Posts Tagged ‘Israel’

You know I’m pretty hard on the Arabs here

Posted: July 21, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , ,

…but I really don’t like this:

Sabbar Kashur, 30, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday after the court ruled that he was guilty of rape by deception. According to the complaint filed by the woman with the Jerusalem district court, the two met in downtown Jerusalem in September 2008 where Kashur, an Arab from East Jerusalem, introduced himself as a Jewish bachelor seeking a serious relationship. The two then had consensual sex in a nearby building before Kashur left.

When she later found out that he was not Jewish but an Arab, she filed a criminal complaint for rape and indecent assault.

You have got to be kidding me. She is an easy idiot and he is a lying bastard but Rape by deception? Give me a break. I’m with Gideon Levy on this one:

Gideon Levy, a liberal Israeli commentator, was quoted as saying: “I would like to raise only one question with the judge. What if this guy had been a Jew who pretended to be a Muslim and had sex with a Muslim woman?

“Would he have been convicted of rape? The answer is: of course not.”

Bottom line, this is wrong.

Memeorandum thread here

Update: Stacy McCain’s headline is better than mine.

Another contrast of Israel vs Hamas

Posted: July 20, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , , , ,

As I am not Jewish or an Evangelical Christian some wonder why I’m so Pro-Israel and so hard on the Palestinians. Here is another example of why I think how I do:

Here is an example of the typical behavior of Hamas toward Jews:

Police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) agents have tracked down and arrested members of a Hamas terrorist cell responsible for a June shooting attack that killed police officer Shuki Sofer, who was engaged to be married. Two other officers were wounded in the attack.

And here is an example in the very next paragraph in the story of the typical behavior of Israel toward Hamas:

One of the terrorists, two weeks before the murder, had received humanitarian aid at Israel’s Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where he had accompanied his six-year-old daughter for surgery that removed a tumor removed from her eye. The operation had been paid for in full by an Israeli charity foundation.

and the sad thing is you can find plenty examples of that behavior by Jews toward those trying to kill them. When I see examples of the 2nd paragraph from the Arabs, Palestinians, Hamas, et/al rather than the first then I’ll take them seriously.

memeorandum thread here

The most important story of the day is not what you would expect:

Posted: July 19, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
Tags: , , , ,

It is this bit from Commentary that links to this interview in the Jerusalem Post all emphasis mine:

The best of the best. We had 35 people in the room: 20 of them were non-Jewish, 15 were Jewish. And I didn’t tell anyone who was which. And I’d recruited them by telling them “we’re going to talk about Iraq, Iran and the Middle East,” not telling them that the real focus was Israel.

Got them all into the room. It was so crowded that we had kids sitting on the floor. But that added to the intensity. They felt like they were in a dorm room. And within 10 minutes, the non-Jews started with “the war crimes of Israel,” with “the Jewish lobby,” with “the Jews have a lot more power and influence” – stuff that’s borderline anti-Jewish.

And guess what? Did the Jewish kids at the best schools in America, did they stand up for themselves? Did they challenge the assertions? They didn’t say sh*t. And in that group was the leader of the Israeli caucus at Harvard. It took him 49 minutes of this before he responded to anything.

The group is over. It’s a three-hour group. I then say, “Who’s Jewish, who isn’t?” At that point some of the Jewish kids got a little outraged. I dismiss all the non-Jewish kids.

And the Jewish kids are there. And they’re now ticked at me for doing this, you know, “Why have you segregated us?” I said, “I’m Frank Luntz and I’m Jewish, and I’ve been working on this now for 10 years, and you all didn’t say sh*t.”

And it all dawned on them: If they won’t say it to their classmates, who they know, who will they stand up for Israel to? Two of the women in the group started to cry. I got the whole thing on tape. The guys are like, “Oh my God, I didn’t speak up, I can’t believe I let this happen.” And they’re all looking at each other with horrible embarrassment and guilt like you wouldn’t believe.

And I take this tape down, this little DVD, to the Jewish community and I say, “This is what we’ve done – or not done.” It’s not just giving them the facts. It is also teaching them how to say it, when to say it, when to crack a joke, when to acknowledge someone else’s points, when not to be argumentative or judgmental.

That is the point. During the 30’s people just couldn’t let themselves believe what was coming for Jews. This denial allowed it to happen. Right now that same denial is going on. Evelyn Gordon bottom lines it:

But it’s also a travesty because it shouldn’t be hard for any Jewish leftist to explain why Israel, for all its flaws, is still a far better example of the left’s one-time values, such as freedom, democracy, tolerance, and human rights, than any of its enemies. As Israel’s first Bedouin diplomat, Ishmael Khaldi, said in explaining why he chose to represent a country that allegedly oppresses his fellow Muslim Arabs, “We’re a multicultural, multilingual, multireligious country and I’m happy and proud to be part of it.”

I’m sorry if liberals in general and liberal Jews in particular are unable, unwilling or too afraid to stand up for Israel then they had better beware, because radical Islam and its followers don’t just say “death to Israel” they say “death to Jews” and if Israel disappears tomorrow you and your children (and not me since I’m not even slightly Jewish) are the ones who are going to pay the price. And when that price is paid and the yellow star is once again on your chest (if you’re lucky that is) you will be echoing the guys in the group from above said:

I can’t believe I let this happen!

And if you think that is an exaggeration, try to walk through a Muslim neighborhood in England or Canada carrying an Israeli flag or wearing a big blue star of David if you dare.

Memorandum thread here.

Update: Stacy handles this in depth emphasis mine.

As with global warming, so too with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The three-decade ascendancy of the Edward Said cult in Mideast studies has poisoned the academic well to such a degree that one can scarcely find an “expert” on the subject who is not tainted by it. Meanwhile, the veterans of the ’60s New Left have penetrated organized liberalism to such a degree that, vis-à-vis the Middle East, the Democratic Party is now more aligned with Sirhan Sirhan than with RFK.

Reality is going to catch up with you it you don’t deal with it first.

Tom Friedman makes a great point but misses an important one…

Posted: July 19, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Friedman makes a couple of good points concerning the Octavia Nasr firing in his column today:

Augustus Richard Norton, of Boston University, a Shiite expert, said this about Fadlallah, whom he knew: “He argued that women should have equal opportunities to men and be well educated. He even argued that women have a right to hit their husband back because it was not appropriate for a spouse to be beaten by their husbands. He was not afraid to speak about sexuality, and he even once gave [a mosque sermon] about sexual urges and female masturbation. It was common to find young people who followed his writings all over the region.” Indeed, Nasr later explained that her tweet about Fadlallah was because he took a “contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on women’s rights.”

Remember this is an islamic cleric in Lebanon, after reading several books on woman’s repression in Islamic we need a lot more of this, second good point:

Ghaddar said she came to understand that “only figures like Fadlallah could change the status quo. People who position themselves as anti-Hezbollah, critics of resistance, or atheists, will rarely be heard within the Shia community, because people will not listen to them. … Fadlallah on the other hand could reach out to the people because he was one of them. … People like him, if strengthened, can bring about real change. He is one of those rare people whom Hezbollah and the Iranian leadership feared … because people liked him and respected him.”

These are both legitimate things to consider about the guy (If he was Stacy McCain he would have also played the “My God she is Hot“ card) as is the point that only someone on the team will be listened to.

However you miss the most important point. He was in favor of dead Jews, LOTS of them. Regardless of the other stuff he was still a terrorist. Defending and supporting him is like defending Albert Speer. You can make any amount of excuses you want, he’s still a Nazi. I’ve mentioned this type of thing before:

It’s like saying Tessio is a scoundrel and Clemenza is not. They’re all friggen Mafia! They are by definition all scoundrels.

Or to put it even better consider this exchange from the Classic movie The Great Escape. Where the C.O. points out the risks of such a plan to the med:

Ramsey: I have to point out one thing to you, Roger. No matter how unsatisfactory this camp may be, the high command have left us in the hands of the Luftwaffe, not the Gestapo and the SS.

Bartlett: Look, sir, you talk about the high command of the Luftwaffe, then the SS and the Gestapo. To me they’re the same. We’re fighting the bloody lot. There’s only one way to put it, sir. They are the common enemies of everyone who believes in freedom.

That’s is the critical point and Friedman misses it. They are the common enemy. There was no nuance here. If she said the same thing about a Bin Ladin deputy would we even have to ask if she should be fired?

Update: memeorandum thread here.

Older Entries
Newer Entries