Welcome to the Weekday Holyland Update, where we try unsuccessfully to make up for domestic suckitude by shining across the world. On the menu today: Conflict of interest by a so-called icon of journalism, police corruption, a well deserved (if ultimately harmful) shoe to the face, an old vampire of a hack coming apart at the seams, Cognitive dissonance at its worst, and finally the staging of a mini kristallnacht. Please fasten your seatbelts as we are heading into heavy emotional turbulence.

Israeli medical teams got rave reviews for their performance in Haiti - and rightly so, since they did much better work than basically anyone, US teams included. All told, our guys helped deliver 16 babies, performed over 300 surgeries and treated over 1100 people total. So props for those who did good work, but not to the moron who had to go on record saying this was being done for propaganda.

And on that matter - no, being generous across the world does not absolve one of being an asshole at home, and helping out at a photogenic disaster 10,000 km away does not excuse brutally starving folks next door. Especially not when the linkage is so transparent. Coverage here was sickening, with the exploits of out people totally dominating, at the expense of, ya know, the actual story. Israel, for all its first world sophistication, is often an exceedingly provincial place.

The twitterverse is all, um, a-twitter about the revelation that the son of the NYT Jerusalem bureau chief, Ethan Bronner, has become a soldier in the IDF. Conflict of interest much? The gray hag doesn't think so. In a reply to excellent website Electronic Intifada, which broke the story, the hag said that Bronner's son is an adult who makes his own decisions. Then again, despite the hag's oh-so important position in the world of journalism, anyone who ever entertained delusions that it was an impartial reporter regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was either stupid or willfully ignorant. Still, it's nice to have things so out in the open.

Israel's chief justice, mediocrity poster child Dorit Beinish, got a very well deserved shoe to the face today. The actual motivation of the shoe-thrower was not particularly worthy - he appears to be a "my wife ruined my life" type of nut who was pissed at the courts for ruling alimony for his ex (which is a huge relief because the hearing taking place at the time of the incident was about medical cannbis, and there was some concern that the thrower was a stupid stoner doing harm to the cause). But Beinish, a career prosecutor who never published a word, whose legal opinion nobody gives a shit about if not for the job she holds, who was chosen for her post by predecessor Aharon Barak solely because he could count on her to serve as a his sock puppet, and who has the temerity to block the appointment of vastly superior (world-renowned) jurists to the court because they don't toe her precise line, who thinks that district judges appointed to the supreme bench need a probation period but prosecutors who never sat on any court don't, and then has the temerity to pretend her petty tyrannical decisions aren't political, partisan or in any way improper - richly deserved the indignity. Too bad the whole episode netted her sympathy, and one can only hope the trauma will cause her to unravel in ways that will cause her to lose whatever sympathy the shiner got her.

Muslim graves were desecrated in the Palestinian village of Awartha, in the West Bank. This cemetery also includes a couple of ancient graves which idolators of the Jehovaist persuasion insist house the long-gone remains of the sons of the biblical Aharon, brother of Moses. So twice a year, the people of the village of Awartha have to host a hostile pilgrimage, which is of course accompanied by armed soldiers. Only this time, after the little animist shindig was over, Muslim graves in the semetery were found vandalized. Some were broken, some carried obviously military grunt style graffiti (some in Russian). So obvious was it that the IDF voiced "suspicion" that its own people did the deed.

Two cases of police malfeasance, both (un)surprisingly with Arab victims: in one, guy was in house arrest. Cops really wanted to nail him for violation, but they couldn't cause he didn't violate. So they come to the apartment, tell him he has to leave cause he's "invading" the place, and as he crosses the threshold - they arrest him for violating house arrest. Luckily, the judge tore the pigs a new asshole and released the guy completely. Gotta wonder how many such cases don't make the press and/or get a more authoritarian judge....
Second case: Guy gets hauled into court for allegedly running away from and resisting arrest at his home. At trial, just like in an episode of Perry Mason, the defendant's attorney asks the pig on the stand if he's sure he saw the guy run away. The pig says yes, definitely. Out comes the defendant's home security camera tape and shows him walking very slowly, not running away from shit, holding a cup of coffee. Case dismissed. And what happens when there's no tape? Pig's word prevails, of course.
Again, both defendants in this case were Arabs, but this doesn't prove racist targetting per se - just that our pigs figure that Arabs are easier to pick on. Wonder why that is?

In honor of the international holocaust memorial day, two tidbits that may help explain why the world is growing weary of snapping to attention when the word holocaust is uttered:

Israel's president Shimon Peres, speechifying in Berlin, began telling how he watched his grandfather being taken away by the nazis in Poland. All very touching, except for one little problem: Peres (born Perski) emigrated from Poland to the land of Israel in... 1934. Five full years prior to the panzers crossing the German-Polish border. I think the old man is finally and officially cracking. Either that or the time he's been spending kissing up to the Baron von Bibhausen has caused the latter's mendacitis to rub off.

Speaking of the dear Baron, somehow this idiot sees nothing wrong with calling another people "Amalek" while whining that said people (Iran, in this case) want to kill us all. For those of you who don't know their bible too well - Amalek are a nation in the bible whom the Jews are religiously bound to utterly exterminate. As in genocide. ("thou shalt blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens"). The first Hebrew king, Saul, was deposed by the prophet Samuel for not adhering to this commandment closely enough. See, Saul killed all the Amalekites, men, women, children - but spared their livestock. That wasn't zealous enough for Jehovah and his nasty henchman, who informed Saul, like some premordial unkempt Donald Trump, that he was fired.
This, see, is the metaphor that seems totally appropriate to the leader of my country when speaking against the crime of genocide. Cause apparently, if it's Jews committing genocide on orders from their imaginary friend, then it's ok.

On the other hand, to file under "just because we're assholes doesn't mean others aren't too", first, a Polish Bishop just had to unburden himself of the opinion that "the holocaust is a Jewish invention", and in Strasbourg, Jewish graves were desecrated.

Finally, just in time for the international holocaust day: a synagogue which settlers insisted on building in an illegal outpost on a barren hill was torn down by the authorities, so the proud Jews decided to employ their policy of "price tag" - meaning that every time the authorities enforce the law against them, they go abuse some neighboring Arabs. At first the "price tag" involved attacking the security forces, but the judo-nazis quickly realized that a), they will lose what little public support they still have and b), they are very liable to get their asses kicked. So they came up with the alternative of venting on the Arabs because, as they correctly guessed, nobody would too worked up about THAT. So, after the tearing down of their makeshift synagogue yesterday, the judonazis raced over to the nearest Palestinian village and in two concise minutes managed to injure some 30 people, torch a car and break a bunch of windows. The village youths were about to go get some revenge when, miraculously, the army showed up and prevented such a gross breach of the peace. Where were they a few moments before? Busy, what's it to ya?

And on that miniature kristallnacht¹ note, the pilot will now return you to your own familiar brands of crazy, which surely seem more livable in comparison. If not, may I please suggest relocation? WHU Airlines is not responsible for any illusions, sympathies or misconceptions that may have been misplaced on our tours. Please collect your luggage, check your comments and rate this humble dispatch. Thank you for flying the crazy skies.

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¹ The original kristallnacht also started as a "price tag" - retribution for the assassination of a nazi diplomat by a refugee German Jew. In fact, that vengeance at least made some sort of sick sense - the action was directed at the people of the offender. How do you explain smacking Peter to get back at Paul?