HELP -- If You're In Los Angeles... UPDATE!!

Please help to find Nikki, an adorable beagle. Her daddy, Mark, was attacked by 3 or 4 hoods who maced him, botched the robbery attempt but took his beloved Nikki.

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UPDATE!!!!

I got this today from our mutual pal:

"Mark got a call yesterday that someone anonymously dropped Nikki off at a shelter...and no questions asked he picked her up and she is now home. Sunday, thinking he would never get her back, he adopted another beagle, this one a male, and now the two of them are in the back yard romping away. The new beagle and Nikki that is..."

Wingin' It East

So I'm leaving later today for the East coast where I'll be attending a leadership conference with some pretty high profile speakers (including Joe Lieberman). I'll do my best to take notes and report back fun stuff to you guys. In the meantime, forgive me if I don't make it to your blogs much over the next week (tho I'm going to try) -- but know you'll be in my thoughts.

Bad Things Brewing

There have been some ill winds blowing across the world. In Paris, a Jewish-owned pastry shop in a known Jewish neighborhood was bombed. In Ethiopia, Israeli ambassador Doron Grossman, was found shot in the head. He's in critical condition, and they aren't ruling out the possibility of suicide -- but I can't help thinking it smells fishy.

But perhaps the most troubling event occurred in Israel. The word "Hitler" was graffitied onto David Ben-Gurion's grave in Sde-Boker. Not only that, but on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem, spray painted on the grave of Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl was the phrase, "neo-Nazis, long live Beilin." Ill winds, people. Ill winds.

An Opposing Voice

Netanyahu blasts Gaza pullout by Etgar Lefkovits in the Jerusalem Post boosted my already healthy respect for for the finance minister and former prime minister. Check it out.

"Bush As Hitler" Hyperbole and Why It's Dangerous

Bravo to Victor Davis Hanson (and hat tip to my pal Jerry). If you're sick of celebrities bashing things they don't know about, comparisons of Bush to Hitler or anti-Americanism in general, you should check out his very astute analysis about deconstructing the Hitlerian slur. One of my favorite quotes:

Ignorance and arrogance are a lethal combination. Nowhere do we see that more clearly among writers and performers who pontificate as historians when they know nothing about history.

Even better, he nails Europe for their overwhelming hypocrisy. And that's just the beginning.

If Europe is awash in anti-Semitism, then one mechanism to either ignore or excuse it is to allege that the United States — the one country that is the most hospitable to Jews — is governed by a Hitler-like killer. Americans, who freed Europe from the Nazis, are supposed to recoil from such slander rather than cry shame on its promulgators, whose grandfathers either capitulated to the Nazis or collaborated — or were Nazis themselves.

You can't help but get a warm glow when reading something that so eloquently nails the thoughts that have been swirling in your head -- or at least in mine. So he takes on celebs, politicians, Europe. Who's left? Exactly. The radical Left. Don't worry -- he won't let you down.

...so many of the mass demonstrators, who bore placards of Bush’s portrait defaced with Hitler’s moustache, are overtly leftist and so often excuse extremist violence — whether in present-day Cuba or Zimbabwe — if it is decorated with the rhetoric of radical enforced equality.

***
But something has gone terribly wrong with a mainstream Left that tolerates a climate where the next logical slur easily devolves into Hitlerian invective. The problem is not just the usual excesses of pundits and celebrities (e.g., Jonathan Chait’s embarrassing rant in the New Republic on why “I hate George W. Bush” or Garrison Keillor’s infantile slurs about Bush’s Republicans: “brown shirts in pinstripes”), but also supposedly responsible officials of the opposition such as former Sen. John Glenn, who said of the Bush agenda: “It’s the old Hitler business.”

Thus, if former Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore breezily castigates Bush’s Internet supporters as “digital brownshirts”; if current Democratic-party chairman Howard Dean says publicly, “I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for" — or, “This is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good"; or if NAACP chairman Julian Bond screams of the Bush administration that “Their idea of equal rights is the American flag and the Confederate swastika flying side by side,” the bar of public dissent has so fallen that it is easy to descend a tad closer to the bottom to compare a horrific killer to an American president.

Is there a danger to all this? Plenty. The slander not only brings a president down to the level of an evil murderer, but — as worried Jewish leaders have pointed out — elevates the architect of genocide to the level of an American president. Do the ghosts of six million that were incinerated — or, for that matter, the tens of millions who were killed to promote or stop Hitler’s madness — count for so little that they can be so promiscuously induced when one wishes to object to stopping the filibuster of senatorial nominations or to ignore the objection of Europeans in removing the fascistic Saddam Hussein?

Exactly. So many people don't realize that by giving in to their hysteria about Bush and using such hyperbole, they are actually diminishing the atrocity that was the Holocaust. Don't we have enough people/terrorist-loving regimes doing this already -- must we help them?

It Just Doesn't Jive

The latest article by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post tackles how Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan jives with the Bush Doctrine. Or rather -- how it doesn't.

Bush says that the West needs to stop excusing Arab dictators, hoping to purchase stability at the price of liberty. But what is Sharon's disengagement plan if not this? Retreating and getting nothing in return will never be appreciated by the Arabs. It will achieve quite the opposite, as evidenced by an interview with Hamas spokesman Ahmed al-Bahar in MK Azmi Bishara's Web site, www.Arabs1948.com.

"All indications show that since its establishment, Israel has never been in such a state of retreat and weakness as it is today, following more than four years of the intifada," he continued. "Hamas's heroic attacks exposed the weakness and volatility of the impotent Zionist security establishment. The withdrawal marks the end of the Zionist dream and is a sign of the moral and psychological decline of the Jewish state. We believe that the resistance is the only way to pressure the Jews."

I think most of us who follow the situation in the Middle East knew this was how Hamas was going to spin it.

It took a while for the significance of Sharon's plan to become clarified for Israelis. As recently as last month, many voices on the Left were still questioning whether Sharon had something up his sleeve that they didn't know about. Yet as time passed, and Sharon became increasingly shrill in his defense of his policies – while demonizing and firing anyone who voiced opposition to or doubt about the wisdom of his plans – its significance sunk in for everyone.

Given the total disconnect between the Bush Doctrine, which places the onus for change on the Arabs by calling for their democratization and eschewal of terrorism, and the Sharon plan, which makes no demands whatsoever on the Palestinians...

So why in the world is Bush supporting this plan (or worse, propelling it)? There is a theory, and it's espoused by Norman Podoretz, an intellectual whom Glick admires greatly:

...if the Palestinians continue to attack Israel after the IDF evacuates the Jewish communities and withdraws from the areas, Israel will be free to take any action it deems necessary to secure itself. He claims that because of Bush's commitment to the Bush Doctrine, the Arab world will now be forced to enact reforms that will transform the Palestinians' operating environment in a manner that will force them to give up terror.

While Glick is fine with debating the merits of this stance, what she finds even more interesting is what he's left out -- explaining exactly what Israel gains from this maneuver. And the reason is because Israel gains nothing.

The fact that the current policy of expulsion and retreat is being enacted by Sharon – the great general and right-wing tactician – is a source of confusion for many who are looking for a catch that will explain and justify his adoption of a radical, left-wing plan. Hopefully, once the supporters of Israel – who, like Podhoretz, were brave enough to ignore the conformist pressures and oppose Oslo – come to accept the fact that Sharon's policy involves many risks but provides no opportunities, they will not hesitate to disavow it. And again, hopefully, at that point they will demand that the US policy toward the Palestinians be brought into line with the Bush Doctrine.

I keep hoping for an 11th hour rabbit-out-of-the-hat trick by Sharon, but I don't see how it can happen.

Special Guest Appearance

Hey All.... My friend a. renee from BlackBerrySpeak Urban News Magazine wanted to do a guest blog entry on here and since you all know how crazed I am for time these days, I said, "Hell ya!" So here's what's on her mind:

Looking for Bobby Fisher. I believe in free speech. But your right to speak doesn't preclude my right to respond. Bobby Fisher is a chess master. If you're lucky enough to be of the age to remember his matches against Spassky and Karpov of Russia, you must recall that the tension was as palpable as any March Madness game. This country was revited.

As of today, after nine months of detainment in Japan for trying to leave the country with an expired American passport, Fisher is a citizen of Iceland. At his Iceland press conference, Fisher had a lot to say. Mostly anti-Semitic. Mostly to Jewish ESPN reporter Jeremy Schapp, whose father Dick Schapp, after spending time with Fisher, said of the prodigy, 'There isn't a sane bone in his body.' Jeremy's response to Fisher's rantings and denouncement of his father: 'I don't believe we've seen anything today to not support my father's pronouncement.' Good for you, Jeremy.

Targets of racial and ethnic discrimination don't always know how to respond. When the action is public, so much more thought goes into how to respond. Too often we suck it up because we're tired of this shit or we just don't want to bring any more notice to ourselves. And the only way I know, as an African-American, to gauge when I've given the appropriate response is assessing in a calm moment 'do I feel good about myself?' Jeremy Schapp, I feel good knowing you were at that press conference. You proved diversity in 'Big Brother' is a need, not a want. I haven't found an audio of the press conference online, but I'm sure Sportscenter will continue to show highlights through the weekend. Even with March Madness, Fisher's madness was shown in the top half of the hour.

Innocence Lost

It was thirty years ago today that where I grew up -- my neighborhood, my town, my county in suburban Maryland -- had its innocence taken. Prior to then, kids used to run around wherever they wanted -- roaming freely around malls, creeks and various parks. But on March 25, 1975, all of that changed. That is the day when Sheila and Katherine Lyon, were snatched during their walk home from the local mall, Wheaton Plaza. They were only 12 and 10 years old. It sent shockwaves through the school district, as we were all told to never go to the mall by ourselves again.

I can walk up to almost anyone today from my county who is my age... up to probably 20 years older and ask if they remember the Lyon sisters and invariably their eyes will go wide as they exclaim how the girls' abduction changed their lives.

My heart goes out to their family and friends. Please know that these two girls have not been forgotten.

Do You Have IBS? You Might Not...

For over a decade, I have suffered from something that many people can identify with -- IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) -- but I believe what many are starting to say about it -- I was misdiagnosed.

The disorder involves the digestive system. I'd be talking to someone one second and then feeling like an ice pick had been thrust into my stomach the next. NOT FUN. Things progressed and my GI doctor ran test after horrible test. The upshot?

She had me on a cazillion pills but her tests proved nothing. Annoyed and let down by western medicine, I turned to a holistic chiropractor (that's a funny story, but I digress). He almost instantly made a different diagnosis: I, like many Americans, was dehydrated. Did you know that you're supposed to drink half your body weight in ounces every day? I hated drinking any liquid, so I barely drank anything. He said depriving my body of the much-needed liquid pretty much had shut down my digestive system. So I have been drinking almost 60 ounces of water a day ever since.

Do I feel better? Like you wouldn't believe. Try it folks. It's an easy, affordable fix.

Another Cancer Factoid You Might Not Know

Many people have heard that if a woman has a child, it lowers her risk for certain cancers. What you may not know, that I recently learned at the UCLA Breast Cancer Center (that my regular OB/GYN never told me), is that if a woman waits until her late 30s to have her first child, it can actually increase her risk for breast cancer. You see, if there are pre-cancerous cells already there, the production of milk will speed up the process of those cells turning cancerous. You may want to pass on the word to any female friends/loved ones who may be at risk.

Excellent Reading

Gerald A. Honigman wrote a great piece a week or so ago about the war of words, spurred by his reading of an old Time article about "The Settlers--Meet The New Extremists" from 2004. He points out the folly of such a position, especially without questioning the true extremists who kill Jews at every opportunity.

He also voices a growing concern we're all starting to have -- is Bush reneging on his promises to Israel now that he doesn't have to worry about running again -- as he pushes for the obviously oh-so-needed 22nd Arab state, at the expense of the USA's one true ally, Israel. It's a great article and if you missed it, you should check it out.

"You simply have to accept the fact that we are all corrupt."

Who said this? It was charm personified, Abu Mazen, to a senior UN official in 1996 about the state of affairs. Caroline Glick has a great column in the Jerusalem Post where she brings much of the corruption in the PA to light. She talks about how so many PA officials (seems like at least a hundred or so) get new cars, chauffeurs as well as disbursements for gas and insurance, etc. And this was just one tiny example of their corruption. She brings this up in an effort to thank Tom Delay for forcing a discussion about something everyone has avoided until now:

Does the Palestinian Authority need financial assistance?

If it got to the 80% of Gazans who live below Third World poverty levels, perhaps, but we all know it doesn't. Glick makes it clear that the corruption is widespread. Of course we knew it was more than just Arafat and his accountant. But why do we need to continue to fund it? Especially since we know where that money will go.

Even today Fatah terrorists are paid salaries from the PA. Abbas now wants to extend the terrorist support program by putting Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists on the PA payroll as part of his much-vaunted "reform" program.

Given the PA's endemic corruption – from petty theft to grand larceny – and the fact that much of the stolen monies have gone to financing terrorism, both the Palestinian people and the Israeli people owe a debt of gratitude to DeLay for his efforts over the past several weeks which prevented the transfer of $200 million in direct American government payments to the PA.

Granted I don't agree with much that Tom DeLay has to say, I do appreciate his going against the peace-drunk folks who feel they need to let Mazen have some control over the money to "prop him up" -- to empower him. We all know what he's really about.

How Do You Guys Do It?

I had to go into an office today for the first time since I started blogging. Acccckkkkkkkkk!

How do you all do it??! I went to gindy's first, which I do pretty much every day and blogger never let me leave a message. Eventually I gave up and actually did some work. But how do you all blog your own stuff, read others AND hold down a real job? Where do you find the time? I think I need help budgeting my day.

When Kosher Pigs Fly

Apparently, Abu Mazen has lost his mind. Not that I'm surprised, mind you.

Exclusive from DEBKAfile’s Palestinian and Middle East sources: Abbas sends draft resolution to Algiers Arab summit opening Monday demanding Israel withdraw to 1949 Armistice Lines and accept armistice regime.

DEBKAfile: Palestinian leader wants Israel to cede all pre-1967 land – plus E. Jerusalem, Latrun, Sea of Galilee shore, southern Arava to Palestinian state - and then accept armistice instead of peace.

I love how he feels he's in a position to make such ridiculous demands. Then again, maybe he does have a reason to think he can.

Sharon’s difficulty in rejecting this proposal out of hand is that Abbas is using Bush’s statement after his April 14, 2004 summit with Sharon as reference: US president then cited 1949 armistice lines for Israeli withdrawal and Sharon did not query citation.

This whole disengagement with the hope that peace will follow is looking more suicidal by the day. I realize that there have to be negotiations -- that Israelis can't live without hope that one day there will be peace. Yet with every subsequent news article released, we are learning more and more about the duplicity of the Palestinians. They don't want peace with Israel. They view it as a hudna until their weapon reserves are back up to speed for war. They want their fellow terrorists all released from jail (considering how they're supposed to show they can control their population, you'd think they'd like them to stay where they are). They want to move the terror masterminds from Damascus to Gaza once the area becomes Juderein (free of Jews). My own government frightens me with talk of the Palestinians needing a contiguous state. Why? To defend themselves from Israelis? Who do we think is more of the aggressor here? Who needs a contiguous state more? Israel! What in the world has Arafat 2.0 done to hold up his end of the Roadmap? I cannot begin to understand why, when nothing has been done to disarm the terrorists, that control of towns has been handed over, that terrorists have been released from prison and unrealistic demands from the PA are made daily, that anyone is even bothering with his mockery of a peace process?

Can the Palestinians make it any more obvious that they don't want a state next to Israel but rather in place of Israel? This whole thing infuriates me beyond reason -- and I don't even live in Israel! How people like Caroline Glick and Naomi Ragen (whose most recent article shows her depression over the situation) can even get up in the morning is an amazing testament to the durability of the Israeli spirit.

It Doesn't Get Better Than This

Rainy out. Saturday night with my boyfriend. Ben & Jerry's by my side (a back-by-demand flavor, Dublin Mudslide). And The Ten Commandments are on TV.

A little slice of heaven for me. What's your version?

What the Israeli Left Doesn't Want You to Know

The Jerusalem Post's Caroline Glick has written Column One: Sharon's terror masters in which she discusses the implications of two revealing comments made by the PA's Abu Mazen. The entire article is must reading but I will do my best to summarize the high points for you.

...on Tuesday, Abbas said that upon receiving security control of Jericho, he would release from custody all of the Palestinian terrorists who have been incarcerated there since May 2002.

Those terrorists, who were transferred to Jericho from Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters as part of a British and US deal with Israel, include the assassins of tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi in October 2001 and Fuad Shubaki, the PA's chief arms purchaser who oversaw the Karine A terror weapons ship purchase from Iran that was intercepted by Israeli commandos on the Red Sea in January 2002.

Meanwhile, journalists have reported that rather than imprisoned, these people have relative freedom in the compound and are essentially being sheltered from Israeli forces.

On Wednesday, Mazen told the terror masters from Damascus that after the Israelis are out and power has been transferred, they'd be welcomed to move their headquarters to the Gaza Strip. So after all the Jews are expelled from their homes, Mazen will transform the area into a base for global terror. Glick makes an interesting point in respect to this:

This offer can be viewed as particularly credible given that it was made in the presence of Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Mualem, whose government is now facing increasing international condemnation for enabling these global terrorists to operate in its capital.

Surprisingly, at least to Glick, Israel's government didn't lay down over this one.

Government members and spokesmen took to the microphones immediately after Abbas's statement was published and said that if he dared to free Ze'evi's killers, Israel would contemplate ending the peace process and hunt them down.

Well, that's something! But Glick was surprised by their reaction, given that Sharon and the others gave credence to the demand that all Palestinian terrorists be released from its jails. In fact, Glick feels that every single demand made by the PA chieftain has been met with understanding by Sharon.

Israel has accepted Abbas's demand that it stop trying to catch terror fugitives. Israel has accepted his demand that it allow the Palestinian mass murderers who violently took over the Church of the Nativity in April 2002 to return to Bethlehem from their European exile and receive amnesty for their crimes.

The government has made no protest against Abbas's order to execute 15 Palestinians who are accused of having helped our security forces fight Palestinian terrorists. And Israel has made no protest over the fact that according to IDF sources, wanted Palestinian terrorists are being sheltered in Abbas's offices in Ramallah.

The reason Glick thinks the government is showing signs of outrage is because of public opinion. She discusses predictions made by a couple of Major Generals that Gaza would turn into a new Afghanistan.

Sharon has ignored all such warnings, has fired cabinet ministers and cut short the service of security officials who have doubted the wisdom of his withdrawal policies and has plowed ahead, demonizing and criminalizing his detractors.

So what do we expect Sharon to do now that Abbas has announced his intention to prove all Sharon's naysayers correct? The only thing he can do, if he wishes to continue to force through his plan, is to keep his head down and hope that no one notices what is happening. In this bid he is being ably assisted – to the point of ostensible collusion – by the Israeli media.

Sound familiar? Apparently, almost no media is reporting about this development. But for me, the disturbing part of this is what's going on in the United States.

According to a report this week in The Forward newspaper, Americans for Peace Now, like the Israel Policy Forum, two of the most left wing groups on the American Jewish political and organizational spectrum, are now actively colluding with the Israeli Embassy in Washington and consulates throughout the US to combat opposition to Sharon's policies among American Jews and American Christian supporters of Israel.

On Monday, Ambassador Danny Ayalon participated in a forum on Capitol Hill sponsored by American Friends of Peace Now together with the PLO representative to Washington and the Jordanian and Egyptian ambassadors.

***
In an interview with The Forward, Arye Mekel, the consul-general in New York, said that neutralizing opponents to Sharon's withdrawal policy is "the No. 1 priority on the agenda of the consulates at the moment, and it's the task that is keeping me the busiest."

How about the number one thing being supporting Israel in general? Do we really want to make this the cause out there? Because as they waste their time doing this, the terrorists are getting busy.

Reportedly on Thursday, Islamic Jihad and Hamas accepted the idea of a "thahadiya" or a temporary cessation of attacks for a defined time period. In jihad rhetoric, the purpose of a "thahadiya" is to regroup to enable the forces of jihad to fight their infidel enemy more successfully in the next round.

Glick asks the tough questions about the Cairo conference. I'm sure that the Israeli government hates when she makes such sense but you can't help but see the logic in her discourse.

One of the most absurd aspects of the Cairo discussions as a whole is that in all its concessions to the Palestinians since Abbas replaced Yasser Arafat last November, Israel has justified its moves to the public and to the Americans as payback to Abbas for his achievement of a cease-fire with the terrorists.

And yet, if he already has a cease-fire agreement, why is he negotiating one now? And again, if he is a peaceable man, why is he employing the language of jihad together with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad?

And further, why is Egypt being praised by Israel and the US for hosting this terror parley, whose clear aim is to legitimize terror and whose direct result is Abbas's offer to turn Gaza – where Egypt has supposedly agreed to block terrorists from entering after Israel withdraws – into an epicenter of global terrorism?

She asserts that the answers to these questions lie in internal Israeli politics. Sharon has made his bed, like Rabin and Barak before him, by relying on the whims of terrorists. If Sharon unmasked the man behind the curtain for who he really is, he'd be admitting that his detractors were right all along. Since he isn't doing that, Glick is calling for new elections so as to prevent a "new base for global terror on the outskirts of Ashkelon" -- and it's hard to blame her.

I pretty much gave you the entire article; it was too hard to leave anything out. I feel her pain. While I'm not sure I agree on new elections, I do wish that Sharon would cut his losses and return to being the leader Israel thought they'd elected.

Public School Teachers Are SCREWED

OK, in case you're having a hard time guessing, I'm angry. Oldest Sister (not to be confused with Big Sister) has always been the over achiever of us girls. She's brilliant. She has her MBA and worked on Wall Street for about a decade. She found something she loved even more than the market though -- her tutoring kids after work. Soon she went back to school to take education classes so she could teach full time -- and she did it! So she gave up the lucrative world of business to enter a field that is having a hard time luring talented people -- the public school teaching system. As always, she was a huge success. But her kids were a handful so she decided to transfer to a supposedly better school. And what happened next is what's pissing me off.

Enter the charming assistant principal, who apparently has not one compassionate bone in her body. Needless to say, we all had a hard fall with Big Sister's being diagnosed with breast cancer. Oldest Sister had meetings and her classes monitored often during this time. One such visit, the AP monitored a class before Oldest Sister was set to have surgery to remove her own "suspicious" breast tissue (it was benign, thank G-d). Did the AP care? No. The feedback she'd give my sister was cruel, not constructive. My sister tried to take it in stride and improve her focus. Meanwhile, parents were thanking my sister for making a difference in their kid's lives, etc. (You'd think that would matter, but I digress...) Did that help? No. This past week Oldest Sister was told that she would not have a job with them next year. Essentially, they had a personality conflict with her. Probably cause she wasn't a 23-year old pushover on her first gig.

But here's where it gets ugly. They want my sister to resign, so she won't be eligible for unemployment and can't sue. If she doesn't resign, then they will not give her a favorable recommendation, which means she can pretty much kiss another teaching job good-bye. I have one word for you -- blackmail.

AND THIS IS STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR TEACHERS!

I find this disgraceful. They are lucky my sister wants to keep teaching. If this is the way public schools treat their teachers, it's a wonder they have anyone willing to do it.

Amir Drori....a Beautiful Tribute

He was hero and friend to the Jerusalem Post's Caroline Glick, and he passed away at age 68 last Saturday night of a heart attack. In a wonderful tribute, Glick shares with us the man she knew and admired.

Amir was the personification of the iconic Israeli. It was the notion that people like Amir existed that made me decide, as a young girl in Chicago, that the only thing I wanted to be when I grew up was an Israeli.

Glick discusses meeting Drori in 1995, when she was a captain in the army serving as negotiations coordinator, during the talks for the transfer of civil authorities in Judea and Samaria to the P.L.O. She was disappointed in the generals she served with since they seemed self-absorbed and self-important.

And then one day Amir walked through the door. Amir, the founder and director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, was the former IDF deputy chief of staff. In the Six Day War he had been a battalion commander in the Golani Infantry Brigade. In the Yom Kippur War he commanded Golani. And in Operation Peace for Galilee, as a major general he commanded the Northern Command. He was a living legend.

It seems this living legend was able to bring out the best in everyone around him.

Amir's mere presence sufficed to transform – if only for a moment – these wannabe globetrotters and prima donnas into salty warriors and guardians of Israel.

Glick recalls a time when she had to call her hero in the middle of the night with a major crisis. Somehow control of Samuel's Tomb was handed over to the Palestinians. Drori responded he'd be right there. He drove all night and in the afternoon, he sat across from Arafat.

The terrorist's lip and hand shook incessantly as he peered at Amir. He recognized him as the man who threw him out of Lebanon. In a famous picture taken in Beirut, Amir had Arafat's head in his rifle scope. After 90 minutes, the session was over. Amir restored Samuel's Tomb to full Israeli control and gave nothing in exchange.

He loved archeology as a hobby but after he retired in 1987, he took over the Antiquities Department in the Ministry of Education (where Glick joined him when she left the army).

What he found there broke his heart... when he arrived, robbery of antiquities and the destruction of precious archeological sites through piratical excavations and building and development activities were rampant.

He oversaw the legislation of the Antiquities Law that established the Israel Antiquities Authority as a statutory body tasked with safeguarding and overseeing all archeological activities in the country. He organized a special department to prevent piratical digs and theft. He ensured that all building activities on archeological sites became contingent on the carrying out of salvage digs to rescue the antiquities beneath the ground that would otherwise be lost forever.

Drori loved the land and had the uncanny ability to look at the landscape as if he were staring at an already completed dig, all the battle lines of the past -- and all the way back to the cavemen days. This was a talent that marveled Glick.

Amir's death is a terrible blow. But for me, there is some comfort in the way he died – walking with his beloved wife in his beloved desert, still uncovering, until his dying breath, yet more of the inexhaustible secrets of the Land of Israel which he loved and defended with all his strength and heart.

Like his buried treasures, Amir too was a national treasure – proof positive that in spite of the mediocrity of many, the beautiful Israeli is not a myth. All we need to do to make our ideals reality is slip on a pair of hiking boots and a hat, fill a canteen and go and discover the beauty of our land, knowing that we are following in Amir Drori's deep footsteps.

And thanks to Caroline Glick, more of us know about the treasure that was Amir Drori.

West Wing Has Lost It... Again

Tonight's episode was completely over the edge -- they are now supporting Castro! Fidel couldn't have asked for a better piece of propaganda if he had written it himself.

This isn't the first time they've dived into moonbattery. Their attempts at dealing with the Middle East have been almost as offensive. Then there was their libelous assertion that AIPAC was on "their side" of the aisle. Anyone who has ever attended an AIPAC event knows they are nonpartisan. They know that if you choose a side (republican or democrat), you could be out of favor with the government for four years. Israel is too important, and they realize that. Even worse -- they claimed AIPAC was almost glad there was a terrorist attack. I think the show needs to be voted out of office or just aired on CNN.

Taking "Balance" Too Far

Hat tip to HonestReporting.com for their alert about C-SPAN's bizarre idea of fair and balanced programming. They were set to broadcast this evening Emory University's Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust scholar, giving a talk at Harvard University promoting her new book, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving on their BookTV program. Want to take a guess what the brain trust over at C-SPAN wanted to do to provide balance? Yep. I'm betting your guess is accurate.

...a recent speech of Irving's (recorded by C-SPAN) would need to be broadcast as well. C-SPAN producers explained their reasoning to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen:

'We want to balance [Lipstadt's lecture] by covering him [Irving],' said Amy Roach, a producer for C-SPAN's Book TV. Her boss, Connie Doebele, put it another way. 'You know how important fairness and balance is at C-SPAN... We work very, very hard at this. We ask ourselves, 'Is there an opposing view of this?'

In case you're not getting it, let me fill you in. David Irving is a Holocaust denier.

C-SPAN, that is, sought out an 'opposing view' to Lipstadt's confirmation of the Nazi Holocaust. Lipstadt refused to be cast side-by-side with Irving, on the grounds that Holocaust denial does not merit public debate.

Good for her! It will probably mean fewer book sales but I completely agree with her stance. And because of it, I think I'm going to go order her book.

The action here folks is to contact C-SPAN and tell them how you feel about their programming philosophy. Email comments to: booktv@c-span.org

Going DaySide

Today was a great episode of Linda Vester's DaySide, which airs on Fox News Channel. First, I learned about an interesting book that's coming out (today, I think) called Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington, by Paul Sperry. It sounded very interesting.

Then there was a discussion on 24, the Fox show that has had pressure from some Muslim groups. To discuss it, she had on a guy from MPAC (visit Daniel Pipes to see what bad news they are) and 24 actress, Shohreh Aghdashloo, who plays Dina Araz, mother of the sleeper cell family. This was a great discussion. Aghdashloo was raised as a moderate Muslim. She grew up being told that no Muslim is to commit suicide. For anyone who wants to believe the best of Islam, they should have this lady front and center -- and many more like her.

MPAC guy said he had a problem with the show, that he feels it's guilty of negligently bolstering hate mongering. Aghdashloo disagreed with this and made an interesting argument. She compared the show to our fascination with James Bond, whose stories were often based on a real event -- the Cold War. Art is inspired by what's really going on. 24 is basically doing that. Aghdashloo added that all societies have good and bad individuals. This is no different, and therefore she has no problem with how <24> has portrayed Muslims. Take that MPAC man!

Saving Milly

Just wanted to say that I was very moved by last night's CBS movie-of-the-week, Saving Milly. This was a love story based on the book of the same name that was written by Roll Call's Mort Kondracke, one of Fox News' Beltway Boys. I've watched Mort for many, many years. His daughters went to a rival high school. Milly was one of the first high profile people to put a face on Parkinson's Disease in an effort to raise more funds for research. She formed a friendship with Michael J. Fox, often helping to inspire him during tough times. Watching Mort come to terms with his demons and then help her with her brave fight was inspiring and heartbreaking. If you missed the movie, you can still read the book. And of course, you can always donate money.

Terrorists Lie

Bruce Tefft via Isralert.com alerted us to a speech delivered by Donald R. Hamilton, Deputy Director at the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT). Hamilton delivered the speech in Bogaota, Columbia on Feb. 23, 2005 at the Second International Conference on Terrorism. The subject of his speech? Terrorists lie. He then goes on to list these lies.

1) "We must eradicate the 'root causes' of terrorism."

The author discusses his fury when a pastor asks him what happened to a particular young man to make him do such a horrible thing (bombing Istanbul's main synagogue in 1986)?

"That young man murdered 22 people while they were praying,praying; he burned some of them alive! You want me to worry about what happened to him? I don't give a damn about what happened to him and neither should you! Pray for his victims! Let him go to hell!"

Can't argue with that! But the author wondered what happened to the pastor to make him worry about the murderer rather than the victims. He realized that the pastor believed the "root cause" lie, the one that implies terrorism is an "effect" of some "cause."

The terrorist has decided that the shortest path to his political goal is terrorism. He has passed over democratic elections, passive resistance, and armed struggle against others in arms. He has chosen to target the defenseless and the innocent.

The author then quotes a UN document title from 1972 which feeds this thinking, illuminating perhaps yet another reason why the UN just doesn't get it. He also points out the fact that many terrorists (think Osama) come from rich families. He says terrorists love when you believe this because then you are ready for lie #2....

2) Terrorists are soldiers in a revolution

He addresses the freedom fighter nonsense that so many people around the world love to buy into.

Terrorists are different from revolutionaries and freedom fighters because terrorists target the innocent. Terrorists select women, children, airline passengers, office workers, worshipers and others uninvolved in combat and, generally speaking, incapable of defending themselves.

He's got that absolutely correct. Terrorists target innocents! There's nothing heroic or freedom-seeking in that. He adds a thought that is genius in its knife-penetrating exactness:

When we fail to recognize the distinction between warfare and terrorism, we strip soldierly dignity from those who protect us from barbarism and award it to murderers.

And we can not do that. That is betraying all the incredible actions of our servicemen and women.

3) "Terrorism is a word made up by oppressive regimes"

He points out that rebellion takes many forms without becoming terrorism. But all of this leads to what he calls the biggest lie of all:

The greatest lie, which all terrorists tell the world and themselves, is that some political outcome is more important than recognizing and honoring the humanity of each and every person.

That succinctly explains what separates us from them -- we care about life. The terrorist does not.

And they tell lies to bamboozle us into questioning ourselves rather than concentrating on efforts to defeat them. We all need to wise up and make sure we keep our eyes on the prize -- freedom.

Over 60 Years in the Making

From the Jerusalem Post: Two brothers, one six and the other aged two, waited for their mom to return from finding them food -- in Budapest during the fall of 1944. She never returned. They were eventually found and given to different families; the older one going to a Jewish family, the other not. For 61 years, neither knew the other was alive. In an ironic twist, the two brothers were reunited today in Jerusalem. This is another one that is thanks to the amazing database at Yad Vashem. Absolutely amazing. The two met, embraced and in complete state of awe, sat over family photos.

"Everything here is unbelievable. How anyone could ever have survived," he said. "I am just in shock," he offered feebly, while his younger brother, speaking though a Hungarian translator, said that he had hoped for years that he would finally find his brother.

As they talked together, they kept their hands clasped tightly for several long minutes, as if refusing to let each other go ever again.

I love these stories, and I never tire of reading new accounts.

True Heroism

Read this post now at Major K.'s and then bookmark his blog to get the real scoop in Iraq. Hat tip to Patrick over at Clarity and Resolve.

An Interesting Development

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I read the following news. It looks like Egypt, after almost 45 days, has finally released on bail opposition leader Ayman Nour, who is also a presidential hopeful. We all know Condi showed her displeasure with Egypt for imprisoning him but that seemed to not move the Mubarak government. At least not right away. Looking frail and still wearing his white prison jumpsuit, Nour was able to speak in front of a growing crowd about how they are paying a price for their search for freedom, but their movement will not be destroyed. Good for him! He repeated his decision to run against Hosni Mubarak, who has held the position for 24 years (easy when no one is running against you). Nour's Tomorrow party is now poised to give Mubarak a run for his money, so to speak. I haven't heard how Nour feels about Israel. Anyone else?

Lebanon On The Edge

The Jerusalem Post's Caroline Glick tackles the tenuous situation in Lebanon as her topic in this Friday's Column One: Don't wobble, Mr. President. Terror group Hizbullah is attempting to position itself as a "local" organization but that's complete folly:

If Hizbullah were interested in simply dominating Lebanese politics, then its best bet would have been to hop onto the anti-Syrian bandwagon. Under no danger of being viewed as an American or Israeli stooge, Hizbullah could have easily won the hearts and minds of Lebanese. The fact that Hizbullah is willing to endanger its local popularity in order to protect Lebanon's unpopular overlord in Damascus shows that while it may have local political attributes and aspirations, Hizbullah's position as a key member of the Iran-Syria alliance is central to its identity.

As long as Hizbullah is still around, armed, calling the shots -- there will never be fair elections in Lebanon. Of course, that's how Syria and Iran want it -- for various reasons. If they're to lose Lebanon, they lose their portal to launch terrorist attacks against Israel in the north, plus it could light a match of unrest in Syria, possibly toppling Bashar Assad's government. Now Assad owes Hizbullah, so the power they had over them isn't as strong. And this could spell out even more trouble.

The fact that young Assad now owes Nasrallah, coupled with the fact that Syria, Iran and Hizbullah are deeply enmeshed both together and separately in fueling the Palestinian terror war against Israel, means that Israel today faces a different situation on its northern border than it faced a month ago.

You would think the international community would be very wary of this, right? No, not our morally bankrupt band of bandits. Kofi Annan has said that the UN should recognize Hizbullah! Can you believe that?! He let loose this idiotic humdinger:

"Even Hizbullah [is] talking about non-interference by outsiders... which is not entirely at odds with the Security Council resolution, that there should be withdrawal of Syrian troops."

The EU is no better, but that's not a surprise. The kick in the teeth though came from my own government:

Most disturbingly, Thursday's New York Times reported that the Bush administration is about to follow both the UN and France's lead in accepting Hizbullah as a legitimate political force in Lebanon. According to the report, which sources in Washington claim was leaked by the State Department, "the Bush administration is grudgingly going along with efforts by France and the United Nations to steer the party into the Lebanese political mainstream."

IF THIS report is true, it would indicate that the White House is allowing its Lebanon policy to be taken over by the UN, Europe and the State Department in much the same fashion as its policy toward the Palestinians was hijacked two years ago.

With this, she talks about how originally the Palestinian state was supposed to be dependent on the PA reforming by stopping terror and turning into an economically transparent democracy. Instead, the US has foolishly (my word, not hers) allowed Palestinian anti-terror and democratic reform to be held hostage to Israeli concessions. A hideous outcome if you ask me.

And rather than force the PA to stop using its militias to terrorize and intimidate all democratic – yet unarmed – forces into silence, the road map regime has ignored such voices in Palestinian society and has said nothing as Mahmoud Abbas has signed the execution orders of dozens of Palestinians accused of working with Israel against terrorists.

And now we're in danger of having some similar foolishness happen in Lebanon. If that happens and freedom is deterred, Bush's doctrine is going to be in big trouble.

As it has joined the accomodationist camp in its treatment of the PA, the Bush administration has ignored the fact that Hizbullah, like Syria and Iran, sees all areas transferred to the PA's security control as bases of operation for the forces of global jihad. Rather than accept that Israel's presence in Judea, Samaria and Gaza – both military and civilian – is the only obstacle preventing these areas from becoming terror bases, the Bush administration, under the influence of the same voices calling for acceptance of Hizbullah in Lebanon, has accepted as truth the red herring that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria are somehow antithetical to peace and security.

We could be in trouble here, folks.

A Campus Surprise.... Yet Not

San Francisco State University had a job fair today. You know what a job fair is right? A bunch of companies set up booths, trying to help today's loony students find a job in their companies so they may one day soon be useful to society. One of the employers who had a booth there was the United States Air Force. After the great job they've done lately helping to keep us safe, it would have been nice if they could have gotten a warm welcome -- never mind just simple respect. Yet apparently this was too much to ask. But there was a surprise in the works beyond what you might be expecting me to write...

Yes, an anti-military protest started to form, telling the air force representatives to go home, claiming the military is sexist, racist and anti-gay. Disrespectful, sure, but not a complete shock. Eventually, the protest found another target -- Fox News -- who reported their ire on various shows today. Again, not a surprise.

But their footage told more of the story. While Fox pointed out the anti-military and anti-Fox News sentiment, they left out something.

Sprinkled amongst the crowd of anti-military protesters swayed flags -- the Palestinian flag to be exact. Not only that, there was an anti-Israel sign. I'm not quite sure why this wasn't pointed out by Fox, but since they're usually supportive, I won't hold it against them. But I will hold it against those protesters. Can someone explain to me what a job fair in San Francisco has to do with Israel and the Palestinians? Sometimes I hate today's campuses.

These kids obviously take their freedom to be able to protest like this for granted -- ironic that they don't realize that it is an option available to them because of our military. If there's any justice -- and I sure hope there is -- they'll graduate and not be able to find a job.

Apology Wanted

There is an attempt afoot to get that charming London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, to apologize for the virulent anti-Israel comments he's been making lately, ranging from his recent ones accusing the government of "ethnic cleansing" and calling Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a "war criminal who should be in prison" to ones he made last month when he compared a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard. If you want to join this attempt to get him to apologize, visit the site of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and add your name to the list.

A Ray of Hope

Naomi Ragen shares a wonderful hospital encounter between writer Mike Levine, a freelance journalist living in Israel since 1985, and an Arab doctor (who was actually the patient) and his family. This short article is must reading. It is filled with hope, but also illuminates something very scary on the horizon.

Voice to Our Concern

While not completely understanding the label or if it should apply to him, Daniel Pipes's latest article, A Neo-Conservative's Caution, manages to make many of the points I've either written about or silently feared. What are they, you ask?

While we've seen a lot of progress in the Middle East, here are a few ways that progress can be thwarted:

• Yes, Mahmoud Abbas wishes to end the armed struggle against Israel but his call for a greater jihad against the "Zionist enemy" points to his intending another form of war to destroy Israel.
• The Iraqi elections are bringing Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a pro-Iranian Islamist, to power.
• Likewise, the Saudi elections proved a boon for the Islamist candidates.
• Mubarak's promise is purely cosmetic; but should real presidential elections one day come to Egypt, Islamists will probably prevail there too.
• Removing Syrian control in Lebanon could well lead to Hezbollah, a terrorist group, becoming the dominant power there.
• Eliminating the hideous Assad dynasty could well bring in its wake an Islamist government in Damascus.

None of these possibilities will be good for this country. Is anyone in the administration, his supposed fellow neo-cons, giving them consideration? Pipes fears if they are, they're not giving it enough. He also acknowledges a pattern: a too-quick removal of tyranny unleashes Islamist ideologues and opens their way to power. These are things we've seen happen before. Will we see it happen again?

Democratic Alienation

It looks like President Bush is going to be picking Undersecretary of State John Bolton as ambassador to the UN. Condi Rice had the following to say about the appointment:

"President Bush and I have chosen John because he knows how to get things done. He's a tough-minded diplomat, he has a strong history of success and he has a proven track record of effective multilateralism."

Sounds pretty good, right? Not to the democrats.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid called Bolton "a disappointing choice and one that sends all the wrong signals... At a time when President Bush has recognized we need to begin repairing our damaged relations with the rest of the world, he nominates someone with a long history of being opposed to working cooperatively with other nations."

So the only criteria for this position should be someone who plays well with others? Call me crazy, but I wouldn't want to see John Kerry doing this job. Speaking of the FriendOfEurope:

"If the president is serious about reaching out to the world, why would he choose someone who has expressed such disdain for working with our allies? ... Quite simply, Mr. Bolton's nomination carries with it baggage we cannot afford."

So what are the horrible things this man has done that democrats object to him so?

1) Denounced North Korea for its nuclear weapons program (he called Kim Jong Il a "tyrannical dictator" and described life in NK as "a hellish nightmare"), which resulted in his being removed from the delegation that represented the US in the now-stalled 6-party talks. A NK spokesman responded for KJI by saying, "such human scum and bloodsucker is not entitled to take part in the talks..." Sticks and stones, bub....

2) He coordinated the US position during negotiations with Libya when it gave up it's pursuit of WMDs.

And last, but not least...

3) During his tenure as assistant secretary of state for Bush 41, he was the "principal architect" in getting the "Zionism is Racism" resolution repealed by the UN.

So the guy has been good to the Jews?! Way to go dems.... keep alienating the Jewish vote.

Meanwhile, people he actually would have to work with don't seem to share the democrats' reservations about Mr. Bolton.

"For myself, I have several contacts with him, I know that we can work together. We have different views but also we have many things in common. ... I hope that once he's here he will have a deeper perception of what the U.N. is about." — China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya [ed. note: Barry Scwheid's article, which is linked below, only contains the last sentence of this quote--gotta love that AP bias]

"We have all kinds of people in the United Nations. At the end we end up always with consensual views. (Former U.N. Ambassador John) Danforth was not a diplomat and he came here and he did an excellent job. So you don't have to be a career diplomat to be successful at the United Nations."— Algeria's U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Baali.

Good lord, even Kofi Annan doesn't have a problem:

"I don't know about what previous biases he may bring here," said [Annan] spokesman Stephane Dujarric. "We have nothing against people who do hold us accountable. On the contrary, I think we do want to be held accountable."

I know I seem to say this all the time, but if the dems aren't careful, they're going to find it impossible to be relevant in American politics for decades to come.

A Sentence I Can Get Behind

Unlike the 30 months given to a Bali-bombing terrorist in Indonesia, an Israeli-Arab has been sentenced to 42 years for aiding suicide bombers, according to David Rudge in the Jerusalem Post. Muwafak Iruk transported two bombers to Tel Aviv's old central bus station two years ago. Their terrorist attack killed 23 Israelis and foreign workers as well as injuring dozens more. Hope that 700 NIS was worth it, buddy.

WCC Divestment

There is a great E-interview on Israpundit with Prof. Paul Charles Merkley concerning the WCC divestment decision regarding Israel. He gives his take on why now, when peace seems to be on the horizon, the WCC decided to do this. Check it out!

Column One: The Sharansky moment?

The Jerusalem Post's Caroline Glick discusses the unprecedented affect Natan Sharansky has had on our foreign policy and on President Bush -- and on the ME region. One sentence in particular has brought a smile to my face:

Damascus's announcement that it would withdraw its forces from Lebanon was met by a Lebanese demand that Hizbullah be dismantled.

There are many reasons why, if this happens, it is fantastic news. For one thing, it will take away a major tool of terror against Israelis. The PA will no longer have their evil little neighbor handy to commit attacks while keeping their hands "clean." I also believe that a dismantled Hizbullah will make Iraq safer.

What is happening in our neighboring lands is nothing short of a revolution. There has never before been a situation in the Arab world where so many people have been willing to stand up to their regimes and demand their freedom. Although the Arab revolution is only in its earliest phases – and it is impossible to foresee what will transpire in the coming days, months and years – the very fact that the Arab world has responded so dramatically to the Iraqi elections at the end of January and to Bush's call for democracy seems to be a full vindication of both Sharansky's political theory and of Bush's decision to graft it onto his genetic code.

There has been a seismic shift in the region, and while it's understandable to reserve judgment, one can't help but feel encouraged. That is, until you read something like this.

But other events from this past week would seem to cast a pall on the excitement. On Tuesday, Israeli Arab MKs Ahmed Tibi and Muhammad Barakei, while participating in an Arab League conference in Abu Dhabi, told their colleagues not to normalize their relations with Israel. According to a report in the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, confirmed by the Ynet Web site, at the conference, held under the aegis of the Abu Dhabi Center for Strategic Research, the two told their audience that Israel was manipulating the world into believing that it was advancing the cause for peace by withdrawing from Gaza, but it was actually entrenching its control over Judea and Samaria and abandoning the cause of peace.

This makes my stomach sink. The thought of Arab Israelis saying such treasonous things can't help but make one feel blind-sided.

The fact that these politicians – who owe their positions to the fact that they live in a democracy – have called for the Arab world to continue its rejection of their own country would seem to put a damper on the notion that democracy can bring an end to Arab rejection of Israel. Indeed, as an Arab colleague remarked recently, "The reformers in the Arab world hate Israel just as much as their leaders whom they are trying to overthrow."

I know I shouldn't be surprised by this. But Glick makes a great point in saying that while anti-Semitism is strong in Europe, none of those democracies plan to attack Israel. And while Arab hatred is high, it's in countries with a dictator. And everyone knows that dictators need external "fall guys" to deflect their own failures. Glick makes a very valid point:

Tibi and Barakei's statements may seem out of place during this revolutionary moment, but what they represent more than anything else is the failure to apply the Bush-Sharansky Doctrine to the Palestinian Authority.

She says that the Palestinians see Israel as weak. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research released a poll saying that 74% of Palestinians see...

Ariel Sharon's plan to destroy the Israeli communities in Gaza and northern Samaria as a vindication of terrorism as a national strategy. The Palestinians stated that they do not believe that Sharon would have ever presented the plan if it hadn't been for the Palestinian terror war against Israel. It is this perception of Israeli weakness and terrorist strength that undoubtedly prompts the opportunistic likes of Tibi and Barakei to side with them against Israel.

It's no wonder. Israel received overwhelming pressure from the International Community to capitulate. We knew the Palestinians would view it as a victory for terror.

...when Israel looks weak, Israeli Arabs want to make sure that the PA sees them as loyal to the cause. While they can rest assured that a democratic but weak Israel will do nothing to punish them for their treachery, they cannot risk supporting Israel as it strengthens and legitimizes the terror-supporting, quasi-tyranny next door in the PA.

Another disturbing fact that Glick discusses is her own government's seeming disdain for democracy in the PA. She says that Sharon "views Sharansky's ideas with scorn" and Peres isn't any different -- and because of their lack of support for political democracy in the territories, there is a continuation of Arafat's dictatorial and terror-supporting regime in the territories.

Israel's decision to prefer the rule of Arafat's deputy to genuine democratic transformation in the PA has paved the way for the international community's embrace of Abbas. Rather than demand an accounting for the billions of dollars in international aid that were stolen by Arafat (and by Abbas and PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and their associates), in London this week the international community pledged to transfer more than a billion additional dollars to the PA.

We, who reside in the blogway, have made a few of these points ourselves. What sense does it make to give them more money? Why not look for the billions that have been taken over the years? Well, obviously that's just nonsense. They obviously know what they're doing (tongue firmly in cheek).


Buoyed by this unqualified support, Abbas is now demanding that the international community drop the demand that he fight terrorists and enable the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state immediately. The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, has already accepted this position.

So in the space of one week, we see the consequences of both the Bush-Sharansky Doctrine and the appeasement-based status quo in action. While the region's war-torn, radical and terror-engendering history tells us what the ultimate consequences of the status quo will be, we have yet to harvest the fruits of the Bush-Sharansky-inspired revolution.

The main question we should be concerning ourselves with now is whether the revolution will be extended to the Palestinians or whether – once Sharon-Peres-style appeasement is grafted onto its genetic code – the revolution will fade away and be forgotten.

It is rather odd that the people the International community are supposed to "care about," could very well be the one group not to benefit from this surge of democracy and freedom.

Doing "All" They Can

I'm sure the MSM will say that the ceasefire is working -- all hail Abu Mazen (oops; they'll say Mahmoud Abbas, since he's obviously being peaceful). They will ignore The Jerusalem Post's news about the Two bombs found on the road near the settlement of Mevo Dotan in the northern West Bank. They'll ignore the arrest of a Fatah fugitive arrested south of Hebron and the Hamas terrorist trying to pass a roadblock south of Nablus. It is amazing how there's this wonderful "peace" that apparently has nothing to do with the IDF stopping terror attacks. As long as they do their job, the ignorant masses can remain happy in their homes, secure in their "knowledge" that the Palestinians are "behaving."

Egyptian Coptic Murders in NJ (update)

Robert over at Jihad Watch has a couple of March 4th posts about the recent arrests of two suspects in the murder of the Coptic Christian family in New Jersey. They're trying to have us believe that they were tortured over an ATM card, but there's a lot about this case that smells fishy.

So were these murders religiously motivated?

The Most Dangerous Game...

I just read an article about Indonesia urging their foreign critics to respect a court decision where they sentenced a radical Muslim cleric to only 30 months in jail for his involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings and acquitted him of more serious terrorism charges. This makes my blood boil. And then I think of Israel and their practice of targeted assassinations of terrorists... So I wonder, okay, what if after 30 months in jail, this guy walks out of the jail and...well... is shot dead? What if many of these terrorists were suddenly hunted down in various countries and killed? Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating it. But the Palestinians have been going ape shit since Israel started targeting their terror leaders. Do you think it could serve as any kind of deterrent?

ADL Alerts

There is an excellent piece about Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, in his own words -- and what harsh words they are. Of course most of us know the man often indulges in anti-Semitic rhetoric. What the ADL has managed to do is put many quotes from various speeches out there in one document -- and it's pretty revealing.

Take his most recent speech on Saviours' Day: Chicago, 02/27/05:

“Listen, Jewish people don’t have no hands that are free of the blood of us. They owned slave ships, they bought and sold us. They raped and robbed us. If you can’t face that, why you gonna condemn me for showing you your past, how then can you atone and repent if somebody don’t open the book with courage, you don’t have that, but I’ll be damned, I got it.”

Then there's the gem he laid out about Jews, Israel and the War in Iraq:

“The war in Iraq is not your war; that’s Israel’s war... The rudder that is turning America is not your elected officials; it’s that small influential group of neo-conservatives that are using America’s power to destroy the enemies of Israel.”

And there are plenty more where those came from.

Another alert has to do with Abe Foxman responding to the despicable Senator Robert "I was a Klansman" Byrd comparing Republican tactics on judicial nominations to Hitler's use of power in Nazi Germany:

It is hideous, outrageous and offensive for Senator Byrd to suggest that the Republican Party's tactics could in any way resemble those of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. 

The Senator shows a profound lack of understanding as to who Hitler was and what he and his regime represented. 

Senator Byrd must repudiate his remarks immediately and apologize to the American people for showing such disrespect for this country's democratic process.

Way to go, Abe! Though, may I be so bold as to suggest that you don't bother holding your breath.

An Intriguing Article

Diana West wrote a very interesting piece called, 'The Emerging 'Eurabia', in which she discusses a less than thorough article's coincidental publishing in the New York Times on the same day as the release of the book Eurabia by Bat Ye'or -- an Egpytian-born historian who, with her new book, does her best to explain the behavior of Old Europe and the Arabs by shedding light on the entity known as the Euro-Arab Dialogue.

Created 30-odd years ago at the instigation of France and the Arab League, the practically unknown EAD has provided structural and theoretical underpinnings to a Euro-Arab axis - Eurabia. These have fostered the political, economic and cultural bonds between Europe and the Arab world that Bat Ye'or maintains were designed to create "a global alternative to American power."

Well. If that's not scary... West goes on to talk about a meeting of Euro-Arab minds on various things, like the Arab League war on Israel (shocker, isn't it!), an exchange of free flowing Arab oil into Europe (shocker, isn't it!), which would come about by Muslim immigration into Europe, etc....and hostility towards America.

This goes a long way toward explaining the behavior of Old Europe "the heart of Eurabia" since September 11. It also leaves a question hanging when the New York Times pegs Muslim immigration into Europe to a simple "postwar labor shortage": Is that really all the news that's fit to print?

West makes her points, with a bit of sarcasm to boot (which I always appreciate):

Then Mr. Smith interviews a Belgian Muslim whose son faces terror charges in Turkey for killing 61 people in a 2003 bombing, and who calls the September 11 attacks "a poetic act." In his, I suppose, "left-leaning" way, terror-dad "dismisses the far right's fears of an Islamization of Europe, even if he does dream of an Islamic theocracy governing the continent someday." Mr. Smith's conclusion? "In many ways, radical Islamists" " such as terror-dad " are holding Europe's broader, moderate Muslim population hostage, attracting attention disproportionate to their numbers."

I say the reporter is holding the New York Times' broader, moderate readership hostage. The facts shall set you free in Bat Ye'or's "Eurabia."

It's an interesting article, and I'm willing to bet -- a pretty interesting book.

Things Aren't Always How They Seem

Hat tip to Honestreporting.com on the following: MSM has done it again. Apparently there was a huge rally of Islamic Jihad, celebrating their successful attack against Israelis in Tel Aviv.

Though media outlets were quick to report the official Palestinian denunciations of Friday's terror attack, this chilling Islamic Jihad rally received almost no coverage. [Associated Press did mention the rally ― but buried it deep down in an article that dealt with another topic altogether.]

And then of course, there's our favorite media outlet, The BBC:

In the wake of Friday's Tel Aviv bombing, BBC One TV produced a segment called 'A Family in Mourning', which showed extensive footage of the parents of the Palestinian terrorist, but no pictures at all of the mourning families of the terrorist's victims!

After a wave of protest, BBC issued this 'correction', which comes right on the heels of a BBC apology for a recent radio spot accusing the IDF of ordering soldiers to 'shoot unarmed [Palestinian] schoolchildren.' [See Feb. 16 HonestReporting communique.]

Not a great sign if you ask me.

Yay, Football!

David Brinn has an article at Israel21c celebrating the pigskin and how it's a bond between Americans and Israelis. I love that! In American football scores a touchdown in Israel, Brinn shares the wonderful news about the owner of the Super Bowl champions -- The New England Patriots -- Robert Kraft, who re-dedicated the Kraft Family Field in Jerusalem. It is there that over 1,000 Israelis play in the American Football In Israel (AFI) league. You got to love a ceremony that has "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Hatikva" play.

Kraft shared the following at a press conference:

"The Patriots has been able to win, because we stressed the team - everyone putting the team ahead of their own individual objectives. I see some parallels between the state of Israel and the Patriots in the sense that we have people from a lot of different racial, social and economic backgrounds all coming together for a greater purpose. And in many ways, I see the same think (sic) in Israeli culture."

High school football is in full swing and a girls' flag-football league now exists because of a donation made by Kraft's wife, Myra.

My favorite part of the article:

Kraft is also heartened by such far-reaching implications derived from his philanthropic investment in Israel - ("The media still create the image that Israel is not a safe place. The fact that I'm willing to come here right after winning the Super Bowl [says a lot]") - but he also has some selfish reasons.

"I love America, I love Israel, I love Jerusalem, and I love American football.
To be able to bring that all together here is a great sense of joy for our family," he said.

"It wasn't until we dedicated this field in '99 here in Jerusalem that we won three out of the last four Super Bowls. I don't think it's a mere coincidence," he added with a smile and twinkle in his eye.

Now if my Redskins could only win another Super Bowl.... Perhaps they need to make a trip to Jerusalem!