Abracadabrah

I create as I speak

Happy New Year!

          !

posted by Alcibiades @ 5:16 PM 0 comments

A Comedy of Errors

Update: Graphic content warning: Sweetness and Light provides a graphic look at the circumstances in which injuries occurred.

Over a thousand Turks spent the first day of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha in emergency wards on Sunday after stabbing themselves or suffering other injuries while sacrificing startled animals.

At least 1,413 people - referred to as "amateur butchers" by the Turkish media - were treated at hospitals across the country, most suffering cuts to their hands and legs, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Four people were severely injured, crushed under the weight of large animals that fell on top of them, the agency reported. Another person was hurt when a crane used to lift an animal tumbled onto him, the agency said.

Three other people suffered heart attacks and died while trying to restrain animals, CNN-Turk television reported.

One wonders about statistics from other Eid-celebrating statistics averse countries.

Meanwhile Happy Eid.

And if anyone knows the technical reasons that the Sunnis and the Shi'ites celebrate it on different dates, a comment would be appreciated.

Labels: Eid, sacrifice

posted by Alcibiades @ 5:00 PM 0 comments

Are the Pathans Descended from the Tribe of Ephraim?

A new study suggestsa genetic link exists between the Pathans and the Jews, a connection rumored for many years.

According to Aafreedi's study, which was published as an e-book, about 650 out of the 1,500 members of the Afridi Pathan clan in Malihabad, India, may possess genetic material shared by nearly 40 percent of Jews worldwide. If confirmed, the findings would support the clan's connection to the tribe of Ephraim, Aafreedi said. A related Indian Pathan group numbering some 800 people was not tested for the project.

Although he performed the research for his doctoral studies at Lucknow University, the main motivation for Aafreedi's research was personal.

"My uncle told me when I was a child about our connection to the Israelites," he said.

He has been deeply interested in his ancestry ever since, especially in "the fact that the tribe is identified with Israel."

..."Historically, there were Persian writers who wrote about the connection between the Pathans and the people of Israel," said [Michael] Freund. "When the British arrived in the area there were missionaries who wrote about it as well. There is quite a good deal of historical evidence to support this assertion."

Even former president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi addressed the connection. In his book, The Exile and Redeemed, he quoted an Afghani Jew as saying, "According to the tradition current among the [Afghan] Afridis, they are indeed descendants of the Israelites, more particularly the sons of Ephraim." There are an estimated 40 to 50 million Pathans, mostly in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Years ago, during the time of the communists, my sister spent some time in Afghanistan and Pakistan and heard this rumor.

Of course, these days, there has been a lot of talibanisation among the Pathans; but, as is well known, it is not a movement that is native to them. It's rather a cultural import.

Labels: Ephraim, Jewish history, lost tribes, Pathans

posted by Alcibiades @ 12:15 AM 0 comments

Rachel Corrie: Dismissed on the Merits

Good for Canada, or at least one theater production company therein.

Toronto's Canadian Stage Company has decided not to stage My Name is Rachel Corrie, the controversial play about an American peace activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer.

It was a decision based on the play's merits, rather than the political controversy that dogs it, CanStage artistic producer Martin Bragg said in an interview with CBC.ca. "It was an artistic decision," said Bragg, who saw the play in New York. "It just didn't work on stage."

And this decision comes from someone originally interested in the play, and moved by reading it, deciding that the play did not work dramatically on the stage:

"If you cut through the hysteria around this play — which is being created by people who haven't read this play or gone to see it — the real problem was, no one went to see it," he said.

A dramatic failure. Good for him. Not everyone likes to pay for an evening of undiluted propaganda.

Hat tip: Pamela

Labels: Gaza, Palestine, Rachel Corrie

posted by Alcibiades @ 12:07 AM 0 comments

Hizbullah paying Gazans for Kassam Attacks on Israel

Saddam's successor as an enabler of terror in Gaza has arrived - and its Hizbullah:

Hizbullah is paying Palestinian splinter groups "thousands of dollars" for each Kassam rocket fired at the western Negev, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

According to Israeli intelligence information, Hizbullah is smuggling cash into the Gaza Strip and paying "a number of unknown local splinter groups" for each attack.

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) sources said the Islamist organization paid several thousand dollars for each attack, with the amount dependent on the number of Israelis killed or wounded.

"We know that Hizbullah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," a security official said.

So that is the Iranian backed Shi'ite army paying Sunnis in Gaza to fire Kassam missiles on Israel.

When the spirit so moves them, Sunnis and Shi'ites are capable of a unity of purpose.

In other news, during the last month - which was a period of ceasefire - 64 missiles fell on Israel. The good news is that is only a quarter of the usual amount.

Labels: Gaza, Hizbollah, Iran, qassam, Terrorism

posted by Alcibiades @ 2:03 AM 0 comments

The Incredible Lightness of Snow

This bizarre image adorning Ha'aretz's article on snow in Jerusalem is just screaming out for a title:



The grinch is dead!

(Come to think of it, he does kind of look like the grinch, doesn't he. And he did a good job of trying to steal Christmas, too.)

Your suggestions welcomed in the comments.

And then there's this:



My incredibly pathetic snowman.

And finally:



Oy, God, you had to make it snow when I was here praying to you? Where's the respect?

I should say, I lived in Jerusalem - without proper snowboots or snowshoes of any kind - during the snowiest year in history on the record books. Which came about because I was packing for my trip on the hottest day of the year in Boston - it was 97 degrees and really humid and we didn't have airconditioning because everyone knows you don't need airconditioning in Boston - snort! yeah right! And when I came to my sheepskin lined boots I just couldn't imagine ever needing them again. Let alone in Jerusalem.

So that year in Israel we got five major snows. The Kinneret went from record lows to repeat flooding. The rivers flooded the valleys. Even St. Catherine's in the Sinai got covered with snow that year. But the spring was fabulous. Poppies blossomed everywhere.

It can get damn cold in Israel. The heating device situation may be improved now. But when I was living there, all the student types performed this little ritual. You wrapped your feet up just next to the electrical space heater you were huddled around because the heat was off in your apartment at that time of the day and you were freezing. And then, inevitably, when you didn't pull your feet away fast enough, the heater would toast a black hole in the blanket or socks or sweatpants in which your feet were wrapped. And sometimes light them on fire. I came back with tons of holes in my socks and sweatpants from that. And I made several small holes in the blankets as well.

My current opinion on snowboots is buy Canadian. Those guys really have an incentive to figure out the tech, which is why Canadian snowboots are the best. And really, if those guys can't figure out the best tech, no one in the world can. Well, maybe the Russians have equal incentive. But would you buy Russian-made snowboots?

In fact, a friend and her daughter came to stay with me just before they took off for Israel - her daughter was staying in Israel for a year of studying abroad. My big contribution - I told them my story about the 5 snowstorms, and reminded my friend - who had been my roommate one year when we were studying in Jerusalem for the year - just how cold we used to be in winter - our room had a huge terrace and lots of uninsulated glass. So we all traipsed off to buy her some Canadian snowboots at Harry's before she left for Israel.

I bet she is happy about that tonight.

Labels: cold, Jerusalem, snow

posted by Alcibiades @ 7:33 PM 0 comments

RIP President Ford

President Gerald Ford is dead, aged 93.



If only we had kept him in charge, as the old campaign ad exhorts - the situation in Iran might be very different today.

Labels: Iran, President

posted by Alcibiades @ 10:50 AM 0 comments

Fantastic Discussion in the Comments

Following from the recent conference in Israel on Israel and media, there is a fantastic conversation going on in the comments on a post by Liza, particularly between Richard Landes and Don Radlauer on the problem of Israel and Israel's self presentation to the world in view of her current existential situation in Gaza and with the Palestinians.

Judith and Benjamin Kerstin from Kesher Talk appear as well.

posted by Alcibiades @ 9:53 PM 0 comments

So For Any Battlestar Galactica Fans Out There...A Couple of Mysteries

First Merry Christmas to our Christian readers.

And for those who celebrate it, Happy Guernarthar's Ascension Day as well. You know who you are.

Do we have any BSG fans out there? I'm a big one myself - it's my favorite current TV show.

In any case, I've just been rewatching season 1 of Battlestar Galactica, and as always when watching BSG, trying to pierce the mystery of the character Six that appears in Balthar's head. It is still unclear what her nature is two seasons later.

As Six is at times involved with leading him to "God's will," today, I'm wondering whether she can be considered to be his Daemon - δαιμων - in the socratic sense - his good genius, rather like an intuitive force, or even a muse.

It all depends, I suppose, whether in the end, the resolution of the human/cylon conflict will lead to some sort of prophesied state or whether it is an unending conflict. If they do arrive at the "prophesied state" then I imagine Balthar's sinning against his own will be a necessary part of that journey.

Balthar, I suppose, is a kind of a Judas - sinning against his own, sometimes by his own will, sometimes not; in the end, we are left asking whether his sinning against humanity will be instrumental in the fulfillment of the prophesied future for humans and cylons? Will his fall and desertion to the cylons be one of the ingredients necessary for the synthesis of the fate of its inhabitants?

Does that make him more like the original Judas of the normative Christian tradition, or more like the Judas of the Judas Gospel where the predestined aspect of his character is a stronger part of the narrative? Or even like Shabati Tzvi, the false Messiah - who sought out the darkest corners of the world, and inhabited them in his "role as Messiah" in order to release the sparks captured therein. Because those sparks, too, needed to be set free, in order for the redemption of the world to occur.

The interesting thing about Balthar is that, like the character of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost, there is no endpoint to his fall. Everything he does results in him falling further. Even at those points that he ceases to will his own fall.

Will Gaius Balthar become, in the fulfillment of TV time, the living archetype of the paradox of the holy sinner. His fall necessary for the redemption of the world.

It is interesting that the first season has many more "mysteries" than those later on, though they have returned to that to some extent lately with the whole Deanna subplot and the words spoken by the hybrid in the bath.

Labels: BSG, redemption, shabbtai tzvi

posted by Alcibiades @ 5:08 PM 0 comments

So For Any Battlestar Galactica Fans Out There...A Couple of Mysteries

First Merry Christmas to our Christian readers.

And for those who celebrate it, Happy Guernarthar's Ascension Day as well. You know who you are.

Do we have any BSG fans out there? I'm a big one myself - it's my favorite current TV show.

In any case, I've just been rewatching season 1 of Battlestar Galactica, and as always when watching BSG, trying to pierce the mystery of the character Six that appears in Balthar's head. It is still unclear what her nature is two seasons later.

As Six is at times involved with leading him to "God's will," today, I'm wondering whether she can be considered to be his Daemon - δαιμων - in the socratic sense - his good genius, rather like an intuitive force, or even a muse.

It all depends, I suppose, whether in the end, the resolution of the human/cylon conflict will lead to some sort of prophesied state or whether it is an unending conflict. If they do arrive at the "prophesied state" then I imagine Balthar's sinning against his own will be a necessary part of that journey.

Balthar, I suppose, is a kind of a Judas - sinning against his own, sometimes by his own will, sometimes not; in the end, we are left asking whether his sinning against humanity will be instrumental in the fulfillment of the prophesied future for humans and cylons? Will his fall and desertion to the cylons be one of the ingredients necessary for the synthesis of the fate of its inhabitants?

Does that make him more like the original Judas of the normative Christian tradition, or more like the Judas of the Judas Gospel where the predestined aspect of his character is a stronger part of the narrative? Or even like Shabati Tzvi, the false Messiah - who sought out the darkest corners of the world, and inhabited them in his "role as Messiah" in order to release the sparks captured therein. Because those sparks, too, needed to be set free, in order for the redemption of the world to occur.

The interesting thing about Balthar is that, like the character of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost, there is no endpoint to his fall. Everything he does results in him falling further. Even at those points that he ceases to will his own fall.

Will Gaius Balthar become, in the fulfillment of TV time, the living archetype of the paradox of the holy sinner. His fall necessary for the redemption of the world.

It is interesting that the first season has many more "mysteries" than those later on, though they have returned to that to some extent lately with the whole Deanna subplot and the words spoken by the hybrid in the bath.

posted by Alcibiades @ 5:08 PM 0 comments

Christmas Trees in Kabul

It is good to note that the capitalist spirit is alive and well during the Christmas season in Flower Street, Kabul:

Located in the heart of Kabul, Flower Street is different at Christmas from any other time of year, transformed into a festive place full of trees decked with multicolored tinsel garlands and lights.

"After the Taliban, we started to make Christmas trees because lots of foreigners are around, and they are asking for them," said Eidy Mohammad as he decorated a tree at his shop, the Morsal Flower Store. "Business is growing — we had only the wedding season before, but now we have Christmas as well."

Let's hope for more news of this order from Kabul and much less news of Muslim converts to Christianity being hounded and prosecuted.



The article makes note that the Christmas decorations are made in China, which makes them just like the ones we have in the United States.

As I have noted before on the blog, I really enjoy Christmas trees as well. I love walking by the yet unsold ones on the streets and smelling that wonderful spicy-tangy evergreen scent. I always miss them when the streets are clear again and they are gone. It seems really empty with all the greenery removed from the streets, especially when the cold, bleak weather of January sets in and the streets seemed bleached to white. Though, if current trends continue, we may avoid that this year.

Last week, I saw a forsythia in partial bloom on West 81st. Street.

Labels: capitalism, Christmas, Kabul

posted by Alcibiades @ 10:46 AM 0 comments

Carter's Christian Triumphalism

Below I mention a quotation at the Corner which references the Christian approach of Carter's new book:

I'm reading Carter's book right now. I'm shocked by how Christian itis. A running theme is that not only are the Muslims being oppressed by the Jews, but so are the Christians. I know Rich and others have mentioned that odd line about the treatment of the Samaritans in the age of the Pharisees, but I'm still astonished that it's not being talked about more. Carter's book, at least to me, seems like a pretty obvious attempt to turn Christian America against Israel, and I think the wink-and-nod line about the Samaritans makes that clear.

This religion inflected attitude of Jimmy Carter towards Israel is nothing new.

Here's a quote retailing Carter's perspective on Israel as addressed to Golda Meir.

On his first visit to the Jewish state in the early 1970s, Carter, who was then still the governor of Georgia, met with Prime Minister Golda Meir, who asked Carter to share his observations about his visit. Such a mistake she never made.

"With some hesitation," Carter writes, "I said that I had long taught lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures and that a common historical pattern was that Israel was punished whenever the leaders turned away from devout worship of God. I asked if she was concerned about the secular nature of her Labor government."

Jews, in my experience, tend to become peevish when Christians, their traditional persecutors, lecture them on morality, and Carter reports that Meir was taken aback by his "temerity." He is, of course, paying himself a compliment. Temerity is mandatory when you are doing God's work, and Carter makes it clear in this polemical book that, in excoriating Israel for its sins -- and he blames Israel almost entirely for perpetuating the hundred-year war between Arab and Jew -- he is on a mission from God.

Labels: anti-semitism, Carter, Christianity

posted by Alcibiades @ 12:20 AM 0 comments

Carter Criticism Roundup

Sneaking in a last post just before Shabbat begins - and wah! the computer just ate is - now I'm really crunching it to reproduce the links:

For those of you from a more liberal political persuasion, Professor Mel Konner's perspective on Carter is quite telling:

A former president whose legacy has rested on bringing about peace between Arabs and Jews has turned his back on that to become a partisan. A man whose Christian values made him see both sides in a tragic conflict has become blind to one side's suffering. A man who walked in paths of peace has now become an obstacle to peace.

For me, it means the loss of one of my greatest heroes. I have never allowed a snide remark about Jimmy Carter's "failed" presidency to pass without contradicting it. I have said countless times that he is the greatest former president, setting a new standard for that role.

I don't recognize Carter any more. I am afraid of him now, for myself and for my children. He has not just turned his back on the balance and fairness that all peacemaking depends on. He has become a spokesman for the enemies of my people. He has become an apologist for terrorists.

Carter hates the wall [Israeli] leaders have built to protect [Israeli] children. I hate it too, and so do most Israelis. But the simple fact, disputed by no one, is that it has saved hundreds of innocent Jewish lives. It will come down when our enemies give up terror and acknowledge our right to live as a free people in our homeland.

Carter calls the Hamas leaders men of peace, a claim that flies in the face of every known reality.

This makes about as "realistic" as James "talk to the Iranians and the Syrians" Baker.

But to quote Professor Konner again:

Carter has changed. Something has happened to his judgment. I don't understand what it is, but I know it is very dangerous.

Senility, perhaps? The man is in his early 80s.

A friend of Jonah Goldberg writes at the Corner:

I'm reading Carter's book right now. I'm shocked by how Christian it is. A running theme is that not only are the Muslims being oppressed by the Jews, but so are the Christians. I know Rich and others have mentioned that odd line about the treatment of the Samaritans in the age of the Pharisees, but I'm still astonished that it's not being talked about more. Carter's book, at least to me, seems like a pretty obvious attempt to turn Christian America against Israel, and I think the wink-and-nod line about the Samaritans makes that clear. Sure, Carter couches his words in his typical "all I care about is peace and justice" rhetorical cloth (particularly in the first half of the book, where he assures us he really does accept the idea that Israel might be, you know, a democracy), but it's hard to conclude a third of the way in any thing other than the fact that Carter shares a
constitutional aversion to the Jewish state, well on par with the likes of Buchanan, et al. In some ways, Carter's distaste for Israel is even more conspicuous than Buchanan's. After all, the editor of The American Conservative hardly claims to be a liberal. But one has to wonder why someone as putatively liberal as Carter is so so willing to the give the benefit of the doubt, on virtually every controversial issue or accusation inhered in the conflict, to the illiberal party (that being the party of theocracy, cultural conformism, terror, etc.).

This perspective, unfortunately, makes perfect sense to me.

Carter is notorious in Israel for hectoring various Jewish Prime Ministers about the ideals that he believes Jews should be living up to, based on his understanding of the bible. And by the way, the branch of Christianity he belongs to, unlike the evangelicals, does believe very thoroughly in Replacement Theology. I think this point cannot be left out of the equation when considering Carter's opinions about Jews.

And for the third link, Ed Koch responds to the argument that Jews are stifling debate on Israel in the US.

[A]nyone even remotely familiar with the American Jewish community knows of the numerous organizations, leaders, writers, and other voices critical of the Israeli right. The notion that American Jewry, like Carter himself, has been cowed into silent acquiescence to "the right wing in Israel" would be laughable were it not so pernicious.

Shabbat shalom, y'all.

Labels: anti-semitism, Carter, liberals, Palestine

posted by Alcibiades @ 11:02 PM 0 comments

Carter's Corrupt Ties

More here on Carter's Arab Financiers and Alan Dershowitz doesn't mince his language about why Carter refuses to debate him at Brandeis:

YOU CAN ALWAYS tell when a public figure has written an indefensible book: when he refuses to debate it in the court of public opinion.

And you can always tell when he's a hypocrite to boot: when he says he wrote a book in order to stimulate a debate, and then he refuses to participate in any such debate. I'm talking about former president Jimmy Carter and his new book "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid."

Carter's book has been condemned as "moronic" (Slate), "anti-historical" (The Washington Post), "laughable" (San Francisco Chronicle), and riddled with errors and bias in reviews across the country. Many of the reviews have been written by non-Jewish as well as Jewish critics, and not by "representatives of Jewish organizations" as Carter has claimed. Carter has gone even beyond the errors of his book in interviews, in which he has said that the situation in Israel is worse than the crimes committed in Apartheid South Africa. When asked whether he believed that Israel's "persecution" of Palestinians was "[e]ven worse . . . than a place like Rwanda," Carter answered, "Yes. I think -- yes."

Dershowitz also reminds us of the extent to which Carter is beholden to Arab money:

Nor is Carter the unbiased observer of the Middle East that he claims to be. He has accepted money and an award from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan , saying in 2001: "This award has special significance for me because it is named for my personal friend, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan." This is the same Zayed, the long-time ruler of the United Arab Emirates, whose $2.5 million gift to the Harvard Divinity School was returned in 2004 due to Zayed's rampant Jew-hatred. Zayed's personal foundation, the Zayed Center, claims that it was Zionists, rather than Nazis, who "were the people who killed the Jews in Europe" during the Holocaust. It has held lectures on the blood libel and conspiracy theories about Jews and America perpetrating Sept. 11. Carter's acceptance of money from this biased group casts real doubt on his objectivity and creates an obvious conflict of interest.

Labels: Arab money, Baker, Carter

posted by Alcibiades @ 8:03 PM 2 comments

More On the British Perspective on Bethlehem

Ruth Gledhill from the London Times, blogs about Bethlehem:

[W]hen it comes to the undoubted plight of Christians in the Holy Land, it is strange that there is so little criticism of Hamas, under which a tiny minority of Christians are struggling to survive, and so much of Israel, where Christians in general flourish...

Anyone with the slightest interest in Israel, or who has been there, knows that Christians are a valued presence in Israel. Quite apart from any other reason, they bring in vast amounts of cash as tourists. Ok, some of Israel's Christians are a bit more troublesome than others. Bishop Riah for example. But at least they don't go blowing themselves or others up in suicide bombings.

posted by Alcibiades @ 3:11 PM 0 comments

Looking A Tad Less Fearsome These Days, Ain't You

President Ahmadinejad spent part of Thursday mocking President Bush at a speech delivered in Western Iran.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday mocked President Bush and said Iran's nuclear program was a source of inspiration for other nations.

His typically outspoken remarks came after Bush said the Iranian president was out of step with the rest of the world and U.N. diplomats said a draft resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran for its atomic work should be approved on Friday.

Addressing a rally in western Iran, Ahmadinejad urged Bush to "step out of your glass palace and go to your people to see how isolated you are, not only across the world but also in your own country."

This would have been so much less transparent had Ahmadinejad not just received a thumpin' in the recent elections in Iran, a thumpin' he has yet to acknowledge. And of course, the Iranian Press Corps does not challenge him to do so.

No, in typical fashion, it is far better to give a belligerent speech accusing President Bush of all manner of ills and to ignore his own extreme unpopularity at home.

That way, everyone present can have a good time demonizing Bush. But it certainly looks a lot more hollow to observers abroad.


UPDATE: And there's plenty of reasons for Ahmadinejad to adopt the cocky tone at home, to deflect the Iranian audience from their own problems, including a bad economy despite the oil revenues:

Iran’s oil minister on Wednesday admitted that Tehran was having trouble financing oil projects, in a rare acknowledgment of the economic cost of its nuclear dispute.

“Currently, overseas banks and financiers have decreased their co-operation,” Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh told the oil ministry news agency, Shana.

The statement underlined the impact of de facto financial sanctions on the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ second biggest oil producer. As the controversy over Iran’s nuclear programme has escalated, the US has applied pressure on European banks and financial institutions to curb dealings with Tehran.

The fact that the UN Security Council could soon impose the first – even if mild – sanctions against Iran has compounded the political uncertainty and risks of doing business with Tehran. Iranian officials insist there is international interest in investing in Iran’s oil industry and European executives play down any impact on companies seeking deals in Iran.

In other Iranian related news, the UK has charged a British soldier who had been stationed in Afghanistan, with passing confidential information about British military activity in Afghanistan to Iran. Corporal Daniel James is fluent in Pashtun, and acts as an interpreter for Lieutenant-General David Richards, the British commander of the Nato forces in Afghanistan.

The full charge read out at court was that on November 2 this year, for a purpose prejudicial to the safety of the State, Daniel James “communicated to another person information calculated to be directly or indirectly useful to the enemy”.

The charge was under Section 1 (1)(c) of the Official Secrets Act 1911 which says that “if any person for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State obtains or communicates to any other person any sketch, plan, model, article or note, or other document or information which is calculated to be or might be or is intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy”, he shall be guilty of a felony and liable to imprisonment for not less than three years and not exceeding seven years.

UPDATE II: According to the Telegraph, Corporal Daniel James is of Iranian descent.

Neighbours at his £800,000 house in Brighton, said his mother speaks only Farsi, the main language of Iran.

Labels: Ahmadinejad, Iran, oil economy

posted by Alcibiades @ 12:16 PM 0 comments

The BBC Modernizes

Some good news from the BBC for those who are fans of its tv programming.

The BBC has entered into a deal to make available 100s of its episodes with the bittorrent client Azureus on its Zudeo program, which offers high definition videos.

This will include current programs and some classics.

posted by Alcibiades @ 11:38 AM 0 comments

Hypocrisy: The Measure of a Man

In the 1990s, James Baker's legal firm arranged business deals with Iraq that flouted American sanctions against Saddam, and profited from it to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Baker was fully aware of this and complicit.

the law firm in which former American secretary of state James Baker is senior partner used an Israeli agent to bypass the US sanctions on business dealings with Iraq.

Houston-based Baker Botts, with extensive dealings in the Arab world, earned tens of millions of dollars in fees from a deal it brokered between the Korean Hyundai concern and the Iraqi government at the peak of the sanctions imposed on the government of Saddam Hussein, according to Israeli businessman Nir Gouaz, who has been asked in 1998 by Baker's office to mediate in the deal.

Now Gouaz wants to come clean and spill the beans to show Baker's hypocrisy and conflicts of interest. "I read all the essays about Baker's vision, about the Baker Report, about the man whom the United States placed at the head of the committee that is to decide on the future of the Middle East, and I decided that there is a limit to chutzpah. The time has come to tell the story," Gouaz told Ma'ariv.

Labels: Baker, hypocrisy, Iraq

posted by Alcibiades @ 3:16 AM 0 comments

Is This Carter's Source For His Recent Book?

Melanie Phillips has a new column about British perception of the severely deteriorating situation of Bethlehem's Christian, which we discussed below. In the course of her column, Phillips mentions a book that appears to have misinformed top members of the British clergy about the situation in Bethlehem, including Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has stated publicly that he believes the situation is the fault of the Jews Israel.

Speaking of which, isn't it wonderful to have Christians now lecturing Jews about the treatment of Christians and Christian sites.

In any case, Phillips description of the book, to follow, made me wonder if this was the source of Jimmy Carter's recent book on Israel as well, as it seems to incorporate many of the same buzzwords and specious arguments that he utilized.

Here is Phillips' description of the book, Bethelehem Besieged, by Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian Christian pastor in Bethlehem:

Recently, a cleric of the Church of England sent me — as an apparently pointed rebuke — a truly wicked book, Bethelehem Besieged, by one Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian Christian pastor in Bethlehem. With a jacket garlanded by encomia from Hanan Ashrawi, George McGovern, James Zogby, Desmond Tutu and others, this book presents a picture of Bethlehem’s Christians suffering under a yoke imposed by the cruel and belligerent Israelis. Page after page is devoted to claims about the ‘apartheid-like wall’; unwarranted ‘invasions’ of Bethlehem by overwhelming Israeli military might; the siege of the Church of the Holy Nativity when Israeli troops ‘clearly had instructions to go in and destroy’ (doubtless that’s why there was a stand-off for days while the Israelis tried to persuade the Arab gunmen inside, who were trashing the church, to surrender) — a scandalous misrepresentation with more than a whiff of old-style theological prejudice, when the author compares his family locked inside the parsonage for safety to ‘the first disciples after the crucifixion of Jesus’; the ‘devastating impact’ of the closures and the curfews under the Second Intifada; and so on and dishonestly, virulently, sickeningly, on.

Labels: Bethlehem, Christianity, Palestinians

posted by Alcibiades @ 2:51 AM 0 comments

The Daily Mail Reports on the state of Bethlehem

And amazingly for a British paper, gives an accurate account of the current desperate situation in Bethlehem for its small remaining Christian population.

"As Christians, we have no future here," [one Christian inhabitant] says...

"I would rather have a beautiful dream in my head about what my home is like, not the nightmare of the reality."

And what is the nightmare of the reality? Here is an anecdote that gives a pretty good synopsis of the lives of Christian Palestinians in Bethlehem.

Jeriez Moussa Amaro, a 27-year-old aluminium craftsman from Beit Jala is another with first-hand experience of the appalling violence that Christians face.

Five years ago, his two sisters, Rada, 24, and Dunya, 18, were shot dead by Muslim gunmen in their own home.

Their crime was to be young, attractive Christian women who wore Western clothes and no veil. Rada had been sleeping with a Muslim man in the months before her death.

A terrorist organisation, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, issued a statement claiming responsibility, which said: "We wanted to clean the Palestinian house of prostitutes."

Jeriez says: "A Christian man is weak compared to a Muslim man.

"They have bigger, more powerful families and they know people high up in the Palestinian authority."

This desperate situation has been well known for a long time, so it is about time it is finally reported in Britain.

Meanwhile Jimmy Carter, for example, is blaming the Moslem treatment of the Christians on the apartheid Israelis.

Labels: Bethlehem, Christianity, Palestinians

posted by Alcibiades @ 1:19 AM 0 comments

Iranian Hardliners Dealt Double Blow in Elections

Finally sme good news from Iran.

Iranians have dealt a blow to President Ahmadinejad’s hardline Government, by thwarting his allies in municipal and clerical elections.

...The President’s critics interpreted the high turnout as a shift in the popular mood towards more moderate policies and away from his conservatism at home and confrontational stance abroad. They claim that Mr Ahmadinejad’s international defiance is a ruse to distract attention from failures at home. During the presidential elections, he promised to give the poor a fairer share of the country’s oil wealth, but he has yet to deliver on his pledge.

As I recall, Ahmadinejad was elected in the first place, after many moderate candidates were banned from running and a great deal of the Iranian populace sat out the election in protest, so that the voting percentage was quite low.

posted by Alcibiades @ 10:29 PM 0 comments

Britains Are Nazis, Too

Not just the Jews Israel, but Britain too, has become Nazi-like.

A senior Muslim invoked Hitler's 1930s Nazi regime while attacking the [British] Government over its treatment of British Muslims.

In a presentation to MPs, Mr Bari went so far as to ask: "What is the degree of xenophobia that tipped Germany in the 1930s towards a murderous ethnic and cultural racism?" ...


Mr Bari, the head of the Muslim Council of Britain, criticised the Government for "unfairly targeting" Muslims, and said that it was undermining their status as "equal citizens".

"In recent months there has been a veritable drip-feed of ministerial statements stigmatising an entire community. We have seen ministers' tours and even legislation being proposed on the premise that 'mosques are a problem'.

"We have been told to accept that greater numbers of Muslims will be stopped and searched and also to 'inform on our children'. You will understand our worry about where all this is leading. Some Muslims have even sought the MCB's advice on whether they should change their names in order to avoid remarks.

Mr Bari also rejected Tony Blair's call for Muslims to do more to fight terrorism. He put the responsibility squarely at the door of the Government...

Mr Bari later said: "Politicians have failed to consider underlying causes of Muslim disaffection and have reacted hastily by over-legislating.

Uh huh. If you only were understanding about why these poor folks - poor in a metaphorical sense, because the majority of suicide bombers are comfortably middle class - became suicide bombers to begin with than you would be more understanding and would not create laws to prosecute them to thereby protect society.

And in an irony - after invoking the "Nazi-horror" to explain the horror of Britain's current existential state vis-a-vis its Muslim minority, Mr. Bari called for the continued boycotting by the Muslim Council of Holocaust Memorial Day in Britain.

Considering these Muslim folk are currently undergoing a "Nazi-like holocaust" in Britain by a British Nazi perpetrator, you can understand their point, can't you. They're obviously victims of a Holocaust, too.

Mr. Bari also said: "We know what happened in Nazi Germany and we have to be on guard against entire communities being demonised due to the actions of a minority."

Oh, so Jews were demonized during the Nazi Holocaust. That's all that happened to them, then. I always wondered.

Frankly, all this is just provides more support for Aayan Hirsi Ali's recent op ed in the LA Times, explaining that many Muslims never learn the first thing about the Holocaust.

Western leaders today who say they are shocked by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conference this week denying the Holocaust need to wake up to that reality. For the majority of Muslims in the world, the Holocaust is not a major historical event that they deny. We simply do not know it ever happened because we were never informed of it.

I suspect many, many otherwise "well-educated" Americans also fall into the same category, which explains their profligate use of the term Nazi vis-a-vis Bush's handling of the US during his Administration. That is, they've heard about the Holocaust, but know very few actual details about it besides generalities.

Labels: Britain, Holocaust, Nazi

posted by Alcibiades @ 11:50 AM 0 comments

Diabetes Breakthrough

Excellent news of a diabetes breakthrough, which, like the paradigm shifting ulcer breakthrough over a decade ago, holds out hope of more or less solving the problem of the disease.

In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians.

And in even better news, this "paradigm shifting" breakthrough holds out hope of a new way of thinking of a range of auto-immune diseases that so far have eluded cures, because the auto immune response is still ill-understood.

Their conclusions upset conventional wisdom that Type 1 diabetes, the most serious form of the illness that typically first appears in childhood, was solely caused by auto-immune responses -- the body's immune system turning on itself.

They also conclude that there are far more similarities than previously thought between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and that nerves likely play a role in other chronic inflammatory conditions, such as asthma and Crohn's disease.

Labels: auto-immune disease, cure, diabetes

posted by Alcibiades @ 10:32 PM 0 comments

The UN General Assembly to the Rescue

Just so that you know, no problem is too small for the UN when it is about Israel, from the Jerusalem Post we learn that the UN is planning to open an office to register Palestinian claims for damage stemming from Israel's construction of the security fence in the West Bank.

The resolution authorizes the new office - comprising a three-member board, an executive director and a small staff - to record damage from the fence's construction. At this stage, it rules out any evaluation or assessment of the losses.

That's your tax dollars and mine funding this insanity, to the tune of $2 million dollars a year, folks.

[Dan Gillerman, Israel's Ambassador to the UN] He criticized the Palestinians for going to the United Nations "to put another political mechanism in place that does not and will not bring relief to your people."

The United States made the same point and strongly objected to the estimated cost of over US$2 million (€1.5 million) a year for the register, with no provision for its mandate to be reviewed or concluded.

posted by Alcibiades @ 10:22 PM 0 comments

An Anecdote from Natan Sharansky

I'm sure many of us know people who voice opinions just like this.

From Powerline:

UPDATE: It is well known that President Bush has been inspired by Sharansky's book, The Case for Democracy. Sharansky said today that American Jews (among whom number many world-class Bush haters) tell him all the time that Bush has not really read the book. However, Sharansky reports that whenever they talk, Bush discusses the book in a way that makes clear his complete familiarity with it.

Similarly, when Reagan died last year, many of our leftist friends popped up with the news that Reagan did not help bring down communism.

On the one hand, you have leftist friends voicing such an opinion; on the other hands, the voices of many in Poland and the former USSR, including Sharansky, who stated that Reagan helped a lot.

Gee, who to believe? It's not really a hard contest.

Labels: Bush, Natan Sharansky, Reagan

posted by Alcibiades @ 10:15 PM 0 comments

A Moment of Infamy

I get why the Ultra Orthodox in general and naturei karta in particular are anti-Zionist, because they believe that God will bring the Messiah and the return of the Jewish people to Israel in his own time and He cannot be hastened. Moreover, to their minds, a secular Jewish nation in Israel is only going to delay the coming of the Messiah.

However, what I don't understand is, theologically speaking, how does Naturei Karta justify Holocaust denialism.

Or, is it only that, like Ahmadinejad, they don't believe the Holocaust should have led to the development of Israel and that Jews (except them, of course) should have stayed in exile in Europe?

Or, do they want Ahmadinejad to destroy the secular state of Israel in order to bring the apocalypse and the Jewish messiah?

In short, does anyone know what their halakhic "reasoning" is specifically for Holocaust denial, which is aberrant in an altogether different way than treating with the enemies of secular Israel, such as Arafat?

Labels: Arafat, Iran, Israel, Naturei Karta

posted by Alcibiades @ 3:01 PM 2 comments

Conservative Rabbis Issue Incoherent Ruling on Gay Rights

It seems like the leaders of the Conservative movement weren't brave enough to bare the full monty, so they came up with a split decision that, in its particulars, is incoherent.

With the endorsement Wednesday of three conflicting teshuvot, or halachic responsa, by the movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards — two upholding the longstanding ban on homosexuality and one permitting ordination of gay rabbis and commitment ceremonies — it’s likely that other rabbis will now begin performing such ceremonies, comfortable in the knowledge that they enjoy halachic sanction from the movement’s highest legal body.

So they rule against homosexuality, but for commitment services for homosexuals.

Huh?

What will they do if an ordained gay rabbi chooses a mate? Are they going to do the Jewish equivalent of defrocking (what's the word for that, by the way?) - or just politely ignore the issue and pretend there is no contradition with the halachah? I assume the latter - which is why the decision is incoherent.

Interestingly, this leaves the Conservative movement in much the same position as the Anglican Church - with a large possibility that there will be a split in the movement on this particular issue.

With advocates on both sides of the issue warning that it could irreparably fracture the movement, Rabbi Menachem Creditor, a leading advocate of gay ordination, told a gathering at the Jewish Theological Seminary on Tuesday to remember that Conservative Judaism is a large enough tent to accommodate differing opinions.

This comparison to the situation of the Anglican Church, in trouble with its more devout congregations over gay ordination, intrigues me, I admit, because for years I've described Conservative Judaism as the Jewish equivalent High Church - in other words, that's like the Anglican Church vis-a-vis Catholicism on one hand and low church Protestant denominations on the other.

Now this is just downright absurd:

Though he has said publicly that he supports gay ordination, incoming Chancellor Arnold Eisen has outlined a process of consultation with students and faculty that he intends to follow in deciding whether to ordain gays.

So now the students get to influence the decision making on practical halakhah - presumably based on the PC mentality they all bring to the school?

I thought in Judaism - even in Conservative Judaism - we believed that halakhic experts should settle difficult matters of interpretation - not ill educated students who have not yet developed a width and breadth of Jewish scholarship and the correct judicial demeanor towards the law - of the objective, non-emotive sort, historically minded sort.

Labels: gay rights, Judaism

posted by Alcibiades @ 11:30 PM 1 comments

The Jew Bushinsky and All His Works

One formula for dealing with anti-semitism.

Sasha Baron Cohen makes use of another one in Borat - satire.

Perhaps it is not a surprise, though, that the mindset revealed in the two situations is actually quite similar, considering where "Kazakhstan" has its origin.

Which do you think is a more effective method for dealing with anti-semitism - playing along and taking control or satire?

Labels: anti-semitism, Borat

posted by Alcibiades @ 1:28 PM 0 comments

Chutzpah, Muscovite Style

Earlier, I reported on both the resignation of John Bolton and intriguing details into the assassination of Chechen Islamist sympathizer Alexander Litvinenko.

And what binds these two stories together?

The Muscovite Foreign Ministry's reaction to the resignation of John Bolton:

Russia's Foreign Ministry hopes the next US ambassador to the United Nations will promote more cooperation with Russia and avoid what it called outgoing Ambassador John Bolton's "excessively tough approach," a news agency reported Monday...

"We would like to express the hope that his successor will be able to overcome an excessively tough approach and preserve and develop the positive experience of our cooperation," the ministry was quoted as saying by RIA-Novosti.

Let's hear it for soft diplomatic talk backed up by poisoning your opponents with nuclear waste abroad.

UPDATE: Even more Russian-style irony: An example of "soft diplomatic talk" - the kind prefered by Russia.

British police investigating the poisoning of a former KGB agent formally requested assistance from their counterparts in Russia, whose foreign minister warned Monday that continued suggestions of Kremlin involvement in the death could damage diplomatic relations.

Labels: Irony, Islamism, Russia

posted by Alcibiades @ 1:29 PM 0 comments

Dead Russian Spy a Deathbed Convert to Islam

Over the weekend, I read that Litvinenko had converted to Islam. And today this rumor is confirmed.

It sure adds a ton of wrinkles as to who could have had intent to harm him. And why. Or even what he was up to. And who was funding him. Apparently, he was close to Islamist Chechan Muslims.

Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian intelligence agent poisoned in London, is to be buried according to Muslim tradition after converting to Islam on his deathbed.

The spy's father, Walter Litvinenko, said in an interview published today that his son - who was born an Orthodox Christian but had close links to Islamist rebels in Chechnya - made the request as he lay dying in University College Hospital.

"He said ’I want to be buried according to Muslim tradition’," Mr Litvinenko told Moscow's Kommersant daily.

"I said, ’Well son, as you wish. We already have one Muslim in our family - my daughter is married to a Muslim. The important thing is to believe in the Almighty. God is one.’"

Like the rest of Europe, Russia, too, is facing a huge upsurge in its Muslim population. Unlike Western Europe, however, the majority of this population is native to Russia and states of the former Soviet Union.

Russia is in the midst of startling transformation. Islamic faith is thriving across the country. If current trends continue, experts say, more than half of Russia's population will be Muslim by mid-century.

Few expect it will be an easy transition. Tensions are already high between the country's ethnic Russian population and the diverse group of nationalities that make up the Muslim community. Inter-ethnic violence is on the rise and extreme nationalist groups are gaining influence.

A backlash is already underway. Attacks on mosques are not uncommon and in September an imam in the southern city of Kislovodsk was shot dead outside his home. During days of rioting in August, angry mobs chased Chechens and other migrants from the Caucasus region out of the northwestern town of Kondopoga...

According to the CIA World Factbook estimate, Russia's overall fertility rate is 1.28 children per woman, far below what is needed to maintain the country's population of about 143 million.
Muslim Russians, meanwhile, are bucking the trend, with some communities averaging as many as 10 children per woman. The Central Asian states that traditionally send large numbers of immigrant workers to Russia also have much higher birth rates...

Since 1989, Russia's Muslim population has increased by 40 per cent to about 25 million. By 2015, Muslims could make up a majority of Russia's conscript army and they could account for one-fifth of the country's population by 2020...

If trends continue for the next 30 years, people of Muslim descent will outnumber ethnic Russians, says Paul Goble, an expert on Islam in Russia and research associate at the University of Tartu in Estonia.

posted by Alcibiades @ 12:11 PM 0 comments

John Bolton Resigns

His resignation effective at the end of his recess appointment.

I just saw Eleanor Cliff - all happy - say that despite his effectiveness, Bolton reminds people of Rumsfeld and his regime. So that by accepting this resignation, Bush is showing he is in touch with reality.

Huh?

I think Eleanor Cliff is the one who is not in touch with reality.

UPDATE:

President Bush, in a statement, said he was "deeply disappointed that a handful of United States senators prevented Ambassador Bolton from receiving the up or down vote he deserved in the Senate."

"They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time," Bush said. "This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their nation."

Allah reminds us of the video clip of Lou Dobb's tribute to John Bolton as a superlative UN ambassador.

At the Corner, Andrew McCarthy adds:

If John Bolton could not be confirmed after the job he did, there is no hope for a strong American presence there. More importantly, even with Bolton performing heroically, the UN was still a menace.

Why are we so hot to preserve this international racketeering enterprise? What's in it for us?

Please, someone explain the upside that outweighs the downside such that we should be agonizing over a quality replacement rather than using that energy to marginalize the UN, consider a replacement organization, or — better — rely on other international alliances and ad hoc coalitions to address international problems.

Heh, can you imagine the liberal reaction if Bush tried to disinvest from the UN now?

Because, you know, they support the UN and all of its works.

UPDATE II: According to Drudge, George Mitchell is on the short list of replacements.

posted by Alcibiades @ 9:40 AM 0 comments

The Shoddy Game of Political Telephone

In his new book, Bush's War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age Professor Jim A. Kuypers precisely articulates my experience of what has gone on in the months and years following 9/11 with regard to the media game of interpreting the President's messages into the narrative they prefer to give to it:

“What has essentially happened since 9/11 has been that Bush has repeated the same themes, and framed those themes the same whenever discussing the War on Terror,” said Kuypers, who specializes in political communication and rhetoric. “Immediately following 9/11, the mainstream news media (represented by CBS, ABC, NBC, USA Today, New York Times, and Washington Post) did echo Bush, but within eight weeks it began to intentionally ignore certain information the president was sharing, and instead reframed the president's themes or intentionally introduced new material to shift the focus.”

This goes beyond reporting alternate points of view. “In short,” Kupyers explained, “if someone were relying only on the mainstream media for information, they would have no idea what the president actually said. It was as if the press were reporting on a different speech.”

There are plenty of occasions when people I know have disputed points that the President made often and early about both the War on Terror and its subdivision into the War on Iraq - for example about the length of the war, etc.

My understanding of why liberals so often get these points wrong, is because they can't stand listening to the President. Therefore, they didn't listen to the speeches or read them. And instead relied on the media to interpret them for them. So that they only know the points that the media wanted them to understand, and not what the President originally said.

In fact, Kuypers calls the mainstream news media an “anti-democratic institution” in the conclusion.

Of course. The modern media is a very elitist institution that values its power above all things.

posted by Alcibiades @ 3:31 PM 0 comments

Constant Vigilance!

My job is to think like a dark wizard.

So I was watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight; and I had the (semi-silly) thought that Alistair Moody - the real one, not the fake one - would feel right at home at JihadWatch and LGF. He would make a perfect mascot for them.

I had another stray thought lately about the Harry Potter series, of a more arcane nature:

If Severus Snape is playing twice undercover - that is, if he is actually working for the good side, while acting at the end of Volume 6 as if he were fighting for Voldemort after all - than there is a secondary reason for him to have lost his temper when Harry dives into the pensieve in Volume 5. It is absolutely necessary that Snape not reveal to Harry the shape of the events to come concerning Dumbledore's death, particularly as Harry is unable to conceal his thoughts. If Snape and Dumbledore planned "Snape's public betrayal" as a way to place him near Voldemort in the final volume and, seemingly, as the best chance to win the fight against Voldemort, then Snape's conspiracy with Dumbledore about Dumbledore's death is one of the thoughts Snape, no doubt, painstakingly removed from his mind, only to find Harry carelessly exploring the Pensieve at his return.

But Harry, instead of learning something that will imperil the future plans of Snape and Dumbledore concerning the ultimate fight, learns something about his father that makes him miserable and humiliates Snape instead.

Labels: Harry Potter, WWIV

posted by Alcibiades @ 11:26 PM 0 comments