RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://politicalmavens.com/

Throughout the history of western civilization, long hair has been a symbol of many things: strength, beauty, singularity, sexuality and rebellion against authority to name a few. Think of Samson, Botticelli’s Venus, Rapunzel, Lady Godiva, the Beatles, hippies, Farah Fawcett and Jennifer Aniston – two women whose careers were launched largely on the basis of their luxuriant manes and iconic hairstyles. Short hair for men in our times has been traditionally associated with the military, law enforcement and conservatism; for women, it has been a symbol of liberation, athleticism, lesbianism and androgyny. Shorn hair is most often associated with treason, punishment and prisoners, which brings me to the case of Rodney Alcala, a convicted serial killer from California who has been extradited to New York to stand trial for the 1970’s murder of two women here.

Alcala is a 68 year old man who sports long gray curly hair, hanging below his shoulders, very much in the style of hippies and rock stars. He has been behind bars since 1979 and has spent the last two years on Death Row, convicted of strangling four young women and a 12 year old girl, after sexually abusing and torturing them. Prior to 1979, he had been imprisoned for a total of 4 and 1/2 years for various offenses including the attempted murder of another child , an 8 year old girl. He is the personification of evil but instead of appearing in court with hair consistent with the status of prisoner, he has been allowed the luxury of expressing his individuality with his striking long hair belying the fact that he is a sadistic killer in the custody of the state of California and now New York. Why is a serial killer allowed more freedom that the young men and women in the military who put their lives on the line in serving their country? What must the families of the vibrant young women and children whose lives he snuffed think when they see him saunter into court flaunting his uncut hair? Would he be allowed to choose the color and style of his prison jumpsuit? His hair is as distinctive a statement as the uniform he wears and it should be proclaiming that he has relinquished his own rights of individuality by having taken the lives of five individuals – possibly seven, and potentially even more than that.

http://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/2157/Honesty-Another-Casualty-of-Afghanistan.aspx
Gotta hand to McLatchey Newspapers. After US military commanders refused to provide fire support after a hearts-and-minds mission (chatting up village elders) led to a massive ambush at Ganjgal in 2009, five Americans died (the fifth died later from his wounds) as a result of this fruitless COIN war to avoid civilian casualties. We only know about the shameful incident thanks to embedded reporter Jonathan S. Landay.

Now, McLatchey’s Jon Stephenson delivers another account that flatly contradicts The ISAF Story as peddled by top US commander Marine Gen. John R. Allen. Here, from the ISAF website, is part of Allen’s statement on last week’s Taliban assault on a hotel near Kabul:
“I am extremely impressed with the Afghan police and special response units who arrived quickly to secure the scene and liberate civilian hostages. While we provided minimal support at the request of the Afghan security forces, there should be little doubt about their ability and capability to protect the Afghan people in the years ahead.”
Wonder what the Norwegian special forces who, according to McLatchey, really repulsed the attack and secured the hotel, thought of that?
From the McLatchey report:
“Hotel siege undercuts narrative on progress in Afghanistan”
The headline is wa-aa-a-y too polite. What the siege also undercuts is the honesty of American and NATO military commanders.

German and Palestinian terrorists hijack Air France Flight 139, holding only Israeli and Jewish passengers hostage in Entebbe; Yonatan Netanyahu leads historic rescue raid.

http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=275015

On June 27, 1976, Air France Flight 139 was hijacked en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, a few minutes after leaving a stopover in Athens. The hijacking culminated in a historic raid to save the 103 Jewish and Israeli hostages, led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan, who was killed during the rescue operation.

A total of 160 passengers were on board the aircraft. The hijackers comprised two Germans from the Revolutionary Cells, and two Palestinians connected to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. On June 28 – after a brief stop in Libya – hijackers landed the plane in Entebbe, Uganda. The passengers were taken to the old terminal building of the airport where two more terrorists joined the cell.

The Israeli government appointed a special ministerial team to handle the crisis, which included then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, foreign minister Yigal Allon and then-defense minister, President Shimon Peres. Other parties involved in the diplomatic processes included former-Ugandan president Idi Amin, the Ugandan Government, and the French Government; the latter took responsibility for the Air France flight.

At first, Amin was considered someone who might collaborate with Israel due to previously friendly relations. However it soon became apparent that he and his army were cooperating with the hijackers, especially when Amin permitted additional terrorists to reinforce the hijackers.

http://www.magic-city-news.com/Michael_Devolin/Alice_Walker_s_Folly16095.shtml

THE REAL FOLLY IS THE FACT THAT THIS STUPID AND UNTALENTED WOMAN’S OPUS IS GIVEN ANY SERIOUS ATTENTION. ANY LITERARY GARBAGE, AS LONG AS IT IS POLITICALLY CORRECT IS GIVEN A PASS BY PEOPLE WHO NEVER READ RALPH ELLISON, RICHARD WRIGHT OR EARLY JAMES BALDWIN. RSK

David Horowitz, in his book Hating Whitey, wrote, “The fact is that it is not tolerable in America to hate blacks, but it is okay in our politically correct culture to hate white people.” Mr. Horowitz points out a little later that, “A paradox of the current civil rights debate is the way in which the terms of the historic conflict have been reversed. Martin Luther King Jr.’s triumphant crusade to extend America’s constitutional covenant to all citizens is today scorned by the very heirs to his legacy….It is the traditional civil rights activists who now march to oppose civil rights initiatives that seek to defend the principles for which King stood, and it is their efforts, which if successful, would put that historical process in reverse.”

It was reported in the Associated Press this past week that Alice Walker (one of those heirs to King’s legacy) has forbidden an Israeli publisher to release the Hebrew-language edition of her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Color Purple because she says “Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people.” She protests that she grew up under “American apartheid” but that the Israeli version suffered by the Palestinian people “was far worse.” How very interesting.

http://www.israelforum.com/blog_article.php?aid=4196604 (Total Score) http://docstalk.blogspot.com/2012/06/poet-in-his-heart-leader-in-his-life.html A Poet In His Heart, a Leader in His Life Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story By Nurit Greenger This afternoon, on a beautiful Californian sunny day, I spent over an hour in the darkness of a movie screening room and watched to documentary movie about the short life of Jonathan […]

When Egypt Fell — on The Glazov Gang by Jamie Glazov Nonie Darwish, Eric Allen Bell and Dr. Nancy Bonus discuss the horror of the Muslim Brotherhood taking Egypt. http://frontpagemag.com/2012/06/25/when-egypt-fell-on-the-glazov-gang/

http://daphneanson.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/french-intellectual-in-praise-of-israel.html

Unlike so many members of the “intelligentsia” in his country and elsewhere in the West, French economist and writer Guy Millière, who teaches at the University of Paris, is a staunch public champion of Israel:

“J’aime être en Israël, et j’aime le peuple israélien …. Je rentre en Europe, et en entendant ce que j’entends dire sur Israël, j’entends parler d’un pays où je ne suis jamais allé et où je ne puis me rendre, parce qu’il n’existe que dans la tête malade de ceux qui parlent.”

Perhaps it’s no accident that he’s also a conservative.

What follows are extracts, in translation from the French, of his impressions of Israel following his recent visit there for an academic conference:

“I just spent a week in Israel. It was a very short stay, and it will give me a good reason to come back – but do I need reasons to come back? The answer is no, because I love being in Israel, and I love the Israeli people.

This trip was an opportunity for me to give several lectures and meet hundreds of people. I know many of those who wanted to come hear me talk with me and could not for lack of space. I tell them this: it will only be postponed….

Being in Israel gave me the opportunity to meet friends, many, but also to immerse myself in places full of meaning. I cannot be in Jerusalem without thinking about all the spiritual past with which this town is loaded and without feeling that the harmonious beauty that is its is a much more harmonious beauty: the pervasive and palpable trace of more than two millennia of history.

I cannot take the road from Tel Aviv and not feel embraced by emotion at the thought of those who fought in the valley and the mountains to the rebirth of the country … I can only ponder the immensity of the progress in so little time … [now] one of the most modern, most innovative countries in the world.

…. The proximity of so many hostile countries around could not leave the mind. Near the edge of the Red Sea in Eilat there are three countries: Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The [Israeli] population lives calmly as if there was no threat, and one feels a quiet and determined strength in [Israel], far removed from the foolish and vile talk we can hear about it in France and Europe.

…..At the height of the Dead Sea, the road goes back between the Kingdom of Jordan and the Palestinian West Bank. It crosses Jewish villages and Arab villages. We glimpse, as elsewhere in Israel, very few police and a few soldiers. Again, the reality is far removed from the foolish and ignoble speeches you hear in France and Europe….

Arriving at Lake Tiberias … I decided to go through Nazareth, and I see that the Christian church … is surrounded by speakers spouting verses from the Koran, and placards predict the worst punishment for those who do not join the Muslim faith: traces of proselytism, the spirit of conquest and Islamic intolerance.

Along the road to Haifa, I encounter the signs of various companies, reminders that Israel is not only modern and innovative, but the first country in the world, per capita, in terms of technological innovations in several crucial areas ranging from biotechnology to medical artificial intelligence. One sees that in Israel, as in the Silicon Valley in the United States, there is rich creativity.

On the coast, cities like Netanya and Ashdod evoke in me their equivalents in California … the difference is that California is now bankrupt while Israel was not affected by the economic and financial crisis existing since 2008….

I spend an hour at Yad Vashem: I’ve already been. I come back every time, because it should never be forgotten. Strictly never.

… I go to Ofra, a Jewish town in Judea and Samaria – the first Jewish town in Judea and Samaria to have been rebuilt after Judea and Samaria were liberated from Jordanian occupation. Itamar, where the Fogel family was murdered, is nearby…. The people I meet at Ofra are kind, intelligent, forthcoming, extremely different from what is said about them in foolish and ignoble talk in France and Europe. One of them is a historian and wrote several books on Eretz Israel.

On ascending a hill, one sees throughout the region: there is land to cultivate, to build villages, huge empty spaces. Jewish villages protect themselves. If the Arabs were not impregnated with hatred and fanaticism, they could live in peace and cooperation with the Jewish villages, and they [the latter] would not have to protect themselves. I cross several times the security fence, and I write it here: it is aptly named. It is a barrier erected for safety. Hatred and fanaticism involve barrier and security measures.

I have read and listened to the inadmissible statements by Barack Obama regading “1967 borders”. I am mindful of the news: these statements do not surprise me at all. I know, since the time of the 2008 election campaign, Obama is an enemy of Israel and a friend to Islamists…. Netanyahu’s response and speech seem the least we can do … a legitimate reaction … In France and Europe, Obama is being cheered and Netanyahu booed. This is terrifyingly logic: it is consistent with the logic that I expose in Comme si se préparait une seconde Shoah.

I returned to Europe, and hearing what I hear about Israel, I hear about a country I’ve never been and where I cannot go, because it exists only in the sick head of those who speak of it.

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/
In his latest article via the antipodean J-Wire service (entitled “Palestine – Semantic Skullduggery Sinks Solutions”) Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer considers the meaning and impact of certain words and phrases.Writes David Singer:

‘The Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Information has now issued a book instructing Palestinian Arabs on the words they should use to replace ” the Israeli and American dissemination of poisoned terms”.

Palestinian Arabs are encouraged to use terms that indicate that Israel is the result of “a racist, colonialist endeavor,” and the book instructs Palestinians never to use the name “Israel” alone but instead to use the term “Israeli colonialism”.

To use “Israel” by itself is damaging, according to the PA, because to do so “describes Israel as a natural state”.

Whilst most of the misleading and deceptive terms to be employed are not new – the book highlights official PA approval and acceptance of the use of such terms in the semantic war that has been ongoing for the last 130 years – alongside the actual conflict that has been played out between Jews and Arabs during that period.

For example – the use of the term “West Bank” was introduced by Jordan in 1950 to replace the biblical names “Judea and Samaria” – names that had been used throughout the centuries and were still being used by the British Mandate authorities in 1948. This change of name has been an effective propaganda tool in trying to erase any Jewish connection with and entitlement to these areas after they were occupied by Jordan in the 1948 War of Independence and subsequently lost by Jordan to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War
Similarly the use of the term “freedom fighter” instead of the term “terrorist” has had an impact on the way the Jewish-Arab conflict has been perceived.

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/

The Kotel: For UNESCO, just a separation wall

This is how UNESCO in its World Wonders Project describes Jerusalem, the holiest of Judaism’s four holy cities, and the Western Wall, Judaism’s sacred site there, to which throughout the centuries (except when put out of bounds to them) Jews have flocked to pray:

“As a holy city for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Jerusalem has always been of great symbolic importance. Among its 220 historic monuments, the Dome of the Rock stands out: built in the 7th century, it is decorated with beautiful geometric and floral motifs. It is recognized by all three religions as the site of Abraham’s sacrifice. The Wailing Wall delimits the quarters of the different religious communities, while the Resurrection rotunda in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre houses Christ’s tomb.”

Notice the silence regarding the biblical significance of Jerusalem, the City of David.

Notice the use of the old term “Wailing Wall”, which is usually avoided nowadays. No doubt mention of the “Western Wall” would have had to have been followed by something like “which is all that remains of the Second Temple, built about 19 BCE on the site of the very much earlier one built by King Solomon.”

That would have been a reminder of its antiquity, and of the ancient Jewish presence in the Land, and that would never do.

For, needless to say, this terse, inadequate description is hardly an accident, hardly an innocent error by some bumbling, ignorant clerical assistant on UNESCO’s staff.

The entire passage constitutes an exercise in politically motivated historical revisionism, an ignoble and deliberate censorship regarding Jerusalem: its pivotal importance in Jewish history, in Judaism, and in the Jewish psyche.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ A lawless society is a depressing place to live because it’s a place completely without law. And while going lawless might be appealing, we aren’t talking about an end to laws requiring you to wear bicycle helmets or drink small sodas. Not even laws ordering you to pay recycle, pay taxes and join up […]