Canada comes up big for Israel

Ironically, Canada is now more supportive of Israel than the United States: http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/346766. Canada was the first country to announce that it is boycotting the Durban II "Anti-Racism" Conference. It was the lone voice on the U.N. Human Rights Commission to vote against a resolution condemning Israel for its "disproportionate" actions in Gaza.

At least on a temporary basis, Canada has abandoned the pro-Arab position it had held under the Liberal governments which had been in power since 1993, a rare positive development in Israel's world standing.

Ignoring a threat

We burn while Iran fiddles: http://www.meforum.org/article/1873. I have blogged in the past about the growing threat that Iran poses to the United States, and that threat is only getting more serious as the days pass. Iran has forged close ties with Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua, and as the article to which I have linked points out, it is now making deep inroads into Africa.

One has to wonder; we never let the Soviet Union make these kind of moves without SOME type of response, yet the Bush 43 Administration seems strangely somnambulant about this. For the life of me, I can't figure out why, given Iran's apocalyptic rhetoric about the United States.

I'd settle for tanking

The U.S. economy is now doing much worse than just tanking, and I blame it on a Federal Reserve that seems not to understand the basic principles of economics and a Federal government (both the Executive and Legislative branches) that seems to not fully understand that the entire world has now lost confidence in our economy and our ability to (at some point) get our economic house in order. Frankly, I can't blame anyone who bails on the U.S. right now: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120571257905240327.html?mod=djemEditorialPage.

There are some basic, common-sense principles that are being ignored by the Fed and the Government. For one, you don't get yourself out of debt by creating MORE debt, which shows the stupidity of an economic "stimulus" package that will stimulate absolutely nothing. Second, cutting interest rates time and again is nothing but a series of "quick fixes" which temporarily reassure Wall Street until the cooler heads there realize that the reasons that we are in an apparent economic freefal haven't changed one bit. What those interest cuts do is drive DOWN the value of the dollar, which hits historic new lows against virtually every other currency in the world on almost a daily basis. That in turn makes it harder on us. Everything becomes more expensive. Food, transportation, clothing, you name it. It's all affected by the dollar collapse. Third--and I thought that this was a basic lesson in Economics 101--you can't keep spending more than you take in without it eventually messing up everything else. In other words, and as a corollary to my first point, until we balance our budget and endure whatever hard choices have to be made, the situation will only get worse.

How's that for a cheery way to begin the week?

Some rhetorical questions

Tibet is rising up against its Chinese masters: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=b82c4a23-be86-4fec-ad89-3e722f7f9306&k=7706.

Some questions that have crossed my mind:

1) Will the U.N. Security Council even mention this, let alone condemn it?
2) Will the U.N. Human Rights Commission even mention this, let alone condemn it?
3) Will there be any accusations that the Chinese actions are "disproportionate", and unfairly penalize civilians?
4) Will there be any accusations that the Chinese--who have occuppied Tibet for longer than the Israelis have "occupied" the West Bank (or Gaza, which has been Judenrein since the summer of 2005), are engaging in "collective punishment"?

Yeah, I didn't think so, either.............

I must be missing something

These are stories that must be read together to fully appreciate their irony:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/rice_gets_congress_give_palest.html

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL13847252.html.

On one hand, Condoleeza Rice, who is starting to make me nostalgic for the days of James "F--- the Jews" Baker and Madeline Albright, is strongarming Congress into giving hundreds of millions of dollars in extra aid to the Palestinians, "because they really are committed to peace". On the other, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas--you remember, he's the MODERATE leader of Fatah--is screeching that Israel is committing ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem.

Yup, sure sounds moderate to me................

Laying it all out

Hamas keeps telling everyone around the world who and what it is: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1710.htm. We just choose not to listen. I almost get the feeling that a lot of people in the West think that if a few million Jews die because of our mistaken belief, so be it...........

Are you kidding me?

A judge in Canada has ruled that the government wrongly denied a passport to an Algerian-Canadian who was convicted and served time in a French prison for being involved in terrorism: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/03/13/kamel-passport.html.

Maybe it's just me, but it would seem like actually being convicted of being a terrorist would be a sufficient reason to deny someone a passport...........

An Angry Leftie in a rare moment of candor

I've blogged previously about how dishonest the "I support the troops but I'm against the war" motto of the left is. The fact of the matter is the the left supports neither, and I'll give credit to this one particular moonbat for being honest enough to admit it: http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-03-11/article/29447. This particular piece is chock full of the all of the left's talking points; U.S. troops are a bunch of bloodthirsty savages; the U.S. is an imperialist, evil nation; Americans are on a par with the residents of Nazi Germany. You name it, it's in there. Read it at your own peril.

Let's see if the MSM goes anywhere near this

Barack Obama's former preacher, Jeremiah Wright, is quite the moonbat, as it turns out. He doesn't hold a very high opinion of the United States, Israel or pretty much anything else in the West: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video_log/2008/03/brian_ross_reports_on_obamas_c.html. The MSM has done everything but officially declare its allegiance to the Obama Presidential Campaign, so it would not surprise me at all if this important issue was simply ignored or glossed over. Why is it so important? For one simple reason: Obama has proclaimed to one and all that his judgment is better than that of his adversaries (on Iraq, the environment, etc.). Well, how good can that judgment be if he has voluntarily associated with a hatemonger like Wright for years?

Memo to the United States Government

As a tax-paying CITIZEN of this great country, I feel that I can say this: GET YOUR *(#$^@&#!! HOUSE IN ORDER! NOW! Cut spending, balance the budget and start paying off that national debt. If we all need to tighten our belts a little bit, and maybe that jumbo-size SUV has to wait another year (or two, or three........), so be it. Your spendthrift, profligate ways are bankrupting us all: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080313/ap_on_bi_ge/diving_dollar.

I wouldn't be allowed to run my life this way. Why should you?

Remember, HE'S the moderate

Palestinian "President" Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of committing a "barbaric holocaust" in Gaza and of being a terrorist state after it killed four Islamic Jihad terrorists in the West Bank: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3518471,00.html.

Let's not forget, this is the man who the MSM and the U.S. State Department keep telling us is a "moderate" who wants peace with Israel. Yeah, sure he does....................

And the English are also still, apparently, the English

On the heels of my post earlier today, we now have a situation where the U.K. is banning an Israeli politician from entering Great Britain: http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s18&SecId=18&AId=58606&ATypeId=1. I guess that this was a case of "preventative measures", given that the politician, Moishe Feiglin, has no plans to visit Britain: http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11&SecId=11&AId=58642&ATypeId=1. It makes sense, I guess. After all, one wouldn't want to have one of those Nazi-like ZIONISTS roaming the countryside. On the other, letting Hezbollah operatives tour the country is A-Ok: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=521448&in_page_id=1770. And, I guess that we shouldn't be surprised given that this same bureaucratic functionary, a brainless nimrod by the name of Jacqui Smith, was the genius who ordered that Islamofascist terrorism is to henceforth be referred to as "Anti-Islamic Activity": http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=508901&in_page_id=1&in_page_id=1&expand=true.

I guess that it's official. The political leadership in the U.K. really HAS lost its collective mind.

The French are still the French

There are few certainties in life--Death, taxes, Philadelphia's professional sports teams will not win a title, and..............the French will always remain true to their character: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/12/europe/france.php. This means, of course, that they will stick a knife in the back of the United States at each and every opportunity, and Sarkozy or no Sarkozy, they will sell Israel out at the first available opportunity (though in all fairness, Condoleeza Rice seems determined to do much the same thing).

I guess that the old cliche is true; a leopard really can't change its spots.

A change in status

Not for the blog. For me, personally. As of 3:45 this afternoon, I became an American citizen. Though some may find it hokey, and others may have sentiments which are significantly darker than that, this is one of the most emotional and proud moments of my life. The United States has given me a wonderful home for the past 16 1/2 years. I can't wait until November, to vote in my first general election.

Anti-Semitism 2.0

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has a very long and detailed examination about how modern anti-Semitism is much more sophisticated than its predecessors: http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=3&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=253&PID=0&IID=2054&TTL=Online_Antisemitism_2.0._%22Social_Antisemitism%22_on_the_%22Social_Web%22*.

Most fascinating to me is its discussion of such websites as YouTube and Facebook, as I am a "member" of both sites. One of the things which scares me is that the web, for all of the good that it does, enables purveyors of hate to spread their malevolence around that much more quickly. Any Jew out there, such as myself, needs to be aware of the threat that this poses to us.

I guess that this would solve the problem

A Pakistani newspaper editor has advocated that Pakistan use nuclear weapons to "free" Kashmir from Indian control: http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/6072.htm. That this would cause a nuclear conflagration which would result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the border, if not millions, seems to concern him not in the least.

This speaks for itself

A so-called Arab leader in East Jerusalem has denied that there has ever been any Jewish connection to the city, and that Jews eat bread dipped in the blood of non-Jews: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1204546446423&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. That last comment was most likely a metaphor (a vile metaphor, mind you, but a metaphor nonetheless), but it is illustrative of the Palestinian mindset.

What the Israeli left is thinking

As it turns out, it's the same type of self-hatred that the left here in the U.S. feels: http://www.peres-center.org/Media/from%20oslo%20to%20taba.pdf. Just as is the case here, the Israeli left blames Israel exclusively for the "cycle of violence" in the Middle East. In fact, if you read carefully enough, you will realize that in its view, there is NO "cycle of violence". Rather, there is merely a series of violent acts by militaristic Israelis against (mostly) defenseless Palestinians. Period. Look at where the analysis begins--in 1996, as the author completely ignores the waves of homicide bombers unleashed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agains Israel following the signing of the 1993 "Peace" Accord between 1993 and 1996.

In a way, this article is reassuring, as it confirms that the Political Left is historically ignorant (or deliberately deceitful, depending on how much of the benefit of the doubt one wishes to give it) no matter where it is.

The story of the day

The story of the day is the sex scandal involving New York Governor Elliot Spitzer. Spitzer, a Democrat, has been linked to a high-priced prostitution ring (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23561606/), and it was originally reported that he would resign, though as of the time that I am writing this (about 9:30 at night) he hasn't done so.

Do NOT count me as being among those conservatives who are gloating at Spitzer's apparent downfall. He has a wife, and he has children. Do you think that it serves them any good to see their father publicly humiliated, even if it was something he did to himself? I feel for them, and see them as the true victims of this supposedly victimless crime.

An accurate analysis

Greg Sheridan, writing in the Australian, separates the wheat from the chaff and neatly summarizes why there has been no peace between Israel and the Palestinians: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23337782-7583,00.html.

While he is fairly detailed, Sheridan does miss one central point, which is that there can never be peace where one side does not even acknowledge the other's right to exist. Until the Palestinians accept that Israel is not going to simply disappear (this qualification is subject to revision when Iran finally gets its nuclear bomb), a day I don't believe will ever occur, there cannot be peace. It's that simple.