What isn’t surprising is that Derakhshan has now been arrested. He was arrested for a most serious crime.
The object of his visit, Derakhshan said, was to show his countrymen Israel’s human face and to detoxify relations between the two peoples after Ahmadinejad called for Israel’s elimination.
“I want to humanize Israel for Iranians and tell them it’s not what the Islamic propaganda machine is saying – that Israelis are thirsty for Muslim blood,” he said. “And I want to show Israel that the average Iranian isn’t even thinking about doing harm to Israel. I want them to see Iranians who don’t look like Ahmadinejad.”
Damn him, trying to humanize Israel.
Do you figure that the Committee to Protect Journalists will be as keen to protect him as they were to protect Bilal Hussein?
The agency reported that Ali Ashtari was executed by hanging on Monday. It said he was arrested in 2006 and confessed during his trial in June to spying for Israel through security and telecommunication equipment.
Iranian news media reported in June that Mr. Ashtari, 45, had received a death sentence for spying. At the time, newspapers said he had been the manager of a company selling communication and security equipment to the Iranian government.
It’s hard to know if Ashtari was guilty, but my suspicion is that he ran afoul of the regime for some other reason and they charged him with espianoge. It was never clear how Mr. Ashtari would have gotten knowledge of Iran’s nuclear program. Even Al Jazeera sounds skeptical. Alas the Washington Post does all it can to make Iran seem reasonable by interviewing an Iranian counterintelligence official but not expressing much skepticism about the official’s claims.
The cleric, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is also a former president, said at Friday Prayer that a report released Wednesday by Mohamed ElBaradei, the atomic energy agency’s director general, was ambiguous.
“Unfortunately, Mr. ElBaradei always talks ambiguously,†Mr. Rafsanjani said. “We expect the agency to be fair and impartial.†Dr. ElBaradei said in the report that Iran needed to provide the agency with substantive information to support its claims that the country’s nuclear program was intended to produce only nuclear power, not nuclear warheads.
And I wish that Mr. Rafsanjani’s regime had been “fair and impartial” to Mr. Ashtari. Maybe they’ll show some of that to Hossein Derakhshan. Not likely.
It’s good to know that the UN is enforcing UNSC resolution 1701, calling for the disarmament of Hezbullah. Because otherwise, Hezbullah might be three times stronger now than it was during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.
Hizbullah has grown three times stronger than at the end of the Second Lebanon War, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.
“They have 42,000 missiles now, which could also reach Ashkelon, Beersheba and Dimona. The radical axis of Iran, Syria and Hizbullah is becoming stronger compared to the axis of the more moderate countries,” he added.
If we didn’t have UN Peacekeepers in Lebanon, turning a blind eye to the rearmament (and the truckloads of weapons coming in from Syria), things might be even worse than they were two and a half years ago.
As for Hizbullah’s recent exercises in southern Lebanon, Barak said this proves that UN Resolution 1701 is not working.
“Hizbullah’s involvement in the state of Lebanon, this identity, exposes Lebanon and its infrastructures to deeper damage in case of a future conflict,” he noted.
I’m so happy that UN is concentrating on the important things, like a day of mourning for the Palestinians to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UN partition of the British Mandate. It’s great that Nobel Peace Prize winners are calling for the expulsion of Israel from the UN, but not a nation that has taken an armed terrorist group, responsible for the deaths of Americans and Israelis the world over, into their government and made them legitimate—even as they regularly threaten to use their weapons to destroy Israel.
Yes, just another day in Israeli Double Standard Time.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran’s economy will survive falling oil prices.
Iranian state television has quoted Ahmadinejad as saying the plummeting price of oil “will not cause any remarkable problems” to the economy.
He added in his remarks Sunday that the economy was self-reliant would be fine with an oil price of $5.
Really? Because international oil experts are of the opinion that Iran is in deep, deep trouble right now. Oil is under $50 a barrel. They say Iran needs it to be at least $70/bbl to break even, and some put it as high as $100/bbl.
Based on an opinion poll President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the most popular political figure in the Iranian society.
The poll, conducted by IRNA Research and News Analysis Department at the 15th Tehran International Press and News Agencies Exhibition from November 20-21, showed that 55.69 percent of respondents would vote to President Ahmadinejad in the next year 10th presidential elections.
When IRNA breaks out the polls stats, you just have to laugh:
Nine (three percent) of the respondents were managing director of the press, 33 people (11 percent) journalism experts, 147 people (49%) were reporters, 48 people (16%) were employees, 36 people (12%) were in charge of pavilions and 27 people (nine percent) were graphists and photographers/photojournalists.
What did they do? Poll their own staff?
Detailed report on the opinion poll will be made available on IRNA website in two weeks’ time.
More detailed than that? What, are we going to learn what they ate for breakfast that morning?
Posted inIran|TaggedIran|Comments Off on Ahmadinejad whistling past the graveyard
For some reason, Yahoo News linked to my latest post on Gaza in their “Most Blogged” section, which brought me about double the normal Saturday traffic. I woke up Saturday morning to 21 comments awaiting moderation. Sixteen of them never got approved, as they all fail the No Israel-Bashing rule. But I thought I’d share some of them with you, to show you the utter derangement and ignorance of the anti-Israel crowd.
Let us restate the point of my post: I wrote that the world is wringing its hands over a so-called “imminent” humanitarian disaster in Gaza, when there is no such disaster. It is all lies by Hamas, reported uncritically by the world media, with the full backing of the UN relief organizations who insist that Gazans are starving when they know full well that the Gaza store shelves are fully stocked, because they’ve been pictured in stores with, gee, shelves fully stocked. I also pointed out that there is a real disaster in Haiti that the UN is far less concerned about, with real pictures of real children who are, well, really starving.
Here are some of the comments:
It is true. The catastrophe in Haiti is more pressing. However, nothing can ever excuse that Israel withholds food shipments from Gaza. Penalizing a population for how it casts its ballot is always a crime against humanity. Withholding food imports to Israel because it repeatedly re-elects war criminals would also be such a crime. What you do is condoning a double-homocide just because there is mass murder on the other side of town.
That’s Jonas from Germany, completely ignoring the fact that there is no crisis in Gaza. But he’s not finished yet.
… but we must be realistic; which party of this conflict kills WAY more civilians?
So, which party is deliberately aiming rockets at schools and hospitals, and which party has tried to change its ways to the point that not a single civilian has been killed in the act of stopping terrorist rockets? But hey, don’t let the facts get in the way of your opinion there, guy.
Vic from Ohio shows that he’s stupid as well as illiterate:
it is as though king herodism has taken hold of israel.As a nation they are outlaws and I do not understand how the world stands back and watches.The treatment of palestinians is a holocaust the only pertinent holocaust involving jews at this time.Growing up in N.Y. among so many good caring friends I am shocked by the silence.
Hm. That “holocaust” must not be working very well, because the Palestinian population has grown 30% in the last ten years. The true Holocaust murdered two-thirds of Europe’s Jews. When you play the numbers game, the truth always trumps fiction. Too bad Vic is too stupid to read up on the facts.
Here’s one from a Bay Area denizen that’s short and totally incomprehensible:
one word: Israeoil
Um… huh?
Andrew is in Pakistan, and seems to have picked up the local attitude about Jews while he’s there:
Is anyone blocking the distribution of relief aid in Haiti?
There’s the finer point of the matter.
Indeed, no, no one is blocking aid to Haiti. Which makes it even more reprehensible that children are starving there. But then, Haitians aren’t firing missiles into Florida. Perhaps if they did, the world would be more helpful to their cause.
Mike gets all the Chomsky talking points down:
Why compare one human disaster to another as if they’re sale items at WalMarts? The forces of human destruction are the same around the globe -profit before people. Why are we giving billions to Israel to bulldoze people’s homes? Who’s the real terrorists here?
Then there’s the fact that Israel no longer bulldozes terrorist’s homes. Once again, don’t let the facts get in the way of your opinion there, Mikey. Just jump up and down and scream “Terrorists!” at Israel.
Danus from Denver asks:
You mention that no one has even a picture of emaciated child to show the world
But didn’t the Israelis block all foreign journalists from entering Gaza to prevent.. what exactly?
Funny, Hamas manages to get out the pictures of Gaza being blacked out… but there’s not a single picture of a starving child. Which proves… what exactly? That’s right. That it’s not a disaster. It’s a manufactured “crisis” that doesn’t exist.
Here’s a simple one from a guy whose email address is monkey_nads@hotmail.com. I kid you not.
lol, no israel bashing. what a joke.
No, actually, serious as a heart attack. By the way, nice email address. And oh, he has more to say:
you people are SICK! one asks sarcastically, How can Hamas build missiles and bombs if Israel doesn’t let them? that is BS. LET THEM? that is the problem, if palestinians want to do anything, israel has to let them. americans dont have to ask anybody to do anything, but be damned sure youd bomb them if you did. take a projection, who is the real terrorist?
Get it? Israel lets Hamas build the bombs. I’m not quite sure why, but Monkey Nads has the answer. It’s because Israelis are the real terrorists. They want to let Hamas fire rockets that can kill Israelis. If you can follow that logic, well, you, too, can have an email address that even my teenaged nephew would decline to use. (Because while he may be a teenaged boy, he has some modicum of taste.)
Diana from Texas says that Hamas is just a distraction, and it’s really all Bush’s fault, anyway.
I wish everyone could see past “Hamas†to the families,old women,children that are the ones who are suffering there. The military is always taken care of first. You’re right,the two past elections of Bush sure did teach us consequences.
I’m guessing Obama voter. I’m also guessing that she, too, did not really read the post.
This one is my favorite: Khan from Sri Lanka.
It’s the tradgey of the human race, that a few law breakes such as an illegitimate ‘ state’ such as Israel can take the law into its hand and continue to enslave the people of GAZA with immunity. It is very clear that the UNO is nothing but an impotent organisation without the power to do anything. But the worst thing is that the so called Muslim countries have become so insensitive to the sufferings of their brothers that they do not even have the gut to raise a voice. It is time the puppet rulers of the Muslim world should be thrown out and a united Muslim nation should come into the forefront as a formidable force. It is time to empower the Muslim youth all over the world with this aim. Until then Gaza, our hearts weep for you and we are just watching the tragedy.
To which we must reply: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!
And there you have most of them. None of them actually took in the point of the post. All of them buy the Palestinian propaganda wholly. They insist that there’s a humanitarian disaster going on in Gaza, in spite of all evidence to the contrary that no such thing is happening—because the UN and the media are insisting that it is.
Well, I have my own news analyst for the last word on the Gaza situation. Max, tell us what you think is happening in Gaza:
The Thanks and Giving edition of Haveil Havalim is up. I’m sure the New York Times editorial board will find something as horrifying in Haveil Havalim as they did in the video of Sarah Palin’s interview on a turkey farm. (I’ve watched the video. It’s, uh, well—I’m squeamish about lions killing prey on nature shows, and I went “That’s IT?” on this one.)
Yahoo News linked to my post on Gaza’s “imminent” disaster, and I have a ton of comments waiting in the moderation queue that will probably not get approved. Nobody reads the comments policy, except for the one guy who didn’t like the idea that this is a No Israel-Bashing Zone.
But boy, do I have post fodder for the finest examples of the anti-Israel arguments. These people obviously don’t read the news. There are still some complaining about Israel bulldozing terrorists’ homes, a policy that was stopped years ago. And then there are the incoherent Biblical references. Ummmm…. o-kaaay. (Stepping back slowly.)
I’ll have to check where they came from, because most of them were between 2 and 8 a.m. I suspect they weren’t from around here.
Posted inIsrael|Comments Off on Well, that was interesting
Is it me? Am I too serious? Or is it you folks. There are so many of you out there who never post a comment, who just keep coming by and reading, day after day. I mean, I know that’s the way the world works. Some people talk, most people listen. But I seemed to have more talkers back in the day when I had fewer listeners, if you get my drift.
I should remember to post at least one unserious post per day. Maybe more than one.
Let’s play a game. Guess when this article was written:
Leading UN agencies are issuing increasingly dramatic warnings about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Israeli forces continue their search for a captured soldier, Gilad Shalit. There have also been numerous expressions of international public dismay. But effective inter-governmental action to end the crisis is so far lacking, due largely to deadlock within the UN security council.
“An already alarming situation, with poverty rates at nearly 80% and unemployment at nearly 40%, is likely to deteriorate rapidly unless immediate, urgent action is taken,” the UN agencies said in a joint statement. The UN Relief and Works Agency said Gaza was “on the brink of a public health disaster” due to electricity and water shortages caused by Israeli military action.
Gaza faces a humanitarian “catastrophe” if Israel continues to prevent aid reaching the territory by blocking crossing points, the head of the main UN aid agency for the Palestinians said on Friday.
Karen AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said the human toll of this month’s sealing of Gaza’s goods crossings was the gravest since the early days of a Palestinian uprising eight years ago.
The first “imminent” disaster article was written in July, 2006. The one above is from yesterday. So is this:
“It’s been closed for so much longer than ever before… and we have nothing in our warehouses… It will be a catastrophe if this persists, a disaster,” said AbuZayd, whose agency is the largest aid body providing services to Palestinian refugees.
“The situation in Gaza is worsening by the minute. Humanitarian disaster has been imminent for years but something has to be done now and very quickly,” Eyad Nasser, spokesman for the Red Cross in Gaza, told Ynet Saturday.
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
A humanitarian disaster was also predicted in May, 2006. Twice. And I’m sure if I checked my old archives, I’d find the same thing from even earlier.
It’s amazing how, for a place that is always on the verge of a humanitarian disaster, the mortality rate of Palestinians seems to be among the lowest of all the world’s disasters. You want to see a real disaster? Children in Haiti are dying of starvation.
The five-year-old teetered on broomstick legs; he weighed less than 20 pounds, even after days of drinking enriched milk. Nearby, a four-year-old girl hung from a strap attached to a scale, her wide eyes lifeless, her emaciated arms dangling weakly.
In pockets of Haiti accessible only by donkey or foot, children are dying of malnutrition, their already meagre food supply cut by a series of devastating storms that destroyed crops, wiped out livestock and sent food prices spiralling.
At least 26 severely malnourished children have died in the past four weeks in the remote region of Baie d’Orange in Haiti’s southeast, aid workers said Thursday, and there are fears the toll will rise much higher if help does not come quickly to the impoverished Caribbean country.
This is all I can find on Haiti about food aid in the UN News Center.
With seeds, water and ‘plastic’ UN helps Haiti offset hurricanes, food prices
Ban regrets that Israel has not heeded his call to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza
You have two instances of humanitarian disasters. In one, children are dying of starvation. (Click on the link. You’ll see what a starving child looks like.) In another, bureaucrats are whining that a disaster is “imminent,” but nobody can seem to find so much as a skinny child to hold up to the cameras.
Where is the world’s outrage?
Why, with Israel, of course. If the Haitian children were charges of Israelis, you’d find the world running to their defense in a nanosecond. But since Israel has nothing to do with them, they are being allowed to die off-stage—while the fake Gaza humanitarian “crisis” is being decried all the way up to the SecGen’s office.
Say it with me, folks: It’s Israeli Double Standard Time. But don’t worry, it only occurs on days that end with a Y.
It can’t get much clearer than this. From an Eye on the UN press release:
This Monday, November 24th, the UN will commemorate its annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People with a film depicting Jews as Nazi-equivalents and a public exhibit mourning the sixty years of Israel’s existence.
“The event is an annual reminder that the UN’s real agenda is to delegitimize the birth – and the perseverance – of the state of Israel,” said Anne Bayefsky, Editor of EYEontheUN.org.
Monday’s observance marks November 29, 1947 – the day that the UN voted to establish a Jewish and an Arab state in Palestine – a decision accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs. This year’s observance is being held a week early due to scheduling conflicts.
As in years past, there will be a formal meeting Monday morning of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, a film, an afternoon meeting of the General Assembly on the “Question of Palestine,” and the opening of a public exhibit in the entrance to the UN’s New York headquarters.
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan referred to November 29th as “a day of mourning and a day of grief,” and the usual procedure is for UN member state after UN member state to use the opportunity to grieve for the suffering of the Palestinian people at Israeli hands.
The General Assembly is scheduled to adopt another six resolutions condemning only Israel for violations of human rights. The total number of resolutions criticizing Israel expected to be adopted at this fall’s General Assembly is 20, as compared to only four resolutions critical of human rights records in any of the remaining 191 UN member nations.
The 2008 installment of what is in essence a repeat of the “Zionism = Racism” allegation, will be the public showing of the film “La Terre Parle Arabe” or “The Land Speaks Arabic.” The film draws parallels between the Nazis’ final solution and the alleged Zionist design for Palestinians. It is commonly billed with these words: “…the late-19th century Zionists…drew up plans, put them into practice, then…used… force, often brutal.”
And it gets even worse.
Here is some of the script for the UN public’s edification:
“Christians and Muslims alike…unite in their hatred of Zionism…I preferred to die as a martyr rather than be governed by the Jews …We were against the Jews…The number of Jews increased constantly…The children cried …The Hagana had no mercy, no pity. Zionists! They were Zionists!… The Jews were shooting at us, they were facing us…The Jews yelled “turn around you bastards, you dogs.” They machine gunned us…They started killing people who were asleep…[We]…found a poor woman…pregnant. They had killed her and the baby came out of the womb. They started slaughtering them until morning.”
The exhibit to be opened at 6 p.m. on Monday in the UN lobby – the public entrance through which school children from across the United States and tourists from around the world pass every day – is entitled “The Palestinians: 60 years of struggle and enduring hope.” Bayefsky comments: “The “sixty years” of struggle is telling. It puts a lie to the alleged root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict as an “occupation” that began with the 1967 war. The real complaint is the alleged wrong of the creation of the State of Israel itself.” She adds: “The carefully selected word “struggle” also speaks volumes. What the UN glorifies as a struggle is a series of wars launched by Arabs to annihilate the state of Israel beginning in 1948, and the ongoing “struggle” of Palestinian and other Arab terrorists dedicated to the same end.”
The modern state of Pakistan was established on 14 August 1947 (27 Ramadan 1366 in the Islamic Calendar), carved out of the two Muslim-majority wings in the eastern and northwestern regions of British India and comprising the provinces of Balochistan, East Bengal, the North-West Frontier Province, West Punjab and Sindh. The controversial division of the provinces of Punjab and Bengal caused communal riots across India and Pakistan — millions of Muslims moved to Pakistan and millions of Hindus and Sikhs moved to India. Disputes arose over several princely states including Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir, whose ruler had acceded to India following an invasion by Pashtun tribal militias, leading to the First Kashmir War in 1948.
No? Why is that, I wonder? Hypocrisy? Naaah. Anti-Semitism? Now you’re getting it.
As more Americans turn to charity amid worsening economic gloom, operators of food banks and other aid groups are relying on the surprisingly resilient generosity of their neighbors and finding that even when times are tough, people still give.
In Seattle, Boeing Co. (BA) employees tripled their cash donations this year to Northwest Harvest, operator of Washington’s largest food bank. And every week, Northwest Harvest spokeswoman Claire Acey says, companies call to say their employees have decided to skip their holiday party and buy food for the hungry instead.
Our synaogue food bank donations were higher than ever this year. I know I gave more than last year, and I gave a lot last year.
Greeves, of Harris Interactive, said that in a year when people are having trouble meeting basic needs, giving by individuals usually increases food, shelter and health care.
“If it makes them feel good and they feel like it’s making a difference, they’ll give money,” he said.
I don’t think it’s the “feel good” part that counts. I think the average American gives when she or he can when times are tough, because times are tough, and everyone can use a helping hand.
The NYT reports on the extent of Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon in Generation Faithful.
There is a network of schools– some of them run by Hezbollah, others affiliated with or controlled by it — largely shielded from outsiders. There is a nationwide network of clerics who provide weekly religious lessons to young people on a neighborhood basis. There is a group for students at unaffiliated schools and colleges that presents Hezbollah to a wider audience. The party organizes non-Scout-related summer camps and field trips, and during Muslim religious holidays it arranges events to encourage young people to express their devotion in public and to perform charity work.
“It’s like a complete system, from primary school to university,” said Talal Atrissi, a political analyst at Lebanese University who has been studying Hezbollah for decades. “The goal is to prepare a generation that has deep religious faith and is also close to Hezbollah.”
Young women are taught their place:
Again and again, the girls were told that the hijab was an all-important emblem of Islamic virtue and that it was the secret power that allowed Hezbollah to liberate southern Lebanon. The struggle with Israel, they were told, is the same as the struggle of Shiite Islam’s founding figures, Ali and Hussein, against unjust rulers in their time.
Through it all, Ms. Halawi was the presiding figure on the stage, introducing each section of the evening and reciting Koranic verses and her own poetic homages to the veil.
“Our veil is a jewel-encrusted crown, dignified and lofty, that God made to make us blossom,” she said at one point, gazing out into the darkness with a look of passionate intensity. “He opened the door of obedience and contentment for us.”
Everyone is taught how to understand Jews.
Another difference from most scout groups lies in the program. Religious and moral instruction — rather than physical activity — occupy the vast bulk of the Mahdi Scouts’ curriculum, and the scout leaders adhere strictly to lessons outlined in books for each age group.
Those books, copies of which were provided to this reporter by a Hezbollah official, show an extraordinary focus on religious themes and a full-time preoccupation with Hezbollah’s military struggle against Israel. The chapter titles, for the 12- to 14-year-old age group, include “Love and Hate in God,” “Know Your Enemy,” “Loyalty to the Leader” and “Facts About Jews.” Jews are described as cruel, corrupt, cowardly and deceitful, and they are called the killers of prophets. The chapter on Jews states that “their Talmud says those outside the Jewish religion are animals.”
(I’d point out that “sons of pigs and monkeys” is not Talmudic in origin.)
And the main point of this illustrative article.
In the West, the image of Hezbollah is often that of its bearded, young guerrilla fighters, dressed in military camouflage and clutching AK-47s. But Hezbollah’s inner core of fighters and employees — its full-time members — is a far smaller group than its supporters. This broader category, covering the better part of Lebanon’s roughly one million Shiites, includes reservists, who will fight if needed; doctors and engineers, who contribute their skills; and mere sympathizers.
To read the article is very disillusioning. It would suggest that there is little Israel can do to make peace with its northern neighbor. The influence of Hezbollah seems pretty extensive. However,
Hezbollah’s influence on Lebanese youth is very difficult to quantify because of the party’s extreme secrecy and the general absence of reliable statistics in the country. It is clear that the Shiite religious schools, in which Hezbollah exercises a dominant influence, have grown over the past two decades from a mere handful into a major national network. Other, less visible avenues may be equally important, like the growing number of clerics associated with the movement.
And Hezbollah’s influence is presented at once as somewhat tolerant but pervasive:
But there is a limit to Hezbollah’s flexibility. All young members and supporters are encouraged to develop a hiss amni, or security sense, and are warned to beware of curious outsiders, who may be spies.
After Mr. Sayyed had been talking to a foreign journalist in the coffee shop for more than an hour, a hard-looking young man at a neighboring table began staring at him. Suddenly looking nervous, Mr. Sayyed agreed to continue the conversation on the cafe’s second floor. But he seemed agitated, and later he repeatedly postponed another meeting planned for the next week.
Finally, he sent an apologetic e-mail message explaining that he would not be able to meet again.
So what does this mean for the future of Lebanon and the Middle East. Is the Arab country that was once the most Western being inexorably drawn deeper into Iran’s orbit? Or are there countervailing forces resisting Hezbollah’s (and Iran’s) creeping annexation of Lebanese society?
Three more rockets hit two more areas in Israel. The rockets have been falling every day (the AP is for some reason saying “near-daily rocket attacks”), and we have yet to hear a peep out of the crowd of Israel-bashers about Hamas stopping the rocket fire. Except, of course, for the mealy-mouthed “We call on both sides to show restraint” types.
A Qassam rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip on Friday morning landed in an open area in the city of Ashkelon’s southern industrial zone. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
Two mortar shells were fired at the Kissufim area in southern Israel. There were no injuries or damage in this incident as well. The Salah al-Din Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committee’s military wing, claimed responsibility for the mortars fired at Kissufim.
The Gaza crossings stay shut. Lucky for us, it’s Friday, so the world condemnation gets muted a bit as the usual crowd of Israel-bashers finds other things to occupy its time.
Two demonstrators were lightly wounded Friday in clashes with security forces during an anti-security fence protest in the Palestinian village of Bil’in, west of Ramallah.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire was among the demonstrators.
Gee, that Israel-hater really gets around. Maybe we got lucky and she was one of the wounded. Naaaah. It’d be a major newsflash on the wire services if that had happened.
Do you think she called on the Palestinians to stop firing rockets into Israel?
After expressing their glee with the election of President-elect Obama, they tell us the advantage his election presents at this time:
In perhaps no other region was the election of Obama more favorably received than the Middle East.
I would argue that that the region where his election most favorably received were the editorial offices of most American newspapers. Still, as I recall, Ayman Al-Zawahri did not have the most enthusiastice greeting for the new President.
So guess what the priority of Scowcroft and Brzezinski is?
Immediate attention to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute would help cement the goodwill that Obama’s election engendered. Not everyone in the Middle East views the Palestinian issue as the greatest regional challenge, but the deep sense of injustice it stimulates is genuine and pervasive.
And what the rewards be?
Resolution of the Palestinian issue would have a positive impact on the region. It would liberate Arab governments to support U.S. leadership in dealing with regional problems, as they did before the Iraq invasion. It would dissipate much of the appeal of Hezbollah and Hamas, dependent as it is on the Palestinians’ plight. It would change the region’s psychological climate, putting Iran back on the defensive and putting a stop to its swagger.
This is interesting. In 2000, Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon and it had the effect of strengthening Hezbollah – Hezbollah, of course, changed its demands of Israel to inlcude a withdrawal from Shebaa Farms too – a client of Iran. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and that ended up strengthening Hamas, a client of Iran.
In mathematics, one way of solving a difficult problem, is to break it up into smaller problems. In the past Israel’s smaller steps towards making peace with its neighbors have strengthened Iran (through its clients). Now we’re to believe that if Israel carries out more withdrawals it will weaken Iran? If Israel’s small steps exacerbated rather than solved the problem doesn’t if follow that a complete withdrawal from Judea and Samaria will only increase the demands on Israel?
And how will this be accomplished?
The major elements of an agreement are well known. A key element in any new initiative would be for the U.S. president to declare publicly what, in the view of this country, the basic parameters of a fair and enduring peace ought to be. These should contain four principal elements: 1967 borders, with minor, reciprocal and agreed-upon modifications; compensation in lieu of the right of return for Palestinian refugees; Jerusalem as real home to two capitals; and a nonmilitarized Palestinian state.
In other words it needs to be solved in a way that meets the demands of the Saudi ultimatum. (It’s not a peace plan, it’s a list of Saudi demands with a very nebulous promise about normalization in exchange for Israel’s complying with demands.) The only clear difference between Brzezinski and Scowcroft and the Saudi plan is that the former National Security Advisers call for a “nonmilitarized Palestinian state.”
Of course that brings up a number of problems of its own. If the Palestinians can’t be trusted to be militarized, why should the Israelis trust them with any level of independence. But given the weapons that Fatah already has – courtesy of the United States and Israel – and that Hamas has – courtesy of Iran with the implicit cooperation of Egypt – how exactly would this future state be non-militarized? On the first question, Brzezinski and Scowcroft suggest an answer.
Something more might be needed to deal with Israeli security concerns about turning over territory to a Palestinian government incapable of securing Israel against terrorist activity. That could be dealt with by deploying an international peacekeeping force, such as one from NATO, which could not only replace Israeli security but train Palestinian troops to become effective.
I would point out that the CIA has, in the past, trained Palestinian troops to be effective. They were quite effective in using those skills againstIsrael. So the effectiveness of “Palestinian troops” is, at best, a mixed blessing. Good perhaps for the Palestinians; not so good for Israel.
Things are tough, but there’s reason for optimism.
To date, the weakness of the negotiating parties has limited their ability to come to an agreement by themselves. The elections in Israel scheduled for February are certainly a complicating factor, as is the deep split among Palestinians between Fatah and Hamas. But if the peace process begins to gain momentum, it is difficult to imagine that Hamas will want to be left out, and that same momentum would provide the Israeli people a unique chance to register their views on the future of their country.
I’m sorry. Israel ceded the Gaza Strip in 2005. That allowed Hamas to declare victory and parlay said victory into electoral success. Foreign aid and electoral success, did not make Hamas pursue peace. Their newfound political power was translated into the building of a terror infrastructure and sustained rocket attacks against Israel. Given Hamas’s “unique chance” then to “register their views,” Hamas chose to continue the armed struggle against Israel. Explain why Hamas would be more committed to peace after reconciling with Fatah.
Soon they conclude:
To say that achieving a successful resolution of this critical issue is a simple task would be to scoff at history. But in many ways the current situation is such that the opportunity for success has never been greater, or the costs of failure more severe.
What an ending! Why is the opportunity for success greater now than ten years ago? Well Arafat’s gone. But Hamas is in charge. Ahh. But Hamas will reconcile with Fatah and then, not wanting to miss out on this historic peace thing, will suddenly see the light and reject its history and ideology. Been there; done that. In 1993. It was Fatah then, but subsequent years have shown that the thrill of peace did nothing to disabuse Fatah of its terrorist past. “Peace negotiations” simply became another tactic it could use to attack Israel. And unlike terror attacks, talking peace offered Fatah protection against those inconvenient revelations that it never abandoned terror or its goal of destroying Israel.
As always, the likes of Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft are clear about what Israel must do, but not so clear about what’s expected of the Palestinians, or the Arab world for that matter.
One of the unsurprising aspects of this op-ed is that – except for the beginning – it could have been written any time in the past decade. Brzezinski and Scowcroft offer no new insights and really just throw a lot of platitudes at the situation in the Middle East. Yes, Iran will lose its swagger. Really? I would think that the drop in oil prices would have made Ahmadinejad drop his swagger, but he’s just as cocky as ever.
Nothing here is remotely original. All it is, is another way of saying: there won’t be peace until the United States pressures Israel to make risky concessions despite fifteen years of broken Palestinian promises of peace.
Andy thought he was going crazy when a talking cat showed up at his front door. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Goldeneyes is a Catmage – a cat with human intelligence and magical abilities. Andy is an eighth grader who is smart, impulsive, and trying to avoid the school bully at all costs. A prophecy threw them together. There’s just one problem: Goldeneyes can’t stand humans.
The Catmage world is heading toward war. Goldeneyes and Andy must try to stop the enemy from getting stronger. And they must save a powerful Catmage who’s been kidnapped. For Goldeneyes, it’s personal. That Catmage is her grandmother.
Andy and Goldeneyes must try to put aside their differences. If they can’t, the enemy will soon be too powerful to defeat…
