Smarter Israel

Via Michael J. Totten, Israel has quickly found a simple and effective way to deal with the flotillas. Bloomberg’s Business Week: Costs Increase “The costs of sending aid to Gaza has increased,” [Hossein] Sheikholeslam [head of the Iranian agency to support Palestinians] said. “As Israel has said it will confiscate ships, no company is prepared [...]

A smarter Andrew?… Can he make the grade as a realist?

Yesterday, the Dish had a post called “AIPAC’s Latest Email,” which Andrew explains as evidence of the new campaign by the pro-Israel lobby to demonize Turkey and equate this critical bridge between West and East with Ahmadinejad and Assad. Why? Because Turkey has criticized Israel, of course. Really?… So that’s what Turkey has done: gone [...]

Rest in peace, Garry Shider

A great singer, songwriter and guitarist, and as much the mastermind behind Funkadelic as George Clinton, many people who didn’t know who he was knew him as the man on stage wearing a diaper: I’m not sure whether Nietzsche would have recognized this as a band which crafted frenzied and danceable song responses to nihilism, [...]

Finally, a poll says 3 out of 4 Israelis dislike Obama more than cholent or dafina

In his post ” ‘Epidemic of not watching’ ctd,” the Dish quotes a press release from Pechter, a polling firm, which surveyed Israelis after the Flotilla incident. Based on their poll, Andrew writes that Israelis back “the assault on the Mavi Marmara” and More revealing is the attitude toward the reaction of the US government. [...]

Mental Health Break II

Warning — The following trailer contains nudity, bad language and overdubbing:

Mental Health Break

It begins with a minute and a half of footage of Cyprus Ave, in Belfast, before it cuts into the concert performance. Doesn’t embed, but I recommend following the link to YouTube:

The Saville Report and Andrew Sullivan [cross-posted from Z-word]

[by Eamonn Mcdonagh -- cross-posted from Z-word] The publication of the Saville Report into an atrocity carried out by the British Army in Northern Ireland in 1972 has tempted Andrew Sullivan to write a post of remarkable stupidity. This panicked murder of unarmed civilians was the Brits’ Gaza moment (along with their Cheney moment in [...]

Andrew’s regular Orwell quote: misread and misused … and in the masthead

There’s a Dish post called “Grilling Michael Oren,” which ends peculiarly with Andrew’s favorite Orwell quote, the one from the Dish’s masthead. Before I get into his misunderstanding Orwell’s words — assuming Andrew has ever read the essay where they come from — we should explore the propagandistic tendencies in the post, because  Orwell stood [...]

So did the Mavi Marmara carry any humanitarian supplies to Gaza, or just humanitarians (and some other folks) ?

I’ve been wondering about this, and have read some things suggesting that  this boat was carrying in some electric wheelchairs. But Israel is going on the record that the Mavi Marmara, like two other boats, wasn’t carrying anything — except I assume what was in the luggage and on the person of the passengers. More [...]

Meh mail

I don’t wish to distract from my two previous posts, which relate to the embarrassing narcissism and conceptual shortcomings that appear in the Dish’s epic post “Israel Derangement Syndrome II” — and to Sullivan’s account of a conversation that to me appears largely fictionalized. However, the Dish has posted some more conveniently meh mail that [...]