Recently in non-partisan Category

Egyptian film star: Hamas is to blame

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH - Jpost.com - January 4, 2009

The Arab world's most prominent comedian and movie star, Egyptian actor Adel Imam, has shocked many of his fans by expressing understanding for Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Imam, a longtime outspoken critic of Islamic fundamentalism, lashed out at Egyptians who have been demonstrating against Israel's war on Hamas. He said calls for general strikes in solidarity with the Palestinians "harmed our economy and benefited Israel alone."

Imam was also quoted in the Egyptian press as strongly criticizing the leader of the country's Muslim Brotherhood organization, Mahdi Akef, for having accused Egypt's leadership of "collusion" with Israel.

The veteran 68-year-old movie star blamed Hamas for the violence, pointing out that the Egyptian leadership had warned the Islamist movement against an impending Israeli military operation.

"Hamas ignored our warnings and chose to lead an asymmetrical war," Imam said, echoing earlier statements by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. "It's preferable for Hamas to stop [the rocket attacks]. They should have known that Israel wasn't going to receive the attacks with roses."

Imam's remarks have been condemned by many of his colleagues in Egypt who have come out in support of Hamas.

One of Imam's popular but controversial films, The Terrorist, depicts Muslim extremism as alien to Egyptian values. The film drew sharp criticism from extremists, some of whom issued death threats against the actor.

In the film, Imam plays the role of a terrorist who attacks a tourist bus. Concealing his identity, he later seeks refuge with an Egyptian family, during which time he meets run-of-the-mill Muslims and Christians.

The most significant scene is when the terrorist, together with a Christian, watches the Egyptian national soccer team play in a championship match. The terrorist complains that Egypt's flag should be more Islamic and that football is a symbol of corruption, but when the Egyptian team scores the winning goal, he gets so excited that he jumps up and hugs the Christian, and together they sing the Egyptian national anthem.

Imam's most recent film, Hassan and Morqos, also enraged extremists, prompting them to launch a campaign to boycott the actor. The movie is about a Muslim cleric and a Christian priest whose paths cross as they face threats from Muslim terrorists. Some of Imam's critics accused him of using the film to promote "apostasy."

Double Standard Watch: Israel's actions are lawful and commendable

by Alan M. Dershowitz - Jpost.com - January 4, 2009

Israel's military actions in Gaza are entirely justified under international law, and Israel should be commended for its act of self-defense against international terrorism. Article 51 of the United Nations Charter reserves to every nation the right to engage in self-defense against armed attacks. The only limitation international law places on a democracy is that its actions must satisfy the principle of proportionality. Israel's actions certainly satisfy that principles.

When Barack Obama visited the city of Sderot this summer, he saw the same things that I had seen during my visit on March 20 of this year. Over the last four years, Palestinian terrorists - in particular, Hamas and Islamic Jihad - have fired more than two thousand rockets at this civilian area, which is home to mostly poor and working-class people. The rockets are designed exclusively to maximize civilian deaths, and some have barely missed schoolyards, kindergartens, hospitals, and school buses. But others hit their targets, killing more than a dozen civilians since 2001, including in February 2008 a father of four who had been studying at the local university. These anticivilian rockets have also injured and traumatized countless children.

The residents of Sderot have fifteen seconds from the launch of the rocket to run into a shelter. The rule is that everyone must always bee within fifteen seconds of a shelter, regardless of what they are doing. Shelters are everywhere, but the aged and the physically challenged often have difficulty making it to safety. On the night I was in Sderot, a rocket landed nearby, but there had been no "red alert." The warning system is far from foolproof.

In most parts of the world, the first words learned by toddlers are "mommy" and "daddy." In Sderot, they are "red alert." The police chief of Sderot showed me hundreds of rocket fragments that had been recovered. Many bore the name of the terrorist group that had fired the deadly missiles. Although firing deliberately to kill civilians is a war crime, the terrorists who fired at the civilians of Sderot were proud enough of their crimes to "sign" their murderous weapons. They know that in the real world in which we live, they will never be prosecuted for their murders and attempted murders.

Barack Obama reacted to what he had seen in Sderot by saying that if his two daughters were exposed to rocket attacks in their own homes, he would do everything in his power to stop such attacks. I hope and believe that President Obama will take the same position he did as candidate Obama.

The residents of Sderot were demanding that their nation take action to protect them. Most seem to agree with the Israeli decision to end its occupation of the Gaza Strip, to withdraw its soldiers and settlers despite the reality that during the occupation, rocket attacks increased against the residents of Sderot. But Israel's post-occupation military options were limited, since Hamas deliberately fires its deadly rockets from densely populated urban areas, and the Israeli Army has a strict policy of trying to avoid civilian casualties.

The firing of rockets at civilians from densely populated civilian areas is the newest tactic in the war between terrorists who love death and democracies that love life. The terrorists have learned how to exploit the morality of democracies against those who do not want to kill civilians, even enemy civilians. In one recent incident, Israeli intelligence learned that a particular house was being used to manufacture and store rockets. It was a clear military target since their rockets were being fired at Israeli civilians. But the house was also being lived in by a family. So the Israeli military phoned the house, informed the owner that it was a military target, and gave him thirty minutes to leave with his family before the house was attacked. The owner called Hamas, which immediately sent dozens of mothers carrying babies to stand on the roof of the house. Hamas knew that Israel would never fire at a home with civilians in it. They also knew that if, by some fluke, the Israeli authorities did not learn that there were civilians in the house, and fired on it, Hamas would win a public relations victory by displaying the dead civilians to the media. In this case, Israel did learn of the civilians and withheld its fire. The rockets that were spared destruction by the human shields were then used against Israeli civilians.

This, in a nutshell, is the dilemma faced by democracies with a high level of morality. The Hamas tactic would not have worked against the Russians in Chechnya. When the Russians were fired upon, they fired against civilians without hesitation. Nor would it work in Darfur, where janjaweed militias have killed thousands of civilians and displaced 2.5 million in order to get the rebels who were hiding among them. Certain tactics work only against moral enemies who care deeply about minimizing civilian casualties.

Over the past months, a shaky cease-fire, organized by Egypt was in effect. Hamas agreed to stop the rockets and Israel agreed to stop taking military action against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. The cease-fire itself was morally dubious and legally asymmetrical.

Israel, in effect, was saying to Hamas: if you stop engaging in the war crime of targeting our innocent civilians, we will stop engaging in the entirely lawful military acts of targeting your terrorists. Under the cease-fire, Israel reserved the right to engage in self-defense actions such as attacking terrorists who were in the course of firing rockets at its civilians.

Just before the hostilities began, Israel offered Hamas both a carrot and a stick. Israel reopened checkpoints to allow humanitarian aid to reenter Gaza. It had closed these point of entry after they had been targeted by Gaza rockets. Israel's prime minister also issued a stern, final warning to Hamas that unless it stopped the rockets, there would be a full scale military response. This is the way Reuters reported it:

Israel reopened border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day
after Prime Minister warned militants there to stop firing rockets or
they would pay a heavy price. Despite the movement of relief supplies,
militants fired about a dozen rockets and mortar shafts from Gaza at
Israel on Friday. One accidentally struck a house in Gaza, killing two
Palestinian sisters, ages 5 and 13...the deliveries could ease the
tensions that might have led to a military action to end the rocket
attacks. Palestinian workers at the crossings said fuel had arrived for
Gaza's main power plant and about a hundred trucks loaded with grain,
humanitarian aid and other goods were expected during the day."

The Hamas rockets continued and Israel kept its word, implementing a carefully prepared targeted air attack against Hamas targets.

On Sunday, I spoke to the Air Force General, now retired, who worked on the planning of the attack. He told me of the intelligence and planning that had gone into preparing for the contingency that the military option might become necessary. The Israeli Air Force had pinpointed with precision the exact locations of Hamas structures, in an effort to minimize civilian casualties. Even Hamas sources acknowledged that the vast majority of those killed have been Hamas terrorists though some civilian casualties are inevitable when--as BBC's Rushdi Abou Alouf, who is certainly not pro Israel--reported that "the Hamas security compounds are in the middle of the city." Indeed his home balcony from which he observed the bombing of a compound was 20 meters from that military target.

There have been three types of international response to the Israeli military actions against the Hamas rockets. Not surprisingly, Iran, Hamas, and other knee-jerk Israeli-bashers have argued that the Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians are entirely legitimate, and that the Israeli counterattacks are war crimes. Equally unsurprising is the response of the United Nations, the European Union, Russia, and others who, at least when it comes to Israel, see a moral and legal equivalence between terrorists who target civilians and a democracy that responds by targeting the terrorists.

The most dangerous of the three responses is not the Iranian-Hamas absurdity, which is largely ignored by thinking and moral people, but the United Nations and European Union response, which equate the willful murder of civilians with legitimate self-defense pursuant to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This false moral equivalence only encourages terrorists to persist in their unlawful actions against civilians. The United States has it exactly right by placing the blame on Hamas, while urging Israel to do everything possible to minimize civilian casualties.

There are some who claim that Israel has violated the principle of proportionality by killing so many more Hamas terrorists than the number of Israeli civilians killed by Hamas rockets. That is an absurd misapplication of the concept of proportionality for at least two reasons.

First, there is no legal equivalence between the deliberate killing of innocent civilians and the deliberate killings of Hamas combatants. Under the laws of war, any number of combatants can be killed to prevent the killing of even one innocent civilian.

Second, proportionality is not measured by the number of civilians actually killed, but rather by the risk of civilian death and the intentions of those targeting civilians. Hamas seeks to kill as many civilians as it can. It aims its rockets in the general direction of schools, hospitals, playgrounds and other entirely civilian targets. The fact that it has not killed as many civilians as it would have liked to is a tribute to Israel's enormous devotion of resources to the building of shelters and to the construction of early warning systems.

Hamas, on the other hand, refuses to build shelters, precisely because it wants to maximize the number of Palestinian civilians inadvertently killed by Israel's military actions. It knows, from experience, that when it forces Israel to take military actions that result in the deaths of even a small number of innocent Palestinian civilians, many in the international community will condemn Israel. Israel understands this sad reality as well, and goes to enormous lengths to reduce the number of civilian casualties, even to the point of foregoing legitimate targets that are too close to civilian areas. Accordingly, Israel's actions satisfy the principle of proportionality as well as the principle of self-defense against armed attack.

Until and unless the United Nations and the rest of the international community recognize that Hamas is committing three war crimes--targetting Israeli civilians, using their own civilians as human shields and seeking the destruction of a member state of the United Nations--and that Israel is acting in self-defense and out of military necessity, the conflict will continue and perhaps escalate. If Israel succeeds in destroying the terrorist organization Hamas, it may well lay the foundation for a real peace between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. But if Hamas persists in its capacity to target increasing numbers of Israeli citizens, Israel will have no choice but to persist in its self-defense efforts.

No democracy would do otherwise.

Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas founder and former leader of youth movement of Hamas describes Hamas. Listen and watch this interview. His description of Hamas parallels Nazism with the same methods of radical fanaticism, propaganda. violence and fear.

FOR THOSE HYPOCRITES WHO MARCH ON THE STREETS IN LONDON, PARIS, GERMANY AND AROUND THE WORLD IN SUPPORT OF HAMAS - REMEMBER YOUR MARCH IS IN GOOSESTEP OF MODERN NAZISM AKA HAMAS AND ISLAMIC EXTREMISM. THOSE WHO MARCH SUPPORT THOSE WHO SEND CHILDREN W/ STRAPPED BOMBS TO KILL OTHER CHILDREN AND PREACH THE GENOCIDE OF JEWS IN ISRAEL ARE NO DIFFERENT FROM THOSE OF OLD EUROPE WHO COLLABORATED W/ NAZIS TO MURDERED OVER 6 MILLION JEWS. THOSE WHO MARCH AGAINST ISRAEL FOR DEFENDING ITSELF IRONICALLY ARE THE SAME WHO REMAINED SILENT WHILE THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN ARE MURDERED IN DARFUR, WHILE CHINA ILLEGALLY OCCUPIES TIBET AND REMAIN SILENT WHEN MOSLEMS KILL JEWS AND HINDUS IN MUMBAI, WHEN MOSLEMS KILL CHRISTIANS IN LEBANON, WHEN MOSLEMS KILL BUDDHISTS IN THAILAND AND WHILE WOMEN ARE SUBJECTED TO THE MOST INHUMAN VIOLENCE IN THE NAME OF ISLAM. WHERE ARE THESE PEOPLE?

AND THERE ARE THOSE WHO MARCH IN THE UNITED STATES AGAINST ISRAEL CALLING ISRAEL OCCUPIERS WHILE THEY ARE OCCUPYING LAND THAT BELONGS TO THE LAKOTA, SHOSHONE, APACHE, COMANCHE, PAIUTE, CHEYENNE AND OTHER NATIVE AMERICANS. PLEASE DON'T THROW STONES IN YOUR GLASS HOUSE, OTHERWISE LEAVE THIS LAND OF NATIVE AMERICANS IF WISH TO CALL ISRAEL OCCUPIERS. YOU ARE AN OCCUPIER, SO LEAVE!

PEACE WILL ONLY COME WHEN THERE IS NO HATE, BUT WHEN YOU TEACH HATE THERE WILL NEVER BE PEACE.

ALSO JEW MEANS FROM JUDEA LIKE MEXICAN MEANS FROM MEXICO LIKE JAPANESE MEANS FROM JAPAN. ZIONISM IN TRUTH WAS BORN WHEN JEWS WERE EXILED BY THE BABYLONIANS. ZIONISM MEANS THE RETURN TO ZION - THE CITY OF ZION - JERUSALEM. THOSE WHO CALL ZIONISM AS EVIL OR RACIST ARE THE SAME WHO USED PROTICALS OF ZION AND MIEN KAMPF FOR THEIR TRUE HATRED OF JEWS. SO TO HATE ISRAEL OR ZIONISM IS TO HATE JEWS.

AND AS HISTORY HAS DEMONSTRATED OVER AND OVER AGAIN, THOSE WHO HAVE HATED JEWS AND COMMITTED THEIR HATRED OF JEWS (ISRAEL) ULTIMATELY DISAPPEAR ONE WAY OR ANOTHER..

AS IT IS SAID IN EZEKIEL - SON OF MAN IS ISRAEL; HENCE ISRAEL IS THE REFLECTION OF MANKIND. HOW YOU TREAT HER IS HOW YOU WILL BE TREATED BY THE UNIVERSE.

ULTIMATELY IF PEOPLE CAN SEE THEMSELVES AS HUMANS LIKE LEAVES ON THE TREE OF LIFE ALL CONNECTED BUT JUST WITH DIFFERENT VIEWS. THEN REAL PEACE WILL TRANSPIRE ON MOTHER EARTH. IF NOT YOU WILL CONTINUE TO LIVE LIKE A PRISON PLANET AND THIS IS THE REAL TRUTH - WE ARE ALL THE SAME.

Hamas moves on Fatah 'collaborators'

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH - JPost.com - January 3, 2009

The Hamas government has placed dozens of Fatah members under house arrest out of fear that they might exploit the current IDF operation to regain control of the Gaza Strip.

The move came amid reports that the Fatah leadership in the West Bank has instructed its followers to be ready to assume power over the Gaza Strip when and if Israel's military operation results in the removal of Hamas rule.

Fatah officials in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas militiamen had been assaulting many Fatah activists since the beginning of the operation last Saturday. They said at least 75 activists were shot in the legs while others had their hands broken.

Wisam Abu Jalhoum, a Fatah activist from the Jabalya refugee camp, was shot in the legs by Hamas militiamen for allegedly expressing joy over the IDF air strikes on Hamas targets.

"Hamas is very nervous, because they feel that their end is nearing," a senior Fatah official said. "They have been waging a brutal campaign against Fatah members in the Gaza Strip."

Meanwhile, sources close to Hamas revealed over the weekend that the movement had "executed" more than 35 Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with Israel and were being held in various Hamas security installations.

The sources quoted Hamas officials as saying that the decision to kill the suspected collaborators was taken out of fear that Israel might try to rescue them during a ground offensive. The officials claimed that at least half of the victims were killed by relatives of Palestinian militiamen who were killed as a result of information passed on to Israel by the "collaborators."

Justifying the latest crackdown on Fatah, a Hamas official in Gaza City said that his government had received information according to which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had instructed his loyalists in the Strip to start moving toward undermining Hamas.

"We will kill them all if they try to help Israel bring down our government," the official said. "We will hang Mahmoud Abbas and [former Fatah security chief] Muhammad Dahlan in the public square if they try to enter the Gaza Strip aboard Israeli tanks."

The Hamas official said that his security forces had launched a massive "preemptive" campaign aimed at thwarting Fatah's attempts to "spread anarchy and chaos." He confirmed that many Fatah operatives had been shot in the legs over the past few days by Hamas "to make sure that they don't help Israel."

Fahmi Za'arir, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank, accused Hamas of "executing" a number of Fatah detainees. He said the Fatah leadership knew of at least two Fatah men who were shot dead by Hamas after being released from prison. He named them as Nasser Muhana and Saher al-Silawi.

Za'arir said that several Fatah members who attended funerals of victims of the IAF strikes were severely beaten by Hamas militiamen who accused them of collaboration with Israel.

It was "shameful" that Hamas was directing its weapons and energies against its own people instead of fighting against Israel, the spokesman said.

The decision to place Fatah operatives under house arrest was issued by the much-feared "Internal Security Apparatus," which reports to the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry in Gaza.

The order, which was delivered to the Fatah activists on Thursday, reads: "You are forbidden from leaving your home for 48 hours unless you want to attend Friday prayers. Anyone who violates the order will be punished."

The Gaza solution is in the hands of Palestinians

By TAWFIK HAMID - JPost.com - December 31, 2008

After Israel launched its military attack on Hamas military installations in Gaza in response to repeated attacks on Israeli civilians, the Arab street wasted no time in demonstrating with passion against Israel. In Europe, many Westerners also took part in the protests.

As an Egyptian Muslim now living in America, I ask myself why the Arab street and its supporters in the West never show similarly strong response against Islamic terrorists who target innocents worldwide and explode markets full of predominantly Muslim civilians in Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkey, etc. When you consider that the Israeli attack killed some 400 mostly Hamas militant in the first four days, the passive attitude of the Muslim world against the terrorists represents extreme hypocrisy. If it truly cared for Muslims' lives, it should have demonstrated in the same numbers and with equal vehemence against the Islamists who murder hundreds of thousands of their fellow Muslims, not to mention the Hamas slaughter of rival Fatah members - women and children included.

Another question is why we have not seen a similarly strong reaction against the terrorists who conducted the latest attack in Mumbai. Many Indians, Westerners and Jews were killed. Yet there was no spontaneous eruption of outrage and demonstrations in Europe to denounce the attacks as in the case of Gaza. Are these lesser lives than those of the Palestinians? Where is the organized public fury for the wanton killing of Indians and Jews?

We have witnessed the burning of churches in Iraq at the hands of jihadists. We also know that thousands of Christian Iraqis have fled because the Islamists imposed on them the traditional Shari'a choice for non-Muslims: Convert to Islam, pay a humiliating tax (jizzia), or be killed. Yet, we have not heard any thing from the Arab street or its supporters. Only stone silence. Are Palestinian lives worth more than those of Christians in Iraq?

An insular tribal mentality still governs the Muslim world, and there is no willingness to demonstrate against fellow Muslims, even against those who have committed great crimes against other Muslims. And Europe is too eviscerated to come to the aid of Christian victims of anti-"infidelism."

Then there is plain old anti-Semitism. It is so easy to demonstrate against the Jews or Israel and extremely rare to see demonstrations in support of Jewish victims, such as the altruistic rabbi and his wife who were singled out for special torture in Mumbai by the Islamists. It does the bloodstained European conscience good to be able to point a finger at supposed Israeli "aggression" to help alleviate some of its own lingering guilt.

The Muslim world and the Europeans who support the demonstrations against Israel must stop the biased reaction that blindly and reflexively supports the Palestinians and villifies Israel. Those who demonstrate against the military campaign on Gaza must realize that if Hamas had stopped pounding Israel with its rockets, Israel would not have launched its attack. If the Palestinians focused on building their society rather than destroying those of others, the whole region would enjoy peace and flourish. Should Palestinians recognize the right of Israel to exist, end terrorism against Jews and nurture a sincere desire to live in peace, they would end their suffering. The solution now is simply in the hands of the Palestinians - not the Israelis.

The writer, a medical doctor and Muslim reformer, is the author of Inside Jihad.

Hamas Is Largely to Blame for Israel's Gaza Offensive

by Mitchell Bard - December 29, 2008 - HuffingtonPost

Wading into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dangerous work. It is an exceptionally charged issue, with both sides capable of as much passion as you'll experience in discussing a foreign policy dispute. Personally, I have been shocked and unnerved at some of the venom unleashed in the comments to past articles on the topic that have appeared on The Huffington Post. I can't help but think that if only people read up on the history of the conflict, they would see that things aren't as black-and-white as their fire-breathing comments would have you believe.

I am ashamed to say that the Israel-bashing has made me reluctant to write about the issue, at least in my contributions to this site. But after watching the conflict in Gaza unfold over the last three days, I have decided that it's time for me to venture into the breach and make my opinion known, damn the consequences. It's time for me to explain why I think the treatment of Israel has been unfair.

I understand that the history of the Middle East, going back to 1948, or even to the 19th century, is messy. Any side looking to make a point can cherry pick historical facts to bolster an argument. While I would feel confident arguing the Israeli side of the issue, I know that I am not going to win over anyone in one blog post. The whole issue is just too complicated.

But what I feel I may be able to accomplish in this space is to provide a counterweight for some of the subtly biased reporting on the Israeli actions in Gaza over the last three days. From reading or watching most news accounts, you might think that Israel, virtually unprovoked, has started indiscriminately bombing in Gaza, causing massive civilian casualties. The New York Times quoted Iran's religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameni, saying, "The horrible crime of the Zionist regime in Gaza has once again revealed the bloodthirsty face of this regime from disguise," as if his opinion was just another equally valid point of view. I will attempt to provide some context here.

It is important to understand that threats to Israel's survival are not theoretical. From the moment of the country's formation in 1948 to the present day, it has been surrounded by hostile neighbors who have wanted to see its destruction and used force to bring such an outcome about. Israel was attacked by neighboring nations in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973. The country's seizure of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 occurred in this context. More recently, Israel has had to withstand suicide bombings, in which Palestinian terrorists would kill and wound innocent civilians inside Israel.

In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, dismantling all of its settlements and evicting its settlers, some by force. Palestinians proceeded in elections to put into power the terrorist group Hamas, which does not recognize the right of Israel to exist. With Israel gone from Gaza, Hamas seized on the opportunity to launch attacks from Gaza on civilian populations in Israel, firing more than 4,500 rockets and mortars into Israel since 2005. And Hamas used civilian areas as cover for the launching points for its attacks.

A little more than six months ago, Egypt brokered a cease fire between Israel and Hamas. The truce ended on December 19, and it was Hamas, not Israel, that refused to extend it. In fact, The current attacks began before the cease-fire agreement expired. In the last six weeks, Hamas has fired more than 400 missiles into Israel, including 40 Qassam rockets and mortars since December 19.

With Hamas attacking Israel, and with Hamas unwilling to extend the truce, Israel responded with the current offensive. While so many news reports have focused on the civilian casualties, given that Hamas uses civilians areas as cover to launch their attacks, it is shocking how relatively low the percentage of civilian casualties has been. As of this morning, of the 315 Palestinian fatalities, only 51 have been civilians. To be clear, my point isn't that 51 lost lives isn't tragic, rather it's that with Hamas putting its own people in danger by using them as cover for their assaults on Israel, the fact that roughly five in six fatalities have been military targets demonstrates that Israel is not indiscriminately attacking civilian populations.

And yet, Israel has continued to provide aid to Gazan residents, allowing 10,000 tons of food, tools, raw materials, medicine and medical equipment into Gaza since Dec. 7. Israel also provides 70 percent of Gaza's electricity, and Hamas has reportedly engineered blackouts to inflame the population against Israel while using the power for its own needs.

I am continually amazed when commentators and government officials assert that Israel should show restraint. How would any one of these countries and individuals react if it was their nation that was attacked daily by its neighbor, especially if that neighbor was an internationally recognized terrorist organization that didn't recognize the right of the subject of its attacks to exist and was dedicated to its destruction?

But that is the situation with which Israel is faced. Hamas will not recognize Israel's right to exist (calling the Jewish state "the Zionist entity"). And in retaliation for Israel's offensive, Hamas has fired rockets that have reached within 25 miles of Tel Aviv.

What is it that the critics would have Israel do? How do you negotiate with people that want to destroy you? How do you allow attacks on your civilian population on a daily basis without doing anything to protect your citizens? It feels to me like the critics ask Israel to make sacrifices and take risks that they themselves would never undertake for their home nations.

It seems to me that the critics would have Israel accede to all Palestinian demands, which would result in handing over huge chunks of land to a population bent on destroying Israel, both through attacks and assimilation, if the so-called right of return was granted. (From East Jerusalem, Hamas's rockets could hit virtually any point in Israel, including Tel Aviv, Haifa and West Jerusalem.) In my estimation, anyone who thinks Israel is somehow responsible for the current clashes with Hamas does not, in a practical sense, think Israel has a right to exist as a country. After all, short of surrendering, there is nothing that Israel could do that would satisfy Hamas, and without a right to defend itself from attack, Israel's survival would be in doubt.

I am all for a two-state solution. But both states have to respect the right of the other to exist, and nothing in Hamas's actions has demonstrated that it is in any way willing to take part in such an arrangement. Hamas wants a one-state solution, and that one state is not Israel.

(As a side note, the Palestinians still push for a right of return for those who fled and/or were pushed from the new state of Israel in 1948, which has been one of the primary issues acting as an impediment to peace, but there were an equal of number of Jews displaced by Arabs at the same time, and yet no Jews are claiming a right of return.)

Has Israel always acted correctly? Of course not. I dare you to show me a country that has conducted itself perfectly all the time. But how is it that Hamas, a terrorist organization that refused to extend the truce and fired rockets at civilians on a daily basis, gets so much sympathy, with Israel condemned for defending itself? In a vacuum, there is no defense for Hamas in this situation. So it seems to me that those that speak against Israel for its current Gaza offensive are doing so because they will never support Israel's side in the conflict with Hamas and the Palestinians. They see the West Bank barrier and the West Bank settlements and the other alleged transgressions by Israel without considering what prompted the actions in the first place (namely 60 years of attacks by its neighbors, most recently via suicide bombers killing civilians). It feels to me as though there is nothing Hamas could do to Israel that would, in the minds of Israel's critics, justify Israeli retaliation.

Hopefully, in the not too distant future, Palestinians will rally behind moderate, non-corrupt leadership, and a fair two-state solution will be hammered out under which both of the countries' citizens can live in peace and prosperity. But until that day comes, as long as the Palestinian people throw their lot in with terrorists like Hamas, who, in their name, attack civilian targets in Israel, a two-state solution cannot be put in place, and the Palestinian people will have to bear the consequences of their leaders' actions.

In an ideal world, a military action like the Israeli offensive in Gaza would never happen. No person of conscience can truly look at what is going on there and not feel sad. But at the same time, the Hamas bombing of Israeli civilians is equally disturbing, and there is no obvious alternative available to Israel to defend its citizens. It feels unfair to me when people take Israel to task without placing any significant blame on Hamas. And that is why I felt it was time for me to speak out.

Hamas pushes for Sharia punishments

The Hamas parliament in the Gaza Strip voted in favor of a law allowing courts to mete out sentences in the spirit of Islam, the London-based Arab daily Al Hayat reported Wednesday.

According to the bill, approved in its second reading and awaiting a third reading before the approval of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as the Palestinian constitution demands, courts will be able to condemn offenders to a plethora of violent punitive measures in line with Sharia Law.

Such punishments include whipping, severing hands, crucifixion and hanging. The bill reserves death sentences to people who negotiate with a foreign government "against Palestinian interests" and engage in any activity that can "hurt Palestinian morale."

According to the report, any Palestinian caught drinking or selling wine would suffer 40 lashes at the whipping post if the bill passes. Thieves caught red-handed would lose their right hand.

The above is not surprising but surprising to most. Hamas has employed the Nazi like propaganda along with their methods of absolute control utilizing the same methods and goals as the Nazis in Germany. The Hamas have employed totalitarianism under the guise of Islam. And like Germany the Palestinians by their own choice of support of Hamas have embraced the same hate toward the Jews along with same goal of the final solution to the Jews - GENOCIDE!

Islam now has been utilized in the same manner as Germany of old's patriotism. Expand and conquer. Utilize any methods as possible including lies, fear and violence. Its all in the name of Allah or is it? In reality the pawns being the Moslems while their leaders including the Imans and Mullahs have manipulated them for use in their own game of greed and power.

But the Palestinians are not to be left out that they did make their own choice as much as the German people chose Hitler. But then if one were to connect the dots they would find the very connection of Nazism to Islamic Nationalism. It was the Nazis who formed the Baath Party. It was the Nazis who created the foundation for the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt. It was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who was Yasser Arafat's uncle allied with Hitler and formed the Moslem/Palestinian SS to murder and liquidate the Jews during WWII. And today the Islamic Nazis have utilized Mein Kampf and Protocols of Zion as their guide book even when there are so many on the left to their naivete are being used to their dismay for implementation of their final solution and Islamic Imperialism.

It is this reason there will always be a reaction to their action. But just like the Nazis, these Islamic Fascists will ultimately receive the same fate.

So if the Palestinians really believe in Allah and love Allah and embrace the ideals that all are of Allah; hence if you hate and kill the left arm of Allah - the Jew - then you truly do not love Allah and embrace Allah and you will be delivered the same fate by Allah as the Aryan.

And with that - Shalom & Salom Alechu'm

Note: Yasser Arafat was never born in Israel or in the Palestine Mandate, but only resided for a short period of time with his uncle, The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Arafat was born and lived in Egypt. Also please note that Arafat was also a Bilderberg and when he died he was one of the wealthiest men in the world - worth billions.

Please on your own check out the real facts and then let your heart decide, because at the end we are all the same - WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS!

Life is like Popping a Zit.

by Andrew Feder

If you push too hard, the white crap will hit the one nearest you. And if no one is around, you'll have too clean it up by yourself.

But if you pop it slowly, it will slowly ooze out. None-the-less it hurts in any event.

And after a good squeeze, there may or may not be a scar. But at the end like all things it will heal.

And if popped, the zit will leave it's mark. Its just a reminder that all things leave a mark, but we must learn to live what we just did - in this case we should've left the zit alone.

So if you got a zit, make the choice, but remember its your choice whether you squeeze it or leave it.

And so said the man on the highest mountain, "Please squeeze my zit!"

Rick Warren aka The Christian Fascist

by Andrew Feder

On January 20th 2009, Barack Obama will be historically inaugurated as President of the United States of America. Unfortunately Obama has selected Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.

In a time of inclusion and working together to the theme of "Yes We Can" has evolved into the irony of a man who preaches lies and hate.

Warren preaches that all non-Christians will go to hell and that Christians are somehow superior to non-Christians; how is this any different from Nazism which claims that Aryans are superior to non-Aryans? Hence isn't Rick Warren preaching a form of racism or fascism?

Warren loves to lie when it's convenient. In a prior broadcast before he was selected for Obama's inauguration, Warren equated Gays, homosexuals to pedophiles and now he has said in thirty years that he never equated Gays to pedophiles and that he loves Gays. Dude, please get real. A lie is a lie and you forgot that there is something called "You Tube."

Warren has equated to the grotesque logic within his mind that women who have abortions are Nazis much like the SS in the death camp of Auschwitz.

In an obvious sexist form of belief, Warren emphasizes that women should be basically barefoot and pregnant and subservient to their husbands wishes. Warren even discourages divorces even in cases of physical abuse. I guess that it's okay in Warren's Church for a woman to get beaten to a pulp by her husband. Perhaps the Orange County District Attorney's Office should look into this.

It is the character and demeanor of this demigod namely Rick Warren that not only is his megalomania quite apparent but his lack of tolerance is very evident and yet tolerance was something that was well emphasized by Jesus.

So it is illogical and contrary to any theme of tolerance and inclusion that was proclaimed by Barrack Obama during his presidential campaign that he would select such a non-tolerant, sexist, segregationist, Nazi-like fascist like Rick Warren who is as Christian as the Inquisitor to deliver the invocation at his historic inauguration.

Perhaps Obama could select someone who is spiritually evolved and has a loving soul who represents what Obama has emanated throughout his campaign. Perhaps Obama could select someone who would truly make this event historical. Perhaps he could select the Dalai Lama. Just a thought...

Enjoy!

And thanks Phantom Alien!