I don't have much time, so I'll just drop some links to keep you busy. Remind me later to tell you about Sha'i ben-Tekoa's DeProgram Program... or just go listen for yourself. There are two free excerpts, complete with transcripts (though his work is best consumed via audio).
Good news: The British academic boycott of Israel has been defeated. Not by popular demand, however, but rather because it's... illegal. Aw shucks. I'm sure they're really disappointed.
See also Ruth Wisse in conversation at Haaretz:
.... Racism is the belief that one people is intrinsically inferior or superior to another. Much of the Arab world believes that Jews are intrinsically inferior to Muslims and Arabs. According to this supremacist racism, Arabs are entitled to twenty-two countries, covering one-tenth of the land mass of the globe, while Jews are entitled to not even one.
Jewish racism is its flip side, teaching that Israelis are responsible for Arab misery. This liberal racism believes that if Arabs have autocratic or despotic forms of government, self-destructive and aggressive patterns of behavior, traditions of male domination, including honor killings, that at odds with the concept of individual rights, and a political culture of scapegoating that prevents the emergence of mature self-government¬why, then, it must be the fault of their Jewish neighbors and the responsibility of those Jewish neighbors to "cure."
Liberal racism in America was practiced by Whites who believed that former Black slaves were so inherently damaged that their anti-social behavior had to be indulged and excused. In the name of "conscience" and "kindness" they encouraged in others violent forms of conduct they would never have tolerated in themselves or their children. Israeli self-blame for what the Arabs have done to themselves is a similar, equally damaging form of contempt. If my correspondent had a shred of respect for Arabs, he would expect of them the same standards of restraint and accountability he demands of Jews.
And don't miss Mark Steyn - Blowing Smoke - in The Corner.
Okay, Muslim foot-baths in Kansas City airport, gender-segregated swimming sessions at French municipal pools, banning pork from Aussie hospital menus, no eating donuts for Belgian cops during Ramadan, no seeing-eye dogs or alcohol in Minneapolis taxi cabs, fine, fine, fine. Must be sensitive and all that. But this is an amazing victory. In Vancouver, infidels can't smoke but Muslims can ....
The bad news from Israel is that the Jewish cemetery in Hebron was desecrated over Shabbos.
.... Hevron spokesman David Wilder told Arutz-7 that the most disturbing of all the targets damaged by the vandals was the grave of IDF soldier Elazar Leibovitch, who was murdered on the 17th of Av, 5762. The vandals damaged the military gravestone and then left the carcass of a turtle lying on it. Three other gravestones were also damaged....
The Menuchah Rachel Beit Midrash in the Chabad section of the cemetery was broken into and damaged. Gravestones were desecrated, mezuzahs (parchment posted on doorposts in accordance with Biblical command) ripped out of their posts and other holy articles destroyed. Equipment and furniture were also stolen from the site.
"Hevron police have launched an investigation into the incident."
Meanwhile, Abu Mazen "vows to keep pressing for peace."
And I have a nice big bridge to sell you.
