text:
A silly and evil plan 1
A Palestinian Muslim spells out what is wrong with "the Kerry plan" for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It could not be clearer, but we don't expect Secretary of State John Kerry to understand it. Even if he could and did, we doubt that he'd change or abandon his silly and evil plan, because – plain to see – the intention of Obama and his coven is to destroy the State of Israel.
This is from Gatestone, by Daoud Assaf:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently warned that "the status quo between Israel and the Palestinians" cannot continue, noting that while there is prosperity and momentary security in Israel, it is "an illusion" that is bound to change if [peace] talks flounder. "The risks are very high for Israel," Kerry said. "People are talking about boycott. That will intensify in the case of failure. We all have a strong interest in this conflict resolution."
In short, Kerry is threatening Israel with a boycott and even security unrest if it does not accept the peace plan he says he will deliver in two weeks. Is Kerry actually endorsing the anti-Israeli boycott that delegitimizes America's only stable and democratic ally in the region? Also, what is the peace plan Kerry is so determined to force on the Israelis and Palestinians?
Kerry's talk of boycotting Israel comes at a time when the anti-Israeli boycott rhetoric is becoming shrill; one day after Kerry's talk, two major European banks decided on actions against their Israeli counterparts. Sweden's Nordea Bank, the largest in Scandinavia, asked for "clarifications" from Israel's Bank Leumi and Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank regarding their activities in the West Bank. Also Denmark's largest bank, Danske Bank, said on its website that it was boycotting Israel's Bank Hapoalim for "legal and ethical" reasons, again in reference to its operations in the West Bank.
Recently, the $200 billion Dutch pension fund PGGM also decided to divest from the five largest Israeli banks, ostensibly because of their involvement in the West Bank.
Kerry's comments were not only a stab in the back that any country would not expect from its closest ally; they also provided support to the enemies of Israel – such as the smiling, racist members of the European Union.
For decades, the EU and many European nations have been secretly funneling hundreds of millions of taxpayers' euros to organizations that work towards overthrowing Israel. The EU also, despite mountains of evidence, could not even bring itself to declare Iran's proxy organization, Hizballah, a terrorist group; and if Iran is legitimized, so probably will be Iran's other proxy terrorist group, Hamas.
Joining this club of racists is the United Nations, whose record of one-sided anti-Israel hostility is so pronounced that even one of its own translators commented on it. This record not only includes the frequent resolutions condemning Israel, as opposed to any other nations that commit far worse human rights violations than those Israel is [falsely] accused of committing, but also the openly racist Durban Conferences, ostensibly organized to counter racism, but which, as anyone can see, in fact promote it.
The cumulative effect of this pile-on against Israel only provides approval for the enemies of Israel to intensify their attacks — including anti-Israeli boycott, divestment and sanctions [BDS] campaigns — even more.
Kerry, and many others in the West, understand perfectly well that boycotting Israel reduces job opportunities not only for Jews, but also for Palestinians who work for in Israeli factories, farms and settlements, inside Israel as well as in the West Bank. The Palestinians who work there often receive ten times the remuneration, as well as better working conditions, than they would find among their own people, as has been revealed recently by the workers at companies that have actually been building real bridges of peace such as SodaStream, rather than organizations that have been sanctimoniously blowing up the bridges for peace, as Oxfam has. As usual, the Europeans know what will happen if there are fewer ways for the Palestinians to earn a decent living, as they knew when they left all their colonies. … The Europeans evidently care more about flagellating Israel than helping Palestinians. …
The question then arises: Why do those in the West who claim such hand-wringing concern for the Palestinians seek to harm Israeli businesses that offer them jobs? Do they forget that the Arabs refused to accept a partition plan in 1948, and started all subsequent wars to prevent Israel's existence? Do they think that if Israel just withdraws to the 1967 line that the Palestinians will disregard their Charters, which view Israel as one big settlement and which assume a Palestine "from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea"?
In our view, it is past time that Israel set its borders – and they should be from the river to the sea.
In other words, is the Arab-Israeli Conflict — which it is, far more than a Palestinian-Israeli Conflict — actually about territory, or about the existence of Jews who have come home to the land given to them by the Holy Qur'an, Sura 7 [Al-A'raf; "The Heights"] 137: " And We made those who had been persecuted inherit the eastern and western lands which We had blessed. Thus your Lord's gracious promise was fulfilled to the children of Israel, for they had endured with patience; and We destroyed all that Pharaoh and his people had wrought, and all that they had built."
An interesting quotation that, of a sura that most Muslims seem to ignore.
Of course, even though we Muslims might prefer it if the Israelis were someplace else, as a Muslim, I must ask why are Israelis always found guilty for defending themselves? Could it be that the old, politically-incorrect anti-Semitism has now simply been replaced by a new, supposedly politically-correct anti-Israelism?
Also, what is this peace plan Kerry is so determined to force on Israel?
Kerry's plan, recently outlined in the media, includes: the division of Jerusalem; Israel's withdrawal from most of the West Bank, while it would retain control over the largest Jewish settlements there; a land swap to compensate the Palestinians for the settlement bloc [one can only imagine the years of wrangling about what a "commensurate piece of land" would consist of in each instance, thereby perpetuating the conflict a few more millennia]; recognition by the Palestinians of Israel as a "Jewish state", and compensation for Palestinian refugees who would no longer have a "right of return" to Israel.
But it does not include compensation for the Jews who were expelled from Arab lands or forced to flee, and had all their property confiscated.
In addition, the London-based newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, reported on January 8, 2014 that Kerry's plan actually revolved around solving the Palestinian refugees' problem through "settling them in Jordan under Jordan's king and granting the king $55 billion for hosting the Palestinians for five decades."
And where would they go after that, Mr Kerry?
Actually, that is where they belong. Jordan was created to be Arab Palestine by the British. They took some 80% of the Palestine region over which they were granted a mandate by the League of Nations after World War I, and handed it to Emir Abdullah, the Hashemite Sharif of Mecca, to be – as "the Emirate of Transjordan" – an Arab-only area in which no Jews would be allowed to live, although the explicit provision of the Balfour Declaration was that Jews should be "settled closely" on the the land. And it was for that purpose the League of Nations had given Britain the mandate.
A careful look at the [Kerry] plan, however, raises the following issues:
Palestinian Authority President Abbas has already said he would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state. But the real problem is that even if he did, he or his successor could easily change his mind and retract the recognition of Israel after it had already given back the West Bank … as in the time-honored tradition of Hudaibiyya which his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, repeatedly invoked in Arabic to justify signing the Oslo Accords.
"Hudaibiyya," a footnote explains, "is the story of Mohammed's promise to the tribe of the Qurayesh in Mecca not to attack for ten years; but after assembling a powerful army, Mohammed returned after three years, conquered the tribe, occupied the city and gave tribes' members the choice of either becoming Muslims, or leaving their homes and going elsewhere."
So much for treaties, as can presently also be seen in the ongoing Palestinian abrogations of UN Resolutions 242 and 838, as well as of bilateral agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel — again endorsed by Secretary Kerry.
Palestinians also say Abbas does not represent them because he has overstayed his four-year term by six years, and therefore has no legitimacy, or mandate, to sign anything. Abbas would undoubtedly also be regarded by many Palestinian hard-liners as a traitor — as was Egypt's President, Anwar al Sadat — and almost certainly be assassinated. …
Kerry also wants Israelis, including those who live in settlements, to be surrounded by a Palestinian state. If I were a Jew, I would frankly not want to be living in a tiny country or a settlement surrounded by people who are incited day-in and day-out [by being told that] that their mission in life is to kill you, let alone that the entire country is regarded by many Arabs as one big settlement … It is bad enough when a country — now home to over a million Arabs, who have all the same opportunities as the Jews — is slandered in a lie that it is [an] apartheid [state], but for a new Palestinian state to be legally born [an] apartheid [state], officially free of Jews, after having had to listen to the international community unjustly hurl that word around all those years — seems both legally and morally indefensible.
Last of all, it is important not to forget that historically, whenever Israel gives land for "peace," as in Egypt, southern Lebanon and Gaza, instead of rewards it gets concussions. …
Despite everything, the Israeli government has recently exhibited a willingness to accept Kerry's plan.
As a tactic only, we hope.
The Palestinians have, as usual, rejected the plan: senior Palestinian Authority official Yasser Abed Rabbo called Kerry's plan "Israeli ideas." In addition, last month, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told an audience at a conference in Munich he could never agree to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
To this author, Kerry's peace plan seems to be based on assumptions that are likely not to materialize or … The Palestinians have been offered a state many times since 1947; each time they have rejected the offer. It seems, looked at dispassionately, that they are less interested in having a Palestinian state than in destroying a Jewish state.
At the same time, Kerry's boycott threats only embolden Israel's many adversaries, including the Europeans, who seem to enjoy colluding with the Arabs, probably for the money, to launch new BDS campaigns, as they high-handedly compromise the interests and legitimacy of Israel, the only ally on which America can actually depend in the unstable Middle East.
And most curious 1
We return to the subject of our yesterday's post Curious and curiouser. Even our source, DebkaFile, now expresses puzzlement about the story. While it is certain that Israel did intercept and capture a ship carrying Iranian arms, there are things about the event and its aftermath that just don't add up.
Our sources discount the overblown claims that this unquestioned IDF success in capturing dozens of Syrian-made 302mm rockets carried by the ship saved four million Israelis from attack.
For two years, the IDF refrained from cutting short the incessant stream of mobile Grad rockets and other weapons systems flooding into the Gaza Strip from Libya via Egypt. Those weapons had already imparted to Hamas, Jihad Islami and the al Qaeda affiliates in Sinai the ability to strike Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Rishon Lezion, an ability exhibited during Israel's 2012 Gaza operation.
Two puzzling questions are raised by the Iranian missile ship episode suggesting that there was more to it than meets the eye.
The capture of a small merchant with a crew of 17 unarmed seamen scarcely warranted a naval commando force of the size employed, especially as it sailed without an Iranian naval escort; nor was there any sign of Iranian naval units based in Port Sudan coming to its rescue.
The original report indicated the size of the force, and the importance attached to the capture:
The operation was carried out under an air umbrella by hundreds of naval commandos without casualties.It was directly commanded by the IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz from high command headquarters and the Navy Chief Maj. Gen Ram Rottberg from a floating command post at sea.
Then there is the second puzzling question, the answer to which would probably explain the first:
It is also strange that, in their comments on the operation, neither Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon nor any Israeli general offered a word of thanks to Washington for its cooperation, after the White House spokesman Jay Carney described how the US military and intelligence had worked with Israel to track the missile ship and were even under orders to arrange its interception, should the Israeli Navy for some reason opt out.
Is this a sign that US cooperation was inconsequential – or even conjured up post factum?
We think it was made up after the event. What we cannot work out is why.
Curious and curiouser 1
What sense can be made of this story?
Syria flies rockets to Iran: Iran loads them on a ship and sends it sailing down the Gulf, south-west on the Arabian Sea, and north up the Red Sea.
Israel intercepts the ship, commandos board it, find the rockets, re-route the vessel to the Israeli port of Eilat.
Where was it bound for? For whom were the rockets intended? Gaza? How the hell would they get there?
Look at the map showing the path of the arms to the point of interception, search and capture:
Next we are told that the Israelis didn't accomplish the whole feat alone – gathering the intelligence, setting up the capture. No, suddenly Jay Carney claims that it was a US-Israeli joint venture.
In an unusually frank disclosure, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday night, March 5, that US intelligence services and military had worked with Israel to track the Iranian Panama-flagged ship KLOS C, which was apprehended by Israeli naval commandos on the Red Sea earlier that day carrying missiles for Gaza via Sudan. The ship was boarded by the Israeli elite Shayetet 13 (Flotilla 13) and found to be carrying dozens of 302mm rockets with a range of 150 km made in Syria. It is now on its way to Eilat.
Just how would they get from Port Sudan to Gaza? Through Sinai? Then through tunnels? Isn't the Egyptian army patrolling Sinai? Hasn't Egypt closed the arms-smuggling tunnels? Why would Egypt allow arms to reach Hamas, the rulers of Gaza and a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood when the MB is the present Egyptian government's enemy?
And even more curious, why would Obama suddenly co-operate with Israel against Iran when his whole policy towards those two countries for at least the last four years has been to co-operate with Iran against Israel?
Has he had a sudden change of heart and mind? If so, what will his party, his base, his hurrah-chorus the mainstream media, say to this 180 degree turnabout?
It's really very hard to believe.
The White House spokesman said that Washington worked with Israeli through intelligence and military channels, and at the national security adviser level, as soon as it knew the shipment was on the move. He said that President Barack Obama also directed the US military to work out contingencies in case it became necessary to intercept the vessel (therebysanctioning military action).
Obama? Military action?
"Our Israeli counterparts ultimately chose to take the lead in interdicting the shipment of illicit arms," Jay Carney said. …
This was the first time in four years that the US and Israel have collaborated in an operation against Iran – ever since the Stuxnet virus attack in 2010 on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Until now, the Obama administration steadfastly refused to act against Iran for fear of jeopardizing the international diplomatic track for curbing its nuclear program.
The unusual frankness with which the Obama administration announced its coordination with Israel is both dramatic in itself and a road sign pointing the way to a radical change in its Iran policy.
The US and Israel appear to be lining up – in their military policies as well – against the Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah bloc.
This radical turnabout was most probably the high point of the conversation between the US president and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the White House Monday, March 3, after which Netanyahu raised comment by showering Obama with praise during his speech to the AIPAC conference in Washington the next day. …
Whereas Obama had shown impatience, irritation, and antipathy towards Netanyahu in an interview just one day before the meeting.
US and Israeli intelligence sources report that both countries are braced for a swift and stinging response from Tehran … As Carney put it: "We will continue to stand up to Iran's support for destabilizing activities in the region in coordination with our partners and allies.These illicit acts are unacceptable to the international community and in gross violation of Iran's Security Council obligations."
Israel's elite Shayetet 13 (Flotilla 13) early Wednesday, March 5, boarded [the] Iranian Panama-registered cargo vessel KLOS C. Concealed in its hold under sacks of cement were dozens of 302mm rockets with a range of 150 kms, manufactured in Syria and destined by Iran for the Gaza Strip after being offloaded in Sudan.
The Israeli commandos seized the vessel in open sea on the maritime border of Sudan and Eritrea, 1500 km south of Israel, and have set it on course for Eilat.
Sudan has [become] in the last two years … a major Iranian weapons manufacturing and logistic depot, which supplies Syria, Hizballah and Hamas. Port Sudan is the hub for the smuggling of Iranian arms to various Middle East locations.
The IDF [Israeli Defense Force] said the Iranian missile cargo was destined for the Palestinian Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip. If this is so, it would mean that Iran had gone back to arming Hamas with missiles and rockets after a two-year pause during which the Palestinian extremists were cold-shouldered by Tehran for their animosity to Syria's Bashar Assad. …
[But] it is hard to believe the Assad would consent to relay Syrian-made missiles to this antagonist.
Some Middle East military sources believe the shipment was not destined for Palestinian terrorists for use against Israel, but rather for Muslim Brotherhood activists fighting the Egyptian army from their forward base in the Gaza Strip.
They don't rule out the possibility of Al Qaeda affiliates fighting in Sinai as being the address. Western intelligence has recorded instances of Iran entering into ad hoc operational collaboration with al Qaeda elements when it suits Tehran's book. …
The rockets were flown from Syria to Iran, then loaded on [the] ship where they were concealed under sacks of cement inside containers. From the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, the ship headed into the Red Sea bound for Sudan where it was intercepted by Israeli commandos.
The Iranian arms ship's progress was tracked all the way.
By Israel, apparently. By the US, easily if that's what Obama wanted. But why suddenly does he want to "jeopardize the international diplomatic track for curbing Iran's nuclear program"?
Will Jay Carney, standing there among the flying pigs, do something he has never done before – tell the truth and explain everything?
That's not very likely, but then much is not very likely in these bizarre events.
Ending the pax Americana 2
We are in principle against intervention in the internal affairs of other countries. But we are not for isolationism or pacifism – we regard either philosophy as a formula for national suicide. If other countries become belligerent, build up their armed strength, send their warships towards our shores, establish bases in countries on our borders, and declare their aggressive intentions towards us, the politics of those countries become our business. That is happening now. We are under threat – because Obama is deliberately weakening America. And his reaction to the result is to weaken America even more.
The conditions for major war develop much more easily when the U.S. is too weak. They are developing as we speak.
To a meaningful extent, the significant increase we've seen in unrest around the globe since 2010 has been made possible, and inevitable, by the retraction of American power. Even where we still have power in place, it has become increasingly obvious that we aren't going to use it.
We quote from a website interestingly named Liberty Unyielding. The article on the extreme folly of the Obama administration's moves to weaken America is by Commander Jennifer Dyer, now retired from the US navy. (Her own blog is at Theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com):
The collapse of order in the Arab nations in 2011 was the first significant stage of the process. The perception that the United States would do nothing about a Hezbollah coup in Lebanon was tested in January of that year. The perception proved to be true, and when protests erupted in Tunisia and Egypt, for causes both natural and manufactured, a set of radical Islamist actors – the "establishment" Muslim Brotherhood, Sunni jihadists, Iran – saw an opportunity. The establishment Muslim Brotherhood has largely won out in Tunisia, but the battle still rages among these radical actors for Egypt, Syria, and now Iraq. Lebanon is being incrementally sucked into the maelstrom as well.
In multiple venues, Russia has watched the U.S. and the West effectively back Islamists in Russia's "near abroad": in Turkey (with support for the now struggling Erdogan government); in the Balkans, especially Bosnia and Kosovo; and in Syria. …
There was a time when the implicit determination of the U.S. to enforce the "Pax Americana" order – the post-World War II alignments of the region – held Russia in check. The Russians still derived some security benefit from that order, after all … It appears to me, however, that 2014 will be the year in which it becomes clear that, according to Russians' perception, they no longer benefit from the old order. If we're not going to enforce it, Russia will do what she thinks she has to.
In fact, Moscow's pushback against the plan for Ukraine to affiliate with the EU constitutes just such a blow for perceived Russian interests. It is of supreme importance for Westerners to not misread the recent developments. The EU and the U.S. did back down when Russia pushed hard last fall. The only ones who didn't back down were the Ukrainian opposition. I predict Vladimir Putin will try to handle the opposition factions cleverly, as much as he can, and avoid a pitched battle with them if possible. He respects what they are willing to do. But he has no reason to respect Brussels or Washington.
And that means he has more latitude, not less, for going after the regional props to the old order, one by one. As always, Russia's inevitable competition with China is a major driver, along with Russia's concern about Islamism on her southern border. The whole Great Crossroads – Southwest Asia, Southeast Europe, Northeast Africa, the waterways that snake through the region – is, if not up for grabs, at least in ferment. Look wherever you like: there are almost no nations where there is not a very present menace from radicalism, or where governments and even borders are not gravely imperiled by internal dissent.
Israel is the chief standout for politically sustainable stability and continuity. Romania and Turkey seem likely to at least retain their constitutional order in the foreseeable future, but Turkey's geopolitical orientation, in particular, is less certain. Greece and Kosovo – even Bosnia – have serious internal problems. Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia all remain in crisis at various levels. Jordan and Saudi Arabia are relatively stable, and the Arab Persian Gulf states relatively so as well. But their neighborhood is going downhill fast. Iran is riding a wave of radical confidence, and the Taliban are resurgent in Afghanistan.
In this tumultuous region, it's actually a little funny that Pakistan looks stable and staid compared to Iran, Afghanistan, and neighbors west. We can hope that Islamabad's perceived need to maintain a symmetrical stance against India will keep Pakistan's loose federation of intransigents federated, and the nukes under central control. But as we move across South Asia, we near another boiling pot. Thailand – long an American ally and pillar of stability in the region – has been rocked in recent months by national unrest of a kind not seen in Southeast Asia for decades. Islamist radicalism is a growing threat in Indonesia, and an unpacified one in the Philippines, after more than a decade of U.S.-Philippines collaboration in fighting it.
And, of course, China is making real, transformative moves against regional security with her proclamations about air space and maritime rights off her southeast coast.
This disruptive process, like the battles for many of the Arab nations, is already underway. We're not waiting for something to happen; it's started.
China assumes, quite correctly, that there will be no effective pushback from the United States. But two other nations with power and means will regard it as intolerable for China to dictate conditions in Southeast Asia: Japan and Russia. The dance of realignment among these nations has implications for everyone in Central Asia and the Far East. The day may be on the horizon sooner than we think when maintaining a divided Korea no longer makes sense to at least one of the major players. The day is already here when Chinese activities in Central Asia are alarming the whole neighborhood, just as Chinese actions are in the South China Sea. …
Russia and Iran are advancing on the US through Central America:
It's no accident that as radical leftism creeps across Central America (falsely laying claim to a noble "Bolivarian" political mantle), the maritime dispute between Nicaragua and American ally Colombia heats up – and Russia shows up to back Nicaragua and Venezuela – and so does Iran – and unrest turns into shooting and government brutality and violence in Venezuela – and Hezbollah shows up there to openly support the radical, repressive Maduro government.
Now Iran has a naval supply ship headed for Central America, very possibly with a cargo of arms that are not only prohibited by UN sanction, but capable of reaching the United States if launched from a Central American nation or Cuba.
We're not still waiting for the shocks to start to the old order. They've already started. I haven't surveyed even the half of what there is to talk about …
She looks at the latest defense cuts with dismay and considers what the consequences will be:
This is the world in which the United States plans to reduce our army to its lowest level since before World War II, and eliminate or put in storage much of its capabilities for heavy operations abroad (e.g., getting rid of the A-10 Warthogs, moving Blackhawk helicopters into the National Guard). It's in this world that DOD proposes to cease operating half of our Navy cruisers, while delaying delivery of the carrier-based F-35 strike-fighter to the Navy and Marine Corps. These cutbacks come on top of cuts already made to training and maintenance expenditures in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force that will affect unit readiness for years to come. …
Then comes what should be a shocking observation:
By cutting back on defense so drastically, America is deciding, in essence, to "fight fair": to give whatever opponents emerge more of a chance to kill our soldiers, damage our interests, and drag out conflicts. …
That would be hard to believe of any American leadership – until now. It is ludicrous. Worse, it is lunatic. But Obama has never concealed or disguised his wish to weaken America's military capacity.
The decision "to further limit our capabilities to use power in politically relevant ways" will result in "even more global unrest: more conflict, more shooting, more blood, more extortion and political thuggery menacing civil life in the world's poorer and more vulnerable nations", and that cannot be good for America. The point is that -
These unpleasant trends will spill over into civil life in the wealthier nations soon enough …
As it has, she points out, in Ukraine, Thailand, and Venezuela, "whether directly or through second-order consequences".
Peace and freedom have to be tended constantly; they are not the natural state of geopolitical indiscipline, but its antithesis. …
We're extraordinarily unprepared for the world that is shaping up around us. …
[And] a world that doesn't want quiescent trade conditions, tolerance of dissent, the open flow of ideas, and mutual agreements, peacefully arrived at, will not have them.
That's the world we are sentencing ourselves, for now, to live in. Perhaps we will learn from the consequences how to think again: about what it takes to guard freedom, and indeed, about what freedom actually is.
It is Obama who needs to think again, but there is no reason to hope that he will. It could hardly be more obvious that he does not care for freedom.
Why Muslims are butchering Christians in Nigeria 2
Have you wondered why Muslim terrorists in Nigeria, calling themselves Boko Haram (which means "book-learning, ie Western education, is against the will of Allah and so is forbidden"), are slaughtering Christians, hacking them to death with machetes, gunning them down, throwing their children on to bonfires, by the hundred, by the thousand, and – they intend – by the million?
The explanation is given in an article by Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch:
Jama'atu Ahlus Sunnati Lidda'awati Wal Jihad [the official name of Boko Haram] means "the Party of the People of the Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad".
[It's leader] Shekau clearly is motivated entirely by Islamic principles, and he thinks shedding Infidel blood is a pleasure, that democracy is incompatible with Islam, and that he and his group must commit murder until Islamic law is established in Nigeria.
Where did he get these ideas? What programs do mosques and Islamic schools in the West have in place to teach against this understanding of Islam they ostensibly reject? Why, none. Now, why is that?
Spencer quotes Ameh Comrade Godwin's transcription from a video, at the Daily Post:
Leader of the Jama'atu Ahlus Sunnati Lidda'awati Wal Jihad (otherwise known as Boko Haram), Abubakar Shekau, has vowed to launch more attacks on Nigeria and Nigerians.
This is coming barely 73 hours after its members wasted lives in renewed attacks in Adamawa and Borno States.
He said the state of emergency currently imposed on Adamawa, Borno and Yobe State would not prevent them from carrying out their attacks.
Shekau called on his members in other states, particularly Kano, to attack civilians and government institutions.
The full text of his 28-minute video, delivered in Hausa, reads thus:
My brethren, you should hold on to your weapons and continue fighting. Let them understand that our work is not confined to Yobe, Borno and Adamawa [states]. Make them understand that we are not restricted by emergency rule. They should understand we are under the canopy of Allah. This is the beginning. Yes, this is the beginning. We, Jama'atu Ahlus sunnati Lidda'awati Wal Jihad, are fighting Christians wherever we meet them and those who believe in democracy, those who pursue Western education wherever we meet them. By Allah, we will kill whoever practices Democracy. And you the infidels of Rivers state, Niger (Delta), the town of [President Goodluck] Jonathan, Shekau is talking to you. Shekau is talking to you, that small boy that has become the nightmare of infidels is talking to you. Oh you the leader of the Niger Delta, you will soon see your refinery destroyed. You will in the incoming days see your refinery you are boasting about bombed. Our refinery is Allah. Niger-Delta you are in trouble. Jonathan you are in trouble. Banki Moon [Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the UN] you are in trouble. Benjamin Natanyahu you are in trouble. Queen Elizabeth, you are in trouble. Babangida, Kwankwaso, Shekarau, Kashim, Buhari, you are in trouble. Yahaya Jingir, the cleric of Jos, the advocate of 'Boko Halal' ['Book-learning is blessed and permitted'], right? We are Boko Haram, you are Boko Halal. You will see, bastard. We killed Albani of Zaria. We killed Albani of Zaria. Shekau killed Albani of Zaria.Tomorrow he will kill Jingir, the day after tomorrow he will kill Dapchia, the next day he will kill Wapchama, next he will kill Shehu of Borno, Ado Bayero. We rebel against you, between us and you is enmity and rancor until you believe only in Allah. This is from the Qur'an, in which Abraham says to his pagan relatives: "We have rejected you, and there has arisen, between us and you, enmity and hatred for ever, unless ye believe in Allah and Him alone" (60:4). The reason why I will kill you is you are infidels, you follow Democracy. Whoever follows Democracy is an infidel. This is Shekau, this is why I'm in enmity with you. Buhari is an infidel, Babangida is an infidel, Atiku is an infidel, late Yar'adua was an infidel, Shehu of Borno is an infidel. You are all infidels. What makes you infidels is Democracy and constitution and western education. I therefore call on brethren in Kano to rise up and replicate the Baga attack. All these infidels we are the ones killing them. We enjoy shedding their blood. The Koran must be supreme, we must establish Islam in this country, not only in Borno. We will henceforth destroy any schools wherever we see them.
You see now? Perfectly clear, isn't it? It's because of the religion.
Islam requires literacy to be stamped out. The world will then be the good place Allah wants it to be.
So stop carping about those dismembered bodies, those burnt babies, the pools of blood in those churches and villages.
Or are you – ugh! – an Islamophobe?
News just in Wednesday 2/26/2014 – Reuters reporting :
Gunmen from Islamist group Boko Haram shot or burned to death 59 pupils in a boarding school in northeast Nigeria overnight, a hospital official and security forces said on Tuesday.
"Some of the students' bodies were burned to ashes," Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufai said of the attack on the Federal Government college of Buni Yadi, a secondary school in Yobe state, near the state's capital city of Damaturu.
Schoolboys, all of them.
Where to turn? 1
You may find it hard to believe this, but Secretary of State John Kerry's "peace talks" for Syria have failed.
This is from the (Kerry-sympathetic) New York Times:
The first round of the Syria peace talks ended on Friday without achieving even its most modest goal: easing the Syrian government's blockade on the delivery of food and medicine to besieged communities.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia raised expectations in January at a joint news conference in Paris that a way would be found to open humanitarian aid corridors and possibly establish local cease-fires in Aleppo and other cities and towns.
But to the dismay of the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations, even those basic steps proved elusive.
What a surprise!
Now what? Can anything at all be done for non-combatant victims of the Syrian civil war?
There is this:
Physicians for Human Rights urges Israel to allow wounded Syrian refugees to stay for continued care.
Wounded Syrians are treated at this Israeli field hospital on the Golan Heights. Photo: REUTERS
Humanitarian help pleaded for from the "Nazi-like", "apartheid state" of Israel?
This is from the Jerusalem Post:
With the collapse of peace talks on Friday between President Bashar Assad's regime and the opposition, the prospect of more wounded Syrians seeking treatment and refuge in Israel will continue to rise.
UN special representative Lakhdar Brahimi delivered a harsh verdict for Syrian civilians confronted with spectacular levels of violence: "We've had just eight days of negotiations in Geneva…. I'm sorry to report there was no progress."
The Jerusalem Post obtained Israel Health Ministry correspondence showing the tensions and dilemmas among medical professionals and advocates for the refugees.
In one letter from the ministry, the agency defended its care of Syrians, but added that "the medical establishment does not have the tools to ensure continuity of care after discharge, nor to protect patient from risk to his life."
The NGO Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)-Israel has urged Israeli governmental agencies to ensure "availability of continuity of care" following the discharge of hospitalized Syrians.
Israeli medical centers, including a military field hospital in the North, have provided healthcare services to roughly 700 refugees since 2013. The Post reported last week the first known case of a Syrian – a 17-year-old female – requesting asylum. The High Court of Justice rejected her petition and sent her back to Syria in late January. All of this helps to explain the growing involvement of Israel's legal and medical personnel on the edges of the Syrian civil war.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 136,227 people have been killed since protests broke out against Assad in 2011. More than 2.4 million Syrians are defined as refugees.
Yossi Melman, a leading national security analyst who has written extensively about Syria, told the Post, "Zionism would not collapse if we accept 200 refugees. Why not?'"
Only 200? And then stop? The population of Syria is about 22 million.
Hadas Ziv, public outreach director for PHR-Israel, told the Post last week that Israel should press the UN to set up a safe haven in Syria, near the Israeli border, to create a humanitarian escape corridor.
Gerald Steinberg, a professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, told the Post that the Syrian refugee crisis is "another example of the bankruptcy of the international humanitarian system." There is "no UN mechanism" to address the problem, he stressed. The UN is "entirely politicized and has nothing to offer."
Steinberg, who has an expertise in the inner workings of NGOs in the Middle East, said the Syrian refugee situation "leaves Israel completely on its own without the capacity to deal with the issues in a coherent manner. Israel would not get international assistance [even] if it would increase aid."
Israel is in a "very complex position," because it is technically in a state of war with Syria and the potent presence of al-Qaida there has added another threat, he said.
Well, maybe John Kerry will come up with a solution.
The war 5
Among the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls there is one titled The War of the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness.
It is a perpetual war: Good against Evil.
It is fought in most of the world's mythologies, and in almost all of them Good will win in the end. (The exception is that of the Norsemen. They foresaw the triumph of Evil.)
Dennis Prager, writing at Townhall, describes how the two sides of the conflict appear to him now:
In both personal and public life, you can know a great deal about a person or a group if you know what most bothers them – and what doesn't bother them.
A news item this past week made this point with glaring clarity. It reported a meeting that the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights had on Friday. Before revealing the subject of that meeting, let's review for a moment what is happening in the world …
North Korea continues to be an affront to the human species. That North Korea, whether or not it had nuclear weapons, is not a central concern is an indictment of humanity.
That the West, with the noble exception of Canada under Stephen Harper, is appeasing the dictators of Iran, is an indictment of the West.
Add to this list the U.N.'s and the world's ignoring of the Chinese government's continuing suppression of all dissent and its decades-long violent eradication of Tibet's unique and ancient culture.
Then add the slaughter of millions in Congo over the last decade, the 100,000-plus killed in Syria just last year, most of them civilians killed by their own government, and the blowing up, burning alive, and throat-cutting of untold numbers of innocent people by violent Islamists on a daily basis.
In other words, if what bothers you most is evil – the deliberate infliction of cruelty on people by people – North Korea, Congo, China, Syria and radical Islam will bother you more than anything else on the world scene.
So, then, what was the subject of the meeting convened Friday by the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights?
The alleged racism of the name of the National Football League's Washington team, the Redskins.
That's right. All these horrific evils are happening as you read this, and … the United Nations had a meeting about the name Washington Redskins.
The U.N. is not alone in paying undue attention to the Redskins' name. The left in the United States is nearly obsessed with it. President Barack Obama has spoken out against it. The Washington Post editorial board has demanded that the team drop the name. In the herd-like way that governs media, innumerable columnists and sports writers have written passionate columns against the name, and increasing numbers of sports writers have vowed to never again write or speak the name.
This left-wing obsession with a non-evil exemplifies the left's moral universe. That universe is preoccupied with lesser evils while nearly always ignoring the greatest evils.
Preoccupation with real evil is the greatest difference between right and left. The right was preoccupied with fighting Communism while the left … was preoccupied with fighting anti-Communists.
The right today is preoccupied with fighting Islamism; the left is preoccupied with fighting "Islamophobia."
One way of putting it is that the right is preoccupied with fighting evil and the left is preoccupied with fighting those who fight evil.
The right is preoccupied with defending Israel against those who wish to annihilate it. The left is preoccupied with Israeli apartments on the West Bank.
This difference was made manifest last week in the address given by the one world leader to exemplify the right's preoccupation with evil, Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper. Talking about all the condemnations of Israel, Harper said:
"Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind that: a state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, that was founded so Jews can flourish as Jews, and seek shelter from the shadow of the worst racist experiment in history, that is condemned, and that condemnation is masked in the language of anti-racism. It is nothing short of sickening."
Yes, but the writer does not go nearly far enough. The Left is not merely preoccupied with fighting those who fight evil, it is occupied with doing evil. The Left is in alliance with Islam. Its (bewilderingly unintelligent) intelligentsia invent a fake need to "save the planet" from "climate change" as an excuse to advance their own tyrannical rule, reduce population, and impoverish and destroy civilization.
And where are our warriors of the Right to stop them? Let's see: there's Stephen Harper and … Well, a few more names may spring to mind. And we do have the immense power of Reason on our side.
Which side is winning, would you say?
The one and only race hatred that is politically correct 17
"Racism" – an infinitely elastic term – is by far the very worst crime any human being can commit according to the Left.
There is one exception, however. Essential as it is to strive (hopelessly if you're a white person, not too hard if you're anything else) not to be racist, it is compulsory to hate Jews. Though you mustn't call them that. You must call them Israelis or Zionists. And hating them isn't enough. You must work actively for their destruction.
Why, you ask? Isn't it obvious? Because Israel is an apartheid state, Israelis are Nazis who colonized the long-established independent state of Palestine, and Jews are carrying out savage acts of terrorism on every inhabited continent, and threatening to take over Europe and the world. While the Muslims – pacific and tolerant even though they've been horrifically persecuted for hundreds of years – are making huge contributions to humanity, especially through Science, so winning Nobel Prizes out of all proportion to their tiny number.
This is from Front Page, by Caroline Glick:
The main foreign policy issue that galvanizes the passions and energies of the committed American Left is the movement to delegitimize Israel's right to exist.
This week has been a big one for the anti-Israel movement. In the space of a few days, two quasi academic organizations – the American Studies Association [ASA] and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association – have launched boycotts against Israeli universities. Their boycotts follow a similar one announced in April by the Asian Studies Association.
These groups' actions have not taken place in isolation. They are of a piece with ever-escalating acts of anti-Israel agitation in college campuses throughout the United States.
Between the growth of Israel Apartheid Day (or Week, or Month) from a fringe exercise on isolated campuses to a staple of the academic calendar in universities throughout the US and Canada, and the rise of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement to wage economic war against the Jewish state, anti-Israel activism has become the focal point of Leftist foreign policy activism in the US and throughout the Western world.
Every week brings a wealth of stories about new cases of aggressive anti-Israel activism. At the University of Michigan last week, thousands of students were sent fake eviction notices from the university's housing office. A pro-Palestinian group distributed them in dorms across campus to disseminate the blood libel that Israel is carrying out mass expulsions of Palestinians.
At Swarthmore College, leftist anti-Israel Jewish students who control Hillel are insisting on using Hillel's good offices to disseminate and legitimate anti-Israel slanders.
And the Left's doctrinaire insistence that Israel is the root of all evil is not limited to campuses.
At New York's 92nd Street Y, Commentary editor John Podhoretz was booed and hissed by the audience for trying to explain why the ASA's just-announced boycott of Israel was an obscene act of bigotry.
Many commentators have rightly pointed out that the ASA and the NAISA are fringe groups. They represent doctorate holders who chose to devote their careers to disciplines predicated not on scholarship, but on political activism cloaked in academic regalia whose goal is to discredit American power. The ASA has only 5,000 members, and only 1,200 of them voted on the Israel- boycott resolution. The NAISA has even fewer members. It would be wrong, however, to use the paltry number of these fringe groups' members as means to dismiss the phenomenon that they represent. They are very much in line with the general drift of the Left. … While the ASA and its comrades are on the fringes of academia, they are not fringe voices on the Left. The Left has embraced the cause of Israel's destruction.
Rejecting Israel's right to exist has become part of the Left's dogma. It is a part of the catechism. Holding a negative view of the Jewish state is a condition for membership in the ideological camp. It is an article of faith …
Consider the background of the president of the ASA. Curtis Marez is an associate professor in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, San Diego. His area of expertise is Chicano Film and Media Studies. He doesn't know anything about Israel. He just knows that he's a Leftist. And today, Leftists demonize Israel. Their actions have nothing to do with anything Israel does or has ever done. They have nothing to do with human rights. Hating Israel, slandering Israel and supporting the destruction of Israel are just things that good Leftists do.
And Marez was not out of step with his fellow Leftists who rule the roost at UCSD. This past March the student council passed a resolution calling for the university to divest from companies that do business with Israel. Why? Because hating Israel is what Leftists do. …
Challenging the likes of Marez, or the Swarthmore students … to a reasoned debate is an exercise in futility. They do not care about human rights. They do not care that Israel is the only human rights-respecting democracy in the Middle East. … Being hypocrites doesn't bother them either.
You can talk until you're blue in the face about the civilian victims of the Syrian civil war, or the gender apartheid in Saudi Arabia and the absence of religious freedom throughout the Muslim world. But they don't care. They aren't trying to make the world a better place.
Facts cannot compete with their faith. Reason has no place in their closed intellectual universe. To accept reason and facts would be an act of heresy.
The religion of Christianity began by plundering and anathematizing the religion of Judaism, and became a menace to the Jews. The religions of Islam and Socialism plundered and anathematized both, and menace all of us.
Religion is a self-imposed curse on humankind.
Past time to resettle the Palestinians 1
UNRWA should go.
(Indeed, the UN and all its agencies should go.)
This is from the Council on Foreign Relations, by Elliott Abrams. (We have cut out the bits where he praises the UN and its agencies, because we consider the UN to be a center of global evil.)
Since the end of the Second World War, millions of refugees have left refugee camps, and refugee status, and moved to countries that accepted them – quickly or slowly – as citizens.
Post-World War II Europe was an archipelago of displaced persons and refugee camps, housing 850,000 people in 1947 – Czechs, Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, Latvians, Greeks, and many more nationalities. By 1952, all but one of the camps had closed. …
Hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Europe went to Israel after 1948, and then hundreds of thousands more arrived from Arab lands when they were forced to flee after 1956 and 1967. The children and grandchildren of these refugees, born after their arrival, were never refugees themselves; they were from birth citizens of the new land, as their parents had become immediately upon their own arrival. …
The exception to this refugee story is the Palestinians. In most of the Arab lands to which they fled or travelled after 1948 they were often treated badly, and refused citizenship (with Jordan the major exception) or even the right to work legally. And instead of coming under the protection of UNHCR [the UN High Commissioner for Refugees] , they had a special agency of their own, UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency. In the decades of its existence, it has not solved or even diminished the Palesinian refugee problem; instead it has presided over a massive increase in its size, for all the descendants of Palestinian refugees are considered to be refugees as well. Once there were 750,000; now there are five million people considered by UNRWA to be "Palestinian refugees." And UNRWA is now the largest UN agency, with a staff of 30,000. UNHCR cares for the rest of the world with about 7,500 personnel.
The political background to this story is simple: only in the case of Israel was there a determined refusal to accept what had happened during and after World War II, with the establishment of the Jewish state and the increase in its population by the acceptance of refugee Jews. Of all the world's refugees, whom UNHCR tries normally to resettle, only the Palestinians are an exception. UNRWA presides over generation after generation of additional refugees, and Arab states and leaders make believe that some day they can turn back the clock and send them – and their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – to Israel. …
UNRWA should cease to exist, and Palestinian refugees should be handled by UNHCR with the intention of resettling them. …
Lest that position seem idiosyncratic, consider this: in 2010 Canada cut off its funding of UNRWA, and just now the Netherlands government has said it is considering the same action. How did they explain this? The foreign minister told parliament that Holland would "thoroughly review" its policy and the ruling party called UNRWA's refugee definition "worrying". UNRWA, said the party spokesman, "uses its own unique definition of refugees, different to the UN's. The refugee issue is a big obstacle for peace. We therefore ask the government acknowledge this discrepancy, which leads to the third-generation Palestinian refugees." Correction: fourth-generation, actually.
It is worth noting that there are many other criticisms of UNRWA: that it overlooks terrorist group activity in some camps, or allows members of Hamas and other terrorist groups to hold UNRWA staff positions. But those are criticisms of how UNRWA is carrying out its mission, while the deeper problem is the mission itself. That mission might accurately be described as enlarging the Palestinian refugee problem forever and thereby making any Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement tremendously more difficult if not impossible to achieve.
Closing UNRWA would in the end be a great favor to Palestinians who live outside the West Bank and Gaza … Some of those individuals will [we would say "may" - ed] some day move to the West Bank or Gaza, but they do not need UNRWA to do that. None of them will ever move to Israel, and the existence of UNRWA helps to maintain the cruel myth that they will.
The "peace process" seems stalled today; no negotiated final settlements is on the horizon. … Starting the process of closing down UNRWA would be a move toward peace, as it would replace the permanent perpetuation of the Palestinian refugee problem with a process designed to reduce it in size and some day solve it.
Quaker terrorists 10
To most people "Quaker terrorists" may seem a contradiction in terms. So we must explain.
To excuse or defend terrorism is to encourage it; to encourage it is to co-author it.
And what is terrorism? It is not an ideology. It is a method, a tactic. It is the systematic use of violence to create public fear. By the targeting of the innocent the fear is spread. Everyone in a certain place, or of a certain race or calling, or in a certain position, must be given reason by the terrorist to fear that he or she, or his or her spouse or child or parent, can be blown into pieces, or be knifed or beaten or shot to death, by complete strangers at any moment. Terrorism is morally indefensible. Arguably the most morally indefensible form of violence that can be imagined. Nothing can justify it. No cause. Nothing.
For centuries the Quakers were a widely respected sect. They were pacifists on moral grounds. Pacifism was one of their founding religious principles. Their name was synonymous with non-violence. In wars, they would serve their country as doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, stretcher-bearers … They eschewed violence even in self-defense. As a sect, they lived up to their principles. That was what they were respected for.
(For the record – in our view a pacifist upholding his principle of non-violence when the aggressors are Nazis or Communists say, while others risk their lives to save him from them, is not admirable. But our task here is to explain the Quaker view, which many hold in high esteem: that it's wrong to use violence at all. Ever.)
But now the Quakers are terrorists. They are terrorists in that they excuse, defend, and actively encourage terrorism.
Here is the story of how the change, the reversal of their values, came about. We have taken it from the The Tower, condensing the full account given by Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander H. Joffe:
The Quakers — thus named because they tremble or "quake" before God — [is] a Protestant sect founded in England during the mid-17th century. … As part of their beliefs, Quakers oppose violence in all its forms and reject any compulsion in religion. …
The Quakers are also called The Friends. So unthreatening. So simple. So trustworthy. So good.
On April 30, 1917, the Quakers formed The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) "in response to America's entrance into World War I".
Challenged by public hostility and government disapproval due to their refusal to be drafted, the Quakers formed the AFSC in order to organize alternative forms of service for its members, such as providing medical aid and other non-violent participation in the war effort.
The AFSC slowly expanded over the years, and by the late 1940s it was an established Christian organization with global experience, recognized by national and international establishments as a major provider of international relief, charity, and aid. …
The dawn of the Cold War, however, proved a turning point in the history of the organization. In April 1947 …
Just thirty years after its founding …
… a faction within the AFSC's leadership convened a meeting at which the head of the organization, Clarence Pickett, and others argued that tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union had become so intense, and the threat of atomic war so grave, that the AFSC should abandon its long-standing tradition of political neutrality.
The argument was absurd. How by taking one side against the other would they be lessening the tension and preventing atomic war?
It is true that one side of the Cold War was working through agents of influence to get the other side disarmed by public opinion. It paid its agents to organize "Peace" movements. Not because it was for peace, though it pretended to be. Far from being peaceful, it was arming, aiding and abetting proxy wars of "liberation" on five continents. That lying, hypocritical, relentlessly belligerent side was the Soviet Union. And that is the side the AFSC took.
Can there be much doubt that Clarence Pickett, whether personally paid or not, was one of its agents?
Such a stance [of neutrality], Pickett said, could no longer be an article of faith but a crime. The radical nature of this [new] stance was reflected in the words of another participant, who said, "Evolution is too slow. We need revolution in the Society of Friends."
Hear in that the vocabulary, the phraseology of Marxism.
The organization, Pickett and his supporters felt, should actively spearhead a peace movement that would directly challenge America's Cold War policies.
Not for a moment did they apparently consider that the American Cold War policies were a direct challenge to the Soviet Union's hot war ambitions.
This began the AFSC's transformation from a religious group to, as one Quaker scholar later put it, "just one more pressure group within the secular political community".
Or in other words, it changed not only from a pacifist to a revolutionary movement, it also changed, effectively, from a Christian sect into a Communist sect.
The AFSC's newly radical stance took aim at American policies throughout the 1950s and paid little or no heed to repression and terror in Communist countries. This hit its stride during the Vietnam War. The organization bitterly and actively opposed the war throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Its attacks on American policy in Vietnam were furious and wide-ranging, opposing everything from the escalation of military operations to all forms of aid to South Vietnam to the conduct of the war itself. In addition, the AFSC directly violated American embargoes and sent medical aid directly to North Vietnam. These actions proved to be extremely controversial. In one case, the AFSC was accused of revealing to the North Vietnamese that a prominent Buddhist activist was a CIA agent, prompting one prominent Quaker to hold a sit-in at AFSC headquarters in protest.
So some individual Quakers – many, according to the authors – were still true to their founding principles, or perhaps were American patriots.
The AFSC's activism placed it unquestionably on the side of the American far-Left, where it remains to this day.
The Quakers' [erstwhile] beliefs in nonviolence have not prevented them from supporting bloody despotic regimes. …
And the hypocrisy was – and remains – blatant:
While still voicing support for pacifism, the organization increasingly aligned itself with violent Left-wing governments and movements, some of which used terrorism to advance their goals.
Many rank-and-file Quakers were appalled at the AFSC's overt support for such regimes and movements, as well as its double standards … But their protests proved fruitless. The AFSC rejected all criticism as fundamentally illegitimate "red-baiting and McCarthyism".
"Red-baiting". Again, the vocabulary of the Communists. Or rather of the Comintern – the Soviets' ideological club for foreign fans of its appalling system.
… The AFSC's policy towards Iran is [to demand] the removal of sanctions and [dismiss] concerns about Iranian nuclear weapons.
It is openly, shamelessly supportive of the most terrible regime on earth:
Today the group operates collective farms in North Korea …
And is intimately supportive of at least one of the most savage terrorist groups on earth – Hamas.
Romirowsky and Joffe trace the history of the Quakers relationship to the "Holy Land", the Palestinians, and Zionism, giving them credit for aiding the refugees more rationally than most other organizations working among them. But …
… after the 1967 Six Day War, the AFSC began to take a more explicit and fervent pro-Palestinian stance, applying its growing radicalism and willingness to accommodate the use of violence to the Middle East conflict.
As the 1970s saw the rise of Palestinian terrorism as a major source of global violence, the AFSC began to take a disturbingly understanding approach to the issue. A 1972 AFSC pamphlet, Nonviolence: Not First For Export told its readers:
… before we deplore terrorism it is essential for us to recognize fully and clearly whose "terrorism" came first, so that we can assess what is cause and what is effect.
It was clear enough that, in regard to Israel the AFSC had no doubts about whose "terrorism" came first. The pamphlet expressed, for example, deep understanding toward the Palestinian Fedayeen — "those who sacrifice themselves" — terrorists whose main purpose was to infiltrate Israel and kill civilians. …
In 1973, the AFSC called for a U.S. embargo on arms and other aid to Israel, and in 1975 adopted "a formal decision to make the Middle East its major issue." It quickly opened an office in Israel, installed specialized staff members at regional offices in the U.S., and began advocating for the Palestinians in Israeli and international courts. Israeli officials quickly discovered, however, that the new AFSC representative in Jerusalem was attempting to organize on behalf of the PLO. …
The AFSC has moved ever closer to the Palestinian cause since the 1970s. Today, this is expressed through fieldwork, lobbying, and activism, in particular through the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement [against Israel] …
In regard to Hamas' indiscriminate use of rockets against Israeli civilians, the AFSC simply notes that "it is important to look at the firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups in context", since this is "intertwined" with "ongoing Israeli military actions in Gaza". …
Military actions which are rare, targeted, and defensive only. While the rockets are constant, indiscriminate, and aggressive.
The authors suggest that the Quaker movement now clings to its anti-Zionism as a cause to keep it alive.
It may be that a movement like the Quakers, which has seen its numbers dwindle along with other liberal Protestant denominations, sees anti-Zionism as a last resort; a movement with powerful emotional appeal on which it can draw in order to maximize its power. If so, then it has undone a great deal of the good it once did, and substituted hypocrisy and bad faith instead.
Once a byword for humanitarianism … it has now become, in effect, a brand — one on which the AFSC can trade as it exploits the putative neutrality and pacifism it stands for in order to advance hostility toward Israel and, with its promotion of the "right of return", an end to Israel itself.
In the end, the AFSC's story reflects the tensions between pacifism and politics, between aid work and political activism … It demonstrates that small religious movements are susceptible to hijacking by radicals, and suggests that pacifism may inevitably engender its opposite. The organization's slide has been a long one, and at the moment it shows no sign of or interest in reversing it.


text:
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The Maryland State Bar Association Courthouse Identification Badge is available to any attorney who has been admitted to practice law in this state, who is currently a member of the bar in good standing, and who is currently certified by the Court of Appeals as an active practitioner.
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So For the past 6 months the Internet has been getting slower and slower. I haven't been able to use the Wii Shop Channel for months now, and it isn't getting any better. I suspect that someone is using our internet connection (We have a wireless router). Until now, we have not used a password on our connection, and haven't needed to. Since it's become clear that someone is using our connection and sucking up our bandwidth, the question is, how doers one put a password on a router already in place? Or do I have to buy a new router?
I'd prefer getting the new router, but my grandma has been adamant in her refusal, saying that we shouldn't waste money on something that likely won't work anyway.


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Gulf oil rig burning off coast near Grand Isle, Coast Guard says
The U.S. Coast Guard in New Orleans is responding to a report that a rig is burning in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard confirmed Friday morning that an offshore platform is burning in the Gulf near the area of West Delta Block 32.
A spokesman for the Coast Guard said that they were investigating the matter and would have more information available later in the morning.
According to the company's website, Black Elk Energy holds interests in properties offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, located within Louisiana and Texas State and Federal waters with depths ranging from less than ten feet up to over 6,000 feet. They have an aggregate interest in more than 854 wells on 155 platforms located across 430 thousand gross acres offshore.
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AN: Apparently, I've written a sequel. I have two people to thank/blame for this piece's existence: guardian921 at FF, who wondered about the fallout after This God Did Shake; and dreamingperson at ROTGKink, who posted a prompt regarding this theme. I've taken and twisted the latter to fit my previous story, but I hope it will still serve the purpose. I suppose this can stand alone, but it's much better after having read This God Did Shake. And as with TGDS, I've cribbed a line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar for the title.
Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding Rise of the Guardians, and I make exactly zero money off of this.
Thou Bleeding Piece of Earth
Christmas had come and gone, and spring was rounding the corner. Soon Nicholas St. North would wake from his month-long nap and check up on his workforce. The yetis and elves had long since met the Guardian's manufacturing goals for his absence; nothing set the tone for a horrible year more than North emerging from hibernation to find himself behind on toy production. The last time it had happened, the eggnog rations had been cut in half for three months.
That was never going to happen again.
A panicked squeak rang through the hall, and an elf shot by the assembly line, furiously ringing a bell twice his size. The workers snapped to attention and began preparations to look as busy as possible, putting the final touches on pieces they had purposely left just short of completion. It always paid to appear to have just barely met the quota; there was no sense in inviting extra work.
After a few moments, the door swung open, and North shuffled out in an enormous fur-lined house robe and bunny slippers. The latter had been a pre-hibernation gift from a certain mischievous winter sprite, who never seemed to tire of hinting that perhaps Hope and Wonder were rather compatible qualities. The large man always pretended to ignore Jack when the conversation turned to such things, yet the slippers had somehow found their way onto his feet.
The workshop paused, holding its collective breath until the verdict arrived regarding North's mood.
"No, no, no!" his voice boomed, and they all cringed, wondering who had messed up this time. Striding over to the far end of the workshop, he plucked a toy from a yeti's hand, paint smearing as he did so.
"I tell you red and gold, not red on gold! It is no good! Why do you never listen to me?" The normally jolly spirit swelled up, then deflated as he sighed in resignation. "Do it again. Red base, gold accents." He dropped the toy on the workbench.
The yeti stared at the toy, then at the line of toys next to him, then at the stack of boxes containing the rest of his finished work. A tear rolled down his cheek, and he began hammering his head against the bench.
North, meanwhile, had already moved on, pacing down the assembly line to inspect the others' work. "Good, good, more glue, good, wait. Make these red from now on."
"Why does everything have to be red with you, Nick?" The unmistakable accent caught North by surprise, and he whirled to face the speaker.
"Bunny! You are here!" Tattooed arms enveloped the pooka in a bone-crushing hug.
"Yeah, not for long if you keep squeezin' me like that, I'll tell ya that much," he gasped as he pulled himself free. "Seriously, though, why is everything always red?"
North wagged a finger in his furry companion's face. "Now, Bunny, I do not tell you how to paint Easter Eggs, do I?"
The spring Guardian's nose twitched. "All the time. And always red."
Santa waved his hands for a moment, eyes searching the ceiling for a retort, before he stopped and snapped back to stare at the rabbit. "Why are you here, exactly?"
E. Aster Bunnymund smiled. "Haven't seen you for a month, Chuckles. You think I'd pass up a chance to see you with bed head?" He narrowly dodged another hug that would almost certainly have fractured his spine. "Hey, hey, easy now. The others are on their way, too. My money's on Tooth being here first. She's always on time to Guardian Meetings."
"Guardian Meeting?" North bristled. "Why was I not told?"
Bunny gave a snort. "You were asleep, remember? No one wakes up Santa from his beauty sleep. Heaven knows you need it." He dodged a halfhearted slap to the back of his head, then bolted across the room as North began chasing him.
So caught up were they in their antics that they did not notice the arrival of the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy, neck and neck in a race that led them streaking past Phil the Yeti, who whirled around and shook an indignant fist at the pair.
Invited guests or not, North's head of security was not overly fond of people zooming through the workshop without checking in with him first. Jack had been working to cure him of that notion, but yetis were not quick to change their minds.
Pulling up just shy of the seasonal Guardians, the newcomers admired the scene. Bunnymund had managed to perch on North's head with one foot, hopping every time the giant man tried to grab him, laughing at the colorful Russian expressions streaming from his friend's mouth.
When the pair looked up and saw Tooth and Sandy waiting, the Easter Bunny gave a start and tumbled down. Thankfully, North's quick reflexes landed Bunnymund safely in his arms.
Bridal style.
As their friends applauded, both North and Bunnymund blushed deeply enough to turn nearly purple, quite a feat considering E. Aster's fur.
North recovered quickly, though, and seized them in a hug that squished Bunnymund between the three of them. Accustomed as they were to the jolly man's displays of affection, they took it in stride, though grumbling in an Australian accent could be heard from somewhere beneath their chins.
"Friends!" he exclaimed when all the Guardians had managed to extricate themselves. "How have you all been? And what is reason for this meeting?"
Sandy summoned a picture of the earth, then one of a small child. The latter dissolved.
"I do not understand."
Bunnymund put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Look at the globe, mate."
North's eyes shot to their livelihood, and his eyebrows knit together. "There are not as many lights. Why do the children not believe in us? We have been having wonderful holidays, and Pitch Black is no threat to them now."
Toothiana spoke slowly, carefully. "The problem isn't that the children don't believe. It's that there aren't as many children left."
The Guardian of Wonder stared at her, mouth agape, before blinking and gesturing for her to continue. "Explain. Please."
"It's happening all over the world. Children are running in front of cars, wandering off at night, trying to pet wild animals. They're completely reckless, and they're dying because of it." Her eyes glistened, and she swallowed hard.
"You all know of this?"
They nodded.
"And Jack?" It was no secret that North felt a fatherly affection toward their newest addition, often erring on the side of overprotectiveness.
Bunnymund looked down. "We haven't told him, but I think he knows. He's... not himself lately."
"Where is he now?" Nicholas asked, dreading the answer.
"Right here, guys," a voice came from the ceiling.
Jack floated down from the rafters, wobbly and unsteady in his flight. As he landed, he bumped into a workbench, scattering toys all over the floor. He giggled, then mumbled an apology.
All the Guardians stared at the winter spirit as he approached them. His hair was disheveled, his sweater torn and frayed in various places, but the most disconcerting feature was his eyes.
Mirth and mischief had once sparkled there, radiant blue hinting at countless adventures to be had. Now it seemed those eyes had been replaced with blue ice, frozen solid and lifeless. They were sunken, hollowed out.
Coupled with the forced smile on his face, the effect was horrifying.
"Jack," Tooth said, trying to hide a stammer, "How are you?"
"I'm..." He looked down, and his fist clenched around his staff. Suddenly, his head snapped up. "Hey, is that Phil?" Without another word he shot off to give the bewildered yeti a hug.
Sandy thought he saw a flash of blue sparkles behind Phil's back, but he couldn't be certain.
When Jack returned to them, he was giggling and smiling, but the hollowness had not fled from his eyes. "Yeti hugs are just the little pick me up you need sometimes, y'know? So yeah, anyway, I'm good. How about you guys?"
North put a hand on Jack's arm. "Jack, there is something wrong, and I think you know what it is."
The ice spirit squeaked. "Me? No, you guys are the ones with the noses for trouble. I mean, really, Bunny totally has the nose for it. Just look at him! And your belly, y'know..." he trailed off as North's eyes bored into him.
"Well, yeah, I mean, it's bad, but at least the kids are all right... right?"
Four stone-faced stares met him.
"Mate," Bunnymund said, carefully considering each word so as not to fly into a rage, "Children are dying. They aren't afraid of anything, and it's killing them."
The unnatural smile melted from Jack's face, and he swayed on his feet. "So he was one of us. I wonder if he ever knew."
A question mark appeared over Sandy's head, and the others voiced similar thoughts.
Jack's lip trembled, but a tiny smile flitted over his face. "Pitch. He was a Guardian. I mean, at its center, fear is just caution, right? And now there's no caution left in the world."
Tooth was the first to recover from the shock. "All right, so we go to Pitch and apologize, and then we beg him to come back so the children will be safe—"
"You don't get it, do you?" The venom in Jack's voice was completely foreign to them. "He isn't. Coming. Back. He's dead, you idiots." With this, he flew to the top of the globe. The Guardians stared at him in horror, watching as he summoned a cloud of enchanted snow and blasted himself in the face with it.
North was profoundly shaken, but he pulled himself together. "Wait, Jack, what do you mean, Pitch is dead? How?"
"Oh, did I not tell you?" Jack's face was lit up with artificial glee. "Pitch is dead. He disappeared cause no one believed in him." A giggle burst from his mouth. "Hey, who's up for a snowball fight? Come on? Somebody? It'll be fun!"
The Guardians stared aghast at their youngest member, who was laughing, hopping back and forth atop North's globe. The winter spirit's laughter carried a manic tinge, and Bunnymund barely managed to catch him when he fell.
Jack began thrashing, trying to break free, and Bunnymund was losing his grip. "Nick! A little help here!" he cried.
Too late, the large man's hands began to close around the boy's bare ankles. In a massive burst of magic, Jack slammed all of them with his snow, leaving them in a daze as he went rocketing out through the hole in the roof.
When the high faded, they were left staring grimly at each other. None wanted to speak first, but eventually North took it upon himself to break the silence.
"Jack Frost must be found. We must help our friend however we can. But more importantly, we must find a way to save our children... by any means necessary. Do we agree?"
The somber nods sufficed for a vote.
"Now," North continued, "We search for Jack. Tooth, Sandy, you will split up and search from air. Bunny, you and I will go to Pitch's lair to see if we can find some clues. Get your weapons and meet back here as soon as you can. We will not be caught off guard if there is trouble."
Having received their assignments, the Guardians took to the search with a vengeance.
The Sandman soared above the trees, eyes combing each branch for any sign of his friend. Jack could often be found tucked into the crook of some tree, especially when he was feeling sad, and so Sandy was determined to start there.
Miles of forest whizzed by, and there was no sign of the boy. He stopped short, however, when he saw a familiar shape on the ground.
Slowly, silently, Sandy touched down on the ground and approached the Nightmare.
The creature was gaunt, emaciated, but no less menacing for its sickliness. It whinnied as he drew closer, snorting and stamping at the ground.
Sandy held his hands up, palms open, and the Fearling calmed somewhat. He projected an image of Pitch, and the Nightmare shrank with sorrow.
The nature of the Nightmare made communication simple; it was his creation, however corrupted it had become, and he would always have an affinity with it. He felt its grief, its loneliness at being the last of its kind; there was nothing uncommon about these feelings. What surprised him, though, was the Fearling's concern for the children of the world. It could sense, just as the Guardians had, that they were in danger, and it longed to do something to protect them. All alone, though, what could a single nightmare do against a fearless world?
Jaw set in a firm line, Sandy weighed his options for several minutes before deciding there was no alternative. Reaching his hand out, he beckoned to the Nightmare, feeding a small trail of sand into its mouth.
The sand turned black, and the Nightmare grew as it floated closer and closer, eventually beginning to consume his hand.
With a silent scream of agony, the Sandman accepted the transformation, shaping and molding barriers to keep his own essence intact.
It was done in a matter of minutes. Black and golden sand swirled together in striations, always in a half-and-half balance. Examining his hands, the dream spirit nodded in somber satisfaction.
Never again would children's dreams be pure and unfettered, never again would they wish without restraint. But they would be safe.
And the Sandman would forever bear Pitch Black's burden.
North and Bunnymund tread carefully as they entered the cave, eyes searching every corner as they walked with weapons drawn. They would normally take Jack at his word that Pitch was dead, but given their friend's altered state, they had to take every precaution.
When their eyes fell upon the cot, though, Bunnymund's nostrils flared, and he began piecing together a story that he did not like one bit.
"That is..." North said, shifting from foot to foot, "Yes? On the sheet?"
The Guardian of Hope nodded. "Jack's. Both of their scents are here, though. They..." he looked away, unable to meet his friend's eyes. "Did that."
"Where has Pitch gone, then?"
Bunnymund shook his head. "His trail doesn't leave the bed. I think he... faded away before it was over." His ears drooped.
North gave a slow nod, but couldn't shake off one detail of what he was seeing. "That is... quite a lot, no? For one time."
"It wasn't just one time, mate. Most of this is fresher. Pitch was only there the first time, but..." The pooka gnawed at his lower lip. "I think Jack's been... coming back here... and... well." He gave a nod toward the bed.
Uncomfortable as he was with the sight in front of them, North couldn't keep tears from welling up in his eyes. "Oh, Jack. Why did you say nothing to us?"
Unable to speak, Bunny dropped his boomerangs and buried his face in North's chest.
Toothiana knew Jack better than most, though she would never admit the source of most of that knowledge. It was perfectly normal to be concerned about a friend's well-being, but to send Baby Tooth to shadow Jack whenever possible might not have been an entirely healthy habit.
Still, it was because of her obsession with the boy that she knew where he went when he was feeling the worst— the lake.
It was an awful fixation of his, returning to the site of what he considered his one success whenever he was faced with failure. This time, though, she was glad he was so predictable.
She took her time approaching him, flying up slowly from behind so as not to be seen. She didn't want to risk him running before she was close enough to stop him. He was seated cross-legged on the ground, and she could hear muffled sobs and groans. They echoed strangely, as though his mouth was full.
"Jack?" She thought it best to alert him to her presence rather than startle him. He made no move to acknowledge her, though.
Tooth circled, giving him a small berth as she came around to face him. His hood was up and his face was pointed at the ground.
There was something red on the ground in front of him, and a crimson stain was rapidly spreading to the area around it. As Toothiana drew closer, she saw that it was, in fact, a pile of smaller objects.
Thirty-two of them.
She gasped, a tiny hand at her mouth. "Jack, what... why—"
He brought his face up, and she bit back a scream. His cheeks and chin were covered in blood. Still, she couldn't control a whimper when he tossed a bloodied object at her feet.
It was a pair of needle-nose pliers.
"They hold our memories... you said." Jack's words were sluggish, and blood poured out of his mouth with every movement of his tongue. "Why do I still remember him, Tooth?"
Toothiana knew that Jack needed her, knew she had to hold herself together for his sake, but the horror of the sight before her was too great for the Tooth Fairy to bear.
With a scream, she fled, leaving Jack Frost alone and weeping in her wake.


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espnW 53rd Man -- New England Patriots safety Nate Ebner's remark...
Kaitee DaleyNate Ebner didn't play football until walking on at Ohio State and yet the newcomer has had no problem finding his groove in the NFL thanks to hard work and an inspirational mantra.
Story | Conversation | October 25, 2012 -
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Kaitee DaleyWhich city has the most dedicated female fans? W kicks off the debate with cases for Beantown and the Big Apple.
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Jimmy V Week: ESPN analyst Merril Hoge has a personal tie to Jim ...
Kaitee DaleyJimmy V Week is so special to ESPN analyst Merril Hoge because he understands struggle, especially with cancer, on an intimate level.
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Jay Cutler vs. Jay Cutler
Kaitee DaleyWhat's in a name? Well, if you're named Jay Cutler, a lot. Everyone's familiar with the Chicago Bears quarterback. You know -- 6-foot-3, 233 pounds, threw five interceptions last week, fined $20K for abusive conduct toward a game official. If this ...
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Sports souvenirs that will be treasured forever
Kaitee DaleyPage 2 talked to Phillies superfan Steve Monforto, and several ESPN personalities, about their most cherished pieces of sports memorabilia.
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Christian Koegel of "The Real World: Cancun" dishes about his NFL...
Kaitee DaleyChristian Koegel dishes about his dream to jump from "The Real World" to the NFL.
Story | Conversation | September 22, 2009 -
ESPN top searches -- Little League World Series is top ESPN.com s...
Maalek Marshall and Kaitee DaleyESPN.com ranks the top searches for August 2009
Story | Conversation | September 01, 2009


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Story Created: Feb 19, 2013 at 10:43 PM AKDT
Story Updated: Feb 20, 2013 at 11:25 PM AKDT
ANCHORAGE- A national study finds that nap mats often found in day cares contain toxic flame retardants and some may carry chemicals that cause cancer.
Alaska Community Action on Toxics and the Center for Environmental Health commissioned independent testing of 24 nap mats collected from 7 states including Alaska.
Officials say Duke University found ten different chemicals and 19 of the tested mats contained more than one harmful flame retardant chemical.
AK Action says they want to pressure manufactures to use safer alternative materials.
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Each episode of this TV series depicts a short, strange tale…with a twist! With eerie stories vaguely reminiscent of 'The Twilight Zone,' viewers learn to appreciate that things are often not as they seem. The usual plot formula is comprised [...]
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DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Director: Kai Ming Lai Writer: Kai Ming Lai Actors: Yuk – [...] Book Review: Sixty-Five Stirrup Iron Road - Author Various
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Interview: Bill Oberst Jr. (Coyote - Children of Sorrow - Circus of the Dead)
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Set the mood with color and find inspirational ideas and painting tips from True Value. A better way to choose paint with countless possiblites. Everything you need to make choosing color simple. TrueValuePaint.com
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Patch Holes in Drywall
It's inevitable. No matter how careful you are, holes in your drywall are going to happen. Fortunately, no matter how extensive the damage, it is fixable.
Visit your local True Value hardware store for the tools, products and expert advice you need to bandage holes in your walls and make them look new again in no time at all.
Step 1. Cut a Square Around The DamageWith a keyhole saw, cut the hole into a square or rectangular shape. Now cut a replacement piece of drywall 2" longer and 2" wider than the hole you just made. Use a tape measure to make it the right dimensions.
Step 2. Make a "Bandage"Lay the replacement piece of drywall on a flat surface with the backside facing up. Measure in 1" from all four edges and draw a line using a pencil. This should form a shape the size of the hole. Using a straight edge and utility knife, cut through the backside paper and the drywall gypsum. Do not cut the front-facing layer of paper.
Using a putty knife, peel away the backside paper and gypsum layer. Be careful not to tear the front-facing paper. The smaller part of the "bandage" should fit into the hole. The paper edge should extend 1" beyond the hole.
Step 3. Apply Joint CompoundApply a thin layer of joint compound around the hole. Place your ''bandage'' into the hole. Using a putty knife, work the paper edge down into the compound. Feather the edges of the compound and allow it to dry. Sand lightly with a fine-grit sandpaper and apply a second layer of joint compound to finish the repair.
Step 1. Square Off the HoleHoles up to 12'' require a slightly different repair that provides more support. Again, use a keyhole saw to form the hole into a square or a rectangle.
Step 2. Make a Larger PatchCut a piece of drywall that's 2'' larger than the hole to be repaired. Using a drill, create two small holes through this piece of board, feed some string through and tie both ends of the string to a stick (tie in the middle). Allow for about 8" of string between the board and the stick. The "stick side" of the board will be the front. The stick will be used to hold the patch in place. By twisting the stick, it applies pressure to the rear of the board to steady it in the hole.
Step 3. Place the PatchApply a smooth coat of cement adhesive around the edges of the piece of wallboard material. Insert the bandage into the hole and position it so the cement adhesive firmly grips the solid area around the rear of the hole. Turn the stick clockwise, twisting the string and increasing pressure against the patch board at the rear of the hole. This will hold the board firmly in place until the cement adhesive dries.
Step 4: Fill the HoleAllow the cement adhesive to thoroughly dry then fill in the area with joint compound. Smooth out the area then let the patch dry thoroughly.
Let the stick and string remain where they are during the patching process. You can remove both just before the material dries.
Step 5. Add Finishing TouchesWhen the area is completely dry, sand off any high spots using a fine-grit sandpaper and sanding block. Apply a coat of EasyCare® primer and paint in any finish you choose.
Step 1. Make a BraceIf you have really large drywall damage, you'll need to create a support brace to hold a patch securely while you put it in place. Use a circular saw or other type of saw, cut two pieces of 2x4 to a length about 8'' longer than the diameter of the hole. These will be used to form your support brace.
Step 2. Affix the BraceApply cement adhesive to one piece of 2x4 at each end and then insert it into the hole so that the adhesive will adhere to the inside of the wall. Hold it in place and use a piece of heavy cord to tie it to the other piece of 2x4. Allow both 2x4 pieces to remain tied in this position for about an hour or until the cement adhesive on the "inside" part of the brace is fully dry.
Next, untie the cord and remove the supporting piece of 2x4 that you placed on the front side of the wallboard. The cement adhesive will hold the inside piece of 2x4 firmly in position, providing a support brace for the wall patch.
Step 3. Install Patch BlockNow cut a patch block to the exact dimensions of the sawed-out area using a power saw or keyhole saw. The block will be slightly smaller than the hole itself, but be sure to cut it to fit as tightly as possible.
Apply cement adhesive to the back of the patch block and on the support brace inside the wall, then place the patch into position in the hole.
Step 4. Apply Joint CompoundUse a firm putty knife or patching spatula to apply joint compound all around the patch board.
Step 5. Scrape Away ExcessWork the patch compound thoroughly into all cracks. Scrape away any excess material and allow the patched area to dry completely.
Step 6. Sand the SurfaceWhen the area has completely dried, use a regular sanding block and a piece of fine sandpaper to sand away any high areas on the patched surface.
Step 7. Prime the WallA primer coat can now be applied to prepare the wall for painting.
Step 8. PaintUse the same color paint to touch up or choose a new color for your wall.
You're done! Your walls look brand new again.
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