Pariah on pariahs

Posted on 04/28/2008 by Soccerdad

In Pariah Diplomacy, ex-President Jimmy Carter argues that continued boycotting of Hamas is counter-productive.After enthusiastically cheering on the success of Maoists in Nepal, he turns his attention to the Middle East.

The Carter Center had monitored three Palestinian elections, including one for parliamentary seats in January 2006. Hamas had prevailed in several municipal contests, gained a reputation for effective and honest administration and did surprisingly well in the legislative race, displacing the ruling party, Fatah. As victors, Hamas proposed a unity government with Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah as president and offered to give key ministries to Fatah, including that of foreign affairs and finance.Hamas had been declared a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, and the elected Palestinian government was forced to dissolve. Eventually, Hamas gained control of Gaza, and Fatah is “governing” the Israeli-dominated West Bank. Opinion polls show Hamas steadily gaining popularity. Since there can be no peace with Palestinians divided, we at the Carter Center believed it important to explore conditions allowing Hamas to be brought peacefully back into the discussions. (A recent poll of Israelis, who are familiar with this history, showed 64 percent favored direct talks between Israel and Hamas.)

Similarly, Israel cannot gain peace with Syria unless the Golan Heights dispute is resolved. Here again, United States policy is to ostracize the Syrian government and prevent bilateral peace talks, contrary to the desire of high Israeli officials.

Now I’m glad that he brought up his history in observing Palestinian elections. But first let me remind you that his election observing also confirmed the election of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, despite plenty of evidence that he cheated. Chavez recently added to his self accrued powers, arguing further that Carter was wrong to have certified his election in the first place.

In acknowledging his role in certifying the election of Yasser Arafat in 1996, Carter takes pride in another fixed election that he certified despite evidence of its fraudulence.

And of course now he prides himself on supervising an election that brought Hamas to power.

He argues that it is the refusal to recognize Hamas and Syria that prolongs conflict in the Middle East. Yet he fails to realize that it was giving legitimacy to the likes of Yasser Arafat that has prevented peace in the Middle East. Terror organizations and rogue states don’t become good actors through elections or any other phony attempt to play down their mischief.

After all these years he still doesn’t get it. He is a living example of the self-deluded Westerner. (via memeorandum)
UPDATE: There’s less to Carter’s little factoid about 64% of Israelis supporting talks with Hamas than meets the eye. His dishonest presentation – including his continued denial of being warned away from Meshaal by Sec. Rice – should remind all readers of Carter’s own history. It’s not one of candor.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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

Israel Is Strong – Really

Posted on 04/28/2008 by SnoopyTheGoon

When you, an avid reader of Jerusalem Post, go through another editorial by Caroline Glick (to take one, but outstanding, example), the customary feeling of gloom and doom sinks its talons into your sensitive soul. It makes your morning pita taste just the same as that highly hygienic sliced white bread you get from a plastic bag. Syrians are already climbing the fence, Hezbollah is horribly bemissiled, Hamas is finishing a burrow to get to the Prime Minister’s office and Mahmoud the Mad is priming the warhead on the doomsday machine.

If you read it here in Israel, your pita still retains a bit of its taste. After all, we all know that our Caroline is, how to say it gently, a bit too overexcited. Just because a certain knight in his slightly tattered armor has not yet unseated that weasel who somehow insinuated himself in the PM’s chair and who doesn’t show any signs of getting off. Anyhow, we understand her bitterness.

But if you are Jooish abroad, your pita’s taste is definitely off. Your day is destroyed, your digestion is ruined and, short of running to the airport to take the first flight to Ben Gurion and start saving us the moment you step of the plane, a fat check to AJC or JNF is your only recourse to some semblance of healing.

And if you are a non-Jooish sympathizer, you just wonder what keeps IDF from tearing all these vicious enemies to bits in one mighty swoop. And your conclusion is that these commie peaceniks at the helm are too impotent to do anything useful and thus condemn the country to speedy demise.

Well, I think that there is something in the way of relief. It is not that Syrians don’t have a look now and then at the fence or that Hezbollah is not horribly bemissiled. It is just that we need to step back from the hype from time to time to get some sense of proportion. Which is hard to do if you are an avid reader… but this is how I have started this post. In any case, the article Israel Is Strong – Really by professor Barry Rubin of GLORIA Center does exactly this.

Let’s face it: after almost 2,000 years in exile and only 60 years of Israel as a sovereign nation, it still feels funny for Jews, especially those outside of Israel, to have a state.

That, along with other factors, makes it easy to underestimate Israel’s success and security. However, though at first glance it might seem counter-intuitive to say so, Israel today is stronger, more secure and in a better strategic position than at just about any time in its history.

Read the whole article before you go for that pita. And Bon Appetit!

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Posted in Israel | 10 Comments

All the hamas news …

Posted on 04/28/2008 by Soccerdad

The New York Times reported on the Toronto transit strike, Iran vs. Barbie, and a dispute about Champagne.The Times even reported that Khaled Meshaal acknowledged that a truce with Israel is nothing more than a “tactic.” (As if you would expect anything else from a group that increases terror when it says its asking for peace.)

In the course of the report, the AP observes that:

The Egyptian deal would also include a prisoner swap and the reopening of Gaza’s border crossings. The territory has been virtually sealed by Israel and Egypt since Hamas violently seized control from the rival Palestinian faction Fatah last June.

Somehow the Times missed that Hamas disrupts fuel supplies to Gaza:

Hamas militiamen in the Gaza Strip on Sunday attacked fuel trucks headed toward the Nahal Oz border crossing, forcing them to turn back, sources in the Palestinian Petroleum Authority said.The fuel was supposed to go to the UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] and hospitals in the Gaza Strip, the sources said.

“Dozens of Hamas militiamen hurled stones and opened fire at the trucks,” the sources added. “The trucks were on their way to receive fuel supplied by Israel. The drivers were forced to turn back. Some of them had their windshields smashed.”

The Palestinian Petroleum Authority reached an agreement with Israel over the weekend to receive 250,000 liters of fuel after UNRWA complained that it did not have enough fuel to distribute food aid to more than 500,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

(via memeorandum)

Somehow the Times neglected to report that “Hamas kept the border ‘virtually sealed.'”

(My complaint isn’t just with the NY Times. The Washington Post didn’t seem to carry the story either.)

Then again I suppose that the Times is governed by a maxim of “All the news that UNRWA sees fit to print.”

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Hamas, Israel | Comments Off on All the hamas news …

Sensible talk from Israel on Syria

Posted on 04/28/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Shaul Mofaz, the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, said what Ehud Olmert has not yet said publicly: That Syria can forget about the Golan Heights or a peace treaty until it stops working with the enemies of Israel.

“Syria is entangled up to its neck with aiding Hizbullah and other terror groups like Hamas. Now it must decide, does it want to continue to allow Iran to lead it by the nose or does it want to abandon the axis of evil,” he said.

This is my favorite quote:

“We must ensure our moves regarding Syria are measured, very level-headed and very very responsible. I am not interested in issuing labels for (Syrian President Bashar) Assad – whether I believe him or not – but his strategic decision was to side with Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah. And that speaks volumes.”

I’m thinking Mofaz is the unnamed “high-ranking official” that’s been quoted saying much the same thing in recent news articles. It’s good to know that Olmert has some people with sense working for him.

Posted in Israel, Syria | 1 Comment

Sunday evening kitten post

Posted on 04/27/2008 by Meryl Yourish

So now I’ve had Tig3.0 for just over a week, and he’s already become a huge part of my life. He makes it a lot more difficult to work in my office. I’ve had to escape him by moving to the laptop downstairs for significant chunks of time. But it’s the only way to keep myself from getting accidentally mauled by a kitten who is too small to jump into my lap, but instead, leaps most of the way, digs in his claws, and climbs the remaining distance. My legs are simply covered with scratches. I will be unable to shave my legs for at least a week without requiring a blood transfusion afterward. Worse still, I’m allergic to my new kitten. I’m told it will take about two weeks for me to get acclimated to the new cat in my house, but in the meantime, I wash my hands a dozen times a day and try very hard not to scratch itchy eyes while I’m in my office.

Tig and the laser pointerWe’re in the discovery phase. I tend to try cheap, ready-to-hand cat toys first, like rope (string is anathema; cats eat it—quarter-inch rope is a great toy) and paper wads. He loves them both. But I also found Tig and Gracie’s old stash of toys. They didn’t really play with them anymore, except for the metal chains (keychain-type chains), which happen to be Gracie’s all-time favorite toy, but which she likes to drag around at inconvenient hours of the day and night. I am a light sleeper. Cat toys that make any kind of noise have been banned from my home for decades. Anything with bells on will not be purchased; if received as gift, the bell is removed. And really: What non-cat-owning moron ever thought up putting noisy things on cat toys, anyway? Bells on collars? Please.

I bought a few cat toys while shopping last week. I have four soft sponge balls that Tig loves. And I have a poofy thing on a spring that he attacks sometimes. He liked it fine until he discovered things that really move across the floor, like the paper wads or ping pong balls (found those in Tig’s toy stash, too). He’s running around like a mad thing right now as I write this, going after a paper wad and picking it up in his little kitten mouth and trotting with it three feet then dropping, hopping, and attacking. Sometimes he plays quite happily by himself, requiring only my presence in the room. Sometimes he needs to attack me. I wear my winter boot-style slippers now to prevent slashes on my feet, and my thickest pair of jeans, and a long-sleeved shirt. I’m a living cat toy, apparently. My role in life has changed. I am also a cat-sitter. Tig is still confined to my office (Gracie is now boycotting the upstairs; I’m not sure what to do next), so when he yowls, I take a look inside and sit with him if I have the time. That’s all he wants, half the time—my presence in the room. Things will be much better when he has the run of the house. But I’m off to northern VA tomorrow, so there’s no point in letting him out for another few days.

Yesterday, Tig was introduced to the laser pointer. He loved it so much that he literally cried when I turned it off. I had to turn it back on and let him down gently. He ran around the room looking for it, even leaping at the hole in the wall for the cable that a previous tenant left. Today, I tried to see if I could get him to run in a figure eight with it. I didn’t close the eight, quite. Next time, maybe.

It is a rare thing when we actually get exactly what we want. I wanted a Maine Coon kitten mix that looked like my last Tig. I wanted a sweet, affectionate, goofy boy that would make me laugh, and bond to me the way that Tig bonded to me. I had resigned myself to not getting anything near what I wanted and was going to settle for a young adult orange Maine Coon. And now, running around my feet chasing a rolled-up piece of paper, is exactly what I wanted. Even moreso. Tig3.0 gives kisses. His predecessor did not. Right now, of course, every time Tig3 licks my chin he’s also giving me exactly what I’m allergic to: A huge dose of kitty saliva, which carries the allergens inside it. He’s injecting me with his venom, I tell Sarah. But then again, it’s helping me build up the antibodies even while it makes my chin itch.

My home is happy again. I have a Tig that makes me laugh, every day, just like I had for the past eleven years. Yesterday, while talking to Sarah on the phone, Tig leaped off my computer backpack into a spot between the box next to it and the wall. There was nowhere to go, so there was just a kitten-butt and tail sticking out of the hole, waving around while Tig mewed and tried to figure out what to do next. He finally backed out of the hole and went running around playing somewhere else. It took me a minute or two to stop laughing long enough to tell Sarah what I was laughing at.

Yes, I got what I wanted. Here’s hoping for two more decades of Tig.

Posted in Cats | 6 Comments

Slow news day at Bloomberg

Posted on 04/27/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Yes, this is a real headline:

Poop Predicament Has Los Angeles Horse Owners Raising a Stink

And it goes with an exclusive article on Bloomberg News:

April 25 (Bloomberg) — The poop hit the fan when the last manure mulcher in Los Angeles closed shop.

The price of poop disposal is breaking the budgets of Los Angeles horse owners, as stable owners pass along the expense of taking horse droppings to landfills.

“The cost to get rid of this stuff has just skyrocketed,” said Royan Herman, 65, who runs the Peacock Hill and J-Bar Ranch stables in the San Fernando Valley with her husband, Mark. “A lot of young families aren’t able to afford a horse anymore.”

You’ll simply have to click the link to find the fascinating details about the Los Angeles horse manure problem. Me, I’m just glad that my little pooper weighs in at two pounds (so far), and deposits his waste products in a litterbox.

Posted in Cats, Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Slow news day at Bloomberg

Hamas ups rocket fire to force “truce”

Posted on 04/27/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Rocket attacks on Israel have increased in the last couple of days. What do you want to bet they’ve done so because Hamas is trying to force Israel into agreeing to that bogus truce?

A Qassam rocket fired from northern Gaza landed at the Sderot cemetery Sunday afternoon. Another rocket landed near a house in town, causing substantial damage to the building. Gas tanks nearby caught fire as a result of the rocket’s explosion.

Fortunately, the house’s residents were not there at the time of the attack.

A rocket fired from northern Gaza earlier Sunday landed near the local garage in a kibbutz south of Ashkelon. No injuries or damage were reported in the attack.

On Saturday, a Qassam rocket landed in an open field in the Sdot Negev Regional Council, causing no injuries or damage.

Four rockets were fired at Ashkelon on Friday morning, one of then landing in the city’s southern cemetery. Dozens of graves were damaged.

There was also a katyusha rocket attack on Ashkelon.

Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket towards Ashkelon Sunday morning, Israel Radio reported.

The rocket, likely a Grad type Katyusha, exploded before landing but caused serious damage to a garage in the city’s industrial zone. No one was hurt in the attack.

It astonishes me that Israel is under near-daily rocket attacks, and the world does nothing. Yet when the IDF goes into Gaza—as it will, this summer—to stop the rocket attacks, the world will rise up as one and condemn the country that is suffering from the rocket attacks.

Yes, it’s a day that ends with a “y,” so this means it’s Israeli Double Standard Time.

There were also more mortar attacks.

Posted in Gaza, Israel | Comments Off on Hamas ups rocket fire to force “truce”

World Bank confirms that Gaza blockade is working

Posted on 04/27/2008 by Meryl Yourish

The World Bank issued a report today that effectively states the Israeli blockade of Hamas is working, but that Israel should lift the blockade, because it’s working.

Billions of aid dollars pledged to the Palestinians to bolster peace talks with Israel are having a muted economic impact because of Israeli restrictions on travel and trade, the World Bank said on Sunday.

The lending agency told donor nations in a report that per capita income in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 2008 would be static, if not lower, despite the $7.7 billion in aid pledged to the Palestinians in December.

Notice where the aid is actually working:

The World Bank said modest gains in economic growth in the occupied West Bank, where western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas’ government holds sway, were not sufficient to offset the “severe contraction” seen in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Okay, so let’s parse this information. Fire rockets into Israel, launch terrorist attacks, murder Israelis, and your income level goes down. (Bear with me, we’re going to pretend that Fatah and the PA aren’t actively working for Israel’s demise, which is partly true because they’re rather weak at the moment). Don’t do the above, and your income level does not go down. Of course, that isn’t good enough for the World bank. They want Israel to let the Fatah terrorists have as free a hand to kill Israelis as Hamas lets the ones in Gaza.

“While the PA (Palestinian Authority) has moved ahead with its economic reforms, albeit slowly, there has been little progress on relaxing movement and access constraints,” the bank said in the report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

The World Bank said the impact of these restrictions, including hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank, “cannot be overestimated.”

Yes, it can. Because the world thinks that if Israel removes the roadblocks, peace will suddenly spring up, in spite of the constant spate of attacks in and from the West Bank. The opposite has proven true: When Israel removes checkpoints, Israelis die.

To recap: The Gaza blockade, which everyone from Jimmy Carter to most media services to most (anti-)Israel pundits say cannot possibly work is … working. And it’s working well enough that Hamas is suing for a “truce” so they can regroup, re-arm, and attack Israel with greater strength later on.

The only conclusion I can take from this report is that the World Bank simply does not give a damn about Israeli deaths. No matter what, they are working for the Palestinian interests, even if those interests harm Israeli. Because really, what other conclusion can you reach when the IMF complains that a blockade that was put into effect to starve out a terrorist government is doing its job?

Posted in Gaza, World | Comments Off on World Bank confirms that Gaza blockade is working

A thank-you note

Posted on 04/27/2008 by Meryl Yourish

I get a lot of comments that never get approved because, well, I don’t believe in publishing hate on my blog.

But then sometimes, I get an email that makes me smile for the rest of the day.

I know the article of Black and Jewish relations is two years old, but I just came across it today. I just wanted to say thank you for telling the truth. I believe Jews and Blacks have a lot in common and I am fascinated and inspired by the diversity of the Jewish culture(s) in and outside of America.

Again, thank you for your insightful article.

Happy Passover
Steffannie

Steffannie, thank you.

My Christian readers will really appreciate that MySpace link. Steffannie writes and sings Christian music, and she has a wonderful voice. Check her out.

Posted in Religion | 1 Comment

Hamas openly admits “truce” is a way to regroup and re-arm

Posted on 04/27/2008 by Meryl Yourish

It’s gotten to the point where Hamas doesn’t even have to pretend that they’re possibly, maybe, kinda sorta if the right offer came along ready to deal with Israel. Not that they ever really did—it’s just that the media generally don’t publish the truth about Hamas as openly as this AP piece has done.

And by the way, color me shocked. I had to reread the source a dozen times to believe it.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Saturday that the group would accept an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire with Israel but it would be a “tactic” In the group’s struggle with the Jewish state.

The Damascus-based Mashaal said in an interview with al-Jazeera television that Egypt had proposed a six-month truce between the Hamas rulers of Gaza and Israel. He said his group was ready to cooperate but added: “It is a tactic in conducting the struggle. … It is normal for any resistance that operates in its people’s interest … to sometimes escalate, other times retreat a bit…the battle is to be run this way and Hamas is known for that,” he said. “In 2003, there was a cease-fire and then the operations were resumed.”

In other words, just as Israel has said, the Hamas truce is only so that Hamas can regroup and rebuild its army of terrorists. For some reason, this line is missing from the Ynet article. (It’s the third graf in the plain AP version. The Times also saw fit to change the quotes above, taking some direct quotes out of the quotes and making them seem like paraphrases.)

He warned of an explosion of violence in Gaza if Israel rejected the truce.

However, the Ynet version uses other information from previous Ynet articles that gives you far more background on Hamas’ deception.

Earlier Saturday, Mashaal said that Hamas is still waiting for Israel’s official response to the group’s sixtruce offer. During a press conference in Qatar, Mashaal said he had asked for a written commitment from Israel to open all of Gaza’s border crossings, including the one at Rafah.

Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told London’s Al-Quds Al-Arabi that if a truce is not reached the region could see unprecedented violence.

Gee, you mean like the bloody spring of 2002, where Israel suffered multiple terrorist attacks—including multiple suicide bombings—on a daily basis?

On Thursday Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar called a press conference following his meeting with the head of intelligence in Egypt, in which he declared that Hamas would offer a six-month truce in exchange for the opening of all border crossings. “The ball is in Israel’s court now,” he said.

Yes, and on Wednesday, I called the truce offer bogus. And every other time Hamas has offered a “truce,” I’ve called bullshit on it. The only ones who seem to think that Hamas really means it are idiots like Jimmy Carter and the UN. And this is in spite of all proof to the contrary.

I’d love to hear what Carter has to say about Hamas openly admitting that the only reason they want a truce for six months is so they can continue fighting Israel six months from now. That’s some major spin he’s going to have to do to convince us that Hamas is interested at all in peace with Israel. Because his spin on his talks with Hamas was as follows:

“It’s very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians,” Carter said in an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”

“There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process,” Carter added. “I think someone should be meeting with Hamas to see what we can do to encourage them to be cooperative and to find out what their attitude.”

Their point of view is simple: They want to destroy Israel. Now that they’ve come out and admitted it again, do you think Carter will stop blaming Israel for the lack of peace with the terrorists in Hamas?

Yeah, me neither. But perhaps there’s hope for the AP, after all.

Posted in Hamas, Israel | 1 Comment

Terrorism overload

Posted on 04/26/2008 by Meryl Yourish

You know, I just can’t write about this crap today. I mean, Hamas is pulling its usual bullshit line of “Israel must accede to our truce demands or we’ll kill even more Israelis because they didn’t.” The MSM will be pushing the line that Israel is refusing the “truce” being offered, knowing full well it’s only because Hamas wants to re-arm and regroup and come back stronger in six months. We even have word now that Hamas is trying to develop exploding drones. Lovely. Let’s absolutely give them six more months to develop more weapons against Israel. Because it’s not like Iran is subsidizing their weapons research. Oh, wait. It is.

The Egyptian authorities are investigating the possibility that Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood are cooperating on the development of explosive drones, state-run Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram reported Saturday.

The AP continues its anti-Israel bias with headlines and stories that emphasize all Palestinian casualties and de-emphasize any Israeli casualties. A quick headline comparison:

1 Palestinian killed in clashes with Israeli troops in Gaza

Israeli military says 2 Israelis dead in shooting

Uh-huh. No anti-Israel bias. Not at all.

Every so often, people ask me in email how I can keep writing this stuff, day after day, time after time, with no end in sight, and no changes on the horizon. Well, sometimes you just have to take a dandelion break.

That’s Opus’. Here’s mine.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel | 2 Comments

Throwing Bashar a lifeline

Posted on 04/25/2008 by Soccerdad

via memeorandum

Israel Matzav noted that PM Olmert has apparently gone even beyond Ehud Barak’s generous concessions to Syria and promised Bashar Assad the complete Golan even up to the Kinneret.

But my question is why now? Why would Olmert extend a lifeline to Assad at this point?

It’s just been revealed the Syrians were re-arming Hezbollah. The United States is just revealing more evidence that the site Israel hit in Syria was a nuclear reactor. In other words it’s time to be pressuring Syria not giving into its demands.

Of course this wouldn’t be the first time that Israel has strengthened an enemy at a critical time. In 1993 Israel rescued Arafat from political oblivion with Oslo. In 2000 Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon allowing Hezbollah to bolster its power and leading to the 2006 war. In 2005 Israel withdrew from Gaza after killing the leaders of Hamas, giving Hamas a platform to regroup and intensify its war against Israel.

Past experience says this isn’t the time to concede anything to Syria.

Yesterday the NYT reported that Israel and Syria hint at progress on Golan deal:

Peace overtures between Israel and Syria moved up a gear on Wednesday when a Syrian cabinet minister said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel had sent a message to President Bashar al-Assad to the effect that Israel would be willing to withdraw from all the Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria.The Syrian expatriate affairs minister, Buthaina Shaaban, told Al Jazeera television, “Olmert is ready for peace with Syria on the grounds of international conditions; on the grounds of the return of the Golan Heights in full to Syria.” She said that Turkey had conveyed the message.

Israeli officials did not deny the statement from Damascus but would not confirm it either, offering a more general, positive reaction. “Israel wants peace with Syria; we are interested in a negotiated process,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Mr. Olmert. “The Syrians know well our expectations, and we know well their expectations.”

The Washington Post today gives some background of past efforts:

Syria and Israel last held direct peace talks in 2000. The negotiations, mediated by President Clinton in the waning days of his administration, foundered over how much authority Syria would have over the coast along the Sea of Galilee.

It’s also worth pointing out that Assad insisted that Israel agree to his terms of withdrawal before negotiating with Israel. This is the reason Assad didn’t make peace with Israel.

Elliott Jager notes that Assad the younger isn’t likely to be welcoming Israel with open arms even if he gets all he (and his father) demand up front:

WHATEVER HIS motivations, Israel should judge Assad by what he says and what he does. Assad insists that even under a peace treaty normalization is out of the question. This is how he put it at a conference in Damascus last week: “Restoration of land and rights may lead to relations based on routine, but not [necessarily] normalization. What happened in Jordan and Egypt is proof to us that the public does not want normalization, and therefore nobody can impose it on anybody else. I know that the Syrian people reject normalization and therefore I will not impose it on them.”

Still that doesn’t stop Ha’aretz from enthusiastically supporting the surrender of the Golan in Don’t be afraid of Peace with Syria. (I won’t call it peace, because I don’t believe that the withdrawal from the Golan will bring peace.)

There seems to be a need to repeat, over and over, this basic fact: Nothing contributes to Israel’s security more than a peace accord. Before the protests of solidarity with the Golan Heights begin, it should be emphasized that withdrawal from the Golan in exchange for peace is endorsed not only by bleeding hearts, but by distinctly security-minded figures. The supporters of the Golan are West Bank settlers, like Golan resident Effi Eitam, who see any withdrawal as a national catastrophe; parties that gain strength by sowing security-related fears, such as Israel Beiteinu; those with economic interests in the region, hikers, bird-watchers, wine connoisseurs and winemakers; and mainly the people of the past, who still consider the lookout point on Mount Hermon to be “Israel’s eyes,” even though those eyes did not prove a very effective source of warning in 1973. Today, neither advance warning nor deterrence rely on the “Alpinists” (the elite IDF unit trained for snow operations), and the missile war expected in the future is not affected by natural boundaries, whether of the flowing or the ascending kind.

Of course it could be argued that Israel hasn’t come to a hot war with Syria since 1967 while it held the Golan. Also, why need peace come only on Syria’s terms? Why can’t Israel obtain peace for half the Golan? Surely if Assad would agree to a compromise that would be a better indication of peace than if Israel meets his unconditional demands, wouldn’t it?
Here’s Jager again:

It is in Israel’s long-term interest to have a peace treaty with Syria, but not at any price. Israel would have to make irrevocable strategic concessions. So it’s hard to imagine many Israelis having the confidence to support a deal that does not signify a true opening of genuine peaceful relations.

That’s the subtlety Ha’aretz and like minded folks miss. Syria views talking peace only in terms of what it will receive. So Assad and his lackeys can say “peace,” but don’t mean peace in any meaningful sense of the word. They want territory, and they’ll deign to accept that territory from Israel.

By insisting that ceding territory is the same thing as achieving peace, Ha’aretz accepts Syria’s “peace” talk at face value. It is a view that unhelpfully echoes through the diplomatic world. But it puts Israel at a disadvantage. Israel then in the name of “peace” is required to cede real assets in return for nebulous future considerations. It requires an element of trust that Bashar Assad, in his recent activities, has contradicted.

If people want peace, there needs to be a demonstrated change of heart from Damascus. Ceding the Golan Heights by itself won’t bring peace, unless one defines peace simply as the acceptance of land by a hostile country.

Meryl offers her thoughts.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Israel, Syria | 4 Comments

The AP bias in clear evidence

Posted on 04/25/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Look at these two articles from the AP on the most recent terrorist attack in Israel:

Israeli military says 2 Israelis dead in shooting
A Palestinian militant shot and killed two Israeli security guards early Friday in a factory on the border between Israel and the West Bank, the Israeli military said.

Medics pronounced the two middle-aged guards dead at the scene, rescue services said, and troops began combing surrounding areas for traces of the assailant.

No Palestinian militant group immediately claimed responsibility.

Palestinian security officials in the nearby town of Tulkarem said soldiers moved into the West Bank in force and set up a checkpoint. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

And this one:

Israeli military says Palestinian militant kills 2 Israelis
A Palestinian militant shot and killed two Israeli security guards early Friday at a factory along the divide between Israel and the West Bank, the military said. The attack highlights the enormous challenge faced by moderate Palestinians to keep extremists in check.

Meanwhile, Israel rejected a proposal from Hamas, the militant rulers of the Gaza Strip, for a cease-fire in the territory.

Medics pronounced the two middle-aged guards dead at the scene, rescue services said, and troops began combing surrounding areas for traces of the assailant. One body remained on the ground outside the factory, covered in a gray blanket, and police concealed the second body with a white sheet.

No Palestinian militant group immediately claimed responsibility.

Funny how when it’s Palestinians killed by the IDF—even when it’s just your run-of-the-mill terrorists—the AP headline is always, “IDF kills 2 Palestinians” or “Israel kills Palestinians”. No fudging around with “Palestinians say 2 dead in shooting”. The active voice is almost always used when the IDF is doing the act. The passive voice is usually used when it is Palestinians killing Israelis.

And note how the AP quotes “the Israeli army,” as usual, without naming a spokesperson. On the Palestinian side, it always seems to be “Palestinian medics” or “witnesses,” and the victims of the attacks are always named, aged, and given marital status, family life, and quotes from the relatives, along with pictures of screaming women over bodies.

The time of the latest AP update is 06:19 ET. That’s 15:19 Israeli time. At 13:04 Israeli time, Ynet had these facts:

Two Israeli guards were killed Friday morning in a shooting attack in an industrial zone near Nitzanei Oz in the Sharon region. The two were in charge of checking Palestinians arriving from the West Bank. The two were identified as Shimon Mizrahi, 53, of Bat Hefer and Eli Wasserman, 51, of Alfei Menashe

The Al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad’s military wing, and the Izz al-Din al-Qassam, Hamas’ military wing, claimed shared responsibility for the shooting attack.

The Ynet article—which was published before the second AP update—has the facts on who claimed responsibility for the attack. Ynet has quotes and pictures of one of the widows and family members. Funny how the AP can’t manage to find these people when Israelis are killed, but the Israeli press can. But then, portraying Israelis in a human and sympathetic light doesn’t really fit the narrative, does it? Portraying terrorists as cold-blooded murderers doesn’t fit the narrative, either.

And the perpetrator of the attack? He’s a terrorist that “escaped” from a Palestinian prison a few days ago. If it’s the one I’m thinking of, several prisoners simply walked out. It’s the Palestinian system of keeping terrorists from hurting Israelis. If they’re pressured, they do. If they’re not, well, they can’t control “militants.” Just look at the lede in the second AP article.

There’s another disturbing section of the Ynet article:

Sources in the IDF raised questions over the developments of events, claiming that the incident could have ended differently.

“There were three guards facing one terrorist at the terminal. It shouldn’t have ended this way,” a security official told Ynet.

An initial military investigation revealed that one of the killed guards forgot his weapon in the car and was standing at the terminal unarmed, while a third guard fled the area upon hearing the gunshots.

Most of my readers probably don’t know this, but your typical Israeli security guard isn’t far different from your typical American security guard, with the risk factor raised exponentially. It’s a low-paying, unskilled job. And if the company that hires the guards skimps on the training, the result is successful terrorist infiltrations. I’m thinking the company skimped on the training. This is an industrial zone that uses Palestinian workers. The guards should have been better trained and better able to prevent this attack.

Brigadier-General Noam Tibon, commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, said that “between 6 am and 7 am, laborers entered the industrial zone. According to the area’s security portfolio, there should have been three armed people at the crossing to bring the laborers in.

“Most of the laborers had entered by 6:45 am, and at 7 am a lone terrorist arrived and fired at the factory from the gate, hitting his target. The terrorist did not enter the industrial zone.

“We will investigate the incident, also in order to understand how three armed people failed to fire at the terrorist, kill him or at least injure him. We plan to capture the terrorist shortly.”

I suspect they’re going to find the reason was money. Now that, the AP will probably report.

Update: The AP updated their story. They now include a picture of the widow of one of the guards. But she isn’t named, nor are the victims. The editorial comment in the lede has been replaced with comments by a PA spokesman. And the headline? Unchanged.

Israeli military says Palestinian militant kills 2 Israelis

Posted in AP Media Bias, Israel, Terrorism | Comments Off on The AP bias in clear evidence

Let’s give the AP a lesson in news angle

Posted on 04/25/2008 by Meryl Yourish

The AP has a story about the UN cutting off food distribution in Gaza. Why? Because they can’t get fuel to distribute the food. Why? Because Hamas is stealing half the fuel, and refusing to deliver the other half. But is that what the AP says in their lead?

Of course not. Here’s what your local newspaper is going to print tomorrow:

UN halts Gaza food aid over fuel cutoff; Israel blames Hamas
The United Nations stopped distributing food to Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after its vehicles ran out of fuel because of the Israeli blockade, a U.N. official said.

Israeli countered that fuel is available, but said the Islamic group Hamas ruling Gaza is preventing it from being distributed.

A spokesman for the United Nations’ Relief Works Agency, Adnan Abu Hasna, said 700,000 Palestinians won’t be getting packages of basic foods because the agency could not bring in new shipments or distribute them without fuel for its vehicles.

Note the weasel-word “countered,” as if this is a he-said/she-said argument. It is not. There is absolute proof that the fuel is not being distributed, and the AP offers that proof—in nearly the last two paragraphs of the article. Buried deeply, so that the truth will not be read in your international section in your local paper.

There is some fuel stored in Gaza but a local strike by distributors means it is not reaching the public.

So, it’s the Palestinians’ fault that the fuel isn’t reaching the Palestinians. Funny, I don’t get that from the rest of this story. And gee, how much is “some” fuel?

Palestinian distributors have been refusing to pick up about 264,000 gallons that Israel pumped earlier this month into the Palestinian side of a border fuel depot, saying the quantity is insufficient.

That much, huh? So there’s plenty of fuel, but the Palestinians are letting it sit in the Nahal Oz crossing—site of a recent terror attack that murdered two civilians. And that’s not all. Here’s another fact that got buried deep within the story.

Col. Nir Press of the Israeli military liaison unit with Gaza said Israel agreed to allow fuel shipments for the U.N. agency to keep its vehicles on the road, but Hamas stopped the delivery.

“We don’t control the internal situation in Gaza between Hamas and UNWRA,” he said. “I hope the Hamas will allow UNWRA access to the fuel we have supplied.”

So UNWRA is, once again, toeing the Hamas line and blaming Israel for what is absolutely Hamas’ fault. Hamas refuses to let Israel deliver fuel to the UN vehicles that carry food to the Palestinians. Why? To manufacture a fake crisis. Why? So they can then blame Israel for starving Gaza, when it is Hamas’ actions that are causing the shortages to begin with. And then, Hamas can break through the Israeli border and pretend that they’re justified in doing so, as they did with the crossing into Egypt.

The worst thing about all this? The UN, the media, Hamas, and Israel all know that Hamas is causing these fuel shortages deliberately. And still, the AP publishes a story like the one quoted above, instead of being bold and publishing the truth: That Hamas is deliberately causing a fake crisis in Gaza. The media are not only not objective in this, they are actively aiding the terrorists by publishing stories such as these.

Not that I expect any better of them. Not any more.

Posted in AP Media Bias, Hamas | Comments Off on Let’s give the AP a lesson in news angle

Gracie vs. Tig3

Posted on 04/24/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Where’s Gracie? Why no pictures of her lately?

Because she’s a lump. Lumps are not very photogenic. Witness a typical Gracie pose these days:

Gracie the lump

Now take a look at a comparable picture, with Tig3 acting like a lump.

Tig3 the cute little lump

Gracie? Boring. Tig3? Not boring. There’s simply no comparison between the two these days.

I have tried to get Gracie outside, or doing something other than sleep. But I’ve had no luck. She’s starting to feel her age, I guess. She’s eleven. And now Tig’s not around to bug her, so she gets to do what she wants. Until Tig3 is let out into the general population, which will not be until after this weekend. I’m going to clean up and try to kitten proof the apartment (shyeah, like he won’t find a zillion things that I miss), and then Sarah’s coming over to help me put mesh netting over the half of my stairway that’s open. It’s a six-foot drop at its highest, and I worry Tig will fall through. He’s too little and inexperienced with stairs. If he falls into a net, no harm done.

Besides, how can I resist taking pictures like this?

Tig3 loves the camera

The little ham.

That first picture above, on the computer backpack? I think that’s what the mature Tig is going to look like. I’ve been admiring an orange Main Coon in a coworker’s calendar. He looks very lion-like, with a regal face and jaw. If that’s what Tig3 turns out to be, I will be very happy, indeed. Okay, even if it isn’t, I’ll be happy. Tig3 has been here a week and brought much joy. I guess things just aren’t right without a Tig in my life. Come June, I will have had a Tig of one sort or another in my life for twenty-five years.

Things are right again. Yep. All’s right in my world.

Posted in Cats | 5 Comments