Man. I just drove home from NorVA. There were tornado warnings up north. Then, as I was getting close to home, there were tornado warnings near where I live. Bookended by tornado warnings and driving through pouring rain. The drive sucked.

I am so glad I’m home.

Israel’s DM Ehud Barak announced that the siege of Gaza is working:

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday said that Israel has identified signs of distress coming from Hamas. According to the defense minister, some 70 Hamas fighters have been killed during the last two months, and more than 300 have been killed during the past six months.”Hamas is very stressed. The most effective action is the siege,” Barak said, referring to the Israeli-imposed economic blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza after the Islamist group seized power over the impoverished coastal strip last June. Since then, Israel has allowed only basic staples to be transported through the border crossings it controls, into Gaza.

While it may not be enough, it’s certainly welcome to hear. Unfortunately, even if Hamas is losing its political hold, operationally the Qassams have kept on coming. Elder of Ziyon noted that there was no day in May that was Qassam free.

When the NY Times reported that Israel allowed the Fulbright scholars to leave, it did note the reason that Israel closed Gaza.

The closing, an effort to punish Hamas for its rocket and mortar barrages of southern Israel, prevents Palestinians from leaving Gaza except for medical emergencies.

But that’s just lip service. Remember, Qassams struck Israel every day for a month. And the closure isn’t punitive. It’s an attempt to stop the regular (or daily) bombardments; hardly an unreasonable goal. It may even be having a positive effect politically. But the article focuses instead on the negative effects of the closure, not its causes. And it also focuses on how the State Department brought pressure on Israel (something that the Times played a role in.)

Secretary Rice said:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was surprised to hear of the withdrawals, adding: “If you cannot engage young people and give complete horizons to their expectations and their dreams, I don’t know that there would be any future for Palestine. We will take a look. I am a huge supporter of Fulbrights.”

By itself, there’s little objectionable about Sec. Rice’s statement. However in this context it’s troubling.

First of all, education by itself, doesn’t guarantee hope or peaceful intentions. Yihye Ayyash was really trained as an engineer. Abdel Aziz Rantisi was a pedicatrician. Fahti Shkaki was a doctor. The problem is the indoctrination that goes on.

PMW just reported on the hatred that is shown on Palestinian TV. And it isn’t only from Hamas, it’s also from Fatah. But Sec. Rice had no words of criticism about indoctrination.

Nor did Secretary Rice lament the rocket attacks that target Israeli schools. The problem isn’t that Israel isn’t allowing Gazans to better themselves. It’s that Gazans generally support Hamas and Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. If the Israeli blockade has the effect of undermining Hamas, it shouldn’t be portrayed as an obstacle to peace.

This is an issue that could have been resolved quietly without embarrassing Israel. Sec. Rice and her department decided to go public and question Israel’s government rather than place any responsibility on Hamas and the public that supports it.

More from Meryl.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Bad enough the State Department has mandated the banning of jihad, jihadi, and Islamic terrorist. Now they’re trying to tell Israel that isolating Hamas has made it stronger.

No, isolating Hamas without hunting down and killing its leadership has made it stronger. When the IDF goes after Hamas with a vengeance, Hamas sues for peace and cries uncle. When the IDF goes in in dribs and drabs and lets the leadership survive, Hamas wins. But this is unconscionable:

Israel’s continued blockade of the Gaza Strip is misguided and has helped rather than harmed Hamas, a senior State Department official told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

[...] “What we’re telling the Israelis is that the policy that was adopted after the summer [of June 2007] wasn’t working, of really closing the borders,” said a senior State Department official.

It’s the State Department’s fault in the first place. They’re the ones that strong-armed Israel into allowing Hamas to run in the elections, a decision that should never have been made. The Taliban were not allowed to run in Afghanistan. The Ba’athists were not allowed to run in Iraq. Only Israel was forced to allow a rejectionist, terrorist party to participate in democratic elections. And the result is the current craphole that is Gaza—which of course, State blames on Israel.

Israel has held the opinion that a blockade of Gaza would also weaken Hamas’s hold on the strip.

But a senior State Department official told the Post that policy has appeared to have backfired. Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israel have continued and Hamas is gaining strength due to popular disaffection and Hamas can still get the resources it needs.

“Within Gaza, Hamas seems the least effected by the closure,” he said.

The solution? Why, find another way. Like, using European monitors. Or an international force. Gee. You mean, like there is in Lebanon? The one that runs away when Hizbullah threatens it? The one that stands aside as Hizbullah rearms southern Lebanon? The one that ignores the daily smuggling of arms and materiel?

Sure, let’s put one just like that in Gaza.

Effing State Department. Sink into the swamp at Foggy Bottom, will you? We need all new blood there.

Say, remember my telling you that Syria isn’t making a serious offer towards peace with Israel?

Yeah, well, I’m not wrong about that.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said during a visit to The United Arab Emirates on Monday that Israel’s agreement to withdraw from the Golan Heights was a prerequisite for the renewed peace negotiations between the two countries.

Speaking to editors of local news outlets in Abu Dhabi, Assad said “Syria conditioned the launching of indirect negotiations with Israel, with Turkey’s mediation, on the (Jewish state’s) agreement to cede the Golan.

Uh-huh. And after that, all the Jews who left Syria after the founding of Israel will trip merrily back into Damascus, singing “La-la-la-la” and bearing flowers, which they will lay at the feet of the dortktator president.

I think Tom Paine is wearing off on me.