This came over USC's emergency bulletin service a little before 8:30 PST - we got it once by email and then again over SMS. It's ninety-nine percent certain to be a false alarm - commencement is tomorrow, they swept the campus, and they found something square in a corner. On the other hand, commencement is tomorrow:

Suspicious object found in EVK, New North. Area has been evacuated. Please stay away until further notice.

We'll update when they sent out the "this was a shoe box filled with a three week old sandwich that some undergrad left behind" all clear.

UPDATE: Curiouser and curiouser. An email from TransNet, a totally separate part of the University bureaucracy responsible for all aspects of campus transportation:

Due to heavy traffic around campus this evening, all tram routes that travel through campus will be immediately suspended. This includes Route A,B,C and the Parking Center. Service planned for tomorrow's commencement will resume at 6 AM.

Students are moving out so it's not impossible that this bulletin is unrelated to the EVK evacuation. Although it's weird that they would spam everybody with this at 8:36pm - long after most of the trams have stopped. Still nothing on the local news so we're inclined to shrug it off.

UPDATE: Yeah:

At 9:10pm suspicious object found at EVK/New North was deemed safe. Area will be opened shortly.

Remember how we pedantically said that no amount of incentives can get Iran to stop nuclearizing because there's nothing that they want more than nuclear weapons? And then remember how negotiations went on for two years after we wrote that because foreign policy sophisticates really believed that Iran's statements to the same effect were just complicated "signals" that didn't mean that at all? And remember how it turned out that the mullahs really meant what they said? Which is right now:

Iran won't consider any proposals in talks with the West that would require it to stop enriching uranium, said the country's foreign minister Sunday. "No incentive weighs equally with the rights of Iranian nation," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini. He also told reporters in Teheran that uranium enrichment is an "indisputable right" for Iran. Last week, the US and other world powers offered Iran a package of incentives in an attempt to lure Teheran back into negotiations over its disputed nuclear program.

Hey, we don't mean to let the cat out of the bag on this one, but - they're committed to getting nukes.

References:
* Mathematical Proof That Negotiating With Iran Is Stupid. Not Wrong. Stupid. [MR]
* Iran rejects incentives to stop enriching uranium [JPost]

Previously:
* Iran: We Won't Give Up Nukes If You Threaten Us. We Also Won't Give Up Nukes If You Don't Threaten Us. (Plus: Iran Suspends Talks On Iraq)
* Iran Gets Cheeky on Nuclear Weapons
* State Department And Pentagon Plotting Insubordination, Pretty Much Lying To Prevent Action Against Iran

CNN reported that Obama was "clearly uncomfortable" criticizing Carter for meeting with Hamas - now we know why. Having properly fallen on his sword, you can expect Malley to reappear as an Assistant Secretary of State in Obama's administration. Maybe they'll even give him his dream job of imperiously demanding that Israelis take "risks for peace":

A principal Middle East adviser to US presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama resigned on Friday after reports surfaced that he had been in repeated contact with members of Hamas... Malley interviewed Hamas officials, as well as Israeli, Palestinian and other international officials, while researching reports he wrote for the International Crisis Group, a nonpartisan conflict-resolution think tank... Yet despite his justifications, Malley chose on Friday to resign from the campaign so as to keep critics from getting distracted... "This was a distraction for me; this was a distraction for them," he said Friday night. "It is absurd, but that is what this campaign is about." The Obama campaign downplayed the development, emphasizing that Malley's role was informal from the start.

It's the logical conclusion of Obama's facile and unpersuasive distinction between why it's OK to negotiate with Iran but not OK to negotiate with Hamas. No wonder Hamas endorses Obama for President - an enthusiastic show of support that, by the by, the Obama campaign is "flattered" to accept.

You can tell that the Obama campaign is at a loss when they use both their standard "he's not really an adviser" argument and their standard "every criticism of us is a distraction" argument. Powerline went through the trouble of debunking the "Malley wasn't an top adviser" nonsense while NRO posted the Obama campaign's own earlier press releases and demonstrated that he was on Obama's "Middle East advisory council". The "distraction" argument though - that's a powerful and original innovation.

The irony, of course, is that Obama's remaining foreign policy advisers still quite open about how they're itching to screw Israel once they get in power. And yet that gets very little media play despite the Israel Lobby's stranglehold on the American media.

References:
* CNN: Obama, Clinton "Clearly Uncomfortable" Criticizing Carter's Hamas Visit [MR]
* Key Obama Middle East adviser resigns [JPost]
* Obama's Anti-Hamas Stance Short On Change And Hope, Long On Rank Hypocrisy [MR]
* A Hamas problem for Obama? [Fox News]
* Obama strategist "flattered" by Hamas tool comparing him to JFK [Hot Air]
* Obama Defenders: What Brzezinski Guy? (Plus: That's Not Even Their Worst Argument) [MR]
* CNN T-Shirts Provide Hours Of Entertainment, Uncomfortable Reminder Of Absurd anti-Israel bias [MR]
* A sacking long overdue [Powerline]
* Hate Israel? Yes, We Can [NRO Corner]
* Top Obama Foreign Policy Adviser: No Seriously, We Are Totally Going To Screw Israel When We Get Into Power [MR]

Previously:
* Obama: Meeting With Hamas Is Wrong - But Meeting With Hamas's Holocaust-Denying Genocidal Iranian Sponsors Is The Best Idea Evuh
* Obama May Or May Not Think That Israel Is An Important US Ally
* Obama Discovers That Iran Has Nukes, Circa 2011 (Plus: Sophisticated Foreign Policy Expertise About Iran Is Very Sophisticated)

Good news:

A senior Gaza energy official says Israel has resumed its supply of fuel for a Gaza power plant idled two days ago. The official, Kaanan Obeid, says he expects the power plant to start operating again later Monday. Obeid has said the plant was shut down Saturday because it ran out of fuel supplied by Israel. It was not clear whether the plant actually ran out of fuel or whether Gaza energy officials were trying to exaggerate the impression of crisis.

Even better news:

Seven Arab nations say they have agreed on a plan to boost energy resources in the region by using nuclear power. The plan announced Monday has been the focus of three days of meetings in Jordan's capital of Amman between energy officials from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

See, the thing is that countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE don't have access to any other kind of energy. That's why they're developing nuclear power.

And nice to see they managed to get Syria on the list. Damascus has been having trouble getting a working facility. On account of how Israel had to blow the last one up because it was a North Korea-run nuclear weapons plant.

References:
* Gaza official: Fuel supply resumed to Gaza power plant [JPost]
* 7 Arab nations agree to boost energy resources using nuclear power [JPost]

Previously:
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Untroubled By Undeniable Evidence That Hardliners Are Winning In Iran
* OneJerusalem.org Conference Call: Pastor John Hagee, Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church [FAQ: Debunking Liberal Myths About Evangelical Support For Israel]
* Egypt To Build Multiple Nuclear Reactors

President Bush is going out of his way to say that he's not pressuring Israel to take security risks for peace. Which means that either the President of the United States is fibbing or Condoleezza Rice is running her own foreign policy:

The Bush administration has told Israeli and Palestinian leaders they will need to show progress in their secret talks soon, or risk a potentially fatal erosion in public support for a process now in its sixth month without any obvious successes. The news comes as President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit Israel and Arab states starting Tuesday, adding to public pressure to demonstrate that US-sponsored peace talks are bearing fruit. However, diplomats said the warning by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was not tied to the president's visit and that she left it to both sides to determine what to do next. Rice passed the message during meetings with both sides a little more than a week ago, Arab, US and other Western diplomats said. Rice was reacting mainly to the increasingly pessimistic Palestinian assessments of the talks, but she warned that confidence was fragile among Israelis, too.

In totally unrelated news, Palestinians fired a bunch of mortars at Israeli schools and hospitals yesterday.

References:
* Bush to the Post: Abbas is a viable partner for peace [JPost]
* US: Israel, Palestinians need to show progress in secret peace talks [JPost]
* A number of mortar shells fired into Israel; no casualties [JPost]

Previously:
* Rice Now Going Out Of Her Way To Insult Israelis, Enforce Second-Class Diplomatic Status
* Confirmed: Rice Went Out Of Her Way To Screw Israel On Lebanon II
* Another State Dept Bait And Switch - Rice Says PA Should Control Gaza-Egypt Border (Plus: EU Maybe Kind Of Thinking About Fulfilling Rafah Agreement)

But it's OK, because his service training program waived his remaining requirements. So it all worked out for the best:

A St. Cloud State University student in a teacher-training program at Technical High School left the school in late April because he says he feared for the safety of his service dog. The school district calls it a misunderstanding, and officials there say they hoped Tyler Hurd, a 23-year-old junior from Mahtomedi who aspires to teach special education, would continue his training in the district. Hurd said a student threatened to kill his service dog named Emmitt. The black lab is trained to protect Hurd when he has seizures. The seizures, which can occur weekly, are from a childhood injury. The dog has a pouch on his side that assists those who stop to help Hurd. Hurd said he was unable to finish his 50 hours of field training at Tech. The university waived the remaining 10 hours... The school district and university are working to make sure a similar situation doesn't happen... The threat came from a Somali student who is Muslim, according to Hurd, St. Cloud State and school district officials... [other students] taunted his dog.

To "make sure a similar situation doesn't happen" again the administration has expelled the violent student. They've also made it absolutely clear to the other students - and their parents - that such behavior is unacceptable in a free society.

Just kidding. They're working on better "communication" so they can avoid future "misunderstandings."

References:
* SCSU student leaves training at Technical High School

Previously:
* British Treasury: Hey, Let's Issue Sharia Bonds So Radical Muslims Can Grab Ownership Of Government Buildings
* Creeping Shari'a in Thailand
* Hey, Remember That Time When Comedy Central Wouldn't Show Mohammad? Wouldn't It Be Cool If That Hadn't Set A Chilling, Sharia-Like Trend In The Media? [Video]

Ed Morrissey flagged the impending wave of nasty headlines in response to the Mahdi Army's setbacks in Baghdad. Since we're looking to get back into a blogging rhythm with some easy material, here's the last few hours:

* Ann Coulter says that liberals are always in favor of fighting the war we're not in. The Boston Chronicle asks "why aren't we fighting in Pakistan" and then headlines their story with Armed Truce: Surging Into Slaughter on Sadr City's Jerusalem Street.

* The Times: "Overnight clashes disrupt fragile Baghdad truce" - There's a decent chance that they just pulled out their Israel macro and replaced "Gaza" with "Baghdad" and "Israeli troops" with "overnight clashes."

* Anti-War.com's headline is only a little more shameless than the one splashed across Iran Press TV. So now in addition to suspecting they're not anti-war as much as they are for the other side, we're kind of questioning their work habits.

* CNN: "Violence flares in Sadr City despite reported cease-fire" - And Basra was an out and out victory for Al-Sadr. In the first few hours. Before it fell out of the headlines.

Worrying about "framing" - too much? too little? not as much as conservatives? - has become an inside baseball-esque kind shibboleth in progressive circles. Domestic policy aside, they seem to have at least figured out how to frame victories as defeats. Or at least how to exploit the stubborn refusal of warfighting to line up neatly with news cycles. Flashback: "Massive fighting, civilian chaos on French shores; Allies report heavy losses; Axis sources declare victory"

References:
* Mahdis sign over Sadr City to Maliki, victory celebrations in media pending Update: NYT acknowledges success on front page [Hot Air]
* Iraqi lawmakers, Sadrists sign four-day cease-fire [AP]
* Armed Truce: Surging Into Slaughter on Sadr City's Jerusalem Street [Boston Chronicle]
* Overnight clashes disrupt fragile Baghdad truce [Times Online]
* Monday: 1 US Soldier, 21 Iraqis Killed; 28 Iraqis Wounded [Anti-War]
* 'Iran contributed to Sadr City peace' [Iran Press TV]
* Violence flares in Sadr City despite reported cease-fire [CNN]

Previously:
* European Media Bias - Really?
* Reuters Mistranslation Responsible For Idiotic "Holocaust" Slander
* Hamas Thanks "The Media" For Glorious "Victory" In Gaza [Video]

Last March the Swiss - having bankrolled the last Holocaust - sent their FM to Tehran to wrap herself in a humiliating hijab and beg Ahmadinejad to let them bankroll the next one:

Iran and Switzerland on Monday signed a major agreement for Iranian gas exports to a Swiss company, in a rare energy deal between Tehran and the West as their nuclear showdown drags on. "Today we witnessed the signing of a gas contract between the two countries,"... You might remember [FM] Calmy-Rey as the woman who invited Ahmadinejad to a Geneva conference so he could discuss "various perceptions of the Holocaust. That deal failed when people pointed out that it was kind of disgusting.

Now she can't understand why Israel is grumpy with her:

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has expressed disappointment that no member of her country's government is invited to attend the celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary, according to a Swiss newspaper. Switzerland will be represented at the festivities through its ambassador in Tel Aviv, she told the weekly Sonntag, published Sunday. "But, personally, I am disappointed that our country was not invited at government level," she was quoted as saying.

You can understand her confusion: the international community constantly gives money to genocidal lunatics in Gaza and the West Bank. So why shouldn't the Swiss be allowed to pull the same stunt with the Iranians? Hint:

References:
* Swiss Foreign Minister Dons Hijab, Tosses Iran An Economic Lifeline [MR]
* Swiss FM disappointed her gov't received no invitation to Israel's 60th [JPost]

Previously:
* Swiss President Invites Iran To Offer "Various Perceptions Of the Holocaust" At Conference
* Iran Producing Its Own Nuclear Fuel (Plus: Obama Would Meet With Iran, Give Them Security Guarantees, Etc)
* No New Sanctions On Iran. Sophistication On Display.

Just so everybody's clear:

Iran's top leader said his country would not bend to international pressure and give up its nuclear program, according to state television. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, said Iran would continue its nuclear program despite Western efforts to thwart it with sanctions. "No threat can hinder the Iranian nation from its path," he said.

And of course the global "what the fuck" reply to the NIE has done absolutely nothing to stop the left from insisting that talk of Iranian nuclearization is just so much neocon warmongering. But maybe an incentives package will dissuade Tehran. Sure we've been skeptical to the point of pedantry about the possibility - but maybe it could happen:

An Iranian diplomat says the West's package of incentives is aimed at damaging Tehran's image and bringing more pressure on it. "They (Western powers) expect Iran to exchange its valuable achievements with their worthless incentives, but they should know that the Iranian officials and people are united in defending their great achievements on the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Iran's Ambassador to Indonesia, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said in a meeting with the Indonesian Parliament Vice Speaker, A.M. Fatwa.

Or not. At least Iran isn't upgrading its ties with Egypt with an eye on slipping nonconventional weapons into Gaza. And at least NATO SecGen Scheffer isn't convinced that Iranian nuclearization will trigger an unstoppable tsunami of global proliferation.

And at least Obama's commitment to dialogue is exactly the kind of thing that works with the Iranians:

Iran says it will not hold a new round of talks with the US on security in Iraq until American forces end their current assault against Shiite militias. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini's announcement Monday is the first official confirmation that the talks will be suspended. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency quoted an unnamed senior Iranian negotiator Saturday as saying new talks were not possible with continued US attacks against the Iraqi people.

Super.

References:
* Ayatollah: Iran won't stop nuke program [JPost]
* 'Iran may have resumed nuclear program' [JPost]
* Mathematical Proof That Negotiating With Iran Is Stupid. Not Wrong. Stupid. [MR]
* 'West's incentive package worthless'
* Renewed Iran-Egypt Ties? [JPC]
* NATO chief: More nations could follow Iran and North Korea [JPost]
* Iran suspends talks with US over security in Iraq [JPost]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Iran Has Legal Slavery And Rape Of Prepubescent Girls. They Call It "Temporary Marriage".
* Obligatory Post About Iran's "Hezbollah Radiation Will Destroy Israel" Threat (Plus: Mugniyah Assassination Dramatically Demonstrates Absurdity Of Liberal Foreign Policy Sophistication)
* Iran: Israeli Self-Defense is a Cause for War

The international community insists that Israel should take "risks for peace" because - should the Palestinians turn out to actually mean all the stuff they say about their eternal jihad against Israel - international leaders will have Israel's back. The entire basis for the peace process, from the bolstering of Palestinian political authority to the disengagement from Gaza, was supposed to happen under that framework. So when cynics talk about anti-Israel diplomatic baits and switches, this might be kind of what they're talking about:

The international community's efforts at trying to weaken Hamas have failed and should be reevaluated, the EU's two leading diplomats to Israel and the PA said Monday, although they stopped well short of saying that Hamas should be engaged. "The policy implemented in the last year [toward the Gaza Strip] aimed at strengthening people [through providing direct economic assistance and humanitarian aid], and weakening Hamas... is having the opposite effect," said Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal, the EU's ambassador to Israel. "We need to think about alternative policies, because this has not been successful. This is important to recognize."

Fair enough. How about instead of that policy, the international community try a policy of not providing direct economic assistance and humanitarian aid to a population that backs a genocidal warmongering government? That would be new.

Cibrian-Uzal said that opening the crossings into Gaza could help strengthen Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "Many people would share the view that what we are seeing now is strengthening Hamas," the ambassador said. "We have to see what we can do so that Abbas can show a peace dividend, and the opening of the crossing into Gaza could do this."

Actually, it would kind of do the opposite. But why quibble? It's not like there was another rocket today.

References:
* Annapolis As A Rosetta Stone For How Anti-Israel Bait And Switch Diplomacy Works [MR]
* EU: Int'l policy on Hamas has failed [JPost]
* Hamas: If Israel Doesn't Surrender We'll Blah Blah Blah [MR]
* Kassam rocket fired at Sderot; no wounded or damage reported [JPost]

Previously:
* Sharon Tries To Make Peace, Get Europe's Support, Build Moon Base
* Take Away Hezbollah's Collaborators, Human Shields, And Useful Idiots. Disband UNIFIL Now.
* 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

Just kidding, obviously. When the Palestinians do it in the West Bank, it's a US-backed security campaign:

A Palestinian teen was seriously wounded in Kabatiya Tuesday when gunmen fired at Palestinian Authority security forces that began deploying in the village located south of Jenin. The PA forces set up roadblocks in their search for the assailants. The PA police commander in the Jenin district told Israel Radio that when the new police forces entered the village they were pelted with stones. On Saturday, 600 PA policemen were deployed in the district in a bid to restore law and order.

Oh did they? And here we thought that security roadblocks were verboten on account of the whole "they make it hard for terrorists to get around and therefore make the Palestinian public grumpy" thing. Apparently establishing security in the West Bank requires a roadblock or two after all. Perhaps the difference is that the Palestinian police officers are considered legitimate by the local population - a distinction that, in addition to being trivial given the level of hysteria surrounding roadblocks, also happens to be untrue:

Palestinian Authority policemen that began deploying in the Jenin area Saturday haven't all been greeted with roses and champagne. n Tuesday, an unarmed 21-year-old Palestinian man was seriously wounded in Kabatiya when gunmen fired at the PA security forces that were deploying in the village located south of Jenin. Officials say the man is now on life support at a hospital. The PA forces set up roadblocks in their search for the assailants.The PA police commander in the Jenin district, Suleiman Imran, told Israel Radio that when the new police forces entered the village they were also pelted with stones. Medics say police later shot two stone-throwers in the legs.... Tuesday's shootout was the first violence since Palestinian forces deployed in the area last weekend. The operation is part of PA President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to assert control throughout the West Bank.

Israel is already being set up by the State Department to take the fall for the PA forces' impending failure. Keith Dayton - the reflexively Israel-blaming State Department general who got moved to the West Bank to set up this force - always seems to need more weapons, aid, and Israeli security concessions to accomplish his mission. The billions and billions spent thus far and the current Israeli withdrawals are never quite enough. But in the meantime he's willing to deploy inadequately trained and vetted Palestinian troops despite previous agreements - almost as if international diplomacy works by trading Israeli concessions for security assurances and then pocketing the concessions without meeting the obligations.

References:
* Palestinian teen seriously wounded as gunmen fire at PA forces in Kabatiya [JPost]
* Palestinian Recruits Hit Streets Unprepared [WaPo]
* Kabatiya man hurt as PA police attacked [JPost]
* US Security Envoy Blames Israel For Palestinian Rocket Attack On Israel. Or Something. [Video] [MR]
* State Dept Pushing Congress To Move Abject Failure Keith Dayton To West Bank [MR]

Previously:
* Abbas: Good Chance We'll Use Our US Security Assistance To Go Back To Killing Israelis
* Hamas Has 200 Tons Of Explosives That The US Gave To Fatah (Plus: Egypt Says It's Israel's Fault)
* Abject Failure Keith Dayton Moves Goalposts To Justify US Security Assistance, Lets Abbas Try Again

But only 24 in the last year and a half:

Since the state was established in 1948, 1,634 Israelis have been killed in terror attacks, and over 14,000 people have been wounded, a report published by the National Insurance Institute revealed on Monday. Eight of the fatalities occurred in 2007, while 16 deaths have already been reported in the first four months of 2008.

Experts attribute the sharp drop in terrorism - what some security analysts cringe-inducingly label as the "tolerable level" - to a combination of roadblocks, new technology, and the fence. After the jump we've got a video about the new reinforced busses that Israel is using to reduce the impact of sniper fire and "drive up next to the bus and blow your car up" terror attacks. But before that happens, here's the UN pressuring Israel to dismantle the fence and here's Rice demanding that Israel dismantle roadblocks. This morning:

Israel's removal of some roadblocks in the West Bank recently has not done enough to improve the lives of Palestinians there, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday night, as she concluded her visit to the region. According to Army Radio, Rice said US diplomats had toured the areas in question and deduced that the roadblocks that were removed were insignificant.

Luckily Israel still has access to materials and technological collaboration that the international anti-Israel lobby has in now way tried to cut off through boycotts:

They've even got pie charts. The JPost writeup focuses on two broad charges, both of which naturally elicit shocked, shocked denials mingled with oh-so-righteous indignation.

(1) HRW only trots out "collective punishment" when it's Israel protecting itself from Palestinian terrorism:

Human Rights Watch has systematically condemned Israel for "collective punishment" in the Gaza Strip, undermining its stated agenda of promoting human rights universally, according to a report released this week by the Jerusalem-based watchdog NGO Monitor... "This report shows, yet again, that any claim of even-handedness by Human Rights Watch is hollow," said NGO Monitor's executive director, Bar-Ilan University Prof. Gerald Steinberg. "Their exclusive condemnation of Israeli 'collective punishment' is discriminatory, and should end immediately... "The idea that we exclusively condemn Israel is absurd," said HRW Middle East Division Deputy Director Joe Stork. "We do criticize the Israeli blockade of Gaza as collective punishment, and solidly so."

And yet:

While Stork could not point out any other country HRW had accused of "collective punishment," he stood by his organization's use of the term, and its application to Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip.

(2) HRW is so enamored with "cycle of violence" narratives - which de facto excuse Arab aggression - that they label indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel "retaliatory":

The report also mentions that while HRW condemns IDF actions against Hamas-sponsored rocket attacks from Gaza, the attacks themselves are labeled as "retaliatory," thus faulting Israel for the violence on both sides. "That's absolutely false," said Stork. "We do not characterize these attacks as such, and if it's quoted in the report, it's been taken out of context. I'd be surprised if they're quoted at all."

He's actually kind of right, although this is JPost's mistake not Steinberg's. The "retaliation" quote that some HRW hack dropped isn't about Hamas - it's about Hezbollah:

The argument that Israel committed “worse” atrocities makes the Islamic Resistance’s violations no less significant. That Israel violated the laws of war does not justify the Islamic Resistance’s failure to abide by such laws; that Israel carried out indiscriminate strikes on populated areas in southern Lebanon in no way justifies the Islamic Resistance’s retaliatory strikes on civilian areas in Israel.

In fairness to JPost, it's an easy mistake to make. All of the genocidal anti-Israel organizations call themselves resistance organizations. Although it's a little curious that Hezbollah had stockpiled all those rockets up for "retaliation" Were they expecting that Israel might have a reason to come after them in the near future?

The full report is extensive, but it still can't include all of HRW's absurd anti-Israel shilling. This particular piece of nonsense, for instance, gets only the most cursory allusion.

References:
* NGO Monitor’s 2007 Report on HRW: Bias and Double Standards Continue [NGO Monitor]
* NGO accuses HRW of Israel obsession [JPost]
* The Protection of Civilians Has No Limits [HRW]
* HRW: "No Basis" For Claims That Hezbollah Used Human Shields. MR: What About All The Photos And Videos [Video] [MR]

Previously:
* Shameless, Textbook Example of anti-Israel bias: The LA Times Reports on Hezbollah Cluster Bombs Fired At Israel
* Dr. Freud, Line 1
* The Problem Isn't Any Particular Religion...

The Palestinians have apparently concluded that international media outlets will shill for them no matter what they say or do. They're not even pretending to make sense any more:

More than 100,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon are expected to march toward the border with Israel on May 14 in the context of the Palestinian Authority's plan to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Israel, PA officials told The Jerusalem Post Thursday... Fatah's top representative in Lebanon, Sultan Abu Aynain, has also been instrumental in organizing the event, the Post has learned. The two have been coordinating their efforts with PA Deputy Minister for Prisoners Affairs, Ziad Abu Ein, who has drawn up a plan calling on Palestinian refugees to "invade" Israel by land, air and sea in protest against Israel's anniversary celebrations... Entitled "The Initiative of Return and Coexistence," the plan urges all Israelis to "welcome the Palestinians who will be returning to live together with them in the land of peace."

Peace is always the intention of invading mobs. And on a related note, our State Department is awesome:

The United States on Thursday called on Arab nations to make good on aid they have pledged to the Palestinian Authority but have yet to deliver. "It's extremely important that people pay their pledges," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters as she flew to London for talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran and Kosovo. "States that have resources ought to be looking not for how little they can do, but how much they can do," she added. Rice did not mention any names but a senior U.S. official made clear Washington had in mind oil-rich Arab states whose contributions he called "woefully short." Of $717.1 million in budget support for the Palestinians promised by Arab League members, only $153.2 million has been delivered.

That's too bad. Fatah could definitely use another two or three hundred million to help implement their "invasion" of Israel. Maybe the State Department can find it somewhere else - it sounds important. And peaceful.

References:
* Lebanon Palestinians to march on border [JPost]
* U.S. urges Arab donors to pay pledges to Palestinian Authority [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Reuters Mistranslation Responsible For Idiotic "Holocaust" Slander
* Reminder: Palestinians Hide Behind Children, Morbidly Embrace Death Porn (Plus: The Media Lies)
* Abbas: "If You Don't Give Me Everything I Won't Accept Anything"

Of course it is:

Gaza's water authority has dumped 60 million liters of partially treated and untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea since January 24, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report released on Wednesday. "The sewage discharge is contaminating Gaza seawater and posing health risks for bathers and consumers of seafood. The sewage flows northward to Israeli coasts, including near the Ashkelon desalination plant. Urgent studies are needed to examine the extent of the impact," the report reads. The report's authors blamed Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip for the Gazans' inability to treat the sewage. "This sewage cannot be treated due to the lack of a steady electricity supply within the Gaza Strip, Israel's restrictions on fuel imports and prohibitions on the import of materials and necessary spare parts," according to the report.

(1) The manufactured fuel crisis has been deliberately created by Hamas, which alternates between refusing Israeli fuel imports and stealing what they do get for terrorism ops. A few days ago they helped themselves - at gunpoint - to 45,000 liters.

(2) Linking the recent lack of fuel to poor sewage management would be really persuasive if there hadn't already been a literal river of sewage that killed 10 people in Gaza last year. They've been having critical problems with their sewage infrastructure for at least half a year - the consequence, some would suggest, of cannibalizing it for rocket material.

(3) Also this:

Israel Water Authority spokesman Uri Schor said the problem was not new and that Israel was doing all it could to help Gaza process its sewage. "The Palestinians have been pumping partially treated or untreated sewage water into the sea for years, and not just since the beginning of this year. The State of Israel assists in various ways to the pumping and water distribution and to the continued operation of the sewage treatment plants. That assistance includes approval to transfer most of equipment the Palestinian Authority has requested - the rest is in the process of being verified - and all the diesel fuel necessary to run the plants," Schor said. These plants had not been affected by any cutbacks to electricity, he said.

(4) Pumping raw sewage into the Mediterranean is not a sign of crumbling infrastructure - it's the Palestinians' actual, literal, official infrastructure plan for getting rid of Gaza sewage. That's been the case since at least 2005. Why treat sewage in a modern and sustainable way when you can just make it go away?

(5) And then there's of course this factoid:

But a security source familiar with the situation told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the vast majority of Gaza's electrical needs were being met by Israel and Egypt. "Gaza is receiving 141 megawatts a day out of [its normal requirements of] 200 megawatts at this time from Israel and Egypt," the source said.

So Gaza has enough electricity. And even if they didn't have enough for everything, they still have enough to specifically run the sewage plants. And even if they didn't have enough to specifically run the sewage plants, it would be because Hamas is stealing fuel for terrorism. And even if it wasn't because Hamas was stealing fuel for terrorism, the sewage problems that the UN is citing have nothing to do with a lack of fuel anyway - and everything to do with idiotic Palestinian policies and incompetent implementation.

And yet somehow the UN has come up with an explanation that just happens to excoriate Israel in exactly the way that promotes the narrative that Hamas is promoting to demonize the Jewish State. Strange, that.

References:
* UN: Gaza is dumping sewage into the sea [JPost]
* Hamas Creates Humanitarian Crisis By Stealing Fuel For Terrorism, Preventing Israeli Gas Shipments, And Cutting Off Gaza Civilians. Again. (Plus: International Press, Human Rights Groups Blame Israel. Again) [MR]
* Hamas stole 45,000 liters of fuel at gunpoint today [Elder]
* Seriously, the Palestinians Just Suck At Everything [MR]
* Palestinians Prove Totally Incompetent [MR]
* Palestinians Going Global With Program To Demonize Israel For Deliberate, Hamas-Engineered Gaza Humanitarian Crisis (Updated: WaPo Hops On Board) [MR]

Previously:
* Hamas Intentionally Creating Humanitarian Disaster In Gaza - Now They're Shutting Down The Few Medical Clinics That Are Still Working
* IDF Colonel: Hamas Creating Humanitarian Crisis. No Kidding.
* AP: Yup, Humanitarian Crisis Intentionally Caused By Hamas Is Still Israel's Fault

Hey, maybe Obama really is the post-racial candidate:

The Black press is just as enthusiastic as African Americans in general at the prospect of a Black man becoming the next occupant of the White House. But Black newspaper owners also expected that they would be beneficiaries of what is already the most lavish campaign advertising budget in history: Barack Obama's bulging war chest. Instead, Black publishers say they have been locked out of Obama's advertising game plan - and even shunned in their attempts to cover the Obama operation. The Illinois Senator's handlers - and maybe the man himself - "think that we as black people are so anxious to get a black president that we'll support him no matter what," said one editor. "So why waste money on us?"... Publishers and editors of African-American newspapers - the beacons who live and breathe the blackness of their communities and who regulate the pulse of black America - are fighting mad at what has now become blatantly clear to them: The Democratic Party doesn't give a damn about them. The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign doesn't give a damn about them and, alack and alas, neither does the Barack Obama campaign.

If we were inclined toward generosity we'd suggest that this is another campaign tactic meant to insulate Obama against unfair attempts at ghettoization. But since we're not, we feel comfortable suggesting that Obama - for all that he's a relative political novice - has apparently been around long enough to pick up the Democratic Party's habit of taking black support for granted.

References:
* Does the Democratic party take blacks for granted? [Black Agenda Report]
* Key anti-identity-politics, anti-ghettoization passage in Obama's victory speech [Kausfiles]
* Does the Democratic party take blacks for granted? [Larry Elder]

Previously:
* Obama's Sophistication Is Actually Kind Of Unsophisticated, Incoherent
* CNN: Obama, Clinton "Clearly Uncomfortable" Criticizing Carter's Hamas Visit
* Obama Draws Line In The Sand: Invading Israel OK But Calling Hillary A Mean Name Is A Firing Offense