What if Putin were to resign tomorrow? What if he has been killed by his closest and most trusted advisers and that's the real reason why his eagerly non-awaited speech has been delayed? Wouldn't it be wonderful? But what if someone even worse were to come to power in Kremlin?

The year was 1953. Stalin died. Nobody remembers times "BS" - before Stalin. Personality cult was called that for a reason. Mass hysteria at the levels not seen until Queen Liz II died. Maybe not even then.

My grandma, age 31, impacted by mass hysteria, is calling my granddad at work. Telling him the news. "What will happen to us now???" "Don't worry", - says granddad. "It can't get any worse".

Gorby, the Jewish Saint

 

Gorbachev is a "hero in Israel" and (I kid you not) even has "a potato named after him".  Not only did he single-handedly destroyed the "evil empire", he gave 3 million Jews freedom.  That would be way more than Moses  ever achieved, by the way.

I am reading variations of this story, and not just in relation to Jews.  A great story it is too.  Just not the way I remember good ol' commie, for Gorby has achieved the "good commie" status on August 30th.  

As "Simply Jews" we are going to leave out the minor matter of Gorbachev's propensity to order mass murder of unarmed civilians in places like Lithuania and Georgia, him giving more power to KGB and attempt to backtrack on reforms in the latter years of his rule or his subsequent support for Putin's occupation of parts of  Ukraine in 2014.  Let's chat about Gobry's antisemitism.  

The year was 1985.  Sakharov wrote to the General Secretary of the Communist Party to let out his sick wife, Yelena Bonner so she can receive medical help in Italy.  To make a decision Gorbachev called up Politburo (like you do). 

Several senior commies wanted to grant Sakharov request - not because it's a decent thing to do but because it would "look good".  Then KGBist Chebrikov made a peculiar claim...

In the 80s many Soviets, brought up on the best traditions of the Protocols and Stalinist paranoia, believed that controlling Jews played an outsized role in world affairs.  In that respect they were not all that different from the western "anti-Zionists" who filled in the social media some 40 years later. So, the popular theory was that Sakharov's half-Jewish wife terrorized the world famous human rights activist into being a decent person and opposing Soviet dictatorship.  So, Chebrikov made the claim that Sakharov was under the influence of Yelena Bonner.  Gorbachev's reply?

That's Zionism for you 

I rest my case.  

Irony, Kremlin Style

 

Russian military have just arrested Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol. For “terrorism offences”, aka refusing to be a collaborator. 

Reading comments on Russian social media I am seeing pejorative/racist “hohol” used for Ukrainians quite often. Well, someone named “Ivan Fedorov” is not “hohol”. You cannot possibly have a more Russian name than Ivan Fedorov. This is the mayor of the town Russians are supposedly liberating from Ukrainian nationalists.  

All those people in bombed out maternity wards, universities, kindergartens are, for the most part, Russian speakers and ethnic Russians. Not sure if ironic is quite the right word here but Russians are murdering Russians to save them from Ukrainians.

Hat off to Mr Fedorov. 

Linguistic differences between the far right and Progressives

 Badly brought up nasty far right people say things like:

- “You old fart” or “wrinkly” (ageist, offensive)

- “Fing immigrant” (racist, offensive)

- “B.tch” (masochist, offensive)

- “Porker” (fattism, offensive)

Sweet progressive people say things like:

- “Boomer” (smart, spot on)

- “Settler” (smart, spot on)

- “Karen” (smart, spot on)

- “Gammon” (you guessed it)

Antizionist not antisemite number 84747573838474848484

Max is a “Black Hebrew Israelite”.  He has no problem with Jews. Only with the Israeli Lobby and Zionism.   Naturally, we believe him.  After all, Max has Jewish friends.

...but what am I seeing?  Nathaniel Veltman (a popular Dutch name) runs over a Muslim family in London, Ontario.  Veltman was brought up as a devout Christian.  Max does not buy it.  The murderer must be Jewish just because. 

There is more to unpack. Apparently, Jews deserve to be attacked. 

Now... Max is a run of the mill antisemite with half a braincell but you can’t say it on Twitter.  Because Twitter is a multi-billion business which is more than happy to host Max but bans people calling out antisemitism.  

Roads can be dangerous this time of the year

 Let me get this straight:

1. Genocidal Iranian Ayatollahs repeatedly call to wipe out Israel. They’ve done it for decades.  

2. Iran  breaks IAEA non-prolifiration treaty. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is the guy in charge of developing nuclear weapons.

3. Iran  restarts nuclear enrichment so that objective in bullet 1 can be implemented. Under the leadership of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.  That’s very recent. 

4. Mohsen is killed while being driven to his villa in a suburb of Teheran.  Roads can be dangerous this time of the year. 

BBC publishes an article about possible motives for the execution of regime’s top nuclear weapons expert.  Apparently, its to mess with Biden’s plans.  Seriously??? Don’t they think Jews could be taking  threats to exterminate them at face value?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55118140

The Best of Snoopy’s Writing

 You know, I was thinking of listing here a few of my favourite posts by SnoopyTheGoon. And I failed miserably.  

His blog has been a continuous stream of irony and wisdom; anti-totalitarianism and humour; current events and history... Usually kind and sometimes just a tad frustrated, his posts never failed to bring a smile to my face. What else can one ask for from a 5 min read? They are all “the best” to me. What about you? Do you have favourites among his posts or do you not discriminate? 

And Snoopy will be back. One day. 

What is the best social media platform?

Don’t know about you but the Elders prefer Blogger.

Millions of years ago, when Blogger became a thing, people had the patience to read more than 100 symbols. In those ancient times there was zero risk that a Malaysia-based plonker would misinterpret your sarcasm as “antisemitic”. That’s the kind of “hate speech control” that both Twitter and Facebook excel at.

And we made friends all over the world, the ones we got to meet in real life. Takes more than regular retweets or a few FB reposts to make a real long distance friend. With the rough and tumble of  the Blogger, you knew who was for real. You knew who had read the right books. You knew who was by your side. You knew who was on the same wavelength. And who caused a smile. Every time.

Today Blogger feels a little older but is still true to form of being a genuinely open and free platform. Meanwhile Twitter is going all Soviet. The other day they censored a gay politician for quoting  Muslim Brotherhood and pointing out MB wants to kill gays.

Facebook regularly deletes pro-Israeli posts while protecting the right of Islamists and the far left to spread anti-semitic conspiracies.  That’s not enough for some; the people are begging for more censorship.

Today we bid farewell to the good old platform. The Blogger is changing. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Bernie - back from the USSR

The current spate of controversies surrounding the candidacy of Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential race includes his trips to various socialist heavens. Including his 1988 visit to Soviet Union.

1988. The perestroika, lead by Mikhail Gorbachev, is at its peak. Aside of old apparatchiks and babushkas, no one believes anymore in the shining future of socialism, managed by the "mind, honor and conscience of our era", the crumbling Communist Party of Soviet Union.

The Berlin wall has one year left to stand. The arms race, imposed by Ronald Reagan, has been irrevocably lost by USSR, its economy collapsing under the burden. Anti-Russian sentiments are rising in the "satellite" socialist countries of the Soviet camp in Eastern Europe. The camp is slowly but surely being teared apart.

The attitude of the Soviet people to the boogeyman of seventy years, the Western capitalism and, especially, to the Big Satan, the most cursed capitalist enemy, has changed drastically. (It will go back to enmity and alienation during Putin's rule, but for now...). The flow of information from the West is unstoppable now, and Soviet people are seeing for the first time the huge gap between their lives in the socialist heaven and these in the West.

And the flow of information in the other direction is unstoppable now too. Hundreds thousands immigrants from USSR are now in the West, telling it all. The previously suppressed stories and books by the dissidents and victims of the regime are published even in the USSR, not to mention the West. The truth is out.

And this is the year when one Bernie Sanders, then Mayor of Burlington, heads with a group of other Burlington notables to Yaroslavl, a soviet city to become a sister city of Burlington. The itinerary of the team also included Moscow and Leningrad*.

Unsurprisingly, their itinerary was managed exactly as it is described in the remark below. Surprisingly, Bernie and his comrades for that trip didn't see through it, and here is the trip report from the horse mouth:



So here are the salient points from the Bernie's speech:

• Openness and warmth of the citizens and officials. He didn't really get to see many real citizens, naive as he is, but yes, the times have changed, as I have described above.
• It (the above warmth) might go back to WW II. Wrong. The huge assistance provided (with a big loss of lives and enormous effort) by Americans and Britons during WWII was one of almost totally forbidden subjects.
• People were delighted by the presence of Ronald Reagan etc. Crap. Soviet people at the time didn't give a flying donut about high level summits like this one. Again - talking with token "citizens" might have confused him.
• Surprised by the degree of self-criticism Soviet officials displayed. Perestroika, man, where have you been?
• Moscow News has articles with self-criticism and debate... same thing again. Bernie has no idea whatsoever about what is going on in that place.
• Soviets estimate that they are behind US about 10 to 15 years in healthcare. In 1988 it is rather 20 to 30 years, but why be a nitpicker? The healthcare was free, of course (better bring some food to your near and dear patient, and yeah, that rare medicine - be a good father/mother/son... and get it via your connections...
• Housing now. How about young newlyweds waiting for years and years for their government-built low quality 50 square meters flat, while folks close to the trough get it without delay?
• Public transportation. Measured by visits to Leningrad, Moscow and Yaroslavl - two major centers of state investment and one major tourist destination. All in all, about 5-7% of total Soviet population, with absolutely unreliable train, bus and airline services that caused headache and toothache to so many millions...
• Moscow Metro now - "the fastest, cleanest and most effective I have seen in my life". "With many works of art, beautiful chandeliers etc..." this one made me choke up. The Moscow metro, built on the bodies of hundreds of Stalin's prisoners, far from all of them being criminal ones. And beautiful chandeliers...
• Culture palaces for young people with cultural programs - where grooming of "pioneers" and "komsomolets's" with party-approved cultural programs and impoverished libraries where only party-approved books were available. Both under tight control of that three-letter outfit, needless to say.
• And to crown it all: "They want to go back to some early vision of their revolution". Ye gods - when the last thing the vast majority of Soviet people wanted to hear at the time was more inane revolutionary slogans and revolutionary ideas...

To summarize, there are only two possible explanations to the above nightmarish inanity: either the man is dumb as two planks or he really lacks elementary information.

It is not for nothing that I have mentioned above the flow of information from USSR to the West and the waves of immigrants who came over to US, ready to tell it all. So we have here a man who dedicated himself to politics and spent quite a few years in social-related activities, leadership etc. And this man was heading a delegation to another country without trying to learn the basic A to Z about it? When this information was so easily obtainable? Hard to believe, ain't it?

Well, it is not my job to explain the inexplicable. It is rather my duty to point out that this man, with a bachelor of arts degree in political science (that he himself describes "as a mediocre college student because the classroom was "boring and irrelevant", while the community was more important to his education") - that this man, who freely and so convincingly displays his ignorance in most vital matters, is vying for the presidency of United States.

Heed the message, dear Americans.


(*) Not surprisingly, Moscow, Leningrad and Yaroslavl were usually included in a standard itinerary of Western tourists. The sightseeing offered and the tourists' timetables were orchestrated to the minute details and, of course, coordinated with the KGB and its well-trained watchers. Even during the years of perestroika. The masters of Potemkin village creation made their lives easier by channeling the tourists through the same well-mapped treks...

Naama Issachar's story - or how to be stupider than stupid.

Naama Issachar, the girl in the picture below, is, most probably, going to be released from a Russian jail soon. I am glad for her, 7.5 years for a small stash of hashish* is indeed a cruel and unusual punishment, especially taking into account that she didn't intend to enter Russia. And here my happiness and good will end.

Israeli Naama Issachar gestures during an appeal hearings in a courtroom in Moscow

To every Israeli familiar with the local facial expressions and gestures, the picture above shows a girl defiant. Only there is nothing to be defiant about. Naama was caught, confessed and, no matter the cruelty of the sentence, is guilty. There is absolutely nothing to be defiant about.

Moreover, the relentless pressure her family and friends succeeded to apply to our dear leaders has allowed Kremlin to up the payment for Naama's early release:

According to Hebrew media reports, Russia has asked Israel to transfer a piece of Russian Orthodox Church property near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City to the Kremlin as a goodwill gesture ahead of Issachar’s release.Reports have also indicated that Russia may seek strong Israeli backing for its position in a spat with Poland over responsibility for World War II, including a possible public statement from Netanyahu or Rivlin.

Sounds reasonable? Maybe, sometimes the goal justifies the means.

What sounds much less reasonable and exudes a strong smell of chutzpah is the behavior of our subject. What this source (and it's a solid one for most news items) says is mind-boggling:

Israeli Naama Issachar, serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence in Russia on charges of drug smuggling, did not ask the Russian president for pardon. This was stated by the Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova, according to Interfax. According to the Ombudsman, Issachar believes that the appeal of her mother and of Prime Minister of Israel is enough to consider a pardon.

And, if the above isn't enough of characterization, here is another tidbit, from an Israeli source this time:

The Israeli imprisoned in Russia was interviewed by a local newspaper and said she might still write a book about her time in prison: "I still don't believe I will be released so soon".

A book now? Many a Soviet prisoner, Jewish included, have written about their experience in the Soviet soul-crushing prison camps. Most of them were heroes, whose imprisonment was a badge of honor. Not in this case.

The only book I envision for dear Naama is a notebook with a few hundred pages, where every page contains a hundred sentences: "I am not going to do anything stupid anymore".

To remind you, Naama is 27 years old...

So there.

(*) For some reason many Israeli newspapers state it was marijuana Naama was carrying. No, it wasn't. Hashish.

Why does Israel seem to be such a big theme? Good question.

I am visiting Quora from time to time and get some of the articles in my feed. So I have found this long headline today:

Why does Israel seem to be such a big theme on Quora when there are so many other troubled areas in the world?

Normally I would have shrugged the whole off, mentioning the media sickish obsession with Israel in general. But the response to the query, by an Egyptian fellow, deserves to be read. Not that I agree with every single word of it, but... well, just read it.

***

Antoun Khalil, Gastroenterology Resident at Egyptian Ministry of Health (2015-present).

eing from Egypt, which is the biggest country on Israel's borders and historically known as the most influential Arabic state, meanwhile the country with the most bloody conflicts with Israel, I have a point.

All Arabs and I mean “ALL” excluding few christian minorities and few liberals are raised up to hate Israel. They teach this in schools. We were encouraged to paint drawings about 6th of October “Yom Kippur” war and how Egyptian Army humiliated the mystery of the unbeatable IDF! Nobody cares about the peace treaty of 1979, in fact, the great majority of Egyptians hate this treaty and wish if it wasn't held. Israel is looked to as the demon who raped the Arabic land, kills palestenians and conspires to destroy all the arabic world to form their great state from river”Furat” to river “Nile”.

Making this clear, I don't see it strange that Israel has this huge attention here and everywhere else. There is about 400 million persons who hate the existance of Israel. What's making it worse, is that one small state has a better contribution to world's science, industry and agriculture than the whole 23 arabic countries!

Nobody can deny that Arabs and Israeli have a tragic history. I myself feel angry to remember what Sharon had done to our prisoner of wars in 5-days war or the airstrikes on the primary school of Bahr Elbaqar.

But, I see that the past belongs to the past. We are neighbours with a lot of common interests. Israel is the only democracy and the most advanced state in the Middle East and collaboration will benefit Arabs as much as it will benefit Israelis. Then, we may not hear so much questions and debates about Israel.

***

Shaniqua O’Toole vs Gateway Pundit. Spoofer: 1, Pundit: 0.

One of the signs of the time is, unfortunately, that a good spoof is practically indistinguishable from the so called "real life". Of course, we should thank our clinically confused and ridden by fake news media for this situation. But some hilarious misreadings plague even the ones that are supposed to be on guard.

Shaniqua O’Toole, one of the more successful spoofers lately, succeeded admirably to deceive the famous Gateway Pundit (not the first time he is being spoofed, by the way). Here is what caused him to lose his cool:

Here is what Gateway Pundit has said on the subject:

On Saturday Guardian contributor Shaniqua O’Toole argued in her column that the police were at fault for shooting the terrorist and should have known he was wearing a fake suicide vest.

You just can’t make this up!
A far left commentator is attacking police for shooting dead the ISIS killer.

Oh well, Shaniqua O’Toole is only a spiritual entity, and The Guardian, while they might be dying to have her on the list of their contributors, are not able to recruit her.

And the Guardian-looking page that irks so many people, is a product of a piece of software that generates such spoofs at your beck and call.

So there.

P.S. Gateway Pundit, it has to be mentioned, got wise to the nature of the spoof and eventually deleted it, but the delectable Shaniqua saved it in an archive.

Nachman Shai's open letter to Benjamin Netanyahu

Update: in the first version of the post the letter was wrongly assumed to be by Benny Begin. Apologies.
(With thanks to Vittaly).

Nachman Shai with an message for Bibi. Apologies for bugs in translation, if encountered.

***

Without flaming, out of appreciation and clear vision.
(Published by Ynet)

My acquaintance with Bibi, I call him Bibi, is long-standing. I first met him 43 years ago, after his brother Yoni's death in Entebbe. Yoni was my classmate at Rehavia Gymnasium in Jerusalem. A few years earlier, immediately after the Yom Kippur War, I interviewed him as commander of the Golan Heights Armored Battalion. It was the only journalistic interview Yoni had ever given.

In 1976, Bibi asked to speak to me and presented his vision for the war on terror. He was 27 years old and already brilliant at the time. He has developed an international counter-terrorism project and recruited people from all over the world to assist. The project exposed him both in Israel and in the US. Later, the late Moshe Arens chose him to serve as his deputy at the Washington Embassy. At the time, I served as the embassy spokesperson and couldn't help but admire his personal and policy capabilities.

Once again, we worked together in the First Gulf War - he in political PR and I in the military, and later in the Madrid Conference and beyond. Of course, I also followed him during my years in the Knesset, and occasionally we even talked and exchanged opinions.

I value and respect him even today, so I refuse to join the chorus that now rolled him in the tar in the outskirts of the city. But last Thursday I listened to the things he said on television - true, with great excitement, a stir of emotion and lack of sense - and realized that he could go no further.

It's over, Bibi.

The Israeli prime minister cannot burn the house on its residents. No, you can't. Only yesterday and maybe tomorrow you will send Air Force pilots or other IDF fighters to protect this home. A home is not just land, roads, buildings. The home is the set of values ​​and norms we all share.

You, the Prime Minister of Israel, have to respect our democracy, which has been serving you for 13 years. This democracy rests on the foundations of law and order and morality. Without them, it would not be democracy and will collapse. So many countries have already seen it. It might happen to us too. The distance is short.

No, this is not a "coup" and it is not an attempt to oust illegally a prime minister. The law keeping and enforcement system has come to a wise and measured conclusion that the Israeli prime minister should be prosecuted. Even now my hands are shaking at the sound of those words. This system may be faulty. But once a decision has been made, after many hesitations and varied considerations, including the timing, the way is now open to you to fight for your innocence. Not through the microphone and booth, which you so well use, but in court. There and only there.

I wish you got out of the indictments. It's hard for me to watch another convicted prime minister go to jail, but the decision is not mine or yours, and at this moment no longer public. Only the justice system, which you have complimented at the beginning of your speech, then roasted it on fire. The court will hear you, Bibi, with an open heart and soul. Go there, cope, and if there was nothing, there would be nothing.

***

To be on the safe side, follows the original in Hebrew.

Read more »

So, how about it now, Bibi?

In this recording Bibi, at the best of his glorious indignation and superb powers of speechifying, explains why Olmert, suspected of corruption, must resign. A part of his tirade reads:

A prime minister neck deep in investigations does not have a moral and public mandate to make fateful decisions for the State of Israel. There is a fear, I must say, and it is real and not unfounded, that he will make his decisions for his personal interest of political survival, not for the national interest.

To remind you all, at the time Olmert resigned even before the charges against him were finalized to indictment.

Bible stories - in the language you know and love

The silence here is temporarily interrupted to let you enjoy something completely different.

It starts with one Shaul Reznik, who decided to refurbish several Tanach (Old Testament for some of you) stories, presenting them in the language of modern mass media headlines. Some of his readers joined the effort. This post will try to present the most worthy results (so far) in English.

[If you are offended, please go away. Quietly.]

A pensioner tries to kill his son for religious reasons.

Two cities in the south of the country suffered serious damage during shelling with fire and sulfur.

A family of sectarians drove a maid with a child into the desert.

Killing of a farmer: G-d suspects brother.

After marrying an immigrant, the Egyptian leader was diagnosed with urinary tract disease.

Two stone data carriers are broken, an elderly stutterer is suspected.

In the area of ​​the Dead Sea, two daughters got their father drunk and raped him.

The couple was kicked out of a nature reserve for eating fruit.

An Israeli scientist presented a technology of extracting water from a rock.

Amateur shipbuilder invests in creation of a unique zoo.

Children of a large family of religious fanatics decided to get rid of their brother by selling him to merchants of live goods.

The wife of a Sodom lawyer replenished the salt reserves of the city.

Bears gobbled up a group of teenagers.

A cloned woman fell prey to a snake.

UN protests: Israel destroys Palestinian buildings with advanced sonic weapons!

Shock! Another victim of the slander by a #Metoo activist. (In a candid interview with Zuleika, Potiphar discovers shocking details).

SENSATION! A local madman was swallowed by a whale.

Israeli bodybuilder brutally killed a rare predator.

Scandal in the royal family: intimate correspondence between the crown prince and his boyfriend was published.

The battle of psychics on Carmel ended with a stabbing.

The prisoner discovers paranormal abilities and receives an offer to take a high post.

Journalistic investigation: who is behind the string of climate anomalies in Egypt?

Ballistic examination: the world champion in power-lifting was killed by a shot from a slingshot.

Passion for quail meat led to mass poisoning in a nomadic tribe.

The effects of global warming: Red Sea has become catastrophically shallow in one day. Scientists are sounding the alarm!

Animal rights advocates are outraged by the increasing incidence of tearing of the mouths of lions in Palestine.

SHOCK! Donkey's jaw can be used to ...

Tons of counterfeit groats have been sprayed over the supposedly empty desert for decades. The investigation is ongoing.

Was there a boy? A senior citizen claims that he killed a ram on the mountain.

And more from the commenters:

A successful hair removal method invented by the king of Israel. Read the interview with Queen of Sheba about the results.

Elderly vegan destroys an expensive cultural symbol of veal lovers.

As a result of the disproportionate use of force, a building collapsed on pilgrims in Gaza.

Construction of the tallest skyscraper in the Middle East is suspended. Disagreements between unions are growing.

Prosecutor's office is investigating the scandalous affair of the Israeli leader with the wife of a general who died last year: the investigation revealed new facts.

Targeted assassination of a Palestinian field commander by the David's Sling system.

Medical phenomenon in a nomadic tribe. A woman gave birth at the age of 90 years.

A shepherd is wanted for an attempted coup.

In a village near Lake Tiberias, a group of unknown people burglarized a bakery. Police suspect a gang of so-called "Folk healer."

A young man marries two women through his father-in-law.

The elements claimed millions of lives, but a group of enthusiasts managed to save a zoo.

Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Joseph. Feminists are furious!

The Shechem population is slaughtered as part of the #MeToo campaign.

The UN Human Rights Council condemned Israel for the killing of Egyptian soldiers in the Red Sea.

Etc. etc.