PDavidHornik

Which Arab society most hates the United States?

Whichever one it is, 53 percent of its members "said they supported some terrorist groups that attack US citizens and 30 percent said they approve of 'most or all' such groups." Hint: it's a society on which U.S. policymakers obsess while lavishing endless aid, plans, lofty rhetoric, and diplomatic attention. Now, what society could that be?

What should Bibi do?

Keep trying (if it's at all possible) for a unity government with Kadima and/or Labor, or go with the 65-MK right-wing government? It's clear that Bibi's distinctly uncomfortable with the latter alternative. On Frontpage this week I expressed understanding for his wish to form a broader government that would afford more international legitimacy and governmental stability at a time of severe security and economic challenges for Israel. Here, Israel Harel argues cogently for the merits of sticking with the 65-MK right-wing coalition. Among other things, he says Tzipi Livni, within a Netanyahu government, would just act to undermine it instead of adding stability--a persuasive point. 

Michael Freund nails it

Why did Israel's offensive against Hamas win a torrent of anti-Israeli coverage, protest, and demonization, while Sri Lanka's offensive against the Tamil Tigers elicits a yawn if even that much? Could it have something to do with the fact that Jews are news, in quite nefarious fashion? Michael Freund thinks so, and spells out why.

Thomas Sowell's must-read

Thomas Sowell on the condition of America.

One of the many symptoms of this decay from within is that we are preoccupied with the pay of corporate executives while the leading terrorist-sponsoring nation on earth is moving steadily toward creating nuclear bombs.

Does anyone imagine that we will care what anyone's paycheck is when we see an American city in radioactive ruins?

Yet the only serious obstacle to that happening is that the Israelis may disregard the lofty blather coming out of the White House and destroy Iran's nuclear facilities before the Iranian fanatics can destroy Israel.

If by some miracle we manage to avoid the fatal dangers of a nuclear Iran, there will no doubt be others, including a nuclear North Korea.

Although, in some sense, the United States of America is still the militarily strongest nation on earth, that means absolutely nothing if our enemies are willing to die and we are not.

Read it all.

Steyn sounds the alarm

Even for Mark Steyn this is a great piece--on the growing threat of aggressive Islam, and ever-intensifying Western supineness before the threat.

Self-dhimmification

Israeli Islam-scholar Rafael Yisraeli clarifies how the Olmert government submits to Hamas not only militarily but even linguistically, letting Hamas set the terms--on the way to surrounding Israel with three "Palestinian states."

Ari Folman's BS

Here it is, folks, straight from the mouth of the artiste: any criticism of Waltz with Bashir is "terrible" and "extremist"--heaven forfend, one doesn't criticize a lefty artiste; "Folman [said] 'the most surprising thing' that happened to him in the four-year odyssey of making his film was receiving the accolades and support of Israel's film establishment despite the politically sensitive subject matter of his film"--my, how surprising, he thought Israel's tax-funded super-lefty film establishment would blacklist him for insufficient patriotism; yet "I think there is a misconception about how tolerant Israel is, at least towards her artists"--ah, Ari's rich and famous now, you've got a dead horse lying on the ground called Israel in International Public Opinion, give it a few more kicks, Ari, even when you get "accolades"; and most interestingly of all:

He said that the film came out of a series of sessions he had with a therapist while trying to get an early discharge, at 40, from reserve duty as a screenwriter for public-service announcements about "how to defend yourself from an Iranian atomic attack in 60 seconds," he said, wryly.

"I had writer's block, I couldn't do it anymore," Folman added.

Got that? He didn't have the strength to cope with the threats to Israel; instead he joined the jackals and started bashing Israel himself. He got over his writer's block and put it to a better use. It's known as the Left.

Could this be bias? Nah, I don't think so

Here's how AP puts it in a news flash:

JERUSALEM – Israeli President Shimon Peres has chosen hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new government.

Friday's announcement means Netanyahu now has six weeks to put together a ruling coalition.

The question is whether Netanyahu will form a narrow hard-line coalition government or a broad government along with his centrist rival, Kadima leader Tzipi Livni.

Do I detect a bias there, sort of slapping a label on someone? Nah, I don't think so. Not the honorable, upstanding MSM. ("Conservative" or "right-wing" would be less value-laden than "hard-line," which sounds distinctly unpleasant.)

Note that "hard-line" Bibi has refused to rule out a Palestinian state, has reiterated his goal of helping improve the Palestinian economy, and wants badly, if possible, to include the center-left Kadima and Labor parties in his coalition. But, once a straw man always a straw man, isn't that what they say? If we the Israeli people elect leaders with somewhat more realism and backbone, the MSM promises to slander them to the mostly ignorant worldwide public and grind them under its own mindless, ignorant rhetoric. Along with the politically incorrect leaders Israel sometimes elects, this means Israel itself gets ground  down as well. It makes me particularly bitter because we're already a country fighting for survival.

Dutch news show--ally of Hamas during the war

When it comes to Israel vs. Hamas terrorists, the Dutch prime-time TV news program NOS Journaal--state-funded--"omits and distorts the facts and manipulates the opinion of the Dutch public beyond belief." So says the Israel Facts Group, a European media watchdog organization. Basically the station broadcasted Hamas propaganda almost nonstop and screened out any Israeli right of reply (in a sane, decent world there would be no need for a "right of reply" to terrorists).

Yochanan Visser of the Israel Facts Group says that

"The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Holland during January was skyrocketing. At a demonstration in Amsterdam attended by a Dutch member of parliament, scores of people shouted 'Hamas Hamas, Jews to the gas!' A shooting attack took place on a Jewish health center. It seems obvious what was fanning the flames which led to these incidents."

Yes, what is obvious is that the MSM works hand in hand with terrorism and is no less a deadly enemy of Israel and civilization. Read about the NOS Journaal outrages here on IsraelNationalNews.com.

Waltz with Israel-Bashing, Part II

In the second part of his expose of this miserable film on Pajamas Media, John Rosenthal reveals that calling it an "Israeli film" is in part a misnomer, since it had largely European--and particularly, wouldn't you know it, German--funding.