Happy New Year

Happy new year to my readers, all 3 repeating readers and a few lost googlers...
May this year be a safe and peaceful one.

Propaganda Bombardment at Yahoo Mail

I opened my yahoo mail account (which I don't make public), and this is what I find:

This is the power of current propagandists at the helm of the news wires. You open your email, and the first thing that your eye catches and your brain digest into the subconscious is:
"Israel rejects truce call, pursues bombing Gaza (AP) "
With the candle-light photo.

You can't even avoid it. There's no direct link to the inbox which allows you to skip the "welcome" page, so the millions of yahoo mail users are faced with the "sold out media" lies and distortions. This is how public opinion is being built against Israel, the same way it was built in favor of Obama.

For the millions who don't follow the news, and who have no interest in anything - their opinions of things are dictated by highlights and snippets which were carefully crafted for that specific audience.

Can I get my mail "AP Propaganda" free please? Mass media brainwashing in progress without people even noticing it.

Rockets 20 miles from Tel Aviv, Huffington Post Show True Colors

The way the news is reported... buried deep within articles you find this nugget:

More than two dozen rockets and mortar shells had been fired by midday Wednesday, including five that hit in and around the major southern Israeli city of Beersheba, whose 186,000 residents live 22 miles from Gaza. One hit an empty school. Another landed in a small farming community about 20 miles southeast of Tel Aviv, the country's most populated urban area. No serious casualties were reported.

Source: AP: Rockets make Israel rethink West Bank pullback

My original source was huffingpost - not that they would get any higher traffic by being linked - I just get the feeling they wrote it in celebratory hatred of Israel (not hating Jews, just Israel - yea right...)


Look at the kind of antisemitic propaganda Huffington post puts on the front page:
The Money Behind Israel-Hamas Conflict (VIDEO)
CAIR statements and Al-Jazeera videos are the new democratic grass root movement?! WTF?!

400 hacked to death in catholic church on Christmas, world/media mute

H/T to eye-on-the-world who raised the question: Why isn’t UN having "grave concerns" about this?

But all we hear is how poor terrorists in Gaza are having their infrastructure and ammunition blown up.

More proof of how deaf blind and stupid our media and news providers are, this wasn't a big headline, nor was it condemned by anyone:
Aid Group Says 400 Killed in Eastern Congo Massacres

Ugandan rebels have killed more than 400 people in northeastern Congo since Christmas, an aid agency said Tuesday.

The Catholic charity, Caritas, cited reports by its staff in the region.

"Caritas is shocked by its staff reports of a series of massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo carried out by Ugandan rebels on Christmas Day and the days following," the group said in a statement on its Web site.

...

Telephone calls by The Associated Press to the army and rebels were not returned Tuesday. [Shawarma: err.. what?! there's a 1-800-Congo-butchers?]

...

On Monday, officials and witnesses said attackers had hacked to death scores of people who sought refuge at a Catholic church the day after Christmas, and the United Nations said the rebels had killed a total of 189 people in three villages in the area over two recent days.

...

CNN's headline for 08 wrap up - unabashed bias

CNN:
Palin goofs, Clinton loss, wrong Wright end '08

Palin's "goofs" are the most noticeable thing in 08? Only because CNN is blind deaf and stupid.

To recount some of Biden's goofs:
Biden gaffes adding up against Obama campaign
Obama Chides Biden Over Remark About a World Crisis Testing His ...
Michelle Malkin » Joe Biden’s gaffes: Imagine if Sarah made them
List of Joe Biden Gaffes About Obama - www.HillaryClintonForum.net

To recount Obama's goofs:
GOP: Featured Obama Gaffes
The Obama gaffe machine rolls on

Somehow, CNN completely missed that, and still does. Hate that corrupt media outlet. Can't keep a single story honest.

My biggest story for 08:
How CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC completely failed their journalistic duties and duped the American public to vote for the least experienced, most shoddy/ foggy background president yet - only because the color of his skin!

I truly hope for Obama to succeed, and for the USA to prosper - but I'm sick and tired of the ass kissing blind deaf and stupid media.

Proof that "Cast Lead" is as I mentioned more internal to Muslim World than Israel/Arab conflict

I wrote about it here:
Figuring out Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran's strategy to initiate this war.
(speaking of Hamas' strategy in opening a war which will only bring more destruction and humiliation to their people)

There are many reasons, I'll try to list them in order of strategic importance to those terrorists who instigate the situation:

...
* Maintain political power and extend territorial control by terrorists in area of conflict by slowly eroding the resolve of those who oppose them. In particular - in places like Egypt and Lebanon. I know you thought I was going to write "conquer land from Israel" - no there is no goal to push Israel inwards or outwards. Israel is considered by them as an illegitimate passing thing which really "doesn't exist", that's why they disregard Israeli law when they are given full citizenship rights. The only battle is with the Arab world. Israel's own political stupidity is to withdraw in anticipation of any gratitude.

A few anecdotes to prove my point; Guess what Iranians are doing right now?
IRANIANS ATTACK Jordanian Embassy & Firebomb Saudi Airline Offices ...Update: Students Storm British Embassy

Iranians are venting their hate to Sunnis from Jordan and Saudi Arabia - and for their withdrawal of support for Hammas, which has transformed to a proxy of Iran.

Also, today - Arab leaders refuse to commit any assistance to Hamas terror group, urging Hamas to renew Fatah's governance over Gaza: Gaza offensive: Arab leaders urge Palestinian unity (you have to read between the lines here to achieve same conclusion as I)
Saud al-Faisal:

"We are telling our Palestinian brothers that your Arab nation cannot extend a real helping hand if you don't extend your own hands to each other with love"

More: While Israel fights in Gaza, Egypt and Saudi Arabia take on Iran
Before that, you might have noticed that Hezbollah was using it's media to incite for mutiny in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Egypt wasn't shy about blasting back at the Shiite instigators:
Aboul Gheit lashes back at Nasrallah

...

"I tell this man (Nasrallah): No, no! Our armed forces can defend our homeland from people like you. Your interest in creating chaos is not in the best interest of the area," he added.

Related prior posts:
Egyptian Soldier dies from Hammas gunfire - surely...
Lebanon - on the brink again?
"Cast Lead Goals", not cast in lead?
Figuring out Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran's st...

Honesty - on fox-news, the kind you will not find on CNN and MSNBC (and any euro-trash-tv either)

Gerg Jarret cuts interview with Palestinian propagandist.

From hotair.

Turn on CNN at any moment and all you can hear is unfiltered lies and propaganda. It takes courage to cut and say - I will not broadcast these lies under my watch.

No, CNN is more engaged in joining boat rides for solidarity with Hamas:
Gatewaypundit:Cynthia McKinney Gaza Relief Boat Attacked & Rammed




The bias doesn't stop at CNN, Google's Youtube is fighting to censor Israel message as well:
IDF's YouTube Channel Under Attack
Sick!
Not the first time that google has been playing the "message we like game" either:

Michelle Malkin: Inside the world of Google censors

The woman who would never find another date. Ever.

And I mean never!

H/T Hotair

Taking a break

I'm taking a break from the Gaza related posts. I will probably add a thing or two this evening.

I'm trying to calm down and disconnect from the news (will probably fail - curiosity killed this cat before), this is what's on my mp3 player right now:
Evanescense: Breathe No More (free stream on napster)
Another version: Elektra soundtrack: Breath No Mere
Followed by a batch of angry music from korn..."Hating"



It would be an open thread... if anyone would comment.

Falafel Image from here.

Be'er Sheva hit - Hamas answers NO to Israeli fumbling with Truce

Be'er Sheva hit - Hamas answers NO to Israeli fumbling with Truce:
Rockets reach Beersheba

Israeli leaders to discuss suspending Gaza op for 48 hours
All through today there were idiotic headlines of supposed truce recommended by the army, then denied by the army and accusing the media of trying to dictate the war moves, then info about Barak (not Obama) wanting truce while Olmert not, then denial - then... well - who cares?! It's a war - what kind of an irresponsible message do you think this leadership and the Israeli media send by this idiocy? WEAKNESS DURING WAR!

Hamas' answer was swift and unambiguous, they bombarded Be'er Sheva. Thus far there was speculation on whether they could do that. Critics of the 6 months truce were saying from the get-go that it will lead to further risk to Israeli life.

Hamas today proved that the most extreme of the right leaning analysts were absolutely correct. The disengagement was a horrendous error in the long term strategy of protecting Jewish civilian life. The truce was a life line not to Israelis but to terrorists, and the current toying with a notion of a cease fire with these murderous blood thirsty monster is as dangerous as all of the above.

Regardless of how this war "ends" (there's never an end, Israel is surrounded and flooded by hate filled Arabs who wish to murder Jews) - The Israeli public had better wake up and stop electing dreamy leftists. The "leftism" disease allowed the Hamas cancer to root a home. The strikes it had received thus far are less affective than chemotherapy.

Take the gloves off and fight thy enemy!

Excellent must read: Anti-Israel Partisans Set New Record For Decades-Old Trick Of Brazenly Rewriting History, Blaming Israel

Omri Ceren from "Mere Rhetoric": Anti-Israel Partisans Set New Record For Decades-Old Trick Of Brazenly Rewriting History, Blaming Israel
Short excerpt, read it all:

Arab hostility toward Israel seems to oscillate between pathological aggression and victimized resentment, underscored the entire time by utterly shameless denial. So Hamas can violate the ceasefire for months by shooting at Israeli civilians and at Israeli soldiers. They can brag openly about those violations. They can declare over and over in the plainest terms that they have no interest in renewing a ceasefire. They can hold barbaric rallies and go so far as to mock Israel for keeping whatever ceasefire there is while they themselves are violating it. But after three days of Israeli self-defense UN officials are standing on stage telling international media outlets that Hamas was observing a super-secret ceasefire and Israel is responsible for its breakdown. It's jaw-droppingly brazen.

It's hard to blame the Palestinians for trying though. This has been a successful anti-Israel trick for more than half a century. Months and years of genocidal incitement, boasts about glorious Arab victory, derision of Israeli cowardice - and then, when Israel responds, a frantic run into the international community's skirts to moan piteously about Israeli aggression. It's not just that the West let this become a habit. Through international conferences where anti-Semitism is excused as "anti-Zionism," routine bait-and-switch anti-Israel diplomacy, and pervasive anti-Israel double standards - the international community has spent decades creating and nursing this pathological petulance. It's been this way since before Arab and Muslim countries realized they could excuse their genocidal rantings by reference to "The Occupation" (although in subsequent years they became so enamored with that bit of rhetoric that they invoke it even when it makes no sense - it's a reflexive verbal tic, a placeholder for "now I get to say something anti-Semitic about Zionist cabals").

How deeply entrenched is this tactic? It goes back at least as far as the Six Day War and probably to the 1950s. It's always the exact same pattern - vicious aggression, spectacular failure, historical revisionism (Lebanon II is the exception - since Hezbollah could claim victory they get to boast about how they deliberately maneuvered Israel into the war). The next few paragraphs are an overview of the broad sweep of anti-Israel diplomacy, mostly to show how tediously predictable this stunt is. If you don't have the patience for that you can just drop down to the link dump at the bottom. It's a small demonstration of the sheer mendacity it must be taking to rewrite the few weeks before Operation Cast Lead. But if you skip the middle you'll miss out on all the insanely frustrating historical parallels.

I added Omri Ceren's blog to the blogroll and his RSS feed. Worth browsing every now and then.

Previous great post by Omri Ceren: Anti-Israel Photojournalists Struggling To Cope With Extensive Israeli Humanitarian Measures, Low Palestinian Collateral Damage

Figuring out Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran's strategy to initiate this war.

First, let's be clear - despite the way the main stream media describes the current round of mutual blows, this "war" was started by Hamas - given orders from Hezbollah - given directions from Syria and Iran. Hamas armed them selves for months (and years) and a week prior to Israel's retaliation fired their rockets at Israelis. So the first and simplest question to be answered: Who initiated this war? The terror groups and the terror sponsoring states.

Second, a logical and naive viewer would ask himself why would those who aspire to lead the Arab world take a course which undoubtedly lead to misery and defeat for Arabs in Gaza?

There are many reasons, I'll try to list them in order of strategic importance to those terrorists who instigate the situation:

1. Maintain an edgy and hateful relationship between Arabs and Muslims and Jews. The Palestinians are a cheap sacrifice which allows propaganda and recruitment to the global Jihad against the Jews and other non-Muslims. Palestinian are so insanely hateful they cannot manage to view their own best interest.
2. Kill Jews, regardless of how many Muslims die in the process.
   
3. Shift focus from Iran and Syria's nuclear bomb ambitions
4. Shift focus by Arab and Persian from population's general misery in this life. Poverty, tribal backwardness and corruption are a result of both the regime's disregard for human life as well as cultural impotence. (pun intended)
5. Maintain political power and extend territorial control by terrorists in area of conflict by slowly eroding the resolve of those who oppose them. In particular - in places like Egypt and Lebanon. I know you thought I was going to write "conquer land from Israel" - no there is no goal to push Israel inwards or outwards. Israel is considered by them as an illegitimate passing thing which really "doesn't exist", that's why they disregard Israeli law when they are given full citizenship rights. The only battle is with the Arab world. Israel's own political stupidity is to withdraw in anticipation of any gratitude.
6. Establish enclaves of unshaken control from which to instigate next expansion by newly renamed radical groups. Hamas is simply a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood - which have many subsidiaries including Al-Qaeda. Many of Israel's Arabs are overt supporters of the "Muslim Brotherhood". To be short in my description of what it is, I would just mention that "Muslim Brotherhood" to Arabs is what "Nazi Party" was to Germans.
   
7. Chaos and defeat will bring the Shiite messiah (the mahadi) sooner. Yes - that's their level of insanity. Sunni Arabs of Gaza are just pawns and they refuse to acknowledge it.
8. Continuing suffering and inability to support own economy in any means continues to excuse the "Palestinian welfare state" funded and supported with European and American tax payers funds flowing through the UN. One needs not do any kind of work to survive in those areas. You - the English speaking westerner - are paying a salary to every terrorist in Gaza. You feed and nurture those who envision world domination from their derelict, destitute buckets of shit they call a home.
9. Lest we forget the stated goal: "Justice" for Palestinians. "Justice" for Arabs. I doubt this is in any way a strategic goal of Hamas/Hezbollah/Syria/Iran

A note about Syria (or - a "did you know" moment):
The Syrian regime is controlled by a tiny minority called "Alawi". Who - while considering themselves Muslims - are actually a cult which worships the sun and the moon. In this world of Muslim domination ambitions, a regime of obvious "heretics" is a major player in instigation against so called western decadence.

"Cast Lead Goals", not cast in lead?

I heard Olmert's statement on Saturday. The goals as he stated were not to uproot Hamas, were not to reinstate Palestinian Authority rule (Fatah terrorists), were not to liberate/occupy/reinstate/rehabilitate - non of that. It was simple - to change the reality so that Israeli civilians would not suffer from rockets bombing their homes and that terror activity across the Gaza border would stop. That's pretty simple. The means to that goal can vary - but it could end with a white flag from Gaza and a silent agreement. Hezbollah has many times waved the white flag. Twice in the 90-s, and while it claimed to be victorious in 2006 - it did wave a white flag. The stupidity then was to proclaim unattainable goals.

There are two items that I'm concerned with:
1. Yesterday Bolton was on Hannity and Colmes and mentioned that Israel proclaimed this operation's goal to be the removal of Hammas and his concern that not following through would spell more trouble for Israel.
2. Today's Mobarak's statement that the Rafah crossing would be open by Egypt only after Hammas gives back control to Abbas over Gaza: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3647299,00.html

It would appear that either the Israeli politicians told two different stories to Israelis and to world leaders, or that the current international pressure on Israel is to use IDF soldier's blood to free Gaza from one terror group and to deliver it to another.

Oy.

Another thing I noticed, some Israeli politicians mentioned that once Israeli soldiers enter Gaza they would not leave for a long time. Simply mentioning that they would leave is a hint that the initial goal is to reinstate Fatah regime over Gaza. The same Fatah regime who are still broadcasting incitement for hate against Jews and Israel over at their TV station, school literature, and politically appointed Mosque Imams.

There's a fog of war - and then there's a fog of thought, which Middle East strategists continue to suffer from.

2 Israelis died following Hamas bombardment of civilians in Ashdod and kibutz Nir-Oz. Arab Israeli dies in Ashkelon, scores wounded

2 Israelis died following Hamas bombardment of civilians in Ashdod and kibutz Nir-Oz. Arab Israeli dies in Ashkelon, scores wounded.


Not that the main stream media would care to let you know that Hamas is deliberately bombarding Jewish civilians.

JPost: 1 killed, five wounded as rocket hits Nahal Oz area
Israel National News: Two Dead, 10 Wounded in Rocket Attacks

Two people were murdered in attacks on Ashdod, Nahal Oz. Several others were wounded.

And earlier today:
...27-year-old Israeli was killed in a rocket attack on Ashkelon Monday morning(not the title of the article, does lefty Haaretz not view Arab Israeli casualties of Hamas worthy of mentioning in the headline?)

All 3 articles describe different instances from today.

Good luck finding this news in CNN, MSNBC, news.google.com, news.yahoo.com or news.bbc.co.uk - and all the newspapers. If any, you will find a mention in the middle of the article because after all: "It started with Israel hitting back…"

Also, missiles today hit Ashdod's soccer team field while players were training. When IDF fires at terrorists - AP and Reuters usually make up a propaganda story as if it were teens playing soccer being hit. When in true life these things happen to Israelis they aren't even worth mentioning on the news wire services.

Lebanon - on the brink again?

Massive pro terror demonstration, calls for mutiny in Egypt by the sperm sprinkled goat loving Nasrallah, deceleration of war by Iran which usually means operating their proxy "we will commit suicide for the glory of Iran" Shiite militia Hezbollah - all the while: There's a good chance non Shiite will resist Shiite ambitions, driving Lebanon into a new civil war without a single shot fired at Israel.

Sources:
Hebrew, walla.co.il:Lebanon Army and Unifil on Alert against Hezbollah
Hebrew, ynet.co.ilEgypt to Hezbollah: Our soldiers fight scum like you (Didn't listen to actual recording - I added the scum part)
Some Arab press:Hezbollah massive demonstrations across Lebanon to continue
jpost:Thousands attend Beirut rally in protest of Israel's operation in Gaza
Yalibnan: Suleiman: Lebanon is not a platform for launching rockets (Have they learned their lesson - despite declarations of "divine victory"?)

The most ridiculous headline of the day comes from CNN: Terror, chaos grip Gaza, UN official says - Really? An entity of terror and chaos is "gripped by terror and chaos"?! It's like starting at a scene where a man was run over by a car and reporting: Car damaged by drunk pedestrian.

Paliwood, Hamaswood: Now stand in front of plume and point

Paliwood, Hamaswood: Now stand in front of plume and point:

Found it in the huge "live blog" at Israellycool

Egyptian Soldier dies from Hammas gunfire - surely not a second front? Israeli Arabs continue to riot

Strategically impaired - at the very least. One Egyptian soldier died of gunfire at Gaza/Egypt border after Gazans flee their "bastion of bravery"

Source is a tiny headline in Hebrew from walla.co.il.

I realize it's not a front - just generic fire in all direction as the Arabs of Gaza go bezurk.

In other news, Israeli Arab citizens continue to show solidarity with Hamas terrorists. Jews who dare enter the Israeli Arab town of Um-El-Fahem are lynched. Would anyone dare call those Arabs racist Jihadi scum?

Ynetnews reports: Police chief doesn't foresee return to October 2000 riots

Arab-Israelis hold dozens of rallies in protest of IDF offensive in Gaza; 'Arab leaders must convey a message of calm and restraint,' Dudi Cohen says

They must do this, they shouldn't do that - not foreseeing a return to 2000 riots... bla bla bla. Israeli Arabs are doing - and behaving the way they do - not the way rational "non terror supporting" people do or advise them to. There would be a time when those ass holes should pay the price for their behavior. In the meanwhile - I simply don't understand those who try to build bridges to nowhere.

Update
I don't have a link because I heard it on a radio broadcast from Israel (over the internet), but this particular incident which got very-very little media attention was actually a major operation by Hammas involving several terrorists storming an Egyptian border post and murdering the guard there. It is equivalent to the type of attacks Hezbollah used to conduct on Israeli posts in southern Lebanon.

Fatah Palestinian Arabs celebrate Hamas defeat, Palestinians best interest - not Arab world's

My Opinion: Fatah Palestinian Arabs celebrate Hamas defeat, Palestinians best interest - not Arab world's.

It's always been the case. The Arab world wishes to fight and eliminate Israel up to the last Jewish blood - but not with their own blood, with Palestinians. At times, Palestinians buy the propaganda and sacrifice themselves only to murder Jews. The rise of Hamas was the peak success of such propaganda where hate filled Arabs were blind to acknowledge own self interest, reject any chance of peace and truce only to injure and scare a few Jews across the border.

Today's Abbas's blasting of Hamas, and yesterday's Egypt are monumental shifts. I'm not a fan of either, but there's some recognition of reality by Fatah and Egypt and that's a true breakthrough.

Fatah was defeated and humiliated in Gaza. Scores were brutally murdered by Hammas. In the west bank - where Israel kept Fatah in power opposed to Hammas - the Fatah terrorists viewed the actions from Gaza with horror as they knew they awaited the same "Iranian" fate which befallen their Gazan brothers.

While enough uproar will be visible from Arabs across the land of Israel including the Palestinian authority territories, At least half of those Arabs at this time are quietly joyous and wishing for further defeat for Hammas. Whilst in past time we were told of silent majorities opposing terror - and we could not believe that anyone can be silent and oppose terror at once, I do believe that many Terror Supporting Fatah members across the land are truly joyous at the death toll Hamas is paying in Gaza.

The sniveling blood thirsty inciters from across the Arab world do not want a cease fire, or peace. They are blinded by hate and only wish pain to those who aren't Muslim or Arab. To acknowledge that Hammas's folly is their doing is beyond their ability to show signs of honor. The Arab world leaders are about to gather and show grim faces and issue statements of solidarity - but they too feel that they have brought the latest defeat to their "supposedly" loved Palestinians. The best interest of the Arabs from the land of Israel was never in mind when they chose to discriminate against them for 60 years and only encourage and pay them to commit suicide.

Here's the video from Yesterday, Egyptian minister can call it as it is:
H/T: Little green footballs.
More:
JPost: Abbas:'Hamas could've prevented massacre'
Hotair: Backfire for Hamas

BBC: Ashdod was hit, no casualties

Ashdod, a major Israeli city with the second largest port was hit by terrorist rockets which the world leaders are seem incapable to condemn.

Israel renews air strikes on Gaza

...

Rockets landed in Ashdod, Israel's largest southern city - some 38km (23 miles) from Gaza - the deepest they have ever struck inside Israel, Israeli media said. No injuries were reported.

...

Let me ask the dumb question here, about the title BBC chose (because the article is fairly balanced); Why is the title focused on Israel renewing strikes and not about Arabs continue to bombard civilians? As mentioned in a Swedish blog I linked to yesterday :It started with Israel hitting back…

Scheduling a just blow to terrorists

Scheduling a just blow to terrorists: I was thinking, why today? Why not a day ago or the day before, or a week from now. I came up with a list of reasons as to why today was the day the Israeli government chose to serve a huge blow to those who have terrorized Israeli Jews for months and years:

1. They chose to wait after Christmas - so that Israel could enjoy the religious tourist boom one more time before headlines about security issues would deter future visitors.
2. In the coming electing both ruling parties were headed toward a crash due to their refusal to retaliate to the rockets and to protect the Israeli citizens. Politically - it's a do or die.
3. Obama is set to take office in less than a month, Israel will not have a strong ally in the UN and any operation which could take about a month (that's the prediction in Israel these days) would require cooperation from Israel only ally. It's now or never for most logical defensive operations. (Iran in my guess will not be bombed until after Obama leaves office 4 or 8 years from now)
   
4. Israel was relying on Egypt becoming exhousted with their efforts to convince Hamas to change their ways. Egypt did not give Israel the green light to kill the terrorists, it will condemn and act against Israel, however Egypt's initial response today was used by Israel and it was calculated to be used as such.
5. Israel created several deceptions in the last few days to make Hamas believe it will not attach until next week. Those deceptions include
1. Allowing trucks full of goods to get through the crossings
2. Releasing some Israeli soldiers home for vacations
3. Declaring more debates over the next week
4. Confusing the heck out of the Israeli public as to who in the government has any testicular powers left. (Apparently, some traces were found today)
6. Israel had enough intelligence on gatherings of Hamas armed terrorists today to take as many of them as possible at once

I'm out of ideas. There are probably more reasons. Feel free to add what you think in the comments. (I do moderate the comments, so childish and hateful messages will be rejected, don't even bother)

P.S. I'll note a few more things about today's action which differ from prior:

• The attack was in day time, prior attacks were during night time. The intent was to both kill as many terrorists as possible as well as to shock Gazans - to make them see what the cost of the war they wanted is.
• The targets were not sand dunes and empty old buildings. This time, Israel meant business - like I said many times before: "When you have to shoot, shoot - don't talk". There's a limit to how many warning shots and make belief retaliations you can do before you lose credibility.
• Hamas' leadership are scared and confused. They're shocked at the cost they paid today and are peeing their pants thinking about tomorrow. They call it "Holocaust", it's more a sign of how "pee in your pants scared" they are than to how well they understand the term. Obviously - it's a military defeat, not an extermination of a nation.
• Israel's declaration of goals was not somewhere in the sky. Simply - Gazans, stop attacking Israelis. Any cessation of the operation prior to achieving the goals will not be accepted by the Israeli public which will have a chance to vote current government out immediately after the operation. Since the politicians are already on their way out - this should diminish the effect of the international community pressure.
• It's only day one, and although successful to Israel, it is not a cause to celebration - yet. I'm not the genius expert who says "Israel should do this", or "attack from the ground like that". I would just mention that soldiers are recruited and trained to protect civilians, and while all human life is precious - civilian life is more. Save women and children, kill the terrorists by any means possible. Simple as that.

Israeli Arab Riot in solidarity with Hamas Terrorists

This didn't take long.
Ynetnews: Israeli Arab Citizens: 'Israeli ministers war criminals’

Arab-Israeli leadership blasts Gaza op; protests, riots reported in northern towns, east Jerusalem

Arab-Israeli leaders slammed the Israeli assault on Gaza Saturday, referring to it as a “war crime.” Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka, who participated in a rally in Nazareth, called for a general strike by Israel’s Arab community in protest of the operation in Gaza.

“Following this offensive, the world should punish Israel and impose a siege on it, because if the Gaza blockade is the result of the firing, then Israel fired in one day what the Palestinians have fired in five years,” he said.

“I call for the indictment of Barak on war crime charges in Gaza,” he said. “Barak is attempting to win votes in exchange for Palestinian blood, yet it’s not only Barak; all Israeli government ministers are war criminals.”

Meanwhile, Arab-Israelis in many communities nationwide hit the streets Saturday afternoon to protest the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip. Rallies were also reported in the Arab world and in major West Bank cities. Police have deployed in force in east Jerusalem and detained several stone throwers.

Hundreds of east Jerusalem residents hurled stones at police and Border Guard forces at the entrance to the Shuafat refugee camp. Police forces dispersed the stone throwers. In a separate incident, dozens of young east Jerusalem residents torched garbage bins on Salah al-Din Street. There too, the demonstrators were dispersed by police.

Near the Old City’s Herod’s Gate, Arabs hurled stones at police. No injuries were reported and one stone thrower was nabbed. Border Guard police also faced stone throwers in the Old City’s Muslim quarter; four people were detained during the clashes.

In another act of aggression, an Israeli Arab youth with a police record attempted to run over a police officer in east Jerusalem Saturday afternoon. Authorities assume the attack was nationalistically motivated, and police have launched an investigation.

Didn't suspect them to have ever been worried about non Arab casualties of terror.

Gaza Terrorists Cleanup Headlines

Of course no news agency would call it "terrorists cleanup", only rational objective people would call a person holding arms and firing at civilians terrorists, and we know the media is neither rational nor objective.

Very, very latest headlines from goole-news search:
UN's Ban calls for halt to Gaza violence (Where were you Ban all this time when you could've said something in response to attacks on Israeli Jews?! Hypocrite MF)
Israel commences military operations against HAMAS leaders (UPDATED)
Lebanon protesters converge on Egypt embassy after Gaza raid
AJC Strongly Supports Israeli Strikes on Hamas Military Targets
Turkey Condemns Casualties In Israeli Attack On Gaza
Israel says Gaza incursion to go on
Obama Needs To Speak Out On Gaza (libtards)
Following Gaza raids, violent demonstrations break out in West Bank
Israel kills 205 in air assault on Gaza Strip
Brown urges end to Gaza violence (UK pussies)
Israel demolishes Hamas compounds, over 200 dead
Prayers and defiance in shocked Gaza (The mind of a terrorist - strike back? at us? but whhhhyyyyy? cry babies)
It started with Israel hitting back… (thanks for the sanity Swedish guys)
Israeli Attack Kills Scores Across Gaza (NYTimes, where it starts with Israeli strike)
Syria’s Assad calls for emergency meet
Hundreds of Bethlehem residents demonstrate against the massacre ... (hint, those aren't Christians)
Human Rights Defenders, including internationals, speak from Gaza(Because Israelis aren't human, only Arabs are)
Hizbullah Calls for Speedy Global Action against Israeli Raids on Gaza(To be clear, those are supposedly "Human Rights" activists - Arab Nazis)
Arab ministers to seek 'common position' on attacks (auto-pilot)
Hamas calls on fighters to hit back at Israel (Because they've been so quite up until now - blood thirsty scum)
Israel: It's only the beginning (Honestly, I'll believe it when it happens...)
Media Release: International witnesses speak out from Gaza on ... (anti-semite dhimmis scum)
Egypt calls Israeli envoy; EU, UN call for ceasefire
Vatican calls for end to Middle East violence
British Muslims outraged by Gaza attacks ( of course they are, what Muslim would be outraged by murder of Jews, only by death of their murderers)
European Union calls for immediate halt to Israeli-Palestinian ... (Euro trash - where were you when Israelis were/are hit?)
BBC: Reaction in quotes: Gaza bombing (Who would care to support Israel? NO ONE! Who of those had ever condemned Hamas for targeting and hitting Jewish Israeli Civilians?!)

Did Israel finally take advantage of Hamas' massive gatherings to strike?

Target rich environment indeed:
Debka:Israel air strikes continue in S. Gaza after 205 killed in earlier raids of Hamas sites

Israeli bombers hit a vehicle in the southern Gazan town of Khan Younis Saturday night, Dec. 27, after massive air raids destroyed Hamas compounds across the enclave leaving 205 killed, 330 injured and thousands of shock victims. The operation followed a week in which Hamas fired 200 missiles at Israeli civilian targets.

The Israeli Air Force planes struck Hamas security headquarters in Gaza City and compounds, police stations and ports. Several Hamas commanders were killed in the bombardment of a Hamas military passing-out ceremony. Among them was Hamas police chief Tawfiq Jabber.

The Israeli military spokesman said the Gaza operation is "just beginning" and would be expanded and intensified as necessary.

Hamas and other Palestinian factions ordered its "fighters to avenge Israeli attacks." A Israeli was killed in Netivot in its first reprisal.

Egypt has condemned Israel for its military attack, but held Hamas responsible for refusing to heed warnings and failing to protect the Palestinian people. It has mobilized its rescue and medical services in Sinai, including hospitals for aid to casualties for the Israeli air bombardment of Gaza. Egyptian ambulances stood by at the Rafah crossing to transport wounded Hamas operatives.

The Israeli air attack launching some 40 missiles began 11.30 a.m. local time Saturday, eight days after Hamas terminated the informal Gaza ceasefire by showering missiles and mortar rounds on 250,000 Israeli civilians day after day.

Last week, the Israeli cabinet gave the Israeli military the green light for reprisals as Palestinian missile attacks escalated, 13 mortar rounds fired Friday, when Israel allowed 90 trucks of food and medicines to cross into the Gaza Strip.

Since Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip in 2005, the Palestinians have fired 5,000 missiles.

Israel strikes back

Here are the headlines I encountered in the very few minutes since turning on the computer this morning:
At least terrorists 204 dead. 1 Israeli civilian dies from bombardment of his home, another wounded from a bombardment of a synagogue. Egypt blames and condemns Hamas. Israel tricked Hamas to think that any attack would only occur tomorrow. Police cancels Arab soccer matches within Israel to avoid crowds forming and instigation of riots. (all of my sources right now are in Hebrew: here, here and here.)

Photos, here.


I think there's something distinctly different this time - despite the obvious high toll in a short time, a major Arab nation takes stance against Arabs and supports Israel. That being said - once the insanely blood thirsty Arab media gets a hint of how big of a travesty Hamas has brought upon Gaza, Surely the pressure will amount against Israel - not the terrorists, to hold back.

Here's CNN form of reporting: At least 170 killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza

sraeli airstrikes pounded targets in Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 170 people, Palestinian medical sources said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said her country is ready to continue the attacks "as long as it takes."

Palestinian medical sources said 110 people were hospitalized in Gaza in serious to critical condition. Earlier Saturday, the sources said at least 250 people had been wounded in the raids.

The militant group Hamas, which controls the government in Gaza, vowed to retaliate.

The strikes followed several days of rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel.

Hamas police stations were hit, killing many senior police commanders, a reporter in Gaza said.

Maj. Gen. Tawfeeq Al-Jaber, a senior commander in the Hamas police force, was killed, as was Ismail Jabari, who headed the special police force in Gaza, Palestinian sources said.

Israeli Maj. Avital Leibovich told CNN the military began the attacks "in order to preserve the security

CNN of course is already concentrating on showing us blood and gore from Gaza, and no photo or description of Israeli suffering. Hu... who could have seen this coming? An obvious double standard in reportage of casualties and suffering from an outlet that supposedly has no vested interest in the conflict.

Interesting bit of info:
Israel called this operation "Solid Lead", which is a phrase used in a Hanukkah song describing a dreidel. This is without a doubt a strong vengeful strike back to those who made this Hanukkah holiday a terror-full one to many in southern Israel.

Merry Chrsitmas to all my Christian Friends

Ho Ho Ho - celebrate the birth of a Jew 2008 years ago, why should I be offended by that?

I don't know about that nativity scene though... I didn't know Santa was a time traveler....

Again - point of this post:
Merry Christmas

(hopefully no more posts until after new year - unless Israeli government grow a pair and start defending population, then I'll cover that)

Spacemen giant orgy cancelled in Tel-Aviv

Yea - space-men. Only proves that men will invent anything to get laid. I had to point out to friends here in Michigan, these are "space-men", clearly NOT MY PEOPLE. (in response to "what's wrong with your people?" (H/T to drudge - I didn't get it there but my bud did)
Mega-orgy in Tel Aviv cancelled due to public pressure

Sex fest scheduled to be held on 'International Orgasm Day' and seeking to promote world peace called off after owner of venue meant to host event caves in to threats

After weeks of preparations for the largest sex event of its kind in Israel, organizers were forced to cancel it this week due to public pressure and threats exerted on the owner of the venue where the sex fest was to take place.

The event in question, which was scheduled to take place on "International Orgasm Day," aimed to bring together some 250 participants seeking to promote world peace through multiple orgasms reached by masturbation or sex.

The orgy was organized by the Raelian movement, a UFO religion whose followers believe humankind was created by aliens. [Shawarma: like I said, CLEARLY NOT MY PEOPLE] The group's spokesman, Kobi Drori, said that the orgy was meant to include straights, gays, lesbians and bisexuals, all of them over 18.

"The purpose of the event was to try and bring world peace through mass orgasm, this by experiencing consensual sex and natural, uninterrupted pleasure. It was important to make love without feeling guilty or shy," he explained.

Drori protested the fact that nowadays the words "war," "violence" and "murder" have become more legitimate than "sex," "orgasm" and "pleasure."

"It should be the other way around. Several years ago an Iraqi boy whose limbs were amputated was shown on TV and everybody treated this as if it was okay, but when Janet Jackson exposed her breast during the Superbowl the American nation was appalled.

I should also add that I've noted before that there are enough crazies in Israel, which is after all a secular liberal state. My friends in the US keep getting surprised to find out how "European" Jewish Israeli society is. Both YNet and Maariv are in competition to expose as much perverts and orgy clubs to the public over their "culture" segments. It has various "happy-feely" euphemisms like "new-age", or "relationship column", or "culture". But basically - it's sex stories, because sex sells. The Israeli public is simply much more liberal than the USA's. It is as much a consumer of such "culture" as it is a producer of it.

Don't discount USA's perverts though - I'm looking at you HBO/Showtime/Cinemax - San Diego, LA, New York ... the list can go on and into details - so don't play innocent. I wouldn't be surprised if that particular cult of pervs is well established here in the USA as well.

P.S. My response to my bud asking me what's wrong with my people was:
What's wrong with your people?!

Dancing ultra orthodox Jews blasting HDTV, funniest 08 commercial IMHO

Dancing ultra orthodox Jews blasting HDTV, funniest 08 commercial IMHO. Just saw it on TBS's 2008 funniest commercials.

Here's the youtube version:


TBS's is here... It has English subtitles. Other commercials were funny too - some just not (the French one were the daughter is a stripper and the mom congratulates her was reprehensible).

CAIR: Fort Dix Plotters - Victims, I Say: CAIR - Murderous Jihadi Ass Holes

CAIR Be Gone Already. Sadly, even after their delayed departure there would always be those who would play the world tiniest violin for murderous Jihadis who wish us harm and pretend that mass murderers (even in potential) are just victims.



From "islaminaction08" blog: Fort Dix Convictions: Islamic Leaders Play Victim Card (shawarma: I wouldn't call them leaders... if you follow the news about CAIR)

Shortly after the convictions of five NJ Muslim men plotting to kill US soldiers, several Islamic leaders have come out against the verdict. The list includes James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay. He has claimed that they never would of killed anyone and that they were incited by a government informant. In the past Yee was charged with spying for the enemy and treason. Those charges were later dropped.

CAIR spokesperson Jim Sues has said that many Muslims would see this as entrapment and American Muslim Union of Jersey has stated that the defendants do not look like people who would plot an attack like this. According to many Muslims those in their community could never do anything wrong.

Many Muslims skeptical of Fort Dix verdicts
By WAYNE PARRY
December 22, 2008


Yes, they talked tough, fired guns and watched jihadist videos.

But the five young Muslims convicted Monday of plotting to kill soldiers at Fort Dix may not have been guilty of anything more than youthful braggadocio and poor judgment.

That was the verdict rendered by Muslim leaders immediately after the guilty verdicts were read in U.S. District Court in Camden.

"It seemed to me as if the case was pretty flimsy," said James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba who was arrested in 2003 and charged with mishandling classified material and other crimes in a suspected espionage ring. Criminal charges were later dropped against him.

"It seems like these guys under normal circumstances weren't going to do anything until a government informant initiates contact with them and incites them," said Yee.

"All of this doesn't help build trust with the American Muslim community, and that is vital if our law enforcement is going to fight terrorism," he said. "If anyone can improve security, it's our community, but we need to be seen as trusted partners, not potential suspects."

Mohamed Younes, president of the Paterson, N.J.-based American Muslin Union, voiced similar sentiments.

"I don't think they actually mean to do anything," he said. "I think they were acting stupid, like they thought the whole thing was a joke. They don't look like the type of people to do something like this."

Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, attended five days of testimony during the trial.

"Many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment," he said. "From what I saw, there was a significant role played by the government informant."

During the eight-week trial, the government relied heavily on information gathered by the informants, who infiltrated the group and secretly recorded hundreds of conversations.

Convicted were: Jordanian-born cab driver Mohamad Shnewer; Turkish-born convenience store clerk Serdar Tatar; and brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka, ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, who had a roofing business.

A sixth man arrested and charged only with gun offenses pleaded guilty earlier.

Fuat "Mike" Mamo of Cresskill said the Albanian community in New Jersey is ashamed of the three Albanian brothers who were convicted.

"I don't know what they were thinking," Mamo said of the Duka brothers. "They were just out of their mind and they should be put away for life. The Albanian community is nothing like this.

H/T: thereligionofpeace.com

King Herod's Architecture Grander celebrated at National Geographic December 2008 issue

I know this site - having about 50 visitors a day - is not much of an advertisement for National Geographic, but I do recommend the December 2008 issue which include exploration of major archeological sites in Israel and an additional article about how Arabs are looting and destroying archeological evidence.

To order 12 months subscription for 34$ on Amazon:National Geographic


The relevant articles are:
King Herod Revealed


Also:
The Stolen Past - West Bank Looting


Browsing for a few seconds on the internet is simply not the same as holding the paper copy and enjoying the excellent photography.

CNN: Non Terrorists, Non Muslims, Non Jihadist 5 ol' chaps " found guilty of plotting to kill Fort Dix soldiers"

CNN: Non Terrorists, Non Muslims, Non Jihadist 5 ol' chaps "found guilty of plotting to kill Fort Dix soldiers"

Is it overreaction? Look up the words "Islam, Muslim, Terrorist, Jihad" or just "motive" - no? Curious case of spontaneous motiveless conspiracy to kill soldiers by Muslims who aren't identified as such by the media. PLEASE! HOW DUMB DO THEY THINK WE ARE?!

A jury has found five men guilty of conspiring to kill soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office said Monday.
Five men were accused in a plot to kill soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

The defendants were acquitted of attempted murder charges but face life in prison.

The jury spent six days deliberating.

Six men were arrested on May 7, 2007, in New Jersey, as two of them were meeting a confidential government witness "to purchase three AK-47 automatic machine guns and four semi-automatic M-16s to be used in an attack they had been planning from at least January 2006," according to a criminal complaint.

The sixth defendant, Agron Abdullahu, pleaded guilty in October to a reduced charge of providing firearms to illegal aliens and received a sentence of 20 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

"For the 12 of us involved in these deliberations, this has been one of the most difficult things we've ever had to do," the jury said in a written statement given to the news media, according to CNN Radio affiliate KYW. "We have not reached our conclusions lightly. The burden imposed on us has been heavy but we are confident that our verdict has been reached fairly and impartially."

For the conspiracy conviction, each of the defendants faces a sentence of as much as life in prison. They are to be sentenced in April.

Abdullahu told the court in October that, from January 2006 to May 2007, he and Turkish-born Serdar Tatar, 25, provided firearms to brothers Dritan Duka, 30; Shain Duka, 27; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 25.

The Duka brothers, born in the former Yugoslavia, were in the United States illegally.

Tatar and Abdullahu are both legal U.S. residents. The other defendant, Jordanian-born Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, is the only U.S. citizen among them.

The jury found one member of the group conducted surveillance at Fort Dix and Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and the U.S. Coast Guard facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the U.S. attorney's office said in a written statement.

The alleged Fort Dix plot came to light when two men gave an 8 mm videotape to a clerk at a Circuit City store in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and asked him to convert it to DVD format.

Authorities said the tape showed 10 young men shooting at a practice range and shouting in Arabic, "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great."

The clerk, Brian Morgenstern, said the video showed the men with handguns and rifles that appeared to be "fully automatic weapons."

"I saw some stuff on the film that was disturbing and it kind of gained my attention that way," he told CNN in May 2007.

Morgenstern alerted the police, who initiated the investigation into the men, who were living in Philadelphia's southern New Jersey suburbs.

Michael Riley, the lawyer for Shain Duka, said he will appeal the verdict.

"It's a certain time in our history where these certain types of allegations are very troublesome, and it's very difficult," he said. "It's disappointing when it doesn't come out the way you think it should."

Tatar's lawyer, Richard Sparaco, predicted an appeal would be filed on behalf of all the defendants.

U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler scheduled sentencing for the Duka brothers for April 22 and for Shnewer and Tartar on April 23

Yes - they do mention they speak Arabic, most aren't US citizens but are Jordanian born. So - did they mention those are at least Arabs? No - just "speak Arabic".


Relevant image was found at Debbie-Schlussel's site (CNN found some stock footage of a gate - REALLY?!)
Read more analysis of the verdict here: BREAKING: Mixed Verdict on Fort Dix Six (Five) (Ten) Islamic Terrorists--Guilty of Conspiracy, Acquitted of Attempted Murder

Vote theft in Minnesota

Seriously, Chicago politics, Bail-out bonuses (tax money theft), how could this obnoxious year be topped?

How about Democrats in broad day light stealing an election?
How can this ballot be turned from Coleman to Franken?


People of Minnesota - I have one word for you: sue! Demand a special election! Go to the supreme court and cry foul. Even if you did vote for the unhinged lunatic Franken, be honest. Or perhaps that's simply not what you or your party stands for. I guess we need to debate the meaning of the word "for" now in addition to "is".

More at moonbattery:Open Systemic Fraud in Minnesota Senate Farce.

Happy Hanukkah, Have a Latke

I was looking for a good web-image, and found it. Delish:
South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
Garden Vegetable Latkes



The link is to a recipe by some chef.

Latke - is Yiddish for a veggie pancake made of potatoes. In Hebrew it's called Leviva.

Hanukkah news roundup

ynetnews.com:Chabad orphan lights Hanukkah candle

Father of Rivkah Holtzman, who was killed along with her husband Gavriel in Mumbai, holds menorah-lighting ceremony. Murdered couple's son plays with dreidel under a Chabad flag

Hanukkah under continuous terror attacks: from israel-national-news, Be’er Sheva Mayor Preparing for Rockets
CBN: Jews Around the World Celebrate Hanukkah

Jews in Israel and around the world have started celebrating Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish holiday that commemorates a stunning military victory over the ancient Syrian Greeks.

A Hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah) was lit in Sderot just hours after a rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza scored a direct hit on a house in the southern Israeli town, scattering rubble and furniture inside.

A six-month temporary truce between Israel and Hamas expired on Friday. The truce had "frayed" since early November, with rocket fire on Israeli towns increasing in recent days.

Eli Goldsobol, a British Jew at the lighting ceremony said, "We are not moving from Sderot. We're going to stay and we're going to fight. Happy Hanukkah to everybody."

Meanwhile, over a thousand people took part in celebrations in the Russian capital, Moscow.

The traditional lighting of an eight-meter (yard) high Hanukkiah took place just outside the Kremlin.

Meaningless FYI-s about this holiday

:
* The story of Hanukkah is not biblical (not the Hebrew bible at least). Tradition says that there was a Jewish scroll telling the Maccabbee story, however the scroll that did exist and was found was written in Greek and is assumed to be a translation from Hebrew. It is accepted as Jewish history. The earliest known translation to Hebrew is from 1885. For more info on that, you can read in Hebrew on wikipedia. (other sources as well)

* After lighting the candle, my 3 year old daughter said - "But where's the Christmas tree?". She's 3, eventually she'll get it.

* For some reason, every Jewish holiday has it's own special food - and Hanukkah is the holiday of the deep fried food. It doesn't make much sense to claim that a miracle involving olive oil for lighting a temple would require you to get a ton of calories and zits - but if holiday tradition demands it - I happily indulge.

* Hanukkah - unlike most Jewish holidays - is a celebration of a Jewish military victory over the Greek Antiocheu in the era following Alexander the great's conquests and before the expansion of the Roman empire. So, dear leaders of Israel, in my view - Hanukkah is no time to wimp out. Rockets are falling over children's bedrooms and you're just threatening - it's go time.

* I used to wonder... The leaders of the Jewish rebelling army were called "Maccabbee".


By some odd coincidence - I remember that many years, around Hannukkah - the basketball team "Maccabbee Tel Aviv" would play against some Greek team. I don't know if that "tradition" is kept...

More about Hanukkah:
Hanukkah at Chabad.org
Hanukkah at wikipedia
Hanukkah at about.com

Something is broken in blogger - and I'm gaining undeserved traffic

I write this simply to say: It wasn't me. I didn't spam any of the blogs that sent traffic today to my blog. In particular, gatewaypundit, a favorite blog of mine, has been swamped with trackbacks from posts I published a week ago or more. The reason - I put his RSS feed (as well as others) on this site. I've had hosted RSS feeds here for a long time, and this is the first time this causes such a mayhem. I'm not complaining, the traffic is appreciated. I just wanted to clarify - it's a "blogger" bug. Hosting an RSS feed causes trackbacks with completely broken time-lines.

For those who have reached here due to that bug - I am still grateful you chose to click here and check out my content. I hope you find it interesting.

AP: Gaza militants launch more rockets into Israel

Is that how Arabs say happy holidays ho-ho-ho?
Gaza militants launch more rockets into Israel

Barrages of rockets fired from Gaza hit Israeli towns Sunday and the Israeli air force responded with a missile strike as violence surged after the expiration of a shaky truce.

One rocket struck a house in the town of Sderot, but no injuries were reported. The blast scattered rubble and furniture inside the house.

"Everyone is traumatized," the house's owner, Maya Aviar, told AP Television News.

A worker at a farming community near Gaza was lightly wounded by shrapnel in a separate rocket strike, the Israeli military said.

Another rocket landed in an industrial zone in Ashkelon, a city of about 120,000 people 10 miles north of Gaza.

Ashkelon is the biggest population center in range of the rockets from Gaza, and Israel has responded harshly to past attacks on the coastal city.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad took responsibility for Sunday's rocket fire.

Not responding is NOT a sign of strength or of resolve. I do have other sincere adjectives to describe Olmert and his buddies though.

Oh Please: Israel Begins Diplomatic Campaign Ahead of Gaza Operation

Israel Begins Diplomatic Campaign Ahead of Gaza Operation

Really? Who needs it? Does anyone care about a diplomatic campaign? More empty words to excuse the criminal inaction of this do-nothing government. Olmert, be gone!

My response:

If you have to shoot, shoot - don't talk!

AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs

Crap. Pardon my French.

AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs

On verge of failure, bank executives collected financial bonanzas, AP study finds

Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.

The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages.

...

Happy festivus to the heathen banks execs. They worship money. Tax payer's money.

Post Arafat and Israeli victory over "west bank Hamas terrorists": Bethlehem is booming

Who would've guessed it right? That those evil joooos uprooting the terrorists would cause Arab Bethlehem to boom... Guess what's going to happen after Obama forces Israel to give Hamas and Iran full control over the "West Bank" (I would rather call it what it is Judea and Sumeria). Christians world wide are going to regret pushing the so called "peace process" down the Israelis throat.

Xmas in Bethlehem: By the Numbers

19: Fully booked hotels.

1.3 million: Tourists visiting Bethlehem this year.

30,000: Visitors expected just for Christmas Eve.

5,000: Additional visitors expected for January's Orthodox rites.

12,000: New jobs created by tourism surge.

30 percent: Drop in local unemployment over past three years, attributing to improved security situation.

1,500: PA security men deployed for Christmas season.

2.8 million: Estimated number of tourists in Israel in 2008.

Sources: The Scotsman and AP. See additional reports of all-time highs in Israeli and Tel Aviv tourism.

Hmmm. Random thought, would Obama pressure Israel to dismantle the security barriers and usher in a new era of homicide bombing? I know he's not even a day in office and I mentioned I prefer to lay off this issue until something does happen, but he keeps surrounding himself with ... ehem... sordid individuals shall we say? And I'm not the only one to notice it if you browse through my latest posts.

Bailout nation, I missed out a new Cox and Forkum cartoon

This won't happen again (missing out their new cartoons). Despite declaring won't produce new editorial cartoons, they did produce one in October:

Since stopping editorial cartoons a year ago, John and I have continued creating gag cartoons for my automotive publications. Occasionally one of our gag cartoons will cross over into editorial territory. Such is the case with the cartoon above, which is why I'm posting it here (it's also posted at John's blog). We have no plans to start up again, but it's certainly not for lack of material in the news these days...

From FOX News (using their front page headline): U.S. to Pour Up to $250 Billion Directly Into Banks

U.S. officials announced Tuesday morning a broad range of measures designed to shore up the struggling financial system, including the purchase of stakes in some of the country’s largest banks and guarantees for most new debt issued by insured banks. [Emphasis added]

You think Hugo Chavez is jealous?

UPDATE -- Oct. 15: Good to see that not all banks are wanting government intervention. From the Washington Post: Smaller Banks Resist Federal Cash Infusions.

Community banking executives around the country responded with anger yesterday to the Bush administration's strategy of investing $250 billion in financial firms, saying they don't need the money, resent the intrusion and feel it's unfair to rescue companies from their own mistakes.

But regulators said some banks will be pressed to take the taxpayer dollars anyway. Others banks judged too sick to save will be allowed to fail. ...

The opposition suggested that the government may have to continue to press banks to participate in the plan. The first $125 billion will be divided among nine of the largest U.S. banks, which were forced to accept the investment to help destigmatize the program in the eyes of other institutions. [Emphasis added]

Banks are being "pressed" and "forced" to accept money that was "pressed" and "forced" from taxpayers. In defense of this socialist expansion, Bush gives us a classic A-is-non-A denial of reality: "These measures are not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it." Clearly the man doesn't even know what the "free" in "free market" means. And unfortunately neither do McCain and Obama.

I think those two are just great editorial cartoonists. A shame they chose to discontinue...

Obama appoints anti-Israel, pro-Terrorists "Republican congressman" as transportation secretary

Here's the announcement in the news, Chicago Tribune: Obama reportedly picking LaHood for transportation chief


Debbie Schlussel has the details about this Hezbollah loving creep:
Obama's Pan-Terrorist, Anti-Israel Republican: About Rep. LaHood, Scary New Transportation Secretary

Obama's appointment of Rahm Emanuel's close friend, Congressman Ray LaHood of Illinois, is emblematic of the types of "Republicans" Obama likes--RINOs.

LaHood, who is retiring from Congress, was one of the most anti-Israel Republicans--no, make that, one of the most anti-Israel Congressman--which has a lot to do with his Lebanese heritage. Although he's a Christian, LaHood was not exactly opposed to Hezbollah or HAMAS. And don't forget his sponsorship of the anti-Israel "Rachel Corrie Resolution," among many other damaging votes he cast on the Middle East. He's soft on Syria and Bashar Assad, too.

And then, there's his 2000 sponsorship of H.R. 2121, the Secret Evidence Repeal Act, designed to protect Islamic terrorists in our midst by disallowing courts and law enforcement to use profiling, secret evidence, and secret methods and sources to fight terrorism on our soil. His fellow sponsors were the usual pan-terrorist friends of Sami Al-Arian, then in Congress, Democrat David Bonior, and Republicans Darrell Issa a/k/a Jihad Darrell and Tom Campbell.

In May, he sent a joint letter with Democratic Congressman David Price, calling on President Bush to pressure Israel and equating Israel's defense of its citizens against terrorist rocket attacks to those terrorist attacks. The letter was supported by the usual cast of anti-Israel and far-left Jewish characters: the Arab-American Institute (which openly supports HAMAS and Hezbollah), Americans for Peace Now, Israel Policy Forum, J Street, and Churches for Peace in the Middle East (which boycotts Israel and had members serve as human shields to protect Palestinian Islamic terrorists).

He's made several trips to Lebanon with fellow Hezbo-panderers in Congress, Republican Darrell Issa a/k/a "Jihad Darrell" and Democratic Nick Joe Rahall. Each time, he returned with either attacks on Israel or moral equivocation of Israelis and the Iranian-backed terrorist group that murdered over 300 U.S. Marines and officials.

Normally, I'd say it's great to get LaHood out of Congress, where he can continue to be Hezbollah's water carrier and do damage to American interests in the Mid-East. But he retired from Congress. He was out of the picture. Now, Obama has resuscitated this classic specimen of a political hack without a conscience.

Far more disturbing, as Transportation Secretary, LaHood will have access to classified information about when and where our nuclear weapons and toxic materials are being transported on federal highways. Should a man who carried water for HAMAS and Hezbollah in Congress have access to this info? Sadly, he'll have it.

And that's a very scary thought.

More scary, given his views on profiling and secret evidence, is the fact that LaHood will oversee the FAA. Think about that the next time you're flying and the six flying imams get on the plane.

Yep, don't say you didn't know, no one warned you about Obama's anti-Israel pals.

Bamba under attack

Bamba - for the gazillions residing outside of Israel who don't know what it is - is a popular Israeli snack made from dried peanut butter. For those who are intrested in trying, last I checked you can buy it in Hiller supermarkets in Michigan and probably in many places in New-York.

I wouldn't say it's healthy, but it is yummy and if you've been snacking on it since childhood you're probably hooked.

Every now and then there's some hysteria in Israel surrounding mysterious illnesses taking babies victims. It takes time until the culprit or a common cause is identified.

These days - some ass hole lady, software engineer, working at HP sent a chain mail which ignited a temporary boycott of the product across Israel. The email accused without any evidence that Bamba was the cause of a recent babies death mystery.

She's in deep trouble for the financial damage she caused and sent an apology letter in an attempt to avoid getting sued. Read about it here (auto translated from Hebrew by google), or here (in Hebrew). Interestingly, her name is visible in the English autotranslate, but was removed from the Hebrew version...

But this is not where the story ends. The lefty crazy Israeli media always has an agenda, and to add gasoline to the flames, Haaretz's site Walla posted another article to deter parents from purchasing the product again. It's not healthy. Let's make a whole federal case out of it. Here (in Hebrew). I compare this kind of propaganda against a popular snack to the attack against McDonnald's. I'm sure the brand name here is as strong as McDonnald's was in withstanding this anti-popular culture and cuisine assault. What's next Walla? Want to take a jibe at Hummus? (It causes flatulence you know... and so does Walla)

The coming Bibi-Obama clash

I believe I wrote a thing or two about seeing this coming. Dick Morris of course doesn't wait for the election and takes Bibi's upcoming victory as granted. I'd wait, Israeli election and construction of parliamentary coalition is a tricky thing. That being said, the only reason I support Bibi here is because he's the only Israeli leader I respect as being able to oppose pressure from Obama. Dick Morris was there to witness Bibi's opposition to Clinton when Israel was pressured to give more land for nothing to the PLO peace partner terrorist group. Bibi kept the status quo for as long as he could - he finally broke and gave the PLO one more city - Hebron (half of it actually). But that was it - and no one would comment as to what kind of pressure was put behind closed doors.

Dick Morris: U.S.-ISRAEL COLLISION COURSE

With the election of Barack Obama, the United States has moved dramatically to the left in its foreign policy at just the time that Israel, which seems likely to return Bibi Netanyahu to office in early February, is moving to the right. A collision is almost inevitable.

Caroline Glick, the highly astute conservative columnist for the Jerusalem Post, writes that the “international community” believes that Obama “will move quickly to place massive pressure on the next Israeli government to withdraw from Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in the interests of advancing a ‘peace process’ with the Palestinians and the Syrians.” She notes that “people who have been in close contact with Obama’s foreign policy transition team have privately acknowledged that the widespread belief that Obama will move swiftly to put the screws on Israel is fully justified. According to one source who has spent a great deal of time with the transition team since last month’s U.S. elections, Obama’s people are ‘scope-locked’ on Israel.”

Meanwhile, in Israel, there is a growing consensus, reflected in public opinion surveys, that trading land for peace is a chimera. Netanyahu points out that “we do not have a viable partner with whom to negotiate peace.” The Palestinian Authority does not speak for the people of either Gaza or the West Bank, and Hamas, which probably does (it won the election), does not want to be a party to any peace agreement. Recent experience suggests that Hamas will quickly install rocket launchers on any territory Israel concedes, using it not as a basis for peace, but as a platform from which to kill more Jews.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the candidates of the left, Labor’s Ehud Barak and Kadima’s Tzipi Livni, are deeply committed to land for peace. Their rejection by the Israeli electorate — the anticipated outcome of the Feb. 10 election — will signal a bold departure in the political consensus of the Jewish state, a consensus that flies directly in the face of Obama’s likely policy.

The difference between the U.S. and Israel also extends to the realm of how strongly they oppose Iranian development of nuclear weapons. While Iran moves closer and closer to a bomb that could and will be used against Israel, Obama speaks of extending the American “nuclear umbrella” to cover Israel.

Reading between the lines, this means that he doesn’t think he can stop Iranian nuclear ambitions and will retreat to a policy of deterrence, accepting a nuclear Iran in the bargain.

If Netanyahu wins the election, he will bring with him a determination to stop Iranian nuclear weapons, no matter what, and a refusal to concede more territory in the name of the peace process. But Obama’s foreign policy team will be focusing on pushing Israel in just the opposite direction.

The result is likely to be the most significant divergence between Israeli and American policies since 1956, when President Eisenhower sided with the Arabs to halt the British-French-Israeli invasion of Suez.

The United States has tremendous leverage over Israel — military, financial and political. And Obama’s ability to carry the Jewish vote by a wide margin despite his likely Middle East policy makes him largely immune to the kind of political pressure that has disciplined American presidents in the past and forced them to incline toward accommodating Israeli views on the Middle East.

But Israel probably has the military capacity to bomb Iran and to win the Middle East war against Syria, Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah that is likely to result. Unlike Olmert, Netanyahu will use ground troops right off the bat and will fight such a war to win and to win big. But they may have to do it without their strongest ally: the United States.

Israelis are weary - justifiably - from such a clash. Israel's ONLY friend in the world is the USA. The problem is that Obama might not be as friendly or realistic when it comes to Israel and peace-making. Israel should strive for maintenance of status quo in both relationship with America and in regional conflicts. A friendlier administration will come and will back Israel - and it should take true leadership to forcefully postpone making any decisions and concessions during the coming period. I doubt Bibi would attempt to start any full scale war with Syria, Hezboallah and Iran - however I do hope he moves to undo the Oslo process in Gaza. Occupation was never the root cause of a cycle of violence, it was a powerful solution to subduing Arab violence.

Mislabeling the news, CNN: "Militants' rockets pound southern Israel"

How about calling it what it is?

"Jihadi, Islamic, Arab, Palestinian Terrorists bombard Israeli civilians with rockets hitting grocery supermarket, injuring several."

No? Of course not, it's CNN. It's militants (unaffiliated with a religion or ideology, might not even be Arab) pounding Israel the faceless entity. Not human beings in their homes.

Militants' rockets pound southern Israel

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian militants Wednesday fired a salvo of rockets from Gaza into southern Israel, with one landing in the parking lot of a supermarket in Sderot, the Israeli military said.

Two Israelis sustained minor injuries in that strike and were treated at a hospital, Israeli medical services said. There were no serious injuries. Sderot is a frequent target of rocket strikes because of its proximity to Hamas-controlled Gaza.

That rocket attack was one of 15 on Israel on Wednesday.

In response, the Israeli military carried out an airstrike in northern Gaza on a rocket-launching site that was about to fire more missiles, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Palestinian hospital sources said two Islamic Jihad militants were wounded in an airstrike in Gaza City.

This story is filled with "military sources say", because CNN doesn't bother sending reporters to cover Israeli Jewish civilian casualties. CNN's major focus is on those poor derelict Gazans. If Israel or Israelis were to bombard Arab neighborhoods you'd see a different type of reporting.

Other than that - the actual reportage here is not so biased. An improvement?

Final days of CAIR? Inshalla!

Could RICO tear down Hamas's legal jihad arm just like it did to the Mafia? One point not addressed in the interview but will sure to arise in the future - how will the main stream media report about it? Will they play the "Victim Muslim" violin regardless of the evidence?
From an interview in frontpagemag.com:
The Last Days of CAIR

FP: It appears that CAIR is in quite a bit of trouble lately. Give us an update.

Yerushalmi: Four of my clients, who were all once clients of CAIR, have filed a federal civil complaint alleging criminal fraud and racketeering against CAIR.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, arises out of what we can call the Morris Days affair. CAIR’s Herndon office, now shuttered, had hired Morris Days in June 2006 as their “Resident Attorney” and “Manager for Civil Rights”. As it turns out, Days was in fact not an attorney as he and CAIR represented to the public and as one might expect, he did not provide the legal services for those clients who came to CAIR for assistance.

What many people don’t realize is that CAIR operates and presents itself as a public interest law firm, much like the ACLU. As a PILF, it must comply with the codes of professional responsibility applicable to lawyers in the jurisdictions in which it operates and keep sacred the fiduciary duty it owes its clients. As the complaint sets out in careful detail, CAIR trampled on its clients and disregarded its professional obligations with a callous and calculating malice.

Specifically, according to the complaint we have filed on behalf of our clients, CAIR failed to conduct a background check on Days prior to hiring him and when CAIR officials did discover his massive fraud, they immediately set about to cover it up. CAIR officials purposefully concealed the truth about Days from their clients, law enforcement, the Virginia and D.C. state bar associations, and the media.

The complaint identifies CAIR as a racketeering enterprise under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which is a criminal racketeering statute that allows victims to sue the defendants in civil court. In addition to damages, my clients are seeking injunctive relief under this and other statutes to shut down CAIR and to prevent the individual defendants from engaging in public interest legal work in the future.

The named defendants are: the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action Network Inc. (dba CAIR); Nihad Awad aka Nihad Hammad who serves as executive director of CAIR National; Parvez Ahmed who was the chairman of the board of CAIR National during the relevant time period; Tahra Goraya who was the national director of CAIR but who has since resigned; Khadijah Athman who is the manager of the “civil rights” division of CAIR; and Nadhira al-Khalili, Esq., who is in-house legal counsel for CAIR.

Also named as defendants are Ibrahim Hooper and Amina Rubin, CAIR’s director of communications and coordinator of communications, respectively. According to the complaint, these two were directly responsible for issuing fraudulent press releases about the Days fraud scheme, thus aiding and abetting the CAIR cover-up.

FP: Why in your view did CAIR behave in this way?

Yerushalmi: Fundamentally, I would surmise for two reasons. The first and one more specific to CAIR is the fact that they really don’t care about “Muslims civil liberties”. They have the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas agenda to pursue. They use American Muslims as “victims” to advance da’wa and lawfare against the US all in the name of Jihad fisabilillah—Jihad (“soft” or “stealth”) in the name of Allah.

The second and more generic answer is something I have witnessed over my more than 24 years as a litigator dealing with securities fraud and other white collar issues. A criminal organization that presents itself as a legitimate law abiding corporate citizen invariably, when put under stress, falls prey to its own bad character. In this case, CAIR, and its host of bad actors, had a serious decision to make when they learned of the Days fraud. They could have come clean or covered up. The complaint is clear what choice they made.

FP: Can you talk a bit how CAIR exploited Muslim “victims” to advance the Islamist agenda in the U.S.?

Yerushalmi: To begin, the complaint shows that Muslims and non-Muslims, but certainly mostly Muslims, came to CAIR with a variety of legal problems. In the Herndon office, they saw hundreds of clients. Morris Days, in his capacity of “resident attorney” and “manager of the civil rights division” engaged with these clients and even took money on behalf of CAIR to represent these people. But, he was not a lawyer. The complaint explains that CAIR failed to conduct even a minimal due diligence or oversight to protect their clients from charlatans like Days. Days was not the first person in the world to claim he was a lawyer when he was not. CAIR owed its Muslim public and everyone else who came to them a fiduciary duty of care—that is the highest duty in the law. When CAIR discovered his fraud, they “joined” the fraud, per the complaint, by covering it up.

Why would a putative Muslim civil rights organization behave this way? Seemingly wholly at odds with the safeguarding of the legal interests of the very people they claimed to protect.

The answer of course is that they are not in the business of protecting individual Muslims. They are in the business of advancing the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas agenda in this country through lawfare and stealth jihad. And, that is not my characterization but the US Attorney’s office which prosecuted the Holy Land Foundation. What we see in this particular case that we have brought in federal court on behalf of our clients is this characterization born out in real time.

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