January 5, 2009
IDF Uses Youtube to Bypass MSM
The Israeli Defense Force combats both Hamas and MSM propaganda video blogging. Check it out:Posted by tim at 6:38 AM| Comments / TrackBacks
Hamas Leadership Hides in Hospital
Confronted by an Israeli ground assault, Hamas leadership is using medical professionals and their patients as human shields:Here's why Israel hit several mosques:
The defense officials said it was likely that a number of senior Hamas operatives and terror chiefs were hiding and conducting their operations from within Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. "Hamas operatives are in the hospital and have disguised themselves as nurses and doctors," one official said. OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin told the cabinet that Hamas was using mosques, public institutions and private homes as ammunition stores.
You get the picture. Hamas, as a terrorist organization, uses civilians to shield its instruments of terror.
Posted by Abdul at 4:10 AM| Comments / TrackBacks
January 4, 2009
They Used Rayan's Language
Hamas leader Nizar Rayan was killed today by a one-ton bomb which razed his home in the northern town of Jebaliya and took the lives of his four wives and children. The bodies of his kids are being paraded to incite revenge against Israel and justify Hamas' hatred of the Jewish people. It is tragic when a terrorist like Rayan places his family in harms way and uses civilians as shields:Israel's military says the homes of Hamas leaders are being used to store missiles and other weapons, making them a legitimate target. Rayan, an influential preacher, had previously denied Israel's existence and was a known mentor of suicide bombers. He even sent one of his sons on an October 2001 suicide mission that killed two Israeli settlers in Gaza.Note further that in addition to being a top five Hamas decision maker, Rayan was a professor of Islamic law:
He was preaching in a local mosque on the day before he was killed and said: 'Our only language with the Jew is through the gun.'After sponsoring numerous suicide bombers and over 3,000 missile strikes on Israeli civilian targets during the past year, the "Jews" responded to Rayan's language in a decisive and conversation ending manner.
Posted by tim at 4:37 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
A Hyscience Update
We'd like to wish our readers a belated Happy New Year with a brief explanation about our silence during the past several days. Richard, our editor-in-chief and main contributor, was in an accident early last week and remains hospitalized with fairly severe injuries. Although he is anxious to continue writing, his doctors have advised him to concentrate on recovery (and we agree). We're not sure when but are confident that Richard will be back.In the meantime, Hyscience will be updated daily and, with your help, will continue to provide insight and commentary on the most pressing issues our day. After some of the disappointments in 2008 and ongoing economic struggles we are certainly looking forward to opportunities in this new year.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Posted by tim at 3:55 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
December 30, 2008
Obama Intends To Ration Your Health Care
As Sally Pipes points out at WSJ Opinion Journal, now that President-elect Barack Obama has named Tom Daschle as secretary of Health and Human Services and Melody Barnes as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, we can predict both the strategy and substance of the new administration's health-care reform. And since people are indeed the policy, we now know exactly what Obama intends to do with our health care: He fully intends to ration it - and the American people are not going stand for it.[...] Mr. Daschle's model is Massachusetts. But Massachusetts's plan is an unfolding disaster and demonstrates how Mr. Daschle's private/public model is merely a stalking horse for government-dominated health care.As Ms. Pipes points out in her piece, Americans will never tolerate such nonsense.
[...] The headline claim is that the program has signed up 442,000 more people for health insurance. The reality is that 80,000 of these were simply put on Medicaid and 176,000 more on the taxpayer-subsidized plans. Costs have exploded, requiring additional tax hikes and the entire system is only possible due to sizable transfers from the federal government. The plans are so unaffordable that in 2007, 62,000 people were exempted from the individual mandate. So much for universal coverage.
The only way the Massachusetts plan will survive is with continued and increasing federal subsidies -- that is, tax revenue from the residents of other states. The only way Mr. Daschle's proposed plan would survive is with massive deficit spending -- that is, with taxpayer money from future Americans, many of whom are not yet born.
Mr. Daschle and the Democrats have spent years developing both the policy and political strategy to make the final push for taxpayer-financed universal health insurance. They have the players on the field, a crisis providing a sense of urgency, and a playbook filled with lessons learned from years of health policy reform disasters -- most recently that of HillaryCare in 1994.
The big questions for believers in private medicine are at this point political and strategic. With employers and most insurers reportedly on board with the new administration's desire for radical overhaul, who will step in to ask the tough questions? Will these issues get raised in time to provoke a meaningful, fact-based debate? Americans could easily find that Mr. Obama's 100-day honeymoon ends with a whole new health-care regime they hadn't quite bargained for.
Remember our managed-care experiment in the 1990s. It succeeded in its main goal of controlling costs without an aggregate reduction in health quality. But in asking Americans to limit their choices, it prompted a bipartisan act of Congress to provide patients with a Bill of Rights. Now Mr. Daschle proposes nothing less than a giant HMO with a federal bureaucracy setting the benefit plan.
Posted by Hyscience at 10:54 AM| Comments / TrackBacks
On human rights, the media, and the terrorist mindset of Hamas (Updated)
Yes, Hamas has a terrorist mindset because it is indeed a terrorist organization, comprised of terrorists who lead and commit acts of violence upon Israeli civilians; they are not, as the media loves to portray them, "fighters," "militants," "assailants," "extremists," "gunmen" - virtually anything but terrorists or Islamic terrorists - which is, of course, exactly what they are. And as such they have no respect for human rights.BackSpin has a reality check on Hamas' Respect for Human Rights for all you liberal progressive peaceniks piling on Israel for defending herself and attempting to clear Gaza of the Hamas terrorism apparatus (this goes especially for the WaPo). Apparently Reuters is reporting that the Palestinians in Gaza are starting to settle scores and kill collaborators. Of course you can safely bet your last dollar that little will be made of this at the UN.
BackSpin also offers a few very pertinent questions:
Will these brutal extrajudicial executions be added to the casualty count attributed to Israel?Apparently the UN and the NGOs (and yes, also you naive, liberal progressives) would do well to learn what's going on Inside the terrorist mind:
Why is Jeff Robbins the lone voice in the wilderness decrying the suffering Hamas causes Gaza?
Have the human rights NGOs gone hoarse from making so much noise about Israel?
If you can understand why Hamas has ended its ceasefire with Israel, you can comprehend Middle East politics. And if you can't, you can't.
... From of a Western moderate pragmatist standpoint, Hamas's decision makes no sense for several reasons: - Hamas cannot defeat Israel militarily. Thus, fighting won't improve Hamas's strategic situation or bring victory. - Israeli counterattacks are causing both injuries and material damage in the Gaza Strip, inflicting big costs on Hamas's domain and subjects. - Returning to warfare will ensure Hamas remains politically isolated, blocked from international recognition or aid that would help its cause and end economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip. - Going back to fighting makes certain that the Gaza Strip faces continued, even heightened, reductions in the material let in, thus ensuring more Palestinian suffering there.
... Hamas's behaviour, an outside observer can easily conclude, seems stupid. But having built a mass movement and a sizable army, seized the Gaza Strip and amassed broad support throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds, Hamas may be composed of genocide-oriented fanatics but not fools. What then explains this apparently silly behavior?Here's a case study of how Middle East politics really work: - Hamas really believes its own propaganda, expecting victory despite the odds. Costs and casualties are irrelevant. The battle will go on until total victory is achieved -- even if that takes decades. This indicates Hamas will not moderate. And the same applies to Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. - At the same time, Hamas is not only indifferent to its own people's welfare, it actually seeks to inflict suffering on them as a political strategy. The worse off Palestinians are, Hamas believes, the more likely they will fight and die. This "the worse things are, the better they are" ethos is the exact opposite of Western perspectives.
But Hamas goes even further. It knows suffering can be blamed on Israel. Western pragmatists reason that obviously the Palestinians must prefer peace, prosperity and statehood. Rejectionism, thus, must then be due to desperation and the lack of a good offer or faith in the West. In fact, though, the situation is not due to our mistakes but to their deliberate choices. Israel; Israel retaliates by closing the border. By this definition, the fact that Hamas and its allies fire rockets at civilians doesn't allow any Israeli response, military or otherwise. This is the kind of thinking Hamas seeks to promote.
And Lo and Behold, just like mindless robots, liberal Westerners and their terrorist-adoring media fall in line to promote exactly that kind of thinking.
Israel vs Hamas: Beyond right, wrong, smart, and stupid
Hamas: Government or Terrorist Organization? (Interesting arguments via NPR - result is Hamas is a terrorist organization)
HAMAS - HOW HAS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION BECOME A POLITICAL POWER? (pdf)
Posted by Hyscience at 10:19 AM| Comments / TrackBacks
December 29, 2008
CFP: Israel slammed again for defending itself
JR Dieckmann, writing at Canadian Free Press, slams the world's media he says is "increasingly dominated by Islamic and socialist propaganda," for slamming Israel for defending itself. And if you're not a Hamas sympathizer and/or apologist, a socialist, or a liberal progressive Democrat, you're likely to agree with him as I do. Haven't you ever wondered just why it is that regardless of the facts, the Arabs are always made to look like the innocent victims and Israel the aggressor?Israel Gets Slammed Again For Defending Itself, by JR Dieckmann. Monday, December 29, 2008Continue reading ....In a world view increasingly dominated by Islamic and socialist propaganda, reaction to the latest Israeli-Hamas conflict would be almost funny if it weren't so tragic. No matter what the facts are, the Arabs are always made to look like the innocent victims and Israel the aggressor.
The liberal world media is only too happy to promote the anti-Israeli view by looping over and over the television scenes of carnage and destruction rained down on the innocent Islamic victims by the Israeli bullies.
You may recall seeing scenes of carnage by Israeli bombing attacks against Hezbollah in 2006, often with the same actors appearing in rescue efforts in different parts of Southern Lebanon. In one unauthorized civilian video, the actors actually got up and walked away laughing after they had been brutally shot dead or blown up.
Without fail, the Islamists always exaggerate the damage and claims of "innocent civilian victims killed" in Israeli attacks. As we've seen so many times before, the actual numbers of civilian deaths turn out to be only a small fraction of what the Arabs claim, and in many cases, were not even the responsibility of Israel. The fact of the matter is; when it comes to the killing of Islamic terrorists, not even their own government knows who is a civilian and who is a combatant. Terrorists usually are civilians until they become corpses.
Since Hamas' refusal to renew the 6 month Egyptian negotiated truce 3 weeks ago, Israel has been pounded with over 400 rocket and mortar attacks from the Gaza strip. Where were the outcries from the socialist media mouthpieces then? Only when Israel was forced to counterattack in their own defense did the media think it worth reporting on.
But what did they choose to report? Just every last line of propaganda coming out of the Arab world and accusing Israel of aggression and the killing of hundreds of innocent civilians - just as they reported during the Israeli war with Hezbollah.
Related: Michael Ross: Jews are news
One reason that this particular conflict attracts so much unqualified attention is because it is incredibly easy to cover while at the same time providing the necessary drama and "bang-bang" (newsroom slang for combat footage) that for reasons left better explained by a sociologist, seem to increase viewer ratings and heighten overall interest. The other reason is that such is the nature of the Palestinian propaganda machine that it is all too willing to make sure that foreign journalists - and in most cases their Palestinian stringers - are granted access to scenes of death and destruction that clearly portray the Israelis as warmongering monsters and the Palestinians as simple villagers who were just minding their own business until several thousand pounds of ordinance was dropped on their coordinates.
Posted by Hyscience at 5:34 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Merry Christmas Christians from Hamas: 'Hamas legalizes crucifixion'
Via Charles Johnson over at little green footballs, Caroline Glick mentions in her Jerusalem Post column a revealing piece of news (as to the nature of Islam and especially its radical adherents) that the mainstream media apparently have chosen to ignore:
Related private paper: The Myth of Islam Busted, a review of The Myth of Islamic Tolerance. How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims, ed. Robert Spencer. By Bruce ThorntonBoth Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seems to have noticed.
On Tuesday, Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari'a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion.
Hamas's endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its jihad.
Posted by Hyscience at 3:52 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Following Israel's 'Operation Cast Lead' (Day 3 Edition) Updated
Readers will find the latest liveblogging of "Operation Cast Lead" at IsraellyCool and at The Muqata (lots of images).
Via Atlas Shrugs, ""Did Israel Use "Disproportionate Force" in Gaza?"" This excellent - must read - editorial by the formidable Ambassador Dore Gold addresses the issue:
At Jihad Watch, Iran's "Combatant Clergy Society" signing up volunteers to fight jihad against Israel - and Pam Geller believes we ought to grant their wish; she also says forget about talking about how this will galvanize the Muslim world against us, after all, they are already galvanized.
- Israeli population centers in southern Israel have been the target of over 4,000 rockets, as well as thousands of mortar shells, fired by Hamas and other organizations since 2001. Rocket attacks increased by 500 percent after Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. During an informal six-month lull, some 215 rockets were launched at Israel.
- The charge that Israel uses disproportionate force keeps resurfacing whenever it has to defend its citizens from non-state terrorist organizations and the rocket attacks they perpetrate. From a purely legal perspective, Israel's current military actions in Gaza are on solid ground. According to international law, Israel is not required to calibrate its use of force precisely according to the size and range of the weaponry used against it.
- Ibrahim Barzak and Amy Teibel wrote for the Associated Press on December 28 that most of the 230 Palestinians who were reportedly killed were "security forces," and Palestinian officials said "at least 15 civilians were among the dead." The numbers reported indicate that there was no clear intent to inflict disproportionate collateral civilian casualties. What is critical from the standpoint of international law is that if the attempt has been made "to minimize civilian damage, then even a strike that causes large amounts of damage - but is directed at a target with very large military value - would be lawful."
- Luis Moreno-Orampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, explained that international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court "permit belligerents to carry out proportionate attacks against military objectives, even when it is known that some civilian deaths or injuries will occur." The attack becomes a war crime when it is directed against civilians (which is precisely what Hamas does).
- After 9/11, when the Western alliance united to collectively topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, no one compared Afghan casualties in 2001 to the actual numbers that died from al-Qaeda's attack. There clearly is no international expectation that military losses in war should be on a one-to-one basis. To expect Israel to hold back in its use of decisive force against legitimate military targets in Gaza is to condemn it to a long war of attrition with Hamas.
Israel is currently benefiting from a limited degree of understanding in international diplomatic and media circles for launching a major military operation against Hamas on December 27. Yet there are significant international voices that are prepared to argue that Israel is using disproportionate force in its struggle against Hamas.
Israeli Population Centers Under Rocket Attack
There are good reasons why initial criticism of Israel has been muted. After all, Israeli population centers in southern Israel have been the target of over 4,000 rockets, as well as thousands of mortar shells, fired by Hamas and other organizations since 2001.1 The majority of those attacks were launched after Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. Indeed, rocket attacks increased by 500 percent (from 179 to 946) from 2005 to 2006.
Moreover, lately Hamas has been extending the range of its striking capability even further with new rockets supplied by Iran. Hamas used a 20.4-kilometer-range Grad/Katyusha for the first time on March 28, 2006, bringing the Israeli city of Ashkelon into range of its rockets for the first time. That change increased the number of Israelis under threat from 200,000 to half a million.2 Moreover, on December 21, 2008, Yuval Diskin, Head of the Israel Security Agency, informed the Israeli government that Hamas had acquired rockets that could reach Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, and even the outskirts of Beersheba.3 The first Grad/Katyusha strike on Ashdod, in fact, took place on December 28. There had been no formal cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, but only an informal six-month tahadiya (lull), during which 215 rockets were launched at Israel.4 On December 21, Hamas unilaterally announced that the tahadiya had ended.
Continue reading ...
Ace is forwarding a shocking revelation for Hamas from the White House: Hey, You Know What Might End the Hannukah War? Maybe Hamas Could Take a Chill-Pill on Lobbing Rockets Into Israel.
More or less, Israel has said to Hamas - we'll know when you've had enough when we don't see anymore rockets, bombs, and mortars coming our way. Meanwhile, as posted at 10:38 PM Israel time, a Katyusha (Grad) rocket lands in Ashdod. (Channel 10 Israel TV reporting). The rockets are still coming - and the IDF is still rolling over Hamas.
From Spiegel Online (via Real Clear Politics), That Hamas' Strategy of Escalation is obviously not working and it is unlikely that Hamas will ultimately be successful:
The Palestinians are simply too divided to provide a unified response to Israel -- too split for a third Intifada. On a political level, that became abundantly clear on Sunday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah Party has the upper hand in the West Bank, condemned the attacks, but seemed to partially blame Hamas for the ongoing bloodbath in the Gaza Strip.Although the Israeli actions are certainly stirring up the radical Islamic world into a frenzy with the Islamonuts wanting to go to Gaza and throw away their lives for whatever moves them, nothing like getting the fish to jump into the barrel on their own before killing them. At least Israel want have to go looking for them. (Pardon my cynicism but I have little patients for radicals and especially radical Islamists that want me and my fellow Christians just as dead as they want the Jews wasted.
For readers interested Why Gaza Matters, Yossi Klein Halevi is offering (also via Real Clear Politics) his opinion over at The New Republic, including some of the possible consequences to watch for in the coming days and weeks. .
As for who the Palestinians should want to win this conflict, the folks over at the WSJ are saying that the Palestinians Need Israel to Win because if Hamas gets away with terror once again, the peace process will be over.
Not directly related to the Gaza action but still involving Jews and the treatment of them on the part of Islamists, Girl on the Right has a moving and informative piece on the treatment of the Jews in the Mumbai massacre. I like her final take that every Jew alive today who does not own or have access to a firearm is self deluded. I'm all for that myself; you know how it goes, from my cold dead hand" etc... , I'm a super strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment - and believe me, I do know how to handle my Sigs and M4s (that's plural for both if you're in the dark about weapons).
Going back to Gaza, Pam Geller has "News from the Front in Israel" as of 1641 today. Via Haaretz.com, Rockets fired from Gaza kill 2 Israelis within hour. There's an informative news video at the link showing the damage.
Later updates will be in new posts.
Posted by Hyscience at 1:02 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Religion of peace and tolerance update: 'Love and jeans are 'un-Islamic'
Via Winds of Change we have this interesting example of the Islamic middle age mindset: After terming love as "un-Islamic", the Darul Uloom Islamic seminary in Deoband has said that Muslilms wearing jeans is a gunah (sin):The seminary recently issued a fatwa (religious decree) against the wearing of jeans and transplanting and dyeing of hair in black.Perhaps the jeans wearer in the above image may be a bit of a stretch under anyone's guidelines, nonetheless, calling it a sin is rather middle age-ish. As for the hair dye issue, go figure.
These fatwas have been issued in response to three different queries, according to the Darul Uloom's Darul Ifta (department of fatwa). In response to a query on wearing of jeans by women, especially in cold countries in Western Europe, the seminary has made it clear that "jeans pants and shirts are against the shariat (Islamic rules)". "The physical structure (curves) of the body is reflected if one puts on a jeans. Wearing them by a woman is a sin", the fatwa said adding that it should not be put on by the menfolk also. "It is barred for men as well. Women, who want to look as men, are cursed", the fatwa went on to say.
On a query on dyeing one's hair in black, the fatwa said that any other colour other than black is permissible. "Use of black hair dye is un-Islamic", it said.
And, by the way, I personally like the picture but would rather see more of whose wearing the jeans.
Posted by Hyscience at 12:43 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Reassessing Sharon's 2005 Gaza Pullout
I agree with Max Boot - it was a mistake to eliminate the entire Israel Defense Force presence in Gaza. Without Israeli patrols on the ground, as there still are in the West Bank, it has proved impossible to keep the Gaza Strip from being Hamastan.Netanyahu was correct back in 2006 when he said at the time that Hamastan had been established, the step-child of Iran and the Taliban. And it's in firing range of Israel's airport, highways and cities. The writing was on the wall and the policy of giving land for free gave a prize to terror and a winning card for Hamas.
As we're reminded in this National Post Editorial:
When Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, the Jewish state gave the local Palestinians political autonomy for the first time since the pre-Roman era. The hope was that the Palestinians would use their newfound freedom to build a free and prosperous state -- one that would live in peace, if not friendship, with its Jewish neighbour.In the Middle East, unilateral action is always considered a weakness, and the current "war" in Gaza must not only end Hamas' violence against Israel, but also re-establish Israel's strength as a deterrence against its neighbors in the region that wish its destruction.
That didn't happen. Hamas took over Gaza and renounced all previous Palestinian-Israeli agreements, reiterating its rejection of the Jewish state's right to exist. Rather than build up local infrastructure and a consumer economy, Hamas forged ties with Iran and dug weapons-smuggling tunnels into Egypt. A variety of groups -- including Hamas itself -- began raining missiles on Israel. Predictably, Israel did what it could to stanch this flow of weaponry, even as it ensured that a baseline of humanitarian supplies made it into Gaza.
Effectively, Hamas turned Gaza into one giant launching pad for jihad, the welfare of the local Palestinian population be damned. (more).
Posted by Hyscience at 12:14 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Palestinian girl: 'Hamas is the cause in the first place of all wars'
In the way of a follow up to what we said in this post, in which we pointed out that World Public Opinion.Org reported back on March 2, 2006, that most Palestinians believe Hamas should change its position on eliminating Israel, the Palestinian girl in the below video blames Hamas for all wars (although she's likely referring to the war in the only part of the world she's ever known).And while one can't blame Hamas for all wars, one can say that Islamists throughout the world are the flash point of almost all of the world's conflicts and that Hamas is certainly responsible for the current war, having rained rockets, mortors, and bombs at Israel from the time they took over Gaza.
Meanwhile, contrary to what this little girl, who lives in Gaza, believes - the wire services are genuinely rallying to Hamas' support in this latest Israeli offensive. HT - Pam Geller over at Atlas Shrugs
Posted by Hyscience at 11:24 AM| Comments / TrackBacks
Hamas Palestinian tells Zionist Jew - Go back to Germany! (Video) (Updated)
For the liberal progressives who serve as Hamas apologists and Palestinian sympathizers (count among them many of the star-struck Obama supporters), blaming Israel for her actions against Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza who support Hamas and share the absurd belief that these Palestinian Muslims are rational and can be reasoned with, here's a reality check to chew on. The Palestinian supporter of Hamas in the below video clearly shows that Hamas supporters cannot be reasoned with nor do they have any intention whatsoever of allowing Israel to continue to exist:Please, pray tell, how does one reason with people like this?
As World Public Opinion.Org reported back on March 2, 2006, all Palestinians do not share the Hamas position on Israel, as displayed in the above video. In fact, most Palestinians believe Hamas should change its position on eliminating Israel:
The decisive victory of the militant Islamic group Hamas in last month's Palestinian legislative elections (winning 74 of 132 parliamentary seats) has raised the question of whether the Palestinian public has become aligned with Hamas' rejection of Israel's right to exist and its stated goal of creating an Islamic state covering all of historic Palestine, including what is now Israel. Hamas has come under increasing pressure to renounce its goal of eliminating Israel, but Hamas leaders have refused.Note that only 3 percent of Palestinians say they want an Islamic state. The real obstacle to peace is Hamas and it is Hamas that Israel is attacking, not the Palestinian people as a whole.
However, new polling following the election indicates that two-thirds of Palestinians believe Hamas should change its policy of rejecting Israel's right to exist. Most also support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Post-election polls indicate that Hamas' victory is due largely to Palestinians' desire to end corruption in government rather than support for the organization's political platform.
Most Palestinians agree that Hamas should recognize Israel's right to exist. Two-thirds (63 percent) of those polled Jan. 27-29 by Near East Consulting said Hamas should change its position calling for the elimination of Israel. Even among those who voted for Hamas, only 37 percent support Hamas' position that Israel does not have the right to exist.
A majority of Palestinians also supports the two-state solution. In a Feb. 8-12 poll by the Jerusalem Media & Communication Center (JMCC), 58 percent of Palestinians said they favor the two-state solution, while 22 percent favor "a bi-national state on all of historic Palestine." Three percent said they want an Islamic state (a volunteered response, not included in the list of choices given to respondents).
Related reading on Israel's defense minister re Gaza and also whatever the hell Obama's position is: "War To The Bitter End"
Interesting related reading exemplifying media's liberal-progressive sympathy for Hamas: Christian Science Monitor: Israel's Right to Exist is an obstacle to peace
Posted by Hyscience at 10:19 AM| Comments / TrackBacks
December 28, 2008
'Head pounding' events in the ME (crazy people that do and say the craziest things )
Egyptian Sandmonkey says his head hurts, and it's easy to see why:Just as ES quips in his piece, go figure!First Hamas refuses to let Egypt receive the wounded through the Rafah crossing, saying that Egypt has to open the entire crossing for the million and a half Ghazan, or else they won't get to treat their wounded.. Think about this one for a minute. Let it simmer. When it makes sense to you, let me know.
Then Israeli pundits say that while the air strike is successful, they might need to do a ground incursion, thus proving that Israel is a nation suffering from an Alzheimer epidemic and doesn't remember anything about the last war with Lebanon.
And then the Palestinians in Ghaza break through the Rafah crossing, and kill an egyptian officer in the process, and nobody minds, of course..
And then Nasrallah gets on TV, calls on the egyptian people to revolt by the millions and open up the by-now-open Rafah crossing by force, and on the egyptian military to take a stand against the political leadership and "join the resistance".
And finally, in Iraq, and I wish I was kidding, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a Pro-Palestinian demonstration.
Posted by Hyscience at 8:33 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Evil Jew Report: Israeli hospital treats Gazans
Image: Hospital patients in bomb shelter, which didn't keep this hospital from being a target of Hamas rockets.
Related (via Jihad Watch): Diana West surveys the world's mad reaction to Israel's defending itself -- including that of putative U.S. allies Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by Hyscience at 8:20 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
New wave of air strikes on Gaza: 'Israel Shatters Key Hamas Targets'
Sky News reports that Israeli airstrikes have continued on Gaza for a second day as Israeli warplanes have bombed a "significant Hamas cultural symbol" (Sic - since when does Hamas have culture other than that of death, hate, and violence? The university's main campus in Gaza City has been used by Hamas' so-called military wing to recruit terrorists and suicide bombers, according to Israeli and Palestinian security officials. The officials said chemistry labs were used to manufacture and improve explosives for Hamas-affiliated militias.):
Via Sky News:More ...Six airstrikes pummelled the Islamic University as Israel widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Hamas targets.
Some 40 smuggling tunnels running under the border with Egypt have been attacked, destroying a network that is a lifeline to the outside world.
Meanwhile more tanks and artillery have been sent towards the Gaza border, increasing the threat of a ground invasion.
Protests have raged across the Arab world and Syria has broken off from indirect peace talks with Israel.
Israel's leaders have said they will press ahead with the campaign to stop Hamas firing rockets into the Jewish state.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Sky News that there is no option but to use force against Hamas.
She would not give an indication over how long the military operation will last but Israeli tanks have been massing on the border with Gaza as the aerial assault continues for a second day.
Up to 298 Palestinians are now reported to have been killed since the airstrikes began.
Israel has said the attacks are a response to dozens of rocket attacks launched against civilians in border towns since a six-month ceasefire came to an end last week.
In an interview with Sky News foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall in southern Israel, Ms Livni said the responsibility for civilian casualties lay with Hamas.
She said: "Before the operation we called on all the population who lives near the Hamas headquarters to leave. We are doing everything to avoid or minimise civilian casualties.
"But a war is a war, these things can happen.
Related coverage: Hamas: Israel Bombed Islamic University in Gaza
Posted by Hyscience at 7:56 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Something stinks at the WaPo 'again': Palestinian children used as fautography props for casualties
Clearly, the media loves terrorists and their propaganda. And as expected, now comes the "fauxtography" so prominent in the Lebanon war. and as we've all learned by now, no media outlets love to use fake news more than the Reuters, the AP, and the WaPo.Check out this image carefully. Do you see any blood, dirt, or injuries on the children?
As I*Consult notes, the children appear healthy. Would the photographer and caption writer, Khalil Hamra, fake a picture? The answer is a resounding "Yes." Readers will find live-blogging of Israel's operation at IsreallyCool.
Posted by Hyscience at 7:08 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Audio from Caroline Kennedy's media interviews: 'Uh, You know, You know,You know, Uh, You know,You know,'
Far from being an orator, Caroline Kennedy makes Harry Reid sound almost charismatic (Video counts the uhs and you knows).Excerpts from the DAILY NEWS:
... A defiant Caroline Kennedy says she "wouldn't be beholden to anybody" - including Mayor Bloomberg - if she's picked to become New York's next U.S. senator.No problem, she's a Kennedy and a Democrat, so whatever she says, isn't, does, doesn't do or say, and how she says it is just fine for the adoring Dems and their media. Besides, Harry Reid is looking forward to having a worse orator in the Senate.
"I'm really coming into this as somebody who isn't, you know, part of the system, who obviously, you know, stands for the values of, you know, the Democratic Party," Kennedy told the Daily News Saturday during a wide-ranging interview.
"I know how important it is to, you know, to be my own person. And, you know, and that would be obviously true with my relationship with the mayor."
... Criticized for ignoring reporters after her name surfaced as a possible Clinton replacement, Kennedy sat down with the media this weekend. Displaying her notorious shyness during the 30-minute chat, the mother of three, author and public education advocate was pleasant, but spoke softly and rarely made eye contact. Her speech was often punctuated with extra "you knows" and "ums."
... "Andrew is, you know, highly qualified for this job," she said. "He's doing a, you know, a great job as attorney general, and we've spoken throughout this process."
... "You know, I think, you know, we're sort of, uh, sharing some of this experience. And um, as I've said, he was a friend, a family member, and um so, and uh obviously, he's, you know, he's also had an impressive career in public office."
... "It's really, you know, it's not about just the Kennedy name," she said. "It's about my own work and what I've done with those values."
Am I the only American damned tired of dynasty politics?
Posted by Hyscience at 6:20 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Today's Religion of peace and tolerance alert: 'Religious department to act against any blogger who insults Islam'
More often than not, Islam is its own greatest proof of intolerance and that it belongs more in the dark ages than the modern world.Via NST Online:
THE NEW STRAITS TIMES ONLINE (NST): PUTRAJAYA: The Islamic Development Department (Jakim) will take stern action against bloggers who insult Islam, including non-Muslims.HT - A New Dark Age Is Dawning
Its director-general Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz said the department could act against irresponsible bloggers, regardless of their religious background.
"Right now, the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission are still trying to trace the blogger said to have insulted Prophet Muhammad.
"We will come in once the culprit is found," he said.
Wan Mohamad also said there were bound to be "extremists" among religious followers or leaders in view of the country's multi-ethnicity.
He also said Jakim would not lodge any police report against the blogger as the matter was still being investigated by the police.
RELATED on NST:
Tracking Down Irresponsible Blog Posters Who Insult Islam >>>
Woman Denies Owning Blog Containing Insults against Prophet >>>
Posted by Hyscience at 2:23 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Ed Driscoll on 'Conflating Punditry And Reporting'
In regard to one of my pet peeves - the media killing journalism through its conflation of punditry with reporting, Ed Driscoll writes:Continue reading ...Several of the recent posts here have focused on the surprisingly brief life and quiet death of objectivity in the legacy mass media. Or as Victor Davis Hanson wrote in the last days of the 2008 presidential election, "Sometime in 2008, journalism as we knew it died, and advocacy media took its place."
The replacement is a curiously schizophrenic beast; blending punditry and journalism; turning every newspaper into the Washington Times without the conservative op-eds, every network news department into Fox News without the pro-American populism.
Regarding the latter trend, last month Robert Stacy McCain wrote:The rise of Fox News as the No. 1 cable news outlet has resulted in ideological counterprograming. [emphasis in original--Ed] The success of a conservative news network has had an effect that might be best understood by reference to Newton's third law of motion. At first, there was the "equal effect" -- chastened by Fox's success, most networks sought to rein in their traditional liberal bias. But then, after the 2004 election, the "opposite effect" kicked in. Network executives figured, "Hey, Fox already has a monopoly on conservative viewers. Let's let our freak flags fly and give liberals what they really want." I really noticed this phenomenon during the 2006 campaign, when the media (a) pretended that the contributions Jack Abramoff's clients made to Democrats were meaningless, and (b) presented Mark Foley as the GOP poster boy. The existence of Fox News provides a ready-made excuse for liberals in the media to think of their bias as "balancing" Fox.But half of the time those on the inside either don't know what's changed, or if they do, won't admit it publicly. (Occasionally a voice in these institutions will come clean and then a successor will forget the earlier admission--or more painfully, his own.)
Related: Obama, Oprah And The Death Of Journalism
Posted by Hyscience at 1:44 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Hamas reigns rockets and mortors down on Israel and the world yawns, yet when Israel respond in self defense the world awakens to condemn Israel (Updated)
While Israel carefully pinpoints targets of the Hamas/Iran Palestinian jihad war machine to defend itself against the Islamists' rockets and morters, the Islamists fire terror mortars and rockets at defenseless Jews in Israel. The world condemns Israel for acting to defend itself yet ignores the Hamas/Iran Palestinian jihad war machine's attacks on Israeli civilians.Read more on what you won't read elsewhere, here ...
Related:
IDF Airstrikes Continue-- 110 Rockets Fired Into Israel-- Egyptian Foreign Minister Blames Hamas (Video)
Gaza Casualty rate: 94% terrorists, so far.
The Palestinian Answer to Everything is War
Posted by Hyscience at 12:52 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
CFP's Worst Climate Predictions of 2008
Via the Canadian Free Press comes this little gem:
"You could potentially sail, kayak or even swim to the North Pole by the end of the summer. Climate scientists say that the Arctic ice . . . is currently on track to melt sometime in 2008." Ted Alvarez, Backpacker Magazine Blogs, June, 2008.Readers will find more interesting little gems of reality - here...
Soon after this prediction, a huge Russian icebreaker got trapped in the thick ice of the Northwest Passage for a full week. The Arctic ice hadn't melted in 2007, it got blown into warmer southern waters. Now it's back.
Related:Global Warming, Climate Change and the New Administration
Al Gore, New Orleans Snow, Obama and Global Cooling Cooling the hysteria about global warming
Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?
Posted by Hyscience at 12:08 PM| Comments / TrackBacks
Israel moving troops to Gaza border
Are we about to see a repeat of what happened int July 2006?
It would seem so, given that Israel has called up 6,500 reserve soldiers and moved infantry and armored units to the Gaza border for a possible ground invasion.
Related: Backfire for Hamas
Posted by Hyscience at 11:57 AM| Comments / TrackBacks
How about 'Ten Years Of Proof That CO2 Is Not Driving Global Warming'
With rising CO2 levels and falling global temperatures, only Obama, the media and leftist governments, and the "Global Warming Chicken Little Priests in the Church of Al Gore/IPCC (who use mysticism to trump science)" are failing to acknowledge what now even the Europeans are beginning to understand.Related videos:
Climate Catastrophe Cancelled: Part 1/3
Climate Catastrophe Cancelled: Part 2/3
Climate Catastrophe Cancelled: Part 1/3
Also related:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming: Part 1/4
Christopher Horner talks about his book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism. Global warming is a scare tactic designed to increase governmental power and control. He examines "myths" of global warming and points out flaws in "green" arguments.
See also:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming: Part 2/4
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming: Part 3/4
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming: Part 4/4
And don't miss the most explosive film of the year and the definitive answer to Al Gore: The Great Global Warming Swindle - Produced by WAGTV - in the extended post ....
Continue reading "How about 'Ten Years Of Proof That CO2 Is Not Driving Global Warming'"
Posted by Hyscience at 11:15 AM| Comments / TrackBacks
On Mark Stein's 'What's the matter with Waziristan?'
Mark Stein reminds us that Samuel Huntington's key point in his most famous book is that the conventional western elite view of man as homo economicus is reductive - that cultural identity is a more profound indicator that western-style economic liberty cannot easily trump.By now, given that, as a commenter here so aptly noted, over 12000 acts of terrorism have been committed by MUSLIMS and in the name of ISLAM since 9/11, virtually EVERY terrorist plot being investigated involves MUSLIMS, MUSLIMS post Youtube videos praising terrorism and write blogs threatening Israel and the West, MUSLIM Immans preach hate and MUSLIM Politicians threaten the West with Nuclear weapons, one would think that a rational West would have paid attention to Huntington's key point.
Unfortunately for the continued survival of the Western world, we haven't:
When will the the rest of us?This should have been obvious: If a man is a Muslim bus driver, which is more central to his identity - that he is a Muslim or that he drives a bus? Yet much of the trouble in the world comes from the assumption that economic interests will always outpunch cultural ones: The British imported a large Indian population to serve as a merchant and clerical class in Fiji. It made perfect economic sense. A century later Fiji was a coup-racked ruin split open on cultural fault lines.
In The Clash Of Civilizations, Huntington gave us the phrase "Islam's bloody borders" to describe the striking number of conflicts along "the boundary looping across Eurasia and Africa that separates Muslims from non-Muslims". The "border" - in the sense of a line of demarcation - is increasingly hard to discern. In parts of western Europe, it's more like the overlapping area codes you now get in certain US cities. Forty years ago, the mills of northern England needed workers so Britain imported them from Pakistan. The mills closed, but the workers stayed, and now Yorkshire has adopted Mirpuri customs of arranged cousin marriage: in Bradford, 75 per cent of Pakistani Britons are married to their first cousins. As to the seductive assimilatory charms of time, 30 years ago the percentage was half that. A victory for culture over economics.
These are difficult questions from which the progressive multicultural mind recoils in instinctive revulsion. Samuel Huntington, a lifelong liberal, never did: as Kaplan's headline in The Atlantic put it, he looked the world in the eye.
Posted by Hyscience at 10:51 AM| Comments / TrackBacks
How Israel's operation against Hamas was carried out through disinformation, secrecy and deceptions
"If there will be quiet it will be met by quiet. If the truce will be breached and there is no choice, we will operate in the right way and at the right time." - Defense Minister Ehud BarakObviously, given the results, it was as Barak described it - "in the right way and at the right time"!
More specifically, It was through long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public, that the IDF's "Cast Lead" Saturday morning operation successfully targeted Hamas in the Gaza Strip ... According to defense officials, the disinformation effort took Iran-supported and influenced Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike. Hamas was caught so completely off guard that, for example, one of the targets was a police academy where Hamas was holding a graduation ceremony for its newest recruits and, according to reports, over 70 Hamas gunmen were killed in that raid alone.
As for those casualties, Hamas appears to be hoping most will die in order to influence world opinion, since Egypt is reporting that Hamas is preventing Gaza casualties from entering Egypt.
According to the JP, Iran's influence over Hamas has increased in recent months and Teheran is playing a key role in the terror group's decision-making process regarding whether or not they should have extended the cease-fire with Israel - the one that they ended on December 19th.
Related:
The Most Surprising Surprise
Hamas wages Iran's proxy war on Israel (A Hamas leader admits hundreds of his fighters have travelled to Tehran)
Posted by Hyscience at 10:10 AM| Comments / TrackBacks
Dialogue of Civilizations: '(Islam's) attempts at creating an alternative reality'
... A little more on Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Turkish "historian of Islamic science" whose outward appearance is so deceptively modern and secular and sweet-reasonable, and t