Credit Where Credit Is Due

UPDATE: To clarify, the people on the photo below are not my family.  I took it from a newspaper.  I do not know a single individual in the picture, and they don’t know me, I’m pretty sure.  Please don’t have them.

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A while ago I commented on pictures of Bay Area residents partying in Cuba that were appearing in a local paper under the heading “The Sun Shines Everywhere”.  I commented on the politics of local media:

Me and DH were talking about what goes on in that section.  I thought that perhaps Alameda Sun publishes just about any picture that readers care to send in because they can’t possibly have that many submissions.  DH suggested a way to test out that theory.  Next time we are in Israel, take a picture with IDF soldiers next to the Wailing Wall.  Send it in, see what happens.

But, hey, what do you know, this image comes from the latest issue:

Caption reads “Michelle, Alex, Nathalie and Sam Koka recently attended a family wedding in Jerusalem, Israel. They then played tourist and visited the Old City. They didn’t forget to bring along the Alameda Sun.”

“Jerusalem, Israel”?  I mean, me and Mitt Romeny, we know that Jerusalem is in Israel, but the IOC doesn’t.  It could be an editorial oversight.  And the head of a certain avid letter writer is guaranteed to explode.

Speaking of Jerusalem, Israel.  American LGBT activists might be staging Chick-a-File make out sessions, but the Gay Pride parade in the Israeli capital was the model of propriety.

Will Jerusalem Be on the Map Two Years from Now?

This is not a post about the Iranian nuclear threat, which is doesn’t seize to remind of itself.  Quite a few Arabs in and around Jerusalem would like to see Israel wiped out, even at the price of their own lives.

Last week I re-posted a video about the language commonly used to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Historical Jewish place names are replaced with made-up Arab ones to advance political agenda.

The “International community” is all too eager to destroy if not Jewish people, then any memory of a Jewish presence anywhere in the world.  Legal Insurrection’s Mathew Knee writes about UNESCO editing Jews out of history, again:

A recent United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report on Arab contributions to science has declared Moses ben Maimon (also known as Maimonides or Rambam), generally considered the greatest of medieval Jewish philosophers and theologians (and incidentally, among the most prominent physicians of his day) to have been a Muslim named Moussa ben Maimoun.

In a few week’s time Fatah and Hamas will declare statehood.  There is probably going to be a war.  Israel will probably retain sovereignty of Jerusalem’s Old City.  Fatah and Hamas will continue laying claim to it, a claim that the “International community” will recognize.

Global warming circa 2008: A rare picture of Jerusalem in snow.

Jerusalem has many names in many languages: it’s Zion, City of David and Salem, to name but a few.  It does have a historic Arab-Islamic name, Al-Quds, which Arab locals prefer, and on which, I’m sure, they will insist.  English speakers should not call the city by any name other than the historic English name because, well, it’s a historic English name.  We call Moscow Moscow, not Moskva, and we call Munich Munich, not Munchen. And, by the way, it’s Pakistan, not Pakeestan.

When new maps go into production, we might just end up with Al-Quds and West Jerusalem, which will make it a sad day in the history of civilization.

Just my uneducated guess.

Hebron and Jerusalem

Via Instapundit: Michael Totten posts an essay on Jews in Hebron.  I didn’t know there is nearly a thousand Jews living there right now.  In conclusion Totten quotes Yaakov Lozowick on what seems now as inevitable forthcoming division of Jerusalem:

Because Hebron, historian Yaacov Lozowick wrote, “is what happens when Israelis and Palestinians agree to divide a city, but can’t agree to live together in peace. The blame for lack of peace is irrelevant: each side will doubtlessly say it’s all the fault of the other, but the result won’t be any nicer thereby. The myriads of observers, pundits, politicians, dreamers, visionaries and true believers who all know for a certainty that dividing Jerusalem is the key to peace in the Middle East need urgently to visit Hebron.”

It’s Jewish American Heritage Month, and I’m Offended!

Not that American Jews need a heritage month.  Every day is a Jewish American heritage day, because not a day goes by without hearing about our achievements in science, literature, arts, economics — what have you.  But since that’s the language our President understands, I’m going to declare myself offended.  Why did he have to pick the month of May to announce his plan to divide our Jewish capital, Jerusalem?

Oh, and did you know that East Jerusalem Arabs prefer Israel to a Palestinian state.  As they say, LOL!  In any event, there was always a large Jewish community in East Jerusalem — until Jordan occupied it and forcibly expelled all Jews in 1948.  So yeah, lets now call it “Arab East Jerusalem”.

And while our dear President wants Arab “right of return” to be a part of the final settlement — a major diversion from classic American policy — what about the Jewish refugees?  If “Arab Spring” is worth anything at all, why not ask the presumably newly free Arab countries to compensate Jews they were so happy to kick out  a half a century or so ago?  In fact, why not make compensation for Jews kicked out of East Jerusalem a part of bilateral negotiation?

Obama’s on thin ice with Jewish voters.  I’m sure he’s still going to get the majority, but not 78% majority, and many will sit out the election.  He can count on fewer donations, too.  He’s scheduled to deliver speech to AIPAC on Sunday, apparently.  They should boo him.

Oh, and Assad heard Obama’s call of liberalization, and fired on protesters.  Killed 9.

…Actually, I’m not offended.  I’m absolutely outraged and scared.

UPDATE: Damage control already.

I Can’t Decide if He’s Evil or Just Dumb

I want to start off like Gateway Pundit: Let me be clear, Barack Obama is no Mideast scholar.  His learning curve is rather flat, and his instinct is taking him in the wrong direction.  He doesn’t care if he’s cornering Israel, he probably doesn’t think Israel is a country.  He’s trying to suck up to the Muslim states, and they take him for a fool.  But does he care about the outcomes of his policy to his country, and does he want to be reelected?  Because, from Gateway Pundit:

Obama today proposed giving half of Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall, The Temple Mount, Old Jerusalem, The holiest Christian Church in the world, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre to Hamas-Fatah terrorist alliance.

Whether Jerusalem is a part of Israel is about to be decided in an American court.  So our President might find his foreign “policy” opposed by the judicial branch.

The traditional US position called for compliance with Resolution 242 of  the UN Security Council aka the “Land for Peace” accord.  In Resolution 242, Israel agreed to return lands occupied in the 1967 war in exchange for peace.  In and of itself this is unprecedented because Israel occupied the lands in a defensive war.  The resolution called for transfer of “land,” not “the land,” and Israel already returned 90% of the land, the Sinai peninsula, to Egypt.  Our President is calling for return of “the land” with minor modifications through some sort of land swap, presumably to avoid large scale transfer of Jewish population.

Netanyahu rightly called the ’67 borders “indefensible”.  Israel today is still surrounded by enemies, and, in fact, the region is likely swinging towards Islamic extremism in general and Iran and Muslim Brotherhood in particular.  Rockets are still raining on Israeli cities, and recently demonstrators staged an invasion of Israel’s border. Israel is bordering on war.  It would be far more satisfying it Netanyahu instead of flatly rejecting Obama’s proposal would instead respond with annexation of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria or demand a compensation for Jewish refugees from the Arab lands to be a part of any future settlement (via Point of no Return).

Obama’s speech is so chalk-full of post-colonialist cliches and so hard on our traditional allies, it is guaranteed to embolden American enemies.  Obama can take a deep breath, relax and release these dead Bin Laden pix, it won’t make much difference.

I see one sentence of that speech highlighted:

…we know that our own future is bound to this region by the forces of economics and security; history and faith.

Never mind dhimmtude, wars for oil and our national food staple cous-cous or whatever else he thinks connects us to the region.  I would like to see more active verbs from the United States President.  What do you mean, “bound”?  Aren’t you the leader of the free world?  Shouldn’t we, the United States of America, show the way and push the region away from tyranny and towards freedom?  “Bound”!  As if they aren’t the ones falling into an abyss of anarchy, religious extremist and tyranny, and dragging us down with them.  On a chain.  On a leash.

DH likes to say that it’s customary for an American president to wait until the end of the second term to try their hand at the “Arab-Israeli conflict”.  I suppose there isn’t always a second term.

I’m adding another Israel link because it’s cool and because I want to end with something more hopeful.   Woman Honor Thyself: Nakba in Israel: Only Wimps.

UPDATES.  Lots of updates.  All depressing.

Powreline:

Obama will not gain politically by sabotaging Israel; on the contrary. He must know that his re-election is in grave jeopardy, and going out of his way to put his administration at odds with Israel will hurt, not help, his chances. So one can only conclude that Obama is genuinely, as a matter of philosophical conviction, anti-Israel.

Jihadwatch: Obama Calls for Destruction of Israel.

Weasel Zippers: Palestinian “Activists” Plan to Rush Israel’s Border on Friday.  Well, we have a truly inspirational President — to our enemies.

Abbas will demand more.  Of course.