Tonight, for the second year in a row, I’m taking part in my synagogue’s annual effort to help B’nai B’rith remember the names of the six million murdered in the Holocaust.

On this day in 2006, the president of Iran called once again for the destruction of the Jews. The world may stay silent on him, but this time, the Jews will have something to say on their own behalf.

The Jerusalem Post gives us the story of six survivors of what the Iranians call the “mythical” Holocaust. Read their stories.

Tonight, I will read out loud the names of some of those who did not survive, and we will chant the Mourner’s Kaddish.

The world may forget, but we never will.

One word: balls.

The Ukranians had their orange or yellow or rose or whatever revolution last year, throwing out Russian-manipulated polls and ushering in a yearlong government lead by a man allegedly poisoned by Cream of Dioxin Soup.

The Russian puppet regime could have cracked down on them. Hard. Put instead, things got worked out, and there’s even been a follow-up election.

Meanwhile, the Iranians continue to allow their mullahs to rule over them, and despite past agitations by students and ongoing skirmishes by Kurdish separatists, Khatami still rules as the Persian Oracle of Islam and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still rattling sabres like this recent metal-waving incident for the benefit of the AP:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday again criticized Israel and called on Jews to leave the Mideast and “return to their fatherlands” in Europe.

“We say that this fake regime [Israel] cannot … logically continue to live,” he said, according to a translator for The Associated Press.

Ahmadinejad, in a wide-ranging news conference that included international journalists for only the second time in his short term, said anti-Semitism drove Jews out of Europe into Israel.

“We believe that Jews like any other human beings have the right to live in happiness and prosperity and to benefit from security,” he said, according to a CNN translator. “Allow them to go back to their own fatherlands and countries.”

“Human beings?” Never mind the constant stream of propaganda calling Jews monkeys and pigs and dogs courtesy of Iranian-funded publishers and broadcasters. Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.

“Drove Jews out of Europe?” Never mind the hundreds of thousands of Jews driven out of Arabic and Islamic nations to Israel in retaliation for the establishment of Israel and rejection of any comprimise solution by the international community in the late Forties. Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.

So how is Iran not like the Ukraine? Well, the last Iranian elections had any reformist or non-Islamist candidates hamstrung or cut entirely from the ballow, and what was the reaction?

Okay, so it was an angry one. But angry crickets. Or no consequence. Progress halted, back to the Seventh Century with Twenty-first century technology, like a baby with an AK-47 instead of a bone rattle.

Are the students too cowardly to riot in the streets again, are they just waiting for the Americans to do something to provide the opportunity to revolt, or are they waiting for Ahmadinejad to fulfill a deep-seeded Islamic wish of scorching Tel Aviv before rising up and turning back the fundamentalist restrictions on Iranian society?

Don’t call it a UN or International effort to stop Iran. UN’s punished Iran by putting them on the nonproliferation committee as a deputy chairman. UK’s Jack Straw has already pulled out his prayer rug and bowed towards Tehran in fear. The Chinese are making deals for more oil to fuel their growing economy, and Russia keeps selling the rope that Iran will hang the Jews with.

If they’re going to act, they may want to act soon, because if Ahmadinejad has placed civilian and academic institutions on top of buried nuclear sites, there’s going to be awful lot of dead students when the bunker-busters start dropping.

Notice the difference in headlines and leads as the hours pass. First, we have this story:

Iranian president decries Israel as a “fake regime”
TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today renewed his criticism of Israel, calling it a “fake regime” that cannot continue to exist.

“Some 60 years have passed since the end of World War II. Why should the people of Germany and Palestine pay now for a war in which the current generation was not involved?” Ahmadinejad said at a news conference.

“We say that this fake regime (Israel) cannot not logically continue to live,” he said.

The remarks by the hard-line leader came a day after interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged the international community to work against Iran’s nuclear program, saying Tehran’s ambitions threaten not only Israel but all of Western civilization.

Astonishingly, the AP thinks that saying a country “cannot logically continue to live” is considered “criticism” of that country. One would think one would more likely classify that as a “threat,” but then, one would not be an AP editor/reporter if one thought that.

Now, the udpated version. Again, see how the threat against Israel is diminished in importance.

Iran Hints at Exiting Nuclear Treaty
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hinted Monday that Iran was considering withdrawing from the worldwide Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and said he did not think the U.N. Security Council would impose sanctions on Iran.

“Those who speak about sanctions would be damaged more” than Iran, he told a news conference. “But no particular event will happen, don’t worry.”

He also renewed his criticism of Israel, calling it a “fake regime” that cannot continue to exist. Israel has long identified Iran as its biggest threat, and these concerns have grown amid repeated calls by Ahmadinejad for Israel’s destruction.

“Some 60 years has passed since the end of World War II, why should the people of Germany and Palestine pay now for a war in which the current generation was not involved,” he said.

Notice how the full quote of the threat against Israel is now missing from the lead. It’s buried under the rubric of “other remarks” now.

Once again, AP spins the threat dial down when it comes to an enemy of Israel.

More evidence that Hamas will never moderate (Hebrew link):

Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal confirmed that the Palestinian Authority under Hamas rule has become a hothouse for the growth, development, and encouragement of terrorists.

“Our government is a big tent that provides protection for the forces of Jihad,” he said at a meeting near Damascus.

The intent of Mashaal’s remarks were confirmed by Islamic Jihad spokesman Ali Abu Shahin, who told the Israeli Arab newspaper Kol al-Arab, published in Nazareth, that his organization received inspiration for last week’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv from the new Hamas government.

“The attack matches the plan of the Hamas government which supports the resistance (armed struggle),” he said.

So how long you think it’s going to take the EU to cave? I can’t tell any more. Every time I think they’re caving, they un-cave. France and Sweden just uninvited or said they wouldn’t talk to Hamas reps. (Japan said recently they won’t fund the Hamas-led PA.) But then they cave again. I suppose it’s wait-and-see time.

Iran has recruited a top terrorist to plan retaliation strikes against Israel and the U.S. if a strike against Iran’s nuclear capabilities occurs.

IRAN’S president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attended a meeting in Syria earlier this year with one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, according to intelligence experts and a former national security official in Washington.

US officials and Israel intelligence sources believe Imad Mugniyeh, the Lebanese commander of Hezbollah’s overseas operations, has taken charge of plotting Iran’s retaliation against western targets should President George W Bush order a strike on Iranian nuclear sites.

Mugniyeh is on the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list for his role in a series of high-profile attacks against the West, including the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jet and murder of one of its passengers, a US navy diver.

Now in his mid-forties, Mugniyeh is reported to have travelled with Ahmadinejad in January this year from Tehran to Damascus, where the Iranian president met leaders of Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

The meeting has been dubbed a “terror summit” because of the presence of so many groups behind attacks on Israel, which Ahmadinejad has threatened to wipe from the map.

The Telegraph also says:

Elite Iranian army officers who arrived in south Lebanon this month have taken command of thousands of rockets aimed at cities across Israel. They are believed to have been given control of the missiles by Hezbollah to deter possible Israeli attacks against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

I would say it’s past time for a pre-emptive strike on the rocket launchers along the Lebanese border that are aimed at Israel. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that happen at the same time as any attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities.

Last week, I wrote a post about the mechanics that go into a suicide bomb. The purpose of the post was to delineate the evil of the bombers, who deliberately pack nails, screws, ball bearings, and pointed metal shards into a vest surrounding the explosives, in order to create as much death and destruction as possible. The conclusion of my post was picked up by Michele Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, and a few other bloggers. In my conclusion, I said:

But even this is not enough for the terrorists. They also soak the shrapnel in rat poison, because it causes hemorrhaging — victims may bleed to death before they can get to the hospital.

Those two words, “rat poison,” set off a firestorm in my comments thread. People rushed to say that there was no need to emphasize the rat poison part, and then came up with several arguments:

1. There is no proof there was rat poison in the bomb shrapnel
2. Even if there was rat poison, it doesn’t matter because the explosion would dissipate it and it would do no damage
3. You shouldn’t mention the rat poison because it hasn’t been proven and it takes focus away from the evil of the suicide bomb

Mind you, the very first comment on that post insisted that the use of rat poison wouldn’t matter because it must be taken for five days to cause hemorrhaging. As I am not a doctor, I chose not to argue the facts of that. I still choose not to argue those facts.

Because that wasn’t my point.

My point was that it wasn’t enough for palestinian terrorists to include nails, screws, nuts, and metal shrapnel in their bombs to do as much damage as possible. My point was that they even tried to include a chemical that, in their opinion, would cause more deaths by increasing the bleeding of the bomb victims.

My point was the vileness of the terrorists’ aims. My point was the horror of the suicide bomb. My point was the depths of moral depravitude these people have reached. My point was not whether or not rat poison would be effective. And yet, that was what dominated the comments, which were filled with people denying that rat poison was included. And so I have a follow-up post that ought to silence even Jack Shafer, who is not a doctor, nor even a very good reporter, since he didn’t supply any information in the articles that were so respectfully quoted in my comments.

Andy over at the Cozy Corner found the article that I remembered, but could not reference. It’s from the Physicians for Human Rights website. This is an organization that has investigated the deaths of palestinian prisoners in Israel. I think we can fairly call it an unbiased organization. And here is the caption of a picture from Shaare Zedek hospital:

Metal nuts removed from a patient after a homicide bombing by doctors at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. The hospital now has a collection of items such as screws, nails and rat poison residue, all added to the explosives presumably to increase the destructive power of the bombs. A PHR physician was present after the March 21st Jerusalem cafe bombing, and witnessed nickel-sized ball-bearings being removed from one injured man’s back by medical center staff.

There’s where your story came from, Jack. Physicians for Human Rights visited Shaare Zedek (the hospital for which we raised thousands of dollars during the Blogathon some years back). Can we move on, now, to the substance of my post? Because that PHR report from 2002 reminded me of something else that the palis used to do during terror attacks: They’d send in a bomber, who would blow himself up. Then, when the emergency services were there to treat the wounded, a second bomber would then detonate himself, murdering rescue workers and more civilians. Because there’s a picture of a young woman who was seriously burned in one of those second bombings, and this caption:

Dr. Sheri Fink posing with teenager Leah Saban, a suicide bombing survivor who passed out refreshments to hospital workers and relatives after the March 21st attack. Saban suffered severe burns in December when a rigged car exploded into flames as she was running to volunteer at the scene of an attack. Despite the fact that she is still undergoing treatment and wears a Jobst pressure garment to protect her skin, she comes to the hospital and volunteers to help others each time an attack occurs in Jerusalem.

Go ahead. Start the debate on how it’s not pertinent to point out how evil a secondary bombing targeting hospital and rescue workers is, that I should stick to the fact that the suicide bombing itself is evil enough and I’m diluting the point.

Go ahead. I’ll wait.

In the meantime, feel free to contribute to Shaare Zedek, a hospital that does a magnificent job saving the lives of suicide bombing victims.

And may I also point out to those of you who like to tell me my facts are wrong: Rarely. Extremely rarely.