Moral Clarity

This is why I am truly grateful that not one of the current liberal leadership candidates is the elected leader of Canada. Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a speech given to B’nai B’rith Canada (taken from CTV):

"When it comes to dealing with a war between Israel and a terrorist organization, this country and this government cannot and will not be neutral," Harper told the Toronto crowd.

Harper came under fire during the war for calling Israel's invasion of Lebanon a "measured response" against Hezbollah militants, who captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid in July.

"This summer, we were mercilessly attacked by the Opposition for the position we took on the Middle East," said Harper.

"I understand that with the news reports of the day, and the sound of battle, the images of destruction and the suffering of innocents, that it is sometimes difficult to see and keep the focus on what is truly at stake.

"But the fact is this: those who attacked Israel, and those who sponsored such attacks ... seek the destruction of Israel of the destruction of the Jewish people."

Amen.

Oh, say it isn’t so - Iggy won't go!

Iggy’s trip to Israel for his solidarity photo-op with the Israeli people has been cancelled by the trip organizers. The Canada-Israel Committee cited concerns that with Ignatieff on tour the ‘mission would be overshadowed by leadership politicking’ and would create a ‘highly charged political environment’ reports the Globe and Mail

OTTAWA -- Michael Ignatieff's plan to travel to Israel to counter the controversy stemming from his assertion that the country committed a war crime in Lebanon has been cancelled by the group organizing the trip, over fears the mission will be overshadowed by leadership politicking.

The Canada-Israel Committee said yesterday that it cancelled the three-day trip for MPs after Liberal leadership candidate Mr. Ignatieff decided to go because they were concerned its purpose of educating parliamentarians would be derailed by a "highly-charged political environment."

The move means the leadership front-runner's gesture to demonstrate his ties to Israel is called off -- but it spares him from a risky plan that worried key supporters, including several MPs who feared it would only rehash the controversy.

"We're going to wait until this round of politics dies down," said CIC chair Marc Gold. "These trips are educational in nature. It's a chance for parliamentarians to be exposed to a range of issues. And that purpose would be compromised, or wouldn't be served, to the extent that it would be focused on who's saying what."

Mr. Ignatieff issued a statement yesterday saying he was "disappointed" that the trip was postponed. He said he will go when it is re-scheduled after the leadership convention.

"I look forward to representing Canada, along with other Canadian leaders, in discussions with Israeli and Palestinian leadership about Canada's role in the region and long-term solutions for peace," he said in the statement. More than a dozen MPs were expected to go on the trip in mid-November, only two weeks before Liberal delegates pick the new leader of their party on Dec. 2.

Go ahead and call me bitter for having the ICC rain on my idea of a good time but just why would the Israel Canada Committee feel it necessary to cancel the trip for everyone just because Iggy’s a little too hot to handle right now? Why not just tell Iggy to catch the first flight out of next time?

h/t Daimnation

Can-Con - we've managed to anger both Hamas & Fatah

I found both these two articles at the Elder of Zyion concerning the official Palestinian outrage that a few Palestinians will be leaving a refugee camp for a better life somewhere else – in this case Canada courtesy ofa joint Jordan / UN/Canada initiative project:

Atef Adwan, Minister of Refugees of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)-led government, on Sunday accused Jordan of planning to transfer hundreds of Palestinians, who fled violence in Iraq, to Canada. In a press release, Adwan noted that the Jordanian government has recently reached a deal with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to transfer 280 Palestinian refugees to Canada.

The Palestinians are stuck on the Jordanian-Iraqi border after fleeing from Iraq because of the growing hatred and violence against them by Iraqi sectarian groups. Adwan wondered how Jordan was able to contain 600,000 Iraqis but refuse to allow 280 Palestinians from staying on its territories.

He appealed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to intervene and ask Jordan not to displace the Palestinian refugees for fears that this step could be the beginning of ending the Palestinian refugees issue by transferring them to some countries and canceling their right of return to Palestine.

Even Mr. “Moderate” Abbas is not happy.

I expect the Fatwas to come soon and the riots will commence as soon as a shipment of Canadian flags can be imported into the Gaza Strip. Maybe they can get a grant?

Just say - NO MORE

I’ve been waiting for someone other than myself (and a few others) to point the obvious inconsistencies in the Bush Administrations foreign policy via Israel/Palestine. Actually, I almost thought the events of the last two weeks were going two slip completely under the wire so I was glad to see this The Jerusalem Post op-ed piece asking Israelis to re-think their relationship with the Bush Administration:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his successor Ehud Olmert justified unilateral disengagement on the grounds that we were obliged to take initiatives to break the impasse in the absence of a Palestinian peace partner. In order to implement this, 7,500 Israelis were uprooted from their homes and even now, a year later, most have yet to be permanently resettled. Subsequent events, climaxing with the Lebanon war, demonstrated the disastrous repercussions arising from this policy.

Today our enemies are emboldened. Some even believe their dream of destroying the Jewish state may now be realized. Yet worse is in the offing. Facing enormous pressure from allies whose support they seek for the impending confrontation with the Iranians, Washington - which had hitherto steadfastly endorsed our refusal to negotiate with terrorists - has tilted its policy to appear more "evenhanded."
Once again it is urging us to bolster the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority.

THE REALITY is that despite wearing a suit and tie and talking to Westerners like a moderate, Abbas is simply paying lip service to a two-state policy - with the caveat that it must incorporate the "right of return" of Arab refugees; a prescription for our demise. More importantly, before Hamas won the election Abbas reigned over a regime whose central pillars - cultural, religious and educational - were based on sanctifying the murder of Jews as a supreme religious and national objective.

Mothers of suicide bombers appeared on official PA TV exulting the martyrdom of their sons; PA broadcasts of sermons in mosques called on congregants to kill Jews; schools, kindergartens and summer camps brainwashed children into accepting suicide bombers as ultimate role models. While occasionally condemning violence in remarks to the Western media, Abbas hailed families of suicide bombers as heroes and personally authorized them to receive a $250 monthly stipend. A recent PA Ministry of Culture book of the month honored Hanadi Jaradat, the suicide bomber who blew up 21 people at a Haifa restaurant. Wafa Idris, the first woman suicide bomber, has become a Palestinian role model for feminism. Football teams are named after "martyrs."

At least Hamas is honest about its evil intent to destroy Israel. But the reality is that Abbas's Fatah movement's armed wings are responsible for murdering far more Israelis than Hamas has.

TO MAKE matters worse, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is now actually urging Abbas to form a unity government with Hamas. The only obstacle is that Hamas insists on retaining its weapons and adamantly refuses - even insincerely - to express an incantation implying that it could ever accept the existence of the "Zionist entity."

Rice had previously coerced Sharon and his defense minister Shaul Mofaz into handing over control of the Philadelphi route between Sinai and Gaza to the Egyptians. Not surprisingly, the Egyptians reneged on their undertakings and a massive flow of armaments and terrorists have been pouring into Gaza along that route. Yet today the Americans are pressing Israel to ease security requirements at all checkpoints for "humanitarian reasons," in order to bolster Abbas.

Rice had previously insisted that Israel endorse the transfer of weapons to Palestinian security forces to strengthen the PA. Although reluctant, Olmert agreed to do so in May on the grounds that "we need to help Abu Mazen." Rice has announced that the US will also fund the expansion of the Abbas Presidential Guard from 2,500 to 6,000 troops.

Nobody, including our own government, seemed concerned that since Oslo weapons provided to Palestinian security personnel had been used to murder Israelis. Nor has the government drawn attention to the fact that Abbas is still trying desperately to persuade Hamas killers to merge with the PA security, which already incorporates Fatah murderers. ONE GAINS the impression that all the lessons of the Oslo disaster, including the pledge not to provide concessions without reciprocity, are being placed in cold storage.

Like a sick parody, we are once again operating on the premise that the PA - even as Kassams rain down on the south - is once again going to become our peace partner. And, worst of all, our government is trying to spin this sad reversal into a victory! All this, of course, raises the oft-quoted analogies to the pre-WWII appeasement. In fact, the current situation may be worse.

Read the rest here. I just wish some enterprising American journalists would start seriously questioning both the US President and his Secretary of State on what makes Abbas’ Fatah party “moderate”, and why is the US government pouring literally millions of US dollars into Fatah to boast its electoral popularity with the Palestinian people when they have recently shown a decided preference for Hamas aka honest murdering bastards.

Al-Reuters Strikes Again

Literally. Arutz Sheva is carrying this report:

On Tuesday, a Reuters cameraman was remanded to prison until trial for his part in rock-throwing attacks on security forces in Bil'in, where the separation fence is a constant target of protesters.

The cameraman, Imad Muhammad Intisar Boghnat, was arrested and charged as a result of violent riots in the Arab village of Bil'in, in the Modi'in region, on October 6, 2006. A videotape that the prosecution presented to the judge shows Boghnat encouraging and directing rioters in Bil'in to throw large chunks of rock at Israeli vehicles in such a way as to cause maximum damage. The accused is heard shouting, "Throw, throw!" and later, "Throw towards the little window!"

The judge of the Judea-area military court who issued the remand order, Major Amir Dahan, called the case "borderline" for pre-trial imprisonment, but he noted that the alternative of house arrest was not wise, as Boghnat is a resident of Bil'in.

"That village is a constant source of conflict and the respondent [Boghnat] should not again be placed in such a dilemma, lest he again, Heaven forbid, disgrace himself," the judge wrote in his decision. In addition, Maj. Dahan emphasized that "above all, the accused must be cut off from camera work in tense and sensitive locales where disturbances take place." Security forces must also have easy access to Boghnat, the judge said.

This has all the earmarks of another fine Pallywood production but it does tend to make one speculate how many years photojournalists have been moonlighting as directors.

Lost in the supermarket

This is my "what in the earth is wrong with the human race" post of the morning. I lost my Apple earphones for my Ipod shuffle and surfed over to the Apple online store to order a replacement pair. At $39 bucks plus delivery - I’ll pass, but it makes me wonder how stupid do the Apple really think consumers are? The Ipod shuffle is going for $89 and its stretches the bounds of incredibility that almost half of the production cost per unit represents the cost for earphones? This is just one of the reasons that Apple, while often first out the gate, ultimately loses the race.

Then a friend brought me a September 2006 Chatelaine article (no online link) to peruse as it concerns the goings-on at my absolute favourite all-time work-out wear clothes retailer. Considering that I am in full-work out mode and doing cardio five times a week and lifting weights four times a week (heavy weight/short reps) I feel that I deserve comfortable clothes.

The odd thing about my Lulu Lemon wear is that it never stinks and it’s the most incredibly quick drying and comfortable sportswear I have ever worn. Don’t ask me why or how – it just doesn’t ever smell. I was wearing just plain t-shirts, sports bra and jogging pants and not only were my clothes dripping at the end but you could smell me long before you saw me.

Who knew that the management at Lulu Lemon has a somewhat incestuous relationship with a very ESTish-like encounter group thingy happening? I doubt I will stop buying the clothes (at least until I can find a compatible product) but walking through the retailer’s door will now have a certain cringe factor to it and I'll probably not feel a compunction to take off my sunglasses.

Israel signs Cooperation Pact with NATO

Last spring I mused on Israeli membership for NATO and today I found this tidbit on Ynet News:

Israel will provide support for NATO counter-terrorism patrols in the Mediterranean under a cooperation pact agreed with the alliance on Monday. NATO has sought since the end of the Cold War to bolster its presence in the Middle East, and the accord is the first one to be finalized since the 26-member alliance offered in 2004 to forge closer ties with Israel and six Arab states.

"Israel is the first one to have agreed to the details of what cooperation should entail," said a NATO official, adding that details of the pact would be released later. The details agreed on Monday included a pledge to provide support for counter-terrorism patrols by alliance ships.

NATO has offered Israel, Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia help in reforming their armies and making it easier for them to cooperate with the military of alliance nations. It has also encouraged them to provide ships, intelligence and port access for patrols NATO launched in the Mediterranean to help detect terrorist activity shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Algeria and Morocco have also expressed an interest in supporting the patrols, but the Arab response to offers of cooperation has been generally patchy. Many in the Arab world regard NATO as a US-dominated body intent on interfering.

This development is certainly one to follow and the details of this agreement should make interesting reading indeed.

Gallic Intifada gives way to Islamic Vichy Government

UPI reports on the 'Gallic Intifada' that has yet to end since more than 10,000 cars were set a light in November 2005.

An average of 14 policemen a day are injured in bloody clashes with jobless youngsters. France's Interior Ministry said 2,500 police officers had been "wounded" this year. The head of the hard-line trade union "Action Police" Michel Thooris wrote to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to describe conditions in housing developments turned slums as "intifada." Police cruisers are pelted daily with stones and "Molotov cocktails" (gasoline-filled bottles with burning wicks that explode on impact) and Thooris said cops assigned to what was rapidly degenerating into "free fire zones" should be protected in armored vehicles.

Entire tall buildings empty into the streets to chase policemen and free an arrested comrade. "We are in a state of civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists," Thooris told journalists. Sarkozy, the leading center-right candidate for next year's presidential election, responded by dispatching cops in body armor, equipped with automatic weapons and rubber bullets, stun and teargas grenades into several Paris suburbs with orders to "restore control" from "organized crime." In one recent clash 250 cops dispersed a 100-strong Muslim gang armed with baseball bats.

The chaotic conditions in suburbs like Clichy-sous-Bois, Montfermeil and St. Denis have grown progressively worse since the nationwide Muslim riots in November 2005 that torched 10,000 vehicles. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin recently criticized as "overdrawn" President Bush's frequent reference to the "global war on terror." But the Iraq war did not appear to be part of the combustible mix in Muslim "ghettos" outside Paris. Despair, organized crime, and hatred of authority are its principal ingredients.

For the United States, Islamist extremism is seen as an external problem. For the Europeans, it's internal and far more complex than a war on terrorism. Muslim minorities are spawning rightwing extremism. In the Belgian port city of Antwerp a week ago, the Vlaams Belang (VB, or Flemish Interest), Europe's most extreme rightwing political formation, almost captured city hall with 33.5 percent of the vote. A Socialist coalition kept VB at bay with 35 percent. Nationwide, VB, which advocates secession of the Flanders and severe restrictions on Muslim immigration, scored 20 percent.

In France, Jean-Marie Le Pen's far right National Front appears to have opted for a can't-lick-'em-join-'em strategy, a rapprochement with France's large immigrant Muslim community -- with undertones of anti-Semitism. Le Pen's reasoning appears to be the recognition that Islamicization is in France to stay with 25 percent of France's under 20 population Muslim (40 percent in some cities), 2nd and 3rd generation North Africans. FN's tough stance on immigration is tempered by support for Arab and Islamist causes in the Middle East (Hamas and Hezbollah are two favorites). There are an estimated 6 to 8 million Muslims among France's 62 million and Islam is now France's second religion. Mosques are well attended on Fridays; churches aren't on Sundays. France's prison inmates are over 50 percent Muslim.

Le Pen's strategic advisers argue the FN must drop its founding mythology and forget about the once popular image of a modern Joan of Arc resisting the invasion of Muslim hordes. Americans and Jews are the new targets. But the party's Christian right-wingers do not agree and are defecting in large numbers. The Islamist threat is their main concern and they are finding a new political home in MPF, Mouvement Pour la France, which is anti-European Union and anti-Muslim, and given only 7 percent of registered voters in a recent poll. Le Pen's followers have dropped back from 11 percent to 9 percent.

Anti-Semitic incidents have proliferated in France in recent times, but the news seldom makes it across the Atlantic and when it does, it must still fight to be heard above the constant melodrama of constant trivia. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse attacked with Molotov cocktails; in Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish soccer team with metal bars and sticks; the bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers attacked thrice in the past 14 months, synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseilles and a Jewish school in Creteil firebombed in recent weeks; in Toulouse, a gunman opened fire -- all ignored in the mainstream media in the U.S. The metropolitan Paris police tabulated 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents per day in the past 30 days throughout the country.

The number one best selling book in France is "September 11: The Frightening Fraud," which posits no plane ever crashed into the Pentagon. A similar book in Germany sold over one million copies. One prominent Belgian businessman conceded privately "no one knows what to believe anymore." Neither multiculturalism nor integration of Muslim communities seems to be working anywhere in Europe. Moderate Muslim voices cannot rise above radical hubbub.

It should be taken as a given that France has fallen when even Le Pen's National Front has joined the Islamists. Furthemore, we are fooling only ourselves as long as we continue to preceive France as part of the Western Alliance.

It goes a long way to explain the context behind the French Foreign Minister’s remarks last summer when he suggested that Iran plays a stabilizing role in the Middle East as the Lebanon/Israel conflict raged. It is all part of the ongoing process of creating a new Islamic style Vichy government.

Dicken's world doesn't live there anymore

Theodore Dalrymple examines David Fraser’s A Land fit for Criminals in the City Journal which details the horrendous state of crime and punishment in modern day Britain:

For the last 40 years, government policy in Britain, de facto if not always de jure, has been to render the British population virtually defenseless against criminals and criminality. Almost alone of British government policies, this one has been supremely effective: no Briton nowadays goes many hours without wondering how to avoid being victimized by a criminal intent on theft, burglary, or violence.

An unholy alliance between politicians and bureaucrats who want to keep prison costs to a minimum, and liberal intellectuals who pretend to see in crime a natural and understandable response to social injustice, which it would be a further injustice to punish, has engendered a prolonged and so far unfinished experiment in leniency that has debased the quality of life of millions of people, especially the poor. Every day in our newspapers we read of the absurd and dangerous leniency of the criminal-justice system. On April 21, for example, even the Observer (one of the bastions of British liberalism responsible for the present situation) gave prominence to the official report into the case of Anthony Rice, who strangled and then stabbed Naomi Bryant to death.

Rice, it turned out, had been assaulting women since 1972. He had been convicted for assaulting or raping a total of 15 women before murdering Naomi Bryant, and it is a fair supposition that he had assaulted or raped many more who did not go to the police. In 1982, he grabbed a woman by the throat, held a knife to her, and raped her. Five years later, while out of prison on home leave, he grabbed a woman, pushed her into a garden, held a knife to her, and raped her for an hour. Receiving a life sentence, he was transferred to an open prison in 2002 and then released two years later on parole as a low-risk parolee. He received housing in a hostel for ex-prisoners in a village whose inhabitants had been told, to gain their acquiescence, that none of the residents there was violent; five months after his arrival, he murdered Naomi Bryant. In pronouncing another life sentence on him, the judge ordered that he should serve at least 25 years: in other words, even now the law has not quite thrown away the key.
(…)
Fraser was a probation officer for more than a quarter of a century. He began to doubt the value of his work in terms of preventing crime and therefore protecting the public, but he at first assumed that, as a comparatively lowly official in the criminal-justice system, he was too mired in the grainy everyday detail to see the bigger picture. He assumed also that those in charge not only knew what they were doing but had the public interest at heart.

Eventually, however, the penny dropped. Fraser’s lack of success in effecting any change in the criminals under his supervision, and thus in reducing the number of crimes that they subsequently committed, to the great misery of the general public, was not his failure alone but was general throughout the system. Even worse, he discovered that the bureaucrats who ran the system, and their political masters, did not care about this failure, at least from the point of view of its impact on public safety; careerist to the core, they were only concerned that the public should not become aware of the catastrophe. To this end, they indulged in obfuscation, statistical legerdemain, and outright lies in order to prevent the calamity that public knowledge of the truth would represent for them and their careers.

This isn’t so far off the mark from what is taking place in Canada. Canadians may not be quite as far down the road to Perdition as the British, but we are fast approaching the edge of the criminal abyss.

h/t Perq's plea via Damination's Mark C.

Hamas Nuance

At LGF I found a reference to rumors of a possible Hamas attack on US interests in the Middle East. And when you pause to think about it; means continued attacks launched by Hamas against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party. After all, the Bush Administration has just committed to fattening up the Fatah kitty.

Israel - where everyone has an opinion and its never what you would expect

One of the things I love about the Israeli state is that its' people are a constant source of surprise and a surprising diversity of opinion. This Ynet News article illustrates nicely what I mean:

Ynet, Smith Institute poll shows 58 percent of Israelis support same-sex couples, including their right to raise children, while 19 percent say they would want to revoke right of same-sex couples to raise children, but add that these couples should ‘lived as they see fit’; 50 percent of traditional Israelis, 16 percent of religious Israelis open to idea of same-sex couples that are able to raise their children, survey says

I could be wrong but I don’t think that same sex marriage has hit the 58% mark of support among Canadians where same sex marriage is legal. Besides Israel is one of the few countries in the world who actually report what Canadian politicians say but I don’t think Iggy should expect a warm welcome if he should decide to visit in the near future.

Stephen Harper’s right again and Liberals everywhere are in some serious denial.

The latest incantation of the federal Liberal party has a very anti-Israel feel to it, and this summer a number of very prominent Canadian Jews felt it too. Which was why the Canadian public was treated to the sight of some very public Liberal Jews making for the high road out of the Liberal party.

This summer we saw a number of non-Jewish Liberals attend a pro-Hezbollah rally in Quebec. It may play well in Montreal with its long history of anti-Semitism but the impression it made on thousands of ordinary Canadians outside of Quebec was that Liberal party stands with the terrorists. It is simply impossible to convey with any degree of creditability that yours is a nuanced position when you stand before a crowd of Hezbollah supporters who are waving their flags and cheering you on rather than calling for your head.

Prat all you want about how it was the Liberal party who originally placed Hezbollah on the designation terrorist list but the Liberals did not so until they were brow beaten into submission. Let me be brutally frank. There were only two reasons why the Liberals put Hezbollah on the list and neither factor had any thing to do with the blood of innocents on Hezbollah’s hands.

The first was a lawsuit launched against the Liberal government by Canada’s B’nai B’rith for not designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and secondly, the resulting publicity polled very, very badly with Canadians outside of Quebec. Which is how it came to be that the Liberals finally agreed to put Hezbollah on the designated list of terrorist organizations in December 2002.

But here’s a memory from Chrétien Lane that I remember when our Prime Minister attended a conference wherein Hezbollah leader Nasrallah was openly lauded and our man at the top did not utter one word of protest or outrage. Furthermore, when Chrétien was taken to task for this glaring omission he claimed ignorance of any knowledge of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The date - October 2002. Now contrast that with Stephen Harper's performance at the same conference circa 2006. Harper's position is what I call true nuance.

There’s seems to be a rather distinctive pattern here and if the Liberal party is not very, very careful, a lot of ordinary Canadians may start to associate the Liberal party as the preferred party of terrorists everywhere. Ontarians should be surprised if Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty attempts to rebrand the Liberal party name in the next election.

I won’t claim to represent the view of ordinary Canadians and not because I am consider myself extraordinary in any way. But I have long associated the Liberal party with terrorism in my mind every single time I filed my taxes for the last 13 years.

Bush Administration has no qualms about financing their 'pet' terrorists

So just why is it okay to for the US taxpayers to fund and arm some terrorist’s organizations which target Israeli civilians for death and have a long bloody history of doing just that, who practice summary executions in the public square, beat up and imprison journalists, routinely lie, cheat and steal from the very people they claim to represent and want to liberate from the alleged yoke of oppression - while other groups who don’t have the reputation of lying, cheating and stealing from their own people are considered pariahs and unworthy of financial aid? And what ever happened to that famous Bushism; “you are either with us or against us” – or did I just miss the liar’s clause?

I am, ever so glad, that I was never officially a member of the Blogs for Bush.

Soap of Denial

In my last year in high school I was living in a small city in southwestern Ontario. The city was pre-dominantly populated by either German immigrants or the descendants of German immigrants. Oktoberfest was a big event. I couldn’t vouch for whether it is still is. Once I left, I never looked back, if you get my drift.

I had the strangest experience on the first day of my World Politics course in my final year at High School. My instructor, a former Czech and ethnic German, announced to the class that he fought with the Luftwaffe and was shot down by the British. He spent the last year of the war in a British prisoner of war camp. He was all of 19 years of age when he was shot down, rescued and captured. He wasn’t the first “Nazi” I met in that city, but he was the first who did not hesitate to announce that he was a former “Nazi”.

After this intro Mr. V. got around to taking attendance, and by the time he came to my last name he called out “Fraulein Werner” rather than the plainer not- so-German sounding “Warner.” It was easy to understand why he would make the blanket assumption that I was of German origins with my blond hair and blue eyes rather than Eastern European. Germans made up a substantial portion of the population and people see what they want to see.

In my father’s family, the holocaust and war years left such an indelible mark that it was often referred to or discussed as if it had just happened. I think I was about 8 when I finally understood that the Nazi’s were defeated 17 years before I was born. So when Mr. V called me Fraulein Werner and asked if I was German; I instinctively went into survivor mode and announced in best fake Hogan Heroes German accent “Jah.”.

The first writing assignment was to discuss which system of government (dictatorship or participatory democracy) provided the most “value” for its citizens. I not only got the only “A” in that class, but I also argued that that Hitler’s Third Reich wasn’t so bad in terms of delivering value and security to its citizens. I learned two valuable lessons from that class. One concerned human nature and the other in revisionistic history.

In recent years a number of websites and books have popped up allegedly “debunking” Nazi Holocaust myths. One of the alleged myths which have allegedly been “busted” concerned claims that the Nazi’s made soap out of the bodies of concentration camp prisoners. Now, I was never taught at school that the Nazi’s did that but others have claimed to have been. What I was taught was that they conducted some absolutely horrendous medical experiments on living people. Furthermore, I do remember reading witness testimony from the Nuremberg Trials which did allude to the possibility that the Nazi’s had made soap out of their victims bodies.

Holocaust denial has become much more sophisticated in recent years. There is a kind of savvy pseudo-intellectual quality to it now. I suppose it’s an attempt to shuck off its bully-pulpit prodie roots. And now, when so many of history's witnesses are dying we are more vulnerable than ever to fall victim to the denier's claims. It usually starts out with a suggestion that the writer/author had no opinion per say, but is only honest searcher looking for the truth, and; lookie what he finds.

The first questions our pseudo-truth seekers seek to answer almost inevitably focus on numbers and logistics but miss two primary points. It is not whether the final death toll of the Nazis’ intended victims numbered 6 million or 5.2 million or even 3.million because the deaths represents an exercise of the utmost barbarism and rationalized entirely on the principle of eugenics, in the search to purify the alleged “master race” so that the Nazi-Nietzschian concept of Herrenmensch could be born into the Aryan nation.

The logistics employed by the Third Reich were excruciating and almost lovingly detailed by the executers at every stage of their master plan, but exclusively in German, and the Nazi records became the exclusive property of competing governments and their interests. Most questions of logistics can be answered simply enough; if one retrieves the appropriate governmental permission/access and one has working knowledge of German. But the new truth seekers rarely do and instead rely on entirely third party sources and innuendo.

There is another tactic that has been employed in the last 10-5 years. It is to use the works and words of reputable holocaust historians to misconstrue the context of their work to process utterly false conclusions. I suppose, it’s a case of so much the better - if the alleged authority is a Jew. For can there be any more moral weight brought to bear than the alleged doubts from one from the ranks of the potential victim pool?

Take the case of Professor Yehuda Bauer, a holocaust historian and academic adviser to Yad Vashem memorial in Israel. His name keeps popping up (among others) and is used indiscriminately by the “truth seekers” and other sundry holocaust deniers to “explode the myth’ of the Nazis’ making soap out of the bodies of their victims.

At Nitzkor, I found perhaps the hook the holocaust deniers have been using to hang their proof around the Professor’s neck. It’s a copy of a letter written by Professor Bauer detailing his knowledge of the “Nazi Soap” and written to the editor of the Jerusalem Post:

From the Jerusalem Post, May 29, 1990, p. 4:
To the Editor of the Jerusalem Post:

Sir, - Neil Kuchinsky (letters, May 20) quotes from the Nuremberg trial transcripts to show that the Germans made soap from human bodies at the Danzig Anatomic Institute, basing himself on the testimony of two British PoWs and a German laboratory assistant. The facts are correct. They were quoted in extenso in a Czech- language book by Ota Kraus and Erich Kulka, and are well-known to historians.

The reason why no historian has ever claimed that Germans made industrial use of human bodies for the production of soap is also contained in those very testimonies. They show that the "Institute" was established in the course of 1944 by a Danzig Nazi scientist (Dr. Spanner) who invented the method by which this could be done, and persuaded an apparently enthusiastic Berlin authority (we do not know who it was) to support his experiments.

According to the somewhat contradictory evidence, 25 kg. or perhaps more of this horrible substance was made, and one source claims that it was used experimentally in Danzig itself. It emerges very clearly that this was a first and unique experiment and that it was in its experimental stages. The bodies used may have been those of prisoners of war and forced labourers from the immediate vicinity. It is also clear that had the war continued, the Nazis were certainly capable of turning this into another mass horror.

There was no industrial production, and the pieces of soap inscribed R.I.F. which Jewish victims were told were made of human fat were found to contain ordinary non-organic fats (R.I.F. means Reichsstelle fuer Industrielle Fettversorgung, or State Centre for Supply of Fats, and not Pure Jewish Fat, as the victims were told by the Nazis).

The reason why one has to be accurate is that one has to exercise tremendous responsibility and deep respect towards the victims and their relatives and towards the memory of the millions of Jewish dead. What the Nazis did is horrendous enough; we do not need to believe the additional horrors they thought about but did not have time to realize. The Holocaust deniers waiting in the wings are eager to pick up any inaccuracies we may inadvertently commit, and we should not ease their "work."

Yehuda Bauer

It is pertinent to note that Professor Bauer never claims that the Nazi’s did not attempt to conduct experiments creating soap made from human fats, nor does he suggest that the Nazi’s did not have intentions towards the mass production of soap using the fat of concentration camp prisoners. Professor Bauer simply claims the Nazi’s were strictly in the experimental stage. Professor Bauer rightly calls for accuracy and context. How utterly shameful that his name and reputation are besmirched for those who seek to negate the weight of the horrendous sins of the past.

I was reminded of the Nazi soap debunking myths this week when I saw this article carried by Ynet News reporting on the test results from the Polish Authorities in possession to the 25 kgs of soap that Professor Bauer alluded to.

Poland's Nazi German occupiers used "substances" from the bodies of concentration camp prisoners to make soap, a study carried out by Poland's National Remembrance Institute (IPN) to counter the arguments of negationists showed Friday.

"We have determined that, without the shadow of a doubt, soap was produced using substances obtained from human bodies at the anatomical institute of the Medical Academy of Danzig, led by Professor Rudolf Spanner," Paulina Szumera of the IPN told AFP. Danzig is the German name for the Polish city of Gdansk. "We launched our investigation to still the voices denying that this ever happened," she said.

For the IPN probe, Polish scientists studied a bar of soap that was presented as evidence during the Nuremberg Nazi war crime trials after World War II, that was in the archives of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Szumera said. Polish television station TVN24 cited IPN investigators as saying the bodies of prisoners at the Nazi concentration camp of Stutthof, in northern Poland, and at Gdansk municipal jail were used to make the soap.

The bodies of patients at a psychiatric hospital in Gdansk were also used, the investigators told TVN24. Several dozen kilogrammes of soap were produced by the Nazis in Gdansk and used to clean Spanner's laboratory work surfaces, the IPN said. Almond extract was added to the soap to give it a palatable scent.

If I have time next week, I will tackle the assertions first published by I believe Faurisson, and repeated on almost all alleged “truth seeker” site’s suggesting that the diaries of Anne Frank are nothing short of a fraud promoted by her father for financial gain.

The Vacation I Want When I Grow-Up

When the Last Amazon was 9 year old I promised her a trip to Israel after she graduated regardless of the political or military situation. The big dispute in my household is on whether I stipulated graduation from High School or University. I maintain university, while she insists it was High School, and murmurs something under her breathe about the perils of being burden with a parent suffering from early on-set Alzheimer’s disease.

My mother backs me up, but the boys have their sister’s back covered on this one; which is in itself highly unusual, and gives me pause to believe I might have said High School but thought university. My only justification for allegedly promising the trip after High School was the fact that she was merely 9 years old, and no doubt, I figured the Last Amazon wouldn’t be turning 18 until some time over the rainbow. And if the day ever dawned over the rainbow she would have lost any desire to go to Israel.

I didn’t count on the Last Amazon going from grade 7 to grade 9 so that she would be fast-tracked to graduate before she turned 18, nor did I count on her ongoing love affair with a place she has only read about. Who knew she would map out all the decent shopping spots from Tel Aviv to the Golan? I certainly didn’t think she would be able to track the local “hot” night spots over the internet. Oddly enough, Jerusalem never made the list of “hot night spots” – which shows the deep divide between our values - at the moment. But if I am going to Israel, than there is no way I will not go to Jerusalem for at least a few days. Besides, I have promises to keep at the Kotel.

That’s why this 007 vacation tour hosted by Israel Law Centre and billed as the Ultimate Mission caught my eye in Yahoo News.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - It's billed as the "Ultimate Mission" -- an eight-day, James Bond-style quest behind the scenes of Israel's conflict with Palestinian militants. For a little less than $2,000 (1,077 pounds) and a donation to a centre that sues countries and groups it accuses of militant links, participants are promised briefings from Israeli spies, a visit to a

West Bank checkpoint, tours of the Lebanese frontlines and trips in light aircraft over northern Israel. "Experience a dynamic and intensive eight-day exploration of Israel's struggle for survival and security in the Middle East today," reads the promotional material for the tours. Highlights listed on the organiser's Web site include:

* "Inside tour of the Israel Air Force unit that carries out targeted killings"

* "Meeting Israel's Arab agents who infiltrate the terrorist groups and provide real-time intelligence"

* "Meetings with senior cabinet ministers and other key policymakers"

The trips are organised by the Israel Law Centre, www.israellawcenter.org, which describes itself as a "Jewish legal rights institute". It says it is not affiliated to any branch or agency of the Israeli government.Headed by a 32-year-old lawyer, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the group uses the funds it raises to pursue cases against Palestinian and international organisations it suspects of funding Palestinian militant groups.

Among others, Darshan-Leitner has sued Iran and the European Union for their suspected role in funding Palestinian groups. "We file cases against those who help to fund terrorism or deal in terrorism," she told Reuters. "It's helping the terror victims to fight back against those who ruin their lives." As well as the $1,895 cost of the trips, participants are asked to make a tax-deductible donation of between $500 and $5,000 to the Israel Law Centre to support its work.

Darshan-Leitner won't say how much has been raised since she started the tours in 2003, but the next trip, scheduled for November 6-13, will be the 11th. Each one attracts between 30 and 50 participants, she says, with visitors from the United States, Canada and Europe. Participation is not restricted to sympathisers with Israel, though most are. There are no meetings with Palestinian officials to present their viewpoint on the uprising since 2000.

Palestinian lawmakers said they were aware of the work of the Israel Law Centre but surprised at its method of raising funds. "You wonder about the safety and the legality of what they are up to," said a senior member of Fatah, a group that has been the target of some of the Israel Law Centre's probes.

I read the last paragraph and spluttered coffee all over my computer screen. Suddenly, I am to believe that the Fatah Leadership is concerned with legalities or safety of others – do they really think all Westerns suffer from the same willful blindness that US Secretary of State Rice does?I decided to check out details at the Shurat HaDin’s website. The upcoming November tour’s itinerary impressed me:

Monday, November 6 : Opening

Registration at the Sheraton Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem.
Opening Banquet at the Sheraton Plaza Hotel.
• Introductory remarks by Shurat HaDin’s director, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Esq.
Lecture by best selling author Michael Oren: "The seventh Arab Israeli war: breaking the paradigm".

Tuesday, November 7: The Terrorism Reality

Breakfast in the hotel.

Travel to the Israel Defense Force Center at Latrun.

• Briefing by terrorism expert, former Shin Bet Commander for the Judea and Samaria region: "The use of informants, analysis and counter terrorism".Discussion with undercover Palestinian agents who work with the Israeli security services to infiltrate the Palestinian Authority.

• Briefing by Gen. Avigdor Kahalani, the hero of the Yom Kippur War who defeated the Syrians on the main Israeli-Syrian battlefield of the 1973 War

• Briefing by former head of the interrogation unit of the Shin Beit: "Israel’s case for pre-emptive self defense."

An authentic Middle Eastern lunch in Tel Aviv's historic HaTikva Quarter.

Walking tour of Jaffa.

Insiders’ tour of the IDF Headquarter in Tel Aviv, HaKiria.
• Briefing by Defense Minister’s senior adviser, Amos Gilad: “Israel’s response and preparedness in a hostile Middle East”.

• Briefing by twenty five year veteran of the Mossad, Dr. Uzi Arad: "An analysis of the current Middle East political situation with a focus on the impact and fallout from the proposed withdrawal plan."

Dinner at Meatos, the finest restaurant in Tel Aviv.

Wednesday, November 8: The Judicial Reality

Pack for two nights stay in the North.

Breakfast in the hotel.

• Briefing by Senior Official of the Mossad: "Tracking The Material Support and Resources of the Palestinian Terrorist Organizations".

Visit to Machane Ofer Military Base near Jerusalem.
• Tour of the military court.

• Observation of a security trial of Hamas terrorists.

• Briefing by head of the military prosecution in Judea regime.

• Greeting and discussion by Chief Judge of Military Court, Col. Shaul Gordon.
Lunch at the military base.

Travel to the Arab town, Kalkilia.

• Tour of an IDF checkpoint on the outskirts of Kalkilia in the West Bank, guarding one of the main terrorists infiltration routes into Israel. First hand visit and inspection of the controversial Security Fence.

• Briefing by the head of IDF Humanitarian Unit: "The infiltration and detection of terrorists, explosives and smuggling, “humanitarian” dilemma -emergency medical vehicles, and the civil population".

Drive to the northern Tel Aviv Airport “Sdeh Dov”.

• Pre-Flight Briefing.

• Private airplanes for a low-flying flight from Tel Aviv to Rosh Pina in the Galilee.
Travel to the Sea of the Galilee, Kinneret.

Moonlight Boat Cruise on the Sea of the Galilee.

Dinner at Decks, the finest restaurant on the Sea of the Galilee.

Check-in at the Kinar Village Hotel on the Sea of the Galilee.
• Overnight: Kinar Village Hotel, Tiberias..

And that is not even a whole 8 days worth of itinerary. It just gets better and better. Forget the shopping. My feet hurt thinking about it already. I just so want to do this. I hadn’t planned on bringing the boys, and I doubt I cannot afford too, but I can’t help thinking they would rank this tour as the ultimate “sick” vacation. For the uninitiated, “Sick” it the new cool and I can only pray that something more easily understood like “groovy” makes a comeback. You have no idea at the miscommunication that has been going on for the last 6 months in my household.

some healers, like genie's, should never be let out

Years ago when I was a little girl my grandfather had a fascination with faith healers. Not that he was in need of a miracle cure but he got a kind of perverse pleasure out of watching them. It reminded him of the vaudeville days of his youth. I , on the other, grew to really loathe them for a variety of reasons, but mostly it was the one time all week when he monopolized the television set and couldn't be talked into watching anything else.

Mention Katherine Kuhlman and I am six years old again with a case of the creeps. I found this story at Ynet News and I really didn’t believe it was possibly for any faith healer to creep me out more than her but Sheikh Munir did it for me:

Sheikh Munir Arab is not like other humans, or at least so he boasts. Sheikh Arab, whose renown has spread across the Arab world, prides himself on his ability to use the Quran to cure ailments that modern medicine is at a loss to treat.

The sheikh, who even launched a website detailing his activities and resume, has a clinic in Saudi Arabia where for 20 years he has been treating the ill and infirm by reading them Quran passages and dispensing holy oil and water which have been sanctified with phrases from the Muslim holy book.
(…)
This time the sheikh glorifies in an unprecedented achievement – the removal of meters of black cloth knotted into ropes from the womb of a 14-year-old girl, who he says “was possessed by a genie.”

In a TV interview for the Lebanese LBC network, which was provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI ), the sheikh explains how a demon can occupy a human body and speak from within it in the voice of a man, a dog, or even a donkey. He displays for the audience exactly what he “exorcised” from the girl's body – as he dumps out a plastic bag full of black cloth ropes. “Today her mother called me and said the last rope had come out. I will never forget this case – it is a miracle!” he said

.
His explanation for the twisted pieces of cloth found in her vagina:

She was possessed by a genie that would sent little notes from within her with messages that she wouldn’t marry.”

Really, it is almost enough to make me despair entirely of the human race and take up atheism full-time.

The Shameful Star and how I would solve the North Korea crisis

There are valid reasons why the Toronto Star has earned in spades every remark on why Toronto’s largest daily is only fit to line birdcages. Case in point; the Toronto Star chose to run this article reporting the world’s reaction to North Korea’s alleged nuclear test:

LONDON — China, Russia, South Korea and Japan quickly joined the United States on Monday in condemning their reclusive communist neighbour for its reported test of a nuclear weapon.

But the country that experts say most actively is seeking the next membership in the nuclear club — Iran — said blame should fall on the United States, for threatening and humiliating North Korea.

Not one expert is named or actually quoted blaming the United States for threatening or humiliating North Korea. For all we know, the Associated Press reporter polled the cleaning staff in the men’s room at 1 Yonge Street.

In the threats department, I count North Korea’s tally a considerably higher than the US’s threats to North Korea. And if North Korea is humiliated, it has only the quality of her leadership to blame for being a pariah nation in the world community. But what’s the Toronto Star’s editorial department’s excuse for running this shoddy piece of 'journalism'?

I wrote the above on Monday and couldn’t be bothered to post it till I read today’s editorial. Here is how it starts:

U.S. President George Bush gave North Korea a pretext to arm itself with the nuclear bomb by labelling the country an "axis of evil" and refusing to talk directly with it. Meanwhile, Chinese President Hu Jintao coddled North Korea by supplying financing, food and fuel.

The editorial board at the Toronto Star is imploding under the strain of Bush derangement syndrome, and quite frankly, it is not only pretty to read but it is historically revisionistic.

The Clinton Administration talked directly to North Korea for years which is why the Bush Administration inherited a nuclear North Korea. North Korea doesn’t particularly worry me as I believe that the solution to the issue is relatively simple and the key is China. So far, China has had everything its own way and has been playing a double game. Now it is time to change the rules and up the ante.

Here’s how I would solve the North Korea issue; immediately encourage Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to develop a nuclear weapons program and offer as much help as needed to get the programs off the ground. If I was president of the United States that would be the substance of my next Rose Garden press conference.

Then watch China jump and North Korea learn to heel and lefties everywhere spontaneously combust. A win-win scenario all around.

Killing the Samson Option

You would almost think the Iranian Presidential nutter has read a US Army War College report (which suggests that the only effective determent to a nuclear armed Iran would begin with the nuclear disarmament of Israel) since he has the talking points memo down (taken from a Ynet News article):

Iranian government spokesperson Gholam-Hossein Elham told a press conference Tuesday that “the dismantling of nuclear arms in the Middle East must begin with the Zionist entity.” The spokesperson added that Iran was ‘ideologically opposed’ to the use of nuclear arms.

But the Iranian Presidential nutter is not the only one with the talking points memo down:

However, North Korea’s nuclear test has prompted Iran to call on the International Atomic Energy Agency to brace itself for the possibility that all countries would seek nuclear energy for “peaceful purposes.” Elham said the ban to use weapons of mass destruction should be imposed globally. “A just balance would remove these (nuclear) threats, and the conquering regime from Jerusalem should be the first in the region to disarm,” he said.

Turning his attention to the North Korean nuclear test, the spokesperson said, “Iran is opposed to any use of weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons. He added that Muslim and other countries would support the superpowers should they decide to disarm.“No one will benefit from the use of nuclear weapons,” he said.

Asked whether the North Korean test would be advantageous to Iran Elham said, “The root of the issue lies in the behavior and mindset of the leaders in the United States and the rest of the superpowers. Unfortunately, they are those who control the Security Council; they possess the arsenals and are taking advantage of the Council to promote their own objectives.”

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Majlis (Iranian parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told the Iranian News Agency Monday that “the only solution which can put an end to nuclear tests is collective determination of the global community to eradicate proliferation of nuclear weapons.”

“The US should stop its double-standard policy in the world; it is the only country that has resorted to the use of nuclear bombs to massacre innocent civilians and is continuing its current policy in contradiction of Article Six of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),” he said.

Boroujerdi added: “If countries like Pakistan, India, North Korea and the Zionist regime kept up their nuclear tests, it is because of their non-compliance with international rules and regulations along with their non-membership of NPT.” “The West should encourage and cooperate with countries, like the Islamic Republic of Iran, which abide by NPT protocol and conduct their activities under the supervision of IAEA in line with international rules and regulations,” he said.

I love this double standard concept which implies that the Iranian, Syrian, Saudi or even Egyptian state are on the same level playing field as the Israelis. The truth is, until the Israelis stone women and gays for their alleged moral transgressions, or the state overlooks honour killings, denies universal suffrage for women and/or minorities, dismantles the free press and the electoral system, resorts to public dismemberments/executions for criminal behaviour or promotes forced indentured servitude, it is safe to conclude that these states are not the even close to being the equal to the Israeli state.

Furthermore, Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it has a nuclear weapons program and has preferred to keep any speculation merely in the shadows. No doubt this keeps the neighbors on the edge of their seats and guessing, but after two thousand years of persecution, it is long past the time to admit the truth of what happens when Jews lay down their arms.

But ask yourself this; has the world community of nations given the Jews any valid reasons to believe that societies and communities have changed so radically or substantially that a slaughter would not result if the Jews laid down their arms today?

I know even paranoids can have enemies but...

The Jerusalem Post carries coverage of an interview Syria leader Bashar Assad has given to an Arab daily this weekend suggesting an Israeli pre-emptive strike is in the works:

In an interview with the Kuwaiti daily Al-Anba over the weekend, Assad said, "We are preparing for an Israeli attack at any moment" and said Israel had given up on the peace process even though most of the issues between the two countries had been resolved. Assad has alternated between bellicose declarations and calls for peace in the weeks following the Lebanon war.

How downright peculiar Assad’s rhetoric has gotten lately. What are the odds that Assad thinks Ariel Sharon has woken up from his coma, removed Ehud Olmert from government, and is right now holed up in an IDF bunker putting the finishing touches on war plan for a little Israeli payback over this summer’s Lebanon adventure?

It makes one wonder just what exactly Assad’s two new best friends (Iran & Russia) have been whispering in his ear. Assad’s rhetoric is even odder in light of the fact that on one in Israel is even suggesting the IDF darken the skies over Damascus. All the Anglo-Israeli papers I have been reading in the last few weeks have all carried opinion pieces discussing the possibility of peace talks with Syria over the Golan Heights.

Or it just might be that Assad wants to take advantage over how poorly Israel is being led politically by Olmert and militarily by Halutz, and therefore wants to provoke a strike knowing that this same level of ineptness may never come again.

Fork Tongue Watch

Palestinian Media Watch is reporting that once again alleged Fatah moderate Mahmoud Abbas is promising one thing in English and another on in Arabic on Palestinian television.

“Abbas: Hamas must recognize Israel,” announced the headline on the lead story in today’s Jerusalem Post. The article went on to report that “PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas vowed to fire the Hamas-led government before the end of the month unless... they accepted Israel's right to exist. Abbas made his pledge in a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who expressed Washington's full support for the PA chairman and his Fatah party in their confrontation with Hamas."

Only the day before, however, Abbas said on PA TV that Hamas does not have to recognize Israel – nor does his own Fatah faction: “Hamas is not required to recognize Israel… It is not required of Hamas, or of Fatah, or of the Popular Front to recognize Israel.”

He went on to say that government officials must “recognize their counterparts” in order to “solve people’s problems,” indicating that this does not constitute an inherent recognition of Israel, just a functional recognition that allows the PA to get what it needs:

“I do not demand of Hamas nor any other to recognize Israel. But from the government that works with Israelis in day to day life, yes.”

US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice is quoting publicly as saying, "We have great admiration for you and leadership," after her meeting with Abbas in Ramallah this week. I really wish someone would inquiry what it is specifically about Abbas’ leadership she admires.

From where I sit, everyday the resemblance between Abbas and Arafat grows ever greater but who knows – maybe professional jealous is the appeal?

Tunnel of Love

Ynet News is reporting at least 2 Palestinian dead in an underground tunnel between the Gaza Egyptian border in an unknown work related accident:

Palestinian sources said an explosion collapsed a tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border early Friday, trapping five militants inside and killing at least two. The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a violent offshoot of the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the five were members. The group refused to say what they were doing.

The militant group said the explosion was not caused by an Israeli air strike, after first blaming Israel.

How long before they demand that the IDF come in and dig them out? What I really want to know if there is anything that cannot be blamed on the Jews?

The Russian Bear is Barring his teeth at the West

In one of my first blog posts, I suggested that the Russians under Vladimir Putin had chosen sides on the War of Terror, and unfortunately, the side the Russians picked was not ours.

Nothing I have read since that time has made me revise my original conclusions or opinions. Vlad, maybe GWB’s good friend, but he certainly isn’t the West’s. Caroline Glick’s recent column details just some of the Russian’s malfeasance in the recent Israeli/Lebanon conflict:

The Russian bear has awakened after 15 years of hibernation. Under the leadership of former KGB commander President Vladimir Putin, Russia is reasserting its traditional hostility towards Israel. On Tuesday, Russian military engineers landed in Beirut. Their arrival signaled the first time that Russian forces have openly deployed in the Middle East. In the past Soviet forces in Syria and Egypt operated under the official cover of "military advisers." Today those "advisers" are "engineers." The Russian forces, which will officially number some 550 troops, are tasked with rebuilding a number of bridges that the IDF destroyed during the recent war. They will operate outside the command of UNIFIL.

Mosnews news service reported on Wednesday that the engineers will be protected by commando platoons from Russia's 42nd motorized rifle division permanently deployed in Chechnya. According to the report, these commando platoons are part of the Vostok and Zapad Battalions, both of which are commanded by Muslim officers who report directly to the main intelligence department of the Russian Army's General Staff in Moscow. The Vostok Battalion is commanded by Maj. Sulim Yamadayev, who Mosnews refers to as a "former rebel commander."

With the deployment of former Chechen rebels as Russian military commandos in Lebanon, the report this week exposing Russia's intelligence support for Hizbullah during the recent war takes on disturbing strategic significance. According to Jane's Defense Weekly, the Russian listening post on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights provided Hizbullah with a continuous supply of intelligence throughout the conflict.

Much still remains to be reported about the impressive intelligence capabilities that Hizbullah demonstrated this summer. But from what has already been made public, we know that Hizbullah's high degree of competence in electronic intelligence caused significant damage to IDF operations. Now we learn that Moscow stood behind at least one layer of Hizbullah's intelligence prowess.

Moscow's assistance to Hizbullah was not limited to intelligence sharing. The majority of IDF casualties in the fighting were caused by Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles that made their way to Hizbullah fighters through Syria. Indeed, as we learn more about Russia's role, it appears that Russia's support for Hizbullah may well have been as significant as Syria's support for the terror organization. And now we have Chechens in Lebanon.

Russian backing of Hizbullah, like its support for Syria and Iran, has been matched by its extreme, Cold War-esque hostility towards Israel. On Tuesday, Channel 2 reported that for the past few months Putin has been obsessively demanding that the government transfer proprietary rights and control to the Russian government over the Russian Compound, which has served as a police station since the British Mandate, and other Russian historical buildings in central Jerusalem.

Putin's demand, which has no legal foundation or diplomatic precedent, exposes startling disrespect for Israeli sovereignty. According to Channel 2, Russian diplomats have been raising this obnoxious demand at the start of every meeting they have had with Israeli officials for the past several months. This most recently reported slap in the face joins a long list of diplomatic crises that Russia has fomented in the past few monthsIn just one example, last month the Russians cancelled the Russia-Israel trade fair in Tel Aviv on the eve of its opening.

Russian businessmen who had already arrived in Israel and were unable to get flights home the day of the announcement were ordered by the Russian embassy to remain in their hotel rooms until they returned to the airport for the first available flight to Russia.

Then there is Russia's unstinting support for Iran's nuclear weapons program. During the latest of his frequent visits to Teheran Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced, yet again, that Russia opposes all international sanctions against Iran. Indeed, since Iran's nuclear program was exposed three years ago, Russia has acted as Iran's defender against every US attempt to galvanize the international community to take action to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capabilities.

In 1967 Russia played a central role in fanning the flames of war in Syria. In the months that preceded the Six Day War, Moscow fed Damascus a steady diet of false intelligence indicating that Israel was planning to invade. In the summer of 1973, the Soviets also encouraged Syria to join Egypt in invading Israel.

Whether or not Russia is interested in fomenting the next war, its intentions are less relevant than how Russia's extreme positions are interpreted by the Arabs. Judging by Syrian President Bashar Assad's recent bellicose speeches, it appears that Damascus believes that Russia will support Syria if it goes to war against Israel. In his latest address regarding Syria's willingness to go to war if Israel doesn't fork over the Golan Heights forthwith in "peace negotiations," Assad made clear his belief that whatever its level of intensity, a Syrian war against Israel could well advance his interests.

Russian influence is also evident in Assad's "peace" rhetoric. His protestations of willingness to conduct negotiations with Israel are taken directly from the Soviet playbook. As the reactions the speech elicited from leaders of the pro-Syrian camp in the Israeli Left like Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Uri Saguy, Education Minister Yuli Tamir, Haaretz columnist Yoel Marcus, and MK Azmi Bishara made clear, all that is needed to manipulate Israeli public opinion regarding Syrian intentions is a hollow and disingenuous Syrian announcement: If we abide by all of Damascus's demands (something Damascus will never allow us to do), then Syria will give us "peace," and if we don't, then the responsibility for the war that will ensue will be our own.

Update: Russian Foreign Minister steps up to the plate for the Mullah's today. Odd how the silence is particularly deafening from Russia when Iran is threatening Israel.

Just a few random thoughts

I have a few general observations and I don’t really have the time to develop my thoughts in a series of coherent posts but I still wanted to get them out.

The Amish schoolgirl killer. It would be easy to conclude that there is a whole lot of misogyny going on here. What if, at the root of this killer’ outrage, lies not a hatred of women, but rather a hatred of God? I was struck by the fact that he deliberately chose to kill the girls which were the closest in age to his daughter if she had lived.

Apparently, he remained unable to resolve his anger at his daughter’s death and blamed God. I have no idea of the level of his Christian observance but one powerful motif that runs through Christianity is harm brought to one who harms a child. Even if he was not an active Christian, he was still raised in North American society where that ethos is still evident in popular culture. He seemed unable to reconcile his own pain and anger and instead chose to act in a way that would cause others to experience the same kind of anger and grief he experienced with the added benefit of punishing God for taking his daughter. Twisted? Obviously, but it is just a thought to keep in mind.

One of the things I try to make a point of doing is watching at least one television show with each of my children. It’s a way of keeping in tune with what they are watching and gives me a little insight into how their minds are developing. I discovered a great deal of parenting is contextualizing experiences and ideas for my children.

Movies and television are a great format for doing that. Luckily for me, it has gotten a trifle easier to tolerate and stomach their choices intellectually from the days when Barney the Dinosaur reigned supreme and unchallenged on our television set. As I write this the “I love you” theme song raises unbidden to my memory. Get thee behind me Satan.

One of the new television shows that I am watching with my youngest son is called “Jericho” and seems to centre around the inhabitants of a small mid-western town after the United States has suffered multiple nuclear strikes. I was watching it last night on tape with Isaiah Sender and was trying valiantly not to give into my boredom or succumb to the big sleep (which was calling my name); when I was struck but how different the “nuclear strike” shows of this age are from the “nuclear strike” shows of the eighties that I remember.

In the eighties, the emphasis was all on the absolute devastation a nuclear strike would cause, and how the survivors of any nuclear strike would eek out an existence of absolute and abject misery; wherein the living would envy the dead of a first strike. In Jericho, we are showed the possibility that life beyond a first strike would not necessarily be one of absolute and abject misery. In fact, problems might arise, but certainly the problems are not insurmountable ones.

Why have we moved from focusing on the devastation a nuclear strike intrinsically causes to the survivability of a nuclear strike? Just what is Hollywood’s point with this show? Is it to prepare us culturally for the idea that a nuclear strike isn’t all that bad so who cares if Iranian nutters have nukes and/or threaten to use them?

US Offers Millions to Keep Abbas Safe

Ynet News called it rightly with this by-line over an Associated Press article:

US offers millions to keep Abbas safe

The United States has proposed a USD 20 million plan to boost Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' personal security force and upgrade the main cargo crossing between Gaza and Israel, American officials said Thursday.

The plan is being worked out by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the US security coordinator in the West Bank and Gaza, and was discussed during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's meeting with Abbas on Wednesday, the officials said. The plan is part of a larger US effort to bolster Abbas, a political moderate who is in a power struggle with the Islamic Hamas group.

I am just not sure how funding Force 17 (Abbas' personal security force) gives a boost to Abbas' popularity among Palestinian Arabs, and I would dearly love to hear an enterprising journalist ask the US Secretary of State that very question.

Carpetbagging & the Two State Solution

Last night I turned on the telly where I managed to catch a few minutes of a rather remarkable interview on CNN between Wolf Blitzer and Bob Woodward (who was busy plugging his new book; State of Denial:

BLITZER: ... Saudi ambassador -- effectively, in 2004, the Saudis agreed to increase the export of oil, so that the price per barrel would go down, and potentially help President Bush get reelected. And the Saudis are saying they would never do anything like that.

WOODWARD: OK. But I had that in the book two years ago, "Plan of Attack." And there was lots of rumbling about it. And it turns out that Prince Bandar visited the White House between when I was working on that and when the book came out, and came out publicly. And you can find clips in which he announced that they are going to keep the price of oil down...

BLITZER: Well, they're suggesting...

WOODWARD: ... as much as possible.

BLITZER: They're suggesting to prevent global recession, not to help Bush get reelected.

WOODWARD: Come on. Get real.

BLITZER: I'm just telling you...

WOODWARD: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: ... what the Saudis are saying.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: And one final question.

When President Bush became the first U.S. president to endorse a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis, Israel and a new state of Palestine, what you report, and I did not know -- and fascinating -- is that this was the result, effectively, of an ultimatum that the Saudis delivered to President Bush: You better do this. And you better do it right now.

WOODWARD: Or we're not going to have relations with you, the Saudis said.

Now, that has been reported before. But I got the memos and the notes of the meetings. And they're very detailed. And you see how Bandar...

BLITZER: You actually saw those documents?

WOODWARD: You see how Bandar lays down an argument. And, of course, the president then eventually came out for a Palestinian state.

To think, the moonbats might just have a point, but not in the way they imagined. It really is rather astounding to contemplate that US Foreign policy might now revolve completely around the price of oil and what it can potentially buy; if Woodward is correct.

I say, “Mavel Tov” to the Israelis – oil has just been found in the Dead Sea, and obviousl, in the nick of time!

British Bobbies sure aren’t what they use to be

According to Ynet News:

London's police chief on Thursday launched an urgent review of a decision not to post a Muslim officer at the Israeli embassy after a newspaper reported that he had been excused on moral grounds.

PC Alexander Omar Basha, who is attached to the force's Diplomatic Protection Group, objected to being posted to protect Israel's embassy in central London from possible terrorist attack because he disagreed with the country's bombing of Lebanon during the recent war.

According to British newspaper 'the Guardian', the officer had reportedly attended a recent anti-war protest. Police chiefs excused Basha last week but critics said they feared it would open the floodgates for officers of any religion or belief to refuse to carry out certain duties. "Having learned of this issue I have asked for an urgent review of the situation and a full report into the circumstances," Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said in a statement.

John O'Connor, a former Metropolitan Police flying squad commander, told the London-based Sun newspaper: "This is the beginning of the end for British policing."

First, we learned that British police forces would now brief a panel of Muslim leaders before conducting terror raids, and now a Muslim Bobbie is excused from guard duty at an Israeli embassy.

But where will it end? Will Catholic Bobbies be refusing guard duty over the Saudi Embassy? Muslims refusing to provide crowd control at the gay pride parade in London? Who knew that a police officer in Britain can get away with picking who and what he consents to serve and protect. Whatever would Nelson think?

Tunnels feed the Hamas hunger for martyrdom.

Ynet News carries this report.

The Hamas organization in the Gaza Strip has assembled an armed and trained force of about 7,500 fighters. A senior military official emphasized that it was not just a large guerilla force, but an organized military force. This new Hamas army consists of several specialized units, including a short-range missile unit, a long-range missile unit, an anti-tank unit, and a sniper unit, among others.

Intelligence sources estimated the army would reach operational capacity, and be capable of confronting the IDF as soon as the coming summer, if the flow of arms, military experts, and money into the Gaza Strip was not stopped. The army did not only have defensive capabilities against the IDF, but offensive capabilities that would allow it to launch long-range missiles towards settlements within the Green Line, and to infiltrate Israel through hidden tunnels.

According to military sources, the strengthening of Hamas’ army was a calculated aspect of a long-term plan that began with the rise of the Hamas government, and did not cease for a single day since then. Even recent internal struggles and IDF operations did not hinder the moving forward of the plan. The manufacturing of short-term missiles took place in Gaza, and there was evidence of anti-tank missiles entering the Strip.

Hamas’ offensive abilities are based mainly on tunnels that leave Gaza and enter the Green Line. In September alone, 12 tunnels were discovered in a single kilometer near the Gaza Strip town of Dahaniya. Three of the tunnel openings where found by Egypt, and another three were destroyed by the IAF. It was difficult for Israel to make an exact estimate as to the number of working tunnels there were on the Philidelphi route, but a rough estimate showed several dozen tunnels which were sophisticated, professionally quarried, and fully equipped with tracks and wheeled carts.

Just to backtrack a little, the IDF has in website in English with a little background information on the Rafah smuggling tunnels here and here. But guess which US Secretary of State insisted the Israelis into turn over control of the Philadelphi Corridor to the Egyptians and Palestinian Authority?

Faux Outrage over Foley

I’m experiencing a moment of smugness. Courtesy of all those liberals who are now busy howling over the Foley Follies. Honestly, it is just so very William Jefferson Clinton of him.

And I want to remind all those Democrats of their own maxim that was thrown in my face over the Lewinsky scandal or even the Liberals who did not caw over Belinda Stronach’s appalling morality; how a politician orchestrates his/her private life has no bearing on their ability to represent the best interests of their constituents!

I, on the other hand, never bought into the maxim then and I don’t now.

Not without my Marwin

There is something so incredibly perverse about a press conference featuring a US Secretary of State and a known terrorist leader acting as the head of an imaginary state. Besides, I am getting a real kick out of reading Abbas call for the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit and having Rice pretend he is a moderate. Ynet News:

During a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and the Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

It makes him sound as if his hands are squeaky clean and keeps his ‘moderate’ image in the forefront with this lame appeal to the ‘unknown kidnappers” of Corporal Shalit. No doubt Rice put him out to it, but I remember less than two weeks ago Abbas was busy issuing his own demands concerning the release of Corporal Shalit as reported by Ynet News:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the PA will demand the release of Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and Palestinian Liberation Front Secretary-General Ahmed Saadat as part of any agreement that would include the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

Setting conditions for the release of a hostage doesn’t quite fit the ‘moderate’ image nor does it convey ignorance or a lack of control. Less we forget, the group claiming to have kidnapped Shalit was the Popular Resistance Committee. The PRC are an ad-hoc coalition made up of members from Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and were designed to pool resources and consolidate terror operations.

Palestinian Clue

Four days of open clashes between Fatah and Hamas, and then, 3 masked gunmen approach a car and open fire; killing a Hamas activist in Hableh as he was leaving the mosque. The witnesses claim the car had Israeli plates, ergo, the gunmen had to be Israeli.

I realize that contrary to popular myth the Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF are not hiding under every rock or in every crevice waiting only for the moment to act in the Occupied Territories.

Reading the Israeli papers for these last few years it has become obvious that the Mossad, Shin Bet and the IDF are as prone to human foibles as the rest of us, but it stretches all reason to expect that an ‘elite Israeli unit’ would go to the trouble and bother to dress up as ‘masked Arab gunmen’ and not change the license plates on the car – as in it violates Stealth & Spook-craft 101.

Sorry, this one has all the earmarks of Pallywood production.

The IJC Can't Fool the Iranians!

Even though the unity spat between Hamas and Fatah has nothing to do with Jews or Israelis; it didn’t take long before some schmuck started writing an editorial blaming the Jooos. Neither should it come as a suprise to learn that this time it is an Iranian schmuck. Taken from Ynet News:

An editorial published in Iranian newspaper Jomhury-e Eslami on Tuesday blamed Israel and the West for the internal fighting in the Palestinian Authority. “What is currently happening in Palestine is the result of a joint plot conjured by the Zionist criminals and the western nations against the Palestinian people,” said the newspaper, which is affiliated with Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to the editorial, “the West is taking its revenge on the Palestinians after they supported the resistance and did not surrender to the Zionist occupiers in the elections. The Palestinians are paying a heavy price for exercising their legitimate right.” The article also stated that, “The Palestinian nation’s only crime is its desire to exercise its right and not give in to the illegal, racist and cruel acts of the occupation.

“The satanic partnership between the West and the Zionist regime exposes the hypocritical and deceitful protectors of democracy and those who lie on behalf of human rights groups in Europe and the United States,” the article said.

I am only surprised that the Pope got a free pass. I tell you the International Jewish Conspiracy just isn’t what it use to be. I know 'cause I am a member.

Twisted Ironies Abound

Whoever thought that a US Secretary of State would be out trying to shell up support for a man with a ph’d in holocaust denial from a former USSR University? And even now this alleged ‘moderate’ - leads a political movement that routinely incites, recruits and finances terror against Israeli civilians, but of course, that makes him and his party worthy of the world’s support because his party is not considered the honest terrorists.

Actually, it twists one better than that. Tomorrow Rice will travel to East Jerusalem to meet with Tanzim leaders before she travels to Ramallah to meet with Mahmoud Abbas.

And just to remind though with short memories; Tanzim is the youth branch of Fatah whose role is to recruit, train, and fund volunteers for Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade. I cannot wait to learn what will be on the menu when Rice sits down to dine cave-style with bin Laden et al.

Shoot-Out in Mid-East OK Corral: 2 dead, 14 wounded – No Jews Involved

Another spat of unity has broken out between the forces of Hamas and Fatah reports Ynet News:

Gunbattles erupted Monday night between Fatah gunmen and Hamas militiamen in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing two people and wounding 14 others a day after a deadly explosion of internal violence paralyzed the Gaza Strip.

A top aide to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah said Abbas was seriously considering the possibility of forming an emergency government, an administration of technocrats or calling early elections to end the crisis with Hamas. "Decisions should be taken in a short period of time," the aide, Nabil Amr, said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A protest by some 5,000 Abbas supporters in Rafah refugee camp calling for the disbanding of a Hamas-led police force and the resignation of Interior Minister Saeed Seyam turned violent with exchanges of fire between gunmen and the Hamas-led force. Five demonstrators were wounded, including one gunman who was in critical condition. A policeman was also wounded and was said to be in critical conditions as shots and loud explosions from hand grenades rang out, witnesses and medics said. Earlier, gunfire erupted inside the main Shifa hospital between Hamas-led police and the family of a dead fighter loyal to Fatah. At least three people were wounded in the clash.

Abbas supporters stoned the home of a minister in the Hamas-led government, the latest wave of pro-Fatah protests over unpaid wages and stalled unity government talks. Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank, where Fatah gunmen shot dead a waiter who refused to close his Jericho restaurant to abide by a strike protesting against the recent violence in Gaza, witnesses and medics said. In Nablus, unidentified gunmen shot and wounded one of Deputy Prime Minister Naser al-Shaer's bodyguards. Shaer, a Hamas leader, was not in the area at the time. "These actions must stop," Haniyeh said at the start of a cabinet meeting in Gaza. "Calm must be restored."

Independent lawmaker Hassan Khreisheh accused both sides of orchestrating what he called "official lawlessness", and warned: "This is unprecedented even during military coups."

So who or what are behind the current outbreaks of unity in the Gaza Strip? I would suggest that it would not necessarily be in Hamas’ best interest to deliberately provoke these outbreaks and/or continue them. Furthermore, Hamas runs a very tightly controlled and run terror organization.

It could be that these clashes are meant to embarrass Palestinian Authority President Abbas and would suggest a clash between the old and new guard occurring in Fatah. But if so, I would expect to hear more from Kaddomi and Dahlan as Abbas has very little political capital between either fractions. I would suggest that it may be a deliberate strategy originating from Abbas’ office with the backing of Egypt, Jordan et al and Jordan in order to implement a military coup of the Palestinian Authority.

If it came down to a showdown between Fatah and Hamas; my money’s on Fatah ultimately prevailing. Hamas may have been importing armaments in an unprecedented buying binge since it came to power but Fatah has had 12 years of build-up and can field more men than Hamas in spite of Hamas’ electoral popularity last January.

Update: Debkafile is reporting that I got it backwards. Hamas orchestrated the violence in a bid to dislodge Fatah from all control in the Gaza Strip. Could be.

Doing to the Golan what was done to the Gaza Strip

I think that Israeli Lefties have to be the most optimistic and delusional people I have ever witnessed. Take for example, the Gaza Disengagement. They cheered, supported and rallied around former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's “land for peace” formula of evicting 9,000 Israelis from their homes and businesses in the Gaza Strip - all in the “hope” that some of the most radicalized Palestinian terrorist in the world, would suddenly settle down and live spontaneously hardcore peaceful lives tending the greenhouses of the Gaza Strip.

Never mind the cost to the Israeli agricultural industry or the hit the Israeli economy had to absorb from the loss of the agricultural industry from the Gaza Strip. Believe it or not the alleged savings from security were to significantly offset those losses.

Never mind that a year after the disengagement from the Gaza Strip the Israeli government has had to shell out more for security then they paid out before the IDF & settlers left the Gaza Strip. And if you are a resident of the Israeli town Sderot, the best you can do is pray that your family, home, business, or school does not get Qassamed because the government seems to be utterly impotent in face of those flying rockets.

Any way, my point being is that the disengagement from Gaza Strip was a disaster, and not just for the roughly 9,000 Jews who have yet to have permanent homes or jobs, but for the country as a whole. But here’s a Leftie, who thinks the ‘land for peace’ solution was such a good idea, that now is the time to do to the Golan what was done to the Gaza Strip.

Of course, he makes scant reference to some of the potential disasters waiting to happen when a historical aggressive belligerent nation controls not only a substantial percentage of the water supply for Israel but the military higher ground. Nor does he take into account the cost to the economy or what it means to relocate 18,000 Israelis into Israel “proper.”

If I am on strike because of you, and you are on strike because of me; does anyone notice?

In a way, it is all rather novel that Hamas and the PLO’s infighting on the weekend actually made the western newspapers, but this weekend’s violence has prompted Hamas to close down government offices to protest the PLO general led strike that has closed private schools and shops today. Ha’aretz reports:

Hamas militiamen withdrew from the streets of the Gaza Strip on Monday and returned to their normal posts after the worst day of internal violence since Hamas took control of the Palestinian government in March.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party enforced a general strike, closing shops and private schools in a show of force against Hamas. For its part, the Hamas-led government ordered all ministries closed to protest Fatah attacks on government buildings.

Fatah militants also released Samir Birawi, a Hamas official in the Finance Ministry they had briefly kidnapped, telling him his abduction was intended to send Hamas a message to end the Gaza violence, Hamas officials said. The Fatah men also burned Birawi's car.

Palestinian Authority President Abbas has called for renew “unity” coalition talks with Hamas, but ultimately, the little bit of authority Abbas had among his own Fatah party is rapidly breaking down. And don’t think Hamas doesn’t know it.

The resulting chaos in the occupied territories is the natural result of a western leader being propped up far past his best before due date. Abbas’ legitmacy to represent and lead his people is being questioned far beyond Hamas party member circles. The on-going clashes are the result of that questioning coming to the forefront. When even your own won’t follow; who else can you lead and where else can you except maybe down the garden path on the road to perdition?