Oh come on:

Gaza is a secular society where people listen to pop music, watch TV and many women walk the streets unveiled... Palestinians did not vote for Hamas because it was dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel or because it had been responsible for waves of suicide bombings that had killed Israeli citizens. They voted for Hamas because they thought that Fatah, the party of the rejected Government, had failed them... In the five years that I have been visiting Gaza and the West Bank, I have met hundreds of Hamas politicians and supporters. None of them has professed the goal of Islamising Palestinian society, Taleban-style. Hamas relies on secular voters too much to do that. People still listen to pop music, watch television and women still choose whether to wear the veil or not.

There are two claims made in here. The first is that Palestinians elected Hamas because they were rejecting Fatah corruption and the second is that Hamas is not trying to impose sharia law on the Gaza Strip. You can be confident that the second claim is false because Hamas is in fact very explicitly imposing sharia on the Gaza Strip. You can be confident that the first claim is false because polls showed that Palestinians were pro-terrorism and results reflected those preferences in that pro-terrorism groups picked up support across the board while moderate parties lost support across the board - exactly the opposite of what you'd expect from anti-corruption protest voting. But wouldn't it be really neat if that things were different?

So in other words, yes, he is just making this shit up out of whole cloth.

References:
* We must adjust our distorted image of Hamas [Times Online]
* Mere Rhetoric Evaluates Palestinian Opinion Poll, Walks Away Unsurprised [Ha'aretz]
* The Less Than Compelling "Hamas Wasn't Elected Because of the Whole Palestinians Hate Jews Thing" Argument [MR]
* Confirmed: Hamas Goals And Tactics Now Officially Indistinguishable From Al Qaeda [MR]

Previously:
* Hamas Leaders Spent Last Month Bragging About War, Mocking Israeli Restraint
* Carter "Understands" Why Hamas Has To Bomb Israeli Schools And Hospitals
* Leftist Sophistication Watch - Where's All That Hamas Law And Order We Were Promised?

The situation on the eve of Operation Cast Lead: Hamas soldiers were firing rockets during the day when Israeli students were learning at school. They were firing rockets at night to keep Israeli children trapped in their homes' fortified rooms. They were firing rockets in between so students walking between home and school couldn't get to shelters. A helpful illustration for the anti-Israel partisans in the crowd who can't count to 15:

What - exactly - would a proportionate response to this look like? (h/t: MR reader Esther)

References:
* Today's Rocket Attacks [Israellycool]
* The other side of "No one was killed in the rocket barrage" [Yourish]
* Sderot Media Center Documenting Horror Of Palestinian Rocket Attacks On Israeli Schools And Hospitals (Plus: Dozens Of Children Treated After Qassam Hits Near Daycare) [MR]

Previously:
* Hamas Brags About Violating Truce, More Rockets Fall On Israeli Schools And Hospitals
* Hamas Fires Five More Rockets At Israeli Schools And Hospitals, Shoots Up Israelis In The West Bank, Then Cries Pathetically About Limited Israeli Retaliation (Plus: Olmert: Of Course We Won't Punish Gaza)
* BREAKING: Major Injuries In Sderot Rocket Barrage. Children Wounded As Rockets Score Direct Hits On School and Home.

Pathological hatred:

A group of Arab youths opened fire Wednesday evening on a number of Israelis working at a mall in the Danish city of Odenza, some 200 kilometers north of Copenhagen. The Israelis, who were operating a stall in the shopping center, were lightly wounded in their legs. There is no apparent danger to their lives.

This is usually where I'd write something like "on the plus side this was probably just over exuberant anti-Zionism and had nothing to do with anti-Semitism." But we're talking about a country where "Jews are Allah's enemies" is a popular protest chant...

... so there might actually have been a little bit of anti-Semitism involved.

References:
* Arab youths open fire on Israelis working at mall in Denmark [Ha'aretz]
* Denmark: "There is no God but Allah and the Jews are Allah's Enemies".... [Zippers]

Previously:
* Democrats Partying Like It's 2004, Insulting the Sacrifice Of Coalition of the Willing
* Confirmed: Jihadists Attacking Spain Because Moors Were Thrown Out Half A Millennium Ago
* Israeli-Egyptian Peace Not Really Working Out "Peacefully"

They've already violated the sanctity of hospitals in the last few hours so why not bomb a schoolhouse to really cement their "schools and hospitals" cred?

Hamas flexed its muscles Tuesday night and fired two rockets into Beersheba as Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked for government approval to call up an additional 2,500 reservists ahead of a planned ground operation in the Gaza Strip. One of the Katyusha rockets struck a kindergarten in Beersheba, causing damage. Another rocket hit outside the city in an open field... In total, more than 50 rockets struck the South on Tuesday, with one scoring a direct hit on a home in Sderot. No one was wounded in the attack, as the family had taken refuge in a nearby secure room.

A nice followup to their murder of two Palestinian schoolgirls on the eve of Israel's retaliation. At least the IAF knew how to respond this time.

In the meantime Barak has requested another 2,500 reservists at the same time that the IDF has completed their preparations for a ground invasion. And the IAF is still doing what the IAF does:

IAF aircraft attacked Hamas installations and government buildings in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday morning, including the Gaza office of the organization's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh. It was the second time that Haniyeh's office had been targeted and the army said that the building was being used to conduct terror activities against Israel. On Tuesday night, the air force bombed the launcher of the Grad-model rockets that were fired at Beersheba, as well as the cell responsible. The army said it successfully hit its target. IAF aircraft also pounded smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, setting off a huge explosion in a fuel tunnel, witnesses said, as other aircraft hit Hamas positions in Gaza City. No casualties were reported.

So yes: I really do think that those rumors about Barak floating a ceasefire were overblown.

References:
* Oh-So-Brave Hamas Soldiers Fleeing Into Mosques And Hospitals [MR]
* Two rockets strike Beersheba [JPost]
* AFP Helpfully Provides Crisp Example Of Institutional Anti-Israel Media Bias [MR]
* IDF bombs Grad launcher, terrorist cell responsible for Beersheba rockets [JPost]
* Barak Asks for More Reservists, Ministers Vote by Phone [A7]
* Are "Humanitarian Truce" Rumors Just More Strategic Israeli Disinformation? [MR]

Previously:
* Another Day Another Palestinian Rocket Barrage. New Rockets Bring Hundreds Of Thousands Of Israelis Within Range.
* Livni: Hey, I Guess These Daily Rocket Attacks Aren't Much Of A Ceasefire After All
* Hamas: You Know What? Starting Friday We're Not Even Going To Pretend There's A Ceasefire.

They're well known for siphoning fuel from Gaza hospitals and lobbing rockets at Israeli ones. So even if they hadn't already been doing this regularly it would still be unsurprising to find Hamas soldiers using hospitals and mosques as military facilities:

The Shin Bet head added that many of Hamas's senior activists were hiding out in mosques and hospitals in Gaza, some of them in the guise of doctors and male nurses. "Some of them have turned dozens of mosques into command and control centers on the assumption that Israel won't attack those places," he said. "Their development laboratories have been completely destroyed. Their tunnel system has sustained heavy damage. Hamas is trying to utilize [what remains] so that their operatives can escape to Egypt."

I like the Jason Bourne-esque touch of returning to the mosques where they were first brainwashed. Kind of gives the whole thing much-needed narrative unity, I think. Of course using religious sites for military purposes has been a violation of the rules of warfare for the entire breadth of human civilization. But whatever.

References:
* Hamas Intentionally Creating Humanitarian Crises In Gaza By Stealing Fuel From Hospitals For Their "Operations" Against Israel [MR]
* Palestinians Firing Missile Barrages At Israeli Hospitals Treating Gaza Residents (Plus: Israeli Response Somewhat Underwhelming, Constrained) [MR]
* 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...) [MR]
* Diskin: Hamas dealt a 'serious blow' [JPost]
* Hamas's Militarized Mosques Not Immune From Israeli Jets [MR]

Previously:
* Hamas Now Doing Everything Humanly Possible To Generate Gaza Civilian Casualties
* Iran Orders Every Muslim In The World To Attack Israel
* Anti-Israel Photojournalists Struggling To Cope With Extensive Israeli Humanitarian Measures, Low Palestinian Collateral Damage

I say obligatory because this Elder of Ziyon production has already been flagged here and here and here. So out of peer pressure if nothing else - here you go:

I'm assuming that Elder will update the link as soon as this video gets predictably removed from YouTube.

References:
* If the IDF made Hamas-style videos [Israel Matzav]
* If the IDF made cheesy videos like Hamas... [Yourish]
* EoZ: brilliant again [Boker Tov Boulder]
* If the IDF made Hamas-style videos.... [Elder of Ziyon]
* What YouTube Doesn't Want You to See [Pollak / Commentary Contentions]

Previously:
* Watchers Council Results: Maybe We Shouldn't Blame Israel For The Mumbai Massacre...
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - If You're In Lebanon You Have To Ignore Sexist Muslim Atrocities And Hysterically Call For Anti-Jewish Genocide Instead
* Palestinian Soldiers Prostrate Themselves Before Altar Of Holy Missiles

Everything old is apparently really is new again:

A group of Iranian demonstrators stormed the British diplomatic compound in Tehran to protest London's stance towards the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, state news agency IRNA reported. "A large group of people and students entered the Gholhak gardens, which are occupied by the British embassy to protest at Britain's policies in supporting the Zionist regime and put up the Palestinian flag there," IRNA said Tuesday. A media officer at the British embassy in Tehran confirmed the report adding that diplomatic police had driven the demonstrators out. "We do confirm the raid on our premises. We are in contact with Islamic republic authorities to resolve the matter," Mitra Behnam told AFP.

Which would make sense if it didn't seem like there was a series of coordinated government-sponsored embassy attacks going on:

Iranian students protested outside the Jordanian Embassy and staged a demonstration in front of Egyptian interests section in Tehran... The Jordanian Embassy in Tehran was attacked with explosives, at midnight Tehran time, last night. The Embassy spokesman has confirmed this report. Several Jordanian citizens were inside the embassy during the attack; no one however sustained any injuries. The spokesman also said that he was not certain about the identity of those responsible for the attacks... A large number of Iranian students from several universities staged a demonstration in front of Egyptian interests section in Tehran to oppose to the country's silence over Israel's attacks against Gaza Strip.

At times like this I like to remember the recomendations of our foreign policy elite: we should engage Iran because it will turn moderate students against the mullahs. Then I like to drink heavily.

On a different note: Britain's insufficiently anti-Israel or pro-Iranian? Really? Really

References:
* Iranians raid British diplomatic compound in Gaza protest [AFP]
* IRANIANS ATTACK Jordanian Embassy & Firebomb Saudi Airline Offices ...Update: Students Storm British Embassy [Gateway Pundit]
* Olmert Going To Britain To Request Moderately Less Vicious Anti-Israel Hostility [MR]
* British TV Letting Ahmadinejad Deliver Alternative Christmas Message In Response To The Queen [MR]

Previously:
* Iran Has Secret Fuel Reprocessing Program, Missiles That Will Reach Europe (Plus: Khamenei: Of Course We're Not Going To Respond To Diplomacy)
* New EU Court Rulings Mean That Obama's "Strong Carrots, Strong Sticks" Iran Strategy Now Only Carrots
* Iran Rejects Talks With Obama, Foreign Policy Sophisticates Confused

Gateway Pundit has some nice examples of sophisticated progressive activists comparing Israeli Jews to Nazis:

The reaction to Operation Cast Lead by the pro-Hamas radicals and Leftists has been predictably foul and bizarre. They are even equating the Israeli acts of self defense to the holocaust... Lebanese from leftist groups light candles during a protest against the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip in front of the Egyptian embassy in Beirut... Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza in front of Israel's embassy in Madrid.

He's also got a picture of an Indian protester calling Gaza the "new Nariman House. Which is a bit of a stretch because the Jews in the Mumbai Chabad Center were sexually tortured and had their genitalia mutilated by terrorists while Israel is objectively and undeniably going out of its way not to harm women and children. So those two things seem different to me.

Back back to this Holocaust canard. I'm actually beginning to suspect that there's something other than clearheaded analysis behind "Jews = Nazis" comparisons. Life expectancy in Gaza skyrocketed under Israeli rule from 48 years to 72 years. It's higher than Egypt's. It's South Africa's by a staggering 85%. It's even higher than parts of Britain. 72 years - that's just like Auschwitz, right?

References:
* Sick... Pro-Hamas Protesters Play the Nazi Card Against Jews [Gateway Pundit]
* Mumbai: Terrorists Sexually Humiliated Guests before killing them [Solomonia]
* Women and children deaths pretty low [Elder]
* The no-return point of a return to Gaza [Ha'aretz]
* Our low life expectancy [It's Almost Supernatural]
* Channel 4 - News - FactCheck: Glasgow worse than Gaza? [Ch 4 Britain]

Previously:
* What Institutional European Anti-Semitism?
* Gaza's Booming Economy - Underground Mall System, Hundreds Of Supermarkets, Latest Fashions (Plus: New Gaza Tunnel Wasn't For Smuggling)
* Iranian Cartoons Are Anti-Semitic and Racist (And Something Else Too... Kinda) [Video]

Idiot:

I said Israel will attack any boat carrying doctors and medical supplies--they have turned away the red cross already and all medical and food assistance. Israel is a NAZI state. The Jewish Soul is being tortured in Israel. The destruction of the jews in Israel has been assured with this inhuman attack on civilians in gaza. Hamas is the street gangs---this is equivilent to los angeles attacking and launching war on the people of watts to attempt to kill the bloods and the crips.

Amazingly, that's still less stupid than HuffPo imbecile Lorelei Kelly's assertion that attacking Hamas is like attacking the Salvation Army. I want to be very precise about this next part: these people are painfully stupid. (h/t: Israellycool)

UPDATE: Debbie Schlussel broke this story first last Tuesday. Credit where it's due.

References:
* Israel, Stop! Just. Stop. [Lorelei Kelly / HuffPo]

Previously:
* Another Day, Another Blisteringly Stupid Article About Evangelical Christianity From A Sophisticated Liberal (Plus: Messianic Christianity Got Jews The Balfour Declaration)
* Note to Liberals: You're Not Smarter Than Everyone Else. Really.
* How Stupid Does Liberal Make-Believe Have to Get Before the Jewish Journal Won't Publish It?

Because why not:

The headline "Scientists track unusual earthquake swarm beneath Yellowstone" only means one thing to fans of the Discovery channel like myself: supervolcano. Here is what the earthquake center at the University of Utah had to say yesterday afternoon: " The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports that a notable swarm of earthquakes has been underway since December 26 beneath Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park, three to six miles south-southeast of Fishing Bridge, Wyoming. This energetic sequence of events was most intense on December 27, when the largest number of events of magnitude 3 and larger occurred." ... And what if the supervolcano blew? Kind of like if a giant rock hit the Earth. A planet killer. An extinction-level event. Let me quote the words of President Tom Beck (Morgan Freeman) in the comet-hitting-earth film Deep Impact: "Within a week, the skies will be dark with dust from the impact and they will stay dark for years. All plant life will be dead within weeks. Animal life within a few months. So that's it. Good luck to us all."

On the plus side, being buried in ash over the next 15 years will be a net gain over the current prospects of my beloved Westminster Abbey. (h/t: Insta)

References:
* Yellowstone Earthquakes Under Supervolcano Caldera [US News]
* I'm Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Thousands Of UK-Born Jihadists In Enclaves Across All Of Britain [MR]

Previously:
* Neat - Unknown Cosmic Force Pulling Entire Galaxies Beyond Known Universe
* Neat - Scientists Finally Develop Stargate, Alien Contact Impending
* Neat - Israeli Nanobots To Revolutionize Medicine

Aaron Mannes, counterterrorism author and researcher at the Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Laboratory, Dec. 30, 2008:

Israel's operation in Gaza is reaching a critical point. While talking heads will debate grand strategy, the options are limited. Behind the headlines is the crucial issue of how Israel's national security process works (or doesn't - in light of the weaknesses revealed in the 2006 Lebanon war). The next moves will demonstrate whether or not Israel has successfully incorporated the lessons from the failures of the 2006 Lebanon War. This is crucial to re-establishing Israeli deterrence. A true peace agreement with Hamas is not realistic. A quick scan of clips from Hamas' al-Aqsa network or of statements by Hamas leaders from the Middle East Media Research Institute - particularly horrible are these scenes from Hamas produced children's television - should disabuse all but the most useful idiots of any notions of a moderate Hamas.

Anthony Zinni, former State Department special envoy to the Middle East, Dec. 30, 2008:

The former U.S. special envoy to the Middle East said Tuesday that President-elect Barack Obama should engage with Hamas under certain conditions, and sooner rather than later... In order for the new administration to engage with Hamas, Zinni said the militant group must be willing to end its rocket attacks and violence against Israel and commit to a peace process. In the long term, Zinni said, the next administration will have to take a new approach in dealing with the problem.

If there's been one reservoir of consistent success in the Middle East, it's certainly the retired US generals who go to Israel on the State Department's behalf. At least none of them are going to be President Obama's top security adviser.

For what it's worth J-Street also favors engagement with Hamas. That's not exactly a surprise since they're more anti-Israel than Israel's sworn enemies - but still, probably worth noting.

References:
* Managing Gaza [TerrorWonk]
* Obama should engage Hamas, former U.S. envoy says [CNN]
* Fatah Weapons Champion, Abject Failure Keith Dayton Said Nablus Was Fatah's "First Real Test" How's That Going? (Plus: Dozens Of Fatah Soldiers Building Rockets, Targeting Israelis) [MR]
* Obama's Top NSA And CIA Picks: Harsh On Israel, Sympathetic To Iran And Hezbollah [MR]
* Street Cred? [Kirchick / TNR]
* Of Course: "Pro-Israel" J-Street Is More Anti-Israel Than Israel's Sworn Enemies, Equates Israeli Self-Defense With Hamas Violence [MR]

Previously:
* Is There Anybody Who Wants To Destroy Israel Who Isn't Supporting Obama?
* Iran: Why Won't The Zionists Let Us Deliver This Totally Harmless Shipment To Hamas?
* AFP Helpfully Provides Crisp Example Of Institutional Anti-Israel Media Bias

These fearless predictions always turn out disasterously for me, but nonetheless: I think that the widespread rumors about how Israel is considering a 48-hour truce are flat false. I'm not sure if it's Israeli misinformation - the second time in a week where Barak's public hesitancy is being used as a head-fake - or if it's just an "anonymously sourced" excuse for breathless "Israel rejects ceasefire" headlines (as if Hamas wasn't categorically rejecting any renewed truce just like they've always done). But in any case it makes no sense.

Let's take it as a given that that Hamas can't accept a ceasefire after the last four days because it would make it look like they'd been ground into submission. Let's also take it as a given that the post-Peretz Defense Ministry isn't staffed by idiots - so they know that. Why would they float rumors of a ceasefire if - acknowledging ahead of time that Hamas will reject it - they know it would make them look weak? The only possible reason is that they were hoping that it would give them a propaganda boon: a news cycle of "Hamas rejects Israeli truce offer" headlines. But only an idiot would think that newspapers would go with that frame rather than "Resilient Hamas turns Israeli truce plea" headlines. But the post-Peretz Defense Ministry is not staffed by idiots. Ergo they didn't float a ceasefire. QED.

Plus both the defense establishment and Barak say it's not true. You could say that they're just trying to save face after Hamas rejected the offer. But - again - they would have known in advance that Hamas would reject the offer which means they would never would have put themselves in a position where they'd lose face.

Not to get too inside baseball, but I do kind of have a perverse incentive to believe that Barak is actually pushing for a ceasefire. It sort of appeals to my muddy pragmatism. First it establishes a clear distinction between the Israeli center and the Israeli left, highlighting the stupidity of protest votes. It also makes Ben-Eliezer look good and I've had a soft spot for him ever since Sharon joked that he routinely talked him out of launching anti-terrorist operations. But alas, I just don't think it's true.

Although I don't discount the possibility that some mid-level MFA staffer, not understanding how the story would framed as Hamas tenacity vs. Israeli hesitancy out, leaked it to Ha'aretz. That I'd easily believe.

References and previously after the jump...

A nice follow-up to my earlier post about Israel's new high-tech public diplomacy push. I just got off a bloggers' conference call organized by America's Voices. The speakers included the Deputy Chief of Mission from Israel's DC Embassy and Brigadier General (Res.) Relik Shafir from the IAF. They were both exceptionally good - straightforward answers, new information, an overall ethos of confidence, etc.

I do have a small concern that's the seed of a bigger concern though. These calls inevitably start out a little slow. Often that's because speakers assume they're speaking to a general audience as opposed to a bunch of news junkies. It's a little off-putting when this happens because it's a pity to waste time that could be spent on questions. Example: the very first thing mentioned was Israel's new public diplomacy push and how there are now videos on YouTube. First, we know, and second, blog pace has already made that outdated. The minute and a half recitation about how Israel tries to avoid collateral damage and has sent almost 200 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza? On it. The talking points about Hamas's intentionally created humanitarian crisis or about Iran's involvement and about how Egypt is blaming Hamas. Yes and yes and yes. But still - safely assumed to be background knowledge.

But I'm actually more worried that it reflects a deeper message-level problem. It could be that Israeli spokespeople are spending time on context and background with bloggers because they think they lose media wars when "the truth" doesn't "get posted." That's not the problem. Now that Israel is investing heavily in public diplomacy, the mistake to be avoided is the one that assumes that the blogosphere is this flat space where what's true naturally bubbles to the surface. That's never true even in general - it's the mistake that pro-Israel campus advocates make when they try reason people out of ideologies they haven't been reasoned into. But even if you could persuade people that way you couldn't do it on the blogosphere. There are infrastructure issues, networking issues, preexisting links - plus these tools to contend with. Now it could be that all of these problems are symptoms of deeper issues involving the role of new communications technologies in public deliberation. And it could even be that reason and argument just doesn't do much persuasive work in an era of low-information voting insulated by myopic self-esteem. But in any case - less time in general reminding pro-Israel bloggers that Israel unilaterally left the Gaza Strip and was rewarded with rockets.

But nonetheless - and genuinely - very helpful. Here's some stuff you're interested in:

(1) Dismantling Hamas - General Shafir was unequivocal that no target ever gets hit if there is a significant risk of collateral damage. The IAF is apparently circling jets and drones over the apartment buildings where Hamas has stored weapons. They don't level the buildings until they get visual confirmation that the residents have left in response to Israeli warnings about impending attacks - which of course Hamas sometimes exploits to move the weapons. Since human shields are the limiting factor right now I'm assuming that means that Israel will start seeing diminishing returns from IAF sorties. Although they certainly seem to be keeping busy right now.

(2) Artificially imposed deadlines - Given the last 12 hours I think there are good reasons to worry but the embassy rep was very confident that Israel is making its case to the right people in the right capitals.

(3) Evaluating Hezbollah - The consensus seem to be that they won't attack lest the IAF flatten southern Lebanon. There were several mentions about the noticeable lack of activity in the south. Hmm.

References and previously after the jump...

If Israel has such precise intelligence, one is entitled to wonder, why are Israeli civilians still getting bombarded with rockets? Turns out it has a lot to do with how those real men from Palestinian terror organizations have been putting their launching pads on top of apartment buildings:

The defense establishment presented the cabinet with Cast Lead's accomplishments so far: Four days in, the IAF has struck over 500 targets. Some 370 people were killed and hundreds more were injured, most of them Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees' operatives. Since the Gaza offensive began, Hamas has fired 180 rockers and dozens of mortar shells at Israel - 75% of which landed in open area. A security course noted that the defense establishment was pleased with the way the operation was coming along. One of the major accomplishments over the past four days was the destruction of two-thirds of the Strip's launching pads. The last third, said the sources, has yet to be targeted due to its vicinity to residential areas. The defense establishment estimated that Hamas still has some 2,000 rockets in its arsenal, including several long-rage rockets which could potentially reach Ashdod and Beersheba.

That's the from the bottom half of an article breathlessly reporting that the Israeli defense establishment is recommending a 48 hour truce. Maybe there's something to it: when Livni was asked about it earlier she refused to deny it. But I'm kind of skeptical. Livni's comments felt more like "what the hell?" than "neither confirm nor deny." Plus you don't call up troops unless you're going to use them. Plus Hamas says they won't go for it - which was inevitable because they can't agree to ceasefire terms after the beating they just took - which would have been known in advance - which is why the offer would never have been made. And anyway the IDF is denying it.

In any case it'd be a huge mistake. There are obvious military implications about letting Hamas regroup. But more broadly: for 50 years it's been a rule that the international community starts pushing for a ceasefire as soon as Israel starts winning. A temporary pause in fighting doesn't mean a pause in the clock.

References:
* IDF Gearing Up For A Ground Invasion That Hamas May Or May Not Want [MR]
* Anonymous Mask-Wearing Thugs Who Blindly Launch Rockets At Civilians Before Scurrying Underground, Hiding Behind Human Shields, And Begging For Int'l Protection: Israelis Should "Fight Like Men" [MR]
* Defense establishment to recommend pause in Gaza op [YNet]
* Livni refuses to comment on ceasefire proposal reports [YNet]
* Hamas source: We received message on truce; we won't agree to it [YNet]
* IDF denies exploring possible ceasefire in Gaza op [YNet]

Previously:
* Palestinians Use Children As Human Shields, Nobody Notices. Seriously.
* Like Hezbollah, Hamas Uses Children As Human Shields
* Hamas Prepares 15,000 Soldiers, Civilian Human Shields For Full Confrontation With Israel

The Israeli consulate in New York has set up a Twitter account and a YouTube channel to help combat media bias:

In the midst of its Gaza operations, the IDF is entering yet another conflict zone: the Internet. The Israeli army announced yesterday the creation of its own YouTube channel, through which it will disseminate footage of precision bombing operations in the Gaza Strip, as well as aid distribution and other footage of interest to the international community. "The blogosphere and new media are another war zone," said IDF Foreign Press Branch head Maj. Avital Leibovich. "We have to be relevant there." Her sentiment reflects a growing awareness in the Israeli government that part of the failure of the 2006 Second Lebanon War was Israel's lack of readiness for the intense media debate surrounding its operations.

Israeli Communication scholars have been advising the MFA for years that they have to expand their public diplomacy. I'm generally skeptical about mass persuasion on the basis of sound argument - we live in a world of low information voters who nonetheless feel entitled to be gigantic tools - but it's certainly better than nothing. Although I think that they left comments open on their YouTube videos. That shouldn't last long.

References:
* israelconsulate [Israeli Consulate, New York]
* idfnadesk [YouTube]
* Israeli Public Diplomacy Expert : British Boycott Is Vicious Anti-Semitism [MR]
* Dozens Gather in Second Life to Protest Gaza Attacks [DIP's Dispatches from the Imagination Age]
* Today's Nuked YouTube Comments From MR's Iranian Anti-Semitism Post [MR]

Previously:
* US Public Diplomacy - Winning Arab Hearts And Minds By Promising To Sell Out Israel
* Just A Reminder: Arab Media Is A Cesspool Of Genocidal Anti-Semitic Incitement
* State Dept Media Outlets Scrub "Hamas Kills Palestinians" Story, Replace It With "Israel Kills Palestinians" Story

Between this nonsense and UN officials who argue like third graders - we're now officially on the playground:

A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees told Ynet Monday night that Palestinian groups in Gaza are preparing for the "real battle," urging Israel to launch a ground operation in the Strip. "If Israeli soldiers are such men, they should fight on the ground, the PRC's Abu Abir said. "The defeat they suffered on the ground in Lebanon would be even greater in Gaza... yet I know that we are dealing with cowards who ever since the 1980s have feared a face-to-face confrontation with us."... "We are inviting the Israelis to embark on the great challenge of ground combat," he said. The PRC spokesman added that "the entire Palestinian people understand that this is an all-out war, and that the resistance and its organizations are the only way to salvage Palestinian honor. The Israelis can continue to pulverize us from the air, and we shall continue to pulverize them with the means at our disposal... just like the Israelis trained and prepared, so did we."

A Gaza battle will undoubtedly be brutal. At this point nobody knows what success in Gaza would look like. And - based on Israel's last foray against a Hezbollah-style militia - it's far from certain that the IDF could secures success even if was well-defined. That said: "we are inviting the Israelis to embark on the great challenge of ground combat." Does that mean that anti-Israel journalists and academics have to stop saying that the Palestinians are committed to a ceasefire? Or is it genuinely a moment to moment kind of thing?

References:
* PRC spokesman urges IDF troops to 'fight like men' [YNet]
* UN Palestinian Stooge: "It's Obvious" That Israeli Attack Violated 48-Hour Truce That No One Knew About Until Now [MR]
* Anti-Israel Partisans Set New Record For Decades-Old Trick Of Brazenly Rewriting History, Blaming Israel [MR]

Previously:
* Al Qaeda Misses Memo About How Sunnis And Shiites Don't Cooperate, Thanks Iran For Critical Financing And Infrastructure
* Confirmed: Hamas Goals And Tactics Now Officially Indistinguishable From Al Qaeda
* Hamas Missile Strike Kills Israeli Construction Worker, Injures At Least 10 (Plus: Multiple West Bank Terror Attacks)

From a cretin who thinks that Israelis are Nazis and that a neocon cabal caused 9/11? Almost difficult to believe that'd be his position:

Richard Falk - the special rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories - said the international community must put more pressure on Israel to end its attacks on Gaza. "Israel is committing a shocking series of atrocities by using modern weaponry against a defenceless population - attacking a population that has been enduring a severe blockade for many months," Mr Falk said in a BBC interview. The UN says at least 62 of the Palestinians killed so far have been women and children, and it is calling for an investigation into the attacks, which are causing heavy civilian casualties.

You think that the investigation would include how Hamas intentionally embedded military infrastructure in civilian areas? It seems like a good place to start but I'm just not sure.

This guy is such a gem that Israel broke the nudge-wink pretense of UN neutrality and very publicly told him to get bent. That's up there with Democratic Jewish groups telling Carter he's just too anti-Semitic to be suffered. Which is to say: you have to be pretty magical before it happens.

References:
* Sophisticated UN Diplomat: Yup, Jews Are Pretty Much Nazis [MR]
* UN HRC Sends Guy Who Thinks Israel Caused 9/11 To Check If Israel is Causing Palestinian Terrorism (Plus: Perfect Convergence Of Vulgar Anti-Israel Ideology And Foreign Policy Sophistication) [MR]
* Israel vows lasting Gaza campaign [BBC]
* Prof. Falk, special rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council, unwelcome in Israel [Israel MFA]
* Major Jewish Groups To Carter: We'd Love To Talk To You, But You're Just Too Anti-Semitic [MR]

Previously:
* Yawn. UN Calls Emergency Meeting To Condemn Israel.
* Mere Rhetoric: UN Finally Notices Hamas Bombing Of Israeli Civilians, Rushes To Condemn Israel For Responding (Update: The EU Too!)
* UN Children's Fund: Israeli Billionaire Just Too Jewish To Give Money To World's Children (Also Too Jewish For The UN: Ultra-Liberal Reform Jews)

MR is now taking bets on when the ground operation will start. I was going to set the over/under at Wednesday night. But it looks like the rain cleared up early and Hamas rocket fire is intensifying - so Wednesday dawn. Overseas wagers only please:

On the fourth day of Operation Cast Lead, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that military action against Hamas would continue until all the goals are met. Speaking during a tour of Ashkelon on Tuesday afternoon, Barak said that the operation would intensify "as much as needed to meet the goals we set for ourselves, to bring quiet to the South." The operation also aims "to strike a severe blow to Hamas," he said, "in order to bring about an end to firing and other operations against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers." "We expect more difficult days ahead which will test civilians' endurance," he continued.

There was that rumor flying around yesterday that troops had already entered Gaza. That turned out not to be true. But there are probably special forces dropping in and out: most of the targeting coordinates are set into the jets before takeoff but there has to be some realtime targeting happening on the ground. Or does there? The depth of intelligence behind these air strikes has been insane.

If Hamas wants to avoid a ground invasion then launching another dozen or so rockets this morning: probably not the best move. Ditto for putting out press releases celebrating their murder of four Israeli civilians yesterday. Although killing a mother of four via an indiscriminate rocket barrage - such a glorious victory!

Of course there are arguments to be made that Hamas actually wants a ground invasion. Why not? If they win they're heroes and if they lose they're victims. What could go wrong

References:
* Barak: Gaza operation will intensify [JPost]
* Ground Forces Entering [My Right Word]
* Kassam rocket fired by Gaza terrorists hits Kiryat Malachi [JPost]
* Gleeful Hamas press release on 4 Israeli deaths [Elder]
* ANALYSIS / Hamas is hoping for an IDF ground operation in Gaza [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Yawn. UN Calls Emergency Meeting To Condemn Israel.
* UN Palestinian Stooge: "It's Obvious" That Israeli Attack Violated 48-Hour Truce That No One Knew About Until Now
* Iran Orders Every Muslim In The World To Attack Israel

Take equal parts: the thuggish fervor of revolutionary savages, the self-insulating arrogance of over educated post-adolescents, and the insipid entitlement of overindulged brats. Add a healthy amount of banal utopian idealism. And now - as per this week's top Council post from The Razor - stir:

This [peace] symbol represents the oppression of Eastern Europe during the Cold War. It played an important role in the genocide of the Killing Fields of Cambodia, and the continuing atrocities in Tibet, Burma and Sudan. Throughout its 50 year history it has been used as a weapon solely against democracies in support of authoritarian and dictatorial regimes. It's body count is second only to the swastika yet is viewed as a symbol of peace by millions. The roots of this symbol are soaked in the blood of innocents. The group credited for popularizing the symbol, a stylized combination of the semaphore signals for 'N' and 'D' (for nuclear disarmament), is the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). The CND was founded in 1958 by supporters of the Soviet Union including a spy for the East German Stasi... Another member of the CND Granny Melita Norwood was the KGB's top spy in the UK, passing secrets to them until she was arrested in 1999 at the age of 87 . She died unrepentant and free in 2005. The Mirror wrote at the time "she never regretted her betrayal and was committed to the Soviet cause and to 'peace and socialism' up to her death." In 1982 Deputy CIA Director John McMahon testified before Congress that the Soviet Union had provided $100,000,000 to anti-nuclear groups including the CND.

The more things change... JoshuaPundit's post about how Cheney systematically dismantled Biden - an incident that he seemed to find as objectively delightful as I did - was tied for second with my complaints about the unblinking inanity of liberal faux expertise. His post describes what happens when someone who actually knows something is asked to bluntly appraise the opposite of that. My concerns have more to do with how an entire political culture could decide that that guy was the height of nuanced thinking.

I was reading one of Abba Eban's biographies for this post and came across this passage: "I did not believe that [experts] would risk their professional reputations by making an appraisal that could easily be refuted by events." I'm not sure if that was ever true. But it's certainly not true any more. Nowadays we call experts who are refuted by facts "Middle East Studies professors" and they write blogs for the consumption of blissfully oblivious - but not unsophisticated - liberal cocktail party glitterati. If they're not in academia they're in politics - as the top non-Council post outlines - wrecking the economy:

So they will "transform our economy." Obama's nearly trillion-dollar plan will not merely repair bridges, fill potholes and fix up schools; it will also impose a utopian vision based on the belief that an economy is a thing to be planned from above. But this is an arrogant conceit. No one can possibly know enough to redesign something as complex as "an economy," which really is people engaging in exchanges to achieve their goals. Planning it means planning them. Obama and Emanuel want us to believe that their blueprint for reform will bring recovery from the recession. Yet we have recovered from past recessions without undertaking a radical social and economic transformation. In fact, reform would impede recovery.

Or as one of the second-place posts outlines, undermining science policy. Or as the other second-place post demonstrates, grossly misunderstanding global ideological conflicts. Starting about 20 days into next year this combination of pretentious over-educated arrogance and objective ahistorical ignorance will be known as "official White House policy." I dunno about you but I'm pretty psyched for 2009.

References and previously after the jump...

Arab hostility toward Israel seems to oscillate between pathological aggression and victimized resentment, underscored the entire time by utterly shameless denial. So Hamas can violate the ceasefire for months by shooting at Israeli civilians and at Israeli soldiers. They can brag openly about those violations. They can declare over and over in the plainest terms that they have no interest in renewing a ceasefire. They can hold barbaric rallies and go so far as to mock Israel for keeping whatever ceasefire there is while they themselves are violating it. But after three days of Israeli self-defense UN officials are standing on stage telling international media outlets that Hamas was observing a super-secret ceasefire and Israel is responsible for its breakdown. It's jaw-droppingly brazen.

It's hard to blame the Palestinians for trying though. This has been a successful anti-Israel trick for more than half a century. Months and years of genocidal incitement, boasts about glorious Arab victory, derision of Israeli cowardice - and then, when Israel responds, a frantic run into the international community's skirts to moan piteously about Israeli aggression. It's not just that the West let this become a habit. Through international conferences where anti-Semitism is excused as "anti-Zionism," routine bait-and-switch anti-Israel diplomacy, and pervasive anti-Israel double standards - the international community has spent decades creating and nursing this pathological petulance. It's been this way since before Arab and Muslim countries realized they could excuse their genocidal rantings by reference to "The Occupation" (although in subsequent years they became so enamored with that bit of rhetoric that they invoke it even when it makes no sense - it's a reflexive verbal tic, a placeholder for "now I get to say something anti-Semitic about Zionist cabals").

How deeply entrenched is this tactic? It goes back at least as far as the Six Day War and probably to the 1950s. It's always the exact same pattern - vicious aggression, spectacular failure, historical revisionism (Lebanon II is the exception - since Hezbollah could claim victory they get to boast about how they deliberately maneuvered Israel into the war). The next few paragraphs are an overview of the broad sweep of anti-Israel diplomacy, mostly to show how tediously predictable this stunt is. If you don't have the patience for that you can just drop down to the link dump at the bottom. It's a small demonstration of the sheer mendacity it must be taking to rewrite the few weeks before Operation Cast Lead. But if you skip the middle you'll miss out on all the insanely frustrating historical parallels.