Pre-Shabbas Open Thread

It will be so nice to relax tomorrow as the Wildcats play on Sunday rather than on Shabbas.

Robert Klein will have a show in Danbury, CT. This article goes in-depth on his career in comedy. He's one of the few that can do both improv comedy and stand-up comedy.

The United Nations remembered the Holocaust today. Maybe they will actually stop being so anti-Israel in what they do. What they should do is immediately denounce the new Palestinian government because terrorists were elected.

"We sound an alarm, a call to arms and a wake-up call to the world, a world in which a member state of this organization denies the Holocaust while it prepares the next one," Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, told a General Assembly hall packed with Holocaust survivors, Jewish and Israeli officials and other members of the Jewish community.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan addressed The International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust by video conference. "There can be no reversing the unique tragedy of the Holocaust. It must be remembered with shame and horror as long as human memory continues," Annan said.

True, there can be no reversing of the events but we have the power to prevent it in other countries. What is being done with Darfur?

This is some good news. When you elect terrorists to leadership, you lose any potential funding you would have otherwise receievd. JTA reports:

"We will face practical problems of how you deal with people that call for the destruction of Israel," Yossi Bachar, director of Israel’s Finance Ministry, told Ha’aretz on Friday. "If they want to continue to work with us, they will have to find a solution, otherwise I can’t see how they would get the money." Israel returns to the Palestinian Authority tax money, social security payments and some customs duties garnered from Palestinians.

James Wolfensohn, envoy to the region for the diplomatic "Quartet" managing the peace process, predicted a cutoff from Western nations. Hamas is set to take power by next week.

It doesn't look like Hamas will be changing their ways anytime soon at all.

Israel is working with Jordan and Egypt and the two countries will monitor what develops.

Israel’s acting prime minister spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to emphasize that his government would be unable to have contact with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas, according to statements issued by Olmert’s office. Olmert told both leaders that Hamas must disarm and revoke its calls for the destruction of Israel.

Abdullah told Olmert that the Palestinians must show responsibility and decide the path they’ll take. Mubarak said he’ll discuss the results of the P.A. elections with the Palestinian leadership next week. Both leaders agreed to speak again with Olmert in order to monitor developments.

I agree with President Bush with regards to the fact that as long as Hamas is in power, the Palestinians will recieve no foreign aid.

"The United States does not support political parties that want to destroy our ally Israel, and that people must renounce that part of their platform," Bush said Thursday, after it became clear that Hamas had trounced P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party in legislative elections.

Bush already was garnering an international consensus on the issue; his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, spent much of Thursday consulting with U.S. allies, and it apparently paid off. By the end of the day, European leaders were echoing Bush’s statement.

"We can only do business with people who renounce terrorism," a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, and the sentiment was echoed by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister. European officials predicted unanimity on the topic when the European Union’s 25 foreign ministers meet Monday.

Bush cautioned that the dust had yet to settle: Abbas, a relative moderate favored by the United States and Israel, remains as P.A. president, and Hamas — which appeared surprised by its victory — has yet to announce its plans for governance.

"We’d like him to stay in power," Bush said of Abbas.

This was sent to me via email from BangitOut.com:

Top Ten Good Things to come out of the Hamas Election Victory:
10. 95% of winning candidates will probably blow themselves up by end of first term
9. Government officials now easily recognizable from their FBI Most Wanted Terrorist Mugshots
8. Finally a government to compete with Iran for prize of Most Psychotic Government
7. Allows AP to title pics of kids dressed in Suicide-Bomber costumes with the line "Kids dress up as favorite Government officials"
6. Palestinian C-Span channel will probably have parental advisory for graphic violence
5. May encourage Al Quaeda sleeper cell members to abandon terrorist plots in favor of seeking cushy government desk jobs
4. Any political filibuster in the new Pali-gov. would now probably be deemed as "fighting the war on terror"
3. Now calling the Palestinian government a "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" is just wrong
2. Finally allows for Hammas version of the TV show West Wing, which promises to be just like the show 24, just from the terrorists' perspective
1. Makes answering the question "Do the Palestinian people support terrorism?" a no brainer

The next State Central Executive Meeting will be on February 27 in Frankfort, KY.