Wretched Muslim Child Abuse

The World According to Garp was an award winning movie that I had to walk out of in the middle. Remember the scene with the car accident and one of Garps kids died? That was my breaking point. It just sickens to see bad things happen to kids even if its just a movie. In Muslim countries child abuse in the name of religion is happening every day. We have seen the babies dressed up like homicide bombers or the monstrous Hamas Mickey Mouse teached death. This past week Pamela at Atlas Shrug has been posting about the horrors of forced female circumcision in the Muslim word that are sickening. Islam Attacks Women: to Clit or Not to Clit? I just don't understand how a parent can allow that to happen to a child.

Today MEMRI covers a Kindergarten graduation ceremony shown on Hamas TV. These five year old kids are marching around a classroom going through military drills and shouting that they want to die for Allah. Lets drop the political correctness. This is child abuse. Any Imam or religious leader of any kind that would allow this to happen to a child less than human and there should be a death penalty for parents who allow their children to be subjected to this abuse.
Palestinian Kindergarten Graduates Vow to Die for Allah
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
June 01, 2007

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - A televised graduation ceremony at a Palestinian kindergarten in Gaza shows little boys dressed in black masks, camouflage fatigues, carrying toy guns, and waving green Hamas flags.

The children vow that their most "lofty aspiration" is death for the sake of Allah.

The ceremony aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa Television on Thursday. The kindergarten is run by the Islamic Association in Gaza, which is the group that gave rise to Hamas.

In part of the video, girls in white dresses, some wearing butterfly wings, are shown dancing.

Then the boys, dressed like Palestinian militants, march in formation before dropping to flat to the floor to crawl on their stomachs like fighters do.

The boys shout, "Allah Akbar" (Allah is great).

"Who is your role model?" the boys are asked. "The Prophet," they respond.

"What is your path?"

"Jihad," they shout.

"What is your most lofty aspiration?"

"Death for the sake of Allah."

The video clip and translation were provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute on Friday. (See MEMRI video)

Hamas is well known throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a charitable organization, providing schools, kindergartens, medical clinics and other social services to Palestinians. But experts say the group also works to instill a message of hatred and "jihad" in future generations.

Hamas openly calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and wants to establish an Islamic Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and all of Israel.

Hamas came to power following an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections last year. Some experts say that Palestinians voted for the radical group to protest the corruption in the Fatah party of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas television recently aired a children's program using a Mickey Mouse look-alike to promote an Islamic takeover of the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen I Give You The Putz of the Day

The poster of this comment didn't want to leave his name but wanted ya'll to read the comment. Which I post below along with his IP Information. The sad part is I am in Nashville all the time and people are usually so nice...except for this guy who has nothing better to do with his time to search the web looking for articles on circumcision.... Hey bud get a life, you live in Nashville for heaven's sake go to the Ryman and see a concert or something.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wretched Muslim Child Abuse":

Better remove the logs from your own eyes before fishing out the specks in others' eyes. In light of a recent scientific study that shows the foreskin is the most sensitive part of the penis, Male circumcision performed by Jewish, Muslims, and American Christians is child abuse. And haven't you heard about the Jesus camps in USA raising a generation of our own militant

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Gutless British Government-Typical UN

If you don't remember Louise Arbour she is the obviously VERY High UN Commissioner who spent This past Thanksgiving she went to the Mid East to prove that she a racist anti-Semite. During her trip she announce that terrorist missiles are OK as long as they land on military targets. She refused to meet with and comfort the families of Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hamas and Hezbollah when they asked for a meeting.

Arbour must have been on vacation or something this week, after all it has taken her a few days to start spewing her typical Anti-Israel venom about the British boycotts.

U.N. Official Says Debate Over Israel Boycott ‘A Good Thing'
BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Human Rights commissioner, Louise Arbour, supports "public debate" on a drive by an increasing number of British organizations that have singled Israel out for boycott because of alleged wrongdoings by the Jewish state.The largest British labor union, the 1.6 million-member UNISON, has threatened to launch a drive to boycott Israel, according to press reports yesterday, which were based on sources within the Israeli workers' union, Histadrut. None of the unions has called for similar boycotts against Sudan, Burma, Russia, China, or other human-rights violators....

.....Like the British unions, the one-year-old U.N. Human Rights Council has failed to denounce human-rights violations anywhere in the world except Israel. Ms. Arbour, nevertheless, said yesterday the council, which last year replaced the discredited Human Rights Commission, was "not a failure."

And in its usual gutless fashion the British government refuses to take a real stand:

British officials have denounced the boycott drives but said the government planned no action to avert them. "I can appreciate your frustration," Britain's ambassador to Israel, Tom Phillips, told Ha'aretz. "But I do not believe" these boycotts "will have any implications on bilateral relations," he said.

Well Tommy boy the boycotts shouldn't unless you continue your Government continues its spineless inaction. Maybe Israel should follow the tongue-in-cheek suggestions of Steve Plaut below:

Support the Boycott! End the Occupation!

by Prof. Steven Plaut
A Call for Action Against Occupation

We, Israeli professors for justice and peace, do hereby appeal to researchers, academics, scholars and teachers, in Israel and throughout the world, to take a firm and clear stand against continuing occupation and denial of rights.

We are, of course, referring to the continuing British occupation of territories in which Britain clearly has no right to be. We demand that all British universities be boycotted, and all academics at those universities be boycotted, until these same people and institutions come out clearly and openly in favor of immediate unconditional removal of all British occupation from these territories. We demand a moratorium on all funding of academic research in Britain by sources for funding everywhere, and divestment from Britain in all its forms.

Unlike Israel's "occupation" of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (the latter of which is not occupied any longer in any way), which has lasted a mere 40 years, Britain's occupations of territories has lasted centuries. Take, for example, the clearly illegal British occupation of Gibraltar. There, Britain maintains an illegal settlement in open defiance of all internationally accepted standards of legitimacy and concepts of national rights. Moreover, BritainGibraltar. This "apartheid fence" is a human rights atrocity and must be torn down at once. And until it is, the entire world should divest from Britain and boycott British universities. has placed there an illegal security fence that prevents non-British nationals from entering

Then there are those clearly illegal British settlements constructed on occupied Argentinian territory in the Falkland Islands. What clearer example is there of the continuing colonial aggression of white European imperialism against the Third World?

But Britain's illegal settlements have also been constructed elsewhere. Britain continues to maintain settlements on the Channel Islands that obviously belong to France. While it is true that Britain earlier ended its occupations of Hong Kong and India, that is no excuse for its settlements elsewhere. After all, Israel ended its occupation of Sinai, but that has not stopped the British University and College Union, representing more than 120,000 college-level educators, from voting on May 30 to pass a resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli academics and universities, as well as a moratorium on European Union funding of Israeli research.

And what about Britain's occupation forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. True, Afghanistan and Iraq were terrorist enclaves, but since when does that serve as legitimization of dispatch of occupation forces? British professors clearly do not think that Israel has any right to use force against terrorists attacking its population, so why should British forces do so?

Of course, the very worst cases of illegal British occupation of the territories of The Other are in Wales, ScotlandIreland. These are occupations imposed upon those oppressed populations by force of arms. And in Ireland, the occupation produced genocidal levels of mortality. These occupations have lasted for centuries. and

The moral indifference by British academics to these continued barbarous occupations and to the denial of self-determination for Scots, Welsh and the Northern Irish is clearly as unforgivable as the failure of some academics in apartheid South Africa to speak out against abuses there. Moreover, Britain itself is a racist apartheid society. Not only the Welsh, but Muslims, Blacks, and Asians suffer from discrimination and disadvantage inside Britain. Their wages are lower than those of White Englishmen and they face discrimination in housing. British universities have failed to redress these inequalities.

If divestment from South Africa was justified, then how much more so must it be in this case. In fact, 27 British professors have endorsed our calls for imposing an international boycott of their own universities. These courageous, heroic souls must be supported.

We have sat in silence for much too long. The time has come. Please join us in calling for an open-ended boycott of British academics and universities until all these cases of occupation are ended.

Israeli Professors for Justice and Peace

Steven Plaut, Chairperson

Security Minister Avi Dichter is Optimistic about Peace--WHY?

Granted Israel's Minister of Internal Security Avi Dichter is a member of Kadima but he has a strong record of being his own guy and of protecting Israel. During his military service, he served in Sayeret Matkal, and refused the offer of his unit commander, Ehud Barak, to participate in an Officer Course (a position entailing less direct combat situations). He received the Israeli equivalent of a Medal of Honor for his role in rescuing a team from behind enemy line.

Thats why I am kind of confused regarding why he is so optimistic about the prospects for peace. The case he sets is quite clear:

* During the last 7-10 years we have had to deal with a new player in the Middle East, Iran - the biggest terror state in the world today. Khaled Mashaal, the external leader of Hamas, started to increase the level of coordination and cooperation with Iran in 2001 and today he is a frequent flyer from Damascus to Tehran. Mashaal is trying to implement the Iranian strategy toward Israel in Gaza, in the same way as Hassan Nasrallah is implementing the Iranian strategy in Lebanon.

* It is well understood by Mahmoud Abbas that if the West Bank is going to continue to serve as a base for terror attacks against Israel, Israel is not going to ease the pressure. Israel is not going to bleed for Abbas. We are not going to count our fatalities and say we are waiting until Abbas builds up his own security forces.

* In 2005 Israel disengaged totally from the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless, the Palestinians launched 1,400 rockets at Israel. What did they achieve with those rockets? Tough pressure by the Quartet countries and many other countries, a rejection by the United Nations, and tough responses by the State of Israel whenever we felt it was necessary.

* I have been meeting and talking with Palestinians for 31 years. As I see it, the probability of setting up a peaceful situation between Israel and the PA is much stronger than the probability that we are going to get into another round of violence with the PA.

* The Palestinians know they have no chance to build themselves as a nation without a peace agreement with Israel. However, one barrier to an agreement is the way that Hamas has been influenced by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard for the past six years. The external leadership of Hamas in Damascus is much more extremist than the leadership in Gaza.

* I am optimistic because I believe that the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have some common interests with the State of Israel. Our partners on the Palestinian side know very well our limits and our red lines. They know that Israel is ready to go a long way towards them but not the whole way.

But I just don't buy it. After you read his report below--please let me know what you think?

Components of Domestic Security in the Age of Global Jihadism
Minister of Internal Security Avi Dichter

Israel Faces Iran in the North
During the last fifty years, when Israel looked at the Middle East, it looked at its closest neighbors - Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. However, during the last 7-10 years we have had to deal with a new player in the Middle East, Iran - the biggest terror state in the world today. However, Iran is not an Arab country and the threat to the Arab world that Iran creates as it tries to develop nuclear capabilities is understood especially in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf countries, Jordan, and Egypt.

Israel is facing a new situation with an Iran that is activating two arms against Israel: a northern arm and a southern arm. The northern arm began building at the end of the 1980s with the rise of Hizbullah, which used to be a terror organization, but today is more aptly described as an army of terrorists. Hizbullah has all the capabilities and infrastructure of an army. Iranian Revolutionary Guard trainers are operating in Lebanon and Hizbullah terrorists go to Iran for training. Thus, Israel faced state-of-the-art Iranian capabilities during the Second Lebanon War last summer.

While Hizbullah is an army, they are still terrorists because they still use the main systems that terrorists use: fighting from within villages; surrounding themselves with civilians as human shields in order to prevent Israelis from responding to their attacks; and using kidnapping as a tool of warfare.

Iran is trying to create a direct threat towards Israel through its battalion in Lebanon called Hizbullah. Hizbullah controls South Lebanon, parts of the Beqaa Valley, and some neighborhoods in Beirut itself.

Despite the number of international troops in Lebanon, many of the points in UN Security Council Resolution 1701 are still far from being implemented. But I believe the level of deterrence that Israel has created with Hizbullah is probably the main positive gain from the war in Lebanon. In the wake of the war, the most important evidence that something has changed regarding deterrence was when Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said at the end of the war: "If I knew what the Israeli response to the kidnapping of the two soldiers was going to be, I wouldn't have given the order to kidnap them."

The Threat to Israel from the West Bank

Iranian activities against Israel were also supposed to be based in both Gaza and the West Bank, but since the horrible terror attack on Passover night in March 2002, Israel changed its strategy against the terrorists in the West Bank. During all these years of violence, the West Bank has been the source of the greatest number of losses and injuries to Israeli civilians. However, since Operation Defensive Shield was launched in April 2002 against terrorists in the West Bank, the situation has changed dramatically there.

When Yasser Arafat was chairman of the PA and Mahmoud Abbas was number two, during the first three years of the intifada Israel suffered 900 fatalities, almost all of them civilians. Proportionally, in American terms, this is close to 50,000 fatalities. We thought that things were going to work with the PA under Arafat, and we were mistaken. Since we decided to change the situation with Operation Defensive Shield, we have cut our losses dramatically. However, since the disengagement in August 2005, 85 percent of Israeli casualties have been due to terror attacks launched from the West Bank.

Israel Faces Iran in the South

Khaled Mashaal, the external leader of Hamas, started to increase the level of coordination and cooperation with Iran in 2001 and today he is a frequent flyer from Damascus to Tehran. Iran initially tried to have this coordination operate indirectly through Hizbullah, but Hamas insisted on having its own direct channel to the Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran.

Ismail Haniyeh is not the leader of Hamas. He is the prime minister, elected due to the fact that he was the right-hand man of Sheikh Yassin. Khaled Mashaal is the leader of Hamas. He is the one who gives the orders and sends the money. He is trying to implement the Iranian strategy toward Israel in Gaza, in the same way as Hassan Nasrallah is implementing the Iranian strategy in Lebanon.

Since the disengagement, terrorists from Hamas now have the opportunity to cross from Gaza into Egypt and then fly to Tehran for training. In parallel, there has been a flow of weapons smuggled from Sinai into Gaza: anti-tank rockets, anti-aircraft rockets, a lot of ammunition, and ten tons of explosives. Hamas is emulating what Hizbullah built in Lebanon.

The Palestinians and Israel

Who is going to win? The PA led by Abbas and Fatah, or Iran and Hamas, which are pressing to create a new situation in Gaza and the West Bank, and especially to try to change the PA into an authority led by Hamas leaders instead of Abbas? In the West Bank, Israel has succeeded in creating a new situation which probably assists Fatah because many Hamas terrorists in the West Bank have been rooted out and put in jail.

It is well understood by Abbas and his people that if the West Bank is going to continue to serve as a base for terror attacks against Israel, Israel is not going to ease the pressure. We are going to use additional pressure because Israel is not going to bleed for Abbas. We are not going to count our fatalities and say we are waiting until Abbas builds up his own security forces. That is not going to happen.

I have been meeting and talking with Palestinians for 31 years. I've spent more years in Gaza than in Tel Aviv. As I see it, the probability of setting up a peaceful situation between Israel and the PA is much stronger than the probability that we are going to get into another round of violence with the PA.

In September 1993, I was in charge of the southern division of the Shin Bet and I was told by my boss, the head of the Shin Bet, that an agreement was going to be signed between Israel and the Palestinians. I was the one who was in charge of catching all the fugitives in Gaza and I was suddenly told I had to create a different situation and start talking with the leaders of Fatah, Hamas, and all the others - just like that. We called them and they came to our headquarters, the same people that we ran after, the same people that killed and injured Israelis and gave orders to launch terror attacks just days before. And we made this switch in days.

The Palestinians know they have no chance to build themselves as a nation without a peace agreement with Israel. The majority of the Palestinian people are not as extremist as Hamas. However, one barrier to an agreement is the way that Hamas has been influenced by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard for the past six years. The external leadership of Hamas in Damascus is much more extremist than the leadership in Gaza. But even the Hamas extremists know very well that there is no way for them to live safe and sound in Gaza without a peace agreement with Israel.

In 2005 Israel disengaged totally from the Gaza Strip. We disengaged from the Philadelphi corridor, which enabled the PA to directly share a border with Egypt. Nevertheless, the Palestinians launched 1,400 rockets at Israel. What did they achieve with those rockets? Tough pressure by the Quartet countries and many other countries, a rejection by the United Nations, and tough responses by the State of Israel whenever we felt it was necessary.

That is why I am optimistic, because I believe that the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have some common interests with the State of Israel. Our partners on the Palestinian side know very well our limits and our red lines. They know that Israel is ready to go a long way towards them but not the whole way.

The key question is: Are we going to get tired first or are they? I can assure you that we are not going to get tired.

Dershowitz's Arab/Israeli Conflict for Dummy Professors

When it comes to defending the Jewish causes you cant say enough good things about Alan Dershowitz. He has been the stand-up guy leading the fight against Jew-haters such as Jimmy Carter and Norman Finkelstein. A true activist, he has debated, written books, articles etc. He travels to campus' across the US to lecture about Israel.

In the US, college campus' are indeed the front lines in the battle against prejudice. Professors at stalwart Universities such as Brandies, Columbia and DePaul have changed the game from academic debate to lets de-legitimize Israel by calling her names such as Nazi or apartheid. Once these professors receive criticism--well its not legitimate criticism, its pressure from the powerful Jewish lobby that controls foreign policy in the US.

On his Blog today, Professor Dershowitz explains the methodology of these pseudo-academics who are nothing but purveyors of hatred.

Double Standard Watch: Dumbing down the debate over the Arab-Israeli conflict
by Alan Dershowitz

The complex conflict between the Arab and Muslim world on the one hand, and Israel on the other, is first-page news around the world. It is also at the forefront of discussion on many university campuses around the globe.

I have visited many such campuses over the past several years and am distressed to report that the level of discourse has become increasingly dumber, shriller, and less nuanced.Name-calling has replaced serious academic discussion. This is particularly so among hard left Israel-bashers. Israeli policies certainly warrant just criticism, as do the policies of Israeli’s enemies.

I am not talking about such comparative and contextual criticism. I am talking about abusive words that contribute nothing of substance to the quest for peace. Indeed, by demonizing Israel and dehumanizing its supporters, this kind of hate speech encourages those who oppose a compromise peace and discourages those who seek it.

The favorite rhetorical reversal of the hard left is to call Israel and its supporters “Nazis.” Listen to Ali al-Mazrui, professor of humanities at the State University of New York – Binghamton, director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies, and former North American spokesman for the Islamic extremist group Al-Muhajiroun:

"Israeli neo-Nazism reversed the scale of genetic values favored by German Nazis. Both forms of extremism exaggerated the impact of the Jewish factor. The Nazis thought the Jewish impact was negative. The Israeli extremists erred the other way.’ ‘As for the trend towards militarization, Israel has indeed become the most efficient war machine since Nazi Germany.’

Norman G. Finkelstein, a Hizbullah-supporting ideologue up for tenure at Depaul University, has repeatedly analogized Jews to Nazis and said that he “can’t imagine why Israel’s apologists would be offended by comparison with the Gestapo.” When criticized for these and other comparisons, Finkelstein responded, "Nazis never like to hear they're being Nazis." Finkelstein finds support from Rutgers Professor Robert Trivers, a most recent winner of the Crafoord Prize, who published excerpts from a letter he sent to me in The Wall Street Journal:

Regarding your rationalization of Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians, let me just say that if there is a repeat of Israeli butchery toward Lebanon and if you decide once again to rationalize it publicly, look forward to a visit from me. Nazis -- and Nazi-like apologists such as yourself -- need to be confronted directly.

Hamid Dabashi of Columbia views supporters of Israel as "Gestapo apparatchiks."

Joseph Massad of Columbia has compared former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Professor Leighton Armitage, an adjunct lecturer in political science in the Business and Social Sciences Department of Foothill College in Northern California, uses the Nazi analogy frequently.

What are [the Israelis] doing with the Palestinians, every day? They’re killing them. They’re not taking their glasses and gold fillings, and everything else, as far as I know, but they are still slaughtering these people. It’s exactly what Hitler did to the Jews.

Closely related to the Nazi name-calling is the absurd claim that Israel’s actions in relation to Palestinian terrorists is a “Holocaust,” comparable to the systematic genocide of six million innocent Jews.

José Saramago, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, was quoted as saying, “We must ring all bells in the world to tell that what is happening in Palestine is a crime, and it is within our power stop to this… We can compare it to what happened in Auschwitz.”
Nicholas De Genova, a Columbia University assistant professor of anthropology has said that:

The heritage of the victims of the Holocaust belongs to the Palestinian people. The state of Israel has no legitimate claim to the heritage of the Holocaust. The heritage of the oppressed belongs to the oppressed--not the oppressor.

Another Columbia professor, Bruce Robbins, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, has said that “The Israeli government has no right to the sufferings of the Holocaust.”

Columbia Professor Hamid Dabashi likened Israel’s presence in Jenin to the Nazi conduct of the Holocaust after canceling classes to lead a protest against the Israeli incursion into the terrorist stronghold of Jenin.

Prof. Fawaz Gerges, ABC News Consultant and Sarah Lawrence College professor said on National Public Radio in a discussion about the Holocaust Denial conference in Iran, that

I really believe that both the Jews and the Palestinians, basically, are, have suffered from similar historical injustices.

The most recent entry into this parade of name-calling is Jimmy Carter, who insists on calling Israeli policies in the West Bank, “apartheid.” This sort of name-calling obscures the reality that the Palestinians could have had their own state if they accepted the Barak-Clinton offer at Camp David. To heighten the irony of the pot calling the kettle black, Jimmy Carter has praised Yasser Arafat for rejecting the offer of statehood, and almost certainly advised him to reject it at the time. (See Alan M. Dershowitz, A Real Dialogue Would Have Been Better, accessed at Ex-President for Sale Part 4, http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976898907)
Carter therefore bears at least some of the responsibility for what he calls “apartheid.”

This name-calling – “Nazis,” “Holocaust,” “apartheid” – turns a complicated issue into simple-minded sloganeering. It dumbs down the debate. It drowns out the nuanced constructive criticism of particular Israeli and Palestinian policies. And it discourages peace efforts.

'Israel a JEWISH state first'

I ran across this Item on YNet today

'Israel a Jewish state first'

But former High Court Justice Dalia Dorner says terms 'Jewish' and 'Democratic' not mutually exclusiveIsrael is first and foremost a Jewish state, said Justice Dalia Dorner, who retired from the bench in 2004.

But this does mean Israel is not a democracy, she told Ynet Thursday. "I say to anyone who suggests we renounce our Jewish definition, our Jewish symbols, the whole point of Israel lays in its Jewish nature."

"Israel was not established to further democracy, it was founded as the Jewish state. We will not let go of the sole reason for our existence," she said, speaking in a conference held by The Mossawa Center for Arab citizens in Israel.

"We have no other state to call our own," added Dorner, and went on to express her absolute support for the need to reach total equality for all of Israel's citizens.

Is Israel's definition as both a "Jewish" and a "democratic" state mutually exclusive? Dorner does not think so.

"It's mostly up to legal interpretation," she said. "I see it as a synthesis of the two… we can certainly find a reference to our obligation to treat the minorities living among us as equals in the Scriptures. Fulfilling this obligation in vital," she added.

"Excluding the Arab minority is not good for this county… Israel as a Jewish state must give the other nationalities living in its midst the rights they're entitled to."

What about the Arab demand that Israel change its formal symbols? "This is a democracy, so they can ask for anything they want," said Dorner "but this specific demand might cause public resentment.

"The Arabs share a majority's mentality, since they see themselves a part of the millions of Arabs in the Middle East. We (the Jews) share a minority's mentality, and see this demand as a threat to our perception of ourselves."

Dorner made it clear she thinks Israel should fight for collective equality. "Ideologically, I believe Israel – as a country – strives for the equality it pledged to in its Declaration of Independence… we will find a solution," she said "I'm optimistic."

I wholeheartedly agree. It reminded me of something I wrote awhile ago, when readership to this blog was about a quarter of what it is now. So for you newcomers I post it below. For the Yid with Lid veterans, please excuse this re-post.

Christmas is a weird time in the US. All the trees and decorations make you see how small and vulnerable the Jewish population really is. The separation of church and state is a key component of the US Democracy, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I live in a "secular" state. Freedom of religion means, the government tolerates the fact that I observe Judaism. And while there is no official religion here, Christianity is the de facto official religion of this country. And if you have any doubts about it, read some of the debates going on in this county about school prayer, or displaying nativity scenes on public venues, or watch Fox News as they whine about the "war on Christmas." Some of you might even remember when Bill o' Riley, told viewers that the United States is a Christian county, and if the Jews didn't like it, they could move to Israel.

The US defines itself as a secular state, but is really a Christian state; Israel by definition is a Jewish state that tries its hardest to be a secular state. Israel is the rebirth of a religious Jewish state that existed almost 2000 years ago. It is that religious history that gives Israel part her legitimacy. It is the biblical prophecy of the ingathering of the exiles that gives legitimacy to the right of return. We Jews are unique in the world we are a people and a religion. Survival is only assured when the two are linked together.

As a Jewish state certain things should be sacrosanct about public institutions, they should be Kosher and they should be Shomer Shabbos. Notice I said public institutions. Privately owned businesses should not be forced to observe. Observant and non-observant people should have the right to support those institutions that have their level of observance. The recent EL Al problem is a mess. They shouldn’t have broken their own policy of not flying on Shabbos. Not because they need to be Shabbos Observant, but because it was an unwritten contract that they had with their passengers who, because of their level of observance, only want to deal with businesses that are shomer Shabbos like they are.

Today in the Jerusalem Post there is a very disturbing article about a law that a Labor MK is trying to pass:

Bill handcuffs Chabad tefillin campaign
Sheera Claire Frenkel, THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 12, 2006

The familiar sight of Chabadniks inviting youths to put on tefillin may suffer a serious setback if a bill proposed by Labor MK Ophir Paz-Pines in the Knesset on Monday becomes law. The bill would prevent adults from placing pressure on anyone under the age of 18 to increase or decrease their religious involvement.

According to Paz-Pines, too much pressure is placed on youths to alter their religious traditions. Pressing youths to observe or discard religious practices can "cause the break-up of a family and cause damage to minors," he said.

Menachem Brod, a spokesman for Chabad in Israel, said Paz-Pines's bill was absurd, and was intended to undermine religious Jewish life. "Are they telling me that if someone is lacking a 10th member for their minyan, and they go out on the street and find a 17-year-old boy, they can't invite that bar-mitzvaed boy in to complete the minyan? This is evil," he said. "Why do we insist on treating teenagers as though they don't have the ability to make decisions?"

Ephraim Shore, a director of Jerusalem's Aish Hatorah Yeshiva, disagreed with Paz-Pines's reasoning, saying: "There are so many reasons for schisms in the family... We have a heritage that has lasted over 3,000 years and we believe in teaching it to people. This heritage has not traditionally caused schism in the family." Shore rejected the assertion that some teenagers might be brainwashed into adopting religious practices. "If you teach a Jew the beauty of Shabbat and he lights candles on Friday night, that is his choice, not some brainwashing," he said. "It's a free country. We have a popular Web site that 2 million people visit a month. Should we change it to an 'adult only' Web site just so that teens won't be exposed to the dangerous material we post there about Jewish life and traditions?"

Shore said there were dozens of programs in the US to encourage Jewish high school students to adopt Jewish traditions. He said most of Aish Hatorah's programs were geared for young adults over the age of 18, while other organizations, such as Chabad, encouraged teenagers to get involved and participate in their programs.

Something is very weird here, in the US a secular state, someone who is not Jewish can walk up to my teenaged daughter and (G-d Forbid) convince her that he is a Jew and Believes in Jesus and that’s OK, but in Israel a Jewish state, Teenagers cannot be convinced by Jews to be more Jewish.

For those of you busily writing comments that being a "Jewish State" makes Israel somehow racist or prejudiced, put down your keyboard. Israel is surrounded by Islamic states that, in many cases, forbid the practice of other religions. Israel should be different form the Islamic states, who are constantly fighting amongst themselves over the way they practice, Sunni vs. Shiite for example. Israel must be a home where all "flavors" of Judaism can exist, were Rabbis of all kind, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox can tend to their flocks during the entire cycle of life from births, marriage to death. After all that is why G-d took away the last Jewish state 2,000 years ago, fighting amongst ourselves.

But there is one thing Israel should NEVER do is to legislate against the teaching of Torah. For all intents and purposes, that is what Paz-Pines' bill is trying to do. To paraphrase Bill o' Riley, Israel is a Jewish state, If you don't like it move to America.

Baghdad Civilians Request US Support to Help Fight al-Qaida

Here is something you wont read about in tomorrows NY Times (unless they think it is a state secret) Iraqi citizens living in Baghdad have risen up against the forces of al-Qaida. In fact they have asked our US heroes stationed in Iraq to help them fight the terrorists. Apparently the final straw was when the al-Qaida forces wouldn't let students attend their final exams.

Sheesh! Times have sure changed. Thirty-three years ago when I was a junior in high school, some boys from the Solomon Schechter high school in Queens stole a few of the NY State Regents exams (State-wide final exams). When the theft was discovered the exams we canceled and everyone who was passing the course automatically passed the exam. I didn't rise up against them. Heck they were my heroes. If it wasn't for the guys from Queens, I would probably still be taking High School Trigonometry.

Iraq Residents Rise Up Against al-Qaida
May 31 12:21 PM US/Eastern
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN

BAGHDAD (AP) - A battle raged in west Baghdad on Thursday after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said.

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah, killing as many as 25 people, police said. The U.S. military said only one policeman was killed and eight were wounded.

The American military also reported the deaths of three more soldiers, two killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Baghdad and one who died of wounds from a roadside bomb attack northwest of the capital Tuesday. At least 122 American forces have died in May, the third- deadliest month of the Iraq conflict.

U.S. forces backed by helicopter gunships clashed with suspected al- Qaida gunmen in western Baghdad's primarily Sunni Muslim Amariyah neighborhood in an engagement that lasted several hours, said the district councilman, who would not allow use of his name for fear of al-Qaida retribution.

Casualty figures were not immediately available and there was not immediate word from the U.S. military on the engagement.

But the councilman said the al-Qaida leader in the Amariyah district, known as Haji Hameed, was killed and 45 other fighters were detained.

Members of al-Qaida, who consider the district part of their so-called Islamic State of Iraq, were preventing students from attending final exams, shooting randomly and forcing residents to stay in their homes, the councilman said.

U.S. forces also continued a search for five Britons who were kidnapped Tuesday in Baghdad, as well as for two of its soldiers who have been missing since a May 12 ambush south of the capital.

The Fallujah suicide bomber killed at least 10 policemen in the attack, which occurred about 11 a.m., according to a police official in the city who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The rest of the dead were civilians, many of them in line seeking jobs as policemen. He said as many as 50 were wounded.

Fallujah General Hospital had received 15 bodies and 10 wounded, according to a doctor there, who would not allow the use of his name because he feared retribution. The physician said he believed other casualties were taken to the nearby Jordanian Hospital and private clinics.

A member of the Fallujah city council, who also asked for anonymity for fear of attack by insurgents, said there were at least 20 killed and 25 injured.

The coordination of information in Fallujah was particularly difficult because the mobile telephone system has been working only sporadically.

Maj. Jeff Pool of the Multi-National Force-West said the Anbar province governor's office and the provincial police put the total number of dead at one Iraqi policeman, with six police and two civilians wounded in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Police said the bomber detonated explosives in his vest at the third of four checkpoints, standing among recruits who were lining up to apply for jobs on the force. The center had only opened Saturday in a primary school in eastern Fallujah.

The U.S. military and Iraqi army and police were running the center along with members of Anbar Salvation Council, a loose grouping of Sunni tribes that have banded together to fight al-Qaida.

Police stations and recruiting posts have been a favorite target of Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida throughout the war.

U.S. forces, meanwhile, pressed on with the search for five kidnapped Britons, and a procession of mourners, some of them women wailing and beating their chests, marched through Sadr City behind a small bus carrying the coffins of two people who police said were killed in a U.S. helicopter strike before dawn.

The U.S. military said it had no report of airstrikes in Sadr City and that there were no civilian casualties in the second day of a search for the Britons, who were abducted Tuesday from a Finance Ministry data processing building in eastern Baghdad.

A U.S. military statement, however, said U.S. and Iraqi forces had arrested two "members of the secret cell terrorist network" in Sadr City. There was no mention of fatalities.

AP Television News videotape from Sadr City showed the coffins of the victims atop a small bus with men and women walking behind, crying. A young boy could be seen sitting next to the coffins.

A car in the area was punctured with big holes, as if hit by an airstrike.

A police officer in Sadr City, who refused to allow use of his name because he feared retribution, said the helicopter hit a house and car at 4:30 a.m., killing two elderly people sleeping on the roof of their home—a common practice in Iraq's extreme heat through late spring and summer.

The officer said a 13-year-old boy was wounded.

Also in Sadr City raids, which the U.S. has been conducting with a select unit of Iraqi army forces, Shiite cleric Abdul-Zahra al-Suwaidi claimed his home was raided and ransacked by American forces at 3 a.m. Thursday. The military said it had no report of the incident.

Al-Suwaidi, who runs the Sadr City political office of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said he was sleeping elsewhere at the time of the raid, expecting that he would be targeted. He said his home was badly damaged and a small amount of money was taken.

Dozens of U.S. Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles had taken up positions around Sadr City at nightfall Wednesday.

The five kidnapped Britons included four bodyguards working for the Montreal-based security firm GardaWorld and one employee of BearingPoint, a U.S.-based management consulting firm.

In Washington, Brig. Gen. Perry Wiggins, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military believed a helicopter that crashed Monday north of Baghdad was brought down by small-arms fire. The Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, claimed responsibility.

Wiggins also said that more than 100 patrols a day were being launched to search for two missing troops who vanished after a May 12 ambush near Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad. Four Americans and one Iraqi soldier were killed in the attack and the body of another American was later found in the Euphrates River.

"Our determination and resolve to locate our missing soldiers is unwavering," Wiggins said.

UPDATE: NEW British BOYCOTT Threatened

UK labor union threatens Israel boycott

JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST May. 31, 2007
A day after the British Union of Colleges and Universities (UCU) voted to consider imposing a boycott on Israeli academics, UNISON, the largest labor union in Britain, threatened to impose a boycott of their own on Israeli products.

In response, Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini sent a letter to the UNISON chairman to try and avert the potentially harmful vote, scheduled for mid-June.

"Despite the aggression of the Palestinians, it never occurred to me to impose a boycott on Palestinian workers or employers," Eini wrote. "The boycott against Israel will only cause the situation to deteriorate further."

Meanwhile, the Enough! Coalition, of which UNISON is a member, announced that it had scheduled a demonstration in London for June 9 to protest Israel's military presence in the Palestinian territories. The event is being promoted under the slogan: Enough! End the Israeli Occupation, and is being organized with the help of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.On Wednesday, the UCU passed a motion which condemned Israel for its "denial of educational rights" to the Palestinian people and called for UCU branches to discuss an academic boycott of Israel over the next year.The vote has received condemnation from public officials in Israel and abroad.

Original Post Follows
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You have to admit Herb Keinon of the JPost does have a point British Organizations with names such as Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, does invoke memories of John Cleese and the "Ministry of Silly Walks." Thats the dry British humor, proper and improper at the same time.

The problem is that these almost daily calls for boycotts in Great Britain are not are not funny and they are not even about Israel. As Nobel prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg from the University of Texas said last week when he refused an invitation to make a speech in England:

"I know that some will say that these boycotts are directed only against Israel, rather than generally against Jews," he wrote. "But given the history of the attacks on Israel and the oppressiveness and aggressiveness of other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, boycotting Israel indicated a moral blindness for which it is hard to find any explanation other than anti-Semitism."

Dr. Weinberg hits the nail on the head. If this was about Israel, there would be Ear, Nose and Throat Doctors for Justice in Darfur, or Tobacconists for Cuban rights, or even Railroad Conductors united to allow Christmas in Saudi Arabia. Ultimately this is just another incident in the long history of British Anti-Semitism. If I could have a few minutes with the PM or the Queen, I would give them some other choice Pythonisms such as:

You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you or you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

In his analysis below, Keinon takes a look at why the Israeli government hasn't fought back against these wretched boycotts.

Analysis: Changing Israel's anti-boycott strategy

Herb Keinon, THE JERUSALEM POST May. 31, 2007

Maybe it's because the groups have Monty Python-esque names like Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (ever heard of Builders for Justice in Darfur, or Architects for Freedom in Syria?). Maybe it's because we all have become used to the idea that the British elite simply don't like us.

Whatever the reason, both the government and the Israeli public have responded with strange equanimity to the fact that every other week some British trade union, or some body inside the Anglican Church, seems to come out with calls for divestment from Israel or boycotts. And because the Israeli government has been largely quiet, so has the British government.

It took an American supporter of Israel, Nobel prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg from the University of Texas, to finally stand up last week and say there were consequences for actions, and business couldn't continue as usual in the face of these boycotts.

Weinberg declined an invitation last week to give a guest lecture at London's Imperial College in July, explaining in a letter to the college that the reason for his decision was the agreement by the National Union of Journalists at its national conference in April to boycott Israeli products.

"I know that some will say that these boycotts are directed only against Israel, rather than generally against Jews," he wrote. "But given the history of the attacks on Israel and the oppressiveness and aggressiveness of other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, boycotting Israel indicated a moral blindness for which it is hard to find any explanation other than anti-Semitism."

And this letter came even before Wednesday's resolution-of-the-month debate among British college teachers regarding a boycott of Israel: this one by the newly-formed University and College Union.

Weinberg's act of protest, one that swelled many in Israel with a sense of pride, was followed Monday by a meeting Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni held with British Ambassador Tom Phillips to discuss the boycott issue.

The meeting, a long time in coming, signified a change in Jerusalem's position, and a growing understanding that there was now a need to protest these actions loudly and aggressively before they gained respectability and spread, not only in England, but elsewhere.

Judging by the frequency of these types of proposals in Britain - in April some 130 British doctors called for a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association - it seems that this is something that has become very "in" in the UK.

There are those in the policy-making circles here saying that Israel must take a much more active role in making this trend "out."

For instance, there were some in Jerusalem who - following the decision by the British journalists union - recommended that Israel respond by denying British journalists access to Israeli government officials. Those who argued that this would only hurt Israel in the British press were met with the following response: "How much worse could things in the British media really get?"

Phillips, in his discussion with Livni, repeated the standard British government line - that the government is against all kinds of boycotts, and that London doesn't think these types of actions serve the purpose of Israeli-Palestinian peace.

But these arguments are sounding increasingly hollow among various policy makers in Jerusalem, and there is a growing sense that the British government can - and should - take a more public, active position against boycotts.

There are those who want to hear Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his likely successor Gordon Brown, come out articulately against these moves. There are those who want to see the British government make sure that the issue is debated in Parliament, and that opposition to these moves is very much on the British public agenda.

Charitably, one could argue that one of the reasons the British government has not taken a more forceful stand on this issue is because the Israeli government has not demanded that it do so. Neither the Foreign Ministry nor the Israeli embassy in London has up until now launched a full-court press about the boycotts.

Some have explained that this stemmed from a reluctance to do anything to embarrass a friend like Blair. But with Blair on his way out, and the boycott moves becoming increasingly more "in," voices in Jerusalem arguing that the time has come for Israel to fight back are definitely on the rise.

Israel's New War of Attrition

Israel's victory and the Egyptian army's rout in the 1967 Six-Day War put the Sinai peninsula, up to the eastern bank of the Suez Canal, in Israel's hands. Egypt's humiliated army, considered the most powerful in the Arab world, yearned for retaliation. Sporadic clashes were taking place along the cease-fire line, and Egyptian missile boats sank the Israeli destroyer Eilat in October 21, 1967. Egypt began shelling Israeli positions along the Bar Lev Line, making use of heavy artillery, MiG aircraft and assistance from the Soviet Union with the hope of forcing a war-weary Israel into making concessions. This limited war was called the War of Attrition.

President Gamal Abdel Nasser's rationale was explained by journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal:

If the enemy succeeds in inflicting 50,000 casualties in this campaign, we can go on fighting nevertheless, because we have manpower reserves. If we succeed in inflicting 10,000 casualties, he will unavoidably find himself compelled to stop fighting, because he has no manpower reserves.

According to sources, Israel has no desire to re-occupy Gaza. This means that Israel is in the midst of a new war of attrition, this time with the terrorist army of Hamas. Stewart Ain of the Jewish Week interviewed Israel insiders to get the scoop on the New War of Attrition.

Israel Ponders Stronger Counterstrikes

Leaders argue for tougher measures to deter Kassam launches amid fears of a new war of attrition.

Stewart Ain - Staff Writer

The Israeli Air Force continued its targeted strikes this week against Hamas terrorists who are building and firing Kassam rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip while Hamas leaders reportedly disagreed among themselves whether to continue the attacks and some Israeli leaders argued for a tougher response.

On Wednesday, the Air Force reportedly killed two Hamas members when it targeted a group of terrorists who were firing rockets into Israel. That same day, at least one Kassam rocket hit an empty building in Sderot and Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshal was quoted in the British newspaper The Guardian as saying Hamas would continue its attacks, which he called defensive measures against “Zionist aggression.” His comments followed a report that one Hamas leader in Gaza had ordered a halt to all rocket fire.

Also on Wednesday, Israel’s security cabinet decided to continue with its present level of response, which includes targeted assassinations against those responsible for or carrying out rocket attacks and limited ground operations in the Gaza Strip. The previous day, two Hamas terrorists were killed by Israeli troops during a cross-border raid into Gaza.

Aryeh Mekel, Israel’s consul general in New York, said the Israeli troops who entered Gaza were “special forces who have the capability of going in, doing a job and getting out; they stay just a few hours. They want to punish those who are sending the rockets.”

Although there were some in the security cabinet who reportedly argued for tougher measures to put an end to the rocket attacks, Mekel said he believes the current response will continue for some time.

“I don’t see a major change,” he said.

The security cabinet ministers also rejected Hamas’ call for a cease-fire that would include the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas next week to discuss a cease-fire. Abbas has called upon Hamas to implement an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and to worry later about extending it to the West Bank.

Olmert has reportedly said Israel’s response to the rocket attacks, which by mid-week had killed two Israelis, was effective and that he did not favor an escalation. It was noted that there were only three rocket attacks on Tuesday compared with dozens last week.

Despite Hamas’ ability to re-arm by smuggling weapons into Gaza from Egypt, Mekel said the Israeli leadership is against ending it by deploying troops along the Gaza-Egyptian border.

“We got out of Gaza not to get back in,” he said, referring to Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli leaders have not ruled out, however, a multi-national force along the border.

Gerald Steinberg, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University, said there has also been talk of establishing permanent military outposts in the Gaza Strip similar to those in the West Bank.

“The fact that there are so many suggestions means that there’s no good answer,” he said. “I think we’re in the middle of a war of attrition, where the Israeli goal must be to grind down Hamas enough so that the Palestinians will force a quasi-ceasefire like before. People in Gaza are tired. There’s a significant body of Palestinians who see the use of Gaza as a launching point against Israel as counterproductive.”

Ben Fishman, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Israeli leaders are also mindful of the “brutal” manner in which Hamas has fought its Palestinian rival, Fatah, in internecine warfare the last several weeks in Gaza.

“Israel recognizes this, which is another reason it doesn’t want to get sucked in,” he said, adding that Hamas launched the rocket attacks as a way of uniting Palestinians “at a time when it was largely viewed as provoking internal violence.”

But Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Daniel Gillerman, told reporters at an Israel Project luncheon here last week that he viewed Hamas’ rocket attacks as an “act of desperation.”

“It comes out of weakness, not strength,” he insisted. “The only reason Hamas entered into the so-called national unity government [with Fatah] was precisely because international pressure [against it] worked. Now is the time for the international community to stand fast and not be lured by the façade of unity. ... Maybe that will bring about a situation where Hamas will collapse.”

In the meantime, the impact of the constant rocket attacks on Israel’s southern communities — particularly Sderot — is considerable, according to Shlomo Aronson, a political science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“About half of the people [in Sderot] have left,” he said.

“I do see a very limited war that we can sustain,” Aronson added. “The damage is mainly psychological and it is sustainable. But should a rocket from Gaza land on a kindergarten, God knows what will happen then.”

He added that should former Prime Minister Ehud Barak win a June 12 runoff primary for Labor Party leader against former internal security chief Ami Ayalon, Barak would likely become defense minister in Olmert’s government but would be unlikely to change Israel’s military response.

Barak captured about 35 percent of the votes — 5 percent more than Ayalon — in this week’s party primary, but failed to secure enough votes to avoid a run-off. The current party leader, Amir Peretz, finished third in the five-man race with 22 percent of the vote. Analysts say Peretz is now in a position to be the kingmaker and can be expected to trade his support for another plum post in Olmert’s government. He is currently the defense minister but has said he would give that up to become finance minister.

The Israeli media reported that although Olmert has ruled out appointing Peretz finance minister, he could be expected to create a post that would satisfy Peretz’ desire to have influence in socioeconomic matters.

In another development, Shimon Peres, Israel’s vice premier who turns 84 in August, announced Wednesday that he would run for the presidency of Israel for a second time, after having lost in July 2000 to Moshe Katsav. It is a seven-year term.

“This may be my last chance to serve the country,” Peres said after his Kadima Party endorsed him for the June 13 race.

He said he was acceding to the requests of many, including Olmert, to run for presidency, a position that is selected by the 120-member Knesset in a secret ballot. Peres served as prime minister on three occasions during his 60-year political career but was never elected.

Peres, the architect behind the 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestinians for which he shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, is challenging Colette Avital of the Labor Party and Reuven Rivlin of the Likud Party in the race for president.