Israel is increasing her rhetorical battle with Iran, something I find extremely overdue:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, should bear in mind that his own country could also be destroyed, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Monday.

Peres said Iran was mocking the international community’s attempts to resolve the crisis over its nuclear ambitions and that the credibility of the United Nations Security Council was on the line.

In what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has described as a threat that must be taken seriously, Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be destroyed.

“They want to wipe out Israel … Now when it comes to destruction, Iran too can be destroyed [but] I don’t suggest to say an eye for an eye,” Peres told Reuters.

“Israel would defend itself under any condition but we don’t look upon it as an Iranian-Israeli conflict exclusively… [Iran] is basically a danger to the world, not just to us.”

I think it is important that Israel remind Iran and the world that if attacked, Israel will defend herself. I think it is extremely important that the image of the passive Jew remains embedded in history. It’s been extremely frustrating to see volley after volley of rhetoric from Iran’s nutjob president go practically unanswered. And the fact that it continues to be Peres — the apparent dove — answering, underscores the importance of the message. This is the second time in less than a week that Peres has warned Iran that Israel can do harm to them.

The Iranians would do well to pay attention.

Jimmy Carter’s whine in the IHT about not penalizing the palestinians for voting in Hamas got me to wondering again how low Jimmah can go. So I went over to the Carter Center website to read some of his previous work about Israel, when lo and behold — look what I found:

Rushdie’s Book Is An Insult

By Jimmy Carter
5 Mar 1989

This op-ed originally appeared in The New York Times, March 5, 1989.

In preparation for the Middle East negotiations that led up to Camp David and the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, I tried to learn as much as possible about the Moslem faith.

Anwar el-Sadat, Menachem Begin and I had several talks about our common religious beliefs, and Sadat emphasized the reverence that Moslems have for Jesus and the Old Testament Prophets. Although Begin rarely commented himself, there is little doubt that these expressions of good will helped us find common ground in political matters.

Notice how he assumes what Begin thought, even though Begin never said any such thing. Funny how Begin’s thoughts match exactly what Carter wants them to match.

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Reuters has this to say about the Hamas/Fatah war that is brewing:

Hamas, Fatah rival factions battle in Gaza, 3 dead
GAZA (Reuters) - Three gunmen were killed on Monday when fighting erupted in the Gaza Strip between Fatah forces backing President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas loyalists, in the most serious Palestinian internal strife since Hamas came to power.

The street battles in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis broke out after Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas failed to resolve security disputes in talks at the weekend.

Abbas and Haniyeh, whose militant Islamist group won a January 25 parliamentary election, are embroiled in a power struggle over control of the security forces that has intensified Palestinian fears of a civil war between the feuding factions.

[...] The Gaza clashes began overnight when, according to Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, Fatah security men “kidnapped” three members of Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades.

Gunmen from the brigades then surrounded the area where the men were being held and captured four Fatah men, Abu Zuhri said.

[...] Giving a different version of events, Fatah said fighting erupted after Qassam gunmen from a new Hamas-backed police force, whose creation Abbas has opposed, set up a checkpoint and tried to detain the bodyguard of a top Fatah security official.

And the casualty count, buried way down in the story:

A Hamas gunman was shot dead in an initial round of fighting and two Fatah men were killed in a second clash, he added. At least 11 people, including a 16-year-old youth, were wounded.

And then we have the AP version:

3 Militants Killed in Gaza Fighting
Rival gunmen from Hamas and Fatah fought with assault rifles and missiles Monday, killing three militants in the bloodiest internal fighting since Hamas came to power six weeks ago.

The fighting was the latest sign the two sides could be sliding toward large-scale clashes. Each group has been training its gunmen for possible confrontation, and Hamas recently outbid Fatah in buying a black market shipment of 100,000 bullets.

Tensions have been rising since the Islamic militant group Hamas ended Fatah’s four-decade control of Palestinian politics with a victory in January parliamentary elections.

[...] The violence Monday began before dawn in the farming community of Abassan in southeastern Gaza. Hamas tried to kidnap a Fatah member, apparently to settle an old score dating back to the January election, said Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa.

The two sides exchanged fire, and a Hamas militant was seriously wounded, he said. That prompted a series of kidnappings in which Hamas seized three Fatah members, and Fatah briefly captured four Hamas militants.

An account of the battle, buried deep in the article, along with the casualty count.

However, the Hamas member wounded in the initial firefight later died of his wounds, setting off a new round of fighting with assault rifles and submachine guns.

Gunmen hiding in fields exchanged fire across Abassan’s main road, sending civilians ducking for cover. Hamas gunmen then ambushed Fatah militants driving along the main road in two jeeps with red Palestinian Authority license plates. One jeep was hit by a shoulder-held missile, killing two Fatah members of the security forces.

Ten gunmen were wounded, including one who was in serious condition.

Isn’t it interesting how both news services buried the casualty count deep within the article? You know if it had been a battle between the IDF and Hamas “militants,” the dead would have been named and aged in the lead, and you’d have gotten quotes from their grieving families. But here, since they are killing their own, for some reason, the names of the victims aren’t as important. Why is that, I wonder? This isn’t the first version of the story; it is a lengthy update written hours after the events occurred.

Could the media be — dare I say it — biased?

I’m feeling a bit under the weather. So I’m taking my first day off since I got the new job. I don’t get sick pay, though, and I’m using the vacation time I saved up for my trip to NJ this weekend (big family event).

Now would be a lovely time to hit my tipjars, especially if you’ve been reading this site for a long time and enjoying it.

The Palestinian “Parliament” Building in Ramallah had a fire today…

Hamas hinted Fatah militants were responsible for the fire that broke out Monday afternoon in the Palestinian parliament building in Ramallah.

The allegations came against the backdrop of violent Hamas-Fatah clashes earlier Monday in the Gaza Strip that left three gunmen dead.

Parliament Chairman Aziz Dawik of Hamas said the possibility of arson was not being ruled out.

They’re now saying that it was an electrical short.

I guess the crime of arson to manipulate the world media to embarass one’s political enemies is reserved for Christian holy places.

Set your Tivo or VCR for tomorrow night’s Frontline on PBS. They’re profiling Hamas.

May 8 (Bloomberg) — Anyone hoping that Hamas’s parliamentary triumph will convert that martyr-making machine into a vehicle of peaceful democracy may be seriously dismayed by a new PBS special.

“Inside Hamas,” which airs tomorrow night at 9 p.m. New York time, strongly suggests the buzzard, not the dove, will continue to rule the roost in the Holy Land.

Reporter Kate Seelye begins in Gaza, “a 6-by-25-mile sandbox” that doubles as a powder keg. The streets are teeming with angry young warriors bearing automatic weapons and deep grudges, all strutting their stuff beneath posters of martyrs.

“I’ve come to find out if Hamas will lay down their arms and transform themselves now that they’re in power,” Seelye says.

This is high idealism, we soon learn.

Yes, watch it, because even with the usual anti-Israel spin, they can’t spin Hamas into anything that it isn’t. Witness:

When Seelye presses on the sorest subject — recognizing Israel’s right to exist — teeth bare. She asks Mahmoud Zahar, a founder of Hamas and foreign minister of the new government, if the group will change its charter and recognize Israel.

“Why?” he responds. “To satisfy you?”

The good news is that the NPR/PBS crowd will see Hamas as it truly is. The bad news is, I suspect, not many opinions will change. Because we still get fools like Jimmy Carter insisting that Hamas be given a chance, or that the palestinian people not be “punished” for voting in a group of genocideal terrorists.

(Don’t you love how these same people think America deserves whatever she gets from foreign countries because we voted in Bush, and he makes bad policies? Hypocrisy does not exist in Leftyland or Moonbat World.)

Watch the program. These are the enemies, not just of Israel, but of the non-Islamic world.

First, we have this report that Israel foiled an assassination attempt by Hamas on Mahmoud Abbas:

A HAMAS plot to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been thwarted after he was tipped off by Israeli intelligence.

Hamas’s military wing, the Izza Din Al-Qassem, had planned to kill Abbas at his office in Gaza, intelligence sources said.

Abbas, who became president of the Palestinian Authority last year after the death of Yasser Arafat, was formally warned of the danger by the Israelis and cancelled a planned visit to the territory.

Then, of course, the requisite denials:

Then the negotiation process breaks down,

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