Current Events

It's been a busy day, so I'm clearing out the in-box and sharing the best of links with you below.  Enjoy:

HAPPY ASHURA:  Notice the way Muslims celebrate their religion, then compare that with other religions.  Think about it.  (via Michael)

The Day of Ashura (عاشوراء (transliteration: ʻĀshūrā’, Ashura, Ashoura, and other spellings) is on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and marks the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram.

It is commemorated by the Shi‘a as a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on 10 Muharram in the year 61 AH (October 10, 680 AD^[2]). Sunni Muslims believe that Moses fasted on that day to express gratitude to God for liberation of Israelites from Egypt. According to Sunni Muslim tradition, Muhammad fasted on this day and asked other people to fast.^[3][4]

In some countries and regions such as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, Commemoration of Husayn ibn Ali has become a national holiday and most ethnic and religious communities participate in it.  (Wikipedia)

Ashura

Day of remembrance for the martyrdom of Hussain ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet 

Also from Michael:  Please watch this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1M4eH9Kk7I

Hamas terrorists kill innocent Palestinian in Gaza
And then............


Read this;

January 8, 2009

'Concentration camp' remark threatens German Pope's visit to Israel

(Alessandra Tarantino/AP Photo)

Pope Benedict is scheduled to visit the Holy Land in May

Richard Owen in Rome

A question mark hangs over Pope Benedict XVI's planned trip to Israel in May after Israeli officials expressed outrage over a Vatican statement comparing Gaza to a "big concentration camp".

The Pope today condemned the use of violence by both Israel and Hamas in his annual speech to diplomats accredited to the Holy See. "Once again I would repeat that military options are no solution and that violence, wherever it comes from and whatever form it takes, must be firmly condemned," he said in an even-handed address.

He rejected "hatred, acts of provocation and the use of arms" and deplored the renewed outbreak of violence in Gaza which was "provoking immense damage and suffering for the civilian population".

Gaza School Daze
                                                     by Gerald A. Honigman
 
 

     So, there I was minding my own business eying the flat ocean on the way to work, wondering what fish were hitting in the surf.
 
     I must be a glutton for punishment...why else would I turn on National Public Radio in the midst of renewed Arab-Israeli "festivities?"
 
     Sure enough, on January 7th's morning show, some woman reporter could barely hold back her sick glee at being able to report about Israel'shelling of a U.N. school causing numerous deaths. Anything that causes Israel to look bad, NPR jumps on.
 
     While reporting the news is understandable, deliberately reporting only one side of the news is distortion. NPR has a history of this...but the lefty Jews keep funding it anyway. And many of those NPR reporters are also members of The Tribe. After a virtual dissertation of Israel's alleged crime, you're lucky to hear some passing footnote at the end posing as "the other side." Unbelievable...
 
     And, of course, it's not just NPR.
 
     Jackson Diehl, deputy editorial page editor of the Washington Post, wrote a syndicated piece which appeared in my local paper on December 30^th singing praises to Ehud Olmert's name...the guy perhaps most responsible for Israel's current headaches, which were long in the coming. Diehl typifies too much of the mainstream media today. He also ended his op-ed ("...Israel's hard-line show") by stating that "...it may be many years before Israel again has a leader as willing to make peace."
 
     Guess what? Ever since Israel was forced to fight–again–for its life in 1967, every Prime Minister has held his or her hand out to the Arabs to make a real peace. General Dayan offered, right after the war, to return all the territories for such a deal. The Arabs' collective answer has often been repeated–the "Three Nos of Khartoum." But Diehl and his ilk aren't interested in such things.
 
     As for the Arabs living in the portion of the Palestine Mandate left after Jordan wound up with most of it in 1922, they offered Arafat's famous hudna (ceasefire), his "Peace of the Quraysh," to the Jews in return for the latter giving away what was left of the store. It was and is modeled on the temporary halt to hostilities the Arabs' Prophet Muhammad agreed to until he could muster the strength to conquer his enemies. Even the most "moderate" of these Arabs still have this in mind...regardless of others' wishful thinking. Think America's Foggy Folks, the European Union, and so forth.
 
     Back to the recent school casualties...
 
     It's no news that Arabs have a long history of using their own women and children as human shields. Pictures made the rounds of Hizbullah gun installations set up in apartment buildings in Lebanon a few years back. Offices of Hamas leaders, the PFLP, and so forth are routinely set up in such places as well, with arms and munitions stored in schools, hospitals, and so forth.
 
     Shoot, maim, terrorize, destroy, and/or murder Jewish property or people--then cry to the assorted world hypocrites and idiots and show off your dead kids whom you hid behind when Israel finally is forced to strike back.
 
     Here's a video of Arabs firing from just such a Gaza school a while back...
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129266
 
It should be of no surprise, therefore, that Arabs are up to their same old tricks. And once again their own innocents–-or, at least, non-combatants--pay part of the price. But while we're at it, also please recall that the latter elected those "heroes" of theirs... Know what I mean? By the way, all of this is contrary to the Perfidy and other clauses of the Geneva Conventions–war crimes, big time, as is deliberately targeting Jewish civilians.
 
     Now, here's what reasonable folks really deserve from NPR and all those other holier-than-thou mainline media types who watched Israel take over ten thousand rocket and mortar hits since leaving Gaza a few years back and barely--if ever--wrote an editorial, produced a radio program, news broadcast, or such about this...
 
     Where's the NPR producer--after all of these years--who will do an in-depth program on the above repeated Arab war crimes?
 
     Not newsworthy?
 
     Where's the producer and reporter who'll ask Arabs what they've done with all the billions of dollars in aid they've already received--except acquire more and more means to attack their tiny Jewish neighbor which is practically invisible on a world map. Twenty-one Arab states (including one already sitting on most of "Palestine") on over six million square miles of territory (mostly seized and forcibly Arabized from non-Arab peoples) but they still can't leave the Jews and their sole resurrected state alone. The second proposed Arab state in Palestine will be their 22nd.
 
     As many of us have asked, is this issue really not a no brainer?
 
     Would that gal chomping at the bit to embarrass Israel--a perennial NPR specialty--want her own government to ignore her own house, neighborhood, school or so forth being attacked this way...repeatedly?
 
     Hey Jews! Be like good Christians and just turn your other cheek!
 
     Sure...show me the Christian nations which do this.
 
     Indeed, who but the Jews would have put up with this manure for so many years before striking back hard. Yet the Washington Post's Diehl labels Israel as being "hardline" for trying to put an end to this terror--er, sorry Jackson, "militancy."
 
     The sad, all important fact is that the goal of Israel's Arab neighbors is still the destruction of the Jewish State--for both the terrorists and those who harbor and support them.
 
     For Hamas, this is professed openly; for Abbas--a sweet-talking (sometimes) Arafat in a suit--this is a bit more disguised. As I like to say, blown buses bring bad press.
 
     And there's lots of money at stake for those willing to say the right stuff to an all-too-willingly gullible West...in English. Recall that the rockets were hitting Israel when Abbas was in Gaza as well.
 
     Gaza must be a lesson for the next Israeli leaders who will hopefully replace Olmert's crew very shortly.
 
     Olmert's move on Gaza now had several goals. One, for sure, was to give a boost to Foreign Minister Tzipora (as in Moses's wife) Livni when she runs against Benjamin Netanyahu. But Livni has been too cozy with Olmert's cave in to the Foggy Folks' demands regarding Abbas and Fatah. 
 
     Israel cannot risk having its main population centers in its narrow waist exposed to Fatah's latter-day Arafatians--who remain as rejectionist as Hamas when it comes to the idea of a long term Jewish neighbor. Abbas and his crew do not deny this. They think they're going to swamp Israel with millions of alleged returning refugees and so forth.
 
     America is now in the process of building Abbas's Fatah army up so it will be able to kill more Jews. That's the reality here after Israel hands Fatah a victory over Hamas it couldn't win itself. Look at the "moderate" Fatah and Palestinian Authority official web sites, maps, textbooks, and so forth if you think otherwise. Part of what Israel is now doing to Hamas involves sending Fatah a message as well...
 
     Even in an age of satellites and missiles, land is still important.
 
     Israel must thus insist on a fair territorial compromise, giving it the somewhat secure borders it was promised via UNSC Resolution 242 after the June '67 war instead of the suicidal armistice lines which were imposed upon it by the United Nations after the Arab invasion in 1948 and which did nothing but invite continued Arab aggression.

http://www.jihadwatch.org

Pakistan spy chief on Taliban: "They believe that jihad is their obligation. Isn't that freedom of opinion?"

Warrior for free speech

General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha's words should be sent to Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the organization that is trying to criminalize what it calls "defamation of Islam," including honest analysis of the ideology and beliefs of Islamic terrorists, at the United Nations and in the West. After all, if Mullah Omar and the Taliban should "be allowed to think and say what they please," and if their belief that "jihad is their obligation" is a matter of "freedom of opinion," isn't it likewise true that anti-jihadists should also be allowed to think and say what they please? After all, they believe that resisting jihad is their obligation. Isn't that freedom of opinion?

Pakistani Double Game Update: "Pakistan's New Intelligence Chief: 'Terror Is Our Enemy, Not India,'" by Susanne Koelbl for Spiegel, January 6 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha has been the head of the ISI, Pakistan's notoriously independent intelligence agency, for the past three months. He makes a cosmopolitan impression and says he takes his orders from the civilian government. But how much control does Pasha have over his own organization?  (continue at Jihad Watch)

Fromm Reader Kyle via email:

I believe that Iraq shipped there WMDs to Syria before the war started. I have many facts on hand, but I want to show you this one. It is a March 2005 addenda that Charles Duelfer added to the ISG report. There were 5 different addendas added. Debbie take a look at the first addenda. Why has this not further been investigated? I know the left wing media has never divulged into this story, and it would be laughable to even think that they would.

 

# Prewar Movement of WMD Material Out of Iraq, stating "ISG judged that it was unlikely that an official transfer of WMD material from Iraq to Syria took place" but also acknowledging that there was evidence "about movement of material out of Iraq, including the possibility that WMD was involved," and that this evidence was "sufficiently credible to merit further investigation." IAG noted that, due to security concerns, it "was unable to complete its investigation and is unable to rule out the possibility that WMD was evacuated to Syria before the war."

Residual Pre-1991 CBW Stocks in Iraq, concluding "any remaining chemical munitions in Iraq do not pose a militarily significant threat ... ISG has not found evidence to indicate that Iraq did not destroy its BW weapons or bulk agents".

Residual Proliferation Risks: People, concluding "former WMD program participants are most likely to seek employment in the benign civil sector, either in Iraq or elsewhere ... However, because a single individual can advance certain WMD activities, it remains an important concern".

Residual Proliferation Risk: Equipment and Materials, concluding "Iraq’s remaining chemical and biological physical infrastructure does not pose a proliferation concern".

Iraqi Detainees, concluding "the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible. ... there is no further purpose in holding many of these detainees".

 

Israel finds more sympathy in Europe Concerns about Islamist threat have influenced traditionally pro-Arab Europe's view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  (Christian Science Monitor)


Passengers Tackle Man Who Made Bomb Threat Aboard L.A.-bound Flight

Chris Llewellyn was staring out the window of Delta Airlines Flight #110, watching the landscape of Los Angeles rise up toward the plane, when he heard the screams of a flight attendant: “Help me! Help me!”

Turning quickly, he saw that a passenger had pushed the attendant to the floor and was trying to open the rear exit.

“Don’t come near me,” the man warned. “I have a bomb. I have a bomb.”

“I thought this guy was going to open the door. I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to go down with the plane,’ ” said Llewellyn, 26, a 6-foot guitarist, who was flying into Los Angeles from Atlanta this morning for a television appearance with hip-hop artist Asher Roth.

Along with a dozen other passengers, Llewellyn ran down the aisle, into the galley area and jumped on the man, pulling him away from the exit door.  (continue at LATimes)

Now that's what I'm talking about.  Personal responsibility.  September 11, 2001 should put this spirit of taking care of things ourselves before they get out of hand into the hearts and minds of every American.


Human shields: Where's the outrage?, American Thinker

Sammy Benoit
Hamas' use of the children and other innocents as human shields at the UN school got its desired effect yesterday.  They fired mortars on Israeli troops, the troops returned the fire, and dozens of civilians died or were injured, along with the terrorists. There is a library full of evidence proving it isn't the first time Hamas has used innocents as human shields.

Hamas built armories in the basements of mosques and schools, private homes and hospitals. They create their bunkers and weapons factories in crowded neighborhoods. All of this "construction" was done out in the public. Under the watchful eye of the UN as well as human right's organizations such as Amnesty,  Human Rights Watch (HRW), and B'tselem.  (continue at American Thinker)

Author Nonie Darwish on Gaza and on the “Terrifying Global Implications of Sharia Law., Dr. Phyllis Chesler

Gazan-Egyptian, Nonie Darwish, well known as a “Muslim Shahid’s daughter,” (her father died in battle against the Israelis), is an amazingly brave woman who, unsurprisingly, writes amazingly brave books. Her first book, Now They Call me Infidel. Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror was first published in 2006. She is also the founder of the organization Arabs for Israel.

I am honored to have her as a friend and a colleague. Nonie is a warm and eloquent woman. She is neither shrill nor angry. She is strong and passionate, a maternal figure, really, but she more than holds her own when she speaks. Nonie grew up in Gaza when it was under Egyptian control, and then moved to Cairo. She now lives in southern California and is the married mother of three children who are 14, 25, and 27 years old. She was formerly a Muslim.

Nonie is just publishing her second amazing book. It’s title:  Cruel and Usual Punishment. The Terrifying Global Implications of Sharia Law.

This book is a landmark event whose timeliness is beyond compare. No American can afford NOT to read this book. Sharia law, which governs every area of Muslim life, is now increasingly infiltrating the West. Europe may be lost, America is now under siege. With profound bravery, Darwish documents the history and nature of Sharia law which is invariably mis-represented and mis-understood, both by its followers and by “infidels.” (continue reading)

Jihad in 2009:  The Trends Continue, StratFor

For the past several years, we have published an annual forecast for al Qaeda and the jihadist movement. Since the January 2006 forecast, we have focused heavily on the devolution of jihadism from a phenomenon focused primarily on al Qaeda the group to one based primarily on al Qaeda the movement. Last year, we argued that al Qaeda was struggling to remain relevant and that al Qaeda prime had been marginalized in the physical battlefield. This marginalization of al Qaeda prime had caused that group to forfeit its position at the vanguard of the physical jihad, though it remained deeply involved in the leadership of the ideological battle.

As a quick reminder, Stratfor views what most people refer to as “al Qaeda” as a global jihadist network rather than a monolithic entity. This network consists of three distinct entities. The first is a core vanguard, which we frequently refer to as al Qaeda prime, comprising Osama bin Laden and his trusted associates. The second is composed of al Qaeda franchise groups such as al Qaeda in Iraq, and the third comprises the grassroots jihadist movement inspired by al Qaeda prime and the franchise groups.  (continue at StratFor)

Hamas and the Arab States, StratFor:

Israel is now in the 12th day of carrying out Operation Cast Lead against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has been the de facto ruler ever since it seized control of the territory in a June 2007 coup. The Israeli campaign, whose primary military aim is to neutralize Hamas’ ability to carry out rocket attacks against Israel, has led to the reported deaths of more than 560 Palestinians; the number of wounded is approaching the 3,000 mark.

The reaction from the Arab world has been mixed. On the one hand, a look at the so-called Arab street will reveal an angry scene of chanting protesters, burning flags and embassy attacks in protest of Israel’s actions. The principal Arab regimes, however, have either kept quiet or publicly condemned Hamas for the crisis — while privately often expressing their support for Israel’s bid to weaken the radical Palestinian group.  (continue at StratFor)

Palestinians Killing Palestinians, Hamas at it's Best, Aukmuntr Bizzarre

We are supposed to feel sorry for the Palestinians? I am, because look what Hamas does to its own people in the name of Allah! I bet you wont hear or see this in the MSM especially NPR!

Comments

[courtneyme109]

About that UN school in the Strip, since it is part of UNRWA and staffed by like 99.9% Palestinians that - contrary to the UN deal that invented it - are active political operatives in the Strip. For HAMAS.

Also - it was a panzer that fired that place up.

This is significant.

Panzers - or tanks - fire weaponry based on line of sight - arcing trajectory excepted - it is very likely that the panzer crew had rowdy militant members of Izzedeen al K'Ssam in their sights.

http://greatsatansgirlfriend.blogspot.com/2008/08/revamping-unrwa.html

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2009/01/07/gaza-hamas-unrwa-oped-cx_cr_0108rosett.html

[Skunkfeathers]

1. Islamofascists celebrate Muslim holidays by sending their young out as suicide bombers. At least some of them get a 'bang' out of the holiday, complete with martydom with virgin camels. I think I'll stay a Methodist ;)

2. I heard a great answer to a progressive caller to a radio show today: the progressive was bemoaning the fact that Israel wouldn't let up on Hamas. So the show host asked the caller two questions. First: if Hamas stopped launching rocket attacks on Israel, did the caller think that Israel would stop their bombing? The caller said, "yeah, I think they would". Second: if Israel stopped their bombing, would Hamas stop their rocket attacks? The caller hesitated, said "uh, no..." and then tried to justify Hamas not stopping their rocket attacks.

Typical progressive: ignorant as a tree stump.

[Skunkfeathers]

1. Islamofascists celebrate Muslim holidays by sending their young out as suicide bombers. At least some of them get a 'bang' out of the holiday, complete with martydom with virgin camels. I think I'll stay a Methodist ;)

2. I heard a great answer to a progressive caller to a radio show today: the progressive was bemoaning the fact that Israel wouldn't let up on Hamas. So the show host asked the caller two questions. First: if Hamas stopped launching rocket attacks on Israel, did the caller think that Israel would stop their bombing? The caller said, "yeah, I think they would". Second: if Israel stopped their bombing, would Hamas stop their rocket attacks? The caller hesitated, said "uh, no..." and then tried to justify Hamas not stopping their rocket attacks.

Typical progressive: ignorant as a tree stump.

[Katie]

Israel better take out Hamas. If they don't they will have lost their nation, for the rockets will never stop.

And the world better wake up to the reality of the so-called Palestinian people. They are thugs, murderers, rapists, pedophiles and thieves. And that are their good points.