Troubling and ironic

http://jewschool.com/?p=10053

Museum of Tolerance building atop Muslim cemetery.
Seriously.

Originally reported to me by Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, thanks to Danya for posting it to a site where people can link to it.
Please write and make sure that this desecration stops.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center “Museum of Tolerance” is building on top of a Muslim cemetary in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mamila.
The Antiques Authority has reported the removal of at least 250 gravesites so far. A Muslim NGO has appealed to the High Court, and is due to be heard in two weeks–but a lot of graves can get dug up in that time.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights reports,
I spoke yesterday with the executive director of the Wiesenthal Center,Rabbi Marvin Hier. One of our Orthodox founders, Rabbi David Rosen, hasalso been in touch with them. To his credit, he almost immediately returned my call. He indicated concern for the feelings of Muslims, but said that they have passed a point of no return, having spent large amountsof money and after plans were published in the newspapers, City Councilhearings were held with no Muslim objections expressed, etc. I told himthat this was very strange, seeing as we have heard concerns about thedesecration of this cemetery for years and that unfortunately bitterexperience from years of work in the field of human rights has taught usthat the authorities may not have been entirely honest with them. Islamic authorites have told us that they did not know about this specific plan until the work began.
A Haaretz op-ed in English on the subject can be found here.
A Haaretz article on the building plans can be found in Hebrew here.
The Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information also has some information about the building, under “What’s New”, here.

Register your protest against the desecration of Muslim graves by calling the Wiesenthal center:310 553.9036,
800 900.9036 (toll-free from within the U.S.)
310 553.4521 (fax)
information@wiesenthal.net
Address all correspondence to Rabbi Marvin Hier, Director and Founder of the Wiesenthal Center.

Hmmm

I happened to turn up this interesting post on Whiskey Bar about the parallels between the Zealots and Islam and the US in Afghanistan (or elsewhere at war) . I don't know that I buy it all, but it's a very interesting post.
http://billmon.org/archives/000219.html

Am I a bad person?

Since I find this site excessively funny? It's totally NOT PC.
http://engrish.com/

Munich

I finally saw Munich. For those who have been decrying the film as anti-Israeli: what planet are you on, exactly?


Granted, it's not the most serious film I've ever seen, but it certainly portrayed the Israelis as complex and thoughtful, disturbed by their actions and struggling - all lacking in the portrayal of Palestinians. The Palestinians were given one moment to express why they might be so desperate as to commit terrorist acts, but hardly was the portrayal positive - and there isn't any room for complex portrayals of say, Palestinians who are appalled at terrorism. It doesn't say there aren't any - the topic simply doesn't come up.
I'm not going to give a long political deconstruction of the film. But the number of people who have yowled "foul" about this film really makes me wonder - I mean, I was looking for it!
The only thing I can think is that these are people who can't live with any amount of moral ambiguity - that to show that there might have been a reason for the characters to struggle with their actions was in itself what they considered anti-Israeli.