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Here's the Thing About the Anti-Israel Media: They Lie - Hezbollah Hides Among Civilians Edition

There is a world in which facts actually help to shape the directions that arguments take. That world is obviously not the world of mainstream liberal journalism, where major liberal outlets publish articles with titles like "The 'hiding among civilians' myth":

Israel claims it's justified in bombing civilians because Hezbollah mingles with them. In fact, the militant group doesn't trust its civilians and stays as far away from them as possible.

Unbelievable! Can it really be true that Israel really is just a bully on the warpath, seeking to maximize civilian casualties? That would be awesome - the Middle East conflict would become really easy to understand, and it would be really obvious who the good guys and who the bad guys were. Israel would be caught flat out lying.
Except that Hezbollah does hid among civilians. And that someone has finally smuggled out the incontrovertible evidence that - and we've never let this hackneyed phrase on this blog before, but in this case it's justified... someone has finally smuggled out the incontrovertible evidence that the liberal media doesn't want you to see:

This is the picture that damns Hezbollah. It is one of several, smuggled from behind Lebanon's battle lines, showing that Hezbollah is waging war amid suburbia. The images, obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun, show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons.

It seems that every week, there's another absurd, demonstrably false argument in the liberal press - and it seems that all those mistakes turn out to be ones that slander the IDF or excuse for Israel's enemies. Last week it was the Guardian's breathless, too-good-to-be-true "Hezbollah is not connected to Syria or Iran" contrarian wisdom qua terrorist apologism. It was too good to be true because it wasn't true.
Now it's this Salon "Israel is just lying about Hezbollah using human shields so they can murder civilians" garbage. And don't email us with the usual "there is no liberal media - these are diverse outlets" nonsense. Salon provides the talking points for every leftist, self-styled sophisticate who needs something to spout as his own informed-but-contrarian wisdom at middlebrow art shows. When arguments are premised on lies, there can be no room for debate. These people have strayed very, very far off the reservation - yet they still demand (hell, they feel entitled) to make policy recommendations about things that actually matter.

[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
Omri | |

Here's the Thing About the Anti-Israel Media: They Lie - Visual Version

We all know that the anti-Israel media lies. But sometimes, it behooves us to have it demonstrated to us at length:

Whatever else, the event in Qana was a human tragedy. But the photographs do not show it honestly. Rather, they have been staged for effect, exploiting the victims in an unwholesome manner. In so doing, they are no longer news photographs - they are propaganda. And, whoever said the camera cannot lie forgot that photographers can and do. Those lies have spread throughout the world by now and will be in this morning's newspapers, accepted as real by the millions who view them.

Thirteen pictures, pages of text, and the conclusion is the same: the anti-Israel media lies. LGF linked to this page as Pallywood in Lebanon - a Hezbollah version of the Palestinian trick whereby human rights tragedies are choreographed for international media outlets. Good to know that the Palestinians were able to contribute something to the Hezbollah war effort - it's the least they can do for all the training, personnel, and arms that Hezbollah has donated to them.
Omri | |

UPI International Editor Lives in a Pathetic, Anti-Israel Fantasy World

How could this guy ever be biased:

But much as Hezbollah and the Israelis are at the forefront of this conflict, that is not the root cause of hostilities by any length of imagination. The root cause of the conflict was, and remains, the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Solve it and you solve 90 percent of the region's problems. Ignore it and Secretary Rice and future secretaries of state will be shuttling back and forth to the Middle East for decades more to come.

It'd be nice if the Left could get their terrorist-apologist line straight. We just finished making fun of the SF Chronicle for saying that there's absolutely no connection between Hezbollah and Hamas, and now we find ourselves having to point out that Hezbollah is unlikely to give up their declared goal of wiping out every Jew in Israel. But maybe we just underestimate their good will.
This article is such a naked, blatant hack piece that it's almost unworthy of taking apart. But two tactics bear attention. The first is the confession by Editor Salhani that he more or less refuses to talk to people who support Israel:

In any case, it would be a one-sided conversation following the massacre of some 54 Lebanese civilians, including 37 children, in Qana Sunday by an Israeli air strike... This is not the first time the Israelis have targeted Qana.

It's cute when journalists pretend that there's just one side to a conflict simply because they don't know anyone on the other side. How about this argument: this is not the first time that Lebanese civilians in Qana have suffered because Hezbollah uses their town as a military base.
Omission is bad. But it's not as embarrassing as sheer logical contradiction.
First sentence of paragraph 12: "Israel never accepted that Hezbollah forced them out of south Lebanon, and in short, won the first hand in this new war."
First sentence of paragraph 13: "Israel never forgot the feeling of humiliation the country... experienced".
We understand: it's tough to both celebrate the victory of genocidal thugs over the Middle East's most civilized country ("Hezbollah gave the Palestinians living in the occupied territories hope") and demonize Israel as responsible for all the problems in the Middle East. But surely the obligation that journalists have to their readers - not to treat their readers like total idiots - should have caused Salhani to put these two statements a little farther away from each other.
Omri | |

It's Not That the Anti-Israel Media Lies, It's Just That They Don't Tell All The Truth

Something is missing from the SF Chronicle's concise primer on the Middle East conflict:

Q: What is Hezbollah's beef with Israel?
A: Israel's military involvement in Lebanon began during Lebanon's civil war, when Palestinian militants were using Lebanon as a base for attacks on Israel. Israel withdrew most forces from Lebanon in 1985, but occupied a buffer zone in the south until 2000. Hezbollah contends that Israel continues to occupy territory that has historically belonged to Lebanon. Hezbollah has also sought the return of Lebanese being held in Israeli prisons.

What a roundabout way of stating that Israel left the buffer zone in 2000! You know what else would have been nice? Some kind of statement like "everyone on the planet - even the State Department - open;y mocks Hezbollah's claim that Israel continues to occupy Lebanese terroritory". And by nice, we mean true.
Omri | |

More Fun With the Chronicle's "Concise Primer on the Middle East Conflict"

This part is also kind of dishonest:

Q: Is the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict linked to fighting between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?
A: Analysts believe Hezbollah had been planning its incursion into Israel for many weeks before the kidnapping of the Israeli troops. The operation took place, though, just weeks after Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier in Gaza. No direct link has been established between the two kidnappings, but some form of coordination can't be ruled out. As for the groups themselves, similarities are largely superficial. In both cases, Israel is fighting militant Muslims that both Israel and the United States regard as terrorists. At the same time, Hezbollah, which based in Lebanon, and Hamas, based in Palestinian areas, are very different organizations.

This phrase reminds us of nothing so much as when Anthony Cordesman, commenting on the Axis of Evil speech, said that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea were "very different countries." How insightful!

Hamas and Hezbollah have the following things in common:
(1) They are both funded and supplied by Iran and Syria
(2) They both started as terrorist organizations
(3) They've both moved on from that starting point to being armies
(4) They both attacked, kidnapped, and killed Israeli soldiers within a couple of weeks of each other
(5) They both demanded that Israel release terrorist prisoners to get the kidnapped soldiers back
(6) They're both wildly popular with their respective publics - the largest political parties in their respective areas

They have the following differences:
(1) They live in different places
(2) There are different letters in their names

More seriously:

"Certainly there was strategic coordination," said another senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If Hamas is attacked, then Hezbollah comes to its aid, and vice versa." Furthermore, according to Meir, "the ideological support, the weapons, everything comes from Iran, and in the case of Hezbollah, through Damascus." However, he added, "I'm not saying they had an operational hand in it."

"Very different organizations" indeed.
Omri | |

It's Funny Because It's True. And By Funny, We Mean Sad.

This is brutally accurate:

A young man was walking the streets of Paris. Suddenly he saw a Rottweiler attacking a young girl. He jumped on the dog, struggled with him and strangled it. Both he and the girl escaped with minor scratches.
Immediately, excited journalists surrounded him and said: Tell us your name! All Paris will know of you! The headlines shall be: "Parisian hero saves little girl from savage dog"
But the man said: I am not from Paris.
The journalists surged with nationalistic pride: OK, so all France will hear of you! The headlines shall be: "French hero saves little girl from savage dog"
But the man continued: I am not from France.
The journalists changed gears, and tittered with post-national excitement: Even better, we will tell all Europe about you! The headlines shall read: "European hero saves little girl from savage dog".
Yet the man insisted: But I am not from Europe.
Now confused, the journalists demanded: Where are you from?
The man said firmly: I am from Israel.
All at once, the journalists seemed to come to a consensus: Indeed, the whole world will hear about you. The headlines will be: "Israeli murders little girl's dog"

No seriously, it's true. That's precisely how it would go.
Omri | |

Breaking: Muslims Shooting Jews Still a Hate Crime in US!

We're thinking of starting a blog called "Oh You Think So Doctor: A Blog of Really Obvious Things". We don't want it to be too political, but how could you pass up something like this:

A lone gunman burst into a Jewish organization in downtown Seattle on Friday, killing one woman and wounding five others in what authorities were calling a hate crime... The gunman is a U.S. citizen, and police said initial contacts with him by phone while he was inside the building indicated that he was a Muslim... "This was a purposeful, hateful act as far as we know, by an individual acting alone," said Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels at a news conference, adding "This is a crime of hate."

No kidding.
Omri | |

FBI Wouldn't Know Terrorism if it Walked In and Blew Itself Up

Is an act of violence committed against civilians with the purposes of achieving political ends an act of terrorism? Not when it's committed by Muslim fanatics against Jews:

A man claiming to be an "American Muslim" who was "angry with Israel" was arrested after six people were shot yesterday at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, authorities said. One of the victims was killed. The gunman was arrested without incident, authorities said. "We believe it's a lone individual acting out his antagonism," said David Gomez, who heads the FBI's counterterrorism efforts in Seattle. "There's nothing to indicate that it's terrorism related," he added. "But we're monitoring the entire situation."... After the shootings, the man said to call 911, according to a witness who declined to give her name.

Actually, there's a lot to indicate that it's terrorism related - like the fact that on that 911 call (and this is something that this report fails to pass on) , he said that he "wanted us to get our weapons out of Israel".
This is just like the time that an Egyptian national attacked the booth of the Israeli National Airline in the city that has the most ex-pat Israelis on the planet. FBI analysis: no indication of terrorism.
Omri | |

Hezbollah Admits: Appeasing Violent Hatred Doesn't Decrease Violence or Hatred

We missed this part of this story when it came out four days ago, but we wanted to post it so you see it and so that we have somewhere to link to when we make this obviously true but somehow controversial argument in the future. When Israel's genocidal enemies are appeased after attacks and atrocities, they're more likely to repeat those attacks and atrocities:

Mahmoud Komati, deputy chief of Hezbollah's political arm, also told The Associated Press in an interview that his group will not lay down arms... In the past, he said, Israeli responses to Hezbollah actions included sending commandos into Lebanon to seize Hezbollah officials or briefly targeting specific Hezbollah strongholds. He said the Shiite group had anticipated there would be negotiations on exchanging the Israeli soldiers for three Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, with Germany acting as a mediator as it did before.

He doesn't mention that he also expected that the world would more or less quickly side with Hezbollah's demands for negotiations because that the world had more or less quickly sided with Hamas's identical demands for negotiations just two weeks before. Listen - Israel's anti-Semitic Muslim enemies really do believe all the way down in their black little hearts that the world hates Jews just like they do. That's why you get these insane letters from Ahmadinejad to Germany, saying that they should cooperate in eradicating Zionism. They really, really believe that the world would like to get rid of the Jewish problem - and that, if someone just overcomes the Jews' control of the media and proposes genocide out loud, then eventually people all over the world will openly proclaim their support.
We don't want to sound paranoid. But even a cursory examination of anti-Israel Leftist activism - from inexplicable zeal in fabricating imaginary Israeli human rights violations to incoherent arguments about blame and "cycles of violence" to the breathtaking venom of anti-Semitism qua anti-Zionism... even a cursory examination raises the horrible possibility that Ahmadinejad is less than completely wrong.
(hat tip: Stan Shivell)
Omri | |

Russia: Hamas and Hezbollah Aren't Terrorist Organizations. We Have No Objections in Principle.

In Russia, terrorist organizations are only those organizations that are really unpopular. If you're a popular terrorist organization, then you get to be a political party:

The International Terrorism top official at the FSB (ex-KGB) told reporters that Hezbollah and Hamas aren't considered terrorist by Russia as they actively take part in their country's politics. Indeed, Russia delivered a list of 17 groups it designates as terrorists. As the United States considers both groups as being terrorist and still puts on the pressure on the European Union to list Hezbollah as terrorist group too, Russia says the two groups aren't a threat to the world and are no threat for Russia's national security. Most groups listed as terrorist by Russia are Chechnya-based or operate in Central Asia... Russia has cordial relations with Hamas which leaders have met with President Putin earlier this year.

Again, we have no objection in principle to the idea that Hamas and Hezbollah represent the governments of the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon, respectively. We just insist that the logic be followed to its obvious conclusion: that the attack and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers on sovereign Israeli land constitute acts of war, and that Israel is fully within its rights to launch such war until the other side sues for peace. So no more of this nonsense about "proportionate" or "disproportionate" "retaliation". When you're fighting terrorists, you retaliate. When you fight a war, you attack with everything short of war crimes - and you keep attacking until the other side surrenders.
(hat tip: Esther)
Omri | |

If Israel Goes to War with Iran, You Can Be Quite Sure that Journalists Won't Be Discussing the Iranian Weapons and Troops in Lebanon

And yet, somehow, it's still true:

After a number of Katyusha barrages hit northern Israel over the course of the morning, five Iranian-made Fajr-5 missiles landed near Afula shortly after 3:30 p.m. Friday. This was the first time missiles of this type have been fired at Israel by Hizbullah. Police in the North said in an official statement that one of the missiles, which landed near Afula, contained 100 kg. of explosives - an amount that could have caused extensive damage and casualties had it struck a building.

We have Iranian proxies using Iranian weapons to attack a country that Iran is trying to wipe off the Earth. Still not enough to convince you that Iran is directly responsible (and in fact started) whatever escalation will eventually occur? How about the fact that there are actual Iranian soldiers engaged in active combat with Israel - and by "active combat with" we mean "indiscriminate bombing of".
Omri | |

VDH On International Diplomacy and Israel

It really makes you wonder why the rest of us even bother writing anything at all:

"Collateral damage" refers mostly to casualties among Hezbollah’s human shields; it can never be used to describe civilian deaths inside Israel, because everything there is by intent a target...
“Disproportionate” means that the Hezbollah aggressors whose primitive rockets can’t kill very many Israeli civilians are losing, while the Israelis’ sophisticated response is deadly against the combatants themselves. See “excessive.”
Anytime you hear the adjective “excessive,” Hezbollah is losing. Anytime you don’t, it isn’t.

Go read the whole thing. Obviously.
Omri | |

MR Gets Threatened By a Canadian

A commenter calling herself lebanesechica, with an IP resolving to Laval, Quebec, left this more or less incoherent contribution in response to our most recent IsraPundit post.

Oh shut the [deleted] up will you?... honey im lebanese and We all know the activity that hizbullah does in the region so stop with ur stupid propaganda!!!!! Kofi anna made that statement because UN peacekeepers spoke your stupid army 12 times u morron... Why don't u stop ur lies and propaganda cuz u will regret it!!!!!!!!

Besides the less conventional double-r spelling of moron, the rest is largely a rant about free speech. If you click through, look for the similarly less conventional 'w' spelling of 'hole'.
Omri | |

Speech Given to Golani Brigade's 13th Battalion Company by Captain Ori Lavie

As reported in this morning's Ha'aretz:

"It's our turn now... It's our turn to protect the border. And we'll carry out any mission we need to, against any force, in the best way possible. If we don't, we have no right to exist."
"We will not lose this war... We did not start it, but it's our duty to protect the Jewish nation and see to it that the residents of Metula and Haifa can live in peace. If we don't do it, no one will. We waited 2,000 years for our own state, and we won't fold because a group of terrorists think that they can scare us."
"Someone who cannot protect his freedom does not deserve it... When missiles and rockets land on all the northern cities and reach Haifa, and when two of our soldiers have been kidnapped and ten have been killed and dozens have been wounded - this is no time to talk, it's time to fight. From the moment we cross the border, you must be super alert, super sharp. We are threatened from every side. Each of you is responsible for his comrades."

Eight soldiers from a different Golani Battalion (the 51st), lost their lives on Wednesday, protecting Israelis from the openly genocidal intentions of Hezbollah.
Omri | |

UN Peacekeepers Begged Hezbollah to Stop Using Them As Human Shields. UN, LA Times Blame Israel Anyway.

The Los Angeles Times's coverage of Israel is, as always, shrill with hand-wringing hysteria:

Under Fire for 6 Hours, U.N. Peacekeepers Pleaded for Help Before Being Killed, U.N. Says
The United Nations post where four peacekeepers were killed by Israeli fire Tuesday was hit at least 16 times over six hours, including five direct hits on the base as its unarmed staff repeatedly notified Israeli liaison officers and begged for help, U.N. officials said Wednesday. On Tuesday U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the airstrike that hit the post in southern Lebanon was "apparently deliberate."

Actually this story - again, almost as always with the Los Angeles - is incomplete to the point of arguably being an outright lie. The UN post did indeed plead for help, but not just for six hours. Rather, they had been pleading for help for more than a week. And they weren't pleading for protection from Israeli aircraft. Quite the opposite - they were begging Hezbollah to stop using them as human shields:

Annan's... UN Interim Force in Lebanon has been warning for days about what almost certainly caused this tragedy. Hezbollah fighters, who have already been firing behind screens of women and children, have also been shooting from behind and next to the UN positions, presumably hoping Israel will not dare shoot back and risk exactly this kind of propaganda disaster... the UNIFIL press releases [states] that Hezbollah has not just shot at and seriously wounded UNIFIL observers... [but] that UNIFIL has repeatedly reported Israeli shelling and bombing near UNIFIL outposts because Hezbollah fighters were shooting from right beside them . Says the UNIFIL press release of 20 July:
Hezbollah firing was also reported from the immediate vicinity of the UN positions in Naquora and Maroun Al Ras areas at the time of the incidents (of Israeli return fire)...
Retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie says he recently received emails from the Canadian peacekeeper killed at the UN post who’d told him that Hezbollah was using his post as cover.

The closest that this Los Angeles Times piece gets to being not a lie is "the nearest known Hezbollah activity was more than three miles away, although in the past there have been Hezbollah weapons caches in the area, a senior U.N. official said.". Which is like saying "According to official UN press releases, Hezbollah had been using those peacekeepers as human shields for days" - except the latter statement is true.

[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
Omri | |

If the UN Doesn't Want to Get Bombed Like Hezbollah Allies, Maybe They Should Stop Being Hezbollah Allies

As a rule - and with only minimal exceptions - we tend to eschew even the hint of satisfaction regarding any deaths on any side of any war. Still, about this UN getting bombed by Israel thing: maybe UNIFIL should reconsider their apparent policy of morally supporting and militarily aiding thugs who are trying to commit genocide. Just sayin.
Also: "observers" do not repair roads for proxy armies, and people who repair roads for proxy armies are not observers. If UNIFIL was storing the materials for repairing Hezbollah's roads in that "observer post", then as far as we're concerned it was a military target.
Omri | |

UN: Sure Hezbollah is Bad, But Have You Considered How Much Israel Sucks?

It's a cycle of violence!

he UN humanitarian chief accused Hezbollah late Monday of "cowardly blending" among Lebanese civilians and causing the deaths of hundreds during two weeks of cross-border violence with Israel... Jan Egeland spoke with reporters at the Larnaca airport in Cyprus after a visit to Lebanon on his mission to coordinate an international aid effort... During that visit he condemned the killing and wounding of civilians by both sides, and called Israel's offensive "disproportionate" and "a violation of international humanitarian law." On Monday he had strong words for Hezbollah, which crossed into Israel and captured two Israel Defense Forces soldiers on July 12, triggering fierce fighting from both sides. "Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children," he said. "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men.

We agree! So it'd be really nice if the United Nations - the body that's supposed to be the highest monitor of humanitarian crimes - placed the blame for this situation on Hezbollah. That's not an unreasonable suggestion - after all, it's Hezbollah that's putting up all the roadblocks to keep civilians trapped in their villages. But of course, the UN is way too busy condemning Israel to really notice that other "Arabs are trying to commit genocide" stuff.
Omri | |

Secretary Rice's Busy Day

Secretary Rice told Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas that the US supports a Palestinian state:

The secretary of state told Abbas that while she and other allies were engaged in resolving the situation in Lebanon, the US had not forgotten the Palestinians' plight. "I assured the president that we had great concerns about the sufferings of innocent people throughout the region," she told reporters.

Good to see that she's keeping her eye on the ball. Of course, establishing a Palestinian state won't stop Hezbollah, Iran, or Syria from trying to commit genocide by murdering all the Jews in Israel - but wouldn't it be nice if it did?
Omri | |

It's Official - Everything Is Israel's Fault

A proxy army based out of Lebanon (in fact, the militia of the largest Lebanese political party) and backed by Syria and Iran attacks Israel. Before the attack begins, then, four countries are already involved in a war. That attack is then apologized for by (at a minimum) historical rivals Iraq and Kuwait. Six countries. That's before the IDF has done anything. So obviously, it's the IDF that's going to cause a Mideast war:

Saudi King Abdullah... said he was warning the world, particularly the US, that "if the option of peace fails as a result of Israeli arrogance, then the only option remaining will be war, and God alone knows what the region would witness in a conflict that would spare no one."... "It must be said that patience can't last forever, and if the brutal Israeli military continues to kill and destroy, no one can foresee what may happen," the king said.

Has anyone in the diplomatic community ever considered that Middle East wars could be avoided if Israel's Arab enemies stopped crossing borders and killing Israelis? Seriously - even a single person?
Omri | |

UN Finally Does Something Productive in Lebanon

They figured out how to stay out of the way:

Bint Jbail, also smoking, could be glimpsed in the distance. Below the kibbutz, on an outcropping, sat a United Nations observer outpost, built of cinder blocks and concrete blast walls. The United Nations observers, meant to monitor the border after Israel’s withdrawal, could do nothing but watch.

Poor babies. Maybe when Israel leaves, they can go back to having tea with Hezbollah.
Omri | |

Tucker Carlson is to Israel Supporter as Flag Burner is to...

NewsBusters is surprised and disappointed that Tucker Carlson is using his show to toe the anti-Israel line. This is because they have a poor sense of pattern recognition:

When the announcer ended the intro by intoning "Now from Limasol, Cyprus, Tucker Carlson," the stage had been set: yes, the Bush administration might be condemning Hezbollah, but on the ground, it's the Israelis who are inflicting the suffering. Hey, so long as MSNBC is in the market for a conservative, why not give Tucker's hour to Pat Buchanan? He'll give an even more 'fair [and] balanced' take on Israel's aggression!

At least as far back as a year ago, Carlson was claiming to "be on Israel's side" even while he turned his program into a megaphone for anti-Israel myths. He's on Israel's side in the same way that the refusniks are... which is the same way that anti-Iraq-liberation flag burners in the US claim to be "the true patriots" because they're "showing dissent". In other words, if you make up your own meaning of what a country's true interests are, then of course you can always claim to be on their side (even if the vast majority of that country's citizens have lost their way, of course... you're the one who's stayed true to the country's values even while they've strayed!)
All quotes are from Lexis transcripts, going back as far as a year ago. As our high school English teacher used to say, once is a coincidence...

After 9/11 almost all renounce scholars in Muslim world, including Sheik Kaladowi, Islamic movements, even the ones that are considered terrorists in the United States of America, like Hezbollah and Hamas denounced the attacks on 9/11. They disassociated themselves from any of these acts

Obviously false.
Twice is a happenstance...

TAMIMI: No. You referred to Israel. What's happening in Palestine is that because the Palestinians have been displaced from their land, because their land is taken by somebody else...

That's always been false, but the matter is now definitively closed since Hezbollah declared that their intention is outright genocide.
And of course, after the coincidence and the happenstance, the third time has to be considered enemy action...

TAMIMI: If you want to be fair, compare the casualties on both sides. Compare how many Palestinian children versus Israeli children, how many Palestinian women versus Israeli woman... But I'll tell you what. I have a better idea for both of us and for the world. Why don't we bring about an end to all of this violence in Palestine? Get Hamas and the Israelis to agree on a truce.

And didn't that work out well? Here's a memo: when Israel's enemies say "truce", they mean "time for them to regroup". That's what they've always meant (Bonus: this is the show where, instead of questioning any of the falsehoods and idiocies being spouted, Carlson meekly said that he doesn't "speak for the Israelis." No kidding).
Omri | |

Arab Machismo-Inspired Escalation Watch

Quick review:

How will escalation in this war happen? It will happen in part because the lunatics that are attacking Israel don't really know what they're doing. They're a combination of braggadocio and machismo built on a foundation of incompetence and fanaticism... Various spokesmen from various factions speak for the entire organization - but since these Arab fanatics speak in terms of honor and martyrdom, no one can ever say "that other spokesman who said we were going to launch rockets at Haifa... yeah, actually we'd rather not risk that escalation."... Now we have this Iranian idiot - knowing that an Syria must attack Israel and that Israel must respond - committing Iran to attacking Israel if Israel attacks Syria.

And now we have it yet again:

Iranian threats against Israel continue: Iranian media outlets published sections of interviews given by Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad-Reza Sheybani, who said that Hizbullah's military capability has greatly increased in the last decade, and threatened that if Israel harmed Syria, the Iranians would respond with force. Sheybani stressed that Iran would support Syria if it is attacked by Israel. "There should be no doubt on this issue: If Syria is harmed, even in the slightest way, we will respond with force. This, on the basis of the joint defense agreement in effect between the two countries and already signed by the two ministers of defense," he said.

And with Syria promising to attack Israel if Israel moves toward the Lebanese-Syrian border - which just happens to be a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel must inevitable move towards...
Omri | |

Israel Does Everyone's Dirty Work, Gets Condemned Anyway

Remember when we made fun of Saniora's plan to have "the world" disarm Hezbollah - because the plan was really stupid?

What's this talk about a ceasefire? Does Saniora think that a well-maintained Hezbollah militia will be easier to disarm than one that's been leveled by the IDF? And if he does, does he have an idea of who in "the entire world" is going to do his dirty work for him? Even if they were willing to risk another dust-up in Lebanon (which they're not), the US isn't going to move troops from Iraq to Lebanon. Russia has warmer ties with Syria and Iran than they do with Lebanon, so they're out... let's be honest: Europe, armed forces - discuss. So that's not going to work... Saniora knows that nobody but Israel is going to take on Hezbollah... when he says "Israel should declare a ceasefire and other people should take on Hezbollah".. he actually means is "Israel should declare a ceasefire".

Not to brag, but it turns out that we were right:

Support is building quickly for an international military force to be placed in southern Lebanon, but there remains a small problem: where will the troops come from? The United States has ruled out its soldiers participating, NATO says it is overstretched, Britain feels its troops are overcommitted and Germany says it is willing to participate only if Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia which it would police, agrees to it, a highly unlikely development. "All the politicians are saying, 'Great, great' to the idea of a force, but no one is saying whose soldiers will be on the ground," said one senior European official. "Everyone will volunteer to be in charge of the logistics in Cyprus."

Obviously. But that certainly won't stop European politicians and diplomats from pretending that their idea for an Israeli ceasefire followed by a multinational force is actually viable. It's a stark example of how diplomacy operates in the Middle East: everybody pretends that all sides will equally toe the rule of law's line, even while everybody knows that the solution will be inequitable and that Israel will end up disadvantaged. The real question isn't how the dynamic works. The pattern for international interventions has been the same since at least 1967:
(1) Israel's Arab enemies try to destroy Israel
(2) They start losing
(3) They get the UN to quickly impose a ceasefire
(4) They regroup
(5) They throw out the peacekeepers (Nasser) / violate international law (Hezbollah) / declare themselves unfettered by treaties (Hamas) / etc
(6) They try to destroy Israel again.
The real question is how Middle East diplomats can be so shameless as to pretend that international law is anything but a rigged game where Israel repeatedly fights its way out of the gallows, only to be required to quietly put its head back in the noose within a few days.

[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
Omri | |

Memo to People Who Say Violence Doesn't Work: Yes It Does

Oh are they now?

All groups in Gaza, including Hamas, would now accept a cease-fire deal with Israel which would include releasing Gilad Shalit, according to the Palestinian Agriculture Minister, who also heads the coordinating committee of Palestinian organizations there. Ibrahim Al-Naja said the factions were ready to stop the Qassam rocket fire if Israel's ceased all military moves against the Palestinian factions in Gaza. They are also ready to release Shalit in exchange for guaranteeing the future release of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas leaders did not confirm this report on Monday, but if it is true, then this is the first time that Hamas has indicated its acceptance of the Egyptian proposal to solve the crisis.

Sure, it'd be nice if Israel had decapitated the Hamas leadership in retaliation for their little stunt, but doing about half of that and getting Shalit home in the meantime seems acceptable while there's an actual war going on in the north.
Omri | |

"Little is Overt About the Relationship Between Hezbollah and the goverment in Tehran" Still Maybe the Dumbest Thing Ever Written

If you think we're done mocking that caricature of head-in-the-sand journalism that was the Guardian's story about no one being sure if Hezbollah and Iran are working together... well, you must be new here. Check out what the New York Sun is writing about:

The bodies of Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers killed by the Israeli army in Lebanon have been transported to Syria and flown to Tehran, senior Lebanese political sources said. Israeli and Egyptian security officials confirmed the news... Iranian forces posted to southern Lebanon have been aiding Hezbollah terrorists in their attacks against Israel, including helping to fire rockets into Israeli population centers...
Israeli officials said Iranian Revolutionary Guards directed the firing two weeks ago of a radar-guided C–802 missile that hit an Israeli navy vessel off the coast of Lebanon, killing four soldiers... Jordanian officials told the Sun they are "100% sure" Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers have fired rockets into Israel... A Baath Party official operating out of the Golan Heights told the Sun he has information that Iranian soldiers have been firing rockets into Israel... At times, Revolutionary Guard soldiers have been seen operating openly at Hezbollah outposts in plain view from the Israeli side, military officials say.

See, here's the thing about the anti-Israel media: they lie.
Omri | |

NYT Definition of Diplomatic Progress: What Hezbollah Wants

The implication that this is news seems a little strange:

Moreover, in Lebanon the talk was of exchanging the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah for prisoners in Israel, while the Israelis clearly want a more comprehensive deal that will end the risk that Hezbollah poses on their border.

The Times acts as if these are two equal bargaining positions (the implication being more or less that a compromise should be found somewhere in the middle). But of course, "exchanging the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah for prisoners" isn't a bargaining position to end the war - it's the motive that began the war in the first place. In other words, that 'peace deal' is nothing short of full victory for Hezbollah (in exactly the same way that 'compromise' with Hamas meant 'full victory for Hamas').
Moreover, Israel's demand for a 'more comprehensive deal' isn't something that they should have to trade Hezbollah terrorists for - it's what Lebanon has been obligated to do since Israel left the Security Zone over half a decade ago. This entire setup seems to have a strangely familiar feel, in which the sophisticated diplomatic and journalistic position is that Israel should cave to its enemies' demands in return for something that they were supposed to get the last time that they caved to their enemies' demands.
Omri | |

We Get Visitors

A visitor found us this morning by searching on why is France against Israel. Obviously, this is funny in and of itself - but the fact that Google generates 50,900,000 hits for the phrase makes it especially funny.
Omri | |

Our Favorite Part of this AP Story is the Phrase "Hezbollah's representative in Iran"

Hezbollah wants to murder all the Israelis in Israel:

Hezbollah's representative in Iran struck a defiant tone Monday, warning that his Islamic militant group plans to widen its attacks on Israel until "no place" is safe for Israelis.Hossein Safiadeen also reinforced earlier threats by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah to widen the scope of attacks, which have included unprecedented missile strikes deep into northern Israel.
"We are going to make Israel not safe for Israelis. There will be no place they are safe," Safiadeen told a conference that included the Tehran-based representative of the Palestinian group Hamas and the ambassadors from Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian Authority. "You will see a new Middle East in the way of Hezbollah and Islam, not in the way of Rice and Israel."

(1) That's a really great resistance group that the Arab and Muslim world has developed. Promising to hunt down all Israelis and murder them - how very resistance-oriented.
(2) No, passing on this Guardian story really never gets old.
(3) In her surprise visit to Beirut today, Secretary Rice praised Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora for his courage. All well and good, but maybe she could have found a way to be a little more circumspect on the same morning that Hezbollah - which everyone seems to forget is actually a member of Saniora's government - threatened to murder all Israelis everywhere.
Omri | |

Picture You Won't See on CNN

CNN has actually added pictures to their hand-wringing "expose" about Lebanese civilians. The current picture caption is especially heavy-handed on pathos: "Nuhader Monsoor cries over her wounded baby, Maria" - see Meryl Yourish on why this caption is so typical and significant. On the other hand, this picture is one we have yet to see on CNN:


That's the funeral of rocket victim Shimon Gliklich, and that's his wife and daughter sobbing. CNN has yet to deign to pass it on, let alone to give it the kind of prominence that it gives to injured Lebanese civilians - many of whom are only still in their towns because Hezbollah won't let them leave. So we ask again: what media bias?
Omri | |

Hezbollah Radiological Weapons - That Would be Especially Stupid

We pass this on not because we trust the source, but because it's really scary:

The British intelligence service MI6 has established that Hezbollah is poised to launch a new "rain of terror" on Israel with rockets equipped with "dirty bomb" nose cones, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. "The nose cones will contain spent nuclear rods from Iran's nuclear programme. The rods are wrapped with conventional explosives. The dirty bombs are primarily intended to create increased panic across an already nervous population in northern Israel," claimed a senior intelligence officer in London.
Meantime, Mossad undercover agents are desperately trying to locate where the "dirty bomb" arsenal is located. It is believed to be in the Bekaa Valley. The Israeli intelligence service has also told MI6 that it believes Hezbollah now has "up to a thousand" other rockets poised for launch.

Nobody could be that stupid. We hope.
Omri | |

NYT is Right: The US Really Should Finally Deal with Damascus

New York Times headline:U.S. Must Deal With Damascus and Hezbollah to Ease Mideast Crisis, Syrian Says. We couldn't agree more.
This is like the time when, on the eve of the Six Day War, Prime Minister Eshkol declared that "peace lies in Damascus". Syria responded by pretending that he meant that he was going to bomb Damascus (rather than, you know, the truth - that he was asking the Syrians to make peace with Israel). This is just like that time - except we actually mean that the US should Damascus. So it's more the opposite
Omri | |

Israel is Starting to Win - Quick, Someone Impose a Ceasefire

Israel is slowly but surely destroying Hezbollah military strongholds. The Iranian and Syrian-backed militia is running out of rockets.
Suddenly, Arab and Muslim countries that reflexively excuse Palestinian mass violence by talking about "root causes" and "provocations" have transformed themselves into peace-loving members of the international community. Saudi Arabia is desperately begging for a ceasefire, while even Syria (aka "one of the countries that started this war") has become a potential partner for peace in Arab eyes.
What could possibly be the motive behind these frantic peace efforts:

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah acknowledges that Israeli troops can sweep across south Lebanon. But if he and his militants can survive and keep fighting, he will cement his image as the unlikely new hero of Arab nationalism. Israeli troops backed by tanks fought their way into southern Lebanon Saturday at the start of a ground assault to drive the Islamic guerrilla group away from the border and put Israeli cities beyond the reach of its rockets... Anticipating the ground assault, Nasrallah sought to ensure his group's survival and safeguard its widening base of support in Lebanon and abroad by lowering the bar for what would constitute victory. In a television interview broadcast Friday, he defined victory as a successful defense. And he acknowledges the gravity of defeat. "A defeat in Lebanon will end the region's resistance movements, the Palestinian cause and impose Israel's conditions for a settlement," he warned.

Even Malaysia has gotten into the act, asking the UN to impose an immediate ceasefire. The United Nations: where Israel's enemies go when Israel starts firing back.
Omri | |

Hezbollah Unit in Tyre Trapping Civilians To Use As Human Shields

Ha'aretz security guy Ze'ev Schiff has an article up on the Hezbollah cell based in Tyre - the one that's been bombing Haifa since the war began and that killed two Israeli civilians today:

We can say without a doubt that the war of attrition against the city of Haifa and its residents is a tale of two cities: Tyre in Lebanon versus Haifa in Israel. The Hezbollah unit deployed in Tyre and its environs has been bombarding Haifa with Syrian rockets and upgraded Iranian-made Katyushas. If this unit is not destroyed, it will continue to target Haifa. As such, it is odd that the Israel Defense Forces ground operation that began Sunday was not immediately directed against the threat from Tyre.

By the end of the article, he answers his own implicit question - the IDF is loath to really go after Hezbollah's infrastructure in Tyre because Hezbollah has been keeping Lebanese civilians in the city. This is consistent with what Hezbollah's been doing all over Lebanon - setting up barriers and roadblocks so that civilians are placed in the way of Israeli attacks on Hezbollah. So yesterday, obviously the British Foreign Office minister condemned Israel for endangering Lebanese civilians.
Omri | |

Hezbollah Might Just Have Ties to Iran After All

We pass this on because we still can't get over how the Guardian suggested that there is no explicit connection between Hezbollah and Iran. Turns out, there is:

A former CIA officer, who spearheaded U.S. efforts to crack down on Hezbollah... Gary Berntsen... said Saudi Hezbollah members have played major roles over the years, such as in the attack on the Khobar Towers... Imad Mugniyah is seen as the terrorist leader of Hezbollah, said Berntsen. U.S. officials believe Mugniyah was behind attacks on a U.S. Marine barracks and U.S. embassy in Beirut in 1983, and an Israeli embassy and Jewish community center in Argentina in 1992 and 1994. He is on the U.S. most wanted list, but has been difficult to find. He "stays in the Hezbollah areas of Lebanon and he spends a lot of time in Iran," said Berntsen. "The Iranians are owners, of a sense, of Hezbollah and, almost, owners of the terrorist wing. It's a proxy force for Iran."

We seem to have reached a point where terrorist apologists in the media are just outright making things up.
Omri | |

US Politics Roundup - 2006-07-23

* Secretary Rise is off the Middle East. No way this can go badly

* Stan from Dejafoo is following domestic US politics more closely than we are, and he's taken time out of his busy day to mock John Kerry's idiotic statements on the Middle East. Or as we like to call him, John "I'd send Jimmy Carter to fix things in the Middle East" Kerry. Seriously, it's beyond absurd to suggest - as he does - that his spineless, let-the-State-Dept-set-US-policy approach would have done anything but encourage Arab intransigence.

* John Bolton tells the rest of the world to go to hell. Good.

* Howard Dean is suggesting that the Israel-Hezbollah war is Bush's fault. This is a statement so mind-bogglingly ignorant that Slate uber-liberal Jacob Weisberg went so far as to explicitly warn liberals agianst making it a few days ago.
Omri | |

We Get Email... For Christian Singles

Usually we wouldn't pass on spam, but this is too good:

Welcome to Relationships.com, Where We Bring Christian Singles Together. At Relationships.com we're more than just a site for Christian dating, we're a Christian personals community where you can find singles that share your values and love for God in Christ. We are always working to help you build a strong relationship with other Christian singles. This is an ideal destination for Christian men and women to find friends, dates, and even soul mates, all within the faith.

How much do you want to bet that there's like a billion less New Yorkers on this one than on JDate?
Omri | |

CNN Wants You To Know That Lebanese Kids Are Suffering Because of Lebanon's Act of War. Israeli Kids Suffering for Lebanon's Act of War Not Discussed.

CNN has a sobby, first-hand expose on all of the Lebanese kids suffering because Hezbollah decided to attack Israeli troops and launch missiles at Israeli homes. The expose about the two Israeli kids who were killed last week when Hezbollah decided to drop a bomb on the street they were playing on - well, maybe some hand-wringing reporter will convey that news some time in the future. Somehow, though, we doubt it.
Omri | |

Syria Threatens to Go to War With Israel


On the 16th, we wrote:

For the last two decades, Syria has been strutting around and insisting that they were Lebanon's protectors from Israel. Their justification for turning Lebanon into a Syrian colony was that they were Lebanon's big brothers, and that they would come to Lebanon's aid in case of an Israeli attack. Well, now Israel is attacking - and Syria has to either slink back home with its tail between its legs or attack the IDF. Arab pride being what it is, they can't just admit "you know, starting a potential world war seems like a steep price to pay just so that we don't look stupid for making up excuses to meddle in Lebanese affairs." So Syria is committed to at least a confrontation with Israel's military.

This morning, Syria announced that they would respond to the impending Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon by attacking Israeli forces:

Syria will enter the Israeli-Hizbullah conflict if Israeli ground troops enter Lebanon and approach Syria, Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said in an interview published on Sunday. "If Israel invades Lebanon over ground and comes near to us, Syria will not sit tight. She will join the conflict," He told newspaper ABC.

Because not starting a war with the Jews just seems unreasonable.
Omri | |

Ahmadinejad: Israel Doomed to Destruction

Eh - he's probably just speaking in code:

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, declared Sunday that Israel had "pushed the button of its own destruction" by launching its military campaign against the Iranian-backed Hizbullah in Lebanon. Ahmadinejad didn't elaborate, but suggested Islamic nations and others could somehow isolate Israel and its main backers led by the United States. On Saturday, the chairman of Iran's armed forced joint chiefs, Maj.-Gen. Sayyed Hassan Firuzabadi, said Iran would never join the current Middle East fighting.

We eagerly await the official State Department explanation as to why Ahmadinejad is just playing power politics and how he doesn't really mean what he says. Because it's so inconceivable that a tyrannical thug threatening to wipe out 6 million Jews would mean what he says. That's just insane.
Omri | |

There Are Many Arabs That Support Hezbollah? No Way!

We tend to think of public diplomacy scholarship as barely-disguised terrorist apologism - but that's not to say that it's not well-informed barely-disguised terrorist apologism! And it's pretty much a consensus among the public diplomacy people that Marc Lynch is near-unparelled in terms of being well-informed. So when even he says that the majority of the Arab world supports violent terrorist militias...

What do those publics think? Hard to say conclusively, of course. Outside of Lebanon (where Hizbollah is a local, not a regional, issue). The Arab public clearly does not share the 'official' Arab irritation with Hizbollah - Hassan Nasrallah is widely admired, and appears frequently on al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, and surveys which have asked about Hezbollah have generally shown that it is considered a legitimate national resistance movement and is admired for its "victory" over Israel in 2000.

... we tend to take that as a kind of admission that maybe anti-Israel violence is about something more than "root causes".
Omri | |

So, There's Going to be This War in the Middle East...

* Israel is building a home for Lebanese POWs:

Preparing for an extended ground operation: The IDF has started constructing a temporary detention center designed to hold the Lebanese prisoners that will be captured during army operations in Southern Lebanon... A truck convoy carrying barbed-wire fences, containers, and mobile showers and toilets started unloading equipment at the Filon military base near Rosh Pina Friday, and construction works at the place are already underway. According to plans, the structure should be able to hold up to hundreds of Hizbullah prisoners at any given time.

This is in stark contrast to what Hezbollah does, which is closer to "committing war crimes by torturing and executing Israeli soldiers that they capture".

* The IDF has told residents of southern Lebanon that it would behoove them to get out of the way:

In message to 13 southern Lebanon towns, broadcast by Arab radio stations, residents informed their lives in danger, told to move north of Litani river... The IDF indicated Saturday evening that it intends to expand operations in Southern Lebanon in its call to 13 villages in Southern Lebanon to relocate north of the Litani by the same evening. As of now, tens of thousands of Southern Lebanon residents have already left the area. The IDF plan to 'clean' the area of terror nests, using both ground and air offensives.

This too is in stark contrast to what Hezbollah does, which is closer to "shelling Israeli civilians with no warning and with the intention of inflicting maximum civilian casualties".

* Israel is importing more precision munitions from the United States in preparation for an extended anti-Hezbollah campaign:

The US is rushing a delivery of "smart bombs" to Israel after Israel indicated it needed the bombs for its military campaign against the Hizbullah. The New York Times reported Saturday that the decision to rush the shipment was reached after little debate within the administration. The "smart bombs" - bombs which are equipped with precision guidance devises, are part of an arms deal reached months ago between Israel and the US, but the fighting in Lebanon led Israel to ask for an expedited delivery of the bombs, before the agreed scheduled of supply.

Yet again, we draw a stark contrast with Hezbollah, where the phrase "precision munitions" is a synonym for "things we wouldn't waste money on, since it doesn't matter what Israeli apartment building our rockets hit - just as long as they hit civilians". Also: shocking that the NYT would leak sensitive military information, huh?
Omri | |

The UN Should Stay the Hell Out of Israel's Way

We've pointed out our utter antipathy toward the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon more than once. This is the post where we remind you just how much they collaborate with Hezbollah and what a total lie their "neutrality" is:

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been deployed since 1978, not long after Israel first entered Lebanon in pursuit of PLO terrorists...
UNIFIL's most notorious collaboration with terrorists involved the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli soldiers, and the subsequent cover-up. On October 7, 2000, Hezbollah terrorists entered Israel, attacked three Israeli soldiers on Mount Dov, and abducted them Lebanon. The kidnapping was witnessed by several dozen UNIFIL soldiers who stood idle... Clad in UN uniforms, the terrorists called out, "Come, come, we’ll help you." The Israeli soldiers approached the men in UN uniforms. Then, a Hezbollah bomb... wounded the disguised Hezbollah commander, and three Israeli soldiers... Two other terrorists in U.N. uniforms dragged... the three wounded soldiers into a getaway car.
"Dozens of UN soldiers from the Indian brigade came around"... the brigade knew that the kidnappers in UN uniform were Hezbollah... the brigade did nothing... According to the Indian soldier, the UNFIL brigade in the area "could have prevented the kidnapping... we saw what happened," he said. Hezbollah "were wearing our uniforms and it was too bad we didn’t stop them."
[A]t least four of the UNIFIL "peacekeepers,"... received bribes from Hezbollah in order to assist the kidnapping by helping them get to the kidnapping spot and find the Israeli soldiers. Some of the bribery involved alcohol and Lebanese women... An Indian government investigation sternly criticized the brigade's conduct. There is evidence of far greater payments by Hezbollah to the UNIFIL Indian brigade, including hundreds of thousands of dollars for assistance in the kidnapping and cover-up. The UN cover-up began almost immediately.

And by "cover-up" we mean "cover-up":

The Indian UNIFIL began removing the contents of the cars. The Range Rover was soaked with blood. Among the contents of the vehicles may have been a cell phone belonging to the terrorists. The UNTSO officer confirmed that the cars contained "extremely sensitive" items which included "current and relevant information that could have been easily linked to the incident."
A UNIFIL peacekeeper videotaped the removal of the contents, and attempted to tow one of the cars... The end of the UNIFIL videotape featured armed Lebanese men confronting the UN forces, and taking the cars away from the UN. The UN personnel did not resist... the UN ordered its personnel to destroy all photographs and written reports about the incident.
The U.N. did not provide the Israelis with the automobile contents, or the videotape, both of which might have helped the Israelis rescue the kidnap victims. Instead, the seized contents of the cars were taken to a town in Lebanon, stored in a safe, and some were eventually returned to Hezbollah. Israel found out about the videotape, and demanded that the UN let Israeli investigators see it. Kofi Annan and his Special Envoy denied that any videotape existed... nine months after the kidnapping, July 6, 2001, the UN admitted that is had the videotape... the UN [actually] had two additional videotapes - one of which contained still photographs from the kidnapping itself... Annan refused to allow Israel to view [the video]. He claimed that letting Israel see evidence about the kidnapping would undermine the UN’s neutrality.

This being the definition of UN neutrality, it's not exactly a wonder that Israel is less than eager to accept even more UN peacekeepers - aka more potential Hezbollah collaborators and more people that will get in Israel's way when Israel launches counter-terrorism operations.
Omri | |

Slate Seems a Little Confused about the Israeli-EU Relationship

How Stupid Does Liberal Make-Believe Have to Get Before the Jewish Journal Won't Publish It? The perennially frustrating Slate.com (they always get so close to being reasonable, just before they pirouette back to liberal-conventional-wisdom land) has an interactive chart up. The chart purports to explain "who likes whom, who can't stand each other, and who's not sure". For the Israel-EU relationship, the chart lists them as the highest kind of relationship - friends - and then has this description:

With hopes of a peace settlement now looking grim, the EU called the air and naval blockade Israel imposed on Lebanon this week a "disproportionate use of force" that "cannot be justified".

Now maybe words like "disproportionate" and phrases like "cannot be justified" are signifiers of friendship in some places on this planet, but among civilized western nations they're marks of deep disagreement and potential hostility. In a surprise to no one who didn't have a hand in making this chart, the relationship between Israel and those EU countries doing the criticizing has been endangered - precisely because the criticisms that Slate seems to be describing as acts of friendship. Still, this Slate analysis is better than some of the other coverage we've been reading - it's not so much dishonest as just plain incoherent.
Omri | |

How Stupid Does Liberal Make-Believe Have to Get Before the Jewish Journal Won't Publish It?

The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles is running an opinion piece declaring that war is not the answer. You know what… we're not so sure about that. After all, it kind of depends on what the question is, doesn't it? Rachel Ben-Dor (founder of Four Mothers and therefore not a little bit responsible for the shameful way that Israel withdrew from Lebanon the first time around) is probably right that war cannot eliminate terrorist "once and for all". So it's not the answer to that question.
But if the question is "how can we set back Hezbollah a decade or two", then a war just might be what's called for. And besides, this article is just so pathetic:

A strong state that has a strong army like Israel's surely has the means to come up with a solution that is better than merely hitting back harder. I am sure the Israeli army knows how to keep our borders and soldiers safe, so that small groups of terrorists will be unable to cross and kidnap soldiers.

Which brings up our question: if Ben-Dor got to publish this opinion piece, who exactly is the Jewish Journal not publishing? Because, with due respect, this is kind of stupid. This is more or less an explicit claim that Israel simply isn't trying hard enough to protect its soldiers - and that if the IDF really wanted to, it would have no problem securing its border. This claim is, of course, in complete disagreement with the consensus of security experts, the sum of Israeli history, and anybody who has eyes. But wait, she has a better solution:

On Tisha B'Av we will read again the texts the sages developed after the destruction. They teach us how to try to engage in dialogue, even with your worst enemy. As they say: "Who is the greatest of heroes? He who converts his enemy into his friend" (Avot d'Rabbi Nathan 23). Is it still possible? Just a thought.

Answer: no. It is not possible. But wouldn't it be nice if it was? On the other hand, it'd also be nice if Jewish liberals had to recognize the existence of things like reality instead of just publishing their fantasies as serious policy recommendations.
Omri | |

Visual Representation of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

We got this from Stan, who was our former co-blogger back when we wrote at Dejafoo. It's meant to illustrate the dynamics of this conflict in a way that even the densest of casual Israel haters can understand:

Omri | |

Did You Know That International Journalists Are Biased Against Israel?

No really, it's true:

A group of Israeli journalists renounced their membership in the International Federation of Journalists yesterday, after the organization's general secretary refused to retract his condemnation of the Israel's bombing of Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station in Beirut. IFJ General Secretary Aiden White proposed coming to Israel to settle the dispute, but Israeli journalist and IFJ member Yaron Anosh told him that as long as the censure remained in effect, White would be unwelcome in Israel.
The Israel Air Force attacked Hezbollah's television station shortly after it began its offensive in Lebanon last week. The IFJ said in a statement last weekend that the strike is "a clear demonstration that Israel has a policy of using violence to silence media it does not agree with." IFJ members in Israel demanded that this statement be retracted immediately and asked why the IFJ did not condemn Hezbollah for firing rockets at Israeli journalists. After the IFJ refused to retract its condemnation, six Israeli members announced their immediate resignation.

The fact that the official organization of international journalists is on record endorsing a double standard between Israel and the Arabs that attack it probably has nothing to do with the crazy idea that international journalism seems to consistently endorse a double standard between Israel and the Arabs that attack it. Because journalists are objective - they told us so themselves!
Omri | |

Juan Cole Accuses Israel of Trapping Lebanese Civilians. This is Because He Is More or Less a Shameless Liar.

Today's Informed Comment link is brought to you by the letter M, as in mendacity:

So let's get this straight. The Israelis warn the small town Shiites of the south to flee their own homes and go hundreds of miles away (and live on what? in what?). But then they intensely bombing them, making it impossible for them to flee. The Lebanese have awoken to find themselves cockroaches.
I repeat, this is nothing less than an ethnic cleansing of the Shiites of southern Lebanon, an assault on an entire civilian population's way of life. Aside from ecology, it is no different from what Saddam Hussein did to the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq, and the Israelis are doing it for exactly the same sorts of reasons that Saddam did.
The economy of downtown Beirut has been murdered by the Israelis.

(1) It's Hezbollah, not Israel, that's forcing Lebanese civilians to stay in their villages as human shields against Israel. In fact, Israel is actively undertaking humanitarian gestures, while Hezbollah sets up roadblocks to prevent people from leaving their houses - which have already been transformed into Hezbollah armories.
(2) If Prof. Cole is honest, he'll take this information (which of course he probably knew, and just failed to pass on to his readers) and apply it consistently - and therefore accuse Hezbollah of risking the ethnic cleansing of Shiites from southern Lebanon.
(3) We're pretty sure that Cole just implied that the Kurds crossed an international border, attacked a Iraqi army envoy, killed and kidnapped soldiers, and then fired thousands of rockets at Iraqi civilians. Because if he didn't, then the phrase "the Israelis are doing it for exactly the same sorts of reasons" would be a bald lie.
(4) How stupid can Cole's moral equivocation between Hezbollah thugs and Israeli soldiers get? Wrap your mind around the phrase "the economy of downtown Beirute has been murdered", and consider that it's a heavy-handed and kind of pathetic attempt to link what Hezbollah did to Israeli soldiers to what Israel did to buildings.
Omri | |

Did You Know That the Palestinians Are Still Sending Suicide Bombers Into Israel?

No really, it's true:

Police special forces arrested a woman and another person suspected of being involved in a planned suicide terror attack in central Tel Aviv on Friday night. The two were reportedly arrested near the beach-side Dan Hotel on Hayarkon Street in central Tel Aviv after the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) passed an intelligence alert to the Israel Police of a possible suicide terrorist inside central Tel Aviv.

And here we thought that the Palestinians were busy preparing for statehood...
Omri | |

Israel Trying to Get Civilians Out of Lebanon, Hezbollah Trying to Keep Them In

Hezbollah:

The IDF has found that Hizbullah is preventing civilians from leaving villages in southern Lebanon. Roadblocks have been set up outside some of the villages to prevent residents from leaving, while in other villages Hizbullah is preventing UN representatives from entering, who are trying to help residents leave... Hezbollah: the party of human shields.

Israel:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni approved late Thursday the establishment of a "humanitarian corridor" between Lebanon and Cyprus in order to relieve the humanitarian crisis that was claimed to be present in Lebanon... Also on Friday, some 500 Canadians who were evacuated from Lebanon arrived at a Mediterranean Turkish port, the Canadian Embassy said. The first group of Canadian evacuees arrived in the port of Mersin by ship late Thursday and were flown home from the nearby city of Adana, the embassy said.

The UN is preparing to charge Israel with war crimes for taking actions that may count as "foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians". Israel, not Hezbollah. Because when civilians get killed after Hezbollah traps them in their village/Hezbollah military base, that's not forseeable. So no war crime charges there because really, how could you see that coming? On the other hand, when Hezbollah sets up a rocket launcher in someone's front yard, Israel is supposed to use magic powers and divine whether there's still a family inside the house.
Omri | |

Turns Out, Its More of a 'Jewish' Than 'Israeli' Thing for Hezbollah

All this time, we've been laboring under the impression that Hezbollah was murdering Israelis because they are a "resistance organization" and they're trying to defend Lebanese territory. Activists and journalists everywhere insisted that Hezbollah was an anti-Zionist organization bravely targeting Israelis, rather than an anti-Semitic organization genocidally targeting Jews. Imagine our shock this morning to discover that this whole time we were being lied to, and that Hezbollah really is focused on killing Jews:

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah apologized for an attack that killed two Israeli Arab children in northern Israel, saying the youngsters were "martyrs for Palestine." In a Thursday interview with Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera, Nasrallah accepted responsibility for the Wednesday attack, while conceding that an apology to the family was not sufficient. "To the family that was hit in Nazareth -- on my behalf and my brothers', I apologize to this family," he said. "Some events like that happen. At any event, those who were killed in Nazareth, we consider them martyrs for Palestine and martyrs for the nation. I pay my condolences to them."

Just think - if they were wrong about Hezbollah, what else could all of the anti-Zionists be wrong about? You don't think... you don't think that it might turn out that the Palestinians hate Jews too, do you?
Omri | |

UN Building Hit in Lebanon. UN, AP blame Israel. Yawn.

We can't exactly figure out whether we want to accuse the AP of making up this source or just wearily point out that of course UN employees reflexively blames Israel. But anyway, here it is:

A United Nations-run observation post just inside Israel was struck during fighting between Israel and Hizbullah operatives on Friday. The army blamed Hizbullah rockets, but a UN officer said it was an artillery shell fired by the IDF. A UN officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said an artillery shell fired by the IDF "impacted a direct hit on the UN position overlooking Zar'it." The post is part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. But an IDF spokesman said the position, located just inside Lebanon, was hit by rockets fired by Hizbullah that fell short of their targets in northern Israel...
The mission of UNIFIL, which has nearly 2,000 military personnel and more than 300 civilians, is to patrol the border line, known as the Blue Line, drawn by the United Na