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convoy led by the maverick MP George Galloway carrying supplies for Gaza has been attacked in Egypt, apparently injuring several people travelling in his party.

The convoy, carrying aid worth £1 million, was pelted with stones and vandalised with anti-Hamas slogans after it stopped overnight in El-Arish, a small town around 28 miles from the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.  (Times of London)

An aide to Galloway called the attack “an absolute disgrace,” apparently not having any idea how “absolute” is defined in the English language.  I’d argue with “disgrace,” too, but even if you think it’s not a good idea to throw stones at England’s looniest MP, the most sold-out to the jihadists politician in the West, it would still be easy for you to see why the attack was not absolutely disgraceful.

After all, Galloway was in Egypt and just a bit before he had said this of Egypt and its leader:

“There are many governments responsible for this great crime in Palestine, but the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak is jointly responsible for the murder of every Palestinian who has died in these last two years. 

“When he [Mubarak] was embracing Livni [the Israeli Foreign Minister] as the bombs were falling, when he locked the border at Rafah, he became an international criminal and an outlaw of the Arab world.

“So I call, in conclusion, on the great people of Egypt, on the heroic armed forces of Egypt, and the heroic army of Egypt of 1973, to rise up and sweep away this tyrant Mubarak.

“To rise up, to rise up, and to demolish the border at Rafah and let the people go free.”

That could make him just a bit unpopular in some places.  Like Egypt.

And that bit about demolishing the border and letting Palestinians - Palestinians! - have free access to your country didn’t go over too well, either. For all Galloway fawns to the Arabs, he apparently hasn’t learned that Arab states are not the least bit keen on having large populations of Palestinians, with their victimhood and violence, living in their territory.

And then there was this:

THREE Islamist terror suspects who were arrested in northwest England on Friday night planned to leave the country under the cover of a humanitarian convoy to Gaza led by George Galloway, the maverick MP, senior police sources said. THREE Islamist terror suspects who were arrested in northwest England on Friday night planned to leave the country under the cover of a humanitarian convoy to Gaza led by George Galloway, the maverick MP, senior police sources said.

Big stones, sharp stones for Mr. Galloway, then!

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he UN is not the least bit happy with Israel. [Note from editor: Isn't that a bit too obvious for a first sentence, Laer?] This time, the UN is castigating the Israelis for getting in the way of its aid shipments, as detailed in this UN news release:

The number of trucks allowed by Israel to enter Gaza daily to deliver much-needed relief supplies remains insufficient, the United Nations reported today.

Further, the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that only a limited array of items are being permitted to enter through the crossings.

Those scurrilous Israelis!  But wait … before the electrons dried on this UN release, BBC reported that Banki and his Boys might just be growling at the wrong enemy:

Hamas policemen have seized thousands of blankets and food parcels that were meant to be distributed to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, UN officials say.

A UN spokesman said policemen raided a UN warehouse on Tuesday after officials refused to hand over the aid to a Hamas-controlled ministry.

The UN said it was the first time its aid had been confiscated by Hamas.

It condemned the action and demanded the goods be immediately returned. There has been no comment by Hamas.

UN spokesman Christopher Gunness said Hamas police took 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels.

Too funny; too true.  The UN had barely stopped crying over the deaths of some of these Hamas “policemen” during the Israeli offensive, as if they were keepers of the peace, not Hamas enforcers, and now their surviving brothers in thuggery steal the UN’s blankets and food parcels!

It’s indicative of the UN approach to the Palestine issue, which can be summarized as entrenched, implacable anti-Israelism (and somewhat more subtly, anti-Zionism and antisemitism).  Here’s that UN news release’s summary of the current war:

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the military operation – launched by Israel with the stated aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks – killed 1,380 Palestinians, of whom 431 are children and 112 are women.

UNICEF stressed that children, who had nowhere to hide, were severely psychologically affected by the conflict. As a result, child protection – including mine-risk education, psychosocial support and recreational opportunities to create a sense of normalcy – must be a priority in Gaza, it said.

Hmmm.  No mention of the safety of Israeli children under the hail of Hamas rockets.  No mention of Hamas missile batteries in residential neighborhoods and weapons stockpiles in the basements of apartment buildings.  And definitely no mention of Hamas military forces firing from UN facilities crowded with Palestinian children.

Great Moments In Black African Nationalism

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h, for the good old days when white colonials ran a pretty good show in Africa! What a mess the black leaders plutocrats have made of Africa. Here’s the latest:

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) — Zimbabwe’s central bank will introduce a $50 billion note — enough to buy just two loaves of bread — as a way of fighting cash shortages amid spiraling inflation.

The country’s acting finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa, made the announcement in a government gazette released Saturday.

Although Chinamasa did not give the date on which the $50 billion and new $20 billion notes would come into circulation, an official at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said the notes would be distributed to all banks by the end of Monday.

And all the world’s horses and all the world’s men can’t get Robert Mugabe out.  If the United Nations were indeed united for the good of the people, he would have been out long ago, but it’s really the United Despots, and a majority of delegates are afraid that if Mugabe goes, they’ll soon follow.

h/t: What Bubba Knows

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midst all the global finger-pointing at Israel for standing up to defend itself against the bloodthirsty savages who are Hamas, there are moments of clarity … even among the Gaza Palestinians, as the Muslims Against Sharia blog relays:

At least some of them know the identity of their tormentors. A New York Times dispatch captured an excruciating moment that took place in a hospital morgue, where a mother had just found half of the body of her 17-year-old daughter.

“May God exterminate Hamas!” screamed the woman in crystal-clear understanding that the terrorist band’s reckless, inhuman actions had brought death to her child.

The Libyan cease-fire resolution written for the Arab League does not even mention Hamas, and here’s the Palestinian U.N. observer commenting on the resolution:

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, said Arab nations would be working “day and night” to get council approval of a binding resolution “that would condemn the crimes committed by Israel and stop the military aggression, and provide protection for the Palestinians and lift the siege.”

“We face a very dangerous crossroads in the Middle East as a direct consequence of this Israeli aggression … (which) is threatening the life and prosperity of 1.5 million Palestinian and also threatens to undermine the peace efforts,” he said.

Who’s got the clarity here?  The victim or the perpetrator?

“And why don’t I have any respect for the UN?” asks frequent hat-tippee Jim.  This video tells the story; watch it to in end and be sure to note the markings on the rear door of the ambulance and the flag its flying:

Hamas - and, apparently, the UN - are flagrant violators of international law and should be treated as such.

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ews reports on Israel’s successful action against Nizar Rayyan (center, spelled Rayan in AP reports and  Wikipedia), a prominent Hamas leader and Hamas’ liaison with its military wing, give us an insight into the nature of the Palestinian beast and the Israeli action against it.

Most Hamas leaders have gone into hiding since the Israeli offensive began, but not Rayyan, who was seen speaking at his local mosque and adamantly refused to leave his apartment.  Says Ynet:

Prior to striking Rayyan’s house the IDF tried to warn his family about the imminent attack and urged them to evacuate the place, but they refused to do so.

Israel has been using leaflets and even phone calls to give nearby civilians warnings of strikes on known military targets illegally hidden amidst the civilian population.  Showing evil to Israel’s good, Rayyan willingly allowed his family to die.  This is true to Palestinian standards and true to Rayyan, who was a strong advocate of continuing the campaign of suicide attacks against Israel.  He had previously sent one of his own sons out as a suicide bomber in a rather inept attack that resulted in the deaths of only two of the hated Jews.  (Oh, the shame the Rayyan family must have felt!)

The suicide bombings have done nothing to advance the Palestinian agenda, yet Rayyan advocated them still, just as he continued to believe Allah would see Palestine victorious, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary - failure, defeat, corruption, powerlessness, squalor, sin, disrespect.

And suicide bombs were just the start of Rayyan’s commitment to terrorism and the destruction of Jews. Wikipedia’s write-up seems to have a bias of support bubbling just beneath the surface, but it is worth the read nonetheless:

An influential preacher at what is known in Jabalia as the “Mosque of martyrs”, Rayan mentored suicide bombers. …

When the Israeli military killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004, Rayan came to be considered Hamas’ top clerical authority. Rayan directed and financed the Ashdod Port attack, which killed ten people.

Rayan was one of the architects behind the 2007 Battle of Gaza, in which 400 Palestinian Fatah party members were killed and dozens more Palestinians were tortured and maimed. According to an Hamas spokesperson, it’s possible that the Palestinian National Authority asked Israel to kill Rayan due to his role in the Hamas-Fatah clashes. He added that Rayan was one of the main reasons why many of Mahmoud Abbas’s men “did not sleep well at night.”

Rayan was fundamentally opposed to the state of Israel. He proclaimed, “True Islam would ever allow a Jewish state to survive in the Muslim Middle East. Israel is an impossibility. It is an offense against God.”

Rayan believed that Jews are a “cursed people” and some were transformed into pigs and apes by Allah. He also believed that Jews must pay for murdering prophets of Islam and “closing [their] your ears to the Messenger of Allah.”

Yet - no surprise here - Rayyan was a hero to the Palestinians. And despite all he knew as a senior Hamas leader, he still promoted his gang of ruthless brothers:

Wednesday saw Rayyan speak at a Gaza mosque and call on Muslims everywhere to pray for the Palestinians in the Strip. “We do not need money or weapons, we only need your prayers. We can handle the enemy ourselves.”

Well, it turns out that Rayyan handled Israel right into his grave.  Despite Rayyan’s arrogance, Hamas certainly needs money; Gaza survives only because of money received from others.  Of course they need weapons, including rockets and roadside explosives made in Iran and China.  It’s fine politicking for Rayyan to grandstand like this, because none of the Arab states are rushing to physically defend Hamas, which is seen as an Iranian puppet and a potential spawning ground of Islamist action against their own corrupt regimes.

And, it turns out, Rayyan did need their prayers - but prayers have done little to help the Palestinians, and they didn’t help him or his family.  Perhaps they are being prayed to the wrong god, a god that endorses cruelty and violence.

We learn from AP that the Israeli strike killed two of his four wives and four of his twelve children, so we see that Rayyan is a polygamist and a hyper-procreator, responsible for his little part of the gross over-population of Gaza and the resulting poverty.  Presumably, the four children were his younger offspring, murdered by their father, who refused to allow them to leave for Tehran or other safe havens available to Hamas leaders. [Update: Subsequent reports reveal that all four of Rayyan's wives and about a dozen of his progeny died in the attack - more evidence (as if we need it) of the culture of death that consumes the Palestinians.]

Knowing his actions would lead to these innocents’ deaths was OK with Rayyan since he was a professor of Islamic law - you know, cut off their hands or their heads, stone them, whip them, die for Allah.  He knew his personal behavior was right with his personal god, cruel god that the Muslim’s Allah is.

We also learn that the one-ton bomb dropped on his house killed a man who “was respected in Gaza for donning combat fatigues and personally participating in clashes against Israeli forces.”  Not a mamby-pamby negotiator for peace, this Rayyan.

Finally, AP tells us that secondary explosions were witness after the initial strike on Rayyan’s building, so we know that he was storing Hamas munitions in a civilian building, putting his own family at risk in violation of international law - and that probably makes him a hero to Palestinians as much as donning combat fatigues.

The death of Nizar Rayyan,  his wives and  his children is a morality play of the highest order.  We see in Rayyan all that is evil:  arrogance, hatred, the murder of wives and children, terrorism.  We see in Israel a highly moral attempt to protect the innocent while destroying the evil.

And we know that in Gaza, Rayyan will be mourned as a hero. What does that say about Gaza, Hamas, the Palestinians and Islam?  And what does it say about the U.N., international media and much of the international community that all stand by Hamas at times like this?

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he Israeli Defense Forces are learning from the media-savvy Palestinians - they’ve created their own page on YouTube - IDF Spokesperson’s Unit - and filled it with videos showing the pin-point accuracy of their attacks and their targeting of terrorists.  Here’s video of the destruction of Hamas’ HQ:

And in a deft PR move, here’s a clip of an Israeli aid shipment to Gaza:

Unfortunately, the most popular clip - on that shows Hamas as the terrorists they are, and worthy of attack - was removed by YouTube.  Here’s Noah Pollak at Consensus:

[Showing] Israeli humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza and airstrikes that prevented terrorists from firing rockets at Israeli civilians … was apparently too much for YouTube, which moments ago removed several videos from the IDF’s channel, including the most-watched video, which showed a group of Hamas goons being blown up in an air strike as they loaded Katyusha missiles onto a truck. The point of such footage, as if it needed to be said, is not to revel in violence — it is to show the legitimacy of Israeli self-defense.

The rank double-standard that YouTube has applied to Israel is disturbing. YouTube hosts all manner of similar footage — much of it far more gory than the grainy infrared images posted by the IDF — of U.S. air strikes. Why is YouTube capitulating to those who do not wish for Israel to be able to tell its side of the story?

Why indeed?

Since the start of the Israeli campaign against Hamas (and the propaganda blasts from Hamas that followed), the emergent administration’s only comment  has come from Obama’s chief national security spokesperson Brooke Anderson, who said, “President-elect Obama is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza, but there is one president at a time.”

Jake Tapper of ABC/Political Punch presents today a summary of Obama’s discussions of Hamas during the campaign:  In his visit to Israel last July, Obama was asked about Hamas and replied in part:

“[I]f somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing. In terms of negotiations with Hamas, it is very hard to negotiate with a group that is not representative of a nation state, does not recognize your right to exist, has consistently used terror as a weapon, and is deeply influenced by other countries.”

He went on to urge Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist, which of course would be nice.  The real question is how he will respond when they don’t.

This March, Obama reiterated the theme:

“The violence in Gaza is the result of Hamas’ decision to launch rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and Israel has a right to defend itself,” then-Sen. Obama said. “I remain very concerned about the fate of civilians and urge Israel to do all it can to avoid civilian deaths and to keep its focus on Hamas, which bears responsibility for these events.”

That’s all Tapper chose to share with us and it is reassuring.  A Jeffrey Goldberg interview with Obama in Atlantic went a lot deeper on the subject and included this from the PEOTUS:

“When I visited Ramallah, among a group of Palestinian students, one of the things that I said to those students was: “Look, I am sympathetic to you and the need for you guys to have a country that can function, but understand this: if you’re waiting for America to distance itself from Israel, you are delusional. Because my commitment, our commitment, to Israel’s security is non-negotiable.” I’ve said this in front of audiences where, if there were any doubts about my position, that’d be a place where you’d hear it.”

Of course that was Obama’s paraphrase of the statement, given during an interview targeted at Florida Jewish voters concerned about Obama’s position.  In the interview, he also says this:

JG: Do you think that Israel is a drag on America’s reputation overseas?

BO: No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable. I am absolutely convinced of that, and some of the tensions that might arise between me and some of the more hawkish elements in the Jewish community in the United States might stem from the fact that I’m not going to blindly adhere to whatever the most hawkish position is just because that’s the safest ground politically.

I want to solve the problem, and so my job in being a friend to Israel is partly to hold up a mirror and tell the truth and say if Israel is building settlements without any regard to the effects that this has on the peace process, then we’re going to be stuck in the same status quo that we’ve been stuck in for decades now ….

I wrote yesterday in Sunday Scan that the Israel/Hamas problem is shaping up to be that test Joe Biden said would come in the early days of the Obama administration.  If it is still going on then, it will be the first test not just of Obama’s position on Israel, but also on whether we can trust what he said on the campaign trail about Israel.

South Ossentia: It’s Just More Russia

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t’s been six months since Russia pried South Ossentia out of Georgia’s hands, supposedly out of grave concern for the well-being of the South Ossentians. So, as Dr. Phil would say, how’s that workin’ for ya?

Not too good, according to Spiegel.

Besides Russia, so far only Nicaragua has recognized the separatist republic. Foreign journalists are only permitted to travel in the tiny country when accompanied by officials from the foreign ministry in Moscow. Even the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union, which brokered the cease-fire between Russia and Georgia, are being denied entry by the South Ossetians and their protective power, Russia. For this reason, very little reliable information makes it out of the region.

This makes what recently appeared in Russian newspapers all the more surprising: that the republic is on the brink of social unrest, just as winter is beginning, because the government has allegedly embezzled Russian reconstruction aid funds, as the former South Ossetian defense minister and head of the security council, a Russian lieutenant general, explained; or that South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity fled spinelessly during the war; and that millions of rubles deposited in the safes at the national bank in Tskhinvali had gone missing and that Russian businesspeople are refusing to invest in South Ossetia while its brawny separatist leader remains in power.

In South Ossentia, any controversy is squelched by “state secrets.”  Any homes that are rebuilt are rebuilt through EU or American efforts, not Russian.  Money disappears.  Leaders flake.

In other words, Russia happens.

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ince November, Hamas rockets have slammed into Israel. Israel countered with diplomacy and incursions into Palestinian territory, but still the rockets came. Today, Israel responded with massive airstrikes, raining tons of explosives on Hamas security facilities. This much the Mainly Marginalized Media can report pretty decently. Then the pro-Palestinian fun begins: Here’s the decidedly anti-Israel NYT, in paragraph three of its report story:

A military operation against Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, had been forecast and demanded by Israeli officials for weeks, ever since a rocky cease-fire between Israel and Hamas broke down completely in early November and rocket attacks began in large numbers against Israel. Still, there was a shocking quality to Saturday’s attacks, in broad daylight on about 100 sites, as police cadets were graduating, women were shopping at the outdoor market and children were emerging from school.

Just another day in Palestinian, with those nice Palestinians doing what nice people do - supporting a government that just can’t stop itself from lobbing rockets into Israeli towns. Meanwhile, at AP, it’s much the same: A couple introductory paragraphs do a good job of establishing that Palestinian rocket fire is legitimately the reason for the attack, but then takes off on Palestinian sympathy, which is necessarily anti-Israeli:

The strikes caused widespread panic and confusion in Gaza, as black clouds of smoke rose above the territory, ruled by Hamas for the past 18 months.

Some of the Israeli missiles struck in densely populated areas as children were leaving school, and women rushed into the streets frantically looking for their children. Most of those killed were security men, but civilians were among the dead.

Said Masri sat in the middle of a Gaza City street, close to a security compound, alternately slapping his face and covering his head with dust from the bombed-out building. “My son is gone, my son is gone,” wailed Masri, 57.

The shopkeeper said he sent his 9-year-old son out to purchase cigarettes minutes before the airstrikes began and now could not find him. “May I burn like the cigarettes, may Israel burn,” Masri moaned.

And how about Hamas, Masri? Should Hamas burn for refusing to allow Israel to exist, for firing off rockets that led directly to the loss of your son?

Nope. Fawzi Barhoum, the Palestinian spokesman, said Hamas will “continue resistance until the last drop of blood,” a position dutifully reported, saying the Palestinians “retaliated” for the air strikes with more rockets.

A more straightforward report would have said that despite the air strikes, Hamas stubbornly continued firing rockets into Israel. In paragraph 15, AP gets around to telling us over 200 mortars and rockets have struck Israel from Hamas territory in the last week - part of 3,000 such attacks in the last year … “according to the military’s count.”

After dutifully reporting the outrage from Lebanon, Jordan and other locales noted for their openness and tolerance, the stories wrap up. Another military vicory for the Israelis; another media victory for Hamas.

Photos: Top AP, Middle Reuters