Ahmadinejad buffoonery - the gift that keeps on giving

Our dear, dear friend and nonstop source of content, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, unveiled the latest in Persian high-tech today: The unmanned "Karrar" bomber. Ahmadinejad introduced the marvel of technology with the following bizarre, yet entirely in-character, statement:

"The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship."

What?

I don't want to goof on the Iranian defense industry too much - they have managed to do a heck of a lot almost entirely on their own since 1978. But, at the same time, I suspect the IAF is not especially concerned about a bunch of 20 ft unmanned drones flying across the desert. Sounds a lot like Air-to-Air Combat 101, which IAF pilots pass whilst in middle school.

It's hard to ignore the timing on this bit of blowhardity, as the Iranians also just announced (yesterday) they were firing up their first fission reactor.

Iran is certainly doing its part to promote peace, stability, and international understanding, isn't it?

Mossad strikes again, Hamas isn’t happy about it

The Israeli foreign intelligence service, the ever-secretive Mossad, zapped another senior Hamas guy, this time frying him in a Dubai hotel.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, died under rather unclear circumstances in January while staying at an unnamed Emirate hotel. Hamas leaders have expressed all sorts of official outrage over this targeted killing of a legitimate target, seemingly forgetting the hundreds of completely innocent Israeli women and children they have blown to bits over the years.

I don’t condone this sort of action, of course. But I also don’t pretend to know what the Israelis should be doing instead. Short of a better idea, I think its best for me to just pass along the news and keep my mouth shut.

Tom Friedman, Smartest Man on Earth, says radical Islam is losing

Tom, you are my hero (well, you and Big Al). You make so much sense, suggest such brilliant solutions, and generally agree with me on almost everything. I would like to formally submit my application to join the "Tom Friedman Mentoring Society". I may also get a "Tom Freidman is My Hero" t-shirt to go along with the "Al Gore is My Hero" shirt already in my closet.

Not kidding about the t-shirt. The sentiment happens to be true; I am a supporter of We Can Solve It and Repower America, but the shirt itself is a good way to start an argument in good old suburban North Texas.

At any rate, My Other Hero Tom wrote in yesterday's NYT about the current state of the jihad. Did you notice the radical Islamists are losing the War of Terror? Well, they are.

As Tom so deftly points out, everywhere the the Beardy Boys have taken charge (Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, etc), they have brought with them total economic stagnation (if not outright retreat), lowered standards of living and education, unnecessary and unwanted violence, repression, etc etc etc. And now we're seeing militant Islamists lose elections (Lebanon, Iraq) or steal elections (Iran). The Paki middle class is tired of bombs in the streets of Peshwar and have withdrawn support for the Taliban and foreign rebels causing trouble in the Northwest.

The bad news is that the US' friends in the Arab world, those shining examples of secular, progressive, populist democracy like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are not really "winning", despite their medieval rivals' decline. This lack of a better idea is what keeps the jihadists in business, albeit in a much more limited capacity.

Go read the op-ed, along with everything Tom Friedman has ever written. The man's a genius.

Israel: The Hasidim make the rest of us look like idiots

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From MSNBC today: The ultra-orthodox Jews of Jerusalem have been rioting for days, burning trash, blocking streets, and generally making royal a-holes out of themselves. Their issue? They are pissed that authorities have arrested a Hasidic woman who has been starving her 3-year-old son.

The boy is hospitalized. His weight is, according to doctors, 15 pounds. This is a three year old kid. Fifteen pounds.

The unnamed mother, apparently mentally ill, has been caught on video at the hospital, disconnecting the kid's feeding tube. She claims he's ill, and she has nothing to do with it. Her Hasidic neighbors believe her and have used the excuse to go nuts against authorities.

The Hasidim are also still pissed at the more secular mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, for planning to open a parking lot near the Old City on Saturdays.

I know, right?

With the Hasidim, if you're not exactly like them, you are against them and, more importantly, against God. They will go to almost any lengths to impose their beliefs on everyone else. Sound familiar?

The Hasidim, Haredim, Chabad-Lubavitchers (call 'em what you want - there are differences, but not significant ones in my eyes) have become the enemies of Israel. Their growing ranks, and growing political clout, are making compromise with the Palestinians increasingly difficult. They also make the rest of Israel's (and the world's) Jews look like idiots. The Hasidim are the source of most of the ugly stereotypes which exist regarding Jews. They are as intolerant, close-minded, and self-righteous as any takfiri Muslim fundamentalist, and are, in their way, just as divisive and dangerous as any jihadist organization you care to name.

I hate these guys. I wish I had a suggestion for what to do about them.

Too true to be funny

Daily YouTube: Hamas continues to spread peace and understanding...

Picked this up from Jewish Issues Watchdog today: Hamas has put on a little play at the Islamic University in Gaza, in which two actors dressed as Hasidim talk about how they hate the Muslims and want to drink and wash in Muslim blood.

First, I feel compelled to point out how chopped up the video is. I'm relying on the supplied sub-titles, and overlooking a great many, obvious edits. Is this thing REALLY as inflammatory as it appears? I don't know. We know this isn't much of a break in the normal tone of Hamas' "cultural education" agenda - any "culture" which can spawn a kids character as evil as Farfour, the martyred, hate-spewing Mickey Mouse ripoff, is certainly capable of staging a play about Jews drinking blood.

Second, I notice that the turnout for the play is not exactly SRO.

I'm not really sure what it is that we're seeing here. It may be something very different from what it appears.

But maybe its exactly what it appears to be. It is Hamas. It is Gaza.

At any rate, watch this little jewel and decide for yourself.

Swedish pointy-heads protest Israeli tennis

The anti-Israel Master Race in Sweden took to the streets today, battling police in an effort to interrupt an Israeli-Swedish tennis match.

A tennis match. What, they couldn't find a rhythmic gymnastics competition to disrupt?

The far left in Scandinavia is truly amazing. Blessed with a nearly homogeneous population, a wonderful little Socialist paradise of a welfare state, and a work ethic that makes the Australians look like Tom Peters, the Swedes (and the rest of the blonde-and-blue Nordics) are usually amongst the first to start pointing fingers at "injustice" wherever they can find it. I can only assume this is to assuage their feelings of complete impotence on the world stage. I mean, really; who the hell cares what Sweden thinks?

Here's an idea: Give the world something more useful than Ikea and Haagen-Dazs, and maybe we'll drum up some interest in your point of view. Oh, wait, I forgot Volvo. You got me there. I'll shut up now.

I don't know why the pointy-headed liberal Euro gets such a rise out of me, but they do, and without fail. Let's relocate Sabra and Shatila and a few of the other craphole-where-the-Arabs-dump-the-Palestinians-so-they-don't-have-to-really-deal-with-them camps up north, and then lets see what they have to say.

Effing hypocrites.

Israeli elections: And you think OUR system is screwed up?

Tuesday's general election in Israel has resulted in the biggest political mess in the country's turbulent political history.

The short version is: Kadima (center) won 28 Knesset seats, Likud (right) won 27, upstart Yisrael Beiteinu (waaaayyyyyy right) won 15, and venerable old Labor (left) has 13.

A party has to have 61 seats to form its own government.

Obviously, we are in for a right-leaning coalition of some variety. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (Kadima) may be able to pull a workable coalition out of her hat, but the smart money says she will be stonewalled by Avigdor Lieberman (head of Yisrael Beiteinu), and it will fall to Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud to rally the righties and take over the Prime Minister's office.

This ain't good news, folks.

Netanyahu is a blowhard. He's a snakeoil salesman who will escalate the confrontation with the Palestinians, probably piss off Obama, and won't get us one step closer to a solution. He's going to be beholden to Shas, the ultra-Orthodox, ultra-right party, as well as to former protege Lieberman, who's fascisti are more secular but no less fanatical. Abbas is now a lame duck, as the Palestinian populace will likely react to Netanyahu's confrontationalism by swinging more towards Hamas. Just as Iran was able to make W. look like an idiot (not that hard to do, I'll admit), they will run circles around Netanyahu, as his ideology leaves him with few options.

Oh Ariel, how we miss you! Now the Olmert chickens have come home to roost. Even successful prosecution of the recent adventure in Gaza cannot erase the dissatisfaction of the 2006 Lebanon/Hezbollah fiasco.

All this doom and gloom is predicated on Netanyahu being able to form a government. He may not. Israeli politics are so splintered, so muddy, and so crowded with parties, it's become almost unworkable. Livni was given the opportunity to form a government back in the summer and was unable to do so. Power is so fragmented that no one is able to effectively marshal a majority. There have been five general elections in the past 10 years, and no one has the moral or political clout to move their agenda forward in any meaningful way.

What's the answer here? I mean, short of Ariel Sharon rising miraculously from his vegetative state and retaking the reins? Hell, I have no idea. The Israelis have to sort this for themselves. But sort it they must. This is no time for political chaos, and yet that's exactly what we have.

Yikes!

Another day, another Middle East diatribe...

I don't know about you, but I am beginning to suffer from tired-head at the mere mention of Gaza.

What's left to discuss, rant about, or debate? It seems very clear to me that Hamas played it's usual cards - hiding weapons in apartment buildings and schools, using civilians as human shields, trumpeting Israeli "atrocities" from the rooftops, whilst doing everything in their power to make more of those "atrocities" occur. The depravity and cynicism displayed by Hamas and their fellow-travelers is staggering, vomitous, and pretty much expected by now.

Truly, there is no workable compromise possible with these lying murderers.

So, I'm reading They Must Be Stopped by Brigette Gabriel. If you have not read this, I think you probably should. Not because every word in it is true, or that it contains any real enlightenment. But because it makes an argument that I have wondered about for a long time: Islam, according to Gabriel, is basically about conquest and subjugation of every other religion on the planet.

First things first: I have some basic suspicions whenever someone indicts an entire (major) religion as intolerant and bent on destruction of all competing religions. Jews have long experience with this sort of accusation (Protocols of the Elders of Zion, anyone?) and we, in particular, should be very hesitant to believe blanket, negative generalizations.

With that disclaimer in place, I have been waiting since at least 2001 (at least!) for a Muslim scholar to tell me, in specific terms, how AQ, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc differ from mainstream Islamic thought. If such a discussion or dissertation has been put forth, I have not seen it. Seems like a well-written piece of this nature would get a lot of play, wouldn't it?

If such a document, in fact, does NOT exist, why not? Is it because AQ et al really don't differ significantly from mainstream Islamic thought?

Hell, I don't know. I really don't.

However, I can't help but think our stifling political correctness prevents us from asking tough questions along these lines. Serious questions about religion (except for Christianity, I've noticed) are verboten in public discourse - ask a serious question about Islam's true inclination to participate in the peaceful co-existence dance party, and you get shouted down by all sorts of well-meaning pinheads.

I guess my point with all this stream-of-consciousness is this: Is the typical Ahmed-on-the-street willing to accept Israel's existence in exchange for some guarantee that the IDF isn't going to drive a Merkava or ten thru his front door every once in a while?

If the answer is yes, then this will someday pass, and it's just a matter of time. If the answer is no, then what? If we're going to have an Israel (and we ARE going to have an Israel, we have to), then is this the price? Does the IDF have to go flatten civilian areas every couple of years? Do we have to endure CNN telling us how evil Israel is? The Euros turning red in the face over another "atrocity" visited upon the poor, defenseless, innocent Palestinians?

It's this simple. If the Palestinians want peace, the situation can be resolved. If they will be satisfied with nothing short of the destruction of Israel, well, we can recycle the headlines from the last 30 days for the next 30 years.

The rubble is flying in Gaza, again

The IAF fired on Hamas security compounds in Gaza earlier today, apparently with a great deal of success. An estimated 60 aircraft launched on at least 40 different Hamas targets across the territory. At least 155 Palestinians are dead, and many more wounded, the vast majority being Hamas "security personnel" (code for "guys who shoot rockets into Israel day after day").

However, as we all know, Hamas, in its mind-boggling cynicism, routinely places legitimate targets in the midst of civilians; generally, the closer to an apartment block, school, or hospital, the better. So, as usual, Israeli attacks on "security personnel" has resulted in civilian casualties. And, as usual, the Palestinian civilians, and the wider Arab world, fail to recognize how Hamas' bloody-minded grandstanding is at fault for their misery. They, predictably, are in the street shouting "Death to Israel".

Listen, I know I am biased on the Middle East. I am a secular Jew. I was raised during the golden days of Israel - I was 2 when the Six Day War occurred, 9 during the Yom Kippur War. I have received Israeli Bonds as gifts since I was born, and the one effective part of my Jewish education was to recognize and support the miracle of the State of Israel. I am no impartial reporter on this subject. I know that, and I try to be careful to point it out as often as I can in these diatribes.

But, with all that said, I am continuously SHOCKED at the ignorance and willingness to be led into ruin displayed by the sheep-like Palestinian populace. I am continuously shocked at the callousness and cynicism displayed by the Palestinian "leadership", none of whom seem to have any regard for the lives (or the quality of the lives) of their constituency. I am continuously shocked at the same attributes displayed on a regular, predictable basis in the wider Arab world. I am continuously shocked at the relentless dismissal of reality evidenced by European (and American) supporters of Palestine.

To me, it's this simple: If the Arabs stop shooting tomorrow, there's peace. If the Israelis stop shooting tomorrow, they are all dead. Is that simplifying things too much? Maybe, but maybe not.

Either way, stay tuned - it looks like there will be a follow-up ground operation, and no doubt additional Israeli "atrocities" about which I can vent to my hearts content.

Is there Middle East hope on the horizon?

Reading various and sundry news sources over the past few days, I've run across some ideas I hadn't considered. There are some changes on the horizon which actually may bring some hope of positive change in the Middle East.

What are these changes, you ask?

Set down your coffee cup. I don't want you spitting hot beverages all over your PC.

The Clintons are going to be running US foreign policy.

I'll give you a moment to digest that one. Feel free to power up your defibrillator. Or dab the laugh-induced tears from your eyes. Whatever you feel necessary.

Yes, that's right. Hill will be driving the Dept of State, with Bill as her trusty first mate, for the foreseeable future. And this fact gives me hope for real, positive change for Israel and their neighbors.

Let's step into the WayBack Machine for a moment and revist the late 90s. The world was a pretty spiffy place, all things being equal. No real wars to speak of. Some terrorism, but nothing to speak of in the Western world. The Irish were all lovey-dovey, Russia seemed to be heading towards some sort of democracy, Bosnia had quieted down, the Chinese were focusing inward, and the Palestinians and Israelis were thiiiiissssss close to a workable two-state agreement.

Bill Clinton fostered a great deal of this rosy picture. He was instrumental in Ireland. You can argue about his effectiveness and wisdom in Bosnia, but the fact remains it cooled off relatively rapidly. The Russians certainly had their own issues to settle, with organized crime and corruption rampant, but the jury was out on Putin, and the Kremlin seemed interested in joining the family of nations, and Clinton did nothing to dissuade them from the idea. What impact Clinton had on terrorism and China can be debated, but the sitting US President gets to take credit for anything positive happening on his watch.

And what about the diplomacy between the Barak government and Arafat? It's difficult to remember those days clearly, since so much violence has occurred since, but those were heady times indeed. The idea of a two-state solution was threatening to become reality. Israel had loosened the grip on the occupied territories, the Palestinian economy was literally booming, the West was falling all over themselves to fork over aid and assistance of every description. No rocks or bullets were flying, no bombers were blowing themselves to pieces.

The negotiations were literally down to the street level. The worker bees on both sides were pouring over the Jerusalem MAPSCO, drawing the new border.

It was a close as we have EVER come to a real, workable, implementable compromise.

Clinton got it to that point.

If it weren't for Arafat, it would have worked.

So, now, eight years later, Arafat is worm food. Hamas may be worse in a lot of ways, but they also aren't duplicitous, grandstanding liars who are completely disassociated from the people they claim to represent like Arafat was (at least, I think they're not). And Bill knows this issue as well as any American politician/diplomat has ever known it.

Clinton knows how close he came to greatness. Argue his legacy all you like, if he had pulled off a solution in the Middle East, he would have gone down as one of the all-timers, up there with Jefferson, Lincoln, those Roosevelt boys, you name it. Hell, he would have RETIRED the Nobel Prize.

And now? He, and the little missus (THERE'S an image for you!), gets a do-over.

While Hillary may be looking towards the White House someday in the future, Bill is working for the history books. He's got a real opportunity to burnish his long-term reputation to the shiniest of shiny bright-bright. She has the opportunity to be mentioned in the same breath as Kissinger, and probably get a few nice pieces of hardware for the mantel while she's at it. He knows the issue. There is as much at stake as ever. Both Israel and the Palestinians are motivated to achieve some sort of solution, although I admit at the moment the respective ideas of that solution don't look very much like each other. Everybody can win here, and the Clintons can become legends of humanity.

There's some Holiday optimism for you!

World news roundup for Christmas Day

Ah, Christmas morning - for a Jew, it's a day when you are guaranteed to have time to enjoy the coffee and the paper to your heart's content. No pressing errands, no sports to tune in; a nice, relaxing morning is a virtual certainty.

So, today I use this time to catch up on events from around this lovely little planet of ours (or not, if Keanu Reeves is to be believed), and the usual spots are all popping as much as ever.

In the Middle East - which, on Christmas Day ought to be a quiet, contemplative spot, but never is - Israel and Hamas are supposedly attempting to renew the recently-expired truce in and around Gaza. Someone (Good Lord, it couldn't be anyone from Hamas, now could it?) is tossing rocket after rocket into the Negev and southern Israel. The Israelis are trying to turn the other cheek, but the picture in this morning's DMN is of crying Israeli children running from a blast site. I remind you that Israel is a modern, democratic, industrialized nation, not unlike Western Europe in terms of lifestyle of its people. Do you think the Italians or the Danes would sit still for neighbors firing explosive devices across the border at their populaces? I know this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, but its not as far off as some of the Palestinian apologists would have you believe.

Long story short, it appears a military move is likely on the Israelis side. Another useless intervention which will further embitter the civilians on both sides and lead to more "Israeli butcher" headlines in the Euro and Arab press.

Will Obama be the game-changer here? It's hard to imagine how, and I STILL don't really understand his position on this one. But there sure isn't any hope anywhere else at the moment.

In southern Africa, Desmond Tutu has called for Mugabe's removal, by force if necessary, and has bashed his own government for sitting on its hands. The cholera news hasn't improved one bit, nor will it. Mbeki clearly isn't making any difference, and clearly won't unless someone lights a bonfire under his a**. And the rest of the world just doesn't have enough at stake to do more than make some noise and levy questionably-effective sanctions. Is it hopeless? No, Zimbabweans have been thru plenty of tough times, although nothing like this in the past 100+ years, and the place is at least still in the news, even if it page 17A of the DMN.

Up on the Horn of Africa, Somalia's warlord-turned-statesman (WHAT?) president Abdullahi Yusuf may or may not be stepping down, which may or may not either kick off full-scale civil war or pave the way for a unity government. This full-scale civil war sort of intrigues me. What, exactly, has been going on in Somalia for the past 20 years if it wasn't full-scale civil war?

The only reason Somalia hasn't become Helmand-South is, I think, it's too hot even for Al Qaeda. Think about that for a moment - the most effective international terror organization in the history of the world hasn't moved into a lawless, ungoverned, wide-open spot in a meaningful way because even they can't be sure they can protect themselves effectively.

That, my friends, is a FAILED state.

In slightly lesser news, some unknown Army captain (a CAPTAIN?) marched into Conakry at the head of a few thousand troops and announced himself as the new Grand Poobah of Guinea. This west African nation had been something of a quiet spot amidst the regional fireworks of the past 25 years, mostly because Dictator for Life Lansana Conte had kept his boot on the the lid pretty firmly. Conte recently keeled over, and now it's the traditional Sub-Saharan Africa scramble, with the guy who has the most guns and the least compunction about using them winning. The US is "examining options", which I take to mean we, at the senior State Dept level, don't know what the hell is going on there at the moment, and don't care too terribly much either.

Yes, indeed, the World pages do make for interesting reading. Count your blessings, fellow Americanos. We're in the midst of relatively tough times, but its one HELL of a lot worse in many, many places this Dec 25.

Why Isn't Matt in Colfax?

I stumbled upon this and I have smiled and smiled and smiled and smiled for so long my lips fell off (but they landed in one of the dogs' food bowls which made him smile and smile and smile).

This is how we should all be spending our time.

Thank Goat for Matt!

The decline of Jerusalem

Editor's Note: This one sat in the Draft bin for some time as well. I forget when I actually wrote it, but it's safe to say it was at least a week ago. Again, don't know if that changes anything....

Interesting article on the Beeb today regarding the plight of Jerusalem. I guess I never really thought about it, but Jerusalem is a mess, it's getting worse, and there is no solution on the horizon.

The problems are several: A massive influx of Chabad/Lubavitch/Hasidic/Haredi ultra-orthodox Jews, an exodus of secular Jews, the Intifada and its aftermath, and the wall all play a part in the decline of the ancient and holy city.

The Haredim, who represent (in my opinion) the worst kind of intolerant, fanatical, ignorant, and vindictive humans on the planet, right up there with any toothless fundamentalist Muslim cleric you care to name, are probably the biggest part of the problem. When they move in, things typically don't go too well for everyone else in the neighborhood.

The Haredim move in large groups, partially because they have a ton of kids, and partially because their lifestyle only works if they are surrounded by their own ilk. That, and they generate such ill will, and stand out so egregiously, they become targets on their own.

So, a group of Haredi families decide a certain neighborhood is to their liking. They come traipsing in, buy properties for far more than they are worth, thus quickly setting up shop, and then start enforcing their will on anyone who hasn't moved out when the moving was good. They are intolerant of women not pretty much burqa'd up (floor length dresses, long sleeves, high collars, and wigs), intolerant of anyone doing anything other than praying on Saturday, intolerant of anyone not keeping the strictest of kosher, and on and on. And they're mean about it too. Harassment, physical confrontation, sneaky stuff, violence, it's all fair game to them. If you're not one of them, you are the enemy. Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Euro, it doesn't matter.

I hate these guys. They are extremists, and I have no patience for extremists of any stripe. They are the Jews that most of humanity dislikes, and I can see why.

Given the choice of living amongst these intolerant jerks or bailing, secular Jews (the Jews who built Israel and won all its wars, by the way) are bailing. And with their exit, there goes most of the municipal tax base – Haredi men don't work, they study Torah, which is a lovely ideal, but if you're going to have 12 kids, get a frickin' job.

As the productive secular Jews leave, the Palestinians also stay away. The Palestinian middle class moved deep into the West Bank years ago. With the Intifada raging a few years ago, they stopped coming to Jerusalem, preferring to do their shopping and living in Ramallah, or along the river, or somewhere the bullets were not flying. Now, the Israelis have built the wall, and coming and going is tougher than it used to be, so the middle class stays where it is, does its shopping where it is, and spends less time and money in Jerusalem.

All of which is to say Jerusalem has become a crap place to live and work. We haven't even mentioned the unending construction of the light rail, which has caused traffic chaos in the city which probably invented traffic chaos.

At some point, the thrill of living and working in the epicenter of religion for about three quarters of the world, one of the most ancient, historical spots on Earth, probably wears off. Then, you're left with asshole neighbors, a shrinking tax base, a lot of dirt and intolerance, and not many good reasons to put up with it.

Daily YouTube: We're goin' to charge Beersheba, mate

From the sadly underrated Lighthorsemen, here is the climactic charge of Beersheba.

It suffers (a lot) on a tiny screen and crap sound. If you get a chance to see this one on a larger screen and with some kick-ass speakers, you'll thank me for it.

Israel: Construction equipment the new terror tool?

Another Palestinian psycho went berserk with a piece of construction equipment in Jerusalem today, ramming buses and cars, injuring at least 10, before border police ended the rampage with a few well-placed bullets to the melon.

All in all, I guess you have to prefer this sort of low-tech terrorism to the patented Semtex Underoos previously employed by Palestinian terror groups. The Israeli body count has stayed relatively low, and both nut-jobs have been dispatched to Paradise in fairly short order.

On the other hand, it's just one more reason for Israelis to continue looking over the shoulders.

Iran: Are we approaching nut-cuttin' time?

Recent days have seen some very, very sobering news from both Iran and Israel, and a mounting sense of tension between the two countries. The US can't help but be drawn into the escalating rhetoric as well.

This is potentially very bad news. VERY bad.

The Iranians, of course, have been working on a nuclear program at some level for some time. The US and the Euros have been trying to head this off through diplomacy and some relatively mild sabre rattling, to no avail. Israel cannot, and has stated they will not, stand by and let a country who's leader has repeatedly called for its (Israel's) destruction arm itself with nuclear weapons.

The Israelis, last week, held a military exercise which was pretty clearly intended to prove out, for themselves and the world, they could, if necessary, strike Iran from the air. Sure, it's provocative. But what else can they do? The Israelis are starting to get nervous, thinking that the rest of the world isn't showing enough of a sense of urgency about the situation. Can you blame them? There's no telling what happens to US policy regarding this matter in January.

So, in response, the Iranians stage a test of medium range missiles the other day. It's lost on no one, least of all the Israelis, that these missiles can reach Tel Aviv. Whether the test was as successful as the Iranians would like for us to believe is in question, and is also completely besides the point.

The facts, from the Israeli perspective, are this:

- Iran's President has publicly and repeatedly called for Israel's destruction.
- Iran is working on a nuclear program of some sort.
- Iran has missiles which can reach Israel.
- The US military is over-extended.
- The future of US attitude regarding Iran and Israel is not certain.

The Israelis are going to look out for themselves, and they have proven time and again that they will strike first (a lesson well and truly learned in the Six-Day War and reinforced by the Yom Kippur War - don't wait for the other guy to be ready), and to hell with world opinion. When pretty much everyone in your neighborhood wants you dead, and has tried a few times to kill you, you can never be paranoid enough.

Oh boy. Oh dear. This. Is. Tense.

I don't begin to know what the answer is here. What I do know is this needs to be front and center for us all, right now. Stop whining about $4 gas - if Iran and Israel start shooting at each other, you'll look back on $4 gas as the good old days.

We do have some leverage. The Arabs are scared to death of Iran. But they're also anti-Israel and, increasingly, anti-American. And we can't piss off the Arabs because of the aforementioned $4 gas.

It keeps coming back to that, doesn't it? Take oil out of the equation, and this stuff gets a whole lot less complicated.

There's your imperative. It's a longer-term action. What's to be done in the short term?

Buckle your seatbelts. This one has DANGER written all over it.

Israel: Well, that's new

A Palestinian psycho ran amuck with a front-end loader in Jerusalem earlier on Wednesday, killing at least 3 and injuring 40+. The rampage ended when an Israeli in civilian clothes - the BBC says he was a plain-clothes policeman, MSNBC says he was an off-duty soldier - jumped into the cab of the loader and shot the driver dead.

You have to hand it to the Palestinian terror groups. They really are masters at low-tech, asymetrical warfare. How do you mount an effective deterrent against an unarmed dude going nuts with a piece of civilian construction equipment? Seems to me that pretty much the only thing you can do is what the Israelis already have done, which is arm as many of your citizens as you can, and let them react when something like this happens. Hopefully, some concerned citizen blows the cretin out of his socks before the civilian casualty count gets too high. That's apparently exactly what happened here.

The Israelis are truly amazing. They have built a highly functional society while looking over their shoulders constantly. Just think what they might accomplish if they actually get a bit of peace and security.

The video, courtesy of Al Jazeera:

Hamas' cease-fire: Disingenuous, hypocritical, and homicidal

As you no doubt have heard, Hamas and Israel recently agreed to a truce. This was HUGE news when it broke, and raised my level of optimism about the Middle East nearly to levels not seen since the heady days of Yitzhak Rabin.

Here we are, six days into this historic truce, and we're beginning to see that Hamas is not even remotely serious about it, and has pulled another publicity stunt which will result in yet more civilians in both Israel and Gaza being killed. In other words, Hamas is still full of sh**, always will be full of sh**, and anyone who thinks they've become less full of sh** is delusional, stupid, or both.

I hate those guys. Just in case you hadn't noticed.

The latest is this: Islamic Jihad launches rockets from Gaza into southern Israel. Israel responds by closing the border. Hamas says Israel has broken the truce.

Wait a second. Wasn't the truce broken when the rockets were launched?

According to Hamas, no. Why not? Well, because Hamas didn't launch the rockets, Islamic Jihad did.

Hang on. Islamic Jihad launched the rockets. From Gaza. Where Hamas is the governing force (such as it is). Now I'm really confused.

Hamas has tried to allay my confusion by clarifying thus: Hamas has declared a truce with Israel. Hamas has called on all Palestinian groups to honor it. But Hamas will not be "Israel's policeman" by enforcing the truce on any of the other groups.

So, the guys who were wearing Hamas green last week now put on their Islamic Jihad t-shirts (red? orange? I don't know what color), scratch the Hamas slogans off their Iranian-made rockets and replace them with Islamic Jihad slogans, spin 'em up, and scatter some dirt and (hopefully not) body parts in Israel. Hamas is magically innocent of breaking the truce, and when Israel retaliates, Hamas gets to call a press conference to tell the world how the evil Israelis are not living up to their agreements.

No hypocrisy there, right?

Israel's 60th birthday

With the 60th anniversary of Ben-Gurion's declaration of the State of Israel approaching, here's an interesting op/ed from The Spectator, written by Melanie Phillips. It gives an (no doubt, somewhat-biased) assessment of the current state of things in and around Israel.

An early paragraph from the piece:

Israel is the only country whose creation was approved by the UN; yet it is the only country whose legitimacy is called into question. It is the only country which the world requires to compromise with its Palestinian Arab attackers and accede to their demands, even while they are firing rockets at its schools and houses and blowing up its citizens. It is the only country which continues to provide electricity and basic services to those attackers and routinely treats thousands of Palestinians in its own hospitals, even those who have Israeli blood on their hands. And yet it is the only country which, in the court of public opinion, is condemned for behaving ‘disproportionately’ when it uses targeted military means to defend itself, and is accused of causing the very ‘Nazi’ or ‘apartheid’ atrocities of which it itself is the victim.

Interesting read. Go check it out.