What’s been going on in Israel and Gaza
Read the whole thing, but particularly note this:
Hamas and Iranian-controlled Islamic Jihad launched over 600 rockets killing several Israeli civilians. The rockets were launched mostly from civilian locations in Gaza towards civilian locations in Israel.
Israel retaliated with attacks on terror installations, mostly empty buildings, with the exception of a targeted hit on the Hamas commander who coordinated Iranian funding. Anti-Israel congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib both blamed Israel for the conflict.
Typical, typical, typical. Hamas tries its hardest to do two things: kill Israeli civilians, and get Israelis to kill Gazan civilians (the latter is done by launching from civilian locations, so that any retaliation by Israel to the source would ordinarily be to a civilian target).
The other typical thing, of course, is that Israel gets excoriated nevertheless by the Jew-and-Israel-haters.
Much more at the link, including news of a cyber-attack on Israel by Hamas, and then Israel’s retaliatory destruction of the floor of the building (not the entire building) that had housed the headquarters of Hamas’ cyber unit.
There’s also a larger conflict that may be brewing:
…Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is keeping his eye on the larger ball, which is Iran and Hezbollah in the north, and didn’t want to get bogged down with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the south.
This view is supported by the announcement that the U.S. is increasing both land- and sea-based military assets in the Persian Gulf region anticipating an Iranian or Iranian-proxy attack on U.S. and allied forces as oil sanctions cripple the Iranian economy. The Gaza conflict, in which the Iranian-controlled Islamic Jihad played a key role, likely was an Iranian diversion to keep Israeli military assets tied down during the bigger conflict to come.
Iran appears to be underneath (metaphorically crouching in Hamas’ tunnel complex?) much of this weekends’ exchange.
The Israelis made a point of directly targeting a Gazan money man who brought Iranian cash to PIJ financing. The Trump admin has recently declared the entire IRGC a terror org.
A high IRGC official defected a few weeks ago, bringing, it is said, large caches of documentation with him. He’s been under debriefing in the weeks since.
And Pres. Trump continues to put an increasing squeeze on the Iranian oil sector, as well as now cutting off the Obama concessions on uranium enrichment ( https://youtu.be/SAHy51O0dVg ).
What else is up that we can’t see? Likely plenty.
And now the CVN, USS Abraham Lincoln, is being deployed to the area because of believable intelligence that the mad Mullahs of Iran are considering attacking American troops.
OK Punks, Make My Day.
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib both blamed Israel for the conflict.
The Jews are very inconvenient. They’re not dead and gone like they should be.
Is there anyone in the political establishment in Hennepin County, Mn and Wayne County, Mich. who will make the case that the interests of these loci are not well served by having this gruesome pair of sectaries in Congress?
AMIDROR: IRAN BEHIND THE GAZA ESCALATION
https://m.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Amidror-Iran-behind-the-Gaza-escalation-588796
This explanation (trying to get Israel to commit to a southern operation so Iran/Hezbollah can attack from the north) makes some kind of sense — to the extent that fanatic Islamists make any sense.
Ilhan Omar tweeted about the injustice of the Gaza “occupation.” Guess she was too young to notice Israel pulled out of Gaza many years ago.
Guess she was too young to notice Israel pulled out of Gaza many years ago.
Michael Kinsley once complained that it seemed the newspaper was ‘filled with lies’, which he qualified by saying, “…not lies…artifice…because no deception is achieved and sometimes none is intended”. Well, that was 35 years ago. Now our public discourse is a river of actual self-conscious lies.
Heh: https://mobile.twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1125461618723155974
Bee that as it may, but (as so many ask) is it really satire?….
https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/omar-vs-hirsi-ali-a-tale-of-two-somalis/2019/05/05/
To Bee sure, American Jews certainly could certainly show more religious tolerance of “others”, as this article featuring one grossly intolerant American Jew attests:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/muslim-children-disturbing-video-investigation
When will the Somali occupation of Minneapolis end ?
‘Tis the denouement. IRGC declared a terrorist organization, total oil embargo effective May 2, carrier group to ME, Israeli election out of the way, Trump talking to Putin. I expect some interesting things in the next couple of weeks.
Another thing going on in Israel is Eurovision in Tel Aviv May 14-16, about which I knew nothing prior to a couple of days ago but which come to learn is a big deal in many nations for some decades now. An Israeli won last year, so the winner’s nation hosts the next.
David French has a very good article on NRO today discussing how the rules of war are defined and how Israel is always charged with violating them while Hamas is ignored.
I also read somewhere that Ilan Omar has said that Israel is occupying Gaza. I wonder who gives her her talking points. She sure doesn’t know much about what actually happened.
My understanding is that Israel does NOT “occupy” Gaza, but it does have a blockade on what goes into Gaza.
Israel’s Supreme Court [says] that Gaza is NOT occupied, but that Israel has some obligations for humanitarian provision to Gaza, because of the general laws of armed conflict (while not occupied, Israel is at war with Gaza’s leadership) and because of post Bello obligations of occupation.
https://arguingisrael.wordpress.com/2017/12/21/is-gaza-occupied-international-law-says-no/
I suspect there won’t be a peace in the next 10 years without an actual occupation of an Israeli army, doing house to house searches and being shot at by Hamas “civilians”/ terrorists.
70 years ago, 1949, there was not yet a “Palestinian” people. There are now. They are fighting against the Israelis, but in such a low level terror fight that Israel cannot win by fighting without huge losses to women and children. Which they haven’t done.
Almost every “realistic” fantasy about the war ending involves a big, successful, Israeli counter attack against some Palestinian attack.
An alternative would be for Israel to claim more land, and keep claiming land, until there is an actual border agreed upon. With Israel, maybe, giving some of the land back — so that the Palestinians can “win” something.
Take more now, so you have something you can give back. Maybe. NOT the Golan Heights. So annex what you won’t give back, but take even more. That’s my advice to Bibi now.
Daniel Pipes: Making Sense of Palestinian Logic
https://www.meforum.org/58404/making-sense-of-palestinian-logic
“Palestinians do weird things: A few days ago, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which rules most of the West Bank, refused to accept the tax revenues it is owed by the Israeli government. Today, Hamas, which rules all of Gaza, launched more than 200 rockets against Israel.
Both of these are, on the surface, self-defeating steps that make no sense. Not taking the money means the PA could collapse; firing rockets means Hamas is getting battered militarily by the far superior Israeli forces.” […] “Palestinian logic boils down to blackmail: You Israelis are rich, strong, and happy, so we will make you miserable unless you give us or give us access to more money. It’s weird, it’s sick, but it usually works, especially given an Israeli security establishment for whom quiet is the first priority.”
but it does have a blockade on what goes into Gaza.
No blockade. Israel inspects incoming cargo. Hamas will use scarce resources to import war materiel under the heading of ‘building materials’ &c. Both Israel and Egypt have closed the border.
Hamas has this funny habit of using all the Portland cement imported into Gaza to make concrete for tunnels (“infrastructure projects”) that somehow always seem to be for smuggling at the Egyptian border or to get into Israel at the other border. IIRC Somehow that’s how some things always happen. A mystery of Palestinian public works
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/terrorism-news/rockets-from-gaza/watch-iaf-attacked-200-targets-in-gaza/2019/05/05/
Lists the sites targeted by IDF.
FWIW, Hillary isn’t the only one demanding an election do-over, but she doesn’t have Erdogan’s advantages.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/middle-east/turkey/turkeys-president-forces-new-mayoral-election-in-istanbul-where-ruling-party-lost-vote/2019/05/07/
“Turkey’s Electoral Commission has just ordered a new mayoral election in the city of Istanbul after pressure from the president, with Erdogan clearly hoping for a different result this time around.
Only the mayoral vote is being questioned: not that of the Istanbul city council, which in fact remained under the control of the AK Party – making it clear the “re-vote” has more to do with Erdogan than it has to do with questions about legitimacy.”
I like the picture on this post.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/hundreds-condemn-rashida-tlaib-mid-war-anti-israel-tweet/2019/05/06/
https://arguingisrael.wordpress.com/2017/12/21/is-gaza-occupied-international-law-says-no/
“..by examining the legal arguments at hand, we can begin to tease out why it is so difficult to make the claim that Gaza is occupied, when there is so little evidence. It is my hope that by the end of this post, you will begin to understand how many hoops others jump through to try and twist the law into saying Israel occupies Gaza, where it has had no troops and no settlers since 2005.”
PowerLine shows that Omar is just as blatatently pro-Hamas as is Tlaib.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/05/ilhan-weighs-in-on-gaza.php
PowerLine shows that Omar is just as blatently pro-Hamas as is Tlaib.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/05/ilhan-weighs-in-on-gaza.php
Steve Hayward dissects the New York Times.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/05/loose-ends-78.php
“The NY Times, at it again. In their story today about Hamas firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, the Times story (I’m not linking—paywall anyway) includes this sentence:
Prof. Joshua Dunn of the University of Colorado sensibly asks: “How exactly does the NY Times know that this was the sniper’s motivation?” Dummy: This tells the editors’ motivation at the Times.”
Shorter(!) version:
“We are sick and tired, absolutely sick and tired!, of Israel’s grotesque intransigence—unconscionably refusing to allow justice for the Palestinian people; refusing to enable peace and good-will to flourish in the Middle East and throughout the world.
“REFUSING to allow us to destroy it. Intransigently and unconscionably.
“Yes, we are sick and tired.
“Therefore, we must destroy Israel.
“And as part of our campaign (for peace and good will to, ahem, flourish), we will deploy one of the most effective quivers in our vast arsenal: we will complain that we are utterly ‘impatient’ that Israel has failed to ‘alleviate [the] dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza’.
“(Works like a charm.)
“To be sure, that’s only one of the quivers in our vast arsenal…. We have others and we have many friends and allies.
“(But DO NOT say anything about the huge amounts of humanitarian, food and medical aid that Israel has been allowing to enter Gaza, for over a decade now. And DON’T—we’re warning you!!—write anything about the tons of concrete that Israel has been sending into Gaza. And DON’T—so help us!—write anything about our personal off-shore bank accounts….)”
And the longer version (in spite of the author’s truly bizarre conclusion):
https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/262200/palestinians-gaza-dying-photo-op
Yes, we have many friends and allies, indeed.
No need to speak of Jeremy Corbyn or Chancellor Merkel or the European Left in general or the current Democratic Party of the US, may they all be blessed.
These are far too obvious.
But here are some very fine, honest, humane people—the cream of Sweden’s youth—and we can count on them for decades to come:
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201905061074739993-sweden-crush-zionism-chant/
(We just wish that they would devote more time to us and less time on destroying their own country….)
The Algeminer: Residents of Rocket-Battered Southern Israel Express Dismay Over Gaza Ceasefire
https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/05/06/residents-of-rocket-battered-southern-israel-express-dismay-over-gaza-ceasefire/
The word Hamas is an acronym in Arabic for “Islamic Resistance Movement,” NOT Palestinian Resistance Movement….ISLAMIC. That tells us all we need to know about who they are and what they want. Once again, as always, ISLAM is the problem. Without that in the mix, peace would have been achieved long ago.
Actually, “Islam” or no “islam”, Hamas is refreshingly honest about what they want.
(It’s in their covenant. )
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/284447/get-out
A must read.
Once again, as always, ISLAM is the problem.
HAMAS was founded in 1987. The political stances of the Arab population on the West Bank, in Gaza, and in the UNRWA camps were no more constructive when Nasserist and Communist elements carried the day. Islamists did not ruin Iraq and Syria. Rival wings of the Ba’ath Party did that. It wasn’t Islamist militias who turned Lebanon into an anarchic ruin (though they later contributed). It was the PLO and al-Mourabitoun and the Progressive Socialist Party who did that (with an assist from the Maronite militias).
with Israel’s failure to alleviate dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.”
Note the assumption of the shill from the Sulzberger Birdcage Liner that Israel has some sort of custodial responsibility for Gaza, a territory they evacuated 15 years ago. The residents of Gaza have been on the UNRWA dole for 70 years, and some sources say 50% of the personal income of the territory is attributable to UNRWA disbursements. It isn’t Israel’s responsibility to build a productive base in Gaza. That’s the responsibility of the local population. It isn’t Israel’s responsibility to ‘alleviate suffering in Gaza’. The Gazans are not only enemies of Israel, that is a state they have chosen and with which they are content. They have their own dedicated UN agency to provide for them in the latrine they’ve created for themselves.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/05/07/prominent-saudi-intellectuals-and-journalists-support-israel-slam-hamas-blame-iran-for-latest-gaza-violence/