Antigonos' Annals: You Read It Here First

Sunday, February 28, 2010

You Read It Here First

Several years ago, I predicted this (I wrote about an "unconfirmed report from Iran that they had missiles that could hit London") but on at least one list to which I belong I was accused of "warmongering", of course because I am an Israeli, and therefore, "biased".

"Buy Iranian oil at $500 per barrel, or we take out Vienna".

But personally, I think The Clown of Teheran wants a Shi'ite hegemony over the Middle East. The Shi'ites have a long, long grudge against Sunni Islam. Turning Syria into an Iranian proxy is only the first step in Achmadinejad's plan, just as Hitler "only" wanted the Ruhr, and the rights of the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia "guaranteed".

But of course, being Israeli, I'm biased. There's nothing to fear from Achmadinejad, just as there was nothing to fear from Hitler...

3 comments:

Donna said...: Sarah You've misspelled Ahmadinejad.

Donna
NOLA; 12:03 AM
Antigonos said...: Well, yes and no. The "h" is a Scottish "ch" [as in loch]. And given that his name is actually written in Farsi, using the Arabic alphabet, which has sounds English doesn't have, then there is room for variation. [In Hebrew, btw, which does have the "Scottish 'ch'", his name is spelt with it]

The spelling of his name should be the biggest problem the world has with him; 9:42 AM
Donna said...: You are right in that writing an arabic name in English loses sounds at times. however I can safely disagree with you on this pronunciation since I read and write Arabic and Farsi. The H in this case is not the CH that you describe. It is the sound of H in such names as Helen, Holly, Hank and so on. Ahmad is a very old Muslim name and Ahmadi-nejad is much like Mac_Duh. As in the son of, from the line of, or blood of Ahmad. I'm sure many people mispronounce the name but if we wish to write something about him and sound intelligent we must spell the name correctly.

I see that you are very passionate about issues involving Iran and Ahmadinejad. I just thought you are too educated to make a spelling mistake like this.; 4:19 PM

Post a Comment

Milon (Glossary)

OLEH: an immigrant to Israel. The root of the word comes from the verb "to ascend". The plural is "olim". A female is an "olah", and a bunch of female immigrants is "olot".

YORED: an emigrant from Israel. The word means "to descend". Plural is "yordim".

MA'ABARA: pl. "ma'abarot". Tent cities which were built as transit camps in the years immediately following Israel's independence, as nearly two million Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab countries arrived, often only with the clothes they wore.

MEDURA: pl. "medurot". Campfire.

TZENA: austerity, the name given to the period between Israel's independence and the mid 1950s, when times were very tough.

SHEMITTA: every seventh year, the land in The Land is supposed to lie fallow. Since this would lead to starvation, the ancient Sages developed a whole body of law that permitted cultivation using certain methods and/or the legal fiction that the fields in question were "sold" to a non-Jew for the year. Not all the ultra-Orthodox (virtually none of whom are farmers, and who lived for centuries in non-Jewish communities in the Diaspora where this wasn't a problem) will accept these ways around the commandment, and will only eat either imported produce or produce grown at vast expense in trays of soil raised OFF the ground (therefore not technically being grown "in" the Holy Land. Only a Jew would think of this)

CHAMETZ: literally, "leaven". It means all food which it is prohibited to have "in one's possession" during Passover. Different Jewish ethnic groups interpret this in different ways. Obviously yeast and fermented items are forbidden, but some communities will eat legumes and others will not; some will not eat anything made with matzah or matzah meal which has been in contact with water (gebrochts) like matzah balls. Some communities will eat rice, others will not.

TZITZIT: ritual fringes that males wear, often on the edges of a scapular worn under a shirt, or on the prayer shawl worn in the synagogue. There is a precise way to tie them, so that the knots and twists will add up to 613, the number of the commandments in the Torah.

SHAKSHOUKA: Eggs cooked in a spicy tomato sauce. See http://www.recipezaar.com/148450 for a recipe.

TESHUVA: Penitence.

LITVAK: An very Orthodox Jew from Lithuania. The foremost sage in that community, in the 19th century, was the Vilna Gaon, who excommunicated the hassidim as schismatics because of their mystic belief in their "wonder-working" rabbis. The Hassidim promptly returned the favor. "Litvaks" are noted for their minute, but rationalist, dissection of Jewish texts, and have a distinctive accent in Hebrew. The two communities both wear the black long coats (capotes), have long beards and sidelocks, and are often confused by outsiders as being the same.

Antigonos' Annals

ANTIGONOS' BRAIN

Sunday, February 28, 2010

You Read It Here First

3 comments:

ANTIGONOS' FAVORITE NEWS AND COMMENTARY SITES

Blog Archive

Milon (Glossary)