Unilateral Ceasefire???

I'm a logical person. And not one who has arrived on the scene just yesterday. But this makes little sense to me.

Israel is bombarded by thousands of missiles over the past several years from its Hamas-led neighbor in Gaza whose Charter vows to annihalate Israel and exterminate Jews.

Two weeks ago, Israel finally responds, first with a several day attack from the air, and then a ground offensive into the fringes of the densely populated urban centers where Hamas missles are being fired from.

Gazan missiles continue being fired at the rate averaging 20 per day (that would be 6100 per year)

Israel announces a "unilateral ceasefire", claiming its objectives have been achieved.

Meanwhile, Hamas claims they will never cease their attacks on Israel, and continues doing so - concurrently with their vow of revenge on the life of Israels' Foreign Affairs Minister Tzippi Livni.

What am I missing here? What kind of "achieving our objectives" is this? Has Israel again caved to world pressure? What has the United States promised and how likely is it that such promise will be carried out by the Obama administration? How much trust is being placed in their good Muslim friends in Egypt?

Sounds like Israel got a case "what have I gotton myself into", like I get when I climb a 20' ladder to get a cat out of the tree, look down 20' to the ground as I hug the ladder with both hands and feet and mutter under my breath "what the hell have I gotten my self into. To hell with the cat."

Well, Israel's cat is still in the tree. I really doubt the cat will climb down by itself. It's not in its charter - I mean character.

Professor: "What happened to an eye for an eye?"

Saree Makdisi, a UCLA English professor and defender of Hamas Islamofascists in Gaza asks "What happened to “an eye for an eye?” He, like many in the main stream media, believes Israel's response to Hamas firing thousands of rockets into civilian areas in Israel over the past couple of years is excessive. He apparantly believes that for every rocket Hamas fires on civilians in Israel that doesn't kill someone, Israel should limit its reaction to firing one rocket on Hamas civilians that doesn't kill someone.

He apparantly doesn't care that he selectively quoted only a portion of this principle of justice. He doesn't care that the Old Testament justice of "an eye for an eye" was applied to a one-on-one personal transgression - only after those who attempted evil were duly warned and eliminated from their midst. It did not apply to attacks by one nation upon another. It would be suicide for Israel to apply that principle to a neighboring government whose charter calls for the eradication of Israel and elimination of Jews. Sigh. But that is obviously what Saree would prefer.

The "wise" professor ignores "the rest of the story" told in Deuteronomy which reads:
"The judges [Israeli leadership] shall inquire diligently, and if the witness [Hamas] is a false witness and has accused his brother [Israel] falsely [Hamas accusing Israel], then you shall do to him [destroy him] as he had meant to do to his brother [Hamas means to destroy Israel based on Charter via missiles, but misses]. So you shall purge [eliminate] the evil [Hamas] from your midst. And the rest [other Islamists] shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."
(Deuteronomy 19:18-21, English Standard Version)
(For the nitpickers out there I must state the obvious: I added the annotations in the brackets to draw the analogy.)

These additional verses present a much clearer basis for Israel's action against Hamas, don't you think?

Professor Makdisi also prefers that Jews and Islamists share Palestine equally, sans a nation called "Israel." Another UCLA professor doing hash? He ignores that Jews are descended from the land of Palestine, therefore "Palestinians." Jews are entitled to their own states as much as Muslims are entitled to theirs. Why can't Muslims have... oh wait, they have Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, and Somalia - with Islamic political systems gaining in many neighboring countries through violent Jihadi practices.

After locating his makdisi@humnet.ucla.edu e-mail address, I wrote him the following answer to his question:

"In you article titled "What Kind of Security Will This Barbarism Bring Israel" you ask "what happened to an eye for an eye?"

Not being Jewish, but familiar with the concept, I can gander a guess. Here it is.

First, there are many times more Islamist Palestinians who want to annihilate Jews than there are Jews. An eye for an eye would exhaust Jews a lot quicker than it would exhaust Islamist Palestinians. Israel likely sees that as a losing ratio. A thousand eyes for one eye would be closer to parity and justice.

Second, Islamist Palestinians appear to have little regard for human life. The murder of their own people for violating their repressive principles of conduct is no secret out here in the civilized world. Neither is their liberal use of human shields and purposeful terrorism via indiscriminately aimed rockets into civilian areas, and Islamic propensity to recruit and deploy human bombs.

Your message loses its potency in its hypocrisy."

Terms of Cease Fire

Here are the terms I would impose on Hamas/Gaza before I'd agree to a ceasefire (aka what some would refer to as "refraining from beating them to a bloody pulp") ...

* Hamas renounce their goal to eliminate Israel. Acknowledge its right to exist.
* Hamas renounce any violence against Israel.
* Hamas agree to disarm.
* Hamas provide for unlimited inspections inside Gaza by Israel and its allies.
* Gaza set up a permanant Israeli miliatry zone between Egypt and Gaza to assure no arms cross through or under that zone.
* Revise the Hamas Charter to integrate the above principles.
* Israel not permit free passage of Palestinians into Israel. Protect Israels borders.
* Israel maintain a strict cap on the proportion of non-Jewish Palestinians (or simply "Muslims") allowed in the nation either as visitors or citizens.
* The Gazan government agree to promote individual responsibility and productivity to enhance their quality of life instead of focusing their limited resources on the destruction and elimination of Israel.

What is the chance of any of the above happening? 0.0000%

More Self Hatred of Western Civilization - Media Bias on Drudge

The Drudge Report is turning into the same "garbage in/garbage out" as most of the rest of the media.

Two recent back to back headlines read...

"UN SCHOOL HORROR IN GAZA; TANK FIRE KILLS DOZENS..."

"Israeli army says mortar shells fired from school, infantry returned fire..."

The first is taken as fact: "UN School?" How about "UN School used as Hamas stronghold and source of mortar fire?" Maybe that's too complicated for most journalists.

The second is taken as "someone says", as in "its probably not true, but..."

This kind of "take the terrorists word for it" and "question our allies" is all too typical of the media, including Drudge.

World Sucked in by Hamas BS

When you hear representatives of Gaza or of Hamas, or of any Islamic nation on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, or even on Fox, you need to listen with some background knowledge so as not to be taken in by their "taqiya" (Islamic doctrine of purposeful deception.)

I've just listened to one so-called "moderate" representative of the Palestinain liberation movement blaming Israel for breaking the 6 month truce. He proclaimed Hamas innocent of any provocation and accused Israel of unilaterally attacking after starving the poor Gazans.

To realize how much bullsh-t this really is, all one must do is skim the Hamas charter. Take a look here.

A major theme running throughout the Charter is that Israel must be eliminated. It states that enemies of Islam "formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests." It states the only way that Christians and Jews can exist peaceably is "under the wing of Islam."

From our perspective, the Charter is absoltutely psychotic. We must assume that the people behind it and who defend Hamas are psychotic as well - out of control deceptive monsters. "Anti-semetic" is too mild a word for the aims of Hamas and Islam. "Pro-ethnic cleansing" is more accurate.

For an excellent background on the current Gaza/Israel situation, please read this attached link from Barry Rubin titled "Barry Rubin on the Ground in Gaza". His bio is given in the preface to the article.

...because that's where the rockets were shot from!

The CNN home page headline reads "Refugee camp missile kills Hamas commander."

Note that the first words of the headline are "Refugee camp." That makes the Israeli's sound like the evil ones, killing people in a defenseless, humanitarian "refugee camp." After all, what do Americans associate with the words "refugee" and "camp" but helpless, dislocated, peace-loving folks temporarily residing around campfires toasting marshmallows. And here comes this dastardly neighbor, killing their spiritual leader. Man, this is like killing the head of the boy scout troop. The shame of it. (Note: The headline that follows the CNN home page link reads: "Air strike on refugee camp kills Hamas commander" "Refugee camp" is still prominent.)

On the other hand, this "refugee camp" was the site of additional rocket launches fired into Israel just moments earlier. This "refugee camp" housed not just the "campers" but additional rockets and munitions. The Islamists have nearly perfected their propaganda war by routinely using homes, mosques, schools (and human shields) as the sites of choice for storing, manufacturing, equipping, and firing the tools of their trade.

The more accurate and truthful headline would read:

"Islamic leader killed moments after firing terror rocket at Israel." And the story would go on..."Moments after firing several of thousands of rockets aimed at Israel towns over the past several months, an Islamic terrorist "spiritual leader" behind this terror against Israel was killed by nearly instantaneous Israeli air response. Most of the rockets and stored munitions are located in homes, mosques and schools throughout Gaza, purposely placed to achieve the greatest possible propaganda advantage. After years of rocket attacks by Hamas and their Islam-inspired hatred of Jews, Israel had no choice but to strike the source of the terror in Gaza.

Shame on you, CNN, for misusing your wonderful command of the English language to mislead and deceive in favor of your apparent agenda to discredit the one civilized entity sharing western values in the middle east.

Dubai: Beloved Ally; World Financial Center...

...and friends Of Islamic terrorists.

Dubai cancels New Years celebrations in solidarity with the Islamic Gaza-Hamas terrorists. Egypt did the same. Wouldn't you say the Bush administrations' ill-fated attempt to have Dubai firms safeguard the security of our ports a few years ago was dumb? Wake up, Washington politicians! I can only pray that Obama surprises us.

Keep up the good work, Israel!

The only thing that can explain our coziness with Dubai is their business connections with "corporate America." Those connections will leave us sucking wind. Am I the only one who believes our federal government is a tool and witting accomplice of big business' extravagance, waste, and ill-conceived alliances, and average Joes are being screwed by this fact?

By the way, for those of you who might think I am being mean spirited, Israel endured 200 missle strikes from Islamic Hamas during the week prior to their counter-attack - AND 3,000 SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR. They exercised excessive restraint.

Those who have pity on the Islamic Hamas terrorists in Gaza might very well be of the same cloth as those who had pity on Hitler and Mussolini.