Thursday, September 15, 2011

Apartheid in the Middle East

You have to wonder how delusional anti-Israel "activists" function in day-to-day life given their unreal claims that apartheid is in effect in that country.

Yesterday, Michael Rubin posted this at Commentary.com:
According to this report in USA Today, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s representative in Washington has declared there will be no place in any future Palestinian state for Jews. There are several ironies.
Turkey and perhaps European countries as well are maybe on the verge of recognizing the first state since Nazi Germany to propose a judenrein policy. There are several ironies: First, Israel, whose Arab Christian and Muslim minorities—perhaps 20 percent of the population—have full rights, but is lambasted by the cocktail set as racist. Second, when the Netanyahu government proposed recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, many diplomats—including those in the State Department—balked. But to propose a Jew-free state? That’s okay.
Back on August 30, Dennis Prager (at National Review Online) rejected the apartheid comparisons:
One and a half million Arabs live in Israel, constituting about 20 percent of the country’s population. They have the same rights as all other Israeli citizens. They can vote, and they do. They can serve in the Israeli parliament, and they do. They can own property, businesses, and work in professions alongside other Israelis, and they do. They can be judges, and they are. Here’s one telling example: It was an Arab judge on Israel’s supreme court who sentenced the former president of Israel, a Jew, to jail on a rape charge...
Arabs in Israel live freer lives than Arabs living anywhere in the Arab world. No Arab in any Arab country has the civil rights and personal liberty that Arabs in Israel have...
So, then, why is Israel called an apartheid state?Because by comparing the freest, most equitable country in the Middle East to the former South Africa, those who seek Israel’s demise hope they can persuade uninformed people that Israel doesn’t deserve to exist just as apartheid South Africa didn’t deserve to exist.

White House Implicated in $500 Million Green Jobs Scam

Crony capitalism update: While Rick Perry may have a problem adequately explaining his executive order on the HPV vaccine, Congress, the FBI, and the Treasury Department have launched investigations into Obama administration role in fast-tracking about half a billion dollars in loan guarantees to now bankrupt energy company Solyndra.

As Michelle Malkin explains:
The latest developments breaking in the Solyndra scandal last night? Obama’s White House tried to rush the $535 million loan review, prompting complaints from financial officials. The White House, naturally, denies any improper intervention, politicization, and string-pulling....
The answer to the question “What did they know and when” is this: They KNEW Solyndra was a risky, lousy deal for taxpayers. They KNEW on Aug. 19, 2009 that the financial models their credit reviewers used predicted Solyndra would run out of cash in September 2011. They KNEW it would fail. But they forged ahead, took our money to prop it up, and pimped the company in front of the TV cameras, anyway.
ABC's Brian Ross has been investigating:

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R.I.P. Andy Whitfield


Sad news this week of the passing of Welsh/Australian actor Andy Whitfield, 39, from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Whitfield played the title role in the superb Starz miniseries Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and as a result was on the verge of major stardom. His illness caused the second season to go on hold during which an equally superb prequel (without the Spartacus character) Spartacus: Gods of the Arena was filmed. Pre-production of season two started when Whitfield was pronounced cancer free, but sadly his cancer returned. Both series (warning: adult content) are available on Netflix but don't wait because Netflix and Starz recently broke off contract negotiations on a new content agreement. Starz ultimately replaced Whitfield with Australian actor Liam McIntyre for the new season.

[photo credit: Gage Skidmore]