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Conflict in the Middle East; - Hezbollah/Hamas/Gaza/Israel
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Topic Started: May 18 2006, 05:43 PM (619 Views)
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flea dip
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May 18 2006, 05:43 PM
Post #1
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Rock Star From Mars
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I'm still trying to figure out why some people (including many liberals in the U.S.A.) support the Palestinians (that was rhetorical, btw; no need for anyone to actually explain to me the 'why's' )-
Bitter rivals on patrol in Gaza as Hamas refuses to disband - The Independent, UK
Gunfight erupts between Hamas, Fatah forces in Gaza City - Haaretz
Rival Palestinian Forces Dangerous - Washington Post
Excerpt: - May 18, 2006
Rice's words implied frustration with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is in a power struggle with the militant Islamic group Hamas that now controls the parliament and Cabinet.
Rice says rival Palestinian forces must be resolved - The parade of rival security forces is the latest chapter in a power struggle between Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, whose militant Hamas movement took power in March.
The United States is leading a campaign to isolate Hamas both financially and politically and has put its support behind Abbas.
Gunfight erupts between Hamas and Fatah - Ireland Online
Friction grows between rival Palestinian factions - Euro News
Gaza tension grows as Hamas deploys new aiding force
Thousands of police, militants deploy Gaza showdown
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Jun 28 2006, 05:42 AM
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Rock Star From Mars
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There's a link below to Reuters -
Reuters tends to be heavily biased in the favor of Islam and Muslim terrorists and against Jews / Israel, so you have to take what they say with a grain of salt.
Reuters will "weasel word" their reports, to water down the wrongs and violence committed by Muslims, and that sort of thing. (But then, that holds true of most main stream outlets, such as BBC News, etc.) ---------- Israel enters Gaza in search for soldier- Wednesday June 28, 2006
Israeli forces bombed bridges, destroyed a power station and reoccupied areas of southern Gaza today as part of their attempt to free a kidnapped soldier.
The Israeli army said the operations aimed to stop the kidnappers moving Corporal Gilad Shilat, the 19-year old soldier abducted during a raid by militants on Sunday.
A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees told al-Jazeera satellite TV that the group was holding Mr Asheri, who is from the West Bank settlement of Itamar. The spokesman, known as Abu Abir, said the man would be "butchered in front of TV cameras" if Israel did not stop its raid on the Gaza Strip.
Mr Asheri was last seen at a Jerusalem hitchhiking stop used by settlers heading into the West Bank.
.... An Israeli army spokeswoman said: "During the night, the Israeli airforce hit three bridges in central Gaza and a power station south of Gaza City.
Israeli forces entered the south of Gaza near the village of Dahaniya and the airport and they remain there at the moment."
.... The army was positioned about a mile from Rafah, the southern Gaza town that has witnessed much fighting in recent years.
Residents living close to the town's outskirts fled their homes as militants began laying explosive devices and making barriers in anticipation of a full invasion.
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said Israel's military action had only just begun.
"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," he said. "We do not intend to reoccupy Gaza. We do not intend to stay there. We have one objective, and that is to bring Gilad home."
Speaking at an awards ceremony at his residence in Jerusalem, Mr Olmert insisted Israel would not negotiate for the soldier's release.
Security officials are debating the next step. Options include kidnapping an important Palestinian leader or assassinating Hamas leaders.
Haim Ramon, the justice minister, said Israel would try to assassinate Khaled Mashaal, a Hamas leader based in Damascus, who Israel believes gave the order for the kidnapping. "He is definitely in our sights ... he is a target," Mr Ramon told Army Radio. ....
Families flee as Israeli tanks roll into Gaza
Israeli army faces militants with expanded arsenal
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Jul 15 2006, 01:40 PM
Post #3
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Rock Star From Mars
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If you've not been keeping up with the latest (more links are below this)...
Chronology of events in the escalating Middle East violence - Updated Fri. Jul. 14 2006 1:41 PM ET
June 25. Hamas militants launch raid into Israel, killing two soldiers and capturing Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
June 26. Shalit's captors call for the release of all Palestinian women and children under 18 held in Israeli prisons in return for information about the soldier. Israel says it will not bargain.
June 27. Israeli troops move into southern Gaza, where Shalit is believed to be held, and Israeli warplanes blast bridges and Gaza's power station, cutting the coastal area's electricity supply by more than 40 per cent.
June 29. Israeli troops detain members of the Palestinian Authority's cabinet and nearly two dozen Hamas legislators.
July 3. Israeli forces move into northern Gaza in push to rescued Shalit.
July 4. Militants in Gaza launch a homemade rocket into the heart of the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the furthest they have managed to send a rocket.
July 5. Israeli tanks and troops move into the northern Gaza Strip and occupy residential areas in an attempt to prevent Palestinian militants from firing rockets at Israeli towns and cities.
July 6. Israel's offensive in Gaza is expanded after Hamas rocket strikes Ashkelon.
July 8. Israel further broadens its Gaza offensive, sending troops and 15 tanks into the eastern part of the strip. The Hamas government calls for a ceasefire but fails to offer Shalit's release. Israel refuses.
July 12. Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas kidnap two Israeli soldiers and kill eight others in a raid on Israel's northern border, opening a second front in Israel's battle against Islamic militants. Israel responds with an air assault and a ground thrust into southern Lebanon.
In Gaza, the Israeli air force drops a 225-kilogram bomb on a home in an attempt to assassinate top leaders of the Hamas militia. Nine members of a Palestinian family, including seven children, are killed. Overall, at least 69 Palestinians have died in the Israeli offensive.
July 13. Israel imposes a full naval blockade on Lebanon, bombs transportation routes and the Beirut airport, effectively sealing off the country. Scores of Hezbollah rockets are launched into Israel, including as far as Haifa, Israel's third-biggest city.
July 14. Israel bombs Beirut airport for a second a day, along with fuel storage depots, bridges and other targets. Hezbollah fires more rockets into northern Israel.
G8 begins with divisions over Middle East
CAIR plays the 'dual loyalty' card
Anti Semitism at Liberal Site Daily Kos
Bush Blames Hezbollah for Mideast Violence
Israel: Iran aided Hezbollah ship attack
Lebanese Split Over Hezbollah Actions
[Iranian-made] Missile, Not Drone, Hit Israeli Warship.
Lebanon Calls for Cease-Fire Under UN
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Tonygirl
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Jul 16 2006, 01:32 PM
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I don't blame Israel one bit. Since 1948, when they were declared a state, they have been surrounded by hostile countries who publicly say they want to exterminate the country and the people there. The Jews were given that land because it is their original home, they were there first basically. Since 1948 they have been attacked, sometimes daily for years. Weddings, nightclubs, trains, busses, schools, coffee houses, hospitals, taxis, you name it. Hezbolla, another Islamic fascist terrorist group, started using Lebanon as a base of ops. Lebanon is about the only country that has left Israel alone, now terrorists are using that land to shoot rockets and missiles into Israel. They are getting these weapons from neighbors Iran and Syria. Now the Hezbollah wingnut with the black diaper on his head is on TV saying the Jews are killing civilians in Lebanon, and that THEY have never targeted civilains! Huh? That's ALL they have targeted. Clubs, schools, see above, that have always targeted innocent poeple in Israel. Now last month they started kidnapping people and shooting deadlier weapons at Israel. Naturally the French, China, and Russia want Israel to put up with it for another 58 years. I think they (esp France) have so many Muslims in their countries they are afraid of them now. I hope Israel pounds the bloody crap out of these terrorist groups. It's about time. We always tell them to not do anything, just sit there and take it, sign a peace treaty, whatever. When was the last time a Muslim signed a treaty and didn't break it a week later? They gave peace a chance and it did not work.
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Jul 27 2006, 08:53 PM
Post #5
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Rock Star From Mars
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^ I agree with what all you said, Lady C.
Even if there were no Israel, there would still be no peace over there.
Islamo-wackos have been fighting and killing each other and other people long before Israel was re-established as a nation in 1948.
Muslims fight one another, (e.g., Sunni v. Shiite); they fight amongst themselves. I don't see the dissolution of an entire nation (Israel) helping stop the extremist Muslims' proclivity to violence.
Even if Israel ceased to exist, these Muslims would continue bombing and killing Europeans, Americans, and others around the world. (Zarqawi was trying to start a civil war among Muslim groups in Iraq, for pete's sake.)
Israel has every right to exist, and the fact remains they do exist, so the fundamentalist Muslims need to just accept it - but they won't, because they have an irrational, seething hatred of Jews.
And it's not just Israel that these idiots want to attack. They want to take over the entire world. Case in point: - Zawahri's Latest Rant
Here’s a nice neutral headline from the Associated Press, referring to Ayman al-Zawahri’s call for Muslims to commit mass murder in a quest for world domination: Al-Zawahri calls for Muslims to rise up.
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CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader issued a worldwide call Thursday for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from “Spain to Iraq.”
In the message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri, second in command to Osama bin Laden, said that al-Qaida now views “all the world as a battlefield open in front of us.”
The Egyptian-born physician said that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and Palestinian militants would not be ended with “cease-fires or agreements.”
“It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion [Islam] prevails ... from Spain to Iraq,” al-Zawahri said. “We will attack everywhere.”
Spain was controlled by Arab Muslims for more than seven centuries until they were driven from power in 1492.
Israel asked Lebanon several times when this latest round of fighting began to send their army to take care of Hizballah, and Lebanon wouldn't do it!
Speaking of which: Lebanese Army: Partners with Hizballah
The Democrats tried to spin the evacuation of Americans from Lebanon as a "Katrina like" failure. That didn't take 
More news and info...
Koffi Annan was recently lambasting Israel for the deaths of 4 UN "peacekeepers."
More Hizballah Firing from UN Positions - From today’s United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon press release (PDF), more reports of Hizballah using UN posts as cover for attacks:
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There were three incidents of firing close to UN positions in the last 24 hours from the Israeli side. It was also reported that Hezbollah fired from the vicinity of four UN positions at Marwahin, Alma Ash Shab, Brashit, and At Tiri.
Mainstream media is completely ignoring these reports, and issuing a flood of articles like this one: Security Council expresses shock at peacekeeper deaths, no condemnation.
Bolt: Why the UN Post Was Bombed Canada’s PM doubts Israeli bombing of UN outpost deliberate.
Canadian General: UN Observer Post Used By Hizballah - Retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie was interviewed on CBC radio, and had some very interesting news about the UN observer post hit by Israeli shells; the Canadian peacekeeper killed there had previously emailed Mackenzie telling him that Hizballah was using their post as cover.
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We received emails from him a few days ago, and he was describing the fact that he was taking fire within, in one case, three meters of his position for tactical necessity, not being targeted.
Now that’s veiled speech in the military.
What he was telling us was Hezbollah soldiers were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them. And that’s a favorite trick by people who don’t have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can’t be punished for it.
Hizballah Firing from Vicinity of UN Positions - There’s an amazing amount of press coverage of Israel’s airstrike on a UN observer post yesterday, but today’s UNIFIL press release (PDF) contains some information you aren’t hearing about on the nightly news.
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Another UN position of the Ghanaian battalion in the area of Marwahin in the western sector was also directly hit by one mortar round from the Hezbollah side last night.
The round did not explode, and there were no casualties or material damage. Another 5 incidents of firing close to UN positions from the Israeli side were reported yesterday.
It was also reported that Hezbollah fired from the vicinity of four UN positions at Alma ash Shab, Tibnin, Brashit, and At Tiri. All UNIFIL positions remain occupied and maintained by the troops.
Annan's libel
Excerpt:- Yesterday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert conveyed to Annan Israel's "deep regret" over the incident, as well his "reservations" over Annan's "inconceivable" decision to accuse Israel of deliberately targeting UN forces.
Reservations? Perhaps Olmert had to be polite, but outrage would be a more appropriate sentiment.
Just yesterday, Israel paid another terrible price in its soldiers' lives in the fight against Hizbullah. They died defending their country, but they also died, in effect, implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which demands the disarming of Hizbullah.
Israel has already apologized for, and pledged to investigate, the deaths of the UNIFIL soldiers.
Where is Kofi Annan's apology for insulting Israel, and his investigation of how UNIFIL came to be so inseparable from Hizbullah that it has been almost impossible to target the later without inadvertently hitting the former? Where is his gratitude for Israel's implementation, with the blood of its children, of a UN resolution?
And why, pray tell, would Israel target UNIFIL? Is Annan suggesting some sort of Israeli anti-UN sadism, or that Israel would have some reason to target UNIFIL in its war with Hizbullah?
Let's Remember Who Is To Blame
Excerpt:- ... That blame lies principally with the aggressor, Hezbollah, which began the conflict by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers, killing those who came to rescue them and then sending hundreds of rockets to strike Israeli towns and cities.
Hezbollah is firing those rockets, some of them packed with ball bearings to cause maximum carnage, with the clear purpose of killing Israeli civilians.
Israel, by contrast, is trying its best not to kill civilians. Its counterattack is aimed at degrading Hezbollah's military power and preventing future attacks on Israel. In the process of that counterattack, many civilians have been killed -- more than 400 by one count, a terrible and tragic toll.
But many of those deaths are also the responsibility of Hezbollah, which hides its rockets and its fighters in apartment buildings, villages and other civilian areas to exploit the people there as human shields.
Kofi Annan's rush to judgment
Excerpt:- This [the e-mail from a UN worker, "Hess-von Kruedener, a Canadian serving with the UN Truce Supervision Organization mission in southern Lebanon"] is what we call "veiled speech" in military jargon.
It means hiding the truth in lingo that outsiders would not necessarily understand. What he is saying translates roughly as: "We have Hezbollah fighters all over our position engaging the IDF and using us as shields. They will probably stay, hoping that the IDF won't target them for fear of hitting us."
Surprising? Not really.
I have served in another mission where one side constantly set up its weapon systems, including mortars, in and around hospitals, medical clinics, mosques and, yes, UN positions, knowing full well that, when it engaged its enemies and received return fire, it would make for compelling TV as the networks covered the civilian carnage.
(When they took up positions around my soldiers, I advised their leaders that I would authorize my soldiers to kill them within the hour if they didn't withdraw.
Fortunately, as I was not an unarmed observer, I was in a position to do that.) In many cases, the weapon systems were moved immediately after firing, and their positions around civilians were abandoned before innocents paid the price for their despicable techniques.
You have to admit this technique helps to win the PR war, which often is as important as the fighting one.
Certainly, the Secretary-General is familiar with this technique, having been the UN undersecretary of peacekeeping in the horrific 1990s, when the UN was floundering in the Balkans, Somalia and Rwanda.
For that reason alone -- and despite his soft-pedalling yesterday that the Israeli Prime Minister "definitely believes [the bombing was] a mistake" -- Mr. Annan should not have been so quick to pass judgment on an event that quite likely was not as it seemed in the hours following the tragedy.
Al-Qaida Calls for Holy War Against Israel
Israel to stick to ‘incursion’ strategy - July 27 2006
Israeli armoured personnel carriers headed on Thursday towards the Lebanese town of Bint Jbail, where the army said it was still fighting “terrorists” two days after declaring Hizbollah’s self-styled “capital of the resistance” was under its control.
Those who were hoping for a swift and – from Israel’s perspective – bloodless war have been disabused. On Wednesday, day 15, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) suffered their heaviest daily losses with nine killed and more than 20 wounded, all but one of the dead in Bint Jbail.
.... Ministers agreed to keep to a policy of limited and pinpointed incursions rather than a full-scale ground offensive. But they left open the option of calling up more reservists if needed.
..... Israel is fighting on territory it vacated six years ago and which Hizbollah has fortified in the same period. The IDF strategy is to destroy the elusive guerrillas and their infrastructure without re-establishing the Israeli occupation.
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Aug 9 2006, 07:45 PM
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Rock Star From Mars
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Can they or anyone not see the attempt by Muslims and even Europe to wipe out the original people from the Holy Land? Maybe I should start a new thread, one about Israel's origins 
I don't know if it's that they cannot see it so much as they do see it and don't care.
Europe has a history of being anti- Semitic and segments of it still are.
Now that much of Europe is also post-Christian, voila, they get an influx of Muslims to occupy the spiritual vacuum (and London, for instance, is now called "Londonstan," and they're voluntary dhimmis!)
You still have people buying into the Arabic- Muslim propaganda that Israel "kicked" the terrorists (Palestinians) out of their rightful land. See:Muslims hated and killed Jews (and Christians) long before the reformation of Israel in 1948.
Therefore, I don't see the sense in the argument, "Only if there were no Israel, there would be perfect peace in the Middle East!"
No, there wouldn't be any peace.
Islam is the religion that instituted the concept that war is holy (jihad). Meaning, they believe it's they're duty under Allah to kill those who will not submit/convert to their religion.
Even if there were no Israel, the Muslims would still fight one another (Sunni vs Shiite), they'd still hi-jack European and American planes to kill Westerners (the fundy Muslims don't hate Americans merely because we've supported Israel; they hate us because we are "infidels").
The Persians want control of the whole ME area, so you'd have Islamic-Persians fighting Islamic-Arabs. ~Hey, like they are now!
For the radical Islamists, getting rid of Israel is just one step in their larger goals. It's not the end of their agenda.
Before Israel was restored in 1948, the Jews were scattered around Europe and were killed anyway (for being Jewish), so why would anyone assume destroying Israel and making all Jews live abroad would magically solve everything?
You have some liberal Jews who don't want a nation state. Some argue on theological grounds. One such guy I saw interviewed (a rabbi) said the Jews are still in diaspora, by God's doing, so they should not seek a land for themselves.
I'm sitting there thinking, doesn't this guy even know his own Old Testament???
It's foretold in the Old Testament that in the last days, God would gather the Jews - who were to be scattered all over the world - into the land of Israel once more. It also indicated that is one of the big honking End-Times signs, hello.
(Another big sign - the Jews get control of Jerusalem where they will eventually rebuild their temple, despite the Dome of the Rock's presence. The Jews got control of Jerusalem in what, 1967?
The New Testament further reveals that Mr. Anti Christ will at one point stroll into the rebuilt Jewish temple in Israel to declare himself God and demand to be worshipped by all on earth.)
Some of the anti-Zionist Jews also raise a false dichotomy: for a Jew to want a Jewish nation state = idolatry (i.e. "land worship").
Says whom? One can be a Jew who places God above all else, as well as want an Israeli nation-state.
If it wasn't idolatry when God commanded them to live in Israel under David and other leaders, why would some of the Jews of today turn around and say it's idolatry now (putting aside the argument they believe they're still in diaspora)?
It's no different from devout Christians who are patriotic Americans; they place God first, and country second. That is not idolatry.
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Ah well, at least Israel isn't listening to the US or Europe. I hope they keep dropping bombs til every last terrorist is wormfood. Then you will have peace. I don't know about permanent peace, but I don't think Israelis wiping the terrorists out would be a bad thing.
Other than sending Rice over for diplomatic talks, the U.S. hasn't done anything. Our nation usually encourages Israel to show "restraint."
I say let Israel do what it must. The Arab-Islamists/terrorists are not competent militarily. The Israelis could easily defeat them.
IMHO, the Israeli politicians should've let their military handle the strategy from the get-go; they should've let ground troops go in when their generals asked them for permission.
Because they did not, this thing has dragged on for weeks now. Let the military make the decisions.
Israel actually has been very restrained in this fighting. They've even been dropping leaflets over southern Lebanon telling civilians to get out before IAF makes its runs. Do we see Hezbo's doing the same for Israelis? Nope.
Meanwhile, Hezbo's are hiding in civilian areas, using human shields (so too Palestinians), and dressing as civilians.
They've also been holding up and dead kids as photo props, and they're usually grinning as they do so.
Folks at LGF noticed something rather 'off' about those photos of dead Lebanese/Hezbo kids: the man holding the dead kids up is almost always the same guy, some dude in a green helmet who usually wears an orange vest.
Found some of the blog pages about Green Helmet Man: Page 1, Page 2
The Hezbo's have also been sneaking around in Ambulances, hiding weapon caches in Ambulances, because they figure the Israel's won't bomb those.
Not only are the Hezbo's to blame for civilian deaths in south Lebanon, but so to is the Lebanese Govt, I figure.
Several times early on the Israelis asked the Lebanese Govt to control Hezbollah, to send in their army, and they refused to do so.
That nut-job Ahmadinejad must be enjoying all this. Seapking of which, Iran's been seeking more uranium... maybe I should put that in the Iran in the News thread.
I see that some Westerners are going to willingly act as Hezbollah human shields. So, when they inevitably get killed, the left / anti Israeli crowd / msm will shout, "Israel killed more civilians!!" 
Additionally, mainstream media outlets are helping Hezbollah by deliberately altering photos, or if not altering them themselves, allowing them to be published. (I mentioned this in the thread "How Israel is Portrayed in the Media.")
~~~ EDIT ~~~
Iranian Soldiers Found Among Hezbollah Dead
Excerpt:- August 9, 2006
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources.
It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.
Israel says many of the rockets being fired against its civilian and military targets are Iranian made, and that Hizbollah fighters taking on its forces trained in Iran. Washington also accuses Tehran of actively funding Hizbollah. ...
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Jan 4 2009, 09:37 PM
Post #7
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Rock Star From Mars
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Related thread: Unleash Israel and Win Peace Confronting Hamas' Genocidal Jew-Hatred
Protesting Against Israel or Hating Jews? - Jan 3, 2009
By Richard L. Cravatts
The anti-Israel demonstration of some 200 to 300 people outside the Ft. Lauderdale courthouse on December 30th, which took place on the same day in other major American and European cities, gave Palestinian supporters yet another excuse to decry Israel: this time because of its recent incursions into Gaza to counterstrike Hamas personnel and infrastructure, and the Jewish state's attempt to stop the barrages of 6300 rockets that have rained down on southern Israel since 2005.
The members of A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition: Act Now to Stop War & End Racism and the Muslim American Society who attended Tuesday's demonstration apparently were not sufficiently concerned when rockets and mortars were launched almost daily into Israel from Gaza by Hamas, aimed at civilian targets for no other reason than the intended victims were Jews.
Once Israel retaliated with targeted strikes against Hamas, however, and some 400 Palestinians were killed (most of whom were Hamas terrorists), civilian casualties were immediately elevated by Israel's worldwide critics to "crimes against humanity," "genocide," and "disproportionate" responses.
What was particularly revealing, and chilling, about the Ft. Lauderdale demonstration was the virulence of the chants and messages on the placards, much of it seeming to suggest that more sinister hatreds and feelings-over and above concern for the current military operations-were simmering slightly below the surface.
Several of the protestors, for instance, carried signs saying "Nuke Israel," a sentiment that was also shouted out to pro-Israel counter-demonstrators standing across the street.
Now the notion of using of a nuclear device to eliminate Israel and thereby attempting to kill its roughly 5 million Jews is not a unique one, since words to that effect are regularly uttered, among others, by Iran's raving president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who dreams of such apocalyptic final solutions.
What is unique is the morally-defective logic that would enable someone to justify a second Holocaust, the mass murder of Jews, on the basis of Israel having defended itself from years of rocket attacks and having killed several hundred murderous terrorists in the process.
Making the Middle East free of Jews, Judenfrein, is exactly what Hamas, the group of murderous thugs being cheered on by the demonstrators here, ardently longs for; Hamas' charter, in fact, expresses as one of its core tenets that Israel should be eliminated, that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
Other protestors were less overt in their angry protestations, carrying signs and shouting out the oft-heard slogan, "Free Palestine," or, as it is generally expressed when the odious messenger has sufficient time and space, "Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea." That phrase suggests the same situation that the nuclear option would help bring about, namely that if "Palestine" is "liberated," is free, there will of course be no Israel between the Jordan River and Mediterranean, and no Jews.
So the careless talk about the so-called "occupation" of the West Bank and previously of Gaza, or disputes over the 1967 borders, or the division of Jerusalem, or the construction of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria is obviously all meaningless, merely a smokescreen put up by the enemies of Israel to disguise the fact that they have no intention of living peacefully in their own state beside a Jewish one because they have no intention of letting the Jewish one exist.
Hamas' charter announces quite clearly "that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up."
The most frightening incident during the demonstration, caught on video by Tom Trento, director of the Florida Security Council, and one which reveals the actual nature of the naked hatred of the pro-Hamas demonstrators, involved a Muslim-American woman in headscarf who was taunting the (presumably) Jewish counter-protestors across the street.
She first screams that someone's "mother is a whore," but finding that a little ineffective she then reaches for something that captures the particularity of the event and screams, "Go back to the ovens. You need a big oven. That's what you need," suggesting, in a rather insensitive way, that if Hamas is not able to eliminate Jews in the Middle East successfully, wouldn't it be convenient to be able to ship Jews back to the crematoria of the Nazi's Final Solution?
This demonstrator's ugly and revealing comments expose what many have thought of Israel's most virulent critics for some time -- that if you scratch the surface of an Israel-hater long enough, you will eventually find a Jew-hater lurking below.
Even critics of Israel as odious as Ahmadinejad never publicly admit that they despise Jews. He merely loathes the "Zionist regime."
The argument always goes something like this: it's not that they hate Jews; it's only Zionism or Israeli policies they abhor.
So the British university lecturers union can call for boycotts of Israeli academics because of Zionist policies; or two American professors can write about an ominous "Israel Lobby" while they actually question the motives, and loyalty, of American Jews; or a former American president can accuse Israel of "apartheid" as opposed to peace; or Arab states and the UN can continually denounce the alleged ongoing "ethnic cleansing" or "genocide" of the Palestinians at the hands of the brutal Zionist regime; and all of them can escape what should be painfully obvious: that they despise and want to dismantle Israel not because its policies or actions are so beyond acceptable standards of nationhood, but precisely because Israel is, and always will be, the Jew among nations.
Richard L. Cravatts, Ph.D., director of Boston University's Program in Publishing at the Center for Professional Education, is writing a book about the demonizing of Israel taking place on college campuses.
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Jun 2 2010, 07:44 PM
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Rock Star From Mars
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Beating Up on Israel - BY DANIEL HENNINGER
The world's powers find it easier to denounce small nations like Israel than take on large and difficult problems like Iran or North Korea.
Comparison: Liberal Reaction Vs. Conservative Reaction To The Israel/Flotilla Story
In The Great Flotilla Debate, The Facts Are On Israel's Side- by Marty Peretz
Look, I wish the Israeli raid on the so-called “Freedom Flotilla” had ended differently. Why, I ask, didn’t Israel’s navy disable the engine of the Mavi Marmara and drag the ship into port? Who knows? The engines of the other boats were apparently disabled—or so reliable sources say.
But, frankly, when some 800 men and women, distributed over six boats after weeks and weeks of preparation, are headed towards Gaza on the wings of slogan and hysteria, you don’t take that many chances. Somebody has trouble in mind.
The first five vessels were steered quietly to the Israeli port city of Ashdod, which means that neither their passengers nor the Israeli commandos were especially provocative.
The sixth ship, which had 600 activist Turkish voyeurs on board, is an entirely different story.
Sponsored by an organization labeled the Humanitarian Relief Fund (I.H.H.), it is said to have ties to Al Qaeda. Which would be logical since Al Qaeda is an ally of Hamas. An intriguing tripartite liaison.
But I.H.H. is also a satrap of the ever-more-Islamist government in Istanbul, which seems, in turn, to have volunteered itself as a front for jihadism everywhere, most especially in dealing with Iran and its nuclear ambitions. There is hardly a Muslim cause that the Erdogan regime in Ankara has not taken to heart and under its belt. (Recall that Turkey kept U.S. forces from traversing Turkish soil in 2003.)
Turkey was also once an important ally of Israel, which protected it from Syrian ambitions and gave it a non-Arab friend in a sea of Arabism. Israeli commerce and Israeli military cooperation—that is, modernizing Turkish armaments and units—will not continue much longer with this still-backward country. The Israelis will be sad to lose this friend, but, in fact, they have lost it already. And this is a reciprocal loss.
It wasn’t so long ago that Turkey—Erdogan’s Turkey—aspired to membership in the European Union.
They can kiss that goodbye. The Turks may now be heroes on the Arab street, but they certainly aren’t heroes in Europe’s chancelleries, which prefer controversies on paper.
And, much as some E.U. states have huffed and puffed about Israel, the Union is not anxious to add nearly 80 million Muslims to what would no longer be Europe.
It rings symbolically true that the two European countries first in line to bash Israel were the continent’s prime basket cases: Greece, whose fakeries and troubles have no end; and Spain, saddled with hundreds of thousands of non-working Muslim immigrants and two ongoing separatist movements, one of which (Catalonia) has much justice on its side. Both Greece and Spain are, of course, “progressive,” which is to say socialist (and unbelievably corrupt).
In Massachusetts, where I live, one young man—an Irish-American dual national who took part in the flotilla—has become a hero. His father is Joseph Bangert, a Cape Cod resident who, according to The Boston Globe, is a retired Marine and Vietnam veteran.
Under a photograph of his son, a strapping reddish-haired youth of 28, is the Globe’s caption: Bangert “said he had not spoken with his son, Fiachra O’Luain, directly and has had to rely on news reports, information on Facebook, and a YouTube video.”
What was his seed doing in the eastern Mediterranean? This was not, after all, the Easter Rebellion. He was either a fighter, in which case he might have anticipated getting hurt in the excitement. Or he was a voyeur--an idealistic voyeur, to be sure--in which case, whatever ...
The propaganda for the flotilla has been in the works for months. Most of it was simply false. The poverty in Gaza is not qualitatively greater than that of your average Arab city. (Take Cairo. Or Amman, for that matter.)
The markets are full of fruit and vegetables ... and flowers. Persistent pockets of deprivation exist in the historic refugee concentrations, which the Palestinian political class maintains as evidence of the ancient wrong.
And, no, nobody is building big houses ... except again the elites, to the extent that they can smuggle materiel through the hundreds of tunnels which are perhaps less corrupt than the ordinary channels of commerce.
Who is behind this overhyped mission of mercy? And who is its beneficiary? It is none other than Hamas, the Gazan outpost of the global jihad, cousin of the Taliban, second cousin once-removed of Hezbollah. Wishing Hamas well, laboring for its success, is actually a crime against the Palestinians themselves. Of course, the new realists, so-called, will now beat the drums for a “pragmatic” opening to Hamas. It is an old trope for Robert Malley and his ilk. So, over the last two days, they have returned with the same message: Hamas is the future. Soon we will hear from James Baker, James Wolfensohn, even Paul Volcker, who knows a lot about some things but absolutely zero about the Middle East.
But Hamas is the past, the ugly past of ignorance. That does not mean it has no future. Hamas is the Palestinian counterpart of the movements of dread that now course throughout the world of Islam, and against which the West and moderate Muslims are struggling. The backward Muslims were Lost in the Sacred, as Dan Diner put it in his dazzling book-long essay, subtitled Why the Muslim World Stood Still. Pascal Bruckner depicts their Western sympathizers in The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism. Read these two books and you’ll understand the desperate and comradely pity educated men and women have for pitilessness.
Sympathy for Hamas is an odd reality in the Western world, and Israel needs to puzzle over how it has lost so much ground in its struggle against Arab and Muslim barbarism. I understand that the revival of a certain chic anti-Semitism has paved the way for the grosser anti-Semites and for the Muslim phantasts who deal in torment and salvation. Among these were the voyagers on the ship of fools who, a clip from Al Jazeera demonstrates, awaited the shores of Gaza ... or martyrdom.
The front page of the Financial Times reads “Israel faces global backlash.” Turkey, it says, “calls flotilla attack ‘inhuman.’ ” This is Turkey, mind you, which can’t admit to the Armenian genocide of nearly a century ago and won’t relent on the Kurds today. As it happens, the Security Council, meeting way into Tuesday morning, passed a balanced, even judicious, resolution that was, in true meaning, at least as much a rebuke to the Turks as it was a criticism of Israel. Neither Russia nor China stood in the way—at least not in the end—of fairness to Israel. And they did not try to exculpate Hamas or the macabre joy riders, including young Fiachra O’Luain.
And I must admit that this marks a turning point in the Obama administration’s attitude to Israel. Although it made some de rigeur criticisms, it was not about to make Jerusalem a sacrificial lamb for a faltering foreign policy. Susan Rice, with whom you know I have many problems, made all the appropriate visits and phone calls—bravely, conscientiously, and wisely. Maybe it was at least as much for the Palestinian Authority as it was for the Jewish state. Or for ultimate peace, unlikely as it is. But it was. Neither did anyone walk out of the “proximity talks,” non-talks as these are. And, for this, I assume the president is responsible. Mazel tov.
In fact, many people are having second thoughts … or are freeing their initial thoughts from the tiresome orthodoxies in smart parlors.
There were several smart pieces yesterday about the flotilla fallout. One was written by Michael Sean Winters in the lefty National Catholic Reporter. It is called “Judging Israel.” And it judges the Jewish state fairly. But perhaps the most important take on the episode appeared in The Daily Beast. The piece (“Israel Was Right”) was written by Leslie H. Gelb, a senior ideas man in the American foreign policy establishment, a former New York Times columnist, and the longtime president (now president emeritus) of the Council on Foreign Relations. Writes Gelb: Israel had every right under international law to stop and board ships bound for the Gaza war zone late Sunday. Only knee-jerk left-wingers and the usual legion of poseurs around the world would dispute this. And it is pretty clear that this "humanitarian" flotilla headed for Gaza aimed to provoke a confrontation with Israel. Various representatives of the Free Gaza Movement, one of the main organizers of this deadly extravaganza, have let it slip throughout Monday that their intention was every bit as much "to break" Israel's blockade of Gaza as to deliver the relief goods.
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Regarding international law, blockades are quite legal. The United States and Britain were at war with Germany and Japan and blockaded them. I can't remember international lawyers saying those blockades were illegal—even though they took place on the high seas in international waters. On that note, here are the relevant passages from the Helsinki Principles on the Law of Maritime Neutrality: 5.1.2 (3) Merchant ships flying the flag of a neutral State may be attacked if they are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search, capture or diversion.
5.1.2 (4) Merchant ships flying the flag of a neutral State may be attacked if they (a) engage in belligerent acts on behalf of the enemy; (B) act as auxiliaries to the enemy’s armed forces; © are incorporated into or assist the enemy’s intelligence system; (d) sail under convoy of enemy warships or military aircraft; or (e) otherwise make an effective contribution to the enemy’s military action, e.g., by carrying military materials, and it is not feasible for the attacking forces to first place passengers and crew in a place of safety. Unless circumstances do not permit, they are to be given a warning, so that they can re-route, off-load, or take other precautions.
5.2.1 As an exception to Principle 5.1.2. paragraph 1 and in accordance with Principle 1.3 (2nd sentence), belligerent warships have a right to visit and search vis-à-vis neutral commercial ships in order to ascertain the character and destination of their cargo. If a ship tries to evade this control or offers resistance, measures of coercion necessary to exercise this right are permissible. This includes the right to divert a ship where visit and search at the place where the ship is encountered are not practical.
5.2.10 Blockade, i.e. the interdiction of all or certain maritime traffic coming from or going to a port or coast of a belligerent, is a legitimate method of naval warfare. In order to be valid, the blockade must be declared, notified to belligerent and neutral States, effective and applied impartially to ships of all States. A blockade may not bar access to neutral ports or coasts. Neutral vessels believed on reasonable and probable grounds to be breaching a blockade may be stopped and captured. If they, after prior warning, clearly resist capture, they may be attacked. The law is on Israel’s side. Ethics and history are on Israel’s side. Those who are on the side of Hamas are actually enemies of civilization.
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