Barking Dogs and Moving Caravans

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Buj the Arab blogger brings glad tidings to his readers: Israel will not survive beyond the next five years

The same Buj delights in antisemitic cartoons

And encourages others to follow his inclination to publish the emetic cartoons produced by the feverish imagination of a Holocaust-denying cartoonist

Holocaust denial and a yearning for the destruction of Israel seem like the two pet-peeves of much of the Arab world. These two bloggers represent a mainstream position, even moderate when you compare it with some others.

Well, Israel may be doomed to disappear in five years but in the meantime it is doing pretty well for itself:

Americans and an Israeli won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on how the DNA code is translated into life, findings that have been used to fight infectious disease.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, 57, who heads the Structural Studies Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England; Thomas A. Steitz , 69, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University in Connecticut, and Ada E. Yonath, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, will share the 10 million-krona ($1.4 million) award, the Nobel Assembly said at a press conference in Stockholm today.

Their work revealed what ribosomes, which produce proteins that control the chemistry in all living organisms, look like and how they function at the atomic level. The Laureates also created three-dimensional models that show how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome, research that has been applied to develop new anti-infective medicines. Yonath is the first woman to win the chemistry accolade in 45 years.

Well, then, to borrow an Arab saying that illustrates with great Arab pithiness the superiority of the movers and doers to the populist appeal of "swollen envy" and futile clamour:

"Though the dog may bark the caravan (kafila) moves on."

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Update: More brave barking from Buj: Latuf caricaturizes Israel's outrage towards the Goldstone Report, the modern day blood libel, about which Ari Shavit, in today's Haaretz, wrote:

For decades the Goldstone bunch has been conducting an insane incitement campaign against Israel. Israel contributed its part to this campaign with the occupation, the settlements and its arrogance. But the Goldstoners are not driven by an honest attempt to divide the land, create peace and establish universal justice that would apply to all nations. They are driven by a deep need to isolate Israel, condemn it and destroy it.

Although some of the leading Goldstoners are Jews and Israelis, they don't recognize Jewish history, the Jewish tragedy and the difficult circumstances in which the Jewish state is trying to survive. They treat Israel like a wicked, omnipotent power that is responsible for all the conflict's sins and the region's ills.

The Goldstone report would never have been written without the joint work, joint bias and joint Israel-hatred of all the Goldstoners. Thus the report reflects both the Goldstoners' holy fury and their complete belief that the Palestinians can do no wrong.

That belief is now endangering not only Israel but calm and stability. In their fanaticism and extremism, Goldstone and the Goldstoners have brought us closer to bloodshed.

Buj has recently discovered the very gratifying art of Jew-baiting. He learned that the publication of a Holocaust denying cartoonist's caricatures is deeply offensive to Jews, so naturally, what would a peace-loving Arab blogger who does not have an antisemitic thought in his mind, do but post in rapid succession a variety of the cartoons he can find by this Holocaust-denier? Exactly the sort of thoughtful conduct and universal morals one would expect from someone who prays for peace...

Update: More pygmitania from Buj: He is cool he likes motorcycles. Are you impressed yet? Too bad he doesn't manage to keep up his cool appearances: "Shame the artist is Israeli, ". To paraphrase George Orwell, Buj wears a mask but his face never grows to fit it. The mask keeps slipping off ..

Anyway, Let's give thanks for one blessing: that Buj is not an Israeli.