1. A few weeks ago the Jewish media was full of outraged reportings and letters because some Germans had said impolite things about orchestra conductor Daniel Barenboim. Barenboim is an ex-Israel who decided to show his sensitive concern with Jewish history and culture by making his home in Berlin after World War II, where he conducts a band for the musical enjoyment of the sons and grandsons of the Nazis. He has never had any hesitation about, say, conducting Wagner at the Beyrouth Jew-bashing festival in Bavaria. Anyway, a few weeks ago a Teutonic politician referred to him disrespectfully as "That Jew Barenboim" and the whole Jewish world gasped its horror and showed its solidarity with the maestro.

   Well That Jew Barenboim is in Tel Aviv this week and he decided to expand upon his Jewish solidarity beyond merely making merry music for the Germans. He decided to tell the Israelis what to do politically. Naturally, his tirade was politically correct. The Jews must give the Old City of Jerusalem over to the PLO fascists and they should hand over the Temple Mount and create a Palestinian state even BEFORE conducting any "peace negotiations" with the fascists. He also wants Israel to change Hatikva and take the Star of David off the flag. (Haaretz Dec 29 - Tom Segev’s column) Of course, living in such intimate terms with ex-Nazis has no doubt made him excessively understanding and sensitive to the demands of the PLO.

   But I still have my own original ideas of what he should do with his baton ….

2. After the Arab Christians carried out a massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps outside Beirut in 1982 (hey, how come no one sees those as unavoidable sacrifices for peace, legitimate protests by the underprivileged and dispossessed, and integral parts of the peace process??), Israel set up its own commission of inquiry. It partially soiled Ariel Sharon for his not having had the prescience to predict the behavior of the Christian Arabs, and never mind that none of the experts, journalists, or Labor Party sages forecast at the time any such massacre either. But being hypersensitive Jews, the Israeli government - like Hebrew National Hotdogs - sought out a higher authority and higher standard for behavior and so held Sharon partly culpable for inaccurate forecasting.

   The commission of inquiry was known as the Kahan Commission.

   Now something interesting is happening in Israel. A Netanya lawyer named Yosef Dar has written a book about the Kahan Commission and it claims to have a grand set of scoops. I have not read it yet, only its reviews, and it sounds impressive and well-researched.

   Essentially, Dar’s most controversial theme is that not only was Sharon entirely blameless, but the person in Israel most directly responsible for the massacre was none other than Itzhak Zamir, at the time the legal advisor to the government (effectively the Attorney General) and later named to the Supreme Court bench and Dean at the law school at the University of Haifa. Zamir was personally present at the cabinet meeting in 1982 in which it was proposed to allow the Christian Falange militia to enter Sabra and Shatilla, something confirmed in Haaretz. Zamir, despite his name (song bird), said absolutely nothing, raised no objections, pointed out no legal or moral problems.

   SO how come Zamir’s name was never muddied in all the hoopla that came after the massacre? How come only Sharon was left with the mud on his face?

   Cause among the members of the Kahan Commission of Inquiry was another judge, a buddy of Zamir, who decided to cover his friend’s derrier!! And who was this other justice with the selective pointed finger? None other than Mister Judicial Activism himself, today’s Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, friend of Orthodox-bashers everywhere, Aharon Barak. Haaretz Dec 29, 00.

3. Haaretz web site Friday reported that a leftist Israeli Jew who had come to Hebron to distribute food to po’ Palestinians was arrested by the Fat’h Gestapo within the local PLO Gau there. The paper does not give the gent’s name, but I think once it is out we should all urge the PLO thru emailings to give this gent the same warm Christmas greeting that was given to the IDF reservists in Ramallah..

4. Years ago I was given a gag gift, a record (which - for you younger readers - was like a CD disk but made of vinyl) entitled Marcel Marceau in Concert. Marceau of course was the famous mime, and so the entire record was silent except for the last 20 seconds, in which there was applause.

   Anyway, I was reminded of this when I noticed that the Jerusalem Post carried a review of a new book entitled, "The Religious Practices of Reform Jews." I have not read it but assume it is a gag gift, a book of 300 blank pages and then on the last page it says Vote for Hillary.

5. The Labor Party political machinery is all greased up and the leftist amen chorus for Barak’s appeasements is working overtime. One of the more interesting such pieces was by Haaretz columnist Yoram Vranovski, a regular flamingo at the paper. He writes (Dec 29, 00) that traditionalist Jews should welcome the turning over of the Old City of Jerusalem and of the Western Wall to the Palestinians. You see, for centuries Jews thrived on their longings and yearnings for the stones of the Western Wall, and so giving it up and turning it over to the PLO fascists will restore Judaism to its pristine state and so once again Jews will thrive on their longings for Jerusalem.

6. Show of hands now. How many of you heard on the TV news or read in the papers any report of the 2000 people murdered in Moslem-Hindu sectarian violence in India in December?

Copyright © 2000 by Steven Plaut.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission