I am writing this moments after the announcement of the Israel Defense Force that they have invaded Gaza. The first thing that struck me is that, for now at least, it is not Mark Steyn’s prescient America Alone. It is Israel Alone!
Not that they don’t appear to have secret friends like the Egyptians, who think Hamas is cracked, and the Saudis, who oppose anything connected to the Iranian mullahs (again like Hamas). But secret friends are fickle and therefore prey to the Arab Street, the EU and other forces that despise Israel for various reasons, conscious and unconscious. Even that great, good friend the US may be evanescent. Undoubtedly, George W. Bush supports Israel – arguably more than any other American president – but Barack Obama? We just don’t know. There are conflicting signs.
So it is Israel Alone, fighting the good fight against religious totalitarianism, misogyny, homophobia, global Sharia… I could go on, but Israel’s enemies are not going to believe me anyway. They have their brains filtered through Annie Lennox – like taking you College Boards on LSD. The singer is leading anti-Israel marches through London. [Didn't Lennox once have a bad divorce from an Israeli guy?-ed. I didn't know that. Perhaps the New York Times will check it out for us.]
I don’t understand the reasoning, if that is what it is, of the political left which supports the Islamists when they are the embodiment of everything the left claims to oppose. I think it was F Scott Fitzgerald who said an artist was someone who could hold two contradictory thoughts at the same time and still function. Maybe that’s it. They surely are not thinking rationally unless all their positions on these issues are just reflexes. From their reaction to Sarah Palin, maybe that explains it. No thought at all. Just synapses.
Roger,
Fear not. The State of Israel is that rare and most dangerous of creatures: an armed republic at war. The current situation only gives validity to the Zionist claim that Jews need a nation because they cannot trust others to defend them. In addition, direct attacks by Hamas on Israel give the Jews moral clarity while the West dithers about “proportionality.” As Gandhi said: “The truth remains the truth even if only one man know it.”
> No thought at all. Just synapses.
I do not believe celebs typically make their own decisions in their PR actions. Their management team does it for them. And they often have a contract to adhere to. If her management decides that Ann can sell more records by taking a reverse position, I have no reason to believe she wouldn’t.
And come January 20th, Israel will be all alone, as Obama won’t put up with their human rights abuses any longer like Bush has.
It wouldn’t upset me one bit if we declared war on the world’s worst human rights violator and put them out of business for good.
I just hope Olmerde & Co. have the guts to tell the EU, the UN and all those Jew-hating NGOs to go to hell when they ask for a unilaterial cease-fire.
If Europe ratches it up to a boycott, consider it an act of war and attack European shipping in the Mediterranean.
And Israel better have agents abroad to defend Jewish neighborhoods in Europe. You know that Europe’s only real card in this is to let its native Muslims massacre the Jews, while the EU elites order their police to standby and do nothing while the mobs kill — in other words – pogroms. And you know the Jew-hating European media will blame it all on the dead Jews.
Actually, cleansing Ms. Lennox’s doors of perception might open her up to a whole new world of understanding. Then again, maybe she could hire some guys to blindly fire rockets over the hedges at her place year after year – completely at random. That ought to bring her around. If neither of those works, there’s always the whole human shield thing.
Bitching about Israel or the US is totally risk free – at least in the near term. What you’re witnessing is cowardice. If you shoot at civilians from behind civilians you are a coward. If you support the cowardly shooters you are a coward.
Note to Palestinians, other Arabs and their lefty worshipers: Israel is not going anywhere. Give it up. If you want peace Israel will teach you how to make the desert bloom. If you want to fight prepare to die. But don’t hide behind you children. Your rich Arab brothers hate you. They use you to fight their proxy war against Israel.
Demand your money back from Mrs. Arafat and use it to build schools and hospitals and parks. Israel has proven that the desert can bloom. Why don’t you try producing something other than misery.
May God Bless the IDF and give them a great victory.
Vinny F. #4, don’t let this disturb your thinking, such as it is…
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004879.html
With respect to Obama and his view toward Israel, he named Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff. And he chose as his vice president Joe Biden, who is extremely pro-Israel.
The World Can’t Wait refered to Biden as “Obama’s Zionist wannabe veep”
Hopefully the pagan Gods will give victory to the monothestic fanatics of the jewish variety. They are at least trying not to shed innocent blood.
The average “artist” is usually dumber than last years bird nest.
as to human rights abusers, I note (from Mark Steyn), that the splendid folk of Hamas are going to re-institute crucifixion. I expect that show will be for men only. The women are slowly strangled and/or stoned to death. Quite a culture, there, in Gaza.
Gaza, by the way, is as old an entity as Hong Kong. It is about the same size, and is also on a major trading body of water. Hmmm. Compare and contrast, students!
The problem is, was, and will be Islam. There can be no peace. No coexistence, with Islam. It’s us or them.
“And come January 20th, Israel will be all alone, as Obama won’t put up with their human rights abuses any longer like Bush has.
It wouldn’t upset me one bit if we declared war on the world’s worst human rights violator and put them out of business for good.”
See that? Obama’s gonna be a war president after all.
And Vinny, I’m confused, aren’t WE the world’s worst human rights violator? Not that any of these rankings are official or anything.
VINNY: “… Obama won’t put up with their human rights abuses” ..
ARABS IN IRASEL HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN ARABS ANYWHERE ELSE – AND HIGHER LIVING STANDARDS.
ISLAM AND SHARIA ARE FUNDAMENTALLY ANTI-HUMAN RIGHTS, AT LEAST AS DEFINED BY FAMOUS NEOCON’S FDR AND HIS WIFE ELEANOR – WHO PENNED THE UN’S DECLARATION OF UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS.
Godspeed to the IDF…go get ‘em while the gettin’ is good…there’s no telling how long you’ll be allowed to do your job so make good use of the time you get.
It’s disheartening to see the Left again swooning to barbarism. Didn’t you guys learn anything with Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot, Kim, etc?
I think rock stars and movie stars are clearly focused on one thing alone. What’s gonna get me the most publicity? Its the only rational analysis for an irrational persona.
Its not Obama’s turn to move yet. Its Bush’s turn. Israel has made the first and the second move. By the time, Obama’s comes into office, he may change his mind yet again and support Israel.
I wish the IDF good hunting. Its time to put a stop to Hamas with extreme prejudice.
Flatten Hamas, obliterate them. And then tackle “world opinion”.
IMO Israel is better off taking care of themselves now than waiting around for help from fair-weather friends – and I’m afraid that after Jan 20 that is what the US will be. No doubt Obama will do little other than talk – providing someone writes him a speech of course.
Israel is lawful state, having membership in the United Nations, with ambassorial representatives throughout the world. Why must it be expected to turn the other cheek while the recipient of incoming missiles, randomly aimed at its civilian population? Islam admittedly seeks to subject the world to the tenets of its beliefs. Wake up Europe! Wake up America!
“Well, Contre nous de la tyrannie… Our good friends the oh-so-progressive French, who gave us Drancy, are condemning the Israeli incursion (and the Hamas rockets – for “equivalency” bien sur).”
Which serves to illustrate my point that most Frenchmen didn’t join “La Resistance” until AFTER the war was over.
Roger Simon asks:
Reading the commentariat, I’d suggest that for many of them:
1. They resolutely refuse to believe that Hamas is actually comprised of religious fanatics. That’s just for appearance’s sake.
2. They are actually a “national liberation front” (which also conveniently puts them shoulder-to-shoulder with the Viet Cong, the Communist Chinese, etc.). This means that they’re anti-colonials, which, unsurprisingly, makes Israel a bunch of colonialists.
3. La-la-la, I can’t hear you. How many people who support gay rights also support Hamas, Hizb’allah, or any number of other fundamentalist Islamic groups, whose view of gays is that they should die? (But remember, these same people also support Castro, who locks HIS gays into concentration camps.)
In short, denial and delusion.
The new president of the EU (a huge improvement of Sarkozy!) has bravely stated that he has the luxury of truth and that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that Israel’s actions are just and are defensive not offensive. Buy Czech products and visit this beautiful country!
Be good to boycott those who cannot tell the difference between a just cause and terrorism, like France, Spain and the UK.
4. Vinny F. wrote:
And come January 20th, Israel will be all alone, as Obama won’t put up with their human rights abuses any longer like Bush has.
It wouldn’t upset me one bit if we declared war on the world’s worst human rights violator and put them out of business for good.
Peter asks: You mean human rights violations like holding back medical supplies from its own people? Spending the money meant for roads and schools on rockets and guns? Preventing medical help from reaching your own citizens so that leftist medea can take photographs of the civilians you have hidden your weapons caches among who have gotten hurt more from your own weapons than from Israel’s? Is that the kind of human rights violations you are talking about?
Because the world knows, even if they won’t admit it to themselves, that Israel is only defending its own nation against a group of self-absorbed terrorists who don’t care who they are hurting or killing as long as they get good press. You want to put a real human rights violator out of business for good, go join the fight AGAINST Hamas, Vinny.
i read in one of the news blogs that 11 praying Muslims were killed when a Hamas weapons depot was blown up by the IDF. later identified as a mosque… so the IDF tells the civilians to stay indoors, and these 11 go to a weapons depot to pray, and get blown up…and become dead innocent civilians. and i’m to believe this, why? well it sure sucks to be them. go get em IDF
The Izzies should kill their soldiers, burn their shacks, shovel their footprints off the path, and turn their mosques into barracks. We will know that Hamas is conquered when they are selling their women to the Israeli soldiers. That is how you fight, and win, wars that are existential in nature.
Spending the money for roads and schools on rockets and guns?
Well, I sure hope the Israelis are doing whatever it takes to insure they’ll never run out of rockets and guns, especially given the creature who’s about to take the oath of office on Jan 20.
We must stop pretending the world has changed or learned it’s lesson since the holocaust.
They weren’t there for us then, they’re not here with us now, don’t expect them in the future.
Stop waiting for them, they’re never coming, when they do come it will be after the fact, even then they won’t care, or even care to remember that they did nothing.
Humanity has proven to us that if we want to survive it must be done on our own terms and without it’s help.
G-d bless Israel and her soldiers. May G-d curse her enemies. That said, I see know benefit to Israel if it’s forces have not been sent into Gaza to conquer and topple Hamas. If Israel accomplishes anything short of that target then lives and property will have been wasted.
My opinion is that, rather then done for the good of Israel, this war is being fought to bolster support for members of the current Israeli government in the coming elections. If Israel is not committed to destroying the illegal entity that currently runs Gaza (and the EU brokered negotiations indicate Israel is treating Hamas as a legal partner in negotiations) then this war is being fought on the Hamas’ terms. It makes me sick to see a national army being used as an arm of certain political factions who would seek to boster their own success at the expense of the nation they represent.
LURKING OBSERVER IS 100% RIGHT.
THE LEFT IDOLIZES CHE AND MAO AND CONSIDERS MESHAAL AND HIS ILK “FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
THIS IS BECAUSE AS GOOD LITTLE POSTMODERNISTS THEY BLAME THE WEST – THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN WEST – FOR ALL THE WORLD’S ILLS:
AGW, THIRD WORLD POVERTY, AND MOST OF HISTORY’S GENOCIDE.
THESE THREE CANARDS ARE DEMONSTRABLY FALSE, BUT THE LEFT WON’T LISTEN.
AND – DESPITE THE LEFT’S PREDISPOSITION FOR MORAL RELATIVISM – ANYONE WHO OPPOSES THE WEST, IS THEREFORE MORALLY SUPERIOR BECAUSE NON-WESTERNERS ARE INTRINSICALLY VICTIMS AND VICTIMS HAVE “MORAL AUTHORITY” BY VIRTUE OF THE VICTIMHOOD.
IT’S THE TRUMP CARD: GET OUT OF JAIL FREE, PASS GO, GO TO THE WORLD BANK AND COLLECT 200 BILLION.
THIS IS WHY THE LEFT AND THE MSM THEY DOMINATE ARE ALWAYS PROPOUNDING ALL THE PALLYWOOD PROPAGANDA WHICH IS ALWAYS SHOWING THEM TO BE VICTIMS: AL DURA; JENINGRAD; AND SO ON.
NOW GAZA IS CAST AS THE VICTIM OF ISRAELI/WESTERN AGGRESSION.
THIS IS WHY I HAVE LONG ARGUED THAT BEFORE WE CAN DEFEAT OUR JIHADO-THUG ENEMIES ABROAD WE NEED TO DEFEAT OUR LEFTIST ENEMIES AT HOME.
The Czech presidency of the EU has come out and supported Israels defensive actions, Israel is not alone, France no longer holds the presidency. I think now is the time to stand up, most people recognise Hamas for what they are, Israel is fighting the right fight and public opinion is backing them, when you look at those demos they were extreme left and extreme Muslims, they are evident, I think things are moving the right way.
I just hope that those Israeli troops stay safe and do their job.
Sarkozy is showing his real colours, people seemed to think he was the real deal, he is not.
eliminate every hamas male over age two.
Dear Roger,
I am truly a fan of yours but I’d ask you to spare us the fond harkening back to the days of the Vietnam protest and how you and your old protestors remember hundreds of thousands.
There was nothing good about what you and your old fellow Vietnam War protestors did, except save your asses from being drafted. Nixon understood perfectly that it wasn’t a “peace movement;” he ended the draft and the movement died.
You caused your nation to LOSE A WAR. Losing a war is one of the most terrible things that can befall a nation. Ask the Poles.
You set the stage to make pulling-out-when-it-gets-hot not only permissible, but the default policy of the U.S. That’s what makes Bush so different. That’s why he infuriates the left and the dregs of the Vietnam protestors.
If you take away George Bush’s hard earned victory in Iraq, waged against the worst domestic enemies ever faced by a U.S. president, we’ve been running ever since Vietnam. From Vietnam to Beirut, to Mogadishu, with the exception of Iraq and perhaps Afghanistan, we’ve been running from difficulties for the past 40 years.
Look at the reporting policies of the NYTImes or WaPo, or any of the TV networks. Or take the words of that great and fellow Vietnam War protestor John Kerry. You changed Hollywood forever…one of the great engines of shaping public opinion that got the public behind the WWII war effort (no there’s a quaint phrase for you, “war effort.” Imagine it being used today. No, today are fellows from Hollywood, thanks to the legacy of the Vietnam War protestors, when they do make movies about the GWOT, our guys are depicted as mass murderers and rapists, or victims. Your fellow protestors also stigmatized military service. All of these things makes it difficult to recruit an army so that the nation can defend itself.
We hear often today that Israel is the canary in the mine. It is a metaphor that is 100% accurate. And the fact that the brave Israelis are facing such an uphill battle in their utterly righteous cause is a result of a cultural and attitudinal shift wrought by the Vietnam War protestors.
Let’s leave references to the glory days of the Vietnam protest in the closet.
I’m for all of those things, or most of them, but here’s a suggestion, reliapundit. USE LOWER CASE. We don’t like you shouting at us. There’s a reason its not considered good Netiguette. If you have a problem reading, simply enlarge the font size on your browser. Then you can see and we will all be happy. Best of luck.
Who says there alone? I support them, and I am not alone in that support. Maybe its not fashionable or gets media attention, but its still there.
“It wouldn’t upset me one bit if we declared war on the world’s worst human rights violator and put them out of business for good.”
Iran?
Sadly, it will turn out as it did two years ago. Instead of pushing them into the sea — as did Napoleon — the Israelis will get bogged down, find themselves occupying what they took until Rama negotiates another “truce” and they withdraw. 2010, same thing. 2012, same thing, but hopefully the end of it all on the winter solstice of that year…
Anyone who accuses Israel of “human rights abuses” has just announced they don’t give a damn about human rights. If they did, they would praise Israel. Instead, it is the clarion call of dime store bigots whose motivation never rises above a simple, demented hatred of Jews.
Well, I for one don’t mind the references to your Vietnam protest days. We are all on a path…and I’ve appreciated learning about yours.
Israel is doing what they had been hoping to prevent – reoccupying Gaza in order to disable Hamas’ ability to strike against Israelis.
Nobody wanted this invasion more than Hamas, and they are getting what they asked for. It is terribly disheartening to see the Palestinian civilians who are hurt in the process, but it is also clear that Hamas has been waging war with impunity for some time. Israel waited until there was no doubt that action was needed, as Hamas explicitly refused to extend a ceasefire agreement.
No peace is possible while Hamas continues to perpetrate war crimes against the people of Israel – either Hamas must stop, or Israel will make them stop. The laws of war support Israel’s actions, so long as they focus on removing the threat of attack, and work to prevent the battle from becoming an existential one for the Palestinian people of Gaza.
There is no point in comparing this Israeli action to US action in Vietnam or Korea – those were projects far afield. Israel shares a border with Gaza, and finds itself under direct attack. No attacks came to our shores from Vietnam or Korea (or for that matter, Iraq)…
DS
“Let’s leave references to the glory days of the Vietnam protest in the closet.”
Yes!
For the record, Angela Merkel has blamed Hamas for the current situation. I doubt that she has much support for doing so.
I hope I am not mistaken but judging from the comments on most articles in the Dutch media which I read, most people are quite understanding of Israel’s offensive.
By the way, there are attempt to create a rightwing/conservative (and therefore pro american pro Israeli)broadcasting company. One attempt so far has failed as the ING bank refused to open an account.
Hurry, hurry, Israel! You need to mop up operations before 1/20/09.
‘All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God’. Psalm 98:3cd
Did these bleeding heart liberals ever stop to think that if they would have voted for McCain this Israeli attack and killings would probably not have happened?
Obama is such a coward he is afraid to speak out,
he thinks he might offend someone.
He is observing the war from his beach front property.
Israel didn’t know what to expect after Jan 20th so they attacked.
Thank you- Mr. Bambi!
It wouldn’t upset me one bit if we declared war on the world’s worst human rights violator and put them out of business for good. (Vinny F.#4)
All you right-wing fanatics make me sick! After destroying Iraq, eliminating its legitimate government, and imprisoning its people, now you want to attack Iran…or did you mean Saudi Arabia?
But if had one scintilla of a brain cell, you would know that yhe worst vilator of human rights is the United States, although New zealand for the way they treated the Maoris is up there.
The word of self-loathing Jews, Anti-Israel Jews, Marxist Jews etc. are being applied to and used to exclusively in connection with the American branch of the Jews. Chomsky, and other illustrious Jewish Commie prophets are all American products.
In historical context:
These people never saw the inside of an oven at Auschwitz, many even doubt its existence (Finkelstein). The pogrom against the Jews was incremental in Europe after 1919 and culminated in the Holocaust. During the initial period many still had the chance to escape to America where they enjoyed a sheltered safe, achieved high social status and financial power.
They had the freedom to advance their Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist world view unhindered at the higher educational institutions, media and entertainments. Their Marxist ideological adherence is so strong that it has become a tribal creed: for them the existence of Israel contradict their Bolshevik ideology that Marx put forth in writing in the “On the Jewish Question”.
Here is now the schism between American (Western) and Israel (Eastern) Jews:
While the American Jewry pursued their whim, the Eastern Jews were herded to the concentration camps where they were gassed, tortured and burned.
Israel is the creation of the Holocaust generation which faced horrible death while the Chomskys, Madoffs, Soros’ Tony Judt types run with the money and spewing off their ideology to “repair the World” (Tikkun Olam in Hebrew).
We see something similar to the break up of Rome: Western and Byzantine partition.
“But if had one scintilla of a brain cell, you would know that yhe worst vilator of human rights is the United States, although New zealand for the way they treated the Maoris is up there.”
Dr. Lumplevin, did you mean “worst defibrillator”? If so, I completely agree with you. You should see what happened to my Uncle Manny. (Sorry we don’t have spellcheck on this site, but Firefox offers it as an add-on… or possibly it’s even built in now.)
“How does a liberal or a leftist justify supporting a regime of religious fanatics whose ideology, when examined, is in complete contra-distinction to everything they claim they stand for?”
Never underestimate the human capacity for self-justification.
It has been “Israel Alone” for a long time (with a brief respite from the isolation in Bush’s first term). It is about time that Israel come to grips with that fact. instead, Israelis like to kid themselves that they just suffer from effective arab propaganda, which is beyond silliness.
Eventually, Israel will realize the position they are in and will start taking appropriate steps, like leaving the UN, for a start. if Israel left the UN, the organization would collapse, as it has done almost nothing other than condemn Israel and would find itself out of work. But, as long as Israel remains in the UN, they are inviting the isolation and condemnation of the rest of the members, and it will not stop until Israel is gone.
Tim H.:
Bitching about Israel or the US is totally risk free – at least in the near term. What you’re witnessing is cowardice. If you shoot at civilians from behind civilians you are a coward. If you support the cowardly shooters you are a coward.
Note to Palestinians, other Arabs and their lefty worshipers: Israel is not going anywhere. Give it up. If you want peace Israel will teach you how to make the desert bloom. If you want to fight prepare to die. But don’t hide behind you children. Your rich Arab brothers hate you. They use you to fight their proxy war against Israel.
Demand your money back from Mrs. Arafat and use it to build schools and hospitals and parks. Israel has proven that the desert can bloom. Why don’t you try producing something other than misery.
Tim – You are so right on. When I was there as a volunteer in 1967 it was so interesting to see how a people could change a desert into an oasis. The poeple of Isreal are my heroes!!
Godspeed, Israel. My prayers are with the IDF.
#52. Mr. Simon commented on some obvious Netiguette so perhaps some more is in order. While I agree with your sentiments an 1800 word post verges on abusive. Besides, no one is going to read it. Save the book for your own Blog.
Please join me in reciting A Prayer For Israel:
http://susankatzkeating.blogspot.com/2009/01/prayer-for-israel.html
“Isreal Alone”? Nah.
Even the habitually pro-Palestine UK media doesn’t appear to have its heart behind the usual anti-Isreali guff anymore these days. I suspect there has been a bit of growing up over the last couple of years even if they dont want to admit it.
Annie Lennox? Who cares? “Lesbian Stomping Around Demanding Stuff And Complaining” is hardly headline news any more is it? She stopped being relevant in 1985.
God bless Israel and give strength to the IDF tonight. They are not alone.
“I don’t understand the reasoning…of the left..when they [the Islamists] are the embodiment of everything the left claims to oppose.”
First, the Soviets supported the creation of Israel both to throw a monkey wrench into world politics and because they thought that Israel would be a socialist ally. The Soviets withdrew their support when they saw that Israel would not be an ally and when that there were far greater opportunities to be had fomenting trouble among the Arabs.
Second, the Western Left initially supported Israel both because it tended to take its dues from the Soviets (except for those leftists who took orders from the Soviets) and because most Zionists were socialists and the Left looked forward to the creation of a socialist state. A desire to recompense for the Holocaust was a lesser motivation although it was touted much more loudly. Leftist support decreased when the Soviets switched to supporting the Arabs, but it fell much more as Israel failed to live up to the leftists’ socialist dreams, and as more and more Israelis abandoned the kubbutz model for individualist lives (free enterprise, privacy, personal choices uncontrolled by a committee, etc) the Western left felt betrayed. The Left has never forgiven Israel for this.
Third, modern liberalism is dominated by an identity politics in which there is a hierarchy of privileged groups: Dark-skinned people have priority over light-skinned people, Asians and Africans over Westerners, gays over straights, and so on. In this hierarchy Jews rank above Christians and Germans but below everybody else. If an Arab rapes, robs or murders a Jew, the Arab is always excused because the left has abandoned, except in lip service, universal moral values and has replaced them with a fascistic system in which some groups belong to Das Volk and others are Untermenschen.
As a natural and inevitable consequence of this deification of identity as the moral yardstick, the left became obsessed with power and every year becomes more open in its idolization of thugs who unashamedly wield power, the more brutally the better.
Vinny, you are sadly malinformed, perhaps with bad intent. Try reading some history – factual, rather than imagined. Try a few thousand years of chinese history for an understanding of the rise and fall ov governments. How about you visit the Religious Studies department of your local university, and avail yourself of a few courses on the major religions of the world. After that, you need to visit recent American history
and maybe read authors from both liberal AND conservative sides. If you have a decent graounding in world history, maybe, just maybe, you will begin to see beyond the facile non-arguments your side keeps trying to raise.
If all that is just too damn much for your brain to take in, try this: ‘If someone were sending rockets into my backyard daily and endangering my children, I would try very hard to stop them’. That’s a paraphrase from teh messiah himself, BH Obama. What would YOU do? Cause I’m quite happy to come by and terrorize you, since it will be all your fault – you made me do it. your sharing your opinions here is not right, it makes my head hurt so I need to kill you. Oh, BTW, don’t think you will be cut any slack by the Muzzies. You are after all, a heathen, and only worthy of killing if you do not convert.
Or have you converted already?
Dimbulb.
Please keep your posts to reasonable lengths. If you want us to read a document, provide a link. Do not copy and paste the document here. For that reason I have deleted what was formerly post #52 and have not published an extensive United Nations document someone copied and pasted.
The Managment
“the IDF major who gave the briefing to Skye News linked above”
Which link? There are several SkyNews links above. At the SkyNews site linked via those, there’s no clear route to the IDF major’s briefing. Add text? Thanks.
48. Dr. Lumplevin wrote:
All you right-wing fanatics make me sick! But if had one scintilla of a brain cell, you would know that yhe worst vilator of human rights is the United States, although New zealand for the way they treated the Maoris is up there.
Peter asks: And what country do YOU live in, Dr? Is it is the US, can I request that you move? As soon as possible? Perhaps to some paradise country like China, North Korea or, if you want a really relaxing vacation, perhaps the Gaza Strip?
Israel is alone and has been for a while. It was alone under Bush who pushed silly peace initiatives which had zero chance of ever working.
Why everyone insists on ignoring the 700 pound gorilla in the room is beyond me. And that gorilla is Hamas’ clear desire to destroy Israel. Why would anyone negotiate with people bent on ones destruction?
As long as anyone asks Israel to negotiate under these conditions, the US included, there will only be war and Israel will always be alone.
I am completely in accord with Dr. Lumplevin that New Zealand is the world’s worst perpetrator of human rights violations. It’s about time that the press shed some light on the ugly, fascistic, and apartheid state that is modern New Zealand. History records that the peaceful and vegetarian Maoris adopted facial tattoo not unlike the great, smiling, yellow faces now found at Wallmart.
/sarc off
SAF, the gorilla is the Submission Cult with its 700 year history of doing just this, the tactics were hardly different when it was working on Syria or Alexandria soon after its inception, from its current tactics in Israel, Lebanon, or London, or Brussels, differences are in local balances of power.
Hamas is upfront about their motivations, not just about their goals, in their charter.
None of this would be happening if the Palestinians hadn’t been firing rockets across the border into Israel. Hamas and their fellow terrorists chose this path. They deserve whatever happens to them. My sympathy meter is stuck on zero — and it ain’t broken.
If terrorists from some foreign country were shooting missiles into our country and terrorizing our citizens, we would kick the living crap out of them, and so would any other country in the world.
Hamas is a terrorist group holding the Palestinians hostage. If Obama doesn’t back Israel in their current terrorist hunt against Hamas, his true colors will be shown. Is there any other reason why he keeps answering that “there is only one President at a time” when asked about the situation? I think all of Israel’s supporters are in for a shock when Obama IS in charge come Jan. 20. Godspeed.
Peter the Sub Guy: Dr Lumplevin is just a troll who likes to drop hand grenades into conversations. He never has anything useful or intelligent to say.
The ‘world’ will never love Israel, because the world is at enmity with the God of Israel.
No matter.. the Judge of all the earth is merely giving nations and kings, and men and women, opportunity to declare whether they be sheep, or goats.
Comment #35 by “ma_che” gets my vote for the best of the bunch. Roger’s eloguent silence (did I miss his response??) suggests I’m right.
Recall that in the Post-WWII era the USA managed to win only one engagement with an enemy — that on the forgotten island of Grenada. In all other military engagements, the US either settled for a stalemate or fought and then, tired of the trouble, walked off the battlefield (in Vietnam, the USA won the battle of the Tet offensive, and misinterpreted that victory as losing the war). That “victory is not our goal” policy created the correct impression that the sacrifice and determination of the USMC on Iwo Jima had been forgotten. After Vietnam, nobody believed that the USA would fight until it won.
That’s why bin Laden attacked us, and why Iran thinks it can defy us and destroy Israel. Bush has done all he can to end the suicidal defeatism of US policy, thank goodness, and he may some day be appreciated for his principled and rational actions. Now we have to worry about the new man, who is a truly unknown quantity….
The lesson for Israel is that unless it destroys Hamas, root and branch, all of Islam will regard the Jewish state as weak, vulnerable, and doomed. That will put Israel’s survival at great risk.
#45 Daniel…The error in your post is in your assumption that America is conservative as a whole. Unfortunately we are under assault by a small, yet vocal group of liberal minded wingnuts who have brainwashed our youth and overtaken our media. With the upcoming annointing of President Obama January 20th, the conversion of America to a liberal bastain of self-hate and the end of idealism will be complete. Please, if you can, let the world know that the US as history knows it, will go into hiding on Jan. 20th to emerge stronger in 2012. Until then, Godspeed to all of Earth’s inhabitants. You’ll need it under the upcoming Obama administration.
Quote from article:
“The first thing that struck me is that, for now at least, it is not Mark Steyn’s prescient America Alone. It is Israel Alone!”
Has it not always been so. But the Jews remain and have survived the Pharaohs, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Muslims, the Spanish Inquisition, the czars, the Nazis….But never alone if one believes in the Creator of heaven and earth.
Mr. Simon,
Please, when you delete a post delete only the text, maybe leaving a note as to why it was deleted. Zapping the whole thing gives the following post the toxic number and people heap abuse on an innocent person. Thanks.
Please watch this video and forward: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTGbP55HGi8
have you noticed that when missiles were raining on Israeli land from Gaza, there was no interest from the “media”, nor from the UN, nor from the EU, nor from anyone else in the world??? But. Israel attacks Gaza…. well, the silence turns into an orchestration of fauxtography, with Palestinians as bleeding victims of evil Jooooossss…. And people such as Condi Rice nag Israel to ‘find a solution’ to this difficult problem….
also, have you noticed that although Israel has possessed Nukes since god-knows-when… no nukes have fallen upon the Oppressed Palestinians? But. Iran has made it quite clear that the MOMENT IT CAN DELIVER A NUKE TO ISRAEL, it will.
It is embarrassing to be human, right now.
To hell with the thugs at the UN and the fools in the “international community”. Israel needs to wipe Hamas from the earth.
Israel has to get it in to her head that sometimes its reasonable to be unreasonable. The Arabs have figured this out. They act (or to some degree are) crazy, make unreasonable demands and are relentless. Result is the West caves in to them as it feels its not worth the trouble to irritate them. Israel needs to play the same game. Burn Gaza to the ground and burn the Saudi oilfields as well. Now you have a game changer. As the Arab countries essentially contribute nothing to the world, their loss will have no lasting consequence. Can you think of any scientific, industrial, medical or technological achievement of note arising from an Arab country in the last 100 plus years? When Israel starts acting a bit crazed, the West will jettison the Arabs, rightly concluding they need oil and not Arabs. With a blockade in place the Arabs will starve to death before the West runs out of its oil reserves. The dog barks and growls until it smacked good and hard with a rolled up newspaper.
Do I have to burn my Annie Lennox CD’s with Cat Steven’s now?
I am running out of movies to see and music to listen to.
What’s next for the marches??? Wagner?
Roger L. Simon and Pete the sub guy: I’m pretty sure that Dr. Lumplevin is pulling our legs. The problem for him is that it is almost impossible to satirize the left – no matter how outrageous Dr. Lumplevin tries to be, you can find people at Daily Kos who write things like that in all seriousness. Jonathan Swift would have a tough time of it today – someone at HuffPo (or better yet, PETA) would immediately write a post saying eating Irish babies isn’t a half-bad idea, since the world is overpopulated anyway.
I have to say I agree with ma_che’s post. There were honorable people who opposed Vietnam (and not so honorable people concerned mainly about saving their own hides), but the anti-war protests of the era set the template for the anti-American and anti-Israeli protests of our time.
Rule 1.) Any Third World people facing off against a technologically advanced, “white” power must be right.
This is true for the left even though the Palis are, technically, “white” and many Israelis are descended from Sephardic Jews from Arab countries.
Rule 2.) Any killing of the “white imperialists” by the noble, oppressed Third Worlders is to be minimized and justified, while any killing done by white “imperialists,” particularly killing of civilians is to be splashed across the front pages. Futhermore, we won’t accept that the killing of civilians is an outlier, or accidental; no, it is to be presented as the very essence of what the imperialist power is about and what is done routinely. Lt. Calley summed up Vietnam for the Left; Lynnie England summed up Iraq, and faked photos of Palis lying on the ground (without any blood or even torn clothing) sum up Israeli “aggression” as far as they’re concerned.
Mr. Simon, I really like your books. (Moses Wine is great!) But you and your fellow VN protesters, some of whom operated under the best assumptions, nevertheless opened a big can of skunk that has been poisoning our debates about war and defense ever since.
Er, Donna V., perhaps you will enjoy reading my forthcoming book (this month) Blacklisting Myself, which has a great deal of analysis of the days of protest. More than one could ever publish on here. You can pre-order on Amazon.
Let’s face it: none of this would have happened if it weren’t for the damned New Zealanders and what they did to the forsaken Maori’s.
Roger,
Am interested in your new book, as long as it isn’t another nostalgia trip for the “days of protest”
Nostalgia? Are you joking? The title is: Blacklisting Myself:Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror…. I’m sure you know what an apostate is. Apostates don’t do nostalgia.
I find Obamas silence quite deafening.Israelis are natural allies of America.This war on terror isnt going to be restricted to Al-Quaida only was it there Obama?No,Hamas,and Hezbollah both are terrorist organizations taking their orders from Iran and that is unacceptable to the civilized world.Twenty years now ive been hearing the demonization of Israel-constantly 24/7 from the Left.Enough is enough.Israel has the right to defend herself with so many hostile to her.Take out Hamas for good.This group and Hezbollah have personally threatened the jewish state and the jewish worldwise community-dont forget that.I wont.
Is it the position of this forum that the Palestinians are incapable of reason and therefore must be exterminated?
Simon, the Jewish people are never alone. We have a very good friend upstairs, that is always on call.
Sorry, I meant to say Mr. Simon.
Is westbankmama suggesting that GOD is on the side of Israel just like God was on the side of Europeans when they arrived on this side of the Atlantic? Hamas thinks GOD is on their side too. You religious nuts are a danger to all reasoning humans.
Eden Naud, I cannot speak for others. I am atheist. But Hamas is clearly an insane group of religious psychotics. Israel withdrew from Gaza and yet they persist in firing missiles into Israel. Are they self-destructive or simply madmen bent on doing Allah’s will? Whatever, they are getting what they deserve. You, sir, are myopic.
Here’s an interesting article on that self-destructiveness referred to above:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3649878,00.html
Eden Naud,
It is my position that Palestinians are incapable of forming a peaceful society with self-rule that will not be a threat to the existence of Israel.
They have already been offered countless chances to demonstrate that they can live peaceably, but they have proven just the opposite (and seem to be very happy to do so) on many different levels. Therefore they must leave the territories and move to the lands of their arab brethren. And if they won’t go they will have to be transferred. Period. Cry me a river.
Mr Simon;
“So it is Israel Alone, fighting the good fight against religious totalitarianism, misogyny, homophobia, global Sharia…”
You’re laying it on kinda thick, ain’t you?
Take a look at the commentary and it’s a pretty strong tide running in Israel’s favor.
Hamas has tallied at this point…Annie Lennox…?
And I think you’re running the risk of Gaza overexposure. Every other article at PJM this week seems to be about Gaza.
This is making a strategic blunder. If you want to drive home the rationale on why Israel is justified in swatting these Hamas maggots into the dirt, then lay off the endless Gaza angle.
The uncommitted folks don’t really care what happens in Gaza or Israel, but if they can be made to understand that there’s a direct link between Hamas and the likes of Islamists who commit acts of terror in Britain and rioting in, say, the banlieux of Paris, then the target audience should be able to draw their own conclusions quite nicely.
Focusing so much space on Gaza will inevitably lead to “Gaza Fatigue”.
Think about it.
This is what I want. Someone, Israel or the US or the UN to fix this or end it and no one has said how they are going to do it. All I ever hear from both sides is that the evil enemy makes us do these awful things and it is implied that these enemies are so unreasonable that nothing short of extermination will solve the situation.
Does Israel think that that by reoccupying Gaza things will be different this time. Or by killing hundreds of people to convince the Palestinians to stop. Admit it extermination is the only useful final solution from both Hamas and the crazy Israeli religious right point of view. A POX on both their houses.
Roger: I am planning on reading it.
And I started out on the Left myself (well, I was more of a wishy-wishy liberal than a hard-core Leftist) so I really can’t berate you from on high.
Anybody who voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980 (mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) can not get on their high horse too much now, can they?
Israel,you still have friends and allies.Some are begining to see(growing up maybe?)that hypocrisy of Hamas and other terrorist organizations.Remember the UN secretary himself said there was no international support for Darfur.Wheres the Left on that issue?Why are UN member states acting like genocidal dictators and VIOLATING the declaration of human rights?Oh i forgot they are too busy condemning Israel and every western country for their ills.Israel is right and hamas is wrong,and Hamas will pay dearly for its actions.
” 94. Edan Naud:
This is what I want. Someone, Israel or the US or the UN to fix this or end it and no one has said how they are going to do it. All I ever hear from both sides is that the evil enemy makes us do these awful things and it is implied that these enemies are so unreasonable that nothing short of extermination will solve the situation.
Does Israel think that that by reoccupying Gaza things will be different this time. Or by killing hundreds of people to convince the Palestinians to stop. Admit it extermination is the only useful final solution from both Hamas and the crazy Israeli religious right point of view. A POX on both their houses.
Jan 4, 2009 – 12:11 am”
Israel is reacting to Hamas. All it would take for this to stop is for Hamas ceasing to act against the Israeli’s. As for killing, your point is foolish. All wars end when one side has lost enough killed that it concludes surrender is preferable to continuing to fight. Perhaps Hamas will force Israel to inflict the requisite amount of pain for them to quit a war they can never win.
Israel is reacting to Hamas in the same way they have been reacting to Palestinian aggression the same way they reacted to Hezbollah aggression and some how this time it will be different. If you tell me you will attack till Hamas stops fighting fine and after a few weeks, months or even years either Hamas or some other form will rise up and do the same with better tactics and weapons. As long as Gaza is a Ghetto in every meaning of the word Israel will have things flying out of there that they will have to deal with.
What Israel is doing reminds me of some sort of Imperial war of retribution where after a good trashing those Fuzzy Wuzzies will think twice before messing with Israel again. Good Luck.
Hamas (Palestine) vs. Israel
Hamas, are they so retarded with their acts of war during a cease fire? They have been doing unprovoked acts of vengeance for quite a while now. Now they built up enough arms to go after Israel again, but are they really just not thinking. Eventually people get fed up. Stop lobbing the stupid little rockets into Israel to instigate a fight and get the whole world stage on fire when they are being attacked and are retaliated upon. Quite honestly, I would do exactly what Israel is doing right now and beat Hamas into submission. That is exactly what they are doing. Israel is going to cease fire soon, but, break another cease fire treaty again. You are dead meat along with all the people that you use as human shields.
The Palestinians god bless them, but dang, why allow rockets on your rooftops that are only going to get your targeted? Put yourself in the shoes of the Israel, keep getting shot at and not fire back? The people of Palestine need to shut down Hamas and remove their power. Honestly, I think that Israel would help them as would the US if they would quit letting radicals in control.
If I have a shotgun and you shoot me with a bb gun over and over again, I will pepper you hard to let you know that you messed with the wrong person. Palestine is lucky they have not been carpet bombed and are being as careful as they can be. Palestine people should only blame themselves and the people they put into power for what has happened.
My prayers and heart goes out to the Palestine people that have been hurt in this ordeal. Many people will be praying for you all.
Sincerely,
Chris
89. Edan Naud:
“Is westbankmama suggesting that GOD is on the side of Israel just like God was on the side of Europeans when they arrived on this side of the Atlantic? Hamas thinks GOD is on their side too. You religious nuts are a danger to all reasoning humans.”
Wow! If you can’t distinguish between Jews who want a place on this earth to live and Muslim fanatics who insist on your conversion to Islam and will cut your head off to prove it I don’t know what to say. I guess Mother Teresa was a danger to “all reasoning human beings” too. She believed in God too.
Go Israel!
Hamas, Fatah, Hez, yadda, yadda, yadda, are just the cape. Go for the matador, Israel. Then take out the other one, in Saudi A.
Control the oil, and the rest of the world will forgive because they must.
Read comment #4, then read #48. You will see another example of a lack of critical thinking by a supposed “academic”.
Dr. Lumplevin, it makes me sick to think that you might actually be teaching our country’s youth.
“Admit it extermination is the only useful final solution from both Hamas and the crazy Israeli religious right point of view. A POX on both their houses.”(Edan)
Sound like you are engaging in a little pot-kettle-black action. You use the wide paintbrush just as much or worse than any extremist who fails to distinguish right from wrong, enemy from civilian, and opts for the barnburning solution. In contrats to the people of Gaza who elected a neo-nazi extremist Party to govern, the number of extremist Jews is extremely small and politically insignificant.
A pox on all the mush-minded, obtuse thinkers like yourself.
GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGIE MERKEL HAS SUPPORTED ISRAEL ALONE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. On the second day of the air operation she said it was all and alone Hamas’ fault. Of course, the rest of German political “elite” started to eat her alive, even some of her own party, Christian Democrats (German conservatives). Of course, Socialists were very vocal, and they govern now in the big coalition with Angie. Unfortunately, Free Democrats (German libertarians) were against her too: “Such statements damage our role as mediator!” – yeah, they still see themselves as mediators…
So, Angie ALWAYS supported Israel and ALWAYS stood alone. What’s the news? SHE NEVER DARED TO BE SO OPEN ABOUT IT OFFICIALLY, as a Chancellor. Something is changing, not in the way Obama wanted, but something is changing out there. Even the Jerusalem Post a couple of days ago noticed that the European coverage of events is NOT SO ONE-SIDED anymore. Of course, Israel is to blame for everything, but ok, Hamas is “not without guilt, those naughty boys”. Anyway, if you compare this coverage with one of the last Lebanon war, you’ll be pretty surprised.
Maybe it’s an Obama-effect anyway? Euros feel that Obama’s AMERICA won’t protect them in any conflict anymore. This feeling of vulnerability may play some role. Very few will discover thier sympathy for Israel, but the fact that Hammas is part of the FEARED army threatening to conquer Europe starts to be present. And without America… well…
Maybe that’s also the reason why the Anti-Israel marches are so poor attended. I remember the war in Lebanon, mg, it was all over the news, thousands and thousands, every f…ing week. This time it’s just the feeling: something is changing.
What I find most curious is the refrain from Israel’s critics of the Gaza action that it is “illegal” under international law because of the lack of “proportionality” of the response to the missiles fired routinely into Israel by Hamas.
What do they suggest Israel do, round up random Arab men, women and children at random and execute them one-for-one for each Israeli civilian death? I bet that would go over really well.
Would any rational person whose neighbor routinely came to their houseand smacked a family member over the head with a baseball bat simply respond by going to their house and doing likewise?
I seriously doubt that any mere mortal would have that level of Solomon-like wisdom and there is certainly no evidence of anything close to that in the Arab world.
Good point about the weakness of the actual protests. Commonsense prevails.
Hamas clearly started this dogfight. The only reason Americans are split at all is due to sympathy for real Palestinian people caught in the middle.
Israel took Hamas’s bait and is taking advantage of the waning days of the Bush administration to make a strong strike in Gaza. This is a big mistake because it’s unlikely to accomplish any rational objective and will diminish Israel’s already abysmal standing in world opinion.
Those Hamas supporters turn a blind eye to the misdeeds of Hamas who are now killing members of Fatah, whom they regard as traitors. CNN,BBC, Reuters will not report this, of course. It will be blamed on Israel.
It never ceases to amaze me when the Left falls down on the side of tyrants, dictators and terrorists. They are sympathetic to Hamas at best and supportive at worst. They also had little problem with Hitler until he attacked Uncle Joe. Perhaps we were a little overzealous when we put Ted Kazinsky, aka Unabomber behind bars. He was just acting out against an oppressive society.
Meanwhile, at the U.N. Ban Ki-Moon is making the appropriate noises while diplomats around the world profess how “deeply concerned” they are about the loss of life. Has this exercise by the U.N. become so formulaic by now that it’s meaningless? I’m waiting for someone to have the guts to point the finger at Iran, but I won’t hold my breath. How many billions does the U.S. contribute to an organization that is nothing more than a stage for moral preening? It’s way past time that someone finally turned out the lights and locked the door.
The intellectual prowess of the majority who comment on PJ postings never ceases to amaze me. Seriously. What also amazes (and puzzles) me is the absolute and utter lack of cognitive and reasoned response from the left….the same ‘learned’ left who ‘own’ our universities and ‘news’ media. If their opinions are so worthy as to be all but undisputed on the world’s campuses and in the world’s newsrooms, why not here? The left indoctrinates and intimidates the ignorant and intellectually vulnerable, but chooses not to engage the truly educated and learned. As to why this is so, I believe that to be self-evident. Thank you, contributors and commentors, for enlightening a common man.
Why the “armed republic” of Israel is alone in its fight against the Psychotic Death Cult that is Hamas (and, of course, against Hamas’ right-thinking and self-loathing Western enablers):
…because the Jews were so much more sympathetic when they lined up meekly for the cattle-cars — Schindler’s List — than when they aggressively pursued and eliminated their enemies — Munich.
98. Edan Naud wrote:
As long as Gaza is a Ghetto in every meaning of the word Israel will have things flying out of there that they will have to deal with.
Peter responds: Gaza is in a ghetto of its own making. That strip of land could be the richest and most prosperous area in the eaqstern Med if the people that lived there just made the decision to put down their arms and rockets and put their efforts to rebuilding what they have. I have seen many articles, both here on Pajamas Media and elsewhere, making comparisons between Gaza and other city-states like Singapore and Hong Kong, and the only thing the Palestinians don’t have that those other places do is giving up their hate and putting their own welfare ahead of pointless revenge.
107. ~Paules wrote:
How many billions does the U.S. contribute to an organization (the UN) that is nothing more than a stage for moral preening?
Peter writes: I have been telling my friends for years that the best thing the US could do in this day and age is pull out of the UN and tell their HQ in NYC that it is cordually invited to move to Geneva or someplace like that. (Maybe Tehran or Tripoli or P’yongyang would like to host the useless watse, and I know NYC could use the extra parking spaces.) Without the US to prop them up, the UN would collapse as an organization in 6 months to a year, and I would not shed a single tear.
God help America!! When I read the various commments of probably people who as a % have never been out of of the US, talking about for instance Annie Lennox and more record sales…………..I despair. Try and read or view other comments from around the world, not only the US propaganda feeds from where ever. As a Scotsman living in Germany it never fails to amaze me the intellectual vacuum on this site…….sorry.
…like to host the useless waste,…
I hate it when my fingers are faster than what I’m trying to type.
And how come I can never see the typos, even when reviewing what I’ve written, until AFTER I post it? (Sigh…)
Edan Naud:
Sounds as if you’ve been stricken with a nasty bout of Moral Relativism. Or perhaps a similar affliction to that which hounded Curly (of Three Stooges fame), who frustratedly spouted, “I tried to think but nothing happened”. Rest easy, my friend, it will be all over soon.
Peter,
Gaza as a Singapore or Dubai would first require the rule of law. That possibility was destroyed by Yasser Arafat who cultivated a culture of criminality. There is no hope for Gaza except as an open sore that can never heal. In a metaphorical sense Israel provides the only treatment possible, which is to periodically drain the infection lest it spread to the healthy tissues of a greater world body. The sickness at this point is more or less a permanent condition.
Not exactly to excuse Sarkozy, but you have to remember that most of Western Europe is already hamstrung by the fact that they have large numbers of unassimilated Muslims within their borders. This is what “open borders/one-worldism” gets you. Sarkozy is petrified that if he says the wrong thing, he’ll get hundreds of burning cars in Paris, and his political career will be kaput. It was the Muslim riots that largely did in his predecessor.
Not a profile in courage, but what do you expect from Western Europe, the home of realpolitik?
much is at stake here….. the IDF must be allowed to finish the job, a stalemate or a perceived sign of weakness is unacceptable to all freedom loving people of this planet.
my fear is that obama will use this event to grandstand, to cause a force withdrawl, to cause an end to the war. this will only serve to stiffen the view that Israel is finished, only a matter of time.
hamas? it doesn’t matter what they think or stand for. their actions are unacceptable, and must be stopped.
the local leftists act and think like children. they are pawns, being used by socialists to further some very crude plans to change the world. sarah palin, for some reason, is much more evil than hamas in their view.
what is the end game? it is really fuzzy out there, but: europe is finished, iran has the bomb and control over all northern africa/middle east, israel has a mass exodus and folds, the US refuses to convert to islam and is the only real power left in the world with the exception of the chinese, not under islam. we could have/should have supported the state of israel but we did not………. this bit of real estate was the only effective stop between islamic control and freedom.
Israel should not bother to worry about public opinion and concentrate on getting the job done. Hamas, who was elected to run things, has been rocketing Israel for quite a while. This is an organization that wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Israel is protecting it citizens which is the job of every nation state.
Livni just told the ME Russian envoy for Medveded that they do not want to talk to Hamas there is nothing to talk about. Russia offered to be THE mediator between Hamas and Israel. I’m just loving it. Good for Israel, they are a sovereign nation protecting their own, just like any other one would do.
Fallaci/December 2,2002
Excellent article. Now more than ever.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.aspx?GUID=B18BA7C1-0821-44FE-B2FD-DDC6D13D101A
“tolerating Hamas IS the Arabs sin so long as Arabs support the Palestinian cause” Tariq Alhomayed
Pay attention Arabs, it IS your sin!!!
Dear Roger–
Just pre-ordered your forthcoming book. Thank you for another thoughtful post; your blog is a daily must-read.
lol remember that it’s not just Annie Lennox that is pro-terrorists, it’s also Roseanne Barr.
Same woman who said, “I hate every human being on earth. I feel that everyone is beneath me, and I feel they should all worship me. That’s what I told my kids. I think I must have been Adolf Hitler in a past life.” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/roseanne_barr.html)
I agree with Andrew.
I feel sad that Gaza chose the terrorists to be their leaders and lead them to suffering. The West doesn’t really get what type of a society they have. It’s terrible how devoted they are to hate (not all of them, but most are unfortunately). School is basically 8 hours of learning about the “dirty Jews” and the after-school programs are pretty much the same. Look it up, that’s what it is. I really wish it weren’t
No child should grow up like that.
Israel may be alone as the worldview goes, but millions of Christians are on their side and are praying for them. And God. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Remember the super phenomenal wars of 1947, 1968, Yom Kipper… when the whole Arab nations that came against them and suffered a humiliating defeat.
Some Good news:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3650245,00.html
#35. Ma che:
“Dear Roger,
I am truly a fan of yours but I’d ask you to spare us the fond harkening back to the days of the Vietnam protest and how you and your old protestors remember hundreds of thousands.
There was nothing good about what you and your old fellow Vietnam War protestors did, except save your asses from being drafted.”
Ma che:
There was everything good about the pressure we anti-war protestors brought on our own government that was murdering us for no reason in Vietnam and on our campuses.
Too bad Nixon didn’t end this criminal misadventure before it took my brother’s life in 1970.
I am proud of my anti-war protesting, wouldn’t take back a shout and will be on the front lines again should America start eating its own young again.
Crack a history book or two and show some respect for the debt you owe us for stopping the carnage as soon as we did.
Kowboy
bobble2703:
“When I read the various commments of probably people who as a % have never been out of of the US, talking about for instance Annie Lennox and more record sales…………..I despair.”
Don’t presume, chappie, you’d only embarrass yourself when the depth of your ignorance is revealed.
Now as to Annie Lennox, I love her voice, and her androgynous diva schtick was fresh and daring…25 years ago, but I never cared for her unreconstructed Scots hard Socialist politics. Not then, and not now.
Just sing yer little song with your gifted set of pipes and save the harangue for your cell meeting, m’kay?
If I wanted to hear Lefty war stories, I could,(had they lived long enough), listened to both of my grandfathers,(one a card-carrying Commie until 1938 or thereabouts, and both of them unshipped volunteers for the International Brigades).
All that hokum was like Annie’s schtick…dried up and old hat 10 years after it began,(ask the Kulaks about what a great thing the Workers’ Paradise turned out to be…).
“As a Scotsman living in Germany it never fails to amaze me the intellectual vacuum on this site…….sorry.”
You’re a Jock, you live in Germany, yet you read a conservative American blog-consortium…and you call the commenters stupid and parochial.
Do you have many friends?
Or have you not yet learned to speak German?
If I was living in Argentina, I doubt very much I would spend my leisure hours reading an Aussie blog about events in South Africa.
And if I did, I don’t think I’d spout off about how stoopid the Diggers might be,(even if they were).
You follow me?
Kowboy, i don’t want to drag this off into VN, but i have to ask, honestly because i just do not understand this, how the 1975-80 history of SE Asia failed to have changed your mind about the meaning of the Viet Nam War, that is, the meaning as you saw it prior to 1975.
Bilgeman for the win.
Yes, Bilgeman’s retort works rather nicely.
132. Kowboy wrote:
Crack a history book or two and show some respect for the debt you owe us for stopping the carnage as soon as we did.
Peter responds: And maybe if YOU crack open a balanced history book you would learn, militarily, the US DID win the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, public pressure from leftists who only cared about protesting caused public opinion to swing to the point where our government was forced to withdraw troops and support from that region, leaving a huge vacuum that the commies just swept into, deposing our so-called allies. The same sort of thing the leftists wanted to do in Iraq. Thank God Bush had more backbone than Nixon, or we would be faced with an even worse scenario as the radical Islamists poured into that vacuum in Iraq, because they wouldn’t have stayed there very long.
I know, a little off topic, so I will end this with God speed the IDF.
Facts:
Bombs were fired out of Gaza in to Israel – continuously. They were NOT harmless bombs.
Bombs were fired out of Gaza to Egypt – continuously.
Tunnels were dug under the border of Gaza and Egypt. The cry for humanitarian aid being denied makes no sense. If bombs could be smuggled into Gaza via tunnels – and there is proof they were – then why wasn’t food and medical supplies for the starving children also smuggled? Or were they?
Israel got tired of being bombed continuously. Egypt got tired of being bombed continuously. Years ago, Jordan got tired of being bombed and threatened by suicide bombers so they threw these Arabs who lived in Gaza out. (They did more than that but I’ll let you read about it on your own.)
Those Jews in the Ghettos NEVER bombed the Nazis who were outside the Ghetto. If the Gazans had NOT bombed Israel, then this war would not have begun.
Palistine is the name the ancient Romans gave to that part of the Middle East. Everyone – present day Jews, Egyptians, Jordanians, Iraqi – plus – can be considered people who have lived in Palistine – Palistinians. It is not the name of a people – but a place. Those Arabs in Gaza are as Palistinian as the Jews, Egyptians, etc. are. History is being ignored or rewritten so that there is a reason for Arab militants to further their cause to destroy Israel. Hamas has held these people hostage. They are the ones who need to be held accountable.
Israel and its citizens are the best Hitler’s student
Many correctly identify the pathological obtuseness of leftists who support a religion/ideology and a people repulsed by their cherished agenda of secularism, feminism, abortion on demand, gay rights, multiculturalism etc. However, few comment on the irony that the majority of North American Jews still march on the Left aligning their considerable wealth and clout with the enemies of Israel. For a smart people, this seems incredibly dumb.
Apparently, commitment to socialist ideals and worship of multicultural pieties trump loyalty to Israeli Jews.
Jews are therefore a (power)house divided making Israel’s situation much more perilous than it needs to be. Diaspora Jews have great influence over so-called “world opinion” through media, education and entertainment channels. Many of the marxist propagandists who dominate the West’s professoriate and media-entertainment conglomerate are Jewish. All these channels have been churning out a steady diet of excuses for Muslim aggression around the world concurrently with condemnation of Israel and her staunchest supporter to date, the United States.
Thomas’ comment #49 is the first logical explanation I’ve seen to explain the schism between eastern and western Jews. I would add that only those who have had to live under a totalitarian system as part of a disfavored group are permanently immunized against the blandishments of theoretic marxism or any other totalitarianism. Those who promote totalitarian utopias are either history illiterate or control freaks who imagine themselves directing the vast coercive apparatus required to force “paradise” on the recalcitrant. They are so sure of their own good intentions and infallibility that they think coercion perfectly justified for as long as it takes lesser mortals to see the light, several generations if need be. Here is where Islam and marxism find common ground.
Mark J, right about the french resistance and almost all of europe. The OSS, with the Free French and others, estimated support at around 30%, about what we have today, with less for any Jews. Roger, you are right about upper case bombast, speak softly with a big stick for the “nice doggies”. For those of you who are Jewish, including the nonreligious, I feel FDR’s D-Day prayer is appropriate for the families and from our heart. For the IDF, the 23rd Psaum, good luck, good hunting, with your shield or on it.
“DR” LUMPLEVIN
SIMPLY STATED – IF YOU SO DETEST THE COUNTRY WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO SPEW SUCH “ACADEMIC” DRIVEL SO FREELY, PERHAPS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RELOCATION TO SOME OTHER DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MORE TO YOUR LIKING.
AS AN ALLEGED “EDUCATOR” YOU NAUSEATE ME.
“DR” LUMPLEVIN
P.S – YOUR SPELLING IS ATROCIOUS ! PERHAPS A FEW REMEDIAL COURSES WOULD BE IN ORDER…..
Mr. Larson:
There will always be trouble and strife in the world, as in SE Asia 1975-1980.
The United States had no strategic or moral interest in Vietnam. History has eviserated the “domino theory”. We arbitrairly helped create South Vietnam by fiat and were stuck defending our foolishness.
If the SE Asians want to kill each other, fine by me. Don’t kill any more of my family to try to stop them.
Kowboy
“If the Europeans want to kill each other, fine by me. Don’t kill any more of my family to try and stop them”
Sounds like something advocating American neutrality in Summer 1941 might have said too.
So you would rather allies be wiped out rather than help them defend themselves. Because eventually if all your allies are wiped out, who is going to help you when the inevitable attack happens?
I think “schmuck” is more or less the default position for this era’s politicians. There are exceptions and, happily, the Czechs may be among them.
Vinny F.
Moronically
Does not Think (Questionable ? ) or ” Feel “that Hamas’ sending Hundreds of Rockets into innocent Israeli Villages coming from Private homes in the GAZA is a (Human Rights Geneva Convention Violation )and committing 237 Suicide Bombing in he last 9 years is Evil or unlawful Obviously .
The sad news this was a obvious Obama voter .
I think that Israel’s response should be proportionate to the Hamas provocation and look forward to the random bombardment of Gaza neighborhoods by 5400 rockets.That ought to shut up the crypto-NAZIs who post here under the guise of concerned human rights aficionados.Don’t bother, that fig leaf has long ago disappeared.
Re: 116. bobble2703
Why does a Scottsman living in Germany, informed by the European press and/or acadamic establishment, necessarily have greater or less parochial knowledge or understanding of events taking place in Gaza right now? Please let me know.
Is it the superior lack of bias in the press or the superior quality of contemporary European political culture? Or, perhaps, it’s the usual expression of over one thousand years of underlying anti-semitism thinly covered by a veneer of posturing multiculturism, leftist anti-Western self-hatred and assumptions of third world moral superiority, fear of offending large and brooding Islamic minorities, fear of the Arab “oil weapon,” and the desire not to offend proponents of the Jihad movement for fear of being next on their target list?
Yes, I know that we ignorant Americans have been taking care of your (European) national defense needs for about the last 60 years, leaving you the capital to more easily advance your economies and intermittantly pursue closer economic and political ties with various left-trendy dictators of both communist (e.g., Soviet Union, North Korea), left-wing fascist (e.g., Cuba, Venezuela), and Islamo-fascist (e.g., Iran, Hamas, Hizbollah, etc.) regimes and movements when it suited you. Meanwhile, we ingorant yokels keep devoting a huge share of our precious human and financial capital to doing all the most difficult jobs keeping you safe and prosperous, dirtying our hands so that you can posture about some precious moral superiority, after your last hundred year history of engulfing the world in some of the most brutal, costly and terrifying wars and idealogical crusades ever seen by man.
Please do not take this reply as mere hostility. I know that America is far from faultless and has made many grievous historical errors despite being driven, at base, by idealism – for the most part a desire, above all else, to do good in this world, to help itself and others as well. I wish Europe much success in all her aspirations, even as I fear for her errors of judgment and misplaced hubris.
Well, I guess my sentiments are clear; I’d rather trust the majority of opinions as expressed here, than those of the majority of pampered, delusional, and perhaps prejuduced European elites as expressed in their media and your recent missive. Nonetheless, good luck and happy New year to you all.
Lord, let the IDF’s bombs and bullets fly true. Let no Hamas agent take up arms and live, yet allow the child he hides behind to emerge without a scratch on him. Thus shall they know that You are the Lord who defends Israel.
What the hell is the end game here? Israel destroys Hamas, then what? Who rebuilds the strip and governs the 1.5 million Gazans? The Palestinian Authority? Not unless they really want to be seen as lackeys of the enemy. Egypt or the other Arab states? What is in it for them to deal with Israel’s mess? Israel, again? As if the occupation went swimmingly the first time.
The only people who seem to be thinking long-term are the whack jobs — people like John Bolton and Daniel Pipes who seem to believe that Israel can smash Gaza and then force Egypt to claim the wreckage, or the out-and-out Kahanists-by-any-other-name, who rule the roost at Little Green Footballs and seem to becoming very common here at Pajamas Media.
I don’t think Israel is alone. Who cares about Amnesty International or the other organizations who condemn Israel every time they retaliate against Hamas for attacking them. There are many nations who knows if Israel falls due to fear brought on by death and destruction, that their next in line. They know their resistance to terrorism is nothing compared to Israel’s. I don’t think those who wants a free society takes Hamas side over Israel. Why chance getting attacked by terrorist by telling the media your on the side of Israel.
I want India to cut all relationships with Israel and not let any of its citizen ever be in India
And I want Rekha brown to stop posting on Pajamas, because she obviously has no clue how the world really works.
I just have ask what is acceptable? O.K. Israel is there NOW. They have with the Balfour Agreement conquered Palestine. With that said does that give them moral authority to do what they do? I think not. If my house was bulldozed and my Grandparents refused to leave the house they built and had paper work for and were murdered. I would also fight to the death. What is sad is the innocent suffer. Hamas and every Palestinian has every right to try to force Israel from Palestine. I am embarrassed by my countrys support for Israel. Yes born and reared in the U.S. How many of you would support American Indian land seizure today? Or Apartheid, Darfur ethnic cleansing, or the holocaust? That is what has been going on for years in Israel.
Those Hamas rockets are glorified fireworks. I completely understand why the Arabs call us the Great Satan and want Israel destroyed. I don’t agree but I truly understand. Israel is a oppressive occupier. And I want none of my tax dollars going there way. Israel gets the equivalent to $10,000.00 a year per citizen in U.S. aid.
You can’t address todays issues without facing what Israel really is. A occupying force that hordes all resources and keeps the original people in permanent refugee status.
Religion is a non factor in my view.
Re: 156. Another View
Your historical evaluation of the formation of the state of Israel is sorrowfully misleading. The Balfour Agreement was not the operative international document which founded Israel, although it was used as a small part of its rationalization.
Keep in mind that Hamas is making its most important claim on its own territory AND THE LAND OF MODERN ISRAEL, not in the name of regaining homesteads from the 1940′s, but in the name of Islam. That means that any land won by military conquest by the armies of Islam should forever remain Islamic and Jew-free (except sometimes as Dhimmis), and that the duty of all pious Muslims is to wage Jihad until all of this land (e.g., Spain, etc) is their’s again, and that would only be the beginning of a drive to conquer by military force, fear or persuasion the entire world for the glory of their Islamic God. Also, their charter, besides stating its goal of specifically wanting to eliminate the state of Israel, also sites the Koran in calling for the elimination of all Jews as a religion or people. This is what they plainly state for all the world to see if they will open their eyes.
First of all, there never was a time of no Jewish presence in the land comprising modern Israel. So if some sort of previous occupation by ethnic/religious populations, rather than more contemporary founding international diplomatic agreements is to decide legitimacy, then the fact that the jewish population of the area, waxing and waning from vast majorities to smaller minorities over a period of several thousands of years, should certainly outweigh the many, imperial conquests of the Mid East area, least of all the much more recent Islamic military conquest of just the last 700 years.
The indigenous “Palestinian” arab population in the area of modern Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, immediately following World War II, having just swelled with brand new arab immigrants just then fleeing Egypt, Syria and TransJordan to a safer environment controlled by Great Britain (also one greatly more prosperous and healthier due to the previous 50 years or so of European Jewish in-migration) to somehwere around a half-million people, were offered a very large Judenfrei country of their own, by the majority of the nations of the world in the UN declaration also creating the State of Israel. But, the arab political leaders of the time, having never given up the anti-Jewish pogroms they had perpetrated even well before establishing their war-time alliance with Hitler’s Germany, hoped that they could instead claim all of the “Palestinian” territory for themselves, killing all the Jews necessary, with the help of their neighboring Arab armies, to accomplish that goal. As history showed, they failed, and the State of Israel was indeed established. Israel was slightly enlarged over its originally prescribed borders in its various wars with Arab states out to finally eliminate the stain on their Islamic and nationalist honors which a jewish nation-state represented to them.
As to the Israeli’s treating those people in zone’s of “occupation” such as Gaza with anything less than the greatest respect possible, considering that these same people elected, support and are governed by an organization rightly labeled as terrorists, one not observing any ciivilized rules of war in its eliminationist creed of constant warfare against the civilian population of Israel, that is just plain wrong. What other countries do you know of, which when faced with unremitting attacks against its own civilian population, patiently waits and negotiates with its antagonists, and when finally provoked into self defense by the other side’s refusal to come to any agreement, finally gives advance warning, by cell phone of all things, to the civilians who might be in the line of fire, gives constant humanitarian aid to them, and has often in the past treated their wounds in Israeli hospitals? This is not only the opposite of Hamas’ actual behaviour, but it would be considered as ludicrously over-indulgent generosity by the rest of the most civilized nations in the world.
And last, if you agree that the U.S. and Israel are really the “Great and Little Satan” as often cited by such great bastions of human rights as Iran, Hamas, Hizbollah, Al Qaeda, Syria and the various radical Islamic Jihadist organizations around the world, then I would invite you to live in a place governed by their philosophy for a while to judge just how awful we are in comparison. Good luck to you, if you should my invitation, but please don’t look for our “Satanic” U.S. Marines to recue you when you try to speak your mind in such a place.
Sorry for the grammatical and ommission errors. My last sentence should read:
Good luck to you if you should accept my invitation, but please don’t look for our “Satanic” U.S. Marines to rescue you when you try to speak your mind in such a place.
so you think you really know how the world works by stopping people to even post their opinion.
Its my opinion and i want my country to cut all ties with Israel.
Then start posting opinions that jive with reality.
Even some on the left are starting to get it.
This comes from the “On the Left” column in Investor’s Business Daily;
http://ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=316049971559757
Also to Rekha brown;
If you are really from India as you claim, how can you be backing the Islamists after what happened in Mumbai? What are YOU going to do when all that stands between you and the facists who want to cut off your head are countries like Israel?
And here we go again…
156. Another View wrote:
Hamas and every Palestinian has every right to try to force Israel from Palestine.
Peter responds: And there is where you are wrong. There is not now and has never been a country called Palestine. There was a Palestinian territory in the British Mandate of the Middle East prior to 1948, but it had just as many Jews living there as there were Arabs, so what makes the Arab claim any more valid than the Jews? The jews have been in the region for 5000 years, about 3500 years longer than Islam has even existed, so what gives the Islamists any more of a claim than the Jews? In 1948 the British said “We are giving each of you some land and giving control of it to you.” Then placed the Jews on one area of land and the Arabs on another. The Arabs didn’t like that and went to war over the land ,and got their @$$es soundly beaten. Then they went to war again and again got their @$$es soundly beaten. The same thing keeps happening over and over and over. Like the quote attributed to Einstein, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank would probably have a healthy, thriving society (and perhaps even their own country called Palestine) by now, and for many years, if they had turned their attention to progress instead of hate and terror a long time ago.
we were born as a human first and then we have sub division according to religion. It should be our duty to serve human first .
So telling us your country should expell all Jews is serving human first?
Terrorists invading hotels and killing innocent tourists, no matter what their nationality, religion, race, color or gender is serving human first?
Explain how any of what YOU are advocating is serving anyone except your own deluded self interest?
I hate to say this, but I wish you, Rekha, could be on the receiving end of an Islamist terror attack or a Hamas missile. I would love to hear you beg for how we should all be human first. I would love to hear you beg for an Israeli commando to come save your life.
To Peter the Sub Guy:
Don’t dispute with this “Rekha brown”. It’s a troll. Just ignore IT or make fun of IT, but don’t argue. IT’s not so important.
Thanks, Marina. Part of what I was trying to do was be provocative. See what kind of response I could get out of the trolls on this thread. But as we have all seen, when faced with reality, ‘Rekha’ simply flees.
Salute to Hugo Chavez!
Really love google, very fine stuff. Thanks alot.