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.