Will the public relations disaster that is the Olympic torch run lead the Chinese authorities to alter their behavior sufficiently to save the Olympics themselves from becoming a similar public relations disaster? If they know what is good for them, they should. The threat to boycott French goods is not the right answer.

CNN may offer a perfunctory apology for calling the para military Chinese"volunteers" accompanying the torch,"goons" but police everywhere are doing everything to avoid dealing with them. Today, their long time Pakistani allies limited the torch to a heavily guarded stadium where the crowds were sparse:

Thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers were deployed in and around Islamabad's Jinnah Stadium. Authorities had planned to hold the relay on the city's main boulevard but switched the event to the stadium for security reasons.

India also shortened the route. It was supposed"to be carried from the Red Fort to India Gate, a distance of nine kilometres, but will now travel only two to three kilometres on Indian soil" and the Chinese"security" will be kept at bay.

Australia similarly not only plans to shorten the route by keep it a secret until 48 hours before the run. It did announce that Chinese 'security" would be kept at bay. South Korea has yet to decide on the route. Only Japan still refuses to alter its plans.

Abigail R. Esman, Obama's questionable judgment

Janet Levy, Xinjiang Province - The Islamic Jihad Battlefront in China By the way, there is significant Wiegur population in Beijing.

Siddharth Srivastava, India: Maritime Power Emerging

Jimmy Carter's Hamas friends: Hamas MP/Cleric's Friday Sermon: We Will Conquer Rome, the Two Americas, and Eastern Europe

R. John Matthies, Islam and the Evolution of Europe's Far Right This could have been predicted.

Matthias Küntzel, Antisemitism, Messianism and the Cult of Sacrifice in the Iranian Holy War

I can hardly imagine better news.

Israel successfully test fires ballistic target:

Blue Sparrow surrogate ballistic target successfully launched early Tuesday from IAF aircraft, meant to simulate Shahab-3 attack on Israel

Israel test-fires missile to intercept Gaza rockets

Israel last week test-fired a missile capable of intercepting short-range rockets like those fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, Channel 10 television reported Sunday.

"This weapons system will be operational in 2010," said General Dany Gotlib, who is in charge of research at the Israeli defence ministry. . . .

Israel's Rafael Advanced Defence Systems arms firm is developing the system which is capable of knocking down rockets with a range from 4-70 kilometres (2.5-43.4 miles), such as the homemade Qassam used by Palestinian militants.

Iron Dome is part of a multi-layered defence system aimed at protecting Israel from short-range missiles and rockets fired by militants in Gaza or Lebanon, and longer-range missiles in the arsenals of regional foes Iran and Syria.

Israel to connect to US missle early warning system: report

The United States has agreed to connect Israel to its ballistic missile early warning system to warn of any missile attack from archfoe Iran, a senior Israeli defence official said on Monday.

Best updates on this subject to be found on Roger Simon's website.

As matters stand now, Barack Obama emerges more and more like the divider, instead of the uniter. His refusal to disown Wright has legtimized this racist preachers and his ilk.

REV. WRIGHT KEYNOTES AT NAACP DINNER IN DETROIT: Controversial preacher speaks on April 27.

The Gospel according to Obama

Oh, yes, the" controversial" AIDS story. It is a typical Muslim one. Remember Suha Arafat accused Israel of infecting the Palestinians with it. Here is another story in similar vein -

March 31, 2008: Nearly 200 children have died in the north, from measles. This is another aftereffect of an earlier campaign by Islamic conservative clerics up there, to get parents to refuse vaccinations for their children. The clerics believed the anti-polio vaccinations were actually a Western plot to poison Muslim children (and make the girls sterile, or something like that). The government eventually got the clerics to back off on the polio vaccinations, but there was continued reluctance to get vaccinations in general.

The story applies almost equally to other countries facing terrorists groups such as Colombia, Phillines, Sri Lanka and India. I write almost because the intense media focuse magnifies the problem in Israel.

On April 9, Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip attacked the Nahal Oz fuel terminal in Israel near the border. Two Israeli workers were killed. Shortly before, a shipment of diesel fuel for the Gaza power plant, paid for by the European Union, had left there.

What makes this attack especially significant—and horrible—is that the only reason the terminal was open and the workers were present was to supply the needs of the Gaza Strip’s population. In previous months, the international media and many governments criticized Israel for not doing enough to help Gaza, despite the fact that the area is ruled by an openly anti-Semitic regime which makes clear its goal of destroying Israel, and also daily fires mortars and rockets into Israel. Indeed, as part of this attack, several mortar shells were fired at the terminal.

Hamas, and the world, cannot have it both ways. Either Hamas is the aggressor while Israel is the victim, in which case there should be full international support and favorable media coverage for Israel. Or if unwilling to take such an appropriate stance, the world cannot expect Israel to risk its people’s lives to fuel Gaza machine shops that make rockets to assault it and should stop complaining about Israeli actions in self-defense.

In either case, the latest attacks make even clear what should already be obvious: Hamas is responsible for any suffering in the Gaza Strip. And if Israel should cut off all fuel deliveries to the Gaza power plant, which would only affect about one-quarter of the area’s supplies, it is fully justified in doing so.

The situation, however, goes even beyond this: Hamas is deliberately intensifying the suffering in order to use it as a pretext for its own failure as government, its attacks on Israel, and its ability to beg for international support for victim.

Could the situation possibly be any more obvious?

Apparently it is still not obvious enough for too much of the media and too much of the Western political establishments. Of course, there are many exceptions and more so as time goes on.

One of the classic Middle East stories is the tale of the frog and the scorpion. The scorpion demands that the frog provide a ride across the river on his back. “But you will sting me and I will die,” protests the frog.

The scorpion points out, in response, that since he cannot swim he would not do such a rash thing since he, too, would drown.

The frog agrees.

The scorpion climbs onto the frog and they set off. But in the middle of the river the scorpion stings the frog, and as they sink beneath the water the frog complains, “Why did you do that? Now we’ll both die!”

And the scorpion complains: “Well, what do you expect, this is the Middle East.”

So goes the story in its traditional form. But now we can add some additional modern touches.

First, in the new version the scorpion declares that he will sting the frog without any doubt. But the frog agrees to take the scorpion because he is encouraged or intimidated by onlookers’ remarks on onlookers—“What! You won’t take that poor scorpion on a ride? What kind of imperialist, racist aggressor are you?”

Second, after the duo drowns, the next day newspapers run the following headlines:

“Frog in Unprovoked Attack on Scorpion!”

“Cycle of Violence Continues”

“Frog Uses Excessive Force on Scorpion Civilian”

Are the Israeli out of their . . . minds?

But, in the meantime, both Hebrew newspapers reported that Hamas had long been siphoning off for its own purposes, murderous purposes, half of the delivered gas supply. It was on the morning after this news came out that Israel let it be known that the cut-off will end and the deliveries will resume after the week-end.

Now, if only reports of economic forecasts were treated with similar skepticism. Should they? Indubitably. Consider these two examples from today's Financial Times. They not only demonstrate the fallibility of forecasts but also highlight the price of acting based on them. It should be noted that the extent of their mistakes are not splashed across the front page but are carefully hidden in the back pages. Thus, the first item which reveals just how far from reality IMF forecasters have been is not to be found in the front page article on the subject but only in a back page column while the second item only appears in the paper edition:

1.Britpop:

In the US, where just 12 months ago the economy was expected to expand by almost 3 per cent, growth is forecast to barely make it into positive territory this year and next.

2.Erroneous World Bank conclusion raises the question of trust

Less than a year ago, the authors of a World Bank paper on agricultural spending in the Philippines posed a question that now looks prescient:"Can the world market for rice be trusted?"

Yes, was their unequivocal answer. And so the authors urged Filipinos not to worry much about their reliance on rice imports.

Other countries, such as those in west Africa, where rice is also a staple, received a similar message, which led to a dramatic expansion of the international rice market. . . .

What seemed like a plausible answer then appears much less so now amid tighter global rice supply, soaring prices and rising food protectionism in exporting countries. . . .

The World Bank study argued that rice production and prices were now more stable and that governments in rice-exporting countries could not easily restrict foreign sales.

But Vietnam, Thailand, India and others have since imposed various measures to limit exports to secure supply for the domestic market.

What is the unforeseen circumstance that is really behind the crisis?

The World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Monetary Fund were unanimous in concluding that the rising appetite for bio­fuels was part of the reason for the increase in food prices.

Now if economist could not predict that a rise in demand for biofeul would result in rising food prices, I do not know what they can predict.

The result of their blindness? Food inflation threatens progress on poverty and Chaos Spreads as Food Prices Skyrocket

What is the transnational well paid elite going to do? They will continue to issue faulty report while globe hopping and celebrity hob knobbing while the rest of us will be called upon to sacrifice part of our income to alleviate the suffering they caused.

As tempting as trusting human ability to predict the future, policy makers must remember to err on the side of caution especially when the basic needs of their citizens is at stake. And when it comes to food, Joseph's advice remains valid: Set aside some surplus from the 7 good years to protect from the ravages of the 7 bad ones.

"Jeremiah Wright also helped to organize the Million Man March, spearheaded by the anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-Catholic Minister Louis Farrakhan. Wright also, accompanied by Farrakhan, visited Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. In an interview about whether this kind of activity might hurt Obama's prospects, Wright said, 'When his enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli (to visit Qaddafi) with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.'

I do not know why only Jewish support, why not American support. Just listen to Qadhafi speaking in Scandinavia:

A Youtube viewer reminded listeners that"Salmon Rushdie says it most clearly:

"What I fear most is that, when we look back in 25 years' time at this moment, what we will have seen is the surrender of the West, without a shot being fired. They'll say that in the name of tolerance and acceptance, we tied our own hands and slit our own throats."

And here he is berating Asad and company for talking about the 1967 borders in Damascus last week:

Mu'ammar Qadhafi:"People here talked about the pre-1967 borders. To tell you the truth, this is astonishing. Whatever happened to the [Palestinian] cause we had before 1967? Were we lying to ourselves or to the world? Thousands of martyrs fell before 1967. What for? How can you say that Palestine was occupied only in 1967, and that [Israel] must return to the pre-1967 borders?

"Does Palestine consist of only the West Bank and the Gaza Strip? If so, it means that the Israelis did not occupy it in 1948. They left it to you for 20 years, so why didn't you establish a Palestinian state? Wasn't the Gaza Strip part of Egypt and the West Bank part of Jordan? The Jews left them to you for 20 years - from 1948 to 1967. If that is Palestine, why didn't you establish a state there? What is the justification for all the wars, the sacrifices, and the economic embargo on Israel before 1967?

"You Arabs admitted that the [Palestinian] cause began after 1967. So the Israelis can ask: 'Why did you fight us before that?' They will demand Arab compensation for the so-called embargo on Israel and for the economic damage caused to the Israelis. If the Israelis sue you, they will win. They will say: We suffered an injustice. We are like an innocent lamb surrounded by wolves. We've been saying this since 1948.

A tradition started by Nazi Germany is causing a loss of face not only for Communist China but also and deservedly for the elitist (so well illustrated in Chariots of Fire) Olympic committee. It could not have happened to"nicer guys." The truth is that when they agreed to Red China, they knew that comparisons to the Nazi Olympics and the truncated Soviet one would be inevitable. Still, they chose to take the word of the representatives of a dictatorship at face value. Faced with a creative"flame extinguishing" sport, they are caucusing with Beijing in damage control sessions.

Beijing officials are to hold urgent talks with senior members of the Olympic movement about the torch relay, as concern grows among International Olympic Committee members over the effect of pro-Tibet protests on the games.

The proposed discussions follow a second consecutive day of disruption for the torch relay in Europe. Protests by hundreds of pro-Tibetan campaigners and some French politicians against Chinese human rights abuses yesterday forced organisers to cut short the Olympic torch's 28km trip through Paris.

IOC insiders ruled out routes being curtailed or cancelled, but one said discussions would take place with Beijing about"how the integrity of the torch can be maintained". . . .

It emerged that Lord Coe, chairman of the London Olympic committee, was inadvertently recorded by Channel 4 News accusing some of the Chinese officials providing security for the Olympic flame as it travelled through London on Sunday of being"thugs".

In comments to a colleague, he said if the organisers of the French part of the torch route do"one thing in Paris, it is to get rid of those guys. They tried to push me out of the way three times . . . they were thugs".

Now they are facing"expert" San Francisco demonstrators. German commentators argue that"sport and politics cannot be kept apart if a country with a human rights record as controversial as China's tries to hijack a sporting event for propaganda purposes." The"if" ignores the fact that all governments use the Olympics to show themselves in the best light. The problem arises from the willingness of the Olympic Committee to enable a dictatorship to do so. After all, the running of the torch was invented as a Nazi propaganda tool:

It was invented in its modern form by the organisers of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

And it was planned with immense care by the Nazi leadership to project the image of the Third Reich as a modern, economically dynamic state with growing international influence.

The idea chimed perfectly with the Nazi belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich.

And the event blended perfectly the perversion of history with publicity for contemporary German power.

The first torch was lit in Greece with the help of mirrors made by the German company Zeiss.

Steel-clad magnesium torches to carry the flame were specially produced by the Ruhr-based industrial giant Krupp.

Media coverage was masterminded by Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels, using the latest techniques and technology.

Dramatic regular radio coverage of the torch's progress kept up the excitement, and Leni Riefenstahl filmed it to create powerful images.

Read the rest and remember that once again it is proven that those, like the international Olympic Committee, who fail to learn from the past, are compelled to relive it. Those who forget Munich, are destined to relive it. This torch deserves extinguishing.

As America mourns the anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, a religious leader who stirred her conscience over 40 years ago, the democratic world is focused on the attempt of another religious leader, Dalai Lama's effort to stir it's conscience now. Why does he not try to stir the conscience of China? Because as, Mahatma Gandhi taught, only democracies, imperfect as they may be, are truly susceptible to moral suasion. Tyrannies are not.

In democracy power flows to the most persuasive as the ongoing American primaries are demonstrating. Cynical pundits not withstanding, plentiful funds do not a winner make. Had they done so, Mitt Romney, not John McCain would have emerged as the Republican presidential candidate. Moreover, democracies are comfortable with the notion that they are imperfect. After all, it is the role of the loyal opposition to point out the government's failings and advocate desirable ways to improve the system. It is this inherent openness to change that convinced Mahatma Gandhi and his disciple Martin Luther King in the efficacy of non violence reform.

The same cannot be said about tyrannies. They rely on fear elicited by a brute force augmented by a creed which attributes perfection to the ruler and the system. Indeed, as the Soviet treatment of Andrei Sakharov demonstrates, the surest sign that of a upcoming democratic transition is a change in it's treatment of those who appeal to it's conscience. No one studied the demise of the Soviet Communist rule more thoroughly than the Chinese Communist Mandarins not has anyone been more determined to avoid a similar fate than they are.

The recent 3 and a half year sentencing of Hu Jia for daring to write articles criticizing the regime is designed to convince those hoping that hosting of the Olympics will make the Chinese authorities less brutal that they have deceived themselves most pitifully.

The Dalai Lama understands as much and has, therefore, directed his efforts at moral persuasion not at China but at her democratic rivals. For realist protestations not withstanding, there is an inherent rivalry between tyrannies and democracies. Had the global democratic wave George W. Bush tried to engender succeeded, democracies would have been in a position of much greater influence. Unfortunately, an unholy anti-American alliance has effectively forestalled that wave and now, Chinese and Tibetans are amongst those paying the price.

Martin Luther King may have been the Moses of Black America but Dalai Lama is most unlikely to follow in his footsteps and be the Tibetan or the Chinese Moses. Their slavery is destined to continue for quite some time regardless of the best efforts of Elie Wiesel and his fellow Nobel laureates.