By Maggie M. Thornton
Photo Courtesy ReutersPresident Obama with new Middle East Envoy, George Mitchell
Now we must extend a hand of opportunity to those who seek peace, as part of a lasting ceasefire [Obama said during a maiden visit as president to the State Department]Does anyone believe that Hamas "seeks peace?" We know, and Obama knows, they seek to rearm.
"Hamas has given Israel until Sunday to open the borders,"...and Obama helps things along by "urging" Israel to get the Gaza border open.
A better idea: Let Israel decide when and why they will open the border for their barbarian neighbors. And who is Hamas to be making demands...what position are they in to make demands...why will we let them make demands - they got whipped, for gosh sakes...losers don't call the shots?
And where is the immovable demand that Hamas return Gilad Shalit post haste? Why are we, or any country, putting up with these terrorists? Had Mexican soldiers encroached our borders and grabbed an American, the United States wouldn't stand for it. Hmmmmm, oh yeah, guess we probably would - over and over again. (*See what America's War Department did after a "rancher" was kidnapped in 1915 at the end of this article)
The US and NATO is now charged with ending the weapons flow through Gazan-Egyptian tunnels.
A better idea: Let Israel finish their mission and then we don't need "minders" to make Palestine behave.
NPR says European and Arab leaders met in Egypt this past Sunday, "pledging support for rebuilding Gaza and calling for an end to arms smuggling....But the details of a coordinated multinational effort to block weapons into Gaza have yet to be finalized."
A better idea: Let the "brother" countries tell Palestine: hey - stop it! Ya hear? We're not coming to your defense anymore. This is your last chance. Another rocket into that pesky [insert something Arabic here] heathen land known as Israel, and we'll let them seal you up and shut you up.
I mean honestly, NO ONE in the Middle East wants Palestinians, refugees or not, to settle on their lands.
Why should the world let Hamas dictate ANYTHING, while that same world puts the lives of others "on the line" to guard the borders - just so that Palestinians can continue to smuggle right under their noses, anyway? Do we really think smuggling will stop?
Rebuilding Gaza? Yes, let the EU and Egypt do it. Not a nickel of American funds should flow, but can't you just see Obama funding the project, then sending unemployed Americans there to build the roads and bridges - for pay - from the United States - a kinda-sorta stimulus plan, since his proposed program to do the same here in the U.S. will take years and years to get underway.
Evidently foreign donors are lining up to send their monies to Palestine to rebuild, BUT...some common sense prevails, according to The Financial Times:
...many foreign donors share Israel's concerns that the reconstruction efforts should not be led by Hamas, or enhance the group's legitimacy.Now here's something interesting. Does Obama say he is concerned about the loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives? - or does Obama say he is concerned about the loss of Palestinian lives?
The London Financial Times quotes Obama saying that he is concerned about the loss of BOTH Palestinian and Israeli lives. Middle East Online, and Muslims Against Sharia says the same - Obama is concerned about the lives of BOTH Palestinians and Israelis.
Al Jazeera quotes Obama saying he is concerned about the loss of life in Gaza. NO MENTION of concern for Israeli's. PressTV, "the first Iranian international news network, broadcasting in English...: has also omitted any concern Obama may have for the loss of life in Israel, same with African Business.
So, we do not know whether President Obama said he is also concerned with the loss of Israeli lives. Our own press isn't talking.
Moving on...
Haaretz, quoting an Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, tells us what we think we already know:
1) "Hamas civilians have accused Hamas of forcing them to stay in homes from which gunmen shot at Israeli soldiers during the recent hostilities in Gaza."And are you ready for this:
2) But the Italian paper also quoted a doctor at Gaza city's Shifa Hospital as disputing the number of Palestinians said to have been killed in the campaign.Shifa is the same hospital where Hamas terrorists holed-up in basement bunkers, with patients still in residence on the upper floors, as Israel advanced on Gaza City. Shifa is the Gaza Strip's main hospital hospital, completely renovated, with new construction, and paid for by Israel.
3) It's possible that the death toll in Gaza was 500 or 600 at the most, mainly youths aged 17 to 23 who were enlisted by Hamas - who sent them to their deaths...
The Gaza doctor was further quoted as saying: "Perhaps it is like Jenin in 2002. At the beginning they spoke about 1,500 dead, and at the end it turned out to be only 54 - of whom 45 were militants."
George Mitchell, new Obama Israeli-Arab Conflict CzarAttending 2000 Mitchell Commission Meeting
The committee bent over backwards to be fair and objective which had the unfortunate effect of blurring good and evil. From Palestine FactsFor Laughs: Obama's new Israeli-Arab Conflict Czar, former Senator George Mitchell says of Israel and Palestine:
There is no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended," Mr. Mitchell said at the Thursday press conference. "I saw it happen in Northern Ireland.The point that Senator Mitchell completely misses is that Islam is not at issue in Northern Ireland. Sigh. Mitchell's 2000 Sharm El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Commission (known as the Mitchell Commission) failed.
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About the 1915 New York Times archived article on a "rancher" kidnapped by Mexicans and taken across the border?
You can download the pdf at the above link. The pdf says that "there was an intimation that United States forces would not hesitate to cross the border to rescue the kidnapped American if his whereabout could be ascertained. The resolution isn't reported, but wouldn't it be great to have our State and "War" Department get "aroused" about illegal crime against AmericanSeptember 11, 1915, Saturday
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10. -- State and War Department officials were aroused today over the kidnapping of an American citizen by Mexican bandits at Columbus, N.M. A ranchman whose identity has not been disclosed was sized by a band of Mexicans said to be soldiers, carried across the border from Columbus and word sent back that he was being held for a $2,000 ransom.
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. . . been there, done that--same old (s.o.s.)--2-state solution is no solution.
ReplyDeleteOnly one way to solve this Arab-Moslem-created "problem"--A One-State Solution: One State=Israel.
"but, but"--they will say--what about the "Palestinians?"(meaning the Arabs).
They must go (not an original thought, I know--but one voiced by one who knew that it will be the only way).
Boring to repeat that they--the Arabs, the Moslems--came from many parts of the huge territories under the yoke of Islam, and they can go back there.
What happened to the Hamas wanna-be Jew-killers should have been pursued until none remained--and Gaza held not one Arab soul who sought to kill a Jew, just because he was a Jew.
Iron Wall of Jabotinsky (modified a la Kahane), iron first to enforce this.
No quarter, no listening to whining or being moved by Arafatian (phegh!) tears.
This will never be a U.S. Middle East policy. It should be an Israeli Middle East policy.
Possible? Yes. How? There are people in Israel who know. Problem is the government--there--and here.
What is needed for that problem are changes. The U.S. just had its (s.o.s.). Israel could benefit from theirs--but not in the same direction: hard starboard rudder-- and then dead ahead.