Sarah has finished book 7, and I said a few days ago that I’d wait until she finished the book before posting about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I guess I should wait for Larry to finish it, though, seeing as how he reads this site every day too.

In the meantime, if you have already read the book (spoilers at most of the links), you’ll enjoy this WSJ review. It discusses religion in Harry’s world, and contains absolutely big-time spoilers. If you haven’t read the book, don’t click the link.

There’s also this MSNBC article from Rowling’s appearance on the Today show last Friday. Yes, it contains some major spoilers, so don’t whine to me if you haven’t finished the book and click on that link.

MSNBC was on a roll with the Rowling stories. This one has spoilers, but it also reveals which character got a reprieve from death after having been scheduled to die in the series. I was surprised, but pleased to find that one out.

And last, but not least, Rowling talks about her plans to write the Harry Potter encyclopedia, and spills the beans about what happens after the book ends, as well as why she changed the last word of the final book (which was originally supposed to read “scar.”) Here there also be spoilers.

So you think this one can get on lolcats?

“I can sings oppra?”

President Bush is proposing a multibillion dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Gulf States. The sales include JDAMs and other advanced weaponry that can seriously harm Israel’s current advantage against the Muslim world.

Other salves to Israel in light of the proposed deal include asking the Saudis to accept restrictions on the range, size and location of the satellite-guided bombs, the Times said. The Pentagon is also asking for a commitment not to store the weapons at air bases close to Israeli territory, it added.

There’s no way that these sophisticated weapons could possibly end up in the hands of people wishing Israel and America ill, is there?

Now Condoleeza Rice says really, it’s okay, it’s all in our best interests and to prevent Iran from taking over the Gulf.

The Bush administration said Monday that its plan to provide billions of dollars in advanced weapons to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel over the next 10 years was intended in part to serve as a bulwark against Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East.

[...] Ms. Rice took pains to dispute the notion that the Bush administration was trying to buy Saudi cooperation on American policy initiatives in Iraq and Israel in exchange for the military package. Three times during a briefing with reporters aboard her plane en route to the Middle East, she said no quid pro quo was involved in the arms sale.

“We are working with these states to give a chance to the forces of moderation and reform,” she said on an overnight flight before a refueling stop in Shannon, Ireland.

Many members of Congress are not happy.

But signaling a possible battle between the White House and Congress, Mr. Lantos said lawmakers wanted assurances that the weapons package “include only defensive systems,” not weaponry that could be used by Arab states to attack Israel’s military.

[...] R. Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, said Monday that a majority of the weapons systems intended for the Gulf states were defensive.

But some defense experts said any battle between Congress and the White House over the definition of “defensive” versus “offensive” weapons systems might be futile because the terms can be malleable.

And Olmert is a fool.

Let’s take a look at another arms deal that was made to prop up Fatah over the years, and what happened to it in only the last couple of months.

When the Islamist group Hamas conquered the Gaza Strip in June it seized an intelligence-and-military infrastructure created with U.S. help by the security chiefs of the Palestinian territory’s former ruler.

According to current and former Israeli intelligence officials, former U.S. intelligence personnel and Palestinian officials, Hamas has increased its inventory of arms since the takeover of Gaza and picked up technical expertise — such as espionage techniques — that could assist the group in its fight against Israel or Washington’s Palestinian allies, the Fatah movement founded by Yasser Arafat.

Hamas leaders say they acquired thousands of paper files, computer records, videos, photographs and audio recordings containing valuable and potentially embarrassing intelligence information gathered by Fatah. For more than a decade, Fatah operated a vast intelligence network in Gaza established under the tutelage of the Central Intelligence Agency.

[...] But a number of former U.S. intelligence officials, including some who have worked closely with the Palestinians, said there was ample reason to worry that Hamas has acquired access to important spying technology as well as intelligence information that could be helpful to Hamas in countering Israeli and U.S. efforts against the group.

Close ties between Hamas and the governments of Iran and Syria also mean that intelligence-and-spying techniques could be shared with the main Middle East rivals of the Bush administration. As the White House prepares to lead an international effort to bolster Fatah’s security apparatus in the West Bank, the losses in Gaza stand as an example of how efforts to help Fatah can backfire.

[...] “The United States invested a lot of effort in setting up this system in Gaza — construction, equipment, training… filings, the logistics, the transportation. It was a big operation, and it’s now in the hands of the other side,” said Efraim Halevy, who formerly headed both the Mossad, which is Israel’s foreign-intelligence agency, and Israel’s National Security Council. Mr. Halevy said, however, that he didn’t want to overemphasize the value of Hamas’s potential intelligence gains.

And now let’s look at the sales of advanced equipment to the Saudis in another way: How close are the Islamists to the security services of the countries that will be receiving the JDAMs? How many members of the army are affiliated with al Qaeda and its network of terrorist groups, salivating over the chance to get the most sophisticated missiles available? What will JDAMs be used for in the hands of terrorists? Gee, let’s think.

There is simply no way this ends well. We are arming our enemies, and with our own weapons, no less.

So, why exactly would the Iranians need Hebrew speakers? Because they’re recruiting Palestinians who can speak and read Hebrew.

The Iranian regime needs Hebrew speakers to work as translators, intelligence agents and as part of its propaganda machine against Israel. The main source of Hebrew speakers is Palestinian students studying abroad or Palestinian terrorists sent for military training in Iran and Lebanon.

One of the most prominent centers for Hebrew studies is located at Iran’s embassy in Beirut, where Hizbullah members learn Hebrew at the Islamic Culture and Education Center.

The embassy owns a vast library of Hebrew newspapers and books, including even children’s’ books. It was there that Hizbullah had trained, with the aid of Palestinians, a large group of fighters who were placed in charge of tapping Israeli communication systems, in a bid to collect intelligence on the “Zionist enemy” before and during the Second Lebanon War.

According to the Shin Bet, Israeli Arab students studying out of the country are an attractive target for Hizbullah, because it is easier for the organization to recruit and train them abroad.

However, turnabout is fair play:

Meanwhile, in Israel, the Mossad has recently published an ad in the newspaper inviting Farsi speakers to apply for “an interesting, challenging position,” which apparently includes listening in on Iranian transmissions and translating materials published in Iran.

There are a lot of Farsi speakers in Israel. That’s because of the exodus of Iranian Jews since the Islamic revolution in 1979. I think the Mossad will easily meet its goals.

The war is coming.

For me it started with the article by Debbie Schlussel in the FrontPage magazine. Let’s not mince the words - the article is a hatchet job, and a very thorough one to boot. Debbie has definitely gone overboard, trying to judge the movie as if it were financed by the Israeli Tourism ministry and should have been focused solely on the Jewish motives. That bit of criticism really cracked me up:

And don’t forget Wall Street Journal reporter Steve Levine, played by Gary Wilmes, the most stereotypically Jewish-looking actor they could cast - a living embodiment of the angst-ridden, sweaty big-nosed, glasses-wearing Jew you’d find in “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” picture book for kids.

I have even taken the trouble to look up the poor guy’s picture. I am not sure that Gary Wilmes is that living embodiment mentioned above, but it is clear that he will have to consider an investment in some major plastic surgery now.

But after looking up some stuff on Debbie’s site, I think I have caught the drift. It seems that Debbie is sometimes slightly overexcited (all for the good cause, no doubt), like in this case, for instance:

Then, there is this BS:

In Palestine, Jewish terrorist attacks finally persuaded the British to pull out.

WRONG again. The Brits pulled out, if anything, because they were tired of Islamic/Arab violence (there was no Jewish violence against the Brits) against British soldiers, and because eventually the land was carved up into Israel, Jordan, etc.

Ah well, as I said, it is all for the good cause, and anyway history these days is a flexible science…

But… Saying all this, there is more to Debbie’s article than meets the eye. Of course, there is no place to criticize Winterbottom, Julie and Pitt for focusing on Mariane Pearl and the chief of Pakistan’s counterterrorism unit. After all, it is their movie and their license.

But blaming the barbaric execution of Daniel Pearl on the misdeeds of US in Guantanamo is pure unadulterated bullshit. The list of kidnappers/murderers demands includes the one re Gitmo prisoners indeed, but read it in its entirety:

We still demand the following:

• The immediate release of U.S. held prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
• The return of Pakistani prisoners to Pakistan.
• The immediate end of U.S. presence in Pakistan.
• The delivery of F-16 planes that Pakistan had paid for and never received.

We assure Americans that they shall never be safe on the Muslim Land of Pakistan.
And if our demands are not met this scene shall be repeated again and again…

It is quite clear that the absurd list was never intended as a base for negotiations and that its sole purpose was to increase the publicity for the planned act of murder. The fact that Winterbottom, Julie and Pitt made Gitmo a focal point of the movie is telling.

Another salient point in the article - disregard of the fact that Daniel Pearl is Jewish. As noticed here:

…something could have been inserted about Daniel Pearl, a man from a family with deep Israeli roots — scenes and sentiments that would make him a real person who once lived, loved, and later died a horrible death, publicly.

It is not certain that Daniel’s fate was sealed by the fact of his Jewishness, but it is certain that the fact did not escape the attention of his murderers and they obviously enjoyed it. The title of the execution clip - “The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl” is sufficient testimony.

The royal pair of Hollywood is definitely way above their heads into politics. Not that it makes them outstanding, many other Hollywood stars and mega-stars have discovered the politicking as a new and glamorous pastime. But the mix of the mega-star popularity, naivety, good will and ability to dumb down any complex issue to a set of childish slogans has a definite impact on general population. Here is one example of a rave review by a groupie:

…without apology, it is simultaneously an unabashedly political vehicle that does not fall victim to sloganeering or jingoism, as well as an effective and gripping re-telling of a story that is still fresh in the minds of the audience. I know a lot of people are criticizing the movie.. but the best thing about this movie was it does not points finger on anyone.

Yep. An unabashedly political vehicle that does not “points finger on anyone”, indeed…

But the best expression of the above mentioned Hollywood mix is provided by the royal pair:

The hero of this movie is a Muslim Pakistani Captain . . . . Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish–they all came together, all of them becoming great friends.

Why, indeed, can’t we all get along and be friends? I really don’t know. Maybe because there are too many gently smiling folks like this one:

I really recommend this clip as a mandatory viewing. Notice that the person that appears in it is an American resident and knows his rights exceedingly well. It is also worth your while to visit his site at _http://www.al-buruj.com/_ to get an in-depth understanding of the creature. And the ideology that moves him and his ilk, making it kinda difficult to make friends with him.

But don’t tell Brangelina about it - it may distress them, possibly on a shooting day, and then the damage to the world will be immeasurable …

Hat tip to Bagel Blogger.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.