Obama: The Israelis are bugging me too

What a load of....

[IMRA: The following anecdote which was shared with IMRA by a first-hand source, raises some question about the degree of seriousness that is being attached to the numerous requests that have been made to President Obama for the release of Jonathan Pollard. via Carl

Aztec Volcano Sacrifice. Is there a truth?

The origin of this idea comes from Georges Bataille the Post Marxist who wrote The Accursed Share. The argument is one of equivalence between civilizations: the fat of the civilization... the elite of culture must be victimized for the civilazation to function. This is also echoed in Freud who talked about a martyred father figure being essential as well, however Bataille expands the idea to Jews in the Holocaust as being paralleled in Aztec Virgin Volcano Sacrifice. Bataille is concerned about why a Marxist revolution or  class based movements are inherently violent. The National Socialists and the Bolsheviks certainly were. His point is that the blood letting is essential to a cultures survival. In other words you have to be martyred if you are moral and you should be thankful for this opportunity.  This is the heart of the argument coming from what we call the Left and is in conflict with the idea of the "Good" and "True" usually taking benefit with unknown reasons for the exceptions.  Here is the excerpt from a U.K. Guardian article by Prof. Richard V. Biddable, newly appointed Chomsky Fellow in Cultural Relativity at All Balls College, Oxford:

To ask the question ‘Is it a forgery?’ is to misunderstand the forces that shape culture and the perception of truth itself. Since there is no such thing as objective truth, only truth created by culture, and since the cultural perception that ‘The Protocols’ is a true statement of Jewish objectives and aims in world history is so widespread, almost universal throughout the Arab and Islamic cultural sphere, but elsewhere too, then ‘The Protocols’ has a cultural veracity that makes it an expression of truth, in the same way that a myth may express the inner genius of its civilization.

After all, in Incan civilization it would have been culturally reprehensible to suggest that there was something unreasonable about the sacrifice of tens of thousands of prisoners, who had their hearts torn from their bodies in order to appease the Gods, or that it was actually pointless, because there were no Gods to appease. It would certainly have been extremely impolite. The Gods existed culturally. Therefore they were real. And people had a right, in their own terms a ‘human right’, if you like, to witness that appeasement and draw comfort and satisfaction from it; to deny that right would have been an act of cultural imperialism.

Unlike conventional economic models based on notions of scarcity, Bataille's theory develops the concept of excess: a civilization, he argues, reveals its order most clearly in the treatment of its surplus energy. via Georges Bataille - The Accursed Share - mitpress.mit.edu and image from Evidence that Incas Fattened up their Children Before Sacrificing Them

Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmudi: Gaddafi will blow up Tripoli if it falls

If the rebels seize the city, we will deluge it with missiles and blow it up. AP / YNET

See if you can pick out the elements that are fake in this Syrian photo of Assad and Anas Abdul-Razzaq Na-em

Answer to the puzzle at the Elder

Bollywood in Israel?

Namitha in Israel?
...maybe?

...Eight leaders of the Indian film industry spent this week in Israel, scouting out locations and speaking to local counterparts about ideas for films with storylines that bring characters to Israel.

Muslim Brotherhood is concerned about if News of the World Phone Hacks Violate U.S. Criminal Law?

Esam El-Erian: This must be investigated in America! There is this case in the U.K. about hacked telephones. 160 news people were fired.

Read the whole thing. h/t elderofziyon.blogspot.com

What Are BDS Proponents Complaining About? Aren't They Getting What They Want?

The Boycott Bill, stipulates that anyone calling for an economic, cultural or academic boycott against the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria will be unable to participate in government tenders. In addition, any person who considers himself a victim of a boycott could sue the boycotter for compensation. Court gives state 60 days to explain Boycott Law.  Z Street is wondering what all the fuss is with Israel's new anti-BDS law:

An interesting precedent is in Germany dealing with Holocaust deniers without physical boundaries. The lawyer Eugene Volks sees this as a threat to Democracy. The delegitimizers, i.e. the BDS practitioners and their enablers (NIF, J Street, Peace Now) immediately attacked it as a gross violation of free speech... ...Many central to further right-leaning pro-Israel organizations are also expressing criticism... Also recently the United States declared that effected markets has no boundaries to prove cause of information crimes. The law does NOT criminalize speech and it does NOT restrict free speech. BDS practitioners can continue to say whatever vile things they want about Israel, but they simply are not eligible for government contracts if they do. Well goodness, isn't that what they want? NOT to engage in financial transactions with the "evil ZioNazi government"? image via Israeli BDS Activists Call on Artists to Boycott Music Festival h/t Daled Amos

Hezbullah threatens Israel over maritime borders

...Sub-Mariner

...Naim Qassem...

...Hezbollah on Wednesday issued a stark warning to Jerusalem, vowing to protect its maritime rights against "Israeli threats." Lebanon has a real interest in developing potential fields and a possible confrontation with Israel will not assist in obtaining the energy independence it is seeking. Analyzing Lebanese declarations, it is clear that the Lebanese have chosen first to seek a diplomatic solution either through the UN apparatus or through international courts and bodies of arbitration that specialized in those disputes. It comes as no surprise, however, that the sudden interest in the potential fossil-fuel wealth off the Israeli and Lebanese coastlines has turned the Mediterranean into a potential theater of confrontation between Israel and Hizbullah. The Lebanese group already boasts an amphibious warfare unit trained in underwater sabotage and coastal infiltration. Hizbullah's ability to target shipping - and possibly offshore oil and gas platforms - was exposed in the war with Israel in 2006 when Hizbullah came close to sinking an Israeli missile boat with an Iranian version of the Chinese C-802 missile. Hizbullah fighters have since hinted that they have acquired larger anti-ship missiles with double the 72-mile (116 km.) range of the C-802 variant.