Tuesday, March 31, 2015

A Murdered Jewish Prostitute in Rome

Of all things.

I am watching TV, almost mindlessly, and suddenly, my ears hear the word "Jewish" and then "prostitute".

Could it be?

The program is an episode of something called DaVinci's Demons.

Quickly, it's off to Google and I find this:

Riario informs Leo that Sixtus tested him by exacting revenge on a sinner, a Jewish prostitute who also happened to be his mother. The Count strangled her to death and proved himself to Sixtus. Now he feels terrible remorse and foolish for chasing after The Book of Leaves for some kind of redemption.

And a further search informs me th character is:

Celia Lysimachus (died c. 1471) was a Jewish prostitute in Rome. She was Girolamo Riario's mother. Alessandro della Rovere, Riario's father, ordered him to kill the prostitute, following his usurpation of the Papacy. Riario strangled her to death, realizing in those final moments that the woman he was murdering was his mother.

The dialogue from Fall from Heaven in season 2 episode 8, May 2014

When His Holiness called me to be his instrument, he tested my resolve.
He sent me to exact vengeance against a sinner who crossed our path.
A Jewish prostitute.
In God's holy city.
I followed her for hours.
I wanted so badly to please my father.
But how could the Lord desire me to take a life? Sixtus chose her specifically.
Didn't he? Celia Lysimachus.
You brought flowers to her grave.
She was um someone familiar.
She was your mother.
We both grasped it in those moments.
And I didn't stop.
I saw it in her eyes.
She knew who I was.
And I only squeezed harder.
How foolish I have been to follow the Book of Leaves to the end of the world, thinking it could absolve me of my sins.

So, this is television entertainment.

^

Fulminations

After noticing all the anti-Ntanyahu "fighting" at Haaretz, I picked up yesterday's paper and found this op-ed by a member of its editorial executive:




I went to the web site but couldn't locate the article.  I did find this:

The world is ignoring Netanyahu 
To ensure that the national, religious or private demon of a single person or couple will not send Israel to oblivion, a completely different leadership is necessary here.
By Amir Oren |Mar 30, 2015 

and a few more in this vein:

The rise and fall of our divided, miserable Israel 
Only Likud succeeded in containing the new patriotism by turning Mizrahim into part of the 'warrior tribe.'
By Yitzhak Laor  | Mar 31, 2015  |
Save Israel from its collective suicide, Obama 
It is our moral duty and civil right to encourage the president to act against Israel's racist and anti-democratic regime.
By Rogel Alpher  | Mar 31, 2015
Channel 20: An illegal outpost on our television screens
By displaying an Israeli flag every second of every day, the cable station – which is supposed to broadcast Jewish content, not right-wing propaganda – looks more like the state-run channel in some dictatorial Arab regime.
By Rogel Alpher  | Mar 30, 2015  

But to return to Oren's piece.  Here's the last section:


This is so typical of the discourse of those who claim to be cultured, liberal and progressive but only reveals their vicious and angry fulminations that are expressions not of rationality but of hatred.

^

Haaretz, the Journal of Peace

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Monday, March 30, 2015

The Iranian Statue Honoring Obama

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Flag-Crapping

I stumbled across a story from last November on Israeli "artists" who defecated on the Israeli flag and bring to you excerpts (no link as lots of NFSW there but the determined can locate it):-

We Spoke to the Artists Who Got in Trouble for Pooping on the Israeli Flag

On July 7, Israeli performance artists Jasman Wagner and Natali Cohen Vaxberg uploaded a video of themselves to Vimeo titled ​Shit Instead of Blood. In the clip, they drop steaming deuces onto dozens of flags from countries around the world, a scatalogical spectacle soundtracked by Frédéric Chopin's "Grande Valse Brillante." In addition to the three-minute montage, they also uploaded individual videos of them defecating on each flag with the country's corresponding national anthem playing in the background.

At first, the compilation video didn't gain much attention. It wasn't until this fall that the video started to rack up views thanks to the the Shadow, a right-wing internet personality who later filed a complaint about the video with the Israeli police, who subsequently arrested Vaxberg for defiling a national symbol. Vaxberg was placed under house arrest for 30 days, during which time she wasn't allowed to use WiFi. (Wagner got off scot-free because she is currently living in Berlin, where artists pooping on things isn't that out of the ordinary.)

Last week, I spoke to Vaxberg over her friend's phone and Skyped with Wagner, who explained that their project was political art without any specific country as a target. "It's about broad anti-nationalism," they agreed. "Don't take these symbols, these flags, seriously," added Vaxberg. "We took a crap on the Palestinian flag, the Israeli flag—all of them."

...​Jasman Wagner: It was Natali's idea. But somebody had to do it. It hadn't been done before. 

So why did only Natali get arrested and not you?First of all, we divided the flags up between us. She was doing the Israel flag, I was doing the Palestinian flag—but, of course, both of us stand behind every shit. 

...So how did you and Natali do this project together if you live in different countries?​We started working on art together at the Experimental School in Jerusalem, but this project began just before Natali came to visit Berlin. She was invited for a festival—she's an actress, playwright, and poet. She was happy she could visit me because I've lived in Berlin for four years. Before her visit, she told me about an idea where we'd shit on all the flags around the world. So I just started storming the shops and collecting flags.

...If your goal is to criticize nationalism broadly, do you think you succeeded?​I think there was an experimental goal. We said, If we shit on all the flags of the world, in Israel, they will write that we shit only on Israel's flag. And that happened. They wrote only about the specific video of the Israel flag. 

It's interesting that your experiment worked out.​It completely succeeded. People didn't believe us. They told us that maybe they would write that it's bad that they shit on the Israeli flag. But the Israeli press saw a three-minute video and only acknowledged two frames of it. 

If you walked around with a sign that said, "I hate Israel, I hate Palestine," everyone in Israel will call you a Palestinian supporter. People in the world don't know about this Israeli mindset, which was created by propaganda.

Did you see any Palestinian reports about this?​No. I think the Palestinians have actual problems to worry about. In Israel, they report about football and about people shitting on flags. I think one of the problems they have is the raging nationalism. There were people who saw the Palestinian flag and still were commenting, "Why didn't you shit on Palestine's flag?"

Do you consider yourself pro-anything? Pro-Israel or -Palestine?Neither, because nationalism is dead. I think that the fact that your parents chose to rent an apartment somewhere nine months after they f*cked doesn't mean anything.

It's much more moral to put shit on the flag than to put blood on the flag—to put your life on the flag. Some people say our video is disgusting, but every time I see all kinds of dead corpses in war, it disgusts me much more. I would rather see pictures of shit. And people see shit all the time. So why is it a taboo?

There are also cultural ideas, feminist issues, and social boundary issues involved in our work, except nationalism. For example, there are people denying the fact that women are shitting! It's like the Holocaust deniers: It never happened... Women do not shit! Boys fart. Boys shit. Not girls! Part of [male] chauvinism is to present women as "pure," to keep them like a statue, an object. There's a totally feminist issue that there are two girls shitting on all those manly (mostly man-led) countries.

I must say, of all of the things, Natali's arrest was totally unproportional to what she did, especially since she didn't do an anti-Israeli thing. It was an anti-nationalism thing. But it's not surprising...

Sunday, March 29, 2015

On the Media From Within the Media

From Yaron Dekel's op-ed, Globus, March 23:

...When I returned from the post of IBA Washington's envoy, somewhere in 2007, I came across a harsh media disease. Kadima was its name. Ehud Olmert was God, followed by Tzipi Livni who was the Holy Spirit. You could not say a bad word about them. Any criticism was considered treason of the herd, the profession and the tribe. Even when it was clear that Netanyahu had a stemming bloc after the 2009 elections, the media continued to put together another coalition headed by Livni.

During these recent elections, most of the media sinned against its role. Criticism of Netanyahu passed the line between legitimate and necessary criticism over to an aggressive and uninhibited campaign. Netanyahu, the prime minister, may not be perfect, and there are many reasons to criticise him, but the bon-ton would view him as a dark figure who will bring about the end of the state and the end of Zionism. The fact, for example, that the prime minister was cautious and hesitant not to rush on decisions on military operations, was absent from the discourse. The blackening was almost total, and any statement about this situation was met by the self-righteous response, "but Netanyahu has a newspaper". Well, and if it has? So, then, there's no obligation to ethics, to fair coverage?

Now is a good time for drawing a proper accounting and conclusions, of a professional and personal soul-searching in the media. Why did the media again assume for itself a conception? Again, we went blindly, as in a chimney, after opinion polls. And now, in the absence of proper care in substance, again they seized the headlines, and made political coverage of the story as of Sweepstakes: superficial, biased, and, as it turned out last Tuesday, detached from the field. The media lives in a bubble created by itself, being overwhelmed by the smells of its own perfumes and is not sensitive to any significant or deep currents in Israeli society.

The late Minister Uri Orbach was a ground-breaker of the entry of right-wingers in to the mainstream media...there are not enough successors to Orbach. Only a significant entry into the established mainstream media of journalists with skullcaps, residents from the periphery and those holding a right-wing line, will change the situation and free it from its 'within-a-bubble' reality.

In a country where 80% of media consumers believe in God, the media mediators must create an identification in their consumers with the media. Not for right-wingers, or those who wear crocheted kippot. On behalf of the media, its credibility and its importance in a democratic society. Without such a determined course, its status will continue to erode, unfortunately.


The author is head of Army Radio.

^

J Street News: Head Wound Victim

My loyal long-time readers will forgive me for reading into this unfortunate San Diego Texas incident a connection to that Jewish group that purports to be pro-Israel:

Two people flagged down officers on J Street near 15th Street to report a man in the street, bleeding from a head wound.

To compound matters, the victim is expected not to survive:


A 47-year-old man who was shot in the head in East Village on Saturday is not expected to survive, San Diego police said.

Head wound did I read?

GraphicZionism: On the Yemen War

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Lena Dunham and A Note on Humor

Lena Dunham is in dog, or is it Jew, trouble.  Her quiz is drawing condemnations as being anti-Semitic.

In any case, what I found most interesting was this comment from David Remnick, who said 

“The Jewish-comic tradition is rich with the mockery of, and playing with, stereotypes. Anyone who has ever heard Lenny Bruce or Larry David or Sarah Silverman or who has read ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’ knows that. Lena Dunham, who is Jewish and hugely talented, is a comic voice working in that vein. Richard Pryor and Chris Rock do the same about black stereotypes; Amy Schumer does it with women and gender. I don’t mind if one reader or another didn’t find the piece funny. People can differ on that. But considering all the real hatred and tragedy in the world, the people getting exercised about the so-called anti-Semitism of this comic piece, like those who railed at Philip Roth a generation or two ago, are, with respect, howling in the wrong direction.”

I'd wish Remnick and friends would treat Israel's administration of Judea and Samaria with at least an equal equanimity.

And if you think that a joke, you have a Jewish sense of humor.

^

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Peres, Arabs and Voting - and Netanyahu

In this week's Matzav HaRuach weekly, Hagai Huberman reprints two pages from the book "The Suicide", a recounting of the failure of Shimon Peres' 1996 election campaign in which he started out, after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, with a 20% lead over his contender, Binyamin Netanyahu of the Likud.  The book was authored by Ben Caspit, Hanan Kristal and Ilan Kafir, subtitled "A Party Abandons Government", and published by Avivim Press. It contains on pages 279-280, a description of Peres attempting, in desperation, to get out the Arab vote after he realizes the Likud is, surprisingly, doing well in voter turn-out in its areas.



He did so to point to the hypocrisy of the critics of Netanyahu's call this month on election day.

Here is the original Hebrew of Netanyahu's call which rankled US President Obama:






In translation:

"The rule of the Right is in danger.  Arab voters are moving in large numbers to the voting booths.  Left-wing NGOs are transporting them in buses.  We don't have a V15, we have an Emergency Call-up #8, we have only you.  Get out to vote, bring friends and family.  Vote Likud to close the gap between us and Labour."

Going back to Peres, here are the two most relevant sections:

a)


Peres calls up heads of Arab councils in a special personal effort and tells them "every vote is important, every vote in critical, it's a close contest".


b)  


Peres gets himself interviewed by Kol Yisrael's Arab affairs reporter who informs the country that Peres said, "Get out and vote, every vote is important."  And he yells at the Justice Minister David Libai, "we're losing the elections, get out to Baqa Al-Garabiya, get the people out into the streets."

In addition to what I wrote, here and here, I emphasize that the voting in Israel is via proportional representation which can favor an organized voting pattern as there are no constituencies.  The country is itslef one voting district.

But whatever you think of Netanyahu, think the same of Peres.

______________

UPDATE

Check out what Bibi said later that day and what did Arab MKs say, too.
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Thursday, March 26, 2015

What Do Jerusalem and Pamela Anderson Share?

The answer is .... banned advertisements.

In the case of Jerusalem, there was this earlier this month:

Britain's advertising watchdog has banned an Israeli government tourism advert for suggesting that the Old City of Jerusalem was part of Israel...The newspaper brochure showed a panorama of the walled Old City with the text "Israel has it all", and was ruled misleading by the AdvertisingStandards Authority (ASA), which said it implied the UNESCO World Heritage Site was part of Israel...Following a complaint, the ASA ruled the title of the brochure "Israel Land of Creation" and references to Old City attractions was misleading and banned the advert from appearing again in its current form...

"We understood that the status of the territories in question was the subject of much international dispute," the watchdog said.  "We therefore considered the presentation of the ad would mislead consumers into believing that the Old City of Jerusalem was part of Israel and into taking a transactional decision that they would otherwise not have taken."  The brochure included a photograph showing the golden Old City landmark and Muslim shrine the Dome of the Rock, with the modern buildings of Western Jerusalem in the background.

And two years ago, there was this:

A raunchy TV ad featuring ex-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has been banned for being sexist and degrading to women.  The ad, for web hosting service CrazyDomains.co.uk, featured the Barb Wire star in a boardroom full of men.  While addressing the board Anderson and her assistant, Vanessa, show a lot of cleavage and one of the men fantasises about the pair dancing in bikinis while covered in cream.
Dreamscape Networks, the parent company of Crazy Domains, said the dream sequence was not "gratuitous or pornographic".  Watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority received four complaints that the ad was offensive because it was sexist and degrading to women.

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GraphicZionism: Obama Confronts Saudi Arabia

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Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Your Splurge for Pesach

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An 18th Century Jewish 'Settlement'

Jewish residential locations these days are 'settlements' and not only in Judea and Samaria. And even when they're fake (or there's a typo = 1st century).

This is from a story on a new Jesus TV film:

Charlie Parsons, an executive producer and the channel’s vice president, surveys Antipas’ courtyard. He says this film stands apart in the recent boom of Jesus movies because it’s “a very accessible version of the story. We reach a broad audience and we’re trying to show what Jesus really stood for and present Jesus as a man, as a carpenter and as a man who walked among us. He was very touchable.”

Sleiman proved that a day earlier, and about 90 minutes away, at Tamnougalt. In the dusty courtyard of an 18th-century-Jewish settlement, flickering oil lamps bathed the red limestone with an amber glow as Jesus knelt to wash Peter’s feet before the Last Supper.

By the way, Tamnougalt is in ... Morocco.

And since Jesus died in the 1st century, what is he doing in an 18th century 'settlement'?

^

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

The Neo-Paulinization of Zionism

In a conversation with a close friend, discussing the situation within the Jewish world and the status of Zionism as a necessary central component of Judaism and the Jews, an idea began to take form.

Blog posts, in my approach, are not for wasting words.  And so, in my formulation, my idea is based on what I see as a growing phenomenon of anti-Zionism, whether expressed minimalistically, but basically resulting in a distancing of oneself from becoming involved in any Israel-linked activity or "going over" to the Palestinian narrative or shades of in-between.


The matter is acute and here is another way of defining the problem:-



in some circles attitudes towards the ongoing existence of such a state are no longer as affirmative as they had been, and publicly voiced calls for the end of Israel are becoming more prevalent. These anti-Zionist views are emerging at a time when antisemitism is on the upsurge in Europe and elsewhere.  How, if at all, are these phenomena related? What exactly do people mean when they say they are not against Jews or Judaism but "Zionism?" What does “Zionism” signify to its present-day opponents? What motivates them to fixate, sometimes fervently, on what they see as the singular "injustices" and even "evil" of Zionism and Israel? Of what irredeemable sin do they find Israel to be uniquely guilty?

There are easily identified groups involved, across the spectrum of viciousness, such as the New Israel Fund, J Street (which can lead one away from Zionism), Jews for Peace, and many other groups that basically reject or are uncomfortable with nationalism.

They, I suggest, can be categorized as practicing a neo-Paulinism.


As we all should know, the former Shaul-cum-Paul

chose to ignore [the teachings of Jesus.] Instead he presented to the Gentile world a mystery religion in which he transformed Jesus into a divine spirit...One idea in particular must have caught his attention -- that of a sacrificial person who is offered as an atonement for sin.

Tolstoy's criticism of Pauline doctrine was expressed so:


...the centre of gravity of Christianity was permanently displaced till only the metaphysical portion was left...From the time of Constantine the Christian Church has prescribed no religious duties to its adherents...the Church, through affection for the world, expounds the metaphysical doctrine of Jesus in such a way as not to derive from it any obligation as to the conduct of life



Further, as has been succinctly noted

Paul's theology of the gospel accelerated the separation of the messianic sect of Christians from Judaism, a development contrary to Paul's own intent. He wrote that faith in Christ was alone decisive in salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike, making the schism between the followers of Christ and mainstream Jews inevitable and permanent. He argued that Gentile converts did not need to become Jews, get circumcised, follow Jewish dietary restrictions, or otherwise observe Mosaic laws to be saved. Nevertheless, in Romans he insisted on the positive value of the Law, as a moral guide.

These extensive quotations, I trust, make it clear that there is a clear, recognizable parallel in my suggested comparison to how this generation's non-Zionism is developing as a renewed stream of paulinization within Judaism.  It is not about bonding with the Jewish people and its future and fate.  It is not about caring for and comprehending the existential threats to Jewish lives and the very real possibility that it is a matter of national survival. 

It is about a new Jewish individualism.  About a desire to detach and to fulfill one's natural feelings for doing good by accomplishing good deeds outside the communal and national framework to justify one's human existence.  It is about freeing oneself from the burden of the 'group'.  Pressured by peers to seek out the universal, once again as happened with the Bundists and Communists, with those of the American Council for Judaism (and Neturei Karta) and others, we see these new Paulists at, for example, the J Street conference where they were proud, finally, to include a Republican guest: James ("F*ck the Jews") Baker.

The pro-Israel posturing of groups like these is simply a false portrayal to ease their way out, out of Jewishness, of anti-Semitism or in, into the general populace and its culture.

In centuries past, Jews like these simply converted or dropped out.  I presume that their Jewish quotient is still powerful enough to force them to attempt a justification for their betrayal.

Whatever, if they want to damage themselves, why injure and harm Israel, its Jews and Zionism?

_________________

Just after this was posted, I caught Stav Shaffir:


"We must occupy Zionism and reclaim it.”
^



Anelay's Unalike Analogy

It is reported:

The British Foreign Office is concerned that the Israel Antiquities Authority is supporting "radical settler activities" in and around the Old City of Jerusalem while purporting to promote tourism or protect Jewish historical artifacts, The Independent quoted Joyce Anelay, a Conservative Foreign Office minister [and a history teacher no less], as saying:
“We are aware of the link between the Elad [settler] group and the Israel Antiquities Authority. We are concerned that this link has led to Israel Antiquities Authority’s support of radical settler activities in and around the Old City under the guise of tourism and protection of Jewish history,” Anelay said. “Such actions not only aggravate mounting pressures in East Jerusalem but serve to increase tension around the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif and further complicate future attempts to negotiate a political resolution on the city.”

Could anyone point out to her that

a)  drawing a link between Silwan and the Temple Mount is itself radical and aggravates tensions unnecessarily.

b)  Muslims destroy Jewish-period archaeological remains at the Temple Mount, not to mention their anti-Jewish violence and intolerance.

c)  Jews were ethnically-cleansed by Arabs from Silwan, an act assisted by inadequate British security measures in the 1930s.

d) there is no "guise" in protecting Jewish history.  it is a requirement.

e) there is nothing complicated in all this.

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​​

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Rihanna's Tattoo - Al-Aqsa? Oops. Dome of the Rock

If that tattoo could be viewed as Al-Aqsa, Dome of the Rock, all hell may break loose:-



But I checked:

The tattoo is of the Egyptian goddess Isis, who was depicted as the ideal mother and wife.

^

Heard of Dajjal?

Excerpt from a book review:

In 1941, a Harvard University anthropology professor named Carleton S. Coon traveled to Morocco, ostensibly to carry out field research. His true mission was to smuggle weapons to anti-German rebels in the Atlas Mountains, on behalf of the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime precursor to the CIA. The following year, as the United States prepared to invade North Africa, Coon and an OSS colleague, Gordon Brown, drafted propaganda pamphlets intended to soften up local reaction to the coming swarms of GIs. They settled on a religious idiom: “Praise be unto the only God…. The American Holy Warriors have arrived…to fight the great Jihad of Freedom.” The pamphlet was signed “Roosevelt.”

Nazi Germany’s leaders also harbored half-baked ideas about messaging to North Africa’s Muslims. Heinrich Himmler was the Third Reich’s most influential advocate of the instrumental use of Islam in war strategy. In the spring of 1943, as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s army in North Africa stumbled to defeat, Himmler asked the Reich Security Head Office “to find out which passages of the Qur’an provide Muslims with the basis for the opinion that the Führer has already been forecast in the Qur’an and that he has been authorized to complete the work of the Prophet.”

Ernst Kaltenbrunner of the Head Office replied with the disappointing news that the Koran had no suitable passages for such a claim, but he suggested that Hitler might be advertised as “the returned ‘Isa (Jesus), who is forecast in the Qur’an and who, similar to the figure of the Knight George, defeats the giant and Jew-King Dajjal at the end of the world.” Ultimately, the office printed one million copies of an Arabic-language pamphlet that sought to persuade Muslim Arabs to ally with Germany:
O Arabs, do you see that the time of the Dajjal has come? Do you recognize him, the fat, curly-haired Jew who deceives and rules the whole world and who steals the land of the Arabs?… O Arabs, do you know the servant of God? He [Hitler] has already appeared in the world and already turned his lance against the Dajjal and his allies…. He will kill the Dajjal, as it is written, destroy his places and cast his allies into hell. 

Dajjal?

Here:

Dajjāl i...a common Arabic word (دجال) whose root is dajl meaning "lie" or "deception". Al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl, with the definite article al- ("the"), refers to "the deceiving Messiah", a specific end-of times deceiver. The Dajjāl is an evil being who will seek to impersonate the true Messiah.
...According to hadith, Muhammad is said to have prophesied that the Masih ad-Dajjal would be the last of a series of thirty Dajjal or "deceivers" (false prophets).
Muhammad is reported to have said:
...Ad-Dajjal is blind in the right eye and his eye looks like a bulging out grape...Narrated Ibn Umar: Once Allah's Apostle stood amongst the people, glorified and praised Allah as He deserved. Then, mentioning Dajjal, he said, "I warn you against him (i.e. the Dajjal) and there was no prophet but warned his nation against him. No doubt, Noah warned his nation against him but I tell you about him something of which no prophet told his nation before me. You should know that he is one-eyed, and Allah is not one-eyed."... the Dajjal will gather an army of 70,000 Jews from Isfahan, of those he has deceived and lead them in a war against Jesus who shall be accompanied by an army of the righteous, along with Imam Mahdi.

It gets weird:

Muslims sages say the Dajjal’s campaign of mischief will begin between Syria and Iraq; and that he’ll reign for fourteen months and fourteen days, and have “70,000 Jews from Isfahan (i.e., Iran) wearing Persian shawls, and Bedouins, and illegitimate people carrying blue helmets”, among his first followers. The latter possibly referring to UN peacekeepers who’d endorse his claim that he’s ostensibly a man of oecumenical peace for the war-torn Middle East...Dajjal also means to cover something with another thing more beautiful or precious; which has been interpreted as referring to his role as a deceiver who’ll advocate the Jews’ coming scam of mandatory global e-commerce based on the virtual collateral of Jewish gold.

Muslim sages have also said that ‘those who hear about the Dajjal should stay far from him. By Allah! A person will approach him thinking him to be a believer, and upon seeing his amazing feats [i.e., as an imitator of Israel’s prophet Elijah] he will become his follower.’ While others have said that he’ll have very thick body hair, like an Edomite, and be blind, like Moshe Dayan, in one eye; which can, of course, be reconciled with the biblical verse that says: ‘the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.’

And weirder:

Based on various Islamic traditions, Muslims believe that the Dajjal will be Jewish.  The title of a book by Muslim author Matloob Ahmed Qasmi, Emergence of the Dajjal, the Jewish King couldn’t make this point more clearly.  Imam Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi of the Palestinian Authority articulated the Islamic perspective regarding the expectation of the Jewish people quite well in one of his sermons:

The Jews await the false Jewish messiah, while we await, with Allah's help… the Mahdi and Jesus, peace be upon him.  Jesus's pure hands will murder the false Jewish messiah.  Where?  In the city of Lod, in Palestine. Palestine will be, as it was in the past, a graveyard for the invaders 
Samuel Shahid, a Christian Arab scholar in his scholarly study of Islamic eschatology says of the Dajjal that he will be, “the embodiment of the Jewish hope and longing.  The bulk of his army is recruited from the Jews.”

As mentioned in the last chapter, the followers of the Dajjal will primarily consist of Jews and women.  It is mentioned that women are very ignorant and as such are easily misled.  Veliankode states, “Meanwhile, women will also fall to the deviant line of the Antichrist because of their unawareness and ignorance of Islam.” 

Now what?

______________________

Just in:


PA TV host and Muslim preacher:
"If a fish in the sea fights with another fish...the Jews are behind it"
 "Humanity will never live in comfort as long as the Jews are causing devastating corruption throughout the land.  Humanity will never live in peace or fortune or tranquility as long as they are corrupting the land"


Has Obama denounced the rhetoric of the Palestinian Authority recently?


Did I Insult Derfner?

Ron Kampeas posted on Facebook on March 19 at 6:43pm this:


If Bibi's message was to Arab Likud voters, why didn't he make it in Arabic, and why didn't he say "leftist" voters sted "Arab" voters?

Comments followed. Like:

Perry Schafler
The point was not to Arab voters but about foreign interference using Arab voters. He would have better said some other way but it was racist blatant interference to target foreign assistance to arab voters in the first instance. Why not development town voters or elderly incapacitated voters or haredi voters or a mix? Bibi did not mince words.

so I jumped in:

Yisrael Medad
If he would have said "the kibbutznikim are being bused to the polls", would that be okay?
If Herzog had said "too many 'settlers' are voting"?  If Gal-on had said "too many mezuzah-kissers"? But more. The fact is that there was/is an Arab list. Their candidates were 90+% Arab. Their main language in their electioneering was Arabic. A major portion of them was anti-Zionist and they didn't even sign an agreement with the far-left Meretz because they were Zionist. A large Arab vote, like a large Russian vote, or Haredi vote or Sfardi vote hurts Likud. His was a legitimate political call. And what did he expect Netanyahu to call them?  Palestinans?
http://myrightword.blogspot.co.il/.../where-is-obamas..
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And it went on:

Ron Kampeas
So if he said "the sfardim are being bused to the polls", no outrage? or "The haredim?" And Herzog and Gal-on would not have been subjected to outrage for using those terms? Are you arguing that those terms should enter the political lexicon? The distinction is characterizing an ethnic rather than political entity. If he had said "leftists" or even "voters for the Joint List" there would have been a couple of accusations of dog-whistling, but no one would otherwise have paid attention. The question is, why, when he could so easily have used a more ambiguous, acceptable term, did he choose not to?

Yisrael Medad
you can't quite read? oh well. i await your reaction to the part about the Left's depracatory remarks. you don't think them okay, right?

Ron Kampeas Of course they're not okay. But do you think Alona Kimhi as opposed to the Israeli prime minister, merits the attention of the White House? And are you arguing that it would be okay in Israel, that there would be no consequence, if a major party leader were to say the Sfardim or the Haredim are being bused to the polls in droves?

Stuart Schnee Ron Kampeas there is non stop reference to the Haredi vote. And lapid's party sent out very nasty anti Haredi text messages. And of course the anti Sephardi/religious statements at the left rally in tel Aviv were pretty disgusting (although a great way to get out the Likud vote!) I am not pointing this out to justify or explain away anything. But only to give context.

Ron Kampeas Stuart I did not know about the YA text messages. That's also disheartening, for sure.

Ruthie Blum It should be noted that, prior to his statement, Hamas publicly urged Israeli Arabs to go out and vote. I think that says it all.

Ron Kampeas Yisrael, I liked for that story, which is excellent.

Larry Derfner What's the problem? Don't Christian politicians in U.S. and Europe call on their supporters to go vote because "the Jews are going out to vote in droves"? Happens all the time, no one complains.
Yisrael Medad http://www.jpost.com/.../Hamas-calls-on-Arabs-to-vote-for...
Hamas calls on Arabs to vote for Joint List
Izaddin al-Qassam urge Israeli-Arabs to cast their vote, bring about "liberation" in "occupied land."

Yisrael Medad before Larry begins paroxysms, we have a proportional representation system and again, if a party is an Arab List, you can call it Arab. In Germany, there actually is a Christain Party. Get over it you guys.

Ruthie Blum Larry, as you know, no matter what's going on, I adore you -- which just goes to show how charming you must be.

Larry Derfner You're a sweetheart, too, Ruthie, we shall overcome.

Larry Derfner Yisrael, it's not called the Arab List, it's called the Joint List. There is even a Jewish MK on it. But carry on.

Yisrael Medad the list was the Arab population's response to Liberman's 'brilliant' idea of raising the threshhold. it was championed as their answer. they appealed overwhelmingly to the Arab population and their support came from the Arab populace. Yes, one Jew. ...See More

Yisrael Medad "New MK Osama Sa'adi was disappointed with the change that did not end up coming: "The national right-wing camp and Netanyahu came out with a surprise and kept their reign. We are the third largest faction and this is the first time something like this...See More

Daniel Sieradski You gotta love how people who spew racist shit about Palestinians all day long are now working over time to prove Bibi isn't a racist now that their boy is back in office. In another week they'll be back to spewing racist shit again.

And then this:

Larry Derfner Yisrael, I may not be the most charming person, but based on your little insult up there, you're just a plain old asshole. And the name of the party is the Joint List. And if you ever hear gentile politicians warning their supporters to get out and vote because "the Jews are going out to vote in huge quantities," you will be the last one with the right to complain.





So, I responded:
Yisrael Medad Larry, if you clarify for me my insult, i promise to be as charming as you are. As for asshole, well, there goes your charm quotient.

And he helped:

Dan Friedman Yisrael Medad, I know who you are and you know who Derfner is. My advice is let him go in good health, or better still, just go.



Still can't figure out my supposed 'insult'.

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Foot Over Foot

This is a detail from an Esquire cover:


Sorry, but I did indeed censor it.  But what truly caught my attention was what I circled: Chelsea Handler's foot position.

And that reminded me of something and I found it confirmed here:


found in Marriage Customs of the World: From Henna to Honeymoons by George Monger.

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GraphicZionism: All Black and White





In his first public comments on Tuesday's elections in Israel, Obama's deepest discomfort was saved for Netanyahu's Election Day warning about Arab Israeli voters going to the polls "in droves."
"We indicated that that kind of rhetoric was contrary to what is the best of Israel's traditions. That although Israel was founded based on the historic Jewish homeland and the need to have a Jewish homeland, Israeli democracy has been premised on everybody in the country being treated equally and fairly," said Obama. "And I think that that is what's best about Israeli democracy. If that is lost, then I think that not only does it give ammunition to folks who don't believe in a Jewish state, but it also I think starts to erode the meaning of democracy in the country."

I repeat:  did Obama slam the campaign rhetoric against Mizrachim, religious, etc.?


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Thursday, March 19, 2015

Where Is Obama's Denunciation of the Left?

As we are all aware, petulant Obama had his spokesperson say

“The United States and this administration is deeply concerned about rhetoric that seeks to marginalise Arab Israeli citizens. It undermines the values and democratic ideals that have been important to our democracy and an important part of what binds the United States and Israel together.”

And he added: 


“Rhetoric that seeks to marginalise one segment of their population is deeply concerning, it is divisive, and I can tell you that these are views the administration intends to communicate directly to the Israelis.”

That was called a 'snub'.   'Unseemly' and well as 'pettiness' and 'petulance'.  An anti-Netanyahu 'slam',

In responding the Tom Friedman of the NYTimes, I provided an explanation for his statement.

But let's not let Obama off the hook too quickly.  What were his reactions to these malignant and divisive statements?

• Author and cultural figure Alona Kimhi: "Long live stupidity, maliciousness and false consciousness. Drink some cyanide, f---ing Neanderthals. You won. Only death will save you from yourselves" (March 18, 2015).

• Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy: "The people need to be replaced. We don't need an election to choose the leadership of the country; we need a general election to choose the new Israeli people. [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu deserves the people of Israel and the people of Israel deserve Netanyahu" (Haaretz, March 18, 2015).

And earlier:


• Cultural figure Yair Garbuz: "Superstitious amulet kissers are running this country. How is it that such a minority controls us?" (March 8, 2015).

• Author Amos Oz: "I am guilty for Netanyahu's behavior -- I kicked him in the head when he was three years old. Either I kicked too hard, or not hard enough" (TheMarker, Feb. 14, 2015).

• Zionist Union leader Tzipi Livni in a veiled criticism against Netanyahu: "Herzog and I will take out the trash together" (Channel 10 satirical program "Matzav Ha'uma," Feb. 14, 2014).

Could it be that he agrees with the sentiments?  The rhetoric?






________________

Follow-up from the WashPost



Organizations that were active in the Israeli elections “with the political goal of replacing Netanyahu as Prime Minister.” 

  • “A Million Hands,” an NGO, organized the massive demonstration “Israel Wants Change; ” Netanhayu says it was funded by foreign donors, primarily Daniel Lubetzky and S. Daniel Abraham, and “cost hundreds of thousands of shekels, and its promotion cost hundreds of thousands of shekels more,” the campaign said. (A shekel is worth about 25 cents.)  The total costs of the activity of “A Million Hands” to replace Netanyahu was $6 million to $7 million, the campaign asserted, though an article it cited did not contain that figure.
  • V15 (“Victory 15”), which is tied to a U.S. group called OneVoice and included the involvement of a former top Obama campaign aide.  “The activity of V15, and especially its activity on election day, was several million dollars, the overwhelming majority of which came from American donors,” the campaign claimed.  A spokesman for OneVoice promised a response but we have not received one.
  • “Commanders for the Security of Israel,” a group of former generals, which the campaign said was funded to the tune of “hundreds of thousands of shekels.” That’s maybe $100,000 to $200,000.
  • Ameinu, another group, sponsored a get-out-the-vote campaign in the Arab community.  The campaign cited a fundraising documentfrom December that sought $3 million, but Ameinu president Kenneth Bob said it turned out to be “closer to $2 million.” He said the effort was “nonpartisan” intended to improve Arab participation. Though he acknowledged that Arabs tend to support left-leaning candidates, he noted that a Druze candidate on the Likud list also benefited from the group’s work.
  • Activities of political strategist Eyal Arad, which the campaign said was funded primarily by American donors and cost “several million dollars.”  Arad has previously denied that claim, and had shot back that in 1994 Netanyahu had offered him a job that would have been funded by a “foreign and unnamed businessman.” (Netanyahu’s campaign denied that claim.)
__________________________________________

UPDATE

And remember this?

"... .. The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, uh, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know there's a reaction that's been been bred into our experiences that don't go away 
Obama, 2008.

Typical.





Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Yes, Yesha Votes Also Meretz


Some 163,000 people voted in settlements in the West Bank out of a total of 206,000 eligible voters, an 80% rate of voter turnout.

In the last Knesset election in 2013, Naftali Bennet and Habayit Hayehudi received 41,000 votes in the settlements, and Likud received 27,000. Despite the fierce competition on the right side of the political map, Habayit Hayehudi received almost the exact same number of votes, about 41,000; though this represented a drop in its overall percentage since many more voters turned out in the 2015 election.

Eli Yishai’s extreme right-wing Yahad party received 15,770 votes in the settlements, 4,500 more than its predecessor Otzma Leyisrael received in 2013.

United Torah Judaism received 27,000 votes and Shas 11,800, mostly from voters in the large Haredi cities in the West Bank.

Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party received 4.75% of the vote in the settlements,down from 6.5% in the previous election.

Yisrael Beiteinu, the party headed by Avigdor Lieberman, who lives in the settlement of Nokdim, received 4,500 votes, some 2.2% of total. In Nokdim itself, Yisrael Beiteinu got only 119 votes, about 15%. Habayit Hayehudi and Likud both scored many more votes there.

Meretz even preserved its support in the settlements, about half a percent of the voting public, with 1,114 votes. Most of these votes came from Har Adar, Kfar Oranim, Oranit and the settlements in the northern Dead Sea region.

Their source here

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Friedman Thomas Is Bothered

Here is Thomas Friedman today on Netanyahu:


race-baiting Israeli Jews to get out and vote because, he said, too many Israeli Arabs were going to the polls

If he would have said "the kibbutznikim are being bused to the polls", would that be okay?

If Herzog had said "too many 'settlers' are voting"?

If Gal-on had said "too many mezuzah-kissers"?

But more.

The fact is that there was/is an Arab list.

Their candidates were 90+% Arab.

Their main language in their electioneering was Arabic.

A major portion of them was anti-Zionist and they didn't even sign an agreement with the far-left Meretz because they were Zionist.

A large Arab vote, like a large Russian vote, or Haredi vote or Sfardi vote hurts Likud.

His was a legitimate political call.

And what did he expect Netanyahu to call them?  

Palestinans?

_____________

UPDATE

Others called him 'racist'.

And the White House released that


... the administration is "deeply concerned" about messaging from Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party this week that warned that the prime minister's political foes were working to mobilize Arab-Israeli voters against him.

RECALL


“We encourage our supporters to be involved in activities in Israel that follow our values,” said the national president of Ameinu, Kenneth Bob, who is raising funds for the drive to get Arab Israelis out to the polls. Bob stressed that supporting Israel’s Arab community has long been a focus of his organization. He noted that donations for increasing the Arab vote are “all legal and completely nonpartisan.”



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