Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, July 23, 2006

HH LXXIX is out!

Life-of-Rubin hosts this weeks' Haveil Havalim 79, best of the JBlogosphere. Lots of links including many to postings about the current "matzav."

He links to my fundraising campaign for Israel where I will match your donations this week to 5 Israeli charities, up to $1000. The running total of donations is on my sidebar.

It's a great round-up, so check it out!

Mosques used to store weapons. But don't touch the Korans!

From Arutz Sheva:

The Meron A-Ras area of southern Lebanon has been taken by IDF ground troops. The Hizbullah bunkers in, around and below the village have all been raided and the IDF has now stationed troops in the village. Security forces in the area report scores of Katyusha shells, missile storage areas and missile-launchers, which were concealed in the village's mosque.

From YNet:

“We searched through the village carefully, we went house to house, and we found three sites where Hizbullah operatives had been hiding out. We could tell by the flak jackets, helmets, and even the cups of coffee still sitting on the table – but the Hizbullah men apparently fled when we entered. We also found a lot of ammunitions, including weapons, Lau rocket launchers in the yard of a mosque, binoculars, and various rockets,” said battalion commander Lt. Col. Wajadee.

Wajadee said the terrorists used sites in the village to survey and collect information on Israeli communities across the border. An 80-year-old Lebanese man, who remained nearly alone in the town, told soldiers that residents did not cooperate with Hizbullah, but Hizbullah forced themselves on the village and used the residents in operations against Israel.

Just waiting for the massive worldwide Muslim protests in Pakistan and Indonesia that people actually use mosques for storing deadly weapons.

Just waiting for the freedom-loving protesters in Canada and Europe to show outrage over Hezbollah taking an entire town hostage.

I'm sure the protests are being organized right now. Any minute we will be seeing lots of photos and news coverage. Right?

Elder Tzedakah Challenge extended!

I only received one reply to my Tzedakah Challenge, so my ego from the thousands of page hits I got in the past ten days has been properly deflated.

Nevertheless, I am serious about wanting to match $1000 in contributions given to the Israeli charities listed by any readers. Other bloggers, feel free to repost the modified posting below:
-----------------------------------------

Between now and July 28, for any money that you donate to one of the Israeli charities listed below, I will match it, up until we get to a total of $1000.

After you donate, copy your receipt and email it to elderchallenge-at-gmail.com (you should XXX out the credit card number.) Or we can use the honor system if you are paranoid; just let me know. Afterwards, I will match your contributions to the charity or charities you chose. I will try to keep updated blog entries throughout the week showing a running total.

At this time, the total is only $50, so let's please get moving!

Here are the organizations you can donate to, all via the web:

BurgerIDF.org and PizzaIDF.org delivers great food and morale to the brave soldiers defending their land.

Zaka is the world famous organization that offers first response service to terror attacks.

American Friends of Magen David Adom.

Yad Sarah is bringing medical equipment to the northern communities that are under attack.

Friends of the IDF provides equipment and morale-boosting for the soldiers.

Special note to readers who claim to be anti-Zionist but not anti-Jewish: you should have no problem contributing to Zaka, Yad Sarah and MDA. Let's see you put your money where your mouth is!

תזכו למצוות

(The email address will be disabled after the challenge is over.)

A stomach-turning post

The sickening face of the mass-murderer Nasrallah is popping up all over the world. He has no shortage of people who love him and his genocidal plans.

In Berlin...

Pakistan...

Switzerland...

Ramallah....

Iraq....

Syria...

Tehran...

Bahrain...

Caracas....

Sudan...

Egypt....

San Francisco seemed to avoid showing pictures of Nasrallah, but their sentiments were clear as well...

But sometimes I don't mind seeing his picture. Like this one, found in the ruins of a building in Beirut hit by Israeli warplanes:

International peacekeepers?

As the UN and the EU call for international peacekeepers in Lebanon, a simple fact seem to have been forgotten:

They are already there.

Since 1978, the UN has had UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) set up. And since 1978, they have not lifted a single finger to stop rocket attacks towards Israel.

Since then, they have not lifted a finger to stop Hizbollah from building a full army under their noses.

Since then, they have not lifted a finger when Hizbollah built military posts right next to UNIFIL posts.

Since then, they have been sipping tea with Hizbollah, they witnessed the fatal kidnapping of Israeli soldiers in 2000 and refused to even help in the investigation, and they have failed miserably to live up to their mandate:

* Confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon;
* Restore international peace and security;
* Assist the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area.

In other words, they have been firm supporters of the terrorist Hizbollah organization and firm enemies of Israel (as well as Lebanon.) But Lebanon found them useful as well, because as long as they were in Southern Lebanon the Lebanese army could pretend that Hizbollah was not their problem.

Combine this with the fact that the UN refuses to declare Hizbollah a terrorist organization (perhaps they are a origami club?) and you have a completely immoral organization lecturing Israel about morality.

H/T Atlas Shrugs

As Jed Babbin writes:

The U.N.'s years-long record on the Israel-Lebanon border makes mockery of the term "peacekeeping." On page 155 of my book, "Inside the Asylum," is a picture of a U.N. outpost on that border. The U.N. flag and the Hezbollah flag fly side by side. Observers told me the U.N. and Hezbollah personnel share water and telephones, and that the U.N. presence serves as a shield against Israeli strikes against the terrorists.

This picture is all you need to know about the utterly sickening moral posture at the UN.

Canary in a coal mine

Once again Israel is expected to do what the civilized world tries so hard to avoid - tackle terror head-on.

Once again Israel will be the first to take on a new kind of warfare:

Where every single battle is a potential ambush
Where there is no front line
Where the enemy ignores the rules of war, but the army must adhere to them
Where the enemy maintains the legal fiction of not being an organized national army yet is fully supported and directed by sovereign nations
Where one side is unquestioningly doing the right thing but does not have the support of the world to actually win decisively

The lessons learned from this battle will translate to thousand of lives saved in future battles against Islamic terror, as the hypocrites from Europe act dismayed at Israeli actions yet they will eagerly study their methods.

Once again, Israel must do the right thing even while being criticized by the very people who will benefit most from this war. Secretly there is rejoicing in the European world capitals but publicly they must adhere to their dhimmified Eurabian worldview out of fear of the same terror that Israel must face daily.

Once again, Israeli blood is being shed so that the world will do a better job when the real Islamist world war starts.

Elder of Ziyon 24-hour Tzedakah Matching Challenge

Between now and Shabbos/Shabbat, for any money that you donate to one of the Israeli charities listed below, I will match it, up until we get to a total of $1000.

After you donate, copy your receipt and email it to elderchallenge-at-gmail.com . After Shabbos I will match your contributions to the charity or charities you chose. I will try to keep updated blog entries throughout the day showing a running total.

You can donate up until Shabbat in your time zone.

I also challenge other bloggers to make similar matching challenges to their readers. We're here in the blogosphere and people are reading - let's get the lurkers involved!

Here are the organizations you can donate to, all via the web:

BurgerIDF.org and PizzaIDF.org delivers great food and morale to the brave soldiers defending their land.

Zaka is the world famous organization that offers first response service to terror attacks.

American Friends of Magen David Adom.

Yad Sarah is bringing medical equipment to the northern communities that are under attack.

Friends of the IDF provides equipment and morale-boosting for the soldiers.

תזכו למצוות

(The email address will be disabled after the challenge is over.)
UPDATES: Here and Here - the challenge has been extended and expanded.

Results of Palestinian Public Opinion Poll 3-5 November 2004
An-Najah National University
Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies

If Israel withdraws from the Strip do you support or reject launching attacks against Israel from inside the Strip?
I strongly support 22.5 [Gaza Strip 30.2]
I support 33.8 [Gaza Strip 20.8]
I reject 26.5 [Gaza Strip 24.6]
I strongly reject 10.4 [Gaza Strip 17.6]
No opinion; I do not know 6.8 [Gaza Strip 6.8]

So 56.3% of Palestinian Arabs supported attacking Israel from Gaza at the time even after an Israeli withdrawal.

It's not like they didn't give adequate warning of their plans....

"Well, that wasn't there yesterday."

From Pixane.net:

Listened to an interesting audio blog post from Stuart Hughes, a journalist for the Beeb who is in Beirut now, covering the war. He woke up to find a larger-than-normal SUV in his hotel parking lot:
A new arrival in the parking lot next, to my hotel, in the form of a Lebanese Army rocket launcher, I came out to work this morning to find a camouflaged rocket launcher sitting in the car park, pointing at the sky, and I thought “Well, that wasn’t there yesterday”. I think that tells you everything you need to know about the situation here.

Whether or not the launcher is Lebanese army or Hezbollah (no pictures to tell the difference, and it might be a loaner to Hezbollah or perhaps simply stolen) — the fact that it’s parked next to a hotel housing journalists speaks volumes about the kinds of tactics used to ensure civilian casualties.

What, precisely, is Israel supposed to do? Sit back and let the rockets be launched? Attack the missile battery, and risk hitting a hotel full of journalists? I’m sure this launcher is positioned next to journalists for all of the cynical reasons I can imagine.

Also consider: unless Israel uses a large enough explosive charge to ignite the warhead in place and destroy the missiles without igniting their propulsion element, the damage will be even greater as the missile fuel ignites and the rockets launch. Short of sending somebody down there to manually disarm the missiles, it’s actually worse to underuse munitions in destroying these missiles.

My question is, why a hotel full of journalists don't feel this is newsworthy and only one of them mentions it in passing on his personal blog?

(H/T: Israellycool)

Iran boycotting "Zionist" products - like Pepsi and Calvin Klein

More idiocy from the Islamic Republic:

TEHRAN –– Iran on Wednesday launched a major campaign urging consumers to stop buying "Zionist" products, ranging from Coca-Cola and Pepsi soft drinks, to Calvin Klein clothing and Nestle food products.

"Pepsi stands for 'Pay Each Penny to Save Israel", viewers in the Islamic republic have been warned in an oft-repeated three-minute infomercial on state television, prompted by Israel's ongoing assault against the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

"Zionists are the biggest shareholders in the soft drinks industry, and each year they make billions of dollars for their colonialist aims," consumers with a thirst for fizz have been told. Coca-Cola is also not left unscathed by the new twist to the cola wars.

"This firm openly supports Israel and has even said that it is ready to allocate great deal of money to topple the Islamic republic," state television said.

Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have factories in Iran, although state television gave no indication over whether their operations would be affected. (This may explain the cola boycott a bit more fully - EoZ)

A popular British high-street retailer, as well as a number of multinational firms, were also singled out for their links to the alleged international Jewish conspiracy to control the world. "Marks and Spencer has very close relations with the Israeli regime and one its primary aims is to help the development of the Israeli economy," the infomercial claimed.

"Nestle is a Swiss food processing firm which in 2000 announced that it will invest millions of dollars in Israel to build a factory there," it added, while neglecting to mention that Nestle also has a factory in Iran.

The world's largest chip maker Intel was also branded as "one of Israel's biggest supporters".

"Its first overseas branch was set up in Haifa in 1974. In 2000 it employed more that 4,000 Israelis. Its top managers have said that they are going to invest 6.5 billion dollars in Israel," would-be Intel customers have been told.

"McDonalds, Timberland, Revlon, Garnier, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and L'Oreal are only some of the firms which belong to the Zionist regime," state television said, before taking a swipe at what it said were less vigilant Arab nations.

"Unfortunately most of the streets of Arab nations are filled with commercials which advertise Israeli products. For each purchase, the money is converted into bullets piercing the chests of the Lebanese and Palestinian kids," it fumed. –– AFP

As a public service, I would like to add a few companies to Iran's list that do business in Israel:

Microsoft - better stop using Windows!
Motorola - all your cell phones are Zionist plants, recording your every move!
Digital Equipment
Sara Lee
IBM
General Motors
Holiday Inn
Hyatt
Cisco - how can Iran be on the Internet, anyway?
Johnson & Johnson
AT&T
Chase Manhattan
Citibank - they charge interest, anyway.
Compaq
Boeing
General Electric
Eastman Kodak

Oh, hell, just look at this page and this page - you will find lots and lots of companies to boycott.

Don't be hypocritical, Iran - better boycott them all!

Morality, collective punishment and collective responsibility

One of the favorite memes of Palestinian Arabs is the notion that Israel engages in "collective punishment." This is viewed as immoral and illegal and de facto wrong.

One can sympathize with this viewpoint. After all, one would naturally think that innocent people should not suffer for the crimes of others. The idea of people being individually responsible for their actions is a strong one (and, I would argue, a Western one.)

There is a flip side though that those who trot out this argument will never address: Do the Palestinian Arab people have any collective responsibility?

Not only must people act responsibly, but nations (and other groups of people) must as well. This is not an unreasonable expectation. It also makes sense that the larger group will be inconvenienced as a result of the criminals' actions.

If a nation decides to act aggressively against another, one cannot expect the victim to keep the same level of economic or diplomatic ties. Even if the first nation is dependent on a specific product or service of the second, and the people of the first nation will suffer from its loss, that doesn't mean that the second nation has any reason to take that into consideration.

In other words, the idea of "collective punishment" being inherently bad is not so cut and dried. The US didn't allow high-tech equipment to be exported to the Soviet Union in the 1970s, depriving them of most computers. Isn't that a form of collective punishment?

Let's look at another angle. One group of people votes to eradicate the other group of people. If the vote was 90%-10%, the second group has every right to defend itself - even if the 10% suffers.

What percentage of a people acting immorally makes collective punishment a moral choice in response? And if the threat to the second group is imminent or present, how should the second group react?

I spent the better part of two years on this blog carefully differentiating between the Palestinian Arab people and their corrupt, terrorist leaders. My theory was that for the better part of their existence, most ordinary Palestinian Arabs didn't care about geopolitics or land or occupation or nationhood - they only cared to be able to provide a safe and secure place to raise their families.

As a result of years of propaganda, though, it is hard to argue that anymore. I recently posted the results of a few polls of Palestinian Arabs and the number that support terror against Jews is not only a majority, but a large majority (depending on how the question was asked.) No matter how hard one tries to spin it, Israel's neighbors want to see it destroyed and the Jews dispersed or killed or subjugated. In other words, no matter what you think, most Palestinian Arabs are in fact immoral.

Does this mean that collective punishment is always justified? Of course not. I cannot see justification for purely punitive actions that serve no defensive purpose. I also admit to feeling uneasy at punitive actions designed to compel a population to act in certain ways. The sentiment may be correct but the probability of success is rather low, IMHO.

So while deliberate collective punishment is problematic, there are fewer moral qualms about doing defensive actions like striking at terrorists in ways that can peripherally hurt the population at large. The complicity of the host population to the terror is a significant factor. Going after hostage takers, for example in Beslan, obviously requires more care than going after a terrorist in a building where the other people are aware of and condone his activities.

It is a tricky ethical problem trying to minimize casualties while trying to aggressively eliminate a threat to your own people. It may an ethical problem that the Palestinian Arabs do not spend one minute worrying about, but Israel should not take morality lessons from those who celebrate murderers.

Even so, it is worthwhile not only to explore the parameters of not only collective punishment but also collective guilt and collective responsibility. Taking responsibility for one's actions is what distinguishes a mature person from an immature one - and taking responsibility for one's people is an even greater level. It is a shame that Palestinian Arabs have shown no ability to even take that first step.

And it is a bigger shame that most of the world community doesn't expect them to.

One of the Israeli accidental bombings

Here is a rocket launcher:

Here is a water driller:

Beirut Spring asks sarcastically whether you can tell the difference between them, because Israel bombed two water drillers in a Christian neighborhood and apparently thought it was a rocket launcher.

I would guess that from a thousand feet up, they look very similar. And I would rather see Israel bomb the truck (apparently no civilians died) and play it safe rather than let it go.

Also this came after Israel dropped leaflets asking Lebanese not to drive certain types of trucks so Israel would have a better chance to target Hizbollah weapons smuggling trucks - and not kill civilians.

Beirut Spring may have been trying to show Israelis to be bumbling idiots, but to me it proves their unprecedented morality during an especially difficult war against those who use innocents as human shields. They hit a seemingly legitimate target, accurately, without human life being lost.

All mistakes should be like this.

Pigs are flying - Arab Times editorial

H/T Pastorius:

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

PEOPLE of Arab countries, especially the Lebanese and Palestinians, have been held hostage for a long time in the name of “resisting Israel.” Arab governments have been caught between political obligations and public opinion leading to more corruption in politics and economics. Forgetting the interests of their own countries the Hamas Movement and Hezbollah have gone to the extent of representing the interests of Iran and Syrian in their countries. These organizations have become the representatives of Syria and Iran without worrying about the consequences of their action.

Recently Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier and bombed Israeli settlements with locally manufactured missiles. Soon Hezbollah followed suit, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers. Both these organizations claimed they had kidnapped Israeli soldiers to exchange them for Arab prisoners who are being held in Israeli jails. The fact that Hamas and Hezbollah gave the same reason for kidnapping Israeli soldiers gives us a glimpse their agenda, which is similar to the one followed by Syria and Iran in their conflict with the United States.

While the people of Palestine and Lebanon are paying the price of this bloody conflict, the main players, who caused this conflict, are living in peace and asking for more oil from Arab countries to support the facade of resisting Israel. With the Palestinian Authority close to collapse and the Lebanese government beginning to give up responsibility for what is happening in its territory, Saudi Arabia has been forced to come out of its diplomatic routine and indirectly hold Hezbollah responsible for what is happening Lebanon.

Without mentioning Hezbollah by name Saudi Arabia blamed certain “elements” inside Lebanon for the violence with Israel and said “it is necessary to make a distinction between legitimate resistance and uncalculated adventures adopted by certain elements within Lebanon without the knowledge of legal Lebanese authorities.” While reiterating its support for Palestinian and Lebanese resistance against Israeli occupation, Saudi Arabia has clearly said it is against irresponsible adventures undertaken by certain elements in the region without consulting the legal authorities putting all Arab nations at risk. The Kingdom has also said “these elements must take responsibility for their irresponsible actions and they alone should end the crisis created by them.”
This angry response from Saudi Arabia has politically isolated Hezbollah and Hamas besides holding them responsible for their actions.

This attitude of Saudi Arabia, which has been doing all it can to protect the Arab world from Israeli aggression, is enough to unmask the adventurers, who have violated the rights of their own countries and tried put their people under the guardianship of foreign countries like Iran and Syria. A battle between supporters and opponents of these adventurers has begun, starting from Palestine to Tehran passing through Syria and Lebanon. This war was inevitable as the Lebanese government couldn’t bring Hezbollah within its authority and make it work for the interests of Lebanon. Similarly leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has been unable to rein in the Hamas Movement.

Unfortunately we must admit that in such a war the only way to get rid of “these irregular phenomena” is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community.

While this is hardly pro-Israel, it shows some clear thinking that is sorely lacking in the Arab world. More importantly, it shows that the Arab world does not have to be held hostage to their terrorists - it is all too rare to see any real criticism in the Arab world towards the extremist elements.

One can hope that what an editor says clearly in Kuwait is in fact what many Arabs are thinking in Jordan or Egypt. And one can hope that this would empower them to spit out the terrorists from their midst, and then act as real partners for peace.

Arab death porn

I noticed a number of Arab blogs and websites, while arguing that Israel is barbarian and pure evil and all that crap, will use lots of images of dead children (don't click if you don't want to see dead kids.) The sources are rarely given but the pictures themselves zoom through the terror-supporting blogosphere, and people such as Juan Cole link to them.

For some reason, the West doesn't need to see pictures of dead people to get upset. We didn't need to see pictures of the bodies on the ground outside Ground Zero - the pictures of the planes smashing in the buildings were enough.

Why is this?

Let's ask a couple of other questions. If it is a cultural thing that Arabs are just used to seeing pictures of dead people, how come there are so few pictures of Arabs who have been killed by other Arabs?

And, finally - why do Arab terrorists like to take videos of decapitations?

The answer is that these photos aren't meant to inform - they is the Arab equivalent to pornography. Both the pictures of dead kids and the videos of chopping heads off are meant to incite hatred - against Jews, against America, whatever. Combine that with a culture that celebrates death, that proudly pretends to desire death (just not for the leaders, only the hapless martyrs), and you have photos whose entire purpose is to create lust - lust for revenge, lust for murder.

There's also a faux macho component to these photos - just like insecure men flock to hardcore porn to make themselves feel superior to women, so do Jew-haters and Arabs surreptitiously enjoy the hardcore sight of dead kids to make themselves feel a little less self-hate for their own, purposeful and deliberate terror attacks aimed at civilians.

The pictures are never shown in the context of "oh this is so sad." They are without exception shown as a means to create strong emotion without having to think about context or motive or anything else that could end up showing the truth: that by any objective measure, the Arabs are far more depraved than the people they are trying to demonize. (This guy is so thrilled to have some dead-kid pictures that he repeats each picture 5 times on his website!)

Not once will you see Israelis celebrate the deaths of Lebanese or Palestinian Arab kids. Once again, the only people who gain anything by the death of Arab kids are Arabs themselves. And too many of them are more than happy to show off their latest bonanza of pornographic pictures (whether they are real or not) on the Internet.

Genocide? Ethnic cleansing? No, just Arabs killing Arabs

The PalArab self-death count is now at 32, with the latest additions:

At approximately 14:10 on Sunday, 16 July 2006, masked gunmen traveling in a car fired at Mohammad Zaki Dahalan, a 24-year old member of the Preventive Security Apparatus. He was hit by several bullets in the chest and abdomen as he was standing near his house in the Jorit El-Aqad area in Khan Yunis. He was taken to Naser Hospital for treatment, but died shortly after arrival in the hospital.

In a related development at approximately 16:00 on the same day, a number of Dahlan's friends and colleagues gathered near his house and fired bullets and threw bombs at the house of Dr. Walid Amer, a lecturer in the Islamic University and a senior figure in Hamas. No injuries were reported in the house, which sustained material damages to the windows and outside walls.

Yesterday afternoon, a guard was killed at the house of a Preventive Security officer, Nabil Tammous, and two others were injured when unknown gunmen detonated explosives in the officer's house in Naser Quarter in Gaza City. The house was partially destroyed.

And the world headlines screamed "Genocide! House demolitions! Ethnic cleansing! Nazi-like methods!"

Oh, sorry. The world ignores Arabs killing Arabs, because that doesn't fit in with the meme of Israel being the source of all the problems and terror and bloodshed in the Middle East - the latest proponent of this absurd view being none other than CNN's Lou Dobbs.

Hint to Lou - Between the Lebanese civil war, the Hama massacre, Black September, the Iran/Iraq war, the North Yemen civil war (complete with Egyptian chemical weapons) and the internal Palestinian Arabs killing each other, the amount of bloodshed attributable to Israel is a drop in the bucket.

Clueless Reuters Caption of the Day

Supporters of Lebanon protest outside the Israeli consulate in New York, July 18, 2006.

Let's take a closer look at the poster in the background. I recognize it from a previous blog post where there was a similar protest at Ground Zero:

These protesters are not supporters of Lebanon - they are crazed Muslim fanatics who want to subjugate the world! They are from the "Islamic Thinkers Society" and they represent the vilest, most violent Muslims on the planet. The only Lebanon they support is a Jihadist Lebanon with nary a Christian in sight, except to pay the Jizya.

Here they are peacefully protesting a cartoon and threatening to exterminate all of Europe:

Reading material

There have been many great articles and postings over the past few days. Here some good ones:

Eurasia.net - Iran talks tough, but
Treppenwitz - A difficult lesson
Soccer Dad - Cohen's mistake
Ha'aretz - New army of women suicide bombers (what I would call a "target-rich environment")
National Review - Eradication first before diplomacy, also Fight to the Finish

Welcome also to the many, many readers who came from the Truth Laid Bear. I feel guilty because I am not an Israeli blogger as TTLB indicates, but I hope that I have something to contribute anyway.

Arab American organizations support Hizbollah

Here's the press release from the Congress of Arab-American Organizations in an article at the Arab American News:

"CAAO members strongly condemn the indiscriminate killing of civilians, especially of children," said CAAO Chair Abed Hammoud. "Over the past few days, the Israeli Army has launched an aggressive campaign in Gaza, then expanded this campaign of terror on a more severe level into Lebanon. So far, the U.S government has justified and supported the Israeli crimes under the guise of 'self defense', although Israeli leaders have bluntly stated that the objective of their bombings by air, land, and sea is to destroy the country of Lebanon and its infrastructure and collectively punish its people."

"CAAO members are appalled that, while the international community has condemned the Israeli actions and called for a cessation of its criminal behavior, our own government is not only supporting the killing of hundreds of civilians, but it is also encouraging the systematic destruction of two blooming democracies in the Middle East," said Osama Siblani, head of media relations for CAAO. "U.S. officials also do not seem to care that tens of thousands of the civilians under attack by Israel are U.S. citizens currently visiting Lebanon on vacation.".....
Alluding to an incorrect version of an eye for an eye, Imam Mohamed Ali Elahi said that the Israelis are "making millions blind, just for two Israeli eyes."

Even Palestinian Arabs would mouth words of condemnation when their co-patriots blew up innocent Jews in Israel. These Arab-Americans, on the other hand, don't have a single word of condemnation for Hizbollah's kidnapping, nor for rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. They have plenty of time to lie and claim that Israeli leaders have specified a goal of destroying Lebanon.

Of course, this is not the first time that Arab Americans have publicly supported Hizbollah. And this link has the classic quote:

I have never been to the South of Lebanon until my recent trip earlier this month. I went from Beirut all the way to the border in the South. I want all of the American officials to know that I did not see a single person with a firearm from Beirut all the way to the border, except at one Lebanese Army checkpoint. What I have seen calls for us to be proud: people living their lives, smoking the water pipe, playing cards, watching their kids play on both sides of the border without threat! So why are you calling Hizbullah a terrorist organization, and why do you want to take their arms? I didn’t see any arms.”

It is mind-blowing that the culture of death and lies can flourish in the United States.

Iranian hate rhetoric - bluster or strategy?

Yesterday, the Iranian parliament speaker spoke:

The Iranian parliament speaker said on Tuesday the war against Israel has only just begun and there is nowhere in Israel safe from Hezbollah attacks.

“The war has just begun, today is the day of resistance, today is the day of liberation of Palestine and there will be no safe spot in the occupied territories (Israel) anymore from Hezbollah attacks,” Gholam-Ali Hadad-Adel said at a anti-Israeli gathering in the Palestine Square in downtown Tehran.

“The day has come when everybody returns home, the day when Palestinians return home, return to the land of their origins and its is also the day when the Israelis have to return to the countries where they originally came from,” the speaker added.

Thousands of Iranians attended the state-organized gathering and declared their readiness to be dispatched to Lebanon to fight against Israel.

“We call on the United States and the West to cut their support for the Zionist regime, otherwise there would never ever be peace and reconciliation with over 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide,” the speaker said.

Hadad-Adel, who is head of the Abadgaran (Development) party which currently dominates parliament and of which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a leading member, once again declared Iran’s full solidarity with Lebanon and the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah.

“There will be no help which we would not render to Lebanon and the resistance (Hezbollah),” the speaker said.

He compared Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with the late leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and said that ”the Ayatollah’s blood was running in Nasrallah’s veins.”

“Inshallah (so God wills), we will soon hold our thankfulness prayers in Qods (Jerusalem),” Hadad-Adel said.

Iran has ratcheted up its non-stop Israel bashing in the past week, with many daily speeches inciting the Muslim world to war, even during speeches about other topics. What interests me about this speech is that it could be interpreted two ways.

So far, even though everyone knows that Iran calls the shots for Hizbollah, Iran has publicly made it appear that they only support Hizbollah but are not the ones making the decisions. Otherwise, Iran would be admitting that they declared war on Israel, something they are not prepared to do.

But this speech can be interpreted as more than just support, rather as a description of Iranian plans for how Hizbollah should act. This comes very close to admitting that Hizbollah is an Iranian proxy.

The speaker added another twist of rabid, slobbering hate, from a different article:

"The Americans should know that as long as this filthy tumor lies in the body of the Islamic world, Muslims will not stop hating America," Hadad-Adel told thousands of regime supporters. "Either stop this support or do not expect any peace with the Islamic world."

This is almost comical, as he pathetically tries to convince the West that Israel is the only reason radical Muslims hate them. He also puts in a hint of the old "Arab street" (now "Muslim street") argument that has been used for decades as a blunt instrument to get Western powers to bend to Muslim will. (Not to mention he vastly exaggerates the number of Muslims in the world as a means of scaring the West.)

Because he knows that there is no shortage of Western dhimmis who are eager to believe his arguments and to submit to second-class status under an worldwide Islamic 'ummah.

Yet another example of Arab projection

A Palestinian Arab blog called "Sabbah's Blog" is indignant over a few wire service photos: (sorry, the permalink doesn't work, this is a link to the main blog)

Israeli girls write messages on a shell at a heavy artillery position near Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel, next to the Lebanese border, Monday, July 17, 2006.

He comments:

Dear Lebanese/Palestinian/Arab/Muslim/Christians - Kids,
Die with love.
Yours,
Israeli Kids

Hate, disgust, extreme…. I don’t know what word can describe these photos.

And they say that we are teaching our kids hate to Israelis!

He then goes on to a popular Palestinian Arab pastime - showing gruesome photos of dead children.

What righteous indignation! What a defense of the Lebanese!

What a crock!

Palestinian Arabs have a long and colorful history of celebrating the murders of innocents. Hell, they have a long history of murdering innocents. Just today, a crowd showed great happiness in front of cameras while playing with the body parts of a dead Israeli soldier. Palestinian Arabs celebrated 9/11, they created shrines to the Sbarro's pizza bombing, they put up posters of their heroes the murderers, they name sports stadiums and town squares after people who specifically targeted children, they encourage hteir own children to die as martyrs and hand out sweets when the martyrs manage to kill a few Jewish kids along the way.

Moreover, Palestinian Arabs were responsible for the murders of tens of thousands of Lebanese Christians during the civil war there. They killed more innocent women and children, on purpose, than Israel ever will accidentally. The sudden pretense of pain on behalf of the Lebanese is more than a little hypocritical on behalf of this suddenly moral blogger.

Here's where the fun psycho-analysis comes in.

Ask the children in the pictures who the rockets are earmarked for, and ten out of ten will answer the same thing: The Hizbollah murderers who are shooting rockets at these very children.

Who live in the same town that is on the front line, within reach of the shortest-range terrorist missiles.

Which are aimed squarely at these very children.

Not one will say they want to see innocent Lebanese children die. Not one of these girls would even crack a smile when they see the gruesome pictures that Sabbah likes to plaster all over. Not one of them would dream of celebrating the deaths of children the way that Sabbah's people do routinely.

In other words, Sabbah is projecting the behaviors and attitudes of his own disgusting people onto these Jewish kids for whom such thoughts are utterly foreign and repulsive.

One of the goals of the Hizbollah thugs is to make Israelis - specifically, Jewish Israelis - feel helpless. Whoever asked these girls to write messages on the rockets that will ultimately save them from terror was a genius. Israel changed the natural feelings of helplessness into action, into involving everyone in the nation to be a part of the solution.

The solution that will wipe the terrorists off the face of the planet.

UPDATE (7/1): I noticed that Slate just linked here, implying that the message is quite the opposite of what I am saying. But since you're reading, look closely at what the handwriting on the rocket says (I didn't notice this initially):

Dear Nazralah (sic)
From Israel
and Danielle

I wholeheartedly support sending personal messages to terrorists in this fashion. And it neatly proves that I was right, notwithstanding the funny Daily Show piece.