Jewish Russian Telegraph

Big Sister Is Watching You

When Professor of MIT Nancy Hopkins heard remarks of  Lawrence Summers about difference in aptitude for science in men and women, she had to leave the room because she felt "physically ill".
That sensitive!

Christina Hoff Sommers provides background in National Review Online :

The Harvard faculty of arts and science just last week passed a motion expressing a lack of confidence in the leadership of President Lawrence Summers. Such censure is unprecedented in Harvard's near 400-year-history. Summers unwittingly stepped on the third rail of university politics when he speculated that innate differences between the sexes might be one reason there are fewer women than men at the highest echelons of math and science. To understand the hornets' nest Summers has stirred up, one needs to have a close look at the main hornets.[link]

To an outsider, the controversy must look very strange. Nothing Summers said was a threat to the advancement of a single competent woman in any of the sciences. The statistical fact that more men tend to score in the top-five percent of math-aptitude tests makes no predictions whatsoever about the abilities of any particular man or woman. Far from being outrageous or sexist, Summers's comments were completely respectable and altogether mainstream. [link]

The press has widely reported on the overreaction Nancy Hopkins, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist and feminist activist who says she almost became physically ill. What many press stories fail to mention is that this is not the first time Professor Hopkins had been offended by perceived sexism.[link]

In the late 1990s, she accused MIT of bias against herself and several of her female colleagues. Instead of bringing in objective outsiders to evaluate her complaints, MIT put Hopkins herself in charge of investigating her own charges. She spearheaded a gender-bias study that concluded — surprise, surprise — that there was insidious bias against women at MIT. The study proved to be a travesty. It was altogether unscientific. Hopkins and her co-investigators did not produce any hard data. Most of the "evidence" came in the form of anecdotes about hurt feelings and perceptions of invisibility and discomfort. One critic aptly described the study as part of the dubious legacy of postmodernism: "evidence-free, feelings-based research." [link]

Of course, offending feminist professors was not Summers's only crime. He is outspoken, direct, and does not suffer fools gladly. Not only did he violate the holy dogma of social constructionism, he regularly violates a sacred commandment of modern education: Thou shalt be sensitive, nurturing, and protective of everyone's self-esteem. Such "virtues" now count for more in an academic leader than integrity, intellectual vision, or a commitment to free inquiry and free expression. If Summers goes down at Harvard, it will seriously damage the standards and traditions of American higher education.[link] 

posted by: jrtelegraph

Ariel Sharon, the Darling of the Far Left

Daniel Pipes writes on his blog about the transformation of Ariel Sharon:

Ariel Sharon, Far-Leftist Should anyone still have doubts about the political transformation of Ariel Sharon from stalwart of Israel's nationalist Right to paragon of its appeasing Left, Ori Nir dispels them in today's article, "Israel Reaching Out to Dovish Groups In Bid To Counteract Conservatives; Seeks Support For Gaza Plan."

"As part of a recently launched campaign to neutralize Jewish and evangelical opposition to the Gaza disengagement plan," Nir notes, "Israeli diplomats are reaching out to liberal American organizations." Specifically, the Sharon government's ambassador to the United States, Danny Ayalon, speaks on March 14 for Americans for Peace Now; and its vice prime minister, Ehud Olmert, delivers the keynote address in June at the Israel Policy Forum's annual dinner.

Leftist groups, for their part, are crowing. Here is Lewis Roth of Americans for Peace Now, referring to Sharon: "You've had someone who's been the leader of the Israeli right wing recognize the validity of some of the arguments that Peace Now has been making for several years, and start to take action on the recognition of that validity. There's a certain sense of inevitability in terms of some of the things we're talking about."

As for Israel diplomats, "Counteracting politically conservative Jews and evangelical Christians "is the number-one priority on the agenda of the consulates at the moment, and it's the task that is keeping me the busiest," says the government's consul general in New York, Arye Mekel. He adds that Israeli diplomats in the United States will redouble their efforts in coming weeks to neutralize those American opponents of the Gaza disengagement plan.

What next? Sharon speaking for the International Solidarity Movement? (March 11, 2005) [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Good Bye and Thank You, Mr. Kennan

George Kennan, the architect of the containment policy against the Soviets, died on March 17th at his Princeton house at the age of 101. Prior to Kennan's redefinition of the Soviet-Americans relations the State Department establishment was spending time in trying to explain to American leaders what they did wrong to anger Russians. George Kennan's memo changed it all.  In 1947 he wrote an embassy report about which Henry Kissinger said in his book "Diplomacy" that this was " one of those rare embassy reports that would by itself reshape Washington's view of the world, it became known as the "Long Telegram". Here are some excerprts:

Thus the future of Soviet power may not be by any means as secure as Russian capacity for self-delusion would make it appear to the men of the    Kremlin. That they can quietly and easily turn it over to others remains to be proved. Meanwhile, the hardships of  their rule and the vicissitudes of international life have taken a heavy toll of the strength and hopes of the great people on whom their power rests. It is curious to note that the ideological power of Soviet authority is strongest today in areas beyond the frontiers of Russia, beyond the reach of its police power. This phenomenon  brings to mind a comparison used by Thomas Mann in his    great novel Buddenbrooks. Observing that human institutions often show the greatest outward brilliance at a moment when inner decay is in reality farthest advanced, he compared one of those stars whose light shines most brightly on this world when in reality it has long since ceased to exist. And who can say with assurance that the strong light still cast by the Kremlin on the dissatisfied peoples of the western world is not the powerful afterglow of a constellation which is in actuality on the wane? This cannot be proved. And it cannot be disproved. But the possibility remains (and in the opinion of this writer it is a strong one) that Soviet power, like the capitalist world of its conception, bears within it the seeds of its own decay, and that the sprouting of these seeds is well advanced. [link]

It is clear that the United States cannot expect in the foreseeable future to enjoy political intimacy with the Soviet regime. It must continue to regard the Soviet Union as a rival, not a partner, in the political arena. It must continue to expect that Soviet policies will reflect no abstract love of peace and stability, no real faith in the possibility of a permanent happy coexistence of the Socialist and capitalist worlds, but rather a cautious, persistent pressure toward the disruption and, weakening of all  rival influence and rival power.[link]

...exhibitions of indecision, disunity and internal disintegration within this country have an exhilarating effect on the whole Communist movement. At each evidence of these tendencies, a thrill of hope and excitement goes through the Communist world; a new jauntiness can be noted in the         Moscow tread; new groups of foreign supporters climb on to what they can only view as the band wagon of international politics; and Russian pressure increases all along the line in international affairs.[link]

It would be an exaggeration to say that American behavior unassisted and alone could exercise a power of life and death over the Communist movement and bring about the early fall of Soviet power in Russia. But the United States has it in its power to increase enormously the strains under which Soviet policy must operate, to force upon the Kremlin a far greater degree of moderation and circumspection than it has had to  observe in recent years, and in this way to promote tendencies which must eventually find their outlet in either the breakup or the gradual mellowing of Soviet power. For no mystical, Messianic movement -- and particularly not that of the Kremlin -- can face frustration indefinitely without eventually adjusting itself in one way or another to the logic of that state of affairs.[link]

Thus the decision will really fall in large measure in this country itself. The issue of Soviet-American relations is in essence a test of the overall worth of the United States as a nation among nations. To avoid destruction the United States need only measure up to its own best traditions and prove itself worthy of preservation as a great nation.[link]

  Surely, there was never a fairer test of national quality than this. In the light of these circumstances, the thoughtful observer of Russian-American relations will find no cause for  complaint in the Kremlin's challenge to American society. He will rather experience a certain gratitude to a Providence which, by providing the American people with this implacable challenge, has made their entire security as a nation dependent on their pulling themselves together and accepting the responsibilities ties of moral and political leadership that history plainly intended them to bear.[link]

The words of George Kennan ring true today as they did almost 60 years ago. George Kennan was a good diplomat, when he had a chance he did a great  service  to his country  by  showing the true nature of  America's Soviet partners.

posted by: jrtelegraph

Radical Islam Changes Boston's Landscape

Jerry P. McDermott,

Boston City Councilor and Chairman of Post Audit & Oversight Committee, has scheduled a hearing on the controversial land sale for the construction of the Boston Mosque for April 14th, 2005.

The Mosque being built will cost an estimated 22 Million dollars.
The Islamic Society of Boston bought the land for well below the fair market value. Councilor McDermott believes that BRA (Boston Redevelopment Authority) made an error.

 

Here is a great background on the Boston Mosque put together by Daniel Pipes:

The Islamic Society of Boston & the Politicians' Red Faces. At the groundbreaking in November 2002, local politicians hailed the planned construction of an Islamic Center by the Islamic Society of Boston as a bridge between Islam and Boston's other religions, the Boston Herald recounted yesterday in the first of a major two-part investigative series. Mayor Thomas M. Menino hailed the center for "creating a space for inter-faith dialog," and thereby bringing "both the Muslim community and the community at large closer together." U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano (Democrat) predicted the center would "help to create a dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims so we may learn more about each others' traditions." The Boston Redevelopment Authority, a public agency, was no less enthusiastic about the project and sold a 1.9-acre lot to the Islamic Society of Boston for $175,000, or well under the property's market value.

All this looks pretty dumb a year later, with revelations in the Herald yesterday that the Islamic Society of Boston is closely associated with:

• Yusuf Abdullah al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian Islamist whose outspoken backing for Hamas led the Department of State to bar him from entering the United States in 1999; and
• Abdurahman Alamoudi, the American Islamist recently arrested on terrorism-related charges (on him, see "United States of America v. Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi") who in the past has publicly supported Hamas, Hizbullah, and other terrorist organizations. [link]

Oct. 5, 2004 update: Citizens for Peace and Tolerance ("a new group comprised of Christians, Muslims and Jews") has emerged and challenges the ISB "to honestly answer concerns about radical Islamist roots of its $22 million Roxbury mosque." The Boston Herald, as ever on top of this issue, reports on the group's inaugural press conference:

Raising the stakes on a simmering dispute, a group of lawyers, academics and others yesterday urged leaders of the vast new Islamic center going up in Roxbury to disavow the "hateful ideology" of some of the mosque's top backers. "We do not believe the Islamic Society of Boston has been truthful about the center's founders," said lawyer Steven Cohen of Boston. "There are a lot of troubling issues that must be addressed."

Oct. 6, 2004 update: The Boston Herald today tells about the "double blow" ISB received today as "an Islamic scholar [Ahmed Subhy Mansour] accused its leaders of tolerating "hateful views" and a city councilor [Jerry P. McDermott] ordered a probe into how the group acquired a choice piece of Hub-owned land at a bargain rate." The Boston Globe adds that another city councilor, James M. Kelly, is demanding to know that the ISB activities do not involve "that element of extremists, who have threatened this country."[link]

More background on the Boston Mosque's promoters from the Jihad Watch:

The influential Qatar-based cleric is best known for his public support of the terrorist group Hamas and his religious rulings applauding suicide bombings, positions which caused the U.S. State Department in 1999 to bar him from entering the United States.

Beyond that, however, al-Qaradawi also promises that eventually Islam will prevail over all other religions and a single Islamic state will rule the world.

Al-Qaradawi says some countries will fall to the armed Islamic jihad, but in others, such as the United States, victory will come through Da'awa - the teaching of Islam to non-Muslims - which will trigger Westerners to convert to Islam ``in droves.''

``We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through (the) sword, but through Da'awa,'' al-Qaradawi told members of the Muslim Arab Youth Association at the group's 1995 convention in Toledo, Ohio.

In its Arabic language brochure, the Islamic Society of Boston states that al-Qaradawi is one of ``several international Islamic personalities who are working to support the project.''

The pamphlet quotes ``a video recording taped specifically to support the project'' in which al-Qaradawi says: ``This is one of the greatest projects, and supporting it is one of the best deeds, and establishing it is a step that will greatly benefit Islam and Muslims. May Allah reward well those overseeing it.''

The Herald has reported that a videotape message by al-Qaradawi was shown during a November 2002 fund-raiser for the project at the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

The importance of the Boston mosque project to al-Qaradawi and other supporters is made clear by the soaring height - 120 feet - of the minaret tower planned for the site. In Islam, the height of a mosque's minaret represents the power and influence of the Muslims who worship there.

In the society's Arabic-language brochure, one of its directors, Walid A. Fitaihi, said the Boston mosque's minaret will be the tallest in the country.

``This is a dream for generations of Muslims which is beginning to be accomplished here in the heart of the city of Boston,'' Fitaihi said. ``We will build, with Allah's permission, an Islamic cultural center and we will raise the tallest minaret on a mosque in the United States.''

Al-Qaradawi's active support of the Boston mosque - in Arabic only - contradicts the society's statements in English about its relationship with the cleric.

In October, the society said: ``Dr. Yousef al-Quaradawi has never played any role in the ISB.''[link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

The Silent Killer

Scott Allen Miller -- of Boston WRKO's popular radio morning talk show "Blute and Scotto" says the following about political correctness, the silent killer:

PC leads to RIP

I've said it before, and I'm saying it again now: political correctness kills.

As the details emerge about the outrageous and shocking triple fatality shooting today in Atlanta, it's clear that the entire incident would have been prevented had Fulton County Sheriffs Department policy not been hostage to political correctness.

Accused rapist Brian Nichols allegedly went on a shooting spree this morning in the Fulton County courthouse, killing Judge Rowland Barnes, court stenographer Julie Ann Brandau, and Fulton County Sheriff Deputy Hoyt Teasley. He also injured Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Don O'Briant and Deputy Cynthia Ann Hall.

According to CNN, the entire incident began when Nichols, a man who allegedly tried to bring a weapon into a courtroom before, overpowered Hall, a lone female sheriff deputy who was escorting him to the courtroom by elevator. She didn't stand a chance. It would have been risky enough for a male deputy to be alone with Nichols, but few female deputies would have had the training, strength, and skills to stop a 6'1", 200 pounds violent criminal, even if he was handcuffed. Why? Because politically correct hiring policies in law enforcement mandate hiring women who don't have these skills.
[link]

Scotto's blog is rated "R" for -- real. We don't think he will aplologize five times for his comments, the way poor Larry Summers did. Good for you, Scotto!

posted by: jrtelegraph

Health: Smoking is Bad, Suicide Bombing is Good

Tech Central Station reports:

While many associate the World Health Organization (WHO) with projects to improve healthcare in developing countries, the millions who watch Arabic television can now link the WHO to terrorism. In a development that went almost unreported in the English-language media, a WHO-organized panel in Lebanon awarded prizes in December 2004 to television and radio stations controlled by the Hezbollah terrorist group, which has killed hundreds of Americans, including more than 250 U.S.soldiers and diplomats in the 1983 bombing of the marine barracks in Lebanon. The awards came just days after France took Hezbollah's al-Manar off the air for a brazenly anti-Semitic broadcast and the U.S. State Department designated the station as a terrorist organization. In Lebanon, these health education Oscars went to terrorist media that encourage suicide bombing. A Lebanese media panel supervised by the WHO decided that the best anti-smoking educational program was "Shadows and Visions," which is aimed at juveniles but which was broadcast by Hezbollah's television channel, al-Manar (The Beacon). Also feted by the WHO-supervised panel was the Hezbollah radio station, Al-Nur (The Light) for its nutritional show "Your food is our medicine."

So while al-Manar makes the odd health information commercial that please the WHO, its output is mostly Hezbollah incitement to violence. The channel, which is under Hezbollah editorial control, mixes staple broadcasting to attract viewers -- including news, dramas, sports programs, children's programming and soap operas -- with a clear call to terrorism. Speaking on al-Manar the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah declared recently, "those who love death defeated those who fear death . . .The weapon of loving martyrdom, sacrifices, and readiness for death is one that nobody can take away." On al-Manar, the message is homicide, not health.

The mouthpiece of Hezbollah, al-Manar, is into death, not health. Neither deserves the respectability and legitimacy that they so clearly crave. Yet thanks to WHO, and by extension its UN superiors, terrorist media have been given an international seal of approval. The message: smoking may be bad for your health, but suicide bombing is good for your soul.[link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

 

General and Marshal: Two Heroes, One Speech

Two men, two heroes, two speeches. Remarkable similarities:

Ariel Sharon

I accompanied the settlers of the Gaza Strip when I served as Head of the Southern Command, and then as a minister in the Governments of Israel. I was privileged to see the first greenhouse erected, the first field planted, homes built and children born. I was with them in their difficult moments, in their daily concerns of security needs, in their courageous stand when faced with mortar fire and terrorist attacks. As Prime Minister, as a citizen of the State of Israel, as a farmer - I am proud of them for their accomplishments, I am proud of them for their courage, I am proud of them for their great love of the land.

However, there are moments which demand leadership, determination and responsibility, even if it does not seem popular, even if the decision is difficult. My task as Prime Minister and our task as a Government is to see the big picture.  In the wider view, the Disengagement Plan ensures the future of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, fortifies our security, strengthens our economy, improves our international standing and promotes the chance of peace in our region. The decision which the Government of Israel made today was a difficult one - a very difficult one.  However, it is a decision of hope for the citizens of Israel - hope for a better future for all of us. [link]

Marshal Henri Phillippe Petain:

FRENCHMEN:

You have learned that Admiral Darlan recently conferred with Chancellor Hitler. I had approved this meeting in principle. The new interview permits us to light up the road into the future and to continue the conversations that had been begun with the German Government.

It is no longer a question today of public opinion, often uneasy and badly informed, being able to estimate the chances we are taking or measure the risks we take or judge our acts.

For you, the French people, it is simply a question of following me without mental reservation along the path of honor and national interest.

If through our close discipline and our public spirit  we can conduct the negotiations in progress, France will surmount her defeat and preserve in the world her rank as a European and colonial power.

That, my dear friends, is all that I have to say to you today.

[New York Times, May 16. 1941.] [link]

Two men, two heroes, one speech. When the Sharon Government is relocating to Vichy?

posted by: jrtelegraph

                                               

Russian Jewish Community in Toronto Raises $3.7 Million Annually

The Canadian Jewish News reports:

The Jewish Russian Community Centre of Toronto (JRCC) will celebrate its 21st anniversary on April 3 with a gala concert at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts.

As many as 1,800 people are expected at the event, which will feature a men’s choir from Russia led by Mikhael Turetsky, as well as a silent auction, a reception for major donors and awards presentations to four honorees.

The gala is an important part of the community’s annual calendar, said Rabbi Yoseph Zaltzman, senior rabbi and founder of the JRCC. About half of the centre’s $3.7 million budget will be raised at the gala and the fundraising that precedes it. The rest of the JRCC’s budget is derived from tickets, tuition and other program revenues, he said.[link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Searching for "Disengagement"?

Somebody should tell Ariel Sharon that the Internet domain names are a leading indicator:

ynetnews reports:

Disengagement opponents purchase Internet domains to promote anti-pullout sentiments
By Gal Mor

  TEL AVIV - Internet surfers looking for information on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan will be surprised to find that besides the wealth of official announcements and informative data, there is one dominant voice – that of the anti-disengagement opponents.

 On entering the word “disengagement” in the Google search engine, it quickly becomes apparent that only the opponents to the plan have managed to purchase the available domains to this key word.

 Namely, anyone searching for the word “disengagement” will find a text ad to the left of the search result saying “Arik has lost his way, “ or “Down with disengagement.”

 The ad leads to www.arielsharon.co.il, but if you think it will take you to the prime minister’s official site, you are sadly mistaken. It leads you to a page that slams the disengagement plan - calling it a disaster for Israel; then it refers you to the Gush Katif anti-disengagement site heading the struggle.

 Searching for the word “Likud” leads to a similar ad stating that “The Likud has lost its path.” The link www.halikud.co.il doesn’t lead to the Likud’s official site as one would expect, but to a page on which the Likud emblem appears with several question marks alongside the statement “Disengagement is a disaster for Israel!!”. This site too refers surfers to the Gush Katif site heading the struggle.[link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Aljazeera + Sharon = Love

Aljazeera loves Ariel Sharon:

Sharon: No Jews in Gaza

 
Monday 02 February 2004, 18:23 Makka Time, 15:23 GMT

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon gave no timeframes or deadlines

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he is planning to evacuate 17 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

In an interview on Monday, Sharon told Haaretz newspaper he had already given the order to plan for the move that would affect 7500 Israeli citizens.

The PM said it was his intention to "carry out an evacuation - sorry, a relocation - of settlements that cause us problems" and of "places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, like the Gaza settlements".

"I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza."

No deadlines

"I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza" Ariel Sharon, Israeli prime minister

But in excerpts from the interview, the PM gave no timeframe for the move. "It's not a simple matter. We are talking of thousands of square kilometres of hothouses, factories and packing plants".

[link]

posted by: jrtelegraph