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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?

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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.

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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. Continue Reading »

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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

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ere’s NATO’s most recent update on Somali pirating from the NATO shipping Web site. Look at the last block of type to the right of the map: Vessels Released – Iran Deyanat.

C-SM readers know that the Iran Deyanat contains a cargo so toxic it allegedly killed off many of the pirates who boarded it, and that the Russians believe it is a uraniaum-laden dirty bomb bound for Israel.

But now it’s gone.

I’ve poked around the internet yesterday and today and can find nothing about the ship, its cargo, its ransoming or its new destination. It is known that the ship was being closely monitored by the U.S. Navy. Could we have ransomed it, taken it to sea and sunk it? Possible. Could the Iranians have ransomed it and sent it on its merry way? Unlikely.

Will Iran and China – where the uranium-laden sand reportedly was loaded into the Iran Deyanat’s hold – ever have to answer tough questions about what they were up to. Oh, come on!

hat-tip: Jim

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Global Warming Update

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e haven’t been hearing much about global warming lately – economic reality vs. bogeyman theories, you know – so I thought it a good time to provide an update on just how the nasty warming of our planet is going:

Big snow flakes fell early Friday evening, turning Downtown Boise into a giant snow globe for people on their way home from work. The snow caught many people off guard, including this bicyclist heading down Idaho Street between 8th and 9th around 5:45 p.m. Across the Treasure Valley, tree branches heavy with wet, snow-covered leaves fell on power lines, causing scattered power outages.

This is the earliest measurable snowfall in Boise since recordkeeping began in 1898, according to the National Weather Service. At 10 p.m., the Weather Service said 1.7 inches of snow had fallen. The previous earliest recorded snowfall was Oct. 12, 1969, when a little more than an inch fell.

Pesky reality, dropping like thick, wet snow all over their lovely computer models.

Hat-tip: Jim

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enior Israeli military leaders from across the political spectrum talk their country’s security needs and the upcoming US election,” says the title slide on a video from The Jewish Council for  Education and Research.

The group needs to change its name to The Obama Council for Misinformation and Dirty Politics, because a number of the Israeli leaders say their words were taken out of context and the intent of the film was misrepresented to them.  (Log onto the group’s Web site and note the festooning of Obama photos and buttons proclaiming “Why Obama?” and “Jews Vote!” – letting you know the sort of education Manchurian brainwashing they’re pursing.)

Of the Council’s video, former deputy chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan told The Jerusalem Post:

“It’s not only misleading, it was an interview about what the next president was going to have to deal with.  And to know that they used this interview and took five seconds, and put me in a list of people praising Barack Obama…

“It wasn’t about the campaign, it was about the political and security issues of the Middle East that the next president should be involved in.  Nothing was said about Obama or [Republican

presidential candidate John] McCain.”

Former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy told a similar story:

“I was interviewed for a documentary dealing with what issues the new American president must deal with regarding the Middle East. … I was asked about the candidates, and was complimentary to both.”

But when asked about his opinion on who was more qualified to be president, Halevy said that he had rejected the question.

“I said that I thought it was inappropriate for an Israeli to advise Americans on who they should vote for, as it would be for them to advise Israelis on who they should vote for prime minister,” he said.

The film’s producers, Revised Films (what a perfect name!), said the Obama campaign was not involved in the film.  The Jewish Council for Education and Research refused to comment.  And the film is now out there, no doubt being played by Obama operatives to Jewish audiences in important states like Florida, with no disclaimer attached.

The JPost article includes the clip; feel free to view it there. I’m not going to waste valuable electrons on it.

hat-tip: Jim

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ow would we feel as a nation if one of our top military officers was General Salami? Poor Iran; the head of the air force branch of its Revolutionary Guard is Gen. Hoseyn Salami. Remember “Salami, Salami, Baloney?”

Having to deal with Gen. Salami jokes alone might explain why Iran is acting like a bully, or a bull in a china closet. Or it might be because they’ve named their recent war games Great Prophet III. And here I thought there was only one Mohammed (which my spell checker jively tells me should be spelled “Mo hammed.” Right.)

[Mini-update: I'm pleased to report that C-SM did not run the photo faked by the Revolutionary Guard, like the NYT, LAT and other major pubs did. Here's what the other CSM has to say about that.] Whatever the reason, the Iranians tested several rockets earlier today as part of Great Prophet III, including a new version of their Shahab-3 capable of reaching that pesky nation they want to rub off the map. The Shahab-3, you may recall, is just a re-badged North Korean missile with the studly name No-dong (nickname “Bobbitt”).

Anyway, said General Baloney Salami:

“Our missiles are ready for shooting at any place and any time, quickly and with accuracy.

“The enemy must not repeat its mistakes. The enemy targets are under surveillance.” (BBC)

“Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch.” (USA Today)

Seems like Western calls for Iran to behave itself are being ignored. Shocker. How much more bluster can it muster? Iran’s leaders appear to be marching the country towards the edge of the cliff, or in this case, the edge of the Gulf, with the only outrage left being an attempt to close off the Straits of Hormouz. That’s an act of war in most people’s book, although Al Gore might see it as a brave move against global warming.

On a more reasonable note, let’s remember that the Israelis just staged their own war games that looked an awful lot like a planning session for an aerial raid on a country about as far away as, oh, Iran. So for Iran to come back with a Shahab-3 test launch is at one level a quo for the Israeli’s quid.

At another level, it’s just more evidence that there’s a bunch of crazed, last-days theocrats running a country that’s rushing towards getting something fissionable to cap off their No-dongs. And Obama, who can’t even find the magic words to convince us he’s not rushing to the middle, wants us to put his diplomacy skills up as our defense against these guys.

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