I probably won’t be home in time to watch it live, or even almost-live via my new DVR and Comcast (it’s craptastic!), as I will be visiting Sarah and the G family’s synagogue tomorrow night for a service and a neat party. But I will be watching it when I get home.

And I have a new theory on who is the twelfth Cylon. I’m still holding out for Baltar, but there are two others.

My theory below the more prompt, and by the way, I’m always wrong about stuff like this, so take that into account. I’m superb at guessing real-life puzzles, and totally suck at games and TV shows. I get the ends of some books and movies, though. I never figured out anything about Babylon 5. Straczynski had me guessing until the very end.

(more…)

Funny, but there’s a really huge part of a story that broke yesterday that the AP didn’t feel worth covering. Reuters did. Oh, they buried the quote halfway down the story, and they titled it “Zawahri says bin Laden in good health,” but at least Reuters—and the European and other outlets that use Reuters—printed it.

AP editors must have decided that this just isn’t very newsworthy:

Zawahri also called for attacks on Jews. “We promise our Muslim brothers that we will do our utmost to strike Jews in Israel and abroad with help and guidance from God.”

Nope. Another call for the annihilation of Jews from a Muslim terrorist is not newsworthy. But remember, the root cause is Israel. Or poverty. Or Western “imperialism.” The cause is not Jew-hatred. The cause is not a religion that brainwashes people into believing that they are absolutely not responsible for the murder of thousands of innocents.

But even Reuters whitewashes Zawahiri’s Jew-hatred:

The Egyptian militant also reiterated al Qaeda calls to Muslims to topple Western-allied governments and to attack Western and Israeli interests in Muslim countries.

“We call the nation in Egypt and other parts to hit crusader and Jewish interests wherever they are to force the invaders to leave Muslim land, and to stop supporting corrupt regimes.”

“Jewish” is not interchangeable with “Israeli,” and here is the exact quote:

In regard to Egypt, our independent judgement to which we invite the Ummah in Egypt and elsewhere is: the striking of the Jewish Crusader interests wherever they are found to force the invaders to depart the lands of the Muslims…

That’s not “Western and Israeli interests.” I do believe “crusader” is defined as “Christian” by al Qaeda and, well, he pretty clearly called for the deaths of Jews. Including, I would presume, me.

Once more, with feeling: If you want to find the news, you’d best not rely on the wire services or the mainstream media. Dig for yourself and read the source material. There’s much, much more at that link. (And at Hot Air, where I found it.)

I think there’s a better way to stop Hamas from firing missiles into Israel. Israel should start firing missiles into Tehran. There is ample proof that Iran is at war with Israel. Hamas and Hezbullah openly admit they sends their operatives to Iran for training. Syria and Iran have many deals for weapons and mutual cooperation. And Iranian arms have been used against Israel for years.

Time to stop letting Iran get off scot-free. If Israeli citizens are going to be in danger of dying from Iranian missiles, perhaps Israel should let fly a missile or three at Iran.

Because it’s getting more and more dangerous to be an Israeli these days, thanks to Iranian weapons technology.

Israel Television Channel Two Correspondent Ronnie Daniel reported last night that the mortars fired from Gaza on Tuesday were 120mm Iranian mortars.

They have a range of 8 kilometers and can do considerably more damage than Qassam rockets.

Daniel said that many of the protective reinforcements that have been placed in order to shield Israelis from Qassams do not provide protection from these mortars. In addition, the Iranian made mortars travel at a speed that makes the warning system that gives Israelis a few seconds to duck for cover from the slower Qassams meaningless.

I know Israel won’t do it, but don’t you think that firing missiles into Iranian cities would be using “proportionate” force against their enemy? I mean, the Iranians are the ones who are supplying the terrorists with the missiles—and the knowledge of how to use them. Well, when they’re not having Iranian Revolutionary Guards actively join the war against Israel, as they did in 2006.

In Adrift in the Middle East the editors of the NY Times argue:

Israel marked Ms. Rice’s visit by agreeing to remove 50 of its roadblocks restricting travel in the West Bank. That leaves 530, roughly the same number as at the start of 2007. Any goodwill was erased when, hours after she departed, Israel announced its intention to build 800 new homes for Jewish families in the West Bank. Mr. Abbas promised more energetic efforts against terrorism — a promise he has made before — and agreed to end his monthlong boycott of meetings with Mr. Olmert.

Of course the editors didn’t note that along with the removal of the checkpoints came a return of terror attempts. When the very basic premise of “peace” is undermined as it has been consistently over the past 15 years, I find it hard to get exercised about Israel building homes for Israelis. Let’s see a stop to incitement, results in fighting terror and an end to endemic corruption on the part of the PA and then we can talk about what Israel ought and ought not do.

Just coming back to the table will not matter much unless Washington starts to push in earnest for the compromises that are the only basis for an agreement. President Bill Clinton first proposed the outline in 2000: a secure Israel and an economically viable Palestinian state, divided by roughly the June 1967 borders, and including reasonable compromises over Jerusalem.

And that agreement failed to stem the violence that was then orchestrated by Yasser Arafat. And despite the words “secure Israel” I have little confidence that Israel would be secure under those terms. Nor do I see any compromise on Jerusalem as being reasonable.

At the end the editors put its recent reporting on Hamas incitement to use:

They, as well as Washington, would also have to deal with the disruptive reality of Hamas, which broadcasts anti-Semitic propaganda and encourages deadly rocket fire into Israeli towns. The essential first step is to encourage efforts by Egypt and other Arab nations to press Hamas toward a complete cease-fire.If that can be achieved, the United States and Israel should start exploring the possibilities of talking directly with Hamas, though not in a way that excludes the far more statesmanlike Mr. Abbas.

Doing so does not imply approval of Hamas’s past methods or future goals. It does acknowledge that Hamas has a strong constituency — and a lasting peace would have to include these Palestinians as well.

Talking to Hamas gives leverage to Hamas, which effectively legitimizes its “past methods and future goals.” It happened with Fatah, which earned the prize of peace talks despite never changing its underlying commitment to terrorism or destruction of Israel.

Yes Hamas has a strong constituency. But that needs to change before there can be peace. Showing that there’s no penalty to be paid for advocating terror will only strengthen those who hold those views.

Don’t talk to Hamas. Don’t stop building. Stop terror. Then you will have peace.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

So, it’s anti-Zionism, not anti-Semitism, right? Right? Right?

Wrong.

Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri described the United Nations as an enemy to Muslims and vowed attacks on Jews both inside and outside Israel in a statement posted on the Internet on Wednesday.

“The United Nations is an enemy of Islam and Muslims,” he said. “We promise our Muslim brothers that we will do our utmost to strike Jews in Israel and abroad with help and guidance from god.”

Someone really needs to tell the root causes side that perhaps, just perhaps, the root cause is the world’s oldest hatred. Because they don’t seem to have gotten the memo.

With the recent report that the U.S. monitors concluded that the PA has not been doing what it should to prevent terror, the PA has been making an effort to show that it indeed has been doing all it can and that problems, well blame those on Israel. Earlier this week Ha’aretz reported:

Omran sounds enthusiastic about the changes he expects, but does not hide his criticism of the Israel Defense Forces commanders he meets with frequently.”I’ll give you an example. Last night, about 3 A.M. a van with yellow [Israeli] plates crashed into a wall of the Bank of Palestine, about 200 meters from here. I couldn’t send even one soldier because we’re not allowed to operate in the city after midnight according to the agreement with the IDF.

“I asked the civilian police to check it out, but they were afraid; they thought it might be your undercover unit,” he told Haaretz.

“We decided to wait until 6 A.M. when we’re allowed to operate again. To send out a patrol, I had to wake up the Palestinian liaison unit, who had to contact with their Israeli counterparts, who had to wake up the Israeli sector commander, who would check whether they were his people or not. If this was a criminal or security matter, the suspects would be long gone,” Omran says.

Omran says the PA security forces are working energetically against armed men in the sector. “I’ll arrest anybody who dares move around with a rifle, even our own intelligence people,” he says. “We’ve given every bomb we’ve found to the Israeli side, we’ve prevented attacks and they know it,” he adds.

I don’t believe Omran’s boasts, though I suppose there can be some problems with coordination. Of course the fact that there are still these problems after 15 years go back to the trustworthiness of the Palestinian police until now. (And it was a Palestinian policeman who murdered Ido Zoltan recently, so caution is still important.)

And there’s this:

But Israel and the U.S. say you’re letting Hamas and Jihad activists go.” In Israel they forget that we also have laws and I have to bring every suspect to a remand hearing within 24 hours. Suspects are often set free on bail. Other times, I let people out after they agree to give us information. So Israel comes and arrests them.

I wonder about this. It’s not like the PA has ever been so good with laws before. They never really fulfilled Rabin’s vision of going after terror suspects as if they didn’t have to worry about B’Tselem. I kind of doubt that they pay attention to such niceties all the time now either.

Reuter picks up on another Palestinian complaint.

When a Palestinian law and order campaign started in the occupied West Bank late last year, Western advisors quickly realised they had a problem: Palestinian forces had no place to put all of their prisoners.Many of the Palestinian Authority’s prisons, some dating back to the Ottoman era, were destroyed by Israel after a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 and peace talks broke down.

The few prisons left and the dysfunctional judicial system, plagued by backlogs long before statehood talks were relaunched in November alongside the security crackdown, can’t cope with the influx, Palestinian officials and their Western advisors say.

Not enough jails. James Taranto, focusing on the complaint that Palestinian police were complaining about the lack of prison space and improved security in some places, joked that the filled jails is the reason that there’s improved security in some places.

He focused on the wrong thing though.

In the town of Jericho, near the Dead Sea, 51 detainees cook, pray and wait in sweltering concrete cells so small they barely have room to stand up and stretch. The facility is meant to hold 40 people. “You sit here and you rot,” said Yousef Judeh, a 34-year-old father of five accused of collaborating with Israel. His case still pending, he has been languishing here for two years.

I don’t know if this guy is typical of the inmates, but he was accused of “collaborating with Israel.” I have no idea if the charge is even accurate, it can be made when someone wants to get someone out of the way. But the fact that someone who was helping Israel is in jail says something about the Palestinian Authority’s mindset. They’re not doing enough to fight terror against Israel and they’re punishing their own citizens who are accused of making an effort to do so.

Maybe if the PA wasn’t arresting people who are accused of fighting terror, they’d have more room in their prisons for the real troublemakers.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Er… that headline may look ambiguous. So - it is not that no.2 you mean, it is this one:

Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri pledged Wednesday night that the group would attack Jews in Israel and throughout the world.

And CNN is also not the one you mean, it is the elusive Cave News Network.

And that “live” should rather be “alive”, but let’s not nitpick, OK?

Anyhow, the gist of the speech carries nothing essentially new, aside of a sign that even such a benign and largely impotent body as UN has succeeded to get on the bad side of the chief cave dwellers.

Zawahri also slammed the UN for “assisting the establishment of Israel,” calling the organization an “enemy of Islam.”

I expect that Adam and Eve will be blacklisted next - for letting their loins to get away with passion and to produce these darn apes and pigs.

And then who? Oh - oh, let’s not get there for now…

Now a few words about the style:

The audio message, which was accompanied by a 46-page English transcript, was the first installment of answers to a raft of online questions…

46-page English transcript definitely points to one of the two possibilities: either our forehead-damaged friend is bored to death in his cave or he is aspiring to become a TV show star to beat Oprah. Or both.

In any case, here is an offer from the Elders to al-Whatishisname: we have a few vacant caves here, so you are welcome. We’ll provide food, clothing, a TV crew and a few goats.

Deal?

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.