Posts Tagged ‘Israel’

The Single Most Important Bit of the Douglas Murray Cenk Uygur Bit

Posted: December 23, 2023 by datechguy in Israel vs Hamas, middle east
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There are plenty of stories in conservative media celebrating Douglas Murray taking apart Cenk Uygur in their discussion on the Israel/Hamas war (and full credit to Uygur for having the guts to have the discussion). That Murray could do this was no surprise as he does tend to do shoe leather reporting and such work regardless of the quality of sources always superior from pontificating from afar.

But the real news here wasn’t that debate or even that it took place, the news was an assertion Murray made during the exchange that I think is the single most important fact concerning the Palestinians in the west bank of the Jordan. To wit:

If there was an election tomorrow in the West Bank, Hamas would win. 

emphasis mine

Run that through your head for a second.

Hamas has committed one of the worst and most barbaric attacks on civilians that we have seen in decades including the mass rape of women, the desecrations of corpus and the kidnap, murder and even baking of babies. The video of the livestreams of these events have left people who have seen this video, even seasoned reporters and those experienced in dealing with trauma visibly shaken.

Furthermore the actions of Hamas has led to the Jewish state invading Gaza and putting the residents in such a state due to it being a war zone that they have an issue with basic supplies, their economy such as it is, is crushed and their future prospects for anything resembling a normal life are shaky at best and non-existent at worst.

Yet despite these facts Murray, an experienced reporter who has direct experience of the area asserts that Palestinians in the west bank would, not a year ago, not before Oct 7th, not before seeing the end result that it has led to for Palestinians in Gaza, TODAY despite everything choose to vote for Hamas to lead them.

In fairness the kleptocracy of the Palestinian Authority does deserve some credit here but even so the idea that they would vote Hamas seems insane. But if we are to believe Murray consider:

  • The murder of the Jews doesn’t bother them
  • The kidnapping, atrocities against woman and babies doesn’t bother them
  • The risk of their own areas being flattened in response to a potential Hamas attack bothers them

All that matters to them is that Hamas is willing to attack and kill Jews. That willingness to do so overrides all other considerations.

You can’t make peace with such people, the only thing you can do short of destroying them, expelling them or ruling them with an iron fist, is contain them which seems to be the goal of Israel. It involves risk and will cost lives but is the only way to avoid the other unacceptable choices.

The sooner the world learns that the better.

Update: Been gone all day to the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette which in addition to being an awesome Catholic shrine with mass, confession and a large collection of Christmas Creches from all over the world has a rather more famous Christmas light display so I didn’t have any idea that I’d been Instalanched till my son mentioned it in passing as we were getting ready to leave for home. Thanks Ed and welcome all, take a look around. Be aware that our first fundraiser in a couple of years will be kicking off after Christmas. The goal is $3k overall with 5 new subs at $20 a month. If you want to get us started toward that goal it would be much appreciated.

Déjà vu  Israel vs Hamas 2012 vs 2023

Posted: December 11, 2023 by datechguy in Israel, Israel vs Hamas, middle east
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I was looking up an old post of mine from the internet archive and accidently came across this piece from 2012 concerning showing some things never change:

The Common Thread of the left: Today Israel & Hamas

by Datechguy | November 23rd, 2012

The latest in our series of the common thread of the left

As of this writing a “Truce” is in effect between Israel & Hamas. The left and media during this crisis has pilloried Israel

NBC News reporter Ayman Mohyeldin seemed to take a strong position, rather than just reporting, on the United States’ role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He effectively blamed the unresolved crisis on the United States’ refusal to recognize Hamas and for not doing enough to reign in Israel’s military actions.

This ignores the fact that this wasn’t a crisis when Israel was being shot at, it only became a crisis when Israel began shooting back. (emphasis not in original post DTG)

Item: The left claims Israel is an oppressor and our state department remains unwilling to critique Turkey for calling Israel a terror state, however if you want to know how they really feel consider this story:

Back in mid-June, during the great Paris weapons show, the Rafael pavilion was absolutely the busiest around, and everybody wanted to look at the new, exciting, Iron Dome system, the greatest achievement in rocket defense ever. But by the end of the show, Rafael hadn’t made a single sale. The Arrow sold well, other systems did great – Iron Dome wasn’t moving. So they contacted their big clients, the serious ones, and asked what gives. And those clients told them no one except Israel has any use for these things. Because in any normal, sane country, if some hooligans were to start targeting civilians with rockets – the army would go and kill them. emphasis mine

So in public Israel needs to show restraint, in private Hamas and their rocket firing friends are “some hooligans” than normal people would just go kill?

I object to the use of the term “Hooligans” it’s not like they are a bunch of bikers dragging their murdered people behind them as they ride…oh wait:

The six “were caught red-handed” with high-tech filming equipment to take videos of military positions, according to a security source quoted by the Hamas Aqsa radio. The men were shot.

Militants hooked the body of one alleged spy to a motorcycle and dragged him through the streets of Gaza City.

Yeah that sounds like “hooligans” to me.

If you are as old as me you remember when Reagan called the Soviets an “Evil Empire” the left went absolutely nuts. Speaking the truth aloud is just not done…but more on that tomorrow

Meanwhile back to today…

Hamas tortured and murdered 25-year-old Israeli hostage, Sahar Baruch, who was taken to Gaza following the October 7 terrorist attack, the Israel media reported Sunday. Baruch, an engineering student at Ben-Gurion University, was kidnapped by terrorist intruders from his family home in Kibbutz Be’eri, a small community in southern Israel.

Earlier this week, Hamas claimed that Baruch had died during a failed attempt by the IDF to rescue hostages. But the propaganda video released by the terrorist group after Baruch’s death show his disfigured face with eyes gauged out—showing signs of similar sadistic torture and mutilations carried out by Hamas during the October 7 massacre.

and

A Hamas spokesman suggested Sunday that the terror organization could kill all of the presumed 137 hostages in its custody if Israel does not accede to its demands.

Abu Obeida, a familiar spokesman for Hamas who had not been seen for several weeks, released a video in which he made the threat clear.

“Neither the fascist enemy and its arrogant leadership… nor its supporters… can take their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance,” he said, according to the Times of Israel.

It is not clear if Hamas would deliver on that threat. The hostages are the only leverage that Hamas has over Israel, and it uses them as human shields. The Hamas leaders in exile — in luxurious accommodation in Doha, Qatar — would also likely to preserve the hostages alive to ensure that Israel negotiates with them, rather than killing them (as it has promised to do, eventually).

All of this comes down to calling evil good and pretending that objective truth doesn’t exist in order to win political points, oh and arab money freely flowing.

CAIR: What Are You Going to Believe, Me or Your Own Eyes?

Posted: December 8, 2023 by datechguy in Israel, Israel vs Hamas
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Katherine McClintock: [walking out of her bedroom to find G.W. and Mrs. Warren at the bottom of the stairs] What’s going on here?

George Washington McLintock: [Intoxicated, with Mrs. Warren sitting on his lap] Now Katherine, are you going to believe what you see, or what I tell you?

McLintock! 1963

One of the fact of life is that people reap what they sow.

Here is what CAIR has sown:

and remember what he’s praising:

Now consider, he’s not equivocating, he not massaging the message, he’s blunting saying this to a Muslim audience that is lapping it up.

Given what we’ve seen in the west I guess he figured they reached the point where it’s not a problem to say what they actually think…

…or not:

The White House is frantically trying to distance itself from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) after its executive director Nihad Awad claimed he was “happy” to watch the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack unfold. Speaking at the 16th Annual Convention for Palestine in the U.S. on Nov. 24, he said that the people of Gaza were merely “breaking the siege”

Now in response to the incredible backlash CAIR has put out the following statement:

Far be it for me to tell you what to believe so feel free to look at the video and read that statement and decide who is telling the truth and who is not?

Some Jewish Hostages that We Were Told Did not Exist Released

Posted: November 25, 2023 by datechguy in Israel, Israel vs Hamas, middle east, Uncategorized
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4th Doctor: You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.

Doctor Who: The Face of Evil pt 4 1977

Got home from work yesterday and saw this:

I’m happy for the families although my gut still thinks a deal might be dangerous but aside from that I’m confused about one thing.

We’ve had reports that Imams in the US and elsewhere have told their congregations that “claims” that Hamas took Jewish hostages on October 7th were false.

We’ve also been assured by college students and others all over the country that any such claim of Israeli women and children being taken hostage was simply propaganda. In fact many such people stated this as the reason why they were pulling down posters of the kidnapped jews.

If we are to believe these people then this hostage deal must not have taken place and our belief that these people have been returned to Israel must at best be a shared delusion or at worse a grand Zionist conspiracy running so deep that even Egypt and parts of Hamas, for reasons that are unclear, are taking part in it.

It will be interesting to see how those folks reconcile these facts with their previous claims.

Cue Tom Baker

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