane.
To read the entire story, please click here.
A few observations:
1. Before 9-11 this despicable behavior never would have occurred nor been tolerated. But once 19 Muslims slaughtered over 3,000 innocent Americans, it suddenly became politically acceptable, popular even, for Islam to be obnoxiously aggressive in every nook and cranny of Western civilization. Look for these demands to intensify with gutless liberals supporting these sharia yearning jihadists in the name of what else — multiculturalism and, ahem, tolerance. Odd, I have never heard liberals voice understanding for the culture of Ku Klux Klan. Wonder why? Needless to say: tolerance for the intolerant is a suicide pact for those stupid enough to sign on to such a program.
2. If these women truly were concerned about modesty they could have purchased tickets in advance to assure that they would not have to sit next to male strangers. They certainly have enough money.
3. This is most certainly, like the flying Imams, part of an aggressive policy by advocates of an imperialist religion, to bend western airlines to Sharia law — by any means possible. I guarantee we will see more of this outrageous behavior.
4. It is disgraceful that other passengers were forced to sit for three uncomfortable hours while these burqua-clad bullies argued and argued and argued. The Princes and Princesses should have been ejected as soon as they voiced their absurd demands. But they are, ahem, royalty, wealthy, Muslim, and therefore the authorities were terrified of being accused of, gasp, Islamaphobia — which does not exist, except between Shia and Sunni Muslims who for generations have been proudly slaughtering each other.
5. We applaud the Captain of the jet who, finally, did eject the barbarians, and we hope the unfortunate passengers will take this experience to heart and understand that this is merely a foreshadowing of what Islam has in store for the rest of us if this religion ever becomes ascendant.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, David Paulin.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:26 PM | Comments (16)
Secret Egyptian Pact with Hamas
Egypt has quietly made a deal with Hamas. In return for looking the other way as Hamas smuggles cash and weapons into Gaza, Hamas will not allow Islamic terrorists to operate, from Gaza, against Egypt. Fatah had not been able to prevent this over the past few years. Israel is after Egypt to help stop the smuggling, because Hamas is trying to bring in larger rockets for a major attack on Israel. This would bring Israeli troops back into Gaza, and ultimately destroy Hamas. The anti-Egyptian Islamic terrorists would again be free to operate from Gaza. But Egypt wants some relief now, and is less concerned what happens in the long term. Like most Arabs, Egyptians believe that, in the long run, the Israelis will be driven from the region. In the meantime, the Egyptians try to remain on good terms with everyone, including Israel and the United States.
Original article from Strategy Page.
Egypt, let us keep in mind, is considered by Israel and America, a "moderate" Arab state. Seraphic Secret defines moderate thusly: moderate Arabs yearn and work for the annihilation of the Jewish state even as they bleed American tax payers, and tell gullible Israeli leftists what they want to hear. Non-moderate Arabs, i.e. Jihadists, wage terror campaigns, and call for immediate genocide — though western apologists find no reason to believe this rhetoric, claiming that the Muslim/Arabs are simply playing to their radical base.
In the ever reliable groves of academia, these fashionable deconstructionists, AKA Marxists, inform us that, say, the Iranians have never really called for the destruction of the Jewish state, no they have merely demanded a World Without Zionism.
Oh.
Let us remind these willfully concrete academics of the Wannsee Conference of Tuesday 20 January 1942, where 15 Germans, ten of whom had university degrees, gathered to decide the fate of European Jewry.
Of course the words 'kill', 'murder' or 'gas' appear nowhere in the minutes, only their euphamisms: 'evacuating the Jews to the east,' 'dealt with appropriately', 'eliminate by natural causes', 'transportation and resettlement eastward', and so on. Yet anyone stupid, perversely literally minded or possibly pro-fascist enough to argue that the meeting was indeed only about what was recorded on paper — evacuation and resettlement — has much explaining to do.
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, Page 309
Seraphic Secret has, in the past made this real-world equation:
Hamas is Fatah
Fatah is Hamas.
Lets us add:
Egypt is Hamas
Hamas is Egypt.
Israel and America's foreign policy must be conducted with this devil's arithmetic in mind.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:53 AM | Comments (7)
Terrorati: Whoops
Karen says: “The most interesting items in the New York Times are the corrections, or as they are called: For the Record.”
Here's a doozy Karen brought to my attention.
On Tuesday July 24, Isabel Kershner wrote an article titled: Blair Takes On New Role as Mideast Envoy, Amid Constraints.
Here is a For The Record that was published on Saturday July 28.
Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about Tony Blair's first day as the special envoy of the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers referred imprecisely to the population of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, whose fates are a core issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Although Palestinians and their descendants who are registered as refugees by the United Nations now number about 4.5 million, only about 700,000 Palestinians — not “millions” — fled or were forced to flee during the era when the state of Israel was created. Also because of an editing error, the article referred incorrectly to the time frame during which the first Palestinians left their homes. Most left before and during the 1948 war, not afterward.
A few observations.
1. When the N.Y. Times refers to an "editing error" this is code for: Isabel Kershner is ignorant of the most basic history of the Arab Israeli conflict. In fact, she might very well conduct her research on Al Jazeera.
2. The article is Googled, cited and quoted, and the wretched Arab propaganda spreads like a virus.
3. Isabel Kershner never apologizes; she continues on her beat, her bias/ignorance/laziness unchecked.
4. Thus The Terrorati aid and abet the jihadists — and inevitably even more innocent men, women and children are murdered.
Update: Soccer Dad brings my attention to Martin Peretz's article regarding this very same correction. Peretz disagrees with my analysis, feels that Kershner does know Middle East history, and the mistakes were inserted by an anonymous editor, though Peretz does concede that Kershner's leftist credentials are quite solid.
Meanwhile, Soccer Dad, who is something of a national treasure for 1) The Blogosphere 2) The Jewish people 3) America 4) Western Civilization — and not necessarily in that order — points out that the corrections provided by The New York Times on the Kershner article do not exactly build confidence.
The New York Times, as do all big arch liberal media outlets, is forever demanding transparency from the government, the military, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, while at the same time, practicing some of the most sinister forms of corporate obscurantism. It is impossible for us to know who exactly is responsible for what in the Kershner article, but it is her byline and in the end it is she who is responsible for her good name.
By the way, what is the difference between: Corrections and For the Record? And wouldn't it be interesting to know what corrections the New York Times does not make.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:21 AM | Comments (8)
July 29, 2007
Images Before the Shoah
The pictures, in black and white, are softly focused, but the images are sharp and striking.
These are our ancestors in Poland before the Holocaust. They are ordinary workers, scholars and doe-eyed schoolchildren; there are graves of holy Rabbis, the miraculous grave of a Polish nobleman who converted to Judaism, there's a yeshiva for young girls — I marvel at their fashionable haircuts. The photos of Polish synagogues are a revelation, each is a gem, a vernacular masterpiece — all destroyed by the Germans. These well educated Teutonic barbarians were not content to destroy Jewish lives, they were determined to stamp out every trace of authentic Jewish life. The Germans understood that Torah was and always will be the life-blood of the Jewish people.
The Jews of Poland were, for the most part, poor in material possessions, but their spiritual life was rich beyond imagination.
You gaze at these pictures and with each click of the cursor you want to reach through time and space and cry out a warning: “Jews, flee before it is too late; it is coming, a whirlwind of such terrible immensity that you and your entire world will be reduced to ashes.”
But of course, there is no rescue for this Jewish world — lovely faces, ordinary scenes, sublime architecture — frozen in grainy black and white.
It will all be wiped away: six million times.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Mordechai Schiller
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:51 AM | Comments (13)
July 27, 2007
Jane Has Nothing to Say
“I do not know what is the matter with me today, but I cannot write quietly; I am always wandering away into some exclamation or other. Fortunately, I have nothing very particular to say.”
— Jane Austen, Letter to her sister Cassandra
It is comforting to know — in a twisted sort of way — that even Jane Austen had one of those days. I suddenly feel so much better.
Karen and I wish all our friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbat. Be sure to read this lovely and truly inspiring story: Shabbat in Vietnam. It's war the way you've never quite experienced it. Highly recommended.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:08 PM | Comments (0)
Dying to Write for The N.Y. Times
Seraphic Secret has pointed out that the mainstream media enables Muslim/Arab jihadists by regularly affording these Jew-haters editorial space in their newspapers, thus conferring an air of legitimacy on such terrorist gangs as Hamas and Hizbullah. Thus, we have dubbed these liberal journalists, care of Seraphic friend Ralphie, The Terrorati.
Now, journalist David Paulin, a veteran reporter, spills the beans on how these same Terrorati callously and quite casually use and abuse their Arab stringers in the Red Zone — sometimes, until death.
It's a story you won't read about in The New York Times, the Associated Press, the BBC, or any other mainstream outlet, for their employment practices are, for the most part, journalistically sloppy, and ethically beyond the pale.
It’s an Iraq story that reporters ought to fall over themselves to cover: Iraqis employed by U.S. companies are being sacrificed for the sake of corporate profits. You might call it a sort of corporate apartheid. But you won’t find the Bush administration or Halliburton in this scandal. The culprits are America’s most illustrious media giants – The New York Times, Associated Press, and a number of others. At issue is their practice of “hotel journalism.”
American journalists for much of the war have stayed holed up in hotels and well-guarded homes in the Green Zone. Most write their stories and do phone interviews there. And they communicate with Iraqis whom their companies employ as reporters, translators, and photographers.
Hastily trained, most of these Iraqis lack the professional backgrounds that even a small-town weekly paper in the U.S. would demand. Yet they are shaping our view of the war. These Iraqis, moreover, are dying in large numbers; yet they earn local wages and benefits; and though their compensation is high by local standards, it’s still Third World.
To read the entire story, please click here.
Karen and I wish all our friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbat. (Shabbat in Vietnam)
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:40 PM | Comments (5)
July 26, 2007
In a Word
Okay, Seraphic Friends, here's your assignment: pick up your Number Two pencils, open your notebooks, and and make up a brilliant and coherent sentence using the following three words:
empleomaniac
n. one who is overly eager to hold public office
unasinous
adj. equally stupid
scombroid
adj. resembling a mackerel
Hat Tip: Futility Closet
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:34 PM | Comments (19)
Terrorati Strike Again
Seraphic Secret has written at length about the Terrorati, (H/T Seraphic Friend Ralphie, who coined the term) the arch liberals in the mainstream media who enable Islamofascists by giving them space in their newspapers to voice jihadist propaganda.
The guardians of the MSM, no doubt, defend their editorial decisions by arguing that we need to know what this segment of the Muslim world is thinking.
This is nonsense. I have never seen the New York Times give Op Ed space to the Ku Klux Klan. And the Klan is not half as radical — nor is it genocidal as is Hizbullah and Hamas.
But the MSM correctly find the ideology of the KKK to be so offensive that they will not extend editorial space to such cretins.
Yet Hamas and Hizbullah, whose ideology is far more vicious than the toothless KKK, have nation states at their disposal—Lebanon, Iran and Syria—with which to wage jihadist war, are welcomed in the editorial pages of this nations most liberal journals. Indeed, it is something of a red flag that the MSM seem not at all offended by Jew hatred, and the idea of a World Without Zionism — Orwellian-speak for genocide — that constitutes the daily rhetoric of Hamas and Hizbullah.
Thus, we must conclude that the KKK's hatred of blacks is repugnant to the MSM.
But Jew-hatred and malignant eliminationist anti-Zionism is acceptable.
Because, y'know, the Jews brought it on themselves.
This is what constitutes progressive thought.
Be aware that the editorials and sound bytes put out by these media-wise Islamists never accurately reflect their world views. These sharia yearning, Jew-hating Muslims package their anti-Western ideology in the fuzzy-wuzzy tones of, what else, multiculturalism.
By giving editorial space to groups whose aim is genocide in Israel, the mainstream media serve to legitimize Islamic tyrants, enemies of western civilization, and those who condone the murder of innocent men, women and children — past, present and future.
Let's be honest: Liberals have a soft spot for fascists. They adored Stalin, and served as apologists for the Soviet communist dictators.
Here's a blast from the past:
In a 1949 conference at the Waldorf-Astoria attended by such prominent literary and artistic figures as the composers Aaron Copeland and Dmitri Shostakovich, the playwrights Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets and Lillian Hellman, and the novelist Norman Mailer, 'US warmongering' against the USSR was condemned, as were 'a small clique of hate-mongers' in Washington who had turned the US into a 'state of holy terror.' Odets said that the Truman administration comprised the 'enemies of Man' and Copeland said its policies 'will lead inevitably into a third world war.' All this came only months after the Berlin airlift.
A History of the English Speaking Peoples Since 1900, page 409.
Naturally Fidel is a perennial favorite, and gosh Chavez over in Venezuela looks to be just peachy. But the Soviet empire is gone and liberals are busy rewriting history, making believe that they too were anti-Communist. They were not. They agitated for "co-existence." Many favored and still yearn for socialism. See Hillary's Health care plan.
Currently, Liberals are furiously cozying up to their new fascist loves: IslamoNazis. Thus, liberals enable jihadists, apologize for terror, and blame Israel/Jews, America and religious Christians for all the ills that fester in the backward Arab/Muslim world.
Interpolation
As if the Arab/Muslim world was not mired in wars, primitive tribal murders, bloody clan feuds, honor killings by the bushel, stunning poverty, widespread disease, human slavery, and shocking ignorance — before Israel even existed.
End Interpolation
Gosh, if pro-Israel writers could get the yards of editorial space generously handed to Hamas and Hizbullah, well, there might actually be fewer dead Jews in the world today. But killing Jews and threatening Israel with annihilation is actually fashionable on the left. Go to the Daily Kos to read some real Jew-hatred. The Daily Kos is the world's largest website for liberals. Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred is a regular feature on their progressive threads.
Oh wait, the Democrats are going: to a Daily Kossack convention.
Talk about pandering to the anti-Israel Jew-haters of the left.
Flashback:
When I was a child my parents refused to allow me to play with certain children.
“Why not?” I demanded.
“They're bad kids,” my parents explained, “they will influence your behavior, and besides, you are judged by the company you keep.”
That's why people who care about Israel, who care about fighting IslamoNazis, should stop voting for the Democrats.
Fade to Black
In the battle against global Jihadist organizations, the challenge of how to effectively deal with Jihadist terror group propaganda remains a national issue that needs to be addressed.
Individuals who are either members of or supporters of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) (as designated by the U.S. State Department), are increasingly being represented in the U.S. news media's editorials, op-ed pieces, and other columns. FTO's Hizbullah and Hamas terrorist group figures are gaining unfettered access as columnists in major American newspapers, such as the Washington Post and the New York Times.
The Washington Post and Newsweek today has provided an online column for Hizbullah terrorist group supporter and religious leader Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah to discuss the nature of Jihad as a "defensive" struggle. The Washington Post column clearly describes Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah as a Hezbollah "supporter", stating that he is "a controversial figure known primarily for his support of the armed Shi’ite resistance movement, Hezbollah".
Hizbullah is a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and "Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah" is on the US Department of Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN). As reported by Newsweek itself, "In 1983, U.S. officials accused him of issuing a religious edict, or fatwa, that condoned the devastating truck bombing of the Marine headquarters in Beirut ."
To read the entire article, please click here to go to The Counter Terrorism blog.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:37 AM | Comments (4)
July 25, 2007
Save John Doe
The Democrats want to kill the John Doe Amendment. The Republicans want to save it.
Here's the roll-call. The Senate Democrats are on suicide watch for this nation.
Next time you get on a plane and you see someone suspicious, you'll hesitate to report it because of course if you're wrong, you'll get sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars and spend the rest of your life in court and in debt. And if you're right, well, you're dead.
If you watched the Democrats You Tube debate you'll notice they never mentioned Islamic terror. They never talked about the war on terror. It's not an issue for them. They see it as a criminal matter. That's why they want to close Gitmo. That's why they want to extend habeus corpus to non citizen terrorists who do not wear uniforms. It's the reason they concentrate on so-called global warming rather than Islamic terror; if they acknowledge world-wide terror then they have to do something about it, and the Democrats are incapable of waging an offensive war against such an evil ideology. It's too much for their multi-cultural brains to process. Thus, they make war on the weather.
The “John Doe” amendment still has a chance.
People need to be aware of this crucial amendment. Please send a message of support to your Congressman and Senators.
For a listing of Congressman and Senators and their contact information click here.
Some background information follows:
In Washington, a House-Senate conference committee on a homeland security bill is considering whether to include a measure to protect, from lawsuit, Americans who report suspicious behavior. The so-called "John Doe" measure comes in response to a lawsuit by six imams who were booted from a plane that was about to fly from Minneapolis late last year because they were acting very suspiciously, refusing to sit in their assigned seats, asking for metal seat belt extenders, and speaking loudly and disparagingly about the United States. The imams plan to sue not only the airline but the passengers who reported their behavior -- a step that, if successful, could have a chilling effect on whether other Americans come forward to report such behavior or whether they decide that doing so isn't worth the legal fees. Without this protection, Americans would have no reason to follow the motto of law enforcement agencies: "If you see something, say something."
Separately, the "John Doe" legislation passed both the House and Senate by overwhelming margins. But key Democrats are trying to drop it from the homeland security bill, which would kill it. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson isn't enthused about it, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy spoke against it on the Senate floor. The conference committee is meeting and will make a final decision on this vital legislation in the coming days.
If you agree Americans should be encouraged to report suspicious behavior, if you agree they should not be intimidated by the threat of a lawsuit that could bankrupt them, now is the time to act. Call or e-mail your own Senator and your House member. Tell them to insist that the conference committee include "John Doe" protection in this bill. And after calling or e-mailing your own Senator and House member, contact Congressman Thompson and Senator Leahy. Also contact House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senate Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin.
Don't leave Americans who do the right thing by reporting suspicious behavior out in the cold. Don't let Americans be intimidated into keeping quiet. In the war on terror, there's too much at stake for all of us.
Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser:
http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=1573
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:30 PM | Comments (17)
Israel and Barry Bonds
Yes, Israel now has a professional baseball league. No, Barry bonds has not been drafted by the Jewish state.
But Israel does have a Barry Bonds problem, and though we all love baseball and some would say that the national past time is the life-blood of the American soul, I'm sure no one would argue that America's national security depends upon the exquisite geometry of baseball.
At least no one who is sane.
Anywhoo.
Israel's Barry Bonds problem is existential.
Indeed, a poll taken recently found that a majority of Americans are actually rooting against Bonds, hoping that somehow he will fail to break the record.
Nobody likes a cheater, after all. And America's baseball fans feel cheated, and rightly so.
While all this may sound rather quaint, and entirely irrelevant, to a country such as Israel, the fact of the matter is that it couldn't be more pertinent.
For Israel has its own "Barry Bonds problem," though it is far more dangerous, and more lethal, than the one across the Atlantic. Because the Jewish state has been cheated as well - by its leadership, which continues to fiddle while the country burns.
Like Bonds, our politicians claim glorious titles for themselves and seek to command our respect, even as they spit upon everything we hold dear.
To read the entire article by Michael Freund, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Mordechai Schiller
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:18 PM | Comments (12)
Suing CAIR
New York Attorney Andrew Nitzberg has asked Anti-CAIR for assistance in locating witnesses. Please read the following and help out if you can.
Thank you,
Andrew Whitehead
Director, Anti-Council on American-Islamic Relations (Anti-CAIR)
=====================================================
My name is Andrew Nitzberg and I am a trial attorney practicing largely in the state of New York. I am the lawyer responsible for the trial victory of Lee Kaplan against Mohammed Salahi earlier this year. The action was for private speech by Salahi that cost Lee Kaplan several jobs. The 'free speech' defense fell flat because thiswas for private, not public, speech. The court records and decision are posted online by the California court administration.
I am filing for an injunction against George Mason University for their upcoming conference of the 'International Solidarity movement', the US wing of Hamas.
I need assistance in the form of evidence. Of course there is lots of evidence to show that the ISM is a violent, Jew-hating group which directly assists terrorists in coming to their targets and similar activities. But i need evidence admissible in a court of law.
No one will be required to appear in court or to travel, except me -- the pro-bono lawyer.
1. I need statements from persons who have directly observed ISM personnel stating things like, "Kill the Jews", "We support the resistance of the Palestinian people even when they engage in Terrorism" , "We work with Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza", "We work with Hizballah ."
Persons attending the Michigan ISM conference in, I think, 2002, would be very helpful here.
2. I need statements indicating that persons have observed ISM persons beating up persons who do not support the agenda of the ISM. This should be very easy, they beat people up every year at these things.
3. I need statements that persons have personally observed ISM personnel with weapons or transporting weapons. Statements from ISM personnel that admit to such contact with weapons are excellent.
4. There are people looking for the 'perfect plaintiff' for the action. (We have general students (2) eager to sign on, but we would like the 'perfect plaintiff' — who is a student (BA or grad)/administrator/faculty member who has a family member in Israel. The Virginia criminal code makes this a very attractive plaintiff. Any Jewish person is eligible because we can shake the family tree and find some relative who is living in Israel.
Thank you for this help. Every terrorist is my enemy because I am a friend to freedom. I am hopeful that I will find many friends in this effort.
Andrew Nitzberg
Please respond to: ajnn@msn.com
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend Jeremayakova
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:58 AM | Comments (2)
July 24, 2007
Present Tense: Temple Destruction
We remember the destruction of the two holy Temples. We fast, we mourn, we read Eichah, The Book of Lamentations:
Alas — she sits in solitude. The city that was great with people has become like a widow. The greatest among nations, the princess among provinces has become a tributary.— 1:1
The connection Jews feel to the Temples is profound: it is a feeling that exists outside the normal boundaries of time and space. When a Jew sits and learns Talmud, learns the laws of sacrifice in the Temple, he speaks in the present tense. He is in that moment, of that moment, within every single detail.
In fact, all learning is done in the present tense. For instance, we will quote the Maharal of Prague 1512-1609, author of the Gur Aryeh, and then engage him in dialog with Rav Yaakov ben Asher 1270-1340, author of the Baal Ha-Turim; it is magical, seamless, as if both men are speaking one to the other — and to us — in the same room, at the very same moment. When engaged in the study of Torah, we never use the past tense; the words of the Sages, their ideas and Torah are eternal. That they lived and died in different generations, in different lands, is merely a dry technical physical matter. They are forever engaged in lively, passionate and holy debate.
Step into any Yeshiva grade school and you will hear children in New York, Jerusalem, Hong Kong, Paris — everywhere Torah Jews reside — you will hear tiny voices say these two words:
“Rashi says.”
Rav Shlomo ben Yitzchok, known by his acronym RASHI. The greatest of all Torah commentators. Born in Troyes, France 1040, died 1105. Rashi's ancestry goes back to King David. Rashi's commentary on the Torah is so extraordinary that almost every edition of the Torah that is printed comes with Rashi's commentary. It is concise and clear. Here is a man who does not waste a single letter. Rashi's commentary on the Talmud opens what might have become a sealed book. It is said that no one would be able to navigate the sea of the Talmud without Rashi's guiding exegesis. I have never seen any edition of the Talmud that does not include Rashi's commentary.
The greatness of Rashi is this: we begin to study Torah when we are children and Rashi is our guide. When we are older in middle school, Rashi continues to illuminate our path, as we grow old Rashi grows with us, his greatness is undimmed, his commentaries urgently deepen our comprehension of Torah, and Talmud.
We query Rashi in the present tense, he dutifully answers our questions; it's as if this winemaker/scholar is our personal chavrusha, a living breathing study partner; indeed, we engage in critical Torah thought through a trick of physics: willfully erasing the distances of time and space. Rashi may have died, but his lomdus, his learning is eternal.
When you labor in the vineyards of Torah, death does not have the final word.
My good friend Rabbi Berel Wein has produced a wonderful animated film about the life and times of Rashi. It was written by my high school buddy Jesse Cogan and directed by Ashley Lazarus, another close friend. This is an excellent introduction to Rashi's life and work — for all age groups. You can read about it and order the DVD directly from Rabbi Wein's website.
Shameless plug: I wrote the film about The Rambam, Maimonides for Rabbi Wein's Destiny Foundation. I'm extremely proud of this work. Naturally, I caught heck from some people because I dared dramatize The Rambam courting his second wife Jamila with some pretty cute dialog. Gee willikers, you should see some of the hate mail I receive. Oh well, I'm used to it. You can order the DVD here and judge for yourselves if I'm a heretic or not.
Preview: I just finished writing the screenplay for Baal Shem Tov for Rabbi Wein's Destiny Foundation. Can't wait to see the mail I get once that script is produced and released.
Anywhooo.
I speak of the importance of the present tense because the Muslims in Jerusalem are intent on denying and destroying this precious connection Jews have with the site of our Temples.
The Temple Mount is being barbarically looted by the Muslim authorities.
Seraphic Friend Yehudit Weiss, of Kesher, covers this shameful Orwellian rewriting of Jewish history and the ongoing destruction of Jewish artifacts by Muslims on the Temple Mount, Judaism's most holy site.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:56 AM | Comments (8)
July 23, 2007
The NY Times War Against the Jews: The Terrorati
The New York Times ramps up its war against the Jews.
This time they use the most time honored of methods: a formerly religious Jew, now an arch liberal, writes a seemingly scholarly, and dispassionate criticism of Judaism. The only problem: the article by the embittered and massively narcissistic former yeshiva student Noah Feldman, is filled with half-truths and cherry-picked Torah scholarship designed to mislead and cast Torah and halacha, Jewish law, in the worst light possible.
It's a blood libel — Ivy League style. You can read it here.
Seraphic Friend Havolim does a fine job of analyzing Feldman's cognitive dissonance.
Hirhurim Musings also covers the Feldman controversy. Go to the comments section which are extensive and cover a wide diversity of opinion. Some quite scholarly and brilliant, others are just stupid. You need to seriously filter.
To me, it is no accident that Feldman's article has been published just before T'sha B'av. In the past, Jews in Christian lands were summoned by Church fathers to "defend their faith" in public. Usually, their opponent was a renegade Jew who had converted to Christianity and used his power in the Church to attack his former co-religionists. The debate was supposed to be even-handed, judged "fairly" by the King. Of course, the Jews never had a chance, even when their arguments were rock-solid and the opposing arguments were factually wrong and nonsensical. But even then the Church attempted to confer an air of legitimacy on the proceedings — a kangaroo court.
The New York Times does no such thing. They have set up their Auto de fe and Feldman is judge, jury, and executioner. He's Tony Soprano — from Haavard. Read Feldman's article and you'll not fail to notice that he's working from the most base of motives: he's got a personal beef to settle with his old yeshiva. Yes folks, we have seen this movie before.
The most famous Disputation was between Rabbi Nachmanides and Pablo Christiani.
Needless to say, the New York Times continues to publish glowing profiles of Jihadist leaders. Last week in-house terrorati Hassan M. Fattah published a profile of Omar Bakri Mohammed, a jihadist so radical he was expelled from London, and now lives in Beirut. Nowhere does Fattah mention that Bakri has called for the death of Jews, and for the destruction of the State of Israel. No, the thrust of the article is that Bakri has moderated his views; yup, he's now this fuzzy-wuzzy feel-good imam.
The New York Times is on a mission and it is quite clear: attack Jews, Judaism and Israel, wherever and whenever possible. At the same time, minimize the threat of jihad, glorify Islam—sell it as a religion of peace, uh-huh—and legitimize the most virulent of jihadists and Jew-haters. To do their bidding, The New York Times have a well-chosen group of arch liberals : Steven Erlanger, Isabel Kershner, Noah Feldman, David Reiff, and Hassan M. Fattah — The Terrorati.
Tonight begins the Fast of T'sha B'av. On T'sha B'av both Jewish Temples were destroyed, first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and then by the Romans in 70 ACE.
Ari's Blog has a fine primer for this, the saddest day of the Jewish calendar.
I lived in Israel during the frightening days of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. In the first few days of the war, the military situation was so dire that General Moshe Dayan told Prime Minister Golda Mier he feared the “Third Temple was about to fall.” He was speaking, of course, about the State of Israel.
Israel fought back, brilliantly, crossed the Suez, and completely surrounded the Egyptian Third Army and almost completely encircled the Egyptian Second Army — but Sadat pushed hard for a cease fire to save his army from complete humiliation. In the North, brave Israeli tank commanders fought against overwhelming odds, sometime two or three Israeli tanks against thirty or forty Syrian tanks — the heights of courage, on the Golan, and soon the Israeli army was knocking on the front door of Damascus.
The battlefield has changed. We are no longer faced with conventional armies. We fight a truly clever enemy who employ Fourth Generation methods of warfare against a nation state that is slow to adapt.
The Jewish people are once again facing an old and familiar foe: Hellenist Jews. Jews who prefer to identify with the greater secular culture at the expense of Torah Judaism. They cloak their hatred of Torah in the cool tones of academia, but they are like the Assyrian Jews who endured excruciating surgeries in order to reverse their circumcisions. These arch-secularists, so anxious to be accepted by the liberal establishment, endure surgeries of the mind. They have been brainwashed to the point where their hatred for Torah, Judaism and Israel comes out with the label: progressive thought.
We have survived the enslavement of the Egyptians, the rear-guard attacks of Amaleks in the desert, we survived the Babylonian exile, the cruel wars of the Assyrian Greeks and the Jewish Hellenists who collaborated with them, we fought the brutal Romans and survived. We founded Yavneh for we knew that it is only Torah that allows Judaism to flourish. There was the Bar Kokhba Revolt — such terrible slaughter. In a stroke of intellectual genius, and for national and religious survival, we wrote down the Oral Torah: the Mishnah and the Talmud.
The heart and soul of of Jews and Judaism is Torah; all else is illusion.
We have been expelled from France, Spain, Italy, the German Lands, England — but we endure.
We endure. We survive. We thrive. Torah and Israel are eternal.
Karen and I wish all our friends a meaningful fast.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:42 PM | Comments (10)
Genocide Generals
The national myth in Germany is that the German army, the Wehrmacht, did not participate in the genocide of World War II. This was, so the myth goes, exclusively the province of the SS, the Einsatzgruppen, and local fascist collaborators. Common sense has always whispered that this is nonsense. Such a division of labor cannot exist when murder exists on an industrial scale. Now, recordings—mountains of recordings—have been released that implicate the Wehrmacht in every nook and cranny of the Holocaust.
And I have a prediction.
In not too many days, these recordings and transcripts will be denounced by British Muslims, by the Arab/Muslim world in general, as forgeries, as the work of a Zionist conspiracy to drum up sympathy and support for Israel.
These historically invaluable transcripts will never be included in any British syllabus for British Muslims will denounce them as Zionist propaganda. British Muslims will demand equal time for the quote: so-called Palestinian genocide, unquote.
During the latter half of World War II, the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) undertook a massive clandestine operation of which the full, extraordinary details are only now coming to light.
Between 1942 and 1945, a section of SIS - known as MI19 - secretly recorded no fewer than 64,427 conversations between captured German generals and other senior officers, all without their knowledge or even suspicion. The 167 most significant of these are about to be published for the first time.
Together, they provide us with a goldmine of information about what the German High Command privately thought of the war, Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and each other. They also explode the post-war claim of the Wehrmacht that they did not know what the SS were doing to the Jews, Slavs, mentally disabled and others among what they termed "untermensch" (sub-humans).
To read the entire article, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Kent Budge.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:28 AM | Comments (7)
Farewell Britain
Yesterday, we posted an on-line petition urging British physicians not to Boycott Israeli physicians. That the British would even consider such a move is infamous.
Would they boycott Arab/Muslim physicians who are Israeli citizens and routinely work side by side with their Jewish collegues in Israeli hospitals? How about Christian and Druze physicians who also work and conduct research in Israel's world-class medical facilities? Will these physicians also be subject to the boycott?
Of course none of these issues are articulated for by raising such questions those who urge the boycott reveal that such a boycott is, at its core, the work of Jew-haters.
It is signifigant that Britain which is following a policy of appeasement in language and in foreign policy have been subject to one jihadist attack after another.
The current British government has decided to treat the jihadist threat as a criminal matter, not as a trans-national terrorist threat. EU Jihadists will rejoice for this decision downgrades them to common criminals, and their bloody work will be made that much easier. Funny, Osama Bin Laden declared jihad, war, on the Western civilization back in the 80's. He doesn't really care what infidels think, but this will cement his opinion that infidels are idiots. No wonder British jihadists have been so bold and the British Isles have come under relentless attack. They are waging serious jihad, and the British establishment are chasing, um, petty criminals.
Appeasement, the ultimate sign of weakness, invites further aggression.
Yet America, on the offensive and, save for the terrorati, unapologetic for this war on terror that we did not ask for — has not been attacked on the homeland since 9-11.
You would think the British would draw some logical conclusions from this most basic arithmetic.
But scapegoating Israel, Jews, is far easier, especially when close to half of your physicians are foreign-born. Meaning, they are Muslim.
It is 1938 and there is no Churchill to save the British from themselves — only wall to wall Chamberlains.
Farewell Britain.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:04 AM | Comments (5)
July 22, 2007
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #126 Plus Brigitte Bardot
Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot in Shalako, 1968
“You're too beautiful to die.” says Sean Connery.
Brigitte Bardot says—
Actually, I have no idea what her line of dialog is. And neither does she.
I'm watching Shalako, an obscure American western that was shot in Spain with an international cast. Bardot didn't take too many English speaking roles because she didn't parlez English. She learned her parts phonetically and breathlessly heaved out her lines.
It's almost impossible to understand Bardot. She sounds like her mouth is filled with rocks. Oh well, we must content ourselves with gazing contentedly at the lovely BB.
Shalako actually has a great concept: A group of overbred European aristocrats are hunting in Apache territory, breaking a treaty — and the Apache attack. Only buckskin-clad Sean Connery can save them. Natch, Sean and Brigitte get it on.
But there is zero, I mean zero chemistry between Sean and the dazzling blond one.
In “Shalako” Bardot fights Apaches and the English language
Which is kind of funny when you consider that they were an item off-screen. Just goes to show, on-screen magic truly is magical. In this movie, Connery and BB are wooden.
At one point BB whispers: “Yooo waant me don't yooo?”
Connery looks at her long and hard and I swear, he's like: “Eh.”
In fact Sean definitely shows more interest in his horse.
And the action scenes? Veteran director Edward Dmytryk was asleep at the wheel. Yawn-fest.
Not too surprising. Eddie directed perhaps the most brain-dead movie I have ever not watched — made it through the first 45 minutes and then just passed out—Raintree County. Talk about boring. Edward Dmytryk made the young and beautiful Liz Taylor unwatchable.
Oh, and there's a dumb opening credit song, so bad your skin crawls. Lyrics by Jim Dale. Sound familiar? Listen to your Harry Potter tapes. That's our boy.
Anyhoo.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
E-mail beckons.
Haveil Havalim has arrived.
And so, to pay tribute to BB, before she marinated herself in the sun like a well done hamburger:
Haveil Havalim #126 The Brigitte Bardot Edition
We'd like to thank Reb Chaim Ha Qoton for including Seraphic Secret's Watch the Skies in this week's excellent round-up.
Yasher Koach Reb Chaim, a job well done. Have a meaningful Fast on T'sha B'av.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:04 PM | Comments (6)
British Physicians Considering Israeli Boycott
I have to admit, I'm at the point where I feel like throwing up my hands and letting Britain drown in their own medieval thuggery.
Fact: Britain has an aggressive Muslim population who want Sharia and have convinced many British that if Israel—Jews, wink-wink—would just disappear, well, everything will be just hunky-dory.
Of course, it's a massive lie.
Just a feint, to keep the appeasers appeasing.
Jews, let's be honest here, are a minority, and highly expendable.
So what if Jews contribute to art, literature, science and the economy. The Muslims have perfected homicide bombings—not that they invented a single component—and, what else? Um, oh yes, they have managed to revive the medieval blood-libel.
Of such accomplishments, great civilizations are built.
Anywhoo.
I'm posting this petition, well, because I feel that it's my civic duty. But my core feeling is this: Jews should exit Britain. Let the British find out what happens when they trade a patriotic and productive Jewish citizenry for a hostile and sharia-yearning Muslim population.
Back to the bogs of Alfred the Great, no doubt.
Let it also be known that the Terrorati of England, the BBC, are a gang of Oxford and Cambridge educated Jew-haters, active enablers of jihad. Oswald Mosley would be proud of these overbred, overeducated creatures.
Here is Melanie Phillip's must read article: The Protocols of the BBC.
Vote No Against Israel Boycott in British Medical Journal Poll
By Edward S. Beck, President, SPME
The British Medical Journal of the British Medical Association is conducting an anonymous online poll aimed primarily at physicians, academics and researcher, but accepting votes from the general public as well on boycotting Israel. Please take a moment to go to the poll to VOTE NO here.
Thank you.
• Visit Scholars For Peace in the Middle East website http://www.spme.net
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:06 AM | Comments (4)
July 21, 2007
Not So Great Britain
“I think I can save the British Empire from anything — except the British.”
— Winston Churchill
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:35 PM | Comments (5)
July 20, 2007
Global Warming: The Solution
Jihadists are blowing up innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, London, Israel, Spain; well, name a country with a Muslim population, and what shock — you've got Islamic terror.
But the progressives/liberals/Democrats/lefties/Greenies, oh, gee I give up — are worried about, um, the weather.
That way they don't have to think about some lunatic screaming Allah Akbar as he saws away at your neck.
It's no fun confronting genocidal religious fanatics.
No, Global Warming Gihadists prefer to lecture us about the huge, nasty Haliburton corporation, how SUV's are the tools of the devil, and that people are just, y'know, peoples.
They are not.
Some are good.
Some are evil.
It helps to know the difference.
Anyway, there's a simple solution to the scourge of global warming
Read on:
Many of our most thoughtful environmentalists are telling us that our planet is facing an unfathomable calamity. The combination of unbridled overpopulation and increasing greenhouses gases puts us on a path to destroy Mother Earth - unless we do something now. Two of the major suggestions to prevent such disaster were unveiled this week: in England, scientists suggested creating compulsory restriction on family sizes, to reduce the global population. Meanwhile researchers in Japan suggest an end to eating meat, since the environmental cost of a few pounds of beef is responsible for more pollution than driving a car for three hours.
I have examined this problem closely and realize there is a simple answer to this dilemma. If overpopulation and consumption of animals cause major harm to our planet, then we can simply eradicate both threats through cannibalism.
Let's eat each other.
To read the rest of the article, click here to go to Seraphic Friend, Tales of a Traveling Professor.
Karen and I wish you all a lovely and meaningful Shabbos.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:06 PM | Comments (8)
Wild Boys Into Men
Seraphic Friend Tony Woodlief has written a great pamphlet. I've read it—twice—and encourage all my readers to order this fine work, and support the The New Pamphleteer. This is a cutting-edge conservative enterprise whose work echoes the early political pamphlets circulated by Tom Paine and other great American figures.
How does a hapless 21st century dad raise three young sons to manhood without taming their natural wildness? Modern society seems more interested in turning wild boys into mild boys, rather than harnessing their natural aggressiveness in traditional male virtues like protecting the innocent and seeking justice. Author Tony Woodlief describes his near-obsessive quest to find books, toys, movies, and other resources that teach boys to develop their character without losing what he calls “The Cowboy Gene.” In the course of that struggle, he finds out the true meaning of fatherhood.
To read an excerpt and order this wonderful pamphlet, go to The New Pamphleteer, here.
Oh, and Tony recommends my novel The Hebrew Kid and the Apache Maiden as a book that should be read by boys — for it will help teach them how to be men.
Karen and I wish you all a lovely and meaningful Shabbos.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:41 PM | Comments (4)
Anti-Israel Democrats
Joe Lieberman is no longer a Democrat. If you read John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, you'd swear it was being given by a Republican. Scoop Jackson, Hubert Humphrey, the old guard of the Democrats, are gone — and their ideas forgotten. The new Democrats are sliding deeper to the left. The George Soros wing are loud, and profoundly anti-Israel. There is no question that the Democrats cannot be trusted with national security, their priorities are clear: so-called global warming is their big issue. If you go to the websites of all the major Democratic candidates, the words "Islamic terror" simply do not appear. Jihad does not exist. Indeed, the Democrats prefer to label Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad a "peacemaker" (c/o useful idiot Nancy Pelosi) and heap abuse on George Bush and Dick Cheney.
Israel, in the past the province of the Democrats, has fallen into disfavor by the leftists who are growing in power and influence in the Democratic party.
History marches on and now it is the Republicans who value Israel as a bulwark of democracy, and as a strategic ally in the war against Islamic terror. Meanwhile, the Democrats dither, cozy up and play games of moral equivalence and appeasement to their very vocal left anti-Israel, some say Jew-hating wing.
Here's a fine article that articulates why those who love Israel, who care about freedom, should vote Republican.
Support for Israel has long been a tenet of both political parties. Major Democratic and Republican 2008 presidential contenders have demonstrated their support for Israel by, among other things, attending the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington, touting their pro-Israel voting records and personally traveling to the region.
Yet pockets of anti-Israel sentiment are active in American politics and have found a home among a small group of Democratic lawmakers and leftist activists. While it's tempting to dismiss them as irrelevant, the left's views on Israel have in recent years seeped into mainstream politics.
A small but significant group of overwhelmingly Democratic members of Congress have consistently voted against efforts to support Israel in its continual struggle against terrorists and now an Islamist Hamas government in Gaza. These votes demonstrate that anti-Israel views are a minority in Congress — but a minority composed primarily of the most left-leaning members of the Democratic Caucus.
Read the full article by Jennifer Rubin, here.
Hat Tip: Republican Jewish Coalition
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:25 AM | Comments (5)
7 Rules: 1 Oath
From our greatest combat journalist, Michale Yon, another invaluable article that gives us real insight into what's going on, day-to-day, in Iraq. Yon provides context, meaning. Unlike most of the lazy journalists in Iraq he refuses to help the jihadists by beaming out the explosion of the day. No, Yon covers the grinding work of war, the grunt who's bored to tears one minute and then taking fire the next. He covers the brilliant officers who work as sophisticated diplomats to bring some measure of security to terrorized neighborhoods.
This is a man who understands war, those who fight, and those who are caught in war's maelstrom.
Michael Yon is a real journalist, a national treasure. He not a prisoner of ideology, he simply writes the truth — something quite rare among journalists who overwhelmingly believe that it is their job to push a particular agenda. In the mainstream media — an arch liberal ideology.
Today marks D+30 since the start of Operation Arrowhead Ripper. The initial goal of Arrowhead Ripper was to clear Baqubah of al Qaeda, and then attempt to “jump start” the city back into civic life, which had all but ceased while the terrorists were in control. Though relatively minor clearing operations are still underway, there is little combat in the city.
Today Colonel Steve Townsend, the American commander of the 3-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, presided over a meeting with Iraqi Army officers and former insurgent leaders. The insurgent leaders who seem to be sincerely working toward peace are now collectively referred to as “the Baqubah Guardians.” I was allowed to attend the meeting, but was—understandably—not permitted to photograph or videotape the proceedings.
Colonel Townsend clarified the purpose of the meeting; it was not to formalize relations or to establish a chain of command, but to work out ways of cooperating to bring better days to Baqubah.
To read the rest of Michael's article, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
Jane Can't Get Published
Observing the decline of Britain is a sad, infuriating spectacle. The great people who stood alone and fought so heroically when the rest of Europe was being swallowed by the Nazi conflagration is but a pale shadow of its former self.
Yes, now we have an island seething with intellectual Jew-haters who disguise their medieval venom under academic credentials by labeling it anti-Zionism.
This same mind-set has now seen fit to remove Winston Churchill from the grade school syllabus, and replace his towering political and moral genius with politically correct sludge.
The British government now in power, with Orwellian mastery, refuses to use the phrase "war on terror"—as do the Democrats in America—and to further enable the aggressive jihadists down the street, the words "Islamic terror" are officially banned from all official government communiques. As do the Democrats in America—unofficially.
Indeed, the first casualty in war is the truth.
If all that wasn't bad enough, we now learn that the British, whom we thought were at least well-read Jew-haters and appeasers, are also, sigh, illiterate.
Jane Austen, weep for your not so great Britain.
She might have sold millions of books in the past 200 years, but a daring experiment has found Jane Austen would struggle to secure a book deal today.
David Lassman, a frustrated author and director of the Jane Austen Festival in the English town of Bath, sent off manuscripts featuring several chapters of Austen's most famous work to 18 publishers and agents, claiming it was all his work.
To his amazement all publishers rejected the manuscripts, and most failed to spot that he had ripped off opening chapters of Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
“I was staggered,” Mr Lassman told The Guardian newspaper.
“Here is one of the greatest writers that has lived, with her oeuvre securely fixed in the English canon and yet only one recipient recognised them as Austen's work.”
Mr Lassman decided to send off the manuscripts, which contained only slight alterations to Austen's words, in frustration at having his own original thriller rejected.
“I know it isn't a masterpiece but I think it is publishable,” he said.
“Yet nobody wanted it. I was talking with some friends and we wondered if Jane would find a publisher or agent if she were around today.”
The original article can be found here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, David Paulin.
Seraphic Friend Dr. Carol has just sent us this disturbing article about the rising tide of Jew-hatred in Britain.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:01 AM | Comments (13)
July 19, 2007
Teen Terrorati Chic
The Delia's catalog comes to Casa Avrech about once a month. It's teenage girl-fashion and I rarely look between the covers.
But whoa!
Terror-chic has invaded Delia's.
Late breaking news: Seraphic Friend Yehudit at Kesher informs us that the teen terrorati scarf is no longer available from Delia's. See LGF for details. As Yehudit says: "Behold, the power of the blogosphere."
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:10 PM | Comments (8)
Jihad Hollywood
Sometimes, I'm just ashamed of the callousness that's displayed by the movers and shakers in Hollywood. Is it ignorance, stupidity, carelessness, or just knee-jerk liberalism? No matter what the cause, it's incredibly destructive, and at this stage in history enables jihad and strengthens a growing Islamic ideology whose chief aim calls for the elimination of the State of Israel and every Jew and Crusader—that's a shout-out to Christians—on the face of the earth.
When Hamas refers to "the occupation" they are talking about the entire State of Israel. It's important to understand these code words when you hear jihadists sloganeering.
If you think Fatah are moderate, well, think again. Their game plan calls for the elimination of the Zionist entity (they don't like saying the word Israel) — in stages. That's a politically acceptable way of calling for genocide.
To summarize: Hamas are openly blood-thirsty and want to jihad now; Fatah disguise their blood-lust behind Holocaust denying President Abbas (neat trick!) and call for jihad one incremental step at a time. Want proof? Just take a look at the Fatah grade-school text books which are filled with Jew hatred, and the negation of Israel's right to exist.
As I've written before:
Hamas is Fatah.
Fatah is Hamas.
All else is hot air.
Recently The New York Times carried a review of a film called Hot House that goes inside Israeli prisons and examines the lives of Palestinian prisoners. We're not recommending the film or the review. But we do want to share our feelings with you about the beaming female face that adorns the article. You can see it here.
The film is produced by HBO. So it's presumably HBO's publicity department that was responsible for creating and distributing a glamor-style photograph of a smiling, contented-looking young woman in her twenties to promote the movie.
That female is our child's murderer. She was sentenced to sixteen life sentences or 320 years which she is serving in an Israeli jail. Fifteen people were killed and more than a hundred maimed and injured by the actions of this attractive person and her associates. Here is the background:
Neither the New York Times nor HBO are likely to give even a moment's attention to the victims of the barbarians who destroyed the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem and the lives of so many victims. So we would be grateful if you would pass along this link to some pictures of our daughter whose name was Malki. She was unable to reach her twenties — Hamas saw to that.
Though she was only fifteen years old when her life was stolen from her and from us, we think Malki was a beautiful young woman, living a beautiful life. We ask your help so that other people — far fewer than the number who will see the New York Times, of course — can know about her. Please ask your friends to look at the pictures — some of the very few we have — of our murdered daughter. They are here.
And remind them of what the woman in the Israeli prison — the woman smiling so happily in the New York Times — said last year. "I'm not sorry for what I did. We'll become free from the occupation and then I will be free from prison."
With so many voices demanding that Israel release its terrorist prisoners, small wonder she's smiling.
With greetings from Jerusalem ,
Frimet and Arnold Roth
On behalf of Keren Malki
----------
Please give your support to the:
Malki Foundation PO Box 23637
Jerusalem 91236 Israel
www.kerenmalki.org
Office Phone +972-2-567-0602
Office Fax +972-3-542-3783
from United States: 1-718-395-2293
To stay in touch with the work of the Malki
Foundation, please join the Friends of Keren Malki Email List
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Estelle Posner
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:19 AM | Comments (7)
July 18, 2007
Israel: The Bush Doctrine
As you reflect on the President's recent address on the Middle East, please take note of this analysis by respected scholar and author Michael Oren which appeared in today's Wall Street Journal — it is quite important.
If the Israeli media largely overlooked the diplomatic innovations of Mr. Bush's speech, they completely missed its dynamic territorial and demographic dimensions. The president pledged to create a "contiguous" Palestinian state—code for assuring unbroken Palestinian sovereignty over most of the West Bank and possibly designating a West Bank-Gaza corridor. On the other hand, the president committed to seek a peace agreement based on "mutually agreed borders" and "current realities," which is a euphemism for Israel's retention of West Bank settlement blocks and no return to the 1967 lines.
To read Michael Oren's entire article, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend Matthew Brooks, Republican Jewish Coalition
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:35 AM | Comments (6)
July 17, 2007
Robert & Karen: Together Again
Yesterday, I made a personal appearance at the Memorial Library here in Los Angeles.
Some of my readers have written and asked how it went.
Here's a brief recap:
A few hours before leaving Karen turns to me and says:
“What are you going to talk about?”
I shrug: “I dunno, something like: My Path to Hollywood.”
“Don't you think you should prepare?”
“Yes, I do.”
Resolutely, I sit down at the computer and write a thorough outline.
But I work on the Dell PC.
Mistake.
Yup, I get one of those horrifying messages that has the word "corrupted" in it and —
—and the file crashes.
Don't even start scolding me about why I'm not working on my Apple Powerbook.
One hour and twenty minutes until lift-off.
It will take 20 minutes to drive to the library.
It takes 20 minutes to drive everywhere in Los Angeles.
I'm a pro. I can do this.
Sit down at my dependable Apple Powerbook and rewrite the entire outline.
Yes, writing is rewriting.
Literally.
Not a lot of time to go. Rehearse for five minutes.
But I need some inspiration—which means a jolt of Japanese cinema.
Watch five minutes of Ugetsu.
Oh my gosh: Machiko Kyō 京マチ子 might be one of the greatest film actresses ever. Her work in Ugetsu and Rashomon is just heart-stopping.
Okey-dokey. I'm locked and loaded, ready to do this—whatever this might turn out to be.
Karen dresses, asks me if her outfit matches. I tell her it does. She's so beautiful my knees go wobbly. Naturally, she doesn't believe me. I remind her that I never lie about something as important as wardrobe.
In the car I say: “I hate talking about myself.”
Karen says: “Uh-huh”
Unsure about her level of irony.
The high points:
1. Beautiful library. Really nice red brick Tudor building. Never know what you're going to find in LA.
2. I thought maybe four people would show up. There are about thirty people.
3. Nice cross-section of humanity. No crazy people who smell and talk to themselves. Always a relief.
4. Karen sits in the first row. We have a basic understanding: she will signal if the talk goes horribly wrong.
5. My lecture/talk/schmooze is all about wanting two things in life: Karen and Hollywood. Big shock, huh?
6. Oh yeah: Spend a lot of time on The Seven Samurai and Rashomon. Another huge shock.
7. Nobody throws eggs at me.
8. It's a lot like show-and-tell. I talk. Nod to Karen. She comments. Sort of a reality check. The crowd sighs because Karen's so pretty and poised and I'm so dopey.
9. At about the half-hour point Karen signals: stop talking. I guess it's getting really boring.
10. Driving home I say to Karen: "I hate talking about myself."
Karen goes: “Uh-huh.”
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:03 AM | Comments (15)
The N.Y. Time's War Against the Jews
Again and again, we are shocked by the sheer foolishness if not callousness of the mainstream media. The MSM seem especially gullible when it comes to the false narrative of the so-called Palestinian people.
The New York Times best exemplifies the liberal bias of the mainstream media, the tilt against Israel, and the romantic glow they bestow on every Jew-hating terrorist who labels himself a Palestinian. Let's face it, demonizing Israel, and killing Jews has become fashionable on the left.
The Israeli correspondents of the New York Times are chosen for their unshakable belief in moral equivalence; they are radical secularists and they will be articulate apologists for Jew-haters and genocidal Arab regimes. Further, they have not a clue into the workings of Pallywood. And if they do, they either ignore the dreadful lies, or tacitly approve.
In any case, all New York Times correspondents live quite comfortably in Israel—not Gaza or Hebron—but spit on Israeli democracy and society. This contempt for freedom is not unknown among arch liberals.
Steven Erlanger, the most recent and most wretched of these creatures, has become the official spokesman for Hamas; he does not even put up a pretense of even-handedness. In this week's N.Y. Times Magazine section he has written long and glowing profile of a Hamas terrorist, Khaled Abu Hilal: A Life of Unrest. This article makes Jew-hatred, Jew killing, and the denial of Israel's legitimacy, sound, well, reasonable—and certainly all Israel's fault.
Nothing like a little blood libel from the paper of record.
We should not be surprised. This is business as usual for a newspaper, owned by a Jewish family, but whose real religion is radical secularism.
When one looks back on this paper's record on the great issues, especially when it comes to Jews, well, the ink becomes rather blood-stained.
As Andrew Roberts reports on page 311 of A History of the English Speaking Peoples Since 1900:
On June 27 1942 the New York Times devoted two inches to the news that 700,000 Jews were reported slain in Poland.
In December 1942, reports that two million Jews had been killed and five million more faced extermination in Europe appeared on page twenty. Even when Europe had begun to be liberated, and information was easier to verify, stories about the Holocaust were allocated tiny coverage, tucked away deep inside the paper. When on 2 July 1944 the New York Times accurately reported that 400,000 Hungarian Jews had been deported to their deaths, and that 350,000 more were due to be killed in the next weeks, it received only four columns inches on page twelve.
It is no accident that the newspaper that willfully ignores the Holocaust, is consistently wrong about Israel—is also wrong about Iraq.
On July 8, 2007 history will record that The New York Times surrendered to terror on its editorial page.
A man who knows volumes about war and peace and history Victor Davis Hanson, point-by-point, takes the appeasers, the defeatists to task.
It's not a hard call. Once again, The New York Times comes down on the side of those who would commit genocide.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:49 AM | Comments (8)
July 16, 2007
Seraphic Secret Personal Appearance
You are cordially invited as
The Memorial Library
proudly presents an evening with
Emmy Award Winning Screenwriter & Producer
Robert J. Avrech
Author of numerous screenplays including:
"A Stranger Among Us"
"Within These Walls"
"Body Double"
"Brotherhood of Murder"
"The Devil's Arithmetic"
"Max Q: Emergency Landing"
"Into Thin Air: Death on Everest"
"Running Delilah"
"Scandal in a Small Town"
"Dark Tower"
"The Secret Life of Ian Fleming"
"Mariah"
This Monday evening
July 16, 2007
6:30 p.m.
Karen will be there too.
at the
Memorial Branch Library
4625 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, 90019
Light refreshments will be served.
There is no charge for this or any other Library program.
Please RSVP to (323) 938-2732
or by e-mail to mmrial@lapl.org
Memorial Library is located at 4625 W. Olympic Blvd., east
of Highland Ave. and west of Muirfield Road, across the
street from L.A. High School. Ample free parking is
available on Mullen and Muirfield Streets, bordering the Park.
Everyone is welcome.
See you at the Library!
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:55 AM | Comments (15)
July 15, 2007
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #125
Yid With Lid scares me.
It's a deep, visceral fear. I can tell, he's good with numbers, comfortable with quick, accurate and complicated mathematical formulas.
Yours truly is profoundly math disabled.
Hence this Jewish internet roundup, through some pretty clever book keeping (does he secretly work for the Hollywood studios?) ends up being: Haveil Havalim # 50,000.
So that's why my royalty checks diminish annually, and the studios only get fatter with each passing year.
Anywhoo.
Usually I rewrite the titles to Haveil Havalim. It's a professional tick; it's what screenwriters do. But this week, well, I'm going to control my cinematic impulse and stay on-message since Yid with Lid provides us with such an important and forceful title:
We'd like to thank Yid with Lid for including Seraphic Secret's Did That Bullet Turn a Corner? in this excellent round-up. And yes, we did know that Corner Shot was featured in CSI Miami. The weapon is also featured in several video games. It's very photogenic, sort of like a Jewish Heidi Klum—only fabricated from plastic and steel.
Yasher Koach, Yid with Lid, fine job. And a very happy (if belated) birthday to you.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:55 AM | Comments (3)
The Shape of Wars to Come
Here's a superb analysis of the the Second Lebanon War by Lt. Col. Abe F. Marerro, published in the Armed Forces Journal. Col. Marrero views the Israeli Hizbullah war in terms of Fourth Generation Warfare, and sees last summer's clash as a model for future conflicts—especially those emanating from Shia Iran, Hizbullah's masters.
This a fine article, a worthy introduction to the theories of Fourth Generation Warfare, and a cautionary note as to the type of multi-dimensional warfare we in the west are engaged in against an implacable and relentless jihadist enemy. I have highlighted a section about the uses and abuses of propaganda because too few journalists in the west are aware of how they are skillfully manipulated by the genocidal Islamists. As for Al Jazerra; it's as much a legitimate news outlet as Der Sturmer was a meaningful news source about Judaism for the Third Reich.
The events in Kfar Kana serve as an instructive example of how Hezbollah manipulated the media in support of a robust information campaign. On the morning of the bombing, major news networks throughout the world were connected to a live feed Al Jazeera was providing from Kfar Kana showing rescue workers removing the bodies of children from under the rubble of a collapsed building. There were approximately 28 civilians killed, including women and children. It was belatedly revealed by IDF media sources that the explosion was caused by unexploded IDF ammunition after the buildings were reoccupied by the civilians. Kfar Kana was targeted because it was a launching pad for Katyusha rockets and, as was its policy throughout the war, the IDF distributed flyers warning noncombatants (and unfortunately combatants) prior to airstrikes. This tidbit of information was not as widely disseminated as the original story and ignored by most of western media; accordingly, the damage was done. This is a telling example of how Hezbollah successfully executed the information dimension of fourth-generation war.
To read the entire article, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, John at Op For.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:24 AM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2007
Watch the Skies
Israel faces numerous threats on several fronts: Gaza, beautiful downtown Hamastan, an Islamist terrorist salient, is behaving exactly as Ariel Sharon predicted: choking on itself now that Israel has abandoned it to its own brutal devices. The missiles that Hamas gleefully launches into Israel are not an existential threat, but sooner or later, Israel will simply shut off the power grid and the water into that lawless strip—until the barbarians decide to act with some measure of self-restraint.
Judea and Samaria, AKA The West Bank: Israel continues to play out the oh-so-dreary, and oh-so-familiar game with Abbas and Fatah: Israel makes believe that Abbas is actually in control, that this Holocaust denier is actually not so bad, that the money Israel gives to the corrupt Fatah doesn't really end up in secret bank accounts in Switzerland, that the bullets we deliver to Fatah don't end up ripping Jewish flesh.
This is known as politics.
But politics in the Middle East inevitably becomes war.
In Lebanon, Hizbullah, North of the Litani River, are digging in for Round #2. The dopey UNIFIL Forces that the shallow Tzipi Livni is so hot for, are sunbathing on the Lebanese/Israeli border, but as soon as the steel starts flying, the mostly French troops will, duh, skedaddle. Livni will probably get another cover in the NY. Times Magazine section for that foreign policy coup.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Army troops continue to battle so-called Palestinian jihadists and other transnational players in the Nahr al-Bared refugeee camp, and this will probably not end until every single jihadist is dead and the camp, now a pile of rubble, is utterly flattened. The Lebanese are not feeling kindly to their Pali brothers; reports filter into the west of Lebanese beating their so-called peace-loving Palestinians neighbors, furious at the chaos that has been unleashed once again by the so-called Palestinians.
Syria, the psychopaths on the block, continue to train, arm and funnel homicide bombers into Iraq to kill Americans, continue to assassinate Christian opponents in Lebanon, continue to work hand in hand with Iran to create chaos in the region—though the Alawite dominated Baathist regime certainly has no love for the Shia of Iran.
Syria senses weakness (don't we all) in Israel's leadership, thus she blusters and spreads rumors of rumors of war to keep weak-man Olmert off-balance. The last thing Puppy Assad wants is the Golan back in the Syrian embrace; he wouldn't know what to do without conflict, so he makes Olmert look the fool (not too hard) begging for a peace that Assad has no interest in.
These are all side-shows.
There is only Iran and her nuclear program.
This is the one and true existential threat to the State of Israel. A long-running shadow war is being waged by the Mossad against the Persians.
Israel cannot, and must not allow the Iranian nuclear program to go hot.
All else, is child's play.
Israel cannot count on America. America has her hands full. The last thing George Bush needs is another front.
And Democrats are against the next war—no matter what it is. Their only game-plan: win the White House.
And of course Israel cannot count on the genocide-enabling U.N.
As always, self-defense is left to Israel.
As is proper.
The IAF is training round the clock to strike the Iranian nuclear facilities. It's not necessary to destroy every facility, only degrade a small number of plants and set back production four or five years.
Israel has excellent intelligence. Let's not forget that Israel is blessed with thousands of Farsi speaking natives who make fine listening-post agents.
The Iranians have already declared their intention to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
This strike is not a difficult call.
Unless you're a Jew-hater.
Olmert may be a political hack, an accidental leader, but even this mediocrity will not allow Israel to be nuked—we sincerely trust—hence Barak has been brought into the government to lend these lefties some much needed military legitimacy.
The IAF have been training to refuel in-flight over Turkey; they have bought and refined bunker-busting bombs from America; they have invented and developed advanced radar-jamming devices that will spread confusion over the Persian umbrella; the IDF high command have calculated for losses and have accepted the terrible devil's arithmetic. No ground troops will be used. This is strictly an IAF operation—with off-shore support from the Israeli navy. The Persians will be attacked on multiple fronts and they will have a great deal of trouble coordinating a coherent counter-attack.
At every level of the IDF there is agreement; ein b'rerah; there is no choice.
Watch the Persian skies.
Time is running out.
Karen and I wish all our friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:33 AM | Comments (14)
July 12, 2007
Karen Goes Hollywood
“Point with your index finger.”
“Where?”
“Up.”
“Why?”
“I've got a great shot.”
“Like this?”
“No, move your finger to the right, to the left, up a little, down a little. Oh, oh, that's so perfect, Karen! So exciting! Just like the Jewish Louise Brooks. Hold, hold! ”
Snick!
“That's a wrap.”
“One of the the most important elements in film language, and the one that's most frequently forgotten by lame-o film directors is scale.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Your finger; the Hollywood sign; wait, you'll see.”
”For a writer, you're so non-verbal.”
“Citizen Kane plays with scale all the time. Spielberg, at his best, understands scale and plays wonderful tricks with out-of-kilter proportions. Silent film stars Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton were brilliant with sight gags like this, you'd have ten or twelve in a film.”
Anywhoo!
Somehow—and it's a mystery, like the Big Bang—Karen has managed to lure me out of my office and we spend the day investigating Black holes, Red dwarfs, White dwarfs, Dark matter and a host of other cosmic riddles at the newly renovated Griffith Observatory here in Los Angeles where I snap this photo of Karen and the famous Hollywood sign.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:05 PM | Comments (22)
Did That Bullet Turn a Corner?
Oh man, here's another reason for those Jew-hating British academics to boycott Israel.
Amos Golan, an Israeli and former commando, has the chutzpah to invent a smart weapon that makes it easier to kill terrorists in close-quarter combat.
Cornershot allows the soldier to see and shoot around corners without exposing himself to deadly return fire by the terrorists. The soldier just nudges the muzzle of Cornershot forward, the video camera in the muzzle reveals what's hidden round the bend, if there's a hostile, boom, the weapon can actually fire around the corner.
That's one shocked and very dead terrorist.
This baby even sports a 40 mm grenade launcher.
Yup, this is an adaptable piece of weapons technology that should be invaluable in urban warfare. Take a look at this video of Cornershot.
I know that some elite anti-terrorist units in the IDF have been using this weapon secretly and quite successfully—and making recommendations for further refinements. I wonder if the slow-as-molasses Pentagon procurement offices have stepped up and given Cornershot a serious field study. I cannot believe that our troops would not welcome such a weapon in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the forty-five other countries where our troops are currently deployed around the world.
Not-So-Subtle-Hint: Karen, my birthday is coming up in November; so, what do you get for the Hollywood screenwriter who has just about everything? Well, let's not, ahem, cut corners.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:44 AM | Comments (8)
July 11, 2007
Massive Moore Meltdown
This is just priceless.
Sicko continues to flat-line at the box office.
When the box-office gets this low, it's all but over. You might as well put Sicko on a double-bill with A Mighty Heart, sit back and watch the audiences flee.
Um, anyone remember the one film that was at its core Conservative and made oodles and oodles of money?
That's right, kids: 300.
Anywhoo!
CNN brings forth Dr. Sanjay Gupta to critique Sicko. Gupta, a respected neuroseurgeon and journalist, who performed surgery on American soldiers in Iraq, cooly chops Moore's piece of celluloid propaganda to shreds, quite politely.
What's a demagogue to do?
Well, first of all, Moore mispronounces Dr. Gupta's name.
Classy move.
Next, Moore avoids talking about his wretched film, any of the facts in said film, and concentrates instead on, ta-da, the War in Iraq and, Bush-hatred.
Always works for the left.
Except even the left isn't buying this bit of deranged celluloid fantasy.
Our friends at Libertas weigh in on this Moorish meltdown.
If you watch the clip, you’ll see that Moore doesn’t address even a single fact brought up in Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s report about how Americans are more satisfied with their healthcare than any other country, etc… Like most leftists Moore uses emotion (in this case indignation over another subject altogether) to ward off the kryptonite of facts. Moore does try to counter CNN here, but he’s forced to either agree with CNN and then asterisk them to death, or come off as shrilly defensive.
To read the rest of this article, and see the Moore meltdown please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:46 AM | Comments (16)
Useless Good Men
“No great country was ever saved by good men, because good men will not go to the length that may be necessary.”
—Horace Walpole
We suspect that some of our more cynical readers are thinking that perhaps Seraphic Secret is advocating fighting fire with fire; buttressing the notion that one form of evil—lesser perhaps—can defeat the greater Islamic evil crouching at our door.
This is entirely wrong.
This not what Walpole was saying. In fact, he was talking about people who were of strong moral fiber; people who were tough, ruthless, and devoted to victory. That is what was needed in the dark days before World War Two — and that is exactly what is needed now.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:38 AM | Comments (2)
July 10, 2007
The War Against Britain's Jews
Britain.
What comes to mind when you think of the British Isles?
Stiff upper lip.
Rugby.
Alfred Hitchcock.
Jane Austen, for sure.
And British Jews?
Well, there's always been, how shall we put it, polite British Jew-hatred. But Jews have persevered and built solid communities, religious schools and organizations within the larger British society.
In spite of London electing an anti-Semitic Mayor, the odious and oily Ken Livingstone, British Jews felt safe and accepted.
Until now.
Now that British Islamists have joined forces with the jihadist loving left, a relentless war of hatred against British Jews is being waged.
Indeed, welcome to: Not So Great Britain.
Click here to see the excellent videos at Little Green Footballs.
Keep this in mind: when a society tolerates Jew-hatred, that society is well on its way to a final decline and collapse. The health and vigor of a culture can always be measured by how she treats her Jewish citizens. If you doubt me, just check your history books.
For a fine overview of Britain's Islamist terrorist problem, read Britain Under Siege by Vasko Kohlmayer.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:50 PM | Comments (10)
Israel Rediscovers Big Wars
The Second Lebanon War continues to gnaw away at the Israeli body politic like a rabid dog. Olmert, like some power-mad monarch, holds on to office even as he remains, by consensus, the most inept Prime Minister since, well, Ehud Barak. And what do you know, Barak is resurrected, folded into the Olmert government, and suddenly Olmert doesn't look so gosh darned disastrous.
Smoke and mirrors.
Anything to fight off the Bibi Netanyahu juggernaut.
But the various operational, strategic, and tactical failures of the IDF in the Second Lebanon War cannot, will not, and should not be ignored. Honest self-criticism is essential to the health and vitality of a nation's military preparedness. Here then is a short but pointed reminder of what happens when a first-class fighting force forgets basic doctrine.
Israel continues to seek lessons from their war last year with Hizbollah, and now there's a government report pointing out that, when the fighting broke out last Summer, Israel had not conducted a large scale military operation since 1982 (when they went into Lebanon to stop terrorist attacks on northern Israel.)
To read the rest of the article, click here to go to Strategy Page.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:15 PM | Comments (0)
The iNcredible Shrinking iPhone
I keep telling our readers not to bet against Apple's CEO Steve Jobs. He comes up with a whiz-bang product, the tech pundits pull out their knives and explain exactly why this revolutionary device just won't, cannot work.
The device rolls out, and it's everything it should be—and more—and the tech pundits in all their wisdom point out that it's too expensive, the keyboard isn't right, the software is too limiting, yadda, yadda. Yet the device sells out, and people not only like it, they love/adore/worship it.
Offspring #3 text messages me:
Daddy!!! i just saw the iPhone. Its so cool! Will u buy it fr me!!!!! Luv u.
Obviously the tech critics do not have teenagers at home.
My reply:
Not quite yet. Wait a few iPhone generations. Luv u 2.
Which is to say that Apple is always a few steps ahead of the tech critics, and that's the reason I buy Apple stock, but never buy the first generation of any Apple product.
Apple Inc. plans to launch a cheaper version of the iPhone in the fourth quarter that could be based on the ultra-slim iPod Nano music player, according to a JP Morgan report.
Kevin Chang, a JP Morgan analyst based in Taiwan, cited people in the supply channel he did not name and an application with the U.S Patent and Trademark office for his report dated July 8.
Apple filed a patent application document dated July 5 that refers to a multifunctional handheld device with a circular touch pad control, similar to the Nano's scroll wheel.
To read the rest of this article, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:45 AM | Comments (11)
July 09, 2007
What Really Happened
Here's a fine video from, The Terrorism Awareness Project, regarding the history of the Middle East, Israel and the conflict with her Arab neighbors. Produced by David Horowitz, the four chapters in this video reveal the big lies that have animated the so-called Palestinian narrative since its inception.
Click here to view the videos, but I warn you, if you are anti-Zionist you will be confronted with a series of uncomfortable facts. To deny and refute these facts you will have to fall back on lies, half-truths, and dopey leftist slogans.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jake Novak
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:30 PM | Comments (2)
Five Guys Named Mo
If you're a police commissioner or a government minister, what's the first thing you should do if a chap with a name such as "Mohammed Asha" or "Muhammad Hanif" turns up in the news in connection with some wacky novelty such as a flaming Jeep Cherokee crashing through the airport concourse?
Britain's new Prime Minister knew exactly what to do:
Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word ‘Muslim’ in connection with the terrorism crisis...
To read the reast of Mark Steyn's column, please click here.
If you cannot honestly identify the threat, well, obviously you cannot effectively fight the ideas much less the foot- soldiers who are growing like a virus in your very homeland.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:39 AM | Comments (6)
Sicko Flat-Lining
Propagandist Michael Moore's most recent effort to convince the American public that a government controlled health care system is, ahem, the finest that money cannot buy—is bombing at the box office.
Hey, when Moore gets sick is he gonna paddle over to Cuba for treatment?
Sure he is.
Fly up Canada to wait in line a few months for an MRI?
Uh-huh?
Grab a plane to England to consult Dr. Mohammed Mohammed?
Oh man, I so hope so.
Here's the thing about Communists/Socialists/Utopians/Whatever and their Liberal fellow travelers: you can only lie and obfuscate for so long and then it all catches up with you.
Even with dopey liberal movie-goers who think Fidel walks on water.
And for all you liberal Jews who just adore this latter day Leni Riefenstahl, click here for some cheerful Michael Moore quotes about Israel.
What a guy.
For the rest of the story about Sicko dying at the box office, click here to go to our friends at Libertas.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:19 AM | Comments (15)
Fixers on the Front Lines
Seraphic Friend Judith Weiss attends a New York panel discussion on the accomplishments and plight of fixers.
Judith writes: "Steven Vincent's translator Nour al-Kal — who was shot with him and survived — participates in a panel on Iraqi fixers, hours after arriving in the U.S. as a political refugee. Vincent's widow Lisa spent 18 months trying to get Nour into the US.
"If we withdraw from Iraq and it turns into a bloodbath, who gets political asylum? When relying on local stringers and fixers, how do you tell if you are getting facts or disinformation?"
Please click here, to go to Kesher for the entire article and to see the video.
A new Seraphic Friend, Abigail Esman, writes a fine article for World Defense Daily about Lisa Ramaci-Vincent and Nor al-Kad. This is a must-read.
Meanwhile, Seraphic Friend David Paulin's fine piece about Lisa Ramaci-Vincent and Nour al-Kal has just been published in Front Page Magazine.
Today the N.Y. Times urges America to withdraw from Iraq.
I'm sure the mullahs in Iran are jumping for joy.
Transnational terrorists are smiling. Once again the useful idiots in the West are anxious to surrender to terror.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)
July 08, 2007
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #124
Well, it's about time.
I'm sitting on the couch watching the 1966 Nevada Smith—a prequel to The Carpetbaggers—with Steve McQueen, and the stunning and always properly breathless Suzanne Pleshette.
Karen is right beside me, text messaging Offspring #3 who is working in Camp Morasha as counselor to sixteen young ladies from various parts of these United States:
“Hard job?”
“Nah, I speak their language.”
“Expensive footwear?”
“So funny, Daddy.”
Anywhoo.
Nevada Smith is a classic revenge film. Not bad. Tight script by the great John Michael Hayes. And fine direction by Henry Hathaway. But the women's hair is just, well, tragic; really big and stiff; acres of falls. But, what can you do. Those were the days; authenticity kinda took a back seat to dopey sixties fashions and bad dye jobs.
Bleep. Bleep. Bleep.
My Powerbook pleads for attention.
Haveil Havelim has, at last, been published.
But:
Oh
My
Gosh.
No title.
Hmmm.
I'm smiling.
Grinning, even.
I don't even have to rewrite.
I have a blank page to inscribe.
And so: Haveil Havelim #124 The Suzanne Pleshette Edition
We'd like to thank Malachi Rothchild, blogmaster of V'hechdash Yitkadesh for including Seraphic Secret's Jihad Journalists of the West in this round-up.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:54 PM | Comments (8)
The Tangled Web
People ask me: Why do you refer to them as "so-called Palestinian people?"
My answer:
Because language matters.
Truth matters.
Because when a national movement has to lie to achieve its goals, something is terribly wrong at its very core. There are consequences when a national movement is built on a foundation of lies, not to mention decades of terror, blood-lust, and an official platform of Jew-hatred.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive.
—Sir Walter Scott
Liars ultimately trip themselves up. Abbas finally tripped up on the biggest lie of all: Palestinians are the indigenous people of Gaza and the West Bank. The money quote via The American Thinker:
“[Indeed,] even the churches were not spared. One of the oldest churches in Palestine, which stood long before our arrival [in the region], was looted and set on fire.” Abbas said those words a couple of weeks ago. He admits they are the interlopers.
To read the entire piece, please click here to go to Seraphic Friend, Seawitch.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:06 AM | Comments (4)
Ehud Olmert: 40 Years of Public, er, Something
Pop Quiz:
Pick up your Number Two pencil.
Open your notebook.
Answer this question:
Ehud Olmert has been in Israeli politics for 40 years. What has he contributed?
You have five minutes to write your answer.
Time's up.
Click here to go to Seraphic Friend, Mere Rhetoric for the You Tube reply.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:41 AM | Comments (5)
July 06, 2007
iPhone & i
Who said the American musical is dead? Leave it to the iPhone to resurrect and inspire this great American cinematic art form.
David Pogue where is your Ginger Rogers?
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jack's Random Thoughts.
Karen and I and Seraphic Friend Michael Jennings, visiting from London, cruise on over to the Apple store in Century City to check out the iPhone.
The front table is jammed with smiling, enthusiastic, and very curious Apple iCustomers.
Rule #1: Good technology makes human beings happy.
We edge our way to the table and finally manage to get our hands on the fabled iPhone. I look around for a manual, but as far as the eye can see, there's just a two page promotional brochure with various price comparisons.
Oh man, I'm so not a tech guy, what am I going to do?
I look at the keyboard, and oh my, things immediately make sense, and before I know it, I'm up and running. Yes, the learning curve on the iPhone is pretty darn fast. Even for a technology challenged dork like yours truly.
No more thick-as-phone-book manuals—incomprehensible and exhausting.
Rumors abound that the keyboard is awkward, hard to use. Okay, time to find out. I type in the URL for Seraphic Secret, and what do you know, quick as a flash I'm reading this very blog.
Gee willikers; do I really use that many semicolons?
Yes I do.
Note to self: Have deep conversation with Karen about childhood; semicolons; what it all means; if anything.
Meanwhile, Michael, a tech-genius, is snapping pictures of Robert & Karen with the iPhone. My title: Beauty and the Beast.
I tap the screen twice and a portion of my blog magically enlarges itself. So cool, useful too.
Guess what I do next?
Yup, check Apple stock.
And, oh boy is it ever going to hit the stratosphere. Judging by this iBaby, I can see it going to $160 per share by the end of the year.
An Apple sales associate says: “No, man, sold out. Maybe next week.”
G-d forbid you should call salesmen, er, salesmen.
The late TV producer Aaron Spelling once said to me: "I'm just Willy Loman, going door-to-door, selling my wares. "
How come most male Apple sales associates have, um, unfortunate facial hair? And the women sales associates, almost all, have piercings in places that, well, they shouldn't?
I'm flashing on my college anthropology textbooks; photos of what the dopey captions assure us are "proud, noble savages." In fact, yucky, stone age South American tribes with needle-sharp bones shoved through their noses, nipples and I really did not want to know any further dermatological details. Way too much information. I so missed the warm embrace of the Beis Midrash.
Where are the parents of these Apple sales associates?
Someone looks over my shoulder and asks: “How do I get to the home screen?”
I answer: “Hit the button on the bottom in the middle.”
“Thanks, dude.”
Rule #2: Good technology promotes fellowship among citizens.
The iPhone is beautiful, fun, easy to use, and it does everything that your phone doesn't do — easily and effortlessly. True, the only carrier is AT& T, but just watch, her networks will improve with astonishing speed.
My chunky, dopey Samsung phone chimes. I grab it.
“Hello?”
“It's me,” says Karen who is standing two feet away with an iPhone at her ear.
She's grinning ear to ear.
“I'm calling you on the iPhone.”
““You little devil you.”
“How y'doing?”
“Now that I've heard from you—great.”
“See ya, around.”
“iSincerely hope so.”
Rule #3: Good technology promotes healthy communication between husband and wives.
If I were a cell phone manufacturer other than Apple, I'd be shaking in my boots.
Karen and I wish all our Seraphic Friends a signifigant and beautiful Shabbos.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:56 PM | Comments (15)
Operation Arrowhead Ripper
As LT. David Wallach interpreted the man’s words, I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, “What did he say?” Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family.
Yes, you have read correctly.
This is the measure of the evil we are fighting.
Naturally, you will not find this reported in the mainstream media.
From our greatest war correspondent Michael Yon, please click here for the rest of his photo/essay.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2007
Lisa and Nour
I'm not accustomed to hanging around with gorgeous, six-foot biker chicks who vote Republican.
But then, Lisa Ramaci-Vincent is unlike any other woman I've ever met.
Which is a good thing.
Rewind.
We met, like I meet most people these days, in cyberspace. Lisa's late husband, Steven Vincent, was the courageous journalist who wrote In the Red Zone, a gritty, honest look into post-Saddam Iraq. Whereas most mainstream journalists were chilling safely in the Green Zone, Steven Vincent went for the guts of the story in the Red Zone—and paid for his quest for truth. Steven Vincent was kidnapped by terrorists, tortured for five hours, then murdered.
Steven's translator, Nour al-Khal, was also shot and left for dead. More about this courageous Iraqi woman later.
Anyway.
Lisa and I met in virtual space. She had lost her beloved husband. Karen and I had lost our son. Lisa and I exchanged words, thoughts, social and political commentary. We comforted each other and sincerely hoped that one day we would meet face to face.
Here's what I've learned about cyber communication: people's words, their very grammar unmask who they really are. Personalities and patterns are quickly revealed. There is no wriggle room when language is your only weapon, your only defense. There are no clever diversionary tactics using body language; a woman cannot cutely flip her hair, coyly play with a split end; a man cannot puff up his chest, flex a non-existent muscle.
Every blogger I've ever met has been like a familiar friend. We're just picking up the thread of an old conversation. No surprises at all.
But Lisa.
Well.
FLASHBACK, A FEW MONTHS AGO — LOS ANGELES
She's arrived in my hometown and we arrange, finally, to meet. I drive to pick Lisa up at her hotel, expecting a well-groomed—honestly we all have our cliched images—Talbots Republican.
So: I pull up, and waiting outside the hotel I spot this biker babe in tight black pants, and white tank top. This certainly can't be Lisa whose eloquence reminds me of Emily Dickinson, cyber Lisa who writes grammatically perfect notes, not one word misspelled; e-mails filled with soaring patriotic rhetoric; and of course e-mails just bursting with love for her late husband Steven. I imagine Lisa in a dazzling white blouse with Peter Pan collar, single strand of pearls at her throat, and black, wool pencil skirt, maybe with pin stripes. I expect sensible footwear; chunky heels no higher than an inch-and-a-half.
But the biker chick is just sitting, sighing, obviously waiting, and so:
"Um, are you Lisa?"
"Robert?"
She stands up.
And does not stop standing for about two minutes. We're talking Amazonian Biker Chick.
I adjust.
Hollywood has taught your not-so-humble-scribe some valuable lessons in social interaction.
It's time for lunch.
"How about pizza?"
"Love pizza."
"I can only offer Kosher pizza."
"Never had Kosher pizza."
"You're in for a unique dining experience."
Optimistic me.
"Lisa, we're gonna walk a few blocks, you might wanna, um, change into walking shoes."
"These are my walking shoes, Robert."
Lisa is wearing, I kid you not, four-inch dagger stilletos.
"Okey-dokey."
The Hasidic kids in my neighborhood? Eyes wide as saucers as Lisa and I walk down the street toward the kosher pizza shop.
"Hey Yossie, hey, Mendel, hey Rivkie, what's new and exciting?"
I'm trying to be nice and casual, but I think I'm coming off kind of like: Hey, this tall, cool glass of water with me? Barely know her.
The kids are speechless. Their jaws are on the pavement. One Hasidic lad is twisting his peyes, sidelocks, so hard I fear he's going to rip them right from his poor skull.
I'm thinking maybe when I'm in shul next I should go, have a talk with their parents, explain that the young lady is, um, an actress I'm working with?
A Stranger Among Us II: The Biker Chick Baal Teshuva.
I give up.
Life is sooo complicated when your Orthodox and, er, in the real world.
Lisa Ramaci-Vincent. She's my hero. She makes me think of:
1. Antigone.
2. The Prophetess Devorah.
3. Cool biker chicks from movies I was not suppose to watch as a Yeshiva kid but watched anyway, you betcha.
4. Ann Coulter.
5. Audrey Hepburn.
6. Go figure.
Kosher pizza, great conversation, and get this: Lisa loves The Seven Samurai. She even met Toshiru Mifune, the great star of this greatest of movies.
Lisa has lost her husband. But she has not lost her will to live a meaningful life. She speaks of Nour al-Khal, Steven's translator, a brave woman who refused to abandon Steven even as the terrorists shoved her away, told her that they had no interest in her. Lisa is determined to obtain Nour's safe passage to America where Nour can begin life anew.
I have no doubt that Lisa, a mighty woman, will do what she sets out do to for Nour, another mighty woman.
We have been told that the jihadists are too strong, too determined, too ruthless, and that we cannot beat them. This is an infamous lie. With women like Lisa and Nour, western civilization will triumph.
Serapahic Friend David Paulin writes eloquently of Lisa and Nour al Khal:
The late Steven Vincent’s award-winning Iraq reporting owed much to his Iraqi translator and media assistant – a remarkable young woman named Nour al-Khal.
She was shot and left for dead on August 2, 2005, hours after she and Vincent were kidnapped off a Basra street. They were forced into a car by men wearing police uniforms. Vincent, a freelancer on his third trip to post-Saddam Iraq, was savagely beaten and shot to death – the only American journalist to date who has been murdered in Iraq.
To read the rest of the story, please click here
Here's an excellent article from World Defense Review by Abigail R. Esman.
Order Steven Vincent's excellent book In the Red Zone, one of the finest books I have ever read about post-Saddam Iraq,; this book is already a classic.
And make sure to visit The Steven Vincent Foundation, contribute what you can. It's a fine way of remembering a courageous and honest man.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:05 PM | Comments (10)
Jihad Journalists of the West
Propaganda is one of the most effective weapons used by Islamic terrorists in Fourth Generation Warfare. Islamofascists have harnessed the power of the internet in their war against the west, spreading their nihilistic doctrine, recruiting foot soldiers and homicide bombers.
But perhaps they have scored their greatest successes by recruiting gullible western journalists into helping their cause.
It all started with the flood of ignorant, Liberal journalists turning against Israel after the Six-Day War; swallowing the lies of the so-called Palestinian people and their false victim narrative, making Israel the bad boys on the block; eventually churning up a series of blood libels that make the Nazi propaganda machine pale in comparison.
But the truth is when you attack Israel/Judaism, well, all Western values become fair game.
The New York Times is a showcase of a mainstream newspaper that has become an enabler of jihad and Jew-hatred.
Under the fig-leaf of objective journalism—in reality: moral equivalence—The N.Y. Times has struck the very word terrorist from its lexicon, and the all-purpose, but meaningless militant now rules its columns.
Isn't it comforting to know that we live in a world free of, um, terrorists. This is the world according to the New York Times.
In fact, I'm sure The New York Time would prefer to label the Islamic terrorists: common criminals of no particular religious persuasion.
And focus on the true threat to humanity: Global Warming.
Yup, day after day these crackerjack journalists—there is no reason to name them, they are all the same Orwellian-style hacks who:
1. Think the same.
2. Eat in the same restaurants.
3. Vote the identical column.
5. Guess which political Party?
6. No, not the Free Klingon Party.
7. Go to the same Ivy League colleges.
8. Don't (G-d forbid) go to the same churches and/or synagogues.
9. But just adore the post-modern tiles in their local mosques.
10. Claim to be merely anti-Zionist, but certainly not anti-Semitic! That's the other guy!
In short, a pack of overeducated, overbred, overindulged sophisticates. These elites bang out copy that makes it easier for Muslim jihadists to achieve their murderous goals.
Recently, the N.Y. Times and the Washington Post handed a stunning victory to Hamas, an organization whose charter explicitly calls for the elimination of the State of Israel. Their charter also draws from, get this, sections of The Protocols from the Elders of Zion, perhaps the most notorious anti-Semitic forgery in modern times.
Yes, these two newspapers gave what is supposed to be distinguished Op-Ed space to a proudly genocidal organization.
One has to ask: Would the N.Y Times and the Washington Post give such space to a group like the Ku Klux Klan calling for the elimination of, oh let's say American blacks?
Somehow, I doubt it.
My good friends Rabbi Marvin Hier and Rabbi Abraham Cooper write cooly and eloquently, but with just enough white-hot anger about this outrage.
It is not every day when one of the leaders of a terrorist organization can boast that his op-ed piece was printed simultaneously by the New York Times and the Washington Post. But that's exactly what happened on June 20, 2007, when Ahmed Yousef, a senior leader of Hamas, penned an essay defending his group's unilateral, bloody coup in Gaza.
To read the rest of this fine article, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Mordechai Schiller
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:43 AM | Comments (8)
July 04, 2007
Declaration of Independence: The Aftermath
The following was submitted by "Mike" in honor of the hundreth anniversary of the National Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry.
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British, charged as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Ellery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife—she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.
Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didn't fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government.
Some of us take these liberties for granted, but we shouldn't. So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.
Remember: Freedom is never free!
We hope you will show your support by sending this to as many people as you can. It's time we get the word out that patriotism is not a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and baseball games.
God Bless all of you and may God Bless America!
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Peter Stevenson M.D.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:58 PM | Comments (14)
The Pursuit of Happiness
The minhag, the tradition, of Seraphic Secret, is to publish the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. Too many of us have never read it, or if we have, we were in high school, and grimly forced ourselves to read it in order to pass a test.
It is a magnificent document.
My favorite phrase: The Pursuit of Happiness. This is, perhaps, the single most important idea in our founding document. Happiness is at the core of freedom and liberty. A citizen cannot be happy if he is alienated from the state to which he is a member. This is a great and noble idea. A concept that the Jewish people well understand.
For many Jews, true joy comes from the study of Torah. I remember when I used to step into the Beis Midrash, the study hall of Ner Yisroel Rabbinical College, where our son, Ariel ZT'L was a student, the young men, hundreds of them, each engrossed in the profound give and take of Talmudic study, was glowing with joy.
America has given American Jews the opportunity to live as true Torah Jews and as full American citizens.
Yes, the pursuit of happiness is an idea that is worth fighting and dying for.
Read this Declaration of Independence. Absorb the words. Marinate in the notions of freedom, and liberty.
And then, cruise over to Seraphic Friend Op For for a fine explanation of the difference between freedom and liberty. Op For also publishes the Declaration. Great minds, yadda, yadda. So you can read The Declaration twice.
In Congress, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams*, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon**, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee***, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
*Ancestor of Famous Beer
**Reese Witherspoon's ancestor
***Ancestor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:41 AM | Comments (14)
July 03, 2007
Fatal Flaws in Intelligence and, ahem, Intelligence
Melanie Phillips is one of the sanest voices in Europe. She recognizes the immediate threat of radical Islam. She has renamed London, Londonistan, and her website is one of the best in the blogosphere.
It's true that carnage was avoided in London and Glasgow, but please, control the urge to jump up and down for joy. This was not a spectacular intelligence success. On the contrary argues Ms. Phillips, the British establishment is stuck in a politically correct groove which, if not corrected, will lead, sooner or later, we presume, to bloody disaster.
The most fundamental failing of all, however, is the Government's counter-terrorist strategy itself. Known as Project Contest, this refuses to acknowledge that the true driver of Islamist terror is religious fanaticism.
Instead, it attributes its causes to Muslim poverty, discrimination and grievances over foreign policy. In other words, it blames us.
The analysis is demonstrably absurd. Many of these terrorists are prosperous, middle class and well-educated. Indeed of, two the suspects who have been arrested are doctors. Muslims are being murdered in vast numbers in Iraq not by us, but by other Muslims.
And as Mr. Brown said yesterday, the first attempt to blow up the Twin Towers occurred as long ago as 1993; Islamist terrorism is taking place all over the world and in countries where there is no connection with Iraq or the Middle East at all.
The fact is that the Islamists have always used any and every grievance - Bosnia, Kashmir, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Palestine, Salman Rushdie (twice) - to recruit to their cause.
But the real source of this terror, as former extremists have told us, is the aim to conquer the West and Islamise the world.
To read Melanie Phillip's entire article, please click here.
Link in article was added by Seraphic Secret in order to update the number of Muslim physicians arrested in terror plot.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:26 PM | Comments (3)
Al Qaeda Adapts
Strategy Page believes that Al Qaeda's operational capabilities have been seriously degraded. It's an interesting analyisis, optmistic even, and well worth reading.
Most of al Qaedas traveling experts are dead or in prison. Inspiring amateurs to attempt poorly planned attacks, like the recent ones in Britain, only discourage recruits. That's because another bunch of wannabes get sent away for long prison terms. This is a fate worse than death for Islamic terrorists. There are no 72 virgins in Western prisons, unless you consider the fact that you may be turned into one.
To read the entire article, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)
Londonistan Calling
My not iPhone chirps:
Me: Hello.
Karen: I'm in the waiting room.
Me: Everything okay?
Karen: Fine, I'm just looking through the June issue of Vanity Fair.
Me: Oh-oh.
Karen: Liberal, I know...
Actually, I'm thinking about the seductive but potentially bankrupting shoe ads: Manolo Blahnik, Chanel, Jimmy Choo. But I should have more faith in my one and only. Karen has been properly raised; if it's not a bargain it's not worth purchasing.
Me: Except for Christopher Hitchens.
Karen: That's what I'm calling about. His article, Londonistan Calling, is excellent.
Me: Okey-dokey.
Hat Tip: The love of my life; who buys the most adorable ballet flats at so cheap a price, well, I can't even tell you because you'd accuse me making it up, like one of my screenplays.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:28 PM | Comments (2)
Specializing in Infidel Dogs.
Top 10 Medical Insurance Questions at Dr. Mohammed Mohammed's Office
by Jake Novak
10. Blood Type, please circle one: A, B, O, Jewish.
9. Please state the reason for your injury/illness: a. car accident, b. slip/fall c. failed suicide bombing.
8. Have you had any exposure to: a. asbestos b. toxic materials c. ramshackle Iranian nuclear labs.
7. Have you ever had: a. cancer b. bronchitis c. Infidel neighbor.
6. To what do you attribute your illness/pain: a. hereditary problems b. alcohol/drug abuse c. Israel.
5. Do you work: a. overnight shifts, b. construction, c. the baggage hold at Heathrow Airport.
4. Have you ever made a Workers’ Compensation claim, and if so, do you feel comfortable filling out applications for false passports and/or visas?
3. With what do you intend to make your payments: a. cash b. credit c. 72 virgins.
2. Do you have a history of: a. blackouts b. seizures c. Zionism.
1. If injured whom shall we contact: a. spouse b. child c. al Jazeera.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:35 AM | Comments (8)
Female Body Parts
Christopher Hitchens writes eloquently of jihad, race, and the willful blindness of liberals, er, progressives. Sorry, I'm not sure what they're calling themselves these days. Obviously, they're having something of an identity crisis. Personally, I think Lenin's label works best: Useful Idiots.
The June 30 New York Times report managed to quote three people, one of whom attributed the aborted atrocity in London to Tony Blair's foreign policy; one of whom (a New Zealand diplomat, at that) felt "surprisingly all right about it"; and one of whom, described as "a Briton of Indian descent," was worried that "if I walk up that road, they're going to suspect me." The "they" there was clearly the British authorities, rather than the Muslim gangsters who have declared open season on all Hindus as well as all Jews, Christians, secularists, and other kuffar or infidel filth.
Only at the tail end of the coverage was it admitted that a car bomb might have been parked outside a club in Piccadilly because it was "ladies night" and that this explosion might have been designed to lure people into to the street, the better to be burned and shredded by the succeeding explosion from the second car-borne cargo of gasoline and nails. Since we have known since 2004 that a near-identical attack on a club called the Ministry of Sound was proposed in just these terms, on the grounds that dead "slags" or "sluts" would be regretted by nobody, a certain amount of trouble might have been saved by assuming the obvious. The murderers did not just want body parts in general but female body parts in particular.
To read the entire article, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Kishke
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:53 AM | Comments (9)
Muslim Terror Physicians
Shocked, simply shocked that so many of the terrorists arrested in Britain are Muslims? Well, that's because you're reading the N.Y. Times, the paper of record that has twisted every sentence about the British terror plots of the past two days into pretzels in order to avoid mentioning the M word.
Now that's New Journalism. Avoiding, um, accuracy, not to mention: motive. Yes, kids, radical Islam is a motive.
Have you noticed that since 9-11 the N.Y. Times has been on crusade, publishing endless and truly tedious stories about Muslims; how well integrated they are into American society, how modern the women are—ignore the potato sack, it's actually fashionable and liberating—and how they're just like you and me?
Just goes to show: kill enough Americans—and the chattering classes will make nice to you, very nice.
Except reality intrudes and the moderate Muslims the N.Y. Times is so fond of are nowhere to be found when the bad Muslims strike.
Except when some dopey cartoons are published in a country the size of a postage stamp. Then, like magic, the streets are jammed with seething, indignant Muslims, threatening to behead, well, just about everyone; this from the proponents of, er, the religion of peace.
Tell that to the victims of 9-11.
And Israel.
But when terror plots are unmasked?
Big yawn.
Or they excuse the potential atrocity by unwrapping this ready-made gem: "But it's because of Israel and her illegal occupation of Palestine."
Ah, well, that's different. You see, Jew-hatred makes the violence comprehensible, acceptable.
Liberals have made it a politically progressive idea to kill Jews in the name of Allah—and 88% of Jews in America are, ta-da, Liberals.
That's a hat trick Hitler would have killed to learn.
Anywhoo.
Are you shocked, simply shocked that it's physicians who are involved, excuse me, allegedly involved in the terrorist attacks in Britain? You shouldn't be. Doctors were among the first intellectuals—after university professors—to join the Nazi Party.
You thought that poverty causes terrorism? Only dopey, self-absorbed rock stars believe such Marxist nonsense.
Here's a newsflash: A toxic brew of fanatic Arab nationalism, fanatic victimhood, and fanatic religion, specifically Islam, creates, surprise, Islamic terror. Most jihadists are middle and upper middle-class. Only the homicide bombers, the expendable cannon fodder, are poor, mentally challenged, or ideally both; and of course the women homicide bombers who are always divorcees, shameful in Arab/Muslim culture, or accused of adultery, and thus face so-called honor-killings. In Arab/Muslim culture, homicide bombings have become a socially efficient way to dispose of inconvenient women, kill Jews and other infidels in one blinding stroke.
Gee-willikers, talk about a win-win situation.
Okay, enough with my rambling analysis.
Thankfully the sensational Debbie Schlussel has been tracking Muslim terror physicians for a long time:
I wrote about Muslim doctor, Osama Ahmed Ibrahim, MD, who deliberately let Jewish patient Joseph Applebaum die, by neglecting to ever see him in over 12 hours under his care in an emergency room at a Chicago hospital, Rush North Shore Medical Center.
Also of note, I wrote about then-New Jersey Dr. Ahmed Rashed, a Muslim Arab resident, severed and stole the hand of a cadaver as a gift for a stripper. He got a slap on the hand and, oddly, is now employed at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York.
And don't forget Dr. Jouhaina Maleh, an obstetrician, whose Dearbornistan offices were raided by the FBI in 2002, for suspected involvement in Medicaid fraud, in the case of masses of Muslim foreign aliens getting fraudulent Medicaid coverage for delivery of their babies--and, of course, U.S. citizenship for them.
Why are their cases tied to those of Muslim terrorist doctors listed above them? Well, because Muslim doctors have such little respect for Infidel human life. That's not just my speculation. It's in the text of the oath Muslim doctors take.
To read Debbie Schlussel's entire article, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend: Kishke
P.S. Jake, we could definitely use a ten best list about Muslim doctors.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:57 AM | Comments (8)
Tammuz 17
Today is the 17th of Tammuz, a day of fasting, which is one of four fast days commanded by the Prophet Zachariah, Zachariah VIII: 19.
On this day we commemorate the following incidents:
1. The breaching of the wall around Jerusalem, during the era of the second Temple, 70 CE.
2. The cessation of the daily offering during the siege of the first Temple.
3. The burning of the sefer Torah by Roman General Apostomos—which set a precedent for future burnings of all Jewish holy writings.
4. The placing of an idol in the Temple.
5. The breaking of the first tablets by Moses when he witnessed the sin of the golden calf.
One is always tempted to draw historical parallels between past and present. However, on solemn days of fasting I believe that it is imperative that we should not dilute the awesome weight of past narrative with headlines from today.
Karen and I wish all our friends a meaningful fast.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2007
The Best Defense
Recently, in the two main Jewish neighborhoods here in Los Angeles, there has been a plague of violent assaults against Orthodox Jews who walk alone, or in small groups, on Shabbat, the Sabbath, at night. The fact that Orthodox Jews do not carry money on Shabbat does not deter these criminals. They are quite happy to terrorize defenseless Jews, rip-off watches and jewelry, and do bodily harm to peaceful, unarmed citizens. One Rabbi we know was so badly beaten that he is now afraid to leave his home at night.
The police cannot protect every man, woman and child in Los Angeles. They cannot even protect a small fraction of those they are pledged to protect and serve. It is an impossible task. Often, the social contract fractures and the individual is left to his own devices.
Karen and I learned this the hard way:
Quite a few citizens in Jewish neighborhoods now carry various types of weapons. When the criminals learn that Jews are armed and dangerous, and the predators have no idea who is lethal, they will melt back into the swamps that spawned them for they are, by definition, cowards, looking for easy pickings, not for a fight.
This, I guarantee.
See this link from Seraphic Friend Op For, concerning a former Marine who foiled an armed robbery in Florida. Well done and Semper Fi. And a contrasting story that, tragically, did not have such a happy outcome; the victim was unarmed, defenseless against a well-armed, and evil career criminal.
And so when I saw this article in that fine blog, Of Arms & the Law, it immediately caught my attention. It shows what happens to a free society when only the criminals have acess to arms:
Victims of Crime Trust director Norman Brennan said Britain was quickly gaining a reputation as being one of the most violent countries in the Western world, scarring communities and leaving millions in fear of crime.... "A child is stabbed to death on the streets of Britain every week and knife homicides out-number gun homicides by three to one. If these measures were introduced it would greatly reduce knife crime and consequently save lives."
To read the rest of this article, please click here.
Speaking of a best defense, I've had a chance to study the Cornered Cat site and it is excellent. Its pink hues and overall design make it female friendly, obviously put together for the benefit of women who have been conditioned to fear weapons. But this site is so well organized, so well written that I recommend it for everyone who wants to learn about guns, gun-safety, self-defense, ethics, and oh my, just about everything weapons-related. Sensational.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:54 AM | Comments (35)
Terror Mouse Dead
Hey, I have an idea, perhaps the noble British ivory tower elites who are boycotting Israeli academics should invite the peace-loving, creative desert nomads who produced this darling little piece of children's television to England—to give a creative workshop. I'm sure after the close call the British Commonwealth just had this weekend they would really appreciate the input of these lovely Arab Muslims they're so hot to support.
Yup, with such charming TV programs filled with Nazi-like propaganda, aimed at children, produced by Hamas, the duly-elected representatives of the so-called Palestinian people, well, of course it makes perfect sense (only to Jew-haters) to boycott Israelis. RJA
The Hamas satellite TV channel has responded to the international controversy over its hatred-spouting Mickey Mouse clone by having the character beaten to death by an Israeli and becoming a Shahid, martyr for Allah.
Al-Aqsa TV broadcast Friday the final episode of the children's program Tomorrow's Pioneers, starring Farfur, the Mickey Mouse lookalike whose teachings about world Islamic domination, violence and hatred outraged the world after Palestinian Media Watch made them public in May.
Without apparent regard for the sensitivities of their child viewers, the show's creators killed off the character in a particularly violent way that allowed them to continue the show's rabidly anti-Israel messages.
In this last episode, the squeaky-voiced Farfur receives land documents from his grandfather. The episode ends when an Israeli investigator tries to force Farfur to give up the key and the papers that his grandfather had given him. When Farfur refuses, the Israeli continues his brutal attack and beats Farfur to death.
Although Farfur's death is not shown to the child viewers, the hostess of the show, Saraa', sadly announces his death to the children:
"Yes, our children friends, we lost our dearest friend, Farfur. Farfur turned to a Martyr while protecting his land. He turned into a Martyr at the hands of the criminals, and murderers, the murderers of the innocent children."
Palestinian Media Watch reported the existence of the Mickey Mouse knockoff and his hateful messages in May, prompting worldwide outrage. The New York Daily News dubbed the character "Terror Mouse," while Walt Disney's daughter Diane described it as "pure evil."
Despite promises by the PA that the show would be suspended immediately, it remained on the air for another week, and was then suspended during the violence in Gaza. This final episode, which includes the killing of Farfur by Israel, enabled Hamas to remove the program while continuing its hate messages.
Click here to watch the video.
The following are excerpts from the final episode:
[Text:] "Farfur in Interrogation"
Israeli interrogator: "Sit down, Farfur. Farfur, we want to buy the land, we will give you a lot of money. You will get a lot of money, and we will take the documents."
Farfur: "No!! We will not sell our lands to terrorists!"
Interrogator: "Farfur!!! I want you to give me the documents, give me the documents!"
Farfur: "I'm not giving the documents! Not giving! Not giving!"
Interrogator: "Farfur!!!
[Visual: interrogator beats Farfur]
Farfur! "Hand me the documents. Farfur! Hand me the documents, Farfur!"
Farfur: "I am not handing them to criminals, to terrorists!"
Interrogator: "You call us terrorists, Farfur?!
[Visual: Interrogator beats Farfur again]
"Take this! Take this! Take this! Take this!"
Farfur: "Stop! Stop!"
Saraa': "Yes, our children friends, we lost our dearest friend, Farfur. Farfur turned to a Martyr while protecting his land. He turned into a Martyr at the hands of the criminals, and murderers. The murderers of the innocent children. [Talking to a child caller] You saw that the Jews let Farfur die as a Martyr. What do you want to say to the Jews?"
Shaimaa', 3 years old, on the phone: "We don't like the Jews because they are dogs! We will fight them!"
Saraa' [sarcastically]: "No, the Jews are good, oh Shaimaa'.
"The Jews are our friends, and we play with them, isn't it so?"
Shaimaa': "They killed Farfur!"
Saraa': "That's right, oh Shaimaa'. The Jews are criminals and enemies, we must expel them from our land."
Hamas, Al-Aqsa TV June 27, 2007
Please feel free to forward this bulletin, crediting Palestinian Media Watch.
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:00 AM | Comments (9)
July 01, 2007
Communist-O
1. Confession: I have not seen Michael Moore's latest propaganda effort.
2. I'm not going to.
3. I see no reason to screen work that has the seal of approval of The Daily Worker and The New York Times.
4. All movies are moral landscapes.
5. Michael Moore squats on the same moral landscape as Karl Marx, Josef Stalin, and Yasser Arafat; Moore uses the exact same cinematic methods as Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl, but throws in some clever Lucille Ball-type humor to show that he's, er, a regular guy.
6. The following is a clear-headed review of Moore's latest tissue of lies by my friend and colleague Dirty Harry—at the best film site in the known and unknown universe: Libertas.
Michael Moore may call it Sicko, but Anecdotal-O is a much more appropriate title for one of the most unpersuasive documentary films ever produced. In a country like ours with its imperfect healthcare system, Moore spoils any chance he had at making a convincing argument for change by letting his Marxist tendencies get the better of him. Moore doesn’t want to fix anything. He doesn’t want to make anything better. He simply wants us to socialize our healthcare so we can all live in a utopia like Cuba where we’re supposed to believe a visit to the hospital results in you nearly having to fight doctors and fancy medical equipment off like flies.
To read the rest of the review, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:00 AM | Comments (13)
War Map
This is so cool. Check out the shifting war map of the middle east, and you'll see 5,000 years of history in just 90 seconds.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:34 AM | Comments (4)