Folks, if you were looking to help Rahel with the expenses toward her cat’s diabetes, you can hit my Paypal or Amazon tipjars and I will send the money along to Rahel.

She’s just advanced me the funds she received from her tipjar. Regular contributor Hugh S. put in an amount, and I’m adding my own contribution to the amount. I’ll be heading to the post office for an international envelope and sending Rahel a check for the amount. So if you want to contribute, I’ll wait until the end of the week before writing that check, and send it off Sunday for the first-thing-Monday mail.

By the way, the Lady has recovered completely from her diabetes, and Gracie is just about recovered from her IBD. Not bad for a couple of middle-aged kitties.

That law and order established in Gaza that Hamas bragged about? Well, maybe not so much. It’s red on red again, and of course, the bystanders are getting hurt.

Fierce clashes have been taking place between Hamas and Islamic Jihad gunmen in Gaza Wednesday afternoon and evening.

On Tuesday, members of Hamas’ task force tried to arrest a Palestinian man who fired in the air during a wedding in the Sajaiya neighborhood in Gaza City. The man fled to the house of an Islamic Jihad senior member and hid there, but was chased by Hamas members who encircled the house and demanded that he turn himself in.

Both groups began calling in forces, and only the intervention of public figures prevented a clash from erupting.

However, on Wednesday members of Hamas retuned to the place, started taking pictures of the house and arrested the bodyguard of one of the Jihad’s senior leaders, Sheikh Nafez Azzam.

After Hams tried to kidnap a second Jihad member, fire exchanges erupted between the two sides. Four Jihad members and a bystander have been wounded so far, according to witnesses.

Kinda puts the lie to the little guided tour of Gaza reporters got the other day.

Never mind the international isolation, growing poverty and reports of violent retribution against its defeated Fatah rivals. In Hamas’ own eyes, its takeover of Gaza has made the coastal strip “safe, clean and green.”

In an attempt to get that message across, Hamas took two busloads of foreign journalists on an air conditioned tour of Gaza on Monday - including a stop in a refugee camp where the deposed prime minister waved from his balcony and a prison visit hosted by one of Hamas’ most powerful military men.

Hamas officials said they were worried about the negative publicity they have received since taking over Gaza in June.

Journalists walked 500 yards into Gaza across a mortar-pocked no man’s land from Israel and boarded the buses, accompanied by a convoy of security vehicles carrying heavily armed men. Gaza traffic was halted to make way for the visitors.

The tour was colorful and revealing - a glimpse into how the Islamic militants see themselves and want to be seen.

[...] The tour ended with a speech by Haniyeh at an upscale Gaza City hotel. To get there, the buses drove along the beach, where thousands of Gazans have been flocking since Hamas’ takeover improved the internal security situation in Gaza. Veiled women sat waist-deep in the ocean with their children as Hamas security forces guarded the beach. Haniyeh described how Hamas’ takeover had ended factional fighting and the murderous chaos that had taken over Gaza’s streets. Father Musallam sat next to Haniyeh, who began his speech by saying Christians were “a very important part of our people.”

“We do not want to establish an Islamic state in the Gaza Strip,” Haniyeh said.

Uh-huh. And you don’t want people to think you’re controlling the news either, right? Right? Wrong.

The Islamist Hamas movement Wednesday banned Palestinian public television from making or broadcasting any programs in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since mid-June, an official said.

“We have received a letter signed by the Hamas government information ministry, saying that they have decided to ban production or broadcast of our television programs from the Gaza Strip,” a senior official with the television station said on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals.

Palestinian public television has been under the control of President Mahmoud Abbas for more than a year.

However, it has been effectively closed - its equipment seized and employees prevented from entering the premises - since Hamas overran pro-Abbas forces in Gaza June 15, taking control there after a week of bloody fighting.

Hamas has accused the TV station of being partisan in its coverage.

Well, in the good news department, the Russians have said they’re downgrading ties with Hamas. Whether they truly are or not remains to be seen.

Okay, I’m really not sure about the whole hate crime thing, but one thing that I have said in the past is that if you’re going to have hate crimes laws, then a hate crime is a hate crime. Except in the U.K., that is, where anti-Semitic attacks were not pursued as hate crimes—in the nation where the state-owned media refuses to use the word “terrorist.”

But they’ve finally figured out that maybe anti-Semitism should be included in the hate crimes tabulation, because, gee, picking on someone because they’re Jewish might be, you know, hateful.

British police will begin recording anti-Semitic crimes as racist attacks starting next year. The government also pledged additional funds to monitor anti-Semitic incidents in the country.

“Anti-Semitism has not been taken as seriously as other forms of hatred in some parts of our society,” Iain Wright, the parliamentary under secretary of state for communities and local government, said during a July 19 discussion of Britain’s All Party Inquiry into Anti-Semitism.

Yeah, maybe that’s why anti-Semitic attacks in Britain are at their highest in years. Because the perpetrators know the Brits aren’t all that big on stopping them. Not when the BBC allows anti-Semitic comments while taking down other racist slurs.

About those comment Nazis. That’s why I have moderated comments, and the No-Israel Bashing rule. That’s the way this place will stay.

This is an example of ethnic cleansing that the world never really objects to much:

Baghdad was once one of the great cradles of Jewish culture and wisdom, but now, according to the Christian priest who has been looking after them, there are only eight Jews left in the Iraqi capital, and their situation is “more than desperate.” The Rev. Canon Andrew White, the Anglican chaplain to Iraq, says that the small group is in considerable danger. However, the community has been unable to agree to emigrate as a whole. Some of its members, without identifying themselves as Jews, have attempted to leave individually, but have been turned down. White says that only one of the Jews, a woman, still regularly goes to a Baghdad synagogue, though he will give no details.

White provides the group with food and money once a month, some of which they give to local Muslims, he says. “Not because they are forced to,” he says, “but because they care about them. These are wonderful people.” He notes that the Iraqi Jews constituted one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities, and that the country contains numerous important Jewish sites, such as the graves of the prophets Ezra and Ezekiel. The flourishing Jewish community in Baghdad also produced one version of Judaism’s second-holiest book, the Talmud, in about 550 A.D.

Yeah, you also don’t hear so much about the generosity of Jews. The world is far too busy passing along lies and stereotypes instead. Although this is one stereotype that is true: If you have two Jews, you have three opinions. Eight Jews? A very long argument.

The Baghdad Jews have not been able to agree to make an application to go to Israel together, says White. For people who have “spent [their] life in Iraq hearing awful things about Israel,” he says, such hesitation would be natural.

Clearly, this priest does not know how Jews operate. All kidding aside, he’s probably right. But it’s far more dangerous for them to stay in Baghdad.

Both Gaer and White point out that the plight of the remaining Jews is not very different from the hardships faced in Iraq by other religious minorities such as Christians, Mandeans (a gnostic group to whom John the Baptist is a central figure) and Yazidis (whose faith draws from Zoroastrianism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity and other sources). However, the priest says that the Jews have not able to get any material aid from the Iraqi government, and have been advised by officials “to say that they are Christians or to become Christians, because it’s a lot safer.”

White says the Iraqi government is “scared about admitting that there are Jews there,” for fear of Muslim response in the region. For similar reasons, he says that no Jewish organization could provide them with direct aid, although indirect help through a non-Jewish agent might be possible.

There were 150,000 Jews in Iraq in 1948.