Alien Democracy

Tucker Carlson of MSNBC has been interviewing all sorts of people including Benjamin Netanyahu. Similar to the style of Alan Colmes of Fox News’ Hannity and Colmes, ever-present in the interview is the mention that Hizballah and Hamas were democratically elected, so we should not interfere or object; despite the fact that Carlson, Colmes, and most other media elites all say that these democratically elected “officials” are the “bad guys.”

Well that’s the point! And no one, not even Netanyahu, has effectively responded.

Incredulously, Netanyahu asked Carlson, if he had seen the movie ‘Alien.’ Then Netanyahu went into a longwinded explanation of how Hizballah is the parasitic creature which engorges its host, then destroys everyone around it as it emerges from the belly of its host and for that reason according to Netanyahu, Israel must destroy the host; I assume he meant Lebanon, though he didn’t explicitly say so.

The sad truth is that this lunacy is not far from the truth. Of course, Netanyahu appears on the screen as a lunatic – not very good Hasbarah.

Netanyahu even compared the American Nazi party as being the political equivalent of Hizballah. Carlson, of course, quickly made light of the comparison since Hizballah had at least 15 members in the Lebanese government. He is absolutely correct. The American Nazi party has no such standing in the American political sphere.

However, a more effective response which no one has put forward is the following:

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, the NSDAP, otherwise known as the Nazi party, was democratically elected. That didn’t mean that the allies should not go to war against it; that didn’t mean that every freedom loving member of the human race were under no obligation to do everything in their power to destroy that democratically elected government. It also didn’t mean that you had to be extremely careful in avoiding “civilian” losses to the detriment of the war effort.

It’s too bad that even Israeli politicians can’t squelch these media elites and nip these nonsensical conundrums in the bud.

Hizballah Victory?

The Israeli mini-cabinet of Foreign Minister Tzippy Livny, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, former Defense Ministers Sha'ul Mofaz and Shimon Peres, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, Justice Minister Chaim Ramon and Shas Party leader Trade Minister Eli Yishai in voting for a limited ground offensive has foolishly betrayed Israel’s interests in the short and long run.

In the short run, Israel will not be able to able adequately stop the rain of missiles falling on Northern Israel. Hizballah will only be emboldened to continue fighting. With the continued aerial assaults which Hizballah has no defense against, they will have no alternative but to “save face” by bombing Israeli targets.

In the long run, both Hizballah and the Arab world will be encouraged with their “victory” and do even more to destroy the Jewish state.

The fear that Syria may attack if ground forces are dispatched to the Litani River or to within 12 miles of the Syrian border was illogical. Even if they would attack, they would be no match for the Israeli ground forces and certainly no match for the air force.

The Syrian forces would be an easy target since the fighting would be “mano a mano” -- one army against another; not an army vs. a guerilla squad.

On the other hand, if Israel will not proceed, Syria will obtain more weapons and plan a full scale assault with other Arab nations in the very near future.

Missile Command

How far will the escalation continue?

With Israeli ground troops on the verge of invasion into Lebanon, what can we expect from Hizballah?

If Hizballah has longer range weapons from Syria and Iran, it’s almost a certainty they will use them on Tel Aviv.

In turn, it would seem that Israel will attack Damascus.

If Hizballah has chemical weapons, it’s likely they would use them with permission of Iran or Syria.

In turn, it would seem that Israel would attack Iran.

What would follow at that point?

Yom Kippur War Revisited?

Every day shows some surprise.

Though 5000 rockets had fallen prior to last year’s withdrawal from Gaza and many rockets have been shot from Gaza since then, it came as a surprise to some that Hamas would attack through an underground tunnel and kidnap Gilad Shalit from sovereign Israeli soil.

It also came as a surprise to some that Hizballah would do the same and kidnap two Israeli soldiers while bombarding Israeli cities throughout the North.

It further comes as a surprise to some that Hizballah is proving to be a formidable force killing Israeli soldiers not once, but twice at the very same location in Southern Lebanon.

The surprises keep mounting when after Israel sends a 23 ton of dynamite equivalent as a bunker buster to a location where leaders of Hizballah are supposedly in hiding, their leader Nasrallah appears for an interview on Al-Jazeera, the very next day.

Now there’s some talk that Hizballah is pushing for Islamic Jihad to open a third front from Judea and Samaria. Maybe that will also come as a surprise.

The Yom Kippur War was also a surprise to many. Thousands of lives were lost and Israel was in danger of being wiped off the map.

As a result, government officials lost their jobs and careers and many in government made a vow that there would be no more surprises. Israel would always be prepared.

Were we prepared for this current War? Will we be prepared for what is to come?

I hope so.

I certainly hope so.

Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer

A report by Martin Fletcher on NBC was extremely painful to watch.

After sirens go off warning of an imminent attack, Israelis run for the bomb shelter. One man doesn’t make it and is found dead just meters away from the shelter.

He is lying on the ground some distance away from the cameras and the shelter.

A woman standing at the entrance to the shelter is screaming into her cell phone to her husband, “where are you, where are you, why don’t you pick up.”

Off in the distance, we soon find out all too well where he is.

The ringing of a cell phone continues unanswered next to the body.

See Martin Fletcher’s report below:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8004316/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13922915/

Images of War

Watching this evening’s CBS News, one wonders how the war appears to objective observers, if that is even possible.

An American being evacuated from Lebanon screams at the camera that she hates Israel and everything that is happening is all Israel’s fault.

Another American of Arab descent, prior to boarding a ship to Cypress, stands in front of her car with a bashed out rear window describing the horror of a bomb going off as they were driving to areas of escape.

A Hizballah neighborhood looks like a bombed out ghost town with some injured populace covered in debris being helped away – one particularly so covered up in dust that he appeared to be walking out of the World Trade Center on 9/11.

On the other hand, a CBS reporter is interviewing Israelis in a bomb shelter where they have been for a week and probably will remain in this stifling area without showers or water for weeks more. As they come to the surface to say goodbye, they and others in the area run back to the shelter as Hizballah missiles fall not once, but twice, within a matter of minutes destroying an apartment building killing one man only meters away from the shelter.

Israelis in Tzefat, Nahariya, Haifa and other locales are shown cowering in shock as missiles fall all around them. The same train depot where eight workers were killed on Sunday is shown with more missile strikes today.

What appears on the screen and what is perceived off the screen is that Hizballah, a militia, though a powerful one, acts with even greater strength then a sovereign state.

What appears is Israel, with the best equipped armed forces in the region, a country with some of the best minds in the world, a country noted for it’s heroism and military prowess, fighting a war against buildings, against an unarmed populace just trying to get home or live their lives, while Israel’s own populace must cower in fear and wait until Hizballah runs out of the 10,000 missiles they possess.

These are the very frightening images that we must see and perceive.

I worry about the consequences yet to be faced.

War Stories

On Friday July 14th, 2006, the New York Post reporter Uri Dan stated the following:

In response to Condoleezza Rice’s call to Israel to exercise restraint in the use of self-defense, Israeli Ambassador to the US, Danny Ayalon responded “I think they misinterpreted our restraint for the last six years.”

Who exactly made this misinterpretation?

The US didn’t.

They understand that action taken by Israel prior to the kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldiers on their side of the border might have been perceived as an over-reaction, even though it would have been a clear response to provocation by Lebanon by allowing Hizballah on its southern frontier.

The UN didn’t.

They failed to implement U.N. resolution 1559 which calls for the deployment of the Lebanese military along the border and for the disarming of militant groups such as Hezbollah. Why should they follow-up on the resolution if they want to give Lebanon a free pass and Israel does nothing about it.

The EU didn’t.

They have nothing but contempt and scorn for Israel. They are so busy bending over backwards to every Arab nation including Iran and Syria, that if Israel refuses to protect their own borders even after leaving Lebanon, why should they care.

Lebanon didn’t.

If they are so frightened from Syria, Iran and Hizballah are they actually going to be frightened from Israel, who up to this point have done nothing to protect their own interests?

Certainly Iran, Syria and Hizballah did not misinterpret Israel’s lack of response in the last six years. They saw Israel as being too frightened of America, Europe and the media to take any proportionate action; too hopeful for peaceful relations with its Arab neighbors instead of seeing them for what they are – a murderous bunch of despots who are all too willing to stir their populace to hate, murder and maim themselves and every Jew they can get their hands on.

But now Bill Clinton and others have said Israel’s current response is disproportionate.

Of course it is. They should have done more years ago and even more now.

Hopefully they will. Hopefully they will clean Hizballah out of southern Lebanon and Hamas out of Gaza.

That might be proportionate. That might be interpreted correctly. That might be enough. I doubt it, though.