If you hear Israelis talking about the quality of "Arab labour' please don't think that they're racist or hate Arabs. It's just that they have known for a long time what the honorable Dr. Yousuf al-Qaradhawi admitted to in 2005:
- the average Arab does not work: a state employee in an Arab country puts in an average of 27 minutes a day; not even half an hour, for crying out loud!
- the Zionist gang has risen above the Arabs because of their superior knowledge, technology, strength and work. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are not blood sucking vampires, ticks or fleas, we are not rats and snakes and we are not usurers; we work for a living! There you have it from a high authority (I hope that for some of the readers, those who might stumble upon me and keep watching me just as I watch what the enemy in the blogosphere is doing, this is your highest authority!). Please watch, listen and memorize: the Zionist gang came to a desert and made into an oasis because the Arabs were unable (or too lazy, or too stupid) to do anything with it. You don't believe me? Watch!
Or travel to Granada, take a tour of the Alhambra and look up to the lavishly decorated ceilings. Why they were so lavishly decorated? Because the Muslim rulers of Andalusia believed that nights were for sleeping and days were for resting. So they reclined on their cushions all day long cooling off, writing poetry and admiring the ceilings. Who worked? Someone else apparently, I guess the Christians and the Jews.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Muhamad Al-Dura was not killed.
But thousands of innocent people were murdered and maimed thanks to Charles Enderlin and his cameraman Talal-abu-Rahma.
When watching the video, please bear in mind that Talal abu-al-propaganda-Rahma studied business administration in the US. Or so he claims. So why the messenger isn't he capable of putting two words in the right order? In English that is.
This just in from France
The original contents of this post have been removed as it has come to my attention that this is one of those unstoppable "pass it on to all your friends" chain letters. Not that the contents were untrue or inaccurate. The problem was that the events described therein were not so recent, rather an account of anti-Semitic violence perpetrated in Europe in 2002, at the height of the second intifada (which by the way gained momentum in the wake of al-Dura mother of all hoaxes, but was carefully planned in advance). Six years is not such a long time, and the death toll exacted by the dead or not dead? boy, who, after being pronounced dead several times by director/cameraman Talal-abu-Rahma, still manages to raise his head from father's crotch, probably overwhelmed by the consequences of daily servings of hummus with fava beans coupled with faulty bodily hygiene, surely warrants a reminder of what we went through as far away in time as six years ago. I mean, if Arabs commemorate things that DID NOT happen 60 years ago (Merry Nakba and Many Many Returns of the Day once again!), why can we not commiserate with what our fellow Jews were subjected to in this decade?
So, without further ado, for all those not sharing in the opinion that the e-mail was a hoax and the contents no longer relevant, here's the link to the original post (to certify authenticity) and why not? the entire text for the convenience of all those who stumbled onto this page (my comments in brackets):
The canary in Europe's mine
By Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe, April 28, 2002
The rocks have been lifted all over Europe, and the snakes of Jew-hatred are slithering free.
In Belgium, thugs beat up the chief rabbi, kicking him in the face and calling him "a dirty Jew." Two synagogues in Brussels were firebombed; a third, in Charleroi, was sprayed with automatic weapons fire.
In Britain, the cover of the New Statesman, a left-wing magazine, depicted a large Star of David stabbing the Union Jack. Oxford professor Tom Paulin, a noted poet, told an Egyptian interviewer that American Jews who move to the West Bank and Gaza "should be shot dead." A Jewish yeshiva student reading the Psalms was stabbed 27 times on a London bus. Antisemitism, wrote a columnist in The Spectator, "has become respectable . . at London dinner tables." She quoted one member of the House of Lords: "The Jews have been asking for it and now, thank God, we can say what we think at last." (When the Queen will have to wear her hijab or else, and the muezzin will call the "fidels" to prayer from the top of Big Ben will it be politically correct to say that "the Brits have been asking for it and so forth?")
In Italy, the daily paper La Stampa published a Page 1 cartoon: A tank emblazoned with a Jewish star points its gun at the baby Jesus, who pleads, "Surely they don't want to kill me again?" In Corriere Della Sera, another cartoon showed Jesus trapped in his tomb, unable to rise, because Ariel Sharon, with rifle in hand, is sitting on the sepulchre. The caption: "Non resurrexit."
In Germany, a rabbinical student was beaten up in downtown Berlin and a grenade was thrown into a Jewish cemetery. Thousands of neo-Nazis held a rally, marching near a synagogue on the Jewish sabbath. Graffiti appeared on a synagogue in the western town of Herford: "Six million were not enough."
In Ukraine, skinheads attacked Jewish worshippers and smashed the windows of Kiev's main synagogue. Ukrainian police denied that the attack was anti-Jewish.
In Greece, Jewish graves were desecrated in Ioannina and vandals hurled paint at the Holocaust memorial in Salonica.
In Holland, an anti-Israel demonstration featured swastikas, photos of Hitler, and chants of "Sieg Heil" and "Jews into the sea."
In Slovakia, the Jewish cemetery of Kosice was invaded and 135 tombstones destroyed.
But nowhere have the flames of antisemitism burned more furiously than in France.
In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire. In Montpellier, the Jewish religious center was firebombed; so were synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseille; so was a Jewish school in Creteil. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse was attacked with Molotov cocktails, and on the statue of Alfred Dreyfus in Paris, the words "Dirty Jew" were painted. In Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team with sticks and metal bars. The bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers has been attacked three times in the last 14 months. According to the police, metropolitan Paris has seen 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents per day since Easter.
Walls in Jewish neighborhoods have been defaced with slogans proclaiming "Jews to the gas chambers" and "Death to the Jews." The weekly journal Le Nouvel Observateur published an appalling libel: It said Israeli soldiers rape Palestinian women, so that their relatives will kill them to preserve "family honor." The French ambassador to Great Britain was not sacked - and did not apologize - when it was learned that he had told guests at a London dinner that the world's troubles were the fault of "that shitty little country, Israel." (In fact, it has been proven subsequently that Israeli soldiers do not rape Arab women out of sheer racism - if you're a Jew, damned if you do, damned if you don't do, you know, why you do the things you do when you do what you do the way you do when you're a Jew; or if you are an Israeli soldier you might as well be Druze or Bedouin, if you don't rape you'll be counted as a Jew).
"At the start of the 21st century," writes Pierre-Andre Taguieff, a well-known social scientist, in a new book, "we are discovering that Jews are once again select targets of violence. . . . Hatred of the Jews has returned to France."
But of course, it never left. Not France; not Europe. Antisemitism, the oldest bigotry known to man, has been a part of European society since time immemorial. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, open Jew-hatred became unfashionable; but fashions change, and Europe is reverting to type. (If memory serves, did Europe not witness its own destruction along with the annihilation of European Jewry?)
To be sure, some Europeans are shocked by the re-emergence of Jew-hatred all over their continent. But the more common reaction has been complacency. "Stop saying that there is antisemitism in France," President Jacques Chirac scolded a Jewish editor in January. "There is no antisemitism in France." The European media have been vicious in condemning Israel's self-defense against Palestinian terrorism in the West Bank (it all starts when Israel strikes back); they have been far less agitated about anti-Jewish terror in their own backyard.
They are making a grievous mistake. For if today the violence and vitriol are aimed at the Jews, tomorrow they will be aimed at the Christians.
A timeless lesson of history is that it rarely ends with the Jews. Militant Islamist extremists were attacking and killing Jews long before they attacked and killed Americans on Sept. 11. The Nazis first set out to incinerate the Jews; in the end, all of Europe was ablaze (nice to see memory still serving).
Jews, it is often said, are the canary in the coal mine of civilization. When they become the objects of savagery and hate, it means the air has been poisoned and an explosion is soon to come. If Europeans don't rise up and turn against the Jew-haters, it is only a matter of time until the Jew-haters rise up and turn against them (I sincerely hope not).
There, I put the quote (which referred only to the violence in France and was calling for a boycott of things French) in its original context. Hope the people at the hoax-watch are satisfied.
So, without further ado, for all those not sharing in the opinion that the e-mail was a hoax and the contents no longer relevant, here's the link to the original post (to certify authenticity) and why not? the entire text for the convenience of all those who stumbled onto this page (my comments in brackets):
The canary in Europe's mine
By Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe, April 28, 2002
The rocks have been lifted all over Europe, and the snakes of Jew-hatred are slithering free.
In Belgium, thugs beat up the chief rabbi, kicking him in the face and calling him "a dirty Jew." Two synagogues in Brussels were firebombed; a third, in Charleroi, was sprayed with automatic weapons fire.
In Britain, the cover of the New Statesman, a left-wing magazine, depicted a large Star of David stabbing the Union Jack. Oxford professor Tom Paulin, a noted poet, told an Egyptian interviewer that American Jews who move to the West Bank and Gaza "should be shot dead." A Jewish yeshiva student reading the Psalms was stabbed 27 times on a London bus. Antisemitism, wrote a columnist in The Spectator, "has become respectable . . at London dinner tables." She quoted one member of the House of Lords: "The Jews have been asking for it and now, thank God, we can say what we think at last." (When the Queen will have to wear her hijab or else, and the muezzin will call the "fidels" to prayer from the top of Big Ben will it be politically correct to say that "the Brits have been asking for it and so forth?")
In Italy, the daily paper La Stampa published a Page 1 cartoon: A tank emblazoned with a Jewish star points its gun at the baby Jesus, who pleads, "Surely they don't want to kill me again?" In Corriere Della Sera, another cartoon showed Jesus trapped in his tomb, unable to rise, because Ariel Sharon, with rifle in hand, is sitting on the sepulchre. The caption: "Non resurrexit."
In Germany, a rabbinical student was beaten up in downtown Berlin and a grenade was thrown into a Jewish cemetery. Thousands of neo-Nazis held a rally, marching near a synagogue on the Jewish sabbath. Graffiti appeared on a synagogue in the western town of Herford: "Six million were not enough."
In Ukraine, skinheads attacked Jewish worshippers and smashed the windows of Kiev's main synagogue. Ukrainian police denied that the attack was anti-Jewish.
In Greece, Jewish graves were desecrated in Ioannina and vandals hurled paint at the Holocaust memorial in Salonica.
In Holland, an anti-Israel demonstration featured swastikas, photos of Hitler, and chants of "Sieg Heil" and "Jews into the sea."
In Slovakia, the Jewish cemetery of Kosice was invaded and 135 tombstones destroyed.
But nowhere have the flames of antisemitism burned more furiously than in France.
In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire. In Montpellier, the Jewish religious center was firebombed; so were synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseille; so was a Jewish school in Creteil. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse was attacked with Molotov cocktails, and on the statue of Alfred Dreyfus in Paris, the words "Dirty Jew" were painted. In Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team with sticks and metal bars. The bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers has been attacked three times in the last 14 months. According to the police, metropolitan Paris has seen 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents per day since Easter.
Walls in Jewish neighborhoods have been defaced with slogans proclaiming "Jews to the gas chambers" and "Death to the Jews." The weekly journal Le Nouvel Observateur published an appalling libel: It said Israeli soldiers rape Palestinian women, so that their relatives will kill them to preserve "family honor." The French ambassador to Great Britain was not sacked - and did not apologize - when it was learned that he had told guests at a London dinner that the world's troubles were the fault of "that shitty little country, Israel." (In fact, it has been proven subsequently that Israeli soldiers do not rape Arab women out of sheer racism - if you're a Jew, damned if you do, damned if you don't do, you know, why you do the things you do when you do what you do the way you do when you're a Jew; or if you are an Israeli soldier you might as well be Druze or Bedouin, if you don't rape you'll be counted as a Jew).
"At the start of the 21st century," writes Pierre-Andre Taguieff, a well-known social scientist, in a new book, "we are discovering that Jews are once again select targets of violence. . . . Hatred of the Jews has returned to France."
But of course, it never left. Not France; not Europe. Antisemitism, the oldest bigotry known to man, has been a part of European society since time immemorial. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, open Jew-hatred became unfashionable; but fashions change, and Europe is reverting to type. (If memory serves, did Europe not witness its own destruction along with the annihilation of European Jewry?)
To be sure, some Europeans are shocked by the re-emergence of Jew-hatred all over their continent. But the more common reaction has been complacency. "Stop saying that there is antisemitism in France," President Jacques Chirac scolded a Jewish editor in January. "There is no antisemitism in France." The European media have been vicious in condemning Israel's self-defense against Palestinian terrorism in the West Bank (it all starts when Israel strikes back); they have been far less agitated about anti-Jewish terror in their own backyard.
They are making a grievous mistake. For if today the violence and vitriol are aimed at the Jews, tomorrow they will be aimed at the Christians.
A timeless lesson of history is that it rarely ends with the Jews. Militant Islamist extremists were attacking and killing Jews long before they attacked and killed Americans on Sept. 11. The Nazis first set out to incinerate the Jews; in the end, all of Europe was ablaze (nice to see memory still serving).
Jews, it is often said, are the canary in the coal mine of civilization. When they become the objects of savagery and hate, it means the air has been poisoned and an explosion is soon to come. If Europeans don't rise up and turn against the Jew-haters, it is only a matter of time until the Jew-haters rise up and turn against them (I sincerely hope not).
There, I put the quote (which referred only to the violence in France and was calling for a boycott of things French) in its original context. Hope the people at the hoax-watch are satisfied.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Separated at Birth?
Find the differences (if you can)! And while you are at it, what do you make of the (perfect mis)match between the speaker on the right and the logo on the stand? Ah, God does work in mysterious ways!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Let Me Rephrase That: Can You Sleep at Night, Mr. Enderlin?
I am not sure whether I wasn't quite aware or simply clean forgot the role of the Pallywood-France2 co-production aka the al-bullshit-in-your-face-dura killing, factually based on the sworn deposition of Talal-abu-I-perjured-myself-but-what-the-heck-the-JOOOOOZ-will-get-blame-anyway-Rahma in the 9/11 massacres (yes, ladies and gentlemen, the intended killing of unsuspecting and defenseless civilians, especially in such large numbers does a massacre define) and in the vicious slaying of my fellow Jew Daniel Pearl of blessed memory, but somehow I ommitted these heinous crimes from my previous post. So if I had any doubts about your feelings for your fellow Israelis, I am pretty sure now that you harbor no feelings at all for Americans and members of other nations massacred in the wake of your tasteless farce. What you have is unfaltering trust in your handler, said T-a-B. Which makes me think of a distinguished compatriot of yours (French, not Israeli) of yesteryear, you know the one of the "Dubito ergo cogito" renown. You never had a doubt in your mind, you never thought. Distinguished, realiable and professional journalist ( or not!)...
Therefore, to make good on my bad, I am crossposting this brilliant but painful piece genius from Breath of the Beast:
Friday, November 16, 2007
Enderlin's Ocean of Blood- Why the Second Draft is Important
Charles Enderlin is adrift in a rising ocean of blood. He is either so arrogant or so blinded by his fear that he is helpless to do what needs to be done to stem the tide. It is a tragedy of Biblical scale. When it all started, he was riding an exhilarating wave. (Backgound: here, here and here)
In October of 2000 he had what must have been a dream job. He was the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for France2. He got to live in one of the great, cosmopolitan, civilized cities of the world and report daily on a simmering, dangerous, richly symbolic conflict at the cutting edge between civilization and chaos. There was always a story. Because he lived and worked in Jerusalem there was never any censorship or physical threat or even any physical discomfort. He had Palestinian stringers who fed him footage and information from the unsafe and difficult areas so he could sit in Jerusalem, edit film in his fuzzy robe and slippers and be a war correspondent.
I am guessing that he just got too sloppy and arrogant to see how he was being used by his trusted Palestinian sidekick Talal Abu Rahma. Rahma knew the boss wasn’t disposed to check up on his work as long as he delivered serviceable goods and he gave him a juicy scoop once in a while. One day, Rahma overplayed the deal and Enderlin was setup for a fall. The rest of the story boils down to what Enderlin knew, when he knew it and whether or not he would take responsibility for it.
His now controversial report on the alleged shooting of a twelve year old boy named Muhammed al Durah at Netzarim Junction in Gaza vaulted him to the top of the jounalistic world. He had “scooped” everyone and had presented a perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict that had been hinted at by the media and longed for by the liberal and leftists in the dank guilt-ridden recesses of the west- especially Europe. It quickly became apparent that although it had never actually been seen or proven, there was a large and willing potion of the audience that readily took to the image of the Israelis as oppressors and thugs. The film and Enderlin’s presentation of it would, if true, have been proof of murderous brutality by the Israeli army. Enderlin reported that they killed the boy in cold blood. Looking at the report footage now, with the knowledge and background that has come to light it is hard to believe that such ambiguous and poorly staged stuff could have caught the imagination of the world the way it did. But, then, you had the voice of Charles Enderlin telling you what to believe about it in your ear and it is always dangerous to underestimate the size and explosivity of the subterranean lake of anti-Semitic blood-libel that seems to bubble and churn beneath the entire world’s population.
Enderlin’s report and the image it presented roiled that stygian lake from its dormancy. The news media picked it up and propagated it. He suddenly found himself riding a tidal wave of notoriety and recognition. Behaving more like a propagandist than a journalist, he arraigned for his scoop footage to be distributed to any other media outlet that would carry it- free of charge. Usually other media are made to pay dearly for hot items like this, but Charles “Scoopy” Enderlin was in full self-promotion mode.
Still, when questions came up about the sad but oddly bloodless video footage Charles the Delicate, demurred. he refused to back up his report with more proof. Oh, he had more proof, he said, he just didn’t want to bruise our sensitivities. He did it for our own good.
A little more than three weeks after the incident, when some ungrateful defenders of Israel began asking questions and casting doubt on your story and you let it out- (not the actual proof mind you, that might have been too much for us) you told Telerama magazine:
“I cut the images of the child's agony (death throes), they were unbearable. The story was told, the news delivered. It would not have added anything more...”
What a hero he wanted to seem. Not only did he have the goods on the Israelis, he was so very cultivated and civilized about it. Even the Israelis were afraid to call his bluff. What if he did have heart-rending footage of the child’s death throes? They recoiled in horror. Rather than risk even more heart breaking images coming to light, the Israelis pulled back and left it alone.
But a nagging doubt still tormented some of us. Landes, Karsenty, Poller, Gross and others- those with enough faith in what their eyes could see, and enough experience with the Leftist media and its toadying up to the Palestinian propaganda machine to see that it was a bluff and, just as in a poker game, if a bluff is not called, the bluffer wins all.
From the isolation and security of his Jerusalem studio, which he never actually left to investigate this story himself, he had pronounced the boy dead, even as we can see him peeking out from under his arm looking for all the world like a kid who might just be tired of play-acting. It was as if he were saying, “Is it ok to get up? I’m tired of this. I’d like to go home now.”
Meanwhile, if Enderlin had looked down, he would have noticed that the wave he was riding was actually a tsunami of blood. It crashed over the Middle East, inundating it in rage and violence. It has continued to continuously circle the globe, splashing gore wherever it touches.
The wave washed over those two off duty Israeli reservists who took a wrong turn, got lost in the west bank and were murdered in Ramallah two weeks after the initial broadcast report aired. More accurately, they were torn limb from bloody limb by an enraged crowd in Ramallah as they chanted the name al Durah over and over. Enderlin might might want us to believe that the savagery in Ramallah might have been worse that day had those “death throes” he used as emotional blackmail been shown. I don’t know how.
In an insensate, vengeful rage they stormed the police station (the police stood by and watched). They beat, stabbed and mutilated the men. They threw them out of a second story window. They pummeled them and mangled them. Finally, they took their internal organs out of their bodies, held them aloft and paraded around with them. I watched that video.
All the while, Monsieur Enderlin was posing as the moderate and even slightly charitable correspondent. He seemed to expect us to thank him for holding back the footage that he claimed to be “really” inflammatory. He had the advantage and no one was able to mount a formidable enough challenge to force his deception into the open. His bosses at France2 backed him completely. So he was able to masquerade as good man who was simply too honest to not tell his compelling story- even if it meant he “had to make the sacrifice” of becoming world renowned in the process. Poor Monsieur Enderlin, thank you for taking the trouble to spare a forlorn world the horror of the truth about Muhammad al Durah’s death- this was so much better.
The wave of blood made it to the US a year later. On September 11, 2001 we here in America watched thousands of our fellow citizens incinerated in airplanes, leaping to their deaths to escape flames in their offices and crushed to a fine powdery dust by collapsing concrete. Afterward we heard Osama bin Laden cite the name of al Durah in righteous indignation in his demonic screed of justification.
Two years later Daniel Pearl was lost under the wave when the name and image of al Durah was used (as incitement and justification) in the video that gruesomely depicted the death by beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter after he was forced to kneel and “confess” to being Jewish. Ask yourself why this blatantly anti-Semitic atrocity inspired some much less horror in the west than the faked death of Muhammad al Durah and you are forced to confront the fact that the people who were harmed the most by this whole sordid affair are the ones who see themselves as the victors of its aftermath.
The greatest harm caused by the wave was done where it first came ashore among the Palestinian people and the larger Islamic world beyond them. Now this one is overlooked very easily because, as he himself has implied, the Arabs and Islamists are held to a very low standard of behavior and comportment- especially by him and most of the rest of the mainstream media. In a stunning example of the pernicious effects of multiculturalism he and others in the employ of France2 have dismissed the staging and fraud exposed bye ven the most superficial analysis of the outtake footage that we have seen that day as just an aspect of “their (the Palestinian) culture”. The Arabs’ atrocious behavior has been excused as “cultural” and been consistently rewarded and reinforced by people like Enderlin that they have become “The People of the Tantrum”.
There was never any doubt that the story about al Durah served as an accelerant to the flames of Islamic inferiority and rage, Enderlin played a leading role in keeping them locked in the dungeon of resentment, intolerance and xenophobia. He gave them a tangible reason to stay enraged and aggressive and he allowed them to let their imaginations run riot on the idea that was even more distressing footage that they had not seen..
From Enderlin’s point of view, what was the downside, really? Even if his report had been truthful, even if he were dealing with us honestly about his reasons for hiding the footage, even if he had fully come forward with all of the rushes, it could hardly have made things worse than they have turned out. It made for a nice steady news cycle; the rage and violence produced as many incidents as he cared to cover, and his part in the fraud (whether as a willing tool or an unwitting useful idiot) gave him a nice cozy access relationship to the newsmakers.
But Last week, when Charles Enderlin showed up in court with nine minutes less video than he had been ordered to appear with, it was clear that he now had dropped the pretense that he had additional and more damning footage. He is now officially not riding the wave any longer; he is in danger of being pulled under by it. His arrogance when he informed the court that the footage that he did not bring either “didn’t concern that day” or “were irrelevant” actually drew laughs from the courtroom. His equally laughable narrations that went along with the actual screening were just as ridiculous.
Perhaps it is just “his culture” (as he would say of the Arabs) as a high priest of media that makes him believe that he can tell the rest of the world what is of concern and what is not relevant but I suspect (and hope) that the judge will want to be the one making that call in her courtroom.
But that is a legal question and subject to the arcane French laws that allowed Enderlin to win the first case against Karsenty without proving that he (Enderlin) had not known that the report he aired on the incident at Netzarim was based on inaccurate information. The way the law is written made it possible for Enderlin to take Karsenty to court and accuse him of libel without having to prove that Karsenty was wrong in what he had said. Thus the French court was at its own discretion on how hard to look at Enderlin. In this second trial, the court has decided that the plausibility of Karsenty’s original assessment of Enderlin’s work should be considered and that is why Enderlin was finally ordered to produce the video.
As of this past Wednesday, the question is now no longer whether Charles Enderlin is a liar or not, the question is only when, if ever, does he tell the truth and how much of the truth does he tell? Was he lying before he was forced to the courtroom or is he lying now? Really, it makes little difference. What matters is that he must lose his license to misinform the public and he must lose it now!
The management at France2 that gave him a platform to misrepresent and then helped him lie and cover-up should be sacked also. Given that France2 is a government agency, the involvement and motives of the French government (at least pre-Sarkosy) must be questioned.
Beyond the tragedy and the necessary punishment of Enderlin and France2 there are still greater and more perplexing unanswered questions. Why did the world so eagerly embrace the al Durah affair as a new reason to fear and hate “The Jews” (as embodied by Israel). Why were so many people and governments so easily sucked in by this transparent jape of a “news” story while the great and stinking atrocities of our times, the slaughter of innocents in suicide attacks, are shrugged and clucked at? Why, even now, though it is has been on shaky ground since 2004 when Enderlin publicly retrenched to the position that the boy was “killed in a crossfire” instead of intentionally by Israelis will the stain not go away? Why has none of the courtroom drama of last week gained any attention from the Western media? Here is a now proven lie, told in arrogance and perpetuated without conscience that has cause a tidal wave of blood. Who will answer for it?
The sad truth is that no one can stop a Tsunami. Once the propagation of the Icon began, there was no holding it back. Only honesty, fact checking and, most important, safeguards against allowing the power of the media to be manipulated by the likes of Talal Abu Rahma who has publicly stated that his professional mission has more to do with his tribal loyalties than with ethical journalism. Accepting an award in Morocco in 2001 for his work, he told a reporter: "I went into journalism to carry on the fight for my people." In other words, Enderlin made himself a dupe to a propagandist from a culture that views journalism as an extension of war- by other means.
It is not enough for us to respond to these media induced tragedies. Once they have the force of a tidal wave, terrible harm is done before we can even open our mouths to speak. We have to identify and contain the irresponsible, undisciplined and dishonest practices (e.g. unholy alliances between hostile government propaganda agents and our all-too-willing media) before they can create devastating images that get a life of their own. That is why Second Draft is important. We are dedicated to identifying and documenting past cases, and speeding up the process whereby we identify and challenge new cases.
Richard Landes is on his way home from Paris as I post this. Landes has played a key role in the unraveling of Enderlin’s defenses and now that Chirac is not in power to give him the influential testimony of a serving president and if Judge Trébucq believes her eyes instead of Enderlin’s narration, the case should be decided against him. Richard’s dedication to not just correct the lie of al Durah but to learn from it and plan for the prevention of the next variation that may arise is a critical development in the battle for truly free, honest and responsible media.
In the coming months we at Second Draft will be announcing a number of key initiatives to further Richard’s work but for now I’d like to congratulate my friend and to express the hope that all of the hard work that has brought us to the point of at least a symbolic victory on al Durah, and all of the blood spilled in the name of the phony martyr might never have to happen again (or, at least be decreased) if we do our job well.
Posted by Yaacov Ben Moshe at 9:00 AM
Therefore, to make good on my bad, I am crossposting this brilliant but painful piece genius from Breath of the Beast:
Friday, November 16, 2007
Enderlin's Ocean of Blood- Why the Second Draft is Important
Charles Enderlin is adrift in a rising ocean of blood. He is either so arrogant or so blinded by his fear that he is helpless to do what needs to be done to stem the tide. It is a tragedy of Biblical scale. When it all started, he was riding an exhilarating wave. (Backgound: here, here and here)
In October of 2000 he had what must have been a dream job. He was the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for France2. He got to live in one of the great, cosmopolitan, civilized cities of the world and report daily on a simmering, dangerous, richly symbolic conflict at the cutting edge between civilization and chaos. There was always a story. Because he lived and worked in Jerusalem there was never any censorship or physical threat or even any physical discomfort. He had Palestinian stringers who fed him footage and information from the unsafe and difficult areas so he could sit in Jerusalem, edit film in his fuzzy robe and slippers and be a war correspondent.
I am guessing that he just got too sloppy and arrogant to see how he was being used by his trusted Palestinian sidekick Talal Abu Rahma. Rahma knew the boss wasn’t disposed to check up on his work as long as he delivered serviceable goods and he gave him a juicy scoop once in a while. One day, Rahma overplayed the deal and Enderlin was setup for a fall. The rest of the story boils down to what Enderlin knew, when he knew it and whether or not he would take responsibility for it.
His now controversial report on the alleged shooting of a twelve year old boy named Muhammed al Durah at Netzarim Junction in Gaza vaulted him to the top of the jounalistic world. He had “scooped” everyone and had presented a perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict that had been hinted at by the media and longed for by the liberal and leftists in the dank guilt-ridden recesses of the west- especially Europe. It quickly became apparent that although it had never actually been seen or proven, there was a large and willing potion of the audience that readily took to the image of the Israelis as oppressors and thugs. The film and Enderlin’s presentation of it would, if true, have been proof of murderous brutality by the Israeli army. Enderlin reported that they killed the boy in cold blood. Looking at the report footage now, with the knowledge and background that has come to light it is hard to believe that such ambiguous and poorly staged stuff could have caught the imagination of the world the way it did. But, then, you had the voice of Charles Enderlin telling you what to believe about it in your ear and it is always dangerous to underestimate the size and explosivity of the subterranean lake of anti-Semitic blood-libel that seems to bubble and churn beneath the entire world’s population.
Enderlin’s report and the image it presented roiled that stygian lake from its dormancy. The news media picked it up and propagated it. He suddenly found himself riding a tidal wave of notoriety and recognition. Behaving more like a propagandist than a journalist, he arraigned for his scoop footage to be distributed to any other media outlet that would carry it- free of charge. Usually other media are made to pay dearly for hot items like this, but Charles “Scoopy” Enderlin was in full self-promotion mode.
Still, when questions came up about the sad but oddly bloodless video footage Charles the Delicate, demurred. he refused to back up his report with more proof. Oh, he had more proof, he said, he just didn’t want to bruise our sensitivities. He did it for our own good.
A little more than three weeks after the incident, when some ungrateful defenders of Israel began asking questions and casting doubt on your story and you let it out- (not the actual proof mind you, that might have been too much for us) you told Telerama magazine:
“I cut the images of the child's agony (death throes), they were unbearable. The story was told, the news delivered. It would not have added anything more...”
What a hero he wanted to seem. Not only did he have the goods on the Israelis, he was so very cultivated and civilized about it. Even the Israelis were afraid to call his bluff. What if he did have heart-rending footage of the child’s death throes? They recoiled in horror. Rather than risk even more heart breaking images coming to light, the Israelis pulled back and left it alone.
But a nagging doubt still tormented some of us. Landes, Karsenty, Poller, Gross and others- those with enough faith in what their eyes could see, and enough experience with the Leftist media and its toadying up to the Palestinian propaganda machine to see that it was a bluff and, just as in a poker game, if a bluff is not called, the bluffer wins all.
From the isolation and security of his Jerusalem studio, which he never actually left to investigate this story himself, he had pronounced the boy dead, even as we can see him peeking out from under his arm looking for all the world like a kid who might just be tired of play-acting. It was as if he were saying, “Is it ok to get up? I’m tired of this. I’d like to go home now.”
Meanwhile, if Enderlin had looked down, he would have noticed that the wave he was riding was actually a tsunami of blood. It crashed over the Middle East, inundating it in rage and violence. It has continued to continuously circle the globe, splashing gore wherever it touches.
The wave washed over those two off duty Israeli reservists who took a wrong turn, got lost in the west bank and were murdered in Ramallah two weeks after the initial broadcast report aired. More accurately, they were torn limb from bloody limb by an enraged crowd in Ramallah as they chanted the name al Durah over and over. Enderlin might might want us to believe that the savagery in Ramallah might have been worse that day had those “death throes” he used as emotional blackmail been shown. I don’t know how.
In an insensate, vengeful rage they stormed the police station (the police stood by and watched). They beat, stabbed and mutilated the men. They threw them out of a second story window. They pummeled them and mangled them. Finally, they took their internal organs out of their bodies, held them aloft and paraded around with them. I watched that video.
All the while, Monsieur Enderlin was posing as the moderate and even slightly charitable correspondent. He seemed to expect us to thank him for holding back the footage that he claimed to be “really” inflammatory. He had the advantage and no one was able to mount a formidable enough challenge to force his deception into the open. His bosses at France2 backed him completely. So he was able to masquerade as good man who was simply too honest to not tell his compelling story- even if it meant he “had to make the sacrifice” of becoming world renowned in the process. Poor Monsieur Enderlin, thank you for taking the trouble to spare a forlorn world the horror of the truth about Muhammad al Durah’s death- this was so much better.
The wave of blood made it to the US a year later. On September 11, 2001 we here in America watched thousands of our fellow citizens incinerated in airplanes, leaping to their deaths to escape flames in their offices and crushed to a fine powdery dust by collapsing concrete. Afterward we heard Osama bin Laden cite the name of al Durah in righteous indignation in his demonic screed of justification.
Two years later Daniel Pearl was lost under the wave when the name and image of al Durah was used (as incitement and justification) in the video that gruesomely depicted the death by beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter after he was forced to kneel and “confess” to being Jewish. Ask yourself why this blatantly anti-Semitic atrocity inspired some much less horror in the west than the faked death of Muhammad al Durah and you are forced to confront the fact that the people who were harmed the most by this whole sordid affair are the ones who see themselves as the victors of its aftermath.
The greatest harm caused by the wave was done where it first came ashore among the Palestinian people and the larger Islamic world beyond them. Now this one is overlooked very easily because, as he himself has implied, the Arabs and Islamists are held to a very low standard of behavior and comportment- especially by him and most of the rest of the mainstream media. In a stunning example of the pernicious effects of multiculturalism he and others in the employ of France2 have dismissed the staging and fraud exposed bye ven the most superficial analysis of the outtake footage that we have seen that day as just an aspect of “their (the Palestinian) culture”. The Arabs’ atrocious behavior has been excused as “cultural” and been consistently rewarded and reinforced by people like Enderlin that they have become “The People of the Tantrum”.
There was never any doubt that the story about al Durah served as an accelerant to the flames of Islamic inferiority and rage, Enderlin played a leading role in keeping them locked in the dungeon of resentment, intolerance and xenophobia. He gave them a tangible reason to stay enraged and aggressive and he allowed them to let their imaginations run riot on the idea that was even more distressing footage that they had not seen..
From Enderlin’s point of view, what was the downside, really? Even if his report had been truthful, even if he were dealing with us honestly about his reasons for hiding the footage, even if he had fully come forward with all of the rushes, it could hardly have made things worse than they have turned out. It made for a nice steady news cycle; the rage and violence produced as many incidents as he cared to cover, and his part in the fraud (whether as a willing tool or an unwitting useful idiot) gave him a nice cozy access relationship to the newsmakers.
But Last week, when Charles Enderlin showed up in court with nine minutes less video than he had been ordered to appear with, it was clear that he now had dropped the pretense that he had additional and more damning footage. He is now officially not riding the wave any longer; he is in danger of being pulled under by it. His arrogance when he informed the court that the footage that he did not bring either “didn’t concern that day” or “were irrelevant” actually drew laughs from the courtroom. His equally laughable narrations that went along with the actual screening were just as ridiculous.
Perhaps it is just “his culture” (as he would say of the Arabs) as a high priest of media that makes him believe that he can tell the rest of the world what is of concern and what is not relevant but I suspect (and hope) that the judge will want to be the one making that call in her courtroom.
But that is a legal question and subject to the arcane French laws that allowed Enderlin to win the first case against Karsenty without proving that he (Enderlin) had not known that the report he aired on the incident at Netzarim was based on inaccurate information. The way the law is written made it possible for Enderlin to take Karsenty to court and accuse him of libel without having to prove that Karsenty was wrong in what he had said. Thus the French court was at its own discretion on how hard to look at Enderlin. In this second trial, the court has decided that the plausibility of Karsenty’s original assessment of Enderlin’s work should be considered and that is why Enderlin was finally ordered to produce the video.
As of this past Wednesday, the question is now no longer whether Charles Enderlin is a liar or not, the question is only when, if ever, does he tell the truth and how much of the truth does he tell? Was he lying before he was forced to the courtroom or is he lying now? Really, it makes little difference. What matters is that he must lose his license to misinform the public and he must lose it now!
The management at France2 that gave him a platform to misrepresent and then helped him lie and cover-up should be sacked also. Given that France2 is a government agency, the involvement and motives of the French government (at least pre-Sarkosy) must be questioned.
Beyond the tragedy and the necessary punishment of Enderlin and France2 there are still greater and more perplexing unanswered questions. Why did the world so eagerly embrace the al Durah affair as a new reason to fear and hate “The Jews” (as embodied by Israel). Why were so many people and governments so easily sucked in by this transparent jape of a “news” story while the great and stinking atrocities of our times, the slaughter of innocents in suicide attacks, are shrugged and clucked at? Why, even now, though it is has been on shaky ground since 2004 when Enderlin publicly retrenched to the position that the boy was “killed in a crossfire” instead of intentionally by Israelis will the stain not go away? Why has none of the courtroom drama of last week gained any attention from the Western media? Here is a now proven lie, told in arrogance and perpetuated without conscience that has cause a tidal wave of blood. Who will answer for it?
The sad truth is that no one can stop a Tsunami. Once the propagation of the Icon began, there was no holding it back. Only honesty, fact checking and, most important, safeguards against allowing the power of the media to be manipulated by the likes of Talal Abu Rahma who has publicly stated that his professional mission has more to do with his tribal loyalties than with ethical journalism. Accepting an award in Morocco in 2001 for his work, he told a reporter: "I went into journalism to carry on the fight for my people." In other words, Enderlin made himself a dupe to a propagandist from a culture that views journalism as an extension of war- by other means.
It is not enough for us to respond to these media induced tragedies. Once they have the force of a tidal wave, terrible harm is done before we can even open our mouths to speak. We have to identify and contain the irresponsible, undisciplined and dishonest practices (e.g. unholy alliances between hostile government propaganda agents and our all-too-willing media) before they can create devastating images that get a life of their own. That is why Second Draft is important. We are dedicated to identifying and documenting past cases, and speeding up the process whereby we identify and challenge new cases.
Richard Landes is on his way home from Paris as I post this. Landes has played a key role in the unraveling of Enderlin’s defenses and now that Chirac is not in power to give him the influential testimony of a serving president and if Judge Trébucq believes her eyes instead of Enderlin’s narration, the case should be decided against him. Richard’s dedication to not just correct the lie of al Durah but to learn from it and plan for the prevention of the next variation that may arise is a critical development in the battle for truly free, honest and responsible media.
In the coming months we at Second Draft will be announcing a number of key initiatives to further Richard’s work but for now I’d like to congratulate my friend and to express the hope that all of the hard work that has brought us to the point of at least a symbolic victory on al Durah, and all of the blood spilled in the name of the phony martyr might never have to happen again (or, at least be decreased) if we do our job well.
Posted by Yaacov Ben Moshe at 9:00 AM
Monday, May 26, 2008
How Do You Sleep at Night, Mr. Enderlin?
I'm asking, because it must have dawned on you by now that the blind faith you placed in Talal abu-Rahma, your cameraman, has exacted a much bloodier price from the Palestinians than from the Israelis . And their, the Arabs', blood, must weigh heavily on your conscience, since I don't quite suspect that you feel for your fellow Israelis.
Friday, May 23, 2008
An Open Thank You Letter to Charles Enderlin and France2
Thank You Charles Enderlin and France2-
We have to admit we were angry with you for libeling Israel that we wanted to get you to take it back. It wasn’t just anger. We wanted to make it impossible for you to ever release such a tidal wave of violence and blood on us again. After the disastrous aftermath of your al Durah report, so many people suffered and died, we have come to think of you more as a war criminal than just an unethical journalist. Really, we do not feel that you deserve to be thought of as an honorable journalist. Fortunately for us your character flaws have relieved us of the responsibility to attack you. If you had ignored our criticism, let the whole thing drop and not sued anyone you would still be on top of the world today and Israel and the Jewish people would still be blackened by your libel.
Your restless guilt and vanity would not let you do the smart thing, though, and you sued Philipe Karsenty. Only those blinded by self-importance and its underlying insecurity, on the one hand, and driven by a need to deny fault on the other, would have felt the need.
So you showed your weakness and hubris just by filing the suit. Even more important though, from your law suit flowed the healing drama in the French courtroom in March. First, you demeaned yourself by bringing obviously altered tape into evidence into the courtroom. Then you further revealed your self delusion by pretending not to notice the derisive laughter of the gallery or that even the judge who was questioning you was treating you and your evasive explanations with amused disdain.
Now that the judgment is published, Charles, we are very pleased to see that you are going to do your best to help us to help you to complete your self-destruction by taking it to a higher court. We never had the stomach for the dirty fight you are waging we do not like to destroy other people- no matter how richly deserved. We, therefore are especially grateful to you that you have not had the moral fiber to resist you darker instincts and have thereby undertaken to do the job yourself.
We are not character assassins- but we are enjoying immensely watching your character commit a spectacularly public suicide.
Sincerely,
Yaacov Ben Moshe,
Second Draft
Friday, May 23, 2008
An Open Thank You Letter to Charles Enderlin and France2
Thank You Charles Enderlin and France2-
We have to admit we were angry with you for libeling Israel that we wanted to get you to take it back. It wasn’t just anger. We wanted to make it impossible for you to ever release such a tidal wave of violence and blood on us again. After the disastrous aftermath of your al Durah report, so many people suffered and died, we have come to think of you more as a war criminal than just an unethical journalist. Really, we do not feel that you deserve to be thought of as an honorable journalist. Fortunately for us your character flaws have relieved us of the responsibility to attack you. If you had ignored our criticism, let the whole thing drop and not sued anyone you would still be on top of the world today and Israel and the Jewish people would still be blackened by your libel.
Your restless guilt and vanity would not let you do the smart thing, though, and you sued Philipe Karsenty. Only those blinded by self-importance and its underlying insecurity, on the one hand, and driven by a need to deny fault on the other, would have felt the need.
So you showed your weakness and hubris just by filing the suit. Even more important though, from your law suit flowed the healing drama in the French courtroom in March. First, you demeaned yourself by bringing obviously altered tape into evidence into the courtroom. Then you further revealed your self delusion by pretending not to notice the derisive laughter of the gallery or that even the judge who was questioning you was treating you and your evasive explanations with amused disdain.
Now that the judgment is published, Charles, we are very pleased to see that you are going to do your best to help us to help you to complete your self-destruction by taking it to a higher court. We never had the stomach for the dirty fight you are waging we do not like to destroy other people- no matter how richly deserved. We, therefore are especially grateful to you that you have not had the moral fiber to resist you darker instincts and have thereby undertaken to do the job yourself.
We are not character assassins- but we are enjoying immensely watching your character commit a spectacularly public suicide.
Sincerely,
Yaacov Ben Moshe,
Second Draft
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ISRAEL!
This is us on our 60th birthday, after all the wars, intifadahs, terrorist attacks, after all the attempts of driving us into the sea. And this is pretty much how things look like in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, despite their sobbing and whining. And this is what our neighbors would look like if they put their hatred aside and aspired to something other than annihilating our tiny but resilient and resourceful nation.Happy Birthday, Israel, and Many Many Happy Returns of the Day!
(drawing: Dovi Keich)Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Gaza Impoverished? West Bank Kinky and Wet!
This is the fashion that is turning the Palestinians into "baby making machines", as Khaled Mashal boasted during his daughter's wedding, certain that soon she would become an egg-laying queen bee.
Women's lingerie hangs from a balcony as a veiled woman watches a Palestinian Prisoners' Day demonstration in the West Bank city of Nablus, Thursday, April 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)
Secondly, I keep hearing that we've been stealing the Palestinians' water. Not according to the picture below. In any case, it seems that this year's rainfall hasn't been so good so far, so Israel is getting ready for water-saving mood. Good to see West Bankers enjoying the pool complete with what appears to be water chutes. Yet we are treating them worse than the Nazis treated us. By the way, are any Jews allowed the use of the pool, or are they Judenrein in PA territory? Or is Apartheid a more appropriate term? Anyway, it appears that we didn't manage to steal all of the water (although I heard that we siphoned off Gaza water reserves). And in case you didn't know, we have the ability to vacuum the air above Gaza and the West Bank, just like in the movies.
A Palestinian jumps into a swimming pool to cool off during hot weather in the West Bank town of Jericho April 15, 2008. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (WEST BANK)
Thirdly, about impoverished Gaza. Does this look like poverty? Because this is an impoverished olympic athlete hoping to win gold for Gaza on the track. By the way, they just compared their "plight" to that of the Warsaw Ghetto. Which reminds me of the Jewish athletic team at the Berlin Olympic Games. 
Nader al-Masri displays his trophies in his house in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip April 6, 2008. One of a four-member Palestinian team who hope to compete in China and the only representative from the impoverished Gaza Strip, Palestinian athlete Nader al-Masri is determined to make Gaza proud at the Beijing Olympics in August. Picture taken on April 6, 2008. To match feature OLYMPICS/PALESTINIAN REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
Nader al-Masri prepares to go for a run as his daughter watches in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip April 6, 2008. One of a four-member Palestinian team who hope to compete in China and the only representative from the impoverished Gaza Strip, Palestinian athlete Nader al-Masri is determined to make Gaza proud at the Beijing Olympics in August. Picture taken on April 6, 2008. To match feature OLYMPICS/PALESTINIAN REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
Yeees, so hungry and impoverished...
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Martyrdom Better than Peace with Israel
From the Palestinian Media Watch a spine-chilling dialogue, proof of criminal brainwashing of innocent children. How can there be any hope of peace between Israel and the Arabs when they so twist their young ones' minds? Notice how obscenely pleased the anchor is when these little girls express their wish to blow themselves up just to kill a few Jews. Where is UNICEF?
Q: You spoke highly of martyrdom. Do you still think that becoming a martyr is good?
Walaa (11 years old): Martyrdom is very, very beautiful. Everybody wishes to become a martyr. What can be better than going to heaven?
Q: What would you prefer: peace with full recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people, or martyrdom?
W:: Martyrdom. (Anchor nods with obvious satisfaction). I will enjoy all my rights after martyrdom. We will not be children for ever.
Q: Good, Yousra, do you agree?
Yousra (11 years old): Martyrdom is clearly good (sweet), because we want the next world, not this one, and because we will benefit from the next world, not this one. This is why Palestinian youngsters are different from other youngsters. Palestinian youngsters are hot-blooded and they choose martyrdom, because they are Palestinians. The children of Palestine have adopted the idea of martyrdom because it is very good to die a martyr's death. Every, say, 12-year-old Palestinian child prays: "Please, Allah, grant me martyrdom."
Q: You spoke highly of martyrdom. Do you still think that becoming a martyr is good?
Walaa (11 years old): Martyrdom is very, very beautiful. Everybody wishes to become a martyr. What can be better than going to heaven?
Q: What would you prefer: peace with full recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people, or martyrdom?
W:: Martyrdom. (Anchor nods with obvious satisfaction). I will enjoy all my rights after martyrdom. We will not be children for ever.
Q: Good, Yousra, do you agree?
Yousra (11 years old): Martyrdom is clearly good (sweet), because we want the next world, not this one, and because we will benefit from the next world, not this one. This is why Palestinian youngsters are different from other youngsters. Palestinian youngsters are hot-blooded and they choose martyrdom, because they are Palestinians. The children of Palestine have adopted the idea of martyrdom because it is very good to die a martyr's death. Every, say, 12-year-old Palestinian child prays: "Please, Allah, grant me martyrdom."
Busy Little East Jerusalem Bee
This Arab youngster should be busy attending classes. Instead, he's busy burning tires:
A Palestinian youth holds a tyre set ablaze during clashes with Israeli border police in Shuafat refugee camp on the edge of Jerusalem March 3, 2008. REUTERS/Mahfouz Abu Turk (JERUSALEM) Reuters via Yahoo! News - Mar 03 3:40 AM
A Palestinian youth stands by burning tires during a protest against Israel's military assault on the Gaza Strip in the Shoafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem. Israel vowed on Monday to keep hitting Gaza even as troops pulled out of the Hamas-run territory after clashes that killed at least 120 Palestinians and dealt a major blow to Middle East peace talks. (AFP/Menahem Kahana) AFP via Yahoo! News - Mar 03 9:40 AM
A Palestinian youth with his face covered walks past burning tires after clashes between Palestinians and Israeli border police erupted in the West Bank refugee camp of Shuafat, on the edge of Jerusalem, Monday, March 3, 2008. Clashes broke out across the West Bank on Monday between Israeli troops and Palestinian youths protesting Israel's Gaza operations. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty) AP via Yahoo! News - Mar 03 8:07 AM
or collecting stones (the size that can crack a skull)
A Palestinian youth holds stones during clashes with Israeli border police in Shuafat refugee camp on the edge of Jerusalem, March 3, 2008. (Ammar Awad/Reuters) Reuters via Yahoo! News - Mar 03 11:17 AM
then throwing stones ("shoot to kill")
A Palestinian youth throws stones at Israeli troops, after clashes between Palestinians and Israeli border police erupted in the West Bank refugee camp of Shuafat, on the edge of Jerusalem, Monday March 3, 2008. Clashes broke out across the West Bank on Monday between Israeli troops and Palestinian youths protesting Israel's Gaza operations. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty) AP via Yahoo! News - Mar 03 4:56 AM
In a few years he will be pursuing his studies at a university near you, most likely in the UK, but not unlikely in the US as well. But not before blaming discriminatory funding of Arab schools for their inability to read their own language. Silly me, thinking that the prerequisite to a solid education was good class attendance.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Some Arabs Are Begining to Get It
Hard as it may be to believe, some Arab cartoonists are beginning to denounce the use of children and women as live bombs. Some Arab newspapers even have to courage to publish.
Cartoon In Bahrain Paper: "Terrorism". Source: Al-Ayyam, Bahrain, February 4, 2008
Cartoon In UAE Paper:"In Iraq" – Exploiting Women For Terror Purposes. Source: Akhbar Al-Arab, UAE, February 5, 2008
Thanks to Bennauro and his awesome blog, a source of inspiration and support. It is reassuring to see such great stuff coming from Italy.
Brotherly Love
A few instances of brotherly love along the breached border between Gaza and Egypt. They don't call it the Philadelphi route for nothing.
People help a wounded Palestinian during clashes with Egyptian forces at the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip February 4, 2008. Palestinian gunmen and Egyptian forces exchanged fire at Gaza's border with Egypt on Monday and a Palestinian civilian was killed in the fighting, medical workers said. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)
Live ammo was fired as clashes erupted between Palestinians streaming into Egypt and Egyptian forces trying to keep some order. No France 2 crew e.g. Charles Enderlin's cameraman was available for a possible al-Dura shooting incident. Oh, I forget, no IDF troops present either. However, death and injury ensued. Oh, what the heck, BBC is as good a source as any on this one, especially as they report the use of electric batons. I wonder what they would have written if the IDF were to use electric batons - what are they anyway? Some sort of tazers?
A Palestinian security man loyal to Hamas arrests a Palestinian near the closed Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip February 3, 2008. Egyptian forces began closing the border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday, stemming the flow of Palestinians across a frontier blown open 11 days ago by Hamas Islamists in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (Gaza)
So this is how it's done, at gun point. IDF, you watching?
A Palestinian woman stands among Egyptian riot police as she tries to cross into Egypt through the destroyed section of the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt January 25, 2008. Egypt began closing its breached border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, using barbed wire and water cannons to keep Palestinians from crossing into Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA)
Dogs? Do I see dogs? But only the Zionists, being worse than the Nazis, use dogs. No there must be some photoshop here. Has the UN stopped whatever they were doing to call on a Security council condemnation of the use of excessive force against the "helpless" Palestinians? Is Jimmy Carter scribbling away on a new book? At least chapter? Is Norman Finkelstein done with his Hezbullah-sponsored tomb tour in Lebanon? Could he spare for the plight of the Palestinians? Oh, silly me, I forget, Palestinians can go eff themselves if the IDF is not involved.
Egyptian forces in riot gear throw stones during clashes with Palestinians trying to cross into Egypt through the destroyed section of the border wall between Gaza and Egypt January 25, 2008. Egypt began closing its breached border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, using barbed wire and water cannons to keep Palestinians from crossing into Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade. REUTERS/Nasser Nuri (EGYPT)
Oh, but this is sweet. What was that Tony Blair said about the need to develop a "clever strategy" in order to solve the problem? Well, it was the Egyptians that found that clever strategy: threw the stones right back at the Palestinians. Israel should draw the conclusions.
Israel to Cut off Gaza Electricity
In an attempt to stop the Qassam salvos, Israel is limiting Gaza's power supply. Which is merciful, trust me. For far fewer, although much more damaging, rocket attacks on their cities, the British took upon themselves the task of redesigning the city plans of Dresden and Hamburg, regardless of civilians, cultural heritage, history, and other such "insignificant" factors. Were it the British at the receiving end, Gaza would have been flattened into a pancake a long long time ago. However, since we are only Israelis, and most of us Jews, our blood and suffering have always come rather cheap. I mean, hey, have we not always been considered somewhat inferior? Expendable? Why change that now, when the whole world can identify with the plight of the humiliated Palestinians whose precious humanitarian aid has just been hijacked by ... care to take a guess? No? Never mind, I'll tell you just the same, by Hamas their own governing party. Hey, boys will be boys, pirates will be pirates, and terrorists will be terrorists. After all, they can always claim they never STOLE anything, those items just fell of a truck and they were plain lucky to be there and collect them, what's the problem?
Not only that, the Palestinian propaganda machine, aka Pallywood, is working overtime, betrayed of course by these people's stupidity but spurred on by the world's willingness to lap up and swallow whatever the Arabs may choose to feed them. Remember Shawshank Redemption? "Now I'm gonna open my fly, and you're gonna swallow what I give you to swallow."
Of course, some of us do have the minimal intellectual requirements to see through a hoax, so here are a few:
Of course, some of us do have the minimal intellectual requirements to see through a hoax, so here are a few:
Palestinian lawmakers attend a parliament session in candlelight during a power cut in Gaza January 22, 2008. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Let it be noted that the time is 1 p.m, i.e. broad daylight. The sun is shining and seeping through the drapes. Not only that, those are no burning candles. Those are electric bulbs mounted on candlesticks.
Palestinian lawmakers attend a parliament session in candlelight during a power cut in Gaza January 22, 2008. Israel agreed to allow some fuel, medicine and food into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Tuesday, at least temporarily easing a blockade that has plunged much of the territory into darkness and sparked international protests. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
Oh, and is that a microphone? What is it running on? Candle smoke? Embarrassing? Not necessarily.
Yet this is the best: a Palestinian baby in an incubator, its tiny fragile life threatened by the inhumane power-cutting Zionist regime. But guess what? they did not notice that the monitor was on. What was it running on? Ooops!
Now these pictures were e-mailed to me without their original captions, so I can make no time reference or attribution. The most similar I could find on the net were those of Ibraheem Abu-Mustafa:
A Palestinian baby sleeps in the European Hospital in Gaza Strip January 20, 2008. Gaza's main power plant shut down completely on Sunday after Israel closed the borders of the Hamas-controlled territory and blocked fuel supplies, Palestinian officials said. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)
And now for a cheap tearjerker:
A Palestinian baker makes bread using a wood-fired oven at his bakeshop in Gaza January 22, 2008. Israel agreed to allow some fuel, medicine and food into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Tuesday, at least temporarily easing a blockade that has plunged much of the territory into darkness and sparked international protests. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
So the poor Palestinians were left without electricity. Where's me hanky? Everybody knows that the Palestinians were among the first in the world to use electricity. Nay, in fact they were the ones to invent and use it. How else can one explain their advanced technology and refined civilization? But the evil Zionist Joos had to come along and cut off their supply. So they have to go back to what they were using hundreds of years ago, way way back before they invented it.
Seriously now, that's what it is, a fire wood burning oven. Oven-baked bread and pizzas are a delicacy all over the world. People travel to Italy and pay loads of money to have pizza al forno. In fact in Sicily they serve no pizza on the no forno day.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Religion of Peace Kills 73-year-old Physicist in Dimona
The murder of a distinguished scientist in a shopping mall calls for celebrations in Gaza. It is not unusual to see Reuters sacrificing their professional integrity, ethical standards and neutrality on the altar of terrorist propaganda. 
A Palestinian boy distributes sweets to people in the southern Gaza Strip after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in southern Israel February 4, 2008. A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up and police shot dead his accomplice in an attack in a shopping centre in southern Israel on Monday that killed at least one Israeli, emergency services said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
An Israeli man injured in a suicide bombing is brought to the hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel, Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. A suicide bomber on Monday blew himself up in Dimona, the southern town that houses Israel's secretive nuclear reactor, killing at least one Israeli and wounding six, one critically, Israeli authorities said. Police said they killed a second attacker before he had a chance to detonate his explosives belt. (AP Photo/Diego Mitelberg)
A Palestinian boy distributes sweets to people in the southern Gaza Strip after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in southern Israel February 4, 2008. A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up and police shot dead his accomplice in an attack in a shopping centre in southern Israel on Monday that killed at least one Israeli, emergency services said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA) An Israeli man injured in a suicide bombing is brought to the hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel, Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. A suicide bomber on Monday blew himself up in Dimona, the southern town that houses Israel's secretive nuclear reactor, killing at least one Israeli and wounding six, one critically, Israeli authorities said. Police said they killed a second attacker before he had a chance to detonate his explosives belt. (AP Photo/Diego Mitelberg)For a supposedly starving people, it is amazing how quickly Palestinians can produce sweets and candy to celebrate death and injury inflicted on innocent civilians by their suicide bombers. The saintly Poles who saved my family during the Holocaust would have been shot dead by the Germans for smuggling a rotten cabbage or potato to feed the Jewish mother and child hidden in their cellar, yet we are now being considered worse than the Nazis. Apparently, the bombers, Hamas and PLFP terrorists, were dispatched from the West Bank. Initially there was some confusion over the identity of the perpetrators (yes, several terror groups were competing for the honor), as the spokesman of the al-Aqsa Brigades (military wing of Fatah) released a videotaped message from martyr wannabes, whose pictures did not quite match the mugshot of the failed bomber (the one who in the throes of death was still trying to reach for the belt, leaving the police officers at the scene no choice but to put enough rounds in his head to neutralize him). This however did not deter the shameless members of the media from rushing to Gaza to immortalize weeping and sobbing relatives (mostly females hiding behind their veils) holding pictures of the vile monsters as young children. I wonder whether a correction would be coming soon, if at all. Not to mention the practically lack of coverage of the 47 injured and their evacuation. Injured Jews don't make the news. Tearful relatives of psychopathic terrorists do.
In any case, the wounded bomber was initially taken for a victim of the attack (and although I mourn the loss of an innocent lady and worry over the fate of her mortally wounded husband and the other victims - such as a 42-year old single mom who was left to fend for herself while the wounded terrorist was being dealth with, wondering all the while whether her 11-month-old daughter was safe, as she couldn't quite remember whether she had taken her baby to the mall or not - all innocent people enjoying a lovely sunny morning at the mall, I cannot hide the fact that I rejoice at the thought that he was, honestly), and was given first aid by the medical team who rushed to the scene: a doctor and nurses from a clinic right across the street from the Dimona mall. They were in fact the ones to discover the unexploded bomb strapped to the monster's body, when they unzipped his jacket to look for wounds. Surprised by the suicide vest attached to a portable gas tank, they stepped back. The sapper and the police officer who shot the bomber took extra care not to set off the device themselves, as the brainwashed piece of human waste, severely wounded though he was, kept trying to reach for the detonating switch, in a last effort to secure his 72 virgins in heaven. Well, I hope he gets 72 Arafats, George Habashes, Ahmad Yassins, Rantisis, and other assorted terrorists. Alternatively, 72 camels would do just as nicely.
Revital Biton and Marina Shaban from the World Pizza at the mall recognized the failed bomber, as some ten minutes prior to the attack he walked in for a last cup of coffee. Lucky gals, to think that he could gave chosen to go off in a "blaze of glory" right there and then and taken them along as well.
Anyway, it appears that one of the bombers was depressed: his auntie reveals that the poor "baby" was in pain because his parents' divorce and his father's married another woman. Although he had a job and was able to visit his relatives in Jerusalem quite often (huh? despite the closures and the roadblocks and the JOOOOOS slowly but surely isolating the West Bank residents, oppressing them, and generally murdering them and trying to get them to leave their ancestral home, and villages and destroyed olive tree groves? I am in shock!!!), if I am to understand correctly, he could think of no better cure for his depression than to blow himself up among Jews, as befits a normal Hammas supporter yearning to make it to jihadi heaven.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Jerusalem the Holy
Please visit this amazing site and see Jerusalem's eternal connection to Judaism/Jewdaism (or maybe the other way around):
http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/hp_eng.asp
Absolutely incredible!
http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/hp_eng.asp
Absolutely incredible!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Oooops, I did it again and again
Last night's news almost had me pity the poor poor children of Gaza, forced to burn their books and notebooks to avoid freezing to death because our evil army cut fuel supplies to Gaza. We were once again treated (by Israeli TV, not some BBC, CNN or other terror supporting news agency, no sir, by our own) to heart breaking footage of Gaza in the dark, Gaza drowned by the noise of the generators (only a lucky few can avail themselves thereof), Gaza this, Gaza that and the other thing. But my pity was short lived and proven quite unnecessary, because tonight's news sounded more optimistic: Gaza is no longer bankrupt! Gaza has pulled itself out of its bitter predicament: Gaza has fuel, electricity, food, medicine, can treat its own sick, can teach its own aspiring academics. Gaza can afford to import explosives:
2 tons of explosives found amongst humanitarian aid en route to Gaza
Terror groups take advantage of Israeli permit allowing humanitarian goods into impoverished Gaza Strip, attempt to smuggle two tons of fertilizer in truck transporting aid in second such incident this week.
Three weeks ago potassium nitrate was being passed as sugar. Six and a half tons of it, allegedly provided by the European Union.
Yes, poor Gazan kids. What with the evil Yahood oppressing them and such and denying them their inalienable rights to rocket science, fireworks and suicide bombing. But look on the bright side, perhaps those kids burning books might not need their books any more, after armed thugs practically destroyed a private American school: "We don't need no education..." gains a whole new meaning in Gaza. So does "our daily bread": Allah, you're listening? Forget about our daily bread. Give us our daily explosives, you hear?"
2 tons of explosives found amongst humanitarian aid en route to Gaza
Terror groups take advantage of Israeli permit allowing humanitarian goods into impoverished Gaza Strip, attempt to smuggle two tons of fertilizer in truck transporting aid in second such incident this week.
Three weeks ago potassium nitrate was being passed as sugar. Six and a half tons of it, allegedly provided by the European Union.Yes, poor Gazan kids. What with the evil Yahood oppressing them and such and denying them their inalienable rights to rocket science, fireworks and suicide bombing. But look on the bright side, perhaps those kids burning books might not need their books any more, after armed thugs practically destroyed a private American school: "We don't need no education..." gains a whole new meaning in Gaza. So does "our daily bread": Allah, you're listening? Forget about our daily bread. Give us our daily explosives, you hear?"
I hear Hamas is condemned the attack. I say Hamas did it. Why? I suspect the American owner wouldn't let them shoot mortars (please watch video) at Israel from the premises, fearing IAF retaliation. "Oh, yeah?" said Hamas, "you think WE can't retaliate?"
Sunday, January 13, 2008
I Stand with Lionheart
Dear Lionheart, I stand with you.
The blogosphere is asizzle over a British blogger facing the threat of arrest for speaking his mind. Lionheart has had the unheard of gall (hutzpah as we say in Hebrew) to speak his mind. To protest Islam taking over his homeland. A realm that has taken pride in its insularity, traditions, religion, culture, freedom and independence. A country where Queen Boudicca rose against the Romans just like Shimon bar Kochba, a country where Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic church, will now punish a free man for exercising his right to free speech, in a manner that reminds me of the darkest days of the KGB. Yet this same country allows hatefests without batting an eyelid: the BBC and Guardian can indulge in bashing Israel with impunity; members of the academia, media and trade unions call for isolation and boycott of the Jewish State; the celebrated Oxford University holds Holocaust Denial seminars. These are just a few instances of the corruption of freedom and distortion of truth allowed in a European country where hospital employees have to turn beds occupied by Muslims in the direction of Mecca to allow them to pray. Five times a day. This same country that produced the Magna Carta Libertatum in 1215, and where Muslims are free to hold up banners sending the British police to hell 800 years later, has a severe grievance with a man who stands in solidarity with Israel, who has gone so far as to put the crest of Israel right next to St. George's cross.
Well, dear Lionheart, for your courageous stand, for your declared love for and solidarity with the Jewish people, I hail you as my Righteous Gentile. I wish there was something the State of Israel could do for you. I mean, a snake such as Jonathan Cook is allowed residence in Israel and can spew hatred at will. But then, as you know, our own leadership seems to have succumbed to the "charms" of Islam, the "religion of peace".
I, on the other hand, thank you and wish you good luck. I hope the British system of justice still has the ability to locate its right mind and focus on the real perpetrators of racial hatred.
God bless!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Bad, Bad Jewish Boy
Bad, bad Jewish boy with eyes to die for! Or kill for!
No wonder more and more Pali women are becoming suicide bombers: those cruel cruel Jewish soldiers with their gorgeous blue eyes won't even rape them !
Thursday, January 03, 2008
No Partition, No State
Ya'akov Ahimeir
November 11, 2007
Ma'ariv, Today supplement
Sixty years ago today the UN General Assembly voted to establish a Jewish state alongside an Arab one. The Arabs refused then and have ever since.
After reading the full version of UNGAR 181 one has to agree with Abba Eban's famous quote: "The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity". The UN Resolution dealing with the partition of the Land of Israel into two states emphasizes the lack of vision afflicting Arab policy. Arab, mind you, not Palestinian. This document speaks of two states - a Jewish state and an Arab state. Arab, mind you, not Palestinian.
The State of Israel is not mentioned in the text, but it was established half a year after the vote. What the General Assembly approved was the "Jewish State", and the text makes no mention of the Jewish people or the Palestinian people. The Arabs refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state then, just as they do now. The UN resolution also deals with the settling of the Land of Israel, and defines the intended boundaries between the two sates. Nahariya and Beer-Sheva, e.g., would have been part of the Arab state. But nrcause the Arabs rejected the partition plan, Israel has retained its yekke town, with its industrious and equally intellectual population, famous for locally-produced cheeses and ice-creams.
Jerusalem was not meant to be a capital city, neither "the eternal capital of the Jewish people", nor the capital of the "Palestinian state." Jerusalem was to be a separate entity, under a special international Trusteeship Council, administered by a governor, not mayor.
The Arabs were not alone in refusing the partition. Menahem Begin, head of the pre-state underground Irgun (Etzel) and Israel Eldad, one of the Lehi commanders, also refused. After the UN vote, Begin declared that the Jewish people would fight to free its country on both sides of the Jordan: "The Land of Israel will be returned to the Jewish people. All of it, for ever."
Now the Arab states are struggling to establish a Palestinian state. Had they accepted the partition, they would have been celebrating the 60th anniversary of yet another Arab state. Instead, the Arab countries went to war. The bloodshed has never stopped. The paper on which the United Nations partition resolution has become just another piece of paper. The State of Israel was established thanks to the valor and boldness of its soldiers and fighters. I was a child when the resolution was passed. I remember one of our neighbors in Jerusalem worrying that we had no air force. Except now we do have an air force. And not only.
Yet in this day and age, the UN General Assembly would have rejected the partition plan, perhaps even by a large majority. Had the necessity of a Jewish state been at stake in
November 2007, instead of November 1947, the Jews of the Land of Israel would have been split by a fierce debate, just as we are now. Sixty years ago such a debate would have been unthinkable.
November 11, 2007
Ma'ariv, Today supplement
Sixty years ago today the UN General Assembly voted to establish a Jewish state alongside an Arab one. The Arabs refused then and have ever since.
After reading the full version of UNGAR 181 one has to agree with Abba Eban's famous quote: "The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity". The UN Resolution dealing with the partition of the Land of Israel into two states emphasizes the lack of vision afflicting Arab policy. Arab, mind you, not Palestinian. This document speaks of two states - a Jewish state and an Arab state. Arab, mind you, not Palestinian.
The State of Israel is not mentioned in the text, but it was established half a year after the vote. What the General Assembly approved was the "Jewish State", and the text makes no mention of the Jewish people or the Palestinian people. The Arabs refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state then, just as they do now. The UN resolution also deals with the settling of the Land of Israel, and defines the intended boundaries between the two sates. Nahariya and Beer-Sheva, e.g., would have been part of the Arab state. But nrcause the Arabs rejected the partition plan, Israel has retained its yekke town, with its industrious and equally intellectual population, famous for locally-produced cheeses and ice-creams.
Jerusalem was not meant to be a capital city, neither "the eternal capital of the Jewish people", nor the capital of the "Palestinian state." Jerusalem was to be a separate entity, under a special international Trusteeship Council, administered by a governor, not mayor.
The Arabs were not alone in refusing the partition. Menahem Begin, head of the pre-state underground Irgun (Etzel) and Israel Eldad, one of the Lehi commanders, also refused. After the UN vote, Begin declared that the Jewish people would fight to free its country on both sides of the Jordan: "The Land of Israel will be returned to the Jewish people. All of it, for ever."
Now the Arab states are struggling to establish a Palestinian state. Had they accepted the partition, they would have been celebrating the 60th anniversary of yet another Arab state. Instead, the Arab countries went to war. The bloodshed has never stopped. The paper on which the United Nations partition resolution has become just another piece of paper. The State of Israel was established thanks to the valor and boldness of its soldiers and fighters. I was a child when the resolution was passed. I remember one of our neighbors in Jerusalem worrying that we had no air force. Except now we do have an air force. And not only.
Yet in this day and age, the UN General Assembly would have rejected the partition plan, perhaps even by a large majority. Had the necessity of a Jewish state been at stake in
November 2007, instead of November 1947, the Jews of the Land of Israel would have been split by a fierce debate, just as we are now. Sixty years ago such a debate would have been unthinkable.
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