Beit Shemesh - in the words of religious men

My friend David, who is a religious Jew, had this to say about Beit Shemesh.
Michael Lawrence, Israel speaker, agreed on facebook with a poster that said it's a Chillul Hashem (desecration of the name).

It's hard not to agree with both  here.  For the record, I find the actions of the Haredi at Beit Shemesh disgusting and disgraceful.  Government leaders and Rabbonim have all condemned this.  There have been mass protests, and I believe it is all long overdue.

One thing that is positive, is that these Charedi are not representative of all Charedi (a fact lost to the press).  All religions have their extremists, but I think its wrong to compare to extremists of other religions who kill people in the name of God and rule entire countries, putting down all rebellion.  These extremists are not even on the same page as that.

New Zealand Israeli Embassy Chanukah function

Very much enjoyed the Chanukah function put on by the Israeli Embassy in Wellington.  It was a joint function between the Orthodox and Progressive communities.  Whilst I have my own views on practice, it is great that the communities can work together.  Not to say that everything is perfect, as the Wellington community is only a shadow of what it once was.

We sort of gate crashed the function, but the candle lighting was beautiful, and it was good to see a lot of old faces, lots of young Israeli travellers, and a lot of children.

Wellington City Councillor accuses Mossad of orchestrating 9/11

Young but Grumpy has uncovered that a Wellington City Councillor, Bryan Pepperell has accused the Jews (Mossad) for orchestrating the 9/11 attack.

How do people with such whackpot ideas get elected???

David Shearer on Palestine

I'd not heard much about David Shearer before he became Labour leader.  Interestingly, he was based in Israel for a while, and by all accounts, was a real asshole.

Here is an article he wrote on Red Alert on Palestine from before he became Leader of the opposition. 

Some basic falsehoods:

The Palestinians have been trying to secure a state for years based on the internationally recognised 1967 borders with Israel.

Actually, no they have been refusing all peace efforts that would create a state.  At least if it meant a state alongside Israel

The longer the talks go on, the more that Jewish settlers build their homes inside a future Palestinian state – around half a million at last count with numbers growing by more than 5% a year.

The main falsehood here is "talks".  Palestinians are refusing to talk.  And the Palestinians are happy letting their population grow, and have no pressure to absorb refugees.

The issues are not that complicated. Palestinians want to determine their own future. They want freedom, just like other Arab states who we back wanting the same thing. They already conduct democratic elections. What makes it complicated is the Palestinians are occupied by Israel.

What bollocks.  If issues were not complicated, then we would have had peace in 2000.  Palestinians want all kinds of things, but peace with Israel is not necessarily one of those things!

And Israel’s tail wags the US dog. Already Obama is coming under pressure from the Republicans for not being staunch enough backing Israel.

Seriously, is this true?  A Labour minister is essentially stating that the Jews (Israelis) run the US government.

Obama doesn’t want to give Palestinians the chance of a vote, because the US will need to veto it. And that will look bad in the eyes of not only Arab states, but most of the rest of the world’s states which will support the Palestians.[sic]

And not because the Palestinians are having their own problems with violence or recognising Israel.

That’s a US problem. New Zealand should support the Palestinians simply because it’s right. It won’t solve the problem, it won’t stop more settlers building on land that’s not theirs, but it’s an important principle.

Aha, because its right.  Its right to fire rockets.  Its right to blow up buses.  And its right to blame everything on Israel.

David Shearer is Mister Nobody in parliament.  Its easy to see why.  Even the Greens make better and clearer statements than he does.  

 

Jamie Hyams elected mayor of Glen Eira CC

Great news - Jamie Hyams has been elected Mayor of Glen Eira City Council.

Jamie is an all around good bloke, and one of the few people I know who can read a persons argument and provide clear facts without resorting to emotion.

Here's a great interview with him on ABC TV about the construction of new homes in the West Bank.

Great Israel Videos from Danny Ayalon

Danny Ayalon has some great videos on Youtube.  Make it very easy to understand the peace process.

Other great videos include the Refugees and West Bank explained

NSW Greens abandon BDS

After a year of lies, the NSW Greens have finally abandoned BDS

This is after being exposed as liars, losing the unloseable elections, and some embarrassing costings released.

They are still a bunch of anti semites, but now its no longer official policy.  Good news, I think.

Israeli Dancing banned from multicultural festival

Andrew Bolt has a story about a secular group being banned from a multicultural festival.

Very much looking forward to hearing more!

Greens on Palestine

Kennedy Graham of the Greens has written an interesting article on Palestinian membership of Unesco

On the whole, I find Kennedy a LOT more level headed than Keith Locke (infamously "his colleagues Hamas").  The Greens need to be moderate towards Israel if they wish to capture the mainstream vote.  That will be a hard sell to the Green party faithful .. the ones that blame the Mossad for 9/11 and don't want Israel.

Full marks also to Kennedy for being brave enough to speak at Auckland Hebrew Congregation's election debate.

I won't post my private e-mail exchange with Kennedy, but I will note that he was surprised that Mahmoud Abbas does not want Jews living in Palestine, and didn't realise this was the case!

Occupy your Sukkah

Went down to Civic Square in Melbourne to visit the Sukkah.  It was strange, as it was right next to the Occupy Melbourne tent city.  I had a chat to the Chabadniks who were running the Sukkah.  I expected that there would have been some agro - the Occupy brigade had apparently joined the BDS protests at Max Brenners (I took my MB Coffee with me to the Sukkah).

I was surprised and refreshed to hear that the two groups actually got on well and respected each other.  The comment from the Chabadniks was that it was a free country, and they were glad they were exercising their democratic rights.  It got me thinking that perhaps the ideas of equality and fairness and charity being promoted by the Occupy Group weren't so bad.  That said, a lot of the other stuff just made no sense at all (i.e. Wikileaks and whatever other stuff).  I also felt sorry for local shopkeepers having to put up with the noise.  At least the Chabadniks had a permit!

Tom Scott's latest anti semitic cartoon

Here is Tom Scott's latest Anti Semitic Cartoon.

Also here and here

I like the star of David on the cuff of the shirt.  Clearly reference to Jews.

See how it shows that Obama is in the pocket of an unseen Jewish big brother.  Probably the Elders of Zion.  Or is it just suggesting Jews are corrupt.  It forgets to tell us that Palestinians are refusing to talk or recognise Israel.

This kind of garbage would be spiked by most editors worldwide.  In New Zealand, and because its Tom Scott, its OK.

Palmer report released

I broke the news of the Palmer Report on Kiwiblog.

Didn't get much credit.  In my opinion it looks fair.  What the hell were all those terrorists doing, looking for a fight.  The ships were loaded with Out of date medicines, defunct machinery and belligerent Jihadis.  By the time Israel passed it on, it became clear they didn't really want that junk.

I still love this song:  We con the world.

Radio NZ Rubbishes Southland Times Mossad claims

Great Mediawatch episode rubbishes the Southland Times claim of the Mossad in the Christchurch Earthquake

This was the most ridiculous piece of "journalism" I have ever heard of.  Propaganda for the anit-semites

2010 Top 10 Anti-Israel Lies

From the Simon Wiesenthal Center:
The top 10 Anti-Israel lies

Racist post on Frogblog

I've always been suspicious about posts on Green Forums that border on anti-semitism.  Often the comments will be blatant with only a cursory "tut-tut" from moderators.

Here's what I consider a smoking gun:

On the Egypt debate, Frog cannot contain himself, and calls an elected leader the "Prime Monster".  This is from the Green Party which called Hamas their "colleagues", and when pressured stated the Israelis were also their colleagues.  Apparently this is not the case.

What does he mean by "Prime Monster" anyway?  Are all the other Jews little monsters?  This is disgraceful.

For a pacifist, Toad also presents a complete turnaround on his opinion of war:

"And if the people of Egypt (as determined by genuinely democratic process) want to wage war, that is their democratic right.

But I would counsel anyone anywhere, including in Egypt, that war should be a last resort in resolving international disputes and should be engaged in only in response to serious human rights violations. "

So war is a democratic right, and he is happy to infer that war launched against Israel will be acceptable.  No mention about Human Rights abuses in Afghanistan or Iraq.  Hypocrisy majeur.

One can only hope that with the Greens new push into mainstream (and the resignation of Keith Locke), we no longer see these sentiments polluting their "values" on the environment.  More likely they will just keep them hidden away.