Elvis Costello once made fun of the absent German sense of humor. Apparently, he was wrong, because there’s evidence of it in response to a German judge’s ruling that it’s okay for a German Muslim woman to be beaten by her husband … because the Koran says so.

Oh, it’s a custom from the old country?! Why didn’t you say so!

(via Charles Johnson at LFG)

In related news, European Commission president José Manuel Barroso (a Maoist in his youth, and now a “centre-right” politician, says that political correctness is killing Europe’s freedoms.

Ya think?

Nothing new.

Not only that, but despite the fact that she says Johnston’s kidnapping is “the last straw,” there’s a tone of resignation about all of it—the lawlessness in Gaza and the kidnappings and the factional strife—in this piece (”A Hostage to Misfortune“) by Johnston’s journalist colleague Laila El-Haddad:

This isn’t the first time they’ve tried to come for him, of course, but the first time they’ve been successful. As a precaution, his office removed the “BBC” sign by their multi-lock door in Gaza.

In better times, we used to joke about the day he would finally get kidnapped: what kind of biscuits his captors would serve him, and how he would take his tea - a reference to the experiences of former captives, conversations that seem ominous and not-so-funny in hindsight.

I say “finally” because catch-and-release kidnappings have become so frequent in Gaza in recent years as to become banal. The pattern is predictable: a foreign aid worker or journalist (or someone mistaken for a foreigner) is abducted; certain, often juvenile, demands are made, and the captive is released unharmed - though shaken up - a few days (and often hours, later). Alan’s abduction is only unusual in its length. Aside from Gilad Shalit, the longest incident of captivity in Gaza was that of two Fox News reporters, held for nearly two weeks.

According to the Gaza-based Palestinian Human Rights Centre, 28 kidnappings, with a total of 55 foreigners including journalists and international workers, have taken place in Gaza over the past three years, every hostage being released unharmed.

Over the same period, nobody has ever claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

That seems to be true. At the same time, El-Haddad claims that everyone knows who the kidnappers are and that nobody does anything about it.

The last thing Gazans want to do is to drive away the few remaining foreigners - often aid workers - from the lonely open-air prison they call home. Or to further tarnish their image abroad, they say.

But their more immediate concern is their feeling that the Palestinian government and accompanying security forces have been too soft on kidnappers. More often than not, they argue, the security apparatus must know the location and identity of the captors, but instead of tracking them down, they fumble with security procedures and protocol, clan feuds and threats of revenge, and in the end, opt to negotiate and give in to some of their demands in return for the safe release of the hostages. These demands usually come in the form of pay raises, job promotions, or simply employment.

Now, of course, this little story of one journalist trying to do good in Gaza and kidnapped for his pains has been overshadowed.

The latest story is of 15 British sailors and marines who were abducted at gunpoint by Iranian military personnel. Daily Pundit says we will do nothing about it:

That is an act of war. And what will we do about it? Nothing. They could hang these men on live TV (let’s hope they don’t) and still we would do little except bluster ineffectually.

The Iranians are feeling their oats, and with good reason. The extent to which they are supporting the Shia terrorists in Iraq, and fomenting unrest generally, should by now have had very serious consequences for them.

You can call it a “war on terrorism”  or the “terrorists’ war on us” (the Giuliani formulation). You can claim that America (and the West) can and should fight these pesky problems as if they were criminal matters. I don’t care one way or the other.

The thing is, though, this behavior has to be stopped. The world’s bad actors must be labeled as bad actors, and they must be stopped. And punished. Their bad actions need to have consequences. Or they will be followed by worse actions. And actions even worse than those.

MIT is holding a contest, called “Just Jerusalem,” whose goal is to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

MIT officials are inviting individuals or teams from any country to participate in its “Just Jerusalem” competition. The contest aims to find a way to make Jerusalem just, peaceful and sustainable by 2050 so that Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side in a city both consider their capital. …
Winners of the four categories on the rebuilding of Jerusalem, from renovating buildings to revamping its economy, and a fifth floating category will each receive a $50,000 MIT fellowship.

Hurry—you’ve got only 9 months. Entries are due by December 31.

From Google News at 8 a.m.:

‘All efforts’ in hunt for BBC man
BBC News, UK - 1 hour ago
Every possible effort is being made to secure the release of BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, a Palestinian presidential aide has said. …
Reporters without borders calls for speedy release of BBC journalist Indian Muslims
Captors to free abducted BBC reporter soon: sources People’s Daily Online
PA police may have helped snatch BBC reporter Jerusalem Post
IFEX - Post Chronicle
all 44 news articles »

I missed this, but a couple of days ago, CNN’s Ben Wedemen posted a “behind the scenes” column. He’s “chilled” by the kidnapping of his professional colleague Johnston. He also says that kidnapping has become a way of life in Gaza:

On more than one occasion [Johnston and Wedeman] talked about the danger of kidnapping. Alan’s attitude, and mine, was usually to treat the phenomenon as an unfortunate inconvenience, as a potential danger, but something that was becoming a fact of life there. Both of us saw Gaza as an intriguing, tragic place, where we were often met with generosity and openness from people who, given their circumstances, might have been expected to be hostile. …

I am hoping Alan emerges from this nightmare without too many psychological scars. He is a very easy-going, soft-spoken, good-humored, amiable person — someone who takes his job seriously and takes the time to listen to every point of view. If anyone is well-equipped to endure, it’s Alan.

Wedeman also describes reality on the ground—as he sees it—in Gaza:

Gaza is a small, cramped and crowded place where it’s hard to keep a secret from anyone, where everybody knows everybody. Most Gazans are aghast every time a kidnapping takes place, and few will make excuses for the kidnappers. Kidnapping goes completely contrary to traditional Arab values of generosity and kindness to strangers. But it’s become a fact of life. In recent trips, my Gazan friends have insisted that they accompany me back to my hotel after work or after a get-together. They say it’s out of courtesy, but I’ve always suspected it’s really out of concern. [e.a.]

Obviously, that traditional Arab value of kindness to strangers doesn’t apply to Israelis. There are currently three Israeli kidnap victims being held for ransom by Arabs, which Ben Wedeman shamefully fails to mention:

Gilad Shalit

Ehud Goldwasser

Eldad Regev

From the Pew poll of Americans’ political and social views over the last 20 years (via Ankush, at Penguins on the Equator), here (buried deep in the summary) is the reason why the politics of resentment (class, income, or otherwise) doesn’t catch fire with Republicans and why it will continue to be popular with the Democratic base. (It also answers Thomas Frank’s extraordinarily condescending question “What’s the Matter with Kansas?“):

Republicans and Democrats remain far apart in their fundamental attitudes toward government, national security, social values, and even in evaluations of personal finances. Three-in-four (74%) Republicans with annual incomes of less than $50,000 say they are “pretty well satisfied” with their financial conditions compared with 40% of Democrats and 39% of independents with similar incomes.

If I polled everyone I know, I wonder how many people would say that they’d be “pretty well satisfied” with an income of less than $50,000 a year.

Here’s my (semi-educated) guess: no one in New York City, and a lot of people in the rural hamlet in Red America where I go to escape all the strivers.

There’s lots of other interesting stuff in the poll, too. (Pew claims it makes the territory favorable to Democrats.)  Check it out.