Sunday, January 27, 2008

Qassams and Blockades

For the past few weeks we have been witness to an absurd situation. The Palestinians, with the approval of their Hamas terrorist quasi-government, launches rockets and morters at civilian Israeli border communities. Israel responds by closing its borders and stopping Israeli supplies from reaching the terrorist entity. Then the Palestinians, with the support of the leftist international community hypocrites, cry afoul "collective punishment", and demand that we supply them with fuel. Can you imagine such a standard being applied to any country under attack from a neighbor other than Israel? Would civilian and infrastructure targets be off the table if your civilians are being attacked?

What is more absurd is that Israel's own supreme court lends a hand to this ridiculous process, by agreeing to hear urgent appeals by "human rights" groups who worry only about the welfare of the Palestinians but not that of Israel's own citizens. Can you imagine the US supreme court intervening in military tactics in Iraq?

Let the Palestinians walk and suffer in the cold, as long as Sderot children bedwet, as PM Ehud Olmert said.

The world forces Israel to fight with its hands tied behind its back, like a prize fighter who would be allowed to defend himself in the ring using only his right great toe.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Haaretz--self hating Jews

Anybody who has been reading my blog is familiar with my rantings about Israel's far left anti-Zionist newspaper Haaretz.
Recently they have outdone themselves. In a meeting between Condoleezza Rice and leading Israeli businessman and journalists, Haaretz's managing editor David Landau told Dr. Rice that "Israel wants to be raped" and forced by the US into a settlement with the Palestinians and it would be his "wet dream" to see this. He also called Israel a "failed state".
Here is the story in The Jewish Week

Lest there be any doubts in anybody's mind, the editors of Haaretz share views about Israel with the likes of Norman Finklestein, Noam Chomsky and John Mearsheimer.

What is particularly dangerous in this is that foreign reporters view Ha'aretz as representing respectable liberal thinking in Israel, whereas they in fact represent the view of a very small radical post-zionist left.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

More leftist dribble

Since Annapolis, and with GW's upcoming visit to Israel, many on Europe's and Israel's left are beginning to drool at the mouth again regarding the possibility of a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians. The favorite scapegoats being blamed for the peace messiah not coming include the usual parade: the settlers, Bibi, Olmert, and the religious. We're seeing headlines in Ha'aretz of "progress" in the meetings between Livni and Palestinian officials, reports of an impending prisoner exchange (despite Haaretz's abysmal history of grossly inaccurate reporting on this numerous times in the past), and of the "strengthening" of the Fatah moderates. According to these pundits, the only things interfering with diplomatic progress towards an agreement are settlements and the lack of Israeli "gestures" to the Palestinians.

As I have explained on a previous post, for several reasons there is no chance of an agreement in the foreseeable future. Even though Olmert and other western leaders know this, they cannot come out and say this openly. Instead, for political reasons, they must maintain the illusion of diplomatic activity, to satisfy their constituents and the Europeans. At the same time they must manage the conflict diplomatically and militarily, keeping it on low flame and out of the headlines.

I think that this explains Israel's approach in dealing with Gaza and the Kassam problem. The only other alternative is a massive invasion and prolonged occupation of the strip, with all that this entails. Of course such an invasion doesn't guarantee the stopping of Kassams (it didn't when we were in Gaza), and the military and diplomatic costs would be very high, perhaps not justifying any benefits gained. I think that both sides are playing a game by certain unwritten rules that both can realistically "live" with, until such time that one side, either intentionally or unintentionally, breaks them. At the same time Israel needs to continue work at a furious pace towards the development of an effective anti-rocket system.