No, not me. My mother is going to be in Israel next month. Her first stop is Jerusalem. I’m trying to decide if I want to let her meet any of my Israeli blogger friends, because this is the woman with ALL the blackmail material on me.

Oh, wait. No, she’s only got the stuff from my childhood.

The Jewish year, of course.

It’s at French Hill.

Oh, look. The AP has discovered that there are Christians in the Middle East.

CAIRO, Egypt Sep 18, 2006 (AP)— Extra security guards around churches in Egypt and Lebanon. Armed officers surrounding at least one. With the tensions over Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks on Islam still high, many in the Mideast’s large Christian communities are worried about a backlash.

“We are afraid,” said Sonia Kobatazi, a Christian Lebanese, after Sunday morning Mass at the Maronite Christian St. George Cathedral in Beirut, Lebanon, where about a dozen policemen carrying automatic weapons stood guard outside.

Christians a minority in the Mideast that varies from nearly 40 percent in Lebanon to tiny communities in the Gulf states generally live in peace with the majority Muslims.

But relations are sometimes strained and outbreaks of violence have occurred in recent years. Some worry the flap over the pope will lead to a new round.

Don’t you love how the AP downplays the murder of Christians by Muslims as “outbreaks of violence” in recent years? Show me the fabled 9/11 backlash resulting in anywhere near as many “outbreaks of violence.” You can’t. There were almost none. But those “outbreaks of violence”? The AP buries them further down in the article:

Christians have been targeted in other cases. Car bombs exploded in January, killing at least three people in a coordinated spree of attacks outside the Vatican mission and at least five churches in Iraq, where Christians make up just 3 percent of Iraq’s 26 million people.

Egypt where Coptic Christians are about 10 percent of the country’s 73 million people saw instances of sectarian violence during the past year. A Coptic and a Muslim were killed and at least 40 others wounded in clashes in the port city of Alexandria in April. Last fall, Alexandria also witnessed deadly Muslim rioting targeting Christian churches.

What they don’t say is that the rioting was caused by Muslim reaction to a Christian DVD that had already been withdrawn from the market and was no longer on sale. What they don’t say is that the Muslims started it, every time, and murdered Christians to soothe their outrage.

“We in Egypt, despite coming from two different religions, have lived together for 14 centuries and engaged in religious dialogue,” the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III told reporters Sunday in Cairo.

Yeah. Religious dialogue that always seems to result in Christians being hurt, killed, and having their churches and homes burned down.

And watch how the AP spins down the palestinian attacks on churches in the West Bank and Gaza:

There were no reports of violence against Christians in much of the Mideast on Sunday, but two churches in the Palestinian West Bank were set afire a day after Muslims hurled firebombs and opened fire at four other West Bank churches and one in the Gaza Strip.

Protesters also have taken to the streets in some cities, with some angry demonstrators calling Christians “infidels,” and ralliers labeling the pope’s comments as evidence of a new Crusade against Muslims.

Once again, imagine it was Jews attacking churches, and imagine the headlines, the scornful leads, the angry editorials. But since it’s only Muslims attacking, the media is blaming—wait for it—not the Muslims for reacting violently to the Pope’s speech, but the Pope, for making the speech in the first place.

Go back in my archives and read the stories about Ahmadinejad’s threats to destroy Israel, and see how the world media spun that to be just words. They excused and explained it away, with some mendaciously insisting he was mistranslated.

In this recent furor, all the Pope did was read a brief quote from his Church’s history, and the world media screams in unified indignation.

Yeah. Whatever. I don’t care for the Pope myself, what with his being a different religion from mine, but when he comes out with something boneheaded about Jews (and he has already done so), we tend to react by writing nasty letters, posts, and editorials. Oh, and we manage to do it without mentioning that we want the Pope beheaded.

Hey, I managed to write some pretty nasty stuff about Mel Gibson without asking for his beheading.

I think we should swipe that Religion of Peace(TM) label from the Muslims. Unless they mean it in an Orwellian fashion. In which case, they can have it.

Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus issued a correction that returned peace and tranquility to the world.

Interviewed in his summer residence near Constantinople, while he was tending to his praised collection of orchids, overlooking his two favorite scythian slave gardeners, Manuel II spoke truthfully about his genuine mistake.

“Of course, I didn’t mean to say Muhammad - what nonsense! I was going to say Samuel - you know, that Jewish prophet. This one is real bad penny. I don’t know what happened to me. It must have been the kippers I ate at breakfast that day, something was wrong about them. I have already ordered the breakfast cook to be strangled. With extreme prejudice.”

In related news: the Muslim world grudgingly accepts the apology. “Did I say I want him beheaded? Surely I meant befriended - in the sense that he is going to embrace Islam, the most peaceful religion in existence. This son of a … I mean, our dear Manuel II was clearly enthralled by the Zionists that insinuated themselves into his household. But we’ll help him to get rid of these sons of pigs,” said the Sultan to the press this morning.

Still, some of the more zealous Muslim groups are not satisfied by the state of affairs. “All this does not amount to a definitive apology,” declared Egyptian Pasha. “We want that infidel to crawl on all four to Mecca before we consider the incident forgotten,” he added after some mulling.

More news to follow…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

I’m back from Tomball just in time to check out Carnival of the Cats #130, hosted by Justin and Bruiser the… dog?

That’s right. Dogs. Cats. Even humans. If you’ve got a heart to host, we take all types.

Oh, and the catmodel of the week is…

Thanks to The Poor Mouth for sharing Robyn the Giant with us.

And extra-special thanks to everyone who helped keep watch for the wayward Frisky. Especially Bob, who’s in for pizza he can cut his wrists with tonight.

If you’d like to host the Carnival of the Cats, let me know which week you’d like to host it.

The SNN Podcast is up.

My latest is on a couple of topics, some even timely. And we have an interview with Richard Landes from Second Draft. He’s the man who brought us the Pallywood film that displays the frauds the palestinians have perpetrated on the world media.

Go. Listen. Recommend it to your friends.

World marches to save Darfur, announces Independent. No, let’s not get excited - the world mentioned in that headline is not marching on the way to Sudan. Not yet, and not in the near future. It makes many people feel that they have really done something worthwhile, that marching for an hour or two - all the time in the vicinity of a pub or restaurant, under watchful eye of the police. Good for one’s health, too. I don’t want to sound more cynical than I am (which is difficult to achieve anyway), but the usefulness of these marches is very doubtful. It is the corridors of power where the fate of Darfur is being decided.

“It is over three years since Darfur first came to the attention of the Western world,” says BBC under a less optimistic headline No end in sight to Darfur troubles. The ever careful BBC offers a conservative estimate: “Tens of thousands of people, probably many more, died.” Independent quotes 300,000 as the number of victims. There are some indications that even the latter estimate is on the low side.

Meanwhile, the government of Sudan is stalling any diplomatic initiative, blaming the Western countries in attempts to re-colonize Sudan, using the cheapest slogans with tacit support from the usual suspects.

Speaking in Havana, at a meeting of non-aligned nations, Mr Bashir said: “We don’t want the United Nations back to Sudan, no matter the conditions.” He has likened a UN force in Darfur to “Western colonisation” and has vowed to personally lead the “jihad” against it.

Once the magic J word sounded, there is no doubt that it will work its way to the hearts and minds of many totalitarian rulers, so richly represented in Havana. But let’s not overestimate their power. With all due respect to Mahmoud The Mad, Hugo the oil drunk and their ilk, the real powers still could do more, much more to stop the insanity in Sudan. Even if the august bodies in charge of UN terminology still bicker about applicability of the term “genocide” to Darfur (of course, what Israel does in the occupied territories is much easier to call genocide for some reason).

But the powers that be seem strangely unable to give birth to a decision on Sudan, and BBC gives a hint about the reasons.

American or European sanctions would undoubtedly hurt but Sudan still has good friends in the Middle East and most of the country’s oil is bought by China, which has a less than perfect human rights record.

Strangely, it is the Indy that is more forceful on the subject:

Mr Blair and President George Bush have also been trying to persuade China, one of Sudan’s strongest allies, to use its influence to change Mr Bashir’s mind. China has lucrative oil ties to Sudan and, along with another country with economic links, Russia, refused to vote for the recent UN resolution to send in peacekeepers.

So, it is Russia and China again. Just like with Iranian nuclear ambitions, their goals are similar - to counter someone else’s influence, instead of really addressing a problem. Nothing much changed in the world. The Cold War continues, only the methods and the regions have slightly shifted. The main protagonists are still there, and people are still dying.

UN has adopted the “Never again” motto. They better change it to “Never say ‘never’ again”. Words are cheap, especially when used by cheap politicos.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

But I gotta tell you, I’m starting to think that Islam needs a new moniker. The Religion of Peace(TM) really seems to be the Religion of Whiny Children (with weapons).

VATICAN CITY Sep 17, 2006 (AP)— Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he is “deeply sorry” his remarks on Islam and violence offended Muslims, but the unusual expression of papal regret drew a mixed reaction from Islamic leaders as the Vatican worried about a backlash of violence.

Some Muslim leaders accepted the statement. Others said it wasn’t enough, but urged Muslims to avoid violence after attacks on churches in Palestinian areas and the slaying of a nun in Somalia.

The violence isn’t over yet.

Two churches were set on fire in the West Bank, raising to at least seven the number of church attacks in Palestinian areas over the weekend blamed on outrage sparked by the speech.

There was also concern that the furor was behind the shooting death of an Italian missionary nun at the hospital where she worked for years in the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia. The killing came just hours after a Somali cleric condemned the pope’s speech.

I want to know when they’re going to discover that the lyrics to “Les Miserables” has a song that asks people to join a crusade.

“Will you join in our crusade
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?”

Of course, the fact that the song is about a failed French revolution probably wouldn’t make a bit of difference. After all, the word “crusade” is in it. It must be anti-Muslim.

Sarcastic? Moi? Mais non!