21 February 2008

Anti Jews Exposed - Hasbro Comes Clean

Hasbro pulls countries from Monopoly site after Israel flap

PROVIDENCE (AP) — Monopoly, the iconic game of capitalism, has been drawn into the dispute over Jerusalem.
Hasbro issued an apology Thursday after an employee, responding to complaints from pro-Palestinian groups, eliminated the word "Israel" after the city in an online contest to select names for a new Monopoly board game: Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition.

The company also pulled all country names from other cities on the site when even more people complained because Jerusalem was listed as the only city without a country.

The Pawtucket-based company is asking people to vote at the Monopoly website on which cities will be included in the new edition. Until Tuesday, every city on the site listed a country, including Paris, France; Cairo and Jerusalem, Israel.

But an employee based in London decided on her own without consulting senior management to pull "Israel" from Jerusalem after hearing complaints from pro-Palestinian groups and bloggers who argue that the city is not a part of Israel, Hasbro spokesman Wayne Charness said Thursday.

The issue has been a sensitive one for decades: Israel captured the eastern part of Jerusalem — home to Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites — in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of a future independent state.

Hasbro management was alerted to the change Wednesday when its London office saw a spike in traffic on the site and figured out what happened, Charness said. The company then pulled every country name, so Paris and Cairo also are now listed alone, he said.

"It was a bad decision, one that we rectified relatively quickly," he said. "This is a game. We never wanted to enter into any political debate. We apologize to our Monopoly fans."

He added that the game, due out in the fall, was never meant to include countries. The countries were added to the website to make it easier to vote.

Voting in the contest ends Feb. 29 for the Top 20 cities and March 9 for two wild card cities nominated by voters. The top vote-getting city will get the prime Boardwalk spot: as of Thursday, it was Istanbul, Turkey.




Well well, an employee in London working for an international corporate giant made an individual decision to bow to arabian pressing threats and thus plung the company into a PR nightmare. Possible, I suppose. Not likely. It is hard to process both “the employee did it" answer and "we were going to remove them anyway" answer.

But maybe with the political correctness that is found in the article, and presumably on the mind of the London employee, one can't be too hard on Hasbro. Note how, according to the story Israel captured the eastern part of Jerusalem — home to Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites — in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of a future independent state.

While factually accurate there is a question unanswered. Captured from whom? Palestine? the PA? None of the above. Jordan was in control of Jerusalem. Why? The results of the 1949 armistice. Jerusalem in UN General Assembly Resolution 181 was to be a Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem. Jordan did nothing to show any support for the open city plan or for sharing the wealth. For background purposes, this resolution originated in the General Assembly of the UN and therefore carried little weight. All this means is that legally, Jerusalem's status was left TBD at that time, which the UN sought to "correct" numerous times but only after the Old City's liberation in June 1967. I couldn't find references to any UN resolution condemning Jordan for holding the Old City or for denying equal religious rights there (not to mention destruction of holy sites). Silence, as they say equals consent.

Well anyhow, as it turns out, no country references will be on the Monopoly board so Hasbro says, unless a rogue employee in London has a different idea. So, as of now, keep voting in the contest. Register as many email addresses as you wish and vote from each one. Drive Jerusalem (Israel) to the top. That will really give the palis something to whine about.


Jewish Virtual Library Jerusalem History

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Jerusalem History

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20 February 2008

Bring Back Israel

Having previously urged readers to vote in Hasbro's Monopoly Here and Now World Edition competition to select cities around the world for the World Edition game board, I must now follow up with that post to report that Hasbro has gone the way of political correctness or kowtowing to the arab lobby/boycott by removing "Israel" as the country in which Jerusalem is found.

As you can see from the current leaderboard, the OneJerusalem campaign has been very effective moving Jerusalem, Israel from around 15th when I first discovered the competition to 4th and climbing. How embarrassing it would be for Hasbro if Jerusalem should actually climb up to first and with cowardice at least and malice at worst, "Israel" is left off the game board. Please consider contacting Hasbro using the contact information below to demand that "Israel" be returned to its rightful place with Jerusalem. Below is my email to the Monopoly team. A world of encouragement can also be left at OneJerusalem.




The Monopoly team at Brazen PR on +44 (161) 9234994, +44 7974 323047
peter@brazenpr.com

Dear Monopoly team

Thank you for your interesting contest to place cities on the global edition monopoly board. I am, however, disappointed in your decision to not list Jerusalem as a city in Israel. With all politics aside, one need merely look at a map to determine the geographic boundary. It is a shame that you have let politics slide into a worldwide game board selection competition. Please show Jerusalem correctly as a city in the nation of Israel.

best regards


ED note - 21 Feb: as of sometime yesterday afternoon, all country labels had been removed from the leaderboard at the Monopoly site.

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14 February 2008

Lechatchila Ariber

Why Is Hollywood Calling?
LOS ANGELES, CA -- (February 13, 2008)
By Mordechai Shinefield (lubavitch.com/LNS)

For a long time now, Chabad, along with many others concerned about the subtle and not-so-subtle influences of pop culture, has been unequivocal about television watching as a harmful, mind-numbing pastime. But that didn’t stop the medium from turning its focus on a Chasidic baal teshuva—a secular Jew who chooses to live a Torah-observant life.

According to Nielson Media Research, last Tuesday night’s episode of House, Fox Channel’s top rated medical drama, concerning a baal teshuvah with a unique medical disorder, was the most viewed spot of the evening.

The episode opened with a wedding officiated by California Chabad House representative Rabbi Yossi Mintz, and the singing of a Chabad style Chasidic melody. Richard Kaplan, a cantor from East Bay, sang the niggun for the episode.

Kaplan, who was contacted by the music department at NBC Universal, says that he is “not formally connected with Chabad, but [I] have great respect for Chabad and derive great benefit from Chabad teachings.”

Actress Laura Silverman played Tova, a recent returnee to Judaism. As the episode reveals, she was a music executive who was inspired to become a religious Jew. As is de rigueur for a House episode, her multifaceted symptoms were too esoteric to diagnose immediately, including several physical symptoms, and, according to House, altered mental states.

Mintz, who was sought out as a consultant on the episode in addition to his brief cameo, told Lubavitch.com that when he read the script, “It didn’t add up at all. So I changed it.” They incorporated most, but not all of Mintz’s changes, but, he says, at least, “from the original text to its final version, it was substantially different.”

Television’s most cynical doctor, Gregory House played by English actor Hugh Laurie, took the position that no one would choose to take on Jewish observance without possessing an altered mental state.

“The woman didn’t just choose to keep kosher,” House explains. “She went directly to the extremes of Chasidism. A life of stringent rules. She became a masochist.”

But Doctor Kutner (played by Kal Penn) counters: “She didn’t like her old life so she changed it.”

At the heart of House’s reply is the leitmotif of the television series, and one of the fundamental struggles of returning to Judaism. “People don’t change.”

By the end of the episode, though, the minds on House’s medical team had been changed. Doctor Taub (played by Peter Jacobson), a secular Jew, can “see why she’d be attracted to that life. I’m not saying I agree, I’m just saying… they have something we don’t have.”

When the eventual diagnosis confirms that her illness isn’t causing altered mental states (it turns out she’s just having minor kidney problems), even House concedes his mistake.

People do change. And as this show illustrates, even within the television industry, attitudes change, at least towards those who, like Chabad Chasidim, put no stock in the lifestyles and values of popular television.

Creator David Shore, 46, is not Orthodox himself. He grew up in what he calls ‘a typical Reform-type Jewish household,’ and now attends a Conservative synagogue in LA.

But the show he created does portray the baal teshuvah couple—human beings with the foibles of human beings—as loving, sincere, and committed to their faith and G-d.

To be sure, the dialogues contained a few one-liners stereotyping Chasidic Jews. And yet, in unscripted irony, the episode might have actually piqued the curiosity of some of the many millions glued to the tube, and motivated them enough to look beyond the TV screen for real life fulfillment that last week’s character seems to have found in living Jewishly.







Rabbi Yossi Mintz, Redondo Beach, CA

Well, I still advocate that a reduction in television viewing is good for every Jew. But, this story is compeling. I didn't see the episode, know nothing about the show and cannot relate to the main characters except as their personalities are described in the article.

The article does point to the success of ChaBaD though which probably drives David Berger up a wall. The irony of course is that such a positive message about growth and values was transmitted via the agent of value destruction. Would you expect anything less? This is the history of ChaBaD and it's on-going mission. ChaBaD is "out there", a front facing organization. Thriving and overcoming/outlasting it's opponents while elevating it's supporters has been the ChaBaD theme time after time. It is no surprise that the entertainment world was cracked on Tuesday night exploiting the medium of darkness and bringing to it spiritual light.

(listen to the niggun Lechatchila Ariber)

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Lifelock Brainblock, Lifeblock, Brainlock

McGrath probing service preventing identity theft
By ERIN MADISON
Tribune Staff Writer

The Montana Attorney General's office is investigating LifeLock, a company profiled in Sunday's Tribune.

LifeLock is an identity theft prevention service. Customers pay $10 per month to have a fraud alert placed on their credit reports and be opted out of pre-approved credit card offers. If one of LifeLock's members has their identity stolen, the company covers any losses up to $1 million.

LifeLock previously ran a full-page ad in the Tribune, which included the Social Security number of the company CEO Todd Davis.

That ad piqued the interest of Attorney General Mike McGrath, said Assistant Attorney General Jesse Laslovich.
"When that ad appeared, we started investigating them," Laslovich said, adding that so far nothing has come of the investigation.

The attorney general's office is sending the company a notice of a civil investigation, Laslovich said.

LifeLock is not aware of any state investigation, said Tami Nealy, director of communications for the company.

When McGrath saw Davis' Social Security number in the advertisement, he had concerns that it wasn't actually the CEO's Social Security number, Laslovich said.

Davis says he can give out his Social Security number because LifeLock is effective in preventing anyone from using it to commit fraud.

The Social Security number in the advertisement is registered to numerous people, Laslovich said. That's probably because people see it and try to use it to open lines of credit, he added.

The number in the advertisement is Davis' real Social Security number, Nealy said. Davis gets calls via the LifeLock service every two or three weeks notifying him that people are trying to open lines of credit in his name.

Every time the company prints Davis' Social Security number, it also gives a disclaimer saying people should protect their Social Security numbers and not share them, Nealy added.

The attorney general's office also has concerns about LifeLock because most of the services it offers are things people can do for free on their own, Laslovich said.

The company doesn't deny that, Nealy said.

"Everything we do for you, you can do yourself," she said.

However, the company offers convenience in that members don't have to do those things themselves, such as renew fraud alerts, which expire every 90 days.

"You can change your own oil; you just don't," Nealy said.

Laslovich recommends that people do thorough research before signing up with LifeLock — look over the contracts before signing them, be sure to understand what the company offers and go over everything with a fine-tooth comb.

Laslovich noted that with the increase in identity theft, there also are some businesses cropping up that may only claim to protect people from identity theft.

"We're just trying to be proactive," he said.

Reach Erin Madison at 791-1466, 800-438-6600 or emadison@greatfallstribune.com.




APRPEH has posted information and analysis concerning Lifelock in the past: here and here. Lifelock at least is honest in admitting that the services they provide can be done for free by anyone. The analogy of changing the car oil doesn't really apply. A fraud alert can be placed on all three credit files in under 3 minutes, faster if you are familiar with the touchpad sequence. Both Experian's and Equifax's websites are set up to take the alert online. This a very simple process with very little risk of a leaving your garage a filthy mess and your fragile male ego shattered. More troublesome is the Lifelock marketing:

LifeLock, the industry leader in proactive identity theft protection, offers a proven solution that prevents your identity from being stolen before it happens. We'll protect your identity and personal information for only $10 a month - and we guarantee our service up to $1,000,000. We also offer the only identity theft child protection program available in the market, so guarantee your good name today and enroll now.


Fraud alerts are only affective in preventing credit based fraud. Any new account opening or transaction where a credit report is not necessary by-passes the fraud alert protection. Utility companies for instance including many telecommunications and internet service providers rarely if ever utilize a credit report for new account openings.

The same claims about safety have been made by the credit freeze advocates. APRPEH discussed the credit freeze issue in November.

The Lifelock marketing brags about selling "the only identity theft child protection program available in the market." Why is that?

Lifelock claims:

Among the things we do:

  • We check credit reports every 6 months to ensure that there is no activity.

  • If a credit report does exist, we place fraud alerts on credit reports, stating that this is a minor child and that no activity should occur.

  • We check for work history and any misuse of the Social Security number.

  • We repeat this process regularly to ensure that all is well.

  • Starting out is hard enough. Starting out with a stolen Identity makes it ten times harder. We think that's worth $25 a year. Do you?


APRPEH discussed the issues involving minors and their Social Security Numbers and Minors and Identity last year as well.

A good question for Attorney General Mike McGrath to ask is exactly what protecting is Lifelock doing? The product described on their website merely goes the process of determining if fraud has occurred using a minor's personal identifying information. To find out if a credit report exists for a minor, follow the instructions available from the Identity Theft Resource Center. In general, the credit bureaus will not knowingly produce and report credit history associated with a minor. Once the bureaus are aware that a credit file is associated with a minor they will either freeze the file or mark it accordingly. What the bureaus consider a minor is a different matter. A teen who is listed as an authorized user on a credit card likely has a credit file. Expecting a consistent answer from the bureaus as to why one minor should have a file and another shouldn't is asking for too much.

Wishing Good luck to General McGrath.

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12 February 2008

How Nahoul the Bee Lost His Sting



Poor Nahoul. The friendly martyr bee has gone away. But not to worry little martyrs of Philistia, Assud, the Jew eating Rabbit has come to avenge his hero Nahoul. Assud, is Saraa's new little friend. Jews beware the appetite of Assud.

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Jerusalem Is Not For Sale


Is Olmert secretly negotiating with the terrorist PA the "future" of Yerushalayim? Will he give away Har Habayis forever? Is it illegal to negotiate with the arabians the future of Yerushalayim? The news is filled with stories of this nature. He is, he isn't, the government is stabile, the government will fall, etc.

Likud MK Saar to Shas: "You Promised, Now Quit"

UTJ Rejects Possibility of Joining Olmert Gov't

Atias says Shas believes 'Post' report

Olmert Government Negotiating Away Jerusalem

Is there a hint of things to come in Parashas Tetzaveh? In the middle of a section of Torah which describes in fine detail the construction plans of Mishkan along with all the holy items contained therein, and the wardrobe of the Kohain Godol one could ask "what could this section of Torah possibly offer as chizuk for these times"? I'll step aside and let Rabbi Bogomilsky explain the Kli Yakar. It is good to keep in mind that politics are politics and Torah is the reality.




Vedibarta Bam

"They should take for you pure olive oil, crushed for illumination, to kindle a lamp continually." (27:20)

QUESTION: Would it not have been sufficient to just say, "They should take for you pure olive oil for the light." Why are the words "katit" — crushed — and "leha'alot neir tamid" — to kindle a lamp continually needed?

ANSWER: The first Beit Hamikdash existed for 410 years, and the second lasted 420 years. During the entire 830 years the menorah was kindled every day. We all hope to merit speedily the third Beit Hamikdash, which will last forever. The elaboration in the pasuk is a remez — hint — to this.

The word "katit" — "crushed" — has in it the letters "kaf" and "taf", whose numerical value is 420, and the letters "yud" and "taf", which has a numerical value of 410. The oil should be "kasis" — for 830 years of lighting the menorah. Afterwards, will be "leha'alot neir tamid" — the third Beit Hamikdash — in which the candles will be lit forever.
Kli Yakar


Ed note, Feb 14: the citation should be Baal Haturim and Toldos Yitzchak, not Kli Yakar.

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08 February 2008

American Jewry Astray

Poll: American Orthodox Most Supportive of Israel

(IsraelNN.com) An annual survey of American Jews reveals that orthodox Jews in the United States are much more supportive of Israel than those identifying with other streams of Judaism. The survey by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) uncovers a growing ideological gap in the U.S., according to Jewish leaders at joint forum including orthodox and reform Jews last week.

One of the striking differences between orthodox and non-orthodox American Jews is the amount of time young orthodox Jews spend in Israel, according to Steven Bayne, director of the AJC's Department of Contemporary Jewish life. He predicted that the gap among American Jews will widen as the orthodox community's importance grows.

Younger orthodox Jews' affiliation with a synagogue is double than that of the Jewish population in general. "If you are looking at who is going to be sufficiently concerned about Jewish community and Jewish peoplehood activities, one sociologist suggests that 50 percent of that universe of people concerned with Jewish life may be Orthodox," Bayne added.



APRPEH reviewed other demographic reports on 22 November 2007 in the post News for Thanksgiving and a Turkey in the Straw. That survey presumed as a test variable:
*"As might be expected, Orthodox Jews maintain far different relationships with Israel than those maintained by the non-Orthodox. If anything, Orthodox engagement with Israel has increased over the years as Orthodoxy has been “Sliding to the Right” (Heilman 2006)."


APRPEH stated in that post that the survey in question did not poll Orthodox youth because the impression was that the poll was merely reflecting the fact that less Torah equates to less Jewish unity. The AJC survey seems to verify this observation. This idea is pretty much a given for religious Jews but not so clearly understood by the not yet religious. We may even go so far as to say that the not yet religious even have anxiety and angst watching the people who stand alone quite frequently at odds with the conventional culture. Instead of embracing their co-religionists, the not yet religious are more concerned with common acceptance and social norms.

We Jews suffer from this psychosis of mis-directed unity. Al peh Halacha we must take of our own. By reality, if we didn't take care of ourselves, not only would no one else, but the incentive to weaken us physically and spiritually would bring our collective enemies, the spiritual heirs of Amalek and Helenism a great sense of satisfaction. And thus the real truth of non-Torah Judaism is apparent. Non-Orthodoxy is not really about the search to find personal meaning through or opposed to our traditions, but is the search for personal meaning without a concern as to Clal Yisroel at all. Failure to bind one's soul to all of Israel is a failure to recognize one of the key elements in Yiddishkeit, that HaShem cut the Jews from one cloth.

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07 February 2008

Vote Jerusalem on the Monopoly Board!

Vote Jerusalem on the Monopoly Board!
[02. 6.2008]
UPDATE (Feb 7): Keep Voting! Thanks to you, Jerusalem is now #18!
The makers of Monopoly are inviting fans worldwide to vote in an on-line contest to determine which 22 cities will be etched in the collective memory for a new global edition of the 75-year-old game.
The contest, which got under way this week and will continue through February 28, will allow Monopoly fans the world over to cast their ballots for the 10 best cities out of a pre-selected list of 68, including Jerusalem, Israel.
The 20 cities with the highest number of votes will make it onto the new board.
Please ONLY vote for Jerusalem. Voting for other cities will reduce Jerusalem’s relative scoring.
You can vote EVERY DAY up to Feb. 28.
Here are step-by-step instructions. Please VOTE NOW!

VOTING INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Go to Hasbro's site.
2. In the right-pane, click ‘Sort By: Cities’ (see our diagram)
3. Scroll down to ‘Jerusalem, Israel’ > Click it.
4. A pop-up appears, click ‘Add to My Cities’
5. A small picture of Jerusalem should appear in lower section of the screen. (Please do not select any other cities. This would reduce Jerusalem’s scoring.)
6. Click Vote.
7. Click ‘Create your login now.’
8. Enter a desired Username and Password > Click Save.
9. You will receive a confirmation email at the entered address.
10. Click the link in the email.
11. Once a day until Feb. 28, repeat Steps 1 through 6.
12. Forward this message to others.



click to enlarge


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04 February 2008

Obama Counter-Offensive: The Malley Defense


Rob Malley: the Willy Horton of right wing Jewish nut jobs

By Dan Fleshler | February 1, 2008

Unable to find anything in his past to prove that Barack Obama will sell Israel down the river, right wing bloggers in my community are now focusing on one of his Middle East advisors, Robert Malley. Malley served various roles in the Clinton Administration and was President Clinton’s special assistant during the Camp David talks.

Ed Lasky’s character assassination of Malley in American Thinker spews accusations that are being echoed all over the right wing Zionist blogosphere. Normally, I don’t worry about what Lasky and other contributors to American Thinker have to say. Some of them make Bill Krystal seem like a member of the War Resisters League, or a Deadhead. But someone needs to address the current, vile frenzy to use Malley as the Willy Horton of Likud sympathizers and those much further to the right.

Normally, it is best not to call attention to the irrational bile that often passes for analysis when Israel is discussed in the digital world. But Lasky’s article is extensively quoted by the Greater-Israel-right-or-wrong crowd. One can find posts entitled “OBAMA IS FUNDING TERRORIST…..this MUST STOP” and “Obama’s Pro-Terrorist Foreign Policy Advisor,” which opens with “Robert O’Malley [sic] goes past appeasement, directly to alliance with terrorists out to destroy Israel.”

As far as I can tell, nobody attacked Willy Horton’s father, but Lasky can’t forgive Malley for being the son of a well-known, leftwing francophone journalist, Simon Malley, who was born to a Syrian family in Cairo. That ancestry presumably makes his son immediately suspect and someone who should be carefully screened at American airports. So does the fact that Simon Malley, like much of the post- World War II intelligentsia, lauded liberation movements in Africa and also supported the Palestinian cause. Lasky asserts:

Malley has seemingly followed in his father’s footsteps: he represents the next generation of anti-Israel activism. Through his writings he has served as a willing propagandist, bending the truth (and more) to serve an agenda that is marked by anti-Israel bias…Robert Malley’s writings strike me as being akin to propaganda. One notable example is an op-ed that was published in the New York Times (Fictions About the Failure at Camp David). The column indicted Israel for not being generous enough at Camp David and blamed the failure of the talks on the Israelis.

The column did no such thing, of course. Read it youself. Malley overturned conventional wisdom by blaming everyone, including the Palestinians, for missing a historic opportunity.

Lasky’s piece is quite instructive, because each and every article by Malley that he deems to be anti-Israel propaganda is precisely the kind of article Israel needs. His writing is balanced, evenhanded, refusing to rely on received wisdom when dealing with a conflict that both sides must take responsiblity for inflaming. He comes across as very…reasonable. We have reached the point where anyone who tries to be cool and level-headed about the conflict is absolutely terrifying to those who think of it as a zero sum, Manichean game.

I don’t know Malley well but I do know that in the Clinton Administration, his “agenda” was to promote and protect America’s best interests. Those interests –and indeed, Israel’s interests–will be well-served if the next president uses America’s leverage with both sides, rather than just one side, to help them solve a conflict they cannot possibly solve by themselves.

There is no way to stop anyone from saying anything they want about Rob Malley in the lawless, rhetorical wild wild west of the blogosphere. But I hope Obama’s campaign does not take the bait and disassociate itself from Malley. And if this smear campaign continues, I hope the mainstream American Jewish community will rise to Malley’s defense, just as they did for Obama.

Topics: American foreign policy, Palestinians, Middle East peace process, Israel, American Jews, Hamas, Barack Obama |

Correction on Malley’s role, and a cyber-dilemma

(liberal guilt)




(my response - to the above post - some keying errors corrected)

The NYT article that you say is balanced is an apology for one of the great villains of the 20th century. The "myths" perspective is correct. The "fact" that Arafat merely wanted land is the real myth.

The truth test, or the best evidence as to Malley’s skewed views, (better uninformed views) is the line "to imagine that the 100-year conflict between Jews and Palestinians living in this region, with roots going back thousands of years more and tens of thousands of victims along the way, could be resolved in a fortnight without any of the core issues..".

There was no "Jews and Palestinians" conflict 100 years ago, nor ergo, no conflict "with roots thousands of years" ago. In 1900 there was no Arab nationalist movement let alone "Palestinians". Even leaving an illusion of such a thing as Arab nationalism in Israel in 1900 is anti-Jew and a significant lie. See THE LAND OF ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM IN 1900 . Please do not respond to this by saying, "it is a literary technique on the part of Malley". It is not. It is an intentional usage of arab propaganda. Malley is anti-Jew and Obama for not doing his homework deserves the attention from the blogosphere.

- additional

Peretz on Obama in JPOST

The blinders of liberalism covering the eyes of logic and analysis have always surprised me. Just when I think that the logic sinks in, I tend to be taken aback at how deeply engrained some foolish beliefs truly are. In my post Obama? Oh My! I presented what I believed was a well-reasoned conclusion that Obama is just not worth the risk due to inconsistencies in his comments over the years concerning Israel and his associations. I based that position on historical interpretations of the Jew and Israel in the world and how Obama seems to fit into the posture those interpretations leave in their wake. Then I backed into the blog site above looking into Martin Peretz's commentary in Jpost (at the above link). And there I found numerous leftist Jews and Malley defenders all seemingly trying their hardest to insulate Obama. What I discovered was the lengths to which political inclination can shield a person from the truth. Read the NYT's piece written by Malley and draw your own conclusion. It may be worth your time to read the comments left on the Realistic Dove blog found at the top of this post responding to that blog's Malley post. Jews need to stay vigilant.

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What Words Offend Arabs? The Truth.

Children's Poetry Booklet Recalled After Arabs Complain
(Israeli censorship kowtows to Arabs.
When Will We Tell The Truth Without Fear)

(IsraelNN.com 7 Sivan 5768/June 10, '08) Ynet's web site and Arab complaints against a ten-year-old boy's poem about terrorists has resulted in the recall of all of the Nes Ziona municipality's children's poetry booklets.

Ynet boasts that its coverage of the poem resulted in its being recalled.

The text of the poem (Ynet's translation):

Ahmed's bunker has surprises galore: Grenades, rifles are hung on the wall. Ahmed is planning another bombing!What a bunker Ahmed has, who causes daily harm.Ahmed knows how to make a bomb. Ahmed is Ahmed, that's who he is, so don't forget to be careful of him.We get blasted while they have a blast!Ahmed and his friends could be wealthy and sunny, if only they wouldn't buy rockets with all their money.

Poetry competition director Marika Berkowitz, who published the booklet, was surprised at the protests and told Ynet: "This is the boy's creation and this is what he wanted to express. Of course there should be a limit, but I think the there is no racism here. 'Ahmed' is a general term for the enemy. These are the murmurings of an innocent child."

The Education Ministry told Ynet: "The local authority that published the booklet should have guided the students in a more correct manner through the schools. The district will investigate the issue with the local authorities."
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