Toulouse: The Writing On The Wall

To those Western apologists who have tried to make out that there was no link between Mohamed Merah's murderous actions and his Islam since some of his victims, the soldiers of North African extraction, were Muslims themselves, there is, of course, the very pertinent response that those fellow-Muslims, wearing the uniform of France, were fighting for the infidel.  Not only that: Merah's own blog shows that he was as an antisemtic jihadist.  Here is a thoughtful take on the situation.

Now, despite the misgivings of municipal officials, the mass murderer's body lies in the soil of the city in which he committed his slaughter of Jews, rather than in Algeria as initially intended (see, for instance, this report).

In Toulouse, the following graffiti, daubed on a wall (see photograph and further commentary here), eloquently testifies to Merah's stature among certain sections of the population:

Tu as été un preux Chevalier de l’islam,
 tu as combattu la merde sioniste et les faux musulmans
 tu es mort les armes à la main…
 je te salue Mohamed mon frère, mon ami…
 Repose en paix !

 Here's a rough translation:

 You have been a valiant knight of Islam
 You have fought the Zionist shit and the fake Muslim
 you have died weapons in hand
 I salute you Mohamed, my brother, my friend,
 rest in peace.

(Hat tip: reader Rita)

Al Beeb's Nemesis Changes Address

I've long admired the Biased BBC website.  They have a truly talented team of writers, who are as humourous and erudite as they are tenacious and vigilant in comprehensively monitoring and itemising the outrageous, sometimes grotesque, and not infrequently hypocritical, leftwing bias of the feather-bedded and arrogant national broadcaster.

There's little doubt that the website gets under Al Beeb's skin, though the latter's conscience has yet to be pricked (how about releasing that Balen Report, chaps; after all, you were banging on about the need for governmental openness and accountability in your news bulletins yesterday, that is, when you weren't big-noting Robert Redford and his  leftwing worldview - at licence-payers' expense you sent Will Gompertz to NewYork to, as newsreader Joanna Gosling remarked courtesy of the autocue, "meet a man not afraid to speak his mind about America").

In the course of its magnificent work the Biased BBC website often calls attention to Al Beeb's despicable attitude to Israel, seldom if ever missing the transgressions of  Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen (pictured) and other "Beeboids," as well as its "softly, softly" approach to Islam.

 If you haven't discovered the site yet, I thoroughly recommend it.

The site is moving to a new cyber-address (I shall shortly update my blogroll accordingly) but is, I'm happy to learn, leaving its old posts intact at its former address

"In Blood We'll Redeem Jerusalem"

That's a rallying cry of delegates participating in the abominable Global March to Jerusalem on 30 March, decribed in this must-read factsheet as

"an anti-Israel publicity stunt that aims to have a million people marching on Israel’s borders from all the surrounding countries – Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt – with the aim of reaching Jerusalem. Concurrently, demonstrations are planned in the Palestinian-administrated territories and against Israel’s diplomatic missions in major cities throughout the world."

The antisemitic and frequently bloodcurdling tone of the march is evident from many of their banners and posters, and I thoroughly recommend this site, which provides regular updates exposing their nature and intent.  Indeed, it's essential reading (and viewing, for in addition to articles there are many pictures and videos).  This part of the site provides quick links regarding the movement in various countries.

Among the supporters of the march are our old pals George Galloway and Desmond Tutu, the notorious Gilad Atzmon, the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe, and the idiosyncratic gentlemen of the Neturei Karta movement.  These "useful idiots" have long been (figuratively) embraced by Israel-demonisers in the West, and remain so, despite the fact that Neturei Karta are also supportive of nutjob zealots in Israel noisily and noisomely harassing modestly-attired Orthodox girls, including the pre-pubescent, for not dressing modestly enough.

But that's the hypocrisy of the (often scantily-clad) leftwing feminists of the anti-Israel movement for you, so accustomed to  making common cause with male supremacists of the Islamic sort in their efforts to bring down Israel.

"He Had Hatred Of Jews In His Eyes" Says A Rabbi Of A BDSer

Remember the anti-Israel push by members of the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn?  Well, the BDS brigade within the Coop have gone down to a well-deserved ignominious defeat.

Last night, at Brooklyn Tech High School, the forces of darkness garnered 653 votes.  Their opponents mustered 1005. 

One of the participants at what was evidently a packed and stormy meeting (fisticuffs occurred and the NYPD paid a visit), Rabbi Andy Bachman, comments:

'Before I entered Brooklyn Tech for the debate and the vote last night, I had a brief engagement with an anti-Israel agitator. I know of no other way to say this except to say that he had hatred of Jews in his eyes. You know when you know. The blood quickens; defense mechanisms engage. I can’t believe that in the twenty-first century, there are still those who believe that Jews are the root of all evil. My first impulse—I won’t lie—was to break his nose. My second impulse, after cogitating upon the fact that I was a father, husband, rabbi and leader—was to demure. Thank God for second impulses. 

It helped me tolerate the intolerable comments I heard from a few speakers last night: Jews control the media; Jews control Congress; Jews in America have shut down the debate about Israel. Fuming while listening, I remained paradoxically calm, even bemused: for in my profound discomfort, I was hearing what I didn’t want to hear. Which meant, of course, that my opponents were subjected to the self-same rules.

And when the votes were counted, our side won. Israeli products stayed on the shelves. And in turn, we were privileged to articulate a way forward that was rooted in reason, tolerance, justice and peace.

While on one hand the “moral equivalency” rules that “everyone’s opinion is valid” struck me as classic cooperative sophistry, I knew that in the end, the reasonable argument would prevail. That people would recognize that neither Israelis nor Palestinians are perfect. But that with enough food and room around the table, there may be something to discuss after all.'

Incidentally, as Elder of Ziyon notes, it's "Buy Israeli Goods Day" this Friday, and there are fine products from which to choose.  He suggests a few...

"O Bird, Take Me To [My] Homeland": PA Song Claims Israeli Cities As Palestinian (video)

Evidently, the writer of this Palestinian Authority song is a little weak regarding geography:

The uploader, Palestine Media Watch, translates the song as follows:

"Oh bird, take me to [my] homeland
Color my eyelids with the soil of Palestine
Send greetings to Acre and to the Upper Galilee
To Birzeit, Haifa, Tira and Ayn Ghazal (Moshav Ofer)
To Jerusalem, Jaffa, Gaza and Jabalya
To Nablus, Ramallah and Jenin
To Khan Yunis, Rafah and Qalqilya
To Lod, Tubas and Hebron
To Be'er Sheva -- every [Bedouin] tribe
To Tulkarm, Sila and Burqin
To Tiberias, Um El-Fahm and Beit Shean
To Tzippori, Lubya (Kibbutz Lavi) and Tur'an
To Nazareth and Safed of [Mount] Canaan
To Al-Shajara (Moshav Ilaniya), El-Bira and Hittin (Moshav Arbel)
Oh bird, take me to [my] homeland
Color my eyelids with the soil of Palestine"
[PA TV (Fatah), March 6 and 14, 2012]

"Forget – no. Forgive – hardly": A Rabbi Contemplates Forgiveness & The Shoah

Born in Australia the same year as the distinguished doyen of Liberal (i.e. Reform in the American sense) rabbis in the Antipodes, Rabbi Emeritus Dr John Levi, who was the first Australian-born rabbi to serve in his native land, Rabbi Emeritus Raymond Apple served the Hampstead congregation in London before assuming the pulpit of the historic and imposing Great Synagogue in his native Sydney.  Now resident in Jerusalem, he contributed the following article, entitled "Is It Time To Pardon The Crimes Of The Nazis?", to the the antipodean J-Wire service.

Writes Rabbi Apple:

'Jews don’t forget their tragedies. We still suffer the pain of the slaves in Egypt, the destruction of the Temple, the expulsion from Spain, the persecutions and pogroms in so many lands and so many ages, so when it comes to the Holocaust we cannot possibly forget.

If we place maror on our Passover tables to represent the bitterness of  Egyptian bondage, if we fast on Tisha B’Av and see ancient Jerusalem on fire, how can our minds blot out the memory of the Holocaust?

We wonder why others find forgetfulness of the Holocaust so easy – and some even deny that the catastrophe happened – when it wasn’t just Judaism which the fiends targeted but human civilisation as a whole.

Jews cannot forget, and we don’t think the world should either.  If remembering the wickedness of Amalek is a sacred duty (Deut. 25:17), shall we not still feel the pain of the Nazi Amalek?  The memory haunts us, as it should all mankind.  The gentiles should join us in saying, “Never Again!”

The agonising question is whether we can forgive. On the surface it seems we have no choice. Our teachings cannot imagine life without forgiveness. Moses says to God, “pardon, I pray Thee, the iniquity of this people” (Num. 14:19). God says, “I, even I, blot out thy transgressions” (Isa. 43:25). It is not only God who forgives: man must follow His example. Ben Sira says (Ecclesiasticus 28:2), “forgive your neighbour: and when you pray your sins will be forgiven you”. The Talmud constantly adjures us to forgive. Amongst the later sages, the Rosh (Rabbi Asher ben Yehi’el) said, “at night before retiring, forgive whoever offended you”. The Roke’ah (Rabbi Elazar ben Yehudah) said, “the finest thing a person can do is to forgive”.

But if it sounds so easy, why is it so hard?

In relation to the Holocaust there are four issues:

What should be forgiven? Who should be forgiven? Who should do the forgiving? What is meant by forgiveness?

Each question is complicated. There are no easy answers.

What should be forgiven?

1.  The deprivation, dehumanisation and destruction of a sizeable part of the Jewish population of Europe and of many gentiles, in pursuance of a cold-blooded racist doctrine and policy that deliberately defied the Biblical commands, “do not murder” (Ex. 20:13), “do not hate your brother in your heart” (Lev. 19:17) and “let your brother live with you” (Lev. 25:36)

2.  The indifference, apathy and acquiescence of many nations including leaders of Christianity, transgressing the command, “do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbour” (Lev. 19:16)

3.  The failure of some Jewish leaders to urge escape from Europe whilst it was still possible – in particular those who said, “leave it to God”.  This defies the command against abdication of human responsibility, “you shall be holy, as I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2).

Who should be forgiven?

1.  The Nazis and their henchmen?  Jewish ethics places a price tag on forgiveness. There can be no forgiveness of those who had no shame, scruples, compassion or compunction, murdering babies in the morning and enjoying classical music at night. It can be withheld from those who showed no remorse or repentance, justifying themselves on the basis of superior orders or saving their own skins. Forgiving them abets their actions. It gives Hitler the last laugh.

2.  Those who stood by, including Christians who rang the church bells when the Nazis arrived? Their lack of moral courage cannot be easily cleansed. Many are honest enough to say “mea culpa”. We hope they mean it and will resist evil in future. We value their repentance and their pledge of moral courage, but they compound the problem when they fail to protest at acts of intolerance on the part of the Islamic world.

3.  The Jewish leaders who left it all to God to save the Jewish people from catastrophe. We can try to forgive the short-sightedness of that generation so long as we do not repeat their errors.

Who should do the forgiving?

1.  The six million martyrs?  They are in the world of the afterlife; we cannot speak for them. If they did not forgive before their death, how can we forgive their murder?

2.  The thinning ranks of the survivors? If they wish to be forgiving, they can decide for themselves – but their forgiveness is not for having been murdered, but for the pain and grief they suffered.

3.  The new generation, the ones who were not there in the horrific years? As Eliezer Berkovits puts it in, “Faith After the Holocaust”, they are not Job who suffered, but Job’s brother, and their pain is not enough to warrant a decision that should be left to Job himself.

4.  The gentiles? The gentile victims must speak for themselves. The silent bystanders must be counted amongst the accused who – if they were not Nazis themselves – are guilty of condoning the evil.

5.  God? When humans kill one another, part of God dies with the victims, who were made in His image. He can decide for Himself if He wants to call the Nazis His children and weep for their crimes. But wrongdoers cannot expect God to forgive the evil they perpetrated against other humans.

What is meant by forgiveness?

There are three categories listed in the Yom Kippur liturgy – selihah, mehilah and kapparah.  God exercises these categories towards His creatures; man is obliged to emulate the Divine, exercising the same categories towards fellow man.  On a simple reading, selah lanu, mehal lanu, kapper lanu, says the same thing three times, but it is possible to see the three terms as stages, not mere synonyms:

Selihah: forgiveness, ceasing to blame. The forgiver says, “the act has been committed but I no longer blame you for it.”

Mehilah: pardon, freeing from penalty. The forgiver says, “the act has been committed but I no longer penalise you for it.”

Kapparah: expiation, redress. The forgiver says, “the act has been committed but I see your guilt as paid out.”

Can we forgive and forget?  Forget – no.   Forgive – hardly.'

A Sydneysider's Visit To The West Bank

As the usual assortment of strange bedfellows prepare for imminent Israel-bashing events in Sydney – see some telling pictures, revealing Arabic propaganda posters, and comments on the Facebook page they've opened here – as well as in Melbourne (hat tip: Hadar) I'm delighted to present the following guest post.  It's by Sydneysider Shirlee Finn, who also took the photos, and is entitled "My Visit To The West Bank":

I had a day to remember on March 13th, when Ari Briggs took me on a memorable and exhilarating drive into the West Bank.

Ari is an expat Australian living in Israel. He is the International Director of Regavim. Regavim is working hard to track and remove illegal housing on government land and is being successful.

Regavim is a non-profit-making, non-governmental organisation concerned with preventing the illegal confiscation of Israel’s national land resources, with protecting nature, and with preventing environmental damage. By monitoring the way officialdom deals with these matters, Regavim ensures conformity to responsible administrative norms.

Ari and three friends picked me up at Modi’in, from where we headed east on road 443 to Jerusalem.
This is the second main road to Jerusalem and goes through liberated territory from Modi’in to Jerusalem.
We skirted around Jerusalem and passed through Atarot and Balanda, where we saw the eastern entrance to Ramallah to our left.

We then skirted along the separation barrier,  until we reached Bet Hanina in Jerusalem, where we headed north on road 60, via the Pisgat Zeev/Hizme checkpoint. Going through checkpoints is somewhat disconcerting, but most necessary. Continuing on Road 60 we passed Migron, in the northern West Bank. It is located some 14 kilometres north of Jerusalem.  We passed Bet El, Ofra and at Shilo we went east past Shvut Rachel, some 45 kms north of Jerusalem towards the Jordan Valley and the Allon Road.

The road is named after Yigal Allon, who drafted the “ Allon Plan” shortly after the Six-Day War in June 1967.  The broad aim of the plan was to annex most of the Jordan Valley, from the river to the eastern slopes of the West Bank hill ridge, East Jerusalem and the Etzion bloc to Israel. At the same time, the heavily populated areas of the West Bank hill country, together with a corridor that included Jericho, would be offered to Jordan.

King Hussein rejected it.

Between Bet El and Migron we turned right into Turmus Aiya, an Arab ‘village’.

We entered the village, complete with its own vineyards, via a tree lined avenue. We saw very large and luxurious Arab houses, which were in contrast to those of Jewish homes on the other side of the highway.

 

This is the complete opposite to that of  popular international opinion in regards to the ‘downtrodden’ Arabs in Israel.

The drive and scenery as we continued heading north on the Allon road to Gittit (a moshav), was pretty, being covered with wild flowers thanks to recent rains.

Unfortunately, the illegal dumping of rubbish by Arabs is an eyesore, and sadly it’s destroying the ancient terraces.  This is a tragedy and will result in soil erosion, which the terraces are there to prevent.

Before we went off road in a four wheel drive vehicle, from the Jordan Valley, heading west up the eastern slope of the Gideonite range towards Itamar, we passed Shiloh 16 kms north of Bet El in the West Bank.  Shiloh was the temporary Capital of Israel before the first Temple was built in Jerusalem and the site of the tabernacle.

This is truly G-d’s own country. Peaceful, beautiful and the air so fresh and pure.

                                  
The drive was so exhilarating and it seemed the guys didn’t cope as well with it as I did!  We had to negotiate a substantial rock fall and made it without mishap, thanks to Ari’s skilful handling of the vehicle.

We climbed to the top of the mountain, where we stopped at the sheep farm of Tomer, in hills of Itamar, so named in  1976, when it was established, as it was near the burial site of Itamar, the son of Aaron the High Priest.  We enjoyed fresh goat's cheese and crackers, with homemade lemonade.  Both were easily the best I have ever tasted, made by the young settlers. They have ten goats for making goats' milk and cheese products; however it is actually a sheep farm. They have around 200 of them presently, but their plan is to have 500. They raise the sheep for meat not wool.

We spoke about how life is lived in the "outback". I have to admire the guts and determination of these young people.  We were made so welcome and showered with warmth and hospitality. They have little sleep, as they have to stand guard at night in two hour shifts. This not an easy task having to work on the land and to raise children.

From there we went to a large organic farm called “Peaks of the World” or "Givot Olam". There we enjoyed some goat’s yoghurt and Ari picked up some eggs, which I was  concerned about, seeing as to how they would be bouncing about it the back of a 4WD vehicle off road and very bumpy. !!  From there we  continued west towards the main area of Itamar, which brought back sad memories.. It was a chilling thought to be passing the very place , where not so long ago the Fogel family were brutally slaughtered.

We visited  two other farms growing  organic fruit and vegetables and I bought  freshly picked delicious strawberries, after which we went to Mt. Gerizim, also known as Mount Blessing, to Har Bracha, on the southern ridge of Mount Gerizim, in the West Bank's Samarian mountains near Nablus.  Har Bracha is named after one of the two mountains which are mentioned in Deuteronomy, on which half the twelve tribes of Israel ascended in order to pronounce blessings.

It shares the Mount Gerizim ridge with Kiryat Luza, the main Samaritan town, which was very interesting. I have heard of the Samaritans but knew nothing about them until Ari told us some basic facts. Theirs is an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism. Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian Exile

From there we went to Joseph’s lookout above Schem (Nablus ) where we were directly above the Balata refugee camp. (Below, centre) There are vast expanses of available land all around it, yet to get international sympathy they insist on crowding their own people into a small space.

Joseph's tomb is located in Schem, but we are not permitted to access it.

Below is a photo of Schem, where we saw the impressive six-storey glass-faced shopping centre in the city; it is the white-domed building to the left of centre.

Towering over the city is the house of El Masri, the Palestinian Arab billionaire. This is the largest house in Israel – another fact that never sees the light of day because it does not suit the Arab and liberal world’s agenda.

From there we headed to the Mt. Blessing boutique winery. There we were given quite an extensive lesson on wine making. The guys enjoyed a dry red wine, which wasn’t to my liking, so I was given some very nice port. The owner is being quite successful in selling his product to the United States.

We  then headed down the mountain and back west passing Kedumim, Funduk (Arab village) Karnei Shomron and Nebi Elias (Arab village) back to Raanana, where I boarded a bus to Modi’in after a long and very interesting day in the West Bank, or, as Ari calls it, Yehuda and Shomron.

Where Is The Outcry?: Fatwa Against Churches In The Arabian Peninsula

The Jerusalem Post reports that Saudi Grand Mufti Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah Al al-Sheikh has issued a fatwa declaring that it is "necessary to destroy all the churches in the Arabian Peninsula.”" This is, of course, an abuse of the human rights of around three and a half million Christian guest workers in the Gulf region.

Although Saudi Arabia bans non-Muslim places of worship, there are churches in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen.

Several bishops on the European continent have spoken out against the fatwa.

But as the Italian journalist Giulio Meotti, who is writing a book about the Vatican's relations with Israel,  observes:

"It’s astonishing, horrible and amazing that the most important Muslim cleric in the land that gave birth to Islam can call for the destruction of churches without this genocidal fatwa attracting any international condemnation or protest.  Where is the White House? Where is Lady Ashton? Where is the Vatican? Where are the UN’s agencies?...

This fatwa is like Iran’s Ahmadinejad calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. Both, the Jews and Christians, today are targeted for a new impending genocide."

Mayoral Candidate Livingstone Pledges To Make London "A Beacon Of Islam"

Ken Livingstone, who was London's mayor from 2000 until 2008, when the Conservative Party's Boris Johnson became the city's first populace-elected mayor, is the Labour Party's candidate for that office.  The election is on 3rd May.

Ken's an atheist.  He's a Socialist.  He doesn't like Israel very much at all.  And apparently - as the Jewish Chronicle reports - he told some of his Labour colleagues just recently that Jews are too rich to vote Labour, an alleged statement that has prompted a letter of protest to Labour leader Ed Miliband from a number of Jews who support the party.

Ken Livingstone's courting the Muslim vote - and how!

Never mind that certain aspects of Islam sit uncomfortably with secular democracy and with the equality of the sexes.  Ken has pledged to make London "a beacon of Islam".

Soeren Kern, Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group, explains:

'Speaking to Muslim worshippers on March 16 at the North London Central Mosque, one of the most hardline mosques in Europe, Livingstone pledged that if elected, he would "educate the mass of Londoners" about Islam.

...."I want to spend the next four years making sure that every non-Muslim in London knows and understands [Mohammed's] words and message. That will help to cement our city as a beacon that demonstrates the meaning of the words of the Prophet."

Livingstone's electioneering tactic may earn him the support of Muslim voters in London. But by speaking at the North London mosque, Livingstone has also succeeded in reviving long-standing suspicions that he is closely linked to Islamic fundamentalists.

The North London Central Mosque, also known as the Finsbury Park Mosque, has a well-established reputation for being a center for radical Islamism in Britain. The mosque was once controlled by Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Egyptian jihadist who is now in prison in Britain for "instigation to acts of terrorism." The Finsbury Mosque is currently being run by the Muslim Association of Britain, an Islamist organization tied to the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

One of Livingstone's main links to radical Islam is through an organization called the Islamic Forum of Europe

(IFE), an Islamist group dedicated to changing the "very infrastructure of society, its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed … from ignorance to Islam."

The IFE is especially active in the East London borough of Tower Hamlets. Also known as "The Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets," the area is brimming with extremist Muslim preachers, the Tower Hamlets' Taliban, who are seeking to impose Islamic Sharia law on large swaths of the British capital.

The Tower Hamlets' Taliban regularly issue death threats to women who refuse to wear Islamic veils. Neighborhood streets have been plastered with bright yellow posters declaring "You are entering a Sharia controlled zone: Islamic rules enforced." And street advertising deemed offensive to Muslims is regularly vandalized or blacked out with spray paint....'

Read all of Soeren Kern's illuminating (and alarming) article here 
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2967/ken-livingstone-london-islam
Hat tip: reader Shirlee

Rush To Judgement: Rabbinical Spokesman Blames French Killings On "Intolerance"

Britain's first postwar premier Clement Attlee famously rebuked one of the stormy petrels of his party with the words "a period of silence on your part would be welcome".

That very phrase seems an apt one with which to chide the journalists who, when literally nothing was yet known of the identity of the perpetrator of this week's outrages in Montauban and Toulouse, had made up their minds that a rightwing extremist was at work.

As the first reports of the shootings at the Jewish school in Toulouse were being broadcast, a female BBC news anchor, seeking from an Al Beeb reporter further updates about the tragedy, observed (in these words or something very similar) "Of course, there have been similar incidents before, haven't there?"

But my assumption that Al Beeb was at long last going to tell the viewer what it prefers not to admit, that there have been a number of alarming incidents of violence and harassment against Jews in France in recent years, was immediately dashed.  For to mention such incidents would have meant spotlighting Muslim antisemitism, and Al Beeb was determined to run with the hypothesis that a far-right white racist who hated Muslims and blacks just as much as, or even more than,  he hated Jews was the man who gunned down a rabbi and three small Jewish children.

It soon became apparent that a vast swathe of the western media was also taking it for granted that a gallic Anders Breivik was the culprit. Indeed, Al Beeb and its leftist cohorts were obviously salivating at the anticipated opportunity to focus on white far-right racism, especially of the "Islamophobic" kind.  Thus the fact that the killer has turned out to be an Islamist with links to al-Qaeda has left many a journalist with egg on their faces.

Such analysts as Melanie Phillips and Barry Rubin have already addressed this topic in their characteristically brilliant fashion, while Robin Shepherd cogently argues that anti-Zionists should feel suitably mortified.

But journalists and politicians are not the only public figures who, before the identity of the murderer was established, ill-advisedly rushed to judgement regarding this week's killings in southern France.  If I interpret his remarks correctly, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, is apparently one of those Jewish leaders who likes to make common cause with Muslims against "Islamophobia" whatever the circumstances, for he seemed quick to lay the blame for the tragedy at the door of such persons as Marine Le Pen and "intolerance" for - to quote one example he gave - the burka. (Hat tip: reader Rita)

In last September's Standpoint magazine Christopher Caldwell had an in-depth and wide-ranging analysis of the plight of French Jewry, who are faced with increasing antisemitism and hostlity to Israel.

He observed, inter alia:

"Paris has more Jews than any country in Western Europe. It also has more Arab Muslims. Clashing visions of how the French state ought to respond have led to a divergence of interests between the two groups. But while the Arab population is rising rapidly, the Jewish population is ageing and shrinking due to emigration, intermarriage and small family size. It has fallen to under half a million, according to the authoritative Hebrew University demographer Sergio Della Pergola. It is now hard to teach the Holocaust in schools, due to harassment and disruption from mostly immigrant students. A third  of Jewish students have abandoned the state school system for Jewish schools, while another third go to Catholic ones — more for reasons of security than pedagogy. Regularly scheduled, robustly attended demonstrations question the legitimacy of the state of Israel....

In a democracy, the interests of a community of 5-6 million will usually trump those of a community of under half a million. The Socialist foreign-policy thinker Pascal Boniface wrote a notorious memo to his party's political strategists on the eve of the 2002 elections in which he urged them to bear this imbalance in mind when they formulated their policy on Israel. Such realpolitik no longer attracts much notice. Muslims have been able to reshape the French state and society in ways that Jews had neither the demographic might nor the proselytising inclination to seek. Ramadan — in which millions of French workers are slowed down by fasting — has become an important part of the rhythm of the French work year. Muslim families have objected to the way the Holocaust is taught in French schools, claiming to see it as an apology for the state of Israel, and some have objected to its being taught altogether.

In the 1970s, French Jews were a people whose story serves to promote immigration. Today, they are victims of that immigrations's failure constrained to compete with other minorities for the favour of the broader society. Today a third of the youth population of many cities, including Paris, consists of the descendents of immigration. France has replaced a cohort that feels it has a debt towards Jews with a cohort that feels Jews have a debt towards them.

The drama plays out in arguments over the state of Israel. Two things make French arguments over Israel particularly passionate. First, French Jews' attachment to Israel is strong. There are 800,000 French-speakers in the Jewish state, and Jerusalem is just over four hours' flight away. So French Jews simply spend a lot of time there. They even speak of a "Boeing aliya" (borrowing the word for a migration to the Holy Land) that takes place every weekend....

The second is that French opposition to Israel is ferocious among certain groups of people who are closely listened to, especially immigrants and intellectuals. A host of organisations are dedicated to exposing the Jewish state's alleged misdeeds. These range from the Communist-inspired Association France Palestine Solidarité, which has existed for decades and organises marches and campaigns, to the newer Europalestine, which spearheads various boycotts and guerrilla theatre operations. They will, for example, enter a Carrefour supermarket en masse and cart out Israeli products. The Muslim Brotherhood-dominated UOIF, which often holds a majority on France's official Muslim body, the CFCM, backs the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Hamas government of the Gaza strip. The Sheikh Yassin Collective, named after the Hamas leader slain in an Israeli anti-terrorist operation, is more hardline still...."

 By the way, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has just issued a timely report by Dr Harold Brackman demonstrating a worrying increase in hostility to Jews and to Israel across Europe: http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7B54d385e6-f1b9-4e9f-8e94-890c3e6dd277%7D/EUROPE_AND_THE_JEWS_2012-DRAMATIC_RISE_IN_ANTI-JEWISH_ANTI-ISRAEL_PREJUDICE_V3.PDF

"Anti-Zionism is a form of racism more dangerous than classical anti-Semitism": Judea Pearl

The lily-livered Jewish students at Leeds University who, like the apprentice "trembling Israelites" they appear to be, withdrew their invitation to pro-Israel activist Brooke Goldstein to address them last week, would do well to reflect on this article entitled "Anti-Zionism is Racism", which appeared as an op-ed in the New York Jewish Week.  It's by Professor Judea Pearl of UCLA, whose son Daniel, professional journalist and gifted violinist, was savagely murdered by judeophobic Islamic fanatics in Pakistan.

Writes Judea Pearl:

'In the past three months, I have visited four “troubled” campuses — Duke, York (Canada), Columbia and UC Irvine — where tensions between Jewish and anti-Zionist students and professors have attracted national attention. In these visits, I have spoken to students, faculty and administrators, and I have obtained a fairly gloomy picture of the situation on those and other campuses.

Jewish students are currently subjected to an unprecedented assault on their identity as Jews. And we, the Jewish faculty on campus, have let those students down. We have failed to equip them with effective tools to fight back this assault.

We can reverse this trend.

Many condemn anti-Zionism for being a flimsy cover for anti-Semitism. I disagree. The order is wrong. I condemn anti-Semitism for being an instrument for a worse form of racism: anti-Zionism.

In other words, I submit that anti-Zionism is a form of racism more dangerous than classical anti-Semitism. Framing anti-Zionism as racism is precisely the weapon that our students need for survival on campus.

Anti-Zionism earns its racist character from denying the Jewish people what it grants to other collectives (e.g. Spanish, Palestinians), namely, the right to nationhood and self-determination.

Are Jews a nation? A collective is entitled to nationhood when its members identify with a common history and wish to share a common destiny. Palestinians have earned nationhood status by virtue of thinking like a nation, not by residing where their ancestors did (many of them are only three or four generations in Palestine). Jews, likewise, are bonded by nationhood (i.e., common history and destiny) more than they are bonded by religion.

The appeal to Jewish nationhood is necessary when we consider Israel’s insistence on remaining a “Jewish state.” By “Jewish state” Israelis mean, of course, “national Jewish state,” not “religious Jewish state” — theocratic states (like Pakistan and Iran) are incompatible with modern standards of democracy and pluralism. Anti-Zionist racists use this anti-theocracy argument repeatedly to delegitimize Israel, and I have found our students unable to defend their position with conventional ideology that views Jewishness as a religion.

Jewishness is more than just a religion. It is an intricate and intertwined mixture of ancestry, religion, history, country, culture, tradition, attitude, nationhood and ethnicity, and we need not apologize for not fitting neatly into the standard molds of textbook taxonomies — we did not choose our turbulent history.

As a form of racism, anti-Zionism is worse than anti-Semitism. It targets the most vulnerable part of the Jewish people, namely, the people of Israel, who rely on the sovereignty of their state for physical safety, national identity and personal dignity. To put it more bluntly, anti-Zionism condemns 5 million human beings, mostly refugees or children of refugees, to eternal statelessness, traumatized by historical images of persecution and genocide.

Anti-Zionism also attacks the pivotal component of our identity, the glue that bonds us together — our nationhood, our history. And while people of conscience reject anti-Semitism, anti-Zionist rhetoric has become a mark of academic sophistication and social acceptance in Europe and in some U.S. campuses.

Moreover, anti-Zionism disguises itself in the cloak of political debate, exempt from sensitivities and rules of civility that govern interreligious discourse. Religion is ferociously protected in our society — political views are not.

Just last month, a student organization on a UC campus hosted a meeting on “A World Without Israel.” Imagine the international furor that a meeting called, “A World Without Mecca,” would provoke.

So, in the name of “open political debate,” administrators would not think twice about inviting MIT linguist Noam Chomsky to speak on campus, though his anti-Zionist utterances offend the fabric of my Jewish identity deeper than any of the ugly religious insults currently shocking the media. He should be labeled for what he is: a racist.

Strategically, while accusations of anti-Semitism are worn out and have lost their punch, charging someone with racism makes people ask why anyone would deny people the right of self-determination in a sliver of land in the birthplace of their history. It shifts the frame of discourse from debating Israel’s policies to the root cause of the conflict — denying Israelis their basic rights as a nation.

Charges of “racism” highlight the inherent asymmetry between the Zionist and anti-Zionist positions. The former grants both Israelis and Palestinians the right for statehood, the latter denies that right to one, and only one side. This asymmetry is the most effective weapon our students should use in campus debates, for it puts them back on the high moral grounds of “fair and balanced” and forces their opponents to defend an ideology of one-sidedness.

For example, I have found it effective, when confronting an anti-Zionist speaker, to ask: “Are you willing to go on record and state that the Israel-Palestine conflict is a conflict between two legitimate national movements?” Western audiences adore even-handedness and abhor bias. The question above forces the racist to unveil and defend his uneven treatment of the two sides.

America prides itself on academic freedom, and academic freedom entails freedom to teach hatred and racism — we graciously accept this fact of life. However, academic freedom also entails the freedom of students to expose racism, be it white-supremacy, women-inferiority, Islamophobia or Zionophobia wherever it is spotted. Not to censor, but to expose — racists stew in their own words.

In summary, I believe the formula “Anti-Zionism = Racism” should give Jewish students the courage to both defend their identity and expose those who abuse it.'

(Courtesy: Zionism and Israel on the Web (ZionismOnTheWeb.org) Hat tip: reader Shirlee)

Children Of Israel Are Never Alone (video)

This is pleasant; so nice to find a video that doesn't raise too many hackles ...

I'm still out of range of a computer for long periods, so this is just a quickie on my part.

Par For The Leftist Course: Welsh Nationalists Elect A Pro-Palestinian Firebrand As Party Leader

Listen Wales.
Here was a people whom even you could afford to despise,
Growing nothing, making nothing, 

Belonging nowhere, a people 

Whose sweat glands had atrophied, 

Who lived by their wits.

Who lived by playing the violin. 

A lot better incidentally 

Than you ever played the harp. 

And because they were such people 

They went like lambs to the slaughter.

But some survived - yes,listen closer now,

And these are a different people,

They have switched off Mendelssohn

And tuned into Maccabaeus.

The mountains are red with their blood,

The deserts are green with their seed.

Listen, Wales!

So wrote the well-known Welsh poet Harri Webb (1920-94).

But Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Nationalist Party, is hardly distinguished for sympathy for Jews and Israel.

Take, for example, the attitude of Jill Evans MEP, who chaired the party from 1994-96, and is vice-president of the Green/European Free Alliance (EFA), and deputises on the parliamentary delegation for relations with the Palestine Legislative Council.

Her espousal of the Palestinian cause will be apparent from a glance here

In 2002, for example, she told a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in Cardiff:

"This demonstration is about justice: justice for Palestinian people. Their right to self-determination and to a Palestinian state. And justice for all those innocent people in the occupied territories who are killed and injured daily by brutal military oppression and aggression.

....There have been deliberate attacks on paramedics, emergency medical staff and patients in ambulances - in clear breach of the Geneva Conventions. Human Rights Watch has documented many breaches of international humanitarian law. There is such profound shock at the cruelty that Chris Patten, former Tory MP and current European Commissioner for External Relations [now Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, folks!], this week said that the Israeli policy of blockade & destruction was designed not to destroy terrorism but to destroy the Palestinian Authority....

We can't imagine the desperation of young men and women who turn themselves into human bombs because they see no other way of defending their families and communities....

Israel must withdraw immediately from the Palestinian territories as UN resolutions and many, many countries have called on them to do. Today, we in Wales call for this as well. They must be brought back to the negotiating table and work out a just and peaceful agreement and abide by it. I will continue to campaign for that as Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales in the European Parliament, as we will in CND Cymru as part of an ever growing international network of movements working for peace, justice and human rights."

In 2006 she told a so-called Peace Vigil for the Middle East in Cardiff:

"In March this year I visited Lebanon with a delegation from CYTUN (the Christian churches in Wales).... 

The only hotel spaces taken up in Beirut now are by Lebanese families fleeing the Israeli onslaught in the south and foreigners awaiting evacuation.

The reaction of the international community has been shameful. Even Israel has been surprised by the lack of condemnation of their actions..... Deaths in Gaza continue, nearly unnoticed with four killed by an Israeli tank shell just this morning....

The Israeli actions have not just been 'disproportionate' or 'excessive'. They are getting away with murder. They are targeting innocent civilians and using the actions of a few in Hizbullah and Hamas as an excuse to punish the whole populations of Lebanon and Gaza. These are crimes against humanity. And the world is standing by."

Earlier this month, Leanne Wood, who once served as Jill Evans's political researcher, was elected Leader of Plaid Cymru.  She's a radical firebrand who wants Wales to become a socialist republic, and in 2004 was expelled from the Commons chamber for referring to the Queen as Mrs. Windsor and refusing to withdraw the discourteous remark:

"I don't recognise the Queen.

It is consistent with the position that I have held for a very long time. Last time I boycotted her visit.

I don't think I was treated fairly, I don't think it was necessary.

I called her that because that's her name."

Her far leftist credentials include membership of feminist and anti-war groups and, inevitably, of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Elin Jones, a member of the Welsh Assembly whom she defeated in the leadership election, is also a supporter of the Palestinian cause.  It is par for the course in leftist circles in Wales.  And that goes for the Liberal Democrats too.

I've written about Wales before, in such posts as this.

Unfortunately, despite  a lingering streak of philosemitism of the kind evinced by Manchester-born Welshman David Lloyd George (pictured with Leopold Amery, framer of the Balfour Declaration) who famously said that he knew the names of the kings of Israel before he knew the names of the kings of his own country, and whose pro-Zionism was strengthened through his close friendship with his Welsh solicitor, Morris Wartski, there is a rampant anti-Zionist streak in Welsh political circles of the left, a rampant anti-Zionist streak to which the Anglican Church in Wales, as represented by its spiritual leader, Archbishop Dr Barry Morgan, is emphatically not immune.

Hamas Hasn't Changed Its Spots, Only Camouflaged Them

In a hot-off-the-press scathing denunciation of Ehud Olmert's intention to be the keynote speaker at J Street's Gala Dinner later this month, that prophet for our time, Isi Leibler, reminds us of J Street's  shameful and unconscionable record:

'....in the midst of the Gaza conflict - orchestrated by Olmert – when all sections of the Israeli political spectrum,including the far leftwing Meretz,were united in support of the war, J Street refused to back Israel. Applying moral equivalence to Israel and Hamas it claimed “that there are many who recognize elements of truth on both sides of this gaping divide” and reproached Israel for launching “a disproportionate response”.  J Street stated that “we recognize that neither Israelis nor Palestinians have monopoly of right and wrong” and accused the Israelis of “lacking sanity and moderation” in their attitude towards Hamas.

Only last week as hundreds of missiles were being launched against Israeli civilians, J Street, again applying moral equivalence, expressed “concern” on attacks on Israel and IDF “airstrikes on Gaza that killed over a dozen Palestinian civilians”. They were subsequently obliged to retract and apologize as all but two of those killed were terrorists.

For Olmert to be so desperate as to appear before such a discredited body which had even maligned him, reflects his pathetic desperation for a platform in order to fabricate a contrived historical legacy. One would feel sorry for him were it not for the anti-Israeli propaganda that, as a former prime minister, he provides to our adversaries.'

Forget J Street's dangerous attitude regarding Hamas.  Forget Al Beeb's blinkered foolishness.

 Here's a man who knows a thing or two: Dr Mordechai Kedar, an Arabic specialist at Bar-Ilan University who for 25 years served with IDF Military Intelligence.  (He became something of a cult figure with a memorable, belligerent appearance on Al-Jazeera concerning Jerusalem; the clip is shown in the video below, in which Dr Kedar amplifies his views.)

Now, in a most incisive article, he explains how, appearances to the contrary, Hamas is as dedicated to Israel's ultimate destruction as ever it was:

'Ever since the Hamas movement took control of Gaza trip in 2007, it has transformed itself from a gang of jihadists into a ruling organization which has a state, government, advisory council, legal system, police, military and economic bodies. Thus, Hamas has turned into a standard Arab state, which is attempting to impose its agenda upon the tribes and the clans that live in the Strip. The State of Hamas serves the interests of the group that leads it, and therefore it is in constant conflict with the tribes and the clans and must reach agreements with them.

The minor movements – Islamic Jihad, the PRC (Popular Resistance Committees), the Salah-a-Din Division, the Army of the Nation, the Army of Islam and others – function like tribes, challenging the authority of the state, which is in the hands of Hamas. Today, these groups are doing to Hamas what Hamas did to the PLO twenty years ago when the PLO was in power. The widespread corruption among the top echelons of Hamas strengthen the influence of the small organizations that oppose Hamas. What encourages these organizations is the fact that Hamas has “hung up the gloves” and is trying to reach a calm with Israel. Hamas has not become a Zionist organization, and has not changed its covenant or its sole goal: to eliminate Israel and bring an end to the “occupation” of Jaffa and Acre, not only Hebron and Nablus. However, in the present historic phase it is suspending its battle against Israel in order to establish a state which, when the time comes, will be the basis from which the war of the destruction of Israel will be waged. The small organizations do not accept this suspension of jihad and call Hamas derogatory names such as “The Israeli Border Guard” and the “South Lebanese Army”.

From a practical point of view, Hamas is capable of eliminating the organizations, just as it dealt with the Army of Islam, of the Dughmush clan in August of 2008, and as it eliminated Sheikh Abd Al-Latif Moussa’s Islamic Emirate of Jerusalem in cold blood in August of 2009 in a mosque in Rafah, murdering him, his wives and children and 24 followers. As of today, in the year 2012, Hamas refrains from imposing itself on the small organizations by force of arms so that it will not become the “Israeli Border Guard”in the eyes of Gazans, and prefers to come to an agreement with them; to compromise with them and to calm them down.'

Read the entire article here

"We Can't Be Neville Chamberlain": Congressman Allen West On Iran's Threat To Israel (video)

Here's Lieutenant-Colonel West (Republican, Florida) talking his usual good sense regarding the Middle East.  His main thrust is Iran, but in response to a question he also touches on Syria (incidentally, Al Beeb has a big new feature on the nuclear issue here ):

'Why Are Jews Confusing "Islamophobia" With Antisemitism?'

Last week, as mentioned in my last post but one, saw the shameful and ill-advised decision of the Leeds University Students' Society in Britain to cancel a scheduled talk by Brooke Goldstein on the grounds that she once have legal advice to Geert Wilders, while across the Herring Pond in NYC well over 200 enthusiastic Jews on the Upper West Side attended a panel discussion chaired by Chelsea Clinton on the topic "Combating Islamophobia".

Professor Phyllis Chesler and Fern Sidman write as follows regarding the latter event, which was picketed by about 30 protesters:

'As Islamist terrorists are being arrested in Baku for a plot to attack both the American and Israeli Embassies; as Muslims torture, murder, and exile Christians from their native Arab lands; as Hamas constantly bombards Israeli civilians with rockets launched from Gaza; even as Iran is threatening to send many "caravans of tens of thousands" of hostile Iranians to march on Jerusalem—guess what subject drew 225 eager audience members and the media to an upper west side Jewish Community Center?

The subject du jour was:“Combating Islamophobia,” which featured panelists Rabbi Marc Schneier and Imam Shamsi Ali. The moderator: None other than former First Daughter, Chelsea Clinton.

Why are Jews confusing "Islamophobia" with anti-Semitism? One understands why Muslims who are used to feeling superior to all other religions, would want to assume whatever remains of Jewish victimhood and make it their own in order to gain sympathy for real and imaginary slights and for terrorist aggression—but why are Jews enabling them to do so?

In 2008, the FBI found that 66.1% of religious hate crimes in America targeted Jews, but only 7.5% of religious hate crimes targeted Muslims. Another 2011 study shows that religious bias crimes against Muslim Americans have remained relatively low, with a downward trend since 2001, and are significantly less than the numbers of bias crimes against Jewish victims.

Nevertheless, Islamists claim that Muslims are suffering far more than Jews in America.

Are Rabbi Schneier and his partner,Imam Shamsi Ali, the leaders we need?'

Read all of this important article here

The Material Girl's "Spiritual Decision" (video)

Madonna has announced that her World Tour will commence in Israel (Tev Aviv) on 29 May.

I guess her devotion to Israel, via her interest in Kabbala, is too intense for the BDS fanatics to try to cajole her into changing her mind, as they usually do when a show biz figure announces - shock, horror! - that they intend to perform in the Jewish State.

Concert organiser Shuki Weiss observes that the so-called Cultural Boycott of Israel (which he of course opposes) is pointless, for a very good reason:

"If there's a political involvement from the artist's side, this is the only country in this region where you can say and express your message because it's a complete democracy, and you're very welcome to do so."

Whom The Gods Would Destroy: UK Jewish Students Cancel Appearance By Pro-Israel Activist

Remember my blog post here? Well, a new chapter in the "Sad Old State of Cloud Cuckoo Land" is unfolding thanks to a bunch of jelly babies on campus.

Attorney Brooke Goldstein, director of the New York-based Lawfare Project, which specialises in challenging lawsuits mounted in the West by Arab dictatorships and Islamic extremists, has been touring Britain with a comparable organisation, UK Lawyers for Israel.  She has addressed attendees at a reception at the House of Commons hosted by the Henry Jackson Society, as well as students at two London University campuses.

However, the Jewish Chronicle reports that Leeds University Jewish Society has cancelled, with just a couple of days' notice, her appearance there, apparently on the grounds that she gave legal advice to Geert Wilders when he faced trial for "Islamophobia".

Ms Goldstein is quoted as saying, inter alia, that the Leeds students are

"trying to prevent me from speaking about how we defend their rights, as someone who advocates on their behalf. I think it's disgraceful, it's Orwellian...."

London barrister Jonathan Turner, who heads UK Lawyers for Israel,  is reported as observing that it is

"absurd to deny a platform to a speaker on the grounds that she has supported freedom of speech for Wilders and others, especially when she was not even intending to talk about Wilders. On the same basis, one would deny a platform to Alan Dershowitz, who has supported freedom of speech for the Ku Klux Klan."

And that stalwart Zionist leader Jonathan Hoffman, who needs no introduction to regular readers of my blog, comments with customary vigour:

"Just as Benny Morris was cancelled by Cambridge Israel Society in Feb 2010, we witness spineless Jewish students crumbling in the face of false charges of Islamophobia. Meanwhile, in the Alice In Wonderland topsy-turvy world of British academia, Palestinian societies are free to host the most outrageous antisemitic extremists. Thus Brooke Goldstein gets labelled as an extremist while Ken O'Keefe is given legitimacy."

Well said, sir!

How very very sad, how very very disturbing, that Anglo-Jewry's Trembling Israelites are raising another generation of the lily-livered.

How does that old saying go? Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius ("Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad") ...

"Nice Middle Class White Women Are So Sought After To Head Palestinian Solidarity Initiatives": An Anti-Israel Activist Explains Why

One of the characteristics of the Israel-demonising movement in the West is the disproportionately large and prominent role of middle-class Western women, including militant feminists, not merely in its ranks but at its helm.  I made my first foray into this topic with this post

Many supporters of Israel are amazed and perplexed by the hatred such women have for a country that, in stark contrast to misogynistic Islamist movements including Hamas, guarantees women's rights and which was, indeed, the first state in the Middle East to enfranchise Arab women.

I guess many would not hesitate to use the phrase "useful idiots" to describe these distaff opponents of Israel.

Just how useful these dames and damsels are to Israel's rabid enemies is indirectly confirmed in an article by Laura Stuart, "a British revert to Islam" and an alumna of the Mavi Marmara and of first Viva Palestina  convoy to Gaza writing in an extremist Israel-hating online journal (host to such types as Gilad Atzmon, Alan Hart, and Stuart Littlewood).

She writes, inter alia:

'There may have been a time in years gone by when Muslim activists found it beneficial to suppress their Islamic identity. Solidarity movements needed white people to give them a broad appeal. A group of Muslims who identify as Muslims were easily portrayed by Zionists as a bunch of jihadis....

.... [N]ice middle-class white women are so sought after to head Palestine solidarity initiatives.

 ... Palestinians residing in exile in the U.K. find no place within these so-called Palestinian solidarity movements. Palestinians will find that without compromising either their Islam or the legitimate anger they feel towards those who oppressed and displaced them, they cannot operate in pro Palestine movements. Because of the over-zealous political correctness found wherever so-called anti zionist Jews are running things, Palestinians will be excluded from belonging to the very campaigns that claim to represent their interests.  I myself have been asked many times to tone down my Islamic identity when speaking on camera and even for using verses of the Quran in my writings ...."

And she continues:

'The Palestine Campaign in the west is totally controlled by “gatekeepers” – people of the left who maintain a very strict version of political correctness to the point of rendering themselves totally ineffective....

Do I want to bring down the state of Israel? For sure I do. Jews, Muslims and Christians will live peacefully side by side again once this criminal genocidal entity is brought down...

In my years as an activist I have made a personal observation that the more “manly” activists in the movement come in for the most attacks. The political left have a strong aversion to “alpha males” in fact I would go as far as to say the politcal [sic] left is almost a “testosterone free zone”....

Islam and its followers are the only real threat to Israel....'

 Read the whole article here  (Hat tip: Michelle)

"Palestine Is Occupied By European Colonialists": Galloway on "Criminals" and "Victims" (video)

I've only just come cross this long, fiery, and bitter anti-Zionist speech by George Galloway at the University of Indonesia on 27 January.  Yikes!

The Victims Of Gaza (video)

Here's a video relating to the current attacks by Gazan terrorists on civilians in southern Israel.  It includes statements by media spokespersons Mark Regev (from the Prime Minister's Office), and Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich of the IDF:

From that remarkable blogger, Challah Hu Akbar, I learned earlier that at least a score of the individuals killed by the Israeli counter-strikes were terrorists: six from the Popular Resistance Committees (AhmedHanani, Zuhiral-Qaisi, MahdiAbu Shawish, Mansour Kamal Abu Nuseira, Hussein Barham Al-Breim, AhmadDeeb Salem) and fourteen from Islamic Jihad (FayiqSaad, MuatasimHajjaj, AhmadHajjaj, ShadiSayqali, UbeidGharabli,  MuhammadMaghari, HazimQureiqi, Muhammadal-Ghamry, MuhammadHararah, MahmoudNajim, RaafatAbu Eid, HamadahSalman Abu Mutlaq, MuhammadThaher, Bassamal-Ajla).  Other victims were four civilians (AyoubUseila, Adelal-Issi, MohammadHassoni, FayzaHassoni; Adel al-Issi may have been used, as the Hassonis seem to have been, as human shields).
For the photos of those from Islamic Jihad see here