"Obama, who visited Israel and the occupied West Bank in July, pledged at the time -- in an apparent jab at Bush's last-minute efforts to secure peace -- not to "wait a few years into my term or my second term if I'm elected" to press for a deal.
There was no immediate comment on the Israeli air strikes on Gaza from Obama, who is vacationing with his family in Hawaii, or his staff."
First chance to take leadership on an issue he has acknowledged is central to US foreign policy in his administration and the silence is deafening.
Liberal America: Huffpo emphasizes retaliation aspect and says most killed were "security men," though Huffpo's frontpage is appropriately ghastly. Nothing on J Street site about Gaza attacks. Nothing on TPM. Wait, now they've got Olmert's picture up, asking for patience. The Times emphasizes that attacks were a response to rocket attacks by Hamas. Though yes, it describes the horror in Gaza City. AIPAC is down today--much-deserved vacation.
Smart Stuff from (where else?) Haaretz:
It is, abruptly and again, wartime. Across the globe, the selective pacifists of the left and the recliner Rambos of the right are spoiling for their next battle, the war in Gaza.
They will fight one another in letters to Congress, in cable news sound bites, in raucous talk-radio phone-ins, in the virtual mega-heroics of the online battlefield of the talkback.
They will fight one another in the United Nations as well, unashamedly one-sided in their concern for human life.
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Herewith the first in a two-part guide to the 10 most gratuitous, least productive, most resolutely ingenuous claims likely to be hurled in an effort to attack Israel.
The first five are arguments of the anti-Israel left, claims which are, curiously, as tired as they are unflagging.
____________________
Leftist 1: Israel's true motive in bombing Gaza, is genocide against the Palestinian people and extermination of their right to statehood.
Israel's genuine interest in this campaign is strikingly similar to Hamas' interest in firing scores of rockets into Israeli population centers: Forcing a cease-fire on better terms than the one just ended.
For Hamas, this largely means easing Israeli economic sanctions against Gazans. For Israel, this centers on ending shelling by Qassam and Grad missiles and mortar shells. For both sides, this means a prisoner exchange, centering on Gilad Shalit and hundreds of jailed Hamas members.
Leftist 2: The Palestinians have no recourse but to defend themselves, and the makeshift rockets they fire are nothing compared to the world's most advanced warplanes and munitions, which the IDF is using against them.
The Human Rights Watch organization has been unequivocal in condemning the use of Qassam rockets as a direct violation of international humanitarian law and the laws of war. The firing of Qassams and mortars against civilian populations also
constitutes collective punishment
against hundreds of thousands of innocent Israeli men, women and children.
Moreover, the firing of Qassams began not as a response to the siege against Gaza, but as a marathon celebration by armed Islamic fundamentalist groups following Israel's withdrawal of its troops and settlers from the Strip. To purposely add insult to injury, Islamic Jihad and other organizations used the ruins of settlements as launch platforms.
Leftist 3: All that Hamas is asking, is recognition as the democratically elected government of Gaza, and an end to the Israeli economic embargo. Were they to attain these goals, there would be calm on both sides of the border.
It is both unrealistic and dangerous to believe that Hamas has abandoned its clearly stated and often reiterated goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in all of the Holy Land, including all land claimed, annexed by, or in any way occupied by Israel.
Beyond that, Hamas has strong alliances with the Egyptian opposition Muslim brotherhood, as well as working partnerships with the Iran-dominated Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
Israeli restraint, when practiced, has been met with contempt and additional Hamas and Hamas-tolerated strikes against civilian populations.
Leftist 4: The Israeli blockade against Hamas is state terrorism and any means to fight it are legitimate.
There is every reason to believe that Israel's economic siege against Gaza is misguided, but not for an essential cruelty, rather because Hamas taxes collected on the influx of goods imported through tunnels from Egyptian territory have subsidized and cemented Hamas rule.
Leftist 5: The world overwhelmingly sympathizes with the Palestinians against Israel, and unreservedly backs their struggle for independence.
In an era of global revulsion against radical Islamic terror, Hamas' protracted program of suicide bombings, drive-by murders and shelling of civilian populations, coupled with its refusal to renounce violence, recognize Israel, or accept past peace agreements, coupled with its ideology of militant jihad, have drained the Palestinians of international sympathy and have, in fact, legitimized Israeli arguments of military self-defense.
Nothing has been more instrumental in harming the cause of Palestinian independence than Hamas, with its brutal take-over of Gaza in a war with brother Palestinians, and its frank efforts to build a large-scale regular army force in the Strip.
In Part Two, in the coming week: The second five will be newer claims, the Alpha-male displays of the Israel-bashing right, the group which constantly berates the government and the IDF for not bombing Gaza into a parking lot, for not shooting and starving and freezing innocent civilians to death.
A minute headline banner on Fox channel yesterday blurted out that
Israel was (generously) sending charity aid trucks into Gaza even as the
(poor, but valiant Jewish )state was suffering (terrorist) rocket attacks
from (ungrateful, demented) Gaza. Stock footage in the background
was scenic, as if from a vacationer's postcard. The parens indicates
the obvious take-away by anyone ignorant of the context, as so many
were where I watched, on the treadmill or Stairmaster at the local
Ballys. I guess that's something since Fox rarely even mentions
anything about breaking news over there.
I think we should cut P-E Obama some slack. He doesn't have access to all the information he would need to make an even-handed public statement with 10 minutes notice. That is not to say that he would make an even-handed statement if he could, but we will find out soon enough. A major motive of this attack is to constrain the incoming Obama administration's options for pursuing a final-status agreement, he would be a damn fool to make precipitous public comments without carefully vetting them. I am, however, disappointed that his transition team political advisers didn't make contingency plans for this kind of eventuality. I wonder if it has anything to do with most of them having the AIPAC stamp of approval? It should be no surprise that when the object of one's loyalty is not America, that consideration of threats to America aren't a high priority to anticipate.
*****************************
Is it good for the Americans?
The wording on my last sentence was horrible, it should be:
It should be no surprise that when the object of one's loyalty is not America, that anticipation of threats to America isn't a high priority.
I told you so, Phil. I warned you against excessive optimism, in my comments just prior to election day. I said Obama will be no different than Bush on Palestine.
Obama's just as bad as McCain. Actually, at least with McCain you knew what you were voting for and what you would be getting in return if elected. With Obama, it was ambiguity all the way. And this silence is the inevitable result of a campaign run on, and won by, ambiguity.
Last night I spent a bit of time reading the pathetic comments of the cheer squad in the Jerusalem Post, about how Gaza deserves all they get because of the (amazingly ineffectual) rocket attacks.
It was enough to make a person weep.
I am ashamed at the subservient support given to the Israeli aerial murder by the majority of the fawning Western political machine.
Quote –
Leftist 4: The Israeli blockade against Hamas is state terrorism and any means to fight it are legitimate.
There is every reason to believe that Israel's economic siege against Gaza is misguided, but not for an essential cruelty, rather because Hamas taxes collected on the influx of goods imported through tunnels from Egyptian territory have subsidized and cemented Hamas rule.
————
Just to set the record straight, Hamas won a democratic election in Gaza. The U.S. and Israel refused to recognize Hamas's victory. Then Israel illegally began confiscating Palestinian Customs revenues, to the tune of 55 million dollars a month. Simultaneously, Israeli mole Stuart Levey of the US Treasury acted to cut off all bank wires to Palestine from any source in the world.
Whatever derisory taxes Hamas can collect on the trickle of tunnel trade are entirely trivial compared to the billions illegally stolen from the Palestinian people by the U.S. and Israel.
All five points cited by Steve R are just the standard tendentious, self-serving horsesh*t from the past masters of sophistry.
Didn't you read Phil's post about the Israeli PR campaign? Well, you're part of Phase 1. Congratulations, sucker.
STOP POSTING IN MY NAME!
I don't know who this is (I suspect "MRW") but this is unfair. You have things to say–I, Jim Haygood (the REAL one) disagree with much of it, but it is your right to say it. But please, NOT IN MY NAME! There's enough deception, disinformation, and mandated confusion to around without this.
Please.