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POPSRobert Fisk: Why bombing Ashkelon is the most tragic irony
But watching the news shows, you'd think that history began yesterday, that a bunch of bearded anti-Semitic Islamist lunatics suddenly popped up in the slums of Gaza – a rubbish dump of destitute people of no origin – and began firing missiles into peace-loving, democratic Israel, only to meet with the righteous vengeance of the Israeli air force. The fact that the five sisters killed in Jabalya camp had grandparents who came from the very land whose more recent owners have now bombed them to death simply does not appear in the story. Both Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres said back in the 1990s that they wished Gaza would just go away, drop into the sea, and you can see why. The existence of Gaza is a permanent reminder of those hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who lost their homes to Israel, who fled or were driven out through fear or Israeli ethnic cleansing 60 years ago, when tidal waves of refugees had washed over Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War and when a bun
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POPSChanging Cultures
A couple of days after Hamas voted to restore crucifixion to the Holy Land, their patron in Teheran (and their primary source of “aid”) put in an appearance on British TV. As multicultural “balance” to Her Majesty The Queen’s traditional Christmas message, the TV network Channel 4 invited President Ahmadinejad to give an alternative Yuletide address on the grounds that it was a valuable public service to let viewers hear him “speak for himself, which people in the west don’t often get the chance to see”. In fact, as Caroline Glick pointed out in The Jerusalem Post, the great man “speaks for himself” all the time — when he’s at the UN, calling on all countries to submit to Islam; when he’s presiding over his international conference of Holocaust deniers; when he’s calling for Israel to be “wiped off the map” — or (in his more “moderate” moments) relocated to a couple of provinces of Germany and Austria. Caroline Glick forbore to mention that, according to President Ahmadinejad’s chief a
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POPSBUSH DODGES SHOES THROWN AT HIM OMG I have a hero and Marvel Comics didn't create him!!! I guess people that live in caves are better, stronger than we are.. No American would dare to do this.. I tip my hat to my Iraq hero that lives in cave 007... :) :)
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POPSThe Necessity of Israel What ensued? This is not ancient history. Did the Palestinians begin building the state that is supposedly their great national aim? No. No roads, no industry, no courts, no civil society at all. The flourishing greenhouses that Israel left behind for the Palestinians were destroyed and abandoned. Instead, Gaza's Iranian-sponsored rulers have devoted all their resources to turning it into a terror base -- importing weapons, training terrorists, building tunnels with which to kidnap Israelis on the other side. And of course firing rockets unceasingly. The grievance? It cannot be occupation, military control or settlers. They were all removed in September 2005. There's only one grievance and Hamas is open about it. Israel's very existence.
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POPSFisk: Why bombing Ashkelon is the most tragic irony continues (full at source): But watching the news shows, you'd think that history began yesterday, that a bunch of bearded anti-Semitic Islamist lunatics suddenly popped up in the slums of Gaza – a rubbish dump of destitute people of no origin – and began firing missiles into peace-loving, democratic Israel, only to meet with the righteous vengeance of the Israeli air force. The fact that the five sisters killed in Jabalya camp had grandparents who came from the very land whose more recent owners have now bombed them to death simply does not appear in the story.
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POPSIslimic world loves dirty porn Check out these stats too... http://www.mideastyouth.com/2007/11/09/most-arabic-yahoo-groups-are-about-sex/ I'm not exactly sure of the validity of this information but I don't have any real reason to doubt it considering how repressed these cultures are in public. be sure to follow the link for the rest of the clip.
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POPSThere Is A Lot Of Anger "There's a lot of anger out there. Some is directed at Bush, some at the United States, and some is more free-floating, directed at all those who are imagined to have power or to be allied with or important to those with power. This is not a new story. In today's world, anger and powerlessness are expressed, more and more, through the medium of the hidden bomb and the hurled object: the Molotov cocktail, the stones flung by Palestinian boys at Israeli tanks, the grenades of Mumbai's terrorists, suicide bombers throwing their ownexplosives-laden bodies into spaces packed tight with human beings. By willingly risking prison and death just to throw those shoes, he reminded the powerful and powerless alike that a single symbolic gesture can be more effective than a thousand grenades."
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POPSWhat’s The Arabic Word For “Chutzpah“? A remarkable, and clearly unselfconscious degree of impudence is expressed by SFB’s employer, however: “Al-Baghdadia television demands that the Iraqi authorities immediately release their stringer Muntazer al-Zaidi, in line with the democracy and freedom of expression that the American authorities promised the Iraqi people,” it said in a statement. “Any measures against Muntazer will be considered the acts of a dictatorial regime,” it added. Golly, but that’s rich Bush Shoe Attacker Detests America http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081215101512.zc72xjiu&show_article=1
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POPSIraq Rally for Bush Shoe Attacker "This is a farewell kiss, you dog," he yelled in Arabic as he threw his shoes. "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." Correspondents say the journalist's tirade was echoed by Arabs across the Middle East who are fed up with US policy in the region. "He deserves to be hit with 100, not just one or two shoes. Who wants him to come here?" said a man in Baghdad. But his view was not expressed by everyone. "I think this incident is unnecessary, to be honest. That was a press conference, not a war. If someone wants to express his opinion he should do so in the proper manner, not this way," said another Baghdad resident. Doesn't that Nike commercial say; "Just do it" ? .:)
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POPSBush Ducks Shoes in Iraq Wow. What do you call an Iraqi journalist walking around Baghdad in his socks? Pissed. I doubt this guy's walking around Baghdad, though. I'd imagine he's in jail. You can imagine Bush telling people later that he's so beloved in Iraq that a grateful reporter gave him a free pair of shoes to represent the "solid footing" the US and Iraq are on. Video at the link .
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POPSUnofficial Translation of U.S.-Iraq Troop Agreement from the Arabic Text Iraq owns all the buildings and installations, the nontransferable structures on the ground that are located in the areas and installations agreed upon, including those the U.S. utilizes, constructs, changes or improves. At withdrawal, the U.S. will return all the installations and the agreed upon areas allocated for the use of the U.S. combat forces according to two lists (of inventory) to the Iraqi government. The first of these is to be submitted covering the installations and agreed upon areas as soon as the agreement is implemented. And the other list is to be submitted no later than June 30, 2009, the appointed date for U.S. Forces withdrawal from cities, towns and villages. And the Iraqi government has the right to permit the U.S. Forces to use some necessary installations for this agreement's purposes at withdrawal.
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POPSA New Translation of the Quran
The new crop of Quran translators are brushing aside centuries of traditionalist, male-dominated, and often misogynistic clerical interpretations in favor of a more contemporary, more individualized, and often more gender-friendly approach to the Quran. In the process, they are not only reshaping the way Islam's holy book is read; they are reinterpreting the way Islam itself is being understood in the modern world. Take the following example from Sura 4:34, which has long been interpreted as allowing husbands to beat their wives: "As for those women who might rebel against you, admonish them, abandon them in their beds, and strike them (adribuhunna)." The problem, as a number of female Quranic scholars have noted, is that adribuhunna can also mean "turn away from them." It can even mean "have sexual intercourse with them." Obviously, which definition the translator chooses will be colored by whatever his or her preconceived notions are about a husband's authority.
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POPSAl-Qaida No. 2 insults Obama The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters' house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites.
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POPSReported Obama-Hamas Contacts Bode Ill Another clash between Obama’s public statements and his team's behind-the-scenes activities. According to Yousuf, Hamas' contact with Obama's advisors was ongoing, adding that he personally had friendly relations with a few of Obama's advisers whom he had met when he lived in the US. "Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh will draft a congratulatory letter to Obama for his victory in the elections," added Yousef. "The policy Obama will instate in the Middle East will differ from that of his predecessor George W. Bush, although it is clear that the region and the Palestinian issue will not be at the top of his agenda," Yousef told Al-Hayat, "(Obama) will focus more on the economic crisis, Iraq and Afghanistan." © 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
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POPSDarfur activists pitch tents in Washington Former U.S. Special Representative to Sudan Roger Winter said that he urged activists to widen their advocacy from Darfur to Sudan as a whole. Winter noted, “Sudan can get much worse. Note that I did not say Darfur can get much worse; I said Sudan can get much worse.”
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