How the Mighty Have Fallen

Climate change now ranks dead last in the list of Americans' top-of-mind concerns.

RCMP's Mixed Messaging

The RCMP insists that Mohamed Hersi, apprehended yesterday on his way to join jihadi group al-Shabab in Somalia, posed no "direct threat" to Canadians.

Quel relief, eh?

So if this article from last year in the National Post says otherwise; says, in fact that

The RCMP and FBI are concerned that Canadian and U.S. recruits could return from Al-Shabab’s camps to conduct terrorist attacks in North America.

I guess we should pay it no never mind, right?

Divine Tuber

A Muslim woman in Scotland was gobsmacked when she cut a potato in half and found the word "Allah" written in Arabic.

And now--decisions, decisions: Should "Allah" the potato be served scalloped, mashed or french fried?

Update: Here's Bud the Spud--no Allah inside it, but as sung by PEI troubadour Stompin' Tom, it's transcendent nonetheless. (Maybe Yusuf Islam could write a song about the Scottish tater).

Update: Funny Cat.


The holy tuber, in the flesh



The Inmates Have Taken Over the Asylum

From the Ottawa Citizen (h/t MK):

Carleton University administrators were forced Tuesday to abandon a meeting of the board of governors when approximately 200 students, yelling, chanting and shouting slogans about democracy, blocked access to the meeting room.

The students effectively occupied the atrium of Robertston Hall, preventing several board members from attending a meeting that included, among other agenda items, consideration of the university's operating budget. While campus safety staff were much in evidence, they were unable to ensure access to the meeting for arriving board members.

"Unfortunately, the student demonstrators would not allow a number of the board members to get through (the crowd) to attend the meeting," university spokesman Jason MacDonald said. That, he said, forced the administration to cancel.

The students claimed to be protesting the administration's decision to prevent them from attending the board meeting and to debate a motion calling on the university to divest pension funds from companies doing business with Israel...

The Zion-loathers, who, though pathological and malign, are convinced of their own innate virtuousness, are relentless in their determination to do away with the one successful entity, the one non-failed state, in the Middle East. If our universities hope to survive as viable places of learning, they will have to find a way to in effect boycott, divest and sanction these BDS zanies.

Arab Spring Fever--Who is Afficted and Who is Immune

The giddiness engendered by the "Arab Spring" has infected everyone from Thomas L. Friedman on the left (he's awaiting--any day, mind you--the appearance of Arab Nelson Mandelas, little realizing in his delusional state that Moshiach will likely show up sooner than an Arab Mandela does) to William Kristol on the right.

Diana West takes note of the great chasm that has now developed. Not a left-right one. An "Arab Spring rocks!"/the "Arab Spring thing is a figment of your hyped-up wishful thinking" one:

There is a new divide by which we define ourselves: Those who suck in the acrid smell of jihad in the Middle East, pronounce their hallucinations "Arab Spring," crave more ... and those who don't. Among those of us who "just say no" to this nowhere trip, it should be noted, are those who take their sharia seriously, and see its extension as the lingering and insidious side effect, the one that take us down when the vapors are no more.

The Fox News commentariat is where you find the highest and most persistent rate of "Arab Spring" abuse, as Andy McCarthy notes here, Fred Grandy here, but its use is widespread and indiscriminate because it enables users to see the world as they want to see it. On the conservative side of the spectrum, one dose of "Arab Spring" and the "Bush freedom agenda" looks like a brilliantly red, white and blue success, not the bleak, endless nightmare that it is.

Melanie Phillips weighs in today (via Ruthfully Yours) on the appropriately outraged side of Political Temperance. She concludes that the West has made itself "an open goal for its enemies," and pronounces herself "[gaping] in stunned amazement at the extent of the idiocy being displayed by the leaders of America, Britain and Europe over the `Arab Spring' -- which should surely be renamed `the Arab Boomerang.' "

Boomerang is right. Among the cautionary lore supporting the skeptics is the boomerang effect of empowering active jihadist groups, which, first and foremost, will strike at the tip of the spear against the jihad, Israel. The other beneficiary is the jihadist state of Iran.

Let's see: in the throes of Arab Spring fever, kafirs have now placed themselves in the position of taking their marching order from the Arab League in order to bolster "rebels," more than a few of whom are aligned with Al Qaeda. Meanwhile, the powers in Iran, which kafirs didn't dare lay a hand on during its "troubles," stand at the sidelines, laughing their heads of at our astounding imbecility, knowing that when the dust settles, they will be more powerful than ever.

That's "smart guy" Obama's foreign policy--maddening, incoherent, suicidal, full-on insane. And the climate change of "Arab Spring"? It's fast devolving into a very long, very cold, Arab Winter.

NOW Magazine's Weight Issues

Behold how NOW, the freebie rag with the sex adverts and delusions of self-importance, depicts the mayor of Toronto (a chap it despises because he has the temerity to be both hefty and conservative).

If I didn't think it would validate our demented "human rights" system, I might reccommend to the mayor that he file a "hate" complaint against "weightist" NOW with the Ontario "human rights" police.

He Loses a Guy With a Nifty Rhyming Name?

What Qaddafi loses with Moussa Koussa's defection

Update:

The moniker "Moussa Koussa"
Sounds like something from Dr. Seussa--
Say, like, "Yertle the Turtle."
Watch Moussa K. hurtle
'Cuz those "rebels" are still on the loossa.

The Toronto Star Plays the Poverty Card

The story under the masthead of today's Toronto Star is all about how the arrest of Somali-Canadian Mohamed Hersi "alarms Toronto Somalis."

Hey, it alarms me too, and I'm not even Somali.

The link to the piece by staff reporters Isabel Teotonio, Curtis Rush and Bob Mitchell has yet to appear on the Star's site, so allow me to quote from the paper version which has been showing up free of charge on my porch for the past week in an effort to entice me to spring for a subscription (fat chance):

...The 25-year-old who was born in Somalia but moved to Canada as a child was trying to turn his life around. Despite having a science degree and a job as a security guard, Hersi had grown frustrated with life.

He was tired of living in a dilapitated public housing unit near Markham Rd. abd Eglinton Ave. E. and of watching his mother, a widow who had raised four children alone, struggling to make ends meet.

And, as he told a cousin, Hersi wanted to go to Egypt to "get the morals I've lost."

The above vignette about says it all re the knee-jerk assesssments of clueless, squish-brain lefties and the enduring appeal of jihad. The Star would have you believe it's all about "poverty" and tugs from your heartstings about the poor, struggling widow and her plight. Her son, who despite the deprivations, managed to get a university degree and had gainful employment, makes it clear that it was not about money or his poor mom the struggling widder lady at all. It was about feeling adrift in a place, in a land, that lacked "morals"--i.e. that was not Islamic.

How dense can lefties be? And more to the point, how stupid do they think we are?

Good Question

Sure, he's had way too much Botox and his fashion sense as well as his style of governance leave a lot to be desired, but what if Gaddafi is telling the truth about Al Qaeda's influence over Libyan "rebels"?

Music to Their Ears

"Extraordinary how potent cheap music is," remarks Amanda to Elyot in Noel Coward's Private Lives. By the same token, it's extraordinary how potent fatuous propaganda is. Phyllis Chessler connects two of the most potent fabrications of recent times--the Palestinian narrative and Islamophobia:

For more than 40 years, the Soviet, Arab, and Saudi Lobbies, eventually joined by the Iranian Lobby, have funded the demonization of Israel and the popularization of Palestine. The condemnation of Israel for crimes it has never committed (“ethnic cleansing,” “genocide,” “apartheid”) and the call for a Palestinian one-state solution is echoed, similarly, in films, books, poems, academic papers and lectures; we see and hear this on television, at conferences, at campus demonstrations, in the halls of the United Nations, the European Union, in Parliaments, and, of course, in the Arab and Islamic worlds.

By now, the “Palestinian narrative” has effectively rendered Jews unsafe and unwelcome in Europe. Jews who look “Jewish” or “religious” are not safe on the streets of certain European countries such as England, France, Holland, Belgium, and Scandinavia. European pagan, Christian, and Nazi-era Judeophobia has found a new outlet in the obsessive demonization of Israel, the only Jewish state. This is also the way Europeans hope to appease Muslim immigrants who live in Europe but in parallel universes, who are hostile to the Western enterprise, and who demand the right to be brutally intolerant as a Western civil right.

This same false Palestinian narrative has morphed into a belief that all Muslims—who are, themselves, the largest practitioners of religious apartheid in the world, and who persecute all non-Muslims—are, as Muslims, being persecuted in the West. This may be because Islam is not (yet) dominant in the West.

In my opinion, the success of the “Palestinian” narrative is what has led to the unquestioning acceptance of the false concept of “Islamophobia.”

The question is: what in our makeup makes us so susceptible to such fabrications? I think Coward's "cheap music" line may be instructive here. For, like the melody of a "cheap" piece of music--the ear candy--the propaganda is simple and direct, plays on the emotions, and insinuates itself easily into the brain, where it tends to play on endless loop. And once it's in there, it and the emotions it elicits can be triggered with just a few notes--or a few key words ("occupation," "apartheid," "racism," etc.).

Of course, the propaganda is far likelier to stick if your brain has been pre-conditioned/compromised by inherent Zionhass and leftist mush about victimhood. 

Come You Gonna Keep 'Em Down in the Trudeaupia?

The Toronto Sun reports that young Somali-Canadians by the dozens are running off to Somalia to fight jihad. A spokesman for the Somali-Canadian community thinks he knows why that is:

...Osman Ali, executive director of the Somali-Canadian Association of Etobicoke, said the mosques and community groups are hamstrung, not having enough money for programs to properly integrate Somali youth so their Islamic beliefs could co-exist with a more “Canadian” mindset of western culture and values.

“They are asking the mosques to help these people, but the extent that they want programs for these youth, they don’t have the means,” said Ali from his small second-floor office in the Thistledown Multi-Services Centre in Rexdale. What’s needed are employment workshops, leadership training and “elder” speakers who could talk both about the peaceful aspects of Islam and the dangers of radicalism on the Internet, Ali said.

“The mosques try their best with prayers and schools,” he said.

“The people at the mosques preach peace ... but they don’t have the means and the funds to really integrate them.”

It's hard to square that, though, with this, from another Sun story, one detailing the arrest of a Canadian-born Somali lad who was apprehended before he had a chance to hook up with al-Shabaab:

The former University of Toronto Scarborough campus health sciences student had been meeting “friends” for weeks at a local mosque who may have had an influence on him, some community members said.

Looks like it may not be a money problem so much as it is a mosque problem.

Update: Jews to the rescue!

Thugs 'R' Them

Michael Ross says Syria has "a special place as the Middle East's Mafioso."

I think I'd put it somewhat differently: In the Middle East Cosa Nostra, Iran is the mob boss--Tony Soprano, say. Syria is merely Tony's biggest, most loyal thug.

A Shockingly Postive Development

British Muslims for Israel.

Best of Luck With That One, Senators

U.S. senators ask Hillary Clinton to help end Palestinian Zionhass.

Wilders' Trial for 'Hate' Speech a Go After All

Lights out in the Netherlands.

The Facebook Intifada

The Zion-loathers leave no stone unturned in their relentless drive to expunge Israel from the map.

14-Year Old Girl Charged With Adultery, Lashed to Death

An example of how sharia "justice" persists in "moderate" Bangladesh, where Islamic law is supposedly forbidden.

Enough With the Halo Effect

Aren't Americans so over photos the make Obama look angelic/God-like?

A Setback for RCMP 'Outreach'?

From CTV:

Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Toronto have arrested a man suspected of participating in a terrorist plot attempting to board a plane bound for Egypt.

RCMP say the arrest was made without incident on Tuesday at Pearson International Airport.

It is alleged the man, whose identity has not been made public, was about to board a plane bound for Cairo, Egypt transiting through London, England. He was then believed to be heading to Somalia.

The man has been charged with attempting to participate in terrorist activity and for providing counsel to a person participating in terrorist activity.

The suspect is currently being detained pending a court hearing.

The arrest comes following an investigation between the RCMP's National Security Enforcement Team and Toronto police's Intelligence Division.

Police allege the man was planning to travel to Somalia to join Al Shabaab.

Al Shabaab is a Somali-based Islamic group fighting against the country's transitional government.

It is listed as a terror organization in Canada and has been suspected of trying to radicalize and recruit young Canadians and Americans.

It Depends on What the Meaning of "Reformer" Is

Hillary Clinton calling Boy Assad a "reformer" (what's she been smoking--and inhaling?) inspired this one:

See the way he mows down the crowd.
Watch the way no protest's allowed.
My, he thinks he's really hot
When Syrians are getting shot.
He's my despot.

When he scolds my land, I just swoon
'Cause his charm is like a typhoon.
Why do they think he's the bloke
Who gets away with blowin' smoke?
And just because of that I say:

He's a reformer and he'll always, always be really good.
He's a reformer and he
Always, always does what he should.
But just because he is in fact like every other despot
That's no reason why I can't pretend that he's not.
He's always good to me,
And he isn't Gaddafi.
'Cause he's a reformer, yes, yes, yes.
He's a reformer, yes, yes, yes, to me...

Update: Claudia Rosett writes re Hillary's "reformer" bollocks:

If Pres. Barack Obama prefers not to intervene on behalf of the protesters being slaughtered in Syria, the least his administration could do is refrain from endorsing their tyrant. In Obama’s speech Monday night about America’s interest in defending Libyans and standing alongside other freedom-seekers of the Arab world, Syria didn’t even rate a mention. That discussion was handled Sunday in remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation. Not only did Clinton nix any thoughts of action on Syria, she ran interference for Syria’s murderous president, Bashar Assad, saying: “Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer.”

Such deference to U.S. lawmakers was absent from Obama’s decision to go to war in Libya; the president sought a resolution from the United Nations, but not from Congress. But if Congress is now back in the loop, with some members singing the praises of Assad, clearly the State Department needs to do a much better job of briefing them on the realities...

Expecting the State Department to set Obama straight on "the realities" is a bit unrealisitic, no?

See You At Aroma

That's where I'm planning to spend some shekels today, to stick it to the odious BDSers. (Aroma has the best coffee, and everything they make is fresh and tasty.)

UN-Style 'Human Rights' in Action

Neither strife nor unrest nor riots in the streets nor the government mowing down the populace with impunity can keep Syria--Syria!--from seeking a seat on the UN "human rights" council.

"We're not al-Qaeda, we're just Muslims."

A USA Today article tries to allay fears re Libyan "rebels" being jihadists. According to the paper's scribbler, there's nada to worry about because the rebels are so--stop me if you've heard this before--"diverse". And, as we know, "diversity" is such a wonderful value in and of itself that it can magically make everything A-O.K.

Libya--the Friendly, Liberal War

Daniel Flynn, wickedly droll, explains how America's third war in a Muslim land is qualitatively different than the first two--at least in the minds of Barackists:

...This is a liberal war. Did I say war? I meant “kinetic military action,” or “humanitarian mission,” or maybe “internationally authorized intervention,” or perhaps “time-limited, scope-limited military action” even. Liberals don’t fight wars. They manage “conflicts,” oversee “interventions,” and participate in “actions.” Bullets fly. People die. Just don’t call them wars.

Liberal bombs and missiles are humanitarian in intent. When American ordnance and Libyan people experience their moment of cultural exchange, the Libyans will surely appreciate how well meaning the American policy is. What is “I am from the U.S. government and I am here to help you” in Arabic?
The campaign is multilateral. This is another way of saying France is on board. Operation Iraqi Freedom, which involved a more diverse coalition that included Brits, Poles, Spaniards, and three dozen or so other peoples, was “unilateral.” That’s because the French stayed home.

Sure, Barack Obama bypassed Congress. They’re comprised primarily of conservative rubes now, anyhow. The Constitution? It gives rights to foreign gentlemen imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay; it doesn’t restrain presidential power, at least when the commander in chief is a Democrat. The important thing is that the Obama administration went to the United Nations. Their approval, not Congress’s, affirms the legality of the president’s action...

Furthermore, Obama said that one of his reasons for going into Libya is to make the UN seem "credible"--bar none the lamest, silliest reason ever for Americans getting dragged into a war. Fighting to make the world safe for sharia and jihad it bad enough. Fighting to make the world safe for the UN is downright bonkers.

The Ontario 'Human Rights' Commission Is 50 Years Old Today!

Don't know why this dude is to thrilled about it. The hack buttinskies' "human rights" racket (currently helmed by saucy bossy boots Barbara Hall) is waaay past its "best before" date.

Update: Remember this?

...The Maclean’s article and others like it raise important human rights issues for the affected communities and those who are concerned with the balance between freedom of expression and equality rights.

Even though the Commission is not proceeding with these complaints as a result of its jurisdiction under the Code, it still has a broader role in addressing the tension and conflict that such writings cause in the community and the impact that they have on the groups that are being singled out...

Celebrate that? You must be mad, Babs.

'It's so cold out. Gonna go get my schvitz on at Wall Street Bath'

The escaped Bronx Zoo cobra, the funniest reptile around, is making good use of his (her?) downtime via a Twitter account.

Tutu. Robinson. Mandela. Carter. Annan. Gaddafi?

Michael Rubin has a brilliant and eminently practical solution for the Gaddafi problem:

“The Elders” are a self-proclaimed group of self-proclaimed wise men and women, including former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Irish President Mary Robinson, and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. While “The Elders” say they “offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity,” they are better known for espousing moral equivalence and legitimizing terrorists.

While “The Elders” have jumped on the bandwagon to demand that Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi must step down, here’s a modest, tongue-in-cheek proposal: Why not invite him to join The Elders? After all, he’d fit right in...

And no doubt the geezers would find his fashion tips ("Always wear Spanx") and anti-aging advice ("Botox is okay but Restylane rocks!") to be informed as well as useful.

A 'Thought Criminal' Unpacks Her 'Thought Crime'

Melanie Phillips writes:

For a moment I thought it was a Purim spiel. The Guardian devoted an entire story last weekend to the claim that I was being investigated by both the Press Complaints Commission and the police. The Bedfordshire police.

My crime apparently lay in what I had written on my Spectator blog about the massacre of Udi and Ruth Fogel and their three children, 11-year-old Yoav, four-year-old Elad and three-month-old Hadas, who had their throats cut at home in the Samarian neighbourhood of Itamar while most of them were asleep.

I had written about the moral depravity of the Arabs who almost certainly committed this atrocity - and also the savagery of the Palestinian Authority whose institutions incite hatred of Jews and the murder of Israelis, and which honours such murderers by naming streets and squares after them.

The complaint was that I had thus accused every single Arab in the world of being savage and depraved. This was totally absurd. As was obvious from the context, I was referring specifically to those Arabs behind the atrocity and those who incite and glorify such deeds.

The complainants also airbrushed out of the picture the unstoppable torrent of deranged, Nazi-style vilification of Jews which pours out of the Arab and Muslim world and which fuels the genocidal hysteria behind such attacks.

All of this, plus the fact that the Arab world has been murdering Jews in the land of Israel for more than nine decades in order to drive them out, means that to refer to ‘Arab moral depravity’ is more than justified.

To tar this as a racist slur against every single Arab is as absurd as to claim that referring to the moral depravity of the Germans or Japanese in the 1940s is a racist slur against every single German or Japanese individual...

As the woman who penned A World Turned Upside Down knows only too well, however, absurdity is no impediment to labeling someone "racist". In fact, it's often a pre-requisite.

Detroit in Ruins

Disturbingly stark evidence of a once mighty city's precipitous decline. (Hard to believe this is Motor City and not stills from some post-Apocalyptic zombie horror flick.)

BDS: Buncha Dumb Shrews

Three Jewish chicks go postal on Phyllis Chesler in the National Post:

Re: The 'Palestinization' Of Lesbian Activism, Phyllis Chesler, March 22.

Phyllis Chesler's toxic views are out of step with the gains made by the Palestinian-led International Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and solidarity campaigns and actions taking place around the globe.

Ms. Chesler speaks from a place of entitlement embedded in Zionist ideology. She writes that, "Jewish lesbian feminists . are more concerned with the rights of a country that does not exist, Palestine, than with the rights of real Muslim women who are forced to veil themselves."

This is double-edged racism. With one hand she proclaims there is no Palestine (and we can therefore assume that there are no Palestinians); with the other hand she touts the anti-feminist line that Muslim women have no voice, no agency and no power to choose. Her statement that she has "seen these North American lesbian 'queers' at university-based Israel Apartheid Week events" exposes her lesbophobic discomfort with the power of lesbian and queer activism.

Ms. Chesler asks: "Why are so many 'Jewish lesbian feminists' in solidarity with the Free Palestine movement?" She provides an explanation, with a quote from Jews Against the Occupation-NYC: "The demonization and dehumanization of Palestinians under occupation resonates loudly for queers, as do other forms of racism and militarism." Ms. Chesler herself adds, "They do not view Palestinians as 'terrorists' but as freedom-fighters."

She's got that right.

Sue Goldstein, Deb Mandell, Naomi Binder Wall, Toronto.

Calling people who blow up city buses and disembowel a Jewish family "freedom fighters" bespeaks a pathology that defies comprehension. That the ones affixing this label are themselves Jewish is as revolting as it is tragic.

Update: All three chicks belong to Jewish Women to End the Occupation, and Deb is a member of Dykes and Trans People for Palestine, which I nominate as the most bonkers name for an organization ever--and my new personal fave. (Here's a bit of DTPP's manifesto from its facebook page: "As queers, we recognize that homophobia exists in Israel, Palestine, and across all borders. But queer Palestinians face the additional challenge of living under occupation, subject to Israeli state violence and control. There is no pride in apartheid." Well, actually, there is pride in apartheid since there's a p, an r, an i, a d, and an e in it. How queer is that?)

Update: Have you heard about my new anti-BDS organization--Jewesses Opposed to the Obsessive Occupation Preoccupation (JOOOP)?

Hugs 'n' Taqiyyah in Joisey

The keynote speaker at a Muslim Appreciation Day in New Jersey, a Muslim-Democrat love-in that attracted 500, revealed the results of a fascinating new poll:

...Keynote speaker Karam Dana, a faculty member at Tufts University and a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, spoke about the results of a Muslim American Public Opinion Survey of which he was a co-author.

The survey, which questioned 1,410 Muslim Americans, is the largest of its kind, and Dana said it answers many of [Congressman Peter] King's questions about Islam because it specifically asks about religion.

He said the data show that Muslims who regularly attend events at their mosques, in addition to daily prayers, are more likely to be involved in politics and their communities.

His research also found that 93 percent of American Muslims surveyed felt airport security measures target Muslims. He said 30 percent did not associate with a political party, which is higher than other ethnic groups.

He said many Muslims supported George W. Bush and Republican candidates prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but then felt that the party was pushing them out and rather than switching to Democrats, chose not to be affiliated. He said politicians should embrace the Muslim community.

"Empirical data show that Muslims are great citizens, they participate more in American politics when they attend the mosque, so mosques are no different from a Catholic church, a synagogue, in my opinion," he said. "If we honor our own individual identities and respect our differences we will continue to make this a great country."

Pace the prof's "empirical data," there's at least one huge difference between mosques and those other houses of worship: an estimated 80% of American mosques are affiliated with/financially supported by those wacky Wahhabis. 

Clichés, Not Clarity, His Forte

Yesterday Obama, who often likes to "be perfectly clear," eschewed that cliché and used another one in 'splaining the rationale for intervening in Libya but not going after Gaddafi:

"I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action,” Mr. Obama said.

At the same time, he said, directing American troops to forcibly remove Colonel Qaddafi from power would be a step too far, and would “splinter” the international coalition that has moved against the Libyan government.

“To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq,” Mr. Obama said, adding that “regime change there took eight years, thousands of American and Iraqi lives, and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya.”

Let me be perfectly clear: to be blunt, going into Libya but allowing Gaddafi-Qaddafi to stay put makes about as much sense as...going into Iraq and leaving Saddam Hussein at the helm to fight another day.

Remember how well that worked out?

And, oh yeah, if Dubya hadn't gotten rid of the tyrant and his despicable progeny, Gaddafi-Qaddafi would never have thought it wise to dismantle his nuclear program. Can you even imagine the power dynamics in a world in which the Tripoli peacock had his finger on a nuclear button? The mind reels.

Update: How's this for clarity?

Moreover, Obama said that to allow Gaddafi to defy the United Nations would be "crippling [to] its future credibility."

How does it feel, America, to fight for the sake of UN "credibility"? What a noble cause to live and die for!

Update: When a Wahhabi rag applauds you for "rejecting regime change," you can be fairly certain you're on the wrong track.

Let Us Now Compare Ingenuities

An example of Arab ingenuity:

An example of Israeli ingenuity:

Goin' Postal for the Sake of 'Union' Solidarity

The head of Canada's postal union urges his workers to get behind the global BDS scheme to eliminate Israel help downtrodden Palestinians:

March 30, 2011 is the Global BDS Day of Action on Land Day, in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s right to self determination, freedom, and dignity.

The Palestinian Land Day commemorates the day in 1976 when Israeli military forces shot and killed six young Palestinian citizens of Israel. They were among thousands protesting the government’s expropriation of Palestinian land to build new Jewish-only settlements and expand existing ones. Today, Land Day symbolizes Palestinian resistance to the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

At the April 2008 CUPW National Convention, delegates overwhelmingly supported a resolution calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until the occupation is ended, international law is abided by, and all citizens are treated equally.

CUPW is working to implement this resolution. We have worked out a partnership with a Palestinian trade union. We are supporting educational workshops and solidarity delegations.

So far they have held two seminars...

A Palestinian trade union. The one and only, no doubt. As opposed to the plethora of unions you'll find in despised Israel.

Man, these union folks are as bone ignorant as they are blatantly hateful.

Update: A song for union boss Denis (pronounced "Den-ee" 'cuz it's French).

Give me a ticket for a Gaza boat.
Ain't got time to grab a warm coat.
BDS is nigh,
Part of the Big Lie.
Den-ee he wrote 'em a letter.

He don't care how many Jews in unions there.
Got to save Arabs from their despair.
BDS is nigh,
Part of the Big Lie.
Den-ee he wrote 'em a letter.

Well, he wrote them a letter
Said we gotta help out
Folks in Palestine.
Mister tell me can't you see
They want the Jewish landscape
To be Judenrein.
Are you blind?

Give me a ticket for a Gaza boat.
Ain't got time to grab a warm coat.
BDS is nigh,
Part of the Big Lie.
Den-ee he wrote 'em a letter.

Test Your 'Vote Compass'

Just checked out my "vote compass" courtesy the Ceeb and discovered, quel shockeroo, that I'm "closest" to Conservative Party positions and "farthest away" from the Green Party.

A 'Good' Jew

Stanley Greenspoon of North Vancouver is "offended" by the suggestion that Jews would be persuaded to vote for Stephen Harper merely because of his unswerving and singular support for Israel, and writes to the Globe and Mail to tell it so:

Jewish surprise

Jeffrey Simpson (Pedalling Furiously, Going Nowhere – March 25) says “the conservative forces have large elements of evangelical Christian groups on board and, courtesy of the Harper government's Israeli policy, the Jewish community.” I'm quite certain that many fellow Jews were as surprised as I was to read such a statement, which seems to portray the “Jewish community” as a homogeneous group that has swung to the Conservative Party.

And I find the suggestion that our political positions as committed Canadians are determined by the government's position on a single foreign policy issue to be offensive.

Stanley is obviously one of those "progressive" Jews who thinks his "political positions" will preclude his having to ride in the cattle car (with us "Ostjuden") come the next Shoah. And how silly is Jeffrey Simpson? Doesn't he know that most Jews hold "political positions" such that they vote Liberal or Democrat no matter what?

What Price the Ineptitude of Eco-Freaks?

$18 million, apparently.

It's a Binksoramapalooza!

In glorious Binksocolor!

Get Set For More 'Let Me Be Clear'

The kinetic Libyan thing has been underway for a while now, but so far the man whose mouth usually runneth over has chosen to remain strangely silent on the, er, kinesiology. That's about to chance when he finally--finally--deigns to speak to the nation about it. The Daily Beast's Leslie Gelb, for one, is convinced the mists will now clear, and some logic or sense or something will be revealed:

White House officials say President Obama’s speech today will convincingly explain U.S. policy toward Libya. He won’t say anything new—like committing to removing Gaddafi by force—but he will say it better, says Leslie H. Gelb.

Nope, sounds like Ob-fuscation will remain the (executive) order of the day.

Update: Barry, you got some 'splaining to do.

Why Are These Two Laughing?

Syria Lucks Out

Today's country in the spotlight is Syria. Syria, whose chin-challenged ruler is in the process of mowing down his populace, has been given a pass to continue doing so, at least for now, by the U.S. (Iran's catamite, Boy Assad, getting more consideration in this regard than the West's former favourite, Gaddafi). And even though the brutal Baath has been given a slap on the wrist by Navi Pillay, the UN "human rights" council dominatrix, Syria is apparently still in the running for a seat on that august body.

The luck of the Baathish, eh?

More 'Human Rights' Abuses

More proof (as if any were needed) that "human rights" is being used to disguise/facilitate the power-hungry. By Rich Moran in FrontPage Magazine:

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which authorizes a no-fly zone over Libya and the protection of civilians by all means necessary, is the culmination of a decade-long effort to radically strengthen the ability of the UN to intervene in sovereign nations through the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine. Behind the initiative are, unsurprisingly, some of the usual suspects: National Security Council adviser Samantha Power and her patron George Soros. Their call to prevent human rights abuses through military intervention masks an agenda to alter drastically the concept of state sovereignty and to allow the United Nations to essentially co-opt the US military.

Yes, because if you call it "human rights" instead of, say, "the naked desire for global dominance" it sounds ever so much friendlier, don't you think? (Suggestion for a new zone in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights: the Mass Bamboozlement Zone.)

No More 'Tasty Samosas' in Israel--For Now

From JTA:

Israel's Chief Rabbinate has suspended interfaith dialogue between Jewish and Muslim religious leaders in Israel until terror attacks on Israel are denounced.

In a statement released March 23, hours after a terrorist bombing rocked central Jerusalem, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Mezger called on the Muslim religious leadership to condemn the attack and the rocket attacks on Gaza from southern Israel.

“Our neighbors have once again shown that we have no real partner,” Metzger said in a statement. “So long as the inciting religious leaders won’t condemn the terrorists, the Chief Rabbinate will suspend its interfaith dialogue with them. We expect the religious leadership to firmly denounce the terror attack in the heart of Jerusalem.”...

Wise move.

Men Without Hats

Even though there has never been anyone who could be described as "an Arab Nelson Mandela," Thomas L. Friedman lives in hope (delusion?) that one or more could well emerge. From whence does such hope spring? Apparently, it emanates from nothing more tangible than the fact that "the authoritarian lid that has smothered freedom in the Arab world for centuries" (Friedman's rather lame way of capturing it) has come off, and, well, a Mandela must be there somewhere among the many millions of Arab "democracy" fans (the enthusiasm for "democracy" in the Western sense being something else he takes as a given):

...The final thing Iraq teaches us is that while external arbiters may be necessary, they are not sufficient. We’re leaving Iraq at the end of the year. Only Iraqis can sustain their democracy after we depart. The same will be true for all the other Arab peoples hoping to make this transition to self-rule. They need to grow their own arbiters — their own Arab Nelson Mandelas. That is, Shiite, Sunni and tribal leaders who stand up and say to each other what Mandela’s character said about South African whites in the movie “Invictus”: “We have to surprise them with restraint and generosity.”

This is what the new leaders of these Arab rebellions will have to do — surprise themselves and each other with a sustained will for unity, mutual respect and democracy. The more Arab Mandelas who emerge, the more they will be able to manage their own transitions, without army generals or outsiders. Will they emerge? Let’s watch and hope. We have no other choice. The lids are coming off.

The diff between watchful, hopeful TLF and moi is that I think we do have a choice. We can succumb to his sort of wishful thinking, or we can open our eyes, take the lay of the land, and offer a realistic appraisal of the scene. When you do that, I think it's pretty clear that there are no Arab Mandelas in sight, and the chances of  one showing up any time soon is remote bordering on the non-existent. More likely, the Arabs will exchange one "lid" (the lid they just flipped) for another one (the lid of sharia/Islamism).

Update: Some Arab non-Mandelas fail to blow up an oil pipeline (not for want of trying to, though).

Just a Ragtag Bunch of Lads With a Dream

The WaPo makes Gadaffi's opponents sound positively adorable.

Our 'Bad'

Wily Harpoon Siddiqui absolves Arabs of responsibilty for the pathetic state of their, er, pathetic states, laying blame for their abjectness entirely in our "racist" laps:

When we allow ourselves to be pushed into thinking about a people and a region as a monolith, sans diversity and differences, we view them only in stark stereotypes. We allow racist notions to become respectable.

Thus “the Arab street,” a contemptuous phrase the media dare not use for public opinion elsewhere. There is no “Canadian street.” No “American street.” No “British street.” No “French street.” But Arab public opinion, emanating in the street — emotional and irrational — is to be dismissed.

Similarly, we are told that all Arabs/Muslims are hard-wired to mistreat women. Like blacks being prone to violence and Catholics to abusing boys.

And in the middle of this glorious Arab spring, we are instructed to keep our enthusiasm in check and ponder instead that democracy may not be part of the Arab DNA.

These crude formulations do serve a purpose. They keep the focus of Arab troubles exclusively on Arabs, as though we have had no part in the mess.

For decades, Arabs have been denied democracy mostly by client regimes of the United States and Europe that financed and trained the dictators’ security set-ups. The mandate of these dreaded outfits has been to keep “the street” quiet, lest it resonate with what we did not want to hear...

Yeah, it's our fault that Islamic teachings see women and non-Muslims as being second class to Muslim men. It's our fault that, due to these same teachings, a strongman is the preferred paradigm of Arab leadership. And it's our fault that Arabs, who are awash in oil wealth, have delusions of superiority (again, a function of Koranic teachings); these delusions cause endless frustration because they fall far short of the reality that they continue to lag behind, especially when it comes to that uppity Jew dhimmi state.

Tell me: does anyone really buy Harpoon's hogwash?

Are People Wising Up to the Eco-Scam?

Earth Hour a bust in Toronto.

Ceeb Eases the Way for an Iggy-Led 'Coalition'

Michael Ignatieff's polling numbers can only be described as woeful, so why does he seem so pleased that the country is being dragged kicking and screaming into another election (our 4th in seven years)? It's because he knows that if the Harper Tories are unable to achieve a majority, he and the other two opposition parties can get together and rule as a coalition. And to help pave the way for such an eventuality, the Ceeb assures us that it is well within our tradition, and makes it sound as though it's something to be desired--a matter of "co-operation":

Opting to Co-operate

There is a third option: a formal coalition, like the one that's governing Great Britain right now. David Cameron's Conservative Party beat Gordon Brown's Labour Party in the May 2010 general election, but fell short of a majority.

Brown negotiated with the third-largest party — the Liberal Democrats — to secure their support as he tried to remain in power. Those talks failed.

Cameron's talks were successful. He negotiated a deal with Nick Clegg — the leader of the Liberal Democrats — that led to Britain's first coalition government since the Second World War.

That deal saw Clegg win the post of Deputy Prime Minister. Four other members of his party were appointed to cabinet. While it is a Conservative government, the Liberal Democrats are a formal part of the government and have a say in the legislative agenda.

Canada has no roadmap when it comes to how to form a coalition government. The Westminster system, which relies heavily on tradition and unwritten rules, doesn't spell out rules on forming coalition governments. But it clearly allows them...

If Iggy and the boys try to go against the will of the Canadian people in this way (their second attempt to do so), I predict there will be hell--and then some--to pay.

The G&M Pimps for Marx

In the Saturday Globe and Mail, this teaser appears at the top of the first page of the Globe Focus section:

MARX IS IN THE AIR
Elizabeth Renzetti explains why even uber-capitalists like George Soros are swooning for the Communist Manifesto.

"Swooning," huh--why, they haven't done that since Obama came to town.

The teaser leads you to this, Renzetti's love song to Karl Marx, a helluva thinker and a misunderstood guy. (In an astonishing and perhaps unintentionally amusing bit of tone-deafness, the piece is headlined "Springtime for Marx," a play on that Hitler song from The Producers.) Not only that, Marx was a proto-environmentalist, too. In a middle section featuring a number of his utterances, the Globe includes this:

ON THE ENVIRONMENT
"The development of civilization and industry in general has always shown itself so active in the destruction of forests that everything that has been done for their conservation and production is completely insignificant in comparison."

He's a regular David Suzuki, is that K.M.; someone who, had he been around today, would definitely have shut off the lights and sat in the dark to show solidarity with Earth Hour. And the multi-millions who have died/been killed as a direct result of his cockamamie theories? For those who champion Marxism as an alternative to capitalism, the deaths are mere statistics (as Joseph Stalin, another nature lover, once sagely observed).

Update: You knew it was coming:

Economy was having trouble,
What a sad, sad story.
Needed an old theorist to restore
Its former glory.
Where, oh, where was he?
Where could that man be?
We looked around and then we found
The man for you and me
And now it's...
Springtime for Marx's economy.
Hobsbawm is happy again!
We've got our heads stuck up our rears.
Look out, you will be hearing cheers re
Springtime for Marx's economy.
Spreading the riches around.
Springtime for Marx's economy.
(Watch out, Europe,
You're running aground!)...

In a League of Its Own

One little problem with taking our marching orders from the Arab League, writes Claudia Rosett. It ain't exactly the good guys:

Little publicized fact: Right up until the Arab League suspended Libya’s participation, due to Gaddafi’s highly visible slaughter of his own people, which country held the annually rotating presidency of the Arab League? Why, Libya. It was Muammar Gaddafi who played host to the Arab League’s summit last March, welcoming the worthies in lavish style to a gathering attended by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

That tells us something about the character of the Arab League, a club of 21 Arab states plus the Palestinian Authority. Among its more moderate members are such countries as Morocco, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. Among its — shall we say — more troubled and troubling members are Syria, Sudan, Somalia and Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1945, the Arab League has been on balance one of the modern world’s most enduring clubs of despots. Its abiding preoccupation, apart from a lot of internal squabbling, has been blaming the miseries caused by its own despotisms on the sole full-fledged and enduring democracy in the region — which is Israel.

None of that would suggest the Arab League is well-equipped to guide the Arab world into a democratic era. For the most part, it does not represent the people of its member states, but their oppressors...

In that case, let 'em do their own fighting.

I Don't Know About You, But This Stuff Scares the Crap Out of Me

In a letter to the Globe and Mail about that "genocide equity" poll, the "human rights" mausoleum "clarifies" that such matters are largely irrelevant because the CMHR isn't a museum at all, and it certainly isn't a "genocide museum." It's--wait for it--a "catalyst for change":

The recent opinion poll sponsored by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association asks Canadians if they want their new human-rights museum to “cover all genocides equally.”

This question is not only unfortunate – it is misleading. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is not a museum of genocide, it never was. It is a catalyst for change. The Museum is a transformational experience, not a memorial to the past. Canadians have clearly stated they want CMHR to be a place of transformation and call to action. We know this because CMHR market research of 4,000 people across Canada and the U.S. clearly supported this vision of empowering change. What’s more is that 120 + million dollars donated by more than 6,000 thousand Canadians (including many ethno-cultural groups) plus millions of dollars in support from all levels of government was invested based on this current vision for the museum. In addition, members of the CMHR have met face to face over the past year with 2500 Canadians from every province and territory, who have shared their stories and hopes for the museum – again, reinforcing the current vision for the museum.

The Museum fully intends to deliver the inclusive museum that was promised to Canadians over the past several years – including the commitment made to Ukrainian Canadians regarding the stories that will be featured in the museum. We will be inclusive, but we will also be focused - focused on generating attitudes of respect, dignity, and responsibility and focused on what has been achieved in human rights history, and what can be done to make the world better in the future.

What can be done to make the world better? Well, first off, we could focus on the fact that the concept of "human rights" itself has been hijacked by those who seek power and/or who loathe Israel and the West. "Human rights" has indeed been a catalyst for change--but not the good kind, and there is no way this bastion of squish, victimhood and atrocity porn is going to work any magic. If anything, it will only make things worse by validating the dog's breakfast that "human rights" has become in our time. And, really, hasn't the whole Obama experience demonstrated the complete fatuousness of the "empowering change" trope?

Q&A With Mausoleum Gal Gail

Maclean's interviews Gail (daughter of Izzy) Asper re the "human rights" monstrosity:

Q: Your late father Izzy Asper was the driving force behind the Human Rights Museum. What was his initial vision?

A: His vision stemmed from his own background, as the child of immigrants who came to this country seeking freedom. From the idea that this is a great country, but one, he was concerned, that is pretty complacent. Canadians are indifferent to how their rights have evolved. People like me, who didn’t understand that women weren’t always persons, or that Aboriginals couldn’t vote until the 1960s. He wanted people to understand how this country came to be the tolerant country that it is now, and more importantly, to understand that if you are not vigilant with human rights, they can be lost.

 Q: Since you took over the project after his passing in 2003, has that vision changed?

A: No, not at all. The vision that was first presented to the world back in 2000 is the same vision that was adopted by three different prime ministers, two premiers, two mayors and 6,000 donors. The whole goal was, and is, to inspire visitors to take personal responsibility for the advancement of human rights here in Canada and around the world.

Q: There has been controversy about some of the plans for the museum. Ukrainian and German-Canadian groups have complained that the sufferings of indigenous peoples and Jews during the Second World War are getting a “disproportionate share” of exhibit space. Has the backlash surprised you?

A: Nothing that is being said now is any different from the concerns and hopes that were being expressed even before the museum existed. We have worked with all sorts of groups. The idea wasn’t that we were going to impose a human rights museum on Canada. The idea was that we were going to listen to what Canadians wanted and work with them to deliver something that everyone could embrace. The inclusion of an exhibit on the Holodomor [the Stalin-induced famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s] was always part of the plan. That is still the plan. But there is a tiny minority that have taken a more acrimonious position on this. And that’s been disappointing.

Q: The Ukrainian-Canadian Civil Liberties Association has charged that one horror—the Holocaust—is being “elevated” above all others at the museum. What’s your response?

A: This is not a museum of genocide. The purpose is to explain what human rights are and how they can be lost. There is no better example of this than the Holocaust. A country like Germany, that was so cultured and educated, and had a democratic government—don’t forget, Hitler was elected—was still able to descend into genocide because people were not vigilant. All the experts agree that no human rights museum could ever be established without a full examination of the Holocaust. It was fundamental to our notion of human rights today, the catalyst for the world coming together to say “never again,” precipitating the anti-genocide conventions and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Holocaust really shows how good people can be convinced to do bad things...

The joint is going to have a "Mass Atrocity zone" but it isn't "a museum of genocide"? If you say so, Gail.

Reality check: Canada has "evolved" into an Orwellian Trudeaupia of political correctness where bureaucratic hacks have been elevated to the status of "human rights" commissars and where free speech is going the way of the Dodo and dinosaur.

As for "human rights today"--that has become the catalyst for the Israel's destruction, the Jew-haters' best shot at finishing the job Hitler started. 

Any plans to include an exhibit on that, Gail?

No More Cupcakes, Competitive Weight Loss or Kardashians, Please

Just a few of the TV trends that have worn out their welcome and that should cease and desist.

Cue the Everly Brothers and Spot the Camel

Rabbi Donniel Hartman is one of those Israeli dreamers who wears blinkers that block out the jihad, and who can therefore foresee a day when Israel and Palestinians will be able set aside their differences and live side by side in peace. (To which those sans blinkers might say: Ha! How is that to occur when, on the one hand, Israel wants to remain sovereign and Jewish, and on the other hand, Palestinians want all of Israel "back" because, according to Islam, once a land has gone 'Rab, the land you can't grab--or something like that?) Here's a portion of Rabbi Hartman's open letter to Obama, advising the president what to say and how to act when he's in Israel this summer if he wants to coax Israelis to hop back on his peace train:

You and the United States are and have been great friends. Israeli society, however, doesn’t know you, and as a result doesn’t fully trust you yet. I hope that your primary mission will be to speak to us Israelis. Show us that you understand. Show us that you care. Show us that you know that what has been a seemingly intractable problem will not be solved on a short timetable. If you do so you will find us Israelis to be a true partner and willing players in daring and bold initiatives. The citizens of Israel have never rejected a potential peace treaty, and I believe we never will. The Herzlian proverb, "If you will it, it will become a reality," is built into the DNA of this country. The same pioneering and courageous spirit which enabled the building of this country against impossible odds will serve as the engine and foundation for what will hopefully be a new era in the Middle East.

How can he show that he understands and cares when all evidence points to the contrary--that, in fact, he neither understands nor cares about Israel's right to its singularity? How could he, when he spent twenty years with his backside every Sunday in one of Rev. Wright's pews, and hangs out with the likes of Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi? And let's not even go into his being named for the Prophet Muhammad's wingéd steed. (It's safe to say that, unlike Hartman, Israelis "understand" Obama and what makes him tick all too well.) But, oh, how comforting to imagine--to dream, dream, dream--that some sort of (fake) display of "understanding" from the famously icy Obama, Mr. Sang Froid himself, could, no, will, make all the difference.

There's dreaming about overcoming seemingly impossible odds. And then there's the jihad and the sharia imperative, something Israel and the rest of the West can't possibly dream about overcoming without first removing the blinkers and acknowledging the massive, immovable dromedary named Jihad standing imperturbably in the front parlor.

Rome Fell and So Will We

From Geert Wilders' speech in Rome about how multiculti will be the death of us unless we take immediate steps to reverse it:

...I am here today to talk about multiculturalism. This term has a number of different meanings. I use the term to refer to a specific political ideology. It advocates that all cultures are equal. If they are equal it follows that the state is not allowed to promote any specific cultural values as central and dominant. In other words: multiculturalism holds that the state should not promote a leitkultur, which immigrants have to accept if they want to live in our midst.

It is this ideology of cultural relativism which the German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently referred to when she said that multiculturalism has proved “an absolute failure.”

My friends, I dare say that we have known this all along. Indeed, the premise of the multiculturalist ideology is wrong. Cultures are not equal. They are different, because their roots are different. That is why the multiculturalists try to destroy our roots.

Rome is a very appropriate place to address these issues. There is an old saying which people of our Western culture are all familiar with. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” it says. This is an obvious truth: If you move somewhere, you must adapt to the laws and customs of the land.

The multicultural society has undermined this rule of common sense and decency. The multicultural society tells the newcomers who settle in our cities and villages: You are free to behave contrary to our norms and values. Because your norms and values are just as good, perhaps even better, than ours.

It is, indeed, appropriate to discuss these matters here in Rome, because the history of Rome also serves as a warning...

A Tale of Two Rapes

Isn't it odd how the MSM is playing up this rape in Libya when it was virtually silent about this one in Tahrir Square (which was accompanied by shouts of "Jew! Jew!," and which didn't get reported until several days later)? You don't suppose that's because they wants people to think ill of Gaddafi and well of Egyptian "freedom"-lovers, do you?

When Ethnicities Collide

The head of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association responds to the Winnipeg Free Press editorial criticizing its survey of Canadians' views re "genocide equity":

The tone of this paragraph seems intended to dismiss the results of the survey by besmirching the professionalism of Nanos Research while mocking our efforts to determine what the public wants in a national museum that taxpayers are being called upon to sustain, in perpetuity.

You have reported that 60.3 per cent of Canadians, men and women of all ages, from all regions and of all political persuasions, rejected (in the Nanos poll) the notion of a gallery being set aside permanently to cover just one genocide. Yet the editorial questions why we did not specifically reference the Holocaust as such a gallery's subject.

The reason we did not was simply because, as stated above, the association's position has always been, and remains, that no one community's suffering, however great, should be elevated above all others in a national museum funded by all taxpayers, which includes the Holodomor.

Stand back because dude's head is going to 'splode when he finds out that the taxpayers are going to have to pony up for an entire museum devoted to the Holocaust.

Another Obama-Made Debacle

Obama signed on to the UN's execrable "human rights" body thinking he might "reform" it from within. It hasn't exactly worked out that way, writes Anne Bayefsky. In fact, the U.S. has been reviled, rebuked and rejected, to the point that Obama now realizes there's only one clear way ahead: join the international gangbanging of Israel with even greater zeal than before.