Syndication
Hamas
Hamas Beards vs. Fatah Moustaches
The Jerusalem Post reports:
Hamas has resumed its policy of shaving mustaches of political opponents to humiliate them, Fatah officials said Wednesday.
Hamas resorted to this form of punishment in the past after arresting senior Fatah representatives in the Gaza Strip, the officials said.
Hamas, for its part, accused the Palestinian Authority security forces of shaving the beards of detained Hamas officials in the West Bank.
To my great disappointment, The Jerusalem Post evidently didn’t even bother to reach out to Tom Selleck for comment.
Ari Shavit: Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and Syria Win
Ha’aretz’s resident Jeremiah, Ari Shavit, paints a pretty grim picture about where the past two years have left Israel vis-à-vis its enemies:
Here are the results of Israel’s war against Hezbollah so far. Hezbollah is bringing home a living murderer, and Israel is bringing home two dead soldiers - over whose capture it sacrificed 160 other soldiers and civilians.
Hezbollah celebrates a symbolic victory, and Israel is in ideological crisis.
Hezbollah has won almost complete political control over Lebanon, and Israel wallows in irrevocable political chaos.
Hezbollah is armed with 40,000 rockets threatening most of Israel’s territory, while Israel has no response.
Hezbollah increases its firepower four or five times, and Israel remains feebly silent.
Hezbollah doubles its fighting alignment and sets up numerous outposts north and south of the Litani River, which will force Israel to conquer half of Lebanon in the next confrontation, while Israel remains paralyzed with confusion.
Feeling its power, Hezbollah is demanding the Shaba Farms area as well, while Israel is stammering its way to the next withdrawal.
Two years after an ephemeral militia provoked a regional superpower, the militia is growing stronger than ever, and the regional superpower is in a state of turmoil, degeneration and foggy stupor.
And, he argues, things aren’t much better on the Palestinian, Iranian and Syrian fronts.
Read the full article here.
Hat tip: Jeffrey Goldberg
UPDATE: It is worth noting that not everyone in the Arab press is hailing Hezbollah’s “victory.”
Hamas Hypocrisy
We’re less than a week into the supposedly six-month-long Gaza “truce” that Israel negotiated with Hamas, and already Palestinian militants are making a mockery of it.
Palestinians in Gaza fired a mortar shell into an empty area just before midnight last night. And then earlier today four rockets were fired into southern Israel, lightly wounding two. Islamic Jihad claimed credit for the rocket fire, explaining that it was retaliating for a pre-dawn Israeli raid in the West Bank that killed one of its commanders, along with a second Palestinian. The Israeli army says that the Jihad man was planning an attack, and that troops found explosives in his apartment.
How did Hamas respond to Islamic Jihad’s violation of the hard-won truce? Why, they blamed Israel, of course. The Associated Press reports:
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the rocket attack came because of “Israeli provocation this morning” and added that Hamas was “committed to the calm.” He said Hamas will talk with other factions and make sure they are committed, too.
Hamas is supposed to be enforcing the truce in Gaza, not making apologies for violations of it. The truce is limited to Gaza, and incidents in the West Bank shouldn’t be grounds for Palestinian factions firing rockets from Gaza. Indeed, while Hamas is busy blaming Israeli actions in the West Bank for Islamic Jihad’s rocket fire, Hamas itself has kept up its attacks on Israeli civilians in the West Bank. Today, Hamas’s military wing claimed credit for a West Bank shooting attack that injured three Israeli hikers on Friday, shortly after the Gaza truce took effect.
Then again, the notion that Hamas is untrustworthy is hardly news. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why Israelis are so glum.
For more analysis of the truce: From the center, Ha’aretz’s Yoel Marcus argued that the truce might provide a useful respite for Israel, even though it’s ultimately not a solution to the problem with Hamas. From the right, The Jerusalem Post’s Caroline Glick calls the truce a “diplomatic and strategic capitulation to Hamas.”
‘Mugged by Reality,’ Jewish Week’s Resident Right-Winger Says ‘Let’s Talk to Hamas’
The idea of direct Israeli negotiations with Hamas — once the province of doves — has gained an unlikely advocate in The Jewish Week’s decidedly right-leaning associate editor, Jonathan Mark.
In his column this week, Mark writes:
Ha’aretz to Hamas: We’re Not Gonna Take It
The dovish Israeli daily Ha’aretz takes a tough line on the ongoing Qassam fire from Hamas-controlled Gaza in an editorial titled “Restraint is not possible”:
If the limited military actions Israel is undertaking in an effort to bring an end to the Qassam rockets will not bring an end to the shooting; if the moderate states, and first and foremost Egypt and Jordan fail to contain Hamas — Israel will have no option but to embark on a broad military operation.
The Israel Defense Forces raison d’etre is to protect the country’s citizens from attack. Even if the success of a military operation is not guaranteed, that concern must not prevent the government from doing what is necessary in order to protect the lives of its citizens and the state’s border. The solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is political, and should always be pursued. At the same time, Israel must prove that the blood of its citizens cannot be forfeited — so that in the future, its neighbors will abide by the agreements to which they have committed.
Hat Tip: Marty Peretz
