Go, Canada: Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the G-8 water down what would have been a statement praising the 1967 armistic lines as a start of negotiations. I am going to find a Canadian product this weekend and buy it. (No, not Canadian bacon. I don’t do bacon.)
The Rafah crossing: Open again, for now. So if the blockade’s over, they’re not going to send the Gaza Flotilla, right? Wrong. And of course, in violation of the agreements with Israel, there are no European monitors.
Am I dreaming? The president of the UN General Assembly says there’s no way “Palestine” can become a state without the UN Security Council affirming it, so a General Assembly resolution is useless.
Am I dreaming, again? Ban Ki-Moon is telling the Mediterranean states (that means you, Turkey) not to allow the new Gaza Flotilla. He says to use the current border crossings to send aid. Ban, Ban, Ban. It’s not about the aid. It’s about the blockade. No, wait. It’s about Israel. Just read what the useless fools say as to why they’ll be on board those ships, risking a confrontation with the IDF.
If you’ve lost Russia, you’ve lost the world: Ghaddaffy may be on his way out. For real. What’s going to fill the void? Say it with me, folks: Islamists!
But it didn’t involve Israelis, so who cares? Say, did you know that an unknown group *cough* Hezbollah *cough* set off a roadside bomb as a UNIFIL convoy passed over it, killing one Italian peacekeeper and wounding at least seven more? Of course you didn’t, because the news media didn’t report it breathlessly the way it would have done if a Palestinian had stubbed his toe at the Rafah crossing. Word is that Hezbollah is making the Europeans pay for supporting the Syrian people instead of the Syrian dictator. Imagine that: Hezbollah is doing its other master’s bidding. By the way, the Italians are reacting the way the Europeans always do when it comes to risking their lives in that area: They’re looking to withdraw their forces from Lebanon. Because that worked so well when Ronald Reagan did it.
wish i weren’t all *cynical* about the “Humanitarian Intervention” in Libya, but .. it looks to me like the West – including the U.S. – sees this as a neat way of reneging on business agreements made with Colonel Gaddafi. fact is, the Libyan leader has never – across the course of his career – changed his nature one wit. is he a Certified Nut? sure, but that’s *always* been the case. this is the guy who sold the explosive to the IRA that killed Prince Charles’ uncle (among many other infamies [i personally could care less about Mountbatten ..). this .. action reminds me most of all of George H.W. Bush’s one-day war against Noriega, a former asset who got cut out of the big picture. if the West was going to intervene (and i’m not suggesting that’s a good thing), the more *natural* solution would’ve been to set off Eastern Libya, a tribally distinct area that’s never gotten on well with the west of the country. in any case, my vast reservoir of scorn goes out to those folks (not all of them Unitarians) with a peace symbol hanging from the rear-view and an Obama sticker on the bumper.