1. Seems the world has a perpetual psychic need to discover at any one time at least one moderate Palestinian. For years the purported "moderate" Palestinian was Feisel Husseini. Husseini was celebrated as a man of peace, someone reconciled to Israel’s existence, someone who frowned on mass murder of Jews. The fairy tale of his moderation then led Israel’s Left to make regular pilgrimage to him. They took to the streets to defend his illegal enclave in Orient House in East Jerusalem, from which PLO "police" operated in the open. Half the city of Jerusalem was shut down so that his fans could attend his funeral when he fortuitously croaked. These included the Israeli Left, marching arm in arm with Palestinians screaming "Massacre the Jews", in moderate tones of course.

   Now as it turned out, claims that Husseini was a "moderate" were about as persuasive as those claims that Hitler really did not approve the Holocaust and it was all the doings of his less moderate lieutenants. Feisel was an Islamist fascist and a terrorist. Those participating in his funeral were engaging in rodent worship.

   The world has not given up its holy quest to find a Palestinian moderate, however. The current Moderate-du-jour is none other than Sari Nusseibeh, the PLO’s Gauleiter for Jerusalem. He has been declared a moderate in response to the order by the Sharon people to prevent him from holding illegal receptions for foreign diplomats within Jerusalem’s boundary’s as the acting PLO’s "Minister for Jerusalem Affairs."

   Now in fact, Nusseibeh has been proclaimed a moderate for years by people like Uri Avnery and other Israeli Far Leftists seeking Israel’s destruction. Of course, such people also consider Asad, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden as moderates. What is the source of the sudden myth of Nusseibeh’s "moderation"? Well, on one or two occasions he has said that it is possible maybe that under the right conditions of total Israeli capitulation that he might someday support the idea of abandoning the PLO’s demand for a "right of return" by Palestinian "refugees" to Israeli territory.

   So you see where Oslo has gotten us? To the point where such statements constitute "moderation". The media are also claiming Silly Sari recognizes Israel’s right to exist and speaks of Palestine next door to Israel. But if that makes you a moderate, then Arafat is ALSO a moderate, cause he made similar statements this week in his famous "peace speech".

   Now everyone knows by now that when the going gets tough, Arafat will indeed issue some sort of duplicitous statement about how violence is bad and should stop, finger tapping side of nose, wink wink wink, and Silly Sari will no doubt do the same, following the lead of the Charming Chairman.

   Has Nusseibeh ever denounced suicide bombers? No. Has he ever denounced massacres of Jews by terrorists? No. Has he expressed approval of Israel’s right to self-defense? No. Has he rejected intifada violence? No.

   So what is the source of his "moderation"? The usual Oslo wishful thinking, of course. None of which has stopped the Bush people, in their supposed Post-Oslo mode, from denouncing Israel’s prohibition of Nusseibeh’s illegal reception as "a harmful provocation."

   Meanwhile, some vintage lemmings from Israel’s Left decided to respond to Sharon’s stomping down on the activities of Silly Sari by organizing their own hajj to meet with him. These include such champions of Israeli Self-Defense as Yossi Beilin, Yael Dayan, Yuli Tamir, and Collette Avital. Just to show that they still regard Jerusalem as the illegally occupied territory comprising the Capital of Palestine. Shimon Peres of course has also denounced Sharon’s moves against Silly Sari.

   Here is an idea. Back before Oslo began, there was a law on the books in Israel that made it a crime for Israelis, meaning Israeli Lefties, to go pow-wow with the PLO. Never mind that the Shamir government never had the guts to enforce it. But why not bring it back and start jailing the Lefties that devote their careers to promoting PLO victory?

   Meanwhile, Arafat has made his little "peace speech" as a sop to US threats. But in the aftermath of the theatricals, has he arrested a single Hamas/Jihad leader? No, but he has invited several to come in for talks. Has he really ordered a ceasefire? All the shootings yesterday were the works of the Fat’h, the terrorist legions commanded by Arafat in person, and proudly taking "credit" for yesterday’s atrocities. The pace of shootings by the PLO’s brownshirts has, if anything, escalated since the "peace speech". Even Haaretz acknowledges that Arafat arrested no one.

2. Israel’s politicized judiciary struck yet another blow against oppression yesterday. Seems there is a new shopping mall in the new Jerusalem central bus station, privately owned. The private owners of this mall have agreed to let MacDonald’s open up a fast-food joint therein (the term "food" being used loosely), but have insisted that it be under kosher supervision. MacDonald’s prefers not, so it can serve kangaroo cheeseburgers. The Big Macs went to court, and the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court yesterday ordered the owners to allow MacDonald’s to serve non-kosher food on the premises. Which means, when it comes to private property, Israelis do NOT have the legal right to demand that within the confines of their own property only kosher food be served.

3. Human Rights Watch has an office in Israel in which one Zama Korson-Nof serves as "Director of Children’s Rights". He/she/it has a letter in Haaretz today bewailing "systematic discrimination against Arab pupils" in the Israeli school system. And what is the evidence of such systematic horrific discrimination? Well, it seems that the dropout rate from high schools is higher for Arabs than for Jews in Israel.

   Now one little problem with this is that in every single country on the face of the planet, including those in which official anti-Jewish discrimination is the law of the land, Jews have a lower dropout rate than do non-Jewish children. But Human Rights Watch does not wish to be bothered with facts when it is campaigning for the annihilation of Israel.

4. Speaking of human rights violations of Arabs by Israel, we hear several times a day stories from Leftists and Arabs about those nasty Israeli soldiers mistreating the po’ Palestinians and not even letting their ambulances go through checkpoints without first making sure they are not carrying explosives as they are wont to do. Several Israeli soldiers are now facing court martials for allegedly dissing Arabs at a checkpoint. Yesterday the defense for these boys produced a surprise witness: A Palestinian from Beit Jalah who came to testify in the defense of the troops and their admirable behavior.

5. Speaking of the behavior of Israeli troops at checkpoints, what do you think would happen if several US Senators cussed out some GI’s patrolling in Afghanistan and made obscene references to the anatomies of their mothers and otherwise abused them?

   Well, you will never know. In contrast, yesterday several Arab Knesset Members from the Stalinist-Fascist Arab parties in Israel tried to make a hajj to His Ugliness in Ramallah. When they got to the checkpoint, they refused to identify themselves to the troops, who cannot be expected to remember the faces by heart of each and every Arab Nazi in Israel. Knesset Members Barak and Tibi then began to cuss the soldiers out and threaten them until one of the officers fired into the air to get them to heel. (As you know, Israeli soldiers are not permitted to shoot rioting Arab Knesset Members in between the eyes.)

6. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1201/tracinski.html

7. From the Wall St Journal

   December 18, 2001

   Lost in Translation

   By Christopher Buckley. Mr. Buckley is editor of Forbes FYI. His new novel, "No Way to Treat a First Lady," will be published next year by Random House.

   The Qatar-based al Jazeera satellite channel has just released its own translation of the Osama bin Laden tape:

   Osama bin Laden: Sulayman. Sorry I’m late. I couldn’t find a parking space.

   Sheik Sulayman: Tell me about it. I had to park in a bomb crater.

   Osama bin Laden: Allah be praised. Every time I stick my head out for some air, they drop a 15,000-pound bomb. My chickens haven’t laid an egg since mid-October. Will someone please tell me why the Americans are doing this?

   Suleman Abu Guaith: Hel-lo? To please the Zionists.

   Osama bin Laden: I had this dream.

   Sheik Sulayman: Me too [inaudible] episode of "Baywatch."

   Osama bin Laden: Not that kind of dream. I was in Neiman Marcus, the satanic department store, trying to buy a white player piano. And they wouldn’t take Visa. Fortunately, I had the American Express Platinum Card.

   Sheik Sulayman: Allah be praised. So what have you been up to lately, O Evil One? Kidding.

   Osama bin Laden: Say, where are the brothers? Where’s Mohamed of the Egyptian family?

   Suleman Abu Guaith: [to Sheik Sulayman] Um, you want to tell him?

   Sheik Sulayman: Mohamed was on that plane that crashed into the building in New York.

   Osama bin Laden: That boy was like a son to me. Where are you going with this?

   Sheik Sulayman: What can I tell you? He got on in Boston. He wanted to see Disneyland. Next thing we know, the plane crashes into that building. It was obviously a Mossad operation. You know the Israelis told the Jews who worked in the towers not to go to work that day.

   Suleman Abu Guaith: [deleted] Zionists.

   Osama bin Laden: So that’s what all this is about. The carpet bombing, the pamphlets, the $25 million reward -- by the way, don’t get any ideas, you two -- drone planes, commandos. Someone might have told me.

   Suleman Abu Guaith: We didn’t want to upset you. It was a terrible thing, those planes.

   Osama bin Laden: One’s heart goes out to the families.

   Suleman Abu Guaith: What about the families of the brothers on board? There were 19 young Muslim men on those planes. In the prime of life. Mohamed’s father -- the Cairo lawyer -- is taking it pretty hard. The worst part is the lies the Americans are spreading. That his son was the quote-unquote head terrorist.

   Osama bin Laden: [spits up tea] Mohamed? Mohamed Atta? Puh-leeze. You couldn’t get him on a plane unless you poured a fifth of Jack Daniels into him.

   Sheik Sulayman: [loud noise] Whoa. What was that?

   Suleman Abu Guaith: [deleted] Daisy Cutter. Wish we had those.

   Osama bin Laden: [humming to self] In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. . . . Well, this is completely unacceptable, this war the Americans and Zionists have proclaimed upon Islam.

   Suleman Abu Guaith: So what are we going to do about it?

   Osama bin Laden: The same thing that we have been doing for the past 1,000 years, since the infidel first defiled our holy places.

   Sheik Sulayman: I know someone who went to school with a guy whose uncle knows someone who makes anthrax. We could . . .

   Osama bin Laden: Shame on you, Sulay. You know that poison chemicals and radioactive bombs and murdering innocents are not our way. This is not the way of Islam.

   Sheik Sulayman: Kidding. Jeez Louise, have we lost our sense of humor? Have we been living in a cave too long?

   Osama bin Laden: We must fight back with prayer and dialogue and understanding.

   Suleman Abu Guaith: Bo-ring. Whatever.

   Osama bin Laden: I had a dream.

   Suleman Abu Guaith: [to Sheik Sulayman] Another dream?

   Sheik Sulayman: [to Suleman Abu Guaith] Oy. Humor him.

   Osama bin Laden: I was trying to get the enormous player piano into the elevator and people were not helping and suddenly the piano began playing [shudders] Hanukkah muzak. It was very unpleasant. I pressed the P-4 button and was in the elevator going down for the longest time and the doors opened and there were these flames everywhere and the sign said "Hell Level Parking."

   Sheik Sulayman: Beam me up, Scotty.

   Osama bin Laden: Fortunately I was able to interpret it correctly. It means that I am going to heaven.

   Suleman Abu Guaith: Allah be praised.

Steven Plaut

Copyright © 2001 by Steven Plaut.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission