There’s Something About Gaza
Big meeting today in Sharm al-Sheik.
Our Gazapalooza kicks off with Stratfor, on the difficulties of playing nice with terrorists:
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will host a summit in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on June 25. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Jordanian King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas all plan to attend … The four are expected to agree on a strategy for dealing with Hamas.
The Israelis have always wanted to isolate Hamas, and now Fatah and the Arab states — which had held accommodating attitudes toward the radical Islamist Palestinian movement — also have adopted a stern stance against it. … The Egyptians, who have paradoxically been dealing with Hamas while trying to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood, their own Islamist movement, view the Hamas takeover of Gaza as a direct threat to their regime. And as far as Jordan is concerned, an unencumbered Hamas risks emboldening not only the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood but also the country’s Palestinian majority.
… That they were willing to work with Hamas when it was less powerful shows that direct confrontation was not a viable option in the past — and it is certainly not viable now. Therefore, Fatah, Cairo and Amman clearly are engaged in posturing designed to isolate Hamas until the faction can be brought back to the negotiating table …
Complicating this task is these Arab actors’ decision to align themselves with Israel and the United States in an effort to corner Hamas … This, in turn, creates opportunities for Iran and Syria to exploit the rift for their own purposes.
… In fact, the move to weaken Hamas has the potential to make matters worse, possibly allowing Gaza to descend into chaos, with multiple Islamist militant factions — including transnational al Qaeda elements — running amok there …
The Palestinian conflict has reached the point at which — now more than ever — it has the potential to undermine the security and stability of the two Arab states that border the Palestinian territories.
Last time I checked, Gaza was already in chaos, with multiple Islamist “militant” factions running amok there. Strikes me as a problem that can be dealt with, provided no one balks at the correct degree of tough love with Islamist murderers.
Faoud Ajami: “Palestine chose Nationalist Suicide … This is not a failure of the Bush diplomacy, the disorder now on full display in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the harvest of Palestinian history. What we see is the inevitable fate of a national movement given over to the cult of the gun.”
Victor Davis Hanson: “Rank Opportunism? What a contrast between some in the West and the Arab papers in their respective reactions to Gaza and the Hamas violence. The former blame Bush, blame the US, or blame Israel for the civil war, the latter blame the extremists in Hamas and the Palestinians themselves.” Guess who?
Gateway: Al-Zawahri joins with Jimmy Carter on Hamas.
Jawa: Al-Qaeda to Hamas, what’s the hold up with the Sharia already?
Joshua Muravchik at WSJ: “Winds of War.” Dangerous miscalculations by Hamas, Iran, which apparently says “Death to America” seriously if not logically. ”The apparent meaning of all of this pointless provocation and bullying is that the axis of radicals–Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah–is feeling its oats… Israel could handle Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria, albeit with painful losses all around, but if Iran intervened rather than see its regional assets eliminated, could the U.S. stay out?”
Tigerhawk on Muravchik: “In general, I think the choice between “diplomacy” and “military action” is a false one.”
Fars: Iran regrets Hamas-Fatah infighting. Mullahs don’t like it when someone else does the miscalculating?
Int’l Inst. for Counter-Terrorism: Crackdown on Hamas gathers pace. Rather civil affair, no roof-tossings.
Times of London: audio message from Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Follows demand by his father for Olmert to negotiate with terrorists.
Hamas: please talk to us.
Hamas’ Haniyeh re vid of BBC’s Alan Johnston in a martyrdom belt. “This must stop, it cannot continue like this … we won’t allow it to continue.” Vid here.
Coming Up Roses: Hamas founder Mahmoud Zahar’s plans for an Islamic state in Gaza and his gratitude to America for all the cheap bullets.
Now for something completely different, yet related: “At least Hitler meant well.”
Topics: Iran, Palestinians
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:46 am Comments (18) on Monday, June 25, 2007
18 Responses to “There’s Something About Gaza”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
June 25th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Sharm el-Sheikh was the scene of a horrific terrorist attack in 2005.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/07/23/egypt.explosions/
Interesting symbolism, to hold that meeting here.
June 25th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Beware of over-analysis. One set of murderous thugs, inspired by God, beat on another set of murderous thugs, inspired by mammon. God’s thugs won.
And Israel is to be concerned…why, exactly? Not only is there no Palestinian untiy, it’s hard to fathom how there’s anything to the idea of Palestine. We have a collection of Arab factions, clans, and militias all taking turns killing each other. This is a state? Well, in Arab terms, it may be–but if people behaved like this in America, we’d label them motorcycle gang members and throw them in jail.
That must be how Egypt and Jordan see he Palestinians: Hell’s Angels on camels.
Bloodthirsty Liberal
June 25th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
I see no reason to “talk” to Hamas, or to any terrorist organization. They’re eating themselves. Why not stand back and watch? And if the surrounding Arab countries are “unsettled”, all the better. You reap what you sow, Mohammed.
June 25th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
“That they were willing to work with Hamas when it was less powerful shows that direct confrontation was not a viable option in the past — and it is certainly not viable now”
Huh?
June 25th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
There’s something about Gaza? Hell there’s something about, Islamists.
Look Forward to Anger
It’s impossible to satisfy “Rage Boy” and his ilk. It’s stupid to try.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, June 25, 2007, at 1:46 PM ET
http://www.slate.com/id/2169020/
June 25th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
It’s impossible to satisfy the people making a buck of all the Muslim hate, too, El Cid.
They are, by definition, insatiable.
June 25th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Moron
Imbecile
Idiot
alphie
People, you have just seen the range of cognitive science and reasoning.
June 25th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Your list is incomplete, EC. I would insert “Invertebrate” as number four.
June 25th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Paleswine terrorists have been murdering American citizens for the last 35 years, and now the terrorists are running a de facto Palestinian state, and we’re still cating like its possible or even desirable to do a deal with these maggots.
IMO, we need to wage all out war (I’m talking liberal Democrat WWII style war with massive bombing and no regard for enemy civilian casualties…IOW we do to the Gaza Strip what we did to Dresden) until terror organizations like Hamas and Fatah are totally destroyed, the same way we totally destroyed the Nazis.
And, if it takes the death of every last Paleswinian to accomplish that goal…so what?
Better all of them dead than one more Leon Klinghoffer dead.
I don’t care what happens to the Paleswine. I want the Americans who already been murdered by these scum avenged, and I want a 100% certainty that no American is ever again killed by a Paleswine terrorist.
And the only way to do that is to destory Fatah, Hamas and the other terrorist spinoff groups that constitute the Paleswine leadership.
No two state solution, no deals with murderers. That should have been our policy right from the get go, and if you start electing people like me to public office, it will be our policy.
June 25th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
The Soviets destroyed the Nazis, Dave.
Too bad they’re not around this time to do our heavy lifting, eh?
Though I doubt even Stalin would stoop to your level.
June 25th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Strikes me as a problem that can be dealt with, provided no one balks at the correct degree of tough love with Islamist murderers.
Carpet bombing ought to do the trick, followed by a couple divisions of infantry.
June 25th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
The Soviets destroyed the Nazis, Dave.
Too bad they’re not around this time to do our heavy lifting, eh?
WARNING!!!! Non-sequitur Alert!!! Non-sequitur Alert!
Be advised that The Alphtard™ has well and truly deluded Itself into believing that the Soviet Union single handedly destroyed the Nazis in WWII, utterly ignoring the Stalin’s pre-WWII direct cooperation with Hitler, and the significant contribution of the Allies in Europe.
That is all. We now return to the real world, and a frank discussion of how it is that allowing the Palestinians to kill each is a Very Good Idea.
June 25th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
The Soviets destroyed the Nazis, Dave.
And that wouldn’t have happened without who’s help? I seem to recall some very heavy convoy action taking a certain polar route.
June 26th, 2007 at 4:30 am
Oh come on. Those who froze and otherwise died supplying Uncle Joe don’t count. And you are to ignore the fact that Uncle Joe was running supplies to his good buddy Adolph, even as Adolph’s armies were crossing into the Soviet Union. In fact, you are to ignore everything about WWII, since there were no lessons to be learned from that bit of history.
June 26th, 2007 at 5:07 am
On September 6, 1972 American David Berger was murdred in cold blood by members of the Paleswine terrorist group Fatah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Massacre
Maybe our current government is willing to forget about Berger and all the other innocent Americans murdered by the Paleswine vermin.
I’m not.
You murder our citizens…and that means war to the knife where I come from.
Can we play nice with these guys?
Sure…when every last one of them is swinging on the end of a rope, and Gaza is a smoking hole in the desert, we’ll play a nice little game of “toss the dead terrorist in an unmarked grave”.
June 26th, 2007 at 5:29 am
PLO swine murder Americans in cold blood…
“After the passports had been collected, Safarini walked through the cabin, asking passengers about their nationalities. When he arrived at the seat of Rajesh Kumar, a 29-year-old California resident who had recently been naturalized as an American citizen, Safarini ordered Kumar to go to the front doorway of the aircraft and to kneel with his hands behind his head.”
“At about 10:00 a.m., Safarini became angry about the delay in the arrival of a new flight crew and he threatened to shoot Kumar if something was not done within 15 minutes. Shortly thereafter he shot Kumar in the head and pushed him out the door onto the tarmac below. ..”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_73
No peace with the Paleswine terrorists. Not until the day when every last member of the PLO/PA is forced to his knees, and shot in the back of the head just like they did Rajesh Kumar.
I don’t do peace with Paleswine murderers.
June 26th, 2007 at 5:51 am
“We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism.”–President Bush
I hear that, Mr. President. So how much longer until we pursue these Paleswine terrorists?
How about right now? You know what they say: No time like the present when it comes to frying Paleswine terrorists with a hefty dose of napalm.
June 26th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
“Though I doubt even Stalin would stoop to your level.”
Silly lefty. I’m not talking about emulating Stalin, but rather that great liberal Democrat hero, FDR.
“The first such raid on Tokyo was on the night of February 23–24, when 174 B-29s destroyed around one square mile (~2.56 km²) of the city. Following on that effort 334 B-29s took off from the Mariana Islands on the night of March 9–10 heading for Tokyo…”
“After 2 hours of bombardment, Tokyo was engulfed in a firestorm. The fires were so hot they would ignite the clothing on individuals as they were fleeing. Many women were wearing what were called ‘air-raid turbans’ around their heads and the heat would ignite those turbans like a wick on a candle. The Japanese War History office estimated that the incendiary bombing of Tokyo led to 72,489 Japanese dead.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo_in_World_War_II
Roosevelt and his crew might have been a bunch of worthless socialist skanks, and he was by far the worst president this country has ever had, but for all their liberal Democrat failings, one thing old Roosevelt and his pals did know how to do was kill people and crush enemies…and they didn’t give a good goddam how many enemy civilians got whacked out in the process either…as a matter of fact the more the merrier was part of their policy.
You want to fight a war and win it? Just look at what good old FDR and his buddies did, and copy them.
I know no liberal Democrat will have moral objections to following the same war policies that liberal Democrat heroes have used so successfully.