Ready for a rumble

Posted on 07/29/2008 by Soccerdad

Yesterday I expressed skepticism that Fatah and Hamas were headed for a civil war. Maybe I was too quick. There are indications that things have indeed heated up. Whether they’ve reached a plateau or will continue to escalate remains to be seen.

Elder of Ziyon was on top of the escalation. (And I missed it before I posted.)

The NYT reports that Arrests Increase Tensions Between Palestinian Factions. Again I wonder if the arrests increase the tensions or reflect the tensions.

Tensions between the main rival Palestinian groups, Hamas and Fatah, spread from Gaza to the West Bank on Monday with reports of the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority security forces detaining more than 50 activists and academics associated with Hamas.

The timing of the detentions, which were focused in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, smacked of retaliation for a broad Hamas sweep against Fatah members and institutions in Gaza over the weekend.

(more links at yesterday’s Daily Alert.)

I think it’s safe to assume that those arrested won’t be getting married, allowed conjugal visits and given university educations. ABC News reports:

Two human rights groups on Monday decried widespread torture of political opponents by bitter Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah, and Associated Press interviews with three victims and a doctor backed the reports of abuse.

The findings emerged as the two sides carried out fresh arrest sweeps in the West Bank and Gaza — highlighting deep tensions in the Palestinian territories after a flare-up in violence over the weekend.

The ongoing conflict between Hamas and Fatah hasn’t escaped the notice of Lebanon’s Daily Star, which observes in an editorial:

Over the past few years, the rivalry between Hamas and Fatah has rapidly made its way up the list of threats to the Palestinians’ existence. In some circles, it is still fashionable to blame Israel for all of the Palestinians’ troubles, but in this instance, the leaders of Hamas and Fatah have committed crimes of equal magnitude against their own constituents. Not only have scores of people died at the hands of their armed forces, the fighting has also served to greatly undermine the Palestinian cause. It has become increasingly difficult for the international community to feel sympathy for the Palestinian people when their own leaders provide so much media ammunition to distract the world from their plight. The image of lawlessness and internecine warfare conveys the image of a people who are simply not ready for self-governance or an independent state.

Or as Lee Stevens puts it, a bit more generally:

But here’s another way to look at it: The Palestinian Authority is neither a nascent state nor a failed state project. Rather, it is a clan system of frequently competing interests that no Palestinian leader in his right mind would try to turn into a state, regardless of how much financial incentive the international community makes available. The problem is not that the Arab state system is breaking down, but rather that it never existed. And the proof is unfolding before us in, among other places, Hamas’ Islamic Republic of Gaza, the autonomous Hezbollah regions of Hezbollah Lebanon, and perhaps even someday soon in Iraq, as the Arabs redraw the borders of the region to their own taste with little concern for the international state system.

(h/t Instapundit)

I still doubt that Abbas was responsible for that blast on Friday. Hamas has strength in Judea and Samaria too, so it would be foolish of him to order something so brazen.

Even without further escalation, Hamastan will continue to be a source of instability for the foreseeable future.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in palestinian politics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Gaza economics 101

Posted on 07/29/2008 by Meryl Yourish

The UN is really, really worried about the economy of the Gaza Strip. UNRWA workers claim poverty is at “unprecedented” highs.

The number of households in the Gaza Strip below the poverty line has reached an unprecedented high of nearly 52 percent, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a report published recently.

“The number of households in Gaza below the consumption poverty line continued to grow, reaching 51.8% in 2007, despite significant amounts of emergency and humanitarian assistance,” UNRWA said in a statement late last week. Meanwhile, poverty rates in the West Bank fell to just over 19%.

The report, based on figures provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), said that “the real average unemployment rate in the occupied Palestinian territory (as a whole) remained amongst the highest in the world at 29.5%,” with Gaza reaching “an unprecedented high of 45.3%” during the second half of last year.

Phew. Those are some pretty bad statistics. Why, you’d think the Gaza economy was on the verge of collapse or something. Well, you might—except it was declared just that a year ago:

Gaza’s already weak economy could collapse unless the main commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel is reopened, Gaza businessmen and United Nations officials said today.

The Karni crossing has been shut since June 12 because the Fatah-affiliated Palestinians who operated it fled after Hamas took over Gaza in bloody fighting. But both Israel and the Fatah leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, have been in no hurry to help Hamas by working to regularize Gaza’s economic life.

Karen AbuZayd, who is the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which deals with Palestinian refugees, said in an interview: “Without Karni the Gaza economy will collapse unless it is opened for exports and not just for imports, so we don’t punish this whole people.”

Huh. Imagine that. The economy was on the verge of collapse a year ago, and yet, it survived. So the Chicken Littles at the UN are declaring it at the height of poverty, instead.

Say. Why is it, exactly, that the Gaza economy is so crappy, do you think? Let’s take a trip back through time to 2005, after the disengagement, to see what happened.

Amid the rubble of the former Jewish settlements, Palestinians have sown the first seeds of a modest economic revival.

Less than three months after the Israelis departed, Palestinians have repaired scores of greenhouses left by the settlers, planted an autumn crop and are preparing to harvest an estimated $20 million worth of strawberries, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, and an array of herbs and spices. The produce is intended mostly for export to Europe, but some will also be headed to Israel, Arab countries and the United States.

So. Whatever happened to those greenhouses that they needed repair in the first place, I wonder?

Palestinian police on Tuesday blocked off abandoned Jewish settlements and chased after scavengers in a first attempt to impose law and order after chaotic celebrations of Israel’s pullout from Gaza, but the overwhelmed forces were unable to halt looting of the area’s prized greenhouses.

Egyptian guards, meanwhile, failed for a second straight day to control a rush across the Gaza-Egypt border, which was a formidable barrier when still patrolled by Israel. With the Israelis gone, Gazans dug under walls and climbed over barriers to get to Egypt where they stocked up on cheap cigarettes, medication and cheese.

Oh, yeah. That happened.

So. Why is it, do you think, the Gaza Strip is suffering from unrelenting poverty? Oh, that’s right. It’s Israel’s fault. Blockade, yadayada, etc., etc. Never blame the actions of the residents of the strip. Don’t blame Hamas. Don’t blame the Gazans support for terrorism. Blame Israel’s blockade.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, I’m not buying it.

Posted in Gaza, World | Tagged | 1 Comment

Fragrance

Posted on 07/28/2008 by Meryl Yourish

When last we mentioned Tig’s particular, ah, ailment, it was under control. The antibiotic ear goop that the vet prescribed had cleared up his gastrointestinal upsets, and the kitty flatulence was conquered.

Or so we thought.

Tig started getting more fragrant towards the end of Mom’s visit. It became particularly noticeable when he was playing, and moreso when it was time to clean the litterboxes. So I called the vet, and the vet prescribed the pill form of the antibiotic this time. He thinks it’s a parasite. I think it’s extraordinarily annoying. Tig can’t be happy about it, either, as he is the one who had to deal with the aftermath. But oh. my. gosh, he stinks. He reeks. It’s horrible. And the worst part about it is, Tig simply loves to cuddle, thus reducing the nose-to-fart ratio.

He has been given many nicknames since this started, including: Fartster, Fartman, My Little Stinker, Stinkbomb, and tonight, Chris suggested His Imperial Fartness (or His Royal Fartness, as Tig is really not the imperial type). Then Chris suggested you all pitch in and help me out with more nicknames.

Go to town, folks.

He’s only been on the antibiotics since Thursday, so (sigh) it’s going to be a bit longer before they kick in effectively. And he’s on them for about three weeks. The vet is trying to knock those little parasites out completely. Oy. I really need this to happen. My sense of smell is most acute in the morning, and that’s when Tig climbs into bed to cuddle. And then farts.

Really. It’s just a bit much. I have never had a flatulent cat before, and I never want to have it again.

Tig the fartster

His Imperial Fartness, looking like he’s about to toot. (In reality, he’s about to leap on a string.)

Posted in Cats | Tagged | 10 Comments

The shallow Egypt-Israel peace

Posted on 07/28/2008 by Meryl Yourish

One of the shining examples of peacemaking in the Middle East always comes back to the 1978 Camp David Accords. Peace between Israel and Egypt is held up as the prize package, even though no other Arab country has waged war on Israel in the intervening years, in spite of not having a signed peace treaty.

But the peace between Egypt and Israel is full of stories like these reported by Commentary’s Eric Trager:

For the most part, tourism between Israel and Egypt has long been a one-way affair. In this vein, Israeli tourism to Egypt peaked in 1999 at 415,000 visitors, whereas Egyptian tourism to Israeli reached a high of merely 28,000 visitors in 1995.

[…] But even for those Egyptians who are financially able to visit Israel and ideologically undeterred, the Egyptian government has done its fair share to build additional barriers to Egyptian-Israeli contact. According to an Egyptian evangelical pastor who asked that his name be withheld, Egyptians who wish to travel to Israel must apply for special single-use passports – a process that automatically places them on an official government register. Upon returning to Egypt, they are frequently questioned by state security officials and closely monitored. Egyptian friends who have expressed their desire to visit Israel have confirmed this account.

Moreover, even when Egyptians seek to interact with Israelis without visiting the Jewish state, Egyptian security services may intervene. One Egyptian academic, who asked that his name be withheld, shared the following story. Recently, he had been invited to an event sponsored by the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, and intended to attend. Shortly before the event, however, Egyptian security services contacted him, “advising” him not to attend – the implication being that there would be retribution if he did otherwise. Apparently, Egyptian security had learned of his intention to attend the event by monitoring his mail.

If there were truly peace between Egypt and Israel, the Egyptian government wouldn’t be preventing its people from so much as attending an event at the Israeli Embassy.

And it is stories like these that are completely ignored by Jimmy Carter and the rest of the Camp David cheerleaders.

I might point out that there has also been this sort of peace between most other Arab nations and Israel since Camp David. And we’re not paying the other countries the $2 billion a year we pay Egypt in aid.

Posted in Israel Derangement Syndrome, World | Tagged | 1 Comment

Israeli columnist: Hamastan is a good thing!

Posted on 07/28/2008 by Soccerdad

When I saw the following link at Ha’aretz – Aluf Benn: ‘Hamastan’ is prototyope for future Palestinian state, I was surprised. Benn is a committed leftist, and I was surprised that he was acknowledging the danger of strengthening Hamas. Then I read it.

Three years after the disengagement, 15 years after Oslo, Israel faces an independent Palestinian entity with full security and civilian responsibilities for a contiguous area in which there are no Israeli soldiers or settlers. Finally there is someone prepared and able to manage Gaza “with no High Court and no B’Tselem,” as Yitzhak Rabin hoped. Finally there is an authentic Palestinian leadership that rose from the grassroots and demonstrates discipline and enforcement abilities. Finally the buds of mutual deterrence are emerging that may bring calm to the border.

For better or worse, “Hamastan” is the pilot program of the Palestinian state – the laboratory for a permanent-status agreement.

This column isn’t one of despair. Benn really thinks it’s a good idea. In fact he sees it as following another success:

The model for the tahadiyeh is based on the arrangement developed by Ehud Barak and Hassan Nasrallah, who created it around the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from Lebanon in 2000. At its heart is Hezbollah’s willingness to enforce quiet on the Lebanese side of the border without giving up its hostile ideology and bellicose rhetoric. Hamas insisted it would not be the “policeman of the occupation,” and refused to restrain other groups until it gave in to the weapons of hunger and closure and to the temptation of receiving indirect recognition of its rule in exchange for enforcing quiet.

Hamas and Hezbollah are not only Iran’s proxies on Israel borders; every time Israel reaches an agreement with either, they are gearing up for the next conflict. The failure of Israel to insist on the disarming of Hezbollah after 2000 is the cause of the 2006 war. The kidnapping of Regev and Goldwasser wasn’t an isolated incident. It was one more breach of the international border by Hezbollah. Each violation was more brazen, threatening Israel to respond.

Aluf Benn lives in a fantasy world where enemies don’t mean what they say, where Iran isn’t spoiling to control more and more of the Middle East and where there is an acceptable level of terrorism.

Coincidentally, when I saw the Benn article there was another article about a failure to confront evil at an early date, when taking appropriate action might have prevented greater destruction later.
“

Hitler vor Gericht” (Hitler on Trial) explores the 1924 trial of Adolf Hitler in Munich for his part in an abortive coup d’etat that could have earned him the death penalty.

Instead, he served just nine months in prison and was able to rebuild the shattered Nazi party soon after his release.

Had Hitler been given a long sentence, the history of Europe might have been very different, said Ian Kershaw from the University of Sheffield in England.

Living with Hamas and Hezbollah is no prescription for peace and calm. The longer these malignant groups are allowed to thrive, the more damage they will cause. Aluf Benn is an arrogant and blind fool to believe that it’s good thing that Israel’s borders are controlled by these terrorist organizations.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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Arab states don’t fulfill their commitments to the Palestinians

Posted on 07/28/2008 by Soccerdad

The Washington Post reports Arab Aid to Palestinians Often Doesn’t Fulfill Pledges.

In 2002, when oil prices were hovering around $21 a barrel, nearly two dozen Arab nations joined to pledge yearly contributions of $660 million to support the Palestinian Authority’s annual budget. Now, even with oil prices more than six times higher and the Palestinian Authority bordering on financial ruin, only a handful of Arab countries are sending even a small portion of the money they promised, according to data examined

Out of 22 Arab nations that made pledges, only three — Algeria, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — have contributed funds this year, while oil-rich countries such as Libya, Kuwait and Qatar have sent nothing and still owe the Palestinian government more than $700 million in past-due pledges.

The Palestinian Authority uses the contributions to help pay salaries for civil servants, health-care specialists and other workers in the Palestinian territories. European governments, the World Bank and the United States have provided more than three times as much money as Arab countries this year to keep the government afloat, but officials said the Europeans and the World Bank have virtually depleted their resources, leaving a funding gap of about $800 million for the rest of 2008.

First of all, it’s questionable whether this aid even helps the Palestinians. Or does it have the effect of making their government less accountable to its citizens – leading to massive corruption.

Corruption seems to the number one answer why Arab states have not contributed more.

Arab diplomats, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there is little trust that the Palestinian Authority will use their contributions wisely, even though Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is a veteran of the International Monetary Fund and, during his time as finance minister, introduced new standards of accountability and financial management. Arab diplomats said they also resent the tight grip that Israel has maintained on the Palestinian territories during the peace talks.

And of course no explanation would do without some gratuitous Israel bashing.

“Most of them make the pledges reluctantly, on the basis that the United States wanted them to do it,” said Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland. “There is frustration that nothing is happening in the peace process, and so they would be throwing good money after bad.”

Telhami professes all kinds of excuses for Arab intransigence against Israel. He does not profess peace, so his title is really deceptive. He doesn’t even consider Palestinian responsibility for the lack of contributions.

The Post provides an interesting graphic accompanying the article. It notes that a number of the countries that pledged support for the Palestinians actually accelerated payment of the aid between 2006 and 2007 after Hamas won the legislative elections. So if they were comfortable making payments that would strengthen Hamas, that undermines their claim that the lack of progress on the peace process is a reason that they’re withholding funds. Clearly they had no problem funding a party opposed to the peace process dedicated to the destruction of Israel. (Aside from that, Fatah funds Hamas.)

According to this table, Arab commitments to the Palestinians since 1999 have just as good a chance of still being commitments as being fully paid. This isn’t really new. (You can go to the ReliefWeb website and put together your own table.)

One of the specific commitments of Saudi Arabia from 2001 was for:
“…supporting the Jerusalem uprising fund.” In other words this aid was designated for funding the so-called “Aqsa intifada.” (It does not indicate if this pledge was fulfilled.) This is one more indication that funding for the Palestinians is often not about nation building or peacemaking but about continuing the fight against Israel.

But if the idea that funding the Palestinian Authority would bring peace suffers from scrutiny of what’s actually given by the Arab world to the Palestinians, another myth is also undermined.

We regularly hear about how the United States is not sufficiently committed to the Palestinian cause; but the United States contributes huge amounts to the Palestinians. It is, of course, a bad investment. But the Americans are backing up their words about supporting a Palestinian state with money. Which is more than what the Arab world is doing.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Hamas, Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome | Tagged | 1 Comment

Is there a civil war brewing?

Posted on 07/28/2008 by Soccerdad

Elder of Ziyon was likely one of the first bloggers to note Friday’s bombing in Gaza, which brought the death toll of Palestinians killed by Palestinians this year up to 122.

Israel Matzav wondered if there’s a harbinger of civil war in Gaza. LGF makes a similar observation. Meryl noticed a double standard.

But the NYT headline had me wondering.

Blasts in Gaza Stoke Tensions Between Factions

Did the blasts stoke tensions, or reveal them?

Hamas, the Islamic militant organization, blamed the mainstream Fatah for the deadly blast that followed two smaller explosions in Gaza on Friday, issuing a statement accusing the Fatah leadership in the West Bank, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, of concealing “a conspiracy to kill and assassinate and terrorize” Hamas security forces.

In other words, Fatah’s terrorists and assassins are being accused of targeting Hamas’s terrorists and assassins. To me this looks less like a crisis than a win-win situation.

I find it interesting in that the Times’s Jerusalem Bureau Chief was in Gaza last week reporting on a museum, and apparently was unaware of any simmering tensions between Fatah and Hamas. It’s possible that he wasn’t looking for a story on those tensions. Or it’s possible that the tensions weren’t there.

Other than the arrests and threats against Fatah there doesn’t appear to be much movement on this since Friday. For now, I’ll assume that it was an isolated incident and not the start of a bigger conflict between Fatah and Hamas.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas | 2 Comments

The definition of chutzpah

Posted on 07/28/2008 by Meryl Yourish

A terrorist’s family sued the government of Israel for damages—for killing the terrorist when he drew a knife and tried to murder a Border Guard. The judges determined that the family are deluded. And they have to pay court costs.

The Haifa District Court ruled Monday against a damages suit filed by the family of a Palestinian who was killed five years ago, while trying to stab a Border Guard officer near city of Umm al-Fahem.

The court ruled that the Border Guard officers present at the time of the incident acted according to procedures when they shot the man, saying there was negligence or wrongdoing on their part; further ruling that the man’s family will pay the State NIS 15,000 (approx. $4,300).

The police investigation determined that the terrrorist was determined to die a “martyr’s” death.

The officers instructed Samudi to lift his shirt, in order to make sure he was not carrying any explosives. When one of the officers approached him – with another providing cover – Samudi drew a knife, yelled “Allahu Akbar,” and began stabbing the officer standing next to him.

An officer sitting in the patrol jeep fired a warning shot in midair, but since Samudi kept stabbing the officer, he than shot and killed him. One of the shots hit the wounded officers, causing him moderate injuries.

Samudi’s family, however, claimed he was shot despite not provoking the officers, adding that once he was shot, the officers proceeded to “confirm the kill.”

The incident was investigated by the Police Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB), which determined the officers were following procedures and ordered the case closed.

A warning shot? When he was stabbing another officer with a knife? You’ve got to be kidding me. He’d be shot dead immediately in America. And deservedly so. I’m surprised they didn’t punish the officer’s partner.

In any case: The definition of chutzpha, indeed.

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Haveil Havalim is up

Posted on 07/27/2008 by Meryl Yourish

The Carnival of the Jews is ready for you, Mr. DeMille.

Posted in Bloggers, Jews | 1 Comment

A moment of apartment zen

Posted on 07/27/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Every time something annoying happens in my crappy apartment complex now, I say to myself: Six weeks. I’ll be out of here in six weeks.

Right now, the annoying ice cream truck is out there with its annoying “Pop Goes the Weasel” music. And I repeat my mantra: Six weeks. Especially because I am going to a community that probably has hidden cannon mounted to take out ice cream trucks.

Yesterday, I came home and my neighbor was parked on an angle guaranteed to see another car squeeze me in if parked in the remaining space. Six weeks.

The air conditioning kicked out again last night, even though it was fixed last week and I’ll have to call the guy again: Six weeks.

In six weeks, I will be where I belong: A neighborhood where the cars empty out during the day, because people have to work to pay for their pretty condo. A neighborhood where the management company doesn’t run “Summer Specials,” discounting the rent so that crap moves in, and moves out again under cover of night when the discount goes off and they can’t afford the regular rent. A neighborhood that hasn’t seen the crime rate jump so high that the city police are working overtime to drive out the criminals.

Six weeks.

I can feel my blood pressure lowering already.

Posted in Life | 4 Comments

A tale of two headlines

Posted on 07/27/2008 by Meryl Yourish

The AP never disappoints. Nine people have been killed and 42 wounded in Lebanon in the past two days, yet all you find is a brief story in the AP, whitewashed and vague. On the other hand, Israeli troops found and killed a wanted terrorist who was responsible for a suicide bombing. The story is in-depth, and covers several different Israel-related topics on top of the dead Hamasnik.

Let’s take a look at the news out of Lebanon, where we have sectarian fighting going on. The headline:

Clashes continue in northern Lebanon, 3 die

Now let’s take a look at Hebron, where the IDF found (and destroyed) a wanted terrorist:

Israeli troops kill Hamas militant

Hm. You’d think that the Lebanese died due to natural causes or something, judging from that headline. And yet, there is absolutely no doubt why the Hamas terrorist died. It was lead poisoning to the body delivered from the barrels of IDF weapons.

Now let us compare the leads.

Israeli troops killed a Hamas militant in the West Bank town of Hebron early Sunday, surrounding a house and exchanging gunfire with the man before bulldozing the structure.

A Hamas statement said the 25-year-old man was a group member who fought troops for 12 hours before he was killed. The statement threatened retaliation “at the time and place we choose.”

The Israeli military said during the gunfight, troops heard explosions from inside the house, presumably from bombs stored inside. The militant’s mangled body was seen being removed from the rubble.

Ooh, that’s exciting! A 12-hour gun battle, retaliation threats, and explosions! I wonder if the Lebanese civil war “clash” is half as exciting.

Lebanese security officials say three people have been killed in the second day of sectarian clashes in northern Lebanon.

The clashes in Tripoli are between Sunnis and Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The officials say the three were killed and 27 were wounded on Saturday. A total of nine people have been killed and 42 wounded in two days of fighting. The officials spoke condition of anonymity because they weren’t allowed to talk to the media.

Nope. There’s not a word of description of the battle, other than the vague “clash.” There have been two full days of fighting in northern Lebanon, leading to what the media would call “scores” of casualties if Israel or America were doing the fighting—but you don’t get details here. Because the victims aren’t victims of Israel or the U.S.

Now, the AP explanations of the “violence”:

Israel and Hamas are observing a cease-fire in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. But the agreement does not apply in the West Bank, ruled by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli troops continue to target militants in the territory, despite objections from Abbas that such actions embarrass him and undermine his control.

According to Israeli defense officials, the militant helped to plan a February suicide bombing in the Israeli town of Dimona that killed a 73-year-old woman and wounded 11.

Note that for every explanation, Israel must be slammed. What purpose does it serve to write the words in bold above, other than to prejudice the reader against Israel? I wonder if they’ll do that kind of explaining with the Lebanon story.

Tension has been high along Lebanon’s religious and political fault lines since the militant Shiite Hezbollah group overran parts of Beirut in May in response to government attempts to limit its power.

Since then, Hezbollah and its allies have joined a national unity government.

Nope. It’s a five-paragraph story. No real depth, just a brief “Oh, look, three more people died in the clash.” Looks like everything is hearts and flowers, except for the part where they’re killing each other—which is glossed over. Please note that the victims are not named, aged, nor are there mournful quotes from relatives. Because that only happens when the dead are Palestinian victims of Israel fire, whether deliberate or accidental.

And we close the book on another fine example of the AP anti-Israel media bias. This is one reason why the world hates Israel. The media narrative always pounds the Jewish State, and eases off the real thugs in the Middle East.

Posted in AP Media Bias, Hamas, Israel, Terrorism | Tagged | Comments Off on A tale of two headlines

Sen. Obama’s JPost interview

Posted on 07/27/2008 by Soccerdad

via memeorandum

The Jerusalem Post interviewed presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama during his trip to Israel. Despite the praise, the editor David Horovitz gives the candidate:

And on Wednesday evening, Obama answered my question about whether Israel has a right to try and maintain a presence in the West Bank, for security, religious, historic or other reasons, with a vigor and detail that also seemed to confirm Olmert’s assessment of where conventional friendly wisdom stands and that expanded significantly on his brief settlement remarks in the AIPAC speech.

In a later editorial, the paper (presumably written by Horovitz and other members of the editorial board) sounded a little less positive:

We asked Obama whether he too could live with the “67-plus” paradigm. His response: “Israel may seek ’67-plus’ and justify it in terms of the buffer that they need for security purposes. They’ve got to consider whether getting that buffer is worth the antagonism of the other party.”

Without that “buffer,” the strategic ridges of the West Bank that overlook metropolitan Tel Aviv and the country’s main airport would be in Palestinian hands. Eighteen kilometers – or 11 miles – would separate “Palestine” from the Mediterranean, the narrow, vulnerable coastal strip along which much of Israel’s population lives.

Israel Matzav hopes that

… after reading the interview one can only hope that it was done before Obama went on the helicopter trip pictured above. If the interview was after the helicopter trip, Obama is even more hopelessly naive than any of us ever thought.

One may assume that the friendliness demonstrated by Sen. Obama to opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu would not necessarily extend to a future Pres. Obama and PM Netanyahu.

Remember what Sen. Obama once said:

Barack Obama faulted elements in the pro-Israel community that he says equate being pro-Israel with being pro-Likud.

“I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt a unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you’re anti-Israel and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel,” the Illinois senator and contender for the Democratic presidential nominee told a group of Jewish leaders in Cleveland on Sunday. “If we cannot have an honest dialogue about how do we achieve these goals, then we’re not going to make progress.”

(The NJDC did not see fit to publish my comment making this point on their blog.)

I think it’s pretty clear that where Sen. Obama stands. One more time (from the interview):

Look, I think that both sides on this equation are going to have to make some calculations. Israel may seek “67-plus” and justify it in terms of the buffer that they need for security purposes. They’ve got to consider whether getting that buffer is worth the antagonism of the other party.

UPDATE: And a relevant cautionary note about Sen. Obama from Shmuel Rosner:

It is true that Obama is an exciting candidate, more interesting than McCain. If elected, he will be our American friend, like most of his predecessors. If he is not elected, McCain will be that friend. Obama’s greatest shortcoming when it comes to Israel is a strongly rooted opposition to the use of force – an unavoidable necessity for a country like Israel. His relative advantage is greater credit in Arab countries, at least at the start. Perhaps that credit will translate into trust, accompanied by a willingness to make progress. But there is room for suspicion that it will translate instead into manipulation of a president known for his naivete.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Israel, Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

Diggin’ the digging

Posted on 07/27/2008 by Soccerdad

Ethan Bronner reports Museum Offers Gray Gaza a View of Its Dazzling Past

It may sound like the indulgence of a well-fed man fleeing the misery around him. But when Jawdat N. Khoudary opens the first museum of archaeology in Gaza this summer it will be a form of Palestinian patriotism, showing how this increasingly poor and isolated coastal strip ruled by the Islamists of Hamas was once a thriving multicultural crossroad.

Bronner, of course, reports on how Khoudray perseveres and thrives against many obstacles, mostly Israeli.

History offers not only legitimacy, of course, but also a framework for coping with the present. Gaza is under an Israeli and international siege aimed at weakening Hamas, widely viewed in the West as a terrorist group. But this is not the first time Gazans have faced a squeeze.

“Gaza has suffered more than most cities,” Mr. Khoudary noted. “There was the siege of Alexander the Great and of the Persians and of the British. At the end of the day this siege will be a footnote.”

After taking us through the problems with acquiring the necessary artifacts for the museum, Bronner reports on an irony.

Mr. Khoudary said he had visited the Israel Museum and hoped that one day some of the Gaza collection could come back here “after we have a qualified government and the capability to protect the heritage of Gaza.” He said Dr. Dothan “did us a favor because it would all be gone or destroyed today.”

Of course we know from Joseph’s tomb and the Temple Mount how good the Palestinians are at preserving antiquities. Still my suspicion that there are elements of Gaza’s history that Mr Khoudry won’t be publicizing.

The history of Jews in Gaza. (h/t Elder of Ziyon)

For example:

During the first ceasefire of the 1948 War, Egyptian forces regularly sniped at Kfar Darom. Two days before the ceasefire collapses altogether, David Ben Gurion orders Kfar Darom to be abandoned, due to an insufficient number of soldiers and arms, and so the kibbutz is destroyed by the Egyptian army without resistance. Map
The members of Kfar Darom found Bnei Darom, a new kibbutz East of Ashdod.

It serves an another reminder that the principle of inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force is applied only when said acquisition is made by Israel, even in the course of defending itself.

Crossposted at Soccer Dad.

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The answer my friend …

Posted on 07/27/2008 by Soccerdad

Today Thomas Friedman takes from Texas to Tel Aviv.

What would happen if you cross-bred J. R. Ewing of “Dallas” and Carl Pope, the head of the Sierra Club? You’d get T. Boone Pickens. What would happen if you cross-bred Henry Ford and Yitzhak Rabin? You’d get Shai Agassi. And what would happen if you put together T. Boone Pickens, the green billionaire Texas oilman now obsessed with wind power, and Shai Agassi, the Jewish Henry Ford now obsessed with making Israel the world’s leader in electric cars?

You’d have the start of an energy revolution.

The only good thing to come from soaring oil prices is that they have spurred innovator/investors, successful in other fields, to move into clean energy with a mad-as-hell, can-do ambition to replace oil with renewable power. Two of the most interesting of these new clean electron wildcatters are Boone and Shai.

I could do without Friedman’s cute characterizations of each. I’m also not impressed by his premise that government ought to be doing more or his characterization of us being “addicted” to oil. (Agassi uses the term too.) In fact rather than looking at alternative energy technology as “the only good thing” to from rising oil prices, look at it as a sign of the entrepreneurial spirit. I realize that the effect is the same, but the vantage is different. Friedman sees this as a sign of a failure of government; I see it as a (possible) triumph of private initiatives.

Still Shai Agassi would likely approve of the comparison to T. Boone Pickens as indicated in his blog.

Electric cars and windmills are the most complementary products in the green world. Windmills generate a lot more energy at night, as wind picks up when the air cools down. Unfortunately, when you get a lot of wind most people are asleep and the electricity needs to be rerouted elsewhere. Cars are parked at night waiting to get electricity into the batteries – which is a perfect match to the electricity profile of wind generation.

Business Week has more on how Project Better Place got rolling:

The high-risk plan came together through an unusual collection of business and government leaders. Former software executive Shai Agassi, chief executive of Better Place, conceived the plan. He was formerly a top executive at German software giant SAP (SAP). Israel President Shimon Peres got behind it. Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert initiated policy and tax changes to favor green vehicles. Carlos Ghosn, chairman of Renault and Nissan, saw it as a stepping stone into alternative-fuel cars. And Idan Ofer, chairman of holding company Israel Corp., the largest oil refiner in Israel, backed the project with more than $100 million of the $200 million in the first round of funding for the project.

Until now, Nissan and Renault had been among the laggards in alternative-fuel research. While rivals Toyota and Honda pioneered hybrid technologies, Nissan and Renault held back. Now, the two companies are placing bets on all-electric technology. In fact, Ghosn says that as a result of this project the Nissan-Renault Alliance has made electric autos its top priority. The companies expect to initially produce electric cars for Israel and other countries by adapting some of their current models, and to eventually introduce new models designed from the ground up to run on batteries. “This is a unique situation,” Ghosn says of the Israel project. “It’s the first mass marketplace for electric cars under conditions that make sense for all the parties.”

Israel sees a shift away from gasoline engines as vital to its economic and security. To encourage the purchase of green vehicles, the country just boosted the sales tax on gasoline-powered cars to as much as 60% and pledged to buy up old gas cars to get them off the road. “I believe Israel should go from oil to solar energy,” says Peres. “Oil is the greatest problem of all time–the great polluter and promoter of terror. We should get rid of it.”

OK, so it’s not all private initiative.

Anyway for more on how Project Better Place views themselves, check out their website and/or promotional video.

For more on how electric cars would work and the technical issues that need to be resolved check this out.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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Qantas still hasn’t crashed

Posted on 07/27/2008 by Soccerdad

Qantas airlines had a pretty incredible save the other day The NYT reports:

The jumbo jet, which carried 346 passengers and 19 crew members, landed safely on Friday and those on board left without injury. As a piece of fuselage the size of a sedan ripped from the plane, the jet, Qantas Flight 30, had been forced to descend steeply to 10,000 feet from 29,000 feet.

Passengers described hearing a loud bang and seeing debris fly into the cabin. As the plane depressurized, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and cabin crew members shouted to passengers to put them on.

Here’s the part that’s particularly incredible:

He said passengers were not in danger from the depressurization because aircraft that fly above 10,000 feet are generally required to carry oxygen systems. The atmosphere is thin above that altitude, and people can function for only a few minutes without oxygen before becoming groggy and losing consciousness.

Pilots are trained to bring a plane down swiftly to 10,000 feet, where passengers and crew can breathe without assistance. Given that the Qantas jet was at 29,000 feet, the plane dropped roughly a mile a minute, “not the kind of descent you would normally subject passengers to,” Mr. Mann said.

The Times also lists other Qantas close calls and a similar incident from 20 years ago.

Qantas has also had some close calls. In 1999, a Qantas jet ran off a runway in Bangkok while landing in heavy rain. There were no reports of serious injuries.

More recently, a Qantas-operated Boeing 717 was damaged in February when it sustained a hard landing at Darwin, Australia. The landing gear, tires and fuselage of the plane, flown by QantasLink, the airline’s regional carrier, were damaged.

In 1988, a gash opened in a Boeing 737 belonging to Aloha Airlines at 24,000 feet on a flight from Hilo to Honolulu, Hawaii. A chunk of the plane’s roof and the cockpit door were blown out. One flight attendant was killed when she was swept out of the plane, and 65 passengers and crew members were hurt.

Federal investigators said the accident was caused by metal fatigue, exacerbated by corrosion caused by salt water.

The Times mentions the famous Qantas claim and the scene in Rain Man that popularized it.

The Times points out that in its early years before it was incorporated as Qantas it did lose some jets. USA Today’s airline blog has more on how the airline has protected that claim.

The Guardian notes Qantas “paid a reported $100 million to repair it, way above the value of the Boeing 747-400, apparently so it could preserve its ‘never lost a jet’ status.” The airline has had several other incidents during the past decade, but — so far — none have resulted in the loss of a jet.

The cynical tone doesn’t seem right. Even if Qantas has to declare a plane a loss, it’s still a pretty incredible safety record. Last week’s heroic piloting should be a reason to emphasize the record, not question it.

(h/t Mrs. Soccer Dad)

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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