I think what bugged me the most? I would never do that to another family’s child.

There are boundaries. Religious people, alas, sometimes cross those.

Sometimes, all of us, whether an individual or a country, needs to stop worrying about what other think and just do what’s right.

If we’re wrong, we’re wrong.

But the worst thing I can think of is to die knowing that you really let everyone else “tell” you what to do.

Like public opinion is even rational?

That goes back to medieval times. The public used to love to parade around with heads on sticks and demand the blood of the latest royal who was subject to the latest rumor.

I have no interest in that type of culture.

Interesting.

The proposal to renew the ceasefire was presented by a high-level Hamas delegation to Egyptian Minister of Intelligence Omar Suleiman at a meeting in Cairo Dec. 14. The delegation, said to have included Moussa Abu Marzouk, the second-ranking official in the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, told Suleiman that Hamas was prepared to stop all rocket attacks against Israel if the Israelis would open up the Gaza border crossings and pledge not to launch attacks in Gaza.

The Hamas officials insisted that Israel not be allowed to close or reduce commercial traffic through border crossings for political purposes, as it had done during the six-month lull, according to the source. They asked Suleiman, who had served as mediator between Israel and Hamas in negotiating the original six-month Gaza ceasefire last spring, to “put pressure” on Israel to take that the ceasefire proposal seriously.

Suleiman said he could not pressure Israel but could only make the suggestion to Israeli officials. It could not be learned, however, whether Israel explicitly rejected the Hamas proposal or simply refused to respond to Egypt.

The readiness of Hamas to return to the ceasefire conditionally in mid-December was confirmed by Dr. Robert Pastor, a professor at American University and senior adviser to the Carter Centre, who met with Khaled Meshal, chairman of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus on Dec. 14, along with former President Jimmy Carter. Pastor told IPS that Meshal indicated Hamas was willing to go back to the ceasefire that had been in effect up to early November “if there was a sign that Israel would lift the siege on Gaza”.”

So it would appear that our dear friends and allies in Israel are just as much a bunch of murderous liars as the present squatters in the White House are wouldn’t it?

(it is astonishing)

GeoT,

And to think this guy was a cornerstone of McCain’s campaign. McCain managed to inflict JTP and Palin on us. Hopefully he will regret his campaign for the rest of his life.

As for the Israelis using Willie Peter I said that when the first pictures posted here of the attacks on Gaza showed a White Phos. round impacting in an urban area. It is against the GC to use White Phos. against personel and most especially civilians. I think they call that a WAR CRIME.

Rights group: Israel uses white phosphorus in Gaza

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090111/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_white_phosphorus

(it is astonishing)

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=11490686&ch=4226714&src=news

you’re a turd. kerplunk.

yeah, well Peters thought the War in Iraq was a peachy idea so maybe he doesn’t have the best
perspective on the middle east.
GeoT | 01.11.2009 – 4:00 pm | #

yeah, well peters thought…..bla bla bla…..?

I will judge an article based on its content and accuracy. Its easy to discredit an article based on the author’s previous positions, but its a cop out. if you have disagreements about the key points of what he was making then that should be open for debate.

yeah, well Peters thought the War in Iraq was a peachy idea so maybe he doesn’t have the best perspective on the middle east.

THE DEMONS OF GAZA
ONLY HAMAS IS TO BLAME FOR THE WAR; ONLY THE PALESTINIANS CAN STOP IT
January 10, 2009
Ralph Peters
The New York Post

Israel hasn’t killed a single civilian in the Gaza Strip. Over a hundred
civilians have died, and Israeli bombs or shells may have ended their lives.
But Israeli didn’t kill them.
Hamas did.
It’s time to smash the lies. The lies of Hamas. The UN lies. And the
save-the-terrorists lies of the global media.
There is no moral equivalence between Hamas terrorists and Israeli soldiers.
There is no gray area. There is no point in negotiations.
Hamas is a Jew-killing machine. It exists to destroy Israel. What is there
to negotiate?
When Hamas can’t kill Jews, it’s perfectly willing to drive Palestinian
civilians into the line of fire – old men, women and children. Hamas herds
the innocent into “shelters,” then draws Israeli fire on them. And the
headline-greedy media cheer them on.
Hamas isn’t fighting for political goals. “Brokered agreements” are purely
means to an end. And the envisioned end is the complete destruction of
Israel in the name of a terrorist god. Safe in hidden bunkers or in
Damascus, the Hamas leadership is willing to watch an unlimited number of
civilians and even street-level terrorists die.

Lives, too, are nothing but means to an end. And dead kids are the coins
that keep the propaganda meter ticking.
All Hamas had to do to prevent Israel’s act of self-defense was to leave
Israel unmolested by terror rockets. All Hamas needs to do now to stop this
conflict and spare the Palestinian people it pretends to champion is to stop
trying to kill Israelis and agree to let Israel exist in peace.
Hamas didn’t, and Hamas won’t.
Now Israel has to continue its attack, to wreak all the havoc it can on
Hamas before a new American president starts meddling. If Israel stops now,
Hamas can declare victory just for surviving – despite its crippling losses.
While it’s impossible to fully eliminate extremism, killing every terrorist
leader hiding in a Gaza bunker is the only hope of achieving even a
temporary, imperfect peace. The chance may not come again.
And don’t worry about “creating a power vacuum.” Let the Palestinians pick
up their own pieces. Even anarchy in Gaza is better for Israel than Hamas.
Israelis, Americans and Westerners overall share a tragic intellectual blind
spot: We’re caught in yesterday’s model of terrorism, that of Arafat’s PLO,
of the IRA, the Red Brigades or the Weather Underground. But, as brutal as
those organizations could be, they never believed they were on a mission
from God.
Yesteryear’s terrorists wanted to change the world. They were willing to
shed blood and, in extreme cases, to give their own blood to their causes.
But they didn’t seek death. They preferred to live to see their “better
world.”
Now our civilization faces terrorists who regard death as a promotion. They
believe that any action can be excused because they’re serving their god.
And their core belief is that you and I, as stubborn unbelievers, deserve
death.
Their grisly god knows no compromise. To give an inch is to betray their
god’s trust entirely. Yet we – and even some Israelis – believe it’s
possible to cut deals with them.
In search of peace, Israel handed Gaza to the Palestinians, a people who had
never had a state of their own. As thanks, Israel received terror rockets.
And the Palestinian people got a gang war.
Peace is the last thing Hamas terrorists and gangsters want. Peace means the
game is up. Peace means they’ve disappointed their god. Peace means no more
excuses. They couldn’t bear peace for six months.
This is a war to the bitter end. And we’re afraid to admit what it’s about.
It’s not about American sins or Israeli intransigence. It’s about a sickness
in the soul of a civilization – of Middle-Eastern Islam – that can only be
cured from within. Until Arabs or Iranians decide to cure themselves, we’ll
have to fight.
Instead, we want to talk. We convince ourselves, against all evidence, that
our enemies really want to talk, too, that they just need “incentives” (the
diplomat’s term for bribes). The apparent belief of our president-elect that
it’s possible to negotiate with faith-fueled fanatics is so naive it’s
terrifying.
Yet, it’s understandable. Barack Obama’s entire career has been built on
words, not deeds, on his power to persuade, not his power to deliver. But
all the caucuses, debates, neighborhood meetings and backroom deal-making
sessions in his past haven’t prepared him to “negotiate” with men whose
single-minded goal is Israel’s destruction – and ours.
If Obama repeats the same “peace-process” folly as his predecessors, from
Jimmy have-you-hugged-your-terrorist-today? Carter through Bill Clinton and
George W. Bush, he’ll be devoured before he knows he’s been bitten.
How many administrations have to repeat the identical error of believing
that, deep down inside, terrorists, gunmen and warlords really want peace
every bit as much as we do? Israel’s enemies aren’t just looking to cut a
sharp deal. They want to destroy Israel.
Which part of what they shout in our faces is so hard to understand?
Israel’s foes have been preaching Jew-hatred for so long that even the
“moderates” can’t turn back now.
And why does the global left hate Israel so? Why would they pull out the
stops to rescue Hamas?
Because Israel exposed the lie that a suffering people can’t lift itself up
through hard work, education and discipline. Israel didn’t need the help of
a hundred condescending NGOs and their misery junkies.
Because the Holocaust is a permanent embarrassment to Europeans. They need
to believe that Israelis are kosher Nazis.
Because, from the safety of cafes and campuses, it’s cool to call terrorists
“freedom fighters.” It makes you feel less guilty when you hit up daddy (or
the state) for money. I mean, dude, it’s not like you have to, like, live
with them or anything, you know?
(The preceding sentence is not a direct quote from Caroline Kennedy.)
Because, above all, the most-destructive racists in the world today are
mainstream leftists. Want the truth? The Left codes Israel as white and,
therefore, inherently an oppressor. Israel is held to the highest standard
of our civilization and our legal codes – and denied the right to
self-defense.
But the Left tacitly believes that people with darker skins are inferior and
can’t be expected to behave at a civilized level. Leftists expect terrorist
movements or African dictators to behave horribly. It’s the post-modern,
latte-sucking version of the “little brown brother” mentality.
The worst enemies of developing societies have been leftists who refuse to
hold them to fundamental standards of governance and decency. But, then, the
Left needs developing societies to fail to prove that the system’s
hopelessly stacked against them.
A battered, impoverished, butchered people built a thriving Western
democracy in an Eastern wasteland. Israel can never be forgiven for its
success.
In this six-decade-old conflict that Israel’s intractable neighbors continue
to force upon it, there not only are no good solutions, but, thanks to the
zero-sum mentality of Islamist terrorists, there aren’t even any bad
solutions – short of nuclear genocide – that would bring an enduring peace
to the Middle East.
And even the elimination of Israel wouldn’t be enough. The terrorists would
fight among themselves, while warring upon less-devout fellow Muslims.
All Israel can do is to fight for time and buy intervals of relative calm
with the blood of its sons and daughters. By demanding premature cease-fires
and insisting that we can find a diplomatic solution, we strengthen monsters
and undercut our defenders.

And don’t believe the propaganda about this conflict rallying Gaza’s
Palestinians behind Hamas. That’s more little-brown-brother condescension,
assuming all Arabs are so stupid they don’t know who started this and who’s
dragging it out at their expense.
Gaza’s people may not care much for Israelis, but they rue the day they cast
their votes for Hamas. Hamas is killing them.
Ralph Peters is a retired U.S. Army officer and the author of “Looking For
Trouble.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vQ7wQ80Aik

Yes! Now that we have the Internet and news from outside the US, it’s an insult to our intelligence to think we can’t see what’s going on in Gaza.

I just spent 5 weeks in the Middle East working in Dubai, Qatar, with the last two weeks in Egypt. This is my sixth trip to Egypt and I have never before been subjected to the kind of scorn like what I ran into this time. Colleagues that I have know for years did not want to speak to me. I was ripped a new one by a waiter when he found out I was American. Something unheard of in the past. The company I was working for (Canadian) was so concerned about our (5 Americans on the project) safety getting to the airport in Cairo they had us transported by armored limousine with a guard to stand with us until we were safely on the British Airways flight out of there. I think they overreacted a bit, but not by much.

Make no mistake. The people in Egypt and elsewhere around that region blame the US for what is going on in Gaza. They see the Israelis as US puppets and nothing more. They are seething with rage over it and they feel so powerless that they are getting desperate and are ready to do desperate things.

Bush and the idiots in power in Israel have so poisoned the name of the United States in that part of the world that it is now very dangerous for people like me to go there and work. Places I used to go to in Cairo are now off limits because of the danger. Needless to say I won’t be going back even if it means leaving my job.

I fully expect most pro-western governments in the Middle East to fall and fall soon.

This is one of the more insulting posts I’ve read in a long time.

Would it have alright if it had been HaraKrishnas? Or fundamentelist UUUUUberchristians? Mormons? How about if he’s
d wanted to become a…gasp…JEW! AnnainCA this post REALLY sounds like a feminized Archie Bunker rant.

Obama’s inaugural committee said Saturday it has planned three dinners across Washington to honor leaders who worked across party lines.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/10/obama-to-honor-mccain-on-_n_156836.html

I know where you’re coming from. The only thing I’m anti is war and the devestation it wreaks.