But it’s Libya we’re bombing: Syria is firing on its people. Syria is clamping down on rebellion. Syria is the state most closely aligned with Iran, and the state that would do the most damage to Iran’s hegemony if it fell, and yet we’re bombing—Libya. Smart power!

Happy Passover Jews! Time to burn down your synagogue! The Greek anti-Semites are at it again. (They’re particularly vicious and nasty; this is nothing new for the so-called cradle of civilization.)

Israeli “intellectuals” prove that an education doesn’t make you smart: Several dozen Israeli “intellectuals” are calling for a Palestinian state on the 1949 Armistice lines. I presume that means giving the Temple Mount back to the Arabs. Because that worked so well before. It’s not like the Jordanians would take the headstones out of Jewish cemeteries and pave latrines with them. Oh. Wait. They did. I have two words for them: Joseph’s Tomb.

Egyptian Muslims: Dhimmis can’t rule us. The Muslim Brotherhood is protesting the appointment of a Christian Copt as governor in an Egyptian city. Why? Because they want a Muslim. A Copt, they say, won’t enforce sharia law. So, where do you figure Egypt’s 8 million Christians will wind up?

Another casus belli for Iran: I think Israel should tell Iran that the next time Iranian-made or Iranian-bought missiles hit their territory, Israeli missiles will hit Tehran. That might stop them from manufacturing missiles specifically for the purpose of being smuggled through the Gaza tunnels.

That’s funny, I thought the new, “moderate” Egypt wasn’t going to be a problem for Israel: Say, remember those people who said Mubarak’s downfall wouldn’t affect the peace treaty with Egypt? Shyeah. Right.

But it is not only the gas deals that worry the ostensibly moderate Facebook generation in Egypt. They do not want to see the Israeli embassy reopened. Nor do they want to see Israeli diplomats returning to Cairo.

Instead, the Egyptians want their government to lift the blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The Facebook and Twitter demonstrators would rather see a Hamas ambassador sitting in the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

Moderates. Remember, they’re moderates. So they must be better, right? (Feel free to insert eye roll here.)

Ah, the Reuters optimism about all things Israel: The Reuters analysis of Iron Dome, complete with a warning of impending doom in the end. Cheerful reading.

Egyptian women’s rights protest marred by hecklers

Right. “Heckled” is the headline, though the body of the story contains the facts.

Also in Egypt, Muslims torched a Coptic Christian church. Why? Because a Muslim and a Christian were dating, and the father of the Muslim refused to murder his child for dating a Christian. The Muslims murdered the father, and then attacked the Christians. Christians fought back. There are now pitched battles in Egypt between Christians and Muslims.

In Libya, Madman Gaddaffy is flattening towns where the people are rebelling against him, and also bombing oil production terminals.

In Israel, the government has postponed by several months the decision to deport children of foreign workers who are not legal citizens of Israel.

In Ramallah, the PA censored a TV show making fun of Madman Gaddaffy.

Israel is ranged number 2 globally for having women in upper management positions in corporations.

Oh, and Israeli Jews don’t murder their women for intermarrying.

But by all means, let’s vilify Israel during the annual Israeli Apartheid festivals at universities worldwide. Because that’s where the problems are in the Middle East.

“All the forces that we see building in Egypt are the forces that should be naturally aligned with the US, [and] should be aligned with Israel,” he told attendees of the Florida fundraising event.

“I’m actually confident that 10 years from now we’re going to be able to look back and say that this was the dawning of an entirely new and better era,” he added. The US president expressed his hope that the new era would be one in which “people are striving not to be against something but to be for something.”

I can probably go with “some,” but not “all”. Really? “All?” Mr. President? “All?“such as the forces that decided it would be fun to attack Lara Logan in Tahrir Square while shouting “Jew! Jew!”? Such as the forces that decided to invite Sheik Qaradawi to spew hatred of Jews to the throngs there while preventing the advocate for democracy Wael Ghonim from speaking? Such as the ones that murdered a woman’s father because he did not kill her in an honor killing for having a relationship with a Christian, then burned down the Coptic Church terrorizing the town’s Christians, and followed that by triumphantly holding prayer services on the site of the burned down church? How about the forces that are demanding an end to the peace treaty with Israel? Those forces?

If you see those forces as naturally allied with America and Israel, Mr. President, I don’t think you have an understanding of the values of America and Israel or those of the forces about whom you speak. Simply opposing one form of tyranny, nationalist dictatorship, while backing another that is potentially far worse, theocracy, hardly qualifies as being naturally allied with America and Israel, even if there is a democratic election that brings it about. Advocacy for free elections does not mean at all that there is a desire that those elections produce a government that would be allied with America and Israel.

Mr. President, some of those forces building in Egypt would burn down your own church if they had a chance. They would certainly torch my synagogue. And if a mosque were to publicly condemn their actions, it would probably get torched too. They murdered a man for not murdering his daughter. I don’t think they would have qualms about flicking a Bic.

Is there reason for hope in the region? Yes. Is everything a reason for hope? Are “all the forces building in Egypt” those that give us reason to hope? If the answer for you is “Yes?” I must ask what kind of shrooms were served at that dinner? We might need to call the Narc Squad in.

Mr. President, you ran on a platform of hope. I too hope. I wish to see the good out there. I too hope to see good triumph. But I am not blinded by hope. Nor am I responsible for the future of the world as to a extent you are as President of the United States and that is what scares me. Mr. President, I hope that you are right about Egypt. Unfortunately, I’m worried that your vision is but a hope and a false hope at that.

Why do I fear that you are wrong? Mr. President, you might as well have said that you have spoken with the enemy and they have promised “peace in our time.” Meanwhile, minorities go into hiding, women are attacked, churches burn and freedom remains at a distance, perhaps even having retreated.

Because it is abundantly clear that some of the forces building in Egypt are anything but ones naturally allied with America and Israel, I know that your understanding that “all” should be allied with us cannot be correct. I just hope that you are not so incorrect as to result in disaster.

The last time a leader talked about “peace in our time”, things did not work out very well.

There’s a really cute story in the Washington Post: Egypt women stand for equality in the square

Though the reporter was reporting from the demonstration on Friday, there was no mention of Sheikh Qaradawi’s views on gender equality. There was some really good stuff in this article, but towards the end it was priceless.

Abdel Ibrahim Hassan, a man who came to Tahrir Square on Friday to celebrate the revolution with untold thousands of his fellow citizens, argued that women have an enviable standing already and that Western prejudices should not assume they need change.

“Islam respected the role of women before any other culture,” said Hassan, a math teacher. “Before Islam women were bought and sold. But men and women are not equal, a woman is a weak creature. She cannot bear arms.”

His wife, Samah, bearing an Egyptian flag and wearing a black niqab covering her face with only small slits for her eyes, spoke up – strongly. “I’m hoping our young people will be able to develop a democracy,” she said, as she photographed the square with a sleek cellphone. “Men and women will play an important part in the elections.”

Their 15-year-old daughter, Sarah, her face and hands the only parts of her body visible from her enveloping black garments, interrupted.

“We demand seats in parliament for young people,” she said, “men and women. Women will play an important role in society after participating in the revolution of January 25th.”

Does the reporter, Kathy Lally, realize how absurd this sounds? First to have a husband claim women are respected then to describe how completely his wife and daughter are covered?

Though Qaradawi’s views on gender equality are not discussed there, I did find a fatwa that is very revealing. (No pun intended.)

Concerning the point on hijab, a woman can put on a hat or anything else to cover her hair. Even when necessary, she may take off her hijab in order to carry out the operation, for she is going to die in the cause of Allah and not to show off her beauty or uncover her hair. I don’t see any problem in her taking off hijab in this case.

Women are allowed to reveal their hair when they are about to murder infidels. How enlightened!

No doubt Sarah will be able to serve in Parliament, as long as she remembers her place.

Libya massacres Muslims, Muslim world not much up in arms: The death toll is over 200, and where did the latest shootings occur? A big protest march? At a government building? Nope. At a funeral procession for the ones killed the day before. The dictators of the Middle East have seen what happened to Mubarak, and especially the ones who hate the U.S. are doubling down on the oppression to keep power.

Egypt’s Khomeini is ba—aaack: And he’s preaching against Jews and homosexuals. Awesome. The moderating Muslim Brotherhood is going to be just find and dandy. Ask Tom Friedman, who couldn’t find an anti-Semitic Egyptian to save his life while he was there (not that an anti-Semitic Egyptian would save his life; we all know how much they want to kill Jews).

That is why this revolt is primarily about a people fed up with being left behind in a world where they can so clearly see how far others have vaulted ahead. The good news is that many Egyptians know where they are, and they don’t want to waste another day.

Yep. Totally. Because two million people chanted “To Jerusalem we are heading, Martyrs in the millions.” The revolt isn’t about Islam. It’s all about catching up to modernity.

Americans believe that power is derived from the will of the people. We decry despotism. Yet our sense of fairness often drives us to allow the mob to rule even when we know that its rule is unfair. That contradiction results in another, namely a contradiction between the belief that the rights of every person are sacred and the belief that the will of the majority, even to trample upon the rights of the minority, must be followed.

Today we are witnessing upheaval in the Middle East. Mob rule threatens to overturn despotism. Ethically, we must support the mob because power should derive from the will of the people. Yet also ethically, we must oppose the mob’s efforts should they gain power, to create a tyranny of their own. Our conflicted minds think, “Down with the dictator! Beware the victors!”

I wish that I could say that this conflict was limited to foreign lands. It is not. This week, both on the left and the right of the political spectrum, mobs gather to press their voice, to press their power, in states across our Union. They speak and act in righteous indignation at affronts, at unfairness, or in religious fury. I will not for a moment declare all of these groups wrong to do so and, in this place, will not even criticize a one. What I offer here is one man’s sense that times are changing. The majority is feeling empowered to act as a mob. Minorities, both ethnic minorities and those who hold minority views, are under increasing threat.

Thus, when I hear the words of those advocating for the United States to support condemnation of Israel precisely because the majority of nations do and when I can note that this reasoning seems to be starting to resonate, I find myself, as I do today, becoming increasingly concerned. I am concerned not only for Israel. Israel has friends. Israel has strength. Israel may take care of itself. I am concerned that the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s will be reborn and that Israel’s purpose as a safe haven for the persecuted Jew will be made manifest again. I am concerned that the rights of minorities in America and throughout the world will be under threat because the masses so wish. I am concerned that the rule of law will be increasingly unable to be sustained against the will of the masses.

There is little or no difference between the resolution proposed in the UN Security Council today in condemnation of Israel and many others that have been proposed before. The real difference is in the sense that standing up for the persecuted minority, or even standing apart with a minority, increasingly appears to be seen as unreasonable and even as unrighteous.

Should the United States today vote to support the majority for that sole reason, it will be a shameful day in our nation’s history and a frightening omen for the future.

Today is Purim Katan, “Little Purim”. Today is the 14th of the First Month of Adar. Today, though we are not required to read the Megillah, the Book of Esther, as we will be required next month on Purim, we are reminded of the persecution of minorities everywhere in the world. We are reminded that the tide may swiftly change against us and others. We cannot forget.

If we are vigilant, we may live the blessing from the Book of Esther, “And the Jews had light and Gladness and Joy and Honor.” Kein yehi ratson!

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked Barack Obama on Friday, saying the American president “doesn’t even know how to spell his own name properly.”

During a visit to Bushehr ahead of a scheduled rally in support of his regime, the Iranian leader said, “Obama wants to rule the world, but he can’t even control his own emotions.”

The Palestinians are pretty sure they have him by the short hairs:

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Friday that if the US would veto the condemnation of settlement construction it would “prove that the US supports Israel’s illegal moves in opposition to the opinion of 130 UN member states.”

Twenty-two Arab nations are going to force a vote on settlements at the UN. Obama called Abbas yesterday to try to get him to pull the resolution. He spoke to him for 50 minutes. Abbas refused. There are, of course, no vitriolic condemnations of Abbas from the White House the way there were condemnations of Netanyahu last year during Joe Biden’s trip to Israel, as well as that 43-minute dressing-down from Hillary. On this issue, she is utterly silent.

He’s managed to unite Democrats and Republicans against him on this issue.

He’s losing Egypt. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Egypt’s Khomeini, is back in Egypt in triumph and leading more protests against the military. al-Qaradawi is a Muslim Brotherhood member, and he isn’t at all “moderate.” And oh yeah—even the “moderates” are calling for an end to the peace treaty with Israel.

But hey, the world loves him now.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked Barack Obama on Friday, saying the American president “doesn’t even know how to spell his own name properly.”

Oh. Wait.

Great job, Barry!

Human rights organizations finally picking on someone besides Israel: I guess when you start hanging people whose only crime was protesting the despotic government, even HRW and Amnesty sit up and take notice. But not to worry. They’ll be back going after Israel any minute now.

Compare and contrast: Israeli courts ordered Jerusalem police to not arrest protesters. But then, when you have the only true democracy in the Middle East, that’s what your courts do: Make sure the police follow the laws. (This reminds me of the sig of an old BBSer I used to know: “Better than you.” I appropriate it from time to time when I want to piss people off. It always works.)

Why Israel needs to ramp up the Leviathan gas field: Egypt is delaying the resumption of natural gas to Israel. Faster, please.