Posts Tagged ‘Israel’

Two reminders of Reality on Two of DaBlogs of DaMonth

Posted: November 8, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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One of the things that drives me nuts is the denial of things directly in front of you.

The first comes from Isreallycool as he demonstrates the dire conditions that Palestinians in Gaza

My point is not that there is no hardship in Gaza, but rather that the situation is a far cry from what is being presented by the Palestinians, their supporters and the mainstream media. Introducing Al-Azhar University, Gaza’s second largest university with over 11,000 registered students between eight faculties: Pharmacy, Medical Professions, Science, Agriculture, Education, Arts, Economics & Administrative Sciences and Law.

And don’t forget the Mall photos of course.

The second is even more serious and comes from Shrinkwrapped, it’s pure unadulterated 100% Racism:

When considering the possibility that a third force, such as NATO, could be given the responsibility of overseeing the implementation of the planned agreement, Mahmud Abbas imposed a condition: that there should not be a single Jewish soldier and any Israeli. “I am ready to accept a third party which supervises the implementation of the agreement, NATO forces for example, but I will not accept the presence of Jews in these forces or a [single] Israeli on the Land of Palestine.”, emphasis mine

Is such a demand tainted with antisemitism? It should not come as a shock, if we remember that Mahmud Abbas defended his doctoral thesis which was based on Holocaust denial at a school for political indoctrination in the Soviet Union.

Some may see a polemical and ideological expression in the term “racist,” but Mahmud Abbas’ demand with regard to NATO leaves no doubt in this respect.

I am constantly amazed that those who refer to Israel as an “apartheid state” never address the need for arabs to demand that any “Palestinian” state be completely Judenrein? Shrinkwrap continues:

For the American left the rationale for ignoring violent eliminationist rhetoric from all corners of the Muslim world is two-fold. We quite reasonably want to minimize the power of the Islamist narrative that posits a civilizational war between Islam and the West; in addition, ignoring the Islamist rhetoric while violently addressing those who attempt to put such rhetoric into action allows us to keep the war relatively hidden from the home front. Unfortunately, the outcome of such denial is an enemy that has command in the information war and the loss in small bits of our civilization’s legitimacy.

And this continues, Just this week a scandal erupted in Iran over a weightlifter (winning a silver) appearing on a podium next to an Israeli (who won the gold) even though he refused to shake the Israeli’s hand.

And back in August we had an Iranian “competitor” fake an injury rather than face a Jew in the final:

Alex Gilady, an IOC member from Israel who handed out the medals for the competition, said it was a tactic by Iran to avoid violation of Olympic rules.

“Once he (Soleimani) was injured, that meant he still would win the silver … have to stand on the podium and listen to the Israeli anthem and see the Israeli flag over the Iranian flag,” Gilady said. “They put him in an ambulance so at least they would not create a crisis that would have demanded further action. So it looks like everything is OK.”

Every time the left passes on this stuff without comment they further cement their cowardice and irrelevance.

Well this certainly changes the story or does it?

Posted: September 7, 2010 by datechguy in the courts
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it looks like that old “rape by deception” involved more than meets the eye.
A lot of people are jumping on this story saying people jumped the gun on the other one, I have some questions. In the base story of the guardian they quote of of the judges:

Tzvi Segal, one of three judges on the case, acknowledged that sex had been consensual but said that although not “a classical rape by force,” the woman would not have consented if she had not believed Kashur was Jewish.

Question, if this is a plea bargain why is the judge saying something like this if there is evidence of force? Let’s look at the newly translated story again:

Over the years B. filed 14 complaints, most of them for sexual offenses, against her father and other men. Some of the complaints were found to be justified, the defendants confessed and were sent to prison. Other complaints didn’t result in indictments, sometimes due to lack of evidence, and sometimes because B.’s testimony was doubted. When B. was first put on the stand in Kashur’s trial, the defense didn’t have all the 14 cases, but only a short list with the details of the cases, without all the evidence. Therefore, A’ladin applied to receive the cases following B.’s testimony. A’ladin’s intention was to put B. back on the stand and question her about the details of the cases where she was found to be unreliable – in order to discredit her in this case as well.

The Deputy Prosecutor Wittman did not like the idea of putting B. back on the stand. The previous time was, as mentioned, nothing less than traumatic, and B. was not interested in it herself. “We thought that the defense attorney’s request to question the plaintiff again about those past complaints, some of which didn’t lead to indictments, was legitimate”, Wittman explained to HaIr, “therefore, we faced a dilemma whether to expose the plaintiff once against to the cross-examination of the defense attorney over these complaints, which would inevitably lead to another traumatic experience for the plaintiff, or reach a plea bargain, as the defense attorney suggested.”

And this:

“Kashur was tried for forcible rape, but during the hearing of testimonies some difficulties with evidence arose and therefore negotiations were held between the Prosecution and Defense and we reached a plea bargain… according to the plea, even the Defense admitted to rape and deceit.”

I don’t claim to be either a lawyer or an expert on Israeli law, but I have several questions:

1. In the US you can indict a ham sandwich if there is a history of complaints that doesn’t result in incitements would you not be suspicious?

2. I note that about you see a list of “confessions” that led to prison, but not a single trial. How many of those confessions were plea deals? If Miss “B” has a history of accusations wouldn’t you think that at least one would go to trial?

3. How is it that a defendant after a plea bargain can appeal? Wouldn’t that be waved as part of a plea deal?

4. The “Confessions” listed above, what were they confessions of? Were they of lesser charges to avoid being tagged as a rapist?

It certainly sounds like B had a hard life, but read this closer. I have to disagree with the folks at the Volokh Conspiracy, they are basing their conclusion on “B” ‘s testimony which may or may not be reliable. I’ll give them their point on a plea bargain, but the judge’s statement suggests that this didn’t involve violence.

The fact that several anti-Israeli sites jumped on this naturally gives them suspicion, they’ve earned that suspicion for their denial of reality on other issues, but I would like to know more about those other cases. Is this guy just one of several who made a deal out of fear? Consider this story.

The idea that traumatised people, especially the victims of child sexual abuse, deliberately repress horrific memories goes all the way back to the 19th century and the theories of Sigmund Freud himself. But now some experts are saying the evidence points the other way. Professor Grant Devilly, from Griffith University’s Psychological Health research unit, says the memory usually works in the opposite way, with traumatised people reliving experiences they would rather forget.

Here is a thought, how many of those guys coped a plea during those days to avoid worse charges? How guys who didn’t plead were convinced by this stuff?

I’ll give Volokh that I may not know all the facts, but I don’t think he does either and one additional report doesn’t make the story complete, at least not yet.

The problem is that people are looking at an Arab v Jew issue. I think this case is less about that and more about a disturbed woman with issues and the men Jewish and Arab she has sent to prison over the years. Is this an abused woman who was abused one more time or Duke on the Jordan?

I don’t know, and most likely when it comes down to it, neither do you.

Memeorandum thread here

Pining for the good old days of carbombs in Israel…

Posted: September 3, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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Some things are just so ridiculous on their face that you can’t believe a prominent journalist actually said it:

“They [Israel] haven’t had a car bombing in two and a half years and the sad truth, really, is that the wall with the West Bank has actually worked.

Am I to understand that it is a regrettable thing that the wall to the west has prevented large amounts of Jews from living in fear and dying in violent slaughter? Time magazine has more:

Now observing 2½ years without a single suicide bombing on their territory, with the economy robust and with souls a trifle weary of having to handle big elemental thoughts, the Israeli public prefers to explore such satisfactions as might be available from the private sphere, in a land first imagined as a utopia. “Listen to me,” says Eli Bengozi, born in Soviet Georgia and for 40 years an Israeli. “Peace? Forget about it. They’ll never have peace. Remember Clinton gave 99% to Arafat, and instead of them fighting for 1%, what? Intifadeh.”

Does it occur to anyone that the wall actually provided peace. The Jews aren’t (and never were) interested in killing “Palestinians”, and thanks to the wall the “Palestinians” who apparently still want to kill Jews instead of you know having a life, can’t get to them.

As long as Arabs in general and “Palestinians” in particular consider dead Jews one of their favorite things you can’t have official peace, but if Palestinians can’t kill Jews, you will have defacto peace which apparently offends some on the left to no end.

The “Palestinians” elites hate it too, because with even defacto peace comes the responsibility to govern, and perhaps the reduction of the international welfare that has allowed the PLO leadership to line their pockets while ignoring their people for years.

Bottom line as long as “Palestinians” areas are Judenrein they are not interested in peace and we should stop pretending they are.

The Bigots of the 30’s would be so proud of Harvard…

Posted: August 16, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…moving back to the old Jew Hating days of yesteryear.

There is a pretty clear pattern here–again, assuming that the five nearly-simultaneous sales of shares in Israeli companies were not coincidental. Harvard is happy to do business with oppressors–real oppressors, that is–as long as there is enough money in it. China and Saudi Arabia have, in sheer monetary terms, a lot to offer. But taking a “principled” stand against Israel, still the Middle East’s only democracy (unless you count Iraq, on which the jury is still out) and the only country in the region with a Western human rights sensibility, is cost-free. Sort of like banning military recruiters.

The difference between courage and cravenness is being willing to stand up when it actually costs you something. “Standing up” to Israel costs Harvard on money or reputation among the elites, it risks no anger to among those who shower them with money, yet it allows them to think of themselves as “moral”.

Alas this decision costs nothing of Harvard, except Honor, and it has been a long time since Harvard valued that word.

That fact even more than the disinvestment is the true tragedy here.

Memeorandum thread here.

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