Zionist Conspiracy

    I usually try to keep theology out of these postings, as I hardly think I am in any sort of position to be issuing any sort of authoritative theological pronouncements about anything.

    I do have a pet peeve however about the Lag B'Omer festivities (just completed) and the misrepresentation of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in those by some fringe movements in Israel and elsewhere.  Not that secular Israelis have any better idea of what Lag B'Omer is about.  Most think it is about shooting bows and arrows ("at the Romans") and holding hootenannies around campfires, singing campfire songs.

    Shimon Bar Yochai of course was an important Talmudic figure and there are also lots of legends about him.  The writing of the Zohar is traditionally attributed to him, although there are lots of considerations that raise questions about the historic accuracy of this assertion.  I am not sure it matters whether he actually authored the book or not.  Would it really make a difference if it could be disproved that King David authored all the psalms, another traditional attribution?   In any case, I should also add that I have never studied Zohar, for the simple reason that my mastery of Talmud and related traditional texts is insufficient to consider doing so.  The little "Zohar or Kabbala Institutes" that are cropping up, like the one where Madonna pretends to study, are obscene examples of sacrilege in my opinion, Chilul HaShem.  And they basically promote paganistic beliefs in magic.

    My problem with the Lag B'Omer festivities is the way that fringe Jewish religious groups turn the figure of Bar Yochai into a great magician.  In general I am repulsed by those who misrepresent religion as magic.  I am repulsed by the idea of "magic amulets" (as is traditional Judaism and as are all serious rabbis) and similar charms. 

     Leaflets and ads are all over Israel this week urging people to "pray to Bar Yochai" and ask for his intervention, promising that he will deliver miracles, and that he already has delivered many.  Tens of thousands flock to his grave site on Mt Meron for Lag B'Omer.   A few years back Rabbi Shach, one of the most ultra-conservative Chareidi Rabbis in Israel, was asked why he never attends these festivities on Mt. Meron.  He described them as obscene and said that anyone truly wishing to celebrate the life and teachings of Bar Yochai should stay home and study his books, not run to Mt. Meron and light bonfires.

     Bar Yochai is not the only Talmudic figure to whom these fringe groups urge people to pray.  Similar cults exist for the graves of Meir Baal Ha-ness and others.  And of course there are some parallels with the way many Lubavitchers or Chabadniks regard the late Chabad Rabbi.

     Let me be clear.  In Judaism it is completely prohibited to pray to righteous men, saints, or rabbis (dead or alive).  This is clearly considered to be a form of paganism.  One is prohibited from praying to Bar Yochai (or anyone else) to ask for his intervention with God; instead one prays directly to God to ask for anything one wishes with no need or justification for intervention by anyone else.  One may not even pray to Moses or Elijah.  Those who hang about the grave shrines of Rabbis (or cemeteries) and ask for money to pray on behalf of other people are charlatans and ghouls and should be immediately subjected to investigation by the income tax authorities. 

    And what of the claims by the Bar Yochai cult groups that Bar Yochai is performing miracles as we speak from the grave?  Well, there is a name for people who believe that a righteous man is performing miracles from the grave to assist those alive today.  Such a person is known as a Christian.  Such a belief is fine for someone practicing Christianity but is totally alien to Judaism.

1.  For the past few weeks, Israel's military establishment and some its politicians have been telling the world that Bashar Assad and his junta have already used poison gas against civilians in Syria.  For example, Yuval Steinetz issued such a report a month ago (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/20/chemical-weapons-used-in-syria-israel_n_2915447.html ).  This matters because of, among other reasons, the fact that the Obama team has been saying that any use of poison gas was the ultimate "red line" for US and for allied intervention in Syria.

This past week, the US State Department was denouncing Israel for issuing false tendentious disinformation about the use of poison gas against Syrian civilians.   Those Israelis were simply trying to drum up escalation and war.

Then this morning it was announced that both the US Department of Defense and the British government concede that there is evidence that the Assad regime has indeed used poison gas (sarin) against civilians.  Sarin is what the Japanese communist terrorists (from the Aum Shinrikyo group) used in the Tokyo metro system in 1995.

Incidentally, Aum Shinrikyo is also known as Aleph (really - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum_Shinrikyo).   You know, the same name as the pro-terror anti-Semitic chat list that continues to operate under the auspices of the University of Haifa (http://www.isracampus.org.il/ALEF%20Watch.htm ).  Coincident?

2.  The Grand Persecute Avigdor Lieberman Vaudeville Show is now underway in Jerusalem court, and the "case" of the leftist Prosecutor against Lieberman is falling apart as we speak.  It is collapsing so quickly that it is more amusing than watching the comedy channel on cable.

    Just to remind you of what it is about:  The Left and its captive Attorney General at first decided to go after Lieberman and make a case of "financial corruption" against him.  As part of its investigation, it send an inquiry to Belarus, where Lieberman had some financial interests.  Word reached the Israeli Ambassador in Latvia, Ze'ev Ben Aryeh, and he passed a note to Lieberman telling him that questions were being sent to the Belarus authorities about Lieberman's finances.

    Much later, Ben Ari's term was up and he was appointed by Lieberman to a new diplomatic post, Ambassador to Latvia, one considerably less prestigious than Belarus because Latvia is a much smaller country.  The Left alleges that this was payback to Ben Aryeh for leaking the fact that Israeli investigators were snooping in Belarus over Lieberman's affairs.   After dragging things out for dramatic effect for years, the Prosecution eventually decided to indict Lieberman for "corruption" over this "affair."

   Now the most glaring fact being overlooked by the chattering classes in the media is that the Prosecution never dug up enough dirt on his finances to indict Lieberman over them.  So it indicted Lieberman instead over the "Ambassador Affair" as its own consolation prize.  Except that if anyone did anything wrong, and it is not clear it was even criminal, it was Ben Aryeh for improperly leaking the fact that investigators were snooping around in Belarus after Lieberman. (See http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/unsavory-affairs-in-lieberman-case-leave-bad-taste.premium-1.517675 ).  And it is not even clear that this was improper.

    When the Attorney General decided to prosecute the case, his star witness was a disgruntled official, Danny Ayalon, with a clear open personal grudge against Lieberman and hardly a reliable witness.   Lieberman had once canned Ayalon for incompetence.

   So the prosecution is left with Ben Aryeh.  They put him on the stand yesterday and he could not recall anything at all that was legally harmful to Lieberman.  Of course it is conceivable that Ben Aryeh was pretending not to remember because Israel does not have a Fifth Amendment and so he did not want to get himself in trouble.  But so what?  His testimony is now useless against Lieberman.  And the Attorney General evidently has nothing else of substance!

   Haaretz of course is pulling out its hair and screaming that the corrupt Lieberman must be indicted and convicted.  You know, unlike Palestinian terrorists.  Haaretz insists Ben Aryeh was sent as ambassador to Latvia by a grateful Lieberman.  Except Ben Aryeh was actually sent there because he speaks Russian fluently.  Haaretz today insists that Ben Aryeh has none of the talents required by someone to be an Ambassador.  This is amusing because the only talent usually required by someone to be an Israeli ambassador is the ability to smile and not show missing front teeth.  Ben Aryeh is eminently qualified from a dental perspective.  And he now seems to be grinning all the way home from the courtroom.

    Haaretz' other big cause this week is promoting the demand that Israeli schools give equal time to both the Israeli and Palestinian "narratives."   In other words, the Education Reporter and Columnist at Haaretz wants equal school time devoted to telling lies and to telling the truth about the Arab-Israel conflict.  I think Israel should adopt his suggestions just as soon as the schools in the UK grant equal time to the 1940s German "narrative" about World War I and World War II.

3.  The Falk:  http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=4131

4.  This short news item speaks for itself.  From the Wall Street Journal:

Homeless Bill of Rights

By ALLYSIA FINLEY

Last year California lawmakers approved a "homeowner's bill of rights." Now in the spirit of social and legal equality, Democrats have proposed a "homeless bill of rights."

The bill's Assembly sponsor Tom Ammiano, who hails from San Francisco (also known as the hobo capital of California), says state legislation is needed to stop businesses and local governments from discriminating against poor people merely because they can't afford housing. But of course, civil rights laws already do that. They don't, however, protect vagrant behavior.

Mr. Ammiano's bill would end-run local "sit-lie" laws like those in San Francisco and Santa Monica that seek to deter vagrancy. In 2010 San Francisco's then-mayor Gavin Newsom spearheaded a ballot initiative to ban vagrants from sitting or lying on sidewalks. Businesses complained vociferously that young bums, er, "free spirits" and the mentally ill were taking over sidewalks and aggressively panhandling.

According to the homeless bill of rights, such "quality of life ordinances" are the "modern reincarnation" of Jim Crow and "Ugly laws," which once forbid people with "unsightly or disgusting" disabilities from appearing in public. By forcing "homeless people to flee local jurisdictions," the ordinances "result in de facto segregation."

The bill seeks to remedy such putative injustice by enshrining vagrants' "right to access public property, possess personal property, access public restrooms, clean water, educational supplies, as specified, emergency and nonemergency, health care, confidentiality of medical records, assistance of legal counsel in specified proceedings, and restitution, under specified circumstances." Is that all?

Thus, homeless people (and Occupy Wall Street types) would have a right to a public attorney if they are cited for vagrancy or evicted from a public space. The bill would also impose civil penalties for violating vagrants' "rights." In other words, it would make police officers legally liable for clearing sidewalks and protecting passersby from unstable or aggressive beggars.

The Assembly Judicial Committee approved the bill on Tuesday, though Mr. Ammiano was forced to strip out a right to "engage in life sustaining activities" including "urinating." With a few more tweaks, the bill stands a good chance of passing the legislature, where Democrats hold a supermajority. No doubt liberals will praise themselves for striving to make California a better place to live.

5.  You may have heard that a Hezb'Allah pilotless aircraft or drone was shot down near Haifa yesterday.  I am truly upset about this.  Let me explain.

I was taking a shower, minding my own business, and my "facilities" have a skylight window from which ordinarily no one can peek inside.  But there I am lathering mi-self up and playing with my bath toys when this bizarre aircraft is suddenly hovering above the skylight.  It had Itboch al-Yahud and other war cries painted along its sides.  It hovered and its cameras stared down at me through the skylight. 

As it was peeking in at me here in my birthday suit, it suddenly occurred to me that the water in the shower was turning rather chilly.  But that just triggered the most traumatic bout of panic of all in me.  For you see, it occurred to me that the Hezb'Allah terrorists live in a suppressed and censored world of medieval shelterdom and it is quite possible that they are not aware of certain, er, biological facts.  In particular, I stood there shivering and worried that the Hezb'Allah operatives viewing the spy photos from their drone may not be aware of  …  shrinkage.

Followup

    Anyone my age from the US will remember the most famous song ever written about public transit, the "MTA Song" about Boston, where MTA stands for the Metropolitan Transit Authority.  It may also be the most famous song ever written about Boston.  It was written and performed originally by the Kingston Trio as part of the protest movement against Boston raising subway fares from 10 to 15 cents.   You can see a classic clip of it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VMSGrY-IlU  You can also read those original lyrics here:  http://www.metrolyrics.com/mta-lyrics-kingston-trio.html

Let me tell you the story
Of a man named Kerry
On a tragic and fateful day
He tossed his two cents for Islamists,
Kissed his Istanbuler mentors,
Went to war for the IHH.

Chorus:
Did he ever unlearn,
No he never relearned
And his fate is still deserved
He'll be mocked forever
In the streets of Boston
He's the man who never relearned.

Now all night long
Kerry groveled 'fore jihadis
Whining, "What will become of thee?
How can I afford to see
them Jews in their Capital
While them Pallies cry misery?"

Now you citizens of Boston,
Don't you think it's a scandal
That the victims have to pay and pay,
Vote for anyone but Obama
Fight the swift boat dingbat!
Drive poor Kerry off the IHH.

Chorus:
Did he ever unlearn,
No he never relearned
And his fate is still deserved
He'll be mocked forever
In the streets of Boston
He's the man who never relearned.

1.  You may have heard that Netanyahu wimped out once again and decided to capitulate to the "demands" of the hunger striking Palestinian terrorists Samer Al-Issawi, who recently was proclaimed the darling of the Israeli radical Left (see http://www.isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Petitions%20-%20Leftist%20Radicals%20Endorse%20Hunger%20Striking%20Terrorist.htm).  Bibi decided he wants to release the terrorist in 8 months in exchange for his ending his "hunger strike" now.  I had a different solution in mind for dealing with the same terrorist.  You can see my plan for ending his hunger strike here in an old Johnny Cash song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV5Fr23kzCs

2.  http://frontpagemag.com/2013/steven-plaut/john-kerrys-sympathy-for-terrorism/

 John Kerry's Pro-Terror Swiftboating

Posted By Steven Plaut On April 24, 2013

Leave it to Secretary of State John Kerry to exploit his state visit to Turkey for some pro-terror swiftboating.

As reported on the conservative Israel National News web site:

Speaking at Istanbul, Turkey, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a jarring comparison between the victims of the Boston Marathon terror bombs and terror activists from the IHH group who were killed when they attacked IDF forces aboard the Mavi Marmara in 2010.

Kerry told his hosts in Turkey that he understands the pain of the families whose loved ones were killed aboard the Marmara – and added that he can understand their pain well, having just dealt with the families whose loved ones were slain in Boston.

As with so much of what comes out of Kerry's mouth, his groveling metaphor before the Turks raises questions about just what he thinks and was trying to say. Is he saying that the Chechen bombers of the Boston marathon were as morally high-minded and ethically justified in using force as were the Israeli troops who boarded the Turkish terrorist ship in the Hamas Flotilla trying to break the blockade of Gaza's Hamastan?

For those who do not recall the incident, Turkey sent a ship loaded with Islamofascist terrorists from the so-called IHH movement to challenge Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas enclave in Gaza. The Turkish terrorists were joined by Western Hamas-philes and even a handful of Israeli radical leftists and Arabs. Israel maintains a naval blockade of Gaza because the Hamas rulers of Gaza have converted it into a launching base to fire thousands of rockets into Israeli civilian zones. Israel is not interested in the terrorists smuggling in more war materiel than they already do and is unwilling to sanction import business-as-usual while the Gaza barbarians engage in war. When Israel sent unarmed troops to board that ship, the "passengers" attempted to murder them. Eventually the Israeli military victims were joined by armed comrades, who dispatched some of the attackers to meet their 72 virgins. These terrorists shot by Israelis are the people whose "pain" Kerry insisted that he understands and feels. Kerry does not feel the pain of any Israeli maimed by the Turkish jihadis who assaulted them on the ship.

The Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just decided on a path of national self-abasement and, in the name of "Realpolitik," issued a toady "apology" to the Turks, at Obama's insistence. Israel even offered to make reparation payments to the families of the Turkish terrorists who got themselves killed while attempting to murder Israeli troops on the Hamas Flotilla ship. As with all such displays of Israeli cowardice and attempts at appeasement, this got Israel nothing. The Turks have simply exploited the Israeli "goodwill gesture" as cover for further demonization and aggression.

Naftali Bennett, Israel's minister of economy and trade, commented:

Since the apology was made public, it appears Erdoğan is doing everything he can to make Israel regret it, while conducting a personal and vitriolic campaign at the expense of Israel-Turkey relations. Let there be no doubt — no nation is doing Israel a favor by renewing ties with it. It should also be clear to Erdoğan that if Israel encounters in the future any terrorism directed against us, our response will be no less severe.

Of course, I suppose there are other ways to interpret Kerry's bon mot expounded in Turkey. Was he trying to compare the pressure cooker bombs left on the street in Boston by the Chechen terrorists to the silly paint guns that Israeli troops held as their only weapons when they boarded the Hamas Flotilla ship to order it to halt? Was he trying to accuse the people running in and cheering on the Boston Marathon as being genocidal fascist terrorists like the IHH members and Hamas? Maybe Kerry was trying to say that, since Israel was entirely justified in using force against the IHH barbarians, the runners in the Boston Marathon must also be barbarians against whom the use of force is appropriate?

Kerry seems to have a surprisingly selective sense of pain and sympathy for victims of violence. While he was clowning for the Turks, he never once expressed any pain for the refugees from Famagusta whose property in Cyprus was simply stolen by Turkey and from which they are barred from entering even today. How come Kerry did not demand that Turkey allow a flotilla to enter the port of Famagusta manned by those who support the Cypriot refugees driven from their homes there? How come Kerry can't seem to feel their pain?

And speaking of feeling the pain of others, how come Kerry did not utilize his visit of state to Turkey to add a few words about the pain of the families of the Armenians and Greeks massacred by the Turks during World War I, or the much more recent aggressions and oppressive policies by Turkey against the Kurds?

Kerry is a master of the understatement. When Turkish leaders proclaimed that Zionism is a crime against humanity, Kerry responded that such talk is "objectionable." That is about as inspiring and morally clear as denouncing the Chechens who left the bombs lying about in Boston as being responsible for harming the environment.

Curiously, Kerry honored a Turkish citizen, Mustafa Akarsu, who was killed by an Islamist terrorist while on guard duty at the US Embassy in Turkey. Honoring Akarsu was of course entirely proper. But for reasons that are not clear, Kerry did not expand on his moral metaphors and compare the suicide bomber who murdered Akarsu to the victims of al-Qaeda killed in the 9-11 attacks on the US or to the soldiers in Valley Forge. Kerry also honored two other Turkish guards who were injured in that same attack, while failing to demand that the families of these guards apologize to the terrorists and offer to pay them reparations.

And since Kerry is so fond of demanding that "Palestinians" be granted "self-determination," how come he never takes the opportunity for explaining why "Palestinians" deserve to get a 23rd Arab state, in addition to the 22 Arabs states already in existence, while Chechens have no right to "self-determination"? While in Israel recently, Kerry said that circumstances only allow for a further two-year opportunity to create a "Palestinian" state as a "solution," and after that it will no longer be a possibility. Israelis breathed a sigh of relief. The deduction from his words was: Hoorah, if we just hang tough for another two years, the whole idiotic idea of pursuing peace by granting "Palestinians" their own state will be removed from the table!

A few years back Kerry addressed the national conference of the Anti-Defamation League. He joked there about how he had acquired his "perspective" on the Middle East. He had once looped-the-loop inside an Israeli air force trainer. "I want you to know," Kerry told the ADL, "that to see it all upside down was the perfect way to see the Middle East and Israel."

Even better than from a swift boat. We think Kerry's comment needs no further elaboration.

Shimon Peres writes a Letter to President Obama

April 16, 2013

 (forwarded to the world by Steven Plaut)

Dear Mr. President, 

My heartfelt sympathies to you and the American people for the acts of protest carried out in Boston this week during the Boston Marathon.  Some are seeing this is the worst Boston Massacre since the Boston Massacre, but it really is a wakeup call for us all.

But you and I must really speak about how to deal with the atrocities and protests, including the attacks on Boston, by these misunderstood activists.  Mister President, I have a great deal of experience in dealing successfully with terrorism and this is why I wish to come to your assistance. 

The first thing you must realize is that one can only make peace with one's enemies.  With one's friends there is no need to make peace.  There is no military solution to the problems of terrorism, and this is why you must seek a diplomatic solution.  "No Justice, No Peace," as they say.  You must invite the leaders of this activist organization to the White House to meet with you and perhaps tour Capitol Hill.  You must learn to feel their pain and understand their needs.  You must offer to turn parts of New England over to them so that stateless Moslems can have their own state.  I have no doubt the Muslim world will applaud your efforts.

You must meet the demands of the protesters in full.  In addition, you must offer them Internet web services and five-star tourist hotels in exchange for their promising to abandon violence.  After all, that is how we turned Yasser Arafat into a peace partner!  You see, military force serves no role any more.  It is passé.  It is archaic.  Today, economic interests dominate the world and the Islamist activists of the earth will surely make peace in exchange for some profits from participating in global trade. 

The attacks on occupied Massachusetts came because you have been insufficiently sensitive in understanding the needs of Moslems.  You never paid them for the tea imported from Asia that was dumped into Boston Harbor.  You took fundamentalist rhetoric at face value, whereas we in Israel know that all this rhetoric is empty and in fact these people simply want peace.  Sure, Moslem fundamentalists praise Hitler and celebrate atrocities, including the newest bloodshed there in Beantown, the Hub, but what is it that they really want?  You must negotiate even while under armed attack; your conditioning negotiations on an end to violence is a no-win situation.  It will simply extend the bloodshed! 

You have been trying to rule over others and failed to be sensitive to The Other. You have illegal settlements that you have yet to remove from Guam, the Samoan islands, and Guantanamo Bay.  You must put your own house in order, and eliminate inequality and injustice inside the USA, and then the terrorists will no longer target you. 

The key is to build a new New England, one in which everyone is so busy with the important matter of development tourism and investments and hi-technology that they have no time to pursue violence.  The era of war is finished. 

Moreover, if you strike at the perpetrators of the perps of the Boston unrest/protests and their supporters, you will simply extend and enlarge the cycle of violence.  Your bombs will no doubt injure some innocent children and civilians alongside any terrorist activists you strike, and that will simply enrage the rest of the world and make the victims seek revenge.   Moreover, if you refuse to negotiate with them, then their leaders will be toppled and a really violent militant and fanatic will take their place.  In that case, you will have lost the window of opportunity to make peace.    Begin by declaring a unilateral ceasefire! 

Mister President, blessed is the peacemaker.  Bostonians must make way not just for duckies but also for Shaaria!    Remember the men of Lexington and Concord and their determination to grant self-determination to oppressed peoples. The entire world will support you and congratulate you if you respond to these horrific attacks by disarming the Massachusetts State Militia and opening dialogue with the terror activists.  You will receive cheers from the entire cast of Cheers!

All we are saying is give peace a chance.  Yitzhak Rabin would have approved. Yes, chaver, what you need is shalom, salaam, peace.  You will be cheered and awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition.  Do not allow yourself to be drawn into the gutter of violence.  Violence never achieves anything.  History is no lesson.  History is the dead past.   End the cycle of violence. Show restraint. Forgo the juvenile impulse to avenge. 

Mister President, the proof is in the pudding.  My own peace policies have eliminated war and bloodshed and terror from the Middle East.  We no longer have terrorists to deal with in the Levant, only peace partners.  If you follow in my footsteps, you can achieve the same lofty goals. 

Peacefully yours, 

Shimon Peres, Peacemaker-at-Large

   Something like 6% of Israelis, or one in 16, begins his or her morning each day with a little serving of treason du jour known as Haaretz.  Not only is this the Palestinian newspaper printed in Hebrew, its ideological line no longer differs in any noticeable way from the party line of the Israeli communist party, except when it comes to economics.  (In bizarre only0in-Israel manner, Haaretz' business section is the most strongly pro-market in all Israeli media.) 

      In the darkest days of Stalinism, communists and Soviet "citizens" would open Pravda (and its clones) each morning to discovery just what it is that they think and are expected to think.  In some cases, what they were commanded to think might change throughout the day.  The infamous  example was the day when the morning edition of all communist papers in the world gushed about the deep friendship and lasting trust between Comrade Stalin and his ally and friend Adolf Hitler.  Then the afternoon editions screamed denunciations of Nazi Germany and Hitler for invading the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.

    The Israeli radical Left works pretty much the same way.  It opens Haaretz each morning in order to discover what it thinks.  And it then spends the rest of the day mouthing these opinions and advocating what its gurus have instructed it to advocate.

   Of the 6 percent of Israelis who read the "newspaper," my guess is that 4 out of the 6 read it for the business/economic supplement, which is the best on these subjects in Israel.  Go figure.  Of the remaining 2 percent, some like me read it so they can see just what the enemy is thinking and planning.  The remaining 1 to 2% are the true believers, the goose-stepping rank and file of the ultra-Left, many of these of course being tenured leftists.

     Haaretz is openly anti-Zionist and pro-terror and pro-jihad.  It opposes any sanctions and aggressive policy against Iran.  Every day the paper is filled with mailman-bites-dog stories, about how settlers supposedly attack Arabs or vandalize Arab property.   If Haaretz were reporting on World War II using its staff of today, the paper would be filled with reports about the sufferings of innocent German and Japanese civilians as a result of the aggressions of the Western imperialist powers: America and Britain.   With no comment at all about Axis aggression.

     The newspaper of the thinking Israeli, as it likes to dub itself, openly cheers on Palestinians who throw rocks and molotov cocktails at Jews.  After all, the Palestinians have grievances.  The paper only uses the "T" word "terrorist" to refer to Jews, never to Arabs.  This week Jack Teitel, the mentally ill ex-American who killed two Arabs and placed a small explosive device near the home of radical anti-Israel professor Zeev Sternhall, was denounced by Haaretz (he was just sentenced to two life terms in prison) as a "Jewish terrorist."  The rest of the left repeated the mantra in unison.  Teitel is not a terrorist but a mentally ill person. 

     Arabs who murder Jews are always militants and activists in Haaretz lingo.  So are al-Qaeda members.  You will never read about any of those proven cases where Arabs intentionally vandalize Arab property as a provocation to make it look like Jews were the perps.   Haaretz of course was also involved up to its kaffiya in the Anat Kam, - Uri Blau espionage scandal.    

      A couple of weeks back, Arabs throwing rocks mortally injured a Jewish baby girl in the West Bank, who was put into a coma.  Haaretz' responded to the terrorism by running a special Op-Ed by Israel's Tokyo Rose, Amira Hass, a Haaretz regular, cheering on Arabs who throw rocks at Jews and demanding more rock throwing by Arabs at Jewish babies to end "occupation."   You can read about her declaration of war against Jews here:  http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/apr/04/op-ed-stirs-row-over-palestinian-rock-throwing/.   Of course, if anyone were to claim they have grievances and then throw rocks at the Haaretz building in Tel Aviv, THAT would be terrorism.

     Haaretz today runs a long piece about a group of four innocent Arab victims of Israeli aggression.  It seems they were shot by soldiers when they were minding their own business and merely throwing molotov cocktails at Jews.  You know, the same molotov cocktails used in World War II to destroy Panzers.  That story is written by "reporter" Gideon Levy, the most openly anti-Israel and pro-terror columnist in the entire Israeli media.  A guy who makes the late Alexander Cockburn (I always called him Alexander Burncock) look like a US patriot.    Levy tries to paint one injured bomb thrower as a truly sympathetic character.  The bomb thrower's father is asked what his son dreams about.  The father says, replacing the tin roof over his bedroom with a solid construction.  Why the father let his son throw bombs instead of sending him to get a job and earn the money needed for the roof is one of those Haaretz imponderables.   Another story is about how settler bullies beat up some poor innocent Palestinian youths who were merely throwing rocks at them and trying to put them into comas like the above mentioned baby.

     But Haaretz outperforms even itself in its reporting about the Jimmy Carter debacle at Yeshiva University.

      As you probably know, Yeshiva University in NY evidently did not lose enough money and support in the huge Madoff scandal and so has decided to finish Madoff's work by losing all remaining support for the institution by granting a special Law School award to Jimmy Carter.  Not only was Carter the very worst president in the entire history of the United States, but he is also an open anti-Semite.  Since being kicked out of the White House with its indoor plumbing and being sent back to his peanut plantation, Carter has spent much of his time demonizing Israel and Jews, denouncing Israel as an "apartheid" regime, backing Islamist terrorists, legitimizing the phony "elections" in dictatorships,  and seeking Israel's extermination.  So what better reason for Yeshiva University to grant him an honor?  I mean, do the YU chiefs seriously think that Carter's anti-Semitic groupies will respond to the award by raising money for the university?  Maybe Yeshiva U chose Carter for its reward simply because Louis Farrakhan and David Irving were unavailable for one.

    But the stupidity of Yeshiva University is as nothing when compared with the spin given the story by Haaretz.  According to the newspaper for the non-thinking Israeli leftist, it is all a vast rightwing conspiracy by American Jewish neocons to paint Carter as a demon.  "Extremist" is the adjective used by Haaretz for any American protesting the award to Carter.  It is never an adjective applied to Carter.  And who are these fanatical rightwing Americans?  Well, Haaretz informs us, they are lead by that notorious rightwinger Alan Dershowitz, who happens to be a notorious liberal two-state-solution guy but one who knows an anti-Semitic ex-president when he sees one.  Dersh says that Carter has never met a terrorist he does not like. 

   Haaretz adopts the jargon and rhetoric of the Neo-Nazis when it denounces the critics of the award to Carter as "Israel Firsters."  Yes, that is the term used in the article.  Haaretz would never be suspected by anyone of being pro-Israel, let alone a newspaper of "Israel Firsters."   But can you imagine the NY Times or Washington Post denouncing people who are pro-American as being "America Firsters"?    Among the radical rightwingers named by Haaretz as opposing the award to Carter are the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.    These "fascists" are becoming the ugly face of Israel as seen in New York, screams the newspapers whose major stockholders include some German ex-Nazis.

     Haaretz, the newspaper read by Hamas Firsters and cited all over the world as the authoritative proof that Israel is an anti-democratic apartheid regime, continues to provide ammunition to the world's Israel Bashers.  It continues to serve up its treason du jour with the lattes sipped by the Israeli yuppie Ashkenazi leftist,s who continue to battle against their own country's survival.

2.  Yair Lapid, the great unknown of the last election and the new Finance Minister, is now a bit less unknown.  He has pretty much revealed what his new economic agenda will be.  Yes, the guy who ran on a platform of representing the middle classes and lightening their burden has revealed his hidden cards.  His entire new program for economic recovery and assisting the middle classes consists of massive tax increases (except he will not raise the miniscule tuition paid by the offspring of yuppie families to attend the universities whose budget is covered largely by the taxpayer who does NOT go to college!). 

The free marketer Bibi Netanyahu will back his tax hikes initiative.

      There is a saying that there is no joy quiet as joyous as Schadenfreude, which is the joy one feels at the misfortune of (suitably deserving) others.  In Hebrew it is called "Simcha L-eid" while the German word (also used in English) means joy at misfortune.   It is the joy we feel when a Palestinian terrorist throws a molotov cocktail at some Jews but aims poorly and it comes down and lands on himself.   (You can also see the resemblance to Darwin Awards.)  You can see a delightful collection of such vignettes here: Daniel Pipes: http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/01/instant-retribution-in-the-middle-east#Fatah

     There are lots of new stories that will give you a delightful sense of Schadenfreude.   First, there is the huge multi-million shekel suit filed against Haaretz by Anat Kamm.  You may recall Kamm as the clueless young leftist who stole oodles of sensitive classified military documents and gave them to Haaetz far-leftist reporter Uri Blau.   Kamm did some jail time for this, although not as much as she should have done.  Haaretz and Blau got off with a slap to the wrist.  After all, since when does the Israeli judicial system really prosecute Far Leftists?

    Well, Kamm is suing Haaretz because it published some of the stolen documents she gave them.   I find that almost as absurd as the woman who sued MacDonald's for serving her coffee that was too hot, but nevertheless I am delighted to see Haaretz up to its Kaffiya in an expensive and grisly lawsuit.

   Then there was the Labor Party assembly this past week.  There the "clique" of Shelly "Little Bo Peep" Yachimovich reasserted its control of the party and defeated the opposing clique, headed by Eitan Cabel and others.   The amusing part was where the members of Shelly's team starting using racist anti-Mizrachi hate speech, guaranteed to lose the Labor Party what little it still gets from the Mizrachi vote.

     Israeli leftists are almost all snotty yuppie Ashkenazim.  They also have a long track record of making disparaging remarks about Sephardim-Mizrachim.   The problem for the Left is that Mizrachim by and large are NOT.  Not Leftist, that is.  Perhaps the most famous was the set of snarls by the late Dudu Topaz about how all the "Chochchochim" are in the Likud, the term used as a derogatory term for Mizrachim, roughly similar to the use of "greasers" in the US to refer to Latinos, Italians, or other groups.  Before that the bovine "comedienne" Tiki Dayan made similar snooty comments (see http://www.hagalil.com/israel/politik/tv/propaganda.htm ) and there have been others.

    Well, this past week, Shelly's mensheviks got up and started screaming at their own party opposition that they are a bunch of "Arsim."   The Hebrew slang word "Ars" (it actually comes from Arabic - see this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_(slang) ) can mean pimp or thug but can also be a derogatory term for Mizrachim, and the party opponents to Shelly are led by several Mizrachim.   Now Shelly and her sheep are tripping all over themselves trying to "apologize" and spin the scandal for the media.   The rest of us can just sit back and sip our Arak and watch Labor implode.

       Ah, but by far the BEST story of Schadenfreude is this:     

     You recall the Gaza Flotilla of Turkish terrorists from the Turkish Islamofascist organization "IHH".   These were the terrorists who tried to murder the unarmed Israeli soldiers who stopped their boat when it illegally tried to run the Israeli blockade of the Hamas in Gaza.  And these are the terrorists to whom Israel's spineless Prime Minister just apologized and offered "reparations" as a reward for their trying to murder Israeli soldiers.

     Well, there are some interesting aftershocks to the whole story.  Another group of pro-Hamas "internationals" attempted to enter Gaza from Egypt to show their support for the Hamas.  They even named themselves the Mavi Marmara, which was the name of the Turkish terrorist ship that Israeli stopped and for which it has now "apologized."  This new group consists of European Muslims, mainly the children of Pakistanis living in the UK.  They started off in France and Spain, crossed over to Morocco and then made their way overland from Morocco to Gaza.  The "internationals" claimed to be bringing in food and civilian supplies to the Hamas, and the gasoline they bought to get from Morocco cost several times the value of their "aid cargo." 

   Their problem was that when they got to the border between Libya and Egypt, the Egyptians would not let them pass through.  Egypt is having its own spats these days with the Hamas, after the Hamas murdered 16 Egyptian soldiers.   Anyway, five of these European "aid to Hamas" terrorists then turned back and returned to Benghazi.  Yes, that Benghazi.   There the five, three of them women, were kidnapped by Libyan soldiers.  In captivity, the three women were either raped or just sexually abused, depending on which media source you believe.  The Libyan Deputy Prime Minister says they were raped.  He also says that two of the women were raped in front of their own fathers who came to Libya to try to help their daughters get out.  After Pakistan protested, Libya arrested a group of soldiers for the rape and some have evidently confessed.

     Now you know doubt recall that MA thesis from the Hebrew University that was supervised a few years back by Prof. Eyal Ben Ari, a far leftist professor of sociology.   In that thesis, which was awarded a special prize by the Hebrew University, it was claimed that the fact that Israeli soldiers never rape Arab women just goes to show you how racist the Jews are.   Some time after it received the prize, Ben Ari was fired by the Hebrew University after it was proven that he had raped some of his own Hebrew University students.   Maybe to prove he was not a racist.

      So it occurs to me that Prof. Eyal Ben Ari is now looking for a new gig and he could not find better work than serving in the Libyan military.  Perhaps he can bring with him a few hundred other Israeli tenured leftists?  There they can help fight racism!