Robust Condi Busted

An excerpt from:

Our World: Lies and deceits
by Caroline Glick

“...Since the Annapolis conference, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has repeatedly invoked the false Arab view that the physical presence of Israelis beyond the 1949 armistice lines is the source of the Arab-Israeli conflict rather than the Arab world's expressed refusal to accept Israel's existence and Palestinian society's expressed resolve to destroy Israel.Rice's open and repeated assaults against Israel's plans to build housing in Jewish neighborhoods in its capital city of Jerusalem and her studied silence on the issue of Arab and Palestinian Authority sponsorship of terrorism against Israel make her internalization of the bigoted and false Arab narrative clear.

Indeed, in an interview with the BBC last week, Rice placed the blame for the seven-year suspension of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians not on the Palestinian Authority which directed and sponsored the terror war against Israel which has claimed more than a thousand Israeli victims, but rather on the Israeli government for its support of the presence of Jews in disputed lands. As she put it, "On the Middle East peace process, I don't think in 2001, with the intifada having just been launched and frankly, Ariel Sharon, the father of the settlement movement, having just been elected prime minister of Israel, that there was much prospect for a final-status negotiation."

IT COULD be argued that in adopting her overtly anti-Israel and bigoted view of the Arab world's conflict with Israel that Rice is the victim of disinformation and general ignorance. This view might have some credibility were it not for the fact that the administration itself is actively ignoring evidence which shows its view of the Palestinians and other Arab states to be false.

For instance, in upholding PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas as a man of peace, the administration ignores an overwhelming body of evidence showing his own security forces' involvement in terrorism and his government's rejection of Israel. Rice ignores the fact that Fatah security forces murdered Ido Zoldan last month while she supports the arming and training of those same forces. So too, while she insists that Israel must not build in its capital city and must plan to expel some 250,000 Israelis from their towns in Judea and Samaria, she has been silent on the fact that Fatah's 43rd anniversary posters depict the map of Israel covered by a Palestinian keffiyeh, a rifle, and a portrait of Yasser Arafat…”

Centenary Conference for Avraham Stern - Yair

Avraham Stern - Yair was the founder of the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel (FFI, or Lechi in Hebrew) and the Hebrew University conducted a conference dealing with him as a graduate of the university, MA in Classical Languages and Hebrew Literature, 1934.

The pictures:



Part of the crowd




Two cousins: Yair Stern, son of Avraham Stern - Yair and Amira Stern, daughter of David Stern, Avraham Stern's brother



Geula Cohen talking on Yair's poetry



The sons of the Lechi commanders: (l - r) Yair Stern, Yair Shamir, Aryeh Eldad, Elisha Yellin-Mor

It's Okay as Long as You're Compromising

From the below, I imagine Yoffie, a Reform Rabbi, thinks it's okay for Diaspora Jewry to interfere in Israel's affairs, as long as Israel compromises, surrenders, yields up Jewish territory and security:

“The Jewish community in the US cannot at this moment make things difficult for Israel and it mustn't tell the Israeli government not to compromise on the issue of Jerusalem,” Rabbi Eric Yoffie said in an interview with Haaretz on Saturday, 22 December 2007.

“If there will be a concession at the end of the day, Israel will receive a tremendous benefit in return,” Yoffie surmised calling the timing of the vote “a wrong message whose goal isn't [to show] concern for Jerusalem but to demonstrate dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Olmert.”

Source

Rabbi did I say?

Gee, This is Done Regularly in Israel

Media slanted bias, that is.

Conservative officials who served in the Reagan administration are upset by the left-wing slant of the new movie about the covert action program that helped Afghan guerrillas defeat the Soviet army during the 1980s. "Charlie Wilson's War,"...The Reagan-era officials said the movie promotes the left-wing myth that the CIA-led operation funded Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda and ultimately produced the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Bin Laden, the officials said, never got CIA funding or weapons, and was not directly involved in Islamist extremist activities until years after the Afghan operation ended after the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989.

That anti-American aspect of the film, namely that the Afghan operation ultimately caused the September 11 attacks, reportedly was altered after protests from Mr. Wilson and his former fiancee, Joanne Herring...

...The officials blamed the anti-Reagan slant of the film on the movie's screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, the Hollywood liberal who regularly attacked conservatives on his television drama "The West Wing," also known as "The Left Wing" because of its liberal bias.

Source

Can You Find Israel?

Fatah is planning to mark its 43rd anniversary this year with a new poster that presents all of Israel as Palestine. A Fatah 43rd anniversary poster depicts a map of Israel that is entirely draped with a Palestinian keffiyeh next to a rifle signifying armed struggle. Designed specifically for the occasion by Abdel Mun'em Ibrahim, the poster features a map of Israel that is entirely draped with a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf.

Source

(Kippah tip: AtlasShrugs)

So That's the Reason for a Bar-Mitzvah

I am told that the Barna Group, a prominent Christian demographic polling organization, concluded from its surveys that in essence what you believe by the time you are thirteen is what you will die believing.

Source

Sometimes, You Can't Win

In the best selections in “Psychogeography,” Self comes to see himself and the people he meets in new ways. He finds Rio de Janeiro a rainy, scuzzy city, even more “terrifying” than São Paulo, which he imagines is full of former SS members. So he holes up in a cafe and reads the only decent book in English he can find in a local shop: William L. Shirer’s “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.” Encountering a couple of “good-time girls,” he falls into conversation and discovers that they give everyone they meet a nickname. Do they have a nickname for him? Self asks. Gesturing at the swastika on the cover of the Shirer, one of them says, “We call you Hitler.”

Source

Brandon Walker's "Chinese Food on Christmas"

Will the Pope Poop the Patriarch?

Sr. Ruth Lautt, OP, National Director of Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East is dismayed by Latin Patriarch's statement.

She points out that "Jews, like any other people, defined in terms of a shared ethnicity, language, history, culture and/or religion, have the right to constitute an autonomous, sovereign political community. We have been very concerned about recent attacks on the legitimacy of a Jewish state. It is dismaying to see Patriarch Sabbah jump on this bandwagon and take the position that a Jewish state is somehow inherently discriminatory."

...Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton, the Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College asks, "We must be careful to distinguish between the Jewish people and the Jewish religion.  Presumably His Beatitude supports the creation of a state for the Palestinian people.  Why would he deny this same fundamental right to the Jewish people? " asks

Fr. James Loughran, S.A., Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute adds   "When the modern Jewish state was created in 1948 there was a recognition that Jews were entitled to a homeland.  To now attack that Jewish homeland as per se 'discriminatory'  seems itself motivated by discriminatory intent.  Especially in light of the fact that Israel is known to respect freedom of all religions."

Rachel Ehrenfeld Lost

She lost her appeal.

Read here.

(Kippah tip: AtlasShrugs)

By Jove!

Chabad is having problems with their synagogue in Litchfield, Conneticutt.

They sought permission to renovate a 135-year-old historical Victorian home. The Star of David they wished to put up passed the Historic District Commission but the panel found a proposed addition to the home and several other architectural changes too much to bear and rejected the application.

And who defends the town's resticitve decision?

A Jew.

A Mr. Goldberg.

A Mr. Zeus Goldberg.

Here, read:-

...But the proposed installation of double doors on the front of the 2,656-square-foot house and a clock tower on its roof was deemed out of touch with the historical character of the building, and the “massive” proposed addition to its rear was said to destroy its residential nature.

...One longtime resident, Zeus Goldberg, 70, who is Jewish, said the commission’s rejection “wasn’t based on anti-Semitism. It’s based on the town trying to maintain its character. That’s why they don’t allow a McDonald’s there.”

Jove is a variation of Zeus, in case you missed it.

Almost Passing for Pasachoff

Jay Pasachoff of Williamstown, Mass. (possibly of the Department of Astronomy at
Williams College*) has a Letter to the Editor in today's NYTimes:

Military responses aren’t working to stop the bombs falling on Israel’s border towns near Gaza (“Israel’s Dilemma in Response to Rockets,” news article, Dec. 19), so why not try reason?

Each time Israel responds militarily, it should also broadcast and leaflet a statement that explains that peace would be met by peace; that if the rockets and other attacks stop, so would Israeli incursions; and that Gazans have been misled by their leaders to think that they would benefit by demonizing Israel.

I am sure he meant well but actually military responses do work and have just recently causing Hamas to seek a semi-cease-fire. I don't, though, that an organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel, refuses to recognize it, kills Jews for fun and thinks of we Jews as monkey and pygmies (**) is interestd in peace or that I would like to make peace at all with such a group. As for the rest of the Pals., I think they share much of Hamas ideology but that it is only a matter of degree. Reason, Professor, has nothing to do with the hatred of the Pals.

I have a better idea, one I expressed two years ago to the then head of the British Foreign Office Muddle East (sorry, Middle East) Peace Research Group.

I said that the next peace "treaty" between Israel and the PA must include an operative clause, backed and guaranteed by the international community. This clause would stipulate that for every violation, by either side, of the terms of the treaty, a piece of territory, say one square kilometer or whatever, would be moved to the other party. Something concrete like land needs to be at stake, I told him, saying that actually, my proposal fit in with the Land for Peace concept.

He laughed and commented that at the rate the Qassams are coming over, the Gazans will have no where to stand within a year.

I laughed and said, you probably are right.

I think that any other proposals or approaches are a bit starry-eyed.

===========
*

**

It even reaches the U.K.:

...the Academy used text books by the Saudi government’s Ministry of Education which taught religious hate.

"The schoolbooks presently in use describe Jews as 'monkeys' (or apes) and Christians as 'pigs'," he says in the documents. Students are asked to "mention some repugnant characteristics of Jews", and Year 1 pupils are asked to "give examples of worthless religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, idol worship and others", he adds.

and this at Palestinian Media Watch In-depth Reports:-

“The battle with the Jews will surely come… the decisive Muslim victory is coming without a doubt, and the prophet spoke about in more than one Hadith and the Day of Resurrection will not come without the victory of the believers [the Muslims] over the descendents of the monkeys and pigs [the Jews] and with their annihilation.”

and

The courageous over the infidels, make war for Allah and are not afraid… This is the depiction of the Army of Allah that will come at Allah’s decree, from here or from there, to liberate these lands from the defilement of the Jews, for Allah was angry with them in his book and called them once ‘monkeys’, once ‘swine’, and once ‘donkeys’.”

Quiz - What is This?

Pitoni

Aaron Amir

Ba'et bashak ushlay pachzar
Be'afsay-chak savsu, makdo:
au az chilcain haya nimzar
umtay-aran kairdu.

"Gura bnee, min hapitonmai
'chod-shino, chil-ziparno!
mayof-girgir tanoos, za'on
maychetesh bim'gono!"

Vehu shalaf saypho hachaz:
nad, cheepace et pechik-tzarav
--veko amad betzel zamzam,
tapoos beheerhoorav.

Odo omed shefa hagoot
vehapiton, einav dolkot
veesh'vesh beya'ar hamanood,
ho'e'ah venakot!

Bim'chi chazooz - habas! habas!
-ticktaich hasayif benim
harnatal et rosh pigro
hazedve'el beito tzahar

"Af ketalto, et hapiton?
achabkecha, yaldi hatzach!
ho yom-tzilha! yabah! yabah!
bechedvato patzach.

Ba'et bashak ushlay pachzar
Be'afsay-chak savsu, makdo:
au az chilcain haya nimzar
umtay-aran kairdu.

Go here.

The UK Demographic Situation

Reflected in names:-

For the last 13 years Jack has been the most popular boys' name in the land. But in multicultural Britain children named after the Muslim prophet Mohammed come a close second.

In a reflection of the increasing influence of Islam, figures released yesterday showed the most popular spelling of the name - Mohammed - had climbed five places to 17th in the annual list of top baby names. However, when the seven other spellings of the name are taken into account, the total comes to 6,347 babies, making it the second most popular name of the year - up from 5,936 last year.

Although Jack topped the list with 6,772 babies, that figure fell 156 on last year, meaning if the trends were repeated next year, Mohammed and its variant spellings would be the most popular choice in England and Wales.

The other spellings are Muhammad, Mohammad, Muhammed, Mohamed, Mohamad, Muhamed and Mohammod.

The last national census in 2001 put the UK Muslim population at 1.6million, but this will have grown substantially in the past five years.

Hamas Wins Twice in Jerusalem

The first is this item

Israel Gov't, Police Stand by as Hamas Broadcasts from Temple Mt

More Olmert-Fatah-Hamas collusion: Hamas has been given exclusive radio broadcast rights from the Temple Mount this week - while Jews mourning the First Temple siege are banned from the site...An ISDN line regularly broadcasts, over PA radio, the Islamic prayer services from the Temple Mount. This week, however, it granted the license to do so to Hamas - complete with Hamas Radio commercials, station identifications, and incitement against Jews.

The second is this matter:

Gideon Schmerling, Jerusalem Municipality Spokesman, announced that the Old City Walls of Jerusalem will be illuminated in green to raise awareness to green and environmental issues. The illumination will be kept on for the visit of President Bush in Jerusalem...To create the illumination on the walls, green filters will be placed on the decorative lightning of the old city walls...Mayor Lupolianski marked that he is proud that Jerusalem will be the one to deliver the message of saving our environment. Greenpeace welcomed the initiative by the Jerusalem municipality.

In case my readers do not know, green is the color of Hamas.

See:-

Watch Out, Jewesses (and Enemy Terrorists)

One review:-

Sony Pictures has released the movie trailer for their upcoming Adam Sandler comedy You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.

Directed by Dennis Dugan (Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore), Zohan’s screenplay was a collaboration between three comedy greats: Judd Apatow (40-Year-Old-Virgin, Knocked Up), Robert Smigel (SNL) and Adam Sandler. The film stars Sandler as an Israel Intelligence Agent who fakes his death so he can anonymously move to New York and become a hair stylist. Sounds like a promising SNL sketch, but a full length feature film?

IF ABOVE DOESN'T WORK, TRY HERE.

Wedding Notice or Family Business Advert?

I love the NYTimes' wedding section.

Rabbis and priests, churches and synagogues, Orthodox and Reform, it's all there including same-sex marriages. The 'times' as reflected in the Times.

Check this one:-

Dr. Sandra Nicole Gelbard and Tony Yair Uzan were married on Saturday evening at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Rabbi David Berkman officiated.

Dr. Gelbard-Uzan, 35, is an internist in private practice in New York; she specializes in cholesterol management, weight loss and preventive medicine. She is also a clinical instructor of medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, and was among the physicians who treated Brooke Astor. She graduated from Brandeis and received her medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

She is the daughter of Joyce Gelbard and Bernard Gelbard of New City, N.Y. Her father, a pharmacist, is the president of the Prescription Center, a pharmacy in Tallman, N.Y. Her mother, a registered nurse, is a substitute school nurse in the Clarkstown, N.Y., school district.

Mr. Uzan, 39, is a managing consultant in Manhattan with the global business services division of I.B.M.; he manages teams that help restructure companies and improve their business strategy. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and has an M.B.A. from Northwestern.

He is a son of Margalit Uzan and Henri Uzan of Los Angeles. His parents renovate and then sell houses in Las Vegas and Los Angeles and oversee rental properties in Las Vegas. His father was a chef at Chasen’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, and until 1990 owned Shep’s Deli in Los Angeles.

His father, her mother, her father, his mother, their business, their business.

And This is a Professional Reporter?

Officials in the Israeli prime minister’s office reacted coolly on Wednesday to an indirect approach by the Hamas leader in Gaza offering talks on a truce.

The offer was relayed through an Israeli reporter, Sleman al-Shafhe, of Channel 2 television. On a news broadcast on Tuesday night, Mr. Shafhe said Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Hamas government in Gaza, had called him earlier in the day to convey a message to the Israelis.

According to Mr. Shafhe, Mr. Haniya said he had the ability to stop the rocket fire directed at Israel from Gaza, on condition that Israel stopped the killing of Palestinians there and lifted the blockade of Gaza.

...Mr. Haniya’s conversation with Mr. Shafhe was not recorded, but a Hamas government spokesman in Gaza, Taher Nunu, confirmed that Mr. Haniya had spoken about a truce.

Source

Rainbow Over Shiloh

On my way to the bus to work at 6:40AM:-

that's Karyut, our Arab neighborhood village to the north in the distance

Pre-Trib

I had never heard of this Christian stream previously: Pre-Trib.

Here's what I learned:

In 1991 Dr. Tim LaHaye became concerned about a perceived swaying from the pretribulational doctrine. In 1992 Dr. LaHaye released his book on the rapture: No Fear of the Storm from Multnomah Press. It was re-released in 1998 as Rapture Under Attack. In the process of preparing the first edition of his rapture book, Dr. LaHaye was impressed with the gatherings of the Albury Park and Powerscourt Conference in Britain during the late 1820s and early 1830s where leaders gathered to discuss issues relating to Bible prophecy. Dr. LaHaye contacted Dr. Thomas Ice and discussed the possibility of calling a similar meeting...

...the newly formed Pre-Trib Research Center (PTRC)...was conceived by Dr. LaHaye for the purpose of encouraging the research, teaching, propagation, and defense of the pretribulational rapture and related Bible prophecy doctrines...The Pre-Trib Research Center has over 200 members in association with its efforts. Most of the top prophecy scholars, authors, and popularizes are members of the Center and Study Group. The association of these prophecy experts, which have been facilitated by the Pre-Trib organization, has contributed to the inspiration of dozens of books, articles, conferences, and events that express and defend the literal interpretation of Bible prophecy and the pre-trib rapture.

...PTRC wants to impact Pastors and individual Christians with the central role and importance that Bible prophecy, especially the any-moment possibility of the rapture, should play in the life of the church. Dr. LaHaye and PTRC stresses three practical implications that flow from the rapture teaching. The first implication of pretribulationism is that it leads to godly living in an unholy age.

What does this mean? This:-

PTRC Doctrinal Statement

We believe that the sixty-six, canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, alone and in their entirety, comprise the God-inspired Scriptures which, therefore, are inerrant in their autographs.

We believe the Bible should be interpreted normally, as with any other piece of sane literature, by a consistently literal hermeneutic which recognizes the clear usage of speech figures.

We believe that Christ will literally rapture His church prior to the 70th week of Daniel, followed by His glorious, premillennial arrival on the earth at least seven years later to set up His 1,000 year kingdom rule from Jerusalem over the earth.

We believe that God's plan for history demands a consistent distinction between national Israel and the church which includes an ongoing plan for national, ethnic Israel that culminates in Christ's millennial kingdom.

I am no expert but that last phrase, a consistent distinction between national Israel and the church which includes an ongoing plan for national, ethnic Israel, means that these are the best possible Christian friends of Zionism that we can have [see here, for example, as well as here]. Of course, I am not sure there will be that seven-year hiatus or the 1000 year Kingdom. And the concept of rapture is equal to that of gilgul neshamot, i.e., the transmigration of souls, by me. But I don't eat pork either so I am more than willing to wait.

If that is so, well, then I am glad I was featured at their recent conclave, their recent Annual Pre-Trib Study Group Conference during December at Dallas, Texas. There were around 500 people there including many Christian broadcasters, authors, publishers, college and seminary professors, lecturers, preachers, pastors and a number of non-ministry types.

Here are two comments I received:

Thanks for the part you played in this year's conference. You were a "hit".

and

By the way, my interview with you made a great impact on those at the conference as well. It is dramatic to have you men from Israel on the radio and in these conferences. Thank you so very much.