Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish Articles at DanielGreenfield.org

(Update: in the list of insane excuses, a top Russian defense expert is claiming that Litvinenko ate radioactive fish from Hiroshima at a Sushi Bar...you can't make this stuff up but they can) Pravda, long the organ of the Russian authorities, is an instructive collection of rantings and threats that the average Westerner can now benefit from. Within a day we will see the revelation of the official Soviet line on Litvinenko's death which will claim that Litvinenko was poisoned smuggling nuclear materials for Berezovsky enter the mainstream media before being developed in Pravda. (The domestic jingoistic and extremely convoluted Russian version will claim that Berezovsky was working for the CIA. Those missing out on the far more insane Russian version are also missing out on the story of the Priest who came to consecrate KGB headquarters and bless the KGB agents, who secretly told a KGB associate that he got a sense of evil from Litvinenko) It's grimly entertaining then to t

In August 1991, the first coup that led was launched by a group headed by Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former chairman of the KGB. The political, military and KGB leadership behind the coup made a public statement stating that Gorbachev was sick and had been relieved of his post and appointed the sitting Prime Minister to replace him. Boris Yeltsin's intervention and the resulting protests prevented the coup from succeeding and resulted in the dismantling of the USSR. In August 1999, the second coup occurred that ended democracy in Russia and removed Yeltsin from power replacing him with the head of the FSB (KGB) Vladimir Putin. Lessons had been learned and unlike the previous coup matters were done quietly and with the appearance of legality. Yeltsin remained in power as a figurehead for several months while Putin was installed as his Prime Minister. Several months later Yeltsin stepped down and Putin replaced him. What followed was a return to tyranny, unity parties and government par

One of the most difficult to understand things in the Torah for most people remains the blessings of Yitzchak. Why did Yitzchak favor the wicked son with the blessings and why was Yaakov's only resort to trick his father. It's an understandable question when looking back retrospectively but it is important to remember that we are dealing with people who could not look back, only forward speculatively. What baffles most people, Yitzchak's selection of Esav, becomes significantly less so when we look at it in the context of the time and place. Yitzchak was a son of Avraham but lacked his status or strength. The parsha is called Toldos Yitzchak but the only material involving Yitzchak it relates to us up until the blessings are his travails at the hands of the Phlistim. Like Avraham, Yitzchak found himself a wanderer and an alien among peoples who were all too willing to take advantage of him. Indeed both Avraham and Yitzchak even found themselves having to claim their wives a

via Giyus

Authorities are celebrating Joe Chisholm's implicit suggestion that he will not murder his neighbor, John Norton, when late this week he signed a letter in which he stated his intent to initially take half his neighbor's home, vowed to continue attacking him and pledged to fight on till victory. Press reports however focused on the implication that by not explicitly mentioning his intent to kill Norton and by agreeing for settle half his home, that the entire matter could finally be settled peacefully. Chisholm however disappointed some when he appeared at a press conference later announcing that his letter did not mean any such thing and that he intends to take half of Norton's home only as a first step to taking all of it and that he has never renounced his desire to kill Norton. Reporters and various talking heads however continued to insist that this was a major turnaround for Chisholm and that an era of peace would be at hand if only Norton put away his rifle and left

Wounded in today's attack on Sderot.

"An elected Hamas government in the Palestinian territories may be preferable to the group operating outside the power structure and carrying out terrorist actions, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday. Referring to Hamas, Rice said, "I am not so sure that it is better to have these groups running the streets, masked, with guns rather than having them have to face voters and having to deliver." ...after all it worked so well in Germany and Russian when groups who had previously run the streets and engaged in terrorism took power.

(AP) Israel Invades Palestinian Areas, Kills 6 Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gunships rumbled into sleeping Palestinian towns shattering their peaceful stillness with a relentless rain of fire from above killing 6 Palestinians, among them 5 activists belonging to Hamas and a young boy. UN Secretary General has strongly condemned... (Reuters) Israelis Assault Palestinian Civilians Killing Several As part of Israel's drive to seek vengeance for the deaths of its soldiers, Israeli troops mobilized for an all out assault on Palestinian civilian areas. Backed by superior numbers and firepower the troops left several Palestinians dead in their wake. UN Secretary General has strongly condemned... (UPI) Israel's War Campaign Claims Growing Death Toll Fueled by gasoline and vengeance, the Israeli Army pushed deeper than ever into Palestinian territories as the body count for its campaign continues to grow. Despite the outcry of human rights activists, the killing continued for anot

In this parsha, derivations of the word yada, know, are used to indicate intimacy. When G-d decides to tell Avraham of his intentions to destroy Sdom, he says Ki Yedaativ, for I have known him. The word Yeedativ is used here to mean love, Hashem is saying that he has known Avraham that through his knowledge of him Avraham is beloved to G-d. When the men of Sdom encircle Lot's house demanding his guests, they also use a derivation of yada. They demand that the guests be brought out to the mob, Veneida Otam. Here the word also involves intimacy but their intention is rape. In both usages an intimate knowledge is meant but in the first case it involves love for another that comes through knowing another, in the second it involves an assault for personal satisfaction. In its first use G-d sees the goodness of Avraham and gives him special privileges and rewards. In the second use the men of Sdom are so threatened by generosity towards strangers, that they threaten cruelty towards them

(The following is a translation of a piece questioning whether Israel was responsible for the Beit Hanoun attack. The translation is my own and may contain technical errors and poor wording when it comes to matters of armament. All corrections are appreciated "As the wails of outrage and condemnation continue over the supposed Israeli shelling of Beit Hanoun and the deaths of 13 members of the Athamna Palestinian family with the media describing in detail scattered body parts Though Israel has stated it was a mistake, experts analyzing the situation differ. First of all the Kassams fired by the Palestinians themselves often fall short not reaching their target and falling inside Palestinian areas. Israel fires at terrorists using fragmentation shells. Had this been an Israeli fragmentation shell it would not have penetrated the roof but it would have left fragments everywhere, but a poorly aimed Kassam could well have exploded on the roof of this house, much like a mine. The shell

The results of this election and likely the one afterward will be remembered as one of the worst political disasters in American history. Not because one party lost and the other won, but because in the middle of a war the electorate brought to power the very same people whose negligence had brought the war on in the first place. If Chamberlain had been returned to office in the middle of World War 2 on a platform of negotiating with Nazi Germany, that is the scale of the magnitude of this disaster. Under a Democratic congress the odds that the United States will intervene militarily to stop Iran have dropped to nearly zero, short of an act of war committed by Iran against the US. This means Israel is on its own against Iran. If Israel fails, Iran will have nuclear weapons and there is no doubt it will use them. The only question is whether it will first use them against Israel or the United States. The blood price for tonight's elections and the celebrations by Democrats will be i