Hamas didn’t get the NYT memo

Posted on 08/22/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Someone didn’t get the New York Times editorial staff’s memo. The one that said:

A way must be found to help turn Hamas into a legitimate and acceptable negotiating partner.

Because here’s what the “negotiating partner” has to say about negotiations:

“Jerusalem will be retrieved to the Palestinians not through negotiations or by hugging and kissing the enemy, but by way of jihad, blood, shahids and resistance. With Allah’s help, Jerusalem will be returned,” he said.

And if that’s not enough for you, let me remind you that Ismail Haniyeh is the man elected by the Palestinians to represent them in negotiations. And he says he won’t accept negotiations:

Haniyeh said that “according to most all reports on secret peace talks or agreements, Israel is refusing to relinquish Jerusalem and the West Bank, refuses to accept the right of return of Palestinian refugees, refuses to dismantle the settlements and deems the Jordan Valley vital to its security.

“On behalf of the Palestinian nation and Muslims everywhere, I say that we will not accept any such agreements,” he said.

So, you think the folks who write the Times editorials are going to get a clue?

When hell freezes over, perhaps.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that the world media and political elite ignore statements like this (which are repeated every few weeks, without fail) and insist that Hamas can be talked to, and brought into the negotiations process. Go and peruse my Hamas category to find statements like this over and over and over again. Hamas wants one thing, and only one thing: The destruction of the state of Israel, and its replacement with an Islamic caliphate. Anyone who tells you anything different is lying.

Posted in Hamas, Juvenile Scorn, Media Bias | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Off for a few days

Posted on 08/21/2008 by Meryl Yourish

I scheduled a few posts for tomorrow, but I’m going on a small vacation before going into closing-on-the-condo/packing/cleaning/painting/moving hell. I shall be visiting my friends and family in New Jersey, and I’m looking forward to it. And while I’m bringing my laptop, well, I was planning on spending most of the time outside by Kim and Bob’s pool. And maybe seeing a movie. And going to my favorite restaurant in NJ. And playing with Puddin’.

I wish I had a little more time to spend in NJ, but it’s a there-and-back-again trip, so no time for Katz’s in NYC, or visiting with my New York JBlogosphere buddies. Or friends I used to work with. Too bad Drew’s next comedy club appearance is next week instead of this one.

On the other hand, if people want to come to where I plan on being on, say, Sunday afternoon (West Orange), I could meet up for a few minutes. I’m thinking of picking up some kosher steaks while I’m there. Or maybe some corned beef. Yum. Corned beef.

More than anything, though, I’m looking forward to coming back and having only days before I get out of this craphole to a place where I don’t worry about leaving my laptop for four days, and wind up taking it with me even though I have my work laptop and don’t need to take two.

September 2nd. Closing on the 2nd. Moving on the 5th. Two weeks. Only two more weeks.

Posted in Life | Tagged | Comments Off on Off for a few days

Palestinian quote of the day

Posted on 08/21/2008 by Meryl Yourish

“I don’t care who will stamp my passport, a minister in Gaza or the president in Ramallah,” he said. “Both are using us as tools in their internal conflicts … I wish that an earthquake would come and take both sides from our life.”

The context.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, palestinian politics | Comments Off on Palestinian quote of the day

Shilling for the Saudis

Posted on 08/21/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Reuters has a puff piece that pretends to be reporting about the “liberalization” of Saudi Arabian cities. Let’s take a look.

The Saudi government has a project to develop at least four “economic cities” where many expect the religious establishment will be kept at a distance from social life, the workplace and education.

Women will be able to drive in them and there may even be cinema houses.

There are already some spaces in the country of 25 million people where the religious police — charged with maintaining “public morals” — are nowhere to be seen.

Premise one: Saudis (and by extension, foreign nationals) will be able to live normal, mostly-Sharia-free lives in at least four places.
Premise two: Women will be able to drive.
Premise three: There may be movie theaters. (Hoo-boy, the Saudis are going to join the twentieth century!)
Premise four: Areas already exist where the religious police “are nowhere to be seen”.

Now let’s take apart these premises, using the rest of the Reuters piece.

Jeddah carries the slogan “Jeddah is different” and Riyadh residents spend summer holidays in the Red Sea city, where local women with uncovered faces swan through shopping malls or sit in late-night shisha-pipe dens.

“Uncovered faces” is not exactly able to drive, work, and relax in public without fear of the religious police beating them and hauling them off to jail. And we discover that the zealots are chomping at the bit to take down these dens of iniquity.

Islamists constantly fulminate against the situation in Jeddah as if it was Sodom and Gomorrah.

The religious police generally also avoid the diplomatic district in Riyadh and Dhahran in the Eastern Province that houses Aramco.

Residents of the Eastern Province say the vice squad generally also leaves the city of Khobar alone, but has a strong presence in the neighbouring city of Dammam.

Please note the words in bold. If the religious police “generally” avoid areas, that means that there is a presence, and that they are not “nowhere to be seen.” So these women are at risk of being arrested pretty much at any time.

Premises one, two, and four have all been disproven by the very words in the rest of the Reuters article. As for premise three, again, well, gee, movie theaters. That’s so 1900.

Way to shill for the Saudis, though. Yes, that liberalization of Saudi Arabia continues apace. How long before the new, and highly touted coed university is attacked by either terrorists or the religious police?

Posted in Feminism, Israel, Media Bias, World | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

How confidence building works

Posted on 08/21/2008 by Soccerdad

Last year, Israel released 4 Jordanian murderers of Israelis to Jordan. At the time, Israel Matzav observed:

The Olmert – Barak – Livni government is about to turn four Jordanian murderers over to the Jordanian government in return for a promise that the murderers – who have served seventeen years out of a life sentence – will not be considered for a pardon for at least eighteen months.

Well it hasn’t been 18 months, it’s been a little more than a year and the Jordanian government has shown its contempt for Israel by releasing the four early.

Jordan, under public pressure after a recent Hezbollah-Israel prisoner swap deal, on Wednesday freed four inmates handed over by Israel last year to finish their sentences at home, officials said.

Sultan Ajlouni killed Pini Levy 18 years ago now gets to embrace his mother to the cheers of adoring crowds.

Efraim Zuroff wrote about the killing last year:

THAT NIGHT, at approximately 12:10, a terrorist infiltrated our lookout and managed to get to the guard post overlooking the river. He shot Pini with his pistol, grabbed his M-16 and headed for the hut where the rest of us were fast asleep. Luckily Baruch, who was initially shocked by the shooting, came to his senses and ran to the hut to alert us and try and catch the killer.

He caught him in our kitchen, about to open the door to the room where we were sleeping. It would have been dangerous to shoot (the walls were as thin as paper), so he hit him with the butt of his rifle.

Here’s the unforgettable part:

Next day, the IDF’s top brass came to the lookout to investigate the incident. Baruch related what had happened step-by-step. After he finished the story in the kitchen, Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai, at that time head of the Central Command, asked him bluntly: “Lama lo haragtem oto?” (Why didn’t you kill him?) – to which no one gave a clear answer.

The soldiers, of course, were following the Geneva conventions. Ajilouni was disarmed, they could not kill him.

So has the release of the Jordanian murderers led to higher levels of commercial and cultural ties with Jordan? Well no.

But the release of Samir Kuntar led to the release of four Jordanian murders. It was also likely the prelude for releasing more terrorists to Fatah and, eventually, to Hamas. When Israel releases prisoners it builds confidence – that it will release even more.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Israel, Terrorism | Tagged | Comments Off on How confidence building works

Gaza gaiety

Posted on 08/21/2008 by Soccerdad

I was watching some Get Smart last night.

In one episode, Cutback at Control, a Senate sub-committee is seeking to de-fund Control. Siegfried of KAOS knows of Control’s financial troubles and recruits Max to join KAOS. When Max meets him to discuss his defection, Siegfried informs he needs to undergo training. There’s dialog that goes like this:

Siegfried:… either you graduate or we shoot you.
Max: Graduations must be confusing, you don’t know whether to bring a cap and gown or a blindfold.

I’m guessing that at Hamas graduations, they bring both.

Apparently Hamas folks don’t just learn to fight, they also learn to dance. First there was Riverdance: Gaza. Now there’s Twinkletoes.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Gaza, Humor | 1 Comment

More on the Iranian air threat

Posted on 08/21/2008 by Meryl Yourish

I told you the Iranians were lying when they announced that they could launch an air strike team on Israel. (H/T: Mike)

Fact is, the Iranian Air Force–or more correctly, Iran’s two Air Forces have serious training, equipment, airspace and logistical issues that make a successful strike on Israel almost impossible.

We’ll begin with the airspace problem. Getting to Israel from Iran means over-flying countries like Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Crossing Iraq and Jordan offers the most direct route, but that means a confrontation with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy jets–a battle the Iranians would certainly lose. Turkey and Saudi Arabia would also oppose transit by Iranian fighters headed for Israel, and both have better jets and pilots.

In fact, Iran’s most “viable” option for an airstrike against Israel would require a long, circuitous flight down the Persian Gulf, around the Arabian Peninsula, and up the Red Sea. That route would carry Iranian fighters through international airspace, but it would significantly increase flight time, in-flight refueling requirements and the probability of detection.

And, speaking of tankers, did we mention that Iran has only two–a KC-707 (similar to our own KC-135) and a modified Boeing 747. The older KC-707 flies on a periodic basis; as for the 747, there is some speculation that it has been converted for other missions, such as hauling cargo.

There’s much more. Read it all for an in-depth look at why the Iranians can barely muster enough fighter jets for an air show on “Death to the Infidels” Day.

Posted in Iran, Israel, Juvenile Scorn | Tagged , , | Comments Off on More on the Iranian air threat

The blogger’s conference I’m missing

Posted on 08/20/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Omri is at the Nefesh b’Nefesh blogger’s conference I couldn’t get to due to tiny little things like closing on my new home. He’s liveblogging it.

Netanyahu speaks:

18:51 – Bibi asserts that the Israeli government needs better public diplomacy – and that this can be done in part through a reasonably written daily blog. This is true. He also asserts that pro-Israel advocates can counter smears and fabrications with “just the truth” and that facts will defeat smears even if they remain “un-embellished.” This is false.

And the earlier liveblogging:

18:03 – Some woman just told Judith and I to “shush.” Despite my strong urging, Judith refuses to “yank that nobody’s hair and scream ‘do you know who I am'” Oh well.

Yes, Omri does tend to egg people on like that. He wouldn’t stop talking at my bat mitzvah about how one of my friends was a witch.

There’s a live webcast. Go look. Bibi’s speaking now.

Posted in Bloggers, Israel, Jews | Tagged | Comments Off on The blogger’s conference I’m missing

Unchanging Fatah

Posted on 08/20/2008 by Soccerdad

According to the Oslo Accords the following prisoners are subject to release in the guise of confidence building measures.

2. The following categories of detainees and/or prisoners will be included in the abovementioned releases:

a. all female detainees and prisoners shall be released in the first stage of release;

b. persons who have served more than two thirds of their sentence;

c. detainees and/or prisoners charged with or imprisoned for security offenses not involving fatality or serious injury;

d. detainees and/or prisoners charged with or convicted of non-security criminal offenses; and

e. citizens of Arab countries being held in Israel pending implementation of orders for their deportation.

Note further that prisoner releases are listed as confidence building measures.

Earlier, someone observed that the point of the prisoner releases was to allow Israel to free Palestinian whose main crimes was membership in Fatah. After all the premise of the Oslo Accords was that Fatah had given up terror and that therefore, simply membership in Fatah should no longer constitute a crime. (I think it was Krauthammer’s observation, but I haven’t been able to find the column.)

Subsequently, prisoner releases have take on a whole new meaning. Observe the reporting on an upcoming release planned by Israel. The AP reports:

Israel’s prisons service said the upcoming release would include Said al-Atba, who has served 32 years of a life sentence for planting a bomb, illegal military training and belonging to a banned group. Al-Atba, 57, is the longest serving prisoner held by Israel and he is widely seen by the Palestinian public as a symbol for the prisoners.

The fate of the roughly 9,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails is highly emotional, as many Palestinians either know someone in prison or have served time themselves. Abbas, who is struggling to show his people the fruits of drawn-out peace negotiations with Israel, has repeatedly urged Israel to carry out a large-scale release.

“Solving the prisoner problem paves the road to solving other issues in (peace) negotiations,” said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a spokesman for Abbas. He said the inclusion of long-serving prisoners would bolster the president’s credibility with the public, which has grown skeptical over the slow pace of peace talks.

And given that releases of prisoners seem to be a benchmark for success for Palestinian “governments”, releasing prisoners to Hamas creates its own problems.

Jerusalem denies this report outright. According to intelligence sources, Khalid Mish’al, the strong man in Hamas, has recently declared that “there would be no deal for the release of Shalit without the release of Al-Barghuthi.” According to Israeli intelligence sources, the release of Marwan al-Barghuthi, who is currently the most popular man on the Palestinian street, at Hamas’s behest would constitute the death blow to the PNA, an official death certificate for Abu-Mazin [Mahmud Abbas], and a dramatic boost to Hamas in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] as well.

Imagine that. The only consideration why Israel would not release Barghouti is that it might weaken the ineffective terrorist organization Fatah in favor of the effective terrorist organization Hamas.

Nowhere in these articles is a suggestion that the continuing release of prisoners means that peace is closer at hand. Furthermore, Prisoner releases do not mean that the Palestinians will govern themselves effectively. All prisoner releases mean is that Israel is saying that terror against its citizens is not that serious. It says that even the ongoing terrorism committed since Oslo – when Fataj committed to forswear terrorism – doesn’t represent bad faith on the part of Israel’s supposed peace partners.

Whereas the prisoner releases originally were an acknowledgment that Fatah has changed, now they represent an acceptance that Fatah has not changed.

It was 10 years ago, but the late, great Shmuel Schnitzer concluded an essay on prisoner release saying:

The Israeli judicial system does not consider the murderer’s motives, whether he acted out of hatred, or vengeance, or whether he was sent by some foreign entity which has claims against Israel and thus believes that it can hold Israeli citizens as hostages in order to meet its demands. States do not surrender to blackmail, even if they have lost a considerable part of their deterrent capability. There is no good reason to twist the Israeli judicial system’s arm because our neighbors are angry and rioting in the streets. Those who sent sent the young men on their murderous missions, sent them to long years in prison and must accept the fact that they simply come home forthwith.

Another question is whether the riots and disturbances jibe with the peace agreements. Those who incite the crowds and encourage them take a heavy responsibility upon themselves even if they have reason to suppose that the new Israel might be prepared to surrender to batons and stones.

Prisoner releases as confidence building measure needed to adhere to certain specific guidelines. Those guidelines are now ignored. The way the issue has been twisted over the past 15 years has turned it from a way of building trust into a way of building up an ineffectual and insincere “peace partner.”

The worst part of this is that it effectively means that Israel as a nation, accepts terror against its citizens as an appropriate expression of the Palestinian nationalism. Fatah hasn’t changed, just the way Israel views Fatah has changed.

Meryl has related thoughts here.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad. Elder of Ziyon demonstrates the meaningless of “gestures.”

Posted in Israel, palestinian politics, Terrorism | 1 Comment

Hamas to Israel: Shalit could be Arad

Posted on 08/20/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Hamas is threatening to make Gilad Shalit disappear like Ron Arad. And if you take their analogy to its completion, they’re threatening to kill Shalit.

Hamas has warned that abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit will face a fate as uncertain as that of missing airman Ron Arad if Israel continues to tarry on negotiations for a prisoner exchange, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.

Abu Obeiada, a spokesman for the Gaza-based militant group made the comment on Tuesday, during an exercise simulating the capture of Israeli soldiers, the radio said.

What was it the New York Times editorial staff was smoking when it wrote this:

A way must be found to help turn Hamas into a legitimate and acceptable negotiating partner.

No, a way must be found to help turn Hamas terrorists into human beings. They’re currently stuck on “monsters.”

Posted in Hamas, Israel | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Dependent independence

Posted on 08/20/2008 by Soccerdad

As co-blogger, Daled Amos notes in his excellent critique of the Times editorial The Peril of an Israeli Transition, the Times holds everyone responsible for a Palestinian state other than the Palestinians themselves.

I’d like to add a few observations.

1) More and more Palestinian independence is defined by their dependence on others.

2) At the end of the editorial, the editors write:

A way must be found to help turn Hamas into a legitimate and acceptable negotiating partner.

And that worked out so well, when the organization in question was Fatah.

3) We’ve been here before. A search yielded this editorial from when the Oslo Accords were anticipated.

Mr. Arafat, the P.L.O. chairman, risks his prestige and his life by standing up to radicals who hold out for the same maximalist demands he himself used to proclaim.

Then, 3 years later, after Binyamin Netanyahu was elected PM of Israel, in large part due to Arafat’s failure to move beyond the rhetoric of his past, the Times had this to say:

By meeting with Mr. Arafat, Mr. Netanyahu showed that he understands that the Likud Party’s fierce animosity toward the Palestinian leader should give way to a more moderate governing posture.

While it’s true that Netanyahu did moderate his “governing posture,” his “animosity” wasn’t the result of arbitrary prejudice as the Times suggested, but it was a reaction to his (correct) observation that Arafat did nothing but take Israeli concessions and then aid his allies fight in the commission of terror against Israel.

The same approach is still in place. Everyone in the world is responsible for creating a Palestinian state other than the Palestinians and that an essential element of that help is to ignore ongoing Palestinian obligations towards Israel.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Israel, Israeli Double Standard Time, palestinian politics | Tagged | 2 Comments

Oh, where is the fisking of yesteryear?

Posted on 08/20/2008 by SnoopyTheGoon

I don’t know about you, but I am feeling nostalgic about the years when there was some rich fisking material in the works of Fisk. When one could sink one’s teeth into some juicy fact-shuffling, ignorance or the usual passion for things un-Western (or, rather, anti-Western).

I realize that it is over for a long time since that infamous beating. Whether it caused some neurons in that brain to go boing (or whatever the neurons do when knocked about) or the impact was more of psychological nature, I wouldn’t presume to guess. Still, one could only hope, even in vain, for the return of the good old Fisk.

So I confess freely to taking a shufti at the pages of Indy now and then to see whether there is some fisking to do on Fisk. Shame, I know, but old habits and all that. And of course, one couldn’t really fisk something like this:

Robert Fisk’s World: A region boiling with tales of kings, gangs and war

So, according to the anonymous editor of Indy’s online pages, there is already a whole world belonging to Fisk. It makes sense, actually, since the man has been cooking on another planet for quite a long time, and obviously by now it’s a fully populated world.

What is encouraging, however, that the Master is again sticking the word “Israel” into his texts. In this one it appears four times, even when the article is not about Israel as such – OK, here I am being wrong – in that world of Fisk Israel is over every table and under every bed, so there…

Let us dispose of the mentions of Israel first:

  1. …American reporters are so fearful of being criticised by Israel that their work is bland to the point of incomprehension…
  2. …David Petraeus, the US commander who has turned anarchic Iraq into a tourist paradise with just one surge and a lot of walls (or “fences” as we would have to call them if they were built in Israel).
  3. Since 2006, the US has given about £170m in military assistance to Lebanon – Israel, of course, gets £1.5bn year – which includes Humvees, ammunition and lots of new blue police cars.
  4. Yet still the Middle East debates whether Israel or the US will bomb Iran. Personally, I don’t believe this will happen…

I don’t see any special need to comment on the above, aside of that last one: I was quite sure that this wouldn’t happen till I read it. The man is a walking reverse prophet. Take his prophecy and bet all your money on the opposite – you can’t go wrong.

Well, so what is the article about after all? Here is my attempt to gather some points:

  • Two groups from Moscow fought it out with Kalashnikovs amid Dubai’s architectural masterpieces.
  • [news items are] bursting into the papers when I’m on holiday or flying back to Beirut from Los Angeles, or, most awful of all, when I’m marching into The Independent office in London for a rare visit.
  • …journalists are often more interesting to talk to than to read.
  • The Middle East is currently boiling with rumours about the state of the monarchy in Morocco.
  • Engineers in Dubai have apparently noticed that the carriages on the largely overhead track will be so narrow that passengers will not be able to carry baggage on them.
  • Petraeus saw Lebanon’s new President, Michel Sleiman, and the acting commander of Lebanon’s army, General Shawki el-Masri…
  • Less than a week after Petraeus’s visit, Sleiman was to pay his first presidential visit to Damascus, Did the American general perhaps have a few requests to make of President Bashar al-Assad via Sleiman?
  • Well, if America bombs Iran, the Islamic republic’s missiles are likely to come hissing towards US forces in Qatar [do you hear that zipper opening sound?]
  • I received a letter last week from an old friend whose son has just returned from military duties in Iraq. And he’s been wandering the Pisgah mountains in the US with a group of schoolkids in an area where he noticed a lot of military training going on a year ago…And I looked carefully through my friend’s snapshots of rocky mountainsides and thick forests. And, darn me if they didn’t remind me of the Elborz mountain chain just outside Tehran.

This is it, more or less. Reach your own conclusions from the above. The man is not known for any outstanding acts of gratuitous violence, rather the opposite – he is always ready to be beaten, as long as the beating is administered by some anti-American element, if possible of agricultural persuasion. So there is no urgent need to see him off to a funny farm.

But no, nothing to fisk here… move on, people…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Posted in Israel Derangement Syndrome, Media Bias | 3 Comments

Kassam rockets fired; crossing closed again

Posted on 08/19/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Kassams have been landing daily again, but of course, the AP isn’t really reporting that. And tomorrow, they’ll be screaming about Israel closing the Kerem crossing again, one day after opening it. Like it’s Israel’s responsibility to keep on risking her people, but it’s not the Palestinians’ responsibility to stop trying to kill them.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the commercial crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip closed as of Wednesday morning following the launching of a Qassam rocket towards southern Israel earlier on Tuesday.

The crossings are to remain closed over the next two days. On Thursday Barak will conduct a revaluation of the situation

Palestinian gunmen launched a Qassam rocket from northern Gaza towards Israel on Tuesday evening. The rocket landed in an open area in a kibbutz belonging to the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council.

[…] More than 20 Qassam rockets have been fired towards the western Negev, as well as numerous mortar shells. Local residents say the attacks have become daily, and many worry the fragile truce may be at an end.

Wait for the screaming from the so-called objective media. Just wait for it.

Posted in Israel, Terrorism | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Don’t mess with Grandma

Posted on 08/19/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Check this out. An 85-year-old woman stopped a punk from robbing her—with a .22 pistol.

LAKE LYNN, Pa. — An 85-year-old great-grandmother from Lake Lynn, Fayette County kept an alleged burglar at bay using a .22-caliber pistol.

According to police, a 17-year-old suspect was attempting to burglarize Leda Smith overnight.

That’s when Smith grabbed her gun and told the teen that she would shoot him if he moved, police said.

“I had the gun on him before he turned around and said, ‘you’ve had it,’ ” Smith told Channel 11-News.

According to police, Smith ordered the boy to dial 911 and then gave him some advice.

“Dial 911 and don’t attempt to throw the phone at me, or do anything bad or i’ll just shoot you,” Smith said.

When police arrived, they took the teen into custody.

Makes my .22 rifle seem a bit less of a toy and more of a serious weapon.

Posted in Guns | Tagged | 6 Comments

Gaza boat protest, Take Two

Posted on 08/19/2008 by Meryl Yourish

When last we left our intrepid Gaza-by-the-sea protestors, they had been beached because the Israeli captain refused to let them aboard his ship unless they dumped the protest signs and kaffiyehs. The latest iteration: A “Free Gaza!” armada will be heading towards Israel’s shores.

But first, they were grounded by storms.

The highly controversial journey, announced earlier this summer, has already been delayed several times because of bad weather.

Methinks SOMEONE is trying to tell them something.

The SS Free Gaza and the SS Liberty, which are sailing from Crete to Cyprus and then on to Gaza after being delayed by a storm, will carry about 40 protesters campaigning against Israel’s economic sanctions on the Palestinian territory, including an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor and Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of Tony Blair, who is the international special envoy to the Middle East.

I don’t know if these are the same protestors—my money is on yes for some of them—but I don’t think they’re going to get to where they’re heading this time, either.

Israeli officials are thought to see the protesters’ efforts as a dangerous precedent. The foreign ministry sent a letter advising organisers that Gaza coastal waters are subject to a no-go warning from the Israeli navy and that any attempt to approach would be interpreted as assistance to a terrorist regime.

They have offered help in delivering humanitarian aid via land borders instead.

“From my point of view this is some kind of pirate ship,” said Shlomo Dror, a defence ministry spokesman.

“You can demonstrate, that’s OK with us. But you are not allowed to break international law.”

They’re all ready for the photo op, however.

Organisers from the Free Gaza movement, who raised £150,000 for their mission to challenge the blockade, maintain Israel has no right to stop the boats. But they acknowledge they are likely to be intercepted by the Israeli navy and detained, and have already contacted consular officials and lawyers in Israel.

And they are full of the usual self-indulgent reasoning behind all lefty protestors: We’re right because we say we are, never mind what the rules may be.

“We hope that the Israeli government will have some wisdom. To drag us in and arrest us and say somehow we are a danger is absurd,” said, Greta Berlin, one of the organisers who is in Cyprus, where the boats are expected to dock before continuing to Gaza over the weekend.

The Israeli government does have some wisdom. It has the wisdom not to let a bunch of morons run a blockade aimed at keeping goods away from Hamas. I don’t think they’ll reach the port they want to reach.

Defence officials say unauthorised vessels would normally be escorted to official seaports at Ashdod or Haifa.

Well, this should be interesting to watch play out. My money’s on the Israeli navy.

Posted in Israel | 1 Comment