In Good Faith Documentary

A really interesting documentary/talk show/discussion has just come out from SBS (an Australian TV channel) which would be a good watch particularly in today’s political environment. The documentary is called In Good Faith and is about the impact of religion in faith-based schools. It goes into detail about whether religion should be taught in science classes, etc. Personally I believe that religion should have no part at all in science class because science is fact and religion is not. However I am all for religion being taught in schools especially if it is a faith-based one. I myself went to a Jewish faith based school and I really enjoyed. There was no religion in the science class but we did Hebrew up until year 8 (13-14 yo) and Jewish studies to year 10 (15-16 yo). The links below go to SBS’s media player however I have no doubt that in the future this documentary will be up on YouTube.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

An Anatomy of Surrender

Firstly, I had a really great Pesach Seder, lots of people. I got a present from my aunt, a book called Tobruk by Peter Fitzsimons which I will start reading as soon as I get the chance. In the meantime, here’s a nice piece from Bruce Bawer detailing how the West has surrended culturally to Islamism. The paper talks about how the West’s media, acedemia and artists have betrayed their ideals (namely freedom of speech) to kowtow to Islamism. The byline of this article is Motivated by fear and multiculturalism, too many Westerners are acquiescing to creeping sharia. Hat tip to LGF for this one. Here’s the link to the article.

Enough. We need to recognize that the cultural jihadists hate our freedoms because those freedoms defy sharia, which they’re determined to impose on us. So far, they have been far less successful at rolling back freedom of speech and other liberties in the U.S. than in Europe, thanks in no small part to the First Amendment. Yet America is proving increasingly susceptible to their pressures.

The key question for Westerners is: Do we love our freedoms as much as they hate them? Many free people, alas, have become so accustomed to freedom, and to the comfortable position of not having to stand up for it, that they’re incapable of defending it when it’s imperiled—or even, in many cases, of recognizing that it is imperiled. As for Muslims living in the West, surveys suggest that many of them, though not actively involved in jihad, are prepared to look on passively—and some, approvingly—while their coreligionists drag the Western world into the House of Submission.

But we certainly can’t expect them to take a stand for liberty if we don’t stand up for it ourselves.

Actually after reading this, I sometimes wonder if in Australia we should have a Bill of Rights as well in order to further cement our ideals and values to stop Islamists or some other group trying to censor what we say. If anyone here has an opinion on this feel welcome to share it in the comments section.

Happy Pesach and Chag Sameach!

Just wishing everybody a happy Pesach and Chag Sameach! I am definitely looking forward to this Pesach as my mother will be making her trademark (and best) chocolate Matza’s as well as this, the Seder which I will be going to will have around 40 people! Before I leave, here’s the link for Michael Totten’s new post about the tribes in Iraq and how the Marines are trying to use them to contain a sustainable democracy.

Captain Quintin Jones and Mayor Abu Abdullah

Also I leave you with another link to an article written by Margot Dudkevitch from Infolive.tv about the amount of weapons that are being smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the most interesting ways.

In recent months,  Iran has increased its efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip via the sea and also tunnels between Egypt and Gaza, sending the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups there not only weapons and rifles but advanced Iranian made rockets and mortar shells.

…

A report in the Jerusalem Post says that many of the weapons are too big to smuggle through the tunnels built underneath the Philadelphi Corridor linking Egypt and the Gaza Strip, and therefore resort to dropping them off the waters in Gaza in waterproof sealed tubes.

Why I Won’t Be Celebrating 60 Years Of Israel: Rebuttal

For those who have not heard of Antony Loewenstein I suggest you Google his name now. To put it bluntly every single anti-Zionist will love this guy while everyone who stands for truth will despise him. He’s just written a most ridiculous article for the ABC, read it here. Now enjoy me showing just how false Loewenstein is.

Like Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s recent apology to the
Stolen Generations, the local Jewish community celebrated the gesture
of reconciliation to the indigenous population, but as I wrote in
Haaretz remained unwilling to extend this sentiment to the
Palestinians.

Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because it is rightfully our land even though we were quite prepared to submit to the UN Resolution to divide it with the Palestinians.

The fact that Israel’s continued colonisation of the occupied territories has made a two-state solution almost impossible is unmentionable. The motion received bipartisan support.

Loewenstein talks of the settlements being a barrier to peace in the region. Let me demonstrate how that is false.

• From 1949-67, when Jews were forbidden to live on the West Bank, the Arabs refused to make peace with Israel.

• From 1967-77, the Labor Party established only a few strategic settlements in the territories, yet the Arabs were unwilling to negotiate peace with Israel.
• In 1977, months after a Likud government committed to greater settlement activity took power, Egyptian President Sadat went to Jerusalem and later signed a peace treaty with Israel. Incidentally, Israeli settlements existed in the Sinai and those were removed as part of the agreement with Egypt.
• One year later, Israel froze settlement building for three months, hoping the gesture would entice other Arabs to join the Camp David peace process. But none would.
• In 1994, Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel and settlements were not an issue. If anything, the number of Jews living in the territories was growing.
• Between June 1992 and June 1996, under Labor-led governments, the Jewish population in the territories grew by approximately 50 percent. This rapid growth did not prevent the Palestinians from signing the Oslo accords in September 1993 or the Oslo 2 agreement in September 1995.
• In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to dismantle dozens of settlement, but the Palestinians still would not agree to end the conflict.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf22a.html#b

However, Labor backbenchers were unhappy about the motion, with Julia
Irwin telling ABC radio that she found “it hard to congratulate a
country which carries out human rights abuses each day, and shows
blatant disregard for the United Nations.”

That is just blatantly false.

Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights; in fact, it is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote. Arabs currently hold 8 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Israeli Arabs have also held various government posts, including one who served as Israel’s ambassador to Finland and the current deputy mayor of Tel Aviv. Oscar Abu Razaq was appointed Director General of the Ministry of Interior, the first Arab citizen to become chief executive of a key government ministry. Ariel Sharon’s original cabinet included the first Arab minister, Salah Tarif, a Druze who served as a minister without portfolio. An Arab is also a Supreme Court justice. Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language in Israel. More than 300,000 Arab children attend Israeli schools. At the time of Israel’s founding, there was one Arab high school in the country. Today, there are hundreds of Arab schools. In 2002, the Israeli Supreme Court also ruled that the government cannot allocate land based on religion or ethnicity, and may not prevent Arab citizens from living wherever they choose.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf18.html#a

Though IDF actions have caused hardship for the Palestinian population, the IDF has continued to ensure that humanitarian assistance is provided to Palestinians in need. For example, during just one 48-hour period (January 5-6, 2003), the IDF:

• Coordinated the movement of Palestinians seeking medical care, assisting 40 to go to hospitals, including four patients from Gaza who were transferred to Israel for medical treatment.
• Coordinated the movement of 284 Palestinians in the West Bank who were transferred by ambulance.
• Coordinated the passage of building materials for the construction of a hospital in Kalkilya.
• Coordinated the passage of humanitarian goods to Bethlehem.
• Coordinated entry of ration cards sent by an international aid organization to the residents of Azoun.
• Enabled the distribution of ration cards by the Red Cross in Salfit.
• Coordinated the passage of agricultural produce and food between Muassi and Khan Yunis.
• Coordinated the passage of an UNRWA team in Gaza to aid in the disposal of rubbish.
• Arranged entry into Kalkilya for an Israeli Arab family from East Jerusalem to attend their son’s wedding.

Even at the height of military action, such as the operation to clean out the terrorist nest in the Jenin refugee camp, Israeli forces have gone out of their way to assist Palestinian non-combatants. In the case of the Jenin operation, for example, the hospital there was kept running with a generator delivered under fire by an Israeli officer. The best way to improve the situation for the Palestinians in the territories is for the Palestinian Authority to take the steps laid out by the Bush Administration — end the violence, reform its institutions, and elect new leaders — so that peace talks may resume and a settlement can be negotiated.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf18.html#l

Now are you starting to see why I abhor these people?

I joined the petition protesting the motion because it negates the
Palestinian narrative and celebrates, even white-washes, the ethnic
cleansing that took place in 1948. …

Huh? What is he on about?

The Palestinians knew, despite their rhetoric to the contrary, the Jews were not trying to annihilate them; otherwise, they would not have been allowed to evacuate Tiberias, Haifa or any of the other towns captured by the Jews. Moreover, the Palestinians could find sanctuary in nearby states. The Jews, however, had no place to run had they wanted to. They were willing to fight to the death for their country. It came to that for many, because the Arabs were interested in annihilating the Jews, as Secretary-General of the Arab League Azzam Pasha made clear in an interview with the BBC on the eve of the war (May 15, 1948): “The Arabs intend to conduct a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.”

I am sure that he is thinking of Deir Yassin well read this source and decide for yourself.

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf14.html#f

A new book by Jonathan Cook, a former Guardian journalist now based in
Nazareth, reveals the real agenda of the Jewish state and its
Washington masters. Israel and the Clash of Civilizations methodically
argues that regional chaos actually helps, not hinders, their imperial
plans. “The actual goal of the Israeli strategy,” Cook writes, is to
convince Western policy makers that “a series of civil wars and the
partition of Arab states” is beneficial to their interests. He goes
on:

Imperial plans? Why would Israel give back the Sinai, a whole heap of Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and be prepared to evacuate settlements in the West Bank if they were imperialist. Correct me if I am wrong but doesn’t ‘imperialist’ imply the invasion of other countries in order to control them… Hasn’t Israel been doing the opposite of that in the above examples?

By tying the fates of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian
territories to the US occupation of Iraq, by miring the American
forces in the same, constant human rights abuses that Israeli forces
committed daily in the West Bank and Gaza, the two projects stood or
fell together. The futures of the Israeli and US occupations became
inextricably entwined. … Zionists in Australia refuse to acknowledge a recent poll in Israel
that found a majority of citizens want to engage with Hamas. They
ignore the on-the-ground reality that leaves a two-state solution dead
in its tracks. The alternative is a truly democratic state, neither
Jewish nor Muslim.

Ignoring the first part because that was addressed above. Is Loewenstein supporting a 1 state solution? Hasn’t that already been discredited because it would involve Israel committing demographic suicide? A majority of Arabs in this ‘1 state’ would turn it into an Islamic Arab state that may as well be renamed Palestine. Tell me, was that the goal of Zionism to live in an Arab Islamic state as a minority? Hell no!

Jordanian MP’s Call To End Peace Treaty With Israel; Moses High On Sinai?

I’ve decided on a double post for today. Jordan, at the moment has the best Arab alliance with Israel. However, that could start to come into doubt in regards to this news. Hat tip: Eye On The World.

At least 38 members of the Jordanian Parliament signed a petition on Thursday calling on Jordan to end its peace treaty with Israel, according to Ansamed. The parliament refused to vote on the petition, and several Islamic MPs left the hall in protest.

Islamic Action Front (IAF) head MP Hamzeh Mansour explained that the petition was a response to Israel’s “war crimes in Gaza,” as he termed recent IDF counterterrorism operations. The IAF would need a unanimous parliamentary vote in order to begin the process of ending Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel.

Personally, I don’t think Jordan will stop its peace treaty with Israel. For one thing, both countries have worked exceptionally hard to get their relations with each other where they are now. As well as this, I doubt America would be to happy with Jordan as well. Now something slightly more interesting. For those that are atheists, I doubt you will greet this with any major surprise, for those that aren’t, well, this guy may be onto something. Hat tip to Rantings of a Sandmonkey.

High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.

Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

“As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don’t believe, or a legend, which I don’t believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics,” Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the “burning bush,” suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

“The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a clasic phenomenon,” he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to “see music.”

He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil’s Amazon forest in 1991. “I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations,” Shanon said.

He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.