This post is late this year, but March 15th is still International EATAPETA Day.

That’s right, it’s the day when we piss off the hypocrites at PETA who have the highest kill-rate out of any animal shelter in Virginia; who send their people to lie to vets and shelters and steal animals that they then euthanize, and who create hugely offensive ad campaigns that compare the slaughter of food animals to the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust.

Yep. It’s EATAPETA Day.

On March 15th, we make sure we eat meat, fish, or dairy products—all the stuff that pisses of the PETA vegans—in protest of PETA’s deceptive and execrable tactics.

You can check out my back posts by clicking on the EATAPETA category, which include cute pictures of kids.

Here’s the the original IEAFPD post:

PETA has started yet another offensive ad campaign. This one really reaches bottom—they are using Holocaust terminology, quotes, and pictures to liken the “slaughter” of animals to the slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis.

I’ve already received a letter from a child of Holocaust survivors who is, of course, extraordinarily offended. But here’s the thing: PETA is known for this kind of outrageous publicity stunt—and that’s what it is, an outrageous publicity stunt—and while I am also offended and outraged, there is absolutely nothing we can do that will make PETA change their ad campaign. I’m sure they knew exactly what they were doing, have a plan in mind, and, if they withdraw the campaign, will do it according to their deadlines and their decisions.

So let’s make up our own outrageous publicity stunt. Let’s designate Saturday, March 15th, as International Eat an Animal for PETA Day. Everybody set the date on your calendar, and either go out and enjoy a great steak, or cook one at home. Or cook up some chicken or fish or anything else that PETA wouldn’t want you to eat.

Create a Meat-up in your own neighborhood. I’m having an early Meat-up with Elisson and SWMBO (I so love that title for a Mrs. I want to be one of those someday) this coming Saturday, as they’re going to be in the area. And I fully expect to be eating meat (it’s what’s for dinner) with some friends next week.

Go and enjoy, and then come back here and tell me all about it.

Whether it has been other nations

Turkey’s cabinet yesterday discussed steps to take against Israel, whose actions were condemned by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Sunday over its excessive use of force against Palestinians in Gaza. “It is not possible for us to approve of the recent inhumane practice in Gaza. Children, civilians are being killed with disproportionate use of force,” Erdoğan said Sunday in a speech he delivered to his party’s youth branches here. “There is no humane or legal justification for the attacks in Gaza. We, the Turkish Republic, openly condemn Israel’s attitude,” he said.

(h/t Daled Amos )

Diplomats

Rice called on Israel to “make a very strong effort to spare innocent life” in Gaza, but did not rescind her earlier position that walking away from negotiations would be a victory for those who oppose peace.

or editors

Yet the likelihood of achieving the two-state solution they have embraced diminishes with every rocket lobbed into Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza and with every Israeli military strike or squeeze on civilian life in Gaza.

Everyone seems to suggest that Israel be careful about civilians in Gaza even at it seeks to defend its own civilians.

And yet there’s a record that shows exactly how careful Israel is with civilians (or, in one case, non-combatants)

Ynet reports

The Kerem Shalom terminal in the southern Gaza Strip was expected to reopen Tuesday after being closed for six weeks for security reasons.

Some 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to the Palestinians were expected to pass through the terminal, while 60 additional trucks containing equipment and medications were to cross the border at the Suffa crossing.

The Kerem Shalom crossing was used as an alternative terminal after the Karni crossing in the northern Strip was shut down. The terminal was shut down, however, after the defense establishment received warnings on terror organization’s plans to carry out attacks at the area, and after mortar shells were fired at the terminal while goods were passing through it.

On Tuesday, the IDF was instructed to reopen the crossing, allowing a limited number of trucks to enter Gaza while following the developments in the area on a daily basis.

Sixty trucks were expected to pass through the Suffa crossing with medications, as well as equipment and food from the United Nations and donations from Jordan and Turkey. In addition, 80 trucks carrying grains were to enter the Strip through the Karni crossing.

(h/t Elder of Ziyon who notes:

Meanwhile, three Qassams landed in Israel so far today, to correspond with the three crossings that goods will be shipped through.

I guess that’s what they mean by a “proportionate response.”)

Israel’s MFA boasts that the Barzilai hospital that was nearly hit by a Grad missile has been treating premature Palesitinian babies.

The first Hamas missiles began raining down on Ashkelon on Saturday (1 March) shortly after 5 a.m. When the Hamas shelling of Ashkelon started, the twins, a boy and girl, were still in the NICU. One of the Grad rockets fell a mere 50 meters from the hospital entrance. All the premature babies in the NICU unit, including the two Palestinian babies, were transferred to the hospital’s bomb shelter for fear that the hospital itself would receive a direct missile hit.

(h/t Israel at Level Ground )And when an Egyptian helicopter crew got lost in Gaza, it was the IAF that escorted them to safety.

The pilot of an Egyptian helicopter lost in the fog found himself over the Gaza Strip and under fire from Hamas militants Monday until Israeli warplanes escorted his aircraft back across the border, Egyptian and Israeli security officials said. The red-and-white chopper strayed into the narrow coastal strip between Israel and Egypt shortly after Israeli forces withdrew from northern Gaza, concluding an offensive against rocket squads. Hamas mistook the Egyptian aircraft for an Apache attack helicopter used by Israel in airstrikes and tried to shoot it down, the militant group said. There were no reports of injury to the pilot or any passengers.

(h/t Yourish )

On the other side we see that Hamas is using mosques to hide weapons. (There is a history of Israel’s enemies using the protection of holy places to wage war.)

Frankly given the disparity of how each side treats civilians, the condemnations of and suggestions to Israel are insulting.

It isn’t the collateral damage of Israel’s defense that threatens peace. It is the impression of Israel’s enemies that they can attack Israel with impunity - and as a bonus get Israel condemned - that undermines peace. Maybe if Israel’s critics were a bit more forthcoming about everything Israel was doing it would reduce the incentives of Hamas to continue attacking. (That’s probably a pipe dream.)

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

This week’s Shire Network News is up. My contribution this week answers questions from listeners on how to vote in the upcoming election.

There’s quite a telling paragraph in a Jerusalem Post article on the latest Gaza operation. The AP reported widely that the IDF took out a truck carrying about 160 kassam rockets. They also reported widely that several houses were destroyed by IDF missiles. Not as widely reported:

In the course of the operations over the weekend, the official said, the IAF also bombed the largest rocket factory in Gaza, killing the rocket-building technician and his family in a subsequent attack on their home.

There are rocket factories littered throughout Gaza. Der Spiegel profiled them in January.

The vehicle finally stops at a dirt track. The Islamic Jihad rocket factory is housed in a kind of garden shed. The hut measures five meters by five meters, metal pipes with small wings lean against the wall in the corner: Half finished Qassams. There are several tightly packed garbage bags on a shelf. “TNT,” says Abdul and produces a chunk. The explosive looks like lumpy sugar. A large cauldron is sitting ready on a gas cooker while bags with Hebrew writing are piled up high up against the wall. “Fertilizer for the rocket fuel,” Abdul says and grins. “We get it in Israel.”

Abdul is 22 but, tall and lanky as he is, he could still pass for 16. He has been making rockets for three and a half years and says he has finished hundreds of Qassams. A veteran with a double life: He studies geography during the day and makes his contribution to the Jihad at night.

If Abdul is killed in an IAF airstrike, he will doubtless be called a “youth,” when, in fact, he was a terrorist.

Also not widely reported: The IDF says that Hamas lost about 70 men in the Gaza operation. Funny how you never get the Israeli estimate of casulaties in the MSM reports—only the estimates from Palestinian “sources,” which leads to the boilerplate of “at least half of them civilians.”

Must be those layers and layers of editors that we poor little bloggers don’t have.

Harvard University is coming under fire for creating women-only hours at one of its gyms, at the request of Muslim students.

Since Jan. 28, the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center has been open only to women from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays.

The change was prompted by a request from the Harvard College Women’s Center, which was approached by six female Muslim students, said Robert Mitchell, communications director of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

“It was done for religious purposes, but it’s not closed to other women who may want to participate,” he said.

Ola Aljawhary, a student and a member of the Harvard Islamic Society, said the women-only gym is needed.

“These hours are necessary because there is a segment of the Harvard female population that is not found in gyms, not because they don’t want to work out, but because for them working out in a co-ed gym is uncomfortable, awkward or problematic in some way,” she told Boston University’s Daily Free Press.

Now, you can probably make a case that I’m comparing apples and oranges here, but I find it interesting that the Jewish community has similar problems, and yet seems to manage to find ways to handle them in the private community.

Skin-tight tank tops and spandex bike shorts have never been standard workout attire at the heavily Orthodox Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center in West Rogers Park.

[...] Nonetheless, for religious reasons some people felt uncomfortable exercising at the center — until it became one of the few Jewish community centers in the country to open separate workout facilities for men and women.

The new workout areas were designed to address many members’ desire for modesty, a trait the Orthodox have traditionally valued highly.

Some particularly observant Orthodox do not so much as shake hands with someone of the opposite sex. And married women typically cover their hair and wear skirts with hems that fall below the knee.

The apparel issue is one reason that fewer women than men exercised at the center when its workout facility was co-ed. Even though certain hours were set aside for women or men only, there was always the possibility that someone of the opposite gender would walk past the workout room and glance in.

“So many wouldn’t come,” said fitness director Myra Orlinsky. “There wasn’t the comfort level. We had stopped reaching the community.”

Now, she said, “we are seeing a spike in membership,” with about 75 new people signing up for trial memberships during the facilities’ grand opening on Sunday.

I got the biggest kick out of this graf:

Said Minkow: “All of a sudden we’ve got rabbis here, studying on the treadmills.”

Now that would be fun to see. Oh. Wait. I wouldn’t be able to see it. Bummer.

I’ve been saying for a while now that Hamas and its Iranian patrons have not learned the right lessons from the Hizbullah war. Now the commanders of the Givati brigade prove it.

Officers in the brigade spoke about a combination of complex and sophisticated urban warfare and fighting principles such as commitment to the mission and pushing for contact with the enemy that stood out among the soldiers and commanders. They said soldiers implemented a considerable amount of the lessons learned in the Second Lebanon War.

And this is very, very good news:

With regards to the performance of Hamas gunmen in the clashes, the officers said that the militants fought fiercely during the initial stages of the operation.

However, after the IDF burst through their formations, many of them retreated and only fired at Givati troops and tanks from the 74th battalion from afar.

I hope Olmert doesn’t get talked out of the further operation to clear out the rockets by Condi Rice. Although the AP is up in arms because Condi and the White House actually blamed the right people for the latest “cycle of violence.”

The White House on Monday blamed the Palestinian militant group Hamas for sparking recent fighting between Israel and the Palestinians that has killed dozens and posed an obstacle to peace talks.

“The number one thing that has to happen is that Hamas has got to stop targeting Israeli citizens with rockets. It must stop,” Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for President George W. Bush’s National Security Council, told reporters traveling with the president back to Washington.

Yeah, he blamed Hezbullah for the Lebanon War, too. Which is, to bring this post full-circle, the war that Hamas—led by its Iranian sponsor—is still fighting.

Iranian technology and intelligence was used by Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip in the recent round of violence, said a senior official in Military Intelligence during a Monday meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

“Iran’s influence and effect is very clear,” said the official.

Terrorists fired at least 20 Iranian-assembled Grad-type rockets, which are significantly more damaging than the Kassam rockets that have been fired at Sderot and the western Negev for the past seven years, said the official.

Which is probably why Olmert said this today:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel had the power to defend itself against the Iranian threat.

Responding to the Security Council’s decision Monday to impose a new round of sanctions on Tehran, the prime minister said, “Israel can defend itself against any threat, but the Iranian threat is not just on Israel, and that is why Europe and the United States, and eventually Russia and China as well, agreed to the sanctions.”

Countdown to Iranian threat in response….

AFP reports UN should talk to Hamas to end Gaza violence: expert

The United Nations should talk directly to the Islamist Hamas movement in a bid to end the bloody violence in Gaza, the body’s advisor on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories said Monday.The world body can not currently hold direct talks with Hamas, which runs Gaza after winning Palestinian elections but which is considered an illegal extremist group by many UN member states.

“It is imperative that every effort be made to bring the violence to an end. This can be done only by negotiation and mediation,” said John Dugard, the special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.

“The United Nations is the obvious body to initiate such talks between Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah,” Dugard said in a statement.

This Ongoing War provided a personal glimpse of the UN “expert” John Dugard.

Those final words of Dugard, apart from their impact on me, were helpful in letting me put some perspective around the agenda-driven statements we all hear from people in high places. They sound like they know their subject but they are frequently as ill-informed as the most prejudiced partisan.Since his visit here and our meeting, I have closely read some of Dugard’s many reports and speeches as well as compilations (by invaluable watchdogs like Eye on the UN) of some of the outrageous and partisan pronouncements he’s made about Israel’s position and policies in this ongoing war. And I have come to the conclusion he meant what he said. The Israeli side, for him, truly is terra incognita. Completely unknown and mostly not understood.

That is, as Roth explains because Dugard’s job, by definition, is “looking exclusively at one side of a multi-sided conflict.”

Crossposted at Soccer Dad.

via memeorandumReuters “reports”:

To Israel and its allies, Abu Mohammed and his comrades are Jew-hating terrorists. But Abu Mohammed sees himself on a mission from God to rescue his people from 60 years of misery as refugees since the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.

Solomonia observes:

yes, they really do say that a Hamas fighter sees himself as being on a “mission from God”

Elder of Ziyon writes:

Reuters has outdone itself in lionizing Hamas terrorists. Anti-religion when that religion happens to be Judaism or Christianity, Reuters is all of a sudden quite objective when reporting on the Islamic beliefs of destroying the Jewish dhimmis.The headline didn’t even have scare quotes, as Reuters is reporting an established fact - that Hamas is inspired by God.

LGF writes:

I thought I’d seen the worst, most blatant propaganda possible from the pro-Palestinian wire service Reuters, but this article takes their bias to a completely new level.

To which I can only add, even if he views himself as being on a mission from God, that doesn’t negate the fact that he’s a Jew hating terrorist. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Daled Amos quotes from Contentions arguing that Secretary Rice would be better off using her clout to try an protect Lebanon instead of trying to save the “peace process.” Lebanon’s fragile democracy is under assault by Syria (and its master, Iran) and the United States is doing nothing.The NY Times reports: Rice Urges More Mideast Talks, but Won’t Mention a Cease-Fire

But highlighting the predicament in which the Bush administration finds itself as it tries to negotiate a Middle East peace deal, Ms. Rice took pains not to use the phrase “cease-fire,” even though several of America’s Arab allies, and even some Israelis, are pushing for a negotiated cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.“I’m saying that we want the violence to stop,” Ms. Rice said. “Call it what you will.”

Administration officials are concerned that a negotiated cease-fire between Israel and Hamas — which the United States views as a terrorist organization — would give Hamas even more legitimacy than it already has in the eyes of the Palestinian people.

Hamas of course, isn’t simply viewed as a terrorist organization. It is one by definition. But the bigger problem is not that a ceasefire will improve the image of Hamas, the problem is that it will leave it intact, free to upgrade its weaponry and infrastructure.

Unfortunately, Secretary Rice digs up some old, tired rhetoric:

“We need to continue to work to make sure that everyone understands that Hamas is doing what we expected — using attacks on Israel to try to arrest a peace process in which they have nothing to gain,” Ms. Rice said. “We need to keep the focus on that.”

No, Hamas isn’t trying to “arrest a peace process” it is attempting to destroy Israel. The firing of rockets at civilian targets isn’t a problem because it endangers talks, but because it is an act of war. Making the “peace process” a goal unto itself is one of the most counterproductive habits diplomats engage in. Sure talking is better than fighting. But if the conditions for a final settlement aren’t in place, talks will get nowhere and more likely give the bad guys the respite they need to to regroup and relaunch.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Those horrible IDF soldiers and airman. Imagine the nerve of them actually saving an Egyptian chopper crew’s lives.

The pilot of an Egyptian helicopter lost in the fog found himself over the Gaza Strip and under fire from Hamas militants Monday until Israeli warplanes escorted his aircraft back across the border, Egyptian and Israeli security officials said.

The red-and-white chopper strayed into the narrow coastal strip between Israel and Egypt shortly after Israeli forces withdrew from northern Gaza, concluding an offensive against rocket squads.

Hamas mistook the Egyptian aircraft for an Apache attack helicopter used by Israel in airstrikes and tried to shoot it down, the militant group said. There were no reports of injury to the pilot or any passengers.

The Israeli military said its radar picked up an unidentified aircraft crossing into Gaza airspace, which Israel controls. Fearing an attack, Israel scrambled jet fighters to investigate.

After a few tense minutes, Israeli radio operators contacted the pilot, who said he had lost his way. Israeli planes then escorted the wayward chopper back to the Egyptian border.

However, don’t worry about Israel’s reputation coming out of the media trashcan. The AP found a way to spin this article anti-Israel.

Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 but relations between them are cool.

Yeah. It’s not like Israeli pilots would risk their own skins to save Egyptians from a war zone or anything like that.