Archive for the ‘war’ Category

Israeli Cease fire, Hamas?

Posted: January 18, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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Well Israel has declared a unilateral cease fire:

In accordance with the cabinet’s decision to accept the Egyptian proposal and the announcement of a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the IDF is currently taking the necessary measures to implement the decision.

The cabinet’s decision was made after the IDF achieved the objectives it set for Operation Cast Lead, chiefly dealing the Hamas terror organization a heavy blow to its infrastructure, weaponry stockpiles, rocket launching program and its terror operatives.

As the decision goes into effect, the commander of the operation, GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, will order the redeployment of IDF forces within the Gaza Strip in accordance with security assessments. Furthermore, the forces will be briefed on the specifics of the ceasefire rules of engagement.

The IDF emphasizes that its forces will respond to any attack against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, and that any such attack will be met with a harsh response. The IDF stresses that the current Home Front Command safety instructions to residents of southern Israel remain in effect in light of the possibility that the rocket fire will continue as Hamas cynically seeks to “have the last word.”

And Hamas has its answer:

“We the Palestinian resistance factions declare a cease-fire from our side in Gaza and we confirm our stance that the enemy’s troops must withdraw from Gaza within a week,” said Damascus-based Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk.

Ayman Taha, a Hamas official in Cairo for talks with Egypt on a truce deal,
demanded that Israel open all of Gaza’sw border crossings to allow in food and other goods to meet the “basic needs for our people.”

Hamas still seems to have fired 8 rockets at Israel since their cease fire, but I suppose it depends on the meaning of the words “cease” and “fire”. Deutsche Weld says 18.

The Muqata and israellycool are going to continue to liveblog just to play it safe.

Public opinion in Israel doesn’t like it they seem to want the job finished, and it looks like from this post at the Muqata this will likely have to be done again:

12:19 PM Ashdod Port: Customs seized shipment of humanitarian aid to Gaza, found to be full of weapons, and warfare related electronics.

It is now up to the Palestinians are they going to stop the rockets or are they going to go through all of this again. That is when we will know if the war is actually over or not. It also remains to be seen if Israel is going to be willing to go back in during an Obama administration.

It may have already happened, but if it hasn’t yet I predict that someone will credit Obama with the cease fire, it will be the Obama effect as the world suddenly becomes wonderful.

Credit is due

Posted: January 17, 2009 by datechguy in war
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I hit Islam pretty hard on this blog so when they do something right they deserve credit.

More than 20 prominent British Muslim leaders have signed a letter denouncing the rise in anti-Semitic attacks resulting from Operation Cast Lead and calling on Muslims to help prevent attacks on Jews in the UK.

The best part is these people are not allied with Israel.

“The ongoing killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza by Israeli forces has angered us all. However, this does not, and cannot, justify attacks on our fellow citizens of Jewish faith and background here in Britain,” the letter reads.

It goes on to say that British Jews should not be held responsible for Israel’s actions: “Most Muslims are completely against such behavior. However, we call on all Muslims to continue to remain vigilant against attempts to bring our own faith and community into disrepute. British Jews should not be held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government.”

This gives the statement legitimacy. If action follows then it will be first rate. Via the Muqata.

We’ll correct our story when its propaganda value is gone

Posted: January 15, 2009 by datechguy in war
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I didn’t cite Bob Owens as a reason to trust the debunking of the CNN tape that they still insist is accurate but after this post I think I ought to:

I asked Mr. Martin a series of questions about the video, including queries about the apparent inconsistencies in the timeline in various versions as told presented by CNN and Channel 4 as noted by Dan Riehl, and why the family was so adamant that an Israeli drone fired a missile that targeted the two boys playing on the rooftop. Did the family members directly witnessed a drone firing a missile, or did they hear the explosion, go to the roof, see a drone, and assume it was a drone that fired?

I also asked Martin, who is in the business of selling news footage, if CNN and Channel 4 were clients, and if so, if they purchased the edited versions of this Masharawi video, or if they purchased the raw footage to be made into a finished product by these news organizations.

Martin responded this evening via email that:

We plan to post the entire unedited videotape of the whole event, on our website, as soon as we can obtain the whole thing from Gaza… something which can happen when there is an end to hostilities.

There you have it, folks. CNN’s alibi hasn’t seen the unedited footage(emphasis mine dtg), and we can’t expect to have them even attempt to provide it until the conflict is over.

So a blogger who questions the accuracy of the video goes directly to the source and asks a series of probing but non hostile questions and gets a response saying we will post it after the war is over. Sounds a lot the the “Jenin massacre” nonsense and the Haditha stuff to me, a lot of hand ringing and denouncing at the start and little coverage of the exposure of the fraud.

Montreal protesters: “Jews are dogs!” YAWN!

Posted: January 14, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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One of the reasons why I haven’t posted this stuff every day is because it is so common that its just not news. Kevin Libin at the National Post elaborates further:

On Saturday in Montreal a thousand or more protestors marched downtown chanting ‘The Jews are our dogs,’ and cheering not one, but two, banned Islamist terrorist groups — Hamas and Hezbollah — in the company of labour leaders and politicians. It didn’t make front-page news. Save one or two exceptions, it didn’t make back-page news. In Canada, this is, it seems, not news.

He points of the compromise of the media that this is and asks why?

For whatever reason, we are seeing rallies in major cities calling for genocide, celebrating terrorism and spouting hatred against a minority group — but the media is missing the story. Maybe calling out certain groups makes Canada’s media uncomfortable, or maybe they have become inured to the extreme radicalization of Palestinian supporters here.

I think Mr. Goldman might say the reason is they agree with them, or perhaps they are afraid of having their throats cut. After all its the same silence of the left that followed Theo Van Gogh’s murder.

Theo van Gogh was murdered for making a film about the abuse suffered by a Muslim woman at the hands of her husband. Yet liberal opinion has largely kept silent about this outrage. Bestselling author Douglas Murray argues that this is symptomatic of a wider refusal by opinion leaders – and European governments – to face up to growing threat of radical Islam.

Ezra Levant talks about the double standard

Imagine if hundreds of Canadians marched, some in KKK white sheets, calling blacks “our dogs”. You can make your own example — if it were any other group besides Jews being demonized.

Or, frankly, any other group other than radical Muslims doing the demonizing. If a thousand skinheads had marched, burning Stars of David, calling Jews “dogs”, and swearing a bloody death to Jews, you can imagine the response — starting with the SWAT team.

And how it will end:

Marches like this one, in the streets of Canada, are the bigger problem. Waving the terrorist flag of Hezbollah; singing praise for Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah; calling for the destruction of the Jewish state.

They didn’t have YouTube back in Germany in the 1930s, but I bet the S.A. marches looked a lot like this.

If this goes unchecked — if the Prime Minister, the Premier, the Mayor of Montreal don’t sharply rebuke this Lord of the Flies anti-Semitic flourish, this domestic recreation of the Durban hate-fest — then, as sure as night follows day, we’ll have our own Kristalnacht.

Because, really: how many steps is it from masked men waving terrorist flags, calling Jews dogs and burning the Star of David, to breaking some windows and torching some shops?

Montreal Jews can ask Parisian Jews how long it took. Not long.

This is why the Jews in Gaza are ignoring the UN and why they should.

Update: Tweaked the title.

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