Soccer Dad

A Myth In The Making: Israel Broke The Cease-Fire On Novermber 4, 2008

daledamos — 2009-11-20T11:10:51-05:00

In conjunction with the Goldstone Report accusing Israel of war crimes, there has been a move to blame Israel for the breaking of the truce which led to the commencement of the war itself.Typical is this opinion piece from The Irish Times by David Morrison of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign:IN JUNE, Israel agreed a six-month ceasefire with Hamas. Until December 27th, no Israeli, civilian or military, was killed as a result of rocket or mortar fire from Gaza. None. Not one. And there was very little rocket or mortar fire out of Gaza until Israel broke the ceasefire in...

The perverse equivalence

SoccerDad — 2009-11-20T06:29:16-05:00

In a paper on how the term "apartheid" is being used to deny Israel's right to exist, Robbie Sabel concluces: The Apartheid campaign against Israel has another revealing feature. It rarely deals with the massive abuse of human rights or cases of real Apartheid elsewhere in the world. In other words, it singles out Israel with a false accusation. For example, President Carter has spoken about Israeli Apartheid but is careful about how he describes the conflict in Darfur, where Sudan's Arab regime has been slaughtering black Muslims with the backing of many Arab states.68 The campaign against Israel is...

A discriminating education

SoccerDad — 2009-11-20T00:19:34-05:00

The New York Times has a fawning article about the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). If you read the article you'd learn that the biggest challenge the university is the possibility of students mingling. Not long after the lavish opening ceremony with thousands of guests and dozens of heads of state, a member of the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars, an official body appointed by the king, criticized the university. Most of the uproar focused on his condemnation of "mingling," which he called "a great depravity." But the critic, Sheik Saad al-Shathry, also called for the...

Goldstone Reports's Col. Desmond Travers: 'Hey, They Never Laid A Glove On Me!'

daledamos — 2009-11-19T12:58:40-05:00

But not a glove has been landed on the report itself ... It cannot and will not be buried. It will not go away.Col. Desmond Travers, participant in the Goldstone fact-finding missionAnd neither will the analyzes, criticisms and refutations of that very same Goldstone Report--critiques that Col. Travers claims do not exist.Among the sources of analysis online is Understanding The Goldstone Report, which has a section featuring Open Letters To Judge Goldstone, including:Law Professor Trevor NorwitzDr. David Zangen (who refuted the Jenin Massacre myth)Rep. Howard Berman (who rebutted Goldstone's criticism of HR 867)CAMERA (whose whose The Goldstone Report: A Study...

Negotiating by tantrum

SoccerDad — 2009-11-19T05:44:36-05:00

About two weeks ago when Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said he was quitting, Daled Amos observed that this less a dramatic announcement than standard operating procedure noting 14 times that he has threatened to quit since 2003. This isn't an ultimatum for Abbas, but standard operating procedure. Knowing that he's perceived as an irreplaceable "moderate," when he doesn't get his way he threatens to quit, hoping to be induced by incentives to stay. Think of it as negotiating by tantrum. Barry Rubin outlined the elements of Abbas's strategy: t's really funny how the story about Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud...

Submitted 11/19/09

SoccerDad — 2009-11-19T05:43:52-05:00

Here are this week's Watcher's Council submissions: Council Submissions Soccer Dad - I am not a schnook Joshuapundit - The Afghan Shuffle Right Truth- When Muslims AttackBookworm Room - The perils of an affirmative action presidentThe Provocateur - The definitive dossier of Dr. Chacko The Colossus of Rhodey - The Messiah still in "blame the US" mode in JapanThe Razor - The Ignorance of the Obama AdministrationRhymes With Right - On Judicial ConfirmationsThe Glittering Eye - Setting Priorities on Carbon ReductionMere Rhetoric - Carter II: Obama's Losing Turkey To Political Islam Honorable Mentions Another Black Conservative - Doug Hoffman Unconcedes...

Passively described aggression

SoccerDad — 2009-11-18T05:51:00-05:00

In some ways there's little to quibble with in Howard Schneider's To two faiths, a holy patch of land; to the world, a powder keg in the Washington Post. It begins: It is one of the most watched pieces of real estate in the world, 35 acres where an under-the-breath prayer or a whiff of a rumor can rouse warnings of war. In both Judaism and Islam, the area known respectively as the Temple Mount and the Noble Sanctuary is considered a formative location. Jews believe it to be the site of Solomon's Temple and key biblical events. Muslims regard...

Palin on "settlements"

SoccerDad — 2009-11-18T05:12:29-05:00

Israel Matzav observes about a recent American criticism of Jewish construction in Gilo - that's part of Jerusalem. Obama's not going to let up on this, but given the broad consensus within Israel, I doubt Israelis are going to yield to Obama on it either. A year from now, if election results favor the Republicans, maybe Obama will be forced to let up, but for now, we Israelis are going to have to live with this criticism without getting all hysterical about it. While Obama may want to make a radical change in US relations with Israel, it's doubtful...

Bringing mohammed to new york

SoccerDad — 2009-11-18T05:02:16-05:00

When called upon by CBS, legal analyst Andrew Cohen often states the obvious and occasionally adds an interesting insight about legal matters that are in the news. But when the law and politics intersect, he can be counted on to take the stand of the Democratic Party on the issue. Take the issue of holding terror trials in New York. In a recent op-ed he claims to debunk myths surrounding having the trials in New York as opposed to military tribunals. Let's see his third "myth." Three: Trying Mohammed in New York will significantly raise the risk of another terrorist...

Mahmoud Abbas Enters The Twilight Zone

daledamos — 2009-11-17T15:52:05-05:00

Submitted for your approval...Meet Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority--a position he has threatened to resign from for years.And yet Mr. Abbas has found himself strangely drawn to power, claiming that after his 4 year term expired this past January--that he can still continue in office, based on a technicality.Mahmoud Abbas: torn between quitting his job--or staying indefinitely.Unsure which path to take.But today, The Twilight Zone will make the decision for him...Mahmoud Abbas's term as Palestinian president will be extended by the supreme body of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) when it meets in December, senior PLO officials said...

Of drones and doctrines

SoccerDad — 2009-11-17T07:13:27-05:00

Given the acknowledgment in Sunday's Washington Post editorial that the guidelines for asymmetrical warfare are lacking, there are two recent stories of note. The first is from the National that describes the American efforts against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The Predator attacks are controversial, but they are getting increasingly close to the senior leadership of both the Taliban and al Qa'eda. Commander Faqir can have no doubt by now that he is in the sights of the US drones. The Predator MQ9, with its deadly armoury of two Hellfire anti-tank missiles, is known as the Reaper, for good reason....

The dictator and the models

SoccerDad — 2009-11-17T04:34:34-05:00

This is just odd. Muammar Qaddafi was just in Italy, so he sent invitations to a group of beautiful women. The women, all between the ages of 18 and 35, assembled in a Rome hotel before being screened by both metal detectors and the fashion police, who turned away anyone in a miniskirt or provocative clothing, according to Paola Lo Mele, a journalist for the ANSA news agency, who answered the modeling agency's request and went undercover to the event. The women were each paid $75 to attend. As far as I can tell there was nothing untoward about Qaddafi's...

"Media; a lever of int'l Zionism to dominate the world: Ahmadinejad"

Judeopundit — 2009-11-16T22:34:09-05:00

That should be a colon after the word "Media," but I'm not fixing ISNA's punctuation for them.The establishment and employment of media is the lever of the international Zionism to dominate the entire world, said Iran's President. During a meeting with members of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) in Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the media which belong to the Zionism magnify the slightest issues in Asian countries to pressurize their governments but do not reflect plenty of the ugliest measures in the US and occupied territories of Palestine. The media are bombarding humans mind, Ahmadinejad noted and called...

Cry "conspiracy" and let slip the dogs of human rights

SoccerDad — 2009-11-16T07:00:13-05:00

Recently the member of a group resigned and accepted an assignment from the UN that further promoted the group's agenda. The group then endorsed the result of that assignment. Faced with criticism, the group turns to a sympathetic newspaper that uncritically reports on its plight. The group's efforts, then, have the support of the UN and a media outlet. So what's its complaint? That there's a conspiracy against it! There's an element of chutzpah for Human Rights Watch (HRW) to complain that there's a conspiracy against it. Those of us who have been criticizing HRW are motivated by a similar...

The cheers for the washington post

SoccerDad — 2009-11-16T05:43:28-05:00

Yesterday the Washington Post editorialized in War Unchecked (h/t Prof Avi Bell): IN ORDER to eliminate the Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, the United States launched at least 15 missile strikes in Pakistan this year and killed, besides Mr. Mehsud, somewhere between 200 and 300 people, according to a study by the New America Foundation. At least a quarter of those who died were civilians. Was that toll "disproportionate" to the threat posed by a single terrorist and therefore a war crime? How about the recent NATO bombing of hijacked fuel tankers in northern Afghanistan, in which a mix of 80...