My hero!

It is very easy to be an armchair warrior. It is easy to protest from the safety of your home, to rant and rave online with fellow armchair warriors. It is hard to get in the trenches and do what is necessary to make a difference. To that extent, I have striven to be more than an armchair warrior; I am leading activities in the NYC area and I hope to actually make a difference. But what I have done is nothing. It is a drop in the bucket compared to Salah Choudhury, a "Muslim Zionist" journalist from Bangladesh who faces a possible death penalty for the "crime" of advocating for normalized relations with Israel. Please read what David Harris of AJC wrote about this courageous man.

Mr. Choudhury could have easily sought aslyum in the United States, during his week long reprieve he was granted by the Bangladeshi government. He could have sought personal safety. Instead, this man will travel back to Bangladesh and face trial, with his life on the line. Mr. Choudhury, a man I wrote about earlier, is seeking to empower the peace loving people of Bangladesh. And let me say this. With no exceptions, the Muslim Bangladeshis I have met have been kind, peace loving, and honestly moderate. None had a bad word to say about Israel. I actually lived in a building with two Bangladeshi Americans, and the only bad words they had to say were about Pakistan, and the way that Bangladeshis were treated like dirt by what was once their mother country.

And so I empathize with the Bangladeshi people, some of the poorest on earth, who are simply trying to find their way in this world, but have an authoritarian Islamist government backed by Saudi money that is preventing ordinary Bangladeshis from expressing their opinions and leading their lives as they see fit. And I fear for a new generation of Bangladeshis who, so impovershed, will be taught in Saudi-funded madrassas.

And so what does the US do in response to this crisis? It offers a $20 billion weapons deal to Saudi Arabia. What does Israel do in response to THAT? Olmert says, "No, America, give MORE!"

Knowing Choudhury's plight and how empowering the Saudis disempowers the moderate life-loving Bangladeshis, this puts the Saudi weapons deal in a whole new light. Not only is it a suicidally stupid move, it is a move which as a side-swipe also hurts the innocents around the world who are being victimized by those that the Saudis empower. It hurts the friends we have around the world, not just ourselves.

I would say Bush and Olmert should be ashamed of themselves, but at this point I do not believe Olmert has any shame left inside him.

Winograd to address alleged war crimes during last year's Hizballah war

Read more about another aspect of Winograd right here.

Personally, I think this is great idea. I think Israel should honestly look at whether it committed 'war crimes' or not. But in turn, let's see the press publicize the fact that Israel is such a strong democracy, that it is willing to have a commission examine this issue. I also would love to see a commission examine Hizballah's war crimes. Maybe Winograd will do that?

Predictions...(and you do not need to be a swami to figure this out)...

• The report will find at least some 'war crimes' committed by Israel as war is hell and there are always war crimes committed during war. You cannot win a war without committing war crimes.
• The report will also address Hizballah's war crimes (which are much more serious, as they, unlike Israel, purposely aimed for civilians and in fact started the conflict).
• The media will ONLY highlight Israel's 'war crimes.'
• Olmert and cronies will remain in power, after all, Olmert said recently that Kadima will remain in power and he will be PM - despite his 0% approval rating. He will remain in power, no matter what Winograd says.
• Israel will not be praised for being such a strong democracy, that it even is willing to be this critical of itself.

These are my predictions, but I assure you that one does not have to be gifted with supersensory perception in order to figure these things out.

Lisa Goldman Travels to Lebanon

I have read of Lisa Goldman's amazing adventures in Lebanon, and I must say, please take a look! She wrote it about here and here. This is an independent blogger who is connected to Sandmonkey, a personal friend of mine. I am rather positive she is no "Mossad agent," but of course that was Hezby's spin on this.

Speaking of Hezby...France, under Sarkozy, is acting rather France-like towards them. They want to have direct talks with Hizballah. Somehow this escaped the radar of the news AND the blogs...but it is distressing. I was so excited about Sarkozy, but then this.

With that said...can you blame France? Olmert wants to have direct talks with Syria (ostensibly to give away the Golan Heights), and announced it on the same day that Syria invaded Lebanon!

It seems there is simply a general tenor of defeat and surrender. People just do not seem to care that Hizballah is an organization designed to destroy Lebanon. It hopes to turn it into an Islamic fundie state! Moreover, Hizballah/Syria are behind the murders of any and all politicians who actually seek to better the lives of the Lebanese. Just in the last few years, Rafik Harriri was killed. Pierre Gemayyel was killed. Walid Eido was killed just a few weeks ago. Walid Jumblatt lives with round the clock bodyguards, fully aware of the assassination plots on his life.

And what is this for? To those who support Hizballah, I ask you...what do you hope to accomplish? Do you really believe your problems will be solved if Lebanon becomes a Judenrein state? (yes, Lebanon has Jews, yes a goal of Hizballah is to kill EVERY SINGLE LAST JEW IN LEBANON!) Why do you believe the Lebanese should be held hostage to a brutal dictatorship (Syria - the nation that ultimately calls Hizballah's shots) that is totally cool with mass butchery OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE? Do you just enjoy savagery? Do you enjoy blood letting? Do you believe human life is worthless? Or are you going to tell me that this is really the work of the Zionazis? Are you really going to sell that bill of goods to me, someone who has a Lebanese Jew as a friend, and whose friend witnessed Syrian agents torturing his cousin to death? Who personally had to flee Lebanon because he is on Nasrallah's death list?

Is this your grand vision of Lebanon? Totalitarian Islamic dictatorship, Judenrein, women in burqas, constant prayer, no human rights, and no joy.

Seems pretty grim to me.

EDIT: I would like to add that Bush's stance on this is rather hypocritical. His administration castigated Pelosi's trip to Syria, and rightly so. But I ask: Why is there a U.S. Embassy in Damascus, and none in Jerusalem? Bush has had more than six years to correct this, and has done nothing. This stasis has gone on long enough. Bush is part of the problem...

...But with Olmert seeking direct talks with Assad...can you blame him? Shouldn't Jews take the lead in vigilance against monsters such as Assad? And when Jews DON'T take the lead (and decide defeat and surrender is the ideal policy)...it seems natural to me that others would agree and follow suit.

Another reason why Olmert actually is treasonous and NOT suicidally incompetent

On Saturday night, Olmert flew a Palestinian flag side by side with an Israeli flag at his official residence. This is yet more evidence that Olmert does not have Israel's interests at heart. The list of things he has done are so long and wide, words fail me. He also recently expanded settlements in the West Bank. (30 families, it's basically nothing, but enough to cause the mouth breathing Israel haters to be up in arms) Let's recap... I don't see the tiny expansion of Israel's settlements to be much of an issue beyond the effect it has on anti-Israel propoganda. Why would Olmert stupidly and treasonly give up military checkpoints, give Fatah $100 million, let Egypt arm Fatah, and announce he will free Palestinian prisoners, while also expanding settlements??? [source] Olmert is arming the Palestinians and giving them money, taking away important protections for Israelis, and yet also making the Palestinians mad by expanding settlements. It is a recipe for total disaster. Why is Olmert doing what he is doing? I suspect he thinks the piddling settlement of 30 families (tiny number!) in the West Bank will somehow appease the more right wing elements in Israel who are outraged at Olmert's dismal suicidal incompetence. He is completely mistaken if he thinks this will make up for his other various actions. All this does is make the left, right, and center oppose him with a vengeance. At this point, he is persona non grata in Israel. Suicidal incomptence. And yet, by flying the Palestinian flag, I am really starting to believe he is actually treasonous, not suicidally incompetent. All I can say about Olmert is...*spits* I predict he will go down in flames as the worst PM in Israel's history - bar none.

In the true spirit of giving...

...Aussie Dave showed exactly how Israel is partaking in the holiday spirit. At this point, I honestly find it hard to even read the news going on in Israel - Olmert is so suicidally incompetent that I have decided he is actively doing all he can to aid and abet Palestinian terrorists. But he'll get his. A poll in August showed that only 14% of Israelis would vote for Olmert if polls were held that day. That poll said 63% wanted Olmert to quit. Given recent news, I would suspect support for Olmert has dropped to an even lower number. In short, he is rather universally despised in Israel as a persona non grata. Meanwhile, in the UK, there was the 'alternative Christmas message.' This was a message of a converted British woman in a niqab, arguing somehow the niaqb empowered her. How does it do that, exactly? By making her disappear into the woodwork, she is empowered. By showing she does not deserve to show her face, she is empowered. The non-thinking insanity of the 'niqab-feminists' is that the niqab somehow takes sex out of the equation. To them I say: tell that to the women in Cairo who were raped en masse. And by that logic, men should be castrated and everyone should simply be lobotomized, as that takes sex out of the equation as well! Of course, there is the female circumcision in much of the Muslim world - that certainly takes sex out of the equation. TRUE feminism recognizes and celebrates female and male sexuality as part of humanity. TRUE feminism does not say that women are pieces of meat who must be covered up, otherwise the men-as-cats will devour them. TRUE feminism advocates personal responsibility. TRUE feminism does not hide behind religious barbarism and say "Oh, that's cool, because it's religious barbarism, it gets a free pass!" This hideous excuse for a human being you will see in the video below somehow is the descendant of a suffragette. Her great-grandma is spinning in her grave. What a total and complete joke. It takes a perverse sort of non-logic to actually say that this woman is advocating for woman's rights. Appalling, that some people buy that. UPDATE: Seems there were scenes of Muslims praying on the air while the Queen delivered her annual Christmas message. I have less problems with this than the appalling 'niqab feminist,' but I do find it amusing that there would NEVER be a shot of Christians (or non-existent God forbid, Jews!) praying during any Eid broadcast in the Muslim world.