Charlton Heston is gone. The article didn’t mention cause of death. I have my suspicions that it was a deliberate early exit due to Alzheimer’s, and if so, more power to him. Alzheimer’s a horrible way to die.

But while we’re talking about Heston, what’s your favorite line of his? Or your favorite film?

My all-time favorite is “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty apes!” from, of course, The Planet of the Apes (the good version).

Yours?

David Marash who was the American face of Al Jazeera English has an interview where he explains his decision to leave. I find his naivitee about Al Jazeera a bit disconcerting. Still here’s his identification of the point where AJE stopped being “objective” or “transparent.”

DM: I think that the world changed about nine, ten months ago. And I think the single event in that change was the visit to the gulf by Vice President Cheney, where he went to line up the allied ducks in a row behind the possibility of action against Iran. And instead of getting acquiescence, the United States got defiance, and instead ducks in a row the ducks basically went off on their own and the first sort of major breakthrough on that was the Mecca agreement, which defied the American foreign policy by letting Hamas into the tent of the governance of the Palestinian territories. This enraged the State Department and was one crystal clear sign that the Mideast region was now off campus, was off on its own. And it is around this time, and I think not coincidentally, that you see the state of Qatar and the royal family of Qatar starting to make up their feud with the Saudis, and you start to see on both Al Jazeera Arabic and English a very sort of first-personish, “my Haj” stories that were boosterish of the Haj and of Saudi Arabia. And you start to see stories of analysis in The New York Times where regional people are noting that Al Jazeera seems to be changing its editorial stance toward Saudi Arabia. I’m suggesting that around that time, a decision was made at the highest levels of [Al Jazeera] that simply following the American political leadership and the American political ideal of global, universalist values carried out in an absolutely pure, multipolar, First Amendment global conversation, was no longer the safest or smartest course, and that it was time, in fact, to get right with the region. And I think part of getting right with the region was slightly changing the editorial ambition of Al Jazeera English, and I think it has subsequently become a more narrowly focused, more univocal channel than was originally conceived.

I don’t necessarily read this as Marash blaming the administration, though I suppose it could be read that way. It does make me wonder why the United States spends so much effort trying to make nice with the Arab world when it’s clear that the Arab world doesn’t much care for us.

Incidentally this contradicts Marash’s earlier claims that the English at the station were more anti-American than the Qataris. (Maybe that’s true, but it was suggested that it was the Brit anti-Americanism that alienated him.)

Related thoughts from the Jewish Press.

Crossposted at Soccer Dad.

In his first outing as the NY Times correspondent in Israel, Ethan Bronner turns in a reasonably good effort with A Town Under Fire Becomes a Symbol for Israel about life in Sderot.My only real quibble with the article is this:

As much as Sderot is a symbol, it is also a kind of Rorschach test — a screen onto which various political factions project their hopes and fears. For the right, it is evidence that only force will stop the rockets; for the left it is evidence that force is not the answer and that the rockets cannot be stopped without a new approach.One attempt at a new approach involves a group in Sderot that has started holding discussions with Palestinians in Gaza via speakerphone. The group, Another Voice, is urging a cease-fire. There is also a new blog, a discussion between a resident of Sderot and one of Gaza, both anonymous.

To break this down as political is an odd choice. Bronner, himself reported earlier:

The sense that Sderot is actually Israel’s front line in its battle for legitimacy and self-respect has gained real currency, just as in the Arab world the suffering of Gazans has taken on a special significance. For Israelis, the conviction of Sderot’s importance began growing with the huge increase in rocket fire since the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and after the 2006 war with Hezbollah, which sent thousands of rockets into northern Israel.

(emphasis mine)That observation alone underscores that the lesson of the political right is the correct one. Political concessions haven’t earned Israel the peace that was predicted. And the end of the item emphasizes this point:

Avi Farhan, who was a settler in the Sinai before it was returned to Egypt and then in Gaza before the Israelis withdrew, said he agreed with Rabbi Fendel that the withdrawal was a mistake. Standing on a bluff near his new apartment, he can see what remains of his former Gaza settlement, now a staging ground for rocket fire.“From my old house, they can now shell my new house,” he said ruefully.

Israel withdrew from the Sinai, and then Gaza and the Arab world still treats it as hostile. Will more withdrawal bring peace closer or encourage Israel’s enemies? It’s not an issue of right and left but an issue of whether Israel learns from experience.

Crossposted at Soccer Dad.

This short article caused me a bizarre feeling - like finding yourself in a parallel world, where most of the familiar details are faithfully copied from the world you know, but people talk and behave differently. To start with the headline:

Strange enough, and doesn’t require comments. But the contents of the piece are real mindboggling:

“Hamas doesn’t mean to kill children with its rockets,” spokesman Ismail Radwan told reporters in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to a statement made by al-Qaida’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who said Hamas’ random rockets kill women and children in violation of Islamic law.

Still no comments. Just my poor head that cannot get rid of the colorful image of Hamas and al-Qaida chiefs in Santa Claus outfits distributing sweets, toys and smiles to the children of Sderot, New York, Madrid, Baghdad…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Israel and the U.S. are going to release details of what was struck in the Syrian desert. You know, that innocent little country that said it was, hm, a warehouse.

Israel and the United States are coordinating the release of details on the air force strike in Syria last September, which foreign reports claim targeted a nuclear installation Syria was constructing withe North Korean assistance. American officials may reveal details of the strike later this month during congressional hearings.

Even though the defense establishment in Israel is opposed to any publication of details of the attack, the Prime Minister’s Bureau and the Bush administration are of the opinion that it is now possible to reveal details because there is little chance of a conflagration as a result of a Syrian decision to avenge the attack.

Iran and North Korea will be implicated.

The view in Washington and in Jerusalem is that publishing details of the attack will bolster Israel’s deterrence and may even lead Syria to cool its close ties with Iran and North Korea.

But Olmert will be going against the advice of the IDF.

Senior figures in the defense establishment and the Israel Defense Forces said in recent day that Israel must convince the Americans to deliver the report to Congress “in closed session.”

Intelligence analysts in Israel maintain that any further release of the details on the strike will contribute to the already tense situation between Syria and Israel, which has been exacerbated in part because of Hezbollah’s plans to avenge the assassination of the group’s terrorist mastermind, Imad Mughniyah.

I can see why the Bush Adminstration wants the information released. They think it will help get the UN and EU on their side in the Iran issue.

I think by this time, nobody is willing to do anything to stop Iran. And we get closer and closer to the dates that Israeli intelligence says Iran will have reached the point beyond which nothing we do will stop them from getting the bomb.