This morning as I left for work, Tig decided to watch me leave.

All together now: Awwwww.

Hey! You in the back! Yeah, I know the window needs to be cleaned. We had a thunderstorm the other day that kicked up dirt. So sue me.

At face value, the story of Ben and Izzy seems like a wonderful way to promote understanding between East and West, right?

A Jordanian media firm hopes its new TV cartoon series can achieve what politicians have failed to do so far: bridge the cultural divide between East and West.

It sounds like a tall order, but the Rubicon firm — named after the river Caesar crossed to establish the Roman Empire — is armed with an equally mighty motto: “to embark on a mission from which one cannot turn back.”

Even more important is that the cartoon, called “Ben and Izzy” and aimed at 8 to 11 year olds, has royal backing from Jordan’s media savvy rulers, King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, who have made it their goal to promote tolerance.

Rania will showcase Jordan’s first TV cartoon export in New York on May 8 at a black-tie dinner she’s hosting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. American media ‘royalty,’ like Barbara Walters and Katie Couric, are expected to be on hand.

(more…)

The IAF got five more terrorists in a Gaza training camp. The headlines?

Israeli Airstrike Hits Gaza Camp: AP

Israeli airstrike kills four in Gaza: Reuters

Four dead as Israelis strike Gaza: BBC

Israeli air strike on Gaza training camp kills at least five Palestinian militants: National Post, Canada

Israeli airstrike kills five Palestinian militants in Gaza: Deutsche Press-Agentur

Interesting points of view, no?

The Kittyverse is shy a member today. Adloyada lost her cat to cancer. She talks about his life today:

There was another trick of his cat physics, which is how he managed to detect the sound of my car as it approached the house we used to live in in Stoke Newington. Do all cars have a distinctive sound? It couldn’t just have been the sight of me driving the car. We had a back garden, part of which was visible from the surrounding roads. And long before he could see the car, I could see the garden, and I’d see him leaping up towards the fence and trees, bounding across them to be there when I arrived.

And he always knew when it was me or my daughter walking up the path to our present house, even when he couldn’t see us. He’d come racing down the stairs and be there when we opened the door. He never did that for anyone else.

It’s a trick all cats have.

Sorry for your loss. I had my first Tig about the same amount of time. It hurt like hell. Amazing how much we can grieve for an animal.

Okay, let’s see if we can follow this. First, Sweden said they’d grant a visa to Hamas members. Then, after Israel and others objected, Sweden said no. Now, they’re saying sure, we don’t mind if you’re a member of an organization that’s sworn to the destrucion of Israel and its replacement with an Islamic state, you’re welcome to visit our country anytime!

And when Israel objects, Sweden now says that none of the other European nations objected to granting the visa.

Prime Minister Goran Persson on Friday rejected criticism from Israel, France and domestic politicians over Sweden’s decision to grant a visa to a Hamas Cabinet minister - a move some say compromises the European Union’s tough stance on the terror-listed organization.

Atef Adwan, Hamas’ refugee minister, was granted the visa by the Swedish consulate in Jerusalem this week, allowing him to attend a conference in southern Sweden on Saturday, but also giving him entry to any of the 15 countries bound by the Schengen accords that allow for open border crossings.

The decision was harshly criticized by both Israel, which said it lent legitimacy to Hamas, and France, which recently rejected visa applications to other Hamas members because it is labeled a terrorist organization by the EU.

See, here’s what I don’t understand. Sweden is a member of the EU. The EU has labeled Hamas a terrorist organization. What, exactly, is the conflict?

Persson stood by the decision, saying all 15 Schengen members had been notified of the visa application and that none had objected to it. “I completely reject that kind of statements,” Persson told public broadcaster SVT of Israelistatements that Sweden was legitimizing Hamas. “This has followed the process it should follow … And it was done together with the other Schengen countries.”

Two things are wrong with this defense: First, “All of the other kids are doing it!” never worked when I was a teenager, and shouldn’t be a defense today. Secondly, if France is objecting, then apparently, all 15 Schengen signatories are not in agreement. I’m willing to bet you that the bureaucrats that run the visa offices are the ones that didn’t object, not the heads of state. A petty excuse for a petty-sounding man.

But there is an overarching problem here. The fact that Sweden thinks it’s fine and dandy to allow members of a terrorist organization — and I repeat, an organization that is declared to be terrorist by the EU, of which Sweden is a member — is the problem, here. Not any other nation’s objections. The root of the matter is that Sweden doesn’t have a problem granting visas to murderers.

But then, Sweden’s attitudes towards Jews have turned extremely dicey lately. I’m starting to be less surprised that polls show 40% of Swedes are anti-Semitic.

Mulham Assir is quite a busybody. Of course, his livelihood depends on his output counted in words, and this causes him to produce an endless stream of variations of the same subject. However, with time his imagination became exhausted, and in comparison with the two previous gems we have duly reported here and here, the quantity and, especially, quality of the poison in his spit is drastically reduced. I mean the latest article poetically titled “In the Beginning was Palestine“. He peddled it to various media outlets sympathetic to his plight, so it is easy to find.

The main premise of this opus is simple and straightforward:

Palestine is our bleeding heart, the place where it all began. It is the open wound which, left untended, has made everything else possible.

We’ll not go here into what is meant by “everything else”, and the limited size of the article itself did not allow for a heart wrenching description of the extinction of dinosaurs, the Crucifixion, the crusades and everything else to be blamed on Jooz. Which is easy, seeing as how there isn’t any proof to the contrary. So we better confess to everything. This will open a plethora of new venues, which might be good for a whole series of articles. Be grateful, Mulhie.

But all this falls into a shadow of total insignificance, since it looks that the spitting cobra has already found itself a god (or a God, it is up to the two of them).

“The question of Palestine is the present and lasting concern of not only Muslims, but the entire humanity. Palestine is the meeting point of right and wrong.” This is not an Arab leader’s statement. It is a quote from a recent speech given by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the only world leader who has articulated the centrality of Palestine’s tragedy in the American-led siege (”crusade” was George W Bush’s actual word) against the Arab and Muslim world.

What can one say? Good for you, mate. Now you know both who is guilty and who is your mentor and your shining beacon of truth. Now the Janjaweeds in Sudan and bombers in Indonesia and killers in Kasmir and Taliban beheaders in Afghanistan and Sunni suicide bombers in Iraq have a common battle cry you have so touchingly repeated in that article:

It all began with Palestine.

They also have a nice figure of a man to use as addition to their various flags. Wait, on this one Mahmoud looks too much like a clown. Try this one.

Yes, it’s definitely better, but may cause complications to pregnant women. OK, you decide, after all you are a big boy now.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews