COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, July 26, 2014

What was unlawful in Mississippi and Alabama in the 1960s is standard practice by the Israelis in occupied Palestine - US financial and military support of these illegal acts should be fought in US Courts



THE PROCESS IS BEGINNING AND DESERVES SUPPORT




Why Hamas is winning the war

Published Friday, Jul. 25 2014, 8:36 PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Jul. 25 2014, 11:28 PM EDT

Israel and Hamas did agree to a 12-hour humanitarian truce to begin at 7 a.m. Saturday. Mr. Kerry said he would continue efforts to close the gap between the parties over the weekend.
Terms of the broader proposed ceasefire agreement, which included a seven-day humanitarian truce, were not released, but Israeli sources said the agreement would give a victory to Hamas.
That may be, but in so many other ways, Hamas already is winning.
War, as the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz said, is the continuation of politics by other means. And victory is not only measured by body counts. The fact that more than 800 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in this conflict, compared with 38 Israelis, three of them civilians, tells us that Israel is winning on the battlefield. Hamas, however, is playing for higher, longer-term stakes.
“Hamas’s strategic objective,” said Ariel Ilan Roth, director of the Washington-based Israel Institute, “is to shatter Israel’s sense of normalcy.” In pursuit of this goal Hamas certainly has succeeded. By their rockets with longer range and bigger payloads, the militants have brought the war to the doorstep of many more Israelis than ever before. They have put “panic in the eyes of Israelis,” in the words of the Hamas MP and prominent imam Naif Rajoub. And with its labyrinth of tunnels beneath Israel’s frontier, Hamas has undermined Israelis’ sense of invulnerability.
Neither Hamas nor the Palestinians of Gaza have yet been knocked off balance. Remarkably, support for Hamas may never have been greater. This was not what Israel expected when it launched this war earlier this month, blaming Hamas for starting the conflict and emphasizing how the militants use civilians as human shields.
And it’s certainly not what Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas wanted. The fact that Gazans are largely united in opposition to Israel and that support for Hamas extends also to the West Bank, where Mr. Abbas presides, has left the Fatah Party leader scrambling for relevance.
Indeed, pro-Hamas anti-Israel protests have broken out in the West Bank in areas near Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus on a scale not seen since the 2000-2005 second intifada. The protests Friday in Ramallah had the blessing of Mr. Abbas and his party. Seven Palestinians have been killed since late Thursday in clashes with the Israeli army.
To preserve his hold on power, Mr. Abbas was forced to go from being a supporter of Egypt’s first ceasefire proposal – one that Israel supported and that simply called for the parties to halt fire with no concessions to Hamas – to being an antagonist of Israel. It was Mr. Abbas’s initiative that dragged Israel before the UN Human Rights Council this week, leading to a UN inquiry into alleged Israeli war crimes in waging its war in Gaza.
Rather than continuing to support Israel’s position on a ceasefire, Mr. Abbas was moved to support Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal’s position instead. That position calls for a number of moves that, in effect, would end the state of siege Israel maintains on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Chalk up another win.
Israel certainly has recorded considerable victories of its own in this conflict. The Iron Dome anti-missile system has proved to be a wonder, shooting down most rockets headed for populated areas, and helping keep Israel’s casualties to a minimum. Israeli operations to unearth and destroy Hamas tunnels and to root out Hamas’s command centre in the Gaza town of Shejaia, while costing Israel a substantial number of casualties, have been battlefield triumphs.
Israel’s exemplary practice of issuing warnings before strikes on certain neighbourhoods or buildings has given Israel a degree of respect and understanding in the international community, as has Israel’s exposing of Hamas’s technique of using civilians as human shields, a likely war crime.
But the goodwill Israel enjoyed at the start of this conflict has been squandered as the number of civilian deaths has risen. As British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond cautioned Thursday, “As this campaign goes on and the civilian casualties in Gaza mount, Western public opinion is becoming more and more concerned and less and less sympathetic to Israel.”
What good are Israel’s so-called “pinpoint attacks” when other possible consequences are ignored?
On Monday night in Gaza City, Israel carried out a targeted attack on someone in the 10-storey Al Salam Towers apartment building. It appeared that a carefully aimed missile entered the building at about the fifth floor; it still is unclear who the target was. But the effect of the missile was to take out the supports on which the five upper storeys rested. They collapsed together, as in the manner of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, coming to rest like a stack of six pancakes atop the fourth storey.
On Tuesday morning, the leg of one man could still be seen dangling in the air, as the rest of his body was pinned inside the collapsed building. The Israeli military, no doubt, had no intention of causing such collateral damage. But at least 15 people, including three children, were killed in this targeted attack.
Hamas’s own battlefield accomplishments are not insignificant. Just as its arsenal of long-range missiles has taken the war to Israel’s civilians, Hamas’s tunnels and overall combat preparedness have taken the battle to the Israeli forces.
In the 22-day war that began at the end of 2008 and extended into early 2009, Hamas militants ran rather than fight. Not this time.
Israelis say they are astonished at the extent of the group’s tunnels and the determination of its fighting forces. The 35 Israeli officers and soldiers killed in fighting, mostly in the battle for control of the tunnels and the bloody battle of Shejaia, are testament to Hamas’s acquired skills. In the entire 2009 ground campaign, only eight Israeli soldiers were killed by resistance forces. (Four others died from friendly fire.)
If Hamas has uncovered any weakness in the Iron Dome system it is that a big enough salvo of rockets makes it more possible for at least one rocket to get through. And it only takes one.
Targeting Ben Gurion Airport east of Tel Aviv was also a shrewd move. Most rockets aimed in that direction either fell harmlessly in open areas, or were shot down by the Iron Dome. One, however, this past week, landed about a kilometre from the airport and destroyed a house. It was enough to cause a stampede of airlines cancelling service for at least 24 or 48 hours. Some still have declined to return.
The odds of a rocket hitting a moving plane are remote in the extreme, but hitting a building is conceivable, and airlines already were skittish because of the downing of a Malaysian aircraft over war-torn eastern Ukraine earlier in the week. Hamas chalked up another triumph.
The conflict has also exposed rifts in Israel. Gangs shouting “Death to Arabs” and “Death to Leftists” broke up a peaceful protest against Israel’s war in Gaza last Saturday night in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square.
Witnesses say the goons then went on a rampage in the city’s downtown, even as Israeli troops were expanding their ground operation in Gaza.
Similar scenes were re-enacted during the past week in Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem, showing a sinister side to Israeli society. “As soldiers fight in Gaza, right-wing extremists have organized ad-hoc militias to fight the ‘war at home,’” noted Israeli political writer Asher Schechter, writing in Haaretz.
Such battles reveal a growing schism in Israeli society, a product of the war with Hamas and the issues that underlie it. Writing in this week’s Foreign Affairs magazine, Mr. Roth of the Israel Institute, noted that sowing discord in Israeli society, such as witnessed in the past two weeks, is one of several ways in which Hamas is winning this war.
While not in itself bringing Israel to its knees, such discord eats away at the cohesion that has given Israel its historic strength to face its enemies.
But it is in the strategic areas that Hamas has enjoyed its greatest success.
By holding out so resolutely, and turning down ceasefire proposals, Hamas has succeeded in putting its wish list before the world.
Mr. Meshaal, the Hamas political leader based in Qatar, presented the list to the public Thursday.
The people of Gaza, he said, want an internationally backed commitment to ending Israel’s siege of Gaza and the targeted killings it carries out inside Gaza. They want an international airport, a seaport, an opening to the outside world. They don’t want the situation where they are “controlled by a few border crossings that turn Gaza into a huge prison, where no one can leave even for medical treatment or to work.”
If Hamas is offered those things, or a good number of them, its leaders say they’ll stop firing at Israel. A growing number of people around the world don’t think those demands are unreasonable.
Israel thought that by abandoning Gaza in 2005, pulling out all Israeli settlers and soldiers, and building a wall around it, Israel would enjoy quiet.

This war has shown that such an approach won’t ever be successful.

83 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I must say you put a lot of effort into it, Deuce.

    In reality, which you have checked out of, the situation is just as it was back in the days of Martha Gellhorn.

    The arabs of Palestine are first class haters.

    Israel has been continually attacked since its birth.

    Its wars have been defensive.

    Many of the arabs were drawn in from the desert when Israel began to make the place bloom, for the jobs.

    It was a backwater before that, or a backdesert.

    And many of the Palestinians were kicked out of three or four arab countries.

    Why you keep putting up this cheap propaganda is beyond me.

    Anyone with a little reading can tear your presentations apart.

    It is appalling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, smarty pants, why don't you give it a try tearing apart Patrick Martin's piece?

      The posts that follow below don't succeed. Is that all you've got? You must not be well read then.

      Delete
    2. Ash, Hamas is getting its clock cleaned and the 'world' basically could care less.

      He says just the opposite.

      How bout that?

      The great victory for Hamas?

      Closing down an airport for a day.

      He makes this sound as if the beaches at Normandy have been stormed.

      And Hamas may not - this is good - be as all popular and powerful in Gaza as he makes out.

      etc etc

      Give it a try yourself, as an intellectual exercise, smarty short pants.

      Delete
  3. July 26, 2014
    Another Palestinian 'Day of Rage' but the Quest for 'Peace' Continues
    By

    Palestinians in the West Bank have called for yet another “Day of Rage”:

    A day after Israeli security forces killed at least two protesters amid a frenzied eruption of anger over the fatal shelling of a United Nations school, Palestinian leaders called for a "day of rage" Friday in the West Bank.

    The call for a massive follow-up to what were already some of the largest West Bank protests in years comes as diplomats scrambled to find [a] cease-fire proposal that would satisfy mortal enemies Israel and Hamas and end more than two weeks of violence that has claimed more than 800 lives, most of them civilians.

    Never mind that Hamas is using civilians as human shields so that Western media types can photograph Palestinians who are dead or dying; forget that Hamas stores its guns and ammunition in schools, hospitals, and other very public places; and ignore the fact that Hamas uses those public places to launch rockets and mortars at Israel. Facts shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way of a heart wrenching story, or should they?

    Calls are coming in from all over the world for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. Barack Obama and John Kerry are leading the effort, but the fighting continues unabated. Right now, it appears as though Hamas is winning the global public relations game, but this is the burning question: can there ever be peace between Israel and Hamas?

    I don’t think so, and this is why: if you believe that a peace deal between Hamas and Israel will solve the problem, you must be basing your belief on feelings because there is no evidence to support it—nothing, nada, zip. Regrettably, most people rely on feelings more than facts, and in the Middle East, that can get you killed in a hurry.

    For instance, I feel like I should be able to walk through Arab Muslim “East” Jerusalem unmolested, but the facts tell me that I’m taking an unnecessary risk if I do. How do I know? I’ve done it and learned from my mistakes. Only fools repeat their mistakes hoping for change. Please pardon me: I didn’t intend to mock President Obama’s campaign slogan, or maybe I did. You decide.

    By the way, the difference between Hamas and Fatah is slight -- very slight. I’m suggesting that even if Israel reaches a deal with Hamas and it works, the problem still won’t be solved. The only reason that Fatah is relatively quiet right now is because U.S. taxpayers are pouring millions of dollars a year into Fatah, and its leaders are getting filthy rich at U.S. taxpayers’ expense.

    Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is worth at least $100 million. His predecessor, Yasser Arafat, was worth about $1.3 billion when he died according to Israeli intelligence estimates. They didn’t accumulate that wealth by running falafel stands in Ramallah. As quickly as we stop throwing money at the PA, Fatah will go back to being what it really is—another run-of-the-mill terrorist organization, just like Hamas.

    Both the Hamas and Palestinian charters still call for Israel’s annihilation. Negotiations over the years and the agreements reached have not changed them one iota. That should tell us something.

    Neil Snyder is the Ralph A. Beeton Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia. His blog, SnyderTalk.com, is posted daily.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Hamas needs to be disarmed.

      Without that, there will be no peace.

      Why?

      Because they don't want peace. They want to push Israel into the sea.

      >>>>Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is worth at least $100 million. His predecessor, Yasser Arafat, was worth about $1.3 billion when he died according to Israeli intelligence estimates. They didn’t accumulate that wealth by running falafel stands in Ramallah. As quickly as we stop throwing money at the PA, Fatah will go back to being what it really is—another run-of-the-mill terrorist organization, just like Hamas.

      Both the Hamas and Palestinian charters still call for Israel’s annihilation. Negotiations over the years and the agreements reached have not changed them one iota. That should tell us something.<<<<

      What, really, is so complex about all of this?

      It's not like it is higher math.

      Delete

  4. The Universality of the Islamic Resistance Movement
    Article Seven

    "Muslims who adopt the way of the Islamic Resistance Movement are found in all countries of the world, and act to support [the movement], to adopt its positions and to reinforce its jihad. Therefore, it is a world movement, and it is qualified for this [role] owing to the clarity of its ideology, the loftiness of its purpose and the exaltedness of its goals. It is on this basis that it should be regarded and evaluated; it is on this basis that its role should be recognized. Whoever denies its rights, refrains from helping it, becomes blind [to the truth] and makes an effort to blot out its role - he is like one who attempts to dispute with [divine] predestination. Whoever closes his eyes to the facts, intentionally or unintentionally, will eventually wake up [to find that] events have overtaken him and that the [weight of the] evidence has rendered him unable to justify his position. Precedence shall be given to those who those who come first [to the movement]. The iniquity of one's own relatives is more painful to the soul than the blow of a sharp sword. [7]

    "'We have revealed to you the Book in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it and guarding it. Judge between them according to what Allah has revealed, and follow not their capricious will, turning away from the truth that was revealed to you. To each among you Allah has appointed a law and a way. If Allah had so desired, he would have made you a single nation. However, he desired to test you in all that he had given you. So vie with one another in good works. It is to Allah that you shall all return, and He will then reveal to you [the truth] about the matters in which you differed.' (Koran 5:48)

    "The Islamic Resistance Movement is one link in the chain of jihad in confronting the Zionist invasion. It is connected and linked to the [courageous] uprising of the martyr 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam and his brethren the jihad fighters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the year 1936. It is further related and connected to another link, [namely] the jihad of the Palestinians, the efforts and jihad of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1948 war, and the jihad operations of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1968 and afterwards. Although these links are far apart, and although the continuity of jihad was interrupted by obstacles placed in the path of the jihad fighters by those who circle in the orbit of Zionism, the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to realize the promise of Allah, no matter how long it takes. The Prophet, Allah's prayer and peace be upon him, says: 'The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews.' (Recorded in the Hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim)."

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    1. >>>>The Prophet, Allah's prayer and peace be upon him, says: 'The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews.' (Recorded in the Hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim)." <<<<

      What is so complex about this?

      They are following their book.

      Delete
  5. The blockade o Gaza is an acto f war
    The destruction of the airport in Gaza and the refusal of Israel to allow it to be rebuilt, an act of war

    The Talmud, the Israeli book the Israeli follow, can be more than conflated with the Muslim book.

    In Abhodah Zarah (26b, Tosephoth) it says:

    "Even the best of the Goim should be killed"

    The Schulchan Arukh, after the words of Iore Dea (158, 1) that those of the Akum who do no harm to Jews are not to be killed, namely those who do not wage war against Israel, thus explains the word Milchamah—war:

    "But in time of war the Akum are to be killed, for it is written: 'The good among the Akum deserve to be killed, etc.' "

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As Farmer Fudd once wrote ...

      I've maintained here, only partly in jest, that the whole wind blown riffle was a literary event, a contest between two opposed readings ... of two religious tomes

      Delete
    2. A few more tidbits from the Talmud ... The Common Law of the Zionist ...

      In Hilkhoth Akum (X, 1) it says:

      "Do not eat with idolaters, nor permit them to worship their idols; for it is written: Make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them (Deuter. ch. 7, 2). Either turn away from their idols or kill them."

      Ibidem (X,7):

      "In places where Jews are strong, no idolater must be allowed to remain..."

      IX. ALL JEWS ARE OBLIGED TO UNITE TOGETHER TO DESTROY TRAITORS AMONG THEM

      In Choschen Hamm. (338,16) it says:

      "All the inhabitants of a city are obliged to contribute to the expense of killing a traitor, even those who have to pay other taxes."


      So it the Zionists duty to kill the "Leftists" in Israel
      It is their duty to kill Palestinian children, so far at the rate of 13 per month, every month of the 21st Century



      "Pour out thy anger upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the kingdoms which do not invoke thy name; Pour out thy indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them; Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord."(7)


      (7) cf. Sanhedrin, chap. VII near the end, and Iebhammoth, the last chap.


      The Talmud, a Book full of hate and bigotry, held holy by the Zionists

      Delete
    3. The difference is, rato, Judaism put all this behind them long ago.

      In Israel you can walk down the street holding any opinion you wish and not fear for your life.

      Delete
    4. But not by all the adherents of Judaism.

      Ethiopian Jews are Biblical, pre-Rabbinic Jews.
      They have the Torah (Written Law) but not the Talmud (Oral Law).
      Their language is not Hebrew, but Ge'ez. Their leaders are priests (kohanim) rather than rabbis.
      They have no knowledge or post-Biblical Jewish holidays such as Chanukah or Purim, or post-Biblical interpretations of the Law, e.g., the prohibition against mixing meat and milk.
      Until recently Ethiopian Jews practiced animal sacrifice, and ritual purification through immersion in water.


      The Talmud is not a Judaic Book, but a Babylonian instruction manual from the agents of Nebuchadnezzar.

      That the Zionist state of Israel acknowledges the supremacy of the Talmud over the Torah is illustrated by the plight of the Ethiopian Jews that now live in Israel.

      According to the N.Y. Times of Sept. 29, 1992, p.4:

      "The problem is that Ethiopian Jewish tradition goes no further than the Bible or Torah; the later Talmud and other commentaries that form the basis of modern traditions never came their way."

      Because they are not traffickers in Talmudic tradition, the black Ethiopian Jews are discriminated against and have been forbidden by the Zionists to perform marriages, funerals and other services in the Israeli state.

      Rabbi Joseph D. Soloveitchik is regarded as one of the most influential rabbis of the 20th century, the "unchallenged leader" of Orthodox Judaism and the top international authority on halakha (Jewish religious law). Soloveitchik was responsible for instructing and ordaining more than 2,000 rabbis, "an entire generation" of Jewish leadership.

      Delete
  6. .

    In Israel, the prospects for the occupation's end remain distant. Whatever Israeli prime ministers have said, or polls have shown, the trend over the last 40 years has been rightward—toward a growing Jewish intransigent presence in the West Bank backed by militant right-wing parties and organizations. Every new settler and settlement is a living rejection of Israel's willingness to abandon the occupation. Israel could well become more like its neighbors—an increasingly authoritarian state ruling over restive minority or eventually majority populations. The Palestinain trajectory is uncertain—toward increasing accomodation or militance. Under continuing occupation, the Palestinians could confirm Israelis' worst fears.

    http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118846/israel-palestine-history-behind-their-new-war

    Neither side is going away.

    We will be back in this same spot in a few years.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Blood for nothin', and the chicks ain't free, in Tel Aviv

      Delete
    2. Jack HawkinsFri Jul 18, 12:36:00 AM EDT

      I mean, you are an Israeli, and here is nothing worse than that.

      In all the world, the Arabs of Israel are the scum.

      Now if you were a European, well thatd be different, but Israelis are all Arabs, Semites.
      Scum of the Earth

      ;-)

      Have a nightmare tonight and a shitty tomorrow,
      QuirkFri Jul 18, 01:13:00 AM EDT

      .

      And the voice of the rat is heard in the land.

      And the world once again cringes.

      Delete
    3. .

      Some one mentioned that Hamas must be completely disarmed but to think that is more than a short term solution is pollyannish.

      Home made rockets can be rebuilt. Imported rockets can be re-imported. The AK-47 is the most ubiquitous weapon in the world.

      .

      Delete
    4. The Israeli are the Scum of the Earth

      Killing Palestinian children at the rate of 13 per month, every month of the 21st century


      While claiming it is God's Will.

      Farmer Fudd would describe it as nothing more than a "Wind Riffle" in the pages of history.

      Delete

    5. A dispute between the varied interpretations of the mixed messages from the God of Abraham.

      Delete
    6. Jack HawkinsSat Jul 26, 08:19:00 AM EDT

      The Israeli are the Scum of the Earth

      .............................

      Jack HawkinsFri Jul 18, 12:36:00 AM EDT

      I mean, you are an Israeli, and here is nothing worse than that.

      In all the world, the Arabs of Israel are the scum.

      Now if you were a European, well thatd be different, but Israelis are all Arabs, Semites.
      Scum of the Earth

      ;-)

      Have a nightmare tonight and a shitty tomorrow,
      QuirkFri Jul 18, 01:13:00 AM EDT

      .

      And the voice of the rat is heard in the land.

      And the world once again cringes.

      Delete
    7. Or shall we say ...

      A literary dispute between the varied interpretations of the mixed messages from the God of Abraham.

      Delete
    8. ratcrapper is honest with his anti-semitic 'feelings', that much is certain.

      He always attacks his betters.

      Delete
    9. There is little doubt the Zionist followers of the Talmud are the scum of the earh, why, just read their book.

      The hate and bigotry at the core of Zionism is laid out, in black and white.

      Delete
    10. "Pour out thy anger upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the kingdoms which do not invoke thy name; Pour out thy indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them; Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord."(7)

      (7) cf. Sanhedrin, chap. VII near the end, and Iebhammoth, the last chap.

      Delete
    11. God rewards Jews for slaughtering those whom Israel regards as idolaters. “In the palaces of the fourth heaven are those who lamented over Sion and Jerusalem, and all those who destroyed idolatrous nations and those who killed off people who worshipped idols are clothed in purple garments so they may be recognized and honored.”
      - I 38b, 39a (This format is according to the original Mantuan edition of the Zohar.)

      Delete
    12. .

      Yesterday, I told Ash, that IMO, the Palestinians would have been much better off had they adopted a non-violent approach to seeking redress from their grievances. Work stoppages, general strikes, peaceful protests, a well designed program to focus world attention on the abuses they suffer. It has been 45 years. There is no way it could have been less effective than what they have been doing.

      That being said, it is unlikely Hamas will change now. The PA under Abbas has adopted a more moderate approach while Hamas has been the resistance arm of the Palestinians. Without resistance, Hamas would lose its raison d'etre.

      This shouldn't surprise any Israeli familiar with the history of its own bloody birthing. Today you have Abbas and Mashaal, then you had Ben Gurion and Begin. Today you have Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, then you had Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi. Whether you call them terrorist or resistance groups depends on which side you are on.

      Occupation breeds resistance. What form it takes, well...

      .

      Delete
  7. Gaza is simple compared to the West Bank. How any sense can ever be made out of that I have no idea.

    Great situation for the leaders of the Palestinians there, however. A real money tree.

    They'd be idiotic to seek a true solution........the free money would dry up......Abbas is into about 100 million now, Arafat got in for over a billion.......conflict pays......

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It's nothing but a wind riffle, Farmer Fudd.

      Delete
    2. You got that right, Jack "Hamasass rat" Hawkins aka Farmer Rob.

      Delete

    3. Gettin' your panties in a knot, Robert Peterson

      Delete
    4. .

      Yet, when Arafat was at his nadir, it was the Israelis that brought him back.

      Israel is moving to the right. And the course in the West Bank has been set.

      These were indications that Netanyahu was not serious about achieving a two-state solution. But he removed any doubt whatsoever during a press conference in early July. During the negotiations, Abbas had acceded to Israeli troops remaining in Jordan Valley for three and then five years, but Netanyahu now insisted on a permanent occupation of the lands he called by the Biblical names of Judea and Samaria. “I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say,” he said. “There cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.” That meant that he and his administration foresaw a permanent colonial status for the West Bank and the Palestinians who live there. David Horovitz, the editor of the Times of Israel, wrote in a column about Netanyahu’s statement, “He wasn’t saying that he doesn’t support a two-state solution. He was saying that it’s impossible. This was not a new, dramatic change of stance by the prime minister. It was a new, dramatic exposition of his long-held stance.”

      http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118846/israel-palestine-history-behind-their-new-war

      As rat alluded to, they who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

      .

      Delete
  8. I wish the Egyptian military would take over Gaza. In the long ago, it was usually associated with Egypt.

    Not being fools, they don't want anything to do with it however.

    ReplyDelete


  9. The Israel made this bed, back in 1967, '68. Now they get to lay in it

    Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.
    - Niccolo Machiavelli

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    1. They wouldn't have this problem now if they had succeeded in losing that defensive war back in '67, you are right about that.

      Very perceptive, for a rat.

      Delete
    2. Gee, never heard that one before, rat-o.

      Delete
    3. Rat is a figment of your imaginationSat Jul 26, 08:36:00 AM EDT

      They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.

      Delete
    4. Rat is a figment of your imaginationSat Jul 26, 08:41:00 AM EDT


      Don't you remember anything at all?

      Delete

    5. Are you just willfully ignorant, Robert Peterson, or are you going senile, in the grasp of "Old Timers"?

      Delete
  10. In the United States, 14% support Hamas, 51% support Israel, and the rest don't care one way or the other. These figures mirror longstanding figures for support for Israel in the United States, which is just as strong as it ever has been.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. .

      Of course,

      That's why in 2001, a cynical Bibi, speaking of moves he intended in the West Bank and unaware his words were being videotaped, said "I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won't get in their way."

      That's why Ariel Sharon , in the same year said, "Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." - Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

      To paraphrase the Israeli PM's, Bobbo, you are the useful idiot.

      One would assume their cynicism would rile you up a bit, but then, heck, you are the useful idiot.

      .

      Delete
  11. .

    The following article pretty much touches on about every point I would make about the current conflict in Israel/Gaza. The author even stole my Devil's Island line.

    Who Bears More Responsibility for the War in Gaza?

    So with that, I'm out of here.

    .

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    Replies
    1. OK, I'll read on past this stupid statement -

      "Israel is one of the world’s last colonial powers, and the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are its unruly subjects."

      But I think I get the gist of it already.

      It's bullshit.

      And you are chickening out, Q.

      Delete
    2. I know that article has a lot of words (relative to your capacity) but you should read them all. Please take the time to think about the facts contained therein and then reflect on notions of right and wrong and the grey areas in between.

      My wish is that you do it bob but I have reservations as to whether you are able.

      Delete
    3. .

      Bob's reference to chickening our spurred me to respond to one more of his inane comments. See my response to his post on Israel's popularity in the US, directly above.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      Ash, are you really suggesting that Bob has a closed mind and is uninterested in expanding it beyond his own stunted and parochial views?

      Good lord, man, he is an English Major, he is Swedish, and he comes from Idaho.

      .

      Delete
    5. A criminal silence

      Israel has long planned and carried out attacks on Gaza and the West Bank so that it can conquer more land, build more illegal settlements and reduce Gaza to an enclave surrounded by Israel so that the question of nationhood does not arise.

      Delete
    6. The israeli actions with US support on auto-pilot is ethnic cleansing, illegal occupation and a violation of US criminal and civil rights laws. Israeli actions are against similar laws in the EU. It is time for some moral clarity and legal sanctions against Israeli actions that perpetuate the violence and the endless wars.

      Delete
    7. Israel as Alabama in the 1950s and Johannesburg in the 1960s will not join the rules of law without sanctions from the US and the EU.

      Delete
  12. Having learned something from Benghazi, we are evacuating our Embassy in Tripoli.

    All Americans have been told to get out while the getting is good.

    Place is totally lawless, mobs running around, fighting all over, and it's time we go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The "Yinon Plan" in motion, on time, on target.
      Israel and Libya: Preparing Africa for the “Clash of Civilizations”

      Egypt, Libya & Sudan

      ‘A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties‘ makes clear Israel’s goal of balkanising (or ‘breaking up into smaller states’) Egypt and the surround states of Libya and Sudan:

      Egypt, in its present domestic political picture, is already a corpse, all the more so if we take into account the growing Moslem-Christian rift. Breaking Egypt down territorially into distinct geographical regions is the political aim of Israel in the Nineteen Eighties on its Western front.

      Egypt is divided and torn apart into many foci of authority. If Egypt falls apart, countries like Libya, Sudan or even the more distant states will not continue to exist in their present form and will join the downfall and dissolution of Egypt. The vision of a Christian Coptic State in Upper Egypt alongside a number of weak states with very localized power and without a centralized government as to date, is the key to a historical development which was only set back by the peace agreement but which seems inevitable in the long run.


      The illegal war on Libya has already plunged the country into tribal conflict and chaos, signalling a new phase in Israel’s plan. Sudan, as we have seen very recently, has already been split into two distinct states: Sudan and South Sudan. In a piece



      Delete
  13. Did Israel go too Far? The Massacre at the UN School/ Refugee Center

    By Juan Cole | Jul. 26, 2014 |

    By Juan Cole

    Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports for The Nation from Gaza on the Israeli shelling of a UN school that killed 16 and wounded 200, even though the school’s coordinates had been given to the Israeli military. Despite Israeli water-muddying, there isn’t any doubt that the Israelis struck the school, nor is there any evidence that the school was an origin point for any Hamas rockets. Indeed, correspondents on the ground find no evidence for Hamas using civilians as human shields.

    CBS explains that the Israeli military contacted the UN and told them that the compound would be attacked by Israel. The UN replied that they would need time to move the large number of refugees sheltering there. They tried to cooperate. They never heard back from the Israeli army, and then Israeli tanks opened fire. It is outrageous that Israeli media spokesmen attempted to assert or imply that the school was hit by Hamas rockets. They were lying pure and simple. Because the Israeli generals had already told the UN that they were going to shell the school!

    I don’t think it is any accident that soon thereafter, Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire for Saturday (though it had already violated the ceasefire by Saturday morning). The images of dead children and of reckless and illegal shelling of civilian structures where there were no militants or munitions have piled up in the World’s consciousness, and even though the Israeli leadership likes to pose as macho, they are open to being pressured, and they are being heavily pressured, by the outside world.

    Likewise, the eruption of large demonstrations on the West Bank must be worrisome to the Netanyahu government, since it would stretch the Israeli army thin to try to have it police both Gaza and the whole West Bank. Worse, the West Bank protesters are secular Fateh types, and are more sympathetic figures to the Arab neighbors like Egypt than are Hamas. Cracking down on them won’t be as relatively cost-free as the Israeli campaign against Hamas, which is disliked by the governments of most of Israel’s Arab neighbors or near neighbors. Still, the ceasefire is so far a phony ceasefire, and unless the siege on Gaza is lifted any ceasefire is just a prelude to another war.

    The UN school incident is explained by Tomo News:
    Tomo News: Gaza War 2014: UN-run refugee center hit by shells, kill at least 15

    ReplyDelete
  14. Robert Peterson posted this piece by Jeff Jacoby, just the other day.
    From his statements, here today, he either did not read it, or has forgotten what was written.

    He is either being willfully ignorant, or has become mentally incapacitated.

    At the 2012 Democratic convention, a fight erupted over the deletion from the party’s platform of standard language acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. It took an order from the White House to restore the pro-Israel clause, and even then it had to be gaveled through over the vocal opposition of half the convention delegates.

    Not long ago, such a hostile gesture would have been unthinkable. Now, with each new poll confirming Democratic chilliness toward the Jewish state Democrats once loved, can it be anything but a precursor of worse to come?

    http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/07/21/israel-democrats-are-losing-their-moral-clarity/0Mx4k2WoZfyVhdCtEObP6O/story.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While even in Israel that trend is growing ...

      Zionism in Decline Among Hebrew-speaking Jewish Youth in Israel

      Times of Israel – A survey of Hebrew-speaking Jewish youth in Israel, the results of which were released on Monday, found that Zionism among respondents appeared to be generally in decline.

      The study, commissioned by the Zionist Council in Israel and presented at the opening of the Zionist Youth Congress in the West Bank’s Gush Etzion settlement bloc, found that Israeli teens aged 15-18 were less willing than before to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the country, and that many could imagine a life abroad.

      Delete
    2. Israel’s actions ‘unjustified’ in eyes of women, non-whites, Dems, indy’s, and those under 50 — Gallup

      51% of Americans 18-29 years old think the Israeli attack is unjustified.
      Most support from Israel comes from ages 50 and up

      ...
      By 47 to 31 percent, Democrats say that the Israeli actions are “unjustified.”

      Independents are similar: 46 to 36 percent.

      ....
      Other groups that regard Israel’s actions as unjustified:

      Women by 44 to 33 percent.

      Nonwhite, by 49 to 25 percent. That’s two-to-one, reflecting the attitudes of the young.

      ....
      18 to 29-year-olds regard Israel’s actions as “unjustified” by 51 to 25 percent.
      Among 30-49 year olds, the same attitude by and large: 43 to 36 percent.

      ....

      Delete
  15. EU Foreign ministers have demanded that Hamas be disarmed. I linked this a week ago. That would not be "some people" as in "insignificant". The level of intellectual dishonesty is breathtaking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What is acceptable to the Goose, should be good for the Gander.

      Israel rejects UN call for nuclear transparency

      Delete

    2. EU wants the establishment of a Middle East WMD Free Zone

      More than interesting and not at all insignificant, the Zionists, of course reject the idea.

      Delete
  16. http://www.businessinsider.com/hamas-underground-tunnels-2014-7
    Hamas' Massive Network Of Underground Tunnels Is A Military Game-Changer


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The IDF saves Israel and Western Civilization from the Gaza tunnel rats.

      This calls for a declaration of a national holiday. A thanksgiving multi-faith prayer breakfast by the Conga Line.

      Where would we all be but for the heroic IDF. Please send a check immediatley, as much as possible, to deray the anti-tunneling campaign expense with a little extra for sundries.

      Operation “Dig Deep for Israel” All donations are tax deductible.

      Delete
  17. EU Foreign ministers have demanded that Hamas be disarmed. I linked this a week ago. That would not be "some people" as in "insignificant". The level of intellectual dishonesty is breathtaking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing was said about saving baby seals or brands of Scotch.

      Delete
    2. EU wants the establishment of a Middle East WMD Free Zone

      More than interesting and not at all insignificant, of course the Zionists reject the idea.

      Delete
  18. The Palestinians dug the tunnels. The Israelis created the demand for them.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Deuce ☂Sat Jul 26, 11:04:00 AM EDT
    The Palestinians dug the tunnels. The Israelis created the demand for them.


    They will have to be destroyed. You may be sure that this generation of Israelis (possibly excepting Mr. Netanyahu) will not lie down and die. You now have that Jew who will fight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seems many Israeli do not equate the Zionist zeal which so animates allen with Judaism.

      Zionism in Decline Among Hebrew-speaking Jewish Youth in Israel

      Times of Israel – A survey of Hebrew-speaking Jewish youth in Israel, the results of which were released on Monday, found that
      Zionism among respondents appeared to be generally in decline.

      The study, commissioned by the Zionist Council in Israel and presented at the opening of the Zionist Youth Congress in the West Bank’s Gush Etzion settlement bloc, found that Israeli teens aged 15-18 were less willing than before to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the country, and that many could imagine a life abroad.

      Delete
    2. More willing to abandon Zionist Israel, rather than Judaism.

      Interesting and not at all insignificant.

      Delete
  20. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/business/the-typical-household-now-worth-a-third-less.html?_r=0
    The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The policies of the private central bank, known as the Federal Reserve are hitting home.

      The Federal Reserve should be abolished.

      “If congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money,
      it was given them to use themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.”

      - Andrew Jackson

      Delete

    2. "And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

      - Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Taylor in 1816.

      Delete
    3. Who are the private bankers that own the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States?

      Delete
  21. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/25/Reports-Massive-Terrorist-Invasion-of-Israel-Thwarted-by-Security-Forces
    REPORTS: MASSIVE NEW YEAR'S TERRORIST INVASION OF ISRAEL THWARTED BY SECURITY FORCES


    I guess they will have to send a basket of fruit instead...Bummer...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Bold type works much ore effectively than ALL CAPS, allen.

      Delete
    2. Bold type works much more effectively than ALL CAPS, allen

      Delete
  22. The level of hypocrisy coming from the Israelis and their apologists and enablers is boundless.

    How many years have 1.5 million Palestininians in the Gaza penal colony been under economic siege by the Israels? What has been the economic and collateral damage done to the Gazans at the hands of their Israeeli oppressors?

    But let the Israeli airport be closed for two days and whoaaa, the existentialists are suffering from dire economic consequences. It is a catastrophe. An economic collapse brought on by the dark forces of Kerry. I am sure the Conga Line will reimburse the ever-needy Israelis for their inconvenience and economic duress.

    ReplyDelete
  23. How inconvenient

    Now that the Palestinians have time to recover some IDF contributed rubble, they discover the noble sharpshooters have killed over 1000, terrorists all of course, every last one of the men, woman, teens , toddlers, old age pensioners and those otherwise uninformed, disinformed or through other cause, surel their own incompetence that didn’t otherwise get the “knock”.

    OOrahs all around for the IDF.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OOOrah
      ..................

      Look at shit rat turd -

      allenSat Jul 26, 11:12:00 AM EDT

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/business/the-typical-household-now-worth-a-third-less.html?_r=0
      The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less
      Reply
      Replies

      Jack HawkinsSat Jul 26, 11:15:00 AM EDT

      The policies of the private central bank, known as the Federal Reserve are hitting home.

      Interest rates are as near to ZERO as they can get, and rat blames the economy on the Federal Reserve.


      hardeharhar

      Delete
    2. For those unfamiliar with rat thought, the Federal Reserve is another of the many conspiracies keeping us all in slavery.

      Delete
    3. God only knows who killed Kennedy, in ratworld.

      Delete
    4. (I am trying to draw our rodent out here, to see if he traces it back to Lester Crown someway)

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete