Boker tov, Boulder!

Guess Where

... this sticker is plastered?

LGF has the answer and the story.

The World Without Zionism

I have to admit I've ignored this a bit, both internally and externally (blog). I'm busy and all that, just moved, have a grandchild due to be born in the spring, yadda yadda yadda, but it's no excuse. I'm afraid we all have to face this on whatever level we can:

The President of Iran declared that he hopes Palestinian terrorism wipes the "disgraceful blot" of Israel off the map and that "anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the ire of the Islamic nation's fury."

What's even worse -for me- is that he did so at a conference in Tehran called "The World Without Zionism." My worst nightmare.

According to CAMERA,

The Post reported Ahmadinejad's remarks, without the subsequent U.S. and international condemnation of them, and only as a news brief.

In addition, the Washington Post also apparently ran only one photograph with its Oct. 27 article on the terrorist attack in Hadera -- a small color photo of the mother of the bomber holding a picture of her son.

Arghh.

The links I have aren't working, so I'll have to find another way.... Let me know what you come up with, too, and in the meantime, hang onto this contact information:

Letters to the editor: letters@washpost.com
Send a courtesy copy (cc) to Foreign Editor Keith Richburg at richburgk@washpost.com
and new Ombudsman Deborah Howell at ombudsman@washpost.com

Phone 202-334-6000

Blogging break for nachas

All my kids are coming home today! I'll be blogging only sporadically if at all -- til the middle of next week . . . so Good Shabbos and Shavua tov in advance.

I've even got some good news for you (via DEBKA):

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Gilerman submits demand for the UN Security Council to debar Iran from membership of the world body.

Danny rocks.

More kindness, more cruelty

A reader pointed out that this photo, from Associated Press - carried by ABC News, accompanied the coverage of yesterday's attack in Hadera.

Rahama Abu Zeid cries next to a picture of her 20-year-old brother Hassan Abu Zeid at the family house in the West Bank town of Qabatiyeh Wednesday Oct. 26, 2005. His name was announced over a bullhorn in Qabatiyeh, residents said, as the suicide bomber that blew himself up earlier at a falafel stand in an open-air market in the Israeli city of Hadera killing himself and five Israelis in the deadliest attack in Israel in more than three months. The Palestinian Islamic group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

No mention of the murdered Jews (beyond their number) or their little sisters. Warning: it's not politically correct to say so, but this girl's brother should rot in hell. And I'm not too happy with Ariel Sharon either (he allowed her brother to be released from an Israel prison just a month ago in a "goodwill gesture" to the Palestinians). Goodwill to Islamic Jihad? Poor little sister? Hullo? How cheap is our blood?

In Gaza on Wednesday evening, dozens of masked Islamic Jihad militants held a news conference at which they celebrated the attack in Hadera as a "great victory as a message to our beloved Palestinian people and Islamic and Arab nations."

Bastards. I wish the media wouldn't show up at their "news conferences," but it just goes to show ya . . . who loves ya, baby. And who doesn't.

UPDATE: The news conference seems to have struck the same nerve in Rick Richman. Great minds, and all that :)

Kindness and Cruelty

UPDATE: Reader AP thinks the rabbi may have this quote backwards. I agree, and think it's supposed to read, "Those who are kind to the cruel end up being cruel to the kind." ... I'll check to make sure.... so stay tuned.

Rabbi Lazer Brody:

The Midrash teaches an important lesson (Yalkut Shimoni, Samuel I, 221): "Those who are cruel to the kind end up being kind to the cruel".

Hadera is a lovely little city between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Even though it has grown tremendously in recent years, it still feels like a small town. The local Lubavitcher rabbi there, Rav Klonimus Kupchik shlit'a, is like the city's unofficial mayor. Thanks to his three and a half decade influence, Hadera is a place where everyone gets along, despite differences of outlook and opinion.

A few hours ago, lovely citrus-blossom-scented Hadera became a blood bath. A frenzied shahid named Hassan Abu Zeid from a the Jenin-area village of Qabatiyeh blew himself up, killing 5 Haderans and maiming 30 more.

Now hear this: At the prodding of Ms. Rice, Sharon released Abu Zeid and scores of other terrorists from Israeli prisons a mere 30 days ago.

Read it all.

More ARGH&GRRR with the Daily Camera

In light of the terrorist scum bomb in Hadera this morning/afternoon, I feel like it's trite to be messing with one small lie in a newspaper hardly anyone reads. But hey, you do what you can where you can, so I left this comment online.

"I believe she was talking not just about Israel proper, but also the West Bank (also known as Judea and Samaria)."

Mr. Evans is trying to back-pedal here, but it doesn't work. The source is quoted as saying, "You cannot be a citizen of Israel unless you are a Jew, even if you were born there." This is an utter lie. Period. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with the Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria.

Judea and Samaria are DISPUTED TERRITORIES. They were under the control of Jordan, but Jordan and several other Arab countries together attacked Israel and got their butts kicked. In the process, they lost control of those territories.

Jordan is not asking, nor has it ever asked, for Judea and Samaria to be returned to it, because, guess what, Jordan doesn't want the "millions of Palestinians who live there," either.

Jordan IS the Palestinian state; it was created for Palestinian Arabs and they are the majority there. Problem is, the king of Jordan is not Palestinian, but Hashemite, and millions MORE Palestinians in his kingdom would threaten his power and his rule.

Jordan doesn't want the Palestinians, Lebanon doesn't want the Palestinians, Syria doesn't want the Palestinians -in fact they keep them in refugee camps- but all the Arab countries take advantage of the fact that Israel is stuck with these millions of Palestinians, in order to deflect the anger of their own "Arab streets" onto Israel, the enemy they all hold in common for that very purpose.

Furthermore, Israel may control Judea and Samaria, but it has never formally annexed those territories. Only if they did so, would they have the right, the opportunity and the misfortune, to offer citizenship to the Arabs who live there.

And if Israel DID annex Judea and Samaria, Mr. Evans would probably be among the first to accuse Israel of imperialism and aggression.

Opinions that are based on random emotion, with no knowledge of the history of the Middle East, are just noise. We would be better off without it.

UPDATE: Don't miss Clay Evans' response. He calls me a scourge (that's a first).... and writes,

As for Ms. Lieberman, it must be nice to have all the answers and know with certainty that your personal beliefs are correct, to the exclusion of all others!

The truth be told, it gives me little comfort to know the facts of Israeli history. But yes, my "personal beliefs"

1) that what the source said was a lie,

2) that for Mr. Evans to repeat that lie in print was unethical and irresponsible, and

3) that the political status of Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria has no bearing on #1 nor #2

Yes, all those are correct.

Here's my creed: I believe in a fundamental difference between truth and untruth; all narratives are not equal. There are degrees of relevance. I care about Jewish (and thereby, Israeli) safety and continued existence and believe they constitute a global moral imperative.

And yes, I know these things "with certainty." I think that's what bothers Mr. Evans the most.

SUICIDE BOMBING IN HADERA

UPDATE: At least five killed

Residents rush to help wounded at the site of a suicide bomb attack in the Israeli coastal city of Hadera, some 40 km.( 25 Miles ) north of Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday Oct. 26, 2005. A Palestinian suicide bomber struck a food stand, killing four people, wounding at least 30 and leaving a path of destruction at an open air market, police and rescuers said. In a phone call to The Associated Press, the Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.(AP Photo/George Ginsberg)

Four Killed, 30 Wounded in Israel Bombing AP via Yahoo! News - 9 minutes ago

A suicide bomber struck the crowded entrance of a falafel stand at an open air market Wednesday in the northern Israeli town of Hadera, killing four people and wounding at least 30, police and rescuers said.

The UK is over

Foggedaboudit. Look closely and you can see "Western civilization" slipping away... before our very eyes.

A poem which praises the murder of Jews by the Nazis has been included in a book of children’s poetry to be distributed amongst schools in the UK.

The publication, entitled Great Minds, features the work of school children aged 11 to 18 who won a nationwide literary competition. But one poem has generated outrage amongst Jewish groups, politicians and Holocaust charities for its anti-Semitic content.

The entry by the 14-year-old Gideon Taylor is apparently written from the viewpoint of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

It includes the lines “Jews are here, Jews are there, Jews are almost everywhere, filling up the darkest places, evil looks upon their faces.”

Another part reads: “Make them take many paces for being one of the worst races, on their way to a gas chamber, where they will sleep in their manger? I’ll be happy Jews have died.”

But for Muslims, the utmost sensitivity:

British banks are banning piggy banks because they may offend some Muslims.

Halifax and NatWest banks have led the move to scrap the time-honoured symbol of saving from being given to children or used in their advertising . . .

Submitted to the Daily Camera

Clay Evans (Opinion, October 23, 2005) naively fell prey to pro-Palestinian propaganda, which seems always to include distortions and untruths about the State of Israel. This happens to many well-intentioned and ostensibly caring folks. Fortunately for us all, most of them don't write opinion columns in newspapers.

It is simply untrue that "You cannot be a citizen of Israel unless you are a Jew," and it was irresponsible of Mr. Evans to repeat that. (For those who are unaware, 20% of the citizens of Israel are Arab, most of them Muslim, which is about as non-Jewish as you can get).

With high emotion Mr. Evans writes, "If the United States attempted to impose a religious test for citizenship, or declared an official state religion, I'd be in the streets, ready to fight." This no doubt gives the writer a warm and fuzzy feeling of self-righteousness. I would warn that such a feeling can become addictive and may, over time, take precedence over reason.

The facts are that the United States has no such religious test, Israel is not the United States, and Israel has no such test either. So given that the issue raised was based on absolute falsity, where does one go with all that noble intent? I have a couple of suggestions.

In August, ten thousand Jewish men, women and children were forcibly expelled from their homes in the Gaza strip. To this day, most remain homeless, jobless, separated from their former neighbors and friends and from their own belongings. They are still responsible for the mortgage payments on the houses from which they were removed, the ones their government then bulldozed.

Now there’s an injustice to which one might attach some noble intent, even action. Or, if that doesn’t light your inspirational fire, what about the greatest destruction of synagogues since Nazi Germany? In their first act of freedom from "occupation," Palestinian mobs burned the synagogues and yeshivas in Gaza. The silence of well-meaning American liberals was deafening.

One last bit of advice. The next time you envision yourself "in the streets, ready to fight" for a noble cause, make sure (beforehand) that your cause is not only noble, but real and true.

Anne Lieberman

"Offended" by Israel

Leftists thrive on being offended. Take for example, one Nancy Brandauer (scroll down to comments):

In 1948 I was 14, and I innocently cheered with the rest of the world when Israelis found a "home." But what they have done with and to that home since then has offended and disgusted me. Jews do indeed have the right to exist, but they should know better than any other population that they cannot morally do so at the cost of another's existence.

I don't know which bothers me more, that Israel disgusts and offends her, or that she acknowledges my right to exist.

If you are not writing a letter to the editor regarding the Clay Evans opinion that appeared in yesterday's Boulder Daily Camera, you can at least post a response online.

P.S. I couldn't resist:

In response to commenter Nancy Brandauer's generous acknowledgment of my right to exist, I would like to return the favor.

I believe that people who are ill-informed about Israel and yet hostile toward it... have the right to exist.