This one is a four-alarmer.

I’ve known this for years, but every so often, I have to just grin and shake my head about how cool the internet really is.

Last week, I had a conversation with someone in Australia and London. A few days after that, it was Australia and Israel. Or was it Texas and Israel? At any given time, I have contact with people from all over the world. Just sent an email to a French Jew in response to a request, and even world-traveler Wretchard peeks in here from time to time.

The internet rocks so much, I think I should make a PowerPoint presentation about it. Oh, wait. I already did.

Thanks again to all those who have been hitting the tipjars. It is much appreciated, particularly as I’m between jobs (as they say) at the moment. Wow, even Kelly has nothing for me. It’s pretty dead right now.

I normally don’t do this, but a rather enthusiastic email from a reader made me think that I should include a transcript of this week’s podcast for those of you who read this blog, but don’t click the link to listen.

Of course, reading it doesn’t get my vocal inflections, and I have to say I surprised myself by the amount of hatred that came out when I spoke the murderer’s name.

But here you go. The script for this week’s On Second Thought:

I have some questions for my Christian listeners. When you go to church on Sunday, do you ever wonder if a gunman will break into your church and start indiscriminately shooting?

When you’re going to the gym at the YMCA, do you have armed policemen standing outside the door? Do you have to go through security checks to get to a lecture at the Y?

When you drop your children off at religious school, does that school have armed guards and bullet-proof glass?

When you go to services on Christmas and Easter, do you have to increase security, not because of the added number of worshippers, but because of possible terrorist attacks?

Jews do.

And not just Jews in one or two countries. Jews all over the world have had to increase their security over the past few decades, especially since the spring of 2002. That was when Ariel Sharon launched Operation Defensive Shield to stop the daily terror attacks and suicide bombings that had plagued Israel for months.

Let me point out here that although Jews the world over had not targeted Arabs, Muslims, or mosques in retaliation for the suicide bombings of Jewish sites, the moment that Jews began to go after the terrorists, Muslims the world over began targeting Jews. Anti-Semitic attacks—including the bombings of synagogues—rose worldwide, and are still at the highest levels they’ve been in years.

Last week, I attended a solidarity rally for Israel. It was sponsored by the Richmond Jewish Community Federation. The Federation wanted to raise funds to get all civilians—Jewish, Arab, and Druze—out of the range of the Hezbullah rockets falling on northern Israel.

I love going to events where there are large numbers of Jews. I love the people, and the music. I love the Yiddish accents and the Israeli accents and the sprinkling of Hebrew, and the Jewish inflections in everyone’s speech.

But there’s a corner of my mind that always worries that my synagogue, or my Jewish Community Center, or my meeting place—has come onto the radar of the terrorists who think that killing American Jews is making a statement against Israel.

That’s what happened Friday afternoon at the Seattle office of the Jewish Federation. Naveed Afzal Haq, a Muslim who said he was angry at Israel, searched on the Internet for Jewish-related buildings. When he found the Jewish Federation, he packed his two semi-automatic pistols and went looking to kill.

He hid behind a potted plant in the lobby until a thirteen-year-old girl approached the locked door. Then the coward held a gun to her head and forced her to let him into the building with her security code.

“I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel,” he said, and started shooting. He shot six women. One is dead. Three were in critical condition with shots to the stomach.

One of the two who was only lightly wounded was pregnant. She protected the baby in her womb with her arm, and that arm is where the terrorist shot her. Later, she managed to call 911, and persuaded the terrorist to talk to the dispatcher. This is what he told her:

“This is a hostage situation and I wanted these Jews to get out.”

He also said, “These are Jews and I’m tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.”

The dispatcher talked him into surrendering. But it was too late for Pat Waechter.

The woman he murdered was a 58-year-old mother of two. She converted to Judaism some 40 years earlier, and devoted much of her life to community service. She spent her life helping others.

None of that mattered to her killer. All that mattered to him is that she was a Jew. She was guilty of a capital crime, and he was her executioner. Her crime? Existence. She was a Jew.

The Jewish philosopher Emil Fackenheim says that Jew hatred has three stages:

You cannot live among us as Jews.
You cannot live among us.
You cannot live.

This is the hatred we face. This is what we fight. This is why we say, “Never again.” Because we will not sit quietly while the Naveed Afzal Haqs of the world strike at us.

The FBI and the Seattle police may not be able to call this a terrorist act, but we’re not stupid. We know the score. And in spite of this, the Jewish community of Seattle went to synagogue on Friday night and Saturday morning.

I’ll be going to my local Jewish community events as they come up. People want to kill me because I’m a Jew? So what else is new?

I just upgraded WordPress to the latest version. If you’re the owner of a WP blog, you need to install 2.0.4 ASAP. There’s a security bug in it that no one is exactly explaining, but will probably leave your blog open to hackers.

If anyone has any site problems, please let me know. I’m pretty sure I got it all back to the way it was, but I had to back things up, turn things off, turn them on again, and do all kinds of things. Something may have slipped through the cracks.

I’m sure this is going to send Ingrid Newkirk of PETA off the deep end:

Israeli newspapers carried pictures of South American llamas accompanying commandos out of southern Lebanon, their saddlebags full of fighting gear.

Yedioth Ahronoth daily quoted a senior Israeli military commander as saying the white-furred pack animals could carry up to 27 kg each over rough terrain, were quiet and required feeding only once every two days.

Hezbollah is rumored to be working on WinAmp-based defenses against Zionist War Llamas, because…

Hosni Mubarak says he’s impotent. Oh, no, wait. He says it’s the UN on Lebanon. I think it’s projection, myself.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Monday the UN Security Council had revealed its impotence in its response to Israel’s conflict with Hizbullah, and again called for an immediate ceasefire.

The IAF stopped its rockets, but Hezbullah didn’t.

On the southern front: A terror attack on Haifa was foiled. Khaled Mashaal, who also needs a Hellfire enema, says that Cpl. Gilad Shalit (remember him?) is still in Gaza.

Still in Gaza: Abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is still in the Gaza Strip, Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal said in an interview with Egyptian Weekly al-Aharam al-Arabi published Saturday.

In the interview, Mashaal claimed he did not order the abduction and admitted Hamas members were unable to smuggle Shalit out of the Strip, dispelling rumors to the contrary.

He also admitted publicly that Shalit is a POW, so Red Cross, go get ‘im.

However, Mashaal stressed that the Palestinian people had the “right…to exchange the soldier, which was captured in a military campaign.”

“He is a prisoner of war and therefore we must exchange him – this is the Palestinian people’s right,” the Hamas leader said.

So Hamas not letting the Red Cross see him is committing a war crime. They’ve admitted it. Go ahead, human rights people. Let’s hear the uproar. Oh, right. Uproar is only for perceived Israeli violations.

Kassams are still slamming into Israel. And Ha’aretz is still calling terrorists “militants.”

Earlier on Monday, militants in Gaza fired a barrage of five Qassam rockets at communities in the western Negev.

One of the rockets slammed into the roof of the kibbutz dining hall, causing damage but no casualties.

Funny, but the world doesn’t seem to notice at all when Israeli civilians are hit by palestinian or Hezbullah rocket fire. It’s only when Israel hits civilians that the world gets upset.

Why is that, I wonder?

Actually, yes, that was a rhetorical question. The world likes seeing dead Jews. There is no other explanation.

The numbness seems to have gone away. I spent the evening with Heidi. She convinced me to go see—and I’m almost ashamed to admit this—the Richmond SPARC production of Cats. (SPARC is Richmond’s version of the NY School of Performing Arts, and the kids are quite good.)

Heidi and I argued during the intermission about the lack of narrative, repetitiveness, and overall crap factor of a Lloyd Webber production. Okay, I said all those things and she didn’t, but I have to say, overall, that this is probably the first and last Lloyd Webber play for me. I can understand the draw of Cats—it’s an extremely shallow play that does nothing but have people in funny costumes sing and dance about cats—but I couldn’t help but think that if Sondheim had taken Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and turned it into a play, there would have been an actual storyline and songs worth remembering.

Really. Compare the poem “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” and then the lyics of “Memory,” (and yes, that is a harp version of the song) which he based on the poem, and you’ll see why I think L-W is so—pedestrian.

Hell, comapre the lyrics of “Memory” to “Send in the Clowns,” a song by Sondheim from a similar subject, and you’ll see why I think L-W’s reputation is mostly unearned.

Well, and then there’s the fact that he confuses the concepts of reprise and repetition, and I yawn through his songs. Dude, add some new lyrics, don’t just keep repeating the same phrases over and over again, it gets tiresome.

Ah. I feel better now, having blasted Andrew Lloyd Webber. My reputation is secure.

Meryl tasked me to post these yesterday, but I was busy with the grill cooking things I shouldn’t be cooking.

Yesterday’s gone, so today’s what I’ve got to work with:

Carnival of the Cats is at The Scratching Post, courtesy of the Fearless Leader of the Feline Theocracy, KT.
Shire Network News hits the digital air with the full slate of madcap contributors: Damian, Meryl, Tom Paine’s interview, Brian of London, and some jackass from Texas.

Oh, and in lieu of flowers, send Meryl cash. The doctor says if she rolls around in a pile of tens and twenties, it might not cure her, but it will sure make her feel a hell of a whole lot better.

I’m not coming back online.

Woke up this morning with numbness in my left arm again.

Rest and relaxation is the order for today. I’m going to the movies, and I’ll be off to Heidi’s this afternoon.

Turning off the TV as soon as Gillerman stops speaking.

Sarah’s got ‘em.

Want more information on Israel? Then check out today’s Haveil Havalim, which has tons of posts by Jewish and Israeli bloggers.

Imagine this scenario: You’re thirteen years old. You’re going into a familiar building, about to enter your security code. And suddenly, a man jumps out, holds a gun to your head, and threatens to kill you if you don’t let him in.

The gunman who forced his way into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle on Friday afternoon put a gun to the head of a 13-year-old girl to gain entry to the building, police said this afternoon.

[...] The man then presumably drove to the federation building, where he hid behind a plant in the lobby for a short time. Kerlikowske said he waited for someone to come in to gain access into the office. When the 13-year-old girl walked up, he put a gun to her head and forced her to take him inside.

“She could not have kept him out,” Kerlikowske said. “She was a hostage.” The man carried two semi-automatic handguns and extra ammunition into the federation’s offices, the chief said.

“Once inside he immediately started firing at people.”

This was a planned, premeditated assault on Jews.

Witnesses say the gunman shot one receptionist, then ordered her to dial 911. He then took the phone from her.

“He told the police that it was a hostage situation and he wanted us to get our weapons out of Israel,” said one woman who works in the building and heard the account from the wounded co-worker.

There’s more:

When Haq got on the phone with 911 operators, he identified himself by name and said, “This is a hostage situation and I wanted these Jews to get out,” according to a statement of probable cause. He later added, “These are Jews and I’m tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.”

Pam Waechter, killed for the crime of being Jewish:

Martens, a long-time family friend of Waechter, said she was raised protestant in Minneapolis. Waechter converted to Judaism after marrying her ex-husband about 40 years ago, he said.

“That was one of the turning points in her life,” he said.

Martens described Waechter as a woman with a big heart.

“Pam had a heroic life of helping others,” he said. “She was always involved in community service.”

It’s Pam’s sense of humor that Martens remembers now.

“She had this great droll wit,” he said. “She was just a lovely, beautiful woman.”

So what exactly is the Jewish Federation?

“It is the Jewish version of the United Way,” said Rabbi Daniel Weiner of Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle.

But it has the word “Jewish” in its title, and therefore, it became a target of an angry Muslim terrorist. Because terrorists do to Jews what they claim everyone else does to Muslims: The make us one, monolithic group responsible for everything the others do.

Yes, the Seattle community is gathering together to stand against terror like this.

And yet, another woman is dead. Her crime?

Existing.

Mel Gibson was arrested for drunk driving last night, and besides resisting arrest, apparently, he went on an anti-Semitic tirade. Gee, guess those charges of Jew-baiting during the “Passion” weren’t all smoke, hm?

The TMZ website claims to have all the facts, including links to a PDF of the police report. I’d be more confident if it was The Smoking Gun, but hey, it sure fits the Mel Gibson Jew-baiting profile now, doesn’t it?

TMZ has learned that Mel Gibson went on a rampage when he was arrested Friday on suspicion of drunk driving, hurling religious epithets. TMZ has also learned that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department had the initial report doctored to keep the real story under wraps.

[...] The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: “F*****g Jews… The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” Gibson then asked the deputy, “Are you a Jew?”

[...] Deputy Mee then wrote an eight-page report detailing Gibson’s rampage and comments. Sources say the sergeant on duty felt it was too “inflammatory.” A lieutenant and captain then got involved and calls were made to Sheriff’s headquarters. Sources say Mee was told Gibson’s comments would incite a lot of “Jewish hatred,” that the situation in Israel was “way too inflammatory.” It was mentioned several times that Gibson, who wrote, directed, and produced 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ,” had incited “anti-Jewish sentiment” and “For a drunk driving arrest, is this really worth all that?”

Let’s see you squirm your way out of this one, Mel.

By the way, Gibson has issued an apology that sounds an awful lot like TMZ is telling the truth.

However, in a statement late today, Gibson said, “I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said.”

He added, “I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse.”

“Things that I do not believe to be true”—except, he said them. That would lead one to believe he thinks they’re true.

And oh, yeah—it’s alcoholism that’s to blame. I guess it wasn’t the Jews after all.

We had your number years ago, you anti-Semitic creep.

Come back, Tal. We miss you.

Everybody click that link. Tell Tal to start posting again.

Now if we only Gil would come back….

If you’re not checking out Aaron’s site, you are missing some major-league inspiring videos.

I’d very much like to know the singer’s name. And if a CD is available.

Police still refuse to call American Muslim terrorism by the word “terrorism”:

Staff members said they overheard him saying “‘I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel,’ before opening fire on everyone,” Meislin-Dietrich said. “He was randomly shooting at everyone.”

Police would not confirm the account. When asked if the suspect was Muslim, Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said at a news conference, “you could infer that that was his background.”

And check out the weasel words AP uses to try to prove that it wasn’t Muslim hatred of Jews:

Authorities said a man walked into the Jewish agency on Friday and opened fire, killing one woman and injuring at least five others in what they call a hate crime. Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of homicide and attempted homicide, police said.

The gunman, who employees said claimed to be a Muslim angry at Israel, forced his way through the center’s security door after an employee had punched in her security code, said Marla Meislin-Dietrich, a co-worker who was not at the building at the time.

And of course, there is the obligatory “retaliation” claim. Because Jews all over America have been taking revenge on Muslims here for the actions of Muslims abroad. Oh, wait. No, they haven’t. It’s Muslims doing that to Jews.

Authorities said officers were moving to protect both synagogues and mosques around the city but there was no evidence of a broad threat. Police were protecting mosques “because there’s always the concern of retaliatory crime,” Kerlikowske said.

And look, CAIR condemned the attack:

“We condemn this senseless attack on a religious institution and offer sincere condolences to the loved ones of those killed or injured. The American Muslim and Jewish communities must do whatever is within their power to prevent the current conflict in the Middle East from being transplanted to this country. We also urge local, state and national law enforcement authorities to step up security measures at synagogues, mosques and other religious institutions of both faiths.”

Yeah, step up those security measures at mosques for all those dangerous Jewish American terrorists. All zero of them.

Holy crap! The Lebanese army actually did something!

For the first time since the beginning of the fighting, the Lebanese army seized Saturday a Grad rocket launcher in a forest some 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) north of the border with Israel. An armed Palestinian and twenty-five rockets were found near the launcher.

The rockets were found some seven kilometers (about 4.3 miles) from a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine training camp, but it remains unclear whether organization members were those who planned to fire the rockets toward Israel.

Interesting that it wasn’t a Hezbullah launcher. Interesting that it was the pals who had it, too. Apparently, the Lebanese army can only disarm palestinians, not Hezbullah.

UNIFIL has figured out that Israel will do what it takes to defend her citizens:

A top UN peacekeeping official on Friday said he feared the war in southern Lebanon would continue until late August and voiced fears Israel would flatten Lebanon’s southern villages and destroy Tyre “neighborhood by neighborhood” if Hizbullah rockets keep landing in the Jewish state.
[...] “I have no doubt that Israel will flatten Tyre if civilian casualties continue in Haifa. Tyre will be taken off neighborhood by neighborhood,” Morczynski said. “I think Israel is contemplating flattening villages, flattening every single house to deny Hizbullah any advantage of urban fighting in the streets.”

As would any other nation, to protect her citizens. But any other nation won’t be condemned by the world for doing so.

Sure, Abbas is working for peace. That’s why he calls Hezbullah his “brothers in Lebanon.”

Hamas had raised the possibility this week of teaming up with Hizbullah to negotiate terms to release of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel in exchange for the three IDF soldiers.

But Abbas said the situations were too different to coordinate a release.

“Our brothers in Lebanon have their own special case … and we have our special case,” he said while in Alexandria to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“This is a path and that is another path.”

Which is just a way of covering his ass. Abbas isn’t as stupid as the leaders of Hamas; he knows that publicly allying with Hezbullah is the kiss of death. So he just hems and haws instead.

And of course, the daily barrage of rockets in northern Israel continues. But they didn’t kill anyone, so they don’t count. Right?

Wrong.

Once again, a Muslim targets Jews, killing one and wounding five—all women.

Once again, the police refuse to call it terrorism.

David Gomez, an FBI assistant special agent in charge of counterterrorism, said investigators believe the gunman targeted the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

“We believe at this point it’s a lone individual acting out antagonism toward this particular organization,” Gomez said.

Right. Because the Jewish Federation is a really high-profile Jewish group.

Not.

It’s a fundraising, charitable organization.

Funny how every time world events cause the murder and attack of Jews, the authorities say that world events had nothing to do with it—even as the perpetrators say that is the exact reason they have attacked Jews.

Women. All women. The man shot all women, one pregnant.

Wow, that’s some brave mujaheed.

Not.

The IDF is working on Shabbat.

Israel Defense Forces troops killed 26 Hezbollah gunmen in clashes in the southern Lebanon town of Bint Jbail. No IDF troops were hurt in the opreation, an army spokesperson said.

During the day’s fighting, a joint force of Paratroopers and soldiers from the Golani Brigade seized Hezbollah equipment including five anti-tank missiles, 30 hand grenades, 41 clips and 10 bullet proof vests.

[...] Meanwhile, Israel Air Force warplanes took out the launchers used by Hezbollah to fire a new kind of missile at the Afula area, the furthest south that the guerilla group has reached since it began battering the north of Israel more than two weeks ago.

The initial investigation revealed that the missile has a range of 90 kilometers. The northern district police said that this kind of missile had not landed in the area before. The level of damage caused by the missile impact and the size of the warhead is also unprecedented, suggesting that it could have weighed up to 100 kilograms.

Security officials are looking into the possibility that the missile could have originated in Iran, and may even be a Zelzal missile, which has a range of up to 200 kilometers. Hezbollah has moved some of its rocket and missile launchers further north inside Lebanon following IAF attacks to destroy them.

The good news is that 26 terrorists are dead, and not a single IDF soldier lost his life doing it. Which lends credence to my thinking that Hezbullah is not a cakewalk, but neither is it the threat to the IDF that many analysts would have you believe.

Haaretz offers up the following:

Israel Air Force planes dropped pamphlets on the Gaza Strip offering Palestinians Israel’s terms for a cease-fire, the Itim news agency reported on Friday.

The pamphlets said the Israeli government was willing to cease the Israel Defense Forces attacks on Gaza if abducted soldier Gilad Shalit is returned unharmed and militants stop firing Qassam rockets at Israeli settlements.

Sderot and Askhelon are Israeli cities, not settlements.

Translation error, lazy rewire from wire copy, or Avi Issacharoff’s personal biases?

Update: They changed the word to “communities.”

More evidence that the media are biased against Israel:

Being interviewed on a European radio station, the interviewer snarls at me when I mention that Haifa has a mixed Jewish/Arab population and that as we speak, many of them were sitting in bomb shelters together, hiding from Nasrallah’s rockets.

I was surprised this information could be so irritating. I didn’t dare tell him about the guy who came up to me in downtown Haifa, showed my his bombed shop front and told me he was an Arab who wants the IDF to destroy the Hizbullah.

No wonder the polls always come up against Israel. Seems that only Americans are smart enough to disbelieve the media.

Dusk and there’s another rocket attack on Haifa, a dozen meters from a major hospital. As a frail old woman is stretchered out of the bombed apartment in the run- down neighborhood, a British reporter asks me if it isn’t just a gas explosion, and seems disappointed when I identify a piece of Katyusha rocket.

Disgusting.

Via LGF, this news:

Intelligence reports indicate the leader of Hezbollah is hiding in a foreign mission in Beirut, possibly the Iranian Embassy, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.

Israeli military and intelligence forces are continuing to hunt for Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, who fled his headquarters in Beirut shortly before Israeli jets bombed the building last week.

“We think he is in an embassy,” said one U.S. official with access to the intelligence reports, while Israeli intelligence speculates Sheik Nasrallah is hiding in the Iranian Embassy.

If confirmed, the reports could lead to an Israeli air strike on the embassy, possibly leading to a widening of the conflict, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Foreign embassies are sovereign territory and an attack on an embassy could be considered an act of war.

If this should happen, would there be a more ironic moment in history? Twenty-eight years after the Iranian “students” took over the United States embassy in Tehran, if the Israelis were to bomb the Iranian embassy to kill Nasrallah, I recommend they use the following excuse:

“Whoops! Some of our more revolutionary students took a few IAF jets and bombed the embassy. Sorry, we had no control over their actions—they were upset over Iranian support of Hezbullah.”

A related thought: Is it a war crime to give shelter to the leader of a terrorist army who is currently at war with a UN member state?

How cheap can the Arabs be to their brothers in trouble?

This cheap:

VIENNA, Austria - OPEC’s humanitarian arm said Friday it has approved $1.2 million in aid to Lebanon.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ Fund for International Development said the grant was intended to provide essential relief supplies and support emergency operations.

The money will be channeled through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, it said.

Wow. That’s four cents for every barrel of oil in a single day of the OPEC daily quota.

The mind reels at the overwhelming generosity of the oil-producing Arab world (and the American-hating producing Venezuela) to the suffering in Lebanon.

By contrast, the Jewish Federation is trying to raise $18 million for the month of July to move all Israelis—Jew, Muslim, and Druze—south out of reach of Hezbullah’s rockets (which were paid for by Iranian oil profits). And gee, they’re getting the money from ordinary people, not OPEC billionaires.

File this one under: Better than you.

A kassam rocket launched by palestinian terrorists landed near a kindergarten. Two children were hurt by the shrapnel. You will not read about Israeli children being hurt by rockets aimed deliberately at the civilian population. If you do, it will be followed immediately by a tale of palestinian children who were hurt by rockets intended for terrorists or arms factories.

Operations aren’t finished in Bint Jbeil.

IDF forces are continuing to operate Friday in the village of Bint Jbeil. According to reports soldiers shot and hit a number of terrorists, killing at least three. There are no injuries among soldiers.

The forces are continuing to search for weapons infrastructures and activity in the area.

The IAF has been busy overnight.

The Air Force has meanwhile struck over 130 targets on Thursday night and in the early hours of Friday morning across Lebanon. The targets hit included a Hizbullah base and rocket launchers.

And the IDF is giving the terrorists a head-start again. Not that this will stop the cries of “War crime!” from the idiots on the left, and the Israel-haters.

A message was sent to a number of residents of villages in southern Lebanon requesting them to leave their villages and head north by ten in the morning on Friday.

The IDF said that “every vehicle traveling in the area after this hour and everyone who doesn’t evacuate their home is endangering their life.”

Hezbullah has upped the ante and is firing longer-range, more devastating rockets. Lucky for Israel, they didn’t hit anyone. Yet.

Hizbullah steps up attacks: Police officials said that on Friday noon Hizbullah fired at Israel, for the first time since the fighting in the north began, five long-range missiles carrying a greater amount of explosives than the Pajar rockets of the type that has been fired so far. The missiles landed in open areas near Afula and in the area between Afula and Beit Shean. No injuries were reported in the attack.

A short while later sirens were heard in the Haifa and Krayot area and residents were ordered into shelters and protected areas. Some rockets landed in open areas near Haifa. In a separate barrage a rocket landed in Nahariya, hitting a vehicle that immediately caught fire. Another rocket struck a public building in town and damaged it. No injuries were reported in the attacks.

Say, Ehud, is it time to send in the large ground force yet? Seventy-one percent of Israelis want to see that happen.

According to a survey of the Israeli public, 82 percent believe the army’s offensive in Lebanon is justified, and 71 percent think Israel should use even greater force.

By the way, here’s why the IAF didn’t bomb the crap out of Bint Jbeil:

An IDF source explained that, considering that there are still a few hundred Lebanese citizens in Bint Jbeil, forces cannot attack the town aerially, and, thus, it is necessary to bring in ground troops. He emphasized that fighting in the area will continue.

So, in effect, when Israeli commanders say they are not sacrificing Israel troops to save enemy civilians, they are lying. As is the world, when it says that Israel deliberately targets civilians.

Time for a STFU moment for someone. Pick one.

Look, Hezbullah—fresh meat!

BEIRUT, Lebanon Jul 28, 2006 (AP)— The United Nations has decided to remove 50 unarmed observers from posts along the Israeli-Lebanese border and relocate them with lightly armed U.N. peacekeepers, a spokesman said Friday. Also Friday, Hezbollah announced it had fired a new rocket, called the Khaibar-1, and that the rocket had struck near the northern Israeli town of Afoula, south of Haifa.

So does this mean they’re going to actually fire on Hezbullah when the terrorists take up positions by UN outposts?

“These are unarmed people and this is for their protection,” said Milos Struger, a spokesman for U.N. peacekeepers. He said the 2,000 peacekeepers in Lebanon have light weapons for self-defense.

The observer mission, known as UNTSO, had kept about 50 observers in four posts along the border. Two posts have already been abandoned: the one destroyed at Khiam on July 25, and a second near the village of Maroun al-Ras, where Hezbollah guerrilla gunfire wounded an observer on July 23.

Staff from the two remaining posts would be relocated at border posts of the peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, Struger said. He would not say whether the move had been completed.

Guess not.

Is there anyone out there besides me that thinks the UN should simply evacuate their people from Lebanon completely until the war is over? The observers are utterly useless to do anything except provide cover for Hezbullah, and their lives are at risk from both sides as a result.

By the way, check out the AP bias on how the current conflict began:

The recent bloodshed erupted July 12 after Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the Lebanese border into Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel retaliated with its massive assault on Lebanon, now in its 17th day.

Funny, they seem to have forgotten to point out that Hezbullah murdered three soldiers during the kidnapping attempt, then killed five more when the IDF went to recover their men. Once again, the story is that innocent little Hezbullah simply snuck across the border and “captured” two Israeli soldiers, who doubtless walked right into their great big net across the road.

Buried deep within the article, however, is this explanation:

Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12, after Hezbollah guerrillas overran the border, killing eight soldiers and capturing two others. Israeli forces opened an earlier offensive in the Gaza Strip on June 28, three days after Hamas militants attacked Israeli army post in southern Israeli, killing two soldiers and capturing another one.

The AP simply can’t bring itself to tell any truth that reflects badly on Israel’s enemies in the parts of the AP stories that actually get published in your local papers.

This is why I read other sources for my news.

All of the analyses I’ve read (by the non-Israeli media) are touting Hezbullah’s ability to lay ambushes. But two Israeli newspapers are reporting that the soldiers killed in Bint Jbeil on Wednesday were not ambushed.

Ha’aretz says it was a chance encounter:

Yadai said that he was convinced, after talking to the troops, that they did not run into a planned Hezbollah ambush, but into a chance confrontation, and that Golani soldiers had opened fire first.

The soldiers said that while they were moving through Bint Jbail, one of them noticed a Hezbollah gunman a few dozen meters away, opened fire and killed him. At that point, dozens of gunmen came out of nearby houses and engaged in close-range battle with the soldiers, causing many fatalities on both sides.

Yadai said he believed the large number of Hezbollah gunmen in the town were there to protect four Katyusha launchers. The launchers were destroyed in the battle.The air force bombed four other Katyusha launchers in Bint Jbail on Thursday.

The Jerusalem Post backs up Ha’aretz’s story:

The firefight began early in the morning when two companies, A and C, began advancing down one of Bint Jbail’s streets on parallel routes. Contrary to previous reports, Friedler said, the Hizbullah fighters were not lying in ambush. “Both sides were unaware of each other and it was actually one of our soldiers who saw them first and opened fire.”

But the Hizbullah men were in upper stories of buildings and had a commanding view of the IDF force. In the initial firing, 30 members of C Company, a third of its total strength, were hit, as was the battalion’s deputy commander, Maj. Roi Klein.

And yet, the IDF captured the area, in spite of being at a disadvantage, and losing eight men almost straight off, including their officers.

The thing that most impressed Capt. Yisrael Friedler, commander of A Company in the Golani Brigade’s Battalion 51, during the bloody battle in Bint Jbail on Wednesday, was the way the junior commanders conducted themselves after their officers had been hit by Hizbullah gunfire.

“The moment their officers went down,” he told The Jerusalem Post Thursday, “the sergeants took their radios and began reporting in and managing the battle, while at the same time taking charge of evacuating the wounded. It was the height of professionalism,” he said.

So while it was a tragedy, and a deep loss of life for Israel, the analysts seem to be adding more padding to Hezbullah’s talents than would seem to be the case.

The Israelis have confirmed that Hezbollah is fighting like a professional military. Their units are fighting at the company level at the least (Unit size of approximately 100 men), and perhaps in larger formations. Intelligence also confirms there is specialization within the Hezbollah units, including trained infantry, mortar teams, missile squads, and logistical personal. Iran has trained and organized Hezbollah’s army into something far more deadly than a militia force. Hezbollah’s core ‘active’ army is estimated at 3,000 - 5,000, with as many as 50,000 part time militia and support personnel that can be called upon to fight (20,000 is the average estimate).

Fine, I’m no Bill Roggio. But I can read numbers just as well as he can, and I’m thinking that regardless of whether or not Hezbullah has 5,000 or 50,000, simple mathematics would still put the IDF in the advantage column. When you factor in the fact that they are Israelis, and that they are fighting a war their nation cannot afford to lose—numbers become meaningless. The IDF cannot afford to lose to Hezbullah. And frankly, no matter how much training they’ve gotten, I can’t believe they’re anywhere near the equal of the world’s third-best army.

There is also this: Does anyone think that Israel will not, if pushed to the very edge, stop playing the “Don’t Hurt The Civilians” game and simply level town after town until Hezbullah is finished?

No one has ever pushed Israel to the edge yet. Gd willing, we will never see it. But I don’t doubt an ultimate victory for Israel. The fact that it won’t be easy isn’t something that Israelis were expecting. It is the media—the non-Israeli media—who are making up the lie that the IDF was expecting a cakewalk.

Nearly two weeks into the new war in the Middle East, two rather surprising developments have emerged: The Israeli army, which trades on its almost mythical abilities, has shown some cracks. And the army’s enemy, Hezbollah, appears stronger and more elusive than almost anyone imagined.

None of which was lost on the Israeli security cabinet, which met for six hours today at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, and decided to continue the same limited operations against the Hezbollah militants.

Please note the breathless prose, and the absolute stupidity of the lead. In the first paragraph, Dean Reynolds reports that the IDF is not up to the challenge. In the second, he supports his point by reporting that the Israeli cabinet decided that it was not necessary to ratchet up the forces and move into an all-out ground war.

The problem with this, of course, is that most people will not read the second paragraph critically, but will take it as proof that the IDF is “showing cracks.”

The rest of the story is equally as stupid, riddled with words like “humiliation” and “huddled in bomb shelters.” Funny, but that’s not the Israel I’m reading about on the blogs and in the Israeli media.

Looks like I’m going to have to add Dean Reynolds and ABC News to my STFU chorus. STFU, Dean.

Two new policies have been implemented in Gaza. The first: The IDF will fire on any terrorist approaching Israel. The second? Time to stop the tunnels.

First publication: The Israel Defense Forces is setting up a special security area in the northern Gaza Strip which is aimed at curbing attempts by terror groups to dig tunnels into Israel.

A senior officier told Ynet that the area will stretch a kilometer in Palestinian territory, which will be “clean” of building under which tunnels can be dug.

After the northern command’s decision to keep Hizbullah away from the border and the new policy under which every gunmen situated a kilometer away from the border is shot at, the southern command decided to implement a similar policy.

“Mostly, the excavations are dug in houses, hothouses or any other place where the action can be hidden. Therefore we decided to adopt
a new policy and simply to raze and attack every structure or cover hat can be used to conceal an entrance to a tunnel. As such every Palestinian attempt to dig a tunnel will be foiled,” he said.

Another policy to which I can say: AFT. (About friggin’ time, for those of you who were wondering.)

The only way to deal with terrorists is to cut them off before they can implement the terror. Of course the palestinians are going to scream about violations of this or that or the other thing, but it’s time to turn a deaf ear to that, too.

They had their chance to build Gaza. Israel left it a year ago. The palestinians have chosen terror and war, instead of peace and rebuilding.

Say, you know those people who keep on complaining that Israel is randomly bombing Lebanese towns and cities?

Well, the IAF randomly bombed a Hezbullah missile command center in Tyre that was raining missiles down on Haifa.

The Israel Air Force on Thursday scored a successful direct hit against Hezbollah’s missile command center deployed in Tyre, which has been primarily responsible for targeting Haifa and its surroundings. The regional command center was located on the 12th floor of a Tyre building that the IAF destroyed.

Don’t count on reading that straight anywhere else. The word “alleged” or “claimed” will be inserted before “missile command.”

Jewsy Couture, a Cafe Press shop has taken Hazak v’amatz and put it on a t-shirt and other things. I received this email:

We’ve added some special merchandise in support of Israel and from now until August 7th, we would like to donate all profits from these particular goods to the Israeli Red Cross. We have a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, a hoodie, button packs, and magnet packs at reduced prices to encourage everyone to show their solidarity with Israel during this difficult time. Please help us spread the word.

I also happen to know they’re both job-hunting at the moment, so this is a pretty big gesture when they could use the money themselves. Check it out.

This is so going to be a big part of the Shire Network News podcast this week:

Go. Watch. It’s great, it’s funny, and it’s got a beat you can dance to.

Yalla ya Nasrallah

I’ll be back with a transcript soon, and I ripped the music to an mp3 (raw, not good quality). If you want it emailed, send a note to yallayanasrallah at gmail dot com.

These guys have earned the title Masters of Juvenile Scorn. And I oughta know.

Thanks to Jack and Bagel Blogger.

Update: Forget the transcript, it just doesn’t translate well except for the chorus. Let me get back on this one.

Update 2: Go read Bagel Blogger. He has tons of great stuff. So does Ezzie. Seriously, just click the graphic at the left and go down the list of bloggers.

From Ynet:

Benjamin Harpez, a Tel Aviv resident and special education teacher, arrived at the spot wearing a white shirt with a picture of Nasrallah printed on both sides and the lettering “Y’alla, f*** Nasrallah!” and “Enough. Sorry Israel.”

TOTALLY want this t-shirt.

Why, yes, there was a very crabby post up earlier today, and it has now disappeared. Evil Meryl posted it, and, well, it wasn’t very interesting, so it’s gone.

This one won’t disappear.

However, I have a new thing. You know how the military has threat levels and the weather service has warnings and watches and whatnots?

We have something new here: Crabby Levels.

And today, Crabby Level is high. I repeat, Crabby Level is high.

If the Crabby Level becomes dangerous, your monitor will turn bright red and melt.

Okay, just kidding. About the melting.

Elie Deutsch is an American-born IDF soldier, and a talented musician. He’s currently posted to the Northern border with Lebanon. He and his unit have recorded some songs, which are being sold as MP3s, with proceeds going to a number of charities helping the IDF and Northern refugees.

The album is only $10.00, and you’ll be helping Israel in her time of need.  More information is available at the links above, including pictures of Elie, who I believe is single, though probably too young to be Mr. Meryl Yourish.

The J-Blogosphere has a new insignia to pass around:

With great big thanks to Sarah.

Take it and pass it around. You can spell it “Hazak v’amatz” if you like. Either way, it’s a message of strength and solidarity for Israel.

Who wrote this editorial?

Only after a clear success

The number of Israelis who have died thus far in the fighting in Lebanon and on the home front rose yesterday, following a bitter battle at Bint Jbail, and now stands at over 50. This harsh fact sharpens doubts about the wisdom with which this campaign is being run - a different issue than its purpose and justice. It is joined by an incident in which four United Nations observers in southern Lebanon were killed by an accidental Israel Defense Forces strike. Most of the peacekeeping burden in southern Lebanon is carried by UNIFIL. The very real danger to UN Blue Helmets may reduce countries’ willingness to contribute units to a force that the United States is trying to set up in Lebanon as part of a new security arrangement.

In the 28 years since its establishment, UNIFIL failed to achieve its mission of implementing Security Council Resolution 425 and contributing to the restoration of security and order along the border. Instead of serving as a buffer between the PLO, and later Hezbollah, and Israel, it was a loose sieve that offered immunity to the planners of attacks. Therefore, the American effort to establish a new multinational force instead of the weak UNIFIL is justified, as is the approach of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is working toward a stable cease-fire - in other words, a cease-fire after Hezbollah is weakened.

A premature cease-fire means a cessation of fire between salvos, and not an end to it. Hezbollah’s leadership will be able to claim victory, arguing that it issued a call for a cease-fire immediately after it abducted two IDF soldiers, but that after two weeks of exchanging blows, their demand for negotiations were finally accepted. They will recoup their losses, with the generous support of their financiers in Tehran, and at a convenient moment, renew the fire.

A serious blow to Hezbollah - in order to bolster the political establishment in Lebanon, which objects to being held hostage by agents of Iran and Syria - is essential in order to fashion a security arrangement, which will also be based on the multinational force. In order to deliver such a blow, the IDF must act faster, with greater force, in order to significantly lower - to as close to zero as possible - the number of Katyushas fired against Israel.

The exclusive focus on the nearest ridge, with Bint Jbail at its center, will not bring about the desired results. If the rocket launchers that strike Haifa are further to the north, in the area of Tyre, control of Bint Jbail will not contribute to their destruction.

Answer below the fold.
(more…)

Al Qaeda is officially weighing in, and they say: Kill all the Jews. And oh, yeah—the Christians, too.

CAIRO, Egypt Jul 27, 2006 (AP)— Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader issued a worldwide call in a new videotape released Thursday for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from “Spain to Iraq.”

In the message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri, second in command to Osama bin Laden, said that al-Qaida now views “all the world as a battlefield open in front of us.”

Just in case you thought this was just a war of grievances about, say, borders—this should help you figure it out.

“It is a Jihad for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails … from Spain to Iraq,” al-Zawahri said. “We will attack everywhere.” Spain was controlled by Arab Muslims until they were driven from power at the turn of the 16th century.

Actually, the headline should be “Al-Qaida Calls for Holy War Against Infidels,” but when has the AP ever gotten things right?

Ehud Olmert is going to do what must be done: The Israeli Cabinet has refused to authorize a full-scale invasion. Pinpoint strikes aren’t working, Ehud. Rockets are still raining down on northern Israel. What’s it going to take? A strike on Tel Aviv?

Reuters has discovered that Israelis aren’t going to roll over and play dead:

Rather than being impressed by Hizbollah’s strength — it was a well-laid ambush that trapped the soldiers killed on Wednesday, raising to 32 the number who have died since the conflict began — Shavit was surprised by Israel’s weakness.

“It just shows that we need to be harder. The air force needs to bomb more. We can’t leave troops on the ground in hand-to-hand combat,” he said, standing on Haifa’s Ben Gurion Avenue, a main street deserted since rockets began landing.

So marked was the sense of defiance that an Israeli activist planning an anti-war rally in Haifa was keeping a low profile on Thursday for fear of being denounced, and played down earlier expectations for the size of the demonstration.

“It’s just going to be a small thing, perhaps a couple of dozen people,” said Aneet, who would only give his first name. “We’re almost certainly going to be arrested. People aren’t going to be happy.”

Neither is Reuters, I’m sure.

Iran is now actively planning strategy with Hezbullah; when is the UN going to condemn those scumbags?

A top Iranian envoy was in Syria on Thursday for talks on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, in a gathering of the Lebanese guerrilla’s two key sponsors, according to Iranian news reports.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was taking part in the session, according to Kuwait’s Al-Siyassah newspaper, known for its opposition to the Syrian regime. It said the meeting was designed to discuss ways to maintain supplies to Hezbollah fighters with “Iranian arms flowing through Syrian territories.”

The newspaper said it learned of the meeting from “well-informed Syrian sources” it did not identify. It said Nasrallah was moving through Damascus with Syrian guards in an intelligence agency car. He was dressed in civilian clothes, not his normal clerical garb.

The Kuwaiti newspaper said the Iranian official would meet with Syrian President Hafez Assad and Nasrallah.

If ever we needed a good Mossad agent, we need him now. Get that effer. Better still, time to drop a bomb or two on Baby Assad’s palace.

And look, just in time: The “smart bombs” are coming. And would you believe, CAIR is mentioned?

According to the report, the US is stressing that the early shipment should not be seen as an emergency supply to help Israel, but rather as a change of schedule in a deal which was previously agreed upon.

An American - Islamic group - Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on the Bush administration to stop the deal, saying that the rush delivery at a time of war would be “unconscionable.”

Actually, delivery at a time of war is known as “resupplying.” You know, what the Syrians and Iranians are doing to the terrorists? Oh, but that’s not “unconscionable,” is it, CAIR?

Speaking of unconscionable, our pals the pals were marching in the West Bank—for Hezbullah, of course.

About 2,000 Palestinians demonstrated in the West Bank on Thursday to show support for Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

“Dear Nasrallah, blow up Tel Aviv,” the marchers chanted as they waved Lebanese and Hizbullah flags. Some carried pictures of Nasrallah and overthrown Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, while two dozen gunmen fired in the air.

Sure. These people want peace with Israel, and a two-state solution. Uh-huh. Yeah.

Right.

Just saw a CNN reporter interviewing an Israeli soldier who was raised in America, and who is now a border guard in Metula. The reporter asked all the typical mainstream media questions, and Mika deflected them like a PR pro. Israel is getting smarter. (All quotes are paraphrased.)

When the reporter asked “Yesterday was a bad day for Israel, you lost eight soldiers. What do your commanders say to you after something like that happens?”, Mika replied,

“More important is what you say to the parents. It’s a terrible tragedy. Their lives have been changed, and they’ll never recover.”

When the reporter mentioned that Hezbullah is a tougher opponent than the IDF had realized, and that some Israeli media mentioned the words “bogged down” Mika said that Ehud Olmert’s lack of military experience may actually be prolonging this war, and there needs to be a full-scale invasion to take out Hezbullah. He said that the soldiers were ready for it.

When the reporter asked him why he came to serve in the IDF, Mika said, “You do what you gotta do. Israel is my country, and we can’t be afraid of Hezbullah.” He repeated his call for a full-scale invasion. He also said morale was quite high.

Every time the reporter tried to get the MSM message across, Mika turned it around into a great PR opportunity for Israel.

The IDF is getting more media-savvy. Way to go, IDF. And don’t think for a second that they didn’t know he was going to call on Ehud Olmert to order a full-scale invasion. The military does not allow its people to be interviewed without permission.

It’s nice to see the media used for Israel’s purposes for a change.

We do things a little differently here in Richmond. Not for us the noisy rallies, the crowds of people, the signs in the big public square. On Monday night, we gathered at the Richmond Jewish Community Federation’s Israel Solidarity Rally (and you can still donate here if you so desire). There were about four hundred people there, many of them middle-aged and older, though a fair amount of children and young parents. There were also a group of teenagers who had just come back from a trip in Israel, and some young Israelis who work as counselors at the JCC summer camp. One had just finished serving in the Golan Heights a short time ago; he gave a short, heartfelt speech about how if he was called back as a reserve, he would go with a fuller heart knowing that we American Jews stand in support of him and his countrymen.

There is something about being in a room filled with Jews that makes my mind wander over Jewish history, which is a history filled with sorrow. I always seem to come back to the thought that our enemies want us to simply—cease. They don’t want us to gather together and celebrate our holidays, our life events, our day-to-day things. They want Jews to be a part of history—literally.

And yet, all these thousands of years later, we’re still here. Our way of life continues. We read the Torah every week, and we bring our children up in the ancient traditions.

One of the speakers at the Richmond rally was my friend (and former co-editor of my synagogue newsletter), a semi-retired rabbi who seems to always be insisting he’s going to become a fully-retired rabbi. He read the following from Isaiah:

⁸The Lord has sworn by His right Hand,
By His mighty arm:
Nevermore will I give your new grain
To your enemies for food,
Nor shall foreigners drink the new wine
For which you have labored.
⁹But those who harvest it shall eat it
And give praise to the Lord;
And those who gather it shall drink it
In My sacred courts.
¹⁰Pass through, pass through the gates!
Clear the road for the people;
Build up, build up the highway,
Remove the rocks!
Raise an ensign over the peoples!
¹¹See, the Lord has proclaimed
To the end of the earth:
Announce to Fair Zion,
Your Deliverer is coming!
See, his reward is with Him,
His recompense before Him,
¹²And they shall be called “The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the Lord,”
And you shall be called, “Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken.”

I am not the most religious of Jews. But I do believe that Gd will never forsake His Chosen people. Remember our Israeli friends and family in your prayers, particularly on this Shabbat.

Hazak ve’ematz: Be strong and of good courage (Joshua; 1: 6, 7, 9, 18).

Thanks to those of you who have been hitting the tipjars lately. I can’t send personal notes to the ones hitting my Amazon tipjar anonymously, but I can thank you here.

Some of the funds got immediately tacked onto my check to the Richmond Jewish Federation fundraiser Monday night and allowed me to giv