Apparently there are lots of Persian language weblogs (like this one - by Rasa who likes Celine Dion and opines that "Jewish = people who are against God"). It's a shame that the language barrier seems to prevent the rest of the internet from a first-hand view of what's happening in Iran. And it prevents curious Iranian bloggers from getting a wider view of the world than they probably get from their official media.

Instapundit discusses pro-war pop songs.

About 6 wks ago I was on an airplane in the US where they screened a rock video by some Pearl Jam-like group performing for the troops on a US Navy ship. It struck me that Islamists around the world would be much less likely to mess with the US if they perceived a unified, strong, and youthful American will (in addition to American military and economic strength). Though obviously diversity of will goes together with the diversity of opinion and pursuit of individual interest that characterizes a democracy.

Welcome to visitors coming in from Iran. Please leave a message to let me know if you find my blog interesting.

Also, what do people in Iran think about the war against Iraq?

Here are some messages that I received from Iran one year ago.

The Christian Science Monitor has run a begrudging correction about the caption on its Rachel Corrie photo - which incorrectly indicated that the photo was taken moments before she was run over. But the CSM didn't bother correcting the caption on the web version of the article. (another good summary on Corrie here).

Tommy Lapid of the very secular Shinui party refused to meet with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer because the latter wouldn't agree to meet at the Lapid's ministry in eastern Jerusalem (report).

From a glance at the phone book it appears that the building at issue is the Justice Ministry facility on Salah el Din street - which is a bit north of the the walled city's Damascus gate. I don't make it much to that part of town, but it's two intersections away from "Road one" that leads from downtown towards Jerusalem's northern neighborhoods and the University.

This map (from an anonymous site which offers the standard Jerusalem street atlas with Israeli buildings removed and some streets renamed to Arabic conventions) shows the adjacent Mutran stadium, but omits the Justice building.

Now that the Iraq war is pretty much over, two things will probably happen:

- the gov't will finally tell us that we can dismantle our sealed rooms.
- the Quartet "roadmap" will rise to the top of the global agenda as Britain tries to show "evenhandedness"; and we'll get to see what the new Palestinian leader Abu Mazen is really about

Welcome to visitors from Spanish CNN and Stuttgarter Zeitung.

A year ago yesteday my blog was #5 on Blogdex. Daily life in Israel have changed a lot since then (thanks to the IDF), though the general situation is depressingly similar.

Barry Rubin notes the obvious parallels between the criticisms aimed at the American forces in Iraq and those levelled at the IDF. He thinks that this means the difficulty in getting Israeli viewpoints across are endemic to the situation and shouldn't be blamed Raanan Gissin et al.

Some perversely amusing things at the site of the University of Birmingham Palestinian Society...

They list Robert Fisk as one of "four pillars of wisdom" and chose a photo of him in his post-Afghan-mob-beating bandages. They have photos of a meeting they held with British Hasidim from the theologically anti-Israel Neturei Karta movement (more on Neturei Karta here). They apparently refused to play a soccer match with a student team identifying itself with Israel (and defend the decision with a link to this bizarre article from the Jordanian Star about how the brutal "revenge of Israel" extends even to Palestinian athletes - eg. cyclist Mohamed Abu Jamous who was killed after infiltrating a military base where he killed 4 soldiers).

They make the unlikely claim that the Union of Jewish Students has provided them with "profound moral support", and they say that the University Executive "hacked their site" - meaning that they were forced to remove some material.

This article describes the antics at the meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights now taking place in Geneva . And of course the Palestinian spokesman used the occasion to call for the elimination of Israel (report).

Starbucks is closing its Israeli operations (article). It didn't seem to catch on even in yuppified Herzliya Pituah. There's plenty of overpriced coffee in this country, so maybe the problem is that our jumpy pace of life doesn't lend itself to the lolling-around atmosphere that Starbucks has in the US (which I happen to like a lot in airports).

Of the 40 wounded in today's Islamikaze attack in Netanya, 2 are in critical condition - including the soldier who prevented the Islamic Jihad bomber from entering the cafe (report).

Zeev Schiff offers an evaluation of the situation on the ground near Baghdad. There's lots of that floating around, but Schiff sounds knowledgable and circumspect.

A jilbab is not a burka.

Welcome to people who have come here looking for the Command Post blog. You can find it here.

Somehow I've become the top result for the Google search on that phrase.

John Zorn was supposed to be appearing at the Israel Festival this summer, but the word now is that there will only be local performers (report).

This Fatah suicide bomber was planning on blowing up a boarding school for children from abusive homes.

The Onion was lame this week.

Haaretz news flashes says that the Israeli defence establishment believes that Iraq has mobile scud launchers concealed under bridges where they can't be seen from above.

Ynet is saying that the Shiite Basra rebellion has been put down by Iraqi forces.

Via the Command Post, an article on Iraq's use of their own people as human shields. Funny how there's rarely a similar complaint about the Palestinians - given that they've have been doing the exact same thing for 2 years.

It would be interesting to hear a military perspective on how Israeli and American forces respectively deal with this tactic.

Barry Rubin describes his experience discussing the Iraq campaign as part of a television panel on an Arab network - and what he calls the "wall of lies" (here).

I really hope Salam is for real, but this could be the CIA:

today my father and brother went out to see what happening in the city, they say that it does look that the hits were very precise but when the missiles and bombs explode they wreck havoc in the neighborhood where they fall. Houses near al-salam palace(where the minister Sahaf took journalist) have had all their windows broke, doors blown in and in one case a roof has caved in. I guess that is what is called “collateral damage” and that makes it OK?

Or is it only Israelis who would think that describing minimal collateral damage constitutes propaganda?

From following the events of the Iraq war (and the house-to-house fighting in Nasiriya) at the Command Post blog, it appears that the coalition forces are putting their own troops at risk in order to minimize Iraqi civilian casualties. And it's clear that Iraq is not concerned about following the Geneva conventions with any POWs it obtains.

If this is a new paradigm for warfare, it was probably first seen with the Israeli assault on the "militants" in Jenin last year.

Some Israeli commentators think that the Ansar al-Islam organization - an Islamic group operating in northern Iraq and consisting of non-Iraqis - will cause problems for the US forces. (article).