Hamas breaks truce and fires rocket from Gaza into Israel.
Surprise surprise! Hamas breaks truce and fires rocket from Gaza into Israel.
Tag: islam
Jihad or Criminality?
The question is worth asking, based on the described series of attacks. Too bad it is considered racist to ask it.
A new U.N. report states that Iran has moved one step closer to building its own nuclear weapon.
The day of reckoning looms: A new U.N. report states that Iran has moved another step closer to building its own nuclear weapon.
Building a real Peace Forest in Israel
One of the plaques inside the Peace Forest
Just after the 1967 war, a strip of land in Jerusalem that had been part of no man’s land after the city was divided following the 1948 war was turned into a Peace Forest to symbolize “the hope for peace and serenity between all Jerusalem’s residents.” Located on a hillside that overlooks the city, the Jewish National Fund sponsored a campaign to have the site landscaped elegantly, with a promenade and a series of architectural observation points, each designed differently as if their architects were competing with each other for the most creative structure.
In 2003 my oldest nephew was married from the highest point on this hillside, just above the Peace Forest, with the entire city of Jerusalem as the backdrop. At the time there was a catering hall at this location, and it seemed to them to be a perfect place to tie the knot.
» Read more
Bigotry in Israel
It is often claimed by those who oppose Israel that it is an apartheid state that imprisons its Arab population, both in Israel itself as well as in the West Bank and Gaza.
Like much that is said about Israel, however, this claim has little to do with reality, and in fact, as I said yesterday, turns reality on its head.
Inside Israel, Arabs have the option (though some have decided not to take it) of becoming full citizens. Thus, not only are Israeli Arabs among the most prosperous Arabs in the Middle East, they have more rights under the Israeli democratic government than most Arabs in every other Arab country. They can vote, and have even served as elected members of Parliament.
Compare that with the way Arabs treat their religious minorities. Jews are of course forbidden. Christians meanwhile are fleeing the Islamic Middle East because of its persecution of non-Muslims.
» Read more
The HOAs of Israel
What is a West Bank settlement? If you read the press, it is a place where Israeli Jews have moved in and stolen the land of Arabs in order to occupy their land unfairly. It is a place where Arabs are forbidden, where apartheid has been established against the indigenous population.
Not only are these statements false, they actually turn reality on its head.
In my two visits to Israel I have stayed or visited four different West Bank settlements, and in each place my first impression was that I was visiting a typical American gated community, a suburban community run by a home-owner-association (HOA). You enter by driving through a gate where an attendant waves at you as you go by. He doesn’t stop you, because he either knows you or he has profiled you and sees no reason to ask you any questions. Once inside the roads wind about, passing individual homes or apartments. At the center of the community is a recreation center, often with a pool and library, where events are held and people go for entertainment.
The gated community of Alon Shvut, south of Jerusalem in the West Bank.
Hitchhiking and supermarkets in the occupied territory
In my visit to Israel this past week, I spent almost all my time in the West Bank. In all, I have now either stayed in or visited a total of four West Bank settlements. In addition, while there I also did some sightseeing in Jerusalem and elsewhere. From this short experience I have gleaned some very fascinating facts, many of which are very surprising, though they shouldn’t be as they are facts that in many cases are fundamental to understanding the long-running and seemingly unsolvable Middle East conflict.
In the next few days I will post a series of short essays describing my experience and thoughts, with this essay being the first.
First and foremost, the assumption everyone makes about the West Bank and Israel is that it is a very dangerous place, especially for Jews. This assumption is entirely false. It is so false it is downright laughable.
» Read more
Back from Israel
After a long flight beginning yesterday I am finally back in Tucson. I have a lot of clean up work to do, but I will be posting a series of short essays about what I saw and learned while visiting Israel, beginning either later tonight (if I can stay awake) or tomorrow.
I would have posted some of these essays during my visit, but my old laptop finally died on me early in the trip. Time to buy a new one.
Iran could have the bomb within six months
The day of reckoning looms: Iran could have the bomb within six months.
An image mismatch raises questions about Iran’s monkey in space
An image mismatch raises questions about Iran’s monkey in space.
Staying in the West Bank
This is my second visit to Israel and the second time I have stayed in a residence in the West Bank. Both times the experience has been quite different than what anyone who reads the modern press would expect. It is nothing like what you think.
Also, I have been delving into the background of both settlements, from this visit as well as my last visit back in 2003. Not surprisingly, the facts have little to do with what the press generally reports. And even when they do report honestly, they simply do not provide the important information that would provide some proper context. I myself have been astonished today with some of what I learned, as it was completely unexpected. For example, do you know that many of the land records for here in the West Bank are still kept in Istanbul, Turkey?
As I mentioned previously, however, it is difficult to post here in Israel. Though the internet service is fine, my laptop is beginning to show its age and to function too slowly for this work. Also, I want to include pictures, and I won’t be able to add them easily probably until I get home.
So stay tuned. It will be worthwhile reading.
Polio virus from Pakistan has been found in Egypt.
Bad news: Polio virus from Pakistan has been found in Egypt.
The importation of the virus into Egypt is another setback for the global program, which has finally been making significant progress in the past 2 years, with polio cornered in just three endemic countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. (India has now gone 2 years without a single case of polio.) Of the three, Pakistan was doing especially well in knocking out the virus, but the program there has recently been disrupted by the targeted assassination of nine polio workers in December and early January. Those killings, widely condemned, have stoked fears the virus will regain strength in Pakistan and then reinfect polio-free countries. “This is proof positive of long-distance importation from Pakistan, and there may be more,” Aylward says.
But don’t worry: the Muslim Brotherhood have us covered! “Experts are worried, Bari says, because Egypt has scaled back its national polio vaccinations campaigns from twice to once a year during the turmoil of the revolution.” [emphasis mine]
The most intolerant religion, persecuting all others.
The most intolerant religion, persecuting all others.
Another three polio workers were killed in Pakistan today.
Savages: Another three polio workers were killed in Pakistan today.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but many suspect the Taliban, which has opposed polio vaccination, calling it a plot to sterilize Muslim children and threatening polio workers. [emphasis mine]
This ain’t a clash of civilizations, it’s a battle between civilization and barbarism. And Islam is the land of barbarians.
An American pastor — a convert from Islam — has been imprisoned without notice of charges while visiting his family in Iran.
An American pastor — a convert from Islam — has been imprisoned without notice of charges while visiting his family in Iran.
It appears his only crime was making it possible for Iranian Christian converts from Islam to follow their religion.
In coordinated attacks, Taliban terrorists in Pakistan murdered one man and five women, whose only job was to administer polio vaccines.
Savages: In coordinated attacks, Taliban terrorists in Pakistan murdered one man and five women, whose only job was to administer polio vaccines.
Yesterday, a male polio worker was fatally shot, and today four women were killed within about 20 minutes of each other in three apparently coordinated attacks in poor Karachi neighborhoods, including Gadap, where the July shootings occurred. Another woman was killed in Peshawar. Taliban insurgents have repeatedly threatened campaign workers, but so far no one has claimed responsibility for the current or previous attacks. Pakistani officials and international groups supporting the polio campaign are still trying to piece together what happened, says Bruce Aylward, who heads the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
“The implications [of the attacks] run way beyond polio,” Aylward says, because targeting health workers will deprive Pakistani children from receiving other basic health services as well. Local leaders and community authorities have “got to assume responsibility and assure that the message gets out that this is not acceptable,” Aylward says.
We can’t have children get healthcare or avoid getting polio, can we? It might offend Allah.
William Butler Yeats – The Second Coming
An evening pause: In memory to the 20,000 or so violent attacks committed by Islamic radical since September 11, 2001, I think this poem by William Butler Yeats is appropriate. Written it 1920, it somehow sensed the the coming conflict.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
52 Nobel Peace Prize winners have called for the boycott of Israel for its recent attacks in Gaza.
Intellectual bankruptcy: 52 Nobel Peace Prize winners, artists, and activists have called for the boycott of Israel for its recent attacks in Gaza.
And where were these so-called intellectuals when Hamas was lobbing rockets into Israel? For them, I guess it is all right to kill Jews. And God forbid the Jews decide to defend themselves.
The maker of “Innocence of Muslims” has been sentenced to a year in prison for parole violation.
The new America: The maker of “Innocence of Muslims” has been sentenced to a year in prison for parole violation.
It might have been a crappy film and the filmmaker might have been a bum and a liar who did violate his parole. No matter. That is not really why he was arrested. In the new America he was arrested and sent to prison because he dared make a film that offended Muslims and that the Obama administration did not like.
In the new America don’t offend the government, or they will find a reason to jail you.
“We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”
Guess who said this: “We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”
And the speaker was not an Islamic radical.