Friday Afternoon Roundup - Stabbings, Cults, Good News Surpressed and Courage Among the Flames

A 20 year old girl stabbed an Arab who had been trying to assault her in Ramat Gan. As is predictable under the current government, she is the one now under arrest. This is itself a microcosm of what is happening in Israel. When the arabs attack, they get a free pass. When Israel fights back, it's condemned. When Israeli soldiers open fire on Arab attackers, they face trials and prison time. When Israeli civilians fight back, they go to jail.

And that is what perpetuates the real cycle of violence. Israeli and Western appeasement. It's appeasement that perpetuates violence. It is the suppression of those who defend themselves against Islamofascism that perpetuates the violence. It isn't Israeli violence that perpetuates Arab terrorism. It's a lack of decisive violence against Arab terrorists.

- Meanwhile in a roundup of a portion of the big blog world, Ron Paul has been caught taking a donation from the head of Stormfront, a major Neo-Nazi site. Stormfront had already endorsed Ron Paul and run ads for him. A quickly Google search shows just how much overlap there is between Ron Paul and Stormfront.

-- The New York Sun has a good article by Daniel Johnson, The New Islamists

"When Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited London this week, his British counterpart Gordon Brown tried to reassure him that Turkey was still on track to join the European Union. But Mr. Erdogan knows that this is eyewash. Islamist Turks are not prepared to make concessions on any of the ethnic problems bequeathed from the Ottoman era. Their hysterical reaction to a purely symbolic resolution on the Armenian genocide which Congress hasn't even passed yet is proof that, nearly a century later, the massacre of 1.5 million Christians by their Muslim compatriots is still unmentionable.

The new Islamists, indeed, are even more intolerant than the old Ottomans, whose observance of sharia law was lax and whose oppression of their numerous Christian and Jewish subjects was mitigated by incompetence. Turkey is now almost 100% Muslim and increasingly influenced by more militant, anti-Western forms of Islam. Turks may want access to the European economy but they do not want to be integrated into European culture. Threatening the fledgling Iraqi democracy with invasion is reminiscent of Hitler's bullying of Czechoslovakia — and the response from the West has been the same: appeasement. Sometimes, what appears to be "historic" reveals itself to be nothing of the kind."

-- IsraPundit links to a documentary by Phyllis Chesler and Nonie Darwish that is well worth watching, though it contains graphic scenes. Also at IsraPundit is Aryeh Eldad's latest report on the desecrations at the Har Habayit.

"Just before the most recent Ramadan, an electric cable leading towards El Aksa shorted. The Wakf, to whom the Temple Mount has been entrusted – perhaps it would be better to say abandoned – announced it intends to dig a five hundred meter long trench in order to replace the cable, which had been laid fifty years ago.

Temple Mount is a sensitive place – the most sensitive place in the world, says the Israeli Government and its Antiquities Authority. So sensitive that Jews are forbidden to ascent the Mount to stand for even a brief moment moving their lips in silent prayer, for fear that this will enrage a billion Moslems who will torch the whole world. The sensitivity about Temple Mount is obviously one-sided: The Arabs are sensitive; the authorities ignore the sensitivity of Jews. Therefore the director of the Antiquities Authority, Shouka Dorfman, hurriedly approved the Wakf’s request and insisted only that he would send an archeologist to watch over the work.

The Archeology Law sets the guidelines for archeological excavations in Israel and what needs to be done when other work is done at an archeological site. Of course such a dig is not left in the hands of a construction company. Expert archeologists from the Antiquities Authority dig at the site and only after they have ensured that all finds are preserved against damage, does the director of the Authority allow the work to continue. And Temple Mount is a sensitive site, and therefore the government’s legal advisor ordered that any work on the Mount can be approved only by a special ministerial committee. The Arabs told Shouka Dorfman that the work was urgent and because of the aforementioned sensitivity, he ignored the law and the orders and on his own authorized the Wakf’s tractor to dig across the entire Mount. Can anyone imagine him allowing a tractor to do something similar anywhere else in the country?"

You can read the rest at IsraPundit


-Esser Agoroth meanwhile has a post on the Cult of Rabin

"Israeli public schools put on elaborate assemblies to commemorate the anniversary of Rabin's death. The entire day is spent on discussing Rabin's "vision of peace," via the gradual destruction of the State of Israel and Jewish identity of Israeli citizens. Children discuss how [even though the Arabs have never kept a single peace agreement] the next time a peace agreement is signed with the Arabs, they will surely honor it, and the killing will stop. Israelis are to take the higher ground, demonstrated by their continual willingness to make concessions and to tolerate the deaths of its citizens,...all for the sake of peace."

-- Maggie's Notebook has an interesting exchange with the Washington Post's Robin Wright over the media's suppression of the changing upward trend in Iraq.

Now, I never mentioned "victory" in my original email to her, via her contact form", yet her claim that before she can report "differently" [good news from Iraq] depends on them reaching of "irreversible momentum" show her incredible bias as well as her complete ignorance of the Codes of Ethics journalists are supposed to use as their guidelines.

This is what is called reporting now folks.... is it any wonder that the new media is often getting the "scoops" on the dinosaur media?

Lemon Lime Moon has a good post on good news from California even among the flames because the American spirit still lives with Viva Californians

Californians are showing what Americans are made of... stern tough stuff...when disaster strikes. (New Orleans was an aberration) Over 500,000 people are evacuated in California, peacefully and without trouble or rancor. No violence, no looting, just cooperation and calm. There is so much help from average citizens with food and supplies for those evacuated that it is being turned away and some going to waste from overabundance!

The Qualcomm Stadium which housed thousands upon thousands of evacuees saw no trouble, just friendly cooperation and that California spirit. When earthquakes have hit California, the same spirit of cooperation and helpfulness has been seen.
Californians are a rare breed. Put down by many for their laid back style, they really can come through in a pinch and display a camaraderie that is wonderful."

Shabbat Shalom