Hillary's Slip is Showing

We all know that it's common for diplomats and reports of governmental activities are generally referred to by their respective country's capital cities. The NY Times reported yesterday that Secretary of State Clinton said:

“The only way of getting a lasting solution is through direct negotiations between the parties, and the route to that lies in Jerusalem and Ramallah, not in New York.”

Well, now, isn't this something? There is a law on the books to move the embassy to Jerusalem, a purty new consulate building in not the Arab part of Jerusalem while the embassy is still in Tel Aviv, a case going to SCOTUS about listing 'Jerusalem, Israel' on US passports... how does she keep it all straight in her head?

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Having It Both Ways

We're all too familiar with the double standard the press revels in when it comes to Israel. No less familiar and no less significant is the license they take in accusing Israel of anything that suits their fancy and their narrative, without any adherence to fact, logic or even reason. Yesterday's Financial Times reported on the growth of the protest phenomenon in Israel. They note:

His coalition government is deeply dependent on the support of lawmakers from pro-settler and ultra-Orthodox parties. Discord on the streets is bad enough for the prime minister. Conflict and strife inside Mr Netanyahu’s unwieldy coalition may be even worse.

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While just the other week, Peace Now (of all places) reported, also on the protests:

“The protests in the streets are actually making [the coalition] more stable and the ones who could give Netanyahu problems are not interested in bringing down this government,” [Prof. Shmuel] Sandler told The Media Line. “Also, March is a long way off. Netanyahu will likely come to an arrangement with the settlers, maybe give them other land, and he’ll take it (Migron) down.”

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So it's an unwieldy but more stable coalition. Damned if we do, damned if we don't. Our protests don't involve tanks or riots, but the press doesn't feel the need to report on that, in light of what's going on in "civilized" countries like England or Syria.

Only in Israel.

It's Everyone Else's Fault

Just stumbled across this jewel of a rant from the Guardian. I have no expectations that opinion pieces should be any less biased than actual news articles, but it would be nice to cite at least one source, instance or even anecdote to prove your point. And then there are the dizzying inaccuracies. For instance:

Half of the Palestinian population at the time were displaced from their homes.

Where did you get that number? Oh wait:

As if the forced dispossession from 78% of their homeland was not enough,

So which is it, half, or 78%?

Another:

Israel had planned for that occupation long before the war.

Yes, we planned to be cut off from the Straits of Hormuz, then invaded by Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

This is my favorite:

Year after year the Palestinian leadership offered concession after concession, trying to reach an equitable resolution to their dispossession and military occupation.

Please, please give me one.single.instance of a concession. Arafat at Camp David with Barak? Anything?

Past procrastination has only created irreparable damage on the ground invoking a dire need for an end game, not yet another starting point.

I agree, but I'm not exactly in agreement with him, knowwhatimean?

Thus spake the prophet:

This new shift will see Palestinians dropping their desire for independent statehood in a fraction of their historic homeland and instead will find them, within a genuinely representative political structure, articulating their desire for self-determination within their historic homeland, even if that homeland today is called Israel.

In other words, law and order.

He softens the blow at the end, after ranting about Israel's colonial criminality:

Now, the sooner Palestinians and Israelis realise that our destiny is to live together as equals, the sooner we can begin to rehabilitate our communities and build a single society whose citizens are all equal under law and equal as human beings.

It is your desssssstiny...

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Ashkelon Under Attack

Hamas has carried out its threat to continue to attack Israelis with rockets and mortar shells, and shortly after midnight fired a Kassam missile that exploded in a southern Ashkelon industrial area near a large electric power plant that serves Gaza as well as southern Israel.

Terrorists also fired at least two mortar shells on farm areas in the Eshkol region. No injuries or damage was reported.

Remind me again which part of the "occupied territories" Ashkelon is in again?

Also, remind me which other country would tolerate this bullshit of indiscriminate rocket fire into their civilian population centers?

Is the excuse that their rockets suck and (almost) never hurt anyone or damage anything starting to ring a little hollow, or are we still waiting for them to get lucky and hit a gan or bus of old ladies before we really get mad?

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Now the Zionists are building Elevators!!!

This just in from the Palestinian Ministry of Outrage:

The Al Aqsa Foundation also claimed in a statement that the area in front of the wall could be used as a base from which to attack the mosque compound. Moreover, it said the project was intended to prevent Muslim worshipers from reaching the mosque, while increasing the presence of Jews in the area.

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When rabbis write books of Torah, they get called in and threatened with being charged with incitement. When the Al Aqsa Foundation a terrorism-sponsoring organization openly calls for protests (aka riots) against a handicapped-access elevator from the Jewish Quarter to the Kotel Plaza, not a single word is spoken.

Moral equivalence indeed.

T-Shirt: We're Still Here

We're Still Here
Dated from the year Joshua entered Eretz Yisrael and claimed it for God and Israel. For thousands of years invaders, dictators, usurpers and leftists have tried to deny our claim on this land, and have done everything to uproot us. Let everyone know that no matter how much they try to get rid of us, we're still here.

http://www.cafepress.com/hwa_stillhere

Lebanon and On

What a mess in Lebanon. A little tree-trimming by the IDF turns into a cross-border firefight. We lose a commander (HY"D) and another officer is badly hurt. We kill a couple of soldiers and a journalist (no great loss there) in retaliation.

With the UN being unusually cooperative by officially confirming that UNIFIL had a) been notified of the tree clearing and b) had reported it to Lebanon, it really deals Israel the hand it needs to blow this into a full out diplomatic coup for Israel. All the pieces are in place to really cement Israel in place as the injured party, and get some valuable political capital it needs to deal with the ongoing worldwide Israel-bashing.

So here's an appropriate response. It's a little expensive, but definitely worth it in the long run:

1. Start massing troops on the border. The whole deal. Tanks, ammo, firebases, airbases. Make it a very public, very loud mobilization. 200,000 soldiers to start, minimum. Keep it going for two weeks. Make it look like we're heading all the way up to Tripoli.
   
2. Set Lieberman loose. Let him start a 'round the world tour of how Israel is going to kick the shit out of Hizbullah once and for all, and teach the Lebanese army a lesson they won't soon forget.
3. Get Ambassador Shalev to start making noise in the UN about Security Council sanctions. 45-minute tirade from the GA floor. Spit in the Saudi ambassador's face.
   
4. Fire Barak; this is his mess in the first place(Well okay, that won't happen but a boy can dream, can't he?).
5. When the UN, US, UK, all start clamoring for "restraint," Netanyahu wades into the thick of it and says, "Okay, I'll call off the war on the conditions that you:"
   
   1. Add Lebanon to the lists of US State Sponsors of Terror.
   2. UN Sanction of Lebanon in the UNSC for firing the first shot.
   3. Don't even flinch in September when the freeze is off. Not a peep, not a rolled eye.
   4. Trot out the old line "Israel has a right to defend itself" and play it like a broken record until everyone's saying it. (I'd love to hear that from Hillary's lips.)

There is really no way for Israel to lose this politically. Worst case scenario is we invade Lebanon. Again. Without two soldiers' lives in the balance, the IDF can visit some serious payback for 2006. Best case is that Israel regains its deterrent capacity. And we get to kill Hizbullies.

To the bereaved family of Lt. Col. Harari, I apologize deeply if this seems like crass opportunism. May his sacrifice not be in vain.