Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

Spokane parks to detonate squirrels | KOMO News – Seattle, Washington | Local & Regional.

The Rodenator Pro pumps propane and oxygen into the tunnels of squirrels, then sends an electric spark that causes an explosion. The shock waves kill the squirrels and collapse their tunnels – but in a humane way, the agency said.

Ummmm, as opposed to the completely separate, totally different NONhumane way of detonating squirrels?

Clinton criticizes Israel plan to raze Palestinian homes – Los Angeles Times.

What could Israel possibly be thinking?

I’ve always wondered what the big fight is over east Jerusalem. Jerusalem belongs to all of us. I do not understand why Israel is unwilling to relinquish the eastern section, which if I remember it correctly is already predominately, if not entirely, composed of Arab residents.

TPMMuckraker | Talking Points Memo | Blackwater Is Dead! Long Live … Xe?.

One of the comments:

Well in Greek iconography "XE" or "XC" is a common abbreviation for Christ. IE|XE NI|KA written above and below on the Greek cross means "Jesus (IE) Christ (XE) conquers (NIKA). Who knows if this the real meaning but American fundamentalist Christians see themselves as returning to the true practice of Christianity before it was perverted by the churchmen. They have adopted many ancient and now obscure Christian symbols like the Christian fish to reflect their fidelity with ancient Christianity and their status as persecuted saints in pagan society.

A simple Google search confirms that “XE” is sort of an esoteric reference to “Christ Everlasting.”

Great. So now instead of being a band of secretly-fundamentalist private mercenaries, they’re a band of openly fundamentalist private mercenaries. Why didn’t they just call themselves the Xrusaders?

Israel Completes Withdrawal From Gaza – NYTimes.com.

Says Hamas: “We are aiming for the liberation of all of Palestine.”

’nuff said. You think they mean Gaza and the West Bank. They know they mean Israel.

U.N. chief: Gaza violence ‘heartbreaking’ – CNN.com.

More than 1,300 Palestinians died and about 5,400 others were wounded during Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Authority's Central Bureau of Statistics. Among the dead were 159 children.

And then:

The fighting largely stopped Sunday with a cease-fire. Israel has said 13 of its citizens — including 10 soldiers — were killed during the offensive, which started December 27.

I’m the last person to say that the death of 159 children is acceptable. I think it’s horrendous that so many innocent children died during this conflict. But let’s get one thing straight: The majority of those killed in Gaza were Hamas fighters – CNN never reports this – and at least some of the children killed were killed by Hamas fighters, either by their own rockets and mortars, or by them being held up as human shields against Israeli gunfire.

I do not accept the deaths of these children as necessary or as “collateral damage.” They should not have died. But Hamas, not Israel, is largely to blame. Hamas welcomed an Israeli ground incursion. Hamas welcomed an Israeli air incursion. Hamas has said it “loves death more than Jews love life.” This spate of violence proved that notion. Hamas fighters were quoted in the news as saying they were happy to die, and that they were proud to die, and that others should be happy to die too. That’s not to say they ran in front of Israeli gunfire or anything – no, they wanted to die only if they could take as many people with them as possible. They would run into civilians’ houses to hide. They would launch rockets from the rooftops of heavily-populated apartment buildings, and from outside schools. They would walk around holding children against their will, some of them plucked right off the street. Note in this video that not only does the fighter grab a child off the street, but he runs right for a crowd of people. If he’s going to die, he’s taking people with him.

Hamas’s main base of operations is under the main Gaza hospital: If Israel doesn’t fire, they win by living, and if Israel does fire, they win by dying and having Israel become known as the country who deliberately bombed the hospital.

And finally, while Israel restrains itself (believe me, if it wasn’t exercising restraint, the death toll would be much higher), Hamas directly TARGETS Israeli civilians. If they could inflict a higher civilian death toll among Israelis, it would. If it could wipe out the entire population of Israel, it WOULD. That’s the difference between Hamas and Israel.

For the record, CNN, even the UN was saying that roughly 25% of those dead were civilians. This means 75% were not. Why is this never mentioned on CNN?

Lynching in Ramallah – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Lest the world forget. Just because Israel has been relatively successful at protecting its citizens, it doesn’t mean the bloodlust isn’t there. This guy looks awfully happy to be drenched in Israeli blood. The mob below him got its taste too. And if they could do it again? I guarantee they would.

Hospital in Gaza Is a Scene of Pain, Despair and Defiance – NYTimes.com.

“He was told that there were more serious cases than his, that he needed to wait. But he insisted. “We are fighting the Israelis,” he said. “When we fire we run, but they hit back so fast. We run into the houses to get away.” He continued smiling.”

. . .

“They lost their loved ones as martyrs. They should be happy. I want to be a martyr, too.”

Joe. My. God.: Hate Crime Or Not?.

There’s an interesting discussion making the rounds of NYC news blogs regarding what happened at a Jewish wedding reception last week. A 23 year-old Christian-raised cater waiter, who for five years had worked for a catering company that specialized in Jewish weddings, decided to express his sympathy for Palestinians by using the Woodbury Jewish Center’s PA system to broadcast some chants he’d recorded with his cell phone at last week’s pro-Palestine rally in Times Square. The chants? “Allahu akbar.”

Isn’t that what they usually yell right before they detonate their bombs? In this context, this is akin to yelling, “NOBODY MOVE!” in a bank. The words themselves don’t constitute the crime – it is the context, and the meanings that are generally attributed to those words in that particular context – that make it a crime. Same as shouting “fire!” in a crowded theater. He could easily have created a stampede among the 700 guests, who likely had their lives flash before their eyes…

Op-Ed Contributor – What You Don’t Know About Gaza – NYTimes.com.

THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed.

Oh, gee, that’s funny. I thought the cease-fire broke down WHEN HAMAS DID NOT CEASE ITS FIRE. Did “reduction” and “cessation” suddenly become synonyms, and I just somehow missed the memo? Did 20 rockets in four months suddenly become an acceptable number? When I’m a lawyer and my client receives a “cease and desist” notice, should I write back and say, “Ooops. Sorry. We’ll cut down the number of times we violate your rights. Would 5 times per month be acceptable?”

A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery – NYTimes.com.

Hamas, with training from Iran and Hezbollah, has used the last two years to turn Gaza into a deadly maze of tunnels, booby traps and sophisticated roadside bombs. Weapons are hidden in mosques, schoolyards and civilian houses, and the leadership’s war room is a bunker beneath Gaza’s largest hospital, Israeli intelligence officials say.

No wonder Hamas was vocally inviting a ground incursion! There’s also a video of a Hamas fighter running away from Israeli soldiers and grabbing a child who was standing nearby, dragging him by his shirt as a human shield. From the reports I’ve heard, this is a pretty common tactic.

U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site

U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site – NYTimes.com.

Uh… yeah. Not sure it would have been wise for Israel to strike Iran, but this pretty much confirms what we’ve suspected all along… Iran ain’t buildin’ no electricity plant. They’re building a weapon. And gee, I wonder who will be on the receiving end?

Children of Hamas.

To be fair, these are not all recent pictures. Some of them are a few years old. Of course, others are missing from the montage. Then again, there are a million montages just like this one, because there is so much documentary evidence that these children are being brainwashed to hate and to kill. One children’s show even finished its last episode with its host, a little girl, telling its viewers that the main character had been slaughtered by the Zionist pigs, and they should go avenge his death.

Hamas targets schools, world is blind, deaf, and dumb on topic.

Hamas deliberately targets Israeli schools. Palestinian terrorists deliberately time their attacks for when children are walking to or from school. There has never been an outcry from any organization that normal protests human rights violations. There have been no accusations of war crimes by Hamas. There has been, in fact, utter silence from the usual suspects. Israel schools are being targeted, and yet, that gets shrugged off by everyone but Israelis.

Is Gaza ‘occupied’ territory? – CNN.com.

Declassified IDF Photos and Footage Expose Hizbullah Tactics – Defense/Middle East – Israel News – Israel National News.

Hamas does the same thing. Israel returns fire to the site where the rocket was launched… and boom, there goes a mosque, or a school, or a hospital.

YouTube – Palestinians Taunt Jews to ‘Go Back to the Oven’.

That said, I’m sure you can just as easily find hard-line Israelis saying atrocious things about Palestinians. This conflict runs deeper than one over land and nationalism. It’s a battle over Grandpa Abe’s estate, and it’s completely irreconcilable as long as there are still people unwilling to compromise at all. Unfortunately all of those people happen to be on one side of the equation.

Exchanges of fire mar 3-hour truce in Gaza – CNN.com.

Typical.

A planned three-hour lull in Israel’s assault on Gaza was marred by sporadic attacks by Hamas militants and retaliatory fire from Israeli forces.

EVERY cease fire results in Hamas launching rockets and Israel striking in retaliation. Why should the fact that humanitarian aid is on the line make any difference to Hamas? They don’t want aid; they want high death tolls.

People think Israel is posting videos of their attacks on Gaza to somehow brag about their violent response. This video shows another story – this is why Israel really posts videos – so the world can see the truth. Hamas literally stores its weapons in and launches rockets from the doorsteps of elementary schools, and then blames Israel when it strikes back against the launch points. This has happened several times over the past few days – Israel is catching flak for shelling schools where Hamas attackers are launching missiles (I realize this is an older video – it just goes to show you how long Hamas has been using schools as launch pads, and how long Israel has been restraining itself against striking back).

YouTube – Mortar Bombs Shot from UN School in Gaza 29 Oct. 2007.

Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive – On the ground near the Gaza border « – Blogs from CNN.com.

Positions are hardening. A senior Hamas official today made greater threats, saying Israelis “legitimize the killing of their people all over the world when they killed our people.”

I have no doubt that he’s talking about the massacre in Mumbai, and other attacks on Jewish centers around the world in recent years – attacks many people haven’t heard about because they are simply not reported adequately. This guy isn’t talking about Israelis – he’s talking about Jews. And there you have it – proof that Hamas and other extremists do not distinguish between Israel and the Jewish people as whole, and when they say they will wipe the Zionists from the earth and drive the Jews into the sea, what they mean is what they’ve said in the past – they want to finish what Hitler started. Anti-Zionism is not anti-Israel – it is anti-JEW.

“Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.” – Golda Meir

Doctor in Gaza: Patients ‘lying everywhere’ – CNN.com.

I like how they show injured Palestinian children but never injured Israeli children. Does the world think Israeli children haven’t died at Hamas’s hands? Does the world think Hamas hasn’t tried its best to kill innocent Israeli children? A rocket hit a kindergarten classroom today in southern Israel. Thank god the school was closed due to the threat. That’s the thing – Israel takes measures to protect its children, while Hamas doesn’t seem to care if its rockets kills even its OWN children. Where is the anger and lamentation over the deaths of THESE girls? Is it only tragic when Israel is to “blame”?

Hamas won’t stop rocket attacks on Israel – CNN.com.

Well really – did we think they would? They didn’t stop during the cease fire – why would they stop once Israel retaliates?

THE SWASH ZONE:

Of course the hospitals and schools and even the mosques are ammunition dumps and launching pads for the thousands and thousands of missiles Hamas has launched and is launching indiscriminately into Southern Israel for the very purpose of provoking an attack which, seeing as they are hiding in schools and hospitals and apartment houses would generate the kind of inadvertent martyrdom Hamas, in its self-righteous cowardice, likes to assign to innocent people.

No kidding. 😛

Firedoglake » Gaza Ground Invasion Beginning.

Sorry, how is this an act of “ethnic cleansing” when Israel has a sizable Arab population within its own borders, and Arabic is one of its national languages?

Israeli ground troops enter Gaza – CNN.com.

Well. Hamas got what they were after, I guess. You know they were hoping this would happen.

List of rocket and mortar attacks in Israel in 2008.

So like… just how many are they expected to tolerate before retaliation is finally allowed? Bear in mind that Israel is TINY – not much larger than Riverside County, or about 1/3 – 1/2 the size of San Bernardino County. It’s not a large country. So tell me – how many rockets does this tiny country less than half the size of the fucking 909 have to put up with before it’s allowed to fight back without people accusing it of being a big bad imperialist?