Judeopundit

Happy Shavuos!

2012-05-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday and Monday, starting sundown Saturday night, will be the holiday of Shavuos (or Shavuot if you like), commemorating the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. One custom involves staying up the whole first night reading something called Tikkun Leil Shavuos, which contains selections from the various parts of the Torah--something from every parshah, something from every tractate of the Mishnah, the Book of Ruth, some mysticism, etc. The idea is that the Jewish people fell asleep the first time, but we can make up for it every year by staying up since a holiday is a spiritual repeat of the original event. Sometimes I make it all the way through without falling asleep, sometimes I don't.

We also eat dairy foods for the festive meal of the first day, such as the blintzes and sour cream pictured above. There are numerous explanations for this practice, but it is worth noting that blintzes and cheesecake taste good. More info here and not just about blintzes. See you Monday night (or Tuesday). Chag Sameach!

Juan Cole is worried about the safety of Tel Aviv

2012-05-24T23:50:00.001-07:00

And the big threat is Global Warming!

Some of Israel’s Mediterranean coast is sufficiently low-lying, including the city of Tel Aviv, that the rising ocean levels that will be caused by global warming will submerge them over time. In past eras, an increase of 1 degree celsius translated into 10 to 20 meters increase in sea level. Even if we can hold our present increase to 3 degrees celsius through a crash global green energy program, that would be an increase of as much as 60 meters or 180 feet. Tel Aviv will certainly end up under water if humanity goes on spewing carbon dioxide into the air at this rate–not in this century, but over time. A majority of Israeli Jews live in and around Tel Aviv. Climate change is the real existential threat, not bluster from Iran.

I don't know about you, but I think the threat from Iran is a bit more pressing.

"Supreme Leader: Collapse of Arrogant Powers Imminent" (Fars News-Iran)

2012-05-23T07:25:00.001-07:00

Some Supreme Leader blather to start your morning:

Developments in the West display that the world's arrogant powers are definitely on the verge of collapse, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday.

"The front of oppression, arrogance and bullying is weakening and on the verge of demise despite its apparent hue and cry," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing a number of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) cadets in Tehran on Wednesday.

He meantime underlined that despite the arrogant powers' decline, "the pioneering Iranian nation continues its speedy move towards more progress and materialization of justice in the decade of progress and justice".

Noting that the Iranian nation is hopeful of its future, Ayatollah Khamenei called on the country's youths to continue Iran's glorious path in the future so that the nation will reach its real eminence. [...]

Good thing he said that. They were considering deviation from the glorious path . . .

"Israel is fast becoming a Talmudic state, or a state guided by the pornographically racist Talmudic principles" (Khalid Amayreh)

2012-05-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

Here are the first three paragraphs of his latest rant:

By now, and given Israel's brazen lebensraum policies in the West Bank, along with its Shamelessly bellicose regional behavior, it should be amply clear that reaching a stable, durable and genuine peace with the Jewish state is out of question, at least for the foreseeable future.
Israel is fast becoming a Talmudic state, or a state guided by the pornographically racist Talmudic principles, whereby non-Jews, including billions of Christians and Muslims, are viewed as non-human beings.
Don't be beguiled by the Zionist hasbara, which morphs the black into white and the big lie into a "truth." Pay more attention to what Israel does, not what Israel says, because Israel is intrinsically mendacious. Israel after all is itself a big lie, a gigantic war crime, and a scandalous aberration in the history of humanity. [...]

Good for a few laughs, right? Also at the Palestinian Information Center site, the usual blather that follows peaceful visits by Israelis to the Temple Mount: "Change and Reform bloc: the storming of the Aqsa Mosque sets off alarm bells":

The Change and Reform bloc held the occupation fully responsible for allowing and protecting Zionist settlers during storming Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The bloc said in a statement, on Sunday, that the Zionist occupation continues committing crimes against the Palestinian people, lands, and holy places. Zionist settles stormed today Al-Aqsa's courtyards in Jerusalem under IOF protection as an attempt to strengthen what they claimed to be the status of the temple. These repeated Jewish attacks on the Aqsa Mosque reveal the malicious intents to demolish it to establish an alleged temple on its ruins, the statement stated.
It added that the continuing settlers’ attacks on Al-Aqsa mosque set off alarm bells for Zionist Plots against Masjid Al-Aqsa. [...]

Yeah, let's establish an alleged temple . . .

"Bin Laden died of narutal causes - ex CIA agent" (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting)

2012-05-20T15:27:00.001-07:00

That's "natural causes." More conspiracy theories from Iran:

A former agent of the CIA has revealed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has died of natural causes five years before the US announced his death.
In an interview with Russia’s Channel One, Berkan Yashar, who is also a Turkish politician, said the US has not killed the al-Qaeda leader.
“In September of 1992, I was in Chechnya, that’s when I first met the man whose name was Bin Laden. This meeting took place in a two-story house in the city of Grozny; on the top floor was a family of Gamsakhurdia, the Georgian president, who then was kicked out of his country. We met on the bottom floor; Osama lived in the same building,” Yashar said.
According to the former CIA agent, he personally knew Bin Laden’s three Chechen bodyguards, who had protected him until his death and witnessed his death on June 26, 2006.
“Even if the entire world believed, I could not possibly believe it,” Yashar said. “I personally know the Chechens who protected him, they are Sami, Mahmood, and Ayub, and they were with him until the very end.”
“Only three Chechens buried him, according to his will” in the mountains on the Pakistan-Afghan border, he said.
Yashar added that the CIA abducted one of the bodyguards, Sami, before the announced killing of Bin Laden last year.
He says the bodyguard disclosed to the US the exact place of burial in the mountains.
“There was no assault. I know the American operations from the inside: they find the grave, dig out bin Laden and tell everyone about this. They need to show how technologically the security services worked, how each step was controlled, and then present it as a great victory to show that taxpayers are not paying taxes for nothing,” he said.
Washington announced on May 2, 2011 that Bin Laden was killed by US forces in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The lack of transparency over bin Laden's death has cast further doubt over the announcement.

And you read it here first . . .

"Top Commander Reiterates Iran's Commitment to Full Annihilation of Israel" (Fars News-Iran)

2012-05-20T13:44:00.002-07:00

If only Juan Cole were here to tell us what this headline means:

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said threats and pressures cannot deter Iran from its revolutionary causes and ideals, and stressed that the Iranian nation will remain committed to the full annihilation of the Zionist regime of Israel to the end.
Addressing a defense gathering here in Tehran on Sunday, General Firouzabadi said that nations should realize the threats and dangers posed by the Zionist regime of Israel.
He reiterated the Iranian nation and Supreme Leader's emphasis on the necessity of support for the oppressed Palestinian nation and its causes, and noted, "The Iranian nation is standing for its cause that is the full annihilation of Israel."
The top military official reminded that the Iranian Supreme Leader considers defending Palestine as a full religious duty and believes that any kind of governance and rule by anyone other than the Palestinians as an instance of usurpation.
Earlier this year, Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stressed in explicit remarks Iran's direct involvement in the Palestinian and Lebanese confrontation with Israel, including the Lebanese Summer 2006 33-day resistance against the Zionist regime.
"Wherever Iran interferes, it announces it in a very straightforward manner. For instance, we interfered in confrontations against Israel, which resulted in the (Lebanese) victory in the 33-day war and (Palestinians' victory in) the 22-day (Gaza) war," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing millions of Friday Prayers worshippers on Tehran University Campus in February.
"In future too, we will support and help everyone who opposes the Zionist regime," the Leader underscored.
"The Zionist regime is a real cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut, God Willing," Ayatollah Khamenei underscored.

I would say that authorizes Israel or the Great Satan (the object of similar and closely related hatred), or both, to take the necessary action. A pinpoint strike on the nuclear program is not the only option.

Advice for Hasbarists 1: Don't trivialize or understate the Jewish connection with the Land of Israel

2012-05-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Advice for Hasbarists seems to be the rage currently. So I thought I would try my hand in a multi-part series, mainly as an opportunity to write down things I often write in comment threads on other people's blogs but not necessarily here, where I often let the things I post speak for themselves. The most obvious place to start is something that often strikes me in the statements of both anti-Zionists and defenders of Israel: a rather lame-sounding account of what the actual connection is between Jews and the land of Israel. The anti-Zionists, of course, often begin sentences something like this: "Just because your ancestors lived somewhere 2000 years ago, that doesn't give you the right to blah blah blah . . ." What makes things worse is that well-meaning supporters of Israel will write that Jews "Yearned to return to Israel for 2000 years." That may be true, but it hardly captures the significance of Israel to Jews and the Jewish part of Israel's significance to the world at large.

To cut to the heart of the matter, the connection between Jews and Israel is Divine in origin and essential to G-d's intent in creating the world. That says it all for me, but I understand the impulse to express the Jewish connection to Israel in secular term, especially since there is a whole raft of secular lies out there that should be countered. The would-be secular hasbarist who wants to tackle the subject of the Jewish connection to Israel should realize he has a subject which is hard to describe adequately in a short space.

The importance to civilization at large of the connection between Jews and Israel is impossible to overstate. The two religions in the world with largest numbers of followers, Xianity and Islam, are both spin-offs of Judiasm. Both claim to be the true religion of Moses, David, Solomon, and not surprisingly, both revere Jerusalem. You may remember those diagrams printed in many editions of Dante's Divine Comedy with Jerusalem as the center of the universe. You may recall that Blake wrote of building "Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land." Neither of those giants of world literature were thinking of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as I once jokingly remarked, although the reverence shown by Muslims for the Al-Aqsa Mosque does derive from the same thing that inspired Dante and Blake

Another problem with stating that "Jews yearned for Israel for 2000 years" and leaving it at that is the implication that Israel was off the Jewish map for 2000 years and was not the site of any actual Jewish history during that time. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Ba'alei Mesorah (or Masoretes) were still living in Tiberias and preserving the biblical text for most of the first 1000 years of that 2000 years. At the end of the 13th century, the Ramban (Nachmanides) was living in Israel, rebuilding the Jewish community in Jerusalem, and composing one of the two or three most famous Biblical commentaries in the Jewish tradition. He wrote his commentary in the world's only surviving uniquely Palestinian language: Hebrew. There was an eager audience of diaspora Jews equipped to read this Palestinian commentary since they were mostly putting more emphasis on Hebrew education than on education in the languages of the lands they inhabited. Some of these Jews were in Egypt, just across the border from Israel. Many were in other parts of the Middle East and North Africa.

In the 16th and 17th centuries the author of the Lecha Dodi prayer, the author of the Shulchan Aruch (the primary modern code of Jewish law), and Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (the Arizal, the most famous Jewish Kabbalist of the post-ancient world) all lived in Safed. Safed was repeatedly destroyed afterwards by natural disasters and various Arab raids, but the Jews kept returning there. And it took more than yearning to return. Jews gave Palestine its first printing press. Jews have been the majority population in Jerusalem, the crown jewel of Israel's towns and cities, since about 1840, i.e. from many decades before the first Zionist olim arrived until the present, since before the time we describe as "in living memory" you could say, since nobody from that time is still alive.

I could go on for a long time and I still have not touched on matters that will be familiar to many readers: the constant mention of Israel in the Jewish liturgy and scripture, the halachic distinction between chutz la'aretz (outside of Israel) and Israel and the many precepts of the Jewish religion that are only operative in the land of Israel. Israel may presently have the largest concentration of Jews in the world and quite likely, the largest concentration of Jewish children in the world. I will stop here, however. Stay tuned for Part 2.

A metaphor for thinking "land-for-peace" is a good idea

2012-05-17T21:57:00.003-07:00

"Israel becomes a target in Egypt's presidential vote" (Reuters)

2012-05-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the first paragraph:

Israel has become a punchbag for politicians vying for votes in Egypt's presidential race, playing on popular antipathy in Egypt towards its neighbor, but the realities of office are likely to ensure a 33-year-old peace treaty is not jeopardized.

And who knows better than Reuters? However, I think the Islamists will dispose of whatever is left of the treaty. Now that the gas pipeline has been taken care of, they will be able to turn their attention to border raids and so forth. Israel's inevitable acts of self-defense will be construed as "aggression," relations will deteriorate, and the seven or eight Palestinians who actually want a two-state solution will be shafted.

"Mossad agents brain washed me" (Fars News-Iran)

2012-05-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

Nice title:

Majid Jamal Fashi, a Mossad operative and assassin of IRI nuclear scientist revealed Sunday that Zionists had brain washed him by offers of money and post in such a way that he thought he was savior of world before his murderous act.

Fashi who assassinated top Iranian nuclear physicist, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi in January 2011 told IRIB minutes before execution Tuesday that the path he took ended up in frustration.

Fashi said his mind "was deviated by foreign media's empty words" which made him a dissident of the Islamic Republic and prompted him to leaver the country. He said Zionist agents, having found him as an avid seeker of money and reputation, built on his weak points and gradually turned him into a murderer and traitor.

Asked about his trainings in Israel, Fashi said the Zionists replicated the scene of assassination for him in 'Israel' as if it was a verified copy of the original. He said even the color of house door and mosaics of alleway floor were the same as in Iran.

"They only told me he (Ali-Mohammadi) was making atomic bomb and stands a threat to humanity," Fashi said, adding that they brain washed him to the extent he thought he was a savior of the Earth.

"They even called the highly strong bomb by which to kill Ali-Mohamadi a technological advance," the assassin said.

Fashi revealed that the one who first absorbed him and had him join Mossad was later killed by Mossad as his mission was over.

Fashi said following his murderous act he felt proud until reaching home however when he saw in television whom he had assassinated, he realized that all Israeli claims were false.

If only he had been reading MondoWeiss!

"Foreign Adherents to Juche Idea Laud Juche Idea, Songun Idea" (Korean News)

2012-05-15T17:25:00.002-07:00

Great news for World Progressive People!

The adherents to the Juche idea who visited the DPRK said that the Juche idea, Songun idea is the great idea in the present times whose validity and vitality have been proved in practice.

Edmond Jouve, director-general of the European Society for the Study of the Juche Idea, said that the Juche idea indicates the road for the popular masses to independently shape their destiny.

He noted that the idea is stirring up the progressive mankind including the Korean people for its scientific accuracy and truth.

The world progressive people are highly praising President Kim Il Sung, founder of the idea, as the eternal sun, he noted.

Ivan Draksler, chairman of the Slovak Association for Supporting the Juche Idea, noted that the idea is being widely disseminated worldwide, proving its vitality.

The Korean people have registered shining achievements by applying the idea, he said.

The Juche idea is the source of the Korean people's faith in independence and their tremendous strength.

The people could defend socialism while smashing the moves of the imperialist allied forces to stifle the DPRK as they have firmly maintained the independent stand in the revolution and construction, he noted.

He continued to say that the Juche idea, Songun idea is important guidelines to be followed by the countries and nations desirous of independence and progress.

Anarbek Usupbaev, chief of the Group for the Study of the Juche Idea of Kyrgyzstan, said that the Juche idea, Songun idea is the great guiding idea indicating the road ahead of mankind in accomplishing the cause of independence.

Omar Lopez, chairman of the Venezuelan National Society for the Study of the Juche Idea, expressed the will to more thoroughly arm themselves with Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism to fulfill the noble mission and duty as the pioneer of the times disseminating the progressive idea.

Not Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism-Kimjongunism? Reeducation camp for you, Omar!

Angry Arab: "In how many ways have Arabs have to express their opposition to any peace with Israel before the White Man gets it?"

2012-05-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

The actual post is about Egyptian hostility to Israel. It's ironic--most of what he means by the "White Man" consists of people who have "gotten it"--in America, anyway. The ones least likely to have gotten it are his political allies.

"Ahmadinejad: Zionists Fighting Goodness, Tormenting Entire Humanity" (Fars News-Iran)

2012-05-13T21:24:00.002-07:00

Ahmadinejad's rhetoric goes through a cycle of sorts. Sometimes he belittles the Zionist entity. Sometimes he attributes fantastic powers to it:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the Zionist regime and its affiliates as a source of torment for the entire humankind, specially the oppressed Palestinian people.

"The Zionists' existence is against goodness and is a source of evil, suffering torment" for all humanity, Ahmadinejad said, addressing a large group of people in Khorassan Razavi province, Northeastern Iran, on Sunday. [...]

And who could be more tormented than Ahmadinejad himself?

And then what happened to Safed?

2012-05-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

Anyone who is Jewishly literate has heard of the Safed Kabbalists. In the 16th and 17th centuries Safed became, perhaps, the intellectual capital of the Jewish world and was able to boast of Rabbi Yosef Karo, the author of the Shulchan Aruch; Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz, the author of Lecha Dodi; the Arizal, and other Torah-greats. We might ask, however, what happened then? Why didn't the Torah greats of the 18th century live in Safed/Tsfas? Here is part of the Wikipedia account of the subsequent history of Safed:

[...] Over the course of the seventeenth century, Jewish settlements of Galilee had declined economically and demographically, with Safed being no exception. In around 1625, Quaresmius spoke of the town being inhabited "chiefly by Hebrews, who had their synagogues and schools, and for whose sustenance contributions were made by the Jews in other parts of the world." [19] In 1628, the city fell to the Druze and five years later was retaken by Ottomans. In 1660, in the turmoil following the death of Mulhim Ma'an, the Druze destroyed Safed and Tiberias, with only a few of the former Jewish residents returning to Safed by 1662. As nearby Tiberias remained desolate for several decades, Safed gained the key position among Galilean Jewish communities. In 1665, the Sabbatai Sevi movement is said to have arrived to the town.

An outbreak of plague decimated the population in 1742 and the Near East earthquake of 1759 left the city in ruins, killing 200 town residents.[20] An influx Russian Jews in 1776 and 1781, and of Lithuanian Jews of the Perushim in 1809 and 1810, reinvigorated the community.[21]

In 1812, another plague killed 80% of the Jewish population, and in 1819 the remaining Jewish residents were held for ransom by Abdullah Pasha, the governor of Acre.[citation needed] During the period of Egyptian domination, the city experienced a severe decline, with the Jewish community hit particularly hard. In the 1834 Safed Great Plunder, much of the Jewish quarter was destroyed by rebel Arabs, who plundered the city for many weeks.

In 1837 there were around 4,000 Jews in Safed.[22] The Galilee earthquake of 1837 was particularly catastrophic for the Jewish population, as the Jewish quarter was located on the hillside. About half their number perished, resulting in around 2,000 deaths.[22] Of the 2,158 inhabitants killed, 1507 were Ottoman subjects. The southern, Moslem section of the town suffered far less damage.[23]

In 1838, the Druze rebels robbed the city over the course of 3 days, killing many among the Jews.

Starting to notice a pattern here?

"Catfish-Jowl Aspic Enjoys Popularity" (Korean News)

2012-05-12T21:12:00.001-07:00

I don't think most Americans are too worried about having to eat North Korean food, but I find it comforting that it isn't kosher:

Conspicuous among the dishes, presented to the 17th April Holiday Food Festival at the People's Palace of Culture, was the aspic made of catfish jowl.

Sliced aspic garnished with carrot and celery became the focus of the people's attention.

The dish was presented by Ju Suk Hui at Tongchonho Restaurant.

Noting that many people like to take the dish, she told KCNA:

"The catfish jowl can also be steamed, roasted and fried.

But, the people, including those with dull appetite, chose to take the aspic, because it contains all of catfish's nutrients and is well digestive as well."

Yum.

Pesach Sheni

2012-05-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

From Chabad.org:

A year after the Exodus, G‑d instructed the people of Israel to bring the Passover offering on the afternoon of the fourteenth of Nissan, and to eat it that evening, roasted over the fire, together with matzah and bitter herbs, as they had done the previous year just before they left Egypt. “There were, however, certain persons who had become ritually impure through contact with a dead body, and could not, therefore, prepare the Passover offering on that day. They approached Moses and Aaron . . . and they said: ‘. . . Why should we be deprived, and not be able to present G‑d’s offering in its time, amongst the children of Israel?’” (Numbers 9:6–7).

In response to their plea, G‑d established the 14th of Iyar as a “Second Passover” (Pesach Sheni) for anyone who was unable to bring the offering on its appointed time in the previous month. The day thus represents the “second chance” achieved by teshuvah, the power of repentance and “return.” In the words of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch, “The Second Passover means that it’s never a ‘lost case.’”

It is customary to mark this day by eating matzah, shmurah matzah if possible.

And skipping tachanun. Now go eat some shmurah matzah! Also, follow the link to Chabad.org for various elaborations on the homiletic message of Pesach Sheni: "There is always a second chance."

Angry Arab on NY Times article on Israeli Jazz: "They stole Falafil, and now Jazz is Israeli"

2012-05-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

This is an example of what I call "Helen Thomas Syndrome"--inability to see Israelis as anyhing other than European. About half of Israeli ancestry is from the Middle East. Why wouldn't Israelis eat felafel? Anyway, I particularly enjoy the way AA makes up his own transliterations for Arabic words and names that already have standard transliterations in English. Right, AA, we know you're a native speaker of Arabic.

"Anglo-Zionist financial conspiracy" (Press TV-Iran)

2012-05-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

More conspiracies than you can shake a stick at, courtesy of one "Peter Eyre - Middle East Consultant":

We are currently listening to the Bank of England chief Sir Mervyn King telling us that more should have been done to avert the current crisis!

Well, Mr. King you certainly hit the nail on the head considering that it was you that allowed our ex-PM Gordon Brown to empty the gold bullion out of the vaults of the Bank of England and send it over to the EU.

It is you Mr. King that knows all about the fraud in this country starting with our current Prime Minister, David Cameron, and its cancerous growth that has now spread amongst many senior MPs and Members of the House of Lords.

It is you Mr. King that represents the financial arm of the New World Order in Britain and you alone that allows trillions to slip in and out of this country utterly and totally unchecked.

What I find astonishing is the fact that this man has been with the Bank of England since 1990 and still has the audacity to keep saying we could have done more.

One would assume that with his knowledge base and his academic qualifications that this man would be capable of not only seeing pending collapses on the horizon but also have the ability to resolve such issues as and when they arrive.

Well, Mr. King lets just put you in the picture as to what is really happening in the world and what is happening here in the UK and why you are not doing anything about it!

Massive fraud and corruption is taking place each and everyday here in the UK and you know about it because you are part of the rot and continue to allow it to happen!

$15 trillion (equivalent to the total US debt), was transferred from the US Reserve Bank into the HSBC Bank in London and then passed on to the Royal Bank of Scotland. No one appears to know what happened to it after that but who cares. “What’s $15 trillion when shared amongst friends?”! I would also add that the total US debt is well above this amount and could be as high as three times that amount…and just to think 46 million Americans are living on US Food Coupons!

I am led to believe that another $6 trillion was given to Italy which as we all know is now under the rule of the New World Order (NWO)…otherwise known as the IMF!

What I find so frustrating is the arrogant open way that all the maggots from the NWO operate within government ranks, the banks and in the corporate sector. Gordon Bowden and I have named and shamed many of them in my previous articles with our dear Prime Minister David Cameron right up there with the best of them. However when you uncover a giant spiders web of fraud and corruption one must always try to find the spider and needless to say that spider is none other than the Rothschild’s…the big fat maggots that feed on the flesh of the British people.

One cannot put all the blame in one basket when you had such maggots as Alan Greenspan, Timothy Geithner, Ben Bernanke and the other pile of maggots called the Rothschild’s who added more fuel to the fire. Can you even imagine they were talking about moving 750,000 tonnes of gold bullion when only 1507 tonnes had only been mined at the time!

Am I getting through to you all and do you fully understand what this is all about?

Can’t you see how evil this NWO is and how they fund themselves by way of their many giant ponzi schemes that operate from the thousands of boiler rooms in almost every country in the world.

Let’s just step outside of this country for one moment and reflect on one such fraud: We all know that 9/11 was an inside job involving not only Mossad, the CIA and many people in high office but were you aware what was actually going on in the Pentagon just prior to it being hit with a cruise missile (not a Boeing)? [...] I took part in a radio debate on Monday morning at The Voice of Russia, 12 St James Square, London. The topic was “one year on after the death of Bin Laden” and the current state of Al Qaeda. The Panel was Dr. Christina Hellmich, from the University of Reading, Valentina Soria from the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies and two other guests that were outside of the studio, Lorenzo Vidino from Center for Security Studies, Zurich, Switzerland and Robert Crowley from the Risk Advisory Group.

After the initial introduction it came my turn to discuss this very controversial topic. I started by saying that Al Qaeda does not and has not ever existed and that it was all a part of the existing “Islamaphobia” to keep terrorism alive.

I thought at first that I was the thorn between two roses when it came to Christina and Valentina but it then became obvious I was listening to a sort of Zionist ideology on a ratio of 4 against 1 and that no matter what my opinion it was not going to draw any acknowledgement or acceptance from the other side, especially when I said that Bin Laden was not killed one year ago but actually died in the Military Hospital in Rawalpindi on or around the 14th of December 2001. I also went on to say that 9/11 and 7/7 were both inside jobs and also gave reference to the Madrid Train Bombing which allowed Lorenzo to go on the attack with the full support of the other three. However, having been put in a box time did not allow me to explain further on this all import issue and so I decided not to get into a slinging match and let it pass. [...]

And we'll let the rest of this article pass . . .

"Iranian Students Urge OIC to Show Swift Reaction to Quran Burning in US" (Fars News-Iran)

2012-05-01T18:52:00.002-07:00

Iranian news sites never sound so happy as when they report on Koran-burnings:

Iranian students strongly condemned desecration of the Muslims' Holy Book by a US pastor, and called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to show decisive reaction to the provocative move.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, students of the University of Quranic Sciences and Studies said that the burning of copies of the Holy Quran by US pastor Terry Joins in the state of Florida was a "plot hatched by leaders of the US and the occupying Zionist regime (of Israel)".

They said that the sacrilege of the Holy Quran was a move aimed at assessing the reaction of the Muslim world.

The statement further called on the OIC and the Iranian foreign ministry to react strongly and decisively to Jones' provocative move in a bid to stop further desecration of Islamic sanctities by others.

On Sunday, Iran condemned the Quran burning by the US pastor as an "insulting and provocative" act, and urged the United States to apologize to the Muslim World.

The Pentagon had asked Jones to refrain from burning the Qurans out of concern for the safety of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Quran burning and sacrilege of Islamic values has become a commonplace move by Americans in recent years, while the opposite has never happened and Muslims have never desecrated values of Judaism, Christianity and other divine religions.

Well, hardly ever . . .

"Kim Jong Un's Feats for Army Building" (Korean News)

2012-04-26T21:53:00.002-07:00

I don't understand how someone whose reign is still so brief could already have "undying feats" to his credit. That's what it says here:

On the army day, the servicepersons and civilians of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea pay deep respects to Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Un, who is bringing a new heyday in the history of the revolutionary armed forces.

Kim Jong Un performed undying feats for building up the Juche-based armed forces, always accompanying leader Kim Jong Il on the road of the Songun (military-first) revolution and acting his closest military aide.

He guided the armed forces to give full play to the politico-ideological might as the army of the leader and the party and developed the Juche-based military idea, theory and war methods on an overall way.

He made a signal contribution to turning the Korean People's Army into an elite army equipped with self-defensive nuclear deterrent and up-to-date military hardware.

With superb commanding art, matchless courage and toughest countermeasure, he has neutralized the enemies' military provocations and war moves.

Thanks to his Songun leadership, the KPA could create the Huichon Speed, a new Chollima Speed, and work epoch-making miracles in the drive to build a thriving nation.

After assuming the supreme commandership, he chose the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the KPA as the first stop in his field guidance. Regarding soldiers as his closest comrades-in-arms, he made inspection tours of frontline military posts and remote islets, caring so much for them.

Therefore, the men and officers of the KPA have regarded him as the dignity and destiny of the KPA, with firm faith that led by him they would always emerge victorious.

All servicepersons are now filled with resolve to devotedly defend him under the slogan "Let Us Defend with Our Very Lives the Party Central Committee Headed by the Great Comrade Kim Jong Un!" and fully discharge their mission in the struggle for national reunification and accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche.

Bleah!

"Youth Vow to Become 5 Million Human Bullets and Bombs"

2012-04-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

I assume that means their starting number is 5 million. If, say, 3 million youths became "5 million human bullets and bombs," that would be quite a trick, even for the might of Songun:

Youth and students held a meeting at the Youth Park Open-air Theatre in Pyongyang on Tuesday to vow to beat to death the group of rat-like Lee Myung Bak, the sworn enemy.

A statement issued by a spokesman for the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army was read out to be followed by speeches.

At a time when the whole mankind is unsparing of its admiration and praise of celebrations of the Day of the Sun as they fully demonstrated the invincible might of Songun Korea and the true picture of single-minded unity, the group of rat-like Lee Myung Bak perpetuated without hesitation such hideous provocations as daring hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK, they said, and went on:

The hooliganism perpetrated by this rat-like group, obsessed with confrontation with compatriots, is the crimes that put the successive ruling quarters and dictators of south Korea into the shade and a blatant challenge and a clear declaration of a war against the DPRK.

The hearts of the youth and students across the country are burning with the determination to wipe out the hysteric group, the root cause of misfortune from this land, to the last man.

Now is the time for the young people who grew up under the care of the great Songun brilliant commander to mercilessly punish the provocateurs, they declared, volunteering to join or rejoin the Korean People's Army.

Once the Supreme Commander of the KPA issues an order, the youth and students will become 5 million human bullets and bombs to deal retaliatory blows of justice to cut off the windpipes of rat-like group at a single strike and accomplish the historic cause of national reunification.

A resolution of revenge was adopted at the meeting.

Why doesn't it occur to them that if this is all just talk and they don't do anything, they'll look awfully Songun foolish?

“special actions . . . will reduce all the rat-like groups and the bases for provocations to ashes in three or four minutes”

2012-04-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, dear readers, its that time again:

The special operation action group of the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army issued the following notice Monday:

The indignation of the army and people of the DPRK at the group of rat-like Lee Myung Bak is running high.

Shouts "Destroy", "Beat to death" and "Tear to death" are ringing out on this land.

But the Lee group of traitors is still doing mischiefs, not coming to its senses.

On April 20 they toured the "Institute for Unification Studies", den of rats, in Suyu-dong, Kangbuk District, Seoul where they called for "orienting to system change in the north" if it does not give up its nuclear and missile ambitions, saying that "what is needed for the north now is not only bread but individual freedom and human rights". They have gone so impudent as to assert that "co-op farms should be disorganized and agricultural reform be effected to help improve the livelihood of the citizens in the north".

On April 19 they appeared in the puppet Scientific Institute for National Defense where they heaped praises on a few poor-looking missiles, saying they have precision and power enough to immediately strike any part of the DPRK, inviolable land. They had temerity of dare talking about "striking the supreme headquarters through office window".

Puppet Defense Minister Kim Kwan Jin and other military warmongers danced to the tune.

The situation proves that the group of traitors has long lost its reasoning power.

In the meantime, paid conservative media which had long been reduced to a waiting maid of the group of traitors, worked with blood-shot eyes to build up public opinion in favor of the rats' group.

Involved in the campaign were Dong-A Ilbo situated in the downtown Seoul as well as KBS, MBC, YTN and other media institutions.

The Lee group should have apologized for its high treasons tens of thousands of times and chosen death by itself.

This group is, however, challenging the north, grinding its teeth.

In view of the situation getting graver as the days go by, the KPA Supreme Command special operation action group issues the following notice upon authorization:

The special actions of our revolutionary armed forces will start soon to meet the reckless challenge of the group of traitors.

Those actions are an eruption of the public anger and resentment and a sacred war of all service personnel and people to protect the dignity of our supreme leadership.

Their targets are the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors, the arch criminals, and the group of rat-like elements including conservative media destroying the mainstay of the fair public opinion.

Once the above-said special actions kick off, they will reduce all the rat-like groups and the bases for provocations to ashes in three or four minutes, in much shorter time, by unprecedented peculiar means and methods of our own style.

Our revolutionary armed forces do not make an empty talk.

If you read all of that, go get a cold beer out of the fridge and reflect on your good fortune in having been born an Imperialist.

North Korea and Iran: groovin' on the same inner plane

2012-04-23T18:50:00.002-07:00

This is an article from Korean Central News Agency site, Korean News. You would think, however, that it came from Islamic Republic News Agency or some other fountain of Khomeinist blather in English because, while brief, it is an especially puerile and empty propaganda piece in which Ahmadinejad observes that "in order to successfully discharge its duty, the police should maintain good relations with the people":

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called upon the police to further enhance its role in ensuring social security and improving the traffic order. He said this at a recent national meeting of police commanding officers.

Referring to the achievements made in the field of social security in the past, he said that in order to successfully discharge its duty, the police should maintain good relations with the people.

The police should respect and protect the dignity of the people, he noted, adding that the police cannot fulfill its responsibility and duty without their assistance.

They have to be vigilant to foil all World Arrogance plots, you see.

"Punishing North Korea's people" (LA Times)

2012-04-22T16:11:00.001-07:00

Here is an editorial from the LA Times editors saying that "the United States should do its utmost to alleviate starvation and malnutrition without regard to geopolitics. Food aid should not be promised or withheld for political, diplomatic or strategic reasons." So no cut-off of food aid after North Korea immediately scheduled a missile launch in violation of the agreement they made for the food. According to the editorial:

The Obama administration says that's not what it is doing. Indeed, it is not characterizing the suspension of food aid as tit for tat for the bungled April 13 launch, which the U.S. sees as a violation of Pyongyang's promise to refrain from long-range missile launches. Rather, it argues, a regime that can't be trusted to abide by understandings about its military activities likewise can't be relied on to allow efficient distribution of food to the needy. The administration also says that, in light of North Korea's provocative behavior, it is concerned about the well-being of Americans who might be sent to that country to aid in food distribution.

Those arguments are not terribly persuasive. Though it's true that shipments of rice and beans to the North have in the past been diverted for the use of the military and their families, the suspension of food aid last week seems more like retribution for the attempted launch than a reaction to concern that the food might not get safely to its intended recipients. [...]

What exactly isn't "terribly persuasive"? Of course, North Korea will divert the food aid to party members and those "servicepoeple" we always hear about here who are rallying close around the headquarters of the revolution. Obama's denial of US reaction to the rocket-launch might be clumsy, but putting the army first is the theme of North Korea's constant boasts.

"Iran Decodes US Drone Intel" (Fars News-Iran)

2012-04-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

This is getting some coverage in the Western Press. One might as well read it from the horse's mouth:

Senior Iranian military officials announced that the country's experts have decoded the intelligence gathering system and memory hard discs of the United States' highly advanced RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft that was downed by Iran in December after violating the country's airspace.

Speaking to FNA, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Forces Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh revealed some data taken from the aircraft's intelligence system to discourage his counterparts in Pentagon who had alleged that Iranians would not succeed in decoding the spy drone's memory and intelligence devices.

"This plane is seen as a national capital for us and our words should not disclose all the information that we have very easily."

"Yet, I provide four cues in here to let the Americans know how deep we could penetrate into (the intelligence systems and devices of) this drone," he added.

Hajizadeh stated that the drone parts had been transferred to California for technical works in October 2010, adding that the drone was later transferred to Kandahar, Afghanistan in November 2010 and had a flight in there.

The commander said that the drone had experienced some technical flaws in its Kandahar flight in November, but the US experts failed resolve the problems at the time.

Hajizadeh added that the RQ-170 was then sent back to an airfield near Los Angeles in December 2010 for tests on its censors and parts, adding that the drone had a number of test flights in there.

As a forth cue to prove Iran's access to the drone's hidden memory, the commander mentioned that the spy drone's memory device has revealed that it had flown over Al-Qaeda Leader Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan two weeks before his death.

"Had we not accessed the plane's soft wares and hard discs, we wouldn't have been able to achieve these facts," Hajizadeh said, reiterating that Iran's military experts are in full command of the drone intel and hold a good knowledge of the drone parts and programs.

The unmanned surveillance plane lost by the United States in Iran was a stealth aircraft being used for secret missions by the CIA.

The aircraft is among the highly sensitive surveillance platform in the CIA's fleet that was shaped and designed to evade enemy defenses.

The drone is the first such loss by the US.

The RQ-170 has special coatings and a batwing shape designed to help it penetrate other nations' air defenses undetected. The existence of the aircraft, which is made by Lockheed Martin, has been known since 2009, when a model was photographed at the main US airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The revelation came after Russia and China asked Tehran to provide them with information on the capture US drone.

Ahmad Karimpour, an adviser to Iran's defense minister, said on Friday that Tehran has received requests from many countries for information on the RQ-170 Sentinel, but Moscow and Beijing have been most aggressive in their pursuit of details on the drone.