It’s so nice when someone gets it. From London’s Telegraph:

But because of this basic agreement among Jews about the status of the secular law, the effect of these quarrels on the wider society is minimal. It is significant that virtually no one reading this article will have heard of Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu. He is the chief justice of the Beth Din, the Chief Rabbi’s court which adjudicates on the endless delicate points of Jewish law, often relating to diet or Sabbath observance, which come up within the community.

If Judaism were an aggressive religion, seeking to lay down its law for all mankind, then this supremely learned old gentleman could acquire menacing power. Like the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran after 1979, Dayan Ehrentreu could tell people to kill in the name of God. Instead, his effect is the opposite. By policing so meticulously the difference between the precise duties of Jews and the duty to society at large, this scholar helps define the space necessary for people with beliefs quite at variance with those of the majority to live harmoniously among them. In this sense, people can be “fundamentalist” and yet perfectly at home in a society which is not. For 2,000 years, Jews have developed a subtle understanding of the difference between the ideal society that would exist if God’s laws prevailed everywhere and the world as it is.

Read the whole thing.

H.T. Kesher Talk

The latest suckers to buy into the so-called “peace” plan known as “the prisoner’s document” is the Financial Times of London.

Hamas ponders sacrificing ideology for political gain
This week could turn out to be a vital one for the Palestinian Authority as the ruling Hamas movement ponders whether to sacrifice some of its ideology in exchange for safeguarding political gains it made in last January’s elections.

Depending on the outcome of its deliberations, the PA could within weeks have a new national unity government with a platform of negotiating with Israel, or face a potentially divisive national referendum and worsening relations between Hamas and Fatah.

Representatives of the two movements met in Gaza yesterday in the latest talks aimed at reaching agreement on a set of proposals implicitly recognising Israel – the so-called prisoners’ document – that Mahmoud Abbas, the PA’s Fatah president, plans to put to a referendum on July 26.

Although Hamas failed to meet Mr Abbas’s mid-June deadline to endorse the document, Fatah officials said there was still time for the Islamists to avert a referendum by belatedly accepting its 18 points.

That, however, would require Hamas accepting proposals that embrace a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel, which it so far refuses to recognise.

The particularly egregious misrepresentations are in bold, including the headline of the piece.

Let me refer you to the third point of the document:

3- the right of the Palestinian people in resistance and clinging to the option of resistance with the various means and focusing the resistance in the occupied territories of 1967 alongside with the political action and negotiations and diplomatic action and continuation of popular and mass resistance against the occupation in its various forms and policies and making sure there is broad participation by all sectors and masses in the popular resistance.

You see the part marked in bold? That’s the part where the FT and all the other media “experts” stop reading. The first part is all they seem to get, and it seems to be that they think that “peace” includes committing terrorist acts in the West Bank. (Isn’t it interesting how the document doesn’t seem to mention Gaza as separate from the West Bank, even though Gaza is no longer occupied?)

If you’re not a blind reporter or politico or EUro, you can see that nowhere in this document is there a call for peace with Israel, implicitly or not. Nowhere in this document does it “imply” a two-state solution. What we have, it seems, is a new way to use the lies in this document the way they used the lies of Yasser Arafat to pretend that the palestinians wanted peace.

Then there’s point 9:

9- The need to double efforts to support and care for the refugees and defend their rights and work on holding a popular conference representing the refugees which should come up with commissions to follow up its duties and to stress on the right of return and to cling to this right and to call on the international community to implement Resolution 194 which stipulates the right of the refugees to return and to be compensated.

Resolution 194 includes several remarks on Israel. It calls for open access to all the holy sites in Jerusalem (and specifically mentioned Nazareth), something that did not happen from 1948 to 1967, when that part of Jerusalem was under Jordanian rule. It also says:

that refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which under principles of international law or in equity should be made good by Governments or authorities responsible. Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of refugees and payment of compensation

The “right of return” of palestinian refugees no longer includes just the people who were displaced in 1948. It now includes their children, their children’s children, their great-grandchildren, and people who have married into their families. The number of refugees was about 700,000 in 1948. It is something around five million today. Never mind the fact that third-generations refugees should be known as “citizens of the states where they now live.” This is the way to demographically destroy the Jewish State, and it is also a non-starter. The EU knows this, the FT knows this, the media knows this—all negotiators know this. But they pretend that it isn’t really what the pals want, that they will probably settle for “token” resettlement and reparations. Take another look at the above, especially the part that says “to stress on the right of return and to cling to this right and to call on the international community to implement Resolution 194.

This is not an issue that will go away soon.

For a so-called “peace plan,” the word “peace” occurs only once in the document, and that is in reference to anti-Israel groups such as the ISM. Any other reference (”peaceful”) is to intra-palestinian relations.

The media does not seem to be able to read the introductory paragraph, either:

Based on a high sense of national and historical responsibility, and owing to the dangers facing our people and for the sake of reinforcing and consolidating the Palestinian internal front and protection of national unity and the unity of our people in the homeland and in the Diaspora, and in order to confront the Israeli scheme that aims to impose the Israeli solution which shatters the dream of our people and the right of our people in establishing their independent Palestinian state with full sovereignty; this scheme that the Israeli government intends to implement in the next phase as establishment of the erection and completion of the apartheid wall and the Judaization of the Jerusalem and the expansion of the Israeli settlements and the seizure of the Jordan Valley and the annexation of vast areas of the West Bank and blocking the path in front of our people to exercise their right in return.

It’s right there, in black and white, in the first paragraph. This is not a “peace” plan. It is a plan to continue exactly what they’re doing, and its only reason for being is to stop the factional fighting and band together behind yet another Big Lie: That Hamas is going to change its goal from the destruction of Israel to living in peace with Israel.

This. Will. Not. Happen.

Shame on the media for passing on the lies. At least Israel is pointing out the truth, and calling the document what it is: A bunch of bullshit that holds out no change in the palestinian position, and no change in their aims toward the destruction of Israel.

Sometimes, you come across a funny turn of phrase in the most serious of news articles. From Iran Mania:

LONDON, June 17 (IranMania) - According to AFP, Israel’s memorial to the six million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for making fresh anti-Semitic comments.

I find it amusing that a memorial is speaking, but clarification is found in the very next paragraph:

The Yad Vashem institute was speaking in response to a call from Ahmadinejad in Shanghai for an independent investigation into the Holocaust.

“Yad Vashem reiterates its warning against complacency in face of Iranian Holocaust denial,” a spokeswoman for the memorial told AFP.

“Recent trends in Iran represent a clear feature of current anti-Semitism, the ties between Islamic radicals and Holocaust deniers,” she added.

Phew. First it was the Yad Vashem memorial, then it was the institute, and finally, it’s an actual human being.

The price of an M-16 has risen to $10,000, and Fatah and Hamas are arming for war.

Hamas and Fatah are preparing for war, just to be on the safe side. Militants are gathering intelligence ahead of an operation against each other, rather than Israel. Yes, reports say the rival organizations are about to sign an agreement on the prisoners’ letter and that Hamas is willing to appoint technocrats to ministerial positions. But there is a crisis of confidence between Fatah and Hamas. On at least four occasions, senior officials have agreed that the special “operational force” established in Gaza by Hamas will retreat from the streets and return to the barracks. The agreement was not implemented even after last week’s particularly successful meeting between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. And so, Fatah and Hamas continue to prepare for war: Both sides are monitoring the movements of rival senior officials with roadblocks on the routes taken by military commanders. The recruitment, training and arming of more than 4,000 Palestinians in forces associated with Fatah centrists (Mohammed Dahlan’s preventative security force and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades) are meant to send a message to Hamas. “For every one of our men who is hit by Hamas fire, we will hit two of yours,” a senior Fatah official told Haniyeh last week.

Meantime, Hamas is still targeting the Fatah leadership. It’s a volatile choice. Israel doesn’t have to worry about the clan thing after targeted assassinations. But the clan/tribal thing in the terrortories[sic], well, that’s the real tit-for-tat violence going on.

I’m hoping that Hamas hits a Fatah member whose death can’t be overlooked by the leadership. Then we’d see the real civil war, and as they say, I hope they both lose.

The ICRC is set to vote on the approval of a “Red Crystal” emblem, which would then be followed by a vote on the elevation of the Magen David Adom to full membership:

Israel is set to join the Red Cross movement after nearly six decades of exclusion, despite attempts by Muslim countries to derail a complex diplomatic initiative based on the creation of a new emblem.

The two-day International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, opening Tuesday, is being asked to approve changes to meet Israeli demands that it be granted full status without using the cross or crescent to identify itself.

The issue in a nutshell:

• The Magen David Adom uses the Red Star of David, a Jewish symbol.
• Islamic members do not want a Jewish symbol added to the slate of approved symbols because it’s a religious symbol.
• Islamic members of the ICRC use the Red Crescent instead of the Red Cross.
• The red crescent is a religious symbol.

You’ll hear all sorts of politicing and repackaging of the debate, claims that the MDA uses bulletproof vests and armored ambulances which makes it a semi-military operation, etc and so forth. It’s out-and-out anti-Semitism, horror at the possible recognition of Israel, and horror at the recognition of a Jewish symbol, plain and simple.

Just as any Arab or Islamic country on the United Nations Security Council is often used as the spearpoint for anti-Israel motions in that body, Syria is likely to shriek over its version of reports of conditions in the Golan Heights.

We’ll see if they get approved, or if somehow Syria engineers a split between the votes for Magen David Adom approval and Palestinian Red Crescent approval to allow the age-old anti-Semitism at the ICRC to continue.

In the fantasy world of the New York Times, Hamas will moderate its irredentist stance and recognize Israel, cease hostilities, and negotiate a two-state solution. I have not fisked the Times in ages. Presented, for your amusement:

A Problem That Can’t Be Ignored
[...] That temptation to walk away needs to be strongly resisted. As bad as things are now, they can get a whole lot worse, and almost certainly will if the outside world averts its attention. Already, rockets are raining down again on innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians, inflaming passions on both sides.

“Already”? The kassams have been raining down on Israel since 2001, and continue almost daily since the withdrawal from Gaza. But note the reference to the Gaza Beach incident. The Times couldn’t possibly be bothered to acknowledge that serious doubt has been raised that it was an Israeli rocket that killed those civilians.

And when those passions explode, the deadly consequences won’t be limited to Israelis and Palestinians alone. They never have been in the past, and are even less likely to be in a world of satellite television, ubiquitous Internet access, multinational terrorism and increasingly long-range missiles.

No, because the 57-member OIC manages to keep “Palestine” a top-burner issue. And the Arab states that lost the Israeli War of Independence keep the open sore of the palestinian refugees as a top issue in the UN every year. The palestinian refugees are the only refugees to have been afforded their very own UN organization. No other UN committee is exclusive to only one people. The world has made this its issue, and it did it long before satellite TV, the Internet, and terrorism.

Further, there is something very important that the outside world, particularly the Arab and Islamic world, can do to help. It can make plain to the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority that if it means to become the legitimate international voice of the Palestinian people, and a true government in the community of nations, it will have to accept the minimal international ground rules already in place. These include renouncing terrorism, acknowledging Israel’s existence as a sovereign nation and abiding by formal agreements previously signed by lawful Palestinian negotiators.

The outside world has already made this plain to Hamas. Hamas’ answer: Eff you. Why does the Times think Hamas is going to change that answer? Because they should? Shyeah.

Those are ground rules that have already been accepted by Egypt and Jordan and by the Arab League as a whole in its 2002 Beirut peace initiative. They need to be accepted by Hamas, but not as some kind of ideological concession. Hamas must see them as an admission ticket to the real world, a necessary rite of passage in the progression from a lawless opposition to a lawful government.

Again, what makes the Times editorial writers think that Hamas wants any of those things? They have proven over the past months that they have no intention of changing their genocidal charter, and will continue to work for the destruction of Israel.

Hamas has repeatedly heard this demand from the United States, Europe and Israel, and has repeatedly ignored it, even when it has been backed by halts in vitally needed economic assistance. Hearing it from Arab and Islamic neighbors, in the form of friendly persuasion, would be harder for Hamas to dismiss. It also could prove easier for Hamas to accommodate.

This is the laugh-out-loud line. Where do you think Hamas is getting those millions of dollars in cash that it’s bringing into the terrortories[sic] in suitcases? From those selfsame Arab and Islamic leaders, who say one thing to Condi Rice, and another thing to Ismail Haniyeh.

This page has not hesitated to call on Washington, as Israel’s most important ally, to encourage Israeli leaders to keep the door open to an eventual negotiated peace. In the same spirit, we call on the leaders of Arab and Islamic states to speak firmly and constructively to Hamas.

Yeah, that’ll happen. When Islamists eat pork.

No one expects these countries to remain silent about the sufferings of the Palestinian people or abandon them to their now desperate financial plight. But with support comes leverage, and true friends of the Palestinian people need to start using that leverage to talk straight with Hamas.

Puh-leeze. The other Islamic nations are willing to fight Israel to the last palestinian. They want, and need to have the palestinians suffer, so they can distract their huddled masses from noticing the kleptocrats-in-charge. That’s why polls in so many Arab and Islamic countries say that the problems in “Palestine” are more important than changing the political nature of their own nations.

This is one of the most ignorant, naive editorials I’ve ever read in the Times. It’s a perfect example of the naivete of the left regarding the situation in Israel. Never mind how many times Haniyeh or his buddies proclaim they will never make peace with Israel. Never mind the polls that show the palestinian public is fine with letting Hamas run things for the moment. Because the Times editorial board thinks this should happen, why then, it will happen.

I think not.

Funny how the world can ignore the fact that the palestinian terrortories [sic] have been nothing other than a welfare state for the past 39 years, and write crap like this, that pretends otherwise:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Swallowing their pride, thousands of Palestinian government workers who have been living without salaries for nearly four months received food packets from the United Nations.

The 90,000 Palestinian refugees who work in the public sector used to enjoy a rare luxury in Gaza - a steady income. That ended when Israel and the West imposed a boycott on the Hamas-led government after it took office in March, demanding that the Islamic militants recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace accords.

The workers haven’t been paid since then. On Sunday, 90,000 workers and their families joined the ranks of 635,000 other impoverished Gazans, dependent on the United Nations Relief Works Agency for basic food products. Previously, government workers were not eligible for the food aid because of their steady income.

Sahar Hanoun, 32, had mixed feelings. She said she can use the 200 shekels (about $44) worth of food, but it hurts. “How did it come to this?” she said, turning away. “A respected government employee getting handouts. We also have dignity.”

Here’s a clue, morons: When the public sector is paid through funds provided from other countries, it is not independent. And gee, in the next paragraph, even the AP admits the pals are welfare queens:

UNRWA has been providing this kind of assistance for decades. The agency was created to aid refugees from the 1948-49 war that followed Israel’s creation and has been helping them ever since.

What the AP does not mention is that this is not done for any other refugees of any other war that has happened since the existence of the UN. You’ll notice there are not still agencies to help the Jews who were displaced by the Nazis, and neither are their agencies to help the Jews that were displaced by the Arab states that threw them out after the establishment of Israel—but not before stealing most of their money and possessions.

But the poor, poor, pitiful pals—they have a 58-year-old agency looking after their needs, and handouts from half the world.

Um Tayseer, a 52-year-old housewife, came to the distribution point without telling her husband. “He’s a respected government employee. He’s never taken a coupon in his life,” she said, refusing to give her full name. “I came but I am embarrassed,” she said, adding that her 14 dependents could live off the goods for only a week.

Your husband’s salary comes from nothing but coupons, honey. Go ahead and keep those eyes closed. We know the truth.

This week’s podcast is about Hadji Girl, the song that CAIR is using to torpedo a Marine’s career. Go see the video for yourself, then listen to the podcast. And don’t forget to listen to this crapbag, the man who hates Israel so much, and talks about jihad with such love and affection, and yet, spends his entire life, well, blabbing on about how much he loves death and that’s why Israel will lose.

Uh-huh.

It’s free speech vs. hate speech via the eyes of CAIR. Take a guess on which ones I think are which.

In other news, it’s Tom’s last week as host of the show. We’re looking for someone else to host and write the show, which means we need someone for Blog News and to do the intros to the segments. Tom found a producer who will mix it all together. If you’re an avid reader of blogs and you’ve always wanted to be a radio host, now’s your chance to give it a shot.

If SNN goes, my podcasts will have no home. Orphaned. And at such a young age, too.