Arafat Emerges From Compound a Second Time and cries "To Jerusalem we are going as martyrs in the millions."

Clearly a man of peace.

This is absolutely ludicrous. The Saudi ambassador to Canada says William Sampson lied about being tortured in Saudi jail. He also maintains that Sampson is guilty of the bombing and was released to promote good will between the two countries. Give me a break. He presents no evidence of guilt and no evidence that Sampson was not tortured (and we have Sampson's heart attack on record indicating torture likely did occur). Instead he says that the Saudis could never have tortured him because "it is against the law and the Holy Koran." Really? That's a relief! Why didn't you say so sooner?!

Yesterday there were cries to recall our ambassador and kick out theirs. If this outright denial doesn't result in something more than harsh words, many Canadians will be very disappointed.

Master of None comments on The Volokh Conspiracy's discussion on Jews for Jesus. Eugene compares Jews to Jesus to Reform Judaism and concludes that there isn't a lot of difference between the two. And, if that's the case, then Jews for Jesus is no less a branch of Judaism than is Reform Judaism. I didn't have time to find and read his original article, but I have to question his conclusion.

Reform Judaism is, I think, an honest attempt at integrating Judaism with Modernism and took a "Jewish" approach. Reform Jews look towards traditional sources in justifying the changes they have made to the tradition. Even if you don't agree with what they've changed or how far they've taken it, I think you can conclude that the outcome is somewhat Jewish (or at least based on Jewish thought).

Jews for Jesus on the other hand seems to approach things from the other direction. (Let's assume for a minute that their goal is not to simply convert as many Jews as possible.) I checked out their web site and it's reference pages are chalk full of Christian bible quotations. Jews for Jesus is clearly coming from a Christian perspective and trying to prove to Jews that their teachings are truth.

I'm not sure you can compare JfJ with it's Christian roots to Reform Judaism. They may resemble each other on the surface, but when you're talking about branches, you need to look at the tree they're sprouting from.

And don't talk to me about Christianity being an offshoot of Judaism and therefore, blah, blah, blah. You'll create a paradox and doom us all.