Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, August 03, 2006

A reason to keep mourning on Tisha B'Av

Ha'aretz published a typical anti-religious op-ed yesterday about Tisha B'Av. Here is a large part of it:

After the Six-Day War in 1967, a few important rabbis from the national-religious camp proposed making changes to the Nahem prayer recited on Tisha B'Av. The idea was that since we had established a sovereign state and resumed control of Jerusalem, it was no longer appropriate to continue to speak about "a desolate and vacant city... laid waste and deserted." Most Orthodox rabbis, however, wanted to continue to mourn the destruction, even when Jerusalem was quite rebuilt, and were unwilling to lend a hand in even this small and very sensible reform. It is unlikely that anyone thought about turning this day of mourning into a festival.

Tonight, many non-observant Israeli Jews will be wondering why the cafes are closed. Yes, indeed, tomorrow is Tisha B'Av, a day of mourning over the destruction of both the First and Second Temples and the dispersion (as well as a long list of other calamities). It is interesting to consider how many of our readers knew that it is tomorrow, how many will feel themselves to be in mourning, and how many of them even deem it significant. It is doubtful that anyone should even feel bad about this, with the possible exception of the rabbis, who have not bothered to make the fast day relevant.

It is no accident that so many non-observant Jews feel no connection to Tisha B'Av. Some people say it is because it falls during summer vacation, so children do not learn about it in school. But the source of the resistance seem to be deeper. In many ways, Tisha B'Av is the negative of Independence Day. Everything that a secular Zionist could wish for -- an independent, sovereign, democratic, Jewish state, the in-gathering of the exiles of the Law of Return, a strong army, model academic and scientific institutions -- already exists. That is why Independence Day is celebrated.
[...]
Is it really possible to create a secular alternative to Tisha B'Av?

Former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg proposed changing Tisha B'Av, making the first half a time for mourning and the second half a meal of thanksgiving, in a combination that echoes the rapid succession of Israel's Memorial and Independence days. But Burg's proposal cannot be implemented without cooperation from the Orthodox. You cannot celebrate while many of your co-religionists are mourning, even if they are mourning an exile that has ended, and even if it is unclear whether they are mourning for the Jerusalem that was destroyed or for the ruins that no longer exist and to which they cannot say goodbye.

And anyway, the religious community does not need to celebrate the liberation of Jerusalem on Tisha B'Av. It has demonstrated a remarkable ability to celebrate Jerusalem Day as if there was no Tisha B'Av, and commemorates Tisha B'Av as if Jerusalem had not been liberated.

Until a logical, current, relevant and Zionist way to mark Tisha B'Av can be found, perhaps the right way to behave on that day is exactly the way that most non-observant Jews do: to ignore it, as if it did not exist. But even those who ignore this day of mourning find it difficult to ignore the fact that our religious brethren insist on behaving as so many of the things that are so important and precious to us are not even worthy of their attention.

I cannot give the author a good reason why secular Israelis should commemorate Tisha B'Av, for the same reason I cannot give him a reason for them to light Chanukah candles or not work on Saturday. By definition, if you reject the religion, the importance of matzoh on Pesach is exactly the same as the importance of turkey on Thanksgiving, and if you think hard about it there really isn't much reason for Jews to keep identifying as Jews, except in the quaint sense that Irish-Americans show pride for their heritage by drinking green beer on St. Patrick's Day.

But I will answer his implicit question as to why religious Jews continue to mourn over a Jerusalem that is rebuilt. The answer can be seen in a Haaretz editorial from June that I quoted (original is not online):

Israel is having trouble formulating a logical and consistent stance with regard to East Jerusalem, and therefore it has been taking inconsistent and hypocritical steps. The decision to allow East Jerusalem residents to participate in the PA elections is part of this same duality. East Jerusalem's residents live here, vote for the PA and are citizens of Jordan. Instead of removing Palestinian parliamentarians from the eastern part of the city, it would be better to remove East Jerusalem from the State of Israel and transfer it to the Palestinian Authority.

In the Israel that Haaretz writers occupy, Jerusalem has no inherent value, and it can and should be traded for the same kind of peace that Gaza was traded for. In that mindset, the fact that Jews cannot ascend to their own holiest site in a city that they say they control is smart politics, not a tragedy.

Tisha B'Av commemorates many tragedies besides the destruction of the Temples, and unfortunately we can add the deaths of 12 more today to that list. But perhaps the biggest recent tragedy is that the modern state of Israel never truly acted as if all of Jerusalem is ours. The center of Jewish longing has been the Temple Mount for two thousand years but the Jews that this author represents - the ones in charge of Israel today - discount all of this with a wave of the hand, as their new, "improved" Zionism has replaced the old, antiquated Judaism that they despise.

This is indeed a reason to mourn on Tisha B'Av.

Those amazing non-flammable missiles

Here is what a vehicle looks like after an Israeli missile hits it:

Here's what a Red Cross vehicle looks like when a not-too-credible Red Cross worker convinces the MSM that it was hit by an Israeli missile:

This image taken from video made by Lebanese Red Cross workers Sunday, July 23, 2006 in Qana, south Lebanon, and made available to AP Television, shows the roof of a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance destroyed in what they say was an Israeli airstrike.

(Don't be fooled by the tone of the caption above - by Thursday, the AP stated that it was an Israeli airstrike as a fact.)

Notice the very neat "missile" circular hole right in the middle of the Red Cross symbol? Notice the rust?

Now, here's a picture of an intact Red Cross vehicle from the Red Cross website. Look at the one on the right:

See anything interesting right in the middle of the Red Cross symbol?

Riehl World View does a masterful job of destroying the credibility of the story that the Red Cross worker said, along with links to pictures of the inside of the ambulance showing no fire damage, nor floor damage, at all. Thsi reflects only a small part of his proof that the "destroyed ambuance" was probably taken from a junkyard.

Willful denial of Jihadist goals is a psychosis

Today, as every day, many prominent Muslims are calling for the utter destruction of Israel as well as Jihad against the West:

Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- Supreme Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Muhammad Mahdi 'Akif, called on all Muslims to "help the resistance in all its forms," both in Lebanon and in the Palestinian areas, describing the current "official" Arab position as "shameful." .

The Islamist leader praised Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian areas, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, calling on his followers to prepare themselves to fight "the Zionist gangs." According to 'Akif, Israel was "planted within the Palestinian lands by the Western crusaders, to perform as representatives of the Western superpowers headed by the United States."

TEHRAN –– Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the answer to the conflict in south Lebanon was the "elimination of the Zionist regime," ISNA agency reported.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted United States policy in the Middle East and warned of an impending Muslim “jihad”, or holy war, against the West.

“Today, it is clear for everyone that the aggression against Lebanon was a premeditated U.S.-Zionist action as a key step in the path of dominating the Middle East and the Islamic world”, Khamenei said. His comments were reported in the official news agency IRNA and aired in part on state television on Wednesday.

“Today, Muslim nations more than ever despise the U.S.”, he said.

“With its support of the Zionists crimes and criminals and its blatant aggression against the rights of Muslim nations, the U.S. regime must be prepared for a hard slap and a destructive punch by Muslims”, Khamenei said.

The mainstream media reports these things occasionally, but always in a sort of secondary, backhanded way, in one of the bottom paragraphs and glossed over as if it is not really news when the "supreme leader" of a nation threatens the entire Western world.

The liberals read things like this and think, "well, it is just rhetoric, just Arab bluster, it is not serious." No matter how many terror attacks occur against the West, no matter how many 9/11s and Balis and Madrids and Londons and Bombays, no matter how clear the Islamists make their position that they are not distinguishing between Western liberals and Western conservatives, and that we are all targets for death - the left remains in utter denial. If they are forced to confront real terror, they are unable to see that the jihadists are to blame for their actions.

Because the truth is hard to take. It is easier to belittle those who see evil for what it is, those who see that Lebanon is not a regional spat over land but a spark of a global conflagration between Islamists and the Western world. It is hard to accept that hundreds of millions of people want to see you dead or subjugated - even if you accept that fewer than half of worldwide Islam subscribes to these views.

It is an understandable psychological defense mechanism, to try to take the easy way out. If only Israel would agree to all Arab demands then the Arabs won't bother us, they say. If only we do what they say, it won't affect my life right now today. The direct jihadist threats are not to be taken seriously.

Because to believe the threats means that something must be done about it, and all the other justifications for appeasement and blaming of Israel and US policy is an intellectual equivalent of hiding one's head in the sand.

If there is one thing that Jews have learned through history, it is that if someone says they want to kill you, take them seriously. It is a lesson that the "enlightened" West needs to learn very badly.

Three blog milestones

Since this blog should pass three milestones this month, I might as well combine all of them in this post.

Sometime today, both this blog and Yoni's blog will hit the 50,000 hit mark (according to Site Meter, which seems more accurate than the inflated StatCounter figures.) The only difference is that it took me almost two years hit this milestone, while Yoni is doing it on his third day.

This gives me a healthy dose of humility, after my recent flirtation with the semi-big time. I had a few days with over a thousand hits, so fully one-third of my total hits have come about only in the past six weeks.

On August 15, I will hit my two-year blogoversary. The blog has evolved from exclusively a news linker to what is now almost exclusively original content. I am gratified that there are people out there who actually read what I have to say, and seem to enjoy it.

And also later this month, if current trends continue, I should write my 2000th post.

I am most proud of the money I've been raising for Israel in the "Elder Challenge" (a rotten name that I hope to replace as soon as I find a new one.) So thanks again to everyone who has donated, and please take the latest "Elder challenge" to have your money donated to Israel matched, dollar for dollar. The more generous can also offer to sponsor an upcoming phase.

Thanks again to everyone for dropping by!

Hezbollah's spin makes them look worse

As a result of the IDF raid in Baalbek, Hezbollah is making some claims:

'This hospital was empty when they got here. We lured them into this operation,' one Hezbollah guerrilla on the scene said.
Hezbollah claimed to have spread rumours about the presence of an important Hezbollah figure inside the hospital, which had been empty since the start of the Israeli offensive....
Journalists were only allowed to take pictures at the ground floor of the hospital Wednesday.

'We fear for your safety. The Israelis might have left booby trapped bombs in some sectors of this hospital to target us (Hezbollah), so we do not want you venturing in,' a separate Hezbollah official in Baalbek told dpa.

So, Hezbollah is saying that they came up with a brilliant plan to lure many Israeli soldiers into a trap, very far from Israel, presumably to massacre them.

And even with all that preparation, they didn't manage to get anyone?

Hezbollah says they emptied the hospital, again far from the border. If you believe them, it sure sounds like they control the hospital and use it for, shall we say, "militant" purposes. There might be a Geneva Convention about that.

But the reason journalists can't see the rest of the hospital is for their own safety.

Yeah, this all sounds real credible. Almost as credible as IRIB's reporting of the war.

Advice for Mel

Sammy at the Die Welt blog has a brilliant suggestion for Mel Gibson:

If you seriously want help, and I can image you might, my suggestion is that you come to Israel. Come to Jerusalem and show us you mean it. Right now. Now that Israel is at war, bombarded by Hizballah missiles and attacked by misguided critics around the world. Show us you're not afraid to confront either the issue of anti-Semitism or the calumny that will no doubt accompany your visit. Be a Daniel and step into the lion's den.
Here you'll see Jews of every colour and every corner of the world, from deeply religious to virulently atheist, from aggressively Zionist to absurdly anti-Zionist, from boorish and pushy to gentle and kind. Beautiful people, vibrant, curious and intriguing, generous and caring. Jews are just like everybody else, only more so. Israel is an intense place. You'll love it. And when you've met us, if you still blame the Jews for everything that's wrong in the world, at least you'll know what you're talking about.
Come and visit. Please.

Just imagine - he goes to Israel and forces himself to say nice things publicly about Jews and Israel, the Jew-haters write vitriolic articles and boycott his movies for doing it - and then he has a slight clue of what it is like to be Jewish.

And he's a tough guy, so he can take it - at least as well as the Jewish kids in bomb shelters in the North.

Come on, Mel - visit Israel and show how much of your apology is heartfelt and how much is just PR.

This news should really confuse the moonbats

Hezbollah managed to shoot rockets near Jenin, in the West Bank:

Some of the long range rockets that were fired at Israel Wednesday noon landed across the Green Line, in the West Bank. The rockets fell near the Palestinian village of Pqua, in the Jenin area.

Ynet has learned that parts of the rockets fell off while they were in transit, but caused no injuries or damage.

The rockets' landing site in the Palestinian territories is the most southern point Hizbullah has managed to hit so far. A week and a half ago, an improved Fajr-5 rocket landed in Afula.

OK, should a moonbats be happy that Hezbollah still has long-range deadly rockets, or should they be suddenly concerned about possible Palestinian Arab casualties?

If a PalArab had died, would it be good news or bad? And, most importantly, how can they blame Israel?

Luckily, the PalArabs themselves (through their "moderate wing") were nice enough to instruct the moonbats how to react:

A Fatah activist from Jenin added that the rocket hit was heard clearly around the city, and a spark and a flame were also clearly seen.

The Fatah member related that local residents cheered when they heard the rocket fall and saw the resulting flames. “Even if it were to fall on our heads, it wouldn’t have spoiled our joy. All of us here are praying for Hizbullah’s success and victory," he said.

Whew. Another ethical conundrum solved before Lefties would be forced to think a little about their indefensible and contradictory positions.

Now they know to cheer if Hezbollah kills Palestinian Arabs.

Double Your Donation to Israel: Elder Challenge, version 2

Thanks to a very generous sponsor, the Elder Challenge is continuing on with a new goal!

Here's how it works:

Choose an Israeli charity from our list.
Donate money via the Web.
Email me (elderchallenge -at- gmail.com) with some sort of proof that you donated - a screen capture of the receipt with your credit card number edited out, or something similar that indicates how much you gave
I will contact the donor, he will match it, and confirm to me that it is matched.
I reply back to you with confirmation and update the total amount donated on the sidebar.

This way you can double the money you donate to your favorite charities!

The new goal is to reach a total of $2000 by August 11.

The charities are:

PizzaIDF	Delivers great food and morale to the brave soldiers defending their land.
Friends of IDF	Provides equipment and morale-boosting for the soldiers.
Zaka	World famous organization that offers first response service to terror attacks.
Yad Sarah	Bringing medical equipment to the northern communities that are under attack.
Magen Dovid Adom	The Israeli Red Cross.
JNF Operation Security Blanket	Sends kids from the North to summer camps in central Israel for a few days at a time
One Family Fund	Directly helps victims of terror and their families.

(If one of your favorites is not on this list, let me know and we can consider adding more.)

Also, if you want to be a sponsor to keep the challenge going, please contact me at the same email address: elderchallenge -at- gmail.com.

Feel free to use the button above on your own blog and link it to this post. Pass the word along, tell others to take the challenge!

Thanks so much, a special thank you to the very generous Mitch at Tuvel Communications, and
!תזכו למצוות

UPDATE 8/8: We are now aiming for $2500.

Moonbat/Terrorist Supporter Dictionary (via BEAJ)

Bacon Eating Atheist Jew has come up with a politically incorrect yet strangely accurate dictionary. Oh, and it's very funny, too.

All the world's a stage. Especially Qana.

I am not a big fan of conspiracy theories, but this post from Confederate Yankee based on this Israel Insider report is convincing me that Qana is a staged bit of theatre, with the building collapse being done by Hezbollah and the dead bodies being sent from Tyre to Qana for the benefit of the gullible world press. (Warning - pictures of dead people.)

What is indisputable is that Hezbollah, especially the "Green Helmet Man", paraded the same dead baby in front of cameras for a very, very long time.

Keep in mind that Hezbollah keeps very tight control over what reporters can see and when.

Read those articles along with this one from Riehl World View. The evidence isn't "Loose Change" stuff - I know how easy it is to "raise questions" about any historic event, and Holocaust deniers have done it for decades. The problems with this story are far deeper than that, and the alternate explanation passes Occam's Razor. Recent history shows that it is more than plausible that Hezbollah would stage everything from the building collapse to the transportation of bodies - and possibly the Beirut protests as well.

UPDATE: Backspin brings more evidence, although it does not appear as credible to me :
1. A huge anti-Qana poster was erected in Beirut in a remarkably short amount of time. I'm a little skeptical of this only because it would assume a much, much larger conspiracy. My guess is that a large inkjet plotter could make a sign in that timeframe but Iam no expert.

2. The Red Cross says that 28 bodies were recovered, not 57. This is something but in general I would discount that as well without any other evidence - exaggerating the number dead is not nearly as egregious as staging the entire event (except in the case of Jenin, when dozens turned into hundreds.)

3. Christians in Lebanon are claiming that Hezbollah staged it, transporting disabled children to the building in Qana for Israel to bomb it. This doesn't make sense at all to me - Lebanese Christians are not the most reliably truthful people either, and it sounds more like propaganda than a verifiable report.

I would love tosee a real reporter who was on the ground at Qana look at the evidence mentioned above on the other blogs and comment. Someone on the ground can much more easily disprove or bolster those arguments.

Crack Cocaine for Koranic Crazies

No, I didn't make up this phrase - it comes from an article by Greg Strange:

At the recent Arab Conference of Iraqi Neighbors in Tehran (sounds so innocuous, doesn‘t it?), Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad imparted these words of wisdom to his audience: "The basic problem in the Islamic world is the existence of the Zionist regime, and the Islamic world and the region must mobilize to remove this problem. It is a . . . regime that prevented the progress of the region's nations . . ."
It's the kind of talk that absolutely brings the house down at conferences in that part of the world. It's like pushing a button that sends impulses directly to the pleasure centers in the radical Islamic brain. Call it crack cocaine for Koranic crazies.

Actually, given the subject matter of this particular conference, you wouldn't think the main focus of discussion would be the need to eliminate Israel. But you can bet your sweet Koran that if a conference gets hosted in Tehran about anything from sturgeon fishing in the Caspian Sea to thirteenth century Persian poetry, somebody's going to find an excuse to bring up the Zionist regime.

Very funny, but if you think he is exaggerating, you haven't been following the GoozNews from Iran.

The Iranian media is foaming at the mouth even more than usual in falling over itself to denounce the "Zionist regime." But since it gets so, well, repetitive to hear Ahmadinejad's latest attempts to top himself, they need to find other spokespeople who are willing to demonize Israel.

It's like a who's who of nobodies and Iranian flunkies:

Iran's embassy in Armenia condemns Zionist crimes in Lebanon
Cleric says Israel 'politically dead'
Assembly of Experts condemns Zionist regime's crimes in Qana
’I ask God to arouse the dignity of Muslims and destroy America, Israel and their associates,’ says General Safavi.
Asefi Terms Israel Greatest Violator of Human Rights
Iran embassy in Riyadh condemns crimes of Zionist regime
Iranian embassy (in Athens) condemns Israel's attacks on Lebanon
Iran's Swiss embassy condemns Israeli's savage air raids on Qana
Embassy condemns Israeli crimes as being against int'l conventions (Moscow)
Iran embassy condemns Israeli war crimes in Qana, southern Lebanon (North Korea)
Judiciary chief condemns Zionists' Qana bombing
Iranian Embassy in Jakarta condemns Israeli war crimes in Qana
Iranian children condemn Zionist regime's crimes in Lebanon
Iran's Embassy in Kabul condemns Qana bombing
Iranian Embassy in Manila grieves at Israeli war crimes in Qana
Iran Embassy in New Zealand voices outrage at Israeli war crimes
Elham says Qana killing shows Zionists' weakness
Iran’s military chief suspects Bush is a “Zionist”
Indian Parliamentarians outraged at Zionist's action on Lebanon
Hamas Calls on World Muslims to Stand up to Israeli Crimes

...and on and on it goes. Every single time any Muslim says anything bad about Israel, the crack Iranian press is right on that scoop. Truly a model of journalistic excellence.

My minor Huffington Post adventure

For some reason, the left-wing Huffington Post called me an Israeli blogger and posted a link to this posting. As a result, I have been getting quite a bit of traffic as well as comments.

In addition, there were some comments left on the HuffPo site itself criticizing my posting.

The funny thing is, all the criticisms completely ignore the post itself. Not one has yet disputed any of my facts. Apparently, just the existence of a pro-Israel post is enough to get certain people in a non-thinking, mantra-spewing mode where all they can think of are the old canards about Israel. Here are a few:

WTF? Why is this even on HuffPo? It's pure poison propaganda. Blogger even admits he's not even in Israel.

This gentleman evidently didn't notice that I wrote that myself on the posting well before he wrote this. Perhaps he didn't actually read my article - yet he feels qualified to criticize it. (The word "poison" was a bonus.)

I remember once about a jointly agreed upon UN resolution 242, and another 338....I wonder if they were enforced .....?????????

Here's someone who has no clue what the text of 242 and 338 are.

This is THE GRAND GUIGNOL OF HYPOCRISY, considering it's coming from a nation holding the world record for violating UN resolutions.
Not to mention a country ILLEGALLY armed with *NUCLEAR WEAPONS*, in defiance of the entire world.
Of course the US is even more hypocritical (if that's possible...), because our government provided the Israelis with the know-how to build them, but at the same time invaded a sovereign country for the mere (and totally baseless) suspicion they might have been considering tinkering with nuclear power (which of course they NEVER did. As EVERYBODY knew, including the neocon cabal.)

Again, not addressing a single point I made, but quick to jump on the "Israel and the US are evil" mantra.

I admit that I had to look up what "Grand Guignol" meant, and I was not surprised to see that the reference made no sense. But it sure sounded intellectual!

And, of course the "zinger":

What law does israel follow when it massacres children?

Yes, those bloodthirsty Jews again, always massacring children. Oooh. What wit.

And in my own comments section, I get things like

Steal land, ignore world opinion, bribe American politicians through AIPAC, collect billions of American tax dollars, repeat ad nauseum.

While each of his "arguments" can be demolished rather easily, is it utterly impossible for Israel-bashers to stick to the topic?

It would have been nice for someone to actually disagree with the points I was making, or perhaps to correct a mistake. It is possible (though not easy) to criticize Israel in a skillful and non-hypocritical manner.

Apparently, HuffPo readers are not quite on that level.

Where are the peace demonstrations?

Of all the so-called anti-war and pro-peace groups that exist worldwide, how come none of them have managed to have a rally where they condemn Hezbollah along with Israel? (Peace Now is the possible exception to this.)

Makes one wonder how committed to "peace" these groups really are....

Three more asymmetries

I've recently posted about the asymmetry in international law where terrorist organizations have no incentive to follow the law while states do. I also posted on the asymmetry of tactics when one party in a conflict has an interest in seeing its own civilians die. In addition, I posted about the asymmetry of outside parties treating a terrorist organization and a state "evenhandedly."

These are not small advantages in a war. When one party has its hands tied behind its back because of legal and moral constraints while the other is free to do whatever barbaric acts it pleases, it becomes far more difficult for the moral party to truly win.

There are more asymmetries that Hezbollah takes to full advantage:

Hezbollah lies while Israel tells the truth. Since the war began we have seen Hezbollah consistently lie - about its supposed destruction of many Israeli tanks, about how only a tiny number of terrorists have been killed, about how they do not shoot from mosques. We have seen Hezbollah stage demonstrations and ambulance scenes for TV cameras. And there is more and more evidence that the Qana tragedy may have been the result of Hezbollah actions - and maybe even Hezbollah planning. Or at the very least, a carefully choreographed manipulation of facts by Hezbollah.

On the other hand, it takes Israel hours or days to research and disseminate the truth to counter terrorist lies, and by the time they can accurately show the facts, the world has already passed judgment.

There is literally nothing that can be done to fix this, although the world media is complicit in uncritically reporting clearly staged events and statements from people who have a track record of lying. Until the press acts more responsibly we have a clear disadvantage to those who care about the truth.
The definition of victory. While Israel has been rightly criticized over not being clear as to its objectives, Hezbollah merely needs to survive to be able to declare victory. So a core group of Hezbollah fighters who stay in bunkers and who don't even bother to fight can emerge after the war as heroes - which has huge geopolitical implications, pushing the balance of power in the Middle East towards Iran and Syria.

A prizefight where one boxer only has to live to be declared the winner is a difficult fight to win.
Susceptibility to pressure. Israel, as a member of Western civilization, has to worry to some extent about what the world thinks. It has to worry about sanctions and calls for a cease fire and about public opinion, both from without and within.

Hezbollah, on the other hand, has the full support of rogue terror states. Immoral acts do not pressure Hezbollah to moderate - quite the opposite. In the moral universe they inhabit, terror is rewarded and co-existence with Israel is regarded as the biggest evil. The only pressure that may have worked would have been from the Lebanese, but Hezbollah has effectively used its media manipulation and human shields to ensure that they support the terrorists.

Putting these together, and we have a war like no other, that will almost undoubtedly result in Iran being strengthened as the center of the Islamic world, poised to become a superpower.

And the West is largely clueless as to the importance of this war.

UPDATE: Welcome to those coming from the Huffington Post and AlterNet, but unfortunately I do not live in Israel.

Amnesty International: When even-handedness is stupid

Amnesty International, pretending to be even-handed as always, suggests writing letters to all the main parties involved in the Lebanon conflict as a means to pressure them to avoid civilian casualties.

Here is their sample letter to Nasrallah:

Dear Sir,
I am writing to express my concern about the killing of civilians in both Lebanon and Israel. In the week since 12 July, more than 300 Lebanese civilians, including dozens of children have been killed by the Israeli air strikes against Lebanon and hundreds more have been injured. Amnesty International condemns unreservedly the massive attacks carried out by the Israeli military against civilians and civilian infrastructure throughout Lebanon, and is calling on Israel to immediately cease such attacks and to respect international humanitarian law.
We are also concerned about Hizbullah attacks against Israeli civilians, some 15 of whom have been killed by rockets launched by Hizbullah. Such attacks have also caused substantial damage to homes and other civilian property.
I urge you to ensure that Hizbullah’s armed wing put an immediate end to the targeting of Israeli civilians, notably the launch of rockets into Israeli towns and villages and that Hizbullah fighters do not initiate armed attacks from residential civilian areas and avoid locating military objectives within civilian areas. I also call on you not to harm the two Israeli soldiers whom Hizbullah captured and to grant them access to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Sincerely,

The letter to Olmert is a bit longer, adding bits about "proportionality" and helpfully adding

Such attacks are a blatant breach of international humanitarian law and some amount to war crimes.

There is an interesting bias that AI shows by not mentioning war crimes or international law to the Hezbollah chief.

But the more idiotic part is that AI knows very well that Nasrallah doesn't care in the least about what some Westerners are mailing him. It would be far more useful to send messages to Santa Claus asking for a cessation of hostilities.

Hezbollah's very goal is the destruction of Israel:

The Necessity for the Destruction of Israel
We see in Israel the vanguard of the United States in our Islamic world. It is the hated enemy that must be fought until the hated ones get what they deserve. This enemy is the greatest danger to our future generations and to the destiny of our lands, particularly as it glorifies the ideas of settlement and expansion, initiated in Palestine, and yearning outward to the extension of the Great Israel, from the Euphrates to the Nile.
Our primary assumption in our fight against Israel states that the Zionist entity is aggressive from its inception, and built on lands wrested from their owners, at the expense of the rights of the Muslim people. Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.
We vigorously condemn all plans for negotiation with Israel, and regard all negotiators as enemies, for the reason that such negotiation is nothing but the recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist occupation of Palestine. Therefore we oppose and reject the Camp David Agreements, the proposals of King Fahd, the Fez and Reagan plan, Brezhnev's and the French-Egyptian proposals, and all other programs that include the recognition (even the implied recognition) of the Zionist entity.

That was from the 1985 Hizbollah Program, and in 1996 it had not moderated:

We will work on the strong and efficient continuation of the Resistance until our occupied land is completely liberated and restored to the national sovereignty, until our people in the occupied strip are released and able to secure a free honorable decent living away from any direct or indirect presence of the usurping Zionists. We will also work on confronting the logic of the theatrical negotiations that seek to establish Israel's position at the expense of the people of the land.

So Hezbollah rockets towards Israeli civilians is a direct part of who Hezbollah is. It is the major reason they built up their arsenal to begin with! The targets from the beginning were meant to be civilians, and the Hezbollah defenses from the beginning were meant to be civilians. (See this amazing letter.)

Writing a letter to Nasrallah asking him to stop rocket fire is like asking him to disband his organization - it is absurd.

Now, the Amnesty International goal is to be

concerned solely with the impartial protection of human rights.

Hezbollah's goal is to take away the human rights from a specific group of people.

The very idea of treating Hezbollah and the State of Israel identically in Amnesty's actions is not evenhandedness - it is effectively one-sided because of the nature of each entity. One side is susceptible to pressure and the other one isn't. One side respects human rights and the other side doesn't. One side tries to minimize human pain and the other side seeks to maximize it. To treat them the same is to confer legitimacy on an inherently immoral and illegitimate group of thugs.

Sometimes - in fact, usually - being "evenhanded" is anything but.