Is Gaza a Stinking Rat's Nest?

It is. But it's not as poverty stricken as the propaganda suggests.

Another Sorelian myth blasted.

Jewish Chronicle: "Palestinian territories beat Egypt in well-being", by Jennifer Lipman

The United Nations has published a report showing that the Palestinian territories have higher standards of development and well-being than the surrounding countries of Egypt, Yemen and Pakistan. The Palestinian territories appear at number 110 out of 182 countries on the list. Compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the annual report ranks countries on education, life expectancy and living standard. (...) >>>

See also Walid Shoebat's vlog "Gaza, not as poor as the propaganda suggests"

But all that doesn't keep the EU High Representative, former crypto commie Lady Ashton, currently 'touring' Gaza, from paying the salaries of Hamas civil servants, and calling for open borders with the terror eparchy.

On top of already allocated funds, Ashton promised another EUR 40 million of tax payers' money to the Palestinian Authority (whoever that may be).

There's also talk of the UN taking over the patrol and security of the border crossing. If they do as good a job, as they do in southern Lebanon, brace for impact.

Update

The Israeli journalist residing in Berlin, Daniel Dagan is drawing attention to the fact that the Gadaffi (r)aid ship docked and unloaded in the Egyptian port of Al Arish, disclosing the fact that Gaza can be reached from a country other than Israel. To pressure Israel to lift the blockade is another example of the staggering hypocrisy involved. While it would be very convenient to provide Iran's proxy, Hamas with a port at Europe's doorstep, the short term goal of the exercise is to delegitimate the state of Israel -


Grotere kaart weergeven

Update

- Tom Gross Mideast Media Analysis: "A nice new shopping mall opened today in Gaza: Will the media report on it?"
- Jews for Sarah: "What ‘Humanitarian Crisis?’ – New mall opens in Gaza, brimming with food, furnishings and ‘Zionist clothing'" (Kudos to HuffPost for having enough integrity to publish THIS)


Related

- "Middle East Project"
- "The Propflot Tactic"

Relativist Foreign Policy and the Free Gaza Propflot (update)

This wasn't a one off, but a new tactic in assymetrical warfare toolkit - or should that be warfare under the guise of humanitarian aid? Lebanon is now preparing to send propflots, only they are no longer propaganda tools, but covert warfare. Here's the collection point on Articles.

Al Manar TV: "“Flotilla Assault Marks the Beginning of the End for Israel”"

June 6, 2010

There was a time in human history, not that long ago actually but it seems like eons now, that the ideal state of mind when judging others, was to be as objective as possible. The notion is built on the idea that all men are created equal and all are to be judged by the same moral standard. It is symbolized in the statue of Lady Justice, weighing her cases blindfolded.

A murder is a murder no matter who committed it, whoever the victim, and whatever the circumstances; the idea being that men are judged by the contents of their character, not by the color of their skin, or social class.

That's no longer the case. When the Left embraced relativism, it accepted with it, it's nasty little sibling, subjectivism. So, whereas one murderer gets life for killing a human being, another is getting away with a few years, depending on the circumstances and the history of the persons involved.

Where social classes have largely disappeared from most Western societies, other victim groups have been created to keep the social warfare alive. It's done on the basis of the dialectic of oppressors versus oppressed, or postmodern varieties thereof. Persons are judged and treated according to the victim group they stem from. It happens to also nicely pave the way for the apartheid of Sharia law, one law for the natives, another for Muslims - that is, as a first stage to total submission.

Some liberals like to think of themselves as non judgmental, but that moral neutrality is a myth. We discriminate all of the time, but no longer based on an objective standard of ethics, but by different standards depending on whom we are judging: we are guilty of practicing the hypocrisy of reversed discrimination.

The same is true in international relations. One commentator on a post on the shocking events in the waters of the eastern Mediterranean this week, assures us Israel is held by higher standards than the Palestinians, because they are a liberal democracy, not the usual Middle Eastern hellhole ruled by a dictator.

How evil and unjust that double standard is, can be measured by its effect: in Western culture it is responsible for the 'down with us' syndrome, effectively foisting upon ourselves a handicap, not unlike fighting with one hand tied behind our backs. And that is just to make it fair, because the other feller is only half our size. Yet we stand idly by when two thugs are bashing each others heads in, since neither seems to know any better. (In the civil world - thank Heaven - they still end up in prison, maybe.)

If you project that on to the world of international relations we end up precisely where we are today: with Israel condemned for defending itself, and the thugocracy of Iran getting away with enough fissile material to produce two nuclear bombs. How's that for a debilitating effect of subjectivism?

Caroline Glick describes the objectives of the Red-Green (Left and Islam) coalition as follows:

It seeks to delegitimize Israel's right to exist and it seeks to make it impossible for Israel to defend itself. If these aims are met, Israel's destruction will become an historic inevitability.

Far from advancing the peace process, the result of this effort is the destruction of the state of Israel, which is rationalized in any sort of way: it is racist because it is Jewish, yet the country consists of Jews, Christians and Muslims which are treated as equals before the law. But Muslim countries on the other hand are backward dictatorships, so their discrimination against women and religions other than Islam, do not matter because they're held to lower standards.

Muslim countries have never had any intention of tolerating the liberal democracy the size of a postage stamp in the midst of its conquered lands. On top of that, they have now managed to get the Western postmodern Left on its side in a Red-Green fascist coalition; the brew is toxic in the extreme.

A commentator in the US has made it be known that ... of course the aid convoy was a ruse to cover the real objective: breaking the blockade of Gaza so that heaven knows what may be brought into the port. There's nothing illegal about the blockade and what's more, it's sheer common sense. Only subjectivists go to the point of requiring entire countries and cultures to commit suicide in order to be considered ethical.

Time and again, whatever patches of land the Iraelis restored to the Palestinians, it always became a launching pad for violence and terror. They have no reason to trust the Palestinians with whatever concession in the name of the unspeakable 'peace process". The hellhole of Gaza itself is a case in point.

At first, in the relativist's reasoning, there's no moral difference between the Israelis and the Palestinians: both have an equal right to exist and resist. Initially it makes no difference that Israel is a liberal democracy that treats all equal before the law and the Palestinians have proven themselves time and again the pit of moral depravity. They then move over to the other side and call for Israel's destruction.

Welcome to the upside down, inside out world of moral subjectivism applied to diplomacy and international relations.

Related

- Washington Post: "Those troublesome Jews", by Charles Krauthammer

The Real Purpose of the Gaza Propflot

This wasn't a one off, but a new tactic in assymetrical warfare toolkit - or should that be warfare under the guise of humanitarian aid? Lebanon is now preparing to send propflots, only they are no longer propaganda tools, but covert warfare. Here's the collection point on Articles.

Al Manar TV: "“Flotilla Assault Marks the Beginning of the End for Israel”"

June 6, 2010

more about "The real purpose of the Gaza flotilla", posted with vodpod

This article explains what you've seen in the video.

Just Journalism: "UPDATED: Peace activists or violent agitators: How the media narrative on flotilla incident is shaping up"

With the Israeli government standing firm on their claim that IDF soldiers were met with severe violence from Gaza aid convoy participants, Just Journalism will be following developments closely and publishing new information on a rolling basis.

Before the incident had occurred, MEMRI had published this footage, with Arabic to English translation, showing participants on board one of the ships chanting violent anti-Jewish slogans before setting sail.

The activists shout: ‘Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammed will return’ - a reference to a seventh century attack in Khayber, Arabia, by Muhammed and his followers against Jews.

A female activist on the boat is also translated as saying, ‘We are now waiting for one of two good things – either to achieve martyrdom or to reach Gaza.’

The same chants invoking Khayber were also played on loudspeaker to a huge crowd gathered on Saturday in Istanbul to see off the flotilla, as has been broadcast by Turkish television. This footage also includes the repetition of ‘Intifadah! Intifadah!’

Furthermore, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday revealed his view that an interception of the flotilla by Israel would be as much a victory as reaching Gaza. The Jerusalem Post reported:

"If the ships reach Gaza, it's a victory for Gaza," Haniyeh told some 400 supporters after touring Gaza City's small fishing harbor, where several smaller vessels breaking the blockade have docked in the past. "If they are intercepted and terrorized by the Zionists, it will be a victory for Gaza, too, and they will move again in new ships to break the siege of Gaza." (...) >>>



IDF DA Desk

Facebook: Facts on the Gaza Flotilla (w/ VIDEOS)

Free Gaza, the harassing 'peace' group is a coalition made up of the Turkish Islamist group of B.Yildirim, the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), a member of Sheikh Qaradawi's Ittilaf al Kheir (Union of the Good or the Muslim Brotherhood), and Marxist groups which includes Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and Jodie Evans (Code Pink). Here are the NGOs involved.

The vessels have been furnished by Free Gaza and the IHH. Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi recently paid IHH millions of euros to organize actions against Israel. This is one of them. 

While Israel has announced it will free 600 prisoners, Free Gaza just let it be known it has dispatched yet another harassment vessel to Gaza.

The Dutch Telegraaf newspaper is revealing today that one of the two Dutch nationals arrested by Israel is the Hamas representative in the country. The 43 year old Dutch passport holder, Amin Abou Rashed is of Palestinian descent and operates out of the port city of Rotterdam. According to the official website of the Muslim Brotherhood the man is one of the main organizers of the propflot operation.

Intelligence sources say Rashed appears prominently in various reports as the leader of Hamas in the Netherlands. He's also known as Amin Abou Ibrahim. The American anti terror group Nefa is mentioning him in connection to the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. He's worked for Al Aksa, a fundraising organization for Hamas and is very active in a pro Palestine foundation called PPMS. His name is also appearing in the Holy Land Foundation trial in de US.

Source: Elsevier

According to Dutch Iranian columnist Afshin Ellian the operation masks a power struggle in Turkey. PM Erdogan is looking for ways to cut ties with Israel, whereas the military opposes such a move.

FoxNews: "Israel: Global Jihad Linked to Flotilla"

Israeli defense officials now say dozens of passengers who were aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, the scene of a bloody showdown with Israeli commandos Monday, are suspected of having connections to terrorist organizations. The Israeli Army says it's identified 50 passengers on the ship with terrorist links. (...) >>>

Meanhile on JTA ...Hamas has refused to accept the aid brought by a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israel. (...) Hamas Social Affairs Minister Ahmad al-Kurd told reporters that it would accept the aid only if it entered "without anything being stolen from the activists, and without any exceptions." "This includes the prefabricated homes, the cement, the iron and the electric generators," he said. Israel has prevented such equipment from entering Gaza, saying it could be used by Hamas to build bunkers and other military installations in the strip. (...) >>>

June 2, 2010



The flotsam and jetsam of martyrdom operations - Aboard the propflot were at least 100 jihadis from various global Islamist chapters seeking martyrdom. Another title might well have been 'Martyrdom by IDF'.

On the legal side of the affair:

NGO Monitor: "Lost at Sea: NGO Legal Distortions in the Wake of the Flotilla Incident"

Since the violent clash between the Free Gaza flotilla and Israeli naval forces on May 31, numerous NGOs and “human rights groups” have issued harsh and one-sided condemnations of Israel’s actions. Many of these statements have been couched in the terminology of international law. However, as the following analysis demonstrates, these claims are legally incorrect or dubious. They represent the continued exploitation of international law for political ends. (...) >>>

PJM: "As Reality Unfolds About Flotilla, World Media Continues with Fictional Narrative", by Allison Kaplan Sommer

The emerging reality on the ground in Israel regarding the nature of the Gaza flotilla, and the story being told around the world, are so utterly different that they could be taking place on two separate planets. As the days pass in Israel and more information is uncovered, the popular international narrative of brutal Israeli soldiers casually slaughtering tens of innocent peace activists bearing humanitarian aid drifts further and further from reality. (...) >>>

Caroline Glick: The fact that these pro-Hamas activists intended to commit suicide in order to discredit Israel on camera was made clear by the fact that the Turkish organizers named the lead ship Rachel Corrie - after the most famous pro-Hamas suicide protestor. (...) >>>

Irish Times: "Irish ship Rachel Corrie was sabotaged by Israeli intelligence says report", by Cathy Hayes

The Irish ship, MV Rachel Corrie, was tampered with by the Israeli Defense Forces according to Colonel Itzik Turgeman. The Rachel Corrie was planned to be the first ship to arrive into Gazan waters last weekend but was delayed due to mechanical problems now suspected to be a form of sabotage. (...) >>>

June 3, 2010

Shock! Financier Free Gaza linked to New York Cordoba Project, the 15-story mega mosque projected near Ground Zero ...

HotAir: "Founder of Ground Zero mosque part of group that helped fund Gaza flotilla"

As said ... martyrdom by IDF ...

Jerusalem Post: "'We had no choice'"

IDF Spokesperson: "Ship Attempting to Break Maritime Closure of Gaza Strip Boarded by Israel Naval Forces with Compliance of Crew"

For Immediate Release

June 5th, 2010

12:45

IDF naval commandos boarded the ship attempting to break the maritime closure of the Gaza Strip a short while ago with the full compliance of the ship’s crew members. According to initial reports, there was no violence or injuries amongst the soldiers or the crew, as the use of force was unnecessary and no shots were fired. (...) >>>

Related articles

- PJM: "Dead Muslims? Only Wake the EU and UN if Jews Did It", by Leon de Winter
- RBO: "Klein: Ayers, Dohrn top activists in Gaza flotilla group"
- Spectator: "'Peace convoy'? This was an Islamist terror ambush", by Melanie Philips
- Israel Politik: "Insider Facts: Flotilla"
- IDF Spokesperson: "Weapons Found on the Flotilla Ship Mavi Marmara Used by Activists Against IDF Soldiers, 31 May 2010"
- Yid With Lid: "AMBUSH! A Videologue of How A Turkish Terror Group Caused The Israeli Navy/ Gaza Flotilla Violence"
- Reuters: "Statement by Israel's Netanyahu on flotilla deaths"
- Jerusalem Post: "Navy commandos:‘They came for war’"
- JIDF: "Israeli commandos open fire after being attacked with axes & knives by Gaza flotilla "peace activists"

In Times of Crisis, Build a Fence

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Hamas on Monday to "watch their step, and not to cry crocodile tears if they force Israel to take action". This prelude to the cycle of violence is usually evaded or censored out by Israel's critics, reversing cause and effect.

Israeli security experts have been cited saying Hamas is slackening in the prevention of home-made rockets being fired from Gaza, which triggered operation Cast Lead a year ago. Palestinian politics is a snake pit. The ceaseless insurgencies against Israel serve the purpose of uniting Palestinians behind groups as Fattah and Hamas, reason why efforts to bring peace in the area have so far eluded us. Security experts say dissent against Hamas is growing in Gaza: the next intifada has already been predicted.

- Photos: abundance on Gaza's markets - Hat Tip: Atlas Shrugs -

But Barak seemed to blame a genuine ineptness on the part of Gaza's rulers, saying "the deterrence achieved during Operation Cast Lead still exists, and it is strong. The fire in recent days stems from Hamas' inability to rein in Jihad bodies and independent groups". Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile promised a "powerful response".Yesterday an Israeli air strike killed three militants.

The battles come in the midst of Israel unfolding plans to close off the southern border with Egypt, erecting an almost half a million dollar fence along two segments in an effort to stem the infiltration of migrant workers and terrorists. Barak remarked with understatement that "good fences make good neighbors."

Last week one Egyptian police officer, and at least a dozen Palestinians were wounded in a battle along the Egypt-Gaza border. The Egyptians opened fire on Palestinians who were pelting them with rocks on the orders of Gaza's Hamas rulers to protest the delay of the British based Viva Palestine "aid convoy" at the Egyptian port of El-Arish. They soon lost control over the situation.

More than 500 international activists accompanied the convoy, bringing tons of supplies and vehicles. It consisted of British, American, Jordanian and Turkish activists and politicians, including the infamous George Gallaway.

Scuffles at the port broke out late Tuesday when authorities told the organizers that out of the nearly 200 vehicles, some 59 could not enter Gaza through Egypt, but must go through Israeli terminals. More than 50 activists and over a dozen members of the security forces were injured. The "peace activists" briefly seized a police officer and four of his men. They were later released, some with broken ribs.

"We are activists. We condemn the Israeli siege to start with. We will only enter through an Egyptian-Palestinian crossing," said Wael al-Sakka, a Jordanian activist. Alice Howard, a spokeswoman for the group, said organizers were negotiating with an Egyptian security official, who said he would come back with answers. But instead, 2,000 riot police returned, spraying the activists with water cannons, and hurling rocks.

True in style Al-Sakka was blaming the police, who are "too high-strung". Egypt has come under fire from Arab and Muslim groups for cooperating with Israel in its blockade of Gaza. The blockade was imposed after Hamas violently seized control of the territory in a bloody coup against Fatah.

Related: 

- "Middle East Peace" (dossier)
- DNA: "Islamabad to turn into a walled city"

Turning the Tables on Hamas and Anti Zionists

Newspapers in Belgium are reporting that a number of Israeli Belgians have filed charges against Hamas leaders in Gaza and Damascus, Syria. The fifteen dual citizenship holders were either wounded themselves, sustained material damage, or lost relatives in attacks that triggered Operation Cast Lead a year ago.

The suits follow several attempts by anti-Zionists in Europe, who sought the arrest of Israeli political and military leaders for authorizing the counter terrorist operation. It is in effect, turning the tables on them. An official of the Israeli organization that helped launch the suits said that the group hopes "to shatter the myth that draws a parallel between Israel and terror organizations such as Hamas." Indeed, false moral equivalence is rife.

All plaintiffs  live in the south of Israel. They are the victims of  rocket barrages coming down on the area from Gaza between June 2008 and January 2009. Two were wounded. All are suffering emotional and psychological trauma.

The suit names ten Hamas leaders in all: political chief Khaled Mashaal residing in Damascus, 'Premier' Ismaail Haniyah in Gaza, former 'Foreign Minister' Mahmud Zahar, and leaders of  the 'military' division, Ahmed Jabri and Mohammed Def.

The cases took six months to prepare. So far six requests for their arrest have been issued, all based on clear evidence that Hamas leaders are linked to the terror attacks.

Arutz Sheva report attorney Mordechai Tzivin, representing the plaintiffs, told the French news agency AFP: "This is a first step in a broad offensive across Europe that will include Spain, Britain, Italy and other countries".

One of the Belgian attorneys involved, Roel Coveliers explains that indiscriminate attacks on civilians may constitute war crimes. "But that's up to the Judge to decide. We don't know if we will be successful in prosecuting the case in Belgium and get a conviction, but it's important to get an investigative Judge to take on the matter".

Filing the suit is only an initial step. A federal Judge will see if the complaints have standing. In the affirmative, an investigative Judge will be appointed.

Although ranging well within Israeli territory, Hamas' home made rockets are not particularly effective. Between 2005 and 2007 Hamas militants fired some 2,700 of the home made rockets on southern Israel. Towns like Sderot have come under constant barrages of fire which crippled the daily lives of the inhabitants, causing material and psychological trauma.

On December 27 Israel finally launched counter terrorist Operation Cast Lead. In the days before the maneuvers some eighty Qassam rockets landed in the area. It still happens, albeit less frequently, but effectively not much has changed. A recent article by blogger/journalist Caroline Glick explains why little was accomplished. Even top IDF commanders acknowledged this week that the army will be forced to return to Gaza in due course.

Belgian attorney Coveliers does not think the Court will reject the request. Thus far he's received six of the fifteen dossiers from Israel.

Ironically the suits charge ten Hamas leaders of war crimes on the basis of the UN Human Rights Commission's report authored by Judge Richard Goldstone, who accused Israel of war crimes but mentioned, almost in passing, that Hamas rocket attacks on civilians also constitute violations of international law.

Weekend Movie: The Fate of Saddam's Pride and Joy

In The Lighthouse Movie Theater today a story from way, way back when the grown-ups were in charge: "Israel's Raid on Saddam's Nuclear Reactor in 1981"

Riddle of the Day: the Obama Ideology

American Thinker: "Obama's Attraction to Human Rights Violators", by Lauri B. Regan

(...) Sadly, the Obama presidency keeps getting "curiouser and curiouser." According to Obama, Israel's settlement building is illegal, the Iranian elections are legitimate, and the Honduran military's respect for the rule of law is not legal. In other words, it is fine for the Obama administration to meddle in the internal affairs of a sovereign ally, it has no interest in defending a popular uprising in which people are dying in the name of freedom, and it will support the Chavez-cloned dictator in the face of a democratic struggle.

- Cartoon: William Warren - 

Many have suggested that due to the voter fraud pervasive during his campaign, Obama is not troubled by a similar occurrence in the Iranian and Honduran elections. Yet this is the same man that made human rights a benchmark of his campaign speeches. And how does one rationalize his completely irrational responses to the various events taking place across the globe as citizens of repressed nations attempt to achieve freedom and democracy. The leader of the free world persists on choosing the wrong side of the fight.

The only discernable pattern to Obama's foreign policy decisions since taking office seems to reflect an attraction by Obama to dictatorial governments and disdain for freedom loving democracies. How else can one rationalize the disparity between his silence and weak response to the protests and bloodshed in Iran and his powerful and demanding response to the coup in Honduras? America's President is consistently supportive of tyrants at the expense of oppressed citizens who bear a terrible price for his policies. (...) >>>

We claim, it's the Postmodern philosophy - of which BHO is the quintessential adept - making a bee-line from the Anti Modernist (or the Counter-Enlightenment) movement headed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Kant and Hegel, straight to Marx (Socialism, Communism), Nietzsche (proto Nazi), Heidegger (Nazi and full-blown pomo), to post WWII Existentialists (Stalin and Mao apologists) to the Deconstructionists (Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, Richard Rorty, et al).

This is what author Richard Wolin has to say about that branch of anti philosophy:

"Time and again [these] commentators express their surprise of postmodernism ending up on a par with Nazi, Fascist or extreme Nationalist ideas, expressing their shock, shock at postmodernist involvement in Nazi scandals, or anti-philosophes suddenly spouting crypto Fascist propaganda. Richard Wolin admits that the postmodern assault on reason familiarly rings of the standard European reactionary critique as traditionally expressed by the anti-modernists [Richard Wolin, "The Seduction of Unreason: The Intellectual Romance with Fascism from Nietzsche to Postmodernism", Princeton University Press, 2004, Introduction p. 12]. "

The discerning observer might notice what connects these thinkers and ideologies: collectivism and an abhorrence for "middle-class" democratic values, individualism and capitalism.

On the other hand, another contributor lately came up with this novel approach, which may be the same conclusion by another route. What do you think?

American Thinker: "Obama, the African Colonial", by L.E. Ikenga

Had Americans been able to stop obsessing over the color of Barack Obama's skin and instead paid more attention to his cultural identity, maybe he would not be in the White House today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset rooted in postcolonial Africa. (...) >>>

- Filed on Articles in "The Pomo Presidency" - 

Krauthammer on Obama's Islamic Re-Set Speech

Posted with vodpod
Historical ignorance and postmodern revisionism (so called 'narrative') hit the world of higher diplomacy. The net result is moral equivalence, the democratic process in the Middle East set back for eons, and the victims of totalitarianism and tyranny thrown under the bus.

As for Israel ... Yid With Lid has more, concluding ...

(...) Obama says he came to Cairo to tell the truth. But he uttered not a word of that. Instead, among all the bromides and lofty sentiments, he issued but one concrete declaration of new American policy: "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," thus reinforcing the myth that Palestinian misery and statelessness are the fault of Israel and the settlements. (...) >>>

- Filed on Articles in the dossier recording "Middle East Peace" -

From the Pathological to the Utterly Depraved

Newscom.au: "Iraqi woman had 80 women raped then recruited as suicide bombers"

A woman suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame.

Samira Jassam, 51, was arrested by Iraqi police and confessed to recruiting the women and orchestrating dozens of attacks.

In a video confession, she explained how she had mentally prepared the women for martyrdom operations, passed them on to terrorists who provided explosives, and then took the bombers to their targets. (...) >>>

You can watch the news item here.

Let that piece of evil sink in on you: having eighty women purposely raped so that their sense of life and self would be so destructed, that the only way out would be blowing themselves up, including hundreds of others in the process.

Now that's depravity for you! And does it say something about a culture when the evil organizor is lovingly dubbed "the Mother of All Believers" - raised onto the shield and made the heroine!

Where does such clearly socio-pathological behavior come from. On the part of the victims it's the culture of shame - a result of the tribal/collectivist way of life. Read all about that in "Lies, Deceit, and the Shame Culture".

Totalitarian collectivism and the Sorelian myth of Muslim victimhood drive the mentality that prescribes the lone drone's duty to sacrifice to the common cause. That explains the acts of all involved in this truly sick story.

The same author, NASA psychiatrist and blogger, Dr Sanity offers this explanation in the case of the Palestinians.

Dr Sanity: "Western Enablers and Palestinian Dysfunction"

(...) instead of nurturing their victimhood and refining their hate, the survivors [of the Holocaust] focused on making a new and positive life for themselves and their descendants. These damaged and pitiful remnants from the Holocaust went on to make a desert bloom, build world class education and scientific institutions and become an economic first world nation. The State of Israel was a clarion Kaddish prayer in a way - it was a prayer that affirmed life and the potential of man.

- Cartoon: Glenn Foden -

Where the Jews succeeded in transforming their trauma into something positive for themselves and the world, the Palestinians have failed spectacularly and accomplished the exact opposite.

And, they have had plenty of help in doing so. Perhaps the most guilty of enabling and encouraging Palestinian and Islamic/Arab victimhood and aggression have been the world community (through the UN) and the ‘compassionate’—and often counterproductive—foreign policy of Western democracies and of the Israelis themselves.

In a way this process is the equivalent of a psychotic patient attempting to convince his psychiatrist that it is the psychiatrist that is paranoid, and astonishingly, the psychiatrist agrees! (...) >>>

- Filed on Articles in "The Political Pathology Asylum" -

Vlogs Speak Louder Than Words

- Cartoon by Robert Arial on Townhall -

Can The Propaganda War Be Won?

There was no doubt about it. Israel was caught off guard - or was simply beyond caring - and lost the propaganda war in the Hezbollah War in Southern Lebanon in 2006.

But now it looks like things are about to change. Andrew Ian Dodge in an article yesterday on Pajamas Media, "Israel Shakes Up the Information War" chronicles how Israel now gets its message out through Twitter and YouTube, thereby bypassing the entire hostile mainstream crowd.

The article relays the innovation of the Israeli consulate in New York holding a press conference on Twitter on their own hashtag stream for anyone to follow. Hashtag #AskIsrael to this day produces a variety of tweets, largely balancing #Gaza which is an echo chamber for Hamas fans (yes, they exist).

The IDF's video channel on YouTube is already far too popular to the taste of the lamestreamers, in this case a Postmodernist self-loather in Jerusalem.



Observe the word-smith at work in this Yahoo!News article, "YouTube becomes WarTube for Israel-Gaza fight" ... reporting that the ... "Israeli military campaign in the Hamas-led Gaza Strip is already fighting a rear-guard battle on the Internet" ... then erratically going on to relate two major coups, as follows:

"The Israeli military campaign in the Hamas-led Gaza Strip is already fighting a rear-guard battle on the Internet. Last week at the start of the war, Israel launched a YouTube channel that is primarily being used so far to showcase its air strikes. (See "Nowhere to Hide" post below for more...) "The blogosphere and new media are basically a war zone," in the battle for public opinion said Maj. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman. The Israeli military site is fast-becoming one of the most viewed YouTube channels around the world. Along with the YouTube site, the Israeli military has just launched a new blog to feature more information.

This is a live example of a pomo attack on reality: hoping that readers will come away with the perception that Israel has already lost the PR battle, while subsequently mentioning the facts that belie it - as if they were of no consequence (facts are irrelevant: thought creates reality, hence the manipulation of 'perception').

And can someone please explain why a single Muslim family, stranded somewhere on a United States airport, has been Dominating the World's Headline News the entire day?

Twitter is proving to be a veritable cornucopia of information: we just lifted this digest of Editorials and Opinion on the Current IDF Operations off "Israel Politik", the site of the innovative Israeli Consulate in New York City (here's their page on Facebook).

Incidentally, in our recent post "Human Sacrifice in the Pit of Hell" (this title should be understood literally) we mentioned that Hamas, using the people of Gaza as a human shield is entirely consistent with the morals of collectivism: individuals doing their ultimate duty towards the whole.

Israel Politik touches upon the barbaric tactic in "Who invented the “Human Shields” method?": "Hamas has released an official statement declaring that Dr. Nizar al-Rayyan who was killed in a pinpointed attack earlier today is the father of the “Human Shields” method". He invented this practice to stop the Israelis from phoning the occupier of the home, warning him to evacuate it before a strike. The perversions of the Middle East are boundless.

Blogger-psychologist Dr Sanity has this to say in "If Hamas Really Gave a Damn ... about their women and children, then would all those brave, hooded, Hamas fighters hide behind them while courageously shooting off rockets into the Israeli civilian population? Or is that just one of those lovely little cultural traditions that motivate the political left to consider the Palestinians so morally superior to the Israelis?

Speaking of morals and 'double standards': there's this dialectical meme making its way through the cosmos that Hamas (or the PA, or Hezbollah) should be given more moral latitude than Israel, because it is the weaker party. If your mother is murdered by a rather small and weak fellow instead of a big and strong one, would that make the murder any more acceptable? The Hamas fan club thinks so.

Stay tooned for reporting the ground invasion of Gaza on #AskIsrael. (Boy, the lamestream media are so over! Has anyone told them yet?)

Updates:

- Here's an idea for joining the media war if you're on Facebook: Donate your Status to update the world about Qassams hitting Israel. Choose between Live Updates (variable, depends on how heavily Israel is attacked); Or, Daily Digest (once a day; a summary of the number of Qassams that have hit Israel).

- Honest Reporting have video petition up, demanding the MSM's news coverage starts conforming to reality. Sounds a stretch, but it does explain matters: apparently they rely on Hamas as their source of information (remember "false consciousness"?). You can watch and sign the petition on "Breaking Point".

- Fox airs an interview tomorrow with Mosab Hassan, renegade son of one of the founders of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. He's been in and out of Israeli prisons until he had a 'epithany'. Ever since he's living under an Al Qaeda fatwa.

- For those of us living in the EU and tired of the media's approach towards Israel, check out EU4Israel and their post "Hamas shooting at Israeli civilians from UN school in Gaza": "Hamas uses the same strategy used by Hizbolla in Lebanon, shooting at Israeli civilians from UN buildings. I wonder what Ban Ki Moon has to say about this?"

- Reuters: "Czechs, next EU president, defend Israeli strikes" (which is probably the reason Dutch TV pictured the Czech Rep. tonight as a haven for Neo Nazis).

- Remember, you too can bypass the lamestream by getting your information directly from the IDF Spokesperson Unit: updates on the site, the video channel on YouTube, and follow on Twitter.

Latest: "Overall, more than 25 Hamas and other terrorist sites were attacked since yesterday evening. The forces reported accurate hits. All of the Israeli forces returned to their bases safely. The IDF will continue to persistently strike any site used in Hamas’ terrorist effort and will not cease acting against all terror organizations and those who actively support them."

Breaking News:

- BNO News: "IDF: Second Stage of Operation Cast Lead Begins"

The Israeli Government issued the following statement:

A short while ago IDF forces began to implement the second stage of Operation Cast Lead. Land forces have begun to maneuver within the Gaza Strip.

The objective of this stage is to destroy the terrorist infrastructure of the Hamas in the area of operation, while taking control of some of rocket launching area used by the Hamas, in order to greatly reduce the quantity of rockets fired at Israel and Israeli civilians. (...) >>>

- Catch the latest stream of news on BreakingNewsOn

- Israel's Consul to the US, David Saranga answers the question why Israel has started a ground operation today?

Related:

- David Horowitz's Facebook Notes: "Malignant Progressives Wish Israel the Worst"
- Victor Davis Hanson (Pajamas): "Surreal Gaza"
- YNet: "Palestinian police ban pro-Hamas protests"
- Politeia: "Human Sacrifice in the Pit of Hell"
- Politeia: "The Western Press and Their False Consciousness"

- Filed on Articles in "The Press from Hell" and "Middle East Peace" -

Human Sacrifice in the Pit of Hell

Israeli retaliation is under way on Iran's proxy in Gaza. It's another case of a dystopia of Paradise, for reasons we'll explain shortly.

Qassam Count tweets: "16 rockets have been fired at Israel since the attack on Gaza has begun. 1 woman dead, 4 injured" - and "More than 5,000 rockets have been fired at Israel in the past 3 years; 200 in the past 20 days."

The propaganda twitter from behind the border speaks of 'massacres' and 'holocausts' and hospitals filled with women and children. #Gaza and #Hamas are virtual Hamas propaganda echo chambers. Someone posed the question why there aren't any tweets from an Israeli perspective on the Gaza war? Guess Israel has only soldiers on the ground; they've got another ax of grind.

The IDF attacks are pinpointed at Hamas police stations and other military installations. These are built within populated areas, effectively using the people as a human shield. This tactic of course is hardly new. It is entirely consistent with the morals of collectivism: a translation might read, individuals doing their ultimate duty towards the whole: they are the Middle Eastern equivalent of canon fodder.

The IDF has code-named the Gaza War "Oferet Yetzuka" ("Cast Lead"), referring to Hanukkah Dreidels.

A curiosity keep-sake in my possession is a supermarket cherry basket dating back when Israel vacated and handed over the Gaza settlements to the PA: they inherited a profitable orchard (paid for by the EU), but for PR considerations, turned it into a hell hole!

The debilitating reversed morality for mentally five year olds that "violence breeds only more violence" and the demonstrably false bromide that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" should be directed at Hamas et al. These dilettant petty philosophers have become pawns in a propaganda war, that aids and abetts a terrible evil of which ordinary Israelis and Palestinians are the real victims.

Does anyone remember the common knowledge of twenty years ago? If the Palestinians left the miserable refugee camps and started picking up their lives, resettling elsewhere in the Dar-al-Islam, the 'Palestinian issue' would be effectively over - something Arab regimes would never condone! So for political reasons they leave the Palestinians whom they historically dislike, to rot in the pits of hell. That, is Middle East cynicism for you ...

Here's the latest tweet from Breaking News On: "The death toll from the Israeli attacks on Gaza has risen to at least 200, officials tell Press TV; 300 to 800 reported injured. Hamas officials say the Israeli attacks are continuing after dark, new airstrike reported in southern Gaza."

- Caption: map of the UNWRA operated refugee camps in Gaza. The "1948 Arab-Israeli conflict" of which the UN site speaks was when Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq attacked Israel and lost, the beginning of the myth surrounding the 'occupied territories'. -

Update:

The title of this post should be understood quite literally. Israel Politik touches upon the barbarism of just one of the methods of human sacrifice in "Who invented the “Human Shields” method?": "Hamas has released an official statement declaring that Dr. Nizar al-Rayyan who was killed in a pinpointed attack earlier today is the father of the “Human Shields” method". He invented this practice to stop the Israelis from phoning the occupier of the home, warning him to evacuate it before a strike.

- Filed on Articles on "Middle East Peace" -

'Editing' Reality in the Interest of Perception

After the scandal of the Al Dura case - of which no one in the general public seems to be aware because it was suppressed by the mainstream media - we now have the as yet nameless incident of a Palestinian demonstrator being shot purposely in the foot by an Israeli soldier.

While the news item is all over the media (the contrast with the cautions of 'disturbing material ahead' are staggeringly hypocritical!), no reference whatsoever is made of the Al Dura precedent, in which the 'editing' of video material has been established without doubt.

It never ceases to amaze how the professional press manages to be hoodwinked in such an obvious fashion. The answer to that rhetorical question is clear however: today's subjective reporting is entirely politically motivated.

- Caption: it is generally forgotten that 'the wall' was erected after numerous terrorist attacks on Israel; it's purpose is to prevent others -

Apparently postmodern fascists believe that the proliferation of deliberate lies is in the public's interest. It says a lot of the depth of the cynicism of the neotot mindset and the 'scourged earth' tactics of their politics: propaganda and the manipulation of perception is everything to those who think that thought creates reality.

The IDF will conduct a thorough investigation into the matter. Considering the history of Paliwood, they'd better ... don't hold your breath for a retraction if it turns out that the footage once again has been subjected to an 'editing' process.

The article in American Thinker "The New York Times and the al-Dura Hoax" explains how this fact editing for the purpose of propaganda costs lives. Here's how it works in practice:

- Filed on Articles in "The Demise of the Press from Hell" -

A Busy Day on Articles: update on Paliwood fall out

We've had so much breaking news and important matters on blog and press items on Articles that perhaps it's a good idea to catalog them:

Just in: Augean Stables reporting on the verdict in the much exploited al Dura/Paliwood case.

- "The Demise of the Press from Hell: justice" - Augean Stables: "Karsenty Wins Court Decision!!"

Update:

Pajamas Media: Karsenty: "French Court Vindicates al-Dura Hoax critic"

In a stunning reversal, a French appeals court today dismissed France 2's defamation charges against Philippe Karsenty in the controversial Mohammed al-Dura case. (...) Our victory today was a victory for freedom (...) The al-Dura lie is an assault on our ability to think, to criticize, to evaluate, and finally to reject information (...) polls conducted in Europe have identified Israel as the greatest threat to world peace, greater than Iran and North Korea, Pakistan and Syria. The al-Dura hoax is one of the pillars on which these assumptions rely (...) One need only look at France 2’s own footage to realize that the “death” scene was faked. (...)

It’s the responsibility of the French government and, ultimately, the responsibility of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy — who is, for all practical purposes, the chief executive of French public television — to finally reveal the truth.

Philippe Karsenty is the founder and president of Media-Ratings, an agency that closely monitors French media outlets for anti-American and anti-Israeli bias.

Read it all >>> - Second Draft explain the case on Pajamas video >>>

Updated: 22nd May 2008

Update on the update on the Paliwood fall out: there's no fall out, the MSM are ignoring the matter altogether.

Updated: 28th May 2008
~

A number of old tots still want a finger in the EU financial pie. Also the first Rousseau clarion call of this year ... the gap between rich and poor is growing (of course: it's the natural state of the universe since 1712 - we will keep tally).

- "The Economics and Monetary Dossier: grand 'ol men stirring" - Elsevier: "Old men sound alarm in open letter"

On the day it was disclosed that Israel and Syria are holding peace talks, the German postmodern English language website Signandsight experiences a paradigm shift in its standards of objectivity (in the classical sense of the word) by carrying an article by exiled Iraqi writer Najem Wali:

- "The Middle East Peace Process: paradigm shifts all round" - Signandsights: "A Journey into the Heart of the Enemy"

More Woodwork Critter

Fatally dampening initial relief and enthusiasm, over at Front Page Magazine John Perazzo disects the credentials of yet more dishonest paradoxymorons crawling out of the woodwork, and entering the American presidential race.

This time it's a nominal 'libertarian' (small l) with pro Hamas sympathies ... whatever next? A commie with nominal respect for private property? I ask in all sincerety, would you buy a second-hand car from this guy? I'd sooner entrust road safety to George Galloway'!

Front Page Magazine: "A Pro-Hamas Libertarian" - Hat Tip: Muslims Against Sharia

As the Clinton-Obama political slugfest rages on and John McCain awaits the winner, a fourth presidential candidate also remains in the race, aggressively distinguishing himself from his rivals as the candidate most eager to negotiate with terrorists.

A Massachusetts native who served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1963-66 and in the U.S. Senate from 1969-81, Mike Gravel began his run for the White House as a Democrat but failed to gain any traction as such, thus he crossed over to the Libertarian line. Gravel’s previous claim to fame came in 1971 when he read, into the Senate record, some 4,100 pages of the “Pentagon Papers,” which Daniel Ellsberg initially had leaked to The New York Times in a move that unquestionably violated the Espionage Act’s explicit prohibition against the release of “any document … relating to the national defense which … could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.”

Today Gravel is again prepared to injure the United States, this time by working to prevent America’s strongest Middle Eastern ally, Israel, from being able to defend itself against the onslaught of its jihadist, genocidal neighbors. Specifically, Gravel has denounced (...) >>>

Israel: Celebrating 60 Years on the Edge of Destruction

At sundown Wednesday Israel began marking its 60th Independence Day with pride and uncertainty about its future.

Melanie Phillips at The Spectator (where incidentally the 180 year mark was passed in festive atmosphere) clarifies yet more (of the same) Postmodern revisionism in "The war against the Jews (21)":

"I’ve just caught up with Jeremy Bowen’s documentary on the birth of Israel which was transmitted last Sunday evening.

Sigh.

Most of what I want to say about it is said in this critique by Honest Reporting. I would just make a couple of additional points.

The first is that, like so much journalism about Israel, this programme failed to acknowledge the true perfidy of the British in reneging on the terms of the Mandate they were given to (re-)establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine.

First, in 1921/2 Churchill unilaterally give away three quarters of Palestine to the Hashemites to create Jordan;

then the UK sought to appease Arab terrorism (so what’s new?) by reneging on its undertaking to encourage Jewish immigration into Palestine, even while the Holocaust was unfolding in Europe, and instead turned a blind eye to mass illegal Arab immigration;

then it divided the quarter of Palestine that had been left for the Jews in 1922 and offered half of that to the Arabs — as a response to the terrorist attacks they were carrying out against both Jews and British to prevent the Mandate from being fulfilled.

The notion peddled by the programme that the British tried to steer a middle course between the Arabs and the Jews is simply false, as Bernard Wasserstein’s classic book, Britain and the Jews of Europe, makes all too shockingly clear.

The other point is that Bowen’s view that the creation of Israel was (...)" >>>

Tomorrow ... yet more revisionism, but of a more surprising nature!

Updated:

Enter Stage Right: Living on the edge of destruction: Israel's 60th anniversary"

"Trusting in the Rock of Israel we now place our signatures in witness to this proclamation, sitting as the Provisional State Council, on the soil of the homeland, in the city of Tel-Aviv, this day, Friday afternoon, the 5th of Iyar, 5708, the 14th of May, 1948." (...) >>>

- Filed on Articles in "Revisionism" -