Just kidding, obviously. It was the Lebanese Defense Minister who made that declaration, to the incredible howls of absolutely no protest from anyone, anywhere. Not even 10 to 1 terrorists to civilians - terrorists to soldiers:

If you're in a hurry you can just start around 2:20. But there's a minute or so just before that of him explaining how the Lebanese army was caught totally by surprise, with the soldiers attacked while sleeping in barracks.

References:
* Lebanese Minister of Defense The Battle Will Not End [MEMRIVideo / YouTube]

Previously:
* World Just Fine With Israeli Utlimatum To Palestinian-Based Terrorists: Surrender Or Die
* World To Give More Reconstruction Aid To Lebanon. Still Nothing For Israel.
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah

Nothing that you didn't already know, but it's nice to have it all laid out:

There's room for disagreement and a touch of dishonesty smuggled in under the banner of even-handedness. Clinton, having dealt with Netanyahu, doesn't really believe that Sharon was anywhere near the most hardline leader on the Israeli political spectrum. But don't let that distract you from what this is: a manifest and explicit admission that Arafat was responsible for the collapse of the peace process.

References:
* Clinton on Israel-Palestine [ubermulch / YouTube]

Previously:
* Arafat, Devestated By Bush's Win, Slips Into Coma
* EU Discovers That Arafat Is A Terrorist
* Oh Look - Another American Intelligence Chief Blames Arafat For the Collapse Of the Peace Process

There is a limit to how many Palestinian war crimes over how long a period Israel is willing to bear. There are again Lebanon II-like murmurs floating through the Israeli press about how the Israeli government is direction-less, but the IDF seems to be finding at least some of their targets:

Incidentally, that first link goes to a story about how Israel could have decapitated Hamas in 2003. Israeli intelligence learned that a terror summit of Hamas leaders was planned, drones confirmed that the entire leadership was in the house on the right day, and the green light was given. The IDF held back from using a bomb that would have collapsed the house - and thus allowed the leadership to walk away - because of... fear of civilian casualties.

References:
* Hamas claims two killed in latest IAF strike in Gaza [JPost]
* Security and Defense: Still no strategy [JPost]

Previously:
* Hamas Taps Terrorist Leader to Be Police Chief
* New Way Fatah Weapons Get To Hamas: They Hijack the Damn Trucks
* IDF Kills Three Hamas Soldiers At Gaza Fence, Wounds a Fourth

So typical. First soldiers of the Palestinian government commit weeks and weeks of war crimes, indiscriminately firing rockets into Israeli population centers. Israel at first declined to retaliate, figuring partly that occasional rocket barrages are the cost of being Jewish in the Middle East, partly that Hamas and Fatah were doing fine retaliating against each other on their own, and partly that the international community would limit Israel's maneuvering room anyway. Then - inevitably - someone got killed and Israel had to defend its citizens.

So of course within days the Palestinians ran to hide behind the UN's skirts:

Despite the UN's past enthusiasm in shielding Israel's Arab enemies from the consequences of their own actions, the Hamas leadership is fearful that the world won't be able to leash Israel in time. So they're also going with their backup playground-like plan of suckerpunching Israel and then promising not to do it again if only Israel will not retaliate:

The beautiful thing about this Hamas strategy is that Israel, retaliating less than a week after deadly strikes on Israeli schools and hospitals, ends up getting blamed for starting the violence. The Hamas leadership boasts about how their brave soldiers are striking blow after blow against the Zionist Jews, and then as soon as Israel defend itself Hamas gets to call a time-out. And if Israel actually has the nerve to try to hold someone accountable for Hamas's war crimes - well, the world's press will scream about how Israel is "breaking the fragile 48-hour truce". This happens every. single. time.

References:
* Olmert Government Not So Much With the Cleaning Out Gaza, Relieving Sderot [MR]
* Hamas, Fatah head to Egypt for talks [JPost]
* Palestinians want Security Council to call for immediate cease-fire [IHT]

Previously:
* Hezbollah Gloats - We Spent A Month Hiding Behind the UN's Skirts, So We Won!
* The Joke That Was Sa'adat's Sentence - How the Palestinian Authority Meets Its Obligations When It's Not Busy Violating Them
* Hezbollah And Hamas Escalate Kidnapping Rhetoric, Attempts

You have to admit, they're getting really good:

And now, ladies and gentlemen, something special: Robert Woolwine's blogspace Tasha and Dishka shrine. When MR gets the restraining order, this post will certainly be a top-ten defense exhibit.

References:
* Thelma and Louise VS Tasha and Dishka [tasha / YouTube]
* Day 47 - Dishka's Orgasm Clip? - You be the judge! [Robert Woolwine]

Previously:
* Mere Rhetoric: Video: Tasha On A Very Boring Night
* Mere Rhetoric: Video: Tasha and Dishka Fridays - Valentine's Day
* Mere Rhetoric: Tasha and Dishka Fridays - April 20th Edition

If this doesn't convince the left that action must immediately be taken to stop an irredeemably evil Iranian regime, we're not sure that it's even worth talking to each other any more. If we can't come together over the idea that beer is a cause worth fighting and dying for, then political deliberation in this country is truly dead. Psychopaths [content warning for graphic picture]:

We understand that watching Iran destroy Israel may not over disturb the hearts and minds of New York fashionistas, but with Ahmadinejad declaring declaring today that the World Will Come Under Political Flag of Iran - well, our liberal brothers and sisters, let us ask you this: where will you get your PBR from then?

References:
* Whipped for two beers [Aftenposten]
* Ahmadinejad: "World Will Come Under Political Flag of Iran" [Gateway Pundit]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Iran Has Legal Slavery And Rape Of Prebuscent Girls. They Call It "Temporary Marriage".
* Dipomatic Shocker: Iran Will Not Give Up Their Nukes
* Video: BBC Explains Why Israel Has To Stop Iran

According to the Pew report:

The more religious an American Muslim is - that is, the more likely they are to self-identify with religious rather than secular versions of Islam - the more they insist that Islam treats men and women equally. Ummm...

But you can't break teeth. He's very clear about that. No breaking teeth during the wife beatings. We kind of think he's being genuine here, in his own pathological, woman hating way - be seems genuinely upset about the prevalence of women who get their heads and legs cracked apart by their husbands in the name of Islam. Which brings us to this little logic puzzle:

(1) When people point out that Islamic law insists upon the superiority of men over women - that women are ordered by Muhammad himself to bow before their husbands - apologists talk about Islamic practice.
(2) When people point out that Islamic practice evinces surreal levels of sexism - that vicious beatings to the point of broken bones are the mere physical manifestation of pathological hatred for women - apologists talk about how that's a perversion of Islamic law.

Ummm... It appears to us that neither is particularly kind to women. An overwhelming majority of American Muslims insist that the Muslim view on men and women is actually egalitarian and equal. Which kind of begs the question: how are we going to convince the Muslim world to stop its pathological abuse of women if even the most Western, integrated Muslims in the world don't admit there's a problem?

References:
* Saudi Doctor Explains Wife Beating & Subservience in Islam [lookhearsee / YouTube]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - You're Destroying Indonesia With Your Skimpy Clothing and Your Premarital Sex
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Theo van Gogh's Submission (Full) [Video]
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Islamism in the Netherlands

Like clockwork, human rights organizations publish articles condemning Israel for how "even ambulances, doctors and medical teams on emergency calls have to wait". We screencap so that we don't have to link to these vicious irrational useful idiots, but a short Google search based on the text should do the confirmatory work if you're so inclined:

And like clockwork, we link to a demonstration of exactly why ambulances and "patients" have to wait at Israeli checkpoints. Hint: they smuggle suicide belts.

No seriously, it has nothing to do with the depths to which Palestinians will go to murder Israeli civilians. It's just the Zionists are cruel and heartless.

References:
* Palestinians Smuggle Suicide Belts Inside Ambulances [VoiceOfIsrael / YouTube]

Previously:
* Red Cross Condemns Israel, People Who Haven't Even Heard Of The Red Cross Still Not Surprised
* Mere Rhetoric: Neutrality Doesn't Apply To Jews
* International Community Can't Understand Why Israel is Unwilling to Let Palestinians Violate International Agreements

KILL IT KILL IT

The DARPA packmule can carry 6 ruck sacks and stabilize itself in just about any terrain. Perfect for chasing down desperately fleeing human mine slaves. In fact, were we the DARPA workers, we would not be so callously kicking the potential future supervisor of Human Salt Mine #5420.

References:
* Robot Pack Mule [bimengxiong / YouTube]

Previously:
* Bad Week For The Future Of Humanity. Great Week For Future Robotic Overlords.
* Video: Giant Sword Armed Wii Controlled Robot. What Could Go Wrong?
* Thursday Military Tech - Sniper Rifle That Can "Say Hello To You At Over A Miles And A Half Away" [Video]

Meryl pointed out early last week that the usual organs of British anti-Israel agitprop have been quite unsuccessful in rallying respectable Brits to their cause. Certainly a cause for hope, especially as it seems that France may be tossing and turning fitfully in its slumber as well.

But for every step forward:

For the second time in half a century, European Jewish girls are being viciously beaten in open public spaces for no crime greater than being Jewish. The double loyalty canard - "are you English or a Jew" - is especially interesting coming from theocratic lunatics bent on destroying the British way of life. It's almost like they'll use any excuse to attack Jews.

References:
* What if they launched a boycott and nobody came? [Yourish]
* Britain, highest number of anti-semite attacks in Europe [boni123 / YouTube]

Previously:
* Video: Radical Islam In Britain - "The Summit of Islam is Jihad"
* If Britain Won't Stop Radical Islam, Why Should Radical Islam Stop Being Radical?
* Massive Wave Of "Asians" Mysteriously Attacking Jews In Britain

We've been looking for a post to drop this video into. Wouldn't you know it, the link was latent global anti-Semitism:

Here's the thing about that - the ethical questions in this debate are overwhelmingly pro-Israel. When you compare what Israeli doctors are willing to undergo to fulfill their medical oaths - where they treat Palestinian patients who later return to blow up their hospitals - to accuse them of immorality is obscene. But let's not neglect the actual consequences of the WMA's sham morality. Israeli medicine routinely makes staggering contributions to the world:

Trying to destroy that network - the robustness of the Israeli medical establishment internally, and its international ties externally - that's the real violation of medical ethics. When anti-Israel posturing is (a) unjustified, (b) useless, and (c) self-destructive - at that point, do we get to say that maybe it's not being driven by clear-headed reasoning, let alone by passionate morality?

References:
* AJC calls for fight against boycott of Israeli MDs [JPost]
* IsraelValley.com - High-Tech Medical [israelvalley / YouTube]
* That Can't Be True - Oh Wait, It Is [MR]

Previously:
* Hey Ireland, Shove It
* British Doctors Don't Like Israeli Doctors Because... Well, For Some Sort Of Reason
* Arab World: "We'll Take Your Jewish Stuff, Just Please Don't Remind Us of How Jewish You Are"

Watch CAIR Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar address the Pew results. Watch MSNBC's Amy Robach almost totally not see how she's being taken for a ride. The intellectual dishonesty on CAIR's part was probably unintentional - legally trained professional spokespeople are often sloppy with their language:

This 1 percent number is being parroted in other places. Ace has an intimidatingly comprehensive catalog of media lying with statistics, but we want to look specifically at this 1 percent argument that's getting thrown around. Here's what Iftikhar said:

Now listen to Robach's original lead-in:

She means 26 percent, but we'll let it slide. She's genuinely surprised when he quotes the 1 percent figure back at her, because she obviously has no idea where it's coming from. Her guess, for what it's worth, is only half right (and not the half that matters). Someone should have prepped her on the numbers, just on the slim possibility that CAIR would try to be intellectually dishonest. As it turns out, the trick here is pretty transparent. A little tip for public relations flaks: if you're trying to mislead people while maintaining plausible deniability, it's rhetorically inadvisable to almost exactly repeat a question, with only your critical change dangling in the wind. For example, if you're on the air and you need to fudge a statistic, you shouldn't repeat most the interviewer's exact phrase - "... that suicide bombings are justifiable" - while obviously inserting your own caveat - "... that suicide bombings would be often justified". It's just poor form.

Robach is talking about the percent of American Muslims who think that suicide bombings against civilians are "ever" justified. That's obvious to anyone who's read the report, but it's also pretty clear to anyone who's trying to understand the plain meaning of her question. The addition of the word "often" by apologists is not an accident. Here are the relevant tables (full Pew report here [PDF]):

The 1 percent figure comes from information outside the table, where the study authors specify that the breakdown for top table's 8 percent "Often/Sometimes" is 1 percent "Often" and 7 percent "Sometimes". So already you've got 8 percent of all Muslim Americans. The "Rarely" column adds another 5 percent. The total is 13 percent, which is the number that gets bundled into the "Ever" column of the second table.

So to be absolutely precise: the total percent of all American Muslims who think that intentional suicide bombings targeted at civilians are at least occasionally justified in defense of Islam is 13 percent. That's more than 1 in 10 - not exactly the comforting "percent of people who think the White House is controlled by Martians" line that CAIR is running.

That's just the rank intellectual dishonesty part of their defense. It's before we even get to what might be an honest debate - whether we should be looking at total respondents or the 18-30 year old bracket. That's on the second table, where the 26 percent comes from - this generation of Muslim-Americans who think that suicide bombings are justifiable. We think there are good arguments for emphasizing this number more than the total 13 percent number. But no one can have that debate because in the meantime apologists won't stop pushing this 1 percent number.

The 1 percent number is relevant only if you think anyone would be comforted by knowing that 13 percent of American Muslims only occasionally think that mass slaughter of civilians in defense of Islam is justifiable, but 1 percent want it to happen often. Since we don't think that anybody can really believe that that's what this debate is about, we're going to go with the "they're being intellectually dishonest" angle. But we're open to arguments about why they might just be egregiously stupid.

References:
* CAIR Rep Reacts to Pew Poll of American Muslims [CAIRtv / YouTube]
* U.S. Muslims reject extremism: Say happy with their lives [Medill Reports]
* Media Spins/Spikes Disturbing Finding That Quarter of American Muslim Young Men Support Terrorism [Ace]
* Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream, May 22, 2007

Previously:
* Democrats Renew Effort To Undermine Electronic Surveillance
* Northwest Airlines Caves To CAIR Boycott Threat And Apologizes, MR Caves To Our Worst Instincts And Publishes Conspiracy Theory Bait
* CAIR Protest In So Cal

Here's the thing - when this little girl screams at the top of her lungs about beating the drums of jihad, do you think she's talking about jihad like peaceful self-overcoming jihad? Because many of our friends on the left insist that that's what she's talking out, so we're a little confused. Make sure you get to the part where she actually acts out how the Zionists have made the world's Arabs and Muslims blind and deaf. It's precious in that elementary school play kind of way:

We bet that she has a beautiful singing voice. We'd be worried about her voice - those rapturous screams at the end seemed kind of straining - but in a year or two she'll probably be married off. Then her vocal cords will get decades and decades of rest from having to do things like "vocalize a personal opinion" or "talk in public."

Oh, and before we forget: how typical or Arab and Muslim media.

References:
* Lebanese Girl: 'Jerusalem Awaits, Beat the Drums of Jihad' [MEMRIVideo / YouTube]
* Kids Being Brainwashed To Hate Jews In Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, Egypt, Iran, Etc Etc [Videos] [MR]

Previously:
* Fox Picks Up the I Want To Be A Sucide Bomber Like Mommy Video [Videos]
* List of Things That Would Cause Us to Have More Sympathy for Lebanon's Prime Minister
* More Hamas Mickey Mouse Fun - Video And Comments From Moderate Democrats Added [Video]

The nutroots are fond of talking about how everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts. That's obviously true, but they have a little trick that lets them keep the facts they like and ignore the facts that they find inconvenient. When confronted with a demonstrably true statement - say, "the Palestinians have failed to live up to the vast majority of their obligations" - anti-Israel advocates (and many of its ostensible friends) will insist that we don't yet have enough information to conclude that this ostensible "fact" is something worth acting on.

The standard for proof imposed on inconvenient facts is impossibly high. Either what would count as proof is unrealistic (as in the case of conspiracy theories that stack the deck against disproof) or what counts as a conclusion is deferred indefinitely into the future.

What's underneath these not very complicated cognitive gymnastics may sometimes be genuine - we'll reserve our judgment on that question for specific cases. But the result is often a de facto embrace of elements that aren't precisely what we were taught to think of as progressive:

Drawing moral equivalences between Israel and its enemies is so mindbogglingly bad argumentatively that it's obviously driving by something different from clear and deliberate reasoning. It's just impossible to look at the study the situation closely and objectively and claim that the Israelis and their terrorist enemies are after the same thing or use the same tactics.

References:
* An Open Mind [SOUTALKUFFAR / YouTube]

Previously:
* How Many Times Do We Have To Go Over This? If Palestinians Keep Shooting At Israeli Schoolhouses, It's Not A Ceasefire.
* The Definition of ''Equivocation''
* Things That Piss Us Off About This Morning's Guardian Article (5) - The Total Lack of Any Thought About Anything. Ever. They Don't Even Know The Consequences of Their Own Stupid Moral Equivalence.

30+ terrorists and terrorist enablers arrested overnight, including the charmer responsible for the textbooks in Palestinian schools.

Over forty Hamas members have been killed in airstrikes this week alone. This has caused Hamas leaders - now aware that they enjoy far less immunity than they thought international duplicity guaranteed them - to react in exactly the way that brave martyrs react. By offering to back down if only Israel will promise not to hurt them:

Apparently the UN and EU's skirts weren't quite broad enough this time around. No seriously, we're not being sarcastic. That's what these brave martyrs count on, and they tremble in naked fear if they can't take potshots at Jews without any real fear of retaliation:

If we were that definitionally pathetic, we'd be a lot more circumspect about putting on thuggish airs. But we haven't spent the last half century being coddled by an international community that patronizingly excused even the most vicious lashouts and incitements - and we imagine that such a pathological relationship is probably pretty corrosive.

References:
* IDF arrests 33 top Hamas officials in West Bank raids [Ha'aretz]
* Officials: Hamas ready to halt rockets [JPost]

Previously:
* Hamas Government Defying Itself With Suicide Bomber Mickey
* Hamas Launches Rocket Attack, Kidnapping Attempt
* New Way Fatah Weapons Get To Hamas: They Hijack the Damn Trucks

Ami Ayalon has a slight edge over Barak going into the next election. That should be (and is) bad news to Netanyahu, who would much rather not be the only candidate to have been voted out of office going intot he next election. It also looks like the Labor primary is going to be decided in the first round, which means that the 20 percent of votes that are going to the bottom three Labor candidates are about to get put in play. No one is going to throw away their vote in a use it or lose it situation.

That's about all there is to talk about this morning, since neither Kadima or Likud are about to interfere with the impending Labor bloodletting. Hot wars also tend to silence political sniping, even in Israel. But just so you won't feel cheated, here are some Bibi videos that we know you know we know you love. Bibi's Cavuto interview from last Monday...

... and a very, very terse explanation of the same dynamic:

We're almost beginning to think that this Iranian nuclearization thing is something we should be worried about.

References:
* Poll: Ayalon leads Barak by slim margin in race for Labor chairmanship [Ha'aretz]
* Neil Cavuto Interviews Benjamin Netanyahu [newshoundsblog / YouTube]
* Benjamin Netanyahu on Radical Islam [TheFinalMove / YouTube]

Previously:
* Israel Politics Roundup - 2007-05-02 - Olmert Not Looking So Great
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-07 - It's Futile No Confidence Motion Day In the Knesset
* Israeli Politics Roundup- 2007-05-09 - Is It Elections Yet?

Memo to Maya's music video director: artistic sex scenes should be subtle and titillating. They should not make us blush awkwardly:

Maya in that schoolgirl thing in a fetish club - we can deal with that. But here we just kind of feel like we're intruding.

References:
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Hey, That Maya Buskila Girl Is Kind Of Cute [Video]

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Israeli Model Michael Lewis. Because MR Is An Equal Opportunity Link Baiter. [Video]
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Yael Goldman. Elegant.
* [Video] Israeli Model Wednesdays - An Ode To Alcohol, As Told By Rotem Sela

At least they're honest:

Now some of you might be saying "given these attacks, plus Hamas's promises to keep firing rockets - this would be an especially stupid time for certain European countries to begin giving Hamas direct aid". You must be new around here:

Because really - beside ubiquitous genocidal promises, systematic child brainwashing, and actual war crimes - what has Hamas done to make you think that they shouldn't get money? How biased and one-sided of you.

References:
* Norway prepares first direct aid transfer to new PA gov't [YNet]
* Rocket fire on western Negev resumes [YNet]

Previously:
* Norwegian MP Literally Nonsensical About Anti-Semitism
* It's Amazing How Speaking and Thinking Like an Anti-Semite Makes You Into an Anti-Semite
* Hamas Celebrates Unity Government, Diplomatic Thaw With Brazen Terrorism Against Israelis

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

The Palestinians have stopped fighting long enough to inform each other that they're not going to stop firing at Israeli schools and hospitals:

Then again, it's not like they've really got a truce truce going. It's kind of a truce, except for how Fatah members are killing Hamas members over their beards. So it's not quite a ceasefire. But it's close enough to breathlessly announce as progress and unity to the world. Our current favorite breathless The Truce Is Back On headline is something Ha'aretz had up for like 30 seconds before they thought better of it and changed it to Hamas, Fatah officials: Internal fighting in Gaza is far from over:

Baby steps.

References:
* Abbas, Haniyeh meet in attempt to reach truce [YNet]
* Bearded Gazans on razor's edge between life and death [JPost]
* Hamas, Fatah officials: Internal fighting in Gaza is far from over [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - They're Murdering Nurses and Shooting People Against Walls
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - MR Has Some Questions About Yesterday's School Shooting In Gaza
* Palestinian Non-Civil War Watch - Hamas Judge Killed

We're as surprised as anybody:

We'd better get the UN on this as soon as possible. You have no idea what could be happening there. They could be doing anything - even developing nukes! Not that there's any reason to believe that they are, but, you know - hypothetically.

Real quick about this leak that Bush is trying to destabilize Iran: we're kind of with Andrew Sullivan on this question. Not really all that much of a leak. Did anyone think that the US doesn't have a covert program meant to destabilize the Iranian regime (bracketing, of course, whether it's any good or not)? Because that's a depth of incompetence that even we haven't accused covert US agencies of.

References:
* IAEA report: Iran expanded uranium enrichment activities [Ha'aretz]
* Another Secret Blown [Powerline]
* The Iran Leak [Andrew Sullivan]

Previously:
* Mere Rhetoric: SCORE! Iran Blames the Jews for Benedict's Statement!
* Mere Rhetoric: Purdue Nuclear Strategy Expert: Bomb Iran Now
* Mere Rhetoric: Iran: 3000 Centrifuges Installed

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

Just kidding. Obviously it's only the Lebanese Defense Minister who gets to say that:

Next thing you know, there'll be an Arab country building a wall to keep the terrorists away from civilians. And Amnesty International won't utter so much as a peep. That would be totally insane.

References:
* Lebanese Defense Minister to militants: Surrender or die [Ha'aretz]
* Saudi Arabia to Build Apartheid Wall [MR]

Previously:
* World To Give More Reconstruction Aid To Lebanon. Still Nothing For Israel.
* Lebanon PM Has a Plan - Israel Will Stop Defending Itself, and Then Hezbollah Will Be Disarmed By the Make Believe Army that Exists Only in His Mind. Brilliant!
* EU Really Is That Stupid (Syrian Help In Lebanon Edition)

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

Anderson Cooper brings his perennially tear-brimmed baby blue eyes to bear on the shocking - shocking - news that many young Muslims in the United States support suicide bombing:

This is as opposed to the LA Times, which is dealing with this shocking - shocking - news by attacking the messenger. It's not even a good ad hominem - it's like they're not even trying any more.

References:
* 1/4 young American muslims support sucide bombing [YouTube]
* LA Times: LGF is 'Hoppin' Mad' [LGF]

Previously:
* Hitchens Discusses Atheism, But Is Not Interested In Al Sharpton [Videos]
* Cindy Sheehan: Probably Still an Anti-Semite
* Memo To Diplomatic Sophisticates: Ahmadinejad Did Not Get The Part Where You Meeting With Him and Being Nice To Him Was A 'Criticism'

Sorry for the week-long hiatus, and thanks to all of you who checked in to make sure that everything was alright. Our understanding is that the Palestinians spent last week acquitting themselves - from Egypt to Lebanon - in precisely the way one would expect of people who most definitely should immediately be given a state. This is us being shocked.

Updates to begin flowing again in the next few hours like so much milk and honey.

Previously:
* Nina Simone Sings Eretz Zavat Chalav. Incredible. [Video]
* Shabbat Hatikva [Video]
* Dennis Miller On Creeping American Islamism: "Enough" [Video]

Shiri Maimon is the diva who got 2nd place Israel's American Idol clone Kokhav Nolad (A Star Is Born). Here she is lip-syncing to a Britney Spears mix. No, no - don't thank us. It's really our pleasure to help:

There's also a video floating around of her singing Hatikva at a soccer game that focuses on the emotions of the crowd and the players. We'll probably post it some Tuesday in the near future, as it is quite good.

References:
* Britney Spears Israeli style

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Tammy and Yahel Stalker ...
* Israeli Hottie Moran Atias Reminds You: Vote For MR ...
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Hey, That Maya Buskila ...

Something relatively straight-forward as Israel gears up for a summer of either elections or war or both:

We like how they subtitled the Hebrew song in Hebrew. Quite helpful to everyone.

References:
* Subliminal, Hazel & Sivan - Hafred umshol [Barkochba / YouTube]

Previously:
* Shaaaaaaaaaalom [Video]
* Shabbat Beauty - Zionist Hip Hop In Remembrance Of Yaakov Paz. A Momentary Song" [Video]
* Zionist Hip Hop - Shai 360 During Taglight 2007 [Video]

As the JIBs wind down - and as the beating that we received begins to purple into deep psychological bruising that will take years to cope with - we'd like to take a moment out of our normal schedule to castigate all of you who didn't vote for us. May your cats wake you up before daybreak, may your dogs fetch you copies of the LA Times, and may your children find Noam Chomsky fascinating.

Except only kind of. We're of course beyond grateful to all of you who voted and wish great ill on those of you who didn't, but honestly we're kind of happy to have all of you around to rant at. We won't get teary-eyed about how all of you are the reason we blog - you wouldn't believe us anyway, since it's obvious that we only do this to get chicks. But we don't think we're revealing any state secrets when we tell you that writing into the ether is a lot more worthwhile when there are people on the other side reading and - hopefully - sometimes even nodding.

Still, if some kind soul is interested in sparing us years of therapy:

Best All Around- Best Large Blog
Best In Class - Best News/Current Events Blog
Best In Class - Best Pro-Israel Advocacy Blog
Best In Class - Best Right-Wing Political Blog
Specialty - Best Contribution for Search the Center
Best Posts - Best Overall for This Will Not Be Our Last Bow
Best Posts - Best News for Blasts In Damascus
Best Posts - Best Series for Beit Hanoun Meme Watch

Thanks again to everybody.

Previously:
* JIB FINALS! JIB FINALS! (Plus: Painfully Hot Israeli Hottie Anna Zaikin)
* Israeli Hottie Alexandra Loxsin Is Sad Because MR Is Getting Killed In The JIBs
* Simply Absurd Beer Pong Skillz [Videos]

Whoever had "40 hours" in the "blame the Jews because the Palestinians are killing each other" betting pool is the big winner. It might be just us, but we think that even the JPost headline writer is making fun of Hamas:

Poor babies. We'd have a lot more sympathy for the "it's because you're not giving us money" whine if the international community hadn't tripled aid to the Palestinians in 2006. Not that "a lot more" would be "very much at all" - but it would still be more. Anyway, while Hamas was blaming Israel and Fatah for conspiring against the Palestinian people, Fatah was blaming Israel and Hamas:

It's never their fault, is it?

References:
* Hamas blames world, Israel and Arabs [JPost]
* Hamas kills five of its own in ambush [JPost]

Previously:
* Palestinians Fight With Palestinians? Blame Israel.
* Palestinians Blame Israel For Their Own Infighting. Of Course They Do.
* Muslims Bomb London? Blame the Jews.

We expect the UN and the Red Cross to condemn this outrage not at all:

The Palestinian public elected Hamas on a platform of warmongering. As a rule, hatred and resentment rot a society from inside - this is the result.

References:
* Hamas kills five of its own in ambush [JPost]

Previously:
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch II - Why Can't Jailed Terrorists Be Ministers Too?
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Now They're Bombing Gaza Schools Because Of Little League
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - MR Has Some Questions About Yesterday's School Shooting In Gaza

They're working out so well in Lebanon - what with their well-known success in stopping arms smuggling - that they'd naturally work out in Gaza:

How about this? How about the world doesn't step in to shield the Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank from the consequences of their disastrous warmongering? It'd be a radical departure from the last five decades - and we wouldn't want people to step out of their comfort zone - but we're just suggesting that maybe something new might not be uncalled for.

Or Italy could send in peacekeepers to ineffectively prevent Arab intransigence while limiting Israel's ability to protect its citizens. Maybe the hundred and forty second try will be the charm.

References:
* Vice Premier Peres: Israel is ready to help if Abbas asks [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* UN Lebanon Force Now Getting Beaten Up By Little Kids
* France Identifies the Real Threat To the Lebanon Ceasefire: Israel.
* UN Building Hit in Lebanon. UN, AP blame Israel. Yawn.

Good:

Among other things, Rev. Falwell was an incredible supporter of the debate community that we're part of. We'll forgive a lot for that alone - to say nothing of the respect that we have for anyone who is confident enough to subject their beliefs to the give and take of argument. He provided support to run a huge tournament every year at Liberty, large enough for everyone in the region from the least to the most experienced. As long as he was around the Liberty debate team wanted for nothing - he genuinely believed in having people examine and defend what they want other people to believe. The Liberty tournament always ended with a lavish banquet to which he would personally show up to give a speech. Then, after the speech, he would answer any question from anyone in the crowd. He was one of the smoothest and most charismatic people we've ever watched work a podium, even when his interlocutors were annoying and arrogant first years enamored with being impertinent ("but doesn't the Bible say we have to love everybody? how can you..." - give us a break). He never lost his poise, and suffice to say that over many, many years we never saw anyone crack Falwell.

References:
* ADL's Foxman, Falwell critic, mourns him as 'dear friend of Israel' [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* OneJerusalem.org Conference Call: Pastor John Hagee, Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church [FAQ: Debunking Liberal Myths About Evangelical Support For Israel]
* Politically Active Filmmakers Find a Religion-Based Summer Camp They Feel Safe Criticizing
* Gaza Internet Cafes and Christian Bookstore Bombed - No One Knows Who Did It!

In retaliation to yesterday's war crime by Hamas soldiers, Israel struck a Hamas command and control facility in Gaza:

Here's a dramatic illustration of why Israel doesn't want to get involved in the maelstrom that the Palestinians are whipping up for themselves in Gaza: the IDF air strike killed four Hamas members, right? That's still one less Hamas member than Hamas themselves managed to kill in the last few hours of fighting:

Forget killing as many Hamas members as Fatah - Israel can't even keep up with the number of Hamas members that Hamas is killing. Not that it will stop our chattering classes from weeping tears of frustration and anger about how horrible Israel is for attacking the oppressed and occupied Palestinians in Gaza.

References:
* Gaza: 4 killed in IDF strike [YNet]
* Hamas mistakenly kills 5 of own fighters [YNet]
* Mere Rhetoric: BBC Slips, Proves Liberal Gaza Occupation Fetish

Previously:
* Palestinian Non-Civil War Watch: Blah Blah Blah
* Palestinian Non-Civil War Watch - Hamas Judge Killed
* Palestinian Non-Civil War Watch - Kidnappings Resume

That's exactly how to express disapproval that the Palestinians chose to elect warmongering genocidal lunatics. Just totally effing perfect:

Only the UN could write that aid tripled "as a result" of a boycott. Usually those words mean different things, but whatever - the important thing is to remind everybody that other countries care about Israel and are boycotting Hamas. So much for the "crippling American and Israeli boycott" of the Palestinians. Here's a little visual demonstration of how spectacularly the international flood of aid is working out:

But honestly, who could have seen that coming?

References:
* Aid to PA nearly tripled in '06, despite international boycott [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Hamas Makes New Offer: They Still Won't Live Up To Any Of Their Obligations, But They Won't Murder Jews For A While
* That Thing About the US Promising To Boycott the Hamas Government? They Lied.
* US, EU Stand Firm On Boycott. Except They Don't. And Except There Is No Boycott.

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

The Kinnor Lyre, mentioned throughout the Bible, was played by the Levites in the Temple before it was destroyed and the Jews expelled. Long after that, of course, the Hatikva came to express the yearning to once again create a Jewish home in the Holy Land:

You can find more about the history of this haunting instrument here and here.

References:
* Harp History [Jubilee Harps]
* Kinnor David - King David's Lyre [Temple Institute]

Previously:
* Shabbat Beauty - Sarit Hadad Is Good At Singing [Video]
* Nina Simone Sings Eretz Zavat Chalav. Incredible. [Video]
* Shabbat Hatikva [Video]

UPDATE 03 (12:55 PST):
For the next day or so you're going to see the IDF in a holding pattern. Helicopters will hover over Sderot and northern Gaza to try to limit rocket fire until a meeting this evening between Peretz and army brass. Last Sunday the regularly scheduled security cabinet meeting apparently worked out a number of contingency plans in case of a major rocket attack. They'll choose one of those plans, the orders will go out, and some kind of operation will be implemented.

The only thing that might possibly hold off a ground invasion is if the government decides that Hamas and Fatah are killing more of each other than the IDF thinks it can reasonably do in short order. Which would be a frustrating decision, but not necessarily a numerically unjustified one. There's nothing in the English-language Hebrew media that indicates pressure for a ground operation from anyone starting with the center-right on leftward, so the decision will probably be to escalate air strikes. Invading Gaza while the Palestinians are tearing themselves apart might be more trouble then it's worth.

Then again - rockets are falling on schools and homes, on mothers and children. That can't go on.

UPDATE 02 (12:50 PST):
Hey, you know how you're going to be hearing that the Palestinians dropped a dozen rockets on schools and houses today because of their "legitimate grievances" about the "occupation"? Yeah, that's a bald faced lie:

Their grievance is the existence of the Jewish state. Don't let the LA Times tell you otherwise.

UPDATE 01 (12:45 PST):
Ha'aretz has the lede as a moderate injury to the mother who was hit when the rocket scored a direct hit on her home, but then clarifies that it's "moderate to serious". Which almost certainly means shrapnel - so at a minimum, the woman is maimed for life, has lost her house, and has a four year old son who was also hit. People need to start understanding what's going on in Sderot: it's like being in the middle of a war, with rockets falling out of the air on your house and schools. Think of an actual war - WWII - and think of bombs dropping from the sky. That's daily life there, and this tragedy was inevitable.

Original:
JPost is reporting dozens of rockets, with injuries in excess of 20 people. Hamas is threatening to fire dozens more rockets at Israeli schools and hospitals unless Israel does whatever it is Hamas wants Israel to do.

David Groder of One Jerusalem had just finished posting video of a rocket flying by right in front of him. The rocket attacks are coming from Hamas soldiers and are scoring direct hits on Israeli schools and houses - that would be a war crime if committed by the troops of any other government anywhere else on the planet, but we're kind of skeptical about the global condemnation that's about to ensue. Or rather - we're quite confident that world leaders will be expressing "concern" and urging both sides to "think about the day after", but we kind of think that they're going to wait until the impending Israeli response to this outrage.

GIYUS just posted an action alert asking people to email world leaders and express their outrage. Do with it what you will - we're generally skeptical of these things, but they certainly can't but help blunt world criticism. You're probably going to be most effective aiming your emails toward the US Congress and State Department, since those are the only places where condemnation of Israel's impending counterattack are not a forgone conclusion.

References:
* Hamas threatens to fire 'dozens more' Kassams [JPost]
* VIDEO EXCLUSIVE:: Semi-protected Schools, Damaged Homes and Kassam Rockets: A Day in the Life of Sderot [OJ.org]

Previously:
* It's a Cycle of Violence - Arms Buildup Edition
* Islamic Jihad Rocket Hits House, Narrowly Misses Pre-School
* Breaking: Palestinian Terrorists Still Trying to Murder Israelis

For the thirtieth or fortieth time this year, all estimates of Iranian nuclearization have been proven overly optimistic. Good job Europe!

No worries. Given negotiations some time. No doubt they'll bear fruit one of these days. Whether that day comes before or after Iran makes good on its promise to rain down tens of thousands of missiles on the Jewish State - well, that's hardly Europe's problem. In fact, there's an entirely incorrect but very popular understanding of Muslim fanaticism that suggests that it might actually solve some of Europe's problems. If we were just a little bit more paranoid, we might even begin to suspect a link between those two policies. But alas, no - we make it a policy never to ascribe to malice what can be explained as a deeply rooted historical tendency toward rank appeasement.

References:
* Report: Iran ups uranium enrichment [JPost]
* Iran threatens 'tens of thousands of missiles' [Israel at Ground Level]

Previously:
* Mere Rhetoric: Iran: 3000 Centrifuges Installed
* Mere Rhetoric: SCORE! Iran Blames the Jews for Benedict's Statement!
* Mere Rhetoric: Purdue Nuclear Strategy Expert: Bomb Iran Now

Apparently Olmert and Peretz are under the impression that their security credentials are solid enough to take a less than hard line:

One Jerusalem has a wealth of recent calls and interviews about the intolerable situation in Sderot. For all the global hysterics about the "daily hardships of Palestinian life," it's only the residents of Sderot that are literally getting bombed day in and day out. It's almost like there's a smidgen of global hypocrisy at work. Almost.

References:
* Printer Friendly Email this Article to a Friend Security Cabinet Allows IDF Greater Freedom against Terror from Gaza [Hasbara]
* AUDIO EXCLUSIVE :: Terrorist Attacks in Sderot [One Jerusalem]

Previously:
* LA Times Can Give You Anti-Israel Cycle-Of-Violence Framing. Full And Accurate Reporting, However, Is Not Their Forte.
* Islamic Jihad Rocket Hits House, Narrowly Misses Pre-School
* Breaking: Palestinian Terrorists Still Trying to Murder Israelis

Doug Farah describes the open and explicit emphasis that jihadists are placing on the recreation of the caliphate:

The sophisticated justification for appeasement goes something like this: going softline on jihad-sponsoring Muslim states and hardline on Israel won't placate the lunatics, but it will cut off their critical public support. But it seems like that support is for their goal of establishing a caliphate and not for resisting the US (in Hannibal Lector's immortal sneer, that is incidental). So if Israel is overrun by Islamic lunatics, it seems like popular belief in the ability of radicals to take over Western land and establish sharia would increase rather than decrease. Although maybe there are deaf, dumb, and blind Muslims in the Middle East who would be unaffected by the destruction of Israel. Good point: we hadn't considered that.

References:
* Once Again, the Caliphate [Douglas Farah]

Previously:
* John Mearsheimer - Not Anti-Semitic. Just Anti-Semiticish
* Public Diplomacy Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry
* Reuters Gives Advice: Want To Dampen Muslim Extremism? Support People Who Want To Commit Genocide.

We're sure that this quote has been getting passed around, but our RSS reader decided that it didn't like the posts from last Wednesday-Friday and acted accordingly. So it's new to us:

This is what "not anti-war, just on the other side" means in the context of many of the far left sites to which the Democratic Party is now beholden. The excuses of "jihadists don't pay attention to our media" have never been particularly compelling, but they now require an intimidating combination of denial and ignorance to even pay lip service to. Which is not to say that people shouldn't express dissent against a democratic government during wartime - but it is to say that they shouldn't be allowed to comfortably deflect criticism with fantasized excuses.

There's something almost ironic about this: for decades, the academic and activist left could be as crazy as their little hearts desired - precisely because nobody really listened to them. There was an unspoken agreement: professors could rail against capitalism during the day and play the stockmarket during the night; students could raid their trust fund for gas money on Sunday and ditch class to protest in their Che shirts on Monday. And that was fine, because they were happy in their sandboxes and the rest of us were happy to keep them there. But now there are actual consequences to their nonsense, and it would behoove them to grow up. Or, at a minimum, to honestly recognize that they're providing succor to the enemies of civilization.

References:
* Islamist-Left Alliance A Growing Force [NY Sun]

Previously:
* Liberal Academic Middle East Experts Seem To Know Nothing About The Middle East
* The Ugly Left - Failed Singer Reunites With Harvard Brat, Threatens To Kill President Bush. Ms. Coulter Responds [Video]
* Meet Jeri Thompson, the Powerful Republican Consultant That Grassroots Liberals Will Be Attacking As A Bimbo

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

That'd be a real shame:

Probably a false alarm. He's filled with too much crazy to die. It works just like formaldehyde. Seriously, you can look it up.

References:
* Unconfirmed report: Gaddafi in coma [JPost]

Previously:
* Gadhafi Severs Ties With the Arab World, Declares That "The Jews Will Eventually Drown" [Video]
* Bush Encourages Another Rogue To See the Error of His Ways
* Gadhafi Severs Ties With the Arab World, Declares That "The Jews Will Eventually Drown" [Video]

Content warning for naughty language:

Eh. It's nothing the kids haven't heard before.

References:
* [tactINT / YouTube]

Previously:
* Miri Ben-Ari Interview and Music Videos: "I Bling My Violin"
* Subliminal and The Shadow: Tikva About Terrorism [Video]
* Miri Ben-Ari and Subliminal: God Almighty When Will It End [Video]

Original:
Theo van Gogh died for making this movie:

Something to think about the next time you read about how burkas are empowering. Or about how Islam supports gender equality. Or about how the West imposes colonialism and patriarchy on the Middle East. Or about how contemporary feminists who devote all their time to screaming hysterically about the evils of the US have arrived at their priorities through careful consideration and circumspect reasoning.

Update (16:04 PST):
Theo Van Gogh's killer is being provided books that reinforce his violent jihadist worldview:

Super.

References:
* Submission (A thought provoking film about women in Islam) [exmuslim879 / YouTube]

Previously:
* Dutch Muslim Schoolchildren Riot After Being Told Pigs Exist
* Pitt Love, Anti-Dhimmitude Edition
* Guardian Interviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Surprised To Find Multiculturalism Crumbling In The Face Of Radical Islam

We've gone over some decently detailed scenarios for how arms meant for Fatah police officers end up being used for terrorism: Fatah men as Al Aksa terrorists, smuggling from sympathetic Al Aksa members, selling for profit, etc. But why bother with that when there are so many more direct routes to take:

Democrats and foreign policy sophisticates won't let the US fund the less than savory enemies of our enemies, on the off-chance that those weapons will be turned against US troops decades down the line. Remember the thinly veiled relish with which certain journalists approached the potential of US-made stingers taking down NATO helicopters in Afghanistan? Like that.

But the solution when arms don't even get to the questionable allies that they're meant for? Send in more. Abbas and the still-to-be-revealed non-terrorists who support him will get it right some day:

Super.

References:
* US Government To Give Palestinian Terrorists Cutting-Edge Weapons [MR]
* Hamas seizes US weapons [YNet]

Previously:
* Secretary Rice: Sure, Abbas Is Allied With Genocidal Maniacs. That Doesn't Mean We Shouldn't Help Him.
* Mere Rhetoric: Abbas: Hamas Will Free Shalit Soon. Hamas: No We Won't.
* Mere Rhetoric: Tell Us, President Abbas, How Can We Help You Today?

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

We kind of like how they have special weeks for Israel hating, as if there are weeks when professors like Mark Levine aren't disseminating vicious lies against the Jewish State. Maybe they just mean this is when they try to be especially offensive instead of just rabidly vicious. Confirmation of our theory: the scheduled "Zio-Nazis" event. Problems with our theory: they say that the rest of the year too. Anyway, here are some of our favorite events, just a small subsection of their total events. Don't feel bad about your tax dollars funding this - most of the MSU's money comes from mysteriously well-funded, vaguely wahhabist mosques that have no official ties whatsoever to Saudi Arabia:

We were going to conclude this post with snark about the prevalence of democracy in the Muslim world and an explanation of why "Zio-Nazis" is anti-Semitic under even the most liberal defenses of anti-Zionism (hint: would it be inappropriate to accuse the NAACP verbally "lynching" an opponent? Yes). But then we got to the part where they're having this guy declare an Intifada on American college campuses, and we figured that the goal of the week is mostly self-explanatory:

Not that we think the vast majority of the seething, self-styled wannabes on the UCI campus will actually become real terrorists. They'll just spend the rest of their lives celebrating, justifying, and in not a few cases funding the baby killers that they wish they could be. So much for incubating diversity and democratic principles on university campuses.

We're probably just overreacting. Like "jihad", this oh-so-nuanced speaker probably means "intifada" in its less globally expressed and Saudi supported "self-overcoming" sense.

Previously:
* UC Irvine Course Description: American Unilateralism Responsible For Islamist Barbarism
* Reut Cohen Has Details, Video Of UC Irvine MSU Activities: Ward Chuchill, Anti-Semitism, Physically Harassing Her, Etc.
* Carter's Appearance At UC Irvine Provides Opportunity For Snark About Peace Treaties, Tears About American Academia

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit
* The Astute Bloggers

For us, three hours of working on a research proposal for the summer. For you, a link dump:

* Iran executed 15 drug traffickers today. Ha'aretz also has a news flash that says that they chopped off the fingers of a man convicted of robbery, but we can't find a link for that. Two numbers are relevant here: 72 and one billion. The first is the number of people that Iran has executed this year. The second is the number of reasons why progressives who valorize the mullahcracy are idiots.

* YNet has figured out the subtle art of Israeli Hottie video link baiting. Our lawyers will be in contact with them shortly.

* Olmert says that northern residents feel safer. We don't know much, but we know this: somebody's fibbing.

* Thirty-nine percent of Europeans think that Jews have too much power in the banking world. Probably a totally justified anti-Zionist statement that has nothing to do with anti-Semitism (bonus punchline: where's our cut?)

References:
* Iran hangs 15 drug traffickers [Sunday Times]
* Working girl [YNet]
* Olmert says northern residents feel safer [YNet]
* 'Jews have too much power in business' [JPost]

Previously:
* The Countdown To An Iran Strike Has Begun In Jerusalem and Washington
* Iran Now Blaming Sunni-Shia Split On Israel. No, Really.
* FIFA Bans Iran From World Play

Rather than getting disappointed and sobbing into our lunch about the current drubbing we're taking, we're thinking that this as a sign of our readers' good sense: you know that the JIBs were broken over the weekend, and you've been holding off on your votes. How clever of you. We can happily report that all the polls are working. Now go vote for us, lest our burger get soggy and our three vodkas get watered down by our tears:

Best All Around- Best Large Blog
Best In Class - Best News/Current Events Blog
Best In Class - Best Pro-Israel Advocacy Blog
Best In Class - Best Right-Wing Political Blog
Specialty - Best Contribution for Search the Center
Best Posts - Best Overall for This Will Not Be Our Last Bow
Best Posts - Best News for Blasts In Damascus
Best Posts - Best Series for Beit Hanoun Meme Watch

Every time you don't vote for MR in the JIBs, God makes a beautiful Israeli model put her clothes back on. He told us this personally.

Previously:
* JIB FINALS! JIB FINALS! (Plus: Painfully Hot Israeli Hottie Anna Zaikin)
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Israeli Playboy Party [Video, Mostly SFW]
* Simply Absurd Beer Pong Skillz [Videos]

In a result that is sure to be as confusing as it is shocking, the IDC's Barry Rubin explains how Democratic and State Department sucking up has utterly failed to moderate the Syrian regime:

In just the last couple of days, Syria has openly defiled the grave of Eli Cohen, putting repatriation of the executed Israeli spy's body out of reach. We were kind of pleased by the global outcry that followed, which was only fair given the din that erupted over the manufactured "Israel is carefully excavating land around somewhere that some people may have once pretended was a Muslim cemetery" controversy. What? There was no global outcry? Well that was predictable.

In other news, Syria is advancing its military schedule for the coming summer war, and Meryl reports that Israel is also suiting up. You mean peace overtures to Syria didn't work? Well that was predictable.

References:
* The Syrian Tragedy...and the American One [GLORIA]
* Syria claims Eli Cohen's grave is 'inaccessible' [Israel Matzav]
* SYRIA ADVANCES MILITARY EXERCISE SKED [MENL]
* Say, top brass: This is a test [Youish.com]

Previously:
* This Summer's War With Syria - Israel Launches Massive Defensive Training Maneuvers On the Golan
* Syria Sending Weapons To Hezbollah For The Next War. Of Course They Are.
* Syria Reorganizing Their Military Hezbollah-Style, Moving SCUDS To the Border To Target Israeli Population Centers

We obviously have no way of proving this, so you'll have to take our word for it: when we saw the headline (and especially the lede) of this article, we had to scan for the date just to make sure we hadn't accidentally loaded a two-month old page. Middle East blogging is like being caught in a perpetual deja vu - except instead of being funny like Groundhog Day, it's much closer to that X-Files episode where Mulder is trapped in the time-loop and unable to stop the suicide bomber from blowing up the bank over and over again. At the risk of overloading you with existential rumination this early in the week, here's the story. And because you've been such good sports, we've even included some semi-worthwhile commentary at the bottom:

It's always a little weird to try to trace when a cease-fire "collapses" and when it's just "strained". It can't be body count, because Palestinians have engaged in mass suicide bombings without trigger the much-dreaded cease-fire collapse. And it can't be vertical escalation, because Palestinians have moved from small arms sniping to rocket attacks on cities without doing more than "straining" an "already fragile" ceasefire. As near as we can tell, a cease-fire "collapses" if and only if a Palestinian terrorist of suitably high stature says so. We just wonder if there's like an official form or something. Maybe on Reuters or UN letterhead?

If you have time to play the always exciting "what if Israel had done this", here are some other paragraphs from deep in the CNN article. Don't get too excited. They pull this every couple of months, where they tease us about the possibility of a civil war. It'll blow over soon - if they had enough energy to have a civil war, they'd have a state by now:

and

and

Never has so much global good will been squandered so ruthlessly by people of such primitivism. The posting time of this post is about 5:25PST. The over/under on a statement blaming Israel by either Fatah, Hamas, or Iran is 7:30PST. Bets can be submitted through the "Donate" buttons in the top right hand corner, and the payout is a thank you and hearty congratulations from MR. If you bet and guess incorrectly, you still get the thank you. But no hearty congratulations.

References:
* Hamas-Fatah cease-fire collapses; top official resigns [CNN]

Previously:
* Palestinian Non-Civil War Watch: Lots Of Shooting
* Palestinian Non-Civil War Watch - Hamas Judge Killed
* Palestinian Non-Civil War Watch: Blah Blah Blah

Seriously, the part where the brown one goes right up to the webcam... Absurd:

Every time you don't donate to the San Diego Zoological Society, God kills a buddy like this. Seriously, He told us.

References:
* Bunny cam [kismetrabbitry / YouTube]

Previously:
* MR Crush #452 - Amy Winehouse (Bonus: Geek Crush On Rosario Dawson) [Videos]
* LA Zoo Screws Up Again
* Sunday Cuteness - Otters Holding Hands [Video]

AFP has a new story about Suicide Bomber Mickey, who is now telling kids to wage jihad on Israel and Spain. Fair enough. But we've been reading this AFP lede for the last five minutes, and it's kind of making our brain hurt:

"Hamas-run television defied... the Palestinian government" which is Hamas! Hamas is apparently defying itself. Because obviously the Legitimately Elected Government of the Palestinian People (tm) is a peace-loving one, so to the extent that it's not, it is. Ah, journalism.

References:
* Defiant Hamas TV airs resistance Mickey again [AFP]

Previously:
* NYT, LAT: Hamas Popularity is Israel's Fault
* Deal Reached On Hamas-Fatah Unity Government. World To Rejoice.
* Hamas Celebrates Unity Government, Diplomatic Thaw With Brazen Terrorism Against Israelis

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

St. Sgt. Yaakov Paz was murdered on March 11, 1978 while valiantly trying to stop the hijacking of a full bus by PLO terrorists. He had approached the bus alone in the early stages of the hijacking in an attempt to stop what would become the Coastal Road Massacre:

The Palestinians have honored the Mughrabi by naming a Hebron girls school, several summer camps, and police and military courses after her. Israelis are different, of course - they choose to honor the victims of cowardly atrocities instead of their perpetrators. The members of TACT (Subliminal's stable of hip hop artists and singers) pieced together a song of remembrance and memorial from the various letters and poems found in Paz's possession after his death. The result is "A Momentary Song":

It's not just that Israelis fight differently than the Palestinians. It's also that they mourn differently (via: Ari's Blog)

References:
* TACT-one moment song [TT77 / YouTube]
* Beit Hanoun Meme Watch - (2) "The Palestinians Are Really Pissed Off" - And The NYT Will Publish Death Porn To Prove It [MR]
* Rapping for Israeli Heroes: Yaakov Paz (And Ro'i Klein?) [Ari's Blog]

Previously:
* Subliminal and The Shadow: Tikva About Terrorism [Video]
* Miri Ben-Ari Interview and Music Videos: "I Bling My Violin"
* Miri Ben-Ari and Subliminal: God Almighty When Will It End [Video]

While every outrageous anti-Semitic conspiracy theory is covered by free speech on college campuses, publishing statistics about Islam and quoting from the Koran will get you punished. Eugene Volokh catapulted this storyinto the blogosphere yesterday with a post excoriating the Tufts faculty and administration. It's been a little slow to hit the jblogs - the only post we've found so far is over at TAB - but that could be because today is a day of rest or something. The campus free speech activists over at FIRE are pretty incensed about the whole matter:

And so on. There is nothing in the ad that gets close to being even controversial from a factual standpoint. But apparently some college campuses are now Islam-criticism-free zones. This is happening in a national academic environment where students are daily - daily - subjected to fantastical anti-Israel lies inside the classroom and vicious anti-Semitic conspiracy theories outside - and where that harassment is indignantly and proudly protected as free speech. Muslim students following Jewish students around and calling them Nazis? Free speech Muslim students stopping anti-jihadist speakers like Daniel Pipes from speaking? Even that's free speech.

But quoting the Koran? That's hateful, and totally unbefitting a place where you're supposed to learn about other religions.

References:
* "Intentionally Putting a Negative Spin on Islam" -- Flabbergasting! [Volokh]
* Blasphemy at Tufts [TAB]
* Factual Statements=Unprotected Harassment!? A Terrifying Precedent at Tufts [FIRE]
* More Nazi Imagery on UC Irvine's Campus. Administration on Hate Speech: "One Person's Hate Speech is Another Person's Education". [MR]
& Two Videos: Daniel Pipes Shouted Down At UC Irvine - UCI Administration Proud Of Insane Muslim Student Union Hate Speech [MR]

Previously:
* Carter's Appearance At UC Irvine Provides Opportunity For Snark About Peace Treaties, Tears About American Academia
* Brown University Outrage: Anti-Israel Academics Organize Conference To Attack Pro-Israel Critics, Shut Out Pro-Israel Speakers and Students
* John Mearsheimer - Not Anti-Semitic. Just Anti-Semiticish

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

We're kind of impressed that they managed to stitch together the few continuous seconds of this broadcast that didn't talk outright about killing Jews. That's some intimidating video editing skills - someone deserves a raise:

At least they call the Palestinian Information Minister out for being a liar. We would've preferred if they also included something about how this show is the tip of a very large iceberg (music videos, cartoons, etc). But it's MSNBC - baby steps.

References:
* OLBERMANN: PALESTINIAN MICKY MOUSE [CSPANJUNKIEdotORG / YouTube]
* New Palestinian Music Video Is Not Particularly Nice To Jews [Video] [MR]
* Root Causes [MR]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - You Should All Have To Wear Veils, Because Otherwise You're Asking To Be Raped
* Iranian Cartoons Are Anti-Semitic and Racist (And Something Else Too... Kinda) [Video]
* Video: Vicious Iranian Cartoons, Telling Kids To Become Suicide Bombers Edition

Good Pittsburgh boy.

"If there's one thing I hate more than a terrorist, it's a whiny terrorist"

References:
* Dennis Miller - O'reilly Factor - Fort Dix - Enough! [creekriot / YouTube]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - You're Destroying Indonesia With Your Skimpy Clothing and Your Premarital Sex
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Israeli Model Michael Lewis. Because MR Is An Equal Opportunity Link Baiter. [Video]
* Video: Dennis Miller Demolishes - Just Absolutely Destroys - Rosie On Patriotism

You've heard the news. You're read the posts. Now see the videos. You know how women of insufficient feminism used to be branded gender traitors on American college campuses? Question: what is contemporary feminism doing or saying about these oppressed women working in the service of actual patriarchy?

Answer: nothing.

References:
* Iranian Police Enforces "Islamic Dress Code" on Women [lookhearsee / YouTube]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Islamists Want To Set Your Wardrobe. This is Because They Are Fascists (Bonus Ahmadinejad Material Inside)
* Hey Gals, Check This Out I: Aussie Police Told to Convince Keep Battered Muslim Women to Stay With Their Abusers
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Palestinian Control Of Gaza Not Going Well For Women

Lawrence Wilkerson is a creature of the State Department, but even he understands that - regardless of military strategy - Israel and the US are in this together:

Look at it this way: if Israel was physically overrun or destroyed by militant Islam - Israel, which is considered by the enemy to be a Western foothold in the ummah - do you think it would encourage or discourage radical forces? It's the diplomats' game to avoid actions that encourage radicalism - do you think that radicalism would be more or less popular when it thinks that it's streamrolling over the West? Do you think the organization or state that destroyed Israel would get more or less recruits? More or less funding?

This is so painfully obvious - and, frankly, irrefutable - that we can't imagine that any reasoning person could deny it. Which is why we suspect that at least among people who've thought about this a lot, there might be a hint of something other than rationality driving things.

References:
* Endgame 3: Wilkerson on Israel and US military strategy [VPROBacklight / YouTube]

Previously:
* US State Department Shines Again
* State Department Anti-Israel Ideology Gets Silly, Kills Americans
* US State Department Screwing Up Iraqi Reconstruction

Like kind of funny. But also kind of disturbing.

What a strange couple of girls.

References:
* lipsync the next generation [tasha / YouTube]

Previously:
* Special Tasha and Dishka Tuesday - They're Off To Southeast Asia [Video]
* [Video] Tasha and Dishka Fridays - Flagged For Inappropriate Content
* Tasha and Dishka Fridays - Mmmm. Beer.

Actually, there are more militant feminists subscribed Hottie Wednesdays than there are total MR readers who seem interested in this Walmart scandal. While we're at it, the general lack of outrage from the Jewish community about this 22 week issue is frankly staggering. We don't understand where the resources are going - is Mel Gibson making Passion II and we just didn't get the memo? Anyway, this is called the blogger's prerogative to abuse the patience of the reader:

Well, let's give Walmart the benefit of the doubt: maybe they just don't have a very well-development distribution and tracking system. Although - we bet they would build one real fast if the face of Mohamed had made its way onto a t-shirt.

References:
* Walmart Nazi Tshirt Watch: Week 25 [Consumerist]

Previously:
* Update: Walmart Still Doesn't Care Enough To Pull Nazi T-Shirts
* Walmart Declares That They'll Be Done Getting Rid Of Their Nazi T-Shirts... Reasonably Soon
* Can We Get Someone To Please Do Something About The Nazi T-Shirts Walmart Is Selling?

And we're done with week 1 of the UCI MSU's annual anti-Israel hatefest. This year they've really outdone themselves by actively searching for how to be most offensive - in this case, claiming the Holocaust as their own and diluting the horror committed to Jews - and wrapping it up in the thinnest of nudge-nudge wink-wink liberal veneers. Bravo.

It's just insane out there. Reut Cohen has been doing her best to document some of the more absurd atrocities, but she's being overwhelmed both by the Muslims and by the flaming incompetence of what passes as Jewish leadership on today's American college campuses:

She's got video on that, but we've not going to embed it because we're hoping that for every 10 of you that go over there, at least one will RSS her. And that'll be one more person reading about the surreal swamp of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism that has spread across the UC Irvine campus. You should also click through to this post, which has video of Churchill that moved Reut to dub him "one of the most hateful individuals [she's] ever come across". Bold words for a UC Irvine Jewish student.

Besides, we're not particularly concerned with reminding you that Churchill is an overly pretentious, woefully undereducated, not very bright anti-Semite (nb. he's not an anti-Semite because he criticizes Israel - he's an anti-Semite because the viciousness with which he criticizes Israel is so incongruent to the actual facts that there must be something far more vicious driving him). But again, whoever doesn't know that already can't be helped by us. Psychotropic drugs are the minimum that they need.

That said, here'swhat concerns us:

That, unless we're very much mistaken, is what the kids refer to as "physical intimidation". It should also be what campus security referred to as "physical intimidation", but it was against a Jewish student so we can understand how it because "free speech". What kind of "speech" was being expressed by insinuating that the mob was getting the small Jewish girl "on tape" is kind of beyond us, but maybe the academic interpretation of free speech is just so much more nuanced. Not that this "small Jewish girl" isn't perfectly capable of swatting the gnat that won't stop buzzing around her. But she shouldn't have to - and she certainly shouldn't have to physically stand alone in the crowd without some representation from the major Jewish campus organizations. Maybe they were too busy serving Ward Churchill cake - actually, wait, they were too busy serving Ward Churchill cake. Incidentally, if you'd like to let the UC Irvine administration understand that you think dimly of their refusal to shield a dissenting student from physical harassment, Reut has details and documentation of the incident here.

Let's not mince words: the fact that Reut gets virtually no support from the official UCI Jewish student organizations - and that at times she and Hillel work at cross-purposes because she's insufficiently accepting of radical Muslims - represents a staggering failure on the part of the organizations that are supposed to be grooming Jewish student leaders. The few students that are willing to stand up to anti-Semitic thugs are getting overwhelmed by waves and waves of anti-American and anti-Israel campus activity, driven by radicalism and effective because it has the loose organization of a criminal gang. An ostensibly pro-Israel organization gave Ward Churchill a t-shirt to sarcastically wear around while he wailed pathetically about how he's being persecuted by Jews neo-conservatives.

References:
* Clips from Churchill's Lecture [Reut Cohen]
*Video: Ward Churchill on Anti-Semitism, Terrorism and Israel [Reut Cohen]
* Ward Churchill Speaks at UCI Sponsored by the MSU [Reut Cohen]
* Ward Churchill on 9/11 and "Little Eichmanns" [Reut Cohen]

Previously:
* UC Irvine Muslims Attacking and Slandering MR - SCORE!
* Jimmy Carter To Visit UC Irvine. Perfect.
* As Far As Smirking Anti-Semitism Goes, UC Irvine Muslims Have Really Outdone Themselves

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

* Muslim students at George Mason University have more or less taken over the ostensibly non-sectarian meditation room that the University provides. They've added all kinds of homey touches that their funders in Saudi Arabia should appreciate - making non-Muslims feel uncomfortable, separating men and women no matter what religion they are, enforcing a no-shoes policy. When people say that the anti-Israel viciousness on American college campuses is a result of sophistication and nuance... yeah, we dunno about that.

* Cinnamon Stillwell, the winner of the National Anti-Jihad Best Name Award (tm) for three years running, has a new Campus Watch article about borderline jihad advocacy at Berkeley. When we first got the link we thought "not at Berkeley - you're kidding!" But the stuff that she's documenting - outright recitation of Koranic passages urging Muslims to kill Jews - seems to be a qualitatively new flavor of crazy.

References:
* MSA at George Mason Demands Prayer Room, Islamic Education Center At George Mason University, [LGF]
* UC Berkeley's Hatem Bazian: Academic or Activist?

Previously:
* Mere Rhetoric: MR Asks: Yeah, Why Aren't We Bombing Syria?
* Mere Rhetoric: Brown University Outrage: Anti-Israel Academics ...
* Mere Rhetoric: Carter's Appearance At UC Irvine Provides ...

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

Pro-Israel blogging in a world of embeddable PMW videos might as well be cheating:

Two generations of radicalized, lunatic Palestinians - but it's the Occupation that makes them want to kill Jews, right? If only Israel would get out of Gaza, peace would be able to reign in that small strip of land.

References:
* Palestinian Journalist to 7-year-olds: "Don't be afraid to die"

Previously:
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - If We Asked You ...
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Biting the Hand ...
* Palestinian Non-Civil War Watch: Hamas Is Kind Of ...

A couple days ago, Elder responded to some of our questions about the Gaza school shooting. We had asked why it looked like every single part of Gaza was bristling with concealed and open weapons, even though an Israeli invasion wouldn't exactly come by surprise - Hamas and Fatah's soldiers would have plenty of time to go home and get their guns, if that was the issue. He talked about how weapons are being sold at car fairs:

This morning Info Live TV English - which provides daily YouTube news about Israel - posted an incredible, must-see video about one of these car lots. We'd embed it and thank them heartily, but the [deleted due to strong language and violent content] that work over there disabled embedding. Did we say [deleted due to strong language and violent content]? We meant "people who are under the mistaken impression that disabling embedding somehow protects their video". It protects it all right - TimesSelect "nobody bothers clicking through" protection.

Anyway, if you have time and patience click through and watch the video It's positively surreal.

References:
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - MR Has Some Questions About Yesterday's School Shooting In Gaza [MR]
* It just ain't normal [Elder]
* Weapons sales booming in Gaza [infolivetvenglish / YouTube]

Previously:
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Now They're Bombing Gaza Schools Because Of Little League
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Terrorists Very Popular
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - MR Has Some Questions About Yesterday's School Shooting In Gaza

Good job guys:

Last time we went through Logan they pulled us aside for "special" screening because of a half-empty bottle of Pepsi that we forgot in our backpack (obviously we're stupid - first mistake like that since 9/11 but in fairness to us we were viciously hung over). You know why TSA can find our Pepsi bottles but not catch boxcutters? Training:

This is obviously comedy. No way TSA training is that rigorous.

(h/t: Consumeist)

References:
* tsa security [starcheck / TSA]

Previously:
* Breaking: Iraqi National Detained At LAX Hiding Wires, Magnets, and Something Else... (UPDATE: False alarm? TSA Still Managed To Endanger Lives...)
* Q: Could Airport Security Suck Worse?
* TSA Web Site Hacked and Hijacked. Of Course It Was.

When you're a member of an organization that ranges from the counterproductive to the hateful, you have two choices: try to reform it or conclude that the mob is too big, rabid, or dedicated - and cut off your ties with them. For years, Jewish members of the American (and international) left have been insisting that the wave of anti-Semitism sweeping their movements is a reason for them to stay involved and fight harder. The center-right - and we flatter ourselves that we can still make a claim to that designation - has been insisting with equal vehemence that the contemporary left has too much invested in the tangled web of anti-Americanism, anti-globalism, anti-militarism, and latent anti-Semitism to be reformed. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding:

You want some confirmation of Rosenberg's intuition that the activist left is too defensively myopic to entertain criticism - or be amenable to reform? Go check out the comments on his post. We'd make some random selections (there's certainly enough viciousness to make that easy) - but we don't want to be accused of cherry-picking. It's typical "stop trying to use accusations of anti-Semitism to stifle legitimate criticism of Israel" - except as always (a) no one is doing that and (b) it's been a long time since any criticism of Israel in any form was "stifled".

Because you know that this kind of stuff - including the designations as top post and the comment from Kos himself - are just some peripheral bad apples:

Four out of every five American Jews regularly vote to empower politicians slavishly obedient to these people.

References:
* Jewish Daily Kos Member Quits Over Rampant 'Israel Bashing' [NewsBusters]
* Goodbye Daily KOS
* MR Has A Question For Democratic Jews: Are You Fucking Retarded?

Previously:
* The Ugly Left - Failed Singer Reunites With Harvard ...
* Blogish Anti-Semitic Stereotypes, Now With More Funny
* Does Kos Just Get to Make Things Up Now?

It. Is. On.

We leave you to your own devices for one day - one day - and we come back to find ourselves way down in the JIB polling. There are Israeli models who have been starving themselves for decades in anticipation of the day that we could use them as JIB link-bait. Are you going to let their hard work and sacrifice go to waste? Are you? Please - for the sake of the hotties - go vote for us:

Best All Around- Best Large Blog
Best In Class - Best News/Current Events Blog
Best In Class - Best Pro-Israel Advocacy Blog
Best In Class - Best Right-Wing Political Blog
Specialty - Best Contribution for Search the Center
Best Posts - Best Overall for This Will Not Be Our Last Bow
Best Posts - Best News for Blasts In Damascus
Best Posts - Best Series for Beit Hanoun Meme Watch

The JIBs are still working out some speedbumps - as of this morning, the "Best Right-Wing Post" category isn't up, and the poll for "Best Series" isn't allowing you to vote for MR. But we have no doubt that the they'll have that worked out in good time (hopefully before the Sabbath). In the meantime: we've given you pictures of hot Israeli women to bribe you. That's as good a reason as any we've heard for how to vote in the JIBs. Or, really, for anything.

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - The Pick Sisters Have Something For Everyone [Video]
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Hey, That Maya Buskila Girl Is Kind Of Cute [Video]
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Israeli Playboy Party [Video, Mostly SFW]

So you know how we've been told for decades that the military part of terrorist organizations is different from the political part is different from the charity part? Well, according to Elder, somebody forgot to tell the Palestinians:

Now riddle us this: Hamas commits mass murder, blowing up a cafe or a bus or a discotheque. Israel responds by raiding a Hamas "charity" building, which may contain terrorist weapons and is definitely providing terrorist funding. How do you think that would get covered? We're willing to bet our laptop that over ninety percent of the world's newspapers run the story with a a headline or lede about some nebulous "Hamas charity". Our laptop - that's how sure we are.

Tangential but legitimate tie-in: to see how Israelis actually deal with legitimate charities, check out Anney's post from Wednesday.

References:
* Burning down charities? No biggie! [Elder]
* Israel in the Top Ten [Boker Tov]

Previously:
* What? No Snark About Imams Calling For Muslims To Boycott Airlines?
* I Must Have Missed A Memo
* We Scoop Debka On Painfully Obvious Point, Is Awarded No Points

Lasers:

And then there's this thing, which the Korean military is preparing to deploy. It's both a deterrent and a decent guess about what our future robotic overlords might look like:

TechEBlog passes on:, "The South Korean government plans to deploy these friendly reminders on the border between South and North Korea, to further ease relations between the countries". Well played.

References:
* Feature: 5 Future Military Technologies [TechEBlog]

Previously:
* Bad Week For The Future Of Humanity. Great Week For Future Robotic Overlords.
* Video: Giant Sword Armed Wii Controlled Robot. What Could Go Wrong?
* Bad Idea Very Bad Idea

If we were in charge of Poland's public image, here's what we wouldn't do. We wouldn't demand that an Israeli newspaper elaborate on the precise extent to which Poland's citizens participated in the Holocaust:

Maybe the way media works has changed in the last 12 hours, but doesn't raising public objections about this just ensure that there are going to be dozens of stories that use the word "Poland" in close proximity to the word "Holocaust"? Let's say that this is a slam dunk in Poland's favor. Let's pretend that there's no evidence, for instance, that Poles refused to sell weapons to Jews in the Warsaw ghetto due to a thousand year history of anti-Semitism. There will still be dozens of stories using the word "Poland" in close proximity to the word "Holocaust". In reality, of course, there will be stories like that - and stories about how Poles refused to sell weapons to Jews in the Warsaw ghetto due to a thousand year history of anti-Semitism. Good job, Polish embassy.

References:
* Israeli cartoon raises Polish protest [JPost]

Previously:
* How many Poles does it take to save democracy...
* The Nation: So What If Europe Demographically ...
* The Red Line is Somewhere Behind You

We don't ask for much from Assad. Just the tiniest bit of self-awareness. A minimal recognition of the rhetorical and political position that he's speaking from. No such luck:

Well, we can't all inherit a police state from daddy now can we?

References:
* Assad: Israeli government too weak to make peace with Syria [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Syria Reorganizing Their Military Hezbollah-Style, Moving SCUDS To the Border To Target Israeli Population Centers
* Syria is Hiding Weapons in Civilian Aid Convoys. Of Course They Are.
* This Summer's War With Syria - Israel Launches Massive Defensive Training Maneuvers On the Golan

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

The World Bank has been pulling this stunt for years, so there's nothing particularly insightful about this post (or rather, even less than usual). But it's always elegant to see the juxtapositions. On Tuesday the World Bank published a report blaming - wonder of all wonders - the Israelis for the fact that Palestinians can't be bothered to stop trying to infiltrate Israel and kill Jews:

That's a fair point. Lifting roadblocks is astonishingly well-correlated with getting Israeli civilians dead. But that's just one of the many, many reasons why this World Bank stinks of hypocrisy. We're not experts on political economy, but it can't be easy to develop robust infrastructure or agile industries when the armed forces of the current government are in gunfights with the armed forces from the last government:

It's obviously Israel's fault. If Israel would withdraw from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians would create a utopia there. They'd build on a new vision of what a truly just society can be. You'll see.

References:
* Sure It's Economics, But Is It Art?
* Sneh complains about 'one-sided' World Bank report [Ha'aretz]
* Gunfight mars launch of new plan to bring quiet to Gaza [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* World Bank Sets Conditions for PA Aid
* World Bank Wants Israel Split Into Pieces
* Hey World Bank, Shove It

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers
* Israpundit

You can't understand how much it tears us up to post a video of AC 360. There are few people who mix shallow conceit with insipid pathos the way that he does. But it does provide Hitchens a chance to be clear and - a dangerously quality in a polemicist - thoughtful. Any time someone smart does the equivalent of "on one hand... but on the other hand" for something that's important to them...

And now here's Hitch note even bothering to mock Al Sharpton, because Sharpton's defense of his bigotry is so just clearly stupid. Lou Dobbs repeatedly tries to get him to rise to the bait, but it's not even worth his time:

Good to see that Sharpton is a relatively consistent bigot. Still, on balance, he seems to be more enthusiastically vicious when talking about Jews.

References:
* Anderson Cooper interviews Christopher Hitchens [CrucieFiction / YouTube]
* Lou Dobbs w/ Hitchens on Al Sharpton's Bigoted Remark [CrucieFiction / YouTube]
* Al Sharpton: "Jewing the Numbers Up And Down" [Video] [MR]

Previously:
* Israel's Chris Hitchens
* Christopher Hitchens Has Been Kidnapped. This Is An Obvious and Undeniable Fact.
* Hitchens and Sullivan On CNN

This is spectacular. Whoever dubbed the background music should get a Nobel Prize for awesomeness:

Palestinians are the true Christians.
Christians are the true Jews.
No wonder that Palestinians insist that they're the "true" Jews of the world, because they're being poisoned or slaughtered or subjugated by apartheid or whatever lunacy or whatever they've gotten the UN to pass a resolution on today. It's not that they're anti-Israel fanatics. They're just very, very syllogistic.

References:
* Jesus in Palestinian Propaganda (Mickey is not alone) [leonlazarevic / YouTube]

Previously:
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - MR Has Some Questions About Yesterday's School Shooting In Gaza
* More Hamas Mickey Mouse Fun - Video And Comments From Moderate Democrats Added [Video]
* New Palestinian Music Video Is Not Particularly Nice To Jews [Video]

3,000 attacks in 2005 and then they got elected. Probably because of "internal corruption in the PA". No way that the Palestinian public actually supports their "resistance", right? Sometimes having someone slowly read the Hamas charter out loud is a good reminder. Nice picks on the speeches too:

Oh, it's probably just cherry-picking. Cherry picking from their charter. You can do that with any document. If you took random parts of the Constitution out of context, you could stitch them together into a statement of fanatic jihadism too. Right?

References:
* The TRUE Face of the Hamas Government

Previously:
* IDF Kills Three Hamas Soldiers At Gaza Fence, Wounds a Fourth
* Hezbollah And Hamas Escalate Kidnapping Rhetoric, Attempts
* Abbas: Ceasefire Is Still On. Hamas: No It Isn't (Bonus: Palestinian On Palestinian Gunfight At Rafaf, Nobody Cares)

We might not have mentioned it on this blog, but we think Ann Coulter is kind of a good writer. This morning, she talks a little bit about France:

That sound you hear is our heart fluttering anew.

References:
* C'est Si Bon

Previously:
* Ms. Coulter: There Are Only Three Ways To Stop Jihadists [Video]
* Ann Coulter - What A Babe
* Early Morning Chuckle - Coulter On the Dem Debate Edition

We're not sure what we think about that pseudo-Madonna thing that Tammy's got going on in the beginning. But here you go:

That first scene in the elevator where she's looking at a mirror and singing that she doesn't care whether he likes her or not because she's going to keep pursuing him anyway - kind of creepy. Stalker creepy. Trust us on this. If anyone knows stalker creepy...

References:
* Tammy & Yahel - Always With You

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Esti Ginzburg Likes Summertime. We Like SummertimeToo. [Video]
* [Video] Israeli Model Wednesdays - An Ode To Alcohol, As Told By Rotem Sela
* Photos: Israeli Model Bar Refaeli In SI Swimsuit Edition

We always love posting this kind of stuff because of the punchline that it sets up:

And then there was this one time where internationalist liberal sophisticates used a major lefty British newspaper to assert that there was no reason to believe in any overt connection between Hezbollah and Iran. And everybody was like waaaa? And they were like nope, no reason at all. And then the hemorrhaging and the bleeding began.

References:
* Hezbollah: Rockets fired into Israel directed by Iran [WND]
* Guardian: We're Not Sure that Hezbollah and Iran are Working Together [MR]

Previously:
* Things That Piss Us Off About This Morning's Guardian Article (5) - The Total Lack of Any Thought About Anything. Ever. They Don't Even Know The Consequences of Their Own Stupid Moral Equivalence.
* The Guardian Celebrates, Excuses Palestinian Barbarism
* Guardian Blogger Writes Single Dumbest Israel-Related Lede In the History of Web-Based Journalism

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

Huh?

Maybe there's a context for this joke that we're missing. Something like "it's OK to make fun of religions that aren't violent in states that the Democrats aren't going to win anyway" - if that was the context, this comment suddenly makes sense. Or better yet: maybe there's a context in which this is funny. Or something.

References:
* Rev Sharpton On Romney's Religion [jtbarry325 / YouTube]

Previously:
* 4 Out Of 5 American Jews Agree - Self-Destruction Really Does Taste Better
* Dean And Sharpton In Runoff?
* Al Sharpton: "Jewing the Numbers Up And Down" [Video]

Yesterday we talked about that attack on an elementary school in Gaza. Quick refresher: 70 AQ-linked Muslims jihadists stormed an elementary school, throwing bombs and trying to kill little children. A quick refresher, with some extra information:

(1) The article we linked to yesterday said that a gun battle erupted and the jihadists were pushed away. Which brings up our main question: what the hell was that much firepower doing at an elementary school? We don't mean this in a "Hamas is stashing guns in elementary schools" kind of way, although that happens all the time. We assume that there were simply enough guards at the school to push the attackers away. But that's exactly our question: what on earth is compelling the Palestinians to post that many guards at an elementary school? Inside Israel, schools have guards to prevent Palestinian terrorists from coming in - but those are mostly guys who sit at the entrance looking for suicide bombers. Palestinians shouldn't even have that problem. And they can't be protecting against a surprise Israeli invasion - when Israel gets around to cleaning out Gaza, they'll politely let the Palestinians know in advance and schools will be closed. So has the situation in Gaza gotten so bad that Palestinians are now posting guards at schools? And if so, shouldn't more people be talking about this?

(2) The attackers were from the same AQ-linked jihadists who have been blowing up Internet cafes, attacking women, and generally trying to enforce sharia in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is having real trouble dealing with them, but they've adopted a new tactic. You know what it is? You know what tactic Hamas is using to try to end the wave of Islamic terrorism that's spreading through Gaza? They're engaging in pin-point targeted assassinations and hitting other civilians in the process:

How precious is that?

(4) The attack on the elementary school happened because the jihadists said that little girls and boys were dancing together. This, naturally, is a killing offense. Why are Palestinians pissed off about the attack? JPost gets quotes from two separate Palestinians on this question - and they're pissed because apparently there wasn't any dancing. The jihadists got it wrong - the girls and boys were not being mixed. But if there actually was dancing at the celebration? Well, that might be different. Charming

References:
* PA officials: al-Qaida attacked school [JPost]

Previously:
* Palestinian Civil Society Not Doing Well
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch I - We're Not Sure About This 'Election' Thing
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch II - Why Can't Jailed Terrorists Be Ministers Too?

We've got a ton of work to do before Friday, so blogging will be irregular, short, and more glib than usual. We're going to try to moderate the pain we know you're feeling somewhat by flooding you with interesting videos, but unfortunately we're out of interesting videos right now. So it was either this or the Swan Princess "No Fear" song in Hebrew. But we always figured that a comedy about an Israeli chop shop would be set in Netanya. Who knew?

Actually, why not? You get the Swan Princess too. Because you're worth it:

References:
* Pimp My Ride Hadera Style [mirondagan / YouTube]
* The Swan Princess - No Fear(hebrew) [kalimel / YouTube]

Previously:
* IAF Support: "Israeli Forces Captured the Whole Sinai Peninsula In Less Than 100 Hours" [Video]
* More Asian-Jewish Fusion - Thai Rendition Of Hava Nagila [Video]
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Israeli Playboy Party [Video, Mostly SFW]

Preview: ways 2 and 3 are accomplished by Gitmo, but they're not the preferred method:

It's Wednesday - so in addition to leading off with a Coulter video, we've also got an Israeli hottie going up at the end of the day. If we ever generate a script that gives our blog title a subheading, we're thinking of just having it alternate between the lines "Mere Rhetoric: Wednesdays are for link baiting" and "Mere Rhetoric: Every day other than Wednesday is for link-baiting too".

References:
* Ann Coulter at Young America's Foundation Conference [YAFTV / YouTube]

Previously:
* You Have to Admit, Ms. Coulter Has a Point
* Early Morning Chuckle - Coulter On the Dem Debate Edition
* Video: Rush and Ms. Coulter On the THHNH

While much of the world believes that Israel is more of a threat to world peace than Iran or North Korea (which just makes us super optimistic about the future, by the by), Americans are having none of that:

Here's what gets us though: that means that there's at least 15 percent of the US population who thinks that the best thing they can do for Israel is vote Democratic. Let's bracket out the 4.5 million liberal American Jews who are dumb enough to believe that, and who are pretty much hopeless. Now you've got - minimum - over 33 million non-Jews who think that voting Democratic is the best way to support the West's front line against Islamic radicalism. We understand that the US is losing the drug war, but we're surely not losing it that badly are we?

References:
* Poll finds US support for Israel soaring [JPost]

Previously:
* Democrats' Response: We Have Given The Iraqis Enough / Too Much
* This Is Simply Surreal. Congressional Democrats Are Refusing To Support the British Hostages Kidnapped By Iran.
* Why Don't Jewish Democrats Care That Their Party Hired A Radical Anti-Semitic Imam?

At press time, the top article on YNet is titled "UN spreading Christianity". There's no article even marginally close to talking about Israeli politics - but there is another story titled "What's Britney [Spears] worth". So that's how today's going to go. Super.

Kadima - David Tal of Kadima said on Wednesday that he thinks Peres should be Prime Minister. While that would undoubtedly be traffic goldmine for us, we think this is a bad idea. We also think that it would behoove Tal to stop taking calls from reporters while he's stoned out of his gourd. Besides, 10 to 1 and pick em Peres is going to be the next President soon so the PMO is a no-go. If you've got a minute and want to be highly entertained we suggest you click through to that last article. Wrap your mind around the following enigma: how bad does your past have to be if an Israeli politician has to resort to understatement because she can't talk about it out loud.

Labor - When he was Prime Minister, one of the main complaints about Barak (other than the giving away land to the arch terrorist thing) was that he was arrogant. Nice to see that he's gotten over that:

Now you might be thinking "wait - does that mean that he wants Olmert to resign, or just hand over significant power to Barak as Defense Minister?" Good question. If you figure out an answer, please let us know. Also feel free to let the other Labor MKs know, because they didn't understand what the hell he was talking about either. Awesome.

Likud - We've been trying to figure out why no one is writing about any internal Likud politics. Then remembered that Sharon cracked the party so badly that there are like 7 people left in the Likud HQ building. And we're counting the 2 janitors, both of whom voted for Labor in the last election. Which reminds us: we miss Sharon.

References:
* Kadima MK says Peres is suited to replace Olmert as prime minister [Ha'aretz]
* Now We're Getting Philosophical: Israellycool, Interpretation, and Insults To Former Israeli Finance Minister, Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, and Prime Minister Shimon Peres [MR]
* Seeking presidency, Rivlin meets Shas leaders, but party favors Peres [Ha'aretz]
* Barak calls for Olmert to resign [JPost]

Previously:
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-08 - Yeah, So That Happened
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-07 - It's Futile No Confidence Motion Day In the Knesset
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-04 - Yawn

Yeah, we're not really sure what we think about it. It's different:

Bonus philosophy of science nature vs. nurture question: The drummer is wearing a Che shirt. Do you think that musical talent might actually trade off with the part of the brain where political sense is supposed to go? Or do you think it's a function of socialization within musical communities? We'd say "discuss", but we don't have a comments section. So "ruminate".

References:
* Daniel Zamir - "Hatikva" [uzischnitzer / YouTube]

Previously:
* Buddy Rich Was Very Good At Playing Drums
* OK, That's Kind of Funny
* Shabbat Hatikva [Video]

Good news: PMW has uploaded their video of Hamas's biggest mistake ever to GooTube. Better news: They've left 2005 in the dust and enabled embedding for their videos:

Matt Yglesias - he of terrorist chic fame - also took time out of his busy schedule to comment on the video:

In fairness to him, it doesn't sound like he's trying to excuse it on those grounds. He seems to take it as a given that the video is execrable, and is basically saying "if you're looking for one small ray of hope in this mess, it's that the kids probably aren't paying attention". But check out the comments from his readers. Rather than cherry-pick, how about we just take the first three:

The beauty of these is that they display three distinct logical fallacies - the tu quoque ("you do it too!"), the ad hominem ("so what if you're right, you're a bad person and I don't have to listen to you!"), and the totalum fucking retardus (it's from Middle Latin, which is why it sounds different than the other two). But hey, anything so that you don't have to actually admit that the poor Palestinians are genocidal lunatics.

If you're a voting member of the centrist wing of the Democratic party, do click through and read some of the other comments too. And ask yourself: if one of the up and coming minds of the Democratic party can't make the Democratic base less insane, what are you going to do? And if you can't do anything, how are you going to make sure that the Democrats you elect listen to you rather than this far larger group of terrorist apologists? (h/t: MR reader David)

References:
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Now They're Bombing Gaza Schools Because Of Little League [MR]
* Hamas steals Mickey Mouse [pmwvideos / YouTube]
* Jihad TV [Matthew Yglesias]
* Matthew Yglesias: Anti-Semitic Genocidal Maniacs Are Hip, Terrorists Are Fashionable (UPDATED AND BUMPED: Yglesias Article From Today Predictably Anti-Semitish) [MR]

Previously:
* Video: Vicious Iranian Cartoons, Telling Kids To Become Suicide Bombers Edition
* Iranian Cartoons Are Anti-Semitic and Racist (And Something Else Too... Kinda) [Video]
* It's a Cycle of Cartoons

Hebrew U archaeologists have uncovered the grave and tomb of King Herod. They were going to keep it a secret until an official press conference on Tuesday, but of course someone leaked it to Ha'aretz and of course Ha'aretz had to ruin the surprise for everyone. And what a surprise it is - they've been looking for this place since 1972. You know where they found the tomb of King Herod? Check it out:

Seems like a pretty logical place to look, no? If you were look for the tomb of Herod, wouldn't you look in a place called Herodium? Actually of course they've been looking there forever - but they just found it now.

References:
* Hebrew University: Herod's tomb and grave found at Herodium [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Neat: Ancient Pyramid Found... In Europe
* Neat - Illegible Manuscripts Now Legible
* Neat - They Found Ithica!

We've only cited Purdue nuclear strategy guru Louis Rene Beres a couple of times: once to defend Olmert's accidental-but-not-really nuclear disclosure and once to explain why a nuclear Iran makes nuclear war inevitable - even and especially if Israel tried to signal that it was backing down. Nonetheless, he's undoubtedly one of the preeminent theorists of nuclear strategy and international proliferation diplomacy, having run dozens of scenarios and war games from multiple methodologies.

And he says that we have to bomb Iran right now:

Risks of giving diplomacy more time to fail:

Probability of success:

That's probably all we can slip in under fair use. This is a rare, genuine recommendation that you read the whole thing. We know that you know that we don't push articles on you just because they're red meat. This article, though very short, has lots more analysis about the potential costs and benefits of preemption. It also has one of the clearest explanations we've read for why Israeli preemption is justified under centuries of international law. So read the whole thing (h/t: MR reader Joel)

References:
* The case for strikes against Iran [CSM]
* Olmert's Disclosure Of Israel's Nuclear Capability: At Wost, Harmless [MR]
* Although They're Close in the Alphabet, Iran is Not Iraq [MR]

Previously:
* Iran: Trying To Make Us Stop Building Nukes Will Make Us Build Nukes
* The Countdown To An Iran Strike Has Begun In Jerusalem and Washington
* SCORE! Iran Blames the Jews for Benedict's Statement!

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit
* The Astute Bloggers

What an idiot:

There's video here that gives a little more background, including what to do if you're an Israeli that gets stuck in an enemy country. Hint: unlike this guy, don't publicly announce that you're an Israeli stuck in an enemy country. Because that, you see, is stupid.

PS - anti-Jihadist media watchdogs, we're at the point of begging: make your damn videos embeddable. Listen. Average click-thru for text links is way, way below 10 percent. That means that you're sacrificing having people see your logo embedded in a blog, in exchange for the tiny chance that someone will click through and see your logo embedded... in a YouTube page which is not your organization's page anyway. Come on.

References:
* Israeli unintentionally visits Teheran [JPost]

Previously:
* It Turns Out, There IS A Way For Israeli Drivers To Suck More. Literally.
* Darth Vader Tries To Buy Cigarettes on Shenkin St. In Tel Aviv [Video]
* Israeli Ambassador Found Naked, Drunk, Bound, and Gagged

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

In addition to the myriad other macros that arrive pre-installed on journalists' word processors ("but Palestinian sources said", "signaled a new risk of unrest", "cycle of violence", etc), we have to suspect that spelling out "Sarkozy" causes software to insert the phrase "a divisive figure" somewhere in the document. Which is weird, considering that he draws support from across almost all sectors of French society:

Well, almost all sectors. AP got the number of burned cars wrong by an entire order of magnitude, did they? And that's compared to the undoubtedly lowballed numbers provided by the French press, is it? We refuse to believe it.

References:
* Sarkozy win comes from unlikely corners [Houston Chron]
* Update: How Many Cars Torched? (Media Lies) [LGF]

Previously:
* France Identifies the Real Threat To the Lebanon Ceasefire: Israel.
* France: This Time, Hezbollah Violence Is Not OK
* AP Identifies Root of Muslim Violence in France: Non-Muslims!

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

The Knesset overwhelmingly rejected the no confidence motions that sought to oust Olmert. As the cool kids say, prediction confirmed. Honestly, someone should be paying us to do this. No really. If anyone wants to pay us to do this...

That makes Kadima's suggestion that Likud replace Labor a lot more reasonable than it sounds. Play this out as if you're Bibi: even if Labor leaves the coalition, the government probably still won't be toppled in a vote of no confidence. Arab MKs will provide an adequate Knesset safety net because they don't want to replace Olmert with Bibi any sooner than they have to. And if Labor leaves, it means that the Labor Chair becomes the leader of the opposition (because he's going to be the leader of the largest party not in the government). So Bibi is looking at being out of any position of control through the regular elections in 2008. No one can know what the security situation will be by then. Maybe Labor will be led by a popular figure who's been in the spotlight for a year. Maybe a Kadima-led coalition will have won a decisive war. Maybe there will be a comprehensive peace deal on the table that people don't want Bibi to derail. Now compare that to the alternative: Olmert hands over the Defense portfolio and responsibility for security to Bibi. If things go poorly, it's because "Olmert is still interfering". If things go well, it's because Bibi is rehabilitating the government. Meanwhile, Bibi says that he had to take it because the threats from Hezbollah and Iran are eminent - he didn't want to play second fiddle, but he did it for the good of the country. The catch is it might confirm the publics' perception of him as being overly ambitious. But they'll probably overlook that because (a) he'd be right and (b) they'd still get Kadima's centrist social agenda, which gives them the perfect combination of all the good security Bibi and none of the scary corrupt PM Bibi.

Kadima - Even if you care about the jockeying inside Kadima for Finance Minister, YNet has more information than you want to know. You're welcome.

Labor - Tuesday brainteaser: what could make Israel's sitting Defense Minister - a man picked out by a state commission for having no understanding of military tactics or strategy; a man who is thought to have let glib catchphrases substitute for clear vision - even more of an intellectual laughing stock? How about blaming Olmert for not making more territorial concessions to the Palestinians and Syrians? Would that do it? We think it would. He also talked positively about the Saudi Israeli Suicide Initiative. MR sends its deepest compliments to Labor primary voters.

Likud - Finally, an article about Netanyahu - and wouldn't you know it, it's all about how his negatives are so high that he's going to have trouble with any credible opponent. And that's in an article supporting him. Now where have we heard something like that before?

Answer to yesterday's homework - Ehud Barak, who is running for Labor chair at the end of this month, is not a sitting cabinet minister. He has indicated that he if he wins he's likely to pull out of the government even though this will probably bring Netanyahu to power. That puts the Israeli right in the position of having to hope for Barak to succeed. We, having no particular affection for either the political right or left in Israel, find that to be totally awesome.

References:
* Knesset rejects 3 no-confidence motions [YNet]
* PM aide: Kadima to ask Likud to join coalition if Labor pulls out [Ha'aretz]
* Our next finance minister [YNet]
* Peretz: Olmert lacks political agenda [YNet]
* The power of Bibiphobia [YNet]
* Netanyahu Launches Campaign to Oust Olmert. He'd Better Act Fast. [MR]
* Barak at focus of Labor debate on bolting gov't [Ha'aretz]
* The meeting / Uncomfortable alliance [Ha'aretz]
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-07 - It's Futile No Confidence Motion Day In the Knesset [MR]

Previously:
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-04 - Yawn
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-5-03 - Labor Gets To Decide Olmert's Fate? Are You Kidding?
* Israel Politics Roundup - 2007-05-02 - Olmert Not Looking So Great

This video is getting posted for two reasons: (1) the title says it was banned from TV, which means that somebody's not following MR's metaphysically ironclad "if it passes the laugh test it's in" rule and (2) we haven't gotten a link from Jewlicious in a couple weeks:

"I brought fish".

References:
* Banned Commercial - Jewish WAZZUP Commercial [yu248221 / YouTube]

Previously:
* Zionist Hip Hop - Shai 360 During Taglight 2007 [Video]
* MR Soccer Video Mania
* Tuesday WTF - Japanese Tourists Singing At the Kotel [Video]

Earlier this morning we were browsing some travel blogs to see if there was anything we could post to Gridskipper. We came across this worrying bit of news:

Melissa Petri brings up some good reasons why the US might want to keep visa requirements for these 12 less than fully industrialized countries - illegal workers, etc. But she leaves out something that we think might be a little more significant: if this becomes the precedent, what happens if Turkey - with its 40 million Muslims and recent penchant for electing Islamist parties - joins the EU?

References:
* EU Demands Visa Free Travel For All EU Members [Fly Away Weblog]
* omri ceren [Gridskipper]

Previously:
* The Significance Of the Pope's Visit To Turkey - Not That Much, Actually
* Turkey Won't Accept PKK Ceasefire. World Reacts Exactly the Opposite Way They'd React If Israel Refused To Accept Hamas Ceasefire.
* Turkish Military Has Had Just About Enough Of That Nonsense

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers
* Israpundit

So last Friday we got to sit in a day-long workshop with one of the world's best argumentation scholars, and she was just fantastic. Utterly brilliant. Less fantastic: some of the out of department grad students that showed up to give their opinions on the state of political argumentation. Unless you've had six or seven insipid morons smugly laughing at one another's jokes about how stupid conservatives are - well, you just haven't lived. The most annoying child in the group was undoubtedly the one who kept being oh-so-sophisticated about how he "hadn't heard" that "Venezuela is our enemy now". Except he wasn't joking - it's not like he was disagreeing with conservatives. He just really had never been exposed to the idea that American and Venezuela might be enemies right now (you can chant it with us if you want: P. H. D!). Anyway, he was yucking it up about the ignorance of Republican House members who were apparently just making things up.

Second most annoying: the guy who kept talking about how stupid and ignorant conservatives are because they don't understand that Sunnis and Shiites are different groups. We were almost convinced by his nuance and sophistication, and would obviously have been better for it. But then we found this video of a Sunni imam celebrating the glorious Hezbollah victory over Israel. Hezbollah, you may remember, is from that other side that's not Sunni:

So now we're back to being ignorant and unsophisticated. But hope springs eternal, ya know?

Previously:
* American Liberal Activists Are So Cute, With Their Smugness And Their Superiority And Their Not Being Very Smart
* Screw Rachel Corrie
* Yes, the Pope Is Catholic - Juan Cole As a Study In Pro-Jihadist Faux Liberal Sophistication (Updated)

There are a couple of videos online now of people doing basic Hebrew lessons (i.e. this guy). Personally, we don't think they're focusing on the kind of phrases that people really need:

"That's OK, I can take it" is a phrase that this character would certainly live to regret. [Uber-NSFW warning. As in: "if you're at work, do not click on this link and if you do don't blame us"]

References:
* Hebrew Intro [GoldofOphir / YouTube]
* Smokin' Israeli on Showtime's Weeds [Israelli]
* Meital Dohan on Weeds S02E06 [NSFW] [lostam / YouTube]

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Miri Bohadana Is Fed Up With You Not Voting For MR In Round 2 Of The JIBs
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Hey, That Maya Buskila Girl Is Kind Of Cute [Video]
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Israeli Playboy Party [Video, Mostly SFW]

We'll repeat that in case people didn't totally wrap their mind around it the first time. The 42 year old victim was providing security to a joint Israeli-Palestinian facility designed to get gasoline to the Palestinians:

Well, there will probably be no problem getting more security guards so that the place can keep operating. Except for the part where nobody wants to work there because it's a death-trap:

The Al Aksa Brigades of the oh-so-moderate Abbas's Fatah party claimed responsibility.

References:
* Kassam hits house near kindergarten [JPost]

Previously:
* Hamas Terrorists Not Violating Ceasefire Through Clever Trick Of Arming Other Palestinian Terrorists
* Fatah Group Declares "Summer Storm" Campaign, Calls On Palestinians To Burn Israeli Cities
* Troops Of the Oh-So-Moderate Abbas Launching Rockets At Israel

Color us shocked and amazed that the LA Times would hand over their op-ed page to a terrorist enabling traitor. This right here? This is us being shocked. And amazed:

Poll - Rank the following hypothetical scenarios in order of awesomeness:
(1) that the LA Times approached Bishara because they really wanted to be a propaganda bullhorn for terrorist enabling traitors
(2) that Bishara was thinking to himself "what major US paper is most likely to let me turn it into a terrorist bullhorn for my terrorist enabling treason" and the answer he came up with was the LA Times?

We don't know why they didn't just follow routine LAT practice and let Laura King write up this anti-Israel propaganda as a news report. She could even do that clever thing where journalists smuggle in their bias by quoting lunatics they agree with ("but some Palestinians say" - no one ever catches that). Maybe she missed her filing deadline because it took extra time to translate her article from the original Arabic on the pamphlet.

Bonus poll - Rank the following actual events in order of awesomeness:
(1) The LAT giving their paper to Azmi Bishara to justify his treason
(2) TIME giving their magazine to Tariq Ramadan to slander the Pope
(3) The WaPo giving their paper to Ismail Haniyeh to lie about his genocidal lunacy

(h/t: MR reader Jason)

References:
* Why Israel is after me [LAT]
* Staying Neutral the Los Angeles Times Way [MR]
* Egyptian Sandmonkey Takes Exception To TIME's Embrace Of Tariq Ramadan [MR]
* Uhh... When Did the Washington Post Start Letting Terrorists Publish Propaganda? [MR]

Previously:
* LA Times: What About All the Good Things Islamists Do?
* LA Times Bias
* I Wish I Had An LA Times Subscription, So I Could Cancel It

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit
* The Astute Bloggers

A while back, one of our lefty friends told us that, of all the rightwing-ish language on MR, the phrase "fired at Israeli schools and hospitals" rings in a particularly artificial way. Artificial or not, it's true:

Try to wrap your mind around what's going on in Sderot. This is a town - filled with civilians - that is constantly getting bombed from the air. It's like being an actual hot war that has lasted a decade, where bombs are getting dropped on houses - and yes, on schools and hospitals. There's not a country on the planet that would permit this to go on if it was within their power to stop it. But Israel is expected to take it and roll because Palestinian civilians might hurt if Israel tries to root out the terrorists (or, if they're Hamas members, war criminals) that they allow to live in their midst.

But the Sderot residents that are literally getting bombed? That's the cost of living in Israel, apparently.

References:
* Jihad claims rocket that strikes Sderot home [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Fatah Group Declares "Summer Storm" Campaign, Calls On Palestinians To Burn Israeli Cities
* LA Times Can Give You Anti-Israel Cycle-Of-Violence Framing. Full And Accurate Reporting, However, Is Not Their Forte.
* Breaking: Palestinian Terrorists Still Trying to Murder Israelis

She - and we - would like to thank you for your enthusiastic voting during the the preliminary JIB rounds. It looks like we're going to be finalists in all nine of the categories we were nominated for (wow!) All five of the first round categories have already been certified. As expected, none of our readers - who are without exception moral, upright, and may we add quite dashing - tried to vote for us twice. Or if you did, you hid it really well. We trust that all four of the most recent "Best Post" nominations will be similarly certified.

So another week of Israeli lolcats and half-naked models. Life's just difficult sometimes, ya know?

References:
* Israeli Model Shelly Hazan Says: Vote For MR In The Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards [MR]
* Israeli Hottie Moran Gros Wants You To Vote For MR In Round 2 Of the JIBs [MR]

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - The Pick Sisters Have Something For Everyone [Video]
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Moran Atias. OMFG. [Video]
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Yael Goldman. Elegant.

You know what would suck? If you were at a children's festival at a UN run elementary school and terrorists invaded your school and shot someone in front of you:

Say what you will about them, the Palestinians are certainly getting more consistent. For years they were just blowing up Israeli nightclubs. You know who isn't getting more consistent? International human rights leeches that disproportionately target Israel for some reason that certainly has nothing to do with objective analysis and evaluation of human rights violations. Let's choose one randomly. How about British academics who want to boycott Israel because Israeli checkpoints undermine the Palestinian educational system. Let's see. Checkpoints. Bombing schools because they have sports. Checkpoints. Bombing schools because they have sports. Yeah, we just don't know.

Bonus "of course they went there": Mickey Mouse tells Palestinian kids to kill Jews. We think this was a bad move by Hamas. Murdering Israeli civilians is one thing - the UN prevents Israel from doing much about that at all. Messing with Disney Corp's branding, on the other hand, is an invitation for annihilation. You think the IDF is merciless? Wait until they have to deal with Jewish Hollywood lawyers.

References:
* Muslim Extremists Attack Gaza Elementary School
* Hamas steals Mickey Mouse image to teach hate and Islamic supremacy [PMW]
* Lawyers [Defamer]

Previously:
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Terrorists Very Popular
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Police Officers Rampage to Protest Lawlessness
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Just Wait Till They Try to Open a DMV!

It's been a while since we had these, so let's review the rules of the game. There are 120 members of the Israeli Knesset. The Knesset can dissolve itself and force new elections by passing a resolution of no-confidence in the government. This only requires a simple majority, so abstaining or being absent is not a de facto vote of support. MKs from different parties will vote for certain no-confidence measures and not others. That used to be a matter of ideology - a leftist MK might vote no-confidence because of low wages but abstain when the motion is about why evacuating settlements is bad. Now it's also an electoral issue, since new rules require that any no-confidence motion include a proposal about who the alternative Prime Minister would be.

Two no-confidence motions will be brought before the Knesset today, and both will fail by not a small amount (not least of which because the alternative candidates they support are not particularly well-liked). The Olmert coalition is made up of five parties with a total of 78 Knesset seats: Kadima (29), Labor (19), Shas (12), Israeli Beiteinu (11), and the Gil "we're here because Israeli stoners who should have been voting Kadima wanted to lodge a protest vote, make Amir Peretz the Defense Minister, and bungle a war" Pensioners Party (7). That's 78 people who should be voting in favor of the government. Olmert has already secured Shas, Israeli Beiteinu, and Gil. That leaves only Kadima and Labor MKs as wildcards, and it's doubtful that there will be sufficient defections in either party. Unless the Gil MKs are on naptime while the votes are taking place, Olmert should be good through July.

Kadima - Another Kadima MK will join Avigdor Yitzhaki, who resigned as coalition chairman, in committing political suicide. Yitzhaki and MK Marina Solodkin will abstain from supporting the government in the no confidence motions, bringing the magic number down to 76. Now for some subtraction... carry the 1... and that's still a minimum of 15 MKs to lose before there's even a mathematical risk that the government falls.

Labor - A couple of Labor backbenchers intend to join their Kadima colleagues and commit political suicide by bucking the probable Labor Party decision and voting against the government. But the same logic that caused us to declare that Olmert will survive still should hold: sitting Kadima and Labor cabinet ministers know that they will lose their jobs if there's a new election. So they will not bring down this government unless absolutely necessary. The Labor Party as a whole an extra incentive that we alluded to a couple of days ago: an election now would pit a united Likud party against a disorganized Labor party about to go into an bloody primary. So Labor as a whole doesn't want elections now, and Labor cabinet ministers definitely don't want elections in the near future. There are 8 cabinet ministers. Even if all 11 non-cabinet MKs voted no confidence, there would still be 65 MKs voting for the government. That's 4 more than Olmert needs to survive the motions even if everyone else was voting no confidence - and since some are abstaining instead, it's way more than he needs.

Likud - Netanyahu blah blah blah certain to be the next Prime Minister unless things change blah blah blah which they will.

Homework - Under what potential scenario could Olmert lose win (thanks Lynn!) these no confidence motions but still not survive until the summer? Hint: "Labor cabinet ministers definitely don't want elections in the near future". Answer tomorrow.

References:
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-5-03 - Labor Gets To Decide Olmert's Fate? Are You Kidding? [MR]
* Kadima MKs to abstain on no-confidence [JPost]
* Coalition MKs weigh opposing gov't in Mon. no-confidence bid [Ha'aretz]
*Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-01 - Reminder: Olmert's Not Going Anywhere [MR]
* Netanyahu Launches Campaign to Oust Olmert. He'd Better Act Fast. [MR]

Previously:
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-04 - Yawn
* Israeli Political Updates - 2007-04-29 - Sorry Folks, Olmert's Not Going Anywhere
* Israel Politics Roundup - 2007-05-02 - Olmert Not Looking So Great

We've posted this video before, but the link in the original post is dead now. So here it is again. It's one of the most adorable things you'll ever see. Or it's about 8 seconds before you see a woman's head get bitten off. Take a chance - call the kids into the room and watch it together!

Donate to the San Diego Zoological Society, lest lions in your future end up significantly less affectionate around you.

Previously:
* Sunday Cuteness - Otters Holding Hands [Video]
* Glida Cat Wants You To Vote For MR In The JIBs
* Sunday Cuteness - Mystery Cat Rides Bus In England To Fish-N-Chips Shop

Ha'aretz grandiosely declares that the anti-Olmert and Peretz rallies were "different from all other protests" because it involved "Israelis with different beliefs who came... to demonstrate". That would be nice for Ha'aretz, because it would mean that shallow leftism didn't disproportionately contribute to the situation that Israel finds itself in today. To pretend that toppling a government is apolitical is stupid - some parties and ideologies benefit more than others (which is why Peace Now, execrable as they are, was clearheaded enough to know that they should slam this supposedly apolitical rally because a change in government now would empower the right).

Ha'aretz shilled for Peretz repeatedly and shamelessly. They shilled for him by talking about how he had single-handedly reinvigorated Labor "for the first time in a long time". They shilled for the union friends that he catapulted to the top of the Labor list by writing that he had put together "a fresh [candidate] list of high quality".

People need to get it through their heads: fanciful ideology has real consequences. It's very nice to strike a pose about how you're willing to "take a chance" when you know - as so many liberals in the US seem to sense - that your "revolutionary" ideas have no chance of being implemented. That's why American professors can rail against capitalism and demand that the US cede sovereignty, while playing the stock market and relying on US embassies overseas. Because they know that their demands are impossible, and that no one will listen to them anyway.

Except get enough disaffected people all striking the same pose at the same time and inertia takes over. You end up with a union hack who becomes Defense Minister, loses a war, and should be resigning in disgrace. In their shallow leftism, Ha'aretz would like to pretend that everyone's in this together and that everyone is equally involved in creating the situation. That's not true.

References:
* ANALYSIS: May 3 rally stands apart in historical significance [Ha'aretz]
* Israeli Political Update - Ha'aretz Shills for Peretz Edition (Edition I) [MR]
* Israeli Political Roundup - The Far Left Loves Far Leftists Edition [MR]
* MR Political Roundup - 2006-01-19 [MR]
* Peace Now slams anti-Olmert rally [YNet]

Previously:
* Liberal Academic Middle East Experts Seem To Know Nothing About The Middle East
* National Council of Churches: Feel Good Liberalism Means Never Having to Worry about Consequences
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Academic Feminism Not Doing Much To Stop Teenage Girls From Being Lost In Pakistani Poker Games

This video is simply spectacular. It gets a little shticky when you get the conceit after the first thirty seconds, but then the slow-moving-train wreck fascination sets in:

Those flashes of Arik in the background of some of the pictures, on the other hand, are genuinely heartbreaking.

References:
* Tzipi & Olmert [yallakadima / YouTube]

Previously:
* Olmert: Israel May Or May Not Have Nukes
* Arab Parties "Definitely" Prefer Peretz to Olmert
* Olmert Kind Of Says The Right Things About Prisoner Swaps

* Gateway Pundit has an afternoon in a Gaza arms bazaar. Why not? It's not like a suicide belt ever explodes while your son is playing with it. You know that sarcastic expression that people use about how things are "fun for the whole family" and how people should "bring the kids"? Less funny when you see it happening. This kind of helps to explain how the Palestinians managed to continue their 21 week streak of killing more Palestinians than the IDF.

* Here's a clip of a video game that just got posted on YouTube by a guy who supports the Islamic war against Jews. He thinks this is a good thing:

* In Iraq, they packed a girls' school with explosives. They strapped the explosives to propane tanks and waited for the school to open and for of little girls to start attending. US troops uncovered the plot and prevented an almost unimaginable atrocity.

References:
* An Afternoon at the Gaza Arm's Bazaar [Gateway Pundit]
* Suicide Belt Explodes While Bomber's Son is Playing With It [MR]
* PalArabs extend winning streak to 21 [Elder]
* US troops discover bombs built into Iraq girls school [Hot Air]

Previously:
* Video: Vicious Iranian Cartoons, Telling Kids To Become Suicide Bombers Edition
* Iranian Cartoons Are Anti-Semitic and Racist (And Something Else Too... Kinda) [Video]
* It's a Cycle of Cartoons

Another week, another British academic boycott of Israel. This time it's doctors:

We'll ignore how no other country's doctors are blamed for real or imagined human rights violations committed by the country they live in (whatever happened to doctors not having borders, eh?) And it's even that we think Israelis might have something to contribute to the world of medicine or science. It's that blaming Israeli doctors for not doing enough to help Palestinians is hypocrisy of the most disgusting sort:

We're beginning to suspect that the motives for this new boycott effort aren't entirely rational. Or non-anti-Semitic, for that matter. We wonder if this has anything to do with how even the British now admit that their upper educational institutions have been infiltrated by anti-Semitic Islamists. Certainly those two things seem to be connected.

References:
* British doctors call for new Israel boycott [EJP]
* Hey Ireland, Shove It [MR]
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Just Wait Till They Try to Open a DMV! [MR]
* Oh Come On [MR]

Previously:
* Port Deal Rewards Anti-Semitic Arab Boycott
* Video: Radical Islam In Britain - "The Summit of Islam is Jihad"
* If Britain Won't Stop Radical Islam, Why Should Radical Islam Stop Being Radical?

Warmongers:

You can easily see the same kind of scene playing out in Saudi Arabia or Iran. The heaviness of depression and the lack of morale - the growing despondency of Israelis that the LA Times keeps telling us about - that comes through in the movie.
Oh - and the love of war. The whole joyfully singing about peace thing really brings that out, don't you think? It's always like this - there seems to be little difference between the Israeli approach to life and the seething of their genocidal enemies. Except for the vast and total difference between the two.

But just so you don't think we're being unfair, here's a video of Palestinians celebrating something or other:

"Sweets were handed around in celebration". Well whatever. Nice to see that they could finally find something to be happy about.

References:
* Only in israel-Central bus station (soldiers) [gackback / YouTube]
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Joyful Israeli Girls A Stark Contrast To Girls In Arab And Muslim World [MR]

Previously:
* The Telegraph Celebrates, Excuses Palestinian Atrocities
* UC Irvine Muslims Can't Decide Between Seething Resentment and Fantasies Of Global Conquest [Video]
* Suicide Belt Explodes While Bomber's Son is Playing With It

From the most recent LRB, isn't this so funny? Kids say the darnest things:

The rest of the article is about how weird and funny it is when your kids become religious. Proving that even when people go through motions of doing something sensible (i.e. moving your kid off a path that will end up with her in a burka), you can still sound like an idiot. There's even a charming little passage where the author writes "I can't tell you how much I hate Catholicism" - all in the indignant tone of someone pretending to say something offensive that they know they'll be lauded for. This is just like people who stand up on college campuses and spew vicious anti-Zionist invective, which is just so brave given how rare it is.

Hey, you know what would be really brave? If the LRB published someone who wrote "I can't tell you how much I hate Islam". Wouldn't that be something?

In other news: hating Catholicism is still a rather poor substitute for actually believing in something. In England today, converting to Hinduism doesn't disqualify you from being an Anglican priest. Although given the recent creep of sharia law in Britain, converting away from Islam may mean that you have to die.

References:
* Diary Anne Enright [LRB]
* Yes, the Pope Is Catholic - Slippery Slope, Church of England Edition [MR]
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Sharia Courts Established In Britain [MR]

Previously:
* Believing Too Little and Believing Too Much (Plus: Surprise! Pope Benedict Doesn't Hate Gays)
* Yes, the Pope Is Catholic - Moral Equivalence, Gender Specific Edition
* Yes, the Pope Is Catholic - Slippery Slope, Church of England Edition

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

It's interesting to see what happens when the mask of "anti-Zionism" falls off and Jew-haters start being honest in their hatred of Jews:

If "the Jews" are being raised to become suicide bombers, they've got the worst teachers on the planet. As to the holy sites thing, oh come on. Do click through and take in the rest of the openly anti-Semitic crazy. She even drops a little bit of old school "the true Jews are Christians". That's how just plain crazy she is.

But she's not coming out of nowhere. And she's not speaking just for herself.

References:
* Islam and other Peoples' holy sites

Previously:
* Do They Just Get To Make Things Up Now?
* The LA Times: "Islam gets concessions; infidels get conquered." Ummm... Wow
* Bastards

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers
* Israpundit

In honor of jihadists blowing up 20 more video shops in Pakistan, here's a short video of one of the IAF's greatest moments in the defense of the Jewish state:

They're going to have to do it at least one more time - and soon.

References:
* Jihadists blow up 20 video shops in Pakistan [Jihad Watch]
* New Study Says IAF Could Destroy Iranian Nuke Facilities [MR]

Previously:
* Egypt To Pursue Nuclear Program
* Egypt Promises To Fulfill Treaty Obligations - Later
* Egypt Is Kind Of Insane, Dangerous

And now, a story about some woman who's breeding cats to look like cute tigers so she can sell them for exorbitant prices:

That's what the world needs. A whole breed of vanity purebred cats, so that attention starved (and literally starved) starlets can not take care of them. Perfect. Oh, and of course:

Quite so. For a second there we actually needed to stop typing this post because we needed our entire body just to hate these people.

References:
* It's a house cat! It's a tiger!

Previously:
* Meryl, Cats, Division of Labor
* LA Zoo Screws Up Again
* Search Terms of the Day I

Yet another major intelligence official admits that the peace process failed because of Arafat:

We're not exactly talking about a neoconservative here - this is coming from the guy who threatened to resign if Clinton put Pollard on the table during the Wye negotiations. Although this adds to the near unanimous consensus among major figures who dealt with Arafat, we have no doubt that Israel haters will find a way to blame the Jewish State for Palestinian intransigence . We also have no doubt that suspicions about Palestinian intentions will be dismissed by international sophisticates just as quickly the next chance they get.

You know, when most people are proved spectacularly wrong and their opponents proven exactly right, they become a little more circumspect before again taking exactly the same position. Not diplomats, activists, and academics who pressure Israel though - they seem ready to be wrong exactly the same way over and over again.

References:
* Tenet blames Arafat for being 'barrier to peace' [JPost]
* Clinton: If Arafat Hamas Will Pretend to Want Peace, Israel Should Give Up Territory

Previously:
* Declassified Shocker: Arafat Ordered Murder Of US Diplomats
* Turns Out, Arafat Wasn't Really Interested in Peace After All
* The Denial of the Obvious By Reference to the Irrelevant: Center-Left Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

It's quite simple inexcusable that we haven't posted a Sarit Hadad video yet. This is just some of what this sublimely talented woman is capable of:

Ha lev boche b'sheqet.

Previously:
* Nina Simone Sings Eretz Zavat Chalav. Incredible. [Video]
* Video: I Am Jewish: The Last Words of Daniel Pearl
* Miri Ben-Ari and Subliminal: God Almighty When Will It End [Video]

Some old fashioned T and D lipsyncing:

Sometimes the formula just works. Shabbat shalom everybody.

References:
* High Clip [YouTube/tasha]
* first day of my life [YouTube/tasha]

Previously:
* Video: Giant Sword Armed Wii Controlled Robot. What Could Go Wrong?
* Video: Across The Universe Trailer
* Hey, Did We Mention We Went To The World Cup?

They're unhinged:

Let's imagine that the members of Rage Against The Machine are anarchists. They're actually socialists, but whatever, it doesn't mater.

Their listeners are coffee-shop slumming white trust fund kids who wear Che t-shirts to comp lit classes that their parents pay 30K+ a year to send them to. Of course the Kos Kidz see their own pathetic, thuggish armchair activism in Rage's lyrics. Of course they do. It's like talking about how Ward Churchill is being persecuted for speaking out against tyranny, except with better bass. Hannity is right: the environment of contemporary liberal (activism) has grown positively toxic. Righteous indignation has become a proud justification for physical brutality.

For the record: we believe that they meant it. In their mind, they're as brave as the oh-so-silenced academics who risk their academic career every time they criticize Israel on college campuses. They want to be martyrs? Let's have the Secret Service investigate them for threatening to assassinate the President of the United States. Then they can be martyrs. Everybody wins.

References:
* Coulter Complains About Hate Speech [newshoundsblog / YouTube]

Previously:
* Video: Rush and Ms. Coulter On the THHNH
* Coulter vs. Clark, Coulter Funny, Clark Not
* Early Morning Chuckle - Coulter On the Dem Debate Edition

Here's a little end of the week math brain teaser for you. Given the abysmal lack of respect that Democratic leaders have for "their Jews", how many opportunities do you think we're going to have to use this clip in the next year and a half:

We may have missed a memo, but Sharpton is still a well-respected leader of the Democratic Party right? If that's incorrect, we'd be quite happy to issue a retraction (via IsraPundit)

References:
* Screw The Democratic Party [MR]
* Al Sharpton The Pot Calling the Kettle Black [YouTube]
* Al Sharpton on "Jewing the Numbers" [IsraPundit]

Previously:
* Matthew Yglesias: Anti-Semitic Genocidal Maniacs Are Hip, Terrorists Are Fashionable (UPDATED AND BUMPED: Yglesias Article From Today Predictably Anti-Semitish)
* Democratic Recommendations For Israeli and American Jews
* Dean And Sharpton In Runoff?

Los Angeles has the largest Israeli ex-pat population on the planet. Yes, larger than even NYC - no offense meant to our friends in the Capital of the World, but your burekas suck and your hummus is not nearly as good as you think it is. But if you think that "it couldn't happen here", you are very much mistaken:

Now admittedly the message is a little... unclear. Doesn't the note kind of sound like a rightwing Jew complaining that Weiss is a Nazi because he doesn't care about Jewish American children (ala settlers calling Rabin, Barak, Sharon, etc Hitlers or IDF troops Nazis). We kind of doubt that's what's going on though: (1) most people simply aren't that crazy and (2) as Rick Richman explained late last year, Weiss is one of the good guys. It's more likely, this is just a random quote that the LAT took from the notes because they were totally incoherent, LA Observed says that there was white supremacist graffiti included in the vandalism, which means that this is probably just a straightforward hate crime. But no matter how it turns out, LA is seeing a spike of anti-Semitic hatred across the board:

It could very much happen here.

References:
* Swastikas pasted on councilman's office [LAT]
* Israeli Troops Are Not Nazis, Criticism Of The Right Edition [MR]
* The Children and Missiles of Sderot [JPundit]
* Swastika at Jack Weiss' office [LA Observed]

Previously:
* UC Irvine Gives Interview to Anti-Semitic Hate Group, Wonders Why Everyone Thinks There's Anti-Semitism on Their Campus
* USC Muslim Student Union Slips Into Open Anti-Semitism
* ADL Thinks Real Hard, Identifies Religious Threat to American Jews - Christians!

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit
* The Astute Bloggers

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a good photo of a cat that's obviously in Israel when you search Flickr for "cats israel"? Memo to tourists: Yes, we congratulate you on having discovered that there are a lot of stray cats in Israel. No, you don't need to take a picture of every one of them and post it to Flickr. Please.

Three days left in the JIBs Round The Second. We offer you this sabra of a lolcat in exchange for your vote. Integrity at this point is entirely optional. Like a certain Labor Chair nee union hack whose belated political demise is about two weeks away, we're not so much interested in your reasons for voting as in your vote itself. Do remember to vote in each category, please thank you:

Best Post (Overall) - This Will Not Be Our Last Bow
Best News Post - BREAKING: Blasts in Damascus Around US Embassy
Best Right Wing Post - Screw Rachel Corrie
Best (Post) Series - Beit Hanoun Meme Watch

(Original photo: erikland / Flickr)

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Miri Bohadana Is Fed Up With You Not Voting For MR In Round 2 Of The JIBs
* Israeli Hottie Moran Gros Wants You To Vote For MR In Round 2 Of the JIBs
* Israeli Hottie Yael Bar-Zohar Is Confused Because You Haven't Voted For MR In Round 2 Of The JIBs

Now you understand why Birthright works and why telling kids that you can have Judaism without Zionism doesn't. You are advised to turn up your speakers:

Or maybe we're wrong. Maybe telling kids that Judaism is about gentleness, good works, and interfaith dialogue is the way to get kids energized about their faith. How about being embaressed about enthusiastic Zionism and claiming that "Zionism... parodies itself... [with] non-Jewish machismo"? After all, Zionism-neutral diaspora Judaism has put a stop to American intermarriage. Let's give it another 50 years.

References:
* Proof that Zionism ruined Judaism [phoebe / Jewlicious]
* Comment 7 [phoebe / Jewlicious]

Previously:
* American Judaism Slowly Discovering That Believing in Things Matters
* The iPod-ization of American Judaism
* What's Wrong With American Judaism?

Jimmy Carter gave a little speech at UC Irvine yesterday. The UCI Muslim Student Union has two weeks o' hatred and terrorist sympathizing and Israel bashing coming up, so presumably this was some sort of symbolic kickoff. Reut Cohen msg'd us to let us know that Carter was at UCI at the behest of the School of Social Science and the Center for Peacebuilding - because he did such a good job making peace in the Middle East.

Camp David, for instance, was awesome. He assured Israel that the US would help guarantee its security, if only it would give up the strategic depth and natural resources of the Sinai (question for another time: does that mean that when Carter urges the US to downgrade its relationship with Israel, he's actually personally in violation of Camp David?). As we can see, Camp David is working out great. We've had a couple decades of relative peace, and now the nuclear destruction threats are back on the table:

Just to be clear - we're not blaming Carter for Camp David. It's not like Israel wasn't completely thrilled with the possibility that some Arab state would pretend not to want to wipe it out for a couple years. What we're doing is mocking people - and organizations - who think that Camp David represents some kind of spectacular, long lasting success (potential counter-argument: the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan paid dividends during Lebanon II because there was no chance that Syria's Arab allies would attack Israel while the IDF was in the north... except the IDF couldn't commit all of its resources to the north because the smuggling that Egypt allowed into Gaza meant that the Palestinians were ready to make war from there anyway).

It's really tough to appreciate just how much damage Carter did to this country. Some time last year All Things Beautiful passed on a quote from historian Paul Johnson where he called th Carter administration "America's "suicide attempt". Un fact, you should go read that whole ATB post - it's old, but Alexandra's word-count vs. brutality ratio is truly staggering. No matter how much you know about Carter, we promise you will learn about at least one new way that he tried to undermine US security. Cross our hearts.

And yet Carter still feels that he has the right - the "obligation" - to give advice to the US about foreign policy. Shouldn't someone have to have at least one success to their name before they take it upon themselves to dispense advice? As opposed to Carter, who represents literally nothing but a staggering mountain of failures.

We leave you with this picture that we jacked from LGF that Charles jacked from The David Project:

Of course, Carter is in no way responsible for the succor that he provides to the world's most vicious anti-Semites. After all, he's being brave by criticizing Israeli on college campuses.

References:
* Jimmy Carter To Visit UC Irvine. Perfect. [MR]
* reutrcohen.blogspot.com [Reut Cohen]
* Only nuclear bomb can stop Israeli digging, Egypt MP says [YNet]

Previously:
* Two Videos: Daniel Pipes Shouted Down At UC Irvine - UCI Administration Proud Of Insane Muslim Student Union Hate Speech
* Logic, Anti-Semitism On Display In UC Irvine Newspaper. Except For the Logic Part.
* Google Trends: Lots of People in Irvine Have Weird Tendency to Sound Like Anti-Semites

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

We haven't done a post on how much we're going to miss Britain in almost a week. We mean this without sarcasm: we are not looking forward to the day when lunatic Islamists finally get around to rampaging through Westminster. Here's how bad things are going, the first two courtesy of various watches that Robert Spencer maintains:

* Sharia courts already operating in Britain:

* UK Muslim: "We definitely want to see Sharia law in place here":

* And in case you were wondering how British journalists are choosing between confrontation and appeasement, here's another article about execrable Journalists boycott of Israel. This one identifies the journalists' moral cowardice partly as an attempt to make nice with the radical Muslims in their midst. In addition to latent anti-Semitism and fashionable European leftism (is there a difference any more?), it's probably not far from the mark.

* MR reader Dheeraj emailed us this scholarly article on British anti-Zionism in this month's Covenant, the "Global Jewish Magazine". Conclusion: everything old is new again. Except more vicious, and with better media coverage.

References:
* Sharia courts already operating in Britain [Dhimmi Watch]
* UK Muslim: "We definitely want to see Sharia law in place here" [Jihad Watch]
* Hacks or Flacks? [Foundation For Defense of Democracies]
* British Anti-Zionism Then and Now [Covenant]

Previously:
* British Muslim Leaders Issue Manifesto Calling For "Resistance"
* Global Jihadists Will Take Any Excuse To Kill Infidels
* They Were Never Really All That Different Anyway

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

You have to admit: the Kristallnacht-style shattering glass at the end. Very nice touch.

It's a cycle of hatred! Israeli music videos are just like that, right?

PMW also posted a new video last night. They disabled embedding so you have to click through directly (who the hell disables embedding of YouTube videos? It's not like they're getting exposure or ad revenue off of it). Or you could wait until like 11am, by which time we figure Pamela will have figured out a way to mirror it off her server. Anyway, the video is self-explanatory.

References:
* Palestinian Children taught Martyrdom [bcostello25 / YouTube]
* PATV Palestinian Hatred of the West [PMW / YouTube]

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - The Pick Sisters Have Something For Everyone [Video]
* Video: Tasha and Dishka Fridays - Valentine's Day
* Nina Simone Sings Eretz Zavat Chalav. Incredible. [Video]

There was a large protest. It didn't really change anything. The fate of the government still rests with Labor, and no one in Labor has any interest in helping either the government in general or Olmert personally. Peretz blames Olmert for his own failures during Lebanon II (how typical), while Barak and Ayalon certainly gain nothing by keeping Labor in the coalition.

Kadima - Olmert will give Livni another chance. Lots of potential motives: not wanting to damage what little is left of Kadima, wanting to keep Livni personally invested in the government's success, sheer malice of not letting her off easy and forcing her to toe his line, and - although we recognize this is a stretch - not wanting to put anyone popular within striking distance of the Prime Minister's portfolio. There's a world of difference between having Shual Mofaz as deputy Prime Minister and having Livni in that position. It seems like some people might be inclined to think that PM Livni - who, to the extent that Lebanon II was lost diplomatically, was not overly successful as a Foreign Minister - is a less attractive option than even PM Olmert.

Labor - Labor MK Paz-Pines has voted to camp out in a tent until the current government resigns. That's because Labor MK Paz-Pines is kind of a tool. Also, it's going to be a Cindy Sheehan hunger strike kind of deal, in that he won't really be doing it all the time - just the time when he's not busy campaigning for Labor leader. This, also, is because Labor MK Paz-Pines is kind of a tool. His best chance to win the Labor primary is to have a plane carrying Ami Ayalon crash on top of a car being driven by Ehud Barak. And even then he might lose to Barak's wife (obligatory caveat: Labor primary voters collectively have the IQ of an under-watered houseplant, and therefore all rational predictions about their voting patterns are done purely as an exercise in political calculation).

Likud - Netanyahu, etc.

References:
* Over 100,000 rally in Tel Aviv to call on PM, Peretz to resign [Ha'aretz]
* Kadima, PM fear Winograd backlash will push Labor to quit government [Ha'aretz]
* Olmert won't fire Livni – if she falls in line [YNet]
* PM Livni? Are we crazy? [YNet]
* Paz-Pines vows to camp out at PMO until Olmert resigns [JPost]

Previously:
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-5-03 - Labor Gets To Decide Olmert's Fate? Are You Kidding?
* Israel Politics Roundup - 2007-05-02 - Olmert Not Looking So Great
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-01 - Reminder: Olmert's Not Going Anywhere

Original:
If you don't like hearing phrases like "cut a man in half at over 1,400 meters", we strongly suggest that you skip this post:

This guy is the fourth guy in the last 100 years to design a gun fielded to US troops. The best we can do is design widgets - which we don't even do - and he's inventing sniper rifles. So you can already tell this is going to be a high self-esteem day at MR HQ.

Update (03:20 PST, 05/04):
Well, that video got pulled quick. Here's a another version of the same video:

References:
* FutureWeapons [acurajustin / YouTube]

Previously:
* Palestinian Tech Innovation: New And Better Suicide Belts
* Compare and Contrast - High Tech Developments
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Israeli Biotech Industry Skyrockets As Women CEOs Lead the Way [Video]

Ahh, the State Department:

The problem with American public diplomacy is that there's too much distrust in the Arab world. when we say that we're kind of well-meaning and that we'd like to live in peace with them, they simply don't believe us. So we suppose that Al-Hurra should be congratulated for finally finding fare that the Muslim world finds palatable. Minus the whole "vicious anti-Israel incitement" part. That part seems less optimism-inducing.

References:
* Mad TV [WSJ]

Previously:
* There Are Many Arabs That Support Hezbollah? No Way!
* US Public Diplomacy, Tact Don't Extend To Israel
* Public Diplomacy Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry

Yes, we know it's annoying. But who cares - it's classic lady doth protest too much blithering. If Nasrallah's best argument is that the consequences of Lebanon II have hurt Olmert's political career - well, not to be overly pedantic, but Hezbollah's no longer in the Lebanese government either. And if Hezbollah's best propaganda against Israel is that they fired rockets into Tel Aviv, then they really ought to stop demonizing Israel by running footage of all the Lebanese civilians that Israel apparently wounded. If you think that Israelis are pissed off about Olmert, check out how the Lebanese blogosphere is reacting to Winograd:

Lebanon II was bungled not because the IDF lost but because the IDF did not win fast enough. Fast enough by whose standards? Fast enough by the standards of the international community, which demands that Israel win wars instantly. Wars fought against enemies that hide in civilian areas don't work that way - unless you're willing to inflict massive casualties on the civilians being used as human shields, which the IDF is not:

Had the IDF been allowed to go after Hezbollah's infrastructure for another month - or if they had been allowed to leverage the IAF's air superiority and to hell with Hezbollah's use of civilian areas as military staging grounds - does anyone have the slightest doubt what the result would have been? Yes, Lebanon II was a colossal bungle. Olmert, to say nothing of Peretz, should pay a personal and political price. But for Hezbollah to claim victory because they spent a month hiding figuratively behind the skirts of UN officials and literally behind the skirts of Lebanese women - well, it just seems a like they're trying just a bit too hard:

A 10 to 1 kill ratio - to say nothing of the 1000 to 1 infrastructure ratio - does not a glorious victory make.

References:
* Nasrallah: Israel needs Olmert to quit [JPost]
* Divine victory in hell [From Beirut to the Beltway]
* Why Would Anyone Smart Say Hezbollah Achieved a Military Victory? [MR]

Previously:
* Associated Press: "We are all Hezbollah" is Not Anti-Israel
* UN Peacekeepers Begged Hezbollah to Stop Using Them As Human Shields. UN, LA Times Blame Israel Anyway.
* As Opposed to Israel, Hezbollah Actually Did Commit War Crimes

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers
* Israpundit

We'll might have a little more when we do our regular updates tonight overnight, but for now it doesn't seem like anything unexpected happened. Organizers are putting the numbers at 200,000, with more realistic estimates hovering between the 100,000 number that Ha'aretz is going with and the 150,000 number that JPost is reporting:

One Jerusalem has an interview with Effi Eitan, who then went on to speak at the rally. They've also got some other links up, including some background on Netanyahu's position and an interview they did last year with Israeli Reservists who protested the conduct of the military operations in Lebanon. Critical background.

References:
* 150,000 call on Olmert, Peretz to resign in Tel Aviv rally [JPost]
* Roughly 100,000 people rally in Tel Aviv to call on PM, Peretz to quit [Ha'aretz]
* Rallying For The State Of Israel - [OJ.org]

Previously:
* One Jerusalem Conference Call: Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-01 - Reminder: Olmert's Not Going Anywhere
* Olmert: Israel May Or May Not Have Nukes

What does this even mean:

"Superman" has to be some sort of mistranslation. We've only ever seen it as a serious translation for ubermensch, and we seriously doubt that AQ terrorists have taken to quoting Nietzsche. It'd certainly a positive development if they have, but we're not hopeful. Anyway, we doubt that the UN will get around to declaring Mohammad a global superman by next Thursday, although it would be awesome if they held a celebration and put up a giant cartoon of him in the background. So looks like it's time to get ready for the end. Party at our house. (via: Jihad Watch)

References:
* Bangladesh railway blasts signed 'al Qaeda' [CNN / Reuters]
* "If Hazrat (Prophet) Mohammad is not declared the superman of the world by May 10, all non-governmental organizations will be blown up" [Jihad Watch]

Previously:
* LA Times Watch
* Who's Afraid of Israeli-Pakistani Relations?
* Uranium Stolen In India

This Defense Tech post is one of the most heartening things we've read in a while. And it's about the inevitable eruption of war in the Middle East might not be all that bad. Thus does Middle East blogging proceed:

The entire study is here (PDF warning). We haven't read over the whole thing, so we're not sure if it addresses the IFF issue. We also don't know if they assume that an Israeli strike might involve cruise missiles as well as air assets. If fighters get downed before they can drop their payload, one certainly assumes that Israel would launch cruise missiles to finish the job - it's try or die at that point.

Here's what we don't get: if Israel can do it, then the US can certainly do it. And a US strike would have a higher probability of success (closer target, better tech, less logistical problems, etc). And it's not like Iranian nukes won't find their way into the heart of a US city eventually - the US doesn't have existential stakes in play, but they've certainly got a lot to lose. It just sounds like the US is hanging Israel out to dry because Iran has promised to nuke Israel first.

References:
* The IAF vs Iran's Nuke Complex [Defense Tech]
* The Countdown To An Iran Strike Has Begun In Jerusalem and Washington [MR]

Previously:
* Washington Post: We Were Wrong. Please Bomb Iran and Syria ASAP. Thank You.
* Iran Now Blaming Sunni-Shia Split On Israel. No, Really.
* Persecution Of Baha'is In Egypt and Iran Fails To Gain International Attention [Video]

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers
* Israpundit

As the week slips away, so too does our shame. But that shouldn't stop you from helping our Best Posts get into the final round of the JIBs:

Best Post (Overall) - This Will Not Be Our Last Bow
Best News Post - BREAKING: Blasts in Damascus Around US Embassy
Best Right Wing Post - Screw Rachel Corrie
Best (Post) Series - Beit Hanoun Meme Watch

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Moran Gros Wants You To Vote For MR In Round 2 Of the JIBs
* Israeli Hottie Galit Gutman Is Trapped In A Three Walled Room. She Can't Get Out Till You Vote For MR In the JIBs.
* Israeli Hottie Yael Bar-Zohar Is Confused Because You Haven't Voted For MR In Round 2 Of The JIBs

We were a little reluctant to post this video because it feels more like a "laugh at Jewish folk songs" than a "laugh with Jewish folk songs" situation. But: (1) we needed an excuse to post the magnificent clarification that MR reader Paul emailed us about Tuesday's group of Japanese tourists singing at the Kotel, (2) this new video is compelling in a slow moving train wreck kind of way, and (3) we've never really liked the Hava Nagila anyway (are we allowed to say that?).

First, the clarification:

Another reader text'd us to say that they were in Ben Gurion last year and the piano lounge was filled with a bunch of Japanese folks singing Jewish songs at the top of their lungs. So now you know.

And here's today's Asian-Jewish fusion serving:

That's just not normal.

References:
* Tuesday WTF - Japanese Tourists Singing At the Kotel [Video] [MR]
* Hava Nagila - Thai Style - in Hebrew [YouTube / CheckItOutNowNYC]

Previously:
* Video: Walking Table
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Israeli Playboy Party [Video, Mostly SFW]
* Sunday Cuteness - Otters Holding Hands [Video]

Stuff we couldn't fit anywhere else. Sorry, you really deserve better. And yet, link dump:

* Soccer Dad catches the NYT being appallingly dishonest

* Altas nabbed an interview with Sandmonkey right after he stopped blogging.

* Yesterday, Sandmonkey posted some last clarifications about why he's taking a hiatus.

* Douglas Farah says not so much with the MB moderation.

* Memo to israelli: just because you replaced the word "hottie" with "smokin" doesn't mean you don't owe us a royalty check.

References:
* Harsh and unhealthy editorial attitudes [Soccer Dad]
* CONFESSIONS OF A SANDMONKEY SANDMONKEY TALKS TO ATLAS [Atlas]
* The Next Step [Rantings]
* Qutbism and the Muslim Brotherhood
* Smokin’ Israeli on Showtime’s Weeds [israelli]

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Moran Gros Wants You To Vote For MR In Round 2 Of the JIBs
* Israeli Hottie Galit Gutman Is Trapped In A Three Walled Room. She Can't Get Out Till You Vote For MR In the JIBs.
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - The Pick Sisters Have Something For Everyone [Video]

Anne Lieberman posts on a conference call with Yuval Steinitz, who was estimating resignation at between two weeks to a few months. The first estimate is bold although increasingly the conventional wisdom, but the second is a certainty. Olmert is certainly out by summer one way or another. We're still just barely inclined to think that he'll last through July, but he's certainly about to get hit by a pretty brutal storm. 65 percent of Israelis think he should resign, and major rally demanding his resignation is set for Tel Aviv tonight (not a good place for a centrist to have no support). At least four no confidence motions will be filed in the Knesset on Monday. Israel Beiteinu, Shas, and Gil will continue to support Olmert, which means that the deciding votes will come from Labor and any Kadima rebels .

Kadima - Kadima's Coalition chair says Olmert has to go. No surprise there - Itzchaky, though he's rumored to have his eyes on the party leadership, is a Livni ally. And now that Olmert has managed to rally the rest of Kadima behind him (nb. never question us in front of the children again), Livni herself has like 5 days left as Foreign Minister. Poorly played on her part: she had the opportunity to resign like an indignant citizen, and now she's going to get fired like a rebellious underling. Kadima MKs are under no illusions about the stakes: If Olmert falls before having a chance to try to fix his mistakes or win a war, it's the end of Kadima.

Likud - Likudniks have finally figured out that this is the best opportunity that they're going to have in a while. Kadima is in disgrace and Labor - with a primary coming up at the end of May - is about to go into total disarray. Good news for Likud: Bibi is about to go on the offensive. Bad news for Likud: Israelis are about to be reminded that Bibi is running the Likud. As long as the alternatives are Olmert and Peretz that's not a problem. But neither of those two people will be running in the next election.

Labor - Peretz is thinking of resigning. Then again, maybe he won't resign until after the Labor primary. Whatever. By the end of this month his political career will be permanently over (unless Labor primary voters decide to bring him back in a year or two, which, well, you know...) Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Minor Parties - If anyone has any idea why Avigdor Lieberman has chosen to support Olmert, please let us in on the secret. As opposed to Bibi, Israel Beiteinu's rightwing leader has betrayed exactly zero settlers and has turned over exactly zero Biblical Jewish towns to the Palestinians. That should theoretically set him up to lead Israel's right in the next election. And yet, apparently not. We'd ask the same question of Shas, but they're opportunists and probably managed to squeeze some sort of welfare concession out of him.

References:
* Balagan! The government is poised to fall [BtB]
* Poll: Israelis want Olmert out [YNet]
* Knesset special session opens battle to topple Olmert [JPost]
* Olmert must step down, coalition chairman says [YNet]
* MPs back beleaguered Israeli PM [BBC]
* Israel's Peretz mulling resignation within two days:report [Xinhua]
* Peretz aides: Defense Minister is undecided on whether to resign [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Israel Politics Roundup - 2007-05-02 - Olmert Not Looking So Great
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-01 - Reminder: Olmert's Not Going Anywhere
* Israeli Political Updates - 2007-04-29 - Sorry Folks, Olmert's Not Going Anywhere

Ah, Ms. Coulter:

Say she's crazy. Say she's counterproductive. Just don't say that she's a poor writer, lest you come off sounding like someone so politically myopic that you've lost your sense of humor.

References:
* No wonder they're afraid of Brit Hume

Previously:
* Video: Rush and Ms. Coulter On the THHNH
* Maybe The Best Coulter Line Ever
* Democrats are Vulgar, Republicans are Funny

About every month or so we try to use Model Wednesdays to link bait the parts of our readership that aren't 16-30yo post-adolescent males who think that Iran should have been bombed yesterday (that's who the other 29 days of the month are for). But it turns out that women are far less likely to slavishly give us Google hits just because we post some skin for them. But we're not going to give up on our principles just because they don't result in web hits (ha ha ha... sigh). Anyway, here's a video in which everyone gets objectified. Compromise is a beautiful thing:

The Pick Sisters page on Last.fm actually has them tagged as "guilty pleasure." No, we're not proud.

References:
* Sharona and Daniela Pik - This Song שרונה ודניאלה פיק [YouTube/jeloox]
* Sharona & Daniela Pick [Last.fm]

Previously:
* MR Soccer Video Mania
* Video: Nina Simone Sings Eretz Zavat Chalav. Incredible.
* Video: O'Reilly Vs. Colbert And Stewart

We really thought that Cole could plumb depths no lower than his "I'm not wrong I'm just deploying the technique of the hermeneutical circle" excuse for his asinine "jihad is obviously peaceful" claims. Admittedly his condescending and self-caricaturing attempts to explain Catholic dogma to the Pope was a close second because he was making amateurish mistakes while trying to sound sophisticated - still, it was only second.

But we were wrong:

The link goes to a hysterical Martin Kramer post that you should absolutely amuse yourself by reading. Admittedly, making fun of Cole is like smacking around a particularly slow-moving cow. Except you don't feel any guilt afterwards. Oh, and also except he deserves it because he's a total fraud (via: Solomonia).

UPDATE: We just read that Martin Kramer post again. Seriously. Hysterical:

Seriously, go now.

References:
* MR Cracks the Code: Juan Cole Is Not "Wrong" - He's Just "Deploying the Technique of the Hermeneutical Circle" [MR]
* Yes, the Pope Is Catholic - Shut Up, He Understands Islam Better Than You Do [MR]
* Juan Cole: They're Blowing Up Churches Because of Root Causes (Also: Academic Condescension to Blacks!) [MR]
* Israel's summer wars [Sandbox]
* Juan Cole - Fraud [MR]
* Juan Cole Vindicated! [Solomonia]

Previously:
* Juan Cole - Anti-Semite?
* Uh Oh - Looks Like Someone Didn't Get the "Koran Bans Forced Conversions" Memo
* Brown University Outrage: Anti-Israel Academics Organize Conference To Attack Pro-Israel Critics, Shut Out Pro-Israel Speakers and Students

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

We're not even talking about the same reality:

Now the committed diplomat will insist that this is a reason to enhance public diplomacy - if only 3 percent of Pakistanis believe that AQ was behind 9/11, then let's persuade more of them. The problem here is not the belief itself, but (1) what the belief shows about the common worldview that persuasion requires and presupposes (i.e. that it doesn't exist) and (2) about the what it would take to change someone's mind on this issue.

More specifically: if someones doesn't already believe that AQ was behind 9/11, it's not because of a lack of evidence. Among other things, AQ very publicly claimed responsibility for the attack. So it's not a matter of evidence - it's a matter of how that evidence is put together. These nuts put together tangled webs of conspiracy theories, all to hold on to their absurd belief. So the question then becomes: what's driving this willful ignorance? What's going on in the background that causes people to ignore all the obvious evidence and search for disconnected suggestions of facts to weave together? There's a basic underlying drive to hold on to pathological beliefs.

They don't hate the US because they believe that AQ is innocent. They believe AQ is innocent because they hate the US.

References:
* Muslims believe US seeks to undermine Islam

Previously:
* These Conspiracy Theories About Cho Are Still Stupid
* Arab and Muslim Conspiracy Theories - Iranian Holocaust Denial Edition
* Book Reviews - Life is Complicated

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

She's genuinely mystified. And confused. And a little sad. So go ahead and vote for us, and bring a smile to her face. She has a radiant smile.

Best Post (Overall) - This Will Not Be Our Last Bow
Best News Post - BREAKING: Blasts in Damascus Around US Embassy
Best Right Wing Post - Screw Rachel Corrie
Best (Post) Series - Beit Hanoun Meme Watch

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Moran Gros Wants You To Vote For MR In Round 2 Of the JIBs
* Israeli Hottie Galit Gutman Is Trapped In A Three Walled Room. She Can't Get Out Till You Vote For MR In the JIBs.
* Israeli Model Wednesdays - Photos: Israeli Model Bar Refaeli In SI Swimsuit Edition

Whoever Richardson's foreign policy handler is, he failed miserably:

We're willing to be charitable and file this under "he just didn't know any better". It's the same as what we said about Dean when he dropped that "the US should be even-handed" comment during the election (an incident that Rosner also compares to this gaffe) - no one had ever bothered telling him that "even handed" is nudge-nudge wink-wink anti-Israel among people who talk about the Middle East. So we're not taking this as an admission Richardson actually wants one of the most anti-Israel American diplomats in recent history to run the the peace process.

What we will say, however, is that this is evidence that you can go through a fairly extensive career in Democratic politics without ever having to know anything about Israeli considerations or the Israeli point of view. And you can do all this while insisting that your nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the Middle East entitles you to declare that you're going to become more involved in the Middle East, because you know what will fix things.

It's the combination of presumed knowledge, juxtaposed with a blind spot regarding Israeli interest, driven by an insistence that policy should be implemented based on what you think you know - that's what bothers us about the Democratic approach to the Middle East.

References:
* Richardson uses the B-word [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Why Don't Jewish Democrats Care That Their Party Hired A Radical Anti-Semitic Imam?
* More Leaks Point To Democrats Holding Talks With Hamas Terrorists
* Sen. Clinton Takes Temporary Hardline Stance Against Iran... At AIPAC Meeting

In this post, Israel Matzav has this link going to an article that is supposed to say this:

That article definitely existed at one time...

... but that link doesn't have anything like that paragraph now. Too bad - it's obviously and brutally true. We'd go back and gloat about how absurd it was for Ha'aretz to cheer when he beat Peres, thereby unseating one of Israel's most successful Defense Ministers (who if nothing else knew that the IDF was unprepared), shattering a unity government that was shepherding Israel through the Second Intifada, and leading to the miserable situation that Israel finds itself in today. But honestly, it just kind of makes us sad. One parting quote from the Winograd Commission Report:

No kidding.

References:
* Winograd: Olmert 'passive', Peretz should never have been defense minister [Israel Matzav]
* Winograd report: PM was unprepared [JPost]
* Key Players in Israeli War Inquiry [AP]
* Israel War Report Damns Olmert [Danger Room]

Previously:
* Peretz is So Useless That Even the Liberal Cheerleaders from Haaretz are Pissed Off At Him
* MR Was Right. Ha'aretz Was Wrong. Peretz Is An Incompetent Union Thug. Thus Was It Ever So.
* Israeli Political Roundup - Look Who's Supporting Sharon Now

Looks like Brown University is in some pretty good company when it comes to conferences that mask their anti-Semitism by calling it "anti-Zionism":

We love how the answer to "you're creating an environment of vicious anti-Semitism" is "that's not against our rules". These people run Universities. Wrap your mind around that.

References:
* Pro-Israel group decries UC Santa Cruz `new anti-Semitism'
* Brown University Outrage: Anti-Israel Academics Organize Conference To Attack Pro-Israel Critics, Shut Out Pro-Israel Speakers and Students [MR]

Previously:
* Reminder: Hysterical Anti-Zionism Doesn't Get You Off The Hook For Bigoted Anti-Semitism
* Muslim Anti-Semitism Is Not Anti-Zionism. No, Really. It's Not.
* Even 40 Years Ago, Anti-Zionism was Already Anti-Semitism

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

Hey, remember how the unity government was going to moderate the Palestinians? Turns out, not so much:

As a reminder, the Palestinian unity government that put this guy on TV is made up of Hamas and Fatah. Hamas members are increasingly welcome in Europe. Fatah's Abbas, of course, is welcome - even invited - just about everywhere on the planet. Because he's going to put a stop to this, just as soon as he gets around to it.

Everyone had this yesterday, so here's a quick roundup: it looks like Smooth Stone had a link to the MEMRI transcript as far back as last week. Them Pamela posted this video yesterday. This morning JPost posted an article about it. That triggered a feeding frenzy of snark about US ties to the PA: Captain's Quarters, Reut Cohern, Astute Bloggers.

References:
* PA Leader calls for killing all Jews and Americans [magnusea / YouTube]
* Acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Sheik Ahmad Bahr from Hamas, Declared during a Friday Sermon at a Sudan Mosque that America and Israel Will Be Annihilated and Called upon Allah to Kill the Jews and the Americans "to the Very Last One" [MEMRI]
* Palestinian Sheikh Calls on Allah to Kill Every Single Israeli and American [Smooth Stone]
* THIS MUST BE CRUSHED [Atlas]
* Top Hamas official: Kill all Americans [JPost]
* Hamas Official: Kill All Americans [Captain's Quarters]
* Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Advises to Kill All Americans and Jews [Reut Cohen]
* PALESTINIAN ASSEMBLY LEADER CALLS FOR GENOCIDE OF AMERICANS AND JEWS [Astute Bloggers]

Previously:
* Imam Blames Massive Earthquake on Cable Television
* Reuters Anti-Israel Demonization Now Just Silly: Israeli Jews Persecuting Palestinian Christians. Muslim Palestinians, On the Other Hand, Have Persecuted Nobody and Burned No Churches
* NYT Get Pulitzer For Exploring Life of Imam and Mosque, Forgetting To Mention Anti-Jewish Shooting Rampages Thing

Unless something big has happened between the time we wrote this on on Tuesday night and the time it's going live Wednesday morning, this should be the political news of the day:

IMAO has a huge roundup of unverified facts that will get your Wednesday morning off to a chuckle. A very serious, very hopeful-that-Fred-Thompson-will-run chuckle. But a chuckle nonetheless. Commenting on Fred Thompson's Bond-like attraction to women, Ace concludes that:

Oh, and here's a new interview from Hannity. Because you've read this far, and you earned it:

He's so good. He's so good.

References:
* POLL: Rasmussen National Primary [Pollster.com]
* Unverfied Fred Thompson Facts [IMAO]
* Fred Thompson Admits To House Republicans: I Have A Fourteen Inch Penis Shaped Like A Corkscrew With Which I Rape Ducks [Ace]

Previously:
* Fred Thompson For President... Now
* Meet Jeri Thompson, the Powerful Republican Consultant That Grassroots Liberals Will Be Attacking As A Bimbo
* New Thompson CW: He Can Take His Damn Sweet Time

UPDATE (09:49 PST):
Well, that answers that question:

Bold. Stupid. But bold.

ORIGINAL:
Remember how we said that there's no way that Livni can form a critical mass to overthrow Olmert? Yeah. We might have called that putt a little early.

Kadima - The critical phrase is "honorable departure", and if one was available Olmert might be persuaded to take it. Except any exit before the final report is issued in July would be humiliating (not to mention logically untenable, since this early report laid significant blame on Barak and Sharon's policies as well). And yet - even Olmert is now publicly admitting that he might not make it. The thing is, when he said that he also added that his ouster would be the end of the Kadima-led coalition. Which is true. Which is why we still don't think that Livni will succeed in ousting him.

X-factor 01: If Kadima members think that Olmert's overthrow is inevitable, then they'll want to do it themselves. But now it becomes a weird game theory headache, where they have to decide whether to (a) support him so he looks like he has enough internal support to face the opposition or (b) get to him before the opposition does. It's probably optimal for them to have him stay in power until July, but if they don't think that's possible they may try to get to him first.

X-factor 02: In the meantime, Olmert is much meaner than Livni. He also has every intention of snuffing out the Kadima rebellion, and he doesn't particularly care if he has to destroy Livni to do it. If he pushes too hard, though, she'll just leave the coalition - or the party - and take whatever public support Kadima still has with her. Another thing for Kadima members to consider while they're deciding which side they want to be on.

As if that wasn't complicated enough, there has to be a Kadima member who makes the first move. But Livni is hamstrung because she can't make it look like she's undermining Olmert (unless he's so weak by late tomorrow that she can make it look that way). But other Kadima power brokers might not want to take the first step and undermine Olmert for Livni, because right now she's the one set to replace him - and they might want the job. JPost doesn't mince words:

Likud - In terms of not wanting to seem ambitious, Netanyahu is in the same position that Livni is. Except for him it's worse because he's already stereotyped as a schemer (the "most American of Israeli politicians"). With Israel's right wing mobilizing for new elections, it probably behooves him to quietly solidify his position within the Likud and stay out of the Olmert controversy.

Labor - Barak is out in front of the post-Winograd media scene. We'd say that he's wasting his time because Ami Ayalon is clearly going to win the May 28 Labor primary. Except, given that we're about to get burned on our Olmert predictions, we're going to take a little break from prognosticating. Also: Labor primary voters have the electoral sophistication of our grad student cubicle.

Incidentally, 85 percent of Israelis want Olmert to resign and only 9 percent support him. See what we mean about Labor primary voters?

References:
* Kadima rebellion against Olmert gathers pace [JPost]
* Olmert admits: I am not sure I will get through this [JPost]
* PM aides: Olmert will quit if told to [YNet]
* Olmert-Livni tensions flare up over Winograd [Ha'aretz]
* Haaretz poll: 40% want elections, 68% say Olmert should resign [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-01 - Reminder: Olmert's Not Going Anywhere
* Israeli Political Updates - 2007-04-29 - Sorry Folks, Olmert's Not Going Anywhere
* Israeli Political Roundup - Labor Voters are Total Fucking Idiots Edition

Don't ask us. We have no idea:

That was... different.

Previously:
* Shabbat Hatikva [Video]
* Sunday Cuteness - Otters Holding Hands [Video]
* Video: Giant Sword Armed Wii Controlled Robot. What Could Go Wrong?

Two posts trace Barack Obama's connections to some relatively dark corners. Ed Lasky tracks down Obama's connections to George "I grew up in a Jewish, anti-Semitic home" Soros and Anne Lieberman follows the threads that tie Obama to the highly problematic Trinity Church. But that's not what's pissing us off this morning about the Democrats.

These self-styled saviors think that they're entitled to run their own foreign policy:

These people are just lunatics. Can you imagine what will happen if they get a hold of the Executive, and actually have the Constitutional mandate to conduct foreign policy? Then again, maybe it wouldn't be that bad. After a couple of years, the whole world would love us. Although that doesn't sound so good when you realize that Muslim France and Iran, Communist Venezuela, Baathist Syria, and totalitarian Russia would be all that's left of "the world".

References:
* Soros, Obama, and the Millionaires Exception [American Thinker]
* There it is again [Boker Tov, Boulder]
* Pelosi Snubs Pro-US Uribe- Makes Plans to Visit Hugo Chavez!!! [Gateway Pundit]

Previously:
* This Is Simply Surreal. Congressional Democrats Are Refusing To Support the British Hostages Kidnapped By Iran.
* Pelosi To Take Stance On The Side Of Airline Imams?
* Oh For Crying Out Loud. Pelosi Now Actually Meeting With Iran (?? )

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

There's something very special about contemporary feminists on the political left. Specifically, the way they seem to feel that giving lip service to abortion rights absolves them from having to not be total sexists. Take the comments section of Wonkette's recent post on a Michelle Malkin video:

We're not cherry-picking - those are 4 of the first 5 comments. At least when pro-sex feminists talk about porn, they're pretending to actually care about women.

Incidentally, we would go after Wonkette for the post itself - which is not what one would describe as progressive - but it passes the laugh test. Also, we had the exact same thought when we first saw the video on Hot Air. It was a strange choice to convey that particular view on the Democrats' defeatist legislation (via: Gateway Pundit).

Full disclosure: I blog for Gridskipper, which is owned by Gawker Media. Gawker Media also owns Wonkette

References:
* Malkin's Site Now Requires Adult ID Check [Wonkette]

Previously:
* The Ugly Left - Sarcastically Praying For the Vice President's Health Edition
* The American Left Gets Preachy And Hypocritical. Yes, We Understand This Is Not News.
* Dialogue On the Left

Zombietime just posted no less than four videos of pro-impeachment moonbats engaging in pro-impeachment moonbattery. You should click through and watch every entertaining second of every video, but this one should be of special interest to our readers. Two things: (1) terrorist chic is stupid when you're a 20-something trust fund hipster - after you grow up, it just becomes sad and pathetic (2) this woman is a total idiot. Enjoy:

They're not anti-war. There's just on the other side.

References:
* zombietimedotcom [YouTube]

Previously:
* Kucinich Announces Impeachment Charges Against Cheney
* Blogish Anti-Semitic Stereotypes, Now With More Funny
* Matthew Yglesias: Anti-Semitic Genocidal Maniacs Are Hip, Terrorists Are Fashionable (UPDATED AND BUMPED: Yglesias Article From Today Predictably Anti-Semitish)

Let's give Abbas some money, logistical training, and cutting edge armor. Because he and his Fatah terrorists are oh so moderate:

In fairness, there are definitely Fatah forces on both sides. Some militia leaders in the field are calling upon their troops not to force Israel to come into Gaza and clean out that rat's nest, while others are trusting in Allah (and Iran) to supply them with the material to kill Israeli soldiers and civilians. But that's kind of our point too: it seems like a good idea not to supply Fatah until we know for sure which of Abbas's forces can be trusted and which are likely to take their US-produced armor into the field against the IDF.

Of course, if the Palestinians were really concerned about freeing their prisoners they'd be going after Egypt. It almost seems like prisoners... and occupation... and root causes are just pretexts for murdering Israelis. (Summer Storm story via Weasel Zippers)

References:
* Fatah militants launch 'Summer Storm' campaign and urge all factions to prepare martyrs
* The terrible plight of PalArab prisoners [Elder of Zion]

Previously:
* Done and Done: New Palestinians Government In Open Violation of Israeli-Palestinian Treaties. No One Cares.
* Bonus Outrage: Abbas Rejects Two-State Solution, Eilat Bombing Happened After Israel Released Money To Him Anyway
* Done and Done: Abbas Takes US Money and Cutting Edge Weapons, Tells the US That He's Siding With Hamas Anyway

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

New plan: impeach President Bush, have then-President Cheney appoint Fred Thompson Vice President, have Dick Cheney resign. Honestly:

Peter Robinson stakes his reputation as a speech writer