Funny Canadian Ad -- Re Breast Exams

A moment of humour plus a reminder!

The Pope, Uri Averny, & Halla

The Error of his Ways:

The Pope's words have created a lot of fuss these days, by the Jihadists, with whom it is "off with their heads!" at every available turn. The full text of the Pope's words can be found here

The latest Jihadi supporter to slam the Pope is Uri Averny, and his article Mohammed's Sword can be found here

Halla has found certain errors in the article by Averny, and here is Halla's analysis of Averny's article:

Avnery wrongly corrected the Pope on the sura and verse attributed to 2:256 by the Pope and wrongly 'corrected' by Avnery to 2:257.

The offending Avnery paragraph:

"The Pope himself threw in a word of caution. As a serious and renowned theologian, he could not afford to falsify written texts. Therefore, he admitted that the Qur'an specifically forbade the spreading of the faith by force. He quoted the second Sura, verse 256 (strangely fallible, for a pope, he meant verse 257) which says: "There must be no coercion in matters of faith". "

Pickthall's translation:

[2:256] There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer, Knower.

Further,Pickthall:

[2:257] Allah is the Protecting Guardian of those who believe. He bringeth them out of darkness into light. As for those who disbelieve, their patrons are false deities. They bring them out of light into darkness. Such are rightful owners of the Fire. They will abide therein.

For those in need of verification go here pick a translator and put 2:256 into the search:
www.quranbrowser.org/search.html

***********************************
Proof that Islam did indeed spread by the sword:

Averny:
"How can one ignore such an unequivocal statement? The Pope simply argues that this commandment was laid down by the prophet when he was at the beginning of his career, still weak and powerless, but that later on he ordered the use of the sword in the service of the faith. Such an order does not exist in the Qur'an. True, Muhammad called for the use of the sword in his war against opposing tribes - Christian, Jewish and others - in Arabia, when he was building his state. But that was a political act, not a religious one; basically a fight for territory, not for the spreading of the faith."

Argument:
[2:256] There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer, Knower.

[9:5] Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

[9:6] And if anyone of the idolaters seeketh thy protection (O Muhammad), then protect him so that he may hear the Word of Allah, and afterward convey him to his place of safety. That is because they are a folk who know not.


Conclusion: there can be no doubt that the koran was spread by the sword.

Supporting Evidence:

(the following sura binds the world idolater to christians/jews)
"[3:67] Abraham was not a Jew, nor yet a Christian; but he was an upright man who had surrendered (to Allah), and he was not of the idolaters.")

Supporting Argument:

now the koran as revealed text, ie the sequence in which the suras were revealed shows that sura 2 came before sura 9; and under sura [2:106] "Nothing of our revelation (even a single verse) do we abrogate or cause be forgotten, but we bring (in place) one better or the like thereof. Knowest thou not that Allah is Able to do all things ?"

All that means:

whatever is in 9 supersedes that which is in 2. so the "no compulsion" in sura 2:256 is replaced by something better in sura 9:5/9:6

Supporting evidence on the sequence of the revealed koran

(2), 8, 3, 33, 60, 4, 99, 57, 47, 13, 55, 76, 65, 98, 59, 24, 22, 63, 58, 49, 66, 64, 61, 62, 48, 5, (9), 110

COMPLETE MAKEOVER:

BEFORE

COMPLETE MAKEOVER:

AFTER

Petition: Fair play for Israel at the UN

Ahmadinejad speaking at the UN is the latest, but not the last or greatest, in the long history of persecution of Israel at the United Nations - condemnations, "Zionism is Racism" resolutions, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic conferences. ..

The heart of the problem is the UN Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR). Please sign the petition to stop the anti-Israel circus at the UN and abolish the DPR.

Read the background and petiton below. . Sign the petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?unznn

Introduction:

The preamble of the UN Charter affirms the faith of the founders "in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small." Unfortunately, the UN has failed in its charter obligations toward one nation, Israel.

Israel is not treated as an equal at the United Nations. Israel has been the target of an endless stream of biased General Assembly resolutions, including the vicious "Zionism is Racism" resolution of 1975. Each year, the UN marks a day of solidarity with the Palestinian people on November, 29, "mourning" the anniversary of the UN Partition Plan, General Assembly Resolution 181 that partitioned Palestine in 1947 and created the State of Israel. Arab states and Palestinians refused to recognize that resolution. In a recent "solidarity" day, high ranking UN officials including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, "mourned" the establishment of Israel and condemned Israel, while standing under a map showing "Palestine" in place of Israel.

In 2001, the UN-sponsored Durban Conference on Racism was a festival of anti-Semitic propaganda replete with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, cartoons of Jews dripping blood from their fangs and "Zionism is Racism" resolutions. To her credit, UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson, not a friend of Israel, condemned the conference.

At the heart of this activity, under the banner of the Question_of_ Palestine, a special Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR) wages a tireless battle against the legitimacy of the state of Israel, sponsoring anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic events.

Fair play demands that the UN abolish the DPR and take steps to ensure that Israel is treated as an equal.

Background information on persecution of Israel at the UN is given at The Question of Palestine
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
Fair Play for Israel at the United Nations
To the Secretary General of the United Nations, US Ambassador to the United Nations and EU Ambassador to the United Nations:
We, the undersigned, are concerned that the UN has been subverted for decades into an instrument to persecute a member state, Israel. This violates charter guarantees of equality for all states and detracts from the ability of the UN to function as a fair and impartial mediator in the Middle East. Precious Secretariat resources for human rights are diverted into one conflict and one problem out of many.

We insist that Israel be given equal treatment with all countries at the UN.

The UN Human Rights Commission, even after reform, issues endless condemnations of Israel, supported by notorious human rights violators such as Libya, Cuba, Iran, and Syria
.
Israel is the only state that for decades was not part of a regional group and could not participate in UN bodies and consultations, and its membership is still restricted.

One of the seven Secretariat divisions for the entire world is a separate Division for Palestinian Rights. There is no separate division for any country or any other issue. There is no division for women's rights or basic freedoms, and no separate divisions for Tibet, Cyprus, West Sahara or other crisis areas.

Notorious examples of UN sponsored anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic NGO activities abound. They include the odious Durban conference that condemned Zionism as "Racism." A conference in Cairo supported the Hamas government and tried to torpedo efforts to force the Hamas to recognize Israel and participate in conflict resolution.

The Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR) and the committees it controls conduct an unrelenting campaign against Israel. The DPR fosters Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) that promote racism and attempts to impede peace efforts.

These activities and related anti-Israel initiatives have damaged the credibility of the UN as a force for peace and a neutral mediator.
We call on the UN to abolish the Division for Palestinian Rights and the associated Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Human Rights Practices Affecting the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories (SCIIHRP) and the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP).
Likewise, we call on the UN to complete the reform of the UN Human Rights Commission and correct its anti-Israel bias, and to allow the integration of Israel into the UN as an equal member which can serve in all UN institutions and committees.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

(When signing, please make your e-mail address available to us by clicking the appropriate radio button option, if you want us to contact you about future action items. Your address information will not be used for commercial purposes or given to other groups. Thank you)
Click to Sign the Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/unznn/petition-sign.html

This page is from http://www.zionism-israel.com/issues/UNPetition.htm

Back Again

Mea culpa on not being here. Been elsewhere. Anyway here now and these are my current thoughts:

On Human Rights Watch and Kenneth Roth and the worldwide campaign to discredit Israel.

As Maurice Osterman said in his Open Letter to Human Rights Watch Director, Kenneth Roth in the NY Sun here:

I read your article “indiscriminate bombardment” in the Jerusalem Post of August 18, with a mixture of sadness and astonishment. Sadness, because the type of biased reporting in your article, damages the credibility of your great
humanitarian organization.

Astonishment, because your methodology flatly contradicts HRW’s claim that it employs researchers to conduct fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses. The presentation of conjecture as facts in your article cannot by any stretch of imagination be considered as fact-finding,. The latter requires impartial examination and evaluation of all the available evidence without regard to whether or not it may contradict preconceived opinions. Allow me to be explicit.

Which he does get -con't

HRW -- http://www.humanrightswatch.org/campaigns/israel_lebanon/
The cover of his webpage contains a discredited as 'staged' photo from Qana. A Lebanese Volunteer carries a child killed in an Israeli air raid in Qana. (specifically on this page: http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/08/part-6-act-3-camera-runs-scene-2.html ) http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/08/corruption-of-media.html
In HRW report entitled :

Fatal Strikes
Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon
the following discredited report http://www.zombietime.com/fraud/ambulance/ is given:
Attacks on Fleeing Civilians
Wounding of Six Ambulance Drivers and Three Patients, July 23
On July 23, at 11:15 p.m., Israeli warplanes struck two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances in the village of Qana. The ambulances, which had Red Cross flags illuminated by a spot light mounted on the ambulance, were transferring three wounded Lebanese civilians from one ambulance to the other when the planes struck. A weapon directly hit one ambulance, and a second attack struck the second ambulance a few minutes later. All six of the Red Cross workers were injured during the attack, and the three patients they were treating suffered additional injuries. One of the patients, a middle-aged man, lost his leg in the ambulance strike, while his elderly mother was partially paralyzed. The third patient, a young boy, received multiple shrapnel wounds to the head.107

Making medical or religious personnel, medical units or medical transports the object of attack is a war crime.108

http://hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/6.htm#_Toc142299224
One of these stories of the ambulances has got to be false.It's all here: http://www.zombietime.com/fraud/ambulance/

As for the movies:
hizbullah shooting Missles from Kfar Qana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGnFMr4SgHs
Do Not Launch Missiles from your Garden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0s_l8VYNP4
Hizbollah Uses Civilians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ey3-LyxMts

Reality UnDone ... Propaganda RULES the Media!

http://www.zombietime.com/reuters_photo_fraud/ does a great job putting the Reuter's photo fraud together. There are new pictures from US News and World Report -- must see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_B1H-1opys is an 18 minute movie -
Pals putting up shows for the world's media to view, documentary from Gaza, part of The Road to Jenin film by Pierre Rehov.

Hezbollah supervises foreign reporters closely and gives them guided tours. Meanwhile, they are holding their passports, and threatening them. And the major media outlets have played along.

*http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2006/07/our-very-strange-day-with-hezbollah.html

* http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/guess-whos-coming-to-iftar/42/

* http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=080806B

An Exchange Between Nobody and Eric

eric i shall digest your post in bites with the necessary intellectual mastication to prevent gas.

>>Instead of posting articles can you write for yourself

i could consider that statement insulting, but not after considering the source.

>> Do you find this article to speak for your views?

there is no perfect isomorphic correspondence, but there is some (some being defined as more than one but less than all) simulacrum of similitude. since each view deserves it on venue and since no view has perfect correspondence, eric will need to particularize each.

>>And do you think Israel is doing something good in Lebanon and the Occupied Territories.

i do not ascribe to the concept of 'good'

>>the situation can in some regards be mirrored. Who is to determine terrorism as opposed to militarism and is there really any difference?

we can have a could but ones needs to as should before assuming would could be should. if the presumption of mirror is granted for argument sake, then each, with its cadre of supporters would and could say the other is a 'terrorist'.

what we need is an 'operational definition' of terrorist each ascribes to.

one example is the deliberate targeting of 'innocents' for the purpose of killing them. now let us get to qanafying this:

lots of dead civilian, women/children. was that in an of itself an act of terror?

for argument i employ this:

Article 28
The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.

www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm

and i employ this:

IDF: 150 rockets fired from Qana at Israeli cities
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yaakov Katz, Jpost staff, and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 30, 2006

Speaking to reporters, Eshel added that Hizbullah rocket launchers were hidden in civilian buildings in the village. He proceeded to show video footage of rocket launchers being driven into the village following launches. www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite

from which i input this:
so what you have is a deliberate effort by hezbollah to draw retaliation by Israel and deliberately making an effort to have Israel target civilian areas.

now some may argue that Israel should forgo retaliating because of the civilian population. but such a scenario would promote more intense use of civilian's as shields. thus creating a situation whereby hezbollah could attack Israel with impunity. how did Israel act? Israel broadcast by various media, that the civilian population should leave because Israel was targeting the area. how did hezbollah act. it did not remove the civilian population. the human shields remained. hezbollah still attacked. Israel retaliated.>>

now i will skip to this:
<>

normally i do not answer such ignorance. but i will try. i look for internal consistency in argument. i also am of the belief that the adversarial environment is conducive to good argument.

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

if eric read the mill's quote carefully then you will understand my position. make your argument within your limits and i will make my arguments within my limits. let the armies of ideas contest reality.

and this expression >>then I'm not really sure why you are posting anything at all>> will eventually be resolved. perhaps.

The Second Coming...

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

W.B. Yeats
1920

Must Read:

The war of 2006: Report of the commission of inquiry - Haaretz - Israel News

The highlight of Annan’s visit to Beirut was his meeting on Tuesday with Nasrallah, June 20, 2000. (photo: Reuters)

from LittleGreenFootballs

Must Read Blog

http://vitalperspective.typepad.com/vital_perspective_clarity/

Hezbollah and its involvement in anti-Israel and international terrorism

Read about it here:

Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S)

Information Bulletins and info specifically and in general relating to the Middle east, though with information about the "Global Jihad." Background.

A must-have site: http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/engsite/home/default.asp

Joe McCain: The Jews will not go quietly again

Posted: 7/12/2006
Author: Joe McCain
Source: http://www.standwithus.com

The Jews will not go quietly again.

Joe McCain, Senator John McCain's brother on The Jews & Israel.

There is a lot of worry popping up in the media just now — "Can Israel Survive?" Don't worry about it. It relates to something that Palestinians, the Arabs, and perhaps most Americans don't realize — the Jews are never going quietly again. Never. And if the world doesn't come to understand that, then millions of Arabs are going to die. It's as simple as that.

Throughout the history of the world, the most abused, kicked-around race of people have been the Jews. Not just during the holocaust of World War II, but for thousands of years. They have truly been "The Chosen People" in a terrible and tragic sense.

The Bible story of Egypt's enslavement of the Jews is not just a story, it is history, if festooned with theological legend and heroic epics. In 70 A.D. the Romans, which had for a long time tolerated the Jews — even admired them as 'superior' to other vassals — tired of their truculent demands for independence and decided on an early "Solution" to the Jewish problem. Jerusalem was sacked and reduced to near rubble, Jewish resistance was pursued and crushed by the implacable Roman War Machine — see 'Masada'. And thus began The Diaspora, the dispersal of Jews throughout the rest of the world.

Their homeland destroyed, their culture crushed, they looked desperately for the few niches in a hostile world where they could be safe. That safety was fragile, and often subject to the whims of moody hosts. The words 'pogrom', 'ghetto', and 'anti-Semitism' come from this treatment of the first mono-theistic people. Throughout Europe, changing times meant sometimes tolerance, sometimes even warmth for the Jews, but eventually it meant hostility, then malevolence. There is not a country in Europe or Western Asia that at one time or another has not decided to lash out against the children of Moses, sometimes by whim, sometimes by manipulation.

Winston Churchill calls Edward I one of England's very greatest kings. It was under his rule in the late 1200's that Wales and Cornwall were hammered into the British crown, and Scotland and Ireland were invaded and occupied. He was also the first European monarch to set up a really effective administrative bureaucracy, surveyed and censused his kingdom, established laws and political divisions. But he also embraced the Jews. Actually Edward didn't embrace Jews so much as he embraced their money. For the English Jews had acquired wealth — understandable, because this people that could not own land or office, could not join most of the trades and professions, soon found out that money was a very good thing to accumulate. Much harder to take away than land or a store, was a hidden sock of gold and silver coins. Ever resourceful, Edward found a way — he borrowed money from the Jews to finance imperial ambitions in Europe, especially France. The loans were almost certainly not made gladly, but how do you refuse your King? Especially when he is 'Edward the Hammer'. Then, rather than pay back the debt, Edward simply expelled the Jews. Edward was especially inventive — he did this twice. After a time, he invited the Jews back to their English homeland, borrowed more money, then expelled them again.

Most people do not know that Spain was one of the early entrants into The Renaissance. People from all over the world came to Spain in the late medieval period. All were welcome — Arabs, Jews, other Europeans. The University of Salamanca was one of the great centers of learning in the world — scholars of all nations, all fields came to Salamanca to share their knowledge and their ideas. But in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella, having driven the last of Moors from the Spanish Shield, were persuaded by the righteous fundamentalists of the time to announce "The Act of Purification". A series of steps were taken in which all Jews and Arabs and other non-Christians were expelled from the country, or would face the tools and the torches of The Inquisition. From this 'cleansing' come the Sephardic Jews — as opposed to the Ashkenazis of Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe, the sporadic violence and brutality against Jews are common knowledge. 'Fiddler' without the music and the folksy humor. At times of fury, no accommodation by the Jew was good enough, no profile low enough, no village poor enough or distant enough.

From these come the near-steady flow of Jews to the United States. And despite the disdain of the Jews by most 'American' Americans, they came to grab the American Dream with both hands, and contributed everything from new ideas of enterprise in retail and entertainment to becoming some of our finest physicians and lawyers. The modern United States, in spite of itself, IS The United States in part because of its Jewish blood.

Then the Nazi Holocaust — the corralling, sorting, orderly eradication of millions of the people of Moses. Not something that other realms in other times didn't try to do, by the way, the Germans were just more organized and had better murder technology.

I stood in the center of Dachau for an entire day, about 15 years ago, trying to comprehend how this could have happened. I had gone there on a side trip from Munich, vaguely curious about this Dachau. I soon became engulfed in the enormity of what had occurred there nestled in this middle and working class neighborhood.

How could human beings do this to other human beings, hear their cries, their pleas, their terror, their pain, and continue without apparently even wincing? I no longer wonder. At some times, some places, ANY sect of the human race is capable of horrors against their fellow man, whether a member of the Waffen SS, a Serbian sniper, a Turkish policeman in 1920's Armenia, a Mississippi Klansman. Because even in the United States not all was a Rose Garden. For a long time Jews had quotas in our universities and graduate schools. Only so many Jews could be in a medical or law school at one time. Jews were disparaged widely. I remember as a kid Jewish jokes told without a wince - "Why do Jews have such big noses?"

Well, now the Jews have a homeland again. A place that is theirs. And that's the point. It doesn't matter how many times the United States and European powers try to rein in Israel, if it comes down to survival of its nation, its people, they will fight like no lioness has ever fought to save her cubs. They will fight with a ferocity, a determination, and a skill, that will astound us.

And many will die, mostly their attackers, I believe. If there were a macabre historical betting parlor, my money would be on the Israelis to be standing at the end. As we killed the kamikazes and the Wehrmacht soldaten of World War II, so will the Israelis kill their suicidal attackers, until there are not enough to torment them.

The irony goes unnoticed — while we are hammering away to punish those who brought the horrors of last September here, we restrain the Israelis from the same retaliation. Not the same thing, of course — We are We, They are They. While we mourn and seethe at September 11th, we don't notice that Israel has a September 11th sometimes every day.

We may not notice, but it doesn't make any difference. And it doesn't make any difference whether you are pro-Israeli or you think Israel is the bully of the Middle East. If it comes to where a new holocaust looms — with or without the concurrence of the United States and Europe — Israel will lash out without pause or restraint at those who would try to annihilate their country.

The Jews will not go quietly again.

Joe McCain

thank you, Mr McCain, for your kind understanding.

UN Resolution 42/159

Measures to prevent international terrorism which endangers or takes innocent human lives or jeopardizes fundamental freedoms and study of the underlying causes of those forms of terrorism and acts of violence which lie in misery, frustration, grievance and despair and which cause some people to sacrifice human lives, including their own, in an attempt to effect radical changes:

This quote from UN Resolution 42/159 gives tacit agreement to the use of suicide bombers with the inclusion of "including their own" vis a vis " sacrifice human lives.... to effect radical changes."

source

Terrorism defined by means other than the great UN always includes the deliberate targeting of innocents. It never has included the body of the killer in some exculpatory phrases in defense of killing innocents. Terrorism is defined by the fact that they target innocents. This resolution is an effort to dismiss the targeting of innocents because of some grievance. To generalize from this: any group with - what it perceives as a grievance - can target innocents if the person that does the killing is also killed.

b) Convening, under the auspices of the United Nations, of an international conference to define terrorism and to differentiate it from the struggle of peoples for national liberation .

in as much as it is preceded by this quote:

Measures to prevent international terrorism which endangers or
takes innocent human lives or jeopardizes fundamental freedoms and study of the underlying causes of those forms of terrorism...

source http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/42/a42r159.htm

It appears the united nations wants to prevent that which it has not yet a definition for.

Much of the resolution is crafted not around what is the definition of that which targets the lives of innocents, but a workaround for some that do take target the lives of innocents. It appears that under the aegis of 'struggles of peoples for national liberation,' the targeting of innocents is tolerable.

a reflection:

A reading of the Hamas Covenant reveals not a people striving for "national liberation" but a religious movement:

The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned. In the absence of Islam, strife will be rife, oppression spreads, evil prevails and schisms and wars will break out.

Given that 'Palestine' is a mixture of religions (mainly Christians and Moslems), it could be argued that the present Palestinian government is not primarily a national movement, but a religious movement. Actually it could be argued that the government under Arafat was also suffused in the Islamic religion to the exception of the Christians in as much as it was to be under Sharia law.

Middle East Report Online: The Palestinian Elections That Never ... Arafat had also finally signed the Palestinian Basic Law, long since approved by the ... So far, law in future Palestine is based on Islamic sharia law, ... www.merip.org/mero/mero012403.html - 52k - Cached -

That leaves the constitution committee, headed by Shaath. Every
day, the press carries his statements that the document is only days from completion. So far, law in future Palestine is based on Islamic sharia law, an announcement that has caused concern for the Christian minority. Unlike most other Arab women, Palestinian mothers will pass on their citizenship to their offspring.

Today's Palestinian government, Hamas, is a religious movement on a mission:

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" Hamas_covenant

One may well ask, what do we have here: a national movement or Islamic imperialism??

--(The Lady or the Tiger?) ---credit to nobody

No Badges for Iranian Jews after All

from Bloomberg:

Iran Denies It Passed Law to Force Non-Muslims to Wear Badges

May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iran denied a report that it passed a law
that would force non-Muslims in the Islamic Republic to wear colored labels identifying their religion.

The Canadian National Post yesterday reported Iran's parliament passed a law last week for a public dress code that would require Jews to wear a yellow strip of cloth on their clothing, Christians a red one, and Zoroastrians blue. Iran is a predominantly Muslim country.

``Such a bill was never introduced in the parliament,'' said Maurice Motammed, Iran's only Jewish deputy who represents Iran's community of 25,000 Jews, on state television today. ``Iranian minorities benefit from the same liberties and social rights as other people.''

A bill to promote ``an Iranian and Islamic style of dress for women'' was passed in Iran's Parliament on May 14. However, it didn't mention religious minorities, Emad Afrough, head of the parliament's cultural committee and one of the main designers of the measure said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency IRNA. The article appeared in several newspapers around the world, drawing criticism from top Canadian and Australian officials. U.S. State department spokesman Sean McCormack said such a decision would be ``despicable'', Agence France-Presse reported yesterday.

The report was described by Iran's local state media as a failed ``campaign lead by a Zionist newspaper.'' Iran's new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has come under criticism since his election in June 2005 for questioning the existence of the Holocaust and for his statement that ``Israel should be wiped off the map.''

Wouldn't you know they can always manage to blame 'the Zionists' for everything, lol? Even if such a move could hardly be seen to be in the Zionists best interests.

WorldNet Daily writes that Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said he believes the original reports, although acknowledges he has no independent confirmation.

"We know that the national uniform law was passed and that certain colors were selected for Jews and other minorities. If the Iranian government is going to pass such a law then they are not likely to be forthcoming about what they are doing."

To read about the history of the persecution of Persian Jews, see:

notice this:

Even under Shah Abbas, one of the more enlightened Safavi Monarchs in his treatment of religious minorities, particularly the Armenians, the jews, along with Zoroastrians and Christians became subjects of forced conversion, and evicted from Isfahan in 1656 because of their pollutant effect and religious impurity. But many forcefully converted Jews continued to practice their religion in secret and the failure of the policy gave rise to protests by the clergy and some Moslem erchants who did not consider these converts as real Moslems and hence a new edict in 1661 allowed them to revert to open practice of Judaism under state restrictions, including the wearing of a patch to identify them as Jews. The wearing of a patch to identify a non-believer was not limited to the Jews, and was also required for the Christians who wore a cross, though by a decree, the Armenians were exempted from wearing a patch. 10

It appears that the Nazis were preceded by the Iranians on this "badge" idea. Perhaps the word comes from "badger"...

New Iranian Law will require Jews to wear yellow star

According to the Jerusalem Post

A great place to read about it is at the site Western Resistance

There are some places that are suggesting that it is not true or hasn't happened yet. It is not widely reported in MSM. We shall have to wait and see.

I just wanted to add a little something about Persian Jews for the record.

An interesting and informative site regarding the Iranian Jews is here: The Jews of Persia

and this from "Kosher Delights"

"In 1986 there were an estimated 50,000 Jews in Iran, a decline from about 85,000 in 1978. The Iranian Jewish community is one of the oldest in the world, being descended from Jews who remained in the region following the Babylonian captivity, when the Achaemenid rulers of the first Iranian empire permitted Jews to return to Jerusalem. Over the centuries the Jews of Iran became physically, culturally, and linguistically indistinguishable from the non-Jewish population. The overwhelming majority of Jews speak Persian as their mother language, and a tiny minority, Kurdish. The Jews are predominantly urban and by the 1970s were concentrated in Tehran, with smaller communities in other cities, such as Shiraz, Esfahan, Hamadan, and Kashan.

Until the twentieth century the Jews were confined to their own quarters in the towns. In general the Jews were an impoverished minority, occupationally restricted to small-scale trading, moneylending, and working with precious metals. Since the 1920s, Jews have had greater opportunities for economic and social mobility. They have received assistance from a number of international Jewish organizations, including the American Joint Distribution Committee, which introduced electricity, piped water, and modern sanitation into Jewish neighborhoods. The Jews have gradually gained increased importance in the bazaars of Tehran and other cities, and after World War II some educated Jews entered the professions, particularly pharmacy, medicine, and dentistry.

The Constitution of 1979 recognized Jews as an official religious minority and accorded them the right to elect a representative to the Majlis. Like the Christians, the Jews have not been persecuted. Unlike the Christians, the Jews have been viewed with suspicion by the government, probably because of the government's intense hostility toward Israel. Iranian Jews generally have many relatives in Israel--some 45,000 Iranian Jews emigrated from Iran to Israel between 1948 and 1977--with whom they are in regular contact. Since 1979 the government has cited mail and telephone communications as evidence of "spying" in the arrest, detention, and even execution of a few prominent Jews. Although these individual cases have not affected the status of the community as a whole, they have contributed to a pervasive feeling of insecurity among Jews regarding their future in Iran and have helped to precipitate large- scale emigration. Most Jews who have left since the Revolution have settled in the United States. "

I imagine they are feeling pretty insecure right now. Apparently some people have learned nothing from the Holocaust, and it is possibly that Ahamadinejad will be responsible for a holocaust upon his own people, as he attempts one for the Jews of the middle east.

The Europeans, however, seem intent on bending over, something that has worked so well for them in the past.

Good News for American Jews

Mind you this was taken a year ago. I would be interested in seeing a more recent one.
Pew Poll

Actually the Muslims don't do as badly as one might expect considering. It would also be interesting to see a similar poll in Europe. Might not look so good for Jews there, lol!

Internet Jihad

Recently my regular forum was hacked and went down, along with over 100 other blogs, including a few in my 'must read' list, such as Little Green Footballs. You can read about it at Michelle Malkin's blog. I was going to send you over to Aaron's cc: , but when I popped over there to check it out again it had been hacked yet again. If you want to see the hack, it is at http://aarons.cc/wp-content/witty/index.html . I think the regular blog is at http://aarons.cc/ but they hijacked it. Hopefully Aaron will get the situation fixed in a hurry. "They" are the Muslim Brotherhood this time, according to aarons, --they apparently left a calling card in the hack.

Little Green Footballs seems to think it was the Saudis, or did think so yesterday. A couple of years ago Malkin was hacked and she said it was the Turks that time.

So at any rate, D. and I decided to post at some different forums. As a social liberal in many ways I decided to go see what the Left was saying about Israel/Palestine in their forums so signed up for the Democratic Underground Forum . The forum requires a 24-hour waiting period if you sign up from Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail or Gmail etc. So we went in to check it out.

There were a couple of Zionists and a slew of "anti-Zionists" there. Negative things about Israel were raised and praised, Palestinians were raised and praised. Nothing bad was permitted to be said about Palestinians, yet IDF were called 'murdering racist thugs' with impunity. Arutz-Sheva was called "a right wing racist scum" newspaper and I was roundly excoriated for recommending it, along with the Jerusalem Post, as a balance to Ha'aretz. Three days in, I got a popup window saying my posting privileges were revoked! (I swear I had said not one bad word nor called anyone a name!). The form said I could write in and ask questions, and that they answered all email, so I did so, asking simply why I had been banned.



Honestly, the only reason I can figure is my point of view, which is pro-Israeli. It has been a number of days now and I have got no answer from them at all.

Meanwhile D. was still posting (for 2 more days) when! in the middle of a post he got the word! POSTING PRIVILEGES REVOKED! What made the timing of that particularly annoying was that he had just been called a "liar" by a fellow poster regarding the situation in Iraq, and he was defending his position.

It seems the Democratic Underground cannot brook any counterarguments. They have made an intellectual ghetto over there --or I should say a non-intellectual ghetto-- where all they do is stroke one another.

Oh and another thing I found interesting was that the ONLY conflict that was at that board was the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict. I brought that question up, asking why it was that when there were presumably 70 conflicts going on in the world that this forum only had that one? What about Kashmire, Afghanistan etc?

After I was banned, I noticed that my thread was gone, and a number of my posts had been deleted as well as my name. The same thing happened to D. So it appears that the Democratic Underground is not really into free speech, real debate, or pro-Israel posters. How too bad.

Jews have always been known as strong supporters of human and civil rights. They were extremely active for civil rights in this country during the MLK era, and Jewish activists were even murdered for their support of civil rights for Blacks.

Now that many (most ) American Jews support Israel's fight against the terror perpetrated by the Palestinians, many Democrats and so-called 'Progressives' shun/denounce Jews who support Israel as 'racists.'

The have become a part of the Internet Jihad, silencing the very same position that the Jihadists are attempting to silence.

I am at a loss to understand how the Jihadists are more 'progressive' than D. or I! Anyway, will keep you posted if I ever find out why either one of us got banned.

Bully Boys of the New Anti-Semitism

Great post from sultanknish.blogspot.com/

Long before 1939 rolled around the Nazis had gotten well underway by drumming up a campaign of hate against Jews. Today many of the same Protestant denominations, such as the Lutherans and the Methodists, who supported Hitler then have signed on to divestment, the first stages of extending the decades old Arab boycott of Israel to America and the West. In Europe major political parties and labor unions have already proposed boycotts of Israel and even academic boycotts of scientists and engineers and graduate students whose only crime is being from Israel; regardless of their personal politics.

That divestment from Israel has gained more traction among Unitarians, Presbyterians, Methodists and Lutherans than on any academic campus strongly suggests that these denominations are either more left wing or more Anti-Semitic than even American campuses. Either possibility is extremely disturbing at best considering that these are the spirtual leaders for a large number of Americans.

In Europe while any criticism of Islam is categorized as hate speech and subject to prosecution Jewbaiting in the classical German style has become far more commonplace. Had any right wing politician taunted a politician of Jewish origin with "Show Me The Shekels," on a talk show, the righteous progressive liberals would have immediately seen it for what it was and thrown a anti-hate speech rally, when it was done by the left's favorite thug, George Galloway though, it passes as just another day in the UK.

Meanwhile the attempted censuring of London Mayor Ken Livingstone for his own round of comparing Jewish figures to Nazis backfired in a way resembling the failed legal attempts by the German Jewish community against Goebbels in the 20's. Both Galloway and Livingstone represent the ugliest side of the left that openly allies itself with extremist Muslim groups, endorses the terrorist regime of Iran and engages in open Jewbaiting.

This indeed serves a useful function. As criticism of minorities becomes increasingly verbotten, the average Englishman is encouraged to shift his bigotries to the one legally permissible target, the Jew; all the while that bully boys like Livingstone and Galloway who would have been entirely at home in a Munich beer hall egg them on taunting and abusing prominent Jewish figures and then waiting eventually for the violence, which this time will be performed by Muslim rather than German mobs.

In this way the Jews for the Europeans once again come to serve the function we have always served, as a safety valve for releasing violent anger at their living conditions while the European governments continue to hope that their Muslim minorities will accept kicking Jews as a substitute for kicking Europeans. A state of affairs they cannot expect to hold even until their Muslim minorities become Muslim majorities. But as the Czar believed that beating the Jews would be an acceptable substitute for Russians for social and economic freedom, as the Kaiser believed beating the Jews would be an acceptable substitute for a Democratic republic; Europe continues to retrace its own muddy footsteps towards a foretold conclusion.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2006/03/bully-boys-of-new-anti-semitism.html