Arab hostility toward Israel seems to oscillate between pathological aggression and victimized resentment, underscored the entire time by utterly shameless denial. So Hamas can violate the ceasefire for months by shooting at Israeli civilians and at Israeli soldiers. They can brag openly about those violations. They can declare over and over in the plainest terms that they have no interest in renewing a ceasefire. They can hold barbaric rallies and go so far as to mock Israel for keeping whatever ceasefire there is while they themselves are violating it. But after three days of Israeli self-defense UN officials are standing on stage telling international media outlets that Hamas was observing a super-secret ceasefire and Israel is responsible for its breakdown. It's jaw-droppingly brazen. It's hard to blame the Palestinians for trying though. This has been a successful anti-Israel trick for more than half a century. Months and years of genocidal incitement, boasts about glorious Arab victory, derision of Israeli cowardice - and then, when Israel responds, a frantic run into the international community's skirts to moan piteously about Israeli aggression. It's not just that the West let this become a habit. Through international conferences where anti-Semitism is excused as "anti-Zionism," routine bait-and-switch anti-Israel diplomacy, and pervasive anti-Israel double standards - the international community has spent decades creating and nursing this pathological petulance. It's been this way since before Arab and Muslim countries realized they could excuse their genocidal rantings by reference to "The Occupation" (although in subsequent years they became so enamored with that bit of rhetoric that they invoke it even when it makes no sense - it's a reflexive verbal tic, a placeholder for "now I get to say something anti-Semitic about Zionist cabals").
How deeply entrenched is this tactic? It goes back at least as far as the Six Day War and probably to the 1950s. It's always the exact same pattern - vicious aggression, spectacular failure, historical revisionism (Lebanon II is the exception - since Hezbollah could claim victory they get to boast about how they deliberately maneuvered Israel into the war).
The next few paragraphs are an overview of the broad sweep of anti-Israel diplomacy, mostly to show how tediously predictable this stunt is. If you don't have the patience for that you can just drop down to the link dump at the bottom. It's a small demonstration of the sheer mendacity it must be taking to rewrite the few weeks before Operation Cast Lead. But if you skip the middle you'll miss out on all the insanely frustrating historical parallels.
UN Palestinian Stooge: "It's Obvious" That Israeli Attack Violated 48-Hour Truce That No One Knew About Until Now
Posted: 29 Dec 2008 09:25 PM PST
They're just making this up as they go along:
Palestinians in Gaza believed Israel had called a 48-hour lull in retaliatory attacks with Hamas when Israeli warplanes launched a massive bombardment of militant installations in the Gaza Strip, a UN official said Monday. Karen Abu Zayd, commissioner of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which helps Palestinian refugees, raised the possible violation of an informal truce in a video press conference with UN reporters from her base in Gaza... Abu Zayd said Palestinians in Gaza were surprised when Israeli warplanes sent more than 100 tons of bombs crashing down on key security installations in Hamas-ruled Gaza starting Saturday morning because it was in the middle of the lull...
What we understood here (was) that there was a 48-hour lull to be called, and this was called by the Israelis, Abu Zayd said. They said they would wait 48 hours. That was on Friday morning, I believe, until Sunday morning, and that they were going to evaluate. There was only one rocket that went out on Friday, so it was obvious that Hamas was trying, again, to observe that truce to get this back under control, she said.
"It was obvious": the awkward phrase of unblinking morons who can't formulate even dumb justifications for their shameless lies. First year argumentation students roll their eyes at that phrase but this idiot is getting broadcast by international media outlets. (1) There were 25 shells fired at Israel on Friday morning which is 24 more than 1. (2) If Hamas backed off even a little bit over the course of that day it was because one of their rockets fell short and killed two Palestinian schoolgirls. (3) Hamas never, ever wavered from their total rejection of a renewed ceasefire. (4) Hamas had spent all of the last week mocking Israeli restraint - you have to be dribblingly gullible to believe that they were just this close to being respectful of two days of contemplative Israeli introspection.
Worse than being insultingly stupid - this is pathetic. Hamas got caught flat-footed because they believed their own propaganda. The genuinely thought that Israel would appease them no matter how blatant their war crimes. So now to save face they're going with "the sneaky Jews lied to us." How quaint. References and previously behind the jump...
Global Outrage As Egypt Sprays Palestinian Civilians With Gunfire
Posted: 29 Dec 2008 03:41 PM PST
Just kidding, obviously. That's just what normal countries get to do when angry mobs try to breach their border and shoot at their forces:
Gaza residents on Sunday breached the border fence with Egypt in several places and hundreds have crossed the frontier prompting Egyptian border guards to open fire, said officials and witnesses on both sides of the border... At least 300 Egyptian border guards rushed to the area to reseal the border, the official added on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press... Egyptian border guards opened fire to drive back the Palestinians. Residents also commandeered a bulldozer to open new breaches. Egyptian state television reported that Hamas security forces shot an Egyptian border guard and killed him. An Egyptian security source said Hamas forces had also shot an Egyptian policeman in the leg.
Yet another reason why Egypt is highly unlikely to pull Hamas's chestnuts out of the fire they've been stocking for months. Keep in mind that this is a country where media outlets conduct interviews about whether mass rape of Israeli women is a justified war tactic; where politicians have tried to prohibit Israeli religious pilgrimages; where a popular anti-Semitic conspiracy theory is that Israel is handing out distorted Korans with all the "Muslims should annihilate Jews" passages deleted - and the Egyptian government is still comfortable saying that this war is Hamas's fault. References:
* Gaza residents breach Egypt border; Israel bombs 40 smuggling tunnels [Ha'aretz]
* So... When Does Hezbollah Get Involved? (Plus: Why Egypt Will Stay Out) (UPDATE: Or Not) [MR]
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - If You're In Egypt You Can Pretty Much Forget About Fighting Back When You're Assaulted
* Egyptian MPs: Stop Israeli pilgrimages [JPost]
* Egyptian Group Warns Israel Passing out "Distorted" Korans in Africa, Leaves out Verses on Jihad and the Joooos.... Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - If You're In Egypt You Can Pretty Much Forget About Fighting Back When You're Assaulted
* Another Day, Another Sign That The Muslim Brotherhood Is Gearing Up To Roll Egypt
* Sound Of Church Bells Drives Egyptian Mob Into Frenzy. Final Tally: 13 Injuries (Plus: Entirely Predictable Media Coverage)
Moronic Former Israeli Defense Minister: You Know What Would Be Really Cool? Foreign Peacekeepers In Gaza.
Posted: 29 Dec 2008 10:47 AM PST
Didn't this guy get fired after he tried to ruin the last war that Israel fought?
Former Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday that Israel should not rule out having an international force maintain the peace in the Gaza Strip, once Operation Cast Lead is concluded. "That option should be explored and if enough international elements set up a force which could be deployed in strategic points, it shouldn't be ruled out." The operation's end, he said, is still far: "If we compare this operation to the Second Lebanon War, (back) then we didn't have direct negotiations with the Hizbullah either. Hamas is like Hizbullah, but unlike Lebanon, there is no nation to deal with... what we need to do is find an element to fill that gap.
Hopefully someone will pat him gently on the head, congratulate him on his apt analogy, and point out that it means that putting foreign troops in Gaza would be a total disaster. Sure he might say that his plan is endorsed both by Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad - who doesn't think that Jews have any rights to Jerusalem and keeps stressing Fatah's unity with terrorists - and by anti-Israel EU diplomats. But that's kind of my point too.
References: * Peretz: Arab world should be part of new Gaza order [YNet]
* Take Away Hezbollah's Collaborators, Human Shields, And Useful Idiots. Disband UNIFIL Now. [MR]
* Moderate Western-Trained Palestinian PM: Not So Much With This Jews And Jerusalem Thing [MR]
* Fatah Moderates Respond To Billions In Aid By Stressing Unity With Terrorists [MR]
* EU envoy: Gaza int'l force may be set up quickly [JPost] Previously:
* UNIFIL Soldiers Catch Hezbollah Moving Weapons, Get Shooed Away
* He Misspoke: Biden's Obnoxiously Smug Assertion About Hezbollah Was Actually An Aggressively Stupid Policy About Syria (Plus: They Just Don't Know Stuff)
* Obama NSA Pick James Jones: Hey, How About Some International Troops In The West Bank?
Hamas's Militarized Mosques Not Immune From Israeli Jets
Posted: 29 Dec 2008 09:20 AM PST
In addition to that University weapons facility, Israeli jets damaged at least two separate mosques yesterday. It's not just that Hamas uses mosques as weapons depots - they've always done that. But Gaza mosques are now full-blown barracks, used to house and brainwash Hamas's most fanatical soldiers:
If Israel ground forces were to roll into Gaza, they would face 15,000 fighters who have absorbed the lessons of the Lebanon War... "For two years Hamas, with Iranian assistance, has been working hard on developing its military power, using Hezbollah as a model."... The heart of the force is the 1,000 elite Iz al-Din troops who "undergo rigorous military training as well as participating in ideological classes held in mosques." They undergo urban warfare training, including exercises simulating an assault on a settlement complete with covering machine-gun fire and antitank fire prior to the assault. Some of the instructors were trained in Iran and Lebanon.
The weird thing about this is that the link between political Islam, jihadism, and military conflict is an Islamophobic myth. So I have no idea what they're even doing in there. In any case I'm guessing we'll hear more outrage about the Israeli attacks than we heard about, say, that Fatah raid on a Hamas mosque last September. Or that other Fatah raid on a Hamas mosque two Novembers ago. Etc.
References: * IAF air strikes target Hamas centers at Islamic University [JPost]
* Hamas Uses Mosque For Explosives Storage, Snipers' Nest, Wounding IDF Soldiers [MR]
* Hamas Fighters 'Using Hezbollah as a Model' [Danger Room]
* Palestinian Arab police raid mosque. No one protests! [Elder]
* Islamic World Explodes Into Riots As Fatah Targets Hamas Mosques, Imams [MR]
Previously: * Boston Globe Notices UN Is Not Entirely Fair To Israel (Plus: Lebanese Muslims Pissed That Even Israel Is More Humane Than Syria) [Video]
* Palestinians Commit Several War Crimes in Just a Few Hours. Instead of Reporting That, Reuters Publishes Gripping Tale of Glorious Palestinian Martyrdom (and We're Not Even Exaggerating About That...)
* Guns? Hidden In A Palestinian Mosque? No Way
Several Good Reasons Why Hezbollah Either Will Or Won't Attack
Posted: 29 Dec 2008 07:51 AM PST
A few reasons why Hezbollah will probably attack Israel: (1) They say they're going to. (2) IDF intelligence is taking the risk seriously enough that they're already doing overflights to try to deter Hezbollah. (3) They were already ready to start a war last week. (4) There's only so long that Hezbollah can have Al Jazeera painting them as the heroes of the Palestinian cause without doing something about it. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, albeit one with an well-trained army: a lot of what they accomplish is through image management and propaganda. A few more days of painting themselves into a corner and Nasrallah won't have any alternative. (5) Iran has a significant stake in making sure that Hamas doesn't get dismantled. They control Hezbollah and might try to double down.
And now a few reasons why Hezbollah will probably stay on the sidelines: (1) They say they're going to. (2) Israel had already publicly changed its doctrine concerning target selection in Lebanon, officially putting all Lebanese infrastructure on the table. Nobody really paid attention because it was the post-Lebanon II IDF and everybody thought it was bluster. But given the intelligence coup that Operation Cast Lead appears to be built on: Hezbollah has to wonder just how much Israel knows about their military infrastructure and to what degree the IAF would be able to untangle it from Hezbollah's human shields. (3) The Lebanese army - such as it is - isn't sure whether Israel's serious about all of Lebanon being in play. But they're not taking any chances: they're preventing protests from getting out of control and are monitoring the border for Hezbollah activity. (4) Hezbollah and Syria have every incentive to wait for an Obama administration before heating up the border. In the meantime Nasrallah can whip up public support by scapegoating counties like Egypt for selling out Hamas. (5) Iran has to calculate that Hezbollah involvement puts Iran's diplomatic position at risk, if only because they'll be forced to again stake their reputation on Hezbollah's success. They have their own a huge incentive to wait a couple of months. So yeah - I dunno. It's the Middle East and we're talking about pathologically anti-Semitic genocidal lunatics. Tough to make predictions.
References and previously after the jump...
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