When the world is simply too depressing for words, there are always: Cat pictures.

Today’s moment of kitty zen: Orange kitten asleep on black leather sofa.

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

I am happy to report that the kitty flatulence problem that has plagued me since I got Tig3.0 has been resolved. The vet gave me antibiotics, and after a few days of rubbing goop into Tig’s ears, he no longer farts. You have no idea how much more pleasant it is around here. For a tiny little kitten, that boy could really stink up a room. He tended to fart right after he ate. And his favorite thing to do after eating? Cuddle with mama. I expect that’s because it reduced the nose-to-fart distance. He would also let fly if he got excited, like, say, if we were playing.

I was highly offended by Tig’s farting. Flatulence is a dog thing, not a cat thing. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, the vets out there with medical information can keep quiet on this subject and let me rant, please.) I have never had a flatulent cat before, or even met one, and I’ve known plenty of cats in my lifetime. So I am quite pleased to be able to retire Tig’s fart nicknames. (”Little fartster,” “stinker” “my little stinkbomb” and “fartman” were just a few of them.)

Tig had a playdate today. Sarah lent me one of her children to help socialize my little ex-stinker. She dropped Nate off this afternoon, and Tig reacted with utter horror and immediately hid. I spent some time with Tig and Nate, getting them used to each other, and showing Nate how to play with a kitten without getting mauled. Nate persevered enough so that I was able to go downstairs and work while listening to strange noises from upstairs. I’m used to kitten noise, but not “Boy meets kitten” noise. They had a grand old time. Laser pointer, paper wad, ping pong balls, string, any toy that Nate found upstairs that Tig reacted to was in use. Gracie even popped in on Nate to say hello. She likes Nate. She actually likes all of Sarah’s kids, just not all at once.

Gracie has started coming upstairs again, but she’s such a wuss that when Tig reacts with joy and runs up to her, he winds up inadvertently (and literally) chasing her down the stairs. But at least she’s getting less negative. She no longer hisses and swats every time he comes into reach—only when he oversteps his bounds and annoys her. (Which is pretty much every day, but hey—they’re getting along better.) I think it’s because I sleep with the bedroom door open again. Tig took exactly two nights to figure out that if he leaves me alone when I’m sleeping, he can stay in the bed. If he jumps at everything that moves, he gets locked out of the room. So from time to time, I wake up to see a Tigger on the pillow next to me again. Except this one is able to use the entire pillow as a cushion, whereas Tig the Second used to use the pillow as a pillow for his head. He doesn’t purr as loudly as the last Tig (or the first Tig, for that matter), but he’s still just a baby. He may grow into it.

I do still miss Tig, but a lot less than a few months ago. Tig3 is a worthy successor.

Given the sympathy that the Washington Post once showed for Samir Kuntar in a news story, the editorial An Unwelcome Hero was welcome, if flawed.

If anyone ever deserved the title “baby-killer,” it is Samir Kuntar. Yet his freedom has been a popular demand in Lebanon and the cause of Lebanon-based gunslingers for almost three decades. Abbas’s gang hijacked the Achille Lauro in 1985 in a failed effort to win Mr. Kuntar’s release. After Abbas faded into semi-retirement in Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad, Hezbollah took up the Kuntar cause, attempting to get Israel to swap him for bodies of Israelis killed in Hezbollah raids.

That’s correct, however, I’m a bit troubled by the conclusion:

Great changes must take place across the Middle East before a lasting peace can be achieved. Israel must make territorial compromises and foster a dignified future for the Palestinians. But attitudes among Israel’s enemies must be transformed as well. A good place to start would be to declare that people such as Samir Kuntar deserve to rot in prison, no matter what the religion or nationality of the children they kill.

I’m not bothered by their wish that Kuntar rot in jail instead of seeing him executed; the Post’s editors don’t believe in the death penalty. It’s the mantra about great changes and how Israel must make “territorial compromises” and “foster a dignified future,” these are both programs that Israel has been engaged in for the past 15 years. For the Post’s correct complaint about Lebanon and Hezbollah it ignores the bigger problem: Kuntar and terrorists like him are heroes even to the so-called Palestinian “moderates.” For there to be peace in the Middle East great changes are necessary, but the greatest change is the acceptance by the Arabs generally, and the Palestinians specifically, of the Israel’s right to exist. Fifteen years of peace processing and Israeli concessions have not changed that fundamental problem.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The terms of the truce are clear. Hamas is to stop all attacks from Gaza. No more mortars, no more kassams, no more attempts to kill Israelis. In return, Israel opens the crossings and sends in more goods.

Hamas keeps allowing mortars and kassams to be fired, or fires the rockets themselves. Israel closes the crossings. So what happens? Egypt begs Israel to ignore the fact that deadly missiles are raining down on its territory, and open the crossings anyway. And Israel caves.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday instructed the defense establishment to reopen the goods crossings into the Gaza Strip following a personal request made by Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman. The crossings will reopen partially on Tuesday afternoon.

According to the new decision, the crossings will operate several hours, rather than the entire day. The elements involved in the issue will form a proper plan, setting the list of priorities for the entry of goods into Gaza.

Oh, there’s tough talk.

“At the moment, our response is closing the truce. If needed, we will take other measures. It must be clear that any rocket, of any kind, is a clear violation of the agreement and we shall not ignore it,” a defense source said.

But there is only talk. Meantime, Hamas is training its terrorists on better ways to murder Israelis.

At least two Palestinians were killed on Tuesday morning in an explosion in a training camp for Hamas armed wing in southern Gaza Strip, security and medical sources said.

“The paramedics evacuated two dead bodies and two wounded persons and we expect more casualties because the blast destroyed the whole facility,” said Muawia Hassanien of the Health Ministry ambulance department.

The training center is located in a former Israeli settlement in Khan Younis city in southern Gaza Strip. Security sources confirmed there was training when the explosion occurred.

And here’s the kicker of the Xinhua piece:

Since Israel refused to deal with Hamas government, most of the projects to rebuild the empty former settlement was halted and the large spaces turned into training camps for the different Palestinian militant groups.

Meantime, the world has flooded yet more money into the Palestinian coffers, and the leaders of the PA are begging for more all the time. Funny how none of that money seems to be reaching the Palestinian poor.

The international community has paid out nearly a billion dollars in direct aid to the Palestinians in six months, officials of the International Donors’ Conference for the Palestinian State said here late Monday, while hitting out at Israeli restrictions on movement by Palestinians.

The chair and the co-chairs of the Paris conference, which last December came up with pledges of donations totalling 7.7 billion dollars over three years, ’strongly welcomed’ the process of disbursing the funds.

Money is raining in, and the economy of the Palestinians is not improving. Who is at fault? Why, Israel, of course.

But ‘restrictions by the Government of Israel on Palestinian movement and access continue to weigh heavily on the economic outlook.

‘Without a significant lifting of such barriers in the West Bank, and a relaxation of the restrictions on humanitarian and commercial flows to the Gaza Strip, there is a much-reduced prospect for private sector recovery, public and private investment programmes will continue to be delayed, and consequently any economic recovery will continue to be inhibited.’

Thank you, Tony Blair. It’s obvious you haven’t learned a thing since you left office. Because your Palestinian partners aren’t showing one whit of evidence that they are changing. Not at all.

In a series of reports published in the ‘al-Hayat al-Jadida’ newspaper Israel is accused of poisoning Palestinian prisoners in its custody and conducting “medical experiments’ on them.

[...] “Many of the male and female prisoners were given injections from needles they had never seen before, that led to permanent hair loss and facial hair loss. There are prisoners who have lost their sight and their sense, those who have lost their sanity and those whose mental condition is increasingly deteriorating, there are prisoners who have become barren and cannot reproduce,” the article said.

This is the official Palestinian media. In other words, international donors are paying for incitement against Israel, something that the world has never truly had a problem with. Europe is once again subsidizing the murder of Jews. Only this time, they get to pretend that they have nothing to do with it.

Thus ends your depressing post of the day. Geez. No wonder I want to discuss ice cream vendors instead of this.

After Arafat died, a number of news articles appeared reporting on how pragmatic Hamas politicians were. The gist of the articles was that though Hamas was known as a terrorist organization, there was no denying that the politicians from Hamas were excellent administrators, who were only working for the betterment of the Palestinians.

Consider this or this. The level of credulity is astonishing. The media, aware of the popularity of Hamas went into deep denial mode. If Hamas is popular it can’t because its sworn to Israel’s destruction and launches terror attacks against Israeli civilians. If that’s true what does that say about the peaceful intentions of the Palestinians who support Hamas?! It must be that they’re popular because Hamas is honest whereas Fatah was corrupt.

Of course over the intervening years we’ve read how Hamas smuggles huge sums of money into Gaza or how it intimidates Christians and journalists or how it attacks the Nahal Oz terminal, and anyone who’s the least bit aware must realize that Hamas is likely no more honest than Fatah.

Though I disagree with some of his analysis, I felt some vindication when I read this observation by Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak:

Since its takeover of Gaza, the organization has replaced Fatah in terms of corruption. Hamas members and officers are the only people with gas in their vehicles; they have the best jobs, and seem to be doing fine while the rest of the population struggles. Although it has made improvements in terms of law and order, Hamas does not offer much to the people.

Lesson: when you give terrorist thugs authority with no accountability they will be corrupt.

Related thoughts from Barry Rubin.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Another mortar, another truce violation, another pretend measure. The crossings are closed, but they’ll reopen, and the mortars will resume.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak ruled Monday against the reopening of Israel’s goods crossings with Gaza on Tuesday, in wake of Sunday’s mortar fire on Israel.

Palestinian gunmen fired a mortar shell at Karni crossing on noon Sunday. The rocket landed in an open area near the crossing causing no injuries or damage.

Barak’s order came just 48 hours after Israel reopened the crossings, in accordance to the ceasefire agreement brokered with the militant groups in the Gaza Strip.

Really, what’s the point? Barak isn’t going in in force, Olmert won’t order the IDF into Gaza in force, and Hamas is using the “truce” to re-arm, train, and regroup.

One of the main reasons Barak doesn’t want to go in is because there is no exit strategy. I read some time ago that the IDF thinks it’s pointless to go into Gaza without a plan for what happens after they’re done rooting out the Hamas infrastructure. Who will run Gaza? What happens after the IDF leaves? What if Hamas regroups?

Hello? Is this thing on? Leave. There will be that many fewer terrorists left to murder Israelis. Let Hamas lick their wounds. Because in the past, when the IDF has gone after Hamas in force, Hamas has sued for a real truce.

But hey, what do I know? I’m just an observer who gets to write the same posts over and over again. Think I’m kidding? Go look in my archives.