marg bar Omrika, marg bar Esra’il

In honor of those Wise Men arriving from Persia, here's your Rosetta Stone Intro to Farsi lesson of the day:
marg bar Omrika, marg bar Esra’il
Say it in English now.

Chanting “Death to America! Death to Israel!” has been the way Iranians applaud for over a quarter-century. When the soccer team from Isfahan scores a goal against the soccer team from Shiraz, its fans cheer wildly: “Death to America! Death to Israel!” At the end of an exquisitely performed sitar solo, the genteel audience in a concert hall in Tabriz shows its appreciation by loudly heaping imprecations upon “International Arrogance” (the USA) and “its Bastard Offspring” (the Jewish state). Even during the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Iranian participants have replaced their traditionally pious ejaculations of “I am at your service, O Lord, there is none like unto You!” with responsive Persian cursing sessions aimed at the Hebrew- and English-speaking enemies of everything that is holy. Like the daily “Two-Minutes Hate” in George Orwell’s 1984, this venom-spewing is the mantra upon which an entire generation of Iranians has been raised.

Ze'ev Maghen, in Eradicating the “Little Satan”, makes his case that Iran oughtta be taken at its word.
My favorite Robert D. Kaplan (see Imperial Grunts) thinks Esra’il is already fighting Iran right there in Gaza.

Speaking of the hajj, here's the perfect hajj movie/roadtrip movie/father-son movie (83% Fresh on the tomatometer): Le Grande Voyage, starring the perfect Nicolas Cazale. More on Mr. Cazale later.

Or, speaking of the hajj, it ain't literature but Uris' The Haj sure beats Exodus for poolside reading.

Meanwhile, over at the Daily Kooks, dead Jew brings joy to klogger. Later we'll look for Jew hatred from the kleft over at Kuffington.

What the heck, more Ze'ev Maghen here.