Jennifer is too modest to mention it, but she played a considerable role in the “smear” to which Obama today referred. It was during a blogger conference call on April 25 that she, in fact, asked John McCain to comment on Hamas’s preference for Obama above the other presidential candidates. As it happens, I was on that call as well. And it’s worth noting the nature of McCain’s response to Jennifer. He began his reply by saying, “All I can tell you, Jennifer, is that I think it’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next President of the
Considering the situation, this is about the most delicately phrased response that one could have expected. It was not in the least a smear. Jennifer introduced Hamas’s very real preference into the conversation. John McCain essentially chose to let the facts speak for themselves. He did go on to mention Obama’s willingness to talk to hostile players like
“It is a testament to the screwiness of the “international community” and of international “human rights organizations” that we hear nothing about Hamas’s war crimes even though there is little doubt that Hamas is guilty of violating the most essential of all laws of war”
Max, Unfortunately,in real life, the one who kills is the target rather than the one who dies. Are you saying that both Hamas and Israel should be held responsible for war crimes,or just Hamas? I think I can guess your answer.
The odds of actual charges being filed in an actual court of law leading to actual convictions might be long now, Max. But give the Obamabots a little time. In less than three days, they’ve already managed to codify the slander that the biggest problem in the world for the last eight years has been George Bush. To say otherwise is at best petty, at worst treasonous. How long before public criticism of Hamas becomes a hate crime? If it can happen in the Netherlands, it can happen anywhere.
Max, Arabs are a force of nature, dontcha know.
What is the point of accusing hurricans and floods of committing murder? Any point in arresting a man eating tiger?
The only acts to be held up to ethical analysis and judgment in this last conflict are those of the Jews.
Protocol III allows white phosphorous to be used to create smoke. It doesn’t allow it to be used directly against a civilian population.
Israel uses white phosphorous against schools. I saw the video. This is fine with the Bund, which also supports torture.
#3-I remember a book called The Anti-Zionist Complex from years back that talked about how perceived Israeli misdeeds were given a unique status in the worldwide perception of this conflict while it’s enemy’s misdeeds were ignored. Every single alleged Israeli misdeed becomes permanent and indivisible and is placed within a framework devoid of context or circumstance, almost preternaturally isolated in the mind’s eye. Its enemy’s misdeeds on the other hand are mentally glossed over like so much background noise. Here is a prime example. The cause celebre at the moment is that Israel intentionally targeted civilians in a single incident. Forget disputes about the factual details, the ambiguities of the legal standards, the inadeqaucies of those supposed standards under the conditions of warfare Israel confronted. What remains is the alleged crime’s magical, almost eerie isolation at the forefront of so much critical evaluation while the underlying context, relegated to background noise, is that Hamas both intentionally targets and interntionally endangers civilians as a matter of wholesale practice yet receives at best perfunctory reference if it is mentioned at all. It is as if critical perception is only attuned to a single note.
To ian,
So the world is making things up about the Jew but glossing over the Arab’s misdeeds ? Well, its actually the opposite.
I have NEVER read any reports of Hamas pushing civilians ahead of them in battle, never! So when the western media say Hamas is using human shields they are just saying Hamas fighters fire from behind civilian buildings. I though soldiers generally fire from behind buildings, not in open fields, am I wrong?
On the other hand, the IDF often round up civilian hostages and push them ahead of them in battle.
Here’s one reference:
http://www.btselem.org/english/Human_Shields/Timeline_of_Events.asp
You know the truth, so how long can you keep up your charade?
The cause celebre at the moment is that Israel intentionally targeted civilians in a single incident.
Do I detect Ian edging toward an admission that Israel bombed the school with white phosphorous? First the IDF said it hadn’t used the munitiion, Then they admitted using it, but said it was legal. Is it now becoming “Yeah, we did it but it was a one-off?”
ian,
Thank you for that. That is an excellent description of what happens.
It is really evil-magical.
(And yours is the best post I have read in a long time on this subject)
#8-Thanks. None of these issues are new, nor are the arguments.
I see that Ian didn’t answer my question. I will take that for a “Yes.” Next week should be interesting, if for no other reason than to see what new snake dance Ian does to justify his #1 country’s war crimes.
This is the same sort of double standard being used against the Bush policies towards illegal combatants.
The Taliban and Al Qaeda captives are as guilty as Hamas of hiding among civilians and not identifying themselves as military. Nevertheless, the “civilized” world wants them afforded better treatment than legitimmate POWs. Now there is a move afoot, supported by dozens of House Democrats, to hold McCarthyite hearings into the alleged war crimes of the Bush Administration in holding and interrogating these thugs.
#12-Party’s flush with victory have a tendency to overreach, as the Republicans did in the 1990s. It is very easy eight years after the fact, in the environment created by the very policies now being scrutinized, to denounce them. Yet people forget that these policies had bipartisan support, and reflected an extraordinary situation. Democrats need to understand that whatever the desires of their base, they were not elected on such a narrow foundation. That Obama started out discussing an issue like Gitmo (a move that parallels the Clinton administration’s early days in focusing on a leftward issue) while the economy teeters on the brink is the type of move that can obviously backfire. In the context of terrorism the type of redemption rhetoric the adminstration has employed and the very public breaking with former Bush adminstration policies could very easily be the pride before the fall. Let’s hope not.
TO John Hartland and Big Picture (Little Brain)
on’t mess with the IDF.
You are both in the wrong century. In the 21th century,Jews will not allow the European Nazis to use bogus claims of war crimes as a smokescreen to persecute Jews. I have a question. Who is going to bring the falsely accused Israelis to the Kangaroo Court? Is Belgian or Holland going to send their world renowned military to arrest the accused Israelis? LOL. Maybe , the Nazis of the 21th century :Little Britain could send their renown military (sarcasm). Remember
This BS about white phosphorus is just expressions of frustration that the IDF is the 3rd best military in the world , and climbing. Since the Jew-haters like John Hartland know Israel will never be defeated by the terrorist beasts , they are foolish enough to think the bogus “War Crimes” issue , is going to accomplish the terrorists and their Jew-hater supporters couldn’t on the battlefield.. I don’t care if they used white phosphorus deliberately or whatever. Remember the saying “all is fair in love and war”. We are not discussing a tennis match. It doesn’t matter , except to Jew-haters , what happened in the recently concluded massacre of Hamas which even Arab nations such as Egypt say was provoked by the terrorist beasts aka Hamas. Remember Stalin’s famous rhetorical question/statement of real politik : “How many divisions does the Pope have?”
Like the qassams, Amnesty International’s War Crimes filings never ever hit a target!
For that, naturally, AI should be mocked as impotent castrates; How galling it must be to see all that legal masturbation go to waste!
However its not enough just to mock them; like their Palestinian soul-mates they too should be hurt until it hurts!
I wonder when and where the next AI AGM will be!