Israellycool

Here’s video of a Muslim woman insulting a Christian preacher, prompting the preacher to state that Mohammed was a pedophile.

Hilarity ensues.

Another reader-inspired one for you (you guys are getting good at this).

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Thanks to Shaul.

Warning: This post is significantly longer than my usual fare, but it is worth it.

If I say so myself.

Have you ever been going through very difficult times, but had a number of things happen to you to let you know you are not alone?

Allow me to elaborate on that rather obtuse question.

Ha’aretz has a fascinating article on the son of a Hamas leader who has turned his back on their murderous ways, converted to Christianity, and moved to California.

Needless to say, he’s also a big fan of Israel.

A moment before beginning his supper, Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, glances at the friend who has accompanied him to the restaurant where we met. They whisper a few words and then say grace, thanking God and Jesus for putting food on their plates.

It takes a few seconds to digest this sight: The son of a Hamas MP who is also the most popular figure in that extremist Islamic organization, a young man who assisted his father for years in his political activities, has become a rank-and-file Christian. “I’m now called Joseph,” he says at the outset.

Masab knows that he has little hope of returning to visit the Holy Land in this lifetime.

“I know that I’m endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he’ll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. Maybe one day I’ll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God.”

Nor does he attempt to hide his affection for Israel, or his abhorrence of everything representing the surroundings in which he grew up: the nation, the religion, the organization.

“Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country,” he says.

“You Jews should be aware: You will never, but never have peace with Hamas. Islam, as the ideology that guides them, will not allow them to achieve a peace agreement with the Jews. They believe that tradition says that the Prophet Mohammed fought against the Jews and that therefore they must continue to fight them to the death.”

Is that the justification for the suicide attacks?

“More than that. An entire society sanctifies death and the suicide terrorists. In Palestinian culture a suicide terrorist becomes a hero, a martyr. Sheikhs tell their students about the ‘heroism of the shaheeds.’”

And yet, in spite of the criticism of the place he left, California can’t make the longings disappear.

“I miss Ramallah,” he says. “People with an open mind. … I mainly miss my mother, my brothers and sisters, but I know that it will be very difficult for me to return to Ramallah soon.”

Of course, despite Masab’s credentials, I somehow doubt his acknowledgment of Hamas’ aims, as well as his admiration for Israel, will make a difference to Jimmy Carter and company.

Updates: Ma’an has now noticed Masab’s “rejection of Palestinian resistance.” Their report includes this picture of daddy.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Krusty the Clown.

Thanks to CJ Run for working out what I was looking for, but couldn’t quite work out myself

Just when you thought the foreign press photographers couldn’t make Ehud Olmert look any goofier..

Source

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to make a surprise statement to the public from his official residence tonight at 8 P.M Israel time.

According to Ha’aretz:

Political sources said they believed Olmert may announce that he will not run in an upcoming leadership contest in his Kadima party, scheduled for September 17.

Although Ynet offers another alternative:

The prime minister became enraged with the actions of the coalition and the Labor Party earlier in the day, and has previously threatened to dismiss ministers who vote against the government’s directives, but it is unclear whether his announcement will pertain to this matter.

Here’s hoping it’s the first.

Updates (Israel time)

6:58PM: Hmm…

Israeli media sources speculated Olmert was planning to announce either that he will not run in the Kadima primary election in September, or that he will step down right away.

Tellingly, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is currently in Washington, announced that she will be holding an unscheduled press conference two and a half hours after Olmert’s.

8:13PM: Olmert says he won’t be running in the upcoming primaries, and will resign as soon as a new leader is chosen.

From Al-Arabiya:

Algerian TV will launch an Islamic-inspired adaptation with a twist of the infamous Arab talent show Star Academy following a ban on the Lebanese version. Instead of showcasing contestants’ singing talents, the new show, a collaboration between Algerian TV and the Ministry of Religious Affairs, will be a Quran recitation competition.

The decision comes as part of a plan to implement more balance in the messages Algerian T.V. delivers to its audience. Star Academy, one of the most successful programs in Arab television history, enjoyed a large number of viewers in Algeria because of its prime time slot but was banned because of excessive “nudity.”

Sixteen contestants were chosen for the new show from 15,000 applicants. The show will host the most prominent reciters from Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, and Indonesia.

The best Quran reciter will be named “Knight of Quran” and will be announced on the last day of Ramadan. Throughout the show, the competitors will recite verses from the Quran and the audience will vote for who they think is best.

I wonder if they will have three celebrity critics as well.

“I don’t think you chose the best verse, calba. You didn’t convince me that you really wanted to kill the infidels. I think you would have been better off doing something from The Cow.”

“Great job! I could feel Allah’s words in their pristine form. It was almost as if I only heard that verse six hundred times before. I mean this from my heart, from one Abdul to another. Allah akbar!”

“That performance was simply dreadful. Your meter was off and your accent makes you sound more Canadian than Arab. You may have a good future career as a torturer in a Syrian prison.”

The latest edition of Shire Network News is up: Podcast goes to the Wall.

The feature interview is with Anne Franklin of Clintons for McCain. She says they want Barak Obama to lose this election, in order to clear the way for Hillary Clinton next time. They’re working overtime to defeat Obama in November.

Of interest to Israellycool readers, however is my blog news piece on Obama’s trip to the wall and the “stolen” or more accurately, cynically published prayer. Obama was a little bit to “me me me”. Something that Pamela at Atlas Shrugs jumped on.

Here’s part of what I said on the show:

But let us not forget Obama at the Western Wall (or Ha- Kotel to give it it’s Hebrew name). You may well have seen Obama trying to insert a note in the Wall and know that later, the very same note turned up, published in full in the Ma’ariv newspaper in Israel. Obama prayed for me, me, me….. more me’s than a thing with lots of me’s in it.

It’s now been confirmed by A Ma’ariv spokesman in the Jerusalem Post that “Barack Obama’s note was approved for publication in the international media even before he put in the Kotel, a short time after he wrote it at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.” The paper added that is was “pleased” with its “journalistic accomplishment.”

One of the most important central lessons of Judaism is to move away from personal fulfillment and toward what one can do for others. Judaism doesn’t regulate rights for the self, it lays down obligations toward others. One doesn’t live to make oneself happy: one lives to attain happiness through performing good deeds that make others happy. Jews say prayers for sick relatives or friends, and ask friends to do the same: they never say pray for me.

Obviously, Barack is not a Jew. Obviously Jesus was. I’m just saying.

That particular note of BHO’s so supremely violates all concepts of Jewish prayer its no wonder the Kotel kept pushing the thing back out at him. When I watched the video I could just hear the voice of G-d (or the New York Times editor): “NOW WRITE THAT AGAIN BUT PRAY FOR OTHERS!”

King of the auto-translation, Elder of Ziyon, points us to a Palestine Press Agency article about the utter humiliation suffered by Fatah’s Mohammed Nafez, who was abducted by Hamas and then had his mustache shaved off.

Here are the before and after shots.

Now I don’t know about you, but I would have having that mustache would be more humiliating.

How else do you explain this?

Hamas Islamists threatened their Fatah rivals on Tuesday with future retaliation in the West Bank for a campaign of arrests by forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying the only thing keeping the militant group from attacking Fatah in the West Bank was their “protection of the Zionists” there.

A senior Palestinian security official in Ramallah dismissed the threats as those of “irresponsible people”.

Abbas’ security forces have detained at least 150 Hamas supporters in the West Bank in response to a sweep in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas seized nearly 200 Fatah sympathizers after a bomb blast killed five Hamas militants and a girl on Friday.

“Now the Zionists are protecting you,” Hamas said in a statement addressed to security forces in the West Bank. “You know that once the protection of the Zionists is over, people will enter your headquarters and kick you out,” it said.

“You must know we are not acting against you now in the West Bank because … we know the Zionists will immediately back you.”

Boo!