Ezzie's Blog Roundup, 7/6/2006: It's Been A While...

It has been a while since the last roundup, but that's okay. Irina's Haveil Havalim on Sunday pretty much covered every good post written last week, or so it seemed...

Meanwhile, she wrote an excellent post tonight at JBlogosphere regarding the complaints that HH leans to the right. We'd all like it to be representative of all J-bloggers, left and right, so please, check out the post. While you're there, we'd appreciate it if people could lift the J-Blogger icons and place them on their own blogs (one is intended for those currently living in Israel, the other for the rest of us), and if you can place them as links to the JBlogosphere blog as well, that would be wonderful. I wrote a short set of instructions here, but if you have any trouble please feel free to e-mail me at serandez at verizon dot net or gmail dot com.

Before the roundup, I am saddened that something has happened in Jewish BlogMeister's life that seems to be serious. His blog is on hold for the time being. May everything turn out for the best.

The rest of the roundup is after the jump...

*Post of the Day* My good friend David Kirschner (whose NSA series I promised him I would continue in the very near future) wrote an incredible post at BeyondBT. Go enjoy The Company Picnic.

I wondered whether they thought [the yarmulke] looked strange but were just too polite to say anything. After a few days, two of my colleagues asked if they could ask me a personal question. Of course, I said yes to which they asked, “Have you always been wearing a kippah or did you just start?” After telling them that I started several days before, I asked, “Why do you ask, wasn’t it obvious when I showed up after vacation the other day with it on?” They told me that they had a bet. One said I just started and the other said that I had been wearing it all along.

*Interview of the Day* Jameel (who's been blogging a year!) has got it. Wow. This is with the mother of Eliyahu Asheri, who was just murdered last week by terrorists. Most amazing portion of many:

Miriam: The IDF knows exactly what needs to be done. As difficult as it is for the Shalit family, they need to realize that their suffering is a personal one, while the IDF and security forces are working to defend the entire country. I pray that Gilad come home safely, but if Israel negotiates with terrorists, if Israel withdraws, if Israel runs away, if Israel capitulates...then it will only bring about more terrorism, more kidnappings...and more death. It is forbidden to capitulate...we can not capitulate.

Speaking of the Shalits... Treppenwitz (quietly) fears that the worst must be true at this point:

The kidnap video has become the standard by which the value of the hostage is set.

Live/healthy hostage = High value hostage

Injured/sick hostage = High value hostage

Dead hostage = Low/no value hostage

In fact, these bits of amateur cinematography have become so ubiquitous that the lack of one tends to point to chilling possibilities (i.e. that the kidnap victim is incapable of making a statement).

With this in mind, one has to admit that the lack of a hostage video in the Gilad Shalit kidnapping is fairly ominous.

That it is. Robert Avrech, meanwhile, writes a great Letter to Hamas.

It's your moment. Here's where you can go out with a huge bang. Here's where you can become a martyr.

And what do you do? Nothing.

You let yourselves get arrested: Sixty-four of you! I gotta tell you, I am sorely distressed and perturbed.

You call yourselves men? You call yourselves respectable, fire-breathing terrorists?

You are a bunch of pussies.

You're always talking about fighting to the death. You're always screaming about martyrdom. You're always promising gullible boys--not your own children, natch--72 virgins.

Not one of you broke a fingernail when the Israeli soldiers showed up.

You know what I think? I think you're all talk.

I think you want other people to do your dying for you.

On a happier note... PsychoToddler and his band were supposed to play at Milwaukee's famed SummerFest today! (We're still waiting for video confirmation.) In the meantime, we all hope that they received the honor they deserved (warning: funny).

Aliyah:

(via WBM) Aliyah'06 has made it! Congratulations!!

It seems like someone else may be making aliyah next year, according to Ze'ev: Matisyahu.

And though he's not moving (yet), Steg is settling in nicely in his temporary dira.

Anti-Semitism in Delaware:

Both Orthomom and Judith are outraged over a disgusting case of anti-Semitism that forced a Jewish family to move along with their receiving threats and having their address and phone number published. Interestingly, Judith disagreed with StoptheACLU.com's (which was not involved) statement regarding the matter in the same way that I did in the comments at OM. StoptheACLU.org seems to be a right-wing nutjob, based on his decision to post the address and phone numbers.

I usually enjoy Meryl Yourish, and today was one of those days where I was having a ball just reading her posts. Firstly, she is a Zionist and proud of it. Excerpts:

I was not kidding when I declared this blog to be a No Israel-Bashing Zone. I can read that garbage in any mainstream media publication. I can read anti-Israel reporting on the BBC website, or in the Guardian, or Reuters, or the AP. I can watch it on any given news program. And I can read it on any unmoderated blog that has a discussion that mentions Israel or Jews, on any topic.

You know what? That’s not this blog. If you want to bash the one nation in the Middle East where it is not illegal to be homosexual, where “honor” killings are not winked at, where women can work, vote, and run for office, where you can worship as you please, and where the government changes regularly without a single shot being fired—GO. SOMEWHERE. ELSE.

Think thats make this blog an echo chamber? Ask me if I care. My blog, my space, my dime, my rules. I did not ask for your opinions, Mr. and Ms. Israel-hater, I do not want them, I will not publish them. Once again, my blog, my space, my dime, my rules.

Heh. She also notes how the media is slowly changing the identity of Shalit's kidnappers from Hamas members to others and claiming nobody was in the school that was hit by a missile - though every Israeli media source said that people were even in the yard where the missile hit. Incredible.

Bias:

EoZ wonders what happens to all the photographers when the Palestinians have "work accidents", considering how many are normally around. Great question.

Life-of-Rubin is writing to the AP over their latest (incredible) rewrite of a story.

SerandEz on the left?:

So it seems, based on the responses to my post at JAJC, including this very solid post by SoccerDad. My response is in the comments.

[It seems like I'm thinking much like everyone else today...]

RCA pronounces smoking to be against Jewish law:

Gil and The Town Crier cover it. I noted at Gil's the same thing that TTC realized as well:

But from a different perspective, this ruling illustrates the highly significant fact that accepted practice and illustrious precedent notwithstanding, Jewish law is fully able to incorporate new realities, recognize new and reliable scientific findings, and embrace the need to change heretofore acceptable behavior.

[Emphasis mine] I suspect that line in the statement might come back to haunt someday.

Interesting:

It seems as if IsraellyCool has been banned in Bahrain. Not bad, Dave.

CWY wonders if he handled missionaries the right way.

Did I do the right thing? Should I have taken the flier? Should I have thrown it out later? Or should I have engaged this guy and tell him that for 2,000 years my people would have rather been killed rather than renounce their faith?

Enjoy!