Hungary: still too many Jews there, it seems

It is not a secret that during the period between 1941 and 1945 Hungarians have done their considerable best to eliminate their Jewish population.

Two-thirds of Hungarian Jewry was destroyed between 1941 and 1945. More than half a million people fell victim to the labour service, the deportations organised by German Nazis and their Hungarian henchmen, the brutality of the Hungarian authorities, the death marches, the gassings in Auschwitz, the mass executions, and the terrible circumstances of the concentration camps. Hungarian Jews were murdered on the Ukrainian snow-fields, on the streets of Budapest, in the countryside ghettos, behind the barbed wires of German concentration camps, in the gas chambers of Birkenau, and on the country roads. Every tenth victim of the Holocaust and every third victim of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi extermination camp, were Hungarian.

The mass murder wasn't solely a result of Nazi domination. The Hungarian fascists were quite active themselves in preparations for the slaughter.

Starting in 1938, Hungary under Miklós Horthy passed a series of anti-Jewish measures in emulation of Germany's Nürnberg Laws.

Jewish Holocaust survivors remember the Nyilas (Arrow Cross) Party quite well. The Nyilas' Jew-hate was so overpowering that they continued slaughtering the remaining Jews even when the end was nearing and Soviet troops were closing in...

You would think that with estimated 50,000 to 100,000 Jews out of almost 800,000 before the WWII, Hungarians would be content to forget their Jew-hate and concentrate on creating some kind of a new future in the free world to which they are now officially belonging. But no, you are apparently wrong to think so.

Hungarian political scene is leaning more and more to the Fascist positions espoused by Arrow Cross once. And a certain Ms Krisztina Morvai, a subject of a spoof on Simply Jews some three years ago, one of the leaders of openly neo-fascist Jobbik, is aiming to become a president of Hungary. No less and no more (for now). And here is another symptom* of the wide-spread malady:

Read more »

18 calories per spoon and it's all energy!

Imagine that!

Red Riding Hood reloaded

From the Perfidious Albion, the next generation of olympic athletes.

Even on Twitter

While I agree both in general and in particular with everything Francis says about Twitter, there are some exceptions that only prove the general rule. Here is one of them, by George Szirtes.

Vince Cable / remains relatively stable / exuding a strained bonhomie / despite the economy.

No rules for genius.

Re these medieval bras

The article doesn't say, but I bet that even the ancient bras are equipped with one of these uber-complicated clasps that bedevil the males for so many years. Unlike this simple creation of a talented mind (male or female, I wonder?):

No matter. Keep dreaming, people, and one day...

Syrian regime: when all else fails...

Syria’s FM, visiting Tehran, says Israel is leading ‘the plot to bring down Assad’

So, yes, where was I? When all else fails... yawn...

Terrorism news

This time it's all about civil aviation - the most desired terrorism target.

TSA Chief: Al-Qaida altered underwear bomb formula

It appears that the eternal dilemma of the aspiring pantybombers: briefs of boxers? - was finally resolved. The last fatwa, found between the charred remains of the Al Qaeda chief theologist Anwar al-Awlaki, settles the issue. It is boxers from now on, briefs being considered un-Islamic and lacking in capacity besides.

New York's JFK Airport top germ spreader

As one who spent inordinate amount of time in JFK, I can only concur. TSA must step in and declare JFK a terrorism hub ASAP.

NJ airport unveils virtual customer service rep

Yeah. Newark. You, my naive reader, may consider this headline not being related to the topic of this post. Just take a flight via Newark, and you will get the latest in customer service terrorism.

Oh, Debka, Debka...

Long time since I used this headline. Here is a good reason to, though:

The Burgos bomber was experienced and had accomplices – Bulgarian PM

I, just like you, have missed the coming of a new age: that of reusable (and thus experienced) suicide bombers.

The brick of Hyperion

The last word in modern meteorology:

Translation:

• The brick is wet: raining
• The brick is dry: no rain
• The brick casts a shadow: clear day
• The brick couldn't be seen: fog
• The brick is swinging: windy
• Something white on the brick: snowing
• The brick is oscillating up and down: earthquake
• There is no brick: rebooting to refresh the data

Thanks to M.T.

Igor Bukker, Kim Philby, unfinished business

While preparing input for the There still ain't no truth in Pravda post, I haven't paid any attention to the author of the Pravda article, one Igor Bukker (Игорь Буккер). Somehow the content seemed more interesting then. Now, after a few minutes of googling that name, I am not so sure. Interesting character that. At least, his views are. For example, here is what Mr Bukker thinks about Kim Philby, one of the most illustrious traitors in history:

Такие, как Филби, по сравнению с иудами-предателями, действительно выглядят если не как Христос, то как апостолы. Предателем Филби можно было бы считать, если бы он, работая на британские спецслужбы, переметнулся на сторону противника. Но в его случае было как раз все наоборот. Завербованный первоначально советской разведкой, Ким Филби внедрился в разведслужбы Великобритании. Следуя логике, Филби оказался бы предателем, если бы изменил присяге СССР, а не британской короне.

Yeah, I know you need translation, so here:

People like Philby, when compared to Judas traitors (sic!), look if not as Christ, at least as his Apostles indeed. Philby could have been considered a traitor only if he, working for British intelligence, went over to the enemy. But it was the other way around in his case. Recruited first by Soviet intelligence, Philby infiltrated the British intelligence service. Following logic, Philby would have been a traitor only if he betrayed his oath to USSR and not the one to British crown.

Yup. "Following logic"... If you want to follow Mr Bukker's logic, a person owns loyalty not to his country but to the intelligence service that recruited him/her first. I am afraid to follow this kind of logic further. It may lead to Igor Bukker's state :


Well, at least now all is explained. Some people are just born to write for Pravda.

Oh well. What else? On one of many sites where Mr Bukker left his trace, a gentleman named Vasily left a short and unequivocal opinion of Mr Bukker's persona:

Игорь Буккер мудак

I wouldn't translate that last word, leaving it to you and Google to resolve. But I have to say that Vasily is right.

Making Clean Copies: Mr. Clean Tries Multitasking

Yes, weep not for Mr. Clean.

I knew it!

There still ain't no truth in Pravda

The old but true Russian maxim "There is no truth in Pravda and no news in Izvestia"* remains as true as it is old, I can say now after checking today the Pravda's front page. Here is a good example:

In fact my attention was drawn not by the subject of the article, which is the IDF Caracal** battalion 33, but a "side" remark at the lede of the article above (the very last sentence): "Дамы, которые отчаялись найти в Израиле другую работу, охраняют страну от террористов и контрабандистов" or, in my basic translation to English, "Ladies that have despaired to find another work in Israel, protect the country from terrorists and smugglers".

Yeah. So the "ladies" look to two years of military service that involves quite dangerous and exhausting activities on our southern borders as the source of income. The writer obviously didn't study any aspect of the subject matter. For instance the fact that the "income" barely covers bus tickets home (if and when the home leave is granted), ice cream, cigarettes and/or lipstick. The writer definitely doesn't know anything of Caracal's history nor does he understand the way a girl gets recruited to Caracal.

The unit started as a continuation of a great and successfully ongoing tradition: youngsters from all over the country unite in small "core" groups that serve as seed for new settlements or social work communes, with a proviso that the group will serve together in an army unit. The main contingent comes from the socialist Working and Studying Youth movement. Since its inception, the unit grew to a battalion size and allows today recruiting of outsiders, after a fairly exhaustive and exhausting series of tests.

Two thirds of the battalion are women, and the experiment proved to be a success. Still, as far as augmenting its soldiers' income, it is not different from any other regular army unit. But go and explain it to the Pravda scribe...

Here are the boys and the girls of the Caracal battalion, after a "beret ceremony" (too long to explain). Not a single one of them has found a paying job yet. But every single one, no matter the gender, could kick the Pravda reporter's ass all across the Arava desert.

So yeah - don't go to seek truth in Pravda. It's still a futile business.

Better watch: more pictures of "gainfully employed" Caracal's boys and girls. Jokes like this one:

included.

(*) "Pravda" means "truth" and "Izvestia" means "news" in Russian, if you haven't heard this one before. Both Pravda and Izvestia were leading Soviet newspapers, still proudly sticking to the Soviet traditions.

(**) The name is borrowed from the beautiful desert feline Caracal:

The number of the battalion, 33, was chosen to honor the 33 fallen female soldiers of Palmach.

The Council Has Spoken!

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit- The Worst Thing You Can Do To An Egyptian
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – The Right Planet- Turn It Off!
• Third place with 2 votes – The Noisy Room-The Darkest Knight – the Anarchist Butterfly Effect
• Fourth place with 1 2/3 votes – Gay Patriot- The Politicization of Evil
• Fifth place with 1 1/3 votes – Simply Jews -We love you too, Peter Beinart
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi- The Aurora Massacre
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD - Wobbly!
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Speaking of the Dark Knight …
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! –Aurora Colorado Shooting Proves We Have a Shortage of Guns in the Hands of Heroes
• Seventh place *t* with i/3 vote – The Razor –Irony –Now Fortified With Even More Irony
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Glittering Eye – Elizabeth’s Secret

Read more »

Moscow at $20 per barrel

Want to feel like an Iranian nuclear scientist? Listen to AC/DC

Doing this one:



Details:

A new worm targeted Iran’s nuclear program, closing down the “automation network” at the Natanz and Fordo facilities, the Internet security site reported, citing an e-mail it said was sent by a scientist inside Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

The virus also prompted several of the computers on site to play the song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC at full volume in the middle of the night, according to the e-mail, part of which is published in English on the website.

Groovy...

Jesus was a Muslim. Says prof Robert F. Shedinger.

It's all here:



And here:

According to Shedinger, Islam is a “social justice movement,” not a religion, and since Christ supposedly supported “social justice,” that makes him a Muslim. To quote him, “I came to the conclusion that [Islam] was a social justice movement and I think that’s who Jesus was in the first century so I conclude Jesus is more like a Muslim.”

Well, some people ask:

Finally, about that “social justice movement” description, we’d like to hear more of an explanation about how a religion that encourages female circumcision and conquest of any and all unbelievers is somehow tied to “social justice,” or, if it doesn’t support these things, why people who believe it does are wrong. We also wonder why a social justice movement would be based around a belief that there is no God but theirs and their founder is the only legitimate prophet. We expect to be waiting a long time regarding these points.

I don't really know. Highbrow questions these.

But can I has professorship in that Iowa place? Puleezze...

Man with a giant cock

Let's see what it does to Google...

Irgun was right and everyone else wrong, says journalist's grandfather!

Now here's something to get you arguing! This is from The Tablet, that US newish and Jewish online paper I've linked to before. The author, Niv Elis tells us the story of his grandfather, Saba Shraga, a foot-soldier in Irgun, and among those responsible for the King David hotel explosion. Where's the argument? Well, how about this: "There were a handful of Jewish resistance groups, but the Etzel was the only one actively fighting the British. The other groups did not want to divert British resources from fighting the Nazis. 'The British at that time were worse than the Germans, my grandfather says."

There's a huge amount to be said against the British during the Mandate period, but nowhere have I read that they were establishing death camps, forming whatever the British equivalent of Einsatzgruppen would have been, rounding up Jews wholesale and herding them into ghettoes, followed by supplying them only starvation rations...

I don't really want to argue, even by proxy, with a 91 year-old survivor of this period of history (I hope to get that one day, with all my marbles like Saba Shraga, and I'm not as far away from there as I'd like!), but we really do have a clash of the interpretation of evidence here. This really does belittle the efforts of the Jewish Agency and ben Gurion and his colleagues to try and get Jews out of Europe. They knew how little they could achieve, but they also believed that to fight the British at that time could only make matters worse. Further, I'm not sure what survivors of Palmach and the nascent Haganah will think of this. I hope that my friend Karl Pfeifer reads these pages, because he will have personal memories of this time to add to the debate.

We're in "Looking -Glass" land here, where everything looks the same at first sight, but is actually a mirror image of what we usually see. I also feel that back in Allan Siegel land - to understand that, you need to go to Engage, and explore their archive (top right of every page) putting in the words allan siegel and the bund: you may find what comes up interesting.

Anyway, here's the link for you to read this article for yourselves.

I'll be very interested in your comments!

By Brian Goldfarb.

Reality check #2

The Palestinian Authority is not all about quarrels over settlements, as proved by the sudden interest shown by the PA TV in arts:

(If you have trouble watching the clip, try here).

Not exactly Picasso, is it?

Check out the pictures on the site - you'll notice the small Israeli ogre also eating Palestinian children. This is not about occupation, or soldiers - this is about jews, big and small. The old blood libel packed together with a remake of the classic "apes and pigs" to "ogres".

Optimism running wild.

Details.

Reality check #1

Following the post about Peter Beinart, here's something to wash out Beinart's beautiful, dangerous, harmful words.

Some reality.

From the egyptian TV (via MEMRI), a candid-camera comedy show that can safely be labeled a hit (literally): egyptian actors being told, in the middle of an interview, that they are on israeli television. Notice the first actor waiting to return to live broadcasting before taking action, to be able to prove his anti-zionist credentials to his fellow Egyptians.


Via Harry's Place.

We love you too, Peter Beinart

Cliche is a surrender to an irresistible urge to repeat something obvious. The urge should be satisfied in the beginning of a text, to stop bothering the author afterward. Thus: in our days the ability to charm the audience - the wrapping, if you will - means much more than the contents, than the real message a person carries. A certain PM and a certain president immediately come to mind, of course, but a man of a new(er) generation, Peter Beinart, is of concern to me lately. The brotherly love he exudes and the message he carries make him a significant source of danger looming on the horizon.

Lovable indeed.

Peter has several things going for him: an immediately likable appearance, an excellent brain, a way with words (worth reading a few articles if you don't want to invest in his latest book, The Crisis of Zionism) and his ability to charm the audience (either via his writings or in direct contact) is obviously up there with the best (or the worst, if you count Mr Trotsky, Mr Hitler etc) crowd charmers in history.

Read more »

Nexus 7 in your breast poket?

While it's OK to become enamored with a non-iThing device, this was a bit too much:

Unlike the iPad, this 7-inch slate easily slips in a breast pocket...

Of course, the current fashion is a closed book for me, but still...

English Russia and its coverage of Femen counter-demo

A respectable site, English Russia, this time was not up to the task in its coverage of another action by the intrepid Ukrainian female movement. Like in this picture:

First of all, the capture under this photograph on the site incorrectly translated the contents of the placard carried by the lady. The placard says "Fucking parasites" and not "Destroy parasites" as translated by E.R.

Secondly, this and all the other photographs in the series (don't forget to peruse them) suffer from a chronic defect of the camera*: unexplained and unwanted black rectangles that seriously impair both the esthetic and the informative qualities of the shots.

(*) Of course, it is not necessarily a camera problem: we may be witnessing a first case of mass proliferation of the black holes, produced by this infernal machine in Switzerland. Then we are all fucked anyway, and the quality of the photos and/or the translation issues are not important at all.

Cologne’s circumcision ban could hit me too?

This is what they say.

But no, it can't.

"Aurora Colorado Batman shooter James Holmes was Jewish": not by a Phi Beta Kappa member

Whether you believe it or not, here* is the all the proof you will ever need:

1. According to his resume, posted on Monster.com, Holmes resume includes his work at a Los Angeles Jewish children’s camp and a lab assistant at UC Riverside.
2. Member of Phi Beta Kappa (Jewish dominated fraternity).
3. Worked as a student intern at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, founded by the jewish Jonas Salk famous for the polio vaccine.

Elegant and simple as... polio vaccine. You may want to enjoy the comments to that "article". Clearly there is no danger of the commentators ever being asked to join the Phi Beta Kappa crowd...

Hm... unclear why the author of the opus says that James Holmes was Jewish - was he excommunicated?

And, speaking about fruitcakes, here is another revelation - by one and only Alex Jones:



(*) Usually we don't link to such "sources", but you have to see the comments.

The truth and the lie of the maps

Yaacov Lozowick tells the story of these maps.

P.S. As an afterthought: this map is consistently left out of the discussion by the propagandists of the kind that construed the set of maps presented above:

Guess why.

Wordless

Click to enlarge

In the forests of Maine: Andrew Ian Dodge interview with Pat LaMarche on the Pulse Bangor and more

For your listening pleasure.

And more.

And: The answer is NOT blowing in the wind.

Olympic torch snatcher shouting: "Allahu Akbar!" or "I Eat a Mars Bar!"?

You can't hear it from the recording here:



But frankly I prefer the second version: a stupid prank instead of something malicious and inspired by that or another bit of theology. Too much malicious stuff happened lately.

So read the comments to this clip here and make up your own mind.

Via Blazing Cat Fur.

Jewish Jihad is brewing

I know you are tired by now by my carping about editing bloopers in the headlines. So here is another one, courtesy of pounce_uk from Eye on the Word:

OK, so we are on the war trail now. Get ready, you infidels.

Find an unnecessary word in this headline

More than 1,000 turtles slowly escape captivity

Have you ever seen such beautiful eyes?

Honk if you had.

What Next?

The attack on Israeli civilians in Bulgaria has reverberated around the world, ringing in Breaking News ticker tape headlines with extensive coverage in international media outlets. Speculation seemed the path to follow for many anchors, as the day moved on, researchers feeding them an earpiece full about the coinciding anniversary of the 1994 attack on a Jewish center in Buenos Aires. At this point I relaxed my zapping finger and settled on watching one particular anchor on an American news channel, struggling with connecting the dots, as he was fed the information he paused then mumbled a disjointed sentence, almost asking “are we saying this is Hamas”...

While the symbolic aspect of the coincidence bounced right off this anchors head, he then went on to another item quoting Netanyahu blaming Iran.

While Netanyahu is reputed to have a high quotient figure, this symbolic coincidence would have used up very little of his alleged (unharnessed, to date) intelligence to figure out whodunit. Symbolism often follows perceived and actual revenge, but recent evidenced attempts by Iran to strike Israelis around the world pretty much seals this non-conundrum in the first place. The only real question remaining at this point was who got the contract. Later in the day, Netanyahu provided the answer, adding Hezbollah as the executioners. Mole rat Hasan Nasrallah then came on air, looking pale and pushing maximum density (Bunker Syndrome), proclaiming mea non culpa, smugly smiling while promising a big surprise for the Zionist entity.

The Israeli press at this time was running stories quoting the Bulgarian president saying “the Mossad did not warn”. However, Haaretz linked in their major piece to an article describing an incident concerning a bus driver heading to pick up Israelis with some unaccounted for packages on his bus. Mossad agents consequently met up with their Bulgarian peers warning them of lax security measures surrounding the airport. It then dawned on me that the Bulgarian president must rely on Mossad more than on his own security mechanisms.

On American media the talk then turned to “what next”, with wildfire speculation coming from pundits and a gamut of experts, as Netanyahu talked of a harsh response. This had the result of immediate reference to what we at SJ term the Big One – the seemingly impeding Israeli raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

So, what’s next indeed? We can wait upon the paranoid schizoid blogger from Seattle to delve into the inner workings of his hydrocephalus suspended imagination, or collate a few realistic scenarios: Iranians diplomats tend to disappear, while Hezbollah military leaders tend to get a cranium shearing migraine. Iranian nuclear scientists and generals are susceptible to work related risks, which, one suspects, may get a little riskier. Iranian and Hezbollah infrastructure have a history of crumbling or spinning out of control in a variety of means ranging from airborne to cyberborne. Technology and delivery are constantly on the march, so past infrastructure mishaps will exponentially expand.

Then there’s the Big One. While we at SJ don’t believe that the timing is right, we know that all other diplomatic options have by now been exhausted. European leaders have mostly internalized that the clerics will have no qualms striking in Europe or anywhere for that matter. The timing for the Big One is questionable. As to how and what - a capability pilot preview was set in Syria with a highly efficient reactor demolition job. The devil was in the details.

While most believe that a strike will only delay Iranian progress and buy time, we appreciate that when the dust settles, this notion will be reconsidered.

Assad running away after all?

A rumor or real news?

Syrian President Bashar Assad has accepted that he will have to leave power, but will only leave in an orderly way, Russia's ambassador to France said on French radio on Friday.

"At the Geneva conference, there was a final communiqué that foresees a transition towards a more democratic system," Alexandre Orlov told RFI radio. (Reuters)

An orderly transition? After killing fifteen thousand of own people? He is not asking much, does he?

As for his successors: well, there are more questions than answers, that for sure.

The Council Has Spoken!

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! Simply Jews – Mirra Eisenshtadt: the woman who leaked a Soviet state secret
• Second place with 2 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit – Nobody Else Made It Happen, Mr. President
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes – The Mellow Jihadi- Connor: Cub Scout, United States Sailor
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes – Gay Patriot-If Obama spoke to a gathering of Mormons, would the media focus on the crowd’s criticism or the Democrat’’s courage?
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – The Independent Sentinel-The U.N. Wants the Rights to Your Child in the Form of a Treaty
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – The Glittering Eye- As Goes Scranton
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD - Immoral Drones
• Sixth place with 2/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Romney’s right, but will it hurt him?
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – VA Right! –I Am Offended by Obama’s ‘You Didn’t Build That Business’ Comment
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – Rhymes With Right –What Romney Needs To Do In Response To Obamunist Felony Rhetoric
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Right Planet – Applying Jujitsu
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Noisy Room –Dancing on the Global Fiscal Cliff
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – Bookworm Room – Moral hazard and martial arts — and was I making any sense at all?

Read more »

Why I'm Boycotting the Olympics; IOC Admits Muslims Prevented The Honoring of Murdered Israeli Athletes

Shame.

Game over

Mehdi Ghezali or thank you Prime Minister Persson

No need to comment on this:

Bulgarian media on Thursday named the suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists, killing five Israelis and a local bus driver, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas on Wednesday as 36-year-old Mehdi Ghezali.

Ghezali has a Wikipedia page, which describes him as a Swedish citizen, with Algerian and Finnish origins. He had been held at the US’s Guantanamo Bay detainment camp on Cuba from 2002 to 2004, having previously studied at a Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain, and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, it says. He was taken into custody on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda agent, having been arrested along with a number of other al-Qaeda operatives.

Following a lobbying effort by Swedish prime minister Göran Persson, Guantanamo authorities recommended Ghezali be transferred to another country for continued detainment, and he was handed over to Swedish authorities in 2004. The Swedish government did not press charges.

Hat tip: PeterTheHungarian.

Update: In another twist, Bulgarians now deny that Ghezali is the one, and so do Swedes.

America’s ABC News on Thursday reported that Bulgarian officials denied Bulgarian news reports that the Burgas bomber was identified as Mehdi Ghezali. The Atlantic Wire also reported Swedish officials issuing a similar denial.

Earlier on Thursday Bulgarian media had named the suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists, killing five Israelis and a local bus driver, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas on Wednesday as 36-year-old Ghezali.

Let's wait a bit more then.

Update: A more nuanced piece. Apparently the Swedes don't deny that the man in question is Mehdi Ghezali, only that he was a Swedish national.

WASHINGTON – Sweden denied Thursday reports in Bulgarian media suggesting that Mehdi Ghezali, the suspected suicide bomber who executed the terror attack on Israeli tourists in Burgas, was a Swedish national. Meanwhile, new details on the suspect contiune to emerge.

"We don't know this name", Swedish Security Service Chief Claes Ohison said, but would not elaborate.

Now Bulgarian terrorist attack is a false flag operation by Mossad. Thank you, Haaretz.

There is nothing new in this conspiracy idea. Every time a Jew somewhere in the world falls victim to a terrorist attack, the usual crowd comes out with the "discovery" of another Mossad "false flag" operation. The same happened less than 24 hours after the bomb went of in Burgas: the Internet is full of this oldest conspiracy theory: Mossad done it: just browse for "burgas airport false flag mossad" and count the hits.

But even a conspiracy theorist - not the brightest bulb on Earth - usually provides a reason for the Mossad atrocity. This time even the dimmest of the dim were able to do so - with courteous assistance from... an Israeli newspaper. Yes, Haaretz, whose scribe, Amir Oren, hastily produced the following:

There is really no need to read the article, 99.9% of its contents appears in that snapshot. Notice also the deft replacement of a "terrorist act" (or similar) by "Israeli intelligence failure". A certain contribution to the newspapermen's lexicon, for sure.

Anyway, more than half of the conspinuts have linked to the article, so thanks Haaretz and thanks Amir Oren.

Vermin...

Anat Kam and injured innocence

If you all forgot the name, here are some reminders: the initial report, some subsequent updates and a (shallow) overview of the case. In short, under the pretext of whistleblowing, the lady in question accumulated (during her army service time in the GOC Central Command Yair Naveh's office) more than two thousand sensitive and secret documents, which she passed to an Haaretz journalist. Only one or two of the documents were related to the case that caused her the unbearable urge to blow the whistle.

And now Anat Kam, via her lawyer, appeals her prison sentence of 4.5 years. An appeal is an appeal, but this one is somewhat unusual. You see, Kam's appeal is built on a comparison of her sentence to the sentence (or the lack thereof) of other offenders against the security of the state. Starting with the above mentioned Haaretz journalist, Uri Blau that received from her the documents and got off with four months community service. You may say that, with all due respect (hm...) the receiver should get less than the thief, but who knows indeed?

Then the appeal gets into even more murky areas. To start with, the case of Eli Zeira (closed). Then the case of Yitzhak Yaakov (two years suspended). You may say that both cases look somewhat fishy and, anyway, in both cases the offense didn't include willful accumulation and disclosure of thousands of secret documents. But what do we know about the complexity and deviousness of the legal minds?

Of course, not being a lawyer, I can't challenge this approach, although on the face of it the chances this appeal has are comparable to the chances of snowball in hell. But what if we try another direction - that of the Israelis spying for other powers? Like Yosef Amit, spying for US - 12 years. Or Israel Bar, spying for Soviet Union - 15 years.Or Ehud 'Udi' Adiv, spying for Syria - 17 years. Or Marcus Klingberg, spying for the Soviets - 20 years?

So, Anat - count your blessings instead of submitting stupid appeals, which may bring the opposite of what you are praying for. Behave yourself and in three or so years you will be out. And I bet Haaretz will have a job waiting for you.

Honey boo boo child: oh boy...

What else can I say? Watch this:

7 reported killed in terror attack against Israelis in Bulgaria

The initial report:

Several Israelis were killed and wounded on Wednesday in a terror attack on a tour bus in the Burgus airport in Bulgaria, local media reported. An Israeli who witnessed the event said that one of the buses that carried Israelis across terminals in the airport blew up and went up in flames.

6:54 P.M.: Death count reaches seven, according to Bulgarian television.

7:13 P.M.: Burgus Mayor Dimitar Nikolov says explosives were placed in the trunk of the bus.

Ynet reports differently:

According to media reports, a suicide bomber boarded one of three buses shuttling Israeli tourist across the terminal at around 5:30 pm and then detonated an explosive vest. Bulgarian media said 44 people were on the vehicle at the time of the explosion.

Speculations about the perpetrators of the attack have already started in the media, with Iran and its trusted arm, Hezbollah, being mentioned as prime suspects. However this should be mentioned:

Security sources said that there was no intelligence indicating that Israelis traveling in the area may fall prey to terror attacks.

Update: according to Maariv (Hebrew):

A female suicide bomber who stood at the terminal, approached the buses with Israeli tourists and blew herself up.

And a timely reminder from Fox/AP:

The attack comes on the anniversary of a 1994 attack on a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that killed 85 people. Just this morning, relatives of the victims implored the Argentine government to pressure Iran to turn over seven suspects accused in that attack.

Update:

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov arrived at the site of the attack and called Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in order to report to him that explosives placed in the trunk of the tourists’ bus were the cause of the explosion. Mladenov told Lieberman that six people were killed in the attack while another died of in the hospital. Two other individuals were in critical condition in the emergency room. 30 others were being treated at the city’s hospital.

Update. More confusing reports:

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said Thursday that the terror attack at the Sarafovo Airport terminal was likely the work of a suicide bomber, and not an explosive device planted on the bus, as previously assumed. Seven people were killed, six of them Israelis, and 34 others were wounded in the blast.

More on the suicide bomber version:

Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetanov told reporters on Thursday that the suicide bomber who carried out a terror attack against Israeli tourists in Burgas on Wednesday "looked like everybody else - a normal person with Bermuda shorts and a backpack," he said.

An investigation suggests that the terrorist was waiting near the bus for over an hour.

Update: a video clip of the alleged suicide bomber was posted:



And meanwhile politicos compete in colorful threats:

Benjamin Netanyahu:

"All signs point to Iran," he said. "Only in the last few months we’ve seen Iran trying to target Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and other destinations."..."This is a globally expanding Iranian terrorist attack. Israel will retaliate."

Ehud Barak:

Our defense forces will act to track down the perpetrators and masterminds behind this act of terrorism.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai

Today is a sad day in which the terrorists' hand triumphed, but it is doomed to be cut off.

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch

said Thursday that Israel will "settle the score" with those responsible for the terror attack on Israelis in Bulgaria. He too pointed the finger at Iran.

Etc.

Watcher’s Council Nominations – UnOlympics Edition

Council Submissions

Read more »

Jacques Cousteau's belly button and CNN

There must be a connection, its traces are visible here:

Navel explorer... hm. Rather a fitting description of my way of life rather than that of Cousteau.

Kind of...

On the astounding quality of these 3D sidewalk pictures

 

Could you believe it?

Conflating criticism of Islam with racism

Good post that. As for Mr Freedland - he is making himself less and less relevant. Too bad.

More on the subject.

Finally rich!

We have scanned the said boxes, and have found it to contain a total sum of USD$4.1m and also backup document which bears your name as the receiver of the money contained in the boxes. Investigations carried out on the diplomat who accompanied the boxes into the United States has it that he was to deliver this fund to your residence as your contract/inheritance payment which was due you from the office of finance Minster of the federal government of Nigeria.

No one can say it was a short wait, but eventually the finance Minster of Nigeria came through. Good lad. I knew I could count on him.

On the other hand there is this:

My name is James Duru, The Un assigned diplomatic agent by the IMF/UN and Minister of Finance after the meeting held last month to deliver your fund worth ($10.5M) to you.

All in all $14.6M. Not bad.

Tomorrow I quit the Elder's position and then: Bahamas, here I come! Get your rum bottles ready.

Secular Saints Of The Corporate State

Good stuff. Check it out.

Obama's latest pearl. Warning: a spoiler coming

It was a great paragraph till the last sentence:

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

I am not big on the art of oratory, but the word "government" in that sentence is really a spoiler. Should have kept it for the next paragraph, at least.

Er... what else? Well, just a notion: in Brezhnev's times a slip like that would have cost the speech writer his/her job. At least.

North Korea `Develops Tablet Computer'

The news from Bloomberg came in an awfully short and uninformative manner, but Elders know better. So about the first Juche tablet: yes, it can't connect to the Internet, but there are other advantages the arrogant Western powers can't even start to contemplate in their uneducated ways:

• The tablet doesn't have any batteries
• In fact, it doesn't waste energy at all, unlike the capitalist tablets. It doesn't need to be plugged into a wall power outlet either!
• It doesn't have a lot of confusing buttons, so the use of it is as simple as Juche ideas.
• Its screen is of a resolution hitherto unseen on this planet, largely ignorant of the President Kim Il Sung and his immortal field guidance.

And this is the picture that the tablet presents eternally and immortally:

So there. And remember that:

Everybody thinks more of the country than of his or her family and spares nothing for bolstering the capability for national defence. It is the real picture of Songun Korea today that this patriotic trait is given full play.

When the Korean people pool their patriotic wisdom and energies to materialize the plan of the Workers' Party of Korea for building an economic power, they will display Herculean strength, indeed.

They have found you by your IP address

Have you found a mermaid's body?

Then put it where you keep the Sasquatch and check it out.

No, people, really...

Mirra Eisenshtadt: the woman who leaked a Soviet state secret

The bloody history of Stalin's purges is a history of relentless butchery and oppression of millions. Many of its victims share a very similar and short life story: from a loyal patriotic Soviet citizen, via a knock on the door in the middle of the night to an NKVD "confession room", torture, the required signature on a list of tramped-up charges and a bullet in the cranium from a bored NKVD sergeant.

The similarity in the tragic fate of so many may cause a certain numbness of the senses, a degradation of our ability to empathize with the innocent victims, some of whom held to their belief in Stalin's wisdom, kindness and omnipotence till their last breath. Even so, the story of Mirra Eisenshtadt is somewhat exceptional and is worth your attention.

The following article is translated, with Google's kind assistance, from a Kharkov's (Kharkiv in Ukrainian) Holocaust Museum's archive site, where it appears in Russian. I have added a few links for the curious who may want to know a bit more.

On November 23, 1950 a journalist Miriam (Mirra), Eisenshtadt (maiden name Kazarinskaya) was executed in Stalin's torture chambers. She was writing under a pen name Zheleznova. What was the crime of this woman? What kind of "treason" caused her arrest?

Read more »

More Russian demotivators

"Have you lost a polar researcher?
No, no, we haven't seen one"

Christianity as an evil, demonic and Anti-Christ system

Some people sure have a way with words. And some other people have a short but correct answer handy.

Illinois shops are out of groin protectors

Emergency airlifts are being considered.

Details.

Several items from the (US) online paper The Tablet

The Tablet is a (new to me) US online paper whose strapline is "A new read on Jewish life". It comes out daily (and you can sign up for it to come into your inbox), and until you do sign up for it, here are a couple of items from it, on successive days.

The newer one first: we all know that Jeffrey Goldberg (of Atlantic Magazine) keeps predicting that Israel will bomb Iran's nuclear facilities any day now. However, the writers on The Tablet are less certain of this. Indeed, they confidently predict that it won't happen this side of the US Presidential election in November. Why so confident? Well, for one, Obama might just get re-elected, and "Israel’s leader would not want to be branded as the ally who did not cooperate." And this is despite knowing that Bibi and Romney have known each other (and been friends) since forever.

Further, there are the rumblings from the former head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, that bombing won't do the job anyway, with suggestions that a number of top political and military leaders are beginning to agree with him. Read the whole article.

There's lots of goodies in this edition. Here's another, arguing that many in the US are claiming that Iran's nuclear bomb programme would be set back by only 1 to 3 years, while others, more optimistic, claim it would delay the programme by at least 5 years. It also notes that Obama has been heard saying that November is his last election, after which he's got more freedom of action, so the headline suggesting that the US may do the job itself is pertinent.

Again, this issue (of 11 July) has an article suggesting that the replacement for the Tal Law is in disarray, whereas, just the day before, other writers were arguing the opposite, that pressure from Kadimah within the coalition had, along with big street demos, created a situation where the opposite would happen, and the Tal Law would be replaced by a new law demanding Haredi involvement in civil society (i.e., military service and all).

Go figure! But, after all, these are Jews: you know the saying, "Two Jews, three opinions".

Like I said at the top, you need to sign up for yourselves. So far they haven't sent me a bill. What could be bad about that?

By Brian Goldfarb.

Gov. Paul LePage: stuffing the foot deeper in his mouth

After comparing the IRS with Gestapo the first time, Paul LePage decided to make the picture more nuanced:

During an interview with a reporter from the Burlington weekly Seven Days, LePage said the IRS wasn't as bad as the Gestapo, the Nazi police force that imprisoned and murdered millions of Jews during World War II, but the agency was headed in that direction.

Hm... poetic license at work? Or is it that IRS stepped on the Governor's toe?

Russian multi-demotivator

From inside out:

Expulsion?
Or freedom?
Or loneliness?
Or is it just a man planted it in a wrong place?
Or should I paint my nails another color?
And what do you see?

Maradona fired from Al Wasl: ready to discuss a discount

Looks like another flop for the dear leader. I wonder whether he was showing sufficient fervor in his support of Palestinians. But no, forget it: he was simply not up to the job.

The club said the former Argentina star was being "relieved" of his duties Tuesday because it wanted to move in a new direction.

I think I know what they mean. Maradona, though, didn't get the loud and clear message:

He said if budget restrictions were an issue, then he wanted to talk about it soon with club officials in the hope of reversing the decision.

Which is an invitation to bargain the salary, I guess. Pathetic. However, the reality he doesn't want to face is quite clear:

The former Argentina great was fired after one season in charge, having signed a two-year deal in May 2011. The team finished a disappointing eighth in the 12-team league and didn't win any trophies. The season ended with Al Wasl blowing a 3-1 first-leg lead in the GCC Club Championship and losing to Bahrain's Al Muharraq on penalties.

And a piquant ending to the story:

In a strange twist, the club has invited Maradona to attend a "farewell ceremony" at a date to be announced to show "the unique and strong relationship between them." It did not say whether Maradona would attend.

Nothing if not practical: if he attends, it's a farewell ceremony, if he doesn't - it's a celebration of good riddance...

For full disclosure: This blogger is a fan of Brazil. Which means that... oh well.

Genocidal Sudan to Win Seat on U.N.’s top human rights body

This is becoming really tedious. First Syria, now Sudan: UN rights chief Navi Pillay really does a sterling job of collecting the most murderous regimes.

I wonder whether this is a subtle subterfuge, and the real goal is gathering the villains in one place? Hm...

Buggery for martyrdom and paradise, or a new development in the anal Jihad

I don't know whether you all remember the story of the first Assbomber, one Abdullah Hassan Taleh Al Asiri, who, stuffed with half a kilo of explosives in his anus, performed a failed assassination attempt on Saudi Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs in 2009. For a detailed analysis (NPI - no pun intended) of the method go there.

Of course, a lot has happened during the last three years, and the story, and with it the whole revolutionary idea, seemed to have fizzled out (NPI). However, it is not over yet. Apparently, some creative minds in Al Qaeda, were busy trying to resolve the main drawback of the method - the limited quantity of explosive material that could be... er... placed in the above mentioned orifice.

Read more »

He knew too much

The Council Has Spoken!

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 2/3 votes! Bookworm Room –Let’s do the time warp again -— Progressives keep urging those failed economic policies
• Second place with 3 votes – The Independent Sentinel- Small Arms Treaty of 2012- Elimination of the Second Amendment
• Third place with 2 votes – Joshuapundit- Truth Magnified: Award-Winning Arab Author Denied Cash Prize Because He Visited Israel
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Razor-Don’t Make Sacrifices to Gaia Just Yet
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Right Planet- Obama’s War on Prosperity
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – VA Right!- ObamaCare Ruling Will Increase Foreclosures
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room- Red Dawn, Still Crazy After All These Years…
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD –Autocratic Strippers
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Simply Jews – Please, Mr President, think again about giving back Maher’s $1M
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote – Gay Patriot –The empathetic Mitt Romney

Read more »

Professor of PoliSci, West Point graduate and former Air Force officer: and this is it??

Consider my flabber gasted. I mean I am speechless. Amazed, astonished and astounded. Overwhelmed, if you will.

Let me explain. I have never studied any work of prof John Mearsheimer. I heard about him the first time when his (and that other colleague's of his) book about Israeli lobby started to make noise. Of course, I didn't (and don't intend to) read that book. After all, when a man is set to prove that Jooz are ruining his life, you better leave him alone. Let him stew in it for a while. Then, when he suddenly realizes that them Jooz are anyway managing and ruining his life at the level of the smallest detail, it will pass. Possibly the man will get better. Or not.

The point is, I have somehow imagined the prof to be a seriously loaded egghead. Loaded by intellect and all the accoutrements of a academia, I haste to add. Must be a serious character, I said to myself back then, for his book to make so much brouhaha. Then I forgot him.

So today my face was pushed (by a Twitter message) into this transcript of a debate on a strange topic: Nuclear-Armed Iran Would Bring 'Stability' But Risks. And it is the gap between my expectations and the real man that caused my flabber to be gasted. Really.

I don't even want to argue with the inane notion that serves as a subject for the debate. Read it and see how pathetic the man looks. Even a wrong notion could be defended with more vigor, more sense and more elan. A man that is pictured by that discussion could hardly debate a difference between a one cent coin and a sawbuck.

Aside of being easily mashed to pulp by his opponent, he used the word "but" 9 times out of total 12 it appears in the (body of the) transcript. Beyond pathetic.

Ama... but I have been there already. Sorry...

Hat tip: Adam Holland.

Trailblazer

My kind of man (or woman), that one:

With thanks to Theo.

Watcher’s Council Nominations: Campaign Trail Blues Edition

Council Submissions

Read more »

Roger Cohen is now a harbinger of trouble for South Africa

It seems an eternity since I've last mentioned Roger Cohen of NYT (now on a book leave, I gather). To redress this lack of attention, here is a snapshot from his recent contribution:

Notice the word "vibrant"? The very same word he used to describe Iranian democracy, a short time before the famous win of Mahmoud the Mad in the famous elections...

Oh boy. South Africans better look out for some turbulence now...

Imagine that: 3 of the 4 convicted Jew haters are named Mohammed!

Indeed. On the other hand, since it has happened in Golders Green, shouldn't the four be called anti-Zionists? It gets so confusing these days...

Arafat's underwear, polonium and strange life of George Galloway

I was reading the excellent article by prof. Barry Rubin that starts with a most reassuring statement: "Yasir Arafat is still dead." While I know that it is so, a bit of reassurance from time to time cannot hurt. And the latest attempts to use his remains to gain some illusory advantage over the hated Zionist and the latest signs of (after)life in his underwear are somewhat amusing, as Barry Rubin mentions.

The whole story of polonium-infested underwear is so ridiculous that it practically destroys itself:

The institute studied Arafat’s personal effects, which his widow provided to Al Jazeera, the first time they had been examined by a laboratory. The items were variously stained with Arafat's blood, sweat, saliva and urine; doctors used those biological samples to look for heavy metals and other poisons.

Let's see: 8 years after her hubby croaked, the grieving widow suddenly decides to produce several items of underwear and other belongings for analysis. Said belongings display unusual amount of Polonium 210, the isotope that kills - slowly but surely when introduced into someone's body. There is one big question no one seems to ask: how come the widow waited all these years with her suspicions?

Read more »

Find the difference

Between the two cases, I dare you. And the commonality too, of course.

Kourtney Kardashian Gives Birth to What?

Oh... sorry. I should have put my reading glasses on. It is just the baby's name - Penelope Scotland Disick.

Nothing more to see here, move on, please.

Please, Mr President, think again about giving back Maher's $1M

Dear Mr President,

I really can't restrain the urge to write to you and to post this letter for all to see. I know that it's not a new subject and that it could be considered something of a dead horse. I assume that the money received by your Super PAC sometime in February of this year from Mr Maher has already gone to outer space via the TV and radio frequencies and by now could be reaching some other inhabitable (or not) worlds. I also know that one of your representatives already publicly and firmly refused to consider giving the money back - well, under a flimsy excuse that a Republican supporter said something unprintable too.

However: you must take into consideration that something happened to me yesterday, creating a problem that only you are able to alleviate. You see, searching for an old post of mine I have stumbled upon another old post of mine. And the post in question, titled Bill Maher on vaccination: we have to debate this..., which used to revive my general feeling of disgust, this time filled me with a spectrum of feeling in the broad range between horror and foreboding. Well, and disgust too, not to forget. Please try to read that post, busy as you undoubtedly are - and don't miss the attached clip.

You see, dear Mr President, as the things stand now, you have received a round sum of $1M from an utter moron, a self-inflated bag of ignorance that may have caused an irreparable damage to the health of hundreds or thousands of children, whose credulous parents decided, on the spur of that moment, to stop inoculating them. All that during the five of so minutes of spewing pure unadulterated BS as seen in that clip. And, most probably, at several other opportunities.

Read more »

And then they came for the smoking orangutans

Obviously testing the new anti-smoking techniques.

I suspect that smoking citizens of California and NYC will be the first to experience the new method, so be warned. The Big Bro is caring for your health.

Gov. LePage and IRS as Gestapo imagery

As Andrew Ian Dodge says in his post LePage’s disgraceful remarks on the IRS, this specific Republican went way over the top. And he indeed owes an apology to the victims of the Nazi’s secret police and even to IRS, I have to add.

As an aside: I looked at Gov. LePage pedigree a bit. A mixed bag, that man.

Hm...

Thank goodness, if I understand that correctly, there is another person who... but read it.

Rethinking Omar Khadr, the Zionist swine

Yep, gnotalex is right, it's vital to spread the message. Please do give it a hand.

The mysterious Putin's visit to Israel and powers of self-deception

The above mentioned visit didn't leave me indifferent. Indeed, caught in a traffic jam in Jerusalem's center for about an hour because of said visit, I was really sizzling. The visit, which details weren't really published anywhere, didn't leave the press indifferent as well, and the lengthy analysis of the reasons of the visit, its goals, the closed door discussions with various VIPs and the (unpublished) results, could fill a good-sized book.

The search for the real reason(s), coupled with this peculiar Western notion of the unfathomable Russian soul, caused some remarkable results. I've collected several links and related quotes, which will be presented here in no special order.

Read more »

Simply Che

This is the unlucky thirteenth, or more lucky thirteenth and fourteenth Che in the collection, since this one will contain two pictures on the same subject:

And:

To understand the irony of these depictions, check this out.

Leaked UK Foreign Office documents reveal attitudes towards Netanyahu and Palestinian incitement

The headline of this posting says it all (and is brought to you courtesy of the UK branch of Zionist Federation). Regrettably, it's not as if we didn't already know this. I would offer only one caveat: there can be, and often is, a marked difference between the views of and policy proposals of Foreign Office mandarins and what politicians say (and mean).

And that comes from someone who is not a fan of the current UK government.

I'll offer one quote only from the article (and there are further links within a long article to some of the documents referred to): 'Of specific interest is a document called “Research Paper FINAL” in which the following lines had previously been redacted by British Government officials:

“Netanyahu has a history of using the incitement issue as a delaying tactic in peace talks.” and “The history of this issue suggests that Netanyahu administrations have a tendency to charge the PA/PLO with incitement as a delaying tactic in peace talks.”'
Now, whether you believe that the Netanyahu government is like this or not, it is an extraordinary attitude from a supposed staunch ally of the same, even in a confidential document.

Do note how, unlike the Wikileaks documents, no full names are revealed. That's how to deal with leaks! The whole thing (and it's long) is here.

By Brian Goldfarb.

More Russian demotivators

Text in the photograph: "Due to the risk of terrorist acts, the stool samples will be accepted only in transparent glassware".

Text under the photograph: "This country is invincible".

Syria on human rights council a 'sick joke': Baird

OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird calls it a "sick joke" that the government of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad could get a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.

The man is right, of course.

"It would do irreparable damage to the United Nations and likely would be the biggest blow that the United Nations has taken since its formation," Baird said during a teleconference Friday after the Friends of the Syrian People meeting in Paris.

I tend to disagree with that point. The whole circus is already damaged beyond any possibility of repair.

All you need to know about UNRWA

I know that you know this already (and may even have read the original or the translation), but I came across this on Noga's blog "The Contentious Centrist" It's a great deconstruction of the work and ideology of the UN Relief and Work Agency (UNWRA). Citing a number of sources, the original author, Ben-Dror Yemini, shows, yet again, how UNRWA perpetrates a fraud, when compared with the work of UNHCR. Further, he cites evidence that indicates that the term "fraud" can be used with confidence, both in terms of the real number of "Paestinian" refugees and in how the monies assigned are disbursed.

A further area of concern has to be both the number of employees of UNRWA and the proportion drawn from the object population. The latter, especially, must lead to suspicions (even if unfounded) that they are working to perpetuate their own jobs and their own status as refugees.

The complete article can be found here, courtesy of Noga.

By Brian Goldfarb.

The Council Has Spoken!

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit – Gettysburg – A Fourth Of July Long Ago
• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes – Bookworm Room- Judge Roberts’ decision forces Americans to stand on their own two feet and that’s a good thing
• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes – VA Right!- My Doctor Is a Flaming Pro-ObamaCare Liberal – Time to Change Doctors!
• Third place with 2 votes – Gay Patriot-Contemporary liberalism: preferring the abstract “good” to the imperfect real?
• Fourth place with 1 vote – The Noisy Room- Obama Lies, Taxes Rise
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD The America Iran War of 2013
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Right Planet- SCOTUS Obamacare Ruling: The Government Can Now Tax Any Human Activity
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi –Muslim Targets
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Razor –Global Warming Heretics Aren’’t Stupid
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Simply Jews – Dan Savage and the “house faggots” incident  

Read more »

Thus spoke Juan Cole

Enjoy.