Well, he’s got my attention.

Yes, I know. He’s got a picture of himself giving ‘the finger’. And, there’s an ad for Adult FriendFinder. And… some of his writing will never be confused with anything Christian. (You weren’t expecting a Baptist, right?) So, you might have to hold your nose a bit to support him.

The problem is that the guy is going to die at the hands of the current Egyptian regime, unless something isn’t done soon.

I picked this up recently from the Jerusalem Post:

‘Pro-Israel’ Egyptian blogger becomes a cause celebre

By THE MEDIA LINE 10/31/2011 20:42

Previously shunned for views on Israel, activists adopt prisoner of conscience after authorities send him to psychiatric hospital.

He was Egypt’s first prisoner of conscience after the fall of Husni Mubarak in February.

Until recently, however, the story of Maikel Nabil was largely ignored by activists who were offended by his views on Israel. Now, inspired by his long hunger strike and angered by the authorities’ decision to commit him to a psychiatric hospital last week, Egyptian activists have catapulted the young man into the spotlight.

Activists and observers say that by dispatching Nabil to a psychiatric institution, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Egypt’s interim military government, is using a tactic borrowed from the Mubarak era in dealing with the opposition or others officials who want to keep out of the public eye by avoiding a trial: declare them insane.

Basma Abdel Aziz, the director of media for Egypt’s General Secretariat of Mental Health, said Nabil ‘s transfer to a psychiatric  institution is “a dangerous and unacceptable affair.” She and others contend that the military is attempting to avoid responsibility for his death, if it happens, by moving him out of prison.

Read the rest of the article here.

Of course, he knew something like this was going to happen. In April, the Huffington Post published this story:

The Story Of Maikel Nabil Sanad: The Egyptian Blogger Jailed For Taking On The Military

Just three days after Hosni Mubarak stepped down, while the rest of Egypt celebrated, a 25-year-old blogger made a grim prediction: “I’m a dead man.”

An unemployed veterinarian with the telltale stooped posture of an Internet junkie, Maikel Nabil Sanad has had a knack for predictions. Back in the fall, when no one could have imagined that a revolution would bring down the government, he’d been arrested for standing up to the regime and refusing to serve in the military.

In early February, he was arrested again, this time while on his way to a protest in Tahir Square. A few days later, in an online article bristling with exclamation points and outrage, he accused the military officers who detained him of beating and sexually harassing him and his fellow prisoners. “I’m writing this time not to take revenge,” he wrote, “but to let people know what would happen to them if this revolution failed.”

Now that the revolution appeared to have triumphed, you might think Nabil would have looked down the road and seen freedom. Instead he saw doom. Mubarak was gone, yes, but Nabil’s beef had never really been with Mubarak. His “biggest enemy,” as he put it in his blog, was the one institution the people trusted, the military.

Read the rest of the story here.

If you have a moment, spare a prayer for this guy. He’s being jailed and his life is in danger because he supports Israel.

Well, the Dennis Prager Show is good. If I was a regular listener of talk radio, I’d probably would have said that it’s great. It doesn’t have the bombast and desk thumping of Rush. It’s not the show-biz of Beck. It’s just good old talk radio, straight up.

Not only that, but Dennis Prager gets it right. He really does, and I just stumbled over one excellent example right here:

Dennis Prager – Is Israel an Apartheid State?

THAT was awesome.

To get more of that kind of awesomeness, listen to the Dennis Prager Show and go check out Prager University.

No, really. I’m a complete optimist – absolutely, positively convinced that it will all work out. I’m just not all that cracked up about the messy part right before the end, which is why I created a second website called OmegaShock.

I mean, I’ve got God on my side. How about you?

Anyway, I thought that I’d show a bit of that positiveness, by talking a bit about some of the good stuff that Israel does – good stuff that no one outside of Israel hears about. You can get it, all of it, from a weekly blog post here:

Good News from Israel

I mean, Israel is an awesome place, and there is no place that I would rather be. And, I also happen to know that Israel is God’s favorite place on the planet.

Here’s a secret: If God loves something, make sure that you love it, too.

Anyway, here’s a positive bit of news from Good News from Israel:

Look how Israel treats the Palestinian Arabs

Contrary to what you may have been told, Israel is not conducting ethnic cleansing or the genocidal destruction of the Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria.  How can this be proved?  Just look at the population statistics for the number of Arabs in the Territories (2.4 million).  Even allowing for claims of PA double-counting, this still represents at least a two-fold increase in the numbers of Arabs in 1967.  So if Israel was trying to eliminate these Arabs, they’re doing a pretty poor job of it.  In any case, the Palestinian Authority rules in the West Bank Territories, and the Hamas terrorist organization runs Gaza.

So where does Israel really get involved?  Since July 2010 I’ve been collecting individual items of news where Israel’s path crosses with that of the Palestinian Arabs.  There were plenty of reports of violence, but I was astonished to discover over 60 positive news stories that never appeared anywhere except in the Israeli press.  In this issue, I have just selected the areas that Israel has helped the Palestinian Arabs in providing Medical assistance.

You can read the rest of the article, here.

No matter how gloomy and awful things get, there’s always good news about a place that God cares about.

Go. Be positive!

The July 28 interview was titled Blame America (included below). In the video, Coren and Spencer go beyond the massacre in Norway and have a wide-ranging discussion that also covers Islamization, the Quran and even the possibility of Islamic terrorism in Canada. I think that you’ll like this video and appreciate the opportunity to get the measure of the man behind Jihadwatch.

Oh, and the page numbers that they refer to in the video?

Those are from Anders Breivik’s ‘manifesto’.

I think that there should be a law that nice-looking, clean cut terrorists are not allowed. Terrorists should look like the scruffy, obscene vermin that they are.

Really.

(I heard that gasp of surprise and will ignore it.)

Unfortunately, Israel Outlook doesn’t capture more than a fraction of that special quality. My blog is all about terrible people doing terrible things to a country that I care deeply about. But, terrible people have done terrible things to other countries since there were countries to do terrible things to.

It says very little about your uniqueness when the terrible hate you.

That’s why you should turn to other blogs when you want a ‘slice of life’ look at Israel. I’ve already profiled Marallyn’s blog Shalom from Jerusalem, but there’s another blog that should also have your attention.

The name is Treppenwitz, which is Yiddish for ‘wisdom of the stairs’ – the kind that’s just a little too late. David Bogner is the blogger, and his blog consistently wins awards in his category.

David explains the unusual name for his blog in this way:

Literally, ‘the wisdom of the stairs’. The striking reply that crosses one’s mind belatedly when already leaving, on the stairs. People are often angry because they did not have the fitting answer directly during a conversation. The term is old, but it was made popular by W. Lewis Hertslet who published his book in 1882 entitled ‘Treppenwitz der Weltgeschichte’. In that book, he writes: “Like to a petitioner who is just leaving after an audience, a piquant, striking words occurs to history almost always delayed.”

I think that all of us have been there far too many times to count, and David’s writing is full of the gently ironic tongue-in-cheek quality that you would expect from such a blog. Gentle irony is a rare thing in Israel, which is more used to the harsher kind that yours truly dishes out.

Here is how David describes himself and his blog:

I live in Israel with my wife Zahava, our three gifted (natch’) kids, and our black Lab’ Jordan.

Some of what you’ll find here deals with the ‘specialness’ and reality of everyday life here. Other stuff dances around the periphery of subjects like fatherhood, husbandry (hmmm…maybe that’s the wrong word), commuting, home improvement, and pet ownership.

What’s left are an assortment of links to web sites I frequent, and other bloggers that I follow. Keep in mind that while I enjoy visiting these places and reading these blogs – you might not. ’nuff said.

So, put Treppenwitz on your watch list, and learn a little ’wisdom of the stairs’.