Bookworm Room

Five years after Gilad Shalit was kidnapped, a period during which he has been completely invisible and denied any access to humanitarian agencies, a small handful of American Muslims has finally decided to say something: The Aug. 26 letter’s 11 signatories include the two Muslim members of Congress — Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Andre [...]

3 Comments »

If you haven’t watched it already, please see Bibi’s remarks, which very, very politely explain to Obama that his speech yesterday was horse poop.

137 Comments »

The world’s useful idiots never get it.  Israel targets Palestinian soldiers, and is terribly troubled when she inadvertently kills the civilians amongst whom the fighters hide.  The Palestinians deliberately target civilians, and try to kill the largest number possible.  Today, they succeeded: A bus explosion in Jerusalem has caused dozens of casualties, police said Wednesday. [...]

102 Comments »

The popular meme amongst the unholy cabal that is Islam and the Left is that Israel is a murderous genocidal regime that is currently using the blockade to impose unimaginable suffering on the Gazans.  Fortunately, modern communications allow us to see the full extent of that “suffering” (h/t Sadie): By the way, Gaza is governed [...]

3 Comments »

Although it’s been open for more than a year now, I went for the first time today to the newly rebuilt California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.  My visit there was an interesting contrast to my first visit, some years ago, to the newly rebuilt De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Although [...]

20 Comments »

StandWithUs is circulating a petition directed to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and the United Nations, aimed at putting pressure on Hamas to free Gilad Shalit. Given that those organizations are all rabidly antisemitic and anti-Israel within their own four walls, I think it’s an excellent idea to apply as much [...]

2 Comments »

I’m really not quite sure what to make of this comedy video.  It’s from England, yet it’s fact-filled and pro-Israel.  I wonder how long before these two people are banned from YouTube:

1 Comment »

Are you aware that Iran was caught smuggling weapons into Gaza? Do you think Israelis have any legitimate reason to be concerned that Hamas may try to receive weapons via boat? Did you know that Hamas activists have shot about 4000 rockets into southern Israel since Israel withdrew form Gaza? Does that trouble you? Do [...]

2 Comments »

Yesterday, White House officials were telling Jake Tapper that Obama would support Israel.  Any minute moments of hope I cherished that the administration actually meant what it said were swiftly dashed.  This is Obama’s version of support: The Obama administration considers Israel’s blockade of Gaza to be untenable and plans to press for another approach [...]

14 Comments »

Please, please, please, please, spread this video:

2 Comments »

These men aren’t dead yet, but they will be if they’re ever released back to Hamas’ TLC.  The men of whom I speak are Gazans whom Israel captured during the recent Gaza incursion, and who have spilled the beans about Hamas’ myriad war crimes and financial defalcations — all of which consistently starve, murder, and [...]

7 Comments »

Here’s a sickening AP story blaming Israel for the “trauma” inflicted on Gazan children.  The story’s only acknowledgment that Hamas itself placed the children in the line of fire is the following paragraph, one that is carefully crafted to make it seem as if it was Israel’s fault that the poor Hamas fighters had to [...]

3 Comments »

I’ve had some family management issues taking up my time today (all is good, but, boy, was the management time-consuming), but my faithful friends send me wonderful, thought-provoking things that I can pass along to you.  Here’s a good video trying to help Americans understand what Israelis have suffered for the last ten years — [...]

6 Comments »

Peters has said everything I’d like to say.

2 Comments »

I can guarantee you that Mr. Jim Bramell, a Mill Valley resident spouting this kind of belly-gazing crap, was not on the streets protesting at any time during the last several years as Hamas fired thousands of missiles into Israel, destroying myriad little castles (for footage of some of those destroyed little Israeli castles, many [...]

14 Comments »

I’m sorry, but when a law professor writes this kind of prima facie garbage, you have to wonder about an administration that keeps him on board.  Without even delving into actual facts, let me just fisk the relevant parts of Bisharat’s article regarding Israel and war crimes to reveal logical inconsistencies and outright gibberish: Israel’s [...]

3 Comments »

Hamas has been making much of its dead children.  It had a field day with photos of those children who died when the IDF shot shells into a “UN school.”  Most of the world (including, of course, a credulous and/or complicit media) managed to ignore the fact that it’s bizarre that, in the midst of [...]

25 Comments »

Not a conversation in which I was involved (nor was it politic or appropriate to become involved), but I heard someone this morning praising Carter’s execrable editorial (and I’m not going to dignify that with a link) castigating Israel for defending itself. The liberal praising the article, when asked about the rocket attacks, said “Well, [...]

19 Comments »

Hamas’ tried and true tactic worked again — it put children in the line of fire and Israel, rather than moving forward to protect her own children, is caving: Israel has shown the first signs of bowing to the international outcry over its 11-day onslaught of Gaza after some 40 Palestinians sheltering in a United [...]

12 Comments »

It’s been an incoherent day, one that never gave me the opportunity for contemplation and writing.  Instead, I’ve been bopping here and there, and dealing with one thing and another.  Nevertheless, I have been tracking the news, so I thought I’d just write up a mish-mash of thoughts about current issues and events. Gaza The [...]

6 Comments »

Vacation is over and I’m back to my work schedule, which means no more morning blogging (not that I was very inspired in the morning during vacation).  Still, I had to share this gem with you. I spoke with a liberal friend yesterday, who is lukewarm about Israel, and he told me that Israel absolutely [...]

26 Comments »

Alan Dershowitz gives us some insights into the evil that is Hamas (and I use the word evil deliberately and without any artistic hyperbole), and then explains how, under international law, the concept of “proportionality” properly works in the face of that kind of evil.  Incidentally, it’s not far from my post from a couple [...]

10 Comments »

I have an embarrassing confession to make:  When I was young, one of my favorite shows was Hogan’s Heroes.  I found it a weekly marvel to see the dashing, clever Colonel Hogan run rings around the Germans.  Nor was I at all perturbed by the asymmetry of it all, with the Germans portrayed as bumbling [...]

12 Comments »

Israel finally said “enough is enough” and counterattacked Gaza.  I think John Podhoretz nails everything that needs to be said on the subject in the short-term, and I’m impressed enough with his depth and brevity to reproduce his entire paragraph right here: Israel launched a massive air campaign against the infrastructure of Hamas terror in [...]

3 Comments »

I’ve been reading two things that seem to twine together.  The first is the ongoing news out of Gaza, about Hamas continuously firing missiles into Israel (as well as into their own population).  Noah Pollak wrote a very good commentary in response to a question about why Hamas, through its outpost in Gaza, keeps fighting [...]

8 Comments »