Friday news roundup

If you’re not reading Barry Rubin, you’re not informed about the Middle East: I haven’t pointed you to any of Barry’s writing lately, but you should just go to his column at PJ Media and scroll down. Also check out his blog, because he sometimes presents updated versions of pieces he’s published elsewhere. Take especial note of this, this, and this. One reason why I’m pretty sure Israel isn’t going to attack Iran is because Barry is my go-to guy on all things Israel, and he’s laughing at the latest media frenzy.

The rocket attacks the world ignores: No, I’m not talking about Syria, although the world is pretty much doing nothing about Syria shelling and murdering civilians. They do get awfully snippy when the shelling kills a journalist, though. I’m talking about the regular rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, which the media ignore until Israel hurts or kills Palestinians while trying to stop more rocket attacks. I guess the Syrians are just getting the Israel treatment from the world. “Rockets falling from the sky? You’re on your own, kids.”

But he’s the man of the people: Yeah, Obama loves to talk about how the majority of his contributions are from people like you or me, handing out about $200. And yet, he has so many of these $30,000-a-ticket fundraisers, one has to wonder: Who does he think he’s fooling? And he sees no irony at all in these words:

Obama insisted that the administration is trying to make the economy work again for all, particularly for the middle class “and those who strive to enter the middle class.”

“We want success. We want to make sure that somebody like Vince Carder can build a house like this,” Obama said, waving to a house with 29,000 square feet of living space — so big it actually dwarfs the full-size, indoor basketball court.

Isn’t it amazing how he doesn’t mention the evil capitalism of basketball players–who each paid $30k per ticket–the way he does the evil capitalism of, well, millionaires and billionaires who aren’t basketball players?

Hamas isn’t all that thrilled about the unity: Funny how the AP doesn’t seem to think this is newsworthy. Hamas is demanding amendments to the unity agreement, ones that will give them full control over the PA, and install Mahmoud Abbas as a figurehead. But it goes against the media narrative that Hamas is moderating, so you only saw it in Reuters reports. By the way, I’m pretty sure you’ll find the narrative about Hamas moderation goes all the way back to 2005, the year Israel withdrew from Gaza. Shortly thereafter, Hamas took over from Fatah by force, throwing people off buildings and shooting them in the kneecaps. But they’re moderating. Any day now. Wait for it.

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3 Responses to Friday news roundup

  1. Soccerdad says:

    It probably goes back to 2005, but one of my best posts (IMHO) fisked a Washington Post editorial in January 2006, promoting the idea that Hamas would be moderated by governing. Second comment was pretty fantastic. :-)

  2. Amazing, isn’t it, how little has changed?

  3. Soccerdad says:

    I believe I noted that in your 10th anniversary post and a comment two weeks ago.

    We’re doomed to repeat, I tell you!

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