Did you know that Judaism forbids hunting for sport? Jews can hunt, but only for food and only when hunting for food is done in such a way as to cause the least pain possible. There is an understanding that hunting is only carried out when it is necessary for survival.

There’s a nice summary of how Judaism treats animals at the Jew FAQ.

Reuters

This post may be updated throughout the day.

• A Hamashole has been killed with out hurting anyone else in a “jihadist mission”.Which basically means he’s a clumsy (dead) dumbass.
• Winter is over, but we may be getting snow.
• Pamela Anderson is back in Israel, promoting her PETA agenda. She said “I love Israel. It’s very forward-thinking,” which I assume does not mean Israelis think about her forward parts.
• Meanwhile, I wonder if Pammie still likes snakes.
• Seemed like a good idea at the time?
• Libyan tyrant Moammar Gaddafi is sounding more and more like Charlie Sheen.
• US official Robert Einhorn stated Iran seeks nuclear weapons capability. No sh*t Sherlock.
• According to AP, thirteen Egyptians have been killed in “violence between Christians and Muslims.” But if you read the article, it seems the violence is coming from one side. Can you guess which one?

Former screen idol Brigitte Bardot and other animal rights activists on Tuesday launched a poster campaign in France to end Jewish and Islamic ritual slaughter of animals.

“I can no longer accept that in order to please a god animals have their throats slit like in the Middle Ages without being stunned beforehand, when we have modern methods to prevent animals suffering,” the 76-year-old Bardot told AFP.

She can no longer accept this? Drats! Because her opinion really matters, especially when being compared with G-d’s will (yes, that was sarcasm).

And for the record, kosher slaughter is widely recognized as the most humane method of slaughter. For instance, read here for an unbiased account.

I think Bardot needs to realize that her days being worshipped are well behind her, especially since she stopped looking like this:

Photo by: Government Press Office / Avi Ohayon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during their meeting in New Orleans on Sunday that sanctions have hurt Iran but are not stopping Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu said that a credible threat of military action is the only way to ensure that Iran will rethink its nuclear program. According Israeli estimates, the only time that Iran stopped its nuclear program was in 2003, when Iran believed there was a threat of military action.

In other words, Iran is just biden time.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

5:55PM: And the Most Appropriately Named British MP award goes to..

Two British MPs visited on Saturday two Palestinian lawmakers who are holed up in the Red Cross center in Jerusalem facing expulsion from the city by Israeli authorities.

MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Andrew Slaughter, both members of the Labour Party, met with Palestinian Legislative Council members Muhammad Totah and Ahmad Atoun in the Red Cross headquarters, along with members of the press and peace activist Lubna Masarwa.

The British officials said their visit was intended to express solidarity with the Palestinian people and rejection of Israel’s violation of Palestinians’ human rights.

4:45PM: Looks like Pamela Anderson has been introduced to Israeli driving.

Pamela Anderson has been left shaken up after a minor accident in Tel Aviv, Israel. The actress/model was on her way to meet the celebrity contestants taking part in the country’s upcoming “Dancing with the Stars” show, which she will guest on this week , when her chauffeur-driven BMW collided with a concrete post in a parking structure on the set of the program.

Anderson was quickly transferred to another vehicle and driven to her destination. A source tells WENN, “She was a little shaken but uninjured.”

4:26PM: Boo-frickin-hoo.

4:25PM: Months after their leader claimed to have incriminating evidence linking Israel to the murder of Rafik Hariri, it is becoming increasingly evident that Hizbullah itself was behind it.

Include one Hizbully who was himself turned into worm food.

Imad Mugniyah, Hezbollah’s operations officer who was killed in a 2008 car bombing in Damascus, was one of the key figures behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

According to the report, Mugniyah and his brother-in-law Mustafa Badreddine are two out of possible six senior Hezbollah members that will be indicted for the murder by the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in charge of investigating the assassination.

Hariri and 22 other people were murdered on February 14, 2005 in a suicide attack in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. An international tribunal was established in 2007 in order to probe the attack and indict those responsible.

Badreddine, one of the candidates to replace Mugniyah as Hezbollah’s operations officer, is the main suspect in Hariri’s murder.

Members of the tribunal have faced difficulty during the investigation, culminating with a recent event in which some 30 furious women managed to chase them away during a visit to a local clinic.

Lebanese prosecutor general Said Mirza instructed to investigate the incident, but Hezbollah officials were quick to deny any involvement.

1:38PM: Dennis Prager describes the Middle East problem in very clear terms.

1:08PM: Photo of the day: I’m willing to bet this is the most covered up she’s been in a long time.

U.S. actress Pamela Anderson is seen at the Western Wall, Judiasm's holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010. Former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson said Sunday she will try her powers of seduction while in Israel on an unlikely audience, ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers. Anderson, an honorary director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is in Israel to participate in the local version of "Dancing with the Stars." (AP Photo/Sebastan Scheiner)

11:35AM: D’oh vey:

A Foreign Ministry security guard prevented an embarrassing diplomatic incident on Sunday: Minutes before German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle’s arrival, the guard discovered that the head of the ceremony had placed the Belgian flag at the entrance to the building instead of the German one.

Westerwelle visited the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem for a meeting and joint press conference with his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman.

To make the honorable guest feel at home, the head of the ceremony was asked to place the German flag at the entrance to the building. The staff confused the German flag with the Belgian one, which has similar colors but a different structure.

Luckily, one of the ministry’s security guards – most of whom are students and former combat soldiers – spotted the mishap and alerted the head of the ceremony just minutes before the German minister’s arrival. The flag was quickly replaced and an embarrassing incident was averted.

9:32AM: Still on the subject of Pamela Anderson, she seems quite taken by Israel.

9:28AM: Headline of the day: Pamela Anderson calls for ultra-orthodox to go topless

Brilliant.

Meanwhile, she’s apparently knowledgeable in Jewish law.

Surely you will agree that the ways in which animals suffer and die in the fur trade violates Jewish principles, which strictly prohibit causing unnecessary suffering to animals,” she wrote.

6:05AM: Lebanese Journalist Ziyad Noujeim admits that the Lebanese and Arab culture is based on lies and denial, especially when it comes to Israel.

Not to mention bad decor.

Israel intends to withdraw from the northern part of Ghajar village located by the Lebanese border, Israeli officials announced overnight Saturday.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to inform United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of this plan, when the two men meet in New York on Monday, during Netanyahu’s five day visit to the United States, according to officials.

The withdrawal plan has been discussed with senior members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

Upon his return from the United States, Netanyahu is expected to ask the Security Cabinet to approve the plan, officials said.

The village of Ghajar has 2,200 residents and is located on the border between Israel and Lebanon.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:12PM: Gingaling: Ha’aretz reports:

The defense establishment has taken the unusual step of granting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency approval to take four weapons into Gaza. The weapons, submachine guns, are to serve the security detail guarding the heads of the agency in Gaza.

The request to bring in the weapons was made three years ago and approved last week.

The director of UNRWA’s activities in Gaza, John Ging, said on his website that his life is in constant danger and he needs more suitable protection than the handguns his bodyguards had been carrying.

The UN body asked for German Heckler and Koch submachine guns for UNRWA’s commissioner general, Filippo Grandi, and for Ging.

The organization told Israeli security officials that its personnel are being threatened by Hamas representatives. UNRWA operates 221 schools in Gaza and dozens of medical centers, employment centers and women’s help centers.

More than a million refugees and their descendents are registered with UNRWA, which operates eight refugee camps in Gaza.

In March 2007, gunmen fired at Ging’s convoy and he escaped without injury. In the summer of 2007, armed men again attacked him, in Rafah, killing one. After previous assurances by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories that authorization was forthcoming, in July, Interior Minister Eli Yishai said he would not approve the request.

Ya’akov Imut, in charge of weapons registration at the Interior Ministry, said the ministry turned down the request because it is authorized only to license handguns. Only last week, after pressure from the UN, was the request approved.

The COGAT office said “the delay was because UNRWA received authorization from the Germans only five months ago.”

UNRWA’s representative in Israel said it does not issue responses on security matters.

But surely Ging does not believe Hamas is capable of killing him, just as he does not believe they are capable of using UN facilities as cover for attacks against Israel.

I say the request should have been denied.

5:56PM: Cover-up of the day: Hardly any flesh in sight.

US model and actress Pamela Anderson waves at the start of her press conference in Tel Aviv on November 7, 2010 during her visit to Israel where she is making a guest appearance in the Israeli version of the popular TV show "Dancing with the Stars". AFP PHOTO/DAVID BUIMOVITCH

Given her PETA-like sensibilities, I am guessing she is staying away from the shwarma.

5:50PM: According to a UN report, Arabs live better in Israel than anywhere else.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) just published its 20th Human Development Report, which includes its Human Development Index (HDI) rankings. That third link is the one that shows Israel as 15th of 169 countries; there is only one country which isn’t English-speaking or European, South Korea, which is higher at 12th place. The Economist has a brief description of what it’s all about, here.

Israel is the only one of the top 25, with the exception of the US, which is at war or has been at war in any significant way since 1954. It is the only one with almost 20% of its population being Arabs (the highest Arab country, the United Arab Emirates, is ranked at 32). I’d add that it’s also the only one among the top 25 in which something like 20% of the population arrived as impoverished immigrants within the past 20 years, but actually I think it’s the only one anywhere, world-wide, with that particular distinction.

5:42PM: Last week, I posted about the first same-sex duo to compete in any version of Dancing With The Stars. Right here in Israel.

Here’s their performance.

4:30PM: Remember the Iranian weightlifter who refused to shake the hand of the Israeli who won gold in the event?

Reminder:

Well, he’s been banned for life..not for the lack of sportsmanship but because he dared even compete with the Zionist scum.

Mir Rasool Raisi, Head of Delegation to Iran’s Weightlifting Team, and Hossein Khodadadi, a veteran weightlifting champion, have been banned from all sport activities for life. Mr. Khodadadi appeared on the platform beside an Israeli weight champion during the Poland competitions.

Jalal Yahya-Zadeh, head of Physical Education Committee for Youth Committee announced this news and and added: “The fact that an Iranian weightlifting veteran has competed against an Israeli during the worldwide competitions and has stood beside him during the distribution of medal is unjustifiable.”

He added: “Unfortunately, those who supposedly had the primary responsibility in this regard did not see any problem in this matter, however did not see it fit to be distributed within the public, which itself is an obvious mistake on their end.”
Mr. Yahia-zadeh pointed to Mir Rasool Raisi’s remarks on publication of news and pictures of Iranian and Israeli athletes beside one another.

Mr Raisi has stressed the accompanying members of the Iranian expeditionary team  had destroyed all CDs and photos and did not expect happening of such matter.

Physical Education and Youth Committee has stated the Cultural Commissioners have been informed and the president has also been warned of such matter.

Mr. Yahia-zadeh has recommended to the safeguard organization of the Physical Education Committee to prevent such matters from happening.

2:15PM: Following on from last week’s news of a new Gaza mall comes word of a new luxury hotel.

Nablus businessman Munib Al-Masri on Sunday toured industrial projects being carried out by the Palestine Development and Investment Company in the Gaza Strip.

—-

The West Bank multimillionaire told journalists Friday that after three years of waiting, his company decided to inaugurate a five-star hotel in the northern Gaza Strip. The hotel was completed in 2007, but its opening was delayed due to the dire conditions in the Strip.

I look forward to the photos.

11:00AM: Nice one, Goldstone.

Photo by Marco Longari/AFP

South African Judge Richard Goldstone’s name may be infamous in Israel, but in the Gaza Strip it is sewn onto souvenir Palestinian headscarves in honour of his controversial war inquiry.

Tariq Abu Dia, owner of the President Arafat souvenir shop in Gaza City, says Goldstone, who is Jewish, deserves the honour of appearing on the iconic Palestinian keffiyeh made famous by Yasser Arafat, for whom the shop is named.

“Today we put out 50 keffiyehs made of white fabric with the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the name ‘Goldstone’ embroidered on them, to honour his work,” Abu Dia says, as he shows off one of the scarves.

It tells you a lot that Hamas is publicizing this story on their site.

Goldstone must be kvelling.

9:45AM: This next story sums up the palestinian approach so well.

Stones were thrown Saturday at an ambulance and an MDA mobile intensive care unit near the village of Al-Azariya just a day after some young Israelis were attacked  as they drove through nearby Issawiya, in east Jerusalem. The ambulance teams had been called to village to treat a young man who had fallen from the fifth floor of a building.

At about 6 pm, an ambulance was called to Al-Azariya, in the vicinity of east Jerusalem. Due to the critical condition of the patient, the intensive care unit was called. As paramedics treated the patient, a number of teens from Issawiya began throwing stones at the vehicle, making the paramedics’ task difficult. The windscreen of the vehicles was damaged, as was another Israeli vehicle that was driving behind them.

Hagai Bar-Tov, an MDA paramedic, spoke of those minutes of fear. “On the way to the hospital, as the paramedics treated the patient… we had to take care of our own lives at the same time,” he said. “A shower of stones fell on us… Luckily the vehicle was armored, so the windscreen was damaged but not completely broken in.”

“Unfortunately, we see once again how terror groups operate without limits, even when it’s clear to all that ambulances don’t do any damage anywhere in the world” said Danny Rotenberg, MDA spokesman in the Jerusalem region. “The team, which was in the middle of intensive treatment saving the life of a seriously wounded Palestinian patient, feared for its life, making the situation even worse.”

Police said they had begun searches in the area to find those responsible for throwing the stones. The police view the incident gravely, as they do the attempted lynch of three students from Givatayim and an Australian tourist. Police sources said they intend to increase operations against stone throwing in Issawiya, to pressure the local population to keep public order.

The students and tourist, who only wanted to go to a pub in the city, almost paid with their lives after making a wrong turn. They said they followed the directions of children in the neighborhood and almost reached the center of Issawiya. When they tried to go back they saw the street was blocked, and saw the eldest child who had given directions throw stones at them. None of the group was injured, despite the shower of stones.

On February 2, (Groundhog Day) of each year, the town of Punxsutawney celebrates the beloved groundhog with a festive atmosphere of music and food. During the ceremony, which begins well before the winter sunrise, Phil emerges from his temporary home on Gobbler’s Knob, located in a rural area about 2 mi (3.2 km) east of town. According to the tradition, if Phil sees his shadow and returns to his hole, the United States will have six more weeks of winter. If Phil does not see his shadow, spring will arrive early.[1] The date of Phil’s prognostication is known as Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada.

And there’s of course the classic Bill Murray movie.

Well believe it or not, those nincompoops over at PETA want to retire Punxsutawney Phil and have him replaced.

With a robot groundhog.

January 21, 2010

Bill Deeley
President
The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club
XX
XX

Via e-mail:

Dear Mr. Deeley,

I am writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more
than 2 million members and supporters worldwide. We would like to present you with an
exciting, innovative proposal—one that would benefit both Punxsutawney and Punxsutawney
Phil. Please review the following information and then make the compassionate decision to use
an animatronic Phil and retire the live groundhogs who are used for Groundhog Day activities to
a sanctuary.

To most people, Groundhog Day—celebrated annually on February 2—is a welcome midwinter
diversion, but Punxsutawney Phil is forced to be on display year round at the local library and is
denied the ability to prepare for and enter yearly hibernation. These normally shy animals—who
are constantly on alert when they are out of their burrows—become stressed when they are
exposed to large, screaming crowds; flashing lights from perhaps hundreds of cameras; and
human handling.

The popularity of using technologically advanced electromechanical devices such as animatronic
animals instead of live animals is rising. Performances such as “Walking With Dinosaurs, the
Live Experience”—a theatrical show in which animatronic dinosaurs roar, stomp, and chase each
other around an arena—have been taking audiences by storm. Other popular exhibitions have
featured robotic penguins and dolphins who swim and communicate just like real animals do,
and we think that an animatronic groundhog would similarly mesmerize a crowd full of curious
spectators in Punxsutawney.

Tradition is no excuse for cruelty, and this opportunity would allow Punxsutawney to engage in a
futuristic, interactive, versatile, and humane annual event. We would be happy to make
recommendations for both a sanctuary that would welcome Punxsutawney Phil and the other
Punxsutawney groundhogs and a company that could make an animatronic Phil. May we please
hear that non-animal alternatives will be used for Groundhog Day celebrations in Punxsutawney
next year? I can be reached at XX or XX. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Gemma Vaughan, MSW
Animals in Entertainment Specialist

As if the original PETA was not wacky enough, we have our own Israeli version.

An exhibit featuring naked activists covered in saran wrap was held in central Tel Aviv on Monday, as part of the 11th annual International Animal Rights Day events, during which activists across the world “remember the innocent nonhuman victims of human tyranny and call for the recognition of their basic moral rights.”

International Animal Rights Day was officially marked on December 10.

The exhibit, in which the activists were bunched together to symbolize frozen meat, was organized by Anonymous for Animal Rights to protest the “horrors” of the egg and industrial meat industries.

A handcuffed female activist waved a sign reading, “The right to move freely” in protest of the confinement of egg laying hens in “battery cages”, which, according to Anonymous, have already been banned in 30 countries and are expected to be entirely banned in the European Union by 2012.

Another activist carried a sign saying, “The right to be free of violence,” in protest of the “daily violence animals are subjected to in the meat industry – be it the chopping of limbs without anesthesia or the breaking of bones while cramming animals into trucks.”

Arbel Barak, organizer of the exhibit in Tel Aviv, said, “All living creatures, including humans, are equal when it comes to pain, fear and suffering. We would all suffer equally from having our limbs severed or from being starved inside a cramped industrial cage for a long period of time.

“Our intelligence does not justify abusing creatures that are considered inferior,” he added.

Later Monday, animal rights activists held a similar rally at Jerusalem’s Paris Square in protest against the Agriculture Ministry’s plan to build “battery cages” using “hundreds of millions of the taxpayers’ shekels.”

The “battery cages”, Anonymous says, violate Israel’s Animal Welfare Law.

If you want to see a picture of some of these activists naked except for saran wrap, then click here. But I don’t know why you would.

What I don’t understand is why a group called Anonymous for Animal Rights would protest in the buff. I would have thought showing strangers your floppy bits in plastic wrap is not conducive to anonymity. But I’m weird that way.

Meanwhile, check out the advertisement for the Israeli postal service that appears near the article.

Doesn’t that constitute exploitation of a dog? (although the dog does look quite content)

That’s what I call killing two birds with one stone.*

* Turn of phrase meant to offend PETA

(hat tip: Melvyn)

Recently, PETA’s European affiliate wrote to the Pet Shop Boys to suggest that they change their name to the “Rescue Shelter Boys.” It’s got a nice ring to it, right? PETA Europe let the duo know that dogs and cats sold in pet shops come from breeders who often keep animals in cramped, filthy conditions and that many animals sold in pet shops suffer from inbreeding, genetic weaknesses, physical deformities, or behavioral disorders. By changing their name, the would-be-Rescue Shelter Boys could raise awareness about the cruelty of the pet trade at every tour stop.

As one of the commenters on the PETA site says:

Are you going to go after Meatloaf next..?