Thursday, June 17, 2010

Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad

Swiss Cartoon From 1956: Nothing's Changed

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 11:33 AM PDT


by Daled Amos

Muslims In UNHRC Stop Short Of Saying THE WEST Is Apartheid

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 11:25 AM PDT

I guess the West got off easy. Good thing we have the US in the United Nations Human Rights Council to keep these sorts of things in check:

Muslim states said Wednesday that what they call "islamophobia" is sweeping the West and its media and demanded that the United Nations take tougher action against it.


Delegates from Islamic countries, including Pakistan and Egypt, told the United Nations Human Rights Council that treatment of Muslims in Western countries amounted to racism and discrimination and must be fought.


"People of Arab origin face new forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance and experience discrimination and marginalisation," an Egyptian delegate said, according to a U.N. summary.


And Pakistan, speaking for the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said the council's special investigator into religious freedom should look into such racism "especially in Western societies."

Yeah, especially.



Not surprisingly, the resolution is expected to pass--after all, what else would you expect from the UN Human Rights Club:


The countries of the majority group, which also include India and Brazil, ensure that its members and their friends outside the council -- such as Sri Lanka and Iran -- are shielded from any serious criticism of their rights record.


The group ensures that council fire is largely aimed at Israel over its occupation of Palestinian territories and treatment of people living there as well as on the Israeli blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza.

True, on Tuesday--after much wrangling--Norway was allowed to read a statement on behalf of 56 members of the UN, criticizing Iran on the issue of Human rights. But while the US claimed this as a victory for the Iranian people (and justification for US membership in the UNHRC), only a quarter of UN members actually backed it--and only 14 of them members of the UNHRC.


This is what one has to settle for as a victory in the UN Human Rights Club.


And it is a victory that may never get repeated:

"The Western group knows it could never get such a resolution passed in this council, and this is the only way they have of fighting back," said Roy Brown, long-time chief representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.


Brown said the loophole was likely to be closed in a coming review of the council's activity since it was launched in 2006 to replace a discredited predecessor.

The US will have to find a different excuse to stay in the UNHRC.


by Daled Amos

Ten years of the dorktator

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 04:28 AM PDT

Daniel Pipes observes that it is just ten years ago that Hafiz al-Asad died and was succeeded by his son, the British trained opthamologist, Bashar.

And so, with Asad's passing, my interest waned. His son and successor, Bashshar, inherited a well-functioning tyranny that he has maintained reasonably well. But Bashshar could sustain neither the horrifyingly repressive internal apparatus (e.g., some 20,000 killed in Hama in 1982) nor the wildly ambitious foreign policy that put Damascus at the center of most Middle Eastern issues (pan-Syrianism is defunct). Syria has become just another boring dictatorship.

As noted, Bashar isn't nearly as brutal as his father, so Jonathan Spyer writes that Syria has been subject to violence from unknown sources.

The regime of Bashar Assad has shown itself to be an enthusiastic practitioner of the "strategy of tension" in Lebanon, in Iraq and elsewhere over the last halfdecade.

It appears that someone or other is currently keen on demonstrating to the Syrian leader that this can also be a game played by two sides.

So how's Bashar celebrating? By fighting the United States in Iraq:

No matter what Syria does--sending terrorists to kill Americans in Iraq being one item high on the list, moving closer to Iran, and so on--the U.S. government will turn a blind eye.

By furthering the subversion of Lebanon by supporting Hezbollah:

It was reported that Damascus is believed to have transferred to Hezbollah Scud missiles that would be able to reach any part of Israel. "The threat that Syria might transfer more advanced weapons to Hezbollah has existed for a long time," says Elliott Abrams, who oversaw Middle East affairs in the George W. Bush White House and is now a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "With respect to Scuds, it has been understood the Israelis would interdict such a shipment. I do not recall the Bush Administration ever expressing disagreement with that view."

So how does the Obama administration treat Syria in response? With a cake eating contest! (via memeorandum)

The State Department's two leading Twitterati, Special Advisor on Innovation Alec J. Ross (@alecjross) and Policy Planning staffer Jared Cohen (@jaredcohen), are in Syria this week leading a delegation of tech companies hoping to, as the Wall Street Journal's Jay Solomon puts it, "woo President Bashar al-Assad away from his strategic alliance with Iran" with offers of networking equipment, computer software, and the like.

But it's not all work and no play for Ross and Cohen, who have been finding some time to take in the sights and tell us about it, 140 characters at a time. For example, according to Ross, on Tuesday Cohen challenged the Syrian Minister of Telecom to a cake-eating contest and called it "Creative Diplomacy." Match that, Tehran!

Israel Matzav comments:

... no other American President would countenance giving a repressive regime the means for subjugating its citizenry for the sake of 'engagement.' I suppose we ought to be thankful that he didn't send Boeing and Lockheed and Textron while he was at it.

Let Israeli eat Scuds, let Bashar eat cake.

Crossposted on Yourish.

The durable al-dura case

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 04:28 AM PDT

Ten years ago, at the start of the so-called "Aqsa intifada" Israeli troops killed a 12 year old boy, Mohammed al-Dura. Or did they? It took nearly three years for James Fallows to review the evidence and conclude that that story pretty certainly didn't happen as advertised.

In France, a media critic, named Philippe Karsenty charged that the scene of the boy's death had been staged. He was sued by the reporter who put his name on it, Charles Enderlin. In a very surprising outcome, a French court threw out the charges against Karsenty.

The verdict, unfortunately, did not inspire any self reflection among the MSM and to this day still imbue their reporting from the Middle East with same bias that made the al Dura case possible. But last week Karsenty, who had subsequently been defamed for making things up won his court case. (h/t ET Buzz)

The documentary accused Karsenty of manipulating information to support the "radical and extremist" perspective that the broadcast of Mohammed Al Dura's death on France 2 was staged.

Karsenty sued for defamation, and on June 10, 2010, Canal+ and the film production company were found guilty of slandering Karsenty. The judges concluded that filmmaker Stephane Malterre had ignored relevant evidence about the Al Dura hoax and demonstrated a lack of objectivity in sullying Karsenty's reputation.

This is another judicial win for Karsenty and the viewpoint that the footage of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy purportedly killed by Israelis was a media hoax.

The truth won again. Did anyone notice?

Juggling carnivals 061710

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 04:08 AM PDT

PICT0061.JPG

Incoming Carnivals

The revived Carnival of Maryland is up at I'll never forget the day I read a book. I like the observation about the governor's race. I wrote a related post here.

Batya hosted the most recent Kosher Cooking Carnival.

The latest Haveil Havlim (#271) is up at Ima on the Bima. #270 was hosted by What War Zone?, which, unfortunately is going on hiatus.
Posted by Soccer Dad at 10:15 PM

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