Where is the Syrian Goldstone Commission? The massacres go on every day, and yet, there is no world outcry of the sort we saw during the Gaza war in 2006. Syria has been using artillery on defenseless civilians every day, killing thousands, and now there’s word that chemical weapons are up next. Two words for the human rights crowd: White Phosphorous. No, three words: You’re all hypocrites. Just for kicks and giggles, I searched news releases by country at HRW’s site. Fourteen for Syria between 1997 and yesterday. For Israel: 33 during that same time period. Jeffrey Goldberg points out that Syria has now killed more of its own citizens civilians than Israel did during both Palestinian intifadas. (That’s why I keep reading–and liking–Goldberg, even though many think he’s too soft on the Palestinians and too hard on Israel. He’s nothing like the others on the left. He keeps reminding the world that Iran really does mean to destroy Israel, and it’s not just a game of words.

To get back to my original point: Of course there will be no Goldstone Commission for Syria, in spite of Bradley Burston’s hope for one. Oh, you’ve got Navi Pillay talking about war crimes trials for Syrians who ordered the barrages on civilians, but that’s about it. The UN is a toothless, anti-Israel organization that lives off taxpayer dollars and exists to extend its own [anti-Israel] agenda. Iran and Hezbollah are helping Syria murder its own citizens.

Jackson Diehl said it, and a chorus is beginning to emerge: The fall of Syria could bring the Iranian regime down with it.

I’m not flying again until the TSA is gone.

It’s not anti-Zionism: When an Islamic cleric calls for the death of Jews, and says he was taken out of context after an outcry is raised, well, hey. It’s not just Zionists he’s talking about.

They’re not even trying to hide it anymore: The Iranians are now openly admitting that southern Lebanon is all theirs, and that Hezbullah are their bitches. And Syria, too, where Hezbullah guarded Bashar al-Assad during his recent public outing. Think we’ll have a world outcry about this? Of course not. They’re too busy dumping in Israeli settlers.

Sigh. Cyberwar. Hackers striking Israeli sites again, and a retaliation promised. No good is going to come of this, and there will be a lot of collateral damage.

What UN resolution? Ban Ki-Moon was in Lebanon this weekend, praising its adherence to UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which, among other things, demands that Hezbollah give up its arms. So what did Ban say?

He said that 1701 has brought an “unprecedented” degree of relative calm and stability to southern Lebanon, adding that the situation along the so-called Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon – despite a number of serious incidents – has been largely stable since 2006.

Riiight. And also:

The U.N. Secretary General says he is “deeply concerned” about the military capacity of the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group and lack of progress in its disarmament.

Ban Ki-moon says the presence of any weapons outside Lebanese state authority is “not acceptable.”

The Hezbollah response? Mockery.

“I affirm today, firmly, decisively and with the greatest conviction the choice of armed resistance,” Nasrallah said. “These weapons, along with the Lebanese people and army, are the only guarantee of Lebanon’s protection.”

Mocking a demand by visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Hezbollah lay down its weapons, Nasrallah said he was happy that Hezbollah’s military prowess was a cause for concern.

“Your concern, Secretary-General, reassures us and pleases us. What matters to us is that you are worried, and that America and Israel are worried with you,” he said in a televised speech marking a Shia holy day.

The pertinent clause in 1701: “resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.”

It’s good to know that Ban is content with the non-compliance of Lebanon’s armed groups. Also note: If this were Israel, there would be thousands of news stories insisting that Israel is in violation of UN resolutions. Nobody notes that Lebanon is in violation of a binding UN Security Council resolution. Well, except for us.

Ew, Jew cooties! Algerians are rounding up the evil made-in-Israel clothing that they’re finding mixed in with the presumably non-kosher clothing. But worry not, the Algerian inspectors are on the case:

A source told the newspaper “we cannot rule out the possibility that an international ring smuggled the Israeli clothes into the country and that its operatives are being assisted by Algerian vendors based in several districts.”

Gasp! No! An international Israeli clothes smuggling ring! It’s the end of civilization as we know it! Damn those horrible Israelis, wanting to clothe people for profit! Damn them all!

Nu? Two Jews won the World Talking Championship? Two Israeli men won the World Universities Debating Championship. Really, talkative Jews? I had no idea that my people talked so much. None whatsoever. Not at all. Jews? Talky? Oh, come on. Shirley you jest.

Our drone’s better than your drone: If Israel’s drone is so sucky, then howcome Turkey didn’t shoot it down, even though they said they almost shot it down (and I almost one $200 million in the lottery the other week, too). Really? They called up two F-16 jets and couldn’t find it and shoot it down? Ya think maybe they’re–I don’t know–lying? Yeah, me too. Their drone is so much better than Israel’s that it manages to identify fuel smugglers as terrorists and murder dozens of them. But don’t worry, they’re going to pay compensation to the families.

Don’t worry, CAIR (and the NY justice system) is still going to call these hate crimes: The guy who threw molotov cocktails at various Hindu and Islamic buildings in New York is a nutjob who swore he’d get even because the proprietor of the store stopped him from stealing, and the other places wouldn’t let him use their bathrooms. Yeah, that sounds like a Muslim-hating freak to me.

Two! Two! Two nutjobs for the price of one: So that scumbag that was lighting cars on fire in Los Angeles? He did it because his scumbag mother was about to be deported back to Germany for being a thief. He hates America, you see, for having the nerve not to want to keep a thief, who has 19 fraud counts against her in Germany, from becoming an American citizen. Well, now he’s going to spend many years as an American resident in jail before being kicked back to Germany. Like mother, like son.

Oh, there was a primary or something yesterday? Wake me when it’s over. Especially since I have no influence over any but the Virginia primaries.

The awesome feminism of Islamic law: Iran is going to execute a woman for adultery. Only they’re not going to stone this one, they’re going to hang her. Don’t you infidels get how merciful they are? I just love hearing people tell me that Sharia law isn’t nearly as bad as we make it out to be. You know, the one that says that a woman’s opinion in court is worth half that of a man, and the one that allows men to have multiple wives but not women to have multiple husbands–awesome equality. Just breathtaking. Ask any Saudi woman.

Turkey massacres Kurdish civilians: Turkey bombed a group of civilians in northern Iraq, killing 35 of them, most of the teenagers smuggling fuel into Turkey. And not very many people care. Bet you didn’t even know they did it. Imagine the outrage if Israel had hit 35 civilians while bombing a Hamas terror target. Let’s review: Turkey violated the border of a sovereign nation to stop a terrorist group from killing its own civilians. Sound familiar? Of course it does. Will there be a world outcry? Don’t make me laugh. Double standard much? Always.

The UN: We honor dictators, too! The United Nations lowered its flags out of “respect” for Kim Jong-il’s death. I don’t know how they manage it, but they managed to lower my respect for them even more. Not that I have any left. Its sort of a “divide by infinity” thing now.

Nu, what did you expect? Of course, some people celebrate, some people riot and some people just traditionally dish out the same old, same old.

And here it comes, another Christmas in Bethlehem according to one Phoebe Greenwood*, direct from the location. But if you think it’s about Christmas or even about Bethlehem, you will be mistaken. Of course not, not from the Guardian…

The article is predictably titled If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed.

But first of all I want to declare my personal wish for a Christmas present. One measly** dollar for every time I read in The Guardian the following quote (attributed, surely, to a local priest):

“If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed,” says the priest of Bethlehem’s Beit Jala parish. “He would either have to be born at a checkpoint or at the separation wall. Mary and Joseph would have needed Israeli permission – or to have been tourists.”

Notwithstanding the fact that for this specific Jewish rabbi the powers that be would have found a way to get in. As they have found the way… but a bit later about that.

The rest of the article is totally predictable, and I would like to limit myself to one other quote only:

Father Shomali’s outlook is more glum: “When I look down my church register, many of the historic family names from the area have already gone. In 20 years, I think we will have no more Christians in Bethlehem.”

Sad, ain’t it?

Well, it so happens that this year Ha’aretz decided to publish its own opus on the same place. I mean on Bethlehem. Its title is a bit different: Thousands gather to celebrate Christmas Eve in Bethlehem. And its beginning is a bit different too:

By early evening, the Israeli military, which controls movement in and out of town, said some 55,000 visitors, including foreigners and Arab Christians from Israel, had reached Bethlehem.

Palestinian officials in Bethlehem said that with local tourists included, overall turnout was 120,000 – about 30 percent higher than last year.

Do you believe now that the above mentioned rabbi could somehow squeeze between these throngs? You bet…

And now to that quote from Father Shomali. Of course, Phoebe of the Guardian knows the truth perfectly well, but a reminder from the Guardian’s local sibling – Ha’aretz couldn’t hurt, could it? So:

The number of Christians in the West Bank is on the decline, and many speak of persecution by the Muslim majority, but always anonymously, fearing retribution.

Christians have even lost their majority in Bethlehem where more than two-thirds of the some 50,000 Palestinian residents are now Muslim.

Yep, Phoebe: and for how much do old tattered half-truths go nowadays in your newspaper? I would like to add to my Christmas wish another buck for Father Shomali’s complaint too, if you don’t mind.

OK, so I am hanging my (freshly laundered) sock near that oil stove, in lieu of a fireplace. Please, Santa, be a mensch…

(*) In favor of Phoebe: she penned a surprising piece Gaza Christians long for days before Hamas cancelled Christmas. Check it out. Meryl, in fact, already told about that one.

(**) That was a figger of speech. A dollar is still a dollar, although… oh well.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

There hasn’t been a Christmas tree in Gaza City’s main square since Hamas pushed the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza in 2007 and Christmas is no longer a public holiday.

Imad Jelda is an Orthodox Christian who runs a youth training centre in Gaza City. With unemployment hovering at 23%, he has seen young Christian men leave to study and work abroad in their droves. “People here do not celebrate Christmas anymore because they are nervous,” Jelda said. “The youth in particular have a fear inside themselves.”

Let’s compare that to Israel’s Christians, shall we?

In Israel, a higher profile for Christmas
The founders of Neve Shaanan, a neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv, planned their streets in the shape of a seven-branched candelabra – a symbol of their Jewish faith. Ninety years later, the streets are full of Christmas decorations, reflecting a flowering of Christianity in Israel’s economic and cultural capital.

What! Christians in a Jewish city! Why, that’s intolerable! What are the Israelis doing?

On the Saturday before Christmas, the center of festivities was the city’s central bus station, a hulking seven-story maze of concrete. A plastic green fir spewed fake snow from its top in a shop near the main entrance.

Christmas carols blasted from storefronts full of rice and noodles. Giggly young Filipino women took photographs with a Santa Claus figure to send to their friends and parents.

Allowing the celebrations to go on, apparently. But wait. As this is an AP story, there must be something negative being done or said.

For some, the holiday punctuates the divide between parents and children.

Nancy Domingo, who arrived in Israel 14 years ago from the Philippines, said her eldest daughter did not plan on eating traditional Filipino Christmas food. The seven-year-old, like the other children of migrant workers here, has grown up steeped in Israeli Jewish culture. The girl speaks Hebrew, learns about Jewish holidays in school and is familiar with Jewish dietary laws, such as the ban on pork.

“If I cook pork she won’t eat it because in school they tell her pork is not clean,” Domingo said. “She doesn’t know Christmas, only Hanukkah.”

No! Shocking! The child is voluntarily refusing to eat pork! But wait, the AP did find an Israeli who griped about all the Christmas stuff going on in his city.

Not all Israelis are pleased to see the rising profile of Christmas, which to some symbolizes religious assimilation and to others a religion with a history of hostility to Jews. Moshe Avisar, 67, on his way back to Jerusalem, said the decorations in the bus station bothered him.

“I go to the Central Bus Station and I don’t feel like I’m in Israel, even though it’s my country,” he said. Of the decorations, he said, “I don’t want to see this in the Jewish state. Then all the Jewish people get carried away with it and start celebrating too.”

Ouch! Someone call the UN Human Rights Committee. Because of course, if there is any statement to be made about the suppression of Christians in the Middle East, it will be made about Israel–not about Gaza, or Egypt, or Saudi Arabia–where celebrating your faith and your holidays can get you jailed or killed. In Israel, well, an old Jewish man is going to complain about you.

As for the rest of the media, well, the AP had a four-paragraph story about the Roman Catholic patriarch’s concern for the Middle East’s Christians. (Yes, four paragraphs.) And this is the last one, that gets cut for the three-paragraph “World Briefs” section of your paper:

Since the overthrow of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, Muslim extremists have torched churches and attacked Copts in the worst violence against the Christian community there in decades. Twal’s territory does not include Egypt.

As always, it’s Israeli Double Standard Time. Negative stories about Christians in Israel? Yeah, we got those. Negative stories about the discrimination against Christians throughout the Middle East?

[crickets]

Oh, the heartbreak: Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas, is refusing to meet with Bashar al-Assad (known in these pages as The Dorktator). Yeah, stick a fork in him. He’s done.

Iranian sanctions: Duh, they’re working! Hezbullah is having trouble making ends meet. Iran is having trouble exporting oil. And things are still going kaboom. Could this be the beginning of the Persian spring?

Of course they did: Somehow, the UN Security Council always finds its voice when Israel is doing awful things like, oh, offering tenders for suburbs of Jerusalem that are going to stay in Israel in any agreement with the Palestinians. But they don’t seem to notice when rockets fall on Sderot. Go figure.

So where’s the Syrian Goldstone Commission? Funny, but the outrage against Syria’s murdering 5,000 civilians seems to be far less worldwide than, say, the outrage of the IDF stopping the Gaza Flotilla last year. What time is it? That’s right, it’s Israeli Double Standard Time. But don’t worry. It only occurs on days that end with a “y.” (By the way, bet the “outraged Israeli settlers invade IDF base” story gets far more airplay than this one.)

Saudi ERA Watch: They beheaded a woman for “practicing sorcery.” In the 21st century, the oil ticks are showing how unmodern they truly are.

Sure, the Palestinians want peace: They want it so badly that Palestinians shut down a proposed peace conference between Israelis and Palestinians. Why?

The protesters accused the Palestinian participants of “encouraging the culture of peace” between Israelis and Palestinians. They said they were opposed to the conference because it was a form of “normalization” with Israel.

They don’t want peace. They want all of Israel.

The Arab Spring: Sucks to be Israel version. Hamas has established rocket workshops in the Sinai, figuring that Israel won’t risk relations with Egypt to bomb them. I’m betting that Hamas is wrong about that, because the IDF gets really good intel from those drones.

The time is not right for meaningful Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad stated on Wednesday, saying they are only likely to produce a blame game rather than a settlement.

Speaking to a nonprofit group that promotes the cause of Palestinian independence, Fayyad said there is little point in such talks without first establishing “terms of reference” – diplomatic jargon for the rough parameters of a solution.

Yeah, me neither.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for the UN condemnation: Turkey invaded Iraq in order to stop terrorists responsible for killing their citizens. Hey, that sounds just like Israel going into Gaza to stop terrorists responsible for killing their citizens! Except, of course, Israeli Double Standard Time is in effect, so there will be no condemnation—from anyone—of Turkey’s actions. This is my favorite quote of the article:

“We will never bow to any attack from inside or outside Turkey,” he said.

I’ll be bringing this one back up when Turkey condemns the next Israeli action in Gaza.

News the mainstream media leaves out: You’ll never see this in an AP article about the released terrorists, or mentioned in a New York Times editorial:

A would-be Palestinian suicide bomber freed by Israel in the prisoner swap for soldier Gilad Shalit told cheering schoolchildren in the Gaza Strip the day after her release on Wednesday she hoped they would follow her example.

“I hope you will walk the same path we took and God willing, we will see some of you as martyrs,” Wafa al-Biss told dozens of children who came to her home in the northern Gaza Strip.

Gadaffy is an ex-dictator: Do not click this link if you have a problem with graphic images of dead ex-dictators. But he’s really, most sincerely dead.