Happy New Year, everyone.
I’ll be back later.
This year, I’m going to enjoy my first New Year’s Eve in my new home. And at midnight, I’m going to open the door and listen to the absence of guns being fired.
Yes, my old apartment complex got that bad.
Jack does it, so I don’t have to. But I will anyway.
The weather is currently in Hamas’ favor: It’s going to clear up tomorrow. The ground war is likely to begin after it clears.
Arabs are shooting Israelis in Denmark: But it’s anti-Zionism, of course.
Hassan Nasrallah is giving Israel lessons in battlefield tactics: He says Israel hasn’t set clear goals for the current operation. The article did not say whether Chipmunk Cheeks is still speaking from his secure, undisclosed location for fear of meeting the wrong end of an IDF Hellfire missile. (Any end of a Hellfire is the wrong one.) But I do believe that Nasrallah doesn’t generally come out of hiding until February 2nd, or a big Hezbullah rally, whichever comes first.
90% of Israelis support Operation Cast Lead: The other ten percent all write for Ha’aretz.
Pro-Palestinian rally in Greece: Don’t care.
Iranian students protest Israel: Don’t care.
American morons protest Israel: Don’t care.
More American morons protest Israel: Don’t care.
Israeli students rally for IDF: Good for you, kids! Woohoo!
WTF is up with Fox? Get a load of this headline: “Iran Students Ready to Martyr Themselves for Palestinian Cause.” There are no quotes around “martyr.” Fox is using the word like we’re all jihadis or something. WTF? WTF? WT effing F?
What Hamas wants: Play close attention to the Jew-hatred in the comments.
There. That ought to hold you.
Every so often, I get an absolutely hilarious spam mail title.
The following is the latest:
Tired of your little friend staring at the floor?
Got any funny spam email titles to share with us?
The IDF bombed a mosque used by terrorists as a rocket launching site. Wait for the world to scream like a girl and faint.
The IDF confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Air Force jets bombed a mosque in western Gaza City. Medical sources in the Strip said that several people were hurt in the attack.
IDF officials said that the mosque was used by terrorists as a storage site for missiles and explosive materials. The army said that Palestinian rocket cells were firing at Israel from the mosque area and from nearby sites.
A short while after the Air Force attack, additional explosions could be heard in the mosque, apparently as result of arms blowing up.
In recent days, the army had been closely monitoring the mosque and discovered that it was used as a hiding spot by Hamas members, who proceeded to fire rockets at Israel from the area.
If the IDF has the video, you’ll find it on their YouTube channel.
Meantime, for all the international law experts who are going to, well, scream like a girl and faint—here’s a snippet for you to watch. This aired on Al Jazeera English. Note how the announcer keeps trying (and failing) to get the lawyer to say Israel’s attacks are illegal. (And by “international law experts,” I mean, “people who know nothing about international law and yet talk about it anyway.”)
Expect much shrieking from the anti-Israel brigade.
Ami Iseroff has an excellent analysis of the result of the last “lull” that Hamas asked for—and was granted. Remember, world opinion was that Israel should grant Hamas the “lull” and then, in six months, the two parties would renew negotations and, if all went well, make even more moves towards peace.
Here’s what happened in the six months of the IDF not targeting the Hamas leadership in Gaza:
Prior to the truce, in June of 2008, the Hamas rockets were homemade Qassams with a range of perhaps 10-12 kilometers. Their approximate range is shown by the green curve in the map below. Following the resumption of rocket fire, Hamas rockets reached about 45 kilometers into Israel, hitting as far north as Yavne and as far west as Beersheba. The range is demarcated by the black curve in the map below. It includes major cities such as Beersheba and Ashdod. If they are not stopped now, in a few months, Hamas rockets will probably reach Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Read it all. There’s a map at the link.
And there’s the answer to my commenter in this post who thinks that Israel should do nothing in response to Hamas rockets. Israel did nothing for six months. The result? Schools—thankfully, empty—in Beersheba destroyed.
This war must not end until Hamas’ rocket capabilities are destroyed.
Hamas operatives are hiding in hospitals and operating rocket launchers in densely-populated civilian areas.
Diskin also noted that large numbers of Hamas operatives are hiding in hospitals and that some are posing as medical staff. “Some are also hiding in mosques and some of those have been turned into headquarters, since they assumed Israel won’t attack them there. Their weapons’ labs have been completely destroyed and their tunnel system has been severely damaged.
“Hamas is trying to rebuild some of the tunnels in order to smuggle operative into Egypt.”
That would explain why the tunnels were hit so hard again last night.
The IAF reported Tuesday of several sightings of cells operating in densely populated areas and attempting to use Palestinian civilians as human shields.
Cells have been detected in neighborhoods in Gaza City, Jabalya, Khan Younis and Rafah.
Meantime, UNRWA is claiming that civilian casualties are a quarter of the death toll.
“A minimum of 25% of all those killed are civilians and it may well be far higher,” UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness told AFP.
Since the start of the Israeli offensive on Saturday at least 390 Palestinians have been killed and another 1,900 wounded, according to Gaza medics. At least 42 of those killed have been children, they say.
I should like to point out that UNRWA calls 17-year-olds “children,” even if those are 17-year-old young men who were killed fighting with Hamas. They are considered “civilian” casualties because of their age. I should also like to point out that the head of the UNRWA, Karen Abu-Zayd, was caught yesterday in a series of outright lies. She lied about Israel violating a 48 hour truce that apparently only UNRWA knew about. She lied when she said that Hamas fired “only one” rocket on December 26. So why should we believe UNRWA when they say the civilian casualty count is this high?
And lastly—even if UNRWA is correct, and the civilian casualty count stands at 25%, let’s look at the Israeli casualty count, shall we? Four deaths, three of which were civilians. The Hamas civilian death toll is 75%. The fact that fewer Israelis were killed is irrelevant. We are going by percentages of civilians killed. Why no cries of outrage from UNRWA about Israeli civilian casualties?
Yes, that was a rhetorical question.
What time is it, folks? That’s right. It’s Israeli Double Standard Time.
Certain defenders of Iran are fond of pointing out that Iran has the largest population of Jews in the Middle East outside of Israel. What they never mention, of course, is that Jews are restricted from traveling abroad (they must leave a family member as hostage and cannot take large sums of money out of the country), and that Iran will not allow Jews to observe the Jewish Sabbath, and Muslims are in charge of all Jewish schools.
So when I see a story like this, I don’t believe that it’s anything other than Jews today doing what Jews used to have to do throughout the ages: The bidding of the state that could, at any moment, obliterate the Jewish community.
Members of Iran’s small Jewish community staged a demonstration outside of the United Nations’ office in Tehran, to protest the Israel Defense Forces’ operation in the Gaza Strip.
The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, reported that community members, alongside Jewish parliamentarian Siamak Mara-Sedq, urged Israel to do its part to return quiet and security to the region.
The chairman of Iran’s Jewish Union, Rahmatullah Raafi, said the community had come out in support of the Palestinian people.
“We are here to express out support and sympathy for the Palestinian nation,” he said, adding that Muslim nations could rise up as a single large force against Israel. He also said that the victors of the current conflict were the residents of Gaza.
A people who are under threat cannot be expected to be speaking freely. Which is why I think the Jews of Yemen are behaving like the dhimmis that they have been for millennia, also:
Yemeni Jews have condemned the recent Israeli massacres in the Gaza strip, saying what is happening in the strip is denied by all religions.
Rabbi Yahya said that what the Israeli military is committing in the strip forces Jews in Yemen to stay home in fear of intimidations by some people who don’t like to understand that Yemeni Jews are not part of Israeli military actions in Palestinian territories.
For his part, Jew Suleiman Bin Yaqup said Israeli crimes in Gaza are unacceptable by Yemeni Jews as killing people is unlawful.
Yemen’s tiny Jewish community is in danger of extinction by Jihadis.
Before Israel was created, Jews made no waves, kept their heads down, and publicly went along with whatever the prevailing sentiment was in their country. The Jews were essentially a subject people in every nation (save America), putting up with pretty much everything the host nation dished out, quietly, and without fighting back.
Sadly, the Jews in Iran and Yemen are perfect examples of the Jews of the past. They’re the Jews that Hamas and Fatah want to see in the faux state of Palestine. They’re the Jews that the world sighs for in nostalgia—and in secret. Or maybe not so secret. Because one of the things that the world has been unable to accept these past sixty years is a strong defense of Jews, by Jews, for Jews.
That’s why you have so many people calling for Israel to stop their war against Hamas. Because we’re not the good little dhimmis we were in Europe and Arabia. We’re no longer standing quietly for pogroms and murders.
Don’t tell me how great Jews had it in Muslim lands before Israel was created. That is a lie.
Dhimmis were excluded from public office and armed service, and were forbidden to bear arms. They were not allowed to ride horses or camels, to build synagogues or churches taller than mosques, to construct houses higher than those of Muslims or to drink wine in public. They were not allowed to pray or mourn in loud voices-as that might offend the Muslims. The dhimmi had to show public deference toward Muslims-always yielding them the center of the road. The dhimmi was not allowed to give evidence in court against a Muslim, and his oath was unacceptable in an Islamic court. To defend himself, the dhimmi would have to purchase Muslim witnesses at great expense. This left the dhimmi with little legal recourse when harmed by a Muslim.
The Jews of Iran and Yemen could tell you all about it—if they didn’t fear for their lives for telling the truth.
While there’s been some talk of a truce between Israel and Hamas, according to today’s NYT, Israel likely to reject 48 hour cease fire plan.
The idea of a 48-hour cease-fire emerged from a conversation between Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Israel. It was supposed to establish at least a temporary pause in the fighting that would allow humanitarian relief to be delivered to the besieged coastal strip. Aides to Mr. Barak said he was interested in exploring it with Prime Minister Olmert and the rest of the cabinet at a security meeting on Wednesday.
“The leading option right now is still a ground invasion, but the target of this operation is an improved cease-fire, and if that can come without the invasion, fine,” a close aide to Mr. Barak said Tuesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not Mr. Barak’s authorized spokesman. “But, of course, Hamas has to agree, and there has to be a mechanism to make it work.”
In Paris, Mr. Kouchner met with his European Union colleagues Tuesday over the Gaza crisis and called publicly for a permanent cease-fire. A similar call came from the so-called quartet of powers focused on the region — the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.
The devil, of course, is in the details. The “mechanism” the anonymous source talks about will be nearly impossible to implement. While the talk of a “permanent cease-fire” sounds noble, the reality Elder of Ziyon observes is somewhat different.
Rocket attacks occurred before, during and after disengagement; before, during and after Hamas elections; before, during and after the Hamas/Fatah unity government; through the Hamas coup, through the worldwide blockade of Gaza, through the 2007 “truce” and through the 2008 “truce.” They happened while Gazans were happily employed at the Erez Industrial Park in Gaza as well as when it was shut down, they happened while Jews lived in Gush Katif and when they didn’t, when the crossings were opened and when they were shut.
In recent there have been a number of truces between Israel and Hamas and rocket fire continue throughout them all. So should Israel agree to a ceasefire, it would essentially be tying its own hands from responding.
This is something even the State Department acknowledges according the Times:
“That is different from the cease-fire that existed in the last six months,” said the spokesman, Gordon Duguid, noting that Hamas had routinely violated the previous agreement by firing rockets into southern Israel.
Of course, given that Israel has stated that its purpose is to eliminate the possibility of even more rockets from Gaza, a “cease-fire” – that magic concept – would effectively be a defeat for Israel.
There are two other interesting observations in the Times article:
In Gaza, Hamas militants issued a taped statement vowing revenge for those killed in the Israeli air raids since Saturday and warning that a ground invasion would prove painful for Israel. Palestinian officials say that more than 370 people have been killed, among them, the United Nations says, at least 62 women and children and an unknown number of civilian men. Two sisters, ages 4 and 11, were killed in a strike in the north as concern was growing around the world that the assault was taking a terrible toll on civilians.
Of course the statement’s taped. There’s no way they’re doing anything that might give away their positions.
And then there’s this:
His 13-year-old son, Yousef, was with him. When asked his view of the situation, Yousef took an unusual stand for someone in Gaza, where Israel is being cursed by most everyone. “I blame Hamas. It doesn’t want to recognize Israel. If they did so there could be peace,” he said. “Egypt made a peace treaty with Israel, and nothing is happening to them.”
Remember this isn’t the only case of a child saying this.
[Interviewer] “How many were you?”
[Girl] “Seven.In the other room were my mother, my father, my yonger brother and another sister, who is 13 days old. I say, Hamas is the cause, in the first place, of all wars.”
PMW – the source of the interview – noted in a followup e-mail that the girl’s statement was likely a reflection of the views adults around her hold.
While two data points hardly represent a trend, they are remarkable. The NYT reported yesterday (h/t BotWT):
In the fourth-floor orthopedic section, a woman in her late 20s asked a militant to let her see Saleh Hajoj, her 32-year-old husband. She was turned away and left the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Hajoj was carried out by young men pretending to transfer him to another ward. As he lay on the stretcher, he was shot in the left side of the head.
Mr. Hajoj, like five others killed at the hospital this way in 24 hours, was accused of collaboration with Israel. He had been in the central prison awaiting trial by Hamas judges; when Israel destroyed the prison on Sunday he and the others were transferred to the hospital. But their trials were short-circuited.
In a land of summary executions, taking a stand against the ruling authority can be rather dangerous. I’m surprised that anyone would express an opinion that didn’t blame Israel.
Israeli author David Grossman, on the Times’ op-ed page though argues that Israel should fight fire with a cease-fire.
NOW, after the heavy blow that Israel has dealt to the Gaza Strip, we would do best to halt, turn to the leaders of Hamas and tell them: Until last Saturday, we restrained ourselves in responding to the thousands of Qassam rockets fired at us. Now you know how severe the retaliation can be. So as not to add to the death and destruction that has already taken place, we intend, unilaterally and absolutely, to hold our fire for the next 48 hours.
Even if you continue to fire on Israel, we will not respond by resuming combat. We will grit our teeth, just as we did in the days and months before our attack. We will not be drawn into using force.
Furthermore, we hereby invite all concerned countries, nearby and distant, to mediate between us and you, in order to reinstate the cease-fire that ended earlier this month. If you also cease hostilities, we will not renew them. If you continue to shoot while we hold ourselves back, we will respond accordingly when the 48 hours end. But even then we will leave the door open to negotiations to re-establish the truce, and even seek a broader agreement.
This should be Israel’s next move. Is it possible, or are we already captives of the all-too-familiar ritual of war?
Huh? So if Israel holds it fire for 48 hours unconditionally, that will accomplish what? It will free Israel from the “all-too-familiar ritual of war?”
Will the 250,000 people living within range of Hamas missiles object to being fair game. But at what point would Grossman say that it’s proper for Israel to defend its citizens? He concludes with this:
And one more inevitable thought. Had we taken this approach in July of 2006, after Hezbollah kidnapped two of our soldiers — had we held our fire then, after our initial retaliatory strike in Lebanon and declared that we were waiting for a day or two to calm the situation and give mediation a chance — we would likely be in a better position today. That, too, is a lesson that Israel’s government should have learned from that war. In fact, it is the most important lesson we must learn.
Perhaps, I should not fault Grossman for this thought, as his son was killed defending Israel in 2006. But the problem wasn’t that Israel fought Hezbollah, it was that Israel didn’t finish the job.
UPDATE: A question about the proliferation of Grossman’s op-ed.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Oil is sticking around $40 a barrel (it closed at $39 and change today). Iran is in trouble.
Iran’s president presented parliament with a sweeping economic package Tuesday that calls for scrapping costly state subsidies for fuel, water and electricity and raising taxes to make up for the steep slide in world oil prices.
The move is a risky one for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who already is facing public disenchantment over Iran’s economic problems as he heads into June elections. Economists have warned that his plan will push up prices, worsening inflation now running at 28 percent.
But it’s even better (or worse) than that.
Iran relies on oil for 60% of its budget, half of which is spent on welfare. Starved for money, Mr. Ahmadinejad proposes to free some consumer prices and cut spending. Corruption, mismanagement (inflation at 25%) and unmet populist promises already made Mr. Ahmadinejad unpopular at home. Now the austerity talk is raising the domestic temperature. In October, a strike by bazaar merchants forced the government to delay a sales tax. The universities are restive again (see “Iran’s YouTube Generation,” Dec. 15) and the government wants to push through a hated gasoline rationing plan.
Apparently, Iran’s budget has oil pegged at $60/bbl. Ouch. Sucks to be you, Mad Mullahs. And will the Mullahs loosen the pursestrings of their Swiss bank accounts? Of course not. Let the peasants eat—um. What’s an Iranian delicacy?
Here’s what I find most satisfying right now: The price of oil went up a dollar or two since the start of Israel’s war on Hamas. Then it pretty much went back down again on the news that demand is going nowhere. When you have a land awash in a commodity that isn’t as desirable today as it was a mere six months ago, well, you either have to utilize other parts of your economy, or you have to just suck up the $100/bbl difference. But when oil revenues make up 60% of your budget—well, then you don’t get to do the things you really want to do.
Is the price of oil stopping the mullahs from ordering Hezbullah to open a second front against Israel? Perhaps. It could also be that they’re keeping Hezbullah in reserve for a possible attack on their nuclear facilities. Omri says it’s because the IDF flat-out stated not long ago that the next time Hezbullah attacks Israel, the IDF will flatten Lebanon. Not just the Hezbullah sections of Beirut. The entire country. Here’s the article he cited:
In any future conflict with Hizbullah, Israel will likely cite the Shi’ite group’s increasing influence within the Lebanese cabinet as a legitimate reason to target Lebanon’s entire infrastructure, government sources have told The Jerusalem Post.
So. Is the price of oil affecting Iran’s decision? Is it the desire to hold Hezbullah in reserve in case Hamas does get totally chewed up and spit out by the IDF? Or is it because the Lebanese know that Israel isn’t making idle threats about infrastructure?
Once again, Omri:
Evaluating Hezbollah – The consensus seem to be that they won’t attack lest the IAF flatten southern Lebanon. There were several mentions about the noticeable lack of activity in the south.
I’ll go with the Israeli sources on this one. They’re better informed. The fact that Iran is going to be facing probable riots in the near future because the price of oil has dropped? Well, that’s just a nice little extra.
Jack’s been doing roundups of news about Israel’s war against Hamas. Please check out his latest.
On the PR front Israeli officials held two conference calls yesterday. One was a real conference call with bloggers such as Gateway Pundit, Jewish Current Issues and Atlas Shrugs. Daled Amos has more. Plus the Israeli Consulate in New York yesterday held a Twitter conference.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
The 48-hour cease fire idea appears to be taking hold in some quarters, especially, apparently, with Ehud Barak.
The defense establishment is suggesting that Israel use a suspension of operations to carefully study Hamas’s intentions; whether the group is planning to escalate the violence by renewing attacks inside Israel or whether it will opt to stop its rocket attacks altogether.
Defense officials expressed skepticism that Hamas would abide by a two-day truce, and said it would instead use the opportunity to expand its rocket attacks. In this case, officials said, Israel’s offer of a cease-fire and Hamas’s rejection would grant the IDF a greater level of legitimacy for the second stage of the operation – a ground operation inside Gaza.
Furthermore, by agreeing to 48 hours of unilateral cease-fire, Israel would leave Hamas on edge as to when exactly it would launch the second phase of Operation Cast Lead. Also, inclement weather was predicted for Wednesday and Thursday – not optimal conditions for either ground or air assaults.
Is it real, or is it another feint by Barak, the ex-commando who planned (among other things) Operation Thunderbolt, the mission that freed the hostages in Entebbe?
There are reports that Hamas’ military capability has been barely touched. There are reports that Hamas’ military capability has been badly damaged. I am not privy to any special reports, only to reports in the news media.
And maybe the real reason is right here:
The Czech Republic will take the presidency from France on Thursday, and its Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg roundly defended Israel’s actions in an interview with a Czech newspaper Tuesday.
Schwarzenberg, a staunch ally of the United States, said he would not support either side in the conflict, but work as a mediator.
Yes, but he’s the guy who said this:
“Let us realize one thing: Hamas increased steeply the number of rockets fired at Israel since the cease-fire ended on December 19. That is not acceptable anymore,” he said.
“Why am I one of the few that have expressed understanding for Israel?” Schwarzenberg was quoted as saying. “I am enjoying the luxury of telling the truth.”
No, I really don’t think that’s the reason for the cease fire talk. But I don’t think it matters. Hamas is demanding the same thing they always demand: That Israel lift completely the blockade of Gaza in any cease fire. Since that will never happen, neither, I think, will the cease fire.
You simply must check out Elder of Ziyon’s take on what an IDF video would look like if it were as cheesy as Hamas jihadi videos.
Put down your drink before you go. Trust me on that one.
You know, sometimes I think the Iranians are just media whores. Why else would he do something this stupid?
Iran has set up a court to try Israelis for its air attacks on Gaza and is ready to try in absentia any people who Tehran says have committed “crimes,” a judiciary official said on Tuesday.
[...] “The court is in a special branch in Tehran and entrusted with the task of dealing with the executors, planners and officials of this (Israeli) regime who have committed crimes,” judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said.
He said the court was set up on the basis of a 1948 UN convention on the prevention of genocide to which Iran is a signatory.
This, from the country that holds annual “Death to Israel” rallies, and where several of its leaders and former leaders have called for the complete destruction of the Jewish State.
Irony really is dead in the Middle East.
McClatchy’s terror apologist Jerusalem Bureau Chief Dion Nissenbaum writes about Israel’s military response to the Hamas threat against its citizens by writing:
The Gaza Strip has had its fair share of bad days over the years, from the spark for the first Palestinian uprising to the razing of Rafah to the Hamas takeover.
So to say that Saturday was the deadliest day in decades for Palestinians is saying something.
Israel is in the midst of carrying out its own version of “shock and awe” by dropping more than 100 tons of bombs on Gaza that have killed more than 250 people, injured hundreds more and set off a volatile new phase of the conflict with Hamas.
Some perspective please. What’s going on in the Congo?
A Ugandan rebel group known for its horrific cruelties has massacred 189 people and kidnapped at least 20 children over three days in northeastern Congo, U.N. officials reported Monday.
The cultlike Lord’s Resistance Army carried out the attacks on three villages between Thursday and Saturday, according to Ivo Brandau, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.
The group killed 40 people in the small town of Faradje on Thursday, and over the next two days, it attacked the villages of Doruma, where rebels massacred 89 people, and neighboring Gurba, where 60 were killed, Brandau said, citing reports that the United Nations received from local authorities.
(h/t Meryl)
In Iraq:
At least 670 Kurdish militants have been killed by Turkish forces in counter-terrorism operations this year, the country’s General Staff said on Thursday.
The largest numbers of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatists were killed in February and May – 250 and 179, respectively – mostly in the course of Turkish army air raids in northern Iraq, where PKK camps are based.
(h/t Meryl again)
So yes a lot of people have been killed by Israel, but as Ralph Peter points out,
Israel’s attack aircraft appear to have accomplished that part of the mission. As I write, some 300 terrorist dead have been reported in Gaza, while the propaganda-savvy information office of Hamas has strug- gled to prove that 20 civilians died.
Given the fact that Hamas adheres to the terrorist practice of locating command sites, arsenals and training facilities in heavily populated areas, the results suggest that the IDF – supported by first-rate intelligence work – may have executed the most accurate wave of airstrikes in history, with a 15-to-1 terrorist-to-civilian kill ratio.
So despite the cynical tactic that Hamas has adopted of placing its infrastructure in civilian neighborhoods, Israel has minimized civilian deaths as much as possible. The only people who are outraged are Hamas and their various mouthpieces like Nissenbaum.
Given Nissenbaum’s role as a spokesman for Hamas then, his later complaint about Israel doesn’t much move me.
But, as the BBC’s Jo Floto noted last month after Israel first barred journalists from entering Gaza, Israel has joined a notorious and small list of countries preventing reporters from doing their job.
Israel, which prides itself on being the healthiest democracy in the Middle East, joins North Korea, Zimbabwe and Burma in denying media access to a major story.
It’s a cheap shot. First of all, even he acknowledges that he has stringers in Gaza. But again, given Nissenbaum’s history of flacking for terrorists, his “freedom of the press” argument carries no weight with me. If he were serious about reporting I might take his complaints about the closure seriously. But since he abuses his position by defending terrorists who kill Jews rather than reporting, he’s in no position to question the motives of the Israeli government or compare it to the worst tyrannies in the world.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Lair Simon may not be blogging as much as he used to, but his talent hasn’t subsided in the least. Witness:
I was looking through my Flickr stream and came across something I had expected: a series of snapshots by Dancing Ink Productions showing Second Life protests against war crimes in Gaza.
And you know what?
I completely agree with the protesters who say that the war crimes in Gaza should end.
So, what are those war crimes?
Let us count the charges, shall we?
- I agree that the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians by Hamas is a war crime.
- I agree that the use of residential areas by Hamas to attack Israeli civilians in order to draw retaliatory fire to civilians is a war crime.
- I agree that the recruitment of civilians to act as human shields by Hamas for combatants not in uniform is a war crime.
- I agree that the use of journalists as human shields by Hamas is a war crime.
Read it all.
One of the common memes about Israel’s war against Hamas is that Israel is strengthening Hamas by causing Palestinians to rally around the terrorist group. Of course we heard this for years. It was the reason Israel couldn’t fight Fatah based terror from 1993 to 2003. But of course, Operation Defensive Shield changed that. Israel fought Fatah and Fatah lost. Now Israel’s being lecture: Don’t fight Hamas, you’ll only make them stronger. In other words, Israel’s being advised to “lie back and enjoy” the Hamas terror. And of course the unilateral surrender is wrapped in a cloak of false concern that if Israel fights back it will only make things worse for itself.
In the Washington Post’s report:
Israeli officials have, in recent days, pointed hopefully to indications that support for Hamas within Gaza is eroding. Israeli and Palestinian analysts say Israel’s strategy appears to be to weaken Hamas enough that the group has no choice but to sign a truce on Israel’s terms. But there is a risk that approach could backfire.
Rawiya Shawa, an independent Palestinian legislative council member who lives in Gaza City, said attacks on targets such as mosques and university buildings are uniting the population behind Hamas and neutralizing the internal opposition.
(Notice how no news reports say anything like “Hamas’s efforts to wreak havoc on Israel might backfire and lead Israel to destroy the infrastructure that Hamas has worked hard to build.” Only Israel has to worry about backfiring strategies.)
And of course there was Daoud Kuttab’s offensive op-ed (via memeorandum):
While it is not apparent how this violent confrontation will end, it is abundantly clear that the Islamic Hamas movement has been brought back from near political defeat while moderate Arab leaders have been forced to back away from their support for any reconciliation with Israel.
What’s abundantly clear is that it’s not at all obvious that Hamas will benefit from this war. If Israel miscalculates and ends the war unsatisfactorily, it will benefit Hamas just as the war in 2006 benefited Hezbollah. But if Israel significantly degrades Hamas’ capabilities and kills a number of Hamas’ leaders, Hamas will be weakened.
Contrary to what Kuttab wrote, Egypt (which has enable Hamas to re-arm and fortify its offensive capabilities) blamed Hamas for the fighting.
Now Jeffrey Goldberg reports that a friend of his from Fatah, is rooting for the IAF! (via memeorandum)
I’ve been talking to friends of mine, former Palestinian Authority intelligence officials (ejected from power by the Hamas coup), and they tell me that not only are they rooting for the Israelis to decimate Hamas, but that Fatah has actually been assisting the Israelis with targeting information.
(There is some room for skepticism. Would Fatah really admit to helping Israel? Or are they gauging that Hamas is that unpopular? After all Hamas was supposed to be the good government terrorists and they haven’t delivered a better quality of life for Gaza in the past two years.)
And Hamas isn’t necessarily winning hearts and minds in Gaza either:
[Interviewer] “How many were you?”
[Girl] “Seven.In the other room were my mother, my father, my yonger brother and another sister, who is 13 days old. I say, Hamas is the cause, in the first place, of all wars.”
Those concerns about Israel’s offensive backfiring are the hopes of those who doesn’t wish Israel to defend itself. I don’t think that it’s all “abundantly clear” that Israel will end up strengthening Hamas by destroying it.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
This made me laugh and cry simultaneously. But I didn’t break my PC. It’s too… what?
Read more here, and many thanks to Andrew Ian Dodge.
Also – read the whole linked article in The London Daily News.
(Warning – after laughing and crying comes a puking session).
P.S. But the picture of F-16 is undeniably nice. Here it comes:
Mmm… still, cutting a piece of that missile on the right. Oh well…
Update by Meryl: Snoopy put the article’s headline as this post title. Yes, that’s a headline in a British newspaper. Damn Israel and its own selfish security concerns! Can’t they think about someone else for a change?
Wow. Just—wow.
(Glad to have you back, Snoopy!)
Noah Pollak observed about a headline in the Washington Post alleging that Israel had rejected a truce with Hamas:
But nothing of the sort happened; no truce has been offered by anyone involved, least of all Hamas, and there is nothing in the story that even begins to substantiate the claim made in the headline. The headline is simply fabricated from whole cloth, a piece of naked propaganda designed to portray Israel as an unreasonable aggressor.
Mere Rhetoric, Meryl and Elder of Ziyon noticed something else: The AP uncritically reported a false claim of Hamas that Israel had violated a truce understanding over the weekend.
This raises the question: Did the Washington Post’s headline writer decide to insert his own take on the conflict into the headline based on the false AP report?
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
You can find IDF videos here.
Here’s a video of the IDF destroying some underground rocket tunnels and weapon storage facilities.
Evidence that the anti-Israel side will not bother to watch, because it explains why the IDF is bombing civilian areas. Because that’s where Hamas keeps the weapons.
Israel’s helpful Arab and Muslim “allies” have come up with a brilliant plan, and a warning: Take it, or you’ll be facing a second front.
Turkey and Egypt plan to warn Israel that if a ground operation is launched in the Gaza Strip, Hizbullah might open another front in south Lebanon, Turkish sources told al-Hayat newspaper.
The report, published on Tuesday, said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit visited Ankara on Monday and presented his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan with a document detailing a four-point plan aimed at restoring order and ending the Israeli operation in Gaza.
The plan includes a ceasefire, the opening of Gaza crossings the removal of the blockade on the Strip, and the creation of regional and international guarantees that will keep the crossings open and the agreement honored.
So they’re going to urge Israel to give Hamas exactly what it wants. Yeah, that’s exactly why Israel is currently bombing targets in Gaza. So they can surrender to Hamas.
And Egypt, ever the hypocrite, refuses to let Palestinians out of Gaza into Egypt.
Sounds to me like Egypt and Turkey are brandishing a load of bull at Israel. Iran controls Hizbullah’s reaction, and it looks like Iran is keeping Lebanon in check for a future strike on Israel. If Hezbullah were to open a second front, you’d think they’d have done it by now.
Despite reports of a possible attack from the north, recent speeches by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah indicate he is not headed for war with Israel.
Since Israel launched its Operation Cast Lead in Gaza on Saturday, Nasrallah spoke out mainly against Egypt and almost completely avoided mentioning Israel.
It seems the Hizbullah leader will settle for mass rallies in support of Gaza and against Israel and the US, and a PR campaign against Egypt.
I suspect Egypt and Turkey will be given their walking papers over this proposal.
The American media is doing all it can to undermine Israel’s case for war. I’m not just talking about those anti-Israel bloviators whom Noah Pollak amusingly call the “juicebox mafia,” but the opinion pages of major American newspapers have been mobilized to condemn Israel.
Following up on his paper’s poorly argued editorial criticizing Israel yesterday, Jackson Diehl weighed in with Olmert’s Final Failure:
Israel’s new battle with Hamas in Gaza means that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be remembered for fighting two bloody and wasteful mini-wars in less than three years in power. The first one, in Lebanon during the summer of 2006, punished but failed to defeat or even permanently injure Hezbollah, which is politically and militarily stronger today than it was before Olmert took office. This one will probably have about the same effect on Hamas, which almost certainly will still control Gaza, and retain the capacity to strike Israel, when Olmert leaves office in a few months.
It’s astonishing that anyone, presumably as informed as Diehl – who was once the Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief – could write something so unserious. (Richard Boudreaux of the LA Times highlights a number of differences between Israel’s justified attack against Gaza with its justified attack against Hezbollah. via memeorandum)
Israel struck at Gaza not for some frivolous reason, but because the situation was intolerable. Wtih roughly 250,000 of its citizens in rocket range from Gaza and Hamas having used a ceasefire to improve its ability to strike at those citizens, Israel had to act. The point of the attack isn’t to force another ceasefire – that would be frivolous as the failure in Lebanon turned otu to be – but to significantly degrade Hamas’s abilities. I expect that part of what Israel will need to do before it stops is to kill the likes of Haniyeh, Zahar, and Abu Tir.
The end of the op-ed is disturbing too. In the next to last paragraph, Diehl writes:
Worst of all, Abbas followed in a long tradition of previous Palestinian leaders by reacting to a far-reaching Israeli offer with an uncourageous demurral. Olmert has never publicly disclosed the terms he discussed with Abbas, but sources say he went well beyond what Israel agreed to at the Camp David talks of 2000, previously the closest approach to a deal. I’m told Olmert offered to support the groundbreaking concession of allowing thousands of Palestinian refugees to “return” to Israel over a period of years; he also agreed to divide Jerusalem between Israel and Palestine. Abbas, like Yasser Arafat at Camp David, refused to sign on to a compromise that the world would have hailed.
This is Olmert’s failure. How could he go further than Camp David? The Palestinians would be rewarded for their refusal to accept the terms of Camp David if Abbas had had the guts to accept Olmert’s offer. But Diehl whitewashes what went on. If this report is correct, Abbas “refused” to make peace. That’s hardly Olmert’s fault. It doesn’t occur to Diehl that even the “moderate” Palestinians might not be committed to a peaceful resolution of their conflict with Israel. Finally Diehl concludes:
So Olmert, like Ehud Barak eight years ago, will end his term as prime minister by bombing rather than liberating Palestinians. He will be remembered for his wars — but it may be many years before Israel again has a leader as willing to make peace.
If the current fighting leads to an actual victory over Hamas then Olmert will get a small measure of credit in an otherwise dismal record. But Diehl ought not to mourn the lack of an Israeli leader willing to make peace, when he has noted that it was Abbas who refused Olmert’s stupidly generous terms. The lack of peace doesn’t result from the lack of (misplaced) Israeli efforts.
It’s a measure of how awful and ill-informed Diehl’s op-ed was that it was endorsed by anti-Israel and antisemitic pundit, Helena Coban.
But the Post isn’t done. Today it features an op-ed by Palestinian “moderate” Daoud Kuttab, Has Israel revived Hamas?, Kuttab starts with:
In its efforts to stop amateur rockets from nagging the residents of some of its southern cities, Israel appears to have given new life to the fledging Islamic movement in Palestine.
“Nagging?” What an immoral declaration. OK, this fellow was “nagged” to death. The Post ought to stick to allowing terrorists op-eds instead of phony “moderates.” Kuttab’s all too predictable argument is that by attacking Hamas Israeli has succeeded in making Hamas more popular. Maybe he spoke too soon. The question is whether Israel will fight to win or not. If Israel fights to win, then Kuttab would do well to remember:
Take, for example, Israel’s targeted assassination of Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, and Ismail Abu Shanab in 2004. With its top leadership eliminated in a span of only a few months, Hamas was in utter disarray. Specifically, after Yassin’s death, Hamas never found a religious leader to fill the void. His death made Hamas increasingly vulnerable to the widely held perception that it was simply a group of violent terrorists with no religious mandate.
Israel can defeat Hamas if it kills the right people and sufficiently degrades Hamas’s offensive capabilities. Kuttab isn’t serious, but he served the needs of the Post’s editorial staff by adding one more voice of objection to Israel defending its citizens.
The editors of the Post, unwilling to leave bad enough alone, have added an unsigned editorial to their campaign against Israel, Divided on Gaza.
If the Lebanon war is any indication, the bloodshed in Gaza — which is being endlessly looped on Arab satellite channels across the region — will strengthen the Iranian camp at the expense of the secular Sunni forces. Thousands of people joined pro-Hamas rallies in Beirut, Cairo and Amman, Jordan, yesterday. Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader whose popularity soared after he survived his battle with Israel, delivered a fiery speech in which he demanded that Egypt open its border with Gaza “and help Gazans in their struggle.” The weak and unpopular government of President Hosni Mubarak allowed some aid deliveries yesterday and will find it hard to resist further concessions if the fighting continues.
Of course allowing the Iranian camp to declare victory strengthens it. As I argued yesterday, the Post should be using its reportorial abilities to expose the Iranian threat and leave the fighting to Israel. (The Post can’t even bring itself to mention that Israel, too, is allowing emergency deliveries into Gaza and treating the wounded in Israeli hospitals.) If Israel defeats Hamas and kills some of its leaders, those street demonstrations will prove nothing.
Israel was offering upbeat assessments of its air offensive yesterday even while warning that it could continue for some time and possibly expand to ground operations. Yet, as in Lebanon, no decisive military victory is likely: Israel will not be able to topple Hamas unless it fully reoccupies Gaza, and it will probably not be able even to stop the rocket attacks on its cities without some kind of political settlement. For that, Israel will need the mediation of Egypt, Saudi Arabia or other Sunni states. Israel must be careful not to allow its military campaign to undermine its own diplomatic end game — or to hand another political victory to an Iranian regime that remains a far greater threat to Israel than Hamas is.
Maybe no decisive military victory is possible. But my guess is that Israel has some specific goals in mind and that when it achieves them – and only then – will it stop. Even it achieves its goals would the Post grant Israel the victory? My guess, based on its current offensive, is that it won’t. Maybe the Post’s editors ought to stop shedding so many crocodile tears. Based on the editorial’s they’ve run and the op-ed’s they’ve commissioned, it’s clear that they object to Israel defending itself.
The New York Times has finally weighed in too with War over Gaza. Surprisingly, it’s marginally less hostile to Israel than the Washington Post has been. Still it suffers from its own bit of silliness:
We hope he does not mean a ground war. That, or any prolonged military action, would be disastrous for Israel and lead to wider regional instability. Mr. Barak and Israel’s foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, both candidates to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in elections set for February, must not be drawn any further into a competition with the front-runner, Benjamin Netanyahu, over who is the biggest hawk.
If a ground war defeats Hamas, it won’t lead to greater regional instability. Hamas and other Iranian proxies are sources of instability. Defeating them is a good thing. And Barak, Livni and Olmert are hardly hawks.They are doing what they see as being necessary to defend their citizens. The imputation of cynicism is disappointing if not unexpected.
(The NYT actually had a somewhat sympathetic op-ed towards Israel by Benny Morris.)
What are the antidotes to this editorial poison?
Read Sderot under Siege by David Keyes. David Bernstein’s takedown Glenn Greenwald is excellent. Jack’s got a second roundup and is working on a third. Israelly Cool and the Muqata are still liveblogging. And while not all posts are about Israel, I’ve put together a link to the best pro-Israel blogs through Google Reader here.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Omri catches the head of the UNRWA in a blatant lie about a supposed lull that nobody seems to have known about but her. And the AP is passing along her lies without so much as fact-checking them.
Palestinians in Gaza believed Israel had called a 48-hour “lull” in retaliatory attacks with Hamas when Israeli warplanes launched a massive bombardment of militant installations in the Gaza Strip, a U.N. official said Monday.
Karen Abu Zayd, commissioner of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which helps Palestinian refugees, raised the possible violation of an informal truce in a video press conference with U.N. reporters from her base in Gaza.
Here’s what Omri caught:
“What we understood here (was) that there was a 48-hour lull to be called, and this was called by the Israelis,” Abu Zayd said. “They said they would wait 48 hours. That was on Friday morning, I believe, until Sunday morning, and that they were going to evaluate.”
“There was only one rocket that went out on Friday, so it was obvious that Hamas was trying, again, to observe that truce to get this back under control,” she said.
“Then, everything got loose on Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m. We were all at work and very much surprised by this,” Abu Zayd said.
Here’s what’s wrong with Abu Zayd’s facts: Everything. She is lying through her teeth. Hamas was not “trying, again, to observe that truce.” Hamas was firing rockets and mortars at will.
Dozens of mortar shells and Qassams have been fired at Israel since Thursday night. Several mortar shells were launched while Israel opened border crossings to allow humanitarian aid into the Strip, but all of them landed within Palestinian territory.
Heads of the Gaza vicinity communities were outraged Friday by Israel’s decision to allow 40 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip, despite the incessant rocket and mortar fire at the western Negev.
The AP could easily fact-check this article by looking in their own archives.
The militants kept up their fire on Israeli border areas despite Israel’s agreement to open its crossings Friday. In all, 13 rockets and mortars were fired toward Israel by Friday evening, the military said. One home was struck but no injuries were reported.
And yet, the AP is passing along Abu Zayd’s lies, uncritically.
When the UNRWA tells us that there are “at least” 64 civilian deaths, why should we believe them? They’re lying about Hamas’ intentions, they’re lying about the number of rockets fired on the day before Israel fired back, and they’re lying about this 48-hour lull that no one else seems to have heard about.
So I have to wonder: Is Karen Abu Zayd on Hamas’ payroll? Or would she be on Iran’s?
There’s a real massacre going on right now in the Congo that the world is ignoring:
A Ugandan rebel group known for its horrific cruelties has massacred 189 people and kidnapped at least 20 children over three days in northeastern Congo, U.N. officials reported Monday.
The cultlike Lord’s Resistance Army carried out the attacks on three villages between Thursday and Saturday, according to Ivo Brandau, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.
The group killed 40 people in the small town of Faradje on Thursday, and over the next two days, it attacked the villages of Doruma, where rebels massacred 89 people, and neighboring Gurba, where 60 were killed, Brandau said, citing reports that the United Nations received from local authorities.
A Ugandan army spokesman told the Associated Press that the attack in the village of Doruma included a massacre of people who had sought refuge in a Catholic church. Brandau could not confirm that account, but he said the manner of the attacks had “certainly been cruel.” He added that the entire village of Faradje was abandoned as rebels burned down 120 houses and looted shops and a hospital.
I have yet to hear of a special UN Security Council meeting being convened to discuss the crisis in the Congo, where innocent men, women, and children are being murdered for no apparent reason.
But then, since Israelis aren’t doing it, I suppose it isn’t new.
Welcome to Israeli Double Standard Time.
And the hates just keep on coming.
I got an email from some idiot who wrote the following comment, which I did not approve, as it violates the No Israel-Bashing rule.
Wow. They used international humanitarian aid as bait before committing their massacre, just to make sure there would be a handful of militants mixed in with the civilian deaths. Why doesn’t Israel just start painting the Red Crescent symbol on their tanks? It’s about as honorable.
Typical anti-Israel crap. I don’t waste my readers’ time with it. Apparently, chaos4700 took offense, and tried to show me the error of my ways.
I find it disgusting that you celebrate this atrocity against the Palestinian people. Your own blog shows you not only know about Israel’s duplicity — the fact that the “peace process” has been nothing bit a ruse to discredit the notion that any sort of compromise is possible — but you embrace this duplicity with open arms. It’s clever that Israel fooled Hamas by sending in a few scant humanitarian shipments as a false show of good faith? Maybe that’s considered acceptable behavior to Zionists, but the rest of the world would consider that a crime.
Let’s see. A war is an atrocity, lulling your enemy into a false sense of security is a war crime, Israel doesn’t really want peace (those tricky Jews!), and, um, somehow, I’m in league with them, and the proof is on my blog. Wow. Who knew I was so big and powerful?
Then there’s this:
Maybe that’s considered acceptable behavior to Zionists, but the rest of the world would consider that a crime.
If anyone but Israel did it, the rest of the world would be writing about how clever it was to fool the enemy that way. But note the first slide towards anti-Semitism, starting, as always, with a slap at Zionists. Tip of the iceberg. Wait for it. We’re heading down the slippery slope to anti-Semitism.
Israel has been planning this massacre for months — your own blog posts constitute evidence of that. They’ve been planning it as far back as the unilateral withdrawal itself, if Dov Weissglass’ own words are to be believed.
Okay, Junior, let’s start with propriety. If you’re going to cite someone’s words, how about you, ah, cite them? Reference, please? What? No reference? Of course not. I am omniscient, or something. My own blog posts constitute evidence of that. As to the “massacre” tag: No, it’s war. The most they can come up with lately is an estimated 62 civilian casualties out of 364 deaths. It’s an UNRWA estimate, and so, suspect. But let’s go even with that. That’s an 87% terrorist death toll. On the other hand, Hamas has killed four Israelis, including one soldier. That’s a 75% civilian death toll. Which deaths should more properly be called a “massacre”?
You and your government have made a mockery of diplomacy and you’ve turned your back on everything the rest of us fought for when we helped saved the Jewish people from the atrocities of World War II.
Hey, genius: I’m an American. But let’s take a closer look at the latter half of this sentence:
you’ve turned your back on everything the rest of us fought for when we helped saved the Jewish people from the atrocities of World War II
Nobody saved the Jewish people from the Holocaust. Nobody. Let’s stop making shit up and stick to the facts, shall we? The liberation of the death camps was the result of the defeat of Nazi Germany. It was not an intended result. It was an unintended result. Evidence of the destruction of European Jewry was hidden or denied and ignored by America and England. Please don’t think I can’t see through this tactic like it was made out of Saran Wrap. You don’t give a shit about the Jews. Witness:
How dare turn around and commit atrocities of your own and betray the memories of those you lost to the Holocaust — the memories of those that many of us lost, because Jews were not the exclusive victims of those crimes.
Yeah, we were. The Holocaust is about the destruction of the Jews. Yes, others died in the death camps, and many died as a result of the war. But Hitler singled out my people for complete and total extermination. First Germany, then Europe, then the world. Read up on your history, jackass. Start with the phrase “The Final Solution.”
Note the tactics. Mr. Would-Be Troll pulls the old “Jews are just like Nazis, only worse because of their history” bullshit. Then he tries to minimize the Holocaust. Here’s the thing. We would be extremely happy not to have the Holocaust as part of our history. But it’s there, no matter how hard Holocaust-deniers try to say otherwise. Tired of hearing about it? Go complain to the Europeans. It’s their fault it happened.
Next, out come the anti-Semitic standards mixed with the Chomsky talking points. Israel, the criminal state, should not exist, etc., etc.
The rest of the world isn’t fooled, anymore. For sixty years you’ve answered the crimes committed on your own people by inflicting them on others
Talking Point Number One: Israelis are Nazis. Check.
Talking Point Number Two: The existence of Israel is a crime.
[blahblahblah]
I’m sorry, what? I fell asleep.
I’m not telling you this because I expect you to listen to me, or to care about anyone you don’t consider fully human
Talking Point Number Three: Channeling neo-Nazi drivel. Check. (Note: This one isn’t a Chomsky talking point, it’s a David Duke talking point.)
I’m telling you this so that you remember that there really was a choice, some time in the future when we’re all suffering the effects of Israel’s crimes against humanity, much like we all suffered from the effects of the crimes of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. You remember that you helped sow these seeds; unfortunately, we will all have to suffer the whirlwind thanks to you.
Talking Point Number Four: Jews are responsible for all the world’s evils. Check. Note that here we have two breathtaking pieces of Jew-hate in two sentences. The Jews are to blame for the “crimes” of Israel today. The Jews were to blame for Nazi Germany and Communism, too. Say, where have I heard this stuff before? Oh, that’s right. On every neo-Nazi site, everywhere. Stormfront, much? Your mask has fallen off, you poor little faux Palestinian supporter. Seems to me that you’re not so much interested in protecting the poor, poor, pitiful Pals as you are expounding on your hatred of all things Jewish—which of course, includes Israel.
Told you. I can smell an anti-Semite from six miles away, and not just because they tend not to shower regularly.
I doubt it will ever actually touch you directly — I imagine you’re affluent enough to remain afloat even in the economic crisis that is going to leave myself and many of my friends close to destitution,
And here we have the “rich Jew, poor me” neo-Nazi stereotype. I hope my readers will take this as a learning experience: So many of the Jew-haters out there hate us out of sheer envy. I do not doubt that this jerk is close to destitute. That’s what comes of being unable to qualify for a job that doesn’t including having to ask “You want fries with that?” all day long. However, unless “affluent” is now defined as “able to pay your own mortgage,” well, no, loser. Sorry I don’t fit your stereotype, but there you have it.
and since you’re safely ensconsed here in the US you’ll never have to witness the suffering and the horror that is war for yourself
Um, wait a minute. First I’m Israeli. Now I’m American. Learn how to edit your own hate mail, genius.
By the way, this creep is coming from an IP address in Madison, Wisconsin which, while decidedly loony left territory, is still in America. Which means that he won’t be experiencing war anytime soon either, since he’s safely ensconced here in the U.S. Hypocrite, thy name is chaos4700.
I’d like to say that you’ll have to live with your own demons for the rest of your life as a consequence of the crimes you endorse, but I imagine you will sleep farily soundly. I have no illusions that appealing to your sense of humility and compassion will bear fruit. So there is really little more to say.
You’re right, Bucko. I sleep just fine. Because I don’t have kassam rockets bombarding my homes and schools and playgrounds and parks. I don’t have Hamas snipers firing on my farmers. I don’t have bomb shelters built in my schools and at my bus stops. But Israelis do.
THIS is why the IDF is firing on Gaza today:
There’s a saying I used to have in college that’s appropriate to use now: Eat shit and die, chaos4700.
Don’t bother sending another email. You’ve been killfiled.
First, the Muqata, with this analysis:
7:32 PM Interesting. Apparently, IDF Intellignce believes (based on the sources I’ve gleaned) that the largest Hamas Grad Missile bunker in Gaza is located…directly beneath the Gaza Shifa Hospital. Israel’s Channel 1 TV reports that the IDF has demanded the hospital be evacuated. Hamas, with its own “win-win” agenda is parading out the patients and dead (from the hospital’s morgue). From their standpoint, a bombed out hospital is just as much a PR victory, as shooting dozens of grad missiles at Israel. We’ll see how this plays out. (developing story)
Next, this article in the JPost:
“The combat vests are ready and the weapons are greased,” the first soldier said.
“Our parents are phoning, but we just don’t answer,” said another.
On Sunday, soldiers from a wide range of units deployed outside the Gaza Strip. Tanks from the 7th Armored Brigade deployed not far from the northern end of the border as infantry from the Paratroop and Golani Brigades arrived at bases throughout the South ahead of a possible ground incursion.
Is it going to be the same as it was two and a half year ago?
Defense officials said that while Hamas might have advanced anti-tank missiles, it would be more difficult for the terrorists group to use them effectively against Israeli tanks than it was for Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War.
IDF assessments are that Hamas has smuggled into Gaza a significant amount of anti-tank missiles, including Russian-made models. There is also concern that Hamas has planted large bombs under main access roads into Gaza that it plans to detonate beneath Israeli armored vehicles.
“We’re better prepared today than we were in 2006,” one tank commander said. “This is what we’ve been training for.”
Doesn’t look like it. But I think we will wake up to a different war tomorrow.
Benjamin Netanyahu has joined the PR effort, which is a very good thing. He’s handsome, eloquent, and persuasive. And he’ll be needed for the next phase, because it’s going to get pretty ugly, pretty soon.
Despite the Israeli Air Force’s massive strikes throughout the Gaza Strip in the last three days, military sources estimated Monday that Hamas’ military wing was still intact and that it was capable of carrying out substantial operations in the near future.
Meanwhile, the IDF was preparing Monday for the next stage of Operation Cast Lead, which will see ground forces entering the Strip.
Large forces and heavy machinery are already stationed near Gaza, and the IDF is holding deliberations aimed at determining the nature of the ground incursion. The army is inclined to broaden the operation in order to boost Israel’s deterrence vis-à-vis Hamas.
The forces on the ground have already been informed of the missions they will likely be ordered to carry out, including maneuvers aimed at locating and neutralizing terror infrastructure and targeting Hamas forces.
Hamas is ready for them.
Hamas, once known for its suicide attacks inside Israeli cities, is no longer a small-time terrorist group, but a large guerrilla army that has well-trained forces deployed throughout the entire Gaza Strip.
Were the IDF to embark on a ground operation in Gaza, it would face an army of close to 20,000 armed men, among them at least 15,000 Hamas operatives. The rest are from Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Resistance Committees.
Since the cease-fire went into effect in Gaza in June, Hamas has used the lull in action to fortify its military posts in the Strip and dig tunnel systems as well as underground bunkers for its forces. IDF estimates put the length of the tunnels at over 50 kilometers.
Hamas has also dug foxholes throughout the Strip to accommodate anti-tank missile units, and prepared massive bombs, which have been placed on the main access roads into Gaza.
In addition to its homemade Kassam rockets, Hamas has smuggled into Gaza a number of anti-aircraft cannons and several shoulder-to-air missiles. It also a large number of anti-tank missiles that, if used correctly, could wreak havoc on Israeli armor in the event of a ground operation involving tanks and armored personnel carriers.
It also has Special Forces – commando forces and units with expertise in rocket fire, mortar attacks and roadside bombs.
But there’s one crucial element:
“Hamas has learned a lot from Hizbullah and has adopted many of the Lebanese group’s tactics which were used successfully against the IDF in the Second Lebanon War,” one IDF official said.
Hamas did learn a lot. From the last war. The IDF has already proved that it’s fighting the next war in the air, and on the airwaves. Now to see if the IDF is fighting the next war on the ground as well.
Time to include all the soldiers of the IDF in your prayers, if you haven’t already.
Ethan Bronner of the NYT reports opines at the end of his recent report (via memeorandum):
There is palpable satisfaction at the moment in the Israeli government and the military because the operation so far is seen as a success. Few have focused on the fact that at this stage in the 2006 Lebanon war, there was the same satisfaction — before things turned disastrous.
True, it could backfire, but let’s go over a couple of things. For one, the current war against Hamas is being run by an actual general not a self-important political appointee. And Israel aware of the role the media plays in handing victories to terror organizations is being more careful in cultivating the media this time. Taken together with apparently careful planning, things are less likely to go wrong this time. Why it almost seems if Bronner is rooting for Israel to fail.
If he were, he wouldn’t be alone.
When you read leftists writing about Israel’s attacks against Hamas there is really only one conclusion you can reach: They support Hamas. Plain and simple.
In a withering attack on J-Street, Mere Rhetoric observes:
So I’m wondering: if you’re objectively more anti-Israel than countries that officially want to wipe out Israel – to the extent that you go out of your way to condemn the Israeli government and the Israeli electorate when they won’t – does that mean that you can’t call yourself a “pro-Israel organization”?
But it’s not just J-Street. Here’s Ezra Klein (via memeoarandum).
There is nothing proportionate in this response. No way to fit it into a larger strategy that leads towards eventual peace. No way to fool ourselves into believing that it will reduce bloodshed and stop terrorist attacks. It is simple vengeance. There’s a saying in the Jewish community: “Israel, right or wrong.” But sometimes Israel is simply wrong.
This isn’t about Israel being wrong, it’s about whether Israel has the right accorded every other nation in the world to defend its citizens. If you don’t believe Israel has that right, you are not just wrong: you support Hamas. That’s it Mr. Klein. Don’t pretend that you mourn for Jews being killed by terrorists. You are using your perch to defend those terrorists. You are wrong and you are anti-Israel. You also hold a view that is morally indefensible.
Q and O follows Klein’s logic to its absurd, immoral conclusion.
Of course the fact that Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and certainly weren’t lobbing those missiles into Israel as an act of harassment, but as an earnest attempt to kill Israelis, isn’t factored into the condemnation. Somehow, because Hamas has lousy killing machines, Israel must be constrained in their destruction of them and their capability until, I guess, they show marked improvement in killing Israelis. Then, perhaps, Klein and other would find Israel’s reaction “proportional”.
Similarly The Other McCain rips apart Glenn Greenwald and his ilk:
Are there no innocent Israelis, no “numerous children” imperiled by the haphazard Hamas rocket and mortar attacks of recent days? Did not Israel warn Hamas that a continuation of the attacks would not be tolerated? It seems to me that one must either justify the Hamas attacks or else admit Israel’s right to act in self-defense. Greenwald and other critics might argue that Israel had a right to act, but has overreacted. However, in doing so they seek to make themselves arbiters of Israeli defense policy.
Noah Pollak administers the same treatment to Daniel Levy.
Let’s be clear, if you feel that Israel is wrong to defend its citizens, you support Hamas. And at least as Mere Rhetoric suggests, have the common courtesy not to call yourself pro-Israel if you do.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
The war has expanded to the West Bank, which was utterly predictable: Six wounded in W. Bank stabbing attack The terrorist was shot by an MDA medic. An armed society is a prepared society.
IAF destroying ammo dumps: IAF hits Hamas ammo stocks, tunnels Poor, poor Hamas. All that effort, gone in sixty seconds. Or so. Oh, and Islamic University is gone. Google that one to see the hatred it bred.
Iran’s up to its neck in this war: Don’t forget the Iranian Connection Read-in-full recommendation.
Stick it in your ear, Mashaal: Report: Hamas ready to sign Gaza truce Hamas is saying it’s ready to sign a “truce” that gives them exactly what they asked for before the war began—an end to the blockade and an end to the current attacks. Oh, yeah, that’ll go over well. Of course, that’s a good sign. The fact that Hamas is starting to beg Israel to stop means they’re hurting.
Hamas isn’t hurting enough: Some 50 rockets hit southern Israel Don’t stop the pounding. They’ve killed another Israeli, this time in Ashkelon. The ground forces are getting ready to go in. I think we’ll see that happen fairly soon.
It’s not just a pinpoint attack, people: Defense minister: This is an all out war And this one deserves an excerpt that the world, of course, will ignore:
“I would like to remind the world that Israel withdrew from the entire Gaza Strip more than three years ago. We gave a chance for a new reality, and all we’ve seen is Hamas firing rockets and missiles on our citizens and carrying out attacks against Israel,” he noted.
[...] “We have nothing against the citizens of Gaza, but we must fight against the Hamas leadership. We are making great efforts to prevent civilian casualties… We are not preventing humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip.”
So what does the AP choose to quote? This:
Israel’s defense minister said his military is fighting a “war to the bitter end” against Hamas but is not fighting the residents of Gaza.
Way to make Israel look like the bloodthirsty ones, hey?
This deserves to be elevated from the comments so everyone can see it. Thanks, Charles.
Just did a quick Google and came up with this recent article (from a Russian paper):
Over 670 Kurdish rebels killed in Turkey this year
ANKARA, December 11 (RIA Novosti) – At least 670 Kurdish militants have been killed by Turkish forces in counter-terrorism operations this year, the country’s General Staff said on Thursday.
The largest numbers of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatists were killed in February and May – 250 and 179, respectively – mostly in the course of Turkish army air raids in northern Iraq, where PKK camps are based.
The Turkish military said over 300 acts of violence had been prevented by army units as part of counterterrorism operations in the southeast of the country, and about 500 kilograms of explosives, 55 antipersonnel mines, and an assortment of weapons and ammunition were seized.
The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by the EU, the U.S. and many other countries, has been fighting for an autonomous ethnic Kurd state in southeast Turkey for nearly 25 years. The conflict has claimed over 40,000 lives
Numbers that make the Israel-Palestinian conflict pale by comparison. Yet I bet most otherwise avid news watchers are actually unaware of the scope of that conflict.
Guess the BBC was busy reporting on Wimbledon.
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