Double Standard

Every additional day that Jonathan Pollard continues to be in prison is proof of the double standard that is used against him.

Every additional day that the Israel- Hamas War continues will bring increasing proof of the double standard that is used against us.

I use “Mr. History” to guess at how the future will judge us.

…and speaking of the future, Happy New Year 2009!

Read More Dry Bones by Yaakov Kirschen

BTW: Here are links to the Jonathan Pollard Tragedy.
Read and CONTACT President Bush and your Congressman!
FREE POLLARD NOW!

Justice for Jonathan Pollard

The Facts of the Pollard Case

Stick up for your fellowman, you may be next!

—Ed

World Waits For Obama To Address Gaza Situation

OAHU, HAWAII (SR) – The entire world is fixated on President-elect Obama, waiting for his inspired insight that will no doubt bring Israeli hostilities to an end and usher in an era of Middle East peace and cooperation.

Armies of reporters followed the strapping President-to-be around an exclusive Hawaiian golf course as he played a round, hoping to hear the words that will resolve the conflict in Gaza that threatens to inflame the whole region.

A Hamas liaison at the golf course told Scooter’s Report: “We can’t wait much longer, the Jews are blowing up all our stuff, and Iran isn’t doing dick to help us – Obama must speak soon.”

At one point the President-elect yelled for a Secret Service agent to get him “a hot dog and a beer,” prompting a stampede of reporters to their up-link news vans in the club parking lot. Said one sobbing AP newswoman, “Finally, the words that will unite us all.”

President-elect Obama golfing in Hawaii

Read More Satire from Scooter’s Report and Humorous Comments

The Savoy Hotel (1975)

Today’s Golden Oldie is from 1975.

I pulled it out of the Dry Bones Archives because a reader left a comment on the blog yesterday to suggest it as pertinent. He did so because he remembered the “Could we be sane and the rest of the world be crazy?” line.

The 1975 cartoon was a response to a PLO terror attack in Tel Aviv a few days earlier. In a strange coincidence, that particular Palestinian atrocity was discussed in India Today (New Delhi) earlier this month:

Mumbai Terror Attacks Similar to Savoy Hotel Attack

Australian New Year Fireworks

One thing we have always done well here in Australia is New Year Fireworks displays. Where we live they had an excellent display lasting for 5 minutes in a park only half a mile away, and we watched it from our front driveway.

In Sydney they always put on a huge display, the focus being the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge, or ‘The Coathanger’ as it is affectionately called. They have two displays usually, a shorter one at 8.30 for families with young children so they can then get them home and into bed, and the longer version at midnight.

This years display at midnight lasted around twelve and a half minutes.

This series of four videos shows the full display slowed down to half speed. It was the Network Ten footage and was posted to YouTube by euromikeym.

As you can see, the focus is the Bridge but the Opera House can be seen in some of the images. People start packing the vantage points from mid afternoon, and the Harbour is also jam packed with boats of all types as well, with people making a night of it, and getting an even better vantage point.

The videos are in sequence from top to bottom.

The Incongruous Precursor

This is just one of the stories current at the moment, that of the Israeli response to the situation in Gaza.

What I just cannot understand is this.

Israel unilaterally pulled out of the Gaza Strip, and a tenuous peace plan was put in place.

Any break in that peace plan came only from the Gaza side of the border. They launched rockets indiscriminately into Israel. Those rockets fell without much warning on Israeli civilians, and the people within range in the Israeli side had sometimes only 3 seconds to find some sort of cover. Those people firing the rockets could not care less about where they were falling, and more often than not, blatantly ignored any peace plan, wilfully.

Yet, when Israel strikes back, all of a sudden there is World condemnation, over the use of a mechanised highly efficient military force to strike at those people tacitly approving the rocket launches, or not doing anything on their side to try and stop them from being launched. That condemnation is mainly over the size of the response, and the strength of force used.

Hamas tactics are to site those rocket launchers in places where there are high civilian content, so the question I have is this.

Is not this problem the direct fault of those people who wilfully draw the Israeli response to their own civilian population?

The problem lies not with Israel striking at Hamas targets, but with Hamas themselves killing their own people by their own actions.

It seems to me that more emphasis is placed on the Israeli response than on on what caused it in the first place.

All Hamas needs to do is to not fire rockets into Israel in the first place, and then there will be no response in force.

All the condemnation seems to be directed in the one direction, which in effect garners sympathy for those poor people in Gaza, most of whom would just prefer to live their lives in peace, and by extrapolation sympathy for the Hamas hierarchy themselves, which they might then equate to a victory on their part.

Hamas is killing their own people and getting sympathy for doing it.

That is what is incongruous.

Back On Deck

My good lady wife and I have been away visiting with our daughter and her family. They live in Rockhampton, 500 miles to the North of here.

A little like here, except a lot warmer and the humidity made it stickier even on top of that. We only had one day under 90 and that was only just under 90, mainly because of 8 hours of pretty solid rain in the morning and the low overcast cooled things a little. Christmas day nudged 100 for most of the daylight hours.

We are not as young as we once were, and living out of suitcases in another house is not as much fun as it once was. The company was good, but it was crowded, and hot virtually all the time.

The road trip back was horrendous, mainly because of the traffic, and on what is basically Highway One, you really get a good idea of just where your elected Governmental representatives at Local, State and Federal level are not spending our money on infrastructure.

Being away, I had very limited access to a computer, so I didn’t want to seem too pushy hogging the weel used computer in the manner I do her in our own home, and that meant I had very little chance to contribute here, so all the load has fallen on the host of the site for that period, and I would like to show my appreciation by thanking him for taking up the slack in my absence.

It’s good to be home again, and also to be able to contribute.

Holidays away are always good, but sometimes it good to get back home for a real holiday.

I would also like to wish all of you out there a Happy New Year, one that looks to have Change in it as the focal point, and we can only hope that any Change will be for the better.

Israel Hits Back

Israel has finally hit back at Gaza. The anti-Israel choir will soon be in full song.

For the Main Stream Media the genocidal war against the Jewish State is just not newsworthy …but the rage of those who would deny us the right to defend ourselves will find their way into newspaper editorials, be featured on op-ed pages, and be prominent in news coverage of Gaza.

* * *

I had planned to run a Jonathan Pollard cartoon today, but the Israeli action against Hamas caught me by surprise. Happily, it seems, it also took Hamas by surprise.

Gaza War News – An Accurate Account

Shalom from the war zone!  Our friend, Avner Boskey, an Israeli Messianic Jew here in Israel has written an accurate account of what is going on in Israel in the Gaza Strip and what led up to the attack. He has given us permission to forward his letter.  Lura & Eddie Beckford, Arad, Israel – Dec. 2008

War With Hamas – The First 40 Hours

This is a brief analysis of the war, followed by a report of details of today’s fighting, and then specific prayer requests.

The war with Hamas began at 11:30 am Israel time on Shabbat (Saturday) December 27 – the sixth day of Hanukkah (the Feast of Dedication). The Operation was given the military name ‘Cast Lead’ or Opheret yetzuka in Hebrew, referring to the leaden dreidels (sevivon or spinning tops) played with on Hanukkah. These festive tops were once made of molten lead poured into a metal mold, and a popular Hanukkah children’s song refers to a dreidl made of “cast lead”. As God would have it, this war will be identified in the annals of Israeli history as the Hanukkah war.

Israelis have a lot of experience with war, and many significant wars are connected with certain Jewish holidays. The Yom Kippur War of October 1973 began on the Day of Atonement. The First Gulf War ended in 1991 on the first day of Purim, the Feast of Esther. The Second Intifada broke out on The Feast of Trumpets in 2000. On the Ninth of Av (Tisha b’Av) in 586 BC and 70 AD, both Jewish Temples were destroyed in Jerusalem. God is still speaking to Israel and the nations by using His prophetic calendar and His feast days (see Leviticus 23:2, 4), and this includes minor feasts like Hanukkah (see Daniel 11:29-35 and Hebrews 11:34-38).

Background to this war

After Israel withdrew or retreated from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, that region was taken over by the Islamist group Hamas (‘The Islamic Resistance Movement’; for deeper background see newsletters February 2006, June 2007 at www.davidstent.org).  This group is linked with the Muslim Brotherhood, a world jihadi group ideologically connected to Osama Bin Laden. … 

Muslims Ordered To Defend Gaza Palestinians

TEHRAN (SR) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious decree ordering Muslims around the world to defend Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attacks “in any way possible.”

Answering the call, thousands of protesters in Damascus, Syria ran amok for hours like so many over-caffeinated chickens, burning Israel and U.S. flags, yelling anti-Semitic phrases, and cutting themselves with swords and knives. Authorities say no Jews were harmed, but at least 79 protesters were reported killed or injured.

Thousands of Muslims in Egypt also responded to the decree to defend Palestinians in Gaza by running through their streets waving Palestinian flags, screaming hysterically, whipping themselves with chains, and urinating on each other.

In Gaza, Hamas leader Mahmood Khaleefi called the protests “a nice gesture” but said they were so far “less than effective” at defending his troops. “The Jews are blowing the crap out of us, how ’bout a little help here,” a tearful Khaleefi implored from his bomb shelter command center.

More on this story as it develops.

Muslims run amok

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Read More Satire from Scooter’s Report and Hilarious Comments

Abolish Parole!

Common sense… at work…

(GoUpState) The attorney general is proposing to do away with parole so that violent offenders spend more time behind bars and victims of violent crimes will know how long their attackers will be behind bars when they are sentenced.

It is unreasonable for victims to have to relive their ordeals each year when they have to appear before a parole board and argue against the release of their offender. Abolishing parole would relieve them of this burden.

This makes perfect sense to me. This is the kind of common sense reform that should be made nation wide, and not just in South Carolina.

Hat Tip:

• Rob Godfrey

Culture Watch, Vol. 47

Santa and his helpers stand under palm trees at Baghdad’s first public Christmas festiv

By Nancy Morgan

---

As we come to the end of a turbulent year, a new poll pretty much sums up the state of our country: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are now the most admired man and woman in America, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. Oh well, it could be worse. In Russia, mass-murderer Stalin was just voted the third most popular Russian.

Despite the appalling decline of civil and political society, there remains much:  

GOOD NEWS:

The old media continue to ignore the impressive progress in Iraq as Baghdad celebrated its first public Christmas. The Iraqi government actually made Christmas an official holiday. Check out the huge hot-air balloon floating in the Baghdad sky, bearing a large poster of Jesus. Very cool.

More progress in Iraq: The IMF stated that improved security and a more stable political environment mean economic activity has “picked up” on the back of increased oil production and exports. You heard it here first.   The silver lining to our current economic crisis: States are being forced to economize, and even sell off some state assets (privatize) in order to raise cash. Some states are even being forced to, gasp, downsize government.

The silver lining to the Bernie Madoff scandal: A begging letter just sent out by the American Civil Liberties Union reveals that the organization is a victim of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. Cry me a river.

CULTURE:  

Israel Released Pictures of the Targets in GAZA

More Pics … 

MUMBAI VICTIMS WERE SEXUALLY MUTILATED

“Even the Rabbi and his wife at Nariman House were sexually assaulted and their genitalia mutilated” Remember, the Rabbi’s wife was pregnant.

WHY this was kept from the public?

Who are they protecting and why? Hiding it, pretending it didn’t happen? Why? Who would shield us from the truth and cover up the heinous barbarity of our mortal enemies. When Eisenhower liberated the camps he demanded the horror be photographed and documented so that no one could ever say (like Ahmadinejad and all of Islam’s dhimmi appeasers) – that it didn’t happen. We know who the enemy is; we need to be protected from those on our side that censor the truth thereby aiding and abetting the the enemy.

It is grotesque that this was not front page news as soon as the bodies were discovered. Shame on Israel for keeping their executioners’ secret. They will have to answer to a higher authority.

I think it might have been easy to deny the evil of the Nazis and their barbarism before their inconceivable atrocities were exposed. They were a most advanced, “modern” country – lovers of art, music (Wagner!) culture and technologically, they were ahead of the curve.

More information is slowly coming out about the pious Muslims that attacked Mumbai November 26th – Mumbai’s 9/11 and their depravity is unfathomable. This is pure evil. … 

Up Close With the Legislature’s Surplus

by Tim Potts

A Closer Look at the PA Legislative Surplus

One of our faithful correspondents concludes his emails with a quote attributed to Thomas Pynchon: “If they can keep you asking the wrong questions, they never have to worry about the right answers.”

This insight is bound to arise when talking about the recently released audit of the General Assembly. Without question, lawmakers have amassed a huge, ongoing surplus. Depending on how you calculate it, the surplus on June 30 was either $237.4 million (down $5 million from the previous year’s surplus) or $200.5 million (down $11 million).

The reason for the difference is that last year the Legislative Audit Advisory Commission changed its accounting practices. The change subtracts funds committed but not paid at the end of the year from the surplus on hand at the end of the year, thereby reducing the surplus shown on the books.

This does not tell the full story, though, because there are “benefits accounts” that also have growing surpluses. Last year, those House and Senate accounts grew a combined 23% to an additional $6.9 million.

Click here for the “Statement of Financial Affairs.”

For lawmakers, too much is never enough.
If the legislature were a school district, its operating surplus would be capped at 8% of its budget, or about $26 million last year. But lawmakers place no limit on themselves, so their surpluses – their excesses – at the end of the year were 62% of their budget. The goal, according to House Republican Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, is to have a full year’s budget in reserve. … 

Animal Crackers

A Classic Marx Brothers Film from 1930. Here are many of the classic jokes from Groucho Marx you may have heard over the years.

more about “Animal Crackers“

Wal-Mart Fights The Battle of The Wilderness in Virginia

by: Bill Dupray

One of the greatest privileges of living in Virginia, especially for history buffs, is that we are neck-deep in Civil War country. I live within 50 miles of some of the most significant battles, and have walked the battlefields of Bull Run (I and II), Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, and many others. The one thing that has remained nearly unblemished, especially in the face of the building boom in Northern Virginia over the past 15 years, has been the fields and vistas of the hallowed ground where tens of thousands of brave men fought and died. If you want to see the ridge where General Barnard Bee gave General Thomas Jackson his nickname of “Stonewall,” during the Battle of Bull Run, you can see it and stand on it today.

11.30 a.m. At this moment appeared General Bee, approaching at full gallop, and he and Jackson met face to face. The latter was cool and composed; Bee covered with dust and sweat, his sword in his hand, and his horse foaming. “General,” he said, “they are beating us back!” “Then, sir, we will give them the bayonet;” the thin lips closed like a vice, and the First Brigade, pressing up the slope, formed into line on the eastern edge of the Henry Hill.Jackson’s determined bearing inspired Bee with renewed confidence. He turned bridle and galloped back to the ravine where his officers were attempting to reform their broken companies. Riding into the midst of the throng, he pointed with his sword to the Virginia regiments, deployed in well-ordered array on the height above. “Look!” he shouted, “there is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!” The men took up the cry; and the happy augury of the expression, applied at a time when defeat seemed imminent and hearts were failing, was remembered when the danger had passed away.

The position which Jackson had occupied was the strongest that could be found. He had not gone forward to the crest which looks down upon Young’s Branch, and commands the slopes by which the Federals were advancing. From that crest extended a wide view, and a wide field of fire; but both flanks would have been exposed.

The crest, the wide view, and the wide field of fire are still there. You cannot see a store, gas station, or dry cleaners from that ridge. You see what Stonewall Jackson saw on July 21, 1861. (See Map on next page) 

GAZA ATTACK! Is Israel’s Idiotic Policy of Restraint FINALLY Over? + Video

For years we have been hearing the same story from the Three Stooges running Israel’s foreign policy (Livni, Barak and Mr. Comb-over himself, Prime Minister Olmert). “This time we really truly mean it, we are not going to take it any more! WE are definitely going to stop Hamas from sending rockets and mortars into the Negev communities.

FINALLY, Today at around 11:30AM an offensive was launched, with the IDF carrying out two separate waves of attacks. Some 80 warplanes and helicopters dropped 100 bombs were dropped on dozens of targets.

At a press conference announcing the operation defense Minister Barak said “There is a time for cease-fires and a time to fight, and now is the time to fight,” Barak said. “For months the IDF and security forces have been preparing for the operation that began today. I don’t want to deceive anyone,” he said. “It won’t be easy and won’t be quick. We must be resolute.”

Was it necessary? During the “Cease-fire” over 500 Rockets/Mortars were fired into Negev communities. What other country would show the kind of restraint that Israel has shown. What you will hear from the Arab countries is that Hamas had no choice, they had to deal with the occupiers. ISRAEL WITHDREW FROM GAZA IN AUGUST OF 2005. Since that disengagement there were 7,651 rockets/mortars sent from GAZA and average of over 6 per day. Will Israel finally open her mouth and show what has happened since disengagement?

What about the Civilian Casualties? Don’t forget that those civilian death counts are a propaganda tool. They are WAY inflated. The other point is that Hamas violates international law by using Human Shields. They even Brag about it: …  (See Video on next page)

Bloodiest Day for Palestinians in 20 Years

BREAKING NEWS

Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing nearly 200 people and wounding 270 others in the single bloodiest day of fighting in years. Most of those killed were security men, but civilians were also among the dead. Hamas said all of its security installations were hit and responded with several medium-range Grad rockets at Israel, reaching deeper than in the past. One Israeli was killed and at least four people were wounded in the rocket attacks. With so many wounded, the Palestinian death toll was likely to rise.

Read Here U.S. Condemns Hamas in Midst of Israeli Strikes

Read more excellent articles from Family Security Matters

Exclusive: Oval Office Watch – 12-26-08

Oval Office Watch

Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy - See Chicago slum residents protesting Barack Obama HERE.

Who We (Still) Are

Peggy Noonan, Online WSJ.com

We should experience “the current crisis” as “a gigantic wake-up call.” We’ve been living beyond our means, both governmentally and personally. “We have to be willing to face up to our problems. But we have a capacity to roll up our sleeves and get down to work together.”

What a task President-elect Obama has ahead. He ran on a theme of change we can believe in, but already that seems old. Only six weeks after his election he faces a need more consequential and immediate. In January, in his inaugural, he may find himself addressing something bigger, and that is: Belief we can believe in. The return of confidence. The end of absence. The return of the suit inhabited by a person. The return of the person who will take responsibility, and lead. Read article.

500 Million Problems for Madame Secretary

Morris & McGann, Vote.com

Now that Bill Clinton has released the list of his 205,000 donors who have given close to $500 million to his library and foundation, it is clear why he resisted releasing the list while his wife was running for president. … 

Israel’s Challenge

Mark Silverberg

I was asked recently to explain why Israel was “ghettoizing” the Palestinians by constructing a security barrier in areas that have served as transit points for terrorists entering the country. The questioner noted that, as a Jew, I should be more sensitive to the concept of a ghetto, and its dehumanizing effects on human beings. I responded that the security barrier was neither built for reasons of discrimination nor motivated by racism, but as a deterrent to protect the lives of Israelis from Palestinian suicide bombers and, in fact, it has, to a great extent, accomplished its purpose.

But the suggestion that Israel may have had racist motivations in constructing the barrier disturbed me because it seems to be a recurring theme among major international bodies. I asked the questioner why she had decided to sort Israel out for “special treatment?” After all, the security barrier that Israel has constructed to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out of its country is not unlike the security barrier constructed by the Saudis to keep the Yemeni jihadists out of their country; or the one that India has constructed along its borders with Pakistan, Kashmir and Bangladesh for the same reason;or the one that the Thais have constructed to keep the Malaysian jihadists out of their country, or the one that the U.S. is constructing to keep Mexican illegals out of our country……although I couldn’t recall the last time a Mexican self-detonated in Albuquerque, or fired missiles into Dallas or Houston.

What is disturbing here is that this anti-Israel parody goes far beyond the barrier issue. Comments such as these represent a callous disregard for fundamental justice, and perhaps even anti-Semitism cloaked as righteous indignation. For example, with the start of Ramadan (the Islamic month of fasting) in early September, Israeli forces manning West Bank check-points were instructed to avoid eating or smoking in front of Palestinians as a sign of respect, even as the Palestinians continue to use the Tomb of Joseph as a garbage dump and have urinated next to the Torah scrolls in the Cave of the Patriarchs.Further, on any given day, Israeli prisons are hosting Red Cross representatives, journalists, lawyers, prisoners’ advocates, as well as family members of convicted Palestinian prisoners, while Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas on Israeli soil, is being held in isolation and denied any and all visitation rights from lawyers, family and even the International Red Cross in violation of his human rights and international law. So, where is the international outcry for Shalit? …