Housewives preferred Hamas 47% to 42%.
Hamas: the party of Palestinian Arab soccer moms.
Kellenberger also said that the ICRC has “no evidence” of the use of white phosphorus, a chemical weapon that causes severe burning used in populated areas. On Tuesday a Red Cross official in Geneva told the Associated Press that it is “pretty clear” that Israel had used the weapon in Gaza, but said there was no evidence that this use violated international law.Whoa! Three times the density of Manhattan???
Answering a question about the alleged use of white phosphorus, Kellenberger highlighted that Gaza is approximately three times more densely populated than Manhattan, making it more difficult to use certain weapons without harming civilians.
| Population | Area (km2) | Density Pop/km2 |
| 1,500,202 | 360 | 4,167 |
| 1,537,195 | 58.8 | 26,143 |
In the summer of 2006, Nizar Rayyan, a member of the Hamas ruling elite and an unblushing executioner, who was killed two weeks ago, told this journalist, "First we must deal with the Muslims who speak of a peace process and then we will deal with you." As the Gaza war moves to a cease-fire, a crucial question will inevitably arise: Should Israel (and by extension, the U.S.) try to engage Hamas? But the question is unmoored from certain political and theological realities.The article is quite good until the conclusion:
Advocates of negotiation suggest that the hostility toward Jews expressed by Hamas is somehow mutable. But in years of listening, I haven't heard much to suggest that its anti-Semitism is insincere. Like Hizbullah, Hamas believes that God is opposed to a Jewish state in Palestine. I asked Rayyan: Could you agree to anything more than a tactical cease-fire with Israel? I felt slightly ridiculous asking: A man who believes that God every now and again transforms Jews into pigs and apes might not be the most obvious candidate for peace talks at Camp David. Rayyan answered that a long-term cease-fire would be unnecessary, because it will not take long for the forces of Islam to eradicate Israel.
There is a fixed idea among some Israeli leaders that Hamas can be bombed into moderation. This is a false and dangerous notion. It is true that Hamas can be deterred militarily for a time, but tanks cannot defeat deeply felt belief.Goldberg, who is quite knowledgeable on facts, allows his biases to cloud his analysis.
The reverse is also true: Hamas cannot be cajoled into moderation. Neither position credits Hamas with sincerity, or seriousness.
The Navy intercepted an Iranian ship loaded with medicine, food and clothing destined for Gaza, the IDF said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the boat docked in Port Said, Egypt, but the Egyptians refused to allow it to unload its cargo. Nevertheless, at midnight Tuesday, the boat left Port Said and tried to go to Gaza.
A Navy Sa'ar 4.5 class ship intercepted the Iranian boat and transmitted a clear message on Channel 16 - the international communication line for ships - that it would not allow it to enter the waters around Gaza.
On Wednesday morning, when it was 30 miles off the Gaza coast, the Iranian boat again tried to move towards the Strip, and the Navy again intercepted it, the army said. It then returned to el-Arish, in Egypt, and two Egyptian boats prevented it from docking there.
Since that time, the boat has been sitting 30 miles off the coast of Gaza and has been closely tracked by the Israeli navy.
Israel has been coordinating all activity regarding the Iranian boat with the Egyptians.
A Palestinian man with an iron bar attacked a guard outside a Berlin synagogue on Tuesday, knocking him to the ground before the assailant could be restrained, German police said.Meanwhile, German police apologized for entering a private home and ripping down an Israeli flag from the window in order to appease a mob of some 10,000 Arab protesters. (Video of the incident can be seen here.)
The other guards outside the synagogue caught the attacker. The assailant and another guard suffered minor injuries in the scuffle, while the guard hit with the bar was taken to hospital for treatment.
The old synagogue in Oranienburger Strasse, a central Berlin street, is a tourist attraction and has guards permanently standing outside and searching visitors because of the danger of attack by neo-Nazis.
In a different part of town, another young fighter and his wife were getting ready to go see her brother, 20, who had been wounded in southwest Gaza City two nights ago while bringing food to fighters. The fighter, 27, in dark jeans and Timberland-style boots, swaggered with words about Islam and duty to his people. Hamas is doctrinally opposed to Israel’s right to exist.We do need to respect different cultures. You see, in some places, when a woman says she wants her husband to die, that would be considered alarming, but in Gaza it is praiseworthy! Who are we to say that one way is better than another?“It’s either victory while alive, or martyrdom,” he said. “Both ways are victory.”
His wife, in a white head scarf, agreed.
“Two days ago, he was very tired and he didn’t want to leave the house,” she said. “I told him you have to leave, you have a responsibility.”
But the sight of her brother unconscious in the hospital bed seemed to jolt the couple into an alternate reality, one where they were vulnerable and afraid. The man’s eyes glistened with tears as he asked the doctor question after question.
Back outside, the woman regained her composure.
“I prefer you as a martyr,” she said to her husband.
“What if I am injured?” he asked.
She repeated her preference for death.
He took up the accusation that Hamas fighters hid behind civilians. Fighters, in a way, are both, he argued, and are accepted by many residents as defenders. People bring them food, he said. Sometimes they oppose rockets being launched nearby, but often they do not.The fact that they had huge caches of weapons in their own homes and in mosques and schools has nothing to do with it, of course. It's all Israel's fault for pushing them into the cities - that they were already in.“I’m a civilian, and I’m a fighter,” he said.
The fighter who wore glasses argued that the Israeli forces had pressed them into such a small territory that civilians were just about everywhere, so it was hard not to operate near them.
“Where do we go?” he asked. “There are no other places.”
Senior fighters are mostly in hiding, the fighters said. Many have not moved for days, staying in basements or bunkers. With limited access to phone networks, in part because of fear that signals will draw missile fire, some have been cut off altogether during the military operation, and sit alone.Leaving the bravery to the wives of their fighters.
The rumors circulated via email, on social networking sites like Facebook and conspiracy websites: top American companies are donating profits to Israel in support of the war in Gaza and consumers should boycott them.According to the Saudi Gazette, the campaign is working:
The online campaigns call for a boycott of several major U.S.-based companies like McDonalds, the coffee chain Starbucks, Pizza Hut and cigarette maker Phillip Morris, though most of the companies have explicitly denied the rumors on their websites and in interviews.
“Let's stop using American and British products for just one month. The U.S. will lose 8.6 billion daily if we stop using its products for only one month,” read one email being circulated in Arabic. “As a true Muslim do that. Tell your family, friends, and neighbors and stop for one month.”
Saudi Gazette visited American restaurants such as Burger King, McDonalds, Hardies, KFC and Starbucks and found them almost deserted. These food outlets were invariably crowded prior to the recent boycott call.This being the Muslim world, of course, such campaigns cannot remain peaceful for long. From This is London:
A huge drop in customers at such places is perceptible. “In the last three weeks, the number of customers has dropped by about 25 percent,” said a Starbucks employee requesting anonymity.
“The customers think that buying one cup of coffee will help in killing a Palestinian child,” he said.
TRADERS told today how pro-Palestinian demonstrators caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage when they ransacked businesses near the Israeli Embassy.And it was not an isolated incident. In Lebanon:
The policing bill for Saturday's protest has topped more than £1million. Three officers and 20 demonstrators were injured.
An angry mob targeted shops and cafés in Kensington High Street, looting and smashing windows as violence flared during the rally.
Starbucks bore the brunt of the vandalism as masked protesters ripped out fittings and equipment after clashes with riot police.
About a hundred demonstrators have converged on west Beirut's branch of the Starbucks coffee shop and closed it down in protest over the IDF operation in Gaza.Starbucks was forced to put a statement on their website:
Protesters are justifying their actions by claiming that the Starbucks corporation' owner donates money to the Israeli military. Protesters raised a Palestinian flag over the shop and wrote on its window "Jewish favorite coffee."
Rumors that Starbucks Coffee Company and its management support Israel are unequivocally false.I don't drink coffee, but I hear that Starbucks' iced tea is kosher. Might be a good time to check it out.
Starbucks is a publicly traded company with stores in 49 countries. Though our thousands of partners (employees) and business associates around the globe have diverse views and share many beliefs about a wide range of topics, our primary focus remains to deliver the best customer experience possible. Starbucks is a non-political organization and does not support political causes. Further, the political preferences of a Starbucks partner at any level have absolutely no bearing on Starbucks company policies.
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
If you want real peace, don't insist on a divided Jerusalem, @USAmbIsrael
The Apartheid charge, the Abraham Accords and the "right side of history"
With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews
Great news for Yom HaShoah! There are no antisemites!