In the comments of this post at Lair’s place, you can catch a conversation between two Israelis. About the katyushas landing in Israel.

Friends of Micronesia has an unintentionally funny response from the BBC as to why they keep calling the kidnapped soldiers “captured,” and an intentionally hilarious comment.

Because Chaim asked.

This is in response to this idiotic drivel by a person so naive, or stupid, one can’t help but wonder if qrswave needs assistance getting dressed in the morning. H/T: Dave.

Imagine a world without Israel.

qrswave: Muslims, Jews, and Christians could live in peace without fear of mutual destruction.

Meryl: Palestinian terrorist groups could live in relative peace (except for the inter-gang killings that break out from time to time) and operate with impunity, spreading jihad throughout the Middle East and beyond. Jews and Christians could live as second-class citizens in an Islamic theocracy, discriminated against and unable to worship freely, with the fear of constant destruction from the Islamic police.

qrswave: There would be no more need for US AID or justification for Dimona.

Meryl: There would be no more need for US AID, and Dimona, with all it entails, would be in Jihadi hands. Imagine 200 nuclear weapons controlled by Hamas, Hezbullah, and Islamic Jihad.

qrswave: We could bring down the Wall, send prisoners home, and families could be reunited.

Meryl: We could bring down the Wall, send prisoners home, and families could be reunited. Then we could send the experienced suicide bombers terrrorists into Western nations, blowing up commuters in New York, London, Chicago, Tokyo, Paris, and beyond, expanding the worldwide jihad until we live under one Islamic rule.

qrswave: We could dismantle checkpoints, open crossings, and pull down barbed wire fences.

Meryl: We could dismantle checkpoints, open crossings, and pull down barbed wire fences. Terrorists would pass unimpeded throughout what used to be Israel, planning the global jihad, training in methods of death and destruction, and exporting murder and destruction—just as they did in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and Pakistan.

qrswave: There would be no more settlements or armed settlers because the people would be united.

Meryl: There would be no more armed settlers because they would all have been murdered or driven out.

qrswave: We could replant trees and olive groves and rebuild battered cities.

Meryl: We could replant trees and olive groves and rebuild battered cities. But we probably wouldn’t, since we’d be spending our money on more explosives and weapons of mass destruction.

qrswave: No more suicide bombers or sniper fire, and no more dead civilians.

Meryl: No more suicide bombers or sniper fire, and no more dead civilians in Israel Palestine. We’d move our operations to Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon, killing in suicide attacks until we overthrow the current governments and establish an Islamic government in their place.

qrswave: No more targeted killings and hell-fire missiles, or systematic demolitions.

Meryl: No more targeted killings and hell-fire missiles, or systematic demolitions of palestinians. We would instead train our weapons at the West.

qrswave: Palestinians and Jews could live together and the world could address other issues.

Meryl: Palestinians and Jews could live together and the world could address other issues. Well, no, just kidding about that. Palestinians can live together. The Jews must go back to where they came from, or we will kill them—or both. Never mind the ones that have been in Israel for generations, and screw the descendants of the 700,000 Jews thrown out of Arab lands after 1948. They’re Europe’s problem, since Europe created Israel on palestinian land.

qrswave: What a simpler place this world would be if there was no need for a Jewish majority - where there would otherwise be none.

Is it so hard to imagine?

What a breathtaking ignorance of reality. Does Kos let high schoolers post now? Because this “World without Israel” post is astonishingly naive, on the level of a ninth grader who has discovered free verse about the same time she discovered the Middle East conflict. I’ve had deeper discussions with my fourth graders than the one that’s going on in the comments to this diary.

Imagine a world without idiots. Now that would be something.

Not only is this one of the stupidest things I’ve heard of in years, but it’s practically guaranteed not to work:

An extremist organization called the “Gilad Shalhevet Brigades” claimed it kidnapped two Palestinians, residents of the Jerusalem area. In a statement issued by the groups it was said that the hostages will be released only in exchange for the Israeli soldiers abducted in Gaza and Lebanon.

Jerusalem District Police said they are looking into the group’s claim.

Please. These are the people who dress their children as suicide bombers, who hide explosives in kindergartens, and who mine public beaches in the hopes of getting Israeli soldiers.

How stupid are these people?

My guess is it’s a prank by teenagers.

A look at the anti-Israel bias of recent headlines and copy:

AP:

Israel Blasts Lebanon Airport, Air Bases
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Israel intensified its attacks against Lebanon on Thursday, blasting Beirut’s airport and two Lebanese army air bases near the Syrian border, and imposing a naval blockade. More than 50 people have died in violence following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militants.

Warplanes punched holes in the runways of Beirut’s international airport and two military air bases, attacks that could draw the Lebanese army into the conflict.

Israel’s army chief Brig. Gen. Dan Halutz warned that “nothing is safe” in Lebanon and said Beirut itself - particularly Hezbollah offices and residences - would be a target. Maj. Gen. Udi Adam said Israel had hit hundreds of targets and hadn’t ruled out sending in ground troops.

Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israeli towns and said it was using a new missile that appeared to be more advanced than previous models. One Israeli was killed and more than 35 injured.

The militant group also said it would rocket Haifa, a key port and the country’s third-largest city, if Israel hit Beirut, a strike that would be the deepest ever into Israel by the guerrillas - some 18 miles. An Israeli intelligence official said Hezbollah missiles could reach Haifa.

Comments: Headline still concentrates solely on Israeli actions. There is no AP headline that says, “Hezbullah Fires Missiles on Israeli Towns, Cities.” Body of text emphasizes Israel’s “warlike” actions, while minimizing Hezbollah’s. Also minimizes Israeli casualty counts, which, according to Israeli newspapers, are around 130, nearly all civilians. Minimizes the effect of Hezbullah’s threat to Haifa and passes along Hezbullah’s “cycle of violence” reasoning, instead of pointing out that Hezbullah, the terrorist group, initiated this action by their attack on Israel on Wednesday.

Reuters:

Hizbullah Rockets Rain on Northern Israel
NAHARIYA, Israel (Reuters) - Hizbollah guerrillas from Lebanon fired barrages of rockets into nearly 20 towns across northern Israel on Thursday, killing one civilian and wounding 42 others in their heaviest bombardment in a decade.

[...] Officials ordered tens of thousands of residents into bomb shelters and basements along northern Israel as tensions escalated with Lebanon, a day after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in cross-border attacks.

Israel earlier struck Beirut airport and began enforcing a naval blockade of Lebanon, intensifying its reprisals. Israel’s attacks have killed 53 Lebanese civilians.

Police said some 85 rockets had landed in northern Israel. Nearly 20 towns and villages were hit, Israeli media said.

Comments: Still not an accurate count of Israeli casualties. Minimizes the Hezbullah attack as “cross-border attack.”

But wait. There’s far worse Reuters to be had:

Israel blockades Lebanon, kills 53 civilians
BEIRUT, July 13 (Reuters) - Israel blockaded Lebanese ports and struck Beirut airport and two military airbases on Thursday, expanding reprisals that have killed 53 civilians in Lebanon since Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers a day earlier.

Hizbollah fighters rained more than 80 rockets on northern Israel in their heaviest bombardment in a decade, hitting Israel’s third largest city, Haifa, the Israeli army said.

Israeli ambassador to the United States Daniel Ayalon told reporters in Washington the strike on Haifa was a “major, major escalation” but Hizbollah denied it had fired a rocket at Haifa.

There were no immediate reports of casualites in Haifa, a major port of 250,000 people. One woman was killed and 43 people wounded in the other rocket attacks, Israeli medics said.

Comments: Look at the headline. Israel “kills,” and of course, Hezbullah merely “rains” rockets onto Israeli towns. Like the rockets aren’t carrying deadly explosives that have already killed. Israeli responses are “reprisals,” Israel’s are “hits” from “fighters.” Also, you almost never get the names and ages of any Israelis killed by terrorists, but you will always get information on any victims of Israeli military action.

UPI:

RABAT, Morocco, July 13 (UPI) — The scope and scale of the latest Middle East hostilities sparked by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah gunmen Wednesday has ignited a spate of renewed violence that has officials worried of a broader conflagration.

Comments: Holy cow, a balanced piece! Quick, read it before it disappears!

CNN:

Some 45 people and two soldiers have been killed inside Lebanon since Wednesday, the country’s health ministry said, while the rocket attacks killed at least one woman in Israel.

Lebanon also said 103 people were hurt by the Israeli attacks, The Associated Press reported, while the IDF said 90 people had been injured by the rockets hitting Israel.

One rocket attack Thursday on the northern Israeli town of Nahariya hit a group of journalists, the AP said.

Comments: Not bad. Close to accurate. But you lose all points in the next two paragraphs.

Both Israel and Lebanon have said the violence amounts to acts of war.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday’s attacks by Hezbollah when guerrillas killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two more were an “act of war.”

Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat called Israel’s retaliatory attack on Beirut airport a “general act of war,” saying the strikes had nothing to do with Hezbollah but were instead an attack against the country’s “economic interests,” especially its tourism industry.

Comments: When one country commits an “act of war” on another, the response by the second country is called “self-defense.” It is not a cause, it is a reaction to a cause.

The Guardian: Oh, please. I’m not up for another one.

Katyusha rockets—supplied by Iran, bought from Russia (who protects Iran in the UN Security Council because Russia wants to sell more weapons to Iran), and quite possibly fired by Iranian Revolutionary Guards—hit the Israeli city of Haifa today. Missiles also landed in Nahariya again, and Safed. Add 26 more Israeli civilians to the casualty count.

VIDEO - A missile fired from Lebanon on Thursday evening exploded in the northern city of Haifa, officials said.

Firefighters and rescue services who reached the scene of the attack didn’t report any civilian casualties.

Earlier, six Katyusha rockets exploded in central Nahariya on Thursday evening as President Moshe Katsav toured the northern town.

In the latest attacks, rockets were also fired at Safed where the Maccabi Hospital suffered a direct hit.

Nineteen Safed residents were injured in a barrage of Katyushas that exploded in the northern city, including one critically, paramedics said.

Ha’aretz says Hezbullah denies hitting Haifa. Of course they deny it. To admit it would be tantamount to declaring war on all of Israel. Deniability allows the UN and EU to pretend it didn’t happen.

Two rockets slammed into the northern port city of Haifa on Thursday evening. The rockets hit the Stella Maris area near French Carmel. There were no reported casualties.

Hezbollah denied firing the rockets Thursday evening, after a day in which a woman in Nahariya was killed and another 120 people were wounded when scores of Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah guerillas rained down across northern Israel.

The IDF has ordered northern Israeli residents into their bomb shelters for the night. Stay safe, all my friends in Israel.

Hezbullah delende est.

(Update deleted until more fact-checking can be done.)

Barely have I posted a diatribe on the ultimate responsibility of a sovereign, and already some people echo my sentiments. Well, let’s not be too humble - it is no less than the French FM who decided to confirm my thoughts on the subject.

“For several hours, there has been a bombardment of an airport of an entirely sovereign country, a friend of France … this is a disproportionate act of war,” Douste-Blazy told Europe 1 radio station.

Oops… It seems that, while confirming that Lebanon is indeed a sovereign country, the guy succeeded somehow to distort the meaning. Hmm…

OK, it could be explained. One or the following must have happened:

1. My poor French (non-existent, to stick to the truth)
2. Acoustic distortion - happens all the time with the echo
3. Inherited genetic problems that the double surname families are plagued by

Further research is indicated.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

A report is circulating that the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers will be moved to Iran.

Israel Accuses Hizbullah of Planning to Transfer the 2 Abducted Soldiers to Iran
Israel has information that Hizbullah is planning to transfer two abducted Israeli soldiers to Iran, a senior foreign ministry official said Thursday.

“We… have specific information that Hizbullah is planning to transfer the kidnapped soldiers to Iran,” foreign ministry deputy director general for public affairs ambassador Gideon Meir told a news conference.

“Consequently, Israel views Hamas, Hizbullah, Syria and Iran as primary elements in the axis of terror and hate threatening not only Israel but the entire world,” he added, according to an official statement of the event.(AFP)

If that isn’t a casus belli, I don’t know what is.

It’s nearly time to open an “Iran” category.

This is precious. The UN is sending its biggest Israel-hater to negotiate a cease-fire.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending a three-person team to the Middle East to urge all parties to exercise restraint and help defuse the major crisis in the region, a spokesman said on Thursday.

The team will first visit Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials and consult with Arab League foreign ministers meeting there on Saturday, the spokesman said. Annan was traveling in Rome on Thursday.

The team is then expected to head to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria and possibly other destinations “as needed,” the spokesman said.

Vijay Nambiar, Annan’s political adviser, is to head the team. The other members are U.N. Middle East envoys Terje Roed Larsen and Alvaro de Soto.

For those of you who may have forgotten, Roed the Toad got his nickname after insisting that the IDF massacred hundreds, maybe thousands, of palesitnians in Jenin. You know—the “massacre” that never was?

Talk about your tone-deaf moves. Oh, wait. This is the UN we’re talking about, and Kofi Annan—the man who criticized Israel yesterday over the Hizbullah attack on her soldiers.

I think I need to add a new category for UN stupidity. Maybe “Morons.” What do you think? Suggestions welcome.

Solomonia has transcripts from Ehud Olmert’s responses to the international press. Must-read. Go. Read it. The p-word (proportionality) is used.

Dave is liveblogging again, when he has time for it.

Vital Perspective has a wide variety of reading material to reference.

Here’s an aggregator of Jewish blogs to help you find more reading material.

Carl in Jerusalem has a ton of information.

AbbaGav has an excellent post that cuts straight to the heart of the matter.

This Ongoing War puts the lie to Hizbullah’s claim of not targeting civilians. (This blog is written by the parents of a victim of a suicide attack. Go read.)

Please feel free to add a link in the comments.

If this report is accurate, the war may expand beyond Hizbullah.

According to Qatar news station al-Jazeera, the Lebanese army issued a statement expressing its support of “Hizbullah’s right to resist Israeli aggression.”

Meantime, Israel is telling Lebanon that Hizbullah has got to go.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Thursday morning that “we consider Lebanon responsible for terror activity originating in its sovereign territory. It is a derivate of Lebanese hesitance to act. Lebanon is paying the price for its small-mindedness, which allowed Hizbullah to behave as if it is the one in charge of the country.”

According to the defense minister, “This operation is intended to prevent unequivocally Hizbullah’s access to the northern border. Lebanese forces are the ones who need to sit there and we expect them to deploy on Israel’s border. We will not allow Hizbullah to sit our border.”

That would be in compliance with UN Resolution 1559 (a binding one), which calls for the disarming of Hizbullah, and which Lebanon has ignored.

I don’t suppose the UN Resolution being bandied about by Qatar (that aims to condemn Israel) will also contain language insisting on the enforcement of 1559.

“Disproportionate” is the word of the week. It has all but eclipsed the infamous “Israel must show restraint” catchphrase (Dubya is so ten minutes ago when he uses that one).

Now, when world leaders criticize Israel’s legitimate response to terrorist activity, to the kidnapping of her soldiers, and to the bombing of her towns and cities, the world decries Israel’s “disproportionate” response.

Let us look.

Proportionate:

After a woman was killed in the northern city of Nahariya Thursday morning from a direct hit of a Katyusha rocket, the rockets arrived at Safed in the afternoon, claiming a heavy price.

One resident was critically injured, another person was moderately to seriously injured and another 17 people sustained light wounds from shrapnel.

Disproportionate:

GAZA CITY (CNN) — An Israeli airstrike hit the Palestinian Foreign Ministry headquarters in Gaza City early Thursday, wounding at least 10 people and destroying the fourth and fifth floors of the building, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

Proportionate:

Six civilians and two soldiers injured in Hizbullah mortar attacks were treated at the hospital.

One of the injured was said to be in a serious condition, two were moderately injured and five were lightly injured.

Disproportionate:

BEIRUT, Lebanon Jul 13, 2006 (AP)— Israel intensified its attacks against Lebanon on Thursday, blasting Beirut’s international airport and the southern part of the country in its heaviest air campaign against its neighbor in 24 years. Nearly three dozen civilians were killed, officials said.

Proportionate:

Rockets fired from Lebanon hit the center of Safed Thursday, causing casualties, medical sources said. One man was in critical condition and at least 10 others suffered shock and minor injuries. Safed is about 20 kilometers (13 miles) inside the Israeli border with Lebanon.

Disproportionate:

The strikes on the airport, which damaged three runways, came hours before Israel imposed an air and naval blockade on Lebanon to cut off supply routes to militants.

We get the message, really, we do.

Proportionate: Dead Jews.

Disproportionate: Any act of self-defense by Jews.

We get the message. We just don’t listen to it any more.

As a matter of record, the full title of that article by Simon Tisdall is “UN impotence laid bare as Gaza suffers“. However, after a short hesitation, I have decided to remove the coda, since “Darfur suffers”, “India suffers”, “Congo suffers” and many others, even the improbable (or impossible in that rag?) “Israel suffers”, could do as well.

I shall mark that day in my journal: it is a unique occurrence of being so completely in tune and in agreement with a newspaper title in general, and with one found in Guardian in particular. And I don’t even have a journal, so it calls for a visit to a stationary shop as well, and who knows what wonders will this day bring!

Oh, and I have completely forgot: otherwise the article is complete and utter rubbish. It does not take a genius to guess that, after eloquently describing the Gaza suffering (real and true, to be sure), Simon T. quickly fingers the two responsible parties - the Big Satan and the Small Satan. In his refined British way of formulating this rubbish.

So, I have several remarks to make re some points raised in the article (count them yourself this time).

Leading UN agencies are issuing increasingly dramatic warnings about the humanitarian situation in Gaza…

Stop the Qassams and free our soldier.

There have also been numerous expressions of international public dismay.

Stop the Qassams and free our soldier.

“An already alarming situation, with poverty rates at nearly 80% and unemployment at nearly 40%, is likely to deteriorate rapidly unless immediate, urgent action is taken,” the UN agencies said in a joint statement.

Stop the Qassams and free our soldier.

The UN Relief and Works Agency said Gaza was “on the brink of a public health disaster” due to electricity and water shortages caused by Israeli military action.

Stop the Qassams and free our soldier.

The World Food Programme said 70% of Palestinians in Gaza were to some degree dependent on food aid, a situation that has in any case been steadily worsening following the US and EU’s decision to ostracise the Hamas-led government.

Stop the Qassams and free our soldier.

Unicef said Palestinian children living in “an environment of extraordinary violence, insecurity and fear” were being harmed psychologically.

Stop the Qassams and free our soldier.

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, has also repeatedly called for a halt to a confrontation that began in earnest after a Palestinian incursion into Israel on June 25 killed two soldiers.

Stop the Qassams and free our soldier.

He urged militants to release Cpl Shalit and stop firing rockets at Israeli civilians, called on Israeli forces to show restraint, and asked their government “to act urgently to facilitate the import of essential medical supplies, foodstuffs and fuel”.

Stop the Qassams and free our soldier.

I hope that a person as intelligent as Simon T. could easily decipher these remarks. If not, I am ready to provide an additional lesson - gratis.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

Because I haven’t picked on the Guardian in ages (mostly because I also don’t pick on children, stick my leg out in front of a blind person, or play mean tricks on animals, either), I thought I’d point out a particularly egregiously biased piece of crap that I found in its “reporting” on Israel.

Hamas has demanded that Israel free some of the 9,000 Palestinians it holds in exchange for Gilad Shalit, as Israeli corporal captured on June 25 during a raid on Israeli positions. Israel has insisted on his unconditional release.

Three weeks of air strikes and ground attacks have killed more than 80 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier, and have caused a huge increase in misery for Gaza’s 1.4 million residents. Yesterday 23 Palestinians, including a family of nine, were killed. While the capture of Corporal Shalit was an accidental by-product of the Hamas attack, Hizbullah said it had been planning Wednesday’s operation for four years.

Right. Asshats, let me explain something to you: The attack was conducted for the explicit purpose of kidnapping Israeli soldiers. Hamas and Hizbullah have been trying for years to kidnap Israelis.

But wait, there’s more:

Israel is using both crises to further other agendas. Its attacks on Gaza were linked to its battle against Hamas and the firing of rockets at Israel. In the same way, it has decided to force the Lebanese government to clamp down on Hizbullah and its autonomy in Lebanon.

Hizbullah was formed to push Israel out of Lebanon, but it plays a central role in Lebanese life. It is partly armed and funded by Syria and Iran, and accuses Israel of holding on to an area of Lebanese territory.

So let’s see if I have this straight. The cessation of missile attacks on your civilians and the cessation of terrorist attacks on your northern border are both “agendas” that are, like, I dunno, not worth pursuing? Or it’s not fair to pursue those “agendas” while going after, say, the terrorist that are the ones who are perpetrating the attacks?

You know, I’ve always thought the Guardian was a rag, but this is absolutely un-effing-believable bias in a supposedly objective news article.

This is why I don’t read the Guardian. My blood pressure can’t take it.

Update: Much more on the main page.

Two dead, 43 wounded by Katyusha fire in Israeli towns overnight.

Israel bombed Beirut airport and other sites in southern Lebanon, and is enforcing a naval blockade on Lebanon.

The strikes on the airport, which damaged three runways, came hours before Israel also imposed a naval blockade on Lebanon to cut off supply routes to Lebanese militants.

Israel told Hezbullah she will bomb their offices in Beirut if the katyushas don’t stop.

Meanwhile, Israel threatened Thursday to strike at Hezbollah offices in a residential area of Beirut in response to Katyusha strikes on population centers inside Israel.

In response, Hezbollah said that it would target the major northern port city of Haifa.

The war is going to escalate in the next 24 hours.

President Bush urges restraint.

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Thursday that Israel had a right to defend itself against terrorist acts but it should not weaken the Beirut government.

“Israel has the right to defend herself,” Bush told a news conference after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Secondly, whatever Israel does should not weaken the…government in Lebanon.”

Fox News correspondents in Gaza City are being fired on as I’m watching. They’re leaving. Wisely done.

For years and years Palestinian leaders have successfully used the same excuse for any act of violence perpetrated by their own: this is not our fault, this is not our policy - this is that rogue group of “militants” - be it Jihad Islami, PFLP, PRC and any other handy abbreviation from the alphabet soup of assorted gangs.

The abbreviations are easy to come by, are expendable, and the new day may bring a new name. This excuse is also useful for our “friends” in the mass media who rarely blame the Palestinian leaders, but very quick on the trigger to blame Israel for “disproportional response”.

The same scenario was played out many time by our northern neighbors. Lebanon and its government that seem lately to enjoy a period of calm and prosperity, are playing the same “it is not us” card, to be followed by complaints about “disproportional response” and all the usual menu of histrionics. And the usual responses follow:

The Lebanese government denied any involvement in the capture of the soldiers.

Sure, this is precisely the point: Hizbulla is just another name for denial.

Now, while the chief Hizbulla thug is beating himself on the chest and hailing his achievements, and while some analysts are predicting next Machiavellian twists and turns of Middle Eastern power games, we must go back to basics and to deal with that useful denial.

The sovereign must pay. This is where the buck stops, denials notwithstanding.

Hamas will pay for the steady and deniable rain of Qassams, and Lebanon will pay for the deniable Hizbulla. There just isn’t any other way to deal with this, not matter how deep the analysis.

And just for reference:this is one of the icons Nasrallah uses to justify the kidnappings: Samir Qantar.

Samir Qantar was 17 when Israel Police arrested him after he burst into a flat in Israel’s northern city of Nahariya, killed a policeman and another man and his four-year-old daughter. An Israeli court sentenced Qantar to 542 years in jail, of which he has served more than a quarter of a century.

Come to think of it, denial was raised to the level of an art form by the Muslim world. It is never the people who are guilty, it is just that rogue Al Qaida or this rogue Chechen bandit or another rogue Kashmir liberation group…

But let’s keep it for another story.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews