Elder of Ziyon tells the story of Shaymaa Samir Qudeih:

Shaymaa Samir Qudeih is a brilliant student attending school in Saudi Arabia. She has received top honors from her high school in Jeddah, and she ranked eighth in all of Saudi Arabia in her science exam, gaining a score of 99.76%. Her dream was to go to the King Abdulaziz University medical school in Jeddah to become a doctor.

But she was rejected - because she is considered a “Palestinian.”

This would be a perfect opportunity for the State Department to designate Ms.Qudeih a “Fullbright scholar.” Yes, I know that her father doesn’t want her to study abroad. But that’s really besides the point. By granting her a Fullbright scholarship, the State Department would it’s true concern for the plight of the Palestinians. Then the State Department could give the details of the young lady’s plight to the New York Times, which would certainly run a number of front page stories about her and an editorial decrying her exclusion from Saudi schools. It would energize opposition groups in Saudi Arabia to protest the discrimination against Ms. Qudeih. With this ruckus, Saudi Arabia’s free press could get in on the act, demanding justice for Ms. Qudeih and all Palestinians living in the kingdom. Finally King Abdullah would be so embarrassed by all the negative publicity generated by his country’s institutional discrimination he’d be forced to relent allow Ms. Qudeih to attend a Saudi school that she is qualified for.

Yeah. Right.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

UHF television used to feature re-runs of shows like Hogan’s Heroes and the 3 Stooges. Hogan’s Heroes was a vehicle for mocking the Nazis. I found it surprising that a number of the actors in Hogan’s Heroes were Holocaust survivors. But they saw it as their revenge. Werner Klemperer who played the Nazi commandant even had it written into his contract that the Nazis could never prevail.

The American comedians, the Three Stooges - all Jews who changed their names for show business - though, lived during the Nazi era. Even though the studios maintained neutrality for feature films, the Stooges made some short films mocking the Nazis.

But that didn’t deter the Three Stooges and Columbia Pictures from making “You Nazty Spy!,” written by Clyde Bruckman and Felix Adler and directed by Jules White. Historian Lynn Rapaport, writing in the San Diego Jewish Journal, points out that film shorts were not as closely regulated or censored as feature films, so perhaps the Stooges’ efforts were unnoticed or ignored.

“You Nazty Spy!” was released with a disclaimer, “Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle,” which was patently ridiculous because the short depends on Moe’s physical resemblance to Hitler — particularly after he pushes his hair back on one side and gets a piece of black tape stuck to his upper lip.

Though others, including Walt Disney also lent their talents to fight the propaganda war, the Stooges made their film in 1940. Others got involved later.

h/t Meryl

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

There seem to be a higher concentration of news service photographers relative to the population in Palestinian areas than any place in the world. So there’s a lot of news. Among the most popular images are people waiting for their terrorist friends and relatives to be released, Palestinian policeman undergoing incomprehensible training and “militants” training to attack Israel. (I’m not sure there’s a difference between those last two groups.)

The pictures are so obviously staged, I fail to understand why they have any news value. (The number of “militants” training to attack Israel during the ceasefire has seemingly increased. That this is going on is a news story, I suppose, but not the angle the news organizations want to emphasize.)

Anyway what do you make of this?

Looks like a movie poster of “The Karate Kid at Iwo Jima,” doesn’t it?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Poor, poor Lauren Booth, Tony Blair’s sister-in-law. She can’t get out of Gaza.

She’s one of the tools that led the “protest” against the IDF shutdown of Gaza by sending two boats in the other day. And now, neither Egypt nor Israel will let her into their territory.

Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair’s sister-in-law, who arrived in Gaza with a boatload of activists protesting an Israeli blockade, said on Tuesday she was stuck there because both Israel and Egypt had denied her entry.

Lauren Booth, sister of the former British prime minister’s wife Cherie, revealed her predicament as Blair visited the region to further Western-backed efforts to achieve a limited Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Booth was one of 44 foreign “Free Gaza” activists who set sail from Cyprus, docking in Gaza last month, and was one of 10 who remained when the others sailed back to Cyprus on Friday.

[...] Booth said she has tried unsuccessfully in the past few days to leave through Gaza’s land crossings with Israel and Egypt. “I tried through the proper channels, through the United Kingdom’s embassy, but I was told I was not allowed to come through,” she said after trying in vain to enter Israel.

An Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman, Peter Lerner, confirmed Israel had denied Booth entry, saying there was a policy of refusing entry to anyone from Gaza who did not get there via Israel.

“There is no possibility to let in those people who entered by the sea. They cannot enter Israel,” Lerner said.

I have a suggestion. Swim.