RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/2013/06/cleansing-christians-from-the-holy-land/
Anglican Friends of Israel reflects on the significance of Hamas’s legislation which would mean the closure of Christian schools in Gaza, and urges Christian leaders in the West to start holding Palestinian leaders responsible for what happens to Christians under their jurisdiction.

Last week the Catholic Herald reported that five Church Schools (“two Catholic and three Christian”) are under threat in Gaza because of the ruling party Hamas’s intention to extend their Muslim Brotherhood-inspired version of Islam throughout their fiefdom. Their edict, which forbids the education of boys and girls together, will mean that the schools must close down because of lack of space and staff. That most of the students are Muslim matters not at all. What’s important is the segregation of male and female as far as possible.

For some, this will be the first chill wind signalling what a Palestinian state dominated by Islamists will mean for Palestinian Christians. But such folk have missed warning signs going back many years.

In 2005, the annual report on human rights abuses around the world produced by the US State Department recorded abuse of Palestinian Christians by individuals and by Palestinian institutions, such as government and the police. The report stated:

The PA judiciary failed to adjudicate numerous cases of seizures of Christian-owned land in the Bethlehem area by criminal gangs. There were credible reports that PA security forces and judicial officials colluded with gang members to extort property illegally from Christians. Several attacks against Christians in Bethlehem went unaddressed by the PA, but authorities investigated attacks against Muslims in the same area.

About this time a Roman Catholic priest in Ramallah bewailed the fact that in his experience Muslim Palestinians did not want Christians living among them.

Then there are the attacks on Christians and their property by fellow Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza, few of which were reported by Western media outlets. Bible Society official Rami Ayyad was kidnapped and murdered by Jihadists in Gaza. The YMCA in the West Bank town of Qalqilya was torched, as were church schools in Gaza.

http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/the-new-american-enemies-list/?print=1 The vast majority of the annual shooting homicides are committed by inner-city and minority youths below the age of 30. Handguns are involved in 80% of all murders. Rifles and shotguns account for less than 10% of homicides. No matter; the National Rifle Association is now blamed for generic gun violence, especially the mass […]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/17/nyc-mayor-michael-bloombergs-next-mandate-food-was/ New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s has ramped up his regulatory push in his final days of office and has a new endeavor — another one — to bring about a city filled with healthy people: food waste recycling. Food waste is “New York City’s final recycling frontier,” he said, during his State of […]

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3791/davey_s_foot_dragging_on_new_north_sea_of_gas When it comes to a once-in-a-generation shot at a new UK economic miracle it seems that the Lord giveth and Davey taketh away It’s hard to fathom. In March 2013, the UK, Europe’s largest gas consuming nation, was reportedly just “six hours from running out” of natural gas. With North Sea gas production falling […]

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3795/conference_on_bds_campaign_against_israel_to_be_held_in_london
Conference on BDS campaign against Israel to be held in London
Birbeck College will host this week a major international academic conference focused on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel

The University of London’s Birbeck College will host this week a major international academic conference looking at the issue of boycotts, with a focus on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, reports the Jerusalem Post.

Hosted by the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism at Birkbeck, in conjunction with the International Consortium for Research on Anti-Semitism and Racism, the event will span three days and will bring together an array of speakers. A number of Israeli academics will be present, as will Dr. John Chalcraft of the London School of Economics – a major supporter of the BDS movement.

“Boycotts have been a longstanding form of protest. By addressing this history from the eighteenth century to the present, the conference will break new ground,” Prof. David Feldman, director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism at Birkbeck, told The Jerusalem Poston Sunday.

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3490/which_presidents_are_right_about_government_washington_and_jefferson_or_wilson_and_obama

Which presidents are right about government, Washington and Jefferson or Wilson and Obama?

When I became interested in public policy, I thought Jimmy Carter was the epitome of a bad President. But as I began to learn economics, I realised that Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson also were terrible and belong in the Hall of Fame of bad Presidents.

And the more I studied economics and public policy, I learned that Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt were two peas in a failed big-government pod and deserve membership in that Hall of Fame too.

Or I guess we should call it a Hall of Shame. Whatever we call it, I’m now at the point where I realise that Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt are the charter members. Why? Well, because they were the first Presidents to reflect the progressive ideology.

More specifically, they shared the ideology of the progressive movement, which saw a powerful and activist central government as a force for good – a radical departure from the views of America’s Founding Fathers, who hoped that the Constitution would protect people by keeping government very small.

Not surprisingly, Barack Obama is in that “progressive” tradition, even to the point of attacking the views of the Founding Fathers in a recent speech at Ohio State University.

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3787/alicia_keys_face_slaps_anti_israel_bigotry

Hatred is defeated by art, as the brilliant Alicia Keys refuses to boycott the Jewish state

One of America’s greatest musical and artistic talents, Alicia Keys, has shown the kind of moral and artistic integrity that is so sadly lacking among some of her more excitable contemporaries, (not to say clichéd windbags unable to break free from fashionable anti-intellectual prejudice against the Jewish state).

As the World Jewish Congress (WJC) is highlighting today, Ms Keys has refused to bow to pressure from characters such as Roger Waters, of Pink Floyd fame, and Alice Walker, a Pulitzer prize winning writer.

In response to a call to boycott Israel by cancelling a July 4 concert in Tel Aviv, the singer, song-writer, and actress said: “I look forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show.”

How could one disagree? Well, one could disagree if, instead of “peace and love”, one’s primary motivation was hatred and lies.

If people such as Waters and Walker can provide a better explanation for their calls they are quite welcome to explain them here on The Commentator. Indeed, I’ll go one better: why don’t Waters and Walker let me interview them about their behaviour? Surely they wouldn’t turn down a right to reply so as better to give their own version of events. (Would any reader care to ask them?)

Meanwhile, it’s Friday, which means people are going to be beheaded today in Saudi Arabia; it’s Friday in Syria, which means men, women and children will be slaughtered to protect the Assad despotism; and it’s Friday like any other Friday in much of the rest of the world where hundreds of millions live under oppressive regimes.

But why not just ignore all that and boycott Israel, one of the most advanced democracies in the world?

Alicia Keys has explained why not, and that’s a great reason for writing to thank her for her decency, and for going out and buying one of her records today.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324520904578549751455158588.html The search for a “moderate” Iranian leader has beguiled every American President since the revolution of 1979. No such creature has ever been found. But the hunt for the unicorn seems destined to begin again with the breathless reporting that Iranians have elected 64-year-old cleric Hassan Rohani as their next president. Mr. Rohani surprised […]

http://www.ruthfullyyours.com/ How does one define a nation? That is truly the fundamental question of amnesty. The libertarian argument in favor of amnesty comes down to the question of whether nations even necessary at all. If the only characteristic that matters is freedom then borders and the other vestiges of nationhood only interfere with the flow […]

  The Israel theme runs throughout…the hero, film-maker Gil Gilels, in order to pay off his gambling debts, is in a life or death dilemma to produce an anti-Israel/anti-Semitic film for a billionaire anti-Semite. There is much more going on and I certainly can’t give out the ending. Read it…..rsk   In his usual hard-edged […]