Dear Senior Western Diplomat

A delightful blog friend Asher publishes Dreams Into Lightning. Asher's sub title is "Liberal Values. Neoconservative Politics," and I gotta tell you, Asher is one of the brighter lights in the blogosphere.

Recently, in the Jerusalem Post an article noted the comments of a "Senior Western Diplomat" that my friend Asher took umbrage to. So, Asher did what any self-respecting neocon would do, he fired back a broadside that must have crushed the idiot. click on this link for the full story and for his ... ummmm ... shall we say "pithy comment?" REMINDER: Not Necessarily Work Safe!!!

Priceless Asher, just absolutely Priceless!

Palestine, Refugees and Honesty

In a series of threads on this Blog and on Marc Cooper's blog I've engaged an ideological opponent who writes under the name of Ahmed. Ahmed resents the support that I have given Israel in the war against Hezbollah and has accused me of a variety of things, not the least of which is xenophobia (a morbid or irrational fear of strangers) and of being less than honest:

Woodruff i was asking Gm Roper about a specific but very important claim he made which ive argued is not only totally false but also quite revealing in its dishonesty and historical ignorance

The issue being discussed was the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians at the re-establishment of the State of Israel and the Arab treatment of Jews at the same time. I maintained at the time that while some 600,000 + Palestinians left Israel some 1,000,000 plus Jews were expelled from Arab lands.

Ahmed took umbrage at my characterization of the differences and claimed that I was being dishonest and historically ignorant. Woody, my blogging partner rose to my defense with the following:

When G.M. gets back in circulation, he can take this up further with you. But, rest assured, he discusses issues honestly and intelligently. If you dispute his facts, then clear those up. If you dispute his honesty, then that "fact" of yours is wrong. [emphasis added]

Ahmed, will, I'm sure, be understanding if I disagree with his assessment. But he has a point of sorts, there is a lot of misunderstanding about what happened at the founding of Israel, what happened to both Jewish and Arab refugees and what the history says, especially since I'm being accused of being historically ignorant. Well, Ahmed, here are a few facts. You will, no doubt, dispute the source of these, but there are numerous citations to back up the quotes as you will see, some Israeli sources, some Arab sources and some United Nations sources, but all with substantial agreement that a substantial number of Arabs left the burgeoning state of Israel for a couple of reasons, but were not forced out at the point of a gun or by the evil Israeli IDF thugs in jackboots. So, lets begin the recitation shall we.

Continue reading "Palestine, Refugees and Honesty"

Caught Again...and Again: Media Fakes Another Picture

Yet, one more faked photo from Lebanon courtesy of Reuters....
found here and here at "The Jawa Report."

This one involves the alteration of a picture of an Israeli F-16 dropping a defensive flare to decoy surface to air missiles; but, the picture was altered by adding multiple copies of that flare for dramatic effect, and then the picture's caption said that these were actually missiles being fired from the jet against a city in southern Lebanon.

This fake reporting makes things worse. It inflames passions and wrongly increases public opinion and world pressure against the United States and Great Britain to modify and moderate mideast policies to suit the phony reports rather than the real situation. The press, in effect, rallies the public for its agenda rather than that of our nations--and, they're not the same.

This irresponsibility of major media should be a concern of the left rather than whether or not it gives fodder to conservatives. From Dan Rather's MemoGate to now, it has gotten to the point where I have to check the bloggers who catch the lies before I can believe the articles from the major media.

The world needs honesty in reporting, and we're not getting it.

Found at Woody's Blog (No, not mine. His.),
referencing The Jawa Report

Media's "Reliable" Source in Lebanon

Did you know that Hizbollah had a media relations department? It stands to reason that this is real, as shared by LGF. This must be the source of the national media's slant on the conflict in Lebanon and where the MSM picked up on the phrase "Israel's Disproportionate Response." Why didn't they give proper credit, though?

Nice logo on the card. Give Mr. Afif a call and ask him if he's talked with anyone from the NY Times in the last hour.

Hezbollah Hid Behind UN Post

Are we surprised that the Hezbollah would try to hide for protection around a United Nations post? I am. They usually use civilians for that. Will that make any difference on the left's judgment against Israel for its attack at that site?

Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield'
Canadian wrote of militia's presence, 'necessity' of bombing

The words of a Canadian United Nations observer written just days before he was killed in an Israeli bombing of a UN post in Lebanon are evidence Hezbollah was using the post as a "shield" to fire rockets into Israel, says a former UN commander in Bosnia.

Those words, written in an e-mail dated just nine days ago, offer a possible explanation as to why the post -- which according to UN officials was clearly marked and known to Israeli forces -- was hit by Israel on Tuesday night, said retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie yesterday.

"What that means is, in plain English, 'We've got Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions, taking our positions here and then using us for shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence Forces)," he said.

That would mean Hezbollah was purposely setting up near the UN post, he added. It's a tactic Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie, who was the first UN commander in Sarajevo during the Bosnia civil war, said he's seen in past international missions: Aside from UN posts, fighters would set up near hospitals, mosques and orphanages.

The U.N. knew of this situation and should have pulled their observers out of the battle zone. But, maybe four lives to them are worth the propaganda value against Israel. Is there any question as to who the bad guys are in this struggle?

“Cry ‘HAVOC’ and let slip the dogs of war!�

No Pasaran has an interesting commentary:

Western tofs given to marching in the streets and staging absurd, Self Indulgent antics for the death of their ideological alignments and opponents last month are in no position to demand (an odd sort of) peace this month out of the other side of their mouths.

He is right of course, the left has a lengthy history of asking for peace, but what is peace? Is it just the absence of war? Or is it something else. Is it justice where an ideaological strain doesn't seek to dominate the world according to some 7th century madman? Is it where any faith can take another faith on its own merit and let it be? Is it where one nation can freely trade with another with out fear of being overwhelmed? Is it where children and women have rights, where gay's aren't stoned or thrown from buildings, where reporters aren't beheaded just becuse they are Jews?

It is all this and more. But to insure peace, we must also ask whom are we dealing. With terrorists? With rogue states? Can anyone name a rogue state that has kept its promises? Nazi Germany? The Soviet Union? North Vietnam? North Korea? Iran? Saddam's Iraq? No, none of these. How about Hezb'ollah? Hamas? The PLA? No, none of these either. So, in the current strife I'm curious as to why the left, the EU, etc are asking for "restraint" on the part of Israel because of the death of civilians? Did those same entities ask for restraint on the part of Hezb'ollah or Hamas or the PLA? No? Why am I not surprised.

War is a very nasty business as numerous countries in the last 100 years or so have discovered when they tried to subjigate other peoples, and yes, that includes the invasion of Iraq. A very nasty business and people and children and women die and property is destroyed. John Stewart Mill noted:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

Perhaps Patrick Henry, in a single speech said it best:

For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
[...]
"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry Hezb'ollah for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves..." (wording changed for effect)
[...]
"They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard terrorist shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power." (wording changed for effect)
[...]
"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

If this makes me a cheerleader for the Israelis or a "fighting 101^st keyboardist, so be it.

I Stand With Israel

From a 2002 artical by Oriana Fallaci:

I find it shameful that in Italy there should be a procession of individuals dressed as suicide bombers who spew vile abuse at Israel, hold up photographs of Israeli leaders on whose foreheads they have drawn the swastika, incite people to hate the Jews. And who, in order to see Jews once again in the extermination camps, in the gas chambers, in the ovens of Dachau and Mauthausen and Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen et cetera, would sell their own mother to a harem.

I find it shameful that the Catholic Church should permit a bishop, one with lodgings in the Vatican no less, a saintly man who was found in Jerusalem with an arsenal of arms and explosives hidden in the secret compartments of his sacred Mercedes, to participate in that procession and plant himself in front of a microphone to thank in the name of God the suicide bombers who massacre the Jews in pizzerias and supermarkets. To call them "martyrs who go to their deaths as to a party."

I find it shameful that in France, the France of Liberty-Equality-Fraternity, they burn synagogues, terrorize Jews, profane their cemeteries. I find it shameful that the youth of Holland and Germany and Denmark flaunt the kaffiah just as Mussolini's avant garde used to flaunt the club and the fascist badge.

I find it shameful that in nearly all the universities of Europe Palestinian students sponsor and nurture anti-Semitism. That in Sweden they asked that the Nobel Peace Prize given to Shimon Peres in 1994 be taken back and conferred on the dove with the olive branch in his mouth, that is on Arafat. I find it shameful that the distinguished members of the Committee, a Committee that (it would appear) rewards political color rather than merit, should take this request into consideration and even respond to it. In hell the Nobel Prize honors he who does not receive it.

Go read the whole thing here.
I found this before at Dr. Sanity and it is worth putting up again

A tip 'O The GM Derby to Dr. Sanity who's article "THE EVOLULTIONARY DEAD-END OF ISLAM" is a terrific read. Go read it all.

UPDATE: Shrinkwrapped (one of my very favorites) has an excellent essay up on "The Limits of Intelligence" including some very informative links. Go Read it all.