American Empire facing multiple vortices of doom

You have to give credit to Bibi and Trump; they've succeeded in leading two nuke-equipped nations to defeat by a non-nuke nation! It's hilarious to watch Pistol Pete Hegseth, aka "Greasy Pete," standing in front of TV cameras claiming one victory after another. Every victory so glorious the entirety of human history has never seen anything like it... Ya... or maybe not. I gotta say, from my perspective, looks to me like the towelheads have got Uncle Sam over the proverbial barrel- the barrel of oil, that is. Not only are they giving Team Trump the finger re: his various ever-changing demands, they're still shipping boat-loads of oil out the allegedly-blockaded Persian Gulf. And when they let foreign ships through, it's only after they've paid a juicy toll in something other than USD. There goes the petrodollar! American cred in the military sphere has already gone for a shit. In the first place, US tech is distinctly over-priced and underwhelming. Billion-dollar AD systems taken out by a drone swarm that doesn't amount to $100k. I'm no expert, but that doesn't strike me as a formula to win a war. And our "Israeli Allies" have truly become the albatross around America's neck. They obviously can't get anything serious done on their own. They've been waging total war against Hamas for the better part of three years and everybody knows Hamas is nowhere near defeated. Even their genocide requires non-stop American support. Americans are turning away from Israel's war crimes like never before.

Climate icon Greta adds Hamas to list of things she wants to save

I was watching footage of Greta leading a protest somewhere in Europe. It wasn’t a straight-up save-the-climate event; it was an anti-fossil-fuel, anti-war, anti-capitalist hybrid. The Greta Fan Club attracts some interesting people, as you can tell from the protest placards. One that caught my eye read “Dismantle all Oppressive Structures Now!” Huh? In the first place, it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it? I mean, say what you will about the Black Lives Matter movement, but you have to admit they had a simple and catchy slogan that was also an infinite repetition of their brand, which proved a fund-raising bonanza! Secondly, what, if anything, does it mean? On a superficial level, it’s appealing. After all, every decent human being is against oppression. But here’s the problem; all social structures are oppressive from some point of view. The only way you can sort out which “oppressive structures” should be dismantled and which preserved would require the creation of some decision making body - which would in itself be another oppressive structure! But back to the rally. Greta is on stage preening for the cameras, when a befuddled schmuck emerges stage left, takes the mic out of her hand, and says, “I thought I was coming to a climate rally, not a political event...” Taken aback by an unscripted moment, Greta was momentarily discombobulated. Once her team dispatched the interloper and gave Greta back her microphone, she immediately had the crowd of many thousands chanting, and I’m sure she made it up on the spot; NO CLIMATE JUSTICE ON OCCUPIED LAND! Double huh.

Biden begs Israel to go easy on Hamas

In his second visit to the Holy Land in two weeks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is beseeching Bibi and his “war cabinet” to cut the Palestinians some slack. Rules of War and all that jazz. In response, Israel bombed a convoy of ambulances attempting to ferry injured from Gaza City to the south. That strikes me as a resounding “go fuck yourself” from the Israelis. Blinky’s first visit didn’t fare much better. On that trip he pleaded with Bibi to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The desultory response from the Israeli side was to allow in an average of 12 trucks per day for two weeks. Aid organizations unanimously agree at least 100 trucks per day are required. It’s safe to say that US influence over its pet isn’t what it used to be. Which presents a political conundrum for the Biden regime. Apocalypse Joe has an election coming up, and it won’t do him any good if he’s seen to be presiding over an actual apocalypse at the time. And apocalypse is what’s unfolding there in the Holy Land. Operation Mighty Vengeance has claimed almost 10,000 civilians by now, 4,000 of them children. That’s revenge for the 1405 Israeli’s slaughtered by Hamas on 10/7. How does Israel calculate how much Mighty Vengeance is enough? Is a 10:1 kill ratio sufficient? Or does that still undervalue a Jewish life vis-a-vis a Palestinian? Does the kill ratio need to be 50:1 or 100:1 before a humanitarian ceasefire can be considered?

Bubby Lifshitz blows hole in Hamas terror narrative

Within minutes of the first Hamas operatives breaching the Gaza fence on 7 October, Israel’s global PR machine went into overdrive. Beasts! Monsters ! Babies beheaded! Women raped and burned alive! Jewish innocents tortured to death! And things unspeakably worse than all of the above! For three weeks every Israeli official who appeared on our news feeds stressed over and over that Hamas were animals, bloody monsters, savages, etc. Then 85 year-old Israeli grandmother Yocheved Lifshitz, one of the Hamas hostages, was released by the bloody savages, and unfortunately gave a media interview before she had been debriefed by the proper authorities. The kidnapping itself was hell, she said, but once Hamas had her in their underground terrorist lair, she was treated well. The terrorists fed her, provided medical care, and made sure she got the medications she normally took before becoming a hostage. What are we to make of that? Here’s what I make of it. The hostages are a bargaining chip. Hamas, long funded and nurtured by Israel itself (a fact surprisingly reported by even CBC and the Globe and Mail) are sophisticated and media savvy. They understand the value of PR. That’s why all the horror stories need to be independently investigated and confirmed. There’s no logical reason to take Netanyahu’s word for anything. He has built a political career on ratcheting up violence and then swooping in to save the day. The unprecedented security lapse of 7 October is on him. He knows it, but he hopes the Israeli people will be sufficiently blinded by hatred to forget.

Apocalypse Joe says USA "still beacon to the world"

Biden claims US is still a beacon to the world... sure thing, Joe! 10,000 migrants wading across the Rio Grande every day can't be wrong! Biden’s speech from the Oval Office last night was an unofficial declaration of WWIII. We must not waver in our support for Ukraine. And we can never ever waver in our support for the Chosen People. Ergo, we must gird our loins for the coming battle against evil-doers. Airy-fairy shit like the Climate Crisis is obviously gonna have to wait. We are embarking on the ultimate struggle between good and evil, and if you think we’re not the good guys, you’ve obviously been poisoned by Putin’s propaganda. Meanwhile, reports were already coming in about missile attacks on illegal US outposts in Iraq and Syria, and that was before Apocalypse Joe even finished his speech! Meanwhile, the IDF has the green light to roll into Gaza… Meanwhile, Hezbollah has promised it’ll send missiles to Tel Aviv and Dimona if IDF enters Gaza… Meanwhile, USA has carrier strike force in East Med, with a second carrier strike force on its way… Meanwhile, Russia has hypersonic missiles that are eager to meet that US fleet… The times are getting way too interesting for my liking.

Netanyahu wanted another war and he got it

Anyone who follows Israeli politics is well acquainted with a recurring theme in the career of The Greatest Leader Since Moses; when his political fortunes are on the down-tick, Netanyahu turns up the dial on violence so he can pose as the strongman who can teach the Palestinians a sharp lesson and bring security to the Holy Land. Works like a charm… or at least it has till now. At this point, there is no reason to assume this time is different. Bibi’s desperation to form a government after the last election resulted in him forming alliances with the most racist and extremist settler factions. The shocking deterioration of Palestinian living conditions since the current coalition took power has been obvious to everyone. Settler extremists have had a green light to terrorize Palestinians across the occupied territories. Hardly a day goes by without Palestinians dying at the hands of settler extremists and/or their IDF protectors. The repeated violations of long-standing protocols around access to Al Aqsa has inflamed Palestinian rage, and is cited by Hamas spokespersons as the rationale for launching the current attack. Supposedly, the Hamas offensive took Israel by complete surprise. I find that hard to believe. Every Palestinian resistance entity since the creation of Israel has been thoroughly riddled with spies and collaborators. Israel has enormous advantages in technical surveillance capabilities. It is far more plausible that Israeli intelligence was fully aware this attack was coming, and chose to let it happen. Why? Within 18 hours of the attack, opposition leaders Lapid and Gantz have already agreed to participate in an “Emergency Government.” Just imagine; full support across the entirety of the political spectrum for Netanyahu! You can bet those massive anti-government protests we’ve been seeing for months are over for the foreseeable future. So what happens next? For the moment, Netanyahu has a mandate to unleash extreme vengeance against the Palestinian resistance. But the “what-ifs” are ominous. What if Hezbollah enters the war? There’s been numerous senior IDF officials over the years warning that Hezbollah has a missile stockpile of hundreds of thousands capable of striking anywhere in Israel. What if Iran enters the war? Iran is but the most vocal state supporter of both Hamas and Hezbollah. There are others, and if push comes to shove, even Arab states that have been working at normalizing relations with Israel will be forced to take sides. And let’s not forget that both Russia and China have been stitching up mutual defense agreements with Iran. What if Israel needs to call on its ultimate enabler, the United States, to make good on its promise to ensure Israel will get everything it needs to prevail? Isn’t that the same promise they’ve been making to Ukraine for over a year and a half? And how’s that going? Netanyahu has upped the ante as never before. We live in interesting times.

Israel braces for fresh round of Islamic terror

Here's a fact you might want to ponder, at least if you're keen on peace in the Middle East.

Half the Palestinian population in greater Israel is under twenty years of age.

In their lifetimes, what has PLO/PA done for them?

If they are in Gaza, what has Hamas done for them?

Palestinians under both Hamas and the PA have known nothing but humiliation.

Along comes ISIL, Islamic State, with a promise of restoring Palestinian pride.

Driven out of Syria and Iraq after wreaking immense havoc, these toxic fundamentalists, with whom the IDF played footsie while they were on our side in Syria, seem to have a foothold in greater Israel today.

This can only get much worse before it gets better.

How to fight terrorism while sponsoring terrorists

This Mohammad bin Salman dude who is now boss of Saudi Arabia has quite a track record for such a youthful world leader.

He's the architect of the collapse in world oil prices, a strategy that has been an epic fail. It has hurt Saudi Arabia more than any of the intended targets.

He's also the architect of the Yemen war, which is an unmitigated disaster and also an epic fail.

And as of this week, he's also the heir apparent to the leadership of the sclerotic state of Saudi Arabia.

Ya, Saudi Arabia is fucked.

Oddly enough, President Trump wasted no time offering congrats to this incorrigible youngster. He sees an eager vassal keen to do the bidding of Uncle Sam, and that's true to a point.

There are any number of policy initiatives taken by this imbecile that threaten catastrophic blow-back not only to Saudi Arabia but to the Middle East in general.

Sucking up to Israel will never fly in the Arab street. Perhaps it's a valid concept among the princelings in the Kingdom, but it will never find favour among the masses.

The Trump initiated quarantine of Qatar is another goose on its way to being cooked. If you've read this far you already know the hilarious demands that MBS and his Arab acolytes (all US vassal states, by the way) have made of Qatar.

Shut down Al Jazeera. Theoretically this should raise the hackles of freedom of speech advocates worldwide, but thus far the condemnation of this initiative has been muted.

Break commercial ties with Iran. After all, as Trump and the entire upper echelon of US power-brokers never tire of reminding us, Iran is the mother ship of terror networks world-wide.

Stop supporting terrorism. There's no question that Qatar has supported terrorism... in Syria. A far bigger sponsor of terrorism has been the very state that MBS is now the putative and temporary head of. The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas and Hezbollah are only "terror" entities in countries where Israeli lobbying has succeeded in rendering them as such.

How many 9/11 terrorists hailed from Qatar?

How many from Saudi Arabia?

Kick Turkey out of their base in Qatar. This could get interesting. The US has a far larger base in Qatar. The US and Turkey are NATO allies. Turkey is essentially a Muslim Brotherhood hood. That won't change anytime soon. Read up on Erdogan's approval ratings. He's doing much better than Trump.

Interesting times indeed!

The wily Erdogan outflanks team Trump in Qatar

For the first couple of days after Saudi Arabia announced the excommunication of Qatar from the community of US vassal states in the Gulf, the punditocracy was unanimous that Qatar's goose was cooked. They'd have no choice but to deep-six their civil relationship with Iran. They'd have no choice but to drastically rein in their pain-in-the-ass Al Jazeera network. In fact, there was widespread talk that regime change wouldn't be long in coming.

What's coming instead is the Turkish military, and they're not coming to expedite the removal of the Emir. Quite to the contrary. Qatar and Turkey are two of the main sponsors of the Muslim Brotherhood. Thanks mainly to Israeli lobbying efforts, the MB have long been a listed terrorist outfit in much of the West, and also in Saudi Arabia. I would hazard a guess that if and when push comes to shove, an Erdogan-led Turkey would have more loyalty to the MB than to NATO.

Israel's main problem with the MB is that it's the backbone of the democratically elected government in Gaza. There was a time when Israel happily nurtured the fledgling Hamas to undercut the PLO. Those days are long gone. Today, the PLO/PA are generally seen as Israel's bum-boys, while Hamas are considered Palestinian patriots.

This unfolding shitstorm was unleashed by Trump's bombastic rhetoric on the occasion of his visit to Riyadh last week, when he demanded that his audience stand with America in the war to exterminate "terrorism" once and for all. Even in mainstream American media it's widely acknowledged that it's the Saudis who are the primary enablers of this thing we call terrorism.

Not that the Qatari's have clean hands, but after the putative leader of the free world put things so baldly, it was just a matter of time before the finger-pointing got serious.

So here we are. The Saudis are doing way more to keep the order books of Lockheed and Raytheon and Boeing plumped up than Qatar is, which is why they've got more cred in the West, at least for now. But with Erdogan throwing this spanner into the works and Washington in chaos, it's impossible to predict what's next.

Interesting times indeed!

Erdogan hosts Hamas boss in attempt to mend ties with Israel

Those who follow these matters will be well aware that media have recently been awash with stories about the pending rapprochement between Turkey and the Holy Land.

Yes, time was that Pasha Tayyip and Bibi were, if not besties, at least something right next to it. Then came that unfortunate misunderstanding re: the Mavi Marmara, and the whole best buds thing went down the toilet in a hurry.

Fast forward a few short years, and the Sultan finds himself caught between innumerable rocks and hard places. His NATO betters are on the threshold of giving him the heave-ho, as is a substantial segment of his electorate. The man's skin gets thinner by the day; anyone writing these ruminations in Turkey would be enjoying the hospitality of the state in short order.

But Erdogan is not a man to dwell on the past; he is determined to be remembered as a maker of history, not a victim of history. Now that every Erdogan ally has been stabbed in the back at least once, he is looking to build bridges with those few who have not been stabbed in the back twice. Yet.

Hence all those good news stories about rebuilding the ties with Israel...

And then this.



That's The Sultan mending fences with Hamas boss Khaled Meshaal today. Apparently this is how one mends fences with Israel...

Warriors done without Curry

Mind you, they're getting back in the game.

Without Curry.

I've for a long time held that when the big dog stumbles, there's always lots of second liners ready to step in.

That's true if you're talking about ISIS or Hamas or the Leafs or the Warriors.

It's Sociology 101.

Netanyahu drops the "two state" mask

This should not come as a surprise to even the casual Netanyahu observer. Bibi's commitment to the two state solution was never anything other than a sop to his diaspora supporters who were desperate to portray him as a man looking for peace... if only there were a partner on the other side to negotiate with!

If even the toadying Abbas was not a viable partner, then it was plain all along that a viable partner could not possibly exist. Abbas has essentially served the function of being head kapo of the occupied territories. The fiction that he is somehow the "leader" of the Palestinians has allowed pro-Israel countries like Canada to call their support of Palestinian security services "foreign aid" to the Palestinians, when in reality it is a subsidy to the occupation.

The bona fide leadership of the Palestinians, the democratically elected Hamas party, were promptly shuffled onto the terror lists of Israel's most ardent foreign supporters, thereby allowing the US and Canada and a few others to endorse Israel's repeated genocidal wars on Gaza as a noble battle in the war on terror.

In this last day of electioneering, Hamas is once again a useful foil as Netanyahu waves the threat of "Hamastan" at the electorate.

"Elect me, because I am the only leader who can deal with the terrorists... all the others are leftist Arab-lovers..."

That is the pathetic sum total of Netanyahu's election platform. It's always served him well before, but this time around it looks like it might be selling better in New York and Montreal than in Tel Aviv and Haifa, where people are seeing through Netanyahu's endless fear-mongering and are more interested in a job and an affordable apartment.

A resounding Likud loss tomorrow, and a functional coalition of "leftist Arab-lovers," and there will be a glimmer of hope in the Holy Land for the first time in a generation.

The Canadian economy hangs by a thread...

That thread is of course more commonly known as the Keystone XL pipeline.

That's the sluice-way to getting Canada's dirty bitumen to the world. It's crucial to Canada because Canadians are smart enough to block bitumen exports at every turn. That's why exporting dirty oil through Canadian pipelines will never happen.

Which is why we're counting on stupid Americans to make it happen with Keystone.

The Canadian dollar has plunged in value from over par to around .76 in the past couple of years. Overall, I'd say that's a bit of an overreaction.  At the same time, we have Big Steve making his pronouncements about the collapsing Russian economy. When you look at the forex charts, the collapse of the Canadian dollar pretty much shadows the collapse of the ruble.

The big news today for the Canadian economy was that Barclay's issued negative reviews for the big Canadian banks. That sent shares of the big Canadian banks into the tank immediately.

What a howler that is! The only reason Barclays exists today is because it was deemed "too big to fail" seven years ago and got lots and lots of free money from the bail-out bonanza.

But now they're pontificating about the stability of Canadian banks, banks that sailed through the bail-out era in fine form without any bailout whatever!

Reminds me of the douche-bag "credit rating agencies" who kept rubber stamping all those sub-prime mortgage derivatives with AAA ratings, and then turned around and gave sovereign nations like Greece and Portugal junk status.

Why would anyone, I mean ANYONE, give a shit about what the wankers at Barclays have to say about anything?

But be that as it may, things are not looking good for the Harperites. Freedom and democracy are looking a little less free and democratic by the day.

The new "anti-terror" regs unveiled today look scary indeed. Looks like it's going to criminalize blogs like this one, if we persist in saying "Palestinians have a right to resist their occupation."

Or "Hezbollah has the right to defend southern Lebanon from Israeli attacks."

As I read it, the new "anti-terror" laws would allow the Harper gang to shut down this blog for making either of those claims.

Canadians have long prided themselves for their benign do-gooderism on the world stage.

Ya...

The deepest plunge into hell comes from the heights of naivete.

Cuba - USA rapprochement; why now?

After all, the Yanks have had well over 50 years to set this right.

So why, after well over fifty years of missed opportunities, is this happening today?

My theory is that when some slow-burning back-burner story like this explodes, it's because the news gatekeepers are trying to take your eye off something else...

Like the EU striking Hamas off the terror list...

Like Islamist militants scoring hard in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Nigeria

Like the torture debate in America

Like the racism debate in America

Like the last round of concessions to the big banks

Like the bankruptcy of the USA

Like the fact that democracy in the USA has become a plaything of the .01%

Like the American elite's commitment to perpetual war

Like the rapidly disintegrating status quo around America's foster child in the Middle East...

When you think about it, there's never been a better time to make peace with Cuba!

There's a lot of stuff out there they want us to take our eyes off.

Iran leads way on Sunni-Shite rapprochement

I must have read a dozen times in as many different mainstream places this week that the perpetual turmoil in the Middle East has nothing to do with the last 100 years of Western meddling in the region, but everything to do with the last thousand plus years of Sunni-Shite animosities.

That is, if nothing else, a convenient way of getting us off the hook. Insofar as that is true, one would think that the same know-nothing Western experts who put forward that argument would rejoice at the initiatives taken by Shia Iran to reach out to their Sunni cousins.



In fact, both Hamas boss Ismail Haniya and Uber-Ayatolla Ali Khamenei should be deemed Nobel Peace Prize worthy for their efforts to bring together the long-warring branches of the family of the Prophet, bless His name.

You will notice, however, that those same Western experts are not at all keen on any hint of Sunni-Shite reconciliation. Why do you suppose that is? Could it be that at every turn over the past twenty years, the Nations of Virtue, ie the West, have done whatever they could to fan the flames of the Sunni-Shia rivalry?

Could that be because virtually every Sunni-led country is in America's pocket?

Could that Sunni-Shia rivalry, now that it has reached mutually genocidal proportions, be itself the product of our meddling?

Could that explain our fixation on Iran's imaginary nukes, while the all-too-real Judeo-Christian nukes in Israel and the Sunni nukes in Pakistan give us no cause for concern whatsoever?

Could a successful rapprochement be the undoing of our divide-and-conquer strategy, a strategy that has served the West so well and condemned the people of the Middle East to perpetual horror?

No wonder our mainstream presstitutes never tire of demonizing Iran and Hamas!

Baron Black's attack on Iran would be suicide for Israel

That's why it doesn't happen.

Conrad "Monty" Black's prescription for peace in the Middle East, written on a day he got into the cooking sherry a little earlier than usual, speculates that in the current climate of chaos wrought in the region by the Nations of Virtue, it might be a good idea if Israel, perhaps in concert with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, eliminated the threat of the imaginary Iranian nukes once and for all. (There had to be more than sherry at work here...)

Black, former publisher of the JPost, still hews to the Likud party line, and as the world knows, the Iran nuke has been a bee in Bibi's bonnet for a quarter century now. Yes, those Iranian nuclear engineers have been months away from a nuclear weapon since the early nineties!

So why does the IAF not do something about it?

The IAF/IDF at the upper echelons are populated with serious people who don't take the yapping of ultra-nationalist politicians and armchair warmongers seriously. While Conrad Black can gloat about the IDF's "thrashing" of Hamas from his mansion in Toronto, IDF boss Benny Gantz acknowledges the courage of the Hamas fighters. Gantz understands that the only result of an unnecessary war that took the lives of five dozen IDF troops was to enhance the prestige of Hamas among the Palestinians.

That's what Mr. Black calls a thrashing of Hamas. The only thing thrashed by Operation Over the Edge was Israel's standing in world opinion.

The serious people understand the limits of what the IDF can and cannot do. They can't destroy Hezbollah, they can't destroy Hamas, and they certainly won't destroy Iran. Even in a nuclear first strike, there will be enough assets left over among Iran and her allies that Israel would be obliterated.

For their part, the Iranians understand that any attack on Israel would be suicidal as well.

What we've got here is MAD lite. Might as well get used to it, live with it, and make the best of it. The threat of mutually assured destruction kept the peace between NATO and the Soviet bloc for 50 years; it can do the same for Iran and Israel.

What next for Somalia after US assassination of al-Shabab leader?

Western narratives about our "enemies" typically place an unwarranted focus on the importance of the leading personalities of whatever terror group or drug cartel or rogue state happens to be the enemy du jour. The conventional wisdom is that if we can eliminate this or that charismatic leader, often characterized as "cutting off the head of the snake", we have solved the problem.

The gloating headlines in the Western media about the assassination of Ahmed Abdi Godane by US missile strike is just the latest example. Have we really struck a major blow against al-Shabab?

History tells us not bloody likely. Did Israel's execution of Ahmed Yassin, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, end Hamas? No!

Did the murder of Pablo Escobar stem the flow of cocaine into America? No!

There are multitudinous examples of hubristic  Western crowing about our "successes" in decapitating the snake that have only resulted in more snakes.

The enduring success of the "head of the snake" trope is due to its function in diverting attention from the role that our policies play in creating and nurturing the failed states, terror groups, drug cartels, etc., who inevitably morph into our next mortal enemy.

How much more agreeable to place the blame for Hamas on a charismatic leader than in noxious Israeli-US policy.

How much more palatable to blame drug cartels on Pablo and his many pretenders instead of on our own policies.

So back to al-Shabab. America has once again cut the head off the snake...

Is this the end of al-Shabab?

Has America solved a problem?

No!

When our enemies are our enemies because of failed US policies, we cannot expect to eliminate them by eliminating their leadership.

A new al-Shabab leader, younger, smarter, better educated, more ruthless and ambitious, was already waiting in the wings.

The murder of Godane has not eliminated a problem.

It has made the problem worse.

So what has Israel gained from Netanyahu's Operation Off the Cliff?

And make no mistake, this was a war of Netanyahu's choosing.

Leaving aside for a moment the hatred fomented in Gaza by the gratuitous carnage visited on them over the past seven weeks, what precisely was it that well over five dozen IDF soldiers have given their lives for?

If it was to burnish Netanyahu's tough-guy credentials, it was a gross miscalculation.

If the ceasefire agreed today does indeed ease restrictions at the Gaza border, then the Palestinians correctly see their struggle and sacrifice, in a war they didn't want and didn't start, as a victory.

It follows that if Netanyahu intended to crush Hamas but instead handed them a victory that improves their standing among the Palestinians, he has suffered a crushing defeat, and needs to resign immediately.

Israeli society 3,500 years ahead of Arabs - Elie Wiesel

The crocodile tears were flowing freely when Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's brain trust concocted this outrageous anti-Palestinian flim-flam.

Not a word about the illegal occupation of Palestinian land that is the root of the Arab-Israel conflict. Instead, it is men of courage like Wiesel and Boteach who abrogate unto themselves the right to determine who is a "real Muslim", and those would appear to be the Muslims who are prepared to yield to their oppressors the right to steal their land and who are prepared to live as second or third class non-citizens in perpetuity.

The well-documented history of the IDF's use of Palestinian children as human shields notwithstanding, it's not hard to see why the current campaign to vilify Hamas is so desperate. Boteach's life mission is to convince the world of the superiority of "Jewish values" as exemplified by Israel. That's tough to do when that light unto the nations just wrapped up a war of choice during which they managed to kill almost 1,500 civilians, while the other side killed three.

Naturally, such a spectacle doesn't do much for the cause of promoting "Jewish values"; it has quite the opposite effect. The values on display by Israel's military-political elite over the past month have not been Jewish values. The world has seen the values of a murderous quasi-fascist state rendered mad by its own sense of impunity and exceptionalism.

This propaganda campaign is a desperate attempt to convince the world that the oppressor is the victim, the victims are sub-human Molochites, and peace can only come to Palestine when the last embers of resistance have been extinguished.

The reason Hamas was democratically elected to govern Gaza is because a majority of Palestinians are not prepared to capitulate. It's not that they don't love their children, it's that they want their children to live in peace and freedom. It is the occupation that makes that impossible, not Hamas.

We tried to warn Netanyahu, but would he listen?...

Surely our modest think-tank here at Falling Downs weren't the only ones who figured out there was way more than hashish and Mercedes sedans coming through the Gaza tunnels. Oddly enough, that story referenced in the link happened under Morsi's watch.

Which kinda makes you wonder... Morsi was a MB man, Hamas are an MB franchise; did Morsi order a few high-profile busts just to get happy headlines, while allowing unprecedented volumes of anti-tank weapons and Stinger missiles through the tunnels in those sedans?

Looks like Netanyahu and company are determined to find out.