Israellycool

Down Under Punditry in the Middle East

Archive for January, 2006

24 - The Movie

Tuesday, January 31st, 2006
Exciting news for fans of 24, with plans to shoot a movie version of the hit show.
Actor Kiefer Sutherland is keen to start filming a big screen version of his hit TV series 24, as soon as production on the show wraps up later this year (06).
 
The show is currently filming its fifth season and producers are planning to shoot the movie while the show is on a break, according to moviehole.net.
 
And the actor is convinced his audience would relish a feature film version of the hit show.
 
Sutherland says, “I think there’s always a way to actually deal with the idea of 24 as a film that would completely be separate from 24 the television show.

 
The star Sunday night (29JAN06) won the Screen Actors Guild award for Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Drama Series for his portrayal of Special Agent Jack Bauer.
 
He suggests a sixth season of the show would start filming after the big screen version was complete.
No word yet on whether the movie will be 24 hours long. I certainly hope so.

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Tags: entertainment

Sucks to be Him

Tuesday, January 31st, 2006
Just call him Steve Urkel.
A visitor to a British museum tripped on his shoelace, stumbled down a stairway and fell into a display of centuries-old Chinese vases, shattering them into “very small pieces,” officials said Monday.
 
The three Qing dynasty vases, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, had been donated to the Fitzwilliam Museum in the university city of Cambridge in 1948 and were among its best-known artifacts. They sat on the window sill beside the staircase for 40 years.
 
“It was a most unfortunate and regrettable accident, but we are glad that the visitor involved was able to leave the museum unharmed,” museum director Duncan Robinson said.
What’s not clear is whether Mr Robinson means unharmed from the tripping incident itself, or the resultant violent attacks from the museum curator and visitors.

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Terrorist Profile: “Mommy’s Boy” Youssef

Tuesday, January 31st, 2006
Growing up, Youssef was always considered to be a bit of a “mommy’s boy.” He thought that joining the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades would solve his problems. But, alas, old habits die hard.
 
 
So did Youssef a few seconds after this photo was taken. Gravity’s funny that way.

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Tags: Palestinian

Lies Al-Zahar Told Me

Monday, January 30th, 2006
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, wart-nosed Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar talks of Israel’s evil expansionist goals.
BLITZER: But what is your long-term goal? Is it Palestine in all of these areas, a historic Palestine, including pre-’67 Israel? Is that your long-term goal?
 
AL-ZAHAR: We are here, I’m not speaking about the eventual events (ph). We are not speaking about future; we are speaking now. What is the real attitude of the people who are facing such problems nowadays? Nowadays, tell me Israel is accepting area ‘67, accepting to give us Jerusalem, accepting to withdraw from the area occupied?
 
Lastly, I think — and also at the same time, ask the Israeli about what is the meaning of the two blue lines in their flag. What is the meaning of land of Israel in their concept?
 
BLITZER: The two blue lines on the Israeli flag that are on top of the Star of David, is that what you’re talking about?
 
AL-ZAHAR: They are indicating — they are saying that frankly — it is indicating the River Nile and Euphrates (inaudible). On one coin, the gold shekel, there was — it was a map, including Palestine, Sinai, Syria, Jordan and part of Saudi Arabia. So they are not denying that. Ask them about this question
 
(CROSSTALK)
 
BLITZER: Well, let’s just be clear about this. What you’re saying is that Israel wants to establish a state between the Nile and the Euphrates, is that what you’re saying?
 
AL-ZAHAR: I’m sorry, I’m not understanding your question.
 
BLITZER: Are you saying that Israel hopes to establish a state between the Nile River in Egypt and the Euphrates River in Iraq?
 
AL-ZAHAR: Yes. It is written in their Bibles. They are even — it is written in the Knesset. That is the meaning of the David Star that was said (ph) as the land of Israel. This is the historical land of Israel.
Actually, the blue stripes on the Israeli flag have nothing to do with the Nile and Euphrates, and everything to do with the connection between the Jewish people, the Jewish religion, and the land of Israel.
The blue stripes on the Zionist flag were inspired by the stripes on the tallit (prayer shawl). The tallit has two separate symbolic aspects: the light blue hue and the stripes. Some say that the stripes are meant to recall the one dyed strand of the ritual fringes (tzitzit). This leads to the significance of the hue itself. According to the Torah, one strand in the tzitzit should be light blue. To judge from references in the Talmud, it was a shade between green and blue. Many symbolic meanings were attributed to it. Rabbi Meir said that it recalls the color of the sky; Rabbi Judah ben Illai maintained that the color of Aaron’s staff was light blue, as were the Tablets of the Law, and this is why God commanded the Jews to include it on their prayer shawls: “As long as the people of Israel are looking at this tehelet, they are reminded of {the words} written on the tablets and observe them.” In other words, the sight of the color tehelet leads to observance of the commandments. White and tehelet, along with gold and purple, were the colors of the High Priest’s raiment (Exodus 28: 4,43) and of the curtains of the Tabernacle (Exodus 26). They were considered to be the colors of purity symbolizing the spirituality of the Jewish people.
I have included a picture of a blue -triped tallit so you can see the similarity between its stripes and the stripes on the flag of Israel.
 
You can read more about the concept here.
 
Despite this reality, the lie about the stripes representing the Israeli desire to take over all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates is nothing new.
 
The same can be said for Al-Zahar’s other claims that the desire to establish a state between the Nile and the Euphrates Rivers is written in the Bible, written in the Knesset, and captured on the shekel (I assume he means the 10 agorot coins, since there is no such thing as a gold shekel, and the silver shekel has nothing that looks remotely like a map).
 
I point you all to this Daniel Pipe’s article on the subject, in which he rips apart these claims. As you can see, Al-Zahar is repeating the same lies that his predecessors - including Arafat - have made in the past.
 
For sure none of this will satisfy the anti-Israel crowd, so perhaps they should hear it from one of their own. These are the words of noted anti-Semite/anti-Zionist Israel Shahak:
The Arab World has shown itself so far quite incapable of a detailed and rational analysis of Israeli-Jewish society, and the Palestinians have been, on the average, no better than the rest. In such a situation, even those who are shouting about the dangers of Israeli expansionism (which are real enough) are doing this not because of factual and detailed knowledge, but because of belief in myth. A good example is the very persistent belief in the non-existent writing on the wall of the Knesset of the Biblical verse about the Nile and the Euphrates. Another example is the persistent, and completely false declarations, which were made by some of the most important Arab leaders, that the two blue stripes of the Israeli flag symbolize the Nile and the Euphrates, while in fact they are taken from the stripes of the Jewish praying shawl (Talit). The Israeli specialists assume that, on the whole, the Arabs will pay no attention to their serious discussions of the future, and the Lebanon war has proved them right. So why should they not continue with their old methods of persuading other Israelis?

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Tags: Middle East Conflict

Separated at Birth

Monday, January 30th, 2006
Australian Open women’s champion Amelie Mauresmo, and Australian Open men’s champion Roger Federer.
 

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Stunning Revelation

Sunday, January 29th, 2006
Rock producer/accused murderer Phil Spector has an excuse for his weird behavior at the time of his arrest. You see, it wasn’t because he was sloshed or stoned, but rather tasered.
Rock producer Phil Spector said in a sworn deposition made public on Friday he was sober when arrested in the shooting death of an actress but that his mind was clouded from having been zapped by police with a stun-gun.
 
Contrary to police accounts that he appeared drunk when they arrived at his home after the February 2003 shooting, Spector said in the deposition he had not been drinking that night and was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs when arrested.
 
Instead, Spector repeated under oath his assertion that police had beaten and subdued him with a Taser-like device even though he was “being very cooperative” with them.
 
“I wasn’t clear-headed if I had been Tasered and I had been beaten up,” he said. “I was groggy. I couldn’t think straight. My memory was unclear.”
 
Spector’s account could be used by his lawyers to explain discrepancies between statements police said he made at the time of his arrest and his subsequent remarks to the media about the shooting death of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson.
It could also explain how he went from this:
 
 
To this:

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Tags: Celebrities

FunGun for the Whole Family

Sunday, January 29th, 2006
Child: “Ab, does mother know about you taking me to this rally?”
Father: “Yes, Ibn. She knows, and approves.”
Child: “What about Situe (grandmother)?”
Father: “I did not talk to her about it, but I have a strong feeling she would approve.”

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Tags: Palestinian

A Picture That Sums it Up Nicely

Sunday, January 29th, 2006
Meet the big guns of the Palestinian Legislative Council
 
 
Ain’t democracy grand? Except when it’s not.

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Tags: Palestinian

Hamas Riddle

Friday, January 27th, 2006

Question: What do you get when you cross senior Hamas leader/grizzly bear lookalike Ismail Haniyeh with wart-nosed senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar?

Answer: The Bear Witch Project.

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Tags: Palestinian

Head of Nail Hit

Friday, January 27th, 2006
Two cartoons, one truth:
 
 

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What Could Have Been

Friday, January 27th, 2006
Reuters reports on ill-fated Israeli plans to bump off bin Laden 10 years ago:
Israel’s Mossad spy service and a foreign counterpart enlisted a confidante of Osama bin Laden to kill the Al-Qaeda leader in 1996 but the plan fell apart over a political dispute, a newspaper said on Thursday.
 
Mossad picked up Bin Laden’s trail while helping US and Egyptian agents probe an attempt by Islamist militants on the life of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak as he visited Ethiopia, Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonoth said citing security sources.
 
According to the report, Mossad recruited a woman close to Bin Laden with the help of the intelligence service in her country. Neither the woman’s name nor nationality were given.
 
Yedioth said the woman was meant to kill Bin Laden, but the mission was aborted as a result of a breakdown of ties between Israel and her country linked to Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

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Tags: Terrorism

Still Laughing

Friday, January 27th, 2006

It’s a shame no-one nominated this for Best Series in the JIB Awards.

Tags: Blogosphere