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December 31, 2009

Day 4 - 1 year ago

Some interesting tidbits again from the JCPA's Daily Alert of December 31, 2008.

Alan Dershowitz got to the point in the Christian Science Monitor:

The most dangerous of the three responses is not the Iranian-Hamas absurdity, which is largely ignored by thinking and moral people, but the United Nations and European Union response, which equates the willful murder of civilians with legitimate self-defense pursuant to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

This false moral equivalence only encourages terrorists to persist in their unlawful actions against civilians. The US has it exactly right by placing the blame on Hamas, while urging Israel to do everything possible to minimize civilian casualties.

In retrospect - especially in light of the Goldstone Commission - Dershowitz is being generous here. The EU and, especially, the UN seem to have bought into the Iranian-Hamas narrative and given it a patina of legal legitimacy.

In the New York Post Benny Avni argued that it was in America's interest to allow Israel to defeat Hamas.

What can Washington do? Specifically, it can resist pressure to rein in Jerusalem prematurely - by objecting, for example, to knee-jerk European, Arab and UN calls for a quick end to Israel's campaign.

Some of those parties, incidentally, quietly hope Israel will inflict military punishment on Hamas. But Arabs and Europeans can't express their desire for an Israeli victory out loud. Only America can - and it must.

Alas, Washington may be moving in the opposite direction. Yesterday, US officials - led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - seemed to be stepping up calls for a "reliable cease-fire, one that is durable and sustainable." That could be a big mistake.

In a number of ways it appeared that Hamas was alone. David Schenker observed:

For the time being, however, it seems likely that Tehran will continue to urge Hizballah restraint, preferring instead to maintain its assets in southern Lebanon for another time. Meanwhile, Hizballah secretary general Nasrallah will continue to criticize and embarrass Western-aligned Arab states like Egypt and Jordan, who he says are colluding "to impose the conditions of surrender on the resisters of the American-Zionist project."

By fomenting civil unrest in these states, Nasrallah rallies support for Hamas, undermines Washington's allies, and confirms his own preeminent regional role. In lieu of firing rockets into Israel and dragging Lebanon into another costly war, this strategy is a relatively effective and cost-free demonstration of Hizballah's Arab nationalist and pro-Palestinian resistance bona fides.

And Jeffrey Goldberg added:

I've been talking to friends of mine, former Palestinian Authority intelligence officials (ejected from power by the Hamas coup), and they tell me that not only are they rooting for the Israelis to decimate Hamas, but that Fatah has actually been assisting the Israelis with targeting information.

So Fatah played a double game: they helped Israel and then condemned Israel. One of the targets Israel hit was the Islamic University in Gaza. Patrick Poole writes:

After the IUG strikes on Monday, IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovich gave an interview to investigative reporter Aaron Klein, characterizing the militant nature of the IUG and the use of its facilities for the manufacture of Hamas explosives. "This is the first university in world that gives out bachelor's degrees in rocket manufacture," she said.

IUG figured prominently in the recent Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, with federal prosecutors entering documents into evidence showing that Holy Land officials used the IUG to funnel funds to Hamas.

With Israel declaring "all-out war" against Hamas, the present conflict will hopefully provide incentive for law enforcement officials to further roll back the extensive Hamas support network in the U.S. Considering the success that prosecutors had in securing convictions on all 108 counts against the Holy Land Foundation defendants, investigating the degree of involvement of Arab Student Aid International in the financing and construction of the IUG Hamas terror labs might be a good place to start.

(Financial support for Hamas unfortunately continues to this day.)

Crossposted on Yourish.

6:09 AM | Permalink |

Jta shows its colors

One of the most shameful aspects of last year's election campaign was the imputation that Jews would not for Barack Obama because he was black or because they were more susceptible to false rumors. As I blogged at the time, this insulting and condescending attitude was captured by a New York Times article, As Obama Heads to Florida, Many of Its Jews Have Doubts, which portrayed Jews as uniquely small minded and prejudiced. The idea that Jews might have doubts about a man who sat in a church and heard antisemitic sermons for two decades or who was friendly with Rashid Khalidi. This attitude seemed premised on a belief that Jews were inordinately concerned with Israel and more susceptible to false rumors than the general population.
Another expression of this offensive attitude was the "Big Schlep." This was an effort by young pro-Obama activists to encourage their grandparents to vote for Obama. The effort was conceived by one Ari Wallach, who still seems quite the activist.
In the end the Schleppers and their allies needn't have worried, Jewish voters proved to be overwhelmingly progressive (or, from my point of view, naive and unconcerned about Israel), supporting President Obama in record numbers. Still the contempt and condescension implicit in the campaign was extremely offensive.
Wallach has now joined by the board of the JTA. If I thought that the JTA was too partisan before on account of Ron Kampeas (its other Washington reporter, Eric Fingerhut, is neutral), I have no doubts now.

5:49 AM | Permalink |

Submitted 12/31/09

This week's Watcher's Council submissions are up.

Council Submissions

Honorable Mentions

Non-Council Submissions

Read. Enjoy. Be informed.

5:47 AM | Permalink |

December 30, 2009

Some 'splainin'

Last week Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai was killed in an ambush. Following the attack, Israel tracked down an killed three suspects in the murder. At the funerals for the murderers, protesters objected to the PA's cooperation with Israel, leading JoshuaPundit to observe:

This is very indicative of exactly why the so-called peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is dead in the water.

Three terrorists on Fatah's payroll who had supposedly forsworn further terrorist activities murder an unarmed Rabbi on the roads after an IDF checkpoint is removed, and yet public anger is not directed against the killers for breaching and endangering the peace agreements but at the Palestinian Authority for participating in any sort of cooperation with Israel!

Considering how corrupt, weak and illegitimate a government Abbas and the Palestinian Authority actually are, the Israelis ought to be very wary about making deals with them..especially when it comes to giving up land and removing security checkpoints.If the IDF ever actually pulled out of Judea and Samaria completely, Abbas and his gang would last perhaps a month before being over thrown by the local jihadis and Hamas.

Fresno Zionism (among others) noted that the United States asked Israel for a clarification of its killing of the terrorists.

One wonders if the US demanded 'clarification' from the Fatah-dominated PA about the actions of Fatah's "military wing"? Nothing like support from an ally, is there?

Dan Diker, though, turns the tables and said that it is the Americans who have some 'splainin' to do. (h/t PowerLine)

THIS IS where it seems more appropriate that the US issue clarifications to Israel. At least one of the Aksa Brigades commanders - Annan Sabuh, who was found with two M16 automatic rifles and two other firearms - had been part of the amnesty program for former Fatah-affiliated terror group commanders and operatives that was predicated on turning in all weapons. The amnesty program was implemented in no small part at the behest of the United States and its security reform program, which began under Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton in 2005.

Notwithstanding IDF praise for PA public policing improvements in some West Bank cities and for PA security actions against Hamas, the American-trained and -funded Palestinian security forces under the command of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad have either refused or been unable to uproot the terror infrastructure of the Fatah-associated Aksa Martyrs Brigades. Similar to the three recently neutralized terrorists, thousands of additional Aksa Martyrs operatives and other Fatah militia members have gone into "retirement" via the amnesty agreement with the PA security forces and their US security coordinators, but many operatives still store weapons in their homes. US security officials may also be aware that some Fatah terror operatives have even been sheltered in PA security installations to remove them from Israel's most wanted list.

Fayyad has also coopted some Aksa commanders by assigning them to senior positions in the PA security forces, such as Abu Jabbal, a senior PA security forces officer in Nablus. The increased US commitment in 2009, equaling some $130 million to upgrade the PA forces to nearly 3,500 men, has failed to address the very problem of the continued existence of Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades and other armed Fatah factions that resulted in the recent murder of Chai. It is well known in senior Fatah security echelons that the limited capacity and political will of PA forces require the IDF to assume between 70 percent and 80% of the security operations against the extant terror infrastructure in the West Bank.

We've been here before. It is also perhaps wise not to ignore the fact that Abbas still calls for a new intifada in Arabic.

Crossposted on Yourish.

6:15 AM | Permalink |

Disputing occupation

I've often argued that by giving the Palestinians the final word on what an acceptable amount of land is to make peace effectively gives those against peace a veto over the whole "peace process." Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon makes a similar point and argues against the term "occupied territory," in an excellent op-ed. He concludes:

After the war in 1967, when Jews started returning to their historic heartland in the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria, as the territory had been known around the world for 2,000 years until the Jordanians renamed it, the issue of settlements arose. However, Rostow found no legal impediment to Jewish settlement in these territories. He maintained that the original British Mandate of Palestine still applies to the West Bank. He said "the Jewish right of settlement in Palestine west of the Jordan River, that is, in Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem, was made unassailable. That right has never been terminated and cannot be terminated except by a recognized peace between Israel and its neighbors." There is no internationally binding document pertaining to this territory that has nullified this right of Jewish settlement since.

And yet, there is this perception that Israel is occupying stolen land and that the Palestinians are the only party with national, legal and historic rights to it. Not only is this morally and factually incorrect, but the more this narrative is being accepted, the less likely the Palestinians feel the need to come to the negotiating table. Statements like those of Lady Ashton's are not only incorrect; they push a negotiated solution further away.


6:15 AM | Permalink |

Day 3 - 1 year ago

Taken from Daily Alert of December 30, 2008.

Reports of "targeted killings" by Hamas start to emerge.

On Monday, Dr. Ashour was not the only official in charge. Armed Hamas militants in civilian clothes roamed the halls. Asked their function, they said it was to provide security. But there was internal bloodletting under way.

In the fourth-floor orthopedic section, a woman in her late 20s asked a militant to let her see Saleh Hajoj, her 32-year-old husband. She was turned away and left the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Hajoj was carried out by young men pretending to transfer him to another ward. As he lay on the stretcher, he was shot in the left side of the head.

Mr. Hajoj, like five others killed at the hospital this way in 24 hours, was accused of collaboration with Israel. He had been in the central prison awaiting trial by Hamas judges; when Israel destroyed the prison on Sunday he and the others were transferred to the hospital. But their trials were short-circuited.

Note also, that the report observes that members of Hamas were patrolling the hospital in civilian clothes. Members of Hamas were thus violating the neutrality of hospitals and were not wearing distinctive clothing. Reuters reported two more killings.

Despite increased rocket fire into Israel

Southern Israel under fire: Three days after Operation Cast Lead was launched, Hamas has stepped up its attacks on Israel Monday evening. Heavy mortar shell and rocket barrages rained on Ashdod, Ashkelon, Netivot and the western Negev, leaving two people dead and at least nine wounded, with two of them sustaining serious to critical injuries.

Irit Sheetrit, 39, was killed after rockets fired from Gaza exploded in the coastal town of Ashdod north of Ashkelon. Although she managed to get out of her car and take cover on the ground, she was wounded critically and later succumbed to her injuries. Her sister, Ayelet Morduch, was also in the vechile and sustained light wounds.

Israel continued to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the Gaza crossings remain closed on Tuesday. Despite the order, Israel will allow some 100 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to cross into the Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

The trucks, carrying basic food and medical supplies donated by the Turkish and Jordanian governments and various international organizations, are due to enter the Hamas-controlled territory through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Five ambulances donated by Turkey to the Palestinian emergency services will also be allowed to pass.

Though the media played up the reaction of the Arab street, it appeared that much of the rest of the world was supportive of israel at this point.

The EU has called for a cease-fire to end the violence that has killed almost 350 Palestinians. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said Israel had the right to defend itself.

"Let us realise one thing: Hamas increased steeply the number of rockets fired at Israel since the cease-fire ended on December 19. That is not acceptable any more," Schwarzenberg told daily Mlada Fronta Dnes in an interview.

France, which will hand over the EU's rotating presidency to Prague, has condemned Israel's strikes and the rocket attacks from Hamas militants and called for both to stop immediately.

And more significantly:

In his visit to Egypt, PA President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) placed the responsibility for the Israeli attack on Hamas, saying, "We called the leaders of Hamas, and told them both directly and indirectly, through Arab parties and non-Arab parties. We talked with them on the phone. We told them, 'Please, do not end the tahdiah.'"[i]

Nimr Hammad, an advisor to Mahmoud Abbas, said: "The one responsible for the massacres is Hamas, and not the Zionist entity, which in its own view reacted to the firing of Palestinian missiles. Hamas needs to stop treating the blood of Palestinians lightly. They should not give the Israelis a pretext." He called upon the leaders of Hamas to stop carrying out "operations which reflect recklessness, such as the firing of missiles."[ii]

Crossposted on Yourish.

6:14 AM | Permalink |

December 29, 2009

Of watch lists and releases

My memory didn't fail me. Soon after 9/11 it was determined that at least one of the suspects had attended a flight school in the United States and made disturbing comments.

Rep. James L. Oberstar of Minnesota, who received the briefing and is the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation Committee, said the instructor called the bureau several times to find someone in authority who seemed willing to act on the information.

Oberstar said the instructor's warnings could not have been more blunt. The representative said, "He told them, 'Do you realize that a 747 loaded with fuel can be used as a bomb?"'

Oberstar described the instructor as "an American hero" whose actions resulted in Moussaoui's arrest and might have prevented another suicide hijacking.

Congressional officials said the account by the school, the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan, outside Minneapolis, raised new questions about why the FBI and other agencies did not prevent the hijackings.

Here's an excerpt from President Bush's statement for the reason for creating the department.

The President proposes to create a new Department of Homeland Security, the most significant transformation of the U.S. government in over half-century by largely transforming and realigning the current confusing patchwork of government activities into a single department whose primary mission is to protect our homeland. The creation of a Department of Homeland Security is one more key step in the President's national strategy for homeland security.

The thought was that with a single address, concerns about security wouldn't get lost in a massive bureaucratic maze. And yet last month after the Fort Hood massacre we learned:

Shortly after the massacre we learnedni (via Jihad Watch):

One such presentation has come to light: the June 2007 briefing which Hasan gave to other doctors at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Hasan's PowerPoint slides say many of the same things found in jihadist literature and propaganda throughout the Middle East and among its apologists here in America. Hasan's Islam is rooted in traditional understandings of the faith as taught by the authoritative schools of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence. It also is the same Islam that is taught by groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Al-Qaeda.

In arguing that the Koran mandates defensive jihad against unbelievers, Hasan invokes the same Koranic verse that Osama bin Laden used as an epigraph on his "Letter to the American People" of October 2002: "Permission to fight (against disbelievers) is given to those (believers) who are fought against, because they have been wronged; and surely, Allah is able to give them victory."

Now we learn that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father warned the American embassy about his son. The Washington Post reports that the warning was ignored but explains why:

The lack of attention was not unusual, according to U.S. intelligence officials, who said that thousands of similar bits of information flow into the National Counterterrorism Center each week from around the world. Only those that indicate a specific threat, or add to an existing body of knowledge about an individual, are passed along for further investigation and possible posting on airline and border watch lists.

"It's got to be something that causes the information to sort of rise out of the noise level, because there is just so much out there," one intelligence official said.

In all three cases, the common thread isn't a lack of regulations (via Instapundit) but intelligence failures. And yet the response of DHS, is to promulgate new rules. I don't fault DHS for being a bureaucratic nightmare, but couldn't it at least learning from the past?

Another area where learning from the past would be useful are prisoner releases. It's frustrating when I read accounts of Israeli trades for captives. Invariably the reporter focuses on the amount of the time the released prisoners were away from their family and ignores the likelihood that he'll return to his old ways. The murder of Rabbi Meir Chai last week, brought that point home:

Nader Raed Sukarji, a 40 year-old inhabitant of Shechem, was arrested in 2002 and suspected of being a top Al Aksa terror group brigade operative and participant in many terror attacks. He also prepared bombs and helped establish explosives factories in Nablus (Shechem). He was released from prison in January 2009.

But it isn't just Israel, the recent bomb plot in Detroit was apparently masterminded by former guests at Gunatanamo.

Said Ali al Shihri and Muhammad al Awfi were captured in Afghanistan in late 2001, ABC News reported.

They were freed from Gitmo in November 2007 and promptly took up arms again against the United States after completing a bizarre "art-rehabilitation therapy" program in Saudi Arabia as a condition of their release.

"The so-called rehabilitation programs are a joke," a US diplomat told ABC.

(I wonder if the NY Times will now take a new look at those Saudi "rehabilitation" programs.)

Instead of issuing new directives that will mostly affect innocent passengers, why aren't the authorities looking more seriously at how to develop intelligence and rethinking their conditions for releasing detainees?

5:46 AM | Permalink |

Day 2 - 1 year ago

According to JCPA's Daily Alert last December 29th was an admission by Hamas that many of those killed were police officers.

Hamas TV acknowledged this morning that the vast majority of those killed are from the Hamas military

(Elder of Ziyon has shown that there is little difference between Hamas police and Hamas military.)

Of more interest it apears that last year, at least initially there wasn't much international pressure against Israel to stop fighting Hamas.

Israel is feeling "no real pressure" from the world to end the operation in the Gaza Strip, and the amount of time the international community will sit relatively quietly on the sidelines depends on how things develop, senior diplomatic officials said Sunday.

According to the officials, one errant IDF shell could bring to a dramatic end what has been described as "greater understating than you can imagine" for Israel's actions.


Not even from the Arab world. (The same world that now wants Israel's leaders to be tried as war criminals even as it excuses the genocide of Omar Bashir.)

Thus far, Hamas has not succeeded in generating an Arab diplomatic initiative that would lead to a renewed cease-fire on its terms. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which view Hamas as an Iranian ally whose goal is to increase Tehran's regional influence at their expense, prefer to wait a bit in the hopes that Israel's military operation will strip Hamas of its ability to dictate terms. And without those two states, the Arab League will have trouble even convening an emergency summit.

Granted, such a summit has limited practical value. But its absence indicates that Arab solidarity with the Palestinians is crumbling under Hamas' leadership.

Dore Gold addressed the issue of (dis)proportionality.

•The charge that Israel uses disproportionate force keeps resurfacing whenever it has to defend its citizens from non-state terrorist organizations and the rocket attacks they perpetrate. From a purely legal perspective, Israel's current military actions in Gaza are on solid ground. According to international law, Israel is not required to calibrate its use of force precisely according to the size and range of the weaponry used against it.

This year, Hamas's celebration of the war have been sparsely attended.

But a year later, Hayyeh's bold calls rang hollow. After days of heavy advertising through Hamas Web sites, text messages and radio announcements, only a trickle of Hamas loyalists turned up to a commemoration in the heavily damaged legislative building in downtown Gaza City, the territory's largest urban area.

Cars whizzed by and pedestrians kept walking, ignoring a siren meant to call for a minute's silence. Hayyeh's Jebaliya protest did not even fill the sandy square where Israeli aircraft dropped bombs onto the house of senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan, killing him and about a dozen of his family and neighbors.

Whether that's because of Hamas's abject defeat, as Barry Rubin observed:

Hizballah doesn't want renewed war this year, seeking to carry out revenge terrorist attacks away from the Lebanon-Israel border. Hamas is probably cowed enough by the early 2009 fighting (outside observers still don't realize the extent to which its gunmen broke, ran away, and hid behind civilians, but the Hamas leadership knows), though this can't be taken for certain.

or because Hamas has demonstrated how little it cares for its own people:

The point is, a year has passed. What political concessions has Hamas offered that might have enabled it to make repairs, improve the lot of its people? None. The United Nations reported this fall that 1 in 5 Gazans now live in what it called "abject poverty." That is why many parents are no longer sending their children to school. They need the pennies their children can earn at menial jobs to buy food.

Their chieftains don't seem to care. I have interviewed the leaders of Hamas many times over the years, and all of them offered one consistent refrain, time and time again: We are patient. Our resistance will continue as long as it takes - even centuries - until we reach our goal, full control of Palestine. Of course, that includes the state of Israel.

or some combination of the two, is unclear. Israel's war against Hamas does not appear to have strengthened the terrorist group politically despite what its apologists claim.

Crossposted on Yourish.

5:33 AM | Permalink |

The jblogosphere this week (and last)

Last week I missed linking to Haveil Havalim #248 at Frume Sarah's world.

Haveil Havalim 249 is up at I'll call Baila. And may I point you to You just might be a religious Zionist?

Last week Leoraw, JPix's current administrator - and photograper/designer/etc - hosted the latest Jewish Picture carnival.

The 49th Kosher Cooking carnival is up at Kosher.com

Recently, I realized that Rubicon3 had retired from blogging. She was one of the first three bloggers I turned to 4 years ago when I wanted to start Haveil Havalim. She also was the last of those three to blog regularly. (One still blogs, about once a year.) She now Tweets, but her blog is gone. Good luck. After Haveil havalim started, I asked one other blogger for help too. And though I've since been turned off by his tactics, I should also acknowledge that Dov Bear helped get the project off the ground. Also, Jack has now been running Haveil Havalim longer than I did. Thank you to everyone who has participated and kept Haveil Havalim going; four years is a long time in the blogging world.

5:02 AM | Permalink |

December 28, 2009

Day 1 - 1 year ago

The first day of Israel's war against Hamas brought this comment from a Jerusalem Post editorial:

At this newspaper, we wonder how an international community that can't bring itself to explicitly support Israel's operation against the most intransigent of Muslim fanatics expects to play a positive role in facilitating peace in this region.

Depressingly (if not unexpectedly) enough, American newspapers showed their lack of support very early.

A Washington Post editorial after the first day of fighting, Israel Strikes was generally supportive of Israel, however, it also warned:

While the fighting lasts -- and Israeli officials were warning yesterday that it could be prolonged -- Hamas's principal sponsor, Iran, will have achieved a tactical success. Israeli diplomats have been working feverishly in recent weeks to focus international attention on the Iranian nuclear program as the Obama administration prepares to take office. They've been warning that the new U.S. president will have to act quickly if an Iranian bomb is to be stopped. Now, for weeks or possibly months to come, all eyes will be on Gaza -- on the fighting, the continued suffering of civilians and the need for a fresh settlement. Israel might have avoided this fight, and gained a diplomatic advantage of its own, by relaxing the economic blockade. Now it will be embroiled in a costly battle that, in the end, is a distraction from the most serious threat it faces.

I never got this. Why does paying attention to an immediate threat preclude the possibility of dealing with a longer term threat? Furthermore, Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons, as Barry Rubin has pointed out, wouldn't necessarily be with an eye towards necessarily using them, but would be another tool to project its power. So if Israel would allow Hamas free rein with no consequences, wouldn't that show Iran that it could freely project its power throughout the region? So Israel's war against Hamas, far from strengthening Iran, let Iran know that its proxies would be challenged.

The Washington Post editorials over the course of the conflict generally maintained this posture: Israel was right to attack, but its attack may well be counterproductive.

The next day the New York Times weighed in with War over Gaza. After some boilerplate about Israel's right to defend itself, the Times of course called on Israel to demonstrate restraint.

By Monday, some 350 Palestinians -- mostly Hamas security forces -- were reported killed. A Hamas security compound was among dozens of structures pummeled in the attacks, and the group's leaders were supposedly driven into hiding. The Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, promised a "war to the bitter end."

We hope he does not mean a ground war. That, or any prolonged military action, would be disastrous for Israel and lead to wider regional instability. Mr. Barak and Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, both candidates to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in elections set for February, must not be drawn any further into a competition with the front-runner, Benjamin Netanyahu, over who is the biggest hawk.

The Times too, misses the point, in a different way. By reducing Israel's war against Hamas to a campaign issue, it imputed cynicism to Israel's leadership. The war wasn't about positioning candidates; it was about defending israel's citizens, especially in the south.

Early in the conflict the Post did feature an excellent op-ed by Ephraim Sneh and the New York Times featured one by Benny Morris. Still it was hard not to get the impression that the editors of both papers would have been less troubled if the residents of Sderot had remained undefended.

(In contrast to these two bastions of liberal thought, the Wall Street Journal exhibited a lot more common sense and sympathy for Israel. The Journal also featured an op-ed co-written by future ambassador Michael Oren.)

This video here, released on the first day of the war, should have defined the way the war was covered.

UPDATE: For more see the JCPA's Daily Alert from December 28, 2008.

Crossposted on Yourish.

5:53 AM | Permalink |

We're not worthy

Mark Whitaker explains why President Obama has seemed so ... ordinary ... during his first year in office.

As a candidate for president, that disciplined, linear, conciliatory approach to life helped Barack Obama defeat the fractious campaigns of Hillary Clinton and John McCain. It was exactly the right temperament to help Americans avert a fiscal and emotional meltdown in the early days of the financial crisis.

But as the French say, we all have the faults of our virtues. In President Obama's case, the highly organized defenses he developed as a result of his dysfunctional childhood may have left him ill-prepared to confront the more unruly forces of cynicism, egotism and self-interest that hold sway in Washington, on Wall Street and on the world stage.

Indeed. It's not President Obama's fault. He was an unsullied naif who wandered into snake infested swamp that's Washington.

And that would mean that we are unworthy of having such a refined, unsullied and selfless president.

And that would be a fiction.

President Obama isn't trying to bring a new kind of politics to Washington, he's bringing the Chicago way to the capital. It's hardball politics not some new concilliatory lofty "new politics." Look at Barack Obama's first race.

As a community organizer, he had helped register thousands of voters. But when it came time to run for office, he employed Chicago rules to invalidate the voting petition signatures of three of his challengers.

The move denied each of them, including incumbent Alice Palmer, a longtime Chicago activist, a place on the ballot. It cleared the way for Obama to run unopposed on the Democratic ticket in a heavily Democrat district.

"That was Chicago politics," said John Kass, a veteran Chicago Tribune columnist. "Knock out your opposition, challenge their petitions, destroy your enemy, right? It is how Barack Obama destroyed his enemies back in 1996 that conflicts with his message today. He may have gotten his start registering thousands of voters. But in that first race, he made sure voters had just one choice."

The message of "new politics" that President Obama rode to the White House was at odds with his record that received too little scrutiny by our watchdog media.

Nor should President Obama have been uncomfortable dealing with egos, after all this is the man who used "I" 38 times in his Nobel acceptance speech.

Until now, Barack Obama has received too little scrutiny for his bullying approach to politics. He has now had a major legislative success in both houses of Congress, cynically bought with tax payers money. Contrary to Whitaker, President Obama hasn't been made ordinary by Washington, rather he's raised the cynical dealing in Washington to new, extraordinary heights.

Oh, by the way, Mr. Whitaker is the Washington Bureau chief for NBC news. I doubt we'll be seeing much in the way of critical scrutiny of the President's dealings or past on NBC.

5:53 AM | Permalink |

Musical monday #123

Welcome to the 123rd edition of Musical Monday. Elie and I switch off hosting. Check out Musical Monday #122 shortly for answers.

This week the grouping is important. Remember no Googling and enjoy.

1) She's an angel of the first degree
2) Sunday morning you don't look right.
3) All I want is to see you smile
4) Your secluded nights
5) And my daddy said stay away from Juliet

6) Tune-a by the cockeyed world in two.
7) Well meet me baby down at 45th street
8) You know you're a twisty little girl

9) My heart was captured, my soul surrendered
10) There's a very strange vibration
11) The days are dull, the nights are long
12) This song is for you, filled with gratitude and love

13) I got a cobra snake for a necktie
14) You know I love you, I'll always be true
15) I can mash-potatoe

16) I was chasing your direction
17) It's such a fine and natural sight
18) I finally made a tricky frech connection

19) You start a conversation you can't even finish it.
20) For Khrushchev and Kennedy
21) Midnight, and I'm a-waiting on the twelve-oh-five
22) Waiting for my baby in the cold December chill

23) And then I'm gonna put you way down here
24) I'd gladly take you back, and tempt the hand of fate
25) It takes two to tangle, takes two to even compete, oh, yeah
26) You arrived like a day and passed like a cloud

27) Or the highlights in your head that catch your eyes I have been blind
28) Always runnin', never carin', that's the life you live
29) Air pollution, revolution, gun control,

Continue reading "Musical monday #123"
5:42 AM | Permalink |

IRIB: "the-killing-due-to-bullet-receiving of one of the rioters was suspicious"

Iran is in a turmoil lately, as I'm sure you know, even prompting speculation that the regime could be in real trouble (h/t: RealClearWorld). Here is some convoluted and defensive coverage from IRIB:

On Ashura day of mourning, while millions of Iranians across the country were mourning the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS) and his faithful followers, a group of rioters poured into some streets of Tehran and insulted the Islamic sanctities and values of the nation.

Chanting extremist slogans, the group also insulted the concept of Ashura and ridiculed ideals of the late Imam Khomeini.

The rioters clapping and cheering on the mourning day of Ashura, began to damage public properties.

Later, large crowds of Ashura mourners who were angry about the act of the rioters confronted them.

Facing resistance by the people and security forces, the rioters fled the scene.

Some foreign media and anti-Revolutionary elements residing abroad had said Saturday that chants against the Islamic Republic and the principles of the Constitutions would be shouted on Ashura in Tehran.

In Sunday's unrest four people were killed and some residential units, banks and cars were set ablaze.

Deputy Police Commander Ahmad-Reza Radan said that the police initially tried to disperse the crowd through peaceful ways however they applied more forceful ways after the rioters began to damage public properties and residential units.

The deputy noted that the Police forces were only equipped with routine anti-riot gear, adding that the-killing-due-to-bullet-receiving of one of the rioters was suspicious.

Two of the others killed lost their lives in a suspicious car accident while the fourth fell to his death from above an overpass bridge.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Intelligence announced Saturday that several elements of the terrorist MKO group were arrested from amid the rioters.

The Ministry was investigating the killing incidents.

According to the opening sentence of a current NY Times article:
Police officers in Iran opened fire into crowds of protesters on Sunday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses and opposition Web sites said, in a day of chaotic street battles that threatened to deepen the country's civil unrest.
Ten examples of killing-due-to-bullet-receiving?

Crossposted on Judeopundit

1:41 AM | Permalink |

December 27, 2009

Council speak 12/27/09

the Council has spoken

Council Submissions

Non-Council Submissions

For a complete listing of all the winners see here, congratulations!
For a complete list of this week's entries see here.

12:41 PM | Permalink |

What's there to debate?

The headline and tone of this "news analysis," Tough Military Stance Stirs Little Debate in Israel the New York Times is baffling. What is there to debate? If the doctrine is effective it's working. The idea that an idea must be debated to be worthwhile is a prescription for paralysis.

In the year since Israel launched its devastating military offensive against Hamas in Gaza, the country's political and military leaders have faced intense international condemnation and accusations of possible war crimes.

But Israel seems to have few qualms. Officials and experts familiar with the country's military doctrine say that given the growing threats from Iranian-backed militant organizations both in Gaza and in Lebanon, Israel will probably find itself fighting another, similar kind of war.

Only next time, some here suggest, Israel will apply more force.

"The next round will be different, but not in the way people think," said Giora Eiland, a retired major general and former chief of Israel's National Security Council. "The only way to be successful is to take much harsher action."

Such talk has raised alarm among some critics in Israel, but so far it has stirred little public debate.

Why, exactly, those critics who don't have concern for Israeli citizen foremost in their minds, should be of concern to Israel isn't explained by the reporter, Isabel Kershner, who acknowledges:

Both the three-week campaign in Gaza, which ended on Jan. 18, and Israel's monthlong war in 2006 against the Shiite Hezbollah organization in Lebanon have brought relative quiet to Israel's borders.

I would think that the article should have ended there.

Israel's objective, according to Gabriel Siboni, a retired colonel who runs the military program at the Institute for National Security Studies, is to shorten and intensify the period of fighting and to lengthen the period between rounds.

Israel was accused of using disproportionate force in Lebanon, particularly after it flattened the Dahiya district in Beirut, a Shiite neighborhood that housed the command and control headquarters of Hezbollah. Over the month, more than a thousand Lebanese were killed.

But Israeli experts say that as long as the targets are legitimate ones, the whole point is to try to overwhelm the enemy with maximum force.

The destruction of Dahiya "sent a message to Hezbollah of the consequences" of confrontation, Mr. Siboni said.

Notice that she attributes this view simply to "Israeli experts" instead of acknowledging that this is a valid reading of international law.

Then she stacks the deck further against Israel:

The campaign in Gaza, intended to halt years of rocket fire against southern Israel, left up to 1,400 Palestinians dead, including hundreds of civilians. The human toll, as well as the extensive destruction of property, prompted a United Nations mission led by an internationally renowned judge, Richard Goldstone, to accuse Israel of deliberately attacking civilians and of violations of the international laws of war.

Israel rejected the Goldstone report as biased and fundamentally flawed. Israel says that while mistakes were made, it chose its targets on purely military merits and went to extraordinary lengths to warn civilians in Gaza to leave areas under attack.

One one side we had "Israeli experts," now, on the other we have the "internationally renowned judge." By now Goldstone's flaws should be manifest. And even if Kershner couldn't be bothered to read a whole website critiquing Goldstone, surely she could have made herself aware of Martin Kramer's short and devastating critique of Goldstone's credulity. She need not attribute Goldstone flaws to the Israeli government, she could see it herself, if she wanted to.

Kershner gives too much space to Israel's self-interested and biased critics, but she does end her analysis well.

But Israeli officials and security experts contend that other Western countries are facing similar challenges in their conflicts abroad. What must change, they say, is not the Israeli military's conduct but the interpretation and application of the laws of war by the rest of the world.

In the meantime, Mr. Siboni said, Israel's wars "may produce more Goldstones, but that may be the price you have to pay."

This isn't just about Israel. It's about the West's ability to fight terror. An American expert, Johathan Keiler addressed this in a recent paper (.pdf):

"Disproportion" can be seen as the leading edge of an effort to delegitimatize any action by powerful western nations against weaker developing countries or nonstate actors. It is in the interest of the United States to generally reject these claims, for should they gain further acceptance, American military action and doctrines might be seriously hindered in the future, with potentially grave repercussions.

Unfortunately, it isn't clear that Isabel Kershner got the message.

Crossposted on Yourish.

6:37 AM | Permalink |

T minus one day - one year ago

Israel Completes Preparations for Gaza Offensive Amid Continuing Rocket Fire - Mark Lavie
Israel wrapped up preparations for a broad offensive in the Gaza Strip Thursday after Palestinians fired about 100 rockets and mortar shells across the border in two days. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert made a direct appeal to Gaza's people via the Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Arabiya to pressure their leaders to stop the barrages. Israeli defense officials said the operation would probably begin with surgical airstrikes against rocket launchers. Harsh weather conditions are currently hampering visibility and complicating air force missions. (AP/Washington Post)

Israel Opens Border Crossings into Gaza
Israel opened three border crossings with Gaza on Friday, allowing about 80 trucks filled with fuels and commodities into the Palestinian territory. Among the goods were 400,000 liters of fuel and 120 tons of cooking gas. The decision to open the crossings at Kerem Shalom, Karni and Nahal Oz came after requests from international aid groups and Egypt. (CNN)

Hamas "Military Industry" Working Overtime to Manufacture Rockets - Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff (Ha'aretz)
    For two years Hamas, with Iranian assistance, has been working hard on developing its military power.
    In recent years dozens of Gazans have traveled to training camps in Iran and Lebanon run by terror organizations and Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
    Hamas has learned to create ammonium perchlorate compound, an advanced rocket propellant that extends Kassam rocket range beyond 20 kilometers and significantly increases a rocket's shelf life.
    That means that, for the first time, Hamas can maintain a supply of rockets for months at a time.

A Separate Standard for Israel - Mark Silverberg
On any given day, Israeli prisons are hosting Red Cross representatives, journalists, lawyers, prisoners' advocates, as well as family members of convicted Palestinian prisoners, while Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas on Israeli soil, is being held in isolation and denied any and all visitation rights from lawyers, family and even the International Red Cross in violation of his human rights and international law. So, where is the international outcry for Shalit?

(via Daily Alert)

From the Goldstone Report:

266. The intensified closure regime on the Gaza crossings which began in November continued in December, with imports restricted to very basic food items and limited amounts of fuel, animal feed and medical supplies. According to OCHA, many basic food items were no longer available and negligible amounts of fuel were allowed to enter Gaza. This resulted in the health sector in Gaza deteriorating further into a critical condition, with hospitals continuing to face problems as a result of power cuts, low stocks of fuel to operate back-up generators, lack of spare parts for medical equipment and shortages of consumables and medical supplies.151 On 18 December 2008, UNRWA once again suspended its food distribution programme for the rest of the month, owing to shortages.152
267. On 27 December 2008, Israel started its military operations in Gaza.153

From this brief chronology it's easy to see factors that Judge Goldstone and his commission ignored or downplayed.

For one thing, Israel allowed in 80 trucks of aid right before launching Cast Lead. It's possible that that fact is mentioned in the Goldstone report, but if it is, it is extremely well hidden. (Yes, I searched.) Certainly it would have been relevant to mention in the chronology cited above.

But then this went against something else the commission wished to convey, namely the first agenda item:

1. The blockade 27. The Mission focused (chap. V) on the process of economic and political isolation imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip, generally referred to as a blockade. The blockade comprises measures such as restrictions on the goods that can be imported into Gaza and the closure of border crossings for people, goods and services, sometimes for days, including cuts in the provision of fuel and electricity. Gaza's economy is further severely affected by the reduction of the fishing zone open to Palestinian fishermen and the establishment of a buffer zone along the border between Gaza and Israel, which reduces the land available for agriculture and industry. In addition to creating an emergency situation, the blockade has significantly weakened the capacities of the population and of the health, water and other public sectors to respond to the emergency created by the military operations.

By starting off the section, "Facts investigated by the Mission, factual and legal findings," with the "blockade," the commission served to undermine Israel's rationale for attacking Hamas. It makes the focus Israel's actions, not the arms smuggling that made the blockade necessary and certainly not the firing of rockets at Israeli civilians. Nor does it credit Israel for its massive transfers of humanitarian aid to a hostile entity, even at a time of war.

Finally by making its focus Israel's blockade and conrtriving to call it a violation of humanitarian law, the Goldstone report effectively ignored the gross violation by Hamas of Gilad Shalit's rights under international law. In fact it even made Shalit a reason to condemn Israel.

78. The Mission is concerned by declarations made by various Israeli officials who have indicated the intention of maintaining the blockade of the Gaza Strip until the release of Gilad Shalit. The Mission is of the opinion that this would constitute collective punishment of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.
99. . . Following the capture by Palestinian armed groups of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006, the Israeli armed forces arrested some 65 members of the Legislative Council, mayors and ministers, mostly Hamas members. All were held at least two years, generally in inadequate conditions. Further arrests of Hamas leaders were conducted during the military operations in Gaza. The detention of members of the Legislative Council has meant that it has been unable to function and exercise its legislative and oversight function over the Palestinian executive.
91. The Mission finds that these practices have resulted in violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including the prohibition of arbitrary detention, the right to equal protection under the law and not to be discriminated based on political beliefs and the special protections to which children are entitled. The Mission also finds that the detention of members of the Legislative Council may amount to collective punishment contrary to international humanitarian law.
189. In June 2006, a squad drawn from three groups - the Popular Resistance Committees, al-Qassam Brigades and the until then unknown Army of Islam - excavated a tunnel under the Gaza-Israel border and attacked the military base of Kerem Shalom inside Israel, blowing up a tank, killing two soldiers and capturing a third, Corporal Gilad Shalit. In reaction to the capture, the Israeli Government conducted a number of targeted assassinations of alleged militants belonging to Hamas and other groups; arrested Palestinian Authority cabinet ministers, Hamas parliamentarians and other leaders in the West Bank; attacked key civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, such as the main power plant, the main bridge in central Gaza and Palestinian Authority offices; tightened the economic isolation; and carried out major armed thrusts into the Gaza Strip for the first time since August 2005.26

Compare those selected mentions with:

1340. The Mission asked the Gaza authorities to confirm the status of Gilad Shalit. In their reply, which the Mission considered to be unsatisfactory, the Gaza authorities denied being involved in any way with the capture and detention of Gilad Shalit and stated that they are not in possession of any information regarding his current status.

Gilad Shalit has not been allowed visits by the International Red Cross despite the Goldstone commission's acknowledgement that he's a "prisoner of war." And yet the reports saves its outrage for Israel for responding to Shalit's capture.

Here are the reports "legal findings and conclusions" on the subject of Gilad Shalit:

1343. The Mission is of the opinion that, as a soldier who belongs to the Israeli armed forces and who was captured during an enemy incursion into Israel, Gilad Shalit meets the requirements for prisoner-of-war status under the Third Geneva Convention. As such, he should be protected, treated humanely and be allowed external communication as appropriate according to that Convention. ICRC should be allowed to visit him without delay. Information about his condition should also be provided promptly to his family. 1344. The Mission is concerned by the declarations referred to above, made by various Israeli officials, who have indicated the intention of maintaining the blockade of the Gaza Strip until the release of Gilad Shalit. The Mission is of the opinion that this would constitute collective punishment of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

So to review, looking back at the situation at the time Israel attacked Hamas last year, the Goldstone commission studiously avoided any major discussion of Hamas's belligerence. Furthermore it found Israel in violation of international law in matters relating to the capture and holding of Gilad Shalit and effectively absolved Hamas for any legal responsibility.

I think that Israel would have had a better shot with the Red Queen.

Crossposted on Yourish.

6:12 AM | Permalink |

December 25, 2009

Submitted 12/25/09

This week's Watcher's Council submissions are up!

Council Submissions

Non-Council Submissions

Read. Enjoy. Be informed.

1:34 PM | Permalink |