Monday Night News and Notes

I'm still on the East Coast clock so I'm all fubar here. I expect 24 to start in an hour and a half not 4 1/2 hours.

Anyway, here's what's happening around the Internet:

Treacher brings us The One pulling a Gerald Ford boarding Marine One complete with appropriate music. Awesome:



That video above is pure gold. Obama has been shown to be less than the Smartest Guy on the Planet over his first month, huh?

Laura Rosen Cohen ponders The Silence of the Leftists.

It seems that the Melbourne fires are Kevin Rudd's Katrina.

Nice, an attorney takes an unorthodox approach in battling the ACLU.

What was old is new again. Obama goes back to the Clinton years in more ways than hiring retreads.

A must read by Michael Totten who helps lead the world of citizen journalism. Please give him a donation if you can to keep reports like these going. I'd love to have a beer with Totten and Michael Yon one day.

A Quiz: Are You a Holy Warrior?

Go now and take the quiz.

Will Obama Sell Out the Jews?

Never again?

The world has gone crazy over the Israeli's protecting themselves and it's only going to spread.

Will Obama sell out the Jews just as he sold out his grandmother, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers and myriad others?

We shall see.

Hamas Stunned By Israeli Response

Stunned actually is too mild a word:

Two captured terrorists interviewed by Maariv/NRG say that Hamas was not expecting Israel's response to the escalation in missile attacks on Israeli targets that preceded Operation Cast Lead. One of them, a 52-year-old victim of a premature detonation who had already done time in an Israeli jail, said, "Hamas took a gamble. We thought, at worst Israel will come and do something from the air - something superficial. They'll come in and go out. We never thought that we would reach the point where fear will swallow the heart and the feet will want to flee. You [Israel] are fighting like you fought in '48. What got into you all of a sudden?"

They should have feared the wrath of the IDF but thought 2006 was the new standard instead of an anomaly. The Israeli's cared too much about world opinion and fought the war against Hezbollah with one hand tied around their collective nuts. This time, they took it to them armed with the best weapons, excellent intel and a fuck the world attitude. Pretty much how any nation should fight a war against terrorists.

Sure, Israel's taken heat but this time they fought Hamas propaganda with propaganda of their own constantly releasing videos showing how they have done everything possible to stop the deaths of civilians while simultaneously showing that they are ruthless against Hamas (see video below). Arabs in general and Muslims in particular understand one thing and one thing only: power. The Israeli's showed that they are still the most powerful SOB's in the region and are not to be trifled with.

Via Ed who has more on the set back this is for Iran.

Exit thought: While the Iraq war was the first war in real-time via the Internet, this invasion of Gaza has been the first war where both sides have utilized the full-force of the web and the Israeli's seem to have won.

Israel/Gaza Update

I was out of the loop for a day or so but here's an update:

CNN posts Hamas propaganda and then sends it down the memory hole.

Israel and Hamas give the UN the finger on a ceasefire. So much for the authority of that august body of diplomatic thugs.

Hugo Chavez whips up some anti-Semitic fury in a way that makes one think of the Nazi's (see photo at right). It's an easy way to make people focus on domestic issues and forget about toppling the Castro wannabe.

Jewish hawks Vs. Jewish doves. The hawks have the better case.

Another Anti-Semitic Lefty is Exposed as a Moron

Sweet.

Follow the links and read it all.

These idiots make it too damn easy.

Israel Sends Ground Troops Into Gaza

A tough battle in a densely packed area lays ahead. According to Olmert, it will not be over real soon:

GAZA — Israeli troops advanced into Gaza on Sunday under cover of heavy air, tank and artillery fire after opening a ground war against the militant group Hamas on Saturday night.

Witnesses said the Israeli forces had punched across Gaza, bisecting its northern and southern parts, and had taken over certain strategic areas, including what the military has described as rocket launching sites.

The ground campaign came after a week of intense airstrikes. Israel’s stated goal was to destroy the infrastructure of Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza’s government, and to significantly decrease the threat to southern Israel from Palestinian rocket fire.

In a telephone briefing for a group of foreign correspondents, a senior Israeli military official said that Israeli troops would hold the areas they have taken inside Gaza at least for the duration of the operation to prevent militants from returning to fire rockets from there.

Smart for PR purposes as the reason to attack was to prevent rockets from being launched into neighboring towns like Sderot.

Tactically, this is going to be tough for the IDF; Hamas members will hide among the civilian population much as al-Qaeda and the Fedayeen did in Iraq. It seems the Israeli's have something that we did not however, excellent intelligence. I would venture that intel collection has been ongoing since they vacated Gaza in 2005 and judging by the accuracy of hits on senior Hamas leaders, it appears the Mossad has been pretty successful.

Allah asks some important questions:

Question: Are we to infer from the timing that Obama greenlit the operation? I remember people like John Bolton speculating months ago that the IAF would make a run on Iran sometime between the election and the inauguration, partly to avoid putting the new president on the spot and partly to eliminate the possibility that he’d stop them from acting once in office. This ain’t Iran, but the principle still applies. Did The One sign off on this, or did Israel act now precisely so that he wouldn’t have to?

Isn’t this operation destined to be finished by Inauguration Day or very shortly thereafter? Obama’s not going to complicate his peace plans by tolerating a long Israeli incursion right out of the chute. They’re on the clock.

I wrote that President Bush had increased attacks on al-Qaeda in the case Obama was elected. Could the same thing be happening here? Israel as a nation is not quite sure how Obama will view them and given the latest poll, it doesn't appear that they can count on many Dems to go to bat for them. So they invade now and kind of take Obama off the hook since he's not been inaugurated but also in case he has misgivings about the operation, they won't be stopped or have weapons withheld.

Bush seems more than ready to let the IDF do what they can to eliminate Hamas over the next several weeks going so far as to stop Arab nations from halting the operation:

The U.N. Security Council ended emergency consultations that began late Saturday without reaching an agreement on the situation in the Gaza Strip.

France's U.N. ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said there were "strong convergences" among the council's 15 members about the need for a fully respected ceasefire.

But diplomats said the U.S. blocked Libya's attempt to call for an immediate halt to the fighting.

Exit thought: How long until we see Nasrallah and his Hezbollah goons start making some noise to try to relieve some of the pressure on Gaza?

More updates here and here.

Update: You can never underestimate the venom of liberals when it comes to Israel defending their citizens from rocket attacks.

Update: Hamas terrorists are taking out Fatah to preclude them from filling the power void. Yeah, they should have their own country.

Update: There's a lot of good commentary on this around the blogosphere. This would be among them.

Israel/Gaza Thursday Update

Reporters--even those covering the battle--don't get it. That's because they've never understood the issues of the region as a whole and the Israel-Palestinian situation in particular. Perhaps that's why they are so quick to paint Israel as the aggressor every time the situation flares up.

The ground invasion preparations continue and the situation still remains fluid. Talk of a truce is ongoing but the Israeli's would be wrong to stop before taking out as much of the terrorist leadership as possible.

The IAF bombed a mosque being used to for rocket storage. The media will portray the IAF as heathens for bombing it just like they always do. The Arabs attacked Israel on its holiest day once and a Hamas once blew up innocent civilians during a seder but the biased media can't abide the IAF taking out a mosque that ceased being one once the terrorists hauled rockets into it. All in all, the IDF is using Internet-disseminated video to their advantage.

I feel so much better knowing the feckless UN is about to get involved. The international community has always been fair with regard to Israel.

To be clear, I'm not a supporter of bombing innocent women and children. Yet, when the Iranian-backed "government" in Gaza continues to bombard Israel with rockets that have no other purpose than to indiscriminately kill and situate those rockets in heavily populated residential areas, they deserve to answer to their fellow Palestinians exactly why they've adopted this tactic.

Israel has the latest weapons supplied by us and use the same doctrine we do: avoid civilian deaths at all costs.

Update: The IAF sent senior Hamas leader Sheikh Nizar Rayyan to meet Allah and enjoy his 72 virgins. The mission appears to be going according to plan.

Update: By the looks of this pic, it seems as though the Iranians are having problems resupplying Hamas. Perhaps they should ask Cynthia McKinney for assistance:

Those living in Israel always keep their sense of humor, Yisrael.

Israel Continues to Defend Itself in Gaza

Imagine sitting out on your back deck enjoying a beverage and listening to some sporting event and a rocket comes out of nowhere and damages your house where your kids are playing injuring one of them. Further imagine that said rocket was launched from a neighboring nation that seeks not only to destroy your country but destroy your entire race.

Now imagine it has been happening for months and it has effected your family and neighbors on a daily basis--killing several of your close friends. Would you want your country to hold back and do nothing?

That is the situation Israel finds itself in once again. Hamas terrorists have been launching small incendiaries into towns such as Sderot for a long time and Israel finally said enough after numerous warnings:

Israel says that its onslaught — its most ferocious against Palestinians in decades — is designed to prevent Palestinians from attacking towns in southern Israel with missiles. But Hamas fired more than 60 rockets into southern Israel on Monday, killing an Israeli Arab construction worker in Ashkelon and wounding several others.

A long-range rocket also struck the Israeli city of Ashdod some 18 miles from Gaza, where it hit a bus stop, killing a woman and injuring two other people. Thousands of Israelis huddled in shelters.

Israel has to defend herself in the most easily understood way--the only way the Palestinians understand--violence on a harsh scale. Talking hasn't worked and threats haven't worked so that leaves essentially one recourse and the Israeli's are utilizing that recourse.

In the linked piece above, the NY Times reports that 350 are dead of which 60 are civilians. That means 290 were terrorists and the others were collateral damage injured because Hamas locates their rocket launchers in civilian areas thus putting innocent people at risk.

Israel left Gaza in 2005 and allowed the Palestinians autonomy. They immediately fought amongst each other with Hamas chasing out Fatah. Israel offered the chance at some self government and instead of peace and creation of a better state, Hamas chose destruction, bitterness, poverty and war.

As an aside, this has to be the single stupidest post I've read this week where this idiot blames President Bush for remaining on vacation while the two sides battle it out in Gaza. Bush Derangement Syndrome isn't gone yet.

In roughly three weeks, this will be Obama's problem and it seems that his people are naive in the extreme.

More here. Pamela comments here. JG comments here.