...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.
Losing the war: Whether or not it turns out that some of the photos from Qana have been deliberately staged for the benefit of gullible and easily manipulated Western media outlets, one thing is eminently clear: There is no way Israel can win this P.R. war. Israel’s enemies have become so adept at pushing the “Arabs are the victims, Israel is the brutal aggressor” line—first in the Palestinians territories and now in Lebanon, that truth and reality no longer matter; indeed, they seem quaint relics of a time long past. What matters is that the media and a large portion of the world, including the EU (which sold its soul to become part of larger Eurabia) and the Muslim-enthralled U.N. are predisposed to think ill of Israel—even if it’s fighting for its life against avowed genocidal fascists who are deranged religious fanatics sponsored by a genocidal fascist Shia republic, and even if these genocidal Shia fascists have cynically put people, including women and children, in harm’s way. Hezbollah uses kiddies as human shields? Ho hum.
In fact, there is really only one way for
The hell with that. This time around, the Jews won’t even be able to count on the world’s crocodile tears and monuments to those murdered. This time around (God forbid) the world will say the Jews of Israel had it coming, because of all the nasty things they did to those nice Palestinians, to those helpless, innocent Lebanese.
Even with the jihad raging all over the world, and even with the threat it poses to civilization as a whole, that’s the only narrative the mainstream media and most people seem willing to accept.
How to account for this wilful blindness, a calamitous failing that may well spell our doom? My mother always used to tell me to not attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. In this instance at least, I’d say both malice AND stupidity (along with a heaping helping of Jew-hatred, a dementia known to corrode the grey matter--just look at Mel) are to blame.
Update: Mark Steyn on today’s naked Jew-hatred, which is manifested as naked hatred for the Jewish state:
One of the curious side-effects of the jihad is that it’s liberated among non-Muslims in the west an amazing resurgence in old-school Jew-hatred. I don’t just mean the coded stuff – “Oh, those Jews are so clever” – or the casual prejudices of the schoolyard – “He Jewed me out of two shillings for a Mars Bar” - but just plain naked virulent hatred. Right now I’m getting a ton of mail like this:
Israelis are the pigs of planet earth: butchering Arab babies, polluting the sea, the land, and the very air we breathe with the the stench of their inhumanity.
That’s from Nica Campbell, and her opening sentences are only the warm-up. For centuries, Jews were viewed as sinister wandering rootless cosmopolitan figures of no national allegiance. So they became a conventional sovereign state and now they’re hated for that. The standard defense is that it’s not anti-Semitic to criticize Israeli policies, but, as Miss Campbell’s letter suggests, what’s being questioned is not
Update: Truer words were never spoken: These days, only terrorists are allowed to wage war. From the Conservative Voice:
…The conflicts begun by both Hezbollah and Hamas started with invasions of Israel, the killing of Israeli soldiers, kidnappings of other Israeli soldiers—followed by immediate rocket launches (from both entities) into Israel. Certainly sounds coordinated to me. But, it is
It is clear that the increasingly useless United Nations does not want terrorist organizations to be destroyed. It actually wants to send “diplomatic envoys” to “discuss the situation” with these terrorist bodies. And the UN expects, nee demands that the civilized world agree to its madness. The predominant reason the UN has used is that
There is no disproportionate force in existence, when fighting for survival against enemies who have vowed to wipe you and your country from the map—as
The bottom line? Only the terrorists should be allowed to fight. Yeah. That should do it!
Tories stand with
The standard charge against Stephen Harper's foreign policy is that it's a clone of the policies of U.S. President George Bush.
Harper, his critics say, has gutted the image of
These critics all focus on the so-called "golden age of diplomacy" as practiced by the Liberals under Lester Pearson: a tradition of studied neutrality in the Middle East that has been embraced in Canadian foreign policy under the Liberals ever since.
It's this foreign policy that Harper has scuttled. Harper is pro-Israel and has kept a close lid on the Foreign Affairs Department, lest it stray too far from his line on the
The historically challenged small 'l' liberal media sees Harper as an unbalanced supporter of
The real model for Harper's stance
But a closer look at history shows that Harper's stance on the
In 1956,
In 1957, the Diefenbaker Tories upset the Pearson Liberals in an election that directly challenged the traditional Liberal Pearson view of foreign policy and the
Diefenbaker sharply attacked the St. Laurent-Pearson Liberals for their
As prime minister, he created a pro-Israel, anti-Pearson and anti-External Affairs policy.
He was convinced that External Affairs (as Foreign Affairs was called at the time) was against both
Mulroney echoed Diefenbaker's views
From the mid-1980s to the early '90s, another Tory prime minister, Brian Mulroney, echoed Diefenbaker in his distrust of Foreign Affairs and in his pro-Israel stance.
That's the tradition Harper is following.
His hands-on policy — and his one-man rule on foreign affairs and anything the Foreign Affairs Department does — is reminiscent of Dief's distrust of the department and bitter dislike of Pearson. Diefenbaker was convinced that External Affairs was anti-Israel and against the foreign policy of his government.
Harper, like Diefenbaker, also distrusts the media's stance on
Diefenbaker, a lifelong supporter of
The liberal media argument that Harper is too pro-Israel and too pro-Bush is simplistic. And its criticism of Harper as a blundering, wrongheaded, rookie simpleton in the
Harper is not George Bush's toadie. His policy on
To review: Diefenbaker, Mulroney, Harper—friends of
Something for Jews who would support
Pessimistic forecast: In Front Page Magazine, David Horowitz warns that the “
Read it and weep.
Jew-haters round-up:
Chutzpah!: Iran, the Shia dystopia that’s rushing to complete its nuclear project, the better to be and display the biggest Muslim dick in the neighbourhood; the nation led by genocidal Islamo-Nazis who vow to eliminate the Jewish “cancer”; the state sponsor of Hezbollah, which greenlighted the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers in order to divert the attention away from Iran's nuclear schemes—must I go on? Those guys are saying that “peace” hinges on divesting
Count on Kofi and the gang to see that as a not unreasonable request.
Mel-t down: I don’t know about you, but the news that Mel Gibson has exposed himself to be an insane Jew-hater is about as shocking as the news that the newly reconstituted UN Human Rights Council is just as pointless and Jew-hating as the old UN body it replaced. That is, not at all shocking.
Oh, sure, hearing Mel utter the actual words—that “the Jews” (booga booga) are responsible for all the wars in the world—is a bit startling, but only when you consider that they’re coming out of the mouth of the man once identified by People magazine as the sexiest man alive. But when you remember that this is the same guy who adorned his Jesus movie with some particularly gruesome and extra-textual touches—like that scene where the Jewish children turn into demons—it all falls into place.
Word is that
Me? I’ve always believed in vino veritas, and much as my heart went pitta-pat for Mel back in day (especially his turn as the outrageously attractive reporter in The Year of Living Dangerously—ayzeh chatichah, as they say in Hebrew), I can’t help but think that the booze loosened his tongue and allowed him to speak from his heart.
Which, we can now say with more certainly, is a cold-blooded, Jews-are-Christ-killers, antisemitic organ.
Much like his hate-corroded, delusional brain.
No win situation: Don’t worry about
Here’s how MacKinnon begins today’s emotionally manipulative account of the Israeli reprisal than resulted in civilian casualties:
At least 55 people, 34 or more of them children, were crushed to death in the Israeli attack. More bodies were still believed to be buried inside yesterday as night fell.
Brothers Abbas and Haider Hashem had worked for four years to build the home, which was envisioned to house their large extended family. Yesterday, it was reduced to a pile of shattered concrete and twisted metal that collapsed on and suffocated those who had been hiding in the basement when the Israeli bomb hit.
All around lay suggestions of the humble life the Hashems and the neighbouring Shalhoub clan lived during their time inside the simple shelter. The colouring book was filled with pictures of a girl and her dog shaded yellow and green. There were soccer trading cards, track pants, a mismatched collection of sandals and a plastic bottle of cooking oil.
There's little question that this was a town that supported Hezbollah, the Shia militia that provoked war by capturing two Israeli soldiers almost three weeks ago. A giant photograph of
Residents speak admiringly of what they call "the resistance."
But as a front-end loader clawed through the rubble last night -- the work occasionally pausing as United Nations and Red Cross staff carefully extracted another body part from the wreckage -- there were no obvious signs of Hezbollah's presence.
Now, don’t you hate those brutal Israelis for what they’ve done to this idyllic Islamo-Nazi village?
Bravo, MacKinnon, for a job well done.
Down time:
A blogging break
Is what I’ll take.
Sat. and Sun., and then,
Back on Monday again.
Where’s Nasty: Hiding out at the Iranian embassy. Where else would he be? (link via Drudge)
The ties that (don’t) bind: A group I’m involved in was brainstorming (or spit-balling, in current parlance) the other day about the most effective ways to dispel Jew-hatred. During the discussion, the leader of the group mentioned that she had spoken to someone who thinks the best way to do that is to “build bridges” between Jews and Muslims—individuals, groups and communities—hoping that in times of crisis these bridges will hold.
I strongly disagreed. While I see nothing wrong with maintaining friendly relationships, (“it couldn’t hurt,” as the old punchline goes) I said that it’s dangerous to think see such “friendships” as operating on anything more than the most superficial level, to expect to maintain them when the chips are down, so to speak.
That’s the same point I tried to make to Bernie Farber, back when we exchanged e-mails regarding the CJC’s condemnation of the Danish newspaper that had published the Mo ‘toons. At the time, Farber was extremely pleased that Muslim organizations had commended the CJC’s stance (quel surprise!) and insisted that these ties would stand us in good stead when the CJC marched arm-in-arm with Muslim groups to lobby the provincial government to fund our religious schools.
An article in the New York-based Jewish weekly, Forward, proves my point (and shows how naïve and short-sighted the CJC was). The piece is written by a Jew who lives in
Here in the metro
That is, until recent days. What I heard and saw at recent anti-war rallies in
I was among the thousands who attended a rally in
As I walked among the rally participants, several thoughts rushed through my mind. The first was how young many of them were. A whole generation of metro Detroiters — our future neighbors, schoolmates, co-workers and leaders — will remember this day forever.
Second, I struggled to come to grips with how Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah could be so glorified. Nasrallah heads an extremist terrorist group that frequently calls not only for "death to
Finally, the antisemitic placards at the rally were a horrendous display of
After so many years promoting tolerance and the need for understanding among Detroit's rich mosaic of ethnic, racial and religious groups — and it pains me to say this — the Jewish community here should be alarmed about what the future will be like for our children, and their children, in metro Detroit. The Arab Americans' youthfulness and sheer numbers must be noted. They are learning quickly about political activism in
We cannot afford to ignore their anger and misguided messages. We need to think long and hard about future interactions…
An object lesson for us all, including those of us who are proud to call one of the world’s most multicultural cities our home.
Update: And speaking of
1984 today: Charles Krauthammer on our Orwellian times. From JWR:
What other country, when attacked in an unprovoked aggression across a recognized international frontier, is then put on a countdown clock by the world, given a limited time window in which to fight back, regardless of whether it has restored its own security?
What other country sustains 1,500 indiscriminate rocket attacks into its cities — every one designed to kill, maim and terrorize civilians — and is then vilified by the world when it tries to destroy the enemy's infrastructure and strongholds with precision-guided munitions that sometimes have the unintended but unavoidable consequence of collateral civilian death and suffering?
Hearing the world pass judgment on the Israel-Hezbollah war as it unfolds is to live in an Orwellian moral universe. With a few significant exceptions (the leadership of the
The word that obviates all thinking and magically inverts victim into aggressor is "disproportionate," as in the universally decried "disproportionate Israeli response."
When the
The perversity of today's international outcry lies in the fact that there is indeed a disproportion in this war, a radical moral asymmetry between Hezbollah and
In perhaps the most blatant terror campaign from the air since the
But it is a dual campaign. Israeli innocents must die in order for
On Wednesday, CNN cameras showed destruction in
Had
I’m pretty sure that last question was rhetorical.
A tale of two papers: There’s a disconnect (a chasm, really) between the Globe and Mail’s news coverage of the current phase of the jihad against
Case in point: today’s lead editorial which examines--and torpedoes--
…The awkward truth is that
The reputation that Mr. Harper is supposed to be squandering exists mainly in the minds of Canadians like Mr. Axworthy and Mr. Graham. We are not abandoning our role as honest broker in the
In any case, it is hard to see exactly what even the most honest broker could do in the present situation. The
To take a neutral stand between terrorist militias fuelled by radical Islam and a democratic country defending itself from attack would have been a perversion of our traditions…
Hear, hear.
There’s no disconnect between the National Post’s news coverage and its editorial position re the current crisis. The two are in complete harmony. Here’s part of the Post’s excellent editorial explaining the connection between Hezbollah and its puppet master,
For the last two weeks, innocent Israelis have been killed in missile barrages from Lebanese-based Hezbollah terrorists and militia. On the other side of the border, more than 300 Lebanese civilians have been accidentally killed by Israeli bombs aimed at Hezbollah assets. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers have engaged with Hezbollah gunmen in ground combat, with both sides taking heavy casualties. All this loss of life was caused by Hezbollah's decision to stage an unprovoked act of war on uncontested, sovereign Israeli soil two weeks ago.
But why did Hezbollah do it? Since the government of
HERE ARE A FEW CLUES:
- The Shiite terrorist group receives US$120-million in annual financing from
- Hezbollah was created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Several hundred IRGC officers are operating in
- According to Western intelligence sources, over the last six months, the IRGC has been teaching Hezbollah how to operate its massive stock of rockets, many of which are from
- On Wednesday, more than 60 Iranian self-declared suicide bombers, bedecked in Hezbollah paraphernalia, set off from
- Yesterday, a Kuwaiti newspaper broke the news that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is travelling to
- During fighting in
- Earlier this month, Iranian troops assisted Hezbollah in firing a C-802 radar-guided missile at an Israeli warship, killing several crew members and nearly sinking the craft.
- Iranian officials met with Hezbollah leaders in
Get the picture? As despicable and murderous as Hezbollah's own jihadist ideology may be, the group is very much a creature of
Inappropriate funding: Islam Online, a Wahabist-funded website which propogandizes on behalf of the one true faith and often has scathing things to say about America and Israel, is sponsoring a program, based in Munich, to help train science journalists in the Middle East. And by the
And you’ll never guess who’s coughing up some of the cash to pay for the program:
...Dr. Magdy Said, former head of IslamOnline.net's science and cultural departments, commented on the website's participation in the program. "It's been one of our goals as a science department at IslamOnline.net to build our skills in a step-by-step process in order to play a role in the science and technology system in the Arab and developing worlds," he said. "If there are calls for reform in the Arab and developing worlds, part of these reforms must be in the science and technology sector. And we at IslamOnline.net believe that we must play a role in the popularization of science as part of these reforms," added Said. "By participating in the World Federation of Science Journalists' two-year mentoring program, we are partaking in the reform of science journalism in our part of the world. We also benefit ourselves by learning more skills and gaining more knowledge in our field of work. We are taking one more large step ahead in fulfilling some of our goals at IslamOnline.net," he concluded.
The 20 experienced science journalists in the
Dr. Kathryn O'Hara, who holds the Chair in Science Journalism at
The session was organized in collaboration with Technisch-Literarische Gesellschaft (TELI) and the Wissenschafts-Pressekonferenz (WPK), the two German science journalist associations. Regional co-ordinators are Diran Onifade, a Nigerian television reporter, for English-speaking Africa; Nadia El-Awady, science editor of the Cairo-based IslamOnline.net internet service for the Arabic-speaking world, and science journalism professor Gervais Mbarga of the University of Yaounde in Cameroon for Francophone Africa.
The mentoring scheme is funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the
Um, why is
No escape: Interim Liberal leader Bill Graham is shooting off his mouth again. Bill, like the rest of the clueless left, is displeased with