The ViewThis view out the aft windows on Endeavour’s flight deck was one of a series of images recorded by the STS-123 crew during the first full day in space. The end of the Canadian-built remote manipulator system’s robot arm (right edge) along with the shuttle’s vertical stabilizer and its two orbital maneuvering system (OMS) pods are visible. A heavily cloud-covered area of Earth fills the top half of the frame.

Image Credit: NASA

LGF has the video of the launch.

Crossposted at Soccer Dad.

You’d think the AP would get tired of blaming the victim. You would be wrong.

A dozen rockets and three mortars were fired at Israel late Wednesday and early Thursday, Israeli security officials said. Two rockets struck a warehouse and soccer stadium in the rocket-weary Israeli town of Sderot, but no one was injured. Israeli aircraft struck a loaded rocket launcher early Thursday, but no Palestinian injuries were reported.

The rocket barrage from Gaza seemed inevitable after Israeli undercover forces opened fire on the car carrying Shehadeh. The Israeli military said the Islamic Jihad commander planned suicide bombings that killed dozens of Israelis.

Actually, the count went over 25 by end of day. No casualties, luckily. I guess Hamas ran out of Iranian rockets already, or perhaps they’re holding them in check, knowing that one more casualty will bring the IDF up their asses again.

The fact that one of the dead terrorists was the mastermind of the yeshiva attack makes no difference to the moral equivocators. (There’s an interview with the terrorist here, along with news footage of the dead terrorists in the car. Not too graphic, but graphic enough.) I find it extremely ironic that the terrorists were killed by a hail of about 500 bullets. Hundreds of rounds were fired by the terrorist last week. I guess it’s safe to say that the IDF wanted to “confirm the kill” as well.

You know what’s never mentioned in the wire services articles about the death of Shehade? That he was the mastermind behind the attack. Funny, that. You’d think the wire services don’t really want to give any context that would put Israel in a better light. But no, that’s silly. They’re unbiased. Right? Right?

Shyeah.

Tomorrow is the sixth annual International Eat a Tasty Animal for PETA (EATAPETA) Day.

Tired of their offensive ad campaigns? Well, have a steak on them. Tired of the hypocrisy of an animal rights organization that has a shelter with a 97% kill rate? Eat more chicken. Don’t eat meat? Dairy products work. So do eggs. Anything that a hard-core vegan won’t eat works for EATAPETA Day.

Hey, they started it.

PETA has started yet another offensive ad campaign. This one really reaches bottom—they are using Holocaust terminology, quotes, and pictures to liken the “slaughter” of animals to the slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis.

I’ve already received a letter from a child of Holocaust survivors who is, of course, extraordinarily offended. But here’s the thing: PETA is known for this kind of outrageous publicity stunt—and that’s what it is, an outrageous publicity stunt—and while I am also offended and outraged, there is absolutely nothing we can do that will make PETA change their ad campaign. I’m sure they knew exactly what they were doing, have a plan in mind, and, if they withdraw the campaign, will do it according to their deadlines and their decisions.

So let’s make up our own outrageous publicity stunt. Let’s designate Saturday, March 15th, as International Eat an Animal for PETA Day. Everybody set the date on your calendar, and either go out and enjoy a great steak, or cook one at home. Or cook up some chicken or fish or anything else that PETA wouldn’t want you to eat.

Let’s not forget that Ingrid Newkirk’s will says she wants people to make purses out of her skin after she dies. And I can’t find an original source for this, but I would not be surprised to find that it is true: Newkirk said:

“The leather sofa and handbag are the moral equivalent of the lampshades made from the skins of people killed in the death camps.”

Yeah. That’s why we eat meat on March 15th.

Plus, it’s tasty.

Secretary-General’s address to the 11th Summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference

As I told the Security Council when I briefed them earlier this month, Israel’s disproportionate and excessive use of force has killed and injured many civilians, including children. I condemn these actions and call on Israel to cease such attacks. Israel must fully comply with international humanitarian law and exercise utmost restraint.

And what did the SG say to the Security Council?

While recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself, I condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children. I call on Israel to cease such attacks. Israel must fully comply with international humanitarian law and exercise the utmost restraint. Incidents in which civilians have been killed or injured must be investigated and accountability must be ensured.

Notice what’s missing from the Secretary General’s talk to the OIC?

… recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself

So he doesn’t even have the moral fiber to defend Israel’s right to self-defense in front of the discriminatory OIC.

And by the way the head of the UN knows bupkes about “international humanitarian law.” Here are some relevant provisions:

Art. 28. The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.Art. 29. The Party to the conflict in whose hands protected persons may be, is responsible for the treatment accorded to them by its agents, irrespective of any individual

Or as David Horovitz illustrates (h/t Boker Tov Boulder)

Israel unilaterally left Gaza in the summer of 2005. It relinquished all claims to the Strip even as it continued to ensure that vital supplies reached the populace. Gaza was free of Jews. The Palestinians had an unprecedented opportunity to start building their nation there - to establish the necessary institutions of government, to rehouse the hundreds of thousands of people in its refugee camps, to attract international investment and start to thrive economically.One happy consequence - for the Palestinians - would have been the bolstered Israeli confidence in their ability to foster a viable, peaceable state. Thus Israel would have been emboldened in considering drastic territorial compromise in Judea and Samaria, too, offsetting profound security concerns, and contemplating the sacrifice of a biblical and historical connection to land that forms the centerpiece of the Jewish narrative, in the cause of Palestinian independence and Israeli-Arab reconciliation.

Instead - precisely as the critics of disengagement had warned would happen, and even the advocates had feared - the Palestinians filled the post-Israeli vacuum with a terror state. They exploited Israel’s departure to smuggle weaponry into the Strip, even as they wailed to the international community about the “prison” in which they said they still lived - a malevolent reference to Israel’s failing efforts to prevent that weapons flow. They continually fired rockets across what should have been a tranquil border into sovereign Israel - yes, sovereign Israel, Mr. Scardino. They diverted some of Israel’s continuing power supply to build more of those rockets. They fired their rockets from their own civilian areas - deliberately using their own civilians as human shields against an Israeli response.

They sought to legitimize these attacks by declaring that they were seeking the liberation of all their territory before the fighting would stop, when plainly the constructive path to “liberation” would have seen Gaza turned into a model nascent state and, plainly too, the liberation they have in mind is from any Israeli sovereign presence. They celebrated openly when their attacks drew Israeli civilian blood - a maimed child here, a dead father there. And they protested to the international community when Israel’s despairing military responses caused the very Palestinian civilian fatalities they had so cynically orchestrated.

Mr. Ban, I thought you would be an improvement over your predecessor. The truth is that until you actively aid a terrorist organization as he did with Hezbollah you will be superior. However I am still disappointed. Please don’t lecture Israel until you can defend it rhetorically before its enemies and until you familiarize yourself with the finer points of international law.

Jammie Wearing Fool does a little editing. Lebz shows that Ban isn’t nearly as toxic as his predessor.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Say, remember how the wire services all managed to point out that in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack on yeshiva students, outraged Israelis chanted “Death to the Arabs”?

Think this call for revenge will get as much notice by the world media?

“The biggest revenge on the goyim is for them to see how much God loves the people of Israel,” Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said Thursday at a mass memorial service held for the eight victims of last week’s terror attack at the Mercaz Harav rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem.

“The (victims’) souls will (go to heaven) and send the messiah to the nation of Israel,” the Shas spiritual leader said.

Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said during the ceremony that “we hear calls that are not in line with the way we were brought up. Underground organizations of any kind are unwarranted, according neither to the Halacha nor to any other worldview. The call should be aimed at the government and the prime minister, to do everything so that the killers and their friends are brought to justice, literally.”

This won’t rate so much as a mention in the world media. Just watch. Why on earth would they want to publish a story that portrays religious Jews in a good light? That doesn’t fit the narrative.

What time is it, folks? That’s right. It’s Israeli Double Standard Time, which occurs only on days that end with a “y.”

Boker Tov Boulder describes the moderate doctor of Holocaust denial, Mahmoud Abbas as Old Terrorist, New Suit, Big Mouth. Abbas claims that Israel is guilty of “ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem. As Meryl points out, there’s been plenty of ethnic cleansing in the Middle East, and it’s the Jews, not the Arabs who have been the victims. (Check out the tables and read the whole post.)But it’s not just the Jews. The Christians under PA rule have been decreasing in number. It’s especially noticeable in Bethlehem which is no longer a Christian majority city. In fact, all over the Middle East, Christians have been leaving in large numbers. In fact in the Middle East only in Israel is the Christian population increasing.

It’s a shame that media outlets simply repeat statements by Abbas as if they have any credibility. Why don’t they make an effort to do basic research and challenge his lies instead of allowing them to stand?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Mahmoud Abbas, the man who wrote a Holocaust-denial thesis, is accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing.”

Abbas told a summit of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), being held in Senegal’s capital Dakar, the success of US-brokered peace talks depended on Israel showing willingness to live up to the spirit of the process.

“Our people in the city (Jerusalem) are facing an ethnic cleansing campaign through a set of Israeli decisions such as imposing heavy taxes, banning construction and closing Palestinian institutions in addition to separating the city from the West Bank by the racist separation wall,” Abbas said.

Uh-huh. Let’s see, ethnic cleansing… can we come up with some real examples of ethnic cleansing in the Muslim and Arab world? Why yes, yes we can.

I should also like to point out that the Jewish population of the Jordanian-controlled portion of Jerusalem was exactly zero from 1948 to 1967. Jews were “ethnically cleansed” from every segment of the West Bank and Gaza Strip after 1948. Funny how the world never cared that the Jewish community of Hebron (for instance) was expelled from its home of thousands of years, and yet, when Palestinians took over the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem, expelling the Jewish community that had had a continuous presence there for nearly 3,000 years, nobody cared. But then, history started in the twentieth century, or something like that, right?

Ethnic cleansing: I don’t think that term means what he thinks it means.

Y’know, I really don’t think I want to drive an hour there and back on Saturday.

You guys are going to have to give me a really good reason to come to Fredericksburg. I can celebrate EATAPETA Day here in Richmond just fine.

I’m getting a bit tired of driving long distances. Been spending a lot of time in the northern VA area lately.