War on Terror: The boardgame

Hey Kids! Just in time for for the holidays!

Everyone starts with the best intentions. Then things start to get cramped. Then you notice your neighbour has more oil than you. Before long, war is waged, nukes are dropped, revolutions are fought and terrorists are doing your dirty work, before turning on you...

... and the Axis of Evil is a spinner in the middle of the board. You can fight terrorism, you can fund terrorism, you can even be the terrorists. The only thing that matters is global domination - err, liberation. Read more about the game.

Meanwhile...

Bitter after being snubbed for membership in the "Axis of Evil," Libya, China, and Syria today announced they had formed the "Axis of Just as Evil," which they said would be way eviler than that stupid Iran-Iraq-North Korea axis President Bush warned of his State of the Union address. Read more.

Dreidels and Texas Swing (Trust me - it rocks)

Ahh, sweeeeet. No place like Texas.

(H-T: Reubicon 3)

Casualties in Hamas - Egyptian gunbattle at Gaza crossing

Boredom and anarchy between Gaza and Egypt:

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh waiting for permission to cross
Rafah border from Egypt into Gaza on Thursday evening. (Reuters)

From The Jerusalem Post:

Witnesses said Hamas gunmen were firing at the Egyptian side of the border, drawing return fire from the Egyptians and presidential guards from Fatah.

During the battle, masked gunmen in three cars and a bulldozer stormed the terminal, witnesses said. The gunmen went on a rampage inside the building, destroying computers and furniture inside and plunging the area into darkness, the witnesses said.

From Ynet News:

Defense Minister Amir Peretz has ordered the closure of the Rafah crossing in Gaza Thursday to prevent the return of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to the Strip with dozens of millions of dollars in aid.

From Haaretz:

Other senior Hamas officials have taken into Gaza in recent months millions of dollars raised overseas for this purpose. Security sources said that the decision was made in order to curb the cash transfer, and not to prevent the actual return of Haniyeh to Gaza.

More details on the Hamas money trail.

Further to the north:

The IDF reports that Palestinians fired a Kassam rocket into a "city in the western Negev," Thursday evening, causing damage, according to my beeper. UPDATE: The rocket hit Sderot, damaging cars and buildings.

Earlier,

Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket into Israel from Gaza Thursday morning, breaching the ceasefire for the 24th time. Despite the mulitple attacks, the latest of which caused destruction on a kibbutz near Gaza, the Israeli government and defense forces have not responded to the aggression. This latest attack came as PM Olmert sat for meet-and-greets and welcomed praise from leaders on his European tour.

Hannukah: Leaving the "latkes" (Video)

This is the first episode of the "Israelicious" cooking show, hosted by renowned Israeli-American chef, Phyllis Glazer.

Learn how to make fast & easy
"sufganyot" for Hannukah.

For the "covenantally-impaired" among us, consider "sufganyot" the Jewish-Israeli version of "beignets." Unless you're from New Orleans. In which case, I'll just shut up and let Phyllis get on with it...

Neighborhood Bully (reprise)

Yes. I ran this during the war against Hizbullah last summer. It bears repeating (see previous post - I am so sick of this lunatic crap). Don't like it? Sue me.

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,
He's wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He's always on trial for just being born.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
He's the neighborhood bully.

He got no allies to really speak of.
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love.
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Every empire that's enslaved him is gone,
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon.
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand,
In bed with nobody, under no one's command.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon,
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on.
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth,
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health.
He's the neighborhood bully.

What's anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin', they say.
He just likes to cause war.
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed.
He's the neighborhood bully.

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,
Running out the clock, time standing still,
Neighborhood bully.

From the album "Infidels", Copyright © 1983 Special Rider Music

Iranian-Jewish man love (not for view on work computers)

WORDS ARE inadequate to express the feeling of insult, sacrilege and anger that I feel when Ahmadinejad and his ilk call this history into question. It is my family's history, the history of my people, and the shared history of much of the world. It is also the history that my colleagues and I at Yad Vashem can verify and recount in great detail, based on the 110,000 published titles and the 70 million pages of documentation in our collection, and the personal records of a sizable percentage of the individual Jews who were murdered. Read more.

Iranian president shares the sweet stuff with
Neturei Karta representative (Photo: AFP)

Report: Israeli army 'boycotting' settler draftees

An Israel National News report charges the Israeli army with systematic and prejudicial enlistment policies against West Bank settlers and supporters.

"Young anti-expulsion and Land of Israel activists are being quietly rejected by the IDF using psychological clauses and other methods," according to their site, which is considered a mouthpiece for the Israeli right in general and settlers in particular.

Worthwhile viewing - whatever your political stripe.

Background on this contentious issue is here, here, and here.

DishonestReporting of The Year Award

Listen to HonestReporting's staff talking about some of the best and worst media from 2006 on their premier podcast.

History won't look back on 2006 as a pleasant year for Israel. We saw Hamas voted into power, Ariel Sharon crippled by a stroke, Qassams rain on Sderot, and the kidnappings of Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Our hearts and solidarity went out to one million northern Israelis forced to hunker down in bomb shelters for weeks. We saw too many senseless deaths, none more poignant than Daniel Wultz, Eliyahu Asheri, and the Taluzi brothers.

Most of all, we'll remember 2006 for Israel's two-front war in Lebanon and Gaza.

Read, and hear more.

Food Porn: Chocolate & Apricot Challah

I never had much of a sweet tooth (give me schug for dessert over chocolate anytime...), and this may not even halichaly qualify as "bread," but rather fall into the "cake" category for blessings - especially for S'faradim who are pretty strict about it, but - don't it look good?

So, if you can't eat it at the beginning of the meal, have it at the end...

Ingredients: Makes 2 Loaves

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling loaves
• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for the bowl and baking sheets
• 2 tablespoons of honey (When measuring the honey use the same spoon you used for the oil. The oil will coat the spoon, allowing the honey to slide right off.)
• 3 large eggs (one of these is for the wash)
• 4 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, chopped into chip-size chunks
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup diced dry apricots, depending on tastes (optional)

Read on for the calorific rest.

NPR's Hannukah menorah contest - Mel Gibson gets waxed

So, is this, like, sacreligious - or what?!

Mel Gibson Mel-norah. This menorah works on two levels: It symbolizes a willingness to accept Gibson's apology for his anti-Semitic rant but also, for skeptics, offers the chance to watch hot wax drip down his punim (the Yiddish word for face). Materials: Mel Gibson cutouts and menorah.

More here.