Dughmush Now Dog Mush

I'm not sure exactly what dog mush is, but it's definitely nothing nice, so I couldn't resist the headline.

(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Air Force struck terrorist groups in Gaza in three separate attacks Tuesday afternoon, killing at least six operatives, including Army of Islam second-in-command Muataz Dughmush.

The head of the terrorist group, Mumtaz, is Muataz' half-brother.

Two of the strikes were carried out in the central Gaza town of Dir el-Balah, where IAF pilots successfully targeted the gunmen involved in the 2006 kidnapping of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

One of the missiles struck a vehicle carrying the Army of Islam terrorist cell, which included Muataz Dughmush. Five terrorists were killed, including Dughmush, and three others were wounded, one critically. The vehicle was completely destroyed.

Two other Army of Islam terrorists were wounded in the second strike, which occurred in the same area a short time later.

Of course, the news report I heard said merely that six Palestinians had been killed. Are we to assume that all Palestinians are terrorists? Of course not (at last report, there were 17 who didn't support terrorism). Are we to assume that every Palestinian killed by Israelis is an innocent? Of course not (go ahead and use that 17 number again).

The media could do a better job of reporting Israel/Palestinian issues. That said, please register me in the "Understatement of the Year" contest.

hat-tip: Jim

Burning Bush Rhetoric In Israel

President Bush said some of those words today in Jerusalem that drive the appeasers crazy. Marking Israel's 60th anniversary, he said:

"Israel's population may be only 7 million, but when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because the United States stands with you."

There it is, the "evil"' word; not "'terror and insurrection," but "terror and evil." Not that the AP story would let such stuff stand, mind you:

Bush made no acknowledgment of the hardship Palestinians suffered when the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 displaced hundreds of thousands, a fact that serves as a counterpoint to Israel's two weeks of jubilant celebrations.

Just as AP makes no mention of the UN charter behind Israel's formation, or the cash payments received by happy Palestinians, glad to sell their worthless land, or the Palestinian terror attacks, or how the Palestinian screwed up of myriad Israeli peace initiatives because they're more interested in war than peace.

Bush also reconfirmed his commitment to trying to create a new Middle East, a commitment so many today find naive ... but few can propose a better alternative.

"From Cairo and Riyadh to Baghdad and Beirut, people will live in free and independent societies, where a desire for peace is reinforced by ties of diplomacy, tourism and trade. Iran and Syria will be peaceful nations, where today's oppression is a distant memory and people are free to speak their minds and develop their talents. And al-Qaida, Hezbollah and Hamas will be defeated, as Muslims across the region recognize the emptiness of the terrorists' vision and the injustice of their cause."

It is easy to laugh that off after five years in Iraq. It's easy to give up, vote for Obama, and pretend the world is a nice place. But leadership isn't easy, and as much as Bush has screwed things up, I still love him for the braveness of this vision.

If we can make it happen, Israel will be here to celebrate its 100th birthday. If not, I fear for these wonderful people and their inspirational nation.

Carter's Little Heart Attack Pills

If your heart's a bit sluggish this morning, I recommend a cardio workout and point you to The Progressive, and Amitabh Pal's interview with Jimmy Carter.

After a fawning introduction that irritatingly reminds us that a great number of people think of Carter's last couple decades as "perhaps the best post-Presidency ever in U.S. history," Pal sits down for a heart-to-heart.

Right off the bat, Carter shows that he is incapable of differentiating between terrorists captured on the field of battle and everyday American citizens:

What’s been done in the last seven years is embarrassing to an American. What we have done through our own government is to torture prisoners, to deprive them of their basic rights to legal counsel, even the right of prisoners to be acquainted with the charges against them. Those kinds of things have been cherished as basic principles of American law and American policy for more than 200 years. To have them subverted and abandoned and condemned is just a travesty of justice and a very serious embarrassment to those of us who—as Americans and non-Americans—are committed to human rights.

It's not embarrassing to me; I don't agree with his definition of torture; and I don't think al-Qaeda operatives who defy the Geneva Conventions in every act they do should be offered anything approaching the rights of Americans.

Is there a great commitment to human rights on the part of those of us who think people who blow up babies and crash planes into skyscrapers -- infringements of human rights, if you will -- be kept apart from the rest of us?

Turning to the Middle East, Carter leads off his answer to a question about the Annapolis conference -- the question goes something like this, "Bush's Annapolis ploy doesn't hold a candle to your magnificent Camp David Accords, does it?" -- Carter says:

The Palestinian community has been deliberately divided, one part from another, with support from both the United States and Israel.

That's one incredibly ignorant and biased way to look at it. As I recall, Hamas and Fatah had a shooting war. Each side was armed and funded not by the US or Israel, but by the various Arab nations. They ripped Palestine apart and spilled a lot of Palestinian blood all by themselves doing it, and there was nothing the US or Israel could have done to bring the sides together; that was the work of the Arab nations, and none of them could do a thing about it, either.

Besides, what's wrong with Palestine going crazy and making a fool of itself again? If they do it enough, all the world except for Jimmy Carter and foolish people like writers for The Progressive will see their leadership for what they are: Human scum incapable of running a gas station, let alone a nation.

I wish I could go on; I'm barely touching the surface here, but I must be off for another all-day meeting to prep for my client's Coastal Commission hearing. Feel free to read the piece yourself and add comments below.

hat-tip: RCP

Big Hugs At Carter-Hamas Meet

Check out Scarface in the foreground. How many Israeli women and children do you think he's killed in his career as a "Palestinian militant?" How do you think he felt, witnessing a former US president hugging a leader of his political party terror group?

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter embraced a leading Hamas figure Tuesday, according to participants in a meeting that infuriated Israeli officials already upset by Carter's freelance Mideast peace mission.

Carter also laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat, whom the Bush administration and many Israelis blame for the breakdown of peace talks seven years ago and the violence that followed.

The recipient of the Carter hug was Nasser Shaer, a senior Hamas politician, who told reporters:

"He gave me a hug. We hugged each other, and it was a warm reception. Carter asked what he can do to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel ... and I told him the possibility for peace is high."

How can the possibility for peace be high? Is Hamas going to stop firing rockets into Israel? Is it going to recognize Israel's right to exist? Of course not.

The media is referring to Shaer as a Hamas moderate, which is sort of like talking about a chaste whore. As Hamas' education minister, he is responsible for a system that indoctrinates young Palestinians with hatred, hopelessness and victimization, or put another way, he does all he can to ensure that the possibility of peace will be low for at least another generation.

Scrappleface got it right:

As former President Jimmy Carter meets this week with Hamas leaders in the West Bank and Syria, sources at the State Department say President George Bush will soon honor Mr. Carter’s decades of freelance diplomacy by appointing him as the first U.S. Ambassador to Hell.

“Bush just wants Carter to go there,” said an unnamed State Department source, “and to set up an embassy, and try to be a good listener, open a communication channel, find common ground.”

Accepting Help, Palestinian Style

Of course, the Arab world benefits from Palestine's misery because they can blame it all on Israel. But often enough, news comes out of Palestine that reveals that the Arab world also dislikes Palestine for no other reason than that they're a people who are so easy to dislike.

Here's the latest from the Egypt/Palestine border, where chaos has prevailed ever since Hamas blew up a section of the border fence. (Apparently it's OK for Egyptians to put up fences to keep out Palestinians, but not for Israelis to do the same ....)

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Egyptian riot police and armored vehicles restricted Gaza motorists to a small border area of Egypt on Saturday, in the second attempt in two days to restore control over the chaotic frontier breached by Hamas militants.

At least 38 members of the Egyptian security forces have been hospitalized, some in critical condition, because of cross-border confrontations, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said. The minister complained of "provocations" at the border, a thinly veiled reprimand of Hamas, and said that while Egypt is ready to ease the suffering of Gazans, this should not endanger Egyptian lives.

Biting the hands that feed them truly has become an art in Palestine.

This is just the sort of nation we can expect when rule is given to terrorists and education is nothing more than indoctrination into hatred and victimization. It will take a generation or more to flush this out of Palestine if the process started tomorrow -- but it's not going to start any time soon.

If, then, Palestine becomes a state, it's going to become a very nasty state -- making me wonder why "solution" is always added to the phrase "two-state solution."

Quote Of The Day: You Had It Coming Edition

"We are being killed, we are starving!"
-- Palestinian TV announcer

Day two of the electrical shut-off in Palestine and the World Champion Victims are already dying?

Can we say, "Emergency preparation?"

Even the UN, which has become quite adept at leveraging the Palestinian cause for more power and money, says it can feed the 1.3 million Gaza residents dependent on charity food through Thursday or the end of this week.

The Israelis cut off some of Gaza's power and fuel in response to a wave of rocket attacks; 53 rockets fell into Israel from Gaza on the two days preceding the shutoff. Here's a typical Gaza response, from the AP story that's the source of our lead-off quote:

Health Ministry official Moaiya Hassanain warned the fuel cutoff would cause a health catastrophe. "We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms," he said.

Hamas has claimed five people have already died in hospitals as a result of the cut-offs -- and that allegation has already been called untrue by unnamed sources in the AP story.

Nowhere in the AP story is there a hint that the Palestinians will respond by stopping the rockets. No Palestinian official is quoted calling for that obvious solution and one pro-Palestinian Israeli whack job group is quoted saying that, "punishing Gaza's 1.5 million civilians does not stop the rocket fire; it only creates an impossible 'balance' of human suffering on both sides of the border."

How do they know so soon that it won't stop the rockets? Are they convinced that the Palestinians are so bent on destroying Israel and killing Jews that it will take starvation to stop them? If so, why is the group, Gisha, supporting Hamas?

Will the tactic work? Of course not. Nothing works with the Palestinians.

"If we open the crossings [and turn on the power] again tomorrow there will be rockets that fall again on Israel," [Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo] Dror said. "They don't want to recognize Israel and want to destroy Israel, that's their problem. They shouldn't expect that we will help them destroy us."

Does that mean Israel is wrong to try something new to stop the rockets? Of course not. Call it a non-violent protest. Call them the new Gandhi. Israel-haters will hate them, but they will hate them no matter what. The rest of us will see once again how unreasonable and insane the Palestinian "government" is.

Sunday Scan

Cloverfield, Nevada Style

The film Cloverfield has used viral internet marketing to become quite a sensation -- but at its heart, it's just a Godzilla movie, with a big mean monster wreaking havoc in New York.

And yesterday, a little, pale monster wreaked havoc in the glitter gulches and dusty desert towns of Nevada. And today, just as I predicted, we are suffering through the media coverage of it:

Boy, oh, boy! Hidden behind all the hoopla, headlines and the Nevada caucus victories of Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton is one little-noticed but stunning political development and number:

Ron Paul, the one-time Libertarian candidate and 10-term Republican congressman from Texas, was in second place. That's right, Second Place. The 72-year-old ob-gyn who's always on the end of the line at GOP debates or barred altogether, was running ahead of John McCain, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, in fact, ahead of....

all other Republicans except Romney, who easily captured his second state in a week after Michigan.

Uh-huh. But let's keep our heads on straight. It was Romney with 51% of the votes (all 22,659 of them!) followed by the pale imp with 14%, attracting a whopping 6,087 to his cause -- a full 436 more people than John McCain attracted.

Photo clipped from: Dino's Forum

Marking History

They laid an historical marker outside a house in Port Arthur, Texas today. Here's the story.

In that house there once lived a little four-year-old girl who grew up to live far too short a life as Summer of Love diva Janis Joplin. There was another house she lived in earlier, but it's gone now, so this is her official childhood home.

The marker was placed today as opposed to any other day you might think of because it marks what would have been Joplin's 65th birthday.

Whoa, am I feeling old.

I was 17, I think, when I first put Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills on my little stereo and heard her gravely voice. And I'm still 17 in my head when I think about her ... how could she have been born 65 years ago?

New Euro-Islamist Threat

This is not something I'm quite prepared to think about:

The source implied that the [Spanish intelligence agency] CNI had specific information on itinerant terrorists heading for the UK, France and Portugal.

The squib, from a London Times article, troubles me not just because Incredible Daughter #1 is in Paris, but because I've never seen the words "itinerant terrorists" before. We have in America a tradition of itinerant preachers and judges; from sick Islam, we get itinerant terrorists, travelling from place to place, killing innocents in the name of Allah.

Terrorists Get 72 Raisins?

Amidst a lengthy and interesting story at Act! For America covering the suppression of ancient Islamic texts in Germany, so anyone interested in a revisionist view of the Koran cannot get access to them, was this interesting tidbit:

According to an Islam tradition, Muslim martyrs will go to paradise and marry 72 black-eyed virgins. But some Koran scholars point to a less sexy paradise. While beautifully written, Islamic texts are often obscure. The Arabic language was born as a written language with the Koran, and growing evidence suggests that many of the words were Syriac or Aramaic.

Specifically, the Koran says martyrs going to heaven will get "hur," and the word was taken by early commentators to mean "virgins," hence those 72 concubines. But in Aramaic, hur actually meant "white" and was commonly used to specifically mean "white grapes."

It's easy to crack a joke over this, but if there's any question at all about the nature of so critical a text -- a text that is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents a year -- why does the keeper of the archive, Angelika Neuwirth, protect them from anyone other than pro-Islamist researchers?

For more on this fascinating story, see Andrew Higgins' WSJ article, The Lost Archives.

hat-tip: What Bubba Knows

Pulling The Plug On Terrorists

Just wait 'til some Palestinians start crying about having to eat cold falafels in the dark -- oh, how the anti-Israeli press will rain an ink-storm on Israel. Here's the story, from Sky News:

Large parts of the Gaza Strip have been plunged into darkness after its main power plant shut down.

It comes after Israel blocked fuel supplies to the Hamas-run territory and closed its borders.

Israel says the blocklade is a response to rocket attacks by militants.

It claims 230 rockets have been fired at border towns in a new wave of aggression.

"It claims?" I don't suppose we can expect the media to actually report that rockets are falling like locusts on Israel.

Already, the Palestinian PR machine is busy maximizing the impact:

"The catastrophe will affect hospitals, medical clinics, water wells, houses, factories, all aspects of life."

Oh, boo hoo. First, stop sending rockets into civilian neighborhoods, especially when there's no war going on. And second, get your act together, Palestine. You've had 60 years to provide for yourself, but here you are, dependent on Israel for your power ... with fuel purchased by Europe.

How these people garner so much sympathy and so little criticism amazes me.

Human-Animal Embryo Research

Two research companies in England have been granted licenses to mix up human and animal embryos, reports Science Daily.

One is going to take the genetic matter out of cow embryos and mix 'em up with human embryos, in a quest for better human stem cells.

The scientists would attempt to extract stem cells from the blastocyst after six days. Stem cells are building blocks that can grow into any type of tissue such as liver, heart and muscle cells. The quality and the viability of stem cells would then be checked to see if nuclear transfer technique has worked. The scientists would also be observing the way that the cells are reprogrammed after fusion to see if there are useful processes they could replicate in the laboratory. The embryo would have to be destroyed at 14 days old in accordance with the licence.

I have to admit, this all goes way, way over my head. I understand that there's nothing about this license that will allow any intermingled animal/human embryonic material to (1) live or (2) get into humans, but the research is taking the science to another new level, and after that will be another new level.

At some time, a mistake will occur or a license will be granted that shouldn't have been. That's just the way it goes with us inquisitive humans. All this going too far will make a great novel ... and it's one work of nonfiction I hope I never read.

George Clooney, Messenger Of Peace

Position to fill: International shell game operator needs good looking individual with real swoon-power, a hard-left orientation and a history of supporting the wrong side in global causes to cover up organization's myriad global failures.

Position filled! The Rosett Report reports:

As Hollywood buffs and UN money-raisers already know, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has just named actor George Clooney as the UN’s newest Messenger of Peace, with a “special focus on UN peacekeeping.” Clooney, currently visiting Sudan, is expected to “receive his designation” Jan. 31st at UN headquarters in New York.

Oh, great. We get to see even more of Clooney opening his mouth and letting his politics spew out. Rosett's not expecting much good of it to come, either:

This would all be great if UN peacekeeping actually produced peace. But the illusion that the UN is a grand force for good in this world deserves to be catalogued somewhere between World’s Most Amazing Scams and Believe It-Or-Not Best-in-Special-Effects. The reality of today’s UN is more like a cross between “Animal House” (the movie, with John Belushi) and “Animal Farm” (the book, by George Orwell).

Her post is a gem. Do read the whole thing.

Those Whacky Palestinians!

Israel may be a "vile little state" in the eyes of the Islamic world, but it doesn't generate news like this:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas security forces opened fire Monday at a rally commemorating Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, killing five at the largest show of support for the rival Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control in June.

At least 31 people were wounded, three critically, including a Hamas policeman who was shot in the head, medical officials and Fatah said.

The violence erupted after tens of thousands of Fatah supporters carrying pictures of Arafat, yellow Fatah flags and wearing trademark black-and-white Arab headdresses, gathered in a courtyard in downtown Gaza City.

Or to recap: The terrorist government of the Gaza Strip got mad that the terrorist citizens were celebrating the wrong terrorist, so they terrorized them.

It's as if Ehud Olmert sent troops out to "bullet-quell" supporters commemorating Yitzak Rabin. Unthinkable ... anywhere but in the wonderful world of Islamist despotism.

Give Peace A Chance

The other day, I saw a car with one of those "Coexist" bumper stickers on it -- the one adorned with various religious symbols, as if the only thing lacking from successfully coexisting is someone actually having the idea that we ought to give it a try -- and I thought, "Why not?"

Why not give peace a chance?

We'd have to start, of course, with Guantanamo and Palestine, the two places upon which most of the blame is heaped for not having peace (not that we're blaming the terrorists and Palestinians, mind you; heaven forbid).

We are told that "no word is more poisonous to the reputation of the United States than Guantanamo," so let's be done with it, licketysplit. Here's how:

Our UN Ambassador will stand up Monday in the Security Council and tell the assembled thugs, dictators, kleptomaniacs and genocidal oligarchs that we're closing the terrorist prison in Guantanamo next Monday, so they'd better get off their fat butts and come up with an internationally sanctioned alternative to holding these bloodthirsty #$%&!s in a place that's actually safe.

If they don't, Mr. Ambassador will continue, we'll put the #$%$!s in chains inside a diplomatic pouch, and fly them to their home countries, where we'll have a cadre of Marines deposit them on the steps of those countries' halls of justice.

That's giving peace a chance!

Now, to Palestine, where, we're told, "To empower Muslim moderates, we must take away the extremists' most potent grievance: the charge that the United States does not care about the Palestinians." Never mind that the federal budget includes $150 million for Palestine; we clearly are at least a billion short in the caring department.

So here's my plan. Condi Rice will announce that we've got $1 billion to give to Palestine to use on schools, hospitals, orphanages, elderly care, infrastructure improvements and other peaceful uses. We'll give it to them with one caveat and one carrot.

The caveat is we don't trust them all that much, so we will need full access and oversight to make sure not one dollar of the billion goes to unpeaceful cases like antisemitic education or weaponry. Take it or leave it.

The carrot: If they handle the money responsibly and respond peacefully, we have another billion.

Of course that's only half the story; it is, after all, the Palestinian-Israeli dispute. So we'll pick a day when the Palestinians are one up on the Israelis -- a rocket has been fired from Gaza or a homicidal paradise-seeker has detonated himself on an Israeli street -- and declare it Day One.

We'll ask the Israelis to not retaliate as a symbol of goodwill and peace. If they don't retaliate and nothing else happens, we will have brought peace. Kumbayah.

If they don't retaliate and the Palestinians pull off yet another self-destructive idiotic obliteration of innocents, we'll give the Israeli's an extra billion dollars, wash our hands and have our UN ambassador stand up the next Monday and say, "We really care about the Palestinians. We've done all we can. Your problem. See ya."

Let them give peace a chance.

Now on to the matter of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let's give peace a chance there, too.

The president will go on television next Monday and say,

"It is my feeling and the feeling of my generals that if we leave Iraq and Afghanistan, two things will happen. First, both countries will experience bloodshed of unprecedented proportions as the only stabilizing force in the land is extracted. And second, the hoped for diminishment of Islamist terrorist action against the West will not occur. Rather, the terrorists will be encouraged.

"But others, the Democratic leadership in Washington, the editorial boards of most major newspapers and the academics at our universities, think my generals and I are wrong, and they appear to have convinced a strong majority of the American people that we are wrong.

"So, with a plea for forgiveness from those who lost loved ones on 9/11, and from whose sons, daughters and husbands will have now died in vain in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am putting the war in their hands and following their instructions. Next Monday, we begin the total and complete withdrawal of our troops back to our shores.

"May God have mercy on the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, and may he also bless America, although I can't for the life of me understand why he would."

Then we'll see what happens when we give peace a chance. We'll see if we can get to next Monday without some serious second-guessing about the leadership of the Dems, the media and the intelligentsia.

That leaves the matter of the Islamofascists' quest for nuclear, biological and other weapons of mass destruction. Surely, after all these efforts by us to give peace a chance, they will give that up and let the infidels live in peace, won't they?

There will be no need now to maintain surveillance and diligence, no need for the Patriot Act or the NSA. There simply will be no one left who hates us. Surely, since we've given peace a chance, we won't have to worry about some day seeing a mushroom cloud raise into our spacious skies, over our amber waves of grain.


Yes, let's give peace a chance, shall we?

PETA Attacks Hamas For All The Wrong Reasons

Gaza-based Hamas TV, al-Aqsa -- the same station that brought us a character, Farfur, who resembled Mickey Mouse and advocated Palestinian attacks against Israelis until he was "beaten to death" by an actor depicted as an Israeli -- has caught the wrath of PETA.

No, PETA isn't the least bit concerned that al-Aqsa is actively teaching youngsters to kill Jews. They've got their undies in a knot over an al-Aqsa segment that just went too far in teaching kiddies not to be cruel to animals. Reuters:

"It's shocking and sickening," said Martin Mersereau, manager of the domestic animal abuse division of U.S.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Speaking to Reuters by telephone, he said PETA was drafting a letter of protest to the Gaza-based al-Aqsa television station, which aired the show -- aimed at teaching children not to abuse animals -- last week.

A segment of the program was posted on the YouTube video-sharing Web site after being recorded and translated by pro-Israeli group Palestinian Media Watch. ...

The YouTube clip shows an actor dressed as a bee mistreating a cat and lions at Gaza Zoo. In the studio, he is reprimanded by the program's host, who cautions children against mimicking the bee's "terrible" behavior.

"Any lessons meant to be contained in this segment are almost certainly lost on most children, who are more likely to imitate people they see treating animals cruelly rather than understand this behavior is wrong," Mersereau said.

If Mersereau can see this, he can certainly see that any child watching the Farfur clip or any of the other violent antisemitic propaganda al-Aqsa airs would be more likely to imitate the people they see espousing the killing of Jews rather than to understand that this behavior is wrong.

Apparently, PETA isn't antisemitic; if it were, and it didn't consider Jews to be fully human, it would rally for their protection. But thinking Jews mere humans, PETA finds itself admonishing the Palestinians for taunting some animals, but not admonishing them for blowing up buses filled with school kids.

Welcome to the wonderful world of secular relativism.

Hat-tip: Commenter Robert

Laff Riot Of The Day

Ah, those wacky Palestinians -- always good for a belly laugh:

Enraged Fatah leaders on Saturday accused Hamas militiamen of looting the home of former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza City.

"They stole almost everything inside the house, including Arafat's Nobel Peace Prize medal," said Ramallah-based Fatah spokesman Ahmed Abdel Rahman. "Hamas militiamen and gangsters blew up the main entrance to the house before storming it. They stole many of Arafat's documents and files, gifts he had received from world leaders and even his military outfits." (JPost)

What could be funnier than a bunch of bloodthirsty hooligans stealing the most illogical Peace Prize ever granted ... the one the Swedes gave to a bloodthirsty hooligan.

I know you haven't seen ol' Yasser for a while, so here he is in all his bull***t glory:


I never thought I'd say this, but I wish Yasser was alive today. Just so he could experience the ignominy.

Times Of London: Israel To Attack Hamas

Surely a lot of people share my bewilderment about why we're reading this in the Times of London:

ISRAEL’s new defence minister Ehud Barak is planning an attack on Gaza within weeks to crush the Hamas militants who have seized power there.

According to senior Israeli military sources, the plan calls for 20,000 troops to destroy much of Hamas’s military capability in days.

The raid would be triggered by Hamas rocket attacks against Israel or a resumption of suicide bombings.

Barak, who is expected to become defence minister tomorrow, has already demanded detailed plans to deploy two armoured divisions and an infantry division, accompanied by assault drones and F-16 jets, against Hamas.

The Israeli forces would expect to be confronted by about 12,000 Hamas fighters with arms confiscated from the Fatah faction that they defeated in last week’s three-day civil war in Gaza.

Details of the plan emerged as Fatah forces in the West Bank stormed Hamas-run buildings, including the parliament in Ramallah, where they tried to seize the deputy speaker.

Israeli officials believe their forces would face even tougher resistance in Gaza than they encountered during last summer’s war against Hezbollah in south Lebanon.

A source close to Barak said that Israel could not tolerate an aggressive “Hamastan” on its border and an attack seemed unavoidable.

“The question is not if but how and when,” he said.

As of 9 p.m. PST Saturday, neither Haaretz or Jerusalem Post has the story so if you're thinking the Israelis leaked the story to discourage Hamas from launching rockets or suicide raids, think again. Besides, if history has taught Israel anything, it is that treating Hamas or Hezbollah as if they were rationaly -- like giving them a warning, for example -- is irrational.

I'm all for Israel trying to take advantage of the Gaza civil war to weaken Hamas, but you don't start that effort with stories about your troop strengths, triggers and targets -- especially after a greatly outnumbered Hamas crushed Fatah in three days.

This leak in the Times of London doesn't bode well for Israel doing a better job in Gaza than they did in Lebanon last summer.

Hamas Rebellion Might Just Serve Us Well

A young man named Yousef emerged from the quick and bloody Gaza civil war and spoke for most Palestinians:

"Today everybody is with Hamas because Hamas won the battle. If Fatah had won the battle they'd be with Fatah. We are a hungry people, we are with whoever gives us a bag of flour and a food coupon. Me, I'm with God and a bag of flour."

Under Yousef's school of foreign policy, America and Bush are the big losers in Gaza. If it's flour they're looking for, it's flour we did not give them -- and flour they won't get, since we are pledged not to support Hamas.

So it seems that Bush's pledge of a few years back see Palestine and Israel living in peace is now positively Shrek-like: Far, far away. But there might be a silver lining, as Glenn Kessler points out in a WaPo piece that's very critical of Bush (surprised?). The separation of Palestine into Gaza and the West Bank is very convenient.

We can aid Abbas without a dime going to Hamas.

There's no Israeli settlements in Gaza, so Israel can talk to Fatah and blow Hamas off.

With no Fatah around to give Hamas reason to at least pretend to moderate, the world and the hapless residents of Gaza can see what happens when terrorists rule.

Yes, this is definitely not what Bush hoped to see in the Middle East -- but it may be our best hope yet to find a path through this briar patch.

Earth To EU: Now What?

Fifteen months was long enough for the EU to punish the Palestinians for electing a terrorist government, so you'll recall this news from earlier in the week:

After a 15-month-long economic embargo of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, the EU bloc is for the first time opening its coffers and resuming aid to the minister of finance.

On Monday (11 June), the European Commission signed an agreement paving the way to technical assistance and training of officials in the Palestinian finance ministry, led by Salam Fayyad, a political independent and a former World Bank official.

"The European Union's first step will be a €4 million project to help the minister of finance in ensuring that Palestinian taxpayers' money is spent efficiently and that all expenditures are accounted for to the highest international standards," Brussels announced on Monday (11 June), after the deal between the two parties was signed in Ramallah.

The Palestinian Authority has been under an aid embargo since Hamas – blacklisted by the west as a terrorist organization - won elections in March 2006.

But earlier this year, the EU bloc signalled it was willing to cooperate with some "reliable" ministers of the Unity government, such as finance minister Salam Fayyad. The Unity government consists of the militant Hamas group and the more moderate Fatah movement. (EU Observer)

What unity government, EU?

"Hamas is trying to take control of everything," Mr [Ahmad Al] Afifi [Palestine's intelligence chief] said after the fighting had raged all night.

Hamas has been locked in a bloody power struggle with the rival Fatah party ever since it won a landslide parliamentary election in January last year. After months of on/off violence, the stalemate between the militant Islamists and the ousted Fatah moderates seemed destined to keep the Palestinian government paralysed.

Now, Hamas is pressing a fierce offensive in the Gaza Strip, systematically laying siege to the Fatah-dominated security services and looking at last for the decisive victory that could give it complete control of the Palestinian government.

The Fatah security services ruled the streets here for 15 years but are now holed up in fortified bunkers and a handful of neighbourhoods awaiting a threatened fully-fledged assault by Hamas. (The Telegraph)

As long as Hamas is involved, there can be no unity. As long as Hamas is involved, people as theoretically wise as the leaders of the EU should know there can be no trust.

So will a hold be placed on their €4 million project? Or will they just go on pretending you can let a group like Hamas have power and expect things to progress according to accepted international standards?

Where's This Palestinian Fire Power Coming From?

We've all read news like this so many times it frequently fails to register:

Israeli aircraft struck two camps used by the Islamic militant group Hamas today, a day after a Palestinian rocket attack killed an Israeli woman, and officials suggested even Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas could be a target.

That happens to AP via the LATimes. So the Palestinians are firing rockets into Israel again. Big deal ... happens all the time.

No, not like this. The Palestinians have stepped it up to such a degree that Sderot, the Israeli town near the Gaza border that is the usual target of the rockets, has been evacuated. Big deal? You bet! The residents of Sderot have never had to evacuate before.

Today's WashTimes has an excellent story on how bad it is there. Here are a couple excerpts:

SDEROT, Israel -- Buses filled with evacuees are fleeing this tiny city adjacent to the Gaza Strip each day, amid a weeklong barrage of rocket fire from Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad that has given Sderot the feel of a ghost town.

"The city is abandoned, and the citizens are in a crisis," said municipal spokesman Yossi Cohen, who estimated that about 10,000 locals, or about half the population, are already gone. "They are scared. They want to rest, until the government makes a decision to solve this."

In seven years of being on the front line of Palestinian missile attacks, Sderot residents have never evacuated until now. But over the past week, they've borne the brunt of 180 missiles that have become more precise and deadly.

On Monday, Sderot resident Shirel Friedman was killed when a Qassam rocket hit her parked car in the town's commercial center -- the first Israeli civilian victim in a week of escalating cross-border violence.
Days of frustration then poured out into the streets as residents burned tires and chanted anti-government slogans and "death to Arabs." ...

The buses continued to leave Sderot yesterday afternoon, just hours ahead of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. A troupe of clowns set up shop in the city center to entertain the children staying behind.

"People are being evacuated to Jerusalem and Tiberias. They don't want to stay behind because you can't celebrate the holiday. You can't even go out to shop for groceries," said an 11-year-old boy named David. "We need security. It's a disgrace."

The town has an emergency system that alerts residents to incoming rockets, but because of the short distance from northern Gaza to Sderot, there are only about 20 seconds to find cover.

"I'm sick of running. I feel like a cockroach," said Chaim Cohen, a waiter at a grill restaurant in the city center. "We wait, and we pray."

The Qassam rockets, named after a jihadist Palestinian from the 1920's, have become increasingly sophisticated, according to Global Security.

Numerous variants of the Qassam rocket have been developed and launched. The Qassam-1, first used in October 2001, had a maximum range of approximately 3-4.5km. The rocket was approximately 60mm in diameter and weighed about 5.5kg. The Qassam-2, used primarily from 2002-2005 was approximately 180cm long, had a maximum range of 8-9.5km and could carry a payload of 5-9kg. Beginning in 2005, newer types of Qassam rockets known as the Qassam-3 were developed, possessing a maximum range of 10-12km and carrying a payload of 10-20kg. Since September 2005, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades developed a Qassam rocket with a maximum range of 15-16.5km range and two rockets with diameters of approximately 115mm and 155mm, respectively. Additionally, in June 2006 and again in July 2006 the Brigades fired a Qassam rocket equipped with two engines.

They've never fired this many with this much firepower before. They've never had this many rockets, this muc: Palestinian know-how or a pan-Arabic desire to exterminate Israel?

My bet: A little of the former, a lot of the latter.

Cast Your Vote: Victory Or Martyrdom?

"We will keep to the same path until we win one of two goals: victory or martyrdom," said Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh today following Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip. (source)

I cast my vote for the later.

Things You Don't See In Israel

I'm sure there are many in Israel who don't like news of efforts to work with the Palestinians on peace efforts, but they don't do this:

Israeli authorities on Tuesday said they have arrested 19 Palestinian militants for planning to set off a huge car bomb in Tel Aviv over the Jewish holiday of Passover. (source)

When was the last time a group of Israelis planned to murder as many innocent Palestinian civilians as they could during Ramadan? Rhetorical question. We read on:

The suspects are all were Hamas members from the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, the Shin Bet security agency said in a statement.

The agency said the arrests took place in late March, but details were only cleared for publication on Tuesday, the day after the weeklong holiday ended.

Shin Bet said a Palestinian man who apparently intended to blow himself up drove a car packed with 220 pounds of explosives into the Tel Aviv area, then, for reasons not yet clear, returned to Qalqiliya where the car later exploded through a technical malfunction. No one was hurt.

Palestinian police say its all a mistake. Oh yes, the 19 are hardly terrorists and they're certainly not Hamas. How do they know?

Well, they say, their crackerjack investigation showed the car only had two pounds of explosives in it, not 220 -- and it's' unlikely that Hamas would be involved in a slaying of innocents operation with a bomb that small.

Uh-huh. And all Hamas stands proudly behind that excuse.