Cuddebackville Citizens League

Boycott Arsenal lobby gets underway

2006-02-27T10:15:00.000Z

Osama Saeed at Rolled Up Trousers has started a boycott against Arsenal because of their involvement with Israel. I disagree vehemently with his anti-Israel reasons for doing so but support any action that makes Arsene Wenger's boys lifes difficult. Especially at this late stage of the season.

Five stars!

2006-02-26T22:03:00.000Z

It seems Sven Goran Eriksson has more sense than the Israeli government by backing the Spurs rather than our retarded and lower ranking neighbours, he has picked 5 Spurs players for the friendly against Uruguay.

There's not a single Scum player in the squad, and deservedly so. Coupled with the under-21 team that takes Tottenham's tally to 8 players on England duty next week.

Israel advertises with Osama's boys

2006-02-26T21:58:00.000Z

This is just wrong.....

Arsenal football club has signed a sponsorship deal to promote Israel as a tourist destination from next season.

The two-year, £350,000 agreement will see Israel being promoted on pitch-side billboards and television screens at Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal said it had cleared the deal with officials in the United Arab Emirates, whose national airline bought the naming rights to the new stadium.

Sorry!

2006-02-26T19:15:00.000Z

There's been a distinct lack of posting recently. I'm really sorry. Moving house is tough, and a lot of negativity is born out of uprooting yourself.

Although there has been some positives.

Eric the plant (a new Yucca I've purchased)
A fully working PC
Better transport links
A better pub down the road
Closer to my family
......and more importantly than anything else living with my fiancee.

A poison in the beautiful game

2006-02-16T15:51:00.000Z

Is Paolo Di Canio the most stupid footballer ever? Or is he just a racist arsehole?

Lazio footballer Paulo di Canio - punished in the past for giving a Nazi-style salute - has met Italians who survived the Nazi death camps.
"I've listened to the stories but I still have my ideas," the former West Ham and Charlton forward said later.

The meeting was set up by Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, who previously brought AS Roma players face-to-face with Holocaust survivors at Rome city hall.

Fans have paraded swastikas and other Nazi symbols at some Italian matches.

Fascist beliefs

The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Rome, says Di Canio has become the darling of the neo-fascist right.

On three occasions he has given a right-arm salute to the Lazio fans - which earned him a fine and a suspension from the Italian Football Association.

The salute was the trademark of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini before it was adopted by the Nazis.

Speaking after Thursday's meeting, Di Canio said: "My thoughts remain the same, but I don't want it to sound as if I believe in violence.

United Against Fascism now united with fascists

2006-02-16T15:22:00.000Z

Dear Unite Against Fascism,

Sir Iqbal Sacaranie and the UAF conference

We welcome and support the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) conference on 18 February. The rise of the BNP must be resisted and all communities under attack from the far right should be defended.

We are very disturbed to learn that Sir Iqbal Sacranie, leader of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), is scheduled to speak at the UAF conference at the TUC headquarters in London.

We stand in solidarity with the Muslim community, against anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination.

However we are concerned that Sir Iqbal and the MCB are inciting prejudice and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

As well as actively campaigning to maintain discriminatory anti-gay laws, like Section 28, in January this year, on BBC radio, Sir Iqbal publicly denounced lesbians and gay men, saying they were immoral, harmful and spread disease.

Resorting to inflammatory language barely distinguishable from the homophobic tirades of the neo-Nazi BNP, the MCB website demonises same-sex relationships as “offensive”, “immoral” and “repugnant”.
The UAF would not invite as a conference speaker someone who said that black people are immoral, harmful and spread disease, or who vilified Jewish people as offensive, immoral and repugnant. Why, then, are you giving a platform to a homophobe who says these things about gays and lesbians?

By hosting Sir Iqbal, the UAF is siding with a homophobe against gay Muslims – and the wider gay community. Your invitation to Sir Iqbal is also a sad betrayal of liberal, non-homophobic Muslims.

You would never host a bigoted Jewish or Christian leader. And if you did, we would call, with equal vigour, for them to be disinvited.

We want a broad alliance against the BNP. We support an alliance with the Muslim community. But we do not believe it appropriate for an anti-fascist movement to build alliances with homophobic hate-mongerers like Sir Iqbal and the MCB. We urge an alliance with liberal and left Muslims.
We urge you to withdraw your invitation to Sir Iqbal and the MCB, and instead invite a progressive Muslim speaker, such as Ziauddin Sardar , Sheikh Dr Muhammad Yusuf or Munira Mirza.

Sir Iqbal's views are not an isolated aberration. They are widely shared within the MCB. Another prominent MCB leader, Dr Abdul Majid Katme, was quoted by Muslim writer Anissa Helie as telling a UK conference: “Lesbianism is spreading like fire in society. We must vaccinate our children against this curse.”

The MCB is not a liberal, progressive organisation. It represents only conservative, reactionary opinion. It is not a suitable partner organisation for the movement against fascism.

On every gay human rights issue, the MCB has actively campaigned in favour of discrimination. It opposed an equal age of consent, legal rights for same-sex couples and the outlawing of homophobic discrimination in the workplace. The MCB also backed the retention of Section 28 and a ban on gay couples fostering or adopting children.

The MCB works together with right-wing Christian fundamentalist groups to promote discrimination against lesbians and gay men.

Sir Iqbal has for many years led the MCB's homophobic attacks on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.

He put his name to an MCB news release condemning the repeal of Section 28 as “giving legitimacy to so-called ‘gay families' and ‘gay marriage' through the back door,” and paving the way for councils to “spend public money on homosexual youth groups, homosexual youth workers, and homosexual festivals.”

One of the reasons the MCB refuses to participate in Holocaust Memorial Day is because it objects to the ceremony including a commemoration of what it dismisses as “the so-called gay genocide.” The MCB appears to regard the murder of gay people in Nazi death camps as unworthy of remembrance.

This year's Festival of Muslim Cultures is being funded by the Home Office and the British Council. Its aim is to showcase the diversity and richness of Muslim communities. The MCB has succeeded in demanding that the festival excludes lesbian and gay Muslims.

Sir Iqbal's homophobic views, and the MCB's opposition to LGBT equality, echo the bigotry and discrimination of the BNP.

Unite Against Fascism would not collude with racists or anti-Semites. It should not collude with homophobes either.

Yours in solidarity!

Imam Mahmoud Ayaz Araon Saeed (Muslim Affairs spokesperson of OutRage!) Adnan Ali (founder of the UK gay Muslim group, Al-Fatiha) Ali Hili (Iraqi gay Muslim refugee) Ramzi Isalam (Algerian gay Muslim refugee) Peter Tatchell (campaign coordinator, OutRage)

France condems Iran...mmmmmm

2006-02-16T12:43:00.000Z

I'd love to applaud the French I really would. But I can't. My dislike of the French is so deep.

The French foreign minister has accused Iran of pursuing a clandestine military nuclear programme.
Speaking on France 2 television on Thursday, Philippe Douste-Blazy said: "No civilian nuclear programme can explain the Iranian nuclear programme. So it is a clandestine Iranian military nuclear programme. "The international community has sent a very firm message by saying to the Iranians: 'Come back to reason. Suspend all nuclear activity and the enrichment of uranium and the conversion of uranium'.
"They are not listening to us."

The end of the world as I know it.....

2006-02-16T12:39:00.000Z

....well not quite. I'm 30 today.

I recieved some very middle age middle class presents. Went to my middle class middle income job this morning and will have a meal at a middle class middle priced eatery tonight.

Sigh.

Confuddled and old

2006-02-15T15:33:00.000Z

For not updating the blog in a while. I've been moving in to a news house with my lovely fiancee. On top of that I've also changed jobs and I'm sharing my time between London and Cardiff in the hope that'll make the transition easier.
Oh, and I'm 30 tomorrow. Ouch, I'm feeling old.

(PS the picture above is not me, but kinda reflects how old and tired I feel).

"Neo-Nazi propagand is fine with us" says MPAC

2006-02-11T16:00:00.000Z

The loony tunes at MPAC are happy to print from any Neo Nazi site and they say so!. With advocates like this, your average Muslim doesn't need any enemies.

"We have heard that an Zionists hate site and Islamaphobic blog is claiming this article is from a neo nazi website. MPACUK receives hundreds of articles from people from all over the world and does not have the resources to check which website they come from or the stand the website takes. Zionists now regularly smear any website that defends the Palestinian cause as anti Semitic; so the fact that a Zionist muslim hate blog is criticising the website can no longer be seen as evidence. We therefore will only pull articles if the article itself is in any way shape or form anti Semitic not the website it comes from."

Spurs sign Puma deal

2006-02-10T18:09:00.000Z

Tottenham Hotspur announced that Puma will become its official sponsor for the next five years, replacing current sponsors Kappa.

"Puma is a brand leader in the international leisurewear marketplace," said Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.

"I know Puma will deliver an exceptional range of clothing to our fans as well as designing a stylish new home shirt for next season that will be the first to bear Tottenham Hotspur's new brand identity."

Puma will be the official supplier of on-field, sideline, training and representation apparel.

Blame Israel

2006-02-08T14:39:00.000Z

Surprise, surprise! George Galloway Accuses Israel of Assassinating Rafik Hariri. I take my hat off to him. He's cornered the market in the 'blame Israel' game. Even his (alleged) paymasters come nowhere close to his idiocy.

I don’t believe that Syria is responsible for the death of Hariri because Syria is the main loser from this crime. States don’t normally commit acts such as that when they know, as any fool could have predicted, that the world will come down on top of them. So, I don’t believe that Syria is responsible at all for this crime. There may have been some Syrians involved, but I don’t believe that President Bashar Assad took a decision to blow up Hariri. This would be madness! Someone else is acting in Lebanon. Who that someone else is, you don’t have to look far, just a few miles. Down the highway, down the south of Lebanon, you see the very power who has both the interest and the capability of fermenting the type of chaos in Lebanon, which we have seen.

Bloody Danes!

2006-02-08T13:09:00.000Z

The Cairo Bad Boy strikes again!

2006-02-08T11:50:00.000Z

Good! The sooner he's back the better. We've missed him.

Egypt golden boy Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam has been thrown out of the African Nations Cup and suspended for six months following an on-field bust up with Pharaohs' manager Hassan Shehata on Tuesday.

Mido was substituted in Egypt's 2-1 semi-final victory over Senegal and after initially refusing to leave the pitch, in disbelief that he was being withdrawn, the Spurs striker became embroiled in a slanging match with Shehata on the touchline.

Obscenities were hurled and the 22-year-old had to be physically restrained by veteran player, and Egyptian legend, Hossam Hassan. The 74,000 strong home crowd voiced their disgust at Mido's antics with roars of 'Out! Out!'

The coach's decision to substitute Mido in the 79th minute was vindicated when his replacement Amr Zaki scored the wining goal two minutes later - booking the hosts a place in Friday's African Nations Cup final against Ivory Coast.

Anti-Union BNP launches.......a trade union!

2006-02-07T23:53:00.000Z

This has to be the funniest thing (or maybe laughable?) to come out of the British Nazi Party in ages. They've formed their own union (after years of campaigning against trades-unionism). Now I'm no fan of trade-unionism, actually I disagree with a lot of what it stands for (funding the Labour Party and its grip on their executive). So what's my answer? If you hate something don't join in. Unless you want to make yourselves look stupid. Something the little neo-Nazis at the BNP seem intent on doing.

No complainin'.....it's freedom of expression time!

2006-02-07T23:01:00.000Z

Pop queen Britney Spears' planned appearance on 'Will & Grace' has sparked outrage among Christians, who say that her role as an uptight Christian cooking host "denigrates Christianity".

The producers of the show last week announced that Spears would would appear hosting a cooking segment called 'Cruci-fixin's'.

The Sun reports that the American Family Association is calling for the episode to be cancelled because it "mocks the crucifixion of Christ" and believes the designated April 13 broadcast slot "further denigrates Christianity" because it is on the eve of Good Friday.

The Stones vs. censorship

2006-02-07T22:59:00.000Z

Nobody turns off the microphone on Mick Jagger without a fight.

Censorship of their songs during the Super Bowl halftime show was "absolutely ridiculous and completely unnecessary," the Rolling Stones said through a spokeswoman today.

I wonder which one it will be? Keef or Mick that dons the suicide belt in the name of free speech?

My suggestion is Keef. After all, if the drugs that he's taken so far hasn't killed him I doubt Semtex will either.

Hookie goes down

2006-02-07T22:56:00.000Z

Old hook hands has finally been done. The jury found the one-eyed, hook-handed cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri guilty of 11 of 15 charges against him, including soliciting murder, stirring racial hatred, possessing a terrorist document and possessing threatening or abusive recordings.

About bloody time. Hopefully that will be a warning for all the other extremist out there as well.

PS as a cherry on top of this particular cake, when Hookie finishes his porridge the Yanks want to prosecute him as well.

You're nicked sunshine!

2006-02-07T13:03:00.000Z

Wanker of the year, Omar Khayam has been arrested and faces the possibility of serving the remaining time of his drugs conviction. I'm sure there'll be a nice welcome when you get there Omar.

A man who dressed as a suicide bomber and took part in a demonstration in London against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad was arrested on Tuesday at the instigation of the Home Office.

Newspaper pictures of Omar Khayam wearing what looked like a suicide bomber's body harness and of protesters carrying placards with slogans such as "Massacre those who insult Islam" had provoked calls for the police to act.

Police said Khayam, who was on parole from prison at the time of the demonstration, was arrested in Bedford for breaching his parole conditions and had been returned to jail.

Another ironic cartoon story

2006-02-07T13:02:00.000Z

One of the cartoons that have caused a stir on the continent has stopped the press at Cardiff University.

A student newspaper has recalled its latest edition after it published a controversial cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed.

The weekly mouthpiece of Cardiff University Students' Union, Gair Rhydd, hastily pulled the publication which contained an 'informative piece' along with a caricature of the prophet of Islam.

The same cartoon sparked protests across the world when it was previously published, with other cartoons, by a Danish newspaper.

An unnamed member of the paper's editorial team, which has a potential reading audience of 21,528 students, confirmed the edition had been pulled 'for obvious reasons'.

Gair Rhydd, the winner of the Guardian Best Student Newspaper of the Year 2004/2005, is so far the only newspaper in the UK to have published

The irony? 'Gair Rhydd' means 'Free Word' in Welsh.

Angry fucking rant about LAW BREAKERS!

2006-02-07T10:00:00.000Z

Is there anyone more damaging to the Muslim cause than Martin Sullivan at Islamophobia Watch?

In this following editorial lifted from the Morning Star, people supportive of anti-racism and equality with any ounce of decency will feel angry and used. So badly are these arguments (by Sullivan and the Morning Star) expressed, that you come away wondering about the intellect and honesty of of the people involved.

Peace campaigners condemned the "racist" mass media and accused ministers of applying "double standards" against the persecuted Muslim community yesterday. The comments followed government pressure on police to carry out mass arrests of Friday's protestors in London against offensive caricatures of the Muslim prophet Mohammed. At the event, some extremists threatened "another July 7", while others dressed as suicide bombers.

If peace campaigners condemned the mass media for being racist, simply for covering what was actually happened then that's their perogative. My perogative is to label these people "bloody idiots". Was the government pressuring the police to carry out "mass arrests"? Or was it the case that they wanted the perpetrators who were BREAKING THE FUCKING LAW arrested? Oh, and so much for "some" extremists? It looked like a very organised group to me (more or likely The Saviour Sect or Al-Muj), to dismiss them as "some" seems like an attempt to minimise the amount of these idiots and to diminish the fact that they BROKE THE FUCKING LAW deliberately and were not PUNISHED.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke seized on the furore to demand that MPs back his repressive anti-terror Bill when it returns to the Commons on February 15. Mr Clarke urged support for a ban on "glorification" or "encouragement" of terrorism, which was thrown out by the Lords. He also hinted that police will shortly make a wave of arrests following the weekend demonstrations.

A 'wave' of arrests? For people who were inciting murder and gloryfying the London bombers? Good. That's what the Police and CPS are paid for.

While rejecting the extremist protest, peace campaigners joined British Muslim leaders in condemning media "double standards" and its "mirage argument" – claiming to champion freedom of speech while attacking a minority group already facing persecution.

This is really too easy. How is the British media attacking a minority group (unless of course you mean the moronic group holding up placards)? The British media didn't publish the cartoons on grounds of taste and sensitivity. The media merely asked why the Police weren't arresting people who were openly BREAKING THE FUCKING LAW!

The cartoons, caricaturing Mohammed as a terrorist and a killer, were first published by right-wing Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September. The images have since been reprinted in many European countries, such as France and Norway, by other right-wing titles.

But not by British papers! So why excuse the fuckwits who held up banners supporting the London bombers?

The entire episode is taking place at the height of Western aggression in the Middle East, with the ongoing war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan joined by recent threats from the international community to cut funds to the Palestinian government over the recent election of Hamas.

What has that got to do with the idiots who openly BROKE THE FUCKING LAW while the Police stood around doing sweet FA. Are you justifying their twattish actions by mentioning Palestine, Afghanistand and Iraq? Where were these retards with their banners when Iraq and Afghanistan was invaded. These twats are Al-Muj rent-a-crowd. they don't give aflying fig about their Muslim 'brothers'. They're the Islamic equivalent of the BNP. Always looking to stir trouble, never looking to provide answers and support to their own community.

Campaigners branded the action "racial stereotyping", likening the images to those of Jews by anti-semites and nazis in the early to mid-20th century. Respect national secretary John Rees said that Islamophobia has become "the last acceptable form of racism". He said: "If this were a cartoon of a hook-nosed Jew counting money, the liberal press would be, rightly, full of angry editorials denouncing the racism of such images."

Likening it to images of Jews by anti-Semites and Nazis? How about the numerous examples of anti-semitic images by the Islamic world...... now in this present day? How about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion being passed off as fact in Arab literature, newspapers and websites. How many embassies have Jewish people burned down lately? How many people have been killed because of anti-semitic cartoons? How many Jews have stood on street corners demanding the murder of cartoonists?

What should I expect from the Morning Star? Not much I supppose, but at least they picked their side. They're actively anti-Muslim.....by supporting the myth that it's the media and western world are to blame for the extremist Muslims BREAKING THE FUCKING LAW they're putting at risk the millions of Muslims who don't support death and destruction, the Muslims who were equally disgusted by the freaks on parade on most front pages.

(Perhaps next time to encourage the Police to do their job, instead of dressing up as suicide bombers, the extremists should be encouraged to wear Burberry and Stone Island. On a Saturday before a kick off at any football leagure ground this guarantees arrest/beating/banning order)

Freedom of speech

2006-02-07T00:27:00.000Z

Luckily the Stones didn't have any songs about Mohammed.

FOUR decades after being censored by The Ed Sullivan Show, the Rolling Stones — average age 62 — once again were told that their lyrics were too sexually explicit, when they performed three songs at the Super Bowl in Detroit.

During a 12-minute set in front of 72,000 football fans and about 1 billion television viewers on Sunday, editors at the National Football League turned down Mick Jagger’s microphone as he sang a sexually explicit line during Start Me Up (“You make a dead man come”). The frontman also went mute during a farmyard reference to “cocks”, which was sung with an obvious double meaning.

Reports initially suggested that ABC Television had used a five-second delay to edit out the offending lines. But it later emerged that the NFL’s production company had been responsible for turning down the microphone, a move that had been agreed with the Stones. “We agreed upon it earlier this week. They were fine with it,” an NFL spokesman said. “If we had missed it, then ABC had five seconds to hit the button.”

Before the show, Jagger said: “I think the Stones have moved closer to American mainstream culture and I think America has changed since we first came here. Hopefully, both of us still have our core values intact.”

Super Bowl XL

2006-02-06T20:19:00.000Z

Here's some links to coverage of the Super Bowl and here's my review:

It doesn't half go on doesn't it. Not as interesting as Rugby League.....but the cheerleaders are hot! Time for bed.....

Goodbye 'grandpa'

2006-02-06T20:05:00.000Z

Actor-comedian Al Lewis, who played Grandpa on the famed 1960s sitcom "The Munsters," died Friday night, friends said yesterday.

Lewis was widely reported to have been born in 1910, but his son Ted said yesterday that his father was born in 1923 and was 82. With an unforgettable face and an ever-present cigar, in his later years "Grandpa Al" became a popular New York restaurant owner who was active in politics and even ran for governor.

Lewis was born Albert Meister in upstate New York and was raised in Brooklyn. He worked as a salesman, waiter, poolroom owner, store detective, circus clown and vaudeville performer, and along the way he earned a Ph.D. in child psychology from Columbia University.

Then television made him famous, first in the role of Officer Leo Schnauser on the police sitcom "Car 54, Where Are You?" - which ran from 1961 to 1963 - and then as the vampire Grandpa Munster on "The Munsters" from 1964 to 1966.

"The Munsters" especially has enjoyed an extended life in reruns worldwide.

"You have no idea of the love I get from total strangers because of 'The Munsters,' " Lewis once told the Daily News.

Later, he ran a brokerage firm in Los Angeles for a time and made cameo appearances in a number of Hollywood films, including "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Married to the Mob."

Striker keen on Spurs move

2006-02-06T20:02:00.000Z

LuaLua wants Tottenham Hotspur move

Despite the recent quality additions to the Portsmouth squad during the January transfer window, LuaLua is hoping his future lies at White Hart Lane and not Fratton Park.

"I have one year left on my contract, then I may see my future at another club," LuaLua told the Star on Sunday. "Talks are taking place between Spurs and Pompey, but nothing has been settled yet.

"Portsmouth may sell my contract if they receive a better offer, but I wish to join Tottenham. I have been a Spurs fan since I was very young and I want to play alongside Mido, who I respect very much."

Gorgeous George banned

2006-02-04T11:58:00.000Z

Remember George Galloway pleading his case in the CBB competition, the case that he was most famous because billions of Muslims knew and repected him. Well, somebody obviously didn't tell him about Egypt!

Egyptian immigration officials prevented MP George Galloway from entering the country on Friday night because he is on a blacklist, airport sources said on Saturday.

Galloway had flown to Cairo to take part in a mock trial of U.S. President George W. Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Prime Minister Tony Blair for their activities in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

A prominent opponent of the invasion of Iraq and advocate of Palestinian rights, Galloway has spent more than 12 hours at Cairo airport after arriving on an EgyptAir flight from London, the airport sources said.

"He'll probably have to go to London on the next plane, unless attempts to get him through succeed, which is most unlikely," said one airport official, who asked not to be named.

[...]

The sources gave no immediate reason why Galloway should be on the list of people not permitted to enter Egypt.

Sol Campbell

2006-02-03T15:44:00.000Z

According to gossip a British newspaper is going to beak a story about Sol Campbell being gay. I have no opinion on this. I still hate him for being the Judas scum that betrayed Spurs and signed for our nearest rival.

Scumbag avoids justice, maybe next time....

2006-02-03T14:58:00.000Z

It seems one trial wasn't enough for the BNP. A retrial is going to be held into allegations of inciting racial hatred.

THE leader of the British National Party walked free from court yesterday after being cleared of seeking to incite racial hatred, but prosecutors said immediately that he and another member of the hard-right party would face a retrial.
Nick Griffin said that he felt “absolutely vindicated” after a jury decided that his speech, made during the run-up to the 2004 local elections and secretly filmed by a reporter, was not abusive or insulting to Asian people.

Mark Collett, a senior member of the BNP, was also acquitted of race-hate charges triggered by two speeches that he had made to party supporters in West Yorkshire, one of which compared asylumseekers with cockroaches.

The jury at Leeds Crown Court was unable to reach a verdict on further charges in relation to a second speech by Mr Griffin, 46, and two more speeches by Mr Collett, 25. The Crown Prosecution Service said that the two men would be retried on the outstanding charges — a decision which surprised several observers, given the success with which Mr Griffin managed to turn the case into a trial of the Islamic religion.

Listen BIATCH! I can see your point....

2006-02-03T12:39:00.000Z

The Capital Times has an interesting letter from a Rabbi supporting gay and lesbian marriages.

A letter to the editor
Dear Editor: As a representative of the biblical tradition that has been often cited as being antithetical to homosexuality and understandably so I would like to provide this viewpoint of a religious leader who believes that our historical approach to this issue must give way to an even greater truth that we find in Scripture.

A fundamental value of the Bible is that each and every member of the human family is made in the image of God. We learn this from the first chapter of the book of Genesis [Genesis 1:27]: "God created humanity in God's image; in the image of God, God created them; male and female God created them." That includes the estimated 3 percent to 10 percent of Wisconsin citizens who are homosexual.

And so, if we believe that all people are made in the image of God, and, therefore, that each member of the human family reflects the goodness of the Eternal One, then we must act accordingly toward each person. Each individual is inherently valuable, and in this spirit, we must embrace our human diversity, and demand equality for all.

This problematic constitutional amendment would permanently deny equal rights to Wisconsin's lesbian and gay couples, people who have dedicated their lives to one another in love. As we know, a marriage license extends over 1,000 federally granted rights and benefits, and close to 200 state-granted entitlements. Denying these important legal protections, which is the practical result of this proposal, will hurt real families who live in every part of our state.

I have worked with gay and lesbian individuals, couples and families, and I know firsthand of the rights that they have been denied because of their sexual orientation. Our society has, sadly, habitually refused to recognize the emotional ties that bind together members of the same gender, simply because they are of the same gender. And this discrimination whether on the individual or official level is just wrong.

There are, thankfully, many religious leaders standing up to the bigotry inherent in this proposal, and I wish us all success in helping to defeat it in November.

Rabbi Jonathan Biatch
Temple Beth El
Madison

PS. Fantastic surname or what?

CND hypocrites

2006-02-03T12:30:00.000Z

It seems the moves by Iran to aquire nuclear weapons are ok according to CND (Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament). Well I've never seen a press release condeming Iranian moves towards the bomb. They're so anti-Nuclear that they're dismayed that Britain and the world are nervous about the Iranians. According to CND, it's ok for the Iranians to have nukes, but not for anyone else.

We Iranian-British academics and anti-war campaigners wish to express our deepest concern about the decision by the UK, France, Germany, US, Russia and China to report Iran to the UN security council....

Kate Hudson
CND

So there you have it. CND paradoxically is openly pro-proliferation.

Reverse skyrockets

2006-02-02T13:24:00.000Z

According to Leslie Bunder, anti-Semitism in Britain is 'skyrocketing' unfortunately in the same piece he demonstrates that it has gone down. How can it 'skyrocket' and drop at the same time? That's anyone's guess.

UK anti-Semitism skyrockets

The number of UK anti-Semitic incidents on people and property during 2005, was the second highest ever reported.

According to The Community Security Trust (CST) which works to combat anti-Semitic hate crime, 455 incidents were recorded with 82 being described as "violent assaults".

[...]

The number of incidents recorded as "abusive behaviour" were 273.

Record levels were reached in 2004, when 532 incidents were reported

According to the CST, the number of "threats" including phonecalls dropped in 2005 to 25 compared to 60 in 2004.

While overall anti-Semitic attacks continue, those described as "desecrations of Jewish property" dropped from 53 in 2004, to 48 in 2005.

"The number of anti-Semitic race hate incidents remains unacceptably high," said CST spokesman Mark Gardner. "The key indicators of violent assaults and abusive behaviour are remarkably consistent with the record 2004 figures."

Wile the figures are indeed unnacceptably high (although what number is acceptable?), the facts are the numbers of attacks margianally increased from 2003 to 2004, and have reduced by around 80 instances in 2005. Violent assaults are down, threats are down, vandalism is down. Instances 'skyrocket'? Only if the rocket was launched the wrong way round.

Oy Canada!

2006-02-02T13:06:00.000Z

Where have all the Jewish MP's gone? Canadian conservatism's worrying deficiency.

While Canadian Jews mull over the impact of the Conservative victory in the Jan. 23 federal election – including the hope it will mean warmer relations with Israel – they are also realizing there will be no Jewish MPs on the government benches for the first time since the brief administration of Tory prime minister Joe Clark.

Jewish representation in the House of Commons will decline from six to four MPs – all of them Liberals: Irwin Cotler (Mount-Royal), Susan Kadis (Thornhill), Raymonde Folco (Laval-Les-Isles) and Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre).

Richard Marceau, who represented the Quebec City-area riding of Charlesbourg for the Bloc Québécois and who converted to Judaism last summer, lost to his Conservative rival, while Jacques Saada, who had served in Paul Martin’s cabinet, was defeated in Brossard-La Prairie by the BQ candidate (see adjacent story).

Non-Jewish Liberal incumbents in ridings with high concentrations of Jewish voters were re-elected. And all Jewish Conservative candidates were soundly defeated: Neil Drabkin in Mount Royal, Sam Goldstein in Trinity-Spadina and Michael Mostyn in York Centre.

While “it is important to have voices representing Jewish and other ethnocultural groups, you don’t have to be Jewish to bring forth the issues,” Kadis told The CJN.

Liberals, she said, will continue to make the case for the Jewish community’s concerns as the official Opposition.

Mad Mel Again

2006-02-01T18:20:00.000Z

Melanie Phillips tells us "this is what's going on in Belmarsh prison where a number of Muslim Brotherhood terror suspects are being held":

"Violent Islamic extremists are terrorising inmates at Britain's toughest jail with an iron fist as they trawl for al-Qaeda recruits. The gang of thugs – known as The Muslim Boys – intimidate frightened inmates at Belmarsh into joining their faith, beating those who refuse their bullying demands. Some bloodied victims have been slashed by razor blades attached to toothbrushes. Others have had boiling water hurled over them. Prisoners say they are in fear for their lives."

1. The Muslim Brotherhood have nothing to do with The Muslim Boys (unless Mel has some dramatic evidence MI5 have overlooked)
2. They have no links to al-Qaeda (they are after all a criminal gang in one prison....not the best place for staging a terror attack), and do not recruit for al-Qaeda.
3. You are a mad old witch. Please shut up.

Danny Murphy a Spur

2006-02-01T18:18:00.000Z

Last night Spurs signed midfielder Danny Murphy from Charlton. I cried.....and saw our chances of the Champions League sail away into the distance.

(For goodness sake Martin, we need a striker!)

Ghaly a Spur

2006-01-31T14:54:00.000Z

Tottenham have signed Feyenoord's Egyptian midfielder Hossam Ghaly on a four-and-a-half-year contract.

The combative midfielder, 24, made 49 appearances for Feyenoord after joining them from Egyptian side Al-Ahly.

Spurs' sporting director Damien Comolli told the club's website: "I have watched Hossam since he was 17.

"He is a versatile, very physical and technically gifted midfielder who will offer us a number of playing options. He's a terrific addition to the squad."

Gahly had previously been linked with Tottenham's north London rivals Arsenal.

Ok. All that's needed now is a striker and defender.

Go Pete!

2006-01-31T11:03:00.000Z

Martin Sullivan at Islamophobia Watch loses the plot over Peter Tatchell.....

If you're a gay rights activist campaigning against the Anglican Church and other establsishment targets, favourable coverage will be restricted to the liberal media. However, if you concentrate on attacking black Africans, Palestinian Arabs and, in particular, Muslims – the Tory press, who welcome such contributions to their own racist agenda, will treat you like a hero too.

1. The black Africans he attacked were genocidal mentalist Robert Mugabe and his cronies (nice use of the race card).

2. The Palestinian Arabs and Muslims were picketed by Peter Tatchell because of the views and treatment of Homosexuals by the Palestinian Authority and other Islamic nations. Are gay-bashing homophobes now a protected spieces? Is drawing attention to a peoples or nations treatment and bigotry illegal now?

3. Fuck off you pretentious little twat.

Spurs make a Torres bid, allegedly

2006-01-31T10:42:00.000Z

COmpletely bogus press rumour of the week

The Independent reports this morning that a £20.5m bid has been made for the 21-year-old Spanish international who has been linked with a number of the game's top clubs.

Last week, Atletico's president Enrique Cerezo said he was "obliged to listen to offers" for the player and Spurs will keep their offer on the table until the closure of the transfer window tonight.

A busy day is expected at White Hart Lane as Spurs continue their policy of doing deals right up to the very last minute available to them.

Any chance of this seeing this around the 'blogs'?

2006-01-30T19:44:00.000Z

It seems anti-Semitic attacks worldwide (and especially Europe) are declining. Not that you'll see it reported that often.

The Jewish Agency for Israel reported a dip in anti-Semitic incidents worldwide last year, crediting political pressure and police crackdowns.

Agency chairman Zeev Bielski and Israel’s Diaspora minister, Avraham Hirschson, presented the 2005 data Thursday at a news conference held by the Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism. According to the findings, there were fewer anti-Semitic incidents in Britain, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic — considered hot spots of hostility to Jews — compared to the prior year, thanks to police action against culprits.

England expects

2006-01-27T12:15:00.000Z

European 2008

Group E

England
Croatia
Russia
Israel
Estonia
Macedonia
Andorra

Blair joins Holocaust survivors to remember

2006-01-27T11:22:00.000Z

TONY BLAIR last night joined survivors of the Holocaust and a host of religious and political dignitaries in Cardiff to mark the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps.

Hundreds of people who lived through the mass slaughter of during the Second World War attended an evening of commemoration at the Wales Millennium Centre to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

The event, which featured readings, poetry, songs and personal testimonies to those who perished in concentration camps, also warned of the ongoing need to address problems of fear and discrimination.

Mr Blair, who arrived at the event with his wife Cherie, spoke of the need to "rededicate ourselves to fighting racism and the intolerance of difference".

"Nothing compares to the Holocaust in the intensity of its evil, not in the suffering of a people made to suffer precisely because they were a people, not in the ghastly scope of its inhuman ambition, and not in the combination of an atrocious cause and wicked actions which for a while threatened to engulf our entire world. Here in Europe, home to so much culture, learning and civilisation.

"It happened in the lifetime of my father. Today it seems unthinkable, and yet today we think of it deliberately, to remember.

"We do so to commemorate the many who died in the Nazi world. We do so to reflect on the violence of genocide, and moreover we do so in order to rededicate ourselves to fighting racism and the intolerance of difference.

"It is in the time of the greatest evil and challenge that humanity shows most starkly the range of its character."

And referring to the "merciless tyranny" of the Holocaust, he added, "We remember that for all its force, it was not strong enough to overcome them, the ones who made the difference. Now, 60 years later, we live in a Europe of peace and prosperity. That is the memorial to the Holocaust victims and their helpers, and that is our commitment, never, at any time, to let it happen again."

Yom HaShoah

2006-01-27T10:28:00.000Z

"REMEMBRANCE"

By Tawnysha Lynch

Here I stand in the midst of Auschwitz
My mind racing with memories.
Silent people walk
Where living skeletons worked.

There is a silence,
But I hear the cries of my people.
A slight breeze passes,
But I feel the beating of a whip.

My hands sift through what seems like ashes
And I glimpse a sea of bodies aflame.
There is an open field,
But I see innocent people beaten.

A lone building stands in the distance,
But I see a place of death.
A place where terrible things took place
Horrors not even known to man.

With wistful eyes, I observe this place
Seeing things of the past
This place being as I left it
With an echo of remembrance.

Oh Teddy, where art thou?

2006-01-26T12:56:00.000Z

Teddy back to the Lane?

After sending him packing almost three years ago, Tottenham Hotspur have made an unexpected attempt to bring Teddy Sheringham back to the club. With his 40th birthday just over two months away, the evergreen man of English football could be about to embark on another new challenge.

Sheringham is understood to be astounded by Tottenham’s renewed interest, made known by Daniel Levy, the chairman, to the former England forward’s advisers this week, but they are not the only club sounding him out. Blackburn Rovers made an approach last weekend while West Ham United are considering offering him a one-year contract extension that would enable him to play beyond his 41st birthday. If nothing else, the unexpected emergence of rival suitors should spur his present club into action.

Two! Four! Six! Eight! Let Alabama Masturbate!

2006-01-26T12:53:00.000Z

According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, more than 16,000 murders were committed in the United States in 2003, along with more than 93,000 rapes and 413,000 robberies. In Alabama, Texas, Georgia, and Kansas, law enforcement extends beyond these obvious threats to what some legislators apparently believe is a more subtle and insidious threat to American morals: the sale of vibrators and dildos.

From Everything You Know About Sex Is Wrong

De Jong set for Spurs?

2006-01-25T16:51:00.000Z

Ajax midfielder Nigel de Jong is in talks with Spurs about a cut-price £1million move to White Hart Lane.

The Dutch international is out of contract in the summer, and Ajax may let him leave on the cheap to avoid losing him for nothing in July.

De Jong and his agent held talks with Spurs director of football Damien Comolli on Monday.

Spurs coach Martin Jol is a big admirer of the versatile 21-year-old, who can operate at full-back or in midfield and has also been linked with West Ham, Borussia Dortmund and Seville.

Great signing when it happens, but where's the defender we desperately need?

Emerging communities

2006-01-25T16:49:00.000Z

Good, positive news from Russia

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia – For the first time in 75 years, Vladikavkaz hosted a traditional Jewish Bar Mitzvah ceremony to celebrate the coming of age for boys. This has become a first large-scale event to take place in the newly-renovated Jewish Community Center – the historical Synagogue building, which now hosts the Jewish community in this capital of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania.

For the first time in their lives, three 13-year-old boys – Boris Nadel, David Plyaskin and Alyosha Kornienko – performed activities that had previously been excluded to them. They recited a blessing, put on tefillins and talits and read out a Torah chapter, just like adults do.

Many people attended this festive event, which was led by Stas Natsiyevsky, one of the leaders of the local Jewish Youth Club, who studied in a yeshiva in Israel. Men prayed and read Torah, while women took care of a festive dinner for all the participants. According to tradition, they cooked many treats so that this event will remain in the boys’ memory as a sweet and important moment in their lives. As well, girls threw candies over the heads of the boys, in order that Torah study will become a pleasant occupation for them.

Germans honoured for preserving Jewish history

2006-01-25T16:47:00.000Z

From the Jerusalem Post

Six Germans were being honored by an American foundation Wednesday for their commitment to preserving Jewish history and culture.

The Obermayer German-Jewish History Award ceremony is timed as part of the observances of the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, scheduled fot January 27.

The awards, now in their sixth year, are funded by Jewish American philanthropist Arthur Obermayer, whose four grandparents were all German, and are inspired by the help the Boston man received from Germans in researching his roots.

Recipients this year include Robert Kreibig, from the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, who saved and restored the Roebel synagogue and converted adjacent buildings into an educational youth center, and Guenter Heidt, a teacher from the western state of Rheinland-Palatinate who inspired his students for a quarter century to carry out projects to uncover and record the Jewish history of their community.

Anti-Semitic crime almost halved in France

2006-01-24T00:19:00.000Z

This will shock a few people. It will also render a couple of peoples arguments null and void.

The number of anti-semitic incidents in France has halved since 2004, according to new figures released by the French police force.

There were 504 anti-semitic acts or threats reported in 2005, a drop of 48 per cent from the high of 974 in 2004, the worst year for such attacks since the government began keeping records of hate crimes in 1995.

French authorities put the fall down to increased security at sensitive sites, a decrease in tensions in the middle east and improved anti-hate education programmes at schools.

Fascist paedophile jailed

2006-01-23T21:43:00.000Z

A former soldier and election candidate for the fascist British National Party in the Midlands has been jailed for 15 months after sending obscene images involving children to others.

Roderick Rowley (51), previously from Coventry, was also ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years after admitting at Birmingham Crown Court 14 charges of making indecent photos, four of distributing them and one charge of possessing an image for distribution.

(Thanks to CC for the e-mail)

A new club logo

2006-01-23T21:31:00.000Z

Audere Est Facere.

Nice to see the club reverting to the classic 60's and 70's logo. Let's hope the current team have has as much success as the teams in those era's.

COYS!

Mozart and the Jews

2006-01-20T14:26:00.000Z

Here's an excerpt from a fantastic article on Mozart and his Jewish ties.

On Jan. 27, Austria is marking the 250th birthday of its favorite son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In honor of this sesquibicentennial, the city of Vienna is planning an impressive program of more than 1,000 events, including 350 public concerts and performances of the composer’s operas and sacred works.

But for the first time, the Viennese are doing something that has never been done before. After more than 200 years of silence — felt most deeply during Hitler’s rule — Austria is finally talking about Mozart’s Jewish connection.

"Mozart does not belong to any nation. It would be a total misunderstanding for anyone to lay claim to Mozart," said Peter Marboe, Vienna Mozart Year artistic director. "That makes it obscene that the Nazis should claim him as an example of a great German artist and all the while hide his Jewish collaborators."

Read it all.

One hell of a night!

2006-01-19T07:16:00.000Z

TOP SECRET NAVY FILE FOUND IN PUB

How stupid 0r desperate for a drink do you have to be to take Top Secret documents to a pub?

Holocaust Day 'too Jewish' in Cardiff

2006-01-18T14:45:00.000Z

This is ridiculous. If you didn't want a theological and Jewish reading why ask a Rabbi to write one? What did you expect a half hour stand up comedy set? Shame on you Mr Bogdanov.

Is it news? Or Nazi propaganda?

2006-01-17T23:49:00.000Z

Google News are publishing BNP propaganda. You'd think after the National Vanguard fiasco they would've learned their lesson.

Anti-fascist organisations have attacked Google for including material produced by the far-right British National Party (BNP) on its online news service. BNP content dealing with race issues was today being presented on the Google News site alongside reports from organisations such as the BBC and Reuters, the international news agency.

The criticism comes as Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, and fellow party activist Mark Collett, appear in Leeds Crown Court on race-hate charges after an undercover BBC documentary infiltrated the party.

Sabby Dhalu, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism (UAF), the anti-racist coalition, said: "The BNP is an openly racist organisation. Through Google using the BNP as a supposedly legitimate news source it legitimises the party. It should not be treated as a legitimate organisation in this way."

The Google News site, which Google makes available as a beta – or test – site, gathers together thousands of news sources that can be searched for keywords. Today, when "Mary-Ann Leneghan", the name of the Reading schoolgirl who was murdered in May was entered, a story written by a BNP "correspondent" on the current murder trial was shown at the top of the list of stories on the case.

The article, which is posted on a BNP site, accuses the BBC of bias in its reporting of the case. It sits alongside but outranks stories from the BBC, Reuters, The Times and The Daily Telegraph on the same trial.

The BNP has consistently drawn criticism from across the UK’s political mainstream. Last year, the Standards Board for England ruled it could be described as a "Nazi" organisation. The ruling followed a complaint to the local government watchdog from the BNP against a Liberal Democrat councillor who told a public meeting: "Nazis are not welcome in our town."

A different criticism...

2006-01-17T22:38:00.000Z

....this is refreshing in a way. Here's a short review of the Spielberg film 'Munich'. Rather than repeat the old right left arguments over humanising terrorists, demonizing Israeli secret services, plot holes, the source of the script, the political leanings of the screenwriter, the colour of the tea-lady's knickers.....

The Ghost MP

2006-01-17T11:07:00.000Z

How is George Galloway managing to fit in Celebrity Big Brother and signing a series of early day motions in Parliament? MP's are starting to ask questions. Good.

Football or nukes?

2006-01-13T12:14:00.000Z

Tory Calls For Iran World Cup Ban

Iran should be thrown out of the football World Cup for resuming its nuclear programme, Tory Michael Ancram has said.

Excluding the football-mad nation from the tournament would send a "very, very clear signal", he said.

Mr Ancram, who recently stepped down as shadow foreign secretary, said: "I agree with those in Germany who feel they should be excluded from the World Cup.

"What is happening in Iran is a very dangerous situation, not just in terms of a threat to international peace and security but also to the whole stability of the Middle East.

"Although I have always supported a reference to the Security Council, that could rumble on for some time.

"An exclusion from the World Cup would give a very, very clear signal to Iran that the international community will not accept what they are doing."

It could help lead the Iranian public to put pressure on its leaders, he said.

.....that'll tell 'em.

Adios

2006-01-12T22:04:00.000Z

Now where's our new striker/winger/centre back?

Sacranie in a spot of bother

2006-01-12T08:51:00.000Z

It seems Iqbal Sacranie has been hoisted by his own petard. He's in hot water over the charge that homosexuality was 'harmful'. Nice to see the Religious Hatred Law that he campaigned for so vocally is now being used.

The head of the Muslim Council of Britain, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, is being investigated by police for saying that homosexuality was "harmful".

The Met Police said they were examining if his remarks constituted an offence under the Public Order Act following a complaint from a member of the public.

More Galloway

2006-01-12T08:45:00.000Z

Perfect moment on Celebrity Big Brother last night, George Galloway called glamour model and general airhead Jodie Marsh, 'Evil' and 'wicked'......this coming from a man who was friends with a mass murdering dictator is a hell of a statement.

"Let him fade into obscurity where he belongs."

2006-01-11T11:44:00.000Z

An interesting argument here for the release of David Irving by Deborah Lipstadt.

David Irving, the infamous British war historian, is today sitting in an Austrian jail, accused of denying the Nazi Holocaust. So why is an American Jewish academic who dramatically crushed Irving in the British courts saying he should be released?

When you ask Professor Deborah Lipstadt for her thoughts on David Irving's forthcoming trial, the very last thing you expect her to say is: "Let the guy go home. He has spent enough time in prison."

Lipstadt, the American Jewish academic who exposes Holocaust deniers is not exactly David Irving's greatest fan.

But five years after she famously defended her own reputation in the High Court, and in doing so shredded Irving's, she is arguing that the Austrian authorities should probably let him go, saying the far-right will find a martyr if he goes to jail.

[...]

Lipstadt says the reason she is generally opposed to outlawing Holocaust denial is not because she fails to recognise how deeply offensive it is but because such laws tend to turn cranks into martyrs.

"I am not interested in debating with Holocaust deniers," she says. "You wouldn't ask a scientist to debate with someone who thinks the Earth is flat. They are not historians, they are liars. Debating them would be nonsensical.

"But we also should not allow them to become martyrs. Nothing is served by having David Irving in a jail cell, except that he has become an international news issue.

"Let him go home and let him continue talking to six people in a basement.

"Let him fade into obscurity where he belongs."

Growing unease

2006-01-10T21:47:00.000Z

Here's an interesting piece in the Washington Post concerning the growing unease between Jews and evangelical Christianity.

“I feel jealous sometimes. This term that keeps coming up in the Old Book — the Chosen, the Chosen,” says the minister, who has made three trips to Israel and named his sons Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. “I’m a pardoned gentile, but I’m not one of the Chosen People. They’re the apple of his eye.”

Scholars of religion call this worldview “philo-Semitism,” the opposite of anti-Semitism. It is a burgeoning phenomenon in evangelical Christian churches across the country, a hot topic in Jewish historical studies and a wellspring of support for Israel.

Yet many Jews are nervous about evangelicals’ intentions. In recent weeks, leaders of three of the nation’s largest Jewish groups — the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Union for Reform Judaism — have decried what they see as a mounting threat to the separation of church and state from evangelicals emboldened by the belief that they have an ally in the White House and an opportunity to shift the Supreme Court.

[…]

The result is a paradox — warming evangelical attitudes toward Jews at a time of rising Jewish concern about evangelicals — that could be a turning point in the uneasy alliance between Jewish and Christian groups that ardently back Israel but disagree on much else.

Hypocrites

2006-01-10T19:15:00.000Z

Peter Tatchell on the hypocrisy of the Muslim Council of Britain

The MCB has announced it will not participate in HMD on 26 January because it is “not sufficiently inclusive.”

“The MCB seems to have completely reversed its previous objections to HMD. Five years ago, it argued that HMD was too inclusive; now it says it is not inclusive enough. The only thing that is consistent about the MCB is its opposition to the human rights of lesbians and gay men,” said Mr Tatchell.

“In 2001, when the MCB first announced its boycott of the Holocaust commemorations, it argued they were too inclusive.

“The MCB objected to the fact that gay victims of the Nazi death camps were remembered,” he added.

Splitters!

2006-01-10T12:43:00.000Z

REG: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the
Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah...
JUDITH: Splitters.
P.F.J.: Splitters...
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
LORETTA: And the People's Front of Judea.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
REG: What?
LORETTA: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG: We're the People's Front of Judea!
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG: People's Front! C-huh.
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He's over there.
P.F.J.: Splitter!

Life imitates art

'Casual' culture?

2006-01-10T12:38:00.000Z

...or just good old fashioned racial tension?

A football match between Bnei Sakhnin and Betar Jerusalem, which ended in a 0-0 draw Sunday evening, deteriorated into a riot as fans of both teams clashed violently.

Hangin' out with Maggot!

2006-01-09T13:20:00.000Z

Johann Hari hits the nail on the head in 'The Joke Wears Thin'

Are you a resident of Bethnal Green and Bow? Perhaps you live on the Ocean Estate, one of the largest concrete slabs of poverty in Britain – a few minutes’ walk from my flat – where people live three-kids-to-a-room and struggle with a fiver a day and central London prices. Or maybe you are one of the 6000 asylum seekers in this constituency, who – now legal aid and appeals have been slashed by the government – depend on your local MP as your lifeline, the last person who can save you from being deported back to tyranny.

Where’s the Member of Parliament you desperately need, the man you pay £61,000 in cash and £100,000 in expenses for every year? Ah – he’s on Channel Four. And E4. And More4. On a live feed, tucked up in his jim-jams inbetween an ex-Baywatch babe and a man called Maggot. He’s there for everyone to see. Everyone, that is, except you.

Read it all.

The constituents of Bethnal Green & Bow demand..

2006-01-06T14:50:00.000Z

"Get back to work, George"

US anti-Semitism Watch

2006-01-06T13:34:00.000Z

Ford Motor Company Says it 'Does Not Condone' Anti-Semitism at Jesse Jackson Event But Will Remain Rainbow/PUSH Sponsor

Dr. Carl Horowitz, NLPC Senior Fellow, reacted by asking, "What is Ford saying? That anti-Semitism is bad, but not bad enough to cease funding it?"

Sacranie part two!

2006-01-06T10:56:00.000Z

Hey it's a two-for-one on Iqbal Sacranie today here at CCL. It seems he's not content with insulting Jews, he's started on the Gays as well. He only needs to denounce the trade unionists, annex the Sudetenland and sit astride a Panzer heading for Poland and.......

Sacranie's need to offend

2006-01-06T10:42:00.000Z

Yet again, The MCB boycotts Holocaust Day (the BBC prefers the word 'avoids'). Yet again, Iqbal Sacranie (I refuse to acknowledge him as a Sir), the head of the MCB, says it is wrong to only commemorate Jewish victims of genocide.

Of course that isn't the real reason for boycotting the ceremony, the decision for that is based in the need of the MCB to offend and pander to more extremist elements of the Muslim community (MPACUK for example). If you have a problem with content of Holocaust Day and feel there needs to be memorials for other genocides, then create a Genocide Day. Please don't play politics and publicity seeking stunts with the holocaust. It makes you look like a complete cunt (apologies for the language) .

First Tesco , now WH Smith......

2006-01-04T13:01:00.000Z

The campaign to get WH Smith to remove anti-semitic books from its website is set to be taken into Parliament after Hendon MP Andrew Dismore pledged to take action.

Labour MP Dismore, who has been one of the most vocal politicians in the fight against anti-semitism, is set to launch a House of Commons motion in the new year to bring pressure on the retailer to stop selling the offensive material on its website.

WH Smith was told by the Jewish News four weeks ago that it was offering customers such vile hate tracts as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Henry Ford's The International Jew.

Our concern was sparked by an earlier investigation by the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight which exposed the sale of similar titles on the Tesco website. The high street giant was quick to take down every title from far right publisher Liberty Bell.

But although WH Smith assured readers it had removed the Protocols from its site and pledged to review any "specific title brought to our attention", there were still two versions of the book on sale this week. And it failed to take action on a list of more than 15 anti-semitic books also available.

Dismore told the Jewish News: "I find it really surprising that they are apparently not prepared to deal with the very serious issue of this anti-semitic literature for sale on its website. I don't understand why they feel its appropriate to promulgate such hate literature."

Among the books still on sale are Henry Ford's anti-semitic multi-volume work, The International Jew, in which the automobile pioneer claims to uncover the worldwide Jewish conspiracy.
Mark Gardner, Director of Communications at the CST, said: "If this is true then it is despicable that a company of their standing wants to sell such hateful material."

Via Searchlight Stop the BNP site

The return of Van Halen?

2006-01-04T12:48:00.000Z

Roth: Van Halen Reunion 'Inevitable'

Reuniting the original Van Halen lineup is just a matter of time, according to
David Lee Roth. "I talked to the drummer [Alex Van Halen] about a week ago," the
band's former lead singer tells the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. "And I think,
eventually, the inevitable will happen."

"It definitely won't be rockers
with walkers," he adds, seemingly indicating that a reunion is in the near, as
opposed to distant, future. "Getting onstage and singing 'Dance the Night Away'
-- let me tell you how difficult that isn't going to be."

The comments
came in a Q&A about Roth's new career: morning radio host. Once one of
rock's notorious bad boys, the performer debuted today (Jan. 3) in the 6 a.m.-10
a.m. slot on more than a half dozen stations that formerly broadcast Howard
Stern, who will soon bow a show on Sirius Satellite Radio.

All I wanted for Christmas was a Russian billionaire!

2006-01-04T10:11:00.000Z

Portsmouth fans get their Christmas present late, but what a present! Lucky sods.

Germany cracks down on extremists

2006-01-03T21:50:00.000Z

A German court sentenced Wednesday five members of a right-wing extremist group to prison, probation and fines.

The court in the western German city of Coblenz also convicted the five men, who belonged to the criminal organization of "Kameradschaft Westerwald", of an attack on a person they believed to have been a left-winger and disturbing the peace.

One of them received three years in jail, another two would serve two years of prison terms each, one got two and a half yearson probation, and the last one was fined 504 euros (600 U.S. dollars).

The men, all in their twenties, confessed to their crimes and some of them made tearful pledges to the court to change their ways.

Earlier this year another 11 members of "Kameradschaft Westerwald" were given probation terms up to two years. More trials of members of the group, founded in 2002 with a total of 40members, would be conducted, Judge Hans-Georg said.

Vodka cures stress!

2006-01-03T18:14:00.000Z

Vodka ideal for post-match stress says Russia coach

Russia head coach Vladimir Krikunov has acclaimed the virtues of at least three shots of vodka as a remedy for post-game stress.

"Three shots of vodka after every game. It's a must," Krikunov told the Sovietsky Sport newspaper. "It does the trick for me. Then after three shots if I feel like I want some more, I'll drink more."

No shit sherlock. Tell us another!

An awful turn of phrase

2006-01-03T14:00:00.000Z

No matter what disagreements certain groups or individuals have with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, I have always found him to be pretty straight forward and honest. However, in his recent release he has describe a "tsunami of anti-Semitism" engulfing the world. To use the word "tsunami" so close to the anniversary of the Asian disaster is absolutely unbelievable. I can't believe a such a respected public figure would make such a mistake.

Neo-Nazi Threat

2006-01-03T13:42:00.000Z

A shocking spoof e-mail, purporting to be from neo-Nazi group Combat
18, is poisoning inboxes with its violent threats.

By spoofing email addresses of public bodies including the
Metropolitan Police and Commission for Racial Equality, unsuspecting
recipients are tricked into opening the malevolent missive.

The hoax emails contain a warning of violence unless the website for
anti-fascist magazine Searchlight (www.searchlightmagazine.com) is
obliterated.

Threats include home visits, directed by Combat 18, who it warns have
had 'members put into prison for nail bombs, IRA style beatings on
women with baseball bats and burning down homes with people in them'.

Investigations by internet security company Netintelligence, reveal
the top five originating IP addresses for the emails appear to have
been delivered by a zombie army of PC's.

Phil Worms of Netintelligence, said;

'Recipients should delete the emails and not respond'.

www.netintelligence.com

2005: Transitional?

2006-01-02T12:44:00.000Z

With our progress unquestionable, Spurs finished the season with a poor defeat and an excellent win. Nothing could better sum up our transitional status.

Sitting in fourth, and half way through our best season in over a decade, Spurs have not been talked about much by the media, other than a few nice words here and there. Reports have signaled crisis at second placed Man U, and dwelt at length on a transition at sixth placed Arsenal, but Spurs sit between them in a real transition.

Away to West Brom was the sort of game spurs would have lost in the past, and sure enough we lost again this time. Two days after a tough win against Birmingham City, we showed we are far from the finished article.

Stalteri, Lee, Davids, Jenas, Routledge, and Rasiak all started, having signed just six months ago. Dawson only signed eleven months ago, and in the absence of King or Keane, Robinson took the armband with just 18 months behind him in a Spurs shirt.

The game summed up exactly why fans feel nervous around Christmas. West Brom played with more energy, with more fight, and deservedly took the points. Spurs were woeful and struggled throughout, seemingly worn down by the previous game just two days before. These were eleven players that did not know where to find each other, what to expect from each other, or even who their team mates were.

This was a flashback to two years ago, before Martin Jol, and before Santini even. This was regular fair under previous managers, and back then transition was not the word.

The Newcastle game a couple of days later had repeat performance written all over it. The Geordies had not suffered a proper festive campaign thanks to cold weather canceling their game against Charlton. They had available their first choice pair up front, Owen and Shearer, and Spurs still had King out.

But while transitional season is a term used to excuse a poor season for most teams, Spurs are in transition to something better. As such we outclassed a sorry Newcastle team, put the ball in the net six times, and limited them to a couple of half chances in the whole 90 minutes.

Stalteri, Lee, Davids, and Tainio only arrived in England in the summer. Jenas came from almost as far away at the same time, and Mido and Dawson again made up a long list of those with less than a year’s experience in a white shirt. In fact, the only starters with two years of history at Spurs were Robbie Keane and Anthony Gardner. Neither of these two could make the starting eleven two months ago.

This side of apparently different players was fantastic. The passing sometimes went astray, but mostly found a fellow Spurs player. Carrick protected the defence, and the defence protected the keeper superbly. Mido won almost everything in the air, Jenas and Tainio made the Newcastle midfield and defence look lost and confused, and Davids, aged 32, showed a work ethic that hid any fatigue in his third full game in five days.

In a time of transition it is often the permanent fixtures that hold a team together. With King out again, Keane filled the role of captain, and led the team from the front. He was energetic, ran Newcastle’s defence ragged, and set up Mido’s goal, which along with Tainio’s sealed the result long before the final whistle.

Keane also hit the back of the net three times, each ruled out for marginal offside decisions. This along with Mido’s ruled out goal, led to the home crowd chanting ‘6-0 to the Tottenham’. That was less mischievous than leading the away fans in a chorus of ‘only one Bobby Robson’, which the papers wrongly attributed to a disgruntled Toon Army.

The transition to a happy and confident club is now complete. Jenas embodied that when a loose ball pinged 70 yards into the air. He positioned himself directly under it, and stopped it dead on the floor with a first touch before it bounced. The Home fans cheered what was actually an inconsequential moment, and I can imagine how the away fans must have felt about the colour of shirt he was wearing.

The transition to a great team is not quite so complete, and has now been under way for some time. Spurs finished fourteenth two seasons ago. We finished ninth last season. The same jump again would see us finish fourth this season. That might be a step too far too soon for us, but 2005 has seen us change into a top club that is surprised by defeat away to West Brom, from one that would have been more surprised by such a confident victory at home against Newcastle.

Perhaps transition is the wrong word in our part of north London. Progress sounds nicer.

Danny Mackay

A nation of philistines!

2006-01-02T12:38:00.000Z

Is Britain getting dumber? According to the Telegraph we are. Some people actually thought Sir Edward Elgar was German! I could understand if he was a Royal, that'd be a safe guess....but c'mon. Who exactly are these people?

A theocratic Israel?

2006-01-02T12:28:00.000Z

Is the answer to the Arab-Israeli conflict an all Jewish Israel? Or is this merely supporting the false accusation that Israel is basing it's current and future policies on appartheid style lines?

How can a nation with the justified claim of 'the only democracy in the Middle East' consider a move to the theocratic lines of its Arab neighbours? How could the world support a theocratic Israel against other theocratic dictatorships? How could a Jewish state survive as a dictatorship? It can't, it could'nt and never would. Again, Ted Belman at Israpundit is talking out of his arse.

Lottery to give £4 million to Jewish Museum

2005-12-31T15:49:00.000Z

...but it has to matched by charitable donations to recieve full funding.

THE Jewish Museum is set to receive more than £4million from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a massive redevelopment.

Collections from the museum's two buildings - one in Camden and one in Finchley - will be brought together in one expanded new site on Camden's Albert Street (see architect's drawing, right).

There will be three times more space for exhibitions in the new venue, as well as an auditorium and a special room for visiting school parties.

Rickie Burman, Director of the Jewish Museum, said: "We're delighted the Heritage Lottery Fund has decided the project is worthwhile and deserving of this funding. It's a tremendous boost after the efforts we have made."

But the museum will have to match the grant by raising another £4.4million before the Lottery releases the cash.

"The real works begins now," Ms Burman said. "It's a significant fundraising challenge."

Collections at the museum cover the history of the Jewish community in Britain since the Middle Ages. They include an archive of material about Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi Germany.

The Museum has been split between two buildings since it merged with the London Museum of Jewish Life more than 10 years ago. Carole Souter, Director of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said: "The capital has long been in need of a first-class museum which celebrates the Jewish community and we're confident that the Jewish Museum, with this support, will be able to provide just such a place."

You can learn more and help, by visitng here.

A Jewish renaissance in Germany

2005-12-30T15:02:00.000Z

A Jewish renaissance takes root

Shelly Kupferberg, 31, is the granddaughter of Jews who fled the Nazi terror in the 1930s for the land that would become Israel. Her parents returned to Berlin in the early 1970s, weary of Israel's wars and yearning for their German heritage. She was raised both as a Jew and a German, and takes quiet pride in both identities.

''It's great to be a Jew in Germany," said Kupferberg, a journalist and adviser to Berlin's Jewish Festival. ''There's this feeling of a unique culture being reborn -- with more people in the synagogues, more Jewish artists, a sense, at last, that it's completely normal for Jewish people to be living and working here. That's something you couldn't say until recently."

The dark mid-20th century history of Germany is seared into every Jewish soul. But in a turnaround few would have imagined, Germany today boasts the fastest-growing Jewish population in the world.

While Germany's Jewish community is full of hope for the future, its rapid expansion has brought new tensions -- with animosity festering between longtime German-speaking Jews and recent immigrants from the eastern fringes of Europe, many of whom lost their Jewish traditions, if not their identity, under decades of communism.

''This is a time of difficult transition for a community that was once tiny and insular, but has suddenly grown large," said Stephan J. Kramer, secretary general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the nation's umbrella organization for Jewish groups. ''There is friction, there is anger, there is distrust, there is fear. We have started to lay the foundation for a dynamic Jewish culture in Germany. But we are far from completing the house."

The road to Berlin
Most newcomers are from Russia, Jews seeking a better life in a more prosperous place, but also escaping the anti-Semitism that seethes in many parts of the former Soviet Union. The ''Russian Jews" -- the term embraces the thousands arriving from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states -- are joined by a small but significant wave of young Jews from Israel, the United States, Canada, and Australia. The Westerners flock mainly to Berlin, attracted by the capital's easy-going style and vibrant cultural scene.

Before the 1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall, Germany's Jewish population stood at barely 25,000, mostly survivors of the World War II era and their offspring. Since then, encouraged by liberal immigration laws, the number has swelled to more than 200,000, according to estimates by the government and Jewish groups. Last year, twice as many Jews -- 20,000 -- settled in Germany as in Israel, according to Jewish groups.

In 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power, Germany's Jewish population stood at 530,000. Berlin, famed for tolerance, was home to some of the world's foremost Jewish writers, philosophers, and scientists. By 1943, however, the Nazis had declared Germany ''Judenrein," or cleansed of Jews. In fact, several thousand remained hidden in Germany or returned from concentration camps after the Holocaust, which killed 6 million European Jews.

''For decades, the remaining Jews in Germany were seen as slightly cuckoo, people who 'lived sitting on a packed suitcase,' " said Kramer. ''Jews have finally unpacked their suitcases. If we haven't fully found our place in Germany, we do feel it offers a place for us."

Partly to atone for the Holocaust, Germany offers resettlement programs for Jews from Eastern Europe. It is much easier for Jews to win legal entry to Germany than other parts of Western Europe or the United States. Israel also keeps open doors, but many Jews from the former Soviet Union see Israel as either too dangerous -- because of the struggle with Palestinians -- or as too alien, because of its Middle Eastern culture and desert climate.

''Germany is Europe, and I am European as much as I am a Jew," said Frida Scheinberg, a veterinarian who recently arrived in Germany from Ukraine. ''Germany was a good place for Jews before Hitler. It feels safe and prosperous. Its cities, its climate, its customs all seem familiar. Israel seems strange to me, with the hot sun and the hot tempers."

Still, unease and bickering pervade Germany's Jewish community, reflecting differences between new arrivals and the old guard of German-speakers. Some question whether all of the newcomers can legitimately call themselves Jews -- until this year, when Germany tightened the rules to weed out imposters, almost any former Soviet citizen with a Jewish ancestor could qualify. Traditional law defines a Jew as an individual with a Jewish mother or someone who has undergone conversion to Judaism; Germany now requires that prospective Jewish immigrants have at least one Jewish parent, as well as some command of German and marketable skills.

Integration has been complicated by Germany's recent unemployment woes, with many Russian Jews drawing welfare -- and also drawing some resentment. But many Jews are confident that once the economy rebounds, differences among Jews will inevitably heal.

''Many problems, yes, but most [former Soviet] Jews in Germany feel ourselves to be in a much safer situation. The anti-Semitism here is minor compared to what we experienced in the places from which we came," said Mykhaylo Tkach, an engineer from Ukraine. ''In the old Russia, nothing changes -- when things go wrong, blame the Jew. Germans understand such things must never happen here again."

Some Jewish immigrants admit to ambivalence about their choice of a new country, even as they defend it.

''There is a twinge of guilt, some secret shame, I think, in the heart of every Jew who calls Germany home," said Josef Eljaschewitsch, a physician from Latvia. ''And yet, for Jews not to come here -- to surrender our stolen heritage in this country -- would be to give the Nazis a sort of final victory: A Jew-free Germany.

''Most of us come for bread-and-butter reasons, to make money, to ensure our children's futures are secure," he said. ''But our dream is also to make Germany a place where Jews and Jewishness can once again flourish. Against all odds, I believe that's starting to happen."

Read it all, it's really fascinating and it makes a change from all doomsaying and suicidal nihilism of mostly American sites.

Tractor rage!

2005-12-30T07:27:00.000Z

This brought a grin to my face. Not that crime is funny obviously.......

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Manilla man is accused of chasing Crawford County deputies with his tractor.

Police said a Taser gun was used on Daniel Hinners and he was arrested Tuesday night.

The deputies were responding to a domestic abuse call at Hinners' home when he started chasing them on a large farm tractor.

I guess Iowa is a bit like Norfolk then.

2006: A New Hope?

2005-12-30T00:31:00.001Z

Things I'm wishing for in the forthcoming year......(yes I know it's not the Jewish New Year....but there's a serious lack of things worth listing or writing about this month)

1. A marriage
2. A cup win for Spurs
3. A new job
4. A better understanding of cooking, recipes and the new fad of being a 'bloke' who can cook
5. A better understanding of life
6. A commitment to reading more books
7. A commitment to spending more family time
8. Apologising, making peace and communication with my ex
9. A new attitude
10. Less net, more blog and being more 'free'
11. Not cutting down on beer or anything I enjoy!
12. A win on the lottery
13. A sudden dislike of ice cream and other fatty foods
14. A new overcoat.....it's started to snow
15. Somebody to replace my Little Britain Series One DVD (which is scratched to buggery)
16. A new Van Halen album
17. A new watch, mine's broken.......and I have trouble motivating myself to buy a new one
18. Putting together the IKEA computer desk I bought and gave up on
19. Organising a holiday for next August (somewhere sunny she wants......)
20. Buying the 'Futurama' complete series box set

......oh yeah and world peace and all that.

Just odd!

2005-12-29T17:52:00.000Z

This is the strangest thing I've ever seen. Has Ynet turned into an Israeli version of the National Enquirer?

An unusual wedding ceremony was held in the southern resort town of Eilat on Wednesday, as Sharon Tendler, a 41-years-old Jewish millionaire from London married her beloved Cindy, a 35-years-old dolphin, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.

The groom, a resident of the Eilat dolphin reef, met Tendler 15 years ago, when she first visited the resort. The British rock concert producer took a liking to the dolphin and has made a habit of traveling to Eilat two or three times a year and spending time with her underwater sweetheart.

"The peace and tranquility underwater, and his love, would calm me down," the excited bride said after the wedding.

After a years-long romance, Tendler decided to embark on the highly unusual path of tying the knot with her beloved dolphin. Last week, she approached Cindy's trainer Maya Zilber with the extraordinary request.

Zilber accepted the challenge and "talked the idea over with the fellow," who apparently consented.

Holocaust survivors go hungry.....

2005-12-29T17:47:00.000Z

......in Israel? How can this happen?

It is an image that resists any attempt to throw it into the denial pile: the specter of Jews surviving the Holocaust only to go hungry in Israel.

If it has done nothing else, the current election campaign has focused the public's radar on social problems which have gone unaddressed for years.

Every day, it seems, the human needs of unheralded Israelis come to light in a shocking new way. The case in point Thursday was the finding that some 40 percent of Holocaust survivors in Israel are living below the poverty line.

There are nearly 400,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel, the nation with the largest population of survivors anywhere. Moreover, the medical and thus the financial needs of the population are growing, as even the youngest of the survivors are now well over 60.

The problem is particularly acute for about 170,000 who moved to Israel from the former Soviet Union over the past decade, and are now living in poverty. They are entitled neither to the monthly pensions sent other surviviors by the governments of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, nor the pensions supplied by Israeli and international Jewish organizations.

All of them arrived past the age of 65, and many are living alone in a nation whose inner workings are difficult to contend with even for the native-born and the young.

The Knesset has allocated millions to the fund, but much more assistance is urgently needed. The survivors may still have a few things to their name, but time is not one of them.

How can we Jews expect others to care about the victims of the Holocaust if the state of Israel can't even manage it? This situation must be solved immediately. I feel sick to my stomach.

Worst Yanks Ever?

2005-12-29T07:38:00.000Z

Following on from the Worst Brits Ever poll, many websites on the other side of the pond have been wondering about the Worst Americans Ever. After reading this piece of news, I think the 49 people who are exposed in the story must be up there.

Good news time

2005-12-28T23:14:00.000Z

The Who are touring again, along with The Rolling Stones on tour all I need is an AC/DC show and a Led Zeppelin reformation to make my decade in one year!

The Who will return to the stage next year following "a very, very cool" surprise announcement in June, according to guitarist Pete Townshend.

Under a Christmas Eve online diary post (http://www.petetownshend.co.uk/) titled "I will go on tour...," the band's driving creative force said all of the shows may be viewable online.

"I have high hopes for the whole tour to be shared to a wide audience at home in a mixture of pay-per-view and free special Web casts," Townshend wrote. "Some of the proceeds will go to charity, of course."

No dates have been confirmed, but Townshend said he expected to unveil some new material on the road.

He had originally hoped to release the first Who studio album since 1982's "It's Hard" this year, but in March relayed news that it had fallen behind schedule due to the studio process and other projects. No new album and drummer Zak Starkey's commitment to touring with Oasis scotched thoughts of a tour in 2005.

"I have said many times... that I am reticent about committing to a tour without a completed new Who album under my belt," Townshend said. "As things stand I am still pushing to produce some more songs. So the announcement (of a 2006 tour) may seem premature. It is not."

While a traditional album is not expected, Townshend said new music will emerge, although it was unknown if it would be in a physical or digital format. "No, it is not an 'EP,'" he says. "It is a truly inspired idea."

Worst Brits Ever?

2005-12-28T21:26:00.000Z

Discarded Lies has a list of the worst Brits ever compiled by the BBC (I suppose Michael Grade's not on the list then?).......

The other 'Munich'

2005-12-28T21:08:00.000Z

This is a very interesting read. Fact-checking by those who were on the 'job'.

A pocketful of receipts helped blow the lid off Israel's most notorious intelligence bungle.

It was in 1973, after spies dispatched to Norway killed a waiter mistaken for the Palestinian mastermind of a raid on the previous year's Munich Olympics where 11 Israeli athletes died.

The assassins might have got away, except that one of them was not a trained member of Israel's spy agency Mossad but a Danish-born volunteer brought aboard for his language skills.

Hoping to recoup expenses, he had kept his receipts. Once detained by Norwegian police, he provided a paper trail that led to the capture and prosecution for murder of the rest of team.

So when director Steven Spielberg, in his new film on the post-Munich reprisals, showed a Mossad case officer ordering agents to hoard receipts while in deep cover abroad, eyebrows were raised among veterans of the intelligence service.

"It's an absurd version of the modus operandi," former field agent Gad Shimron said when asked about the thriller "Munich."

"Agents are expected to account for their expenses, but not if it means incurring the risk of discovery. They can just as easily declare their expenses from memory when they return home, and it's accepted on trust," he told Reuters.

That is just one of a list of complaints made about "Munich" by those with direct knowledge of the Israeli reprisal campaign.

Read it all.

Gay Nazis?

2005-12-28T15:56:00.000Z

The USA just gets wierder and wierder, and sadly yet more examples of unrestrained anti-Semitism.

Jewish, Muslim Students join together

2005-12-27T16:49:00.000Z

This is the kind of story most bloggers of a certain persuasion would have you ignore. Then again those bloggers wouldn't want 'positive' stories unless it backed up their own dark, twisted and negative worldview.

Students at the University of Delaware came together last month for "CommUnity" to raise more than $400 for Pakistani earthquake relief. The Muslim Student Association teamed up with Hillel to cook a variety of Indian, Pakistani, Moroccan and Israeli foods.

Over the past several months, many students at the University of Delaware have dedicated their time to Hurricane Katrina relief work. Members of the Muslim Student Association and Hillel student leaders felt that energy and effort needed to be focused on the people in Pakistan as well.

"I feel that our campus is full of people who are somewhat unaware of things that occur in the world, and this was one way that we were able to bring people together to make new friends and support a current issue," said Meredith Grabek, the incoming Hillel student president.

Around 75 students attended CommUnity, giving Muslim, Jewish, and Christian students, rabbis and faculty the chance to interact and befriend one another. Hillel's kosher kitchen was appreciated by all the students because kosher food is acceptable to Muslims who follow the halal dietary standards. After dinner, students took the remaining food to a homeless shelter. Starbucks baskets, gift certificates and other attractive items were donated for an event raffle.

Education was another major theme of the event. Each table had a tent with information and images about Pakistan and the earthquake.

"Idan, our Israeli emissary, put together three wonderful posters full of colorful pictures and information regarding Jews and Muslims living together in Israel. It was very informative," Grabek said.

Susan Detwiler, director at the University of Delaware Hillel, described the event as eye-opening and inspiring.

"People were brought together to do good for the world, to do God's work creating a future partnership. I had chills seeing how successful the event was," she said.

Muslim and Jewish students hope to make CommUnity an annual event because of their success not only raising money, but raising dialogue and communication between the faiths.

Joltide Greetings

2005-12-27T16:43:00.000Z

After years of joking, name calling and general piss-taking it has come to pass that even The Mirror has written a positive story about Spurs.

NO-ONE should doubt Tottenham's credentials as genuine Champions League contenders any longer.

The mark of a good team is to win when they are not playing well and Spurs certainly fitted into that category yesterday and remained firmly on course for Europe.

But they had some controversial decisions from referee Phil Dowd to thank, which at least livened up a terrible game at White Hart Lane.

The first half was a real shocker and a great argument for scrapping fixtures over the festive season. At times you could hear a pin drop as White Hart Lane fell even quieter than the nearby Highbury Library.

The match turned within the space of two debatable decisions in the space of eight minutes. First, Robbie Keane took a spectacular tumble under Matthew Upson's clumsy 57th minute challenge just inside the box.

Up stepped Keane to convert the spot kick and put Tottenham on their way to another crucial victory.

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Eight minutes later Tottenham were lucky to escape conceding a penalty. Birmingham midfielder Muzzy Izzet, booked in the first half for a foul on Keane, went down under Michael Dawson's challenge and it looked every bit as a penalty as Tottenham's.

But Staffordshire referee Dowd sent off Izzet for a second yellow card for diving.

It summed up the afternoon as Tottenham, with luck on their side, snatched victory with a spectacular goal from supersub Jermain Defoe in injury time.

Birmingham were very unlucky to leave with nothing to show for their battling qualities - although that has been the case far too often for Steve Bruce this season.

They created chances and Tottenham keeper Paul Robinson deserved to be man of the match for at least three top-class saves.

Even Tottenham assistant boss Chris Hughton, standing in for Martin Jol, who dashed straight off after the final whistle because of flu, said: "The pleasing thing is that we know we can play better yet we still won.

"I hope that's the sign of a good team. We expected a hard game and Birmingham gave us that because they are fighting for survival. They had made changes and made it hard for us. We've been in the top six since the start of the season and our aim this season was to make progress.

"We feel we've been doing that with the squad we've put together. We're delighted to be up where we are now."

Birmingham boss Bruce was left cursing his luck again after yet another defeat which leaves them in desperate trouble ahead of two daunting matches against Manchester United and Chelsea.

"That was as good as we've played for a long, long time," said Bruce. "I was delighted with the performance but our Achilles heel is obvious. You can't come to Spurs, create four or five chances and not take one of them. But up until the penalty decision we were the better team by far.

"We can take a lot of positives out of this game. Yet we have lost again."

Birmingham were the better team in a desperate first half and Robinson was forced into a brilliant early save from midfielder Jiri Jarosik.

Robinson then produced an even better stop just before the break from Julian Gray and, from the resulting corner, it took Tottenham striker Mido to keep out Upson's goalward header.

Tottenham had not produced much at all with Ledley King's close-range drive forcing a save from Birmingham keeper Maik Taylor and the stadium was deadly quiet as if the fans had been bored senseless.

Again, it was Birmingham who started brighter after the restart but it was Tottenham's ruthless quality that really won the match.

Keane, always trying to work an opening, twisted and turned on the edge of the box and won a penalty after 57 minutes with Upson stupidly climbing all over him.

Tottenham then began to relax. Edgar Davids' sublime through ball released Keane, who was denied by Taylor, and it looked as if they had found their rhythm.

They escaped conceding a penalty of their own. But when Jenas led a late breakaway and released Defoe, the finish was lethal.

In brilliantly selfish fashion, Defoe turned away from Kenny Cunningham and his waiting team-mates to unleash an unstoppable shot past Taylor.

COYS

Patong beach, Phuket

2005-12-27T11:20:00.000Z

Please visit 'every time I see the sea.....'

More propaganda lunacy......

2005-12-26T04:55:00.000Z

.....and yet more US anti-Semitism.

A nationally known white supremacist who conducted meetings at a Hampton Township furniture store before an arsonist torched it, will preach again in mid-Michigan via the airwaves.

James P. Wickstrom is a self-awoved racist whose "Christian Identity" teachings maintain that Jews descended from Satan and white Western Europeans descended from Adam.

A tape featuring him speaking will appear on the Midland Community TV public access channel in January. No firm date is set yet.

Wickstrom lives in the Pinconning area, according to the local FBI office. He has a post office box in Rhodes.

The 90-minute prerecorded show, "The Enemy Among Us," will air four times, said Melissa J. Barnard, director of the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library, where the MCTV studios are housed.

US anti-Semitism Watch

2005-12-26T04:51:00.000Z

Why not give them their own network?

It was, unapologetically, a recruiting video for a group that promotes an Aryan master race. Interspersing news footage of decaying urban scenes with still photographs of a segregated America, the show decried illegal immigration, rap music and "the multicultural degenerate mess that we have today," blaming it on Jewish media owners.

And it ran three nights in a row this week on public-access television in Anne Arundel County.

County leaders yesterday [Dec. 15] publicly denounced the video "America Is a Changing Country," produced by a West Virginia group called the National Alliance, but said free-speech laws stopped them from keeping it off the television. ...

The centerpiece of the video is a monologue by William Pierce, the group's late founder, who recounts the four-decade history of a group that once was considered by some to be among the most influential neo-Nazi organizations in the nation.

Remembering the tsunami

2005-12-25T20:37:00.000Z

Ceremonies will be held in many Indian Ocean nations today to commemorate the first anniversary of the December 26 tsunami.

A magnitude 9.3 earthquake ripped apart the sea floor off the coast of north-west Sumatra in Indonesia exactly one year ago today.

The quake triggered a devastating tsunami, which travelled thousands of kilometres across the Indian Ocean.

More than 200,000 people were killed in countries as far apart as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Somalia.

Most of those killed in the tsunami were from the Indonesian province of Aceh.

Please donate to 'every time I see the sea.....

Chanukah!

2005-12-25T19:55:00.000Z

Dreidel Song
(Efraim Rosenzweig)

Twirl about, dance about,
Spin, spin, spin!
Turn, dreidel, turn -
Time to begin!

Soon it is Hanukkah -
Fast, dreidel, fast!
For you will lie still
When Hanukkah's past.

--------------------------------------

.....and here's a couple of links!

Chanukah: A little history

Lights, latkes, Hanukkah

Sharon offers Hanukkah diet advice

Coping with two holidays

Menorah of Mortars

Hannukah getting lost in America

When the guns fell silent

2005-12-25T10:14:00.000Z

The Christmas Truce

EU pledges to fight anti-Semitism

2005-12-24T10:04:00.000Z

Positive moves by the EU Commission president. Let's hope action follows the good words.

The president of the European Commission renewed pledges to fight anti-Semitism.

At a pre-Chanukah meeting this week with representatives of the Brussels-based Rabbinical Center of Europe, Jose Manuel Barroso said “fighting anti-Semitism, and intensifying interfaith and inter-cultural dialogue are a priority of my commission.”

He said, “I know very well the great contribution that European Jews have always been making to the European Union, to the causes of pluralism, of peace and to our values of tolerance, our common goal of a united Europe.”

When Jews Were GIs

2005-12-22T16:39:00.000Z

The Battle to Enlist: Anti-Semitism in the Armed Forces

Then the war came and uprooted Jews from their established routines, comfortable neighborhoods and mundane affairs. Initially, however, the war did not seem to change their lives. Jews read the papers, raised funds and sent packages of food to help Polish Jews, the newest victims of Nazi attack. They protested and urged their political representatives to help rescue Jewish refugees desperately trying to leave Europe. They signed affidavits of support to assist near or distant relatives obtain visas. They helped the Yishuv, the Jewish settlement in Palestine, as it struggled against the encroaching reality of war. But at the same time they held banquets and dinners to raise monies for their local synagogues and hospitals. They continued their intramural political struggles. They celebrated the ordinary rounds of holidays and family occasions, births and weddings, bar mitzvahs and confirmations.

s declared war in December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Jews threw themselves into the war effort together with their fellow citizens. Some young Jews did not wait to be drafted but enlisted in the armed forces. But only a minority chose to leave college as Nathan Perlmutter left Georgetown University to enlist. The majority followed the more common track of continuing to work or remaining in school until called by their draft boards. A few intrepid individuals were forced to battle American anti-Semitism in order to enlist, as was the experience of one recent Yale graduate. Rebuffed by biased Manhattan recruiters who refused to enroll him in the navy's officer corps, Martin Dash went down to Baltimore to use his relatives' address to sign up. Seymour Graubard faced similar problems with Air Force Intelligence. A Columbia Law School graduate, Graubard had a deferral from the draft but "was insistent on getting into action. All my non-Jewish friends were accepted, but my application was lost three times running. I was finally informed by a sympathetic air corps officer that the air corps didn't want Jews." Graubard then pulled strings to get a commission in the army. A handful of Jewish pacifists faced a different dilemma. Convinced that the Second World War "would be an imperialist one," committed Jewish socialists like Paul Jacobs had to decide: "Should we or should we not support the Allies against the Nazis and the Italian Fascists?"

Many more American Jews shared Nathan Perlmutter's sentiments: when asked why he wanted to join the marines, Perlmutter told a surprised recruiter, "I want to fight Fascism." Most Americans saw Japan, not the Nazis, as the crucial enemy. "The primary objective of our war is to defeat the Japs--not Hitler, and certainly not Nazism," reported Ari Lashner with dismay. He found among his fellow recruits in the Maritime Service Radio Cadet School "no sympathy for what I presented as the fundamental issue of the war: the defeat of Fascism." While Lashner praised a healthy skepticism of American soldiers toward naive and idealistic slogans of war, he recognized that their sentiments derived from prejudice. "With the Japs it's different. They hate the Japs."

Jews entering the armed forces faced a choice in how to identify themselves; they were asked to indicate their religion on their dog tags. As a confirmed socialist and secularist, Jacobs initially told the army air force that he had no religion "and then found out that this made me fair game for all the chaplains. After being bombarded for a week by suggestions that I attend Catholic, Protestant, Hebrew, and I even think Christian Science services, I gave up." He had his "dog tags stamped with the initial 'H' for Hebrew, thus at least removing myself from the anxious ministry of the other groups."

Approximately 550,000 Jewish men and women served in the United States armed forces during World War II, the equivalent of 37 divisions. The participation of 11 percent of the Jewish population in the service, 50 percent of the men age 18 to 44, ensured that few Jewish families would not have a close relative in uniform. Widespread involvement in the military turned Jews into fighters. They became seasoned soldiers, competent in handling arms and comfortable in taking risks. It was the only generation of American Jews to know military life firsthand. The experience changed their lives, their perceptions of the world and their self-understanding as Jews. "The experience of the war years," Lucy Dawidowicz observed, "had a transfiguring effect on American Jews and on their ideas of themselves as Jews."

Military service lifted Jews out of their cities and sent them to bases located often in the rural areas of the country, especially the South and West. The first encounter produced a kind of culture shock. "I was in a strange land among people who hardly spoke my own language," wrote one GI from Brooklyn. "On this foreign soil one could not find lox or bagels or pumpernickel. Here Southern fried and grits were the popular delicacies." To many Jews' amazement, "this foreign soil" was indeed America. The United States turned out to be a Protestant nation, not a Catholic one. Jews in the armed services discovered a world beyond their provincial neighborhoods. "Most of us were kind of insulated," Abe Shalo remembered, "... we had very little knowledge of the rest of the country. Whatever we learned about the United States was for the most part from geography books.... We knew very little about the people." And the geography books "didn't tell you how different the average American was." Jews acknowledged their surprise upon realizing how Protestant the United States was. They had mistaken the heavily Catholic cities of their childhoods for the entire country.

Jews also discovered the diversity of the Jewish diaspora and how different Jews were from each other. Stationed in Calcutta, India, David Macarov enjoyed hospitality for soldiers at "a weekly tea at the magnificent home of Lady Ezra, and a kosher chicken dinner" prepared each week by Mrs. Gubbay. Writing to his family in Atlanta, Macarov admitted: "When I mention these people, I am sure that the first question which enters your mind is 'Are they Indians?' ... Yet I know that what you really mean is 'Are they dark skinned?' And I find that I get very angry at the question, and am tempted to answer, 'What difference does it make?'" "Perhaps," Macarov continued, "you don't realize what a remarkable accomplishment that is for me. Born and bred in the South, it did not matter what I thought, I felt an instinctive prejudice against dark skins." Though he knew the attitude to be wrong, he did not think he could overcome it. Yet after living among Indian Jews for several months, Macarov discovered that he not only no longer felt revulsion toward dark-skinned people, "but [didn't] see how it could have existed."

The army introduced other Jews to racial discrimination and prejudice. One recruit stationed in Virginia observed a Jim Crow incident on a bus--a black soldier who refused to sit in the rear was forced to get off. Writing home to family in Brooklyn, he described the matter and concluded: "It is about time that all JIM CROW laws were abolished in the South.... Such a move would prove how truly and genuinely we mean our war aims." This awareness and anger at civil discrimination--and its contradiction of clearly articulated American wartime ideals--stimulated in many Jews a commitment to civil rights.

The armed forces similarly gave Jews a new perspective on anti-Semitism. Greenberg remembered that the first time he was "labeled a Jew or a kike was in the Army." His experience was not uncommon. "You know, Dad, there is anti-Semitism. I have found it in the army," wrote Lillian Kimberg, a WAC. Although most Jewish soldiers encountered anti-Semitism in the service, many thought that daily living together reduced prejudice. Kimberg discovered that "many of the girls have never seen a Jew." But she felt that, as "a representative of my religion," she "showed them that Jews are people like all others in the world." Some were less sanguine about the impact an individual could make. Victor Gotbaum recalled many incidents and "statements about our cowardice and Jewish unwillingness to fight. I was deeply upset by it. Here we were fighting the Nazis, and then this madness in the United States Army!" Lashner wrote: "We are either despised, mocked, or magnanimously tolerated."

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