Last week Michael Slackman of the New York Times wrote about how conspiracy theories about 9/11 dominated Arab political thought. He wrote:

It is easy for Americans to dismiss such thinking as bizarre. But that would miss a point that people in this part of the world think Western leaders, especially in Washington, need to understand: That such ideas persist represents the first failure in the fight against terrorism — the inability to convince people here that the United States is, indeed, waging a campaign against terrorism, not a crusade against Muslims.

We’ve got to come to terms with these crazy conspiracies, is Slackman’s view. However Barry Rubin rejects this kind of thinking:

The only solution is to set different goals and interpretations of the world through rethinking, reform, and education. Western glorifications of the Middle East’s status quo-these are customs which must be preserved, how dare you criticize people’s beliefs and offend their sensibilities?-will merely ensure another century of bloodshed, dictatorship, and poverty.

And in fact Rubin argues that the willingness to accept these conspiracy theories speaks of the dysfunction of the societies that promulgate them, not the West.

Wild conspiracy theories were spread precisely because to confront the tragedy’s implications would require examining real problems “which Arab societies have been so assiduously avoiding.” The more Middle Eastern terrorism spread globally, “the greater was the rush to look the other way.” Five years later, that statement is all the more true.

We hear endlessly that the problem is the West doesn’t understand the Middle East. The truth is the exact opposite: the Middle East doesn’t understand the West and, by the same token, doesn’t understand what it needs to do to get out of the hole it has dug for itself.

The more the Arab/Muslim world lives in a state of denial the worse off it will be.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Without a trace of irony the NYT reports:

An Iranian vice president said in rare comments that Iran was a friend of Israeli people, newspapers reported on Monday. “I say for a thousandth time that we are a friend of all people in the world, even Israelis and Americans,” the daily newspaper Etemad quoted Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, the vice president for tourism, as saying.

So why didn’t the Iranian swimmer compete against the Israeli?

However, IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the IOC was satisfied that Alirezaei withdrew because of an illness.

“The athlete withdraw because of a sickness,” she said.

“He confirmed this in writing to the swimming federation. We also spoke to (Iranian association). And they have underlined to us that all athletes competing here are in the right spirit to compete against athletes of any nationalities.

“We take both the athletes and the NOC had their words on this.”

“Sickness?” My guess is cooties. Remember an Iranian had contact with an Israeli national at the games already.

I’m assuming that Mohammed Nikkhah came down with cooties after shaking David Blatt’s hand. Afterwards it couldn’t be assumed that it was safe for Iranians to be in close proximity to their good friends, the Israelis.

Just a hunch, of course.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

There’s a new paper in town!

ONE of the Middle East’s wealthiest ruling families has a new asset: The National, a newspaper that promises independence from its royal owners.The paper, an English-language daily based in Abu Dhabi, published its first issue on April 17, under close scrutiny in the Middle East and abroad. With its pledge to emulate Western newspaper standards and to “help society evolve,” The National is an anomaly in the Middle East, where most media are tightly controlled by the government.

“We aim to produce an excellent newspaper out of the region” that will set a new standard for other publications to aspire to, said Hassan M. Fattah, the deputy editor, who was a correspondent for The New York Times in the Middle East before joining The National. “Being government-owned does not equal being government-run,” he said. “There are no ministers sitting in my office” telling the paper what to write.

Western newspaper standards?

The National, which aims at expatriate and local professionals in Abu Dhabi, has published a few articles with criticisms of the region, like one about severely overcrowded private schools, which limit companies’ abilities to attract new people. It has also printed controversial opinion pieces, one asking Arabs to welcome Jewish investors to the region and another warning that Emirate culture is disappearing.

Is encouraging Jewish investment controversial in the West?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The New York Times deals with an important issue, that’s slightly masked by the title: Hamas’s Insults to Jews Complicate Peace Effort. The reporter, Steven Erlanger, is actually reporting about incitement not simple insults. Part of the problem is that Erlanger is coming awfully late to the issue. This has been going on for the past 15 years and it doesn’t just come from Hamas. What Erlanger does right is that he consults with Itamar Marcus of PMW and Yigal Carmon of MEMRI. He doesn’t call them “conservatives” or “right-wingers” or use any other qualification. In fact he acknowledges

Along with Mr. Marcus’s group, the Middle East Media Research Institute, or Memri, also monitors the Arabic media. But no one disputes their translations …

The rest of the paragraph though mentions many in Gaza who are upset with the incitement. However I think Erlanger cherry picks a bit as he continues:

While the Palestinian Authority of Fatah also causes some concern — its textbooks, for example, rarely recognize the state of Israel — Yigal Carmon, who runs Memri, said Hamas and its media used “the kind of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish language you don’t really hear any more from the Palestinian Authority, which hasn’t talked like that in a long time.”

I’m not going to dispute Yigal Carmon, he follows these trends. Erlanger, I think, is giving too much credit to Fatah. Earlier he wrote:

Such incitement against Israel and Jews was supposed to be banned under the 1993 Oslo accords and the 2003 “road map” peace plan. While the Palestinian Authority under Fatah has made significant, if imperfect efforts to end incitement, Hamas, no party to those agreements, feels no such restraint.Since Hamas took over Gaza last June, routing Fatah, Hamas sermons and media reports preaching violence and hatred have become more pervasive, extreme and sophisticated, on the model of Hezbollah and its television station Al Manar, in Lebanon.

The bland reference to Fatah produced textbooks doesn’t tell the whole story. Last year Fox News reported about a recent text book. It didn’t just exclude Israel.

“The books don’t allow for a Palestinian child to accept Israel as a neighbor,” Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch’s director, told the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) of the United Nations. “When you define the conflict as a religious war you are no longer fighting for your own national identity or territory but for Islamic destiny. You have to accept either Islam or Israel,” Marcus said.”I would be happy if the books talked about a national struggle to get as many rights as possible. But to package it as an everlasting war is to generate years of conflict. It’s child abuse against their own kids,” he said.

And in a press conference with Sen. Hillary Clinton last year, Itamar Marcus said:

The head of the committee is Dr. Naim Abu Al-Humos, former PA minister of higher education. As such, this schoolbook report is not reflecting Hamas ideology, this is reflecting the Fatah ideology. This is very significant, because the new schoolbooks indicate a merging of Fatah towards Hamas ideology.

And by mentioning the textbooks, Erlanger lets Fatah off the hook for its other anti-Isreal propaganda efforts, such as glorifying Ala Abu Dhaim.

Mahmoud Abbas’s official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has honored the killer of the eight high school students gunned down this week with the status of Shahid - Holy Islamic Martyr. In so doing, the PA is sending its people a straightforward message of support for the terror murders and the murderer. According to the PA interpretation of Islam, there is no higher status that a human being can achieve today than that of Shahid.The official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida prominently placed a picture of the killer on the front page, with the caption, “The Shahid Alaa Abu D’heim.” In a Page One article on the terror killings, his act is again defined as a “Shahada achieving” action.

Maybe this doesn’t approach the level of indoctrination of what Hamas does, but this is still pretty clearly incitement, “significant, if imperfect efforts” notwithstanding. This incitement was one of the reasons Nita Lowey put up an objection, later withdrawn, to the United States sending $150 million to the PA.

While I’m glad to see the NY Times cover this topic, there’s little new here that someone with an internet connection and an interest in the topic wouldn’t be able find out on his own. Palestinian incitement should have been on the agenda of all news organization over the past 15 years. That it is so rarely covered reflects poorly on the Jerusalem based correspondents.

Still the article disappoints as it appears to be an effort to whitewash Fatah and show Hamas as the major problem.

I’m not saying that things aren’t worse under Hamas, (see the latest from MEMRI - via memeorandum) I just don’t think Fatah deserves a clean bill of health in this matter.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

I’m coming a bit late to the discussion about Sen. Obama and “Tony” McPeak.For a good background check out memeorandum.

Of course McPeak’s assertion that the US government couldn’t achieve peace in the Middle East because of the populations of New York and Miami isn’t just a slur. It’s false. I know I’m Jewish and have been greatly opposed to the peace processing (as opposed to peace) over the past 15 years (or more), but there’s no evidence that any American administration has held back because of me or other like minded Jews.

Mere Rhetoric found another Obama adviser with less than favorable view towards Israel, former Amb. Dan Kurtzer. In statements to Ha’aretz, Kurtzer lauded the peacemaking efforts of Pres. Carter and Sec. Baker.

But as Daled Amos pointed out it’s not one or another, it’s (seemingly) all of Sen. Obama’s advisers.

McPeak is not the only member of the Obama campaign who holds such twisted views. Others such as Robert Malley or Zbigniew Brzezinski have found themselves downgraded to “informal” advisers as their anti-Israel views are made public. Samantha Powers was dismissed for calling Hillary a monster, not for sharing McPeak’s belief in the malign omnipotence of the “Israel lobby.”Obama has a Jewish problem and McPeak’s bigoted views are emblematic of what they are.

Jennifer Rubin says similarly,

You see, Obama is not responsible for Reverend Wright or Tony McPeak. But what about Samantha Power, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Robert Malley? Isn’t it reasonable to ask “Why does Barack Obama have so many foreign policy and national security advisers whose statements about Israel and American Jews are problematic? ” Apparently we should not hold him responsible for selecting these individuals, nor attribute any of their views to him. And we shouldn’t be bothered either, I suppose, by his own comment that “nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people.”

Marc Aminder (via memeorandum) defends Sen. Obama.

Tony McPeak is an adviser to the Obama campaign, and he is verbose and colorful enough that Obama’s press team likes to use him as a surrogate. McPeak happens to have some very strong opinions, one of them being the clumsily coded belief that New York Jews are responsible for the United States’s locked-in alliance with Israel, which McPeak seems to believe is damaging. To hold Barack Obama personally responsible for McPeak’s views — which is the consequence of an argument that uses McPeak along to make the case that Obama has a Jewish problem — is simply not logical.

“[C]lumsily coded belief?” I think that’s pretty significant. And what’s not logical about it? I don’t remember these revelations about McPeak during the 2004 election, so I don’t how it’s relevant to Howard Dean. (Though Howard Dean has some interesting ideas of his own about Jews.) Nor do I understand how Ambinder compares McPeak’s relationship to Sen. Obama with Rev. Hagee’s to Sen. McCain. One is an adviser, an actual part of a campaign; the other endorses from the outside.

Ambinder does allow that Rev. Wright is a problem though. So wouldn’t the presence of people like Malley or McPeak in the campaign serve to further confirm that Sen. Obama’s choice of pastor wasn’t just careless but also a considered choice?

Finally Ambinder argues that Sen. Obama doesn’t have a Jewish problem because the polls don’t show it.

To close off this post with some substance, Gallup finds that Obama and Clinton are splitting the Jewish vote, hardly evidence that Obama currently has a “problem” with Jews.

Yes, Jews tend to be more liberal than the American population as a whole. Many don’t look at or simply dismiss these charges. That doesn’t mean that Sen. Obama doesn’t have a problem. And that’s all the more reason to make these arguments.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The Paris book fair, which is being boycotted by Our Friends The Saudis™ (among others), was subject to a bomb scare today. Because even Israeli books are fair game for hate, I suppose.

Thousands of visitors to the Paris book fair were ordered on Sunday to evacuate the premises during the literary event which this year is celebrating Israeli writers despite a Muslim boycott.

Organizers asked visitors to leave the Paris exhibition hall for a security check following an anonymous phone call reporting that a bomb had been placed in the compound. The visitors gathered outside the compound for about an hour and were allowed to return to the building after the incident was proved to be a false alert.

But remember, it’s not anti-Semitism. It’s anti-Zionism. No, really. Uh-huh.

Exit question: If a Muslim nation with a high illiteracy rate boycotts a book fair, does it really matter?

A blogger The Sudanese Thinker calls Israel a WMD.

Let’s shelter our oppressed Palestinian brothers. Let’s put them first before any of those living a few feet away from us. They deserve more help. The problems in our own backyards don’t matter, and for many they don’t even exist, but those that are miles and miles away from us do — through our television screens, the radios’ shouts and screams, opinions of the Arab streets, and our schools’ books and distorted dreams.Oh Lord, destroy the sons of pigs and apes. They are our wonderful leaders’ deadly Weapons of Mass Distraction.

(emphasis mine.)

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

via memeorandum

Keith Richburg has a front page report Not Relevant? Sharpton Scoffs at the Idea in yesterday’s Washington Post. Clearly the reporter scoffs too. There’s a sub-head line
“Activist’s Busy Calendar and Ringing Phone Speak to His Role in Civil Rights” which would have been more correct if it read “… His Role in Self-Promotion.” The article is a highly selective view of Sharpton’s career until now.

Richburg, of course, is scrupulous enough to mention that unpleasantness that plagued him early in his career.

In New York, his home base, Sharpton remains a polarizing figure for many, best remembered for championing the cause of Tawana Brawley, a black teenager who said she was abducted and raped by six white law enforcement officials but whose claims were later discredited.

That’s the sanitized Cliff Notes version of the incident. Sharpton made his name in the case. He accused the prosecutor in the area, Stephen Pagones, of raping Brawley and defiantly challenged Pagones to sue him if he was wrong. When Pagones did sue for defamation and won Sharpton refused to pay, or even apologize.

And the article doesn’t mention that Sharpton inserted himself into the 1991 Crown Heights riots on the side of rioters. He didn’t call for calm. He didn’t call for understanding. Rather he used Gavin Cato’s funeral as an opportunity to rail against the Jewish diamond merchants and falsely accuse Hatzaloh of being an “apartheid ambulance service.” (Hatzaloh personnel were directed away from the injured children by police who feared for their safety.)

Richburg uncritically echoes Sharpton’s case for relevance:

As evidence of his continued relevance on the political scene, Sharpton pointed to the presidential candidates chasing his endorsement. He planned to fly to South Carolina earlier this month to meet former president Bill Clinton until his flight was canceled. Last month, he shared a meal of chicken wings, cornbread and coconut shrimp with Obama at Sylvia’s, a Harlem soul food restaurant.”On the one level, they say we don’t matter. On the other level, they want to know who we’re endorsing,” Sharpton said, smiling at his own position.

Sharpton said he is going to decide among Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Obama and former senator John Edwards of North Carolina. And like much of the black community, he is torn about which way to go.

“I really haven’t decided,” he said. He said he is most concerned about finding the candidate who will pursue his racial justice agenda.

It’s hard to see exactly how Sharpton’s endorsement would help anyone. Look at the primary results for 2004. Except for D.C. and South Carolina Sharpton didn’t reach 10% of the vote. Even in NY which is his supposed base he only got 8% of the vote. His delegate total was 27, just 4 more than Dennis Kucinich. And we won’t be seeing articles in the paper promoting Kucininch’s relevance. It’s only because he’s a self-proclaimed civil rights leader that anyone pays attention to him.

Bitsblog writes:

Sharpton gets media attention because editors have not forced their lazy reporters to update their Rolodexs.

Exactly. And politicians seek his endorsement because they’re really bad at math. Since it’s not about the math, Sweetness & Light is correct to observe

And what an appalling indictment of the Democrat candidates, that they are all seeking this racist thug’s endorsement.

Maybe you could understand it if Sharpton had some grass roots support that he could lend a candidate. Sure it would be cynical, but at least there’d be a purpose in sucking up to him. But all his support comes from the chattering classes. So there’s no excuse for supporting him.

Richburg quotes an admirer:

“He seems to have evolved into a new respectability, at least in the city,” said Norman Siegel, a lawyer and former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, who has known Sharpton for 20 years. Regarding the King celebrations, Siegel said, “Every single elected official, no matter what they said about him in the past, they’ll show up.”

“[N]ew respectability?” Where have I heard that before?

The primary battle silenced many detractors, whites and Republicans among them, who found “the Rev” more dignified — that was the word they used — than the seasoned politicians he faced. As Robert Abrams, the Attorney General, Geraldine A. Ferraro, the one-time Vice Presidential candidate and Elizabeth Holtzman, the City Comptroller, traded barbs, Sharpton followed the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s advice to “fly above the storm.”Everyone took note. Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, after one particularly vicious debate, singled out Sharpton by favorable contrast, “Because he was positive, because he was mature.” The other three candidates, the Governor concluded, “all got hurt” in their debate. Reflecting on that change, Representative Maxine Waters of California, who herself successfully balances activism and mainstream politics, says she, too, was surprised by his transformation. “He obviously made a decision to show how smart he really is.”

Less than two years later, Sharpton got involved in a tenant/landlord dispute and led protests against a “Jewish interloper.” Kathryn Jean Lopez quotes Fred Siegel’s account of what happened.

Sharpton and his National Action Network turned a dispute between a Jewish tenant who rented the space for his store (Freddy’s) from a black church and his black subtenant into a racial hailstorm. Sharpton set up pickets outside the store, led by his lieutenant in the National Action Network, Morris Powell.Powell was an intimidating figure to many on 125th Street. An escaped mental patient who had thrice been accused of attempted murder, he had long threatened that “there will be war” against white merchants and “this street will burn.” His protesters, sometimes joined by Sharpton, shouted racial epithets like “Jew bastards” and “the bloodsucking Jews,” while referring to other whites as “crackers” and black customers as “traitors.”

One of the protesters, a man who called himself “Shabazz,” forced his way into the store shouting, “I will be back to burn the Jew store down.” He didn’t, but a man named Abubunde Mulocko did.

Apparently angered by the mistaken assumption that the store had hired Hispanics instead of blacks, Mulocko, a man with a long criminal record, his “paranoia goosed by the protests,” burned the store down.

Armed with a .38, he shot three whites and a Pakistani in cold blood (he had mistaken the light-skinned Pakistani for a Jew) and then set the fire that killed five Hispanics, one Guyanese and one black, the security guard who the protesters had taunted as a “cracker lover.”

Those are the wages of coddling a hate-monger like Sharpton.

Michelle Malkin explains why there’s a need to continue exposing Sharpton:

Some readers wonder why I continue to write about the Sharpton-MSM lovefest. Why? Because the enablers deserve to be held responsible and shamed publicly until they stop.If you hold up the mirror long enough, one of these fools is bound to glance over and see what slavish, race-hustling tools they all appear to be. And are.

Freddy’s happened another time after Sharpton had been declared “respectable.” So whenever someone in the media praises Sharpton for his activism they will now mention him in conjunction with the Jena 6. But the number they should remember is the Freddy’s 7. That defined who Sharpton is.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The Syrians are making sure their kids don’t get Jew cooties. They’re blocking Facebook.

Syrian authorities have blocked Facebook, the popular Internet hangout, over what seems to be fears of Israeli “infiltration” of Syrian social networks on the Net, according to residents and media reports.

Residents of Damascus said that they have not been able to enter Facebook for more than two weeks. An Associated Press reporter got a blank page when he tried to open Facebook’s home page Friday from the Syrian capital.

Syrian officials were not available for comment Friday because of the Muslim weekend, but some reports have suggested that the ban was intended to prevent Israeli users from infiltrating Syrian social networks.

Lebanon’s daily As-Safir reported that Facebook was blocked on Nov. 18. It said the authorities took the step because Israelis have been entering Syria-based groups.

Ohmigod, no! They’re not—writing Facebook comments to each other! Ew! Jew Cooties! Ew!

Heaven forfend the Syrians should find out that Israelis aren’t really the devils that Baby Assad’s spin machine makes them out to be. Score one more for the Dorktator.

The Annapolis farce will continue, now with the Golan Heights on the agenda. Let us remember that Israel just bombed a nascent Syrian nuclear plant in the desert, and yet, Syria is the nation that gets to set the demands on the return of the Golan Heights—territory Syria lost in the Six-Day War, and territory from which Syria regularly bombed Israeli civilian targets during supposedly “peaceful” times.

The United States has agreed to put the occupied Golan Heights on the agenda of the Annapolis peace conference, but Syria will decide whether to attend when it receives the schedule, Foreign Minister Walid Moualem said on Friday.

“The United States has sent confirmation that it will include the Syrian-Israeli track… The Golan… On the Annapolis schedule,” the Syrian news agency quoted Moualem as saying.

There was no immediate comment from Washington.

The Damascus government has repeatedly said it would only attend the US-hosted conference, which aims to restart talks on Palestinian statehood, if the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967, are on the agenda.

And by the way, the Saudis really don’t want to be there, and the Arabs don’t want to touch the Israelis.

Al-Faisal told a press conference that an Arab League meeting Friday had decided that Arab countries will attend Annapolis at the level of foreign minister. “I’m not hiding any secret about the Saudi position.

We were reluctant until today. And if not for the Arab consensus we felt today, we would not have decided to go,” al-Faisal said. “But the kingdom would never stand against an Arab consensus, as long as the Arab position has agreed on attending, the kingdom will walk along with its brothers in one line.”

But he cautioned, “We are not prepared to take part in a theatrical show, in handshakes and meeting that don’t express political positions. We are going with seriousness and we work on the same seriousness and credibility.”

Let me translate you “seriousness and credibility” via my Arab-and-or-Muslim dictator/English dictionary: “Unless Israel capitulates to all of our demands, we agree to nothing.”

And now that Ehud Olmert has agreed to give the terrorists 25 APCs, we can expect a major attack, soon, and probably from both the West Bank and Gaza. With help from Hizballah. My hope in this case is that Olmert never actually gave a date for the “gift” of 25 APCs, so perhaps he’s doing the smoke-and-mirrors thing. At least, I hope he is.

I still can’t believe the Israelis haven’t forced this incompetent out of office yet. What has he got on the opposition that’s stopping them from getting rid of him?

Ew, Jew Cooties: The Iranian ambassador to Chile showed up at an Israeli book party about a Zionist youth group. And he talked to the Israeli ambassador. Expect this guy to be recalled.

This better not be true: Jordan will take control of the Temple Mount.

Israel and the Palestinians have agreed that the Temple Mount as well as other parts of the Old City in Jerusalem will be under Jordanian control as part of a future peace deal, a Palestinian daily reported on Monday.

The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi reported that President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reached the agreement during recent talks in Jerusalem. Under the arrangement, the Old City’s Arab residents will be granted Jordanian citizenship.

The newspaper did not say whether Israel would keep control of Jewish holy sites and neighborhoods in the Old City.

When Jordan controlled the complex, Jews were not allowed on it, and the Mount and the mosques were in disrepair. I’m not buying it. And Olmert denied it.

I’ll believe it when I see it: Abbas says he’s going to dismantle Force 17, the supposed “bodyguards” of the president that always seem to have their hands in the terrorist pie.

A Palestinian security official told Ynet Monday that in the coming days President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to order the dismantling of Force 17 and its incorporation into the Presidential Guard.

The status of Force 17, which served as Fatah’s special operations unit in the 1970s and ’80s and was responsible for the protection of Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat, declined following the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and the formation of the Presidential Guard.

Uh-huh. Sure. I don’t think Abbas can dismantle a Lego toy.

The terror continues: Molotov cocktails, check. Shooting at soldiers, check. Seven thwarted suicide bombings in the last six weeks: Check.

The security forces thwarted seven suicide bombings in Israel in the last month-and-a-half, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told the cabinet Sunday. Diskin said that the ongoing efforts of the IDF, the Shin Bet and the police were behind the apparent calm in the country recently.

Diskin told the ministers that an IDF operation in the Beit Ilma village near Nablus prevented a large suicide bombing set to be carried out in Tel Aviv during the holidays. However, he added that the Shin Bet was concerned about the fact that the explosive belt was passed through several checkpoints undetected.

Rocket attacks, smuggling of weapons and explosives, double check:

According to Diskin, a significant drop has been registered in the number of rockets launched from Gaza, from 110 Qassams in August to 85 in September. The Shin Bet attributes the decrease to Hamas’ decision not to fire rockets.

On the other hand, the smuggling of weapons into Gaza has increased since Hamas rose to power, said Diskin, making Gaza “a barrel of explosives.”

They better hope nobody throws a match and runs.

This rumor went flying around the Internet months ago, and I gave it short shrift, because it sounded like a load of crap to me. Turns out that’s exactly what it is, and Snoopy’s got the scoop.

The Jew-haters in the world will do anything to defame us. It’s bad enough we have to claim Noam Chomsky and Norm Finkelstein. Don’t throw the rest of the left’s garbage our way, please.

Hearts all over the leftosphere that were breaking, however, over the possibility that Che was a [gasp!] Jew can now rest easy. He was not.

Hamas would rather see Palestinians starve than eat Israeli food.

Sixty trucks full of fresh produce bound for Gaza markets made their way to southern Gaza’s Kerem Shalom Crossing during the early morning hours, following an assurance by the Hamas agriculture minister that his group would allow the crossing to remain open.

However, when the trucks arrived, Hamas Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek decided to close the crossing. The trucks turned around not wanting to endure the mortar attack Hamas threatened last week if Israel opened the crossing to displaced Palestinian trapped in the Egyptian Sinai.

I await the UN condemnation.

Here’s a hint: It isn’t in Israel. It’s in the territories.

Jerusalem, Israel (AHN) - Two Palestinians were arrested last week after it was revealed they had sold a house to Israeli Jews living in the area of Hebron in the southern West Bank.

One of the suspects was arrested in neighboring Jordan, while the Palestinian Authority in Jericho took the other into custody.

Under an old Jordanian law that has been maintained by the Palestinian Authority, both men face the death penalty for having sold property to Jews.

When a group of young Jews moved into the unfinished house on March 19 they sparked an international uproar amid claims they had illegally usurped the property.

At least two local Palestinians came forward claiming they were the legitimate owners and decrying the actions of the Jews.

However, Hebron Jewish Committee officials told Ha’aretz on Saturday that the arrest of the real former owners fully legitimizes their claim to the house.

In a written statement, the committee also noted, “The arrest exposes once again the anti-Semitic nature of the Palestinian Authority.”

Gee. Ya think?

Oh, look. Another entry in the “Jew Cooties” category.

Three Israeli backpackers were evicted from Fiji after a Muslim immigration officer ruled that they had humiliated Palestinians during their military service in the territories.

The three – Amit Ronen, Eldar Avracohen, and Nimrod Lahav – left Israel in February for a tour in Australia.

In July they decided to spend a week in Fiji. On July 13 they arrived at Fiji airport where a surprise awaited them.

“We gave our passports to the officer, and when she saw we are Israelis she asked for ID cards. We told her we don’t understand why we need ID cards and she responded shouting: ‘You know very well how to ask Palestinians for IDs and humiliate them for three years.”

That’s what Avracohen wrote in a complaint letter he sent to Israel’s Ambassador to Australia Nati Tamir.

The three were held at Fiji airport for six hours and officials rebuked their pleas to be allowed to make a phone call.

Armed policemen took them to a cell at the airport where they spent the night before being sent back to Australia.

Did you get that last? They spent the night in prison. Their crime? Being Israeli.

Fiji is a mostly Christian nation. This one can’t be blamed solely on Muslim anti-Semitism.

It can be blamed on the anti-Israel media poisoning the world, however.

Remember how angry the Muslim world was when John Pantsil had the nerve to wave an Israeli flag? The number one comment was that he “politicized” the World Cup. It’s a sporting event, you see. There should be no politics involved.

Well, except if you’re talking about Israel.

Indonesia, that large Muslim nation that just released the man who praised the Bali bombers and said there should be more like them in the world, just canceled a Federation Cup tennis match with Israel. Why? Because of politics, of course.

Indonesia pulled out of a planned Fed Cup tennis match in Israel to protest against Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip, an Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

“We are witnessing a military invasion by Israel and the arrest of scores of Palestinian officials,” spokesman Desra Percaya said. “It is now impossible to play there,” he said.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, earlier asked that the venue be changed to another country, because Jakarta has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

Gee, that kinda sounds like politics were involved from the get-go, doesn’t it?

At first, the Indonesian team was hesitant to come, citing the lack of diplomatic relations between the countries.

Two weeks ago, after an Indonesian appeal to move the tie to a neutral site was rejected by the ITF, behind-the-scenes efforts were made to host the squad in mid July.

Yep. Politics were in from the start. A “neutral” site, eh? Why would the world’s most populous Muslim nation not want to play in Israel?

Oh, that’s right. Israel Derangement Syndrome, a.k.a. Jew Cooties, a.k.a. Israel Double Standard Time, a.k.a. The Exception Clause. Why, I could name a bunch of WP categories after it and populate them with posts. Oh, wait. I already did.

Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks (sorry, but knighthoods are not in the category of Things I Recognize As Real Titles), has an interesting article in a British Jewish newspaper. It gave me a better perspective on the current celebrations going on in the U.K. regarding 350 years of “letting” Jews come back to England. I really couldn’t understand celebrating a condescension like that, but this shows a different side to things.

Non-Jews remember what we all too often forget, that greater than the contribution of Jews to British society has been the contribution of Judaism. They know that what has made the Jewish community distinctive has been its faith, its value system, its way of life. Subtract religion from the Jewish people, and in the long run little remains.

The re-admission of Jews to England in 1656 was primarily a matter of religion. Yes, there was an issue of pragmatism. Cromwell knew, as Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel reminded him, that the presence of Jews in the sceptred isle would bring economic advantage. Out of historical necessity, Jews had become masters of trade and finance. Their presence made a significant difference to Venice in the 16th century and the Netherlands in the 17th. But this was secondary.

At the heart of Rabbi Manasseh’s essay “The Hope of Israel” (1650), the first move in the Jewish appeal for re-admission, was the curious argument that the Messiah would only come once Jews had been scattered to every country on Earth. A traveller to Ecuador, Antonio Montezinos, had claimed to have discovered an Indian tribe descended from the lost tribes of Israel. The one country that had no Jews was England. It was therefore a standing obstacle to Divine redemption. It was defying God’s script for human history.

It’d give it a read-the-rest recommendation.

There was an international uproar yesterday after a player from Ghana, who plays in Israel during the year, waved an Israeli flag after Ghana beat the Czech Republic. Why did he do it? Apparently, to reward his fans.

Pantsil said that he wanted to make the Israeli fans who came especially to watch him happy. He didn’t mean to make the headlines and definitely did not intend make a political statement for or against Israel…” said Adjei.

Pantsil said people in Ghana fail to understand why he waved the Israeli flag and not the flag of Ghana, adding that he is a religious man who holds a special place in his heart for Israel.

He said that he received many phone calls, one in particular from Aryeh Hershkowitz, the manager of his Israeli soccer club Hapoel Tel Aviv.

“Everyone was very proud of me for bringing a little happiness to Israel,” he said.

There is such hatred of Israel in the world that Ghana felt it had to apologize for Pantsil’s actions. He had to apologize to the Ghana Football Association as well. And here’s a quote that is also going into the running for Ironic Quote of the Month:

“He met with us and apologised and we also want to say that we are here for football and not for politics.”

Funny, if he had waved any other nation’s flag, would the furor have been so widespread?

So what’s going on today?

John Painstil is undergoing a special psychological therapy to enable him to come to terms with the current difficulties he is facing with the furore that greeted his celebration of the Black Stars victory against Czech Republic on Saturday, with an Israeli flag.

The Arab world has even protested against the defenders action, insisting the player exhibited an open bias against them. But Abbey says “the player’s action was devoid of any political stand. Kit was based on shear naivety and nothing more than that.”

That’s right. Gd forbid he should actually support Israel.

The Egyptian press is furious.

“Egyptians supported the Ghanaian team all the way until the 82nd minute, and regretted it after the Israeli flag (waving),” screamed a bold red headline in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom.

The live commentator on the Arab satellite channel broadcasting all World Cup matches in the region abruptly cut short his trademark “goooaaaaaaal” when Pantsil brought out the flag.

“What are you doing, man?” the bewildered commentator said.

Some Arab papers described 25-year-old Pantsil as a “Mossad agent,” others said “an Israeli had paid him to do it.”

But the most elaborate theory was offered by the top-selling state-owned daily Al-Ahram.

Prominent sports analyst Hassan El-Mestekawi wrote that many Ghanaian players attend football training camps set up by an Israeli coach who “discovered the treasure of African talent, and abused the poverty of the continent’s children” with the ultimate goal of selling them off to European clubs.

There’s one more thing that nobody seems to notice, or care about. Two things, actually:

In the past, Pentsil has displayed both the Ghanaian and Israeli flags during soccer matches, most recently after Hapoel TA won the Israeli Cup.

Israel failed to make the World Cup after finishing third in its European qualifying group.

Thing One: Waving flags after a goal is what Pentsil does. He waved the flag of Ghana in Israel to no ill effect.

Thing Two: Israel plays in the European group because they have been blocked from the Asia group by Muslim nations.

Once again, proof that it is always Israeli Double Standard Time.

The Economist runs an article in which a genetic scientists insists that Jews are smarter than anyone else — due to persecution and intermarriage of the Ashkenazis.

Dr Cochran, however, suspects that the intelligence and the diseases are intimately linked. His argument is that the unusual history of the Ashkenazim has subjected them to unique evolutionary pressures that have resulted in this paradoxical state of affairs.

Funny, my grandfather told me the same thing, only without the genetic background.

I think there will be much controversy over this claim. Most of us hold that Jews rise to the top of our game due to our upbringing. We are taught to respect education. There are very few Jewish professional athletes for a reason. Our children are raised with the expectation that they’ll put aside the games and concentrate on real-life concerns like becoming doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other professionals.

But I thought my readers would be interested. I expect this one will bring out the anti-Semites in droves.

Update: Whoops, this article is a year old. It somehow showed up as new on Google News.

Apparently, Pakistan has decided that American Jews don’t have cooties.

They’ve also decided to accept aid from Israel.

For the first time since its creation, Pakistan has accepted an offer of relief aid and financial assistance from Israel for its post-earthquake relief activities.

Geo, a private television channel, reported on Wednesday that President General Pervez Musharraf had given the nod to Tel Aviv for its offer of relief goods and financial assistance.

The information could not be confirmed from the government.

However, the channel said it was not clear what type of relief goods and technical assistance will be on their way to Pakistan from Israel and who will receive and operate them.

Could this be the end of the Jew Cooties category?

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

The good doctors of Dubai are not willing to use Israeli-made equipment:

A hospital in Dubai returned Dh200,000 worth of medical goods including physicians’ and patients’ uniforms, bed sheets, pillows and towels made in Israel, a source said.

The hospital source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for himself and the hospital involved, said: “While going through the goods to check the quality and quantity, hospital administrators were shocked to find tags reading ‘made in Israel’.

“We are not sure these items are healthy, safe, and usable by physicians and patients. Maybe they contain harmful or infectious materials. Patients come here to be healed of diseases and not to be harmed.”

The hospital immediately rejected the goods and sent a notice to the supplier telling them they cannot accept items made in Israel, the source explained.

And thus we inaugurate the “Jew Cooties” category. If you read about something that falls within this category, email me the link: meryl -at- yourish -dot- com.

The Arab boycott is still in effect, no matter what some may try to tell you. And there are those who are trying to reverse any progress made toward removing it:

Manama: Twenty-four societies and charity funds yesterday appealed to His Majesty King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa to reverse a government decision to lift Bahrain’s embargo on Israeli goods.

They also urged the business community to boycott goods made in Israel and not import them.

“We urge HM the King to annul the decision to legitimise trade with the Israeli enemy because commercial normalisation paves the way to political relations and allows the Zionists to penetrate our country under the auspices of the US.

You know, news likes this just makes me want to jump and yell “Boo!” at these people. But it’s a very serious threat to Israel’s existence, and always has been.