“Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin ( Likud) who is commonly associated with extremist political and religious views, made a surprising announcement on Thursday: “I decided to shake hands with women. There is no halacha against it if it’s done out of courtesy.”The issue arose after Feiglin was photographed shaking the hands of female Yesh Atid MKs, following his debut Knesset speech. The pictures were discussed in religious websites, causing Feiglin to post an explanation on his Facebook page: “In the past I used to not shake hands until I found out there is no prohibition against when it is a gesture of courtesy as opposed to a touch to demonstrate affection.”…………..”
Clearly this guy Moshe Feiglin doesn’t like affection, especially the type that is aimed toward women. Normally our preferred kind of affection. Which makes me think that little Moshe had issues of affection with his mom as a child: something about him did not agree with her. At least she did not wrap him in papyrus and float him away down a river where Mr. Morsi could find him. Which makes me wonder wtf he got Mrs. Feiglin (if there is still one) for Valentine’s Day, if anything. I mean besides the recently rediscovered (questionable) magic of his touch. Can you imagine the equivalent on our side? Imagine a mullah, or better yet the Saudi Mufti Shaikh Al Shaikh, may his large tribe increase, switching sides? One day grinning through his beard into the Alarabiya cameras and extolling the ‘virtues’ of touching a woman’s hand (then shaking it)? Presumably one of his wives, to start with. But he ought to be warned that this thing can become addictive (I guess he knows it, hence the multiple wives and the usual periodic rotation that some practice). Cheers
mhg
My Cairo source reports that the Arab League has decided to declare that self-control is the best approach to the Gaza attacks. My source tells me that the Shaikh of Al-Azhar and former Mubarak crony, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, has consulted with the palindromic Saudi Mufti Shaikh Al Al Shaikh who consulted with palindromic Prince Saud Al Faisal Al Saud who informed him of the desires of the palindromic Sublime Porte of Riyadh to show restraint. I have been told that the Arab League is divided between two strains, two parties if you will: the party of “let me at him, oh please let me at him (and her)” AND the party of “hold me back before I do something I’ll regret early tomorrow morningwhen I look at her face”. Asked
about the meeting next Saturday, a League official responded: “Saturday? I thought they favored Monday. By Monday we will know exactly what happened. We might even know what will happen. Hopefully. Besides, what is the rush? Both Gaza and Israel, er, the Zionist Entity, will still be there.” Someone was even overheard opining that Hamas will now know exactly where to spend the new Qatari money promised last week. Unlike the PA Ramallah authorities who are so befuddled that they prefer to spread the brotherly and sisterly aid money among various bank accounts. Cheers
mhg [email protected]
My Cairo source reports that the Arab League has decided to declare that self-control is the best approach to the Gaza attacks. My source tells me that the Shaikh of Al-Azhar and former Mubarak crony, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, has consulted with the palindromic Saudi Mufti Shaikh Al Al Shaikh who consulted with palindromic Prince Saud Al Faisal Al Saud who informed him of the desires of the palindromic Sublime Porte of Riyadh to show restraint. I have been told that the Arab League is divided between two strains, two parties if you will: the party of “let me at him, oh please let me at him (and her)” AND the party of “hold me back before I do something I’ll regret early tomorrow morningwhen I look at her face”. Asked
about the meeting next Saturday, a League official responded: “Saturday? I thought they favored Monday. By Monday we will know exactly what happened. We might even know what will happen. Hopefully. Besides, what is the rush? Both Gaza and Israel, er, the Zionist Entity, will still be there.” Someone was even overheard opining that Hamas will now know exactly where to spend the new Qatari money promised last week. Unlike the PA Ramallah authorities who are so befuddled that they prefer to spread the brotherly and sisterly aid money among various bank accounts. Cheers
mhg [email protected]
“The question of an attack on Iran has become the subject of intense debate over the past few months. What is puzzling about this debate is that it has not centered on Iran’s nuclear program or whether Iranians seek to obtain a nuclear bomb, but rather on whether Israel or the US (or both) will attack Iran to prevent this. The re-election of Barack Obama to a second term is important, yet the situation vis-à-vis Iran and Israel has not changed significantly. Iran still faces harsh sanctions and its economy is on the brink of collapse; nevertheless, its nuclear program continues to advance unchecked and the regime does not show signs of weakening its grip on power. Likewise, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces elections in January 2013, but is likely to win a resounding victory; Iranians will also go to the polls in 2013 to elect a new president and Majlis (parliament). The outcome of these elections will neither change the overall threat Iran’s nuclear program poses to Israel nor the military threat Israel poses to Iran. Caught between the risk of an Israeli attack on Iran or an Iranian attack against Israel is the United States, desperately trying to avoid the outbreak of an Iranian–Israeli war, the consequences of which are unpredictable…………………”
Israeli politicians sometimes go to war before elections. They did it in Gaza two years ago. Mr. Netanyahu must be tempted to drag the United States into another Middle East war, but he will hesitate. He knows the USA will intervene to help his country if its war on Iran fails, which it almost certainly will. But Mr. Obama owes Netanyahu nothing: he gambled on the American right winning the elections. Obama just may let Bibi’s nuts roast a little on the Persian fire before intervening either to join him or to stop the madness. Besides, American and Israeli interests don’t always coincide, in spite of the election year political rhetoric. And nobody knows for certain the exact consequences of an attack on Iran on Western interests and economies. The American elections are done, with the next round coming in 2014 (Democrats will most likely regain control of the Congress). Iran will hold two separate elections in 2013: parliamentary and presidential. Israel seems heading toward new elections soon. It is a safe bet that the Israeli and Iranian elections will not change anything: the right wing will win in both countries. Especially in Iran if the reformists continue to be persecuted and their followers demoralized. Israeli elections are somewhat less predictable: they are now between the right wing AND the extreme right wing. Then there are the Saudi and Qatari elections: it is not clear who will win the positions of King and Emir. I think I was just kidding………..
“Omar al-Bashir emerged on Sudanese television shortly after his second surgical procedure in four months on Thursday to issue a series of threats to Israel and assurances to the Sudanese people.“I am in good health and our reaction to Israel will be painful,” he said. “Israel is our enemy, our number one enemy, and we will continue calling Israel our enemy,” he added. Various Sudanese government officials have already vociferously blamed Israel for the explosion which shook the heart of capital shortly last month, but this is the first time the president has spoken about the event.The 68 year-old leader told Sudan there are two possible reactions to Israel’s alleged military transgression. The first would be to normalise relations with the Jewish State, a move he said he would never make.“The second choice is to have a technology that allows us to do an identical attack against Israel. I cannot say this is impossible. We are trying to have this technology,”…………….”
Which means Al-Bashir will have to do two things: go democratic and go nuclear. First he can go democratic: once he goes democratic, after 25 years of dictatorship, then he can defeat anyone. He could even have kept the South Sudan. I submit that even the Syrian regime could defeat Israel and regain the Golan if it goes completely democratic and allows the freedom of expression. So could the Jordanians and the Saudis (they might even defeat the Huthis of Yemen) and all the rest of the Arab potentates.
Back to Al-Bashir, who is allegedly wanted by the Interpole and the International Court but nobody seems eger to arrest him when he travels (unlike Saudi dissidents). After going nuclear (easy peasy) he will have to train his staff on how to fly ‘undetected’ over the Red Sea and through the Negev. But the Israelis have one important trump card: they know this is not going to happen. But it is no great secret: we all know that. Cheers
mhg [email protected]
Neck of the woods “After former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni disclosed personal details of her former career in Mossad, Rabbi Ari Shvat, one of the most famous rabbis of Israel, allowed Israeli women to have sex with the enemy in exchange for information, but Iran’s Grand Rabbi Mashallah Golestaninejad described adultery as forbidden in Judaism, and stressed that Shvat should be stoned to death. In an interview given 14 years ago but published in full for the first time last Friday in a pro-Livni newspaper and then cited by the British Sunday Times weekly, she described working undercover for Bayonet, Mossad’s elite hit squad, where she answered the question if she had ever had sex to get information. “If I’d been asked to do it, I don’t know what I’d have said. In the office (Mossad’s term for itself) there is a job tailored for everyone.” After the release of Livni’s remarks, Rabbi Ari Shvat, one of the most famous rabbis of Israel, allowed Israeli women to have sex with the enemy in exchange for important information, claiming that Jewish law permits this type of action. His remarks created chaos in the Jewish world and the Rabbis from different parts of the world reacted to Shvat’s comments. “The sources of Judaism have not allowed such a deed at all and it (adultery) is forbidden in our religion and based on the explicit instruction of the Ten Commandments, no one can embark on adultery at all,” Iranian Grand Rabbi Mashallah Golestaninejad said……………”
Iran’s Chief Rabbi is named Golestan-Nejad: Golestan means some kind of flower garden in Persian. Gol or Gul also means flower in Persian and Urdu and Turkish (Turkey’s President Gul is Mr. Flower). But the Rabbi is presumably no relation of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad. Although the semi-official Saudi Alarabiya network has tried for some years to spread in the Arab world the story that the Iranian president is a converted Jew. The idea is to “discredit” him by their standards. Most Iranians and Arabs don’t pay any attention to these Anti-Semitic stories; it only excites the Wahhabi clerics and their Salafi base. Frankly Ahmadinejad doesn’t look THAT smart, although he is smarter than the folks at Alarabiya. No doubt. Cheers
mhg
“Wednesday was “not a good morning for Netanyahu,” as one of his deputies Eli Yishai of the religious Shas Party said, when results showed that Bibi’s friend Mitt Romney had lost the presidential race. Netanyahu had at times confronted Obama or even tried to undermine him by making direct relations with the Republican-dominated, Israel-friendly Congress and during the election campaigning, had driven Obama into a tight corner by challenging his positions about Iran’s nuclear energy program and the recent developments in the Arab world. On Wednesday, however, the primer invited the US ambassador to Tel Aviv to his office to give his painful congratulations…………..” Press TV (Iran).
Press TV is an official Iranian English-language television news network that is banned in Britain (and possibly some other European countries). Interesting take: they seem to be gloating over this. Yet it is true: Netanyahu worked as hard as Fox News, nay harder than Fox News, to undermine and defeat Barack Obama. He went around him to deal with his friends in the right-wing controlled Knesset Congress for policy coordination (extremists like Ros-Lehtinen, Kantor, and Goh-mert, among others). The Israeli right has developed a certain hubris in its relations with the USA, no doubt fed by right-wing leaders of some Jewish-American organizations that do not represent the political views of their constituency. Obama got about 70% of the Jewish vote, which shows how “popular” Netanyahu is in the United States. Cheers mhg [email protected]
“Members of Congress and supporters of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran(MEK) are to press the Obama administration to recognise it as the “legitimate opposition” to the Iranian government after the group is removed from the US list of banned terrorist organisations in the coming days.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, delisted the MEK as a terrorist group on Friday following a well funded campaign to change the image of the group – which was banned in 1997 because of a history of killing Americans, assassinating Iranian politicians and violent support for Saddam Hussein – and portray it as Washington’s ally in confronting Tehran.
The state department said it is not overlooking “the MEK’s past acts of terrorism” and that it has “serious concerns about the MEK as an organisation, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members”. But the group’s renunciation of violence and “the absence of confirmed acts of terrorism by the MEK for more than a decade” had led to it being unbanned…………..”
The US Senate passed an unusual resolution, effectively declaring war on Iran last week. I correctly called it the U.S. Knesset, because it was acting as an AIPAC agent when it voted nearly unanimously (with one dissenting vote). Even the real Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem would not vote unanimously on waging such a war of aggression. Now the Congress, its members flush with money from Mujahideen Khalq (MEK, MKO) and its financial supporters, are pushing to recognize this arm of the Israeli Mossad as a legitimate Iranian opposition movement. As I mentioned once before, this group has less chance of ever ruling Iran as the late shah’s son. Cheers
mhg [email protected]
“Canadian and US authorities have busted a cross-border cheese smuggling ring that brought Can$200,000 worth of mozzarella into Canada undeclared and without paying duties. Four men, including two Canadian policemen, were foiled in the caper to also distribute the dairy products — as well as chicken wings and pickles — to pizzerias and other restaurants in southern Ontario for an estimated profit of Can$165,000, Niagara Regional Police said. They each face several charges including conspiracy, smuggling and breach of trust. A conviction carries fines and possible jail time. Constable Derek Watson told AFP: “Most people have been chuckling about the arrests (in online postings), but the (police) chief is taking these crimes very seriously.”………..”
I have been told that it was Bibi Netantyahu who turned them onto Iran as the possible culprit, the possible mastermind behind this. Bibi, as usual, shot from the hip, before aiming. It was a Hail Mary aimed at Ahmadinejad and it was caught: a lucky Hail Mary thrown by a Jew toward a Muslim. It was all logic, he told the Americans and the Canadians. The Iranians have been behind so many plots, so many disasters, that this one must be of their making. Anyone who hires Mexican drug cartels and a troubled Texas car salesman to blow up a crowded Georgetown restaurant just to kill one unimportant Saudi ambassador would stoop to anything. Bad food, Bibi intoned to Canada’s Stephen Harper, is no justification for murder and terrorism. Harper nodded emphatic agreement as his eyes scanned the photo of his wife on his desk, and Bibi immediately uttered a hearty “I hear, ya“. Relations between the two right-wing leaders, Bibi and “Steve”, have been quite cozy ever since earlier this year Harper called Iran the greatest threat to peace ever, in world history. Cheers
mhg [email protected]
Neck of the woods Bibi and the gang…………. Show me the 90% again………….
The cartoon speech Mr. Netanyahu gave at the UN General Assembly, to the adulation of the anchorwomen of Fox, MSNBC, and CNN, and Piers Morgan, still reverberates. I hear from an unreliable IAEA source that Yukia Amano, chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, will suggest to his board that the IAEA henceforth use the Bibi method. All reference to the Iranian nuclear program will henceforth be expressed in colorful images of the Road Runner and Wile E Coyote and Elmer Fudd, et al. Yukiya added that “it humanizes our reports“. Early Saturday morning now. I plan to turn on my television onto a channel that plays Looney Tunes (I assume they still do on Saturday morning). After breakfast, before hiking, before college football. I hope to see Bibi and the Bomb and Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig and Wile E Coyote duking it out. Oh, and Ahmadinejad, of course. Cheers
mhg [email protected]
Multidisciplinary: Middle East, North Africa, Gulf, GCC, World, Cosmos…..
