Posts dealing with the military and political aspects here, international opinion here, as well as etymology.
As in the early stages of the war in 2006, the variety of reactions from the region are somewhat unexpected. the major actors in the region are a far cry from the usual accusations against Israeli military actions. Egypt, for one, is seen as complicit in the Israeli campaign. Hundreds of protesters in Washington, DC gathered, predictably, in front of the Israeli embassy. However, they marched from there to protest in front of the Egyptian embassy, as they did in London, as well. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit blamed the UN Security Council for not doing anything to stop the Israeli operation, however he used fairly non-inflammatory in urging Israel “to abstain from launching ground operations.” Furthermore, the Egyptian administration has not exactly become more popular by its refusal to open the border and allow Gazans into Sinai.
Yet, Gheit’s most “incendiary” comments were probably those in which he said that “Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel before any truce deal can be reached,” thus drawing the ire of Hezballah chief Hassan Nasrallah, saying Egypt was blaming the victim and that if they will not open the crossing between Sinai and Gaza “it would be considered a partner in the killing of Palestinians by the Israeli military.” This only served to prolong the yelling match between Egypt and Hezballah…
Another major player on the scene is Saudi Arabia, whose interests never quite seem to mesh with the rest of the region’s. The Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, has “blamed Palestinian divisions for Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.” Implicitly placing the blame on Hamas, al-Faisal said that “This terrible massacre would not have happened if the Palestinian people were united behind one leadership.” Nevertheless, despite the obvious dislike of Hamas (probably due to their close ties with Iran), Saudi Arabia continues, at the same time, with a typical anti-Israel line, calling Israeli actions an “onslaught” and a “massacre.”
NEXT: More on the Arab World, Jewish World, and the ever-changing Israeli public.
UPDATE: Galei Tzahal reports that Egypt has renewed its ties with Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al, in a supposed attempt to achieve a cease-fire.
Gaza blows opportunity of millineum.
Imagine it’s 1964. President Lyndon Johnson just signed the landmark Civil Rights Act. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. celebrates by order ing his supporters to launch missiles from black neighborhoods into white communities. Picture the rockets’ red glare as they rise from Watts and land in Beverly Hills. Up they soar in Harlem, and down they rain on the Upper West
. Side.
Such mayhem would have triggered a white crackdown on black areas. The squandered opportunity for greater racial equality and economic prosperity would have hobbled black progress, probably for decades. Barack Obama’s presidential victory might have been a non-starter had King taken this low road. Thank God Almighty, he did not.
While imperfect, this analogy approxi mates today’s conflict between Palesti nians and Israelis in the Gaza Strip. Is rael’s recent military retaliation violence would have been unnecessary had Gaza’s leaders capitalized on the excellent hand
they were dealt. -
Israelis withdrew from Gaza in August 2005. Israeli soldiers literally dragged de vout Jews kickirtg and screaming from land they believed the Torah granted them. Authorities evacuated 21 Jewish
I settlements, dismantled 38 synagogues, and even excavated 47 deceased Jews from Gaza’s Gush Katif cemetery.
Gaza’s leaders had the opportunity of a millennium. “Free at last, free at last:’ they could could have said. “Now, watch
Deroy Murdock
us flourish!’ A Gazan MLK could have asked J.P. Morgan Chase to help con struct the Middle East’s most modern fi nancial system. He could have called Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic to . help build world-class hospitals. Teams from Georgetown, NYU, and Stanford could have helped establish universities whose graduates could outthink anyone from Cairo to Kabul. Estonian experts could have jetted in to explain how free trade and a flat tax can enrich small na tions with powerful neighbors. The world would have come running to help elevate this benighted, Denver-sized ter ritory into an oasis from which the mi rage of Middle East peace could blossom into reality – if Gazans only asked. But no. Top Gazans had a different develop ment strategy: Fling rockets at Israel.
Between Israel’s disengagement from Gaza through last Nov. 30, Palestinian forces fired 3,123 rockets into southern Israel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs calculates. Since Hamas seized control in June 2007, Gazans have shot 1,685 rockets into Israel – 1,2U of them be tween Jan. land Nov. 30, 2008. Ramas fired 177 missiles at Israel, even during a
June 19-Dec.19, 2008, “state of calm.” In deed~ rockets are Gaza’s chief export.
Gazans also fired 2,299 mortar shells into Israel since 2005. Israelis traded land for peace. Instead, they got land for pieces of shrapnel. Since Israel withdrew, Gaza’s rockets imd mortars have pum- . meled southern Israel, killing 17, wound ing 851 and terrorizing some 200,000.
Israel has had it with these explosions and casualties. It is defending itself ap propriately, despite complaints that Is rael’s response is not proportional. If pro portionality is key, may Israel shoot 5,422 missiles and mortars indiscriminately into Gaza’s residential neighborhoods?
Israel’s critics hush up when Ramas uses Gazans as human shields. Ramas’ TV broadcasts ask civilian men, women and children to protect suspected terror sites from expected Israeli strikes.
“This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine:’
. Hamas parliamentarian Fathi Rammad said on Al-Aqsa TV last Feb. 29.
Israel’s self-defense will be tough on rank-and-file Palestinians. Some of them will get stuck in the cross-fire as Israel disarms Hamas. This is sad, but inevi table. As Gazans curse Israel’s jets, they should remind themselves that they had a perfect chance to make the world proud, and they blew it.
* Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.
Here is an interesting television show.
Escape from Hamas.
Part 1 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td8YdfNoPBk
Part 2 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqIg0Tnav5o
Part 3 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M09nLJvoX9U
Part 4 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4kmK1aDLpg
Part 5 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEf9DUW8fMU
Part 6 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXLskhpKXW4
00911x, no offense, but that analogy is pretty dumb. If anything, establishing the state of Israel in 1948, a rejection of the historic dhimma, could be compared to a slave revolt by black slaves in the southern states against their white plantation masters, but even that would be useless because the Jews are sui generis.