Israellycool

Down Under Punditry in the Middle East

Archive for February, 2007

(Im) Moral Support

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

Members of the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta (no relation to Jimmy) are up to their old tricks, this time meeting with Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not alone, Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah can now also count himself among Neturei Karta’s friends.

On Tuesday six Neturei Karta activists arrived in east Jerusalem to show their support for Salah at his protest tent pitched in the Wadi Joz neighborhood.

During the visit, Israel Hirsch, from the strictly Orthodox Mea Sheraim neighborhood, gave a rallying speech expressing his support for Salah, who also spoke at the meeting.

Earlier this month Salah was arrested at the Mugrabi excavation site after forcibly breaking through the police line guarding the area along with several of his followers. A court slapped him with a restraining order and he has since maintained the required 150 meter (500 feet) distance from the walls of the Old City.

“The Zionists have no right to change Jerusalem,” Hirsch told Ynet on Tuesday. He also said that Salah and his followers greeted the Neturei Karta members “with joy and warmth.”

If this meeting was anything like their meeting with Ahmadinejad in Iran, I am not surprised there was “joy and warmth.” I just hope Hirsch laundered his trousers afterwards.

“Everything we do near the Temple Mount riles the Muslim world against us. The excavations are being done in the name of the Jewish people, but not everyone agrees to this. Not every Jew is a Zionist. We object to these actions and we’re here to convey this message to Muslims,” added Hirsch.

In response to the official standpoint that the motive for constructing the new bridge is a matter of public safety, Hirsch replied: “One must act to save lives, but have the Palestinians do it. The Zionists have no business sticking their noses in this matter.”

And I don’t want to know where the Neturei Karta members have been sticking theirs.

ahmed_in_love (Im) Moral Support

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Tags: Bad Jews

Separated at Birth

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

Former US Vice President Al

Gore and Butthead.

gore Separated at Birth Separated at Birth
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“I Thought They Were Shaved Kindly”

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
Hollywood celebrity and PETA supporter Pamela Anderson is feeling rather sheepish, after discovering the truth about those uggs she has been wearing.
Former Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson has taken the shears to her ugg boots.
 
The Hollywood pin-up credited with turning the Australian boots into a global fashion phenomenon denounced the footwear on her website.
 
In a truly blonde moment, the actress has suddenly realised that the boots are made from shaved sheepskin.
 
And mother-of-two Pammy, a staunch animal rights activist who has been a PETA member for a decade, says she is racked (get your minds out of the gutter -ed.) with guilt that women worldwide have followed in her footsteps.
 
“People like to tell me all the time that I started that trend ‚Äì yikes!” Anderson wrote. “I used to wear them with my red swimsuit to keep warm, never realising they were skin.
 
“Well, let’s start a new trend. Do NOT buy uggs! Buy Stella McCartney or Juicy boots.”
Actually, this report is missing a sentence from Pamela’s site:
I’m getting rid of our Uggs - I feel so guilty for that craze being started around Baywatch days - I used to wear them with my red swim suit to keep warm - never realizing that they were SKIN! I thought they were shaved kindly?
I’m not exactly sure what that means, but ok….back to the report.
Pammy won’t be ditching her trademark look altogether, but says she is designing her own version using synthetic materials.
And we all know she has a thing for synthetic materials.
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Tags: entertainment, PETA

Religion Unknown

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

The Who Are You Trying to Fool Award of the day goes to Christian Bottorff of the Tennessean, for this report on a cab driver with issues.

A disciplinary hearing is set for tomorrow for the Nashville taxi driver who is accused of trying to run over two students after a heated discussion over religion last week.

The hearing for driver Ibrahim Sheikh Ahmed, 37, is on the agenda of the 1:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday of the Metro Transportation Licensing Commission.

Ahmed was arrested Feb. 18 on charges of criminal homicide after police said he hit Ohio student Jeremie Invus with his United Cab Co. van. Ahmed is in the Metro Jail awaiting trial.

Another student, Andrew Nelson of Dayton, Ohio, dodged the van as it sped toward them.

According to a police report, the three men had a conversation about religion while in the taxi that “became heated.” Shortly after the men paid Ahmed, he chased them in his van across the parking lot and over a curb, police said.

Metro police spokeswoman Kris Mumford said one of the students is Catholic and the other is Lutheran. Mumford said that Ahmed’s religion was not known.

Hmmmm..

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Tags: United States

Compare and Contrast

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

According to Associated Press Writer Ali Daraghmeh:

A 42-year-old Palestinian, Anan al-Teibi, was killed Monday by a bullet to the neck while he was in his home in the old city, medics said. The man’s son was wounded and evacuated to a hospital, the medics said.

A neighbor, Nashaat Hijawi, said al-Teibi was hit by shots on the house fired from a passing Israeli army jeep. The army said it was checking the report.

According to Israel’s leftist news outlet Ha’aretz:

Palestinian Anan el-Tibi, 50, was killed by a bullet to the neck while walking down a street with his son in the old city, breaking the army’s curfew.

Update: These AP photo captions suggest that the palestinian man was 50 years of age, as Ha’aretz reported, and contradicting the aforementioned AP report.

Update: The Ali Daraghmeh story above has been subtley changed since I posted.

Anan al-Teibi was shot and killed Monday at his home in the old city, medics said. A neighbor, Nashaat Hijawi, said the 42-year-old was hit by fire from a passing Israeli army jeep. The army said it fired at “suspicious figures” on the rooftop of a building where gunmen were operating, killing one man and wounding another.

Besides the added information about the army’s claim, Daraghmeh has changed the words “a bullet to the neck while he was in his home” to “was shot and killed Monday at his home.”

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The Brutal Death of a Father

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

Two 18-year-old palestinians have brutually murdered a 42 year-old father of three - while he meditated in prayer.

erez The Brutal Death of a FatherThe defense establishment on Monday night arrested two Palestinians suspected of murdering Erez Levanon, a resident of the Bat Ayin settlement in Gush Etzion.

The arrest, which took place in the village of Beit Omar near the scene of the murder, was cleared for publication Monday afternoon.

Intelligence information attained by the defense establishment indicated that the murder was carried out by two terrorists who were hiding in a building in the village of Beit Omar, not far from where the stabbing took place.

The two suspects were identified as Khader Abu Daya and Moussa Khalil.

Following up on the lead, security forces raided the building and found the suspects. They were arrested and transferred to Shin Bet custody for interrogation.

According to defense establishment estimates, no official Palestinian organization was behind the attack, which was initiated by the two suspects.

In their interrogation, the two confessed to carrying out the murder, which they said was planned earlier, including patrols of the area. On the day of the attack, the two left their village in possession of knives, and after spotting Levanon they ambushed him and stabbed him to death for nationalistic motives.

—-

Erez was found brutally stabbed to death just several hundred yards from the Bat Ayin community.  It is believed that arab terrorists ambushed Mr. Levanon as he was engaged in his nightly prayer meditation in the forest adjacent to the town. At approximately 6:00 p.m. Sunday, the victim was reported missing by a friend who was waiting to travel with him to Tel Aviv.

Security forces later found the body in a wood just outside the gate of his hometown of Bat Ayin. He was pronounced dead at the scene, having been stabbed and possibly attacked with an axe. The victim’s car was stolen by the killers and used in their flight from the scene of the attack.

Erez was reportedly a very special guy:

Rabbi Michi Yosefi, a close friend and neighbor of the late victim, said that Erez was “humble and did not seek attention, yet managed to touch the hearts of thousands of Jews with whom he came in contact during their spiritual searchings in India.”

Erez was also a talented musician, who “did wonders with his music and lyrics.  He put out a disc that is unlike those sold in stores; something very unique.”  The Maariv NRG Hebrew website article on the murder includes a link to hear the song “The Heart and the Well,” written and composed by the victim.

Erez spent the last seven summers in India - first in Manali and afterwards in Bela -  meeting with young Israelis seeking to “clean their heads.”  “What he managed to do there was simply amazing,” Yosefi told Radio Kol Chai.  “I always wondered where such a talent came from…  He had a special strength of faith.”

A number of observations.

1. Can you imagine the uproar if anyone murdered a Muslim in prayer, especially an Israeli?  Besides the ensuing riots and intifada, the mainstream media would be all over the story like a rash. But because here we are dealing with a dead Israeli - even worse, a “settler” - this has not scored a mention in the (non-Israeli) mainstream media. At the time of this post, the main Middle East headlines are:

  • Israeli troops search houses in Nablus
  • Palestinian killed in Israeli siege of Nablus AFP
  • Israeli troops search houses in Nablus AP
  • Abbas arrives in UAE for talks AFP
  • Abbas-Mubarak discuss Palestinian unity gov’t AFP
  • Israel to hold nationwide nuclear attack drill AFP
  • Israeli Troops Place Curfew on West Bank City at The New York Times
  • One shot dead in West Bank raid at BBC
  • 5 Palestinians Die in Gaza Feud at The New York Times
  • Israeli forces launch Nablus raid at BBC
  • Europeans tell Abbas unity gov’t must meet Western demands at Haaretz

    Not one mention. The MSM is clearly more interested in the IDF’s inadvertent killing of palestinians during an army operation to apprehend terrorists.

  • boy1 The Brutal Death of a Father2. In case it didn’t sink in, two 18-year-old

    palestinian boys planned and executed the brutal stabbing murder of a

    father of three, as he meditated in prayer.

    Think about it. These two boys patrolled the area, waiting for a victim, saw Erez as he prayed, snuck up to him, and stabbed him repeatedly.

    boy2 The Brutal Death of a Father18 years of age.

    What kind of society produces such hatred?

    Is this a society that deserves statehood?

    I posit that morality dictates this society forfeited any claims to statehood a long time ago.

    Update: Please Digg this post if you believe it deserves a wider audience.

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    Tags: terror attacks

    Bet You Didn’t Know They Were Jewish #10

    Monday, February 26th, 2007

    Today’s Jew:

    • Was a Pizza Hut waitress at one time
    • Surpassed Bryant Gumbel as the longest serving co-anchor of NBC’s The Today Show
    • Had a husband who died of colon cancer, prompting her to co-found a non-profit organization for cancer research and education
    • Was banned from the air by CNN president Reese Schoenfeld after he heard her high-pitched, squeaky voice.
    • Had a small role in Austin Powers: Goldmember

    And the mystery Jew is…

    Click to continue reading “Bet You Didn’t Know They Were Jewish #10″

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    Tags: Judaism

    Israeli News Briefs

    Monday, February 26th, 2007
  • Israeli Defense Minister Amir “Lens Cap” Peretz has stated that Israel has been holding secret contacts toward winning the release of kidnapped IDF soldiers. Which begs the question: why is he talking about it?
  • Israel is still gripped by Syria war fears
  • The IDF has arrested 2 palestinian chefs
  • France have once again surrendered
  • Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated that “the train of the Iranian nation is without brakes and rear gear.” Yeah, he’d know all about the rear gear.
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    Tags: Middle East Conflict

    Attack of the Lesbian Koalas

    Monday, February 26th, 2007

    Koalas just became that much more of an endangered species.

    koala Attack of the Lesbian KoalasFemale koalas indulge in lesbian “sex sessions”, rejecting male suitors and attempting to mate with each other, sometimes up to five at a time, according to researchers.

    The furry, eucalyptus-eating creatures appear to develop this tendency for same-sex liaisons when they are in captivity. In the wild, they remain heterosexual.

    Scientists monitoring the marsupials with digital cameras counted three homosexual interactions for every heterosexual one.

    “Some females rejected the advances of males that were in their enclosures, only to become willing participants in homosexual encounters immediately after,” say the researchers.

    “On several occasions more than one pair of females shared the same pole, and multiple females mounted each other simultaneously. At least one multiple encounter involved five female koalas.

    “One theory put forward by the researchers is that the females do it to attract males; another is that it is simply hormonal, or that it is a stress reliever.

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    Tags: Australasia

    From Mathematics to Fanatics

    Sunday, February 25th, 2007

    Reuters reports:

    Magnificently sophisticated geometric patterns in medieval Islamic architecture indicate their designers achieved a mathematical breakthrough 500 years earlier than Western scholars, scientists said on Thursday.

    By the 15th century, decorative tile patterns on these masterpieces of Islamic architecture reached such complexity that a small number boasted what seem to be “quasicrystalline” designs, Harvard University’s Peter Lu and Princeton University’s Paul Steinhardt wrote in the journal Science.

    Only in the 1970s did British mathematician and cosmologist Roger Penrose become the first to describe these geometric designs in the West. Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry.

    “Oh, it’s absolutely stunning,” Lu said in an interview. “They made tilings that reflect mathematics that were so sophisticated that we didn’t figure it out until the last 20 or 30 years.”

    Lu and Steinhardt in particular cite designs on the Darb-i Imam shrine in Isfahan, Iran, built in 1453.

    Islamic tradition has frowned upon pictorial representations in artwork. Mosques and other grand buildings erected by Islamic architects throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and elsewhere often are wrapped in rich, intricate tile designs setting out elaborate geometric patterns.

    The walls of many medieval Islamic structures display sumptuous geometric star-and-polygon patterns. The research indicated that by 1200 an important breakthrough had occurred in Islamic mathematics and design, as illustrated by these geometric designs.

    “You can go through and see the evolution of increasing geometric sophistication. So they start out with simple patterns, and they get more complex” over time, Lu added.

    ISLAMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

    While Europe was mired in the Dark Ages, Islamic culture flourished beginning in the 7th century, with achievements over numerous centuries in mathematics, medicine, engineering, ceramics, art, textiles, architecture and other areas.

    Lu said the new revelations suggest Islamic culture was even more advanced than previously thought.

    While traveling in Uzbekistan, Lu said, he noticed a 16th century Islamic building with decagonal motif tiling, arousing his curiosity as to the existence of quasicrystalline Islamic tilings.

    The sophistication of the patterns used in Islamic architecture has intrigued scholars worldwide.

    Emil Makovicky of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark in the 1990s noticed the relationship between these designs and a form of quasicrystalline designs. Makovicky was interested in particular in an 1197 tomb in Maragha, Iran.

    Joshua Socolar, a Duke university physicist, said it is unclear whether the medieval Islamic artisans fully understood the mathematical properties of the patterns they were making.

    “It leads you to wonder whether they kind of got lucky,” Socolar said in an interview. “But the fact remains that the patterns are tantalizingly close to having the structure that Penrose discovered in the mid-70s.”

    “And it will be a lot of fun if somebody turns up bigger tilings that sort of make a more convincing case that they understood even more of the geometry than the present examples show,” Socolar said.

    Unfortunately, it seems many modern day Muslims are only employing math when it comes to building bombs, counting the number of infidels they have killed, or the number of virgins awaiting them in paradise.

    Oh, what could have been.

    Update: Speaking of math, via Ace comes these funny answers to math problems.

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    Tags: Islam

    Israeli News Briefs

    Friday, February 23rd, 2007
  • A UN report expected to come out soon states that close to 50% of palestinians suffer from malnutrition. That’s probably because the other 50% have used the aid to buy ammunition.
  • Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is trying to improve his people’s plight, but has been set some unreasonable conditions.
  • After partying hard all night, the palestinians are throwing alcoholic beverages at Israelis, and have abandoned their smoking paraphernalia.
  • Labor MK Raleb Majadle, an Israeli Arab, has been appointed as Israel’s The Apartheid State’s Minister of Science, Culture and Sport.
  • Israel has received some praise from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), formerly known as the UN Taskforce on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
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    Tags: Israel

    Quote of the Day

    Friday, February 23rd, 2007

    “If we show weakness in front of the enemy the expectations will increase but if we stand against them, because of this resistance, they will retreat.”

    - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, vowing no weakness over international demands that Iran stop their nuclear work.

    And this, my friends, shows the mindset of our enemies. Compromise is seen as weakness, and concessions just increase their expectations of receiving more.

    For more on this topic, you can read this post of mine from almost three years ago.

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