Follow-up on That Kidnapping

This was reported in the NYT:-

A masked man who said he was from Ansar al-Sunna told reporters that the group’s demands were the immediate release of all Palestinian women and children in Israeli prisons. He also said Mr. Phillips had been seized to “confront the American war on Islam.”

But Ms. Atout said that “no one in the city has heard of this group.”

“I think it may just be a few individuals who are trying to get attention,” she said.

Palestinian militants have seized about two dozen Westerners in the Gaza Strip in recent years, but kidnappings in the West Bank are rare.

"but kidnappings in the West Bank are rare"

Actually, Jews get kidnapped occasionally. But the end result is usually a bullet in the head, a slashed throat or a rock-crushed head.

If We Substitute "Jews" for "Arab"

We had to give up homes for peace and security, why can't they?

Solidarity Visit at Al-Sira Village

Saturday, October 14th, at 11 a.m. we shall pay a solidarity visit to the village of Al-Sira in the Negev, where demolition orders have been issued for all its houses

Background

The village of Al-Sira numbers about 300 inhabitants. For the past month they have been living in a state of constant anxiety, fearing the demolition of their homes and expulsion from their village. On September 7th, 2006, 45 houses in the village received warnings of impending demolition. Addressing the authorities, they learned that the State has no dwelling solutions in store for them.

For the signing of the Israel's peace agreement with Egypt, in 1980 the Knesset had passed the Negev Land Acquisition Law, which expropriated about 85,000 dunams from the Beduins then living at Tel Malhata, in order to construct one of the Air Force bases moved from the Sinai Peninsula. Over 5,000 Beduins were evacuated from the area.

Al-Sira village was included in the confiscated area, but was not evacuated.

Nowadays, the base fence passes next to the village. Relations between the villagers and the base are good. Base headquarters has told them that the Air Force does not require their land. Apparently the construction of a paratroopers and intelligence base is planned at the site. It should be noted that Al-Sira village has existed since the Ottoman rule.

We are paying the village a solidarity visit in order to bear this message to the Israeli Government:

We shall not agree to your appalling plan!

Let this village and its inhabitants in peace!

The visit is coordinated with the village committee.


Travel arrangements:

Tel Aviv: 8:30 a.m. at El Al Terminal – Arlozorof Train Station (Merkaz)

Please call Amos Gvirtz to reserve. Messages at 052-6035685

Jerusalem: 8:30 a.m. HaPa'amon Park.

Please call Jimmy Johnson, 054-3045297

Negev Rendezvous:

Paz gas station at Shoket Junction, 10:30 a.m.

Contacts:

Negev: Atia Al Assem 050-5702064, Ariel 050-7701118, Center: Amos Gvirtz 052-6035685

The Anti-Appeasement Ad

Here it is. David Zucker's anti-appeasement (and anti-Democratic party) ad.




(Kippah tip: HTS)

Update:

If anything goes wrong with that spoof, maybe this is the problem:-

The popular video-sharing YouTube site, which is being purchased by Google for $1.65 billion, limited access to a political ad that mocks the Clinton administration's policy on North Korea, but contains no profanity, nudity or other factors generally thought objectionable.

The company announced a "flagging" policy change just this week, about the time that a controversial spoof by Republican filmmaker David Zucker depicting former Secretary of State Madeline Albright as a cheerleader for Islamic terrorists started appearing with a warning page in front, requiring verification that a viewer is 18 before the video will appear.

The short film by Zucker, who worked with "Scary Movie 4," "Airplane!" and other comedies, reportedly had been offered to the Republican Party for use as an ad, but it was declined. Then it appeared on the Drudge Report and also on YouTube.

However, after a brief period of accessibility, the verification page started appearing on YouTube. It asked that: "This video may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community. To view this video, please verify you are 18 or older by logging in or signing up." Today the verification page on the spoof was removed.

Shhhhh

Some might consider this picture to illustrate an illegal activity - construction on behalf of natural population growth.



Just one spot, one tiny spot on this anti-community organization's map:-

Not a 9/11 Repeat but a "Wild Pitch"

Cory Lidle, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, was killed today when a plane crashed into a residential high-rise building on New York City’s Upper East Side, corner of York and 72nd.

Another Shiloh Antiquity - a Magen David

Since we showed you last week a church floor, here's a Magen David from another basilica mosaic at Shiloh.

From "Ugly" to "Dumb" American

As CNN reports:-

An American student teaching in West Bank refugee camps was reported missing Wednesday, and his project manager said he had been kidnapped.

A blurred photocopy of a passport and student card carrying the name Michael Leighton Phillips was sent to a foreign news agency by a group calling itself Ansar al-Sunna.

Samah Atout, manager of Project Hope, said she received a call saying Phillips had been kidnapped. She refused to give further details.

Alaa Sanakreh of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group linked to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party, denounced the incident. "We have no hand in this, and if it is true that he was kidnapped, it will harm the Palestinian people," he said, adding that his group is helping Palestinian police look for Phillips.

Atout said Phillips was working with Project Hope in refugee camps near the West Bank city of Nablus, teaching English. She said Phillips, 24, came from Los Angeles and lived alone in a Nablus neighborhood.

Project Hope, based in Canada, describes itself as a nonprofit volunteer organization that provides educational and recreational activities, medical and humanitarian relief and practical training.

Well, it describes itself as this actually:-

Project Hope is a non-profit volunteer organisation whose goal is to provide a participatory, educational space for Palestinian youth and children. Committed to the principles of international humanitarian law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [link], our aim is support children denied access to basic services by providing educational and recreational activities, medical and humanitarian relief and practical training that can empower them with hope and skills for the future.

And maybe the kidnapped American is in this picture?



Anyway, I hope this misguided volunteer doesn't remain too long in a denied access/egress situation. It's enough we have to suffer Pal. violence but others?

Sex in a Mosque? Wow

This item caught my attention but not because of the sex:-

Kenya: Kenyan couple jailed for having sex inside a Mosque

Nairobi, 10/10 - A Kenyan court Monday sentenced a couple to 18 months in prison each for having sexual relations inside a Mosque at Gilgil, about 100-km northwest of Nairobi.

Naivasha Senior Magistrate John Kingori called the act by Peter Kimani and Jennifer Wairimu, "abominable" to religion and dismissed their plea for leniency.

The couple, caught in the act 3 October, claimed they were under the influence of alcohol.

Kimani said he thought he was inside a hotel room while Wanjiru claimed she was too drunk to remember what happened.

You should know that Muslims aren't supposed to imbibe intoxicating beverages so they were caught out on a 'double-play'.

Of course, since this is an Angolan newspaper and the crime took place in Kenya, one can't be too sure about its authenticity.

But more important, Gilgil was the site of a British detention camp for members of the Jewish underground liberation forces fighting the oppressive Mandate regime.

Mel's Explanation

Actor Mel Gibson spoke out for the first time about the anti-Semitic comments he made to police when they booked him for drunken driving last summer and, since we're a fair blog, we'll record his comments below:-

Gibson tells ABC News' Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview that his anti-Semitic statements were "just the stupid rambling of a drunkard."

"What I need to do to heal myself and to be assuring and allay the fears of others and to heal them if they had any heart wounds from something I may have said," Gibson says. "So, this is the last thing I want to be is that kind of monster."

Gibson was pulled over shortly after 2 a.m. on July 28 in Malibu, Calif., for speeding, and he and reportedly made anti-Semitic comments during his arrest.

He later apologized and called the remarks "despicable."

His remarks were condemned by Jewish leaders and caused a furor in Hollywood. Many speculated that the 50-year-old actor/director's career was irreparably damaged.

"How much did you read of people who came out and said, Do not work with him again? What do you feel about them?" Sawyer asks Gibson in the interview. "I feel sad because they've obviously been hurt and frightened and offended enough to feel that they have to do that," he says. "Um, and it's their choice. There's nothing I can do about that."

"I'll always continue to work. I've never much depended on anyone but myself, as far as that goes," he says. "And, hey, I'm not under the illusion that everything's just going to be hunky-dory work wise forever. I've never been under that illusion. Things could go away tomorrow."

"Would you like to say to them, 'Give me a chance to show you who I am?'" Sawyer asks.

"Well, hopefully … in time they'll know," he says. "And, you're powerless over everything really. … All you can do is take another step, keep breathing."

No, No, Not "Settlements"!

While my letter was not published (you're not surprised now are you?) in the New York Times, this one was.

But there's a real serious error in his terminology:-

To the Editor:

Sam Bahour, who complains that Israel is denying him permission to live in the West Bank, might well blame the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, who in an Oct. 7 news article is quoted as telling tens of thousands of supporters at a Gaza rally that “we will not recognize Israel, we will not recognize Israel, we will not recognize Israel.”

Mr. Haniya is the elected prime minister of an entity whose preferred method of communicating with Israel is by shooting hundreds of missiles and rockets at peaceful Israeli settlements, from territories in Gaza that Israel relinquished.

Mr. Bahour’s stated goal of “a bright, joint future for Palestinian and Israeli children alike” is hardly served by the Palestinian government’s actions.

J. J. Levin
Mahwah, N.J., Oct. 7, 2006

Hey, while it is unfortunate that people use the word "settlements" to describe the Jewish civilian residential communities established in the heartland of the Jewish homeland which enjoys international legal recognition, those locations JJ Levin refers to in his letter above are inside the pre-1967 borders!

They aren't "settlements" either way, unless, of course, you are an Arab or Arab supporter and claim that no Jews should be living in what they consider "Palestine".

Winston Churchill's 1899 Remarks on Islam

A quotation from Sir Winston Churchill found in "The River War", first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899, some 107 years ago:-


"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.

The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.

No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."

Wait, Who Is Being 'Political'?

Israel's Education council is angry over a decision to upgrade Ariel College status.

The College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel can upgrade to a "university center" following a decision by the Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria (CHE-JS), the body which oversees curricula at academic institutions in the territories. The college will be granted temporary recognition as a university for five years, during which it will be termed a "university center."

A member of the national Council for Higher Education (CHE) - the body responsible for academic institutions in Israel - said the CHE-JS had "pulled a fast one." Several members of the CHE told Haaretz they were unaware of the decision.

CHE-JS posed a single condition for granting the status of "university center" - opening master's programs in four departments. The college currently offers an M.A. in social work, and the CHE-JS is reviewing the college's application to open master's tracks in psychology, electrical engineering and electronics, and business administration.

...In August 2005, Limor Livnat, who was education minister at the time and a staunch supporter of Ariel College, instructed the CHE-JS to form a committee to evaluate the college's academic activity and draft recommendations on upgrading it to a university.

This committee was made up entirely of top-notch scholars, but all right-wingers: "Their conclusions were forgone," says a CHE member. Their report stated that, "The college already functions in effect as a university to all intents and purposes, except for areas prohibited to it as a college." Enraged CHE officials sent a letter to CHE-JS, charging that the committee's appointment is "a grave step, which smacks of intervening in the authority of the PBC."

The PBC ruled against establishing "another university in Israel of the existing model" in the next five years. The CHE-JS committee's convoluted wording gave it an opening to approve recognition of Ariel College as a university without explicitly contradicting the PBC ruling.

Why not spread knowledge? And who is really being 'political' in this case?

Still Stuck in Chutz LaAretz?

The previous post has you in Zion Square with a Lulav.

Well, here's a "shake" for you who prefer Chutz LaAretz.

Miss Being in Zion Square for Succot?

Well, here's a video clip of the "Lulav Shake" (okay, these people call it the Succot Shake but I see a Lulav).

Sorry but Here are the Anna Nicole Smith Pics

As I had some problems uploading, I decided to try my luck and place the pictures here in an all-new posting and it seems to have worked.

Anyway, here is the lady displaying her cross (and her baby, even if the father seems to be not quite scientifically identified:



And here is what may appear to some as an attempt by her Jewish husband to have her commit a mikveh dip, perhaps as a sop for conversion?

And What About Plans for the Temple?

Haaretz reports:-

Jordan's King Abdullah II has donated a huge carpet to the Al-Aqsa mosque and is launching an architectural competition for a fifth minaret for the building, which stands in Jerusalem on the third holiest site in Islam, the palace said Monday.

The carpet will cover 2,000 square meters, the statement said.

"I want the carpet to be placed under the dome of the mosque before Laylet al-Qadr," Abdullah was quoted as telling the meeting, adding that it would be provided at his expense.

The king also announced a competition to design a fifth minaret for Al-Aqsa, which is expected to cost 400,000 to 500,000 Jordanian dinars ($600,000 to 700,000).

The vice chairman of the committee running the project, Raef Nijem, said the king decided the new minaret should be "near the eastern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque because there is no minaret there, and the area overlooks agricultural land."

The construction would requires the approval of Israel, which controls the site, but this is expected to be granted.

I presume then that architectural planning for the third temple will get under way in tandem.

Only natural, right?

The Shiksa Story

I have nothing against shiksas. Unlike many of my co-religionists and Yiddishsists, I don't consider shiksa necessarily a derogatory term. It depends on the person.

Anyway, this introduction is proper becuase I came across this story about one of today's most ultimate shiksas: Anna Nicole Smith (*) and her new, Jewish, husband. This gets complicated, so let's walk this through slowly.

First,

Howard K. Stern, the lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith, said Tuesday that he's the "proud father" of her baby girl, who was born just days before her 20-year-old son Daniel died in the Bahamas.

Stern, who was with the family in the hospital the night Daniel died, told CNN's Larry King that the newborn, named Dannielynn Hope, has been Smith's "one ray of hope" following the tragedy.

The child, he said, is "the one thing that is really keeping her going. And through it all, even with all the pain, she has been a great mom, a very attentive mom."

Next,

...the former Playboy playmate and her latest love one, Howard Stern had a spiritual wedding ceremony, it seems that no official marriage certificate has been issued yet for the happy couple.

"They had a quiet ceremony and declared how much they love each other in front of God. They vowed they would be there for each other," Smith's best friend, Alex Goen declared.

The fancy ceremony took place onboard a catamaran off Nassau in the Bahamas,

and

Star reports that an eyewitness said that Anna, 38, and Howard, 37, tied the knot shortly before 10:30 am in the morning, while sailing on a white catamaran off of Nassau. "There was heavy security around the yacht, plus extra speedboats to deliver more supplies as needed (including unlimited Dom Perignon champagne) from the mainland to the catamaran," says the eyewitness, who adds that the wedding party celebrated the union afterwards by having a swim party around the yacht — "and Anna was wearing a pink bikini!"

Star also goes on to say that two days before, on September 26, Stern appeared live on the Larry King Show via satellite from the Bahamas, to announce that he was the father of Anna's newborn daughter Danilynne Hope, that he and Anna "love each other" — and that the duo would get married "at some point."

And then, two more decided to claim paternity:-

While a court in Los Angeles, CA, convened yesterday on a paternity suit for baby Smith, 2 more men surfaced to claim title while another claimed to have been asked to father the child. TRIMSPA’s first media inquiry regarding the ‘new prospects’ was thought to be a bad joke, but the topic resurfaced throughout the day by multiple media outlets. “By day’s end,” said a company representative, “we were prepared to hear that every eligible bachelor was stepping up for the job.” As ridiculous as it sounds, the media coverage given the recent events in Anna Nicole Smith’s life almost guarantees anyone with something to say 15 minutes of fame – whether true or not.

Oh, well.

And here two pictures:

One Note the Cross

Two Is That a Mikveh Dip?


[I am having trouble uploading the pics. Stay tuned]

-----
(*)


Anna Nicole Smith (name at birth: Vicky Lynn Hogan) is a blonde bombshell with a history of heavy exposure: she was the Playboy's Playmate of the Year in 1993 and then increased her public presence with a series of glossy ads for Guess? clothing. Her busting-out-all-over appeal made her a popular pinup in the early days of the Internet. She became the stuff of talk show one-liners in 1994 when she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall. He died the next year, leaving Smith to battle his family for control of his fortune.

Kaporos Ceremony Photo Gallery in Village Voice

Here's the gallery.

Heard of Bassam Tibi?

No? Well, he has a thing or two, or three to say in an interview in Germany's Der Spiegel:-

Spiegel: When something insults Muslims, we often tend to just back off — doesn’t this help defuse the conflict?

Tibi (*) : No. That is simply giving up. And the weaker the partner is viewed by the Muslims, then the greater the anger which they express. And this anger is often carefully staged...The accusation of cultural insensitivity is a weapon. And we have to neutralize it...

Muslims have to give up three things if they want to become Europeans:

They have to bid farewell to the idea of converting others, and renounce the Jihad. The Jihad is not just a way of testing yourself but also means using violence to spread Islam. The third thing they need to give up is the Shariah, which is the Islamic legal system… Pluralism and tolerance are pillars of modern society. That has to be accepted. But pluralism doesn’t just mean diversity. It means that we share the same rules and values, and are still nevertheless different. Islam doesn’t have this idea. And Islam also has no tradition of tolerance. In Islam tolerance means that Christians and Jews are allowed to live under the protection of Muslims but never as citizens with the same rights. What Muslims call tolerance is nothing other than discrimination.

(Kippah tip: Melanie Phillips)


(*)
Bassam Tibi, 62, was born in Damascus, Syria and came to Germany when he was 18 to study in Frankfurt. He has been a German citizen since 1967.

Moon Over Shiloh

Okay, the camera could not reach all the way out to the full October moon over Shiloh but I did my best.