A snapshot of cultures.

March 7, 2008
JERUSALEM - A Palestinian gunman opened fire in a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding about 10 in the most lethal attack in Israel in two years, emergency services said.

Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said a lone gunman carried out the attack and was killed by an off-duty Israeli army officer who lives nearby and ran to the school after hearing gunfire. Police had said earlier there were two gunmen.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but it was greeted with celebrations in the Gaza Strip,

where a recent Israeli offensive killed more than 120 Palestinians, about half of whom were identified as civilians.

In this story there is heroism. Who is it?

There is also a sick culture of hate. Who is that?

There is an attempt to excuse the murder of children (just the Jewish ones) with “spin”. Who and why?

Discuss.

Extra credit given for a resonable explaination for the contention that: It is good to kill children if they are Jews.

You may use reason and logic to form your arugment. You may not use and media outlet as a source.

If you are unable to complete this assignment you may be a human being.

And finally something very important to remember;

When you sent your kids off to school this morning did you fret that they might not come home tonight?


“Israelis’ lives are not expendable.”

March 6, 2008

Unless the Israeli government doesn’t want to rock the boat? Not according to this guy.

In Ashkelon, Israel, resident Moshe Nissimpor decided:

that the best way to halt rocket fire from Gaza - in light of what he terms the government’s failure to do so - is some vigilante justice. Nissimpor developed a homemade 200-millimeter ballistic missile which he planned to launch from Ashkelon into the Gaza Strip.

“From this day onwards, we will push back to the stone age every place which dares shoot missiles into Israel’s sovereign territory,” he said Wednesday. “It is time the world understood Israelis’ lives are not expendable.”

I want to marry him and have his babies.

Israel it doesn’t matter wwhat you do you will be condemed for. Its a shit load easier to live with being condemed for winning than being condemed for being dead.

Give it some thought.


Without Comment.

October 19, 2007

Go read this. (With thanks to Imshin).


Push De Button!

March 19, 2007

I meant to look for it on Youtube, and kept forgetting. I was reminded, however, at quite an unexpected place - thanks, Julian :-)

This is Israel’s notorious entry to Eurovision. BTW, the correct name of the band is not Teapacks, but Tipp-ex. Follow the “Misuse” link on the Tipp-ex Wiki entry for a, um, tip on the possible reason for that particular name for the band, and also for the possible reason why it may be deliberately misspelled in Europe.


Without commentary.

February 12, 2007

Read the whole thing.

Thanks to Tatyana for the link.


Phew…

January 29, 2007

…says Imshin. I agree:

The horror of the facts on the ground is one thing, and Jimmy Carter’s response to them is quite another. The former president is hard to read without taking into account the southern US context. A partial explanation for his see-and-hear-no-evil view of the world can be found in southern guilt over the maltreatment of blacks. Carter’s chief of staff, Hamilton Jordan, heard his first briefing on the Middle East in 1977 and offered, “I get it: the Palestinians are the niggers.”

Read the whole thing.


It’s all the Jews’ fault.

November 15, 2006

I am not at all surprised at Blair jumping on that particular wagon, but conversely, I do believe that Howard is made of a somewhat different cloth. That’s why I find the placement of the second set of quotation marks in the following sentence particularly puzzling:

“Far more importantly … let us intensify our efforts towards a sustainable and just solution to the Palestinian issue,which is fueling anti-Western sentiment among Muslims, Howard said.

Or is it just me?


Why I don’t give a crap how hard she cries.

October 27, 2006

So a hard-core lefty sees the light and gets all emotional. DSD felt for her pain… briefly. I’m stuck on not giving a rats if she looses half her body weight via her tear ducts.

Here’s why.

Read the rest of this entry »


Reality bites

October 26, 2006

In this case it bites a large chunk out of the ass of an Aussie peacenik.

And you say they never wanted peace? What channel have you been watching for the last 60 years, lady?

Dangerously Subversive Dad might have some sympathy for her, not me. LGF is less than sympathetic towards Palo child abuse as well.

If you are a vocal supporter of terrorists this is what you support. If you ever find out what it is that you were aiding and are appalled by it, don’t look at me for a hug.


Did we get a little bitch slapped by the public there Hone?

August 1, 2006

Hone Harawira and the Maori Party have gone into 1984 mode after what is being described as “considerable response” to his verbal attack on Jews in the house last week.

His comments made in Maori then translated by him were repreated on the Maori Party website which as now been retro fitted without any applogy or refernce to the change.

Meanwhile in his “appology” he is claiming the dog ate his homework he “forgot” the Maori word for Israel and just used “Jew” instead.

“I spoke in Maori and in doing so I forgot the proper translation for Israel, Iharaira, and used the term Hurae, or Jews, when condemning the Israeli attacks.

Well thats fine then you only meant to attack Israel, not just the Jews. Excellent.

“It was not my intention to attack Jews and I regret using the term.”

Really? Well it was certainly your intention to attack someone, you’re now claiming it was Israel are you?
Aside from the small issue that he himself translated one key word as “murder”. It is to be assumed that he knew he what his intent was and he understands the difference between murder and killing in English ensuring his biased attack was as emotive and judgemental as possible because only Israel is “murdering” people.

But we busted you on that one too.

Mr Harawira also today said he accepted that unnecessary deaths had occurred on both sides “in this long-running conflict” and that his speech should have reflected that as well.

So much the better to stir up anti-Jewish fervor in these troubles times eh Hone?

But come on lets be reasonable, this is New Zealand. The peace loving caring and sharing shiny happy population wouldn’t go out and do anything like attack a Synagogue just because a politican had launched into an anti-Israel tirade for the sake of a photo op now is it? I mean aside from the multiple grave attacks after Helen Clarks ex judica outburst over what she claims was spying.

Oh bugger, look it’s happened again.
I sugest in future in the Member for Terahn doesn’t have full command of Maori he might stick to English or get it writen down for him before hand… speaking of which these statements in the house are frequently prewriten. Anyone got footage of him reading off this little gem by any chance?

Hey what have Mel Gibson and Hone Harawira got in common? they’ve both said sorry for an anti-Semitic outburst. At least Mel was hammered at the time.

Some notes on Maori language.

I resisted all my mothers attempts to teach me Maori on the grounds that I was learning useful things at the time like rabbit hunting and talking to girls on the phone, but I aquired some by osmosis against my best efforts. Being part Maori she thought it her duty to force it on me. I’m also part Irish but you don’t see me blowing up English soldiers do you?

I digress…

Being isolated from the rest of the world untill the late 1700’s Maori language while rich and versatile was lacking in many areas and the culture wasn’t technlogically advanced. Consequently there are no actual Maori words as such for many common objects. The solution was that these objects have been more or less assigned a “Maori” equivilent which is pretty much the same word with a Maori inflection.

For example:

book = pukapuka

ship = hipi

Queen Victoria became wikitoria which apparently tickled her a lot. She had a great love of language and tried to learn enough to great everyone in their own. So shes one up on me.. well that and the whole worlds biggest empire thing.

More complex concepts had to be cobbled together, for example “house” is “whare” in Maori so a library became “whare pukapuka”. Pretty much a house with books in it.

During the late 80’s there was some kind of demented scramble to give every Government Department it’s own Maori name which many who were in the public service will remember was highly amusing as some of the more esoteric concepts led to some very dodgey translations. Especially when translated back into English they were so… um “amusing” that some departments had to shell out great wads of cash to get their flash new brass lettering taken down and replaced with something a little less mirth inducing. Yeah looking at you MERT.

So how does this relate to our little “oops I forgot the right word” incident above?

Well given that New Zealand wasn’t exactly over run with Sons of Abraham in the 1500’s and Israel is a fairly recent addition to the map (just like Lebanon, Syria, Iran & Iraq but no one ever questions their right to exist for some reason) the “sounds like but with Maori inflection” method was used to create the words for Jew and Israel.

Jew = Hurae

Israel = Iharaira

Which given Maori doesn’t contain S’s & J’s you can see is pretty much a simple phonetic overlay and inflection. I was able to pick out that he did in fact say “Jew” from the Maori transcript by looking for a word that sounded like Jew, PING there it is, pile on. There was some discussion that there may have been a lingual missunderstanding which is why some bloggers held off. However this was not the case.
Now given that Home Harawira knows the words “Jew” & “Israel” perfectly well in English and he has learned - as he admits - those words in Maori exactly how credible is it that he “forgot” a phoneticly similar word with an inflection added?

You decide.