Archived
news and commentary: July 17 - 23, 2006
2006/07/17 - 2006/07/23
2006/07/10 - 2006/07/16
2006/07/03 - 2006/07/09
2006/06/26 - 2006/07/02
2006/06/19 - 2006/06/25
2006/06/12 - 2006/06/18
Sunday,
July 23, 2006
News and
commentary:
"God's army has plans to run the whole Middle East" (Amir Taheri, The Sunday Times, 2006/07/23)
"What are the links between Hezbollah and Iran? In 1982 Iran had almost no influence in Lebanon. The Lebanese Shi’ite bourgeoisie that had had close ties with Iran when it was ruled by the Shah was horrified by the advent of the clerics who created an Islamic republic.
Seeking a bridgehead in Lebanon, Iran asked its ambassador to Damascus, Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, a radical mullah, to create one. Mohtashamipour decided to open a branch in Lebanon of the Iranian Hezbollah (the party of God).
After many meetings in Lebanon Mohtashamipour succeeded: in its founding statement it committed itself to the “creation of an Islamic republic in Lebanon”. To this end hundreds of Iranian mullahs, political “educators” and Islamic Revolutionary Guards were dispatched to Beirut. ...
Over the years the Lebanese branch has been woven into Iran’s body politic. Many Hezbollah militants and officials have married into Iranian religious families, often connected to influential ayatollahs. Dozens of Lebanese Shi’ites have worked and continue to work in the Iranian administration, especially in the ministries of security, information and culture. Since the mid-1980s, most of the Lebanese Shi’ite clerics have undertaken training in Iran.
In exchange, thousands of Iranian security officers and members of the Revolutionary Guards have lived and worked in Lebanon. As Ali Yunesi, Iran’s former intelligence minister, said: 'Iran is Hezbollah and Hezbollah is Iran.'""Misunderstanding the conflict" (Pieter Dorsman, Peaktalk, 2006/07/23)
"The Dutch will go to the polls for a general election later this year – November to be precise - and one party in particular is projected to do well, namely the Socialist Party, a more radical and doctrinaire Labour Party offshoot. Its leader, Jan Marijnissen, made headlines last week by comparing jihadist terrorism to the Dutch resistance during World War II:"Terrorism is a recurring thing throughout history and often has the intention to make life for an occupying power as difficult as possible. The Dutch have, during the Second World War here blown up city halls in order to disrupt Nazi Germany’s machine of destruction – most city halls kept registries with names of Jewish citizens. In the Middle East, things are not that different. Islamic fundamentalism, including its terrorist subsidiary, is a reaction to the occupation of Palestine by Israel, the American presence in the Middle East and the support of undemocratic regimes in the Middle East by the west"
Not only a false and to some highly insulting analogy, Marijnissen also fails to note that radical Islam is driven by religion and not by politics, a point that is not often understood in Europe's secular circles."
"Jenin massacre syndrome" (Sever Plocker, Ynetnews, 2006/07/23)
"After a lot of hesitancy and a short-lived attempt to take balanced positions, the worldwide left-wing has returned in full force to the "Jenin massacre syndrome."
To remind: Many of the worlds leading journalists described the fighting in Jenin during the spring of 2002 as a cold-blooded massacre of thousands of Palestinians by the brutal IDF. TV screens around the world featured Palestinian "eyewitnesses," who gave exact details of blood-curdling actions by IDF soldiers that never happened. ...
During the second week of fighting, Israel's military campaign in Lebanon is currently being portrayed as the total destruction of Lebanon, of essential civilian infrastructure, as a human tragedy on the level of the 2004 tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia.
Reading reports from left-leaning field reporters, one gets a picture that Beirut has been destroyed at least as badly as Dresden was during the Second World War. ...
As of this writing, some 360 Lebanese have been killed by Israeli military action, about half of them Hizbullah fighters (as opposed to official Lebanese statistics). After two weeks of bombing, these numbers tell the story of low-level war. There is no "destruction of Lebanon," just like there was no 'Jenin massacre.'" (Hat tip: LGF. See also: "The media and 'the massacre'" - News and commentary on the conflicting reports on what happened during the battle of Jenin.)"Exclusive: Hanged from a crane aged 16" (Susie Boniface, The Sunday Mirror, 2006/07/23)
"IT WAS exactly 6am and the start of another blisteringly hot summer day when 16-year-old Atefeh Rajabi was dragged from her prison cell and taken to be executed.
Every step of the way the troubled teenager plagued by mental problems shouted "repentance, repentance" as the militiamen marched her to the town's Railway Square.
The Iranian judge who had sentenced Atefeh to death was left unmoved as he personally put the noose around her neck and signalled to the crane driver.
Kicking and screaming, Atefeh was left dangling for 45 minutes from the arm of the crane as the crowd sobbed and - under their breath - damned the mullahs.
Atefeh's crime? Offending public morality. She was found guilty of "acts incompatible with chastity" by having sex with an unmarried man, even though friends say Atefeh was in such a fragile mental state that she wasn't in a position to say no. ...
It was when Atefeh appeared before Judge Rezaii for a fourth time that she lost her temper - and also her life. In a rage she tore off her hijab - a headscarf - and told the judge she had been raped and it was his duty to punish her tormentors, not their victim.
Rezaii told her she would hang for her "sharp tongue" and that he would put the noose around her neck himself. It became a personal crusade as he travelled to Tehran and convinced the Supreme Court to uphold his verdict. ...CRUELTY OF SHARIA LAW
PENALTIES imposed by Iran's religious mullahs include:
THEFT: Amputation of hands or feet for persistent offenders.
ADULTERY: Death by stoning.
UNMARRIED SEX: 100 lashes.
CONVERSION TO RELIGION OTHER THAN ISLAM: Death.
SODOMY: Death for adults, 74 lashes for consenting child.
LESBIANISM: 100 lashes, or on the fourth occasion death.
HOMOSEXUAL KISS: 60 lashes.
RUBBING ANOTHER MAN'S THIGHS OR BUTTOCKS: 99 lashes - on 4th occasion, death."
"Outcry as border guards seize British 'dirty bomb' lorry heading for Iran" (Jason Lewis, Mail on Sunday, 2006/07/23)
"Border guards seized a British lorry on its way to make a delivery to the Iranian military - after discovering it was packed with radioactive material that could be used to build a dirty bomb.
The lorry set off from Kent on its way to Tehran but was stopped by officials at a checkpoint on Bulgaria's northernborder with Romania after a scanner indicated radiation levels 200 times above normal.
The lorry was impounded and the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NPA) was called out.
On board they found ten lead-lined boxes addressed to the Iranian Ministry of Defence. Inside each box was a soil-testing device, containing highly dangerous quantities of radioactive caesium 137 and americium-beryllium.
The soil testers had been sent to Iran by a British firm with the apparent export approval of the Department of Trade and Industry."
Saturday,
July 22, 2006
News and
commentary:
"Can Israel win?" (Ralph Peters, New York Post, 2006/07/22)
"ISRAEL is losing this war. For a lifelong Israel supporter, that's a painful thing to write. But it's true. And the situation's worsening each day.
A U.S. government official put it to me this way: "Israel's got the clock, but Hezbollah's got the time." The sands of the hourglass favor the terrorists - every day they hold out and drop more rockets on Israel, Hezbollah scores a propaganda win.
All Hezbollah has to do to achieve victory is not to lose completely. But for Israel to emerge the acknowledged winner, it has to shatter Hezbollah. Yet Israeli miscalculations have left Hezbollah alive and kicking.
Israel has to pull itself together now, to send in ground troops in sufficient numbers, with fierce resolve to do what must be done: Root out Hezbollah fighters and kill them. This means Israel will suffer painful casualties - more today than if the Israeli Defense Force had gone in full blast at this fight's beginning.
The situation is grave. A perceived Hezbollah win will be a massive victory for terror, as well as a triumph for Iran and Syria. And everybody loves a winner - especially in the Middle East, where Arabs and Persians have been losing so long.
Israel can't afford a Hezbollah win. America can't afford it. Civilization can't afford it. Yet it just might happen.""Israeli troops raid Lebanese village" (Benjamin Harvey, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/07/22)
"Hundreds of Israeli troops moved in and out of Lebanon Saturday, taking control of a village and engaging Hezbollah militants by land, sea and air as part of the country's limited ground campaign.
Israeli fighter bombers fired missiles at transmission towers in the central and northern Lebanese mountains, knocking three television stations off the air and cutting phone links to some regions. Israeli warplanes targeting a truck hit a Christian suburb of Beirut earlier this week, but Saturday's raids were the first major airstrikes in the Christian heartland.
The 11-day-old Israeli air campaign has hammered mainly Shiite Muslim regions in southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Beirut's southern suburbs.
Thousands of Israeli troops are massed along the border but so far Israel has ruled out a large-scale ground incursion to sweep Hezbollah out of the area."Added in archive:
"Wisconsin's Ward Churchill - Only Worse" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2006/06/30)
Friday,
July 21, 2006
News and
commentary:
"Some one thousand protesters gathered..."
(John McConnico, AP, 2006/07/21)
"Some one thousand protesters gathered at the City Hall Square in Copenhagen, Denmark to protest against Israel Friday July 21, 2006. Israel massed tanks and troops on the border Friday and warned civilians to flee Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone. On poster is Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.""Govt Sponsored Website Censors Fjordman" (Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal, 2006/07/21)
Irony II. Yesterday, The Brussels Journal published an essay by Fjordman warning about the increasing censorship and self-censorship in Europe. Today the govt sponsored website kifkif proves him right by — censoring links to the article.
Paul Belien himself was visited by a police officer earlier this week in order to be questioned about "alledged 'racist' articles" on his site:"Kifkif.be, a Brussels-based website lavishly subsidized by the Belgian (Flemish and Brussels Regional) authorities and by the King Baudouin Foundation (which is controlled by the Belgian royal family), censored a reader’s comment linking to the Fjordman article In Praise of the First and Second Amendments which was published on our website yesterday.
On the kifkif forum a certain Corneel remarked that the Fjordman text makes him wonder whether The Brussels Journal might be right. The link was removed and replaced by the message
“link naar xenofobe en provocerende tekst verwijderd door moderatie” (Link to xenophobic and provoking text removed by moderator)
and Corneel was warned:
“Corneel, je weet dat linken naar dergelijke teksten van dergelijke sites niet mogen gepost worden!” (Corneel, you know that it is forbidden to link to that kind of texts on that kind of sites!)
Kifkif does not want to lose its subsidies."
(See also: "In Praise of the First and Second Amendments" (Fjordman, The Brussels Journal, 2006/07/20))
"Exiled Bakri in SOS plea" (David Wooding, The Sun, 2006/07/21)
Irony I: "EXILED preacher of hate Omar Bakri has begged the Royal Navy to rescue him from war-torn Beirut.
The Muslim cleric who fled Britain last year, tried to board a ship full of women and children yesterday but was turned away.
He also wrote to the British embassy asking to be allowed back on “humanitarian grounds”.
In an email to officials, dole scrounger Bakri pleaded: “The current situation in Beirut left me without any choice but to appeal to you to grant me a visit visa to see my children for one month.”
But his bid to sneak on one of our ships was blocked at harbour gates by sharp-eyed officials. ...
The mad mullah, who hailed terrorists as “magnificent” martyrs, bought a £150,000 bolthole in the exclusive Doha district of Beirut.
In March he boasted: “When I left England I bought a one-way ticket out. I never want to see the place again.”
But cowardly Bakri changed his tune as soon as bombs started dropping.
He contacted the British embassy asking to be allowed back to see the six children he deserted. Bakri said last night: 'What concerns me is my safety. I’d be happy with a month’s visa but this morning they told me I couldn’t because I’m not a British citizen any more.'"Added today:
"In Praise of the First and Second Amendments" (Fjordman, The Brussels Journal, 2006/07/20)
"Somali Islamic Crackdown: 60 Arrested for Watching Movies" (Mohamed Olad Hassan, AP/ABC News, The Washington Post, 2006/07/19)
"Cruise fair game for 'South Park' once more" (ninemsn, 2006/07/17)
Thursday,
July 20, 2006
News and
commentary:
"Zapatero wearing the kaffiyah"
(AP/Ynetnews, 2006/07/20)"Spanish PM in scarf scandal" (news24, 2006/07/20)
Zapatero II: "Madrid - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has come under criticism for posing with a Palestinian scarf on his shoulders after accusing Israel of using force "abusively" to defend itself, press reports said on Thursday.
Zapatero commented on the Middle East conflict at an international Socialist youth festival in Alicante, which was attended by more than 3 000 people including Palestinians and Israelis on Wednesday.
The premier condemned both the kidnappings of Israeli soldiers and the use of "abusive force which does not allow innocent human beings to defend themselves".
A Palestinian participant placed the traditional Palestinian scarf, or kaffiyeh, on Zapatero's shoulders to be photographed with him.""In Spain, anti-Semitism is new leftist trend" (Ignacio Russell Cano, Ynetnews, 2006/07/20)
Zapatero I: "Although many experts had foretold of the imminent disappearing of European Jews, nobody expected such a virulent explosion of anti-Semitism in Spain, not even under a Leftist government.
The first signal came on Monday, 5 December, when during a dinner with the Benarroch family, Zapatero and wife began claiming what Vidal Quadras, member of the European Parliament, described on the radio as "a tirade of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism".
By the moment the Benarroch couple had left the table to express their regrets, Zapatero was explaining his lack of surprise about the Holocaust: according to the people present, Zapatero claimed to understand the Nazis. ...
The recent clashes with Hizbullah, however, have promoted the longest and hardest diatribes against Israel, forcing Zapatero to loose a cover for what it was long known in Spanish politics: His hate towards Israel, Jews and Zionism.
In the third day of such rants, before a gathering of the Socialist Youth Movement and a day before a demonstration against Israel, Zapatero showed at last his true colours: At the closing of the meeting he let the teenagers take pictures of him wearing a Palestinian kaffiyah.""Iran leader asks Germany for help on Zionism" (Reuters/Ynetnews, 2006/07/20)
"German government official says a letter written by Iranian President Ahmadinejad to German Chancellor Merkel asks her to help solve Palestinian problem, deal with Zionism. Official says letter ‘rather weird’
A German government official said on Thursday that letter written by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to German Chancellor Angela Merkel asks her to help solve the Palestinian problem and deal with Zionism.
“There’s nothing about the nuclear issue (in the letter),” the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the extreme sensitivity of the issue for the German government.
"It’s all related to Germany and how we have to find a solution to the Palestinian problems and Zionism and so on. It’s rather weird,” The official, who has seen the letter, said. ...
'It’s not negative like Ahmadinejad’s letter to Bush. He is not criticizing Germany,” he said. “It’s basically about how we have to work together and solve the problems of the world together.'""Nasrallah speaks, vows surprises" (The Jerusalem Post, 2006/07/20)
"Hizbullah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, spoke for the first Thursday since the beginning of the week, saying Hizbullah's entire infrastructure and leadership hierarchy were still intact and functional.
"I can confirm without exaggerating or using psychological warfare, that we have not been harmed," he said, referring to the strike.
Al-Jazeera, which aired only excerpts of the interview, said it was taped earlier Thursday. The interviewer said the interview took place amid tight security precautions but did not say where.
Nasrallah has been in hiding since Israel's onslaught began July 12, though he gave a speech on Hizbullah television on Sunday.
"Hizbullah has so far stood fast, absorbed the strike and has retaken the initiative and made the surprises that it had promised, and there are more surprises," he said, warning that a Hizbullah defeat would be "a defeat for the entire Islamic nation."
Nasrallah added that, 'All of Israel's talk about 50 percent of our infrastructure being damaged is nonsense.'""In Praise of the First and Second Amendments" (Fjordman, The Brussels Journal, 2006/07/20)
"In a true, totalitarian society such as the old Soviet Union, crime rates are usually low because of the crushing state control of all its citizens. Supposedly, street crime in Moscow in the USSR was rare, probably because the state itself was the biggest criminal. In contrast, in the European Union of today, which is not a totalitarian society, at least not yet, crime rates are booming in major cities. At the same time, authorities are stepping up censorship efforts, openly talking about media “speech codes” and aggressively slapping labels such as “racism” or “xenophobia” on anybody daring to criticize the immigration policies or pointing out the inadequate response to Muslim gang violence.
There is obviously a connection here: The less control the authorities have with Muslims, the more control they want to exercise over non-Muslims. As problems in Europe get worse, which they will, the EU will move in an increasingly repressive direction until it either becomes a true, totalitarian entity or falls apart. ...
Gerard Alexander warns against what he calls “illiberal Europe,” by which he means the dramatic expansion of laws to sanction speech that “incites hatred” against groups based on their religion, race or ethnicity. Such laws have been passed in Western European nations since the 1970s. “The real danger posed by Europe’s speech laws is not so much guilty verdicts as an insidious chilling of political debate, as people censor themselves in order to avoid legal charges and the stigma and expense they bring.” ...
According to Alexander, this trend represents “the greatest erosion of democratic practice in the world's advanced democracies” since WW2." (See also: "Illiberal Europe" (Gerard Alexander, AEI, 2006/04/03))"Patience is Wearing Thin" (Victor Davis Hanson, The RealClearPolitics, 2006/07/20)
"For years, the Arab world clamored for the Israel "problem" to be solved. Then peace and security would at last supposedly reshape the Middle East. The Western nations understood the "problem" as being Israeli retention of lands it had captured in Sinai, the West Bank, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon after defeating a series of Arab forces bent on destroying the Jewish state.
But after the Israeli departure from Sinai, Gaza and Lebanon, and billions of dollars in American aid to Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians, there is still not much progress toward peace. Past Israeli magnanimity was seen as weakness. Now Israel's reasoned diplomacy has earned it another round of kidnapping, ransom and rocket attacks.
Finally, the world is accepting that the Middle East problem was never about so-called occupied land -- but only about the existence of Israel itself. Hezbollah and Hamas, and those in their midst who tolerate them (or vote for them), didn't so much want Israel out of Lebanon and Gaza as pushed into the Mediterranean altogether. And since there will be no second Holocaust, the Israelis may well soon transform a perennial terrorist war that they can't easily win into a conventional aerial one against a terrorist-sponsoring Syria that they can. ...
Yet for all their threats, what the Islamists -- from Hezbollah in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley to the Iranian government in Tehran to the jihadists in Iraq's Sunni Triangle -- don't understand is that they are slowly pushing tired Westerners into a corner. If diplomacy, or aid, or support for democracy, or multiculturalism, or withdrawal from contested lands, does not satisfy radical Islamists, what would?""The Taliban’s Silent Partner" (Robert D. Kaplan, The New York Times, 2006/07/20)
"But now, just two years after Hamid Karzai was elected as the country’s first democratic leader, the coalition finds itself, like its Soviet predecessors, in control of major cities and towns, very weak in the villages, and besieged by a shadowy insurgency that uses Pakistan as its rear base.
Our backing of an enlightened government in Kabul should put us in a far stronger position than the Soviets in the fight to win back the hinterland. But it may not, and for a good reason: the involvement of our other ally in the region, Pakistan, in aiding the Taliban war machine is deeper than is commonly thought. ...
There are two opposing tipping points to watch out for. The first is the moment the Taliban leadership feels safe in bases inside Afghanistan and decides it can mobilize to infiltrate and eventually topple the cities. That is when Presidents Bush and Karzai lose. Mr. Karzai would need to form his own private militia, and perhaps cut a deal with Mullah Omar in order to survive.
The other tipping point is when the Taliban leaders inside Pakistan feel themselves under so much pressure from the local authorities that their energy is spent on survival rather than on running operations. That is when Messrs. Bush and Karzai win. Unfortunately, this seems less likely than the first tipping point.""Cease-fire with Hezbollah wouldn't bring Mideast peace" (Steve Huntley, Chicago Sun-Times, 2006/07/20)
"A quick, simple cease-fire -- as some are calling for now -- is not the answer to the war Israel is fighting. A sustained, effective Israeli offensive that at least drives Hezbollah from the border and takes down the missile threat is the only answer to the new Middle East war inflicted on the world by Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. ...
Lebanese civilians are dying, not because of Israel, but because of the aggression of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. To paraphrase something an Egyptian leader once said about Syria, rest assured that Syrian President Bashar Assad is willing to fight this battle to the last Lebanese. How long will the Lebanese people tolerate seeing their lives thrown away as cannon fodder for the half-century-old war against Israel? Certainly the Palestinians, when given the choice, have opted not to build a nation for their children but rather to feed them to the maw of the anti-Israeli war machine. It's starting to get hard to take as serious or sincere appeals from Palestinians for their own state.
Give peace a chance is the underlying message in the calls for a cease-fire. Well, Israel gave peace a chance, and it got war. It withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and got a Hezbollah terrorist state within the state of Lebanon firing missiles at towns in Israel. The Israelis pulled out of Gaza last year and got a Hamastan in the proto-state of Palestine shooting rockets at Israeli civilians.""Deadliest Day Yet in Assault on Lebanon" (Edward Cody and John Ward Anderson, The Washington Post, 2006/07/20)
"Israeli warplanes continued their punishing airstrikes across Lebanon on Wednesday, including for the first time striking Beirut's main Christian enclave and later bombing a bunker believed to be sheltering Hezbollah leaders. Ground troops meanwhile launched their most significant incursion so far into southern Lebanon, joining attacks that killed more than 50 Lebanese on the deadliest day since hostilities erupted eight days ago.
Hezbollah in return fired more than 100 rockets into northern Israel, hitting Haifa and, for the first time, Nazareth, where two Israeli Arab boys were killed. ...
About 9 p.m., the Israeli military attacked a bunker used by senior members of Hezbollah, a military spokesman said. An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said dozens of planes were involved, dropping about 23 tons of explosives on the bunker. Hezbollah told news services that none of its leaders or members were killed in the strike."
Wednesday,
July 19, 2006
News and
commentary:
"Somali Islamic Crackdown: 60 Arrested for Watching Movies" (Mohamed Olad Hassan, AP/ABC News, The Washington Post, 2006/07/19)
"Islamic Militiamen Arrest About 60 People in Somalia for Watching Videos, Part of Several Raids":
"MOGADISHU, Somalia Jul 19, 2006 (AP)— Islamic militiamen who rule Somalia's capital arrested about 60 people for watching videos in several overnight raids in the capital, an Islamic court official and residents said Wednesday.
The roundup was the latest move by the militiamen to forcefully apply their strict interpretation of Islamic law, a practice that has stoked concerns that they want to remake Somalia after Afghanistan under the Taliban including offering a haven to terrorists.
Those arrested "will be rehabilitated and then we will release them after they are told the disadvantages of watching such films and what Islam says about watching such films," said Moalin Shire, an official of the Islamic court whose jurisdiction includes one video hall that was raided.
Militiamen armed with assault rifles raided five halls in the northern Sinay neighborhood late Tuesday and arrested women and men who had paid to watch videos, said Dahir Ali Wehliye, a resident in the area." (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch.)"Lebanon: The Only Exit Strategy" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2006/07/19)
"Every important party in the region and in the world, except the radical Islamists in Tehran and their clients in Damascus, wants Hezbollah disarmed and removed from south Lebanon so that it is no longer able to destabilize the peace of both Lebanon and the broader Middle East. ...
Hence the golden, unprecedented opportunity. Hezbollah makes a fatal mistake. It crosses the U.N.-delineated international frontier to attack Israel, kill soldiers and take hostages. This aggression is so naked that even Russia joins in the Group of Eight summit communique blaming Hezbollah for the violence and calling for the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty in the south.
But only one country has the capacity to do the job. That is Israel, now recognized by the world as forced into this fight by Hezbollah's aggression.
The road to a solution is therefore clear: Israel liberates south Lebanon and gives it back to the Lebanese.
It starts by preparing the ground with air power, just as the Persian Gulf War began with a 40-day air campaign. But if all that happens is the air campaign, the result will be failure. Hezbollah will remain in place, Israel will remain under the gun, Lebanon will remain divided and unfree. And this war will start again at a time of Hezbollah and Iran's choosing.""Israeli ground troops enter Lebanon" (Ravi Nessman, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/07/19)
"JERUSALEM - Israel declared Tuesday it was ready to fight Hezbollah guerrillas for several more weeks, raising doubts about international efforts to broker an immediate cease-fire in the fighting that has killed more than 260 people and displaced 500,000. The military said early Wednesday it sent some troops into southern Lebanon searching for tunnels and weapons.
Despite the diplomatic activity, Israel is in no hurry to end its offensive, which it sees as a unique opportunity to crush Hezbollah. The Islamic militants appear to have steadily built up their military strength after Israel pulled its troops out of southern Lebanon in 2000. ...
At daybreak Wednesday, a small number of Israeli troops were operating just across the border inside southern Lebanon, looking for tunnels and weapons, the Israeli military said without providing any more details.
The incursion came a day after Israel indicated that it might send large numbers of ground troops into the southern Lebanon, but Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman denied Wednesday's operation was part of any such operation."
Tuesday,
July 18, 2006
News and
commentary:
"Arab world fed up with Hizbullah" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/07/18)
"With the exception of the Palestinians, the Arab world appears to be united in blaming Iran and Syria for the fighting in Lebanon. Until last week, Arab political analysts and government officials were reluctant to criticize Hizbullah in public. But now that Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his top aides are in hiding, an anti-Hizbullah coalition is emerging not only in Lebanon, but in several other Arab countries as well. ...
Hizbullah and their supporters were hoping that the massive Israeli military operation in Lebanon would trigger large-scale protests throughout the Arab world, creating instability and threatening to bring down some of the Arab regimes.
But the response on the Arab street has been so disappointing for Hizbullah that its leaders are now openly talking about an Arab "conspiracy" to liquidate the Shi'ite organization.""IDF: One week to remove threat in North" (Yaakov Katz, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/07/18)
"Forty to fifty percent of Hizbullah's military capability has been destroyed in the six days of the IDF counter-attack following last Wednesday's Hizbullah raid in northern Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The IDF, it is understood, believes it needs another week or so minimum to achieve its military goals in terms of alleviating Hizbullah's capacity to threaten Israel.
The IDF further believes, it is understood, that it will be given at least that long to continue its actions, in light of the G8 nations' essential support for Israel and those nations' branding Hizbullah and Hamas as being responsible for the current escalation.""Hezbollah fires rocket-a-minute at Israel" (UPI, 2006/07/18)
"JERUSALEM, July 18 (UPI) -- Shelling of Israel by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon reached a peak of one missile a minute for an hour Tuesday as Israel's air force stepped up bombing runs.
By midday Tuesday, more than 1,000 missiles and other rounds had been fired into Israel in the weeklong cross-border barrage, the Arutz Sheva newspaper reported. However, while some Israeli injuries were reported, there were no fatalities, Ynetnews reported.
The Israel air force attacked some 50 targets in Lebanon overnight, including suspected terror structures in Beirut and weapons storehouses."Added today:
"Spirits Are High in Syria’s Capital as Leaders Openly Show Support for Hezbollah" (Katherine Zoepf, The New York Times, 2006/07/16)
Monday,
July 17, 2006
News and
commentary:
"A Lebanese woman shouts anti-Israeli slogans..."
(Wolfgang Rattay, Reuters, 2006/07/17)
"A Lebanese woman shouts anti-Israeli slogans while holding up a placard of Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Berlin, July 17, 2006. Some 1,200 Lebanese and Palestinian protesters gathered in front of Berlin's famous Brandenburg Gate to protest against Israel on Monday.""Marchers chant "death to Israel" at Berlin landmark" (Reuters, 2006/07/17)
"BERLIN, July 17 (Reuters) - More than 1,000 Lebanese and Palestinians staged an anti-Israeli protest at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on Monday, police said.
A Reuters witness said demonstrators were chanting "death to Israel" and "death to Zionists", while some carried placards bearing the image of Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Police said around 1,200 people took part in the protest at the German capital's famous landmark, not far from a major memorial to the millions of Jews killed in the Holocaust.""When Progressives Treat With Reactionaries" (Martin Bright, Policy Exchange, July 2006)
A study of "The British State’s flirtation with radical Islamism" [PDF]. Via David Frum: "British journalist Martin Bright has just written a devastating paper, based on actual British Foreign Office documents, detailing the disastrous directions in which this conviction has led the UK government.":
"But they [the documents] also show that the Government’s policy on British Muslims has been heavily influenced by the Foreign Office’s determination to engage with Islamist radicals. ...
Of wider concern are the links of MCB affiliates such as the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) and Young Muslim Organisation UK (YMO) to the politics of radical Islamism.Where the leadership of the MCB turns to Pakistan and Bangladesh for inspiration, many affiliates such as FOSIS and YMO are more directly influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood. As the analyst Lorenzo Vidino has pointed out in his essay, “The Muslim Brotherhood’s Conquest of Europe”, such organisations are involved in a sophisticated strategy of implanting Islamist ideology. among young Muslims in Western Europe. ...
“What most European politicians fail to understand is that by meeting with radical organisations, they empower them and grant the Muslim Brotherhood legitimacy,” Vidino writes. 'There is an implied endorsement to any meeting, especially when the same politicians ignore moderate voices… This creates a self-perpetuating cycle of radicalisation because the greater the political legitimacy of the Muslim Brotherhood, the more opportunity it and its proxy groups will have to influence and radicalise various European Muslim communities.'""Europe's Disproportionate Criticism" (Gerard M. Steinberg, The Wall Street Journal/IMRA, 2006/07/17)
"Europe's role, once again, is limited to repeating the same old tired phrases. The EU called Israel's response and attacks on Beirut and in Gaza "disproportionate" and violations of international law. France in particular was outraged. "For several hours, there has been a bombardment of an airport of an entirely sovereign country, a friend of France... this is a disproportionate act of war," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said. It may have escaped the minister that the initial act of war originated from Lebanon and that the target of this unprovoked aggression is supposedly also a "sovereign country" and "friend of France."
The knee-jerk condemnation of their country was not lost on Israelis who recall the broken promises from 2000 and the visceral antipathy toward them when they had to fight Arafat's terror war. Beyond the rhetoric, European officials offer no framework for a proper and "proportionate" level of force in response to mass terror aimed at the ultimate goal of 'wiping Israel off
the map.'""Cruise fair game for 'South Park' once more" (ninemsn, 2006/07/17)
"The Comedy Central network has decided that Scientology and movie star Tom Cruise are once again fair game for the cartoon satire of South Park, but the Prophet Mohammad remains off-limits — sometimes.
The Viacom Inc.-owned cable channel plans to air a repeat of a South Park episode from last autumn lampooning the Church of Scientology and its movie star adherent on July 19, four months after cancelling a rerun of the show.
At the same time, an animated image of Mohammad created for a more recent two-part episode entitled Cartoon Wars will remain blacked out — as it was for its original telecast - in future airings and DVD releases, the network said this week. ...
Parker and Stone said they were deeply disappointed Comedy Central, like many media outlets in America, had succumbed to a perceived threat of violence in censoring an image Islam regards as blasphemous.
They noted that outlandish religious satire has been a recurring theme of the show since its debut in 1997, poking fun at Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Buddhists and Muslims.
"If you're saying that this is the one thing we can't do, besides Tom Cruise, because they're threatening violence, well then, I guess that's what everyone should do," Parker told a gathering of critics on Thursday. 'Then if the Catholics don't want us ripping in Jesus anymore, they should just threaten you with violence, and they'll get their way.'" (See also: "Do the right thing! Show Mohammed!" (Michelle Malkin, michellemalkin.com, 2006/04/13))
"Israeli girls write messages on a shell..."
(Sebastian Scheiner, AP, 2006/07/17)
"Israeli girls write messages on a shell at a heavy artillery position near Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel, next to the Lebanese border, Monday, July 17, 2006. " (Hat tip: Diogenesis.) [UPDATE: See also: "Putting things in perspective" (Lisa Goldman, On the Face, 2006/07/20)]"How I spent my summer vacation" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/07/17)
"FOR SIX years, since Ehud Barak surrendered to the demands of the radical, EU-funded Israeli Left and withdrew IDF forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Israel stood by and did nothing as Hizbullah built up its massive arsenal of rockets and missiles. The IDF did nothing as Iran effectively set up shop along the border. ...
For six years Israel was deterred by Hizbullah. The knowledge that the Iranian proxy has missiles capable of hitting Haifa and Hadera sufficed to convince three successive governments to ignore or appease repeated Hizbullah provocations while praying that Hizbullah would wait for the next government to start its war. ...
Because these groups exist only to destroy Israel and advance the cause of global jihad, they cannot be deterred. They have no interest other than war and there is nothing they are not willing to sacrifice in order to win. Since they cannot be deterred, the only thing that Israel can do is destroy their ability to fight by demolishing their military capabilities. ...
As my interrupted vacation proved, by retreating from Lebanon and Gaza, Israel effectively surrendered the initiative for waging war to its enemies. Israelis no longer control when war comes to us. It is therefore imperative that the Olmert government understand that retreat is not an option. Otherwise, whether at work or at play, at home or on the town, we will all be sitting ducks.""Mic picks up Bush: 'get Hezbollah to stop this s***'" (The Times, 2006/07/17)
"President Bush was in no mood for diplomatic niceties at the G8 summit, judging by remarks made to Tony Blair as the leaders of the world's most powerful industrial democracies sat down to lunch today.
Unaware that a microphone at the summit was switched on, Mr Bush, chomping a piece of bread, used the opportunity to suggest a way out of the latest criss in the Middle East.
"See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s***," he said.
Mr Bush also hinted that Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, would take a bigger role, and appeared to express frustration about UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
"I think Condi’s going to go pretty soon," Mr Bush said. Ms Rice is widely expected to travel to the region after a UN fact-finding team returns.""Iranian official suggests prisoner swap" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/07/17)
"DAMASCUS, Syria - Iran's foreign minister said Monday a cease-fire and a prisoner swap would be "acceptable and fair" in the Israeli-Lebanese conflict.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was speaking after talks with Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa.
"We believe that we should think of an acceptable and fair (deal) to resolve this," he said. "In fact, there can be a cease-fire followed by a prisoner swap."
On Sunday, Lebanese officials said that Israel had sent the terms of a possible cease-fire through Italian mediators. The terms were the release of two captured Israeli soldiers, and a Hezbollah pullback to roughly 20 miles from the Israeli-Lebanese border.""Gunmen attack market in Iraq, killing 41" (Robert H. Reid, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/07/17)
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - Dozens of heavily armed attackers raided an open air market Monday in a tense town south of Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and wounding about 90, Iraqi and U.S. officials said. Some reports put the death toll far higher. Most of the victims were believed to be Shiites. ...
Monday's attack in Mahmoudiya began about 9 a.m. with a brief mortar barrage, followed by an armed assault by dozens of gunmen. They killed three Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint, then stormed the market, firing automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades, police Capt. Rashid al-Samaraie said.
Iraqi troops arrested two suspects in a nearby house and seized weapons, including a sack of grenades, the U.S. military said. AP Television News video showed charred vendor stalls and burned out vehicles lining the market area along a four-lane street running through the town. ...
The attack also sent shock waves through Mahmoudiya, an agricultural center with Shiites living in the town center and Sunnis in the outlying neighborhoods. Frantic relatives milled about the hospital, scuffling with guards and Iraqi soldiers who tried to keep order.
"You are strong men only when you face us, but you let them do what they did to us," one man shouted at a guard.""Attack Add" (Michael B. Oren, The New Republic, 2006/07/17)
"The lesson of the Six Day War": "Back in 1966, Israel recoiled from attacking Syria and instead raided Jordan, inadvertently setting off a concatenation of events culminating in war. Israel is once again refraining from an entanglement with Hezbollah's Syrian sponsors, perhaps because it fears a clash with Iran. And just as Israel's failure to punish the patron of terror in 1967 ultimately triggered a far greater crisis, so too today, by hesitating to retaliate against Syria, Israel risks turning what began as a border skirmish into a potentially more devastating confrontation. Israel may hammer Lebanon into submission and it may deal Hezbollah a crushing blow, but as long as Syria remains hors de combat there is no way that Israel can effect a permanent change in Lebanon's political labyrinth and ensure an enduring ceasefire in the north. On the contrary, convinced that Israel is unwilling to confront them, the Syrians may continue to escalate tensions, pressing them toward the crisis point. The result could be an all-out war with Syria as well as Iran and severe political upheaval in Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf.
The answer lies in delivering an unequivocal blow to Syrian ground forces deployed near the Lebanese border. By eliminating 500 Syrian tanks--tanks that Syrian President Bashar Al Assad needs to preserve his regime--Israel could signal its refusal to return to the status quo in Lebanon. Supporting Hezbollah carries a prohibitive price, the action would say.""Israel's New Fear" (Ralph Peters, New York Post, 2006/07/17)
"SOMETHING big hasn't happened in the current round of fighting between Israel and its terrorist foes. That absence represents a potentially fatal change in Israeli policy.
For all of the air-attacks on targets in Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Force has not sent in ground troops. If IDF tanks don't thrust across the border in force in the next few days, it will reflect the greatest crisis of will in Israel's history.
Israel is signaling its enemies that it's afraid to risk its soldiers' lives. And the terrorists read the message clearly. This caution will only encourage Israel's enemies - just when the seemingly inevitable advent of Iranian nuclear weapons poses the greatest threat to Israel since 1948. ...
Is Israel's spirit of sacrifice dying? If so, it may prove fatal. Once brilliant in the attack, the IDF has declined into a defensive mindset that air-strikes can't camouflage. Meanwhile, the ruthlessness of Israel's enemies has increased horrifically. They would sacrifice millions of their own people to destroy Israel.
Perhaps the air campaign to date is only meant to prepare the battlefield for a strike by ground forces. For Israel's sake, let's hope so. Because Israel's enemies will only be unified - and never defeated - by attacks from 15,000 feet.""Israel answers attack with lethal blows" (Hamza Hendawi and Lee Keith, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/07/17)
"BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah and Israel traded fierce barrages for a sixth day Monday, as the latest eruption of warfare in the Middle East showed no sign of easing. Rockets struck deep inside Israel, killing eight people in Haifa and bringing waves of retaliatory airstrikes from Lebanon's north to south and in the eastern Bekaa Valley near Syria.
The toll on both sides rose to above 200. In addition to the Israeli victims at a rail repair facility in the Haifa attack on Sunday, an Israeli rocket blew up a Lebanese army position, killing eight soldiers, and a sea-launched missile killed at least nine people in the southern Lebanese port of Tyre.
Israel warned of massive retaliation after the Haifa attack, and accused
Iran and Syria of providing the weaponry used in it. Israeli military officials said four of the missiles were the Iranian-made Fajr-3, with a 22-mile range and 200-pound payload, and far more advanced than the Katyusha rockets the guerrillas rained on northern Israel in previous attacks.""Train bombers 'funded by British businessmen'" (Daniel McGrory, The Times, 2006/07/17)
"SOME of the main fundraisers for the terror group suspected of masterminding the Bombay train bombings are operating from Britain, according to Indian intelligence officials.
The officials accuse Britain of failing to act against a number of wealthy businessmen, who they claim are using bogus charities to funnel up to £8 million a year to Kashmiri militants groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which remains the main suspect for orchestrating the synchronised bombings that killed 182 people.
Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, raised the terror link with Tony Blair at the G8 summit in St Petersburg yesterday, reminding him that India handed over a detailed dossier three years ago identifying 14 men living in Britain and was assured the suspects would be investigated.
“Since then nothing has been done, and the money still coming from Britain helps to pay for the terrorist camps where we believe the bombers were trained and this atrocity was planned,” a senior Indian security official said last night.
Gordon Brown pledged that the Treasury would use new laws to shut down terrorist fundraising and ordered that the bank accounts of 54 organisations be frozen, although records show that last year Whitehall only recovered £9,318.
“Britain talks about the need for all nations to get tough together, but more money comes from the UK to Kashmiri terror groups than any other country,” the official added."Added today:
"Gunfire and candy as Lebanese hail Hezbollah" (Jihad Siqlawi, AFP/Yahoo! News, 2006/07/12)
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Articles
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"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)
"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)
"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)
"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)
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