Israel Reconfigured and Reconsidered

Israel Reconfigured and Reconsidered

“Obama Is No Friend of Israel” blared the headline on SayAnything.com with variations on other blogs and in the print media in the wake of the president’s announcement that he was effectively screwing the Jewish nation. His “final solution” for Israel’s border wars, though he dare not use that term, would make everyone in the area happy and peaceful and ready to play together in perpetual peace and harmony.

Confirmed and reinforced in his tense Friday sit-down with Israel’s furious, diplomatically-assertive Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama’s scheme is to have Israel return to its pre-6 Day War, 1967 borders, tantamount in this age of sophisticated rocketry in the bloody hands of Hamas to asking Israel to commit national suicide.

That said, two questions: One, why is it such a surprise to so many that Israel is not at the top of Obama’s buddy list and, two, why should he be? The answers to both queries are complex with the first less so than the second.

It’s either incredibly naive or amazingly stupid to be surprised that the president cares not a whit about the nation of Israel. Whether he would prefer it to be totally submerged in the Mediterranean as Arab states wish is debatable but his affinity for those states and all things and people Islamic is not. An excellent rule of thumb to gauge Obama is to note carefully what he says and then to compare and contrast those statements with what he does, has done, and refuses to do.

They’re remarkably different.

Obama tows the line with what he says, mouthing platitudes and the conventional pap about how much America loves Israel, how important an ally it is, how our support is unwavering, etc. etc. At the same time, he adamantly refuses to acknowledge a worldwide war against Islamic terrorism, he bows to Saudi potentates, he inexplicably instructs NASA to focus not on space but on building Arab self-esteem. Is pushing for a Palestinian state such a stretch? . . .
(Read more about Question Two, Why Should Obama or America about Israel? at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4516 (Hint: We should not.)

Fun and the Muslim Brotherhood

Fun and the Muslim Brotherhood

One of the “funnest,” as kids say, things about blogging is the “eejits,” as some Irish say, who crawl out of the woodwork in response to the blogs even when they’re not very funny.

I recently posted an article, “National Insecurity, Compliments of the CIA and ODNI,” which pointed out the failures of America’s national security failures, particularly the ineptitude of CIA Director Leon Panetta and James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence: http://tiny.cc/luqxg

Tangential to the gist of the article were references to the Muslim Brotherhood and its connection to Hamas, حماس Ḥamās, an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah, or “Islamic Resistance Movement,” a radical Palestinian Islamist political organization noted for its terroristic activities, rocket attacks against Israel, and use of such tactics as employing children as human shields and as soldiers.

Also tangential were comments on Hezbollah, حزب الله‎ ḥizbu-llāh(i), the “Party of God,” a paramilitary jihadist group dedicated to the same purposes as Hamas which favors suicide bombings and kidnapping to achieve its ends.

While not specifically defending either Hamas or Hezbollah, in a comment, “8monikal” took great exception to my negative tone toward the Muslim Brotherhood and to my linkage of the MB to both of those Islamic, terrorist barbarians. His/her verbatim comment–”8monikal” is undoubtedly a male since Islam frowns on females even going to the outhouse without permission no less commenting on blogs–follows in its entirety:

“The Muslim brotherhood is affiliated to neither Hezbollah nor Hamas and it does not have a bloody history. Where did you get your lies? Was it from some bigot or did you make them up yourself. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3649)

Israeli War Crimes in Gaza

Israeli War Crimes in Gaza
Eminent South African judge Richard Goldstone’s blistering indictment of Israeli war crimes during the brief Gaza War of a year ago was met with equally-blistering rebuttals by Israel and its supporters who seem to overlook the significant fact that Goldstone is a Jew.

In a flight of distorted fancy, one Israel-defender accused Goldstone of “a moral inversion” who “has preserved his judicial reputation while perpetrating a blood libel against Israel:” http://bit.ly/5Ctff.

Relaying the truth must have become immoral and libelous while I wasn’t watching.

Appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council as Chairman of an investigative body commissioned to explore human rights abuses during that 3-week war, Goldstone’s findings did criticize both Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces, the IDF, but reserved the bulk of its condemnation for the nation of Israel.

To be sure, the U.N. HRC is a much-tainted body, as is the United Nations itself, but Goldstone is a highly-regarded objective jurist who exhaustively researched the actions of both sides in Gaza before issuing what has become known as the Goldstone Report.

Officially titled “Human Rights in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories: Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” the English language pdf version may be read here in its entirety: http://bit.ly/1BjEXr

In line with its usual bias, and to Goldstone’s consternation, the top-heavy anti-Israel U.N. council then deleted sections dealing with war crimes committed by Hamas, et al. . . .

(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1379)

2009: NO ONE EVER SAID IT WOULD BE A FUN YEAR

Recent news reports attest to one truism concerning the human condition: the more things change, the worse things get. New years used to bring with them new hopes and notable changes. With all of five days down in A.D. 2009, this year promises to be one for the record books, and not for setting good records.

Three illustrative examples:

ONE: War Is Hell

William Tecumseh Sherman is credited with the brutally honest observation that “War is hell,” but the ongoing Gaza conflict has added a whole new dimension to that sage reflection.

Death and destruction are the handmaidens attendant on any war and collateral damage is always a sad and unfortunate by-product, but when it comes to the deaths of children as a facet of that damage, then bloody battles seem bloodier by far.

The savage forces of Hamas have taken the horror of war a step further. Rather than respecting the victims of an Israeli bomb attack, they chose to exhibit the lifeless bodies of the dead children of Hamas leader Nizar Rayan in a bizarre and ghastly funeral march.

Not content with simply tarnishing Israel with the fact that Israelis had killed ten of his children and his four wives, Hamas employed Rayan’s dead children as props in the battle for world opinion, brazenly and shamelessly parading them in all their grisliness for all the world to see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1104296/Bodies-Hamas-leaders-children-paraded-group-promises-painful-revenge-deaths.html.

Israel’s hands are filthy in the assault on Gaza but, compared to Hamas’, they are pristine. Both sides are proving Sherman correct. War is indeed hell but some hells are worse than others.

TWO: More Flying Dirt

President-elect Barack Hussein Obama is finding that the path to his new residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is more pockmarked and potholed than the rocky road to Dublin. Teflon-coated during the presidential campaign when slime such as Ayers and Dohrn and Rezko and Wright failed to stick to his hallowed garments, Obama is discovering his media-generated mystique doesn’t extend to his retinue.

It seems transitioning is even more challenging than bowling.

First, it was soon-to-be hatchet man/chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel...

(Read the rest of this article at http://genelalor.com/.)