I found this on Robert Spencer's website "Jihad Watch" for January 2. This from the people who accuse the Israelis of being genocidal.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Support Genocide! Buy a T-Shirt
I found this on Robert Spencer's website "Jihad Watch" for January 2. This from the people who accuse the Israelis of being genocidal.
Mosque and State
Here's another IDF mosque strike marked by telltale secondary explosions.
It's often noted that there's no separation of mosque and state in Islam. Apparently for Hamas there's no separation of mosque and arsenal, either. I know that in Iraq the Islamists would store caches of weapons in cemeteries. That way we had to disturb Muslim graves to locate them.
It's often noted that there's no separation of mosque and state in Islam. Apparently for Hamas there's no separation of mosque and arsenal, either. I know that in Iraq the Islamists would store caches of weapons in cemeteries. That way we had to disturb Muslim graves to locate them.
The Ground War Begins
The London Times had it right. The ground war has begun.
I think the story here will be who learned the most from the Israel experience against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon in 2006. Hamas clearly expects to duplicate the Hizbollah feat. The Israelis, I assume, expect to do it right this time. We'll see over the next week.
If thinks do go poorly for the IDF, I would expect to see Hizbollah start its own mischief in the north. That's why it is so important that the Israelis get the time they need to do the job, not just to protect themselves, but to deny the Islamists and the Iranians another victory, which is in the interest of the U.S. as well.
I think the story here will be who learned the most from the Israel experience against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon in 2006. Hamas clearly expects to duplicate the Hizbollah feat. The Israelis, I assume, expect to do it right this time. We'll see over the next week.
If thinks do go poorly for the IDF, I would expect to see Hizbollah start its own mischief in the north. That's why it is so important that the Israelis get the time they need to do the job, not just to protect themselves, but to deny the Islamists and the Iranians another victory, which is in the interest of the U.S. as well.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Ground War Tomorrow?
The Times of London reports that the Israelis are ready to go tomorrow, Saturday, into Gaza. We'll see. If they do, it won't be pretty, for either side.
An Observation
It's is currently 1522 on 2 January. On the home page of the Iranian Fars News Agency you'll find several stories about the situation in Gaza. But on the home page of the Kuwaiti Arab Times there's not a mention of Gaza. You have to go the the "World" section to find a Gaza-related story.
My first thought was how odd this was until I recalled how the Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein when he overran Kuwait, and how the Palestinians in Kuwait acted during the Iraqi occupation.
You can get a sense of the ill-will in this Time magazine article from March, 11, 1991.
Second only to the Iraqis as a target of Kuwaiti rage are the more than 300,000 [the actual number was closer to 400,000, almost all of whom were expelled after the liberation] Palestinians who lived and worked in Kuwait before the invasion. Because the Palestine Liberation Organization allied itself with Saddam, Iraqi forces in Kuwait treated many local Palestinians as a kind of auxiliary force. They helped administer and police the country and were rewarded with special privileges. Palestinians manned checkpoints, for example, and were permitted to sell consumer goods in street stalls, something that was illegal before the war.
Kuwaitis today insist that the Iraqis were able to round up and execute large numbers of military and police officers because Palestinian informers led them to the right addresses. "Palestinians are no good," says Hiyam al- Bushehery, 24, a student. "They stood in the street and betrayed people at checkpoints. They told the Iraqis who was in the police."
The number of Palestinians working in Kuwait today is about 40,000-50,000.
My first thought was how odd this was until I recalled how the Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein when he overran Kuwait, and how the Palestinians in Kuwait acted during the Iraqi occupation.
You can get a sense of the ill-will in this Time magazine article from March, 11, 1991.
Second only to the Iraqis as a target of Kuwaiti rage are the more than 300,000 [the actual number was closer to 400,000, almost all of whom were expelled after the liberation] Palestinians who lived and worked in Kuwait before the invasion. Because the Palestine Liberation Organization allied itself with Saddam, Iraqi forces in Kuwait treated many local Palestinians as a kind of auxiliary force. They helped administer and police the country and were rewarded with special privileges. Palestinians manned checkpoints, for example, and were permitted to sell consumer goods in street stalls, something that was illegal before the war.
Kuwaitis today insist that the Iraqis were able to round up and execute large numbers of military and police officers because Palestinian informers led them to the right addresses. "Palestinians are no good," says Hiyam al- Bushehery, 24, a student. "They stood in the street and betrayed people at checkpoints. They told the Iraqis who was in the police."
The number of Palestinians working in Kuwait today is about 40,000-50,000.
Why support Israel over Hamas?
Watch the video of cleric and Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament Yunis al-Astal. These guys want the world and the destruction of Israel is only the first stage. The IDF is ultimately defending me, and you, from these bozos.
Tomorrow the world! It's not as if we in the West have to divine Hamas's goals by reading goat entrails. They're up front about it. "Hi! We're raving anti-Semites who want to conquer the world and establish an Islamic Utopia. And after we've exterminated the 'brothers of apes and pigs' we're coming for you."
Tomorrow the world! It's not as if we in the West have to divine Hamas's goals by reading goat entrails. They're up front about it. "Hi! We're raving anti-Semites who want to conquer the world and establish an Islamic Utopia. And after we've exterminated the 'brothers of apes and pigs' we're coming for you."
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Jews and Apes!!!
In a previous post I referred to the teaching of young Muslims in some Islamist-run schools that Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs. Here's another video on the same theme from Saudi TV in 2002 that made the rounds at the time but is worth viewing again.
And here's a 2007 tape from Hamas TV in Gaza in which a young girl partners with an Arabic Mickey Mouse to make an argument for the liberation of Palestine as the first step in the establishment of a global khalifate. What's the likelihood that any of these children will grow up as anything but brainwashed anti-Semites?
People like to talk about the "cycle of violence." What about the "cycle of gross stupidity"?
And here's a 2007 tape from Hamas TV in Gaza in which a young girl partners with an Arabic Mickey Mouse to make an argument for the liberation of Palestine as the first step in the establishment of a global khalifate. What's the likelihood that any of these children will grow up as anything but brainwashed anti-Semites?
People like to talk about the "cycle of violence." What about the "cycle of gross stupidity"?
Why the IDF bombs mosques!
Here's IDF footage of an air attack on a mosque that the Israelis claim doubled as a munitions storage point. You'll note that after the initial bomb hit, secondary and tertiary explosions indicate something other than copies of the Holy Qur'an were stored in this place of worship.
Grads and Qassams are rockets. Some the the Grads landing in southern Israel this past week are of Chinese manufacture.
Grads and Qassams are rockets. Some the the Grads landing in southern Israel this past week are of Chinese manufacture.
Mark II Richard Reid
I wish I could say this was my work, but it's not. I found it on the website of Yisrael Medad, an Israeli living in Samaria.
http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2009/01/proof-hamas-is-in-desperate-straits.html
Disproportionate Force?
One of the complaints often made about the Israeli strikes against Hamas is that they represent a “disproportionate” response. In other words, the commentator recognizes the reasons for the Israeli decision to use force, but disagrees with the degree to which force is used.
Western Just War theory does, in fact, view the use of “disproportionate force” as un-just, or immoral if one prefers. But the commentators who throw the term around do not understand the concept underlying the use of “disproportionate force.” They compare the severity of the Israeli airstrikes—about 400 Palestinian dead—to the death toll wrought by the Hamas rocket attacks—four dead, as I write, and see disproportionality.
But under Just War theory one does not determine proportionality by measuring the use of force by one side not to the level employed by the other. The proportionality, or dis-proportionality, of the use of force is determined by comparing the degree of force used to the level necessary to achieve a legitimate objective.
What is the Israeli objective, and is it legitimate? While I have no doubt that ideally the Israelis would like to destroy Hamas militarily and politically, that is highly unlikely given the international reality. The more likely and achievable goal for the IDF is to punish Hamas sufficiently that it halts the rocket attacks under some international accord akin to that reached in 2006 during the fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Many commentators, myself included, considered that outcome a defeat for Israel. Nevertheless, Hezbollah has not been rocketing northern Israel over the past two years. Israel, as a sovereign state (something Hamas is not), has a right to defend itself from attack, even from an entity that considers the existence of Israel illegitimate.
For example, at the end of World War II the Soviet Union annexed much of what had been German East Prussia, renaming Konigsberg Kaliningrad. Other than the right of conquest, the Russians had no claim to that territory. If Germany suddenly decided that it wanted the territory returned and started firing surface-to-surface conventional missiles into Russia, Moscow would still have the right to defend itself, no matter the circumstances that had given it control of Kaliningrad. (I might add that the former German inhabitants of East Prussia and their descendants are not still living in refugee camps.)
Israel has a right to defend itself and the goal of halting the Hamas rocket strikes is legitimate. But does the Israeli operation represent a disproportionate use of force, given the disparity in casualty lists? Not at all. The determination of the proportionality of the use of force is reached by comparing the application of Israeli military force to the requirements to achieve the objective, namely getting Hamas to stop its barrage. The fact that five days of attacks have yet to convince Hamas to stop firing its rockets is prima facie evidence that the IDF is NOT using disproportionate force. Clearly, to achieve their objective the Israelis need either to apply more force or to sustain the current level of airstrikes for a longer period. A disproportionate use of force by the Israelis would have been some massively destructive attack--e.g., a nuclear strike against Gaza--involving a use of force greater than necessary to convince Hamas to halt the rocket strikes. By Just War definitions, if the IDF had truly employed disproportionate force Hamas would have caved at the end of the first day.
Western Just War theory does, in fact, view the use of “disproportionate force” as un-just, or immoral if one prefers. But the commentators who throw the term around do not understand the concept underlying the use of “disproportionate force.” They compare the severity of the Israeli airstrikes—about 400 Palestinian dead—to the death toll wrought by the Hamas rocket attacks—four dead, as I write, and see disproportionality.
But under Just War theory one does not determine proportionality by measuring the use of force by one side not to the level employed by the other. The proportionality, or dis-proportionality, of the use of force is determined by comparing the degree of force used to the level necessary to achieve a legitimate objective.
What is the Israeli objective, and is it legitimate? While I have no doubt that ideally the Israelis would like to destroy Hamas militarily and politically, that is highly unlikely given the international reality. The more likely and achievable goal for the IDF is to punish Hamas sufficiently that it halts the rocket attacks under some international accord akin to that reached in 2006 during the fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Many commentators, myself included, considered that outcome a defeat for Israel. Nevertheless, Hezbollah has not been rocketing northern Israel over the past two years. Israel, as a sovereign state (something Hamas is not), has a right to defend itself from attack, even from an entity that considers the existence of Israel illegitimate.
For example, at the end of World War II the Soviet Union annexed much of what had been German East Prussia, renaming Konigsberg Kaliningrad. Other than the right of conquest, the Russians had no claim to that territory. If Germany suddenly decided that it wanted the territory returned and started firing surface-to-surface conventional missiles into Russia, Moscow would still have the right to defend itself, no matter the circumstances that had given it control of Kaliningrad. (I might add that the former German inhabitants of East Prussia and their descendants are not still living in refugee camps.)
Israel has a right to defend itself and the goal of halting the Hamas rocket strikes is legitimate. But does the Israeli operation represent a disproportionate use of force, given the disparity in casualty lists? Not at all. The determination of the proportionality of the use of force is reached by comparing the application of Israeli military force to the requirements to achieve the objective, namely getting Hamas to stop its barrage. The fact that five days of attacks have yet to convince Hamas to stop firing its rockets is prima facie evidence that the IDF is NOT using disproportionate force. Clearly, to achieve their objective the Israelis need either to apply more force or to sustain the current level of airstrikes for a longer period. A disproportionate use of force by the Israelis would have been some massively destructive attack--e.g., a nuclear strike against Gaza--involving a use of force greater than necessary to convince Hamas to halt the rocket strikes. By Just War definitions, if the IDF had truly employed disproportionate force Hamas would have caved at the end of the first day.
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