Some interesting tidbits again from the JCPA’s Daily Alert of December 31, 2008.
Alan Dershowitz got to the point in the Christian Science Monitor:
The most dangerous of the three responses is not the Iranian-Hamas absurdity, which is largely ignored by thinking and moral people, but the United Nations and European Union response, which equates the willful murder of civilians with legitimate self-defense pursuant to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
This false moral equivalence only encourages terrorists to persist in their unlawful actions against civilians. The US has it exactly right by placing the blame on Hamas, while urging Israel to do everything possible to minimize civilian casualties.
In retrospect – especially in light of the Goldstone Commission – Dershowitz is being generous here. The EU and, especially, the UN seem to have bought into the Iranian-Hamas narrative and given it a patina of legal legitimacy.
In the New York Post Benny Avni argued that it was in America’s interest to allow Israel to defeat Hamas.
What can Washington do? Specifically, it can resist pressure to rein in Jerusalem prematurely – by objecting, for example, to knee-jerk European, Arab and UN calls for a quick end to Israel’s campaign.
Some of those parties, incidentally, quietly hope Israel will inflict military punishment on Hamas. But Arabs and Europeans can’t express their desire for an Israeli victory out loud. Only America can – and it must.
Alas, Washington may be moving in the opposite direction. Yesterday, US officials – led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice – seemed to be stepping up calls for a “reliable cease-fire, one that is durable and sustainable.” That could be a big mistake.
In a number of ways it appeared that Hamas was alone. David Schenker observed:
For the time being, however, it seems likely that Tehran will continue to urge Hizballah restraint, preferring instead to maintain its assets in southern Lebanon for another time. Meanwhile, Hizballah secretary general Nasrallah will continue to criticize and embarrass Western-aligned Arab states like Egypt and Jordan, who he says are colluding “to impose the conditions of surrender on the resisters of the American-Zionist project.”
By fomenting civil unrest in these states, Nasrallah rallies support for Hamas, undermines Washington’s allies, and confirms his own preeminent regional role. In lieu of firing rockets into Israel and dragging Lebanon into another costly war, this strategy is a relatively effective and cost-free demonstration of Hizballah’s Arab nationalist and pro-Palestinian resistance bona fides.
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.
So Fatah played a double game: they helped Israel and then condemned Israel. One of the targets Israel hit was the Islamic University in Gaza. Patrick Poole writes:
After the IUG strikes on Monday, IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovich gave an interview to investigative reporter Aaron Klein, characterizing the militant nature of the IUG and the use of its facilities for the manufacture of Hamas explosives. “This is the first university in world that gives out bachelor’s degrees in rocket manufacture,†she said.
IUG figured prominently in the recent Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, with federal prosecutors entering documents into evidence showing that Holy Land officials used the IUG to funnel funds to Hamas.
With Israel declaring “all-out war†against Hamas, the present conflict will hopefully provide incentive for law enforcement officials to further roll back the extensive Hamas support network in the U.S. Considering the success that prosecutors had in securing convictions on all 108 counts against the Holy Land Foundation defendants, investigating the degree of involvement of Arab Student Aid International in the financing and construction of the IUG Hamas terror labs might be a good place to start.
(Financial support for Hamas unfortunately continues to this day.)
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
