Here’s something you will never see in a Muslim nation. Israel’s going to get its first gay political party.

A number of friends plan to set up a party for gay people that would contend for Knesset seats in the next general election.

The party will be called Magi, a Hebrew acronym for Gay Party in Israel, the Tel Aviv magazine reported Thursday.

Gay groups stepped up their campaign for more civil rights when their plans to hold a gay pride parade in Jerusalem were cancelled by the police for fear of confrontations with the city’s strictly religious residents.

Say, Queers for Terrorists: What do you think about this? Whoops, you’re still too busy blaming the Israelis for every bad thing in Israel and the terrortories to notice. Never mind.

I have an idea of who reads my blog and why, but only an idea. You guys have been driving me crazy lately, because you’re simply not commenting, and it’s hard to tell which of my posts are working and which are not.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I go through periods where I try to find out what keeps bringing my readers back every day. I’m willing to change some things at your request, if those requests fit into what I like to write about, or my vision of this weblog. If they don’t, I pull the “This is not a democracy; it’s a dictatorship” card and overrule you. But I can’t make those decisions if you’re not speaking, so I’m going to try to figure out what to do by giving you some census questions to answer.

Please let me assure you that I have no access to any data other than the results of the poll, just like you. And please, please, please—answer the questions. Take a minute or two. Especially my “invisibles,” the vast majority of my readers who come here every single day, and never email, or comment, or do anything but read. (”Invisibles” is my term for what other people call “lurkers,” but I don’t understand why there should be a negative connotation for people who only read websites, but none for people who never write letters to the editor or call TV stations to complain.) You “invisibles” are the ones I want to get a bead on, so I can continue to keep you around. And maybe get you to bring your friends along.

Let me tell you, it isn’t easy figuring out what you guys want when you never say a word. My mind-reading capabilities are taxed to their utmost in your cases.

First question: Seniority.

Next: Why you’re here.

Next: Who you are.

Next: Who are my Christian audience? (Please don’t take offense in any way, I’m just really, really curious about my demographics.)

Next: What kind of Jew are you?

Now, your politics:

Next: Why don’t you comment? (This is not for my regular commenters. Please skip this question.)

Next: What else would you like to see?

I know many of you are going to complain that some questions require more than one answer. I tried to make the answers varied enough so that you can choose one that’s at least close to what describes you. But if you insist, I can make multiple-choice answer polls for some of the questions, but not until a whole bunch of you have taken this poll.

You can cheat if you want to. All that will do is make me not bother to find out what my readers want in the future. Ruling by fiat. Yeah, I can deal with that. I’ve always had a hankering to be dictator of the world. If only.

The boycott fever consuming the fair island of Albion has erupted again yesterday.

Delegates at the first conference of the new University and College Union in Bournemouth voted by more than three to two to recommend boycotts in protest at Israel’s “40-year occupation” of Palestinian land and to condemn the “complicity” of Israeli academics.

There are some strings attached to the boycott resolutions, which will become clear as time goes by.

The 158 UCU members who voted for the motions are by no means a homogeneous group and there were several motivating factors that caused them to vote this way. I am not even trying to suggest anti-Semitism as a main factor, although it is definitely one of them. The problem with this specific subject is that the usual crowd will drag out the usual straw man “Jews always cry anti-Semitism”, and the resulting brawl will lead to a dead end.

Of course, sheer ignorance and indifference of the majority made it that much easier for the shrilly group of anti-Israeli lobbyists to pass the resolution. And the best proof of it is the fact that hardly anybody of the pro-boycott crowd ever tried to answer one simple question: why it is Israel that is singled out? And hardly anybody of the indifferent “pro” voters ever asked this question.

But all this is a subject for in-depth analysis of the whole story that will inevitably follow as the dust settles. I would like to focus on an example of a “grass-root” pro-boycott scientist, which example is courteously provided by that linked Guardian article.

During the debate, which lasted well over an hour, Michael Cushman, from the London School of Economics, said: “Universities are to Israel what the springboks were to South Africa: the symbol of their national identity.”

I don’t know from springboks and South Africa (interesting choice of imagery, by the way - kinda indicative of the trend). However, I am also not at all sure that universities are that symbolic. What about, you know, Jerusalem, the Western Wall, Ben Gurion, gefilte fish, “never again” and all this stuff?

Israel wanted to claim it was a normal democratic state and universities were integral to that, Mr Cushman said. “[But] it is not a normal state. They are not normal universities. “Senior academics move from universities into ministries and back again,” he said.

Only Mr Cushman knows what is the meaning of the above. How Israel is different from a “normal state” in these movements of academics is a mystery that shall remain unresolved without an investigation, and the question is hardly worth investigating. Anyway, here comes the main point:

“Regularly, lecturers take up their commissions in the Israeli Defence Force as reserve officers to go into the West Bank to dominate, control and shoot the population.”

This is really the essence of the primitive black and white vision so typical of the learned discourse one can easily find on the talk-backs and discussion forums of British press. This is the rotten fruit grown in a mix of ignorance, indifference and, in case of Mr Cushman who seems to be Jewish, an ardent desire to distance himself from the bloodthirsty Zionists.

Yes, Mr Cushman, you have succeeded admirably. You shall never be required by your dean to bring several fresh scalps of Palestinians from your reserve service, unlike your less fortunate brethren in Israeli universities. So rest assured that your “not in my name” was heard loud and clear and the next time they come for you, they will see that “Pass Over” sign on your door.

To end this long post, I have found another example of the mind-boggling sloganeering idiocy that shows the depth of analysis a scientist is able to display - when he/she wants to:

Is it unfair to single Israel out? It is not clear that there are other heavily militarised, nuclear-armed, expansionist apartheid states with extensive illegal settlement, land seizure and wall-building activity.

· John Chalcraft is a lecturer on government at the London School of Economics

Now - should we be surprised by the education level of some graduates with teachers like these?

Feh…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Meryl to Jordan: Eff off, you hypocritical bastards.

A tradition of three millennia, tenaciously preserved and reinvigorated by living presence until 27 May 1948, when the Jewish Quarter fell, could not be destroyed by the Jordanian conquest or edict. The “refugees” from the Old City awaited their return, which began the very moment Israel’s army liberated it from Jordan’s hands in the Six-Day War of 1967. What they found as evidence of Jordan’s attempt over 19 years to erase every memory of Jewish presence was monestrous scene of wanton destruction.

The following is a photographic record that is but a sample of the destruction. All but one the thirty five houses of worship that graced the old city for centuries were in shambles. Such was also the state of the revered Jewish graveyard on the Mount of Olives, a graphic testimony of callous, insensate sacrilegious profanation.

It is the story of hundreds of Scrolls of the Law, reverently preserved for generations, plundered and burned to ashes; of thousands of holy books committed to the flames; of synagogues razed to the ground or covered into hollow shells of their glorious former selves, there interiors used as hen houses and stables, filled with dung-heaps, garbage and carcasses, or as sites for latrines and sewage canals; of tens of thousands of tombstones torn up broken into pieces or used as flagstones, steps and building materials; of large areas of the cemetery leveled and converted into parking lots and a filling station; of graves ripped and skeletal bones scattered to the four winds, and an asphalt short-cut through the pitiful remains to provide as short-cut to a new hotel built incongruously upon the Mount of Olives.

Click on the first link to see what the Jordanian Muslims did to Jewish cemeteries. Or click on this link. Or this one, to see an ancient synagogue destroyed by the Jordanians.

Now listen to this hypocritical, lying asshat.

A Jordanian official called on Israel Wednesday to stop archaeological excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem, the official Petra news agency reported.

[...] “Israel must stop its continuos practices and measures to Judaize the city and change its Arab and Islamic characteristics,” said Abdullah Kanaan, the head of Jordan’s Royal Committee for Jerusalem’s Affairs.

Children, cover your eyes, because Meryl is angry and tired of pseudo-swears: Fuck off, you hypocritical, lying bastard. There is no need to “Judaize” Jerusalem, because the city was built by Jews. You stole it from us. Its Arab and Islamic character is, quite frankly, anathema to the Jewish character of what was once the City of David. And Israeli archeologists keep finding more and more proof that the Torah isn’t blowing smoke.

The greatest scientific and public interest was focused on more than 100 seals and signet rings, used as a means of authentication for written papyrus documents, from the time of the reigns of Kings David and Solomon. The seals bear various markings that, when deciphered, indicate the sender of the document and his or her location. The large number of such seals, archaeologists explained, indicate that the City of David area was a commercial and trading center.

[...] In 2005, a Hebrew University archaeologist and a leading authority on ancient Jerusalem, Dr. Eilat Mazar uncovered a clay seal in what she claimed served as the residential palace of Jewish kings from King David until the destruction of the First Temple, for a period of 450 years. That seal, dated from about 580 BCE, bears the name Yehuchal Ben-Sheleimiya, who is identified as a royal envoy and court minister sent by King Zedekiah to the prophet Jeremiah (in chapters 37 and 38 of the Bible’s Book of Jeremiah).

The Arabs and Muslims are trying their damnedest to cover up the Jewish roots of Israel.

They are failing. And they will always fail.

But don’t worry, posts have been scheduled.

I am going to Northern VA to return my loaner computer. Which I’m starting to like better than this one, because it’s tiny. And light. Well, but it doesn’t have a 17-inch screen.

Which is why it’s tiny. And light.

Sigh. Can’t I keep ‘em both?

Wow, Hamas must be shaking in its sandals at this outpouring of condemnation. First, the Quartet.

The Quartet expressed its deep concern over recent factional violence in Gaza . It called for all Palestinians to immediately renounce all acts of violence and respect the ceasefire. It called upon the Palestinian Authority government, in cooperation with President Abbas and regional actors, to do everything necessary to restore law and order, including the release of kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston.

The Quartet strongly condemned the continued firing of Qassam rockets into Southern Israel as well as the buildup of arms by Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza . It endorsed PA President Abbas’ call for an immediate end to such violence, and called upon all elements of the PA government and all Palestinian groups to cooperate with President Abbas to that end. The Quartet called for the immediate and unconditional release of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit.

And of course, there’s the usual call for “restraint” from Israel.

The Quartet urged Israel to exercise restraint to ensure that its security operations avoid civilian casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure. It noted that the detention of elected members of the Palestinian government and legislature raises particular concerns and called for them to be released. The Quartet noted its support for the May 30th Security Council Press Statement on the breakdown of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Next, the UN Security Council, which issued a statement—not any kind of real action, mind you, because the Security Council almost never issues any kind of action against the Palestinians—and hoo-boy, is it harsh.

The members of the Security Council expressed their grave concern at the breakdown of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the resulting increase in violence. The members welcomed the efforts of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to establish a ceasefire, and expressed appreciation for the active support of the Government of Egypt in this regard. They urged all parties to join the members of the Council in supporting the call of President Abbas for an immediate end to the violence.

“Deep concern” from the Quartet. “Grave concern” from the UNSC. Wow. If this keeps up, the world community might just manage to frown on all of the kassam launches into Israel.

You know, the ones that have been happening for the past six years.

You know, the ones that have been happening for more than a year since Israel exited Gaza and Hamas took charge.

By the way, I’m kinda wondering: Where is the mention of kassam rocket launches in the UNSC statement? Because I’m seeing a Rorschach test, not an actual, meaningful statement:

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman said in response to the statement, “This is a clear call for the Palestinians to cease fire.” Gillerman described the rocket attacks as “unrestrained and brutal Hamas fire at Israel, “saying, “Israel responds just as any democracy would in order to defend its citizens. The bloodshed can stop only after a the Palestinians decide to end the Qassam fire at Israel.”

Riad Mansour, the Palestinian observer to the UN, told reporters that he would have liked to see a more decisive and balanced statement, but that this may have been a first step towards a Security Council intervention in the situation in Gaza. Mansour also reiterated the Palestinian call for the UN to send a multinational force to the Strip.

Yeah, whatever. If the world community starts shaking its finger, we might have to actually notice that they’re doing something.