WinkyDog

This could be exactly what Israel needs to quell the inane calls for an immediate ceasefire.

Hamas will be unable to honor Israel’s gift.  They don’t care about humanitarian aid, or those suffering at their hands.  Either Israeli or Arab.  Once they’ve violated the 3 hour suspension, the PR War will again swing against them…. for a day or so.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israel announced Wednesday, Jan. 7 a three-hour daily halt in military operations from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. as a goodwill gesture for the passage of humanitarian aid. Israel will suspend attacks in certain areas – though not the entire territory - to allow people to get supplies. The measure takes immediate effect.

UPDATE:

From: Ynetnews.com

A number of reports from the Strip paint a picture of very difficult humanitarian conditions, not least because of Hamas itself. The suspicion is that the group’s operatives have seized control of any supplies passing through the crossings – including those sent by Israel and international organizations.

Reports say Hamas takes a cut out of all aid that arrives, including flour and medicine. Supplies intended to be distributed without gain among the population are seized by the group and sold to the residents, at a profit to the Hamas government.

One such incident was recorded Monday, when a convoy of trucks carrying supplies through the Kerem Shalom crossing was opened fire upon and seized by Hamas gunmen. Similar incidents occurred with trucks carrying fuel.

It seems U.S. Diplomats, at the U.N., are still suffering from a rare occurrence of Common Sense.  Let’s hope it’s chronic…

From: NewsMax

Despite intense pressure from a group of Arab dignitaries at United Nations headquarters, the Bush administration refused to climb on board a growing movement to cease or at least suspend its support of Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad met for almost two hours with a group of Arab foreign ministers who had traveled to NYC to get some movement from the United Nations on the Gaza crisis.

The group, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, had been lobbying various UN bodies since early morning.

While expressing “sympathy” for the Arab position, diplomats say Khalilzad held firm on the White House demand that any halt to the Israeli invasion not simply amount to a breather for Hamas to re-arm.

Exiting his meeting with the Arab ministers, Khalilzad expressed concern that any action the Security Council takes does not repeat the mistakes made in the Lebanon in 2006.

Intelligence sources claim that Hezbollah used its truce with Israel to more than double its stockpile of mortars and missiles.

“We saw in Lebanon that the ceasefire was violated and used to re-arm. We don’t want to see it happen again.” [...]  (emphasis added)

Enough said…

Bolton 2012

The diplomacy he favors is exactly what Condi Rice has been pursuing for years.

“Present the Iranian regime with a clear choice” by using carrots and sticks to induce Iran to give up its nuclear aspirations. What does Mr. Obama think Mr. Bush and the Europeans have been doing? Does he really think his smooth talking will achieve more than Europe’s smoothest talkers, who were in fact talking for us the whole time?

[...]  Read the whole article at WSJ.

Rice, having failed in N. Korea, Russia, Lebanon, Iran, and Gaza, now wants to get her hands dirty in the current Israeli offensive.

From: JPost

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Hamas of holding the people of Gaza hostage Friday and said the United States continues to seek a “durable and sustainable” cease-fire in the Middle East.

Speaking to reporters in the White House driveway after a meeting with US President George W. Bush, Rice also said that the United States remains “very concerned about the situation there and is working very hard with our partners around the world.”

One can only hope that Israel remembers Rice’s roll in pushing a ceasefire in Lebanon in 2006.

Rice said she wanted a “robust” international military force to try to oust Hezbollah forces from southern Lebanon […}

What actually happened was “peace keepers” swooped in to shield Hezbollah while they rearmed and cemented their positions, becoming the defacto rulers of Lebanon.  The U.N., and Rice, enabled the terrorists, and Israel’s military gains evaporated.

Israel needs Rice’s help like they need a nuclear armed Iran.  Condi should focus on packing up her office, and allow Israel to reassert itself as the powerhouse that it once was, and eliminating the daily threat of rocket attacks on it’s citizens.  That won’t happen with a ceasefire.

If ever there was a need for a giant sink hole, in Manhattan, this is it.  The United Nations was given a rare dose of common sense from the United States.  Hopefully our resolve will last.

From: Tundra Tabloids

Israel’s UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev: “Israel cannot, and will not, allow its citizens to be sitting ducks for terrorist attacks,”

Any or all attempts by either the EU or the Arab League to draft a UNSC ceasefire resolution, should be rejected without a moment’s time wasted on reading it. Until Hamas’ rocket capabilities are completely destroyed, Operation Cast Lead should be continued. One can only imagine how these same governments would react if they themselves were being barraged by Qassam and Grad rockets. They would rightly dismiss any attempts by the international community to limit success in destroying their enemy’s capabilities to inflict harm on their societies.

J’lem Post: The Security Council held an emergency meeting on New Year’s Eve on an Arab request for a legally binding and enforceable UN resolution that would condemn Israel and halt its military attacks on Gaza.

But the draft resolution circulated by Libya on behalf of the 22-member Arab League Wednesday night was immediately rejected by the United States as “unbalanced” and “one-sided” because it makes no mention of halting the Hamas rocketing of southern Israel which led to the Israeli offensive.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the United States was working very hard to achieve an immediate cease-fire implemented by both sides, but he said Washington had not seen “any evidence” yet that Hamas was willing to end its rocket attacks.

The best way to move forward, he said, would be to get an agreement among the parties for a cease-fire and humanitarian access to Gaza through diplomacy, “and for that agreement to be enshrined in a Security Council resolution if necessary.”

What would be even better is for the US to say it rejects even considering any future resolution, no matter where it originates from, until the Israelis confirm that their operation is coming to an end. Here is an example of the type of people Israel is fighting.

Not only do they hide behind civilians, they store weapons and ammunition inside their mosques, which stands to reason since the mosque is used for much much more than just praying, it’s used as a military headquarters as did the founder of Islam, Mohamed himself.

From: JPost

The UN Coordinator on Humanitarian Access to Gaza on Wednesday called for the immediate opening of the Karni crossing, in order to transfer

humanitarian

supplies to Palestinians.

“Without the violence stopping, it is extremely difficult to get food to people who need it, we cannot assess where the most urgent needs are, and it is too dangerous for civilians to leave their homes to seek urgent medical treatment, buy supplies and assist people in distress,” Maxwell Gaylard said in a statement.

[...]

You never have to wait long for the United Nations to exhibit it’s profound ignorance and bias against Israel.

Why doesn’t Egypt provide the aid, or open it’s border.  They are not under rocket attack.

And why don’t the diplomats come and help?  Not the security forces, but the diplomats that spew their nonsense from a safe distance?  Put some skin in the game.  Or just stay out of it.  Africa still needs some help, if the U.N. doesn’t have anything better to do.

That’s crazy talk!  We need to BAN MUSLIMS to protect the world’s nude beaches.

From: Jawa

An Australian MP, Fred Nile, Mr. Nile stated that topless bathing risked “raising the ire of Muslim men”. So that means he has received no complaints and is just acting in dhimmi fashion.

Who in they’re right mind would want to ban topless beaches? Thats why Mr. Nile has received no complaints from muslim men, they’re probably for them.

From The Sydney Morning Herald

Conservative MP Fred Nile says he wants topless bathing banned in NSW to protect Sydney’s Muslim and Asian communities.The Reverend Nile has rejected allegations that prudishness is behind a bill he has prepared to ban nudity, including topless sunbathing, on the state’s most popular beaches.[...]

“Our beaches should be a place where no one is offended, whether it’s their religious or cultural views,” he said.

“If they’ve come from a Middle Eastern or Asian country where women never go topless - in fact they usually wear a lot of clothing - I think it’s important to respect all the different cultures that make up Australia.”

The practice was at risk of raising the ire of Muslim men in particular, Mr Nile said.

If thousands of nude sunbathers, around the globe, took to the streets in violent protest, perhaps our leaders would bend over backwards to avoid their ire…. just a thought.

From: Israel Matzzav

Yesterday, the IDF opened a YouTube account.

I just got an email indicating that because YouTube has removed the IDF’s most popular videos, the IDF spokesperson’s office has opened an account at LiveLeak instead.

Noah Pollak has more.

This was apparently too much for YouTube, which moments ago removed several videos from the IDF’s channel, including the most-watched video, which showed a group of Hamas goons being blown up in an air strike as they loaded Katyusha missiles onto a truck. The point of such footage, as if it needed to be said, is not to revel in violence — it is to show the legitimacy of Israeli self-defense.

The rank double-standard that YouTube has applied to Israel is disturbing. YouTube hosts all manner of similar footage — much of it far more gory than the grainy infrared images posted by the IDF — of U.S. air strikes. Why is YouTube capitulating to those who do not wish for Israel to be able to tell its side of the story?

YouTube has had no problem posting anti-semetic videos, look it up.  Shame on them.

Before reading this, keep in mind, there are approximately 3 million Palestinians.  Many of those are children.  What is this money being used for.  They have no economy to speak of.  Hamas was elected by over 70% majority, and the Palestinians spend much of there time training for terror attacks, building and launching missiles and mortars into Israel,  taking to the streets to protest, celebrate or simply tear things up any chance they get, and teaching their children that Israel and it’s inhabitants must be destroyed.

If they were to receive less welfare, and their existance rested on their own productivity, maybe things in the middle east would look a little different.   I wonder how much aid comes from Arab countries??

Money spent for something called ‘peace,’ apparently: Palestinians got $1.7bln in aid last year: France

The international community has given 1.7 billion dollars (1.18 billion euros) in aid to the Palestinian Authority over the last year, the French foreign ministry said Wednesday.

That was 0.6 billion dollars more than was promised at a major donor conference held last December in Paris, spokesman Frederic Desagneaux said.

At that conference, donors promised to provide 7.4 billion dollars over three years, which was considerably more than the 5.6 billion dollars the Palestinians had requested.

The donors agreed to allocate 1.1 billion dollars in the first year.

“Such payments above the promises made are the concrete sign of the exceptional engagement of the international community,” Desagneaux said.

The conference agreed a package of aid to stabilise the Palestinian economy and try to shore up the faltering peace process with Israel.

Palestinian leaders said the money was needed for direct support to the budget to help develop a viable economy and institutions for a future Palestinian state.

Pampered. (from: Solomania)

It’s really too bad one of the many terrorist groups, that Carter does so much to help, doesn’t take him hostage…

From Israel Matzav:

Just when you thought Jimmy the Dhimmi Carter couldn’t get any lower, we have this. Former US President Jimmy Carter is ‘advising‘ Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal on how high a price he can get for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

Former United States President Jimmy Carter reported that he advised Syrian-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on what price to demand from Israel for the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted more than two years ago. He said that Hamas is “relatively satisfied with the status quo.”

…

Carter wrote on his website that he spoke with Mashaal about “formulas for prisoner exchange to obtain the release of Corporal Shalit,” who has since been promoted to sergeant.

However, [Shalit] probably is not aware of the promotion because the International Red Cross has not succeeded in convincing Hamas to honor the Geneva Convention and allow its officials to visit him. The Red Cross also has rejected Israeli citizen’s demands that it stop visiting terrorists in Israeli jails until Shalit is seen and confirmed to be alive and in good health.

Carter also stated that Hamas, “like the Syrians, [is] relatively satisfied with the status quo and [is] putting all their eggs in Obama’s basket.” He added, “We had to caution them about expecting too much of an immediate change in U.S. Middle East policy.”