I put a Wikipedia blurb about the synagogue below but it pales in comparison to seeing the video:

Gorgeous:

Gorgeous, but obviously bittersweet.

References:
* Kupa Synagogue Krakow [relationet / YouTube]
* Kupa Synagogue [Wikipedia]

Previously:
* Miri Ben-Ari and Subliminal: God Almighty When Will It End [Video]
* Shabbat Beauty - Rabbinical Commentary, Music [Video]
* Shabbat Beauty - Blossoming In Israel

Judea Pearl's article in the WSJ establishes that seething vicious "anti-Zionist" propaganda - the kind that is celebrated as brave sophistication on university campuses and in media newsrooms - is nothing but murderous anti-Semitism:

The answer was unveiled in 2004, when a friend told me that photos of Muhammad Al Dura were used as background in the video tape of Danny's murder. Al Dura, readers may recall, is the 12-year-old Palestinian boy who allegedly died from Israeli bullets in Gaza in September of 2001. As we now know, the whole scene is very likely to have been a fraud, choreographed by stringers and cameramen of France 2, the official news channel of France. France 2 aired the tape repeatedly and distributed it all over the world to anyone who needed an excuse to ratchet up anger or violence, among them Danny's killers. The Pakistani Consul was right. The media cannot be totally exonerated from responsibility for Daniel's murder, as well as for the "tsunami of hate" that has swept the world and continues to rise... Surely they have an obligation to expose villainy and excess. This is what journalism is all about. But in a world infected with fanatics who run around with lit matches, journalists cannot simply pour gasoline into the street and pretend they bear no responsibility for the inevitable explosion.

Nice to see that the Dreyfus Affair didn't really disrupt the comfortable anti-Semitism of the French establishment. At least the rest of the international press doesn't regularly publish vulgar anti-Israel death porn from Palestinian and Lebanese sources.

References:
* The Daniel Pearl Standard [WSJ]
* Beit Hanoun Meme Watch - (2) "The Palestinians Are Really Pissed Off" - And The NYT Will Publish Death Porn To Prove It [MR]
* Siniora Asks International Media to Transmit Pictures of Israeli Atrocities. Which Is Kind of Like Asking Us to Keep Making Fun of Carter. [MR]

Previously:
* Pakistan's Chomsky
* Video: I Am Jewish: The Last Words of Daniel Pearl
* European Media Bias - Really?

Lots of priests and rabbis in Saudi Arabia say the same thing about Muslims. All the time:

Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz on Monday filed an indictment against Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, charging him with incitement to violence and racism in a speech he made last year protesting the archeological dig carried out by Israel at the Old City's Mughrabi Gate. During his sermon in Jerusalem's Wadi Joz neighborhood on February 16, Salah urged supporters to start a third intifada in order to "save al-Aksa Mosque, free Jerusalem and end the occupation." Salah's speech also attacked Jews, saying that "They want to build their temple at a time when our blood is on their clothes, on their doorsteps, in their food and in their drinks. Our blood has passed from one 'general terrorist' to another 'general terrorist.'" He also said, "We are not those who ate bread dipped in children's blood."

Those priests and rabbis would also get tons of state-mandated legal protection if they were prosecuted in, say, Iran.

References:
* Sheikh Salah charged with incitement [JPost]

Previously:
* Israeli-Arab Fifth Column Watch - Arab Knesset Member Calls For Uprising To Liberate Jerusalem
* Israeli-Arab Fifth Column Watch: Israeli-Arab Woman Spied For Hezbollah. This, Again, Does Not Bode Well For "Final Status"
* Israeli-Arab Fifth Column Watch: MKs Demand Israel Be Dismantled (So Much For "Final Status" Talks)

Classic State Department anti-Israel bait-and-switch:

The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of giving in to French and Lebanese demands over the terms of the cease-fire that halted the 2006 Second Lebanon War... Carmon emphasized that Rice had agreed that the draft cease-fire resolution would stipulate that the international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon would operate under Chapter VI of the UN charter, which would give it observer status only. She also agreed that the disputed Shaba Farms, the border area claimed by Hezbollah as Lebanese territory but internationally recognized as Syrian, would be mentioned in the resolution. Israel opposed both clauses... "Bolton said tonight in a conversation with Gillerman that the secretary of state took the task of negotiations [over the resolution] upon herself, and she is personally involved in all of its details. Rice is the one who agreed to the last two changes that were discussed in talks tonight between [former undersecretary of state Nick] Burns and Jerusalem - Chapter VI and Shaba Farms... Bolton described with sorrow a situation in which the French surrendered to all of the Arab demands and the United States isn't prepared to give up on the 'holy alliance' with the Europeans."

The chapter VII controversy was obviously a total screwjob even at the time. But don't miss how elegantly this disadvantaged Israel. There are two moves here. The first is getting Israel to agree to a ceasefire in exchange for a more robust UNIFIL force. The second is getting Israel to agree to 15,000 new UNIFIL troops because they would be more robust. Rice got Olmert to agree to a ceasefire by promising that the new UNIFIL force would be able to militarily operate against Hezbollah. Once he halted Israeli military operations - and that's not the kind of thing that you can take back - she pulled the rug out and put 15,000 new de facto human shields in Lebanon. And Israel couldn't object to new human shields being put on the ground, because it had been worked out that more troops was what they were getting in exchange for the ceasefire.

There's only one way that UNIFIL's expansion could have worked out worse for Israel. And wouldn't you know it...

Naturally:

In a letter issued Monday, UN Watch urged UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour to clarify a recent endorsement of the Arab Charter of Human Rights, which it said "contains several provisions that promote classically anti-Semitic themes." The organization pointed to several sentences in the charter, such as "rejecting all forms of racism and Zionism, which constitute a violation of human rights and a threat to international peace and security," as well as "all forms of racism, Zionism and foreign occupation and domination constitute an impediment to human dignity…all such practices must be condemned and efforts must be deployed for their elimination."... "The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is committed and stands ready to support the States Parties to the Charter in ensuring that core values of human rights are upheld," Arbour said.

Consider for a moment the sheer delicate beauty of endorsing a "Zionism is racism" declaration from a group of countries that quite literally cleansed Jews from their borders within the last century. They'd be openly racist toward their Jewish minorities, except their don't have any.

Incidentally, anyone know when the "it's probably not OK for Saudi Arabia to kill people for apostasy" resolution coming up for a vote? Soon, right?

References:
* 'UNHRC endorsed Arab charter with anti-Semitic provisions' [JPost]

Previously:
* UN: Murder of Jews Not Really Our Problem
* UNIFIL Involvement in 2000 Kidnapping Not News. Involvement of UNIFIL Soldier Who Thought of Lebanon as "Second Homeland", However, Is.
* The UN Has Been Screwing Israel For Decades

Minus his anti-Semiticish foreign policy advisers and disastrous foreign policy choices, we're sure that the Senator is a perfectly nice guy. But his supporters are going to have to try a little harder than this:

You wouldn't know it from the flood of hysterical emails we have all seen, or from a fair amount of the commentary, but there is a groundswell of Jewish American support for Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign. That should hardly be surprising, for it is a reflection of the nature of our community. When he speaks - with eloquence, unmistakable authenticity, and passion - for the values we hold most dear, he renews our hope for America in these difficult times... he has epitomized the notion of tikkun olam ("repairing the world").

Oh, well say no more then. Because the political judgment of the average young Jewish American - that's something we have a ton of respect for.

References:
* Why I support Obama [JPost]
* Another Success For Reform Judaism - Half Of Young American Jews Untroubled By Potential Destruction Of Israel [MR]
* MR Has A Question For Democratic Jews: Are You Fucking Retarded? [MR]

Previously:
* This Week's Litany Of Reasons Why Democratic Jews Are Either Anti-Israel Or Lying To Themselves
* Memo To Democratic Jews: "US Engagement In The Peace Process" Is Bad For Israel, Barack Obama Edition
* Obama: "I'm Not Saying Israel Should Have To Take Risks For Peace, But..."

Back before their entire operational leadership was made dead for murdering sitting Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi, the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine invented airline hijackings and committed hundreds of terrorist attacks against Israeli and Western targets. Later they joined the PLO as the second-largest party, but scaled back their participation because Fatah didn't seem to wipe out Israel enough. Regarding contemporary Palestinian society, nothing really says "we're ready for peace" like handwringing panegyrics for intransigent arch-terrorists:

Thousands of Palestinians marched Monday in memory of George Habash, the legendary founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror organization, who was buried in Amman. The marchers in the west Bank city of Ramallah wore red scarves, symbol of the PFLP, chanting, "Your era is the era of Palestinian struggle." "It's the end of founders' generation," said Talal Okal, a local newspaper analyst.

George Habash founded the PFLP in 1951 with the explicit goal of modernizing Arab culture enough to wipe out Israel. Which makes people who say that Palestinian terrorism is a response to Israel's 1967 occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank - like the Ahmadinejad embracing foreign policy experts at the Council on Foreign Relations - pretty fucking stupid. Anyway, here's the promised grist for the Israeli-Arab Fifth Column mill:

We're posting this for two reasons. The first is to show that MR is not a blog where Israel can do no wrong. Quite the opposite, we'd be among the first to admit that the Jewish State's insulting treatment of the Fab Four represents nothing short of a crime against humanity. Quite possibly it's a crime against the fabric of the universe itself. The second is because the lede of this YNet story is spectacular in its understatement of how much Israel's Foreign Ministry totally sucks:

After accomplishing the mission of rehabilitating Israel's problematic image in the world, the Foreign Ministry has now found the time to deal with the real important issue: Extending an official apology to The Beatles, 43 years after the British band was banned from performing in the Jewish state. Israeli Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor was expected to meet Monday morning with John Lennon's sister, Julia Baird, at The Beatles museum in Liverpool and to present her with an official letter of apology from the State of Israel for banning the band's members from performing in the country in 1965... "Unfortunately, the State of Israel cancelled your performance in the country due to lack of budget and because several politicians... believed at the time that your performance might corrupt the minds of the Israeli youth."

Moral dilemma: if it turns out that Israel's contemporary crises are karmic payback for its outrages against the Fab Four, are we even allowed to side with the Jewish State? And if not, are we further obligated to embrace the anti-Israel cause? We think we're pretty good on the latter question since there's no way that the Beatles would want us to embrace genocidal lunacy - cf. Timothy Leary's demonstrably true observation that "the Beatles are mutants... prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen." The first part's a little murkier.

References:
* Israel apologizes to The Beatles [YNet]
* Do They Just Get To Make Things Up Now? [MR]

Previously:
* Fire And Brimstone Watch: Yoko Ono Still Refusing To Apologize For Breaking Up the Beatles
* Confirmed: Israeli Women Love Sex [Video, Mildly NSFW]
* Israeli Hottie Alexandra Loxsin Is Sad Because MR Is Getting Killed In The JIBs

Perfect:

Israel will not tolerate the continued threat to its security posed by Hamas militants' breach of the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt, officials in Jerusalem told Haaretz on Sunday. "Israel will not allow the continuation of the current state where its security interests are being compromised," the officials said, days after the Hamas regime blew up the barrier along the Strip's border with Egypt. The officials added that Prime Minster Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas see eye to eye on what they perceive as the need to refrain from negotiations with Hamas.Following the border breach, Israeli defense officials have expressed concerns that militants from the Gaza Strip may attack towns along Israel's long border with Sinai. Meanwhile, Olmert told Abbas during their meeting Sunday that Israel would not let a humanitarian crisis develop in Gaza.

The rest of the article goes on to detail how Olmert and Abbas are hoping that the Egyptians will step in, meet their treaty obligations, and enforce security along the border. No really, that's exactly what's going to happen.

References:
* Officials: Israel won't let Gaza border breach threaten security [Ha'aretz]
* Camp David, Other Agreements With Egypt Working Out Great - Cairo "Working Against Israel For Years" [MR]

Previously:
* Egypt To Build Multiple Nuclear Reactors
* Egypt Opens Border Crossing, Allows Hamas To Smuggle In Money
* Turns Out, Egypt Not Pro Israeli Security

Obama is getting aggravated with the Jewish community:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Monday that there is a "constant virulent campaign" being waged against him as he strives to win the party's nomination, aimed particularly at weakening support for him from within the Jewish community. Obama told Haaretz and writers from several Jewish-American newspapers that the campaign against him - calling him Muslim and accusing him of not pledging allegiance to the United States - is especially visible in the Jewish community. The presidential hopeful said he would ordinarily ignore such comments, but he fears that they have been "getting some traction" and are being tuned into by public ears. Thus he said, he has asked the Jewish newspapers and Ha'aretz to use their "megaphone" so people can hear "from the horse's mouth" that all such accusations against him are unfounded.

At first blush this looks like the standard insufferable line that Jewish Democrats often take: "don't point out when Democrats are anti-Israel because that will upset them and make them anti-Israel". So you get the insipid, petulant whiners at the NJDC insisting that "true pro-Israel advocates celebrate bi-partisan support" and "there are some in the Republican Party and conservative movement who are working hard to smash this political consensus". Denial plus ideology is apparently a powerful combination. This was while elected Democrats were strutting around condescendingly and imperiously ordering the Israeli government to "get its act together" because they were "getting tired" of having to listen to complaints about how they're anti-Israel.

Pro-Israel activists aren't allowed top point out that democrats are anti-Israel because that will make Democrats anti-Israel. Brilliant.

So no talking about how the votes of sitting Democratic Congresspeople have been objectively anti-Israel - because that will make Democrats cast anti-Israel votes. And no pointing out how even left-wing Ha'aretz political analysts admit that the Democratic Presidential field is anti-Israel - because that will make the Democratic Presidential candidates anti-Israel. And yet - and yet - Obama's frustration seems to be not entirely without foundation.

Remember that time when the State Department placed inordinate pressure on Israel to hand over security at the Gaza-Egypt crossing to the EU? And then - once Israel made that de facto irreversible concession and withdrew from the border - the EU backed out of that agreement? Wouldn't it be totally weird if the State Department now completed their standard anti-Israel bait and switch and reacted to Hamas's temper tantrum by demanding that the Palestinians control the border? Totally weird:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday the United States wants a return to order along the border between Egypt and Hamas-held Gaza, and said the Palestinian Authority should have a role in policing the border. "We understand the complexity of that situation and want very much to see a resolution that would return order to that border," Rice said at the State Department.

With due respect to the Secretary, if there's one thing they have absolutely zero understanding of is the Israeli-Palestinian situation. But on the plus side, great news: the EU is thinking about maybe considering returning to their monitoring posts. So there's a very tiny possibility that the situation will revert to a near-total anti-Israel screwjob, rather than its current status as a mindbogglingly-surreal anti-Israel screwjob.

References:
* One Jerusalem Conference Call: Ambassador Dore Gold On How Current Limited Negotiations Are A Slippery Slope To Losing Jerusalem [MR]
* EU Again Backs Out of Monitoring Agreement, Endangers Israeli Security [MR]
* Annapolis As A Rosetta Stone For How Anti-Israel Bait And Switch Diplomacy Works [MR]
* Rice: PA should have Gaza border security role [JPost]
* 'EU considering returning its inspectors to Rafah crossing' [MR]

Previously:
* State Department Kills Congressional Instructions, Figures Out Way To Fund Hamas [Video]
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

Perennial MR crush Sivan and that guy who's Israel's biggest hip hop star are Zionists who missed the memo that they're supposed to be insane and racist. Maybe they just don't consume enough international media or hang out in enough college seminar rooms:

The actual music video for this song is here. You don't have to agree with their left of center ideologies - they're artists so they're allowed to emote now and again - but it seems churlish to deny that social and moral concerns saturate Israelis' cultural and political lives. Also: Sivan.

References:
* Subliminal & Sivan Behnam - Perfect Place - Live [davy1031 / YouTube]
* Subliminal Video Features Sivan Being Hot, Hopes For Peace And Social Justice [Subtitled Video] [MR]

Previously:
* Shabbat Beauty - Zionist Hip Hop In Remembrance Of Yaakov Paz. A Momentary Song" [Video]
* Zionist Hip Hop - Shai 360 During Taglight 2007 [Video]
* Mere Rhetoric: New Israeli Hip Hop - Subliminal's New Single Is Not To Be Missed [Video]

After years of quietly violating agreements with Israel when it comes to border cooperation and security, the Egyptians are tired of being subtle:

Men in black clothing, some of them masked, stood atop the bulldozer as it knocked down a concrete slab under the watchful eyes of Egyptian forces on the other side who shot in the air in an attempt to hinder the flow of Gazans into Egypt. Thousands of Palestinians, many of them carrying empty fuel canisters, managed to push through several openings despite the presence of the Egyptians deployed nine rows deep in some places. At one point, guards aimed a water cannon above the heads of people, not at them, to keep them back... The border was breached Wednesday, when Palestinians blew down large sections of the border wall. Since then, Egypt has allowed tens of thousands of Palestinians to go back and forth, but has rejected any suggestion of assuming responsibility for the crowded, impoverished territory. In an interview published Friday, President Hosni Mubarak called the situation in Gaza "unacceptable" and called on Israel to "lift its siege" and "solve the problem."

Egypt will allow Gazans to bring as much ammunition and explosives as they want into Gaza - but they won't accept responsibility for what the Palestinians do with them. That seems reasonable.

And the State Department's nearly unprecedented pressure on Israel to fully withdraw from the Gaza-Egyptian border and hand over security control to the Egyptians and the Europeans? Working out totally awesome. But at least the EU was doing a really good job before they predictably bailed out. Or: at least you can't get frustrated becase all of this was totally unpredictable when the State Department was shoving the deal down Israel's throat.

UPDATE: We keep forgetting to link to this Jihad Watch post, which opens with an interesting question and emphasizes that Hamas has been working on destroying the Egyptian border wall for moths.

References:
* Camp David, Other Agreements With Egypt Working Out Great - Cairo "Working Against Israel For Years" [MR]
* Hamas bulldozer wrecks another section of Rafah fence [JPost]
* One Jerusalem Conference Call: Ambassador Dore Gold On How Current Limited Negotiations Are A Slippery Slope To Losing Jerusalem [MR]
* EU Lies, Allows Hamas Terrorists to Stream Into Gaza [MR]
* EU Again Backs Out of Monitoring Agreement, Endangers Israeli Security [MR]
* State Department: When We Say "Two Secure States", That's More a Motto than a Commitment [MR]

Previously:
* Persecution Of Baha'is In Egypt and Iran Fails To Gain International Attention [Video]
* Turns Out, Egypt Not Pro Israeli Security
* Egypt To Pursue Nuclear Program

Remember how yesterday Iranian reform was around the corner because Khamenei was publicly slapping Ahmadinejad around? Yeah, no:

When voters go to the polls on March 14 to select members of Parliament, they may be able to choose only between conservative candidates and other conservative candidates, leaders of Iran’s main reform party said Wednesday. With more than 7,200 candidates registered to run for 290 seats in Parliament, officials with the party, the Islamic Participation Front, said it appeared that 70 percent of reformist candidates had been disqualified. The decisions are not final and will not be completed until early March, but the early indications are that the religiously conservative forces in control of every branch of government will try to block a comeback by the reformists close to Mohammad Khatami, the former president. “Such a large number of disqualifications is unprecedented,” said a statement by the reformist party posted on the Emruz Web site.

The truth of this debate is that there is kind of a political battle in Iran. But it's a battle between clerics who want to destroy America by bringing about the end of the world and clerics who want to destroy America by seeing if proxy terrorism and demographic suffocation can do the job (although both sides are most definitely agreed that Israel needs to get nuked ASAP). Sometimes Ahmadinejad and his apocalyptic friends win and sometimes - like yesterday - the so-called conservative pragmatists win.

So the condescending Democratic sophisticates who insist that Iran should be engaged because moderates are winning - they're either idiots or dwell in a sunny and magical fantasy world. But even the foreign policy intellectuals - who have moved the goalposts from their 1990s faith in moderates to their 2000s gamble on conservative pragmatists - are wrong:

Hey, remember how Reuters parroted Fatah propaganda about how they were meeting their Roadmap obligations because they had totally dismantled the Al Aksa Brigades? Liars:

A Border Guard police officer was killed and three people were injured Thursday evening in two simultaneous terror attacks which took place in the Jerusalem area. Two Border Guard officers were shot at the northern entrance to the refugee camp of Shoafat, north of Jerusalem. Twenty-year-old Lance Corporal Rami Zuhari of Beersheva was critically injured, and later died of his wounds despite paramedics' attempts to resuscitate him. Another female officer sustained moderate to serious wounds and was evacuated to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in the capital... Fatah's military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack and said that the cell members behind it had the officer's weapon. A Fatah spokesman told Ynet that the organizations "Black September" activists carried out the attack.

They're promising more attacks, although they're insisting that those attacks aren't meant to derail peace negotiations. Which isn't really that outlandish: if the rest of the world expects Israel to negotiate with and supply energy to terrorists as those terrorists are launching attacks, why shouldn't Fatah?

Incidentally, now seems like exactly the right time to give the Palestinians a state. And they should definitely have a lot of access to Jerusalem, with soverignty in some areas and no Israeli roadblocks in any of the rest. And if the Israelis have any security concerns, the State Department and EU should certainly be able to keep the peace.

References:
* Fatah Security Chief: "There Is No Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Any More" Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades: "Yes There Is" [MR]
* Police officer killed, 3 injured in terror attacks in J'lem area [YNet]
* Fatah: More attacks to come [YNet]
* One Jerusalem Conference Call: Ambassador Dore Gold On How Current Limited Negotiations Are A Slippery Slope To Losing Jerusalem [MR]

Previously:
* Love, Palestinian Style, Apparently Involves Terrorism
* Israel Captures Terrorist Who Was Leading Abbas's Anti-Terrorism Forces
* UNRWA Pours Millions Into Terrorism, Blames Israel (Plus: UNRWA Complains That Israel Is Blocking UNRWA Funding. Hmm)

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

Prisoner releases are a popular low-cost way for the State Department and the EU to pressure Israel: such "goodwill gestures" don't cost money, and what's the worst that can happen?

The two armed Palestinians who infiltrated a yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Kfar Etzion on Thursday night, wounding three civilians, were recently released from an Israeli prison after serving time for criminal violations, Palestinian and Israeli security officials said Friday. The two terrorists Palestinians, later identified as Mohammad and Mahmoud Samarna, relatives from a West Bank village near Hebron, were freed several days ago. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. Defense officials are still examining how the two managed to infiltrate the guarded Kfar Etzion yeshiva. In a separate incident that occurred around the same time, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the Border Police officers stationed at the Ras Hamis checkpoint near the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, killing a Border Police officer and wounding another. In the Kfar Etzion incident, the two assailants, armed with knives and a pistol, entered the library of the Mekor Haim yeshiva near Jerusalem and attacked students and counselors. One of the counselors, Rafael Singer, grabbed the pistol from the terrorist and shot the intruders, killing them both.

Maybe releasing the most hardline Palestinians to organize and incite against Israel isn't the best way to reduce tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It's at least a theory worth considering.

The AFP headline on this, by the way, is "Two Palestinians Die In W Bank Settlement Attack". Because that's the salient detail that needs to be emphasized.

UPDATE: The gun that was grabbed from the terrorist was not the one used to make them dead.

References:
* Terrorists in yeshiva attack were recently released criminals [Ha'aretz]
* Officials:2 Palestinians Die In W Bank Settlement Attack -AFP [AFP]

Previously:
* Palestinians Going Global With Program To Demonize Israel For Deliberate, Hamas-Engineered Gaza Humanitarian Crisis (Updated: WaPo Hops On Board)
* AP's Ibrahim Barzak Publishes Least Subtle anti-Israel bias Yet
* European Media Bias - Really?

Spectacular:

The Iowa Legislature started just over a week ago and some people were upset before the first issue was every addressed. When the session began, a Muslim Imam began the prayer in the Iowa Legislature. This is where the controversy begins. The prayer asked of "Victory over those who disbelieve," and "Protection from the great Satan" among other things. Pastor Steve Smith of the Evangelical Free Church in Albert City is among those concerned about the Muslim prayer. Rev. Smith admits that he doesn't know about all the levels of Muslim but knows that the Jihadists believe those in the U.S. are the great Satan. Rev. Smith also wants to point out the mention of "victory over those who disbelieve." He feels "this is a request in the Iowa Legislature for God to grant the Muslims victory over every non-Muslim. Not a request for salvation." Smith takes it as a gesture not of prayer but more as a political statement, especially with the wars that have been going on in the Middle East.

If pushed to defend himself, would the imam: (a) accuse the questioners of Islamophobia (b) take the moral equivalence route and say that rabbis and priests also pray for people to have faith (c) find a sophisticated explanation where "protection" means "vegetables" and "the great Satan" means "supermarket" or (d) all of the above?

References:
* Muslim opening prayer at Iowa Statehouse raises concerns [ZWire]

Previously:
* If Britain Won't Stop Radical Islam, Why Should Radical Islam Stop Being Radical?
* MR Cracks the Code: Juan Cole Is Not "Wrong" - He's Just "Deploying the Technique of the Hermeneutical Circle"
* Islamic World Explodes Into Riots As Fatah Targets Hamas Mosques, Imams

And that's that. Now we know how Democrats feel when their guy loses. You want to blame the apathy of the media, the stupidity of voters, the fickleness of your base - everyone and everything except the candidate or the message. And you know what?

It feels good.

We officially hate everybody. But especially you people. Sigh.

UPDATE: Hot Air has a roundup of reactions. With complete justification, AP has gone ahead and busted out the anti-humpbot.

References:
* Day of Mourning [IMAO]
* Obligatory MR Iowa Reaction [MR]

Previously:
* Fred Thompson For President... Now
* Fred Thompson For President
* Fred And Jeri Thompson Rock Fox News (Plus: Romey Is Either Really Popular Or Really Unpopular) [Video]

Just kidding, obviously. Every country on the planet is allowed to open fire on a mob rushing at its border:

About 60 people were hurt, including one woman who was hit by gunfire, as Egyptian border guards fired in the air and used clubs and water cannons to drive back hundreds of Palestinian women who surged across the border from Gaza Tuesday. The protesting Palestinians were demanding that Egypt back their demands for the border to be opened for shipments of food and essential provisions, in short supply due to Israel's closure of its borders with the Strip.

Well, every country on the planet except Israel. Just imagine the propaganda that Reuters and AP stringers would produce after Israeli troops dealt similarly with similar mobs of Palestinian women. Actually, you don't have to imagine.

References:
* 60 wounded by Egyptians near Gaza [JPost]
* Beit Hanoun Meme Watch - (Interlude) Convergence of Bias - With This Simple Formula, You Too Can Produce Solid Anti-Israel Journalism [MR]

Previously:
* Palestinians Going Global With Program To Demonize Israel For Deliberate, Hamas-Engineered Gaza Humanitarian Crisis (Updated: WaPo Hops On Board)
* AP's Ibrahim Barzak Publishes Least Subtle anti-Israel bias Yet
* European Media Bias - Really?

by Omri Ceren

Qassams have a 10km range and can pack up to 20kg of explosives and shrapnel. The time between the red alert siren and the rocket's impact is about 15 seconds. So the Palestinians routinely launch rockets at Sderot at around 7:45am to target kids who are walking to school and are too far from buildings to get to a shelter. Now that power is back on in Gaza, Palestinian soldiers are right back at it:

Two barrages were fired shortly before 8 am, as Sderot's children were making their way to school. Nine Qassam rockets and 13 mortar shells were fired at the western Negev communities on Monday afternoon. Three of the mortars landed in the Palestinian territories.

Surreal. No country on the planet would tolerate that for a day, let alone for the months upon months of that Israelis have been subjected to.

References:
* Missile fire from Gaza on Israeli civilian targets [Israel MFA]
* Palestinians open fire at farmers in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha [YNet]

Previously:
* Giving Gazans Food And Fuel Makes Them Launch Rockets And Mortars At Israel [MR]
* Sderot Media Center Documenting Horror Of Palestinian Rocket Attacks On Israeli Schools And Hospitals (Plus: Dozens Of Children Treated After Qassam Hits Near Daycare)
* Hamas Fires Five More Rockets At Israeli Schools And Hospitals, Shoots Up Israelis In The West Bank, Then Cries Pathetically About Limited Israeli Retaliation (Plus: Olmert: Of Course We Won't Punish Gaza)

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

Which is weird, because we would have thought that between Hamas's not accepting fuel shipments last month and stealing fuel from hospitals and shutting down generators even though there's still enough fuel - well, you would have thought that some of that would have made it into a statement about the fuel situation in Gaza. But apparently not so much:

According to a draft of the statement obtained by Haaretz, the Security Council will express "its deep concern about the deterioration of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory... The Security Council also expresses concern in particular about the steep deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, due to the continued closure of all of the Gaza Strip border crossings and the recent decision by the Israeli government to reduce fuel supplies, to cut off electric power, and to prevent the delivery of food and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip," the draft says. "The Security Council calls upon Israel to abide by its obligations under international law including humanitarian and human rights law and immediately cease all its illegal measures and practices against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip," continued the draft statement.

And even though the rest of the statement is about the food situation, the way that Hamas is shutting down bakeries that still have supplies is also missing. Wonder how that slipped through:

Reliable local sources in the Gaza Strip said that the illegal Hamas militia's supreme political leadership ordered bakery owners in the towns and camps sector prevent the sale of bread for citizens and closing doors, in a continuation in its scheme aimed to deepen the humanitarian crisis it is going through the Gaza Strip in order to achieve narrow partisan gains.

Also missing: any mention of the hundreds of Qassam rockets that Israel has had to roll with in the last few months. Maybe the UNSC was just having a really busy morning and got distracted midway through by something shiny.

References:
* U.S. pressure thwarts UN censure of Gaza blockade [Ha'aretz]
* Reports that Hamas closes Gaza bakeries [Elder of Ziyon]
* Palestinians Intentionally Creating Humanitarian Crises In Gaza By Refusing To Accept Israeli Fuel [MR]
* Hamas Intentionally Creating Humanitarian Crises In Gaza By Stealing Fuel From Hospitals For Their "Operations" Against Israel [MR]
* Palestinians Shut Down Generator To Create Gaza Humanitarian Crisis, UN Blames Israel [MR]

Previously:
* Palestinians Reject Israeli Humanitarian Efforts - Easier to Demonize Israel That Way
* Hamas Trying To Turn Gaza Into A Humanitarian Disaster - They're Stopping Gazans From Getting Medical Aid
* Hamas Intentionally Creating Humanitarian Disaster In Gaza - Now They're Shutting Down The Few Medical Clinics That Are Still Working

These people have more fun in 2 minutes than we have in a week:

And now you know. What? Too soon?

References:
* Dance Party Friday - Everybody Dance Now [Local12News / YouTube]

Previously:
* Friday Funny - Shopping In Israel [Video]
* Tuesday Stupid - Five Second Dramatic Chipmunk [Video]
* The Insanely Stupid Hebrew Aleph-Bet Song That Some People Apparently Want You To Know About [Video]

Just so we have something to link to the next time an "Israelis hate Israel" story gets pushed by a major media outlet - we have to go through this every once in a while because of nonsense like this - here's the latest poll measuring Israeli patriotism:

The number of Israelis expressing a willingness to fight for their country has held steady over the past two years at 92 percent, according to the Expressions of Patriotism Index presented at the Herzliya Conference this week. Similarly, the number of Israelis defining themselves as Israeli patriots held steady at about two-thirds at the start of 2008, compared to figures during the past few years... religious identification seems to be on the rise, indicated by a higher level of pride among Jewish Israelis in their Jewish identity than their Israeli identity. The national symbol that holds the most resonance for the broadest spectrum of Israelis is the siren on Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers, the study found.

In fairness, other parts of the study indicated a 10% decline in the number of young kids who want to hang around in the country. Since that's not because of an outright decline in patriotism or from anything religious, it could be that this is the beginning of the the mass migration that's expected to happen if Iran gets the bomb - it's psychologically impossible to live under the daily threat of another Holocaust. After the jump, what Israel is doing to convince citizens that that's less of a concern.

Because if you're a Sudanese student and you're protesting in front of the UN, obviously your biggest concerns are the Great Satan and the Jews. Because what else could you possibly have to worry about:

Several hundred Sudanese demonstrated Tuesday in front of a UN building here to show their solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and demand the United Nations intervene in the crisis. The protesters, many of whom were students, shouted slogans including "No for the killing of Palestinians. No for the killing of civilians."... Student demonstrators affiliated with the Khartoum State Students Union, which is controlled by pro-Islamist groups, dressed in their school uniforms and shouted "Down, down USA" and "Allahu akbar," which means "God is great" in Arabic. "We have taken part in this demonstration to express our discontent with the way the world community is standing by while Palestinian civilians are being massacred, humiliated and killed by the Zionists" Fatahi Khalil, who heads the pro-government Organization for the Support of the People, told The Associated Press.

And the AP was there to record it all and put out a press release? Isn't that just the darnedest coincidence as well? Oh well - at least they're not protesting about teddy bears.

References:
* Sudanese demonstrate in front of UN building in solidarity with Gaza [JPost]
* Sudan Preventing Reporters From Conveying True Extent Of Teddy Bear Riots [MR]

Previously:
* International Law: Protecting Those Who Violate It Since 1950
* AP Bias Alert Level: Obvious (Grandma Suicide Bomber Edition)
* Toronto Sun - Previously Unexplored Stupidity As A Justification For Anti-Papal Riots

Maybe "makes them" is a little strong. But there's certainly something in the way of an intriguing correlation:

Barak consented to ease the near-complete closure imposed on the Hamas-controlled territory, authorizing the entry of humanitarian aid and a one-time shipment of diesel fuel to power Gaza's electricity station less than a day after it was shut down. Shortly after Barak's pronouncements the relative respite in rocket attacks on southern Israel seemed over, with nine Qassam rockets and 13 mortar shells landing in and around communities in the western Negev.

On the day before the lockdown - which involved a less than staggering 30 percent energy cut and no fresh fruits or vegetables - the Palestinians launched forty rockets at Israeli schools and hospitals. Immediately after the lockdown, the number of Qassams