Egypt Cedes Part Of Sinai To Hamas

Egypt's leader President Hosni Mubarak has announced that Egypt is not planning to expel the hundreds of thousands of Gazan Palestinians who continue to travel freely over the broken border fence into the northern Sinai. Mubarak instead decided to merely contain them, pulling his forces from the Gaza border to points south of El Arish, Bir Lahfan and Abu Aweigila. By doing so,he ceded to Hamas control an area about twice the size of the Gaza strip.

Early this morning,January 24,the Americans likewise withdrew troops and equipment from Rafah and from the Multi-force Organization base at Al Gura northeast of El Arish, which monitors the demilitarization of Sinai, a key part of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. Evacuating the entire base and the rest of its 400 multinational personnel is probably the next step...which makes both the Egypt-Israel peace treaty and the security accords under which Israel withdrew from Gaza essentially meaningless.

Meanwhile, Hamas is moving troops into the new area. They now have a new base where they can train and import weapons with impunity - and since it's still technically `Egypt' it's outside the reach of the Israeli military. It also makes the Israeli blockade on the terrorist enclave futile, for the most part.

The demolition of the border wall was probably timed to coincide with the conference yesterday, January 23 of the Palestinian National Congress in Damascus, a get together organized by Iran, Syria and the more radical Palestinian factions like Hamas, The Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine(PFLP) and Islamic Jihad as a response to the Annapolis conference.

It remains to be seen exactly how Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak and Israel, not to mention the US plan to deal with this major setback.

Arab Christian Churches Condemn Israel: Dhimmi-tude In action

Hmmm...no surprise here....not if these Arab Christians want to stay in one piece, avoid having their churches destroyed and keep their dhimmi status.

Various Arab Christian leaders released a statement today condemning Israel’s blockade of Gaza as an “immoral act”.

The Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, called the blockade of Gaza “illegal collective punishment, an immoral act in violation of the basic human and natural laws as well as International Law,” in a statement issued Jan. 22 – a day before Hamas militants destroyed the Gaza-Egypt barrier.

Younan and other Holy Land church leaders added that the blockade “cannot be tolerated anymore” and “the siege over Gaza should end now.”

“To deny children and civilians their necessary basic commodities are not the ways to security but rather throw the region into further and more dangerous deterioration. This siege will not guarantee the end to rocket firing, but will only increase the bitterness and suffering and invite more revenge, while the innocents keep dying,” the statement admonished.

The blockade “imprisoned” 1.5 million people “without proper food or medicine,” the church leaders voiced with concern. The punishment left large parts of the Palestinian territory, which also borders Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, without access to electricity.

“Put the differences aside and deal with this crisis for the good of all human beings, demonstrating that you care for your brothers and sisters who have suffered enough already,” they said.

"We pray for the day when the people of Gaza will be free from occupation, from political differences, from violence and from despair. We pray for the Israelis and Palestinians to respect human life and God's love for every human life, and to take all possible measures to end this suffering."

The church figures who signed this disgusting bit of hypocrisy included (Roman Catholic) Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III, Patriarch Torkom II Manooghian of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Archbishop Anba Abraham of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate and Anglican Bishop Suheil Dawani.

This is such a load, it's difficult to know where to begin on this one. Not one of these supposed humanitarians had a single word to say to condemn the humanitarian crisis ongoing in southern Israel,where civilians are under daily bombardment from Gaza, or the collective punishment meted out to Jews in Israel by Arab terrorists.

But then,these particular church leaders never have - not once.

Nor is a blockade of enemy territory in time of war against international law...nor is it a blockade, since the Israelis still provide 75% of Gaza's electricity.

As for `occupation' that ended for all intents and purposes when Israel retreated from Gaza and left these people, for better or worse, to make their own destiny.Is it Israel's fault that they chose the genocidal Hamas to rule them, or that instead of trying to build an economy, make a better life for themselves and seek peace with their neighbor they've chosen to build an army and make war on Israel?

They say the `blockade'cannot be tolerated any more. What would their reaction be if the Israelis said that attacks from Gaza on their people can't be tolerated any more?

I think we know the answer.

Speaking of condemnation,I condemn these church leaders for hypocrisy, for deliberately mouthing lies and for supporting the murderous attacks on Jews in Israel.

They are unworthy of being called Christians, and their respective denominations ought to discipline them and distance themselves from this outrageous nonsense out of common decency,not to mention Christian principles.

If I remember my scriptures, G-d had a few things to say about those that curse the Jews of Israel.

Hamas Blows Up Egypt's Border Wall...

Yeeee-Hah!


Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured into Egypt from Gaza Wednesday after Hamas used land mines to blow up most of the seven-mile border wall dividing Egypt and Gaza at Rafah.

This was the result of a months long operation by Hamas to destroy the wall:

a Hamas border guard interviewed by The Times at the border today admitted that the Islamist group was responsible and had been involved for months in slicing through the heavy metal wall using oxy-acetylene cutting torches.

That meant that when the explosive charges were set off in 17 different locations after midnight last night the 40ft wall came tumbling down, leaving it lying like a broken concertina down the middle of no-man's land as an estimated 350,000 Gazans flooded into Egypt.

The guard, Lieutenant Abu Usama of the Palestinian National Security, said of the cutting operation: "I've seen this happening over the last few months. It happened in the daytime but was covered up so that nobody would see."

Asked whether he had reported it to the government, he replied: "It was the government that was doing this. Who would I report it to?"

Abu Usama, who normally works from a small guard cabin in no-man's land, added: "Last night we were told to keep away from the wall. We were ordered to stay away because they were going to break the blockade."

The skill of the Hamas demolition operation was clear to see along the border today, although The Times could not visit the entire length of the border. Where the charges had been laid, the wall was heavily damaged. Elsewhere it appeared to be clearly cut.

The destruction of the wall prompted hundreds of thousands to cross into Egypt – and Egyptian border guards did not try to stem the tide of humanity.

The `impoversished' Palestinians quickly turned Rafah and the neighboring town of El Arish into a bazaar:

Thousands of people were herding back cows, sheep and even camels from Egypt into the Gaza strip. Others brought back motorbikes while many women lugged back cans of olive oil and men could be seen weighed down with jerry-cans full of fuel.

Moneychangers flocked to the border, offering Egyptian pounds and American dollars for the Gazans' Israeli shekels. The shops soon began to run out, however, and those returning were complaining of sky-rocketing prices.

Instead, many people jumped into taxis - or even on the roofs of taxis - to take themselves to El Arish, 45km away, the nearest town with shops.

In no-man's land, along the stretch that the Israelis used to call Philadelphia Road before their disengagement in 2005, Hamas gunmen raced along in pick-up trucks flying the group's green flag. Egyptian riot police waited by the gates of the old border crossing, leaning with nonchalance against their riot shields.

{...}

Egyptian shopkeepers swiftly raised prices of milk, taxi rides and cigarettes, but that did not deter the Gazans, for many of whom it was their first trip out of the territory.

Some staggered back into Gaza carrying televisions, and others sported brand-new mobile phones. In Gaza City, prices of cigarettes - which had skyrocketed during the total blockade of the past week - fell by 70 per cent in a few hours.

One little point of interest about this particular article was the surprised comments by readers of this London Times article..most of whom apparently had no idea that the Egyptians wall off their Arab `brothers' with even less regard for them than the Israelis! One of them even indignantly referred to deliberate misinformation by the media for not previously mentioning this interesting little factoid. I can't imagine what they'd say if they knew about the prison-like conditions Palestinians live under in Lebanon in camps like Ein-Al-Hiwah or the wholesale expulsions from countries like Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan.

For Hamas, of course, this is a major coup. Egypt has been under pressure from Condi Rice and the US to a least maintain a semblance of the security agreements they signed with the US and Israel when the Israelis retreated from Gaza to secure the borders and prevent the smuggling of arms, terrorists and heavy weapons.

Now, with an assist from Hamas, they won't even bother to maintain the appearance of controlling the borders.

Which, of course, makes a hollow mockery out of all those carefully prepared security agreements US Secretary of State Condi Rice midwifed that were supposed to deal with this situation in exchange for the Israelis leaving Gaza - but then, some of us saw that a long time ago.

Just like Oslo, and in South Lebanon, the Israelis are reaping the dubious benefits of surrenduring strategic territory into a vacuum and leaving it to be occupied by their enemies. You'd think they would have learned that lesson by now.

Watcher's Council Nominations,1/23/08

Every week, the Watcher's Council members nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week's Council nominations can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels


Do take the time and check out the non-Council links..they are always rewarding.

The current state of the political campaign is very much on the Council's mind,with no less than 7 essays out of 12 on the topic....


1. JOSHUAPUNDIT:`I have A Dream' - The Democrat's Version In one of those delicious ironies of history, it is the Democrat Left, the arbiters of politically correct speech and diversity who have virtually split along racial lines. I examine why this was inevitable, and indeed may even have been deliberate and calculated, given another racial factor no one's been mentioning but one that is very real and of long standing.

2. Done With Mirrors:Liberal Fascism Callimachus does a critique and review of Jonah Goldberg's `Liberal Fascism', a book that causing quite a stir in some places.

3. Soccer Dad:Rose Colored Rudy This week Soccer Dad looks at the current state of the Giuliani campaign. As more than one commentator has pointed out, we'll know very soon whether the Giuliani campaign was genius or folly.

My personal view on America's mayor? I think he'd likely make a very decent president,and has the most executive government experience of anyone running. I also think he's likely unelectable, because a fair amount of women who been dumped in a relationship will vote against him.Time will tell.

4. The Glittering Eye:The Radicalization Of American Politics This week, Dave muses about what he terms the radicalization of American politics,which he means in the classical sense, as practiced by communist agitator Saul Alinsky,Hillary Clinton's old mentor. I see it more as the old marxist dialectic in action for the Democrats,ginning up the yokels by creating `enemies'. As he points out,the Republicans are by no means immune to this from the other end of the telescope.

It would be instructive for people who fall for this to examine why they're being manipulated in this fashion.

5. Bookworm Room: The Problem With Obama's Race Ms. Bookworm likewise looks at the racial politics involved on the Democrat side of the aisle and points out - correctly, in my view - that if Obama was yer average pasty white boy, he'd have the notice and support of say, Dennis Kucinich or Chris Dodd. And yes,she's far too classy a writer to put it inthe same crude way I just did!

6. Rhymes With Right:If Ever We Needed a Special Prosecutor (BUMPED) Greg looks at the indictment of Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife on arson charges,and the need for a special prosecutor in the case.

7.Colossus of Rhodey:What Is "Freedom"? Hube takes an interesting look at the nature of freedom and the current attacks on it in the name of the mythical Right Not To Be Offended.

8. Cheat Seeking Missiles:Di Caprio Lies And Hustles Bucks Laer
writes about actor Leonard Di Caprio and his shilling for the Natural Resources Defense Council, another one of those phony `non-profit organizations' with nice full color mailers and high admin `costs'.

Remember back in the 1930's and 1940's when Hollywood actors actually were positive role models ? At least in public?

9. The Education Wonks: Our Out of Control Borders: Who's Accountable? Edwonk steps out of the classroom to weigh in on the despicable state of our borders. Whenhistorians tally up the plusses and minuses of the Bush Administration, the total failure toprotect our borders and deal with the problem of illegal aliens ( and please don't call them `immigrants') will weigh heavily onth enegative side of the ledger..and we are already paying a huge price for this negligence, as EdWonk points out.

10. Wolf Howling:Hillanomix 101 Another piece on the current political state of affairs, as GW examines the likely economic fallout of a Hillary Clinton presidency, based on her ideas.

11.Right Wing Nuthouse:Grim Choices Confront GOPRick likewise writes about the campaign. He's obviously distressed at the idea of a McCain or a Romney as GOP standard bearer because in his mind, they lack true Conservative Credentials.

One more time, I'll point out that the conservative brand name has been incredibly poisoned in the general electorate by the current occupant of the White House,who certainly was no conservative but ran and identified himself as one. A successful GOP candidate will have to run against the Bush record in many areas, just as Sarkozy did against Chirac. And I'd also point out that had the Republicans actually wanted a Reagan-type conservative, they had a superb one available in Duncan Hunter, who I'm convinced would have made a superb president. He was studiously ignored by the same consevatives who now bemoan their fate, and dropped out.

In terms of what the collective mind of the electorate seems to be signalling, what the country is most likely looking for, I think, is someone with strong executive experience, with the proper views on national defense,the borders and economics, and who has a demonstrated ability to accomplish with competence. Giuliani and to a lesser extent Romney both fit that description, and unfortunately none of the top Democrats now running do..so we'll see what we see, I guess...

12. Big Lizards: Mike Huckabee for Minister In Chief?Dafydd doesn't like Mike Huckabee..

That's this week's lineup..enjoy!

Hunter, Thompson Bow Out Of GOP Race

Another one bites the dust....Fred Thompson just quit the GOP race,making the announcement in a speech to supporters and the assembled media jackals in Seneca, South Carolina.

It was pretty much a foregone conclusion after his poor third place finish in that state.

The GOP race remains wide open, and it remains to be seen who does well in Florida on January 29th and on Super Tuesday February 5th.

I admit, while I liked Thompson's low key, matter-of-fact approach and a lot of what he had to say, he simply never caught fire for me as a candidate. I still reman convinced that he never actually wanted it all that much.

I was much more distressed to see Duncan Hunter drop out of the race. That happened a day or so ago, after the South Carolina primary.



With all of the hearkening back to Ronald Reagan and the yowling for a `real conservative' in the Republican race, you would have thought that Duncan Hunter would have been touted by conservative opinion makers on talk radio and elsewhere. As a war hero with a son serving in Iraq, a strong family man, a hawk on national security with years of experience in the House Armed services committee, a firm proponent of tax cuts, border controls (he actually wrote the legislation that passed for the border fence - which Congress and the White House then declined to fund), fair trade and bringing manufacturing back to the US, he would seem to be a natural standard for the Republicans to rally around.

Instead, he was mostly ignored, and even Fox excised him from the latest debates.

It has to make you wonder when someone like Duncan Hunter can't even get arrested in a presidential campaign today in America.

John Bolton Reveals The Truth About The Lebanon War

Author, former US Ambasador to the UN and Undersecretary of State John Bolton is an inconvenient man to have around these days for a number of people. The latest is these is Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni,who are desperately trying to escape responsibility for the fiasco of the Lebanon War against Hezbollah.

Bolton is in Israel for the Herzliya Conference on terorrism, and in an interview with the Israeli paper Ha'aretz he had a few things to say about what happened back then, why it happened and at who's insistence the Israelis were pressured into a ceasefire. And in the process, he as much as called Ehud Olmert an out and out liar.

Olmert's line on why he launched a last minute ground offensive against Hezbollah in which 33 Israeli soldiers were killed was because the original draft of the ceasefire resolution that Israel received on August 11 was detrimental to its interests, and the offensive supposedly improved the final resolution.

Bolton flatly contradicts that, saying "The Israeli military operation did not play a role in the talks on drafting UN Security Council Resolution 1701." He also denied that the wording of UN Resolution 1701 was changed in any way after August 11, claiming that he had kept Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Gillerman, fully briefed.

"Nothing dramatic occurred in the negotiations in the last 48 hours [before August 11]," he said. "The retreat in the wording, to Israel's detriment, had been going on for almost a week... There was no sudden descent into the abyss."

Since Bolton was the point man who negotiated for the US on Resolution 1701, this is coming directly from the source.

He also reveals exactly who it was that forced an end to the war on terms unfavorable to Israel and the US...none other than Condi Rice.

...the former ambassador said the main reason for America's retreat from its initial position was U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who "changed her mind fundamentally" after an Israeli aerial assault killed 28 civilians in Kana on July 30.

"Rice exerted enormous pressure on me to reach an agreement already," he said. "Until Kana, the U.S. wasn't interested in another typical Middle Eastern cease-fire. We thought we would exploit the fighting to fundamentally change the situation, especially in Lebanon and Syria. But under the influence of her shock over Kana, the secretary of state changed her mind and only wanted an immediate end to the fire. That was the policy Rice dictated."

The Qana attack he's talking about was an incredibly effective Hezbo-wood production,which I and others wrote about at the time and which apparently used the bodies of dead children as Hollywood prop dummies.

That's the scam that convinced Condi Rice to lean on Israel.

According to Bolton, on August 5, 2006, he and French UN ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere who was unofficially representing Lebanon's interests had agreed on the wording. But the Arab League rejected it, "so we had to make changes to obtain the Lebanese government's support and make the Arabs happy. We also understood that we had to prevent a Russian-Chinese veto in the Security Council."

By the way, Bolton and Sabliere's account of what happened agree on almost every particular.

Bolton, understandably isn't happy about Resolution 1701.

"Resolution 1701 wasn't as good as the first draft, and even it hasn't been fully implemented, just like previous resolutions that sought to impose order in Lebanon and reduce Syria's influence on its neighbor," he said. "Hezbollah hasn't been disarmed. The Lebanese army does not control the entire country. UNIFIL [the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] was not expanded sufficiently."

In his view, "Hezbollah still constitutes as big a threat to Israel as in the past, and the threat it poses to the Lebanese government has only grown since the war."

Thanks, Condi. Nice work.

And really, thanks and a hat tip to the gang at EU Referendum

Hillary And Obama Get Down And Dirty In South Carolina Debate

Anyone who thought the sickening sweet `love fest' in Nevada meant that the race war between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ended in a truce got those notions disabused after a knockdown bare knuckle fight last night in the South Carolina Democrat debate.

Clinton accused Obama of representing a Chicago slumlord and Obama countered that she was the corporate lawyer for anti-union Wal-Mart... entirely factual statements on both sides, I might add.And both of them also complained about `dirty politics' by the other during the campaign.

The fun started when Obama was complaining criticized for embracing `Republican ideas' over a fatuous statement he made comparing himself with ex-president Ronald Reagan.

"What I said was is that Ronald Reagan was a transformative political figure because he was able to get Democrats to vote against their economic interests to form a majority to push through their agenda, an agenda that I objected to. Because while I was working on those streets watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart," he told Clinton.

To which Lady Macbeth countered that Obama's comments showed he had embraced the GOP ideas which Clinton said she had been challenging "when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."

(She's talking about long-time Obama shill and fundraiser Tony Rezko, who's currently under federal indictment for fraud, attempted extortion and money laundering over a scam related to getting campaign funds and payoffs from vendors and companies who wanted to submit bids and garner contracts from two Illinois state boards. Just bizness as usual in Chicago..)

Even funnier, when Clinton said she had never criticized Obama over the Reagan remarks, Obama spat back "Your husband did."

"I'm here. He's not," she snapped back.

"Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama countered.

He then used that as a springboard to accuse the Clintons of misrepresenting his record.

"There was a set of assertions made by Senator Clinton as well as her husband that are not factually accurate," Obama said. "I think that part of what people are looking for right now is someone who is going to solve problems and not resort to the same typical politics that we've seen in Washington."

Clinton came back with: "I believe your record and what you say should matter."

And exactly what the Obama `record' might consist of also came into question.

As a Senator, Barack Hussein Obama must have set a record for non-stances on the issues, voting `present' over 100 times.

"Senator Obama, it's hard to have a straight up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote," Clinton said. "On issue after issue, you voted present ... Whenever someone raises that, there's always some sort of explanation."

Even John Edwards got into the act, which is sort of like the pot calling the kettle black, if you get my meaning..

"Why would you over 100 times vote present?" Edwards said, noting that when he was a senator, he didn't simply avoid voting on bills in Congress. "It would have been safe for me politically ... but I have a responsibility to take a position even if it costs me politically."

Strictly speaking, that's not exactly true in Edwards case, since he was seldom actually in the Senate to vote during his one term, but no need to spoil a good story.

One thing that hasn't changed, of course, is that all three Democrat candidates remain committed to a US defeat.

When Clinton was asked if she is looking to end the Iraq war or win it, she replied:

"I'm looking to bring our troops home, starting within 60 days of my becoming president," she said. "There is no military solution, and our young men and women should not remain as the referees of their conflict."

Edwards said that within his first year as president he would have all combat troops out of Iraq and there would be no permanent military bases in Iraq...so I suppose he's planning on not abiding by the agreement made between the US and the Iraqi government for US bases there. That will go over well with both our friends and our enemies in the Middle East who may have been watching.

As for Obama: "I want to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in, but I want to make sure that we get all of our combat troops out as quickly as we can safely."

Coming from somebody who was talking about invading Pakistan with a mere two brigades of US troops, Obama's comments on caution when it comes to a victory in the making in Iraq seem just a tad politically calculated and hypocritical to my ears.

These are the people who want to assume the position of commander in chief of our armed forces. Remember that when you vote.

Senior Saudi Prince: Israel's Jews Offered `Dhimmi' Status

Price Turki al-Feisal, a senior Saudi prince and the former ambassador to the US and the UK was unintentionally revealing today in an interview with reuters as to what Israel's Jews can expect if they acept the Saudi `peace' ultimatum.

Prince Turki, who was previously head of Saudi intelligence, said that if Israel accepted the Arab League plan "one can imagine the integration of Israel into the Arab geographical entity....We will start thinking of Israelis as Arab Jews rather than simply as Israelis," he said.

Or, in simple terms, Israel will be `absorbed' into the Arab world and it's Jews will become dhimmis, living at the sufferance of the Arab majority...just like in the good old days,when Jews knew their place, took care to keep their heads from ever being higher than a Muslim's and mostly lived under conditions that make the old Jim Crow South look positively beneficial.

Even sadder, the Reuters article quotes someone who accepted dhimmi status a long time ago, leftist Israeli commentator Yossi Alpher.

"I was delighted to hear Prince Turki's description of the comprehensive nature of normalisation as he envisages it within the framework of the Arab peace initiative," Alpher said.Alpher said he hoped that once there was a comprehensive peace, Israel's Arab neighbours would accept Israelis "as Jewish people living a sovereign life in our historic homeland" and not as "Arab Jews" or "European Jews".

Whom do you think you're kidding,Mr. Alpher? Dream on....these people will never accept Jews living next to them in peace and equality.

Israel caves in on Gaza...And Of Course, The Rockets Resume.

Israeli defense minister Barak and the Israeli government unforunately caved in on the Gaza blockade in response to major international pressure and allowed what he called a “one-time” order to resume the heavy fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip after two days’ blockade resulted in a temporary end to the rocket attacks.

Of course, as soon as the fuel was delivered, the attacks resumed, with nine missiles and four mortar rounds being fired into Israel today.

The UN Security Council is supposed to meet tommorow for a session called by Arab governments.I have no doubt that they will have a great deal to say about the so-called `humanitarian crisis' engendered by those wicked Jews enforcing a mere 20% cutbackin power toi Gaza and nothing whatsoever to say about the very real hmanitarian crisis caused by Hamas' wholesale bombardment of Israel's south.

And given the Israeli government's half measures and unwillingness to continue to apply even those,that very real humanitarian crisis will no doubt continue.

The Question Of Race

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, perhaps it's fitting to take a look at the question of race and racism in America.

One book that greatly influenced a much younger me on the subject was written by anthropologist Ashley Montague, entitled The Fallacy Of Race. To sumarize this very interesting read, Dr. Montague's hypothesus was that, given the migrations of human beings over the earth, given the history of conquests and slavery throughout the world and given human nature on warm summer evenings, there are very few, if any, pure blooded representatives of any race on the face of the earth, if you go back far enough.

I always felt that Dr. Montague's take on this was a fairly accurate one, and made inherant sense. What he missed, I think, (perhaps purposely) was an explanation for differences and animosities between various human societies.

I think the answers stem from culture and tribalism ( another name for necessities of war or history) rather than race. Ultimately, in fact, such loyalities to culture and tribe tend to transcend race, as many American blacks who've made a return journey to the African`motherland' have related - they have almost universally been regarded as Americans rather than fellow Africans.

The situation here in America is particularly interesting in this regard, since there were a great many `tribes' that settled here and were forced by necessity to forge a common identity, just as most of them were forced by circumstances to uproot themselves from their tribal homelands and adapt.In that regard,there were a great many similarities between Africans brought here in the holds of slavers and say, the Irish in the mid-19th century who could either come to America in steerage or stay in the tribal homeland and starve. And just as Africans from entirely different tribes in Africa were forced to co-exist and create a new tribal culture, Europeans were likewise forced to hunker down next to Europeans from other tribes and do the same.

And the cultures each group created, although with vast differences were more similar than they were different.

I think Dr. Martin Luther King's great breakthrough was to realize, unlike W.E.B Dubois, Marcus Garvey and Elijah Poole (AKA Elijah Muhammed) and other black seperatists was that the cultures were more similar than different, and that the American black was an American by culture who could be nothing else other than an American.

Unlike them, he realized that that race in and of itself was not an immutable barrier to America's blacks being part of the American tribal/national culture, and more importantly he understood that America's whites would eventually be forced to welcome blacks inside the tent out of necessity and the white's own sense of decency.

Dr. Martin Luther King's vision was of society as a meritocracy,where, as he put it, people would be judged `by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin.'

Have we achieved it? Yes and no.

Today, black Americans are more fully assimilated in the melange of American tribal culture than ever before, and one could even make the case that they help create a substantial part of that culture. There are black fortune 500 CEO's, cabinet officers, college professors, professionals, entrepeneurs, politicians and cultural icons, all of whom make their mark on the common American ethos.

And yet, the full impact of Dr. King's vision still eludes us.

In one of the ironies of history, it is the politicians on the Left who publicly decry racism the loudest who today contribute the most to that distance between where we are today and the meritocracy Dr. Martin Luther King dreamed of..because they are cynically prepared to manipulate racial groupthink as a tool to divide Americans for their own selfish purposes.

Rather than working on focusing on our similarities as part of the American family and bringing us together, they attempt to thrive on identity politics to widen the gulf between us.

Had he lived, I have no doubt that Dr. King would have been in the forefront to denounce these tactics.He had an extraordinarily brave vision, and the courage to act on it, even when he knew it might cost him his life.

I can think of no finer memorial on this day but for us all to remember the vision Dr. Martin Luther King had for our American tribe, and to make that final step to fully act on it.

Gaza Power Plant Begins Shutting Down As Israelis Respond To Rockets

In a decisive reponse to months of rockets and mortar fire directed at its civilian population, Israel, along with raids targeting the Hamas infrastructure has closed the borders and prevented fuel deliveries to Gaza's power plant....and the Gaza power plant is in the process of shutting down.

Kanaan Abeid, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Authority in the Gaza Strip, said the power plant turned off one of its two turbines and the second would stop in the evening.

"There is no fuel coming in and we have no reserves," Abeid said. He estimated as many as one million Gaza residents would be affected by the full shutdown.

Palestinian militants have been firing rockets daily into Israel from the Gaza Strip, which Hamas Islamists seized in June after routing President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

Israel has responded to the rockets with stepped up air strikes and ground incursions that have killed 39 Gazans, 18 of them Hamas militants, in the last week.

You'll notice that the article is written by Palestinian apologist Nidal al-Mughrabi, and that he still uses the term `militants', avoiding the`T' word at all costs! And even the New York Times acknowledges that only 6 of the casualties were actually civilians, not 21. according to Palestinians at the hospitals.Still the article at least mentions that the closure is in response to Palestinian rockets fired into Israel.

The closure, according to Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel affects gasoline and deisel, but not cooking oil and household fuel oil.

"The ball is in their court," said Mekel. "If they stop the rockets today, everything would go back to normal."

The funny part, of course is that the closure of the power plant is probably unnecessary, and designed for maximum drama. Both Israeli and Palestinian officials agree on figures that Gaza normally consumes 200 megawatts of electricity. Only 65 megawatts are produced by the local power plant, while the rest is supplied by Israel and Egypt, with Israel providing the vast majority of Gaza's electricity. So this amounts a reduction of about only 25%. And the Israelis have not shut down Gaza's electricity - yet.

In reality, that's exactly what they should do,until the rockets stop and kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is released. Hamas, after all, is buiding an army there to fight Israel, using the American weapons and equipment they got when US proxy Fatah ran away without fighting, as well as arms and trainers from Iran and Syria.And after all, Hamas, according to it's own charter is still comitted to Israel's destruction. So is Fatah, but that's another story...

These half measures ( which is what they amount to) will not solve the Hamas problem or end the rockets,while insuring that Israel gets maximum condemnation for creating a `humanitarian disaster' and issuing `collective punishment', especially from the EU and the UN.

Isn't it interesting that these terms are never applied to the Palestinians' indiscriminate targeting and murder of Israeli civilians,or the destruction in Sderot and elsewhere?

No, the Israelis would be far better off going all the way and shutting off Gaza's power entirely, as well as stepping up strikes against Hamas leadership and military until they get the message and act in a civilized manner. Aside from the positive lesson this would be to Israel's enemies,it might also send a message to the population of Gaza - for the first time - that the War Against The Jews has a price,and peace is preferable.

McCain Wins South Carolina; Hillary, Romney Win Nevada

The results of the weekend primaries are in.

In Nevada, Hillary Clinton won for the Democrats,beating Obama by the exact ratio Weekend Monkey said she would, five points (Senator Hillary Clinton: 50.71% ,Senator Barack Obama: 45.19%). As he also predicted, Senator John Edwards was a distant third. I seem to have also correctly predicted Hillary's strategy to go after the Hispanic vote rather than the black vote.

In Nevada, Hillary carried the Hispanic vote by over 32 points, even getting 80% of the voters from a culinary union that had endorsed Obama. She also got the retirees and women by a substantial majority, while Obama carried 80% of the black vote and ran better in rural areas outside Las Vegas.

On the GOP side, Weekend Monkey got the winner right, Mitt Romney but failed to account for a strong showing for Ron Paul, who finished second with 14% of the vote, beating Monkey's pick for second ( John McCain) by 1 point. Huckabee finished third.

It was also a tight race in South Carolina, as both I and Weekend Monkey predicted. John McCain beat Weekend Monkey's pick to win, Mike Huckabee, by all of three points (John McCain, 33% to Mike Huckabee at 30%) with Fred Thompson taking a distant third as both I and Monkey predicted.It may be over for Thompson.

The Real Banana: Weekend Monkey On Politics, 1/17/08

FF: Now it's time for another run through the fetid political jungle withJoshuaPundit's own political guru, my pal Weekend Monkey.

WM: Hideyho,Primates!

FF: Howdy, Monkey...What's going on with the campaign?

WM: It's starting to heat up like an overipe mango in the sun, FF

FF: Y'know, you got the Michigan primary right Monkey. That gives you a perfect track record since 2006! I don't know how you're doing it, but you could put 90% of the pollsters and pundits in the unemployment line...

WM: Did you expect anything less? Though, I gotta say, I thought the Rethug race would be closer.

FF: Yeah, Romney pulled off a pretty decisive win. I wonder how much he spent per vote?

WM: Hee hee hee! Well, he's got the bananas to throw around..

FF: That's for sure. What did you think of that 44% `uncommitted' vote against Hillary?

WM: That's the black vote and the LeftWingnuts talking..although I betcha some of my Democrats voted in the Rethug primary, just to keep things boiling.

FF: Yeah, we talked about that. Daily Kos was telling people to vote for Romney to keep the GOP divided and fighting among themselves.

WM: By the way, speaking of divided and fighting, I saw that piece you wrote on the race war between Shrillary and Obama Yo' Mama. I hadn't looked at it that way, but you may be climbing up the right tree there...

FF: Yeah, the way I see it, Hillary and Mr. Bill may just have figured that with Obama in the race, she was going to lose a large piece of the black vote in the primaries. So they're really focusing more on the Hispanic vote and taking advantage of the animosity between blacks and Hispanics, especially in urban areas. That piece of the pie, especially when you combine it with unions and older whites is way larger than the part Obama has, so it makes political sense. That's also why she has LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa campaigning with her and is so hot for driver's licenses for illegals.

WM:Hmm, if you got that right, the whole Martin Luther King fracus looks like just a trap Obama Yo' Mama fell into..

FF: And after Hillary gets the nomination, I mean..where are Obama's supporters gonna go? Most of them won't vote Republican in the general. So they'll all unite behind Hillary.

WM: I always told ya Obama Yo' Mama wasn't as sharp as people said he was...

FF: Too bad you never got a chance to debate him during your campaign. I think you would have made him look pretty bad.

OK, Monkey. Now that Michigan has gone down, what's the word on Nevada and South Carolina?

WM: OK, Nevada, another one of those weird caucus-type states I don't take too seriously...for my Democrats, I see Nevada going for Shrillary, even with those fruitcakes allowing voting to go on in the casinos. The Latino labor force on the Strip and all those old retirees running out the clock in Vegas will put her over. Obama will come in second, by......umm...I'll say five points, max. Could be less. Barbie would do better getting himself a makeover and hitting the crap tables, as good as he's gonna do. A distant third.

FF: And the Republicans?

WM: Romney, McCain and Huckabuck, one- two- three.

FF: Let's move on to South Carolina. You called it for Huckabee and Hillary last week last week.. want to change your picks?

WM: mmmm....for my Democrats, I'm still calling that for Shrillary. Like I said, I think at least close to half the black primates will figure out how to punch the hole next to her name,and that should do it. But it'll be close, like New Hampshire.Maybe even closer, but Obama Yo' Mama will still be a factor until after Super Tuesday.

FF:For the Republicans?

WM: Ook,gotta luv those crazed Rethugs! Ok...McCain really needs a win here, just like Romney did in Michigan. He's gotta prove he can carry a southern, conservative state. So in terms of being desperate, he's got an edge over Romney, who knows he won't do squat here. And the state is full up with ex-military and military types who lean towards him.

On the other side,you got all kinds of the primates who resent the way he tried to let the illegal aliens loose in their part of the jungle, and don't trust him. Plus,you got Huckapoo, who's going to carry religious whackos and probably the Weight Watchers vote as well. And you got Fred Thompson,who's a southern type primate and Mr. Conservative..

It'll be real close,and probably I should say too close to call and not risk it, but I still see Huckabum pulling it out by a nosehair, with McCain second and Thompson third.

FF: All the polls have McCain ahead....

WM: Yeah, and all the polls had Obama Yo' Mama winning New Hampshire too,but when the primates crawl into those little booths to mark their territory,I think they're going to tell McCain `no sale.'Remember, FF, I'm hedging on this one...it will be really close and could go-go either way...

FF: If you're right on this one, Monkey,I think somebody ought to throw some big bucks your way as a political consultant.

WM: From your mouth to G-d's ear, FF! Besides I got other expenses now.

FF: You mean -

WM: We'll talk later.

FF: OK ,Monkey. This oughta be good...let's say goodbye to our readers now, I can't wait to hear what this is all about!

WM: Hideyho, Primates! Smell ya later!

Quote O' The Day: Mike Huckabee

The Stars and Bars entered the presidential campaign today, as Mike Huckabee was queried in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina about the Confederate flag emblem on the state flag:


“You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag. In fact,if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell them what to do with the pole; that’s what we’d do.”

Love it!

I'm still undecided on Huckabee as a president, but he wins hands down as the best standup comedian in the race!

CIA: Al-Qaeda And The Taliban Killed Bhutto

The CIA has determined that Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by al-Qaeda and one of the groups allied with the Taliban, the Tehrik-e-Taliban led by Pakistani tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud.

This was the same group reponsible for capturing two military forts and inflicting a significant defeat on the Pakistani army earlier in the week.

CIA Director Micheal Hayden said in a WAPO interview that their intel solidly indicates that Bhutto was killed by fighters under Mehsud's orders, with logistical support from al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda and the Islamists both hated Bhutto and had threatened to murder her from the moment she returned to Pakistan. In fact, they made a serious attempt on the very date she returned.

"What you see is, I think, a change in the character of what's going on there," Hayden said. "You've got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active: a nexus between al-Qaeda and various extremist and separatist groups."

"This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that," Hayden said. He said it was part of an organized campaign to destabilize the Musharraf government, something that's obvious to any observer of what's been going on there lately.

As I wrote yesterday, this may just be the light at the end of the tunnel where Pakistan is concerned. Pakistan is faced with an existential threat at the hands of the Islamists,with the possibility of Pakistan dissolving into a failed terrorist enclave under the rule of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Musharraf and the rest of the Pakistani establishment,even those factions opposed to him may finally decide that allowing US intervention to help destroy the terrorist factions is worth the political price.

Hayden hinted as much when he talked about Pakistan and the Musharraf government as strong partners in the War on Jihad, and said that recent events had highlighted "what are now even more clearly mutual and common interests."

Watcher's Council Results, 1/17/08

The Council has spoken! A complete list of results can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels

There were a number of great entries as always, which made it hard to vote.


This weeks' winner is:

Collosus Of Rhodey: Ed. Schools: They're Awful (for the most part) A fine piece by Hube on the state of teacher education I liked a great deal...the clear winner

In second place was:

Wolf Howling: The Race Card, Liberal Guilt and Our Next President a great examination by GW of the underlying memes of the recent surfacing of the race issue in the Democrat party.


For non-Council, the winner was:

Ezra Levant: Kangeroo Court again a runaway winner, a first hand account directly from the court of th einquisition..AKA the Alberta,Canada Human Rights Commission.Spooky!

In second place for non-Council was:

Covenant Zone: Ashamed To be Canadian A fine piece from a Canadian blogger on the same subject.

Hearty Kudos to all the winners!

How Not To Win Friends And Influence People: Robert Gates Steps In It

US SecDef Robert Gates gave a clear demonstration today in what not to say to your wartime allies.

In an interview, Gates accused NATO combat allies in Afghanistan like Britain, Canada and the Netherlands of lacking experience in counter-insurgency warfare and that "failure in the south' was contributing to the rising violence in the waragainst the Taleban.

"I’m worried we’re deploying [military advisers] that are not properly trained, and I’m worried we have some military forces that don’t know how to do counter-insurgency operations."

The Dutch in particular were incensed at the comments, which they took as a direct criticism and actually summoned the US ambassador in The Hague to explain Gates’s comments.

Both the Brits and the Canadians likewise contacted the Pentagon and asked for an explanation, which they claim to be satisfied with.

Considering that these countries are some of the only NATO countries that even allow their troops to be used in combat, and considering how well they've performed overall,I think a bit of diplomacy and fence mending was definitely in order.

Taliban Overrun Pakistani Forts

Pakistan's military suffered a significant defeat today, as the Taliban and their allies overran one fort yesterday in South Waziristan near the Afghan border, seizing equipment and arms and killing a number of soldiers before fading back into the hills. A second military fort was abandoned after theTaliban warned Pakistani troops in the garrison to leave or face an attack.

The Taliban forces were commanded by Baitullah Mehsud. Musharraf has blamed Mehsud's group, Tehrik-e-Taliban, for 19 suicide attacks that killed more than 450 people over the last three months.

After the Taliban abandoned the forts, the Pakistani army rushed troops into the area, supported by heavy artillery and Cobra helicopter gunships, but the successful attack points out the difficulty President Musharraf is having in coping with the Islamist insurgency, who have been able to pull off increasingly bold attacks, including suicide bombings.

Oddly enough the success of the Islamists might just provide some light at the end of the tunnel.

If the Pakistani military is unable to defeat the Taliban on its own, President Musharraf and even some of the opposition parties may soon decide that it's better to allow outside intervention from NATO and the US to suppress the Taliban rather than face the end of their regime and the collapse of Pakistan into a failed terrorist run enclave.

In fact that time may be drawing near, as evidenced by the recent US troop buildup in neighboring Afghanistan.

This is a direct result of Musharraf's attempts to appease and make truces with people like the Taliban an dal-Qaeda, and should be a good lesson to anyone thinking along the same lines.

Bush Does The Arab Sword Dance....

Enough said...

Another Michigan Pol Caught Funding Islamic Terrorists

Since Michigan has one of the largest concentrations of Arabs in the US, many of its politicians tend to wind up involved in...oh, let's call them questionable..enterprises with some fairly interesting people.

Today, ex-GOP congressman Mark Deli Siljander was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about being hired to lobby senators on behalf of one of those `Islamic charities' that it appears was laudering money to send to terrorist organizations.

The 42-count indictment accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for lobbying -- money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development!

The charges are part of a long-running case against the `charity', which had was designated in 2004 by the Treasury Department as a suspected fundraiser for terrorists.

The government accuses IARA of sending approximately $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated a global terrorist. The money, sent to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2003 and 2004, was masked as donations to an orphanage located in buildings that Hekmatyar owned.

Authorities described Hekmatyar as an Afghan mujahedeen leader who participated in and supported terrorist acts by Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The Justice Department said Hekmatyar "has vowed to engage in a holy war against the United States and international troops in Afghanistan." {...}

After leaving the government, he founded the Washington-area consulting group Global Strategies Inc. and, according to the indictment, was hired by IARA in March 2004 to lobby the Senate Finance Committee to remove the charity from the panel's list of suspected terror fundraisers.

It's not clear whether Siljander ever engaged in the lobbying push, said John Wood, U.S. attorney in Kansas City. Nevertheless, IARA paid Siljander with money that was part of U.S. government funding awarded to the charity years earlier for relief work it promised to perform in Africa, the indictment says.

In interviews with the FBI in December 2005 and April 2007, Siljander denied doing any lobbying for IARA. The money, he told investigators, was merely a donation from IARA to help him write a book about Islam and Christianity, the indictment says.

In 2004, the FBI raided the IARA's USA headquarters and the homes of people affiliated with the group nationwide. Since then, the 20-year-old charity has been unable to raise money and its assets have been frozen.

Let's hope the feds do a better job with this one than they did with the Holy Lanf Foundation...which is scheduled for retraial this year.