Soccer Dad

Crazy or not, here they come

Guy Bechor observes Israel is back. (h/t David Hazony via Twitter)

According to terror groups, Israel can reach anywhere and has infiltrated every organization and each Arab state. The glory of Israel's secret services had been restored and the fear of them has increased.

So what are people in the region telling themselves? "Israel is back." It disappeared for about a decade and a half of "peace," where it was perceived as weak; yet now it is back at full force.

Both the Lebanon War and the Gaza War are having an effect. If in the past Lebanon prompted the Palestinians to launch an Intifada or be daring in Gaza, based on Nasrallah's "spider web" theory," today the opposite is true. Hezbollah sees the destruction sowed by Israel in Gaza and it loses the urge to fight us. They look at Gaza and think about themselves.

The Goldstone Report, which claimed that Israel goes crazy when it is being attacked, caused us some damage (which should not be exaggerated) in the world, yet it was a blessing in our region. If Israel goes crazy and destroys everything in its way when it's being attacked, one should be careful. No need to mess with crazy people.

Additionally, according to Paul Mirengoff, Israel violated a number of norms in killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. (h/t Daled Amos)

But passport fraud and identity theft hardly exhaust the ways in which the slaying of Mabhouh affronts modern sensibilities. For example, the photos of the 11 suspects raise questions about the diversity of the team Mossad (or whomever) assembled. It includes only one woman (an attractive blond,naturally) and looks to be short on people of color.

There is also no indication that the team advised Mabhouh of his rights or offered him a chance to exculpate himself before he was killed. Indeed, from all that appears, no lawyer was present.

Finally, what about the carbon footprint of the operation? Did the team travel to Dubai in an energy efficient way? And how much electricity did they use once they arrived? Some reports say they used electricity to stun Mabhouh before killing him. Couldn't he have been executed in a more energy efficient way?

A certain amount of nastiness is inevitable in today's world. But this doesn't mean that protocol, equal opportunity, and principles of good environmental stewardship should fall by the wayside.

So when it fights terror now, Israel is crazy and is politically incorrect. Its enemies better stay away. It really doesn't matter if Israel killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh or not.

And if it was Israel, Israel was justified. (via memeorandum)

I still fail to see why any reasonable person would get too upset by the actions of the Israelis (assuming it was the Israelis) in this effort. Let's say you're a high-ranking government official. You have a senior leader of a terrorist organization who is actively engaging in the procurement of weapons that are being purchased with the intent of killing your civilians in your sights. Wouldn't you be engaging in malpractice if you didn't have that person killed? What if he succeeded in procuring those rockets and one of those rockets landed on a school. Wouldn't the death of each and every one of those children rest on your shoulders?

Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel. Its leaders plot the murder of innocent civilians as a means of terrorizing the state into giving it what it wants. I refuse to shed any tears when Israel does to its enemies first what its enemies are trying to do to it.

Crossposted on Yourish.