02.21.10
If there were an actual partner in the “peace process,” it might not be a dangerous exercise in futility to engage it
Caroline Glick on the fallacy of the notion that Fatah is moderate.
Ruminations on music, culture, America and the world stage
Caroline Glick on the fallacy of the notion that Fatah is moderate.
What a guy to be dealing with – especially when out own president isn’t a damn sight better.
Three developments to watch over the weekend:
1.) The pretty-well-confirmed terrorist attack on the high-speed, Moscow-to-St. Petersburg train, and the investigation into who did it
2.) The possiblility that the fiscal meltdown of a nation-state (Dubai) may be contagious
3.) The noises being made by members of Iran’s parliament about pulling out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
. . . such as Iran’s role in world trouble-making, Hizbollah’s utter lack of interest in anything resembling peace, and the moral rottenness of the UN.
A cargo ship packed to the hilt with weapons and ammunition supplied by Iran and headed for Lebanon was seized Wednesday by the Israeli navy. So much for the premise of the Goldstone report.
On a similar note, on the sidelines of the official Iranian 30th anniversary celebrations of the taking of US hostages, a brave group of anti-regime demonstrators spoke out. One of their chants takes its cue from the W Doctrine. Interesting sidenote: this story has a flying-donkeys aspect, in that the only MSM outlet to cover it was NBC News. Gotta give credit where it’s due.
UPDATE: It appears TCM has sent a clear signal to those demonstrators as to where he stands.
UPDATE II: Powerline has the video of the Israeli SEALs boarding the ship, and later having a look at the cornucopia of rockets, grenades and rifles.
Rashid Khalidi wishes Hamas would get back to firing missiles into Israel by the hundreds.
We must actually give kudos to Secretary of State H-Word Creature for standing up to Palestinan – indeed , Arab-world – insistence on a total stop to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Netanyahu stuck his neck out by agreeing to curtail settlement activity, and H backed him up when she made a stop in Israel on her way to Morocco from Pakistan.
Israelis are, according to the position of any and all types of Palestinian spokes-groups, supposed to vacate the West Bank – and- indeed, much if not all of Jerusalem – so as to clear the way for a Palestinian state, but Palestinians can continue to live, work, and participate in the government of Israel proper in any numbers they damn well please. File under “morally and politically lopsided.”
Bibi made an important point, too: This whole business of making the settlements a condition of the “peace process” is of quite recent vintage. How did it become so suddenly crucial?
TCM’s way of commemorating the 1983 attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut.
Caroline Glick on why Israel’s leaders must not humor George Mitchell in his kumbaya vision of a patty-cake middle east. They would do so at the expense of their own country’s very existence.
Paul Mirengoff at Power Line says that TCM’s insistence on a complete settlement freeze has resulted in a squandering of goodwill toward him among the Israeli public. In Mirengoff’s words, the upshot is that “the US is now a bit player” in Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Legal Insurrection on the awarding of the Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson.
Powerline on Fatah’s first organizational meeting in 20 years.
You know, the political and military core of the much-vaunted Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas and all that.
Well, dig this: Fatah is officially as committed to Israel’s destruction as Hamas is.
VP Joe Biden tells George Stephanopolous that the US wouldn’t make a fuss if Israel zapped Iran’s nuke facilities. (Joe does have a rep for saying stuff that makes his boss cringe, but he did put this out there on national television.)
The head of Mossad said much the same thing to PM Netanyahu about the House of Saud.
That’s what has the sycophantic MSM blinded to the actual significances of the two very different elections in the Muslim world – Lebanon and Iran. Even after the events of the past two days, there are still those who get all wet in the britches over TCM’s Cairo speech.
And here’s a question that needs a wider asking. The great Mark Steyn was the one who first posed it. How come no leader from “the Muslim world” ever gives a major address to the “Christian world?” Oh, don’t the Americas and Europe constitute a Christian world? Kind of points out that the term “Muslim world” has political as well as religious significance, doesn’t it?
. . . while insisting that Israel maintain its Jewish identity. And insisting that Palestinian sovereignty be tied to a total end to the risk of attack by Palestine-based jihadists.
Does Lebanon have the highest concentration of eye candy among Arab nations, or is it just that the aforementioned mandated attire keeps us from knowing about the percentage in other such countires?
Mark Steyn’s “Today Israel Tomorow the West” in the May issue of Commentary.
Pundit and Pundette call the Cairo speech a “bowl of pablum” and go through it section-by-section to illustrate how bad it was. They also call attention to lefties, such as HuffPo bloggers, who didn’t like it.