Sixty years ago, at the establishment of the state of Israel, the civilized world was united in the cry of "Never again!" in response to the Holocaust. Today, as Israel seeks to guarantee the end of near-daily attacks upon its territory and people, there are too many folks who cry out "Do it again!" as they support the Hamas-led government of the Terrorstinian Anarchy.

I think the sign says it all.

So not only does this low-life support terrorism, he supports genocide against an ethnic group he cannot even spell. And yet this is the side that the liberal elite and the UN seems to think operates from the moral high ground.

Posted by: Greg at 06:22 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Last July, Barack Obama made an important point about the right and obligation of Israel to defend itself in the face of attacks from Gaza by Hamas.

Today, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak quoted Obama in his remarks to the Knesset regarding Israel's action against the Terrorstinians.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said upon completing his daily briefing that the Israel Defense Forces will use every resource to bring about an end to Palestinian rocket fire.

Speaking at the end of the third day of deadly aerial assaults on the Gaza Strip, Barak said "if the criminal rocket fire aimed at Israeli civilians does not stop immediately, Israel will use all its resources and all the legal tools it possesses to force the enemy to stop this aggressive, illegal behavior," Barak declared.

* * *

Barak also cited a comment made by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, who visited Sderot during his election campaign earlier this year.

"Obama said that if rockets were being fired at his home while his two daughters were sleeping, he would do everything he could to prevent it," Barack told the plenum.

Let's consider precisely what Obama said during his World Tour on Unicorn One last summer.

In reference to the rocket attacks, Obama said that "I think that no country would accept missiles landing on the heads of its citizens."

Obama emphasized Israel's security, saying, "I came to Sderot with a commitment to Israel's security. Israel has the right to defend itself, and peace should not undermine its security."

He expressed his admiration for the citizens of Sderot who remained in place even though their homes had come under fire. "Israelis must not suffer a threat to their lives, to their schools," he said, adding that "if missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that."

Now this raises an interesting point three weeks before the inauguration -- once again there is the possibility that Obama's campaign rhetoric may come back to haunt him as president. Obama recognized the legitimacy of Israel defending itself from rocket attacks directed against its civilian population -- which is precisely the course of action that Israel is engaged in today. To follow a different policy after his inauguration would be worse than a betrayal of (another) campaign promise, it would be a sign that Obama expects Israel to accept and endure things that he has publicly stated no nation should accept, ant that he would not accept if directed at his own children. As such, Ehud Barak may have backed the president-elect into a policy corner.

Posted by: Greg at 02:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Not only that, but the Israeli government is warning civilians away from likely military targets.

RESIDENTS at certain addresses in the Gaza Strip have been receiving unusual phone calls since the Israeli air assault began on Saturday -- a request that they and their families leave their homes as soon as possible for their own safety.

More unusual than the recorded message is the Arabic-speaking caller, who identifies himself as being from the Israeli defence forces.

Dipping into their bag of tricks for the updated Gaza telephone numbers, Israel's intelligence services are warning Palestinian civilians in Gaza living close to Hamas facilities that they may be hurt unless they distance themselves from those targets.

In some cases, the warning comes not by telephone but from leaflets dropped from aircraft on selected districts.

So much for the notion that Israel is being indiscriminate in its attacks. they know where they are going to attack and are trying to get the civilians out -- a tricky task given that Hamas has located its facilities of military value in the midst of the civilian population.

And Israel has done a pretty good job of avoiding those civilian casualties, based upon the statistics here.

But there are conflicting reports about how successful the air force has been avoiding civilian casualties. On Sunday, Israeli officials, citing Palestinian sources, said of the almost 300 fatalities reported until then in Gaza, all but 15 were members of Hamas. Hamas officials said yesterday that one-third of fatalities were civilian.

Last night the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said at least 51 civilians had been among those killed.

I'd be willing to guess that the actual number is probably somewhere between those put out by Israel and the staunchly anti-Israel UN group, which is often little more than a mouthpiece for the Terrorstinians. In other words, only about 10% of the casualties are civilians, while the rest are legitimate military targets -- predominantly members of the military wing of Hamas and Hamas-controlled police forces that have been involved in terrorist activities. Even the attack on the Islamic University of Gaza was intended to pinpoint military research being conducted in laboratories at the school -- another legitimate goal for a nation that has decided to put an end to military attacks on its people.

Hamas, of course, offers no such warnings to the civilian population of Israel before launching unguided missiles into civilian areas -- but those who support the terrorist government of Gaza don't want to address that little detail.

Posted by: Greg at 10:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Let us remember the people people who Israel defends when it acts against the Terrorstinians in Gaza.

Larissa Yaakobov stands before me sobbing. Her young daughter and nine-year-old son look on helpless. “I can’t do it anymore,” she says in broken Hebrew, “I can’t live here.” “Here” is Sderot, an Israeli border community adjacent to the Gaza Strip where Larissa has lived since she emigrated from Russia fifteen years ago. Larissa ’s son does not say a word. He hasn’t said much, she tells me, since the two watched a Qassam rocket slam into a woman a few feet away killing her instantly.

Less than twenty four hours before Israel unleashed its air-force on the Gaza Strip, I sat with four families in Sderot who have been injured and traumatized by Hamas rocket fire. In the hours before Israel ’s incursion, the mood was tense—even by Sderot standards. The streets were barren; everyone is bracing for new waves of rockets.

Sderot has no shortage of children’s playgrounds—twisty blue and yellow slides, swings and handle-bars. But children are no where to be seen. I do see plenty of bomb shelters. Every bus-stop in Sderot has been turned into a lime-colored enforced shelter with a single shrapnel-proof window. I enter one of these rooms to see what it is like inside. A car screeches to a halt and the driver dashes out to join me in the shelter. He is panicked and out of breath. Seeing me enter the shelter, he mistakenly thought a rocket was headed our way. I apologize sheepishly for the confusion as he returns to his car and speeds away.

I scan the looming gray clouds above for any indication of incoming rockets or mortars. A single fish-shaped white balloon sitting high off in the distance is my sole source of comfort. It is the Israeli armyÂ’s preferred method of identifying incoming rockets. It triggers an alarm which gives residents a few seconds to find shelter. I cannot shake the feeling that at any moment a rocket will fall from the sky and strike me directly. I note the location of every bomb shelter along the way in case I must make a mad dash to safety.

This feeling of unremitting and ubiquitous terror is the norm in a community of 20,000 residents.

Remember -- these are people in a town that is indisputably a part of Israel. After all, it is part of the pre-1967 territory of the Jewish state. It was missile barrages against Sderot and other Israeli towns near Hamas-controlled Gaza that led to the blockade of Gaza -- and despite the cease-fire that began six months ago, the attacks from Gaza continued. Homes and schools are regularly hit by the unguided missiles lobbed across the border between Israel and the Terrorstinian Anarchy. Yet somehow the world community expects Israel to continue to "take it" rather than act to root out the terrorist threat from within Hamas-controlled territory.

Pray for the people of Sderot, who have endured eight years of aggression from within Gaza -- and for the success of the military operations designed to protect them and their fellow Israelis from Hamas-sponsored terror attacks.

Posted by: Greg at 09:12 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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There are a great many ways to explain what is going on right now between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Terrorstinian Anarchy. However, I found the clearest explanation in this editorial in the Jerusalem Post.

On Friday, a Hamas spokesman made Israel the following proposal: You keep the stream of humanitarian aid and supplies flowing into Gaza and we will keep launching rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians.

It was an offer Israel had little choice but to refuse.

For weeks Israel has been imploring Hamas to stop shooting across the border, to stop tunneling in preparation for the next round of violence, and to allow our farmers to tend their fields. The Islamists responded that they were not afraid of the IDF and that they reserved the right to resist "the occupation" - meaning the existence of a Jewish state. They brazenly told Israel to get used to the idea that no amount of humanitarian gestures would stem their behavior.

At 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Israel finally told Hamas that it would not be bled, slowly, to death. Thanks to excellent intelligence and superb training, a haughty enemy was caught off-guard. Targets up and down the Strip were hit and large numbers of Hamas personnel including senior military figures were killed. Key facilities were turned into rubble; well-camouflaged equipment was destroyed.

Imagine, if you will, that Canada was lobbing missiles into the US on a daily basis. Imagine that decades of attempts to negotiate a settlement to the conflict and years of foreign aid to the attackers had done little or nothing to stem the tide of the attacks, nor regular suicide bombings in our nation's cities. And what's more, imagine that the Canadians informed us that it was expected that the US lay back and take it while continuing to cough up ever more foreign aid to the Canadian government even as the Canadians continued to express the intent to continue attacks and ultimately destroy the United States.

How long would the people of the United States be prepared to accept the attacks? How long would it be until they demanded that the government respond militarily to crush the attackers? We know the answer to those questions -- and we know that the United States government (whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats) would act to crush the Canadians via military force -- hopefully disproportionate force designed to forever neutralize the ability of the Canadians to do attack and kill Americans.

Last week a truce between Israel and the Hamas-led government of the Terrorstinian Anarchy that began on June 19, 2008 came to an end. During that time of truce, Israel faced regular missile attacks from within Gaza in violation of the truce. Israel faced a number of terror attacks originating from Gaza. A blockade intended to protect Israel's citizens from such attacks was implemented -- and received international condemnation from those who sympathize with the Terrorstinians and their stated desire to murder Jews and destroy Israel. Israel was expected to stay its hand because of the truce, even as the other side violated it with impunity.

And when the truce ended, Israel said "No more!" Indeed, it acted in precisely the manner that Americans would demand in the scenario I outlined above -- though with less force than Americans would demand in that scenario.

And that is the problem.

Israel has, over the years, failed to kill a sufficient number of Terrorstinians.

The evidence of this?

The obvious lack of deterrence of the relatively merciful policies followed by the Israeli governments over the last 60 years.

Until Israel responds in a manner that is sufficiently ruthless to lead the Terrorstinians to fear Israel more than they hate Israel, thereby leading them to reject terrorism in order to preserve their lives and those of their children and grandchildren, the Terrorstinians will continue to make the rational choice to engage in aggression against Israel because the cost (a relative handful of dead compared to what they desire to inflict upon Israel) is sufficiently low to allow them to continue to practice terrorism.

In short, the solution to Terrorstinian attacks on Israel is for the Israelis to continue the military response and to step it up -- adding a ground component to the air component. While I'm not -- quite -- suggesting that the Terrorstinians be driven into the sea (a favorite and oft expressed dream of the Terrorstinians with regard to the people of Israel), I do suggest that the Israeli response be truly disproportionate, regardless of the sentiments of the world community. When one's enemy interprets mercy and proportionality with weakness, massive retaliation (and massive enemy casualties) becomes the only way to stop them -- and that is the situation in which Israel finds itself today.

Posted by: Greg at 05:35 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Yeah, IÂ’ll post about it.

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in a supreme insult has suddenly become the talk of Iraq, hailed by marchers as a national hero but blasted by the government as a barbarian.

* * *

Zaidi shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," at Bush in a news conference he held with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday.

The journalist then flung one shoe at Bush, forcing him to duck, followed by another, which sailed over Bush's head and slammed into the wall behind him. Throwing shoes at someone is the worst possible insult in the Arab world.

Zaidi was dragged struggling and screaming from the room by security guards and could be heard shouting outside while the news conference continued after momentary mayhem.

Now apparently the Iraqi government is charging him with crimes against the Iraqi state. I think this is the wrong move for them to make, for it turns him into a political prisoner. Rather, he should be charged with assault – for after all, this piss-ant is nothing more than a common criminal.

His employer is demanding he be released, claiming that his actions are merely free speech. They are wrong – his actions were assault (assault and battery, actually, as I understand that one individual may have been struck by one of the shoes). He isn’t being punished for his words – he ought to be punished for his actions.

The Insane Left is, of course, all in a tizzy over the incident, proving their fundamental moral and mental inferiority to even single-cell life forms. Consider a few of the comments documented by the folks at NewsBusters:

Here is a sampling of the the reaction from the Daily Kos:

Is the Iraqi reporter eligible for a Pulitzer?

• What will happen to this reporter? Do we need to send money for his representation in court or is he dead already? My concern is for this guy. I understand that Dana Perino got a black eye from a microfone in the melee. I'm sorry but retribution is sweet! If we could help this shoeless person I would.
  
• We can throw 9000+ combat boots at him as he waddles to Marine 1 for the last time.
  
• Michael Ware Was Grinning From Ear to Ear! Iraq journalist Michael Ware was shown on CNN telling Blitzer about the shoe throwing incident. He was positively gleeful.
  

And it wouldn't surprise me if quite a few other American journalists, whether based in Iraq or not, were also grinning from ear to ear in solidarity with the Kossacks over this incident. Meanwhile the Huffington Post comments were very similar to those of the Daily Kos:

• All I can hope for is that bubble boy takes a real good look at what he has wrought. He should rot.
  
• Find out who it was the guy deserves a medal of honor.
  you go iraqi guy! wooohooo! we should all be chuckin our shoes at him! lmao!!!! the shoebomber! lmao!!!
  
• I would love to throw something at Bush.. not a shoe though.. maybe a brick.. or cinder block.
  
• Give that man who threw his shoes at the shrub an award...or better yet a statue built in his own likeness.
  
• Shall we say thank you Al-Jazeera?
  
• The next time you see Bush's motorcade rush by, don't let anyone keep you from giving him your shoe, too...
  
• does anybody know the name and address of the man who threw the shoe? I'd like to buy him a new pair and throwing lessons.
  

And finally, last but least, we have the input from the loons at the Democratic Underground:

• F---ing shame he missed.
  
• Too bad Shrub didn't get his teeth knocked out, that guys a true hero!
  
• *sigh* why can't anyone ever hit their targets? is it asking too much too see Bush hit in the face with a shoe, or Coulter with a pie, or Rove with flaming poo?
  
• I soooooo wish I could throw something at the idiot too.
  

Now I wonder if these folks will be so receptive to the first time “. . . a shoe, or. . . a pie, or. . . a bag of flaming poo” is thrown at Barack Obama? Or will these same morons apply a different standard to their new god (whose tin idol is already tarnished by the Blagojevich connection), demanding harsh treatment of the offender?

By the way, the idiot KOSsack who asked if Zaidi was already dead ought to consider something – if this were the Iraq that existed prior to the US liberation of that country, his actions would have earned him and his entire family prison and probably death by some barbaric methodology. If this were the Iraq that the Left’s beloved terrorists want, Zaidi would already have been decapitated for his crime. For that matter, what would have happened anywhere in the rest of the Arab/Muslim world if he had tried that with one of their leaders? The question answers itself. Instead, this semi-talented journalistic hack will be something of a hero to a certain segment of the Iraqi populace, while being excoriated by others – and he may face a short time in jail or a fine for his clearly inappropriate action.

After all, there are limits to freedom of expression – and Zaidi needs to learn that it ends where assault begins.

By the way, I have to agree with this point by Talking Points MemoÂ’s Josh Marshall:

But watching the video of the Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at President Bush, I could not help but notice that it took an uncomfortably long period of time for anyone to get to the assailant and, even more, much longer than I would have expected for anyone who looked like Secret Service to get to the president and block his body or get him out of harm's way.

I guess the point here is that this was a very confined space. Presumably the Secret Service controlled access to the degree that they were confident there were no unauthorized weapons in the room. And they wouldn't have to worry about someone with a gun at a greater distance. So they may have been less worried about jumping in front of the president, etc.

Maybe I'm just over-analyzing this. And obviously a president can't be under lock and key at all moments, with Secret Service agents ready to throw him to the floor at a moment's notice. But for an American president, any moment in Iraq has to be considered a very high risk situation. So it did make me wonder.

That was, in fact, my first reaction to the incident.

UPDATE: Here's the best reaction I've seen from an Iraqi:

“I spent five years in Saddam’s jails,” said Saman Qadir, a 51-year-old mechanic. “This journalist has to throw flowers on Bush, not a shoe, because Bush saved the Iraqi people from a bloody regime. Malaki has to raise a case against this journalist.”

But then again, for some it all comes down to the shop-worn "Bush=Hitler" meme.

Posted by: Greg at 01:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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