Boker tov, Boulder!

What planet are they on?

Today's New York Times on why the immigration bill bit the dust:

According to "immigration lawyers, researchers, former goverment officials and other experts" ~

The Senate tried to do too much in one bill.

According to "supporters" (of the bill, I guess) ~

... lawmakers ... caved in to hateful, nativist, xenophobic sentiments whipped up by conservative talk radio.

They even find a way to blame Bush. According to "lawmakers" ~

President Bush pushed hard for the measure, but his administration irritated some senators because it was so deeply involved with the bill. Sometimes - as President Bill Clinton learned the hard way - it is better to lay out an objective and let Congress fill in the details...

Can you imagine reading this and believing in the journalistic integrity of it? If liberals weren't so stupid and arrogant as to blatantly and purposefully ignore what the other half of the country is saying, I would feel sorry for them.

If they're depending on the New York Times for news, they are woefully misunderinformed. To say the least.

Shabbat shalom

Police Confirm Second London Car Bomb

'Clearly Linked to First '

In a just world, the New York Times would have to pay

... for the pain they have caused the Roth family and the entire family of Jews. I am so angry and so hurt by this. I would say it is unspeakable, unbearable, but I would be proven wrong... as you will see.

Page E9 of The Arts Section of the New York Times, Wednesday June 27, 2007:

Ahlam Tamimi in a scene from the documentary “Hot House.” Ms. Tamimi is among about 10,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails.

An Odd Understanding Reached in Israeli Prisons

Television Review / "Hot House"

by Neil Genzlinger

The parents of Malki Chana Roth write:

Dear friends,

Today's New York Times carries 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....

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.

.... 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 at http://www.kerenmalki.org/photo.htm

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

We remember

- Giora Balash, 60, of Brazil
- Zvika Golombek, 26, of Carmiel
- Shoshana Yehudit Greenbaum, 31, of the U.S.
- Tehila Maoz, 18, of Jerusalem
- Frieda Mendelsohn, 62, of Jerusalem
- Michal Raziel, 16, of Jerusalem
- Malka Roth, 15, of Jerusalem
- Mordechai Schijveschuurder, 43, of Neria
- Tzira Schijveschuurder, 41, of Neria
- Ra'aya Schijveschuurder, 14, of Neria
- Avraham Yitzhak Schijveschuurder, 4, of Neria
- Hemda Schijveschuurder, 2, of Neria
- Lily Shimashvili, 33, of Jerusalem
- Tamara Shimashvili, 8, of Jerusalem
- Yocheved Shoshan, 10, of Jerusalem

The police phoned to the Roth home immediately after the mourning week (the shiva) was over to say they had found Malki's cell phone in the wreckage of the Sbarro restaurant.

Its ballistic nylon holder was shredded by the nails and other shrapnel; a nail and a fragment are at the right of the phone in this photo.

On the phone itself, Malki had written: "Assur ledaber lashon harah"; a reminder (in Hebrew) to herself that it is improper to speak ill of other people.

Frimet and Arnold Roth's lives were entirely private up until the murder of their daughter. Since August 2001, each of them - in somewhat different ways - speaks out or writes publicly, trying to alert people everywhere to the ugliness and threat of terror, to remind them of Malki's life and ambitions, and to generate support for the work of the Malki Foundation.

The Malki Foundation (in Hebrew, Keren Malki) is one family's effort to honour the memory of a much-loved child, Malka Chana Roth, who was murdered in the name of hatred and intolerance. [Their] website and the Malki Foundation's work are a memorial to her life.

The scope of our work in empowering families who care at home for a special-needs child, is growing steadily and quickly. Our entire budget comes from donations, and almost everything we do is done by volunteers.

Donations are essential to the work of Keren Malki, and are the most practical way to ensure Malki's life is never forgotten.

You can give your support and do a positive and valuable deed in these difficult times by donating in any currency. To delay probably means to forget - so please make your donation decision today...

"Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live and possess the land the Lord, your God, is giving you." -- Parshat Shoftim

Disengagement from Olmert can't come too soon

IsraelNN.com

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned in a speech at the annual Caesarea Conference Thursday night that Sderot residents should not expect to be completely protected against Kassam rocket attacks fired at the town from northern Gaza.

The Prime Minister declared that his government cannot offer reinforced rooftops for every edifice within rocket range, saying:

"A country cannot protect itself ad infinitum, because there would be no end to it."

Naama Didovski

No Israeli govt official will give an explanation

... of Israel's Black African Priorities

David Bedein:

After intense pressure, the Israeli government made a decision on February 16, 2003, that anyone who can trace maternal descent to Jews of Ethiopia would be allowed to return to Israel under the Law of Return. The Israeli government then launched Operation Promise to raise funds from Jewry around the world to bring this last community of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

With expectations raised, the 16,000 Ethiopian Falash Mura have moved their residence into three temporary compounds in the Gondar region of Ethiopia, awaiting their repatriation to Zion. However, the Israeli government will only allow 300 Falash Mura per month to arrive in Israel. No one in the Israeli government will give an explanation as to why such a low quota exists.

Meanwhile, although the Israeli government is supposed to be providing "Immigration Eligibility Forms" for the Falash Mura, no Israeli government representative has visited the three compounds where the Falash Mura have been lingering since the decision to bring them to Israel. No Israeli government official will give an explanation for this policy.

However, the Israeli government is making every effort to absorb at least 5,000 Muslim Sudanese refugees from Darfur, who are leaving transit camps where they had been living in temporary accommodations in Egypt. The Israeli collective farms known as kibbutzim are absorbing the Darfur refugees and giving them work in exchange for room and board. How an unpaid Muslim population will integrate into Israeli society is a question that no one in Israel is prepared to deal with.

p.s. Esti Mamo is Falash Mura.

I've been tagged, but I don't wanna play

Someone asked me about this earlier, and I politely declined. Now a Fiery Spirited Zionist has "tagged" me. So I will tell him/her the same thing I told the last (and more considerate) blogger-tagger: I don't wanna play.

Now is it fair that FSZ gets a link and the other doesn't? No, but it hardly matters since I don't drive a lot of traffic to begin with.

And as for facts about myself, readers of this blog know way too much already:)

Lubrani (and I) told you so

Please indulge me in a moment of gloating, as the opportunities are few and far between in this business. Check out this BtB post from last August:

.... The Iranian economy ... is not so hot according to Ambassador Lubrani. He told us bloggers that they may have 40-50 billion petro-dollars in their coffers, but they admit to an unemployment rate of 20% (Lubrani says that means it must be 30-35%) and inflation is at 24%. Thus, their economy is a vulnerability that Lubrani says the US could and should exploit.

I didn't know this, but even though Iran is one of the world's largest exporters of oil, they have to import 40% of their gasoline from elsewhere because of limited refining capacity. [See also Gasoline, the Silent Bomb].

According to the Washington Post, Iran spends billions of dollars a year to import gasoline (8% of the national budget) and billions more, artificially holding down the price to Iranian consumers.

Their sources include Western Europe, India, China, Brazil, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, among others. Surely we could get some help from somewhere on that list?

Now I don't know any more about this than what I've told you here, but so far Lubrani's idea of exploiting this in an effort to bring down the mullah-regime seems a reasonable one. We could certainly give it a shot, it makes more sense than "engagement" and "diplomacy."

NOW see today's New York Times: Unrest Grows Amid Gas Rationing in Iran

TEHRAN, June 28 — Unrest spread in Tehran on Thursday, the second day of gasoline rationing in oil-rich Iran, with drivers lining up for miles, gas stations being set on fire and state-run banks and business centers coming under attack....

The anger posed a keen threat to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected two years ago on a platform of bringing income from oil to the nation’s households. Instead, even though Iran is one of the world’s largest producers of crude oil, it has been forced to import about 40 percent of its gasoline at an annual cost of $5 billion to make up for shortfalls in its archaic refining industry.

.... Saeed Leylaz, an economist and political analyst in Tehran, said, “The high gasoline consumption has made Iran very vulnerable, and this is a security decision now.”

“We are importing gasoline from 16 different countries,” he said. “The country would be on the verge of collapse if they suddenly decide not to sell us gasoline...."

Kol hakavod to Ambassador Uri Lubrani, the One Jerusalem foundation, and to whomever else (?) has been listening.

More Condi /or ... We Should Have Seen It Coming

I just came across this excerpt (at Atlas Shrugs) of Cal Thomas interviewing Secretary of State Rice ... in October of last year. If we were at all shocked that she recently referred to Hamas as a "resistance movement," we shouldn't have been.

MEA CULPA ~ I admit - I gave her way too much benefit of the doubt for way too long.

There must be something in the water (or HVAC) at the State Department, that turns normally bright people into idiots.

QUESTION: You're all over the conservative Jewish blogs for remarks you made recently on the Palestinian state, your commitment to it, living side by side with Israel, and that's been the policy of the Administration since day one.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: I'd like to know what evidence you have — I read, and I know you do and a lot more than I do, the sermons, the editorials in the Middle East, the right of return idea, which a lot of people think is just basically overwhelming for a Jewish population with millions and millions of Arabs in the so-called Diaspora. What evidence do you have that teaching their schoolchildren at the ages of four and five to be martyrs, to show up in their little uniforms with plastic guns and their headbands, textbooks one grenade plus two grenades equals, you know, three grenades — what evidence do you have out there that if they had an independent state that they would lay down their arms and not complete the mission of killing the Jews and throwing them out?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, you can look at any opinion poll in the Palestinian territories and 70 percent of the people will say they're perfectly ready to live side by side with Israel because they just want to live in peace. And when it comes right down to it, yeah, there are plenty of extremists in the Palestinian territories who are not going to be easily dealt with. They have to be dealt with — Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian territories — they're terrorists and they have to be dealt with as terrorists.

But the great majority of Palestinian people — this is — I've been with these people. The great majority of people, they just want a better life. This is an educated population. I mean, they have a kind of culture of education and a culture of civil society. I just don't believe mothers want their children to grow up to be suicide bombers. I think the mothers want their children to grow up to go to university. And if you can create the right conditions, that's what people are going to do.

QUESTION: Do you think this or do you know this?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think I know it.

QUESTION: You think you know it?

SECRETARY RICE: I think I know it.

QUESTION: Is it because — do you think you know it because you want to believe it or do you think you know it because of conversations with tens, scores, hundreds

SECRETARY RICE: Well, lots of conversations with Palestinians. But also it's — look, if human beings don't want a better future, don't want their children to grow up in peace and have opportunities, then none of this is going to work anyway. But I really believe that the people of the Middle East — not the extremists — want the same things that everyone else wants. I haven't seen a society yet where it wasn't true. Let me put it that way. I haven't seen a society yet where ordinary people, given an opportunity, wouldn't opt for a better life and for peace.

Never mind this poll, published just a month beforehand.

.... A rise was noted in the degrees of extremism in political positions and tendencies towards violence as shown in the results of the relevant questions. The public is moving towards extremism as the ratio of Palestinians who believe that the two-state solution (Palestine and Israel) is the best solution for the Palestinian cause [fell] from (52.4%) in June to (46.6%) in September 2006. With regards to attitudes towards military action, there is consistency in level of support to military operations against Israel targets (43.1%) while there is a slight increase in the ratio of Palestinians who support suicide bombings against Israeli civilians from (44.8%) in June 2006 to (48%) in September 2006.

And while I'm complaining, this really bugs me - from an Atlas link in the same post:

(Strategy Page, October 27, 2006) - While most Palestinians believe Israel should not exist, Israelis return the favor, and back the current policy of just walling off the Palestinian territories and having as little to do with them as possible.

No doubt Pamela linked to this for its affirmation that "most Palestinians believe Israel should not exist," but that next clause is deeply disturbing.

Israelis "return the favor"? Yeah, right. Israel wanting to "disengage" from Palestinians is just like Palestinians believing that Israel should not even exist.

I know that's fallacious, but it may take me a while to identify just which fallacy is being argued here. If you beat me to the answer, lemme know.

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UPDATE: Here's a new poll - via a fiery spirited zionist. The majority of Palestinians favor Iran having nukes. Condoleezza Rice will have to put that in her pipe and smoke it.

Car Bomb found in Central LONDON

Police officers examine the scene in Haymarket in central London.... (AFP/Leon Neal)

AP/Washington Post

LONDON -- Police thwarted an apparent terror attack Friday, discovering a parked silver Mercedes that was packed with gas containers and a large number of nails. The attack would have caused "significant injury or loss of life," police said.

x-ray of pelvis imbedded with nails and metal fragments (WND)

A British security official told The Associated Press that there were similarities between the device and vehicle bombs used by insurgents in Iraq.

"Forensic staff are still examining the device, but once we know more about it, we'll know more about what type of individuals are behind this," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the security details.

The official said Britain's domestic spy agency MI5 also would examine possible connections between Friday's incident and at least two similar foiled plots _ including a planned attack on a West End nightclub in 2004 and a thwarted attempt to use limousines packed with gas canisters to attack targets in London and New York.

Officers were called to The Haymarket shortly before 2 a.m., a police statement said. Sky News cited witnesses as saying doormen from a nearby nightclub had reported that someone had crashed a Mercedes sedan into garbage bins and ran away.

The Haymarket is the site of restaurants, bars, a cinema complex and theaters, and there would have been crowds in the area.

The incident comes a week before the second anniversary of the July 7 London bombings, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 bus and subway passengers.