new_york_loner ([info]new_york_loner) wrote,
@ 2009-01-01 15:46:00
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Entry tags:arab refugees, bush, gaza strip, israel, obama, operation cast lead, palestine, roadmap to peace, the hanukkah war, war on terror

The Hanukkah War
Is the latest Israeli military operation in Gaza, the Hanukkah War, a Christmas gift, to the Arabs in Gaza, from President Bush?

Is this George W. Bush’s response to the Arab shoe-thrower?

Judging from the Lame Duck’s latest wise-quacks, it is clear that our Commander-In-Chief is reciting AIPAC–approved talking points and blaming the victims for the violence. Bush is giving Israel the green light to proceed with “Operation Cast Lead”.

The Israelis are too smart to start a major military operation without getting the prerequisite go-ahead signal from their closest ally, the USA. It is safe to assume that the Israelis secretly contacted President Bush before initiating their air assault on Gaza.

I think it is also safe to assume that President-elect Obama was also briefed on the situation and it is safe to assume that he too acquiesced to the Israeli plan.

The Christmas tree may still be up, but the Christmas spirit in America seems to have been short-lived this year. The blaring trumpets of Holy War, in the Holy Land are overpowering Christ’s words about hope, forgiveness, brotherly love, and charity – the traditional themes of Christmas.

Welcome to the Great Theocratic wars of the 21st Century. It’s the Zionist-Christian Crusaders versus the Islamic Jihadists.

Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, the death toll is rising. Reliable sources claim that, as of today, at least 380 Palestinians have been killed and many hundreds more have been severely injured, as a direct result of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead.

This American-approved war on Hamas will probably fail to uproot the “terrorists”, the noble goal proclaimed by this war’s proponents; it will certainly inspire a new generation of Arab “freedom fighters” to continue the armed resistance to “militant Zionism in Palestine”.

The stateless Arab refugees from the 1948 and 1967 wars and their descendants are penned-in, like criminals, in the tiny Gaza Strip. The Israelis control their airspace, blockade their ports and coastline and the IDF controls and patrols their land borders, with the help of a compliant regime in Egypt.

Life is hard, in the Gaza Strip – home to a million and a half desperate, displaced Arabs. Unemployment is widespread. Basic items like food, fuel, potable water, medical supplies and electricity are always in short supply. Extremists exploit the general despair.

In all human conflicts, there are causes and there are effects. We Americans need to recognize and deal with the root causes for the Arab and Muslim antipathy toward Israel and its allies.

The architects of the current “war on terror” have mistakenly concentrated on addressing the violent effects, instead of identifying and addressing the underlying causes.

The resolution of the Arab refugee issue has always been assigned to some future “final status” agreement; sadly, this has been the case for the past sixty years.

The so-called “Roadmap to Peace” is upside down, if we can resolve the Arab refugee issue first, instead of last, a major casus belli for the “terrorists” will be removed from the equation.

If we can finally and fairly settle the Arab/Israeli conflict, the militant Jihadists will run out of motivational ammunition.


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[info]serr8d
2009-01-02 01:28 pm UTC (link)

~*~


HNY, Loner!

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[info]serr8d
2009-01-02 01:33 pm UTC (link)
OH, you might enjoy watching this video. The IDF created a new YouTube channel, so as to counter the HAMAS / PALI videos; YouTube pulled some of them down but relented after bloggers and news media put pressure on them.

You can see all of the IDF's videos from here.

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Responding to Serr8d
[info]new_york_loner
2009-01-02 06:29 pm UTC (link)
HNY to you too, Serr8d; thanks for the visits, the cartoon, the links and your comments.

It seems that public opinion here in the USA is overwhelmingly pro-Israel. No surprise there. The pro-Israel lobbies, the professional zealots for Zionism, the US defense industry, big oil, the major US political parties and the MSM are all on the same page on this one.

Let’s look at the facts, the homemade, Qassam rockets that were launched by the Arab militants were very unsettling to the “settlers”, but the crude devices caused few Israeli casualties.

Israel’s disproportionate response has been merciless and lethal – over 400 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF since this Gaza offensive began. The Palestinian rocket and mortar counter-attack has killed 4 Israelis during the same time frame. That’s a 100 to 1 ratio.

Let’s not forget that about 100 Palestinians in Gaza were killed by the IDF last March. And let’s not forget that the Israelis have sealed off the borders, the ports and Gazan airspace for the past 19 months. Collective punishment against the Arabs is an old Zionist tradition.

No, I do not condone the use of Qassam rockets fired randomly at civilians, or any other violent terrorist tactics, but I can understand how and why young Palestinians are sucked into this cycle of violence in the Holy Land.

No, I do not condone the concept of militant Zionism, but I can understand how and why the world’s oppressed Jews are also sucked into this same cycle of violence.

And the USA is being sucked in as well.

Our little buddy in the Middle East is taking full advantage of the lame duck period in Washington. It’s open season on Gazans and no bag limit!

This thing could easily get out of hand, Hezbollah, in Lebanon, for example, could now initiate a large-scale rocket attack on Israel’s northern border. Iran might try something foolhardy; in that case, things could go nuclear quickly.

The Israeli elections are scheduled for Feb. 10; this use of disproportionate lethal force in Gaza is politically popular in the Jewish State, at an opportune time for Israeli hard-liners. There are few doves in the Knesset these days; the hawks are eating their own.

Holy Wars Suck!

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Re: Responding to Serr8d
[info]serr8d
2009-01-04 03:23 am UTC (link)
Quassam rockets, Loner? You're a bit behind on the news, I'm afraid.

Iran has supplied Hamas with Grad rockets (some of those were destroyed in a mosque by the IDF in my prior-linked video) and there's fears that even longer-ranged rockets might be forthcoming.
Despite a diplomatic mission by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, to Paris, the Israeli army continued to muster thousands of troops and scores of tanks along Gaza’s border for a possible ground offensive. Israel’s airstrikes are designed to blunt Hamas’s capacity to fire its new Grad missiles deep into its territory. The weapons are smuggled in through tunnels and by sea, replacing homemade Qassam rockets.

Israeli officials say that Hamas has also acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles with an even longer range. Many fear that as the group acquires ever more sophisticated weaponry it is only a matter of time before the nuclear installation at Dimona, 20 miles east of Beersheba, falls within its sights. Dimona houses Israel’s only nuclear reactor and is believed to be where nuclear warheads are stored.
What's it like for Israelis to live in bunkers, fearful of what comes down without warning? Surely you see that a sovereign nation has the right to defend itself and it's peoples from these sorts of things? What if Canada started launching things into upper New York?

Oh, sorry. Canada's people are much tamer than radical Dhimmis.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Israeli Ground Offensive Escalates the Conflict.
[info]new_york_loner
2009-01-04 06:23 pm UTC (link)
Again, thank you Serr8d, for the links. You have, once again, chugged down the AIPAC-approved, made in Israel, Kosher, Kool-Aid. That stuff is sweet, colorful, ice-cold and momentarily refreshing, but it is not really good for you. The free Israeli Kool-Aid is not really free, it's well subsidized with our tax dollars.

Your “Israel/Gaza – New York /Canada “analogy is a ludicrously false analogy;

Unlike the Gaza Strip, Canada is not a tiny coastal “enclave” without sovereign status, with a population of a million and a half desperate and destitute Arab refugees and blockaded on all its borders and without control of its own airspace.

Unlike Israel, the New Yorkers are not imposing collective punishment upon the Canadians and we New Yorkers did not seize Canada in 1967 and then occupy and colonize the place for 37 years before abandoning the place and fencing it off from the world.

Israel has killed a few dozen Gaza-based rocketeers over the past few years, but largely tolerated the unsettling Qassams. Why is the Israeli government acting with such overwhelming force at this particular point in time?

It’s plain old politics. The Israeli election coincides with the lame duck or transition period here in the US.

The Israeli public is cheering on the IDF and all the contenders for public office and their political parties are well aware of it.

Bush would like to throw more than his shoes at the Arabs, this US green light for a large scale Israeli military offensive in Gaza will have to suffice.

Mr. Obama is now being subjected to the Israeli loyalty test, weeks before he takes the oath of office as our new president.

Across America, there is little sympathy for the Palestinian people and none for some of their elected representatives – Hamas did win power, in a democratic election. We recognize the more compliant Fatah faction – at least for now.

The death toll is growing; sources claim that some 500 Arabs have been killed in the recent fighting in Gaza.

The Israelis are now invading Gaza – the threatened IDF ground offensive is underway. The Arab refugees are in for a beating; no foreign journalists are being allowed in to document the inhumanity of it all.

This is all counter-productive to the stated goals. Palestinian resistance will become even stronger as a result of Operation Cast Lead. Antipathy, condemnation and political isolation for Israel and the US will increase, not decrease, as a result of this crackdown in Gaza, the Hanukkah War.

We need to fairly resolve the Arab refugee issue right now, and not relegate the fate of these stateless human beings to some future “ final status” agreement.

In my view, sixty years of suffering is enough. Think of the children.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: Israeli Ground Offensive Escalates the Conflict.
(Anonymous)
2009-01-04 09:11 pm UTC (link)
Mark from Georgia

The problems in Gaza are self inflicted and while we all care about the children it is the Pals themselves that put them cynically in harms way for short term PR advantage. As we see here:

http://www.geocities.com/palestiniansarelies/HumanShields.html

Since for the most part in is a willing and complicit Palestinian population that puts itself in harms way I will put the blame on those who compel the use of human shields, the Pals themselves.

Here is the Palestinian leaders bragging about the use of these deviant tactics.

http://www.memritv.org/newsletter/clip1710.htm

The rest of your diatribe is simply false. Israel has always pursued peace the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan are proof positive of that fact. In order to achieve peace you first must have an authority to negotiate with and that governmental body must have in place a system that when power transitions past agreements will be honored.

Hamas is on the record, they will not honor past agreements made by Arafat or Fatah and refuse to recognize Israel right to exist. It is important to note Hamas has launched 8-12 thousands rockets against a civilian Israeli population imposing a collective punishment on the Jewish towns that surround Gaza something the Pals complain is unfair when supplies are cut off to Gaza. I guess it's OK when the Pals do it to Jews, right loner? Their would be no need for a blockade by Israel if Hamas would pursue peace with the same vigor they ask for war.

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A Beginning...or, the Obsequies of Carnival...
[info]serr8d
2009-01-21 06:40 am UTC (link)


He has barely been in office a day, and has already pissed on the carpet..

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Re: A Beginning...or, the Obsequies of Carnival...
(Anonymous)
2009-02-04 09:46 pm UTC (link)
...and the world is turning against the "One". I guess he wasn't the answer to everything!!!

Eminem

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Wrap up and Update
[info]new_york_loner
2009-03-16 04:56 pm UTC (link)
Thank you, one and all, for visiting and commenting.

Mark, from Georgia, is well-versed in pro-Israel propaganda. The problem is this: the Israeli and "Quartet" prerequisites, for negotiation with Hamas, are not reciprocal. There is no counter-recognition component.

If Israel and the Israelis have a right to exist, there must also be a mutual agreement on the right to exist for the Palestinians and for Palestine. Such language is absent from the list of "demands".

Same goes for the demand for Hamas to adhere to all previous agreements, as concluded by the notoriously corrupt PLO. There is no counter-demand for Israel to adhere to its previous agreements. Israel has ignored dozens of UN Resolutions; but there is no demand for Israel to live up to its commitments.

Finally, on the humanitarian issue. The final tally in the recent war in Gaza stands at 13 Israelis killed, most of whom were IDF soldiers. On the other side, 1,300 Palestinians were killed, most of whom were civilians, and many were children. This 100 to 1 ratio has a name; it’s called, among other things, “disproportionate retaliation”. It’s also called collective punishment. This is a war crime.

Hamas, all agree, must kowtow and agree to the prerequisites while Israel is allowed to disregard and ignore the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations. Something is wrong with that.

The new government in Israel will be more rightist than ever; will President Obama have the caljones to stand up to Netanyahu and the Lieberman duo – Avigdor and Joe?

With Rahm Israel Emanuel, IDF veteran, as his Chief-of-Staff, Obama will probably go along with Israel’s game plan. Or else.

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