What is raising these people's stress levels is the way they've noticed for the first time that a number of their soulmates on the Left have made common cause with the Islamists and are reveling in no-holds-barred Jew hatred. They're not even bothering to disguise it any more. If you look closely at the videos. you notice that a number of the signs and participants come from groups like International ANSWER, The Socialist Worker's Party and CODE PINK . These people are by no means all 'Palestinians' or even Muslims. I'll confess to a little bit of grim amusement at the tone of some of the messages I'm getting. The liberal Jews who's plaintive messages are hitting my in-box are astounded that the same folks who they stood shoulder to shoulder with to protest the Iraq War and Chimpy McHitler Bush to be not the good friends they thought they were...and that those evil Evangelicals and right wing nut jobs are not the people they thought they were either. Even more pitiful are the wounded feelings of a number of Jews on the Left who specialized in spending enormous amounts of time and money putting together outreach events and 'dialogue opportunities' with folks like the Muslim Public Affairs Council, The Muslim Student Union, CAIR and various Palestinian groups and now see them out in the streets howling for Jewish blood. One of them, a rather well known member of the Jewish Federation in Los Angeles and a die hard supporter of Peace Now, Oslo and getting rid of those horrible 'settlers' in Judea and Samaria sadly related to me how she called one of her pals in the MPAC to see about a joint statement condemning the violence on both sides and got the phone slammed down on her without so much as a single encouraging word, poor dear. That's how it is in the season of the witch..the colors fade to where you can't recognize them anymore, the dogs howl in the distance and your preconceptions shatter. Unfortunately,there's a message for the rest of us as well in how completely in step the Islamists and the Angry Left are. And by no means should you be under the misconception that this alliance only pertains to Israel. Or that this is as bad as it's going to get. We could very well be headed for a whole slew of street theatre, and worse. When the end justifies the means, as it does with these people, the sky's the limit. Here's a nice Sky News Interview the day before the intifada-on-the Thames, a violent jihad friendly rage singer Annie Lennox, George Galloway, Ken Livingstone and other anti-Semites led against the Israeli consulate. My favorite parts? When the interviewer brings up that it was Hamas who broke the ceasefire and launched barrages of rockets into Israel, which Lennox just glosses over and goes back to the mantra 'humanitarian crisis in Gaza'..and the part about 3 minutes in, when the interviewer asks “How do you get through to a terrorist organization?” and Lennox responds “I don’t have the solutions. I am not a politician.” Of course, if she was really concerned about about a humanitarian crisis, she'd have been protesting Hamas sending rockets at Israeli civilians a long time before this. But then, that's not her agenda, is it? And it's not hard to figure out why. We are, after all, known by our friends as well as our enemies.
Monday, January 05, 2009
The Latest From Gaza, PM Edition
The main action is taking place along the Hamas bunkers in the north east section of the city, and consisted of a fanatical counterattack by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters.
They suffered heavy losses as the IDF backed by artillery and helicopter gunships forced them to retreat,but not before three Israeli soldiers from the Golani Brigade were killed by friendly fire from an Israeli tank shell that hit a building they were hunkered down inside at Tel al Shakef at the eastern edge of the Tofah district of Gaza City.
It was this incident which Hamas tried to take advantage of by storming the Israeli positions...not the smartest idea they've ever had. Hamas is admitting to at least 85casualties in this battle...which means more like 125-150.Apparently they do better against unarmed woman and kids in Israel.
Speaking of children,Hamas Foreign minister and >bagmanMahmoud al-Zohar crawled out of the woodwork to directly threaten threaten Israel's children, a clear signal that if there's another so-called ceasefire, Hamas will target non-combatants in Israel and Jews overseas again with homicide bombers.
As far as I'm concerned,that's a pretty good reason for not leaving one of the Hamas fighters or officials alive to walk the earth...at a minimum.
The usual suspects are calling for a ceasefire. The Europeans are distraught that their favorite terrorists might be marginalized and along with the UN are screaming for an unconditional ceasefire.The French and President Sarkozy are the most obnoxious, followed closely by the British. Both countries are having problems with their Muslims and want quiet at any price, and it's difficult to put into words my feelings about this craven, despicable behavior.
They were certainly quiet enough when Israelis were being maimed and killed by Hamas in the south of Israel.
Reportedly, Israeli PM Olmert is supposed to have told Sarko, “We cannot accept a compromise that will allow Hamas to fire against Israeli towns in two months’ time.” Given that it's Olmert, I doubt it,but that's what's being reported.
Hamas continues to fire rockets into southern Israel, launching about 40 of its home-made Qassam rockets and some of the longer range and more powerful Grad missiles they got from Iran. They hit Beersheba again, about 25 miles from Gaza. The IDF has taken out the launch pads in the former Jewish communities in the northeastern area of the Strip, so Hamas is now launching its missiles from inside Gaza City.
Hamas is playing for time and figures that will work for them in various ways. First, they want to gain maximum leverage for the best ceasefire they can obtain. Two Hamas officials, Muhammad Nasser and Imad al-Alami, Hamas chief operations officer, have arrived in Cairo from Damascus and Beirut to work on exactly that.
While the Mubarak regime has no love for Hamas, they also have a very restive population to deal with. A friend of mine who just got back from Egypt a while ago and got to look at the Arab media told me that what the Egyptians are seeing is basically an attack on Arab children by the wicked Jews, with no mention of the rockets Hamas has fired at Israel.To the Egyptians,the Israelis just decided to wake up one morning and massacre everyone one in peace loving Gaza, and that's that. Al-Jazeera is pretty much selling the same stuff.
So Mubarak has an incentive to try and get things quiet again as well, and Hamas believes that the longer they hold out, the better it will get.Especially when they listen to the Europeans, reflect that Bush will be gone and Obama,who they feel they would get a better deal from, will be installed at the White House in two weeks.
They also think that the IDF is unwilling to mix it up in the Hamas stronghold of Gaza City, which Hamas,thanks to Olmert, Livni and Rarak has had 18 months to stock with booby traps, ambushes and tunnels. They likely feel that if the IDF does come in,they can cause enough casualties in the urban battleground to make the Israelis sue for peace on Hamas' terms.
I'd do leaflets and carpetbombing myself before sending the Tzahal in, but that's me...and I'm certain the IDF won't.According to what Israeli Counsel General Akiva Tor told me,the IDF has made over 90,000 phone calls to targeted areas,telling the residents to leave so as not to be hurt.
The IDF, as always,would rather risk its soldiers and tip off the enemy rather than risk causing excess civilian casualties...and of course, they get no good PR from the media whatsoever for it.
To defeat Hamas the way it needs to be defeated,the Israelis are going to have to go in. It won't be pretty and it won't be without cost,but that's what's going to have to happen.Ann Coulter - Banned For Life By NBC?
They're getting pretty bold about this sort of thing.
Ann Coulter was scheduled to go on NBC's Today show tommorow morning to promote what will undoubtedly be her next bestseller,Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America a book that focuses on the incredible media bias evidenced by the dinosaur media in the last election cycle.
Instead, she got banned from the network 'for life ' ( translation: until they need her for ratings again):"We are just not going to have her on any more, it's over," a top
network source explains.
{...}
Executives at NBC TODAY replaced Coulter with showbiz reporter Perez
Hilton, who recently offered $1,000 to anyone who would throw a pie at Ann
Coulter. Hilton is also launching a new book this week, RED CARPET SUICIDE.
Coulter was set to unveil her new book, GUILTY. One network insider claims it was the book's theme -- a brutal examination of liberal bias in the new era -- that got executives to dis-invite the controversialist.
"We are just not interested in anyone so highly critical of President-elect Obama, right now," a TODAY insider reveals. "It's such a downer. It's just not the time, and it's not what our audience wants, either." {...}
The exclusive was to air during the show's 7 AM hour. The cut came Monday
afternoon. Coulter was also to appear on the TODAY's fourth hour. A host even teased the segment saying the 'conservative pit bull and bestselling author' would be a guest.
NBC's cable outlet, MSNBC, will also become a Coulter-free zone, insiders explain.
I'm sure MSNBC would much rather listen to the dignified, professorial offerings of Keith Olbermann,no?
Part of what was going on with NBC was a concerted campaign by the George Soros funded 'Media Matters' site to get Coulter axed.
Such fair minded liberals. La Coulter herself is probably getting a good chuckle out of the way NBC just verified the central thesis of her book..not to mention the free publicity!
UPDATE:Coulter didn't skip a beat, and was promptly booked on other outlets. And according toDrudge, some of the suits at NBC are regretting their stupidity and working to get the ban overturned...It's Hard Out There For A ( Hamas) Pimp
One of the horrible tragedies visited on the suffering people of Gaza by the Israeli invasion is the complete disruption of Gaza's sex industry.
Entrepeneurs like Abu Ali have long relied on Gaza's tunnel network to transport sex workers from Egypt like the one pictured above to the Gaza Strip to sevice the market in the Hamas-ruled territory's sex industry. But the Israeli attacks have severely disrupted the income of Abu Ali and others like him who relied on the smuggling tunnels for their livelihood.
"Life cannot go on in Gaza if the tunnels are destroyed -- they're our only opening to the outside world," he said, and vowed to rebuild his tunnel under the border with Egypt as soon as the fighting is over.
"I have to make my living", said Ali, who claims that many of the Hamas fighters are among his customers. "This is a vital service for the people of Gaza, just like rockets, AK-47s and explosives. All jihad and no play makes Achmed an unhappy martyr."
The smuggling not only provides smugglers with a living but also provides income for Hamas, who levies a tax on all incoming shipments. According to Ali, the amount varies according to the size of the shipment and of the sex worker. "Sometimes, the tax is just a free sample or handling the entertainment at a party. I'm happy to do it for our heroic fighters...allahu akbar!"
Ali shares his tunnel with four partners, but none of them can approach the area because "Israeli planes are attacking anyone approaching the frontiers."
Another smuggler, Abdullah, also operates a tunnel to smuggle in both sex workers and fuel but has had his traffic interupted as well.
"We don't know if our tunnels have been hit or not by the Israeli bombs because no one can go down there to see. After all, our life is more important than money or work," he said of the family-run business. "Meanwhile, anyone who has a sheep, a goat, or a camel can expect the price to go up until the fighting stops...especially since you can't eat the meat afterwards", he said.
Abdullah is confident that business will go back to normal after the war as the Egyptians look the other way when traffic resumes in the tunnels that survive.
"The Egyptians are our fellow Arabs and understand these matters...the last thing they want is to see us angry and frustrated. Plus the Egyptian traders on the other side make a huge profit on the sex traffic as well and they won't want to lose that income."Season Of The Witch
Lately, my inbox has seen a number of shocked, surprised and even somewhat fearful e-mails from Jews who I'd classify as being on the Left of the spectrum.
What has them agitated are the widespread, well organized and borderline violent pro-Hamas rallies across America.
Like the one above in San Francisco.
Or this one in Fort Lauderdale, of all places:
Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Minneapolis, Detroit, Houston... And that's without even mentioning what's going on in Londonistan, where the police have given up even the pretense of controlling things:
Or Brussels or Paris...or on a college campus near you.
And the enemy is already inside the gates.
'How much can you take brother, before your love will crack?'Brit Has Been Annie Lennox Shows Why Thinking Isn't Her Forte
Even when you're as clueless, biased and stupid as Lennox obviously is.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Things are rapidly moving to a head in Gaza, as the IDF and Hamas are involved in heavy street battles in Gaza City itself.
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