Posts Tagged ‘reality’

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.

An inherent truth

Posted: January 17, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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The Wall Street Journal’s review of the the Nation’s magazine The Nation’s guide to the Nation delivers some comedy that I suspect the book doesn’t intend. But there is one part of the review that hits a particular nail on the head:

The Nation guide recommends a bookstore in Madison, Wis., by saying: “George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld do not want you to shop at Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative.” Yeah, remember that clerk, Dylan, the guy who was named Rainbow employee of the month last June? He’s in Gitmo now.

Gird Yourself for Exciting Yet Imaginary Battles! As far as The Nation is concerned, just about every progressive bookstore, musician, theater troupe and mime is committed to fighting the stranglehold of censorship. Except, well, they don’t actually get censored, so it’s like they’re committed to fighting the stranglehold of Klingons.

That line encompasses everything about the left and oppression these days. Over and over they talk about speaking truth to power and how there were censored by the Bush administration except that they don’t challenge any power that might actually strike back. Those days a long gone. Maybe they are referring to the violence inherent in the system.

“committed to fighting the stranglehold of Klingons.” Marvelous!

Ricardo Montalban maker of Jihad?

Posted: January 15, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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Mark Steyn reflecting on the death of Ricardo Montalban this week remembers an odd bit of history:

A few decades back, a young middle-class Egyptian spending some time in the U.S. had the misfortune to be invited to a dance one weekend and was horrified at what he witnessed:

“The room convulsed with the feverish music from the gramophone. Dancing naked legs filled the hall, arms draped around the waists, chests met chests, lips met lips . . .”

Where was this den of debauchery? Studio 54 in the 1970s? Haight-Ashbury in the summer of love? No, the throbbing pulsating sewer of sin was Greeley, Colo., in 1949. As it happens, Greeley, Colo., in 1949 was a dry town. The dance was a church social. And the feverish music was “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” written by Frank Loesser and sung by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban in the film “Neptune’s Daughter.” Revolted by the experience, Sayyid Qutb decided that America (and modernity in general) was an abomination, returned to Egypt, became the leading intellectual muscle in the Muslim Brotherhood, and set off a chain that led from Qutb to Zawahiri to bin Laden to the Hindu Kush to the Balkans to 9/11.

You think that’s odd, remember the banning of Barbie or the assertion that Pokemon is a Zionist conspiracy?

This bunch of lunatics are living proof that all cultures and civilizations are not equal. Their every waking moment is one big Nelson.

And this is just the stupid stuff, not the Burkas or the honor killings or the killing or imprisonment of gays, ( but not in Iran as they don’t exist there) or the religious police making girls burn to death et/al. Yet that is the crowd that the left chooses to embrace over a pluralistic Israel.

Amazing!

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.

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