War in Gaza- Ceasefire Edition

The War in Gaza update series has been expanded to include the Ceasefire Edition. Surf on over and take some time to read news and analysis of the ceasefire.

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British academics: Israel must be destroyed

British academics, including some notably anti-Israel Jews (that are hereafter referred to as “Ex-Jews“), are no longer just in favor of the generic fabled “peace.” They want Israel to lose the war against Hamas which, of course, means they want to see the end of the Jewish State. And though they will deny that is the meaning of their letter, how else can you explain this:

The massacres in Gaza are the latest phase of a war that Israel has been waging against the people of Palestine for more than 60 years.

There were massacres against Jews in Israel since before the State of Israel was created. The war has been waged for more than sixty years, all right—but not by the Jews.

The summer of 1929 was one of unrest in Palestine. Jewish-Arab tensions were spurred on by the agitation of the mufti in Jerusalem. Just one day prior to the start of the Hebron massacre, three Jews and three Arabs were killed in Jerusalem when fighting broke out after a Muslim prayer service on the Temple Mount. Arabs spread false rumors throughout their communities, saying that Jews were carrying out “wholesale killings of Arabs.”

The academics further prove that they are, in effect, extremely dangerous morons:

We must do what we can to stop Israel from winning its war. Israel must accept that its security depends on justice and peaceful coexistence with its neighbours, and not upon the criminal use of force.

The “criminal use of force” by Hamas is now more than six-thousand rockets into Israel, as well as hundreds of deaths from suicide bombings. If Israel depends on the peaceful coexistence with its neighbors, where was the response to the rockets, mortars, and shootings that Hamas has conducted from Gaza even in these last three years? Why is it that the use of force is never noticed against Israel, only by Israel in defense of herself?

Israel’s war against the Palestinians has turned Gaza and the West Bank into a pair of gigantic political prisons. There is nothing symmetrical about this war in terms of principles, tactics or consequences. Israel is responsible for launching and intensifying it, and for ending the most recent lull in hostilities.

That “gigantic poltical prison” of the West Bank has one of the Arab world’s highest standards of living, and the current economic boom is keeping the Palestinians extremely peaceful, considering what’s going on in Gaza. There is also the fact that the Palestinians have been getting more and more self-rule back—but please, don’t let the facts get in the way of your lies.

As to the end of the lull, Hamas fired hundreds of rockets into Israel after the cease fire ended, and fired plenty more even during the cease fire. They never fully stopped firing rockets. But that, apparently, is irrelevant to the signers of this Declaration of Annihilation for Israel. Yes, annihilation. Because we all know what would happen if, God forbid, Israel’s enemies ever did manage to win a war. There would shortly be a massacre of Jews the likes of which the world has not seen since—1945.

The terrorists are very clear about their intentions.

Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realised.

The British academics have also made it clear that they no longer believe that negotiations are the way to achieve peace—well, not for Israel, anyway. Maybe for other people.

Israel must lose. It is not enough to call for another ceasefire, or more humanitarian assistance. It is not enough to urge the renewal of dialogue and to acknowledge the concerns and suffering of both sides. If we believe in the principle of democratic self-determination, if we affirm the right to resist military aggression and colonial occupation, then we are obliged to take sides… against Israel, and with the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

Calling for Israel’s defeat does make these people more than just your everyday anti-Zionists. They know full well that a real Israeli defeat would lead to the slaughter of most of the Jews in Israel. That makes this a call for genocide. It is disingenuous to pretend otherwise. Let’s call a spade a spade, and a group of Jew-hating bastards a group of Jew-hating bastards. And that includes the Ex-Jews among them.

By authoring and signing this letter, these anti-Israel academics have given up any pretense of legitimacy they ever had. By calling for the destruction of Israel under the guise of Israel’s losing this war—by attempting to hasten it by calling for a boycott of the Jewish State—these academics have proven that they are not on the side of peace. They are on the other side, and in this war, the other side is an irridentist, anti-Semitic, Islamist terrorist group. This is the second paragraph of the Hamas charter:

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it

This is the group that the academics want Israel to lose to: A genocidal, lunatic, Islamist branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

It’s a funny thing. What these academics call “Israel’s war against the Palestinians” is, in reality, the Palestinians’ war against Israel. At every juncture, Israel has sought peace. At every juncture, the Palestinians turned Israel down. The infamous Three No’s of Khartoum are what created the “twin prisons” in the first place. But, as always, Israel’s critics never place responsibility for the failure of the peace process on the Palestinians and the Arabs.

And so we have, from the country that brought us the problems of the Middle East in the first place, their latest solution offered by their so-called academics: Make Israel lose the war.

Hamas hasn’t the capacity to beat Israel. And here in America, where we have quite a larger export ability than Great Britain, well, that boycott isn’t gonna fly. Nor will it work in your own country—the teacher’s union failed boycott proved that. And wouldn’t you know it: The architect of that boycott, Mona Baker, is among the signatories to this letter.

What a surprise.

Make no mistake about it. A call for Israel to lose the war with Hamas is a call for Israel’s destruction. These academics may close their eyes and stick their fingers in their ears and claim that they can’t see or hear the facts, but the facts remain: This is a hideous, immoral call for the destruction of the Jewish State.

Yeah, good luck with that, you anti-Semitic shits. I don’t see it happening.

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Israel Derangement Syndrome | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Your rock, Barak

The talk about a possible ceasefire (via memeorandum) between Israel and Hamas before dealing Hamas a decisive blow is disappointing, especially since it doesn’t seem to include the freedom of Gilad Shalit.

Hamas does not have the upper hand, but Israel might still letting it declare victory.

Still given the Egyptian attitude towards Hamas. It’s encouraging to read these attitudes from Fatah about Sayyam.

The Palpress News Agency, which is run by followers of former Fatah security chief Muhammad Dahlan, published dozens of talkbacks in which readers openly rejoiced.

The agency quoted “reliable sources” in the Gaza Strip as saying that one of Siam’s bodyguards had tipped the Israelis about his whereabouts. The sources said that Hamas militiamen executed the bodyguard shortly after the assassination.

Some of the talkbacks read as follows:

Falastinyah: He [Siam] was a swine. To hell with him! We hope that the remaining pigs would follow him.

Lovers of [slain Fatah operative] Samih Madhoun: Justice has finally been done!

Muhammad: He got what he deserved. May Allah punish him for his deeds.

Ahmed: We will never forgive him for his gruesome crimes against Fatah. Apparently Allah turned him into a martyr to absolve him of his many sins.

Victims of Said Siam: We won’t forget the 700 Fatah people who were killed by Siam.

And especially this last one:

Zeer55: We love you, Ehud Barak. This is really a great hit, Mr. Barak, and we fully support you. Please make us happy by going after the rest of them.

Hate Israel as they do, it appears that Egypt and Fatah may hate Hamas more. It will be awfully hollow for Haniyeh or Zahar to declare victory when they don’t have the rhetorical support of their neighbors.

Not even Hamas’s leadership is certain of victory (h/t Barry Rubin):

Meanwhile it seems that at least the Hamas leadership in Gaza has began to fathom the seriousness of its position. Two Hamas leaders in the Strip, Razi Hamad and Ahmed Yusuf, accused the group’s leadership in Damascus of “bringing a terrible disaster on Gaza.”

The two are considered members of the pragmatic wing of the party, and charged the Damascus-based leadership with making a terrible mistake in ordering Hamas to foil the extension of the cease-fire agreement with Israel in December.

However, in Damascus it is not clear that the message has been received. Ramadan Shalah, head of the Islamic Jihad, told Al Jazeera that the Palestinians will continue their resistance in Gaza and the city will not surrender because “victory is imminent.”

If nothing else, if Hamas doesn’t have a unified narrative of the war, they’re at least uncertain. I guess there won’t be any broadcasts of victory from an undisclosed location a la Nasrallah in 2006.

Still read Noah Pollak for why declaring ceasefire at this time is problematic.

Color me skeptical. Just as war creates its own momentum, so do cease-fires. It’s going to take tremendous political willpower for Israel to pause Cast Lead and then resume it again. If Hamas’ leaders have any capacity for strategic thinking, they will halt their attacks for a week and ensure an Israeli withdrawal — and then hold victory parades, resume firing rockets, and test whether Israel is prepared to commence Cast Lead II a week after its first iteration was dismantled. In this way, the Israeli rout of Hamas the world witnessed over the past three weeks can be quickly transformed into an exemplar of jihadist bravery and steadfastness. The humiliation of Israel will be complete.

and Mere Rhetoric

I’m going to close this post. In the next few hours Hamas will try to escalate their fire – killing some civilians while they can. After 2am you’ll probably see rocket fire slow down to a trickle: they’ll try to walk a fine line between terrorizing Israeli civilians to show they still can and keeping their fire sufficiently limited to prevent an Israeli counterattack.

Israel has an advantage now and even some tacit support in the Arab world. Yet it apparently won’t press that advantage. And I don’t think that Israel will have any sympathy for re-starting Cast Lead regardless of the provocations and threats.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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IDF concludes deterrence has been achieved

Ha’aretz has an analysis that says those of us who think Hamas hasn’t been cowed are wrong.

His soldiers explained that, if it boils down to choosing between their own lives and Palestinian houses, the choice is clear. Lt. Col. Cohen of Givati told Haaretz that, in his view, Hamas is at fault, for having booby-trapping populated buildings.

The IDF’s progress this week was evident mainly in the sector where the regular Paratroops brigade is operating, in northern Gaza City – the place where the forces encountered the toughest resistance. Paratroop officers described the house-to-house searches: Everywhere they turned, they found an opening to a tunnel, a Qassam launcher, an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher or a booby-trapped door.

The brigade commander is Col. Hertzi Halevy, a former Sayeret Matkal commander. When Halevy, who transferred from the Paratroops to the unit in the early 1990s, returned to the Paratroops as their commander, he was maligned by some for his rigidity and aloofness. This war has highlighted the usefulness of his cool temper and thoughtful leadership. Other brigade commanders have also cemented their leadership in Gaza.

The officers in the field see eye to eye with Military Intelligence officials: Deterrence has been achieved. This is the “Dahiya Doctrine,” which GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot spoke of a few months before the war. The destruction in Gaza is reminiscent of what the air force did to Beirut’s Shi’ite Dahiya quarter two and a half years ago. Israel has made it clear that it is capable of inflicting enormous damage if provoked in such a way that it feels compelled to respond.

Read the whole thing. It’s a world of information and fascinating analysis:

The Israeli operation in Gaza was completely disproportional. But though it might not meet the criteria of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, in the tough neighborhood we live in, the message appears to have gotten across. The deterrence that has worked in Lebanon for the past two and a half years, after a failed war, may also work in Gaza, where the results have been completely different, and much better from Israel’s standpoint.

This matches what Israel Network News reports a captured terrorist said:

“Hamas took a gamble. We thought, at worst Israel will come and do something from the air – something superficial. They’ll come in and go out. We never thought that we would reach the point where fear will swallow the heart and the feet will want to flee. You [Israel] are fighting like you fought in ’48. What got into you all of a sudden?”

It is 1948. World leaders are calling for the end of Israel, for Israel to be thrown out of the UN, and for boycotts and the delegitimization of Israel. Jews all over the world are being threatened. And the Jewish State is fighting for its existence. Hamas isn’t an existential threat? Yes it is. When a terrorist group that has launched thousands of rockets since it took over the Gaza Strip can draw the world’s sympathy instead of its opprobrium, Israel’s existence is at stake. When “protesters” all over the world call Israel an illegitimate state, Israel’s existence is at stake. When Iran rushes on to a nuclear bomb, and the world does nothing—Israel’s existence is at stake.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Religion of peace and tolerance closes only synagogue left in Indonesia

Those tolerant Muslims are showing the world just how tolerant they really are.

Gaza war fuels anti-Israeli anger in Indonesia
Islamic hard-liners enraged by Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip marched to the synagogue’s gates chanting, “Go to hell Israel!”

The only Jewish religious site in the world’s most populous Muslim state — which has no rabbi and only a few followers — then closed its doors.

Across Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, sentiments are running high about the conflict, fueled by disturbing TV footage of Palestinian casualties.

“This is the way to show our solidarity for the Palestinian people and to condemn the Israeli attacks,” said Abdusshomad Buchori, a local leader of the Ulema Council, which is pushing for the permanent closure of Beth Hashem synagogue in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city.

“If Israel refuses to stop its attacks and oppression of the Palestinian people, we don’t need to defend (the synagogue’s) presence here,” said Buchori, who led about 100 hard-liners to the synagogue, where they burned an Israeli flag.

Because it’s not anti-Semitism, it’s anti-Zionism, right? That’s right. Because the AP calls it anti-Israel anger, it must be so.

The woman who has run the synagogue since the 1970s went underground after the Jan. 7 incident, in which Buchori also threatened to drive any remaining Jews out of town.

Let’s not be modest. They really want to kill them.

And here’s an example of the AP really reaching to make two things that are not alike just the same:

The incident was not unique: An outlet of the American fried chicken chain KFC was shut on Sulawesi island after protesters upset with Washington’s Middle East policies hurled chairs and overturned tables. And thousands have rallied in the capital, Jakarta, waving Palestinian flags and shouting insults outside the U.S. Embassy.

Right, because shutting down the sole remaining synagogue in the world’s most populous Muslim state is just like shutting down a KFC. Or waving flags and shouting insults.

In the one case, you’re threatening Jews because Israel is the Jewish State, thus giving Indonesian Jews the mantle of collective behavior that Muslims so love to shed when it comes to blaming all Muslims for the violent behavior of some. And in the other cases, well, you’re yelling at a fried chicken shop and an embassy. Yeah. Those things are exactly alike.

This is a frightening time to be Jewish, no matter where in the world you live.

In every generation, they rise up against us, but the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hands.

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Religion | 5 Comments

Sir Gerald’s loop

(I know that Sir Gerald has already got a honorable mention from Meryl, however…)

Sir Gerald (or in other words, Hon Gerald Kaufman, MP)has already appeared on our radar. What can I say – it has been great fun and real pleasure to view his extraordinary exploits. It is not that easy to find a nincompoop of that order of magnitude and in such an exalted position.

But his latest dazzling fit of intellectual activity (gladly picked up by CNN) easily towers over his previous mental shenanigans.

“The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt from Gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians,” he said.

Oh well, this strawman is not a new one, as you can easily ascertain, reading many an anti-Israeli diatribe by miscellaneous thinkers. It would be pointless to ask Sir Gerald to prove this statement, since it’s not about proof or veracity. I don’t know – the “present Israeli government” exploited several things – like relatively low gas prices (essential to fuel all that military machinery), the Christmas vacation, the wall-to-wall support of the citizenry demanding an end to the budding rocket science in Gaza, etc. But Holocaust? Oh well. I have already told several times that I personally use that “Holocaust guilt” of the gentiles only abroad and only to jump an especially long queue. Of course, Sir Gerald wouldn’t listen.

But then Sir Gerald has decided to round up his accusation by another twist:

My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town…. AGerman soldier shot her dead in her bed, he said. My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.

So who us using Holocaust now, Sir Gerald? This logical ellipse easily wins the 2009 prise for nincompoopery, and we aren’t even in February yet! But there is nothing to do: all present and future contenders are left way behind, eating the dust.

So here it is: the 2009 Sir Gerald Nincompoop Of The Year award – won by Sir Gerald himself:

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Posted in Israel Derangement Syndrome | 2 Comments

Battlestar Galactica season 4, episode 11, no spoilers

Just have to say this about the twelfth Cylon:

Whooooooaaaaaaaaaaa.

Also: Damn. That totally blows MY theory on who it was.

Update: There are now some spoilers in the comments. Fair warning.

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Is the media losing the credibility war?

Andrew Lee Butters, a member of the “terror troika” of Time Magazine wrote an essay titled, Is Israel losing the media war in Gaza? Asking the question means, of course, that he believes the answer is “yes.”

But here’s a different question. Is the media losing the credibility war? Looking at poll numbers we see that a majority of Americans still support Israel by a ration of better than 3 to 1. The only political group that overall didn’t support Israel are Democrats, and they, as a group are predisposed to accept what they read in the MSM uncritically. Outside of Democrats, independents and Republicans, overall support Israel. So the MSM isn’t exactly winning lots of converts with its advocacy of Hamas.

Whether it’s the outright cheerleading for Hamas at Time magazine or the more subtle “Israel is right to defend its citizens but we wonder if it’s counterproductive” approach at the Washington Post, the idea that Israel should have to justify its self-defense is outrageous.

When you pretend that everything Israel does helps Hamas, condemn Israel for the lawful use of a weapon, accept dubious casualty figures unquestioningly, ignore or play down terrorists using mosques or UN buildings or Hamas looting an aid caravan, it’s no wonder that people think that an average Joe could do a better job of covering the story than you do.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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MacLeod-ing the issue

The trio of Scott MacLeod, Tim McGirk and Andrew Lee Butters who write for Time Magazine might have the worst collection of anti-Israel activists writing for any American publication. I’ll call them the “terror troika,” given their enthusiasm for Hamas. MacLeod tries his hand at math.

Is the world reacting with sufficient outrage and urgency to the horrendous humanitarian toll in Gaza? When, in just 20 days, the Palestinian people have lost more than 1,000 dead– in per capita terms the equivalent of 30,000 American lives, 10 times the number who died on 9/11? That kind of extrapolation, by the way, is a favorite debate tool of former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. He uses it to drive home how a few hundred Israelis killed in terrorist attacks is a national catastrophe for Israel. Few Palestinians are in doubt that they, too, have unjustly fallen victim to a staggering loss of life.

First of all MacLeod shows that he’s less than scrupulous about accuracy as he quotes casualty figures from Hamas. Stephanie Guttman cites that the inflated death toll when Israel fought Fatah in Jenin to show that the Hamas’s figures are propaganda and that to accept them is to be a dupe. Furthermore, MacLeod condemns Israel by the numbers alone. But let’s take an inflated number. Hamas is now claiming that 42 percent of those killed were civilians. That would mean that the equivalent of 17,500 soldiers were threatening the 860,000 Israelis living within 24 miles of Gaza. That’s roughly 12% of Israel’s population. Clearly the ratio of Hamas terrorists to civilians is higher than the Hamas claim, which was made to convince the incurious. And clearly, regardless of the number of people threatening Israel, no country in the world would tolerate such a situation.

Finally, the question of culpability for the deaths comes up. And again, MacLeod doesn’t care about the dictates of international law.and simply uses number to condemn. As Ralph Peter observed:

Israel hasn’t killed a single civilian in the Gaza Strip. Over a hundred civilians have died, and Israeli bombs or shells may have ended their lives. But Israel didn’t kill them.

Hamas did.

Folks like the “terror troika” don’t apply international law evenly. It can be used a cudgel against Israel. But if it works against Israel’s enemies, then it’s conveniently ignored and numbers substitute for legality.

MacLeod and his colleagues at time are not motivated by a sense of justice. No one could misconstrue facts and law like this by accident. No, they are terrorist cheerleaders and staunch anti-Zionists. They believe that Israel is the one country in the world that is not allowed to defend itself. Most of all they are propagandists in the service of Hamas, they are not reporters.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Jews, Juvenile Scorn, Media Bias, Music, Religion | 1 Comment

Hamas refuses truce, media refuses to notice

It’s amazing how the AP can supply the Jerusalem Post with the information that Hamas will not accept the cease fire in a small item, but cannot put that same information in its main story that goes out over thousands of newswires.

Hamas’s top political chief says his movement will not accept Israel’s demands for a cease-fire and insists the siege on Gaza must be lifted before Hamas will halt rocket attacks.

Khaled Mashaal has asked a gathering of Arab leaders in the Qatari capital on Friday to back Hamas in its demands, to announce a boycott of Israel and cut off any ties with the Jewish state.

Mashaal says Hamas is sticking by its demands that a border openings into the Gaza Strip must be opened immediately before it will stop rocket attacks.

He says Hamas “will not accept Israel’s conditions” for a cease-fire. Israel has demanded a total halt to Hamas rockets and guarantees Hamas cannot rearm.

The AP can, however, include in its main story the call by the UN Secretary General for a unilateral Israeli cease fire. In fact, it titles that story “UN chief urges unilateral Israeli cease-fire.” Just in case you missed the fact that the world is calling on Israel to cease its fire, but not Hamas. And the AP also make sure that it drops the Israeli reasons for refusal down below the third paragraph, knowing full well that most local papers include only the first three to five paragraphs of an AP wire story in their “World News” sections. Take a look at the first three grafs.

The U.N. chief urged Israel Friday to declare a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza, but Israel rebuffed the idea as its diplomats headed for Egypt and the United States in what appeared to be a final push toward a truce.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon floated the idea during a visit to the West Bank on his Mideast mission to try to stop Israel’s three-week-old offensive against Hamas militants who have been firing rockets from Gaza for years.

“I strongly urge Israeli leadership and government to declare a cease-fire unilaterally,” Ban said from Ramallah, the seat of the West Bank government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a fierce rival of Hamas. “It’s time to think about a unilateral cease-fire from the Israeli government.”

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev dismissed the idea.

“I don’t believe that there’s a logical expectation in the international community that Israel unilaterally cease fire while Hamas would continue to target cities, trying to kill our people,” he said.

Interestingly, the AP does not quote Ban on calling on Hamas to cease its fire unilaterally. Nor is there any report of Ban going to Syria to talk to Khaled Mashaal about stopping the rocketing of the Israeli civilian population. Not that I expect him to. The world has never really tried to stop the enemies of the Jews from destroying the Jews, and it never will. That would be why the State of Israel was established.

But the good news is: Hamas’ irredentism is going to allow the IDF to do its job properly this time around. The rockets hit more Israeli civilians today. And they show no signs of stopping. The job isn’t finished.

Posted in AP Media Bias, Gaza, Hamas, Israel | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The siren song of Syria and Iran

Charles Krauthammer (or here) sees that President Bush’s vindication starts on January 20. President-elect Obama seems to be accepting a number of premises of the Bush administration and appears ready to incorporate them into his administration.

Vindication is being expressed not in words but in deeds — the tacit endorsement conveyed by the Obama continuity-we-can-believe-in transition. It’s not just the retention of such key figures as Secretary of Defense Bob Gates or Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner, who, as president of the New York Fed, has been instrumental in guiding the Bush financial rescue over the last year. It’s the continuity of policy.

It is the repeated pledge to conduct a withdrawal from Iraq that does not destabilize its new democracy and that, as Vice President-elect Joe Biden said just this week in Baghdad, adheres to the Bush-negotiated status of forces agreement that envisions a U.S. withdrawal over three years, not the 16-month timetable on which Obama campaigned.

It is the great care Obama is taking in not pre-emptively abandoning the anti-terror infrastructure that the Bush administration leaves behind. While still a candidate, Obama voted for the expanded presidential wiretapping (FISA) powers that Bush had fervently pursued. And while Obama opposes waterboarding (already banned, by the way, by Bush’s CIA in 2006), he declined George Stephanopoulos’ invitation (on ABC’s “This Week”) to outlaw all interrogation not permitted by the Army Field Manual. Explained Obama: “Dick Cheney’s advice was good, which is let’s make sure we know everything that’s being done,” i.e., before throwing out methods simply because Obama campaigned against them.

In other words President Bush wasn’t just some crazy ideologue who hijacked American foreign policy. Rather he was reacting to events as well as he could. Implicitly there’s a cautionary tale about believing someone’s campaign rhetoric. The Democrats ran against President Bush and blamed him for so much of what was wrong in the world. But running a campaign is one thing; running a government is something entirely different. Now the Obama administration has information that it didn’t have during the campaign and President-elect must shed his ideological baggage and act in the best interests of the country based on what he now knows.

The other day James Taranto pointed out that the President-elect Obama wasn’t going to close Guantanamo so quickly. That very same day a news report said that the Pentagon reported 61 former prisoners who had gone back to fighting the United States after their releases from Guantanamo.

And for those who remember two campaigns ago, President Bush campaigned against nation building, but, in the end, nation building ended up being his legacy. Reality has a way of making pithy but empty campaign slogans obsolete.

The Counterterrorism blog also sees something positive about President-elect Obama’s priorities. Until Timothy Geithner is confirmed, Stuart Levey will be the acting Treasury Secretary.

While the selection of Cabinet Secretaries in the Obama Administration draws the most press attention, the CT community is also concerned about those sub-Secretarial appointments who drive policy formulation, international negotiations, and execution of Presidential and Secretarial decisions – the Under Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries who “work in the weeds” on a daily basis. In the counter-terrorist financing area, the most important position is that of the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department, created in 2004. Stuart Levey has held that post and has earned the respect of many in the community as the single most effective and important civilian official in the effort to detect, halt, and prevent terrorist financing. As Robin Wright reported in the New York Times last October, Stuart has been the key U.S. government official pursuing financial sanctions against Iran to raise the cost of its terrorist- and proliferation-financing activities. And I’ve written often, most recently in December, on the joint Treasury-DoD “threat finance cell” initiative, which has been one of the signature accomplishments of the past four years, thanks in large measure to Stuart’s vision, determination, and cooperative spirit.

While some of the measures that President-elect Obama seems to be taking are pragmatic, others are less comforting. For example Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton says that she plans to engage Syria and Iran soon.

This, of course, is what all the foreign policy sophist-icate-s recommend, but it may be just the opposite of what’s needed. The idea of weaning Syria away from Iran or changing them both to be productive members of the international community, is the holy grail of certain elements of the foreign policy establishment. So it’s a policy that’s based on a faulty assumption. Syria has more to gain by being wooed by the West while remaining cozy with Iran than it does from consummating it relationship with the United States. Roger Cohen is wrong. The al-Jazeera world does not have different logic from us, it has different premises.

Furthermore it’s stupid to try an engage Iran and Syria at a time that Egypt has called Syria, Iran and Hamas an “axis of evil.”

The articles lump Hamas together with Hizbullah and the Muslim Brotherhood, condemning all three in the following terms: “Hamas believes, as do the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hizbullah and other religious organizations, that everything it does is always right… Religious movements contain elements similar to Nazism, as do many tyrannical parties that brought disaster upon their respective nations…”

Ibrahim goes on to accuse Hamas of “trying to bring destruction” upon the Palestinians. The author declares that Hamas is indifferent to the fate of the Palestinians, since it believes that it is “more important to strengthen the Syria-Iran axis of evil, which sponsors the religious movements in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine.”

If the Sunni powers of the Middle East are awakening to the danger of Iranian hegemony of the Middle East, it is probably better to engage their support than to embrace the regimes they fear.

It’s important to remember (via Instapundit)

With Hamas taking its orders from Khaled Mashal in Damascus and its weapons and money from Iran, one might be forgiven for thinking that the rocket attacks on Israel are really a thinly disguised act of aggression by Damascus and Teheran. But we are never to think that. What we are meant to believe is that the cause of peace requires that Hamas be allowed to survive and the Iranian weapons shipments to continue.

A defeat for Hamas would be a defeat for Iran (and Syria). Whereas approaching Iran and Syria would strengthen all three and hurt Israel.

So while President-elect Obama has shown some pragmatism in his approach to the office he will assume next week, he is still drawn by the siren song of rapprochement with Iran and Syria. Strengthening Iran and Syria would undo much of the good he could accomplish by following President Bush’s approach.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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NZ Muslim pub owners: No dogs or Israelis allowed

In what has to be the height of irony, an immigrant New Zealand pub owner has forbidden Israelis to patronize his pub until the Gaza operation is over. And he’s not the only one.

An Israeli citizen residing in Kaikoura, New Zealand has informed Ynet Friday that a local pub, the Strawberry Tree, placed a sign outside its door reading, “Israelis not welcome before shelling (in Gaza) stops”.

Two other Israeli tourists encountered a similar restriction at a café located in another part of the country.

The obvious irony of a non-Maori New Zealander decrying the Israeli “occupation” seems to have escaped our Kiwi. There is not a single non-Maori in New Zealand who is not an immigrant or the child of immigrants that stole the island nation from the indigenous people. And there is no other word to use than “stole.” Interestingly, there are no calls to remove the occupation of New Zealand (or Australia) and give the land back to the natives.

The good news is that it’s only a few bigots exhibiting this behavior.

He said the local community has unequivocally condemned the pub owner’s act. “People are calling us (Israelis) to offer their support; they are even saying that the restriction is redolent of the days in which black Americans were banned from public places and even of Nazi Germany.

“The community is made up of many immigrants, and that is why it identifies with us,” he said.

Let’s take a guess at what religion those bigots might be.

The Southland Times reported Friday that two Israeli women, Natalie Bennie and her sister Tamara Shefa, were ordered to leave the Mevlana Café in Invercargill, New Zealand’s southernmost city.

According to the report, the pub’s owner Mustafa Tekinkaya, a Turkish Muslim, told the women he would not serve anyone from Israel “until it stopped killing innocent babies and women in Gaza.”

Perhaps New Zealanders might be interested in boycotting Mustafa’s pub until Muslims stop killing innocent women and children all over the world. And, hey—what’s a proper Muslim doing owning an establishment that serves alcohol?

Bigots and hypocrites. Gotta love ’em.

Posted in Israel Derangement Syndrome, Religion | Tagged | Comments Off on NZ Muslim pub owners: No dogs or Israelis allowed

Gaza briefs, with snark

I have not done this in a while. I think my snarkbone got a little flabby.

UN chief: How does one take shelter in 15 seconds? Gee, I dunno. How about by running as quickly as you can to the shelter, and praying that if you’re stopped by the side of the road and don’t have a shelter to run to, the missile doesn’t land near your car and nearly kill you and your child?

UN General Assembly attacks Israel: In other news of the day, the sun rose in the east.

Kapo alert! Kapo alert! Kapo alert!

Gerald Kaufman, a governing Labour Party legislator, sharply criticized Israel in a House of Commons debate on Gaza, arguing that the Jewish state has exploited guilt that much of the world feels for having ignored the slaughter of millions of Jews during World War II.

“The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt from Gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians,” he said.

[…] “My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town. … A German soldier shot her dead in her bed,” he said. “My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.”

He could get more reprehensible, but I can’t think of a way.

/Kapo alert

French Muslims now threatening moderate French Muslims: Quel surprise.

Khaled Mashaal experiences projection: Totally lost it, dude.

“Israel has totally lost it,” said Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Thursday evening in a reaction to Said Siam’s assassination earlier that day.

[…] “Israel has more fatalities than Hamas,” added Mashaal.

He also said, “I’m rubber, you’re glue” and stuck out his tongue at the IDF.

Posted in Israel | 5 Comments

Comment registration

It’s going to open and close depending on the number of Russian spammers who register accounts, as well as the anti-Semites who register accounts. They don’t get that either way, the comments will not be posted unless I approve them.

So if you want to register, and can’t, you know what to do.

Posted in Site news | Comments Off on Comment registration

The Egyptian truce: Hamas wins

Israel and Hamas have supposedly agreed to a two-week truce.

According to the sources, the two sides are expected to agree on a ceasefire which will likely begin within 72 hours and last up to two weeks.

During this period of time, the parties will discuss the Israel Defense Forces’ withdrawal from Gaza and the withdrawal’s timing. Palestinian sources estimated that the pullback into Israel would be swift.

According to the sources, on the issue of the supervision mechanism it has been agreed that the international forces’ presence would be on the Palestinian side of the Philadelphi route.

If this is true, then Hamas won.

The sources said that the renewed lull will last at least a year, and is expected to last even longer. According to the sources, a “weakened” Hamas will agree to a longer lull in order to recover from the current conflict.

If the agreement is executed, the agreement is expected to provide an answer to the Israeli demands in terms of the smuggling issue, the rocket fire and a serious discussion on the Shalit issue.

Hamas will gain the reopening of the crossings, the removal of the blockade and an official role at the crossings. Abbas will receive renewed access to the Strip, only at the crossings at first, and Egypt will be able to open the Rafah crossing.

That’s everything they asked for. What was the point of the Gaza war, then? To kill a few Hamas terrorists? To make the world hate Israel even more? If this is true, if Israel is lifting the blockade and allowing Hamas to run the crossings, then it truly is the beginning of the end of the State of Israel, because her leaders have lost all heart to defend their nation against the Iranian Islamists. How can the Egyptians stop smuggling if Hamas has a role in the crossings? Why does Israel think that anything will be different when the Philadelphi corridor is controlled by international forces? That’s what happened three years ago. Hamas took it over then, and will take it over now.

Israel is defeated. All I can hope for is that this article is wrong.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments