Since he ascended from nothing to the office of President of the United States, Obama has shown a disdain for most of our western allies that borders on hatred. But he’s reserved his most backhanded treatment to Israel. It isn’t just what he’s done to show Israel that he has no use for them, but it goes all the way down to his every last appointment and this week we see another reminder of that in the comments belched forth by Obama’s U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, who basically said that anti-Semitism perpetrated by Muslims is really all Israel’s fault.

As Jake Tapper (one of the few real reporters in Washington) reported on Sunday, Gutman made his remarks at a conference on anti-Semitism organized by the European Jewish Union on Dec. 2.

At the conference Gutman said, “a distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” Gutman imagined that tensions between Muslims and Israel is one, “largely born of and reflecting the tension between Israel, the Palestinian Territories and neighboring Arab states in the Middle East over the continuing Israeli-Palestinian problem.”

Gutman said that “throughout the Muslim communities that I visit, and indeed throughout Europe, there is significant anger and resentment and, yes, perhaps sometimes hatred and indeed sometimes and all too growing intimidation and violence directed at Jews generally as a result of the continuing tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories and other Arab neighbors in the Middle East…every new settlement announced in Israel, every rocket shot over a border or suicide bomber on a bus, and every retaliatory military strike exacerbates the problem and provides a setback here in Europe for those fighting hatred and bigotry here in Europe.”

What is all this if not a way to blame the Jews for Muslim anti-Semitism?

Naturally, many in Israel are not happy. In fact, one of the speakers that followed Gutman’s disastrous comments denounced him right there on stage, as well he should, according to Tapper’s report.

But Gutman’s blaming of the Jews for everything that befalls them — akin to blaming the woman for being raped, in my opinion — fits in nicely with Obama’s attitude against Israel. It also fits in with most of his appointees to the Middle East. Some of his past appointees were Susan Power — a woman that said we should be giving military aid to the Palestinians — and Robert Malley — a man that has close working ties to Hamas.

So, it just shouldn’t surprise that yet another Obama team member is blaming the Jews for radical Muslim terror and hatred.

CBN.com:

Sixty-six percent believe the Palestinians should start off with their own state beside Israel, but then move to just one Palestinian state.

And 92 percent believe Jerusalem should be their capital.

The survey of 1,010 Palestinians — 656 in the West Bank and 353 in the Gaza Strip — was conducted by U.S. pollster Stanley Greenberg, along with the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion.

In light of the poll above, think about this: Neither Hamas, Fatah or the Palestinian National Authority, grant Israel the right to exist in their Charters and Constitutions, but exist they do. Israel has said there will be no two-state solution UNTIL and UNLESS, these factions accept and recognize the Nation of Israel’s right to exist.

Bet you think Gazans live in hovels? Take a look at the first video below. The second video is a Gaza Water Park, enjoyed by the boys. I do see one little girl not in shroud, but in something like a 1920’s bathing suit perhaps. The boys are in bathing suits in the hot sun – the girls in burkhas. The subtitle says Hamas burned the water park, but there is only a quick view.

Take a look at this video at American Perspective which lays out the plight of the people who live in what is known as Palestine.

The Gaza Strip

Gaza Water Park I (video)

At least 72 protesters have been killed by security forces in Syria, rights groups say – the highest reported death toll in five weeks of unrest there.

Demonstrators were shot, witnesses say, as thousands rallied across the country, a day after a decades-long state of emergency was lifted.

The Washington Post editorial board has decided that this is shameful for the US and the Obama administration, yet, they refuse to specifically call out Mr. Obama. Were Bush sitting in the Big Chair, think they would have blamed him solely?

FOR THE PAST five weeks, growing numbers of Syrians have been gathering in cities and towns across the country to demand political freedom — and the security forces of dictator Bashar al-Assad have been responding by opening fire on them. According to Syrian human rights groups, more than 220 people had been killed by Friday. And Friday may have been the worst day yet: According to Western news organizations, which mostly have had to gather information from outside the country, at least 75 people were gunned down in places that included the suburbs of Damascus, the city of Homs and a village near the southern town of Daraa, where the protests began.

Massacres on this scale usually prompt a strong response from Western democracies, as they should. Ambassadors are withdrawn; resolutions are introduced at the U.N. Security Council; international investigations are mounted and sanctions applied. In Syria’s case, none of this has happened. The Obama administration has denounced the violence — a presidential statement called Friday’s acts of repression “outrageous” — but otherwise remained passive. Even the ambassador it dispatched to Damascus during a congressional recess last year remains on post.

The administration has sat on its hands despite the fact that the Assad regime is one of the most implacable U.S. adversaries in the Middle East. It is Iran’s closest ally; it supplies Iranian weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip for use against Israel. Since 2003 it has helped thousands of jihadists from across the Arab world travel to Iraq to attack American soldiers. It sought to build a secret nuclear reactor with the help of North Korea and destabilized the pro-Western government of neighboring Lebanon by sponsoring a series of assassinations.

Of course, that kind of language from people who are on the far left and were some of the primary cheerleaders for Obama is the media equivalent of pulling out the leather belt for a good butt smacking. And it was obviously very hard for the WP board to not notice that Obama is pulling his typical disappearing act on yet another international issue (he tends to do the same on domestic issues, as well).

As a moral matter, the stance of the United States is shameful. To stand by passively while hundreds of people seeking freedom are gunned down by their government makes a mockery of the U.S. commitment to human rights. In recent months President Obama has pledged repeatedly that he would support the aspiration of Arabs for greater freedom. In Syria, he has not kept his word.

Hey, folks, it is not the stance of the USA: it is the stance of President Obama.

But, then, do we really know who these protesters are? What they truly want? Do they want a true Western style democracy, or one where terrorist groups are involved in the Democratic process, such as in the Palestinian areas, where Hamas is a part of the government? Is the Muslim Brotherhood and their offshoots involved, like in Egypt? Or Al Qaeda, as in Libya? Do they want Constitutional Law, or Sharia Law? Would one dictatorial and brutal regime be replaced with an Islamist regime? So far, none of these uprisings have resulted in a democratic system. And by the same token, Obama and his administration have sat on their hands, typically getting involved late in the game, if at all.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

JERUSALEM — Vowing to change a region that has resisted the best efforts of presidents and prime ministers past, Barack Obama dove head first into the Middle East peace process on his second day in office.

He was supposed to be different. His personal identity, his momentum, his charisma and his promise of a fresh start would fundamentally alter America’s relations with the Muslim world and settle one of its bitterest grievances.

There’s a huge problem to start with: he relied on listening to him with unicorns in their eyes, mesmerized by The One, willing to go out and do his bidding. Problem is, creating Middle East peace is a bit more difficult than reading from a teleprompter, and requires an actual plan, rather than a cult of personality.

Two years later, he has managed to forge surprising unanimity on at least one topic: Barack Obama. A visit here finds both Israelis and Palestinians blame him for the current stalemate – just as they blame one another.

Instead of becoming a heady triumph of his diplomatic skill and special insight, Obama’s peace process is viewed almost universally in Israel as a mistake-riddled fantasy. And far from becoming the transcendent figure in a centuries-old drama, Obama has become just another frustrated player on a hardened Mideast landscape.

In other words, a smile and a speech were no substitute for reality and wise planning. Who would have thought a guy with no foreign policy experience, with a hatred for Israel (just like his base), and little actual real world experience, could mess up so badly? His policy has been described as “bumbling”, and some think he has made the issues worse.

Obama has resisted advisers’ suggestions that he travel to Israel or speak directly to Israelis as he has to Muslims in Egypt, Turkey, and Indonesia.

“Israelis really hate Obama’s guts,” said Shmuel Rosner, a columnist for two leading Israeli newspapers. “We used to trust Americans to act like Americans, and this guy is like a European leader.

The shame of it is that there was an actual opportunity, what with some of the most virulent Palestinian leaders, such as Yassar Arafat, gone to meet their 72 virgins. But, Obama has consistently taken the wrong tracks, as even far lefty Jackson Diehl notices

But that is just the point: The dream of a “greater Israel” died more than 15 years ago. Even the Israeli right now accepts that a Palestinian state will be created in the West Bank. The settlements have become a sideshow; the real issues concern how to create a Palestinian state in a Middle East where the greatest threat is not Israeli but Iranian expansionism. What to do about Hamas and Hezbollah and their Iranian-supplied weapons? How to ensure that the post-occupation West Bank does not become another Iranian base? Those issues did not exist in 1983 – and the Obama administration seems to have no strategy for them.

The Obama foreign policy towards Iran, which is perhaps the biggest impediment towards peace in the region, is to make nice with Iran. That’s the plan. They don’t love and worship Obama, either.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach. sit back and Relax. we’ll dRive!

The Vatican has issued one of its strongest condemnations yet of Israel’s “occupation” of the West Bank. It has rejected the use of biblical texts by Jewish settlers to justify “injustices”.

Releasing a strongly worded document by the synod of bishops for the Middle East, a senior Archbishop also challenged the notion of Jews as “the chosen people”, saying such a concept no longer existed.

After a two-week conference, which ended with a meeting with the Pope, the bishops called on the international community to pressure Israel to end the occupation. “Recourse to theological and biblical positions, which use the word of God to wrongly justify injustices, is not acceptable,” the statement said.

More HERE

One has to wonder if the opening words are the work of Lyons or the work of a sub-editor. Lyons has been prominent in Australian journalism for some time so I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt and blame a sub-editor for the clanger.

The problem is, you see, that the Vatican issued NO statement about Israel whatsoever. The statement was issued by a clutch of Middle-Eastern bishops with a vested interest in protecting their people from Muslim attacks. Being pro-Israel would be fatal to them. Their only connection to the Vatican is that they held their conference there. Israel’s reply is here

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don’t forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me here

Israel’s blockade of a Gaza-bound flotilla last May would have been illegal, even if Osama bin Laden himself had been on the ship full of pro-Palestinian activists, a member of a U.N.-appointed fact-finding mission told the Human Rights Council.

The Geneva-based HRC is considering a report by the three-member commission that investigated the so-called “flotilla incident” – Israel’s interception at sea of Gaza-bound vessels, including the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, on May 31, 2010. The ensuing deadly clashes between Israeli commandos and pro-Palestinian activists left nine activists dead.

Accusing Israel of war crimes, the report stated that the seizure of the ship was illegal, based on the determination that the Israeli blockade was itself illegal under international law.

Shocker! I wonder if there will be a mention of Egypt being a partner and participant in the Gaza blockade? Nah, we know this is all about the Jew/Israeli hatred, and, despite the massive amount of material submitted to the UN HRC by UN Watch, well, they had an interesting response to UN Watch representative Leon Saltiel

Da Silva then added that Saltiel’s comments betrayed an ignorance of the law.

“Even if bin Laden himself was on board the Mavi Marmara it wouldn’t have made the blockade legal.”

Would it shock you to learn that the hearing was dominated by the Organization of the Islamic Conference bloc? Aren’t you glad we give billions of dollars to the UN every year?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach. Re-Change 2010!

A boat filled with women will conquer the “thieving enemy,” – that would be the Israeli blockade. The idea behind filling the boats with females is brilliant, because Islamic men, and particularly those in Hamas use women and children as shields on most dangerous operations. They know Israel is much farther up on the civilized chain of behavior than they. The women are Islam’s “secret weapon.” Israel will stop the ship for inspection.

Asked on Radio A-Shams by Zohair Bahloul why the ship, Mariam, would only be carrying women, she said, “We are women in order not to give the thieving enemy an excuse to use arms against the ship.” She said the ship would be carrying cancer medication for children, and women suffering from breast cancer and cancer of the uterus due to “chemical bombs” dropped on Gaza by Israel…

Speaking of Israel, she said, “the entity that was not defeated will be defeated by women that will come on the boat. Our weapon is cancer medication.

Alhaj said that the boat will have some 50 women, “more Christians than Muslims,” and will be coming from Lebanon, the US, France, Britain, Japan, Kuwait and Egypt.

Readers, keep in mind that Israel does not deny shipments into Gaza, they deny terror weapons into Gaza.

A second boat of “journalists and parliamentarians” will also make its way toward Gaza. Good luck to the Parliamentarians, whomever they may be. Watch your backs, because, MSNBC covets your space on that “boat.”

Here is the face of hate, my friends. The man who funds the boats, referred to Israel on Lebanese television as “Europe’s refuse,” and here’s more:

“Gilad Schalit [captured Israeli soldier in Hamas prison] should go back to Paris and those murderers go back to Poland, and after that we will chase them until the ends of the earth to bring them to justice for their acts of slaughter from Deir Yassin until today.”

Kashlak, a fervent Hizbullah supporter, called Israel a “rabid dog sent to the region to frighten the Arabs. He said he had a message for Israelis: ‘Get on the ships we are sending you and go back to your lands. Don’t let the moderate Arab leaders delude you, [you] cannot make peace with us. Our children will return to Palestine, you have no reason for coexistence. Even if our leaders will sign a peace agreement, we will not sign.’” He said the boat carrying journalists and parliamentarians will carry 12 former American diplomats as well…

Israel plans to stop the ships. These “women” will be sent home via some reasonable method of transport, the journalists also, and the “cancer medication” will be sent to Gaza. The mainstream media will be misty-eyed and awed at the sacrifice of these women.

This post is from the Save Mosab Yousef website. The author is Bob Belvedere, the Humble Dispatcher Extraordinaire at The Camp of the Saints. Mosab talks about his family, and among the many things I have read about him, this was my first time to see this. Bob’s comment at the end is one of those ‘Amen’ moments. I doubt that any of us have come close to being where Mosab is in his life, and maybe even his spiritual journey.

The Courage of Mosab Yousef
by Bob Belvedere, The Camp of the Saints
Originally published June 16, 2010

In the week following the Israeli boarding of boats piloted by Turkish “peace activists” off the coast of Gaza, Caroline Glick and the good folks at the Hebrew language Israeli news site Latma created a parody video skewering the violent actions perpetrated by those “peace activists” against members of the Israeli authorities attempting to enforce the Gaza blockade. The video went up on YouTube and garnered three million views within a matter of days.

Created as a parody of the 1980s activist song “We are the World,” the Latma song was named “We Con the World” and humorously depicted an array of Palestinian supporters singing about how they’d fooled the world into thinking that it was the Israelis that were the bad guys in the Gaza blockade incident.

The video was very clever and hit just the right notes of humor being not too mean-spirited yet easily hitting home with its message. The humor of the video was wholly in keeping with western humor and not over-the-top or unduly offensive at all. Naturally, YouTube pulled it anyway.

On her website, Glick reports that the video’s creators were told by YouTube that the use of the original song, “We are the World,” was a copyright violation. But Glick disputes this claim.

Copyright experts we advised with before posting the song told us in no uncertain terms that we were within our rights to use the song because we did so in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine. The Fair Use Doctrine, copied and pasted below from the US Copyright Office stipulates that it is legal and permissible to use copyrighted material under the fair use doctrine for purposes of parody.

Glick reminds us that this isn’t the first time that YouTube has censored pro-Israeli videos and recounts that the Israeli Defense Force had its videos deleted by YouTube but had them reinstated later after mounting protests.

Glick is right to think that there is “something else going on here,” doubting that YouTube pulled the video over copyright concerns. After all, the video had been seen by over 3 million people and had been featured in numerous news reports already. Why pull the video at this late date?

Glick ascribes it to the anti-Israeli bias of the Google-owned YouTube site, and with its long past of censoring pro-Israel videos not to mention American conservative videos, it’s hard to dismiss her feelings.

The video can still be seen in a post by Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com. Morrissey found the video on YouTube and downloaded it before the Google folks deleted it.

Also a quick check of the media watchdog website Newsbusters.org reveals that YouTube has been pulling pro-conservative videos for a long time now. A search on Newsbusters of the phrase youtube pulls video gives results going back years.

So much for YouTube supporting free and open debate!

(Originally posted at BigJournalism.com)

Mosab Hassan Yousef is a Palestinian man living in San Diego, seeking political asylum. His father is a founder of Hamas, and today is in an Israeli prison. Mosab became an undercover agent for Israel’s Shin-Bet. He is credited with saving many Israeli lives, included thwarting an assassination of Shimon Peres.

The Department of Homeland Security believes Mosab is a national security threat. He faces a San Diego Homeland Security Immigration judge on June 30th and faces deportation. Sending Mosab to the Middle East will mean certain death. Learn more about Mosab Yousef’s story at Save Mosab Yousef.

In the video below, Mosab explains how a chance meeting with a tourist in Jerusalem started him on a long journey of study, and eventual conversion.

This video is quite a story. For those of us who believe we understand the grace of Jesus Christ, it is difficult to contemplate what this very young man went through.

Visit Dark Skies Blog for the entire 6 videos. The following video is No. 5.

Mosab Yousef on His Conversion from Islam to Christianity (video)