Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Roland Burris-Portrait of a Leader


Roland Burris-Patriot, Senator, Leader

Engraving below:

"My thought on that wouldn't amount to a hill of beans."
"None of my business."
"I have nothing to do with that."

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


Roland Burris, Rod Blagoyevich's choice to replace Barack Obama as Illinois Senator is sure shaping up to be a promising force in the US if judged by his recent statements.

Burris initially had this to say when the news of Blago's indictment was released:

Burris said the reported charges were "appalling" and "reprehensible" behavior. He spoke in favor of the effort by the state attorney general to have the courts remove Blago, stating that the indicted governor could no longer carry out his duties. That was then.

Today, in an interview with the Associated Press, Mr. Burris stated that he "absolutely" stands by those statements.

However, he also stated that the governor can continue performing his duties,(such as appointing him as senator), and he declined to venture an opinion on whether the governor should resign.

"That's his decision, so my thought on that wouldn't amount to a hill of beans," Burris said.

"That is none of my business. Absolutely not," Burris added. "I'm not interested in the charges against him. I have nothing to do with that."

Now I ask you; does this sound like someone who will go to Washington and be a strong leader? It sounds more to me like the words of the guy who plays the piano in the house of ill repute.

Nevertheless, Burris is now trying to have the courts force Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White to certify the selection, something White is opposed to doing. It also looks like the pro-Burris crowd is marshaling its forces to pressure that other noted "leader", Harry Reid, to drop his opposition to the Blagoyevich selection. Democratic strategist Bob Beckel had this to say:

"Every vote counts. Therefore my suggestion to Harry Reid and company, as tough as it may be, it may make sense to take Burris,"

Every vote counts. Isn't that what they are saying in Minnesota right now?

In addition, liberal George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley is opining that for the Senate to deny to seat Burris would be "an abuse of power".

Well, if it all comes down to the backbone of Harry Reid to stop this appointment, then I guess Burris will take up his Senate seat come January. He'll look great standing there next to Senator Al Franken, won't he?

Israel and Hamas: The Obscenity of Blameing the Blameless

Cross-posted by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

Font size

Photo courtsey Getty Images

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL - DECEMBER 30: Palestinian supporters rally to bring attention to the bombing campaign Israel has unleashed in the Palestinian territory of Gaza on December 30, 2008 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Responding to continued rocket attacks by Hamas in Gaza, Israel has carried out air strikes for four days. According to the White House, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is leading intense diplomatic efforts to pressure a cease fire between Israel and Hamas.
The above photo caption ignores the fact of the obscenity of comparing the holocaust to Israel's defense of it's own citizens. It ignores the fact that President Bush is insisting that any cease fire be "sustainable and durable."I also found this photo of Abu Moussa Marzouk, with this caption:

2 days ago: Hamas deputy head, Moussa Abo Marzouk talks during an interview with the Associated Press in his office in Damascus, Syria Monday Dec. 29, 2008. Abo Marzouk rejected any talk about truce with Israel before it stops attacks on Gaza and lift the siege calling on Arab states with relations with the Jewish state cut these relations.
This is interesting, as it is a current AP Photo and caption of the man who wrote the Hamas Manifesto published in Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC) bulletin, on the Pastor's Page, by Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Could we get the press to print the simple fact that Jeremiah Wright lent a voice to Hamas? Was there a conversation in the press that Obama was a member of the church at the time of the publishing of the Hamas Manifesto? Of course not.

Marzouk is a founder of CAIR's parent organizations, the Islamic Association for Palestine, found liable for the murder of an American youth in Israel; the Holy Land Foundation, and the United Association for Studies and Research - all now shutdown by the U.S. Treasury.

The Middle East Journal says this about Marzouk:
Musa Abu Marzuq was arrested at Kennedy Airport in July 1995 on charges of murder and attempted murder for Hamas,2 the other fundamentalist Islamic group that repeatedly engages in terrorist acts against Israel. At the time of his arrest, Abu Marzuq--a permanent resident of the United States for five years--headed a Washington-area think tank called the United Association for Studies and Research.
He is a man of many aliases, (Marzouk, Marzook, Marzug) with a U.S. Ph.D. Did I mention that Barack Obama's church printed Marzouk's manifesto, on July 10, 2007, retitling it "A Fresh View of the Palestinian Struggle?"


*****
Simply Jews always has great, probing commentary and today does not disappoint. The truth is often ugly. Mix the press and their often convoluted version of the truth and it is a picture of obscenity.

*****

Apparently Amos
by Snoopy the Goon at Simply Jews
December 31, 2008

In the propaganda war that unfolds around the war in Gaza, the sides follow the old played out scenario. Our FM and its tentacles declare a "hasbara" offensive that in a few hours becomes overwhelmed my the well oiled (pun intended) wave of Muslim histrionics, accompanied by a not much more subtle chorus of their friends. "Friends" could be a bit of a misnomer, though, the people of this kind are motivated by their hate to Israel rather than by their passion for Islam, Palestinians or anything else.

Why would I link to the article by Seamus Milne - the Guardian pet communist, a liar, a serial falsifier, a patented Israel-basher? Because, besides several ripped out of context quotes statements and lies of omission, I have encountered a rare case of a precise* quotation - from an Israeli journalist Amos Harel, not known for being anti-Israeli, anti-establishment or anti-IDF - quite the opposite was supposed to be true, in fact. First to the linked above article:
As Israeli journalist Amos Harel wrote in Ha'aretz at the weekend, little or no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians, as in US operations in Iraq.
Wow, I said. An Israeli military journalist, quite respected in his chosen line of work, publishes a statement that (and I know this for a fact) is not only patently untrue, but causes a crippling blow to any Hasbara attempts - no, something is wrong here.So I have started to look for the original. It wasn't that easy, since Seumas Milne does not link to the sources of his quotes - for reasons that must be clear to anyone familiar with the kind of garbage he publishes. Eventually I came up with the original article in the English version of Haaretz. And to my chagrine here comes the full sentence:

Like the U.S. assault on Iraq and the Israeli response to the abduction of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser at the outset of the Second Lebanon War (the "night of the Fajr missiles," a reference to the IAF destruction of Hezbollah's arsenal of medium-range Fajr missiles), little to no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians.
Wow again. It is one thing to see a libelous statement in an article by an Israeli-hater and a liar. It s something completely different when you read this coming from a leading Israeli military journalist. To double check, we went to the Hebrew original of the same (translated in English) article:

כמו ארה"ב בעיראק וכמו המהלך הישראלי בתגובה לחטיפת חיילי המילואים רגב וגולדווסר בפתיחת מלחמת לבנון השנייה ("ליל הפאג'רים" שבו הושמד מערך הרקטות לטווח בינוני של חיזבאללה), גם הפעם לא ניתן כמעט משקל לשאלה כמה אזרחים חפים מפשע ייפגעו בהפצצות.

And you know what: as far as the English translation, gladly picked up by Milne goes, it is even less damaging than the original - somebody thought enough to add the word "apparently", which word does not appear in the Hebrew original...

IDF has its faults, its f-ups and its villains, but one thing I know for sure, not even being a military correspondent: IDF invested months of effort and intelligence gathering to choose its targets having in mind maximum "awe and shock", that's true, but to the same degree of importance (even higher due to accumulated knowledge of previous botched attacks) minimum civilian victims. Even the Hamas and other non-Israeli sources confirm that the first wave of attacks reached its designed targets - overwhelmingly Hamas "militants".

Read more at Simply Jews.

End Simply Jews article.

The Angst of Supporting Israel

Cross-posted by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

Israelis play checkers in a bomb shelter in the southern city of Ashkelon December 31, 2008. Hamas rockets hit the major Israeli city of Beersheba on Wednesday and Israel described as unrealistic a French proposal for a 48-hour truce that would allow more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. 5 hours ago from Reuters Pictures by REUTERS.

Do you support Israel's right to exist? Assuming that your answer is probably "yes," how do you feel about Israel's "occupation" of the Gaza Strip? Perhaps your answer is "everything would be much easier if Israel were not an "occupier," but still...you support Israel's right to exist.

Are you a bit queasy about Israel's "disproportionate response" to Palestinian aggressions; aggressions which include years of firing thousands of rockets and mortars into Israeli border towns? You probably acknowledge that Hamas should not be digging tunnels under the border into Israel...kidnapping Israeli soldiers, secreting arms through those tunnels from Egypt and Iran... to use on Israel, but still...Israel has a fearsome military, and after all, Gaza is a terribly poor area, filled to bursting with refugees existing for years in loathsome refugee camps - and don't forget that Gaza is historically Palestinian - you might say. You support Israel's right to exist, but still...it would be so much easier if the poor and oppressed of Palestine were not the victims of Israeli military.

Do you tend to ignore the fact that during any one of the many cease fires between Palestine and Israel, Palestine continues to fire into Israel? Have you fallen into the trap of thinking it must be okay because much of the world has no outrage about continued Palestinian shelling during cease fire periods?

Are you conflicted about Israel abiding on Palestinian soil?

Everything in the Middle East tends to be complicated, but some things can be understood by the Western mind. Here are a few facts that should ease your mind about "Israel the occupier:"

The original Mandate for Palestine, agreed to unanimously by the League of Nations in 1920, designated 124,466 sq. km. for the Jewish National Homeland, to be known as Israel. Here's the map of that area:


Two years later, that 120,466 sq. km. had been reduced to 28,166 sq. km., as requested by the British trustees and approved by the League of Nation. The remaining 77% of the land originally proposed for the Jewish homeland was to become the Arab state of Jordan.

The creation of an Arab state in eastern Palestine (today Jordan) on 77 percent of the landmass of the original Mandate intended for a Jewish National Home in no way changed the status of Jews west of the Jordan River, nor did it inhibit their right to settle anywhere in western Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
These documents are the last legally binding documents regarding the status of what is commonly called “the West Bank and Gaza.”
The Jewish homeland was to consist of all the land west of the Jordan River, stretching to the Mediterranean Sea - and including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The the Arabs would not have it. The League of Nations dissolved into the United Nations and the problem was handed over to the U.N., including the trusteeship of the British mandate to make a Jewish state a reality. The Mandate stood.

U.N. Resolution 181, known also as the U.N. 1947 Partition Resolution, was passed by the U.N. General Assembly, and implemented but never accepted by the Arabs. The Iraq spokesman took to the podium and put on record "Iraq does not recognize the validity of this decision." From Syria: "My country will never recognize such a decision [Partition]. It will never agree to be responsible for it." From Yemen: "...the Government of Yemen does not consider itself bound by such a decision,..."

The Partition Plan was met not only by verbal rejection on the Arab side but also by concrete, bellicose steps to block its implementation and destroy the Jewish polity by force of arms, a goal the Arabs publicly declared even before Resolution 181 was brought to a vote.

Arabs not only rejected the compromise and took action to prevent establishment of a Jewish state but also blocked establishment of an Arab state under the partition plan not just before the Israel War of Independence, but also after the war when they themselves controlled the West Bank (1948-1967), rendering the recommendation ‘a still birth.’

The UN itself recognized that 181 had not been accepted by the Arab side, rendering it a dead issue: ...
The U.N. partition began. More land was taken from the Jewish homeland.
The partition plan took on a checkerboard appearance. This was largely because Jewish towns and villages were spread throughout Palestine. This did not complicate the plan as much as the fact that the high living standards in Jewish cities and towns had attracted large Arab populations. This demographic factor insured that any partition would result in a Jewish state that included a substantial Arab population. Recognizing the need to allow for additional Jewish settlement, the majority proposal allotted the Jews land in the northern part of the country, Galilee, and the large, arid Negev desert in the south. The remainder was to form the Arab state.
The map now looked like this:

These boundaries were based solely on demographics. The borders of the Jewish State were arranged with no consideration of security; hence, the new state's frontiers were virtually indefensible. Overall, the Jewish State was to be comprised of roughly 5,500 square miles and the population was to be 538,000 Jews and 397,000 Arabs. The Arab State was to be 4,500 square miles with a population of 804,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews. Though the Jews were allotted more total land, the majority of that land was in the desert.
Israel's land which was originally mandated at 126,000+ sq. km., was now to be a mere 14,245 sq. kms. In addition to limiting Jewish lands, the immigration of Jews was also limited so that a majority of Jews in the land would never be accomplished. Arab immigration had no immigration restrictions.

Israel accepted the partition, but in reality, it did not change or diminish the legality of the lands mandated for Israel - which still included the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - BECAUSE, the Arabs would agree to nothing which facilitated Jews in Palestine.

Creating the Arab state of Jordan in no way affected or "changed the status of Jews west of the Jordan River, nor did it inhibit their right to settle anywhere in western Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea." Nothing from the time of the Mandate until today, changes the fact that under international law, the West Bank and Gaza is open to Jewish settlement.
Under international law, neither Jordan nor the Palestinian Arab ‘people’ of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have a substantial claim to the sovereign possession of the occupied territories.
The UN Charter's Article 80 implicitly recognizes the “Mandate for Palestine” of the League of Nations. The International Court of Justice has reaffirmed the validity of Article of 80.

In other words, neither the ICJ nor the UN General Assembly can arbitrarily change the status of Jewish settlement as set forth in the “Mandate for Palestine,” an international accord that has never been amended.

All of western Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including the West Bank and Gaza, remains open to Jewish settlement under international law.

The new Jewish state was to have the right to self-determination of political, civil and religious rights. "Not once are Arabs as a people mentioned in the Mandate for Palestine. At no point in the entire document is there any granting of political rights to non-Jewish entities (i.e., Arabs)."

The Arabs accepted nothing. They wanted no Jews in Palestine, under any circumstance - there would be, to this day, no acceptable plan to which Arabs would agree to living next door to Jews.

On May 14th, 1948, a temporary legislature of the soon-to-be Israel, accepted the U.N. partition and declared statehood.

Eleven minutes after, the United States recognized the State of Israel. On May 15th, 1948 Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria invaded the sovereign nation of Israel, crossing international frontiers, and the Arab-Israeli War (Israeli War of Independence) began.

By July 24, 1949, Syria had signed an armistice agreement and Israel had increased it's land area by almost 50% over the U.N. partition plan. The resulting armistice determined Israel's borders for nineteen years. Egypt gained Gaza in the armistice. This document offers good discussion and links to maps that your browser may find satisfactory (mine did not).



By Fall 1949, Jordan had control of Gaza and East Jerusalem.

The odd and secretive 1956 War began. The short but incomplete story is that Israel took Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and then under threat by the U.S., gave it back.

Then came the 1967 Six Day War. In the Spring, Syria conducted terrorist raids against Israel, water was diverted by Syria, from Israel and irrigation projects for south and central Israel, although approved by Arab engineers as non-detrimental to Arab lands, were not approved by the Arab governments. In May, Egypt blocked the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships. "Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia all activated their militaries. Iraqi troops reportedly approached the Syrian and Jordanian borders while Jordan moved tanks towards the West Bank."

Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia formed a "defense pact." Egyptian President Nasser said "Our basic objective will be the destruction if Israel. The Arab people want to fight...." This link is an excellent map of the areas of attack on Israel from the "pact." Click to enlarge the map. The tiny nation of Israel was surrounded by "some 500,000 troops, more than 5,000 tanks, and almost 1,000 fighter planes." France, Israel's major arms supplier, issued a "complete ban on weapons sales and transfers to Israel."

Under the leadership of Moyshe Dayan, Israel decided to go to war on June 5, 1967.
After a three days of fierce fighting, especially in and around Jerusalem, Israeli forces defeated the Jordanians and gained control of all of Jerusalem as well as the West Bank, the historical heartland of the Jewish people known to Israelis as Judea and Samaria. Following an air attack by the Syrians on the first day of the war, Israel dealt a shattering blow to the Syrian air force. ...on fifth day of the war, the Israelis mustered enough forces to remove the Syrian threat from the Golan Heights. This difficult operation was completed the following day, bringing the active phase of the war to a close.
Israel now looked like this:
The areas shown in bright green (Sinai, Golan Heights, Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem) were occupied by Israel during the 6-day war. Israel has since returned all of Sinai to Egypt in return for peace. Most of Gaza is currently under the jurisdiction of the autonomous Palestinian Authority (2002). Parts of the West Bank (see Map of Israel and Palestinian territories following Oslo II) had been ceded to the Palestinian authority, but these areas are currently re-occupied by Israel. Following the 6 day war, Israel began building settlements in these areas. Click for a map of the settlements.
The aftermath of the war was complicated, but one fact was all too simple: Arabs rejected all diplomatic attempts.
Some of [the] displaced people were able to return to Israeli-controlled West Bank and, along with their neighbors, witnessed unprecedented economic growth over the course of the next two decades. Israeli investment into the infrastructure of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, coupled with policies that allowed Arabs to move freely increased the standard of living of Palestinians, who were now able to work both in Israel and in the oil rich countries in the Middle East.
After years of relative prosperity followed but Palestinians and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) insisted that they would replace Israel, not co-exist with her.

With continued PLO agitation of the people, violence became common. Israel made peace with Egypt and returned the Sinai. The 1993 failed Oslo Peace Accord had Israel giving up the Gaza Strip and the West Bank - which was accomplished with Israel's withdrawal, including the ejection of Jewish residents in the area in 2005. Once out of Gaza, nothing changed. The terrorists of Gaza Strip became slumlords and violence against Israel has continued.
Palestinian militants—with the support of their Hamas-led government—have used the evacuated territory to launch rockets into Israel’s pre-1967 borders, shelling residents of Sderot and other neighboring communities and causing death, injuries and damage within Israel. Since Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the territory has also become the site of deadly internecine violence among Palestinian factions, kidnapping of journalists, vandalism, looting and general mayhem. Far from bringing peace to the Gaza Strip, the withdrawal has resulted in less secure borders for Israel.
In the 1973 War (Yom Kippur War), again the Arab world came against Israel, as Egypt sought to regain territories lost to Israel in 1967. After two days of trying to recover from the surprise attack, Israel's IDF blocked Syrian, Egyptian and Iraqi assaults and once again took the Golan Heights. By the time a U.N. ceasefire was implemented, "Israel had completely surrounded the Egyptian Third Army."

How could they succeed when Palestinian leadership remained and remains committed to the destruction of Israel? For those deluded into thinking that Palestinians will accept "peace" with Israel, and co-exist next door to her - if only Israel will remove all settlements from wherever they may be...that just doesn't wash. The issue is not the Jews in the settlements. The issue is the Jews in Palestine.

No discussion of the Israeli-Arab conflict is complete without taking a look at the Palestinian people. Who are they? Who did they evolve from?

The area known as Palestine was and is a geographic area, not an ethnic people. In other words, Arabs living in the area are not ethnically Palestinian. To say it another way: Palestinians are not a native people. "The word Palestine is not even Arabic."
Palestine is a name coined by the Romans around 135 CE from the name of a seagoing Aegean people who settled on the coast of Canaan in antiquity – the Philistines. The name was chosen to replace Judea, as a sign that Jewish sovereignty had been eradicated following the Jewish Revolts against Rome.

In the course of time, the Latin name Philistia was further bastardized into Palistina or Palestine. During the next 2,000 years Palestine was never an independent state belonging to any people, nor did a Palestinian people distinct from other Arabs appear during 1,300 years of Muslim hegemony in Palestine under Arab and Ottoman rule. During that rule, local Arabs were actually considered part of, and subject to, the authority of Greater Syria ( Suriyya al-Kubra).

Archeologists explain that the Philistines were a Mediterranean people who settled along the coast of Canaan in 1100 BCE. They have no connection to the Arab nation, a desert people who emerged from the Arabian Peninsula.
Tagging the Arabs in Palestine as Palestinian was a mission fabricated by Arabs to attempt to assert the Arab right to the Jewish holy lands at the time when Jewish statehood was becoming a reality - but history shows that Arabs were never identified as Palestinians:
This is substantiated in countless official British Mandate-vintage documents that speak of the Jews and the Arabs of Palestine – not Jews and Palestinians.
Other examples:
The Jerusalem Post, founded in 1932, was called The Palestine Post until 1948.

Bank Leumi L’Israel, incorporated in 1902, was called the “Anglo-Palestine Company” until 1948.

The Jewish Agency – an arm of the Zionist movement engaged in Jewish settlement since 1929 – was initially called the Jewish Agency for Palestine.

Today’s Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1936 by German Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany, was originally called the “Palestine Symphony Orchestra,” composed of some 70 Palestinian Jews.

The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was established in 1939 as a merger of the United Palestine Appeal and the fund-raising arm of the Joint Distribution Committee.

Fifty-one countries acknowledged that Israel had an historic connection to the land eventually known as Palestine:
Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.
Furthermore:
The rhetoric by Arab leaders on behalf of the Palestinians rings hollow. Arabs in neighboring states, who control 99.9 percent of the Middle East land, have never recognized a Palestinian entity. They have always considered Palestine and its inhabitants part of the great “Arab nation,” historically and politically as an integral part of Greater Syria...

The Arabs never established a Palestinian state when the UN in 1947 recommended to partition Palestine, and to establish “an Arab and a Jewish state” (not a Palestinian state, it should be noted). Nor did the Arabs recognize or establish a Palestinian state during the two decades prior to the Six-Day War when the West Bank was under Jordanian control and the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control; nor did the Palestinian Arabs clamor for autonomy or independence during those years under Jordanian and Egyptian rule.
The population of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq did not "evolve," but were created by "colonial powers." No "Palestinian DNA exists!
Unlike nation-states in Europe, modern Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, and Iraqi nationalities did not evolve. They were arbitrarily created by colonial powers.
In 1919, in the wake of World War I, England and France as Mandatory (e.g., official administrators and mentors) carved up the former Ottoman Empire, which had collapsed a year earlier, into geographic spheres of influence. This divided the Mideast into new political entities with new names and frontiers.

The prevailing rationale behind these artificially created states was how they served the imperial and commercial needs of their colonial masters. Iraq and Jordan, for instance, were created as emirates to reward the noble Hashemite family from Saudi Arabia for its loyalty to the British against the Ottoman Turks during World War I, under the leadership of Lawrence of Arabia. Iraq was given to Faisal bin Hussein, son of the sheriff of Mecca, in 1918. To reward his younger brother Abdullah with an emirate, Britain cut away 77 percent of its mandate over Palestine earmarked for the Jews and gave it to Abdullah in 1922, creating the new country of Trans-Jordan or Jordan, as it was later named.
The conclusion: don't waste your energy and your angst blaming Israel for stealing the homeland of the Palestinians. Don't obsess over the dead and dying in Palestine. The time has come to recognize that Palestinian leaders have gravely failed their own. The millions of dollars of aid to feed and clothe the poor and oppressed seldom get to the people. Philanthropy buys weapons and means to attack Israel.

Westerners supporting Palestine believe that if Israel will only turn over their settlements to Palestine, Israel and Palestine will live side-by-side in peace. This is inane and vacuous thinking. It is the willing suspension of disbelief. It is pure anti-semitism. Serious thought cannot arrive at such a conclusion.

The Fatah Constitution Articles 12 and 19: Complete liberation of Palestine and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence."Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab People's armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated."

The PLO Charter Article 15 calls the liberation of Palestine a national (qawmi) duty to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the "liquidation of the Zionist presence" in Palestine.

The Hamas Charter: "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees....Hamas Charter Article 15 (a portion): "The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters."

How does a non-Muslim supporter of Palestine ignore a terrorist-led government, terrorist aggression against Israel, and government Constitutions and Charters with a clear goal of wiping Israel off the face of the earth?

Tell me, how does a Westerner give half-hearted support to Israel?

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Blago in the Bunker


1945- Adolf Hitler appoints new mayor of Berlin



2008- Rod Blagoyevich appoints new Senator of Illinois

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


In yet another stunning development in the "Alice in the Wonderland" environment that is Illinois politics, Governor Rod Blagoyevich, perhaps emboldened by the failure of his colleagues to impeach him, has gone ahead and appointed a replacement for Barack Obama in the US Senate, long-time Illinois political figure, Roland Burris, 71, former State Attorney General. Apparently, he is the only person in Illinois who still wants the job since Blago was indicted for trying to sell the seat. Today's event is the most embarrassing thing to happen in Illinois since the Cubs blew another pennant.

While some Republicans are dissing the selection as just another "Pay to play" figure who has been around the scene forever, there may be a method to Blago's madness.

For starters, it could be part of his eventual insanity defense that could be raised in his up-coming criminal trial. Don't laugh. Some Illinois observers are talking seriously about just such a defense.

It could be another sign that Blago is willing to bring the house of cards down with him.

But let's look at the pick itself. Burris, at first glance, has never been involved in any scandal during his political career. In addition, he is African-American, and this is probably not by coincidence.

Rep. Bobby Rush, (D-IL) (a former Black Panther) was also there to speak on the appointment. He pointedly injected race into the issue.

"He (Burris) has not, in 40 years of public service, had one iota of taint on his record," Rush said.

Rush added, "Let me just remind you that there presently is no African-American in the U.S. Senate." He also said that Burris' appointment is of "national importance" and that his "prayers have been answered." He also urged that Burris not be "lynched."

"There are no African-Americans in the Senate," Rush said. "And I don't think that anyone — any U.S. senator who's sitting in the Senate right now — wants to go on record to deny one African-American for being seated in the U.S. Senate."

"I intend to take that argument to the Congressional Black Caucus," said Rush. "I intend to take that argument to the senators."

Meanwhile Harry Reid, perhaps with insufficient time to ponder Rush's remarks, has insisted that Blago's pick will be rejected by the Senate-as he had previously stated. Will Senator Reid maintain that "famous backbone" of his-or will he reconsider?

So today may belong to General Blagoyevich as he moves his chess pieces around in a stubborn effort to stay off the inevitable downfall. He may, with this move, make everybody look like the boobs they are as they attempt to get rid of the corrupt governor of a corrupt state. In the end, however.....

Psalm 130 for Sderot

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle


There are days that I feel powerless in the face of rockets attacking friends and family in Israel. Days I want to scream out and hit something hard. Days I want to throw a breakable at the wall. Days of frustration.

But I have discovered a way out of my frustration: Prayer! Every time a Code Red is sounded in Israel I receive this text message:

A Kassam has been launched at Sderot…you have 15 seconds

And I spring into action. I pray and recite Psalm 130.

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

I receive this message any time of the day or night. One never knows when the phone will ring. And I feel connected to those undergoing the hell of rocket fire.

You too, if you are willing to, can also join in. The SMS program is still going strong. It costs nothing but your willingness to take the time to pray, to recite, to contact your representatives or to donate a bit to charity.
"When the alarm is sounded and the people of Sderot and Ashkelon have just seconds to run for cover, they need to know that there are tens of thousands of people around the world who are saying a prayer on their behalf in their time of crisis."
Instead of just griping about the situation, now this is a creative way to do something about it.

Prayer can move mountains, perhaps it can stop the rockets too.

Cynthia McKinney and the Leakin' Lena







"Land a-hoy! Gaza straight ahead!


Former Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) is back in the news again-and as usual, for all the wrong reasons. The former Democratic member of Congress now has time on her hands since she was defeated for re-election. No more introducing impeachment resolutions, no more running for President on the Green Party ticket, no more hitting capitol policemen, no more accusing her political opponents of being part of some Jewish conspiracy. (her father, Billy McKinney is also part of that routine.) Now Cynthia is jumping right into the fray of the latest Israel-Palestinian scuffle-delivering supplies to Gaza-or at least trying to.

Her latest venture on some brig called "Dignity" was scuttled (no pun intended) by the Israeli Navy as they intercepted the ship heading for Gaza in Israeli waters. A collision occurred (a ramming according to McKinney) and the "Dignity", now looking more like the classic cartoon boat Leakin' Lena of Beany and Cecil fame, had to limp to the Lebanese port of Tyre.

Make no mistake, this was no bi-partisan venture. You won't catch McKinney trying to deliver supplies to those Israelis who have been attacked in their homes and villages by Hamas rocket attacks. The vessel in question is owned by the US-based "Free Gaza Movement" and has previously carried anti-Israel activists on similar missions.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=Cz8neME9DYOr5Cz34JXBtDpWXHBC9ucZhM5f1qCz2BClb9sPDM5
No, I am sure that when Ms McKinney returns to the USA and terra firma, she and her lame-brain dad will blame it all on a vast Jewish conspiracy as they are wont to do.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=Cz8neME9DYOr5Cz34JXBtDpWXHBC9ucZhM5f1qCz2BClb9sPDM5

MEMRI: Judgment Day Will Not Come Until Muslims Fight the Jews and Kill Them

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle



As Gaza Fighting Continues, Egyptian Clerics Intensify Antisemitic Statements; Columbus, Ohio Muslim Scholar/Leader Dr. Salah Sultan: Muhammad Said That Judgment Day Will Not Come Until Muslims Fight the Jews and Kill Them; America Will Suffer Destruction

Following are excerpts from interviews with several Egyptian clerics, which aired on Al-Nas TV and Al-Rahma TV on December 28 and 29, 2008.

One of the clerics, Dr. Salah Sultan, is president of the American Center for Islamic Research (ACIR), a nonprofit organization registered in Ohio and located in Columbus. On his website, he states that the main purpose of the ACIR is to "serve Allah (God) in the best way possible through the principles laid out in the Quran and Sunnah," to address misconceptions and extremism, to build bridges with non-Muslims, and to issue fatwas. He also states on his website that his own mission is "to achieve Allah's consent and Paradise through the reformation of the soul, the family, the society and the nation according to the methodology of the Quran and the Sunnah," and that his vision is "To live happily. To die as a martyr."(1)

Al-Nas TV, December 28, 2008

"Take My Heart... And Use It to Stone All The Jews... Take My Skin, And Turn It Into a Fuse or a Slingshot for a Child or a Newborn Baby"

Egyptian cleric Sheikh Muhammad Al-Saghir: "I say to the people of Gaza: Take my heart, which has hardened like a stone. Take it, and use it to stone all the Jews. Take my soul, and it will give you shade, for no longer does it fly far away. Take my eye – by Allah, take my eye. Perhaps a handsome youth, who was blinded, could see again. Take my skin, and turn it into a fuse or a slingshot for a child or a newborn baby."

[...]

Egyptian cleric Sheikh Muhammad Mustafa:
Where is the [Islamic] nation? If 20 million people can encircle the Earth, then 20 million people could also drown Israel in a sea of blood.

[...]

Al-Rahma TV, December 29, 2008


"We Want to Teach Our Children the Truth About the Jews"; The Jews View "The Rest Of Mankind... as Pigs"


Egyptian cleric Sheikh Muhammad Hassan:
"We want to teach our children the truth about the Jews. We want them to know that the [Jews] will never make peace or agree to it. The Jews will never accept any international resolution, from East or West, because they understand nothing but force.

"I remember what the great terrorist Menahem Begin said: We fight, therefore we exist. These are real terrorists. They are extremists. They are blood-suckers. They are shedders of blood. Review the history of the Jews from beginning to end, from the very first moment to the last moment, which is now. They specialize in the shedding of blood, in crime, and in killing – even the killing of prophets."

[...]



Egyptian cleric Sheikh Amin Al-Ansari:
"It is told that the Israelites killed more than 70,000 prophets in a single day. It's not the people they want to eradicate, but Revelation itself. They do not want there to be any revelation, purity, religion, or religious law. The secret behind the war between the Jews and non-Jews is that they want to have a monopoly on the spiritual and ideological leadership of the world, and eventually, the physical leadership.

"By the 'Chosen People,' they mean that they are a people, and all those who are inferior to them are not peoples. In other words, they are human beings, and all others are not. They are people, and all others are not. They are human beings, selected by God to be the leaders of all beings."

So what about the rest of mankind? They view them as pigs. That's the truth. Pigs! So why do they look like human beings? So that they will be worthy of being servants of the Jews, who could ride on their backs and suck their blood.

"That's why when a Jew kills a Palestinian child, he considers him to be a little pig. What difference is there between the two?! On the contrary, he might show mercy for the pig, as an animal that should not be harmed. The Palestinian child is worth less to him than a pig."

[...]

Al-Nas TV, December 29, 2008

"The Stone Which is Thrown at the Jews Hates These Jews, These Zionists, Because Allah Foretold, Via His Prophet Muhammad, That Judgment Day Will Not Come Before the Jew and the Muslim Fight."

Egyptian cleric Dr. Sallah Sultan: "The arch-murderer who commanded the campaign against Jenin in 2003 went to America a few months later and boarded a NASA space shuttle. The space shuttle was launched by NASA, and a few minutes later, it reached Texas, the land of President Bush. Then this space shuttle shattered to pieces, along with the five top American space scientists, and that commander of the Zionist air force was on board with them. Where exactly did it shatter and fall? By Allah, Sheikh Mahmoud, although I was living in America, I didn't know that there was a city called 'Palestine' in America. Sheikh Mustafa, the space shuttle fell, of all places, in the city of Palestine, in President Bush's state of Texas.

[...]

"The stone which is thrown at the Jews hates these Jews, these Zionists, because Allah foretold, via His Prophet Muhammad, that Judgment Day will not come before the Jew and the Muslim fight. The Jew will hide behind stones and trees, and the stone and the tree will speak, saying: 'Oh Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' The only exception will be the Gharqad tree."

TV host: "The Jews know this for sure, that's why they plant Gharqad trees."

Dr. Sallah Sultan: "The stone's self-awareness is such that it can distinguish Muslims from Jews."

TV host: "True, and it will support the Muslims."

[...]

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Is An Attempt To Rule And Corrupt The Entire World"

Dr. Sallah Sultan: "America, which gave [Israel] everything it needed in these battles, will suffer economic stagnation, ruin, destruction, and crime, which will surpass what is happening in Gaza. One of these days, the U.S. will suffer more deaths than all those killed in this third Gaza holocaust. This will happen soon.

[...]

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an attempt to rule and corrupt the entire world. When the world concentrates on its desires and lusts, the [Jews] will be free to implement their plan of controlling the world."

[...]

Al-Nas TV, December 28, 2008


"I Take My Little Son Baraa, Who Is 10, and Make Him Look at the Torn Body Parts of His Muslim Brothers – In Order to Sow in His Heart Hatred and Loathing for the Zionists"

Sheikh Muhammad Al-Gheini: "The truth is that I do not understand why the sons of apes do the things they do to us, especially whenever there is a holiday that may make the nation happy. Let me remind you that it was on the day marking the Prophet's nocturnal journey that Sharon defiled the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This was also on a holy day."

[...]

Sheikh Safwat Higazi: "I take my little son Baraa, who is 10 years old, and make him look at the torn body parts of his Muslim brothers, in order to sow in his heart hatred and loathing for the Zionists, so he will know that these are his enemies.

[...]

"Israeli President Shimon Peres used to fill his helmet with the blood of Egyptian POWs, so that whenever he looked at it, he would be reminded that he had fulfilled his duty to his god."

TV host: "The Bahr Al-Baqr massacre is well known."

Sheikh Safwat Higazi: "I cry for us. I think about us. What will become of us? What will we say to our God?"

[...]

"Our generation will bear witness before Allah about each and every traitor and coward. We will have no mercy on them before Allah."

TV Host: "People, this was one of the most powerful messages we had today. These messages are very important. By the way, Dr. Safwat Higazi decided to walk out."


Endnote:

(1) http:www.salahsoltan.com. According to the website, Dr. Sultan is a former professor and president of the Islamic American University in Michigan. He is president of the American Institute for Religious and Cultural Studies, and active in the European Council for Fatwa and Research (headed by Islamist sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, whom he calls "our great scholar"); the Fiqh Council of North America; and the International Association of Muslim Scholars. He served on the board of directors of the Islamic American University, and on the board of trustees of the Muslim American Society. According to his resume, he also serves on the board of trustees of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, and is a member of the Council of Indian Scholars and of the Association of Scholars in Germany. Sultan lectures frequently at the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, on topics such as the priorities of Islamic work in the U.S. and the role of Muslim men and women in the U.S. According to a calendar on Dr. Sultan's webpage, over the past year he has lectured in Washington, D.C.; New Jersey; Detroit; Dallas; San Diego; Montreal; Cairo; Kuwait; Bahrain; Qatar; and Jeddah, Medina, and Mecca in Saudi Arabia. He has also spoken at the MAS Youth Center Convention Center in Queens and Brooklyn, NY; the Bronx Muslim Center in Bronx, NY; the Union of Imams in Minneapolis, MN; the Omar bin Khatab Mosque and the Bethel Road Mosque in Columbus, OH; the Al-Huda and ICB Mosque in Boston; the Dearborn Mosque in Dearborn, MI; the Islamic Fiqh Council of India in New Delhi; and the European Council for Islamic Rulings and Research in Istanbul. Dr. Sultan worked at the Islamic Center of Greater Worcester, MA and at the Islamic Open University in Washington, D.C

Listen to the rhetoric:
  • Where is the [Islamic] nation? If 20 million people can encircle the Earth, then 20 million people could also drown Israel in a sea of blood.
  • "So what about the rest of mankind? They view them as pigs. That's the truth. Pigs! So why do they look like human beings? So that they will be worthy of being servants of the Jews, who could ride on their backs and suck their blood.
  • Judgment Day will not come before the Jew and the Muslim fight. The Jew will hide behind stones and trees, and the stone and the tree will speak, saying: 'Oh Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' The only exception will be the Gharqad tree.
  • One of these days, the U.S. will suffer more deaths than all those killed in this third Gaza holocaust. This will happen soon
  • The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an attempt to rule and corrupt the entire world. When the world concentrates on its desires and lusts, the [Jews] will be free to implement their plan of controlling the world
And yet we allow this man into our nation. We allow him to teach our young people and lecture our elected officials.

When he is confronted on this, he lies, he says he never said it. But the truth is out there if you listen and understand it. By speaking in Arabic, he hopes that the liberals in the west will not be able to understand his words.

But in any language his words speak of hatred and war. His words are the same words that Adolph Hitler said in 1933. The same words that every anti-Semite says today:

Kill the Jews!

And then he condemns Ilan Ramon. For the crime of defending his nation.

The arch-murderer who commanded the campaign against Jenin in 2003 went to America a few months later and boarded a NASA space shuttle. The space shuttle was launched by NASA, and a few minutes later, it reached Texas, the land of President Bush. Then this space shuttle shattered to pieces, along with the five top American space scientists, and that commander of the Zionist airforce was on board with them.


Ilan Ramon

Do you notice that he never uses the word: Israel. But uses the word Zionist or Jew. To him and the majority of Muslims in the world they are the same. Their goal is very simple: To Kill All the Jews. Israeli, British, American. It makes no difference. And the governments of the world are working with him and those like him in this endeavour.

Israeli Consulate Citizens’ “Press” Conference on Twitter Today

David Saranga, Consul of Media and Public Affairs in New York, will answer questions from the public about the situation in Israel and Gaza on Twitter today, Dec 30 at 1-3PM EST.

According to IsraelPolitick.org, David Saranga, Consul of Media and Public Affairs in New York, will answer your questions about the situation in Israel and Gaza in a “Citizens’ Press Conference.”

You can submit your question by directing it to their Twitter account.

Responses longer than 140 characters will be directed with a link to an answer posted in their blog.

 

Monday, December 29, 2008

Meanwhile in London.....




Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


What are these people in "Merry Olde England" so angry about?

a Manchester United lost a soccer match
b The pubs are closing one hour early
c Prince Charles is now King Charles
d America has declared independence
e Jack the Ripper has been (unjustly) charged with murder
f British food
g Israel has attacked Hamas in Gaza

Oh, I guess the picture gives it away, eh?

So I suppose "g" is the best answer (after much thought). Last night, the usual suspects had a demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy in London for the second night in a row to protest the Israeli attack on Hamas in Gaza. Projectiles were thrown at the Embassy and police, and seven were arrested. It won't be long before we see placards demanding the beheadings of any Israelis that can be rounded up in London.

Interestingly, in the previous week, there had been no such demonstrations to protest a week's full of rockets that were lobbed into Israeli civilian settlements by Hamas terrorists.

Why is it that every time I see a photograph from London, it is of some angry mob? Are there not any happy people in the UK any more? Cheer up, lift your pints!

Let's drink to Israel!

Muslims In A Near Riot, As Jews Pray For Their Soldiers.





Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

I am not amazed at the reaction of the Muslim and Moonbat Dhimmi communities over the reaction to Operation Cast Lead. The protests have already started with the cries of: Holocaust, Genocide, Death to Israel (a favorite in Muslim nations especially Iran), and Innocent Civilians. They are especially loud in those Dhimmified nations of Great Britain, France and Canada.

Forty pro-Israel demonstrators opposite the Israel Consulate in Toronto yelled back at more than 700 pro-Arabs protesting Israel’s military operations in Gaza Sunday afternoon .

Khaled Mouammar, president of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), stated, “The massacre taking place in Gaza must stop. People are suffering and dying. There is an actual genocide taking place.”

The CAF president has previosly gone on record demanding that Canada boycott "the Apartheid State" and that his government should not criticize Hizbullah terrorists.

Police were busy keeping the groups from attacking each other. Other than minor scuffles, there were no incidents of violence between the groups. Additional pro-Arab demonstrations took place throughout Canada.

The Toronto pro-Arab organizers called on the Canadian government to condemn Israel’s actions. While Canada’s Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon has expressed concern about the escalating violence, he has nevertheless stated that Israel has the right to defend itself.

Full Story
The Canadian Arab Federation is very similiar to CAIR. In their news release they write:

This is a war crime on an industrial scale.
We call on the federal opposition parties to ask the Harper Government to condemn the Israeli massacre of the
Palestinian people in Gaza .
There will be a demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate in Toronto
No where do they mention the daily barrage of rockets their brethern in Gaza send into Israel. Only the retaliation that Israel is finally imposing on Gaza. Of course our friends at CAIR put out this statement:

“American Muslims join our fellow citizens who respect international law and the sanctity of human life in repudiating this massacre carried out using U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons.

“It must be clear by now that the only future offered to the Palestinian people by the outgoing administration was one of perpetual subjugation and humiliation at the hands of the Israeli occupiers. Unfortunately, our nation’s timid response to this tragic episode will only serve to fuel anti-American sentiments in the Muslim world.

“We therefore call on President-elect Obama to demonstrate his commitment to change our nation’s current one-sided Mideast policy by speaking out now in favor of peace and justice for all parties to this decades-long conflict.”
I see. It is ok for PalArabs to attack Israel, but let the Israelis fight back and then its cry foul! And the rest of the Muslim world is no exception.

Tens of thousands rally through Arab capitals calling for end to Israeli strikes in Gaza and in support of Hamas. In Beirut Hizbullah leader Nasrallah echoes calls for third intifada, while in Amman masses urge renewal of suicide bombings.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese Shiite protesters, chanting "Death to America, Death to Israel", massed in Beirut on Monday, calling for an end to Israeli strikes on Gaza that have killed 320 Palestinians.


Protesters in Lebanon.

In the Jordanian capital, Amman, about 20,000 people staged a demonstration organized by the mainstream Muslim Brotherhood, while in Cairo about 1,000 people rallied to show solidarity with Gaza Palestinians.

Full Story
A call to begin Suicide bombings, a call for more violence. But I don't see Jordan, Lebanon or Egypt sending their armies to fight Israel. As a matter of fact it seems that Arab unity is a myth.

In a press conference held on Monday afternoon in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit responded to criticism by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday, saying that "They have practically declared war on Egypt via several satellite stations. The Egyptian people reject and opposes this declaration."

"They want for there to be chaos in Egypt as there is in their country," Gheit said of Hizbullah.

"I tell this man [Nasrallah]: No, no! Our armed forces can defend our homeland from people like you. Your interest in creating chaos is not in the best interest of the area," he added.

The Egyptian foreign minister added that his country had tried to prevent the escalation in violence by asking Israel not to carry out an operation in the Gaza Strip.

Full Story
The only Muslim nation that is activily recruiting fighters (I will not give them the honorific of soldiers) is you guessed it: Iran.

Group of hardline clerics signs up volunteers to fight in Gaza Strip in response to IDF airstrikes that have killed at least 300 Palestinians. Tens of thousands take part in anti-Israel protest in Tehran.


The usual Iranian protest.

"From Monday the Combatant Clergy Society has activated its website for a week to register volunteers to fight against the Zionist regime (Israel) in either the military, financial or propaganda fields," the semi-official Fars news agency said.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious decree to Muslims around the world on Sunday, ordering them to defend Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attacks "in any way possible".

A religious decree is an official statement by a high-ranking religious leader that commands Muslims to carry out its message. While there is no religious and legal force behind it, Khamenei is respected by many Iranian and non-Iranian Shiites.

Full Story
For those who do not speak Jihad, the words "defend Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attack in any way possible" is a call to kill all the Jews in the world.

And what is the Jewish community doing? They pray. No riotous protests, no shouting Death to Hamas, none of the hatred that is being unleashed by Islam. They are praying.

Several hundred people arrived at the Western Wall on Sunday to attend a lighting of the eighth Hanukkah candle and say a prayer for the wellbeing of IDF soldiers and the residents of Israel's southern communities.

Israel launched a military operation in Gaza Saturday in response to the ongoing rocket attacks from the Strip.

Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Jerusalem District Police chief Maj.-Gen. Ilan Franco were also present at the event.

"On these days every Jew in Israel and across the world is obligated to say a prayer for the soldiers and residents who are facing such difficult times," Rabbi Amar told Ynet.


Praying at the Western Wall

Worshippers at the Wall said they also prayed for a successful outcome to the military operation in Gaza. "May the soldiers have a Hanukkah miracle," one participant stated.
Prayers not for peace, for that time has passed, but for victory. For an end to Hamas. For an end to the rockets.

May God hear the prayers of Israel in this time of war. May Israel's victory be swift and sweet!

http://www.suntimes.com/news/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=Cz8neME9DYOr5Cz34JXBtDpWXHB7s33l0SonblCzDldBGlDdGXn

Sunday, December 28, 2008

What Can You Do In 270 Seconds?

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

An interesting question needless to say. 270 seconds = 4 minutes. You can boil an egg. You can kiss your spouse. You can give your children a big hug. If you are Israel, you can destroy 40 Tunnels that connect Gaza to Egypt.
The IAF destroyed 40 tunnels that connected the Egyptian and Gazan sides of Rafiah (Rafah) in a bombing sortie that lasted 270 seconds Sunday afternoon. Plumes of black smoke mushroomed into the air one after the other as the IAF cast bombs at the tunnels which line the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza.

The Corridor is supposed to be guarded by Egyptian forces but these have proven unable or unwilling to prevent large-scale smuggling of weapons and other supplies into Gaza.

A high ranking military source said that all of the tunnels which have been used by Hamas to smuggle weapons have been destroyed. Observers said the IAF may have used U.S.-supplied "bunker buster" bombs to destroy some the tunnels.

As part of the psychological warfare against Gaza, hundreds of residents of Gaza received recorded telephone calls in which they were warned: "You are in danger. In order to save your life and that of your family you must leave this place. This is a message from the Israel Defense Force."

The top source said that the IAF has carried out 213 sorties over Gaza since Operation Cast Lead began, 56 of them by combat helicopters. Most of the sorties were carried out Sunday.

He said that some of the tunnels were buried deep in the ground and their demolition was made possible thanks to accurate information supplied by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

The source said that the fighting would go on for a long time and warned that we would see "difficult days" in the course of the operation.
Strange war this is. The enemy calls up the civilians in Gaza and tells them to take cover. When did Hamas ever do that for the people of Sderot.

Day 2 of Operation Cast Lead is going well. Hamas still fires rockets into Israel, this time reaching as far as Ashdod, Israel is hitting military targets with precision and accuracy.
Gaza terrorists continued firing rockets at the western Negev Sunday afternoon, although the pace of the attacks had slowed by 4:00 p.m.

Three people, including a 12-year-old boy, suffered shrapnel wounds and several others suffered traumatic shock Sunday afternoon when the missiles bombarded the coastal city of Ashkelon at mid-day.

The terrorists are using 122-mm Grad-type Katyusha missiles, of the type that can reach a range of up to 40 kilometers. Several cars were also damaged after one of the missiles struck the southern end of the port city. The second missile landed in an unidentified location. Less than an hour later, two rockets exploded in the Eshkol region. No one was injured and no damage was reported.

Full Story

And the usual noise is coming out of Lebanon. Again the people of Lebanon will suffer for the actions of Hizbollah.

Hizbullah terrorists have vowed to open a second front against Israel in the north in retaliation for the IDF military operation against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Terrorist chief Hassan Nasrallah issued a statement on Hizbullah's Al-Manar television station Sunday, vowing that "northern Israel will burn as Gaza is burning." Nasrallah rarely appears in person; he speaks via a video hook-up from his hideout due to fears of assassination by Israeli agents, following the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Hizbullah officials were quoted in a number of Arabic-language publications on Saturday warning that they would not permit Israel to attack Gaza without retaliating.

Last week seven Katyusha rockets were discovered primed and ready for launching in southern Lebanon, located near the northern border of Israel. All seven were aimed at targets in the Jewish State.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert -- anticipating such a reaction -- warned Hizbullah Saturday night in his speech informing the nation about the military operation in Gaza that any "others who may seek to take advantage of the situation would be wise not to."

Full Story

In 2006 the world saw the dead children but not the dead Hizbollah fighters. Reports say that Hizbollah was decimated with losses of over 60%. I believe those reports since Hassan Nasrallah ordered that no funeral for any fighter be shown on the news, only those for civilian casualties. Thus the world got an distorted view of the war.

This time it is different. This time the Israeli people are 100% behind this action. This time the media is showing more pictures of dead and wounded Hamas fighters (I will not give them the honorific of soldier). And this time Israel will prevail.

NEIGHBORHOOD BULLY




View at YouTube


The Propaganda Wheels are already in motion: Those Poor Palestinian Victims

Palestinians uncover body in Gaza mosque. [The Guardian]

Gaza under siege [BBC]

Israeli Bombs Rain on Gaza [AOL News]

Israel continues airstrikes in Gaza as death toll rises [CNN]

Israeli Attacks in Gaza Strip Continue for Second Day

More News
Across Mideast, Thousands Protest Israeli Assault

[New York Times]
------------------------------------------------------------------

A note from Radarsite: Here we go. Already the heartrending photos are flooding into the eager arms of our anti-semitic Western MSM. Mangled bodies of helpless innocent Gazan citizens lay strewn amongst the ruins of the targeted buildings. Silent indictments of the barbarous cruelty of the Israeli attacks. Predictably, the Israeli incursions are being loudy condemned in the court of world opinion and throughout the Arab world, and amongst the corrupt pro-Islamic functionaries of the useless UN. After surprisingly referring to Hamas as 'thugs', and blaming their rocket attacks for breaking the ceasefire agreement, our appeasement-oriented State Department has predictably begun calling for an immediate ceasefire. Already the words 'war crimes' and 'slaughter' are being used to describe the Israeli actions. The omnipotent anti-Israel Juggernaut has been set in motion and the results are once again predictable.
Or are they?
This time one senses a different attitude amongst the ordinary people here in America and in Israel itself. The people are tired of the lies and the rationalizations. The liberal forces of appeasement and conciliation have run their course and produced nothing but more bloodshed and violence. And the people have finally reached their limit. They will not be so easily dissuaded from victory this time around. This time is different. Enough has finally become enough.

The new rallying-cry is Sderot. The new goal is victory. Not armistice, not ceasefire, but stark unequivocal victory. The voices of protest are as impotent as leaves in the wind. No more fumbles, no more humiliating half-victories. This time is different.

God grant Israel the will to persevere until the final Iranian-made rocket is destroyed and the final terrorist is dead or imprisoned. There is no other answer. There is no other outcome that is acceptable. World opinion be damned. To hell with the United Nations and to hell with the entire useless Arab/Muslim World. Fight on, brave little Israel. This time is different. This time we are with you to the end. -rg