Israellycool

Jewish website Jewcy has joined fellow Jewish websites The Forward and Jew-Ish in providing another platform for publicity-seeking, Israel-bashing blogger Richard Silverstein. And he hasn’t wasted any time spreading his bile.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with inviting people with divergent views to guest post on your site. But Silverstein has proven time and time again that he is not interested in any honest dialogue. He has a very specific agenda, and his arguments do not hold up to any scrutiny. He knows this, and responds to critics by either a) hurling insults b) modifying his critics’ comments c) banning critics from commenting on his posts d) modifying his own posts on the sly e) trying to ruin the reputation of his detractors or f) all of the above.

Jewcy seemingly aims to be a young and hip Jewish website. Which makes Silverstein’s appointment even more of a mystery.

Here’s the feel-good story of the day, courtesy of LGF:

Hate preacher Abu Hamza has complained of the tough conditions behind bars, it was revealed yesterday.

The cleric, serving seven years for inciting murder of non-Muslims, says he is the victim of a prison bullying campaign.

And he has even complained about the lack of soft furnishings in his cell.

An Islamic group has taken up the hook-handed preacher’s cause and is demanding human rights organisations help him.

I hardly think ol’ Hookie has a right to complain about poor treatment in prison, especially when he has someone wiping his ass for him.

Hamza’s “plight” at top secur­ity Belmarsh Prison in south-east London was revealed in a letter from his wife, Nagat Mostafa, to the al-Maqreze Centre for Historical Studies.

In her letter written in May, shortly after her husband had surgery to remove an inch of bone from his infected left arm stump, she asked them to do all they could.

Here’s hoping that’s not the only bone they have to remove from him.

The Independent reports:

Sir Richard Branson, the head of Virgin airlines, has described having a sexual encounter in the lavatory of an aircraft, taking cocaine and ecstasy and being taught to roll a joint by the Rolling Stone Keith Richards.

—-

In the interview, Sir Richard also admitted to experimenting with class-A drugs, and even taking Viagra. “I took ecstasy once … but it didn’t have a massive effect on me. Asked about cocaine, he said: “I suspect I’ve tried it, yes.”`

The tycoon also said the Rolling Stone Keith Richards was “the first person to teach me how to roll a joint”. He added: “I haven’t tried skunk, I have smoked cannabis though. I mean, I went with my son on his gap year, for God’s sake. We learnt to surf and had some nights where we laughed our heads off for eight hours.”

Explains a lot.

In this new Israellycool feature, I make fun of the Hamas website’s martyrs section. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Today’s Ezzedeen Alqassam Brigades martyr is Ahmed Kamal Al Wesaifi - “the kind man.”

Name: Ahmed Kamal Al Wesaifi

Nickname: Abu Obayda

Rank: member in producing unit

Martyrdom day: August 5th,2006

Ahmed was born in February 1985. He lived in a humble family. His roots back to Salama village which followed to Yafa district. His family brought him up in a poor neighborhood called Zytoon neighborhood. His father worked in the occupied land in 1948.

Ahmed was the third one between his brothers. Also he has four sisters. His parents brought him up on the good manner and the virtue.

His studying

He finished his primary study in Al Shafai school. He was brilliant since his childhood. His preparatory study was in Al Falah school and his high study was in Al Karmil high school. He joined to the Islamic university in the engineering department.

The man with the good manner

His father talked to us and said that Ahmed was very kind with his parents and his brothers especially with his mother. He was calm man. Some times his mother became sad because Ahmed was studying very hard, he became very exhausted. Ahmed was decent man especially with the old people.

The eremite man

These guys can hardly string a sentence together, and they know the word eremite?!

He was checking the poor people in his area and tries to help them. He was urging his friends and his parents to do charity works. He kept the holy Quran. His mother added that Ahmed hate every one who try to harm his friends.

Ahmed in Hamas

He loved the mosque. He worked in the Islamic block from his childhood. He was an active man. He joined to the Islamic resistance movement Hamas. He was responsible on the social activity in the mosque. Finally he joined to the brotherhood group (one of Hamas branches).

The secrete man

He was known with his secrete in his working in Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades..

That’s what they really meant when they referred to him as being a “member in producing unit.”

no one of his family knew that he is working in the brigades. He worked in the brigades from the beginning of Al Aqsa intifada. He participated with his friends in protecting his area from the Zionist invasions. He was from the first people who reach the invasion area when he hear that there is an invasion.

Member in producing unit

Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades leadership noticed that he abilities qualified him to work in the producing unit in the brigades. He worked in the chemical part in the producing unit. And when he came back to his home with dirty clothes, he said to his mother after she asked him that he is working in sewing factory.

Apparently, sewing makes one really dirty.

He worked with the martyr Metwalli Al Arqan and Ammar Hijazi. But was very sad when his friend Na’em Basim Na’em martyred because he has very specific relationship with him.

Think tiger and hyena.

The martyrdom date

In August 5th,2006, Ahmed and his friend Ammar were on a date.

What did I tell you?

He martyred when he was in duty. So he followed his friends as he wish before.

After his martyrdom, his mother saw him in her dream. He was riding a car and smiled to her and she kissed him. Also one of his friends saw him that he live in the paradise.

Must have been one hell of a large car to fit Ahmed and his 72 virgins.

This morning, the Sydney Jewish Community held a rally to remember kidnapped Israelis Gilad Schalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and to demand their release.

NeoZionoid was there, and he has all the pictures and video that’s fit to print.

What makes a palestinian a “traitor”?

Not explicitly advocating terrorism, apparently.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad and his government are a “group of traitors hidden in the Mukata ‘presidential’ compound in Ramallah,” and Palestinians are in their right to attack them, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) said on Saturday in response to the omission of “armed resistance” from the new PA political platform.

Resistance to the “occupation” is a strategic choice of the Palestinians, and no official, no matter how senior, can void it, Abad Alal, spokesperson for the organization said during a press conference in Ramallah. In addition, Alal said Palestinians should treat the PA government like they would IDF soldiers, which includes attacking them in the same way they would attack Israeli troops.

—-

On Friday, for the first time in the history of the Palestinian Authority, the government did not mention in its proposed political platform the Arabic word mokawamah, meaning “resistance” or “armed struggle.” Instead, the new guidelines adhered to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s call for “national opposition to the occupation,” supporting the Arab peace initiative.

But you would have to expect that attitude from an organization called the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC). After all, you drop the resistance, and all that remains is PC.

Huge props to Josh who offered to help incorporate the banner in to the new site, and iron out some bugs. As you can see from his website, he is a really talented designer.

Waddy’all think?

A prehistoric find in Greece. And I’m not talking about Mikis Theodorakis.

Researchers in northern Greece have uncovered two massive tusks of a prehistoric mastodon that roamed Europe more than 2 million years ago _ tusks that could be the largest of their kind ever found.

The remains of the mastodon, which was similar to the woolly mammoth but had straighter tusks as well as different teeth and eating habits, were found in an area about 250 miles north of Athens where excavations have uncovered several prehistoric animals over the past decade.

One of the tusks measured 16-feet-4-inches long and the other was more than 15 feet long, the research team said. They were found with the animal’s upper and lower jaws _ still bearing teeth _ and leg bones, said Evangelia Tsoukala, an assistant professor of geology at the University of Thessaloniki, who led the team that excavated the site.

“To find a tusk 5 meters (more than 16 feet) long, that was a big surprise,” Tsoukala told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the site late Wednesday.

“It’s a very significant find because with these sections of the skeleton we can draw conclusions about this animal and its development,” she added. “We are also looking for clues about its extinction.”

Mastodons, an ancestor of the elephant, roamed Europe, Asia and North America, but how they became extinct remains a mystery. They are thought to have disappeared in Europe and Asia some 2 million years ago, but survived in North America until 10,000 years ago.

And to think that if the find had been made nearby in Italy, there would have been a Tuscany joke just beckoning.

From time to time, I enjoy browsing Hamas’ website for a bit of a chuckle.

Between it’s poor English and its special martyrs section replete with ridiculous descriptions (currently, Anees Yousif Mosa -”The patient man” - has front page billing), it’s fun for the whole family.

Ok, not quite. But it sometimes provides good grist for my mill.

Case in point: today I visited the site, and was greeted with this picture of one of their “martyrs” - Sheak (!) Salah Shahada

Sheak Salah Shahada - “The big chicken”?

Fancy that….a story involving the words “Islamic States”, “head”, and “body”, which does not also include the words “severed” and “infidel.”

Other than that, there are no surprises here.

Islamic States Chide UN Head for Criticizing Human Rights Body

After ensuring that the U.N. Human Rights Council, in its first year of operation, produced numerous resolutions condemning Israel, the Islamic bloc on Wednesday criticized U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon for highlighting that fact.

At a meeting of the Geneva-based HRC, the representative of Pakistan — speaking on behalf of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) — reportedly scolded Ban for his comments last month chiding the council for singling out Israel.

The Pakistani delegate was quoted as saying the HRC would have to “streamline its relationship” with the secretary-general.

Last month, Ban’s spokesman said in a statement that Ban was “disappointed at the council’s decision to single out only one specific regional item, given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world.”

Although the statement did not name the “regional item” concerned, the HRC has since its formation a year ago censured Israel 11 times — and no other country.

The spokesman added, “As regards the removal of mandates relating to two member states, [Ban] wishes to emphasize the need to consider all situations of possible human rights violations equally.”

The remark was a reference to a decision by the HRC to stop reporting on alleged human rights violations in Cuba and Belarus.

U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization affiliated with the American Jewish Committee, decried the Pakistani envoy’s remarks Wednesday.

“We’re witnessing a dangerous attempt to censor the highest official of the United Nations, an effort to silence anyone who exposes the council’s repeated breaches of its own principles of equality, universality, and non-selectivity,” said the group’s executive director, Hillel Neuer.

Canada’s representative to the HRC was quoted as defending Ban during Wednesday’s meeting.

“We have to acknowledge that the secretary-general is entitled to his views, and it would ill behoove this council to appear to be constraining or discouraging the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression, a fundamental freedom we are committed to uphold,” he said.

The 47-seat council was established to replace the erstwhile Commission on Human Rights, which became a laughing stock after regimes accused of egregious rights abuses sought membership and used their positions to block scrutiny, while focusing disproportionately on their foes, notably Israel.

The new human rights apparatus was meant to be a crowning achievement of former secretary-general Kofi Annan’s effort to reform the world body, but Annan himself, a month before leaving office, criticized the council for focusing too much on the Arab-Israeli conflict while ignoring the atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region.

In line with a negotiated membership formula, the African and Asian regional groups hold 26 of the HRC’s 47 seats. And since OIC member states hold a majority in both of those regional groups, the Islamic bloc and its allies effectively dominate the council.

As you will have noticed, I am trying out WordPress. There are still some glitches to be ironed out - such as missing images and old permalinks not working. Also, all comments imported from Blogware are now “anonymous.”

In order to help me decide whether or not I should stick with WordPress, I would very much like your feedback. Is it now easier to comment? Are load times better than before? Do you think I should make the move permanently?

Update: I should also mention that posting may be somewhat sporadic for the next few days or so, as I try to to tinker around.

Update: I have now figured out how to upload the remaining images (which I have).

Update: If you are a bit of a WordPress guru and want to help me get my header image back on the site, please contact me in the comments.

It’s clear that anti-Semitism is back in vogue.

This point has unfortunately been made abundantly clear in the blogosphere over the past week, thanks to some of the bloggers over at the Gawker Media blogs Gawker and Wonkette.

If you are not familiar with these blogs, they typify what I refer to as trash blogging - not blogging anything of substance but rather talking trash about everyone because they are way too cool. Forget the fact that many of these bloggers are probably still living in their mom’s basement - it doesn’t seem to matter since these blogs get heaps of traffic.

Last week, Gawker editor Alex Balk decided to show his scorn for religiously observant Jews with this post on the Harry Potter-Sabbath row (hat tip: Jewlicious).

Avraham Ravitz of the United Torah Judaism Party slammed the Potter books for their “defective messages.”

“We don’t have to be dragged like monkeys after the world with this subculture, and certainly not while violating our holy Sabbath,” Ravitz said in a statement.

Not to get all Hitchens on you, but isn’t this exactly how some of us feel about, you know, the Bible and its subculture of weird, tallis-wearing followers? Give us this wizard any day. (Actually, don’t, we’re f**king grown-ups, but you get the point.).

While the Chicago Tribune’s Mark Caro hit the nail on the head with this response to the offensive Gawker post….

[T]hey’re being postmodern and ironic. They’re playing to a crowd that appreciates such wink-wink references (the comments include several inside jokes about Jewish law and nary a complaint). There’s already a popular Jewish magazine called Heeb, so why not embrace all slurs and stereotypes? Don’t take offense; it’s all in quotation marks.

..this only seemed to make Balk more determined than ever to prove Caro’s point.

Actually? We were writing about life in a theocracy? But now that you mention it, yeah, we really hate the Jews too.

Proving that he can’t quit while he’s ahead a d*** head, Balk upped the ante anti.

Dear Jew,

We are sincerely sorry for offending your delicate Jew sensibilities. Yes, it’s true, there are a few Jews here in the office—we’ve crunched the numbers, and four out of five Gawker editors have at least some Jew blood in them (not on them!)—and we do think that gives us the right to make Jew jokes. But you know what? None of us are Irish, thank God, and we still knock the micks every now and again. We’re kinda of the opinion that the idea of ethnicity and its accompanying stereotypes are inherently hilarious. So, sure, we may not know a lot about life in Israel—do you guys still eat the Palestinian kids after your tanks run them over, or did you stop that once Rabin came into office? Do we still send Israel billions of dollars a year?—but, guess what, we think the comical ways in which your Jew country kowtows to the craziest Jew elements of crazy Jewiness could not be funnier. Hope that’s okay!

Shalom,
Balk

But even this wasn’t enough for Balk, and he followed up with a post entitled Exactly What Is So Funny About The Jews, posting a diagram which listed, amongst other things, giant noses, cheapness, the holocaust, and constant bitching about anti-Semitism.

But remember: Don’t take offense; it’s all in quotation marks.

Not to be outdone, Alex Pareene from sister blog Wonkette (who really does look like he still lives in his mom’s basement) continued the open season on the Jews.

In a stunning rocket, Rudy Jew-liani basically admitted that he doesn’t know anything at all about foreign policy — or maybe that he knows too much. In an interview with the Jew York Times, Rudy inavertendly revealed that the US has been fighting an entire extra war these last few years that only he knows about.

After an Israeli blogger suggested there may be anti-Semitism at play here, he was quickly threatened with legal action by Wonkette editor Ken Layne. While Layne subsequently  tried to weasel out of the legal threat, what was more disturbing was his defiance. He was simply not willing to acknowledge that the terms Jew-liani and Jew York Times could be offensive.

For the record, I am not sure that the bloggers in question are anti-Semitic. What I am sure about is the fact they see evoking anti-Semitic stereotypes and poking fun at the Jewish faith as not just perfectly acceptable, but more a way to ingratiate themselves with a young and “hip” Left-leaning crowd. The crowd that “appreciates such wink-wink references,” as Mark Caro so eloquently put it.

Anti-Semitism is so back in vogue.