Yet another call by yet another Arab leader for Israel to comply with the 2002 Saudi Initiative, which calls for the return of all Palestinian refugees to Israel. One-word answer: Shyeah.

Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday called on Israel to abandon the unilateral moves “which have failed” and enter negotiations with the Palestinians.

In a meeting with Knesset Speaker and Acting President Dalia Itzik in Amman, the king urged Israel to adopt the Arab peace initiative. According to Abdullah, his meeting with Itzik was part of the peace moves led by Jordan.

He called on Israel not to miss out on the opportunity for peace in the Middle East.

“As a first step to end the conflict with the Palestinians, Israel must recognize all the Palestinian rights, including the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said.

The king also slammed the building of the separation fence and Jewish settlements and said “I want peace in our generation. I am worried about the next generations.”

Sure. Take down the fence, which is part of the reason that suicide bombings have gone down astronomically, and let the Palestinians who have lived in Jordan for the past 60 years—including their heirs, who have never been to Israel—come “back” to Israel. Because that will cause peace. Never mind the impact on Israelis, who would find themselves faced with war in their own backyard, but hey—it will solve Jordan’s Palestinian problem. What? Abdullah doesn’t have a Palestinian problem?

Shyeah.

Once again, the Arabs are trying to dictated to Israel the terms of surrender after the Arabs lost the war. Because, gee, doesn’t everyone?

A while ago there was some brouhaha on the ENGAGE site, caused by the rash (we think) decision of the team to provide space for Tony Greenstein’s rebuttal of an excellent article by David Hirsh. David wrote about the pitiful attempt of TG and his few remaining friends to exonerate themselves of antisemitism accusations, leveled at the rabidly anti-Israeli Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

The decision was a rash one, in our opinion, because, first of all, TG is not able to discuss anything at the level required for a dispute with David Hirsh. Being an indoctrinated old style communist, he tends to see the world in black and white, and his analytical ability is hardly above that of a dedicated Soviet party member (or a medium sized cucumber, for that matter). Just look at the way TG argues against the latest report on antisemitism in UK:

1. The chair of the committee is a right winger who denounced Chavez as “a ranting, populist demagogue”. Besides Chavez being all that indeed, how is this relevant to the anti-Semitic attacks?
2. The committee “came to the question of anti-semitism from a rightwing political perspective.” Probably being beat up by a leftwinger changes the picture drastically for a good Jew in Tony’s book.
3. And where is a committee on the anti-Muslim abuse? It must be clear to all that absence of such committee makes that other committee’s conclusions invalid…
4. The committee did not consult with anti-Zionists (read TG). Such a pity indeed that the committee preferred dry and boring police reports to TG’s broader views…
5. And more of such claptrap

The above clearly shows TG the intellectual colossus, undoubtedly stretching the envelope that confines his scholarly prowess. What it also reveals is that he may require a smidgen more grey matter than he empirically possesses to stand David Hirsh a fair chance of igniting at least one used brain cell.

The other TG revelation is definitely one to be shunned by the gentle folks of Engage. We, however, will not overlook it. It appears that the fearless freedom fighter, the fervent communist, the dedicated community worker apparently has talents which are unjustly confined by the lowly limitations of the law. Using these astutely fine tuned talents, he has amassed an impressive portfolio of criminal offences.

Well, well, what do you know? To repeat a few especially poignant sentences from the linked articles:

• Mr Greenstein was not legally represented in court. Notes to which he referred during the hearing were written on the back of notepaper from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
• Reference was made in court to eleven previous convictions for a variety of offences.
• He had been barred from the university and was now writing a book about the Middle East.

Quite. A fraud, a crook and an expert on the Middle East…

(Of course, Tony Greenstein is not the rarest name in the world, but somehow I doubt that it is some other TG).

We normally do not deal with the issue of antisemitism, since the whole subject became a mire of accusations, counter-accusations, spins, straw men etc. Generally, we consider that we (the Jooz) do not have to be neither especially liked nor especially hated - just like all the other, moderately good, moderately evil, moderately straight, moderately lying, … people. With TG and his ilk, however, it is kinda different. TG himself, of course, will vehemently deny a charge of antisemitism - after all he is not only a Joo but also a valiant fighter against antisemitism, as his latest escapade with his own baby PSC proved. After all, it is not that pleasant for one to be spat, pissed and shat upon by the organization one considers his brainchild (well, the baby has certainly inherited dad’s brains in this case).

So, for the purpose, let’s define a new category of antisemitism - let’s call it de facto antisemitism. You see, Tony Greenstein says openly “Yes, I want the state of Israel to be destroyed.” No, of course, he does not mean by that a physical extermination of 6 million Israelis. He just does not care what will happen to them - dispersed, drowned in the Mediterranean, knocking on the doors of benevolent Europeans for shelter or just subjected to the usual, run of the mill dhimmitude of the new Caliphate - no matter, as long as Tony sees what he perceives as historic justice carried out.

From where we stand, it makes Tony practically indistinguishable from any neo-Nazi or a two-bit Muslim Joo-hating tyrant: they want to kill or subjugate Jooz, he wants the same. The texts may vary slightly, the motives may be different, but the goal is the same. And the definition of “de facto anti-Semite” applies to TG in its fullness.

So, it is time to summarize. Who (or, rather, what) is Tony Greenstein:

1. A cerebrally incapacitated pixie.
2. A small-time tea leaf
3. A de facto anti-Semite

And this is only a short, partial and very sympathetic description. To boot - there are some more disgusting things I had an unhappy opportunity to step on, but not so many of them that I would need two hands to count.

There are many more details on this creature here. But to finish this TG probe on a happier note, here comes some poetic distraction:

Greenstein (to the tune of Greensleeves)

Composed by Syrian poet Abu Jihad:

Alas, Hamas, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long,
Delighting in terrorist company.

chorus:

Greenstein, Nasrallah’s joy
Greenstein’s Hamas delight,
Greenstein the jihad toy,
And who but my dear Abu Greenstein.

More where the above came from.

Take care and do not step on it.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

and yet, the world blames Israel for the disappearance of Christians from the Middle East. Not the Muslims forcing the Christians out of Lebanon for the third decade. Not the Muslims murdering Christians in Gaza and the West Bank. Not the Saudis, whose laws make it illegal to worship Jesus while working in Saudi Arabia. Not the Iraqis, who are turning the Assyrian minority into modern-day dhimmi, complete with making them pay a jizya tax.

Assailants on Wednesday slit the throats of three employees of a publishing house that distributes Bibles, the latest in a series of attacks targeting Turkey’s small Christian minority.

Do you know how you die when your throat is slit? You effectively drown in your own blood. Not a pleasant way to go. But it’s the murder method of choice by the jihadis.

Local media said five suspects detained Wednesday were college students who were living at a residence that belongs to an Islamic foundation. Some of those suspects told investigators they carried out the killings to protect Islam, a Turkish newspaper reported.

“We didn’t do this for ourselves, but for our religion,” Hurriyet newspaper quoted one suspect as saying. “Our religion is being destroyed. Let this be a lesson to enemies of our religion.”

In Gaza, Muslims are blowing up Christian bookstores and attacking churches. Hamas burned down a YMCA last year, to no protests whatsoever—because it was “Christian.” In Egypt, Muslims burned down a house that was to be converted into a church. In Nigeria, Muslims murdered Christians and burned down their houses—in the name of being offended over the Mohammed cartoons. In Gaza, the Muslims burned down some more churches. It’s gotten so bad that Palestinian Christians have finally come out in public and said that they are being driven out of the territories by Musims.

Of course, the blame worldwide will go to Israel. Because why on earth would the world actually blame Muslims for persecuting Christians, even though the evidence is overwhelming?

Because if they did, they’d have to admit that Islam may not be that Religion of Peace™ it’s talked up to be.

The story about the recommendation on boycott of Israeli artists issued by Aosdana, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists, did not make a lot of waves in the media. Probably because it is not remarkable enough. JP says:

Aosdana, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists, voted last week on a motion to “back the call from Palestinian filmmakers, artists and cultural workers to end all cooperation with Israeli state-sponsored cultural events and institutions.”

The proposal - put to a motion by composer Raymond Deane, founder of the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, and seconded by playwright Margaretta D’Arcy - was defeated in the organization’s general assembly.

Of course, as in any other place of the world, Ireland has its share of polarized opinion on the Israel/Palestine issue. Of course, the extreme political wings, as usual, miss the crucial point when taking a decision like this: the boycott will not help the situation, and polarized vision will assist only the cause of further polarization. But this is besides the point I wanted to make. Which pont is about the (almost) absolute lack of anything remarkable in that event.

First of all, we have a case of a relatively large group of artists, most of whom do not know a lot and do not care about the grave issues tearing apart our corner of the world. Then we have a relatively small hard core of the activists, not surprisingly associated with the even more hard core PSC. Using the indifference of the general public, this hard core group succeeds in pushing through a recommendation to all Aosdana members to consider the boycott (even the indifferent majority disagreed with the first, binding version).

This is not the first time that extremists abuse the public indifference, the examples are numerous and hardly remarkable. Also unremarkable is the language of the resolution, full of cliches, as usual representing only one side of the issue.

Of course, as expected, the team that spearheaded this initiative, includes its token Jew: a playwright Margaretta D’Arcy. Business as usual, and Ms D’Arcy’s support makes the whole business a bit more palatable for some people who otherwise may have been wary of the rabid ways of PSC and its followers.

And of course, a response from the Israely embassy came as expected:

Israel’s embassy in Dublin released a statement condemning the motion as “wrong, unjust, biased and based on misunderstanding and misinformation.” Ambassador Zion Evrony said, “It appears that a very small number of Aosdana members… have misled others and imposed their views on the whole organization.”

There are only two items in the whole story that may pretend to be called irregular:

Aosdana, you see, is not exactly an independent body of free-thinkers:

“What is more concerning is that by being elected to Aosdana as an artist, you get an annual salary from the state,” the member explained. “As it is state-funded, it is surprising that [Aosdana] took this stance, given that political matters are not their remit.”

So the Irish government is understandably unhappy with the behavior of its proteges , and condemned the resolution.

The second item is more remarkable. After the (fairly standard) response from the Israeli embassy, Ms D’Arcy, decided to explode (in public, too):

D’Arcy, for her part, wrote an open letter to the ambassador attacking his views: “Mr. Ambassador, who the hell do you think you are, interfering with Irish artists, prescribing what we may or may not reflect upon?” she fumed.

“I wonder that the Irish government does not immediately break off diplomatic relations with Israel for your absurd violation of those articles in the UN Charter of Human Rights that guarantee free expression,” D’Arcy declared.

To tell you the truth, I also don’t know who the hell our Ambassador is, aside of his name (Zion Evrony) and that strange way he (and any other Ambassador) should be addressed (”your Excellency” or summat). However, I was flabbergasted by that display of histrionics. The only thing our lady of letters forgot to demand of her government is that it nuke Israel within 24 hours. Or else. From that single glimpse into Ms D’Arcy’s character, I guess that nary a government will deny a request from her. Fearsome, I say. Not a person I would lightly refuse an offer of a scone from, even a poisoned one.

Anyhow - if someone can tell me how the boilerplate response from His Excellency violated Ms D’Arcy’s right to free expression, do not hesitate to do so. In details, please.

Meanwhile, I would like to quote here a comment to the original article in JP:

65. Long live Ireland

Jan - Norway

04/10/2007 06:37

It seems like many people reading this article do not quite get the fact that the Irish government, various media sources and even a large part of the organization that called for the boycott in fact do not support a boycott of Israel. Irland do not have anything to be ashamed of in this case. Left-wing moonbats are everywhere, but obviously they are not ruling Ireland. So lets give the Irish some credit not rebuke as Ben and other writers seem to do.

Precisely my opinion. Although - I am not sure what kind of moonbat Ms D’Arcy is - left or right, and could not care less, but moonbat she definitely is.

Too bad.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

If you have a suggestion for best post, or best series of posts, from the last year, best make them now. Nominations close Thursday night. That’s tonight.