Posts Tagged ‘Israel’

Did I read that right?

Posted: March 1, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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The US actually raising the issue of Hezbollah with Syria?

The U.S. administration has asked Syrian President Bashar Assad to immediately stop transferring arms to Hezbollah. American officials made the request during a meeting Friday with the Syrian ambassador to Washington.

Of course Syria being Syria they meeting was an exercise in Who moi?

Haaretz has learned that Burns’ visit to Damascus ended unsatisfactorily for the U.S. administration. During Burns’ meeting with Assad, the Syrian leader denied all American claims that his regime was providing military aid to terrorists in Iraq, or to Hezbollah and Palestinian terror groups.

Assad essentially told Burns that he had no idea what the American was talking about.

The question naturally becomes what will the US do to advance the desire to stop this nonsense. Will this be enough to push the Obama administration to do the right thing by Israel?

Israel’s biggest advantage in this matter is that the rose colored glasses that many on the left in general and the administration in particular wear concerning Israel’s foes tend to break in actual contact with the reality of their intransigence.

To wit:

Freelance journalist Paul Martin has been held in Gaza since Feb. 14, the first foreigner to be arrested since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. Martin’s case is being closely watched by international organizations with staff in Gaza as a gauge of how the Hamas government will deal with foreigners.

As Meryl Yourish says:

If the Israelis were holding him, there’d be daily headlines

Too true.

A hidden truth

Posted: February 8, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, war
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Hidden within the Clark Hoyt’s NYT public editor piece on if there is a conflict of interest in the Time’s middle east reporting since Ethan Bronner, the Jerusalem bureau chief of The Times, has a son in the Israeli military:

I asked David K. Shipler, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, what he would do. Shipler was The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief a generation ago and its chief diplomatic correspondent until he left the paper in 1988. He said foreign correspondents operate in far more nuanced circumstances than readers may realize. They may rely on translators and stringers with political ties or biases that have to be accounted for. They develop their own relationships that enrich their reporting, just as Bronner’s son’s military service could open a conduit for information that other reporters might not have. emphasis mine.

This is something that the MSM has not emphasized in the past, but blogs on the Right have. In the words of Ralph Peters at the time:

The dangerous nature of journalism in Iraq has created a new phenomenon, the all-powerful local stringer. Unwilling to stray too far from secure facilities and their bodyguards, reporters rely heavily on Iraqi assistance in gathering news. And Iraqi stringers, some of whom have their own political agendas, long ago figured out that Americans prefer bad news to good news. The Iraqi leg-men earn blood money for unbalanced, often-hysterical claims, while the Journalism 101 rule of seeking confirmation from a second source has been discarded in the pathetic race for headlines.

To enhance their own indispensability, Iraqi stringers exaggerate the danger to Western journalists (which is real enough, but need not paralyze a determined reporter). Dependence on the unverified reports of local hires has become the dirty secret of semi-celebrity journalism in Iraq as Western journalists succumb to a version of Stockholm Syndrome in which they convince themselves that their Iraqi sources and stringers are exceptions to every failing and foible in the Middle East. The mindset resembles the old colonialist conviction that, while other “boys” might lie and steal, our house-boy’s a faithful servant.

The result is that we’re being told what Iraqi stringers know they can sell and what distant editors crave, not what’s actually happening.

To hear the NYT finally (albeit accidentally) admit that there are biases involved in stringers is long overdue.

Oh and BTW. It is a conflict, but as long as it is disclosed to the reader then I don’t have a huge problem with it. If the reader knows the source for a potential bias they can adjust judge a piece accordingly. NOT disclosing the conflict would be a dishonorable breech of journalistic ethics and we all know how important that is to the NYT. HA!

Before he became Mr. Hyde Charles Johnson used to touch on the use and the biases of these stringers.

Because of the local stuff…

Posted: February 3, 2010 by datechguy in elections, internet/free speech, oddities, opinion/news
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…I haven’t touched the national news today.

Lucky for you the other blogs are on the ball:

Robert Stacy give the Port-Mortem on the Illinois results that were less than what might be desired:

Second-guessing campaign strategies is a fascinating sport. However, if there is any New Media takeaway from the Illinois gubernatorial primary, it is this: Campaigns would be wise to engage the blogosphere early in the election cycle, rather than to treat online outreach as an afterthought.

Mark Hemmingway touches on Excitable Andy’s latest foray into Bloggers Alzheimer’s on the subject of Sarah Palin:

At what point does Andrew Sullivan’s derangement over Sarah Palin and his bizarre conspiracy theories about how her son was really birthed by her daughter become an issue for an otherwise respectable publication such as The Atlantic? If his employers don’t take action over this blog post of his, then we’re totally through the looking glass:

RSM recommends Ace of Spades on the subject is a tad vulgar for my taste.

The lonely conservative notes that if there is one thing you can say about this administration is they are consistent.

President Obama can’t stop pointing his finger at George Bush for his troubles. It’s getting so old. Every president faces challenges, Bush did. But Bush didn’t have a filibuster proof majority to work with, the way Obama’s had for the past year.

I think the reason he might not go for a 2nd term is he will have nobody else to blame.

Dan Riehl notes that Scott Brown is a real equal opportunity employer.

“I just go — I don’t care who they are as long as they’re good people and they’ll be trustworthy and loyal and they’ll do their jobs, I don’t care. Kennedy had some of the best people in the country and I’m honored to have some of them

Well we know these guys are discreet.

The camp of the Saints crowns a new leader of the free world:

Israel has no choice: The United States and the other nations of The West will not act to protect the Free World against the threat of a nuclear Islam, so it must bear the burden. Benjamin Netanyahu IS the leader of the Free World.

I still think it might be a bluff.

Don Surber sees projection on the left:

As Obamania winds down and it inevitably was fated to do — taking with it the hopes for a Europeanized America complete with socialized medicine, leaders on the left will ratchet up their rhetoric.

It is a sign of a political moment dying.

Legal Insurrection approves:

Keep calling the majority of Americans crazy and dangerous and extremists and “teabaggers.” Every time you do it we gain votes.

They are not called the angry left for nothing.

The Libertarian Popinjay notes a pet that you don’t want to own.

Meanwhile Peg agrees declares Global Warming a religion:

Arguing with people who exhibit this sort of behavior is like arguing with those who have strong religious beliefs. Their beliefs are rooted in faith; not hard evidence.

In a free nation, they are surely entitled to believe what they wish. But, the rest of us should not be held hostage to their religious beliefs. Let’s not twist our economy and freedoms to align with faith. Let the rest of us to be free to act on what many of us believe: that the earth’s atmosphere and temperature is the result of many factors, and that it is unclear that man has more than a tiny impact on what happens to them

Where have I heard this before?

American Freedom likes Vernon Parker for Az 3rd and unlike Chris Matthews doesn’t forget his race…

You don’t need to forget with Mayor Parker you never notice the color of his skin and he shouldn’t be stereotyped by it. What you do pay attention to his belief in the American people, Love of Family and Country. His belief in a smaller government, creating jobs, reviving the economy, not raising taxes, lowing the deficit and giving those less fortunate a hand up not a handout.

Will the media even notice?

Ruby Slippers is feeling VERY optimistic:

Momentum has a way of shaking stronger candidates out of the trees. The Senate may still be a long shot but it is looking less like a long shot than it did before Massachusetts. There is a lifetime politically between now and November, but as of now, the ball is clearly in our court

What’s that line from the Patriot? Aim Small Miss Small.

And finally American Glob is sick of all the bowing by the president:

Weasel Zippers caught this photo of Obama bowing to… The mayor of Tampa, Florida.

Does President Obama have a single advisor smart enough to tell him to stop bowing to people? Can you picture Reagan doing this? Washington? Lincoln? JFK? Carter???

I don’t know looking at the picture I think it was just an excuse to check out her legs.

I think it’s safe to say the countdown is on…

Posted: December 29, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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…when you get news like this:

This is the first time a conference for all of Israel’s Heads of Missions has been held. The idea is to facilitate direct dialogue with the country’s leaders, mutual updates on major diplomatic issues, and a discussion of action plans to deal with the challenges awaiting the State of Israel in the international arena in the coming year, including the Iranian threat.

Robert Stacy is pretty sure it’s on:

That which is unprecedented is never routine and seldom insignificant. If the current unrest in Iran doesn’t overthrow the Ahmadinejad regime . . . Well, put it this way: If you’re the night watchman at an Iranian nuclear facility, make sure you don’t miss a payment on your insurance premiums.

I can’t find a peep about it on Israellycool, I would have thought this would be of interest there.

Meanwhile Meryl Yourish thinks differently:

My take: It is to unify the message that Israel wants out there. Benjamin Netanyahu is the most PR-savvy Prime Minister Israel has had since Golda Meir.

Watch for the ambassadors to come back with a unified message on Israeli issues.

As for an attack on Iran: Seriously? Do you really think that Israel would recall all of her ambassadors on the eve of an attack on Iran and tell them it was going to happen? Because, gee, that’s the first thing I’d do if I were going to launch a surprise attack—tell a whole lot more people about it so they can leak it to the press.

I think it’s a win win no matter what. What we as bloggers think doesn’t matter, it’s what Iran the US and Europe will think. It could be more of a feint. Either way this is designed to provoke a reaction.

Various nations will almost certainly read things into this and make moves based upon it, these moves may aid Israel’s intelligence.

If Iran sees this as a prelude to an attack how will they respond? Will they redeploy security that is now being used to stop the growing protests? Will they attempt to move scientists and materials vital to their program? If so will they be exposed to attack or perhaps will they become detected due to movement?

Even if Israel was not planning an immediate strike a general time frame can be disseminated from such a meeting. No matter the strike is dated, this meeting will allow a coordinated message to be sent out by the various ambassadors when the time comes, if there is any kind of time frame for an attack key info can be disseminated in person, no diplomatic pouch, no electronic message to intercept etc.

No matter what, I have no doubt that Israel will act. The Jewish state is not going to allow another Shoah in the hopes that the rest of the world will like them better. Since there is no chance that America is going to act and since Europe has no power TO act even if it wants to it falls to Israel.

Logically the outcome is not in doubt, Israel has the best security force, the most efficient military for it’s size, superior intelligence and only American troops have better technology, and more direct experience in combat.

Historically the outcome is even less in doubt as the history of the Jewish state is the history of continued success.

From a Biblical viewpoint of course the outcome has no doubt provided Moses terms from the closing chapters of Deuteronomy have been met.

The real wildcard are the protests. Iran’s as a nation’s best bet to prevent an attack by Israel is the success of the protest movement. Ideally this is the best result for the entire world and would be in the best long term interests for Israel. In fact If I’m Israel I’m putting more effort into aiding the success of these protests than planning for air strikes. Such a success would break the back of Iranian puppets in Syria, Lebanon and in Hamas.

Could that be the “strike” that Israel is planning?

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