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.
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.
gnore the Stars of David and this is a very funny piece of Photoshop art – politicians laughing their butts off that the American public would go for the idea that change would ever really happen in Washington.
But the Stars of David on Lieberman’s and Obama’s ties and Obama’s lapel pin make it just more pro-Palestinian, pro-terror, anti-democracy in the Middle East, anti-Israel leftist spittle. David Dees does some quite fantastic political satire illustrations, but he is oh, so wrong on Israel.
Too bad, because it is one heck of a fine piece of Photoshopping.
s I type this, it’s four minutes before midnight in Israel and an ugly 2008 is ready to pass over to what looks like it will be an even uglier 2009. As the new year dawns, we see everywhere more evidence of Islamic/Palestinian refusal to shun hatred and act like a civilized nation (and if they act like a civilized nation, maybe they’ll become one).
From the front:
[Shin Bet Chief Yuval] Diskin also noted that large numbers of Hamas operatives are hiding in hospitals and that some are posing as medical staff. “Some are also hiding in mosques and some of those have been turned into headquarters, since they assumed Israel won’t attack them there. Their weapons’ labs have been completely destroyed and their tunnel system has been severely damaged.
The IAF reported Tuesday of several sightings of cells operating in densely populated areas and attempting to use Palestinian civilians as human shields.
Cells have been detected in neighborhoods in Gaza City, Jabalya, Khan Younis and Rafah. (YNET)
Anyone for following the rules of the Geneva Convention?
From Beersheba:
The army official said the rocket that struck the school in Beersheba was manufactured in China, is heavier than the Qassam and can “potentially cause much greater damage.” He said the rocket contains metal pallets that can spread out across a radius of up to 100 meters (about 328 feet) from the point of impact. (YNET)
From Denmark:
A gunman wounded two Israelis working at a packed central Denmark shopping mall Wednesday, Danish police said.
The two wounded men are Israelis in their 20s, police spokesman Lars Thede said. He said it was too early to speculate on whether they were targeted because of their nationality.
One of the wounded was shot in the arm and the other in the leg, police said. Their condition is unclear. …
The men, who were selling hair-care products, had been harassed by a group of youths in recent days, Denmark’s Ritzau news agency said.
According to the B.T. newspaper’s Web site, a man shouted something in another language and opened fire. Another Israeli inside the hairdressing shop threw a chair at the gunman, the newspaper said.
The shooter escaped in a dark vehicle.
The Foreign Ministry believes that the attack was related to anger over Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)
Something in a foreign language … harassed by a “group of youths” earlier … related to anger over the situation in Gaza … Gwarsh, do you think they just might be Palestinians or other radical Islamists?
From Tehran:
Thousands of Iranians, joined by high-ranking Iranian officials and military commanders, shouted “Down With USA” and “Down With Israel” in Tehran on Monday. Many carried banners reading “Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth” and “We should all rise and destroy Israel.”
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday urged Muslim states to punish Israel. (AFP)
And finally, from Ft. Lauderdale:
It was pandemonium. Muslims dress in full jihad garb juiced with …. hate.It looked like Halloween in Gaza. Throngs of young Muslims drunk with ….. hate. It was madness in America. You had to see it to believe it (watch video for the feel)
Across the street was an anemic counter protest. Where were the Jewish kids? NOWHERE. Jewish leadership and the diaspora have failed miserably in the education of our youth. The entire Muslim rally was young, wild — frenetic. Itchy fingers on hair triggers.
Jewish lay leadership should be thrown out on the dhimmi asses. They have failed an entire generation of slackers. (Atlas Shrugs)
And this video from Tom Trento, aslo of the Fort Lauderdale Palestinian demonstration. Check out the woman with the “Nuke Israel” sign at 1:55 and ask yourself, “Fort Lauderdale?!”
Who or what is Hamas, the movement that Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, would like to wipe out as though it were a virus? Why did it win the Palestinian elections and why does it allow rockets to be fired into Israel? The story of Hamas over the past three years reveals how the Israeli, US and UK governments’ misunderstanding of this Islamist movement has led us to the brutal and desperate situation that we are in now.
The story begins nearly three years ago when Change and Reform – Hamas’s political party – unexpectedly won the first free and fair elections in the Arab world, on a platform of ending endemic corruption and improving the almost non-existent public services in Gaza and the West Bank. Against a divided opposition this ostensibly religious party impressed the predominantly secular community to win with 42 per cent of the vote.
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. Despite renouncing violence and recognising the state of Israel Fatah had not achieved a Palestinian state. It is crucial to know this to understand the supposed rejectionist position of Hamas. It won’t recognise Israel or renounce the right to resist until it is sure of the world’s commitment to a just solution to the Palestinian issue.
This somehow makes ceaseless rocket attacks – with ever more sophisiticated, foreign-purchased rockets, somehow legitimate? Elections are “fair and free” if Hamas orders the wholesale slaughter of Fatah members in the weeks leading up to the election?
And the fact that Palestinians voted for Hamas does not take away the fact that it is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and is responsible for countless terrorist attacks on innocent civilians. How can we ignore all this and treat Hamas as if it doesn’t deserve to be retaliated against?
I have little optimism that 2009 – YOTO 1 (Year Of The One 1) – will make things better. My wife shoveled aside her considerable knowledge of Obama today and said she hoped he just might be a Lightworker of some kind, able through the power of his personality to accomplish things others can’t. To which I, regrettably, answered “hooey.”
The hatreds and history of the Middle East are too deep, the teachings of radical Islam too full of jihad, for mere mortals, even ones as charming as Obama, to overcome, so I’m afraid that 2009 will merely serve to teach us that we elected a man, not a demigod, and that we’re in for another hateful year.
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?
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.
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.
The Obama administration told us that not only would they be very good at spending unfathomable sums of money, but they’d also be maestros at turning that cash into jobs for a job-hungry America. Like so many White House words, the Big Job Promise is turning out to be nothing more than hype-fuel for the [...]
With Obama winning the presidency by seven percent, we can't blame the media. Their laudatory coverage and refusal to extensively probe into Obama's background and [lack of] experience was at best responsible for five percent of his vote, the pundits tell us. Here is a compilation of over 100 significant instances of pro-Obama/anti-McCain bias during the 2008 campaign.
"Thank you for the Voice of the Victims films. The students really liked it, and it means so much to them to hear real stories and not watch a cheesy drama like so many other videos."
— a high school teacher.
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.
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.
