Moloch Is Satiated... for the time being:
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Over a thousand Turks spent the first day of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha in emergency wards on Sunday after stabbing themselves or suffering other injuries while sacrificing startled animals. At least 1,413 people - referred to as "amateur butchers" by the Turkish media - were treated at hospitals across the country, most suffering cuts to their hands and legs, the Anatolia news agency reported. Four people were severely injured, crushed under the weight of large animals that fell on top of them, the agency reported. Another person was hurt when a crane used to lift an animal tumbled onto him, the agency said. Three other people suffered heart attacks and died while trying to restrain animals, CNN-Turk television reported.
The Truth Is ...in a moment of candor, I would like to announce that
I am a member of a shadow group which funds me, and feeds me my lines. It is called
Big Tobacco, Wal-Mart Apologizing, Global Warming-Supporters, Who Are Doing It All To Kill Innocent Iraqis.
Thank you.
Barbara BoxerX Dhimmi?Last night, news came that
Barbara Boxer rescinded an award to an Islamic activist because of his connections to CAIR.
Charles at Little Green Footballs brought out his "Flying Pig", and the usual seething and whining has already begun emanating from the dark corridors of the CAIR lair.
Frequent Atlas Shrugs commenter X Dhimmi has decided it is time that all of us Infidels write to Boxer and thank her. I agree.
Here is X Dhimmi's letter:
SENATOR BARBARA BOXER
112 HART
SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Boxer:
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I am so heartened and pleased by your decision to rescind the "certificate of achievement" award issued by your office to Basim Elkarra because of his affiliation with CAIR. This makes an important, cautionary statement about CAIR which has been far too lacking among our national leaders.
To someone like me who follows closely the activities of CAIR and judges the organization as dangerous to America's freedoms, your courageous action is a breath of fresh air. You can be assured millions of Americans have been waiting for a national leader to speak up for America against this group which supports agendas inimical to American values and freedoms.
I have sent copies of this letter to the White House and my senators and representatives asking them to support you through the inevitable accusations of Islamophobia (indeed, the charge has already been leveled according to the Newsweek article) and attacks which I am certain you will endure. Remain strong and resolute, Senator! We truly need leaders with your integrity who refuse to succumb to the pressure from groups who wish to see America fail.
Again, thank you.
Email form for contacting Senator Boxer.
It would seem that Barbara Boxer is now, officially, an Ex-Dhimmi.
The Breath Of The BeastBy Yaacov Ben Moshe:
We always get a warning that is clear and unequivocal when evil is stalking us. It is up to us to notice. Warnings are all too easy to dismiss. It is a grave responsibility to pay heed to real warnings. It seems so much easier to convince yourself that the warning is not for you, or that the danger is remote and small.When Hitler, for example, wrote Mein Kampf, in 1925. He left no doubt as to his intentions. The world dismissed the book as the ravings of a mad man. When he got his opportunity to reach power ten years later, much of the world was surprised that he actually did what he said he would. If they had believed him in the first place and acted on that knowledge with resolution and intelligence millions of lives could have been saved.The good news is that all you have to do is pay attention, believe what you see and hear and have the strength not to deny it. Evil will almost always inform you of its presence and intentions. I was given a very personal warning twenty-five years ago by a particularly profound form of evil. That evil presence has grown and prospered in the world since then. It has grown and become powerful and menacing and yet, even today, in spite of incontrovertible evidence of its existence many people find it altogether too easy to deny.Back in the early eighties my young family and I lived next door to an Iranian family. They were nice, friendly people. Hamid (not his real name) was a physician who was just starting out in his own practice. His wife, Haideh was also Iranian born. She was a mathematician. She taught at a local college. We moved in to brand new houses just months apart and shared the rigors of nurturing lawns where there had been only bulldozer tracks. We cooperated in the planting of trees and shrubs to define the empty expanses between our new homes. We borrowed tools from each other. Hamid and I played tennis often and even discussed the possibility of building a tennis court in the flat spot where our lots met. Our children played together and his son, Amir and my daughter Amy became very close friends. The two of them were barely more than toddlers when they first met but were soon talking about getting married the way little ones sometimes do when they find a close companion of the opposite sex.The next summer, they went back to Iran to visit with their families. We were afraid for our friends. We knew the country was in turmoil. They were gone for several weeks. For much of the time my Amy’s days were occupied with day camp but she still missed her friend. They finally returned a week before school. The two seemed to pick up right where they had left off.It was a sunny Sunday morning and Amy went out right after breakfast and met Amir in his backyard. We watched as they began to play and turned away to read the Sunday paper. We were surprised when Amy came back inside a short while later. She walked by us with her head down and started up the stairs to her room. We had expected to have to call her in for lunch so it was odd that she came back so early. I called after her and asked her what was wrong. She told me how little 5-year-old Amir had matter-of-factly informed my innocent 5-year-old daughter that because she is a Jew it is his duty to kill her.Go read the whole thing.
It's Open SeasonPlease, watch this video. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 Euros. Watch this video.
A Little Tribute On The Day Of His Death
Breaking News:Jews BackAl QaedaRoger Simon tells about his taxi ride in Seattle:
Yesterday afternoon, after wrapping up our vacation, Sheryl, Madeleine and I started back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head home to LA. We were with our friend and my Pajamas colleague Gerard. He proposed we take a cab; he would drop us by the hotel before continuing to his home.We found one quickly. It was driven by an African guy. We had to instruct him about the location of our hotel; it was new. In the course of this I asked him where he was from. Kenya, he said. But then quickly added he was Somali. Many Somalians live in Kenya. Ah, Somalia. Immediately the three adults in the car perked up. We acknowledged we knew there was big trouble in that country, the attack from Ethiopia on the ICU, etc. To our surprise, our driver immediately launched into a vitriolic attack on Al Qaeda. They were evil violent men, hijacking Islam across the globe. He had details of their infiltration of Somalia from a phone call he had made the previous night, how they were using Saudi money, etc. Thousands of people were being murdered by these Wahhabis for no reason. He was obviously following the situation closely. Al Qaeda was a danger to all mankind, he said.It was a refreshing to hear this view from a Moslem taxi driver in Seattle. He was obviously pleased that we recognized the travails of his people too. So he continued with his explication of what was behind this terrible situation - how the Moslem religion could have been taken over by these violent forces. Someone was behind the rise of this Saudi Wahhabism . The answer, he said, was Israel. It was all an Israeli plot. They were behind the Wahhabis.Suddenly our hearts sank. How could a man who seemed so reasonable, so knowledgeable, say something so obviously crazy?Learn how. Go read the rest.
It's The Islam, StupidIranian blogger Amil Imani explains the relationship between Islam and terrorism:
The terror and death inflicted on humanity is not the work of radical Islam, neither the political Islam, nor the militant Islam. It is Islam, period. Get it? And the perpetrators are not fringe elements confined to brainwashed Saudis, loony Taliban, or a know nothing Pakistanis who have hijacked Islam and are now in the business of mass murder.
The latest project of the practitioners of the “religion of peace” aimed to blowing planeloads of innocent civilians to smithereens in midair over the Atlantic -- ought to finally drive the point home: it is Islam, dummy. Get it?How could people calling themselves sincere God-fearing religionists bring themselves to even think of acts of such barbarity, yet plan them methodically
and cold-bloodedly proceed to execute them?
The answer is Islam. The life manual of Islam, the Quran, is a document of exclusion, hatred and violence that shapes the Muslims’ thinking and behaving. This stone-age document is optimally suited for people of stunted development. People who prefer to follow than to think for themselves, to hate than to love, and to seek death rather than to celebrate life.
Sadly, Muslims themselves are the ones who are most victimized by Islam. They have inherited this viral psychological disease of hate and violence; they live by it, and transmit it to their children as well as to receptive others.
A puzzle to non-Muslims: why any intelligent and reasonably sane person would live his life by the dogma of Islam? It is particularly disconcerting when this Muslim lives in a secular non-Islamic society. The befuddlement becomes mind-boggling when seemingly educated women in free societies voluntarily submit to the yoke of Islamic misogyny.
There are a number of possible explanations to the enigma of believing in Islam and even propagating it with zeal and violence. Some possible explanations are treated here.
For one, Islam is stamped on the impressionable mind of the child from birth. The parents and immediate members of the family are the ones who make the very first impressions on the tabula rasa of the young mind. These early impressions are the grid-work for further formation of the person’s mind and belief system. It is by far easier, as life goes on, to incorporate “items” that readily fit into the grid-work, than to modify it or dismantle it altogether and begin anew. It
is in recognition of the importance of early training and education that people such as Saint Augustine and Freud considered the first few years of life as critical for molding the person. “Teaching the very young is like itching in the stone,” says an Eastern proverb.
Another reason is the herd mentality—stay with the group, be one of them, and don't strike out on your own. This strong disposition to belong is reinforced by privileges that the group bestows; social pressure, as well as the fear of castigation by the wielders of power. There is security and power in numbers—in any numbers.
Islam is also appealing for giving purpose and order to the person’s life—both the life on earth as well as an immortal life after death. Islam is omnipresent and omniscient father figure who draws the boundaries, points out the path, dictates the terms, holds the carrots and the sticks. It absolves the person, for most parts, from the often demanding tasks of dealing with difficult questions and choosing what to do with oneself—a highly attractive trade off for many.
Accept Islam as your guide, follow its path and you will never have to suffer the agony of not knowing and having to make decisions by yourself; you will be guided along the path of eternal happiness and salvation. Just follow the unerring guide given to mankind by the seal of the prophet, Muhammad. An elaborate package of mostly illogical and bizarre prescriptions and proscriptions comes with the Islamic offer, covering every imaginable aspect of life.
In the matter of being a good Muslim, nothing is left to chance that one needs to figure out for himself.
“I think, therefore I am” said Rene Descartes in substantiating his claim to being a conscious being. “I don't think, I faith; therefore I am an automaton,” sa
ys the Muslim in absolving himself of the need for independent thinking.Even the minutest detail of the Muslim’s life is rigidly structured. He is to perform the obligatory prayer, for instance, five times a day at the exact appointed times. He must drop everything and go through the prescribed gesticulation and recitation of the verses while facing Mecca. Before saying his prayer, however, he must perform ablution. The Ablution, using water, must be carried out in a precise manner and sequence. In the absence of water, the faithful can substitute soil for water and go through the practice of “purifying” himself by running soil over his hands, arms, face and feet. After completion of ablution, as prescribed, he may proceed to say his prayer unless he commits flatulence. In that case, he must re-perform the ablution all over again.
Being a good Muslim, particularly a good male Muslim, is indeed a full time job. Male Muslims are obligated to go for Hajj—women don't have to do so. Islam is a man’s religion, through and through. Women are to please men erotically, to attend to them like chattel, and birth them boys.
Going on Hajj and accumulating merit points for admission to Allah’s paradise is reserved for men. Women may also go to Hajj, if they are lucky enough to afford the journey or allowed by their owners, men, to do so. For women, there are no promises that by going on Hajj and paying tribute to the house of Allah they endear themselves to him.
“Women are calamities, but no home should be without one,” is an old Islamic characterization of women. Hence, a woman is a necessity and not much more. In short, Islam treats its believers as children irrespective of age. An extensive cadre of mullahs and imams, who themselves are thoroughly indoctrinated, minister to the children. These professional leeches—the mullahs and imams—systematically program the mind of their charges through liberal use of fear, threats of
hell, and occasional promises of eternal life of bliss in Allah’s paradise if they be obedient good children.
A Muslim is born Muslim, yet he acts as if he independently and through his own labor has discovered the great find; he clings to it as his cherished security blanket; and, would part with his life, rather than giving it up. It is, therefore, understandable what a recent poll has found. Fully 81% of British Muslims consider themselves Muslims first and British second. The 81% know full well that there is absolutely no chance of being harassed, much less persecuted, in Britain for professing their highest loyalty to Islam. So, they come out and admit it. The other 19% are even more Muslim. They are practicing what the Quran teaches—dissimulation. Muslims are taught to lie. They lie when they have to and they lie when they don't have to, just to stay in practice.The bottom-line is that the non-Islamic world has a huge problem on its hands—the ever-encroaching Islam. For as long as there are mosques, madrasehs, and Islamic centers; as long as a vast cadres of well-paid, highly indoctrinated and strategically placed mullahs and imams; and, as long as there are people who prefer to be treated as children, Islam will flourish anywhere and will pose an existential threat to unbelievers. All the excuses, grievances and reasons given for savagery of the jihadists and Islamofascists are side issues.
It is Islam, dummy. It is Islam itself. Get it?
The Coming Perfect JusticeThis is from Alamgir Hussain, in the American Thinker:
Understanding the basic precepts of the Islamic faith is a precondition to grasp the devout Muslim congressman's stand on taking oath by the Quran. Islam only cares for the truth. Allah, the creator of the universe, undertook the final mission of prophetic succession to deliver the divine message in the perfect form through the last Prophet Muhammad (seal of Prophethood) as the Quran says:
"Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of God and the Seal of the prophets..." [Quran 33:40]In the Islamic belief, the Quran which contains Allah's final messages in unaltered form, is thus, the divine book of complete truth and knowledge of the universe and Islam is the perfect religious guidance chosen by Allah for all mankind:
This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. [Quran 5:3]When the creator of the universe has chosen Islam as the only perfect religion for the mankind, all other religions, existing before or to appear later, are either false or incomplete and God disapproves them all. Islam has the perfect prescription for every dealing in human life, such as how humans will sit while eating, take bath, do sex, dress up, deal in trades and collect taxes; what they will eat or drink as well as what he must not do. The state will enforce the dos and don'ts of the absolute commander of the universe to run the society in conformity to His wishes.
The Quran is not only the book of guidance, it is also the book of complete knowledge of the universe. So, the reformist Muslims and their non-Islamic agents have discovered all the formula of modern science, democracy, secularism, human rights and technology in the Quran in recent years. However, the human innovations of the non-Islamic world are naturally fault-prone and are not perfect. Islam only can have these innovations in the perfect form as they come down directly from the knower of all truth. Thus, we have Islamic science, Islamic economy, Islamic banking, Islamic democracy, Islamic human rights, Islamic sex and Islamic technology (Islamic cell phone, TV and fighter jets etc.) in the Islamic world.
Hence Prophet Muhammad, the earthly editor of the Quran, is increasingly being seen as the greatest ever scientist and intellectual in the Islamic world, apart from his being the greatest-ever propeht and man. This upsurge in 'everything Islamic' has much to do with assertions of the Quran like in verses 33:40 and 5:3 cited above. It also goes back to the very inception of Islam. Since Islam is the complete treasure-trove of truth and knowledge, early Muslim conquerors undertook the principle of destroying non-Islamic books or documents they came across.
Ali, Islam's fourth caliph and Prophet Muhammad's dearest companion, cousin and son-in-law, had said that extra-Islamic documents or books that contain information absent in the Quran are false and misleading, while others that contained knowledge already in the Quran are unneccesary and hence, they must be destroyed. On this ground, the 3 rd Caliph Othman order the destruction of the massive library of Alexandria (built by Alexander, ~332 BC) after the Muslims' conquest of Egypt in 641.
Islam also recognizes the period before Islam as the age of Jihiliya (age of ignorance) and a principle of destroying the knowledge, wisdom and customs of period, because of their false or ignoramous nature, were followed during the rule of the first four pious caliphs (till 661), who were the Prophet's companions and trusted friends. After the initial assaults, however, much of pre-Islamic knowledge and intelletaul properties survived during the 90-year rule of the fiercely anti-Muhamamd, anti-Quran godless Omayyads and later the Abbassids.
Interestingly, the Abbasids were more Persian than Arab and yet somewhat pious, who preferred the nominally Islamic Mutazili theology over the orthodox Quranic or Muhammedan Islam. They were in great pursuit of learning and were astonished by vast treasures of knowledge and philosophy that existed before the coming of Muhammad.
To conform to a core Islamic principle of discarding anything from the Jahiliya age, they collected many of original Greek manuscripts from around the kingdom and overseas, translated them into Arabic and destroyed the original transcripts to create an impression that those materials came from the days of Islam. Hence, many of the original Greek manuscripts do not exists and survived only in the Arabic from which Europeans later translated. The translations were mostly done by the Christian, Zoroastrain (Persian) and Jewish sages employed by the Muslim rulers.
Here lies the mysteries of how the Islamic world flourished during the Islamic golden age (8-13 th century) despite Islam being such an anti-intellectual, obscurantist and iconoclastic religion. In the 12th century, however, the Quran-based orthodox Islam, revived by great Islamic theologians like Imam Ghazzali (d. 1111 AD), pushed the exercise of philosophy, science and free thought into the back-burner, resulting in the decline of scientific and intellectual progress in the Islamic kingdoms. For example, the proverbial Islamic ruler Saladin of the crusade, a zealous orthodox Sunni, disposed of the famous library of Cairo, consisting of nearly one million books, scrolls and manuscripts after he defeated the Fatimids in 1171 AD. Some were sold, others burned or the rest were left for rotting. [Walker, 284-288].
Go read the whole thing.
Ethereal
Israeli Prime Minister
Olmert Is
Ready For PeaceFrom Cox and Forkum
Help MeOne of my favorite pop tunes, performed by the wondrous K.D. Lang (once again, thanks to Olivia).
How Do Arab Countries Deal With Muslim Refugees?(Thanks again to Olivia)
You hear how Israelis deal with the Palestinian "refugees" in Gaza and the West Bank (how can they be refugees, when they have their own government?), now
let's take a look at how Arab governments deal with Muslim refugees:
GENEVA: Seventeen people died and 140 would-be migrants were missing at sea Thursday after Yemeni police opened fire on a group of boats attempting to smuggle 515 people from Somalia to Yemen, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)said. Two of four boats carrying mainly Somalis and Ethiopians capsized in the Gulf of Aden late on Wednesday after Yemeni authorities spotted the vessels approaching the coastline. Survivors said Yemeni forces opened fired as two boats offloaded passengers. Yemeni officials said the smugglers returned fire.Now, of course, when the Israeli Defense Force accidentally kills a Palestinian civilian, while attempting to quash the terrorists who rule the streets of the Palestinian territories, the world's media goes into an uproar. But, I guarantee you, you will not hear of this incident in the mainstream media. Nope. You won't hear a word.
It would have been a tree falling in the forest if you didn't read CUANAS.
Why do you think that is?
Global Terror Incident MapThanks to Olivia for sending this on to me.
Click here and you can get the latest updates on Islamic Terrorism around the world. (I will also add a link on the Blogroll.)
It will shock you.
"Peace And Safety"A friend of mine who has an interest in Bible prophecy sent this story along to me. For months now, she has been telling me that eventually we would see the Pope, aligned with the EU, negotiate a "peace" agreement which would ensure Israel's safety. I know that many experts in Bible prophecy have been predicting exactly that for some time.
Now, we see this:
VATICAN CITY - Iran's foreign minister met with Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday and gave the pontiff a message from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Vatican and news reports said. Manouchehr Mottaki and Benedict met briefly after the pope's general audience at the Vatican's Paul VI hall, the Vatican said. It released no details of the talks.Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA, said Mottaki brought a message from Ahmadinejad. The Italian agency ANSA and RAI public TV said the letter did not touch on political issues, but religious ones.The meeting comes weeks after the Vatican indirectly criticized a conference of Holocaust deniers that was held this month in Iran, a Shiite Muslim country. Issuing a statement it said was in connection with the conference, the Holy See said the Holocaust "was a great tragedy before which we cannot remain indifferent" and which must serve as a warning to people's consciences.Benedict also met earlier this month with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who urged Christians to protest Holocaust denials. Ahmadinejad has frequently called for the destruction of Israel and questioned whether the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews took place.During Wednesday's general audience, which drew several thousand faithful, Benedict reiterated his call for world peace."An ardent appeal for peace on earth, one that can translate in a concrete commitment to build (peace) with our lives: this is the task that Christmas entrusts us with," he told the pilgrims.
On Christmas Day, the pope had called for an end of violence in the Middle East and around the world.While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
--- I Thessalonians 5:3
President Gerald Ford DiesFrom AP:
LOS ANGELES - Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only president in America's history never elected to nationwide office, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93. "My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," Mrs. Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."How might our situation be different today had we elected President Ford to a second term, insteading of voting in Jimmy Carter, who allowed the Iranian Revolution, the Hostage Crisis, "Stagflation", and the Soviet takeover of Afghanistan?
The Level Of The People Accusing IsraelThis appeared on Syrian TV. Yes, that's right, according to the Syrians, the Israeli Defense Forces would terrorize Santa.
A Christmas
Present
For
The "Anti-War"
CrowdYesterday,
the death toll in the Iraq war rose above the death toll which America suffered on 9/11. What better statistic could have greeted the "anti-war" crowd on the Xmas holiday?
BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 36 Iraqis died Tuesday in bombings, officials said, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad. Separately, the deaths of six U.S. soldiers pushed the American toll beyond the number of victims in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.So, you think I'm being harsh? You think, perhaps, that I am insinuating that the "anti-war" crowd is not sincere? That they are actually happy to have the number of dead American Armed Forces in Iraq rise above the level of Americans dead on 9/11?
Yes, you are right. I am, in fact, being that harsh.
Ask yourself this question: Would the American media have reported the day the death toll in WWII rose above the death toll in Pearl Harbor?
The "anti-war" crowd is a complete sham. They don't hate war. They hate George Bush, Republicans, and American power. Those who are truly Pacifists are illegitimate human beings who, apparently, would have allowed blacks to continue on being enslaved in the American South, would have allowed Jews to be totally wiped off the face of the Earth, would have allowed the Japanese to continue their raping and pillaging of China and the known world during the 1940's.
Pacifism is a sham, the "anti-War" crowd is a sham, and the American mainstream media is anti-American.
I am here to write the truth. The truth is the good that exists in our world comes, mostly, from the hegemony of Western Civilization. Our power which allows us to keep sea lanes open, and trade flowing, and communications networking, allows for the growth of economies around the world, the innovation of new technologies and medical treatments, the extension of lifespans, the farming of fruits, vegetables, and even roses, in the desert.
The West has transformed the world. We have beaten back the squalor that was the Middle Ages, the age of barbarism. The world we live in now is only possible because brave men drew swords and guns, and dropped bombs on the barbarians of the world. And, the truth is, often, during the last 1,300 years, the barbarians that those brave men were fighting were Muslims. And, the reason this is is because the Muslim religion, the Koran itself, tells its adherents that they are to spread Islam by the sword.
Unfortunately, we live in an age when we must must, once again, beat back the Islamic barbarians. But, I am starting to wonder if, in order to do so, we must first beat back the fake Pacifists among us.
Great Moments In The History Of PacifismThe Archbishop of Canterbury seems to have completely lost all ability to make any moral distinctions whatsoever:
“As soon as we try to sort out which we give the advantage to we shall be deciding to some extent who we’re against; and that will undoubtedly create another round of poverty and anger and bitterness...”Both deserve the best. And the best we can give them in such circumstances is at least the assurance of friendship.“Go and see, go and listen; let them know, Israelis and Palestinians alike, that they will be heard and not forgotten,” he told the congregation at Canterbury Cathedral in southeast England.And, not only are we not to make an effort to decide who is in the right on any particular issue, but also, we are not to defend ourselves if we happen to be attacked, because it is "deeply wrong in the human heart."
“Every wall we build to defend ourselves and keep out what may destroy us is also a wall that keeps us in and that will change us in ways we did not choose or want.“Every human solution to fears and threats generates a new set of fears and threats.”Williams said whether it was Israel’s controversial security barrier in the West Bank, Britain’s planned renewal of its Trident missile nuclear deterrent system or tactics to protect oneself against harm, defences were destructive.“Defences do something terrible to us as well as to our real and imagined enemies,” he said.
Williams’s sermon comes after a visit to the West Bank town of Bethlehem — a place of pilgrimage for Christians because of its significance as the birthplace of Jesus — to see at firsthand the lives of ordinary Palestinians.During the trip, he described the Israeli-built security barrier that surrounds the town as symbolising what was “deeply wrong in the human heart”.Such ideological pacifism is dangerous. These kinds of Pacifists are radicals who would rather watch the decent die, and organized civilization crumble, than to see anyone offer up even the least in military resistance.
If it is true that all that needs to happen for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing, then it is also true that the more ideological Pacifists we have in the world, the more evil will triumph.
James Brown - Dead At 73Very sad.
I wake up, here, early Christmas morning to this news:
James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73. Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said. Copsidas said the cause of death was uncertain. "We really don't know at this point what he died of," he said. Pete Allman, a radio personality in Las Vegas who had been friends with Brown for 15 years, credited Brown with jump-starting his career and motivating him personally and professionally.
"He was a very positive person. There was no question he was the hardest working man in show business," Allman said. "I remember Mr. Brown as someone who always motivated me, got me reading the Bible." Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid- footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style.
If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator.
Yep, and believe me, as a drummer, I can tell you that James Brown's tunes wrote the book on modern drumming. Every drummer (maybe exaggerating only a little bit) says his major influences are Clyde Stubblefield (James' drummer) and John Bonham (from Led Zeppelin). Put those two styles together and you've got modern rock drumming. Take the Bonham out and you've got Hip Hop and much of modern Jazz. He redefined music across the spectrum.
Really, James was the Elvis of Soul music. James was an unparalleled original (forgive me the adjective attatched to the definitive). He was the Sex Machine who stayed on the scene, and still will.
We'll miss you, James.
Wafa Sultan In Readers DigestThe Call
Wafa Sultan and her husband, David, were jolted awake by the sound of a ringing telephone. It was just before dawn on a summer morning in 2005, and Wafa couldn't help feeling nervous as she hurried to take the call. Two of their three children had moved to a nearby suburb of Los Angeles to attend college. Were they okay? A voice on the line identified himself as working for Al Jazeera television, the Arabic-language network based in Qatar which, in ten years, had become the most influential news channel in the Middle East.
The producer explained that based on some pieces she had written on Islam and terrorism for his obscure Arabic-language website, a friend of Wafa's had suggested her as a guest on one of the network's programs. Wafa was stunned. She was not a professional writer, much less a scholar on the Middle East.
Though she had grown up in Syria, she had called California home for 16 years, and her days were now completely devoted to her family. Then again, she did have strong opinions about Islamic extremism, and she was utterly unafraid to express them. So if Al Jazeera wanted to talk to a wife and mother in Los Angeles about this important subject, sure, why not? Wafa accepted. What no one could have guessed was that she was about to become a controversial new voice in the Islamic world -- and for many moderate Muslims, a model of courage.
LinkIf you don't know who Wafa Sultan is, she is a Physician from Syria and she is, to my mind, among the bravest Arab voices speaking out against Islamofascism. Check out this video.
Wafa and her family fled Syria to get away from the Islamofascists. The Reader's Digest article discusses their move to America:
Wafa had never been out of Syria before, spoke little English and had two small children in tow: a four-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son. Moreover, she lacked the credentials to practice medicine in the United States, and within a month found herself pregnant with her third child. To make it through their first few years in Los Angeles, she and her husband worked a variety of service jobs, including trading shifts as cashiers at a Texaco station. Still, being out of Syria made them "so happy," Wafa says. She took part in the social life of the local Muslim community, yet insisted that her children "live the American life." They were taught English from the start, and while they can understand Arabic, the younger two don't speak it to this day. But the culture Wafa left behind was never far from her mind. She started writing opinion pieces on women, Islam and radicalism for the local Arabic press. Wafa was careful not to be openly critical of religion, instead questioning an interpretation of Islam that seemed to breed terrorists and wife-beaters. Even so, some thought Wafa had gone too far. After one editorial came out, she received a phone call from a man who warned that "even in America, there are limits." The person on the line claimed to be from a prominent Islamic organization. Intimidation of this sort made Wafa nervous and her editors more timid. Then came September 11. Watching the World Trade Center towers fall on her television screen, Wafa felt enraged and emboldened. "I don't care anymore. I will write what I want," she told David. Too few people were speaking the truth about radical Islam and she, for one, would stop holding back. The Al Jazeera interview blindsided her, but she came prepared intellectually, as you can see from the above video. Reader's Digest records her shock at being asked to debate a man in such an openly misogynistic culture:
Sultan had no idea that someone else would be on the show to challenge her views. Raised in the Muslim culture, she certainly never expected to be placed in direct opposition to a man. Given the floor first, Sultan became impassioned as she spoke. "Religion in our countries is the sole source of education," she argued. "It is the sole source from which terrorists drink." Ahmad bin Mohammed changed the subject to President Bush. "Our guest asked how a youth blows himself up. Wasn't it better for her to ask how a President kills innocent people in Iraq?" Sultan woke up to the reality of her first appearance on live television: This wasn't just a conversation, but an all-out debate. She drew in a breath and opened her mouth, and the words burst forth like water through a sprung levy.Yes, she did, and her world hasn't been the same since:
The program, Sultan later found out, was watched by millions in the Middle East. When the taping ended, she left immediately with her husband for the drive back home. "You were great!" he said, beaming. Neither had any idea how drastically their lives would now change. Sultan's cell phone was ringing from the time she and David left the station. Soon, death threats were clogging her answering machine. Her name began appearing in Arab newspapers and, ominously, on radical websites. "I was leading a quiet, peaceful life," she recalls, "and suddenly it was totally different." It was Wafa Sultan's second appearance on Al Jazeera, last February, that brought her worldwide notoriety. This time, she debated Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli, an Egyptian cleric, and once again gave no quarter. "The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions or a clash of civilizations," she declared. "It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another that belongs to the 21st century." To Al-Khouli, she added, "You can believe in stones, brother, as long as you don't throw them at me." At one point, Al-Khouli proclaimed that Sultan was blaspheming against Islam and the Prophet Mohammed. After the interview aired, Syrian clerics denounced Sultan as an infidel. The death threats mounted.Go read the whole thing. This woman is a hero of Western Civilization, and I am very happy to see that her voice is being heard in such a traditional periodical as Reader's Digest.
Iraqi General Who Testifies To Saddam's Possession Of WMD's Is A Born Again ChristianNothing to see here. Move along.Thanks to my friend
Always On Watch for making me aware of this fact. General Georges Sada who has given us the most detailed account of the workings of Saddam Hussein's inner circle is a man of real faith. Sada has testified repeatedly in the full view of the American public and the media that Hussein packed the WMD's onto trucks and sent them to Syria in the months leading up to the war, and the media has ignored this fact.
God help us in living with the wall of lies which are shielding us from any chance of an encounter with reality in our world. God help us.
Read this review (from Amazon) of the Generals book, and tell me if you think this man is a liar:
Without exaggeration, I must say that this may be the most important book of the year. Why would I make such a strong claim? Read on.... Author Georges Sada was that rare honest Iraqi government insider during Saddam Hussein's reign who was tolerated despite his candor ... in fact, he even gained Saddam's trust, even though he frequently bucked the will of the iron-fisted dictator. In General Sada's unique position, he was able to observe some of the worst of Saddam's behavior and trickery and confirms in this book not only the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), but also the extraordinary lengths that Saddam went to hide these weapons. He blows the cover off of the United Nations officials and their craven and corrupt complicity in Hussein's schemes to hide his own murderous intents while lining their own pockets. As one reads, one has the sense that General Sada is a loyal Iraqi who loves his nation and his countrymen, who writes out of a sense of grief, anger, and alarm over what Saddam perpetrated. Sada's book is a timely warning against complacency towards the terrorist insurgents who would do all they could to neuter America, enslave the Middle East, and cannibalize Iraq. For all of those who have naively and ignorantly bleated about the "lack of WMDs" or America's "phony" reasons for going to war, this book is a real shocker ... a much-needed wake-up call ... a painful, but potentially life-saving eye-opener. I hope that Joel Stein, the LA TIMES columnist who confesses to "not supporting our troops" will read a copy of this book immediately. Again, I cannot adequately convey the sense of urgency I feel about the importance of this book. Read it for yourself and see what I am talking about. One interesting note: as a Christian, General Sada was in a tiny minority among Saddam's inner circle, surrounded by Iraqi leaders who cynically and callously used Islam as a mask for their own twisted and sadistic ends. Writing as a man of faith, Sada has the unique ability to draw hope and redemption out of difficult and tragic circumstances. Far from being depressing, this book is ultimately uplifiting and hopeful. As others have noted, there is growing evidence from many sources to verify General Sada's claims. Of particular note are tapes of more than 3,000 hours of Saddam Hussein meeting with his war cabinet and millions of pages of documents that contain vital information about Saddam's WMD program and plans for transporting the WMDs out of the country in order to dupe the weapons inspectors.... American and world citizens must demand that these tapes and documents be immediately released, translated, and analyzed in their entirety. So many politicians and media "experts" have staked their careers on a lie: "No WMDs existed." It's time for the truth to come out and for the problem to be resolved. The world will not get a second chance. Thanks, General Sada, for having the courage and integrity to write such an important, informative, and ultimately redemptive book.I am very upset by this revelation. I know it must sound like a weird thing for me to say, but here's why. It really angers me that the media has ignored this guy.
If he were a Muslim man, with a tribal motivation for opposing Saddam, or if he were an atheist, or whatever, then it would make sense to ignore him, but damn it, the guy is, from the testimony of this book, and the people who have read it say, a man of real faith, and the media just ignores that as if it means nothing.
Because, they are, as Ann Coulter says, GODLESS.
They don't understand. They believe that faith is like a little game we play with ourselves. They don't understand that this thing we call faith is a demonstrable thing.
Yesterday,
Joel Rosenberg wrote that column about the surge of new born again Christians in the Muslim world. I would bet a large amount of money that I could pick the Christians out of a crowd. I know a Christian when I meet one, because a Christian is a real thing. There is a real element of something (indefinable though it may be). The wind blows and you can't see it, but you know it's there.
But, the media, in lockstep just doesn't acknowledge this.
And, of course, the whole world is balanced on the fact that there are people who fear God present with us, and when it is taken away, as the pre-Millenialists say it will be, the whole world is going to collapse because of it.
Thanks to God that he cleansed us so that the Holy Spirit can live inside of us, and God help the media who can not see the evidence right before their face
Merry Christmas To All The Little Drummers Out ThereBecause, in a way, we are all little children beating our drums, right?
One Of Us What if God were one of us, just a stranger on a bus, trying to make his way home? He was, and that's the whole point of the Christmas Holidays.
Enjoy.
Record Number
Of Ex-Muslims
Celebrate
Christmas
This YearGood news about the Good News, from Joel Rosenberg:
More Muslims converted to faith in Jesus Christ over the past decade than at any other time in human history. A spiritual revolution is underway throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. As a result, a record number of ex-Muslims are celebrating Christmas this year, despite intense persecution, assassinations, and widespread church bombings.During the writing of Epicenter, my wife and kids and I lived in the Mideast for three months. During that time, I had the privilege of interviewing more than three dozen Arab and Iranian pastors and evangelical leaders throughout the region. The picture they paint is one of Christianity being dramatically resurrected in the region of its birth. A snapshot:Iraq: more than 5,000 new Muslim converts to Christianity have been identified since the end of major combat operations, with 14 new churches opened in Baghdad, and dozens of new churches opened in Kurdistan, some of which have 500 to 800 members. Also, more than 1 million Bibles shipped into the country since 2003, and pastors report Iraqis are snatching them up so fast they constantly need more Bibles.Egypt: some reports say 1 million Egyptians have trusted Christ over the past decade or so. The Egyptian Bible Society told me they used to sell about 3,000 copies of the JESUS film a year in the early 1990s. But last year they sold 600,000 copies, plus 750,000 copies of the Bible on tape (in Arabic) and about a half million copies of the Arabic New Testament. "Egyptians are increasingly hungry for God's Word," an Egyptian Christian leader told me. Last Christmas, I had the privilege of visiting the largest Christian congregation in the Middle East, which meets in an enormous cave on the outskirts of Cairo. Some 10,000 believers worship there every weekend. A prayer conference the church held in May 2005 drew some 20,000 believers.Afghanistan: only 17 Muslim converts to Christianity before 9/11/01, but now more than 10,000. Dozens of baptisms every week.Kazakstan: only 3 known Christians in 1990, but now more than 15,000.Uzbekistan: no known Christians in 1990, but now more than 30,000.Sudan: more than 1 million Sudanese have converted to Christianity just since 2000, and some 5 million have become Christians since the early 1990s, despite a radical Islamic regime and an on-going genocide that has killed more than 200,000. Seminaries are being held in caves to train pastors to shepherd the huge numbers of people coming to Christ. Why such a dramatic spiritual awakening? "People have seen real Islam, and they want Jesus instead," one Sudanese evangelical leader told me.Iran: in 1979, there were only 500 known Muslim converts to Christianity, but today Iranian pastors and evangelical leaders tell me there are more than 1 million Iranian believers in Jesus Christ, most of whom meet in underground house churches. In December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad al Qataani, a leading Saudi cleric, appeared on a live interview on Aljazeera satellite television to confirm that, sure enough, Muslims were turning to Jesus in alarming numbers. "In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity," Al Qataani warned. "Every day, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity." Stunned, the interviewer interrupted the cleric. "Hold on! Let me clarify. Do we have six million converting from Islam to Christianity?" Al Qataani repeated his assertion. "Every year," the cleric confirmed, adding, "a tragedy has happened."One of the most dramatic developments is that many Muslims -- including Shiites in Iran and Iraq -- are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus and thus coming into churches explaining that they have already converted and now need a Bible and guidance on how to follow Jesus. I describe a number of these stories in the book. Having just returned from three weeks in the Mideast, I have heard many more, and will be sharing some of them in the new year. This is in fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. The Hebrew Prophet Joel told us that "in the last days, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days....And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved." (Joel 2:28-32)Bottom line: It's not being reported by the mainstream media, but the God of the Bible is moving powerfully and dramatically throughout the Muslim world. The number of Arab and Iranian Christians is surging despite wars, rumors of wars, and terrible persecution. These fellow brothers and sisters now need our fervent prayers and our practical help as they seek to reach epicenter with the love and forgiveness of Jesus in 2007.
Congressman Goode Under ThreatCongressman Virgil Goode made the harsh-sounding, but self-evident, observation that the more Muslims who immigrate into this country the more Muslims will be elected into Congress. And, for this he is being castigated.
Here's a link to his letter. It is not a statement of masterful technique, but as I say, its truth is self-evident.
Here's the thing, if you doubt that more Muslim voters is a bad thing for America, then name me one place in the world, where the majority of the population is made up of Muslims, that is a nice place to live. In fact, name me one place in which Muslims make up even 10 percent of the population that is not having trouble with riots and terrorism.
Go ahead, I'm waiting.
I'm just sitting here cleaning under my fingernails while I listen to Handel's Messiah on my new stereo.
Oh, and by the way, in strict Islam, music is not allowed to be made of anything other than drums, singing and chanting, so, you know, the Messiah would not be composed in such a society.
Don't believe me? Well, then please name me one beautiful Islamic symphony or orchestral work.
Ok, like I said, I'm waiting.
Still waiting.
So anyway, the point of this post is not to send you on some impossible scavenger hunt. The point is, I want you to see what Baron has to say about the situation Congressman Virgil Goode finds himself in now that he has dared to criticize Muslims.
From Baron at Gates of Vienna:
Congressman Virgil Goode is getting treatment straight out of the CAIR playbook:
Step 1:
Official spokesman denounces the offender as a bigot and racist. Asserts that Muslims are just like other Americans, want to live in peace and enjoy the respect and tolerance that is their right etc blah yak.
Step 2:
Prominent non-Muslims fall over themselves to pile on the offending infidel along with CAIR.
Step 3:
If enough useful idiots don’t show up for step 2, twist some arms and call in favors until enough join the pile-on.
Step 4:
Saturate the airwaves with the CAIR message, as delivered by the usual reasonable-sounding talking heads.
Step 5:
Mau-mau the offender. This step includes veiled threats, overt threats, sabotage of the offender’s funding sources (if he’s in public office) or his employer (if he’s not), and any dirty tricks that might prove useful.
Step 6:
Repeat steps 1 through 5 until the victim is reduced to a smoking politically correct crater.We saw steps 1 through 4 in action yesterday and the day before. Today it’s time for Step 5. According to The Martinsville Bulletin:Franklin County Sheriff Quint Overton said he had extra officers at the courthouse Thursday because Goode had received several threatening phone calls.Asked at the press conference whether he had received any death threats, Goode responded, “No comment.”So now it’s started.Read the rest of the article — it’s an AP story, so you’ll find all the other steps highlighted, with the general MSM stance clearly laid out, in full Useful Idiot mode ...Go read the whole thing at Gates of Vienna.
But, They Don't Really Mean It -It's Just Bluster1. McMaster has harbored leading al Qaeda operatives, including Adnan el-Shukrijumah, Jaber A. Elbaneh, Abderraouf Jdey, and Amer el-Maati. This finding was a result of the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who was taken into custody in Karachi by ISI officials on March 3, 2003. A BOLO for these operatives was issued by former US Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller on March 21, 2004. A reward of $5 million has been posted for each of these agents. Adnan el Shukrijumah has been described by the US Justice Department as "the next Mohammad Atta" who has been commissioned to commandeer the next attack on U.S. soil. McMaster is an ideal location for these operatives to study since it houses a 5 megawatt nuclear reactor, one of the largest reactors for educational purposes in the western hemisphere. The first account of these operatives at McMaster was written by Bill Gertz of "The Washington Times" in a piece entitled "Al Qaeda Pursued a Dirty Bomb." It appeared on October 17, 2003 and remains posted on the internet. Subsequent and considerably more substantial articles appeared on DEBKA, the Israeli intelligence website - http://www.debka-net-weekly.com/issue.pl?username=&inumber=132 Go to Insight at this site for additional information: http://www.acsa2000.net/dirtybombplot.html 2. When the operatives left McMaster, 180 pounds of nuclear material was reported missing. The story of the missing waste was first reported by John Loftus of WABC News on November 7, 2003. This story also remains on the internet. McMaster has insisted that no material was ever missing from the reactor but radiological material was reported missing from their pharmacological and medical facilities. The matter of the missing material was mentioned by Attorney Janice L. Kephart of the 9/11 Commission in an address before the House Committee on the Judiciary entitled "The Need to Implement WHIT to Protect Homeland Security. This address is also accessible on the internet. 3. The College of Engineering at McMaster contains an over-abundance of professors from terror-sponsoring countries. In the Division of Earthquake Engineering, 9 out of 10 faculty members are from the Universities of Cairo and Alexandria. For verification, go to this site: http://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/civil/vibs/ Similarly, the three full-professors at the College of Engineering all hail from The University of Cairo. Ditto the Dean, Vice President, and the Department Head of the same department. Jane Corbin of BBC points out in her book on al Qaeda that the engineering department at the University of Cairo remains under the control of the "Syndicate." The Syndicate, or Trade Union of Engineers, has always been a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood. 4. Members of the Ontario Provincial Police have confirmed that McMaster has been under scrutiny for a long time; that many of the students have ties to radical Islam and terrorist organizations; and that Islamic members of the faculty have conducted clandestine meetings at an off-campus address in Hamilton. 5. Egyptian Islamic websites affirm the presence of jihadists at McMaster, verify reports that professors within the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster are members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that the university may be the epicenter for the next terrorist attack on American soil. 6. Hundreds of postings on the internet calling for the jihad and the nuclear destruction of America have been traced back to McMaster. Many of the postings have been made by a graduate student at McMaster who transports dangerous goods for the Canadian government. 7. Two of the terrorists who were taken into custody in the plot to kill the Canadian Prime Minister and to blow up Parliament were students from McMaster. 8. Hamid Mir, the only journalist to interview Osama bin Laden in the wake of 9/11, has confirmed that Anas el-Liby, a founder of al Qaeda, attended McMaster and managed, along with other al Qaeda operatives, to steal 180 pounds of nuclear material from the poorly guarded facilities at the school. For reporting these findings, Dr. Williams has been sued by McMaster University for $4 million plus punitive damages. This suit has been allowed to proceed in Canadian court despite the fact that Dr. Williams is an American citizen who should be protected by the Bill of Rights and American law which stipulates that truth is an ultimate defense. The case, fuelled by Islamic contributions, represents the first attempt of an academic institution to limit the research of an academician, despite the fact that such research is vital for our national security. If he loses the case, the American people will be left in the dark and the American Hiroshima may become a reality.(Source)Meanwhile,
British police say it will be a miracle if they are NOT hit with a terror attack over the Holidays.
America is being warned by intelligence sources that we face an imminent threat of a "large scale" attack.
Iran is warning.
And,
the Chief of Police in London says Al Qaeda is a greater threat than the Nazis.
Who Murders More Muslims,JewsOr, Other Muslims?ANSWER: Muslims.
Saddam killed many. Now Hamas and Fatah are killing each other in DROVES. And Iraqi Shias and Iraqi Sunnis are committing "mutual genocide" (Tm).
So, er... um.... why don't as**oles like Carter and Baker and Annan demand that these other Muslim-on-Muslim wars end!? If they were REAL humanists, then they would. And they would also demand an end to the Muslim on Hindi violence in Kashmir, and the Muslim on Buddhist violence in Thailand.
But they don't. Because they are not real humanists. They're just anti-Semites, and anti-Americans who'd rather appease jihadists them fight them.
NOTE: The photo is of the bombed-out Golden Mosque. This mosque - the holiest one for Shias - was destroyed by Sunnis, NOT JOOOOZE. So why don't Dhimmi Carter and James Baker and Kofi Annan demand that of these Iraqi Muslim groups stop the violence?! Why don't they volunteer to negotiate a settlement between these two Muslim groups!?Go read the rest over at The Astute Bloggers.
Zawahiri Says He Won Election For DemocratsI wonder if they'll thank him:
Al Qaeda has sent a message to leaders of the Democratic party that credit for the defeat of congressional Republicans belongs to the terrorists.In a portion of the tape from al Qaeda No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, made available only today, Zawahri says he has two messages for American Democrats."The first is that you aren't the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost. Rather, the Mujahideen -- the Muslim Ummah's vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq -- are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost," Zawahri said, according to a full transcript obtained by ABC News.Zawahri calls on the Democrats to negotiate with him and Osama bin Laden, not others in the Islamic world who Zawahri says cannot help."And if you don't refrain from the foolish American policy of backing Israel, occupying the lands of Islam and stealing the treasures of the Muslims, then await the same fate," he said.Maybe the could make Zawahiri the Chairman of the Democratic National Commitee.
"The One Bomb State"Ron Rosenbaum echoes what I have been writing for the past few years:
The logic of nuclear deterrence that once prevailed in the U.S./USSR Cold War no longer obtains. Now one side (Iran) feels it can absorb and survive nuclear retaliation if necessary to exterminate the other side (Israel). Once Israel had a nuclear deterrent to conventional attack. Now however consider the words to be found in footnote 55 to the indictment of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for inciting to genocide. Footnote 55 to the indictment, the “Referral” to the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention described in the previous post, is the heart of the matter, the heart of darknesss. These words, this genocidal sentiment, which I have been citing since 2002 in writing about the situation, in postulating the prospect of a second Holocuast, were uttered by the leader of what the Western press has lately taken to calling the “pragmatic conservatives” in Iran, Ayatollah Hashemi Rasfanjani:“If one day the world of Islam comes to possess the weapons currently in Israel’s possession [meaning nuclear weapons]—on that day this method of global arrogance would come to a dead end. This…is because the use of a nuclear bomb in Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam.”“Nothing on the ground” versus mere “damage”. In other words, as one rather dramatic version has it, Israel is “a one bomb state”. A state you can wipe off the map, along with its people, with a single nuclear device. Yes Terhan might be destroyed in return, other Muslim capitals as well perhaps, by Israeli retaliation. But at the end of that bleak day there will be “nothing on the ground” in Israel, once the homeland of five million Jews. And there will still be a billion or so Muslims, many of whom will be celebrating the outcome. The Soviet Union was not suicidal, thus deterrence worked in the Cold War. There is no deterrent to suicidal fanatics who are willing to accept millions of casualties, aka “martyrs” to accomplish the murder of millions of Jews. All “a one bomb state” requires for its extermination is, well. one bomb. Once Iran was distant from Israel (though within range of the Shehab 3 missile). now Israel’s borders are surrounded by Iranian catspaws, Hizbullah and Hamas. Is there any doubt that, one way or another, sooner or later “one bomb” can reach Tel Aviv? Remind me how Iran would “lose” this war. There is no deterrent to suicidal martyrdom, involuntary mass martrydom. No deterrent that depends on belief in the value of life by genocidal murderers on a “martyrdom mission”. Is there a solution to this problem aside from pre-emptive strikes which will likely be catastrophic for both sides and probably only postpone a second Holocaust? Are there any deterrrents that will stop Ahmadinejad and his ilk from carrying out their genocidal designs? I wish I could believe there were. Any ideas?From what I can tell, no one has come up with any workable ideas, other than bombing Iran's nuclear facilities hard and often.
Jimmy Carter: Anti-Semite? Why Jimmy Carter Is Afraid To Debate Alan DershowitzJimmy Carter wrote a book called Palestine, Not Apartheid, which purports to explain what's going on with regards to the Middle East Conflict. The book is filled with distortions and factual errors, not the least of which is the use of the term "Apartheid" in reference to the state of Israel.
Alan Dershowitz offered to debate Carter on the subject of the book, but Carter replied that Dershowitz knows nothing about Israel. What a friggin' joke.
Check out this article/response from Dershowitz:
BOSTON GLOBEWhy won't Carter debate his book?By Alan Dershowitz December 21, 2006YOU CAN ALWAYS tell when a public figure has written an indefensible book: when he refuses to debate it in the court of public opinion. And you can always tell when he's a hypocrite to boot: when he says he wrote a book in order to stimulate a debate, and then he refuses to participate in any such debate. I'm talking about former president Jimmy Carter and his new book "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid."...As Carter knows, I've been to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, many times -- certainly more times than Carter has been there -- and I've written three books dealing with the subject of Middle Eastern history, politics, and the peace process. The real reason Carter won't debate me is that I would correct his factual errors. It's not that I know too little; it's that I know too much.Nor is Carter the unbiased observer of the Middle East that he claims to be. He has accepted money and an award from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan , saying in 2001: "This award has special significance for me because it is named for my personal friend, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan." This is the same Zayed, the long-time ruler of the United Arab Emirates, whose $2.5 million gift to the Harvard Divinity School was returned in 2004 due to Zayed's rampant Jew-hatred. Zayed's personal foundation, the Zayed Center, claims that it was Zionists, rather than Nazis, who "were the people who killed the Jews in Europe" during the Holocaust. It has held lectures on the blood libel and conspiracy theories about Jews and America perpetrating Sept. 11. Carter's acceptance of money from this biased group casts real doubt on his objectivity and creates an obvious conflict of interest....Jimmy Carter isn't brave for beating up on Israel. He's a bully. And like all school-yard bullies, underneath the tough talk and bravado, there's a nagging insecurity and a fear that one day he'll have to answer for himself in a fair fight.When Jimmy Carter's ready to speak at Brandeis, or anywhere else, I'll be there. If he refuses to debate, I will still be there -- ready and willing to answer falsity with truth in the court of public opinion.Alan Dershowitz is a professor of law at HarvardUniversity. His most recent book is "Preemption: A Knife that Cuts Both Ways."
Lover, You Should Have Come OverJeff Buckley was one of the most extraordinary artists in the history of rock music.
Saudi-Bound Stewardess Banned From Taking Bible On PlaneIt's good to see that the mainstream press is reporting this.
This article is from the London Telegraph. It is not a surprise that the stewardess was banned from taking a Bible on a Saudi-bound plane, because it is illegal to possess a Bible within the borders of Saudi Arabia in the first place:
An air stewardess is claiming religious discrimination against an airline which she says banned her from taking the Bible to Saudi Arabia.The stewardess has been told by BMI that it is against the law of the insular Middle Eastern country to bring in religious books other than the Koran.The woman, who is understood to be a committed Christian, takes her bible everywhere she goes and is now set to take the airline to an industrial tribunal claiming discrimination on religious grounds. On its web site the Foreign Office says of Saudi Arabia: "The importation and use of narcotics, alcohol, pork products and religious books, apart from the Koran, and artefacts are forbidden." Another thing not allowed within the borders of Saudi Arabia? Jews.
Here's a screen-capture from the Saudi Tourism site saying, "No Jews Allowed."
Islam Vs. ChristianityA World ApartAlexandra Van Maltzen, of All Things Beautiful, has one of the best blogs on the net. Here,
in this post, she artfully distinguishes between Islam and Christianity. These are important points. We must be clear, we are not, as Muslims and Christians, heirs of a common Abrahamic faith. To believe so, is to believe the Father of Lies himself:
There appears to be a three-part reason for Muslim outrage against the United States, and the West in general:
1. According to the Koran, any Insult to Islam is a blasphemy that is subject to severe punishment and even death. 2. According to Islam, the Koran is the inerrant, eternal, and ultimate word of Allah, issued by his final and greatest Prophet. This implies that Muslims, as followers of the Koran, are morally superior to the followers of any other religion. As such, Muslims alone are authorized by Allah to establish law. As the Koran says: [3.110] Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong [through Islamic law], and believing in Allah. If only the People of the Book had faith, it were best for them: among them are some who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors. 3. Thus the rescue of an Islamic country’s people by a group of Infidel nations, regardless of the bloodiness of that country’s Muslim ruler, can be seen as an unwelcome exposure of Islamic weakness. Additionally, the U.S. and Coalition roles in setting up a democratic and secular form of government is, to devout Muslims, an overt usurpation of Islam’s Allah-given moral authority over mankind. To these Muslims, the “perverted transgressors,” otherwise known as “the People of the Book (Christians and Jews),” are sitting in the seat of power rightfully held by Allah, dictating terms to Allah’s people. This is the ultimate Insult to Islam, which claims to be the steward of divine laws given to Muslims by Allah himself.More generally, Infidels insult and humiliate Muslims simply by being successful while Muslims and Islamic nations languish in poverty and chaos. Unwilling to question the usefulness of Allah’s perfect laws, the only acceptable explanation for the abject state of Muslims is that there is a vast conspiracy of Jews and Christians against them. This is the conspiracy to humiliate Muslims that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad railed against in his speech.
Our Insult to Islam is that we Infidels have not learned our proper place, in lowly submission to Muslims. Infidels are to be tolerated, the Koran says, but only on terms that the Koran sets. These terms require subservience. Any relation with an Infidel nation that does not explicitly acknowledge Islam’s superiority is, by itself, a humiliation.
Ahh, perfect time to introduce Mathew
10:34-39 [as well in part Luke
12:51-12:53 and Micah
7:6], who quotes Jesus to have said the following:
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household." Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."As David tells us, "many people have accused Jesus of inciting violence because of these verses." So, what sets us apart? The context apart from just about everything else, of course....
The International Bible Society, or IBS,
explain the main purpose of Matthew, "to prove to his Jewish readers that Jesus is their Messiah."
He does this primarily by showing how Jesus in his life and ministry fulfilled the OT Scriptures. Although all the Gospel writers quote the OT, Matthew includes nine proof texts unique to his Gospel (1:22–23; 2:15; 2:17–18; 2:23; 4:14–16; 8:17; 12:17–21; 13:35; 27:9–10) to drive home his basic theme: Jesus is the fulfillment of the OT predictions of the Messiah. Matthew even finds the history of God’s people in the OT recapitulated in some aspects of Jesus’ life (see, e.g., his quotation of Hos 11:1 in 2:15). To accomplish his purpose Matthew also emphasizes Jesus’ Davidic lineage (see Recipients, p. 1945).
And David continues to put Matthew's quote into the proper context, explaining that Christians "believe that these verses describe what happens when a person accepts Christ and leaves the religion of his family".
And that is the crux of it.
"Islam is not a religion as we in the United States usually define it, because Islam does not consider religion to be a private matter." Instead, Islam claims the power of law – a very public matter.Furthermore, its laws grant legal and economic rights according to each person’s religion, and
it gives Muslims political power over non-Muslims. It also gives Muslims a moral imperative to conquer all of the world’s non-Muslims and establish Islamic governance over them. Thus Islam can be better understood as a political ideology than as a religion.Islam feels respected only when all other powers, be they religious or political, submit to it. Islam also declares that its adherents can justly exert lethal force when they believe Islam has been insulted by a lack of proper respect for its superiority.
Nowadays, when I hear someone say that Islam is a religion of peace, it reminds me of a line from Tim Burton’s disturbing comedy, Mars Attacks: “We have come in peace, please surrender the planet immediately!”Go read the whole thing over at All Things Beautiful.
Perhaps Vampire Is A Bit Strong ...But, I really do not like James Baker, and I must admit,
I will be happy to see him come apart at the wrinkles (thanks to Deb at Wal-Mart Apologists):
Maariv journalist Ben Caspit reports that he has obtained documentation which shows that the law firm in which former American secretary of state James Baker is senior partner used an Israeli agent to bypass the US sanctions on business dealings with Iraq. Houston-based Baker Botts, with extensive dealings in the Arab world, earned tens of millions of dollars in fees from a deal it brokered between the Korean Hyundai concern and the Iraqi government at the peak of the sanctions imposed on the government of Saddam Hussein, according to Israeli businessman Nir Gouaz, who has been asked in 1998 by Baker's office to mediate in the deal. Now Gouaz wants to come clean and spill the beans to show Baker's hypocrisy and conflicts of interest. "I read all the essays about Baker's vision, about the Baker Report, about the man whom the United States placed at the head of the committee that is to decide on the future of the Middle East, and I decided that there is a limit to chutzpah. The time has come to tell the story," Gouaz told Ma'ariv.Go read the whole thing.
The Saudi Hate Campaign BackfiresFrom the American Thinker (thanks to Olivia):
For decades the Saudis have sent out money and missionaries to establish radical West-hating madrassas and mosques all over the world. Many American mosques are controlled by the Saudis, and Saudi-funded Muslim "civil rights" organizations peddle a carefully tailored PR campaign about Muslim victimization to the American sucker media. All this serves the Wahhabi creed, one of the most reactionary movements in Islam. One result of Saudi fundamentalism is Al Qaida, Bin Laden and 9/11. Next month, during the giant annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, the Saudi campaign to radicalize the Muslim world may come back to bite it in its ample rear. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims will travel in from Iran, according to Amir Taheri's Sunday article in the New York Post, and they may stage demonstrations --- or possibly even a coup attempt --- in Saudi Arabia. Ten to twenty percent of the Iranians might be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's agents, making 20 to 40 thousand disciplined radicals amid the chaotic mobs of the Hajj. It doesn't take much to start stampedes and riots during the Hajj. The happen routinely, and they could be used to undermine the Saudi regime. Mecca, holy seat of Islam, belongs to the Islamic masses, gathered there in uncontrollable numbers. The claim of legitimacy for Saudi ownership of Arabia rests on guardianship of the holy sites. During the Hajj, Saudi Arabia is essential indefensible. We don't really know why Ambarassador Sultan Al-Turki shockingly resigned in Washington last week and rushed back to Riyadh. But he was head of Saudi intelligence for years, and he may know something about Iran's plans during the Hajj. Iranian Shiites have a history of staging riots and demonstrations during the pilgrimage, going back to the Khomeini years. Many Saudi Sunnis hate Persian Shias, and vice versa. Both claim exclusive rights to Mohammed's heritage. That doesn't mean they won't cooperate against the West or Israel. It does mean that the Sunni missionary campaign to convert world-wide Islam has a giant obstacle in its way: Iran's expansionist ambitions, just fifty miles from the long and hard-to-defend Persian Gulf shore of Saudi Arabia. Iran has 70 million people, three times more than Saudi. Without the US Navy in the Gulf --- there are now four carrier groups --- Saudi Arabia could be overrun in a week. Since Shiites believe they are the true descendants of Mohammed, it also follows that the holy cities of Mecca and Medina must belong to them. They would be happy to pick up Saudi Arabia's oil provinces as icing on the cake. Those provinces are already populated by fellow-Shiites. So Iran's capacity for making mischief during the Hajj is immense. The Saudi's hate-Israel, hate-the-West campaign has developed a backlash. Saudi stoking of fundamentalist fires inadvertently has empowered Iranian radicals in the Muslim world just as much as Sunni Wahhabis. If Iran's little fanatical ruler Ahmadinejad can control Mecca and Medina, or even just keep the Saudis scared and intimidated, his vaunted new Caliphate comes a step closer.Soon, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. The Saudis helped pay for the Pakistani nuke program, and Pakistan is in constant danger of being overthrown by Sunni fundamentalists like the Taliban. Pakistan's President Musharraf has survived three assassination attempts so far. The next one might succeed. In a few years we may have two, three or more radical Muslim regimes with nuclear weapons. It will change the world forever. But they may end up fighting each other as much as the infidel.
Ahmadinejad - Champion Of The Dispossessed Global EverymanTime Magazine - Haters of America - Globalist Bootlickers:
Tsunami Aid Money Used To Fund ShariaFrom the London Times:
WHEN people around the world sent millions of pounds to help the stricken Indonesian province of Aceh after the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, few could have imagined that their money would end up subsidising the lashing of women in public. But militant Islamists have since imposed sharia law in Aceh and have cornered Indonesian government funds to organise a moral vigilante force that harasses women and stages frequent displays of humiliation and state-sanctioned violence.
International aid workers and Indonesian women’s organisations are now expressing dismay that the flow of foreign cash for reconstruction has allowed the government to spend scarce money on a new bureaucracy and religious police to enforce puritan laws, such as the compulsory wearing of headscarves. Some say there are more “sharia police” than regular police on the local government payroll and that many of them are aggressive young men. “Who are these sharia police?” demanded Nurjannah Ismail, a lecturer at Aceh’s Ar-Raniri University. “They are men who, most of the time, are trying to send the message that their position is higher than women.” In one town, Lhokseumawe, the authorities are even planning to impose a curfew on women — a move that social workers warn will force tsunami widows to quit night-time jobs as food sellers or waitresses and could drive them into prostitution.For which they will, no doubt, be stoned to death.
Why Did The Palestinians Flee Their Homes In 1948?From Palestinian Media Watch (Thanks to Olivia):
PA daily:
Arab leaders caused the refugee problemPA columnist: Arab leaders initiated departure and made false promises of a speedy return
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook- Dec. 17, 2006
PMW has documented yet another corroboration in the official Palestinian Authority (PA) paper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that it was Arab leaders who were responsible for the flight of Arabs from the new State of Israel in 1948.
A backbone of PA ideology, and indeed of anti-Israel propagandists worldwide, is the myth that Israel expelled hundreds of thousands of Arabs from Israel and created the Palestinian "refugee" situation.
However, a regular writer for the official PA paper, Mahmud Al-Habbash, writes in a recent column that in 1948 the Arabs left their homes willingly under the instruction of their own Arab leaders and their false promises of a prompt return. He refers to these promises as “Arkuvian,” after Arkuv – a figure from Arab tradition - who was known for breaking his promises and for his lies – and states that the Arabs who left their homes, and became refugees did so believing their leaders’ deceptive promises. He places the blame and the responsibility on the shoulders of the Arab leaders and does not mention any so-called "Israeli expulsion."
Following is this most recent article, as well as earlier statements by Arab "refugees" that have appeared in the PA press, all of which corroborate Israel's historical narrative. The latter two testimonials are significant because they were corroborated by still other more public Palestinians, indicating that the responsibility of the Arab leaders is known in the Palestinian world. One was confirmed by Arab Member of Knesset, Ibraham Sarsur, who was then Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and the other by a Palestinian journalist, Fuad Abu Higla, in the official PA daily.
The following are four statements corroborating that Arabs fled Israel under the instruction and the encouragement of Arab leaders:
1. Journalist writing about the events of 1948Mahmud Al-Habbash, a regular writer in the official PA paper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, indicates in his column “The Pulse of Life” that the Arabs left Israel in 1948 only after political Arab leaders persuaded them to do so by promising the Arabs a speedy return to their homes in Palestine:
“…The leaders and the elites promised us at the beginning of the “Catastrophe” [[the establishment of Israel and the creation of refugee problem] in 1948, that the duration of the exile will not be long, and that it will not last more than a few days or months, and afterwards the refugees will return to their homes, which most of them did not leave only until they put their trust in those “Arkuvian” promises made by the leaders and the political elites.
Afterwards, days passed, months, years and decades, and the promises were lost with the strain of the succession of events…" [Term "Arkuvian,” is after Arkuv – a figure from Arab tradition - who was known for breaking his promises and for his lies."] ” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 13, 2006]
2. Woman who fled Israel in 1948
"We heard sounds of explosions and of gunfire at the beginning of the summer in the year of the “Catastrophe” [The establishment of Israel and the expulsion from the land in 1948]. They told us: The Jews attacked our region and it is better to evacuate the village and return, after the battle is over. And indeed there were among us [who fled Israel] those who left a fire burning under the pot, those who left their flock [of sheep] and those who left their money and gold behind, based on the assumption that we would return after a few hours." [Asmaa Jabir Balasimah Um Hasan, Woman who fled Israel, Al-Ayyam, May 16, 2006]
3. Son and grandson of those who fled in 1948
An Arab viewer called Palestinian Authority TV and quoted his father and grandfather, complaining that in 1948 the Arab District Officer ordered all Arabs to leave Palestine or be labeled traitors. In response, Arab MK Ibrahim Sarsur, then Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, cursed the leaders who ordered Arabs to leave, thus, acknowledging Israel's assertion.Statement of son and grandson of man who fled:
"Mr. Ibrahim [Sarsur]. I address you as a Muslim. My father and grandfather told me that during the "Catastrophe" [establishment of Israel in 1948 and the expulsion from the land], our district officer issued an order that whoever stays in Palestine and in Majdel [near Ashkelon – Southern Israel] is a traitor, he is a traitor."
Response from Ibrahim Sarsur, Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel:
"The one who gave the order forbidding them to stay there bears guilt for this, in this life and the Afterlife throughout history until Resurrection Day." [PA TV April 30, 1999]
4. Article by senior PA journalist
Fuad Abu Higla, then a regular columnist in the official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida, wrote an article before an Arab Summit, which criticized the Arab leaders for a series of failures. One of the failures he cited, in the name of a prisoner, was that an earlier generation of Arab leaders "forced" them to leave Israel in 1948, again placing the blame for the flight on the Arab leaders.
"I have received a letter from a prisoner in Acre prison, to the Arab summit: To the [Arab and Muslim] Kings and Presidents, Poverty is killing us, the symptoms are exhausting us and the souls are leaving our body, yet you are still searching for the way to provide aid, like one who is looking for a needle in a haystack or like the armies of your predecessors in the year of 1948, who forced us to leave [Israel], on the pretext of clearing the battlefields of civilians... So what will your summit do now?" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, March 19, 2001]
Conclusion
It is clear from these statements that there is general acknowledgement among Palestinians that Arab leaders bear responsibility for the mass flight of Arabs from Israel in 1948, and were the cause of the "refugee" problem. Furthermore, the fact that this information has been validated by public figures and the media in the Palestinian Authority confirms that this responsibility is well-known – even though, for propaganda purposes, its leaders continue to blame Israel publicly for "the expulsion."
Tonight On 60 Minutes,The Hitler ArchivesAfter all these years,
the German government has finally opened up the archives for public scrutiny:
(CBS)
Sunday, Dec. 17, 2006
HITLER'S SECRET ARCHIVE - The
archive numbers 50 million pages and covers 17.5 million victims of Hitler's Reich – including the three Jewish survivors who speak to Scott Pelley while they see their own Holocaust records for the first time.
Why Muslims Deny The HolocaustFrom the great former-Muslim feminist Hirsi Ali,
in the Los Angeles Times:
ONE DAY IN 1994, when I was living in Ede, a small town in Holland, I got a visit from my half-sister. She and I were both immigrants from Somalia and had both applied for asylum in Holland. I was granted it; she was denied. The fact that I got asylum gave me the opportunity to study. My half-sister couldn't.
In order for me to be admitted to the university I wanted to attend, I needed to pass three courses: a language course, a civics course and a history course. It was in the preparatory history course that I, for the first time, heard of the Holocaust. I was 24 years old at that time, and my half-sister was 21.
In those days, the daily news was filled with the Rwandan genocide and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. On the day that my half-sister visited me, my head was reeling from what happened to 6 million Jews in Germany, Holland, France and Eastern Europe.
I learned that innocent men, women and children were separated from each other. Stars pinned to their shoulders, transported by train to camps, they were gassed for no other reason than for being Jewish. I saw pictures of masses of skeletons, even of kids. I heard horrifying accounts of some of the people who had survived the terror of Auschwitz and Sobibor. I told my half-sister all this and showed her the pictures in my history book.
What she said was as awful as the information in my book. With great conviction, my half-sister cried: "It's a lie! Jews have a way of blinding people. They were not killed, gassed or massacred. But I pray to Allah that one day all the Jews in the world will be destroyed."
She was not saying anything new. As a child growing up in Saudi Arabia, I remember my teachers, my mom and our neighbors telling us practically on a daily basis that Jews are evil, the sworn enemies of Muslims, and that their only goal was to destroy Islam. We were never informed about the Holocaust.
Do Arab Muslims Really Care About The Palestinians?From The Eurabia Blog:
'Palestinians' leaving Gaza for Eurabia, CubaThousands of 'Palestinians' are fleeing from Gaza to escape the constant strife and poverty there. While many of them say they are heading for Cuba, the Washington Times reports that many of those get off on the way, tear up their travel documents, and
seek asylum in Europe, where the rules are quite liberal.
What I find most curious about this article is that there is not even a mention of 'Palestinians' seeking to go to Arab countries (other than to transit through Egypt), which ought to give you some indication of how much their fellow Arabs love the 'Palestinians.'
Driven by fear of civil war and increasingly bleak economic prospects, Palestinians are fleeing their violence-wracked lands in growing numbers, and travel agents report brisk demand for visas to Cuba, one of the few places that welcomes Palestinians.Many of the emigrants are skilled and educated, who are leaving behind an increasingly impoverished and fundamentalist society.
Sometimes You Just Gotta Love Your EnemiesYou've got to love your enemies when they tell the truth. Here, a Muslim Imam tells us the truth.
"All Muslims Are Innocent"
And, all non-Muslims are guilty of a "crime against God."
David Duke,
The "U.S. Academic"
On CNNReuters says, David Duke is a "U.S. Academic." That's funny, I always thought he was a racist, ex-Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
Check out this video and you tell me what you think.
Reuters: David Duke A "U.S. Academic"I don't have a lot of time to post today, but I think this subject is important, so I want to get this post up. Iran is holding a Holocaust Denial Conference this week, at the suggestion of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. With apologies to Charles,
here's the Little Green Footballs post:
Iran is holding a Holocaust denial event, featuring luminaries from the field of genocidal hatred, and this stunningly twisted report from al-Reuters writer Parisa Hafezi is a real jaw-dropper:
Iran opens conference questioning the Holocaust. (Hat tip:
JammieWearingFool.)
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran opened a conference on Monday to examine the Holocaust and question whether Nazi Germany used gas chambers to kill Jews, drawing condemnation in the West and criticism from Iran’s Jewish community.Jewish rabbis were present at the government-sponsored event “Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision” alongside academics from Europe, where some countries have made it a crime to deny the Nazi killing of 6 million Jews from 1933 to 1945.These so-called “Jewish rabbis” that Reuters casually drops into the article are in actuality members of Neturei Karta—an insane sect with a tiny membership that makes a practice of supporting evil around the world. Sort of the Jewish equivalent of Fred Phelps and his sick bunch. But to Reuters they’re just like any other “Jewish rabbis.”
And they shoot
dozens of photographs of these freaks and put them on the wires.
But the paragraph that really ventures into an alternate universe is this one describing white supremacist David Duke:
Among the participants was U.S. academic David Duke, a former Louisiana Republican Representative. He praised Iran for hosting the event.“There must be freedom of speech, it is scandalous that the Holocaust cannot be discussed freely,” Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader told Reuters. “It makes people turn a blind eye to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.”
Annan To Criticize U.S. In His Farewell SpeechFrom USA Today:
In a farewell speech on U.S. soil today, retiring United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to deliver a tough critique of President Bush's policies. He will accuse the administration of trying to secure the United States from terrorism in part by dominating other nations through force, committing what he termed human rights abuses and taking military action without broad international support.
Though Annan has long been a critic of the war in Iraq and other Bush foreign policies, the planned speech is among his toughest and is unusual for a U.N. secretary-general concluding his tenure.
Annan's remarks, provided to USA TODAY by his office, list principles for international relations, among them "respect for human rights and the rule of law.
"These ideas can be advanced only "if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism," the speech says. "When it appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused."
So, according to Annan, America's priniciples include allowing other nations to have sovereignty over our decision of whether or not to go to war, and of how to handle a war once we are in it.
And, if other nations have sovereignty over such decisions, then are not those nations America as well? In other words, aren't all nations America in some sense? Yes, and if all nations are America in some sense, then isn't America also, in some sense, Iran, and Sudan, and Saudi Arabia?
I am He, as you are He, as you are me, and we are all togetherSee how they run like pigs from a gunSee how they flyI'm crying
Do Christians And Muslims Worship The Same God?From National Review Magazine (hat tip to
Dinah Lord):
With the passing of time, hidden challenges, which for a long time had been growing unnoticed and unaddressed, can suddenly emerge into the full-blown light of current events with a force which seems quite overwhelming. Today the Western world, or Judeo-Christian civilization, shaken by jihadist terror, is being rudely awakened to theological realities blurred for decades. From clashes of civilizations to the jihad that is declaring to the planet its genocidal intentions, rational discourse concerning faith is becoming increasingly fraught.
It is within this tumult and confusion that Mark Durie, an Anglican minister, has written
Revelation? Do We Worship the Same God?, in which he raises a couple of fundamental questions: Who is God? Is God Allah? Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? To answer these questions, he analyzes Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God in Christianity and Islam.
The reader is given a concise representation of Muslim and Christian arguments. Such an endeavor needs both solid scholarship and theological training. Mark Durie possesses both, being a theologian and a graduate in the language and culture of the Acehnese, a Muslim people from the north of Sumatra in Indonesia. In addition, the subjects he addresses, in the current context, request much intellectual integrity and courage.
But how to know the identity of “God” in the Koran and in the Bible? The author stresses that this profound and deep question requires engaging with the very essence of God’s identity. With perspicacity and great objectivity, Durie delineates the diverse aspects of his investigations, but he warns that his book should be seen only as guidance, and not the last word.
Durie’s questioning grows from the Koran’s statement that Jesus is a Muslim prophet, named Isa — a prophet whose birth, life, teaching, and death are found to be totally at odds with the testimony of the Gospels and with Biblical theology. The Koran — which for Muslims is the literal word of Allah that cannot be doubted — affirms that Muhammad’s prophetic message is exactly the same as that expressed by the Torah and the Gospels. Since there are many contradictions between the Koran and the Bible, Muslim orthodoxy considers the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity as falsifications of the primal and unique Islamic revelation. It is this accusation that provided the doctrinal justification for the discriminatory legal status of Jews and Christians living under Islam.
In the first section, the author provides information about and reflections upon the Muslim Jesus (Isa). He stresses as fundamental the Koran’s teaching that Islam is the first, primordial religion, preceding Judaism and Christianity, which are dismissed as invalid traditions, being falsified versions of Islam. Because Christianity and Judaism are thought to be a corruption of the pure message of Islam, anything true in these religions comes from their Islamic roots. Consequently, to obey their true religion, Jews and Christians should “revert” to Islam and accept the prophethood of Muhammad. This implies, writes Durie, that anyone who opposes Muhammad is not a true Christian, nor a true Jew. Seen in this light, the Koranic verses sympathetic to Jews and Christians refer to those who will see the light and find it to be Islam. If Islam recognizes only itself in Judaism and Christianity, one can wonder whether this replacement theology is not the negation of the very principle of recognition of other religions.
Many Christians profess that Christianity is closer to Islam than to Judaism, because of a common reverence of Jesus/Isa and his mother Mary. They will be astonished to learn from Durie that according to hadiths — acts and sayings attributed to Muhammad, and endowed with theological and legislative authority — Isa, the Muslim Jesus, will be the ultimate destroyer of Christianity. Durie examines the characters of Jesus and Isa, separated by six centuries; he compares their name and biographies and explains the differing understandings of the prophecy in the Bible and the Koran.
While Christianity accepts Jewish Scriptures as the foundation of their belief and practice, and as an integral part of Christian ministry, read in churches around the world, Muslims disregard the Bible. They claim that it is Islam that is the common heritage of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and that Jews and Christians should work to recover this heritage. Durie comments that, in this process, the Islamization of Jesus and the Hebrew patriarchs and prophets destroys both Christianity and Judaism.
The author analyses with great clarity and depth the fundamental principles of the two religions and, in a powerful chapter that raises essential questions, he discusses the concept of “Abrahamic Faith” that has become so fashionable today as a framework for dialogue. This definition, he points out, originates from the Koranic statement that Abraham was a Muslim prophet and from Islam’s core doctrine that Islam was the one revelation given to humanity by Allah through the Biblical figures and through Jesus.
For Durie, the many “Abrahamic Faith” conferences throughout the world point to the Islamization of Christian understandings of interfaith dialogue. How should Christians respond to this claim which is a fundamental point of Muslim doctrine? Durie develops several arguments based on a rational analysis of history and the texts.
In his conclusion, Durie writes that profound contrasts exist in Islam and Christianity in their understanding of the identity of God. These have far-reaching implications, affecting attitudes, ethics, and politics. The clarification of misunderstandings and false assumptions, masterly exposed by Durie, is a condition to open the way for more constructive dialogue. Durie’s book could not have been more timely. He offers a well-balanced analysis, acknowledging the important similarities of the two faiths, without ever misrepresenting the real disagreements or ignoring the hard issues.
In this time of globalization, when crucial challenges are emerging for the West’s post-Christian societies, Durie’s reflections provide essential and fundamental guidance that will enable Christians to engage in a dialogue based on truth. This is all the more urgent now that the cultural jihad in the West is preventing the free expression of thought and belief, and is subverting the whole ethical foundation of Judeo-Christianity.
The Book Of Revelations, Chapter 121 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. 7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short." 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.The woman (who is intitially pregnant in this passage, and who moves to the place prepared for her in the desert) is the Jewish people. The child who is born to the woman is Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah. The dragon is Satan.
The Eagle, who helps protect the woman, so that she may return to her place in the desert is America.
Note that the Dragon pursues the woman and makes war against "the rest of her offspring" (the Church) even after the child Yeshua is born.
The origin of anti-Semitism is not rooted in logic, or anything rational. It is spiritual.
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
The Book Of The Prophet Zechariah, Chapter 14The LORD Comes and Reigns
1 A day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you.
2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.
3 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle.
4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.
5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake [
a] in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
6 On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost.
7 It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime—a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light.
8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea [
b] and half to the western sea, [
c] in summer and in winter.
9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.
10 The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up and remain in its place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.
11 It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.
12 This is the plague with which the LORD will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
13 On that day men will be stricken by the LORD with great panic. Each man will seize the hand of another, and they will attack each other.
14 Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—great quantities of gold and silver and clothing.
15 A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.
16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain.
18 If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The LORD [
d] will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
20 On that day HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the LORD's house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar.
21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the LORD Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite [
e] in the house of the LORD Almighty.
"We Always Lose To Israel":The International Islamic Temper TantrumFrom Freedom's Cost:
The success of Israel, modern, democratic, wealthy, and above all Jewish, has obsessed the Arabs. They cannot tolerate the Jews being among them. Their entire sense of themselves rides on solving their problem with the Jews. It gnaws at their self esteem. It is central to their thinking.
It’s in their genes.
Be Honest. Would you dare say something like that in public?
What if I told you that they are the view of Al-Jazeera’s Editor in Chief? Pierre Heumann of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche spoke with Al-Jazeera’s content czar Ahmed Sheikh in Doha. The
interview was published in German, but we can read them in English thanks to a translation by the estimable John Rosenthal of
Transatlantic Intelligencer. World Politics Watch publishes the entire
interview.
Who is responsible for the situation?
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important reasons why these crises and problems continue to simmer. The day when Israel was founded created the basis for our problems. The West should finally come to understand this. Everything would be much calmer if the Palestinians were given their rights.
Do you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the 
public clinics in Jordan would function better?
I think so.
Can you please explain to me what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with these problems?
The Palestinian cause is central for Arab thinking.
In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?
Exactly. It’s because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West’s problem is that it does not understand this.Charles at Little Green Footballs comments:
Wrong, Ahmed. The West does understand. In this part of the world, blaming all your problems on a super-powerful fantasy opponent is called “mental illness.” 
We're supposed to understand that? Why? Should we also treat as rational the football player who turns over tables and chairs in the clubhouse after a big loss?
The Muslim world believes we should treat their international temper tantrum as rational. We would have to be fools to do so.
Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East. It is the only country in the Middle East which respects human rights. In every other country in the ME, Sharia law reigns to a greater or lesser extent. This means that in every other country in the ME, apostates and homosexuals are treated as criminals, Christianity and other religions are suppressed, women are treated as half citizens, and people can be thrown into jail for criticizing Islam.
Instead of trying to understand the Islamic temper tantrum and their disgusting abuses of human rights, we should be working to promote countries like Israel, Australia, America, England, Japan, and any other country in the
world where Democracy and Freedom reign.
The only way to bring about peace in the world is to promote Democracy and the justice which prevails in a free system. To attempt to strengthen countries such as those which exist in the Islamic world is to strenthen the forces of fascism.
Although appeasement and understanding seem like an approach to peace, they is not. Instead, they are an aid to fascism and an assault on oppressed people the world over.
It is time for the Christian Church to begin to speak out clearly on the evils that are being done around the world in the name of Allah and Islam.
The Sudanese genocide is an Islamic Jihad.
The Palestinian bombings are an Islamic Jihad.
The murder of hundreds of schoolchildren in Beslan, Russia was an Islamic Jihad.
The Iranian-funded Hizbollah assault on Lebanon is an Islamic Jihad.
The beheading of Christian girls in Indonesia is an Islamic Jihad.
The suppression of Christianity in Egypt is an Islamic Jihad.
The killing and imprisonment of Christians in Malaysia is an Islamic Jihad.
9/11 was an Islamic Jihad.
The Taliban is waging an Islamic Jihad.
The murder of Christians in Nigeria is an Islamic Jihad.
The bombing of a Jewish Center in Argentina is an Islamic Jihad.
The 7/7 bomings in London were an Islamic Jihad.
The murder of Jews in Seattle was an Islamic Jihad.
The hit and run murders of people in San Francisco was an Islamic Jihad.
The 3/11 bombings in Spain were an Islamic Jihad.
The enslavement of blacks, and the rape of their women in the Sudan is an Islamic Jihad.
There have been over 6,000 acts of Islamic terrorism in the world, since 9/11/01. These terrorist acts have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people around the world, many of them Muslims themselves.
I sit in church week after week and I never hear this clearly articulated.
Most of the strife in our entire world is caused by Muslims. This does not mean that all Muslims are bad people. Clearly, there are many good people who identify themselves as Muslims.
However, we do need to be clear that this strife emanates from Islam itself.
The history of Islam is filled with conquest and slaughter, raping and pillaging, and it is so because Mohammed prescribed such behavior in the Koran. The Koran says that it is ok to convert through violence and conquest. The Koran says it is ok to take women as booty of conquest and to make them your sex slaves. The Koran says that Muslims should give conquered Infidels three choices, conversion, subservience, or death.
All of this that I have enumerated here is evil. The Christian Church is supposed to be the salt of the Earth. This means we are supposed to not only stand for love, but also stand against evil.
If we are not sincere enough to explicitly name the evil, then we can not stand against it.
This is a call to take up the Sword of Truth. Please heed it.
Why Do Most Jews Reject Jesus As The Messiah?From Got Questions?The Jews rejected Jesus because He failed, in their eyes, to do what they expected their Messiah to do--destroy evil and all their enemies, in this case the Romans, and establish an eternal kingdom with Israel as the preeminent nation in the world. The prophecies in Isaiah and Psalm 22 described a suffering Messiah who would be persecuted and killed, but they chose to focus on those prophecies that discussed His glorious victories, not His crucifixion.
(Pastorius note: And, who can blame them? Wouldn't we all, in the midst of our suffering choose to seek victory for our people rather than the death of our King?)
The commentaries in the Talmud, written before the onset of Christianity, clearly discuss the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 and puzzle over how these would be fulfilled with the glorious setting up of the Kingdom of the Messiah. After the Church used these prophecies to prove the claims of Christ, the Jews took the position that the prophecies did not refer to the Messiah, but to Israel or some other person.
The Jews believed that the Messiah, the prophet which Moses spoke about, would come and deliver them from Roman bondage and set up a kingdom where they would be the rulers. Two of the disciples, James and John, even asked to sit at Jesus' right and left in His Kingdom when He came into His glory. The people of Jerusalem also thought He would deliver them. They shouted praises to God for the mighty works they had seen Jesus do, and called out "Hosanna, save us" when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (Matthew 21:9). They treated Him like a conquering king. Then when He allowed Himself to be arrested, tried and crucified on a cursed cross, the people quit believing that He was the promised prophet. They rejected their Messiah (Matthew 27:22).
Note that Paul tells the Church that the spiritual blindness of Israel is a "mystery" that had not previously been revealed (Romans chapters 9-11). For thousands of years Israel had been the one nation that looked to God while the Gentile nations generally rejected the light and chose to live in spiritual darkness. Israel and her inspired prophets revealed monotheism--one God who was personally interested in mankind's destiny of heaven or hell, the path to salvation, the written Word with the Ten Commandments. Yet Israel rejected her prophesied Messiah, and the promises of the kingdom of heaven were postponed. A veil of spiritual blindness fell upon the eyes of the Jews who previously were the most spiritually discerning people. As Paul explained, this hardening in part of Israel led to the blessing of the Gentiles who would believe in Jesus and accept Him as Lord and Savior.
(Pastorius note:
So, once again, the suffering of the Jews is leading to the blessing of the whole world. Judaism is not an evangelical religion. Judaism is an insular religion by nature. It was devised that way, in my opinion, so that the Jews would be able to maintain the Torah (God's Word) and carry it through history, so that all the people of the world would have it. I believe that this carrying of the Torah is still the role of the Jews. I believe that God devised a plan whereby the insularity of the Jewish religion would preserve His Word, and the evangelism of the Gentiles (and Jewish people who accept Jesus) would deliver His Word to the whole world.
Here is Romans 11 25-28:
25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
"The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27And this is[
f] my covenant with them when I take away their sins."[
g]
28As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.)
2000 years after He came to the nation of Israel as their Messiah, Jews still (for the most part) reject Jesus Christ. Many Jews today (some say at least half of all living Jews) identify themselves as Jewish but prefer to remain “secular.” They identify with no particular Jewish movement, and have no understanding or affiliation with any Jewish Biblical roots. The concept of Messiah as expressed in the Hebrew Scriptures or Judaism’s “13 Principles of Faith” is foreign to most Jews today.
But one concept is generally held as universal: Jews must have nothing to do with Jesus! Most Jews today perceive the last 2000 years of historical Jewish persecution to be at the hands of so-called “Christians.” From the Crusades, to the Inquisition, to the pogroms in Europe, to Hitler’s holocaust – Jews ultimately believe that they are being held responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, and are being persecuted for that reason. They, therefore, reject Him today for this reason and for the other historical reasons mentioned above.
The good news is that many Jews are turning to Christ today. The God of Israel has always been faithful to keep a “remnant” of believing Jews to Himself. In the United States alone, some estimates say that there are over 100,000 Jewish Believers in Jesus, and the numbers are growing all the time.
Recommended Resource: Salvation is from the Jews: Role of Judaism in Salvation History from Abraham to the Second Coming by Roy Schoeman.
This page is also available in: Hebrew
OneA performance of the classic U2 song, featuring Mary J. Blige. I think this is even better than the original.
Martin Luther King
A Supporter
Of Israel
Thanks to the very fine blog,
Hip Hop Republican, for making me aware of this video.
Palestinian Prime Minister Says: We Will Never Recognize IsraelJames Baker wants Israel to make concessions to the Palestinian government, so that America can achieve it's objective in Iraq (or should I say, to achieve Baker's objectives, whatever they are). But, one has to wonder what motivation Israel would have to negotiate with a government which
refuses to ever recognize its existence.
(IsraelNN.com) PA (Palestinian Authority) Prime Minister (Hamas) Ismail Haniyah told reporters in Iran that he and his colleagues will never recognize Israel.Western leaders are pushing for the formation of a PA unity coalition including Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in the hope the government would recognize Israel. Haniyah has stated repeatedly that Hamas will never recognize Israel, even in the framework of the unity government.
Can You Hear Me ... BANG!I have no reason to put this up, other than the fact that I just think it is funny as hell.
I take it this guy doesn't like Verizon very much.
Die, Infidel ScumFrom Raymond Ibrahim at the Los Angeles Times:
When Muslims conquer non-Muslim territories — such as Constantinople, not to mention all of North Africa, Spain and southwest Asia — those whom they have conquered as well as their descendants are not to expect any apologies, let alone political or territorial concessions. Herein lies the conundrum. When Islamists wage jihad — past, present and future — conquering and consolidating non-Muslim territories and centers in the name of Islam, never once considering to cede them back to their previous owners, they ultimately demonstrate that they live by the age-old adage “might makes right.” That’s fine; many people agree with this Hobbesian view. But if we live in a world where the strong rule and the weak submit, why is it that whenever Muslim regions are conquered, such as in the case of Palestine, the same Islamists who would never concede one inch of Islam’s conquests resort to the United Nations and the court of public opinion, demanding justice, restitutions, rights and so forth? Put another way, when Muslims beat infidels, it’s just too bad for the latter; they must submit to their new overlords’ rules with all the attendant discrimination and humiliation mandated for non-Muslims. Yet when Islam is beaten, demands for apologies and concessions are expected from the infidel world at large.
The New Peace Crowd
Britain Orders Up
Less Christianity
More IslamI know that when I write a headline like that it will seem like I'm sensationalizing a story, but
that headline is true:
A new religious syllabus for schools has caused a fury among church groups and politicians after recommending teachers cut down on education about Christianity while increasing lessons in Islam and Hinduism. Teachers in Buckinghamshire were directed to spend 40 per cent of religious education on Christianity, while giving Islam and Hinduism equal play at 20 per cent each. Just ten percent was then to be devoted to other religions - including Judaism - with a final ten per cent on "general concepts". Christianity is the official religion of the state of Britain. The Queen, or King, swear an oath to protect and defend the Church when they are coronated. But none of that matters much anymore, does it?
God save the queen. We mean it, man.
Longtime Jimmy Carter Aide Quits Because Of His Book On IsraelFrom Associated Press:
ATLANTA (AP) -- A longtime aide to Jimmy Carter has resigned from the Carter Center think tank, calling the former president's new book on Israel and the Arabs one-sided and filled with errors.
Kenneth Stein, the Carter Center's first executive director and founder of its Middle East program, sent a letter that bluntly criticized the book to Carter and others.
Stein wrote that the book, "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid," was replete with factual errors, material copied from other sources and "simply invented segments," according to an excerpt of the letter published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Deanna Congileo, Carter's spokeswoman, said the former president stands by the book.
America To Deal One-Two Death Blow To Israel?Many of us conservative Americans like to believe that America is in Israel's corner. And, to now, I have always believed that we are. But, there are very troubling signs ahead. If James Baker and his council of demons have anything to do with it, America will soon deliver Israel a one-two death blow.
Baker Panel Report Mentions Palestinian "Right of Return" A reference to Palestinians' "right of return" in the report issued by the high-level Iraq Study Group broke a diplomatic taboo which sparked immediate concern in Israel and surprise among Middle East policy experts. The reference was buried deep inside a 160-page report that urged US President George W. Bush to renew efforts to revive Israel-Palestinian peace talks as part of a region-wide bid to end the chaos in Iraq. "This report is worrisome for Israel particularly because, for the first time, it mentions the question of the 'right of return' for the Palestinian refugees of 1948," said a senior Israeli official, who was reacting to the US policy report on condition he not be identified. A Middle East analyst who was involved in the Iraq Study Group discussions but did not participate in drafting the report expressed surprise when the reference was pointed out to him by a reporter. "It's hard to know whether that language got in there because of carelessness -- I know there were many revisions up to the very last minute -- or whether it was a deliberate attempt to fuse something to the Bush rhetoric which wasn't there before," the analyst said. The 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians calls for a resolution of the issue of Israeli and Palestinian "refugees" as part of a final status agreement that would include the creation of a Palestinian state. But they do not use the term "right of return", which is a long-standing Palestinian demand -- rejected by Israel -- that Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what was to become the Jewish state in 1948, as well as their descendants, be allowed to return home. Bush, in a 2002 speech in the White House Rose Garden, became the first US president to formally back the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, but he also did not mention a right of Palestinian 'return'. The bipartisan Iraq Study Group's co-chairman is former secretary of state James Baker, who as the top diplomat for Bush's father in the early 1990s clashed with Israel over its handling of the Palestinian issue. Among his group's 79 recommendations for a policy shift on Iraq, number 17 concerned five points it said should be included in a negotiated peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The final point in the list was: "Sustainable negotiations leading to a final peace settlement along the lines of President Bush's two-state solution, which would address the key final status issues of borders, settlements, Jerusalem, the right of return and the end of conflict."
"'Right of return' is not in Oslo I or Oslo II, it's not in the Bush Rose Garden speech, it's not even in UN 181, the original partition resolution -- it's part of the Palestinian discourse," said the US analyst.Israel was created as a Jewish state because World War II proved that the Jews needed a sanctuary where they could live on there own and control their own destiny, rather than rely on the fickle, and often genocidal, plans of hosts, and strangers.
The Palestinian "Right of Return would effectively destroy Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinians, from all over the world, would suddenly have the "right" to flood into Israel, become citizens and vote the entire territory Judenrein, just as they did in the Gaza Strip.
If America wants to allow this to happen, then it is a sad day, not only for Jews, but for America itself, because I believe that such a betrayal of the Democratic Israeli state, would be the equivalent of setting off a moral biological weapon in our country. We will all die from it.
And, if you don't think America is seriously considering going with Baker's recommendation, then answer me, why are we having a conference to discuss Middle East issues which includes Iran and Syria, and excludes Israel?
Baker Wants Israel Excluded From Regional Conference
The White House has been examining a proposal by James Baker to launch a Middle East peace effort without Israel. The peace effort would begin with a U.S.-organized conference, dubbed Madrid-2, and contain such U.S. adversaries as Iran and Syria. Officials said Madrid-2 would be promoted as a forum to discuss Iraq's future, but actually focus on Arab demands for Israel to withdraw from territories captured in the 1967 war. They said Israel would not be invited to the conference. “As Baker sees this, the conference would provide a unique opportunity for the United States to strike a deal without Jewish pressure,” an official said. “This has become the most hottest proposal examined by the foreign policy people over the last month.” Officials said Mr. Baker's proposal, reflected in the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, has been supported by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. The most controversial element in the proposal, they said, was Mr. Baker's recommendation for the United States to woo Iran and Syria. “Here is Syria, which is clearly putting pressure on the Lebanese democracy, is a supporter of terror, is both provisioning and supporting Hezbollah and facilitating Iran in its efforts to support Hezbollah, is supporting the activities of Hamas," National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told a briefing last week.
"This is not a Syria that is on an agenda to bring peace and stability to the region."
Officials said the Baker proposal to exclude Israel from a Middle East peace conference garnered support in the wake of Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 25. They said Mr. Cheney spent most of his meetings listening to Saudi warnings that Israel, rather than Iran, is the leading cause of instability in the Middle East.
“He [Cheney] didn't even get the opportunity to seriously discuss the purpose of his visit—that the Saudis help the Iraqi government and persuade the Sunnis to stop their attacks,” another official familiar with Mr. Cheney’s visit said.
“Instead, the Saudis kept saying that they wanted a U.S. initiative to stop the Israelis’ attack in Gaza and Cheney just agreed.” Under the Baker proposal, the Bush administration would arrange a Middle East conference that would discuss the future of Iraq and other Middle East issues. Officials said the conference would seek to win Arab support on Iraq in exchange for a U.S. pledge to renew efforts to press Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Golan Heights.
“Baker sees his plan as containing something for everybody, except perhaps the Israelis,” the official said. “The Syrians would get back the Golan, the Iranians would get U.S. recognition and the Saudis would regain their influence, particularly with the Palestinians.” Officials said Mr. Baker's influence within the administration and the Republican Party’s leadership stems from support by the president's father as well as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Throughout the current Bush administration, such senior officials as Mr. Hadley and Ms. Rice were said to have been consulting with Brent Scowcroft, the former president's national security advisor, regarded as close to Mr. Baker. “Everybody has fallen in line,” the official said. “Bush is not in the daily loop. He is shocked by the elections and he's hoping for a miracle on Iraq.” For his part, Mr. Bush has expressed unease in negotiating with Iran. At a Nov. 30 news conference in Amman, Jordan, the president cited Iran's interference in the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki. “We respect their heritage, we respect their history, we respect their traditions,” Mr. Bush said. “I just have a problem with a government that is isolating its people, denying its people benefits that could be had from engagement with the world.” Mr. Baker's recommendation to woo Iran and Syria has also received support from some in the conservative wing of the GOP. Over the last week, former and current Republican leaders in Congress—convinced of the need for a U.S. withdrawal before the 2008 presidential elections—have called for Iranian and Syrian participation in an effort to stabilize Iraq. “I would look at an entirely new strategy,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said. “We have clearly failed in the last three years to achieve the kind of outcome we want.” In contrast, Defense Department officials have warned against granting a role to Iran and Syria at Israel's expense. They said such a strategy would also end up undermining Arab allies of the United States such as Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.
“The regional strategy is a euphemism for throwing Free Iraq to the wolves in its neighborhood: Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia,” said the Center for Security Policy, regarded as being close to the Pentagon.
“If the Baker regional strategy is adopted, we will prove to all the world that it is better to be America's enemy than its friend. Jim Baker's hostility towards the Jews is a matter of record and has endeared him to Israel's foes in the region.”
I can see no logic to Baker's plan. The Bush Administration knows that Iran and Syria back Hizbollah and Hamas. In other words, they are supporters, financially and logistically, of genocidal terrorist organizations. Iran is bent not only on the destruction of Israel, but also on the destruction of the United States. Just today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned
America that it will "disappear," if we don't accept Allah.
How is it that we have come to a place where we will seriously entertain the idea of negotiating with such a group of people at the expense of the only human rights respecting country in the entire region?
The answer is, there is no logical, rational reason. There is only fear and malevolence. And, what force is made out of fear and malevolence, my friends?
Interview With A ZombiePhotojournalist Zombie is interviewed by David Perlmutter. This is a great interview, filled with important statements which are a reflection of our times.
Check this out:
Q: When and why did you start ZT? A: The whole thing started on February 16, 2003. I had just bought my first digital camera the day before, and I had not yet used it. Coincidentally, I had intended to go to an anti-war rally that Saturday, and I thought to myself -- hey, why not bring the camera and test it out?
It seems a little hard to imagine in retrospect, but I was attending this anti-war rally in all sincerity, sympathizing with its goals. At least so I thought. I had been "left-wing" (for lack of a better term) all my life and had been to many protests of various sorts over the years. I was sort of going to this one out of habit. The Iraq War had not yet started -- the goal of the protest was to prevent it. Yet somewhere in the back of my mind I was feeling ambivalent. The events of 9/11 had kindled new political feelings in me, but they still weren't completely formed, even over a year later. I was going for the purpose of protesting the war, but was that really how I felt? I was confused.
I walked to the protest in kind of a fugue state. And when I showed up, my world changed. I was shocked and mortified by the messages people were carrying. There were overtly anti-Semitic signs, banners blaming 9/11 on conspirators in the U.S. government, guys dressed up as suicide bombers, and all sorts of craziness. I took out my new camera and started clicking away. By the time the march was over, I was a changed person. If that was what the "Left" had become, then I wanted no part of it. Keep in mind that at this stage, I still did not have a Web site. In fact, I knew absolutely nothing about how to make a Web page. Zero. But when I got home and uploaded my pictures to my computer, I thought to myself: if only everybody could see what I just saw. It would open people's eyes.That was exactly the reason I started CUANAS. The most stunning thing for me has been to learn that people can see the evidence of the evil in the world, and either deny it, or decide that it is nothing to worry about, nothing to fight against.
Go read the whole thing.
How Hard Do You Have To Deny Reality To Say,"Let's Negotiate"?Newt Gingrich says
we must re-establish our cherished American beliefs:
In a seemingly wide-ranging speech that, in reality, reflected a single central theme — the protection of American society and culture — former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich warned that the United States is facing a “world-wide alliance” of “evil men” intent upon its destruction.In a 30-minute talk at the Politics and Eggs forum at the Bedford Village Inn Tuesday morning, Gingrich said we are living in a time much like the 1930s, in which there is “an emerging world-wide threat” from people “who routinely talk to each other about how to defeat the United States.” But it isn’t, Gingrich told the packed house, all doom and gloom because the challenge is one the nation can overcome. “If we focus on it, if we are serious about it, we have overwhelming capabilities to win this campaign,” he said. “Over the next 20 or 25 years … we have to destroy the capacity of evil people to shatter civilization with weapons of mass destruction.” Referencing a story about the arrest of a British couple that intended to smuggle a bomb aboard an aircraft disguised as baby formula, he warned against assuming we can create a dialogue with nations like Syria and Iran. “Now if I come to you and say that across the planet there are young men between 15 and 25 who are willing to die as long as they can kill you, I’m just describing warrior cultures that have existed for thousands of years,” he said. “But if I tell you that there is a couple that hates you so much that they are prepared to kill their 6-month-old baby as long as they can kill you, that is a level of ferocity we have not come to grips with. “We have to come to grips with the fact that we have real enemies.” Still, he said, there are those who think we can talk our way out of danger. He quoted Iran’s president as saying “we must defeat the Anglo-Saxons and eliminate Israel from the face of the earth.” Repeating it, he said, “Go to any citizen of this state and ask them what they think that sentence means. Now, how hard do you have to deny reality to say, ‘Well, let’s negotiate … we must have a misunderstanding here.’ We don’t have a misunderstanding, we have enemies.” Despite criticism of, and hatred for, America around the world, “the number of people who want to come to the U.S. to pursue happiness, to create a better future, to earn more money, is breathtaking.” But he also warned that the nation is not only beset from the outside, that if America allows its culture to be radically changed by immigration, or by court decisions favoring secularism over the nation’s religious roots, that battle against evil will be much more difficult. “We want to reassert that English is the governing language of this country,” he said. “It is very important for us to reassert that we are a single country. People should come here from everywhere, but they come here to become American, they don’t come here to change America into a system radically different from the one that has been successful.”
Have Yourself A Merry Little ChristmasThere may be no accounting for taste, but I've gotta say, this girl gives me goosebumps and shivers and all sorts of other stuff.
MEMRI Compilation VideoMEMRI is the Middle East Media Research Institute. They specialize in translating Arab media and bringing it to the world. Much of the most virulent anti-Semitism and incitement to Jihad is broadcast only in Arabic. Until MEMRI started translating, the non-Arab world had little idea what was being said about us behind our backs.
Check out this compilation video from MEMRI.
Jews Are Being Attacked Daily In Berlin
The demonic wildfire of anti-Semitism is raging across Europe, and nowhere more fiercely than in the cradle of modern Jew-hatred, Germany. From the European Jewish Press:
BERLIN (EJP)--- The head of Berlin's Jewish community has said that attacks on Jews are becoming a daily ritual on the streets of the German capital. “We have been getting reports from school children about them having been at the centre of verbal and physical attacks,” Gideon Joffe told the DDP news agency.
“Almost every day, we have been witnessing that the word ‘Jew’ is being used as a sexual and racist explicative… and that the children are beginning to think of this as something totally normal,” he said.
Joffe was reacting to a physical attack by a group of Arab youths, last Friday, against a 14 year old Jewish girl in Berlin’s mainly Muslim Kreuzberg district.
According to a police report, the girl had often been at the centre of verbal attacks by Arab youths. The taunting began during the Israeli-Lebanon war, this summer. During one of the girl’s walks to school, she and a friend were even chased.
Last Friday, the taunts and the chasing ended in blows to the girl’s head and back.
“This is a new dimension, which anti-Semitism has been taking,” Joffe said.
He stressed, however, that many of the reports of anti-Semitic taunts did not only stem from Muslims. Such attacks have come from across every religious and cultural group,” he said. However, according to police reports, most attacks have been verbal and have come from segments of society made up primarily of migrants, usually Arabs.
Unreported attacks
The Berlin police told EJP that most physical attacks are not reported to them because there are no physical injuries. Thus they have not been able to put together a statistic of conclusive numbers to work with at this time.
“Nevertheless, we should not underestimate the mental scars that can be left behind,” one officer said, adding that he believes even verbal attacks should not go unreported. Joffe is concerned that potential attacks keep Jews from living out their traditions.
“Stars of David, hanging around the necks of kids or the wearing of Kippas (scullcaps) have almost totally disappeared from the Berlin landscape,”
The Scariest Part Of All ThisFrom the Mad Magazine cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen at Dry Bones Blog:
Yes, it's also the saddest part, and the most angering part. As I've noted before, if Ahmadinejad were to accomplish what he says he wants to accomplish, the track record of the Christian Church with regard to the ensuing second Holocaust would be even worse than our record on the first one.
It's The Secularism, Charlie Brown:An ACLU ChristmasFrom Gates of Vienna:
AUSTIN, TX - The Young Conservatives of Texas — University of Texas Chapter — announced today that they will be displaying an “ACLU Nativity Scene” on the West Mall of the University of Texas campus on Monday and Tuesday, December 4th and 5th. The group’s intent is to raise awareness on the extremity of the ACLU, and bring to light its secular-progressive efforts to remove Christmas from the public sphere. The display, the first of its kind in the nation, will feature characters that are quite a bit different than the standard crèche.“We’ve got Gary and Joseph instead of Mary and Joseph in order to symbolize ACLU support for homosexual marriage, and of course there isn’t a Jesus 
in the manger,” said Chairman Tony McDonald. “The three Wise Men are Lenin, Marx, and Stalin because the founders of the ACLU were strident supporters of Soviet style Communism. The whole scene is a tongue-in-cheek way of showing the many ways that the ACLU and the far left are out of touch with the values of mainstream America.”Go read the whole thing over at Gates of Vienna.
Palestinian Nazi SaluteI have periodically posted photographs of various groups of Palestinians doing Nazi salutes. Well,
here's one that comes via Associated Press December 2, 2006. Yes, that's today.
Note the AP caption:
Palestinian student supporters of the Fatah Movement at the Arab American University raise their arms as they shout slogans supporting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, during a rally near the West Bank town of Jenin, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006. Hamas on Saturday rejected demands by PLO leaders that its government resign over the failure to form a moderate coalition acceptable to the West, a sign of an intensifying power struggle between Islamic militants and moderate President Mahmoud Abbas. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)
Does The City Of Chicago Hate The Baby Jesus?It might be a funny way to phrase the question, but one does have to wonder why Chicago denied New Line Cinema the opportunity to sponsor the Christmas market in downtown Chicago. Check out this video.
Vissi D'Arte from Tosca by PucciniAs performed by Grover Washington Jr. (on Soprano Saxophone) and Orchestra.
A House Is Not A HomeThanks to Olivia for turning me on to this amazing performance by Luther Vandross.
Never Missing An Opportunity To Miss An OpportunityFrom Elder of Ziyon:
"It seems the harder Israel and the rest of the world try to give the Palestinians their own country, the harder they try to prove that they don't deserve one."
- Editorial,
National Post, Canada
It is a breath of fresh air to see a mainstream newspaper even mention the possibility that the Palestinian Arabs don't
deserve a state.
