Why I’ll Probably Vote Likud – Part 1

Netanyahu’s message of the day today (in Hebrew) is one of the reasons he’s probably going to get elected.

I didn’t translate the whole thing, but basically he is urging the Prime Minister to stop wasting time and do something about the rocket attacks that are still occurring.

Why is he the only one talking about the fact that the ceasefire is being constantly violoated by Hamas?
The rockets are still coming – and the prime minister, and Barak and Livni are acting like nothing is happening.

Israel has made a grave mistake. Somewhere along the way, shooting just a few rockets into Israel became acceptable. Especially if they don’t actually land on anyone’s house, but just cause an entire town to go back into shock when they hear air raid sirens.

When did this become OK? Who said that we tolerate this until someone gets killed?

I think that Netanyahu is the only one who is going to actually hit the reset button on this horrible expectation. He’s the only one who can raise the bar back to where it should be – where attempting to kill Israeli civilians is not ok. Whether or not the attacks are successful is not relevant. The (war) crime is deliberately targeting civilians and this is still happening.

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Women on the Sharia Bench

This from MEMRI Blog:
Abbas Approves Appointment of Two Female Shari’a Court Judges

This might be fascinating.

It is hard to imagine how a woman will interpret or be able to administer such a mysogynistic code of law.

It’s kind of like a slaughterhouse employing a chicken…

I am trying to figure out how I can follow this development.

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Time Magazine’s solution

Another great piece by Jeffrey Goldberg. I particularly liked this quote:

A great sage once taught: He who claims to know the answer to the Middle East dispute doesn’t even know the question.

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Op Ed JOKE from NYT

So here is an opinion piece in the NEW YORK TIMES by Muammar Ghadafi.

It is absolutely hilarious. His deep and insightful reasoning (read: thinly veiled evil-genius plan to destroy Israel) for why a one-state solution for Jews and Palestinians is just plain good common sense is nothing more than the usual mantras of deception that the Arab street are trying to force on the Western world.

One of the basic maxims of propaganda is that that if the message is repeated enough times, people will start to take it for granted as legitimate information – regardless of whether or not what is being said has any basis in reality whatsoever.

Thank you, NYT for your willing help on that. You should be very proud of yourself for giving the murderous, plane-hijacking, tyrannical despot who is the sworn enemy of your country the opportunity to use your vast distribution network to reinforce his message.

OH but the best part is at the end: “Muammar Qaddafi is the leader of Libya.”

I can’t believe we still consider this to be journalism.

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I’ve never been as proud of Israel as I am today

Today, Ezer Mizion (The Israel Health Support Organization) ran a campaign throughout Israel to collect blood samples in order to find bone marrow donors for 6-year-old Amit Kadosh and  3-year old Dan Nevo, who are suffering from Leukemia and for whom there are currently no matches in the database.

My sister and I went to one mall where a testing station had been set up and found that so many people had come before us, that they had run out of blood vials. We went to another mall where there was  a blood testing station – and waited in line with HUNDREDS of other people to be tested. After we had gotten our vials, but were still waiting to be tested, this station also ran out.

It was only when we got home in the evening that we heard on the news that this was the case at virtually every one of the 84 testing stations in the country. Israelis of all walks of life left their jobs, their studies, their routine to stand in line – sometimes for more than two hours – to see if they could be the one person who would be able to save one of these kids.

I wish that all of those who have accused Israel in the past weeks of having little regard for the lives of innocents, for the lives of children, could have seen what I saw today.

In my opinion, if there is one secret to the miraculous survival of this little country, it’s the fact that when push comes to shove, we are one family.  We are willing to make sacrifices for strangers. We are not a nation of individuals as much as we are parts of a greater whole. Today every one of the thousands of people who showed up to be tested did so because in a way they truly felt that Amit and Dan were not someone else’s children, but their own.  They were called on and they answered. It’s a very very proud day for Israel.

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The first shot of the Non-ceasefire

A mortar from Gaza – how suprising.

The question is does this constitute breaking the ceasefire in the eyes of the international community?

Today I will be watching for the excuses of why Israel should hold up its end of the bargain even though Hamas isn’t.

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Shimon Peres on the Radio This Morning

Interesting quote: “The Arabs use the power of rhetoric to turn defeat into victory. Israel uses the power of rhetoric to turn victory into defeat.”
So true…

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Ehud Speaks…

I am liveblogging this as I watch his speech on Channel 10.

Apparently the cabinet has decided that “all of the objectives set out for this campaign have been achieved.”
He then goes on to describe what has been done: tunnels blown up, their leaders are hiding, their infrastructure has been seriously damaged, etc. etc.
I guess the objective was to sacrifice a bunch of soldiers so that he could fold under international pressure and allow Hamas to get out of this saving enough face to make sure that the level of support for them only increases.
Nevermind those of us living in the south of Israel. For us apparently the objective was condemnation to our bomb shelters.
This is crap and his speech is an insult – it sounds like the thank you speech for a golden globe.
England, Italy and France are going make sure they don’t smuggle in more weapons. Our army couldn’t do it, so we hand the job to French and Italian soldiers. I would laugh if I wasn’t living 47 kms. from Gaza.

Update:

As of 2:00 AM tonight, Israel will implement the ceasefire.

Ehud: If our enemies decide that they haven’t had enough and they continue to fight with us, we will re-start operations (??? Not sure if my translation is too great on that phrase).

Update 2:

School is cancelled for tomorrow in all the cities within 40km of Gaza… so I guess the expectations for Hamas are pretty clear.

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Israel’s losing media strategy?

I think that if this particular critic of Israel took his analysis one step further (and actually thought about what Israel’s other options are, as opposed to just whining about the current policy), he would have to re-title this Opinion piece: Israel’s unwinnable media war.

Here is the link to the LA Times Op Ed: Israel’s losing media strategy.

The writer asserts that:

During Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah, reporters had the run of
southern Lebanon, restrained only by their tolerance for the great
personal risks involved.

I seem to remember more than a few posts at LGF debunking this particular misconception and pointing out that the media were only allowed to film with Hezbolah “escorts” who determined where they could and couldn’t go. The predictable result: Many “real” reporters turned into mouthpieces for Hezbolah propaganda. Presumably something similar would happen in Gaza, considering that they already imposed complete censorship before this conflict.

Some links to LGF posts on the subject (there are many other examples not included here – let’s not forget green helmet guy):
United Nations Presides Over Barbaric Photo Op
TIME Reporter – Hizballah Has Our Passports
Hizballah’s Media Relations Department
Hizballah Sheikh in Newsweek-WaPo Whitewash
CNN Reporter Admits Being Hizballah Tool

So his concluding statement is almost funny:

But just outside Gaza, dozens if not hundreds of journalists are in place and ready to go. Israel should let them do their jobs.

“Their jobs” being what? Surely their job isn’t to go into Gaza and have Hamas tell them what to say. (Because that’s Al Jazeera’s job).

CNN, The Washington Post, Newsweek and TIME couldn’t manage to “do their jobs” in Lebanon in 2006 when Israel had nothing to do with their access to the war. They all pretty much decided that Hizballa propaganda is an acceptable substitute for news.

Do people actually believe that if only Israel would just provide these people rides into Gaza, that they would be doing anything other than turning themselves into Hamas mouthpieces?

Israel can’t win this fight. The war with Hizballa in 2006 showed us many times over  that allowing journalists into a war zone does not equal revealing the truth – especially when you are dealing with parties who categorically reject the idea of a free press (or free speech at all for that matter) and use the media strictly as a propaganda tool.

If, in 2006, the mainstream media outlets had been willing to accept nothing rather than Hezbolla propaganda, or at least had the integrity to label the propaganda for what it was instead of trying to pass it off as actual news, then this would be a different discussion.

It is true that Israel isn’t letting the foreign press into Gaza – but does that make Israel guilty of obscuring the truth about what is going on here? I’m not so sure.

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Basement Warrior Dispatch: Bin Laden (maybe) – New York Times

Lots of big scary words from another brave soldier sending tapes from deep, deep underground. Hiding from his enemies while urging others to go and kill themselves for his psychotic cause…

How is the irony of this lost on so many?

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