What a bunch of tools:

Bolton, whose contempt for the United Nations is only matched by his exasperation with the State Department, recounts the position Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer adopted in 2006 toward the "final and binding" ruling an international commission had reached over the Eritrean-Ethiopian border, the cause of a war that claimed some 90,000 lives. "For reasons I never understood," writes Bolton, "Frazer reversed course, and asked in early February to reopen the 2002 [Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission] decision, which she had concluded was wrong, and award a major piece of disputed territory to Ethiopia. I was at a loss how to explain that to the Security Council, so I didn't."...

Bolton's words confirm what those who follow U.S. policy in Africa sensed but could never prove: While presenting itself as a neutral player in a bitter contest between two African regimes, Washington has in fact played the old Cold War game, favoring realpolitik over international law - with disastrous results.

The article goes on to describe how the State Department allowed Ethiopia to reopen what all sides had agreed was a closed border dispute in order to bolster the Ethiopian regime in the short term. That's twice. One more time and it's a pattern!

Stories like this hint at the possibility that the State Department's actions towards Israel are less the result of anything like anti-Semitism and far more a function of incompetence borne out of narcissistic and self-important delusions of sophistication. It's not that there's no unseemly antipathy towards Israel among certain US diplomats. It's just hard to untangle that antipathy from misguided stupidity.

These are obviously the people who should be in charge of fixing the Middle East. Because they're so good at their jobs.

References:
* America's Latest African Blunder [Slate]
* Are They Really that Stupid? [MR]
* The Denial of the Obvious By Reference to the Irrelevant: Center-Left Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics [MR]

Previously:
* Some Things You Didn't Know About Hezbollah and Syria (Hint: Syria Has Lebanese Prisoners, Hezbollah Openly Committed To Destroying Israel)
* In Just Seven Short Paragraphs, Jimmy Carter Tells 2 Lies, Makes 2 Incoherent Arguments, Takes an Anti-Israel Stance that the State Department Mocks, and Just Generally Annoys the Hell Out of Us
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah

Perfect time to sign a peace deal:

"Today we are going to break the bones of anyone who dares to demonstrate in the street," a Palestinian police officer shouted at a group of journalists as they arrived to cover the funeral of a man who was killed a day earlier during protests against the Annapolis peace conference... Baradi, a member of the Islamic fundamentalist Hizb al-Tahrir [Party of Liberation], was shot dead by security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during fierce clashes that erupted here on Tuesday... PA security commanders issued firm orders to their men to use an "iron-fist" policy against anyone who breaks the law.

But the ban did not prevent thousands from taking to the streets of West Bank cities to voice their opposition to the US-sponsored conference. The demonstrations, which came as a surprise to the PA leadership, were organized by both Hamas and Hizb al-Tahrir... Following noon prayers, the mourners, many of whom were carrying Hamas's green flags, tried to march toward the Palestinian policemen waiting outside the mosque... Hizb al-Tahrir spokesman Maher Ja'bari [said]... "This is the end of Abbas's existence."

When they get around to rolling the West Bank - which they're going to do as soon as Abbas is done pocketing Israeli concessions - Hamas stands to inherit 25-50 cutting edge, helicopter-busting APCs and all the goodies that $410 million in new US aid can purchase.

Oh, and they're also going to ignore Annapolis. Not ignore it enough to give Israel back the land that Olmert is being pressured to give up. Just ignore it enough to embrace genocidal murder with enthusiasm.

References:
* At least 60 hurt in Fatah-Hamas clashes [JPost]
* Bush Launches Final Status Talks: "I Don't Think It's A Risk To Try" (Plus: Anti-Abbas Riots Spread Through West Bank) [Video] [MR]
* Palestinians To Get 25 Cutting Edge, Helicopter-Busting APCs [MR]
* US Unviels $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Siezed By Hamas [MR]
* Hamas: Oh By The Way, We're Totally Going To Ignore Annapolis When We Roll Over The West Bank [MR]

Previously:
* Hamas Has Smuggled 112 Tons Of Explosives Into Gaza, Preparing Bunker System For All Out War (Plus: Israel Suspends Decision To Cut Fuel On Humanitarian Grounds)
* Palestinian Moderate With No Power Takes Bold Left Wing Position: Palestinians Willing To Give Up Something They're Not Entitled To In Exchange For Total Israeli Capitulation
* Dutch Government Funding Islamist Organization To Advocate Iranian Nukes, Protest Dutch Policy Of Not Engaging Hamas

Oh come on:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly said in Annapolis this week that her childhood in the segregated South had helped her to understand the suffering on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "I know what its like to hear that you can't use a certain road or pass through a checkpoint because you are a Palestinian. I know what it is like to feel discriminated against and powerless," Rice told a closed meeting of Arab and Israeli representatives, according to the Dutch representative at the summit, Franz Timmermans.

Blacks in the Jim Crow South, of course, very famously fought back against discrimination by launching decades and decades of genocidal violence and demanding that whites leave North America.

References:
* 'I know what it's like as a Palestinian' [JPost]
* Hamas demands UN rescind '47 partition [JPost]

Previously:
* Bush: "Now Is The Time To Lay Out A Vision" For A Palestinian State
* State Department Deliberately Circumvents Anti-Terrorism Laws, Funds Hamas
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

It's so nice to see two people who are perfect for each other get together. The Palestinians, very famously, heart Bin Laden for 9/11...

... and now he's officially letting the world know that he hearts them back:

The September 11 terror attacks in the US were carried out as revenge for treatment of the Palestinians and actions in Lebanon, al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden said in excerpts of a new audiotape aired Thursday on Al-Jazeera television. He also called on the Europeans to stop helping the United States in the war in Afghanistan, saying America is "ebbing."... "The events of Manhattan were retaliation against the American-Israeli alliance's aggression against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and I am the only one responsible for it. The Afghan people and government knew nothing about it. America knows that," he said.

This is supposed to be his fourth message this year. Doesn't this guy have a mafia-style international terrorist organization to run? Can we get him a hobby or something?

By the by, how awesome is it that - in the eyes of the Bush Administration - the Palestinians have gone from "those people who were dancing on 9/11" to "very, very ready for a state."

References:
* Palestinians celebrating the fall of the twin towers on 911 [Yank507 / YouTube]
* '9\11 revenge for Palestinians, Lebanon' [JPost]

Previously:
* Naughty, Naughty - Three Palestinian Government Soldiers Captured Trying To Attack IDF
* High Ranking Member of Moderate Fatah Party Wishes Every Day Was 9/11 (Bonus Outrage: US Trained Him!)
* Wherein We Imagine Palestinian Negotiations

You know what? We're not sure that Saudi Arabia has Israel's best interests in heart:

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States rejected recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. "There are 1.5 million civilians in Israel who do not define themselves as Jewish," Adel al-Jubeir told reporters at the U.S.-convened Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Annapolis, Md... Al-Jubeir did not think it was inappropriate that the Saudis refused to shake hands with the Israelis at the conference. "This is a serious effort, we are not here for theatrics," he said. "The time for handshakes will come when there is a peace agreement."

And when Saudi Arabia Arabia says "peace deal" they mean that Israel has to commit suicide:

The Saudi foreign minister told the closed afternoon session that Palestinian refugees should be allowed to return to their original homes. Saud al-Faisal, the Israeli official said, listed the core "final status" issues that have to be resolved in the accelerated negotiating process launched here, but specified the need for a "right of return" to the refugees.

So Saudi Arabia won't make peace with Israel until there's a peace deal they approve of, and any peace deal they approve of would mean the end of Israel. What a neat way to get around Bush's assurances to Olmert that only countries willing to make peace with Israel would be invited to Annapolis.

References:
* Saudi envoy: No to 'Jewish' state [JTA]
* Saudis urge Palestinian right of return [JPost]
* The Saudi Peace Initiative: A Discrete Way to Destroy Israel, Based on an Ethical Lie [MR]
* Annapolis As A Rosetta Stone For How Anti-Israel Bait And Switch Diplomacy Works [MR]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Your Saudi Husband Isn't Allowed To Beat You In The Face Because It "Makes Your Face Ugly"
* Bush Launches Final Status Talks: "I Don't Think It's A Risk To Try" Having Israel Make Concessions To Abbas (Plus: Anti-Abbas Riots Spread Through West Bank) [Video] [MR]
* Hey Saudi Arabia, Shove It

The idea of final status talks are laughable, because people like this traitor will always demand that Israel grant ever-more "autonomy" to Israel's enemies on every random parcel of Israeli land that they decide belongs to them:

An Israeli Arab woman convicted of having ties to Hezbollah was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison and a two-year suspended term. 24-year-old Manar Jabarin, a resident of Umm al-Fahm, came in contact with a Hezbollah agent while studying dentistry in Jordan. Jabarin, currently in her fourth year of studying law, was convicted of having contact with a foreign agent and providing services to an unauthorized organization.

Israel cannot rely on even the most ironclad international agreements. It is expected to suffer literal daily bombing of its schools and hospitals from land that it voluntarily and unilaterally handed over to its genocidal enemies. Neither principle nor outcome are guarantees that its enemies won't just make things up and invent new demands. The only way to prevent the slow erosion of Israel - all the way up to the north inside the Green Line and eventually to Tel Aviv - is to insist that Israeli land is, well, Israeli. Insane, we know.

References:
* Israeli Arab woman gets three years in jail for Hezbollah ties [Ha'aretz]
* Annapolis As A Rosetta Stone For How Anti-Israel Bait And Switch Diplomacy Works [MR]
* The UN Makes It Official: There Is Absolutely No Agreement That Won't Be Changed If Israel's Genocidal Enemies Refuse To Accept For Long Enough [MR]

Previously:
* Hamas Has 200 Tons Of Explosives That The US Gave To Fatah (Plus: Egypt Says It's Israel's Fault)
* International Agreements Don't Really Apply To Israel
* EU Again Backs Out of Monitoring Agreement, Endangers Israeli Security

We haven't done one of these since the Likud primaries predictably went to Bibi, but there's going to be an election soon so we might as well start easing our way back in. The exact shape of the post-Annapolis landscape is just about impossible to predict. It depends not just on the summit itself - whether Olmert seems like he's protected Israel, whether Lieberman thinks the concessions are too far-reaching, whether Jerusalem becomes an issue, etc. That's just the Kadima side of things. Barak's popularity relies on a host of other factors - whether Hamas, Hezbollah, and Fatah "offshoots" stay quiet, whether he has the ability to respond to any provocations, whether he gets the credit or blame for responding or not responding, etc.

Not that the uncertainty should stop anyone from irresponsibly speculating about what might happen. Analysis on each of the big three parties after the jump, including the most under-appreciated poll of the month.

Hey, remember that time when Bush got Olmert to agree to a peace conference by promising that only countries ready for normalization with Israel would be invited? And then a bunch of countries got invited who refused to let Jewish Israeli reporters talk to their ambassadors in DC and ran a bunch of vicious anti-Semitic cartoons in their government papers back home:

While Arab leaders trekked to Annapolis for the summit, Arab newspapers, many of them government-funded, have been running cartoons depicting Israel as violent and untrustworthy, according to a survey of Arab media conducted by the Anti-Defamation League. The cartoons often use anti-Semitic themes, such as depictions of ugly, greedy Jews in religious garb, to convey their messages. While some of the cartoons come from places with declared belligerent policies toward Israel, such as Syria and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, others come from what the American government has called "moderate" states, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, and even government-funded newspapers in Jordan and Egypt... An example of classical anti-Semitic depictions came from Oman's Al-Watan paper, which published a November 16 cartoon showing a religiously-attired Jew standing behind a gagged and seated Uncle Sam and speaking in his stead to a crowd of Arab listeners.

Oh wait. That was right now. Good to see that the peace deals with Egypt and Jordan are working out so well. Getting that kind of peace with Saudi Arabia and Syria is definitely worth tearing Israel apart and voluntarily accepting blame for refusing to be wiped out in the Six Day War. Sign us up for two. Because it's so normal and peaceful, you see.

References:
* Vicious Iranian Anti-Semitism [photonh2o / YouTube]
* Annapolis As A Rosetta Stone For How Anti-Israel Bait And Switch Diplomacy Works [MR]
* Normalization left out in the rain [MR]
* 'Moderate' Arab papers showcase anti-Semitic cartoons ahead of summit [MR]

Previously:
* Palestinians: We Won't Show Up To Annapolis Unless The State Department Screws Israel By Inviting Arab Countries To Make Demands
* Ha'aretz Headline: "Israel to go on high terror alert due to Annapolis peace summit"
* Arab League Decision To Attend Annapolis Already Not Paying Any Dividends At All In Bahrain (Plus: It's The Whole "Touching Jews" Thing Again)

Sometimes, you wake up and just feel that today will be better than yesterday. Today is not one of those days.

* We did not actually give this quote to the Daily Trojan last night. It's demonstrably true, but it's from some previous interview that had nothing to do with last night's debate. That debate was between RJC CA chair Larry Greenfield and Andrew Lachman representing LA Democrats for Israel. Our very partisan verdict: facecrush. Apparently it's very hard to argue that Democrats are good for Israel. Who knew? Which is not to say that Greenfield had an easy time - he's got Annapolis hanging around his neck right now. Still: facecrush (full disclosure: we know Larry have had the pleasure of talking to him on occasion).

* Illustration of facecrush: Lachman was enthusiastically emoting about how much the rest of the world hates Bush, how the Democrats' global apology tour will make people like the US again, etc. Greenfield pointed out that this was - our words, not his - bullshit. So then Lachman had to play some defense about how the elections of Merkel, Sarkozy, etc had nothing to do with Bush - "domestic issues" sophistication on display. Neo-neocon reminds us this morning that this argument is - our words, not hers - also bullshit.

* Clever.

* Nice catch by Elder of Ziyon. Abbas will offer Olmret exactly what Barak rejected in 2002. Barak is already way to Olmert's right, representing the defense establishment's opposition to Annapolis in the Cabinet. The way that 2002's "Palestinian concessions" are lining up with 2007's identical offers won't help Olmert convince Barak to pretend that peace talks might work.

* Rank anti-Israel bias at the LA Times? The hell you say. CAMERA catches our local paper in out and out historical revisionism.

* Iran's new missile can go 2,000 km. If Annapolis goes the way that the State Department wants it to, that'll be about 1,999.5 km more than Hamas needs to fire it into the Western Wall.

Previously:
* Tuesday Link Dump - Liberal Demorcrats Are Politically And Ideologically Retarded, Widespread US Anti-Semitism, Iran, Etc.
* Major Jewish Groups To Carter: We'd Love To Talk To You, But You're Just Too Anti-Semitic
* Hillary Demonstrates Sophistication - Refuses To Negotiate With Individual Terrorists

Hamas has openly declared they're going to roll the West Bank and help themselves to the cutting-edge weapons that the entire world is supplying to Abbas:

The militant Islamic organization Hamas... would take over the West Bank if Israel pulled out of the territory... The comments [were made] by deposed Palestinian foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar... "Israel says the party in Ramallah [Fatah] serves Israel, and if Israel quits the West Bank, Hamas will take it over. And we say this is true," Zahar said at a rally for Hamas supporters in Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

They've also openly declared that they're going to suspend Annapolis as soon as they take over. So what could be more natural than launching final status talks with Abbas two weeks from now?

Israel and the Palestinians will begin final-status negotiations on December 12, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced yesterday in a joint statement read out by U.S. President George W. Bush at the Annapolis conference. Speaking to reporters after the conference, Bush acknowledged that he was worried about the consequences if peace talks failed, but said: "It is worth it to try." "I don't think it's a risk to try for peace," he said. "I think it's an obligation."

Really? Really? Because we think that it's very much a risk. Our view, admittedly, is a little biased and is influenced by potentially irrelevent things like Abbas's demonstrable weakness even in ostensible Fatah strongholds. Video after the jump.

The Center for American Progress wants you to know that this is France's fault, because these "youths" feel "alienated." The thing about that idea is that it's totally retarded:

Could be worse. To be honest, we kind of expected him to blame Israel. Maybe they're waiting for things to get a little bit worse before the "root causes" equal "Israel" scapegoating starts. Hot Air says things are getting slightly better, although Bryan points out that that's not saying much:

See Pamela's extensive coverage here and especially here for updates. They're using shotguns.

References:
* Shepard Smith grills CAP analyst on French riots [pundital / YouTube]
* Burning Paris, night 3 [Hot Air]
* ChicaGo Le Havre -> Affronte la BAC [Daily Motion]
* War in France [Atlas Shrugs]
* "I do hope that France will survive" [Atlas Shrugs]

Previously:
* France Identifies the Real Threat To the Lebanon Ceasefire: Israel.
* Turns Out France Really Does Hate Israel
* No New Sanctions On Iran. Sophistication On Display.

You remember the Bush Doctrine? The one that said that no action by any state could ever justify violence against civilians? The one about how there's an absolute distinction between terrorism and its victims? Yeah, no:

Such distinctions may give cause for a giggle, but the declaration contains two elements that will serve the Israeli right wing in attacks it is expected to make on the prime minister. The first is the comparison the declaration makes between "terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis." Translation: Olmert agreed that Israel too is responsible for terrorism and incitement against the Palestinians, and that America will decide in every case who is inciting and who is a terrorist. No public relations spin will be able to erase that: The comments Ariel Sharon's government presented for the road map specifically rejected the requirement that Israel "cease the violence and the incitement against the Palestinians." Now Israel has given up on its opposition and a moral comparison has been established, which leaves Olmert with a lot of explaining to do.

Bush's legacy could have been that he stood firmly by the moral framework needed to fight the war of our time. Instead he'll be simply another in a long line of Presidents who abandoned his principles in a failed attempt to solve the Middle East conflict by weakening Israel and giving land and money to its enemies. That's some mighty good company right there.

References:
* Who's in favor of ending (Israeli) terrorism? [Ha'aretz]
* Jimmy Carter: Hamas Made Up of "So-Called Terrorists" [MR]

Previously:
* Things That Piss Us Off About This Morning's Guardian Article (5) - The Total Lack of Any Thought About Anything. Ever. They Don't Even Know The Consequences of Their Own Stupid Moral Equivalence.
* Munich is Cheap Propaganda
* Los Angeles Times Moral Equivalence at Work

Rough day for our side.

The video is from Memorial Day, April 2007.

References:
* Hatikva baKotel [jhm4hjg / YouTube]

Previously:
* Tuesday Hatikva - Hope On Memorial Day
* Tuesday Hatikva - IDF Graduation [Video]
* Tuesday Hatikva - Hope For The Captured And Kidnapped Soldiers [Video]

Hamas weakens and starves the Palestinians in Gaza by banning Israeli food aid because they don't want to help Israeli farmers. They intentionally don't request medical aid so they can demonize Israel when supplies run short. When Israel has tried to provide what little has been allowed and requested, Hamas has closed the crossing. Meanwhile they've shut down medical clinics across Gaza when the doctors were insufficiently supportive of Hamas's Islamism. And when Gazans have tried to escape this hellhole and get medical care in Israel, Hamas has gone so far as to stop Red Cross ambulances with roadblocks to prevent the transfers.

Hamas already knows that they can count on the UN and the AP (and the UN and the AP) and Reuters and the Red Cross to blame Israel for their intentionally-manufactured humanitarian disaster. Now their demonization efforts are set to go global:

That hed's totally unfair. There's absolutely no evidence that the monarchy would step in to stop this outrage even if they weren't busy trying to help the State Department screw Israel out of the Golan. After all, the 19 year old gang rape victim had the bad taste to complain about her initial sentence of 90 lashes. Is it the court's fault that Islamic law obligated them to bump up the sentence to 200 lashes and jail time? There are some things you've just got to let go, ya know?

By "these things" he means unjust rulings generally, not lashing a raped woman to ribbons because she violated some archaic cultural taboo. That particular thing is a specialty of Sharialand. We already sort of knew that the royals and the courts were at odds on this but it’s nice to have it confirmed. A senior Saudi official on Monday sought to distance his government from a court’s decision to sentence a woman who was gang-raped to 200 lashes."Unfortunately, these things happen. Bad judgments occur in legal systems," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters while in Washington to attend a Middle East peace conference in Maryland... Faisal said the judgment was being used to vilify the Saudi government even though it was not responsible because the courts are independent. “Issues like that, bad judgments by the courts, happen everywhere, even in the United States,” he said. “It is a process that is still going on. This is being reviewed by a legal process and we hope it will be changed.

Fair enough. There was this one time where we totally got screwed on a parking ticket. That's just like getting lashed 200 times and thrown in jail because you got gang raped. Glib equivalence: not just for Foreign Policy and Kos any more.

References:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - If You Complain About Getting Gang Raped In Saudi Arabia, They'll Double The Lashings To Punish You More [MR]
* Saudi foreign minister on gang-rape victim’s sentence: “These things happen” [Hot Air]
* State Department Bait And Switch Puts Golan Heights On The Annapolis Agenda, Gets Syria To Attend (Plus: Saudi Arabia Got Condi To Do It To Undermine US Anti-Terrorism Efforts)

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Academic Feminism Not Doing Much To Stop Teenage Girls From Being Lost In Pakistani Poker Games
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Your Saudi Husband Isn't Allowed To Beat You In The Face Because It "Makes Your Face Ugly"
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - You're Not Allowed To Sit Down When You Eat In Saudi Arabia Because You're Too Dolled Up

As if that soppy nutjoy abortionist wasn't bad enough, now Mark Steyn has to work this into his next article:

Schools are struggling to cover the cost of providing specialist teachers for thousands of new immigrant pupils, headteachers warned today. Forty per cent of primary age children in London now speak a language other than English at home and some schools take several new arrivals a week as pupils "appear from nowhere", heads have said. The National Association of Head Teachers called for schools to be given the "infrastructure" they needed to get pupils whose first language is not English fluent enough to cope with the national curriculum as soon as possible.

No worries. English will be a lot less important in two decades when lawyers are able to read the British legal code in its original Arabic: art is already imitating life.

References:
* Meet the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco friendly [Daily Mail]
* English is the foreign language for 40% of primary school pupils [Daily Mail]
* UK Reality Show Will Feature Non-Muslims Living Under Sharia Law.... [Weasel Zippers]
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Sharia Courts Established In Britain [MR]

Previously:
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - MI5 Suspects 4,000 Potential Terrorists In Over 200 Cells In Britain (Plus: AQ Recruiting Children For Next Terrorist Attack)
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - British Artists Terrified Of Muslim Lunatics, British Cops Apologizing For Muslim Lunatics
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - British Spy Chief Calls Out BBC For Shoving AQ Propaganda Down Kids' Throats, Blaming US For 9/11

We're having trouble reconciling the State Department's insistence that the majority of Palestinians want peace with the reality of democratically elected, majority controlling Hamas parliamentarians saying this. On one hand, we're inclined to believe reality. But then we'd have to believe that the State Department is making things up to coerce concessions out of Israel. And forebear the thought, ya know:

Hamas parliamentarians in Gaza signed a petition declaring their opposition to Palestinian "concessions" in Jerusalem and on the refugee issue, Israel Radio reported Monday. "Any settlement that does not include the return of the refugees, [Israel's] ceding of the land and the holy sites, and the release of the prisoners is ridiculous," Ahmad Baher, deputy chairman of the Palestinian parliament said at the signing of the document. "The attempt to force such a solution led to the second Intifada." Among the signatories was Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. "The people believe that this conference is fruitless and that any recommendations or commitments made in the conference that harm our rights will not be binding for our people," Haniyeh said as he entered the Palestinian parliament building in Gaza. "It will be binding only for those who sign it."

Stupid reality.

References:
* Haniyeh: Annapolis deal won't be binding [JPost]
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields) [MR]

Previously:
* Palestinians Prepare For Peace Conference With Ten Terrorist Plots
* Palestinians Prepare For Peace Summit By Shooting Israeli Civilian In West Bank (Plus: Two Dozen Rockets And Mortars Hit Israel Monday)
* State Department Deliberately Circumvents Anti-Terrorism Laws, Funds Hamas

Full slate of posts today explaining why we're all totally effed. This stuff is about the lightest it's going to get today.

* The problem with blogging the low-level French intifada is that everybody makes the same "French youths of indeterminate religion" joke about the rioters. We wish they would come out and just declare that they're Quakers like we suspect they are. Sarkozy's got a rough few years ahead of him.

* Maybe not that rough.

* Question: will Israel's incredibly sophisticated environmentalism make the left hate the Jewish State less? Answer: no.

* We heart Amazon's classification of Walt and Mearsheimer's "the Jews and their Christian tools have taken over the US" contribution to public discourse.

* Figures.

Previously:
* France - How Did It Come To This?
* Ann Coulter Embraces France: Hot
* No New Sanctions On Iran. Sophistication On Display.

Annapolis has already seen a very typical anti-Israel diplomatic bait-and-switch on the process side of things, where Israel agrees to a particular dialogue under particular gaurantees only to see those guarantees abandoned. Lebanon II's assurances about Hezbollah being disarmed are the best recent non-Annapolis examples. The most obvious Annapolis example is how Bush promised Olmert that only countries that recognize Israel would be invited to Annapolis - and now not so much. Then Israel was promised that if Syria showed up - Syria being a country, for those of you keeping track at home, that does not recognize Israel's right to exist - then at least Israel wouldn't be coerced into making territorial concessions to Assad. But then Condi needed a legacy (hint: not Russia) and wanted to get the Saudis to attend - so the Golan had to go on the table.

Again the best non-Annapolis example involves Lebanon, where UN inspectors physically walked along the border with a GPS to make sure that Israel had withdrawn from every inch of Lebanese soil. Hezbollah needed an excuse to keep killing Israelis though, so they just unblinkingly insisted that Israel was still occupying Lebanon until they got the UN to agree with them. This is an example of the "moving the goalposts" kind of bait and switch, where Israel makes all the concessions that it is asked to make in exchange for recognition that, finally, it's met some obligation or another - only to find out later that those concessions have been retroactively deemed insufficient.

After the jump, how Bush may pull the same kind of anti-Israel moving the goal posts blindside at Annapolis.

This is like a cornucopia of batshit craziness. She's in jail and faces jail time and 40 lashes. There are crowds gathering around the jail to lynch her. And the the school has had to close for months because they're afraid of getting firebombed:

A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam's Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, said she made an "innocent mistake" by letting the six and seven-year-olds choose the name... the charge could lead to six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine... The spokesman said the naming of the teddy happened months ago and was chosen by the children because it is a common name in the country...

The school has been closed until January for fear of reprisals. Fellow teachers at Khartoum's Unity High School told Reuters news agency they feared for Ms Gibbons' safety after receiving reports that men had started gathering outside the police station where she was being held. The school's director, Robert Boulos, said: "This is a very sensitive issue. We are very worried about her safety.

Over a teddy bear. Because when you have to choose between civilization and education on one hand and mindless primitivism on the other, it's always safer to eschew progress. Life in a suffocating 9th century culture must be very warm and comforting (h/t: PS).

UPDATE: Of course Charles had this posted by 9am. And of course he used the same Teddy Bear Of Blasphemy joke. And of course he even had the same "I Love You" stock photo from a Google Images "teddy bear" search. Of course he did. This will teach us to clean out our inbox before checking the day's blogosphere.

UPDATE 2: A reader points out that Charles ellipse'd out the part about the school having to close. Redemption!

UPDATE 3: Hot Air had it by 10:30am, used the same Google Images stock photo graphic, and even pointed out the inconvenient "yeah, this school might get firebombed now" thing. Natch.

References:
* 'Muhammad' teddy teacher arrested [BBC]

Previously:
* MR Asks: Yeah, Why Aren't We Bombing Syria?
* Good News: AQ Says World Is Going To End By Next Thursday. Looks Like We're Off The Hook For PhD Quals.
* FrontPage Writeup On UC Irvine: Jihadism Deeply Entrenched. Nice That UCI Hillel Is Finally Noticing.

Both Israel and the State Department paid enormous prices to get a unified Arab League presence at Annapolis. For pro-Annapolis people, the gamble is that the process itself will be able to substitute for the genuine willingness to make peace that - in other cases - lead to peace talks. For anti-Annapolis people, this is the very definition of a fetish where the outcome itself is supposed to substitute for what's underneath. Let's see which way that debate's breaking:

Bahrain has refused an offer by Foreign Minister Tizpi Livni to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, the Jordanian Petra news agency reported Monday. According to Petra, Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, who came under harsh criticism for an unofficial tete-a-tete he held with Livni at the United Nations earlier this fall, asked to wait until after the Annapolis peace parley before discussing possible diplomatic ties. Last Tuesday, Bahrain's parliament called upon the Gulf Arab emirate's government to cease all contact with Israel and to refrain from attending Annapolis, which it labeled "a waste of time"... Islamist deputy Nasser al Fadhala said that Khalifa should ritually wash his hands six times with water and then cleanse them with sand for having shaken Livni's hand.

Of course this kind of vicious intransigence - so clearly grounded in a visceral, literally physical repulsion towards Jews - is thinly coated by rhetoric about "the rights of the Palestinians." That's what makes Annapolis work. As long as Israel's Arab enemies are willing to pretend that the issue is geopolitical - at least out loud some of the time - then the State Department can go through the motions of coercing concessions out of Israel with nudge-wink promises that it will some how mollify anti-Jewish hatred.

Except everyone knows that it won't, because it's not the lack of a Palestinian state that makes the Islamists in control of the Arab League think that touching a Jew makes you filthy. Which is a problem not exactly limited to Bahrain.

References:
* Arab League: Israel Has To Move Behind 1967 Lines, Give Up Fence Protecting Itself Behind 1967 Lines [MR]
* State Department Bait And Switch Puts Golan Heights On The Annapolis Agenda, Gets Syria To Attend (Plus: Saudi Arabia Got Condi To Do It To Undermine US Anti-Terrorism Efforts) [MR]
* Bahrain spurns relations with Israel [JPost]
* State Department Succeeds In Screwing Israel By Getting Saudi Arabia To Annapolis, Can't Get Them To Touch Jews [MR]

Previously:
* On Eve Of Peace Summit, Fatah Promises To Launch Hundreds Of Rockets Into Israel (Plus: US Diplomacy Doing Great!)
* Blair: Israelis Need To Make "Psychological Shift" By Giving Up Stubborn Insistence On History, Experience, Reality
* Palestinians Prepare For Peace Summit By Shooting Israeli Civilian In West Bank (Plus: Two Dozen Rockets And Mortars Hit Israel Monday)

It's been a long time coming, but now we've reached that point:

Kasparov was forced to the ground and beaten, his assistant Marina Litvinovich said in a telephone interview from outside the police station where he was being held... Russian police have detained opposition leader and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov. He and other critics of President Vladimir Putin were arrested as police broke up a rally in Moscow organised by Mr Kasparov's Other Russia coalition. Police moved in when protesters tried to march to the election commission, which had barred Other Russia candidates from next week's election.

And just so you don't feel cheated by the lack of a "holy shit the State Department sucks" angle: it's often forgotten that Secretary Rice is officially trained as a Russia expert and that - of all the places in the world - that's an area where she should have excelled. Instead she's been a miserable failure and is trying to make up for it with Annapolis:

''We've let Putin and Russia elude our grasp,'' said former Undersecretary of State John Bolton, a prominent neoconservative. ''I rate that as one of the biggest disappointments, not because it has an immediate impact in the here and now,'' but because of Russia's anti-Western drift later. Even as she finds herself a target for Democratic opponents of the Iraq War, Rice also is increasingly under fire from hawks such as Bolton, who argue that she's abandoned Bush's purist principles to negotiate with North Korea and pursue diplomacy for diplomacy's sake in Iran. ''Everybody's in the legacy mode now,'' Bolton said.

She's substituting failure in one part of the world by setting up decades of warfare in another part of the world. That warfare will be all the more dangerous because it will be done in a world where Israel has been deprived of its ability to win wars conventionally (giving high tech weaponry to Israel's Arab enemies, depriving Israel of badly needed strategic depth, etc). Fantastic legacy.

References:
* Putin Goes After Chess Master, Opposition Politician Kasparov [MR]
* Garry Kasparov Arrested at Russian Rally! [Gateway Pundit]
* With peace talks, Rice seeks to polish diplomatic legacy [Miami Herald]

Previously:
* We Heart Putin - Big, Really Threatening Russian Airshows Are Back
* Putin Wins Russian Politician Of The Year
* Putin Figures Out Constitutional Way To Continue Ruling Russia With Iron Fist

It's hard to find a government agency that exceeds the State Department's unique combination of self-importance, wrongheadedness, and incompetence. And yet somehow TSA manages again and again to impress us on that score. So the next time you're going through one of our oh-so-secure airports, slip this into your luggage (full pic behind the link):

The incompetence of these people is just astounding.

References:
* LAX TSA Misses 75% Of Fake Bombs, Lets People With Bad Boarding Passes On Airplanes [MR]
* HuffPo Blogger: Replace TSA With Blackwater Ops [MR]
* A handy guide for luggage inspectors [Upgrade]

Previously:
* Well then...
* Airport Security in This Country is a Bad Joke
* Northwest Airlines Caves To CAIR Boycott Threat And Apologizes, MR Caves To Our Worst Instincts And Publishes Conspiracy Theory Bait

Israel's Arab citizens - the same one who regularly elect out and out traitors - are sensing the blood in the water of the Annapolis summit. If Israel is so weak that it has to negotiate away its rights while its cities are under daily bombardment, then why not go the whole way and demand the dismantling of the Jewish State?

"This is a new stage in our firm stand," said Hadash's chairman, MK Mohammed Barakeh. Balad faction chair Jamal Zahalka told Haaretz: "In Balad we have always opposed the definition of Israel as a Jewish state." The Ta'al faction met with lead negotiator Ahmed Qureia and demanded that the Palestinian Authority not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. It is precisely those who believe that two states for two peoples has a chance - that Israel's Arabs can be loyal to a Jewish, Zionist and Democratic state - who must at this critical moment say to Israel's Arabs that they have gone far enough... The Arab parties cannot - through Knesset members who have immunity - strike so callously at the law stating that Israel is a Jewish state. Anyone who is against this is breaking the law.

This is at the same time that the Israeli-Arab member of Olmert's cabinet is refusing to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Temple Mount - another issue that's been swirling around Annapolis.

This is not an abstract "see, everyone is ganging up on Israel" issue. Even before the conference is beginning, Israel's Arab leaders are making it clear that they will not accept a peace settlement - they want the whole thing. The conclusion is not difficult to draw: there is no such thing as a Final Status agreement. Today Israel is asked to give up Arab-majority Nablus to a Palestinian state, simply because Israel's Arab enemies have decided that it's theirs - and have spent decades murdering Israeli civilians to emphasize that.

But Israel's Arab citizens have made it quite clear that after Nablus will come the Arab-majority north of Israel. And after that, any Arab-majority neighborhoods in Israeli cities will come up for grabs. But what about American and UN assurances that this is the last time Israel will be asked to give up land? That these really will be certified, internationally recognized withdrawals? Bullshit.

References:
* Israeli-Arab Fifth Column Watch - Arab MKs: Plan To Prevent Us From Visiting Countries At War With Israel Is Racist [MR]
* They have crossed all the lines [Ha'aretz]
* Civil Fights: Israel's most 'moderate' Arab [JPost]
* The UN Makes It Official: There Is Absolutely No Agreement That Won't Be Changed If Israel's Genocidal Enemies Refuse To Accept For Long Enough [MR]

Previously:
* Israeli-Arab Fifth Column Watch (Helping Suicide Bombers Edition)
* Israeli-Arab Fifth Column Watch - Is It Treason Yet?
* Israeli-Arab Fifth Column Watch - If Israelis Support People Who Want To Wipe Out Israel, Is It Still Treason If Those Israelis Happen To Be Arab?

In fairness to the State Department and the Bush Administration, this is a total surprise, right?

Hezbollah is exploiting the tense political deadlock in Beirut to recruit thousands of new fighters, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. The Iranian-backed Shia militant group has begun drawing fighters from across the sectarian divide, including Sunnis, Christians and Druze, in an effort to create a united opposition to the government... Last night, Lebanese Brigadier Gen Amin Hotait warned that Hezbollah had expanded its recruiting to bring Sunni, Christian and Druze fighters together under the banner of an opposition. He said that the arming and recruiting campaign began after Hezbollah declared "divine victory" over Israel after the month-long war last year. It has been continued in defiance of calls by the United Nations Security Council and the Western-backed government in Beirut for Hezbollah to disarm.

Now we could go for the cheap and easy "Lebanon is the West Bank" punchline: there's something familiar about the State Department's Lebanon II strategy, where they prevented the IDF from dismantling an Iranian proxy in a futile attempt to bolster a fundamentally weak and electorally doomed slightly-more-moderate Arab regime. But we did that one last week. Instead we're going to go with the other cheap and easy "Lebanon is the West Bank" punchline: isn't it great how the US is giving cutting edge military tech to the Lebanese government, as if the local Iranian proxy could never, ever take it over electorally or militarily?

Incidentally, how can it possibly be the case that Hezbollah began rearming immediately after Lebanon II? The commander of UNIFIL seemed so sure when he condescendingly mocking Israelis for insisting that Hezbollah was rearming. It's almost like the State Department and the UN make things up to coerce Israel into making concessions, and then scapegoat Israel when their demonstrably false assumptions lead to policy disasters. Almost, right?

Oh, one more thing - the State Department outreach blog is asking "What Tangible Results are Necessary for the Annapolis Conference to be Deemed a Success?" We're not going to ask you to be constructive because, well, we don't care. All we ask is that you be funny (h/t: Jerold L)

References:
* Lebanon On Brink Of Civil War (Plus: State Department Prepares To Import Same Strategy To West Bank) [MR]
* Pentagon Gets Brilliant Idea: Let's Give Lebanon Cutting-Edge Military Tech, Training [MR]
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security I - UN Admits Hezbollah Is Rearming [MR]
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields) [MR]

Previously:
* Hezbollah: Yeah, We're Definitely Going To Start Another War
* The UN Makes It Official: There Is Absolutely No Agreement That Won't Be Changed If Israel's Genocidal Enemies Refuse To Accept For Long Enough
* Hezbollah Runs Massive Military Exercises, Lebanon Says It Was A "Simulation" And Complains When Israel Responds With Overflights

Are those baby orphaned owls cuddling up to their new plush toy surrogate mom? We think they are:

A group of orphaned baby owls snuggle up to a cuddly toy which has become their surrogate mum after they were found on the brink of death in the wild. The tiny tawny owl chicks burrow in under the fluffy toy's wings to keep warm after they were separated from their own mothers. The chicks, all aged between just four and eight weeks, faced certain death as they fended for themselves alone in the wild but are now recovering in an animal hospital... "They are so cuddly, almost human looking with their big wide eyes and facial expressions, we do find ourselves getting attached to them if we're not careful. "But we all know that they are better off in the wild, so we are trying not to get too attached and are doing what we can so that they can be returned to their natural habitat.

Yeah, good luck with that.

References:
* Orphaned owls find new cuddly-toy mum [Daily Mail]

Previously:
* Sunday Cute - Lemurs Like To Move It Move It
* Sunday Cute - Lots Of Baby Bunnies [Videos]
* Sunday Cute - Dolphin Lulls Naive Biped Into False Sense Of Security [Video]

We've got a few more posts that still need to go live, but we're going to sandbag them until tomorrow because (a) we're lazy and (b) we're lazy. They'll go live tomorrow, but here's a little teaser to keep you coming back: turns out, the State Department blows. In the meantime, this should keep you busy for a little while:

* We've been trying to work this article into a post for the last week or so with no success. So here: Mausoleum of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat unveiled in Ramallah. It cost almost USD$2 million. That might seem like a lot, but the new $410 million infusion from the Bush administration should allow them to both honor past terrorists and supply future ones.

* One of the ostensible upshots of the Annapolis summit is that it's supposed to solidify a moderate Sunni block against Iran. Odds of success: vanishingly small.

* We were offline when the story broke about the illegal immigrant who, while working for the CIA and the FBI, gave US secrets to Hezbollah. Here you go. Nothing like this could ever happen in the State Department, because in Foggy Bottom helping Hezbollah is just called "going to work." Hardly an arrestable offense, although if we had our way...

* Totally inbounds, especially when used to make overly intrusive single-serving friends go away.

* State Department maneuvering during Lebanon II still working out great.

* Two-thirds of Americans are retards. Academicese rant about the story at MR blog Icon Index Symbol.

Previously:
* Arab and Muslim Conspiracy Theories - Iranian Holocaust Denial Edition
* Israel And AIPAC: We'll Respond To Walt And Mearsheimer When Their Vicious Anti-Semitism Gets Sophisticated Or Relevant (Plus: MR Is Suspicious About Leftist Pro-Mearsheimer Enthusiasm)
* Va. Tech Anti-Conspiracy Theory Intervention

Well fuck. Now we're going to have to kill a weekend watching the first five seasons and the 1998 movie again:

"X-Files" fans, starved for a new film since 1998, won't have to wait that much longer. The trade papers are reporting that after years of rumors and false starts, not only will the currently untitled "X-Files 2" begin production in December, but it will be ready for release on July 25, 2008. That's a pretty quick window for the Chris Carter-directed film, which is based on a script from Carter and Frank Spotnitz. Naturally, nobody's going to tell you a darned thing about the plot for the movie except that David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will be back as Mulder and Scully and that they'll probably be investigating something mysterious, something that leads them one step closer to "the truth," whatever that is. We hear it's out there.

Score.

References:
* 'X-Files' Sequel Rushing Toward Theaters [Zap2It]

Previously:
* Excuse Us While We Geek Out
* My Geek Heart Bleeds
* MR Crush #452 - Amy Winehouse (Bonus: Geek Crush On Rosario Dawson) [Videos]

You know, we really thought that this new round of sanctions would work. Guess not:

Iran has produced its own nuclear fuel pellets of enriched uranium for the first time to power its under construction heavy water research reactor, Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Saturday according to the state news agency. Iran has long been working on its uranium enrichment capability to fuel its developing nuclear power program, including a 40-megawatt heavy water nuclear reactor under construction in Arak in the center of the country. The announcement indicates they have finally completed the nuclear fuel cycle.

All that sophisticated liberal analysis of how Iran can't possibly have the infrastructure to go nuclear - not so sophisticated, it turns out? Which isn't stopping Obama from relying on the same community of advisers for his Iran policy:

At the top of his foreign policy agenda is Iran. Tehran is still Washington’s No. 1 state nemesis, but the new President Obama has a different approach: Unlike his predecessors who eschewed talking to Iran’s leaders, Mr. Obama will engage in aggressive personal diplomacy and offer economic incentives and a possible promise not to seek regime change if Iran starts cooperating with United States foreign policy goals. In short, Mr. Obama will talk to Iran without pre-conditions. As he told The New York Times in an interview last month,"“I think it is important for us to send a signal that we are not hellbent on regime change, just for the sake of regime change, but expect changes in behavior." He added that he would be "willing to talk about certain assurances in the context of them showing some good faith."... Most foreign policy analysts agree with Mr. Obama - on the surface.

Of course they do.

References:
* Iran: New Sanctions Will Be Met By "Tidal Wave Of Resistance" [MR]
* Iran: We have nuke fuel pellets [AP]
* No Conditions for Talking to Obama, but Many Questions [NYT]

Previously:
* Russia Gives Iran Cutting-Edge Anti-Ship Missiles To Give To Hezbollah
* Photographs To Help Explain Why There Are No Homosexuals In Iran [Content Warning: Graphic Photos] (Updated: Video Added)
* Iran: Israeli Self-Defense is a Cause for War

Of course:

Hamas can make the rockets it fires at Israel much deadlier by packing them with more explosives, a senior official in the Islamic militant group said in a statement Saturday. The official, Ahmed Yousef, made the threat just two days before the start of a U.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland. Israeli officials have warned that Hamas may try to disrupt the conference with more intense rocket fire. Gaza militants, including Hamas members, have fired hundreds of crude, homemade rockets at Israeli border communities in recent years, killing 12 people and disrupting life along the border. In a statement sent to reporters, Yousef said that the rockets currently being fired have limited effect because they don't carry lethal enough warheads.

The good thing is that if there's an attack that causes massive Israeli casualties, the entire Israeli political leadership is overseas at a peace conference, thus limiting coordination as well as diplomatic maneuvering room. Outstanding. Simply outstanding.

References:
* Ahead of summit, Hamas threatens to make deadlier Qassam rockets [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Arab League: Israel Has To Move Behind 1967 Lines, Give Up Fence Protecting Itself Behind 1967 Lines
* Liberal Think Tank: East J'lem Handover Not Enough To Appease Palestinians, Will Increase Terrorism (Plus: Losing East J'lem Now Means Losing The Temple Mount Later)
* Israeli Security Foils 7 Suicide Bombings From Fatah-Controlled West Bank

Best headline ever or merely top five?

Police will go on high alert for terror attacks across Israel on Monday, due to fears that terror organizations may attempt to carry out an attack in order to disrupt the U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland. On Sunday afternoon, security forces dropped a terror alert that had been declared following intelligence reports that two Palestinian militants were trying to enter Israel to carry out a terrorist attack. It was not immediately clear whether arrests had been made, but Israel Radio reported that the alert was canceled after new information was received. Jerusalem police had received a tip according to which two terrorists were en route to Jerusalem in order to carry out an attack in the city ahead of Tuesday's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis.

That's how peace summits always work, right? Well, here's one benefit of Annapolis: if everything goes as well as Israel's Arab enemies and the State Department hope it will go, there will be a lot less of Israel to shut down during terror red alerts. There will also be a lot less terrorism, since why should you bother with a suicide bomber when you can just launch a rocket at the Western Wall?

References:
* Israel to go on high terror alert due to Annapolis peace summit [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Israeli Security Foils 7 Suicide Bombings From Fatah-Controlled West Bank
* Celebrity Concerts For Israeli-Palestinian Peace Canceled Because Of Terrorism Threats
* Tuesday Headline Link Dump - Palestinians Set Peace Process Conditions And The Israeli Right Implodes (Plus: There May Be No One We Do Not Hate)

All those new PA troops deployed in Nablus - at least those who haven't defected yet to Hamas or AQ or the Fatah "offshot" groups that murder Israeli civilians - are getting even more high tech weaponry:

Israel has approved the supply of 25 armoured vehicles to Palestinian security forces in the West Bank ahead of the proposed Middle East peace conference, senior officials said Wednesday. 'As part of a policy of supporting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and strengthening the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) security forces, Israel has allowed them to purchase 25 armoured vehicles for deployment in the West Bank city of Nablus,' a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said without specifying a timeframe for the supplies. The decision comes despite concerns among Israeli security services that Islamist group Hamas may eventually get hold of the military supply, as they did in June by taking control of the Gaza Strip from the rival Fatah movement, controlled by Abbas.

DEBKA reports that it's going to be the APCs are going to be BTR-80s, pictured above. Their specialty? Protecting troops from just about anything but a direct missile hit while they take potshots at helicopters (more info here). A few of these on the ground would totally transform the dynamic of a battle. 25 of them are enough to protect all of the PA's forces in Nablus plus some.

Israeli intelligence is wall to wall that Abbas is going to get rolled as soon as Hamas gets around to it. Hamas leaders are now allowing themselves to openly boast that they're going to overrun the West Bank as soon as Israel makes any concessions (this is not an anti-Annapolis tactic: their approach to that has been the exact opposite). Until then, only the Fatah soldiers who double as terrorists and the ones who openly defect to AQ will get to use these against Israeli troops (h/t: BtB)

References:
* Israel clears 25 armoured vehicles for West Bank city [IANS]
* DEBKAfile Reports: Overriding IDF and Shin Bet objections, Olmert approves arming Palestinian West Bank forces with 50 Russian APCs, 1000 rifles and 2 million bullets [DEBKA]
* Emuna News Special Report: Meet the BTR 80 [Lazer Beams]
* Israeli intelligence: Abbas is too weak [JPost]
* Top Hamas official: We'll seize West Bank if Israel withdraws [Ha'aretz]
* Hamas: When We Said That We're Going To Overrun The West Bank As Soon As Abbas Gets Land And Weapons, We Were Just Joking [MR]

Previously:
* US Unviels $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Siezed By Hamas
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security II - State Department Admits That Their Fatah Security Assistance Is An Abject Failure
* Hamas Has 200 Tons Of Explosives That The US Gave To Fatah (Plus: Egypt Says It's Israel's Fault)

The dozens of countries showing up to pressure Israel at Annapolis now have another bullet point on the agenda:

In the end, Washington decided to change the topic of the third session from "the Arab states' involvement in the process" to "the effort to achieve a comprehensive regional peace" - language that implies peace deals with Syria and Lebanon as well as the Palestinians. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak all left for Annapolis Saturday night. Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will lead a final round of talks aimed at drafting a joint Israeli-Palestinian declaration. Livni and Rice will also discuss the contents of the session on a comprehensive regional peace.

Since Israel can realistically refuse only so much before coming off as hopelessly intransigent, the State Department has taken to basically throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. As of this morning, it looks like Syria is willing to show up to see what the State Department can pressure Israel to hand over.

Why the Golan by the by? In order to get even more Arab countries to show up and help pressure Israel. This is being done even - specifically - at the expense of the US's most basic positions on the Middle East:

One Jerusalem's new video, launched in conjunction with their social networking site. They've also got some sort of celebration that they're streaming at 11am EST Sunday (today):

It is demonstrably the case that giving up East Jerusalem now means giving up the Temple Mount later. The fact that this isn't treated axiomatically is a stunning achievement in diplomatic and media anti-Israel propaganda.

References:
* Above All, Jerusalem
* Come Join Us [One Jerusalem]
* Jerusalem in danger [Yerushalaim1 / YouTube]
* Liberal Think Tank: East J'lem Handover Not Enough To Appease Palestinians, Will Increase Terrorism (Plus: Losing East J'lem Now Means Losing The Temple Mount Later) [MR]

Previously:
* Palestinian Demands Overwhelming Rices's Ability To Pressure Israel
* OneJerusalem.org Conference Call: Rep. Eric Cantor (R, VA-7) On HR 756, Condemning the Wakf's Destruction Of The Temple-Mount
* Photos Of Israeli Police Trying And Failing To Stop Temple Mount Destruction

Rumors have been circulating for years that some or Iraq's unaccounted-for WMDs - the ones that everybody talked about throughout the Clinton years - ended up in Syria. Most recently John Loftus released a comprehensive report based on captured Iraqi documents:

As Loftus summarized, "The gist of the new evidence is this: Roughly one-quarter of Saddam's WMD was destroyed under UN pressure during the early to mid 1990s. Saddam sold approximately another quarter of his weapons stockpile to his Arab neighbors during the mid-to-late-1990's. The Russians insisted on removing another quarter in the last few months before the war. The last remaining WMD, the contents of Saddam's nuclear weapons labs, were still inside Iraq on the day when the coalition forces arrived in 2003. His nuclear weapons equipment was hidden in enormous underwater warehouses beneath the Euphrates River. Saddam's entire nuclear inventory was later stolen from these warehouses right out from under the Americans' noses."

That makes the new analysis of the site that Israel hit in Operation Orchard particularly curious:

Yossi Melman, a respected investigative journalist, reports in Haaretz Thursday, that the Israeli air strike in early September may not have been against a nuclear reactor under construction but something more sinister: a facility for a much later stage in the nuclear production process. Melman cites Prof. Uzi Even of Tel Aviv University as being the first to public challenge this assumption. "On the basis of an analysis of the same satellite photos, which have been published in the media and on Web sites and are accessible to everyone, he believes that the structure that was attacked and destroyed was not a nuclear reactor."... "In my estimation this was something very nasty and vicious, and even more dangerous than a reactor," says Even. "I have no information, only an assessment, but I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely a factory for assembling the bomb."

Reasons to be skeptical: if Israel offered the Bush Administration intel showing that Iraqi WMDs ended up in Syria, that might be something they'd appreciate. Reasons to be skeptical of said skepticism: the alternative is that Israel offered the Bush Administration intel showing that North Korea is cheating on its denuclearization promises, which you'd also think the Bush Administration would appreciate. And yet.

Either way, there's general agreement that the site was nuclear: the Syrian rush to bury it underground, the Israeli willingness to risk a large scale operation to take it out, and the global silence about the operation. So then the question becomes whether it could have been a reactor or something a lot worse - and the new analysis by Even et al seems at least somewhat compelling that it couldn't have been a reactor.

References:
* Our World: From AMIA to Armageddon [JPost]
* xpert: Syrian target was nuclear bomb assembly factory, not reactor [Israel Insider]
* Syria's Been Building Their Nuclear Reactor Since 2003 And The State Department Still Tried To Stop Israel From Taking It Out (Plus: Awesome IDF Bombing Raid Just Got Filled With Even More Awesome) [MR]

Previously:
* IAEA: "What Syrian Nuclear Program?"
* Olmert: Let's Give Assad Tons Of Land Because He's Too Weak To Be A Threat (Plus: Syria Building New Generation Of Russian Anti-Aircraft Weapons)
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

Call us suspicious, but isn't there something weird about demanding that Israel withdraw to dangerous borders and then demanding that Israel not take what small measures might be available to make those borders marginally defensible? It's almost like they're trying to set Israel up for something:

Arab nations could be willing to improve diplomatic relations with Israel if advancements are made in the peace process with the Palestinians, Israel Radio quoted Al Jazeera as saying Thursday. According to an offer reportedly taking shape in Cairo, Arab states would warm relations with Jerusalem and several of them, including of Qatar and Oman, would even reopen their embassies in Israel, if Israel freezes settlement and security fence construction.

And if that offer gets put on the table at Annapolis, we have no doubt that the dozens of countries that the State Department has assembled to put pressure on Israel will do their job.

References:
* Arab states debate improving Israel ties [JPost]
* List of invitees to Annapolis [JPost]

Previously:
* Palestinians: We Won't Accept Concessions Unless You Promise Us Even More Concessions (Plus: Negotiations To Be Based On Saudi Suicide Pact)
* Arab Countries Step Back From Saudi Initiative Push, Send In Egypt and Jordan Instead
* The Saudi Peace Initiative: A Discrete Way to Destroy Israel, Based on an Ethical Lie

Tasha made a compilation of T&D video clips, dubbed with a soundtrack about unrequited love. 5 links, 130 comments, favorite'd 60 times:

We hope whatever money the girls have earned from their celebrity status is going towards the purchase of really secure locks.

References:
* Tasha and Dishka Mix [tasha / YouTube]

Previously:
* Tasha and Dishka Fridays - Every Day Is A Hipster Day [Video]
* Tasha and Dishka Fridays - Wherein We Present A 3 Minute Montage Of Things To Come
* Tasha and Dishka Fridays - The Early Years

We wonder if this...

Britain’s contemporary artists are feted around the world for their willingness to shock but fear is preventing them from tackling Islamic fundamentalism. Grayson Perry... consciously avoided commenting on radical Islam in his otherwise highly provocative body of work because of the threat of reprisals... many of his fellow visual artists have also ducked the issue, and one leading British gallery director told The Times that few major venues would be prepared to show potentially inflammatory works. “I’ve censored myself,” Perry said at a discussion on art and politics organised by the Art Fund. “The reason I haven’t gone all out attacking Islamism in my art is because I feel real fear that someone will slit my throat.”

... has anything to do with this:

Remember “Undercover Mosque”? It made a stir in the blogosphere when it aired on Channel 4 in January and was hailed by Hitchens as revelatory and must-viewing by anyone who doubts the jihadist threat. Think of it as “Obsession” if that film was concerned specifically with British Muslims. Viewers petitioned the cops to watch it and see if any of the agents of peace captured on film inciting religious hatred might in fact be prosecuted for inciting religious hatred. Alas, no, the cops concluded - but how about we prosecute Channel 4 for inciting religious hatred against Muslims by airing the show in the first place?

Only if you think that police officers who persecute people for trying to expose violent political Islam helps to intimidate people who might try to expose violent political Islam. Which we kind of do, yeah.

References:
* Artists too frightened to tackle radical Islam [Times Online]
* British media watchdog slams cops for objecting to “Undercover Mosque” [Hot Air]

Previously:
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - British Spy Chief Calls Out BBC For Shoving AQ Propaganda Down Kids' Throats, Blaming US For 9/11
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Sharia Courts Established In Britain
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - MI5 Suspects 4,000 Potential Terrorists In Over 200 Cells In Britain (Plus: AQ Recruiting Children For Next Terrorist Attack)

Which is weird, cause we kind of thought that sanctions would really work this time:

Iran on Friday called UN sanctions invalid and warned its enemies to expect a tidal wave of resistance if they increase pressure on Teheran to freeze uranium enrichment. The comments from Teheran and Vienna, at the end of a two-day meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35 nation board in the Austrian capital, reflected the chasm between the views of Iran and the West on what Teheran has to do to escape further UN punishment.

We were a little surprised that the Iranian negotiators would call out the IAEA - an all but official apologist for Iranian nukes - for being too hardline. Then we remembered that the new Iranian chief negotiator is a certifiable nutjob dedicated to bringing about the end of the world, and our surprise was lessened. FYI - they're getting nukes. And they'll use them.

References:
* Iran rejects UN sanctions as invalid [JPost]
* Iranian Nukes In 2009, IAEA: What Nukes? (Plus: Iran Systematically Persecuting Baha'i. Again) [MR]
* Super! Iran's New Nuclear Negotiator Dedicated To Bringing About The End Of The World. Yes, Really. [MR]

Previously:
* Photographs To Help Explain Why There Are No Homosexuals In Iran [Content Warning: Graphic Photos] (Updated: Video Added)
* Purdue Nuclear Strategy Expert: Bomb Iran Now
* Iran: Israeli Self-Defense is a Cause for War

They'll come to watch the State Department pressure Israel to give away land and put the Jewish State in existential risk. But actually touching Jews - let's not get crazy:

Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations decided Friday to attend next week's US-sponsored Middle East peace conference, but the Saudi foreign minister insisted he would not allow "theatrics" like handshakes with Israeli officials, saying the gathering must make serious progress. Participation by Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal was a key goal of the United States to show strong Arab support for the conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which is to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks for the first time in seven years.

State Department process fetishism at its finest - as if just having the Saudis in the same building is the same thing as having them ready to accept the legitimacy of Israel. But at least there will be one more country ganging up on Israel to make concessions - Israel being the country that won its land in a defensive war against a united Arab enemy that was announcing its intention to wash the streets of Tel Aviv with Jewish blood. Because if there weren't a couple dozen countries all working together against Israel at Annapolis, something unjust might happen.

References:
* Saudi foreign minister says he will attend Annapolis meeting [JPost]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - You're Too Dirty To Walk On Saudi Arabia's Sidewalks
* The Saudi Peace Initiative: A Discrete Way to Destroy Israel, Based on an Ethical Lie
* Kids Being Brainwashed To Hate Jews In Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, Egypt, Iran, Etc Etc [Videos]

In January a couple stories broke that US development assistance was going to fund Hamas weapons and propaganda. In March a Washington Times investigation uncovered that almost $150,000 of US assistance had gone directly to a single Hamas institution. In April it was revealed that the State Department had deliberately suspended their review process so they could circumvent US anti-terrorism laws and keep funding terrorists (seriously!). Now it turns out - shockingly - that the State Department may be funding Palestinian terrorists:

The U.S. government can't be sure taxpayer money isn't winding up in terrorists' pockets, it admitted recently. According to a recent government audit stamped "Sensitive but Unclassified" obtained by the Chicago Tribune, the U.S. Agency for International Development can't be sure that some of the billions in aid it distributes annually doesn't go to individuals or groups with terrorist ties, the paper reported. "Although it conducts programs in countries where terrorism is a major concern, USAID has not developed or instituted a worldwide anti-terrorism program," the Tribune quoted from the audit prepared by the USAID inspector general. "USAID risks providing funding or other material support and resources to terrorists or terrorist organizations."... Rep. Mark Kirk, D-Ill., requested the audit after learning that USAID, the nation's largest distributor of foreign aid, had on occasion approved money for questionable recipients, including the Palestinian group Hamas, labeled a terrorist group by the U.S. government... A USAID spokesman told the Tribune the agency was "taking [the report] very seriously."

Yeah, we're sure they're treating it with the highest concern. This report is slightly inaccurate of course - it's not that USAID has never developed an anti-terrorism program. It's that they killed the last one, allowing them to continue funding Palestinian "charities" that funnel money directly to Hamas.

The great thing about this mini-scandal is that even if USAID funds weren't directly going to purchase weapons and propaganda for terrorists, they'd still be going to purchase weapons and propaganda for terrorists. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, the State Department pours money into the Gaza Strip - and somehow that money gets to Hamas. Who could have guessed?

In other news, the Bush administration has decided to give more than $400,000 of new assistance to the Palestinians. No doubt it will be overseen with all of the care that the State Department is famous for when it comes to not funding Palestinian terrorists.

References:
* News Roundup - 2007-01-24 [MR]
* US State Department Has Been Funding Hamas Terrorists For Years. No Kidding. [MR]
* State Department Kills Congressional Instructions, Figures Out Way To Fund Hamas [Video] [MR]
* Feds May Fund Terror, Report Says [ABC News]
* Why "Humanitarian Aid" is a Myth (Or: the Definition of the Word Fungible) [MR]
* US Unviels $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Siezed By Hamas [MR]

Previously:
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security II - State Department Admits That Their Fatah Security Assistance Is An Abject Failure
* Dozens Of Fatah Police Officers Defect To AQ (Plus: Israeli "Goodwill Gesture" - 300 Palestinian Policemen To Deploy Around Nablus)
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)

We'd like to be the first to congratulate the State Department on the success of their clearheaded Lebanon II strategy. Keeping the IDF on a leash to keep the Siniora regime stable is working out awesome:

Lebanon's parliament failed to elect a successor to President Emile Lahoud just hours before he was set to leave office after it was unable to convene due to an opposition boycott Friday. The failure puts the country in a potentially explosive political vacuum. Speaker Nabih Berri said in a statement that the session was postponed for a week until Nov. 30 to give more time "for additional consultations to reach a consensus on electing a president." The opposition-aligned Berri made the decision 30 minutes after the legislature failed to muster the necessary two-thirds quorum to begin voting. It followed talks with leaders of the parliamentary majority... In the absence of a president, the anti-Syrian government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora takes executive power under the constitution. But the pro-Syrian Lahoud has vowed not to hand his authorities over to Saniora's administration, considering it unconstitutional after all five ministers of the Shiite Muslim community quit a year ago... The most dangerous scenario is that Lahoud could create an alternative government and hand it his power. Saniora's Western-backed government would likely refuse to step aside, leaving Lebanon with two rival governments, much like during the last two years of the 1975-90 civil war.

The State Department tried to bolster a fundamentally weak, somewhat pro-Western regime against Iranian proxies by de facto protecting those proxies from the IDF. Surprisingly, that didn't work. But maybe next time - Abbas, Hamas, Annapolis, etc. Because things always turn out differently when you try the exact same things over and over again, right?

References:
* Hezbollah's New Museum Is Breathtakingly Ungrateful For Massive US Help During Lebanon II [MR]
* Lebanon Fails to Elect President [TIME]

Previously:
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)

Blair and Barak just promised the Palestinians a bevy of economic incentives, but that's not helping them get what they're actually after:

In a surprise move, the Palestinian Authority on Monday set pre-conditions for participating in the US-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland. The PA also said it would stay away from the conference unless key Arab countries participated in it. The pre-conditions were announced following the weekly meeting of the PA cabinet in Ramallah. Two top PA envoys, Yasser Abed Rabbo and Akram Haniyeh, have been dispatched to Washington to relay the new demands to US officials, a PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post. The meeting was chaired by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

If the Syrians show up, they've said they'll hold the entire conference hostage unless Israel agrees to give them back the Golan. If the Saudis show up, they've said they'll hold the entire conference hostage unless they get their own list of demands. All of these countries - to say nothing of the hopelessly weak Abbas - have functionally zero to offer Israel. Even if they did, they certainly have nothing that won't be chipped away to nothingness over the next half decade or so.

Riddle us this: if the Palestinians want the conference to succeed, why would they set it up so that Israel is given the longest possible list of concessions, some of which have nothing to do with the Palestinians?

References:
* Blair unveils plan to boost PA economy [JPost]
* PA sets pre-conditions for Annapolis [JPost]
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process [MR]
* Abbas: "If You Don't Give Me Everything I Won't Accept Anything" [MR]

Previously:
* Liberal Think Tank: East J'lem Handover Not Enough To Appease Palestinians, Will Increase Terrorism (Plus: Losing East J'lem Now Means Losing The Temple Mount Later)
* Celebrity Concerts For Israeli-Palestinian Peace Canceled Because Of Terrorism Threats
* Israeli Security Foils 7 Suicide Bombings From Fatah-Controlled West Bank

* Are the Democrats really stupid enough to blow the easiest electoral layup in the history of political sports analogies? Yes: sometimes Nancy Pelosi seems just straggeringly unintelligent. No: not if Reuters can help it.

* Remember the time when Noam Chomsky said that anti-Muslim violence was a greater threat in the West than anti-Jewish violence? Turns out, that was incorrect. According to, you know, numbers.

* Berkeley Moonbat Falls Out of Tree - Click

* It turns out US sanctions against Iran don't work. We're as shocked as anybody. We thought, ya know, maybe this time. FYI - they're going to get nukes.

* Daniel Levy participated in diplomatic missteps that, taken together, have put the Jewish State under existential threat. That said, his dig outstanding backgrounder on the pre-Annapolis Israeli political landscape.

* We heard that this douchebag got housed at this debate last weekend. We weren't there, so we can only rely on the eyewitness testimony of every single person we've spoken to.

* This is why we use Skype when we're in Israel. Did you know that every Israeli McDonald's has free Bezeq wireless, effectively making the country a giant, mostly free cell phone network? That has nothing to do with this story, and our punchline doesn't really make sense anyway. But we like our Skype phone a lot and kind of thought you should know that.

Previously:
* How Stupid Does Liberal Make-Believe Have to Get Before the Jewish Journal Won't Publish It?
* Josh Marshall, Liberal Sophisticate: Conservatives Should "Grow Up" About Ahmadinejad's Desecration Of Ground Zero
* Liberal Tech Blogger: "Since When Did A Circuit Board On A Sweatshirt Look Like A Bomb"

Of course it's Israel's fault:

The head of the U.N. agency responsible for aiding Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that Israel's near economic blockade of the Gaza Strip is fueling support for extremists and shattering hopes for a peaceful future. "They're trying to punish those who've taken control of Gaza but in fact they're punishing everybody inside Gaza, a very small percentage of whom support the people who are controlling Gaza right now," Karen Koning AbuZayd of the United Nations Works and Relief Agency said. The violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last June by the Islamic militants of the Hamas movement, and their continual rocketing of Israel, has led to Gaza's increasing isolation.

As a matter of simple empirical fact that's obviously a bald-faced lie, since Gaza is a Hamas stronghold and Hamas won a majority of the popular vote (ergo, by simple division, we see...) But this is an interesting theory. Because we thought that Gaza extremism was fueled by the millions of dollars that UNRWA gives to Gaza extremists in open violation of US anti-terrorism laws. Looks like we were way off base.

In other news, UNRWA complained yesterday that Israel is making it harder for them to get money to the Palestinians. We wonder if these two stories have anything to do with each other.

References:
* UNRWA chief: Blockade on Gaza is fueling support for extremists [Ha'aretz]
* The UN is Coming. Oh Goody. [MR]
* US Congress Not Happy About 'UN Helping Terrorists' Thing [MR]
* UNRWA: New Israeli restrictions curtailing aid to Palestinians [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* UN Set To Blame Israel For Intentional, Hamas-Engineered Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza
* UN And "Gaza Businessmen" Agree: It's Israel's Fault That Hamas Has Intentionally Created A Humanitarian Disaster In the Gaza Strip By Blocking Food and Medical Shipments
* UN Building Hit in Lebanon. UN, AP blame Israel. Yawn.

This is how the lead up to historic peace summits always goes, right?

A 29-year-old Israeli civilian was killed Monday night in a shooting attack near the West Bank settlement of Kedumim. The man, a resident of Kedumim, was driving toward the settlement of Karnei Shomron in the northern West Bank, when gunmen in a passing vehicle opened fire, critically wounding him... Israel Radio reported Monday that the assailants fled in the direction of nearby Palestinian towns, but Israeli troops were scouring the area... Meanwhile, five Qassam rockets and 18 mortar shells struck the western Negev on Monday. One female soldier suffered shock when a rocket struck the city of Ashkelon, and was taken to Barzilai Medical Center for treatment. Several buildings suffered light damage.

We're expecting headlines like "Dozens Of Palestinian Missiles Fired At Israeli Civilians; Peace Talks Endangered" to be plastered all over newspapers in the morning. And by "expecting" we mean "not expecting." Rumor has it that the State Department is finally ready to issue invitations to Annapolis. We're not very good at numbers, but doesn't it kind of seem like a statistical certainty that at least some of those invitations will go to what must be hundreds and hundreds of Palestinians involved in the daily bombardment of Israeli schools and hospitals? Just out of the sheer luck of the draw?

And of course, Israel can't clean out the Gaza rats' nest because they're being held hostage to "goodwill gestures" in the leadup to Annapolis. And in the meantime, Hamas is preparing for an all-out war with the most complex combination of military tactics and assets that the Palestinians have ever had. Dozens more Israelis will directly die later because Israel is not permitted to defend itself right now.

References:
* Israeli civilian killed in W. Bank shooting attack [Ha'aretz]
* U.S. set to issue official invites for Mideast peace conference [Ha'aretz]
* Hamas Has Smuggled 112 Tons Of Explosives Into Gaza, Preparing Bunker System For All Out War (Plus: Israel Suspends Decision To Cut Fuel On Humanitarian Grounds) [MR]

Previously:
* Barak: No Seriously, The Rockets Will Stop Or The IDF Will Stop The Rockets
* Update: Hamas Soldiers Still Firing Rockets At Israeli Schools and Hospitals, 1.5 Tons Of Explosives Seized
* Hamas Smuggles Katyushas Into Gaza, Fires Them At Israeli Schools And Hospitals (Plus: Eight Mortars Fired At Israeli Civilians, One Scores Direct Hit)

That's always how peace summits begin: the weaker side that's prone to randomly targeting civilians is backed by an international coalition demanding concessions from the stronger, non-terrorist side. Makes a tone of sense:

The IDF is in a heightened state of alert ahead of the Annapolis summit next week, out of fear that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will try to perpetrate a large-scale terror attack to derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, defense officials said Sunday. The officials said there were currently 10 specific warnings concerning Palestinian plans to launch a terror attack before the summit.

The officials said that while there was no concrete intelligence that the warnings were connected to the peace summit, which is scheduled to be held at the Annapolis Naval Academy next Monday, the assumption was that terror groups - particularly Islamic Jihad and Hamas - would try to perpetrate an attack to spoil the peace efforts. "There is a concerted effort today by Hamas and other terror groups to derail the talks," a defense official said. "One of the ways to do that is to carry out a large-scale attack inside Israel."

The good news is that Olmert is bending to State Department pressure and releasing another 441 Palestinian terrorists. The deal is opposed by multiple members of his own cabinet as well as Israel's Chief of General Staff. Personally we back the prisoner release, because if Israel doesn't release terrorists than there might be Palestinian terrorists.

Middle East peace negotiations really are magical things.

References:
* Army on high alert ahead of Annapolis [JPost]
* US Pressuring Israel [LGF]
* Cabinet okays release of 441 prisoners [JPost]
* Ashkenazi against Gaza prisoner release [JPost]

Previously:
* Orthodox Los Angeles Rabbi: Israel Must Help Palestinians Screw Israel In Negotiations Because It's The Right Thing To Do (Plus: The Anti-Semitic Fantasy Of Jewish Purity That Guarantees Unending War)
* Liberal Think Tank: East J'lem Handover Not Enough To Appease Palestinians, Will Increase Terrorism (Plus: Losing East J'lem Now Means Losing The Temple Mount Later)
* Hamas Smuggles Katyushas Into Gaza, Fires Them At Israeli Schools And Hospitals (Plus: Eight Mortars Fired At Israeli Civilians, One Scores Direct Hit)

Of course it is:

According to statistics gathered from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO), 93.3 percent of Palestinian children have experienced domestic violence, amounting to 1,950,739 children - 953,950 of whom are girls... According to attorney Irit Rosenblum, founder and chairperson of New Family, the issue affects more than just Palestinian households: "It is a global problem. The world is not paying enough attention to poor society." Data from the New Family report revealed that 2.1 million children under the age of 18 comprise 52.2% of the Palestinian population living in the occupied territories... "The situation is getting worse and worse because people are poor," stated Rosenblum, "and Israel needs to help."

The Palestinians have been nursing impotent anti-Israel rage and hatred for decades. Israeli counter-terrorism efforts, coupled with the defensive fence, have taken away most of their easy scapegoats and targets. And so the impotent rage and hatred turns inwards, both across households in places like Gaza and within households all over Palestinian society. That's what impotent rage and hatred does.

We actually agree that Israel should - if it can - do more to make the day to day lives of Palestinian kids easier. But the conspiracy theories that the Arab world wallows in - with the enthusiastic help of Western academics - sharply limit Israel's options. Easy example: play out what would happen if Israel started actively intervening in Palestinian family life. The din of "this is another Holocaust" would go all the way up to the United Nations - when every Israeli action is read within the context of a vast conspiracy to destroy the Palestinians, genuine good will becomes impossible.

These numbers are probably low-balled. For instance, we doubt that launching rockets from the middle of a school so as to instigate an Israeli retaliation counts as domestic abuse. But it should.

References:
* '93% of Palestinian kids suffer domestic violence' [JPost]
* Palestinians Try To Engineer Human Rights Catastrophe By Launching Rockets At Israel From Gaza Boys' School [Video] [MR]

Previously:
* More Hamas Mickey Mouse Fun - Video And Comments From Moderate Democrats Added [Video]
* AP: Palestinians Children Playing With "Toy" Guns That Actually Look Kind Of Really Real
* UN: "Distractions" Are Causing Gaza Students To Flunk Math And Arabic [Videos]

As predictable as it is infuriating as it is surreal:

The General Court in Qatif yesterday doubled the number of lashes for a rape victim... TA year-and-a-half ago in the Eastern Province town of Qatif, a seven men gang-raped a 19-year-old girl 14 times. Three judges from the Qatif General Court sentenced the rape victim to 90 lashes for being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape. The sentences for the seven rapists ranged from 10 months to five years in prison. The Appeals Court sentenced the victim to 200 lashes and six months in prison... A source at the Qatif General Court said that the judges had informed the rape victim that the reason behind doubling her punishment was "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media."

Getting gang raped - that's only 90 lashes. But being a woman who has the unbelievable gall to ask whether it's OK for men to punish her for being gang raped - that's double the lashes plus more jail time than some of the gang rapists themselves.

Many Western academic feminists spent last weekend discussing how the heteronormative patriarchy imposed by neocons was a threat to women's rights. Specific citations available upon request.

References:
* Qatif Court Convicts Rape Victim [Arab News]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - You're Destroying Indonesia With Your Skimpy Clothing and Your Premarital Sex
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - You're Too Dirty To Walk On Saudi Arabia's Sidewalks
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Your Saudi Husband Isn't Allowed To Beat You In The Face Because It "Makes Your Face Ugly"

This afternoon's One Jerusalem conference call was with Ambassador John Bolton. Also on the call: Jerry Gordon (Israpundit), Rick Richman (Jewish Current Issues), Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs), TigerHawk, Avi Green (Tel-Chai Nation), and Carl (Israel Matzav). Allen Roth was in his usual moderator perch and audio will soon be made available on the One Jerusalem frontpage. Ambassador Bolton was on the call to discuss his new book, Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations.

For decades foreign policy elites and institutions have been getting things dramatically wrong. Their miscalculations are the result of bureaucratic inertia, institutional bias, and a pathetic investment in personal sophistication. As an example - and we don't remember the source of this quote - the State Department's problem in evaluating the Middle East is that the Arabs aren't Arabists. They don't send out covert signals about their intentions that can only be detected by trained Western experts who have studied at the knees of Juan Cole (not just a vaguely unintelligent apologist for the worst scum on the planet - a particularly pretentious vaguely unintelligent apologist for the worst scum on the planet). Rather, when Israel's Arab enemies say that they'll never accept the Jewish State - as the moderates in Fatah did yet again a few days ago - they actually mean that.

But foreign policy elites ignore that. Things can't be that simple. If it is then the State Department's insistence on dialogue and engagement becomes something in between willful appeasement and unintentional treason. Their fundamental misunderstanding of the enemy has caused the enslavement of billions, first to Communism and now to Islamofascism. They just can't stop losing ground. Sometimes the parcels of land they lose are the size of Gaza, sometimes they're the size of Iran. And yet the people who are in charge of promoting US interests - demonstrably abject failures in the cases of Gaza and Iran - suffer almost no institutional consequences. In many circles Jimmy Carter's advice on foreign policy is considered the height of sophistication. So of course Condi is getting advice from him on Annapolis.

And of course, Keith Dayton - the man who lost Gaza for the State Department - is failing again in the West Bank. Maybe he could have been more successful if he had spent less time mocking Israeli security concerns to Congress and more time not being an abject failure. But then he'd have to give up his self-declared sophisticated understanding of the Palestinians. And why bother doing that when you can blame the whole thing on Israel? Obviously, he's being given more money and resources to try again. Because why not?

For decades the discerning analysts in the State Department insisted that - despite all outward signs - Iranian moderates were gaining strength within the regime. Opps. No really, opps.

But these people still think it's perfectly reasonable for them to mock Ambassador Bolton and those who agree with him. Because the Ambassador is just so unsophisticated, you see.

References:
* Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations by John Bolton
* The Denial of the Obvious By Reference to the Irrelevant: Center-Left Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics [MR]
* MR Cracks the Code: Juan Cole Is Not "Wrong" - He's Just "Deploying the Technique of the Hermeneutical Circle" [MR]
* 'No Jewish state'
* Rice Gets Advice From Jmmy Carter And James Baker On How To Pressure Israel [MR]
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security II - State Department Admits That Their Fatah Security Assistance Is An Abject Failure [MR]
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence [MR]
* US Security Envoy Blames Israel For Palestinian Rocket Attack On Israel. Or Something. [Video] [MR]
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Untroubled By Undeniable Evidence That Hardliners Are Winning In Iran [MR]
* Super! Iran's New Nuclear Negotiator Dedicated To Bringing About The End Of The World. Yes, Really. [MR]

Previously:
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
* State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes

Joking aside, this is actually kind of creepy. Not like Blair Witch Project creepy, but still not nothing:

And for the really dedicated Tasha and Dishka fans, you're looking for the part of the clip that begins around 2:30. You scary, scary people.

References:
* Lost in Hazan [tasha / YouTube]

Previously:
* Tasha and Dishka Fridays - Hollywood BFF Edition
* Tasha and Dishka Fridays - Creepy
* Tasha and Dishka Fridays - Let's Meet Some Of Our Cast

We're going to be out of MR HQ for the next few weeks. Starting Thursday night we're in Winston-Salem, followed by a week long conference in Chicago. We'll try to post as much as we reasonably can, but in the meantime here are some MR-approved weekend activities:

(1) MR friend and occasional tipster Paul Strait is doing a study about citizen participation in 2008 primaries. If you have a few minutes we'd appreciate it if you'd click through and answer a few questions on this survey.

(2) The Lincoln Bedroom - much beloved across the JBlogosphere - will be appearing at The Mint in LA this Saturday. If you're into good music and good whiskey you should be there. And if you're a person who likes neither good music nor good whiskey, please never come here again. You disappoint and kind of scare us.

(3) If you decided to start your weekend by making a small donation to MR, you would feel much better about life. And yourself. And others. Alternatively, if you want to advertise to the smartest and bestest pro-Israel niche audience on the blogosphere - including a healthy dose of the much-coveted 18-25 demo - please click through and buy a strip on MR through Blogads.

Previously:
* Israeli Hottie Shirly Boganim Is Happy You Voted For MR In the JIB Prelims
* Israeli Hottie Galit Gutman Is Trapped In A Three Walled Room. She Can't Get Out Till You Vote For MR In the JIBs.
* Mere Rhetoric: Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Moran Atias. OMFG. [Video]

Since Syria's been pathetically mewing in the aftermath of Operation Orchard, Olmert has kindly offered to help Assad safe face by recovering the Golan. This might be because Olmert is a total idiot, but it's probably at least somewhat State Department induced. Which does nothing to decrease its aggressive stupidity:

Israel is interested in Syrian involvement in the Annapolis peace conference, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a press conference on Tuesday following a meeting with President Shimon Peres. He added that the conference was scheduled to take place during the last week of November... Olmert said Syrian participation in the conference "would be fitting." He also expressed hope that, should talks with the Palestinians be successful, it would pave the way for a similar process with Syria.

Just because Syria is licking its wounds because it got its ass kicked recently is no reason to rush to give them land. We don't want to be overly suspicious, but it appears that there's a strong correlation between their pathetic thuggish yapping and the confidence that they have in their anti-aircraft system. And since they're rebuilding that, maybe this is a good opportunity not to give them some land:

Baidatz also mentioned Syrian developments. "There is still tension with Syria, but there has been a decline in its level in recent weeks. Syria continues to strengthen its firepower. It is equipping its forces with Russian anti-aircraft weaponry and is preparing to receive Russian air defense systems." He added that Syria was continuing its cooperation with Hizbullah and that weapons from Iran were still being deployed across Lebanon, including the area south of the Litani River.

Assad's been quieter since Israel humiliated him and his supposedly unjammable Russian SAMs and took away the nukes that he was planning to "surprise Israel with"? The hell you say. Just because Assad is a throwback to the old style of Arab nationalists - bellicose threats followed by whining when Israel takes them seriously and preempts - is not a reason to repeat the idiocy with which Israel has historically approached negotiations with Arab nationalists.

References:
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process [MR]
* PM: Syria should take part in Annapolis [JPost]
* Top IDF Intel officer: Iran could have nuclear weapons by 2009 [JPost]
* Spectacular IDF Actions Aimed At Restoring Israel's Deterrent [MR]
* Assad Was Planning To Use Nukes Against Israel (Plus: The Totally Awesome IAF Commando Operation That Slowed Him Down) [MR]

Previously:
* This Summer's War With Syria - Syria Openly Brags About Preparing For War
* Syria Modernizing Its Airforce With Russian Help - War With Israel On The Horizon
* Syria's Been Building Their Nuclear Reactor Since 2003 And The State Department Still Tried To Stop Israel From Taking It Out (Plus: Awesome IDF Bombing Raid Just Got Filled With Even More Awesome)

From a rally last year in remembrance and support of Israel's captured and kidnapped soldiers:

As far as anyone knows Ron Arad, Udi Goldwasser, Eldad Regev and Gilad Shalit are still alive and in the hands of Hamas and Hezbollah - which is to say, in the hands of Iran.

References:
* HaTikva - Rally for the release of four Israeli soldiers [fabitas / YouTube]

Previously:
* Tuesday Hatikva - Shiri Maimon Gets People Emotional [Video]
* Tuesday Hatikva - Hope On A Hydraulophone [Video]
* Tuesday Hatikva - Daniel Zamir Jazz [Video]

The most acute peacetime threat that Britain has faced in a century, and they're only getting around to it now:

British security officials suspect that at least 4,000 people are involved in terrorism-related activities in Britain and that Al Qaeda's "deliberate campaign" against Britain poses the "most immediate and acute peacetime threat" to the nation in a century, the head of Britain's domestic spy agency said yesterday. "Terrorist attacks we have seen against the UK are not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups... The majority of these attacks, successful or otherwise, have taken place because Al Qaeda has a clear determination to mount terrorist attacks against the United Kingdom."... Evans said that security agents are watching about 2,000 suspected terrorists in Britain and that they suspect "there are as many again that we don't yet know of." The remarks by Evans, who took over as head of MI5 in April, amplified the threat described a year ago by his predecessor... who said agents were tracking 1,600 people in at least 200 cells.

The attacks are planned overseas by AQ leadership, but are implemented by British citizens. The number of British citizens willing to participate is growing rapidly as the age of those citizens is quickly decreases:

Teenagers as young as 15 are being groomed to carry out terrorist attacks in Britain and al-Qaida sympathisers are hatching plots in a growing number of foreign countries against targets here, the head of MI5 warned yesterday. In his first public speech, Jonathan Evans described the threat posed by al-Qaida-inspired extremism as "the most immediate and acute peacetime threat" the security service had faced in its 98-year history. The threat, he emphasised, had its roots in ideology, making it all the more important that the response must not be indiscriminate.

Absolutely. What MI5 has to do is be very gentle and discriminant with 4,000 people - because those kinds of numbers can be easily handled by the kind of methodological and soft multiculturalism that has served Britain so well thus far. You know what? Even better. They should withdraw from the world and turn inward - because then AQ will stop coming for them. The Terrorism Research Center has the white paper of the report.

References:
* Al Qaeda threat grows in UK, spy chief says [WaPo]
* 'Thousands' pose UK terror threat [BBC]
* Al-Qaida recruiting teenagers to attack targets in Britain, warns MI5 chief [Guardian]
* TRC White Paper: Utilizing Terrorism Early Warning Groups to Meet the National Preparedness Goal [TRC]

Previously:
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - British Spy Chief Calls Out BBC For Shoving AQ Propaganda Down Kids' Throats, Blaming US For 9/11
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Sharia Courts Established In Britain
* If Britain Won't Stop Radical Islam, Why Should Radical Islam Stop Being Radical?

Well that's just fantastic:

Iran could have nuclear weapons by 2009, the Head of Military Intelligence's Research Division, Brig. -Gen. Yossi Baidatz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday. "Iran's conservative sect is gaining power. The Iranian regime is faced with internal issues, but there is no threat to its existence or stability. Assuming it faces no difficulties, the worst case scenario is Iran obtaining nuclear arms by 2009."

(1) Well that's a shock. The most sophisticated liberal foreign policy experts have been telling people for years that Iranian moderates are winning and that the conservative regime is hollow. These are the same people who insisted that Arafat could be moderated and that empowering Fatah would work. Wonder how they blew that call.

(2) People have now taken to wondering out loud whether ElBaradei and the IAEA are in Iran's pockets, getting back at the Bush administration, or just spineless. Or all three.

(3) Iran is enthusiastically renewing its two-decade old campaign of persecution against the Baha'i. The campaign in its current manifestation stretches back to a 1991 government directive: widespread cultural and economic strangulation. This is - again - being met with near total silence on the part of the international community. The Baha'i in Israel own a gigantic and spectacular temple in the center of Haifa (and one that Hezbollah wanted to blow up). And yet somehow it's always the Jewish State that's viciously demonized as a religious supremicist apartheid regime. Weird, that. (h/t: PS) [Photo]

References:
* Top IDF Intel officer: Iran could have nuclear weapons by 2009 [JPost]
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Untroubled By Undeniable Evidence That Hardliners Are Winning In Iran [MR]
* Analysis: Why are the IAEA and ElBaradei protecting Iran? [JPost]
* "Murder with Impunity" [Weekly Standard]
* Baha'i World Center, Haifa, Israel [Flickr]
* Haifa's Baha'i temple - a tempting target for Hizbullah? [JPost]

Previously:
* Iran: Israeli Self-Defense is a Cause for War
* Purdue Nuclear Strategy Expert: Bomb Iran Now
* Iran, Much of the World Kind of Anti-Semitic

Remember how the Palestinians deliberately engineered weeks of anti-Israel hysteria by launching rockets from apartment buildings in Beit Hanoun in Gaza, waiting for an Israeli reaction, and then marching in the streets holding up a dead baby? Here's a video from last week of them trying to pull the same stunt, except this time it was from the middle of a Beit Hanoun boy's school:

The report on the footage is here, complete with a description of how the Palestinian terrorists hid in the school while the Israelis tried to trace back the rocket fire. They fire rockets at Israeli schools from the middle of Palestinian schools - but Israel is the one accused of endangering the lives of civilians. Makes perfect sense. As for the UN's claim that "distractions" are preventing Palestinian students from learning - technically it's true, if you count "Palestinians launching rockets from the schoolyard" as a "distraction." Which they didn't, of course.

UPDATE: Hmm... LFG apparently had this last Friday, complete with the video that we just took off the MFA site and uploaded ourselves. Opps. Then again, the original uploader was dumb enough to leave comments open on the video - someone's obviously new to YouTube.

References:
* Beit Hanoun Meme Watch [MR]
* Beit Hanoun Meme Watch - (2) "The Palestinians Are Really Pissed Off" - And The NYT Will Publish Death Porn To Prove It [MR]
* Palestinian Terrorists Fire Rockets From Palestinian School [photonh2o / YouTube]
* Terrorists fire mortars from boys' school in Gaza [MFA]
* UN: "Distractions" Are Causing Gaza Students To Flunk Math And Arabic [Videos] [MR]

Previously:
* UN Set To Blame Israel For Intentional, Hamas-Engineered Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza
* "World Indifference" - We Learned About That Indifference From Every Major Newspaper On The Planet
* Convergence of Bias - With This Simple Formula, You Too Can Produce Solid Anti-Israel Journalism

Israel's just so unreasonable ya know:

Officials in Jerusalem acknowledged that there have indeed been aerial incursions over Lebanon, yet the objective is to prevent weapons smuggling from the Syrian border. "Hezbollah's weapons kill, the flights haven't killed anyone," an official said. Meanwhile, Israel told the UN that Hezbollah has tripled its arsenal of C-802 land-to-sea missiles and has rehabilitated its military strength north of the Litani River. The information was included in a report compiled by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought the Second Lebanon War to an end.

It's not simply that Lebanon is unwilling or unable to take control of their own country from Hezbollah. It's not even that they then complain when Israel tries to figure out what's going on. It's that they're so pathetic when they make excuses for themselves:

Al-Akhbar, a pro-Hezbollah newspaper, had reported Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah personally supervised the maneuvers, which it said were carried out in the last three days and were the biggest ever staged on Israel's border by the Shiite Muslim militant group... Monday's report marked the first time Hezbollah, with its highly secretive military wing, revealed such exercises through a close newspaper. The maneuvers, if confirmed, could pose a major challenge to a UN-brokered cease-fire that ended last year's war with Israel. However, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said authorities checked with military and police units as well as UN peacekeepers and they confirmed nothing on the ground really happened. "It was, let's say, a simulation probably, in an operation room, on the desk, probably they did such a thing, he said, speaking to Associated Press Television News at government headquarters. "This has been confirmed by all the sources."

Lebanon and the United Nations have "confirmed" that they are not in fact impotent in the face of Hezbollah's continuing warmongering. And they report this with unblinking, unironic seriousness as if they really expected people to believe them. Of course, they don't really expect that - they just trust that people will act as if they do.

References:
* Lebanon to UN: Israel breached truce deal hundreds of times [Ha'aretz]
* IAF drops flares over southern Lebanon coast after news of Hezbollah exercise [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Kids Being Brainwashed To Hate Jews In Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, Egypt, Iran, Etc Etc [Videos]
* Hezbollah Probably Lost the War, But They May Never Have Been In It To Win
* UN Building Hit in Lebanon. UN, AP blame Israel. Yawn.

Just kidding, obviously. When it's not an opportunity to intimidate the West, complaints from imams about political intimidation just isn't a big deal:

The Palestinian Fatah-led government has mounted a crackdown on preachers from the rival Hamas movement, arresting or sacking clerics accused of spreading political dissent. The Fatah campaign, which is being enforced across the West Bank, is a reaction to the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in June and marks a widening divide between the two factions and territories. In recent weeks in Nablus, a major Hamas centre of power in the West Bank, police have arrested Sheikh Maher Kharas, a prominent and radical Hamas cleric, and replaced several other clerics who are either members of Hamas or close to the movement, including the head of the province's religious affairs department.

You'll recall that these are people who rioted about cartoons but are less troubled by telling imams what they can or can't say. What happened to staying true to the Koran?

References:
* Fatah targets mosques in latest anti-Hamas campaign [Guardian]

Previously:
* Palestinians Commit Several War Crimes in Just a Few Hours. Instead of Reporting That, Reuters Publishes Gripping Tale of Glorious Palestinian Martyrdom (and We're Not Even Exaggerating About That...)
* Global Outcry As Palestinian Work Accident Kills Gaza Women, Four Year Old Girl
* Human Rights Organizations Untroubled By Dozens Of Israeli Secret Arrests, Planned Executions Of Terrorists

We're really just using this liberal Jewish dipshit (our FAQ debunking these same old smears here) as an excuse to post the summary of this editorial:

Ma'ariv notes that Friday, November 2nd was the 90th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and says that "The Balfour Declaration diverted history and made the hitherto marginal Zionist idea a real option in world politics." The editors believe that "The Balfour Declaration was not designed to serve Britain's political interests," since it damaged those interests and suggest that it had to more with Christian messianism.

So even when Christians support Israel for reasons Jews might object to, their support still pragmatically ends up being beneficial. Unprecedented. The picture at the top, by the by, was a commercial run on evangelical stations during Lebanon II. We'll quote from a NYT article about the campaign:

For one thing, white evangelicals make up about a quarter of the electorate. Whatever strains may be creeping into the Israeli-American alliance over Iraq, the Palestinians and Iran, a large part of the Republican Party's base remains committed to a fiercely pro-Israel agenda that seems likely to have an effect on policy choices. Mr. Hagee says his message for the White House was, "Every time there has been a fight like this over the last 50 years, the State Department would send someone over in a jet to call for a cease-fire. The terrorists would rest, rearm and retaliate." He added, "Appeasement has never helped the Jewish people."... At rallies this fall for Christian conservative voters, Dr. Dobson sometimes singled out Mr. Ahmadinejad as a reason to go to the polls, arguing that Democrats could not be trusted to face down such dangers. "Hitler told everybody what he was going to do, and Ahmadinejad is saying exactly what he is going to do," Dr. Dobson explained. "He is talking genocide."

But you just know that the reason they're trying to stop a war in the Middle East is so they can bring about an apocolyptic war in the Middle East. Makes. Perfect. Sense.

References:
* Friends and enemies [Guardian]
* OneJerusalem.org Conference Call: Pastor John Hagee, Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church [FAQ: Debunking Liberal Myths About Evangelical Support For Israel] [MR]
* Sumamry of editorials from the Hebrew press [MFA]

Previously:
* Evangelical Support for Israel - It's Not Because They Hate Jews
* Isn't It About Time For Democratic Jews To Stop Electorally Empowering The Ahmadinejad-Supporting Left?
* More Democrats Repeat Anti-Semitic Canards, Embrace Particularly Anti-Semitic Sounding Parts Of Walt And Mearsheimer

Well, at least it will provide employment opportunities for all the prisoners Olmert is releasing:

If the deployment of additional Palestinian Authority security forces in Nablus succeeds in establishing order in the city, then the IDF will permit a similar deployment in another PA city, [according to] Barak

Fatah security forces can't decide between assassinating Olmert on their own or doing it after defecting to Al Qaeda. We don't really get a warming feeling from the prospect of having another few hundred of them on the streets with weapons.

PS - Heh:

References:
* Barak says Israel may permit PA to deploy more troops in another city [JPost]
* Olmert Releasing 2000 Prisoners To Placate Crybaby Palestinian Thugs [MR]
* The Attempt to Kill Olmert [GLORIA]
* Dozens Of Fatah Police Officers Defect To AQ (Plus: Israeli "Goodwill Gesture" - 300 Palestinian Policemen To Deploy Around Nablus) [MR]

Previously:
* Peres: Another 6 Suicide Bombers Caught In Last 3 Weeks
* US Unviels $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Siezed By Hamas
* Hamas: When We Said That We're Going To Overrun The West Bank As Soon As Abbas Gets Land And Weapons, We Were Just Joking

If you're an internationally acclaimed, far left, former Democratic President and the ADL announces that you're literally beneath talking to, you should really ask yourself just how far off the reservation you've strayed:

While Carter invited most of the major Jewish organizations, the event was only attended by representatives of the Reform movement and by several smaller dovish Jewish groups. “I didn’t want to be used,” said the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, Abraham Foxman, one of the leaders who turned down Carter’s invitation. “I didn’t think anything constructive could come out of the meeting, except for him being able to say he met with Jewish leaders.” Carter has encountered similar difficulties in reaching out to Jewish lawmakers on Capitol Hill. A closed-door meeting he held with Jewish members of Congress turned into a passionate rebuke of the former president’s views on Israel and the Middle East.

At this point, Walt and Mearsheimer could probably get a more sympathetic hearing among Jewish groups. Which is fair, since at least in person they're slick and reasonable-sounding. Which makes them more dangerous - but not more stupid! Of course, there will always be liberal Jews begging for Carter's table scraps and offering to attack other Jews for him:

“We all recognized that he is one of the only people in the world who were successful in brokering peace between Israelis and Arabs,” Masters said. A Jewish organizational official speaking under condition of anonymity said that Carter invited “almost all major groups” but most of them turned down the invitation. This decision was criticized by those present. “I think the refusal of Jewish groups to show up is offensive,” said M.J. Rosenberg, Israel Policy Forum’s policy analysis director, who was in attendance. “It is very unfortunate when a former president invites and people don’t show up.”

Conventional wisdom holds that the Holocaust finally discredited the notion of the "humble Jew" - the idea that accepting grievous injury or open insult is the way for Jews to safely make their way through a non-Jewish world. Apparently there are some liberal Jews who didn't get the memo.

As for that nonsense about Camp David working out, yeah, OK.. Although we'd love to believe their claim that Carter successfully and single-handedly pressured Israel to give up the Sinai in exchange for 20 years of the coldest peace followed by an increasingly obvious looming disaster. But that's false too.

References:
* Carter’s Efforts To Mend Ties With Community Get Cold Shoulder [Forward]
* Egypt Uncovers A Single Smuggling Tunnel, Basically Calls It A Day (Plus: Egypt In Explicit Violation Of Security Agreements?) [MR]
* Egypt To Build Multiple Nuclear Reactors [MR]

Previously:
* Mere Rhetoric: Carter "Nauseated" By Jewish Settlements
* Carter Backs Out Of Defending His Book. That Doesn't Seem To Exactly Enhance His Credibility, Ya Know?
* In Just Seven Short Paragraphs, Jimmy Carter Tells 2 Lies, Makes 2 Incoherent Arguments, Takes an Anti-Israel Stance that the State Department Mocks, and Just Generally Annoys the Hell Out of Us

Only in the Middle East could a diplomat seriously urge the side being victimized by decades of terrorism to slip into clinical denial:

Middle East envoy Tony Blair on Sunday urged Israel to make a "psychological shift" from indifference and skepticism about the prospects of progress with the Palestinians to an active determination to "make it happen on the right terms." If Israelis feel the same, Blair told The Jerusalem Post, then "the psychological shift that has to happen in the Israeli thinking is to move from saying, 'Well, if it happens, it happens, but frankly I'm skeptical about the whole thing,' to saying, 'Okay, I'm going to try and make it happen.'"... It was "not impossible" for the Palestinians to transform themselves into the kind of "stable partner for Israel" that Jordan constitutes, he said. But the new Palestinian leadership is living "with a very long legacy from the past," Blair said, in a reference to the Yasser Arafat era.

The Palestinian leadership needs to be given breathing room and lots of understanding because they're the ones living with the bloody legacy of Arafat? Really?

We do believe that the world could learn something by watching how the Palestinians respond to massive Israeli land concessions. For instance, imagine what would happen if the Israelis withdrew from a chunk of Palestinian land and let 1.5 million Palestinians govern themselves. Then if the Palestinians turned around and elected a party like Hamas, it would be obvious that they're not really interested in peace. It'd be an interesting experiment. Someone should try it.

References:
* Tony Blair urges Israel to make 'psychological shift' [JPost]

Previously:
* Agenda for Palestinian Conference: Giant Gorilla What?
* Bush To Put Some British Guy Who Ignores Israeli Security Concerns In Charge Of Mid-East Peace Process
* The Diplomats are Coming. Quick, Look Busy.

Because why not, right?

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert intends to release more Palestinian prisoners as a gesture of good will to the Palestinian Authority prior to the Annapolis summit. The prime minister is currently examining a request by the PA for freeing as many as 2,000 prisoners, according to sources in his bureau, but no decision has yet been made on the final number or the timing of the release... In recent months Israel has twice freed Palestinian prisoners, as a gesture of good will meant to bolster the position of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. A total of 250 prisoners were released on the eve of the summit at Sharm el-Sheikh in June, and 90 more in September, for the holy month of Ramadan. The last release of prisoners was opposed by Shas and Yisrael Beitenu coalition partners, as well as by Minister of Transport Shaul Mofaz of the prime minister's party, Kadima.

You know why he's doing it? Because the Palestinians have said that it's necessary to "make them believe in the peace process". That's an awesome trick - whatever you want, good or bad, you just tie to the peace process. It can make sense, it can not make sense. Who cares? If wild fires in California can be blamed on the Iraq war, then freeing 2,000 prisoners is necessary to make the Palestinians believe in the peace process.

This is Olso all over again: the Palestinians are essentially saying that they're too stupid to negotiate over concessions like everybody else, but that like immature little children they have to feel good about it. The Israelis, on the other hand, don't have to feel good or believe in anything - after all, it's not like anybody believes that the peace process is supposed to make their lives better. [Photo]

References:
* PM to free more Palestinian prisoners ahead of summit [Ha'aretz]
* Newly deployed PA police force leaves Nablus to IDF at night [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* People Who Say That Abbas's Referendum Endorses a Two State Solution are Either Ignorant or Lying
* Palestinians: "If Israel Frees Terrorists And Promises Not To Retaliate For The Last Atrocity, We'll Promise To Wait A Week Before Committing The Next Atrocity"
* Gilad Shalit Is Alive, Forced To Say That Hamas Is Letting Him Die (Updated: Shas Leader Calls For Direct Prisoner Talks With Hamas)

Seriously. We could not give a flying fuck:

In one of the most publicly contested tenure cases of the year, Barnard College announced Friday that it would promote Nadia Abu El-Haj, an anthropologist whose work on archaeology in Israel led to a major campaign against her. A statement released by the college did not directly speak to the controversy that has raged around Abu El-Haj. “Like all tenured members of the Barnard faculty, Professor Abu El-Haj has successfully passed a highly rigorous review that involves both Barnard’s own independent process and a university-wide review [at Columbia University] that reflects Barnard’s partnership with Columbia and the participation of Barnard faculty in Columbia’s graduate programs,” the statement said.

Blah blah blah. Yes, you're right - her book sucks. Forget the right-wing criticisms about her tenuous relationship to facts. She isn't even getting in through the door theoretically. On page 2 she promises to "scrutinize" archaeological historiography. The first mention of scholars as basic as Foucault comes on page 125 (or, according to the incorrect index, on 278 - and the fact that we know that is something we're never going to forgive you for). This is roughly equivalent to pontificating about the NFL without mentioning the Patriots or explaining the election without bringing up Hillary Clinton. Approve or disapprove or a scholar, you have to navigate academic work alongside certain theoretical landmarks. Otherwise you end up pathetically emoting about Israel's "colonial-national-cultural imagination" instead of producing real scholarship. "Colonial-national-cultural imagination," by the by, is also a phrase that appears on page 2.

But to return to our main point: who gives a fuck? Barnard College is a liberal arts summer camp for girls with trust funds. It's the kind of place where students are coerced into floor meetings where they're forced to discuss their bodies, the sisterhood, and poetry. These girls don't have to be brainwashed: the ability to recite liberal catechisms is a prerequisite for admission, with essay questions about maternal role models and "what you've done for your community" serving as filters.

As of 2007 Barnard has an undergraduate student body of 2,350 women. To put that in perspective: Juan Cole sees more students every day in the lunch line at Michigan. Ward Churchill will see more students in his first fake seminar than El-Haj will get in the next half-decade. Barnard doesn't even have a PhD program (although they do "participate" in Columbia's - that's almost like having a real one!). We're really supposed to care about this place? If we had our way El-Haj, Cole, Churchill, Mark LeVine, and the entire population of Berkeley, CA would all be banished to places like Barnard.

There are a lot of smart men and women at Barnard. None will be affected by El-Haj. There are also a lot of humorless pedants who spend their days wallowing in what passes for contemporary identity politics. They're a lost cause. Let them waste their energy hysterically screaming from sidewalks next to academic buildings.

Which is to say: please stop emailing us about this nonentity of a woman and the tiny echo chamber where she's going to be spending the next few decades of her life.

References:
* Barnard Tenures Scholar Opposed by Massive Campaign [IHE]

Previously:
* Brown University Outrage: Anti-Israel Academics Organize Conference To Attack Pro-Israel Critics, Shut Out Pro-Israel Speakers and Students
* Israel And AIPAC: We'll Respond To Walt And Mearsheimer When Their Vicious Anti-Semitism Gets Sophisticated Or Relevant (Plus: MR Is Suspicious About Leftist Pro-Mearsheimer Enthusiasm)
* People Who Live In Glass Context Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones

Every time they promise to consider making peace - and especially in the leadup to Annapolis - the Palestinians receive previously unprecedented amounts of aid. Every time they abandon even the pretense of acknowledging Israel - such as when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip - the Palestinians receive previously unprecedented amounts of aid.

We found this CAMERA study through a Minneapolis economics blogger named Captain Capitalism. It looks at what happens to the number of people Palestinians murder in the year after an increase or decrease in aid. Hmm:

Every time aid increases, homicides increase. Every time it decreases, homicides decrease. There's a not uncompelling theory about how cultures degenerate into corruption and depravity when they have to rely on outsiders to literally feed and clothe them. That explains some of what's going on, but it isn't enough to explain such a strong and consistent correlation.

A lot of the correlation is probably accounted for by the simple fact that all humanitarian assistance is de facto security assistance. More US and EU money for schools and hospitals means that the Palestinians can shift their Saudi and Iranian money towards guns and ammo. Which may help explain why Palestinians are able to kill more people every time they get aid, and why they're forced to kill less people every time it's taken away (h/t: Paul)

References:
* US Unviels $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Siezed By Hamas [MR]
* How Much Did Palestinian Aid Increase After the Hamas Election? [MR]
* Questions about Palestinian Aid [CAMERA]
* Why "Humanitarian Aid" is a Myth (Or: the Definition of the Word Fungible) [MR]

Previously:
* US State Department Has Been Funding Hamas Terrorists For Years. No Kidding.
* Not Content With Not Cutting Off Palestinian Aid, US Will Actually Increase Funding to Supporters of Terrorism
* Hamas Trying To Turn Gaza Into A Humanitarian Disaster - They're Stopping Gazans From Getting Medical Aid

2.5 tons of modeling material, a Rolling Stones ditty, and a not unimpressive amount of dedication. Pure awesome:

The Sony EU site has more information, a couple more movies, and interviews with the artists.

References:
* sony bravia [jakedobkin / YouTube]
* colour like.no.other

Previously:
* Dancing Monkeys [Videos]
* Best. Symphony. Ever. [Video]
* Israeli Hottie Wednesdays - Israeli Playboy Party [Video, Mostly SFW]

Is it the eyes or the holding the paws up thing?

This one starts off slow, but exactly a minute in (-22 counting backwards) it becomes the most absurd thing ever:

U has a flavor:

Later that night the cat tripped his owner-lady down the stairs, broke her neck, and ate her. And thus were justice and balance restored to the universe.

References:
* Irresistable Pet Shop bun [Cute Overload]
* a baby bunny crashing [ouchie9021 / YouTube]
* Cat has a taste for rabbit [peperroflaflaco / YouTube]

Previously:
* Sunday Cute - Kittens Attack, Lull Each Other Into False Sense of Security, Attack Again [Video]
* Sunday Cute: Playful Kittens [Video]
* Sunday Cuteness - Mystery Cat Rides Bus In England To Fish-N-Chips Shop

We thought that we posted this when MEMRI put up the clip in September, but we can't find it. And it's true that we basically do this post over and over again But this clip is worth noticing because it drops even the thinnest pretense about how beatings are done out of obligation or "for the woman's own good" - which is the usual excuse these anti-women bigots give. Methodical, pathological hatred of women:

He's Saudi author and cleric, "Dr." Muhammad Al-'Arifi, who in a remarkable segment broadcast on Saudi and Kuwaiti television in September, counseled young Muslim men on how to treat their wives... "Beat them," one of his three young advisees responded. "That's right," Al-'Arifi said.

He goes on to calmly explain to the young men that hitting their future wives in the face is a no-no... "Woman, it has gone too far. I can't bear it anymore," he tells the men to tell their wives. "If he beats her, the beatings must be light and must not make her face ugly. "He must beat her where it will not leave marks. He should not beat her on the hand... He should beat her in some places where it will not cause any damage. He should not beat her like he would beat an animal or a child -- slapping them right and left.

Saudi women, of course, can't even run outside to escape beatings - the sidewalks are segregated so men don't get icky girl cooties (h/t: Paul).

References:
* Saudi Marriage 'Expert' Advises Men in 'Right Way' to Beat Their Wives [Fox News]
* Israeli Hottie Bar Refaeli Gets Mocked, Worshiped On Israeli TV (Plus: Saudi Imam: "Women In Some Cultures Are Not Averse To Beatings") [Videos] [MR]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - You're Not Allowed To Sit Down When You Eat In Saudi Arabia Because You're Too Dolled Up
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - You're Destroying Indonesia With Your Skimpy Clothing and Your Premarital Sex
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Academic Feminism Not Doing Much To Stop Teenage Girls From Being Lost In Pakistani Poker Games

They're literally too dumb to run an insurgency right:

Along with the rise in Taliban--and to some extent, al Qaeda violence--has come a sharp increase in the number of insurgents killed by Coalition (mostly American and Australian) troops and Afghan security forces. The Afghan diplomat said about 3,500 Taliban have been killed this year, and several top commanders captured. There's been a major tactical shift recently in how the Taliban insurgency attacks Coalition forces. Of course, IEDs and suicide bombings are up 20 percent over last year's 5,388 total, but there have also been a number of large-scale engagements waged against allied patrols that wind up resulting in high enemy losses. It seems anathema to the usual tactics of an insurgency, where small hit-and-run attacks prove most effective at driving government forces and their allies out of the fight. And it speaks to a growing trend of military incompetence within a Taliban depleted of its experienced, native-born fighters...

The New York Times reported on October 29 that the foreign fighters "are not only bolstering the ranks of the insurgency. They are more violent, uncontrollable and extreme than their locally bred allies." But a top American commander based in Kandahar--where the Taliban movement was born--explained that from his perspective the foreign fighter influx is actually a sign of weakness. The high body count is a result of "ineptitude" he said, and stems from the fighters' lack of experience and training.

The New York Times combined ideological bias with banal and shallow ignorance to get an anti-jihadist storyline exactly backwards? The hell you say. At least the Democrats will have something to point to when they start pushing for a withdrawal from Afghanistan.

References:
* Taliban Bench Warmers [Weekly Standard]

Previously:
* Taliban-Era Photos Prove That Brutal Islamist Repression Of Sexuality Not So Successful, Kind Of Surreal
* British Intelligence: Iran Giving Bombs To The Taliban
* Mere Rhetoric: Breaking: US Rolling Up AQ In Iraq and Afghanistan?

But this time will be different:

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council agreed Friday to move toward a third set of sanctions if Iran fails to answer key questions on its nuclear program, the British Foreign Office said. The Foreign Office said diplomats from the US, Russia, China, Britain and France agreed, along with Germany, to come up with a new sanctions resolution with the aim of voting on it if November reports by the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency do not show improved Iranian cooperation...

Still, a senior diplomat from one of the six nations meeting in London suggested Russia's statements on the issue were not necessarily a reflection of its "determination, along with the other five (countries) to prevent an Iran armed with nuclear weapons."... Burns said the US believes China has increased trade with Iran in the last six months, sending the wrong signal about the international community's attitude toward the nuclear program.

Hey, we don't mean to be downers about this - but is there a chance that Russia and China might have some stake in Iranian nuclearization? Maybe something financial about supplying them with technology? Or something geopolitical about counterbalancing the US?

Maybe we're wrong though. Maybe the IAEA and the State Department are right, and more engagement can bring Iran to heel. Except for the part where Iran says that more engagement can't bring them to heel. That might be a not insignificant flaw in the brilliant plan.

References:
* Russia and China fall in line on Iran [JPost]
* 180 Jews Murdered During 1945 Austrian Easter Celebration (Plus: IAEA: Iran Is Nothing To Worry About. Again) [MR]
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Untroubled By Undeniable Evidence That Hardliners Are Winning In Iran [MR]
* Super! Iran's New Nuclear Negotiator Dedicated To Bringing About The End Of The World. Yes, Really. [MR]

Previously:
* Photographs To Help Explain Why There Are No Homosexuals In Iran [Content Warning: Graphic Photos] (Updated: Video Added)
* Merkel To Putin: Iran Is Kind Of Crazy, Shouldn't Get Nukes (Plus: Yup, Operation Orchard Hit A Nuke Facility)
* Iran, Much of the World Kind of Anti-Semitic

The dangers of being a paranoid totalitarian nutjob:

The secrecy under which Syria kept its nuclear development may have contributed to the success of Israel's alleged air strike... due to internal politics within Damascus, the site was so highly classified that even the Syrian military was unaware of its existence. Accordingly, proper air defenses were never erected, thereby leaving the area vulnerable to aerial attack.

This is strongly opposed to the Iranian model, which builds in military protection by unblinkingly insisting that their enrichment of weapons-grade material is for peaceful purposes. Which we suppose is one benefit of rolling your own nukes instead of getting them from North Korea. Speaking of North Korea, they're promising to begin downgrading their facilities starting Monday. Rumor has it that Syria is ecstatic, since they seem to have misplaced the last batch of castoffs that NK sent them.

References:
* Report: Syrian politics may have left alleged nuclear site vulnerable [JPost]
* 'N. Korea disablement to begin Monday' [JPost]

Previously:
* WaPo Reveals Exact Nature Of Top Secret Israeli Strike In Syria - It Was On The Turkish Border, It Came From North Korea, And Israel Blew It Up Because It Was Nuclear
* Syria's Been Building Their Nuclear Reactor Since 2003 And The State Department Still Tried To Stop Israel From Taking It Out (Plus: Awesome IDF Bombing Raid Just Got Filled With Even More Awesome)
* Iran, Hamas, And Islamic Jihad Meet In Syria To Plan Mideast Turmoil

About time. If they left her in charge of "winning hearts and minds" any longer, US popularity in the Arab world might actually slip into negative figures:

"The US image in the Arab world has actually declined further under Hughes's watch" but "she'll remain a consultant to the State Department." Because she apparently knows so much about designing and implementing successful Middle East policy initiatives. Better keep her around! Wouldn't want to lose that valuable experience.

In fairness to her, she was given a fundamentally impossible job. She was expected to tell the Arab world about what America's really like so they'll like us more. Except it turns out that they don't hate us because they don't understand us - quite the opposite, they hate us because they understand what we stand for all too well. Even the best public diplomacy experts - the ones with the most to lose if it turns out that the Muslim world just kind of hates us for who we are - have been known to come close to the "lots of Arabs just really want to wipe out people they hate" position.

None of which stopped Hughes from trying to make US policy fit Muslim prejudices. Which predictably led to US funding of the most disgusting kind of anti-Israel and anti-Western propaganda. But hey - at least we finally figured out a way to tell the Muslim world what they wanted to hear!

References:
* This Is Why Public Diplomacy Will Fail - Islamists Take It Over And Use It For Propaganda [Salvatoe / YouTube]
* MR Reacts to Bloggers' Conference Call With Israeli Ambassador Uri Lubrani - Public Diplomacy Probably Won't Work, and Counting On It Is Probably a Bad Idea [MR]
* There Are Many Arabs That Support Hezbollah? No Way! [MR]
* This Is Why Public Diplomacy Will Fail - Islamists Take It Over And Use It For Propaganda [MR]

Previously:
* State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes
* US Public Diplomacy, Tact Don't Extend To Israel
* Israeli Public Diplomacy Expert : British Boycott Is Vicious Anti-Semitism

They're coming to do the jobs that domestic terrorists just won't:

The US is concerned that Hamas and Hizbullah agents may penetrate the porous US-Mexican border in order to carry out terrorist attacks, according to Robert Grenier, the former head of the US Central Intelligence Agency's counterterrorism center... According to the US counterterrorism expert, American officials are concerned that terrorists will tap into illegal immigrant and/or drug trafficking networks in order to use them to bring people and equipment into the US. The former CIA official added that the American government is also fearful that Hamas and Hizbullah sleeper cells are already operational in Mexico;... According to this scenario, Iran could also use Hizbullah networks to hit the US on its own soil.

The best part? The Lebanese ex-pat community in Mexico both allows these cells to hide in plain sight and provides a fertile ground for recruitment. This isn't even a matter of US ports, which are vulnerable because so little of the traffic is screened. Security on the border is so pathetic that we simply don't know who's crossing or what they're carrying. The sheer volume of illegal traffic would make it impossible to screen anyway.

At least that traffic isn't set to spike during a Democratic administration that will make amnesty a forgone conclusion.

References:
* Expert: Hamas, Hizbullah cells may be active in Mexico [YNet]
* Reid to Azteca America forum: We'll get your amnesty [Hot Air]

Previously:
* Memo To Mexico: UN Doesn't Have the Authority To Tell the US What To Do On Its Own Territory. At Least Not Yet.
* Surprise - Hillary's Future Secretary Of State Huge Fan Of "More Pressure On Israel"
* Initial, Visceral Bitterness - (1) Progressives Had A Great Night. Really Fantastic.

The picture really does speak a thousand words. Here are a few more:

Scores of Fatah policemen who used to serve in the Palestinian Authority security forces in the Gaza Strip have now joined the al-Qaida-affiliated group calling itself the Army of Islam, sources in the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry told The Jerusalem Post Thursday... According to the sources Hamas's Interior Ministry, dozens of Fatah-affiliated policemen who recently lost their jobs have joined the al-Qaida-linked group. The Army of Islam is headed by Abu Muhammad al-Ansari, who is also known as Mumtaz Dughmush. Ansari is a former PA Preventive Security Service officer in the Gaza Strip. He belongs to the Dughmush clan, whose members have kidnapped several foreign nationals, including BBC reporter Alan Johnston, and bombed Internet cafes, hair salons and restaurants. The Army of Islam, which is described by some Palestinian security officials as al-Qaida's branch in Palestine, was one of three groups that participated in the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in June 2006. The other two groups were Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees...

A top Hamas official in Gaza City described Ansari as a "deranged and illiterate" man who was obsessed with [Jordanian arch-terrorist] Abu Musab Zarqawi, the slain leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. "This man can't even read or write," he said. "But he's dangerous." The official confirmed that the Army of Islam had recruited scores of Fatah policemen. He said documents seized by Hamas showed that Ansari and his men were on the payroll of one of the PA security forces and that they had been receiving monthly payments of $27,000.

So we were only half-right a couple days ago about how paying Fatah police officers in Gaza helps terrorists by injecting hard currency into the Gaza economy. We didn't mention that it also helps terrorists by going directly to terrorists. Our bad. In fairness to us we've consistently said that US's insane "if it fails do it again with more enthusiasm" security assistance helps terrorists both because Fatah gives the weapons to terrorists and because they defect outright.

It'd be nice if this was just anti-Fatah Hamas propaganda, but that doesn't seem right. AQ's presence in the Strip has been of Abbas's earliest and most brutal accusations against Hamas. Hamas has consistently denied that AQ is entrenched because their excuse for the takeover was that they were restoring law and order. To the extent that AQ is in the Strip - which they are, which is why this story is believable - they openly work with Hamas. That means that Hamas - the most powerful Palestinian Sunni Islamist organization - would be admitting that the world's most notorious Sunni Islamist organization just got infilitrated by Hamas's Palestinian opponents. It would be a staggering admission of weakness - not the stuff good propaganda is made of.

Here's the other article about how Israel and the US are empowering Fatah policemen in the West Bank ahead of Annapolis. Because what could go wrong with empowering Fatah policemen?

References:
* Fatah policemen in the Gaza Strip 'defect to al-Qaida' [JPost]
* EU Demands That Israel Provide Fuel, Resources To Genocidal Lunatics Trying To Wipe Out Israel (Plus: Israel Pours More Money, Resources Into Gaza) [MR]
* US Unviels $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Siezed By Hamas [MR]
* US Government To Give Palestinian Terrorists Cutting-Edge Weapons [MR]
* Hamas: AQ Not In Gaza. Abbas, AQ Kidnapping Victim Alan Johnston: Yes They Are [MR]
* AQ Really In The Gaza Strip - No, Seriously [MR]
* 300 PA policemen to deploy in Nablus [JPost]

Previously:
* Hamas Has 200 Tons Of Explosives That The US Gave To Fatah (Plus: Egypt Says It's Israel's Fault) [MR]
* Hamas Has Smuggled 112 Tons Of Explosives Into Gaza, Preparing Bunker System For All Out War (Plus: Israel Suspends Decision To Cut Fuel On Humanitarian Grounds)
* Hamas Blocks Israeli Food Shipments, Intentionally Starves Gaza Civilians To Create A Humanitarian Disaster - Again!

Here's a video of US helicopters and jets blowing things up:

There's a time for subtlety and a time for not.

References:
* United States Total Air Domination [CivilizationWins / YouTube]

Previously:
* Thursday Military Tech - Gamma-Ray Annihilation Lasers. Believe.
* Thursday Military Tech - Automated Attack Drones That Can Stay In the Air For A Day. What Could Go Wrong?
* Thursday Military Tech - Sniper Rifle That Can "Say Hello To You At Over A Miles And A Half Away" [Video]

It's a travel day. That's the only excuse we have for what we're about to do.

We got to this acornfilms's channel because they had a video of squirrels that we wanted to use for laste weekend's Sunday Cute. That didn't pan out because the end of that video has about half a minute of a squirrel eating a sparrow (seriously). But we did find this little gem. Content warning for language, advocacy of drug use and violence, and potential loss of your peers' respect:

The punchline at the end is quite pat.

References:
* acornfilms
* Original Gangsta [acornfilms / YouTube]

Previously:
* Achmed The Dead Terrorist: "We're Looking For Some Idiots With No Future" [Video]
* Dancing Monkeys [Videos]
* Achmed The Dead Terrorist: "We're Looking For Some Idiots With No Future" [Video]

Bold:

The Aqsa Martyrs Brigades threatened Thursday morning to fire hundreds of rockets at Israel. Sderot and western Negev residents on their way to work were greeted by nine Kassams landing in and around the city.

We needed a punchline for this post, so we typed "state department annapolis israel" into Google News to see what's been going on with the peace process in the last 12 hours. You'll be glad to know that Condi's back in the Middle East and the US is planning to dump an absurd amount of money on Fatah. More money than the $410 million they already announced. Super.

References:
* Fatah gunmen threaten to fire hundreds of rockets at Israel [JPost]
* Condoleezza Rice travels to Middle East for peace talks
* Bush plans big cash aid boost for Fatah
* US Unviels $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Siezed By Hamas [MR]

Previously:
* Israeli Security Foils 7 Suicide Bombings From Fatah-Controlled West Bank
* Orthodox Los Angeles Rabbi: Israel Must Help Palestinians Screw Israel In Negotiations Because It's The Right Thing To Do (Plus: The Anti-Semitic Fantasy Of Jewish Purity That Guarantees Unending War)
* Tuesday Headline Link Dump - Palestinians Set Peace Process Conditions And The Israeli Right Implodes (Plus: There May Be No One We Do Not Hate)

We can't figure out if this is utterly brilliant British understatement or utterly brilliant over the top British satire. But if you're one of the three people who've yet to see what Her Majesty's royal military band can do when their disdain is properly aroused - you're welcome:

Make sure you watch it through the end so you can hear the discussion of Saudi Arabia's current standing in some of the UK's more genuinely enlightened quarters. The sheer disdain being harbored for these people gives us a little bit of hope for Britain's future. Not much hope. But almost enough to get through the weekend.

References:
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Teachers And Students Forced To Be Sexist, Dress Like "Asians" To Celebrate Muslim Holiday (Plus: British Mosques Filled With Hate Literature) [MR]
* UK; Saudi visit. [jasper10623 / YouTube]

Previously:
* Hey Saudi Arabia, Shove It
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - If You're A Maid In Saudi Arabia, You Might Have To Be Tortured And Mutilated
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Saudi Arabia Discovers Women Need To Eat Food

Some random Hamas goon slipped up earlier this week. He basically announced that Hamas is going to roll the West Bank as soon as Abbas maxes out on Israeli land concessions and on the $410 million that the US is giving him. This should be news to absolutely nobody, but it's apparently not the kind of thing you're supposed to say out loud:

Two Hamas leaders in the West Bank on Wednesday distanced themselves from a Gaza counterpart who bragged that the group would eventually take over the West Bank... earlier this week, a Hamas leader in Gaza, Nizar Rayan, told a rally of several thousand people that the group would one day pray in Abbas's West Bank headquarters, just as it had done in Gaza. Rayan also predicted that Abbas would be toppled. His remarks have infuriated Abbas's aides. On Wednesday, two Hamas leaders in the West Bank, Faraj Rumaneh and Hussein Abu Quaik, called a news conference and distanced themselves from Rayan. Rumaneh said he wanted to express his "discomfort" with the statements. "We think they contradict Hamas policy, which calls for dialog and national unity and reducing difference," he said.

We have to check, but that denial may be actually word for word what Hamas leaders were saying right before they took over Gaza. Maybe there are some verbs that are in different places. But that's about it.

References:
* US Unviels $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Siezed By Hamas [MR]
* US To Hamas Arms Trasnfer Watch - Abbas Support Low [MR]
* Hamas leaders in W. Bank wary about claims 'Abbas will fall' [JPost]

Previously:
* Abbas To Secure Position Against Hamas By Releasing 25 Hamas Soldiers. Wait, What?
* Abbas: "If You Don't Give Me Everything I Won't Accept Anything"
* Abbas: "Killing Palestinian Soldiers Who Are Firing Rockets At Israeli Schools And Hospitals Is A Massacre"

If Israel was lobbing dozens of bombs a week at Palestinian civilian centers, you'd be hearing a global outrage at a slightly higher volume than the dead silence that you're hearing now:

Sderot and western Negev residents on their way to work were greeted by nine Kassams landing in and around the city Thursday morning. Four landed in populated areas. One landed in the garden of a building, one at a junction in the city and one at an educational institution just outside Sderot, Army Radio reported.

At least the EU isn't pressuring Israel to continue supplying fuel to Gaza so the Palestinians can get to and from their launching sites. Except for the part where they are.

References:
* Gazans fire nine Kassams at Sderot, western Negev [JPost]
* EU Demands That Israel Provide Fuel, Resources To Genocidal Lunatics Trying To Wipe Out Israel (Plus: Israel Pours More Money, Resources Into Gaza) [MR]

Previously:
* It's Official: Egypt Embracing Hamas Through Contacts, Prisoner Releases
* Hamas Smuggles Katyushas Into Gaza, Fires Them At Israeli Schools And Hospitals (Plus: Eight Mortars Fired At Israeli Civilians, One Scores Direct Hit)
* 12 Rockets Fired At Israeli Schools And Hospitals Monday

But not totally shut out. Just mostly. So that's a relief:

The Israel Defense Forces has been preparing a list of Israel's essential security needs in advance of the Annapolis peace conference later this month. This was also done when significant talks were being held on the final status agreement. However, this time the army will only list Israel's concerns, but will not commit them to maps of borders and territories, as was done in the past... In the 1990s, politicians blasted the excessive involvement of senior officers in the peace process. Since then the political-military bureau was established at the Defense Ministry, headed by Amos Gilad. However, the cabinet still needs the IDF officers' know-how in these issues, and they may be asked to participate in the Annapolis conference. It appears, however, that Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will see to it that senior IDF officers will fill less prominent roles in the upcoming negotiations than they did in the Oslo agreements.

We're beginning to think that maybe Annapolis isn't really meant to "help" Israel in any meaningful way. At least not for any definition of "help" that doesn't sound a lot like "well, if the Palestinians ever decide to stop killing Jews then it'll be totally awesome."

References:
* IDF assessing Israel's security needs ahead of Annapolis [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Celebrity Concerts For Israeli-Palestinian Peace Canceled Because Of Terrorism Threats
* Holocaust Denier Complains to Israeli Traitors about Israelis
* Tuesday Headline Link Dump - Palestinians Set Peace Process Conditions And The Israeli Right Implodes (Plus: There May Be No One We Do Not Hate)