It must be hormones. I was in the doldrums on Sunday, rather blah yesterday, and today, on the way home from teaching Hebrew school, had the opposite feeling and wound up running errands that I’d been putting off.

My 128 mb memory stick got corrupted months ago by virtue of my having lost it. It was in a bag in my car, and by the time I rediscovered it, it was useless and unreadable. I’ve been trying to fly without a net and just use the 64 mb stick, but it’s very frustrating running out of space when I take pictures (I take a lot of pictures for synagogue-related events, particularly for the school). So I finally bought a new one. It’s cheaper than buying a camera. Hell, it’s cheaper than buying the first 128 mb stick. For that matter, it’s cheaper than the 64 mb stick cost. Of course, that’s because memory is 1 gig and up these days, but my old Sony DSC P71 can’t take more than a 128 mb stick, and frankly, I’ve yet to run out of space between the two. Okay, Fourth of July was pushing it, but how many pictures of fireworks are really all that good, anyway? Waste of effort. Far more fun to make little movies of them to amuse the kids with.

While I was at Staples, I picked up a tri-fold cardboard display for the synagogue. We’re having an open house for our religious school this Sunday, and I offered to make a display of pictures I’ve taken over the past four years during school events. So I have a nifty black tri-fold — I paid a few extra bucks for it — and got home only to realize that nifty black tri-fold is going to be nifty black tri-fold covered with orange and white cat hair if I put it together here. I’m going over to Sarah’s on Saturday, though, and she suggested I put it together there. All I’ll have to put up with is, uh, her four kids. But at least they don’t shed.

So on the way home, I was feeling rather up. In fact, I couldn’t get over the thought that something good was going to happen. I don’t know what or why, but at least it was nice to feel happy for a change. And who knows, maybe something good is going on that I just haven’t discovered yet.

Closed out my account for The Jewish View. Found out that I have an opt-out hosting service. I managed to bargain them down to charging me for a quarter instead of the entire year. Yes, their terms of service state that if you don’t cancel your account, um, 14 days before its renewal, you have to pay for another year even if you’re closing down your site. I can’t figure out if they were nice to me because I didn’t scream and yell, and was reasonable about trying to bargain with them, or if this is a racket they run where they get a quarter’s hosting fee out of you because they know you’d rather not go through the rigamarole and risk your credit rating. I think I’m going to have to post at least once more and make you guys read there, because dammit, I just paid $28.50 for the next three months, and I want to get some use out of it!

Oh, and when I get the time to edit the pictures, I have a new bird story to tell. It isn’t the Woodpecker Wars, but it is a story of life, love, and extremely annoying noises from Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal.

Go back to St. Louis, ya bums.

Right. Now I’m going to zip through my soap and get to bed. And begin sitting shiva for the Gilmore Girls, because that is one dead show walking. Wow, last night’s show sucked.

Bummer.

Oh, well. AMC is getting great again. And there’s a new episode of Lost tomorrow night. Maybe Daniel Dae Kim will feel the urge to walk around half-naked again.

One can only hope.

Oh.

My.

God.

I want to see this film.

There’s a Bat Mitzvah that weekend that I must attend.

Sigh. I can wait until late Saturday. But I won’t be happy about it.

Israeli officials confiscated a shipment of arms-related materiel headed towards Gaza.

The container’s importers said their shipment includes sewing notions, hats and clocks. Customs officers however confiscated 300 telescopes, some of which have sights and infrared markers for long-range targets.

Security officials said the items are of good quality and had they reached the Gaza Strip they would have certainly improved terror groups’ ability to hit IDF targets.

See, this is why Israel should never have sold the Harpy missiles to China. Because the Chinese are not Israel’s friends.

But remember this, when Hamas tells you that their people are starving. Apparently, they’re not yet starving enough to prevent them from buying arms.

At eleven a.m. on Israel’s Memorial Day, the sirens blast for two full minutes, and all life comes to a stop.

Allison:

Today, I watched my children, aged 7 and 9, stand together somberly with their classmates as the Memorial Day siren rang out, and then listen to a list of young men and women who had attended their elementary school who had lost their lives in Israel’s wars. There were 33 names.

I don’t think you can truly understand Israeli culture until you experience the key two weeks in which the country observes Holocaust Remembrance Day, and then Memorial Day for the soldiers who fell in battle in Israel’s wars, followed by Independence Day.

It is a collective and communal experience that I have a hard time finding a parallel for in American life.

The entire country mourns for generations of young people who lost their lives at terribly young ages – who will forever be age 18, 19 or 20. No generation is untouched. Some of them died in the country’s early wars, without which it wouldn’t exist. The most recent, immediate losses, the soldiers who died over the past 13 years that I have lived here are especially meaningful to me: many of them died rooting out a terrorist who might have easily harmed me or my kids.

Israel has a citizen’s army. The people who die in wars aren’t professional soldiers, many of them had no affection for things military. They were doing what they had to do to protect their country, whether or not they agreed with ever decision their leaders made.

Rahel:

The deep crimson flower above has many names: red everlasting, cudweed, Helichrysum sanguineum. In Hebrew it is called dam ha-maccabim—blood of the Maccabees.

This is the flower that symbolizes the memorial day for Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks. On this day, which started just a few hours ago and which will end tomorrow night—ushering in the festivities of Independence Day—many people wear special stickers bearing an image of this flower and the Hebrew word nizkor—“We will remember.”

Last week we remembered the millions of Jews who were murdered before they could reach these shores. Today we remember those who paid the ultimate price for our ability to live here as free human beings and as Jews.

Actually, we always remember. Not a day goes by that we do not. But most of the time it is a private remembrance. Today it is a shared, public one.

Read the rest of both their posts.

According to a recent poll of Americans:

While Israeli-Palestinian strife has been in the news for the entire lives of the respondents, 75 percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ismail Haniyeh, and countless others in the United Nations, Arab League, and the European Union are all working hard to make that 100%.

The judges in Canada can’t read a map.

An 18-year-old man who was born in Jerusalem has lost his legal battle to have Israel shown as his birthplace on his Canadian passport.

In a decision released Monday, the Federal Court ruled the government is justified in its policy of listing “Jerusalem” alone on passports because the city’s status is unresolved.

Canada has never recognized Israel’s 1967 annexation of Jerusalem. Although Israel calls Jerusalem its eternal capital, almost all foreign embassies have remained firmly planted in Tel Aviv.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t half of Jerusalem wind up in Israeli territory prior to 1967?

Jerusalem-born Eliyahu Veffer, a Grade 12 student in Toronto, wanted Canada to recognize his birthplace as part of Israel.
“The fact that I was born there, in Israel, to me that’s a fulfillment of the Jews saying for years, thousands of years, ‘next year in Jerusalem,’ ” Veffer said. “That had been fulfilled with me by being born there.”

Faraj Nakhleh, acting president of the Canadian Arab Federation, said his group sees things differently.

“If he were born in Tel Aviv, it would have been fair – according to what Canada recognizes – to put Tel Aviv, Israel. The gentleman in question was born in a disputed city. Canada recognizes Jerusalem as a city under military occupation.”

Apparently not, according to Canada. And here’s a pretty funny quote:

The government of Canada argued that since the same rule would apply to a Muslim or Christian born in Jerusalem, there is no discrimination on religious grounds.

Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled that a change in policy might be misconstrued as a softening of Canada’s position toward Israel’s occupation, and could harm Canada’s ability to act as an honest broker for peace in the Middle East.

The judge ruled that “passports do not deal with, nor are they a reflection of, a person’s roots, heritage or belief.”

Passports are supposed to be accurate purveyors of information about the person to whom they belong. Eliyahu Veffer was born in Jerusalem, Israel. That would seem to contradict the judge’s statements about “a person’s roots.”

But then, this is Canada, land of the politically correct. Over to you, Damian. It’s your turf.

Is there a Jewish blogger out there who wants a new domain?

The Jewish View was a group blog that I started last year but that never quite worked out. I paid for the domain name for two years, and the hosting service is asking me for the next year’s fees.

Is there someone out there who wants to put up a Jewish weblog with the name The Jewish view? Email me.

Note that I am not offering to pay for the next year’s hosting. That’s $95, and you’ll have to take care of it. But before I cancel it completely, I thought I’d ask if someone might want to get off of Blogspot or Typepad and onto their own domain.

Suzanne Goldenberg dedicated an article to the results of the plea bargaining between Sami Al-Arian and the prosecution. After reading this article, one is left with a sense that something very serious went wrong in this case, that a miscarriage of justice causes much suffering to an innocent person.

A Florida judge told a Palestinian computer engineer yesterday that he must spend another 18 months in prison before being deported, in a case that had been seen as a key test for sweeping anti-terror legislation brought in after September 11.

“Palestinian computer engineer” is a vital detail here. The mere mention of the defendant’s profession already makes you feel more charitable toward the poor guy. Probably should be expected in any criminal case from now on. “A paleontologist, expert in prehistoric insects, allegedly accused of triple murder…”. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

On the other hand, the same passage makes one immediately feel bad about that sweeping anti-terror legislation (as if we don’t feel bad enough about it as it is now). Two birds with one stone, so to say.

Now look at another passage:

Arian became the target of an FBI investigation as one of the founders of a campus thinktank and a charity formed in the 1980s to support a Palestinian state.

Another point to add to the image of an innocent wronged by the Big Brother. Clearly FBI does not have anything better to do than persecute a think tank egghead, whose only interests in life are science and some charity on the side.

That’s saying nothing before you read the site by hypocritical supporters of Mr. Al-Arian here. A purer lamb was not born yet in the whole blue world, they will tell you.

Oh well, there is a different view of the case, presented here without histrionics - only the documents and dry unemotional information. Including the plea agreement signed by the learned professor. This is what a part of it looks like (click to enlarge):

And this is only a small part of a pretty damning document signed by the convict. To remind you, it is a plea bargaining document whereby the accused agrees only to a part of his misdeeds.

Back to Ms. Goldenberg:

In the past, Arian, a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian who has lived in the US for nearly 30 years, has said he was singled out for prosecution because of his support for Palestinian rights. He denies advocating violence.

Yes, he never pulled the trigger himself, he only financed the guns and the bullets and brainwashed the poor deluded and stupid teenagers in Gaza and West Bank to do it. And the only sensible quote in the article is that of the judge:

…the judge said yesterday: “Your only connection to widows and orphans was that you create them.”

Cross-posted on SimplyJews