Insight Into Islamic Incidents

Hisham Matar seems to derive the menacing mood, if not actual events, in his first novel from his own childhood, which was spent in the shadow of political brutality. His father, a businessman, suddenly found himself on a Libyan wanted list—probably for no reason other than that he was well-off and had been exposed to other societies through his travels. He managed to escape to Egypt with his wife and two sons. One day in 1990, he went to answer the doorbell at his home in exile in Cairo, and never returned. Three years later, he smuggled out a letter to his family from the notorious Abu Salim prison in Libya. He has not been heard from since.

Here.

Insight on Arendt

UNKIND TO ARENDT
By Walter Laqueur, Reply by Jeremy Waldron
In response to What Would Hannah Say? (March 15, 2007)

To the Editors:

Jeremy Waldron ["What Would Hannah Say?" NYR, March 15] quotes me attributing Hannah Arendt's alleged misjudgments about Israel and things Jewish to the fact that she had read too much anti-Semitic literature for her own good. I attributed nothing of the sort, the reference was to Ms. Arendt's streak of paranoia believing that the Jewish establishment was out to get her by foul means including bribing a well-known New York judge to write a negative review of one of her books...

Walter Laqueur
Washington, D.C.

Jeremy Waldron replies:
Walter Laqueur did make both the observations about Hannah Arendt that I reproached him for. On page 492 of his article "The Arendt Cult" in the Journal of Contemporary History (October 1988) he wrote (concerning Arendt's response to a negative review of the Eichmann book): "There was a streak of paranoia in Arendt on such occasions; perhaps she had read too much anti-Semitic literature for her own good."...

Livni Deserves Her Own Big "NO"

At the dedication of the 'Kadima House' in Tel Aviv:-

"To sustain the state of Israel as a Jewish nation we will have to give up parts of the land of Israel, and to sustain the state of Israel as a safe nation we will put Israel's security at the center of any process," said Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni on Sunday.

Livni spoke of her departure from the Likud party to Kadima, then under the leadership of Ariel Sharon: "I was in a party where every sentence began with the word 'no'. I wanted to be in a party that would instill hope and realize that hope. This party has declared a path, and that is the path it will realize."

Hope? or Jail?
Hope? or Embezelment?
Hope? or Corruption?
Hope? or Failure?

And does she not know that Israel's security depends on the territory of Eretz-Yisrael?

Alan Johnston Update

Nada.

Journalists in Gaza have held a rally to call for the release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston and an end to the kidnap and intimidation of reporters. The demonstration was the latest in a series of appeals since Mr Johnston disappeared two weeks ago on his way home from work in Gaza City.

More than 100 journalists, politicians, and others attended the rally.

Palestinian officials have said all possible efforts are being made to secure Mr Johnston's release.

All?

All possible?

Maybe they can find Hilad Shalit in the meantime?

A Bit of A Beginning of Some Good News

The NYTimes is reporting:-

Mr. Abu Ghneim, like most Arabs, says there can be no peace with Israel until he and 700,000 other Palestinians are permitted back to the homes they left in the 1948 fighting that led to Israel’s creation.

But...there is another, albeit quieter, approach being voiced, especially by younger and wealthier Palestinians: it may be neither possible nor desirable to go back.

“Every time people talk peace, you hear discussion of this subject,” said Hanin Abu Rub, 33...people think, ‘Is it possible for us to go back?’ [but] deep inside they now know they are not going back.”

Almost no Palestinian questions the demand for Israel’s recognition of the right to return; many, however, now say returning is becoming less and less feasible.

The debate has been spurred again recently by plans to revive the so-called Arab Peace Initiative at the annual Arab League meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,

Resolution 194 says, “Refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date,” and calls for them to be compensated if they choose not to return.

...Israel says that Palestinians should have the right to return to a new Palestine, not to their original homes, especially considering that their numbers have exploded since the original 711,000 people fled in 1948. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees says it has 4.3 million registered Palestinian refugees.

But the prevailing Palestinian view is that the right of return is at the core of the dispute.

“The issue of the refugees is the Palestinian problem,” said Talat Abu Othman, chairman of the Jordanian chapter of the Committee to Protect the Right of Return,

...“What right do I have to ask for awda when I am here and content?” Mr. Zalatimo said, using an Arabic word for return. “We’ve been accepting less and less every year. What are we holding out for?”

Who is Underming Who?

Civil rights groups have demanded that the attorney general lay down rules to restrict the activities of the Shin Bet security services against the Arab community and its political groups.

The Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) filed a petition to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz last Thursday to order the Shin Bet to stop trying to block what the group called legitimate political activity.

Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights, is demanding a criminal probe into the Shin Bet's activity, accusing the security service of exceeding its authority and causing incitement against the Arab public.

ACRI's petition follows a letter the Shin Bet sent the previous week to the predominantly Arab Balad party's journal, Fasal al-Makal, warning that it would foil the activity of anyone seeking to harm Israel's Jewish or democratic character, even if that activity was carried out by legal means.

The issue was raised following the recent drafting of four documents in the Arab community calling for a revision of Israel's character. The documents are: the Musawa organization's Ten Points, the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee's Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, the Adalah organization's Democratic Constitution and the yet-unpublished Haifa Treaty.

ACRI's letter said that the Shin Bet's assumption that it was authorized to curtail activity not explicitly prohibited by law "undermines the foundations of democracy and reflects a basic lack of understanding of the concept of democracy."

"The attempt by the Shin Bet to redefine the rules of the democratic game is a serious violation of the rule of law," it said.

The letter also stated that the concept of freedom is a preeminent value of democracy, and from it derives the principle that all that is not explicitly prohibited must as such be permitted.

We're Not Anti-Semites, Just Anti-Jewish

Saudi Arabia has barred entry to a Washington-based Israeli journalist traveling with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on his current Middle East tour, the United Nations said today.

Orly Azoulay, the Washington bureau chief of Yediot Aharonot, was unable to obtain a visa to Saudi Arabia despite assurances the Saudi mission in New York gave the United Nations last week, said Michéle Montas, Mr. Ban’s spokeswoman.

Ms. Montas said that both Lebanon and Saudi Arabia initially refused to grant Ms. Azoulay a visa, but that Lebanon had dropped its objections last week and given her the needed stamp.

Ms. Azoulay, 53, an Israeli-born dual citizen of France and Israel, sought the visa on her French passport. She said she had traveled during the past two years to Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and Pakistan and had gone to Saudi Arabia in 2000 with correspondents covering then-Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.

Peres' Military Record

David Bedein at Behind the News is claiming that Shimon Peres Falsifies his Military Record on the Knesset
(here, too The Philadelphia Bulletin )

It was discovered that the internationally-known elder statesman of Israel's Knesset Parliament, Shimon Peres, 83, the member of the Israeli Knesset who has served longer than any other member of the Knesset - since 1959 - has falsified his "c.v." on the official Knesset Web site.

..."Military Service Haganah; IDF; Temporary Head of Naval Services, 1950" Except that Peres never served in the Haganah, the pre-state army which was one of the armies that fought for the independence of the state of Israel, and Peres never served in the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, and Peres was far from being the "temporary head of Naval Services" in 1950.

In terms of the role played by Peres in Israel's naval history, in the official archive of the Israel Defense Forces, entitled Israeli Naval Military Operations, published in 1964 when Peres was the deputy of Defense, Gershon Zack is identified as the head of Israel's naval services before Israel's declaration of independence in May 1948, and Paul Shuman is identified as the head of the Israeli navy after May 1948. Meanwhile, the official Israel Ministry of Defense Lexicon of Israeli Defense, published in 1976 when Peres was minister of Defense, identifies Peres as only holding a desk job at the new Israel Ministry of Defense, "responsible for naval matters," appointed to that position in 1949 . . .

Let's Get Academic About Blogging

Conceptualizing The Weblog: Understanding What It Is In Order To Imagine What It Can Be By Andrew Ó Baoill, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract:

This article provides a model for defining the weblog and differentiating between its manifestations. First we have the definition of the weblog based on the basic format - websites with posts in reverse-chronological order. Second we have audience, the division between those weblogs that deal with personal issues and expect an audience known to the author, and those that place themselves in the public sphere, addressing a more general audience. Within those weblogs operating in the public sphere we can make a further delineation in terms of the domain of issues covered. Third, and finally, we have the organization of the weblog, either as a hobby, an income generating operation, or a professional operation.

Weblogs have received much recent popular and academic attention, being seen by some as heralding a potential inversion in information flows in society and online. However, concurrent with the coverage of the potential of weblogs has been a discussion of what actually constitutes a weblog. It is necessary to have a clear understanding of what weblogs are, and of their structural context in order to properly assess the potential role of weblogs in the greater media environment. In this essay I examine the various elements associated with the weblog, and previous attempts at classification and definition. I develop a model that will assist future
research into this phenomenon. By developing a multi-faceted understanding of the various forms of weblogs, and the roles assigned them, we can better hone research and obtain clarity on what we can reasonably expect of weblogs.

Weblogs emerged online in a rather unplanned fashion. While hosting companies and email providers throughout the 1990s billed themselves as helping to create ‘communities’ online, and tried to figure out exactly how to ‘leverage’ these communities,1 computer savvy amateurs were doing it for themselves. Slashdot, for example, was an early entrant to the scene, allowing readers to discuss stories that had been submitted by other readers.2 Relying largely on other online outlets for original content, the emphasis is on technology related news. Entries are usually short, consisting of a link to a timely article, though there are occasional interviews and essays.

Jewish Blog Mixing-It-Up?

FailedMessiah complains about a lack of response to an incident in NY when one of two auxilliary policemen shot dead in Greenwich Village turned out to be Jewish and a Chevra Kaddisha went right to work and is picking a fight:-

YeshivaWorld did cover the funeral, pointing out that a haredi police chaplain made arrangements and prevented the autopsy. It has pictures from the funeral (prominently featuring haredim from the Chevra Kadisha, Jewish burial society). But as far as I can tell by reading and searching, no Jewish blogs – not Hirhurim, or Ezzie's, or any other OJ outlets, including CrossCurrents – mentioned this. Marshalik was a Russian Jewish immigrant who wanted to serve his adopted country and gave his life doing so, right on the streets of New York. One really must ask what the JBlog coverage would have been if Marshalik attended YU, Lanner or Touro (all OJ schools) or had been shot down on the streets of Jerusalem. And that is my point.

What do Hirhurim, Ezzie or any of the others have to say?

Is This Pinchas Shapiro The Same?

Relating to the WJC contretemps, I have a question about the identity of one Pinchas Shapiro.

Here's one Pinchas Shapiro:-

The source quoted by ynetnews personally attacked the President, doubting his mental faculties, and accusing him of nepotism. "Edgar Bronfman is basically senile. He has one good day and two bad days. He is no longer capable of running organization. He announced: I'm president and I'll step down whenever I feel like it," the source said. "That means, he'll step down only when his son, Mathew, is ready to take power. Mathew does not have experience," the source said, adding: "What are we, Mubarak? Assad? The guy's president for 27 years, then he puts his son in. It doesn't look good."

To Bronfman's defense came Pinchas Shapiro, of the WJC's US branching, saying that the Israeli's comments were " based upon the worst kind of personal politics I have ever witnessed. Mr. Bronfman is far from senile. I personally have met with him several times this week, he is lucid and physically fit. Rumors about his so-called failing health are false and are simply disgusting. They are part of a political campaign to divert attention from the fact that the Israeli Branch and its former director were in severe violation of their fiduciary responsibilities," Shapiro added. He described the source's statements as "scurrilous and false allegations," adding that they were "offensive and are the last attempts of those people have done things wrong to divert attention from themselves and throw it on someone else. Ultimately, they are responsible for what has happened."

Shapiro went on the attack against the Israeli leadership. "The WJC uncovered significant financial irregularities at the WJC Israel Branch and Institute. There was an extensive 20-month cover-up of the wrongdoing by those involved and now it has been ended," Shapiro said, adding: "WJC grants to the Branch have been suspended and the misappropriated money has been ordered to be returned. Mr. Bronfman insisted that the WJC stand for integrity and the Steering Committee supported his call."

"Had the Branch come in, cleaned up the financial irregularities and complied with all the laws, regulations, policies and procedures, none of this would have happened," Shapiro added. "The fact is that they didn't because they were covering up improper financial behavior. Standing for integrity, the WJC acted morally, legally and properly to stop their improper financial behavior," he said. Shapiro also dismissed objections to Singer's firing: "Mr. Singer was an employee of the WJC, he can be fired or resign, just as I can be fired or resign."

Here's another:-

In the fall of last year, Bronfman began pushing for his son to succeed him as president of the WJC. There was talk of Matthew Bronfman being elected at a June meeting, but opposition to his candidacy mounted swiftly. E-mails from WJC headquarters suggest that two Bronfman family loyalists — the organization’s secretary general, Stephen Herbits, and its deputy secretary general, Pinchas Shapiro — suspected Singer of working with those who opposed the younger Bronfman.

In a curt e-mail just a few days before Singer’s firing, Shapiro asked Singer: “I thought you were supporting Matthew for June?”

The tension was heightened by a feud between the WJC’s New York headquarters and the Israeli branch. Singer was chastised for not joining in against the Israelis. In a February e-mail to Singer, Shapiro said: “Though I know we were once on the same side and working together, your opposition to [Matthew Bronfman’s] candidacy (saying one thing to him and his father and another thing to other people) and your position in the Israel fiasco has simply raised doubts in my mind about just what side you are on.”

In his responses to Shapiro’s messages, Singer stated that he was supporting Bronfman, but also insisted that he wanted to stay out of the internal politics. In one e-mail, Singer says he told New York headquarters “that I was not looking forward to more fighting and that I really wanted out of this as soon as possible.”

...The recent e-mails suggest that the Bronfman-Singer pairing is not the only casualty of the recent fights. The author of most of the e-mails, Shapiro, is a man in his 20s who was hired into the WJC by Singer and has often been described as Singer’s protégé and assistant. In their e-mail exchange, though, any good will appears to slip into the past tense.

“You might remember that before you and those around decided that I was your enemy, we worked pretty well together,” Shapiro wrote in one e-mail to Singer.

Singer wrote to Shapiro in desperation: “Why are you doing this to me too? Please, please tell me why?”

And here's yet anothe Pinchas Shapiro:-

Early Wednesday morning, the governing board of The Commentator elected Commie News Editor Shmuli Singer and Yeshiva College Student Council President and former Commie Executive Editor Pinky Shapiro co-Editors-in-Chief for Volume 66. Yehuda Kraut, current Copy Editor, will rise to the post of Managing Editor. Rounding out the Governing Board will be Yehuda Shmidman, the current layout Editor, who will be shouldering the responsibilities of Executive Editor in addition to his layout duties. In a return to tradition abandoned this past year, two people will share the helm of this newspaper.

...Pinchas Shapiro is a 5'4, 130 lbs, blond hair, blue-eyed Yeshiva College student, double majoring in Speech and Political Science and minoring in Writing. He immensely enjoys politics and "cumbersome intellectual hairsplitting with an emphasis on expounded elucidation."

A native of Jackson Heights, Queens, and current resident of North Woodmere, Long Island, Shapiro began his Yeshiva 'early admissions' academic career in 1997, after leaving Yeshiva Tiferet Torah prematurely. "It was an equally amenable situation for both me and YTT because they wanted me to leave and I left," recounts the nascent Editor.

Shapiro, in addition to being Freshman Class President and President of the Debate Society, joined his predecessors Noah Streit and "Pappa" Kahn as a Commentator staff member in 1997, during his debuting semester on campus. He also quickly befriended Editor Emeritus Alex "Gus" Traiman. The following year Shapiro "took a year off from [his] extra curricular activities" and traveled to the Holy Land to learn at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh.

"Shmuli and I hope to see The Commentator continue to exist in the mainstream while fully representing the diverse student body and their opinions. We further plan to build a complete administrative structure, that will allow the newspaper to function successfully long past our tenures," pontificated Shapiro.

Since Shapiro graduated in 2002, he could be the same.

Anyone know for sure?

===========

UPDATE Mar. 26

Yisrael - Yes, same guy.
keep it good,
Steven I. Weiss

Mel Gibson Doesn't Like Mayans, Either

Mel Goes Ballistic -- "Lady, F**k Off!"

TMZ has learned Mel Gibson exploded in anger last night on a college campus after an expert on Mayan culture accussed him of racially stereotyping the Mayans in the movie "Apocalypto."

Here.

Carefully read this:-

American officials have largely given up their hope that the Arabs might actually change the initiative to include things more palatable to Israel — like, for instance, signaling a willingness to at least discuss ways to settle the issue of Palestinian refugees who left, or were forced to leave, their homes in Israel.

But Ms. Rice may be able to get some sort of formal or informal mechanism going that could give the Israelis the hope of eventually normalizing relations with the Arab world, American officials said. “It would be a very good thing if at some point, the Arab initiative provided a basis for discussion,” Ms. Rice said.

That is a tall order even in the best of circumstances — most Arab countries do not talk to Israel. It becomes even taller considering that the Arab League works under rules that require unanimous votes from all its members. And in any case, the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, signaled Saturday that there was no intention to change the league’s peace initiative.

“We fail to understand why we should modify such a peace offer and make it less objective and less positive,” Reuters quoted him as saying at a news conference here with Mr. Ban on Saturday.

Not to mention the fact that Arab aggression and violation of the norms of international justice are the reason we all have to negotiate for peace.

Dear Progressive of the World

Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms/Comrade Progressive of the World, You who are very uncomfortable with Israel's policies or who oppose on principle the existence of a Zionist ideology,

I know it is difficult for you to express any sympathetic understanding for Israel's plight for some perverted reason and you insist that Israel can do but wrong.

I won't argue this as it is futile.

But allow me to ask you, if the Pals. have just signed an agreement of solidarity two weeks ago and just last week set up a national government, what the heck are they still killing each other, including babies? And, more importantly, even if Israel can find a way to come to an agreement with these people, do you really expect them to abide by its provisions if they can't do so among themselves?

Read this:-

Fatah supporters in Gaza clamored for revenge against Hamas on Saturday as they buried the fourth victim of factional fighting this week. The renewed violence, which also claimed the life of a 4-year-old boy caught in crossfire, raised concerns that the power-sharing deal between the rivals might not hold. Arafa Nofal, an officer from a security force loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, was killed by unidentified gunmen in Gaza on Friday.

...The response is coming, the response is coming, shouted the mourners, including dozens of gunmen.

Hamas declined immediate comment on the incident, but said the security officer had been responsible for the killing of a senior commander from the armed wing of Hamas last week.

On Thursday, a Palestinian toddler and a Palestinian man were killed by gunfire during clashes between Fatah and Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip.

Run That By Me Again

A new English-language interpretation of the Muslim Holy book the Koran challenges the use of words that feminists say have been used to justify the abuse of Islamic women.

The new version, translated by an Iranian-American, will be published in April and comes after Muslim feminists from around the world gathered in New York last November and vowed to create the first women's council to interpret the Koran and make the religion more friendly toward women.

In the new book, Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar, a former lecturer on Islam at the University of Chicago, challenges the translation of the Arab word "idrib," traditionally translated as "beat," which feminists say has been used to justify abuse of women.

"Why choose to interpret the word as 'to beat' when it can also mean 'to go away'," she writes in the introduction to the new book.

The passage is generally translated: "And as for those women whose illwill you have reason to fear, admonish them; then leave them alone in bed; then beat them; and if thereupon they pay you heed, do not seek to harm them. Behold, God is indeed most high, great!"

But that doesn't make sense.

If you send the woman away, why should she still be there for the man to harm them or not?

-----------

And Fark's take:

A new English-language interpretation of the Muslim Holy book, the Koran, challenges the use of words that feminists say have been used to justify the abuse of Islamic women. That'll probably end in a beating

Rudy's Being Media-Twisted

Media-twisted is my term for when a media outlet slightly twists a story and spins it off in a less-than-likely logical direction, or, one that doesn't necessarily have to be true.

Like this:-

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani's stormy marital history may be an open book, but his current wife, Judith, has a first marriage in her background that she's never talked publicly about - until now.

It was Dec. 8, 1974, when then-20-year-old Judith Stish, fresh out of nursing school, ran off with Jeffrey Ross to the Chapel of the Bells in Las Vegas, according to a copy of the marriage certificate unearthed by the Daily News.

The couple separated after four years of marriage and, citing an "irretrievably broken" relationship, divorced in Florida on Nov. 14, 1979, according to court records.

...The revelation comes as Rudy Giuliani is soaring in Republican presidential polls and appears to be weathering doubts by conservatives and evangelicals who make up the base of the GOP.

The fact that the Giulianis have said "I do" six times between them is sure to increase the spotlight on Rudy Giuliani's marital past, which includes a 14-year marriage to his second cousin, Regina Peruggi, and his very public and ugly split in 2000 with TV and radio personality Donna Hanover.

...But experts said the revelation that both Giulianis are on their third marriages is likely to be a turnoff to religious conservatives, many of whom take a dim view of divorce, while also providing ample ammunition for late-night comedians.

"I guess birds of a feather do flock together," said University of Virginia political science Prof. Larry Sabato. "This is right off of Match.com."

"It underscores one of the fundamental weaknesses of his candidacy, which is that his private life has been a mess," added Sabato. "To say that he has not been a role model in this regard is an understatement."

Er, why should he be any less a role model than all those preachers caught in compromising sexual situations of the past two decades and had to resign their pulpits?

Or presidents that have been sexually randy and still are worshipped and one of whom's spouse is a leading contender for a presidential nomination (although from the Democratic party).

Is it that Sabato is a dyed-in-the wool Democrat?

Sabato worked for nine years with Virginia Democratic politician Henry Howell. At the age of 15, Sabato joined Howell's first campaign for the Virginia governorship

Of that the paper didn't inform you.

Well, Well, Will the State Have to Own Up and Pay Up?

Seems a new track is being taken in the legal battle to live in Yesha.

Yesterday, the Hebron community launched a libel charge against Peace Now and this developed is reported on:-

The residents of Hersha, a settlement outpost in the West Bank, has asked the High Court of Justice to order the state to compensate them if they are evicted from their homes. Construction there has received state aid for the past 10 years. The settlers, represented by attorney Yaakov Weinrot, presented an alternative to the demolition: the legalization of the settlement and the granting of building permits.

...Hersha residents presented evidence that the state aided their outpost from 1995 until 2004. "The State of Israel has taken an active role in establishing the outpost through an array of branches and authorities," they wrote. "The families and the settlement as a whole have taken this into account when planning their actions."

The settlers said that in 1999, the Housing Ministry transferred NIS 600,000 for infrastructure construction. An additional NIS 500,000 was transferred in 2001 for the construction of a community center and a day-care center. Another NIS 650,000 was transferred in 2002. Moreover, in 2004, the Housing Ministry prepared a zoning plan for the community that included schools, and the state has even built a meteorological survey station on the premises.

...They maintain the state has only recently changed its tone, leaning toward demolishing the settlement "now that times have changed." They also maintain that demolishing the settlement, in light of the government's past support, would be illegal and unreasonable.

And this, too:-

Peace Now's settlement monitoring coordinator, Dror Etkes, told Haaretz that the settlers' compensation claims were justified. "If their homes are demolished, the state should indeed compensate them for its two-faced approach," Etkes explained.

Will it be too expensive for the state to destroy?

Wheatcroft's "Protocols"

Geoffrey Wheatcroft thinks there's an influential coterie of Tory MPs bent on a foreign policy driven not by Britain's interests, but those of the US and Israel.

Coterie? A bit over the top on that one, my dear Geoff.

Oh, it's a fanatical one, at that:-

For years past the Tories have been infiltrated by Anglo-neoconservatives, a species easily defined. Several of the younger MPs are fanatical adherents of the creed with its three prongs: ardent support for the Iraq war, for the US and for Israel.

The Guardian has published his screed which includes this historical view:-

AJ Balfour was the Tory premier and then foreign secretary who signed the eponymous declaration in 1917 favouring a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and came to favour a Jewish state (as with many gentile Zionists, his attitude to Jews was highly ambiguous; he described privately how uneasy he once felt at a dinner party where "Hebrews were in an actual majority"). And yet his successor as foreign secretary took the opposite view. That highest of high Tories Lord Curzon deplored the Balfour declaration. He thought that a Jewish homeland could only mean a grave injustice to the inhabitants of Palestine. It would inflame hundreds of millions of Muslim subjects of the British empire. And as to the Jewish people themselves and the idea of transporting them to the Levant, "I cannot think of a worse fate for an advanced and intellectual community," Curzon said.

In his day Curzon might have seemed the truer Tory than Balfour, and it's only recently that his spirit has been stifled in his old party.

Truer or not, reneging on international obligations to reconstitute the Jewish national homeland, to keep Jews from leaving Nazi Europe and limiting the number of immigrants that could enter the Palestine Mandate while restricting the amound of land they could purchase (the 1939 White Paper) while conducting a segregated St. James Conference allowing Arabs not to sit with their negotiating partners, Curzon did represent political immorality at its peak.

Wheatcroft previously published a piece of trash in which he claimed that sixty years ago the sort of atrocity that Israel's leaders habitually condemn helped bring the country into being, referring to the King David Hotel operation.

Oh, Wheatcroft's e-mail is wheaty@compuserve.com


(Kippah tip: Carol)

Damn Those Hollywood Jew Moguls

Variety reports:

Iranian prexy Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has joined the uproar over Warner Bros' "300.(*)"

In a televised speech marking the Iranian New Year on Wednesday, the hardliner accused Western powers of "trying to tamper with history by making a film and by making Iran's image look savage."

Although he didn't mention "300" by name, Ahmadinejad's attack comes in the wake of widespread Iranian anger at the film, which re-creates the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, in which 300 Spartan soldiers fought a Persian army numbering in the thousands.

"By psychological war, propaganda and misuse of the organizations they have themselves created, and for which they have written the rules, and over which they have the monopoly, they are trying to prevent our nation's development," Ahmadinejad added.

Last week, the president's cultural adviser, Javad Shangari, accused the film of being "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological warfare aimed against Iranian culture."

(*)
Based on the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller, 300 is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy, drawing a line in the sand for democracy. The film brings Miller's (Sin City) acclaimed graphic novel to life by combining live action with virtual backgrounds that capture his distinct vision of this ancient historic tale.

Trailer One.

Trailer Two.

And, by the way, they lost in the end due to a traitor.

Late on the second day of battle, as the Persian king was pondering what to do next, he received a windfall: a Malian Greek traitor named Ephialtes informed him of a path around Thermopylae and offered to guide the Persian army through the pass. Ephialtes was motivated by the desire of a reward. For this act, the name of Ephialtes received a lasting stigma: it means "nightmare" and is synonymous with "traitor" in Greek

Israel has those aplenty.

Funny JAPS

Jackie Hoffman, Cory Kahaney, Jessica Kirson and Cathy Ladman will star in “The J.A.P. Show, Jewish American Princesses of Comedy,” a tribute to post-World War II female comics, including Pearl Williams, Belle Barth, Totie Fields and Jean Carroll. The Off Broadway show begins previews on April 4 and opens officially on April 18 at the Actors Temple Theater, 399 West 47th Street in Hell’s Kitchen.

Source