Tidbits - Good Stuff

1. The new Azure is available online (free registration required), with a host of enjoyable articles to choose from.
2. A seal from the First Temple period (not comletely dechiphered yet) was recently found in the sifting of the Har Habayit dump. Ken Yirbu.
3. BTW, if you're interested, you might want to volunteer in the sifting (contact Zahi Zweig), or at least help them continue their work with donations. Trust me, it's a memorable experience.
4. On a lighter note, I highly recommended the very entertaining, and oh so true, stories in Israelity about weather, Starbucks, and...the DREADED PETEL!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

Shanah Tovah to every one of my readers and to Am Yisrael. She'Nikatev Ve'Nechatem Le'Chaim Tovim Ve'Shalom. AIWAC

Beneath Contempt

1. My attitude towards the "anti-disengagement" movement, as opposed to the actual settlers, has now hit an all-time low, with the following disgusting display. Something needs to be done about this extreme and vocal minority, which constantly smears our name in the eyes of the Israeli public.
2. Ha'Aretz continues to reach new depths as the "newspaper for anything not Jewish" with the following display of anti-Zionist, anti-anything book reviews. Even moderate left-wingers are starting to realize as much (see the attached letter at link).

As if we didn't have enough problems...

Our good friends at Bagatz will hand down a principled ruling on the legality of the seperation barrier tomorrow. The infamous ruling of the Hague will be taken into consideration. Forgive me if I don't expect anything but total disaster.

Enlightened Bigotry

I would find it hard to believe that any Jew can read this laundry list of acts of bigotry, especially the Magen David Adom part, without feeling both humiliation and outrage. Are we the only ones who actually have to make sacrifices in the name of "multiculturalism" or false "tolerance"?

No More Excuses

Over the past few years, extremist Israeli academics have gotten away with murder, constantly spewing outrageous anti-Israel statements and even calling for the boycott of their own institutions. Though these people represented only a small minority in their profession, they created the opposite impression, largely as a result of the failure of the vast majority of scholars to rebut their arguments, or at least make it clear that they are not representative of Israeli academia as a whole.

To be sure, things are changing now, especially with the enlistment of various Israeli academics to SPME. However, there is still much too much work to do to repair the damage done over the past five years. One way would be to "Go West" and join Dr. Ron Zweig as an Israel Studies teacher in a major university, either permanently or as part of a sabbatical. In doing so, you can give voice to the variegated, vibrant society that is Israel, instead of the "Nazi state" loksh that's being sold nowadays.

Now is not a time for excuses. Now is a time for action. AIWAC

UPDATE: Here's your chance - Yale's looking for new talent.

...and Raise it Again With Pride

David Hazony has an an excellent article on the 10th century structure -'David's Palace' - recently uncovered by Eilat Mazar (free registration required). Enjoy.

I Hang My Head in Shame

According to the following report, Israeli teachers are the least insistent on hard work. (Hat Tip: Azure)

This needs to change. Now. Any suggestions as to how to do it?

Frenchmen of the Mosaic Faith?

A while back David Pryce-Jones wrote an article in Commentary exposing the pro-Arab and often bigoted outlook of the French Foreign Ministry and government. It should therefore come as something of a surprise that the most vehement and indignant letters in the current issue of Commentary were both written by French Jews.

These letters, pathetic and laughable paeans to France, make me wonder about the anomaly that is French Jewry. It would seem that there are some members of this community that are more "French than the Frenchmen", to the degree that they would prefer France over Israel in a debate, and even agree at one point in the past that "Zionism is a dangerous utopian project". It is difficult to otherwise understand the behaviour of Charles Enderlin, also a French Jew. Efraim Kishon Z"L once said that Jews hate themselves even more than Arab terrorists. These letters would seem to prove that statement.

Tidbits

1. Commentary has a nice summary on L'Affaire Al-Doura.
2. MEQ has a pretty damning, though somewhat overstated, indictment of the CFR's Middle East Recommendations. (interestingly, there is no response by Benny Morris to Efraim Karsh's article in the Spring 2005 issue)...
3. Last but not least, My Obiter Dicta has a post on the tomb of the Rambam that is a prime demonstration of the saying "kol hamosif gore'a".