After insisting for a generation that Martin Luther King is a national figure who needs a national holiday and a street in every city, our liberal friends now tell us that Martin Luther King is off-limits for conservatives.

With the rise of birthright citizenship as an issue, we've witnessed a transformation of media and left-wing gadflies from knee-jerk constitutional relativists to strict textualists.

It's a fight for the ages, brought to you by the New York Times as it struggles to keep the nation safe for the ruling class.

No heavy lifting for either Barack Obama or Woodrow Wilson

It's obvious that tea partiers share an affinity for King's civil disobedience.

The living legacy of Muslim anti-Jewish hatred and violence remains firmly rooted in mainstream, orthodox Islamic teachings, not some aberrant vision of "radical Islam."

Barack Hussein Obama now has the United States positioned to come under international review by some of the most brutal and despotic nations in the world.

A person does not need to be a military expert or have a Ph.D. in foreign affairs in order to understand the disastrous implications of Obama's foreign policy for America's national security.

Medalla Fields

Después de una semana algo complicada debido a un cambio de hosting (el proceso no ha estado exento de problemas, más bien todo lo contrario) volvemos a la carga. Y, como no podía ser de otra forma, lo hacemos dando un repaso al ICM 2010.

El ICM en matemáticas es el congreso, el evento más importante de las matemáticas y los matemáticos, la reunión a la que todo matemático querría asistir al menos una vez en su vida. Se celebra cada cuatro años y suele reunir a lo más granado del mundo de las matemáticas de ese momento. Este año se ha celebrado en Hyderabad (India) del 19 al 27 de agosto y ha contado con unos 3000 participantes. En él se entrega la medalla Fields, que pasa por ser el premio más importante que puede recibir un matemático, y algunos otros premios. Recordemos que el anterior ICM, celebrado en Madrid en 2006, alcanzó gran fama y difusión gracias a la medalla Fields de Perelman por su resolución de la conjetura de Poincaré, aunque al final la rechazara.

En esta edición los galardonados con la medalla Fields han sido los siguientes:

• Elon Lindenstrauss, especialista en teoría ergódica y sus aplicaciones en teoría de números. El matemático israelí Harry Furstenberg nos habla aquí de las contribuciones de Lindenstrauss.

• Ngô Bào Châu, por demostrar el Lema Fundamental del Programa de Langlands. Aunque este hecho no formó tanto revuelo como el tema de Perelman, la revista Time lo consideró como uno de los diez descubrimientos científicos más importantes del año 2009. Aquí podemos ver algo de los trabajos de Ngò Bàu Châu contados por James Arthur, matemático canadiense muy relacionado con el Programa de Langlands.

• Stanislav Smirnov, por sus trabajos sobre teoría de la percolación, teoría relacionada con la física estadística. Harry Kesten, matemático estadounidense, nos habla aquí de sus contribuciones.

• Cédric Villani, por sus trabajos sobre el amortiguamiento de Landau y sobre la ecuación de Boltzmann. El matemático taiwanés Horng-Tzer Yau se encarga de hablarnos de ello aquí.

Como hemos dicho antes, en los ICM se entregan más premios aparte de la medalla Fields. En esta edición se han entregado tres más, que son estos:

• Premio Nevalinna, que se entrega por contribuciones de las matemáticas a la computación. Este año ha recaído en Daniel Spielman.
• Premio Gauss, que se entrega por contribuciones matemáticas a las que se le han encontrado aplicaciones significativas en otras ramas. Esta es la segunda vez que se entrega y el galardonado ha sido Yves Meyer.
• Premio Chern, que se entrega en reconocimiento de toda una exitosa trayectoria en matemáticas. Louis Nirenberg ha sido quien lo ha merecido en ésta su primera edición. Una vida dedicada al estudio de las ecuaciones elípticas no lineales bien vale el reconocimiento con este premio y los 250000$ con los que está dotado.

Respecto a la participación española en este ICM 2010, es evidente que lo más destacable ha sido la invitación que recibieron Isabel Fernández y Pablo Mira para impartir una conferencia en el congreso, hecho sobre el cual ya hablamos en Gaussianos hace un tiempo. Aunque esta invitación es un logro enorme y demuestra la capacidad de estos dos matemáticos españoles, seguimos sin tener en nuestro país ni una medalla Fields. Y lo que es peor, sin demasiadas perspectivas de siquiera acercarnos a conseguir una. ¿Para cuándo una medalla Fields para un español? ¿Qué tiene que cambiar en España para que podamos llegar a codearnos con países como Francia (dos de los medallistas de este año y el premio Gauss son franceses) o Estados Unidos en lo que a matemáticas se refiere? ¿Es que aquí no hay capacidad suficiente? ¿O es otra cosa lo que falla? Ahí lo dejo.

Y para terminar, comentar que la IMU, que se reunió los días 16 y 17 de agosto en Bangalore (India), ha designado a la profesora belga Ingrid Daubechies, de la Universidad de Princeton, para ocupar la presidencia de la institución. Aunque en la época en la que estamos estas cosas son cada vez menos noticia (y esperemos que se siga evolucionando en este sentido), este nombramiento es reseñable ya que Ingrid Daubechies va a ser la primera mujer presidenta de la IMU.

Fuentes y enlaces relacionados:

• Terry Tao nos habla en su blog de los galardonados con la medalla Fields.
• Juan Pablo también nos da su opinión sobre los Fields.
• En Francis (th)E Mule Science News también encontramos un un completísimo post sobre los premiados.

Egyptian security forces in Sinai have found yet more weapons to be smuggled into Gaza to be used – oh, I don’t know – against Israel.

AP

Egyptian security forces on Sunday found an additional five missile and TNT caches in Sinai that were planned to be smuggled into Gaza, Palestinian news Agency Ma’an reported.

According to the report Egyptian forces found 110 antiaircraft missiles, over 100kg of explosives material.

The report comes a day after Egyptian authorities intercepted a shipment of at least 190 anti-aircraft missiles in Sinai.

Egyptian police raided several storage areas in the area and discovered the secret cache hidden in a remote region in the center of the peninsula.

In addition to the anti-aircraft missiles, rockets and other ammunition were seized, as well as a large supply of illegal drugs.

Reports also stated that authorities raided several locations in Rafah, where they found more stores of explosives and weapons.

Meanwhile, PA President Mahmoud Abbas wants everyone to know that the biggest obstacle to peace is Israel building “settlements,” and Arab League chief Amr Moussa is pessimistic about the peace talks for the same reason.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

12:52PM: The NY Times has given space to Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah to spread propaganda and make the specious comparison between the Arab-Israeli conflict and the conflict in Northern Ireland.

A number of bloggers have given the article a thorough fisking, so I will point you in their direction instead of trying to reinvent the wheel during time I don’t have:

FresnoZionism

Z Word Blog

11:52AM: While PA President Mahmoud Abbas says Israel’s “settlement” building in occupied territories the obstacle to peace, this is how his PA TV defines the occupied territories (hat tip” PMW).

9:04AM: With the expression of antisemitic sentiment in Turkey rising, it is not just that the number of Jews entering Turkey is decreasing.

The number of Jews leaving Turkey is rising.

A growing number of Turkey’s Jews are leaving their homeland in favor of life in Israel, according to latest reports.

Approximately 85 members of Turkey’s 17,000-strong Jewish community arrived in Israel in the first half of 2010, according to Jacque Abursi, secretary of the Organization of Turkish Immigrants in Israel.

Speaking with the local Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot, Abursi cited a significant increase in anti-Jewish sentiments as the primary reason for moving to Israel.

The Israeli government and the Jewish Agency have tried in vain in the past decades to convince Turkey’s Jews to immigrate to Israel.

Officials are attributing the sudden increase to a deterioration in diplomatic relations between the two countries following the Israeli incursion into Gaza in 2008. Relations reached an all-time low in the wake of a May 31 raid on a Gaza- bound Turkish aid flotilla that left nine activists dead.

Turkish officials, according to the report, are going out of their way to ease the apprehension allegedly felt by the Jewish communities of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and elsewhere, by declaring their contribution to the state. But their efforts fall on deaf ears.

“The street is influenced by the political atmosphere, and we are on the verge of desperation from life here,” a Jewish resident of Istanbul was quoted recently. “We love Turkey, but we will not be able to live in fear for so long.”

An official Israeli source, who spoke with Xinhua on Sunday on condition of anonymity, said that more Turkish Jews are purchasing homes in Israel as a “potential shelter in case of need” over the past year.

Nissim Yochai, 54, a successful textile entrepreneur, landed in Israel with his wife and son on Friday.

“The situation is scary,” Yochai told the newspaper. “I think that within five years not a single Jew will remain in Turkey.”

“The (Jewish) community is in great distress, both politically and financially. Most Muslims tend not to buy at Jewish stores, mostly textile products,” he added.

8:48AM: Wouldn’t this make things interesting…

Partners in Israel’s offshore Leviathan natural gas field said Sunday that new tests reveal the possibility to find up to 4.2 billion barrels of oil below the underwater gas field in the Mediterranean Sea.

The partners, including Noble Energy Inc. (NBL: 67.23 ,0.00 ,0.00%) and subsidiaries of Delek Group Ltd. (DLEKG.TV), said there was a 17% probability of geological success to find three billion barrels of oil at a depth of 5,800 meters and a 8% probability of geological success in finding 1.2 billion more barrels of oil at a depth of 7,200 meters.

The partners said it is too early to tell whether they will drill wells to access the oil, as further testing is needed.

In June, the partners announced that the Leviathan field contains 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with a 50% probability for geological success. The partners will begin drilling for the gas in October.

Noble holds 39.66% of the Leviathan field; Delek subsidiaries Avner Oil and Gas Ltd. Partnership and Delek Drilling Ltd. Partnership each hold a 22.67% stake; and Ratio Oil Exploration Ltd. Partnership (RATI.L.TV) holds 15%.

When the Leviathan gas discovery was announced in June, Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament and Hashem Safieddine, executive council chief of the Islamic movement Hezbollah, told international media that the area belongs to Lebanon and not Israel. But Israeli government authorities denied this claim, saying Israel has the right the maritime area where the field is located.

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"Arab Israeli Unity"?!!
Arabs and Israelis standing together against a common threat?!!
Is it a possibility?

* * * Recent events are moving quickly. Here's a current assessment from the Asia Times Online: The great chess game of the Middle East
Aug 28, 2010

it is hard to avoid the fact that despite all threats on the Jewish state, Israel profits to a certain extent from Iran's belligerent posture.

. . . "The countries of the Arabian Peninsula are infinitely more interested in the threat from Iran than in the existence of Israel and, indeed, see Israel as one of the buttresses against Iran."

For the first time since its creation, Israel finds itself in the same camp as many Arab states, and for better or for worse, having a common enemy is perhaps the best way to make friends in the Middle East.-more

And a "hot off the press" news item just reported by the Palestinian Maan News Agency.

Egypt: 3rd weapons cache found in 48 hours
Aug 29, 2010
Al-Arish– Ma'an
– Egyptian State Security discovered a third weapons storehouse within 48 hours on Tuesday, security sources said.

Egyptian forces were informed that smugglers were attempting to transfer explosives and weapons to a storehouse in the Sinai peninsula, sources told Ma'an.

Forces raided the area south of the Al-Arish port city and discovered 65 anti-aircraft missiles, 35 anti-tank missiles, as well as large quantities or ammunition, the sources added.

Egyptian security forces said they discovered weapons and explosives on Monday, hidden in the border city of Rafah, prepared for smuggling into Gaza through tunnels.

Security sources told Ma'an that Egyptian forces raided a cemetery in Rafah, 3 kilometers from the Gaza border, and found a weapons cache including anti-tank land mines.

A second weapons store was found in the Al-Ahrash border area, which included machine guns and ammunition, also prepared for smuggling into Gaza, sources said. -more

Your thoughts? -Dry Bones- Israel's Political Comic Strip Since 1973

With a week and a half left until Rosh Hashana, there is no time to waste. Our job now is national strengthening of emuna, while doing teshuva for our misdeeds and returning with all our hearts to Hashem.

Like we wrote last week, Hashem continues to take care of the worrying - that's His task. Another 5.9 Richter-scale earthquake - the third in a month - has jolted North Iran just yesterday. Hashem is also sending another black cat between rival Palestinian factions. Hashem is definitely doing His job; let's do ours!

Over 32 years ago, ABC TV aired “Stars Salute Israel at 30,” which remains the only time that a foreign nation has been honored on US network TV on prime time.

Here’s a clip from the show: Barbra Streisand (who since seems to have toned down her support for Israel, assuming it even exists any more) performing “Happy Days Are Here Again”, followed by a conversation with former PM of the State of Israel, Golda Meir, and then a rendition of Israel’s national anthem Hatikvah (The Hope).

Golda was to die a few months later.

Update: An interesting article on the special.

On May 13th, a marquee gathering began in Jerusalem to celebrate Israel’s sixtieth anniversary. Over three days, political leaders and writers including Henry Kissinger, Bernard Henri-Levi, Amos Oz, and President George W. Bush made speeches, and symposia on weighty topics, ranging from the scientific foundation of creation to the nature of Jewish identity, were held. Also this month, in New York and Los Angeles, live concerts featuring Matisyahu, David Broza, and Paul Shaffer marked the occasion. In Times Square, videos featuring stars such as Tom Cruise, Ben Stiller, and Dakota Fanning wishing Israel a happy birthday are appearing on two giant screens twice every hour. And on June 1, New York’s annual Salute to Israel parade will offer birthday wishes, as will yet another concert—this one on the Mall in Washington, D.C., hosted by Mandy Patinkin and featuring Regina Spektor.

But while the cable news channels are broadcasting the speeches of international dignitaries in Israel, and PBS stations will have some specialty programming—New York’s WNET will show Visions of Israel, an aerial tour of the country—the big networks are pretty much avoiding the occasion. Typical of the cable coverage: CNBC packaged a series of reports on the Jewish State under the banner “Israel at 60: Business Under Fire”; CNN International, for its part, ran Israel at 60, which showcased the country’s technological achievements, its ethnic mix, and its struggle “for acceptance and peace with its neighbors.”

All this is well and good, but certainly a far cry from the thirtieth-anniversary celebration that ABC broadcast—in prime time—on Monday, May 8, 1978, and simulcast in Israel. The two-hour extravaganza, The Stars Salute Israel at 30, featured icons of the day: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Carol Burnett, Sammy Davis Jr., Kirk Douglas, Gene Kelly, Billie Jean King, Barry Manilow, Paul Newman, Bernadette Peters, and more. Sally Struthers of All in the Family cheerfully sang “Happy Birthday Israel” with a group of children. Henry Winkler, who played the Fonz on ABC’s number one sitcom, Happy Days, was paired with Henry Fonda in an unlikely skit: a sabra (Winkler) encountering an Old West cowboy (Fonda) in the desert.

Yet this was mere prelude to the big finish: Barbra Streisand. With a big head of era-appropriate permed hair, she first sang three standards (“Tomorrow,” “People,” and “Happy Days Are Here Again”), then conducted a conversation via satellite with Israel’s former prime minister, Golda Meir, who appeared on a gigantic video screen, holding a clunky telephone receiver, gracefully answering Streisand’s fawning questions. (“How did you manage all these years to have so much energy? Did you take vitamins?”) After the chat came the pièce de résistance: Streisand singing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem. Introducing the song, whose title means “the hope,” Streisand said, “Let us light candles on both sides of the world in the hope that people everywhere will be inspired to work for peace and love and the betterment of all men.” Attendees in Los Angeles’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion held aloft light sticks as their counterparts in Israel raised candles. No fewer than 18.7 million American households tuned in. Now Streisand’s performance is enjoying a second life: More than 366,000 people have watched it on YouTube since it was posted in 2006.

Streisand had been scheduled to sing at the festivities in Israel this year, but in late April she backed out, citing “personal obligations.” If she had made it to Israel this time around, it’s unlikely that as many people would have seen her appearance as back in a time when network TV really meant something—when shows in the top twenty attracted at least fifteen million viewers. (These days a show can reach the number twenty spot with just eleven million viewers.)

Two months before the thirtieth anniversary, Israel had suffered its deadliest terrorist attack. Palestinian terrorists who came by boat from Lebanon killed thirty-five Israeli civilians. Israel responded by invading Lebanon, a weeklong incursion that ended when the United Nations Security Council mandated Israel’s withdrawal and the posting of UN troops.

But this was also, as Streisand said, a historical moment of hope: six months earlier Sadat had traveled to Jerusalem, raising the possibility of lasting peace. And two years prior, Israel had succeeded in rescuing all but three of 105 hostages from a hijacked Air France plane in Entebbe, Uganda—a daring raid that became the subject of two made-for-TV movies, one of which appeared on ABC. The chief and founder of ABC, Leonard Goldenson, was an outspoken advocate of Israel (according to one account, when he showed up unannounced at Golda Meir’s doorstep in the 1960s, she thanked him for his devotion to the nation and invited him in), so it’s no surprise he greenlighted the thirtieth-anniversary spectacular. ABC also had a proclivity for quirky programming, like Battle of the Network Stars, the biannual special in which you could see, say, Scott Baio and Billy Crystal competing in an obstacle course race, with Howard Cosell announcing.

One of the writers of The Stars Salute Israel at 30 was Buz Kohan, who wrote or cowrote dozens of TV award shows and celebrations, as well as a variety program marking Israel’s twenty-fifth anniversary five years earlier, The Stars Salute Israel—25. That program—filmed at the Western Wall, with Alan King hosting—aired on ABC on a Thursday, at 11 p.m. in some markets and 11:30 p.m. in most. It featured performances by Rudolf Nureyev, Isaac Stern and, in one of her final appearances, Josephine Baker. (Because of its late night airtime, its Nielsen ratings aren’t available today.)

Five years later, Israel’s embassy turned to Charles Fishman, a jazz producer who had formerly served as the national director of Young Judaea, for help in planning the thirtieth-anniversary celebration. Fishman had brought Stan Getz to Israel in 1977, a trip filmed for the 1978 documentary Stan Getz: A Musical Odyssey. “How do you break away from the late night television?” Fishman remembers asking himself. “I sat back and said, ‘What would be the hippest thing to do? What would be the biggest star-power thing to do?’”

No other Jewish American performer of the time was as big as Streisand. This was little more than a year after the release of A Star Is Born, which had garnered her an Oscar for the song “Evergreen.” Fishman enlisted producer James Lipton, now famous for Inside the Actors Studio, and director Marty Pasetta, another award-show veteran, and set to work getting Streisand. She was interested, but had her own conditions: She wanted to sing accompanied by Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. So that’s exactly what she got. And with the strength of Streisand’s name, Fishman and company sold the show to ABC.

In the days before the show aired, Kohan and Mehta went to Streisand’s home to help her prepare. “She wanted to sing ‘Hatikvah,’ only she didn’t know” the song, Kohan recalls. Kohan picked up the phone, called his wife, Rhea, and asked her to sing the song to Streisand. “I hope she’s not intimidated,” Rhea quipped before launching into it.

Streisand’s preparation worked. For the organizers, the result was transcendent. “She was remarkable,” says Kohan. “Everybody was impressed with the last twenty minutes of the show.”

Even with all of this year’s celebrations, including the celebrity testimonials in Times Square, it’s hard to believe that Israel’s birthday was once celebrated with a TV program watched by more than eighteen million Americans. “To this day,” Fishman says, “it’s the only time that a foreign nation has been honored on network TV on prime time.”

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A week of controversy and "outreach" as seen (and overheard) by Clarice Feldman.

It has been proposed by various groups and individuals that an organization known as "Oath Keepers" is racist, seditious, hateful, and pernicious. I'm here to tell you the real story.

Fascism is not just national socialism as a political ideology. It also involves a mob frenzy in which cruelty is whipped up and celebrated.

The consequences of pernicious regulations.

Middle East Studies professors attack opponents of the Ground Zero mosque.

If he lived in Quebec, that bastion of liberalism, Barack Obama would be officially counted by the government a Muslim.