Well, folks, it's the end of my week here, and I have to say that I pretty much enjoyed it, except for the minor technological glitches.

I fought the temptation to publish cat pictures, what with that being the super-cliche of blogging, but hey, there's always next time.

I'm not sure I should tell you this, but I went fairly light on most of my subjects this week. Over on my place, I have such categories as "Jew Cooties" and "Israel Derangement Syndrome," and I long ago declared my blog a "No Israel-Bashing Zone." (In a nutshell: There are enough places in the media and in the world where people bash the crap out of Israel in every possible way, and I am unwilling to provide a forum for Israel-haters on my dime.)

Now it's back to regular blogging for me, and spending my Tuesday afternoons and Sunday mornings teaching little Jews to be big Jews. So they can grow up and write for sites like Jewcy.

Mahmoud AbbasThe AP and AFP reported on Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the annual Fatah rally--held on the 42nd anniversary of Fatah's establishment, and hey, do the math and it doesn't come out to 1967--but they didn't tell you what Mahmoud Abbas really said. IMRA did, as did the Jerusalem Post.

Appealing to Palestinians to avoid civil war, Abbas said: "We are all one people regardless of differences of opinion. My top priority is to preserve national unity, because Palestinian infighting and blood are a red line that must not be crossed."

Defending his call to use weapons against Israel, he added: "We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation. It is forbidden to use these guns against Palestinians.

Funny how the AP and AFP only seem to publish the part about it being forbidden to spill Palestinian blood.

They also seem to miss the part where Abbas talks about not surrending a single grain of Jerusalem's land, and insist on the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel.

"Today more than any other day, we must hold fast to our Palestinian principles, and we will not accept a state with temporary borders," said Abbas, adding, "We will not give up one grain of [land] in Jerusalem."

Let me remind you again that 42 years ago, it was 1965, two years before the Six-Day War. There were no "Occupied Territories." There was only Israel. "Fatah" means "conquest" in Arabic, something else the media rarely points out.

Abbas is no moderate. The rifles that the U.S. is sending him will be trained on Israelis, not Hamas. But it makes a good cover for the mainstream media, and politicians who don't want to admit that the Palestinian leadership has no one that truly wants to make peace with Israel.

Bubbe MaryashaThe Brooklyn bubbe who survived Russian pogroms, Communism, and Nazis, died on Wednesday.

"Bubbe" Maryasha Garelik, who lived through the entire 20th century, surviving the pogroms of czarist Russia, Soviet anti-Semitism and Nazi terror and then dispensing her wisdom to thousands of Lubavitch Jews, has died. She was 106.

She died Wednesday night in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood and was buried Thursday at the Old Montefiore Cemetery near the grave of the ultra Orthodox sect's revered "rebbe," Rabbi Menachem Schneerson.

I'm waiting for the Jewish newspaper obituaries. The AP simply has this at the end of the article (emphasis added):

Some of Garelik's more than 500 descendants are Lubavitch emissaries in Australia, China, England, France, Panama, Poland and South Africa.

I'd really like to see that broken down by grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. But, wow. Just--wow. My grandmother's descendants haven't hit triple digits yet, and aren't likely to for a long, long time.

DoorganizerIsrael21C is an online magazine devoted to showing the side of Israel that is usually not seen in the mainstream media: The inventions, the social programs, the outreach, and the great things Israel contributes to the world.

Like video eyeglasses that promise a wide-screen TV experience in front of your nose, while still enabling you to see.

Or a lie detector program you can download to see if your Skype buddies are telling the truth.

Or the "Doorganizer," a device that hangs on your doorknob and holds your keys, mail, wallet, or anything else you seem to forget on your way out the door to work in the morning.

It's a nice counterbalance to the mainstream media, which tends to emphasize everything negative about Israel.

There are Klingons in the White House. Representative David Wu (D-Oregon) says so.

Makes you wonder what they're smoking in Oregon these days. Or at least, who's writing their speeches.

When the Israelis accidentally kill Palestinian children and civilians, it usually results in world condemnation, a UN General Assembly resolution, and thousands of stories in the media. When Palestinians deliberately kill children and civilians, it is barely even reported. Ze'ev Schiff illuminates the issue:

In recent Hamas-Fatah clashes, children have been deliberately killed. Last month, the three small children of Fatah General Intelligence officer Baha Balusha were murdered while traveling to school in their father's car. Last week, Hamas attacked the home of a senior official in Fatah's Preventive Security Service, Mohammed Gharib, in Jabalya. The officer begged the assailants to spare him and his young daughters; however, they killed him and four of his bodyguards, and seriously wounded his daughters.

A few months ago, the earth shook when Palestinian civilians were killed by the IDF's misguided artillery fire on Beit Hanun. Tempers ran high in the United Nations, and leftist organizations in Israel demanded that an international commission of inquiry be established and that the GOC Southern Command be dismissed. When Palestinians kill Palestinian children - and not by accident - no criticism is heard.

That's not even half the issue. A number of Palestinian civilians were killed by Hamas. The media buried the deaths in the middle of stories, and downplayed the atrocities.

You may recall that Hamas got civilians to form a human barrier around a terrorist's house the IDF was going to destroy. The IDF did not destroy the house, since Israel does not deliberately target civilians.

Hamas does.

G., a member of Gharib's family, joined one of the processions of unarmed civilians that was organized in an attempt to create a human barrier between the Hamas gunmen and the house. When the gunmen opened fire at the marchers, wounding dozens, he managed to escape into the surrounded building. "I went in and went upstairs, where everyone was. There were about 50 people there, in two rooms. The firing continued, and after each explosion another part of the wall or the ceiling fell," G. related.

This is the reason I started a category on my blog titled "Israeli Double Standard Time." There is one standard for Israel, and another standard for everyone else.

A religious Jew has chosen jail over house arrest because he says the house arrest ankle bracelet violates Shabbat. I think this particular case illustrates what I've thought for years: If Gentiles left us alone, our own infighting would tear us apart. Case in point: The Haredi riots.

A haredi activist arrested for allegedly pummeling opponents during a violent turf war demanded an exemption this week from wearing a house-arrest monitor on Shabbat.

But a Jerusalem Magistrate's Court judge ruled that if the man does not wear the ankle bracelet monitor at all times, he must go to jail. As a result, Avraham Zarbiv, 24, who first made a name for himself in haredi circles by spearheading an angry and sometimes violent offensive against attempts to enlist yeshiva students in the IDF, was removed this week from house arrest and imprisoned because of his punctilious observance of the Jewish day of rest.

This man is definitely no angel. And yet, the Haredi are threatening riots if he goes to jail this weekend. This would be on top of the riot they threw when a security company arrived after he took the bracelet off.

Various rabbis have given their opinion on the legality of wearing a house arrest bracelet on Shabbat.

Rabbi Haim Kanyevsky, one of the most respected in the Lithuanian community, ruled by proxy that use of the monitoring system on Shabbat was prohibited.

Metzger, quoting Kanyevsky, Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leib Landau, and Rabbi Tuvia Weiss, head of the Edah Haredit's Rabbinic Court, joined the opposition against the monitoring system. However, none of the rabbis explained why the Zomet Institute's halachic opinion was wrong.

In contrast, Zomet's Rosen explained why he permitted the use of the bracelet. "In the prisoner's house there is an electronic receiver that constantly receives broadcasts from the ankle bracelet," explained Rosen.

"The prisoner's movements do not activate anything. As long as the prisoner does not leave the perimeters of the house he remains within broadcast range of the electronic receiver and no alarm is activated. There is no difference between the ankle bracelet and any conventional battery-powered wrist watch."

I am far from an expert on Halacha, but it seems to me that in this respect, the Haredi don't have a leg to stand on. So to speak.

All good blogs should be loaded with snark. My personal favorite: Snarking the news.

500 Publishing Companies Set to Take Part in Riyadh Book Fair

And all 500 will have their own version of Mein Kampf

Number of Kids Smuggled From Yemen Falls

This is what comes under the heading of good news in Saudi Arabia. Yay, we're smuggling fewer Yemeni slaves!

Okay, the Arab News is an easy target. Let's go for some more local news sources.

Hamas reiterates non-recognition of Israel

But the Guardian will take another month to accept this, while the BBC editors and reporters are crying into their beers.

Barbaro Is `Comfortable' Following Surgery on Hoof, Doctors Say

Yes, that is a real headline. No, I did not make it up. Yes, that is a story about a horse. Yes, really. YES. REALLY.

84% of Israelis think gov't is corrupt

Huh. 84%. I think that's even more than the number of Americans who think our government is corrupt. I'm thinking Israel needs a few more checks and balances on its government agencies. Then again, name a single Israeli politician who got caught with $90,000 in cash in his office freezer.

Missiles from LebanonAccording to a story in the London Telegraph, President Bush has given the CIA the go-ahead to take down Hezbullah.

The Central Intelligence Agency has been authorised to take covert action against Hizbollah as part of a secret plan by President George W. Bush to help the Lebanese government prevent the spread of Iranian influence. Senators and congressmen have been briefed on the classified "non-lethal presidential finding" that allows the CIA to provide financial and logistical support to the prime minister, Fouad Siniora.

The finding was signed by Mr Bush before Christmas after discussions between his aides and Saudi Arabian officials. Details of its existence, known only to a small circle of White House officials, intelligence officials and members of Congress, have been passed to The Daily Telegraph.

It authorises the CIA and other US intelligence agencies to fund anti-Hizbollah groups in Lebanon and pay for activists who support the Siniora government. The secrecy of the finding means that US involvement in the activities is officially deniable.

Yeah, well, it's not so secret any more, is it, Mr. Telegraph Editor?

If this is true, it comes at a good time, because a new poll shows that 40% of Israelis don't think the IDF has the stuff to take on Hezbullah.  I can't find that poll anywhere else but at Naharnet, which is a Lebanese source, and via AFP, which is the vehemently anti-Israel French news service, so take it with a grain of salt. Or let me know if you can find another news source for those poll figures.

You can't seem to go anywhere today without running into someone who is no longer ashamed to be anti-Semitic.

Scientist James D. Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and a Nobel Prize winner, says anti-Semitism is justified, in a recent magazine interview.

Watson, 78, who lives in Cold Harbor, N.Y., tells Esquire magazine in its January edition that anti-Semitism, in some circumstances, is justified.

In an interview profile for the magazine Watson asks rhetorically, "Should you be allowed to make an anti-Semitic remark?" He answered: "Yes, because some anti-Semitism is justified. Just like some anti-Irish feeling is justified. If you can't be criticized, that's very dangerous. You lose the concept of a free society."

I feel like making an anti-Watson remark, involving swear words. But wait: There's more.

Apparently a firm believer in eugenics, Watson also feels "Ashkenazi Jews" - Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities in the area of Germany - have higher intelligence than other people.

"I've wondered why people aren't more intelligent," Watson says. "Why isn't everyone as intelligent as Ashkenazi Jews? And it may be that societies work best when there's a mixture of ability - the bright people would never be an army."

So he's an anti-Semite, a bigot, and a believer in "master race" bullshit. Plus, I wasted hours of my life in high school bio class reading his Double Helix book.

I always liked Crick better, anyway.

Khaled MashaalI love being right.

Hamas denied Wednesday that its Damascus-based political leader Khaled Meshal told Reuters in an interview that his group would consider recognizing Israel once a Palestinian state is established. (Click here for the full interview)

One hour after the Reuters interview was published, the Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad told Haaretz that Meshal said, "Israel exists- and that's a fact."

However, Hamad maintained that Meshal did not say anything about recognizing Israel. "There was no change in our stance that Hamas does not recognize Israel," he said.

Salah Bardawil, head of Hamas's parliamentary faction, told Haaretz that after checking with Meshal, it seems to be that his words were twisted and distorted.

"He didn't speak about any recognition of Israel, only a cease-fire with Israel," Bardawil said.

I have to admit, I thought it would take them longer than an hour. I figured two or three at the least. I'm slipping.

When the sun goes down on the city, the blades come out.

Rollerblades, that is. Dozens of young Israelis go blading at night. Check it out.

Stop the presses! The head of Hamas has almost, sort of, maybe, kind of recognized Israel.

Israel is a "reality" and "there will remain a state called Israel, this is a matter of fact," Hamas leader abroad Khaled Mashaal said in an interview to Reuters on Wednesday.

"The problem is not that there is an entity called Israel," he said. "The problem is that the Palestinian state is non-existent."

And Reuters is already spinning it as "recognition" of Israel.

Softening a previous refusal to accept the Jewish state's existence, Meshaal said Israel was a "matter of fact" and a reality that will persist.

"There will remain a state called Israel," Meshaal said in an interview in the Syrian capital, in what appeared to be clearest statement yet by the Islamist group on its attitude toward the state it previously said had no right to exist.

If you read further in the article, you see no change whatsoever in Hamas' stance, and Mashaal essentially says there will be none. Its charter still calls for the destruction of Israel and its replacement with an Islamic caliphate, return of all Palestinian refugees (which by now includes even third-generation Palestinians born in America, for instance), and a few shout-outs to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and even the Rotary Clubs. I kid you not. Hamas says they're Zionist organizations.

To recap: There is truly no change in Hamas' position, only in the fact that Khaled Mashaal used the words "state" and "Israel" in the same sentence. However, the news media will use this as proof that Hamas recognizes Israel. Watch for it.

Looks like they hired a new spin doctor. Countdown to Hamas denying Mashaal ever acknowledged the existence of Israel in 3,2,...

Somebody really likes Carmen Sandiego a lot. So much so that he made a video for his Taglit (Birthright) Israel trip.

I think it's kinda cute.

Harbin synagogueEhud Olmert is in China this week, discussing (among other things) the Iranian threat to Israel. But most people probably don't know that Olmert's grandparents fled to China from the pogroms in Russia. In fact, Harbin had a large Jewish population for some time. And Harbin sheltered thousands of Jews fleeing the Nazis during WWII.

Bein expressed her appreciation of the peaceful childhood she enjoyed in Harbin.

"During the war, when the whole of Europe was aflame, we enjoyed a comfortable life," she said.

By the end of the World War II, there were about 30,000 Jews in China.

"Thirty thousand people came and 30,000 people left China," said Teddy Kaufman, President of Association of Former Residents of China and Israel China Friendship Society.

"Nobody was killed," he said.

China is one of the few nations of the world that opened its doors to Jews fleeing the Holocaust. Today, China is preserving the buildings that housed the Jewish community, a thing that is almost unheard of.

Harbin has preserved the largest Jewish cemetery in East Asia, which has about 600 tombstones and includes the grave of the grandfather of the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The city's dozens of Jewish assembly halls, hotels, schools, hospitals, banks, shopping malls, dwelling houses, kindergartens and office buildings, some of which are nearly a century old, are protected by Harbin municipal government.

Some of buildings have been repaired and maintained in large scale, like the Jewish New Synagogue, which was restored in 2005.

How do you say "Thank you" in Chinese?

New JerseyDid you know the NJ state constitution forbids idiots to vote?

New Jersey is to consider cutting the word 'idiot' from its constitution so that people with some mental disabilities won't be barred from voting. State Senate President Richard Codey introduced a bill Monday that would remove language from the New Jersey constitution that was designed more than 150 years ago to prevent people suffering from mental illness or handicap from casting their vote in national, state or local elections.

Codey wants to eliminate a section that says "no idiot or insane person should enjoy the right of suffrage" and substitute with a reference to "a person who has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting."

I lived in New Jersey for most of my life. Trust me when I tell you that this clause didn't stop a single idiot from voting.

Oh, come on. You were all thinking it.

(Stolen from Omri.)

JDate modelSee the guy smirking at you over on the right? The one that looks like he's maybe sixteen years old? Say hello to JDate's current model (and please, don't tell me you're one of the suckers who thought that singles sites don't use models to advertise their product). He's been around for long enough to make me want to either smack him or make him my boytoy.

Maybe I'll just flip a coin.

Or maybe JDate can change their model before I track this one down and, uh, flip a coin. Yeah. Flip a coin.

Egged bus destroyed by terroristsFirst, the background: There was a law in Israel that granted citizenship to Palestinians from the territories who married Israeli Arabs. In 2003, a law was passed that stopped that, due to the hundreds of terrorist attacks that Israel was undergoing as a result of the second "Intifada." This law, in fact, is one of the things that people (like, say, Jimmy Carter) use to accuse Israel of human rights abuses. Never is the context given: That this law was passed as a direct result of Palestinians from the territories marrying Israeli Arabs and then creating terror cells or committing acts of terror themselves.

Now we have the numbers.

38 of the 272 suicide bombings in Israel (roughly 14 percent) were carried out by terrorists that had received Israeli citizenship in the context of family reunification, a Shin Bet official told the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee on Monday.

The committee met Monday in order to discuss the extension of a temporary law that prevents family reunification between Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza and Israeli Arabs due to security reasons.

The Shin Bet official said the figures show it is imperative that the government extend the temporary law, which will expire January 16.

Remember this the next time you hear Israel accused of human rights violations, and remember that much of the so-called violations are simply an attempt to defend Israeli citizens from terror.

Don't be surprised when you hear opponents argue that "only" 14% of the Palestinians turned out to be terrorists, so the law is still unjust because 86% of them do not. The world puts a very low price on the lives of Jews.

Gilad ShalitThis is a regular feature of my blog, but Jewcy readers may not be familiar with it. Watch the AP spin a story more positively for Palestinians as time passes.

The first headline and lede:

Militants: Captured Israeli in Good Health

 One of the Palestinian militant groups that captured an Israeli soldier last summer said the serviceman is in "good health," the first time it has given details about his condition.

The headline doesn't stay that way long. In the latest version, "Captured" becomes "Held," a word that means essentially the same thing, but that has far less negative connotations. "Kidnapped," you notice, isn't used at all.

Palestinian Militants: Held Israeli OK

One of the Palestinian militant groups that captured an Israeli soldier last summer said Tuesday that the serviceman is in "good health," the first time it has given details about his condition.

The lede is essentially the same. Something that you may not know is that the first two to three paragraphs are the ones that get into the average paper's "International" section. Most of the rest of the story is discarded. In the case of the wire services, they tend to push Israeli statements down in the middle or end of the stories. Here are the first four grafs of the above story:

One of the Palestinian militant groups that captured an Israeli soldier last summer said Tuesday that the serviceman is in "good health," the first time it has given details about his condition.

But Abu Mujahid, spokesman for the Palestinian Resistance Committees, said Cpl. Gilad Shalit would not be freed until Israel gives in to demands to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

"Gilad Shalit is in good health and is being treated according to Islamic standards of dealing with prisoners of war," he said. "He has been in custody for 6 1/2 months and we are ready to keep him for years, so long as our demands are not met."

He did not elaborate on the "Islamic standards" of treating a prisoner, nor did he offer any proof about Shalit's condition.

If you only read this AP article about why Gilad Shalit is in the hands of Palestinian terrorists, you would not know that they tunneled into Israel, threw grenades and bombs, killed two Israeli soldiers, kidnapped Gilad Shalit, and hid in the warrens of Gaza with the consent of the ruling Palestinian government, Hamas--which took part in the attacks in the first place. This is important background information, yet the deaths of the two Israeli soldiers are rarely mentioned in the AP (or Reuters) boilerplate.

End of Lesson One. I'm sure the AP will allow us to move on to Lesson Two, wherein we show the constant dehumanization of Israelis by the mainstream media. Anyone wishing to do extra credit work can click on the "Media Bias" category over at my place.

Hogan's HeroesSomething funny happened on the way to researching my last post. I discovered that two of the regular cast members fled the Nazis in the 1930's, and one of them is a survivor of Buchenwald.

Werner Klemperer's (Col. Klink) father was Jewish. Otto Klemperer, the famous conductor and composer, fled Germany in 1933 and sent for his wife and children after securing a job. Werner went on to play various Nazis in film, perhaps most notably in Judgment at Nuremberg. He only agreed to play Klink if the colonerl was portrayed as a fool who was constantly outwitted by the prisoners.

John Banner (Sgt. Schulz) had the good fortune to be out of his native Vienna on tour during the Anschluss. He made his way to America and became an actor, portraying Nazis during the war. All of his relatives in Austria died in concentration camps.

Robert Clary (Cpl. LeBeau) was deported to Buchenwald at age 16, with 12 other members of his family. He was the only survivor, however, some of his siblings remained in France. He wore long sleeves on the show to cover up his tattoo. In 1980, he discovered the need to talk about his experiences in Buchenwald and worked with the Simon Wiesenthal Center's outreach program.

One of my aunts could never see Hogan's Heroes on TV without angrily demanding we change the channel. There was nothing funny about a Nazi POW camp, she said, and she hated that Klink and Schultz were portrayed as bumbling, lovable fools. Now I wonder what she'd think if she knew that both of the actors were Jewish, and both had fled the Nazis.