Z Word

Culture, Shmulture

August 7th, 2012

One just wants to shake one’s head at the controversy over hapless presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s comments (a.k.a. “gaffe”) regarding the role of “culture” in Israeli economic success and presumed Palestinian lack thereof. (1, 2)

Predictably, many responses were rhetorically overheated. The Palestinian Authority’s dour Saeb Erekat promptly declared that Romney’s statement was “racist.” Argument over, right?

One senses here a certain resistance to any attempt at critical generalization. Still, the general reaction is readily understandable. Obviously, any purported comparison of Israeli and Palestinian economic performance that does not take into account “the occupation” and Palestinian lack of sovereignty is, uh, let us say, incomplete. Less obviously but just as important, however, there is a real argument to be had concerning the effects of “culture”—whether in the sense of collective values or of the resultant institutions and policies—on the overall “success” of societies.

Whatever role “culture” may or may not have played in the initial success of the Jewish state, it is undeniable that a change in culture in those broader senses has, in the space of a generation, helped to catapult Israel from the level of wannabee...More >>

Gaza. An Islamist Terror State On Egypt's Border

August 6th, 2012

Once again, Palestinians single-minded reliance on terrorism has backfired spectactularly. Sixteen dead Egyptian soldiers later, the Egyptian authorities may have noticed that Islamist terrorists have no compunction about murdering Egyptians for the sake of getting their hands on a couple of jeeps and explosives that achieved zilch against the "Zionist enemy".

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is the ideological precursor to Hamas, so there's no shortage of irony in this tragic situation. Will the ideologues now repudiate the terrorists who have taken MB ideas to their logical end?

Jonathan Tobin ponders the possible consequences in Commentary.More >>

Romney was Right About the Palestinian Economy

July 31st, 2012

When Mitt Romney made his comments about the "culture" of the Palestinians being at the root of their economic misery, he was struck by a whirlwind of invective. Problem is that he was right.

John Podhoretz points out in Commentary:

You want a political culture that works to create conditions under which an economy can thrive? Since signing the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, Israel has spent two decades working to unshackle its economy from its socialist roots, with remarkable results.

The Palestinians? They’ve created what the House Foreign Affairs Committee has called a “chronic kleptocracy,” with foreign aid and investment shamelessly stolen and diverted to the bank accounts of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and its gangsterish local strongmen.
More >>

Palestinians to IOC. Thanks for Supporting Our Nations's Greatest Contribution to the Olympics

July 26th, 2012

There was no moment of silence at the London Olympics to commemorate the murder of Israeli athletes in Munich by Palestinian terrorists in 1972. The President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, wouldn't have it. And that was that.

At least now Rogge knows who his friends are. The Palestinian Authority sent him a love letter this week about how much they appreciated his decision to not give in to "racism" by honoring the dead.

The PA daily does not refer to the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 as terror. In the article about Rajoub's letter, the killing of the athletes is referred to as "the Munich Operation, which took place during the Munich Olympics in 1972."

The PA is against the moment of silence because they view the murder of Israelis by Palestinians not as terror but as heroism. Palestinian Media Watch has documented the PA's ongoing policy to glorify terror and terrorists. The murder of the 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics is presented as a highlight of Palestinian "operations" and one of their great accomplishments.

The IOC ought to award itself a gold medal in the category...More >>

Israeli Firm Pleads With Website Hackers

July 25th, 2012

"If you must hack our sites, at least leave something beautiful."

McCann Digital. "Your graphic design skills are sorely lacking. May we suggest something more cheerful along these lines?"

H/T Elder of Ziyon More >>

Surfing with the Devil. A New Wave for Peace in the Middle East?

July 24th, 2012

Surfing with the Devil, Israeli Palestinian, Middle East peace, surfing Gaza In February of 2009 I arrived in the Middle East with a knapsack full of wetsuits to deliver to the Gaza Surf Club. I was motivated by a sense of utter despair over what appeared to be the hopelessness of the situation in the Middle East and a belief in the importance of a shared passion between two supposedly adverserial people.

While surfing in itself won’t solve the problems of the Middle East it does create moments of peacefulness where the so-called enemy is demystified. Peace is a political process, but luckily friendship isn’t. Initiating actions on the grassroots level between common people is a much faster way to move things. Surfing as a peaceful way of living is just perfect for this goal. Why not just go out and forget about our worries for a moment? This is what the Arabs in Israel do when they go surf, this is what the Israeli surfers do when they go out, and it’s the same for the guys in Gaza.

A year later on the...More >>

Tit for Tat

July 18th, 2012

In the mind of at least one senior American official, the Hezbollah (and ultimately, Iranian-backed) suicide bombing of Israelis on a bus in Bulgaria, is to be understood as "tit for tat".

Tit: Alleged Israeli assassinations of scientists working on a program that has a very good chance of being used by a mad regime to exterminate Jews from the Middle East (and if "Palestine" becomes a radioactive wasteland, so be it).

Tat: Murdering innocent tourists on a bus.

The equivalence should be obvious. Nothing out of the ordinary, here.

Iran's nuclear scientists are not the equivalent of high school teachers, social workers, tourists on vacation or other civilians. They're not even like other scientists. These people are not armed combatants, it is true; but if Iran was using scientists to build a 30,000-ton washing machine or television set to be dropped on Israel from outer space, would those scientists still be considered "civilian" targets?

Nuclear technology can be used to generate electricity or it can be used to build the most fearsome weapons known to humankind. Given Iran's previous threats to destroy the "Zionist entity" and Hezbollah's declared intent to hunt down every Jew they can find, Israel's killing...More >>

Jew Hunting in Bulgaria

July 18th, 2012

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon once said he hoped that the Jews would gather in Israel so he wouldn’t have to hunt them down globally. It's clear Hezbollah and their Iranian backers long ago ran out of patience for the fish-in-a-barrell mass extermination model and are on the hunt for Jews worldwide -- as they have always been, to be totally honest.

A suicide bomber boarded a bus in Bulgaria carrying Israeli passengers and blew himself up, killing 7 (so far). There were 44 people on the bus.

This took place on the anniversary of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, also likely carried out by Iranian agents.

This follows on the heels of a number of terror attacks on Israeli targets worldwide by Iranian-sponsored terrorists.

If you happen to be in conversation with someone this week who suggests that these terrorist attacks on innocent civilians are horrible but you have to understand what those Nazi Israelis are doing in Palestine... you have our permission to give them an atomic wedgie....More >>

Salon Swallows Cyanide

July 16th, 2012

Why has a popular mainstream webzine decided to partner with a website that regularly delves into anti-Semitic tropes?

Perhaps because anti-Semitism is now mainstream.

Salon partners with Mondoweiss. The poison spreads.More >>

United Nations Pays for Child Abuse in Gaza

July 12th, 2012

Actually, since taxpayers ultimately pay for the United Nations, that means you're paying for child abuse in Gaza. The abusers aren't Israeli, but Palestinian.

But rather than fun activities or education designed to promote peace or productive skills, the Hamas camps are geared toward indoctrinating and training the terrorists of the future. The 70,000 children taking part in the “We Will Live Honorably” camps are forced to undergo paramilitary training that apparently includes forcing them to walk on nails and knife blades as well as preparing them for prison.

"But wait," you say. The kids aren't being trained as terrorists in UNRWA summer camps. The reason they're in Hamas camps is because the UNRWA camps were shut down by Hamas! How can the UN still be responsible?

Thanks to UNRWA operations in Gaza, Hamas operations are effectively subsidized by the UN. The UNRWA certainly doesn't distinguish in hiring Hamas or non-Hamas personnel. In case that didn't quite sink in the first time, UNRWA doesn't discriminate against terrorists when it hires people: "Ah, I see here on your resume that you have been a member of Hamas for five years. I think we've got...More >>