Should Be Read by Many

I am indebted to ZioNation, a progressive Zionism and Israel web log, for pointing me towards an article by Tarek Heggy, an Egyptian intellectual with a fine sense of proportion in this time of conflict:

“The existence in any country of an armed political party that is not subject to the supervision and control of the central state authority is a prescription for chaos. That is why, in stating that his government would never have condoned what Hezbollah did by attacking Israel on July 12, the prime minister of Lebanon, Fouad Siniora, was expressing the views of the vast majority of his war-weary countrymen.

The overwhelming majority of Christians, all of the Druze, and a vast majority of Sunni Muslims oppose the actions of Hezbollah that led to the war with Israel.

Many reasonable people in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait raised their voices not only to condemn the mass killing of innocent civilians in Lebanon and the crippling destruction of its infrastructure but also to criticize the rash adventurism that opened the gates of Hell for no other reason than to relieve the international pressure on certain regional parties.

When I heard some of the Palestinians and Lebanese who appeared on television asking, "Where is the Arab support?" I could only shake my head in wonder. Why should a party that unilaterally embarked on a rash adventure, in defiance of all reason and logic, expect others, whom it did not bother to consult, to help it? It seems that in the eyes of some Palestinians and Lebanese, Arab societies are like firefighters who must comply when summoned to put out the flames. This attitude is a throwback to the tribal mentality that prevailed thousands of years ago when a tribe would fight for one of its members even if he was the one who recklessly provoked the battle in the first place.

Since Hezbollah sparked the crisis on July 12, I have been in daily contact with my many Lebanese friends. Over a hundred told me it was shameful for the world, the United Nations, and the Arab League to accept a situation in Lebanon that the Lebanese themselves did not accept, namely, the existence of a state within the state. Some said it was Lebanon's curse to experience the existence of a state within the state more than once in its recent history. The first time was in the 1970s, when the Palestinians, together with their leaders and armed fighters, lived and ran amok in Lebanon, above the state and the law. This ultimately sparked off a civil war that dragged on for years and brought the country to its knees.

The second time was when the military and intelligence officers of Syria operated as a separate state within the Lebanese state, above its central government and its laws, for nearly a quarter-century. Now it is Hezbollah that has established itself as an autonomous state within the state, above the central government, Parliament and the law.

Arab brotherhood cannot possibly mean that countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait should allow themselves to be dragged into a conflict that erupted as a reaction, albeit an excessively violent one, to an action that was reckless in the extreme and, moreover, one that was undertaken without their knowledge or approval. What it means, rather, is that we should not condone the uncivilized, unconstitutional, and unlawful situation in Lebanon that allows an entity other than the state to declare war without the knowledge of the Lebanese Parliament, cabinet or army who are then required, together with the civilian population, to suffer the consequences of a reckless adventure launched by a party with no constitutional capacity.

Any objective analyst must commend the Arab country that dared go against the tribal custom of supporting the members of the tribe even when they commit the most heinous of crimes. I am talking of Saudi Arabia which was the first Arab country to condemn the reckless adventurism of Hezbollah that Hezbollah and Hamas are responsible for what befell Gaza and Lebanon. In their quest for personal glory, they acted rashly and without regard to the consequences.

Those who think Hezbollah can achieve its goals need only remember the lessons of history. Certain images come to mind here. For example, the words of the former president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, to reporters at a press conference just days before Israel destroyed the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, "Egypt may be forced to sink the American Sixth Fleet if the U.S. enters the war that will be fought between Egypt and Israel." Nor can we forget Saddam Hussein's warning that American forces would commit suicide at the gates of Baghdad if America attacked Iraq. The most recent images are of Hassan Nasrallah, who a few weeks ago derisively invited the American forces to enter Lebanon where they would be annihilated, and on July 12 vowed to "destroy Haifa … and what is beyond Haifa … and what is beyond what is beyond Haifa."

I am filled with grief at the heavy price Arab societies have paid and continue to pay for patterns of thinking that can only be described as divorced from logic, objectivity, and the realities of the age. They have only to look at our recent history to realize that it is filled with thousands of examples proving that those who spoke in the name of "Arab pride and dignity" reaped only the bitter fruit of defeat and squandered God's bounty and resources he bestowed on us to improve the living conditions of our societies — not to finance reckless adventures. "

TV from the Middle East

Obtaining a wide range of views on events in the Middle East can be hard, but there is a solution:

Use the Holy Land Radio tool bar

From Firefox, do Tools->Extensions->Find More Extensions

Which will bring you to Firefox Add-ons Extensions

In the search box (upper right) type: Holy

And this entry should appear: Holy Land Radio tool bar

After installing the Holy Land Radio tool bar, you will have direct access to Israeli newspaper feeds and four TV channels, across the web. The TV channels offer a nice balance, countering much of the distorted news that is shown in the West. They are remarkably critical and even harsh about Israeli society.

The tool bar offers a web range of webcams, plenty of goodies, etc.

Right On?

Forgive the pun, but writely has opened up its doors again, altho still in beta it looks and feels nice.

Give it a try

Wartime Videos

As it seems that the conflict in Lebanon will continue I recommend checking out this web site: Israel Radio Videos.

The video below caught my eye, as an operational room for Hezbollah and how sophisticated it was, notice in the corner, the batteries and UPS for the PCs.

Replay this video | Share this video | Watch more videos

Carl's Logic

This Baloney Detection Kit is very useful in political, social or scientific research, we owe a debt to Carl Sagan:

The following are suggested as tools for testing arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent arguments:

1. Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts.

2. Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.

3. Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities").

4. Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.

5. Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.

6. Quantify, wherever possible.

7. If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.

8. Occam's razor - if there are two hypotheses that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.

9. Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?

Additional issues are:

• Conduct control experiments - especially "double blind" experiments where the person taking measurements is not aware of the test and control subjects.

• Check for confounding factors - separate the variables.

• Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric

• Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument.

• Argument from "authority".

• Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an "unfavorable" decision).

• Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).

• Special pleading (typically referring to god's will).

• Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased).

• Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses).

• Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes).

• Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)

• Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but scientific projections on environmental dangers thriftily ignored because they are not "proved").

• Non sequitur - "it does not follow" - the logic falls down.

• Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "it happened after so it was caused by" - confusion of cause and effect.

• Meaningless question ("what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?).

• Excluded middle - considering only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the "other side" look worse than it really is).

• Short-term v. long-term - a subset of excluded middle ("why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?").

• Slippery slope - a subset of excluded middle - unwarranted extrapolation of the effects (give an inch and they will take a mile).

• Confusion of correlation and causation.

• Caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack.

• Suppressed evidence or half-truths.

• Weasel words - for example, use of euphemisms for war such as "police action" to get around limitations on Presidential powers. "An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public"

Lebanon and the Ceasefire

The ramifications of the conflict in Lebanon are unclear, although three issues seem to stand out: Hezbollah's “victory”, the political fallout in Israel and the ceasefire.

In the short-term, the conflict may result in a propaganda victory for Hezbollah locally, as they spend vast sums of money in the rebuilding of Beirut, winning loyalty and news coverage across the Middle East. Merely surviving the onslaught of the IDF is taken by many in the Middle East as a “victory”, irrespective of the civilian casualties and the longer term consequences for Lebanon.

In Israel, Prime Minister Olmert's position is very weak and there is considerable criticism of how the General staff and government conducted the war. The result may be a shake-up amongst the military and Olmert’s replacement by Binyamin Netanyahu.

The ceasefire established on the UN resolution 1701 seems to be holding but the key element: the UN force, looks decidedly shaky.

After the initial pronouncements of participation from France and Germany, they have backtracked and significantly scaled down their involvement. Seemingly the problem is over the rules of engagement, which is a polite way of saying, how they would have to deal with Hezbollah.

France and Germany’s unwillingness to provide a sizeable element of the UN force may doom the whole project, a substantial military force would be required to disarm Hezbollah.

The disarmament of Hezbollah is central to resolving this and any future conflict.

I suspect that Germany and France are unwilling to place their soldiers directly in the firing line, as it appears that Hezbollah will not willingly give up their weapons.

So the UN force will be obliged to either:

1. disarm Hezbollah, according to UN resolutions 1701 and 1559
2. or play along with the façade of removing weapons, rockets and missiles from southern Lebanon, when in reality they will be hidden for “round” two.

The latter is more likely and so we can expect another conflict within the next year or so.

Unless Hezbollah disband their militia and remove the constant threat to Israeli civilians there will be another conflict, and I suspect much bloodier, next time around.

New Blog or Beta?

Blogger gets a fair amount of criticism and with some justification, there are times when it grinds to a halt and throws a wobbly.

Nevertheless, it is free and if used when there’s not too much congestion on the Web (when North America is asleep) then it tends to work well enough.

One proviso: do most of your entries off-line and then upload, less chance of a hiccup or losing a post that way.

In response, Blogger has introduced a new beta service at http://beta.blogger.com/

You need a Google account but that’s easy to get.

Be brave and give it a try!

Site(s) of the Week/Month 17

As a break from the Middle East

Site(s) of the Week/Month is a semi regular slot for interesting web sites that have caught my fancy recently.

I present:

The Association for Skeptical Enquiry

Google's blog - keep an eye oh Google's goings on!

Gizmo's Top Picks

Vulture Man or Green Helmet

Never let it be said that I don't, at least, try to have a sense of humour (altho, I think some of my few commenters don't always get the jokes, pity)

So continuing a theme, I present the Green Helmet Guy

Enjoy!

Oh by the way, if some people need me to explain : why I think that Hezbollah’s helpers are lower than vultures for desecrating dead bodies on camera, then me explaining it won't make much difference, because it should be damn obvious from the outset and hardly require an explanation.

Staged Managed War

I have tried not to comment too much on the conflict in Lebanon, because I think what we hear day to day changes, and the final picture will be very different. I think we need to step back from the constant stream of news coverage and think how is that news being manipulated?

One aspect of my distrust is Hezbollah’s stage management of the media and how many news organisations seem to go along with it.

This small video shows Hezbollah’s cynicism and willingness to use the dead for its own vile purposes:

Respect/SWP in Arabic?

Check out shlemazl's post on the recent demonstrations in London and the slogans that were chanted in Arabic.

Old Arafat's technique, say one thing in English "I want peace, etc" and another in Arabic "those damn Jews" etc

I wonder if the ‘internationalists’ in Respect/SWP will make that a regular “official” chant?

Either way, I’ll bet that Galloway sings it in the shower from now on.

PM's speech?

I was very taken by this speech for PM Olmert (written by Ben Caspit), it is a bit OTT but you'll get the point:

"Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel.

We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off. If they continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue to bomb Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully in their homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land and turned the lives of our children into hell.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time you understood: the Jewish state will no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population centers in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you.

A voice for six million citizens

Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims.

And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are ignoring them again now. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again. Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility.

Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for us to attack. This must be stated clearly and publicly, once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to boycott us and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not.

Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my plan for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and Samaria, the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the occupation and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm things down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement between us.

The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the Palestinians there a chance to build a new reality for themselves. The Prime Minister who preceded him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israeli presence in Lebanon and pulled the IDF back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish, develop and establish its democracy and its economy.

What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win even one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a handshake of encouragement? Ehud Barak's peace initiative at Camp David let loose on us a wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over 1,000 citizens, men, women and children. I don't remember you being so enraged then. Maybe that happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered body parts of the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of the people butchered while celebrating the Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya? What can you do - that's the way we are. We don't wave body parts at the camera. We grieve quietly.

We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy's children - we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behavior of our enemies. Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up against you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And you will taste more.

In a loud and clear voice

And Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. What did it get us? A barrage of Kassem missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of soldiers. Then too, I don't recall you reacting with such alarm. And for six years, the withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a dangerous, extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem - and from there to Paris and London.

An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes, awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a nuclear power in order to bring us to our knees. And make no mistake - we won't go down alone. You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along with us.

So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of hypocrisy. I don't recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of them kill Americans - and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to recall a similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned down large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO bombed Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population - then you also kept silent. What is it about us, the Jews, the minority, the persecuted, that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that all the others don't?

In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you openly and I will not apologize. I will not capitulate. I will not whine. This is a battle for our freedom. For our humanity. For the right to lead normal lives within our recognized, legitimate borders. It is also your battle. I pray and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don't, you may regret it later, when it's too late. "

Sadly, I think that Olmert would be too 'diplomatic' to use it

Salutes

Judeosphere points to an alarming trend amongst some anti-Israel counter demonstrators: the Hezbollah salute.

Of course, astute readers would know that it is also the Nazi salute.

So, genuine and sincere non-racist "anti-Zionists" have to decide:

do they really want to keep the company of individuals that march around to the Hitler salute?

Sadly, my guess is that it is the shape of things to come, and needs to be opposed tooth and nail.

Statements or What?

I am still digesting the news from the Middle-East, so probably won’t comment for a while, but one of my commenters (JohnG) wondered what I thought of the Lebanese Communist Party’s recent statement.

I think I give it as much credence as I would statements coming out of the North Korean CP or the speeches of Kim Jong Il, which is to say: zilch

Of course, I can see the Lebanese Communist Party’s point of view, either they side with Hezbollah or side with Israel and they are toast, not a hard political decision.

After all, Hezbollah are a sizable group of Islamist thugs, so if you lived in Lebanon would you want to cross them? Probably not.

Nevertheless, it brings up the point of: support for Hezbollah in the West.

I wonder why people in the West seem to have been dragged into the infantile nihilism of supporting Hezbollah?

They might choose to cover it with some “anti-imperialist” gobbledygook, but they are consciously supporting a pack of Islamist fundamentalists, who would gladly kill all Jews, Westerners or other “decadent” examples of Western hegemony, civil rights for women and gays, etc. if they had the means. Talk about rolling the clock back.

Here’s a tip for would-be supporters/sympathisers of Hezbollah.

When faced with a choice between modernity and reaction, pick modernity.

Hint: Hezbollah are not modernity.

Unlikely Allies?

Israel has found some unlikely allies: Robert Fisk and the Arab League.

Remember that Fisk and Arab League are ardent critics of Israel.

Robert Fisk confirms that Hezbollah pre-planned this conflict:

“The original border crossing, the capture of the two soldiers and the killing of three others was planned, according to Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbollah leader who escaped assassination by the Israelis on Friday evening, more than five months ago.“

As the Washington Post comments:

“In a stunning development, the 22-member Arab League criticized Hezbollah for provoking the current crisis. It is unprecedented for the Arab League to criticize any Arab party while it is actively engaged in hostilities with Israel.”


So Hezbollah are to blame, well that just confirms it!

Butch Bombers?

Butterflies and Wheels points to a recent academic paper by Dr Antony Whitehead, which suggests that suicide bomber’s “problems” may relate to a lack of masculinity and a need to prove themselves.

The paper concurs with an idea, put about in feminists’ circles for years, that part of the issue was power, male power, and the need for some men to demonstrate their masculinity by using extreme violence.

As the Sunday Herald comments:

“According to the academics, males aged between 18 and 24 are at the optimum age at which to carry out atrocities, as they are also at this time struggling to be identified as men”

Whilst these ideas can not fully explain all instances of these terrible events and there might be some odd exception, the notion of male masculinity as a social problem does provide an insight to aspects of terrorism and suicide bombings which otherwise might go unnoticed.

Gendegreek’s previous comments are most relevant.

Why Such An Advert Now?

The PA is encouraging kids to become suicide bombers again.

Years after complaints and its withdrawal, the Palestinian Authority TV is showing another advert to persuade children to become “Martyrs for Allah”, as detailed in the Jerusalem Post:

“One of the most sinister of these clips was broadcast twice last week, according to our research after a three-year absence. The clip features a child actor playing the most famous Palestinian child martyr, Muhammad al-Dura - whose death in a crossfire was broadcast to the entire world - calling to other Palestinian children to literally follow him to Child Martyrs' Heaven.”

What timing? And I had always thought that arguments over the “cult of death” were an exaggeration, now I am not so sure.

A Little Less Empathy on 7/7

The seventh of July will no doubt bring forth assorted opinions from condemnation, perplexed indignation, confusion to varying degrees of sympathy, if not for their methods, at least with the "alienation" of the 7th July 2005 bombers.

My own memory of the day is rather blurred, and afterwards amongst the confusion of thoughts two ideas stood out: the Bus and Aldgate tube bombings.

The bus bombing which ripped apart a number 30 bus, going south on Tavistock Square took place outside the BMA headquarters and near the dole office, just off Tavistock Place.

The Aldgate tube bombing was in an ethnically mixed area, only minutes from the East London Mosque, and frequented by many Muslims and workers going home.

So the Jihadists were perfectly happy to murder doctors, the unemployed, Muslims, students, poor workers and commuters, etc when it suited them.

Whilst I wouldn't dream of trying to think myself into the mind of the psychotic 7/7 London Jihadists, I do wonder at the utterances of the would-be apologists or "root" causers.

I expect that we will be told that “but for Iraq, Afghanistan and British troops, there would be no 7/7 bombings”.

That might well be true, however, I think that Jihadists, like their 1930s comrades, need only pretexts for their actions, not reasons. A supposed grudge, some hostility, a nihilist’s belief system and an opportunity will suffice for them. They will scamper around and incorporate any likely pretext as a motivation for their mass murder.

The question is: are we gullible enough to believe their lies, their stupidity, and their wanton callousness?

Naval gazing from the chattering classes will not defeat that Jihadists, neither will military might. Jihadists are the purveyors of backward looking nihilism so that ultimately they can only be defeated by ideas and an acceptance of modernity.

Today's societies should not be apologetic about modern ideas nor misjudge the destructive capacity for nihilism, which was all too evident in 1930s.

Again we should argue for the ideas of the Reformation and the age of Enlightenment, any attempt at apologising, empathising or underestimating the Jihadists will be our downfall.

Such views were seen in the 1930s, when people underestimated another group of psychotic murderers. We must not make that mistake.

Where Is It All Going?

My cynical view of Hamas’s recent attack on Israeli soldiers, as a way to deflect from their own splits and political crisis, seems to be borne out by events.

Israelis’ incursion is now the focus of vitriolic attacks in the Westen media, which seemingly forget that:

1) It was Hamas and their proxies that actually provoked this situation.
2) It could have been settled very quickly by releasing Gilad Shalit.
3) Hamas and their proxies rejected any of the proposed compromises from Egyptian mediators.
4) Hamas are not really interested in the welfare of the Palestinians, only using them as political pawns in Hamas’s nihilistic game against the dreaded “Zionist entity”.

Witness the recent evidence from a Hamas video, where Hamas followers chant about “Drinking the blood of the Jews” (thanks to John-Paul for highlighting it).

But I am interested in alternatives to the current Israeli strategy?

Let’s see it from other countries perspectives (USA and Syria):

Hypothetically speaking, what would the USA do, if Mexico had launched some 1000 rockets at American civilians in the past year?

What then if Mexico kidnapped an American trooper?

Hum, yeah, I can see the USA (or any other country) emulating Ghandi with non-violence and prayers? Whilst the likes of Hamas provoke conflict, with rockets and kidnapping.

Or look at it another way, suppose the roles were reversed, with say Syria?

Hypothetically speaking, suppose that Gaza was full of Israelis and Syria was in Israel’s position, what would they do? They would have flattened Gaza with every Israeli in there, in a heartbeat.

So instead, most of IDF has been camped in the north of Gaza, whilst mediation took place

However, as you might expect, the Hamas terrorists have rejected any negotiated settlement, which was all part of their original game plan.

Sadly, the weak Olmert government will probably inflict unnecessary damage on the Gaza infrastructure and kill civilians playing straight into Hamas’s hands.

In the West, the causes of this crisis will conveniently be forgotten and Israel further demonised.

All very unnecessary, stupid, callous and with the Hamas leadership I can see it only getting worst for the Palestinians.

Power Stations

Someone asked if I thought “was Israel right to knock out the only power station in Gaza?”

No, I don't think they were, but on the other hand they COULD have gone straight in and killed 100s, so which do people think is better?

Are Israelis seriously meant to sit on their hands when a soldier is kidnapped?

There is an easy solution to this: give up the kidnapped soldier, stop throwing Qassam rockets into Israel and start talking.

Egypt has put forward a number of workable solutions to resolve this crisis but it seems that Hamas, PRC, etc don’t want a peaceful resolution.

The “eye for an eye” stuff will make everyone blind, and what does that achieve? Nothing

Israeli perspective Across the Web

At times such as this, it is difficult to find out what is happening in Israel from an Israeli perspective, so I present some Israeli TV and radio sources, with English language web broadcasts.

One thing that is notable about some of Israeli TV sources, how they present fairly unfavourable reports of their own country. In video clips they offer a range of critical or unfavourable reports from PA sources, European media and their own commentators, which is refreshing if a tad disconcerting, occasionally.

Jerusalem Online

Israel Radio International English News

Israel Broadcasting Authority

[TV Broadcasts –> On Demand ->and select clip on right-hand side]

Israel National TV

Cynics in Hamas

Any cynic looking at the current Israeli incursion into Gaza might wonder was this pre-planned by elements of the Hamas leadership or was it chance?

If the leaders of Hamas and their proxy PRC, planned to kidnap an IDF soldier knowing full well that Israel would be compelled to respond, and the weakness of the Israeli Prime Minister would drive him to wave a big stick.

Prior to this immediate conflict Hamas was faced with a number of political problems:

• The conflict with Fatah and Abbas;
• Financial pressure;
• Relations with the EU;
• Relations with Israel;

So provoking Israel is a quick way of sidestepping these issues, when the smoke clears the world will not remember the original problems, and Hamas will be off the hook.

But was it all pre-planned, and if so, for how long?

Evidence for this view is in the tunnel.

The tunnel was some 600 (six hundred) metres long.

Now I don't know how long it would take a group of people to secretly dig a 600 metre long tunnel but they would need to be expert at it and it was not done overnight. More likely it took 4-8 weeks to build.

So this provocation and kidnap was pre-planned in my view, but why?

To let Hamas off the hook and make Israel look like the aggressor.

Afterwards Hamas can then play the victim card to full effect, procuring more weapons and money from neighbouring oil rich Arab states, whilst people in the West wring their hands and bemoan “Israeli aggression”

Of course, only a cynic would view it like that, but we shall see.

Watching the Filth

Keeping track of neo-Nazis and their pals: Holocaust deniers is a valuable pursuit, if a tad nauseating.

The advent of the Internet and news groups led to an explosion of ideas but also bile and political extremism.

Hitherto isolated neo-Nazi nutcases, antisemites or sympathisers have been brought together via the medium of the Internet.

So the job of scrutinizing their activities is both necessary and maddening, but the people at Holocaust Controversies blog are doing a fine job and well worth a visit.

The Holocaust History Project is also very informative.

Calling the Enlightenment

Far be it for me to criticise anyone else's beliefs, but the mumbo-jumbo from Abu Bakar Bashir is disgraceful:

"Abu Bakar Bashir has blamed Indonesians' "damaged morals" for the devastating earthquake that hit Java last month and urged the government to implement Islamic law."

The Times reports it as:

"Abu Bakar Bashir, left, who this month was released from prison after serving 26 months for conspiracy over the bombings, which killed 202 people, said: “A series of disasters recently happened because Indonesia’s people have damaged morals.” Addressing 1,000 people outside the headquarters of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, which he heads, in the central Javanese city of Yogyakarta, he said that if the country implemented Sharia, God would “give Indonesia glory, not disasters”.

No doubt someone on Comment is Free will say that Abu Bakar Bashir has been misrepresented?

Calling Norman!

Jeff Weintraub’s piece on A Petition to Reinstate Professor Thomas Klocek to DePaul University With No Prejudice or Penalty reminded me of DePaul’s infamous ‘scholar’, Norman Finkelstein.

I hope that Norman Finkelstein can bring himself to sign the petition; after all he is well known for supporting David Irving’s school of ‘history’ and freedom of speech ?

Of course, nowadays not many half way sensible people support Irving after his abortive libel case, even if they were fooled by Irving before then.

Irving’s libel action against Professor Lipstadt, demonstrated clearly that Irving falsified evidence, lied, misconstrue documents and filled his books with half truths or pro-Hitler propaganda. So after the case, few if any academics now doubt that Irving is a pro-Hitlerite apologist for the mass murderer.

Still, I hope that Norman Finkelstein manages to read Richard Evans’ book: Lying About Hitler, which deals with Irving’s shabby methods or read Nizkor’s site, just in case he missed the Irving Vs. Lipsadt libel trial.

With any luck Norman Finkelstein might sign the petition, then again Irving might denounce Hitler, equally as unlikely to occur, oh look, there’s a flying pig.

Campaign for Nuclear Proliferation

CND's latest pronouncements on the British nuclear deterrent do nothing to illuminate the problem of nuclear technology and much to highlight CND's dual standards. Leaving aside for the minute, the issue of nuclear weapons and looking at CND’s policies we find a strange duality.

CND are happy to host representatives of would-be nuclear powers (Iran) and concede that Iran is entitled to nuclear technology(1), irrespective of where it could lead.

Yet CND vigorously opposes nuclear technology and weapons in Britain.

So we see CND’s astonishing dual standards:

1) It is wrong for Western powers to have nuclear technology

2) It is acceptable for oil rich fundamentalist theocracies to waste precious resources on nuclear ambitions, which could lead to nuclear weaponry, or worst

How can these two contradictory points be reconciled? They can not be, as an example will demonstrate.

CND's approach begs the question, if it is acceptable for Iran to have nuclear technology, then why not Mali?

Or what if Nicaragua chose to waste precious resources on nuclear technology (paralleling Iran) how could CND oppose it?

To be consistent with its position on Iran, then CND could not oppose the mass proliferation of nuclear technologies in dirt poor countries around the world.

If CND will not oppose the proliferation of nuclear technology in Iran, then why does it even exist??

If the proliferation of nuclear technology is wrong then it is wrong in all countries, not just western ones.

The way to reduce nuclear technology is to oppose its increase, wherever it occurs.

Notes:

1: "CND therefore respects Iran’s right to a peaceful civilian nuclear programme", see http://www.cnduk.org/pages/binfo/iran.html

Mali is one of the poorest countries in Africa, 174 out of 177.

Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, 112 out of 177.

(Hat tip: David T in CiF)

Copyright Chomsky?

Strangely, Chomsky’s work on the Guardian seems to be under some special arrangement.

After complaining about the ‘faulty’ link I received this reply from the Guardian:

“Further to your inquiry, this particular article was only available for 24 hours for copyright reasons.”

Possibly, it is related to Chomsky’s tax situation and the need to control copyright. Or maybe he received such a ‘Bunting’ that he withdrew the article, who knows?

Chomsky Vanished

I had hoped to look at Noam Chomsky’s latest article on CiF, but it appears to be inaccessible.

I scanned the top bit yesterday, hoping today to read it at my leisure and consider his points but I can probably guess his arguments (he uses them so often):

“1) America is to blame 2) America is to blame 3) What hypocrisy, to deny nuclear technology to a country controlled by Ayatollahes 4) Whatever happens America is to blame, because ultimately people have no free will 5) Oh, my latest book covers this in more detail”

I am sure that the “commissars” have got to Cif, or it could be a technical hitch, you decide!

Chomsky Nailed Again?

Chomsky is nailed again by Peter Beaumont in The Observer, and from the outset Beaumont is open about his own bias:

“I met Chomsky once at a New Statesman lunch and that nagging, bullying, wheedling voice has stuck with me since. It is a voice that brooks no dissent from his dissident view. 'You'll know ... ' was his opening line on being introduced to two of us who covered the war in Kosovo, before launching into one of his favourite rants - that it really wasn't the poor Serbs what done it, but nasty Nato.”

…

“Reading Failed States, I had an epiphany: that by applying a Chomskian analysis to his own writing, you discover exactly the same subtle textual biases, evasions and elisions of meaning as used by those he calls 'the doctrinal managers' of the 'powerful elites'. The mighty Chomsky, the world's greatest public intellectual, is prone to playing fast and loose.”

“The case that he wants to make is that the US is uniquely awful.
In setting about this task quite so selectively, he allies himself with some obnoxious characters.”

Demon Drink

A Little Light Reading

Reading the latest Democratiya I was drawn to the Marko Attila Hoare’s Occidentalism and 'Anti-Imperialism' and Evan Daniel’s Is there an 'Islamic Imperialism'? and in particular to :

“However, the nature of Hamas is often misunderstood. Unlike the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Hamas is neither the embodiment of pan-Arab aspirations nor of Palestinian self-determination. It is not a political movement for national liberation that contains an armed wing. Hamas has articulated the far broader goal of establishing a global Islamist empire. This is in line with it's ideological parent organisation, 'which viewed its violent opposition to Zionism from the 1930s and 1940s as an integral part of the Manichean struggle for the creation of a worldwide caliphate rather than the defence of the Palestinian Arabs' national rights' (p. 213-4). According to Karsh, for Hamas, the issue of Palestine is 'neither an ordinary territorial dispute between two national movements not a struggle by an indigenous population against a foreign occupier. It is a holy war by the worldwide Islamic umma to present the loss of a part of the House of Islam to the infidels' (p. 214).

Galloway on Beheading

George Galloway knows no limits, politically, morally or ethically.

Galloway's latest column’s on CiF shows his decay to the full.

He pontificates on the death of Margaret Hassan and how if people had listened to him, she would have been saved.

A bigger pile of self-serving idiocy you would be hard put to find, but the other commenters on CiF respond accordingly and fulsome fashion.

I present some of the better extracts:

"JosephKern

You are in no position to argue the cases of the righteous Galloway. You are a lickspittle of fascism and tyranny, and you have betrayed the trust placed in you by those foolish enough to give you their vote. You are a media whore, whose relentless attention seeking only serves to highlight the aching vacuum in your bloodless heart. You should be expelled from parliament and left to while away your remaining years doing Pizza Hut adverts with the Hamiltons.

GreenShoots1

Someone as odious as George Galloway leaping at the chance to promote himself on the memory of a truly amazing women is pretty disgusting inself. Especially at a time when the sovereign elected Iraqi Government - which George worked tirelessly to prevent from ever happening - has tried and sentenced the killer of Mrs Hassan.

Your bile should be directed at the author of this article and not those of us repulsed by his shameless behaviour.

Margaret Hassans killer has faced the justice of the Iraqi people - as will the brutal dictator that George supported so very deeply.

CluelessJoe

Oh yeah, and I'd add that it is a bit f**king tasteless for Galloway to use this piece about Margaret Hassan to continue his defence of his old friend and dancing partner, Tariq Aziz - a man who certainly will be tried for his numerous and bloody human rights abuses.

fidothedog

You have a nerve George, I have to give you that. You suck up to the dictator Saddam and his murderous offspring

"Sir: I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability."

Then try to portray yourself as some sort of humanitarian with regard to Margaret Hassan.

You should hang your head in shame you grade a shit."Guardian Unlimited © Guardian etc

I couldn't have said it better.

June 1944

62 years ago.

June 1944 and its historical significance for Europeans can not be understated.

Europe was under the jackboot of Nazi Germany and Hitler's gang.

The Allies launched their D-Day landing on 6th June 1944.

On the anniversary of D-Day we should not forget that the Soviets had demolished the German 6^th Army at Stalingrad in February 1943 and the slow march towards Berlin began.

The combined Allied forces squeezed the occupying German Armies back to Berlin and Hitler’s bunker and for that we should all be very grateful.

Every generation

I freely acknowledge my certain ambivalence to the Euston Manifesto but one item from Alan Johnson’s talk at Norm’s caught my eye and I can fully agree with it:

“Every generation, it seems, has to rediscover anti-totalitarianism for itself.”

Dirty Old China?

The state of China's rivers and the toxic level of pollution in the drinking water are covered in a Torygraph article:

"A new phrase has become current in China as the country comes to terms with the environmental devastation caused by its explosive economic growth: "cancer villages".

Not long ago they were farming settlements in the vast countryside. Now they are dominated by factories and blighted by the disease crippling their inhabitants.

Government figures show that 300 million people regularly drink polluted water and the effects are clear in the cancer village of Xiditou, near the port city of Tianjin, south-east of Beijing. "

And The Times comments:

"THE fabled Yangtze River, the third-longest in the world, is already dying from pollution and could be dead within five years.

The river’s plight reflects the water crisis facing the world’s most highly populated country.

China’s 1.3 billion people are already short of supplies because of prolonged drought in many regions — and much of what remains has been contaminated by industrialisation.

About 40 per cent of all waste water produced in China — some 25 billion tonnes per annum — flows into the river, but more than 80 per cent of it is untreated beforehand. "

and some people worry about a hose pipe ban?

NATFHE boycott and blacklist of Israelis

I have strenuously avoided commenting on the NATFHE boycott and blacklist of Israelis, partly in the hope that it wouldn'’t pass and because so many other blogs do a much better job of commenting and analysing the arguments.

Still, NATFHE passed the motion and I am left wondering what it actually achieves?

Does it help the Palestinians one iota? No. Will it change Israeli government policy? No

So who will benefit from this motion? 1) I suspect some ex-student radicals with more inclination to posture than think. 2) The extreme right will be overjoyed at the "“lecturers taking a stand against the Zionist entity"”, etc

All very predictable and troublesome, but is there a ray of hope?

Probably, it seems that some academics will make a conscience effort to strengthen links with Israeli academics and hopefully with their Palestinian counterparts, examples such as the Olive Tree project should be expanded upon not curtailed.

Iranian Hansard

The dispute from the over the alleged attempt in Iran to make non-Muslims wear badges, etc rolls on.

I was interested in why it was so hard to verify if a law in Iran had or had not been passed?

Does the Iranian parliament not have an equivalent of Hansard or a list of recently passed legislation?

Surely, in the 21st century that is not too much to ask for ?

By simply referring to such a list, as with the Congressional Record, it would be simple enought to confirm or deny the substance of the story?

Maybe they have more important things to spend their money on

Nuremberg and Genocide

The recent passing of VE day some 61 years ago, made me reflect in the Nuremberg trials.

The Nuremberg trials of 1945 brought home to a wider audience the vile crimes of the Nazi regime.

The trials are documented at Avalon, Nizkor Project and Web Genocide Documentation Centre Home Page

Some of the legal issues are discussed here and this provides an overall summary.

The glossary provides links to crimes of Nazi Germany.

Where's the Software?

Finding new and beta software across the web can be time consuming, so two sites that speed up the process are:

Beta News

Version Tracker

and if you need to roll back to a previous version, see Old Version

Communalism

After the recent local elections Nick Cohen highlights the dual danger of communalism in politics:

"The story of how the anti-war movement led to a merger of Trotskyists and Islamists is the British liberal-left's dirty secret and Respect rarely has to endure the level of scrutiny directed at the white far right. The BNP, however, has been generous in its praise, correctly recognising that a part of the left was now playing its game. It 'welcomed' George Galloway's victory in Bethnal Green in 2005 because it 'demonstrates very clearly to the [white] British voters that the Muslim community, when it forms an ethnic bloc in an area, chooses to vote only for those political parties that explicitly promote the interests of the Muslim community itself'.

While the BNP targets the whites, Respect targets the Muslims. Both parties have believers in Jewish conspiracy theory - the BNP engages in Holocaust denial and Respect's candidate for the mayorship of Newham declares: 'Israel has been formulating and directing UK and US foreign policy."

MEMRI videos and FireFox

MEMRI is a very useful resource, and Engage highlighted the latest trip of Neturei Karta rabbis Dovid Weiss and Aharon Cohen to Iran, that I wanted to watch.

However, my favourite browser, Firefox, does not like the CastUP video page at MEMRI, but some solutions are at hand.

Cheap and nasty solution: Right click, Copy Link Location from the [Play button], start up M$ Media Player and paste into [File] Open URL space. It will now play, without IE.

Simple solution: Right click and Save Link As, later on open with your pet media player, such MPC

Better solution: download the extension, MediaPlayerConnectivity.

After re-starting Firefox it will go thru a Setup Wizard (best take the defaults), go to the required MEMRI video and click on Play.

MediaPlayerConnectivity will bring up a left panel, either select the individual video or click on Play as playlist, which should bring up the associated media player. It works with both Media Player Classic and M$ Media Player.

It is not perfect but given M$’s attitude and software, they will do for now and Firefox 1.0.7 seems fairly happy.

Follow that Beta

Keeping track of the web's most wonderful and newest beta applications is almost a full time job, so to the rescue comes: MoMB!

The Museum of Modern Betas is "a site dedicated to listing webbased applications on a beta trip."

The top 100 beta applications list is very handy.

Why Not So Independent or Rational?

There is a good article by David Hirsh on Independent's publication of a 'Jewish Stars and Stripes'.

David Hirsh’s article is first class but the reaction to it, just plain silly, but why ? Looking through the comments and points raised one thing stuck me: the irrationality of it all.

Not for the first time do we find conspiracy theories, but why in this modern age? Are they a substitute religion? Or a way of rationalising seemingly conflicting events or information? A surrogate ‘Satan’ or ‘witch’? A focus for people’s inner hatreds and loathing? The need for an eternal bogeyman?

I wonder if some psychiatrist could explain the prevalence of conspiracy theories in modern political thinking, albeit on the fringes of reality?

From the story of five dancing Israelis (were they doing the rumba?) to “dynamiting” of the WTC and beyond, why do smart people believe this nonsense?

Is it some medieval impulse that seems to draw people back to the intellectual dark ages?

I am at a loss to understand the craven irrationality behind these views.

Why do otherwise intelligent people believe such baloney? And to what purpose?

Surely, anyone familiar with the “Protocols” etc, should see through the absurdities and draw the historical connections?

Or is there some deeper psychiatric complaint in humanity, which explains it?

History and Elections

As the local elections approach and according to the Times:
"THE BNP is fielding 356 candidates as it seeks to more than double its 20 council seats. Yorkshire has the largest number of far-right candidates (105), followed by the West Midlands (86), the North West (55), the North East (44) and London (37)."

My mind went to this day in 1945:
"1945: Italian partisans kill Mussolini.

Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy until his downfall in 1943, has been killed by partisans along with his mistress, Clara Petacci, and some close associates."

To Upgrade or Not?

Ever feel like Dilber's mother?

American Freedom of Speech

Americans value freedom of speech and the recent rally in New York by the Islamic thinkers society is a prime example:

"Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) Newswire - April 21, 2006 : The Queens-based Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS) held a rally yesterday outside of the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan. Members of the Islamic Thinkers Society are easily identified by their Khilafah flags and provocative signs as well as rhetoric against homosexuals, Jews, Christians, Danes and others, depending on the hot button issue at the moment. Yesterday's rally was held in response to Monday’s Tel Aviv bombing that killed 9 and injured scores. While carrying signs including “Islam will Dominate” with a picture of an Islamic flag over the White House, the small but loud group of men chanted threatening slogans (video of the rally will be posted on the Counterterrorism Blog soon):"

See the excerpts here:

scarey or what?

The Dating Game?

The realpolitik Dating game !

AbbaGav links up some dictators/strongmen with Condi Rice, what a show!

The Amnesia is Finally Breaking Down?

60 years on and Germany looks like finally opening the historical archive containing the record of crimes under Nazi rule, according to recent reports:

“Germany has agreed to allow access to a huge trove of information on what happened to more than 17 million people who were executed, forced to labor for the Nazi war machine or otherwise brutalized during the Holocaust.

The German government announced at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here Tuesday that it was dropping its decades-long resistance to opening the archives, kept in the town of Bad Arolsen. The files, which make up one of the largest Holocaust archives in the world, are more than 15 miles, or 24 kilometers, long and hold up to 50 million documents, some seized by the Allies as they liberated concentration camps.

"We now agree to open the data in Bad Arolsen," Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said at a news conference here. She said her country would seek revision of an international arrangement that governs the archives, The Associated Press reported.”

60 years of amnesia is a bit much? Surely they have nothing to hide?

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

19th April 1943 saw an unprecedented uprising against Nazi Germany, led by ZOB and ZZW fighters.

They fought with a few light weapons, grim determination against overwhelming odds and:

"They had actually been preparing for this, and had convinced the Germans to let them build 631 air-raid shelters. Bombing was going on all around them, and the Germans needed their slave laborers so, to keep them safe from Allied bombings, the Germans had allowed them to do this. Now the people used those very shelters to fight against the Germans."

This article from ARC gives a good background to the uprising.

See photographs of the uprising, which lasted from 19^th April to 16^th May 1943.

The Jewish Virtual Library has a detailed breakdown of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Route 66 to Iraq?

Michael Totten's account of his road trip to Iraq is well worth reading, I was struck by this passage:

“From a distance it appears that the biggest problem in the Middle East is Islamism. That’s probably because Islamism is the worst of the Middle East’s exported problems. Up close, though, the biggest source of conflict seems to be ethnic nationalism. The crackup of the Ottoman Empire has still not settled down into anything stable. Arab nationalism, Turkish nationalism, Kurdish nationalism, and Zionism everywhere create bloody borders and internal repression. And that’s just for starters. Lebanese went at other Lebanese for fifteen long years. Arab Sunni and Arab Shia are slugging it out in Iraq right now as you read this.”

Of Train Stations and Politics

The Euston Manifesto which received prominent publicity recently at Harry's Place, Norm's and CommentIsFree seems a worthy endeavour.

Initially, my attention has been drawn to a few things:

" 2) No apology for tyranny. We decline to make excuses for, to indulgently 'understand', reactionary regimes and movements for which democracy is a hated enemy - regimes that oppress their own peoples and movements that aspire to do so. We draw a firm line between ourselves and those left-liberal voices today quick to offer an apologetic explanation for such political forces.


7) For a two-state solution. We recognize the right of both the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples to self-determination within the framework of a two-state solution. There can be no reasonable resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that subordinates or eliminates the legitimate rights and interests of one of the sides to the dispute.

11) A critical openness. Drawing the lesson of the disastrous history of left apologetics over the crimes of Stalinism and Maoism, as well as more recent exercises in the same vein (some of the reaction to the crimes of 9/11, the excuse-making for suicide-terrorism, the disgraceful alliances lately set up inside the 'anti-war' movement with illiberal theocrats), we reject the notion that there are no opponents on the Left. We reject, similarly, the idea that there can be no opening to ideas and individuals to our right. Leftists who make common cause with, or excuses for, anti-democratic forces should be criticized in clear and forthright terms. Conversely, we pay attention to liberal and conservative voices and ideas if they contribute to strengthening democratic norms and practices and to the battle for human progress.

Irrespective of its commendable aims, I wonder if the material conditions for this venture to be successful might not exist, at the moment.

The crystal ball is cloudy and I would suggest that the perception of the some of the Left as shifty, cult-like, combined with their innate middle-class nature will limit their impact in a wider sphere, unless they can find some significant issues to congeal around.

But who can tell? Fortune telling is not a valuable political pastime and prone to error.

What Next Saudi?

Remember the song? “what the world needs now is nukes sweet nukes?” a modern remake of the 1960's favourite.

After Iran’s quests for nukes, now we have Saudi Arabia thinking about them, according to reports:

“DOHA - Kuwaiti researcher Abdullah Al Nufaisi told a seminar in Doha, Qatar, that Saudi Arabia is preparing a nuclear program, the Middle East Newsline reported. He said that Saudi scientists were urging the government to launch a nuclear project, but had not yet received approval from the ruling family.

Riyadh denies any intention to establish a nuclear energy program, but Gulf sources told the Middle East Newsline that Saudi officials have been discussing a nuclear research and development program - and that the program would be aided by Pakistan and other Riyadh allies. "Saudi Arabia will not watch as its neighbors develop nuclear weapons," a Gulf source said, adding, "It's a matter of time until a Saudi nuclear program begins." ”

Whatever happened to the campaign against the proliferation of nukes?

a forgotten dream now? Where are they now? Soon to be re-named Campaign for the proliferation of Nukes in the Middle East? Or Campaign for Nuclear Enrichment (as long as it happens in the Middle-East)

Site(s) of the Week/Month 16

Time is shifting and weeks become months, months become years, so I will post my top tips for web sites on a less frequent basis, but hopefully a wider selection.

This week/months pick:

Old Demons, New Debates: Audio Archives

Free Classic Literature in the Public Domain

English Server

(with some 34,503 works available, I liked History and Historiography section)

Online Books Page

Help With Reform?

MEMRI comes in for a lot of criticism, and as far as I can see most of it unconvincing or examples of sour grapes.

I think we should have a daily-translated summary of the Arabic media, to keep abreast of the output and issues, but until that happens, let’s use MEMRI

One of MEMRI's new projects is Reform:


"MEMRI's Reform in the Arab and Muslim World focuses on advocates of reform, and the debate surrounding it, within the Middle East and Muslim world. The project is divided into four main categories: Social Reform, which will focus on women's rights, civil society, and educational systems. Political Reform, which includes debates on democracy and the rule of law, protection of the individual, and freedom of speech, religion, and assembly. Also, Religious Reform, which covers the debate on reform in Islam, as well as the misuse of religion. Finally, the Reform Project will cover Economic Reform, which examines issues of free market economy, globalization, and modernization."

Books III

A bit late, but yes in my comparison of book reference, cataloguing systems: Librarything.com won out. I even paid for a life subscription, the rest were rubbish.

I like books but sometimes finding them is a pain, so I tend to use bookbutler when I can, and TheBookGuide is handy too, enjoy!

Hate What?

Lock & Loaded published an ugly email which was received, it contains the usual nasty anti-gay insults and threats concluding with “Sick gay fuck, die and burn in hell, I would gladly torture and torment you, how does that make you feel, boom bye bye batty bwoy!”

The imbecile that sent the email is easy to find, just put his email address: don5383@hotmail.com into Google and see the results.

Simply unbelievable

Chat with the Great Man

Are you confused about the world? Worried by political developments? Can’t make head or tail of things?

If so, why not ask the Great Man himself: Noam Chomsky

He is open 24 hours day and never without a retort

Germany Sense of Humour

And who said that the Germans have NO sense of humour ?

Witness to Auschwitz

Rudolf Vrba has died, as reported by CBC, Canada:

"Rudolf Vrba, an Auschwitz death camp escapee who is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives, has died in Vancouver. He was 82.

Vrba, a Czech Jew, was imprisoned in Auschwitz at age 19. He was put to work removing the dead from trains arriving at the camp.

Rudolf Vrba warned the world about the atrocities at Auschwitz.

In 1944, when he learned that a million Hungarian Jews were about to be sent to Auschwitz, he decided to warn the world.

Vrba and fellow prisoner Alfred Wetzler hid inside a construction wood pile for three days."

Israel Election I

The up and coming election in Israel is a bit confusing.

The broad make up of the Knesset and diversity of Israeli politics makes finding out exactly what each Israeli political parties stands for, hard.

I am indebted to Lisa, for the list of all 31 political parties taking part and a summary of their policies.

Kidnap the Truth

I was very happy to hear of the release of Norman Kember and CPT hostages, but the stories coming out struck me as a bit peculiar.

A casual reader of the news might be forgiven for assuming that the hostages were released by their kidnappers, as a gesture of good will after months of negotiations.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Apparently, the SAS or similar specialists extracted the hostages from a house, which was seemingly contrary to Kember's wishes, “Professor Kember, who had always said that he did not want to be rescued by military force”.

Yet non-violence surely won the day in Iraq? I'll bet the "insurgency" are happy?

Which reminded me of “We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.”

Comments and Blog

The Guardian's new blogging project "Comment is free" is appealing, and you will find many notables there and my selection is:

Galloway

Norm
David Hirsh
DD Guttenplan
Jon Pike
Steven Rose
Peter Tatchell
Salma Yaqoob
Brian Whitaker

oh and Linda Grant, she is entertaining

Tool Bar Update I

The Israeli Tool Bar has proven enjoyable but not trouble free. Running under Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7 the Radio part has problems with ActiveX.

Using the Windows Media Player ActiveX Installation for Firefox seems to result in more crashes (as predicted in the message boards).

Solution: Don't use radio, remove WMP ActiveX Installation for Firefox and re-install everything from scratch.

We'll see what happens.

Chomsky & Co: Nailed

I am not a fan of Noam Chomsky, after his defence of Faurisson and unsavoury associates.

I was indebted to Harry’s Place for their diligence in highlighting the Guardian's kowtowing to Chomsky and Diana Johnstone over Srebrenica.

The letter by Kamm, Wheen and Aaronovitch is a very clear indictment of Chomsky’s shoddy methods and bias.

I have no doubt there will be some counterblast from Chomsky and his cult, which are guaranteed to confuse the issues.

Film Lovers?

From the 1920s onwards anti-Semitism evolved with the aid of the protocols into an all-encompassing ideology.

Rather than seeing anti-Semitism in a crude one-dimensional way, the most obvious manifestation being Hitler's Nazi Germany, we should view it has an evolving pestilence of an ideology. It never remained static and incorporates new myths as events unfold.

An example of this is the story of the five dancing Israelis, which has done the rounds on neo-Nazi, extremist Islamist and conspiratorial web sites since 9/11.

I am indebted to Engage for their coverage of the new film: Protocols of Zion

Even the on-line trailer makes depressing viewing but a lesson that humanity hasn't quiet learnt enough yet?

Tolerance and Smoking

I laughed at this story:
'As a citywide public smoking ban went into effect today in Calabasas, enforcement came from a higher authority: Mother Nature.

A rainstorm sent renegade smokers stubbing out their cigarettes and scurrying for cover as security guards began issuing warnings at the town's main shopping center.
"You are going to get a $500 citation," one guard warned Dannielle Wakely as she sat at an outdoor table at the Calabasas Commons puffing on a cigarette.

A moment earlier, shopper Erit Litvak had bummed a cigarette and a match from Wakely. She listened to the security guard's warning with her mouth agape.

"I am putting it out!" exclaimed Litvak. "Am I in trouble?"

Calabasas, an upscale suburb wedged between the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County, has generated national attention for what appears to be the first ban on smoking in all outdoor public spaces.'

My heart bleeds

A Hunting We Will Go

In light of the heightened tension in international affairs, I suggest that they send in Dick Cheney, after a session at Quail Hunting School

Tool Bar

I am a great fan of Firefox, the browser, and one of its most useful aspects is extensions, which allows the basic abilities of Firefox to be enhanced and adapted to provide extra functionality.

Israeli Tool Bar is a smart extension, with some great features, it provides direct access to information about Israel: Newspapers, media, radio stations, etc

It is fairly commercial in approach but still very nice.

Israeli Tool Bar appears to contain some minor spyware [doubleclick & advertising.com] but these can be removed by Spybot, and it functions aftewards.

Get it here.

Hostages in Iraq

The reported fate of Tom Fox should make us reflected on Iraq and the “insurgency”:

“BAGHDAD (Reuters) - American hostage Tom Fox has been killed and his body, showing signs of torture, left on a garbage dump in Baghdad, police said on Saturday.

One of the policemen who found the body said the 54-year-old peace activist, wearing a grey tracksuit, appeared to have beaten by electric cables before his death. He had a single gunshot wound to the head and his hands were tied behind him.

Fox, who had been in Iraq to campaign against the U.S. occupation and to work for the release of Iraqis held by U.S. forces, was taken hostage with Norman Kember and two other colleagues in November by a group calling itself the "Swords of Truth".

The latest video of hostages shows the frightening naivety by Christian Peacemaker Teams in venturing into Iraq.

The “insurgence” from the bombing of the UN compound in 2003 to the death of Margaret Hassan have shown a conspicuous disregard for humanitarian aid workers, journalists and others.

Yet the CPT and many others seemed to think they would be immune to the beheadings and attacks, simply because they were “anti-war” and decent folks, as shown by their statement:

"the current focus of the team has expanded to include efforts to end occupation and militarization of the country and to foster nonviolent and just alternatives for a free and independent Iraq."

All of which might be trueand very worthy, except do the “insurgences” or their allies really care?

The treatment of these decent CPT activists gives to the lie the notion that the “insurgences” only wish to attack representatives of “imperialism”.

The “insurgences” will attack anyone: women, children, poor migrant workers, journalists, engineers, aid workers, the UN staff, civilians near mosques and the military.

People can choose to believe what they will on their intentions, but the evidence of the “insurgency” list of atrocities grows by the day.

Let’s not kid ourselves about these killers.

Spot a Wrong One

Political ones web sites can be confusing, what is the message? Who are their backers? What is their aim?

A few years back I remember some Liberals/Lefties sending me a link to nowarforisrael.com ,allegedly as a premier anti-war site.

It just shows how slow people can be at times, when they are fooled by the word 'Zionist' instead of '‘Jew'’. A bit of a give-away but surprising some people were taken in.

A cursory examination of nowarforisrael.com via the WHOIS record reveals the connection, its Name Server is NS1.DAVIDDUKE.COM.

BINGO! David Duke, ex-Klan Wizard

Recently, I was told that www.nogw.com was interesting, but the ranting on about Zionists and the 'History of the House of Rothschild' link made it all to obvious who was backing that web site: the extreme right.

The spectra of the extreme right masquerading as '‘Lefties'’, '‘Anti-Bushie', radicals’ or '‘concerned about peace in the Middle-East'’ is relatively new but fairly transparent, once the blinkers of '‘Anti-Zionism'” are removed, hatred of Israel stopped momentarily and an ounce of common sense applied.

The extreme right are happy to play on the gullible or hate driven.

People with savvy shouldn'’t be taken in, if they apply some of the following:

1. Does the web page say 'Zionist' or '“Zionism' a lot?

2. Is there a conspiratorial theme? New World Order, the Illuminati? Etc

3. What type of other sites does it link to? White Power? Elders of Zion stuff?

4. What keywords in the HTML source does it use? see point 2

5. Does the site mention "the REAL truth"? as if it a 'secret'!

6. Check the site's WHOIS info, etc for backers of the site, look for across linkage from other extreme right web sites

7. Cut and paste some of the site's contentious articles into Google and see who links to them?

Banned with Just Cause?

Given the reaction of this film’s extras, then Germany's ban on pro-Nazi propaganda still might be a good idea, as reported in the Times yesterday:

“About 700 extras turned up early yesterday morning. One was Volker Behrens, who had driven 500 miles to be there. He had brought his own coal scuttle helmet and wartime overcoat. “It was worth it,” he said, “I just love the uniforms.”

The making of the film has given many the chance to perform illegal acts. “Where else in Germany can you shout ‘Heil Hitler’ at the top of your voice?” said one extra.”

Controlled Real Audio

Problem: listening to stuff on the web is great but sometimes we’d like to hear it over and over again, without the hassle of connecting to the web again.

Solution: Download the Real Audio as a file, not a stream of data, and convert to MP3.

Method: Use Hidownload and RM to MP3 Converter

Hidownload has a sensible trial period and RM to MP3 Converter is free

I have Sinned!

Not me, honest but our beloved George.

Galloway, according to reports, is worried about divine retribution:

“Speaking on a radio show to be broadcast tomorrow, he says he has found it difficult to "stay on the porch" - a phrase used by Hillary Clinton meaning to remain faithful.

Galloway says: "I have committed a lot of sins and repeatedly. That makes you vulnerable.

"The point about sin is that you are supposed to repent, learn from it and not repeat it.

"On many personal levels, I have sinned a lot.

"My only hope is that my life as a whole and the totality of my time here will help make up for some of that. But that, of course, is in God's hands."

Galloway's private life hit the headlines in 1987 when he separated from his wife of eight years, Elaine.”

Poor man!

Finally Beaten the Nazis

The Nazis have finally been beaten !


Or more accurately the three final Enigma codes, as reported in the Scotsman:


“THE Nazi code which sent thousands of allied sailors to their deaths in the Second World War has been cracked more than 60 years after Britain's best mathematical minds failed to break it.

The Enigma code was the most complex cipher system of its age and virtually foolproof.

..

All the codes except three were broken. Now, the work of a German amateur cryptographer has led to the solving of one of the three unresolved Enigma puzzles dating from 1942.”

Peace at last, but let's not forget the role of the Poles in breaking the codes.

Galloway Caption Contest

Never let it be said these blog entries are merely an excuse to post ridiculous pictures of George Galloway, however, they do offer the opportunity for a caption contest. Entries to the comment section.

My entries for:

Caption 1: George thinks “...with this wig no one will know me that I’m not Jimmy Saville”

Caption 2: George thinks “I wish I could wax my legs like that”

Soon to Convert?

Given Galloway’s chatter and dropping in of the "G*d" word, I wonder if he will soon convert?

Least ways his supporters in Respect/SWP can do the intellectual quick step and explain it away, as Shuggy aptly points out

George's Blog

There are far too many blogging apologists for George Galloway, so it is nice to hear his words unadulterated by spin!

Those damn Popinjays.