I was given a chance, courtesy of Deep Focus, to view the Hilla Medalia HBO documentary To Die in Jerusalem. I don’t even know whether our cable provider carries HBO (I am not much into TV lately) and the kind offer to send me the DVD was difficult to refuse, although the implied promise to produce a review is difficult to keep.

I didn’t know much about the movie, although a case it relates to is familiar, of course. But it was no more familiar to me than many other suicide bombing incidents, of which we have had, unfortunately, too many. Keeping in mind my natural reluctance to play a critic, and seeing that the documentary has already produced some controversy and several highfalutin outbursts of indignation (more about it later), I have decided to watch the movie and to respond to it as a normal John Q. Public would, and not to go into oxygen-starved heights of politics, visual arts appreciation etc.

And I shall start from the end: I think that it is a real documentary and that it is very good. Unlike the fashionable staged mocumentaries, produced by fat men without moral scruple and with a penchant for self-aggrandizement, this one is a solid factual report, not trying* to recruit followers for any cause. The movie met my expectations, for a simple reason – I didn’t have any, and save a few insignificant deviations from the expected, the story sounds true.

What does not sound true in the movie, and not through any fault of the director or the cameramen, is some of the people. To start with, the infamous “farewell” video clip of the martyr-to-be, one of the many circulated in Gaza and West Bank. Here is what the documentary site says:

Before her mission, Ayat made a video in which she lashed out at the regimes and militaries of Muslim nations everywhere: “I say to the Arab rulers…

If it weren’t so tragic, it would have been laughable. I have run the segment a few times, and there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind: Ayat al-Akhras read out a text somebody else prepared for her and, most probably, it was the first time she was seeing it. She was wooden, expressionless and looked more like a zombie than like somebody “lashing out” at something.

This was the first warning that caused me to start looking for falsehoods – not in the movie and not in the movie-makers motives, but in the protagonists. And I believe I found the main source of falsehood. Above the familiar cult of death – the pictures of the suicide bomber with a gun in the school, a separate “Martyr’s cemetery”, the hysterics of the sister during the mourning (“I shall kill thirty people for you, Ayat” – guess who these people are?) – above all this I was dumbfounded by the “martyr’s” mother.

I do not have any proof that may serve in a court of law, but I know it with total certainty – the mother is lying all the time, every moment she opens her mouth. It is her face or her posture or her speech – too pat and too rehearsed to come from the heart, but probably all of them together that tell me without a shadow of a doubt – liar!

Besides looking and sounding false, she contradicts herself a few times during the movie. Several times she swears: “If I had known, I would have stopped her”. Several times she claims her total innocence to her daughter’s murderous intent. And then, sometime else, as an aside: “She intended her action to be an example for other girls…”. What is this if not a confession, I don’t know…

Both the father and the mother of the bomber are way too “politically correct” and astute, judging by the way they recite, chapter and verse, all the necessary slogans about opression, occupation, the house in Jaffo, the right to pray at Al-Aqsa that was cruelly taken away. (It makes for a strong contrast with the tortured mother of the victim, who is not interested in politics and wants only to understand why – the question that will never be answered, and in any case not by the parents of the suicide bomber).

But while the father is unwisely going on about Islam being the religion of peace and whatnot, the mother does not stray away for a second from spouting her political views. The eloquence and the clarity of purpose the mother displays are amazing. That they are not leading to any possible rapprochement or, at least, a glimmer of understanding, is the more frustrating.

I don’t know whether it was Ayat, the suicide bomber herself who approached her future handlers or was it the other way around, but it does not matter. I believe that I know who has done the most of the brainwashing and indoctrination for this girl. She didn’t have to leave her home for that kind of material – all the necessary hate and brainwashing were right there. And the outburst of hate from her sister during the mourning just proves this point – both are reared on the same milk.

And so it goes, up to the ultimate act of betrayal a mother can perpetrate:

She was a mature eighteen years old, not some kid. Eighteen years old and she chose her way.

Indeed. What else do you need or want to know about Um Samir al-Akhras, the mother of Ayat al-Akhras, that beautiful suicide bomber?

And of course, the father, being much less of a weasel, put a resounding end to my doubts:

What is better than to be a martyr? You are going to die anyway – today, tomorrow or in a hundred years. To die in dignity and honor is better than anything.

Yes. They didn’t know anything. They don’t know anything. And when Avigail, the mother of the beautiful Rachel, the victim, cries out to them: “”Your daughter and my daughter got killed for nothing”, their answer is “For you it was nothing, but for her people it was something”...

In short – go and see that documentary, it is worth your time and money.

A few words about some of the criticism leveled at the documentary. The worst I have seen is a knee-jerk reaction from Backspin – the Honest Reporting blog.

HBO is due to air a film drawing moral equivalence between a suicide bomber and victim.

There are a few similarly “enlightened” reviews on the other side, but really, this one is a bit too much… and that without even seeing the movie, I am sure.

(*) Well, aside of two moments that somewhat irked me: the first, when immediately after Avigail, Rachel’s mother starts with the “After Rachel got killed, I wanted to know why…”, the picture of IDF soldiers on patrol and then the separation barrier appear, as if to start answering the question… The second when the camera focuses for a long time on Arab boys playing with toy guns – come on, the boys do it all over the globe…

Another point: it is clear why the focus of the movie was on the two girls, but there was at least one other victim of the blast – the supermarket guard, barely mentioned. Pity.

SimplyJews

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Oh, yeah, the Republicans are in the White House at least for a few more months, so let’s tiptoe past this item:

Hope Grows for Mid East Peace

I am not a starry-eyed sycophant to claims of peace, economic prosperity, or a solution to the “Health Care Crisis” (the crisis being that liberals could not take over 1/6 of the US economy in the 90s). In fact, I may be somewhat incorrectly labeled as a bit of a “fatalist” in that I happen to believe Biblical prophecy about the Thrilla in Manilla that is predicted for the Mid East Region. You know, the one just before the sky rips open? But what I find absolutely unforgivable is the extent to which politics is played with people’s lives – here in the US and abroad – in the name of political spin. If this was a product of a Klinton or even the Jester from Georgia, we’d have been hearing breathless commentary from the cable tabloids and hour after hour after hour after hour after hour of deeply furrowed brows speaking at length on the “Historic Events” unfolding this Tuesday on the taxpayer supported public socialism channels.

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The excellent website, American Thinker, published an article yesterday that should not go without notice: Happy Cyrus Day should be brought to the attention of all, especially self indulgent postmodern thinkers, relativists, and peace loving surrender types. I believe the message is multi faceted, but one undeniable point is that Peace Through Strength worked 2500 years ago and will still work today. We marked a prime example yesterday, of note also because of the ancestry of Cyrus the Great.

The solution to the problematic Middle East presented itself then and could work today, if we could only wade through the rising tide of failure oriented, politically motivated, self serving bureaucrats, understand the cultural obstacles we face and focus our energy on properly targeted solutions. We could argue endlessly about the viability of a solution rooted in simple acknowledgment of human nature and a show of strength. My argument is that we ignore history and unchanging human nature to our own detriment.

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all over this . . . any day now:

U.S. combat troop deaths and other violence in Iraq are down significantly in some of the most dangerous places of insurgent activity, including Al Anbar province, military officials in Washington and Baghdad said Wednesday.

Maybe most significant was that last week there was not a single military casualty – Iraqi or U.S. – in Anbar, said Maj. Gen. Richard Sherlock, a Joint Chiefs spokesman. It is apparently the first time since March 2003 that could be said.

[ . . . ]

– Violence in and around Baghdad is down 59 percent. – Car bombs are down 65 percent. – Casualties from car bombs and roadside bombs are down by 80 percent. – Casualties from enemy attacks down 77 percent. – Operations against Iraqi security forces are down 62 percent. – Assassination attempts for sectarian reasons are down 72 percent.

the blog québécois

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Scrappleface:

Columbia University promised a full investigation into charges of police brutality after todays reported Tasering of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had come to the Ivy League school to give the annual Adolph Hitler Memorial Peace and Tolerance Lecture.

Like a similar incident at the University of Florida last week, the stun-gun assault by police followed a lengthy anti-American rant by the alleged victim, and was immediately condemned by civil rights advocates.

According to eyewitnesses, Mr. Ahmadinejad was dragged from the room shouting: “Do not make to Tase myself, slang brother man.”

the blog québécois

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Louise Creeping Ivy Framework, dressed like a good dhimmi, brings her overpowering moral authority to bear on the mullahs:

While Arbour was hobnobbing with anti- Semites, butchers, and anti- democratic forces from around the world, Iranians were being prepared for public hangings. Arbour was reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency as having expressed pleasure with being at the NAM meeting and described Irans representation office in the U.N. in Geneva as very good. In an unusual move, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has so far neglected to put her official statement on their website.

The day after Arbour left Iran the government felt sufficiently buoyed by their U.N. stamp of approval, that they executed 21 prisoners. People are executed in Iran for charges like “enmity against God” or “being corrupt on earth.”

You go, girl!

the blog québécois

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In my perusing of the internet and important Google, on certain subjects, I sometimes stumble on new sites of interest. Not necessarily to my viewpoint but ones that have some interesting takes on various subjects of the day. One such site that I have come across is Global Affairs. Its a site that says what it does on the tin…ie it covers global affairs. There are various contributors to this group blog. Its a fast loading and easy to read site with lots of posts.

Unsurprisingly, the post that caught my eye the most was the one on the new dollop of cash being given to Israel over the next few years. The author of the piece on the report questions the need for this much money going to Israel. Althought he rightly realises that its to help Israel combat the meddling of Iran in its neighbours affairs the author does not necessarily seem to be supportive.

I am afraid the author does not recognise the benefits of this investment in Israel. There are several good things about it whether its the ability to keep track of those who hate the US as much as Israel or the fact the Israelis test a lot of cutting edge equipment in real life military situation.

I understand the questioning of all foreign aide, but it does sometimes bother me when the only target for questioning is Israel. Yes, its a lot of money, but I believe its the best foreign aide investment the US makes with its budget.

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can the CBC be far behind?

After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated – many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.

I keed, I keed. The CBC will report positive news from Iraq about the day after Peter Mansbridge’s hair grows back.

the blog québécois

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AFP:

The Iraqi port city of Basra, already prey to a nasty turf war between rival militia factions, has now been gripped by a new fear—a giant badger stalking the streets by night.

Local farmers have caught and killed several of the beasts, but this has done nothing to dispel rumours of a bear-like monster that eats humans and was allegedly released into the area by British forces to spread panic.

Good one, British forces. The old “giant badger” tactic. Used last in 1942 at the Second Battle of El Alamein, if I do recall.

Also, it allows me to use this link again. (I was so moved by the Live Earth concerts that I’m now recycling links, saving valuable electrons looking for new ones.)

Warning: Video, music.

the blog québécois

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Last night CBC reported that 14 US soldiers had been killed that day in Iraq. From all the context that Mansbridge and Co. provided (none), one might have thought that they were all struck by lightning.

What went entirely unremarked was that the surge of US forces into al Qaeda strongholds is now in full gear, and things aren’t looking so rosy for the CBC’s favorite plucky “insurgents.” To be sure, the CBC’s deliberate suffocation of the most important current story in Iraq isn’t surprising: If it looks like the Americans are succeeding, you won’t hear a word about it out of dear old Mothercorp. So it’s safe to conclude that the terrorists are on the receiving end of a major butt-kicking.

For confirmation, we go to Michael Yon, who, despite not having a billion-dollar budget, managed to get himself to the scene and embedded with a Stryker Combat Team:

The combat in Baqubah should soon reach a peak. Al Qaeda seems to have been effectively isolated. The initial attack on 19 June achieved enough surprise that al Qaeda was caught off guard and trapped. They have been beaten back mostly into pockets and are surrounded and will be dealt with.

[. . .]

As of about noon in Baqubah on the 22nd, there seems to be a lull in the fighting. A calm. This is about to get wet. At the going rate, al Qaeda in Baqubah will soon have two choices: Surrender, or die.

the blog québécois

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Go over and read an extensive report from the Kurdish areas of Iraq from Michael Totten. Its makes for reading that would probably upset the agenda-ladened types at the BBC and other bits of the MSM. Its funny you never hear a positive word about the Kurds or how they doing? One wonders is if people get wind of their development and freedom it might change their minds about the war.

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French artists paste giant posters of, from left, a Palestinian Muslim cleric, an Arab Christian priest and an Israeli Jewish rabbi on a separation barrier in the West Bank. The artists are part of the organization “Face2Face,” and they hang giant images of Israelis and Palestinians who do similar jobs alongside each other on both sides of the separation barrier. Their aim is to contribute to a better understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.

Because as we all know, if there’s one group of people who wouldn’t possibly take offence to having a spiritual leader portrayed like he’s being molested by a pickle, it’s the Palestinians. How they will chuckle at this goofy good-humor!

You can see the Face2Face site here. Hurry, before something unfortunate happens.

the blog québécois

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First post has several pieces about the reaction to the recent book by Jimmy “Worst 20th Century President” Carter on the Middle East. As you would expect one of them contains Jewish-lobby paranoia but there is a good piece in counter to it by Stephen Pollard. There is a handy post at the bottom explaining the row if you are not quite sure what everyone is going on about. Carter is coming close to making a bigger arse of himself than he did when he was President.

Update: It gets worse Carter seems to have a soft spot for former SS men as well.

Oh yes and I recommend reading this piece by Joshua Muravchik on the true depths of the man’s vileness. In short the man is no-friend and does not hide his dislike for the Jews.

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Newsmax:

One of Saddam Hussein’s official hangmen is speaking to the media for the first time – offering a firsthand account of some of the torture techniques he used on Saddam’s orders.

Recalling his time working at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison, Abu Hussein [last name withheld] recalled that a new batch of political prisoners was brought in – without being charged with a crime – every week.

Deserters from Iraq’s war with Iran faced the firing squad, the hangman told Reuters, while prisoners who had insulted Saddam were hanged because it was more cruel.

Kind of ironic, what? Best get your kicks in playing Saddam Hangman, because I don’t think he’s going to swing.

I’m starting to smell something in the air, and it isn’t because I forgot to shower again:

CBS:

(AP) BAGHDAD Saddam Hussein’s former second in command, now a fugitive with a $10 million bounty on his head, has ordered Baath party bosses still in Iraq to cease attacks, according to government and parliamentary officials who claimed knowledge of the developments.

Four officials in the Iraqi government and parliament, each in a position to hear about largely secret efforts to reach accord with members of the Sunni insurgency, said former Iraqi vice president Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri has ordered Baath party bosses still in Iraq to end attacks within the past two days.

[...]

The reported al-Douri order coincided as well with talks currently taking place in Jordan between Americans and insurgent groups, including Baath Party officials, according to several of Iraq’s Sunni lawmakers and government officials.

One Sunni lawmaker said the Baathists told U.S. officials they realized they could not take back control of government but that the fighting could not stop without their agreement. The parliament member suggested that Baathists were trying to strike a deal for amnesty or leniency.

My bet is that Saddam and his cohorts go into exile to a Sunni-majority country (Saudi Arabia comes to mind) in exchange for the Baathist militias standing down, backed by American guarantees of security. The Iraqi Army and Shia militias with American air and Special Forces support are then free to turn their considerable wrath upon al-Qaeda’s remnants and other (Syrian and Iranian, mainly) adventurers.

Is it worth releasing one monster to bring an end to the sectarian violence and give the Iraqis time to cobble together a political solution? I’ve been a firm supporter of the US efforts to liberate the country, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it should cost as few as possible more American and innocent Iraqi lives.

the blog québécois

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A must read for those wishing to understand the Kurds; a people who the Arabs wish to cease existing and the anti-war crowd wish to forget ever existed. The irony is that Sunnis and Shias engaging in low-level civil war is doing a good job at making an independent Kurdistan a reality.

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Well according to Boris it is. He seems to think that M.A.D. will work as well in the Middle East as it did in the Cold War. Me, I have my doubts. What is more interesting is some of the frothing comments below his piece.

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But white guilt’s most dangerous suppression is to keep from discussion the most conspicuous reality in the Middle East: that the Islamic world long ago fell out of history. Islamic extremism is the saber-rattling of an inferiority complex. America has done a good thing in launching democracy as a new ideal in this region. Here is the possibility-if still quite remote-for the Islamic world to seek power through contribution rather than through menace.

Shelby Steele, telling the truth like it is: radical Islamism is a loser-cult.

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Surrender and don’t bother to protect your citizens against attack. He tells them to ‘turn the other cheek’. Mr Worestone has to remember that Jews are Old Testament types and not wooly New Testament types.

Israel must really be sick of elitist Western intellectuals trying to tell them how to run things from outside of Israel not constantly under threat of rocket and suicide bomb attacks.

Of course, Capt Dave Wilson takes a rather different view.

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There is gonna be a lot to read out there on the election today in the West Bank and Gaza, but with exit polls showing Fatah with 46% to Hamas’ 39.5% + refusal to renounce their armed struggle, things will get interesting. In short, I see that having legitimated the political process, Hamas will find that in the long run it will have no choice but to moderate its actions, if not its rhetoric. Olmert has already hinted that he is prepared to talk if their stance changes significantly. He will have no choice, even if Hamas remains on the US’ and EUs terrorist lists. This is ‘facts-on-the-ground’ going the other way, but they become less of a danger if part of the political process. They are better positioned than Arafat and Fatah have ever been as they have in place social infrastructure and do not share the reputation for corruption. (That the term ‘corruption’ cannot apply to a group so far limitedly involved in politics is not the issue), and if they do not deliver on creating jobs and collecting the trash, then they wil have ended up shooting themselves in the foot, so to speak.

Nevertheless, it is fun to pick out the early ironies:

Samer Lulu, 29, said he voted for Hamas because he was tired of corruption.

“With religious people at least we will have our public money in clean hands,” AP news agency quoted him as saying.

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Whilst they celebrate the tragedy of the one individual who did more than anyone to pave the way to Palestinian independence (total contribution of their Arab brothers, zero), they should reflect on whether they really expect such benign treatment from any future leader of Israel.

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News from all usual sources, but live updates at Mere Rhetoric

[via LGF]

Just wait for the Palestinian candymen and their bags of sweets for the kids

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Mark Steyn urges policymakers to take the Iranian president, a Holocaust denier and wannabe nuclear power-wielder, seriously. So far, the attitude of the West, including the United States, has been fairly low-key. I am not sure what will or can happen in the coming months as the Iraq campaign drags on but I’d imagine that military planners are or should be looking very hard at their options. An airstrike on the model of Israel’s destruction of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear plant might be inevitable.

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Stephen Green, Mr “Vodkapundit”, links to a BBC story about the discovery of a large amount of “radioactive material” from locations in Iraq. The details are certainly disquieting.

There is no doubt that in certain respects, intelligence about WMDs in Iraq proved faulty, although it was, let’s not forget, accepted by many governments, including the French (who probably had the invoices), and that of Bill Clinton, that Iraq had WMDs. But this sort of information does not quite square with the “Bush Lied!” bullshit that one sees in parts of the media these days. Nothing to look at here folks, please move along.

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Prince Charles, Britain’s own jug-eared champion of greenery, classical architecture and field sports enthusiast, is to lecture George W. Bush about the supposed merits of Islam. The presumption is quite embarrassing. Bush is a religious man and went out of his way after 9/11 to make it clear that the United States had no problem with Islam per se, but with those who have used that religion to justify mass slaughter of innocent civilians. I am pretty certain that Bush will tell Charles about that.

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BBC2 started a mini series last night entitled Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace, which traces the past six years of the peace process.

The program was fairly balanced, considering it was made by the BBC and that Suha Arafat was a producer (although it is particularly insensitive and not coincidental that the final two episodes will be shown over a Jewish holiday so many will not be seeing it), and it was very interesting to see how personality and politics interact at this level.

Two things stood out; the role of Chirac in breaking the momentum in Paris in January ‘01 – his pursuit of glory undermining the process of negotiations – and Barak’s private reneging of his offer to Clinton even before Arafat’s rejection of a ceasefire and Jerusalem offer. Yet the question of Jerusalem remained underdeveloped.

Tension had been mounting for a year and the cause of the rioting will always be contested (was Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount provocative or just a very useful pretext?), but the great revelation of the show – that Barak had last-minute
second thoughts in private about the compromise over Jerusalem before Arafat rejected it publicly – was irrelavent. If Arafat had in fact agreed to the offer, then Barak would have had no choice but to have honoured his promise (and face
the consequences back home). That he did not absolves Barak from changing his mind.

Indeed, the focus of the program was this impasse over Jerusalem, an issue so fundamental that the wider terms of the Camp David offer, particularly the territorial concession of 95%+ of the West Bank, were not even mentioned. Lack of contiguity of a future state – long held to be the major stumbling block by non-Palestinian commentators was not only false, but not, apparently a significant concern for Arafat, whose primary goal was not to betray the Muslim Arab community with a compromise over Jerusalem. Yet whilst the importance of the symbol of Jerusalem to both sides was elucidated, the extent to which Barak’s offer was so unprecedented , and that he was even prepared to box himself in by having Clinton propose it, was not developed. The frostiness of his reception back in Israel must have been a relief. How would the country have reacted if he had been forced to compromise Jewish sovereignty over the city? That Arafat not only remained intransigent but also played dumb to Barak’s demand to call Mohammed Dahlan to halt the violence only reinforces the view that Arafat was not going to accept whatever was proposed, whether from Barak or from his ‘only friend’ Clinton.

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As Sharon is in New York to have his back slapped and cheeks pinched by kindly Unca’ George for his bold steps towards peace, what has been going on back home?

The big news is that Hamas has siezed this defining moment as an opportunity to demonstrate that all they wanted after all was for Israel to withdraw so that they may start to build their own state. By that I mean continue their terrorist campaign until Israel capitulates at every turn. But it’s ok, as this of course will be vigourously opposed by Mahmoud Abbas…

And this social freedom also offers the chance to work towards greater religious understanding, because the struggle was purely political and in no way associated with Arab anti-Semitism.

But according to The Scotsman, these remaining synagogues, whose fate was under Supreme Court review (it was even being considered to let the Palestinian Authority preserve them), are a real sticking point and that they were desecrated can only be Israel’s fault.

From Honest Reporting:
A decision to leave synagogues in place ‘dampened any hopes for a more peaceful era’? One would think the desecrations did that, not the (hopeful) act of leaving the synagogues intact.

I recommend you (re)read this excellent piece on possible post-pullout scenarios

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The phrase “great article by Christopher Hitchens” is getting a bit shop-worn, so regularly have I either read it or used it myself. Anyway, here is another such Great Article, this time laying out the multiple benefits and good things brought about the end of Saddam Hussein’s vile regime. Hitch poses the question: why has the Bush admin. been so slack at laying out the case, in such detail? Maybe Dubya should read blogs more often.

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Guido skulked across a blog entry today on The Gray Monk which set him thinking! The Monk discusses his views on whether the West can hope to see a moderation of Islam if there were to be a – to use the Monk’s phrase – “Luther style” Reformation within Islam.

Sadly, in Guido’s humble view, The Gray Monk does not seem to think this is likely or possible, and sets out his reasons very succinctly. Having read them carefully, Guido is much inclined to agree, especially after browsing a couple of the more strident English language Islamist websites. Perhaps a few more people, especially those in the corridors of power, should consider very carefully what The Gray Monk has to say on this subject; he seems to have identified something of fundamental importance in this debate.

Guido is more than ever convinced that there is no such thing as a “moderate” Muslim and even more convinced that continuing to attempt to promote this religion in the manner that our current Prime Minister and his friends are doing will result in a further growth of militancy. Having suffered once for his beliefs, Guido has no desire to repeat the exercise, but it begins to seem likely that it may well be required of him again!

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As I said the other day in relation to Justin Raimondo (I cannot be arsed to link to him, you will have to look it up), conspiracy theories, which at some point bring in Jews, disgust me. I have just put the phone down on an acquaintance – not a friend – who likes bending my ear about how Karl Rove/Bush/Haliburton/insert entity of choice arranged to blow the WTC up, how there was unusual Air Force activity in the area at the time, yadda-yadda.

I’ll admit that these people may have been mildly diverting in their lunacy in the past and provided plenty of material for Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove. But to anyone reading this who thinks I wish to spend my brief life on Earth listening to these vile and dangerous pieces of nonsense, you are wasting your time. Go back underneath your rocks and stay there.

Thanks for reading.

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Justin Raimondo, the man who puts “loony” into libertarianism, has sunk to another depth by claiming that the Israeli authorities may have known of a bomb threat to London but for their own dastardly reasons, did nothing about it.

Let’s get this straight from the start. I have no problem with critics of the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. There are legitimate criticisms to be made of the doctrine of preventative war, and indeed many liberals down the years have pointed out the dangers of how wars can give governments cover to expand the powers of the state (Mr Blair, alas, is no exception). I know a few libertarians who disagree with me about Iraq but I manage to stay on civil terms with them, such as Sean Gabb or Jim Henley, for instance.

But Raimondo is something quite different. He gives libertarianism a bad name. The jerk is an embarrassment.

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