The world ignores Iran’s continuing calls to “wipe Israel off the map”: A modern euphemism for the genocide of the Jews which is pooh-poohed by Iran’s apologists on the left (Juan Cole, for one).

A major American university is hosting a conference to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel, ignoring the fact that the Palestinian BDS movement’s purpose is to ultimately destroy the state of Israel.

One out of five Germans still hate Jews, even as Germany is now hosting the world’s fastest-growing Jewish community. (They’re probably fleeing France and the Nordic nations.)

The Associated Press runs a profile of a wealthy Jew who is a “hard-liner” on Israel contributing millions of dollars to a Republican candidate for president (while never running the same sort of profile on, say, George Soros, who does not like Israel and donates millions to anti-Israel, liberal and Democratic causes).

The coauthor of the most anti-Israel book this side of neo-Nazi circles endorsed an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic book written by a Jewish anti-Semite and then huffed that he hasn’t got an anti-Semitic bone in his body, showing that now anti-Semites get to define anti-Semitism–which means that nothing they do will be defined that way.

Liberal Jews (and liberal non-Jews) are now calling Zionists, or Jews that evince any liking for Israel, it seems, as “Israel-firsters.” And they’re trying to say that there’s not anything wrong with that.

And of course, a trip through the unmoderated comments of any site that mentions Israel or religion will give you doezens of examples of anti-Semitic commenters, alive, well, and thriving in the anonymous world of the internet.

Happy International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

And yet, they’re still going to be used as civilian shields by Hamas: Gazans held a disaster preparedness drill. See title.

So bizarre I don’t know what to think: It isn’t enough that someone created a Lego concentration camp. A museum bought it and will display it. Sorry, but the ick factor is far too high for me. And oh, who bought it? A Polish museum. Shyeah, the Poles are totally over their Jew hatred. Really. Truly.

Sure, cutting the budget for soldiers always works out well: Obama wants to cut half a million troops over next ten years as part of his idea for modernizing the U.S. Armed Forces. While I agree that we do need to make our air and naval forces cutting edge, I think it’s utterly absurd to drop the number of standing troops. Boots on the ground is what did the job in Iraq. There’s no substitute for it.

Islamists who put country before themselves? I’m not sure what to think of this. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leadership refused Iran’s offer to make a deal with the Dorktator and join in against their countryment to prop up Assad. Since the Brotherhood is all about helping itself, I suspect they refused to deal because they know a losing situation when they see it. It’s curtains for Assad, I tell you. Curtains.

“We, members of the Jewish people, were victims of racism, persecution and discrimination but we never abandoned the obligation to honor every person, we were not blinded by darkness. Even in a dark world, we have aspired and continue to aspire to be a light unto the nations.

“We were alone, with no state of our own. The allied forces’ bomber planes that flew over Auschwitz did not drop a single bomb on the mass murder facilities,” he said.

“The Holocaust determined there is no replacement for a home of our own. There is no replacement for the Israel Defense Forces. Today we have an excellent army which the world has learned to respect. We have a democratic regime which knows how to defend itself and spread peace. That is our answer to the enemy, to any enemy.”

Peres added: “Even after the Holocaust there remains a regime whose leaders are public Holocaust deniers and inciters. This should arouse horror with any person and shock any conscience.

“Iran’s fanatic high echelon is a danger to the entire world, not just a threat on Israel. It poses a real danger to the fate of mankind. The world’s nations have declared they will not tolerate a nuclear Iran. They are now being tested.”

Not that the world will ever learn. But as Netanyahu said:

“We must not bury our heads in the sand and dismiss the threat with words of mockery,” he said. “Has the world learned its lesson? I doubt it. Have we? I believe we have.”

Addressing Israel’s enemies, Netanyahu said: “The world should know that when the people of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces say never again – we mean every word.”

Lesson learned, for now: Hamas has stopped firing rockets. And the U.S. will be helping Israel fund more Iron Dome systems. But it’s only just the latest round in the long war.

They were open? Who knew? Wait a minute, I thought the Gaza crossings were all closed and the evil Israelis were totally isolating the Gazans. (This, despite the fact that the Egyptian border is totally controlled by, duh, Egypt.) Well, they’re still closed due to the rocket attacks. And yet, no howls from the Free Gaza flotilla fools. Go figure.

Stay tuned: The IDF is closing in on the Fogel family murderers.

The man in the glass booth: You can see the Eichmann trial—all of it—on YouTube. Watch the man lie through his teeth as he insists he was not the architect of the Holocaust. Really, I can’t believe they hanged him. They should have set him to the same conditions as the concentration camp inhabitants.

The next step in the 1949 borders: The Palestinians are about to submit a report that proves they are capable of governing themselves. The plan to force Israel to accept all the Palestinian requirements without having the Palestinians actually negotiate a peace moves forward.

UC-Irvine facilitates secret meeting with Hamas: And a Jewish organization footed the bill. Utterly, utterly, UTTERLY despicable. Not to mention illegal. Will there be repercussions for UCI? I’m doubting it. UC-Irvine anti-Semitic? No. Just anti-Zionist. Riiiiiiiight.

The Obama Administration: Blind, deaf, and really dumb on UN Human Rights Council. Shorter press release: Yeah, we know they suck on Israel, but we don’t care, we’re going for another term anyway. Because gee, Libya was on the UNHRC, and now Syria may be coming aboard! Woo-hoo!

Seriously? “Revamp”? Seriously? Say, you think this editor is a tone-deaf idiot or what?

Austria presents plans to restore, revamp WWII Mauthausen concentration camp

Compare that to Bloomberg and and JTA:

Mauthausen Concentration Camp to Be Restored for $2.4 Million

Austria to renovate Mauthausen

Really, AP sucks six ways to Sunday. No, seven.

I know my long-time readers will remember that there was a point when I couldn’t afford to buy a used laptop to replace the one that was dying on me, and my readers came through with hits to the tipjars (which no longer exist, since I don’t need the help anymore). When Gracie was sick years ago, her medical bills put a huge strain on me. You helped me out then, too. (She turns fourteen on Tuesday.)

I think I finally found the answer to whether or not I’m going to continue doing what I’m doing on the blog. Ten years is a long time, and my readership has stayed pretty static for the past few years. I have less and less time to write for the blog, and sometimes less and less interest. Things never seem to change for Israel and the Jews. It gets tiresome, writing posts on almost the exact same subjects now as I did nine, eight, seven, three, two years ago. Really, I could just cut and paste an old post to a new one and I swear you’d never be able to tell the difference, because Israel’s enemies are unchanging, the anti-Israel media is unchanging, and about the only thing that changes is the names of the victims. But—

Yesterday, I went to a b’nai mitzvah that was held at the Virginia Holocaust Museum. A set of twins from my last year teaching had it there because their grandfather is a survivor. One of my other former students asked me during the reception if I would escort her around the exhibits, because she was afraid to go by herself. So we went through the museum, and I explained a lot of the exhibits and history to her.

We stopped at the survivors exhibit as requested (see below) and saw the picture of the twins’ grandfather. He looked to be about ten years old in that picture. He grew up to become a rabbi. When I first moved to Richmond, he was co-editor with me of my synagogue’s newsletter for several years. Rabbi K. would come over to my apartment, and we’d put together the newsletter. Actually, I’d put it together in Microsoft Publisher and print out the pages. Rabbi K. would edit, proofread, correct, and play with Tigger. (My cats have always been partners in my volunteer editing/writing work; Tigger the first entertained Neil Clarke while I wrote the user and sysop manuals for his 2AM-BBS software.)

The b’nai mitzvah program had a note on it from the twins:

Thank you for coming to our B’nai Mitzvah. Please feel free to tour the museum while you are here. Be sure to look for our grandfather on the wall in the Displaced Persons Camp. And whenever you are near the Nazi flag in the floor, give it a good stomp.

That we did. Several times. And while I was touring the museum with my former student, I remembered what I discovered about teaching religious school—that I was making a difference in Jewish life, one child at a time. I can’t teach at the moment. I can’t take the time away from my job. But I can still blog.

That’s why I blog: To inform the world that there is another side of the story about Israel that they are not hearing. To make a difference. To change minds. To get the truth out, no matter what.

I used to say that my job was an anti-Semite’s worst nightmare: Teaching little Jews to become big Jews. Well, this blog disturbs their dreams, too, I am happy to report. I intend to continue to piss them off on a daily basis. Of course, my very existence is enough to piss off the Jew haters, and, well, that actually makes me smile. Pissing off the Jew haters is one of the perks of writing this blog.

One of the things I taught my students was this way of summarizing many Jewish holidays: “They tried to kill us. They failed. Let’s eat.” A slightly altered version of that would make a good secondary tagline for this blog. (I won’t be changing the tagline, though.) Something like, “They tried to kill us. They failed. Let’s blog.

I have some plans for my life for the next few years that, if they succeed, will change my life in even better ways. And considering that the reason I am out of debt, have a great job, and own a home is that I worked my ass off to achieve those goals, I think that five years from now, when I’m on the cusp of my fifteenth blogiversary, things will be even better. I hope they will be better for Israel, too, but I won’t make any predictions. Well, except for one: In every generation, they rise against us. But the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hands.

They tried to kill us. They failed. Let’s blog.

Perhaps if they didn’t keep throwing money at third-generation Palestinian “refugees”: NGOs are having trouble handling Libyan refugees. Gee, maybe if the UN didn’t keep pouring hundreds of millions of dollars a year into UNRWA, there would be more money and aid available to actual refugees. But no, we have to keep beating on Israel.

Hamas, the Holocaust deniers: This will be interesting. Hamas is saying it will stop the UN from teaching about the Holocaust in UNRWA camps. Let’s see who wins. My prediction: Violence will be involved, and downplayed by the UN. Or blamed on Israel.

If you’re Arab and you know it, blame the Jews: I swear, sometimes that’s all it takes. Amr Moussa is blaming Israel for trying to prevent him from running for president of Egypt. Why is he doing this? Because blaming Israel is the most popular theme in the Middle East. Oh, let’s face it: Blaming Israel is the world’s favorite obsession.

Just your run-of-the-mill European anti-Semite: When you are blatantly anti-Semitic and professing your drunken love for Hitler, dude, your job is toast. The fact that Galliano worked for one of the world’s biggest fashion houses? Feh. Doesn’t everyone hate the Jews a little, really? Except for those Americans, but they’re so provincial, darling. By the way, Galliano? Hate you too, bitch.

Mr. Obama’s speech offered a welcome contrast to all of the posturing that passes for business in the new Republican-controlled House. On Tuesday, House Republicans pushed through a resolution calling for reducing spending on domestic programs to 2008 levels. In a fragile economy, cutting spending on transportation, education, scientific research, food safety and childhood nutrition will do huge damage.

Yes, but the Times thinks we should totally waste money on Obama’s green schemes and then raise taxes. Woot! My money is their money!

Oh, that’ll show those terrorists! The Russian president is on the case. He’s going to prevent another terrorist bombing in an airport by firing the regional chief of transport. Awesome job. He’s about as smart at American security for deciding to take away our toothpaste. If you’d been reading Jeffrey Goldberg for a while, you’ve been expecting an attack like this. Of course, in the current climate about rhetoric, the fact that Goldberg predicted an attack like this makes him responsible for it. Damn you, Jeff! All those people, and it’s on your head!

Egypt cracks down, brutally: I await the thousands of headlines from world media condemning the brutality of the Egyptian government against the protesters, many of whom may die today. And the tear gas that did not kill a Palestinian protestor? It was fired at Egyptian protestors without incident.

Google and the Holocaust: Google has partnered with Yad Vashem to make its Holocaust archives searchable via Google. This is a wonderful thing. However, count on people using more Holocaust imagery in their attacks on Israel as a result of this. (Normally, I’m an optimist. When it comes to all things Jewish, I’m a realist.)

Yes, Glenn Beck was over the top. I can’t believe I have to say this, but Media Matters isn’t wrong on this part of their most recent complaint against Glenn Beck. (Broken clock, etc.)

On his November 10 radio show, Beck described how Soros, who was born in Hungary to Orthodox Jewish parents, “used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps.”

Soros did not help send Jews to the camps, and Beck is wrong to say so. The ADL is right to call him out on this, and he should be ashamed of himself. There are plenty of other rotten things to say about Soros, but he did NOT help round up the Jews and send them off to the death camps.

UN keeps up the Gaza cover story: They’ve got to do something in order to guarantee their jobs. So of course, even though they swore for years that the Gazans were starving, desperately in need of medical aid, and about to keel over from various diseases unless the blockade was lifted, now that they got the blockade effectively lifted? It’s still not enough. The fact that a terror organization is still smuggling weapons into Gaza? Irrelevant. The fact that John Ging needs automatic weapons for his bodyguards to protect him from Hamas? Irrelevant. The only relevant fact is the Palestinians can’t have everything they want.

Good for the goose, etc.: Danny Ayalon is right. If the Palestinians are third- and fourth-generation refugees, then so are the Jews who fled from Arab lands after the founding of Israel. Then Israel can make a one-for-one swap of the original refugees, and everything is settled. Will that happen? Sure, when pigs sprout wings and fly.

Fifteen miles on the Irani Canal: Just when you think the nutcases can’t get any nuttier, they give you something else to laugh at. Iran, Venezuela, and Nicaragua say they’re going to build a rival to the Panama Canal. Because it’s going to be so easy to build, just like it was to build the Panama Canal. Good luck with that, guys! (Well, at least it got me to find one of the songs from my childhood. Suzanne Vega covered it.)