OMG - the Israelis are killing fields

Since Hamas has undertaken the responsibility for firing rockets at Sderot the general aim has improved. Amir Peretz, the Israeli Defense Minister, immediate neighbor’s house has been hit reports Ha’aretz:

A Qassam rocket struck a home next to the Sderot residence of Defense Minister Amir Peretz early on Wednesday, causing damage but no injuries. Peretz was not at home at the time of the attack, part of a barrage of Palestinian rockets that also hit a basketball court in the town Wednesday morning.

The defense minister blamed Hamas for the attack, maintaining they are "trying to cover up the murderous act of their men against Fatah militants." Peretz, who was touring an IDF exercise in the north, called the rocket firing "intolerable and will reap a response." He reiterated that "Israel has no intention to intervene with the internal clashes in [Gaza] Strip, but we are not going to tolerate that these clashes will impact the security of Israeli residents; these events will reap a suitable response." IAF helicopters attacked in response to the rocket barrage open fields in the northern Gaza Strip where Qassam rockets are suspected to be launched from.

I can’t decide if the recent targeting of open fields in the northern Gaza Strip is Israeli Defense minister’s idea of showing support for the Gazan agricultural system or not. Certainly, it has done less than nothing to stem the tide of kassams attacks launched by Hamas.

While the Kadima government continues to fire into open and fields and threatens to bluster some more, the citizens of Sderot remain under siege. So much for not allowing the slaughter in Gaza to have an impact on Israeli security. Meanwhile there are two citizen initiatives are currently on the go in Sderot. Taken from Ynet News:

Tuesday night's Qassam barrage was too much even for Sderot's most experienced residents, and they decided to appeal to "the nation's savior" - Arkadi Gaydamak. Batia Cattar, Chairwoman of the Sderot PTA (Parents-Teachers Association) said that numerous appeals from the city's residents resulted in the letter she wrote Gaydamak. I appeal to you on behalf of the residents of Sderot, requesting you help us evacuate the city, as you did last summer," she wrote. "We have no choice. Life here has become a game of Russian roulette, rockets are fired constantly and many are injured. "The prime minister and the defense minister have left us on our own, bleeding in the battlefield."

Gaydamak helped Sderot's residents last summer, by sending many of them to a weekend away, in Eilat. Cattar told Ynet that many in the city are desperate to leave, and frustrated the government has no consideration for them. "How many more must die? We are sitting ducks and the government does nothing about it. If something like this were happening in central Israel, they wouldn't just be standing there. Our blood," she added "is no different."

Imagine having to sue the government to send in the army to defend you but that is exactly what lies at the heart in the second citizen initiative. This Ynet News carries the details:

A group of residents from the battered town of Sderot have decided on a unique course of action against the unremitting rocket fire directed at their homes from Gaza, announcing they would petition the High Court to force Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to instruct the army to respond. The initiative is credited to Sderot resident Avi Farhan – who was evacuated from the settlements of Yamit and Elei Sinai when Israel pulled out of the Sinai Desert in Egypt and the Gaza Strip, in 1981 and 2005 respectively.

Ironically, there have been no international rallying cries of “war crimes” for the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians by Hamas nor is anyone even remotely suggesting dragging the Hamas leadership to answer to charges of war crimes in the Hague. Funny how all these human rights organizations became willfully deaf when the victims are Jewish civilians.

Mayhem

Violence and chaos have reached unprecedented levels even for the Gaza Strip reports the Jerusalem Post:

Hamas is trying to divert attention from internecine fighting in the Gaza Strip by firing dozens of Kassam rockets at Israel, Palestinian leaders said Tuesday. It wants to drag Israel into the conflict to embarrass the Palestinian Authority and bring about its collapse, they added.

The allegations followed another day of bloody clashes between Fatah and Hamas militiamen in Gaza. At least 15 Palestinians were killed and 70 were wounded. Appeals by many Palestinians and Arab governments to the two parties fell on deaf ears as gunmen continued to fight street battles in different parts of the Gaza Strip. In addition, most Palestinians ignored appeals from hospitals for blood donations.

"The streets are completely deserted and people are afraid to walk out of their homes," said a local journalist. "This is a real war and people are really afraid." Hundreds of Fatah and PA policemen surrounded the Islamic University in Gaza City - a stronghold of Hamas - and threatened to storm the premises. Hamas warned that its men would turn the university complex into a "graveyard" for the attackers if they carried out their threat. Hamas militiamen fired several missiles at the headquarters of the PA General Intelligence Service in the northern Gaza Strip. The movement also threatened to destroy the offices of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza City.

Tuesday's clashes began when Hamas gunmen killed eight PA security officers near the Karni border crossing. A ninth officer was shot and killed by IDF soldiers as he tried to escape toward the border with Israel. Fatah and PA officials denounced the attack as a massacre and vowed to avenge the killings. Fatah legislator Jamal Abu Rub said Hamas and the IDF were responsible.

"The time has come for our people to realize that there is a huge conspiracy by mercenaries to destroy the Palestinian Authority," he said. "The security situation in the Gaza Strip is intolerable. We can't remain idle in the face of the atrocities committed by Hamas and Israel." Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, warned Hamas against targeting Abbas and other senior PA figures. Leaflets distributed by the group in Gaza said Hamas would pay a heavy price if it dared to target PA leaders.

The innate problem with what passes for Palestinian culture is a lack of introspection and an inability to take any responsibility for any action. Even in the midst of a life and death power struggle Palestinians must find a way to blame the “other” - in this case a huge conspiracy by unnamed mercenaries, and of course, the ever obligatory shifting of blame to the Israelis for their very own uncivil slaughter in the streets of the Gaza Strip. Perhaps, if we give Jamal Abu Rub some more time and a soap box, he’ll be able to come up with a passable theory in which kidnapped Israeli soldier Cpl. Shalit is to blame. After all, Schalit is apparently the last Jew in Gaza.

Hamas, not content with simply slaughtering Fatah members in the streets of Gaza has upped the ante and opened a second front in a series of rocket barrages against the Israel state reports the Jerusalem Post.

With the security cabinet in the midst of reassessing policy toward the Gaza Strip, Tuesday night's Kassam barrage on Sderot was not expected to lead to any dramatic and immediate change in Israel's relative restraint, government officials said Tuesday evening.

Sderot came under attack Tuesday night and a barrage of 20 Kassam rockets wounded more than 18 people, one seriously. The rocket bombardment started towards the evening when a salvo of seven rockets slammed into the Negev city. One scored a direct hit on a home, leaving a 45-year-old woman seriously wounded and her son listed in moderate condition. A number of other people in the home sustained light injuries.

According to the officials, the Hamas attack was an attempt to draw attention away from their slaying of eight Fatah security officers earlier in the day and was meant to provoke Israel into invading Gaza, a move that would end the internal fighting and unite Fatah and Hamas against their common Israeli enemy.

And Israel, right on tune, again threatens a potentially harsh response if the kassam barrages does not cease, and to prove the seriousness of the Israeli intentions follows-up by launching a helicopter attack on an empty field in the Gaza Strip reports Ynet News.

IAF helicopters fired at the open fields in northern Gaza used by terror groups to launch the rocket attacks in an attempt to deter immediate future attacks.

Palestinian officials said no one was hurt.

Peretz intends to call a special security forces meeting later this evening, which IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenaz is supposed to attend in order to discuss possible military actions.

At the current juncture, no emergency security cabinet meeting is planned and both Olmert and Peretz seem willing to wait for the scheduled security cabinet next week in order to determine a plan for continued action.

Back in April, the current IDF Chief of Staff acknowledged the only way to effectively halt the rocket fire on Israeli civilians from the Gaza Strip was a ground operation but the Kadima government continues to reject their top military man’s best advice. While I usually invoke the 48 hour rule with Debkafile reports and am not the biggest fan of their analysis, I think the Debka is right on the money for rationale behind the continued passivity of the Kadima government’s response to the continued siege on Sderot:

Lt. Gen. Keith G. Dayton, US security coordinator, sought and obtained instructions from Washington forbidding Israel to launch a ground offensive or any other major military operation in Gaza. To hold the Israeli government to this directive, the Bush administration will be sending a military delegation to Israel this week, to survey the damage caused by the Palestinian missiles and draw up guidelines for dealing with them.

Olmert’s assent to the US government determining what form the IDF’s response to the Palestinian missile blitz from Gaza should take has left Israel’s security and military establishments aghast and deeply troubled. They are furious at being summoned to a phony debate in the cabinet Sunday, purportedly for a hearing at long last of their plans to quell the threats building up from Gaza.

All of which begs the questions why has the Israeli state outsourced foreign policy and Israeli security to the Bush Administration, but more importantly - what’s the suffering quota/body count do the Israelis have to reach before the Bush Administration finally allows the Israeli government to act in their own self-defense?

Prayer as Provocation

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows, there we hung up our lyres" …"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy."

Yesterday in Israel celebrations were held in memory of the 40th anniversary of the unification of Jerusalem. It seems silly to point this out, but I have found over and over that most North Americans don’t fully appreciate the meaning of the unification of Jerusalem. It seems beyond ridiculous since the celebrations for the last 40 years center around “unification” of Jerusalem, but be that as it may, most North Americans don’t fully comprehend that a portion of the city of Jerusalem always remained in Israeli hands.

For example, take this Canadian government decision not to recognize Jerusalem, Israel as a birthplace for naturalized Canadians born in Jerusalem. I mean really, how does the government know that a naturalized Canadian citizen was not born in the Jerusalem which has been recognized as part of the Israeli state since the armistice lines were drawn in 1949? It does not. Therefore, it refuses to make any distinctions and invokes the fabrication that no such city has ever existed within the modern Israeli state.

I read this editorial in Ha’aretz today criticizing a group of Rabbis who ascended the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to pray at the holiest site in Judaism, and I think perhaps it is somewhat pre-mature to celebrate the unification.

If a Jew cannot pray openly and freely in the Jewish state at the holiest site in Judaism without a condemnation from an Israeli paper - there is something seriously wrong within the so-called Jewish state and with the whole "unification" process. Imagine Muslims being refused access to pray in Mecca and you have the equivalent.

And these are the alleged peace partners for Israel

Last Thursday Fatah and Hamas agreed to work together to crack down on the violence and lawlessness in the Gaza Strip. The spirit co-operation didn’t even last to noon before Hamas and Fatah turned their guns on each other. So far the spirit of cooperation toll is 4 dead and 15 kidnapped in some of the heaviest fractional fighting since the last ceasefire agreement signed by Fatah and Hamas.

But it’s all good as Fatah and Hamas have reached another ceasefire agreement reports Ynet News:

Fatah and Hamas reached an agreement to halt violence between the factions in the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire talks were mediated by an Egyptian delegation, after four Palestinians were killed Saturday and 20 more were wounded in inter-factional gun battles.

At the height of Sunday's clashes, organizations on both sides claimed to have abducted dozens of group members from the rivaling organizations. Prior to the signing of the agreement, Hamas and Fatah gunmen continued to trade accusations regarding which side was responsible for the renewed outbreak of violence.

For a people with such an alleged longing for statehood it is amazing how quickly they reverted to outright banditry and anarchy the minute the Israelis withdrew. Instead of recognizing this as their opportunity to step up to the plate and govern their own affairs the Palestinians took the time and applied the effort to remake the Gaza Strip into Mogadishu. In a way, it is rather an amazing feat on its own but one is left asking how many Mogadishu does the world really need?

with friends like these - who needs enemies?

The current mayor of Jerusalem has same pointed words for those countries which refuse to recognize the capital of Israel reports the Jerusalem Post:

Mayor Uri Lupolianski on Sunday blasted foreign governments for planning to boycott events marking the 40th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. "Anyone who doesn't recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel does not recognize the state of Israel," Lupolianski said in a statement. He added that Israel needed to send out an unequivocal message to the world, and not capitulate on this issue.

"Israel is the only country in the world that allows other countries to boycott its capital and not [locate] their embassies in the city," he added. The unusually harsh remarks from the haredi mayor comes after US and EU ambassadors declined to attend a VIP event at the Knesset marking the 40th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.

He’s got a point. It’s been 40 years since the unification of Jerusalem and it seems beyond ridiculous not to officially recognize the capital of Israel which has maintained a Jewish majority since its founding except for three brief periods in the last two millenniums.

Sources close to US Ambassador Richard Jones said Sunday that Jones would not be participating in Monday's Jerusalem Day ceremony at the Knesset. It was not yet clear whether his decision to absent himself, which followed a similar decision by the EU, was politically motivated.

In an address in Jerusalem last year, former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk said that no US president would move the US Embassy to Jerusalem except as part of a final peace agreement with the Palestinians, and, repeat preelection pledges notwithstanding, it was unrealistic to expect such a move.

Okay, so I guess this means Palestinian/Arab sensibilities trump all – glad we got that straight, but where does it end? And for the record, Canada is no better.

Bringing home the challah 2

And speaking of shomer, the Last Amazon has apparently a very successful day at work and by all accounts she was a big hit. Far too much of a hit for my comfort level, and speaking as her mother - I feel the need to get this t-shirt for her to wear at work, but maybe not in red. She’s not shomer per say, but speaking as her mother - I can hope and pray can’t I?

Quebec, the province of where a hate crime can be masked as a crime of passion instead

And speaking of cultures historically sympathic to anti-Semitism CTV carries this report of the latest goings-on in La Belle Province:

The beating of a Quebec Hasidic boy has been caught by surveillance footage just outside the Skver Toldos Jewish School, the same institute firebombed last September.

Jewish groups said the attacker likely targeted the 16-year-old victim because he was Hasidic, but police have said there is no evidence to suggest the incident was a hate crime.

"It's just devastating to have events continually happening to the cultural communities in Quebec, and everybody pretending this is in the normal course of events," Jeffrey Boro, President of Quebec's Canadian Jewish Congress, told CTV Montreal.

The attack happened in broad daylight Thursday afternoon. Security footage shows a man in a white shirt approaching the victim and then punching him in the face.
Police have not called the incident a hate crime, partly because they say there were no threats made against the boy.

Witnesses of the attack called 911 and police arrested a 24-year-old suspect getting into a taxi. According to police, the suspect said he allegedly attacked the boy because he mistakenly thought he had flirted with his girlfriend.

I love the justification for the attack. A twenty-four year old man is threatened by the alleged flirtation behaviour of a 16 year old school boy. Of course, if the boy was dressed as a Chassidic Jew, it follows he probably practices the law of shomer negiah which makes the alleged excuse even more flimsy.

If you have to wonder why the Quebec police have trouble seeing this as a hate crime you have no understanding of the role anti-Semitism has played in Quebec culture. A few months ago the Quebec police had a bit of a hard time initially perceiving the firebombing of a Jewish community centre as a hate crime too.

those nasty lessons from history

The Jersualem Post carries this account of German security forces in Lebanon:

In the past two weeks, three incidents have taken place in southern Lebanon between UNIFIL's (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) navy and IDF forces, a spokesperson for the German security forces in Lebanon said Friday evening.

According to the spokesperson, the latest incident occurred in the last few days, when IAF fighters approached a German naval ship patrolling the Lebanese coast. The report states that the planes were flying in an unusual manner.

In addition to the IAF flyby, the spokesperson said that on April 30 an IDF ship approached a German naval ship near the coast of Lebanon. Because the IDF ship did not announce itself, the German ship began battle procedures.

Am I the only wonder feeling uncomfortable about the German participation in UNIFIL?

I realize that WW2 ended after I was born and all the Germans who are currently participating in the UNIFIL were not alive during those years and so should harbour no guilt for Germany’s sins; but I have to say this account of German soldiers initiating battle procedures against soldiers of the Jewish state leaves a particularly sour taste in my mouth.

Perhaps I wouldn’t feel quite so squeamish - if Germany didn’t have such a long sordid documented history of persecution against the Jews which reaches all the back to the plague years of the 14th century. At that particular junction point Jews throughout the Rhineland were rounded up and boarded-in their synagogs and then set a flame. All in an effort to induce divine mercy and forgiveness for the alleged sin of allowing the “Christ-killers” to live among them, and hence, be spared further divine punishment from the Black Plague.

When I first encountered this history in Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror I could not help thinking the historical parallels to Germany’s actions in the 20th century were nothing more then logical consequences of a pathology deeply ingrained in culture. And is sixty odd years enough to wipe out and remake a culture of anti-Semitism which stood strong for six centuries?

Or then again I might feel more sanguine about the whole affair if Hezbollah weren’t actively re-arming under the very noses of UNIFIL. It becomes harder for me to perceive UNIFIL’s role as anything more than lending the appropriate cover to Hezbollah’s activities before the commencement of round two.

And really, is it so much to ask that the Germany UNIFIL contingent to pay a little more attention to Hezbollah rather than getting into pissing matches with the IDF?

Boy Scouts Badge now a license to kill

There is nothing I loathe more than the alleged self-righteousness of pacifists towards guns. Someone needs to give this woman a good shake and tell her that we have yet to have a killer shooting up a school because they got a "cool" badge for learning how to shoot and general gun safety in the Boy Scouts.

Bringing home the challah

The Last Amazon has landed her first job. I am so excited for her and now I finally understand why my mother would sit on a bench in the mall directly in front of the Laura Secord candy store where I had my first job and watch me work. Then she would cry. She still has my apron. I have already promised I will not sit in front of the bakery and cry, but I do expect her to bring home the challah tomorrow night.

Sniff, sniff.

One down. Two more to go.

I am willing to draw a line in the sand

I never fail to be amazed at the people who come to this country but fail to grasp the basic premises of our system of our governance. Case in point; this story from the National Post.

TORONTO - The government's practice of requiring new Canadian citizens to swear an oath to an "offshore queen," even if they do it with just "a wink and a nod," may well violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an Ontario judge said yesterday.
In a hearing about a potential class-action lawsuit brought by a Toronto criminal lawyer, the government asked Mr. Justice Edward Belobaba to dismiss the case as frivolous and doomed to fail. But the judge instead grilled the government lawyer, and called the case "a fascinating issue, to say the least," with a clear cause of action and potential for success.

Charles Roach, 73, who was born a British subject in Trinidad and Tobago and is now a permanent Canadian resident, said in an interview that he expects his case will survive until September, when he can apply to certify it as a class action. He argues that the mandatory oath violates the Charter's freedom of conscience provision.

"I feel that we [blacks] were colonized as a people by the British throne, and we were enslaved as a people by the British throne and, to me, taking an oath to the monarch of Great Britain, without any disrespect to the Queen herself as a person, is like asking a Holocaust survivor to take an oath to a descendant of Hitler," he said. Judge Belobaba reserved his decision yesterday.

It’s not like Canadians have been hiding the role of Queen Elizabeth II plays in our country or the role the “crown” plays in our system of government. If Roach really feels the republican style of governance was the best of all possible forms of governance; why didn’t he stay in his native land or immigrate to the United States? If his joining this country demands that we remake our style of governance to accommodate his particular worldviews why do we need him to join our ranks?

Israeli style warmongering

Where else in the Mid-East can you find a group of soldiers passing time at a local bus station singing about peace than in Israel?

They are all so young. It makes me what to take them home and feed them.

h/t: I owe a shoutout to someone but I am not sure who. I found this link on blog last weekend and I thought I saved the link and blog name but discovered this morning I hadn't. So much thanks to ________ for sharing.

The Costs of Things

My children often accuse me of being too pre-occupied with the costs of things. One of them comes home and starts to tell me about the most fabulous 'this and that' but the first words out of my mouth are always, “So what’s is going to cost me?”

To me, being both anal-retentative and a woman with very limited resources, I am psychologically compelled to figure out the cost of literally everything. In that way, I can then determine whether it can be worked into the budget or not. Besides, experience teaches me I am not overtly fond of both financial surprises or being seriously unprepared. When I am financially surprised and unprepared - bad things happen. While this principle guides my life it also has wider applications for governments.

The Israeli government has failed to calculate the true cost of evicting 8,000 plus Jews from their home in the Gaza Strip says the Israeli Comptroller. The Jerusalem Post carries this report on the Comptroller's report:

The government failed to properly debate and calculate the true cost of the evacuation of 25 settlements in Gaza and northern Samaria in August of 2005, according to charges laid out in the 2007 State Comptroller's Report. It noted that original cost estimations for the Disengagement Plan in the winter of 2004 spoke of NIS 4.5 billion, which had doubled and turned into NIS 9 billion by May of 2006.

"Decision makers did not have exact figures about the budgetary needs," and were not properly briefed, the report stated. It blamed the problem largely on both the Ministerial Committee for Disengagement and the forum of directors-general that fed the committee information regarding the plan.

According to the report, which was released for publication Wednesday, the forum should have presented a more general overview with complete financial considerations. At the same time, the ministerial committee should have picked up on the problem and demanded better information. The Treasury should have developed a mechanism to track all the funding as well.

Even now, according to the report which was presented Wednesday to the Knesset, there is not enough information available to calculate the final cost of disengagement. The comptroller blamed a portion of the hike on the government's failure to initially address the resettlement costs not associated with personal reimbursements to the evacuees.

In addition, financial considerations took a back seat to the diplomatic ones. Budgetary considerations should have been an important part of the decision making process when it came to weighing different implementation options, the report stated.

Even when the plan first passed the cabinet in June 2004, according to the report, "the government knew that financing it [disengagement] required a large scale budget... After the government approved the disengagement plan, a high priority should have been given to budgetary considerations when weighing implementation options." This didn't happen.

Decisions were made in a haphazard and piecemeal fashion that led to a budgetary hike of some NIS 2.4b. within half a year for evacuee assistance separate from personal compensation payments. In addition, no proper budgetary framework and limit was developed for all the aspects of the plan involved in taking the evacuees out of Gaza and northern Samaria.

The setting of overall financial limits would have forced a more effective allocation of funds, according to the comptroller. It added that some of the transfer requests to the Prime Minister's Office violated proper financial procedure and made it hard to implement budgetary controls.

While some of the uncalculated budget hike is attributable to military spending, which to date has reached NIS 2.5b., the report focused its attention on the decision making process with respect to additional civilian resettlement costs of NIS 2.4b. Included in this sum was NIS 210 million for hotel rooms where many of the evacuees were initially housed and NIS 775 million for temporary housing where most of the evacuees still live. According to the report, that NIS 2.4b. was the result of decisions made only after the initial disengagement budget passed the Knesset in March 2005. In that period, the focus was on the NIS 4.1b. set aside for personal compensation, of which it was expected that no more than NIS 2.5 to 3b. would actually be needed. While to date only some NIS 2.3b. has been given for personal compensation, it is expected, according to the comptroller's office, that at least the full NIS 4.1b. will be used.

There is more and it’s all dark but I would be remiss if I did not remind readers that full compensation has yet to be paid out, and almost two years later; the prospects for permanent housing for the majority of Gush Katif refugees is still bleak in the short-term.

So the next time anyone has a suggestion or peace plan for the region, let us start with the cost of calculating the "peace" by evicting almost half a million Jews from their homes in the West Bank.

Then we can move on to look at the Rand Corp study which estimated the needed influx of capital to help the Palestinians build a viable state out of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Rand study is a few years old and was calculated before the rise of Hamas. It also counts on the non-destruction of the greenhouses of the Gaza Strip, as well as allowing for a significant influx of Palestinian labour fully into the Israeli economy which may or may not be allowed to happen. The Rand study, lowball-best-case scenario, starts at US$33 Billion.

Transfer has never looked better or more cost efficient.

Some things are beyond parody

For all the sins of the UN, and there are legions of them, I really find it a stretch to imagine the organization as missionaries Christians spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s hard to take these groups seriously when they come up with these bone-headed statements. Ynet News:

A deadly attack Monday against a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip was carried by an Islamist extremist group, according to a statement faxed to WND which claimed the UN was targeted because the international body was "spreading Christian missionary activity."

"The UN is spreading Christian missionary. We will keep hitting them and trying to kill them. They are trying to convert our Muslims under the cover of an international organization," said the statement, signed by the group Jihadia Salafiya.

Until now, Jihadia Salafiya has operated in Gaza as an Islamic outreach movement seeking to make secular Muslims more religious, but the overall leader of the organization, Abu Saqer, confirmed to WND Tuesday his organization recently opened what it called a "military wing" to target individuals, establishments and groups it claims are "corrupting Islam."

He said, she said, Hamas said - did not.

Yadda, yadda. Hamas is threatening to murder kidnapped soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalitt if Israel launches a defensive operation into the Gaza Strip reports the Jersualem Post:

Hamas's armed wing, Izzadin a-Kassam, has threatened to execute kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit if the army enters Gaza, Israel Radio reported on Tuesday.

In an as-yet-unpublished statement to a Palestinian Web site, the group's spokesman, Abu Obaidah, was quoted as saying that if the IDF carries out a military incursion in Gaza, Schalit's life could be in clear danger, and he may even be killed. "One way or another, it is in the hands of Izzadin Kassam," Obaidah said in the statement. Shortly after the report was released, Hamas sources in Gaza denied that Abu Obaidah had made any such statement.

Okay, so no one is sure whether Hamas will murder Cpl. Schalit. Somehow that seems entirely fitting since no reputable third party (like say - the Red Cross) has been able to confirm that Cpl. Schalitt is indeed still counted among living.

Too bad the Olmert has so little creditability left that he cannot take Israel MK Yisrael Katz’s excellent suggestion and advise the Palestinian Authority; if Shalitt is murdered - its open season on the entire Hamas government and have anyone or their grandmother believe he’s is serious.

Scratching my head over this one

The Globe and Mail carries this report of a study showing that 40% of 3 ½ month old babies are already TV watchers.

Three-month-old babies are too little for solid food. They can't sit up by themselves and many can't sleep through the night. But 40 per cent of them are already watching television, according to a study published today.

The University of Washington study, which appears in the May edition of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, is the first to identify how early in infancy babies are becoming TV viewers. The researchers also found that by the time they're two, a whopping 90 per cent of the soother set are tuning in.

I admit to scratching my head over this one. My, how times and the nature of babies has changed so radically since I last gave birth 12 years ago. At 3 ½ months, I would haven’t gotten any of my babies to sit peacefully and watch television for 5 minutes - let alone 20 minutes at a time.

By 2 years of age, mine were still constantly in motion nor could they have been left unsupervised in front of the television for 5 minutes (even with Barney on) without hostilities and chaos ensuing. I am not sure what to think of this radical change in the nature of babies. The first possible explanation that comes to mind is to question how old do you need to be before a doctor prescribes Ritalin in Kurt Cobain country?

Enough Already

Why can’t they just leave?

Misogyny is as misogyny does, and thy name is Saudi Arabia.

So much for UN Resolution 1701. Maybe it is long past the time to disband the UN.

PA Chairman cannot convince Hamas and other terror groups to accept US peace plan…and Israel is the “unstable” political partner.

Call me only partially engaged

I didn’t blog anything this morning for two reasons. One, I have another project on the go which is taking up a disproportionate amount of my time. Second, the news was only marginally interesting.

So I decided to do a post tonight of things which are only marginally interesting.

An alleged conservative was elected in France. Nicolas Sarkozy may very well be a conservative but two things to keep in mind. This is France and even George W. Bush was presented as an alleged conservative at one time.

The Kadima ruling coalition of the Israeli parliament survives three no-confidence votes in the Knesset. No surprise there and Olmert remains the Prime Minister of Israel.

US Secretary of State has cancelled her planned trip to Israel to help stream-line the peace process due to the uncertain political situation in Israel. I can’t help but find it telling that no matter how unstable the Palestinian Authority is nor how often it fails to live up to the most marginal of obligations in the “peace process” it is never “unstable” enough not to pamper or cater to its every outrageous whim.

Unstable Israeli ruling political coalitions are mother’s milk to Israelis. Just take a look at their history. While most Israelis want Olmert gone there is no political will among Knesset member to bring down his government at this time. Olmert is in power until he resigns or is defeated. The only thing that would cause Olmert to fall is if he commits some outrageous act of political suicide or did some dumb-ass thing like….offer to arm the Palestinian Authority or open the borders to Palestinian (wink, wink) workers. Oops! That is exactly what Rice wants.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem announces the discovery of the tomb of King Herod. Palestinian denial coming by 11:00pm.

Palestinians are eating their young

Palestinian Authority security officials are claiming that an Al-Qaeda group attacked an UNWRA run elementary school in the Gaza Strip reports the Jerusalem Post:

Palestinian Authority security officials accused supporters of al-Qaida in the Gaza Strip of being behind Sunday's attack on an UNWRA-run school in Rafah in which one person was killed and six other injured. "There is no doubt that al-Qaida is operating in the Gaza Strip," said a senior PA security official. "Today's attack carries the fingerprints of al-Qaida."

Witnesses told The Jerusalem Post that at least 70 Muslim fundamentalists participated in the attack on the Omariya School, where UNRWA and PA officials were attending a celebration. The director of UNRWA operations in the Gaza Strip, John Ging, was inside the school at the time of the attack. He was not hurt as PA policemen whisked him away to a safe location.

"The protesters surrounded the school and began chanting slogans denouncing the event as immoral," said one witness. "Their main argument was that girls and boys were asked to dance together in violation of Islamic teachings. This is a false claim because I didn't see a mixed gathering." Another witness said the protesters hurled a number of hand grenades and opened fire from automatic rifles as participants prepared to leave the school premises. "It was a big and organized attack on the elementary school," he said. "This is something unprecedented. It's only a miracle that many people were not killed."

The dead man was identified as Suleiman Al-Shaer, a bodyguard for Fatah legislator Majed Abu Shamalah, who was one of the guest speakers at the celebration. According to a third witness, the protesters also opened fire at a vehicle belonging to UNRWA as it left the scene. He said at least two of the assailants were later captured by PA policemen. Five Palestinian journalists who were covering the event were wounded after being beaten by masked gunmen, according to the witness.

Local residents and PA security officials said the attackers belonged to a new Al-Qaida identified with Salafism - a school of thought that takes the pious ancestors [Salaf] of the patristic period of early Islam as exemplary models.

While it is not out of the realm of possibilities for another separate terrorist group to set up shop in the Gaza Strip; I just find it a tad unlikely that a new separate terrorist group is operating this openly against fellow Palestinians because the Gaza Strip is run under a clan-gang system. Keep in mind the Gaza Strip is a small area less than the size of the City of Toronto. It is also a place where either everyone knows everyone or is related to someone who knows someone who knows someone. (Read this excellent report from Ha’aretz called As Gaza Burns for background.)

To accept the thesis of Palestinian security officials is also to accept that an “al-Qaeda” like group prefers to target fellow Muslims when there are approximately 7.5 million Jews surrounding the Gaza Strip on 3 sides. I also find it very suspicious that this group made a point of deliberately targeting five journalists who were at the school covering the celebrations. Sounds like Fatah/Hamas/Islamic Jihad to me. And wasn’t it just last week a Hamas official and acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislature Council was opening preaching in a mosque and calling for the death of Americans & Jews to the “very last one’?

As far as the attack on an elementary school being unprecedented in Palestinian society I must take issue. Long before Beslan; there was Ma’alot. And while one could say Ma’alot represented an attack on “Jewish” school children; hence the difference. I would suggest once a culture crosses this kind of psychological boundary, it is only a matter of time before that same pathology is used against one’s own children.

Hamas gives new meaning to the term "Blood Sports"

These Hamas guys just won’t take No for an answer. Ynet News Online is carrying a report that the Minister of Youth & Sports for the Palestinian Authority has been denied entry to the Netherlands. In fact, the Dutch authorities wouldn’t even let him off the plane when it landed.

Belgian police held a Palestinian minister on board his plane on Friday after Dutch authorities withdrew his visa to attend a conference in the Netherlands, Dutch authorities and conference organizers said. Youth and Sports Minister Bassem Naim, a Hamas member, arrived in Brussels on a flight from Egypt after being granted a visa by Dutch authorities in Tel Aviv. But he was prevented from disembarking by 10 Belgian police, said Majed al-Zeer, director of the London-based Palestinian Return Center and one of the organizers of Saturday's conference on Palestinian refugees.

"What happened on the flight was the humiliation of the Palestinian people," Al-Zeer told The Associated Press. "He was not even allowed to go to the toilet." Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Dadou said Naim had been granted a visa but that it was withdrawn on Thursday after checks revealed his Hamas affiliation. Dadou said Dutch authorities contacted Naim and made it clear he would not pass through Dutch immigration control. "We told him his visa was canceled from that moment ... and for that reason there was no way he would be able to get into the Netherlands by legal means," Dadou said. Naim tried to board an Amsterdam-bound flight Thursday night but was turned away, Dadou said. He then managed to get on an Egyptian plane from Cairo to Brussels on Friday. "Now he will be sent back with the first flight available," Dadou said.

Wow. The Palestinian Authority has a ministerial portfolio for Youth & Sports. Get your head around that idea. Of course, depending on how you define “youth, sport and Palestinian Authority” - will determine whether the idea of the Minister of Youth & Sports lecturing at a conference on the plight of Palestinian Refugees as downright bizarre or not.

The IDF takes on the Maccabees

The war on religious Jews continues in the IDF. Ynet News carries this report.

Hesder Yeshivas have long since been considered one of the strongest core groups within the IDF. Hesder, or arrangement, is a unique Israeli creation that allows religious young men to pursue Talmudic studies and later serve in the armed forces.

But their contribution is not without preconditions, and they so far have been allowed to serve in homogenous units comprised of only their fellow yeshiva recruits. Now Human Resources Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Elazar Stern, himself one of the army's top religious officers, aims to put an end to the practice.

New orders issued by Stern will bar hesder yeshiva students from joining the Golani and Paratrooper brigades, two of the most popular combat choices for religious recruits. The army will also change the manner in which it accepts hesder students to elite units.

Yeshiva educators accused Stern of having a vendetta against the program. Stern has spoken out against homogenous units in the past. The IDF denied the allegations and said that the hesder recruits "have received preferential treatment for many years and from time to time there are changes that stem from the army's changing needs."

A key thought to keep in mind concerning the “homogenous” units for Hesder yeshiva students means that these soldiers would not be serving directly along side women; as it violates religious rules. One has to stop and look at the motivation behind the IDF’s decision to actively terminate a key program which has produced some of Israel’s most motivated and dedicated combat soldiers.

It is not so much about “integration” as a way of actively discouraging religious Jews from participating in the IDF; hence, the outright ban on Hesher students/soldiers from joining the Golani and paratrooper brigades.

Their active participation in the IDF presents a two-fold problem. For those who believe Israeli security can best be maintained by pursuing an Auschwitz border policy - it leaves the IDF vulnerable to potential conflict when the government of Israel starts using soldiers to act as a bailiff’s in order to evict Jews from their homes.

Furthermore, it potentially trains “settlers” as combat soldiers. No current Israeli government, who is committed to Auschwitz border policies, wants the IDF to face the possibility of having to fight against settlers who are not only trained and forged in combat, but are trained to know how to actively plan a fight. It’s ironic that two millenniums later and in the Jewish state of all places; the idea of religious Jews fighting is an ideal which is too scary to fully realize.

Go Home

All the Israeli dailies are carrying reports of the protest in Rabin Square against the Olmert and the Kadima coalition government. Estimates of the crowds vary from 100,000 to 200,000 people have arrived to protest. Here’s the Jerusalem Post’s account:

Buoyed by what they said was a crowd of more than 200,000 Israelis from across the political spectrum who gathered in Kikar Rabin on Thursday night to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, rally organizers said they were planning a series of events with the same goal and would not stop until the prime minister had gone. Police put the crowd at 150,000.

The event's main organizer, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan, told the crowd that "Democracy is in danger." The very committee that the prime minister established, Dayan said, had "stood before him and bravely said, 'Mr. Olmert, you have failed.'"

What is significant about the protest is not an exclusive leftwing-rightwing, religious-secular demonstration. For once, almost all the diverse segments that make up the Land of Israel have crossed their separate solitudes to be united under one idea – Olmert Go Home.

Update: I should point out that there was one group of Israelis who did not get behind the demonstration at Rabin Square. Peace Now.

Israeli Blond Ambition

Oh, my, my, Livni your ambition is showing. The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Kadima Foreign Minister Livni has publicly called for Olmert’s resignation in light of the Winograd interim report:

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called upon Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign Wednesday, but the move appeared to backfire as the rebellion inside their Kadima Party appeared to peter out. When Olmert convened the Kadima faction at the Knesset, only three Kadima MKs came out against him: Livni, MK Marina Solodkin and coalition chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki. At the start of the meeting, Yitzhaki tendered his resignation and he was replaced by Olmert loyalist MK Tzahi Hanegbi.

Olmert's opponents said some lawmakers who had intended to criticize the prime minister decided at the last minute to remain silent. A defiant premier vowed to quash all attempts to force him to leave the Prime Minister's Office. "I am not in the most comfortable situation, but I am older than 60, I've seen a lot in my life and I've learned not to run from responsibility in any situation or condition," Olmert told the lawmakers.

Olmert decided against firing Livni on Wednesday, preferring to punish her by letting her fate remain undetermined. But the prime minister was angered by her behavior and he told her in a one-on-one meeting that she could not threaten him and expect to remain his No. 2. In a slap at Livni, Olmert told the cabinet, "Anyone who is impatient to use the Winograd Report for political gain will have to wait."

Some Olmert advisers warned him not to fire Livni because it could aid her campaign for the Kadima leadership, while others said her behavior warranted immediate dismissal. Tal Zilberstein, Olmert's strategic adviser, condemned Livni as an "unethical coward." He said Olmert had no choice but to fire her, because "in the business world, any No. 2 who says the No. 1 should go and she should stay would be fired."

Possible replacements for Livni include Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and former justice minister Haim Ramon, but Olmert could decide to keep Livni as foreign minister while removing her title of vice premier. Livni told reporters at her press conference that she intended to seek the Kadima leadership. If Olmert were to resign, the 25,000 Kadima members would elect a new chairman within two months.

"Kadima should elect its leader democratically in a primary, and when the time comes, I will be a candidate," Livni said. "A leader must be chosen whom the party and the public can trust." She told Olmert that resigning was "the right thing for him to do." Livni said she was not trying to topple him but to convince him that he should quit on his own volition.

Whether Olmert resigning is the right thing for him to do or not there is something unseemly with this Israeli version of a Belinda-lite suggesting he should resign while she should keep her position in cabinet and possibly assume the Prime Minister’s office chair. If she had any real convictions she would have resigned when Olmert didn’t.

Of course, Livni is typical of so-called blond ambition who wants it all but not the working for it part. Ynet News carried this little nugget from her press conference:

Livni warned however that she would not back no-confidence motions in the Knesset by opposition parties seeking to push Israel for new elections, saying that Kadima was the right platform to elect a new prime minister. "There were rumors that I was working to oust the prime minister. This never happened. That is a decision that he should take," Livni said.

"I believe that Kadima should stay and run the State of Israel. When the time comes, I will announce my candidacy for the party's leadership," she said. "I believe general elections would be a mistake as the State of Israel needs stability. If the prime minister decides to resign, I believe the Knesset can put a government together."

Here’s the real deal. If Livni had to face the Israeli electorate as leader of Kadima tomorrow; the party would go to 9-10 seats in the Knesset and the prime minister’s office would be nothing more than a dream and she knows it. She’d be eating Shas dust. Her best chance is to try to oust Olmert in a coup while Kadima remains the government.

But you know what I find strange. How come the Man most likely never to win an election has yet to stake out a claim?

Oh yeah, right. Blame me.

The Globe and Mail is carrying a report called "The New Sex Talk" and leads with this quote below the heading:

Kids are getting away with risky behaviours online because parents are afraid to ask about their Internet use

Oh yeah. Now you blame me.

I guess it's the downright preachiness of this article laced with the sinister undertone of 'blame the parents' which sticks in my craw. Let me tell you something, I have been trying to raise moral children for the last 16 years and it's been an uphill battle all the way. The clash hasn't been so much with my children themselves but the schools, the teachers, the child & youth care workers, the advertising & marketing agencies, the media, children's television etc.

Why I even have a provincial government which sees absolutely nothing wrong in attempting to indoctrinate behaviour patterns in my children by using an advertising campaign geared to "pre-teens/teens" which utilizes vulgarity and coarse language.

I have a school system which demands the right to teach my children about all manner of human sexuality, without morality or judgement, and there is very little I can do about. I am lucky if I even know what days sex education is taught in the elementary school classroom. My daughter, the Last Amazon, was only 10 when she came home to enlighten me on the various positions males take with other males during sex. Lucky for us, the public health nurse took the time to illustrate on the blackboard using stick men. I can object till the cows come home or I turn blue in the face but what is done is done and cannot be undone.

I have had an alleged Child & Youth Care Worker attempt to brow-beat me in front of my daughter because in my home, a 12 year daughter does not attend dances or go to school dances escorted by a 12 year old boy on a “date”. And no, I don’t care how I have negatively narrowed her socially development as a human being. As far as I am concerned - she has her whole life to grow out of it.

Since elementary school, I have my moral authority as a parent under constant attack by principals and teachers who respectively who fill my children’s head with their “alleged rights” but never take the time to advise the children under their care what their responsibilities are as decent moral human beings.

How do you think I feel after all these years of attempting to teach my sons not to objectify women as sexual objects, and then find myself with the boys at the streetcar stop only to have the street car pull up with a larger than life ad on the side showing; a teenage model pretending to be a grown woman, caught in a series of suggestive poses, dressed only in her panties and with her breasts practically falling out of her bra? Gee, well, thanks a lot Calvin Klein. Ask yourself why thongs need to be manufactured in little girl’s sizes and training bras now come in push-up styles. Ask yourself why, in this marketing savvy society - there are no stores selling age appropriate clothing for teenage girls or boys?

And if a group of concerned parents attempt to make a stand in public; who in the MSM stands up and says - you know they may have a point? Instead, the parents are demonized in the media at large for attempting to limit Suzie and Johnny’s right to explore and discover their sexuality before they develop any real sense of personal responsibility.

How is that if you suggest the age of sexual consent be raised from 14 to at least 16 years of age – you’re sexually repressed but everyone seems to be in agreement that 14 is far too young to raise a child or die from AIDS. Actually, so is 16, but don’t you know - age ain’t nothing but a number. So just who is responsible for the sexualization of our children?

It’s not me, and I am a tough old bird, but like I said, it’s an uphill battle. I understand how it is that other parents can fall by the wayside as the pressure to conform is beyond tremendous and your moral authority as parents usually lies in tatters by the time your children hit their prime teenage years. How much worse is it for our children when almost every teen movie/program (which has been produced specifically for their age) is heavily sexualized - just think Degrassi High for starters.

Is it any wonder that some of our children are behaving inappropriately online when the messages in the media celebrate vulgarity, coarseness and camp and our schools have spent years indoctrinating our children in human sexuality without the context of ethics or morals? But take heart, all is not lost, as our schools do teach one great moral lesson - to pass judgement on another is a sin.

A thought on kinder, gentler war and the jihad

I currently have around 75 books lying around the house unread and another 25 only partially read. I don’t know if I will ever finish at the rate I am going. Every week I seem to find another book I really must have, and so the piles grow and grow.

One of the books I have only partially read is called Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict by Obadiah Shoher. I am not prepared to give an opinion on Shoher’s ideas until I have finished reading the book and had a little time to mull it over, but I came to this paragraph today and it struck a cord in light of our own national dialogue and the role of Canadian Forces in Afghanistan:

Israel’s failure in Lebanon and the Soviet Union’s in Afghanistan, the two cases of successful defensive jihad after centuries of Muslim impotence have the same cause: the unwillingness of the stronger power to wage normal war, which let defenders hide among the civilians and strike at leisure. The only way to fight a war is brutally. The choice is not between humaneness and cruelty but between waging war and surrender. Starting a war without being prepared to fight it is a recipe for failure, emboldening jihadi.

I have no doubts that our armed forces can carry out the mission but are we, as a nation and a people, prepared to let them do what needs to be done to win? I think not. We are still far too busy trying to remake and sanitize the nature of war.

Quite the feat when you think about it

It never fails to amaze how Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert consistently makes US president George W. Bush’s poll numbers look outstandingly good.

Tunnel Vision Commissions

Caroline Glick’s latest column suggests the terms of focus for the Winograd Commission are far too narrow and she does have a point:

ONE COULD console oneself by saying that at least there is a commission for the Second Lebanon War. Three greater strategic failures that all devastated Israel's defensive posture have gone without any scrutiny whatsoever.

First, Barak's precipitous surrender of southern Lebanon to Hizbullah has avoided scrutiny not only by the Winograd Commission but by all other official bodies.
The second failure also played an important role in the Second Lebanon War, but has escaped examination. This is the Sharon government's decision to hand over the Gaza Strip in its entirety to Hamas and Fatah while expelling 10,000 Jews from their homes. This not only ensconced a Hamas-Fatah jihadist army within striking range of Israel's major population centers and cemented the belief that Palestinian terrorism would bring about Israel's national collapse through the gradual handover of all Israeli territory to terrorists; it also provided a safe base of operations for terrorists to conduct operations like the kidnapping of IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit.

And, of course, the grandest of all Israeli failures was the Rabin-Peres government's decision to recognize the PLO and give it arms, land and legitimacy, ushering in the most deadly period of terrorism in Israel's history. This decision too, has never been scrutinized by a commission.

But, truly, the great pity is not that no commissions were formed to investigate these failures, as the Winograd Commission was formed to investigate the Second Lebanon War. The great pity is that Israeli society has yet to find the means to conduct a true public debate of our failures that could enable learning and corrective action.

If the Winograd report is to have any positive impact at all, it should be in beginning, not blocking the necessary public debate into the real sources of the failures last summer, and into the strategic failures of the Oslo process, and the withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza. All of these call out for our attention and correction

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And never let it be said that no one warned the Barak government that the pull-out from Lebanon would not one day lead to the events of last summer:

Over the weekend, Ma'ariv reported protocols of cabinet meetings in the weeks which preceded the 2000 withdrawal where then IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz and then IDF OC Northern Command Gabi Ashkenazi begged Barak not to go through with the withdrawal precisely because the Hizbullah buildup and aggression were so predictable.

The withdrawal from south Lebanon was fomented by the Left with the propaganda support of the Israeli media and the financial support of the EU. Together, they worked to destroy the public consensus regarding the need to protect the North from Hizbullah and Iran. They propagated the lies that unilateral withdrawal would create an "invisible wall of international legitimacy" that would protect Israel from Hizbullah better than the IDF could, and that if Israel withdrew to the international border Hizbullah would abandon jihad and become a regular Lebanese political party. But the Winograd report will not discuss such things, because it conveniently decided to begin its inquiry with the period after the IDF had already surrendered southern Lebanon to Hizbullah.

A long time ago I gave up thinking the “land for peace” formula was a foundation for peace. If it had been, the Palestinians would have accepted their state when it was originally offered in 1948, or again in 2000. The intrinsic problem with the two state solution, and consequently; the current Road Map for Peace is that it’s designed on a premise that is innately false, which is why the Road Map leads precisely nowhere fast and will continue to do so.

The conflict has never been about the Palestinians receiving a separate state of their own but their inability to accept the creation of an Israeli one. I’d even go one step further and argue it was a long-term strategic mistake for Menachem Begin and the state of Israel to exchange the Sinai for the appearance of a peace treaty with the Egypt but that is a blog post for another time.

Olmert's Theme Song - I will survive

I came home from work and decided I’d better check in with Ynet News, in the off chance, I would have to publicly eat crow mixed in with mucho grande portions of humble pie concerning the state of politicking in Israel in light of the interim Winograd report:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would hold a special cabinet meeting to discuss the conclusions of the Winograd report on the failures during the Second Lebanon War. In a special TV address Olmert stressed that he would not resign, and said he planned to appoint a team devoted to "swiftly learning the report and implementing the lessons it requires."

At a meeting of Kadima ministers earlier, Olmert said, "The report is indeed harsh, but I have no intention of resigning. "I have no doubt that lessons must be learned," continued Olmert, "But Israelis have a tendency of not letting people correct their mistakes. There will be no possibility of drawing conclusions if we enter a political crisis. I intend to continue drawing these conclusions with you."

The atmosphere at the meeting was tense, especially after the first cracks appeared in the party's support for Olmert. Most of the ministers stood by Olmert, while Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni remained silent.

Apparently, Israel Our Home party (Yisrael Beiteinu) has resolved to remain part of the Kadima coalition and Ha’artez carried this comment from Labour MK Matan Vilnai:

Labor MK Matan Vilnai also cautioned against infighting. "Now is not the time for political battles," he said. "The future of the political figures will be determined by the public."

And this from a spokesman Shas:

Infrastructure Minister Eli Yishai of Shas said that it is imperative to implement the report rather than making it into an internal battle.

Yes, well there is that but… how is it one can now teach old dogs new tricks? I betcha Olmerts knows all the words to Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I will survive’ and is busy humming it now. I, on the other hand, will feast on grilled steak, salad and green beans.

Ynet News carries excerpts from the Winograd report here.

Winograd Report - Yadda, Yadda

In a few hours from now the Interim Winograd Report on the political and military leadership of Israel will be published. It is generally expected to be a scathing criticism of Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz decision making and leadership during last summer’s war with Lebanon.

Everyone seems to know its going to be bad but it really is a question of degree. Foreign newspapers are hyping up the idea that the pressure on Olmert and Peretz to resign will be immense.

Here’s the thing. Other than Halutz, who already resigned, no one else is going to. Peretz is facing a leadership race for the Israeli Labour party. He’s currently in third place and trailing badly. Labour has no intention of leaving the Kadima coalition considering how poorly they are currently polling with the Israeli electorate in general. Now is not the political expedient time for an election; if you’re the Israeli Labour party. It’s much easier to vote Peretz out of office using the party machinery to remove a hugely unpopular politician with the Israeli electorate. It will potentially give them a second wind with the voters. Labour may bluster but its not about to leave the coalition but without a significant percentage of Labour MK’s defection, the Kadima government will not fall.

And no one really hungers to be Prime Minister at this particular junction. The general consensus is war is coming and the needed reforms in the IDF have yet to come full circle. Anyone aspiring to be Prime Minister could very well be facing another disastrous campaign like last summer’s adventures in Lebanon. Why bother to get egg on your face now. It’s far easier letting Olmert be buried under another yolking which is part of the reason Kadima is not in a hurry to replace him.

Also, every Kadima Knesset member knows if faced with another election it will be lucky to maintain 9-11 mandates - so there goes the gravy train for most of them. There’s always the potential for Kadima to attempt remove Olmert in a leadership review much like Labour is doing to Peretz. But again, who really wants to be Prime Minister during another war?

Don’t expect to see a leadership review before its time - unless Olmert chooses to resign. And why should Olmert resign? Because he’s done a bad job as Prime Minister? There already is a long line of poor quality Israeli Prime Ministers so Olmert is just taking his rightful place in the line. The only possible motivation for Olmert to resign is because he has an offer of something better to come. If he were to resign at this point the table will be bare. The only two possible serious Kadima replacements for Olmert are Shimon Peres (the man who has yet to win an election) or current Israeli Foreign Minister Livni. The best and worst thing one can say about Livni is that she is no Golda.

Interview Me Meme – the Questions and Answers

As promised, here is the list of 5 interview questions Ocean Guy sent me with requisite answers.

1. If you could travel back through time and live another life, when and where would you choose to live?

This is actually a very tricky question. In fact, so tricky that I put the question to the tribe at dinner for feedback. The Last Amazon immediately thought the golden age of ancient Sparta. She has this bizarre idea I would fit right in – what with women having multiple husbands and child-bearing mandates. Furthermore, she really could not see how managing a few hundred Helots would pose any special problems to my unique talents considering how well I manage modern day slaves (she is on kitchen mess duty).

Montana immediately suggested being part of the Viking horde which raided and invaded the shores of Britain. The upside is that I get to fight in a shield wall and kill lots of Saxons…he’s currently reading his way through Bernard Cornwell’s the Last Kingdom series and I suspect he has taken it too much to heart.

I also discovered how relative the concept of “ancient” was to a 12 year old mind. Isaiah Sender’s choice was to go “really far back in time” and take part in the original Apollo missions to the moon. I decided not to comment on having watched the original Apollo landing on television as a child.

The problem is there are just so many interesting periods and places…where to choose? Off the top of my head I thought I wouldn’t mind being a patrician Roman under Gaius Marius but before the break came under Sulla. I am a really big fan of running water and regular baths….then I thought, oh no, how could I miss my chance to sail around the world when Britannia ruled the waves????

Don’t ask me why but sailing made me think of the Russian Steppes and I asked myself; how could I miss one chance of being a real bronze age Amazon? Possessing nothing more than my horses, weapons and furs. Doing nothing better than spending each day raiding in the steppes and terrorizing the locals into submission. Living my entire life free and under an endless sky? Okay, maybe the smell might put me off.

Then I came up with the ultimate time and place to be alive. Being at the Sinai and hearing the voice of G-d with one’s own ears. Think about it; you have lived through the miraculous, all doubts are laid to rest and your time in bondage is over.

2. What are your three favorite movies and 3 favorite books?

The problem with having three favourite movies is I rarely manage to stay awake long enough to watch a whole movie from beginning to end in one sitting. Also I rarely choose to watch a movie more than once so it is hard to play flavourites. Though I did watch Conan the Barbarian five times in the movie theatres when it was first released. I swear the impression the men in that movie made on me were initially responsible for my attraction to one of my husbands. Can’t say I harbour any burning desire to watch the movie again.

The closest I come to having a favourite movie would be Master & Commander and for the life of me I can’t understand why Hollywood never made any sequels. The second and third place for favourite movies; aren’t even movies but television series. I adore Horatio Hornblower and own the DVD collection. Once a year, Montana, and I hunker down for a HH fest. Then there is the BBC produced series of Robert Graves’ "I, Claudius". I don’t own the DVD but I do have a birthday coming up and I have high hopes.

Books - how can I pick? There are just so many great ones to choose. Besides it really depends on my mood, but there is one book which stands out clearly from the literally thousands of books I have read. It’s called Chantilly Lace. It's out of print and rightly so. It wasn’t a particular well written book or a book with any redeeming qualities but it was the book I learned to read from.

3. What song is associated with your happiest memory?

Erotic City by Prince. It’s not the greatest song or even my favourite song, but I did fall madly in love for the first time dancing with a man when that song was playing.

4. Sunrise - Sunset. Which do you prefer and why?

Twenty years ago, I would have said sunsets because I loved watching the sun go down over the ocean and the stars flicker into existence in the night sky. It reminded me of how small I was and how the large the world was. Sunset represented a time filled with endless possibilities in which to dream in. Now I would say Sunrise because it reminds me that every day is both a great blessing and a promise of a new beginning.

5. Who are the five people, living or dead you'd invite to a dinner party.

Two points of about this dinner party. I have yet to give a dinner party where only 5 attended. Even my small dinner parties don’t stay small by the time the table is set. I have a strange habit of attracting stray guests and even my strays seem to bring strays. I am not sure why that is, but there you have it.

One of my major rules of motherhood is literally everything can be turned into a life lesson. So in keeping that in that vein here’s my guest list:

Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli Prime Minister, because he’s an idiot for escalating a military offfensive which he had no intention of winning. Plus, there is a good chance he will be still Prime Minister this summer, and if the winds of war blow (as it is widely rumoured), I figure he needs all the help he can get.

Menachem Begin. I like feisty little Poles with nerve, and at heart I believe Begin was a simple man. Everyone one needs at least one relatively humble man at a table. Besides, I would get real pleasure listening and watching Olmert explain his adventures in Lebanon to Begin. After dessert, I could take bets on how long it takes Begin to thump Olmert into the floor.

Carl von Clausewitz because he’s one of my favourite Prussians and is the great-grandfather of modern war theory. He would also look pretty snazzy in his uniform sitting at my table.

US Air Force Colonel John R. Boyd because he is the Daddy of OODA loop and I think he think would be able to get inside Clausewitz’s centre of gravity and keep him intellectually engaged. I know I would be, and it is my party.

Sun Tzu, author of the ancient Chinese bible of military strategy. And if he was resurrected from the dead to sit at my table; it would finally put an end to all those exceedingly tiresome debates revolving around his existence.

Julius Caesar. He made tremendous strategic mistakes but he had a habit of landing on his feet - at least until the very end. He was rumoured to be literate, cultivated and charming. Besides it’s always fun to have a man to flirt with over dinner and I would be curious to hear what he thought about modern war theory.

Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson because I am a big fan - even if he wasn’t particularly known for his conversational brilliance at the dinning table. And the uniform is to die for.

Chris Taylor. If Chris learned I had a dinner party and brought Nelson back from the dead and never invited him (and of course–the lovely Wanda) to my table, I might never be safe walking down the street again – let alone get another bottle of wine. Besides, I would rather defer to Chris and let him be the one to explain to Nelson just how low Britannia has sunk.

I am not big on arbitrarily passing around a meme (which is also why I liked this one) and I am going to paste in Ocean Guy’s directives and call it my own. If you want to participate in this meme do the following:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will send you an email asking my five questions. My choice and don’t say you weren’t warned that I can be; petty, vengeful and mean.

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Enough Already

At some point you would assume the Israeli Kadima government would wake-up and realize that you just cannot keep issuing the same old threats and think anyone or even their grandmother will take your threats seriously. Ynet News December 21, 2006:

Associates of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stressed before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday that Israel's restraint policy in the face of Qassam attacks will not last long.

"If the Qassam fire continues, we will have no other option but to respond," an official close to the PM said. The statement comes in wake of the ongoing fire on the western Negev and Ashkelon, and after 10 rockets have been fired by Palestinian gunmen in the last 24 hours alone. A senior official at the Prime Minister's Office said that Israel does not wish to initiate a confrontation in the area, and that in the meantime, the restraint will be maintained.

"We don't want to reach another escalation. It is clear to us that counter attacks or other Israeli actions will strengthen Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Such a reaction might cause Hamas and Fatah to unite forces against Israel once again." The official explained. He added that during the current ceasefire the number of rockets launched against Israel significantly dropped. "Despite of the restraint, the prime minister is evaluating the developments every day. As Abbas has been notified, Israel will not restrain itself if the fire continues," the official concluded.

Ynet News April 29, 2007:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted Sunday that Israel would launch military operations against gunmen in the Gaza Strip if rocket attacks persisted. "Israel has no interest in an escalation in Gaza, but we will not be able to ignore the continuation of Qassam fire and infiltration attempts by terror groups," Olmert told the cabinet.

Olmert added Israel sent warnings to the Palestinians through international mediators that the Jewish State might have to launch ground incursions in Gaza in order to protect southern cities from the threat of rocket attacks.

I am having real issues seeing the Olmert/Kadima drawn line in the sand - even with my reading glasses on. And if I am having problems; how much do you want to bet the Palestinian Authority cannot see the line either?

Fill in the blanks for me

Al Gore says Tories Green plan is a fraud. And he should know because…….

And I should believe every word that comes out of the mouth of the man who claims to have taken the initiative in creating the internet because…..

Barb-up or hunker down in the bomb shelter at home

Last week in Canada, the newspapers were all agag because Canadian soldiers were turning over Afghani detainees in Afghanistan to the Afghanistan government and some were some allegedly tortured by the Afghanistan government officials. And it looks like next week will be more of the same.

Canadian soldiers have not been sent to be prison guards so Taliban/Al Qaeda sympathizers/detainees can experience a kinder, gentler interrogation/incarceration. Nor has the goal ever been to colonize Afghanistan, consequently; to demand the government of Afghanistan government openly comply with our sensibilities is an exercise in cultural futility.

Canadi-anna writes pretty eloquently on a post called the Rules of War detailing Canada’s alleged plight on Afghani detainees. She has obviously done her home work and has quotes and everything - which is a damned bit more than I am prepared to do.

I really don’t care about Afghanistan and I was prepared to live out the rest of my life totally ignoring Afghanistan, then 9/11 happened. There is only one reason to be in Afghanistan and that’s to prevent any Taliban type government from offering a safe harbour to any Al-Qaeda type organization so it can set up shop and launch another 9/11 or a 10/11, or even a 12/11 against any other nation. If girl-children get to go to school, or women can walk around without the blue veil, and music is heard openly on the streets of Kabul – bonus, but let us not loose sight of the real reason Canadian soldiers are fighting and sometimes dying there.

I would have settled for bombing the Afghanistan into the Stone Age, but apparently that is not a civilized response to 9/11. Then there is always the question of who would have noticed the difference so it might have not been entirely effective. I am not quite sure why a civilized response is the natural answer to acts of barbarism. It seems to me that it’s like trying to negotiate a treaty in a language your counterparts do not speak or comprehend.

And before anyone goes all Geneva Convention on me - let us not forget two things. The Geneva Convention is only an effective treaty on the conduct of warring nations and the parameters of war between warring nations who share a common ethical language. As a side note; neither Al-Qaeda nor the Taliban has signed on to the Geneva Convention. And secondly, there has yet to be a war where the Geneva Convention has not been put to the wayside when it was considered expedient to do so.

In war, there should only be one goal – victory. Everything else is window dressing. A war cannot be won by just destroying an enemy’s capacity for action. One also needs to destroy their will to fight otherwise one is just sowing the seeds of future conflicts. We need to ask ourselves if we are really prepared to see a long running low-level conflict on the scale of the Arab-Israel wars or are we prepared to learn to barb-up and end it.

And when I say barb-up, I am not suggesting we put our entire ethics on the shelf but merely some of our sensibilities. For example, let’s trying acting and speaking in the language of our enemy - in terms that they readily understand in order to destroy their will to fight. Wrapping Taliban dead in pig’s skin and then burying them would be a place to start. If we did that, then there would be the added bonus of watching all the anti-war types on the homefront go ballistic.

Interview Meme

Two quick posts before the boys come home from the gym and demand dinner.

Ocean Guy has this Interview Meme going and I volunteered to play. After I hit the 'send' button, I realized that I have no idea what he would ask. This could potentially create whole new series of issues for me. Especially, if I were to answer honestly a million and one personal questions I could think to ask myself off the top of my head.

Not only do I have my own personal mounds of private laundry but so do most of the members of my family. I think it’s a genetic thing – much like the blood curse or Tiki thingies. Of course, the only exception is my mother but she gets really annoyed even if I make the slightest mention of her in passing on the blog. And this is way too public a forum to hang up my big girl panties on the line. Not to mention I could find myself living in the proverbial family doghouse for another 20 years….

The Last Amazon has turned into a bit of a family venue. Originally, it was a dialogue between my daughter and me. I wrote and posted, and she would emailed me her comments on my intellectual and/or editorial shortcomings. Eventually the dialogue expanded to include other people’s sons and daughters, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc. which was really rather cool. Then both my parents discovered I was blogging and started to read me regularly (not always so cool). My youngest has now taken to reading me after 2 years of indifference. He has turned into some kind of a child proto-type of a Stalinist KGB informer and gives regular briefings to his sibling pay-masters at the dinner table.

Anyway, I received the 5 questions and I got to say, Ocean Guy is a class act. And because he asked so nicely, I won’t even sell his email address to my Siberian spanner buddies - as is my habit. The thing is; the questions are really rather thoughtful and will take me a bit longer than I have time to answer tonight, but I will do it before the weekend ends.

One final thing. Isaiah Sender is off probation at his boxing club and has been officially added to the team roster. Tonight he gets his own gloves, bindings and skipping rope. I never doubted it but apparently he was really worried about not being “man” enough to be accepted – especially after watching his older brother in action at the club.

He kept asking me last night if I was going to blog about him being officially accepted into the world of man – abet as a junior member. Now I have, and I just want him to know I am very proud of my beloved son. I know it’s not always easy being number 3 in the Tribe, and I just want you to know that you will always have a one of three first places in my heart.

"Nine American Dogs were killed in Iraq."

Here’s one of those unintended consequences of the US attempting to run a kinder, gentler occupation in Iraq via Ynet News:

A leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, said the suicide car bombing that killed nine US soldiers in Iraq on Monday bolstered his belief that the US would soon be defeated and retreat from "Muslim lands."

"It was a very happy day for us Palestinians to hear nine American dogs were killed in Iraq. We feel encouraged and we feel great solidarity with our brothers in Iraq, and we consider this heroic operation, which aims to humiliate the Americans, as proof that the will of our resistance is more powerful than any (big) American war airplanes," Abu Ahmed, the northern Gaza commander of the Brigades terror group, said in a WND interview Thursday.

Abu Ahmed said Palestinians were learning from the Iraq insurgency for their own war against Israel. "The coming victory in Iraq proves the next step is to release Palestine if we speak in one voice," he said. "We the Palestinians are learning both on the political and military level from our brothers, the heroes in Iraq. They are a model for us. We can be inspired from them because the challenge the Americans are putting in the Green Zone is similar to the challenge the Zionists are putting on us.

And in a great twist of irony the US congress has approved a $59 million aid package to boost Fatah’s security forces and for those with irony deficient souls - Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade receives its funding directly from Fatah and is one of those Fatah militas aka security forces.

Historical Ironies

Josh’s Weblog is interested in collecting a list of at least 10 Great Historical Ironies and leads with this one:

UN General Resolution 181, otherwise known as the 1947 UN Partition Plan, intended to put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict by creating the State of Israel. Instead it has been a focal point for continual unrest in the middle east. It leads immediately to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and further conflicts ever since.

Okay, I could quibble with "intended to put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict by creating the State of Israel"as the rational for the partition plan and think the Brits really wanted to diverse themselves of the responsibility and cost of administrating the Palestine Mandate thereby also effectively washing their hands of more than a few Maccabeen Jews types who refused to go back to the old pre-WW2 ghetto paradigm of what constitutes a good Jew but that would be petty...

I would comment directly at Josh’s site but there is some kind of hinky thing going on every time I tried and it posts as an error. Anyway, my two-bits of historical irony is:

In 1947, if you called an Arab a Palestinian he would have taken great offense to it - as you would have insinuated he was a “Jew”.

Nothing stays the same forever

So CD music sales in Canada have dropped 35% reports CTV.

In what appears to be a continuation of a long-running trend, sales of music CDs, DVDs and other formats fell 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same period a year earlier, the Canadian Recording Industry Association reported Thursday.

That comes after a 12 per cent sales drop between 2005 and 2006 -- the largest-ever annual decline in Canada's music market -- and an almost unbroken string of sales declines since 1999.

"We've experienced sizable short-term drops before, but nothing compares to the drastic numbers we're seeing so far this year," said CRIA President Graham Henderson.

CRIA, a non-profit trade organization, believes the shrinking sales are due in large part to music pirating and downloading. It's calling upon the federal government to update the Copyright Act and bring in more government policies to deter counterfeiting.

"The reforms sought would place Canada on an equal footing with its major trading partners, most of which have already updated their copyright laws in line with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Treaties, to which Canada is a signatory," CRIA says in a release.

Yadda, Yadda goes the experts but I am not really surprised. I can’t remember the last time I actually bought a CD. Currently, the ipod count is 3 in the tribe and my youngest is asking for his own ipod for his birthday which would bring the count to 4 in the home.

My music budget has actually increased steadily since the tribe came into possession of our first Ipod three years ago. Furthermore, all the music I have purchased has been duly bought and paid without having to utilize one of those weird little backdoor downloads via an Russian online retailer or the more patently obvious illegal kind of downloads.

But here’s the deal – we only buy the songs we want. It’s rare that we actually purchase an entire album by any one artist. The Last Amazon has rather unique taste and often patronizes websites of alternative artists. She then buys the download of only the songs she actually wants directly from the artist’s site. It’s really a win-win situation for the artist. No middle man, no packaging, no storage, no transportation costs so the royalty fee on the site is relatively unencumbered with the except probably being the costs for hosting the site and the website designer’s fees.

If CD sales are down 35% in a single quarter I would say our music habits are much more indicative of what is happening out in the larger general public domain. My point to all music industry types; time to change your business models and get connected with the truly wired generation rather than crying “piracy” at the end of every quarter.

and another turn of the wheel

Ha’aretz is reporting and naming sources:

A delegation of Egyptian security officials told Israel on Thursday that the rocket salvos from the Gaza Strip could resume if Israel did not halt its military operations in the West Bank, the Reuters news agency reported.

The officials also said that the heads of the Palestinian factions are willing to resume the relative calm in the Gaza Strip if the Israel Defense Forces ends its operations in the territories.

The message was delivered to Israel by an Egyptian mediator who has been trying to prevent a major confrontation after the Hamas military wing fired a barrage of rockets and mortars Tuesday and declared the Gaza truce dead, Palestinian sources familiar with the talks said.

But of course, there is also the denial:

Israel Radio said that Hamad told the factions that they should take seriously the possibility of an IDF invasion of Gaza should the violence continue. The radio said that no Palestinian faction has as yet confirmed its commitment to a renewed truce, and several have even vowed to continue their attacks. According to the radio, Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal quoted a Palestinian source as saying that the military wings of the factions rejected the Egyptian delegation's request for calm.

And then came the attack:

But it won’t happen again…except maybe tomorrow.

I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale

Egypt threatens Hamas with tough love if the rocket attacks against Israel do not cease according to sources within the Palestinian Authority reports the Jerusalem Post.

Egypt has threatened to cut off its relations with Hamas unless the movement halts its rocket attacks on Israel, Palestinian Authority officials said Wednesday. The officials said Egyptian Intelligence Chief Gen. Omar Suleiman sent a "tough" message to Hamas leaders, warning them against the continued rocket attacks. The message was delivered to PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas by Burhan Hammad, a senior Egyptian intelligence officer based in the Gaza Strip, the officials added.

They said that Suleiman also warned that Egypt would not side with the Palestinians if Israel launched a military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "We hope that the Hamas leaders will listen carefully to what the Egyptians are telling them," said one official here. "Hamas must return to the period of calm so as not to give Israel an excuse to invade the Gaza Strip."

If you believe the messengers or the message I also have some prime swamp land just waiting to be developed in Florida if you don’t want a bridge in Brooklyn, but buried deeper in the article is a development which should be worthy of capturing our attention.:

"The firing of the rockets and the resignation of Interior Minister Hani Kawassmeh [earlier this week] are part of an attempt by Hamas to extract concessions from President Abbas ahead of his meeting with Mashaal," he told The Jerusalem Post. "The meeting is supposed to focus on the possibility of including Hamas in the PLO.

Mashaal wants to be deputy chairman of the PLO. At the meeting, Hamas will agree to a cease-fire with Israel on condition that Mashaal is appointed to a senior position in the PLO. This is extortion."

Hamas coming to rooster under Fatah’s wide, wide tent – I really didn’t see that one coming. Nor would it be a Fatah first. It makes a certain kind of sense as well as being an effective way to get around any kind of aid boycott.

Of course, it is a great way to pull off more “resistance” operations and then blame it on a few hard heads in a “breakaway” fraction – much like what Fatah does regularly with Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades.