A blog for all seasons; A blog for one; A blog for all. As the 11th most informative blog on the planet, I have a seared memory of throwing my Time 2006 Man of the Year Award over the railing at Time Warner Center.
Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue
Hamas continues firing kassams and mortars into Israel in the hopes of killing and maiming Israelis. It's wanton destruction that Hamas is after, and they've gotten lucky.
Israel is continuing its airstrikes against Hamas, so Hamas' latest statements are that they intend to capture more IDF soldiers to be used as pawns to demand the release of Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails.
Gilad Shalit remains in Hamas clutches, and it's been more than 2.5 years since he was captured. I still don't hear demands on Hamas to release Shalit as a humanitarian gesture. Perhaps the real reason for the silence on that front is the fact that everyone recognizes that Hamas is incapable of engaging in humanitarian actions. Israel has repeatedly engaged in prisoner releases, and Israel has suffered for it - as some of those released have gone back to kill again. It's a self-destructive policy and it undermines Israel's national security.
The diplomats continue to engage in pseudoreality, hoping to get a sustainable truce. That includes US Secretary of State Condi Rice. There is no such thing. Hamas violated the last truce within five days - it was incapable of going more than a few days without the urge to kill Israelis. Hamas has no intention of ever engaging in a sustainable truce - a real genuine one that involves Hamas laying down its arms; it would go against their religious and ideological beliefs.
The UN continues to worry more about what Israel might do to Gaza than to what Hamas has done to Israel over the years. Years of rocket attacks didn't spur much of a response from the UN, but the threat that Israel might go after Hamas in a ground operation has gotten the UN into a frenzy.
It really comes as no surprise that a majority of Democrats and leftists are against Israel's ability to defend itself from terror attacks. These are the same people who have hamstrung America's ability to protect itself and have engaged in lawfare that benefits no one but terrorists captured on battlefields around the world. These are the same people who extend Geneva Convention protections to a class of people specifically excluded from such protections.
Terrorists don't believe in human rights or the Geneva Convention. They aren't reading Miranda rights to those they kidnap - and then truly torture and brutally murder. Hamas celebrates the brutal murders of Israelis and aspires to so much more blood running - so long as it's Israelis who die. Then again, they don't mind if Palestinians die in huge numbers either, since the media backlash against Israel is useful for the terrorists as well.
Hamas teaches hatred and venom. The idea that there is a path other than terrorism doesn't even enter their consciousness. Israel's destruction is the only priority.
Of course, that hatred and venom is shared by more than just Hamas. Their supporters around the world - including many Muslims call for jihad as well. That's holy war of a non-spiritual nature to kill the infidels and nonbelievers.
UPDATE: Still more kassams have been fired into Israel by Hamas, and the targets remain women and children. Hamas knows that Israeli military forces are nearby, and yet they're still targeting Sderot, Ashdod, and beyond. This isn't about attacking Israel's military, but to kill civilians.
If Hamas had chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons, they would have used them against Israel - not only to kill as many Jews as possible, but to provoke a regional conflict since Hamas could procure such weapons from only a few places - namely Iran or Syria.
UPDATE: The ground campaign has begun, and I wish the IDF good hunting. The second phase of Operation Cast Lead has begun. The Israelis are going to take plenty of flak from the usual suspects, whether it's the insanely biased media that ignores kassam attacks on Israel, but focuses intently on Israel's response or the Islamists around the world that call for Israel's destruction at the drop of a hat and need no pretext to do so.
It's interesting that the Israelis have allowed a foreign reporter working for Iranian press to cover the story from inside Israel. The authorities are looking for him now, because he leaked details prior to the official kickoff announcement as permitted by the military establishment. In other words, this journalist was hoping to give Hamas and their terror masters a hint at the oncoming attacks.
UPDATE: The jihadis have found themselves face to face with Israeli forces on the ground in Northern Gaza. Ynet reports that multiple terrorists have been wounded as the IDF has taken hold of areas from which Hamas has regularly fired kassams towards Israel.
Army officials confirmed that dozens of terrorists were hurt in clashes with IDF ground troops, some of them were killed. In several cases, armed terrorists approached Israeli forces and were shot at by ground troops and IDF gunships. There are no reports of Israeli casualties at this time.
Large IDF ground forces, including Armored and Engineering corps units, as well as infantry soldiers are currently operating in the Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun areas, from which rockets have been launched toward Israel.
The army is preparing to enter the third phase of the operation, which is expected to be much broader in scope. In this framework tens of thousands of reserve soldiers will be pouring into training bases in north and south Israel during the early hours of Sunday morning.
Even now, the rockets continue hitting Israel and injuring Israelis. We can expect the attacks to continue, and perhaps intensify as Hamas tries to fire off what it has left before Israel destroys them in place. Meanwhile, Israel has to watch that Hizbullah doesn't attempt to open a second front. Israel faced just that situation during the Hizbullah war in 2006 as Hamas began launching barrages to take the heat off Hizbullah.
The UN does what it always does - ignore that Hamas is a terrorist group dedicated to Israel's destruction and instead focuses on Israel's sovereign right to defend itself and finds fault with that.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry chooses terrorists over Israel. Nice. Stay classy Spain. The Islamists will destroy you last, or so you think.
Mr. Rangel had already helped secure a $5 million pledge for the project from a foundation controlled by Maurice R. Greenberg, one of the company’s largest shareholders and its former chief executive. And C.C.N.Y. officials, according to the school’s own records, had high hopes for A.I.G. — a donation of perhaps as much as $10 million.
The company has never made a contribution. But less than a month after Mr. Rangel met with its officials, the company turned to the congressman for help: A senior A.I.G. executive who had attended the fund-raising meeting wrote a letter directly to Mr. Rangel, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, urging him to support a provision of a tax bill that would save A.I.G. millions of dollars a year, according to Joseph M. Norton, a company spokesman.
Mr. Rangel’s exchange with A.I.G. last spring appears to be at odds with the public statements he has made since his fund-raising for the school became an issue. When his approach to A.I.G. was first reported in The Washington Post in July, Mr. Rangel said that he could not recall any issues his committee might have considered in which A.I.G. had an interest.
“I can’t think of one piece of legislation that impacts them, and there has never been a time that they’ve raised any legislation to me,” the paper quoted Mr. Rangel as saying. Indeed, in Mr. Rangel’s formal submission to the House ethics committee, asking it to review his use of Congressional stationery in soliciting money for the school, he wrote, “So far as I am aware, none of those whom I wrote had any pending requests into my office, lobbied me regarding any legislation before my committee, or asked me for assistance on legislation in which they had a special interest.”
Mr. Rangel, who had opposed the tax change A.I.G. was seeking — part of a much bigger piece of legislation — ultimately allowed it to be added to a bill he sponsored. Mr. Rangel’s aides, and fellow Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, say that he agreed to the bill only after being persuaded by other members of Congress that it would help an array of American companies weather the economic uncertainty.
Rep. Charles Rangel keeps finding himself in this situation. He asks AIG for a donation early in 2008 for the school of public service being developed by the City College of New York. AIG turns around and gets a tax break, courtesy of Rangel's Ways and Means Committee.
AIG had a whole host of issues before Ways and Means. They weren't merely some company with a one-off issue. AIG lobbyists have been hard at work on the Hill, including during the $700 billion bailout, which also passed through Rangel's hands.
Throw in the fact that Rangel's engaged in rampant tax evasion, ignored House ethics rules and guidelines for tax consequences and reporting of junkets, and a whole litany of other questionable practices, and you have to wonder why Democrats continue to back the guy. He's a walking rap sheet in waiting.
This is an annual event, notwithstanding the marauding thugs who torched cars throughout France and parts of Europe several times over the past few years. More than 1,000 cars were torched in Paris during New Year's and yet the French apparently tolerate this kind of unrest.
The French press reported that the Interior Ministry released a final "verified" count of 1,147 vehicles burned in France over New Year's Eve. The number is up 30.64% from last year's total, 878.
REUTERS - At least 445 cars were torched over the night of New Year's Eve in France, a 20 percent rise on last year, but there were relatively few clashes with police, the Interior Ministry and police said on Thursday.
Car burnings are regular occurrences in France but the registering the New Year's Eve total has become something of a tradition since they achieved symbolic status in the violent rioting that shook many of the country's poor suburbs in 2005.
With riots in Athens heightening worries that the economic crisis might spark a resurgence of the violence seen in the run-down "banlieues" then, 35,000 police were mobilised on New Year's Eve, some 7,000 more than last year.
Officials were also on guard against possible attacks after five sticks of dynamite were left in a Paris department store just before Christmas by a so-far unidentified group demanding a withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.
An Interior Ministry official said that as of 6:00 a.m. (0500 GMT), 445 car burnings had been registered, against 372 at the same time a year before and police had made 288 arrests, compared with 259 on Dec. 31, 2007.
That speaks poorly of the French law enforcement measures to prevent the arson and wanton destruction of vehicles and also how these communities tolerate this behavior such that it is common place and not viewed as the serious criminal activity it is.
It seems that the Mayor of Seattle has had second thoughts about the no-salt added policy pursued by the City while claiming that the ecological effects of adding salt to the roads would harm the salt-water of Puget Sound.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced this morning that the city will reverse its decade-old policy and use road salt to melt ice in future storms.
The mayor set certain conditions for using salt: on hills, arterials or snow bus routes, and on routes to hospitals and other emergency facilities when at least 4 inches of snow is predicted, if ice is predicted, or if extreme cold is expected to last more than three days.
The city earlier refused to use salt, saying it's bad for the environment, and instead spread sand over the roads.
"In normal Seattle winters, this practice has served us well," Nickels said in a City Hall news conference today. "This time, liquid de-icers were not enough. People were frustrated, and so was I."
Nickels has faced criticism over the city's reaction to back-to-back snowstorms over the past two weeks. Buses could not run in many parts of the city and roads remained icy and rutted days after snow had fallen.
I guess the Mayor probably saw the bad public relations nightmare that ensued, to say nothing of the possible serious hit from lawsuits as a result of law enforcement being unable to reach people during emergencies in a timely fashion or the numerous auto accidents that resulted from roads that were worse than ice skating rinks because they were on hills.
Nothing is so clarifying as watching the potential for lawsuits pile up, and the city grind to a halt because of a snowstorm.
Of course, there are limitations to common sense:
The mayor set certain conditions for using salt: on hills, arterials or snow bus routes, and on routes to hospitals and other emergency facilities when at least 4 inches of snow is predicted, if ice is predicted, or if extreme cold is expected to last more than three days.
Making sure that hills are treated along with arterials and snow-bus routes is common sense, but requiring that four inches of snow fall before salt is used makes no sense. It doesn't take four inches of snow to cause problems. It can be as little as an inch - because it's the freezing of water that causes ice and turns roads into hazardous ice skating rinks.
It's being proposed in the name of fixing transportation infrastructure, but I have serious doubts over how the money will be divided up. Since it's a federal tax we're talking about, the money isn't going to end up where it's necessarily most needed, but based on other factors to ensure that states with fewer roads or less expensive transportation systems get money, shortchanging states that have extremely dense transportation infrastructure, including those in the Northeast, California, and the Midwest.
It's also a regressive tax that adversely affects lower income drivers. It would also increase transportation costs for truckers and businesses, which is being proposed at a time when the nation is reeling from a serious economic downturn.
Increasing state taxes on a case by case basis could be made, and I could grudgingly accept it if the money was truly dedicated to fulfill transportation projects and not engage in porkbarrel spending or treat the money solely as a jobs program. It's one thing to use the money to rebuild a road that is rated poor and/or obsolete. It's another to propose building grandiose projects that have limited usage.
New Jersey's politicians have been mulling a gas tax increase to replenish the transportation trust fund, and I've generally opposed that because the state has chosen to spend money elsewhere on porkbarrel projects of dubious intent. The state's fiscal situation is such that it refuses to cut spending on nonessential projects or cut state workforce when the ratio of state workers per residents continues to climb as more residents flee to lower tax burden climates. It would force the states to make tough choices - to spend on necessary projects or continue funding obsolete or programs of dubious merit. Raising taxes deprives everyone of money that can be put to better use by the people that actually made the money in the first place.
Well, since my last posting on the Israeli operation to deal with Hamas in Gaza, Hamas has continued firing kassams and mortars into Israel and talks that Israel might consider a truce percolate in the media, even though Hamas is a completely unrepentant terrorist group that seeks nothing less than Israel's destruction and will sacrifice all Palestinians to fulfill that ideological and theological goal.
This isn't just some political terrorist group, but one whose outlook is focused and based on Islamic precepts that demand nothing less than Israel be destroyed. For Hamas, it is a religious obligation. You can't reason with such a group. Such a group must be unconditionally defeated.
Any and all talk of a hudna or ceasefire undermines Israel's ability to actually defeat Hamas and improve Israel's security posture.
Since Hamas has taken over Gaza in 2005, Gaza has become an ever more violent wasteland as a result of Hamas deciding that war is preferable to living in an uneasy coexistence with Israel.
Via the Israel Project, here's a few numbers to keep in mind:
Iran-backed Hamas Rocket, Mortar Attacks and Nuclear Developments
9,400+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2003. [1] 3,200+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in 2008 alone. [2] 6,500+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. [3] 543+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israeli territory during the ceasefire from June 19 to Dec. 19, 2008. [4] 28 deaths caused by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001. The dead include Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire ended, Iran-backed Palestinian groups in Gaza fired rockets and mortars that killed an Israeli-Arab construction worker and a mother of four who was seeking shelter in a bus station as a rocket warning siren sounded. [5] 1,000+ people in Israel injured from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001, including Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire, 44 Israelis have been injured and 200 have been treated for shock. [6] 20,000 Hamas troops Israel is targeting as part of “Operation Cast Lead.” [7] 750,000 number of Israeli civilians Hamas is targeting and can reach. [8] 15 seconds Israelis have to get to a bomb shelter once a warning siren has sounded. [9] 8 years that Israel has been hit by rockets and mortars from Gaza [10] 3 mosques in Gaza used as weapons, ammunitions and explosives depots that were struck by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the operation in Gaza . [11] 4 UN Security Council resolutions passed since 2006 to try to stop Iran from enriching uranium. [12] 5,000+ number of centrifuges operating in Iran to enrich uranium, the material used to produce a nuclear weapon. [13]
Israel’s Humanitarian Aid to Gazahttp://www.theisraelproject.org/
179 truckloads of humanitarian aid that have been delivered through Israeli crossings into Gaza since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, including basic food commodities, medication, medical supplies, donations of governments and blood units. 106 additional truckloads of humanitarian expected to arrive in Gaza on Jan. 31 [14] 6,500 tons of aid transported into Gaza at the request of international organizations, the Palestinian Authority and various governments since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead. The World Food Program informed Israel that it will cease shipment of food to Gaza because warehouses are at full capacity, with enough food to last two weeks. [15] What Israel Gave Up in Hopes of Peace - Gaza Withdrawal Aug. 2005
100% proportion of the Gaza Strip evacuated and handed over to the Palestinians. [16] 300 square miles of the West Bank evacuated. [17] 21 Israeli settlements uprooted in the Gaza Strip. [18] 4 Israeli settlements uprooted in the West Bank . [19] 48 graves uprooted in Gaza ’s former Gush Katif Cemetery , including six graves of area residents murdered by terrorists. [20] 9,000 approximate number of Israelis, including 1,700 families, who lived in Gaza and the northern West Bank . All of them were moved out as part of the withdrawal. [21] 38 synagogues dismantled in the Gaza Strip. [22] 5,000 school-age children who had to find new schools. [23] 42 daycare centers that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [24] 36 kindergartens that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [25] 7 elementary schools that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [26] 3 high schools that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [27] 320 mobile homes, ordered by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, to serve as temporary housing for settlers. [28] 45,000 Israeli soldiers and policemen who participated in the Gaza withdrawal. [29] $1.7 billion the approximate cost to the Israeli government for the withdrawal initiative. [30] 166 Israeli farmers who were moved out of Gaza . [31] 800 cows, which comprised the second largest dairy farm in Israel , moved out of Gaza ’s Gush Katif community. [32] $120 million value of flowers and produce exported annually from Gush Katif and lost following the evacuation. [33] 1 zoo, the “Katifari,” that housed hundreds of animals and was moved. [34] 10,000 people who were employed in agriculture and related industries in Gush Katif, including 5,000 Palestinians. [35] 60% proportion of Israel's cherry tomato exports that came from the Gaza Strip. Israel ’s withdrawal from Gaza extinguished this economic resource. [36] 3.5 million square meters (almost 1,000 acres) of greenhouses abandoned in Gaza . [37] 70 percentage of Israel's organic produce grown in Gaza – another economic resource lost in the evacuation. [38] 60 percentage of herbs exported from Israel that came from Gush Katif. [39] 15 percentage of Israel agricultural exports that originated in Gaza – exports lost following Israel ’s withdrawal from Gaza . [40] $360,000 expected average compensation amount Israel expected to pay to relocate each family. [41] $870 million approximate cost for Israel to facilitate the resettlement of former West Bank and Gaza residents elsewhere in the country. [42] $500 million amount of money Israel's security establishment spent to relocate Israel Defense Forces bases outside the Gaza Strip and build new border crossing facilities. [43]
After Israel ’s evacuation from Gaza …
430,000 West Bank Palestinians able to move freely within and between Palestinian-controlled areas. [44] 1 Israeli remaining in Gaza . Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit was abducted from Israel on June 25, 2006 by Hamas in a bloody cross-border raid in which the terrorists also killed two IDF soldiers and wounded four others. [45] 1.2 million Arabs who remained full and legal citizens of Israel . All Israeli citizens – Christians, Muslims, and Jews – have freedom of speech, religion, press, and the right to vote. [46] 1.3 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip many of them in Palestinian Authority-controlled refugee camps, who live under their own leaders. [47] 820,000 Jewish refugees forced to flee without their belongings from Arab countries between 1947 and 1949, and who have never been compensated by Arab governments for their losses. [48] 650,000 Arab refugees who left Israel from 1947-1949 and still need Palestinian leaders who will end terrorism and the culture of hate. [49]
Israel’s withdrawal from four northern West Bank settlements created an area more than twice the size of Gaza’s 140 square miles under Palestinian control and devoid of any Israeli presence. [50]
While the numbers don't matter to Hamas, they should matter to anyone paying attention to the conflict and thinking that the Palestinians have a case of mistreatment or that Israel is acting out of proportion to the violence perpetrated against it.
Meanwhile, some Fatah thugs think that they would be better off joining Hamas. As I've repeatedly noted, Fatah and Hamas differ only in the timeline of Israel's destruction, not the ultimate goal of supplanting Israel with a Palestinian state. Many of Fatah's goons are just as interested in killing Israelis as Hamas.
Egypt continues to hammer Hamas for not stopping its attacks on Israel. Egypt wants nothing to do with Gaza, and the threat of an Iranian proxy on its border has Egypt doing whatever it can to undermine Hamas' ability to operate. That said, Egypt can and should have been doing more to stop the smuggling of weapons and equipment between Gaza and Sinai if it were truly interested in stopping Hamas before now.
As for the anti-Israel demonstrations around the world this Friday, from Jordan to Indonesia, it's more of the usual anti-Israel tripe, which is usually a frothy mix of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment that exists regardless of what Israel does. Israel's actions to defend itself from Hamas has the anti-Israel crowd whining and bitterly seething because they simply don't like the fact that Israel is taking the fight to the terrorists who demand Israel cease to exist.
The anti-war demonstrations in Israel are self-defeating for Israel as Hamas knows that if sufficient numbers of Israelis demonstrate against the Israeli operation, Hamas will eventually wear down Israel's resolve and secure yet another hudna that enables Hamas to regroup, while Israel's long term security is undermined yet again.
Internationally, it's most curious that the so-called anti-war demonstrators are uniformly demanding Israel cease and desist from fighting, all while ignoring Hamas' role in precipitating the conflict, as well as Hamas engaging in terrorism and war crimes on a daily basis. It reveals not an interest in stopping war and conflict, but stopping Israel and undermining Israel's right to exist.
If anyone wants to know what Israel's exit strategy should be for Gaza - including the feckless US State Department, here's what it should be. Victory. Demand nothing less than the unconditional defeat of Hamas in Gaza. Nothing would improve the situation for Palestinians and Israelis so much as an Israeli victory over Hamas. It would fundamentally undermine the Islamists in the region and Palestinians would have to admit the disastrous course of action undertaken for years has resulted in nothing but death, destruction, and mayhem for Gazans and all Palestinians.
Through it all, the US media continues its ongoing biased reporting. MSNBC headlines that Israel is attacking Palestinian homes and mosques. It ignores the fact that Hamas is hiding in homes, and using mosques as weapons depots. MSNBC highlights that children are among those injured in the attacks. MSNBC ignores that Hamas hides behind women and children when firing its rockets; including using schools as rocket launching locations, and uses hospitals to hide out from Israeli reprisal raids.
UPDATE: Ed Morrissey notes that Israel warned the people in the building where top Hamas thug Nizar Rayan lived with his family, including multiple wives and children. Israel is undermining its own policy by warning the terrorists in advance of their operations. This is something I've noted in the past as well. Israel would be better served not issuing any warnings at all, as it gives the terrorists the opportunity to run and hide. Israel has already warned Hamas and all those in Gaza for carrying on the terror war against Israel. Everything that happens from here on out is the fault of Hamas and the Gazans. It is Hamas that operates behind civilians as human shields, and all the casualties are the fault of Hamas, not Israel.
It's time to get your moral clarity in focus. Carl in Jerusalem disagrees with Charles Krauthammer's assessment of the Gaza withdrawal, noting that Israel's security picture got worse after the IDF ceased operating inside Gaza. It was Israel's military that prevented the level of kassams and mortars from being fired even prior to the withdrawal; and the number rose steadily even before Hamas overthrew Fatah in 2006.
UPDATE: Mere Rhetoric notes that Hamas has turned Gaza's main hospital into a huge weapons dump. They have turned a center for protecting and saving people into an instrument of death and destruction, and count on Israel's protection of civilians and moral clarity to not attack the hospital. It's the same thought that goes into hiding the weapons in mosques and homes. Hamas thinks that Israel will not attack Hamas weapons, terrorists, and the terror infrastructure if they're hiding in and among civilian targets.
UPDATE: Hamas urges a day of rage. How is that different than any other day. Hamas inflicts carnage on a daily basis, its preachers demand Muslims go on jihad and kill Israelis, and fosters a culture of death and destruction. So far, while Jerusalem security officials are on alert, no major incidents have been reported.
UPDATE: The grievance theater of the absurd continues. Israel attacks terrorists; Palestinians go shoeless and are being deprived of proper footwear. Who benefits? Shoe manufacturers.
Heil Hamas or we'll get you with our papier mache rockets, and your little dogs too?
If Islam means peace as politicians are so fond of saying, why the knives and guns and koranic imagery all in one?
Papier mache rockets? We've got 'em too. And little kids in white hoods. How precious.
This is crocodile tear grievance theater. And the media just laps this crap up.
UPDATE: No, there's no anti-Semitism involved in the anti-Israel demonstrations. None. At all. [that would be serious amounts of sarcasm.]
Useful idiots meet to demand Israel stop killing terrorists. No demands that Hamas stop firing the rockets at Israel, which precipitated Israel's response against a terrorist group that seeks Israel's destruction or which purposefully targets civilians while hiding behind Palestinian women and children.
Hamas and the Gazans view the dead as props. Nothing more. It's all for the camera's benefit, and to stir even more hatred and venom. Note that the Palestinians are more interested in demanding vengeance against Israel than demanding accountability of Hamas, which brought down Israel's response in the first place by firing rockets and mortars against Israel during a six-month ceasefire that was repeatedly violated by Hamas and in reality didn't exist after the fifth day.
How did the AP get this photo? Can you imagine the outcry had Israel carried out an attack against the terrorists as they were preparing to fire these kassams into Israel and injured or killed the photographer? They'd call Israel cold-blooded murderers for killing the photographer, ignoring all the evidence that he was nothing more than a propagandist for Hamas. This photographer put his life in the hands of terrorists, and Hamas couldn't care less about the safety or his wellbeing.
There was no flexibility with Rayyan. This is what he said when I asked him if he could envision a 50-year hudna (or cease-fire) with Israel: "The only reason to have a hudna is to prepare yourself for the final battle. We don't need 50 years to prepare ourselves for the final battle with Israel." There is no chance, he said, that true Islam would ever allow a Jewish state to survive in the Muslim Middle East. "Israel is an impossibility. It is an offense against God."
I asked him if he believed, as some Hamas theologians do (and certainly as many Hezbollah leaders do) that Jews are the "sons of pigs and apes." He gave me an interesting answer that reflects a myopic reading of the Koran. "Allah changed disobedient Jews into apes and pigs, it is true, but he specifically said these apes and pigs did not have the ability to reproduce. So it is not literally true that Jews today are descended from pigs and apes, but it is true that some of the ancestors of Jews were transformed into pigs and apes, and it is true that Allah continually makes the Jews pay for their crimes in many different ways. They are a cursed people."
This isn't a group you can reason with. They seek Israel's destruction. They will lie, cheat, and murder children to achieve their goals. They don't care how many thousands of Palestinians die just as long as Israel gets wiped off the map.
UPDATE: There are some rumblings that the Israeli ground operation is imminent. I don't have any special insight as to when the ground operations will begin, but when they do, I hope that Israel doesn't stop until Hamas surrenders. Only then can Israel have any chance at peace and Palestinians might get to know something other than decades of indoctrination in genocidal hatred of Israelis.
Robert Mugabe's disastrous rule continues to haunt Zimbabweans as the specter of a widespread cholera epidemic makes an already awful situation that much worse. Mugabe's government, which had previously claimed that there wasn't an epidemic and that things were under control, finally relented and admitted that they need foreign assistance to get the epidemic under control.
Zimbabwe is enlisting the help of doctors from Bangladesh to help arrest a cholera outbreak that’s sickened more than 29,000 people and risks infecting more as heavy rain threatens to spread contaminated water, a World Health Organization official said.
Zimbabwe’s government agreed to accept assistance from 10 doctors from the South Asian country, which itself is prone to outbreaks of waterborne diseases, said Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman in Geneva. Members of the Bangladeshi team will be deployed in each of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces, he said.
“The Bangladeshis have a huge amount of experience dealing with cholera,” Hartl said in a telephone interview today.
Cholera, which causes profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to fatal dehydration and shock, has killed 1,518 people in Zimbabwe’s biggest outbreak of the disease, the WHO said in a Dec. 26 statement. The United Nations agency said 26,497 cases had been reported by Dec. 25. Latest estimates put the number of cases at more than 29,000, Hartl said today.
The medical treatment is one thing, but the reason that the disease has become epidemic in Zimbabwe is because Mugabe's economic policies have destroyed the country and the infrastructure has broken down - disintegrated is more like it.
The group includes human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who went missing for three weeks before being brought to court last week.
The police had initially denied they were holding Ms Mukoko, who was seized from her home by a group of armed men.
The abduction and arrests have raised doubts about a power-sharing deal.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed a deal to join a unity government in September but this has never been implemented.
He says he will pull out of the deal unless the abduction of opposition activists stops.
There's no reason that Tsvangirai should believe that a power sharing deal is possible. Mugabe simply is unwilling to share power, and he's stolen two elections to assure himself of continued power for the foreseeable future.
Is the Gaza war really that difficult to understand. Hamas broke the ceasefire. Hamas calls for Israel's destruction, and then takes actions in furtherance of that goal. The actions include breaking the hudna six months ago and firing incessantly ever since, with Israel finally responding when Hamas launches a hissy fit after Israel takes out terrorists attempting still more attacks.
Israel responds.
And yet, the media seems to want to find fault with Israel's response. How typical. Israel is refusing to consider a truce, even though there were reports yesterday citing unnamed individuals in the "defense establishment" that were suggesting a 48-hour truce. That came even as Prime Minister Olmert said that there was to be no discussion of a truce, reduction in level of Israeli operations, etc. There's no discussion of truce at this time.
Of course, the media puts the onus of a truce on Israel, even when Hamas has never accepted any ceasefire, even the one six months ago. They refuse to accept one now, but the headlines state that it is Israel that is standing in the way of a ceasefire. The New York Times shouts that the Israelis are likely to reject a 48-hour ceasefire. No mention that Hamas has no interest in a ceasefire either.
Again, typical.
Israel is going after the Hamas smuggling tunnels to prevent Hamas from quickly resupplying via Sinai.
Meanwhile, the Israelis continue to treat Palestinian wounded, including a Palestinian boy. That's even as Hamas continues firing rockets at Israel and Israel has been forced to reinforce hospitals against rocket barrages.
So, what is Hamas doing with their medical facilities? They're using them to hide out from Israeli airstrikes. The terrorists are once again hiding behind civilians and hoping to take advantage of Israel's sense of human rights and decency.
On the diplomatic front, Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas is looking to get the UN to force a ceasefire. That's not all that much different than what happened with the Hizbullah war, where the UN finally put the fighting to an end when Israel decided to call a time out. Israel has not been served by the UN, as Hizbullah has essentially taken over Lebanon and coopted the government all while continuing to operate openly in Southern Lebanon despite UNIFIL and UN SCR 1701.
Israel would face a similar situation in Gaza should the UN take action, which is why Israel cannot let up now as it has Hamas on the ropes. When Hamas starts talking about a hudna, that's the time to hammer home that there will be no ceasefires - only Hamas' unconditional surrender. That's the only way to peace in Gaza.
UPDATE: Aussie Dave and Carl in Jerusalem continue providing regular updates. Hamas admits that they're purposefully hiding in civilian areas, no doubt to increase the civilian body count, which is amazingly low as compared to the general demographics of Gaza. Hamas is taking a fearsome pounding, but it's not nearly enough to break the group. This will have to be a sustained effort.
Carl in Jerusalem has video of the IDF strikes against the smuggling tunnels along the Philadelphi corridor. Israel will likely have to retake the corridor if they want to put the smuggling of weapons to an end.
Haaretz notes that the air campaign will continue as Israel readies itself to carry out a ground campaign. Defense Minister Ehud Barak wants more reservists to be called up.
UPDATE: Joe at The Muqata is live blogging the conflict, and reports that the longer range rockets fired by Hamas are Chinese made weapons smuggled into Gaza courtesy of those smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border. He previously noted that the IDF brought in concrete pipes as a temporary measure to provide shelter against kassam and mortar attacks until more permanent measures could be implemented.
UPDATE: This is a slightly different take on justifying Israel's actions to defend itself from Hamas. It's the Road Map, stupid.
For all the people who are busy complaining about Israel's action, engaging in moral equivalency or siding with the Islamic terrorist group Hamas over Israel's undeniable right to defend itself from terrorism, Israel is simply pursuing the Road Map that everyone supposedly agreed upon.
What does the road map say?
...sustained, targeted and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure.
From the look of it, Israel is doing precisely that.
Meanwhile, the nonsensical term of proportionality keeps cropping up in op-ed pieces and agitprop designed to undermine Israel's efforts. What does proportionality look like? Does it mean that Israel gets to launch thousands of airstrikes against Hamas in retaliation for the thousands of kassams and mortars fired into Israel? To the terror sympathizers and Palestinian supporters, the answer is no. Michael Totten fleshes this out further (and here).
UPDATE: For those who think that there's a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, here's some food for thought. Hamas builds kassams using sugar and fertilizer as its prime components (HT: peacekeeper at LGF). Hamas can and will steal humanitarian aid from the mouth of babies, so that they can feed their terror apparatus with the materials needed to build weapons of death and destruction.
This is yet another reason why humanitarian aid to Gaza is enabling Hamas to continue in power.
I've been going through Daylife, which is a photo service encompassing AP, Reuters, and other news services. The captions are provided by the respective news services. These photos are in reverse chronological order (most recent at the top), and shows just how the media bias creeps in.
5 hours ago: A Palestinian youth shot with live ammunition by an Israeli soldier is carried by others during a protest following a demonstration against Israel's military operation in Gaza, at the Kalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008. Israeli aircraft kept up a relentless string of assaults on Hamas-ruled Gaza on Tuesday, smashing a government complex, security installations and the home of a top militant commander as thousands of Israeli ground troops, backed by tanks and artillery, massed along the border, waiting for a signal to attack. (AP)
As the caption is written, it would appear that the protester was shot without rhyme or reason, and that the Israelis were acting with excessive force. No context is provided for what happened.
6 hours ago: Palestinian youths, protesting the Israeli offensive in Gaza, carry a protester injured during scuffles with Israeli soldiers at Qalandiya checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah December 30, 2008. Israel hit the Gaza Strip with more air strikes on Tuesday and warned its military action could last weeks, while its Islamist enemy Hamas vowed to keep up rocket attacks on Israeli cities. (Reuters)
No mention that the guy was shot, let alone that he was attempting to throw a Molotov cocktail at Israeli soldiers.
A Palestinian youth, hit by an Israeli bullet in his leg, lies on the ground after he troops fired at him when he was trying to throw a Molotov cocktail during a protest at Kalandia checkpoint, between Ramallah and Jerusalem on December 30, 2008. The Israeli forces offensive on the Gaza Strip has sparked protests across the occupied West Bank and the world, with demonstrations held in European capitals, Turkey, Egypt and Syria. (AFP/Getty Images)
At last, we finally figure out what has happened - and curiously, it wasn't the most recent photo that tells the story; but the oldest. This wasn't some innocent youth caught up in violence. It wasn't someone who was throwing rocks or hurling insults at Israelis who responded with lethal force. It was a thug who threw a Molotov cocktail at Israelis, and appears to have been injured.
I'm wondering how the media outlets know that he was shot with live ammo. Did they check his wounds? Did they bother to ask the Israelis? Or did they make it up as they went along?
Apparently, they just make things up and omit key details. It's just business as usual. (HT: Code Pirate at LGF for tracking down the first photo in the sequence)
It's also worth noting that all the photos were taken at roughly the same time, but were posted at different times.
Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected to name former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to President-elect Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune.
The governor has scheduled a 3 p.m. ET news conference Tuesday, but his spokesman Lucio Guerrero declined to tell the Associated Press what the governor plans to discuss.
Blagojevich has been under pressure to step aside or resign since his arrest earlier this month on federal corruption charges. He's accused of trying to sell Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder.
Obama's top officials, including Rahm Emanuel have become embroiled in the scandal and Obama's media flacks have repeatedly fallen short of fully disclosing the contacts, instead offering up claims that are ludicrous on their face.
UPDATE: Who is Burris? Well, apparently, he likes to speak his mind, calling two of his opponents in an election in 1998 "non-qualified white boys". Reid may attempt to try and not seat Burris, but it's not up to him. The Warren Court decided as much when his court ruled that Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., must be seated (coincidentally, he was replaced by the corrupt and detestable Charles Rangel who continues to operate above the law).
The people on board were attempting to run a blockade imposed by Israel to prevent weapons and terrorists from being resupplied by sea.
Of course, look for the media to play up the fact that there were civilians, especially McKinney, on board or somehow blame Israel for this incident. The people on board the boat were entering an active war zone and refused to stop when demanded by the Israeli navy. International law permits such actions, and the ship refused to comply.
The groups behind the incident? It's a coalition under the banner Free Gaza including the detestable International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). All of those groups are financed by European governments. The ISM is responsible for sending useful idiots into Gaza and the West Bank to protect smuggling tunnels and terrorists. It's also important to keep in mind that the Palestinian Center for Human Rights doesn't bother cataloging the human rights abuses heaped upon Gazans by their fellow Gazans- Hamas. Instead, their focus is solely on Israel's rights to defend itself and prevent terrorists from infiltrating Israel through the use of checkpoints and other security measures.
Israel gave her and her cohorts the warm welcome she deserves for propagandizing on behalf of the Islamic terror group Hamas.
UPDATE: Here's some more context on this stunt by the anti-Semites courtesy of Elder of Ziyon:
Just for context: The Free Gaza boat was supposed to have 3 tons of medical aid. During the past three days, Israel has sent 186 trucks filled with aid to Gaza - plus ten ambulances. Each truck, from past experience, holds between 10 and 20 tons of material.
Which means that for all the noise the FGM makes about how necessary their trip is to help Gazans, their "aid" equates to roughly 0.1% of what the hated, lying Zionist enemy has given while under direct attack from Gaza. Proving yet again that the off-key moonbats' purpose is not to help Gazans (they could coordinate sending aid through Israel, as Jordan does, or through Egypt, which sent 72 trucks of its own) but to hurt Israel through PR.
And yes folks, I am among the finalists in the Best Small Blog category. The other finalists in that category are: Chatting at the Sky A Blog for All Exurbanleague Pirate's Cove Nice Deb Mutiny.in The Glittering Eye Woman Honor Thyself Rumproast Black Women, Blow The Trumpet
The full list of finalists in all the categories is here. Voting will open shortly, so be prepared to get your votes in early and often! Chicago rules are in effect.
That's what the Israelis are calling the current counterterrorism operations against the terrorists in Gaza.
The US media continues to push the anti-Israel propaganda and shows their sympathies for the Palestinians despite the fact that the Palestinians voted for Hamas and their incessant war against Israel.
MSNBC attempts to curry favor for the Palestinians by engaging in a photo essay about how the airstrikes are ruining the typical day in Gaza. I recall no such articles or photo essays recounting how Israeli lives were disrupted almost daily for the past three years as the terrorists in Gaza fired wave after wave of kassams and mortars against Israeli communities within range.
I don't recall MSNBC writing to discuss the hardships faced by Israelis living in Sderot and how Israeli hospitals have to build underground bunkers so that they can carry out their basic mission to save lives - those of Palestinians included as they are able to seek care in Israeli facilities even as the Gazans continue their attacks.
The MSNBC FAQ on the ongoing conflict is blatantly one-sided and omits so many instances of Palestinian and Arab aggression so as to make the whole document practically worthless. In fact, the piece omits key details about the past six months:
In June 2008, Hamas and Israel agreed, indirectly via Egyptian mediation, to a cease-fire to halt missiles being fired into Israel and stop Israeli incursions into Gaza. The cease-fire lapsed less than a week before Israel's massive crackdown.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad violated the ceasefire from the outset, carrying out kassam and mortar attacks almost every day of the past six months. There was no cease-fire; it was a hudna, and only Israel was consigned to cease firing. Hamas and Islamic Jihad continued their firing with no/minimal reporting by MSNBC or other media outlets.
Each and every violation was downplayed by the diplomats and the media, which wanted people to think that they were isolated incidents and didn't threaten a wider war. Hamas saw this and knew that they could increase the pressure by increasing the terror against Sderot and neighboring communities. They continued their attacks, until Israel had enough. That was the precipitating factor here. Israel's political leaders finally had enough.
CNN's history/background piece is moderately better, but downplays the fact that the Palestinians have controlled their own destiny in Gaza since 1993, and that after 2005, there were no Israelis in Gaza. Israel operated simply to prevent Gaza from arming, which they have done via the smuggling tunnels to Egypt and from boats.
Of course, that gets offset by the fact that CNN claims that the world rallies to the Palestinian cause. What exactly are we talking about here? Protests in a dozen countries, many of them Muslim dominated, and many of those protests can be numbered in the dozens. Not exactly rousing support, but that's all CNN had to work with. (HT: Jammie)
Demands for ceasefires will only prolong the fighting - extending it until the next time the fighting flares up and Hamas has still longer range rockets and missiles to hit even deeper into Israel, perhaps all the way to Tel Aviv. The UN is very good at demanding ceasefires, but is awful at recognizing that there are true evil regimes and bad actors - and placing them on the same page as nations defending themselves from such aggression is bad precedent and par for the course for the diplomats. The UN is also good at making demands of Israel without demanding Hamas or the other terrorists from carrying out humanitarian gestures in return. Where are the demands that they release Gilad Shalit, let alone cease firing the kassams and mortars against Israel. The UN demands that Israel provide still more humanitarian aid to Gaza, even as Gaza's terror regime attacks Israel.
Hamas demands that Israel release 1,400 Palestinian terrorists in exchange for Shalit, which is more than a 1,000 more than when they first started demanding prisoner exchanges. There are unconfirmed reports that Shalit was injured in the initial airstrikes against Gaza, but I honestly don't know what to think of whether Shalit is even alive after more than two years being held by the Hamas thugs.
No other nation is put in the position of having to provide humanitarian and medical assistance and power and utilities and infrastructure to the very people seeking its destruction. Yet, that is precisely the situation that faces Israel on a daily basis.
The press also simply invents facts out of whole cloth, with the AP spinning that Israel would engage in a lull in airstrikes to evaluate the situation. Their only proof is a quote from Arab sympathizer and UNRWA lackey, Karen Abu Zayd, commissioner of the UNRWA, as their only support despite the fact that no Israelis said anything about a lull, pause, or other kind of reduction in pace of airstrikes against Hamas. UNRWA is self-interested in continuing the status quo of Palestinian refugees since its entire bureaucracy is predicated upon the continued existence of refugee camps, even those that exist in Gaza - territory wholly under Palestinian control. Hamas has no interest in shutting down the refugee camps and neither does UNRWA. Hamas' only interest is getting Israel to stop killing their terror minions.
Of course, the Arab/Islamic reaction is one of calling Israel's actions nothing short of a massacre and repeating canards such as claiming that Israel is engaging in a holocaust or genocide - terms purposefully used to deceive and debase the meaning and the true extent of what Israel is actually doing by specifically targeting the terrorists and the infrastructure supporting the terror campaign against Israel.
Hamas is attempting to goad Israel into launching a ground campaign before Israel is ready to carry one out. Hamas is taking damage to their infrastructure, but it will take a ground operation to assure the destruction of Hamas infrastructure and capture the top terrorists. Hamas is also calling on 1,000 "reservists" to join and stand with Hamas against Israel. They're trying to recruit more people to join with the terrorists and stand against Israel.
Apparently the feckless lame duck Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has learned a few lessons from the Hizbullah war; no talk about ceasefires. I'm still awaiting hearing about how Israel will accept nothing less than Hamas' unconditional surrender. That's a general prescription for Israel winning and improving its security and the long term chances for peace between Palestinians and Israel.
Palestinians must learn the taste of defeat and how Hamas has brought them nothing but death and destruction. They must know that the only way out of this mess is to repudiate entirely the Hamas doctrine.
The problem, of course, is that Hamas doctrine is Islamist at its core, and it would require its adherents to violate the core tenets of Islam. It would require an admission that Israel will continue to exist and that they simply cannot defeat Israel.
I'd say that this truce is dead and Israel should resume its operations against the terrorists along with a retightening of its restrictions on aid and items entering Gaza.
If Israel lets these incidents slide, the Palestinians will rightfully conclude that they can continue to fire on Israel at will without facing repercussions.
The terrorists will deny and evade responsibility for breaking the ceasefire, and will whine and seethe should Israel retaliate against those terrorists for attacking Israel. They will claim that it was Israel who broke the ceasefire, not them, even as there's irrefutable proof that the Palestinians broke it.
The terrorists might even point to an IDF operation that killed an Islamic Jihad terrorist as proof that Israel broke the truce. Never forget for one moment that the Palestinians have not given up on the idea of destroying Israel or attacking it at the earliest possible moment. They have simply engaged in a hudna to buy time and space to regroup and rearm.
Everything I expected had come to pass. Hamas and the terrorists have indeed used Israel's reluctance to carry out reprisals after that first violation of the ceasefire to launch hundreds of kassams and mortars since. It is to Olmert's everlasting shame that he allowed such a situation to persist, and it is a damning indictment of Israel's political landscape that no one could find the wherewithal to force Olmert to leave following the release of the Winograd Report.
Jules Crittenden has an interesting analysis of where this leaves Israel and the peace prospects. I think his analysis overestimates Fatah's ability to govern Gaza given the way Gazans thoroughly rejected Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas in 2005 and 2006 during the Palestinian civil war (defenestrations show no love lost for Fatah in Gaza). Still, that may be the best chances for a lasting uneasy peace between Israel and the Palestinians; the specter of Iranian influence and domination of the region is spurring Sunni dominated countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia to oppose Iran in subtle and not so subtle ways, including tacit support for the elimination of Hamas, which is a proxy for Iran.
The IDF has launched a YouTube channel to get their video publicized and to circumvent the media machine that is inescapably biased against Israel. This is something they should have done long ago, but there's no time like the present to show the world the true nature of Hamas and how carefully Israel is operating in a densely packed civilian environment.
Even as the kassams and mortars rain down on Israel, Israel continues to send in humanitarian aid to Gaza. The UN will complain bitterly that it isn't nearly sufficient. Perhaps the UN would impress upon Hamas that they would be better served making bread and not bombs.
UPDATE: Here's video of Hamas loading Grad rockets onto trucks in Gaza as caught by Israeli aircraft in the course of an airstrike:
Maybe the BBC ought to be reviewing IAF video showing Hamas using those people as human shields as they stockpile, produce, and fire the rockets from the civilian areas.
UPDATE: As always, check in with Aussie Dave and Carl in Jerusalem for more updates. More than 600,000 Israelis are now within kassam and mortar range from Gaza. That number will continue increasing so long as Hamas remains in control and is capable of firing rockets at Israel.
The Czech Republic isn't tolerating the anti-Israel bias and is supporting Israel's actions against Hamas. Why is that important? The Czech Republic takes over as the EU President January 1.
Hamas continues goading Israel into launching a ground campaign questioning Israel's manliness to use airstrikes rather than ground forces. Funny, but Hamas is busy hiding behind the skirts of women and children when firing those kassams and mortars at Israeli civilians during the 6-month hudna that lasted all of five days before Hamas and Islamic Jihad resumed the rocket war against Israel. Who exactly is not acting like the responsible party? Hamas.
The reason that Israel is in the current mess is because the diplomatic option was pursued prior to achieving the tactical and strategic objectives. Hamas is still fully functional in Gaza and is still launching kassams and mortars against Israel. A diplomatic effort - a new hudna - will only mean that Hamas gets to crow about winning another war against Israel and use it as recruiting new terrorists to the cause and Israel will be under assault from the kassams for the duration.
UPDATE: Hamas is summarily executing people in hospitals who they believe were collaborating with Israel. Some were injured in the Israeli airstrikes, but Hamas thugs executed them in cold blood.
On Monday, Dr. Ashour was not the only official in charge. Armed Hamas militants in civilian clothes roamed the halls. Asked their function, they said it was to provide security. But there was internal bloodletting under way.
In the fourth-floor orthopedic section, a woman in her late 20s asked a militant to let her see Saleh Hajoj, her 32-year-old husband. She was turned away and left the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Hajoj was carried out by young men pretending to transfer him to another ward. As he lay on the stretcher, he was shot in the left side of the head.
Mr. Hajoj, like five others killed at the hospital this way in 24 hours, was accused of collaboration with Israel. He had been in the central prison awaiting trial by Hamas judges; when Israel destroyed the prison on Sunday he and the others were transferred to the hospital. But their trials were short-circuited.
A crowd at the hospital showed no mercy after the shooting, which was widely observed. A man in his 30s mocked a woman expressing horror at the scene.
“This horrified you?” he shouted. “A collaborator that caused the death of many innocent and resistance fighters?”
The terrorists could care less about who lives and who dies. This is little different from the way they treated Fatah terrorists when Hamas took over Gaza in 2006. Hamas rules are pretty simple. You are either with them or you are against them. If you're against them, you will be shot and killed.
UPDATE: The kassams keep falling. This time it's Beersheba in the Negev.
UPDATE: The rocket attack on Beersheba (also transliterated as Beersheva) hit a nursery/kindergarden. It's on fire, but thankfully no one was inside as it was after dark. One of the rockets actually overshot Beersheba and landed in a field beyond the city.
The army said that the IAF struck 30 additional targets over the course of Tuesday, including seven Grad and five Qassam rocket launchers, rocket launching cells, rocket launching sites, weapons manufacturing facilities, Hamas outposts and armed terror operatives.
The IAF kept up a relentless string of attacks on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday, smashing a government complex, security installations and the home of a top militant commander.
According to a Military Intelligence assessment, the air offensive has destroyed a third of the Hamas rocket arsenal, Channel 10 television reported.
I call that a good start. The other 70% isn't going to get destroyed unless Israel carries on with its attacks against Hamas. Otherwise, that 70% will find itself destroying Israeli homes, businesses, fields, and inflicting Palestinian and Israeli casualties along the way.
The Pakistanis continue to show that they have no stomach for taking on the Islamists and their Taliban brethren. The Taliban openly operate in the frontier provinces, and their latest attacks have resulted in the Taliban murdering hapless civilians who cross their paths. Beheadings and lynchings. Suicide bombings.
The region used to have 1.5 million people. It's been depopulated by a third. The Swat Valley is now 80% under Taliban control.
Islamabad seems to think this is an acceptable situation. They'd much rather focus on India than their own domestic problems, which have been festering for years.
The Taliban are consolidating their control, and are busy imposing sharia; the same harsh Islamic law that brings misery to millions around the world who don't share the same views.
Who is responsible for the violence in Gaza asks the media?
The answer, coming from a Palestinian girl injured in the latest attacks?
Hamas.
Perhaps there is hope still for the Palestinians to come to their senses and send Hamas packing once and for all. It will still take Israel's full force and might coming down hard on Hamas to kill and destroy the Hamas infrastructure, but a lasting improvement in the security of Israel and improved economic and social opportunities will come only when the Palestinians themselves recognize that terrorism will not improve their lot in life; Israel will not disappear; and the terror masters cannot be appeased with the blood of Palestinian children as they had done for generations.
Note too that this girl was interviewed by Fatah's media mavens, which means that it is quite likely that it is so much propaganda as anything Hamas would produce. The result is still jarring those who think that the real enemy here is Israel. Fatah knows that demonizing Hamas is the first step in reclaiming ascendancy in Gaza. Israel would take that trade.
Eric Mangini's claim to fame will likely be his appearance on The Sopranos, because his coaching career is littered with December collapses on par with the Dallas Cowboys.
The Jets were on a clear path to the playoffs less than a month ago, and simply couldn't buy a win in December to make the playoffs.
The Jets started the season 8-3 under quarterback Brett Favre, but went 1-4 in their final five games and did not reach the postseason for the second straight year despite a massive offseason spending spree.
The 37-year-old Mangini was 23-26 in three seasons in his first head coaching job. He had another year remaining on his contract.
The Jets were in first place in the AFC East before fading in the stretch, with Favre failing to rally the team that obtained him in a trade before the season. Favre had just two touchdown passes and nine interceptions in the last five games.
"For the current New York Jets organization, we've made the decision to move on,'' owner Woody Johnson said at a news conference Monday morning. ``It's a judgment call.
"I don't think it was one thing,'' he continued. "We had to go in a different direction. There's nothing specific. It's just a call we made. Hopefully, it's correct.''
Johnson said the final decision was made Sunday night but that the process had been going on a long time.
The team went 4-12 last year, and this year was better, but the team simply couldn't perform in December. Much of the fault rests with Mangini, but some also rests with Brett Favre, who couldn't throw during the final month of the season.
Favre's arm, which had guided the Green Bay Packers to Super Bowl wins and three MVPs, simply couldn't hold together for the full season.
Chad Pennington, the former Jets quarterback who was sent packing as this season began, had the last laugh as his Miami Dolphins went from 1-15 last season to being the AFC champs. It seems that his arm was more than sufficient to win the big games.
Israel continues to attack Hamas terror targets throughout Gaza for a third consecutive day. They attacked high profile targets including the Islamic University where another generation of Palestinians are indoctrinated into the unending hatred of Israel, a major security compound, and a facility near the terror master's residence.
Hamas continues to fire longer range rockets and missiles into Israel, and a second person - a Palestinian working on an Israeli construction site - was killed as a result of a rocket fired against Ashkelon.
The three-day death toll rose to at least 315 by Monday morning, with some 1,400 wounded. The U.N. said at least 51 of the dead were civilians, and medics said eight children under the age of 17 were killed in two separate strikes overnight. Israel launched its campaign, the deadliest against Palestinians in decades, on Saturday in retaliation for rocket fire aimed at civilians in southern Israeli towns.
Since then, the number of Israeli troops on the Gaza border has doubled and the Cabinet approved the call-up of 6,500 reserve soldiers.
The strikes have driven Hamas leaders into hiding and appear to have gravely damaged the organization's ability to launch rockets, but barrages continued. Sirens warning of incoming rockets sent Israelis scrambling for cover throughout the day.
One medium-range rocket fired at the Israeli city of Ashkelon killed an Arab construction worker there Monday and wounded several others. He was the second Israeli killed since the beginning of the offensive, and the first person ever to be killed by a rocket in Ashkelon, a city of 120,000.
On Sunday, Hamas missiles struck for the first time near the city of Ashdod, twice as far from Gaza as Ashkelon and only 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Israel's heart in Tel Aviv. Hamas leaders have also threatened to renew suicide attacks inside Israel.
More than 50 rockets and mortars were fired by Hamas today. Ehud Barak has said that this is an all-out war against Hamas. We'll see if that is just rhetoric of whether Israel intends to actually go for victory against the terrorist group. Has Israel learned the lessons of the Hizbullah war? Stay tuned, because if Israel doesn't succeed in fulfilling its mission objectives and the rockets continue to hit Israel, Israel's political leaders will not have fulfilled their objectives either. The idea is not to fight to a stalemate, but to win.
If Hamas had the weapons and technology available to Israel, they would not fight with one hand tied behind their backs. They would fight to destroy Israel. Right now, Israel is fighting with only a fraction of its capabilities, and the terrorists exploit that at every turn.
The media is a willing assistant to the terrorists as well. They, along with the UN, will take the Palestinians at their word as to civilian casualties and attempt to highlight all the civilians killed and cast blame on Israel, even though the war is due to the actions of Hamas and no one else. Hamas sought out this war, and will fight due to nothing more than Israel's very existence, while Israel would not have carried out the current operations had Hamas not fired all those kassams and mortars against Israel.
Hamas refuses to accept Israel's existence and is wholly dedicated to Israel's destruction. They will not stop until Hamas fulfills its objectives or is itself destroyed. Hamas brought this war upon themselves, and now find that the chickens have come home to roost.
Israel is targeting the Hamas infrastructure of power. I'd like to see Israel go after the terror masters themselves, who despite all of their bravado and claims that they aren't afraid to die, have gone deep underground and now appear only courtesy of videos from undisclosed locations. These terrorists, including Ismail Haniyeh, would rather see all of his terror thugs die than put himself in harm's way.
Egypt is certainly playing a most curious role in all this. They've criticized Hamas, and now have gone on the record noting that Hizbullah had all but declared war against Egypt. Egypt sees the Islamic terrorist groups as a threat, and will not rush to their defense or aid. Egypt has already been invaded twice by Hamas and Gazans, including yesterday's breach as Gazans attempt to get out of the way of Israel's reprisal attacks. No doubt many Hamas thugs are among those trying to cross into Egypt. Egypt wants no part of them.
Watch for the media to latch upon the fact that Hamas is starting to play its typical game of demanding a hudna - a one-way ceasefire.
Israel should reject this and demand nothing less than unconditional surrender. Anything less means that Hamas gets to continue its conflict against Israel and will simply use any time that it is not attacked to regroup and rearm for the inevitable next phase of the conflict. Israel should also demand that Hamas release Gilad Shalit unconditionally, as he has been held by Hamas for more than 2.5 years and the terrorists show no signs of releasing him.
A senior member of the Islamic Jihad's military wing was among five people killed in an Israel Air Force strike in the Khan Younis area Monday afternoon.
A source in one of the organizations warned that gunmen in Gaza were well prepared for a ground offensive. "We'll kidnap soldiers, and it will equal all of this destruction," he told Ynet.
Israeli tanks have massed at the border with Gaza. If Israel telegraphs its moves against Gaza, it would definitely be a dangerous fight for the Israelis. Israel must keep Hamas and the other terrorists operating in Gaza off balance, and that means not calling and warning civilians to flee the areas Israel intends to attack - that's a dead giveaway that Israel is intending to attack. If anything, those calls actually increase the number of casualties because Hamas gets to flee to fight another day.
Egyptian security forces continued to shoot in the air, but they did not succeed in stopping the flow of people. The masses stopped advancing towards the Egyptian side of Rafiah when trucks arrived with humanitarian aid arrive and Gazans began unloading the foodstuffs from the trucks.
Eyewitnesses to the crossing reported that the Gazans cursed the Egyptian border police and called them collaborators with Israel. They also cursed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as well as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Egyptian forces had been beefed up only 24 hours earlier because of Egypt’s concerns that the Gazans would try to breach the border. An Egyptian military source said, “We are worried that Israeli pressure on the residents of Gaza will cause them to break through the border.”
Egypt wants nothing to do with Gaza or Hamas.
UPDATE: Jules Crittenden has a roundup of reaction. Jim Hoft notes that the cognitive dissonance of Indians are staggering. Some are proclaiming their solidarity with the Gazans and Palestinian terrorists, even claiming that "Palestine" is the new Nariman House. Nariman House is the Chabad house that the Pakistani terrorists attacked and slaughtered a Jewish family in cold blood after torturing them.
UPDATE: Israel continues to believe that Hamas' military wing is still intact. Given that the terrorists are continuing to fire their kassams at Israel, I'd say that's a pretty keen observation. The home of a Hamas senior commander was hit in Northern Gaza, and casualties were reported. Israel has spent considerable time planning and gathering intel on Hamas operations in Gaza.
Terrorist sympathizers continue to make excuses for terrorism. Charles at LGF notes perpetual kook Cynthia McKinney denouncing Israel's right to defend itself from incessant terrorist attacks. She's going to attempt and run the sea blockade and deliver "aid" to the Gazans. Let's just say I'm not entirely convinced that the aid is purely humanitarian. I wouldn't put it past the useful idiots that are pushing this scheme to include weapons and ammo for the terrorists.
After all, it's not like Israel is blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. That aid still flows to the very people who continue to support the terrorists in Hamas and seek Israel's destruction.
