March 20, 2004
QUESTION ASKED, ANSWERED
Reuters reports:
Some 100 Bahraini Islamists shouting "God is Greatest" stormed a French restaurant serving alcohol in the pro-Western Gulf Arab state and threatened diners with knives, witnesses said on Thursday.
"Abound 100 young men, shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), came to the restaurant carrying knives and shouted at the customers: Why do you drink?," Jahanshah Bakhtiar, owner of La Terrasse Restaurant, told Reuters.
"They were acting as if they had the right ideas and people should obey them," he said.
People didn’t.
One diner managed to wrest a knife away from the Islamists and stabbed one with it, causing him severe injuries, a witness said.
Note: the diners were outnumbered 100 to 40. Meanwhile, reel in astonishment at this:
Palestinians worry that Israeli withdrawal could lead to anarchy
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Many Palestinians here are brooding about the prospect of a sudden Israeli withdrawal, even though they have fought for the removal of Jewish settlers and soldiers for years.
Armed militant organizations such as Hamas built their empires on resistance to Israel, attracting legions of youths willing to die in often-futile attacks aimed at forcing Israelis out of the Gaza Strip, which Israel seized from Egypt in 1967.
But now that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appears poised to leave this 139-square-mile rectangle and its scattered Jewish settlements, which are difficult and expensive to defend, many Gaza residents are uncomfortable with the prospect and deeply suspicious of Israeli intentions.
(Via contributor J.F. Beck and Sgt Stryker)
Posted by Tim Blair at March 20, 2004 12:17 PMSoon those reporters calling for the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories will call that withdrawal callous and dangerous to the poor paleos.
Posted by: capt joe at March 20, 2004 at 12:24 PMLet's face it: the Romans are the only ones who can keep order round here! Huh!
Life of Brian strikes again.
Do the Palestinians want the Israelis to control their areas or not? Palestinian civil war will erupt now that Saddams money cannot be used to bribe officials. Arafat will die at the hands of his own people, not as a martyr.
Posted by: Andrew Jackson at March 20, 2004 at 12:36 PM"Abound 100 young men, shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), came to the restaurant carrying knives and shouted at the customers: Why do you drink?," Jahanshah Bakhtiar, owner of La Terrasse Restaurant, told Reuters.
I wonder if this individual is related to Rudi of CNN Headline News...?
Posted by: Bashir Gemayel at March 20, 2004 at 01:20 PMBut what have the Romans ever done for us? OK, besides roads, aqueducts, and bridges?
Posted by: IceCold at March 20, 2004 at 02:12 PM"One diner managed to wrest a knife away from the Islamists and stabbed one with it, causing him severe injuries, a witness said."
The French should put restaraunt patrons in charge of their government. "Vous ne prendrez jamais notre cuisine!"
Posted by: Craig Mc at March 20, 2004 at 02:19 PMI love this indignant line from the owner: They were acting as if they had the right ideas and people should obey them! Like "Where do these dumbasses get off, acting like they're not morons who sould be ignored?"
Right on brother. We need to start talking like this in the west about our local jihadist dipshits instead of treating their primitive outbursts like some kind adorable expression of cultural authenticity.
many Gaza residents are uncomfortable with the prospect and deeply suspicious of Israeli intentionsThe Israelis, on the other hand, aren't suspicious of the "Palestinians" at all - they're sure the Palis want to murder all Jews. Posted by: Barbara Skolaut at March 20, 2004 at 02:40 PM
threatened diners with knives
This is exactly why I gave up drinking ten years ago.....a morbid fear of being attacked by Islamoterrortists in French restaurants.
Posted by: Wallace at March 20, 2004 at 02:59 PMNever come between one of us cheese-eating knife-fighting monkeys and our expensive wine, Islamists!
Posted by: Sortelli at March 20, 2004 at 03:14 PMApropos of the apparent contradiction in the story about Israel withdrawing from Palestine:
Not confusing at all to anybody who has been paying attention the past few years: whatever we do (Israel/America/Australia/"the West", pick any) is wrong.
idsofukinsimpul.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. at March 20, 2004 at 03:29 PMObviously, it wasn't Frenchmen dining at the French restaurant, otherwise the muslim wouldn't have been stabbed.
Posted by: JR at March 20, 2004 at 03:58 PMCarl in N.H.
I hate nit pick but Israel is not withdrawing from PALESTINE! if you know what i mean. Again sorry to be so fussy but when we start using that terminology it means that their propaganda has worked.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a short story many years ago about Ancient Britons who had been asking the Romans to leave for years. They were horrified and terrtified when the romans told them thety actually were leaving.
Posted by: Hal at March 20, 2004 at 04:11 PMDead Ed:
Doh! You are correct. "Gaza" not "Palestine". Sh!t.
It's late, it's been a long day. And I've been drinking "Ommegang" beer (8.5% alcohol)....
Posted by: Carl in N.H. at March 20, 2004 at 04:51 PMHere's my idea: abandon all the settlements, withdraw behind the fence. Tell the 'Palestinians' fine, you've got your state, you're a sovereign country. Wait. Then the next time a Katyusha rocket flies from a Hezbollah area, find its launch point with counter-battery radar, move a regiment of MLRS into firing position, and depopulate a square kilometre.
The smarest thing the Israelis could do is give tbe Palestinians their own state. Then when the jundies come out of the woodwork, the IDF can extirpate them as a legitimate act of war.
Posted by: David Gillies at March 20, 2004 at 04:56 PM"One diner managed to wrest a knife away from the Islamists and stabbed one with it, causing him severe injuries, a witness said."
Unfuckingbelieveable who was this frog restaurant attacked by; the Loyal Order of Osama Pussies Brigade? Damn, what happen to the real man jihadist? You know the one that would strike fear into anyone or anything remotely French or even near French; like Belgian. Now we got sissies trying to terrorize us too. The freakin' world is going to hell in a handbasket, I tell ya.
Posted by: Harry at March 20, 2004 at 05:15 PMSo long, farewell Gaza. Don't let the door hit your butt on the way out...
One diner managed to wrest a knife away from the Islamists and stabbed one with it, causing him severe injuries, a witness said.
Wasn't our friend Mahmood was it? He seems like the sort who doesn't take shit from no sissy boy Islmist. Mahmood, you rock!
Posted by: Pezza at March 20, 2004 at 07:20 PMUnless they're on an airplane, diners have knives too.
Posted by: Ron Hardin at March 20, 2004 at 07:43 PMPuerto Rican activists worked for years to stop US training missions in PR. The Navy has complied, and is pulling out. Result: Puerto Rico is out 2,500 jobs and $300 million a year. (Puerto Rico Herald says 6,000 jobs.)
Now they're complaining about the US leaving.
That is great,
I will bet the diner who took the knife and stabbed the islamist wasn't French. Texan, maybe.
Posted by: Fred Jenson at March 20, 2004 at 10:51 PMI recently moved back to the States after spending a year in Bahrain, a big rock island in the Persian Gulf that has the sad misfortune of not having (much) oil. Picture this, a “country” of 800,000 people, of which 600,000 are foreign laborers (Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Filipinos) and 100,000 are Belarusian hookers, all servicing the odd 100,000 or so Arabs that don’t (won’t) work. Connected to Saudi Arabia by a 17-mile causeway, it serves as the Saudi equivalent of a really big roadhouse/brothel. Every Wednesday night, the bridge would be chock full of Mercedes S500’s jammed full of Arab “playas.” As if to offset the offense to Islam, the Saudi Government would routinely round up a couple of busloads of hothead “students” (I wonder what kind of grades these students get—always off on field trips), motor over to Bahrain and raise the rabble, protesting everything not true to the Wahabbi way. My guess is that this was another busload of unemployed malcontents who probably got a free lamb dinner for their trouble.
Posted by: Brian at March 20, 2004 at 11:45 PMTeenage Diplomat:
Sorry, you're just too simplisme, not nearly nuanced enough.
It's the abstract principle that's important. In the case of PR, it's that the warmongering Navy was destroying the pristine PR landscape. This was all done for the right motives and by extremely sincere people; therefore, it must be right.
What? There are consequences? Nonsense, that's just Bushitler, radical right-wing religious nutcase talk!
Posted by: Dean Douthat at March 21, 2004 at 01:44 AMc'mon Dean Douthat, where's your spirit of free enterprise, lobby for a naval base for your neighbourhood. Lot's of jobs! Your sisters can work at the whorehouse, your mum can wash & iron the uniforms, your dad can take out the garbage - OPORTUNITY KNOCKS!
Posted by: carlos at March 21, 2004 at 06:22 AMFunny that drinking is a sin, but it's fine to threaten people with knives.
Posted by: aaron at March 21, 2004 at 07:41 AMWell Carlos, it's Puerto Ricans who are bitching about the loss of jobs once the naval base left. You know what, why donesn't PR vote for independence? The chance comes every four years. Vote in an independence governor and see hos fast the US leaves. Of course, that would eliminate the cozy economic bennies PR has now with respect to the US market, but hey, poverty is a small price to pay for knowing you are an independent country, right? Plus, it gives PR the opportunity to have its own Caudillo, in the best tradition of Spanish political culture. Ask the Venezuelans how wonderful that is, they have one taking power right now.
For some reason the majority of Puerto Ricans don't think that is a good idea. Funny thing, that.
Posted by: Michael Lonie at March 21, 2004 at 07:54 AM"Why do you drink?"
I drink to make other people more interesting!
Posted by: Dog at March 21, 2004 at 09:17 AMTeenage Diplomat
Puerto Rican activists worked for years to stop US training missions in PR. The Navy has complied, and is pulling out. Result: Puerto Rico is out 2,500 jobs and $300 million a year. (Puerto Rico Herald says 6,000 jobs.)
Now they're complaining about the US leaving.Do you know how this apparent contradiction comes about? A small group of anti-Yanqui activists, egged on by American left-wing loons, get the attention of sympathetic network news directors, and voila! headline-grabbing scandal that the Pentagon doesn't want to deal with. Much the same thing happened in the Philipines. Posted by: Spiny Norman at March 21, 2004 at 09:47 AM
The Palestinians always want Whatever land Israel has. It's looks so much nicer!
So naturally when they get it, they no longer want it.