Spring fever, Israeli style

Birdsong, blossoms and sunbeams -- spring definitely has sprung in Israel. Fields of wildflowers --red anemones, wild mustard and blue field iris --bloom beyond Jerusalem's Peace Forest and scent the fresh breezes. Alas, there's not much love in the air yet. Smiles are scarce in a place where rancor and mistrust rule. Blood still is the overriding odor, at least subliminally.

Down in the dunes of Holon, south of Tel Aviv, the locals are reeling after a hot-headed guy was murdered over a parking spot dispute

"Today people murder each other over anything - a dog, a woman, so what's so surprising that this happened?," one mother told a reporter.

After a brief weekend lull, the violence has ramped up again. Not a big surprise. A Qassam rocket struck Ashkelon yesterday, shortly after the departure of the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and the IDF forces killed five Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank and arrested 30 more in Nablus.

Edginess is almost palpable. For days, local police in Jerusalem have refused to release the body of Abu Ala Dheim, the gunman killer who killed eight teens at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva and wounded 10 more. Authorities fear that if more than 5 family members attend his funeral, it may erupt into a media feeding frenzy or a literal bloodbath. They require burial by night with no martyr's fanfare. A fansite posted on Facebook has drawn condemnation for praising the horrific slaying as "an heroic act" across graphic photos of the dead students from the Zionist seminary.



According to television news reports,some yeshiva students have threatened to take revenge for the school shooting spree by attacking a senior Palestinian official at the al Aqsa Mosque, the volatile sacred site which Jews call the Temple Mount. An attack at this mosque could prompt a outbreak of violence across Israel and the Palestinian territories. Israeli police say they have prepared for the possibility of vengeance, but so far there have been no arrests. Demands for 100 new houses to be erected in settlements for each murdered student are frequently heard; expansion in the settlement was officially announced, much to the scorn of peacemaker Condi Rice.

So the next thing on the agenda is the arrival of America's Darth Vader... America's Vice President Dick Cheney is on the way to "prod for peace" in the Holy Land. Republican presidential candidate John McCain may show up as well, we are told, to further establish his security credentials while he woos Jewish voters.

Israelity bites

Iran's Mahmoud the Mouth rants

If the world hears what he actually says, Iranian President Ahmadinejad is his own worst enemy. The disturbing bluster just keeps spewing forth.
(Hat tip to Simon Barrett of Realite-EU for dozens of alarming quotes.)

In light of the conference on Iran now taking place in the European Parliament, these utterances by The Islamic Republic of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demand interest. For further information about Iran’s well-documented human rights abuses, its role as a major state sponsor of terrorism and its defiant stance on the international community’s insistence that the nation suspends its uranium enrichment program click here, on www.realite-eu.org.

Religious extremism and martyrdom:

*"We don't shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world.“
*"The wave of the Islamist revolution will soon reach the entire world."
*"Our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the Twelfth Imam, the Mahdi."
*“Soon Islam will become the dominating force in the world, occupying first place in the number of followers amongst all other religions.”
*“Is there a craft more beautiful, more sublime, more divine, than the craft of giving yourself to martyrdom and becoming holy? Do not doubt, Allah will prevail, and Islam will conquer mountain tops of the entire world.”
*"What is important is that they have shown the way to martyrdom which we must follow.'' [President Ahmadinejad’s comments on an aircraft crash in Tehran that killed 108 people in December 2005].
*Ahmadinejad praises Iran for being able to recruit thousands of suicide bombers a day. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised his country's ability to recruit "hundreds of suicide bombers a day," saying "suicide is an invincible weapon. Suicide bombers in this land showed us the way, and they enlighten our future.“ Amadinejad said the will to commit suicide was "one of the best ways of life."


Iran, its nuclear proliferation and sanctions:

*“By the grace of Allah, we (will be) a nuclear power.”
Ahmadinejad fired off a fresh barrage of warnings to the United Nations, saying Iran did "not give a damn" about demands to freeze sensitive nuclear work.
*"Iran does not give a damn about resolutions."
*"The Islamic republic of Iran has the capacity to quickly become a world superpower. *If we believe in ourselves... no other power can be compared to us.“
*"Iran's enemies know your courage, faith and commitment to Islam and the land of Iran has created a powerful army that can powerfully defend the political borders and the integrity of the Iranian nation and cut off the hand of any aggressor and place the sign of disgrace on their forehead."
*"Our enemies should know that they are unable to even slightly hurt our nation and they cannot create the tiniest obstacle on its glorious and progressive way."13
*“In parallel to the official political war there is a hidden war going on and the Islamic states should benefit from their economic potential to cut off the hands of the enemies.”

Israel and the Holocaust:

*“This regime (Israel) will one day disappear.”
*“The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm.”
*Israel is "a disgraceful stain on the Islamic world"
*Israel is doomed to be "wiped from the map" in "a war of destiny."
*Ahmadinejad said that "the countdown for the destruction of Israel" has begun.
Zionists are „the personification of Satan.“
*"In the case of any unwise move by the fake regime of Israel, Iran's response will be so destructive and quick that this regime will regret its move for ever."
*Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that the Holocaust is a “myth.”
“Them (the West) invented the myth of the massacre of the Jews and placed it above Allah, religions and prophets.”