"On Friday May 14, 1948 -- the day the British Mandate over Palestine expired -- the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was signed by members of the National Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, representing the Jewish community in the country and the Zionist movement abroad. It went into effect at midnight, Tel Aviv time.

Eliahu Epstein of The Jewish Agency sent a letter to President Truman, dated May 14, 1948 announcing the event. Truman responded with recognition of Israel by the United States only 11 minutes after the declaration in Tel Aviv."¹

Want your head to explode? Here's how, in two easy steps.

1. Go to your local theater complex and buy a ticket to any movie except "Expelled: No Intelligent Audience."

2. Go into the theater playing "Expelled" instead of which ever one you paid for -- (I chose "Baby Mama" because the world needs more Tina Fey movies) -- and watch as much of it as you can stand.

3. Kablam!

Saul Anuzis, the Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, and on the shortlist to make RNC Chairman, has been caught up in the recent scandal involving Ali Jawad, an alleged Hezbollah supporter that was removed from the John McCain campaign.

Debbie Schlussel has called out Anuzis. She claims Anuzis reaches out to anyone willing to vote Republican.

And it's a trend Michigan Republican Chair Saul Anuzis shows no willingness to stop. . .

He would only answer that he would appeal to whomever will vote Republican.

I can't speak on the allegations against Mr. Jawad, but Anuzis has reached out to support anti-Semitic and white supremacist groups within Michigan.

Saul Anuzis has called the leader of the nation's first university recognized hate group "Exactly the type of kid we want."

A conspiracy of "international bankers" was responsible for the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War II, and a host of other ills. Who said that? And who are those "international bankers," anyway?

While we debate endlessly about the race card in the Dem primaries, it's alive and well on other fronts: There is an anti-Semitism already strong in this country that now targets Arabs instead of Jews.  

Debbie Almontaser dreamed of starting a public school like no other in New York City. Children of Arab descent would join students of other ethnicities, learning Arabic together. By graduation, they would be fluent in the language and groomed for the country’s elite colleges. They would be ready, in Ms. Almontaser’s words, to become “ambassadors of peace and hope.”

Yesterday's New York Times shows how Arab educator Almontaser and the Kahlil Gibran International Academy were sabotaged by the Sun and the Post, and, yes, the Department of Education. The future of our world, and our hopes for peace and understanding, rest with our seeing other people as people, and not as inherently worse than we are. This kind of racism is affecting all of us. read the article, substitute "Jew" for "Arab," and you'll see what I mean.

Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School

More below the fold.

I wish we would stop talking about Rev. Wright because he is not Barack Obama. The actual Presidential candidate, Obama, has already said that Wright doesn't speak for him and that he doesn't agree with everything the Reverend has said. Some of it actually bothers and offends him. Yet, Kossacks feel the impulse to continue mounting a defense of Rev. Wright.

Stop doing that. Stop doing it because Rev. Wright shouldn't matter, and you just keep the controversy alive by taking it on the merits. That's a pointless argument to be having now, and it certainly won't help Obama. Stop defending Wright because what he has said doesn't matter.

However, you should also stop defending Wright because some of it really is indefensible. I don't write this because it's important. I write this because we need to move on. I had tabled this diary for a few weeks, but since Wright is back, perhaps it's time I published it. Please don't dismiss me as a 'concern troll'. Hear me out on this one.

Listening to NPR this morning, I heard two stories which did an excellent job of articulating two opposing point of view, both wrong, which taken together helped me articulate to myself how scientific knowledge is formed, and the difference between a denier and a skeptic.

Violence = Fear = Stupidity = Hate
To perpetuate any of these is to perpetuate them all.

How can this cycle be broken?
How do the wounds of history hurt?
Can we ever recover from attempted genocide?

I know this; human nature is static, it does not change with time, with race, with money, or religion.  There are good people, bad people, and everything in between, of every color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, class, in every nation on this Earth, in the past, in the present, and into the future.  This is human nature.  Culture, community, and family change the way we express these qualities, but they do not change the qualities themselves.  We are all intrinsically separate, prisoners within our own minds, unable to comprehend anything outside of our perception, and yet we are a part of a whole greater than ourselves, forever bound together in the ever shifting interdependent web of humanity.  What happens when we tear this web with violence, fear, stupidity and hate?  Can it ever be repaired?

Jeremiah Wright? Come on.

Thanks to DarkSyd's excellent diaries, we've already had the pleasure of meeting Sun Myung Moon, the mad '70s cult leader whose billions bought him a ludicrous seat at the table of the Right coalition.

Now I want you to meet his deputy, Chung Hwan Kwak. Mr. Kwak is the corporate official directly in charge of the conservative Washington Times and UPI. Here he is with the Bushes:

This is from a Korean news show. A reporter was touring Kwak's office, and the cult leader proudly showed him this photo, which the camera zoomed in on. (We'll come back later to this fascinating picture, which has just become public knowledge.)

Before, one gets into why they are not a Zionist, one should really explain who current day Zionists are. Outlining who today’s Zionists are will give a better understanding of what Zionism is about and what it creates.

We are all familiar with what is going on in Palestine. For this purpose I won’t get into too much detail regarding Palestine. Israel was founded by terrorists using terrorism, that is something which is not debatable as any person with the slightest knowledge of history can easily look up the Zionist terrorist groups that were active in that region since the 1930's. Irgun, Stern Gang, Haganah, all these world designated terrorists organization were the introduction to terrorism in that region. Tribal conflicts were settled not by blowing up hotels but on the battlefield, soldiers fighting soldiers. Attacking women, children the elderly via hijacking, planting explosives in market places and kidnaping persons were tactics introduced by Zionists.

Clinton is shopping an American Spectator story accusing Gen. McPeak of being anti-Semitic.  Of course, if you actually read the article, it's pretty clear he's anti-religious extremism, but that's irrelevant -- remember how Wright got turned into a racist.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/...

(I posted there as "Seth")

"It's funny that people are freaking out about how the Jews are portrayed.  If you believe or even look at the Bible as a history book, it's not like Mel Gibson changed the story. The Jews were responsible for Christ's death."

So, according to the Gospel of a college-educated 27 year-old, I am guilty of deicide.  My friend probably would give me the benefit of the Statute of Limitations.  I was not quite so charitable with her ignorance.  As I informed her, the Jews did not kill Jesus but we do make wonderful scapegoats.  

Senator Barack Obama has spent the past day distancing himself from his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and will probably be spending a great deal of time on this subject in the months to come.

Anti-Semitic attacks against Jews is rampant once again across much of the world.  This is not a recurrence of ancient hatreds, but a misplaced rage against those who are collectively blamed for the actions of another. The ten million Jews dispersed throughout the world are 'taking the heat' for the actions of Israel against the Palestinians.  And for that, we can thank the American media as well as Israel itself.

In today's news, Abbas spoke of Israel's goal of ethnic cleansing. Did you see that on the news? No, you didn't...and neither do Americans get most of the real news from Israel...wonder why.

Read the attached poem I wrote, to find out why I still support Jim Oberweis

I am neither intimidated, nor impressed, by any candidate who slaps up a list of endorsements by (primarily Jewish liberal) scientists, whose only knowledge of the 14th congressional district is of the existence of Fermilab.

If you think that Democrats have taken IL-14, you'll have to think again.  I have only just begun to fight.

Illegal immigration must be stopped.  It's hurting my people.  And the borders must be secured.

See y'all in November.

Media Matters for America wonders whether MSNBC will cover controversial televangelist John Hagee's endorsement of John McCain as much as it did Louis Farrakhan's endorsement of Barack Obama? That's a good question. If they do, they might want to look into a number of things: Suchas how McCain didn't just get the Hagee endorsement out of the blue. Unlike Farrakhan's unsought endorsement of Obama, MCain courted Hagee for more than a year. And though Hagee's anti-Catholicism is in the news today, his anti-Semitism has been an issue as well.

The Tennessee Republican Party has written a press release entitled "Antisemites for Obama" decrying Obama for being praised by Louis Farrakhan, for wanting to withdraw from Iraq, for having "anti-semitic" advisors, and for "pledg[ing] to hold a Muslim Summit to determine Middle East policy with the very leaders that have as their goal to remove Israel from the map, referenced Jews to be 'dogs' and 'pigs.'"  This press release is offensive, inaccurate, and makes a mockery of Jews' REAL fight against anti-semitism.  While synagogues burn, suicide bombers attack, and neo-Nazis deface Jewish graves, the Republican Party falsely accuses one of our strongest allies, Barack Obama, of being an anti-semite!!  Obama has repeatedly stood up for Israel and against anti-semitism, including blacks' own prejudice.  Look below for how you can help combat the hate!

I am supposed to do a "Health Thursdays" diary today, but I am too angry.

This is a follow-up on my diary yesterday Anti-Defamation League: Obama okay; McCain equivocates describing how the ADL was satisfied with Obama's statement on his minister's comments on Farrakahn in January 2008, but was not satisfied with McCain's own statement making the false and divisive claim that the Constitution established the U.S. as a Christian Nation.stian Dominationts.

Now we also have various extremist hateful Christian Dominationists endorsing McCain, without anybdody asking him to renounce and denounce them and their endorsements.

And John McCain's church The North Phoenix Baptist Church and its pastor Dan Yeary and for example his sermons, newsletters and podcasts have not been subjected to scrutiny, for example for any sort of hate or dominationist speech (but they could be, hint, hint).

Here are some things to know and some action steps we can take