Exodus' commander Yossi Harel passes away at 90

Yossi Harel, who was the captain of the Exodus ship that brought 24,000 Jewish refugees to Israel during WW2, has passed away at 90 years old. He should be honored for his bold role as captain of the great rescue ship.

Japanese may have more respect for Anne Frank than some Europeans

Here's an article about Japan's Holocaust Education Center, founded by Makoto Otsuka 13 years ago, who'd met Frank's father in 1971. You have to hand it to them, that they may have better respect for whom they focus on than Holland's own government does.

What will become of Egypt post-Mubarak?

Barry Rubin talks about the state of Egypt under undemocratic president Hosni Mubarak, who's now about 80 years old. The question is - how much longer can he continue? And, better still, what'll happen when's gone?

Even now, there's every sign that relations with Egypt, as well as that country's own stability, are withering away, and that the Muslim Brotherhood is rising in the background. The fallout will be coming one day.

Update: in a related item, the British reporter and author John R. Bradley says in an interview on Front Page Mag (via The American Thinker) that there could come a revolution in Egypt very soon, and that the next 2 years will be important to take note of.

When you don't destroy Hezbollah, you can only expect that they'll build up their army of darkness again

According to the Observer (via Hot Air Headlines), Hezbollah is building up a covert army to attack Israel again.

See, that's what happens when they're not genuinely destroyed - they'll only take time to lick wounds and regroup.

Is this what we're in Iraq for?

While the war in Iraq was for a good cause, if steps are not taken to get rid of Islamofascist mindsets within the heads of any Islamist citizen there, then the mission turns pointless. Case in point: the sadistic murder by a father of his daughter for falling in love with a British soldier (Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool):

A teenage Iraqi girl who fell in love with a British soldier when he was in Basra was murdered by her father in an "honour killing", it was revealed today.

Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, was suffocated and then hacked at with a knife after her family discovered she was friends with the 22-year-old soldier who she knew only as Paul.

The pair first met when Rand was working on an aid project for displaced families but it is thought the soldier is unaware of the girl's fate.

She was stamped on, suffocated and stabbed - leaving her with puncture wounds all over her body, including her face.

Her own mother, Leila Hussein, has spoken out about the crime, revealing how her husband called out that he was cleansing "his honour" as he carried out the murder.

She told the Observer he was arrested after the brutal murder but was released without charge two hours later because it was an "honour killing".

"He was released two hours later because it was an 'honour killing'. And unfortunately that is something to be proud of for any Iraqi man," she told the paper.

Sgt Ali Jabbar of Basra police said: "Not much can be done when we have an 'honour killing'. You are in a Muslim society and women should live under religious laws."

If the forces of democratic countries don't do anything to change this kind of cannibalistic behavior and get rid of Shari'a, then the mission to Iraq has accomplished nothing. Demands should be made of those in charge of Iraq to change the laws and start punishing savages like the one who committed the vile crime against his daughter.

Drug cartel battles in Mexico

This has been going on for many years now in that country. Latest victim of this violence is Tijuana:

TIJUANA, Mexico - Massive gunbattles broke out between suspected drug traffickers who fired at each other while speeding down heavily populated streets of this violent border city early Saturday, killing 13 people and wounding nine.

All of the dead were believed to be drug traffickers, possibly rival members of the same cartel who were trying to settle scores, said Rommel Moreno, the attorney general of Baja California state, where Tijuana is located.

"Evidently this is a confrontation between gangs," Moreno told reporters.

Eight suspects and one federal police officer were injured in the pre-dawn shootings, none gravely, said Agustin Perez Aguilar, a spokesman for the state public safety department. The suspects are being held on suspicion of weapons possession among other possible charges.

Police recovered 21 vehicles, many with bullet holes or U.S. license plates; a total of 54 guns; and more than 1,500 spent shell casings at various points in the city where the battles broke out, Perez Aguilar said.

At one point, the alleged traffickers fired at one another as their sport utility vehicles sped down a busy six-lane boulevard lined with restaurants, car repair shops, medical offices and strip malls.

Bullet holes could be seen in the walls of a factory building and on the perimeter wall of a housing complex along the road, but no bystander deaths were reported. It was not clear how long the gunbattles lasted.

A mall security guard who did not want to give his name for fear of reprisals said he heard hundreds of gunshots fired, some of which passed near him.

"I hit the ground," the guard said. When he got up again, he said he saw bullet holes in the wall behind him, a dead man lying in a pool of blood and 11 abandoned, bullet-ridden SUVs on the street.

The first shootout claimed seven victims. Three subsequent gunbattles — one outside a hospital — claimed five more, police said. The body of a man police believe to be the 13th victim turned up at a city hospital.

Tijuana, a sprawling metropolis just across the border from San Diego, California, is pervaded by frequent violence, much of it blamed on drug cartels battling for control of lucrative trafficking routes. The city is home to the Arellano-Felix drug cartel.

In January, eight people died in a gunbattle at a Tijuana safe-house apparently used by drug hit men to hold kidnapped rivals. In that confrontation, hit men holed up inside the house battled police and soldiers with automatic weapons for three hours.

The best option now is to call in the military to deal with the scum and get them off the streets. Unless some proper action is taken to crack down on these horrific gangsters, innocent people will most definitely end up victimized by the violence as well.

Dan Gillerman sums it up correctly about Jimmy Carter

The Israeli ambassador to the UN has called Carter a bigot (Hat tip: Hot Air Headlines):

NEW YORK - Israel's ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday called former President Jimmy Carter "a bigot" for meeting with the leader of the militant Hamas movement in Syria.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, "went to the region with soiled hands and came back with bloody hands after shaking the hand of Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas," Ambassador Dan Gillerman told a luncheon briefing for reporters.

The diplomat was questioned about problems facing his country during a wide-ranging discussion with reporters lasting more than an hour. The briefing was sponsored by The Israel Project, a Washington-based, media-oriented advocacy group.

The ambassador's harsh words for Carter came days after the ex-president met with Mashaal for seven hours in Damascus to negotiate a cease-fire with Gaza's Hamas rulers. Carter then called Mashaal on Monday to try to get him to agree to a one-month truce without conditions, but the Hamas leader rejected the idea.

The ambassador called last weekend's encounter "a very sad episode in American history."

Gillerman is much more suited to be a politician than Ehud Olmert, if you ask me.

UK's High Court knocks down anti-terror strategy of freezing terrorists' monetary assets

So many ludicrous things in England work together to make it almost impossible to fight terrorism properly in that country. From the Telegraph:

The Government’s anti-terrorism strategy was dealt a devastating blow today as the High Court ruled that its powers to freeze suspects’ assets were unlawful and unconstitutional.

Geez, just look at those two words they used to describe the government's steps. Truly, if this is how things are going to be there, then there is no constitution and no justice in England.

A judge said the measures, introduced when Gordon Brown was Chancellor, had not been thought through properly and Parliament had been “bypassed”.

Around 70 suspects are currently subject to orders freezing bank accounts containing about £500,000.

The Treasury immediately announced it will appeal the ruling and the judge agreed that suspects’ assets will remain frozen until the outcome of the appeal.

If the appeal fails ministers are considering rewriting anti-terrorism legislation to incorporate asset-freezing powers into the Counter Terrorism Bill.

Well, let's hope they do, but somehow, I just can't feel optimistic that proper justice will prevail.

At the High Court Mr Justice Collins allowed legal challenges by five men, all British citizens, who have never been charged with terrorist offences but have had their assets frozen.

[...]

The five men making the legal challenge - referred to as A, K, M, Q and G - denied terrorist links and said there had been a “humiliating and devastating” effect on their lives.

The article isn't really clear here about whether the men are terror-suspects. Do I detect a possible sob-story in the works for them?

At the Counterterrorism Blog, Jonathan Winer says:

There is thus a growing risk that the entire international regime to freeze terrorist assets is in a process of disintegration.

In light of this risk, the U.S. and other countries seeking to maintain the ability to freeze terrorist assets need to proceed quickly to develop mechanisms that would provide those subject to sanctions with baseline elements of the right to be heard by by an independent and impartial authority that has the power to grant appropriate relief with procedural guarantees for affected individuals or entities. Some of the most obvious possibilities were laid out two years ago by Professors Thomas J. Biersteker and Sue Eckert of the Watson Institute in a paper for the UN.

That's right, some kind of special legislation is required, perhaps to make it impossible for potential terrorists to use funds within what countries wisely take measures to combat terrorism. However, I'd advise against trying to make any such proposal at an entity as corrupt as the UN. They simply cannot be trusted to follow through on any of that.

After almost 3 decades, Nicuargua's Jewish community gets a new Torah scroll

The JTA talks about some good news for religious Jews living in central America:

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (JTA) – After 28 years without a Torah scroll, Nicaraguan Jews joyously welcomed a new Torah in a ceremony community members say helped rekindle the Jewish spirit in this turbulent Central American country.

The morning after Sunday's ceremony, the Torah was used for the first time in a minyan, at the bar mitzvah of Joshua Kain Teplitskaia.

Some two dozen people, including a rabbi from neighboring Costa Rica, attended the service. It represented the first real service in the country since it last had a Torah.

“We are taking the Torah once again to Nicaragua,” said Rabbi Hersch Spalter, the Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi from Costa Rica who presided over the festivities. “This is the rebirth of Judaism in Nicaragua.”

Never a large community, Nicaragua Jews began leaving the country during the political deterioration of the 1970s. After the Soviet-backed Sandinista Revolution in 1979, the few Jews who remained went into exile, taking their Torah with them.

Jews began returning to Nicaragua after the Sandinistas were voted out of office in 1990, but their Torah remained in Costa Rica until a suitable home in Nicaragua could be constructed for it.

With no synagogue or community center to serve the estimated 60 Jews in the country, this week’s festivities were held at the Torah’s interim home, the house of Jimmy Najman, a Shabbat and kosher observer who attends Spalter’s synagogue when in Costa Rica.

“It looks to be that little by little this community is growing,” Spalter told JTA. “For now it is perfectly fine if services are at the Najman’s house, so long as there are services.”

Now isn't that wonderful? It's great to see even a foreign community being able to reestablish itself.

Bill Clinton's race card comment

The former president has become embroiled in a scandal over a comment he made about Barack Obama's campaign:

Former president Bill Clinton was embroiled Tuesday in a new campaign flap after accusing his wife's White House rival Barack Obama of playing "the race card on me."

[...]

Interviewed Monday by a Philadelphia radio station, Clinton was asked whether it was a mistake by him in January to liken Obama's candidacy to the African-American Jesse Jackson's in 1988.

"No. I think that they (the Obama campaign) played the race card on me. And we now know, from memos from the campaign and everything, that they planned to do it all along," Clinton had told the WHYY station.

After the interview was over but with the microphone still on, Clinton was heard to growl: "I don't think I should take any s(expletive) from anybody on that, do you?"

Clinton's South Carolina remark alienated several top black Democrats, who saw an attempt by the former president to belittle the mixed-race Obama and portray his White House bid as fueled only by African-American support.

And still I'm glad that Hillary won the Philadelphia primary considering how much more awful Obama happens to be. Yet it pleases me simultaneously to see one of the most pretentious presidents of the US get what he deserves - embarrassment.

A shill who shills for a shill

I found this very ludicrous book review posted on the Shelf Life blog of the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, of a new book by New York Times propagandist Chris Hedges called "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America". And from what I can tell, there are quite a few things wrong with it. For example:

The vast majority of Hedges’ book describes the various ways in which pillars of the Christian Right condemn the left, the independent woman, the homosexual, the Muslim — and exploit the poor, the female, the old and the non-white.

In this, Hedges is, ahem, preaching to the choir, I think.

Let's see, is that last part there the reporter's way of trying to elude accusations of his own bias? I don't know, but I certainly do know that coming after the discovery of Jeremiah Wright's own slurs against whites in his basically leftist church, that's asking a bit much to say that only the rightists are discriminatory and incite against whomever doesn't meet their standards.

I also find it interesting that either Hedges, or the reporter reviewing, or both, mention Islamists but not Judaists as someone whom the Christian right condemn. Would that mean that it's okay for them to discriminate against adherents of the Jewish religion, but not Islam?

And speaking of Islam, what about what its adherents do to women, independent or otherwise? I don't suppose they ever read the Quran, and what Sura 4:23-24 says?

“Forbidden to you are ... married women, except those whom you own as slaves” (Sura 4:23-24)

That's why I find their claim that the Christian right's condemnation of Islam is wrong so ludicrious. Attempting to suggest that Islam is better, when a clearer look at an authentic copy of the Quran would suggest otherwise.

The Commercial Appeal writer goes on to say:

In the Salon interview, Hedges mentions that he began to notice similarities between Serbian demagogues and American Christian Right “dominionists” when he returned to the United States.

And what about similarities between Bosnian Muslims like Sulejman Talovic and other Muslims? He didn't notice those?

And regarding their attack on the Christian right for disapproving of homosexuality, I'd suggest they take a look at this report by Reuters. Is that not a reason why such practices should be shunned?

At the same time, I must say, I find it interesting that Hedges and his shill at the Commercial Appeal show no concern over how Islam considers homosexuality objectionable, to the point where they call for the execution of gays and lesbians as the main imam of Manchester in England did a year and a half ago. Where do they stand then?

At the end of the entry, the reporter says:

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think Obama’s nomination would be a bad thing. I just fear that if something untoward should happen during this presidential election, it might be the tipping point.

Again, totally oblivious to the discoveries made about Obama's pals, which makes his words disgusting.

Update: and while we're on the subject, what an interesting discovery: Reverend Wright is defending his anti-American blatherings. Far as I'm concerned, he can stuff it.

More on the Carter problem

In her latest column this week, Michelle Malkin talks about the continuing problem with the disgusting Jimmy Carter. More available here.

He most definitely must have his passport revoked, and even quarantined/confined to his house that he doesn't even deserve. He is a one-man menace who led to much of Israel's current problems, and it's clear that he's incorrigable.

And while we're on the subject, I strongly recommend reading Prof. Paul Eidelberg's book called Sadat's Strategy, to learn about the evil entity Anwar Sadat really was.

A protest against a Bush/Abbas meeting at the White House

Here's a press release notice I received:

JOIN THE COALITION TO DEFEND JERUSALEM & SHALOM INTERNATIONAL
TO PROTEST ABBAS / BUSH MEETING AT THE WHITE HOUSE

THIS THURSDAY, April 24, 2008

9:00 A.M. - in front of the White House
Noon - at the PLO Headquarters, 1320 18th St., N.W.
3 P.M. - in Annapolis, starting at Alex Haley/Kunta Kinte Memorial and marching to Gate 1 where the Annapolis Summit took place

For more information, call Robert Kunst at: 305.864.5110. See also: www.defendjerusalem.net

KEEP JERUSALEM UNITED! ISRAEL IS NOT FOR SALE!!

Absolutely correct there.

Anti-jihad movement should not be about race

Robert Spencer makes an excellent case about why those opposed to jihad should shun white supremacists and racialists trying to board the anti-jihad boat (Hat tip: Little Green Footballs):

Also, people I respect have pointed out that European culture is being overwhelmed and transformed by out-of-control Muslim immigration, and there is nothing wrong with defending it from that. I agree. But while culture has a racial component, culture and race are not identical. To reduce culture to race on a continent that has seen six million sacrificed to the idolatry of race and blood is not, in my view, the right way to defend European culture -- and there must be articulated a sane and moral alternative that is clearly distinct from that and rejects it utterly. Geert Wilders in the Netherlands has managed to mount a strong stance against Islamization while avoiding dalliance with racial groups. While I am not a European and am conscious that Europeans will probably charge me with naivete and ignorance (the last time I posted this I inspired not one, but two websites charging me with being a secret jihadist, so this time I'll probably be Satan himself), I still don't see why it can't be done elsewhere. Such dalliances inevitably raise the specter of neo-Nazism and white supremacism, and allow the mainstream parties to pretend that Europe faces a choice between becoming Eurabia and reviving the gas chamber. There are other ways, there have to be other ways, to deal with this.

The anti-jihad movement, if it is to become mainstream in Europe or the U.S., must articulate a positive vision of defense for the human rights of all people against the ways in which those human rights are contravened under Sharia, and avoid being diverted into side issues and non-issues, or formulating the problem incorrectly.

On a side note, Geert Wilders was lucky that the Dutch court upheld his rights to free speech in connection with Fitna. Very fortunate.

Muslims around Israel overwhelmingly support murder

According to this new poll (via LGF):

The number of Palestinians who support attacks against Israelis continues to rise and more than half of them favor suicide bombings, according to a poll published this weekend.

The survey also showed that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is still more popular than Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The percentage of Palestinians who support “resistance operations” against Israeli targets rose from 43.1 percent in September 2006 to 49.5% at present. Support for this option was highest in the Gaza Strip, at 58.1%, with 24.5% in the West Bank agreeing.

Palestinians who support bombing attacks against Israeli civilians rose from 44.8% in June 2006 to 48% in September 2006 and to 50.7% now.

Again, more Gazans support these operations (65.1%), compared with 42.3% of Palestinians in the West Bank.

The Palestinian public is divided on the rocket attacks on Israel: 39.3% said the firing of these rockets was “useful” to Palestinian national interests, while 35.7% said they were harmful.

Just don't expect Jimmy Carter to care about this.

Very fortunate

The IDF thwarted an attempt by the Hamas to use a car bomb and breach the borderline:

The IDF foiled a well-planned car bomb attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing, but the cost was high. Thirteen IDF soldiers were lightly or moderately wounded Saturday morning as Palestinians detonated car bombs, fired mortar shells and opened fire on the troops, in what the IDF considers an attempted abduction attempt

In the first attack of its kind from Gaza, Hamas sent two explosives-packed jeeps and two armored vehicles. The jeeps, which were detonated by suicide drivers, broke through to the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom goods crossing early Saturday, April 19. Terrorists jumped out of the first armored vehicle under cover of the explosions as well as mortar fire and heavy mist, and attacked the Israeli position guarding the terminal. This vehicle, painted in IDF colors, was captured and the assailants driven back.

It's lucky that they were on the alert.

Yes, even men are discriminated against under Islam

Americans should take note of this, as public sources in the US need to be protected from the kind of takeovers Islam has succeeded in accomplishing in England, as reported here in the Daily Mail:

A father and his five-year-old son were turned away from their local swimming pool because they were the wrong religion.

David Toube, 39, and his son Harry were told that the Sunday morning session was reserved for Muslim men only.

Hackney Council, which runs the Clissold Leisure Centre in Stoke Newington, north London, claimed staff there had made a mistake.

However, the Muslim-only session was advertised on its website.

Mr Toube, a corporate lawyer, described his experiences on a blog.

"I arrived at the pool to discover that they were holding what staff described to me as "Muslim men only swimming"," he wrote.

"I asked whether my son and I could go as we were both male. I was told that the session was for Muslims only and that we could not be admitted."

The staff later said it was wrong to deny the two entry, but they can stuff their "apology". It wouldn't surprise me if the Muslims using the pool would rather not have kaffirs in their vicinity, as they'd consider the pool "their" property, and the infidels as not having the right to ownership. Don't let those advocates of the PC-mania fool you.

Join the Sick of Jimmy Carter Coalition

With that disgusting former president going and meeting with Hamas, it's fortunate that someone is out there who's starting to wake up and react to creepy Carter's abominable acts. For example, Rep. Sue Myrick, who's calling for revoking his passport (H/T: Michelle Malkin and WeaselZippers):

Today, Rep. Sue Myrick (NC-9) called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to revoke former President Jimmy Carter’s passport. This is in response to the former President traveling to Syria to meet with Hamas, an organization officially designated by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

“Former President Carter has acted in contradiction of international agreements to isolate Hamas. He has acted in defiance of both United States policy and international policy. His actions reward terrorists, lend support, and provide legitimacy to their belief that violence will eventually get them what they want,” said Rep. Myrick.

After Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections the Quartet (US, UN, EU and Russia) called on Hamas to renounce terror, recognize Israel and recognize the previous agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel as they seek an agreement to make peace. Hamas has categorically rejected these three conditions for more than two years.

Congress granted the Secretary of State the power to grant and verify passports. In 1981, the United States Supreme Court held in the case of Haig v. Agee that the Secretary of State has the implied power to revoke passports as well (453 U.S. 280).

You can watch a video with Myrick at Hot Air. And Rep. Joe Knollenberg is calling for confiscating public tax support of Carter's institution:

A U.S. lawmaker introduced legislation Wednesday to strip former President Jimmy Carter’s Georgia-based scholarly institution of taxpayer support because of Carter’s plans to meet with the top leaders of the Palestinian terror group Hamas.

And a second lawmaker presented a non-binding resolution that would urge former presidents from “freelance diplomacy” in direct response to Carter’s visit.

Carter is set to set to meet Thursday with Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader with control over militants in the Gaza Strip, and he met Tuesday with a high-ranked Hamas politician.

But the heaviest criticism for Carter is coming over a planned meeting on Friday with Hamas’ exiled leader Khaled Meshal.

“America must speak with one voice against our terrorist enemies,” Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., said in a statement from his office. “It sends a fundamentally troubling message when an American dignitary is engaged in dialogue with terrorists. My legislation will make sure that taxpayer dollars are not being used to support discussions or negotiations with terrorist groups.”

Knollenberg said the Carter Center has received about $19 million in taxpayer funds since 2001. He named his bill the Coordinated American Response to Extreme Radicals Act — or CARTER Act, for short. The Carter Center is housed at Emory University in Atlanta.

I think even better would be to shut down his entire institution and take it away from him.

Even some Democrats are starting to get fed up with him. Read more at Tigerhawk on some of Carter's lies in Egypt.

Others on the subject include The Sundries Shack, Stop the ACLU, A Newt One, Neocon News.

New charges and indictment in Goose Creek case

Tampa Tribune has some more news on extra charges being filed against the Goose Creek duo (via Michelle Malkin):

TAMPA - Twelve days before they were scheduled to go on trial, two former University of South Florida students are facing new charges handed up by a federal grand jury.

The new seven-count indictment adds terrorism and weapons charges against one of the defendants, Ahmed Mohamed. It also includes a new charge against Mohamed and Youssef Megahed relating to the devices found in the trunk of their car when they were arrested Aug. 4 in South Carolina. It replaces a two-count indictment handed up last year.

Let's hope the jury convicts them too, because look at this appalling news from Miami. Sometimes, I think at least some places in the US would do better not to use a jury in all cases.

80 percent of Gazans consider emigrating

And the one to blame for their problems is and should be Hamas:

(IsraelNN.com) Eighty percent of the residents of Gaza find it difficult to cope with the situation there and are considering emigration, a survey by the Gaza-based Institute of Development Studies has found. Gazans are finding it progressively more difficult to deal with the economic situation there, according to the institute, and 44 percent said explicitly that they want to leave Gaza.

When terrorists take charge, this is all you can expect, really.

Oppose that deal

The residents of Yatir have good reason to be concerned:

(IsraelNN.com) With the leaking of a second eviction deal in as many days, residents of the hilltop community of Yatir Darom (South Yatir) claim blackmail and broken promises. Municipal officials say it is a mountain out of a molehill.

Two families and three bachelors living in an outlying neighborhood of Beit Yatir are being pressured by municipal officials to willingly abandon their homes in return for promised benefits to the larger community. The government is seeking to destroy at least 26 young Jewish towns termed "unauthorized outposts" by the US-backed Road Map. Removing two structures from the Beit Yatir neighborhood, listed as an outpost by Peace Now, will ostensibly satisfy a diplomatic demand.

The residents of Yatir Darom oppose the plan. They say they were not consulted on it, and that it violates their working relationship with their mother community. “One day," one o fthem said, "a week before Purim, a few of the single men living here noticed Yatir’s mayor walking around with a contractor, talking about where the electricity would be cut and which structures would be dismantled.” The mayor later informed them that the Civil Administration was forcing the community to remove two trailer homes from the area.

“What about the farm we have built for six years?” asked Itai Cohen, a resident who along with another family planted 150 trees, raised bees and built up the area, including a mikvah (ritual bath) using Avodah Ivrit (Jewish labor). He was told that their eviction would result in the authorization of Beit Yatir’s large chicken coops, located nearby.

Beit Yatir residents say the government is effectively blackmailing the community with the promise of unfreezing a construction freeze and authorizing the construction of a dairy for farmers evicted from Gush Katif. One person complained that municipality officials are conducting a scare campaign against the farm, saying that if it isn’t taken down, it will endanger the rest of Beit Yatir.

“They say if we don’t get rid of the farm, the Civil Administration will come and persecute us for every unauthorized closed-in porch and things like that,” a resident, who preferred not to be named, said. He also said the authorization of nearby Sansana, a Green Line Israeli suburb of Meitar that reaches over the pre-1967 border, has been made contingent on the eviction as well.

They're right to be concerned. Whatever logic the municipality is using here is spectacularly flawed, and the residents of those houses should not have to go along with any of it. Their mayor, IMO, is a traitor too.

Britain allows terror activists to stay

As if in answer to my earlier question, Britain's questionable courts, and government, are still allowing Libyan al Qaeda terrorists who could be dangerous to their country's security - to remain there. The Independent (via Michelle Malkin) reports:

A terror suspect who was once found with a map marked with the flightpath to Birmingham International Airport has defeated the UK Government's bid to deport him to Libya.

The man, who can only be identified by the initials DD, has been described by a court as "real and direct threat to the national security of the UK".

A second Libyan, known only as AS and described as a "committed Islamist extremist" also won his appeal against deportation.

AS was also ruled to be a "clear danger to national security". A Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) document said: "He is an Islamic extremist who has engaged actively and as a senior member with a terrorist group clearly engaged in support work for jihadist activities."

AS was involved with a "serious terrorist group" based in Milan which was monitored by the Italian authorities.

The terror cell was probably about to go into the operational stage of a terror attack, most likely inside Europe, it said.

[...]

The Siac document said AS paid £2,000 to be smuggled from Malta to Britain in February 2002. He claimed asylum in April of that year.

[...]

DD and AS have been on bail since, and are now believed to have been put under a control order. They are likely to face a curfew and other restrictions on their activities.

Oh yeah, that'll do a lot of good, won't it. And don't expect Amnesty International to be much help either. It makes no sense that someone who would do serious harm to innocent civilians would gain sympathy and allowed to remain in Britain for fear of being tortured to death by Kaddafi's gang.

Britain monitoring many terrorist suspects, but beyond that, what'll they do?

The threat of terrorism in the UK gets worse, as this news tells, but it looks like practically the whole parliament is inept:

LONDON (Reuters) - British police and security agencies are currently monitoring 30 terrorism plots, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in extracts of a newspaper interview released on Saturday.

“We now face a threat level that is severe. It’s not getting any less, it’s actually growing,” she said in an interview to be published in Sunday’s News of the World.

“We task the police and the security agencies with protecting us ... There are 22,000 individuals they are monitoring. There are 200 networks. There are 30 active plots,” she said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour government is seeking to extend pre-charge detention of terrorism suspects to 42 days from the current 28-day limit.

But Smith faces a tough task steering the controversial provisions through parliament.

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties have both said they will vote against extended detention. Labour backbenchers are also threatening to rebel and vote down the clause in the Counter-Terrorism Bill.

Oh dear. If that is so, then the Tories might not succeed in being reelected next year. If anything, it's possible that there'll be a low voter turnout at the British ballots, as voters may be disillusioned by the lack of concern and responsibility by their elected officials.

Shari'a in American schools, and terrorist fundraisers at UC Irvine

Katherine Kersten at the Minneapolis Star Tribune has done some important coverage of how Islamism is being funded by taxpayer money in American schools. Parents who don't want their children being indoctrinated should take note.

And while we're on the subject, just look at how the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union is allowed to hold a fund-raiser for Sami al-Arian, a terrorist backer himself, and a most disgusting, offensive man at that. People like that must be stayed away from.

Update: oh, wouldn't you know it: CAIR comes to the defense of this creepy school by engineering sob stories for them! And Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota even has the gall to help them by deploring the threats. I am quite disgusted that these so-called representatives would dare to help a terrorist front organization in any way. Anyone in the Jewish community who understands the wrong they're doing should have nothing to do with the JCRCM. See also this entry at Power Line for a note on CAIR's cry wolf tactics.

Others on the subject include Theodore's World, Stop the ACLU, DaleyGator.

UK balks at tourism ad for Qumran caves

Why do we do business with Britain then? Here's their latest dirty deed and what it caused:

The Tourism Ministry has been forced to change an advertising campaign in Britain in which the Qumran caves were pictured, after the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that it did not consider the site part of Israel, it was reported Saturday.

The ASA also reprimanded the Tourism Ministry for not responding to its numerous appeals on the matter.

The Tourism Ministry's representative in Britain, Uri Gafni, told Israel Radio that the ministry had no intention whatsoever of claiming that the Qumran caves were in Israeli territory.

He said the picture had now been swapped with an image of Masada.

The Qumran caves are located south of Jericho. It is the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by a Beduin shepherd looking for a lost goat in 1947.

Honestly, I don't think we need any tourist business with Britain if they're going to be so continuously negative.

Hezbollah sympathisers were arrested before they could carry out poison plot

In this disgusting news report, we learn that 2 Fatah collaborators who also side with Hezbollah were thankfully arrested before they could work on a plot to poison customers at a resturant they worked at:

Two Arabs from Nablus, Ahab Abu Riyal and Anas Salum, were arrested by Israeli Shin Bet officers last month before they could carry out their mission to poison Israelis on behalf of Hizballah. They are members of the Fatah-al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, part of Mahmoud Abbas' "moderate" Fatah organization.

The cell was led by two wanted terrorists, Hani Kabi and Husni Tsalag.

They were hired as kitchen workers by the Grill Express restaurant near the Diamond Exchange in Ramat Gan, apparently after presenting Israeli-issued IDs allowing them to work in the country. Their orders were to dump a slow-acting colorless, tasteless and odorless poison in the food of customers. It would take effect after four hours, enough time to murder a large number of Israeli diners. The Shin Bet did not identify the substance.

One of the two men was detained on March 19, just days before the mission date. The second was picked up at the home of an Israeli Arab friend in Jaffa.

Israeli security forces consider poisoning diners at restaurants or cafes to be a "strategic attack". In the past, terror organizations have tried repeatedly to recruit Palestinian cooks and waiters to poison food at Israeli restaurants. Police note that the plan is a relatively easy means of carrying out a mass attack, as there is no need to smuggle sophisticated weapons into Israel and restaurant employees have free access to the attack site.

Businesses like resturants are going to have to consider the dangers of hiring people who adhere to Islam, since they could serve as agents who'd endanger the lives of their customers.

Several more news brieflets

What have we here that's worth noting for this weekend. Let see.

Barack Obama has conceded that remarks he made about working class citizens who support religion and the right to own firearms were "ill chosen":

MUNCIE, Ind. - Democrat Barack Obama on Saturday conceded that comments he made about bitter working class voters who "cling to guns or religion" were ill chosen, as he tried to stem a burst of complaints that he is condescending.

"I didn't say it as well as I should have," he said.

As Obama tried to quell the furor, presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton hit him with one of her lengthiest and most pointed criticisms to date.

"Senator Obama's remarks were elitist and out of touch," she said, campaigning about an hour away in Indianapolis. "They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans."

At issue are comments Obama made privately at a fundraiser in San Francisco last Sunday. He explained his troubles winning over working class voters, saying they have become frustrated with economic conditions:

"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

The comments, posted on the Huffington Post political Web site Friday, set off a storm of criticism from Clinton, Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain and other GOP officials. It threatened to highlight an Obama Achilles heel — the image that the Harvard-trained lawyer is arrogant, aloof and carries himself with an air of superiority.

I guess it could mean something when he manages to irk people at even a left-wing site like the Huffington-Puffington Post, as I sometimes call them! (Well, isn't that funny? Come on, admit it already!) His statements most certainly were insulting, and he completely obscures that people are not against immigration, they're against ILLEGAL immigration. Why can't Obama understand that? More on what he said here.

Check out Baka Diary's photography of Emek HaElah ("emek" is Hebrew for valley), and the history of what it was like, which includes how Samson was a resident of that area.

CAIR predictably supports Jimmy Carter's meeting with Hamas in Syria. And while Ehud Olmert has fortunately refused to meet with Carter, that doesn't mean he's a worthy politician either. Remember that.

Terrorists fired at farmers in Nir Oz.

Check out a new blog called Peace Thugs!

NY Times radio won't take ad from AJC

This most awful newspaper also has its own radio bureau, and, as told by the AJC (via Power Line and One Jerusalem), the NYT radio company censored an ad from the AJC.

Now you know why even the New York Times radio station is not worth your time.

Dubya won't visit Western Wall

In his seeking to divide Jerusalem, the US president won't even visit the holy prayer site:

The advance team of President George W. Bush has requested to avoid "controversial" like Jerusalem's Western Wall and prefers Masada as the centerpiece of this visit to Israel. Bush will go from the 60th anniversary celebrations to a US-Arab summit in Sinai to which Israel has not been invited. On her recent trip, Condoleezza Rice report gave an American bridging document which calls for Jerusalem's division.

Apparently George Bush is unwilling do what even Pope John Paul had no problem with: visit the Western Wall, or Kotel, in Jerusalem's Old City. Instead he and his team apparently are leaning to Masada, the site where a group of "zealot" Jews committed suicide en masse rather than fall captive to the Romans.

Organizers of Bush's planned two-and-a-half-day stay said they had been searching for a symbolic location for the president to visit, but wanted to avoid one that might stir controversy like the Western Wall, Golan Heights or Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

By refusing to visit the Western Wall, all he is doing is showing contempt for Israel rather than solidarity.

Jimmy Carter wants to meet with Hamas

Clearly, this man is evil incarnate. In complete ignorance of US law, he's going to meet with Hamas leaders:

Former president Jimmy Carter is to meet in Syria on April 18 with the head of the terrorist group Hamas, Khaled Meshaal. The meeting gives legitimacy to a group defined by the Statement as a terror organization, and undermines the U.S. government's policy of isolating Hamas. Israeli security officials say Meshaal is responsible for coordinating all elements of Hamas and for calling for many of its major terror attacks.

Shouldn't Carter be prosecuted for what he's doing? IMO, he should be called to testify before the Senate.

Jeremiah Wright was once a Muslim

Very interesting revelation about Barack Obama's prejudiced pastor: Infidels Are Cool has discovered that Jeremiah Wright was formerly a Muslim himself. From this old article by Ryan Lizza in The New Republic:

From Wright and others, Obama learned that part of his problem as an organizer was that he was trying to build a confederation of churches but wasn’t showing up in the pews on Sunday. When pastors asked him the inevitable questions about his own spiritual life, Obama would duck them uncomfortably. A Reverend Philips put the problem to him squarely when he learned that Obama didn’t attend services. “It might help your mission if you had a church home,” he told Obama. “It doesn’t matter where, really. What you’re asking from pastors requires us to set aside some of our more priestly concerns in favor of prophesy. That requires a good deal of faith on our part. It makes us want to know just where you’re getting yours from.”

After many lectures like this, Obama decided to take a second look at Wright’s church. Older pastors warned him that Trinity was for “Buppies”–black urban professionals–and didn’t have enough street cred. But Wright was a former Muslim and black nationalist who had studied at Howard and Chicago, and Trinity’s guiding principles–what the church calls the “Black Value System”–included a “Disavowal of the Pursuit of Middleclassness.’”

The crosscurrents appealed to Obama. He came to believe that the church could not only compensate for the limitations of Alinsky-style organizing but could help answer the nagging identity problem he had come to Chicago to solve. “It was a powerful program, this cultural community,” he wrote, “one more pliant than simple nationalism, more sustaining than my own brand of organizing.”

As a result, over the years, Wright became not only Obama’s pastor, but his mentor. The title of Obama’s recent book, The Audacity of Hope, is based on a sermon by Wright. (It’s worth noting, however, that, while Obama’s book is a coolheaded appeal for common ground in an age of political polarization, Wright’s sermon, “The Audacity to Hope,” is a fiery jeremiad about persevering in a world of nuclear arms and racial inequality.) Wright is one of the first people Obama thanked after his Senate victory in 2004, and he recently name-checked Wright in his speech to civil rights leaders in Selma, Alabama.

This raises a lot of interesting questions, such as - could it be that Wright is still more than attached to Islam despite his ostensibly converting? Good question.

More on Barack Obama's hatemongering pastor

Kathy Shaidle at Front Page Magazine writes more about Rev. Jeremiah Wright's hatemongering activities, and about "Black Liberation Theology":

Barack Obama’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, became a household name last month when ABC News reported on some of Wright’s inflammatory sermons. As his applauding congregation cheered him on, the former leader of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ condemned the U.S. government for “killing innocent people” and for treating American citizens, especially blacks, as “less than human.” “God Damn America,” Rev. Wright preached.

These sentiments were entirely consistent with comments Wright had made many times during his long pastoral career. From the pulpit, Rev. Wright also has taught that AIDS was concocted by the federal government as a genocidal plot against blacks. On another occasion, he declared, “Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run! ... We [Americans] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.”

Millions of Americans were shocked to hear such vituperative rage and unrestrained anti-American hatred. They need not have been surprised. Rev. Wright’s passionate disdain for his country, and his belief that black Americans are still singled out for persecution, is entirely in keeping with the political philosophy that underpins his religious views: Black Liberation Theology.

In March of 2007, FOX News host Sean Hannity had engaged Obama’s pastor in a heated interview about his Church’s teachings. For many viewers, the ensuing shouting match was their first exposure to “Black Liberation Theology,” and to the name of one of its leading mouthpieces, James Cone, a professor at New York's Union Theological Seminary and an iconic figure venerated by Rev. Wright.

Read the rest. I do hope these findings wake people up to the problems of racism espoused by so-called representatives within the black community. And Obama himself deserves no support if he's not willing to shun this so-called pastor for his vicious views of white people.

RIP, Charlton Heston

One of the finest movie and theater actors, who later became a prominent member of the NRA, has passed away at 84.

I saw Heston years ago in The Ten Commandments, which was far better done than Steven Spielberg's animated attempt at the same subject in 1998. He was one of the best actors of his generation, and should be well remembered for much of the good he did, even on the political scene.

Others on the subject include Michelle Malkin, Cao's Blog, Dan Lee Report, Slapstick Politics, Stuck on Stupid, Oblogatory Anecdotes, Sister Toldjah, Cassandra Page, The American Thinker, Scared Monkeys, BitsBlog, Right Wing News, Hot Air, Stander's Point, Seeker's Jar, The American Mind.

Recommended: The Israel-Arab Reader

I received today in the mail a copy of The Israel-Arab Reader, edited by Walter LaQueur and Barry Rubin, the revised 2008 edition, and would like to recommend it for everyone as important reading. Give it a try and see.

Update: and while we're on the subject, here's one of Rubin's latest columns on the GLORIA Center website that's also recommended for reading.

Polygamy is now allowed in UK

When a Muslim is the one doing it, it's legal, I guess. From the Daily Mail (via Hot Air):

When it comes to avoiding a ban for speeding, the courts hear every excuse in the book.

But yesterday one motorist offered what must be a unique reason why he should keep his licence.

Mohammed Anwar said a ban would make it difficult to commute between his two wives and fulfil his matrimonial duties.

His lawyer told a Scottish court the Muslim restaurant owner has one wife in Motherwell and another in Glasgow - he is allowed up to four under his religion - and sleeps with them on alternate nights.

He also needed his driving licence to run his restaurant in Falkirk, Stirlingshire.

Airdrie Sheriff Court had heard that Anwar was caught driving at 64mph in a 30mph zone in Glasgow, fast enough to qualify for instant disqualification.

Anwar admitted the offence, but Sheriff John C. Morris accepted his plea not to be banned and allowed him to keep his licence.

Instead, he was fined £200 and given six penalty points.

Lorna Jackson, from the road safety charity Brake, called the decision "astonishing".

She said: "Regardless of the number of wives or businesses this man drives to, he broke a law which is there to protect everyone.

"Travelling just a few miles over the limit in a 30mph zone can be the difference between life and death if you hit someone, let alone driving at more than twice the speed limit.

"Drivers know the law, and they know the punishment they could face when they break it.

"For the courts to allow someone to keep their licence when they have so blatantly flouted the law and put peoples' lives at risk, on the basis of an excuse such as this, is astonishing."

Anwar, wearing a suit and an open-neck shirt, had made no comment during his five-minute court appearance, apart from confirming his identity.

But last night, speaking from his restaurant Sanam, he said: "It is true I have two wives.

"Muslim men are allowed up to four. But I am not a religious leader and it is not my place to comment.

"As a matter of respect to my wives I would not comment on my home life.

"The sheriff did not ban me because I need my licence to run my business, although my wives were also part of the decision."

So let's see, the local police constabulary let this man off not just because of his business, but also because he has two wives, is that it? And I guess if he'd struck anyone down in his path while speeding, even if they didn't let him off the hook then, they'd still give him reduced jail time for the sake of his polygamist practices?

Most terrible is how this is taking place in Scotland, showing that they're clearly in dire need of better lawmakers who don't succumb to the same madness as the English are.

The secret to a long lifespan...

Is plenty of fish and rice. Japan's oldest living person, Kaku Yamanaka, has passed away at 113, and in the article, they tell:

Japan has one of the world's longest average life spans — a factor often attributed to a healthy diet rich in fish and rice. In 2006 Japanese women set a new record for life expectancy at 85.81 years, while men live an average of about 79 years.

The number of Japanese living beyond 100 has almost quadrupled over the past 10 years. There were 32,295 centenarians in 2007, according to the Health Ministry.

In some parts of Europe, they have an almost similar health strategy that's proven itself too. Now, if you want to live really long, you know some of the elements needed to do so!

Imam murdered by Fatah goons

And Mahmoud Abbas is not bothered about it a bit. From Israel Insider:

Majid Al-Barghouti, the 42-year-old imam of a mosque in the village of Kobar, outside Ramallah, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority's General Intelligence Service (GIS) on February 14, 2008, and pronounced dead on February 22.

The family retrieved al-Barghouti's body on February 24. Photos taken of the body that day, viewed by Human Rights Watch, show deep and extensive bruising on the legs, feet and back, consistent with marks caused from beatings. Both wrists had lacerations, apparently from handcuffs.

It won't stop unless Fatah and Hamas are brought down.

Dichter was shot at by snipers, his aide was injured

Here is the news on Israel Insider. But I'm not going to quote it directly here, because seeing what the injury was like, it's so sickening I think it best not to.

Rap music glorifies drug abuse

Addiction Research and Theory has reported that rap music has been glamorizing drug abuse themes for almost 3 decades now (Hat tip: Hot Air Headlines). After an initial period where they were actually condemned, things began going downhill:

After sampling 341 lyrics from rap music's most popular hits between 1979 and 1997, the researchers found references to drugs had increased six-fold over that period.

Of the 38 most popular songs between 1979 and 1984, only four contained drug references. But by the late 1980s the incidence had increased to 19 percent, and after 1993 nearly 70 percent of rap songs mentioned drug use.

Lyrics describing drug use have not only became more frequent but the context changed from concern about the devastation of drugs to a more positive portrayal.

So if there wasn't anything wrong with rap at first, now there is. Let's not forget that the glorification of misogyny and profanity in rap has become more frequent in recent years too. Just take a look at some of the BS that Slim Shady's been putting out, to name but one!

She added that much of what is discussed in rap is in code.

"The kids understand but parents don't," Herd explained in an interview.

The word "flinging," for example, means selling drugs. Some slang words for marijuana include "broccoli," "trees" and "chronic." "Fat sacks" and "strapped horns" refer to cocaine smoking pipes, according to the study.

Studies have shown rap music is one of the fastest-growing genres in American pop culture today and plays a prominent role in youth culture.

And I think that's why it's got to STOP. Period. Incidentally, the real name for marijuana is cannabis; marijuana in and of itself is also a slang word, taken from a woman's name in the Spanish-Portuguese format. And you know something? After a little bit of thinking, I find it offensive to use a woman's name as slang for drugs. What next, will we be hearing some jerks using Japanese women's names like Sayuri and Ryoko as slangs? If I ever discover something like that happening, I will hit the roof.

And that's why as of now, I'm not going to use marijuana as slang for cannabis anymore. It's stupid, and some people should consider.

Britain: the European headquarters for anti-Semitism

A researcher in the Jerusalem Post tells what Britain has been like for as many as 1000 years now:

Britain has become the epicenter for anti-Semitic trends in Europe as traditional, age-old anti-Semitism in a country whose literature and cultural tradition were "drenched" in anti-Semitism has developed into a contemporary mix of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, an Israeli historian said Monday.

The problem of anti-Semitism in Britain is exacerbated by a growing and increasingly radical Muslim population, the weak approach taken by a timid British Jewish leadership, and the detachment of the British from their Christian roots, said Hebrew University historian Prof. Robert S. Wistrich in a lecture on British anti-Semitism at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

"Britain has become the center point for the meeting of anti-Semitic trends in Europe," Wistrich said.

In a wide-ranging two-hour address, the Cambridge University-educated historian, who has just completed a book on global anti-Semitism, traced the roots of British anti-Semitism to its history, culture and literature going back to medieval times.

"Anti-Semitism in Great Britain is at least a millennial phenomenon and has been around for 1000 years of recorded history," Wistrich said.

He noted that the expulsion of all Jews from Britain in 1290 by King Edward I following years of anti-Semitic violence was the first major expulsion of any Jewish community in Europe.

Jews were banned from Britain until 1656, when Oliver Cromwell, who had overthrown the monarchy, authorized their return.

Wistrich noted that a Jewish presence was not required in Britain to produce potent and resonating anti-Semitic stereotypes in classic English literature, including in works by Chaucer, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Dickens, Trollope, T. S. Elliot, and D. H. Lawrence, which he said continues to impact British society hundreds of years later today.

"The authors are conveying and transmitting to a future generation an embedded anti-Semitism whose influence is impossible to underestimate," Wistrich said.

"English literature and culture is in fact drenched in anti-Semitism," he said, adding that British intellectuals fail to understand the long-term impact of this phenomenon.

I tend to think of both The Merchant of Venice's depiction of Shylock and Oliver Twist's depiction of Fagin as some of the worst examples. The latter example is definitely scummy.

During World War II, the British refusal to rescue the Jews of Europe and their decision to close the gates of Palestine stemmed not only from a policy of realpolitik but by anti-Semitic sentiments, he said.

"Nothing was to be construed as fighting a Jewish war," he said.

He noted that the famed British wartime leader, Winston Churchill's, record on Zionism was "far from brilliant, rhetoric aside" noting that he promoted the infamous White Paper, which severely limited Jews from immigrating to Palestine during World War II.

You know, while I personally don't think Churchill was the worst, I'm still going to have to start reevaluating my opinions on him. Hmm.

The recent controversial contemporary theory of a Jewish lobby controlling American government policies in the wake of the 2003 Iraq War actually had its antecedents a century earlier, and dated back to the infamous anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, while anti-Israel activities on British campuses was going "strong blast" in the 1970s, he said.

In his address, Wistrich said that today's British media had taken an almost universally anti-Israel bias, especially but not exclusively on the BBC, with context removed from description of Israeli military actions, and Islamic jihadist activity such as suicide bombing never connected to ideology.

"Under no circumstance will a Palestinian act of terrorism be referred to as terrorist, They are militants similar to the floor-shop dispute in Liverpool whose workers have decided to go on strike," he said.

"Palestinian terrorism is portrayed as a minor pin-prick compared to 'massive' retaliation of this 'rogue' state [Israel]," he said.

"You cannot read a British newspaper without encountering a variant of the libel that Zionism is racism or Zionism is Nazism," he said, describing a culture of "barely disguised hatred" when the subject of Zionism of British Jewry or Anglo-Israel relations is broached, unless they are "the good anti-Zionists."

With the media and the elites skewed against Israel - aided by former Israeli academics who routinely condemn the Jewish state and who have attained "historic dissident status and are listened to as the authentic voice of Israel" - the whole discussion of anti-Semitism had become distorted in Britain, with the accuser becoming the accused, he said.

"The self-proclaimed anti-racists of the [London Mayor Ken] Livingstone brand lead the pack when it comes to the prevailing discourse about Israel and by implication Jews."

"If you bring up the subject of anti-Semitism you are playing the anti-Semitism card and you are [seen as] a dishonest deceitful manipulative Jew or lover of Jews who is using the language of anti-Semitism to disguise hide or silence criticism of Israel," he said.

The tenure of former prime minister Tony Blair - considered to be the most favorable British premier to the State of Israel - was a paradox of the British situation today, Wistrich said.

He said that Blair's support for Israel during the Second Lebanon War was "the straw that broke the camel's back" for a British premier who had already supported the Iraq War and was closely allied with US President George W. Bush, and helped bring about his downfall.

Today, the rapidly growing Muslim community in Britain numbers at least 1.6 million, compared to about 350,000 Jews.

As I've noted before, chances are that the Muslim population in Britain is much higher than that, and could be at least 2 million (and the Jewish population may be less than 300,000).

Wistrich faulted British-Jewish leadership for taking a "softly softly approach," which he said was "very strange" and did not bear fruit in contemporary times.

"There is a long tradition of doing things behind closed doors and it is different to break with tradition but it should be broken," he said.

The historian noted that the straying of the British from their Christian roots has also created a changed reality in the Anglo-Israeli relationship with no Bible-based reasons or raison d'etre for a Jewish presence in the Holy Land.

He cited the recent support of the archbishop of Canterbury for the adoption of parts of Sharia, or Islamic law, in Britain - the same country, which, he noted, was once the birthplace of the US evangelical movement.

"The loss of Christian identity in what was the most Bible-believing culture in its day is one of the deeper layers of what has happened here," he said.

He noted some of the biblical remarks of prominent British leaders such as Lord Balfour and Lloyd George would be viewed as anathema today.

"You cannot speak or act that way today, or you would be considered the 'biggest threat to civilization' as American evangelicals are."

That's why it's important to bear in mind that in Britain, anti-Americanism has become just as prevalent as anti-Semitism. There is really very little left in England today for anyone with common sense to find worth living there for.

Majority of Israelis feel justice system is corrupt

According to a poll taken by Market Watch, many Israelis view the local justice system as riddled with corruption.

Jamaican airline passenger in Orlando had pipebomb materials

And a green card to boot (H/T: Hot Air):

A Jamaican planning to board a flight at Orlando International Airport was detained and questioned by FBI agents Tuesday after they found components for pipe bombs and explosive and flammable liquids in his checked luggage.

The suspect was identified late Tuesday as Kevin Brown, 32, a Jamaican national who was scheduled to fly on Air Jamaica Flight 80 to Montego Bay at 2:55 p.m. Transportation Security Administration officers spotted him acting suspiciously about noon, TSA and law-enforcement officials said. Several officials said the man was "acting strange" and questioned his mental stability.

Brown was charged with attempting to carry an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft and booked into theSeminole County Jail late Tuesday. He will appear before a federal judge in Orlando today.

Wearing blue jeans and a white shirt, Brown was searched by a bomb technician on a curb outside the airport terminal. His camouflage-style backpack also was seized and searched by an Orlando Fire Department bomb squad.

TSA searched his luggage and found "suspicious items," according to TSA officials. Among the items seized were two galvanized pipes, end caps, two small containers of BB pellets, batteries, two containers of liquids, a laptop computer and bomb-making literature, according to an FBI statement released Tuesday night.

[...]

Witnesses said they could tell that there was something wrong with Brown, even before he was arrested.

“He was rocking left to right, looking all crazy. I don’t know what was going on, but police came, the searched him, took off his shoes,” said one passenger.

Interesting, isn't it, how these terror suspects seem to give off telltale behavior.

Gun supplier for the Fort Dix Six has been convicted

The thing is, I don't think the judge gave the man a hard enough sentence. But, here's the news on Agron Abdullahu's conviction (via Michelle Malkin):

A man who admitted letting a group of accused terror-plotters shoot his guns at a firing range was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Monday.

U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler said Agron Abdullahu deserved more than the 10 to 16 months that sentencing guidelines call for because he knew the men were talking about violence against Americans.

"I am convinced that he is not as innocent as he'd like us to believe," Kugler said before handing down his sentence. "This is not a common, ordinary, technical violation of the law."

However, the sentence was less than half the five-year maximum allowed.

With time served and credit for good behavior, it's likely he'll be free before the end of the year, though he could face deportation.

He most certainly should have his citizenship or legal residency status revoked. I'm disappointed however, that the judge seems to have let some bleeding heartiness seep in:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hammer said it was clear that Abdullahu knew that the other men were talking about committing violence _ even if he was not aware of a specific terrorist plot.

Judge Kugler agreed, but dismissed the government's contention that Abdullahu knew enough that higher sentencing guidelines should be used.

Kugler said his sentence was harsher than it could have been partly because of drawings found etched into the door of Abdullahu's cell at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. One had a gun pointed at the words, "FBI."

While the judge was disturbed by that behavior, as well as Abdullahu's interest in making bombs, he seemed to struggle with finding an appropriate sentence.

"There's too much good in this man," Kugler said, to give him the maximum sentence the government sought.

Sorry, but I must disagree. There's nothing of the sort in him, and he should've reported them if he knew that they were even remotely capable of trying to pull a heinous crime like they were planning.