Sim-O

Seth Freedman:

Jerusalem is no more required to be under Jewish control than Herzliya or Tel Aviv, as far as the Bible is concerned.

I don’t understand.
If Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish state is not required to be under Jewish control, then following logic, the rest of the Jewish state is not required to be under Jewish control. If the Jewish state is not under the control of Jews, doesn’t it stop being the Jewish state?

The Guardian:

The moment I decided I had to leave Facebook was when I discovered that its latest advertising gimmick sent information about members’ purchases on other sites to Facebook even when they were not logged on there.

Labels: The t’internet

The Golden Compass: “The most anti-Christmas film possible”

Get me to make a Christmas film. Then you’ll see anti-Christmas.

Talking of anti-Christmas…

Labels: Odds and Sods

The Independent:

Mr Olmert told the liberal daily Haaretz: “If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.”

Oh, Mr Olmert! First you admit to Israel having nukes and now implicitly admitting that Israel is a racist state!
Are you sure you’re a zionist? ‘Cos you’re not doing too badly at making the hasbara harder.

Hattip to this commentor in JSF.

Labels: Israel

Thank fuck for that.

Labels: Politix

Asia Times:

“The Americans are responsible because the Iraqi sky is under their full control.” These were the words of Massoud Barzani, a staunch US ally who heads the US-created and backed Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq.

He was referring to the Turkish air strike on northern Iraq carried out this week. This was the largest cross-border operation since the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003

…

Toying with the Kurds – then abandoning them – is not new to the United States. In 1974, Henry Kissinger encouraged Iraqi Kurds to riot against their government in order to drain the energy of the Iraqi army and divert Baghdad’s attention from supporting Syria’s efforts to combat Israel. Kissinger fanned the flames of conflict in Iraq and was very generous with the Kurds, prompting Mustapha al-Barzani (the father of current leader Massoud) to send him expensive rugs as a token of appreciation and a gold necklace for his bride on the occasion of Kissinger’s marriage in March 1974.

This, among Kissinger’s numerous endeavors, was revealed during the Watergate investigations of 1976, in what became known as the Pike Report. The testimony said that Kissinger had armed and financed the Kurds to dissuade Iraq from “adventurism”, such as coming to the aid of Syria. The report adds, “Our clients, who were encouraged to fight, were not told of this policy.” The Kurds were never meant to win, only to weaken Iraq and materialize US interests in the Middle East. The Kurds – Barzani in particular – should know better and re-read the history of their people’s friendship with the United States..

Labels: Iraq, Turkey, USA

I missed Panarama last night, thought it was on tonight. D’oh!

It was about the http://danhardie.wordpress.com/ and will now be watching it in the next couple of days.

Basra: The Legacy

Watch it here

And also, please, get your MP to sign this. Mine hasn’t, and so will get nagged at.

Labels: Iraq

http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2007/12/antichristmas_c.asp#more:

staging an event in support of Christmas is legal within a designated area without police permission, and staging an event against Christmas is not

In 2005/2006 this carol singing demonstration didn’t need permission from The Law. This one does, and has it.
But then there was a difference. Just a small one. They were pro-Christmas. This one is anti-Christmas.

See Tim for the full press release.

Labels: Demostrations, Law/Legal, Religion

Haaretz:

Israel is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told representatives from more than 60 donor countries and international organizations gathered in Paris on Monday.

Oh, really. So why is Israel still building in the Occupied Territories?

IMEMC.org:

…in light of Israel’s announcement to build 3,000 new settlement housing units in the West Bank.

Labels: Israel, Palestine

Where http://***.photobucket is your ‘direct link’ address of your favicon in photobucket.

Update: I think this may work only in Firefox. I do not use IE anywhere, so if someone could leave a note saying whether the favicon works in IE, it’d be appreciated. Cheers.

Labels: The t’internet