Karsenty and the France 2 Al-Dura Hoax

Israel's kindness mistaken for weakness

Here's an interesting post by a commenter at the Jerusalem Post:

30. #21 - Thank you but Hamas is not a serious threat /
redmike - Israel
04/24/2007 15:06

Hamas/PA are totally out of touch with reality Their attacks, although they could kill someone, are in the greater scheme of things like some annoying insect that could be swatted whenever Israel decided to do so. Israel could kill its members today and bring Gaza to its knees - water, electricity military incursion etc in 48 hours. They fail to understand that they are allowed to continue thanks only to Israel's benevolence. Presumably their distorted view stems from religious fervor.

That's quite true. The Israelis are a humane people and the Palestinians sending Qassams into Israel are real delusional cases. Where are the Psychiatrists Without Borders?

Unimpeachible is irresponsible

What does AP (Associated Press) think it's doing? Here's its report:

Nine Palestinians were killed in the latest violence in the West Bank and Gaza, including two militants and a 17-year-old killed Sunday in the West Bank. The fighting also included a Palestinian rocket attack on the southern Israeli town of Sderot that damaged a home there.

"Also included?" Which came first? Was the rocket attack in response to the attack in Gaza or the other way around? What interests do Israelis have in Gaza? Are there any settlements there that have not been dismantled? When did Israel leave Gaza? If Israel has left Gaza, why would they need to invade Gaza? Why are Qassam rockets being fired into Israel? How often? How many have been killed or injured by Qassams? If a group were firing rockets near your home, would you accept that?

For a calendar of Qassam attacks for April, 2007click here.

AP continues:

Israeli officials defended the latest moves as part of operations that have been effective in drastically reducing the number of attacks against Israelis. But Palestinian officials charged that the new deaths jeopardized their efforts to expand the truce in Gaza to the West Bank.

What is a truce? In what way has a truce “largely held” if Gaza “militants have frequently fired rockets into Israel and have attacked Israeli patrols along the border fence?” If Canadians in Windsor were firing rockets into Detroit or vice versa and attacking border station with gunfire, would Canada or the US accept that as a truce that has “largely held?”

This kind of verbiage is an insult to both the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Israelis are told that violence is what they're owed, what they deserve. Where have we heard this before? Isn't this the message to the Jews for the past 2,000 years, from the Roman expulsion to the European expulsions and massacres leading up to the Holocaust? And wasn't that the reason for the creation and necessity of the State of Israel, to prevent the Jews from annihilation?

As for the Palestinians, the press holds them accountable and responsible for none of their actions. So is it any surprise that they act irresponsibly? The Palestinians were offered a state beside Israel in 1937 and rejected it. See here for the Peel Commission Report of 1937. Note how tiny is the land allocation for the State of Israel in Plan A, which the Jewish Agency for Palestine accepted in return for security guarantees from the International community. The Palestinian Arabs continue to reject any compromise.

More AP:

The Gaza truce has largely held, though militants have frequently fired rockets into Israel and have attacked Israeli patrols along the border fence.

Again: what is a truce?

More from AP:

The Palestinian unity government, which includes Hamas, has called for an expanded truce, and Hamas officials in the government have often tried to separate themselves from the fiery pronouncements of the group's military wing. Israel and the U.S. State Department consider Hamas to be a terrorist group.

What is the “political wing” of Hamas? What is a “military wing?” What does the Hamas Charter say about the existence of Israel? Does the “political wing” foreswear the destruction of Israel? No.

Here is an excerpt from the Hamas Charter, which no member of Hamas has foresworn to this day:

Part III - Strategies and Methods

Article Eleven: The Strategy of Hamas: Palestine is an Islamic Waqf

The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it. No Arab country nor the aggregate of all Arab countries, and no Arab King or President nor all of them in the aggregate, have that right, nor has that right any organization or the aggregate of all organizations, be they Palestinian or Arab, because Palestine is an Islamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day of Resurrection. Who can presume to speak for all Islamic Generations to the Day of Resurrection? This is the status [of the land] in Islamic Shari’a, and it is similar to all lands conquered by Islam by force, and made thereby Waqf lands upon their conquest, for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. This [norm] has prevailed since the commanders of the Muslim armies completed the conquest of Syria and Iraq, and they asked the Caliph of Muslims, ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab, for his view of the conquered land, whether it should be partitioned between the troops or left in the possession of its population, or otherwise. Following discussions and consultations between the Caliph of Islam, ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab, and the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, be peace and prayer upon him, they decided that the land should remain in the hands of its owners to benefit from it and from its wealth; but the control of the land and the land itself ought to be endowed as a Waqf [in perpetuity] for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. The ownership of the land by its owners is only one of usufruct, and this Waqf will endure as long as Heaven and earth last. Any demarche in violation of this law of Islam, with regard to Palestine, is baseless and reflects on its perpetrators.

Note what bin Laden said in this context regarding Spain and Portugal. Note also that bin Laden’s talking about the humiliation of the past 80 years. Therefore he is NOT talking about the State of Israel (1948) but the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire in 1919.

Shall we make a list of Muslim conquests which, according to religious fanatics, are Islamic holdings until the Day of Resurrection? Why not? Let’s start with Muhammed’s first military operation to found Islam. He started in Medina and he and his followers took:

1. Mecca
2. the rest of Saudi Arabia
3. Palestine
4. Jordan
5. Egypt
6. Syria
7. Lybia
8. Algeria
9. Morocco
10. Turkey
11. Iraq
12. Afghanistan
13. Russia
14. Spain
15. Portugal
16. Europe right up to the gates of Vienna
17. France right up to Poitiers.
18.Pakistan
19.Kazakhstan
20.Uzbekistan
21....

All the above are considered holdings of Islam by religious fanatics and Israel is the front line, not the thing that will appease these insane backward psychopaths who live in the 7th century. Israel is the Czechoslovakia of the 3rd World War.

The Independent's Christmas Cheer

It's nauseating. Here's the gist of it:

In two days, a third of humanity will gather to celebrate the birth pains of a Palestinian refugee in Bethlehem - but two millennia later, another mother in another glorified stable in this rubble-strewn, locked-down town is trying not to howl.

Mary was not a Palestinian refugee, nor was the fruit of her womb, Jesus, though in today's world, third generation Palestinians living in Arab states are, thanks to UNRWA, perversely still considered refugees. Such an "honour" as UN slavery forever is conferred on no other unlucky people, thank God. As for Jesus, "He was born of the flesh and the seed of David," wrote Paul, born at Bethlehem, in the Roman province of Judea, which would be renamed Palestina 160 years later after the Philistines, not the Arab Palestinians who live there today. The Philistines, judging from their pottery and ironworking skills came from Mycenae. There is no racial relationship between the Philistines and the Palestinian Arabs who, like the Palestinian Jews, share the same ancestor, Abraham, who the Arabs call Ibrahim.

Anyway, read the whole nauseating thing here
.

UNSCR 1701: Munich, 2006

In 1938, Neville Chamberlain arrived in London waving a piece of paper upon which Herr Hitler had affixed his signature. Chamberlain, beaming, proclaimed "peace in our time." Within months, the Germans had taken all of Czeckoslovakia. Knowing England would not go to war to protect the Sudeteland or even all Czeckoslovakia, Hitler tried his luck with Poland. No reaction but diplomatic condemnation. Austria was soon annexed and within a year of the Munich pact, Germany invaded the low countries and was within striking distance of England.

Many tens of millions dead later we hail UN Security Council Resolution 1701 a diplomatic success because we have deluded ourselves into thinking that it has stopped a war . The international community has expressed its resolve to disarm Hiz'b'allah. But who will do it?

Not the USA! Condi Rice says:

I don't think there is an expectation that this force is going to physically disarm Hezbollah. I think it's a little bit of a misreading of how you disarm a militia. You have to have a plan, first of all, for the disarmament of a militia, and then the hope is that some people lay down their arms voluntarily. [my italics]

see also here.

and....

confirmation of how bad this "resolution" is:

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy made clear in an interview with Le Monde newspaper that the mission of the larger UNIFIL would not include disarming Hizbollah by force: "We never thought a purely military solution could resolve the problem of Hizbollah," he said. "We are agreed on the goal, the disarmament, but for us the means are purely political. [my emphasis]

So Hiz'b'allah will not be disarmed. Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

RAFSANJANI SAYS MUSLIMS SHOULD USE NUCLEAR WEAPON AGAINST ISRAEL [December 14, 2001]

also here.

Denial is a river in Iran too!

IRAN DENIES WILLING TO NUKE DOWN ISRAEL [December 30, 2001]

And now, presenting, the madman pursuing [oops! allegedly pursuing nukes!] nukes, communicating with the dead:

Last Monday, just before he announced that Iran had gatecrashed "the nuclear club", President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disappeared for several hours. He was having a khalvat (tête-à-tête) with the Hidden Imam, the 12th and last of the imams of Shiism who went into "grand occultation" in 941. -Amir Taheri, April 16, 2006 in the Telegraph.

1701

Open letter by Dan Goorevitch at Overful to Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs here hits all the right notes on the diplomatic piano. See my next post for its utter futility at avoiding war. Here's the big bell:

How can non-state actors who use violence to either destroy fellow states or coerce their policies be stopped if the nations in which they operate can not be held responsible? Lebanon, and all nations, have to be held responsible and accountable for every act, no matter by whom, that is initiated from within its borders. What otherwise is the meaning of national sovereignty but the right to make law, balanced by the responsibility not to harm others outside its jurisdiction? It is this contract that lies at the heart of the nation state and why it works.

That's right! A state has a border and within that border it has laws. We respect their national borders and they respect ours. That's how it works. Then we cooperate and help each other against common threats. Lebanon was let off the hook at the UN when UNSCR 1701 was passed.