Bunch of blithering idiots

Just because you have a right, doesn't mean it is wise or desirable to exercise it in any place at any time.

In this particular case, I am referring to the Israeli marchers provoking riots in the town of Umm al-Fahm.

One of the leaders of the march was Baruch Marzel, who led the anti-Arab Kach party that was banned in Israel in 1994.

"All we are doing is waving the Israeli flag. All we are demanding is loyalty to the state," another march leader, Michael Ben-Ari Ben-Ari, a member of the Israeli parliament, told the Israeli news website Ynet."

Yeah right. Watch out for the words "All we" or "We just". They almost inevitably precede lies. They are like magician's diversions, trying to draw your eyes away from what is really important. This formulation is often an important step in the process of self-deception, eagerly used by obnoxious extremists of all stripes.

The ability to wave a flag in any street is not exactly essential to anybody's well-being. I'm all for safe-guarding human rights, but this march should never have been allowed by the authorities. Its goal was primarily provocation and its only result the souring of Arab-Jewish relations within the Israeli state. It is equally obvious that this is precisely what the marchers desired, despite all the protests of offended innocence. It puts me in mind of all those nasty Irish marches that used to cause annual mayhem until the Irish finally grew up and learned to live together without constant nose-thumbing.

A similar outburst of maturity in the Middle East is not likely to occur in the near future.

History of Umm al-Fahm from Ynetnews.com


Technorati tags: Umm al-Fahm

Good news chronicles, Oct. 19

Spending too much time thinking about politicians, world leaders, and various international problems can get depressing.

So here is my good news antidote.

A Jewish youth organization in Israel, the Kavod Foundation, feeds needy Muslims at Eid, Christians at Christmas and Jews at Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot. They work all year round to provide food at religious holidays. Hat tip to City of Brass.


Kazakhstan discovers a sense of humour and invites Borat to come see the real Kazakhstan.

Rakhat Aliyev said in an interview with Kazakhstan Today that while he understands the anger he thinks the country "must have a sense of humor and respect other people's freedom of creativity."

"I'd like to invite Cohen here," he said. "He can discover a lot of things. Women drive cars, wine is made of grapes and Jews are free to go to synagogues."

Got good news you want to tell the world about? Email it to me at thewalrussaid(at)gmail(dot)com.

Technorati tags: Kavod Foundation, Borat

Egypt loses patience with Hamas

Maclean's is reporting that Egypt has sent a letter to Hamas - which has been acknowledged - demanding that they form a unity government with President Abbas and release the Franco-Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

The Egyptian demand came in a "strongly worded letter" from Egypt's powerful intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to the Syrian-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the letter.

The letter also demanded Hamas co-operate fully with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in forming a national unity government, a step that has been stalled by the militant group's refusal to form an administration that recognizes Israel.

The message reflected increasing impatience with Hamas by Egypt, which has been mediating for months, trying to reach a deal on a prisoner swap for the release of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who is being held by Hamas-allied militants in Gaza.

An adult has arrived on the scene! I'm not sure that even Egypt can grap Hamas by the scruff of its neck and haul it into reality, but they've got as good a shot as anybody else on the planet. It would take some pretty intense pressure over an extended period of time to have any lasting result, it seems to me. Cognitive therapy always works better with a willing participant.

Up until now, I think the majority of the Arab world was perfectly content to let the Palestinians moulder. In the last 60 years, they have only paid lip service to solidarity with the Palestinians, who were never very popular with their Arab brothers anyway. A perpetually needy, "oppressed" Palestine enabled them to turn the eyes of their own discontents toward Israel, instead of looking toward reform at home. A festering Palestine was highly useful.

It is Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad who shook up this cozy arrangement. The Arab states are deeply worried about an aggressive Iran actively seeking to become a major player beyond its borders. Muslim solidarity would not be able to handle that kind of strain. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan in particular can only view with alarm Persian incursions through its unruly proxy Hezbollah.

Egypt finds itself in the position, not for the first time, where its interests coincide with Israel's. A strong Israel, undistracted by Palestinian troublemakers, could put Hezbollah in its place better than anyone else, particularly since UNIFIL is obviously not going to accomplish anything meaningful.

Members of the international force sent to Lebanon under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 have said that they cannot set up checkpoints, search cars or trucks, homes or businesses, or detain suspects.

Commanders of the force, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or Unifil, say the resolution places Lebanese sovereignty paramount - meaning they first must be authorized by the Lebanese Army to take such actions."

So Egypt has obviously decided that new tactics are necessary. Hamas is "studying" the letter. I imagine they're in a state of shock. If this doesn't wake them up, only total collapse of the Palestinian Authority to the point that both Fatah and Hamas are rejected by the Palestinian people in favour of someone willing to deal with Israel could bring about any real change.

Technorati tags: Gilad Shalit

View Related Articles by Canadian Bloggers

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Sept. 17

Michael J. Totten has a very interesting post about the moral (and other) objections to the recent Lebanon war raised by a right-wing Israeli. Now there's a perspective we haven't gotten very often!

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Sep. 13

Aisha at Eteraz has a great post on What the Infidel Did Today. I particularly like the sex strike called by the wives and girlfriends of Colombian gangsters. Now if we could just see a similar movement in the hip hop and rap world...

Dave Schuler at The Glittering Eye finds the extremism evident in far too many blogs to be unrealistic.

People seem to be advocating mindlessly extreme positions as the minimally acceptable policy. Only a pure market health care system is acceptable. Only a totally socialized health care system is acceptable. Abolish the minimum wage. Double the minimum wage. Nuke all Arabs. There is no terrorist threat. Nothing is Bush’s fault. Everything is Bush’s fault. 9/11 changed everything. 9/11 changed nothing.

He observes that in real life, workable approaches are neither burning hot nor bitterly cold. Hard to get a crowd roaring with that kind of approach, but he's absolutely right.

Michael J. Totten publishes a lengthy interview he conducted with Major Tal Lev-Ram, Spokesman for the IDF Southern Command. It dates from June, but it's still interesting. What I found most striking was the Palestinians' use, not only of human shields, but young teenagers for planting charges, moving weapons.

"It’s a problem," he said. "Sometimes we see resistance. But it’s difficult to judge from our perspective. We see a lot of cases where Katyusha or Qassam rockets are fired from within populated areas. More than that, they came up with a system that was based on the fear that we would find the exact location of the rocket launchers. So they place the launchers with a timer. And ten, eleven, and twelve year old children come and take the launcher away afterwards. Often we’re faced with fourteen or fifteen year old youth who come, armed, and place charges along the fence. When we see them, even when we see that they are armed, if they are only fourteen or fifteen we only shoot to scare them. We don’t actually fire at them. Of course, only if there is no immediate danger to our forces."

...

"About a month and a half ago," he said, "another event that shows you the dilemma here: Two terrorists with an RPG tried to shoot a tank. We shot back. In the same house the mother of them, and a cousin, were in the same house. They fired five meters away from where the mother and cousin were standing. The Palestinian headline said that a mother and child were killed. The child was twenty two years old. And he was a member of Hamas. So, I am not happy about the mother. But, this is my right. You know? In the houses of Hamas militants, and all the other terrorist organizations, there are storages of weaponry. That’s because in the past we would avoid attacking houses with families. Which raises the question: Sometimes we as the IDF care more about the families and the children than he who would put them in danger. In a house, let’s say of three floors, a whole floor may be used as a storage."

Technorati tags: Gaza Strip