April 30, 2007
Dissing bandar
According to the NY Times Prince Bandar is on the outs with his uncle the king.
No foreign diplomat has been closer or had more access to President Bush, his family and his administration than the magnetic and fabulously wealthy Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia.Prince Bandar has mentored Mr. Bush and his father through three wars and the broader campaign against terrorism, reliably delivering — sometimes in the Oval Office — his nation’s support for crucial Middle East initiatives dependent on the regional legitimacy the Saudis could bring, as well as timely warnings of Saudi regional priorities that might put it into apparent conflict with the United States. Even after his 22-year term as Saudi ambassador ended in 2005, he still seemed the insider’s insider. But now, current and former Bush administration officials are wondering if the longtime reliance on him has begun to outlive its usefulness.
Bush administration officials have been scratching their heads over steps taken by Prince Bandar’s uncle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that have surprised them by going against the American playbook, after receiving assurances to the contrary from Prince Bandar during secret trips he made to Washington.
The Saudis "mentored" President Bush and his father? How arrogant is that? The whole article reads like a release from Prince Bandar's personal press office. But for a fellow who's renowned as a wonderful diplomat, this is interesting.
Of course it is ultimately the king — and not the prince — who makes the final call on policy. More than a dozen associates of Prince Bandar, including personal friends and Saudi officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that if his counsel has led to the recent misunderstandings, it is due to his longtime penchant for leaving room in his dispatches for friends to hear what they want to hear. That approach, they said, is catching up to the prince as new tensions emerge between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
In other words, instead of being an honest broker, Prince Bandar is intentionally ambiguous so that he has some level of plausible deniability. Gee that sure makes him reliable.
The question is why is that an extremely liberal newspaper, goes to such lengths to cast a diplomat from a country lacking in religious freedom, press freedom, equal rights for women in such a positive light.
The reason of course is here
Prince Turki was never able to match the role of Prince Bandar, whom the president, vice president and other officials regularly consult on every major Middle East initiative — from the approach to Iran to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to Iraq.
Because the approaches of the Saudis to the Israeli Palestinian peace process and Iraq is so similar to that of the NY Times, the Times overlooks inconvenienet of Saudi life.
After all if the Saudis favor pressuring Israel and were reticent about an American invasion of Iraq, they must be right.
(The Saudi commitment to the Palestinian-Israeli peace process has to be questioned as Susan Sachs reported in the wake of the failed Camp David summit in 2000
During the last few days, a number of Arab leaders like Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudia Arabia and President Mubarak have joined with Mr. Arafat's domestic opponents in Islamic militant movements to weigh in on the issue. They all but threatened Mr. Arafat with political excommunication if he accepted Prime Minister Ehud Barak's proposals for administrative control over parts of the city and access to -- but not sovereignty over -- the major Muslim sites.The report is from the NY Times, and not often referred to by the paper subsequently.)
A few years ago, The American Thinker wrote The Saudi War on George W. Bush observing
President Bush has provoked this response by proclaiming his intention to encourage democracy and liberalism in the Middle East, liberate the Arab masses from despotic rule, bring peace and prosperity to the region, and halt the spread of militant Islamic terror groups. Unlike past Presidents who, in varying degrees, paid lip service to these ideals, President Bush has acted decisively on them. His politically perilous actions, such as his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, his conditioning support for a Palestinian state on the cessation of terror, corruption, and dictatorship, and his active promotion and support for liberal groups in the Arab world, have aroused Saudi fears and provoked a quiet counterattack.George W. Bush seriously disrupted the previous cozy relationship that Saudi Arabia historically enjoyed with the Bush family —— and with Washington power brokers, in general. The Saudis feel that their family's absolute rule over the kingdom may be endangered, and that their efforts to spread their virulent brand of Islam, Wahabbism, may be curtailed by the current Administration. The Saudi royals may well feel abandoned, and in their disillusionment have resolved to prevent a second term for George W. Bush.
While the precipitous rise in oil prices has not had the negative economic impact feared, the American Thinker argues that the current President Bush isn't nearly as popular with Saudis rulers as his father had been. The American Thinker sees that as a sign that President Bush is on the right path.
The New York Times, though, sees things somewhat differently.
But Saudi frustration has mounted over the past four years, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated. King Abdullah was angry that the Bush administration ignored his advice against de-Baathification and the disbanding of the Iraqi military. He became more frustrated as America’s image in the Muslim world deteriorated, because Saudi Arabia is viewed as a close American ally.Tensions between King Abdullah and top Bush officials escalated further when Mr. Bush announced a new energy initiative to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil during his 2006 State of the Union address, and announced new initiatives in that direction this year.
I'm not so generous toward the Saudis. Their discomfort with Iraq war and the way it was handled, had less to do with strategy than with empowering the Shi'ites. And given the rise in the price of oil, it's hardly a surprise that the President would urge a reduction in the American demand for foreign oil. (Still given that the President's plan was hardly specific, it's hard to see what damage to Saudi Arabia would come from it.)
Nor do I think that Saudi Arabia is distancing itself from America because of a detorioration in America's image (as Tiger Hawk does). My thinking is more along the lines of the American Thinker. The Saudis oppose President Bush's foreign policy and American interests generally.
The anti-Americanism in the Middle East is less a function of American policy than of decidedly different world views clashing. 9/11 marked the most virulent demonstration of that clash, and the Bush administration has certainly had its share of foreign policy failures.
Later in the Times article we read of how Prince Bandar bought outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell a car. Bandar has always functioned on the personal. Cultivating (or a cynic would say buying) American officials to serve as conduits for conveying Saudi interests to the heads of American government.
King Abdullah, operates at the national level. Given the divergence of views between the United States and Saudi Arabia it's not surprising that the Saudis are at odds with the Americans. (And it's not just with President Bush. When the Khobar Towers during the Clinton administration were bombed the Saudis were non-cooperative with the American investigation. Camp David, as mentioned above also was from the Clinton years.)
The article then probably tells us less about the nature of Saudi-American relations than it does about Prince Bandar's efforts to rehabilitate himself in American eyes.
via memeorandum.
Technorati tags: 
Prince Bandar.
April 29, 2007
Haveil Havalim #114
Welcome to the April 29, 2007 edition of haveil havalim.
Post of the week
Elie's Expositions gives us his speech from the Siyum honoring Aaron's 2nd Yahrzeit.
Yom Ha'tzmaut (and Yom Hazikaron)
Israel Matzav posts Terror in Megiddo Forest during this year's Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration.
Yeranen Yaakov writes about The Other Thing That Happened on 5 Iyyar.
Perspectives of a Nomad wanders back into Haveil Havalim reflecting "on the lessons to be learned from the way Israel puts Memorial Day ane Independence Day back to back." Moving On: Israel Teaches the World a Lesson. Welcome Back!
Elder of Ziyon presents April, 1948: How the Arabs left Tiberias, more evidence of the degree to which the "Naqba" was self inflicted. For related information check out Were the Arabs expelled by Ephraim Karsh.
Life in Israel writes Yom Ha'Atzmaut - plenty to be thankful for
Greetings from the French Hill writes about Post Yom Ha'atzmaut Blues & YouTube Strikes Down The French Hill. A pro-Jihadi movie can get a PG rating but pro-Israel movies are too controversial.
Esser Agaroth presents Yom Ha'Assma'uth: Some Suspicious Observations.
Elie's Expositions presents Hallel, Al Hanissim, and Yom Haatzmaut.
ON THE FRINGE—AL TZITZIT presents "... a poem in commemoration of Yom HaZikaron" in A nation of soldiers (for Yom HaZikaron).
Tsmicha.com see Yom Haatsmaut as not just a time of prayer in Yom Haatsmaout: Stop Praying, Start Acting.
me-ander presents Why, on Yom Ha'Atzma'ut, I say Hallel With a Bracha.
Rafi G presents Memorial Day in Israel posted at Life in Israel.
SerandEz.Holy Hyrax writes about Hallel on Yom Ha'atzmaut. I think he hits the nail on the head. It is the never-before-heard-of return of a people to their land and reconstituting a government there after (nearly) 2000 years that is the real miracle.
Judaism
~ Sarah's View ~ presents A Time For... . Really stunning artwork!
Yehuda presents The Same Thing Happens Every Kiddush. This is a lot of fun.
V's Jewish Blog writes about Orthodox Media and the Gedolim Hierarchy and appreciates Mishpachah.
Letters of Thought presents Prelude to Return.
The Israeli Tikkun Blog presents Prayer - A Jungian Perspective. Davening - prayer - for Jung Jews and old. (Sorry.)
A Simple Jew presents "We Don't Do That." A good and simple lesson in parenting.
Life in Israel presents I am frummer than you.
Heichal HaNegina presents The Keen Wisdom of Rebbe Dovid’l Tolna .
ON THE FRINGE—AL TZITZIT presents That'll be 1 lamb, 2 birds, please: The literal price of "sin" . The comments are very important.
Torah
Daf notes presents Daf Yomi - Chagigah 19 - Praying without the Proper Intention.
Divrei Chaim writes about standing for a talmida chachama vs. standing for the wife of a talmid chacham.
Torah Thoughts presents a friend and a brother.
Vesom Sechel presents The Marital Prohibitions.
Politics
Freedom presents Thankfully, the Difference.
YID With LID presents Protocols of the Enemies of Zion posted at .
Antisemitism
YID With LID presents Self-Hating Jew Hall of Fame Gives NY TIMES LIFETIME ACHIEVMENT AWARD. The Times does have a history doesn't it?
History
Is That Legal? presents Uncle Leo's Kennkarte, Sixty-Five Years Later posted at , (via Instapundit) Is that legal continues to re-create the history of his uncle's death.
Ari's Blog writess Violent Balabustes and the Tuition Crisis. Nothing new under the sun?
Daled Amos presents JEWS OF THE CARIBBEAN: One of the disadvantages of... . And let's not forget those Jewish pirates either.
Shiloh Musings remembers Six Days in June, 1967 something we'll start hearing a lot more about as the 40th anniversary approaches.
Israel
It's Almost Supernatural presents Lessons from Apartheid South Africa and why they don't apply to Israel.
Israellycool presents Busness as Usual explaining why.
me-ander presents Still grey.
Oleh Musings presents It Never Rains... .
Seraphic Secret presents Feeding the Beast. The beast in question is the beast of terrorism. Feed it and it will not grow tame, it will just grow.
Israel Matzav presents Why that ticket to Israel is still so expensive. The economics of inefficiency.
Israel Matzav gives more information on the story he broke Gag order partially lifted - Bishara aided Hezbullah during the war. (Maybe he didn't break it, but he was one of the first to write about it.)
My Right Word "... has discovered, via Maariv's photoshoping, what Azmi Bishara's Hezbollah disguise looks like" in Former MK Azmi Bishara in his Hizbollah Disguise.
My Right Word says "Efraim Sneh is late on Hebron" in Remind Me, What Day is it Today?
BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS presents LISTEN UP MY SISTAHS!! More evidence that Hamas is not moderate.
Wild Tumor writes about Jewish-style Monopoly as played in Jerusalem.
me-ander presents Feeding the neighbor.
me-ander presents Hard to title this one*. How about "Musing at a funeral?"
YID With LID presents Jordan is NOT a Moderate Country. But its King is a man of the people with a common touch isn't he? Just like his father! (Who supported Saddam Hussein during Gulf War I.)
V's Jewish Blog presents What is a Secular State Anyway? Is Israel?. Or put a different way why isn't Israel the Jewish state?
Elder of Ziyon presents Sderock. When faced with difficulty one can complain or "take arms against a sea of troubles" and make music. Or be involved in some other productive activity.
JoeSettler presents Conversion Convergence .
JoeSettler presents Armegeddon .
Jewish music
Jewish Blogmeister presents Upcoming Jewish Music Releases....
Kashrut
Jewish Blogmeister presents Junior Cheescake Loses Supervision ll. Just in time for Shavuos. Bummer.
Personal
Perspectives of a Nomad writes of when he first started wandering "... and getting shot at while visiting the Good Fence" the first time he visited Israel in Nomad: The Path Begins.
Culture
LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION presents Hasidim all right, and I don?t like what I see?d. Trademarking a Chassidic dynasty?
My Obiter Dicta presents A Role Model (?) Model, literally that is.(h/t daled amos )
J O S H U A P U N D I T presents Down for the agenda..or, why I won't buy Peet's Coffee. A tale of a (mostly successful) informational campaign.
Irina presents That Bird Again posted at The Ignoble Experiment, a.k.a. Live Dangerously!.
BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS presents What Jewish Book Changed Your Life?. Politically I'd say "From Time Immemorial" By Joan Peters. Religiously I'd have to go with the Hakdamah L'perush Hamishnah by the Rambam. (Introduction to the Commentary of the Mishna by Maimonides.)
Politics
diary of an anti-chomskyite presents Chomskyite Billionare Pleads Oppression. Oh to have the Tsorus of Soros.
My Right Word writes about how the "Jerusalem Post and Gil Hoffman are seeking to overthrow Bibi" in How the Media Twists the News and Thwarts Democracy.
Which is why Mere Rhetoric presents Netanyahu Launches Campaign to Oust Olmert. He'd Better Act Fast.
YID With LID presents Dan Gillerman Beats up on Palestinians in UN Speech and The U.N. GETS ANOTHER VISIT FROM THE FROM THE IDIOT FAIRY.
Virginia Tech
USA Today Blog presents The door to Room 204 - Opinion - USATODAY.com. A few more details about Prof. Librescu's heroism.
Mr Bagel Video presents Funeral of Professor Liviu Librescu in Brooklyn New York.
Humor
Of Fish and Family presents "The Jewish response to a complement?" in Apples and Oranges.
Blogging
Yourish.com celebrates Now we are six. Six is a millenium in blog years. This is one of my earliest memories of her blog. Hmm, that does seem like a thousand years ago. :-)
My Right Word "... is disappointed with the ramifications for Jewish blogging after reviewing the voting stats for the JIB awards" in JIB Stats. If Jewish blogging is to make a difference it requires a lot more intra-linking. Playing up the most significant posts is a way to raise their visibility. When Shiloh Musings, for example, took pictures of Palestinian construction near Jerusalem, every pro-Israel blogger should have linked to it. It showed that despite the claims of poverty, so popular in the media, the Palestinians were phony. Or when In Context wrote of a meeting of Rep. Joe Sestak and the Jewish community about his appearance at a CAIR event, everyone who is concerned with CAIR and its growing prominence should have linked to her.
Misc
Suzy presents understanding posted at A bit of Light.
Bodgey Bagel Caption Contest presents Bodgey Bagels Caption Contest Week 20 posted at , saying, "Just put up Bodgey Bagels 20th caption contest on Mr Bagels dedicated caption contest blog Bodgeybagels http://bodgeybagels.blogspot.com/"
Next week's scheduled hostess is BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS. Please use the carnival submission form to submit your post(s) for next week's edition.
Accepting applications for future hosts/essses May 13 and later! (Put Interested in Hosting in Subject line.)
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of haveil havalim using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. Technorati tags: haveil havalim, blog carnival.
Most recent editions of Haveil Havalim at Blog Carnival
#22 Mystical Paths
#21 Rabbinical Authority Consortium of HACKers
#20 Shiloh Musings
#19 Devarim
#18 Soccer Dad
#17 Mystical Paths
#16 Critical Mastiff
#15 Soccer Dad
#14 Multiple Mentality
#13 IsraPundit
#12 DovBear
#11 Kesher Talk
#10 Biur Chametz
#9 Soccer Dad
#8 It's Almost Supernatural
#7 Bloghead
#6 Willow Tree.
#5 Crossing the Rubicon2
#4 Dov Bear
#3 Biur Chametz
April 27, 2007
Council speak 04/27/2007
The Council has spoken and determined that the winners for the week are Earth Day by Done with Mirrors among council members and The Big White Lie from the City Journal among non-council members.
The former is a consideration of global warming and its causes. The latter is a consideration of liberalism and its causes.
Runners up were Bookworm Room's Presidential power and Criminal terrorists among the council members, and Middle East Journal's (Michael Totten) Where Kurdistan meets the Red Zone or his travels to Kirkuk.
I'd like to commend the Glittering Eye for his series on Securing the Food Supply in which he anticipated the bigger story surrounding pet food contamination.
Watcher's CouncilBlogdigger tags: Watcher's Council.
April 26, 2007
Paint ball
So was the bloody sock really bloody?
Gary Thorne, calling the Orioles-Red Sox game Wednesday night, sparked a huge debate when he claimed that the infamous bloody sock of Curt Schilling was actually paint and that BoSox catcher Doug Mirabelli told him so. Mirabelli vehemently denied doing so.
Baseball Musings, for his part, doubts Thorne.
Everyone associated with the Red Sox and this story, Mirabelli, Schilling and Francona denied it was paint. Having seen Thorne screw up on the air many times with ESPN, I have no doubt that the Red Sox are right here. I try very hard not to dislike people, but I have strong professional dislike for Thorne. In the early days of the STATS/ESPN relationship a number of people were upset that ESPN didn't use Elias. Gary was one of these people. One day, he called STATS out during a broadcast for supplying incorrect caught stealing statistics. What Gary failed to realize, however, that the report we provided only dealt with caught stealing by catchers, where the report his friends at Elias gave him dealt with all caught stealings. Gary was forced to apologize on the air.So I'm biased about Thorne. In my opinion, he's sloppy. And in this case he's very likely wrong.
more at Ballbug.
UPDATE: See Inside Charm City for more. One of the comments at Baseball Musings points to this item from the Boston Globe's blog. Dr. Bill Morgan who performed the surgery on Schilling said
"Anyone who's ever had stitches knows there's going to be oozing from the wound. I put a bunch of stitches in the guy, and then he had to go out there and pitch at a professional level. The sutures were tugging at the skin, it opened up a little bit. The thing expanded right before our eyes.''
UPDATE II: Unsurprisingly, Curt Schilling has now weighed in. In the aptly named, Ignorance has its privileges, first he argues that the issue of the sock, is mostly of the media's making.
The only problem I have is this. If you look back, from the day of game six in the ALCS, through today, you won’t find a newspaper article, radio or TV interview in which I offered the blood, the sock, the game, any of it, as a topic. I haven’t talked about it since the post game interview room that night.People have asked and I have answered, but the mileage the media got from the incident is all of their own making. When I walked into the room for the post game interviews and offered up my first response to the questions about the game I basically said that the night was a revelation for me. That my faith in God that evening showed me things I’d never believed.
As I uttered those words I could see pretty much every person in that room roll their eyes and smirk. That’s not what any of them wanted to hear, truth or not. That was not good copy. They needed more and what I didn’t give them, they got themselves.
And this general shot at the profession of journalism/broadcasting/media
If you haven’t figured it out by now, working in the media is a pretty nice gig. Barring outright plagiarism or committing a crime, you don’t have to be accountable if you don’t want to. You can say what you want when you want and you don’t really have to answer to anyone. You can always tell the bigger culprits by the fact you never see their faces in the clubhouse. Most of them are afraid to show themselves to the subjects they rail on everyday.
Before he finishes, he puts things in perspective:
The saddest part in all of this is the following. Yesterday, as I was warming up for the game, I got to see a young kid, could not have been more than 20, who had served in Iraq. He was being honored by the Orioles and threw out the first pitch. He was a double amputee who’d lost the lower portion of both of his legs serving his country. He refused to use his cane and getting to see him do that was incredible.Instead of finding this kid and writing a story that truly matters, something that would and could truly inspire people, the media chose to focus on a story that was over two years old and a completely fabricated lie. What a job.
Finally he puts it on the line:
Someone gave me a great idea to end this once and for all. No one will ever need to bring it up again. I’ll wager 1 million dollars to the charity of anyones choice, versus the same amount to ALS. If the blood on the sock is fake, I’ll donate a million dollars to that persons charity, if not they donate that amount to ALS.Any takers?
The question now is, why did Gary Thorne say it? (Schilling suggests that he mis-over-heard something.) And will the Orioles take any action. The statement of Schilling's doctor is convincing.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad and OTB Sports.
Curt SchillingBlogdigger tags: Baseball, Curt Schilling, Red Sox, Gary Thorne
Why take risks?
My friend Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg asks
“With this shall Aaron enter the holy” [Leviticus 16:1-3]. There are moments of contact between man and God, when the invitation is extended, on His terms. There is the God of Yom Kippur, forbidding but approachable by the High Priest. Still the Rabbis tell of a rope that was attached to the Kohen Gadol, lest he run afoul of an incomprehensible God, and his lifeless body needed to be extracted from the holy of holies.Why take the risk? Why enter at all, if the Deity on the throne may spurn our approach?
Read his answer.
(No he doesn't really have any grey hairs in his beard. It's as free of grey hairs as mine.)
TorahBlogdigger tags: Torah, Parsha, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim.
Administrivia
Some notes:
In case you haven't noticed Judeopundit has started contributing here. So if you read something sensible here, you may credit him or my other co-blogger Daled Amos.
Speaking of contributors here, I'd like to call your attention to a commenter here, Bald Headed Geek, who now has his own blog.
And I received an e-mail last night that one of my blogging friends has called it quits. Good luck to Postwatch on his new professional endeavor!
BloggingBlogdigger tags: Blogging.
If ... you must 04/26/2007
If you haven't read I remember JFK's Get Smart; you must.
If you haven't read Jack Shack's Letter to Laker's management; you must.
Maybe I could offer my services as a pinch hitter to the Orioles. I probably couldn't even make contact with a major league pitch, but I'd be cheap. Good idea.
If you haven't read Web 2.0 isn't good news for conservatives at Crablaw; you must.
I have to disagree. I still remember all the hoopla of how Howard Dean had mastered the internet to unseat John Kerry as frontrunner. Well the results came in, and the voters said that he didn't. There are a lot of forces at work out there any movement has to maximize their control of them. The next iteration of the web (if there is one) is just one more force.
If you haven't read Don Surber's The Right needs Rosie; you must.
It is nice to have a straw man (or woman) who can reliably make statements to be knocked down. Still just because she's leaving the View doesn't that she'll shut her mouth. I have a feeling she'll still give us plenty of fodder. Even if we get beaten on Web 2.0.
If you haven't read Bob Schieffer Behind Katie Couric's Troubles? at Virtual Scratchpad; you must.
I am unimpressed with Bob Schieffer. He can pronounce the most obvious Democratic talking points as if they're facts with a detached seriousness and folksiness that mask his partisanship. I am even less impressed with Katie Couric who brings all the gravitas of a morning show hostess to the news. I keep expecting her to announce a daily recipe. Somehow I find it hard to muster much sympathy for either, or for CBS either, which is deservedly wallowing in 3rd place for the evening news.
If you haven't read Back to PBS basics at NRO's Media Blog; you must.
Different standards for Bill Moyers and Frank Gaffney? Who'd have believed it?!Now that the non-partisan Democrats are in charge of oversight. Why should PBS be funded by public money again?
If you haven't read Empathy Ends where Political Correctness begins at Dr. Helen; you must.
If you haven't read Jules Crittenden's Anzac day; you must.
I know Anzac day was yesterday. But still read it. Warning: Graphic descriptions of violence.
If you haven't read about the Baleboosteh's Anzac Biscuits ; you must.
More on the history of Anzac day, with a recipe!
If you haven't read Boker Tov Boulder's Kurdish General on the New Islamists; you must.
If you haven't read Elder of Ziyon's Palarabs still just don't get it; you must.
If you haven't read Freedom to reside at the Ignoble Experiment; you must.
Think it's difficult to find affordable housing in NYC? Try finding it in Moscow. You can't. And even if you could, you can't.
If you haven't read Exasperation at Thoughts by Seawitch ; you must.
Did you know that Louisiana wasn't the only state hit by Katrina? I gues that Gov. Blanco's PR skills exceeded her management skills. Mississippi also suffered quite a bit of devastation.
If you haven't read ...the faulty system at What my teachers never taught me; you must.
If you mustBlogdigger tags: If you must, LA Lakers, Get Smart, Hurricane Katrina, Web 2.0, Moscow, Palestinians, Islamists, PBS, Rosie, ANZAC Day.
Would walt and mearsheimer approve?
Usually I get worried when I hear the government is likely to adopt a more even handed approach to the Middle East, but when I read this, I was actually happy.
That's because the government in question is France.
Both Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, the candidates of the center-right and Socialists, respectively, have promised major shifts in France's stance on the Iranian, Lebanese, and Israeli-Palestinian issues if they win. They are reacting against the regime of outgoing President Jacques Chirac, who for 12 years--following in the footsteps of predecessors back to Charles de Gaulle--has allied with such Arab dictators as Yasir Arafat and Saddam Hussein. By making France the Arabs' favorite Western state, Chirac and other Gaullists have tried to create an alignment to counter the great--and in France, much-despised--primacy of the United States.Yet many say this strategy has brought little benefit to France, either directly or in terms of making it a credible world power. There are many contradictions. For example, French policy seeks to protect Lebanon while refusing to regard Hizballah as a terrorist organization. Moreover, last January, Chirac stated that Iran's possession of nuclear bombs would "not be so dangerous," reversing previous official positions.
The two main French newspapers, Le Figaro and Le Monde, have highlighted this debate in reviews of a new book entitled Chirac of Arabia: The Mirages of French Policy, by Éric Aeschimann and Christophe Boltanski, two journalists at the leftist French newspaper Libération. The authors underline French errors in particular on the Palestinian issue, which was perceived by Chirac solely through Yasir Arafat's eyes.
No doubt you'll say that that's because of the powerful Israel Lobby.
It should be noted that there is no question of appealing to a "Jewish vote" in such statements. Muslim voters vastly outnumber Jewish ones. Rather, there is a genuine conclusion that France's policy has not worked and indeed has undercut both French interests and ambitions.
Glad to hear that they're having that long needed debate in France.
French Elections, 
Middle East, 
Nicolas Sarkozy, 
Ségolène Royal.
Two cheers (only) for kalb
Long time journalist Marvin Kalb wrote an assessment of the media's role in last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah (and Hamas). In it he pointed out many of the media's failings during the war. (Media Backspin first wrote about it in March.)
For example he cites how
* Hezbollah managed its media coverage
* Little Green Footballs uncovered doctored Reuters photograps
* the case of "Green Helmet"
* how the New York Times showed destruction in southern Beirut without context
And yet reading it, I still got a strong sense of disconnect between Kalb's observations and conclusions.
For all the faults he ascribes to the media coverage he still coversfor the media. In a couple of places he writes how partisans of both sides find the coverage unbalanced so the media must be objective.
Keller of the Times said that the issue is so irresolvable that he refuses to pander to the prejudices of his critics. “They don’t want you to be balanced in your coverage; they want you to portray the morality of the war as they see it.”
But the partisans of Israel had a point, as Kalb noted. If as Kalb wrote early on in the report,
Israel defended its military operations by citing two relevant articles in international law: using civilians for military cover was a war crime, and any target with soldiers hiding among civilians was considered a legitimate military target.
then aren't discussions of disproportionality irrelevant? Israel was allowed to defend itself plain and simple. The fact that there was a perception, as he documented, that Israel's response was too harsh shows that the media failed to inform the public properly of the underlaying international law.
Then there's the matter of his giving the media a free pass in the field. In one chapter Kalb reported on how the UNIFIL forces posted information on Israeli troop movements on its website possibly providing crucial information to Hezbollah. And yet when he covers reporters' efforts to evade Israeli military restrictions he lauds them for tbeir initiative, even though the effect may have been the same: to have made what should have been secret military information available, not just to the public, but to Israel's enemy.
What bothers me most about Kalb's paper is his conclusion.
During the 2006 summertime war in the Middle East, it was Israel versus Hezbollah, led by the charismatic Hassan Nasrallah, and because Israel did not win the war, it is judged to have lost. In Iraq, in the not too distant future, it may well be the United States versus the Mahdi Army, led by the equally charismatic Sheik Moqtada al-Sadr. The challenge for responsible journalists covering asymmetrical warfare, especially in this age of the Internet, is new, awesome and frightening.
After documenting how the media had misrepresented the war to Israel's detriment he concludes by citing a "challenge." Throughout the paper Kalb showed that supposedly impartial arbiters of the war had, in fact, worked against Israel's interests in different ways. And yet he doesn't provide a prescription for improving the coverage.
If Israel lost the war, it was, at least in part due to the outrage generated by the international media against its effort that led to the political pressure to stop before the war was won.
Kalb noted that a reporter from Australia's Herald Sun took and smuggled pictures out of southern Beirut showing confirming Israeli charges that Hezbollah indeed hid its military equipment among the civilian population. Why didn't he criticize the rest of the media for failing to pick up the story? Did he find it incredible?
Kalb, it is clear, has great respect the concept of media objectivity. But what about the damage that "objectivity" does when it is mis-applied? The media plays a great role in determining how news is perceived and that has consequences. Kalb though fails to offer any useful prescription for fixing what was shown to be broken last summer.
He might have, for example, recommended that the media emphasize the Geneva Conventions regarding the hiding of military equipment in civilian areas. Or he might have encouraged the media to focus less on perceptions than on what is actually happening.
In the end, not only did Israel fail to win last summer, but the free people of Lebanon lost too. Because the media played a role in protecting Hezbollah, the terrorist organization gained power in Lebanon threatening the rest of the government.
(Though it had nothing to do with the war in Lebanon, early in the report, Kalb wrote:
When bin Laden wanted to help tip the 2004 presidential election in the U.S. to the incumbent, George W. Bush, he criticized Bush in a taped message delivered to Al-Jazeera.What? It seemed to me that Bin Laden was trying to threaten Americans to vote for Kerry. And certainly no one at the time reported that Bin Laden was trying to help Bush. An analysis in the Boston Globe speculated that Bin Laden wanted to claim that he influenced the election regardless of the outcome.)
UPDATE: In a nutshell the problem with the coverage of the war in Lebanon last year wasn't just the real time nature of the war, but with faults and biases built into traditional reporting. True the real time nature of the war brings new possibilities and new responsibilities to reporting. However, it also introduced a new element of oversight. Even though he cites examples of this oversight it's presented as a victory for bloggers rather than a victory for accuracy. Kalb is very much a part of traditional media and despite his criticisms of specific examples of malfeasance he doesn't address the biases that led to those failures.
via memeorandum
Little Green Footballs, Ace of Spade HQ, The Jawa Report, Hot Air and others have reported on the Kalb report.
Marvin KalbBlogdigger tags: Marvin Kalb, Media, Israel, Hezbollah.
April 25, 2007
If ... you must 04/25/2007
If you haven't read Don Surber's apology; you must.
The value of many things has decreased over time. As has the value of an apology. See for comparison JoshuaPundit's when When sorry really is ... sorry.
If you haven't read We are all responsible for preventing violence by Dr. Helen; you must.
If you haven't read Escape from Pianosa's Guns, Guns, Guns; you must.
If you haven't read Meryl Yourish's More on the Tough Guys; you must.
I realize these two come down on opposite sides of the debate. Still both worth reading.
If you haven't read Brain Terminal's Nanny State Hyprocrites; you must.
If you haven't read Ocean Guy's Quote of the Day; you must.
A lot of bloggers have recommended the Christopher Hitchens piece that it's taken from. I haven't read the Hitchens article yet, but you might want to check it out too.
If you haven't read SerAndEz's Treating Cancer; you must.
If you haven't seen Dzeni's Soft Geometry; you must.
The best of Dzeni's images have a calming effect. And given how harrowing the previous entry was, a good choice to look at now.
If you haven't read Simply Jews' Neve Gordon and Political Science; you must.
Simply Jews deconstructs one of the media's favorite (and prolific) Israeli anti-Israel exhibitionists. ("We're not anti-Israel, see we publish opinion pieces by this authoritative Israeli scholar.") It's nice work if you can get it.
If you haven't read Likelihood of Success's I don't get paid to say this; The Atlantic and me; you must.
My magazine of choice is Commentary The Atlantic has some must reading, but I don't think I ever appreciated it fully. If you want to see how good the Atlantic could get, read The Roots of Muslim Rage by Bernard Lewis. It's 17 years old and still relevant.
If you haven't read Anti-Semitism in Germany at Laz a Fare; you must.
Add Germany to France and Norway. "In two countries - France and Norway - chief rabbis are calling on Jews not to step outside with Jewish symbols on their person," said Prof. Dina Porat, who edited the report along with Stauber.
via Daled Amos.
Blogdigger tags: Virginia Tech Massacre, Guns, The Atlantic, Antisemitism, Germany, The Nanny State, Apologies, Neve Gordon.
April 24, 2007
Iran: Pals fire rockets, Islamic world a victim of terrorism, Global Arrogance attacks
The theme of today's excursion to the topsy-turvy world of the Iranian press is terrorism. Iran's approach to terrorism alternates between cheering for it and picturing itself as victimized by it:
IRIB: "Palestinians fire rockets":
In retaliation to the savage crimes of the fake Zionist regime against the Palestinian defenceless nation, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas fired several rockets into the Zionist settled occupied lands.Mehr News: "Tehran to host conference on 'Islamic world, a victim of terrorism’":In a statement released by Hamas in Gaza, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said they had fired nearly 30 rockets and 61 mortars into the occupied lands in an act of retribution for the assassinations committed by the enemy.
The Zionist regime was continuing massacre of innocent Palestinian people.
The first international conference on the “culture of resistance” will be held under the name of “Islamic World, a Victim of Terrorism” in Tehran on May 1-2.IRIB Radio: "Global Arrogance Attacking Entire Islamic World":“The event is planned to help expand the culture of resistance in the Islamic world,” Secretary General of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri, told a press conference on Tuesday.
45 figures from 28 different countries will attend the conference, Taskhiri said.
He said the main objective of the conference is to “study terrorism and the ways to confront it, the role of global powers in the emergence of terrorist groups, a distinction between legitimate defense and terrorism, and a distinction between pure Islam and a distorted Islam.”
“Now the Islamic world is under the attack of the global hegemony, and the enemies are trying to shatter the unity and resistance of the ummah” through sowing the seeds of discord between Muslims, he explained.
The enemy is trying to intertwine the “concepts of resistance and terrorism”, delete the “culture of Jihad” from the Islamic system, and portraying the Islamic “resistance” groups as terrorists, he observed.
The Islamic ummah needs to be more familiar with the culture of resistance and be vigilant, he said, adding, “Islamic vigilance delivers lethal blow to the global hegemony.”
Secretary General of the World Assembly for Proximity Amongst Islamic Schools of Jurisprudence said: Today the entire Islamic world is under attack from Global Arrogance and the enemy is trying to break the resistance of the Iranians and Muslims by using all tricks up its sleeve.That conference should be the mother of all target-rich environments.Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri, briefing reporters on the first International Congress of Culture of Resistance to be held in Tehran, May 1-2, said: The Ummah has to promote Islamic and Qur’anic awareness in order to increase their resistance.
He said: Islamic awareness will have the biggest impact on the enemy and the more powerful this impact the deeper would be the awareness.
The First International Congress on the Culture of Resistance is to be attended by 45 cultural and political figures from 28 world countries. The theme of the Congress is "Muslim World: Victim of Terrorism".
Crossposted on Judeopundit.
Cohen must've got lost
Last year in middle of Israel's wars with terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas, columnist Richard Cohen wrote a column Hunkering down with History in which he argued that Israel was a mistake.
The column attracted a lot of criticism (from here and elsewhere) because it was historically ignorant and was the argument that Israel's enemies made.
Today he takes on Israel's enemies, in the form of British National Union of Journalists, for their boycott of Israeli products, in Why Boycott Israel? (or here).
Cohen wants to know which sins of Israel are so great that they warrant this treatment when
In Iran, the government overturned the convictions of six men who, among other things, killed a young couple because they were walking together in public. In China, local authorities seized about 60 women and forcibly aborted their pregnancies. In Russia, the Putin government expanded its control of the media. In Cuba ... oh, well, you already know. But what you may not know is that given such a vast palate of injustice and depredations, the British National Union of Journalists made a truly original move: It singled out Israel to boycott.
He answers his question well
But some of it, surely, is anti-Semitism itself, a rage at the impudent, pushy Jew and this state created in the midst of the Arab world. Forgotten, conveniently and appallingly, is history itself and the reason for Israel's creation. This does not excuse injustice to Palestinians, it merely explains. But it is an explanation so soaked with the blood of Jews as to seem utterly concocted: It cannot be! But it was.The British journalists, like the academics before them, dare to tread where an army of goons has gone before. If they do not recognize the ember of anti-Semitism still glowing within them, they ought to park themselves before a mirror and ask why, of all the nations, do they single out Israel for reprimand and obloquy? This business of assigning to Jews a special burden, for seeing in them both more of mankind's bad qualities and less of its good, has a dark and ugly pedigree: the Chosen People, again -- and again in the wrong way.
Unfortunately along the way Cohen must've got lost. As he searches for the reason for the boycott he brings up a number of possibilities that are less than satisfying. Where is the resentment that feeds the British journalists?
Some of it surely comes from the uncritical support that Israel gets from the United States, which to lefties all over the world is a vile state, maybe worthy -- if it were not for jeans, movies and hip-hop -- of a boycott itself.
And what about the rest of the world? The political support is generally uncritical, but from the rest of the world it is relentlessly critical. If not for the United States, Israel would be the South Africa of today.
Some of it no doubt reflects frustration from the efforts of Jewish organizations to suffocate any criticism of Israel and to hurl the epithet "anti-Semite'' at anyone with an odd bent to his thinking.
This echoes a few of his columns from last year that I've responded to previously. The problem is that for the Palestinians (and the Arab/Muslim world in general) there seems to be one set of standards and another for Israel.
Dry Bones Illustrated this very well last week when he noted that the Virginia Tech was judged "... because he didn't believe that he'd be rewarded in heaven with 72 virgins everybody thinks ... he was just crazy." And so it goes. Suicide bombers are justified as a response to occupation. But Qassams are ignored when there is no more occupation.
Saudi Arabia forbids entrance of infidels to its holiest city but the Saudis have a plan for Palestinian independence. Occupation is an incomparable evil and it will be solved by coronating a terrorist. The old guard is corrupt so we'll give Islamists power because they can get the trains running on time.
The narrative of the Middle East to Cohen and those who think like him gives undue importance Israel's sins against the Arabs. They may be sensible enough to realize that the story's bigger than that, but all said, there's a difference in grievances. But as long as occupation is given disproportionate focus, there will be other, like the British journalists who will use it to justify every invective toward the Jewish state.
Cohen really needs to examine his beliefs and see if he is, in some way, encouraging that which he rejects.
UPDATE: Daled Amos puts it succinctly:
Richard Cohen sounds like a literate George Soros: everything that you say is wrong and evil about Israel is true--but that is no reason to boycott her!
NRO's Media Blog focuses only on Cohen's (proper) conclusion. and Israel Matzav mention that he doesn't endorse everything in the essay. However Mere Rhetoric (harsh language) points to one of the non-sequitirs Cohen addressed in reaching his conclusion.
Sammy weaver?
I've never thought Sam Perlozzo to be a sabermetric manager like Earl Weaver or Davey Johnson. I went to a game last year where he twice followed up leadoff doubles with sacrifiec bunts, giving up unnecessary outs. But tonight he went against the conventional wisdom and showed a bit of guts.
With the Orioles down 5 - 1 and two outs in the eighth inning and Aubrey Huff due up, Bob Geren called for lefty Alan Embree. Perlozzo did not do the expected, and kept righty Kevin Millar on the bench and stuck with Huff.
Radio guys, Joe Angel and Jim Hunter noted that Huff had 4 hits in 16 at bats against Embree, but that Millar had never faced him, and assumed it was that lack of experience that tipped Perlozzo's hand.
Huff ripped the first pitch from Embree into the stands cutting Oakland's lead to 5 - 4. (Each team would score once for a final 6 - 5 Oakland.)
Angel and Hunter started discussing that Perlozzo looked like a genius. Clearly he went against their expectations, but was the manager's decision simply about experience with the pitcher? So I did some checking at ESPN.
Millar's OPS
vs lefties 2004 - 2006 - .745
2007 - .606
vs righties 2004 - 2006 - .837
2007 -1.055
Huff's OPS
vs lefties 2004 - 2006 - .745
2007 - .565
vs righties 2004 - 2006 - .832
2007 - .528
So it appears that if one went back to the previous three years, there was no distinct advantage in using Millar in place of Huff. Huff had the same platoon splits as Millar. True Millar's doing better this year so far, but it doesn't appear that the decision to stick with Huff was as unusual as the announcers thought.
It appears that Perlozzo was doing his homework.
Crossposted at Soccer Dad and OTB Sports.
Baltimore Orioles, 
Sam Perlozzo.
Blogdigger tags: Baseball, Baltimore Orioles, Sam Perlozzo, Platoon Splits.
Juggling carnivals 04/24/2007
Incoming Carnivals
The next Carnival of Maryland #5 is up at Kevin Dayhoff - the soundtrack division of old silent movies. Carnival of Maryland is created an maintained by Crablaw. Next scheduled edition May 6.
And Kosher Cooking Carnival #17 is up at the Baleboosteh!
Upcoming
The next edition of J-Pix the Jewish Photography Carnival is scheduled for The Baleboosteh on April 26. The deadline is today, so submit now!
Other
Though it's not a carnival, voting for the JIB Awards is ongoing. Hopefully I'll update this section over the next few days. I'd like to thank a few people regarding the JIB's for their wonderful support: It Almost Supernatural, West Bank Mama, Thoughts by seawitch and Something and half of something.
I hope, over the next few days, to add more recommendations in this space.
Blog CarnivalsBlogdigger tags: Blog Carnivals, Photography, Insanities, Maryland, Haveil Havalim.
April 23, 2007
My blog as refrigerator
Our five year old has some artistic ability as you can see from an earlier family portrait she did.
Well what about this picture of sun and flowers?
Pretty good isn't it?
(This was the only one I could post since she loves writing her name on all her work!)
CSMonitor: "Why I am not a moderate Muslim"
This is an interesting document. The author, Asma Khalid, interprets the word "moderate" as implying "not orthodox." Similar associations come up in the Jewish world, but Khalid is mostly avoiding these issues in an exercise which probably elicits approval from the CSMonitor audience anyway:
Cambridge, England - Last month, three Muslim men were arrested in Britain in connection with the London bombings of July 2005. In light of such situations, a number of non-Muslims and Muslims alike yearn for "moderate," peace-loving Muslims to speak out against the violent acts sometimes perpetrated in the name of Islam. And to avoid association with terrorism, some Muslims adopt a "moderate" label to describe themselves.Whether "Moderate" implies all these things depends on your view of Islam, I suppose. The Left is very big on the idea of the Orthodox but nevertheless pacifistic Muslim. Most Muslims are what we would call Orthodox, I think, and a fair number of them condemn Al-Qaeda and other jihadists who target the West. How many condemn Hamas? What about the death penalty for apostates? Is asking such questions the same thing as demanding a "malleable Muslim"?I am a Muslim who embraces peace. But, if we must attach stereotypical tags, I'd rather be considered "orthodox" than "moderate."
"Moderate" implies that Muslims who are more orthodox are somehow backward and violent. And in our current cultural climate, progress and peace are restricted to "moderate" Muslims. To be a "moderate" Muslim is to be a "good," malleable Muslim in the eyes of Western society.
I recently attended a debate about Western liberalism and Islam at the University of Cambridge where I'm pursuing my master's degree. I expected debaters on one side to present a bigoted laundry list of complaints against Islam and its alleged incompatibility with liberalism, and they did.Not if it assumes that the moderate Muslims are out there and that their voices might be getting stifled by Saudi-funded groups. The image of the bad "paternalistic" West, ready to label all Muslims as violent comes very readily to hand for this "Middle Eastern/Islamic studies" major. I don't know if those who are convinced that Islam is inherently and incorrigibly violent are calling that much for "moderate Islam."But what was more disturbing was that those on the other side, in theory supported the harmony of Islam and Western liberalism, but they based their argument on spurious terms. While these debaters – including a former top government official and a Nobel peace prize winner – were well-intentioned, they in fact wrought more harm than good. Through implied references to moderate Muslims, they offered a simplistic, paternalistic discourse that suggested Muslims would one day catch up with Western civilization.
In the aftermath of September 11, much has been said about the need for "moderate Muslims." But to be a "moderate" Muslim also implies that Osama bin Laden and Co. must represent the pinnacle of orthodoxy; that a criterion of orthodox Islam somehow inherently entails violence; and, consequently, that if I espouse peace, I am not adhering to my full religious duties.
I refuse to live as a "moderate" Muslim if its side effect is an unintentional admission that suicide bombing is a religious obligation for the orthodox faithful. True orthodoxy is simply the attempt to adhere piously to a religion's tenets.
The public relations drive for "moderate Islam" is injurious to the entire international community. It may provisionally ease the pain when so-called Islamic extremists strike. But it really creates deeper wounds that will require thicker bandages because it indirectly labels the entire religion of Islam as violent.
The term moderate Muslim is actually a redundancy. In the Islamic tradition, the concept of the "middle way" is central. Muslims believe that Islam is a path of intrinsic moderation, wasatiyya. This concept is the namesake of a British Muslim grass-roots organization, the Radical Middle Way. It is an initiative to counter Islam's violent reputation with factual scholarship.Isn't this taking an odd turn? She was already wearing a hijab, but she didn't have a true understanding of her religion until she attended a one-day conference? And what were her pre-conference beliefs exactly? And whose fault was the misunderstanding? Is that "Radical Middle Way" really something that we enlightened, post-paternalistic Westerners can get behind? This essay is a bit short on details.This was demonstrated through a day-long conference that the organization sponsored in February. The best speaker of the night was Abdallah bin Bayyah, an elderly Mauritanian sheikh dressed all in traditional white Arab garb, offset by a long gray beard.
The words coming out of the sheikh's mouth – all in Arabic – were remarkably progressive. He confronted inaccurate assumptions about Islam, spoke of tolerance, and told fellow Muslims an unpleasant truth: "Perhaps much of this current crisis springs from us," he said, kindly admonishing them. He chastised Muslims for inadequately explaining their beliefs, thereby letting other, illiberal voices speak for them.
I was shocked by his blunt though nuanced analysis, given his traditional, religious appearance. And then I was troubled by my shock. To what extent had I, a hijabi Muslim woman studying Middle Eastern/Islamic studies, internalized the untruthful representations of my own fellow Muslims? For far too long, I had been fed a false snapshot of what Islamic orthodoxy really means. [...]
Crossposted at Judeopundit
Posted by Judeopundit at 5:10 PMWhat's baseball got to do with it?
via BallBug
Forbes has an article about the Business of Baseball. Given that Forbes is a business magazine not a sports magazine its list of baseball 10 best general managers will be the subject of some debate.
Being an Orioles' fan, I hardly think that Mike Flanagan (#10 according to Forbes) deserves to be anywhere near the top of this list (yet.) He works for a difficult owner and as a fan I haven't seen a good product for an entire year during his tenure.
If this year turns out well, as it appears it might right now, there's still little hope for long term success here. The Orioles have one of the weaker farm systems in MLB and the team isn't especially young. (Overall that is. There's Markakis, Cabrera, Loewen and Ray, but most everyone else of significance is 28 and up.) Success this year isn't likely to extend more than two years unless the team's scouting improves drastically.
I realize that this ranking is from a business not a baseball standpoint, that's why stathead favorite GM's without much success (so far) like Mark Shapiro and Doug Melvin don't rank. (Forbes does have metrics for evaluating them, but success on the field isn't necessarily one of them.)
Still how can Mike Flanagan make the list but not the likes of Kenny Williams, Brian Cashman, Bill Stoneman or even Tim Purpura whose teams have been in the World Series in recent years. Or Kevin Towers whose team has made the playoff?
And how does John Schuerholz rank below Brian Sabean or Pat Gillick?
Shouldn't baseball have something to do with it?
Crossposted on Soccer Dad and OTB Sports.
Baseball, 
Business, 
General Managers, Baltimore Orioles.
Blogdigger tags: Baseball, General Managers, Business of Sports.
Message?
via BallBug
Honestly, I don't know how a baseball team "sends a message" but apparently the Orioles aren't intending to send any as they swept the Blue Jays. At least not yet.
The Orioles, almost to a man, insist that they're not trying to send any messages. Not to opponents, not to the rest of the league, not to all of baseball. If they beat a division rival, the only significance is that they've won another game. Each one counts the same.Leave it to everyone else to find special meaning in a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays, which they completed with today's 7-3 victory before 27,285 at Camden Yards. Or the five wins in six tries against the Blue Jays and New York Yankees. And let's not forget their hold on second place in the American League East.
"We're just going out and trying to play good baseball," manager Sam Perlozzo said. "It's April. When it's August and we're still whipping up on somebody, then we can talk about sending a message. We've got a long way to go."
In 2004, the Orioles had two good months (including a number of odd Thursday comebacks). In 2005 they were good until the end of June. But the result both years was the same. They collapsed and ended up in the purgatory of 4th place. In 2005, they were one of the best teams. Second to the White Sox during those months. The offense led by Tejada and Roberts was tremendous and the pitching was also excellent.
A quick look at the current stats shows that the Orioles have the 7th best offense in the AL (by OPS). (#1 for what it's worth are the Yankees. Think they miss Sheffield?)
In pitching the team is #5 in the AL in pitching according to ERA and #4 by OPS allowed. (#1 are the Red Sox, just ahead of Oakland.)
My guess is that the O's offense is probably where I'd expect it to be, but offense seems down across the AL. The average OPS last year was .776 and in 2005 it was .754, right now it's .728. My guess is that sooner or later the offense will return to a somewhat higher level and that O's pitching will decline a bit and the offense will remain where it is. Right now my hopes for a .500 season seem good if premature.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad and OTB Sports.
Blogdigger tags: Baseball, Americal League, Baltimore Orioles.
Time to vote - JIB Awards 2007
The JIB Awards voting has started. I'm not going to ask for your vote except for voting for Haveil Havalim for Best Contribution (Group C). If there's anything I've done that's had staying power it's Haveil Havalim. Right now it's one of the longest running blog carnivals around. And it works not because of me but because there's a group effort involved. The hosts and contributors all help. While I'd love to do well in some other categories, this is the one that matters the most to me.
h/t Thoughts by Seawitch, who also, generously advocated me for Best Large Blog. And while you're at it consider voting for her at best Photo blog.
But more than anything, as you go around the JIB Awards website and you see something interesting check it out, maybe you'll learn of a new blog or new post that will open your eyes.
The best post section of voting has been delayed a week due to sheer volume.
Over the next week I'll probably make some specific recommendations, but it will be hard because there are lots of good efforts competing against each other.
Clearly a lot of work has gone into this effort and all those involved deserve a round of applause.
JIB AwardsApril 22, 2007
Haveil Havalim #113
Welcome to the April 22, 2007 edition of haveil havalim.
Welcome to the 113rd edition of Haveil Havalim. Due to time constraints I plan to include no more than two posts from each blogger. (I might forget, but that's the plan.)
Antisemitism
Drew Kaplan's Blog wonders whether rapper 50 cents was being antisemitic in 50 Cent & Jewish Lawyers. I also wondered about this regarding Michael Ray Richardson.
Town Crier is shocked by Gov. Tommy Thompson's comments about Jews in He Said What?
The Volokh Conspiracy discusses Jewish Tradition: regarding Gov Thompson's awkward comments .
SimplyJews.Agent Azure, presents Islamic Hate Film Gets PG Rating.
History News Network presents OXFORD UNION TO DEBATE
JEWISH LOBBY'S "UNDUE INFLUENCE".
Yom Hashoah
Letters of Thought presents Thoughts on the March of the Living.
ConservaJew presents her thoughts on Yom HaShoah.
The Muqata shows the pictures that testify to a massacre at Accusing Shoes, Empty Shoes.
Likelihood of Success disputes the wisdom of criminalizing Holocaust denial in Thought crimes of the depraved? criminalizing Holocaust denial.
Bookworm Room presents Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Esser Agaroth presents On Yom HaSho'ah...You're Not Gonna Like it.....
Freedom tells a terrible but inspiring story in The Proper Way to Die
Friar Yid presents Who is a "Real" Survivor?.
Our Children Are The Guarantors takes an opposing view in Trusting
in HaShem after the Holocaust .
Israel Matzav
observed how Israel's leaders observed Yom Hashoah Olmertand Livni meet with Holocaust denier .
Shiloh Musings reports on the El Al's decision to play only Holocaust related movies on Yom Hashoah.
Media criticism
My Right Word posts an Alan Johnston Update
SimplyJews presents a critique he'd rather not have written Tony Greenstein in 3 easy steps.
V's Jewish Blog makes a compelling argument about the uplifting nature of the prize winning picture of Amona Pulitzer Prize Picture - Nili Speaks - I Disagree.
Israel Matzav writes about Britain's National Union of Journalists votes to boycott Israel.
Backspin wonders NUJ Boycott: A Reward For Palestinian Journalists?.
The Spine wonders if the Palestinians are smarter than the British .
Alternatively Adloyada suggests that the British journalists' union accepts Palestinian bribe .
AbbaGav suggests a different (more truthful) statement Not a Boycott. A "Gesture of Support".
Mere Rhetoric observes that the NYT Get Pulitzer For Exploring Life of Imam and Mosque, Forgetting To Mention Anti-Jewish Shooting Rampages Thing . Just a detail.
The Real Hamas
YID With LID writes about Bob Novak's Devious Sense of Timing .
NRO Media Blog presents Palestinian Education Minister Slams Robert Novak. who apparently can't win for trying to find a Palestinian moderate.
In Context provides evidence of the phony Split.
YID With LID presents another moderate in Kill the Jews! Kill The Americans! Pali Parliament Speaker Says .
Activism
The Hall of the Goblin King tells us about MASS RABBINIC ARREST
My Right Word realizes with pride Finally, I Appear in a Conspiracy Theory .
Boker Tov Boulder wonders Which is which? . Is there a difference in the lunacy of Iran's president and that of respected American academics?
Humor
Letters of Thought encounters difficulty carrying a suspicious substance in Help! He Has Yogurt .
Rabbi without a cause writes Of rooms, Brides, Feet and Dominance but only with his wife's permission.
Jewish Blogmeister presents The Shlissel Challah Story..... . And he couldn't have told me about in time for it to help me?
Life in Israel presents funny story with former Israeli minister.
Sports
SportsBiz - The Business of Sports Illuminated writes about "a documentary chronicles the rich history of Jewish basketball players in America and Israel" in The First Basket. Did you know that the NBA was once dominated by Jewish players?
Solomonia writes about Goldberg in Big Yid.
Israel
Not Quite Perfect does her regular creative job with Israeli Charm Bracelet on Flickr - Photo Sharing! and Yom Hazikaron 5767 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!.
Me-Ander contemplates Memorial Day - Yom Hazikaron in Remembering.
And for Yom Ha'atzma'ut she has two displays of photographs of Israeli flags.
Family Travel: See The World With Your Kids offers suggestions for Visiting Israel.
Crossing the Rubicon3 presents Chilling a look at the effects of terror .
Clarity & Resolve notes that a Former Mossad Head: Let's Do the World a Favor. Shall we call it addition by subtraction?
Elder of Ziyon writes that All you need to know about Hezbollah/Syria can be seen at Shebaa Farms . Imagine that. Syria cedes land to Lebanon to justify Hezbollah. What moderation.
Smooth Stone presents From the LOL department: Lebanon to seek war reparations from Israel . And believe it or not I'm sure that this story will get some "legs."
Seraphic Secret recalls Seraphic Secret: Time Capsule: The Author .
Israellycool documents The Inhumanity the Palesitnians impose on their own.
A Mother in Israel objects to a Rabbi's claims about daycare in Rabbi:
These are things that are not learned at home.
Life in Israel considers the mixed blessing advances present in losing
skills by improving technology .
Yehuda observes that if you give people incentives to be corrupt, they will be in Today's Lesson is How to Avoid Corruption .
J O S H U A PU N D I T wonders why some terrorists are supported by the United States in 4 Israelis wounded in driveby shooting by Condi's favorite terrorists.
Israel Matzav notes an admission by a politician that confirms that a 19-year old girl falsely arrested and imprisoned for 'failing' to prevent assassination.
Not lost in work West Bank Mama observes how important words may get Lost in translation.
Jewish music
Jewish Blogmeister offers a Six 13 Volume 2: Jewish Acapella Review . For the Omer.
Blog in Dm writes about Voices for Israel releases "Keeping The Faith".
Ari's Blog offers his thoughts on Israel, Eurovision and the Holocaust .
Torah
Reb Chaim HaQoton presents Happy Birthday! a contemplation of the significance of one's birthday in Judaism. Did you see this Ignoble Experiment?
Daf notes presents Daf Yomi - Chagigah 12 - CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE WORLD, CREATION OF DARKNESS AND THE BLESSING ON THE MANNA excellent discussions on the Daf whether or not you're doing Daf.
Laz - A - Fare has Parsha thoughts at Parshas Tazria - Metzora 5767. His divrei Torah are always worth checking out. Almost every Friday.
ZCHUS AVOS YOGEN ALEINU presents Exclusive - Segula & Minhagim Excerpt From Forthcoming Book, 9 Spiritual Months: A Treasury of Jewish Insights for Pregnancy, Birth, & Beyond.
Judaism
Our Children Are The Guarantors writes his thoughts on Trusting in HaShem after the Holocaust .
Life in Israel disagrees and writes that an objection to a practice is not a Haredi attempt at control.
A Simple Jew presents Question & Answer With Rabbi Tal Zwecker - Avodah For The Common Man .
Life of Rubin Blog is caught by his wife in Weird Moments in Jewish Speech. .
Radical Torah presents Health and connection with God by Velveteen Rabbi.
Personal
Random thoughts writes I Can't Remember Grandpa as his life becomes more distant .
Sarah's View presents Makeover.
Ari's Blog writes Reconnecting With My Hassidic Heritage II (Or, the Bar Mitzvah Anti-Climax).
Politics
Oleh Musings presents Some Rebuttals " ... to some frequently used arguments on pro-palestinian terrorist blogs. Of course, it was rejected when submitted there as a comment..."
Smooth Stone presents Israel cannot be blamed for pan-Arab roots of al-Haram (shame). Yes "shame" seems to excuse just about everything, in certain contexts.
Verbiage writes Community Meeting addressed Muggings in Baltimore.
Little Green Footballs reports that newly elected Rep Keith Ellison suggest ...to Jews: Reach Out to CAIR . Maybe CAIR could reach out to Jews by unconditionally condemning terror against Israel.
Virginia Tech
Jewish Current Issues gives the details of the Farewell to Liviu Librescu .
Cross-Currents links to further details at Chesed Shel Emes and the VT Massacre.
BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS writes about IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE VIRGINIA TECH TRAGEDY .
The Ignoble Experiment, a.k.a. Live Dangerously! writes of a psychological persepctive of the VTech massacre in No Motive.
Greetings from the French Hill presents VTech Shooter Fit Profile of Assassin "Reader Discretion is advised."
Divided We StandUnited We Fall presents Quantifying Horror. comparing violence elsewhere to the VTech massacre for context.
Next week's host is Soccer Dad. Future hosts feel free to e-mail me at dhgerstman @ hotmail.com.
PS I may play with the formatting a bit to pretty this up.
PPS Please check out what else is going on the Jewish Blogosphere. Please note that J-Pix is scheduled to be hosted at the Baleboosteh, not Mr Bagel as I wrote.
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of haveil havalim using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Technorati tags: haveil havalim, blog carnival.
Most recent editions of Haveil Havalim at Blog Carnival
#22 Mystical Paths
#21 Rabbinical Authority Consortium of HACKers
#20 Shiloh Musings
#19 Devarim
#18 Soccer Dad
#17 Mystical Paths
#16 Critical Mastiff
#15 Soccer Dad
#14 Multiple Mentality
#13 IsraPundit
#12 DovBear
#11 Kesher Talk
#10 Biur Chametz
#9 Soccer Dad
#8 It's Almost Supernatural
#7 Bloghead
#6 Willow Tree.
#5 Crossing the Rubicon2
#4 Dov Bear
#3 Biur Chametz
Haveil Havalim #113 is delayed
I plan to have it up later, but probably not until this evening. I have other responsibilities that can't wait. If I can get it up sooner, I will. Also I am pressed for time so please don't expect more than 2 entries per blogger. (And please do me a favor in the future and use the BlogCarnival submission form exclusively. It may not be formatted perfectly, but it makes things a lot easier than e-mail.)
One other thing PLEASE remember that this is a Jewish and Israel blogging carnival. Your submission should have something to do with Judaism or Israel. I'll give more leeway on personal posts. But if it's political but not specifically about something Jewish or Israel, I will not necessarily include it.
In the meantime why not check out the 17th edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival appropriately enough at the Baleboosteh. Announcment at Carnival Creator Me-Ander.
And/Or consider entering the upcoming J-Pix to be hosted this coming Thursday at Mr. Bagel.
And keep a look out tonight for the voting to start at the JIB Awards.
April 20, 2007
O's what a relief it is
Back in February Geoff Young wrote in the Hardball Times
This was simply a case of a guy who had been good before finding health and returning to previous levels—sort of like Soriano, but with more of a record of success. Ironically, while his team gave Soriano away this past winter, Bradford cashed in with a long-term deal from the Orioles, who spent most of the off-season pursuing expensive bullpen options. If you want a primer on how not to build a bullpen, just look at Baltimore's moves over the past several months.
However yesterday Baseball Musings noticed that the spending might have been high but so far, it's been working out very well.
The relievers struck out four and walked one, giving them 51 K and 18 walks in 53 1/3 innings. I'll take that from any bullpen.
A few days ago, Baltimore Sun Columnist John Eisenberg noticed the same thing.
While it's still too soon to make a definitive judgment, things are looking up for the Orioles' bullpen. It has a 3.35 ERA after last night's game in St. Petersburg, Fla., as opposed to last season's 5.25 figure. Throw out the April 7 fiasco in New York and this year's number is really low.
Closer Chris Ray is happy
"It's unbelievable," said Ray, who has allowed one base runner in six appearances since surrendering the walk-off grand slam to New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez on April 7. "My job is a heck of a lot easier when you have all those guys before me going in there, setting the tempo, and keeping the momentum on our side and keeping the score the same when it gets to me. I'm throwing just one inning instead of an inning plus. The guys behind me are getting guys out left and right."
Going back to the original article it's pretty clear that the Orioles overpaid for their relief help, however as John Eisenberg observed
As I said, it's still early and there are going to be hiccups, but protecting a larger percentage of their leads could propel the Orioles close to .500. The fact that they had to overpay doesn't matter. After years of botching patches, the sight of a solid bullpen is priceless.
Overspending can be forgiven if you're winning. Last year the Orioles had 20 blown saves. They had a clear problem and so they addressed it.
I'm no fan of the team's management, but so far the relief upgrade seems to be working. The biggest caveat is that they're throwing a lot of innings right now. If the starters don't start going longer the relievers could find themselves wearing out too soon. At the best I don't expect the Orioles to do better than .500. But given the past 9 years, that would be something.
Relief PitchersCrossposted on Soccer Dad and OTB Sports.
Wild horses
Wildly living is easy to do
Singing as loudly as I wanted to
Elegant mares you know who I am
You know I can't let you go on the lam.
Wild horses get drugs in their hay.
Wild, wild horses get drugs in their hay.
I watched you suffer inner ear pain
Hearing loss for you and me is the same
No first row seats or onstage climb
Could make lose your hearing in less time.
Wild horses get drugs in their hay.
Wild, wild horses get drugs in their hay.
Rolling Stones
Serbia
Wild HorsesSilence for the golden tongued
Charles Krauthammer argues for more psychosis control, rather than gun control in A moment of silence. (or here.)
If we are going to look for a political issue here, the more relevant is not gun control but psychosis control. We decided a half a century ago that our more eccentric and, indeed, crazy fellow citizens would not be easily locked up in asylums. It was a very humane decision, but with the inevitable consequence that some who really need protection and quarantine are allowed to roam the streets freely.
(Dr. Helen, here, also complains about de-institutionalization. In the past Krauthammer, who was a psychiatrist in a previous life, has written that the increase in homelessness is a function of sending dysfunctional patients out into the world, rather than a function of poverty.)
Whatever I expressed yesterday about knowing when someone isn't just antisocial, but a threat, though, didn't appear to apply in this case.
It turns out that Cho's psychiatric impairment had been evident to many. He had been cited for stalking two women on campus. Virginia Tech police tried unsuccessfully to have him involuntarily committed. A teacher referred him to counseling, and even his fellow students saw signs of dangerous disturbance. " Cho's plays. . . had really twisted, macabre violence," writes former classmate Ian McFarlane. "Before Cho got to class that day [of reading plays], we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. I was even thinking of scenarios of what I would do in case he did come in with a gun."
But then Krauthammer goes in for the rhetorical kill against Sen. Obama.
It must be heard to be believed. After deploring and expressing grief about the shootings, he continues (my transcription): "I hope that it causes us to reflect a little bit more broadly on the degree to which we do accept violence in various forms. ... There's also another kind of violence ... it's not necessarily physical violence.''
Sen Obama may be well spoken. (i.e. he has a very nice speaking voice and he knows how to speak well; not all politicians are so golden tongued.) However well he says it, I haven't heard a lot of content coming from him. The moment of silence Krauthammer seeks is not to honor the dead, but to get politicians to stop talking.
The Washington Post editorial argues, not surprisingly, for more gun control.
IT NOW APPEARS that Cho Seung Hui was able to buy the handguns he used in his murderous rampage Monday because Virginia failed to comply with its own procedures. The state has a policy of submitting mental health information to the federal background checks system, which should have flagged Mr. Cho as ineligible to purchase firearms based on a state magistrate's finding in December 2005 that he posed a threat to himself. But for reasons that remain obscure, the state apparently exempted records such as the magistrate's determination. That was a tragic mistake.
I thought that that the reason wasn't obscure but due to confidentiality rules governing students.
Blogdigger tags: Virginia Tech Massacre, Psychosis Control, Sen. Barack Obama.
Council speak 04/20/2007
The council has spoken and it has determined that Big Lizards and the Belmont Club had the best entries this week.
Big Lizards weighed in with Fighting back was not an option, part 2 about the defenselessness of the students of Virginia Tech (and the rest of society) were (and is). Runner up was the other recent addition to council ranks, Cheat Seeking Missiles for Media at its worst on display at Virginia Tech in which he verbalizes what I was thinking as I heard the news conference with the president and head of security at Virginia Tech. The reporters weren't asking questions as much as they were posturing and prosecuting all at once. Cheat Seeking Missiles points out their many fallacies.
The winning non-council post was the Belmont Club's Laughter in the Dark as he attempts to get into the heads of the insurgency in Iraq. The first runner up was Richard Miniter's Present at the bombing, who was in the Green Zone when it was attacked. The Q and O blog was also tied at runner up for Self Congratulations on Tax Day. And the third runner up was Pillage Idiot's photo comic Bill Clinton grabs some contributions for Hillary.
Blogdigger tags: Watcher's Council.
If ... you must 04/20/2007
It's been awhile since I've had the chance to do this. So some of these links are a bit old.
If you haven't read Catch 22 at Colossus of Rhodey; you must.
If you haven't read Bookworm Room's Jews in the Know; you must.
It's nice to read things like this. But circumcision is practiced because it's a command not because it's healthy.
If you haven't read Mr. Bagel's Just a coincidence ... ; you must.
It's an excellent point. Dore Gold also made it here. The last time the Saudi initiative was discussed during the 2002 Arab summit in Beirut, Hamas attacked the Park Hotel in Netanya during the first night of Passover, killing 29 Israelis and wounding over 150. At that time, Saudi Arabia did not signal to Israel that it was serious about peace by cutting back its financial support of Hamas; in fact, it grew to over 50 percent of Hamas' total income in 2003.
If you haven't read Mere Rhetoric's http://www.mererhetoric.com/archives/11273478.html; you must.
If you haven't read Rest in Peace Hebrew Hercules at Judeosphere; you must.
If you haven't read Smooth Stone's Israeli crew saves Palestinian baby; you must.
That damned Israeli apartheid ethos strikes again.
If you haven't read PsychoToddler's the Reign of terror is over; you must.
For comparison check out Pillage Idiot's (uninteresting :-) Kaddish by the Numbers.
If you haven't read Ocean Guy's A deadline for withdrawal I could live with; you must.
The question is whether the fear of an American pullout will spur the Iraqi government to actions or whether they're capable of getting their acts together without American help. I lean toward the latter.
If you haven't read Gateway Pundit's Muslim Brotherhood excited about meeting Majority leader Hoyer ; you must.
On Hoyer's denial of the meeting, Daled Amos commented Guess Hoyer doesn't want to steal the limelight from Pelosi.
. Transterrestial Musings (via Instapundit) runs a satirical news piece. Alas given that Democratic leadership will speak with tyrants but not appear on Fox, the satire is too close to the truth! Dr. Sanity codifies it as the Moral Principles of the Democrats.
If you haven't read Boker Tov Boulder's From the Reform Party of Syria; you must.
The reform party didn't consider it all that progressive to meet with the dictator.
If you haven't read The Muqata's Peace now Jews Later; you must.
If you haven't read Witness the birth of an Arab lie at Elder of Ziyon; you must.
It's just a little snowball now ...
If you haven't read Media Backspin's 2 faces of Hamas; you must.
If you haven't read NJ Governor in critical condition at Yourish; you must.If you haven't read ; you must.
I'd like to make "If you must" into a regular feature. If, during the week, you have a post you'd like to nominate, please e-mail it to me with "If you must" in the subject line.
Blogdigger tags: If you must, Speaker Pelosi, Syria, Seat Belts, Jewish Hercules, Kaddish, Hamas.
I'll be your best friend if ...
In the category of protesting too much there's Steve Sheffey's guest commentary REPUBLICAN PREDICTIONS HAVE PROVEN WRONG at the NJDC blog. Sheffey concludes
Many Republicans agree with the above Democratic stands on Israel. It would be easy to do an attack piece on Republicans, selectively listing the few Republicans in Congress who do not support Israel, similar to the piece on Democrats that appeared last fall. But that would be just as misleading. Most Congressional Republicans support Israel. The point is that in the last election, some of our Republican friends misrepresented the views of the vast majority of Democrats in Congress. Our Republican friends are entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. There are major differences between the parties, but Israel is not one of them. People who truly care about a strong U.S.-Israel relationship should not try to turn bi-partisan support for Israel into a partisan issue. The Democratic Congress is already proving to be every bit, if not more, pro-Israel than its Republican predecessor. Someone who is pro-Israel and yearns for the days when Dennis Hastert ran the show absolutely should vote Republican. But don’t let anyone question the pro-Israel commitment of those of us who vote Democratic. We are in good company.
The stands to which he refers are sometimes substantive, sometimes not. But what he does so well is to be selective. Arguably the most damaging action regarding Israel taken by anyone in American politics recently was the visit of a group of Representatives to visit President Assad of Syria. The visit was led by Speaker Pelosi and included a number of pro-Israel Representatives. But the visit was ill conceived. I don't care that Pelosi scolded Assad. If Assad did not think the scolding was worth it, he wouldn't have allowed the visit. Assad needed a foil to show that he is more reasonable than President Bush and the visiting representatives (including some Republicans) provided him with the prop he desired.
(Given that the point of the trip to Syria was to show a contrast between the unreasonable President and reasonable Congresspeople, it's astounding that Sheffey lists as one of the Democratic pro-Israel actions
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), also Jewish, removed from legislation under consideration by the House a provision that would have required President Bush to get explicit permission from Congress before taking military action against Iran. He was supported by Gary Ackerman, and Nancy Pelosi agreed to the change.
So after coming to power campaigning against President Bush's judgment, Engel, Ackerman and Pelosi are willing to give him a free ride in attacking Iran if necessary? I agree that it is a pro-Israel position, but it shows a lack of seriousness in the Democratic position. Either they trust the President in matters of war or they don't. Removing this provision demonstrates either cynicism or poor judgment, not support of Israel.)
But more bothersome than the inconsistencies of this article, is an article in the Forward "Dems warn Olmert about playing politics" Sheffey, like the NJDC blog did earlier, ignored PM Olmert's criticsim of Speaker Pelosi's diplomacy with Syria. The Forward, which is quite reliably Democratic in outlook, did not. The Forward reports that a number of Democratic politicians have warned Olmert not to take sides in American politics.
Israeli officials and Democratic lawmakers are working to mend fences after the fallout between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi following Pelosi’s visit to Damascus. But Democrats are still angry about what they see as Olmert’s desperate attempts to align himself with President Bush even if it means wading into American political controversies.The latest flap erupted two weeks ago, after Olmert’s office released a statement — based on partial reports from a press conference that Pelosi had held in Damascus — suggesting she had done a poor job of delivering an Israeli message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Israeli criticism of the speaker came as Bush administration officials were blasting the Democratic leader for visiting Syria.
Maybe it's true as the article subsequently reports that Olmert is now backtracking in his criticism. But even at that
“It’s all politics,” said Rep. Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Middle East. When asked what led Olmert to criticize Pelosi’s trip to Damascus, Ackerman said that the Israeli premier had “kissed President Bush’s ass.”“All the criticism of Pelosi is a stupid, idiotic political bube moyse that the Republicans made up here in Washington,” Ackerman said, stressing that the entire debate had nothing to do with Israel but rather with American partisan politics.
So the idea that the head of a sovereign government could disagree with the ambassador wannabes on the basis of his country's national interests is not a possibility they'd entertain.
The article ends with some lovely sentiments
In Democratic circles, Olmert’s low approval ratings — down to 3%, according to one poll — have become a source of comic relief and in some cases have taken the edge off the anger at the Israeli leaders. “Olmert and Bush put together have less than 50% support,” Ackerman said.Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress and is also a member of Pelosi’s delegation to the Middle East, was a bit more colorful in making the same point during his appearance at this week’s convention of Reform activists. “There are,” Ellison said, “more people who believe that Elvis is alive than those who support Olmert.”
OK, I don't care much what else Ackerman says or does. I also don't care how little I care for PM Olmert. That statement politically undermines an ally. So it would appear that despite Sheffey's complaints, the Democrats support Israel, as long as Israel and its leaders treat them with proper deference.
Israel
DemocratsBlogdigger tags: Democrats, Israel, Politics.
April 19, 2007
When is there a danger?
Years ago there was a fellow at work who could be described like this.
The violence-prone individual is more likely to have enduring personality pathology, such as a paranoid, schizoid, narcissistic, or antisocial personality, and a long history of difficult interpersonal relationships. He may ruminate about perceived slights or injustices for months or even years. Because he is often a loner, he has no circle of friends to correct his misinterpretations of other people’s intentions and behaviors. Because he looks at the world from a very egocentric point of view, he is unable to correctly perceive the effect of his behavior on other people. The emotion he feels is not everyday anger but profound and intense hatred of those who have allegedly demeaned or wronged him. His thinking is so faulty that he can justify assaultive behavior on the basis that he is the innocent victim (Beck, 1999).
The problem is that the fellow in question never exploded. I'm assuming that this general description fits a lot of anti-social people. Yet not every one of them explodes in a fit of murderous rage.
When I had concerns for my safety and the safety of others at work I called a counseling hotline. What I was told is that no one can be forced into treatment unless he/she makes a specific threat of violence. (Saying, as the co-worker did, that he'd "... knock xxxx's block off" didn't qualify.)
Still at the time it was a little disconcerting that there was nowhere to turn for relief from this disturbing individual. It sounds somewhat like Prof Barbara Oakley's complaint about an unusual student.
When I complained about Rick to the dean of students, I was told there was nothing to be done — after all, “students have rights, too.” Only after appealing to that dean’s boss and calling a raft of fellow professors who had also come to fear Rick’s strange behavior was I able to convince the administration to take grudging action; they restricted his ability to loiter in certain areas and began nudging him toward the classes he needed to graduate.In a strange way, I could see the administration’s point. Rick looked fairly ordinary, at least when away from his sleeping bag and pet cockroaches. It must have seemed far more likely that Rick could sue for being thrown out of school, than that I — or anyone else — could ever be hurt. The easiest path, from their perspective, was to simply get me to shut up.
Again "Rick's" behavior was disturbing but was it necessarily portentious of violence?
Now Dr. Helen writes in the case of Cho, he was evaluated and found to be mentally ill. Yet he was released.
I guess what bothers me is that while those demonstrating various antisocial behaviors are more likely than the general population to become mass killers, it doesn't necessarily follow that those (antisocial) people are likely to become mass murderers. What then is the tip-off? Is it, like I was told, a specific threat? Or is there something more subtle? Is it possible to know before it's too late?
Antisocial BehaviorBlogdigger tags: Virginia Tech Massacre, Antisocial Behavior.
Submitted 04/19/2007
This week's Watcher's Council nominations are in:
They really should get out more - The Glittering Eye
However, what this editorial reflects more than anything else is that the editorial writer has no idea of what the Chinese produce, what we buy from the Chinese, or what goes into a modern aircraft.
Desegregation Consternation - Colossus of Rhodey
But in that regard, I'd be most curious as to what the "gap" was when segregation was legally sanctioned. It's almost a double-edged sword for the plaintiffs, regardless of what these statistics mights show. If the gap was greater in the days of official segregation, then the subsequent shrinking of the gap shows that the broken segregation barriers have worked -- and are working. Still, the argument for special programs tailored specifically for black children might still be persuasive (aside from their specific racial components, that is, which unfortunately seem to be part of the plaintiffs' contention). On the other hand, if the gap was less in the days of the legal segregation, then the legal argument becomes much more problematic: How do you explain how [black] children are doing worse academically with no racial barriers to impede their academic progress?
The Beast Among Us - Eternity Road
False accusations can mobilize the accused to bring them true, and without a shred of regret. "Might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb," as the old saying goes; if you're going to be called a racist, a homophobe, or an imperialist kuffar regardless of what you say or do, you might as well have whatever pleasure is available from being one. A man's conscience can cease to restrain him, if he's prodded too roughly or too long.
Recognizing that there is another side to the coin - The Bookworm Room
And then, one day, it clicked. Sadly, I can’t remember what I read, but I do know it was a book about education. Whatever it was, reading it, I realized why the Evangelicals were so upset. I saw that, if you came from a home where the package deal was that marriage is sanctified, that abortion is wrong, that homosexual conduct is wrong, that America is a good place, that Communism is a bad thing, and that if your children were placed in a school that had as a package-deal a curriculum that didn’t just present the existence of opposing views, but that actively denigrated your views and preached a comprehensive and antithetical world view, then that school was teaching an opposing belief system.
Happy Netted Nose - Done with Mirrors
The "mainstream" didn't drive Imus out of his job. The market didn't drain his voice. He was done in by a handful of corporate executives, spurred by two self-appointed censors (in the old, Roman sense of the word). If we're to have speech codes, can we at least settle on them democratically? If we are to be afflicted with censors, can they at least not appoint themselves?
Media At Its Worst On Display At Virginia Tech - Cheat Seeking Missiles
Most of these questions are based on false assumptions. How can you lock down a school? Is it even possible? How can you reach students with warnings if they all have iPod earphones in their ears? What would you email students to do if an isolated shooting occurs in an area that is now secured? How can anything other than an armed, always present police force instantly control a sprawling campus with multiple buildings? And how would the press and the student body (not to mention taxpayers and the ACLU) respond if such a force were employed?
Pornstar Meets Ms. Horndog the Teacher - Education Wonks
Heh. We'd be willing to bet that "merit-based promotion," isn't the method used to select and retain administrators in the Sandridge Elementary School District.
Hokie Horror - Rhymes with Right
As this murderer calmly executed his victims, not one had the means to actually engage in self-defense. As he massacred these innocents, not one of them could stop the evil-doer. All they could do was wait for help to arrive -- and die waiting.
When sorry is Really Sorry - JoshuaPundit
It used to be that, generally speaking, people took pride in taking personal responsibility for their actions, and when they felt they had made errors in judgement that called for an apology, they did what was necessary to fix it, to clean up the mess, to make things right.
Fighting Back was not an Option - Big Lizards
Empathy is a vital and decent response; a man who feels no empathy for a parent who lost a child is probably a psychopath. But empathic pain is simply not in the same league as the actual pain of such a terrible loss to those who suffer it themselves. Even those who know what such pain is like from personal experience don't feel it as intensely when empathizing with a stranger as when it happened to them.
Confession I hate Democracy - Right Wing Nuthouse
And herein lies a major difference between left and right regarding the nature of government; the left believes government is a living entity to be nurtured, pampered, even praised. The right believes, as the Founders did, that government is a utility that needs to be managed. (Would that it could be run as well as the phone company.)
There were so many good quotes this week I didn't feel like adding my own two cents.
My own submission was Hero and Villain about Profs Lebrescu and Roy. Prof Lebrescu was the hero and Prof Roy identified the villain.
If you like what you see and would like to participate follow the instructions here.
April 18, 2007
Juggling carnivals 04/19/2007
Incoming Carnivals
I had an entry in this past Sunday's Carnival of the Insanities.
While not, strictly speaking, a carnival (and carnival wouldn't be the best word choice in this case,) Life in Israel has a roundup of Yom Hashoah posts.
And again, though it's not a carnival, have you been reading Daled Amos lately? He's become a one man Jewish blog aggregator. I wish he was writing more of his own analysis, but he still gets in pithy one liners!
Upcoming
The next Carnival of Maryland is scheduled for the coming Sunday, to be hosted by Kevin Dayhoff - the soundtrack division of old silent movies. If you're a Maryland blogger get those submissions in. Carnival of Maryland is created an maintained by Crablaw.
The next J-Pix, Jewish photography carnival, is scheduled for April 26 at the home of its creator, Mr. Bagel.
Though not a carnival, today's the last day to get in your JIB awards nominations. I posted some of my thoughts on the best posts here.
On a last note, if you're submitting to th Haveil Havalim, please use the BlogCarnival submission form, it makes things a whole lot easier for the host/ess.
Blogdigger tags: Blog Carnivals, Photography, Insanities, Maryland, Haveil Havalim.
Baltimore's inner harbor
During our recent trip to the Maryland Science Center I took a few pictures of Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
The first two were taken as we approached the Science Center facing northeast and east.
These next two were taken from inside the Science Center facing north, centered on the Constellation.
As we headed out, again taken towards the northeast. On the right is the National Aquarim toward the center and the back is the Hard Rock Cafe (that used the Power Plant and a power plant.)
And since I'm planning to submit this to the Carnival of Maryland being hosted by Kevin Dayhoff, I'm including a picture of Westminster.
Baltimore's Inner HarborBlogdigger tags: Baltimore, Inner Harbor, Westminster.
April 17, 2007
Hero and villain
Usually self-sacrifice is the province of military people. Or law enforcement officers. Sometimes others.
The Baltimore Sun's Doug Donovan writes of a student's narrow escape. (via memeorandum)
Mallalieu said his professor held the door shut while students darted to the windows. Some climbed on desks, ledges and a radiator cover to pull down the screens and kick at the metal-framed glass, Mallalieu said. Three windows easily gave way and swung open on hinges as the gunshots got louder.Closer.
"It sounded like he was going out into the hallway," said Mallalieu, a civil engineering major from Luray, Va.
Once the windows for the sec ond-floor classroom were open, Mallalieu and most of his classmates hung out of them and dropped about 10 feet to bushes and grass below, he said.
Some students ran to a nearby building. Others waited to help students who had been injured in the fall, Mallalieu said.
But then the sound of gunfire filled their classroom, sending all who had escaped toward nearby Patton Hall, he said.
Mallalieu said he never saw Librescu escape. "I don't think my teacher got out."
No, his teacher didn't get out of the room. He, did, however escape the Holocaust.
The e-mails from grateful students arrived soon after Liviu Librescu was shot to death, telling how the Holocaust survivor barricaded the doorway of his Virginia Tech classroom and saved their lives at the cost of his own.Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer who survived the Nazi killings and later escaped from Communist Romania, was one of several foreign victims of Monday's shootings, which coincided with Israel's Holocaust remembrance day.
"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Librescu's son, Joe Librescu, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
I can't comprehend the courage it takes (not to mention thinking and acting quickly) for someone to sacrifice himself for others. Prof Librescu was obviously an accomplished man who achieved much. He escaped two of the greatest evils of our time. But yesterday he didn't escape; allowing others to live.
Prof Librescu was not the only Virginia Tech teacher in the news.
There was an nteresting op-ed in the NY Times "Black day in the Blue Ridge."
But Blacksburg isn’t a place of massacres — Blacksburg is my home in southwest Virginia. It’s boring — that’s why I like it. We are Virginia Tech, the fighting gobblers, the ones who wear the funny turkey hats and plant tasteless turkey sculptures all over town. We are not the stuff of massacres.As I write this I am being flooded with e-mail from friends asking if I’m O.K. How do you answer them? What can you say when so many — so many of our young — were slaughtered?
I hit “Reply” — try to type the phrase “I am fine,” but it seems ridiculous to type that. I substitute “safe” for “fine” — another lie, for none of us is safe as long as there are angry young men who yearn to blast a hole in the world.
Interesting less for the content, but because the author, Lucinda Roy identified him as such.
Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said she did not personally know the gunman. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department's director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as "troubled.""There was some concern about him," Rude said. "Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be. But we're all alert to not ignore things like this."
She said Cho was referred to the counseling service, but she said she did not know when, or what the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his grades, citing privacy laws.
It isn't clear if Cho got treatment on account of the referral, but even if he did, Neo-Neocon writes that the decision to alert authorities would have been very difficult. (via Dr. Helen. Dr. Helen writes some other observations about Cho, though it doesn't appear that there was a crime of passion involved at this point.)
Blogdigger tags: Virginia Tech Massacre, Seung-Hui Cho, Liviu Librescu, Lucinda Roy, .
A father's pride
If any of you are in the area of Rockville on Lag B'Omer. My son is a member of the Kol Hanearim boys choir that is scheduled to perform 3 songs.
Blogdigger tags: Yeshiva of Greater Washington, Eli Gerstner, Chevra, Lag B'Omer
April 15, 2007
Haveil Havalim #112 is UP!
Well he was up all night, but this time Yid With Lid did Haveil Havalim #112 unlike last time.
Submit your blog article to the next edition of haveil havalim
using our carnival submission form. (This makes things a lot easier for the host than e-mailing links.)
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Technorati tags: haveil havalim, blog carnival.
I'd like to thank the wonderful folks at BlogCarnival for this wonderful Blog Carnival Widget that gives information on upcoming hosts and past editions.
Thanks for participating, reading and keeping Haveil Havalim going!
April 22 (or 23) - #113 here at Soccer Dad.
However is someone decides that he/she wants to host in the future let me know at dhgerstman at hotmail dot com or use the BlogCarnival Contact form.
Remember, that while the hosts and hostesses of Haveil Havalim do a wonderful job of editing and searching for interesting posts, they can't see everything. If you want a better chance of being included in Haveil Havalim please submit one or two posts for inclusion.
Listed at the Truth Laid Bear Ubercarnival.
Technorati Tags: Blog carnivals, haveil havalim, Israel, Judaism.
Speculation not science
What a time for Postwatch to be on hiatus!
Last week the Washington Post ran an editorial "Science not speculation" arguing for more federal embryonic stem cell funding.
ON WEDNESDAY the Senate debated and overwhelmingly passed a measure to allow federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Virtually identical to legislation that the Republican-controlled 109th Congress passed last year only to meet a presidential veto, the bill would permit federal funding for research on stem cells harvested from embryos left over at fertility clinics -- embryos that would otherwise be discarded.The measure will almost certainly not become law, even though there is broad national support for the proposal. It failed to get the two-thirds majority in either chamber of Congress that it would need to overcome President Bush's expected veto. That alone was disappointing. But also frustrating was much of the debate in the Senate, which was colored by presumptuous readings of early scientific data and policymaking by anecdote.
While I don't necessarily have a religious objection to using embryos that would otherwise be discarded for developing stem cell therapies, there's something incredibly tedentious about this editorial.
For one thing there has yet to be a single successful therapy developed from embryonic stem cells. So any promised breakthrough is pure speculation.
The Post argues that there is broad national support for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. But what happens when a therapy is developed from non-embryonic stem cells as what was reported last week? How did the Post report it? From what I've been able to find it didn't report the breakthrough on its front page or anywhere else in its print edition. I found an article online in the Post. So if the Post won't give coverage to non-embryonic stem cell successes, how are people supposed to know about them. If they're told that this funding is needed to make this important progress but aren't given the whole story of course they'll support it.
But if the progress is being made even without this funding would there still be widespread support for the federal funding of embryonic research? The failure of the media to promote the actual successes of non-embryonic stem cell research means that the American public isn't properly informed on the subject.
With proven results, non-embryonic stem cell research (that's adult, umbilical cord and autologous) is the province of science; with all its potential, embryonic stem cell research remains the province of speculation.
Stem CellsBlogdigger tags: Stem Cell Therapy, Politicized Science.
April 13, 2007
The end of dissent the beginning of treason?
Israeli Matzav had an item yesterday that Israeli (Arab) Knesset member Azmi Bishara may soon be charged with espianoge.
There is a gag order on the story here in Israel, but I now have it from three sources (which I will disclose in this post) that Bishara has been spying on behalf of Syria and Hezbullah, and that Israeli intelligence has caught on to him. That is why he apparently left the country suddenly at the end of last week, and that is why he has avoided returning (although he apparently sent back his family).
Most news stories don't seem to be going that far. However it is clear that something's going on. This week a bill was introduced to bar from Knesset anyone who visits an enemy country. Orlev apparently knew a bit more than the rest about what was going with Bishara, who now appears to be quitting the Knesset.
There are those who claim that Israel is "hounding" Bishara (including a delicate blogger who consideres insults the equivalent of threats). But when someone, a member of a legislature meets with and declares support for a country's enemies, repeatedly, it's hard to muster much sympathy for him.
In 2003 Israel's election commission barred Bishara and Ahmed Tibi from running for Knesset, but Israel's High Court of Justice reversed the ruling and reinstated them. Here's a synopsis from the NY Times. ("Israel's High Court Reinstates Candidacy of 2 Israeli Arabs," by Dexter Filkins; January 10, 2003)
The 11 Israeli justices reinstated the candidacy of Azmi Bishara and Ahmad Tibi, two Arab members of the Israeli Parliament who had been struck from the ballot by the country's election commission. The commission had removed the two men from the ballot on grounds that they had made statements that demonstrated a fundamental opposition to the character and existence of the Jewish state.In his defense, Mr. Bishara denied that he had expressed support for Hezbollah, saying he had merely voiced a general sympathy for people who resisted the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza, and that he had analyzed how Hezbollah had successfully resisted the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Mr. Bishara said he supported the right of Israel to exist but believed that Arabs should have the same rights and privileges as Jews, which he claimed they do not.
Mr. Tibi, a former adviser to Yasir Arafat, was alleged to have advocated armed struggle against Israel and, in particular, the use of suicide bombers against Israeli civilians. Mr. Tibi denied the claim, and produced evidence showing that he had made statements supporting Israel's right to exist.
Writing this week in YNet Azmi Bishara's Teachers Guy Bechor argues that once upon a time Israel's highest court took a tougher line with those who agitated against the state.
During 1950-1965, a pan-Arab national movement calling itself al-Ard operated within the Israeli Arab community. It advocated a novel idea: To fight the Jewish State by legitimate democratic means in general and via the Supreme Court in particular. The group sought to unite as a political body, and later to run for the Knesset as a party while its manifesto negated Israel's right to exist as a Jewish State.The movement's primary leaders were Christian Arabs - this scenario resembles the current situation: Habib Qahwaji and Sabri Jiryis. They were joined by Salih Baransi, Ali Rafah, Mohammad Abdul Hamid Mi'ari and Mansur Kardosh.
Three giants sat on the panel litigating the petition filed by al-Ard following the decision to ban the movement from the Knesset: President Shimon Agranat, Yoel Sussman and Haim Cohn: The Supreme Court handed down a historic ruling, premised on the words one of its greatest judges, Justice Alfred Witkon, who said: "No free regime will assist or recognize a movement that is seeking to undermine the very same regime."
...
That's how "defensive democracy" was born in Israel. The al-Ard list was banned from running for the Knesset and became an illegal association. During the 1960s several of its members signed agreements with the Shin Bet to leave the country and never to return.
The ruling about the undermining of a free regime makes sense, but the Israeli judicial system now, is far removed from that view.
Also in Ynet, Uri Elitzur writes in Thank you Bishara
For this we should express a tiny bit of gratitude to Azmi Bishara and his entanglements. There is a problem: An Israeli Arab today would not normally refer to Israel as "my country," and he would be right. He is Arab, and Israel is the Jewish State. He is a citizen of a country that is not his own. The idea of "a state of all its citizens" does not work, and it would not work even if we change the words of our national anthem and annul the Law of Return.We cannot sweep this under the rug. An Arab Israeli is first and foremost an Arab, and a Jewish Israeli is first and foremost a Jew, and a thousand post-modern sociologists will not be able to erase the connection between a people and a state, even if the thousand modernists who came before them were unable to define this connection well.
It would appear from these article that Israeli Arabs feel less and less a part of Israel but, at the same time, Israel feels less and less unique. Azmi Bishara has exploited that and built a successful political career. The question is now how far did he go in expressing contempt for the state that empowered him.
If Azmi Bishara had never existed, the right would have had to invent him.
That's not fair at all. The right didn't have to invent him. The right warned of people like him. Israel's unwillingness to defend itself and its uniqueness has encourage Bishara and people like him. Israel may not be perfect but that hardly justifies an MK openly identifying with his country's enemies. Bishara doesn't just represent himself, he represents thousands of voters. As Uri Elitzur wrote that's a problem that won't go away.
(Other comments at Tel Chai Nation.)
Azmi BisharaCrazy like a fox
E. J. Dionne argues in Saying no to Fox News (or here )
The Fox debate saga is amusing, but it's more than that. It marks a transformation on the left driven by the rise of Internet voices and the frustration of liberals at the success of conservatives in using a combination of talk radio, Fox and the Web to propagate anti-liberal, anti-Democratic messages.
So most liberals (or most Democrats) won't participate in a debate of FOX even though it's being co-sponsored by the very liberal Congressional Black Caucus.
Later Dionne writes
I am an avid reader of conservative magazines such as National Review and the Weekly Standard. But if these two publications teamed up to sponsor a Democratic debate, would anyone accuse Edwards, Obama and Clinton of "blacklisting" if the candidates said, "no, thanks"?
I suspect no one would. But say one (or the other) had an in-print symposium and asked for views from all around the spectrum, would Democratic politicians stay away? I suspect not.
It's only FOX News where the Democrats are taking a stand. And at a time when the Democratic Congressional leadership has come back from a trip to Syria, has invited the Muslim Brotherhood to speak at Congress and is considering a trip to Iran all in the name of dialogue, doesn't it look a little petty to stand on principle when it comes to political differences?
UPDATE: More at Buzztracker.
What Dionne sees as a victory will eventually be hurt Democrats, they need all the moderate voters they can get and some Republicans to cross over in 2008 if they hope to win the White House. While it may be a crowd pleasing decision at HuffPo, Daily Kos and Moveon.org it’s preaching to the choir. To most moderates and the few Republicans who might have voted Democrat in 2008 it leaves them asking how any of the Left’s candidates could possibly stand up to terrorism when they don’t have the guts to debate on FOX.
It's a good point that I didn't address. Dionne seems oblivious of the difference between liberal and mainstream.
Romenesko seemingly finds Dionne's characterization of Ailes to be unlikely.
FOX NewsBlogdigger tags: FOX News, Democrats.
Surging out of control
In The Surge:First Fruits (or here) Charles Krauthammer examines the various signs of success of the new policy in Iraq despite
... the debate at home about Iraq becomes increasingly disconnected from the realities of the war on the ground. The Democrats in Congress are so consumed with negotiating among their factions the most clever linguistic device to legislatively ensure the failure of the administration's current military strategy -- while not appearing to do so -- that they speak almost not at all about the first visible results of that strategy.
(See Iraq: a place of ambivalence at Huffington Post as a point of contrast.)
What has happened?
Why? Because, as Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, the Australian counterinsurgency adviser to Gen. David Petraeus, has written, 14 of the 18 tribal leaders in Anbar have turned against al-Qaeda. As a result, thousands of Sunni recruits are turning up at police stations where none could be seen before. For the first time, former insurgent strongholds such as Ramadi have a Sunni police force fighting essentially on our side.
(See Big Lizards' Al Qaeda in Iraq: Committing Institutional Suicide for similar observations.)
Krauthammer goes on to tell how the United States and its allies are winning back Baghdad, though, it is now "... a largely Shiite city." So Krauthammer asks why are the Democrats looking for a way out of Iraq?
... where was the mandate for withdrawal? Almost no Democratic candidates campaigned on that. They campaigned for changing the course the administration was on last November.Which the president has done. He changed the civilian leadership at the Defense Department, replaced the head of Central Command and, most critically, replaced the Iraq commander with Petraeus -- unanimously approved by the Democratic Senate -- to implement a new counterinsurgency strategy.
At the end Krauthammer praises Senator McCain for taking a bold stand for the war and asks
How many other presidential candidates ... do you think are acting in the same spirit?
UPDATE: More at Buzztracker and Memeorandum. Confederate Yankee digests the Krauthammer article and other similarly themed essays. He puts the surge into stark terms:
The "surge" of American troops into Iraq only half-begun as part of Commanding General David Petraeus' counter-insurgency doctrine will be the final major push of American forces into the Iraq theater. With the success of the surge, the stabilization of Iraq means that American forces should be able to start drawing down in victory. If the surge does not work, the American public will be able to elect a President in 2008 that will bring our troops home in defeat. Either way, the surge represents America's endgame, for better or worse.
IraqBlogdigger tags: Iraq, The Surge, Charles Krauthammer.
Council speak 04/13/2007
The Council has Spoken and it has decided that newcomer Cheat Seeking Missile's critique of Speaker Pelosi's diplomacy "Don't Know your Enemy" is the winning council entry and former council member American Future's Orwell the Left and 9/11 is the winning non-council entry.
The Council runner up is JoshuaPundit's Black Flag Flying ... a critique of the recent Arab summit and what it means for the Bush administration's foreign policy and the winning non-council post the Huffington Post's (?!) Iraq: a place of ambivalence, an honest look at Iraq today.
If you're a blogger and you wish to get into the action next week, follow the instructions here to find out how you can get your post considered by the Watcher's Council.
Blogdigger tags: Watcher's Council.
April 12, 2007
Different words, different outcomes
In the past week or so, two men commenting on sporting events got themselves into hot water. Their divergent fates says something about their releative sins as well as about how they've handled them.
In the more celebrated case (enough to knock the paternity of Anna Nicole Smith's baby down a few notches) Don Imus referred to Rutgers women's basketball team in a derogatory fashion. No one defends Imus, though there doesn't seem to be a concensus what a fitting punishment would be. Baseball Crank though criticizes Rutgers for making the championship team into a bunch of wimps.
Somebody gave these young women the message - or at least failed to disabuse them of the notion - that they should take Imus' words seriously, take them to heart. This press conference was a show of the coach and the players wallowing in Imus' words, embracing them, and thus elevating them as if any serious person would think less of them - rather than of Imus - for what Imus said. This story should never have been about the players, because Imus' words were generic (indeed, that's precisely why they were offensive). It's the Culture of Victimology at its most destructive, teaching these young women that they should consider themselves to have been genuinely maligned by an aging boor and to seek out the status and posture of one to whom a deep wrong has been done and who is owed.
To have had the team come out and say, "Nothing a declining two bit hack says can take away our triumph" would have put Imus in his place quite nicely.
On the other hand Billy Packer stood his ground, SarcastiPundit agues, as he should have.
"I said he fagged out on me and it had nothing to do with sexual connotation," Packer told the Philadelphia Inquirer. I got to know Charlie a number of years ago and have great admiration for his program and intellect. He is a big Dukie, and he has been talking a number of years about coming to the Final Four to be a runner.”Packer explained that he was using the word in the wholly legitimate form of an adjective meaning to exhaust or tire out.
I’m certainly no fan of Packer; he’s (for lack of a better term) a college basketball supremacist and generally a blowhard. But I have to give him props here for refusing to be bullied in a situation where he has done nothing wrong. Anybody so ignorant as to be offended by such a thing should spend more time educating himself or herself and less time trying to impose speech codes on others.
And SarcastiPundit remembers a time when an inoffensive word led to a resignation due to mass ignorance.
Crossposted on SoccerDad and OTB Sports.
Blogdigger tags: Don Imus, Billy Packer, Insensitivity, Ignorance.
Submitted 04/11/2007
This week was an excellent week for the Watcher's Council.
In Securing the Food Supply III, pet owner the Glittering Eye uses the recent contamination of the as part of a continuing examination of the safety of the human food supply. He finds the relevant government agencies lacking and is not at all assured that a determined terrorist would find it difficult to wreak havoc by sabotaging the food supply. It's a jungle out there.
In Strangers, Eternity Road wonders what differences - be they political or religious - are bridgeable and which aren't. He also examines which believers may be subject to cooperation with other, possibly incompatible believers.
In Who'd a thunk it, Done with Mirrors goes into another funhouse with distorted mirrors as is his habit and discovers a world where the unexpected occurs. In this case it is Democrats, not Republicans who are corrupted by big business.
Colossus of Rhodey.Hube once again turns to the world of entertainment to entertain us with considersations of Minority Superheroes and the political purposes they serve.
In Heart Rending Stories, Bookworm Room considers what we learn about descriptions of people who are affected by war, and the political purposes those descriptions serve.
In Hypocrite Alert, Education Wonks departs his usual musing about classroom issues and goes hunting Romneys - Mitt Romney that is - over his not likely hunting career. By the way he complains about the outsize influence small states such as New Hamshire and Iowa (used to) have on the election process.
Don't Know Your Enemy finds Cheet Seeking Missiles criticizing Speaker Pelosi for seeking peace, love and understanding in all the wrong places.
JoshuaPundit's Black Flag Flying ... is a pessimistic reading of the recent Arab + 1 summit. He argues that the Bush administration's bet on a Sunni counterweight to Shi'ite mischief failed and now both are aligned against us.
Big Lizards' Al-Qaeda in Iraq Committing Institutional Suicide is an optimistic view that the insurgency in Iraq has overplayed its hand and gotten Sunni and Shi'a alike to align with us against them.
Rhymes with Right offers some Thoughts on Mockingbird and its importance even if, as literature, it's not perfect.
Finally Right Wing Nuthouse skewers some falsely hopeful reporting in AP Hopes for More Iran “Compromises.” and That Unicorns Are Real. In general his point is: why is compromise with someone intent on doing you harm considered a good thing in many "sophisticated" quarters considered a good thing?
Please read these and be enlightened as I am every week. I had hoped that writing out summaries would help me decide ... Hmmm. Meanwhile Cheat Seeking Missiles who listed the Council Entries offered a link fest of the posts he considered for his non-council nomination.
And by the way, I entered Why does Jewish come for Democrat? in a criticism of the NJDC. I probably wouldn't have written it if all the NJDC had done was whitewash Speaker Pelosi, but it faulted the administration for criticizing her. Given that she hurt the positions of the two governments she said she was trying to help, the NJDC's outrage is more partisan than sincere.
Other summaries are at JoshuaPundit and the Glittering Eye.
Blogdigger tags: Watcher's Council, Iran, Iraq, Election, War on Terror.
April 11, 2007
Mugging followup
The Northwest Citizen's Patrol put out a release reporting that the police have arrested two juveniles for the attacks last week. (Thanks to CrabLaw and Aishel for publicizing the attacks.) The police said that there is no known motive (yet) for the attacks but that the investigation has not been completed, meaning that other arrests are possible. No one was seriously hurt in the attacks, yet they were scary as they took place in broad daylight.
Blogdigger tags: Northwest Citizens Patrol, Crime in Baltimore City.
The game of faith
Remember Tamir Goodman? The "Jewish Jordan" to some. The Baltimore Sun's correspondent caught up with him recently in "Jewish Jordan still keeping the faith"
Now 25, with a neatly trimmed red beard bordering his still-boyish face, Goodman plays in the second tier of Israel's professional basketball league. Not the place NBA scouts come looking for the next Michael Jordan.
Now married and living in Israel, Tamir hasn't exactly lived up to the hype that surrounded him. The article is unclear if that his talent is lacking or his health.
As the first Orthodox Jew to play Division I basketball, Goodman became a role model in the Jewish community and a test of American tolerance."He was a Joe Lieberman in sneakers," says Jeffrey Gurock, a professor of American Jewish history at Yeshiva University, where he is also an assistant basketball coach. "He became the fulfillment of the American Orthodox youngster's fantasy that a kid could be so good as a basketball player that the world would stand on its head to accommodate his religious values."
If Tamir is now obscure though, consider what once was.
At the peak of his popularity, Goodman was receiving more than 700 media requests a week and was interviewed by 60 Minutes and Sports Illustrated and featured on ESPN.
He's not kidding. We once saw a TV crew set up on our street, around a corner and maybe a half mile from where Tamir lived.
Still Tamir might have opened the door for other Orthodox Jewish athletes, however rare they might be.
As Goodman's star has faded, other Jewish sports figures have emerged, combating the stereotype of Jews as only scholars, Gurock says. Benjamin Rubin, a 17-year-old Orthodox Jewish hockey player from Montreal, appears to be on the fast track to the NHL. Dmitriy Salita, a Ukrainian-American top welterweight boxer, is also deeply observant and refuses to fight on the Sabbath.
When Tamir ended up backing out of the deal with Maryland, Ken Rosenthal, then a columnist for the Baltimore Sun, wrote an excellent column criticizing Gary Williams's behavior, Williams fails, Goodman aces test of faith.
All Gary Williams had to tell Tamir Goodman was that it couldn't work. But that's not what happened, is it?Not even close.Not even at the bitter end.
Williams had to jump last Jan. 10, had to offer Goodman a basketball scholarship to Maryland, had to lock up this high school junior, right then and there, before other schools could enter the mix.His ignorance of the complexities presented by Goodman's Orthodox Jewish religion is forgivable. His refusal to play it straight with a 17-year-old -- particularly one of such principle -- is not.
Even acknowledging that Tamir may not have been as good as originally advertised, Rosenthal points out that Williams made it clear that he never fully understood Tamir's commitment to observance. In a nutshell Rosenthal summed it up nicely
And you can bet Williams is relieved, too.He now can give Goodman's scholarship to a player who will be available seven days a week instead of six, a player whose religious beliefs won't disrupt Williams' almighty program.
Goodman answers to a different almighty, and that was the heart of the conflict.
A lot of us were rooting for Tamir. Hopefully, he'll get his chance to play for a while without injury. Still, it's nice to see that while he may not spend much time in the air, his feet are firmly on the ground.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad and OTB Sports.
Tamir GoodmanBlogdigger tags: Tamir Goodman, Basketball, Gary Williams.
Blogging the past
Each week, one of Charlie Conner's stories about life with his wife and four kids in Catonsville appears on the Internet.Flush with their tax refund but unable to find a baby sitter, he and his wife forgo a fancy dinner for two and take the kids out for cheeseburgers. With a tinge of regret, his wife gives up "liquid refreshment" for Lent. Spring comes with erratic weather, but flowers manage to blossom in the yard.
"Actually, in a walk around the house Sunday between showers, I could count more than a dozen in various colors and some just coming up," he writes in an entry, adding, "Otherwise, the yard is a soggy mess."The posts provide insights into Conner's tastes in movies and the antics of his young children. But this blog is unlike most.
Conner's entries were written 55 years ago.
A nice story about how a son remembers and honors his father. It expands into a more general story on the existence and purposes of milblogs. Well worth reading.
MilblogsBlogdigger tags: Nostalgia, Milblogs.
Embryonic stem cells to the rescue again
Delegate Sandy Rosenberg 41st Legislative District Maryland.
"This bill is about a thing called hope." That's what I said on the floor of the House of Delegates when we passed the Maryland Stem Cell Research Act of 2006. I am very proud to be the sponsor of this law. Embryonic stem cell research will touch more lives and offer more hope than any other issue I've worked on in my 24 years as a legislator.
Michael J. Fox Records TV Ad for Cardin
Appearing grimly unsteady from his long bout with Parkinson's disease, actor Michael J. Fox is inserting his halting voice into the campaign for the U.S. Senate in a new television commercial about the importance of stem cell research.The ad, endorsing Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin in his race against Republican Michael S. Steele, bears witness to the actor's unmistakable decline and harnesses that physical degeneration into a political message.
"Stem cell research offers hope to millions of Americans with diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," Fox says, seated in a dimly lit hotel room, staring directly into the camera. "But George Bush and Michael Steele would put limits on the most promising stem cell research."
Reporter and Democratic Party regular Matthew Mosk naturally played up the importance of the ad
"I think it's aimed at cutting through all the platitudes that normally accompany campaigns and says, 'Here's an issue that affects people's real lives,' " Herrnson said. "You look at him, and you see the effects."
Diabetics cured by stem-cell treatment
Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again.In a breakthrough trial, 15 young patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were given drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by transfusions of stem cells drawn from their own blood.
Another breakthrough developed through non-embryonic stem cells. Strata-Sphere puts it succinctly
Adult Stem Cell research has not killed a single person, yet something like 90+ treatments are in clinical trials. Only desperate snake oil salesmen still push dead embryos as the miracle cure.
I can't agree with Secular Blasphemy who writes
For whose interested in the implications of this quite astonishing breakthrough on the ongoing embryonic stem cell debate in the USA, it is worth noting that this therapy was based on the patients' own stem cells, so both sides will find arguments here.
The big question I see from this is: Are patients possibly better off using their own stem cells for therapy? I don't see anything that supports funding more embryonic stem research.
Blogdigger tags: Stem Cell Therapy, Diabetes, Politicized Science.
Juggling carnivals 04/11/2007
Incoming Carnivals
I have posts featured in three recent carnivals.
Dr Sanity included my post about possible Electoral college changes in the most recent Carnival of the Insanities. More information here.
My post on the mangy foxes in our neighborhood leads of Carnival of Maryland #4 at Politics Hon. This is shaping up into a very nice carnival. If you're from Maryland and you blog please participate! Credit to Crablaw and Pillage Idiot for creating and maintaining it!
Upcoming
J-Pix should be appearing anyday now at Baleboosteh. With Pesach I totally forgot to submit anything but it should be great! J-Pix was founded by Mr. Bagel. Balebosteh is also scheduled to host the next Kosher Cooking Carnival so make sure to get your entries in. Kosher Cooking Carnival was founded by Me-Ander.
This Sunday, of course, marks the return of Haveil Havalim at the newly and nicely re-designed Yid With Lid who most recently didn't host Haveil Havalim in February. If you blog about Jewish or Israel related issues, please submit an entry. (And please use BlogCarnival as that makes it easier for the hosts!) If anyone would like to host, slots are open Sundays starting Apr 22. Either e-mail me at dhgerstman at hotmail dot com or send me a message.
Though it's not a carnival and despite some acrimony, Life in Israel informs me that the 2006 JIB's (Jewish Blogging Awards) are scheduled to start Friday. Start thinking of your best posts or the posts that you read and get ready to nominate them starting Friday!
Please check these carnivals out and read the many wonderful links in each. And if you're a blogger - Contribute! One way to get like minded bloggers to learn about your blog is through carnivals. Don't be shy!
April 8, 2007
Even optimists can be right
I've got to give the Loss Column its due:
You can’t help but like the way that lines up. Loewen has nice stats against the Yanks in limited duty, going 2-1 with a 2.63 in four starts last year — including 5.2 innings, 2 runs, and 5 strikeouts in the Bronx on August 16th. We don’t know what to expect out of Trachsel yet, but neither do they really know what they’ll get out of Igawa. And Erik Bedard against Darrell Rasner? Two out of three. That’s what I’m saying.
Though I think his gloating over Mussina's poor performance isn't fair. Mussina left the same reason B. J. Ryan did, the O's failed to negotiate seriously with an in-demand talent. Mussina's had a good run in NY that he could have had here. Blame management, not the player.
The Sun's take was ridiculous
Orioles fans are still bitter over the team's last established ace, Mike Mussina, leaving Baltimore to sign with the hated New York Yankees. Apparently, the Orioles' hitters are still bitter, too. They touched Mussina for six earned runs on eight hits and three walks over four innings in the Orioles' 6-4 victory last night. In his past four starts against the Orioles, Mussina has given up 17 earned runs and 27 hits in 17 2/3 innings.
How many Orioles are still with the team since Mussina left? Melvin Mora. Anyone else?
Blogdigger tags: Baltimore Orioles, Mike Mussina.
To the juvenile
To the little kid who thinks that lame nicknames and profanity are signs of seriousness, thanks for sending your readers my way. (Well if you had any readers they'd come, because you've linked to me.) But don't expect any reciprocal links, because from the few times I've visited your blog I've seen absolutely nothing remotely of value or interest. Just unfocused rage. Parents call them tantrums.
Reactions to pelosi
Now Pelosi is back in the US and claiming what she did helped Bush.
Pelosi is too modest--her debacle may very well end up helping the entire Republican Party.
Gateway Pundit thinks that Pelosi violated the Logan Act. I don't doubt it, I doubt that any government would enforce that nowadays. (Remeber when Jesse Jackson interceded with Assad's father to release Lt. Robert Goodman? Jackson probably violated the Logan act then and made a dictator look good, but the Reagan administration didn't take any action.) I'd agree with Wizbang's Kim Priestap on this one.
Israel Matzav links to a hilarious Al-Hayat opinion piece blaming Pelosi's trip on - the Israel Lobby!
Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi's visit to Damascus was motivated by a fraction of the Israeli lobby convinced that stimulating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's interest in striking a deal with Israel would prompt him to break away from Iran and abandon Hezbollah in Lebanon. The visit came on behalf of the Israeli government and its affiliates, who view the Syrian regime as weak and incapable of inflicting harm, yet the best de facto partner of Israel, since it will never stir up the Syrian-Israeli front, or allow for the emergence of the 'Muslim Brotherhood'. Hence, it stands to represent the wished for separation fence, running along the Syrian-Israeli borders. The visit of the head of the top US legislative body came to the dismay of George W. Bush, the head of the executive body, who is tasked by the Constitution with foreign policy decision-making and entrusted with the prerogatives to outstrip jurisdictions.
But I thought that the Bush administration was in the pocket of the Israel Lobby!
Right Wing Nut House understands now why Pelosi was wearing an tinfoil hat headscarf:
Now we know why Pelosi was wearing that head scarf in Damascus yesterday. It wasn’t in deference to Muslim tradition. It was to keep her brains from dribbling out of her ears.
Not nice.
I love the title of Tiny's post.
Pelosi talks, middle east problem solved!
Austin Bay calls it Muddle Diplomacy - with good reason
The Assad regime is a vicious gang. A UN-sponsored prosecutor has assembled credible evidence of Syrian regime complicity in the murder of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.Speaker Pelosi is prancing and chatting up peace with the murderers.
Instapundit, who must have been reading Daled Amos :-) writes:
If Bush and Cheney were really evil, they'd both resign and stick the Democrats with a Pelosi Presidency for the next two years. The Democratic Party would never recover. Alas, neither would the country.
(the last two via transterrestial.)
Nancy PelosiBlogdigger tags: Nancy Pelosi, Syria, Bashar Assad, Logan Act.
Our trip to the maryland science center
Our Chol HaMoed trip was to the Maryland Science Center. We hadn't been there in a while so I was dismayed that there was no onsite parking. Instead we had to park accross Light Street. At least it afforded us a nice view of Camden Yards.
Pay attention to the hourly rate as opposed to the 10 minute rate at this rental place. This is, after all, the Maryland Science Center, not the Maryland Math Center. Why not just rent the Segway 6 times at the 10 minute rate?
The above re-creation based on two sets of dinosaur prints depicts the Maryland state dinosaur - an Astrodon - getting its hind section handed to it by a predator. This isn't much different than what's been experienced by the Astrodon's ornithilogical success (the Baltimore Oriole) when it faces its opponents. (The paleontologists discussing these tracks admitted that the re-creation may have been suggested by the tracks, but a number of other reasonable explanations existed, too.)
Overall the family had a great time. Unfortunately we missed the nitrogen show, which is really neat. I don't think that the inertia show was bad though. And we also skipped Grossology. Having a seven month old gives us plenty of gross stuff to study.
Maryland Science CenterBlogdigger tags: Maryland Science Center.
Why does jewish come before democrat?
There's an organization called the National Jewish Democratic Council, according to its website its goal is to show " ... our commitment to those values shared by the Democratic Party and the vast majority of American Jews - including the separation of church and state, a strong US-Israel relationship, and reproductive freedom ..."
(Emphasis mine.)
However its recent performance concerning Speaker Pelosi's trip makes me wonder why the word "Jewish" precedes the word "Democratic" in its name. Clearly its priority is the latter, not the former.
The blog of the NJDC has an interesting progression over the past week.
First they featured Speaker Pelosi's speech to the Knesset, which was pretty good, though not perfect.
“In 1947, a ship bound for Tel Aviv set sail from Baltimore, my native city, with a crew of young American volunteers. History remembers this ship as the Exodus 47. Its mission was to bring war survivors from the camps of Europe to live in Israel. It was one of the first times that Americans made Israel’s cause our own.“At that time, my father was a Congressman and later Mayor of Baltimore. His support for a Jewish state began when he was one of a small number of Congressmen who lobbied Presidents Roosevelt and Truman first to do more to rescue Jews in Europe and later to support the creation of Israel.
Later it featured a statement from Speaker Pelosi's office on the trip, which included this:
“We requested Assad's help in freeing missing and kidnapped Israeli soldiers including: Gilad Shalit; Ehud Goldwasser; Eldad Regev; Guy Hever; Zachary Baumel; Tzvi Feldman; Yehuda Katz; and Ron Arad. And we requested the return of the remains of Eli Cohen for burial in Israel.“In Damascus, we met with opposition leaders and representatives of families of dissidents. We conveyed our strong interest in the cases of Syrian Democracy Activists Anwar al-Bunni; Aref Dalila; Kamal al-Labwani; Mahmoud Issa; Michael Kilo; and Omar Abdullah.
And then after the criticism started what did the NJDC do? Did it defend Speaker Pelosi? No, it attacked the Bush administration.
How can you tell when White House spokesperson Dana Perino is being disingenuous? Check to see whether or not she's talking.
The entry criticized the administration's strong stand against Speaker Pelosi and relatively mild treatment or non-treatment of Republican Representatives Wolf, Aderholt or Issa. Of course the NJDC may well have also noted that the administration didn't criticize Reps Lantos (who I expected more from), Wexler, Waxman, Slaughter, Ellison or Rahall. The problem is as the highest ranking member of Congress in the group, the trip was reported as Speaker Pelosi's trip. As such she was the most visible member of the group. Surely that counts for something.
The NJDC didn't even respond to a (surprising) Washington Post editorial criticizing the Speaker.
Only one problem: The Israeli prime minister entrusted Ms. Pelosi with no such message. "What was communicated to the U.S. House Speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel," said a statement quickly issued by the prime minister's office. In fact, Mr. Olmert told Ms. Pelosi that "a number of Senate and House members who recently visited Damascus received the impression that despite the declarations of Bashar Assad, there is no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with Israel." In other words, Ms. Pelosi not only misrepresented Israel's position but was virtually alone in failing to discern that Mr. Assad's words were mere propaganda.
Ah yes. What was that about support for Israel? The Israeli Prime Minister's office offered a "clarification" about Speaker Pelosi's trip to Syria. Clarification is diplo-speak for "rebuke."
In a special statement of clarification, the bureau stressed that Olmert had told Pelosi that Israel continued to regard Syria as "part of the axis of evil and a party encouraging terrorism in the entire Middle East."According to sources at the Prime Minister's Office, "Pelosi took part of the things that were said in the meeting, and used what suited her."
The same sources explained that the decision to issue a statement of denial stemmed from questions from Israeli and foreign press regarding a change in Israel's official stance on negotiations with Syria.
So from the Speaker's trip to the Middle East, it's safe to say that the NJDC also just used what suited its partisan purposes.
In fact apparently PM Olmert even discouraged Pelosi from speaking with Assad.
The Jerusalem Post, citing unidentified officials in Olmert's office, reported that Olmert told Pelosi before she traveled to meet Assad that the Damascus trip was a mistake.
Not surprisingly former Secretary of State (same article) defended Pelosi's trip.
``I spent a lot of time in Damascus talking to Bashar's father,'' Albright, 69, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital with Al Hunt,'' scheduled to air today. ``I talked to a lot of people that we didn't necessarily agree with, and I think that's not a bad message.''
"Not a bad message?" Well let's consider the Clinton Aministration's record with Syria. Back in 1996 the Clinton administration tried to arrange a "Summit of the Peacemakers" in order to shore up the premeirship of Shimon Peres that had been rocked by a series of terror attacks. The administration tried desperately to include Hafez Assad the father of the current leader. He refused to attend. As the Washington Post reported at the time ("SYRIANS TO SHUN SUMMIT ASSAD PROPOSES REPRISE OF '91 MADRID MEETING" - Washington Post March 12, 1996 -Author: Thomas W. Lippman; Washington Post Staff)
Senior U.S. officials said they knew when the summit plan was announced last week that President Clinton and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were putting Assad on the spot by inviting Syria to the meeting. If Assad declined to be represented, his long-standing professed commitment to making peace with Israel would be called into question. But if Syria were to participate, its position at the meeting might be untenable because it is technically at war with Israel and supports some of the most"The Syrians would have been furious if they weren't invited" because that would have grouped them with such anti-peace countries as Iraq and Libya, one State Department official said. According to the Syrians, they did indeed want to be invited but they did not want to participate.
Several weeks later Assad refused to meet with Secretary Christopher ( ASSAD SNUBS CHRISTOPHER, REFUSES TO MEET ON TRUCE - Washington Post
April 24, 1996 - Author: William Drozdiak; Washington Post Foreign Service )
Syrian President Hafez Assad delivered an extraordinary snub to Secretary of State Warren Christopher today, declining to receive him at a critical stage of his delicate diplomatic mission to achieve a lasting cease-fire in Lebanon.American officials were at a loss to explain Assad's refusal to make himself available. They attributed it to possible exhaustion from seeing so many visitors this week, or perhaps time pressures because he wanted to give closer scrutiny to the latest version of U.S. proposals to end a 13-day-old Israeli offensive against Shiite Muslim guerrillas in Lebanon.
But it was the third time in four days that Assad had forced Christopher to cool his heels, in what seemed to be a gesture of humiliation. On two earlier occasions, Assad made Christopher wait a couple of hours while he held court with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov.
And finally there was the March 2000 summit in Geneva between Hafez Assad and President Clinton, in which the president attempted to get the senior Assad to agree to an Israeli withdrawal from all but a sliver of the Golan. Assad refused to budge.
The sudden announcement that Assad would travel to Geneva had stirred speculation that the Syrian leader was as eager for a deal as Barak, who took office last year with a peace mandate. Assad, age 69 and in poor health, rarely travels and has not attended any Syrian- Israeli negotiating session since 1991.U.S. officials wanted both sides to commit themselves to work without rest to finalize a draft peace treaty within the next two months. The goal was to initial an accord before Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon produces new tensions.
The militant Islamic group Hezbollah, which receives support from both Iran and Syria, has pledged to step up attacks against retreating Israeli forces. Rather than welcome the Israeli withdrawal, Syria and its Lebanese proxies fear their leverage in peace talks will be diminished if Israel is no longer mired in a war of attrition along the Lebanese border.
U.S. officials also wanted assurances from Assad that Syria would crack down on Hezbollah and prevent attacks against Israeli troops during the final phase of talks.
The breakdown surprised many U.S. Middle East experts, who had expected Assad to tell Clinton he was ready to resume talks with Israel.
Assuming that the bad apple doesn't fall from the tree, you might wonder why the younger Assad would be willing to meet Speaker Pelosi's party. And the answer is because being visited by naive American politicians served his purposes. Assads do not play ball unless it serves their narrow interests.
The son, like the father, seeks to increase his power in the region at the expense of American interests. This is not someone with whom the administration disagrees as the former secretary of state so quaintly put it. This is someone who is at crosspurposes with us. Giving a photo-op only encourages him. (And did all that coddling of the previous administration accomplish anything?)
There is a message that Assad's sending. It is that he has time for "reasonable" American politicians who do not believe that he is beyond approach. He was meeting with Pelosi's team in order to undermine the President. In meeting with Assad, Pelosi put her own prestige over that of her country's interests and helped him send a message that there are "reasonable" alternatives to the current administration.
The NJDC, by whitewashing Olmert's snub of Pelosi and the Washington Post's criticism, has shown that partisan politics not promoting issues of interest to the Jewish community is their main interest. Nothing wrong with that. But maybe "Jewish" shouldn't come before "Democratic" in its name. It certainly doesn't in its politics.
UPDATE: I've edited this from the original form that appeared.
Blogdigger tags: NJDC, Speaker Pelosi, Israel, Syria, Bashar Assad.
April 6, 2007
Why is this food different from all other food
For one thing, potato kugel. This isn't strictly a Pesach (Passover) issue; it's a food processor issue. Our year round food processor doesn't have a the grating attachments anymore; our Pesach one does. I much prefer potato kugel that's been grated than pureed.
The Pesach kugel doesn't have quite the same recipe as the year round one. (There's no flour obviously.) But I really enjoy the grated taste. It's, err, great.
(But I do like a nice golden kugel the rest of the year.)
For Shabbos lunch, I made some meat soup. Even during the year sometimes we'll have soup instead of cholent. The meat soup is a pretty simple recipe. Meat, potatoes, carrots, an onion, tomato sauce and water. And as you can see, floating at the top, - knoedel (matza balls).
This is interesting as my mother used to make cholent with knoedel. Has anyone ever heard of that combination?
PesachBlogdigger tags: Pesach Customs, Pesach Foods, Potato Kugel, Matza Balls, Cholent.
Faith over science
As a religious person who, as part of the class of religious people, often finds my beliefs denigrated as being based on faith rather than science, I find these observations about a couple of recent Baltimore Sun editorials ironic.
In the Green Supremes, the Sun hailed a recent Supreme Court decision that declared carbon dioxide a pollutant and thus requires the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. (Since I emit carbon dioxide every time I breathe, I wonder when the EPA will be required to regulate my breathing. But I digress.)
The recent finding that Mars is experiencing global warming suggests that the phenomenon is solar system wide and may be affected by more than human activity. And two scientists at Duke discovered a year and a half ago that the role of solar activity on globlal warming had been underestimated. (Yes the scientists argued that human activity contributes, but not as much as previous models had indicated.) So when the Sun concluded
Global warming is already having harmful effects - including melting polar ice caps, rising seas and extended droughts. The urgency of remedial action can hardly be overstated. The United States has been dragging its heels for too long.it was taking a lot for granted. The urgency the Sun urges stems from beliefs that aren't standing up to scientific scrutiny. (Nor is it certain that all the effects of global warming will be bad.)
The causes and effects of global warming are hardly certain. To impose burdensome regulations that may not even reduce global warming, assuming that it is an unmitigated bad, makes no sense. Unless you accept the faith of global warming.
For a legal and political takedown of the ruling read Supreme Court goes Nuclear by Max Schulz.
To justify completely disregarding the express intent of Congress on how to deal with climate change issues, the slim majority on the Court had to perform some legal acrobatics. Namely, it had to find that Massachusetts or any other state had standing to bring the suit in the first place. Earlier efforts by environmental groups to pressure EPA were shot down because they could not prove they had been harmed. Even after adding state governments to their cause, it seemed unlikely that the Court would recognize the standing of a state to sue EPA to enforce regulations that didn't exist. Yet that's just what it did, ruling that global warming's prospects to raise the sea level along the Massachusetts coast presented the risk of catastrophic harm, justifying the state's legal pursuits.The decision to grant standing to the Bay State involved even more contorted legal arguments. The majority wrote that as a sovereign state, Massachusetts should be afforded special deference. It is an odd assertion. Thus legal observers were treated to the bizarre sight of Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and David Souter citing the principle of states' rights in permitting the lawsuit to proceed. In reality, Monday's ruling turns notions of federalism and states' rights on their head. Previous rulings protecting states' sovereignty did so by repealing overreaching federal laws or regulations. Monday's case did no such thing; the plaintiffs argued that the federal government wasn't acting.
The ruling should be viewed as an open invitation for other states to ask the federal courts to reverse policy decisions they don't like but that are arrived at legitimately through the democratic process. That's not federalism or states' rights, but the opposite. Giving states (or activist groups) the ability to subvert legitimately held federal policies, if only they can find judges who sympathize with their cause, in the end does no favors to state officials. It merely increases the power of the unelected judicial class to make the laws our elected representatives at all levels should be making.
In Maryland's Gain the Sun praises the state's stem cell funding program.
Limits on taxpayer-financed embryonic stem cell research imposed by President Bush in 2001 have so hampered federal efforts in this promising field that the director of the National Institutes of Health bluntly told Congress recently his agency was operating "with one hand tied behind our back."
But the federal limits to which Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni referred have helped generate huge interest in a new Maryland stem cell research grant program that takes a more broad-minded approach.
As the editorial explains later, most of the funding went to adult stem cell research, so this didn't address the lack of federal funds available for embryonic stem cell research. So these two paragraphs are simply gratuitous attacks on President Bush's policy.
(Even Maryland's stem cell funding bill couldn't satisfy the most extreme embryonic stem cell zealots, read this letter sent by the delegate representing my area, Samuel "Sandy" Rosenberg.)
The Sun continues
Eighty-six requests totaling $81 million poured in from academic centers and private companies in Maryland, all seeking a share of this year's $15 million in grants. About half the applicants proposed research using more widely available adult stem cells, but the rest would use stem cells extracted from embryos - a process Mr. Bush believes shouldn't be financed with taxpayer money.
"Widely available" is an interesting description of adult stem cells. There's another way to describe them: proven effective.
What those who hold embryonic stem cells to be the holy grail of scientific research don't acknowledge is that adult stem cells regularly produce effective therapies; embryonic stem cells haven't "gotten past first base" in producing a stable therapy for anything.
This isn't a religious argument, as I'm not convinced that Halachah prohibits all stem cell research. But if one type of research has been shown to be effective and the other hasn't, what's the justification for using public funds to promote the latter. (And even for the effective research, what justification is there for using public funds for that? If it's effective won't it encourage sufficient private investment?)
The cynic in me says that those promoting embryonic stem cell research are looking for a way to say "I'm not just pro-choice; I'm pro-life too. (And those pro-lifers really are against life as they seek to prevent this treatment that would save lives.)"
In both these cases the Sun has ignored or distorted science in order to promote the policies it supports. In essence it favors faith over science.
Blogdigger tags: Baltimore Sun, Global Warming, Stem Cell Research.
Safety issues in nw baltimore
1) A sign has gone up in Shuls that over the past month 3 or 4 people have been treated at the Sinai Hospital ER for injuries received while walking in the streets on Shabbos. (One of the injured is a father of one of my son's friends, who was in the hospital for a week.) I walk in the street too (when there's no sidewalk) and probably am not as careful as I ought to be. But given that most of us (Orthodox Jews) are dressed in dark on Shabbos we really have to be careful and keep to the sidewalks. I believe that Project Ezra is making reflective belts available, but don't know details.
2) There's now Hatzala in Baltimore. the numbers are 410-753-4444 and 1-888-7HATZALA for emergencies. Tuesday night two members of our Shul got an emergency call and left Shul driving. For me that's an unusual sight on Yom Tov. But of course it was an emergency.
3) On the first day of Yom Tov there were 3 attacks on Labyrinth and Clarinth between Park Heights and Reisterstown - in broad daylight. It was recommended that those walking, walk in groups. Apparently we're targets again, which is not a good sign.
UPDATE: Thanks to Presence for the correction.
Blogdigger tags: Walking at Night, Reflective Belts, Northwest Baltimore, Hatzala, Crime, Orthodox Community, Safety Issues.
The paper tigers
Charles Krauthammer in Britain's Humiliation and Europe's (here too)exposes the weakness (or phoniness) of the European Union.
Why was nothing done? The reason is simple. Europe functions quite well as a free-trade zone, but as a political entity it is a farce. It remains a collection of sovereign countries with divergent interests. A freeze of economic relations with Europe would have shaken the Iranian economy to the core. "The Dutch," reported the Times of London, "said it was important not to risk a breakdown in dialogue." So much for European solidarity.
The same problem affects the United Nations.
The problem is most striking at the United Nations, the quintessential transnational institution with a mandate to maintain international peace and order. There was a commonality of interest at its origin -- defeating Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. The war ended, but the wartime alliance of Britain, France, the United States, China and Russia proclaimed itself the guardian of postwar "collective security" as the Security Council.Small problem: Their interests are not collective. They are individual. Take the Iranian nuclear program. Russia and China make it impossible to impose any serious sanctions. China has an interest in maintaining strong relations with a major energy supplier and is not about to jeopardize that over Iranian nukes that are no threat to it whatsoever. Russia sees Iran as a useful proxy in resisting Western attempts to dominate the Persian Gulf.
Then Krauthammer pounds away at the halcyon days that never happened.
Remember the great return to multilateralism -- the new emphasis on diplomacy and "working with the allies" -- so widely heralded at the beginning of the second Bush administration? To general acclaim, the cowboys had been banished and the grown-ups brought back to town.What exactly has the new multilateralism brought us? North Korea tested a nuclear device. Iran has accelerated its march to developing the bomb. The pro-Western government in Beirut hangs by a thread. The Darfur genocide continues unabated.
It's worth noting that even during the much vaunted Clinton administration, America was pushing for stronger sanctions against Iraq than France was willing to tolerate.
When there was multilateralism it was to topple Slobodan Milosevic by bombing civilian targets in Serbia. And even then the war didn't go exactly as planned, Milosevic held out a lot longer than our government and its allies said he would. But that wasn't the European Union acting; it was NATO. (But now NATO was of no help to Britain vs. Iran either.)
International organizations are wonderful ideas, but perhaps they should be left to economic spheres. National interests are too important to be left to others.
UPDATE: Bloodthirsty Liberals comments on the column in the wonderfully titled Running to Mommy. Town Commons presents an analysis based on Krauthammer and other pundits.
UPDATE II: more via Buzztracker.
Blogdigger tags: Britain, Iran, European Union, United Nations.
Council speak 04/06/2007
The council has spoken and this week's Council winner was Eternity Road's The Scourging, which won a tie breaking vote from the watcher himself over Bookworm Room's Leftist Media Bias, Israeli Style. The winning non-council post was Universal Moral Equivalence by former council member, Gates of Vienna.
Next on the list of council members was another tie between JoshuaPundit's First Israel now Britain, the chickens come home to roost and Colossus of Rhodey's "Questions any excuses ..." The non-council runners up were also tied with Britain and America's It's a Long Way from Port Stanley to the Shatt-al-Arab waterway and BlackFive's War for Profit.
Blogdigger tags: Watcher's Council.
April 5, 2007
College dropouts
As primary fever sweeps the nation - more and more states are trying to move their primaries earlier in the cycle next year in order to be relevant in choosing each party's nominee - Maryland's incomparable legislature is moving toward depriving their own voters of a vote in the general election.
Maryland's legislature, the General Assembly, has determined that our current electoral process is fatally flawed. So instead of listening to the people of the state, the legislature passed legislation giving Maryland 10 electoral votes to the winner of national popular vote. In other words in 2004, that means that Blue Maryland would have designated its votes for George W. Bush even though the voters in the state chose John F. Kerry.
The Baltimore Sun in Bypassing College grudgingly approves of this travesty.
The Electoral College was created by the Founding Fathers when the fledgling country didn't have the kinds of mass media and communications technology that are taken for granted today. The framers worried that under a direct election, voters in each of the 13 states would simply support favorite sons and that candidates from large states would always end up winning.Today, elections are truly national affairs. News reporting is instant and broadly disseminated. Hillary Rodham Clinton is likely as well known to people in California as she is in Arkansas, just as Arizona's John McCain is very familiar to New Yorkers.
But this constitutional vestige has turned choosing a president into a strategic duel where a relatively few states, and not the country as a whole, hold sway. Why should a national election revolve around a candidate's views on steel tariffs or some other swing-state parochial concern?
Admittedly, Maryland's solution is a back-door approach to fixing this problem, and that gives us pause. Nor are enough states likely to join Maryland in time for 2008. The better fix would be for Congress to approve (and states to ratify) a constitutional amendment eliminating the Electoral College. But that's highly unlikely given the partisan climate that prevails in Washington, where ensuring basic fairness to all voters is bound to take a back seat to political self-interest.
Yes I know that the real goal of the bill is to prevent another 2000 from occurring. But think for a moment, the electoral college has served this country well for more than 200 years. Admittedly, the electoral college did not always operate in the form that it does now, but the system has been remarkably robust for 200 years. In all that time there have been only four instances where the winner of the popular vote did not also win the electoral tally.
The Sun misdirects readers by emphasizing the narrowness of President Bush's electoral defeat of John Kerry in 2004. But that's cover for its real fear: that another Republican could win the election despite losing the national popular vote. I have little confidence that either the highly partisan paper or legislature would have been seeking this ill-considered "solution" if, as expected, Al Gore had won the electoral college while losing the popular vote. After all, for them, fairness is observed in results not in process.
Their plan would hold a little more credibility if their partisan colors were not so transparent.
UPDATE: Pillage Idiot (verbally) pillages the Maryland General Assembly's vote in Maryland fights the Last War. He's a lot funnier than I am. He also brings up an important point about the Florida count in 2000.
Let's imagine for a moment that in a particular presidential election, you vote for some loud, angry moron with a huge carbon footprint, and the election is very close. Your candidate wins the national popular vote by about half a percent but loses by a handful of votes in one specific state, whose electoral votes completely determine the winner. Your candidate choses not to recognize the results gracefully -- as even Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon did in the face of voter fraud several decades earlier -- but instead forces the country to endure six weeks of recounts, invoking new standards for eligible ballots and (naturally) bringing multiple lawsuits before finally giving up.
The post facto outrage following the Supreme Court's decision to stop the recounts was largely calculated. According to an enthusiastic account by Ryan Lizza, in the New Republic, ("Overtime") the Democrats intended to win the election because they had better election lawyers. (See here for a synopsis.) It's sort of like planning to win a baseball game because you have the umpires on your side.
UPDATE II: Unlike me or Pillage Idiot, CrabLaw isn't infected by an extreme cynicism of those pushing this issue. He lays out possible scenarios that could result from this change in Electing out of the Electoral College.
Electoral CollegeBlogdigger tags: Baltimore Sun, Maryland General Assembly, Electoral College, Presidential Elections.
Submitted 04/04/2007
Every week the members of the Watcher's Council hold a vote on their own submissions and submissions of the best stuff they've seen around the internet. Here are my synopses of this week's submissions by my fellow Watchers.
In Securing the Food Supply, The Glittering Eye addresses the pet food recall and the limitations of the FDA.
Colossus of Rhodey.Felix questions the Seattle School Board's definition of insitutionalized racism and its prescription for curing the problem in Question any excuses ...
Eternity Road views the same problem from a wider angle in The Scourging. It's not just that a school district is racist; the whole society that is wrong to some ways of thinking. And if anything is corrected; it's time to move the goalposts and pretend that nothing's been fixed.
In A Miracle for Pope John Paul II, Rhymes with Right clarifies misconceptions surrounding the process of canonization and outlines the differing views towards canonization that the two most recent popes have (publicly) held.
Big Lizards synopsizes and annotates Arthur Herman's recent article in How to Win/Lose in Iraq. He lays to rest the mistaken that there can be no military solution to conflict. Indeed there is always a military solution as long as there's the political will to deploy it.
In not the End of the World, Done with Mirrors looks at how the Bush administration plays politics, and it is ugly. But that doesn't make it wrong. I would venture that this is an argument where the end justifies the means: in the end, if the president is successful in Iraq it will justify the steps he's taken to get there.
Cheat Seeking Missiles examines the threat to Iranian repression represented by a doll in Barbie vs. the Mullahs. FWIW, the concept of the corrupting influence of Barbie sounded familiar and I discovered one way its influence is being fought elsewhere in the Middle East. (h/t Debbie Schlussel.)
In leftist media bias Israeli Style, Bookworm Room goes over the history of the Israeli rescue of the hostages at the Entebbe airport in Uganda and the efforts of some to question Yoni Netanyahu's - brother of former PM Binyamin Netanyahu and the only Israeli commando killed in the raid - leadership. The post concludes showing that a number of those involved have spoken and restored Lt. Col. Netanyahu's reputation. This is hardly the only example of the Israeli leftist media bias. There is more than one reason that Ha'aretz is called the "New York Times of Israel." I'd been aware of this campaign against the elder Netanyahu brother, but thought it only went back about ten years as it was an attempt to undermine the political career of his brother Benjamin. Incidentally, Israel's new CoS, Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi was involved in the raid on Entebbe.
The Education Wonks highlights Newt Gingrich's recent pronouncements on making English, America's national language in Newt criticizes bi-lingual education gets nuked.
JoshuaPundit shows how attacks on Jews are often preludes to attacks on others (whether in a paricular society or in the global society) in First Israel, then Britain - the chickens come home to roost. (This is similar to Iran takes a lesson from Hamas and Hizbollah by Daled Amos. It's a point too infrequently made.)
Right Wing Nuthouse is concerned that the Brits Ready to Stick It to the Iraqis To Get Their Hostages Back. The implied concessions in the British statements to appease Iran cannot be so readily dismissed. They stand as potentially damaging Iraq in order to mollify the Mullahs.
Other rundowns of the Watcher's Council Nominations are at JoshuaPundit and the Glittering Eye.
Blogdigger tags: Watcher's Council, Iran, Iraq, Education Policy, Britain, Entebbe.
April 2, 2007
The View from the Inauguration that Wasn’t
The Timeline of what could have been (via memeorandum ) is a ficitional history of what might have been.
I already critiqued that alternate history, but a while ago, I wrote my own fictional history of Al Gore's inauguration; not what the result would be, but the false hopes that hypothetically landed Al Gore in the White House on January 20, 2001. If President Clinton had been right about the Middle East Peace process, I have little doubt that we'd now be in the middle of Al Gore's second terms as president. But some of the players didn't quite play the same game that President Clinton was playing.
There was no toughness to President Clinton's foreign policy. Wishful thinking was substituted for policy. If Gore had been elected president we would have been treated to even more wishful thinking and the terror threat would have spread unchecked. (I don't doubt that a President Gore would have invaded Afghanistan; I wonder if he'd have attacked Iraq for breaching the terms of the 1991 ceasefire.) But I don't believe there'd have been a global war on terror. There's be a lot more appeasement than what we see (disappointingly) from President Bush.
The View from the Inauguration that Wasn’tThe cold dreary day contrasted with the behavior of the four men sitting next to each other. Their demeanor was warm and sunny; not wet and cold. They were Emile Lahoud, president of Lebanon; Bashar Assad, president of Syria; Yasser Arafat president of Palestine; and Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel. In a scene that was inconceivable just a year before, all four men seemed to enjoy each other’s company. This unexpected display of unity was a tribute to the clear eyed diplomacy of President Bill Clinton.
The men had gotten together to honor President Clinton’s successor, President Al Gore. Ignoring the brickbats of conservative critics and pro-Israel activists, President Clinton pressed forward to fulfill his vision of peace in the Middle East and brought that vision to fruition before the end of his term. The American public, grateful to its President, showed its approval by granting his Vice-President an overwhelming mandate. Governor George W. Bush of Texas, despite his fundraising acumen, was unable to compete with the Clinton administration’s unparalleled foreign policy success.
Before President Clinton was able to achieve his successes in solving the central issues Arab-Israeli conflict there was a need for Israelis to elect a leader who was amenable to the peace overtures from the Arab world. Toward this end President Clinton kept Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at arm’s length. While President Clinton didn’t interfere in the 1999 campaign between Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, he didn’t hide his distaste for ideological hardliner, Netanyahu. No doubt Clinton’s opposition to Netanyahu, contributed to the perception by the Israeli electorate that Netanyahu was an obstacle to peace that led to his eventual electoral defeat.
With Ehud Barak’s election as Prime Minister of Israel, Clinton set out to work with the moderate former general. The president coordinated moves with the Israeli prime minister to bring peace to the Middle East.
Encouraged by the movement made earlier in 2000 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia in talks between Israel and Syria, President Clinton put his prestige on the line and brought a peace proposal from Israel to Syrian President Hafez Assad in March, 2000. Partly impressed by President Clinton’s determination and partly because he feared being remembered as an obstructionist, the previously reluctant Assad accepted the terms that the president brought with him.1
A month later, with much fanfare, Israel and Syria signed a treaty on the White House lawn. President Assad was accompanied by his son, and designated successor, Bashar. Father and son returned to Syria wildly popular for their courageous peacemaking.
A month later Israel formally withdrew from virtually all of the Golan Heights. It wasn’t easy because many of the Jewish settlers in the Golan were reluctant to leave the occupied territory. But with a combination of financial incentives and the occasional use of force, Israel was able to achieve a quick and orderly withdrawal from the Golan.
Encouraged by his newfound popularity, President Assad arranged for the inauguration of his son in his lifetime. The elder Assad went to his grave peacefully, proud that he had recovered the Golan for the Syrian people and that he had assured an orderly transition to his son.
Once peace with Syria, Israel’s northeastern neighbor, was achieved, Prime Minister Barak methodically turned his attention to Israel’s northern neighbor.
Already with the signing of the Israeli-Syrian treaty, the elder Assad warned Hezbollah that attacks against Israel would no longer be tolerated. Hezbollah, as much a pawn of Iran as of Syria did not listen at first and continued sporadic mortar attacks against Israel.
When a mysterious car bomb killed Sheikh Nasrallah, the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, the rest of the organization paid heed. The source of the blast was never definitively established, but it was widely suspected that Syria was behind it.
With Hezbollah defanged and irrelevant, Prime Minister Barak was able to conclude a deal with Lebanon where Hezbollah was disarmed and the Lebanese Army moved into southern Lebanon to ensure stability.2
Now that Israel’s two northern neighbors were officially at peace with the Jewish state, Prime Minister Barak had one final challenge: to conclude the long delayed final peace deal with the Palestinians.
Eager to lend American credibility to the prospective deal, President Clinton invited both Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israel’s Barak in late July to Camp David. After a week of intensive negotiations, Arafat, Barak and Clinton proudly announced to the world an agreement that gave the Palestinian Authority 97 percent of the occupied territories as well as some territories from within Israel’s 1948 borders to ensure the Palestinians that they would be able to form their state on the full amount of land they lost in 1967.
Other arrangements made allowed a limited number of Palestinian refugees from 1948 to rejoin their families inside Israel under the framework of “family reunification”, Israel agreed to pay reparations to those who could not return to their homes and sovereignty over Jerusalem would be split between the two countries.
For his part, Yasser Arafat conceded that he would produce a new covenant for his state that explicitly declared Israel’s right to exist, he would disarm the terror organizations under the PA’s jurisdiction, he would order the official Palestinian media to stop broadcasting calls for incitement against Israel and he’d reduce the size of the Palestinian police force to the limits set by previous agreements.
The negotiations were helped along by America’s moderate Arab allies, especially Egypt and Saudi Arabia whose leaders urged Arafat to make the necessary concessions to assure that a peace deal would be completed at the summit.3
Two months after the successful conclusion of the Camp David talks, Yasser Arafat invited Israel’s opposition leader, Ariel Sharon for a walk across Haram Al-Sharif, the third holiest shrine in Islam, also known as the Temple Mount to Jews. When Sharon – Arafat’s implacable enemy and an opponent of peace – agreed to this historic walk, it deflated the right wing in Israel. The sight of the two former enemies walking together at perhaps the most contentious site in the Middle East without causing riots proved how strong the appeal of peace is.
With five weeks to go before the election and the Middle East its most peaceful in anyone’s memory there was little for the Republicans to do. President Clinton by his single minded pursuit of peace in the Middle East had permanently reshaped the American political landscape. Even many conservatives couldn’t deny his skill in solving some of the world’s most intractable problems and grudgingly voted for his Vice-President. Al Gore became the 43rd President of the United States with the greatest landslide in American history.
On January 20, 2001, the men whose countries benefited the most from President Clinton’s skillful diplomacy sat side by side and celebrated the inauguration of his successor.
1) Syrian presidential spokesman Joubran Kourieh said the two leaders had discussed "the obstacles which Israel put and is still putting in front of the resumption of talks".
US officials said that President Clinton was not disappointed with the outcome of the talks, and that he was glad to have had the opportunity to meet President Assad face-to-face. Source: “No breakthrough on Mid-East talks"; BBC, March 26, 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/691534.stmNASRALLAH: In the name of God, the Most Merciful. The concern of President Assad is the complete liberation of Syrian land. In Geneva, he did not get that natural demand, but there was an attempt to compromise, to give up only part of the land [which would be] to the advantage of the government of Israel because [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Barak's situation is difficult. Of course, this kind of thing was not on President Assad's mind. In Lebanon and Syria, I do not think that anyone accepts giving up an inch of Lebanese or Syrian land. Source: “Future Tense
Hizballah's secretary general Sheik Hassan Nasrallah discusses the prospects for peace in the Middle East” By SCOTT MACLEOD Beirut, Time Europe, April 3, 2000
http://www.time.com/time/europe/webonly/mideast/hizballah.htmlBut some wonder if Syria has really resigned itself to peace. Assad's refusal to return to the table after January's Israeli-Syrian peace talks in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, a subsequent wave of deadly violence in southern Lebanon, and a frosty March summit in Geneva with Clinton hardly seemed evidence of pacific intentions. Source: Being Hafiz al-Assad: Syria's Chilly but Consistent Peace Strategy; Henry Siegman, Foreign Affairs May/June 2000, http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20000501facomment38/henry-siegman/being-hafiz-al-assad-syria-s-chilly-but-consistent-peace-strategy.html
2) The Government of Lebanon, in contrast, refrained from imposing its control on its sovereign territory by deploying its forces to the border with Israel. Instead, it left the border area under the control of Hizbullah.
Syria, which in effect controls Lebanon, supports Hizbullah, allows and facilitates the delivery of arms shipments from Iran to Hizbullah operatives through Syrian territory, allows Hizbullah to maintain training camps in the Beqa'a Valley, and allows (and encourages) this terrorist organization to operate against Israel. Source: The IDF attacked a Syrian target in Lebanon, The Embassy of Israel, April 16, 2001, http://www.embassyofisrael.org/articles/2001/April/2001041601.html
Chronological list of events along Israel's northern border in which Israeli civilians and/or soldiers were killed since the IDF pullout of Lebanon in May 2000.
In all, 13 Israeli soldiers were killed and 53 wounded; 6 civilians were killed and 14 wounded. Source: Incidents along Israel's northern border since May 2000, July 20, 2004, http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+from+Lebanon-+Hizbullah/Incidents%20along%20Israel-Lebanon%20border%20since%20May%2020003) During the last few days, a number of Arab leaders like Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudia Arabia and President Mubarak have joined with Mr. Arafat's domestic opponents in Islamic militant movements to weigh in on the issue. They all but threatened Mr. Arafat with political excommunication if he accepted Prime Minister Ehud Barak's proposals for administrative control over parts of the city and access to -- but not sovereignty over -- the major Muslim sites. Source: “Arafat Keeps His Credibility Among Arabs, Experts Say,” by Susan Sachs, New York Times, July 26, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/072600mideast-cairo.html
My fictional history assumed that the conventional wisdom spouted in the media and accepted by the Clinton administration was valid. Of course it wasn't as the footnotes demonstrate.
Blogdigger tags: Alternate History, Middle East Peace Process, Election 2000.
What if the 2000 election had been decided by voters who decided not to vote for al gore?
Phoenix Woman blogging at Firedog Lake has prepared an alternate history of the past 6 years assuming that Gore had the presidency handed to him by Supreme Cournt affirming the outrageous decision of Florida's Supreme Court to recount only jurisdictions that favored Al Gore.
One of the conceits of the anti-Bush Left is that Al Gore was robbed because not enough attention was paid to "hanging chads." The assumption is that a chad that hadn't been fully detached in Gore's favor, should be counted in his favor regardless. Obviously these people are have a gift of prescience that we ordinary mortals are denied. For only they could assume that the voter intended to vote for Al Gore but didn't have the strength to register his/her vote properly. It couldn't mean that someone intended to vote for Gore and then changed his/her mind.
(Never mind that nearly every possible scenario investigated by news organizations after the fact showed that Bush still won Florida under the other permutations ordered by Florida's Supreme Court.)
The Sundries Shack is dismissive
The core of her “history”? Al Gore prevents 9/11 by being tough and carrying on the incredible foreign policies of his predecessor Bill…
I can’t do it. I can’t even finish the sentence with a straight face. I can’t imagine what amazing self-restraint it must have taken not to write herself into a steamy love scene with International Super Stud Al Gore. I’d fisk it, but that would be like beating a lame baby seal in it’s sleep. Some things are simply too cruel.
Right Wing Nuthouse took special exception to the fictional hstory's account of Saddam's alternate life: he would assist the Gore led war on Osama bin Laden and help defeat and kill Osama. Not only that, but the United States would then work with Uday and Qusay to ensure a smooth transition to secular democracy without civil war after their father would pass from the scene. Unlike me he has no words to describe this "... new entry in the Idiot Sweepstakes."
What strikes me is that Phoenix Woman would have it that Richard Clarke and the rest of President Clinton's brave anti-terror warriors would have successfull carried their anti-terror fight into a Gore administration. The problem is, as Richard Miniter has written that Clarke was a lone voice of seriousness in the Clinton administration.
In January 2000, al Qaeda tried and failed to attack the U.S.S. The Sullivans off Yemen. (Their boat sank before they could reach their target.) But in October 2000, an al Qaeda bomb ripped a hole in the hull of the U.S.S. Cole, killing 17 sailors and wounding another 39.When Mr. Clarke presented a plan to launch a massive cruise missile strike on al Qaeda and Taliban facilities in Afghanistan, the Clinton cabinet voted against it. After the meeting, a State Department counterterrorism official, Michael Sheehan, sought out Mr. Clarke. Both told me that they were stunned. Mr. Sheehan asked Mr. Clarke: "What's it going to take to get them to hit al Qaeda in Afghanistan? Does al Qaeda have to attack the Pentagon?"
Clarke who later turned his ire toward the Bush administration - either because of pride after being passed up for a promotion he felt he deserved or because he opposed the war in Iraq - was pretty much alone in realizing the threat of Bin Laden during the Clinton adminstration. To treat him as a pivotal member of the effective Clinton team is simply dishonest.
The "timeline since 2001" is a fun exercise for those who wish to see Dick Cheney arrested for corruption and jailed or executed, but as a reading of the past and projection of the future it is, shall we say, imperfect.
Blogdigger tags: Fractured History, President Gore, Leftist Fantasy, Election 2000.
Burning the chametz at the glen ave firehouse
After the davening (morning prayers), siyum, and traditional Erev Pesach (Passover Eve) trip to Dunkin Donuts on Reisterstown Road I headed to the Glen Avenue fire station for burning the chametz (leaven).
Starting somewhere more than 20 years ago, the Glen Avenue firehouse is outfitted with controlled fires and several dumpsters, so Jews observing Pesach (Passover) can dispose of their chametz properly.
When I was younger my father would burn the chametz in the grill. I guess that the communal burning allows the burning to be done in a controlled environment where there's no worry about careless homeowners.
Blogdigger tags: Pesach, Passover, Burning Chametz, Photography, Glen Avenue Firehouse.
Seven months
Postdate: As of 1:15 this past Monday morning she is 30 weeks old.
What's changed in the past month? Her level of social interaction is increasing tremendously.
In the past week or so she's played sporadic games of peek-a-boo. (She covers her eyes and uncovers them eliciting a "peek-a-boo" from assorted relatives.) And this week she started waving "hello." Now, my wife's pointed out that perhaps the waving means "I want" also.
But her most pronounced activity is how she expresses her preferences. If I'm holding her and my wife's in the room, there's a very good chance that she'll break out crying; until I hand her to her mother. This is very practiced behavior and it's been repeated enough that it's clearly not accidental. (Nor should I be surprised.) In fact it appears that I rank below my wife, my 16 year old daughter. I rank above the 5 and 8 year old and, I think, the Exersaucer.
Then there's the matter of food. She has started real food. Not just baby food. But yesterday I boiled a carrot and potato and she seemed to prefer those to regular baby food. And she also spent a bit of time yesterday gnawing away on a piece of Matza. It appears that her repertoire of food is increasing. And she loves to drink out of a cup. She needs some guidance and is more likely to dribble it than to drink it. But she has to start someplace.
Previous related posts: One month, two months, three months, four months and five months, six months.
If ... you must Pesach 5767 edition
If you haven't read Thoughts on Passover at Media Backspin; you must.
If you haven't read a The time of our Freedom at Treppenwitz; you must.
And of course you must check out all the blogs he links to!
If you haven't read A communal Seder and a beautiful story at SerAndEz; you must.
If you haven't read ParshaBlog's Why Bedikah with a candle; you must.
If you haven't read Psaq Din at Esser Agaroth; you must.
If you haven't read the Battle over Kitniyot at Presence; you must.
If you haven't read Kitniyot at Ocean Guy; you must.
If kitnityot are allowed what will Coke afficienados do?
If you haven't read Making your cubicle at work Kasher for Pesach at the Muqata; you must.
I've seen it before, it's still a riot.
If you haven't seen Pesach 5767 at Not Quite Perfect ; you must.
If you haven't read Hag Pesach Sameach at Simply Jews; you must.
If you haven't read Pillage Idiot's My conversation with Julie at AMTRAK; you must.
Sort of like Planes, Trains and automated responses for Pesach.
If you haven't read Yid With Lid's Once we were slave, but are we free?; you must.
If you haven't read Matzoh Mania at Oyvay Blog ; you must.
And for good measure she gives you a taste of the best line from the article:
"The official theme was "Home," contestant Eric Goldberg said, and his three little matzo dioramas were meant to represent his parents' home, his grandparents' home, and now (the one with the matzo futon), his own home, as an NYU student. They gave me a foundation,' he said of his family, and you just know that somewhere out there, there are two generations of Goldbergs very proud that their boy is spending his $39,000 education gluing matzos together."
If you haven't read about Ben and Jerry's at Life of Rubin; you must.
If you haven't read a late look at a couple of Pesah customs at Life in Israel; you must.
If you haven't read Modern Uberdox's Pre-pesach Post; you must.
If you haven't read 4 pre-Pesach quesitons at Elie's Expositions ; you must.
If you haven't read featured on eBay at Jewish Blogmeister ; you must.
If you haven't read Israelly Cool!'s Happy Passover; you must.
If you haven't read Passover 2007 at Jewish Current Issues; you must.
Although I can't really say I'm fond of Wieseltier's exhortation. I'm sure that making Aliyah is not what he has in mind.
If you haven't read Me-Ander's signs of Pesach in the air; you must.
If you haven't read Aliyah L'regel at Shiloh Musings; you must.
If you haven't read Pesach Preparations at For Father's Only; you must.
If you haven't read A night of watching about my ancestor R' Leib Soros; you must.
I rewrote the story from the viewpoint of the innkeeper.
If you haven't read Pesach customs of Sudilkov at A Simple Jew; you must.
If you haven't read Zman Cheiruseinu in the valley of death at Heichal Hanegina; you must.
UPDATE: And, If I may, let me add ...
If you haven't read What my teacher's never told me's Not your grandfather's Malaga; you must!
Have a Chag Kasher V'sameach - A very happy Pesach!
Blogdigger tags: Pesach, Passover, Customs, Laws, Stories, Humor.
April 1, 2007
Assassination in gaza
Elder of Ziyon make a point of noting that Palesitnian on Palestinian violence is largely ignored in the media.
How much play this Jerusalem Post story "Sheikh dead in new Gaza power struggle" will get, is uncertain.
The assassination over the weekend of a prominent sheikh in Gaza City has brought to the surface a behind-the-scenes power struggle that has been raging in recent months between Hamas and a new al-Qaida-affiliated group identified with Salafism - a school of thought that takes the pious ancestors (Salaf) of the patristic period of early Islam as exemplary models.Salafism is a branch of Islam that is often referred to as Wahhabi - a derogatory term that many adherents to this tradition avoid using. Salafis believe that Islam declined as a result of foreign innovations (bid'ah) and seek an Islamic revival through the purging of these influences and the emulation of the early generations of Islam.
Here are the specifics:
Eyewitnesses told The Jerusalem Post that Adnan Manasreh, 30, a prominent member of the Salafi branch in the Gaza Strip, was gunned down as he walked out of a mosque in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City last Friday. Two of his relatives were wounded in the attack."Four masked gunmen approached him and opened fire, killing him instantly," the witnesses reported. "They fled in a white Peugeot."
A senior PA security official in the Gaza Strip told the Post that "Hamas's fingerprints are all over this murder." He said that intelligence gathered by the PA security forces showed that the assassination was carried out by members of Hamas's armed wing, Izzaddin Kassam.
The official noted that tensions between the Salafis and Hamas have been mounting in the Gaza Strip ever since Ayman Zawahiri, the No. 2 in al-Qaida, accused Hamas of abandoning its ideology and "selling out" to Israel and the US. The Salafis are very close to al-Qaida and the two have been trying to establish a presence in the Gaza Strip, much to the dismay of Hamas.
Quickly, there are few things that are evident from this article.
1) In the power vacuum after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, Al Qaeda is moving in.
2) Given that Manasreh was accompanied by relatives, it shows the power of clans in Palestinian society. Blood relations as much as (or perhaps more than) politics or religion determine the faultlines in the society.
3) Hamas is perhaps perceived as moderate in that it accepts its role as a political party. Salafis, by contrast, view politics with contempt. Both, though, have compatible overall goals. In absolute terms, Hamas is extremist. (For that matter so is Fatah.
4) We will not see the UN condemn Hamas for this "extrajudicial killing." Hamas for its part is denying any involvement, blaming the killing instead on elements wishing to drive a wedge between Hamas and the Salafis.
Hundreds of PA security officers attended Manasreh's funeral over the weekend, triggering speculation about the close ties between the Salafis and the PA. Many in Gaza City are convinced that the PA is using the Salafis as a tool to undermine Hamas's popularity.Ayman Taha, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, strongly denied that his movement was behind the assassination.
"These lies are being spread by Fatah and its media outlets," he said. "They are aimed at driving a wedge between our people. Some people in Fatah are trying to renew the infighting [with Hamas]."
Will this have any effect on Hamas's war plans?
Hill Billy White Trash is more concerned with Israel's lack of concern.
Adnan Manasreh
Hamas
GazaBlogdigger tags: Adnan Manasreh, Hamas, Salafism, Al Qaeda, Gaza.