The nutshell summary of what's happening now is that Israel is kicking the crap out of Hamas, and their leadership structure is reportedly in shambles. Late last night, Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel (hitting a nursing home), assisting their Hamas brethren and expanding the conflict. Unfortunately, Hamas is continuing to use human shields as a tragic PR stunt to gain international sympathy and increase pressure against Israel.
Find that hard to believe? It happened (and was documented) in 2007:
It appears they are doing it again:
An Israeli official says Palestinian militants fired on Israeli soldiers from the courtyard of a U.N. school where dozens of people died in fiery explosions.At least two bodies of Hamas members, along with anti-tank rockets and launchers, have been found in the ruins of the U.N. school, so there is no question about what's going on. In other wonderful examples of the honor and integrity of Hamas is that their terrorists have also been disguising themselves as doctors and nurses inside the hospitals, one-upping their previous tactic of using ambulances to move around within the city. They have also been stealing a big chunk of the humanitarian aid sent into the area (by Israel, by the way) and selling it to the wounded and sick for handsome profits.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he said the army is still drafting the country’s official response to the incident.
Palestinian medics said 34 people were killed in an Israeli strike outside a U.N. school in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. The United Nations confirmed 30 were killed and 55 injured.
The Israeli official said “hostile fire” was directed at the soldiers from within the school. He said soldiers returned fire and multiple explosions went off, presumably emanating from munitions stored there.
Tell me again why Israel is the one being criticized by the world??
Tensions around the world continue to mount, too, as protests sprout up all over. Many of the pro-Hamas rallies turn violent, with more calls for Jews to be incinerated with Nazi tactics. Yes, that's hard to believe, too, but watch it with your own eyes:
Note the flags of both Hamas and Hezbollah, the group that killed hundreds of American Marines in Beirut and trained Iraqi insurgents in recent years, as well as the indoctrination of young children, and the Nazi salute (between 3:00 and 3:20). Now, keep in mind that these are supposed to be those 'moderate' Muslims of the West.
Hey liberals, how's that warm and fuzzy tolerance going for you now? I guess it's true that moderate Muslims exist, but hey...you know, they look just like radical Muslims!!
Anyway, there's supposed to be a meeting in Cairo, Egypt today to discuss some terms for a potential cease-fire, but we all know how those always work out - Israel abides by the terms, and Hamas keeps shooting rockets.
You may be wondering why Hamas insists on attacking Israel, and that's a great question with a very simple answer (commentary is courtesy of the Jawa Report):
If you understand the fact that Hamas (and other radical Muslim groups, like Hezbollah) have arranged their lives, worldviews, religion, politics, and souls around the simple fact that Israel and all Jews should be exterminated, then you understand why all this is happening, and why it will continue to happen as long as Islam exists. It's not rocket science, but it does take open eyes to see it. There is simply no negotiating with this mindset, nor is it possible to have peace without a decisive victory first. Someone should tell the Obamessiah this...oh, wait, conservatives have already been saying it for years. Too bad no one's listening.Some more reasons why you can't negotiate with people whose starting and ending position is simply YOU DIE.
From that renowned work of scholarship and tolerance known as the Hamas Charter:
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).Destroy Israel as a primary part of the organization's credo. Check.[...]
Secularism completely contradicts religious ideology. Attitudes, conduct and decisions stem from ideologies.Anybody trying to inject the sense of secularism into the cauldron of Islamic hate is an enemy, a "loser" and shall be "burned" by the "fire" of Islam. Awesome.That is why, with all our appreciation for The Palestinian Liberation Organization - and what it can develop into - and without belittling its role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, we are unable to exchange the present or future Islamic Palestine with the secular idea. The Islamic nature of Palestine is part of our religion and whoever takes his religion lightly is a loser.
[...]
The day The Palestinian Liberation Organization adopts Islam as its way of life, we will become its soldiers, and fuel for its fire that will burn the enemies.
[...]
Arab countries surrounding Israel are asked to open their borders before the fighters from among the Arab and Islamic nations so that they could consolidate their efforts with those of their Moslem brethren in Palestine.Encouraging other Arab nations to open their borders to terrorists with the intent of destroying Israel. Kewl.Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. "May the cowards never sleep."Damn Juice. Always challenging the Moslems by existing and stuff. Don't they know their place is to be dead? The NERVE!There is a disproportionate response happening in that region - the proportion of restraint the Jews show compared to the proportion of violence and hate they are presented with in Hamas (who was elected by the Palestinians to do violence on their behalf) is certinaly disproportionate. The fact that the Jews have not turned that pathetic strip of land into a sheet of glass is far more than Hamas and their supporters deserve.
But what about international law? Does Hamas have a case? Well, this reporterette seems to think so, but...
This is your brain on [liberal] drugs, apparently.
Tensions are rising around the world, too. Jewish kids are being advised to stay home from school to avoid violence from Muslim students, and attacks on Jews throughout Europe are on the rise.
Former Prime Minister (and current PM candidate) Benjamin Netanyahu shared the Israeli perspective (which is also America's perspective, really) in the Wall Street Journal yesterday:
Imagine a siren that gives you 30 seconds to find shelter before a Kassam rocket falls from the sky and explodes, spraying its lethal shrapnel in all directions. Now imagine this happens day after day, month after month, year after year.I agree.
If you can imagine that, you can begin to understand the terror to which hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been subjected. Three years ago Israel withdrew from every square inch of Gaza. And since that withdrawal, our civilians have been targeted by more than 6,000 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza. In the face of this relentless bombardment, Israel has acted with a restraint that other countries, faced with a similar threat, would find hard to fathom. Israel's government has finally decided to respond.
For this action to succeed, we must first have moral clarity. There is no moral equivalence between Israel, a democracy which seeks peace and targets the terrorists, and Hamas, an Iranian-backed terror organization that seeks Israel's destruction and targets the innocent.
In launching precision strikes against Hamas rocket launchers, headquarters, weapons depots, smuggling tunnels and training camps, Israel is trying to minimize civilian casualties. But Hamas deliberately attacks Israeli civilians and deliberately hides behind Palestinian civilians -- a double war crime. Responsible governments do their utmost to minimize civilian casualties, but they do not grant immunity to terrorists who use civilians as human shields.
The international community may occasionally condemn Hamas for putting Palestinian civilians in harm's way, but if it ultimately holds Israel responsible for the casualties that ensue, then Hamas and other terror organizations will employ this abominable tactic again and again.
The charge that Israel is using disproportionate force is equally baseless. Does proportionality demand that Israel fire 6,000 rockets indiscriminately back at Gaza? Does it demand an equal number of casualties on both sides? Using that logic, one would conclude that the United States employed disproportionate force against the Germans because 20 times as many Germans as Americans died in World War II.
In that same war, Britain responded to the firing of thousands of rockets on its population with the wholesale bombing of German cities. Israel's measured response to rocket fire on its cities has come in the form of surgical strikes. To further root out Hamas terrorists in a way that minimizes Palestinian civilian casualties, Israel's army is now engaged in a ground operation that places its soldiers in great peril. Carpet-bombing of Palestinian cities is not an option that any Israeli leader will entertain.
The goal of this mission should be clear: To end the current round of missile attacks and to remove the threat of such attacks in the future. The only cease-fire or diplomatic initiative that should be accepted is one that achieves this dual objective.
If our enemies assumed that the Israeli public would be divided on the eve of an election, they were wrong. When it comes to exercising our most basic right of self-defense, there is no opposition and no coalition. We stand united against Hamas because we know that only by defeating Hamas can we provide security for our people and hope for a future peace.
We fight to defend ourselves, but in so doing we are also fighting a fanatical ideology that seeks to reverse the course of history and throw the civilized world back into a new dark age. The struggle between militant Islam and modernity -- whether fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, India or Gaza -- will decide our common future. It is a battle we cannot afford to lose.
What's really disturbing to me is that so much pro-Hamas sentiment is coming from within our own borders. Whether it's the so-called 'moderate' Muslims calling for a return to Nazism, Fox's Alan Combs defending Hamas in an interview with a former Israeli special forces operative, or the top Muslim cleric in the U.S. calling for the destruction of America for supporting Israel, the support for those murderous terrorist beasts is sickeningly pervasive.
Where is this madness coming from? Why is it allowed? I can't believe that a majority of the American people -- especially Jews -- agree with any of this, so why is it getting so much play? Frankly, I think because the elites and the media do agree with it. They're part of the hate-America/blame-America-first crowd, and Israel has always been both an international pariah and a stalwart ally of America. It's a match made in liberal heaven, and one that should shake the good people of this country to the core.
This insanity has to stop, and it's going to take every single good, decent person in this country standing up for what's right, what's honorable, and what's true, exerting their own pressure on the news organizations who so obviously slant their coverage and stoke the flames of Muslim jihadist discontent.
This is what I mean when I've said in the past that the struggle against radical Islam is the ideological battle of our generation. Our grandparents defeated Nazism, our parents defeated Communism.
Are we up to the battle against Islam?
There's my two cents.
Sources:
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/01/06/about-that-israeli-strike-on-the-un-school/
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/32375_Hamas_Steals_Humanitarian_Supplies_Then_Sells_Them_for_Profit#rss
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/195753.php
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/01/hamas_leadership_in_disarray.asp
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2009/01/video_toronto_h.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231167289976&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/195754.php
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/danish-schools-refuse-to-admit-jews-out.html
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95HN1H02&show_article=1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123128827234659279.html
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/top-us-islamic-cleric-threatens.html
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/hamas-apologist-alan-colmes-defends-jew.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,477450,00.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/20091855216577820.html
Related Reading:
Hamas and dragons
Defeat Hamas to defeat Iran
Moral clarity in Gaza
Clashing civilizations
Fauxtography
Unrest in Ft. Lauderdale
The parasitic profile of Hamas
IDF hits rocket site at U.N. school
CAIR's first U.S. Congressman
Iran meets Hamas leader
Israeli girl confesses her fear to the world
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